#and then! and then!! he gets his toe bitten off by a shark!!

[starofhisheart]

Its nearly summer here so guess what that means! Time to put a big sun hat on izzy hands, lather him up with sunscreen and give him a kiss on the cheek for good luck as u see him off at the beach where he is abt to have an anxious day of trying not to sunburn and keep ed from swimming outside of the flags

[macabr3-barbi3]

if this isn’t your thing i totally get it… but could you do a fic where alastor finds and adopts a stray cat? i just really want to see him interact with animals; i think he’d treat them like the egg boys lol 😂

literally took me a month I'm so sorry but HERE'S ALASTOR WITH A LITTLE GUY 💕🐈 short and sweet!

Alastor brushes his hands off on his trousers, stepping away from the remains of the demon that lay bleeding on the floor of the alley. When would the denizens learn that he was not to be trifled with on a whim? He toes the body with a distasteful glance- another of those gaudy shark demons, hardly even worth a nibble. A waste, truly, but perhaps he could take some of the flesh home, throw it into a stew with some proper venison like a ‘surf and turf’ of sorts-

A tiny pathetic noise distracts him, and he looks over to see what almost looks like a kitten emerge from behind a dumpster, brown and orange fur patchy and ruined, a clip in its ear. It mewls at him, eyes earnest, and glances over to the body of the demon like it was asking for permission.

“Oh, by all means, little one!” He gestures to the fresh corpse and the creature seems to understand, trotting across the alley and lapping at the pool of blood before digging into the arm of the demon. Alastor watches silently for a moment until the little thing seems to almost be choking itself with its fervor, and he reaches a hand out to wrap about the kitten’s middle and pull it away, to at least swallow before resuming. Honestly, it felt like he was the only person in Pentagram City with manners anymore.

It resists, sinking its teeth further into the flesh. Alastor gives a firm tug, pulls the creature away from its meal, and the blasted thing turns on him, tiny needle sharp claws digging into his wrist and teeth clamping down on his thumb.

Despite the vague anger at being bitten- he had been trying to help the little bastard, after all- he can’t help but admire the tenacity. He releases the thing, lets it drop atop the body of the shark demon, and with the shock of the fall it transforms, body shifting into a strangely colored cardboard box reminiscent of one nearby in the alley, tumbling off the body to the asphalt.

Alastor is fascinated as the creature shifts back, once more becoming cat-esque and clambering back onto the body, mouth again reattaching to the meat of it. He waits until it has eaten its fill and it approaches him, rubbing against the fabric of his trousers and vibrating with something almost like a purr- a little deeper, more of a shake than a vibration. He reaches down and grabs it, brings it up to inspect. He can see now that the features of a true feline are not correct- there are no whiskers, the mouth is a tad too wide, the ears situated a little lower than they would be on Husk, for example. Like it had tried to imitate a true cat but couldn’t quite make the cut. The thing watches him closely, seems to understand that it’s being inspected.

“What a curious creature you are!” He crouches low and sets the beast down on the asphalt. It seems to understand him so he addresses it directly. “What else can you do?” He spends a few minutes conjuring items for the animal to recreate- it’s always just a tad off from what it should be, but Alastor is delighted to see that the items still function as they should for the most part. He ends the test with a small radio, cathedral style, and the teeth of the creature reflect in the patterning on the wood, nose elongating into the display and eyes becoming the dials. It puts up a minor bit of resistance to Alastor fiddling with the latter, but when music emerges it acquiesces, the not-quite-purr adding a nice reverb to the tone of the song.

It shifts back into a cat-like being and watches him with dark eyes as he scoops it up off the ground and deposits it into his pocket.

He fades into the shadows and reemerges in the hotel, dropping the kitten thing on the bar to stare at Husk while he grabs himself a glass of whiskey.

“The fuck is this?” Husk stares aghast at the thing, which lets out a hiss like an eldritch horror and spits at the bartender, fur raising like it means to strike.

Alastor is delighted. “This is Duke,” he says, having decided on the name in the moment after one of his favorite musicians of his own time. “If Angel Dust is allowed to keep that filthy pig creature in his room I, as the Hotelier, should be permitted to keep my own little pet.”

“That mean you’ll finally leave me the fuck alone if ya got another cat?”

He reaches out to tousle Husk’s fur, the cat scowling and batting him away. “No need to be jealous, dear Husker! I’m happy to find you more tasks around the hotel if you find my attention on you to be lacking. Duke here is merely for entertainment!”

“Right. Charlie know about this thing yet?”

“They’re a new addition to my inner circle,” Alastor says. “I’m sure Charlotte will have no issues with my keeping of a companion, and they will not stray from the Hotel.”

Husk sneers at the tiny creature, which in turn hisses at him again and puffs up, headbutting a nearby glass and sending it hurtling to the floor where it shatters. “Goddamn- keep that fuckin’ thing away from the bar!” Husk shouts, and Alastor scoops Duke up with a tentacle to deposit him back into his arms, making his way to his own bedroom before setting the cat creature down on the floor.

“You’re free to use this space as your own,” he tells it, gesturing to the room at large as well as the bayou dimension. Duke hops up onto the armchair by the fire, climbing onto the back of it to stare at him. “There are creatures that can be chased in the woods, but I warn you; they don’t taste quite as soon as the real thing! Perhaps I’ll take you out hunting with me on occasion, how does that sound?” 

Duke lets out the almost-purr noise again, grating and vibrational, and allows Alastor to sit in the seat below him, curling up in his lap. Unexpected, but Alastor will permit it- he will need to get used to the usual behaviors of being a ‘pet-owner’ if the Princess is to let him keep the tiny creature. He pets a hand down the feline and it stretches, rolls onto its back, and stills, the Radio Demon watching with a content smile.

[sohotthateveryonedied]

What It Takes to Survive

Whumptober Day 19: Bitten

(Yes I hate zombie apocalypse AUs because they’re sad, yes I’m writing one anyway. It’s okay when I do it)

Summary:

Jason: man i sure do love having two hands :)

Me, halfway through sawing his arm off: what

(Basically it's a zombie apocalypse AU and Jason gets bitten so Steph has to cut his arm off. Lots of fun for the whole family!)

Trigger Warnings: Amputation, Gore, uhhhh idk general blood and zombie stuff

“What about fish?” “What about ‘em?” “You know. The virus,” Steph says. She taps the end of her baseball bat against the pavement as she walks. “Could a fish turn?” Jason makes a face. “Who would wanna bite a fish?” He shoves aside an abandoned tire with his foot. They watch it trundle down the cracked sidewalk ahead of them before rolling to a stop and falling on its side. Steph shrugs, conceding the point. “I guess it’s more of a ‘science for the sake of science’ kind of experiment. Unless it was bitten by another fish in the wild, but that would still require someone to bite the first fish.” “I don’t think fish have teeth.” “Sure they do. They gotta chew those flakes somehow.” The street ahead of them is deserted, as is the street behind them. And in every other direction. Today it’s Steph and Jason’s turn to scavenge for supplies, which means it’s their turn to venture into the zombie-infested wasteland that used to be Gotham City. Usually they stick closer to their hideout than this, but Duke has been sick for over a week now. Dick is pretty sure it’s just an infection, but Duke won’t get better without antibiotics.

“Maybe it’s in the water supply,” Jason muses. “Y’know, a zombie decays in a lake, gets its germs in the water. Fish catch the virus…” He spreads his hands. “Zombie fish.” “I think it would be cool. Like keeping a pet shark, but smaller and more deadly.” Steph stops at the edge of the deserted parking lot. She holds a hand over her eyes, blocking them from the sun so she can read the unlit sign of the pharmacy. “You sure this place will have something?” “Nope,” Jason says. “Let’s go.” A few zombies mill mindlessly around the lot. Careful not to be spotted by the horde, Steph stands on top of a tipped-over shopping cart. She lifts up on her toes and scans the outside of the building. “There,” she says, pointing. “They won’t see us if we go in through there.” A window has been smashed at the northern side of the store, out of sight of any zombies who still have eyes. Jason lets out a curse when he follows her gaze to the broken window. “Hopefully the last scavengers left some stuff for us.” They sneak through the lot quietly, Steph gripping her baseball bat for dear life and Jason swinging his crowbar like he's already gearing up to start bashing skulls. They make it to the window without being noticed, mercifully. Steph gives Jason a boost. She grimaces at the smear of dirt his sneaker leaves on her palm. He peers in through the window. “Clear,” he whispers back to her. He climbs in, wriggling through the gap. In a way, it’s lucky that they’ve all been on the brink of starvation since the virus first hit, or this might have been difficult. Jason turns back to pull Stephanie up behind him. She lands soundlessly on the linoleum, instincts bared and at the ready. They stay silent, being wary of every dark corner and hidden nook where a zombie could be lurking. After a sweep of the place comes up without results, Steph lets out a breath. “I think we’re good.” Jason nods. “I’ll look for the meds. Try and scavenge whatever you can carry.” He heads for the pharmacy at the back of the store. The aisles have been just about picked clean of anything useful, but Steph makes do. Some expired-but-still-good gummy worms for Tim. A three-in-one puzzle set for Cass. Some nail polish for Dick and new crayons for Damian. Steph gets basic toiletries and food, along with some cheap novels that didn’t make the cut to be in a regular bookstore, but they’ll be enough to keep the group entertained on quiet nights. Absently, Steph wonders if any of the authors are still alive. If they are, do they still write? Is there a point to it if the majority of their audience is either zombiefied or dead? The end of the world makes even the little things seem pointless when she thinks about it too hard, so she doesn’t. Instead, Steph thinks about how relieved Dick will be when she and Jason return in one piece. She thinks about Duke’s smile and about teaching Tim how to do a cartwheel. She thinks about warm nights on a bare mattress with Damian on one side of her and Cass on the other. It’s enough to keep her moving. Steph is in the middle of ripping open a box of semi-stale crackers when she hears a crash at the back of the store. She stands from her crouch, the box slipping from her fingers. She waits. There is no telltale sound of zombies shuffling over from outside, drawn in by the noise, so she risks voicing a quiet, “Jay? Everything okay?” She tightens her grip on her bat. Then she hears it. Growling. “Jay!” Steph abandons her supplies and races for the back of the store, bat up and primed to swing. She bursts in on Jason grappling with a zombie outside the open door of what looks like a long-abandoned office. Two more stumble out—probably shut away in the office by the last survivors who came through here. Should’ve checked the office. Hesitation means death in this new world, so Steph doesn’t hesitate. She bashes her bat through the decaying skull of the zombie closest to Jason’s unprotected back. Brain matter splatters on the floor. Another one claws at Steph’s hair, yanking her back with its rotting fingers. She smashes

her bat into its chest to knock it back. “Any others I should know about?” she asks breathlessly. Jason doesn’t answer, too busy trying not to get bitten or gutted. His opponent snaps its jaws at him, perilously close to nipping skin. He shoves it back with his arms and jams a screwdriver through its eye. The zombie falls to the ground, lifeless for the second time. Steph takes hers out soon after. She wipes blood off her face with her sleeve, panting. There’s blood spatter on her purple hoodie. “We should really come up with a signal for next time one of us is getting attacked by zombies. I like ‘pumpernickel.’ Did you find the meds?” Jason doesn’t seem to hear her. He’s staring blankly at his arm, caught in a trance. His skin has gone ghostly pale. Steph’s stomach sinks down through her body, through the floor, down, down to the center of the earth and out the other side. “Jason?” His name comes out like a denial. He doesn’t answer. Steph reaches for him, but Jason stumbles back at once, flinging a hand out to stop her. “D-Don’t touch me, Steph.” His eyes are wild. Scared. Steph doesn’t want to look because she knows what she’ll find, and then there’s no going back. But she has to. The first thing she sees is the orange pill bottle clenched in his hand. Then the bite—bleeding and jagged and real. The zombie tore into a spot halfway down his forearm, tearing through the muscle and leaving a gaping wound in the shape of teeth. The skin on the edges of it is already turning a sickly red. “You—you need to get out of here,” Jason tells her. He holds his arm out almost like, if he keeps the bite far enough from his body, it can’t poison him. “No,” Steph says, her voice hoarse. “Steph.” “I said no. Maybe you’re still okay. Maybe it’s not—” She can’t finish. They both know it is. “We’re out of time,” Jason says. He tosses her the medicine and his bag of supplies. Lastly, he hands her the crowbar. “Go for the head, and then get the fuck out of here as fast as you can. Tell the others I’m sorry.” The crowbar feels enormous in Steph’s hands. Cold. Deadly. “I’m not killing you, Jason.” “Steph, please.” Jason’s voice breaks. He’s crying almost as much as she is. “I don’t want to be one of them.” Steph still doesn’t move, so Jason steps back, out of her reach. “Fine.” He takes the backup pistol from his waistband. “Then I’ll fucking do it.” He raises the gun to his head. “Jay, wait.” Steph seizes his wrist before he can pull the trigger. “Please, we can—there has to be something we can do.” “I’m bit, Steph. There’s no coming back from this.” “Bullshit.” She wrenches the gun from his hand. “It’s only been a few minutes. Maybe...maybe it hasn’t reached your bloodstream yet. Maybe we can still save you.” Every victim turns within four hours of being bitten. There’s no way to know when you’ve reached the point of no return, but Steph isn’t losing another family member. Not without a fight. “You don’t know it’ll work,” Jason says weakly. His arm trembles in her grasp. “Well, I’m not going back there to tell them all that you—” Steph chokes back a sob. She tightens her hold on his wrist like she can keep him tethered here in the land of the living through sheer will. “Just let me try. Please, Jason. We can’t lose you.” Jason is silent for a moment. His eyes are glossy, turquoise pools tainted with fear. “If I turn…” “I know. I will. Just let me try.” Jason bites his lip. Steph tries not to imagine those teeth biting through flesh, mindless and hungry. “You’ll need a knife. Something—something sturdy. It’s gotta cut through bone.” A shiver rattles down Steph’s spine. God. They’re really doing this. Steph tries to steady her wobbly nerves; she won’t be of any use to Jason if she’s a terrified mess. He needs her to be strong right now. “Sit down,” Steph says, jumping into action-mode. “I’m going to grab the rest of the supplies.” She stares him down, tucking his pistol into her own waistband. “Don’t do anything stupid until I get back.” Read as: Don’t try to kill yourself or I’ll drag you back from the dead

and skin you alive. She leaves Jason in the back office and goes to fetch her things. She makes quick work of it, grabbing whatever additional supplies she can get her hands on because once the arm is off, it’s going to be a race against the clock to make it back home before he bleeds out. Not to mention the very real possibility of him succumbing to infection on the way. Don’t think about it, Steph tells herself as she shoves as many ravioli cans into her bag as she can fit. Dick and Barbara will be able to handle everything from there. All she has to do is cut the arm off and get Jason to the hideout. She just needs to be strong until then. After she has everything packed, Steph locks and blocks every entrance. They can’t afford another attack now. She starts for the back of the store, then, as an afterthought, doubles back for the novelty bottles of booze by the gift section. She closes the office door behind her when she returns, relieved to find Jason sitting on the floor, still in one piece. The infection has already spread, turning the skin an inch around the wound pale green. Steph kneels beside him and dumps her spoils on the floor: peroxide, gauze, and her biggest knife. She eyes his bag full of pill bottles. “Painkillers?” Jason shakes his head. Steph doesn’t ask if that means he couldn’t find any, or if he’s unwilling to take drugs even now, when she’s about to… “I could knock you out,” Steph offers. “You can’t drag me back yourself.” Which is true, but Steph still feels awful that she can’t take away his pain. “Drink this,” she instructs, shoving the alcohol at him. Jason snorts. “S’not gonna do much.” But he unscrews the top of the first bottle and starts chugging. With trembling hands, Steph takes off her belt and cinches it tightly above Jason’s elbow. He winces. “I don’t know if I should pour the peroxide on before or after,” Steph admits. “After, I guess. Not much you can do for it now.” He means it jokingly, but Jason sounds as petrified as she is. “Could be worse,” Steph offers. “You could’ve been a lefty.” Jason doesn’t laugh. Steph tightens the tourniquet again. She’s stalling, she knows. She wants to go back to five minutes ago when the world was ruined but they were still okay. “Here, lie down.” She pushes gently on his shoulder so he’s lying on his back, the infected arm stretched out beside him. Steph takes a deep breath. She picks up the knife. “Wait, wait,” Jason says, grabbing her arm. His palm is slick with sweat. He’s shaking so badly it’s hard to get the words out. “Outside. They’ll hear.” He’s right. It’s unlikely that this place is soundproof, and the last thing they need is more zombies coming for them when Jason is already incapacitated. Steph takes the scarf she grabbed for Barbara and folds it up the best she can. “Bite down on this,” she instructs him. Jason hesitates. “Promise me you’ll do it if this doesn’t work.” “I promise.” Jason takes the fabric between his teeth and lies back, all of him shaking. Steph lifts the knife again. She can’t prolong this any longer. “Want me to count to three?” Jason shakes his head, closing his eyes. “Okay,” she says. She lays the knife against Jason’s arm, two inches above the bite. Jason flinches at the cold metal. They haven’t even reached the worst part yet. “I’m sorry,” Steph says. She presses down. Jason strains to keep himself quiet for all of five seconds. Even through the gag, his screams ring in Steph’s ears and echo around the small room. She saw faster, knowing it’s only a matter of time before the zombies outside hear and come to investigate. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry—” She doesn’t stop cutting, not even when she hits bone. Jason howls, tears streaming down his face. His legs kick out desperately. His other arm flails, nails scraping on the linoleum as they scramble for something to hold onto. This part is harder. Steph has to lean her full weight on the knife until, finally, there’s a resounding crack and Jason screams. “Okay, okay, it’s over,” Steph says when she’s made it all the way through.

Shit, there’s so much blood. How much blood loss is too much? She frantically pours on the peroxide, cursing her limited fourteen-year-old knowledge. Jason whines through the makeshift gag. Steph wraps layer after layer of gauze around the bloody stump. She has nothing to stitch it with and no way to cauterize it, so the tourniquet will have to hold until they get back to base and the others can take over. She finishes wrapping the wound the best she can. “Alright, I think—I think it’s done.” She shoves the bloody supplies into her bag. “C’mon, Jay, we need to go. You lost a lot of blood.” Jason doesn’t move. He’s breathing raggedly, fresh tears sliding down his sweaty cheeks. Steph tugs on his remaining arm, urging him to sit up. “Come on, Jason. Worst part’s over. We have to get back to the others.” “Just go,” Jason whimpers, his voice shuddering. Steph wants to scream at him. “No. Get up. We’re going back to the hideout, and you’re gonna be fine.” Whether you like it or not. Jason shakes his head. He’s too pale already. How much blood has he lost? How much does he have left? “Jason Peter Todd,” Steph snaps. She grabs the front of his bloodied shirt, trying to pull him upright. “You don’t get to do this. I’m not letting you lie down here and die. What about the others, huh? Dick and Cass and Damian, what about them? They need you, Jason. They need us to get back alive, but I can’t do that if you don’t get the fuck up.” She pulls harder, a sob punching its way out of her lungs. “Please.” Jason looks up at her, tears trailing down to his temples. Finally, he nods. Steph bullies him up to his feet, keeping a firm hold on him when he sways. She shrugs both of their bags over her shoulder and supports Jason’s weight on her other side. “See? We got this. You’re going to be fine. We’re both going to be fine.” Please, she sends up to the universe. Don’t let it all be for nothing. Steph makes an effort not to think about the severed arm on the floor as they shuffle out of the office, a tangled creature of boy and girl. It’ll probably be picked clean by zombies before morning, not unlike a chicken wing at a Superbowl party. Steph’s already unsteady gag reflex threatens to give, so she focuses on the task at hand. “It’s just three blocks. We can make it,” she says, more for herself than for Jason, whose eyelids droop dangerously as they walk. “We’ll make it.” It’s a long walk—longer than three blocks should be. But Jason is weak from pain and blood loss, so a slow stumble is already more than Steph can ask for. The gauze is staining through with red. Steph is the only thing keeping Jason’s barely conscious form upright at this point, but she doesn’t dare quit. She can’t.

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“Thank god,” Tim says, throwing open the door of their disheveled excuse of a house, tucked in one of the few relatively safe areas of Gotham left. “I thought you two were—” That’s when Tim sees Jason’s arm, or lack thereof, and visibly pales. “Oh, crap.” “They’re back?” Dick appears behind Tim, nearly knocking the kid over in his haste. He’s grinning, but it quickly melts into horror. “Jason!” Dick rushes forward, supporting Jason’s other side. He helps Steph hobble him into the house. Jason’s head lolls forward dangerously. “What the hell happened?” “Bite,” is all Steph says. She can’t remember the last time she was so drained. “Had to cut it off. He’s lost a lot of blood.” “Jesus,” Dick breathes. He shouts into the house, “Barbara! Get the medical kit!” Everything after that happens in blurry, distorted flashes. Getting Jason to the room farthest from the rest, in case he still turns despite Steph’s efforts. Handing over the bag of pills to Barbara with a shaking hand that makes the bottles rattle like a thousand snakes. Backing out of the room while Dick and Barbara do their best to get the bleeding under control, preparing one of the bags of O-negative they scavenged from a fruitful run to the abandoned hospital last week. Steph doesn’t know how long she stands there outside the door, staring blankly at the cracked wood in front of her. “Steph?” Blue, blue eyes appear in front of hers, brimming with concern. “Are you…?” Tim’s eyes flick down to Steph’s shirt and hands. She’s covered in Jason’s blood. She feels it on her knees, crusted and sticky. She feels the rusty flakes between her fingers. Steph can’t hold in the sob that bursts through, having been held back for what feels like an eternity. She throws her arms around Tim’s neck and cries into his shoulder. He doesn’t complain about the blood that’s surely staining his own clothes. “It’s okay, Steph,” Tim tells her, holding her tight. “Barbara said he’ll be okay. You did the right thing. I know he won’t hold it against you.” Steph can’t respond, so she buries her face in his neck and cries harder instead.

[vicious-vixxxen]

Mermaid!Kirishima X Male Reader

((Lost the original ask who prompted this, but here’s a little Mermaid!Kirishima to start the prompts off here! Thank you again for being the first to send in an ask, I appreciate it so much! And such a fun and interesting one to kick things off with, so manly! <3))

You’d almost fallen asleep. Again. Jesus Christ. Groaning, you stretched your limbs out as far as they’d reach- stifling a cry as your joints popped, and you became a puddle against the wooden dock you were laid across. The soft plap-plap of the waves beneath you very nearly lulling you under once again. Opening your eyes finally, you raised your arm to block out the harsh mid afternoon rays, and to check your watch for the time. Nearly four. He was late. “Where the hell are you, sharkboy,” You grumbled, sitting up, and stretching your arms out for a second time, stretching them for all they were worth, before slumping over and scrubbing at your tired eyes. Wincing slightly at the soft burn of your palms against your cheeks. Fuck. No sunblock. Of course. You’d be confused with a lobster by the time you went home and scooped up in a net for dinner if you didn’t apply any. Chancing a glance around the open ocean around you, spotting hues of blue after hues of blue- but no red- you sighed, tugging off your sweat soaked tank top- shoving it into your bag with the rest of your things, before retrieving your sunblock, and squirting a liberal amount into the palm of your hand. Slapping them together afterwards to smear it around, before hiking a leg up to begin applying it. The soft scent of coconut filled the air around the dock, and mixed with the salty scent of the seafoam below the dock, it reminded you of Kirishima. How enamored he’d been the first time he spotted you out here, doing just as you were now. The scent, the sight. Long tanned legs, short board shorts, no top. He’d been drooling, it was a whole adorable thing. Of course, you absolutely flipped your shit the first time you saw him. He wasn’t exactly the most subtle creature to catch a glimpse of, especially when he reared up to apologize- fins fanning out, causing you to nearly have a heart attack. You knew of mer-people, of course, but no one had seen any in these parts in decades. You certainly hadn’t. Not in your lifetime. First time for anything, though, you supposed. He’d wandered too far from his pod, and gotten curious of the handsome human male spread out like a buffet on the docks. If there was one thing to be said about Eijiro, it was that he was too curious for his own damn good. Something that both endeared you, and frustrated the fuck out of you. You hardly noticed, so caught up in your thoughts of the creature, the sound of the water breaking- the soft creak of the dock straining beneath the merman's grip as he hoisted himself up quietly, laying flat on his stomach just a few feet away. Eyes wide as saucers, red irises glinting mischievously as he tried to stick to his plan. Thwarted only by all the bare expanse of skin you were showing off. Tan, and soft looking. Soft to the touch, too, Kirishima thought suddenly, mouth too full of saliva as he recalled the feel of your skin beneath his webbed fingers. Shaking himself from his awed stupor, Kirishina grinned- all sharp teeth, as he shimmied across the dock, long tail swishing excitedly beneath the water, where it hung low from the dock. Already aware of his tardiness, Kirishima wasted no time lunging for you when he was close enough- laughing boisterously as you shrieked, and began swatting blindly at him. “You asshole! How many times have I told you /NOT/ to do that?” Y/N Shouted, initial panic already seeping away, as he was rolled over beneath Kirishima- the merman's soggy red spikes haloed by the sun’s rays, making him look….positively angelic. The fucking heathen. “You’re an absolute menace to both land and sea society Kirishima- no, no don’t fucking kiss me, I’m mad at you. Take your fishy kisses somewhere else, they will not be accepted here!” Y/N continued to shout, laughing suddenly as Kirishima nuzzled and raked his teeth along the soft expanse of your neck, webbed fingers digging just this side of rough into your sides, to elicit a fit from you. “L-Lemme g-go you smelly s-sardine! Ah-ahah! S-shit, i’m gonna p-piss myself if you don’t-ah!- stop! Kiri, please, mercy, mercy!” You cried, tears in your eyes as Eijiro wrapped your legs around his broad hips- shifting his scales downwards, as to not scrape you. Cradling you in his arms, his elbows against the dock, to shift you both upwards just a bit. Toothy grin as bright as ever as he gave in, and finally looked at you. Kirishima swore he could look at you forever. Your bright, twinkling E/C eyes, the soft, sun bleached tips of your hair. The curve of your nose. The curve of your /lips/. Especially the curve of your lips. “You can’t just show up late and expect me to be all hugs and kisses, that’s not fair,” You pouted, despite the smile you couldn’t help forming on your face. Ankles hooked just at the small of Kirishima’s back, where waist met scales. One hand splayed across the creatures back, the other finding its way deep in the crop of damp hair atop his head. Fingernails digging gently into the base, in that sweet spot that always had Kiri mewling if you scratched long enough. “Mm, i’m sorry, baby shark,” Kiri cooed, snickering at the eye roll he could practically sense, as he dipped his face back down against your neck, and kissed. “-It was my turn to lead the roundup for dinner. You know how long it takes to completely swarm a school of flounder? Little bastards shoot off in different directions. So yummy,” he paused, nipping at your earlobe, causing you to tense, “-but so difficult to catch. Like, but also kind of unlike, another little fish I know.” “A man of a thousand sweet talks.” You were already putty in the merman's hands, and you both knew it. Didn’t mean you had to advertise it. “I am sorry, baby shark. I tried to hurry, but you know how Denki can be. He gets a little zapped if he exerts himself too much on the hunt. We all gotta get him back to the cove in one piece after that, and he’s such a squirmer, so...ya know,” Kirishima shrugged, arms tightening just barely around your middle, as he leaned back, smile less predatory, and more sincere now, as he pressed your foreheads together gently. “Apology accepted...I guess,” You mumbled finally, breaking the creature's gaze, only to flick your gaze down to his plump, bitten lips. One drop of saltwater still clinging to his cupid's bow. “I missed you, dude,” Kiri whispered finally, blush painting his pale face, as he pressed chaste kisses to your cheeks, and chin. Peppering them all over afterwards as you began to giggle. “Missed you too,” You sighed, closing your eyes, and angling your head to catch Kirishima’s lips in a soft kiss. Just a press of them together, no real urgency. You had the rest of the evening, and long after sunset to spend together. There’d be plenty of time for rough, heated kisses below the docks. When you lost your trunks, and Kiri started losing control of the sharpness of his scales. Leaving small pricks and scrapes over your inner thighs, from how you’d going to his hips. Only to have the merman lay you out on the dock under the stars, and kiss them all better. Webbed hands spread wide over your stomach, your hips. Trailing down your thighs, up, and around… “Whoa now,” Kirishima whistled, pulling back to glance down between you, and you huffed. “Don’t get cocky, asshole. I haven’t seen you in almost a week, give me a break.” Hooking your chin over the merman's shoulder, you rolled your eyes once more at Kirishima’s little giggles. Mesmerized by the expanse of muscle in his back. Gaze trailing down between Kirishima’s shoulder blades. Down the small of his back, where his hips dipped first inwards, then back out. Hips filling out below his scales, bright red at the tips, and a deep obsidian at the base, where they met his flesh. Similar to the hair atop his head. Unhooking one of your feet, you ran your toes down along the soft, slippery surface of his tail, as far as you could go, before bringing it back up. Noting the shiver down Kirishima’s spine, and grinning. “Never gets old, does it?” “No, nope. Absolutely not. You make my tail feel like it’s gonna shake right off,” Kirishima groaned, planting his plans on either side of you now, caging you in as you rested back against the dock. “Should probably get that checked out by a doctor.” “Asshole.” “See if I give you the gummy worms in my backpack now.” “....did I mention how much I love you yet?” “That’s what I thought, seaweed brain.” You laughed, flinching back with a frown as Kirishima nipped at the air in front of your face playfully- reaching back for your brag, to draw out the large bag of gummy worms you’d already opened, when waiting for the merman to arrive. Grabbing one out of the pack, and holding it up between two fingers for Kirishima to slurp up. Humming contentedly as he chewed, and you simply smiled. “Love you,” You whispered, feeding him another- watching as he slowed in his chewing, before gulping audibly, and leaning down close. “Love you too. Beautiful boy.” ((Thank you again to the wonderful prompter who asked for this, I had a blast writing it!))

[ask-an-aussie]

Aussie Wildlife FAQ

So here's questions I'm frequently asked as both a wildlife rescuer and carer and keeper at a wildlife sanctuary. Heads up, this is a long post, I've made the questions stick out so you can easily skip through. I've tried to make it as easy to read as possible, and to find what you're after, whilst also providing lots of info.

Poison Vs Venom, what's the difference?

Well, mostly, poison just never stops killing. Like if you poison an insect, then a bird or small mammal eats that insect and they slowly get poisoned by all the poisoned insects they eat, then something eats them, like an owl, and that gets poisoned, then as it rots the poison goes into the environment, etc. Poison never dies. Venom has to be injected, so yes you can be envenomated by a dead animal, if you are stupid. Poison can be inhaled, eaten/drunk or even through touch. So if a cow is poisoned you have to dispose of the body safely, if a cow is bitten by a venomous snake, technically you can still have steak for dinner.

Are all Australian animals out to kill you?

Maybe.

They could want to kill us, I mean as a species we aren't that great. Their ability to kill us however is limited. So are all Aussie animals able to kill you? No. So we have lots of cute small mammals, like antechinus, dunnarts, pygmy possums and the like, that can bite and scratch but are very tiny bois. We even have lots of non-venomous snakes, pythons and blind snakes. Most lizards outside of Goannas can't cause too much damage. Echidna's are completely defensive, have no attack whatsoever. Lots of birds have no interest in you, unless you get near their nest. Freshwater Turtles, Little Penguins and Tawny Frogmouths all main defense is shitting really stinky shit at you. Even our venomous snakes, as long as you seek medical attention you should be fine. Considering we have the top 10 most venomous snakes in the world but average only 1 death a year that's pretty good.

But you still have lots of dangerous animals right?

Yes.

Maybe I should elaborate. Any animal is dangerous, including you, if given the right circumstances. I'm a lovely person but hurt my dog and you better run. Most animals don't want a bar of you. However, if you are a threat to them, or their babies, they will defend themselves. A lot of animals get tagged with the word 'aggressive' which I don't like, aggression is a human emotion that I've never seen in wild animals, or even pets and things. Mostly it's defensive behaviours that people read wrong. For example, the most venomous snake in the world is the Inland Taipan (found in Aust.), however the most dangerous snake in Australia is the Eastern Brown snake, less venomous but also less shy and lives in suburbia. Still, it only ever strikes at people when it feels cornered and needs to get you to back the hell off. And lets be real here, what else can they do? They can't yell and scream, they can't punch or kick. Legit their only option is to bite, and even then mostly it's a closed mouth strike to freak you out into stepping back, and most people bitten by snakes are given a 'dry bite' where no venom is injected, as they want to use it on their food not waste it on us. And 90% of snake bites that happen in Australia are people either trying to catch or kill a snake.

It's fairly simple. Don't threaten animals, don't give them a reason to be dangerous and you are fine. Crocodiles in the water? Don't swim there. Sharks around? Avoid swimming at twilight. Snake? Leave it alone. Nest with baby birds? walk away. You don't randomly show up in some strangers home and expect them not to react, so why do we expect different from animals?

What animals are on the most 'dangerous list' then? Which animals should I really avoid pissing off?

Start with the obvious. Crocodiles, venomous snakes, sharks, some jellyfish, venomous spiders, stone fish, blue ringed octopus, birds of prey (our Wedge Tailed Eagle WILL attack drones, hang-gliders and helicopters if they come into their territory) Then you've got the less obvious. Ants - like meat ants, they will swarm over you then all bite down at once. 1 bite isn't so bad, a whole colony biting you, deadly. Then there's other ants in the Myrmecia family (bull ants and the like) that are just HUGE, and have massive mandables for biting and also can sting you, and are one of the most toxic insects in the world.

Wombats - Can run at 40km/hr, skull so hard it's the only thing a Tassie Devil can't eat, able to bite your calf muscle clean off your leg, oh and they have killer booty. A hard cartilage plate in their lower back that they use to block their burrows, and if threatened can lay down and as the animal tries to get past jam their legs straight and crush the skull of a fox against the roof of their burrow, easily break a dingoes jaw or even destroy your hand.

Kangaroos - yes they box, hahaha wouldn't it be funny to box with a kangaroo. NO. Kangroos box for fun but also to defend themselves and their mob. The Alpha male is the big buff one that looks like he's on steroids. He looks like that for a reason, to defend and protect his mob. DO NOT MESS WITH ANY KANGAROOs, but really don't mess with Big Daddy (for being the alpha he gets all the ladies) Kangaroos are made for this. A punch from a Kangaroo can easily break you ribs. They can lean back on their tail and bring both legs up to kick you, easily tearing you open, which they can do with the claws on their toes, and so basically dissecting you from sternum down. Oh and if they gran you round the neck for a 'Cuddle' DUCK AND RUN. They will hold you in a kind of choke hold and then bring their legs up to kick you and basically snap you in half. Don't even mess with Wallabies man, they may be smaller but can still do damage.

Tassie Devils - are extremely shy and slower than you, like you can actually run away from them. BUT. They have the strongest bite strength compared to size of any animal. The have a PSI of 1200 and males weigh around 8 kg. For perspective, Hyenas have a PSI of 1100 and males weigh around 50kg

Brushtail Possums - They may be cuter than the American Opossums but trust me, they don't want you around. They are solitary so most people have heard them fighting of a night, screeching, shrieking, hissing, growling and making darth vadar noises. Heads up from someone who has had to rescue them from awkward places (fire-places, BBQs, closets) They are stronger than you and they will f*** you up. Even without them meaning to I've gotten injuries from my joey Brushies, they get so keen on their milk when you put it in that they climb your arm and their claws are sharper than cats. Also the sheer strength of them. I'm stronger than I look but if they are clinging on to a tree you are gonna need all your strength to get them off. The can also bite your finger clean off. And I've seen injuries from people who feed wild ones and for some reason have been late to put out the food or something and they've climbed their leg or even jumped on them - stitches were required in a few of those cases (human skin is not thick like tree bark)

What's with Magpies and swooping?

Simple, they have nests/babies and are protecting them. Australia Magpies are very smart and can recognise faces. If they think you are a threat they will try and scare you off. Just like if you're walking along with your toddler and there's a weirdo doing something strange you hold the kid tighter and closer to you and move through faster. But these guys can't just move their nests or their babies. The spot is chosen based on food availability and shelter from sun and rain, but also not being too cold. It's their spot. I've never been swooped by Magpies, other birds yes, but not Magpies. My local birds know me as the lady that cleans and fills the bird bath. Legit the Magpies sing a specific song when it needs filling to call me out to do it. So don't be a threat. If they are swooping in that area, try to avoid it or go through quickly. We used to have Plovers at my school, in the bush at the end of the oval. Never a problem. One day some kids go into the bush and stomp on their nest and eggs. After that they would swoop anyone who came close to there. So the school blocked off that end of the oval. Fair call. Wasn't the birds fault.

Why is everything named so basic?

Oh you mean the snake that's black with a red belly being balled a Red Belly Black Snake, and the tree with all the doodles on it being called a Scribbly Gum? 80% of plants and animals found in Australia are found NO WHERE ELSE. So the early Europeans had a lot of things to name and when they tried naming it themselves they would get it wrong. 2 good examples are: The Death Adder (only considered highly venomous, not deadly, and not an Adder). Also you're only likely to get bitten if you stand on it or try to pick it up. The Australian Magpie, they saw a black and white bird so it must be a magpie. Nope. Actually not in the corvidae family but in the butcherbird family - Artamidae. So their solution was to either take the Aboriginal word, for example, Quoll, Kookaburra, Koala, Quokka, Taipan. Or name it after what it looks like/sounds like/ is found Boobook Owl - makes a sound like booooo-book Squirrel Glider Eastern Water Dragon Grey Headed Flying Fox Flaky Bark Tea Tree Old man Banksia This can cause confusion though as not every brown coloured snake is a brown snake, and not all Eastern brown snakes are brown. Squirrel Gliders aren't related to squirrels. Flying foxes are bats not actual foxes that fly.

What do I do if I find injured wildlife?

Well, depends on the wildlife and where it is. If it's in a dangerous position, like the middle of a highway, don't try anything. First thing, call a wildlife rescue group, there are plenty around and they have trained people who know what to do. A quick google search should show you all you need to know, also the IFAW's Wildlife Rescue App will identify the closest group to you.

If it's a snake, adult wombat or kangaroo, or any other animal that can cause you serious injury, leave it be. The wildlife rescuers you call can give you basic info on how to help but mostly calling them is the main thing.

If it's something smaller, like a young animal or glider or baby bird and you are able to put it into a cardboard box that will be perfect. The 3 main things injured/ill wildlife need are warmth, dark and quiet. You don't need to worry about food or water. The rescuers will organise that. If you give food or water to an animal in shock you can cause more damage.

THE BEST THING IS TO DO NOTHING. I know this sounds stupid. But so many problems can occur from people who don't know what they are doing helping out. You know what they say about good intentions. For example, picking up a Koala like you would pick up a human child (under the armpits, around the chest) you could actually break their ribs. Also so many Koalas end up needing vet care during heat waves because people pour water into their mouths - they can get pneumonia as the water goes in too fast, it is not a natural way for them to drink. You can also get yourself injured or make the animals injuries worse. I have seen Kangaroos with broken legs get up and try to hop away from people. I have seen severe scratches on other people because they tried to pick up an animal.

What diseases can wildlife give me?

Well. I only know about Australian wildlife, and it's very different to other parts of the world. If you get a bad bite or scratch from wildlife you should see your doctor ASAP, get the wound cleaned properly and make sure your tetanus is up to date (same as if a pet gives you a bad bite or scratch).

There aren't that many Zoonosis that are around in Australia that are easy to catch. Mostly you have to be dealing directly with sick wildlife to get them.

The main thing is Australian Bat Lyssavirus. ABL for short. Now our bats can carry it. About 1 in 1000 bats may have it and you HAVE to be bitten or scratched for it to be transmitted to you. If you are bitten or scratched by a bat your chance is 0.1% of getting ABL but it is related to Rabies, so head straight to hospital for treatment. If you don't touch a bat you won't get bitten or scratched and so your chance of getting it is 0. Hendra is the other virus our bats carry, however it has to go through a horse before it mutates enough for humans to get it.

Basically it's only when you get involved with wildlife that your risk of getting a disease from them is higher than VERY unlikely. If you happen to help some wildlife, and you maybe wrap them in a towel or jumper, even if they urinate on it. You can just chuck it in the wash (I usually add a little extra disinfectant) and it will be fine. Treat it the same as if a pet had used it or urinated on it.

What's some Good Wildlife Apps to have?

Well, there's so many out there now hey? Here's some that I've found handy or know people that use. WomSAT EchidnaCSI PlatypusSPOT are all for recording sightings of these animals (wombats/echidnas/platypus) this helps researches track where they are and how they are going which means we can help them more as well. OzAtlas - record a sighting of anything Australian, animal, plant, fungus, insect. FrogID - need to identify a frog? This is the app for you. Use photos or sound recordings, Field Guide to *insert state/territory* Fauna - Have a field guide on you wherever you are without having to carry a book. Seek by inaturalist - Helps you identify any animals, plants, insect, fungus. IFAW Wildlife Rescue - wildlife rescue app (currently for NSW only but soon expanding) will give you advice on what to do and put you into contact with the local wildlife rescue groups.

Besides Cats and Foxes, what other invasive species have you got that cause problems?

First up, any invasive species causes a problem. In Tasmania they have issues with Sugar Gliders, because they are not naturally found there and use up tree hollows that other animals need. Invasive species cause competition for food, water and shelter. They can also bring in diseases that didn't exist in Australia before and that our natives have no defence against (like cats and Toxoplasmosis) Here's a quick list of invasive animal species in Australia. Cats, dogs, foxes, pigs, water buffalo, ferrets rabbits, horses/brumbies, goats, camels, Cane Toad, European Honey Bee, Common Myna bird, deer, donkey, common starling, common pigeon, black rat, brown rat.

There's more, there's reptiles, and weeds and fish but those guys ^ are the main ones that cause problems.

I am an animal lover but unless we get rid of these animals you loose more in the long run. I'm 100% against use of poisons, I prefer having people hunt them to be honest. If you know what you are doing and have the right equipment you can give them a quick, painless death. To give you an idea how bad invasives are:

The introduction of the rabbit is the main cause the Lesser Bilby became extinct.

The introduction of cats and toxoplasmosis is believed to be the main reason Eastern Quolls became extinct on mainland Australia

Rats led directly to the extinction of 5 of Lord Howe Island's bird species

30% of our land snakes and Goannas are at risk as Cane Toads are rapidly spreading and eat their eggs.

The Common Myna Bird is the 2nd greatest threat to Australian native birds (habitat loss being the 1st)

The fox population has been estimated at 72 million and consume around 190 million birds a year

There's an estimated 23 million wild pigs/boars and an estimated 2.6 million goats - all eating whatever they come across.

How can I help Australian Wildlife?

There's the stuff we already know, like reduce/reuse/recycle and don't litter. But there's other things you may not know about.

Turn off lights at night - any lights that you don't need, don't have them on, especially if they are outside. Lots of animals require insects in their diets, particularly moths, which can be distracted by lights. Zoos Victoria have launched educational stuff for this https://youtu.be/ZAcL4FKPtHw

Learn about them - It's not hard, there's multiple ways you can do it. There's books, tv shows, pod casts, you can follow sanctuaries and other people who work with wildlife on social media. Planting flora that's native to your area is great as different plants can attract different animals and it's much lower maintenance, being made for that environment. You can even find cool life-hacks like Lemon Scented Tea-Tree doesn't just smell amazing and feed lots of wildlife, it keeps the mozzies away! There's different kinds of nesting boxes out there specific to different species that you can put up to help 'foster' that species. You can even become friends with your local Magpies! Mine know me as the lady who cleans and fills the bird bath and all I had to do was whistle to them when I was done and now they are really chill around me and I get to watch their antics. Debunk Myths! - In learning about wildlife you can debunk lots of myths like: a mother bird won't take it's chick back if you've touched it (fake news!) or that snakes dislocate their jaw to swallow their prey (that would be soooo painful!)

Put out water - have a bird bath and keep it clean and full. Or if you don't have one or want to get one just put water out on hot days. Summer's getting hotter and hotter and our animals really suffer. So put out a nice pot or container of water. Don't forget to put a rock or a stick in it if it's a slippery surface (like plastic or metal) so that little animals and bugs don't fall in and drown, and keep it out of the sun if it's likely to heat up.

Check roadkill - it's not pleasant but needs to be done. Don't do it if it's a motorway or somewhere dangerous, but if you can PLEASE do. Roadkill sometimes looks dead but isn't and you don't want them laying there suffering. They may have pouch young if they are a marsupial or young nearby that will need care without their parent. And where possible get it off the road. Species like Tasmanian Devils, Goannas and Wedge Tailed Eagles feed on roadkill and can then end up as roadkill themselves. Even if you have to drag it, it's dead and not gonna feel any more pain. 100% of people I have attended a rescue for who have called because they stopped and found a joey or young in a pouch or hiding nearby have not regretted their decision at all. Even if they were late for work, they saved a life and it was worth it.

Avoid using poisons - insecticides, pesticides, snail bait and straight up rat poison. Like mentioned in POISON VS VENOM, it just keeps killing. There are so many other options out there and they aren't hard to find. There's stuff on the internet but also at Bunnings I've found more environmentally sound options that use Tea Tree oils and Eucalyptus instead and work just as well.

Don't feed them! - Most Aussie animals are gluten and lactose intolerant. BREAD IS REALLY BAD! and if not eaten it gets mouldy and causes disease. Putting out bird seed is the number 1 problem when we talk 'feeding wildlife'. WHY?

The 'wild birdseed' that you buy in shops isn't actually for wild birds. JUST LOOK AT IT, you don't see those seeds growing out in the wild. The main seed wild birds eat are Bottle-brush, She-oaks, Banksias, Wattle and Eucalypts. None of those are found in these bags of seed.

Even for seed eaters that seed you buy is too fatty and unbalanced

For those that don't usually eat seed, like Lorikeets, eating the seed destroys the specialised bristles on their tongues that they need to eat their natural food - nectar and pollen.

If you don't keep it clean you will spread diseases, especially psittacosis (beak and feather) for which there is no cure just a slow, drawn out death. You can also catch it and end up in hospital.

You cause an imbalance. Animals breed based on food availability, if you make food available they will breed but there might not be enough space or trees available and you create more competition and also they end up relying on you and if you go on holiday or anything they can die without that food.

You can cause health issues in other animals. Possums love bird seed but it makes them fat, making it harder for them to escape predators.

You will be feeding non-natives. For example, the Common Myna bird cannot survive on wild plants, but if there is a food source around they can. Got rid of Common Mynas in my neighbourhood by convincing my neighbours to stop putting out bird seed.

RATS LOVE BIRD SEED. Specially feral rats. Mice also love bird seed.

You make a predator hot-spot. It won't take long for predators to realised animals they prey on visit your feeding station and they will come. The most common predator I find around bird seed? Snakes. Snakes love rats and mice, rats and mice love bird seed. You do the maths.

If you want to feed them just do some research and plant trees that are food for them.

How many species are endangered?

Sadly, it's almost quicker to list what's NOT endangered in Australia.

That's hard to say as there is different ways they can be endangered. In one area they may be common, but in another they could be disappearing. You can have Endangered lists at different levels; local, state, national and international.

But the most used list is the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species. AKA the IUNC Red List

Here's a bit of a breakdown: EXTINCT 26 mammals 7 birds 4 amphibians CRITICALLY ENDANGERED 7 mammals 8 birds 15 amphibians 13 reptiles ENDANGERED 18 mammals 29 birds 18 amphibians 21 Reptiles VULNERABLE 51 mammals 40 birds 23 amphibians 35 reptiles NEAR THREATENED 43 mammals 37 birds 9 amphibians 21 reptiles

Then there's the "data deficient" category where they really just don't have the info. 10 mammals 11 amphibians 42 reptiles

I will continue to update this post as I think of other things. Feel free to send me any questions you have

[farfromparker]

Erotas - Chapter Four | t.h.

Erotas Masterlist

Pairing: Tom Holland x Female Reader

Summary: It’s the day of the rehearsal dinner and Tom finally meets your whole family

Word Count: 3.9k

A/N: Originally, chapters 4 and 5 were going to be one long ass chapter, but I split them. 😈

Special thanks to @worldoftom  💞💞

Tom wakes up slowly, peacefully. The soft roar of the ocean pulling him from his slumber. Gulls call out sporadically and his eyelids flutter open. The morning sun basks the room in a warm glow. The bed is empty and he sits up, ignoring the relief he feels when he sees you sitting out on the terrace, fingers curled around a cuppa. He watches you watch the sea for a moment, you look calm, the soft curve of your lips as you smile softly is his first sign. Your eyes slide shut and you tilt your head up to enjoy the sun on your skin. 

He wants you to have this moment so he doesn’t say anything, doesn’t move from the bed, not wanting to interrupt. He glances behind himself to the clock on the nightstand, it’s almost 9am, meaning it’s not even 7am London time. 

He wonders how long you’ve been up. 

You set your cup on a side table, starting to get up and he gets tangled in the sheets as he tries to get out of the bed quickly. He can’t get caught staring at you, not after last night. The embarrassment stings just as much as it did when it happened. It wasn’t even anything sexual, it was a game for fuck’s sake. You joked if off, and he did his best to not let it become a Thing™️ but he can’t help but fret over what you thought when it happened… what you think of him now because of it. 

“Morning, Tom,” you chime, smiling as you step into the room. 

He clears his throat, strangling the embarrassment sitting in his chest. “Morning, darling. How long have you been up?”

You hum. “I think I got up just before eight.”

He wants to ask if you’ve been up since before 6am London time because your family is flying in today, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t need to. 

He nods instead. “What do you want to do today then? We’ve got the whole day to ourselves, right?”

Your eyes light up as come to set on the corner of the bed, he follows suit. “Yeah! I was looking up some things earlier. We can go scuba diving! There were a few other things, but they’d take up too much of our day considering dinner tonight. Or, the hotel has an infinity pool with a swim up bar if we just want to drink. There’s a cute shopping district too just a couple minutes walk from here.” 

“What would take up too much time? We’ve got all day tomorrow too, right?

Realization dawns across your face, “Oh yeah! Um, horseback riding or parasailing need a good chunk of our time, they’re both a little ways away from the city. The parasailing place is actually on the other side of the island.”

He nods. “Okay, so we could do one tomorrow and the other on Saturday? What’s your plan for that day?”

“Well, hopefully be properly hungover.” 

His eyes crinkle. “Right, yes, you’re right. So I won’t lie, I don’t think I want to parasail or ride horse if I’m hungover.”

You shake your head in agreement. “No, definitely not. I think Saturday we can just say goodbye to my family? Walk to the beach and swim, lay around…”

“Yeah, that sounds good to me. So which one do you want to do tomorrow?”

“I was thinking, if we go scuba diving today, we can go horseback riding tomorrow?”

“I’m game for all that!” And as he watches you smile, looking genuinely happy and excited, he starts thinking of ways he can keep that look on your face for the rest of your life. 

Your American Champagne Breakfast arrives after a quick call down to the front desk and both your mouths start watering as the attendant brings in the cart. Food is piled high, waffles with three types of syrup, bacon, sausage, an assortment of colorful fruit along with a fresh blend of juices from apricots, peaches and nectarines. There’s another bottle of champagne as well, but you both agree to keep that for later, best not to drink and dive. 

You leave the room just before 10:30 and head down to the beach, tummies full, swimwear on underneath a small layer of clothing to keep your modesty. You had called ahead to make the reservation and they had a slot available for their 11am shore dive. 

There’s a trail from your hotel that leads down to the sand beach below. Tom watches you take your shoes off as soon as you get off the gravel path, digging your toes in the sand. He copies you, tossing his shoes in the backpack he’s got slung over shoulder, putting yours in there as well. 

“It’s been a long time since I’ve gone diving,” you share, turning to him as you amble along in the sand. 

“Me too, my brothers and I went when we were in Italy two years ago for a family vacation, but I haven’t gone since.” 

He watches you squint your eyes, thinking. “It’s about the same about time for me too. We were in Spain for —” You gesture vaguely with your hands. “Something like this.” You shrug. Tom can’t decide if you don’t actually remember, or if you’d just rather not talk about it. Regardless, he doesn’t push.

“I’ve got a feeling this dive is gonna be a good one,” he continues. Glancing up ahead, he can see the shack on the beach, with a diving sign hanging above the door that’s a bright red and white, so there’s no way to miss it. 

“The company is definitely better…” you pause, eyes a little wide as though you didn’t mean to say that outloud. But you don’t backtrack. “At least for me.” 

He touches your hand with his and says quietly. “Yeah, me too.” 

An older gentleman greets you outside. You’re a good 15 meters from the entrance when he appears, but he’s smiling and waving at you nonetheless. He’s got short white hair and a very bushy white mustache to match. 

“Geiá sou, Kaliméra! Good morning!” he declares. 

“Good morning,” you call back in unison. 

He shakes your hands when you get to him, smile wide across his face, “You are my only divers this morning! But it is a beautiful day for a beautiful couple to enjoy the beauty of the Aegaen!” 

Tom wonders how many times he’s said that line to however many different people, but that doesn’t stop himself from smiling because of it. The man, who introduces himself as Tavi, ushers you inside to get you checked in. He’s got all the equipment you need, regulators, fins, masks, BCDs, the list goes on. 

His eyes light up when you both say this isn’t your first dive. “Experienced! Polý kalá!” 

There are lockers along one wall with combination locks. Tavi advises you to strip down to your swimsuits and he opens a locker for you, letting you shove your belongings in your bag and secure it inside. He helps you into your equipment, checking gauges and getting your air tanks hooked up properly. 

“I have an underwater camera as well. I can take pictures of you two while we’re down there.” 

Tom smiles. “Great, thanks mate!”

“You two should remember this! Now, it will be an odd walk to the water,” he chuckles, belly jiggling softly as he laughs. “Do not put your fins on until we get down there. You might fall and not be able to get back up.” 

As Tom stands, BCD strapped across his chest, tank fully hooked up, he’s reminded of how heavy and awkward this equipment is out of the water. He’s sure he’d be able to get back up if he fell, but he’d rather not test that theory. 

You mumble as you stand, hunched over. “Fuck me, I forgot how heavy this stuff is.” 

Tavi laughs, grabbing fins for himself, watching as you two do the same. You get down to the water's edge with minimal struggling. The water is warm, Tom had been slightly apprehensive when Tavi shook his head at the idea of wetsuits, but he was right, this feels like bath water. 

You float out a little, just enough that you can get your fins on. Tavi does one last check of your gauges, has you breathe through your regulators. When he’s satisfied, he goes over the hand gestures so you can communicate safely underwater. 

Regulators secured, masks snug against your face, you slowly descend. 

*

An hour and a half later, you break the water’s surface. Tom peels his mask off, imagining a red pressure ring around his eyes, matching yours. You lock eyes with him and smirk. 

“Tavi?” you ask, looking over to the older men. 

He raises his eyebrows, indicating for you to continue. You swim over to Tom, reaching for him to wrap your arm around his waist as best you can and hold him close. Tom instinctively does the same to you. 

“Take a picture, we have to remember our matching raccoon marks.” 

Tom smiles wide, eyes crinkling as Tavi laughs, reaching for the camera secured around his wrist. He snaps the picture, smiling as you all start your climb back up to his diving shack. 

“I can’t believe you thought that barracuda was a shark!” you say, laughing. 

Tom pouts slightly, pulling the backpack up further on his shoulder as the two of you walk back to your room. “Did you see the teeth on that thing? I didn’t want anything to do with it!” 

You laugh harder, mimicking the movement he’d made under water, something akin to his signature fight reaction when he’s scared. “What?” You giggle some more. “Were you gonna knock it out?”

“That’s what you do! If a shark is coming after you, you punch it!” 

“But it wasn’t a shark! And it wasn’t even coming after you. I hate to break it to you, Tom, but you’re a little bigger than the fish they normally eat.” 

“They’ve bitten people, okay? I was just prepared. You wouldn’t be laughing if it tried to bite me and I punched it. You’d be telling me how smart I was!”

“No, I’d be laughing at the fact that you punched a fish.”

You get back to the room and order a light lunch. It’s already almost 2pm, but you’ll both be weak by dinner if you don’t eat something now. Tom starts to worry about what to wear; your whole family will be there tonight and he wants to look the part. Another piece of him deeply wants their approval as well. 

He lies to you when you ask how many outfits he brought with for this, saying it was only three when in fact, every nice shirt he owns is in this suitcase. He sees you pull a black and white dress out of your bag, hanging it up near the door and looks back into his suitcase. 

You step up behind him, chin on his shoulder. “I like the red one.” 

He turns to look at you, smiling.  “Red it is.” 

You let him shower first and he’s in and out in under five minutes. It’s just past 4pm now and he hears your music start playing through the speaker on your phone as you shut the bathroom door. He hums along while he gets dressed, buttoning up the floral red shirt. He wants your opinion on his pants, though. He’s got some really nice dark denim jeans, but there’s also a white pair of pants. So he heads out onto the terrace in his boxer briefs, shirt not buttoned all the way, leaning against the balcony and watching the water. 

You step up beside him, “Pantless? My family won’t ever forget you.” 

He laughs and he can feel his cheeks heating up a little bit. “I uh — I wanted your opinion on which pants I should wear.”

And you follow him back into the room, watching as he digs out the two options. He turns to you, one in each hand, and his breath catches in his throat for a moment. He didn’t look at you out on the terrace, but here, now. You’ve got your dress on, the top is fitted, extenuating your chest but draping elegantly around your hips. Your hair is still wet and you’ve got no makeup on. Eyes bright and open and happy.

Absolutely stunning.

“White, definitely,” you confirm and for a moment he forgets what you’re talking about. 

He swallows. “Right, white. Sure, thanks.” 

He gets ready quickly, pulling on his pants before fussing with his hair in the mirror over the dresser. You’re back in the bathroom, also fussing with your hair, doing your makeup. You step out about fifteen minutes later. 

“Tom? Will you help me with this clasp for my necklace?”

He nods. “Course, yeah,” and he takes it from you as you turn your back to him. He reaches his arms up and around your neck to let the necklace lay delicately along your sternum. His fingers brush along your skin and he can see the tiny hairs on the back of your neck standing on end. He fights a smile, liking to see even the smallest reaction of your body to him. 

“Thanks,” you say as his hands fall away, turning back to smile at him. You take a deep breath. “I think we’re ready.”

He nods confidently. “We are, and you look stunning. I mean — I thought you did before, too, when you didn’t have makeup on. Like, you don’t need makeup — uh, not that it's wrong to want to wear it but —”

You laugh, reaching out to grab his forearms to keep them from continuing to flail around his face. “Tom, I get it. Thank you, really. Now, let’s get down there and head straight to the bar.”

The sun is low in the sky as you walk down to the beach and Tom can’t stop himself from stealing glances at you. 

There’s a huge tent set up, sparkling fairy lights hanging beautifully from the ceiling, a portable floor is laid down, tables and chairs placed strategically around a dance floor. There’s a table towards the back where a number of chefs are lining up food for the night. 

“Wow,” Tom mumbles. 

“Ava’s dad is a doctor.” 

Tom hums in understanding, following you into the tent. There are two bar carts in opposite corners of each other. There’s a short man grabbing a glass of whiskey and Tom watches as he sees you, eyes lighting up. He grabs his drink and hurries over to you. 

“Heya, stranger!” he says happily, pulling you into a hug. 

“Vinny! It’s so good to see you again!” And Tom breathes out a sigh of relief. 

Vinny releases you and turns to him. “And you must be Tom, nice to meet ya mate!” 

“Hey Vinny, yeah, nice to meet you too!” And he shakes his hand and then the introductions start. It seems like that simple handshake was enough to alert the whole tent that the two of you had arrived and suddenly they start swarming around you. 

Tom will be honest, he definitely thought you were making your family out to be worse than they actually are. At least he did until he met them. 

First, your Nana Ruth slides in the comment Oh, I thought he’d be taller. And Tom hasn’t been insecure about his height since he was 17, but the comment still causes him to raise his eyebrows in surprise. 

You aren’t perturbed, though. “He’s taller than me, Nana, that’s all I care about.” 

Then he meets your aunt Brigitte. She kisses both your cheeks and he can see the tightness in your face when you try and smile at her. She kisses his cheeks as well and Tom’s skin crawls when she gets a little handsy. 

“Oh he’s very pretty, dear. How did he wind up with you?” she says, laughing. 

Tom wants to slap the lipstick right off of this woman’s face. 

“Lucky, I guess,” you comment, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the bar. 

“I’m gonna smack that woman into next Tuesday if she says something like that about you again.” He growls into your ear, hands curling into fists at his side. 

You look at him and it’s a look that catches him off guard. He’d expected you to be mad, annoyed, or upset in some way. But you’re looking at him with so much affection he feels a little light-headed. His hands automatically relax as your fingers slide down his forearm so you can link your fingers with his. 

“I would pay good money to see you hit her.”

Louis corners Tom as you’re all about to have dinner, asking what he thinks of the Prime Minister and Tom side steps into how well Liverpool is playing. You smile at him and let Louis go into it for a moment before interrupting him about the dinner starting soon. Louis promises to find Tom later so he can tell him about how Bayern has definitely been playing dirty all season. 

Ava and Alex hug you both and Tom relaxes around the two of them. He knows them, he likes them. They sit and Ava is adamant that you sit next to her and you gladly do, Tom taking the obvious spot next to you. A moment later, he recognizes your parents at the opposite end of the table. Your dad raises his drink at Tom and Tom returns the gesture. 

One thing you left out when talking about your family was how big it was. There’s a sea of unknown faces around him, asking questions and leaning over the table to get a look at him. He feels like a stud being inspected at auction. 

Your hand falls softly onto his lap and he breathes easier as he wraps his fingers around yours. Dinner is served, but Tom has trouble finding time to eat because the questions don’t stop. 

How did you two meet?

What do you do for a living?

Where did you grow up?

How long have you two been together?

And Tom doesn’t mind answering them all because he likes talking about your relation—  friendship. Your friendship. 

Brigitte opens her mouth again and Tom tenses before any words even leave her lips. 

“I am surprised that the two of you are an item. She’s just kind of plain. Never really seemed all that into the boys either.”

Her twit of a husband agrees. “Yeah, we always thought she was one of those asexuals.” And he says it like he’s talking about a unicorn. Like it’s something that doesn’t actually exist. 

And Tom can’t believe what he’s hearing. The fact that people this idiotic are still spewing ignorant, condescending hate makes him want to yell. But he’s smart enough to know you can’t argue with stupid. 

Then he remembers a comment you made the night before, you’re gonna have to make a dirty joke to shut them up.

He turns to you, eyes locking with yours, because he doesn’t need to say this to them. He needs to say this to you. Because you’re the only person that needs to hear this. 

“I guess she was just waiting for something that was worth it?” he starts. “Whatever it is, she’s amazing, the most genuine person I’ve ever met. She makes me so damn happy. And I might have helped trigger something in her, something that let her bring her guard down and let me inside.”

He’s looking at you as he speaks, and it feels so real. He can see the emotions swimming in your eyes, his hand in yours. He can feel the eyes of your family on the two of you but he can’t stop looking at you, and you’re staring back, smiling at him.

His voice gets louder now though because this is the part they need to hear. “And she did let me inside, she does let me inside…” His eyebrows raise for a moment, to help accentuate the dirty joke. “Pretty frequently actually.”

And you smile wider, laughing as you hear the uncomfortable noises from Brigitte and Joe, the gasp from Nana, the murmur around the table of what did he just say? You lean in, and so he does as well, pressing his lips to yours, but it’s hard to keep the kiss going because neither of you can stop smiling. 

“Fuck, I can’t wait to get you back to the hotel room.” And he’s not sure he heard you correctly. The question has to be written across his face, but he can’t ask it, not now. So he keeps smiling, keeps squeezing your hand. 

The comments cease after that. And he can feel your relief, like you’re a thousand pounds lighter. Apparently a dirty joke is all it takes. 

Dinner ends and you’re coerced into staying for one more drink. He enjoys himself nonetheless. Mostly because you’re on his arm throughout the night, your demeanor light and happy. 

You excuse yourself to the bathroom after the first drink and Tom finds Vinny and your father, two people he actually enjoys talking to. The conversation revolves around the wedding and your dive that morning. He leaves out the fact he almost punched a barracuda, of course. He’d gotten enough grief from you alone. 

He’s got a new drink in his hand when you find him again later and he smiles a little sheepishly. Licking his lips, he says, “Your dad brought me another drink. I didn’t know if you wanted to stay longer, so we can split this or I can just give it to Vinny and we can go.” 

You’re smiling up at him like he just over offered you the crown jewels. He’s not entirely sure what it is that he’s done to keep you smiling at him like that, but he’s certain he isn’t going to stop. You lean in to kiss his cheek, but he feels you hesitate, pulling away slowly.

He turns to you, watching you tilt your head, bringing your hand up to cup his jaw softly and trail your thumb along across his cheek. 

“What is it?” he asks. 

“Oh. Nothing, just smeared my lipstick on your cheek,” you explain, wiping it away. “Let’s go back to the room.”

He agrees easily, passing the beer off to Vinny on his way out the door. You go through the motions of saying good night to everyone, hugs and kisses and jokes. And then you pull him along quickly to get back to the room. He’s laughing lightly as he lets you drag him along. 

“What’s the rush?” he asks when you reach your room. You unlock the door and step inside, tossing your purse onto one of the chaise lounges.

“Did you mean that, what you said at dinner? I mean, would you still have said that if we weren’t here faking a relationship?”

He blinks, caught off guard, he presses his lips together as he locks the door behind him. He turns back to you. “Yeah,” he pauses, rubbing his lips together, “Yeah, I meant it.”

You nod. “Yeah, I thought you did.” Then you reach for him, taking his hand and pulling him into the room. “I think it’s time I thank you, Tom.” 

_____________________________________________

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[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 154

154

Fussing over Lance, Lance sighed for the hundredth time at his boyfriend. He loved Keith. Treasured Keith. Adored Keith. Cherished him with everything he had, but surely their had to be some kind of limit to the amount on guy could fuss over another, especially seeing he’d been fussing over him since early morning. Keith had wanted to cancel their date on account of Lance’s morning sickness. Lance wasn’t having it. He was having his date with Keith and nothing was stopping him. Not nausea. Not lack of sleep. And not Keith fussing over him when he was totally fine-ish.

Keith was taking their date seriously. Lance was seriously kicking himself over the previous day, despite the fact that Keith finally working it out made him stupidly happy. Plus, Keith had enjoyed the evening, even if he had no idea what was happening at the time. His boyfriend had taken this date seriously enough that he’d spent a hefty chunk of time on his phone working out where they were going. Knowing Keith would consider his feelings, he really hoped that Keith had seen how much he wanted to do something with him that his boyfriend enjoyed. Things were better that way. That way they’d both be excited and have more to talk about than just Lance blabbing on and on about his own interests.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve got your hands on your stomach”

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes at Keith, Lance wondered where else his hands would be. The twins were moving, like they were as excited as Lance was for this date

“Keith, it’s kind of the most convenient place for them”

“You’re not in pain?”

Lance gave in to the urge to roll his eyes as he replied

“I’m fine. Like the other hundred and one times you asked. I’m fine and I’m excited, but no pain”

Other than the discomfort of having to pee, and the general achiness of his hips. He’d been anxious about the date, being pregnant and all that, but now he was in disguise... Kind of. He had his jumper on that no longer really hid his bump, but the cap on his head his hair, and the thick sunglasses took up most of his face. Coran has given them the okay to go out, as long as they were careful and Lance took things easy. Around his neck was a blue scarf, that Keith had stunk up for him, so he was as ready as he was ever going to be when it came to slipping back into the general human population.

Huffing, Keith drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, waiting for the lights to turn green. Lance clueless and loving that he was

“I’m sorry... I know you’re excited”

“I am. And you’re anxious that I’m not going to like the surprise...”

“A bit”

“Babe. It’s not going to be like super different than normal. It’s you and me, seeing something together. It’s about making memories and not stressing”

“I know. I still... want things to go well”

He would have kissed Keith if Keith wasn’t so focused on not killing them

“They will. Just concentrate on not getting us lost”

Keith shot him a scowl, deadpan with his reply

“You’re hilarious”

Another 5 minutes passed before they were pulling into the parking lot and Lance was lighting up. Being landlocked Platt didn’t have a whole lot of water around it. There was an artificial dam of sorts, where people could swim, boat and fish, and for some reason there was also this place. Platt Aquarium and Animals. Their sign boasted about the conservation work they did in the area. It’d been a long time since Lance went there. Probably sometimes around his first year back at college when he’d only just made friends with Pidge and Hunk. He’d brought Mami along, so she could meet them again, and it was one of those places he’d meant to take Keith on a date to before all the craziness had happened.

Cutting the engine, Keith seemed tense. Lance reaching out to place his hand on his boyfriend’s thigh

“This is it, right?”

“I mean... uh... if it’s not too lame”

Probably a little lame, but by Lance’s standards it was a whole lot of unlame

“It’s not lame. Did you know this place has sharks?”

“It said on the website”

“That’s the whole reason isn’t it? You want to see sharks and tell them their traitors for not having two dicks, don’t you?”

Keith’s cheeks reddened. Lance chuckling. His boyfriend was so cute when he blushed

“It’s fine. As long as you don’t get the compulsion to try punch one”

“I’m not going to punch a shark. Not unless it tries to make you lunch”

Lance raised an eyebrow, knowing full well what Keith meant

“I could support a shark making me a sandwich”

Keith groaned. His boyfriend too stressed to be able to take a joke

“Not like that. Why... How would that even work?”

The mental images shouldn’t have been as funny as they were, he couldn’t help the small giggle at the thought

“Carefully. Seriously, if you keep stressing in going to start stressing”

“But is it enough? I wanted to...”

“Babe, you’re overthinking. This is one of the places I wanted to bring you. I think the names changed, but this place is super cool. I thought you’d love taking photos of the fish”

“So... this is better than a shooting range, right?”

“Much. Let’s go already. I want to see all the fish and the animals. I think they even have bats here. You’re not going to get me confused with another bat, are you?”

“As long as you stay human”

“Well I can’t seem to turn into a bat carting around our twins, so I think we’re pretty safe in that department”

“You’ll let me know if you need a break or anything?”

“Yes, dad. Now can we go in?”

Keith paid for their tickets, Lance already losing concentration when it came to the tanks filled tiny neon fish in the reception area. Keith’s eyes had lit up the moment they’d stepped through the doors, Lance smiling at his boyfriend’s excitement that Keith was trying not to let break his cool calm “adult” demeanour. Keith had probably never got to go to an aquarium as a kid. Shiro had to have taken him, or maybe Shiro and Adam had made a family day of it. Lance hoped so. He hoped Keith wasn’t overthinking him having been there before. Having older siblings meant doing this kind of thing when Mami and Papi could afford it. When he’d been a kid there’d been this face painter at an aquarium they’d been to. Lance had his face painted with as many different fish as he could, then refused to take a shower that night because he didn’t want them to come off. Instead most of them scratched off against his pillow and he’d been devastated the following morning.

Sliding their tickets into his wallet, Keith took him by the hand as Lance moved away from the family wanting to get to the ticket counter. His boyfriend putting his wallet in his back pocket, staring at his feet as he did

“You probably know this place better than I do”

Stupid nerves. Lance wanted to kiss away all Keith’s anxieties. Sure, internally he was paranoid and just as fearful of something going wrong, but if he kept to that chain of thought then neither of them would have any fun

“If that’s your way out of us seeing everything, I’ve got news for you”

“I mean... where do we go?”

There were maps, and three different ways to the exit. Keith would know this if he wasn’t so anxious. His boyfriend had no right being so adorable

“You follow the yellow arrows on the floor until you’re past the biggest tank. That’s the one with the sharks in it”

“And is there anything I shouldn’t do?”

Other than punching sharks? And following common sense? Nope. There was only one “rule” that Lance could think of which would ease both their anxieties

“Yep. But the absolute worst thing you can do here is let go of my hand. I want to see everything here with you”

Keith ducked his head as he squeezed Lance’s hand, embarrassed as he mumbled

“I didn’t mean that”

“I know. Still, I want to hold your hand”

“You already are, dumbarse”

“Yep. I’m not letting go either. You’ll wander off and get lost if I do”

“If anything, you’re the one more likely to wander off”

“Why would I? I mean, like, the best part of the date is you, so why would I leave your side?”

Keith groaned at him, Lance bumping him with his hip

“Come on, mullet. Let’s go see some fishes... I wonder if they actually have mullets here... a photo of a mullet in front of a mullet...”

Keith stepped on his toes lightly, Lance shaking his head as he grinned. This was going to be the most awesome date ever. He was going to make sure of it.

*

Lance was a vampire in too deep. He couldn’t help himself and now he was lost as Keith tried to make conversation over the “colony of Nemo’s” in the tank they’d stopped to coo over. He couldn’t help but be distracted, and what was worse was that Keith had noticed his distraction. His boyfriend trying to make more of an effort, though he absolutely didn’t need to. Excusing himself to the bathroom. Lance went through the usual routine, before standing in front of the mirror. He didn’t look like he was having a good time. He didn’t look terribly healthy either. There was a major problem he was having and it was ruining his whole date.

Keith was too cute.

Trying to fix his appearance up in the bathroom, he came out to find his boyfriend sitting on the bench looking dejected. With his elbows on his thighs and his figure hunched forward as he held his head in his hands, Lance felt like a douche. He wasn’t trying not to have a good time. He just kept looking at Keith and getting caught up in the expression on his face. The wonder. The innocence. The way he scrunched his nose and put on a posh accent as he tried to pronounce species names. This date was so perfect that his stupid heart was dying from a Keith overload. They weren’t clumsy teens fawning over each other, they were supposed to be mature adults... but that went out the window each time Keith would smile and Lance would find his own smile growing wider. Keith was stressing out and his boyfriend had no clue. Despite how embarrassing it was going to be, he was going to have to tell him so Keith knew the date was anything but awful.

Sitting down beside his boyfriend, Keith sighed heavily

“I fucked this up again, didn’t I?”

Lance’s heart damn near broke

“No. No... it’s not that”

“I thought you’d be happy...”

“I am”

“So why are you... so sad?”

Resting his head against Keith’s shoulder, Lance let out a shaky breath, trying not to cry over Keith feeling so bad

“It’s...”

“It’s me, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. But not the way you think”

Lance cringed at his own words. Zero reassurance right there. Flinching a little as Keith sat up and he was forced to move back

“I wanted this to go well”

“I... okay. This is kind of embarrassing, but I can’t take my eyes off of you”

Drawing his brow, Keith seemed ready to start yelling or internally implode trying to ask what the heck that meant without having quite the right words or brainpower to figure them out. Right. He could do this. He’d comforted Keith a hundred times before... though if that was true than his boyfriend probably should have more rights when it when it came to fussing

“I mean... You just look so happy and so cute that I keep getting distracted by you. And then I realise I’ve kind of mostly missed everything because I can’t take my eyes off you. I’m not not having a good time. I’m just being... weird... because... you’re really cute”

“What the fuck?”

Finally it was Lance’s chance to groan. What part of what he’d said wasn’t making sense

“You. Look. Cute”

“You’re watching me instead of the fish?”

“I’m watching you watching the fish...”

“I start looking at the fish then I see you and my heart goes weird. I’m having a small panic about what to do though. I like being able to talk to you about your interests, and mine, in this case. But I can’t seem to keep my eyes off you”

Keith opened and closed his mouth, before dramatically sighing and ruffling up his hair

“What am I supposed to say about that?!”

“I don’t know”

“You sound like you love me, or something?”

As if that could be doubted. He wouldn’t be having so much trouble paying attention if he didn’t

“I do. Very much. Have you taken many photos?”

“Yeah... I mean... a few”

Lance had the feeling Keith was trying to cover up that most of those photos were of him from the tightness in his boyfriend’s tone

“We should take some more. I don’t want to forget this day”

Keith dropped his head down to kiss Lance on the shoulder

“Where I made your brain go all stupid?”

“Mhmm. If you think I’m stupid now, you should see me later”

Keith cocked his head

“What do you mean?”

“You see, I have this boyfriend. He’s kind of fucking amazing... and he turns me into this massive mess when we’re in bed together. Can’t think at all about anything important other than him. Zero brain cells remaining”

Keith snorted at him, Lance managing to sound to proud and serious at the same time, ruining it by laughing at the end. Keith deserved to feel good about himself. He was wonderful and everything Lance could want. Other people had stared at Keith as they’d made their way through the complex, but Keith was oblivious to their looks

“Are you sure you had brain cells to begin with?”

“My sources say no. I’m sorry I made you worry. I know you want everything to go well, and it is. I love you”

“I love you, too. Though I do think the fish are much more interesting than I am”

“That’s because you don’t see what I see. Just like elbow me if you catch me staring or phasing out”

Lance tilted his head, leaning down to nuzzle into Keith, Keith wrapping his arms around him as he nuzzled back

“Nah. Having you watching me... it’s nice to know you can’t take your eyes off me”

None of the fish compared to Keith. Not the tiny Neon Tetras, or the rainbow of colours of the fake coral reef that the Gropers swam over. The Black Cardinals reminded him of Shiro and the clownfish of watching Finding Nemo for the first time. He didn’t know what fish suited Keith the best, but he’d buy a whole damn aquarium if he got to see Keith so excited every day of his life. Actually, he wouldn’t. His boyfriend would be sad each time a fish passed and they were both pretty clueless over how much went into running a place like that. What Lance really wished was that he could bottle the happiness he felt when he watched Keith’s eyes tracking the fish in the tanks. The way his eyes would widen, or he’d squint to find the fish in the tank, then widen when he’d found his target. They should have picked up Keith’s proper camera. Next time they’d have to come with the twins and the rest of their family. But that’d be okay because he’d gotten to see all these expressions on Keith’s face that made him fall in love all over again.

[ask-dan]

Please do post it.

((Fffffffffffffffiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine

It’s def nsft, so read at your own risk.  Also it takes place right after they kiss for the first time, picking up where the post on ask-edd left off))

“I love you too.”

Dan eagerly pressed his lips to Tom's, mostly in an effort to get him to shut up, but also because he's been wanting to do it for years.  Tom, although surprised at first, melts into the kiss.  He closes his eyes and moves his hands from Dan's shoulders to his face, cupping it gently and holding him in place just a little longer before pulling away to breathe.

They stand there in the darkened room, just barely illuminated by the glow from Tom's laptop, staring lovingly at each other.  With their graduation from friends to lovers, they've opened so many doors.  What will they do first?  Will they tell their roommates the good news, or will they stay here for just a little longer?  Tom moves towards his bedroom door, prompting Dan to think it's the former.  But upon Tom shutting and locking the door, he realizes they may be in here for a while.  

Tom turns back to Dan, giving off a much different aura.  Dan can sense a fire in his heart, one sparked by passion and desire.  A desire Dan could’ve only dreamed of seeing before tonight.  Yet, here it is.  Tom approaches him and engages another kiss as he slowly edges him back towards his bed.  Just a few steps back and Dan hits the mattress, falling backwards on it.  He lands with a soft “oof-” as Tom pulls his hoodie off.  Dan reaches down to do the same, but Tom stops him.

“No, let me do it.”  He whispers.  Dan slowly moves his hands away as Tom finds his way under his hoodie and begins to lift it up and off of him.  He does the same to his shirt and pauses to take in the view before him.  The love of his life laying below him, hot, bothered, panting just slightly, and completely at his mercy.  He runs his hands down Dan’s chest, stopping to thumb at his nipple before tracing his top surgery scars.  He finds it kinda funny that he’s known Dan for so long, he almost forgot who he used to be.  

Dan looks up at him, silently hoping the scars aren’t affecting anything.  Tom can tell Dan’s worried though, so to dissuade those thoughts, he bends down and kisses him again.  He slowly begins to trail kisses from his mouth to his jaw to his neck.  He shifts just slightly to grant him shark teeth and uses them to very gently nibble on his neck.  Dan is caught off guard by the sharp pain in his neck, but his immediate reaction is to man and mewl and shift his legs.  Tom can tell Dan’s ready to go, so the foreplay can wait.  

Tom shifts back and stands upright again, focusing his attention on Dan’s jeans.  He goes to pull at them, but Dan stops him.

“Tom, you know I-”

“I know.  It’s okay.”

Though he may be a male, Dan’s missing a piece of his puzzle.  But Tom doesn’t care, he loves Dan as he is now.  Content with his answer, Dan allows him to continue.  He pulls Dan’s pants off with relative ease considering they’re already a size too big.  He follows suit with Dan’s underwear until he’s lying naked on Tom’s bed.  He instinctively closes his legs, but Tom gently parts them.

“No, let me see all of you.”  

Dan shudders at his word choice but relaxes and lets Tom continue.  Though, he can’t help but notice how one-sided this is.  He reaches up to Tom’s shirt and pulls at it to signal he wants it gone.  Tom gets the memo and pulls it off, dropping it to the floor.  He wastes no time getting to his pants and boxers, pulling them off too, leaving Dan  in awe of the sight before him.  He's not quite sure if it's going to fit.  But Tom's gonna make it fit.  He reaches over to the bottom drawer of his desk and retrieves a small, half used bottle of lube and a condom.  He takes a moment to tear the condom wrapper off with his teeth and roll it over his dick before squeezing some lube into his hand and applying it to his shaft.  Once prepared, he re-centers himself between Dan’s legs.  Dan’s heart is beating out of his chest at this point as he eagerly awaits Tom to make the first move.

“Hey, just..  Let me know if I need to stop, okay?”

“Okay..”  

After taking a deep breath, Tom lines himself up at Dan’s entrance and begins to push himself in.  Dan tenses up, his hands gripping Tom’s duvet for dear life.  

“Ah, fuck-!”  Dan cries out a bit louder than intended.  Tom’s hand immediately presses to Dan’s mouth as he shushes him.  He turns his head to look at the door just in time to see a shadow move under it.

“Yo Tom, you alright in there?”  Edd calls out through the door.

“Yeah, I’m good, I just uh.. Stubbed my toe.”  Tom answers, a bit unconvincingly.

“Oh rip.  Need some ibuprofen?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Alright.  Hey, Matt and I are about to load up Smash, you wanna play?”

“Nah, I’m good for now.  Maybe later.”

“Alrighty then.” 

Tom waits for another second or two after Edd’s shadow leaves to turn to Dan.

“You gotta be quiet.” He whispers gently as he removes his hand from Dan’s face

“Sorry.”

With that out of the way, they resume.  Tom slowly but surely pushes his way into Dan, almost able to fit all the way inside of him.  He stops to let Dan’s body get adjusted to his size and also to wipe away the small tears that formed in his eyes.  Though it hurt, her was trying to make the best of it.  As they’re stopped, Tom takes another moment to let this moment sink in.  He was Dan’s first kiss, and now he gets to be Dan’s first real partner.  He studies his love’s form under him, observing his beet red face, how his chest rises and falls with his breathing, the small pink marks left on his neck from where he was bitten earlier.  He stares at him so intently, yet sweetly.  Almost as if he fears he’ll never see Dan like this again.

After about a minute or two of silence, Dan speaks up.

“Okay, I think I’m ready.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

With Dan’s permission, Tom pulls out a bit before pushing back in.  He moves in slow, short strokes at first, which seems to be working.  Dan’s hand is over his mouth, preventing anything louder than a whimper or a mewl from escaping his throat, his other hand still has a death grip on Tom’s blanket, his eyes are shut so tightly they’re practically clipping into each other.  He eventually signals for Tom to pick up the pace, which he does.  His slow, short strokes become longer and just a bit faster.  He watches as Dan shifts underneath him, his body beginning to tighten and heat up.  Tom knows Dan’s not going to last much longer, so he kicks it up another notch, picking up the pace and pounding into him.  Dan’s hand that was gripping the bedding quickly moves to reinforce the one over his mouth as sounds try to escape it.  Dan suddenly sees stars as his moans and cries that accompany his first body-wracking orgasm are just barely heard through his throat.  They die down quickly after it’s over.  Tom slows down but doesn’t stop, letting him down from his high gently.  

“You okay?”

The best Dan can manage is a weak thumbs up.  Tom comes to a full stop so Dan can release the tension in his body and relax for a minute.  Once he’s ready to keep going, Tom picks the pace back up, slowly rising to full speed again.  Dan’s inner workings are still sensitive after the first orgasm, so it’s not long before it happens again.  But this time Tom doesn’t stop.  He keeps fucking Dan through three more peaks before he finally reaches his own end.  With a soft grunt and a few more thrusts, his seed spills into his condom.  He stands motionless for a moment before pulling out of Dan who whines in response to the empty feeling.  He pulls the condom off and ties it closed before dropping it into the trash can next to his desk.  He ties the bag too to remind himself to take it out.  

He returns his attention to Dan who’s lying motionless apart from his heavy panting.  After some readjustment, Tom manages to pick Dan up and lay him right side up on his bed, leaving the blanket open.  He doesn’t get in yet though, instead he heads over to the door and unlocks it, cracking it open a bit.

“Hey Edd, I’m just gonna go to bed, don’t wait up for me!”  He calls out down the hallway to the living room

“Okay, goodnight!” Edd calls back.

Tom shuts his door again before heading back to his bed and climbing in with Dan.  He pulls the covers over them both and spoons his bed mate, pressing his chest to Dan’s back and wrapping an arm over him.  He’s already about half asleep, but he manages to let out a very small “I love you”.

“I love you too, Dan.”  Tom gives him a kiss on the neck before closing his eyes and drifting off to dreamland.

[peachywise]

nullify part 4

an umbrella academy fanfiction // klaus hargreeves x reader

- part iv: the revealing file || part i ⋆ part ii ⋆ part iii ⋆ part v ⋆ part vi ⋆ more parts to be released

- synopsis: You had wanted to forget about the fire. Forget all of it. But then you were presented with a file on your life, given to you by a kid who knows all too well its contents. Looks like you were intertwined in something much bigger than you had ever expected all along, and you're only going to get intertwined even more. 

- notes: so sorry this update took a while! i'm in my last few weeks of my university semester, and i'm busy with final essays. i'll try and get the next update out sometime next week but it could take a bit longer. however, I'll be back to a better and faster posting schedule in april. anyways this chapter is pretty five interaction heavy instead of Klaus, but i had to cut this one in half as it was getting too long, so they'll be more in the next part!! heavy trigger warning for mentions of abuse and fire. 

link on a03 

___________________________

“That was a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

Letting out a loud scream at Five’s sudden appearance in front of you, surrounded in that ethereal blue haze, you decided he was the one being a dramatic little shit head. Even more so when he quickly went up on his toes and slapped his hand over your mouth to smother your voice before you could keep screaming and swear at him. You quickly jerked away, still reeling from the comment about the fire he had made only seconds before inside the apartment.

“Back the hell off or I’ll punt you down the hallway,” you threatened, flattening yourself against the wall beside the door, heart erratically pounding as you tried to calm your anxiety and the aggression fighting its way up.

“Calm down and just hear what I have to say.”

Calm down? Oh, he did not just fucking tell you to calm down.

“Hey hey hey, where are you going?” Klaus suddenly burst out from the now open apartment door, eyes flashing one side to the next until they landed on you. His taller figure stepped in front of you and he reached a hand out, placing it in a soothing gesture on your arm. His face was downturned in what looked like genuine concern. It was actually kind of nice of him, up until he said soothingly, “take a breather and calm down for a sec, yeah?”

You had to resist the unbelievable urge to stomp on his foot and then kick him in the nuts.

Closing your eyes and inhaling a deep breath through your nose, you whispered in reply so quietly through gritted teeth, “back away before I rip Five’s hand off and shove it up your—”

“Everything okay out here?”

Turning your attention to the large, blonde man taking up the entire frame of the doorway, you let out your held breath and opened your eyes. Five did as well, just as Klaus dropped his hand to his side, his eyes still never leaving you.

Your heart rate and initial anger had started to simmer down a bit at the continual tug and pull of the situations you kept finding yourself in, enough so that your curiosity of everything was starting to take hold once more. But you were still reluctant to step back into that apartment. Your trust was wary, at least in the case of some of them. Right now, you only trusted Klaus. He had been a loud and obnoxious pain in the ass, but hell, he hadn’t tried to hide anything from you and had basically answered most of what you assumed he could. If anything, he had overshared. You wished you could forget the story he had told you on your walk over here. He had way too vividly description how once on impulse he had bitten into a live koi fish he saw in a pond in order to ward off a loan shark across the way coming to collect money. What was worse, it actually worked. At least until they sent another guy a half an hour later.

“Go back inside, Luther. You to Klaus,” Five directed.

Turning your attention back to the toddler in command as he spoke, you quickly shifted your gaze back towards Klaus as he inevitably went to argue, stepping towards his brother with an exasperated look on his face. You reached out to gently grab his shirt. “Just go inside.” You needed to figure out how exactly Five knew about the fire, and just how extensively the details he knew went. It wasn’t exactly information you wanted out in the open, and though you trusted the curly haired brother the most in the family to an extent, it still wasn’t enough. No matter who you had trusted in your life, it had never been enough to openly discuss what had happened.

Klaus snapped his mouth closed in an uncertain grimace, his unnaturally comforting green eyes flickering as he tried to read your suddenly emotionless expression. You released some of the tension in your shoulders and heaved a breath. “Seriously, It’s fine. But if you hear glass shattering just know I’ve thrown him out the window.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

Bending to the side to look at Five who stood directly behind Klaus, you raised an eyebrow in challenge. “Come here then, preppy.”

Five crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, glancing down the hall at nowhere in particular. Clearly, his patience was running thin. Good.

Luther didn’t even bother to stick around and watch the show, unlike the unmistakably entertained Klaus. He just wordlessly turned back around into the apartment, leaving the door wide open for Klaus to follow.

“Okay, fine. Just don’t tell them all the fun bits without us, brother dear. It’ll be too priceless to miss.” Klaus settled on saying, departing back into the apartment, flashing his cheeky grin as he did.

You turned towards Five once you heard the familiar click of the closed door, grabbing his arm as you tugged him further away from the door in case there were any eavesdroppers. “You shouldn’t know about the fire. The entire story didn’t even hit the news.”

He shrugged your grip away easily. “And who do you think covered it up?” He bit back, a pressing look in his eyes.

What exactly was he implying? The little dude was kind of freaky—less of a kid than what he looked like— but he would have been the exact same age as you when it happened. Ten. As capable as he seemed now, you highly doubted he could have been able to suppress what had happened in the media. Allison possibly could have with her powers, but even then, there were so many people coming and going throughout that morning that you would have caught sight of her. The Umbrella Academy wasn’t even in the same city as you, for Christ's sake.

“Are you implying that it was covered up, or that somehow you had something to do with it?”

You could have been wrong, but a sort of half satisfied tick tugged his lips up the tiniest bit. But instead of a reply, he vanished again in a blink of an eye. You were really starting to hate his power. Letting out an aggravated huff, you twisted around slightly as if somehow you would find him dramatically down the hall, but he was back in a literal flash in under ten seconds, except this time he had a file in hand. He handed it to you, stating, “I found this in Hargreeve’s office. Read for yourself.”

And with that little cryptic introduction, you gave a speculative glance before gently taking it into your own hands, slight hesitance overtaking you as you flipped it open.

You didn’t know what you were expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this.

The first thing that caught your attention was a picture of you at twelve years old, miserable in an oversized black hoodie, paperclipped to a copy of one of the social service identification documents used by your old foster caseworker. Once you flipped that over, you found and skimmed through written reports, Reginald’s familiar insignia watermarked at the top. In them detailed everything; everything you knew, everything you had assumed, every plot hole in your entire story.

Reginald had known where you were this whole time. He’d kept a watchful eye on you, and you had no doubt he had similar files on all the other babies he had never been able to get his hand on. One of the reports detailed the first time your force field had popped up. You were in kindergarten and some kid had been chasing you with those barely sharp baby scissor that couldn't even cut through shitty quality construction paper. In your instinctual fear, the blue bubble surrounded you and five-year-old Jimmy bounced right off of it, tumbling two feet away, landing on his wrist and snapping the bone.

No one had seen, other than the teacher who had immediately looked terrified and sent you to the office, rushing you there herself. When she dropped you off, the counselor intervened and talked to you, and by the next day, your teacher had basically all but ignored the fact it had ever happened. The kid’s broken wrist was simply explained away as him tripping on the floor. No one would believe a five-year old’s account of what had actually happened anyway.

The councilor, as detailed by Hargreeves, was an onlooker hired by him to keep tabs on you if anything like this had ever happened and to make it go away. It seemed there had always been someone hired in your school to do just that. To watch. To report. Intervene when necessary.

Then there was the report on the fire. It described how your mom had gotten up in the middle of the night to go to your room, leaving your dad asleep in his own bed. It continued to detail how she poured gasoline from your doorway to your bed, striking a match and dropping it so the flame would trail up towards you. Police documented pictures were attached of your black and charred bedroom, all your childhood objects nothing more than undistinguishable ash. They never did find your dads body in there, but from how everything had been destroyed, you had no doubt he was simply mixed into all the rubble and debris that had once made up their entire family home which crumbled in a single, terrible night.

The police report detailed all of this as well, in addition to your mother’s capture and arrest, which he somehow managed to get a copy of for his invasive file. But it lacked the details Hargreeves inevitably figured out. How could a child survive such a destructive event? You had walked out with nothing more than a severe burn mark on your leg, while your father who tried to rescue you instead of getting out had literally been caught in the crossfire. They had interviewed you, but you kept quiet. But Reginald knew it was your force field. He wrote about how he paid off multiple people to cover this up and make it seem as if it had never happened. Not for your sake, however. It was just so you would never come across someone who wanted to use your powers against his children. Like Five, he speculated that the force field could extend far past what you had always thought. It could render all his ‘projects’ useless. And he couldn't have that.

You closed the file without looking at the other pictures and papers littered within it. You couldn’t stand to look at it anymore. It would have just detailed every other moment in your life like a statistical, emotionless biography.

“I’m sorry about your father,” Five spoke, breaking through your reeling thoughts. You tried to stop the bile rising to the back of your throat.

“Who else has seen this?” You whispered, clutching it tightly to your chest as you met his eyes.

“Just me, as far as I know.”

You nodded your head, taking a second the inhale and exhale and suppress it all as you had most of your life. You slipped the file into your bag, stating without room for argument, “I’m keeping this.”

He tilted his head in affirmation, replying, “I expected as much.” Quiet again, you took just a bit longer to try and collect your emotions, turning your face away to look anywhere except the kid who knew more about you than anyone else. It was unnerving. Even more so as he actually seemed at least a bit sincere when he continued with, “I am sorry. But what we need you for, it’s more than this. More than all of us. I had to look at every single option wherever I could, and right now, you’re that option.”

You could take some solace in that. Five, you had come to figure out, was all business. He had a scientific mind, looking at everything as steps to get to a singular goal. He wouldn’t do anything malicious or invasive for fun. Well, at least he wouldn’t unless it got him to whatever goal he had in mind.

“You keep this to yourself, and I’ll listen to whatever plan you have in mind.”

Maybe you would regret it, maybe you wouldn’t. But the Hargreeve’s were clearly desperate for something—for help. You could respect that.

“I also won’t toss you out the window no matter what it is.”

That got a smile out of the little bugger, and an affirmative agreement of, “deal.”

Pushing yourself slightly from where you had withdrawn against the wall, you started to make your way back to the apartment, Five keeping stride beside you. Just as you were about to open the door, he asked, “so, are you going to tell me why you brought a clock with you as a weapon?”

“Nope.”

Five laughed. The bastard actually laughed at something you said. A small, breathy one that really was only a quiet huff presented with a smile, but it was a laugh nonetheless. “Alright then.”

Well, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

Then you walked into the living area and immediately realized that it was actually going to be far worse than just ‘bad’.  

“Are you wearing a G-string?”

Holding his pants in his hand, with what looked like coffee or tea dripping from them and on to the plush white carpet, Klaus turned towards you from where he had previously been glaring at an equally as annoyed looking Luther, a sly smile morphing his face instead. Slightly popping his hip coquettishly, he replied in a faux sultry tone, “why yes, I am. You like? 

You shrugged, dropping your bag into the couch, already becoming desensitized to his odd and unexplainable behaviors. “Honestly, I’m just happy to know you wear anything under those pants at all.”

[loveanimalstory-blog]

These animals have nipples on their butts and that is not the most fascinating thing about them

If any animal were getting to outlive the dinosaurs, you almost certainly wouldn't guess it would be this Lil shrew-looking' dude. check out it, with its little eyes and almost-creepily-bald snout. Crocodiles, deep-sea sharks—they appear as if they've survived millennia. But this guy? Nah. But because it seems, this tiny solenodon is a component of 1 of the earliest branches of the mammalian genealogy, departing from the remainder about 74 million years ago. they're also one among the only a few existing venomous mammals, and among a little group of animals that survived the human settlement of the Caribbean islands. Most others died off as their environment changed, but solenodons kept scurrying along in their maze of underground tunnels with their mini shovel paws. But now, the Hispaniola solenodon is in peril of going extinct, so biologists try to preserve its genome for study before it disappears forever. Taras K. Oleksyk, a molecular geneticist at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, just won the ICG12 GigaScience prize for work he and his colleagues did to supply a rough draft of the solenodon genome. The team published their add an open-access journal so anyone can use the info. It’s not exactly easy to sequence the genome of a little, elusive population of creatures. For starters, you've got to seek out them. Solenodons are nocturnal, so during the day (when it might be easiest to identify them), they're chillin' below ground in their tunnels. They're social animals and sleep in family units consisting of a parental pair and a little group of younguns. they are available out in the dark to hunt insects, worms, snails, and sometimes even mice. Each female has two nipples that are located almost on her butt. That's not really relevant, but it seems worth noting. Until humans showed up, they lived a soothing life within the moist forests of Hispaniola, never worrying about predators of any kind. And as a result, they never really learned the way to run properly. The International Wildlife Encyclopedia notes that "they run on their toes with a stiff ungainly waddle, following an erratic almost zigzag course" which "when a solenodon is alarmed and tries to place on speed it's as likely as to not trip over its own toes or maybe tumble head-over-heels." That technique is, as you'll imagine, fairly ineffective when you're trying to flee a mongoose or a dog. Ever since humans introduced those animals to the island of Hispaniola, solenodons are struggling to survive. The IUCN now considers them endangered. Oleksyk and his team asked two local guides to assist them to locate the small buggers. Nicolás Corona and Yimell Corona guided the scientists through the forest, trying to find tracks, burrows, or droppings during the day and fixing “ambushes” at dawn. The fabled solenodon gait came in handy here since the paper notes the researchers were ready to simply chase down their targets and pick them up by their tails to avoid getting bitten. In but 10 minutes, a veterinarian was ready to draw a little amount of blood from each of the five animals they were ready to catch, draw on their tails with a Sharpie, and release the solenodons back to the forest. The problem with only having the ability to gather a couple of samples from poorly studied, wild animals is that it’s tough to urge high-quality DNA. And without that, it’s challenging to place together an entire genome. Luckily for these biologists, solenodons are very genetically homogeneous, meaning they need little genetic diversity. It’s a little population that’s lived in isolation for years, therefore the similarity between any two individual animals goes to be very high. which means they might pool the samples from the five solenodons they caught into one uber-sample. Once that they had pieced together the genome, the researchers were ready to start investigating a number of the solenodon's weird genetic anomalies. Its venom, for instance, seems to not be closely associated with the other quite a venom, including other mammalian toxins. This should not be all that surprising, as long as their evolutionary branch split off 74 million years ago. Despite how shrew-like they appear, solenodons aren't all that associated with shrews, so albeit both have venom in their tiny, sharp teeth it is sensible that they might have developed different formulations. Hopefully, there'll be more revelations about these evolutionary survivors now that we’ve sequenced their genome. they're truly a bizarre branch of the mammalian tree, and that we could learn more about how an animal from the Cretaceous managed to stay around for this long. That is, as long as we don’t kill them off first.

[timeclonemike]

Random Idea: “Portia” Spider-Man AU

I haven’t actually seen Into The Spiderverse myself, but I have read that it has started a trend towards people coming up with their own Spider-Man AUs. More specifically I read that there’s a lot of people lashing out against that for some reason, which I don’t get.

I also watched a walkthrough of the PS4 game, which actually motivated me to work on a completely different project.

I might as well state right now that I do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of Spider-Man in particular, or the Marvel multiverse in general, much less the exponentially greater possibilities that come from a huge fan base. To the best of my limited knowledge, I don’t think I’m treading on anyone’s toes, and if it turns out somebody had the same ideas before me and reads this, I promise I’m not trying to steal your thunder.

The Origin: Pyotr “Peter” Parker is second generation Russian-American living in the Big Apple. He’s a scientific prodigy, and he was well on his way to getting a scholarship that would launch him to dizzying academic and technical heights when his life was demolished; his mother, father, and uncle were all killed in some sort of crossfire between different mob families. His academic performance and social life were also casualties, first from grief, and later from the impotent rage burning inside him from seeing nothing at all happen to find and punish those who had done so much harm. The kid who was on a fast track to following in the footsteps of such scientific visionaries as Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Oswald Octavius did the bare minimum of work needed to keep his teachers and Aunt May (his only living relative) off of his back; the rest of his days and much of his nights were spent in an angry haze of revenge-based daydreams and fantasies.

The Transformation: Peter does not remember exactly how, but one morning he woke up with a painfully swollen spider bite. After a day or so, the swelling went away, but it was replaced by other “symptoms” that were decidedly more permanent. In no particular order, he could stick to various surfaces, detect motion nearby, and found that his strength and agility were dramatically increased. Most dramatic of all, he could jump much, much farther than any human being had any business jumping. To an angsty, hormonal teenager who had fumed and raged inwardly as he watched the injustice perpetrated on his family go unpunished for years, it was like Christmas morning. (It was actually Arbor Day, but that’s not really important.) With barely enough sense to get gloves, a ski mask, and goggles to hide his identity, he set out to to do by himself what the police and the courts could not, or would not, do through proper channels.

The Defeat: Superpowers or not, a teenager is not a match for multiple, competing organized crime families. Peter was shot four times, twice in the left leg, once in the right shoulder, and one glancing blow to the skull that would have punched his clock if not for his Spider-Sense based reflexes. With a concussion, a leg that couldn’t support his weight, and a whole lot of lost blood, Peter was forced to back off to some place safe, call 911, and nearly collapse right after tossing his “costume” in the closest dumpster. Emergency surgery and a blood transfusion saved his life, and while his recovery was almost miraculously fast according to the doctors and nurses keeping an eye on him, he still had to convalesce.

The Lesson: The time spent in bed, with nothing to do but mull over his defeat, forces him to reconsider what he is doing and why. He was about ready to throw all his dreams of revenge out the window and move on with his life... when the assassins showed up. After all, gunshot wounds are reported to police, and not every officer who swears to uphold the law actually keeps that oath. The assassins try to smother Peter while he pretends to be asleep; for their trouble, they get kicked with the same amount of force that previously launched Peter across streets and up the sides of buildings. Fortunately for them, they are in a hospital already. With a paranoia that has nothing to do with his new danger-detector in his head, Pete leaves the hospital without being officially discharged, makes it home, and discovers that his Aunt May ended up taking out two home invaders... and instead of the invaders being carted off, Aunt May is the one being held on trumped up charges. Peter has the consequences of his actions thrust into his face, and he angsts over his irresponsibility for all of five minutes before he has an epiphany that few Spider-themed superheroes ever figure out: Not everything bad that happens is automatically his fault.

The Comeback: While only a few days older, Peter is now much wiser, and begins a methodical plan of attack. The forces arrayed against his family cover the city like a web, but he’s learned a lot about spiders recently. Between phone calls, letters, and Duck Duck Go, Peter maps out the people he has to fight. These include a hanging judge, an attorney general living beyond her apparent means, and a couple of cops who have some black marks on other people’s social media, if not their professional records. With a new, thematically different costume, some cheap smartphones, and gadgets put together from dollar store specials and dumpster diving, Peter starts collecting evidence of corruption and leaving flash drives and SD cards in the mailboxes of the people who seem to be trustworthy. The gears of justice start to grind, while the gears of corruption have sand thrown into them. (What actually happened is that Peter found the AG was in the mob’s pocket, kidnapped her, called her “handlers” and played back some carefully edited sound bites recorded from a rival family’s conversations. Her “execution” was interrupted, but her home and worldly possessions went up in flames at the same time. She suddenly has much larger problems than she did before.)

The Arch Enemy: Aunt May’s two counts of justified self defense are properly rendered as such by a court that does not have multiple actors in somebody’s pocket. Turns out a whole lot of internal affairs investigations have opened up, and a laundry list of cold cases have been opened, in addition to the conflicts already set in motion. What keeps May and Peter safe, though, is what happens to a mover and shaker way up in the food chain (known as “Hammerhead” to his subordinates because of his shark-like ferocity). Hammerhead gets a mysterious visit from a masked figure who kicks his ass three ways from Sunday, and who lets him know that he’s taking his time to make him suffer for killing the masked figure’s brother. Three bullets are put into Hammerhead with his own sidearm, but the bullet that would have gone in the man’s skull misses, apparently because his guys finally showed up to help him. Hammerhead falls for the ruse hook, line, sinker and compressed air tank, and all the resources dedicated to finding this spider-themed vigilante get aimed in different directions, including the ones that had been sent after this Pyotr Parker kid, since he’s an only child. (The guys sent after Parker don’t have much to say, because his kicks packed a wallop and also because nobody contradicts Hammerhead when he’s angry.) This lays the foundation of a mutual hatred that lasts for the next decade at least, and “The Hammerhead versus The Spider Man” becomes a popular topic of discussion and speculation in the criminal underworld, law enforcement, civilian social media, and the hero community.

The Method: Unlike many Spider-Men, Peter isn’t explicitly an out and out hero. The last time he had ambitions of heroism, rushing in like Iron Man or Thor or Daredevil, he ended up in the hospital. To the contrary, by imitating the methods of his criminal prey, he achieved results far beyond his most optimistic predictions. In that sense, his spider-motif resembles that of the Portia Jumping Spider, a genus of spider species that hunt and prey on other spiders. His powers reflect this, with his impressive jumping abilities. Also like the Portia spiders, Peter stalks his prey and studies their strengths and weaknesses before developing the perfect way to take them down. Sometimes this comes from capturing sensitive information and delivering it to those who can do the most damage with it. Sometimes this means a more immediate response, like a kick that can ruin somebody’s whole day plus the rest of the week. What really sets Peter apart, though, is the “criminal” empire that he is growing using the resources he steals from his targets. Granted, his “Drug Labs” are churning out generic insulin at affordable prices, but it’s the principle of the thing. Likewise, the sex workers and street walkers in Spider-Man’s “territory” have seen a massive drop in violence once he cornered a particularly belligerent john in an alley and mentioned that a lot of male spiders have their sex organ bitten off by the female.

The Gadgets: Unlike most, if not all, Spider-Men in the multiverse, Peter never came up with the idea of web-shooters or web fluid. He has a number of other tricks up his sleeve, sometimes literally, that fill the vacuum when it comes to mobility, combat, and controlling the combat environment. The most complex of these would have to be his costume, which also diverges dramatically from what other Spider Themed Heroes use, in that it is designed to blend in rather than stand out. The basic suit color scheme is a grey-green mixture that’s hard to see under low-light conditions, and Peter has a number of optional “urban ghillie suits” that can look like grey concrete, brick, rusted steel, or other patterns. He’s also been known to take his enemy’s clothing, but it’s not clear how much of this is intended to help him infiltrate them and turn them on each other and how much of it is just humiliating his defeated foes. His mask incorporates multiple vision enhancement devices, from light amplification to infra-red to sonar and radar, and these give him a multi-eyed appearance in keeping with the spider theme. Defensively and offensively, he has arm-mounted weapons that incorporate compressed air guns that can fire chemical darts at range, and provide a close-range electrical charge to incapacitate people in close combat. (In the early days he carried a literal dart gun and stun gun but kept losing them during fights.) Finally, he carries a small arsenal of counter-intelligence tools designed to let him eavesdrop on targets, clone their cell phones, break into secure areas without leaving signs of forced entry, and jam or intercept enemy communications. All of them are incorporated into his suit. He has ambitions of getting an Octavius Harness, since extra arms would complete the spider motif and also make him far more dangerous in combat, but he can’t afford it and he’s years away from learning how to jailbreak the safety features that Doctor Octavius put on his technology to keep it from being stolen.

The Cover: When he’s not making life interesting for the criminal underworld of New York City, Peter works as a photographer. He’s done contract work for the Daily Bugle, including the occasional shot of this Spider Man character, but most of his income is from people needing photographs of their belongings for insurance reasons. After all, this is a world where superheroes and supervillains go toe-to-toe at least twice a week. He’s done weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, graduations, family reunions, anniversaries, baby gender reveal parties, and more. He’s also done some stuff that would normally be within the purview of a private investigator, despite the legal risks, in order to make ends meet. His social circle is limited to a handful of people who still tolerated him when he was lashing out at the world as a teenager, which is basically a handful of former classmates that have moved on to college, trade school, or something else, especially Miles Morales (who also lost family at a young age), Felicia Hardy, and Eddie Brock. His dating life is non-existant despite multiple attempts by both Eddie and Miles to play matchmaker.

The Rogue’s Gallery: The Spider Man has a long standing antagonism with Hammerhead, but has occasionally faced off against other supervillains and even some superheroes. On the villain side, Peter has defeated an electricity controlling lunatic named Electro, some guy in a rocket assisted flight suit the press called the Vulture, the enigmatic and theatrical Mysterio, and some one or something called the Sand Man. Unfortunately, Peter beat the Sand Man by fusing him into glass, and was not able to pull off the same stunt twice. The former Sand Man, calling himself Vitreous, had to be stopped by the Avengers, and The Spider Man’s role in the creation of a much more dangerous villain is what got him on the radar of so many heroes in the first place. For the most part, he knows he’s outclassed and doesn’t really want to fight people who, in theory, have the same general goals, so he tends to run from these encounters. So far he’s managed to evade Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Oswald Octavius in his superhero alter ego of Doctor Octopus. His encounter with Loki resulted in Peter getting the upper hand in classic trickster legend style, earning the God of Mischief’s respect. In other cases, Peter has not been so lucky; while he managed to escape each time, he’s been almost crushed to death by Giant Man, beaten to a pulp by Captain America, and drop kicked into the East River by the Hulk as if he was some sort of football. He has technically never fought Dr. Strange, but was involved in a fracas between the Sorcerer Supreme, Deadpool, and Dr. Doom that resulted in the Eye of Agomotto being lost for five years; everyone involved has agreed to never speak of what happened again. Finally, there’s the matter of Sean Gargan, an aspiring superhero with Scorpion themed powers who has sworn to bring The Spider Man to justice after his father, Mac Gargan, was injured while The Spider Man was fighting Electro.

[metronomeihear]

Opia (BNHA)

Part three of For Even in the Dark, There is Still a Road

n. the ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable—their pupils glittering, bottomless and opaque—as if you were peering through a hole in the door of a house, able to tell that there’s someone standing there, but unable to tell if you’re looking in or looking out.

He breathes.

Each breath rattles his body, aggravating his ribs (like fire spiking, sharpening, with each outward motion) but he keeps breathing, one breath after another. His fingers tremble, but he uses them to pull out his phone anyway, pulls it out of the cheap suit he’s wearing. He’d worn it to look more professional. All Might hoodies and T-shirts didn’t exactly make the best of impressions on villains. (They drove a knife into his leg) Blood dripped steadily from the wound in his thigh, making him regret that decision now. (Dark dark dark colored red, blooming--)

A vigilante. Of all the reasons to be laying here, (shivering, shaking, bleeding in the dark) it would be a vigilante.

Had his activities really garnered so much attention?

He glances to either side, looking for any form of movement. He can’t afford to be found right now, can’t. Not when his mother is barely hanging on, breathing only with the help of machines. Not when he’s the only person Todoroki can turn too when everything gets to be too much, when Endeavor’s shadow looms too much and he can’t, can’t--

He breathes.

(He feels like he’s drowning)

His fingers tremble as he fumbles with the lock on the screen, tapping in his password and smearing blood across the glass. He opens the phone app, intent upon calling someone anyone, and--

Who is he supposed to call? His mother can’t move from the hospital bed, is barely able to stay awake most days, let alone be aware enough and physically capable enough of taking him home. He doesn’t know his father’s phone number, only knows what he looks like thanks to the photo albums his mother keeps in the living room. Kacchan wouldn’t be able to help him with something like this, wouldn’t help him even if he could (“Shitty Deku!”), and doesn’t even know about Izuku’s illegal activities regardless. He just thinks that Izuku has a part time job.

He’s not wrong.

(Bang, and the body fell to the floor and blood pooled like water. What happened, what had he done? There was a corpse on the ground)

He scrolls down and sees the name Todoroki Shouto in his contacts, the last messages from him not even a day ago. They had talked just that morning, about something stupid, something mundane, but it was… nice. Todoroki was nice.

Izuku hesitates, cold gathering in his gut and spreading to his toes. Does he trust Todoroki enough to show him this? To call him here, to this alley, when he’s bleeding out on the ground and helpless, so helpless, in the face of the world around him? Fresh from a fight with a vigilante, a fight that’s no doubt made the news by now, the gunfire was so loud and that vigilante wasn’t subtle at all--

Does he?

They’ve known each other for a year now--a year of bandaging each other’s wounds (“Thank you.”), whispering secrets and leaning on each other whenever things got too be too much, too tough, too overwhelming to do much more than lie there--

Todoroki knew Izuku’s mother was sick. They’d visited her together in the hospital a few times before, (just three, when they could secret him away--) and he knew Izuku worked to earn money to pay for the medical bills and everything else. He’d even offered to help a few times before, however he was able.

He was certain Todoroki already suspected something. For all that Izuku had gotten better at hiding, at acting like nothing was wrong, Todoroki had known him since before he’d mastered that art, had been there almost since the beginning of it all. He’d never mentioned it, hadn’t said a word but--

(Just a few glances every now and then, an offer of training, “for self defence,” a frown)

--he was still the son of the number two hero, even if his hatred for Endeavor’s existence was almost tangible. What would he do if he knew?

(What if what if what if)

It would be so simple to call him. So simple.

He pressed call.

It rang. Once. Twice.

Click. “Hello?”

“T-todoroki?” His voice shook and he hated that, hated how weak that made him feel. He stuttered and blood flowed steadily from the wound on his leg and he pressed down on it, desperate. He’s started to feel light headed and his ribs burned from a kick he hadn’t been able to avoid. They might be cracked. Possibly. Izuku doesn’t know.

“Midoriya? He sounds concerned. Izuku feels like laughing and Todoroki sounds concerned. “What's wrong?”

“I-” Coughs wrack his chest, his lungs ache and sharp pain lances through his chest. He pulls a hand away from his mouth and is greatful there isn’t any blood. Coughing blood usually means one of two things, Izuku has come to learn. Either he was bleeding internally and blood was getting caught in his respiratory system, or he had bitten his tongue or cheek hard enough to bleed. Considering he hadn’t bitten anything, coughing blood would mean his ribs were far more than cracked and he would have to go the hospital, fresh from a fight with a vigilante or no. He couldn’t afford to do that. He couldn’t.

(For mother, for mother, for mother)

“I need help,” he manages to say, tears falling from his eyes. Gods, everything hurts.

Todoroki is quiet for a moment, and some sort of rustling is all Izuku can hear, before-- “Is there anything I need to bring?”

No questions about what happened. No demands for answers. Just what do you need? Izuku laughs quietly, something he quickly regrets when his ribs scream in protest, and wonders at it all. What did he ever do to deserve the friendship of someone like Todoroki? After all that he had done, how was it possible? “Bandages,” he says, mentally reviewing his wounds. “Disinfectant. Gauze, painkillers, and a change of clothes.” That would at least keep him alive until he reached home or a safe house. (He had a safe house, a safe house, what even was his life--) “Can you manage that?”

There was more rustling. “Where do I meet you?”

Izuku glances around the alley he’s hidden in. He doesn’t know where the vigilante is, doesn’t know where the heroes or the police are. The vigilante might be dead, he doesn't know. The gun Aki had gotten for him had a strong kick to it, and Izuku hadn’t quite managed to perfect his aim just yet. He’s better with knives, but he doesn't have any throwing knives, isn’t practiced with using them anyways, and the vigilante had been primarily long distance. Right up until he had gotten in close and not only stabbed Izuku but kicked him into a wall.

It’s quiet. So quiet. Were there the heroes? The sirens, the police? Where was the city life, the back alley thugs, the low life villains who so enjoyed lingering in places like these? How much longer was this place going to be safe, how much longer was he going to be safe? Maybe the police had already found the place where it had all gone down, find the maybe corpse of the vigilante Stardust and figure out that it was the information broker Akatani Mikumo who he had faught. Maybe they’d find Izuku in this alley, bled out and dead from his wounds and the school would find out, and his mother would find out--Kacchan would be so angry. He’d probably complain to the world that it should have been him to take him out, him to take Izuku down when he was a hero. His mother would be on her own then, no one to pay the medical bills, no one to keep the apartment, no one to fend off the lone sharks or to visit her or to brighten up her day and she would die alone in her hospital bed, wondering how it was that her son could turn so bad, do such horrible things all in her name--

“Midoriya. You’re mumbling.”

Oh. He did it again. How much had Todoroki heard?

(And the world fell down around him, crumbling to ash and dust)

Izuku took a deep, shuddering breath and braced himself. He would trust Todoroki. He didn’t have much of a choice at this point, it was far too late to turn back. Had been to late from the moment he had hit the call button on his phone. He gave Todoroki directions to where he was. Izuku wasn’t able to move at this point, wouldn’t be able to get to somewhere more easily accessible, didn’t really want too--

It was still too quiet.

It didn’t take long for Todoroki to get there. He arrived with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed and expression concerned. He was a difficult person to read, but Izuku had gotten better at it with time. He guessed it was the same the other way around.

“Midoriya?” He asked. (The silence shatters like glass) “Are you here?”

“Here,” Izuku mumbled, his head lolling to one side. He felt sluggish and slow, and his head ached. Everything ached. He’d probably lost too much blood, it stained his pants and the ground red and brown and black. Todoroki was at his side in an instant, the bag set down on the ground. He started on Izuku’s injuries immediately, helping Izuku out of his clothes so he could better see what he was dealing with. He tends to Izuku’s leg first, and then checks to see if Izuku’s ribs are cracked or broken. Izuku mumbles out what the worst of the wounds are, and Todoroki is silent as he works.

It’s only after the worst of Izuku’s wounds are wrapped and bandaged that he speaks. “What happened?” The words are spoken softly, but Todoroki is staring right at him, straight in the eye, and Izuku wonders just how much he knows. There is an odd look there, an indescribable one. (Izuku feels like it’s swallowing him whole)

“...What do you know?” Izuku askes, finally, after the silence has stretched out far too long.

Todoroki’s lips purse and he pulls a plastic bag out of the duffle bag. He creates ice with his quirk to drop in it at he speaks, concentrating on his task. “I know you’re doing something illegal. I know you’re doing it or your mother.”

Izuku let out a long sigh. “So you know that much, huh?” What a thought.

“I’m not going to turn you in, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Izuku looks down at Todoroki to see that he’s stilled. He tries to see the expression on his face, to get a peek into what he might be thinking, but all he sees is two toned hair and a hint of the burn scar that trails across his shoulder and down his back. “I’ll keep quiet.”

(Does he believe so little in him?That he might--)

“Why?” Izuku asks, because he had to know. Why would Todoroki keep it a secret, all of this, the wounds the blood the breaking of the law. Izuku is a villain. (There is no getting around that, not at this point, not after so long) He’s hurt too many people in his quest to heal his mother, even taken someone’s life with his own hands. Possibly two someones, if Stardust really is dead. He’ll have to get someone to check up on that later. That, as well as if the client had gotten away, as well as how Stardust had found Izuku’s base of operations in the first place.

He’s been an information broker for nearly three years now. He’d taken steps to make sure no one could connect Akatani Mikumo to Midoriya Izuku, had made certain that all his meetings were secure before attending them. Yamada Kenichi had been an eye-opener and Izuku was nothing if not a quick study. He researches al his clients thoroughly, vets them before he meets them so he could avoid walking into another trap. (And yet--)

“You listen.” Todoroki shrugs and looks up and Izuku can see his eyes again, read his expression again, and all he sees there is incomprehensible. There is gratitude and care and concern and worry and something else, something different, all mixed up in it and Izuku hasn’t the faintest idea how to interpret it all. “You don’t care who I am, or what I can do for you. You don’t care that I’m Endeavor’s son, or that I’ll be attending UA next year on a recommendation. You listen when I speak, and you care about me because I’m me.”

And isn’t that just perfect? Attachment just because he treated Todoroki like an actual human being? Were people, was society, really so fucked up that that was all it took to earn someone’s loyalty, to make a person willing to break the law for him? Really? Really?

(He remembers warm summer days when he was a child, the sun beating down on his back. Kacchan looked so cool, standing there on the hill, his hands lit up with sparks. “I’m going to be the number one hero!” he cried, Kacchan cried, and Izuku followed along like a pilgrim before a god)

People really do things for the strangest of reasons, don’t they?

He feels like laughing again.

(He feels like he’s going mad)

“And if I’ve killed someone?” Izuku asked, because he’s desperate, because he’s been drowning under the weight of his guilt, the pressure of needing to succeed, the stress of his mother getting weaker and weaker everyday-- (“She’s still asleep today. She woke up briefly this morning, but we don’t think she’ll be up again for another few hours at least.”)

Todoroki is quiet again after that. He takes the ice pack that’s been melting in his hands he finished making it and presses it against Izuku’s--thankfully neither broken nor cracked--ribs. Izuku can still see his eyes, and isn’t sure what he sees there, can’t fathom what’s happening in the depths of Todoroki’s mind.

His eyes are two different colors. Just like his hair. One is brown, the same color as tree bark, and the other is an icy blue that’s almost teal. It looks like ice. They’re pretty.

“Have you?” Todoroki asks and the only thing Izuku can do is nod numbly. “Why?”

“He tried to kill me,” Izuku confesses. (“It’s all your fault, all your fault!”) “He wanted revenge.”

“For what?”

“I ruined his life. Maybe not directly, but--” Izuku took a deep breath, forcing himself not to wince when it aggravates his ribs. The ice feels cool against them and it numbs the pain, for which Izuku is grateful, so grateful. “I still did it.” He whispers those words, so quiet, they’re almost lost on the non-existent wind.

Todoroki stares at him. Izuku gets lost in his eyes, reaching, desperately, for any stray thought he can grab onto. The secret for finding out what Todoroki is thinking, Izuku has found, lies in his eyes. They’re always so much more expressive than the rest of him. But there were moments, moments like these, where Izuku would never be able to tell what he’s thinking, never be able to pluck out his secrets and spread them to the world.

Then he’s being pulled into a hug, and this time he does wince at the pain in his ribs, but--two hands, two slightly different temperatures, are holding him, gripping his bare back and this is the first hug Izuku has had from anyone in years.

Todoroki doesn't like being touched. Izuku can’t blame him. Not when his home life is what it is, not when his father is who he is.

(And yet--)

Izuku puts his arms around him and buries his face into the crook of Todoroki’s neck. It’s comforting, and warm, and kind and Izuku has missed this, missed it so much, missed the hugs his mother used to give him all the time--

He shivers and clutches Todoroki tighter, leaning against the warmer half of his body.

Izuku doesn't know how long they stay like that, just holding each other, but he’s holding back tears by the end of it, trying not to cry. They break apart eventually, thought, and Izuku looks Todoroki in the eye and says, “Thank you.”

“Any time,” Todoroki responds, and he looks like he means it. He’s smiling, just slightly, an upturn of his lips that light up his eyes and Izuku questions, once more what he did to deserve this.

“You’re okay with this?” Izuku asks, because he still can’t bring himself to believe it. “With me being a villain?”

“Are you?” Todoroki asks. “A villain?”

Izuku opens his mouth, and then closes again. Wasn’t it obvious what he was? “I’m an information broker, Todoroki. I sell information to whoever pays the most. Most of the time, my buyers are villains. That’s not even mentioning the fact that I’ve killed.” He laughs, quietly, and the sound stabs at him like knives.

(Blood pools beneath him, blooming like flowers, it’s red like roses are supposed to be)

“My father is called a hero,” Todoroki says. “If a man like that is a hero, then what does that make you?”

“You--” Izuku chokes on the words, and this time tears really do fall. He laughs and it’s a broken thing, a broken sound, like glass shattered on the ground beneath. “Of all people, I’m glad I ran into you.” (On that day, with knife in hand, and he looked so vulnerable, so scared--) “So glad--”

He’s still crying and Todoroki reaches up to run a hand through Izuku’s hair. Izuku leans into it and when he looks, there is something gentle in Todoroki’s expression. He relishes in it.

“Tell me everything?”

He does.

He explains how it all started. About how the illness had shown up one day out of nowhere. (“Mother? Are you okay?”) They hadn’t thought much of it at first. It was just a cough and it was cold season and wasn’t it normal to get a little sick around that time of year? (“It’s just a cough, Izuku. I’ll take some medicine and be better in no time!”) He talks about how it only got worse from there.

He talks about searching for jobs, for people who would hire a child, for odd jobs or cheap favors, anything to get a little more money. (“Wha--How old are ya, kid? Ya can’t be more than ten! Why on earth would ya wanna work here of all places?”) He talks about finding a job in a convenience store when he was twelve, moving boxes in the back. He talks about the person he worked with, Yin-san, and how they had always seemed like a delinquent, and how they had been interested in what Izuku had to say. (“Take Monster’s quirk, for example. He would do well against villains who specialize in close combat, but pit him against a villain with more ranged options, such as Cielo, and he would have to get much more creative in order to take them down.”) He talks about how Yin-san had payed Izuku to do research on one of his favorite heroes, about how Izuku had presented that information to him and accepted the money with glee. How Yin-san had started bringing other people for Izuku to met.

He talks about creating another persona, Akatani Mikumo, in an attempt to keep his normal life separate from what was quickly turning into a business as an information broker. He talks about turning on the TV and finding out a hero had lost a battle because of a weakness Izuku had sold not even three days before--

The guilt, the depression, the questioning of if he should be doing this or not. The hospital visits, the loan sharks, the nights spent stalking.

He talks about Yamada Kenichi. About how information Izuku had sold had been used to kill the man’s fiancee. About how he had pulled a gun and Izuku had just reacted. About how he had pulled the trigger, and Yamada Kenichi had fallen to the ground, blood pooling beneath his body and a glassy look overtaking his eyes.

(“What is good?” The words drip from his mouth like blood and ink, dreams of shadows and laughter lingering behind his eyes, their echoes mocking him on the ceiling. “What is evil?”)

He talks about contacting Sanada Aki to get a set of knives and a handgun. About taking lessons to better defend himself. About night after night after night of nightmares. About the paranoia, the nervousness, the everything.

He feels numb by the end of it. No, not numb. Raw. He feels raw and wrung out, exhausted in a way he’d never felt like before. He’s shaking, his face feels like it’s covered in static, he’s been crying and falling apart through all of it, and Todoroki, Todoroki--

He was a lifeline, one hand in his and silent support, not judging anything Izuku had done. Not one word putting him down.

(Someone knows now, someone knows--They’ve heard his story, all of it, every last bit of it-and they’re still in an alley where the police could find them or the heroes could find him and Izuku is barely wearing any clothes)

He shivers, and Todoroki pushes a T-shirt in his hands. It’s blue. And familiar. The T-shirt that Izuku had given Todoroki when they first met. Now Izuku feels like laughing again. (It keeps happening, bubbling up inside him and getting stuck in his throat) Izuku smiles and puts it on. When he’s done, Todoroki helps him stand and put on a pair of clean pants.

He’s finally dressed, his wounds are tended for, and he leans against Todoroki to keep standing. “Now what?” he asks. “Do we go back to normal?” Normal. What even was normal?

“I don’t think that’s possible,” Todoroki says, setting Izuku back down on the ground. He starts backing up all their medical supplies, and stuffs Izuku’s ruined suit into the duffel bag as well.

“Then what is?” Izuku looks up at the sky. It’s cloudy today, and the skies are colored grey. It looks gloomy and cold and Izuku hates it.

“Take me with you.”

Izuku freezes. He turns to look and sees determination in Todoroki’s gaze. “What?”

“You start taking me with you. That’s what’s going to happen.”

[3monthsineurope]

January 15, 2020

Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, was on Wednesday! Emily and I slept in until 9ish and got ready in the room. This was our last port of the trip. We had breakfast at the buffet on the Lido deck, then headed out for the day.

St. Kitts the day before had a huge port with tons of shops. Tortola on the other hand was smaller, but then as still developed nicely. Martinique was much smaller than Tortola. There just wasn’t many souvenir shops—it was more high end jewelry. We went through the few shops there, then left the port area. We found a “craft village” and explored those shops for a bit. A lot of the shops had similar things, and they weren’t made super well. All the shops were vibrantly colored, which I did really like. It started raining again! We took shelter in a shop, then wandered around, trying to find a cafe.

We found one and had some yummy coffee. This island was definitely one of the more expensive ones: my small iced mocha was $6! I haven’t mentioned but everyone on the ship thinks Emily and I are sisters! Seriously, we get asked all the time by the staff. We had our coffee and used the WiFi, then decided to head back to the port area.

We ran into Kurt and Carol (the one bitten by a shark that we met in Grand Turk!), which was nice. We’ve met so many nice people this cruise! Earlier that morning we ran into Cynthia and her husband. Her husband had really badly stubbed his toe on the pier, what a bummer! We went back into the port and got some things shopping. We decided to have a drink, so we sat down at a bar. I chatted with some super nice cousins who were on the boat next to us, the Celebrity Edge. They have this cut out of one of their family members, Tony. They gave me one to bring on my trip to India, which is super funny! They were really nice and encouraged me to keep on traveling! Emily was chatting to two guys next to us, who actually worked for the cruise. Dariel plays guitar and Martin plays the piano. They both are solo acts. Dariel has seen us around the ship but hadn’t got up the nerve to say hi to us. He was definitely crushing on Emily. Coincidentally, I had seen Martin the night before for the first time.

We hung out with the boys for a few hours. It was really interesting hearing some “crew secrets”. Dariel actually bought Emily and I a couple drinks, which was really nice. We hung out with the guy who did our caricature, too. After a bit, the four of us wandered over to this one store, where Emily and I bought some hibiscus infused gin. We had had a few drinks made with it at the bar and they were sooooo tasty! We decided to call it a day in Tortola, so all four of us headed to the ship. I wanted to take a nap, but once we got to our room I realized we were missing our souvenirs bag.

Oh gosh! Emily had put the bag by our feet at the bar and we had left without it. We were supposed to be back in the boat in fifteen minutes. I wanted to try to get it, so we ran down to the disembarking area. They told me not to run, but I was frantic. Emily stayed near the boat, in case they tried to leave without me and I ran down the pier. I made it to the bar, but the bag was gone. The bartender hadn’t seen it. I went to where we bought the gin, the police, the information area, and the security for getting back on the ship. No one had it. I was so sad that someone had stolen my bag. I had postcards, a magnet, a really pretty Christmas ornament for Mom, and mug for Haley, and a hot sauce for Ingvar in it. I was just so bummed. I never put things by my feet like that, because I’ll forget it. I was frustrated that Emily had put it there, but obviously it wasn’t her fault. It was just such a bummer because this island was expensive, so I spent the most there, compared to the other islands.

I was crying, walking back to the ship—I just couldn’t help it. Emily tried to console me, but I was really upset. I video called Ingvar after I bought WiFi, back in our room. It was so nice to see him! I really do miss him. It made me feel a lot better to talk with him. There was a lot of snow at home! I calmed down after chatting with him and called Mom and Haley in LA. They both said it was okay that their gifts were stolen, but I was still sad about it.

Around five, it was time to get ready for my Chef’s Table experience! I was actually so excited! My make up didn’t run off when I had cried, so I just had to do my hair. I straightened it and dressed in a dress with wedges. I met Holly and Betty (from our dinner table) in the Atrium and checked with guest services. No one had turned in my bag, sadly.

The Chef’s Table was absolutely amazing! It started out with the sous chef of the entire cruise boat taking us into the kitchen for a champagne toast and three amus busches ____. We saw Ari, one of our waiters, and waved at him. We had a two little bites and some mushroom tea. It sounds weird, but it was like really flavorful broth. It was so good! A woman named Francine helped the chef make the batter for the famous Carnival melting cake, which we would have later.

The chef then took us to our table. It was situated in the Beauties nightclub, where we had danced just the night before! Hahah! I sat next to Betty and Holly, and Francine and her husband Joseph. They were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. Have I mentioned that Emily had cancelled her ticket to the chef’s table? She decided she didn’t want to spend the money. I was fine doing it without her. I was really looking forward to it! The chef had nine cooks and servers for the thirteen of us eating that night. It was the fanciest meal I’d ever had in my life! The chef would come to the head of the table for each course and explain what was in front of us.

Our first course at the table was a fresh parmesan bread with honey butter. They served us each water, a red wine, and a white wine. Betty got her and I some of my favorite wine, Riesling from Chateau St. Michelle! The next course was a three parter: yogurt, raspberry, and green apple, an olive oil sponge with foam, and pork belly with kimchi. Dang, I was gonna have to pace myself! I tried everything, but if I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t eat it all, because there was a lot more coming for us!

Next up was probably my favorite course, duck! It was so tasty, I ate every bite. It was served with plum and a parsnip purée. Next is was the “surf and turf”. It was a super fancy, flavorful soup. I really enjoyed the soup. A lot of the courses were interactive. For example, for the soup, we were given some additional spices and we stirred that into the soup with our vegetable spoon, and “popped” the lobster cream at the bottom of the bowl and mixing it into the soup.

Next up was sea bass. I don’t know if I’d had sea bass before, but it was a nice and mild fish. Everything was plated so perfectly! For a break, a magician came around and did a few tricks for us. I’ll never know how they do their tricks, haha! Lamb was next. It was served three ways. I tried it all three ways, but definitely couldn’t finish this course! Our final savory course was veal. I don’t think I’d had veal before. When I think about veal it makes me a little sad, with veal being from baby cows. The veal was served with sweet potato mash and milk chips. The milk chips was like nothing I’d had before! It was tasty, but I was ready for dessert.

They served us tea and port wine with dessert. The first dessert course was a trio. There was a peanut brittle, oat cookie, dark chocolate ganache, parmesan cream, and a coffee custard. It was amazing! The next dessert was another trio. This one had a small creme brûlée, a raspberry jelly, and a dark chocolate cake, served on coffee beans. And finally, was the melting cake dessert that we had helped make in the beginning. We sang happy birthday to two of the attendees and heard a speech from the chef about the team who had helped us that night. It was an amazing experience that lasted more than three hours! I am not kidding when I say that it was one of the best meals of my life. They gave us a photo of the group, which I thought was a nice extra touch.

After the Chef’s Table, I went up to the Alchemy Bar. Emily was there with Keke and David, watching Dariel and Martin do a set together. It’s really nice to listen to live music. Their music was nice, but I was basically in a food coma, so I decided to call it a night. I wasn’t feeling like socializing. I went up to the room and relaxed. I watched some Food Network and wished I could take a bath, but alas, I showered instead. Emily came back to the room around midnight, she was shocked that I was awake, hahah. We watched a bit of TV, then headed to bed. It was a pretty eventful day, and I was ready for bed. :]

[elevenhoursinfront-blog]

14th October 2017

Our alarm went off at 0500. We were waking up for sunrise which was painful. Once we were up though, it was fine. We walked the 50 metres to the beach in our pyjamas and sat on the sand in front of the water. It was beautiful. The sky was a strong orange that mixed into purple and then blue. We took some photos and watched as the moon disapeared and the sun arrived.

Steve was on his phone and then I heard him make a weird noise. His face had changed and he looked mortified... I asked what was wrong and he said "it was my instructor". My heart just sank. He had 20,000 jumps to his name. Why now? What went so wrong? Steve was devestated. He just went silent for the whole morning. He's not exactly Mr Vocal at the best of times but this was horrible. He said "I'm not going to be able to watch my video now". The worst thing is, they had great banter together. In the video when the parachute goes up, you can hear Dawson go to Steve "Wahey, we're not dead!"... The news was slightly updated with names of who had passed away and what they thought had happened. It was a tandem dive with one instructor either being Dawson or Toby and a customer called Kerri - a mother of 3 on a jump for a birthday present. Appears that it was a midair collision, the parachutes got tangled and didn't open. They went into the trees inland. The single diver was found in a persons backgarden, 200-300 metres from the others. There were many witnesses on the beach watching it happen. It's just devestating.  

We went back to the tents and most started eating their breakfast. Steve and I weren't hungry. Donald and Lisa were still asleep, they didn't want to watch sunrise. We decided to go to Cape Tribulation today rather than tomorrow so that we could meet up with Tom and Betty on Sunday in Port Douglas as they weren't working.

We got showered and ready, jumped into the van around 0800. The drive there took about 2.5 hours. We had to get a ferry across the Daintree River that is croc infested. Unfortunately, none were spotted. The moment we got onto the land into the forest, you could immediately smell the plants, the trees and the soil. It has a particular smell, it was so refreshing. People looked at me like I was weird but I love the outdoors.

We stopped at Alexandra lookout which was over the rainforest and the beach with islands in the background. It was stunning. We stopped there for 5 minutes, if that, just to look and take some photos. We kept on driving up to the top of the forest. We stopped at a shop to find out where was best to go and the man said "Emmagen Creek". We got back into the car and drove the extra 15 minutes.

We pulled over and it quite big, just in the middle of the forest with the trees surrounding us. The sun was beaming through the tops of the trees. We went for a walk down the creek first, seeing snakes and lizards everywhere. We were climbing over massive boulders and trees that had fallen. I was hoping that we wouldn't get bitten by something that would harm us. We spent half an hour or more just walking aimlessly further into the rainforest. We stopped next to a tree that was across the stream and we all sat on it for a photo. After that, we went back to the creek for a swim.

We all had to get changed in front of eachother. It's much easier when you can wear a bikini but I can't. Steve and I went back to the van and I quickly got changed in there. Luckiy, nobody saw, they would've had a right fright.

The water was nice, not too cold. It was weird knowing that we were swimming in a fresh water creek in the middle of the oldest rainforest in the world. I loved it. We spent another half an hour or so swimming about before we decided to go the next location. The beach!

I got changed in front of the van so that everyone inside wasn't able to see. I was standing practically naked and anyone who drove past would've got a nice view of my rear end! Nobody did though. Everyone was munching on their food as we drove down to the parking area of Cape Tribulation Beach.

The beach was absolutely beautiful. The tide was out so the sand went on for miles. It was so white mixed with silver glitter. It was stunning. The water was so hot, hotter than any bath I have at home. It was definitely the warmest water I've ever felt in my life. Steve and I walked through the shallow part, just dipping our toes in.

We walked up the coast line to see how far we could get. Apparently, according to the information sign, there was another creek right at the end of the beach, around a 4km walk. You can only go when the tide is out or you'll get stuck. We started the walk and got around 2km before realising the tide was coming back in. We turned around, and started walking back.

We were walking in the water and before we knew it, it was knee high. Not an issue, it was stunning. Steve pointed out a sting ray to us! We all tried walking over to him to see but the noise of the water scared him away. After about 5-10 minutes, we realised there were loads of sting rays... I saw about 5. Steve and Maryly then saw a baby shark swim infront of them. I panic a fair bit when fish come near me in the water so I decided to try and get onto the sand. The rocks going in were so sharp so it was painful to walk on. Everyone was going round them but had to spend more time in the water. We were only shallow to start with but now that it was knee high, I didn't want to be in it. It is a home to the crocs, too.

Steve helped me get out and walked along the beach for a bit with me before he decided to see the stingrays again. My feet stayed firmly on the sand, looking from afar. Everyone slowly joined me, once they managed to get out of the water. I guess I don't like the feeling of being 'stuck'.

We decided to chill on the beach for a little while so everyone put their towels down and sat down. Steve and I went for a walk to the lookout point. It was only a 5 minute return walk but I love lookout points. We got there, I took a few photos and we walked back. It was a great viewing point, I got a lovely photo.

We got back and they were playing frisbee. I sat down and read the Daintree map and figured out what to do tomorrow. 20 minutes had passed and we decided to go and set our tents up. We jumped in the van and drove the 20 minutes to our camp ground. We pulled in and there were 16 spots. We weren't told what spot we had, we were just given a reference number that had to be placed on the car and tents. We drove round a few times and picked number 4 as it seemed to be the only one that would fit us and the van in...

We got set up and decided to go somewhere for sunset. Half the group were absolutely starving so we drove to the pub. The pub said they don't start serving food for another 2 hours... The hungry ones managed to get a pie out of them and we drove to the nearest beach to watch sunset.

We ended up at Cow Bay Beach. It was lovely, the sand was thick, white and soft. There were two manmade swings from the palm trees and pretty much only locals around. We played tag rugby for the next hour. We got two teams of 4 – two girls and two boys each. We got the rugby ball out of the van and we were running up and down the beach. It was really funny, we were falling over in the sand, pushed in the water and all sorts. By the end, everyone was sweating. We all quickly jumped in the water to wash ourselves off and cool down. A local came down to us and said “Don't go in the water, it's crocadile infested. Please get out”.

We got out and sat by the sand. Everyone started pushing eachother into the sand whilst we were wet so that they had to go clean themselves off in the water. It was really funny but Steve and I never got pushed luckily.

After sunset, we were desperate for a shower. We were sticky, sandy and sweaty. We drove to the pub and asked if they had showers we could pay for. The pub was a hotel too so it was our best bet, I guess. Our campsite didn't have showers – the majority don't, unless you pay loads more. We only paid $7 each to stay where we're staying.

The hotel said no and to try the petrol station 6km up the road. We jumped in the van and hoped for the best. We found the petrol station and drove up past it. There was another campsite with toilet cubicles. Hugo jumped out and said “There's two showers!”. We got out and started sorting our stuff out. A man came over and said that we had to pay $3 to shower. No bother, it is what it is. We paid him, well, everyone did except me. I was still in the van looking at the map and I had no idea what was going on. Oh well. He was gone by the time I got out.

By the time we were finished, it was pitch black outside. We drove back to the pub for happy hour and food. I weren't hungry so I didn't order anything. I had a half pint of beer as I was designated driver. There was live music which was nice. A man singing and playing the Digerydoo.

We played card games like Rummy until the food came out. We had no signal whatsoever since we got the ferry over. Nowhere had wifi either so our phones were never out. It was nice to not be on our phones definitely, it's just an inconvience too. Australian bank cards have 3 accounts to hold your money in – Savings, Cheque, Credit. They say that you must keep the majority of it in savings as it cannot get stolen from there. You can't withdraw or pay using savings though so before you buy something, you have to transfer it over to credit. Steve and I didn't do that before we lost service so we didn't have money available to us. Lexi leant Steve her card and he was able to order some chips.

We stayed at the pub for an hour or two before deciding to go back to the campsite. We all had drink there so it was better for us to go back. That way we could all drink and save money at the same time...

We got to the camp site and someone had parked in our spot and set up their tents on top of ours. What the hell? Two Australian men came out and said they paid for this particular spot. They said that we could stay if we were going straight to bed as they were sleeping. I said that we should say yes to their offer. It was already 2230 and we were up really early. We drove round to see if there were any spots left and there wasn't. Great. We got back to number 4 and the men came out again. They said that we were pissing them off and we had to leave now. He said that spot number 1 was empty and we should stay there. I drove the van round and everyone walked their tents over. The reason spot number 1 was wempty is because it was taped up! You weren't allowed to stay in there. It said nobody was allowed to stay in this spot, there was rope and all sorts surrounding it. Penalty points and on the spot fines... I said it's all well and good escaping fines but what's the actual reason behind nobody being allowed to stay in this spot? It's most likely dangerous with the trees or something and I'd rather not stay here.

We packed up the van and left. We were 'homeless' in the middle of the rainforest in the middle of the night with no service whatsoever. The annoying thing is that someone in that campground is there when they shouldn't be, taking our spot that we paid for. When the men were talking to the group and we were all panicking about what to do, I started to really panic. I had booked it so I was worried everyone would blame me.

We decided to drive to 30 minutes to the campground we pulled up in when we showered. Our plan was to set up as quitely as possible and leave by 0450 so that we wouldn't have to pay. We pulled up in the middle of the grass and left the van lights on so that we could set up.

We all put our tents up in silence and sat in a circle when we were finished. Steve and I put the headtorch of so that we could at least see eachother. Everyone sat round, drinking their drinks and chatting at a whisper. It was quite nice to be fair. I just hoped that we wouldn't get caught, especially not knowing the price of the campsite.

At 0030, Steve and I said that we were going to go to sleep. Our alarms were going off at 0430 and we had a 4 hour drive home tomorrow, after our next full day out. It's going to be a long day. We got into our tent and we were joined by a massive cockroach inbetween the sheet and the outside of the tent. We couldn't sleep because all we could hear was his footsteps. Steve tried to whack him off a few times. After that, we were out like a light.

[ccxmichael-blog]

jammed.

@ccgavin

there’s some things that just aren’t worth worrying about. like, yeah, he could get hit by a meteor falling from the sky or he could have his leg bitten off by a shark when he dips his toes in the ocean, but those are such rare and improbable occurrences that michael has never wasted energy worrying about them. he has more immediate fears; will this monster he fights be the last? is there a card waiting to stab him in the back? it’s a strange life he lives that he worried more about magical creatures causing his demise than a car accident.

elevators are another thing that he expects to work just fine. he’s never had a problem with them before, not in his old apartment in austin and certainly not in this new place he now lives in. michael mashes the button to go up, checking emails on his phone idly. nothing important there; he pockets the device as he furiously taps on the button to close the doors. there’s nothing worse than the awkward half a minute with a stranger on the elevator. apparently the button does not work, because the doors are in no rush to close.

[packagetwentyseven]

in god we trust

@httpwings

Matthias casually strolls into a high-end designer shop, for once his crisp suit and deep maroon reflective aviators look right at home. His six figure shoes click on the immaculate floor as the blonde, cutting quite a figure among the mannequins dressed head to toe in tasteful fashions, strolls up to the register. 

“Good morning,” Matthias greets the pretty cashier, flashing her a disarming smile that turns even more genuine when he sees her raise an uninterested brow at him. Angel really does train her staff just right, cutting no corners with her security and name. Matthias looks around the shop, smile still sharp as a blade’s edge before he turns back to the patient cashier. He knows she must know who he is.

“Can you do me a quick favor honeybee, and get your employer for me? She and I have some shit to talk about,” he politely asks and watches the lovely lady walk off to fetch Angel. In the meantime, Matthias peruses between the racks like a shark circling a wounded seal. He massages the material of a suit jacket between his fingers as he silently keeps track of the sales attendants debating whether to pitch a sale to him or stand back lest they get bitten and punished. 

Matthias turns at the sound of heels returning and the blonde has a bright smile again. “Morning,” he greets and shakes Angel’s hand. “Got an office we can talk in? I’m about to talk to you about something that’s kinda... delicate.” Matthias subtly gestures at the open space around them. 

Once they’re behind closed doors, Matthias pushes his sunglasses into his hair and rolls his necks, transforming from the easy going playboy to one of the only two Angels standing above Wings’s rank. He looks down at her before calmly taking a seat and gesturing for her to take hers.

“...When’s the last time we did something fun Angie?” Matthias asks, keeping his face neutral.