#anyways I should probably go offline and get ready for school

[forecast-rain]

Also what would have happened if claire saw noel go into that room? If she tried to save him? Would they both get dragged down to hell? Would they be forced to spend eternity together? would she be too late and be traumatized forever? at least this way she'd know what happened, but would that actually be better? Come to think of it, would this mean that all of them could leave the mansion before Nicholas came after them? Or would Claire refuse to leave, knowing that Noel is trapped in this place? Unless she didn't.

...it isn't very likely that dorothy would have wished for claire to forget Noel right. right. And what about sirius? how would he react to all of this? hmm...

[mingkily]

｡☆✼★━ my baby, my home | p.sh ━★✼☆｡

navigation

starring: seonghwa x reader

fsk-0: fluff | mentions of covid, online uni and social distancing

volume: 1.5k words

vip access: @treasure-hwa & @barsformars & @midnightseonghwa & @multidreams-and-desires & @yunhoiseyecandy

“drink some more, you sound like a toad”, a loving little jab that made you roll your eyes but do as he said, because you were croaking a little; but he loved you anyway, even when you sounded like a toad. would love you if you had no voice at all, too.

sometimes you felt like seonghwa was a chronic mum friend, unable to stop pampering people even when they didn’t need it; possibly a side effect of living with seven other men of which at least five were more like boys, despite each being a legal adult. and sometimes, that was annoying you a little, because you didn’t need to be treated like a child and it did feel a little condescending at times.

today, however, was not such a sometimes.

you were crying into his chest, frustrated because this stupid pandemic had made it impossible to have a normal life, and while you’d grown somewhat used to it your studies had started, something you’d been excited for until the very first course was online already, making it impossible to get to know new people, and that was one of the things you’d been most excited for. and it felt so stupid, being upset over this when there were bigger problems - like people dying, for example -, but it just felt like the biggest problem in the world right now. it was the biggest problem in your world.

“it’s just so bad, hwa”, you sniffled, “all i see is blank screens and names that don’t tell me anything, and the teachers talk about random campus things as if any of us had had a chance to go there for more than five minutes, and it just makes me sad”, complaints that felt so childish, but he didn’t think any worse of you for it. he had a job, had chosen not to study, and even for him it was hard not seeing the usual people. and people still came in, just less frequently. he still had company. he couldn’t imagine how it was for you, sitting home all day staring at a screen in the empty apartment while he was at work. he could understand why you felt lonely, really.

“i get that, baby. i can’t say anything to make it better, either. but i’m here, and you can cry as long as you need to. or, tomorrow i’ll have to go to work, but if you need me i can call in sick. can’t possibly leave my baby alone when she’s sad.”

he was too great to comprehend, rubbing your back soothingly while you covered his favourite shirt in tears and snot, patient and warm and you almost told him to take the day off and just cuddle you, but you stopped yourself before you could do that. you felt pathetic, yes, but not that pathetic.

“i love you, hwa”, you hiccoughed, “and you smell really warm.”

“i smell warm?”, a little confused, but happy about the compliment nonetheless - if it was a compliment and not you trying to tell him that he was sweaty, which might very much be.

“yeah. like home.”

that was without a doubt a compliment, and seonghwa smiled against your hair.

“maybe that’s because we’re home, baby”, the reminder of sharing a home with him making both your hearts beat the tiniest bit faster. neither of you had expected this would be where you’d be when little freshman you had fallen in love with him, a senior because he’d skipped a class, and transferring from an all boys school to your mixed gender high school because his family had moved. but here you were, in his arm and in your common flat, living together and him comforting you through the crisis you had about having to start university during covid.

“maybe”, his comment having succeeded in making you smile, even though he couldn’t see it yet, “or maybe it’s because i love you.”

“i love you too. my baby. my home.”

together with his gentle movements on your back and the barely there rocking back and forth you did feel a little like a baby, but not in a bad way. you appreciated it, in this moment, appreciated feeling like someone was taking care of you. you liked not having to take care of yourself in this moment, having him there to take care of you when you were sad and honestly didn’t feel like you could do much other than cry. it was incredibly comforting to be pampered, wrapped in his arms and a soft blanket and him now asking if you wanted hot lemon water. you weren’t sick, but your throat probably hurt from sobbing so much, and he was always so mindful and so sweet.

“please”, you croaked out, though you didn’t really want to let go of him, in a little bit of a conflict because you knew you’d have to let him go if you wanted the water, but you also didn’t want to let go ever, especially if you didn’t actually have to.

but the desire for hot lemon water won, especially knowing he’d hold you again while you drank it anyway, so you moved off his lap, sat on the bed and kissed his cheek softly and shortly before he went to the kitchen, ready to pamper his baby some more.

“here. hot water with lemon. but be careful, it’s really hot”, your boyfriend told you a few minutes later, in the living room now because you’d missed him and had moved to the couch to at least be able to watch him while he prepared the drink for you.

“thank you, hwa”, leaving the cup on the table as you wrapped your hands around his neck instead to kiss him, your face snot-free now because you’d cleaned yourself up on the way since you passed the bathroom anyway and felt gross.

“you’re welcome”, seonghwa mumbled against you once you broke the kiss, smiling because it did seem like you were feeling better now, “how are you?”

he still wanted to make sure, of course he did.

“i’m better. but it’s still just… hard. i don’t know what to do. i don’t know how to meet people. and i feel a little lonely because it feels like i only have you and the boys, which is great, don’t get me wrong, but they’re your friends most of all, and i know it’s not how it is but i always feel like i’m intruding a little.”

“i understand”, he murmured against your hair, having pulled you against him again, into his chest with your face near his neck, “as you said, you’re never intruding, they all adore you almost as much as me, but i get it. you want your own friends. don’t want to always be stuck hanging out with me and my friends or being all by yourself. yes, i know you’re not stuck with me and you like it and you love me”, chuckling defensively when you raised your head and were about to protest, “it’s just that having a group of people for yourself would also be nice. i get it, don’t worry.”

he was way too perfect to be real, but you enjoyed this dream while it lasted. enjoyed being with seonghwa as long as you could. and were now going to enjoy the hot lemon water, prepared with lots of love and the water kettle that your boyfriend refused to get rid of and just the right amount of lemon.

“thank you, hwa”, not sure whether it was for the water or his words or both - probably both, “i love you.”

“i love you too. but baby?”, suddenly having an idea that might help and might get you some friends of your own, telling you once you hummed in acknowledgment, “how about you ask the teacher if you could suggest something like a book club or a study group or something? you could do it online, and then in really small groups offline once you know each other. social distancing and all, of course, but i think that might be better than having no one to talk to at all. and a study group would be useful, too, especially now in the beginning.”

that was a great idea, actually, one you hadn’t thought of because everything had felt so hopeless now that university had started and you hadn’t even seen anyone’s faces yet, and you rewarded him for it by setting down the mug and kissing him again, covering his face in hot, slightly wet kisses, the hot water he’d made you having heated up your lips enough for him to feel, and it was a nice feeling. warm and cosy, in a way.

“that’s such a good idea, you’re so smart! you should be in uni, not me!”, you praised him, eyes bright and face lit up by the smile he loved so much.

“you know you’re just as smart. now drink some more, you sound like a toad”, a loving little jab that made you roll your eyes but do as he said, because you were croaking a little; but he loved you anyway, even when you sounded like a toad. would love you if you had no voice at all, too.

and how could he not? you were his baby. you were his home.

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

Pairings: None

Word Count: 1,835 Words

Summary: Off to a chaotic start, I see. Bakugou gets dared to start a 1-A group chat. The beginnings, Shinsou gains a father figure, and the bakusquad is chaotic.

Warnings: Dead Body Mention, Death Mention, Cursing, Anxiety Attack Mention, Caps, Mental Breakdown Mention, Fire Mention, Choking Mention, Injury Mention, Murder Mention, let me know if I should tag anything else.

Notes: Shigaraki's alias in the group chat is Ren and Dabi's alias is Haruhi. ¥11,055 is about $100 and ¥110,550 is about $1,000 on the day I wrote this.

Usernames: Area 51   Ashido: aggressive chicken dance, Kaminari: pikachoo, Kirishima: ordained, Jirou: neko neko kneecaps, Sero: wine and cheerios, Bakugou: mother i crave violence, Shinsou: its a mental breakdown

Usernames: Emo Sanctuary  Jirou: tell tale heart, Tokoyami: eldritch peep, Todoroki: i love you 3000, Bakugou: knife tag, Midoriya: bitchasaurus, Shinsou: unhappy meal, Kuroiro: meth and deadamine, Shigaraki: depresso extra shot, Dabi: *sad kazoo*

Into The Group Chat We Go: Chapter 1

1:45 AM

Emo Sanctuary

i love you 3000: I require attention.

unhappy meal: is that so?

i love you 3000: Yes, it is, otherwise I wouldn't have said it.

unhappy meal: @bitchasaurus, your man is sad.

bitchasaurus: He's not my man, Shinsou. Pretty sure he's no one's man, actually. And it's not like I'd have time for a relationship anyway.

i love you 3000: True. I'm not in a relationship.

unhappy meal: regardless, get your friend. the man wants attention.

bitchasaurus and i love you 3000 are now offline

*sad kazoo*: I dare someone to start a group chat with 1a and say something weird.

knife tag: Would I get paid for this?

*sad kazoo*: I'll give you anywhere from 11,05 yen to 110,550 yen.

knife tag: Deal.

2:00 AM

Bakugou has started a group chat

Bakugou has added Hanta, Mina, Eijiro, Denki, and 15 others to the chat

Bakugou has renamed the group chat to Area 51

Bakugou: His body is ready to be taxidermied. It's what Shinsou would've wanted.

Sero: What the fucketh?

Aoyama: Quoi?

Midoriya is now online

Midoriya: You didn't add Shinsou, you ass.

Bakugou: Oops, fuck.

Bakugou has added Shinsou to Area 51

Shinsou: hi I guess.

Aoyama: So your corpse is not being stuffed by Bakugou at the moment?

Shinsou: I mean, he can always taxidermy me while I'm alive. it's not like I'd stop him.

Midoriya: He's not. Kacchan was dared with cash to start this group chat and say something weird. Goodnight, filthy heathens.

Midoriya is now offline

Ojiro: Wow, Midoriya isn't messing around.

Aoyama: I feel ✨insulted✨ being called a filthy heathen.

Ojiro: I mean, it is an insult, Aoyama.

Aoyama: Yes, Ojiro, I understood that.

Sero: Why on earth are you two awake?

Ojiro: Because I can't sleep?

Aoyama: I got hungry.

Sero: Well, go to bed.

2:15 AM

Emo Sanctuary

knife tag: It's done.

knife tag: chatscreenshot.jpg

*sad kazoo* has sent a money transfer to knife tag

*sad kazoo*: Your money's pending to whatever card is attached to your number.

knife tag: moneytransferscreenshot.jpg

eldritch peep: wow, you really sent him 11,055 yen?

knife tag: This man's out here fueling my savings since UA instituted the no job rule since the dorms went into effect.

unhappy meal: they instituted a no job rule!? that's why I got that paper!? I thought that was a joke!

*sad kazoo*: Better put in a two weeks, kid.

unhappy meal: I literally can't. if I don't work, I don't have a way of feeding myself!

*sad kazoo*: Can't you ask your parents to send you food money, Toshi?

unhappy meal: okay, Haruhi, I know you weren't here when we started this chat with just me, Katsuki, Shouto, and Izuku so you don't know but I literally don't have parents, man. I lived in an orphanage until the beginning of the school year and, after I got in, I began renting an apartment near the school so I could attend. which means I'll lose my apartment where my cat and dog stay and it has all my stuff in it too.

tell tale heart: He's having an anxiety attack, someone go get him. I don't know where his room is.

meth and deadamine: I'll check on him.

knife tag: On my way.

eldritch peep: I'm coming, hold on.

*sad kazoo*: I've finally become a father at 28. I knew this shit would happen eventually.

*sad kazoo* has sent a money transfer to unhappy meal

*sad kazoo*: That's your monthly allowance. Do whatever you want, kid.

unhappy meal: I'm gonna cry.

unhappy meal: moneytransferscreenshot.jpg

meth and deadmine: You got 110,550 yen!? Haruhi out here paying kids to exist.

*sad kazoo*: That sounds weird, don't say that. I'm here because I'm Ren's best friend and Ren is Izuku's brother. I've effectively adopted both Katsuki and Hitoshi, I'm not sending random kids money for no reason, they're my sons.

eldritch peep: Ignore him, Kuroiro likes making things sound weird. How does it feel to be a father, Haruhi?

*sad kazoo*: Fatherhood? Guess that means I need to shape up and be a dad, huh?

eldritch peep: Step the fuck up, Haruhi.

*sad kazoo*:  I am, I am. Toshi, kid, don't cry or whatever, everything's gonna be fine.

unhappy meal: thanks, dad.

*sad kazoo*: My heart hurts. Why does it hurt? What the fuck is this feeling?

knife tag: It's called pride. It's because you're happy.

*sad kazoo*: This child is mine now, I'm going to find a way to legally adopt you.

unhappy meal: that would actually be really cool if you did.

*sad kazoo*: Looks like I'm re-evaluating my life tonight so I can make it hospitable for a son. I'm gonna go see if I can figure out how to fix some shit. Night, kids.

knife tag: hitoshicryingabouthavingadadnow.vid

Transcript Begin

"Hito, it's okay." -eldritch peep

"I have a dad now, Fumi." -unhappy meal

"We know, Shinsou." -meth and deadamine

"I have a dad." -unhappy meal

"Time to sleep, Toshi." -knife tag

"Okay. Time to sleep." -unhappy meal

Transcript End

*sad kazoo*: I love my son. Take care of him.

8:25 AM

Area 51

Ashido: ALERT- MY ALARMS DIDN'T GO OFF, PLEASE STALL AIZAWA FOR ABOUT TEN MINUTES

this message has been marked as an emergency

Shinsou: On it.

8:40 AM

Area 51

Ashido: What'd you do to distract him, Shinsou?

Shinsou: Oh, gave myself an anxiety attack.

Ashido: SHINSOU!

Shinsou: It was an emergency! You'd be in detention right now if I hadn't. plus I had one last night too so it wasn't hard to do.

Ashido: Shinsou, don't ever do that for me again but thank you. You're getting big bakusquad hugs at lunch.

Shinsou: It's not like it was difficult. I got lots to break down about.

Ashido: Me too, bitch.

4:00 PM

Area 51

Shinsou has changed their name to its a mental breakdown

Ashido: Oh my god, Shinsou.

its a mental breakdown: I figured while I'm at it.

Ashido: Speaking of at it.

Ashido has changed Kaminari's name to pikachoo

Ashido has changed Jirou's name to neko neko kneecaps

Ashido has changed Sero's name to wine and cheerios

Ashido has changed Bakugou's name to mother i crave violence

Ashido has changed their name to aggressive chicken dance

Kirishima: Could you not think of one for me?

aggressive chicken dance: More like can't decide.

Kirishima has changed their name to ordained

pikachoo: You're ordained, Kiri?

ordained: Yeah. I got ordained for my moms' wedding in a few months.

pikachoo: So cool, dude.

ordained: Oh, Shinsou, dude, you said you had an anxiety attack last night, you good, man?

its a mental breakdown: one sec.

4:05 PM

Emo Sanctuary

unhappy meal: can I talk about it, Zuku?

bitchasaurus: Yeah, why not? Because it involves Ren? It's not a big deal, Hitoshi!

unhappy meal: just making sure, some people don't like their personal lives talked about by other people.

bitchasaurus: I don't mind, Hitoshi.

4:09 PM

Area 51

its a mental breakdown: alright. so we had a chat from right after the sports festival with just me, Midoriya, Bakugou, and Todoroki which became an emo chatroom when we added Tokoyami, Jirou, and Kuroiro.

its a mental breakdown: And then Midoriya got in contact with his older brother, Ren and added him and Ren's best friend Haruhi to the chat because he wanted to show off Ren but Ren didn't feel comfortable talking without Haruhi lurking in the chat.

its a mental breakdown: you guys probably don't know but I was an orphan from a really really young age because my parents died when I was young and my other family members didn't want me. and at the beginning of this year, when I got into UA, I moved out of the orphanage, got an apartment close to campus and all, I'd had a job for two years prior.

its a mental breakdown: and last night, Haruhi gave Bakugou 11,055 yen as a dare to start this chat. then Bakugou and Haruhi were talking about the no-job rule because of the dorms and I'd thought it was a joke when I got the paper so I didn't have anything saved up and I don't exactly have parents I can ask for money if I need to buy food and I'm definitely not asking my friends and bothering them.

its a mental breakdown: I mean, I have enough I could coast for a month or two without pay but I feel like Aizawa would kill me for not eating right.

its a mental breakdown: anyway, I had my anxiety attack, Haruhi sent me money, Kuroiro made a sentence creepy like always, and Haruhi called me and Bakugou his sons. him, Jirou and Tokoyami joked about him being a dad for a bit and then he actually told me when I went back online that he wanted to legally adopt me.

mother i crave violence: Thus why I didn't wake up Pinky this morning. I was busy in the Gen Ed dorms with my new brother.

its a mental breakdown: I will have another breakdown, don't tempt me.

ordained: Shinsou, man, that's so awesome! You have a dad! We should have a party for Shinsou getting a dad!

its a mental breakdown: if it makes you guys happy then go for it but if you go crazy with the party again. we already had the incident on my birthday, we're not having another.

Asui: What incident, kero?

its a mental breakdown: Kirishima's hair got set on fire at some point, Sero got tangled onto the railing of my balcony and was hanging from my fifth floor apartment's balcony railing, Mina choked on a piece of burnt tofu, Kaminari slipped in the bathroom and fell into the full bathtub where he then electrocuted himself, Bakugou got his face shoved into the cake and sat in the corner pouting while my cat Ume and dog Anzu tried to eat the cake off his face for the rest of the night, Jirou got lost inside my apartment building, and I hit my head on the counter and had a concussion for a week.

Hagakure: Why is your friend group so chaotic?

mother i crave violence: I like to think I've cultivated a well-functioning group of chaotic demons. At least if one of us is doing something dumb, usually the rest will either follow or do something dumb of their own.

neko neko kneecaps: I'd like to plead innocent as well as shift majority blame to Midoriya's friend group because I just know those idiots could and would collectively kill and hide a body and nobody would ever know it was them.

Midoriya: Bold of you to assume we haven't already.

neko neko kneecaps: Yeah, hi, mom, pick me up, I'm afraid of Midoriya again.

Midoriya: You can run, Jirou, but you can't hide.

neko neko kneecaps: You can't kill me, Bakugou would be sad!

Midoriya: You may live...for now.

neko neko kneecaps: Oh, thank the gods.

Taglist: @lgbtforeverything @rin-tanaka

[thegayfromrulid]

Can you do a pov reader with SAO gang holiday special?

This was a fun challenge! I’ve only ever written ONE POV reader before, and it was an x Reader for a mutual’s birthday! I thought long and hard about how to fit the reader into this fic, and I think it turned out pretty decent! Let me know how I did! 

           As you’re walking home from school, your phone vibrates in your pocket. Since you’re on the train, you slip it out and check the notification, curious if it’s a friend texting or just your mom telling you what to do about dinner. To your delight, it’s a group text. You flip it open to see a few people have already responded to the initial message. It looks like Asuna’s invited everyone over to the log cabin for a small holiday party in ALO. Lisbeth spammed the chat with a bunch of excited emojis, and a few confirmations had already been sent from Sinon, Leafa, and Klein. You think about how much homework you have to do for a moment, and then, with a shrug, you decide that it’s just one day. You deserve to hang out with your friends, especially for the holidays.

           With your confirmation typed up and sent, you smile and pocket your phone just in time to get off at your train stop. If you hurry and get a decent amount of homework done, you won’t have as much to worry about when you head to the ALO party later. You speed down the sidewalk at a quicker pace than usual, already feeling excited to have some much-needed break time from all of the school stress. Racing into your home, you barely stop long enough to slip into your house slippers and then you dash past the kitchen to grab a snack before you head into your room. You check the time. You have a couple of hours before the party.

           In that time, you complete as much homework as you can, checking off each subject’s work as you go in your planner. You get a lot more done than you thought you would have; perhaps the motivation of the holiday party gave you more energy. When you’re finally closing the last tab on your homework readings, you breathe out a sigh of relief and turn your head to look at your Amusphere, sitting there on the headboard of your bed, waiting to be turned on. With an eager grin, you change into some more comfortable clothes for diving, crawl onto the bed after closing your door and putting a note on it for your family, and then you slip the Amusphere over your eyes. You say the two magic words that will take you to Alfheim, and before you know it, you’re materializing in the living area, receiving a smile from Asuna and Sinon, who are setting up the coffee table with little decorations.

           “Oh, you’re a little early!” Asuna says. “Good! Can you take care of some of the decorations? Lisbeth was supposed to be here by now, but she’s running a little late because her mom needed her to do something.”

           You’re eager to help, so you ask her what decorations need taking care of. As it turns out, they’ve purchased pretty much everything the game had to offer in the ways of holiday decorations. There were wreaths, decorative candles that burned in different colors to resemble holiday string lights, more traditional candles, lots of red and green ribbons and garlands, strings of popcorn, and candy canes. Asuna has even gone through the trouble of making everyone holiday outfits that fit with their ALO races. She gives you yours, and you equip it quickly to get in the spirit of the party.

           Decorating goes fairly easy in ALO. All one has to do is hold something up to the wall and then press a button on the menu to say that it was where you wanted it. You take care of the wall decorations; Lisbeth and Silica show up a little after you and insist on putting up a tree by themselves. Sinon catches your eyes and rolls hers as Silica accidentally wrapps herself up in tree garlands. You can’t help but giggle at the sight. You’re stuck between untangling Silica and possibly taking a screenshot. In the end, Klein shows up and takes care of the issue—only to get himself stuck.

           Alice and Eugeo are the next to arrive, closely followed by Agil. They get to work immediately, making sure everything is in place. By the time Kirito and Leafa arrive, most of the work was done. Sinon immediately accuses Kirito of trying to get out of sharing the work, and Asuna jumps to his defense quite calmly, saying that he wouldn’t have been much of a help anyways. Kirito looks as if he’d wilted. Eugeo pats him on the back, laughing and telling him that it was okay that he was late. Asuna shares the remainder of the holiday outfits with the latecomers, and soon, everyone is festively dressed.

           The little log cabin looks splendid. You give Silica and Lisbeth a thumbs’ up for how nice the tree looks. The coffee and dinner tables both look grand, and they’d been filled with holiday-themed goodies, both traditional and ALO-specific treats. Asuna and Kirito said they’d paid for all of it. You think about how much yrd this all cost, and then you immediately put that thought out of your mind. They wouldn’t want you to think about that—they wanted everyone to have fun and spread cheer.

           “Shall we propose a toast?” Agil suggests.

           Lisbeth picks up a champagne glass and holds it in the air.

           “Yeah, a toast!” she says. “To another year of successful questing!”

           Kirito nods and picks up a glass of his own. You follow suit, and the others aren’t that far behind.

           “It’s been a long year of adjusting,” he says. “But we’ve all come to appreciate this world as our own as much as the world we were born in. This holiday season, let’s just be grateful that we can be ourselves in VRMMOs freely.”

           Sinon rolls her eyes.

           “And cheers to the increased drop rate for the holiday event,” he throws in at the end.

           Lisbeth snorts and starts laughing.

           “Kiritooo,” she says. “Be serious!”

           Asuna jumps in before Kirito could make things any less serious.

           “Alright, everyone!” she says. “We’ve got the savory foods ready on the big table and the sweet ones are in here on the coffee table! Please, do, take as much as you like! There’s plenty for a few more rounds of completely filled plates! And drinks are in the kitchen!”

           Not a word more needed to be said. Everyone hurries to grab a plate, and you find yourself trying to decide what all to try. The traditional treats could be found offline, but they were sure to be great, since Asuna most likely made them with her high cooking skill. On the other hand, the ALO holiday-themed treats were probably unique and interesting in their own right, and you’d never be able to recreate those in the real world—at least, not without some help from a decent cook friend, that is. In the end, you try to take a little bit of everything. After all, your virtual stomach doesn’t fill up the same way your real one did. You’d be safe trying as much food as possible.

           You take a seat on the long futon in the living area, seated between Lisbeth and Sinon. Lisbeth, like you, has filled up her plate with everything she could fit on it, while Sinon has selected a few things and separated them evenly on her plate. You look across the room to see Kirito with an equally stuffed-looking plate in his usual place in the rocking chair, and Yui is seated on his head eagerly downing a gingerbread cookie. Asuna sits down beside them in the chair, and across from you, Leafa, Alice, and Silica take up the opposite futon. Klein and Agil have cornered Eugeo to ask him questions about life in the real world. Everyone seems excited and talkative.

           “So, are you ready for the big New Year’s Eve quest?” Lisbeth asks you.

           Nodding, you smile at her and tell her you’re making sure to have the whole night clear in order to come and complete it.

           “It’s gonna be great!” she exclaimes.

           Sinon chuckles and shakes her head.

           “I think the eggnog is getting to her head, don’t you?” she asks.

           You laugh and shake your head. Lisbeth is always easily excitable at these kinds of gatherings. You’ve been with this group long enough to know it’s just the spirit of being together that gets her going. You ask them if they’ve got any holiday plans with their families. Sinon is staying by herself. Lisbeth’s family is throwing a big gift exchange party, which apparently is mostly gag gifts for laughs. In turn, they ask you what you’ve got planned, and you tell them what your family plans to do and which parts you’re excited for and which you aren’t.

           Asuna comes over and asks you if you’d like a refill on your drink. You nod and thank her as she pours you some more. It’s warm and smells delicious. It isn’t what you were drinking before, but you’re excited to drink it. Bringing it to your lips, you taste something spiced with a little tinge of apple. It’s a bit like a cider. Lisbeth sees the look on your face and excitedly leans over to ask Asuna for some of the drink. The drink, which Asuna calls Undine Spiced Wine, is a big hit with everyone in the group. By the end of the night, there’s not a drop left.

           No one wants to leave, of course. There’s a bit of chatter—maybe on the actual date of the holiday, there’ll be a gift exchange. The rules are simple; the item has to cost two thousand yen or less. Kirito says everyone can meet at his house. Anyone who hasn’t been before should text him for the address. As your friends start to log out, you tell them to have a happy holiday as you tell each one goodbye. Finally, it’s just you, Asuna, and Kirito there. They turn to you and ask when you’re planning to log out. You tell them you don’t want the holiday party to end.

           “Don’t worry, it’s not really the end,” Kirito says. “We’re just pausing to sleep before resuming at my place in a few days. You’ve got the address, right?”

           You shake your head. You’ve only ever met up with them online.

           “Oh, my bad!” Kirito says. “I’ll text it to you as soon as I log out. I look forward to seeing you! Bring something really fun! I know I’m hoping Klein will open the gag gift I’m bringing!”

           Asuna jabs him in the ribcage.

           “Kirito-kun!” she says. “You bring something nice!”

           You laugh and thank him, telling them both that you’ll see them at school. You log out and return to your bedroom, hearing only the running heat. It sounds like your parents aren’t home just yet. You take off your Amusphere and roll over to see your phone lit up with the message from Kirito. It’s his address. You smile and clutch the phone to your chest.

           The holidays have only just begun.

[daisylincs]

Hi lovely people who follow me,

As many of you will undoubtedly know, the school year has started up again - which means it’s time for me to throw myself wholly back into my teaching. 

This time of year is always absolutely crazy for me, what with the whole rush and rigmarole of getting to know my new students, getting re-acquainted with the old ones, figuring out where everyone’s at, who needs extra help, who’s ahead, how I’m going to structure everything this year, and so on and so forth.

As a result, I’m probably going to be a lot less active here on Tumblr - but I just want each and every one of you to know that I am still here, even though I might go offline for a few whole days on end when I’m feeling particularly overloaded. I still want to talk to you guys, and gush with you, and play tag games with you, though, even if it does take me a whole lot longer to actually get around to it all.

My inbox is always open, and so are my DMs - so if there’s something you’d like to share, or thought I might enjoy, or even if you just want to say hi, you are so welcome!! Tag me, ask me things, come yell with me - I might be a little less active, but I still love you guys to absolute pieces, and nothing could ever persuade me to give up these things.

Another super sad side effect of this all is that I’m going to have to close all prompts and requests for the time being - because while I absolutely adore hearing from you all (in fact nothing makes me feel more flattered and happy with myself) I also have this teensy little problem of Too Many WIPs™, and realistically I just... can’t add anything else to my plate. This year is just already such chaos, you know, and unfortunately time is not on my side.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not writing!! I am, and I’m loving every slightly-rushed second of it. To do a quick run-down, here are the projects I’m working on at the moment:

Agents of Birthdays 

A.K.A. my quest to write all my fandom friends a special ficlet fic for their favourite ships on their birthdays. For obvious reasons, there’s no update schedule for this one - it’s just whenever someone has a birthday. I’m also very proud to announce that this is the one series where I have, to date, been on time every single time!! And I really do plan to keep it that way. 

(For an idea of the birthday schedule, see the amazing @bobbimorseisbisexual‘s Celebrations page. For fic teases, DM me and I will HAPPILY provide 😏😏😏)

Danny Boy & Quake

Sky’s the Limit

Spider-Dorks

I’m going to do the little explain-y thingy in one for these three series, because they all form a part of my 100 Followers Celebration! 😍😍 Gosh, I still can’t believe I’m this far over a hundred followers - LOVE YOU GUYS!! 

Anyway, anyway, anyway. So, in these series, I created three AU settings and asked you guys for prompts - and I got some really fabulous ones, I’m delighted to report!! I’m working on all three of these series on the side (slow but steady wins the race) and it’s my hope to have them all mostly completed and ready for posting by or around this December.

Spideychelle Week 2020

Oh, boy, this event finished literal months ago, but here I still am, just barely half-way through. *cringes* I am still working on the next few fics for this, somewhere... vaguely productive in my brain. Does such a place exist? Ahem. I wish I could tell you when I’ll actually get around to writing the next lot, but as it is - the link for the series on AO3 is here, and who knows, maybe I’ll surprise you all and myself and actually finish it this year. WHO KNOWS. I can live in hope, though.

AoS Season 7 Countdown

I should really change the description of this to “LATE,” because good heavens, is it ever late!! This was meant to be a series for BEFORE the seventh season of AoS, and now season 7 is over and the series is... not. I can’t bring myself to say I’m done with it yet, though, because I do actually have the fic plans for the last three days all figured out!! So I’m just going to say this is a series for me now, instead of for the official event, and I am not quitting on it yet. One day, it will be completed. One day. We can all live in hope together - also, the AO3 collection is here.

...

Okay, whoa, this post got awfully long-winded!! I swear I only meant to write a hundred words - I swear it. How does this always happen to me??? 

Anyway, TL;DR: I love you all to pieces, and I’m signing off with the biggest load of virtual hugs sent out to you all!!

~ Lily xx

[alwaysanotherrainbow]

my boyfriend never texts first

Remus just wants to not be the first one to send a message every once in a while. That’s not too much to ask, right?

relationship: romantic remrom, background remy and emile (also romantic)

warnings: major character death, extended mourning (secondary warnings- brief discussion of religious holidays, brief underage drinking mention, a lot of all-caps) notes: unrelated, human, hs/college au. virgil, emile, and remy are here too. If you need anything in the secondary warnings (or one of those latter three characters) edited out, please let me know and I can put that up for you!

____________________________________________________

Remus always texted him first. Always. It didn’t matter the situation, didn’t matter the time date place name face. Who what when where why. It first started when he texted hi roman :) when they first got phones; for whatever reason, Roman just never texted first. Either he’d call or they’d talk in person.

No matter. Remus could cope.

May 1:

8:37 PM tody i saw you by my locker 8:39 PM *today 8:42 PM why didnt you say hi?

May 2:

9:30 PM a teacher talked to me today 9:30 PM wanted to talk about how i’m doing after 9:52 PM well you know. he’s a sick bastard

Really, it wasn’t too much to ask for, was it? He just wanted to see him text first once in a while! May 7:

3:32 PM: by the way idk if you got this last time 3:36 PM: my class ring size is the medium 3:44 PM: hopefully you order it by the deadline :P 4:03 PM: no idea when the deadline is 4:20 PM: bLAZE IT 4:24 PM: sorry i have like 0 money so i got it from the consignment shop 4:31 PM: i hope you like synthetic rubies!! leaving them with ur dad 10:40 PM: update. i cried for four hours with your dad.

June 2:

7:30 AM: gRaDuAtIoN dAy!!! 7:32 AM: there’s cookies in the reception menu 7:35 AM: snickerdoodles your favorite [eyes] 10:02 AM: i’m getting some for u 10:05 AM: [kissy face] 7:40 PM: the announcement was Weird 7:43 PM: anyways i have the snickerdoodles (Remus couldn’t go over to where Roman was staying, so he left them in the living room. He knew Roman would appreciate them. Hopefully he’d come over (wait, probably not, given...))

Well, actually, he could understand why he never texted first. June 11:

12:14 PM: roMAN 12:16 PM: [Attachment: Remus_Picani-Kleitman_Acceptance_Letter.pdf] 12:18 PM: YEAHHHH 12:24 PM: I’m sure you got in too SEND ME YOURS WHEN YOU GET IT 12:32 PM: WE MIGHT SHARE A ROOM YEA 12:35 PM: [Attachment: celebration.jpg]

Everyone was probably saying that he ought to just move on, but to be honest, he couldn’t... Actually, to be honest, no-one had told him to move on to his face yet. In fact, everyone was surprised he was doing so well, given how bad the circumstances were! The situation was stressing him out so much, even his dads were gently advising him to rethink things. (Well, that was part of the territory with one of them being a therapist and the other being a barista.)

“I got y’all some kouign-amann from the cafe,” said Dad, putting it down on the counter. His shirt had SLEEP scrawled on it with a Sharpie; it was the one that Remus had made for him as a joke. He still wore it. Huh.

“Sweetie, what’s a queen amahn?” asked Papa.

“It’s a... er, it’s like a... this is kinda like a croissant that had dreams of a muffin tin and salted caramel. One for you, babe.... then one for Doodlebug-”

“Can I leave some for Roman?” asked Remus.

They exchanged a glance.

“Of course you can,” said Papa with a smile. “Your candle’s on the table. Also, I got the news about being accepted into university? Good job, kiddo. You know, that was your father’s alma mater.”

“Are you sure you want to go to school right away after...? No problem taking a gap year.”

Papa glared at Dad. “Be nice.”

“I’m sorry, Remus, it’s just...” Dad put down his coffee. “If you’re not ready, if you need more time-”

"I’m sure,” said Remus with a grin, trying to get rid of what he just remembered. “Trust me.”

“Please find a good way to put away the snickerdoodles, they’ve been there since last week!” shouted Papa.

June 12:

12:12 AM: its twelve twelve make a wish 12:15 AM: hey when does your phone bill go out? 12:20 AM: im just saying that would Explain some things 12:22 AM: i know your dad pays Everything like a year in advance 12:34 AM: tell him i say hi 12:34 AM: 12:34 MAKE A WISH

July 12:

3:30 PM: guess who’s a double major in bio and theatre!! 3:32 PM: marine biology babey 3:53 PM: it’s good for the SOUL 4:04 PM: this cute octopus reminded me of you by the way 4:10 PM: [Attachment: for_roman]

August 14:

6:24 PM: moving in is the Worst 6:32 PM: by the way i got a single 6:35 PM: no roommates 6:41 PM: still have the bunk tho 6:44 PM: also got ur favorite pillo

August 30:

2:12 AM: roman it is like two o’clock in the morning what the Heck are you doing here, 2:15 AM: if u see me wave Hi 2:32 AM: ok >:c 2:42 AM: dont mind Me just studyin on top of the planetarium 3:15 AM: tbh i didn’t even know we go to the same campus? haven’t seen you around or anything 3:17 AM: shit phones gonna di

September 28:

2:20 PM: i failed my test 2:22 PM: idk what to d 2:24 PM: *do

September 29: 7:30 PM: remember that octopus you gave me that eats negative emotions? 7:32 PM: it works!!

October 3:

1:10 PM:  You’d like the theatre program, really 1:15 PM: just so u know they’ve listed your name as an ‘honorary member of the class of’ 1:19 PM: that’s really nice of them. idk if your dad knows

October 23:

9:45 AM: i had to explain one of our inside jokes 8( 9:52 AM: i can’t Explain the deodorant thing that was One Time 9:55 AM: also why i’m called The Duke 9:56 AM: its bc you said it. not my fault 9:58 AM: its still cute pls call me that still 9:59 AM: pancake brunch pancake brunch pancake brunch October 31: 6:12 PM: sun’s down! joyous samhain 6:15 PM: i remember when you sewed me that octopus btw, the one that eats ucky feelings 6:19 PM: how long did it take you to get the laurel sachet into it?? 6:34 PM: also thank you thank you thank you for helping me find a friendly church to celebrate all saints day 6:47 PM: that year was a NIGHTMARE because you forgot to get your white candles and carnelian, and i forgot my holy water, so we were driving around town like Madmen 6:59 PM: it was worth it though 7:03 PM: i left you a script, i think you’ll like it.

November 9:

11:19 PM: i miss you so so much.

November 10:

12:20 AM: ignor this i drank like 12:24 AM: a lot 1:15 AM: i’m sorry i should’ve been with you 1:22 AM: i shouldve been there With You. 1:45 AM: but i wasn’t 2:20 AM: i didn’t know thered be a 4:11 PM: shit i just saw these. Sorry to bother you December 2:

10:10 AM: hey roman, been a bit. yea sorry about last time. too much of the Alcohol 10:13 AM: gonna go over to my parents’ house 1:00 PM: if you wanna come over, you can. dad’s making snickerdoodles and papa’s gonna watch atla (yes i still have that dvd you got me do not @ me it’s with your candles on your table just like everything else) 1:03 PM: that was on the dot, i’m happy.

December 21

8:34 AM: hey, it’s snowing 9:13 AM: couldn’t help leaving you some hot cocoa. and snickerdoodles of course 10:12 AM: i love you Remus went to go help his dads with making breakfast, but by the time everyone was done cleaning and they had finished watching some shitty Hallmark movie, he remembered that he had left his phone upstairs. Going upstairs and looking at it, he felt something in him break.

[2 Unread: Roman <3, bf’s dad]

10:22 AM, Roman <3: Why are you texting this number? 11:15 AM, bf’s dad: Remus, disregard that last, I’m so sorry. I just found his phone and I saw only the recent message first

The phone started ringing. Remus answered it as quickly as he could.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Sanders I didn’t know that someone was actually getting these messages I thought the line was out,” he said within a few seconds before the person on the other side sighed.

“No, it’s quite all right. And Virgil’s all right, by the way, if you prefer. I... I was just looking through his things for the first time. You know, it being a holiday and all... Memories, things like that.”

“Yeah, I understand.”

“I just turned the phone back on, I’m getting a lot of messages.”

“Oh.” Remus stared at the wall, trying to come to terms with everything. “Well, I--”

“I’m not going to stop paying for his phone. I’m sorry, I just... I still have his voicemails on it, and I can’t stand the thought of it going offline either.”

“Right, I... I listen to it too.”

“I happened upon the last one he sent to you.”

“You looked at the messages?”

“I only looked over when I stopped getting new ones, but I saw the last question he sent you. For your ring size.”

“Yeah? He asked my ring size so that he could--”

“There’s no easy way to say this, but.. I found something of his. Can you come over?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t, but can you please tell me what it was? Please?”

“I really think I should tell you this in person.”

“Please, Mr. Sanders. Please, I... I can’t manage that.”

He sighed. “All right, Remus. I found an early acceptance letter to SJAU, and... and a ringbox.”

Remus felt his grasp on the phone grow weak. It fell onto the bed, Mr. Sanders’ voice still clear.

“I think he was going to ask for you to....”

“No, we... We were just out of high school, I-- that doesn’t make sense.”

“He always was one for those romantic gestures. There’s some poems here, too. A life-plan. I’m not sure exactly what malacology is, but--”

“Mollusks. Like octopi and squids.. Sorry for cutting you off, what was that?”

“Some of it’s in your handwriting, but one of the entries is ‘ask him’, for the day after... you know.”

God, he could hear his sad smile through the phone. He knew exactly how Mr. Sanders looked right now just talking to him, probably wearing that hoodie that was too big on him, in a dusty room full of things that used to belong to the most vibrant person that Remus had ever met.

But then Roman had died.

He was the most wonderful person, and he had just died.

“I’ll come over to deliver the ring to you. Is that okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s... that’s fine. Uh, call my dads first, though. They’re still not convinced I’m doing okay.”

“I understand. I’ll talk to you later, Remus.”

“Thank you, Mr. Sanders.”

The line went dead in his hands.

Remus held himself and wept.

December 28:

12:30 PM, Remus Picani-Kleitman: Mr. Sanders, would you like to come over for our New Year’s party? 12:34 PM, Remus Picani-Kleitman: It’s a tradition we had. You don’t have to if you’d rather not. 12:45 PM, Virgil Sanders: I’d love to go.

January 1:

12:00 AM: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! 12:05 AM: [Attachment: :)] 12:07 AM: we are all smiling in this photo and for that i think we deserve a hug. 12:10 AM: this rings the most beuatifl thing i’ve ever fuckign seen. thank you,, 12:14 AM: never gonna get rid of it <3 12:16 AM: it looks Good on my finger 12:30 AM: jsyk your dad’s asking my dads for the kouign amann recipe 12:32 AM: thats a pastry, i left those for u a while back 12:39 AM: okay i’m crying a bit but honestly, i love u 12:44 AM: I love you so so so much, Roman

Somewhere out there, whether it was from some wonderful paradise or beyond the veil or even only in wishful thoughts, Remus knew that someone was saying I love you too.

[kitten-keith]

Private Moments

Two posts in a day? Yeah cause while I was fighting with my internet I finally got the chance to sort of proof read this one. Started it in like... March? Last year. was more of a headcanon free form thing that got unintentionally longer and then longer still and then I forgot about it for months, popped in on it a few times, forgot some more and then finally wrote the most ridiculous sappy ending ever like-- last month? two months ago? Idk.

Anyway. Enjoy.

Klance, roommates AU. Lots of smut to make up for those last two I guess. Like this whole thing is born from the concept of Keith trying to find a comfortable way to masturbate.

---

Keith has had to share a room for as long as he can remember. The orphan home was crowded, schools gave you dorm mates. 

When he graduated he couldn’t afford to live on his own and between sharing a studio with Shiro and moving into a two bedroom with Hunk and Lance-- See, Hunk had a fancy catering job that helped him pay a larger share of the rent so he got the room to himself leaving Lance and Keith with twin beds on opposite sides of the second bedroom. It made finding alone time difficult.

Keith is tired of waiting for the dead of night when his roommate has his sleep mask and headphones on, already in some manner of deep sleep, to finally touch himself under the covers.

He hates how hot it is and how he sweats into his sheets when it takes too long and he starts to get desperate. 

Lance is wearing those headphones so maybe he could have gotten away with a relaxed moan or two but he bites his lip hard instead. 

He can’t do that. What if Lance hears him, what if he pulls down his mask and looks over and in the shadows of their shared room he can see Keith’s fist moving. 

He has to restrain himself. He constantly... constantly... has to restrain himself. 

And he is so god damn tired of it.

He thinks of Lance’s eyes on him once and cums faster than he’d thought he would and he wasn’t ready with his designated cum rag so it gets on the sheets and he spends the night terrified that Lance can smell it. Terrified that he’s going to nod off before it’s socially acceptable for him to be up and doing laundry and that Lance will get up first and see— 

He gets hard again, thinking about Lance’s face and the potential smirk that would grace his lips once he realized what Keith was doing in their room at night. 

The resulting stress of this causes him to consider Lance for the following days. 

The next time his body is so damn desperate for release in their room he thinks of him. He has to struggle not to come undone thinking about Lance’s hands and his mouth and those eyes watching him in interest...

He fucked up.

This was a mistake. 

Now when he looks at Lance or when they hangout for their weekly roommate movie he feels himself wanting.

He can’t masturbate the way he wants to while sharing a room with Lance and Lance makes him want to so badly...! 

He takes to going out more, like he used to do in high school. Getting himself fucked in the backseat of cramped cars where he still can’t scream, still can’t be comfortable, still can’t be wholly satisfied—

And then Hunk finally says the magic words. 

“Hey Keith, Lance and I are going upstate for this big catering job I have this weekend, you want to come with?�� 

Keith freezes with his hands on the dishes. He’ll have the apartment. Empty. For a little over two whole days. 

Keith feels his throat go dry and tries to clear it, “uh— sorry, I think I might be coming down with something, it would probably be better if you guys go on your own.”

Lance waltzes in, comments on how Keith is totally going to take advantage of the empty apartment and invite his mystery boyfriend over.

Keith rolls his eyes, he doesn’t have a boyfriend. He barely remembers the names of the strangers stretching him out and trying to get him to cum all over their seats while he day dreams about his roommate. But oh, he will take advantage of the weekend.

He immediately orders some toys offline, pays for express shipping because he’ll be damned if he misses his opportunity to go absolutely wild. 

Lance and Hunk leave Friday before he wakes up and Lance only barely makes his bed. 

And maybe it’s because of his ill begotten sort of crush or maybe it’s because Keith is a deprived mess but as he stands over Lance’s bed so blown away that he is actually alone, actually able to relax he just kind of...Collapses into it. 

The remnants of Lance’s scent alone help get him to full hardness and he grinds his hips into the bed, his dick trapped in his pajama bottoms but the whole thing is still so freeing. 

He’ll wash Lance’s sheets later just in case. He’ll thank him for it, they were due soon anyway...

When he cums his voice is raw and his throat is dry as he moans Lance’s name. 

It feels amazing. 

Lance makes him crazy.

He passes out for a few minutes, face down in Lance’s bed, hugging his pillow to his face, damp spot soaking from his pants into the sheets. 

Worth it. Worth it worth it worth it.... 

But he can finally do so much more. 

When he gets back up he gathers up his toys on shaky legs and moves into the living room. The cool air across his pants feels nice. It’s supposed to be disgusting, he’s sure, but it still feels nice because he doesn’t have to care about it. 

He imagines how much nicer it will be sprawled out across the cool leather couch in the light from the window fucking himself on his toys. 

He can get completely naked, he can moan and cry out all he wants. He can make himself go for hours.

It’s going to be phenomenal, he’s already hard again from the excitement of it. 

He strips right there, feeling lewd and on display and it just excites him more. He drops his clothes on the floor and slides onto the couch, he shivers at the cold but it doesn’t dissuade him at all. 

He’s got lubed up hands over his body quickly. His moans are wanton, his breath is shallow. When he stretches himself out enough for the smallest toy he pushes it inside himself and spreads his legs wide just for the sake of it. Just because he can and a part of him gains confidence in that. 

A part of him is sad. 

No one will ever see him this free. This open. 

Because he fucks strangers and doesn’t know how to make an effort for them to be anything but. Doesn’t want to. 

Because he wants Lance. 

Because Lance isn’t a stranger and he’s more than just his roommate. He just...

Well. No. He is just his roommate because he can’t be more. Because Lance is too good for him. Because his laugh is infectious and his heart is too big and he can do anything when he sets his mind to it— 

And everyone loves him. 

Everyone should love him. 

Lance could have anyone. 

Why would he want his shitty socially stunted sexually repressed dumbass roommate??

Not. Even. Remotely... the way Keith wants to be thinking. 

So he shoves his cleaner fingers into his mouth and thinks about what it might be like to suck Lance’s cock right here, out in the living room pinned against the couch. 

He turns on the vibrations for his little bullet friend and feels a bit overwhelmed for just a second before he lets himself enjoy it.

He rolls his hips so the toy inside him drags against his sweet spot and he keens, voice caught with his tongue against his fingers. 

He still manages a sound like his name, because he wants to say his name. Wants to scream it over and over as he wrecks himself. On some level he wants the world to know how wild he can get— with one specific man in mind… but on all other levels, he’ll remain repressed. 

And in this case, he’ll keep his voice sensible enough to be respectable of the neighbors. 

Still, he’ll keep thinking about Lance. Wanting Lance. Imagining Lance’s hands and Lance’s teeth and Lance’s skin. Lance’s broad shoulders and long legs and clear blue eyes. Lance’s voice in his ear and his breath on his neck and his lips on his—

Oh.

He wants to kiss Lance. Very badly. 

So badly he swirls his tongue around his fingers and moans because he may be free but it’s so much easier to pretend he’s about to be fucked by Lance when he’s at least about to be fucked by someone. 

But he’s alone. 

He’s alone and he has to settle because he won’t go out and find someone, they aren’t Lance.

Speaking of... Lance would be bigger.

He retrieves his fingers and slowly removes the smaller toy, he hadn’t even played with higher vibe settings but that was fine, he had time later. Now he wanted the dildo he’d bought. He’ll have to stretch himself a little more but that’s fine. Because he wants to imagine that it’s Lance. Lance who’s thighs he’s straddling rather than the couch. Lance’s dick pushing inside him, hot and pulsing and desperate for him the same way Keith is desperate. 

When he’s finally ready for the purple plastic toy he lays over the back of the couch, warm chest against cold leather as he eases himself down. His legs are spread wide and his dick is slowly dragged down against the couch. He imagines if his roommates ever knew about this they’d probably get new living room furniture, but Keith doesn’t care. He has time. He’ll clean everything up once he’s done and they’ll never know. 

He’ll know. And maybe whenever Lance sits right here he’ll think about it. Think about how he wants to be sitting in his lap. Thinks about how he wants to drag his nails through his hair and not scrape along the leather of th seat back 

Wants Lance’s cock instead of this pathetic little purple bobble.

But he settles, because at this point this is his life and he should just be happy he has the place to himself. 

He sinks to the hilt and whimpers because he isn’t used to it. Isn’t used to the size and the stretch and how it still falls just short of his expectations.

“La-anceee...!” He cries out to no one. His head drops against the couch and he rolls his hips the tiniest bit against the intrusion. 

It feels better. Not good enough. But better. He tries to lift himself up. One hand reaching behind him to steady the dildo and keep it from simply rising with him. The lube makes it easier but it’s a tough sell and he’s still so very aware of the fact it isn’t a real person’s dick. It isn’t Lance. 

Lance would.. would have his arms wrapped around him. Would kiss him all over, bury his face in his neck and make his whole body ache with need for him.

He starts to ease himself back down, dreaming of Lance’s nose bumping at his collar and he starts to melt into the feeling, into the dream. 

He finds a rhythm and it feels good. His body thinks so anyway, with the way the heat builds in his belly. 

He flops onto his back against the armrest, works the toy into himself a little faster. Starts to jerk himself off in time with the thrusts but he’s sloppy and uncoordinated and it doesn’t matter too much if it’s still gonna make him cum.

His mind wanders to a long forgotten memory. Of one of the few times Keith had agreed to hang out with his future roommates back when they’d been high school classmates sneaking into bars that didn’t card. 

Keith had agreed because he was in the mood to drink. Lance, who at the time couldn’t stand Keith, had agreed because he had a date and that meant Hunk had company when he inevitably left him behind. 

The night was primarily a foggy blur in Keith’s mind but now, fucking himself over the armrest of his couch and thinking about Lance—

He remembered Lance’s date. 

He remembered how she couldn’t keep her hands off him and how they’d nearly immediately found a corner to make out. 

Keith hadn’t watched. Hadn’t cared. Drank away his anger over Iverson’s patented daily bullshit and tried to make small talk with Hunk who smiled a lot and was too nice for his own good. 

But occasionally Keith would scan the crowd and see. See how Lance had made that girl putty in his hands. How she leaned back over the edge of the booth they’d found for their supposed privacy and how her mouth hung open to moan or cry, with his lips on her jaw and his hands around her waist and under her skirt.

How Lance just... made her into this simpering mess. 

And at the time, Keith had simply rolled his eyes. Moved on.

But now here he was. Practically the image of that nameless girl and all from the mere thought of Lance. 

How had he been so blind for so long? 

Was it better that way? 

He grasped at the foggy edges of that memory and placed himself directly in her position. Nestled tightly against Lance’s body while he kissed and nipped and sucked on his throat, bare as he stretched further back, giving him all the room he needed as he fucked himself on his dildo and pretended his own hand was Lance’s, smearing precum all over his cock head. 

“Yes...” he breathed out softly. “Yes... Lance...!” 

There really was something about just being able to moan his name like that. So invigorating. 

He drives his hips down hard, the toy accidentally hitting his prostate. It makes his next cry of Lance’s name much louder than he’d planned. Louder, and desperate as his voice cracks and he sees stars. 

God help him, he hasn’t wanted anything more in his life and he doesn’t know how he’s supposed to face Lance again. 

He’s aching, tossing himself front first over the back of the couch again to better his leverage as he keeps driving himself to that edge, Lance’s name a whispered mantra as he squeezes his eyes shut tight against what he’s feeling.

“I can’t take this anymore.” 

Warm arms wrap around Keith and pull, his back against a firm chest. Keith nearly screams but it dies in his throat when he finds he knows exactly who’s touching him. 

“G-god—! You’re— you’re not supposed to be here!” Keith pants as a hand grips his dick. 

Lance’s mouth finds Keith’s neck and the pleasure Keith feels is immeasurable, his tongue massaging his pulse and making Keith cry out. 

“You’ve been here moaning my name so long, I’ve gotta give you a reason for it Keithy...” 

Fuck. What was happening. Lance’s hand was so smooth and his teeth grazed at his shoulder and good god the dildo was being pushed deeper inside him, harder and faster than Keith’s original rhythm.

“Lance...! Lance!”

“You’ve been here fucking yourself to the thought of me... thought no one would hear you? Thought you could get away? Never telling me how badly you want me?” He drags Keith back far enough that his ass is in his lap now. Lance is wearing sweat pants that aren’t doing a damn thing to hide his hard on and Keith loves the feel of it. 

“Can’t believe you. Sprawled out naked on our couch with a bunch of toys... if you wanted my cock so much you could have just asked...”

Keith is going to faint.

“Ask me for it.” 

Keith is going to fucking faint, how is Lance here? How is Lance here and touching him like this— 

“Ask me to fuck you, Keith.” 

The toy is tugged out of him with no warning, leaving him open and empty and wanting. Lance drops it on the ground without a thought, grinding his hips up to push his point home to Keith. 

“Beg for my dick.”

Keith rolls his hips back but can’t find his words, still so lost, still so confused.

“Don’t you want me to? Don’t you want my big hard cock inside you? Splitting you open? Sounded like you did. Sounded like you were desperate for me. Come on beautiful...” 

Keith can only meekly whimper his name, “L...Lance...!”

“Cause man do I want to fuck you... everyday you come home from the gym wearing those nice tight leggings... fuck, it’s so hard not to touch you... and now you’re all open and pliant and calling my name... how am I supposed to not take you?” 

Keith can feel his cock rubbing over his entrance through the fabric and his eyes roll back at the very idea that Lance might actually... 

“R-really...? You want...me..?”

Lance growls against his neck, “Of course I do. Now say it before I cum in my pants, you’re too damn cute.” 

He rolls his hips and the sensation makes Keith keen again before going mostly limp in the arms, raising his ass a little more and giving a little shake to entice the other boy. 

“I want you... I want you so bad Lance... please fuck me...?” 

Lance’s teeth go for his neck and the mix of pleasure and pain has Keith seizing up, a loud moan breaking from his lips and covering the sound of Lance yanking his sweats down one handed.

“You can do better than that. But this once I’ll take it.” 

Keith doesn’t know where he finds the lube because one of Lance’s hands remains on his collar the entire time, but soon the damp head of his cock is sliding into him and Keith might see god. 

The toy wasn’t too far off Lance’s size actually, but the pleasure Lance brought him by comparison was insurmountable. 

“Do you like that...? Do you like how my cock feels, Keith?” Lance grunts against his shoulder as he slowly bottoms out. 

It takes Keith a moment to realize his moans have gone silent, lips dropping open but unable to wield the strength for sound as the feel of Lance completely enveloped him. Lance’s arms around him, his chest to his back, his dick fully seated, like being closer was impossible.

He croaks around his dry throat before offering Lance a very clear and eager: yes. 

Lance chuckles. 

“So cute... I’m going to wreck you Keithykins. Make you come back for me over and over...”

Over and over...

Keith could do that. Keith could absolutely go back to Lance over and over to feel this good. 

“Are you ready?” Lance asks, softer than before. 

But Keith is so ready he doesn’t even answer, simply pulls his hips back and slams back into Lance, rubbing that dick inside him in ways he’d only dreamed of. 

“Sh-shit!”

At Lance’s response Keith has to go again. 

Has to slam back harder, faster, make it worth it to Lance in the long run too, to make him come back to him again and again. 

The sound of his ass against Lance’s waist shouldn’t sound so good to him but coupled with Lance panting and his fingers twitching at his waist as he attempts to get a grasp on Keith to regain control— well it all feels like heaven to him. 

“Fuck! Keith. Keith. C’mere.” Suddenly Keith is pulled away from the couch and onto his back, Lance moves to lay on the couch beneath him, arms wrapped tightly around his torso as he starts his own rhythm, thrusting his hips up into Keith. He’s getting deeper now, and the angle seems to work for his speed too. It’s nearly punishing but Keith is living for it. 

Then Lance reaches up with one hand, cupping Keith’s chin tightly and turning him to face him. 

It nearly stops his heart.

Their lips brush lightly at first. A hint of static between them as it seems to dawn on them, how their relationship is changing with every second. How there’s no turning back from this. Lance’s hips don’t falter though. His eyes are calm, confident, positive that this is right. 

Keith can’t disagree. His hands find Lance’s thighs and give him a reassuring squeeze as he tries to stare back at him in a way he hopes exudes that same kind of sense of calm, lips parting in invitation but hiding his moans. 

Lance doesn’t mind too much, because he clearly wanted the invitation. 

When Lance thrusts up into him at the exact moment his tongue slides into his mouth, Keith considers he might actually have died. 

Died and entered the world where everything is rosy and Lance doesn’t ever let him go. Where these sensations never end and they can stay joined like this always.

Lance moans into the kiss and Keith can’t help but return those sounds in earnest. 

He can’t imagine how he ever went a moment without it in the past. Without this. Without Lance and the way his hands dig into his hips and how he nips at his lips still trying to catch his breath.

“So good Keith... you feel so good. Why weren’t we doing this before...?” Lance moans in his ear, one hand sliding over Keith’s chest to tease a nipple as the other delves south to stroke him in time with their movements. 

Keith shakes his head, unsure he can form words as well as Lance can. 

“I don’t know... I don’t know. We should have. We should have been— like this— like this from the sta—aa—art...! Lance...!”

It’s not long before Lance is pulling out, his cum all over Keith’s thighs and the seat of the couch. Keith’s cum already drenching his hand though Lance hadn’t ceased his strokes, causing Keith to writhe on-top of him through his orgasm. 

Finally, Lance releases him and nuzzles his face into the crook of his neck, letting them both simply lay there, basking in their joint mess, the smell of sex, the constant rising and falling of their chests. 

Sated and content and brains reminiscent of puddles of goo. 

Before they manage to remember to breathe again something short circuits In Keith’s brain and he laughs. He doesn’t have the air to laugh deeply but the sound is apparently enough for Lance to join him, arms coming back around him tightly as they both shake, voices raspy but filled with the same unbridled mirth. 

They end with a long wheeze from Lance, possibly due to the added stress of Keith’s weight. 

It’s silent again. 

Comfortable. 

“You really should have told me sooner...” Lance mumbles though, typical as the one used to breaking the silence. 

Keith turns his head, damp bangs against Lance’s neck. 

“You could have told me too...” he says through a smile that can’t leave his cheeks.

Lance chuckles again, “Point taken.” 

—-

(Bonus)

“...why are you even here? What about Hunk?” 

Keith can feel Lance’s face get warm beside his own cheek. 

He quirks a brow though he isn’t too sure Lance can see it.

“Uhhh... sooo... about that... I hid in Hunks room to try and sneak a peek at your secret boyfriend.” 

Keith raises his head to look Lance in the face. 

“But I don’t...?” 

Lance looks away, “I mean I know that now! But. I just. I didn’t know that. Before. And uh...” 

Keith stares. 

Lance won’t look him in the eyes. 

“...you ditched Hunk because you were jealous of my non-existent secret boyfriend?” 

“I mean I DID tell Hunk I’d meet up with him later!”

“Were you uh… jealous?”

“No I wasn’t— I just wanted to like-- I guess… see what I was up against? Scope out the competition— dooooont look at me like that. Oh my god.” 

[stereksecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, @snazzysterek!

I hope you enjoy this!

Read on AO3

*****

ready to start

“Goddammit,” Stiles said, and kicked back on his wheelie chair, banging into the wall of his shared office.

“What,” Isaac said, not even bothering to lift his head up from where he had it cradled on his arms, as he clicked through the latest issue of PNAS.

“R is not cooperating and I just need to get this analysis done before I can go home for the weekend,” Stiles whined, turning his chair around and poking Isaac’s head. “I need your R skills, man, help me out.”

“It’s 4:45 on a Friday,” Isaac said, shaking his head and dislodging Stiles’ hand. “My brain’s already offline. Why don’t you go get a drink and start the weekend early?”

“Ugh, but I just want to get this done,” Stiles said, and stared at his computer, willing R to just automatically glean what he wanted to do and put pretty graphs on his screen. “Finstock’s gonna kill me if I tell him that I’m still analyzing my data for the third week in a row.”

“Finstock’s out next week, remember? He’s going to that conference in England.”

Stiles…had completely forgotten.

“I love you, Isaac,” he said, patting Isaac’s curls even as Isaac snapped at his fingers like an overgrown puppy, and speedwalked out of the office, heading over to the shared cold room on the other side of the floor.

Technically, the cold room was only supposed to hold actual biological samples. Practically, however, it also held a stash of various beers and ciders and other drinks that was routinely restocked by the grad students and side-eyed by the undergrads. There was also a protocol in place for whenever Environmental Health and Safety decided to pop in for a surprise visit – the beer bottles would go in the drawers next to Isaac’s desk, the ciders in Stiles’ drawers, and the beer cans in Harley’s desk in the office she shared with Erica down the hall. So far, it had never failed them. The only time they’d gotten a warning from EHS was when someone (read: Isaac) had left a half-full can of beer on the very back of one of the shelves, which had started collecting some unknown mold, and no one had wanted to touch it so it had stayed there, growing more and more sentient with each passing day until EHS made them take it out. A pity, because Harley had been ready to take it away and figure out what species it actually was.

The point was, there were drinks in the cold room, and they were good. Perfect way to start off a Friday evening, or alternatively, drown your sorrows when your paper got rejected for the nth time. Not that Stiles was speaking from personal experience or anything!

Anyway, Stiles was really looking forward to trying some of the green apple cider Harley had brought earlier this week, and the thought propelled him forward to the cold room. He hummed tonelessly under his breath, ready to think about everything else other than his research for the night, but then he opened the door to the cold room, flipped on the lights, and froze in sheer horror.

The shelves which usually held the drinks were completely empty, except for two measly cans of PBR. There was absolutely no sign of any of the other drinks, not even the half-empty thing of boxed wine that had been sitting there for half a month and was probably undrinkable by now.

“What,” Stiles said, “the fuck.”

He took in the scene with narrowed eyes, and then turned on his heel and stomped out. It was time to investigate.

It being Friday evening, the hallways were fairly deserted, and Stiles was pretty sure the weedy undergrads he saw comparing notes on some exam or the other weren’t the culprits. For one, their backpacks were definitely not big enough to hide a whole bunch of cider in, let alone the beer.

He stalked past them, ignoring their wide eyes and furrowed brows, and slammed open the door to his office (then closed it gently because probably the undergrads should not be privy to this conversation).

“Isaac!” he snapped. “What the hell happened to the drinks?”

“The drinks in the cold room?” Isaac said, spinning around on his chair, making the perfect impression of the surprised Pikachu face. “I haven’t done anything to them. Are they not there?”

“No!” Stiles resolutely did not wail. “Everything’s gone, even that gross old boxed wine!”

Isaac switched from surprised Pikachu face to his favorite grimace. Stiles sighed, and reminded himself to finally print out that “No Emotional Journeys!” sign and pin it up on his desk.

“Okay, well, there’s two PBRs left but we all know PBR is the drink of the devil,” Stiles amended, and Isaac waggled his eyebrows at him.

“A drink’s a drink, dude,” he said. “We can figure out where the rest of the drinks went later, just go get yourself one before those disappear too.”

Stiles groaned and gave in, heading back to the cold room. The undergrads had migrated to right across the office door, but Stiles didn’t care if they’d been eavesdropping. This was a serious problem! Pesky undergrads could shove it until he had an awful, awful beer in his hand…awful beers that had also disappeared from the cold room in the few minutes he’d been gone.

He resisted the urge to rattle the shelves. He was an adult, he was a graduate student, he was not going to whine about a missing PBR of all things. He slunk out of the room, debating whether to go see if the mice labs two floors down had any drinks hidden away, or if it was wiser just to give up and go home.

Going down to the mice labs had mostly won out when Stiles spotted two figures that had just turned the corner and were walking down the hallway, away from him. He recognized Scott’s end-of-the-day rumpled hair immediately, and was ready to go complain to him when he also registered the can he was holding, hidden in a violently red koozie, but definitely the same size as the missing PBRs. Stiles didn’t recognize the other person with him, but they also had a koozie in their hand – two cans. He couldn’t believe it, but it must be true – Scott had taken the PBRs from the cold room. The outrage!

“Scott!” Stiles yelled. Scott turned around, classic goofy grin on his face, but it faded as he saw Stiles barreling down the hallway towards him.

“What—,” he managed to get out before Stiles ran into him and started tugging on his drink.

“Scott, how could you do this to me! I thought we were bros!” Stiles said, knowing he was coming off as very strange but at this point, he was too far gone to care. “You pillaged the last drink!”

Scott tugged his drink back but Stiles refused to let go, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Scott’s mysterious companion take a slow step back.

“And!” he said, letting the drink go abruptly in favor of using his hands to gesture at the Mysterious Companion, while still keeping his gaze on Scott’s startled face. “And you bring this random person in and give them a drink instead of saving it for me?? You’re flagrantly violating the rules of our friendship, man!”

Scott stumbled back a couple steps and then raised his hands. “Stiles, I think you’ve got the wrong idea, dude.”

“I’d like to see you explain your way out of this!” Stiles said, agitatedly bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“The hell, Stiles, you know I stopped drinking like a year ago! This is just a La Croix!”

“Oh,” Stiles said, pausing. “Oh, yeah. I did know that.”

“Yeah, oh. I think you need to explain to me what exactly is happening and why you’re freaking out.”

“Uh, so,” Stiles began, glancing around as he finally let his brain slow down a little. The undergrads from earlier were huddled in a corner, and he was sure he saw one of them rapidly typing away on his phone. Probably live-tweeting his breakdown, titled “saw my TA having a breakdown, just another day in college.”

“So?” Scott said.

“Okay, so Isaac made me go to the cold room for drinks but there were no drinks! Like none, Scott, everything was gone except for these two cans of PBR and I went back to check with Isaac if he knew what had happened, and he said he didn’t, but by the time I came back to get the PBRs they were gone anyway!” Stiles blurted out, hands moving everywhere to emphasize the dire straits he was in. “The entire stash is gone without a trace, Scott, it’s so bad!”

He took a breath and then added, “Also, what the hell, you’re drinking La Croix? At least get a Coke or something man, you know La Croix tastes like someone vaguely described fruit to an alien.”

Scott rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know, but we got them at this vet school mixer thing we were at and free stuff is free stuff. But okay – I see why you’re so stressed, but don’t worry, we’re here, we’re going to solve this mystery!”

Stiles grinned as they both fistbumped. Scott always came through.

A polite cough interrupted them and Stiles whirled around, remembering the Mysterious Companion.

“Oh!” Scott said. “This is Derek! He’s a PhD student in like the history department, and he was at the mixer because he wanted to talk to some vets about canines but anyway—” Scott waved his hand in the air. “Long story. Point is, he’s cool! Derek, this is Stiles! You know how I study gut microbiota? Stiles’ advisor is actually my co-advisor, that’s how we became friends!”

Some tiny part of Stiles’ brain noted that Scott was grinning and still prattling on about how he and Stiles became best bros for life, but the rest of it was focused mostly on Mysterious Companion Derek, and his green eyes and glasses and dark hair and solid body and the hint of a smile on his face, and the shirt that made a stupid joke about Shakespeare and also made his arms look very nice. Then he had the abrupt realization that he had just massively embarrassed himself in front of this very beautiful man and his stomach turned itself into a pretzel.

“Okay very nice to meet you but I just remembered I have a thing. In lab. That I have to do like immediately. Sorry see you later!” Stiles said, turned on his heel, and zoomed down to his office, even as Scott called his name. He could feel the heat coming off his face. It was time to die in a ditch.

“It is time to die in a ditch,” he said as soon as he was securely in the office and safe from eavesdropping undergrads and grads. He had his face to the door in the hopes that it would cool him down, but when he got no response from Isaac, he turned around to face an empty office.

“Dammit,” he said, and saw the bright yellow post-it on Isaac’s old Dell. Erica says she’s going to get drinks from somewhere (don’t ask), see you in the lounge at 5:30!! it read, and Stiles sighed. At least he could now successfully drown his sorrows in a drink, even if it wasn’t the green apple cider he had been looking forward to.

At 5:35, he was in the lounge with a non-PBR beer in his hand, and retelling his extremely embarrassing experience to Isaac.

“In conclusion, it is time to die in a ditch,” he said, winding up his story. Isaac just laughed at him, stuck another beer in his hand, and then pushed him towards Erica and Harley who had probably overheard most of Stiles’ sorry story.

“They’re having another argument about what the best model organism is,” he said. “Why don’t you go join in, it’ll make you feel better.”

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Stiles mumbled, but his heart wasn’t in it. Damn Isaac for knowing him too well. The argument would make him feel better. He drained his beer and went to preach the awesomeness of Drosophila to the plebes who hadn’t seen the light yet.

Two beers later, Stiles was flushed red again, but for a much better reason this time.

“C’mon, Drosophila have such a large suite of genetic tools! Can you even get optogenetic strains in zebrafish? I bet you can’t, they’re just transparent little fish!” he said, waving his pile of peeled off beer labels and scattering the pieces everywhere.

“You don’t even use optogenetic strains!” Erica said, swinging her own bottle of beer around. “That’s an invalid argument!”

“I don’t now, but I might in the future! What if I want to do like, optogenetic strains of gut bacteria—” Stiles said, blatantly making up stuff, and then stopped as his hand smacked against a solid object and dropped even more bits of paper everywhere.

He looked up and gulped. The solid object was Derek’s chest, clad in that Shakespeare shirt, and attached to the rest of his body. Derek, who he’d been avoiding ever since he saw him enter the lounge with Scott (which by extension meant avoiding Scott too, but sacrifices had to be made). Derek, who had seen Stiles make an absolute fool of himself not even an hour ago, and who now had paper bits on his shoes.

“Sorry, uh, hi,” he said, trying his best not to sound like an idiot who had been ranting about zebrafish. He could feel the flush climbing up his cheeks, and not for the first time, cursed his unbelievably pale skin.

“No, I’m sorry – am I interrupting?” Derek said, sounding almost shy. He was holding onto the can of La Croix he was still nursing with a white-knuckled grip.

“Oh, you’re not at all,” Harley’s cheerful, conniving voice chimed in before Stiles could say anything. He turned to her with a betrayed look, in time to see her wink at him and grab Erica’s arm. “You and Erica are both wrong, by the way. Obviously the best model organism is C. elegans. Bow down to the worm, dude. Also, we have to go now, have fun!”

Stiles gaped as she and Erica walked away giggling, abandoning him in his time of need. He was about to chase after them with a half-assed excuse when Derek reached out and lightly touched his shoulder. It felt like a static shock to Stiles’ entire system, but in a good way, and he swung his gaze to Derek’s equally startled face.

“So,” Derek said. “We didn’t really get time to introduce ourselves or talk earlier…”

“Yeah, haha,” Stiles said automatically, manners kicking in. “I’m Stiles, but you already knew that.”

Derek smiled at him without rancor and Stiles’ heart legitimately skipped a beat. “And I’m Derek, but you knew that too. So…” he said again, and trailed off.

Stiles’ tongue felt like it was tied into a hundred knots and he desperately wanted to say something so charming that the conversation would start flowing immediately, or alternatively, a perfectly timed excuse to leave. He caught Scott’s eye over Derek’s shoulder and Scott, the traitor, immediately turned around and started talking to Isaac.

He was so caught up in wallowing in the callousness of everyone around him that he almost missed Derek saying, “…what’s a model organism, really?”

“Oh man,” he blurted out and resisted the urge to smack his mouth shut. “Do you really want to get into this right now?”

“Hit me,” Derek said, and his smile tilted up into a smirk. Stiles grinned back, feeling warmth kindle in his chest, and launched into his love for fruit flies.

One empty can of La Croix and another beer bottle later, they were still talking, the conversation flowing easier and in a much stranger direction than Stiles could have ever imagined.

“Okay, but vampires could totally be real, just think about it,” Derek was saying. “You’re a biologist, you know vampire bats are a thing, why not actual vampires?”

“…fair,” Stiles said. “Plus I guess the whole thing with people drinking other people’s blood to stay young. Humans are a strange species. But I still disagree with you on werewolves. No way could werewolves be a thing – where the hell would all the mass go? Wolves are freaking huge!”

Derek slashed his hand through the air in a dismissive gesture, but Stiles saw the smile twinkling in his eyes. “Just attribute it to the magic! You can buy into the shapeshifting concept but you draw a line at conservation of mass?”

“Shapeshifting is fine if you’re still the same mass afterwards, so humans could turn into like, I don’t know, a giant were-sun bear. I would be totally fine with that!”

Derek snorted, and then started chuckling outright. “Sorry I just – a giant were-sun bear? That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

The warmth in Stiles’ chest, that had been growing through the entire conversation, sparked up even more at the sound of Derek’s genuine laughter. He stared, grinning like an idiot, and as Derek’s laughter calmed down, they both just looked at each other, smiles in their eyes and on their mouths.

A careful cough finally tore their gazes away from each other. Scott gave them a sheepish look.

“I didn’t want to interrupt, but it’s almost 8,” he said, and Stiles’ eyes widened. He surreptitiously checked his phone and yup, Scott was right, it was a quarter to 8. He’d been talking to Derek for nearly two hours. “Maybe you guys should….go somewhere else?”

He grinned at Stiles, mischief in his eyes, and Stiles tried his best to not roll his eyes back. Scott was a bro but he was also not subtle.

“There’s this Thai restaurant I really like,” Derek said, reaching out to get Stiles’ attention back. The same jolt of energy ran through both of them at the contact, leaving Stiles mildly breathless again, and he looked up into Derek’s hopeful eyes. “We could continue this there?”

Stiles smiled, and said, “Hell yeah, dude. I still have to convert you to the fruit fly side, after all.”

Derek beamed. “Oh, I don’t doubt that. I still have to convert you to the werewolf side, too.”

Stiles laughed, and grabbed Derek’s hand impulsively, pulling him to the exit. Scott gave him a huge thumbs-up (that Derek definitely saw) but Stiles just smiled again, his chest warm and light, and let himself soak in the way Derek easily followed him.

[morlock-holmes]

This anonymous article from the Washingtonian, (Which is apparently... a magazine? Of some sort?) “What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt-Right “ was being reblogged on my dash a few times and looking at some of the notes a lot of people were calling it propaganda without saying which side they thought it was propaganda for.

I think a LOT of people were so swayed by the “One Concerned Mom Speaks Out!” tone of the thing that they kind of missed the actual narrative.

I mean... If anything it’s kind of propaganda in favor of the alt-right, isn’t it?

Here’s how the author of the piece sums up the inciting incident in the story:

One morning during first period, a male friend of Sam’s [The author’s son] mentioned a meme whose suggestive name was an inside joke between the two of them. Sam laughed. A girl at the table overheard their private conversation, misconstrued it as a sexual reference, and reported it as sexual harassment. Sam’s guidance counselor pulled him out of his next class and accused him of “breaking the law.” Before long, he was in the office of a male administrator who informed him that the exchange was “illegal,” hinted that the police were coming, and delivered him into the custody of the school’s resource officer. At the administrator’s instruction, that man ushered Sam into an empty room, handed him a blank sheet of paper, and instructed him to write a “statement of guilt.”

No one called me as this unfolded, even though Sam cried for about six hours straight as staff members parked him in vacant offices to keep him away from other students. When he stepped off the bus that afternoon and I asked why his eyes were so swollen, he informed me that he would probably be suspended, but possibly also expelled and arrested.

Later there’s more, but basically the school authorities double down, Sam’s parents decided that if the authorities were that cruel and insane Sam needed to be in another school, and so they transferred him. Sam then starts getting into 4chan and reddit alt-right communities, who explain that what happened to him happened because of feminism gone crazy.

So, as a slight aside I have always thought since I was in high school myself that this kind of zero-tolerance, authoritarian crap is particularly cruel to inflict on growing children. A boy Sam’s age is trying to differentiate himself, see himself as an individual, and the authorities come in and go, “It doesn’t matter what you think, it doesn’t matter why you did what you did, we will never care about that, we see you as a type and there is nothing you can do to convince us otherwise.”

This message would be incredibly dispiriting to anybody, but particularly to children.

Contrast, meanwhile, his experience on Reddit:

Soon Sam stopped trying to convince me to join his brave new world. He was so active on his favorite subreddit that the other group leaders, unaware that he was 13, appointed him a moderator. Among his new online besties, this was a huge honor and a boost to his cratered self-esteem. He loved Reddit and its unceasing conversations about the nuances of memes—he seemed in love with the whole enterprise, as if it were an adolescent crush. 

...

Eventually, Sam had to give up moderating for the most practical of reasons: Eighth grade ended and he was packing for sleep-away camp. He would be offline for a month and would need other mods to cover for him. To ask for help, he had to out himself as a kid.

Sam and I both laughed about the absurdity of the situation, though he admitted he was nervous he’d be exiled from moderating. I asked him to read me the responses to his message. They were all of the “Dude, you’ve got to be kidding me” variety—one of their most sophisticated and reliable colleagues was a middle-schooler heading off to Jewish summer camp!

Later, it was my turn to be surprised: They all contributed to a going-away gift for Sam and mailed an emoji-themed fidget-spinner to his bunk address.

Faced with new information that Sam has broken the rules, his school imediately brands him a predator, threatens to arrest and expel him, and responds with undisguised hate.

Faced with new information about who Sam is, his alt-right buddies are shocked, but then reiterate that they still care about him and value the contributions he has made to their community, and get together to express that to Sam.

I’d like to make a little list of what Sam gets from the alt-right in the narrative:

A group of people who have shown that they will support and value him, even if they find out new things about him.

People who listen and care about what he has to say

An explanation of what, exactly, happened to him and why.

Ideas about how he can protect himself and others from having that happen again in the future.

Allies and support for enacting those ideas.

His parents, by his Mother’s own admission in the article, were only able to provide fumbling efforts to provide protection from that particular school’s administration. His parents and their politics were totally ready to say that taking all that stuff about cucks seriously was pretty weird and dumb, his mother is totally ready to counter any statistics his alt-right buddies might have, but is completely and utterly unequipped to provide any of the other stuff I listed up there. There’s a moment where Sam explains to her what he and his friends think happened:

Sam pledged fealty to the idea of men’s rights because, as he said, his former administrator had privileged girls’ words and experiences over boys’, and that’s how all of his troubles had started in the first place. I’d never in my life backed the “masculinist” cause or imagined that men needed protecting—yet I couldn’t help but agree with Sam’s analysis.

The mother’s politics didn’t actually equip her with an alternate explanation of what happened; rather, she has to concede that his explanation makes sense, and having conceded that has no idea what to do with herself.

In fact, as the article ends she is only vaguely starting to come to grips with the fact that Sam needed the kinds of support I listed above:

“All I wanted was for people to take me seriously,” [Sam] repeated matter-of-factly. “They treated me like a rational human being, and they never laughed at me. I saw the way you and Dad looked at each other and tried not to smile when I said something. I could hear you both in your room at night, laughing at me.”

I struggled for a moment because I wanted to tell him that wasn’t true. But I couldn’t deny his accusation. Behind closed doors, when my husband and I thought our children were asleep, we had often vented to each other about Sam’s off-the-wall proclamations and the bizarre situation we found ourselves in.

So I told Sam simply that I was sorry for making him feel bad.

I still think about his words a lot, especially when alt-right figures headline the news. But mostly, I wonder how I could have tried so hard to parent Sam through this crisis and yet tripped up on something as basic as not making my own kid feel small.

By the end of the article Sam is disenchanted with the Alt-right through, well, it’s not totally clear. The author of the article, by the end, seems to understand that Sam needed at least some of the things I outlined up there, but it’s not clear to me if she views the fact that her own politics were completely unable to provide them as an actual problem.

In fact, it’s not clear to me what she believes her politics are actually for. I know, I know, it’s not a philosophical article, but the question of “How much power do public school administrators have over their charges and what can parents do to counter them” is a nakedly, inarguably political question; after all, it’s about how a state-run institution should be run. And rather then turning to her own left-wing beliefs to contextualize and fight this decision, her solution is that her family has enough money to put Sam in another school.

Now, I’m not criticizing this decision, I think it was probably difficult, even brave. But it’s noticeable that her left-wing, non-culty politics don’t seem to have much to offer the next Sam, a Sam whose parents might not have private school tuition sitting around in their bank accounts. 

In fact, she seems to regard the fact that Sam’s alt-right buddies were able to offer up compelling narratives and give him hope of implementing a solution and reasserting his self-worth as, well, cheating. Isn’t that cult-like behavior? Politics aren’t actually supposed to help the Sams of the world contextualize the things that happen in their lives, and when they do, it’s awfully sinister.

This seems to be part of something that has heavily infected the American left. It’s a kind of unspoken philosophy that says, “Politics is for solving major problems, the rest should be handled elsewhere.”

Even when a question overtly connected to Mom’s politics crops up in their life, her politics have literally nothing practical to offer any of them. Her left-wing politics are correct it doesn’t matter if they’re helpful.

This is what I keep trying to get at when I say people are missing the point with Jordan Peterson. Yeah, a lot of what he says sounds factually rickety to me as well, but, well, when I spend every day wondering why I can’t seem to get my life together, simultaneously dreading it AND feeling like there’s no point in trying to change, how does having a more correct view of lobster biology help me out with that?

I mean, I’m not saying it can’t, I’m saying people won’t even connect the two. Look at the reviews of 12 rules and people will usually grudgingly admit that his self-help advice might be useful, but really, it will tend to rile up exactly the wrong kind of person, and anyway, what does any of this have to do with politics?

This is what I keep trying to get at about effective altruism, as well. It’s not that it’s wrong, it’s that by its very nature it will never be about providing me, personally, with any help, because it’s focused on stopping rogue AIs and mailing out malaria nets, fine causes but notice that, while Rationalists see “How can I stop a super-intelligent AI from destroying us” as a solvable problem “How do I make the kind of friends who will spontaneously check on me if I sound like I’m sick?” is completely insolvable.

To the extent that my existing faculties haven’t already made it happen, unfortunately there are no clarifying frameworks or advice better than, “Well, it’s hard.”

Rationalists are better about this than generic leftists but I also feel like that’s a low bar. Answers to the question “What can I do to concretely improve my life, and, for that matter, why should I even bother, what’s the point?” are becoming ever more disconnected from left-wing thought, and most of the concrete attempts to answer these questions are coming from the right.

I actually don’t think this is good, incidentally.

[millennium-thejiaqiverse]

Chapter 1: The “Angel Plague”

Summary: Inspired by a real life fungus, I present to you the “angel plague”, (a very unofficial name, taken from the shape of the mushrooms). Miles is even infected by this fungus when he’s at school (probably not in the way you’re thinking of). He is rescued by the mysterious young woman from Chapter 0–but her identity is no longer a mystery in this chapter... well, only partially.

“Alright, this is the spot, into the water,” Rose cheers, “way to go everyone! The green flag is not more than 300 meters away in the mangroves, we’re almost there, stay safe!” “Oh, great... gosh you’re loud.” Tyler roles his eyes as the team holds on to the float they built whilst waist deep in water. Tinaye sighs and gives him a pat on the shoulder, “C’mon, let’s tie our float down.” “Last check, we have enough fresh water, handy tools...” Elly checks with everyone, “and we’re right on time; yup, we’re all set.”

Miles cannot really pay much mind to the group assignment, he cannot stop thinking about the cancerous plane, and the mysterious young woman who fueled it.

“Watch out for crabs and alike, just a heads up.” Rose calls out to everyone, poking a stick at the path ahead. “Are we there yet?” Tyler impatiently follows her footsteps. “We have enough time before the tides rise, what’s even the rush dude?” Remarks Adele. Before Tyler can make an annoyed grunt a shadow dashes over their heads, closely followed by Miles’s yelp. “*gasps* Miles!” Rose stops. “Woah are you ok?” Ryan quickly rushes to his aid. Barnacles, of course. “That was stupid, I got startled.” Miles shakes his head. Just as he says this some bird noises sound from above. “Ooh, the pied imperial pigeon agrees with you.” Nick winks. “Cut it out!” Miles snickers. “Sit down on this plank for us Miles,” Tinaye pulls out a wooden plank from his pack and lays it down onto sturdy ground. “We’ll just check your leg,” Ryan calmly gets to work, “Nick, would you take a step back? And watch your step please.” “K I’ll let you two do your thing, take care of my boy!” Nick swiftly backs away. “You’re lucky it’s just a small bruise,” Ryan sighs, “but this will still cost you some points on this assignment, be careful.” “Thanks, I know I need to pay more attention.” Miles agrees. “Ha, looks like the nerd is not always perfect! Now he’s slowing us down!” Tyler boos at Miles. “Hey!” Nick crosses his arms. “Tyler!” Ryan retaliates, “we’ve still got work to do, so the next thing coming outta your mouth better be useful! I’m being serious!” “Pff, fine!” Tyler throws his arms up in defeat.

After that is more wading through the mangrove growth, keeping hydrated and in the end climbing a tree to fetch their flag.

“Is this it for today?” Adele asks. “Yes, we’ll carry on further tomorrow.” Elly confirms. “Wow it’s so easy working with you guys, my last team sucked so hard.” Adele comments. “Haha, we liked you too girl!” Rose smiles. “That’s nice to hear, well I’m going offline.” Adele tells the team. “Catch you tomorrow!” Nick waves to her, “so what about the rest of you? Shall we all log off?” “Finally!” An answer from Tyler. “Sheesh, Ty...” Nick frowns.

After taking off their VR equipment (i.e. everything they experienced was simulated for the assignment, including Miles’s bruise) and exiting the group projects hall, Nick sprints up to Miles.

Miles is now thinking hard about his bday dreams, mindlessly walking forwards. “Hey Miles, what’s up?” Nick nudges Miles with his elbow. “Huh?” Miles jumps a little. “Tell me! What’s on your mind?” Nick presses, “is it your bday dream?” “Yeah, it’s nothing major, do you really want to hear it again?” Miles laughs. “I’ve known you for more than 10 years, I am positive I know everything about you, like how I can just tell something’s different with this last dream!” Nick is very confident. He’s right, but for one Nick never knows about all this “magic” stuff, however that must remain secret for safety reasons, Miles thinks. Only Nick’s constant begging does make Miles tell him about a little of what happened, “... just like that, she woke up, stood up, and before I could react disappeared along with the whole place. I barely got out before all is gone myself.” “Dude, what?” Asks Nick, “that was your dream?!!” Well, it was not exactly a dream, part of it was very real, Miles thinks to himself but decides to go along with it, “yeah, just a regular dream...” “You’ve got to write this down! Like as a novel or something, your dream is crazy stuff! Good stuff!” Nick says with excitement. “That’d be nice, but I don’t want to forget everything else and type away nonstop like a lab monkey all day,” Miles can’t help but think of his writer dad, “guess it’s not my lifestyle.” “Pshh whatevs,” shrugs Nick, “you coming to the cafeteria today?” “Nah, I’ll be in the lounge as usual, I really need some rest.” Miles replies. “Well ok, don’t let those dreams get carried away.” Nick teases him. “I won’t!” Miles says as they go their separate ways.

A few students are napping in the lounge already. Miles finds an empty spot and climbs in for a nap, he gets tired and needs sleep too often, much to his annoyance.

As soon as he’s asleep, Miles exits his body as he usually does—the best way for his physical body to unconsciously recharge when at the same time his consciousness has the freedom to carry out other tasks. With his consciousness out of his body, Miles brings questions about his bday dreams and the young woman to his mentor. While he’s getting the answers universes away, a sense of something being out of ordinary brings him to promptly return to the school lounge. Miles watches as a battered shadow person tries to take over his currently vacant body, one of their hands grabbing onto his ankle. “No, you can’t do that,” he says to them. The being turns to look at his out-of-body consciousness with surprise. “You’re not even supposed to be getting onto this plane of existence, you need to go back to your plane.” Miles tells them as he pulls them away from his body, “people will freak out when they see you, let’s get you back home.” The mention of “home” seems to freak the shadow being out, but before they could retaliate Miles is already on their plane with them. “There you go,” Miles drops them off. The shadow person gets into fetal position the second Miles removed his hand from them. “Huh, ok?” Miles is a little confused at this, “you take care of yourself.” Then he leaves and gets back to his body, not thinking much about the glittery dusts floating around that plane.

Waking up, Miles readies himself for his last personal assignment before midterms, which he planned to complete this afternoon. Unexpectedly, Miles started feeling quite sick before he puts his VR equipment on. “You good Miles?” Nick is right next to him preparing for his assignment. “I don’t know,” weirdly, Miles feels more tired after his nap, “maybe I didn’t rest well this time somehow?” “You look ill, and you’re never ill, *snickers* my mom jokes that germs and stuff burn off before reaching you.” Nick says, “my point being you should take this afternoon off and rest at home, if you still feel ill then go to your doctor. I mean, you are in no condition to nail your last assignment anyway.” “You’re right Nick, guess this is all for me today,” Miles smiles, “good luck.” “Thanks, get well soon!” Nick says as he puts on his headset.

“Afternoon son!” Max calls out from his study. “Hey dad,” Miles slams into bed as soon as he enters his room. He is ready to sleep it all off, however, a little too late for his liking he senses a intruder who’s blended in with the room almost perfectly. Not knowing who’d be there, Miles jolts up and throws an attack at the intruder, only to witness his attack pass straight through her like she’s not really there. “... You?” Miles realizes it is the mysterious young woman again, but before he could ask why she’s here, he’s already suspended in midair. Max doesn’t hear all this commotion as there’s a “bubble of silence” around the room. She then proceeds to pull something white and shining out of Miles’s body, which quickly withers and turns to dust, and afterwards drops him to the floor. “Before you sensed my presence I was going to wait till you’re asleep, as silly as it sounds now as I learnt you’ll discover me anyways;” she explains, “you were infected by a fungus that latches onto one’s consciousness in order to drain one’s life energy to produce it’s spores.” “What?” Miles cries. “Apologies if I frightened you, as I’m only here to help, I’ll be on my way as I have work to do.” She turns to leave. “How was I infected? Wait!” Miles asks. “You were in contact with its spores when you ventured to an infected dimension, the dimension I plan on taking out altogether before the fungus crosses over and grows all over this universe.” She explains in a hurry. “You can’t take out a plane like that,” Miles tells her, “some creatures might need those places to reside at the very least.” “A plane?” She raises an eyebrow. “You call them dimensions, I think,” Miles then suggests, “wouldn’t removing just the fungus be a better option? I’ll help with that.” “Yes, you’re not wrong,” she accepts the suggestion, “this will take longer than my original plan but it’ll do.” She rushes off, ignoring Miles’s offer to help. Well, feeling much better now, Miles decides to follow her and check on things; but how to repel the spores if they infect one’s consciousness? That’s when Miles hatches an idea.

Miles goes out of body again, but this time, using the Junction, Miles sends only his physical body onto the young woman’s trail, to the other plane with the glittery dusts he’s just visited not long ago, his consciousness doesn’t go with it and stays at this plane right in his room.

She’s already busy pulling the fungus off of suffering creatures, and gathering spores from bursting fungus growths, meanwhile making sure no creature is sneaking off to another plane with this ongoing infestation. “This dimension is dangerous for you...” she says, then suddenly pauses, “you sent your physical vessel?” Hearing this question from afar, Miles controls his body to give her a nod with its head. “That’s pretty creative,” she continues drawing all parts of the fungus away from any present consciousness. Guessing what she should be up to, Miles controls his body to make a sphere of fire, meanwhile keeping tabs on the whole plane from the outside himself to make sure nothing exits. She sees the sphere and uses it burn the parts she gathered, very soon the plane is clear of this fungus.

“All done!” She calls out and extinguishes the flaming sphere, “you should have seen this—the growing fungus looks like some messed up angel wings.” Upon hearing her call, Miles quickly gets there, back into his body, “Great job, the problem’s solved.” “Yes, great job to us.” She smiles, “hello Miles.” “Hello Ray,” Miles greets her back. “Funny how we’re now introduced to each other again,” Ray says. “Yeah, considering the fact we’ve met not long before on a cancerous plane, and not to mention in a previous life too.” Miles adds. “You know about your reincarnation.” Ray is surprised to hear what Miles said. “I asked my mentor when I napped today,” Miles says, “well, I asked why I kept having the same dream with you in it every time on my birthday up until we met in person and how I think I know you, I guess I didn’t think too much about that before.” “Your mentor?” Ray wonders. “Atlas.” Miles replies. “Oh,” Ray pauses for a while, “How much do you remember?” Ray asks then changes the subject, “and thank you for waking me up back when we met face to face.” “No problem.” Miles then answers, “I know we were friendly with each other because you wanted to help me, I know you are a very powerful energy folder as Atlas had told me so; but I can probe further, your highness...” Miles probes on, “Crown Princess Ray of... hold on...” his mind blurs out of nowhere. The cause of that was Ray’s interference. “I’m sorry,” Ray turns away. “That’s ok, I don’t really have to know.” Miles shrugs it off, but she’s disappeared away to somewhere else by then. Miles sighs, lowering his head... and sees the same shadow person grabbing onto his ankle, again. “You seem to be doing ok,” Miles looks at them. After staring at each other for a while, the shadow being lets go without incident.

“So how did school go? I assume you finished early today?” Max asks his son at the dinner table. “Well, I didn’t finish my personal assignment yet, I guess I was a little too tired.” Miles digs in to the simple but nutritious meal, “that’s not a issue though, I’ll be fine.” “I’m not too worried there son, we have 2 more days before Orientation Day, I’m sure you’ll manage just fine.” Yup, Miles assures himself, finishing up this assignment is surely easier than almost dying from then having to dispel some angle-wing-shaped-fungus plague.

[ua-miruko]

.gc:

@ua-harmony​ 8:54 AM

{ harmony is online }

I'm not the only one who recieved a message right?

@ua-mirio​ 9:04 AM

[Mirio is online]

....No. Me too.

They purposely left out the rescue.

The public will go ..mad.

@ua-chargebolt​ 9:32 AM

[Kaminari is online]

I mean, everyone's out and.... more or less OK so... they'll figure everyone was rescued, right?

@ua-kamakiri​ 10:08 AM

Yeah, but that’s not enough for the masses.

The masses aren’t satisfied by much.

Kaminari 10:11 AM

As if getting to relive super freaky Friday wasn't enough...

@ua-shinso​ 10:11 AM

[Shinso is Online]

I think the biggest issue is that this happened in one of the top schools for hero’s, and that it was almost flawless.

So now the public is on edge.

kama 10:15 AM

Yeah, a school that’s regarded as the best should’ve secure. If UA can get attacked, anywhere can.

Shinso 10:16 AM

Exactly.

@ua-todoroki​ 10:24 AM

[Todoroki is online]

Bastards sure aren't taking any breaks from trying to ruin our lives. What the hell was that? Are we getting caught up between some sort of fucked up villain feud?

Mirio 10:25 AM

Everyone stay calm!

This is exactly what they want.

To install fear and anger....

We need to think our next step through.

Shinso 10:27 AM

Mirio is right, we can’t let this get to us. If they seem to be jealous about it then that means they might plan an attack of their own. And we need to be ready.

Todoroki 10:32 AM

Sure, I'm just pointing out that this doesn't seem like it's about us at all.

Kaminari 10:34 AM

Either way... worked didn't it?

What are we even supposed to do about it?

Apart from just... keep doing what we're doing

Todoroki 10:35 AM

We can't do anything except wait.

Shinso 10:37 AM

And hope that whatever they throw at us, we can beat.

Kaminari 10:37 AM

Comforting.

Todoroki 10:38 AM

I'm sure the heroes are trying to figure out how to go about it right now, too.

I wish they wouldn't leave us completely in the dark, but again, what the hell can we do

Shinso 10:39 AM

They probably don’t want to worry us, or have us try to get involved with their plans.

Kaminari 10:40 AM

We're going to worry either way... surely they know that..

I wanna know what the hell's going on

Shinso 10:40 AM

That’s true. Nothing we can do about that...

Kaminari 10:42 AM

So what are we suppposed to do in the meantime, have a slumber party or something?

Todoroki 10:42 AM

We should be trusted with at least some of it. We're training to be heroes, for fucks sake.

Kaminari 10:42 AM

^

Shinso 10:44 AM

Well until they trust us with anything we just have to continue with our classes. We can’t force the pros to tell us anything, they’ll just brush us off. Training or not, we’re still only teenagers.

Kaminari 10:45 AM

... some of whom almost died last time

I get what you're saying, Shin, but

"only" teenagers just seems...

H

Shinso 10:46 AM

I agree we should be trusted more. But there isn’t a damn thing we can do right now and there’s no sense in getting worked up over it.

Todoroki 10:47 AM

Only teenagers at the most attacked hero school in the world, apparently.

Shinso 10:48 AM

...

[Shinso is Offline]

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 10:48 AM

[BUNNY HERO Miruko!! is online]

SUP midgets

Kaminari 10:49 AM

Hi, Miruko-san

Any news?

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 10:50 AM

yeah, everything's goin to shit. what kinda news are ya lookin for, hun?

Todoroki 10:52 AM

What the plan is.

Kaminari 10:53 AM

Anything. What the best thing for us students to do... other than wait around for an encore

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 10:54 AM

oh. yeah. ya see, shit takes more than like five seconds to crap out so excuse us if it's takin a while to reeeeeeeel this fuckery in

Todoroki 10:55 AM

Can you update us if there is anything planned.

Kaminari 10:56 AM

Do we at least know if our families are going to be safe?

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 10:57 AM

planned? for yall or what? i'm not a teacher haha y'think i'm just sittin around with your staff as they cry about this bullshit

Mirio 10:57 AM

Guys, guys, please

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 10:57 AM

no?

what do you think this is, really?

Mirio 10:57 AM

I ah...I can talk to the teachers. I'm always in touch with them, there's no need to bombard Miruko.

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 10:57 AM

no we can't guarentee shit, no we don't know if your families are safe, no we don't know if you're safe, no we don't know if WE're safe

if you want me to lie to you and say that, oh yeah we know everything, you're talkin to the wrong hero

Kaminari 10:58 AM

So what, another hero would lie?

Mirio 10:58 AM

Oh Jesus that's...worse than anything you could have said.

....and the silence is the sound of our hopes shattering.

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 10:59 AM

let them shatter, then. and then when you're done wallowing about 'em, build 'em back up and go back to doing what you're meant to be doing

Mirio 10:59 AM

Miruko!

Kaminari!

Agh....

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:00 AM

hm.

Kaminari 11:00 AM

What? Were we supposed to just not react? cmon, senpai

Mirio 11:00 AM

STAY FUCKING CALM.

Dont you guys realize what you're doing?!

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:01 AM

yer the one fucking cussin at us.

Todoroki 11:01 AM

You sound more stressed than anyone else.

Kaminari 11:01 AM

Panicking?

Mirio 11:03 AM

YEAH BECAUSE TRY EXPLAINING TO A LITTLE GIRL WHOS BEEN KIDNAPPED AND TORTURED THAT A MAN WITH HANDS FOR A FACE ISN'T GOING TO STEAL HER AWAY.

Ahem.

I'm just saying. If we give in to chaos it makes their job easier.

We may not know all the answers.

The pros might not either.

But we have to resist the chaos and the urge to panic, okay.

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:04 AM

mhm. y'see.

i don't gotta do that though cuz i'm too busy trying to explain to a bunch of tortured teenagers that shit sucks and i expect yall to deal with it regardless. so stop speakin over me.

like, i am trying to tell yall what answers we do and dont have over here

honestly, if yall wanna panic over it, just fuckin sign out and go cry about it in your rooms

so why don't you go on and do that, kid.

Mirio 11:07 AM

....sorry ma'am. Won't happen again.

[Mirio is idle]

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:08 AM

awesome.

now where were we

Kaminari 11:08 AM

Signing out to panic?

Todoroki 11:08 AM

Wow. Okay.

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:09 AM

if that's what you all wanna do, go for it lmfao

Todoroki 11:09 AM

Is there anything the heroes know that we don't?

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:10 AM

depends. i don't actually know what you all know or don't know. like i said, not a teacher, not part of your staff, don't know what they've actually kept from you or not.

Todoroki 11:10 AM

All we have is the video.

Kaminari 11:12 AM

And the Dread.

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:12 AM

being dramatic ain't gonna help in an info briefing, kid, but thanks.

Kaminari 11:14 AM

Well, we haven't even gotten any new info, so... briefing?

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:15 AM

yeah, the thing i was about to do before you started getting all theatrical on me. which i'd appreciate if you'd cut out cuz it's distracting

Kaminari 11:17 AM

Well, I'm sorry for that. 

It's just... a little hard trying not to panic with such a clear memory of the last thing that happened.

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:18 AM

of course. and i understand that

which is why i'm sayin there's no shame in checkin out for a bit

god knows some of the pros are right about now, HA.

anyway.

it depends on what part of the video you wanna know about first. the UA footage was clearly altered but it was taken specifically from UA's survaillace systems. meanwhile that nasty bit with hawks was obviously presented in such a way to try and make everyone panic about even the pros being attacked, which ain't happenin.

the actual hawks is fine. wasn't him that was in the video.

Todoroki 11:21 AM

Then.. who was it?

@ua-vladking 11:23 AM

[VK is online]

....What in hells name is the meaning of this.

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:24 AM

pff. oh no the police.

VK 11:24 AM

What the fuck are you doing woman?

Telling these children this?

BUNNY HERO Miruko!! 11:24 AM

i'm telling them what they need to hear because none of you lot are doin it?

Todoroki 11:24 AM

Were you going to just not tell us anything?

VK 11:27 AM

Listen 1A squirt, what we are telling you guys is for us to decide. And we aren't taking any action until all of us have discussed the subject.

So calm your fire, Endeavor junior.

As for YOU, Usagyiyama.

[BUNNY HERO Miruko!! Has been removed]

[VK is offline.]

Todoroki 11:28 AM

Oh my fucking god.

[manymessyfandoms]

Ummm I absolutely ADORE your fics ... can you do one where the avengers see tony and Peter have little bonding moments or something like that? Love your workkkk

YOU BET YOUR ASS I COULD DO THAT

Sorry if this is a little late, I worked today BUT I HAD SO MUCH FUN WRITING THIS

I did four of the Avengers bc the “Keep reading” thing never works for me, and I didn’t want this getting obnoxiously long

ANYWAYS I hope you like it, m’dear!

BRUCE

Bruce Banner, like everyone else, knew that Tony Stark wasn’t a particularly warm and fuzzy person. He tended to diffuse emotionally charged situation with sarcasm and humor, and was basically allergic to showing his feelings. 

That’s why Peter Parker was such a pleasant surprise.

“Banner,” Tony said one day as he walked in with coffee in one hand and the teen following close behind. “Peter’s going to help us out today.”

Bruce nodded his head, accepting that. It wasn’t a rare occurrence for Peter to assist them in the lab, especially recently, but after taking a closer look at the kid’s face, Bruce realized something was wrong. He didn’t have the usual buzzing energy he had when he came to work.

“You alright, Peter?” Bruce asked when he sat down at one of the tables glumly.

“Peter’s pouting,” Tony answered. 

“Am not!”

“Are to. You’ve been bummed about something ever since you got home from school- yeah, I noticed- and you’re going to tell me about it right now.”

Peter’s eyes shifted down, and Bruce grew nervous. The kid looked fragile right now, and Tony didn’t do fragile. He was blunt and tough. 

“It’s nothing,” Peter mumbled. 

Tony gave Bruce a look that he read as can you believe this kid before he said, “Pete. Something’s up. Talk to me.” And his voice… was soft. It had Bruce frowning in confusion.

The tone seemed to be enough for Peter because he cracked. “I just… you can’t be mad at me, okay?” He waited for Tony to nod before continuing. “I sort of… I failed a bio test.” 

Bruce almost laughed, thinking the kid was joking. Who cares about one high school test? Everyone had their off days, and what’s one test to someone who’s pretty much helped save the world?”

It was when Peter continued that Bruce realized he wasn’t kidding. “That’s one of my subjects, you know? And- and I know you’re probably disappointed or something, because you always talk about how I need to take my studies seriously, and now I’m probably never going to get in a good college, and I should just drop out now because I’m never going to amount to anything.” At some point during Peter’s frantic rant, he realized just how young the boy was. He truly believed everything he was saying, and judging by how thick his voice had gotten towards the end, he was taking it hard.

Tony walked over to Peter, and Bruce braced himself for a slap on the back with a casual, “Toughen up,” or maybe, “It’s no big deal,” but Tony didn’t do either. Instead he slung an arm around Peter’s shoulder and told the kid to look at him. 

“I’m not mad or disappointed, Pete,” he said when they locked eyes. “Everyone fails a test here or there. It’s probably my fault for keeping you here so long.”

Peter started shaking his head. “No, no, Mr. Stark, it wasn’t-”

“Bottom line is that it’s okay. I guarantee you you’re still the smartest little bastard at that school, and colleges are going to be clamoring for you, even with one lousy test score.” Peter’s face was a little bit brighter but he still looked unconvinced. “I promise you that no one’s mad, no one thinks any less of you, and you’ll crush the next one. I won’t keep you here later than 10pm, and we’re going to take breaks. In fact, we’re not working today.”

Peter finally laughed a little. “Tony, it’s fine-”

“Nope. Go on upstairs and order that pizza you like. We’re watching a movie tonight and then you’re getting a full night’s rest. Okay?”

Peter was full on smiling when he said, “Okay,” and hopped off his chair. Tony ruffled his hair when he walked past him to go upstairs.

“I’ll be up in a minute!” Tony called after him and Peter gave him a thumbs up. 

Bruce was grinning widely at him when he turned to him. “I’ve never seen you like that.”

“Shut up,” Tony said with an eye roll. 

“No, it was very paternal. Would I get punched in the face if I said it was cute?”

“Yes, so can it, Banner.” Bruce laughed when Tony exited the lab to go upstairs where Peter was waiting for him. 

NATASHA 

Natasha would be lying if she said she didn’t have a soft spot for Peter Parker. The bright eyed kid had the ability to turn their worst days around, and every one of them cared for him.

She hadn’t realized how much Tony in particular cared for him until one night when Peter’s suit went on the fritz and his vitals dropped out, only they didn’t know it was his spider suit that was malfunctioning. They thought they’d just witnessed Peter Parker die.

“FRIDAY,” Tony said thickly into the heavy silence, “pull up Peter’s coordinates.”

“No coordinates found.”

“FRIDAY!” he yelled. “Give me the damn coordinates!”

“No coordinates found, sir.” The AI’s voice sounded as sympathetic as a robot could sound.

“No, no, no, no,” Tony muttered, his breaths getting stuttered. “He was just patrolling. He was just patrolling.”

“Tony,” she said, trying to hold it together herself. “Tony, you’re not breathing.”

“No, he’s not breathing! He’s not breathing, Tasha!” Tony’s voice cracked on her name. “My kid’s not breathing.” He quickly turned and his fist collided with the wall.

“Tony! Stop!” She grabbed him by the shoulder, away from the wall, and he fought her for only a second before all the fight in him evaporated and he fell into her arms. 

“I can’t- he can’t-” he cried out, but before she could respond, FRIDAY spoke up.

“Peter Parker is entering the building.” Tony couldn’t have pulled away any quicker if he tried. He didn’t even reply, just ran over to where the elevator was opening and a sheepish Peter Parker entered the room.

“Hey, Mr. Stark, sorry about the suit but- Tony? Are you okay?”

Tony pulled him into a hug and Natasha felt relief rush throughout her own body. He was alive. He was okay. He was here. 

“You,” Tony started but his voice cracked again, so he cleared his throat before continuing. “You cannot do that to me again. Unless you want to be responsible for my poor old heart giving out way before my time, then you cannot do that, Pete.”

Peter looked slightly confused. “I- I don’t know what happened. My suit got electrocuted-”

“Excuse me?”

“-and it suddenly went offline. Oh wait.” His eyes widened as he put the pieces together. “My suit went offline.”

“Yeah, kid, we thought you just bit it.” The anguished tone in his voice had Natasha’s heart beating painfully, and she thought back to Tony’s, My kid’s not breathing. His kid. 

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Stark. I tried to get here as quick as possible, I really did.”

Tony hugged him again. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. Just don’t- don’t do it again.”

“I won’t.”

Natasha walked over a rubbed the guys’ shoulders. “I’m glad you’re okay, Peter. Gave us a scare.”

“Must be weird being the one that’s scared for once instead of doing the scaring,” he said with a smirk.

She shoved him a little. “Yes. I don’t like it, so listen to Tony and don’t do it again.” 

Tasha heard Tony say, “Now tell me just exactly how you managed to electrocute yourself,” and Peter’s nervous chuckle as she walked away.

STEVE

“What do you mean she said no?” Steve heard Tony say incredulously as he walked into the kitchen, where he sat with Peter.

“I mean, she said no,” Peter said, throwing his hands in the air. “I don’t know what to tell you!”

“Why would she say no?” Tony sounded so genuinely confused that Steve had no other choice but to insert himself in the conversation.

“What’s going on?” 

Peter turned to Tony and said, “Tony, don’t-”

“Michelle rejected him!”

“Dammit,” Peter scrunched his face. “You don’t tell Captain America about my love life, Mr. Stark! I even specifically said so! What did I say? I said, ‘Tony, if I tell you this, you can’t tell the others.’ And what did I say after that?” Tony just rolled his eyes. “I said, ‘Especially Captain America.’”

Tony waved him off. “You idolize him too much, kid.”

“So who’s Michelle?” Steve cut in with an amused smile, noticing how Peter was ready to scold Tony some more.

“She’s-”

Peter cut off Tony. “She’s a girl from my school that I maybe have a little crush on. It’s no big deal.” Tony’s scoff indicated that it might not have been as small of a crush as Peter led on. “And I asked her to dinner and she said no.”

“Which is crazy, by the way,” Tony jumped back in. 

“Tell me about her,” Steve said before he went on to hear an almost thirty minute ramble about the perfect girl from Peter’s school that he tried to ask out. “Well,” he cut Peter off when he paused for a breath. “Do you want my totally objective opinion?”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Yes!”

“From the sound of it, she’s a pretty laid back girl and you asked her to one of the fanciest restaurants in New York. Just ask her to go for a burger or something. She’ll probably say yes.”

There was a brief pause before both Peter and Tony started talking at the same time.

“Oh!’

“That’s what it is-”

“-makes sense, really.”

Steve laughed. “Try that out. If she says no again, then you ask her straight up if she’d rather do something else, and if she says no to that, I’m sorry to say it’s time you give up.”

Peter was bouncing excitedly. “No, it makes total sense! That’s why we were so confused, because she’d told me she wanted to go out, but when I actually did it, she said no.”

“I told you, Pete!” Tony said. “It’s not you.” Peter grinned at him as he rubbed his shoulder a little, and Steve’s heart warmed. He hadn’t seen Tony this happy in quite some time. It was nice. 

A few hours later when Steve got Tony alone, he teasingly said, “Helping Peter with girl troubles, huh?”

“You and I both know damn well I’d help that kid with just about any troubles he could ever have,” Tony said with a casual chuckle before walking away, leaving a slightly shocked Steve standing there. The shock wore off after a minute when he thought back to how Tony was around Peter, and then it wasn’t actually shocking after all, not with knowing how much Tony loved the kid.

CLINT

When Clint met up with the rest of the Avengers after the war with Thanos, he was shocked to see that Tony had practically adopted the spider kid. It started off as a joke, really, that Peter was Tony’s son, but one day Clint walked into the living room when Tony frantically was startled from his nap, screaming, “No!”

“Whoa, Tony, you alright?” he quickly asked the man still panting on the couch. 

“I- I need-” He grabbed his phone from the table and started shakily dialing a number. He pressed the phone to his ear as Clint watched on, and after a minute, he let out the breath he was holding. “Peter,” he said, relieved, and Clint realized what had just happened. “No, everything’s alright. I just- yep. Yeah, it was a bad one.” A pause. “Can you just- can you tell me about your day?”

Clint stood still for the next fifteen minutes, watching as Tony’s tense body relaxed with each passing second as he listened to the kid on the other line. 

Eventually he said, “Thanks, Pete. No, it’s fine, you don’t-”

FRIDAY’s voice suddenly chirped up from around them. “Peter Parker is entering the building.” Tony shook his head, laughing a little. 

“You didn’t have to come over, kid.”

“Yes, I did.” Clint suddenly heard Peter’s voice when the elevator opened. “You’d do the same for me.” He glanced back at Clint. “Hey, Clint.”

“Hey, Parker,” he replied.

Peter just walked over to where Tony was laying and pulled out his bag. “I brought over some movies I figured we could watch. They’re mostly just fluff, but I did sneak Alien in there.” Tony laughed. “You want to watch with us, Clint?”

That’s how Clint found himself watching a movie with Peter and Tony when he probably should’ve been training. Although, watching a movie probably wasn’t accurate. He was mostly watching Tony, who was watching Peter. That kid meant more to Tony than Clint had even guessed.

When Peter crashed about halfway through the movie, he slumped against Tony, and Tony didn’t hesitated to wrap an arm around his shoulder. It was only minutes later that Tony started grumbling about the kid getting drool on his shirt. 

“You don’t mind,” Clint said knowingly. 

“No,” Tony agreed. “I don’t.”

If Clint took a picture after the movie ended of the two of them both peacefully asleep with the reassurance of the others’ heartbeat pounding next to them, then they’d just have to find out when they woke up and saw it in the Avengers group chat. 

And if Tony set it as his background, well, then the others wouldn’t have to know that particular detail at all. 

[taekookismylifeline]

(yoonseok) - trust my heart when it beats for you

ao3: (x)

Summary: Jung Hoseok has had an awkward Thing for Min Yoongi for four years of his school life. He is certain that the only thing that gets in the way of them and everlasting love is the fact that Min Yoongi doesn't know he exists, but that all changes due to one drunken text message: a pick-up line. Ready to flee to another country under a false identity in mortification, he finds himself ruining their blossoming friendship and confessing when Yoongi asks why Hoseok had tried to flirt with him. However, things take a turn after his confession when Yoongi starts to (awkwardly) flirt back.

Pairings: Yoonseok, Taekook and Namjin

Chapters: (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)

Chapter Ten -  it's a game of words but, baby, i'd always put you first

“You’re kidding!” Taehyung yelled in his ear the next day. The two were hanging around Taehyung’s bedroom with the radio blaring. Hoseok was sitting at the foot of Taehyung’s bed, his crossed legs were balancing a bowl of crisps, while Taehyung moved from his side to pace around the room. “He said that to you!? Min Yoongi?” He let out a burst of slightly hysterical laughter which Hoseok related with on every level.

Taehyung collapsed dramatically onto the floor without warning and threw a hand over his forehead. “I can’t go on anymore.” Hoseok laughed and threw a crisp at him which landed rather impressively in Taehyung’s mouth, he nearly choked. He sat up and spoke, whilst chewing, his voice was tinted with disbelief: “I can’t imagine how you must be feeling.”

“I’ve been living on Cloud Nine ever since yesterday,” Hoseok attempted to put his giddy feelings into words. “You should have seen him, Tae. He looked so nervous, like he was scared of me, but then he comes out and says it bluntly. He’s so cute, and adorable, but deadly. Maybe he actually did kill me, and I’ve just dreamt it all in the flashback of my life.”

Taehyung crawled over to him to nab a few chips, there was a bright smile written on his face. “Maybe he killed me, too, and I’m dreaming with you. Though, if it were my dream, Jeongguk would be here and we would be holding hands-”

“-Or sucking dick,” Hoseok quipped with a playful smile on his face. Taehyung raised an eyebrow and smirked causing Hoseok to let out a ripple of loud laughter. “Speaking of, you know for certain that Jimin isn’t dating him, are you gonna make a move?”

Taehyung cocked his head, considering it, before scoffing. “Nope.” Hoseok pouted in response, flicking a crisp into Taehyung’s hair. “Gross, you’ve left crumbs. Anyway, I’m not gonna make a move because, first: he just broke up with his girlfriend who he’s been dating for almost a year – I checked his Facebook – and secondly, he’s probably straight. Thirdly, we’ve never talked, ever. I’ll only make a move if we all hang out and I get signals from him.”

Hoseok considered this, leaning against the wall. He blew upwards, making his fringe ruffle, this seemed to stir something in his mind as he recalled a memory: lunch time on Tuesday. “I don’t think you’ll be waiting that long, Tae,” he started and then began explaining what he had seen in the canteen. “It just kinda looked like he had been dared to... I don’t know, walk in your direction or something, and he did it. He circled around the canteen and then walked back to their table. Then Namjoon and Yoongi applauded him sarcastically and he looked kinda sad.” Taehyung frowned at him and then gestured for Hoseok to continue.

“That’s it.” He was regretting saying anything now, it was rather pathetic. “It doesn’t sound like much, but Yoongi looked up at me after saying something to Jeongguk, so maybe they were talking about what he had just done.”

Taehyung looked painfully confused. “I don’t get what you’re saying.”

Hoseok sighed in defeat and ate the last chip out of the bowl. “Never mind. I don’t really know what to make of it. Jus, to me, it looked like Jeongguk liked you and they dared him to go near you, maybe even to talk to you, but he was too shy so he walked past you and that’s why they were being sarcastic.”

This conclusion seemed to have changed everything. Taehyung drew himself up, a hopeful smile danced across his face. “So, what you’re saying is that Jeongguk might like me.” Just as the words had escaped his mouth he deflated. He threw his head onto Hoseok’s lap, knocking the bowl onto the floor. “I’m not even gonna get my hopes up.”

Hoseok patted his head and then laced his hand through Taehyung’s hair in a consoling motion. He picked up his phone with his free hand and read his latest notification. He snorted in laughter, releasing Taehyung to open his phone and type out a reply.

“Who are you talking to?” Taehyung asked, lifting his head to peer around Hoseok’s phone to look at the screen. “Ah, of course, I should have known,” he rolled his eyes but his smile gave him away, “look at you, leaving your best friend to talk to lover boy. I see how it is.”

“I’m not abandoning you,” Hoseok explained, smiling and pushing Taehyung’s head away from his phone. Taehyung crawled up onto the bed and sat next to him. “Look, Yoongi said he could eventually like me, right? So, I’m asking him questions to get to know him better and he’s doing the same.”

“It’s like you’re selling yourself,” Taehyung commented dryly, tilting his head until it was placed on Hoseok’s shoulder. “What are you even talking about anyway?” Without warning, he had grabbed Hoseok’s phone and was scrolling upwards, Hoseok protested but Taehyung pushed him away laughing. “Oh my god, you’re doing one of those question sheets, that’s adorable! Did you get it offline?”

Hoseok blushed but hid it in his protestations. He eventually succeeded in managing to prise the phone off of Taehyung. “You sound just like him – and, no, I made it myself.” He settled down on the bed again and went back to texting.

Taehyung cooed. “That’s even more adorable! What are you talking about now?” Hoseok eyed him warily and shielded his phone from Taehyung’s prying eyes. Taehyung tilted his head backwards and laughed. “Oh, come on, it can’t be that special!” Still, Hoseok didn’t answer him. “Have you ever talked about me?”

Hoseok snorted, practically burying himself into the screen of his phone. “The world doesn’t revolve around you. Maybe we have better things to talk about.”

His smug attitude couldn’t last long, not around Kim Taehyung. Said boy moaned in complaint and splayed himself on the bed, laying his head onto Hoseok’s lap again. “Please, tell me! What do you say about me?”

Hoseok sighed in mock-annoyance, and went to play with strands of Taehyung’s hair. “Nothing much, I ask him stuff about his friends and he asks about mine. He’s interested in the people I like, like you, always asks how you are and stuff.”

“What? Just me?” Taehyung questioned, his eyes wide.

Hoseok chewed his cheek as he pretended to rack his brain. “Yeah, now I think about it, it’s mostly just you. We talked about your music taste once, and then he asks how you’re doing, he asks if any of my friends are dating anyone, just the general stuff.” He tried to sound disinterested.

Taehyung cocked an eyebrow. “Weird. Maybe it’s me he likes, not you.” He poked Hoseok’s cheek with a finger and it was batted away just as quickly.

“No, no,” Hoseok smiled and pinched Taehyung’s cheek. “In fact,” he repositioned his expression into one of nonchalance, “I was rather thinking that he seemed so interested because of a certain someone.”

“What? What do you mean?” Taehyung stilled, the smile fading from his face. It was difficult not to laugh.

“Oh, you know,” Hoseok shrugged. “Like how I share some parts of our conversation with you, I’m sure he does with his friends, a certain Jeongguk maybe?” Taehyung’s eyes grew wild and it seemed as if his eyebrows were about to disappear into his scalp. “And if a certain Jeongguk is interested, perhaps he’s feeding Yoongi questions. If so, is there anything you want me to indirectly ask?”

“Um, is the sky blue?” Taehyung sat up so quickly he head-butted Hoseok in the eye. He didn’t react when Hoseok screamed in pain. Taehyung’s face wore an ecstatic grin, his eyes glistening manically. “I have so many things I want to know! I feel like you talking to Yoongi for the first time! Wait, wait, before I give you questions, can I read what you’ve said about me?”

Hoseok, nursing his eye, grudgingly handed his phone over to Taehyung. “Don’t read past the point after we stop talking about you. And thanks for hitting me in the eye, by the way.”

“No problem,” Taehyung said breathlessly, cradling Hoseok’s phone like it was the new-born child of Christ. “Okay, okay, so... you say, ‘who do you consider to be your closest friends?’ and he says, ‘cute question’ – can you two just make out already? – ‘probably Namjoon and Jeongguk, maybe Jimin whenever he shows up.’ Then he goes, ‘what about you? Let me guess, Taehyung?’ Hey, that’s me! You go, ‘hahaha yeah, and Seokjin too, I don’t know why you thought I had so many friends, I’m a loser hahaha’” (Taehyung scoffed at this) “Ain’t that the truth! Anyway, so then he says, ‘yeah, you are’. Hoseok, I think I’m secretly Yoongi.”

“Ugh,” Hoseok whined, jostling Taehyung. “Stop dissecting our whole conversation! Just read the next part.”

“Fine,” Taehyung complied. “You say, ‘rude, but I can be your loser’ and then a wink emoji. ‘Seok, are you still flirting with him!?”

Hoseok tittered, slinging an arm around Taehyung’s shoulder. “Well, he did invite me to send my whole collection of one-liners, didn’t he?”

Taehyung was apparently too saddened by Hoseok’s attempt at flirting to form a response, so he promptly moved on. “He goes, ‘you’ve had better lines’ and then he says... Oh my god, ‘does Taehyung flirt with his girlfriend as badly as you try with me?’?” Taehyung’s voice broke with how high he had risen his tone. He looked to Hoseok with incredulous eyes. “This isn’t... Min Yoongi wouldn’t write this,” he concluded, his mouth widening into a bright grin.

Hoseok nodded slowly as it dawned on Taehyung. “You’ve seen the light!” He remarked, throwing in a menacing cackle. “Jeongguk likes you-” And then it fully registered with Hoseok. “Jeongguk likes you, Tae, oh my god-” He was cut off by Taehyung throwing himself at Hoseok, they both collapsed onto the bed in a pile of limbs and denim.

“You know what I should do?” Hoseok got out eventually after the two had finally climbed down from their high. He detached himself from Taehyung, pushing his hair from his face and reaching for his phone where Yoongi had replied. “I should ask Yoongi if we should all meet up.”

“What?” Taehyung shot up, the smile still shining on his face. “Like, all of us? Me, you, Yoongi and Jeongguk?”

Hoseok nodded, a surge of confidence flooding through him. He was silent as he composed the message before turning his phone around to show Taehyung, tempting him. “Should I do it?”

It was a question that didn’t even need asking. Taehyung nodded enthusiastically, his eyes shining. “Do it, do it, do it.”

He didn’t need any encouragement, Hoseok pressed send. His message was read and after a few agonising minutes he received a reply.

Jung Hoseok: it’s nice talking to u on here but I feel we should do it irl Jung Hoseok: we should meet up with friends! but let’s not make it too crowded Jung Hoseok: if u wanna meet up, I’ll bring Tae u bring Jeongguk?

Min Yoongi: yeah, I get what you mean Min Yoongi: sounds cool, I’m sure he’ll be down Min Yoongi: wanna meet tomorrow?

Jung Hoseok: oh yay!!!! Jung Hoseok: but i’ve already met my tomorrow, my today and my yesterday ;)

Min Yoongi: they’re progressively getting worse

Jung Hoseok: nooo :(  they’re all equally as good!

Min Yoongi: *bad

Jung Hoseok: okay rude Jung Hoseok: I’d like to see you do better

Min Yoongi: is this a challenge? Min Yoongi: or your indirect way of getting me to flirt with you?

Jung Hoseok: OMFG Jung Hoseok: not intentionally Jung Hoseok: challenge accepted?

Min Yoongi: I’ve never flirted with anyone before so it’ll be tragic Min Yoongi: then again, so are your attempts Min Yoongi: so, yes, challenge accepted Min Yoongi: ;)

Jung Hoseok: that winky face got me all flustered boy

“Hoseok!” Taehyung yelled, nudging him with his toe. “Stop flirting and get to the point, are we meeting or not?”

Hoseok was dragged back into reality and realised that he had diverted himself from the task at hand.

Min Yoongi: there’s more where that came from Min Yoongi: ;P

Jung Hoseok: seriously, stop now its damaging to my health im too flustered Jung Hoseok: anyway as much as id love u to send me another emoji Jung Hoseok: r we on for tomorrow? Jung Hoseok: ;)

Min Yoongi: yeah, Jeongguk will be fine with it Min Yoongi: and im fine with it, but not as fine as you Min Yoongi: ;)

Jung Hoseok: oh, Min Yoongi u don’t know what uve signed up for Jung Hoseok: when we do this how far can we go Jung Hoseok: like sexual innuendos and stuff Jung Hoseok: r u okay with that?

Min Yoongi: you’re so precious Min Yoongi: thanks though Min Yoongi: yeah, I’m fine with it, are you?

Jung Hoseok: yeah babes, im down for lots of things ;) Jung Hoseok: im always up for u though

Min Yoongi: I did not expect that so quickly but here we are

Jung Hoseok: well u know what they say

Min Yoongi: expect the unexpected?

Jung Hoseok: no Jung Hoseok: expect things to come quickly ;)

Min Yoongi: I’m not sure if that was flirting or you trying to tell me that you’re premature

Jung Hoseok: WOW Jung Hoseok: I didn’t say i was any good at this!!

Min Yoongi: that’s why you should stop

Jung Hoseok: I cant :( Jung Hoseok: ive gotta go now babes :( Jung Hoseok: Tae is now bleeding and ive gotta play paramedic

Min Yoongi: kinky ;) Min Yoongi: have fun, make sure he doesn’t bleed to death Min Yoongi: otherwise Jeongguk might be disappointed tomorrow

[surrealredmoon]

Gaming AU - Sleepless Night

Soooo.... hey guys! Now that life is starting to chill a little I’ve found myself wanting to write again (yay \o/). Here’s a little something for the Gaming AU that was inspired by some very sleepless nights I’ve had recently. It’s set in the time before everyone met in person and before Weiss and Yang really began to hit things off. Anyway... ENJOY!

Weiss lay on top of her bed, staring at the patterns of moonlight filtering in through the open curtains onto the ceiling. Briefly, she glanced away to look at the clock on her bedside table, 2:45am. She’d been laying there for a good three hours now, her mind once again unable to switch off and let her get the rest she so desperately needed right now.

Sighing to herself, Weiss sat up. Well if her mind wasn’t going to let her rest, she may as well do something semi-productive… well semi-productive to her at least. She was sure her father would be shocked and appalled if he ever realised that his youngest daughter was exactly that type of person that made his business so successful.

Monitors blazed to life as she hit the power button on the PC, bathing the room in blue before the home screen loaded up. It didn’t take long before the all too familiar log in window popped up and the theme music began to play through her headphones. Quickly, Weiss entered her details and began loading in on Myrtenaster.

Once she’d loaded in though, she sat back and stared at the screen. She hadn’t actually considered what she wanted to do to try and pass the time. She opened up the Looking for Group list, scanning through each of the different game modes to see if there were and active groups, even though that wasn’t very likely given the time. She’d finally found a couple of groups looking for one of the high-end adventures and was about to join one when a whisper message popped up in the chat box.

(whisper from) Ember Celia: so… cant sleep again?

Weiss raised her eyebrow. What was Ember doing up at this time? And more importantly, how did she know that this wasn’t the first time she’d logged on when the insomnia made it clear she wasn’t going to get any sleep that night?

(whisper from) Ember Celia: ello?

(whisper from) Ember Celia: I knw u didnt fall asleep at ur desk cuz u jst logged on

Weiss rolled her eyes, even as a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, and typed a quick reply.

(whisper from) Myrtenaster: You know, it’s getting harder and harder to believe that you’re not stalking me when you say things like that.

She could almost hear the chuckle and teasing tone in Ember’s response.

(whisper from) Ember Celia: well I dnt normally show as online this late

(whisper from) Ember Celia: stops the weirdos messaging me :P

Weiss’ small smile turned into a frown, concern growing in her that perhaps she might not be the only member of their guild who suffered from insomnia.

(whisper from) Myrtenaster: Are you often online this late? Or is this a one-off for you?

It took at little while for the response to come through, so Weiss began to reorganise her inventory while she waited.

(whisper from) Ember Celia: I guess probs more often thn I shld

(whisper from) Ember Celia: bt nt as often as u I bet

(whisper from) Ember Celia: btw Im runnin round doin sum gatherin n events if u wanna join

A party invite popped up on Weiss’ screen a moment later and she accepted. At least this would give her something to do, and it would be nice to just casually chat with someone. Even if that someone had a tendency to infuriate her most of the time. She opened up her map, found the marker indicating the location of her party member and began making her way over.

Ember Celia: so whts got u up so late?

She took a moment to decide whether or not she wanted to open up to her guild mate about what had been causing her so much trouble recently as she cleared out some Grimm that had crossed her path. Eventually, she decided to hold off revealing too much; after all, even though she’d been playing with her current guild mates for almost a year now she’d never dared to reveal anything about herself aside from the fact that she was from Atlas.

Myrtenaster: Oh just stressed about school work and such. All those normal young adult things.

Myrtenaster: What about you?

Myrtenaster: Actually, don’t tell me, I’ll guess. You probably have a report due tomorrow, but instead of focussing on an important assignment you thought it would be far more productive to play instead.

‘Dammit Weiss! This is why they call you the Ice Queen…’ Weiss sighed. ‘Ember hasn’t done anything except offer you some company and express some concern. But noooo… you couldn’t let your stupid walls down for one minute.’

She had just typed her response of “I’m so sorry Ember, that was out of line.” at the same time a response came through.

Ember Celia: Myrtenaster, when was the last time you actually slept? For like a whole night.

Before the irrational part of her brain could take Ember’s comment as an insult the rational side noticed the change in their writing style. The fact that Ember had put the effort in to use correct grammer, something they rarely did… much to Weiss’ distain, seemed to imply genuine care on the other gamer’s part. Weiss found herself in an internal struggle over how to reply; be honest and open up, or revert to her usual behaviour and strengthen her walls. The battle was still waring as the next messages popped up.

Ember Celia: I know it’s not really any of my business but I doubt this is all because of ‘normal young adult things’ and I get the feeling that if it’s as bad as I think it is you probably don’t have anyone to talk to about it.

Ember Celia: So I want you to know, I’m here if you need someone to talk to… because I look out for my friends.

Ember Celia: Even if they are an Ice Queen who can’t take a joke sometimes.

Weiss just stared in shock at the screen as Ember’s character ran off to fight a pack of Grimm that spawned nearby. She still wasn’t sure exactly what to make of the situation she was in; and yet she found herself typing.

Myrtenaster: Thank you Ember. That actually means a lot to me.

Myrtenaster: But I don’t think I’m quite ready to talk about it… yet.

She held her breath, anxiously waiting for a reply.

Ember Celia: No problem. How about we just play instead for now?

Ember Celia: I was thinking about doing some of the low-level dungeons to get some new clothing items.

Ember Celia: takes a lot fo wrk to keep this pretty ass lookin so fiiiiiiine!!!

Weiss snorted at the abrupt return of the crass and unabashed Ember she was used to. Yet she couldn’t deny the small smile once again tugging at her mouth.

Myrtenaster: Of course that’s where all your in-game effort goes. Ohm forbid you should show up to a raid wearing the same outfit as the previous one.

Ember Celia: AH! theres my ice queen!

Weiss’ smile grew.

She didn’t even realise how long they had been playing together until the first few rays of sunlight creeped across the room. Checking the time, Weiss noted she still had a little over an hour before her alarm would go off.

Myrtenaster: Well I should really try to get some sleep before school.

Ember Celia: That would be a good idea…

Ember Celia: And I should probably get started on that report I was avoiding!

Myrtenaster: EMBER!

Ember Celia: Whoa! I’m kidding!

Myrtenaster: You better be.

Ember Celia: Or what? You gunna freeze me Ice Queen?

Weiss narrowed her eyes at the screen, as if she could make the other feel her glare through it.

Ember Celia: I bet you have cold toes

Ember Celia: And I bet you’re the type to try and put those cold toes somewhere warm when you snuggle with someone…

Weiss glared harder, not responding.

Ember Celia: Alright, I might be a bit over tired…

Ember Celia: So I’ll leave that line of teasing for another night…

Ember Celia: I hope you get some rest.

Ember Celia: And don’t forget what I said before. Online or offline, I’m here if you need me.

Her expression relaxed enough for her to type out a reply.

Myrtenaster: Thank you Ember. Aside from that last comment… tonight was surprisingly… fun.

Ember Celia: Yeah, it was.

Myrtenaster: Have a good day Ember.

Ember Celia: Yeah you too. I’ll see you for raid tonight!

The smile was back on her lips as Weiss signed out and shut everything down, climbing into bed and preparing herself to try and fall asleep again.

As she began going through her mental exercises to try and shut off her brain she kept finding herself distracted by thoughts of what had happened and what Ember had said. She had the distinct impression that she would fine Ember online again at the same time tonight. That thought made her feel surprisingly content, even if she would have to deal with Ember’s teasing.

As she felt her eyes close, she curled up to fall asleep, noticing that her feet had come up as if to tuck between someone’s shins. Weiss’ last thought before sleep finally took her was just how annoyed she was going to be at Ember for being right about her cold toes… 

[myofflineblddd]

23/04/2018

Hey, I haven't really been active for a year probably, but now I'm feeling hopeful.

Sooo I guess people who maybe might read this pile of nonsense I call a blog might not know too much about me.

Well I'm S (stage name obvs don't want any creeps) I live in France, but I was born in England, in fact, I'm moving back in 60 days -I'm super excited- I'm 14 years of age, I have no friends tbh except a few online, my old friends decided not to be friends with me anymore, so yeahh (can I say the word friends one more time?). I'm not too sure what I want to be when I'm older, perhaps an astronomer, or a midwife, two completely different things, I know, I'm always curious about different things.

Well, that's a quick sum up of my life right now, I know not too exciting I'll try to write decent posts.

-

Anyways let's start with today.

I got up SUPER late today, which is kinda unusual for me because normally I'm one with the good old sleeping routine, but definitely not this time, I got out of bed got ready and headed to the shops with my guardian.

On the car journey, my guardian (let's call him Will) told me that apparently, it was my 'friend's' birthday yesterday (we're calling her Blondie), well, the story is with me and Blondie we do NOT get on AT ALL, and Will doesn't get that! Every afternoon after school (it isn't my choice) she has to come round mine and stays until about 18:30, and when she's over, all she wants to do is watch films and it's sooo boring, we watch films on my laptop on my bed, my bed is right up against the wall and whenever she sits on that side, SHE JUST RUBS HER FEET ON THE BLIMMEN WALL, for gods sake girl that's actually disgusting, and she mocks me all the time and laughs at me with that kind of laugh that's just a snort and means that she is making fun of somebody.

Well, back to the story, so Will told me that on Friday we should invite her to come to the cinema, to see the film "Lady bird", which looks really interesting and would love to go watch it, I just don't want to go with Blondie, but I kinda had to and sent her a message to ask.

After getting all we needed at the shops, we headed to the till. for your full disclosure, I was dressed quite summerly, in flip flops, shorts, and a tank top, it must have been around 25 degrees Celsius out, not too cold, not too hot, just mild.

The thing that was just about to happen shocked me and I could have never been prepared for...

BLONDIE AND HER MUM CAME THROUGH THE DOORS OF THE SUPERMARKET.

YES! I know, it was so traumatizing, they came over to say hi and her mum talked to Will and I talked to her, unfortunately, and of course, she did her little laugh/snort thing as usual about my outfit and so on...

But the good news is she might not be able to make it Friday (YESYESYESYES) which I'm quite happy about.

Well after that I did nothing we had a barbeque and just chilled.

Thanks for reading (if you did and didn't just scroll to the bottom), because I'm done for the day, sorry if it's a bit boring, but I'm sure the more I write the better it will get, bye for now.

-also, a quick thing, if you have any questions or anything feel free to message me or email me at itsamey10@gmail.com

Offline until next time x

[shamelessly4shameless-blog]

The Sand In Your Shoe (pt 7)

Ian waited and waited. 

For the first week, his heart rushed into his throat whenever a text message came through and he couldn’t seem to get his phone out of his pocket without fumbling it.

After two weeks, he stopped putting it into a baggy whenever he wanted to shower for fear of missing a call.

After three weeks, he made himself turn it off at night so that he wouldn’t be in a constant state of waiting.

He went back to the Alibi to talk to Svetlana and she told him Mickey would either call or he would not. It was probably the least helpful conversation Ian had ever had.

He tried to call Mandy, feeling shitty that he was calling after all this time just to get hold of her brother, but the number he had for her was disconnected.

Finally, at a loss of what else to do, he asked Debbie to show him how Facebook worked.

They met at a coffee shop while Frannie was at pre-school, Debbie was on her lunchbreak from the diner over the street and Ian paid for coffee and sandwiches whilst she set him up.

“It’s literally so easy. You make a profile and add people. It’s like a boring version of Tinder … or Grindr, I guess.”

She tapped away on the screen, pausing to ask his email address and which photo he wanted but otherwise completely focussed on her task. It seemed to be a trait of the redheaded Gallaghers, total and unwavering focus on any set goal.

“Cool.”

Ian nodded and bit his lip, watching her work.

“I don’t think he’ll be on here though.”

“Who?”

“Mickey. Like, he might be but not with his real name.”

Debbie looked up and smiled at her big brother gently.

“It’s OK, I won’t tell Fiona you’re looking.”

“You can … if you wanted to. I don’t really care what she thinks about it.”

Ian shrugged.

“You’re all set. Want me to search him for you?”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll do it later.”

Ian slipped his phone into his hoodie pocket and gave Debbie a half hearted smile.

“Besides, even if he wasn’t a fugitive, Mickey wasn’t really a social media kind of guy.”

“No, but he loved you enough to want to kill Sammi for you so he might have made a profile or something so you could find him.”

Debbie stood up and collected her purse from under the seat, ignoring the way Ian dropped his eyes to the floor and started fidgeting with a stray sugar packet on the table.

“Listen, Ian, you loved him and you clearly still do. You left him before because you needed to focus on yourself and that’s fine, but if you find him and don’t go to him now, you’re an idiot.”

“Debs, you don’t understand …”

Huffing, she looked at her watch and then sat down again, reaching across the table to grip his hand tightly.

“I really do. I had a baby because I loved Derek and he split because he had to focus on his life. Crime was Mickey’s baby. He chose to break out of prison because he couldn’t stand being away from you … and probably because prison sucks but I bet you were the biggest pull,”

She pushed a stray auburn curl out of her eyes, not relinquishing the grip on Ian’s fingers

“You couldn’t be part of that crime at the time because you had just got your life where you wanted it to be and I bet no one, including Mickey, really blames you for it, but if you let this go now, without trying to be something to him, you’re just an asshole.”

“Did Derek get in touch or something?”

Ian asked trying to cover up his shock and Debbie laughed

“No, Derek is an asshole. But you’re not.”

She stood up and hoisted her bag onto her shoulder, kissing her brother’s cheek.

“Let me know if you find him and if you need someone to water your plants while you’re away.”

*

Ian walked home in a bit of a daze. Debbie’s words had hit him hard and the heavy weight of guilt and anger that had surrounded everything that had happened at the border began to soften into something more manageable.

Debbie was right. Mickey had chosen to escape and that choice had tied one hand behind his back in regard to setting up a stable, normal life with Ian. It put strains and demands on them that at the time, Ian wasn’t ready for at all and so he did what he did to try and take care of himself. That really was an OK choice to have made, no matter how shitty it felt at the time and since.

But equally, Ian didn’t have that excuse anymore. He was stable and his moods were better, his life was balanced. He had nothing to be scared of in himself and he owed Mickey a proper explanation. Even if it was late. What Mickey did with that was up to him. If he told Ian to fuck off and never contact him again? Well it would suck but that would be his choice and Ian would respect it. If he told him he hated him? Ian swallowed and clenched his jaw, stopping so suddenly the guy behind bumped into him and staggered past with a dirty look.

If Mickey actually said the words ‘I hate you’ then Ian would just have to deal with that.

*

Ian made himself a tea, poured it down the sink and took a beer from the fridge instead. He changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants and leant against the kitchen counter sipping his beer and tapping his thumb against the blank screen of his phone. He was afraid. Afraid that he’d find Mickey and he’d be in a relationship. Afraid that he wouldn’t be. Afraid that he wouldn’t find him at all.

He gave himself until the beer line disappeared beneath the blue paper label and then pressed the centre button and watched as the screen lit up.

He navigated to the search bar and after one final sip of his drink, began typing.

Mickey Milkovich - nothing

Mikhailo Milkovich – Five old fat guys and one person who had a Christmas tree as their picture. Defintiely not Mickey.

Mick Milkovich – a college student, two old skinny guys, an old fat guy and a lady with cropped blonde hair.

Milkovich – over two thousand results, none of them Mickey but called one that looked suspiciously like… Mandy!

Ian peered at the phone, his face splitting into a wide grin as he looked at her. She was on a beach, wearing a bikini and flipping off the photographer and she looked so damn happy … Ian felt tears prickle behind his eyes and blinked them away impatiently. He clicked on the little envelope at the top of the screen and typed a message before he could think too much about it:

‘Hey gorgeous, long time no see!’

Within a minute the little grey tick at the side of the message turns blue and moments later he get’s her reply

‘OMG! Ian! How the fuck r u?’

‘Good. Sorry it’s been so long.’

‘U better be! South Side?’

‘North Side. U?’

‘Mexico.’

Ian swallows heavily and lets his thumb hover above the keyboard on screen. Should he ask her? Could he? Mandy was his best friend and his focus should be completely on her but …

‘M call you?’

The message pops up while he is still thinking and Ian’s heart skips a beat and he drops the phone on the floor, quickly scrabbling to pick it up.

‘nsj6644lm’

‘WTF?’

‘Sorry, dropped my phone. M hasn’t called me.’

‘O.’

‘How is he?’

‘Good. U miss him?’

‘Miss both of u’

‘Gonna fuck up again?’

‘No’

Ian could type more but it seems unnecessary. He knows Mandy will trust him based on that word alone and for that he is grateful beyond words. Ian watches the little blue tick beside his message and waits. Minutes tick by and he wonders if Mandy has gone offline but he doesn’t put his phone down, just holds it and keeps waiting.

Finally a message pops up.

‘Tamaulipas. Don’t fuck up. ILY’

Ian stares at it uncomprehendingly for a moment and then Googles it. It is a Mexican state.

‘TY. ILY2’

He types back and goes back to Google. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for exactly but something … a picture of Mickey in some tourist shots maybe ... a notice about a crime spree four years ago … a fucking mention of something related to him. Ian just needs to see something, anything really.

He searches for three hours, phones in sick to work, completes his mental health checklist and determines that this is extreme circumstances, makes a sandwich when his eyes start aching and then goes straight back to his search. He has typed every iteration of ‘Mikhailo’ and ‘Milkovich’ he can think of and nothing comes up at all. He takes a shower, goes for a run to get rid of some frustrated energy and comes back to the house just as the sun is setting over Chicago. He messages Mandy

‘Where?’

But she doesn’t respond and he doesn’t really expect her to. If Mickey is really in Tamaulipas then she is probably going to be a shit-storm of trouble with him for telling someone; but Ian has seen the siblings fight numerous times and he knows that Mandy can hold her own.

In a moment of flippant desperation, Ian types the word ‘Gallagher Mexico’ but misses the ‘H’ and accidentally types ‘Gallager Mexico’. Google comes up with the little circular searching button and Ian waits impatiently for it to finish so he can correct his mistake.

‘Did you mean ‘Galagers Mexico’?’

Ian frowns. He has only seen his name spelt that way once. He clicks on the link below the suggestion and is taken back to Facebook. Galagers is a bar in La Pesca, Tamaulipas. There is pretty much no information about it except the address and a couple of reviews. Ian reads the first one and as he does so, slowly sinks down to the floor, not bothering to stem the tears that slip down his face.

‘Cool little place on the beach. Chilled out vibe for the most part but don’t bother trying to be nice to the American staff, both pretty rude.’

Ian doesn’t need to see more. He checks on his map app and books a flight to Brownsville, Texas for the next day. He calls his boss and says that he needs to take a weeks vacation. Maria is pissed but she lets him do it as he has way too much time to use up anyway. He texts Debbie to ask her to water his plants, checks his savings account for the first time in weeks and is pleasantly surprised, finally he throws some clothes into a bag and then picks up his phone again and messages Mandy.

‘OMW’