#at least we’ve proved I’m remembered enough to be invited which is nice I guess

[theamazingannie]

Someone started a high school graduating class Facebook group. I’m too young for this😭

[robininthelabyrinth]

i've been keeping a list of possible prompts for you and there's one i have no memory of adding that just says "courtesan nmj????" so i guess that's the prompt you're getting lmao

What Does the Fox Say - ao3

“Second Madame Nie!” a disciple shouted, rushing into her little garden. She didn’t recognize him, but he was solidly built and well-muscled like most of the others – truly, the Unclean Realm was a rapturous feast for one with eyes to see it. Yum, yum. “Second Madame Nie, I have bad news!”

Boo. She hated bad news: bad news meant she’d have to do something, usually, and right now she was seated very comfortably in a pleasant piece of sun in the garden path that’d been made up just for her and to her preferences, with her feet up on a chair and a full plate of fruit from the kitchen on the table in front of her just begging to be devoured, morsel by delicious morsel.

Her schedule was packed!

“I regret to tell you, but your husband has been killed!”

“Oh,” she said, frowning slightly. “Has he? How obnoxious of him.”

How unreliable. Men.

She sighed.

“Second Madame – Second Madame – you don’t understand!” The disciple was all red-eyed and weepy, which was a look she liked, especially in big, stout men like this. The salt added a bit of spice to the whole thing. “You must flee at once! He was killed by Sect Leader Wen in an act of outright aggression – Sect Leader Wen has declared war – the Wen sect is invading!”

She nodded and picked up another lychee to start peeling it. She’d get around to fleeing in her own time. As long as this Wen sect or whatnot was being led by a man, she wasn’t terribly concerned.

“They intend to wipe out the inheritance of Qinghe Nie! They will rip out the child in your belly!”

She hummed noncommittally. Really, how attached was she to having a child of her own? Really?

“They will slaughter civilians – execute Nie-gongzi –”

Her hands stilled.

“What,” she said, and the disciple took a step back automatically, proving that he, at least, had something more of a survival instinct than her late husband did. “Hurt my little meat bun? My darling rice roll? My savory zongzi?”

She stood up, diminutive height and over-large belly and frilly clothing doing absolutely nothing to diminish the vaguely menacing aura that darkened the sky around her. She bared her teeth.

“Who does this upstart Wen dog think he is?!”

The disciple blinked owlishly, but nodded, seeming relieved that she’d finally accepted his concern, though she could see on his face that he was thinking that her reasoning was – characteristically – a little strange. But then again, and she could see this thought process on his far too honest face, it was well known that the second Madame Nie been quite strange ever since Sect Leader Nie had found her in some lonesome place with no family or background and brought her back to be his new wife nevertheless.

Such a charming man. Pity about his loss, really.

“You have to flee at once, we can’t possibly fight so many people,” the disciple said once more, and this time she nodded in agreement. “We can escort you to a hidden exit –”

“No!” a little voice called. “We can’t go.”

She turned to look, and there was the little pork-and-shrimp dumpling himself, chubby-cheeked and earnest-eyed, looking as delicious as always.

“What do you mean, fish cake?” she asked. “Of course we have to go. Didn’t you hear what this strapping young man said? This Wen person wants to kill you!”

“If Father is dead, then I’m the sect leader,” her stepson said. He was serious and solemn in a way that made her want to pinch his cheeks and bury her face into his belly to blow raspberries, and also possibly to eat him right up, flesh and marrow and gristle and all. “That means it’s my responsibility to preserve the Nie sect.”

“Nie-gongzi, no!” the disciple cried, throwing himself to his knees in a dramatic display of loyalty. “You would only die – far better for you to run, and live!”

“Then isn’t the same true for everyone else?” the tasty little dish asked, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Possibly he was trying to put on a fierce expression, maybe, she couldn’t quite tell sometimes. He was so cute. “Why should I live, and them not? I refuse to buy my life with their deaths!”

“But – Nie-gongzi –”

Her charming little honey cake shook his head and held up a hand to stop the disciple, turning to look at her instead.

“Second Mother,” he said, and he had that wholesome trusting expression again that was such a perfect little one-shot-kill to the heart, ugh. “You always said you’re the best at hiding. The best in the world, no one better among all the gods or demons!”

She was, too. She couldn’t help but preen a little, proud.

“– can’t you do something?”

“Oh, darling cabbage bun,” she said, not without fondness. “I can hide myself from even the net of Heaven itself if I so choose, from gods and demons alike, and I can most certainly hide a small group from any mortal eyes that dare to look, if you don’t mind being a little tiny bit dishonorable about the business. But an entire sect? That’s a bit much, even for someone as talented and skilled as me.”

Her stepson looked up at her, all straight-steel sincerity and upright righteousness wrapped into a perfectly edible little snack-sized package. “If we split them up, the sect could be small groups,” he said eagerly. “Couldn’t you do something then?”

He was so cute, and he trusted her. He trusted her, believed in her, felt that she could perform miracles with a wave of her sleeve if only she so wished.

It was awful.

She couldn’t bear it.

“Oh all right, you nummy little slice of roast pork belly,” she said, yielding. “But I’m telling you now, it won’t be the least bit honorable! There’s only so many excuses you can come up with for having a lot of strong men with wide shoulders and women with thick thighs hanging around, and not a single one of them has the slightest bit to do with what you people consider to be appropriate.”

“That’s all right. Preserving human life comes first, always.”

The disciple looked between them, clearly completely confused. Clearly all his effort had been spent on developing the muscles in his arms (quite nice) rather than his brain (quite slow).

“What?” he said. “What’s happening?”

“We’re saving the sect,” Nie Mingjue announced happily, clapping his hands together. Too precious, too precious entirely; she’d have to make sure no one else even thought about going near her darling little snackling. “Tell everyone to prepare to evacuate.”

“That will take too long,” she said, and smiled, with teeth. “Let me call some friends to help.”

-

When the Wen sect arrived at the Unclean Realm, they found the gate open.

That was unexpected enough, but when they entered, they found that the entire place had emptied out – not just of people, but of everything else, too. There wasn’t a single intact chair or table in the entire place, not a scrap of cloth nor a bit of food, like it’d been swept clean by locusts or wild monkeys come to pilfer whatever they could.

Even the paving stones where arrays had been laid out by the Nie sect’s ancestors had been pried up and carted away.

Sect Leader Wen ordered a search, but there wasn’t any trace of it – of the people, of the stuff, anything.

No one ever found out what happened.

-

Jin Guangyao despised social events, he’d found.

It was one thing when it was something he’d planned himself, where the work was interesting enough to distract him, but when he was an honored guest for someone else…miserable. Utterly miserable.

The only thing more miserable was when the host was his erstwhile father, from whom he’d forcefully extracted recognition. With Wen Ruohan as his backer, indulging his favorite torturer as if a beloved pet, there wasn’t much Jin Guangshan could do to refuse, and neither could he force Jin Guangyao to do anything on his behalf, either. And so Jin Guangyao, sitting as always by Wen Ruohan’s side, right beneath his sons, was now an honored guest at his father’s house, getting offered his pick of prostitutes as if the man had no notion of the irony.

Maybe he didn’t. Jin Guangyao couldn’t quite tell if his father had just forgotten his origins, thinking his bastard son too unimportant to remember the details of, or whether it was meant as a deliberate insult – who could tell?

“Oh, right,” the simpering idiot in front of him, a nephew or cousin of some sort to the sect leader, said. “Our dear Jin Guangyao is known not to like the gentle flower queens, even when they come from the finest houses in Lanling. Isn’t that right, cousin?”

Jin Guangyao’s fists clenched. A deliberate insult, then.

Despite that, his face remained neutral. Instead, he chuckled and said, “The appeal is limited. After all, I have seen the best of them.”

Beside him, Wen Ruohan nodded and smirked. He appreciated Jin Guangyao’s devotion to his mother, though Jin Guangyao suspected it was because he thought it funny that Jin Guangyao would bother to honor such a lowly woman – but what he thought didn’t matter, not really. All that mattered was that he let Jin Guangyao pay his respects to her to his heart’s content.

“Well, you’re in luck!” the idiot Jin Zixun said, looking absurdly smug. “We have something of a different flavor than the usual tonight – we’ve invited entertainment from the local branch of Splendid Spring.”

Jin Guangyao barely managed to avoid rolling his eyes.

The Splendid Spring Palace was a series of brothels that had popped up fully formed just about everywhere some years back, with madams and girls and musicians and bodyguards of all sorts. It was so patently a political move that Jin Guangyao had barely bothered to pay attention to it once he’d become actually powerful, and Wen Ruohan hadn’t paid attention to it at all. After all, in the unlikely event that the business really was backed by a cultivation sect that didn’t care about its face any longer, anyone who needed to use such a façade to gather power was clearly beneath notice.

Jin Guangyao had paid only very little attention, but to different and unusual aspects of the place: by all accounts, they were surprisingly decent employers as far as places like that went. They didn’t steal girls or accept unwilling goods – they had some connection with the merchant caravans, or at least one of the companies that helped coordinate routes and provide protection to such things, and they were as meticulous about checking things over as they were about seeking refunds if they were dissatisfied – and they did accept married girls fleeing unhappy marriages, which not everyone did. They did buy up all the girls in the local markets wherever they were, but they swept them away and brought them back transformed, even the ones that wouldn’t sell because they were too ugly; Jin Guangyao assumed that meant they had people who were talented in make-up and clothing, since the usual rumors of the girls being blessed with a yao’s enchantment were obviously ridiculous and nothing more than the usual marketing gimmicks that brothels since time immemorial had tried.

Even once they had the girls in hand, the places were pretty decent: they had physicians on staff to help with the usual side effects of the business, made sure their girls were clean and healthy, and were said to even limit the number of customers a girl would be obliged to take on in a given evening…honestly, knowing as he did the brothel business, Jin Guangyao sometimes wondered how they’d managed to bespell enough people to even make money in the early days. At any rate, whatever they’d done, it’d worked, because by now they had a solid enough reputation to trade on.

In short: a decent enough place, far better than the usual run of the mill. Once he’d had the ability to do so, he’d even pulled a few strings and arranged for the better of his mother’s old compatriots to end up there, since he couldn’t convince them to leave their old professions behind entirely.

Anyway, if they also seemed to have a sideline in information brokering and assassinations, well, let them. In the cultivation world, where the only thing that mattered was strength, real strength.

A little thing like that wouldn’t make any real difference.

Or so Jin Guangyao had thought.

He found himself re-thinking that, though, when the entertainment in question came out. There were the usual set of attractive (albeit in a wider variety of shapes and sizes than usually seen) dancers, dressed up in silks that seemed actually high quality, and plenty of strapping young men carrying sabers – dancers as well, once assumed, to provide some spice to the entertainment, and implicitly on the offer for men who cut their sleeves or women with more flexibility, like widows or ones with especially permissive husbands. Wen Ruohan’s wives were in that latter category, and they were already whispering to each other excitedly, looking at them.

They’d even brought in the local madame, who was…

Well, she was actually breathtaking, even by Jin Guangyao’s extremely jaded standards. She had hair that fell almost all the way to her ankles, shimmering in the light, and dark eyes shining with liveliness, a smooth and ageless face that simultaneously suggested youth and health but also winked at knowable experience, the features characteristic of what his mother’s employers had called the ‘fox-face’. As if to emphasize that, the lady was wrapped in fox-fur and draped in embroidered brocade, with little stylized foxes running up and down the hems of her clothing and along the gazy silk draped on her shoulders.

It ought to have looked absurd, looked gaudy and overwrought and overdone, but it didn’t.

She was a thousand dreams of wealth and beauty and power and sex appeal all wrapped up in one, and even Jin Guangyao – who was in his personal preferences quite firmly a cutsleeve – couldn’t help but intrigued by her, wondering what it might be like to touch the hem of such a glorious creature.

And next to her…

The lady was accompanied by two men that seemed completely different from each other. One was a slender and winsome young man, fluttering his eyelashes from behind a fan with a charming smile, emanating the appeal of softness and weakness, ready to be indulged. While the other…

Jin Guangyao swallowed.

He was the exact opposite of the first man. Clearly strong, muscular and powerful, and tall to the point of towering, with wide shoulders and a narrow waist, a chest that you could lean your head against and an ass that begged to have someone’s hands on it – and there were his hands, big and broad, perfect for holding someone down or up if they so wished and of a size that was very promising as to what was only hinted at under his clothes. His face was hidden behind a veil as if he were a woman, marking him, like his comrade, as one of the available courtesans of the Splendid Spring, but his body was visible under clothing clearly cut to put it to the best advantage.

And oh, what advantages it had…!

“It seems we found something to the tastes of dear cousin Guangyao after all,” the idiot said mockingly, sniggering and snorting like the pig he was, and for once Jin Guangyao didn’t even care.

“Who’s the woman in front?” Wen Ruohan asked, ignoring their interplay. He seemed utterly fascinated, almost spellbound, and Jin Guangyao couldn’t blame him one bit. If this woman had been at the same brothel as his mother, there wouldn’t have even been room for jealousy or shame; his mother would have gone straight up to her to ask for some tips. “She seems…familiar, somehow.”

“That’s the madame of the Splendid Spring,” Jin Zixun said proudly, as if he’d done anything at all in relation to this – nonsense, of course. Everyone know which brothels were backed by the Jin sect, and Splendid Spring wasn’t one of them. He was acting as if he deserve a pat on the back just for the introduction! “That means she’s not for sale.”

His smile faded a little, twisting in a small bit of bitterness. “Or so she told my uncle, anyway…although I’m sure if it were Sect Leader Wen asking, the answer would undoubtedly be different.”

Probably because Jin Guangshan couldn’t slaughter prostitutes with impunity if they said no to him, whereas no one could stop Wen Ruohan from doing any damn thing he pleased.

Wen Ruohan grunted, pleased by the answer – he was a possessive man, in the rare events that he did exert himself in the realm of women, and there had been more than one instance where he’d stolen away some girl his sons had been eyeing first just for the joy of having had her first – and raised a hand, catching the lady’s eye and gesturing for her to come over, which she did.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

She laughed. “You can call me Hu Jiuwei. With the ‘Hu’ being the character for fox.”

Jin Guangyao tried not to choke. There were false names and then there were false names – the lady’s theme was already clearly related to foxes, given her fox-face and fox-fur lining and the foxes embroidered onto her robes. Was the over-the-top name really necessary?

“It’s a fake name,” she added, unnecessarily.

“I see,” Wen Ruohan said, sounding a little choked himself. Possibly it was the woman calling herself ‘Foxy Ninetails’ and then kindly reassuring them all that the name was false as if she thought them too dumb to figure it out that was tripping him up a little. Jin Guangyao couldn’t tell if she was doing it deliberately in order to make her frankly inhuman beauty a little less frightening, or maybe she was blessed with so much beauty that she hadn’t bothered to cultivate her brain at all. “Are you our entertainment for the evening?”

She smiled, and any complaints Jin Guangyao (or indeed Wen Ruohan) might have had about her intelligence faded away at once.

It was that type of smile.

You could wreck nations with that type of smile. Jin Guangyao couldn’t help but wonder: how had a woman this extraordinary ended up in a brothel, of all places? How had no one snatched her up to keep her all for himself before now?

“My sons and I –” she gestured at the two behind her, “– would be more than happy to provide you with all the entertainment you could possibly want.”

Her smile widened.

“We’ve been hoping for an opportunity like this for a long time.”

[justcourttee]

could you do another fic where mari has too many overprotective relatives (batfam, jason in particular, adrien, luka, kagami, chloe, jagged, bruce, penny, clara, tony stark and the avengers maybe lol) and all the boys who want to date her are scared away by them until she starts seeing damian or someone else i love your writing and thanks! ♡♡

I loved this prompt immediately and I really hope I did it justice! Hope you like it!

The Never-Ending Cycle of First Dates

“No! Wait! He’s just kidding!” Marinette ran out of the building trying to grab the boy's hand before he could escape, but she was too late. Her hand slapped her forehead in defeat as yet another man hurried off before they could even order drinks. Turning her attention to where her target stood, she couldn’t help the bubbling anger directed at his smirk.

“Why must you ruin every date? It’s like you guys have a pool of names and you just reach in and see who's in luck to scare off the next guy that tries to date me!” She threw her hands into the air, only earning a chuckle.

“C’mon Princess, if the man can’t handle a little threat then how is he gonna stick around for the long term? Hmm?”

Marinette wanted to argue, but she knew it was pointless. Jason and the others were firm in their beliefs; Marinette must be protected from heartbreak at all costs. She tried arguing with them that if she never got hurt in the first place then she could never learn, but alas, her words seemed to fall on deaf ears.

“How did you even find us?”

Jason’s smirk widened which only fueled her rage.

“What? You thought meeting at the restaurant would actually change anything? I can find you anywhere and everywhere. Plus Adrien totally snitched.”

Marinette made a mental note to lay into Adrien later after she found the poor kid that Jason scared of.

“One day I’m going to find someone who isn’t scared by you lot and he’s gonna make it through the first date.”

She turned her back on Jason’s boisterous laughter. She was determined to prove her point. After all, there had to be one man in Gotham City that wasn’t afraid of her, right? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The rest of her week had gone as smoothly as Monday had to say the least.

Tuesday’s date was crashed by Kagami’s foil. One look at her slicing the bread and he didn’t even make it to the table.

Wednesday’s date was a double date with Luka and Chloe. Marinette begged Tikki to lend her a little luck, but the small God would do no such thing. At least this guy made it past drinks. Marinette almost cheered until Luka donned his infamous stare. She watched as her date squirmed uncomfortably before excusing himself for the bathroom, never returning.

Thursday’s date ended with the man strung up by his ankles, none other than Nightwing and Red Robin dropping in to apologize, claiming they thought he was trying to mug her.

By Friday, she was ready to cancel her date before it even began.

“Adrien, you guys are making it impossible to even think about dating.” She collapsed on the couch, letting out a small whine.

“I think that’s kind of the point Mari, besides, you’re a working woman now, shouldn’t you be focusing on your career-”

Adrien paused as his eyes narrowed in on Marinette’s hand mocking his lecture. Her hand paused as she noticed his now silent voice. Meeting his eyes, she simply shrugged.

“You sound like my mom. She’s worried that I’m too worried about dating but guess what? I kind of missed out on that experience in high school pining after a guy who wasn’t even interested!”

They both chuckled as they remembered the awkward dance they both did from the time they were 13.

“So what are you going to do about the date tonight?”

Marinette shrugged once more as she pulled at a piece of her hair, twirling it around her finger.

“Who is on date duty tonight?”

“First of all, it’s not called date duty,” he waved off the pointed look Marinette gave him before continuing, “and it was supposed to be Jagged and Penny but in case they fail, Tony is on backup duty and Jason is on backup, backup duty.”

“Not date duty my ass.”

Marinette sighed longingly as she pulled herself into a sitting position.

“I’m giving this one more chance before I swear off dating forever.”

Adrien chuckled before offering his hand to pull her into a standing position.

“Well, guess you better prepare to look good. After all, they always say if you’re gonna go out, at least do it in style.”

Marinette rolled her eyes as she pushed Adrien to the couch, ignoring his protests. If this was going to be her last date, then maybe he had a point of going out in style.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .

Marinette pulled at her dress nervously as a black limo approached her outside of her apartment. She had checked the perimeter once as Marinette and once more as Ladybug; there was no sign of Jagged or Penny. Somehow though, that didn’t calm her nerves.

As the limo pulled to a stop, a man stepped out of the back seat causing her breath to hitch in her throat. As if him being drop-dead gorgeous wasn’t enough, her worst fears stepped out from behind him, wide grins on their faces.

“Oi, there she is Penny! Marinette, we tried calling you but you sent us straight to voicemail, that wasn’t very rock n’ roll of you. Luckily, this nice man right here was there to give us a ride, right Penny?”

Penny nodded sweetly as if the two of them were innocent victims of Marinette’s forgetfulness. She wanted to turn right back into her apartment and never leave again, but a small hand grasped hers, pulling it up to their lips, as soft and gentle as his movements.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I have heard many stories of you from my brothers and father. You seem to have impressed many powerful people such as the two strays I picked up off the streets earlier.”

His smile was playful as it coaxed a small laugh from her. It helped even more to see Jagged panicking in the background at the sight of the small gesture. This man, no, his name was Damian. Damian had already broken through the first wall without even knowing it. Marinette let herself feel a spark of hope at the thought of finally making it through a first date.

“Anywho, now that we have arrived, I must apologize for leaving you two here, how does the saying go? ‘High and dry?’ but I do have a date to continue.” He nodded to Penny and Jagged leaving them both with their jaws almost touching the ground.

If she had a moment, Marinette might’ve taken a photo, but she instead quickly grabbed Damian’s arm, shutting the limo door before either could protest. She didn’t bother to release the breath she had been holding until the apartments were gone from the rearview mirror.

“I am so sorry about them, they-” she tried to let the apology spill out of her mouth but Damian simply shook his head, that same playful smile monopolizing his face.

“I am fully aware of the so-called ‘date duty’ your friends have. After all, my brother is in charge of the scheduling.”

It was Marinette’s turn for her jaw to drop. This was Jason’s brother? The literal spawn of satan as Jason had put it. There was no way. He was so nice, and such a gentleman, there was no way they could be the same person.

“How come nobody ever told me you were in town? Last time Jason introduced me to the family, he made sure to wait for when you left on a business trip. I’ve only ever been invited over when you’re not there!”

Damian chuckled as if this was a normal occurrence.

“They knew I had a crush on you ever since I watched your alter ego take down an akuma three times your size. It was only a matter of time until I asked you out, but with Jason observing your every date, he made it quite difficult.”

Marinette felt her face flush as his words washed over her. A man that was actually interested in her and was willing to take on the trouble a date with her could mean? She lightly pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

“You know it’s only going to get worse from here right? Like, Jagged and Penny were only the first round worse.”

Damian leaned in, placing his hand overtop hers, that smile of his killing her slowly.

“Can I tell you a secret?”

Marinette nodded as she leaned closer, nearly closing the gap between them, her heart racing from the distance.

“I borrowed his rotation schedule and have prepared for every incident that could occur tonight.”

Marinette couldn’t help the words that slipped out of her mouth.

“I think I might love you.” Immediately she slapped her hand over her mouth letting out a string of apologies as she scooched away from the red-faced man. He cleared his throat, trying to overcome his shock as his smile pulled into a small smirk.

“Don’t apologize, just tell me again if you feel the same after we’ve finished the date.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Somehow, they managed to make it through dinner without a single hiccup. It was suspicious, but she was having too good of a time to care. She fell in love immediately with his animals as he showed off his many photos, commenting on whichever one seemed to make her melt the most.

They talked about where they had gone to college, where they were working now and what they were hoping for their futures. Marinette felt her heart swell with excitement for how compatible they were, it almost made tonight ending that much more painful.

As they stepped out of the restaurant, Marinette heard a familiar voice that made her blood run cold.

“Do you know who I am? I could buy this whole place and then you’d have to let me in! I’m the damn Ironman, doesn’t that count for something?”

The poor hostess was shaking her head, trying to apologize to the other guests for the wait he was causing. Marinette let out a defeated sigh as she took a step forward to intervene, but Damian’s hand intertwined with hers pulling her in the opposite direction.

“There aren’t too many places in Gotham City that Tony Stark isn’t banned from. However, you can thank my father for that. He agreed for me to host my dinner at his restaurant to nullify backup number 2, Tony Stark.”

Marinette almost wanted to laugh at the irony of a billionaire being banned from a small Italian restaurant in Gotham.

“There’s not much that Uncle Tony can’t fix by throwing money at it, but I suppose that’s pointless when it’s another billionaire causing the said problem.”

Damian sent her a wink that warmed her to her core. They decided to ditch the limo in favor of walking home, spending more time with each other coincidentally. Marinette felt her mind racing like she was in middle school once again planning her imaginary wedding and their future hamster.

He was everything she had hoped to find in a man and so much more. She honestly regretted not meeting him sooner, it would’ve saved her so much trouble over the years.

She opened her mouth, only to close it immediately as her eyes narrowed in on a figure leaning against her apartment building.

“Jason, what are you doing here? There’s no date to ruin now and I finally found a guy who can’t be scared off by your stupid date duty.”

She crossed her arms in defiance but Jason paid her no mind.

“Damian, I didn’t know you were home so soon. I would’ve locked you up in the Batcave to make sure this would’ve never happened.”

Damian scoffed beside her as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

“As if you could.”

The two men were locked in a staredown, leaving Marinette to wilt in the tension that had formed. She moved towards her apartment, only to be stopped by Damian’s hand for the third time tonight.

Turning her back to Jason, she watched as he brought her hand to his lips, his kiss still as gentle and soft as the first when he had given her hours earlier. She ignored Jason’s protest as she pulled his hand forward placing a quick peck on his lips.

The man’s face matched her own in shades of red.

“Does this mean you would be interested in a second date?”

Marinette nodded furiously before waving him goodnight, darting past Jason’s brooding figure.

“This is not the end of it Marinette!”

Jason’s threats felt empty compared to the excitement racing in her heart. She had finally broken the cycle of never-ending first dates and boy, did it feel good.

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[blank-space-daisy13]

Why I won’t invite my biological father to my wedding.

I wanted to post this on Instagram or Facebook but I don’t want to deal with people saying I’m “drama.” But I wanted to write this out just in case someone is ballsy enough to ask me.

Let’s start off with the fact that after he got with my step mom, he wasn’t really around. He also never really cared or tried to take care of us (my brother and me) unless he absolutely had to.

Before my step mom and when we still lived in the apartment, On nights he had us my mom would drop us off already fed, he’d turn the tv on and go play on his computer until we had to go to bed. If he had us on a weekend, same thing. We’d wake up and he’d feed us breakfast, then tv with him in his room on the computer, lunch, tv, dinner, tv, and bed. When we moved from the apartment we stayed at his buddy’s house where he rented a room but guess what? He’d send us down to the basement all day to watch tv, and let us up for meals.

When my stepmom came into the picture, we started going to Canada. On every single one of his weekends. She was nice, at first. Sooner or later everyone shows their true colors. But she started slowly to get a hold of my dad. (My dad had no boundaries with us and she wanted to “help” my dad learn to discipline, but she’s a little extreme.) I once got punished for saying the word “butt” because we only say, “bum” and he yelled at me. Yelled. I was about 7 or 8. Then I heard my future step mother telling him how good he did. Also while we were there, I remember very few times we actually hung out with my dad. It was always being shoved into the playroom with my brother, future stepsister, and sometimes future stepbrother. (Step mom never had full custody of stepbrother.) We’d never leave the playroom other than for meals like the TV. But at least we weren’t rotting our brains, I guess.

After awhile he decided he wanted 50/50 custody. My stepmom at this point could be brutal emotionally. I remember getting yelled at for not knowing any of my immediate family member’s birthdays. I was about 8 or 9. Kind of shitty don’t you think? Going back to the wanting 50/50 custody, he didn’t actually want us. Looking back I understand this now. He just didn’t want to pay as much child support, and that’s probably the only reason my step mom agreed to this. They treated us (my brother and i) horribly. He moved close to my mom’s to prove he’d be willing to do the 50/50 custody, and at that point it was hell. If we did something wrong, immediately we’d get soap in the mouth. My brother later on was getting hot sauce. It would be for things such as, “not sharing with your step sister,” (which she would’ve lied about) or “talking back,” when as a kid I was asking a simple question about their rules. They had so many rules to the point you didn’t realize you were breaking a rule until they told you it was one. My *fondest* memory was when they’d send us kids to the basement for a few hours during the weekend and then got mad when we went through boxes and such to find toys to play with. Because when they first sent us down there, they sent us down there with nothing at all. Sure we probably shouldn’t have gone through boxes, where my brother and I found our toys that they never put with our step sister’s toys, but they sent us down there with nothing at all. They expected us to “imagine” things with no toys. I also got yelled at one weekend because they asked us to clean our bathrooms. (Step sister and I shared a Jack and Jill bathroom and my brother had his own bathroom as well.) We went and picked things up and went back to play. They both yelled at us and said, “If I had meant pick up I would’ve said pick up. I said CLEAN.” At this point I had never cleaned a bathroom in my life. They gave us the cleaning supplies and we went to work. I did what I thought was the best I could do and then my stepmom yells at me, “That wasn’t nearly long enough!!!! Haven’t you ever cleaned a bathroom before?!” Uh no ma’am, I was literally 10. But that was her favorite way to make us feel like shit. To yell, “Haven’t you done XY&Z before?” Or “You don’t know (blank)?! So disrespectful! You should know these things!” (That was said about the birthdays. Again I was a decently young kid.) But going forward, towards the end of them living there, they had a baby together, my other brother J.

Luckily for my brother and I, he eventually gave up going for the 50/50 custody. But with doing this, he left and we didn’t see him for a long time. 5-6 years approximately. I was 15 when he decided he wanted to see us again, and because of everything we had gone through before, we didn’t want to. I had a choice but my brother didn’t, and I was forced to go.

At this point he had married my stepmother, and was living in the same subdivision, and one road away, where had had a house with my mom when they were married. Kind of awkward but ok.

And I have to say, they were better. To a point. They wanted us to feel bad that we didn’t want to be there. At the time I had a really old phone, not a smart phone, that didn’t lock, but they expected my phone to be on the counter at 9pm every night. They read my texts and held them against me, but when I called them out on reading my texts, they told me I was crazy. I would text my friends that I didn’t want to be there, and that I was uncomfortable. They asked me, “Why don’t you want to be here? Why are you uncomfortable? We understand what we did in the past was wrong, but the past is the past and you have to forgive us!” (One wrong thing I was always taught was you always have to forgive. You don’t always have to forgive for things that hurt you.) Finally at the end of this period, they sat us down and tried to make us feel bad by saying, “If you don’t want to be here, we don’t want you here. We want you to want to be here.” At 15 I tried to explain why this was hard, but they didn’t care. It wasn’t their way so they weren’t ok with it.

Fast forward to my Senior Year of high school, I don’t remember how, but my father and I got in touch. My step mom wanted nothing to do with me because of a dumb YouTube video I made at 14 where I “talked shit” about her daughter and herself. Yes, I did, but who didn’t do something dumb at 14? I wasn’t allowed around their house because HER son had a “drug problem.” (Marijuana) Whatever, I didn’t care. Slowly we lost touch because I was the only one calling, and I got sick of it. I was done. But I was still young.

Fast forward to me being a sophomore in college. I was 20 or 21. My brother had an issue that got the police and CPS involved. My father decided to text me and ask me what was going on. I called him and told him that he had “no fucking reason to know what was going on” because he was never around. He gaslighted me into feeling bad because I cussed him out for 10 minutes. But we kept contact after that because I had thought about it and I wanted to get to know my little brother J more. We did lose contact again but then we gain it back later on.

Skip forward a couple years and I’m talking to my cousin, (another thing was he kept us from his side of the family and I had lost contact with most of them until I was an adult.) my cousin told me he was going to MY little BABY sister’s 1st birthday. My father had been talking to me for a few months at this point and NEVER mentioned I had a baby sister. He told me, “I thought your aunt posted about it. I saw it on Facebook and assumed you knew!” It doesn’t matter whether I saw it on Facebook or not. He should’ve told me. But whatever, I let that go too.

Here is where I get frustrated. I wouldn’t call for a couple weeks because I didn’t think about it. I’ve only seen him twice in the past 9 years. But he would blame me for us not talking, when he’d never call or try to talk to me. It drives me crazy when people think like that. It’s not just my responsibility and mine alone.

Skip forward to a few months ago when he brought up politics. I hated this because I’m mostly liberal/democrat and he’s 100% republican. He called liberals “libtards” and goes, “you’re not a libtard are you?” And when I tell him it’s offensive he says, “It’s just a joke!” But now we’re here and yet again it’s been 2 or 3 months since we’ve spoken because he’s blocked my number. It goes straight to voicemail and my texts aren’t going through as iMessages. I’ve decided after trying for over two months, he’s uninvited to the wedding. He’s never met my fiancé, ever. We were only inviting him to be civil. But if he can’t even speak to me, I feel it’s not my problem, and it’s one less drama issue to worry about at the wedding.

My family can believe what they want. There are so many things left out of this 15 year drama circle of my father just disappearing. And I don’t care anymore. I hope someone asks why he wasn’t invited because I know for a fact he’ll be at least telling the whole family that he wasn’t invited. And I don’t mind sending them this so they can know why.

[mimicteruyo]

The Little Teahouse Around the Corner

[Touhou Ship Week Day 7: Free day. KomaEiki + AkyuSuzu, 2.7k, crack/fluff]

---

If described very charitably, the construction before Eiki and Komachi could have been called a teahouse, exactly as the bamboo plank above the entrance claimed it was. More accurately, it was simply a large tent lit with red lanterns, standing conspicuously close to the Human Village.

"At least it's open?" Komachi eyed the obviously wet paint on the sign, then peered within. "I figured that at this hour, we'd have a choice between grilled lamprey and nothing this close to the village."

"Indeed." Eiki followed Komachi's example. There were certainly plenty of people within, each with a beverage in front of them, but the overall mood in the tent was quietly puzzled. Besides chairs and tables, there was also what looked bafflingly like an oden cart. "Something about this seems wrong."

"No worries, Sis! It ain't anything weird! We're runnin' a perfectly nice temp teahouse!"

They straightened up in unison. The speaker was a calico cat perched on a stool just barely to the side of the tent's entrance, grinning at them. "Lookin' for a cosy place to chat? We've got ya covered!"

Komachi grinned back. "Mike Goutokuji, right? Don't tell me this is your shop."

"It ain't. I'm just workin' here for a bit." Mike's tail swayed gently from side to side as she talked, its many-coloured fur catching the light of the lanterns. "I'm a barker! Which I know sounds really weird since I'm a cat an' all, but I can do the job. For a few days, anyway. Steady work doin' the same thing over an' over again ain't really my thing."

Komachi chuckled. "I know that feel— er."

Eiki chose to ignore the aborted remark. In any case, Mike's plans made it sound as though she was doing precisely what she supposed to do. Losing interest in things and loafing around were some of the chief goals in a cat's life, after all.

"Anyway," Mike curled up her palm. She beckoned three times. "Welcome to the Juniper Teahouse."

The next moment, Eiki found herself within the tent with no memory of stepping inside.

She halted, blinking in the sudden light. There were half a dozen customers within, humans and youkai alike, nursing teacups and expressions ranging from vexed to serene. Although there were multiple chairs for each table, every single customer was solitary. What had looked like an oden cart from the outside was precisely that; no-one appeared to man it, although the occasional bang and tuneful whistle from within it told her that someone was indeed there, just beyond sight.

"Komachi," she began, more puzzled than troubled even as she clutched the Rod of Remorse closer to her chest. "We should keep our eyes—"

It was at that moment that she became aware of a distinct lack of Komachi by her side. Only Mike was there, waving her legs in the air and looking very pleased with herself.

Eiki spun around. "Komachi?"

No answer. No sight of Komachi, either.

Standing by the entrance feeling foolish wasn't going to do anyone much good. Ignoring the slow blink Mike was giving her, Eiki stepped back outside.

And collided with an invisible barrier with enough force to momentarily bounce her off her feet. She staggered back in surprise.

Mike gave her an apologetic wince. "Sorry, Sis." Her tail swished low as Eiki studied her forehead for bumps. "After I've invited ya in, ya've gotta stay a while."

"Is this your ability?" Eiki prodded at the barrier with the Rod of Remorse. It proved as solid and unyielding as a ten-foot block of ice. "What happened to Komachi?"

"She'll be fine," said a familiar voice behind Eiki. "At least, she will be according to what Mike told me. You'll be a better judge of whether it's true or not."

Eiki turned to see a slightly less familiar face smiling at her close to the back of the tent and responded in kind. "I didn't notice you before. May I join you?"

Hieda no Akyuu assented with a nod. She waited for Eiki to take the seat opposite of her before continuing. "I hope you've been well. This present situation expected, of course."

Eiki crossed her hands on the table. "I would say so. The situation in Hell remains both confusing and volatile, but that's to be expected. Has your work progressed well?"

Akyuu took a careful sip from her cup. "It has, thank you. I've kept comfortably busy. And Kosuzu..." Akyuu's smile, which bore a distinct resemblance to that of her previous incarnation, brightened and then immediately dimmed. "I hope you don't mind my saying this, but I expected her to sit where you sit now." Her smile grew more rueful still. "Especially since she's the one who wished to come here."

"Has this establishment..." Eiki gestured at their surroundings and discovered that she couldn't call them that without correcting herself. "...Tent been here for long?"

"It appeared yesterday. As for me, I have been here for ten minutes. Mike informed me that it takes at least an hour for her invitations to be considered fulfilled."

"That's longer than I had hoped." Eiki frowned at the innocuous-looking exit and Mike, who was currently occupied with a moth circling the lantern nearest to the entrance before turning her attention back to Akyuu. "Can you tell me precisely what's going on in this place?"

"I can explain that!" a muddled but cheery voice called from the bottom of the oden cart.

---

Komachi had walked merrily along for several minutes, taking in the twilight air and seeing if she could get her breath to fog up in the lingering cold from the past winter, when she realised she had at no point decided to take an evening stroll. Moreover, she was now alone, something which was the exact opposite of her plans for the night.

She halted in the middle of the path and turned to look over her shoulder. The greenness of the teahouse tent blended into the evening behind her, but she could still see it when she squinted. Distance of course meant little to her: she could be back there nearly as soon as she decided upon it.

But first, it was best to figure what had happened. It was likely nothing serious: the situation had the feel of a fairy prank to it. Still, the fact that she couldn't actually remember what had passed rubbed her the wrong way.

"Alright..." She adjusted her scythe to rest more comfortably on her shoulder. "What happened here?"

So, there was the weird teahouse, and Mike, who did strike Komachi as bit of a prankster, but who had seemed earnest enough inviting them in. Had Mike addressed her invitation to Lady Eiki alone? No, Komachi was sure it had been extended to them both.

She recalled her only previous encounter with Mike, on a lazy afternoon not that long ago when she had wandered into Gensokyo and struck up a conversation with the cat upon meeting her on the road. Mike had mentioned arriving in Gensokyo not that long ago, having only recently left behind the temple she had been born at, and that due to circumstances she had done so before she had completed her training as a maneki—

"Damn."

At the moment of realisation, Komachi became aware of of running footsteps rapidly approaching her, just in time not to be entirely surprised by someone small but fast-moving crashing into her.

"Ow!" The person who had collided with her tottered back, holding a hand to her nose. Even in the dying light and with half her face covered, she was obviously Kosuzu Motoori. "I'm sorry! I just..."

Kosuzu trailed off. Her eyes travelled first up to Komachi's face, then to the blade of her scythe. She took a startled step back.

Komachi grinned. "No need to fret. You're not dying tonight."

Kosuzu relaxed quickly in that quietly alarming way of humans who made of habit of traipsing too close to the border of the mundane and the supernatural. As her shock drained away, it was replaced by an almost mournful expression, so out of place it was almost comical.

"What's the matter?" Komachi almost began walking to see if Kosuzu would follow, but she had a funny feeling it would only result in Kosuzu crashing into her again. "It's not wise for you to run alone on a dark night like this. Did someone refuse to return your favourite book?"

Kosuzu fidgeted with her sleeves. "No, nothing like that." For a moment, she looked hesitant to speak, but once she did, the words spilled out of her in a tumble. "Actually, it's our anniversary today."

"Whose?"

Kosuzu's cheeks flushed pink. "Mine and Akyuu's."

"Really?" Komachi couldn't help but chuckle. "That's a funny coincidence."

"What is?"

"Never mind." Komachi relaxed her stance. "Let's see if I can guess what happened. Since it was your anniversary, you decided to go out to celebrate."

"That's right."

"And you happened upon a new, strange teahouse."

"Exactly!" Kosuzu halted her eager nodding to blink. "How did you know?"

"Because it sounds like we're in the same figurative boat."

"Oh." Kosuzu smiled weakly. "I suppose that's better than a literal boat. Um, I mean..."

Komachi laughed. "That'll be another day." Before Kosuzu could become too unsettled, she nudged her head towards the road behind them. "Come on. Let's go find our dates."

---

"Here you go." Suika Ibuki slammed the teacup onto the table with enough force to make half the liquid within leap into the air. Miraculously, not only were both the table and cup undamaged, but the drink returned into the cup without so much as a single drop spilling. She winked. "I'd say it's on the house, but I'm guessing you'd take that for a bribe."

Eiki took the cup gingerly. Seeing its contents in the air had already made it obvious it was filled with anything but tea, but the scent confirmed it. "Is this sake?"

"Well, yeah."

"The sign outside said you're running a teahouse."

"Yeah, yeah. Is there a law saying you can't serve sake in a teahouse?"

Eiki had to concede the point. "Not in Gensokyo, no."

"See? Try it. It's good." Suika turned towards Akyuu. "Care for a refill?"

As Akyuu murmured a demurral, Eiki took a sip from her drink. It was indeed rather good, but that was beside the real matter at hand. She looked up. "Suika—"

Suika had already left the table. Eiki watched her stalk around the tent, grinning as she went, gathering empty cups and refilling others with seemingly no input from the patrons.

"So where was I?" She returned and cheerfully pulled out the remaining seat for herself. If she was discomfited by any lingering memories of the less than auspicious circumstances during which she had last encountered Eiki, she showed no signs of it, instead beaming with the brightness shared by the very innocent and inveterate liars. "A story of some kind?"

"You were about to explain why we can't leave."

"Yeah, that's right. So this teahouse is just a bit of fun. I'll get going as soon as Reimu finds out I've set up shop this close to the village." Suika grinned. "Actually, I think I'll wait for her to show up. It's more fun that way."

Akyuu offered her a polite smile. Eiki pushed her cup aside. "And then you hired Mike?"

"That's right." Suika took Eiki's cup and downed it in a single long swig before continuing. "Of course, I don't really need her to gather customers. I can use my foregathering ability to bring people over just fine. But it feels more like a proper teahouse with an employee, doesn't it?"

"A floor might have a similar effect," commented Akyuu dryly.

"Anyway, since Mike can only invite one person in at a time, I decided to gather people into the area so that even if only half of them got in we'd still have plenty of customers. It worked really well, too. Until people tried to leave. I tried making the people disperse once they got stuck, obviously, but for some reason it only worked on those who hadn't been invited in at all. I'm guessing our abilities got entangled in some mysterious way."

Eiki nodded. "I see."

"Anyway, you don't have to worry. Everyone gets to leave eventually. Even the person stuck for the longest managed to walk out after two hours."

Akyuu set her cup down. "At least one of us may not have to wait for that long." She raised her voice. "Mike?"

Mike, who was no longer paying attention to the moth and was instead swinging her leg back and forth, jerked her head upwards. "What's up, Sis?"

"Can you step out for a moment?"

"Sure." Mike dove out. "Now what?"

Akyuu stood up and nodded at Suika. "Thank you for your hospitality." She gestured at Eiki to join her at the tent's entrance and waited until they were both there before speaking again. "Mike, can you attempt to invite us outside?"

"Oh, I see." Eiki smiled as she grasped Akyuu's intent. "Even if the invitation can only work on one of us, it still means one of us will be free to go."

"I hope you're the one invited out." Akyuu's smile was thin but sincere. "Unnerving as it is being this close to multiple youkai, I have made my peace with waiting here. After all, by remaining in one place I have better odds of re-uniting with—"

"Akyuu!"

They turned to look outside. Kosuzu hovered right behind Mike, bopping her head around in an effort to see past her. Behind her, calm but still curious, stood Komachi. Upon noticing Eiki, she gave her a cheery little wave.

Akyuu's smile immediately warmed to the point where its brightness was a match to the lanterns. "Everything is fine, Kosuzu. It's only a small supernatural obstacle."

Kosuzu gave a distracted nod, then turned towards Mike, looking almost ready to put hands on the cat. "Please invite us in!"

Mike's eyes darted from Komachi and Kosuzu to Akyuu and Eiki and then back. She frowned. "Kay, how about we try somethin' like this?"

She positioned herself in the tent's entrance, one foot in, one foot out. Before anyone could do anything to stop her, she beckoned with both hands. "Welcome!"

The next thing Eiki knew, she had collided with something unyielding but relatively soft.

"Oof." Komachi staggered back, then reached out to steady Eiki. She grinned. "At this rate I'm going to be qualified to work as a roadblock."

Back on her feet, Eiki looked around. She was outside again, with Komachi's hands on her arms and the tent securely behind. "Who knows how far I would have walked if you hadn't stopped me. Thank you for catching me."

"Did you ever doubt I wouldn't?"

Eiki smiled back at her. "No. I didn't."

They looked back. Within the tent, Kosuzu was clinging to Akyuu's arm, speaking rapidly but too quietly for any discernible words to make it outside the tent. Mike was watching them from her perch, smiling with self-satisfaction.

"Well, that worked out great." Suika came to the entrance, beaming as though Mike's success was hers as well. "Must be fate." She winked. "And don't worry about paying. The drink was on the house after all."

Given that most of the drink remained in the house, Eiki found little cause to complain. "Thank you." She frowned. "Don't invite more people in until you have understood what causes this. Consider—"

"Yeah, sure." Suika made a sweeping wave. "Have a good night!"

She retreated back into the tent. Only Mike remained near the entrance, still pleased with herself.

"That didn't exactly work out, huh?" said Komachi, smiling all the while.

"Yes, I suppose it didn't." Eiki watched Akyuu and Kosuzu retake the table Akyuu had previously occupied, smiling at each other all as though they were the only two people in the world. "But it doesn't seem to have done any harm, either. Should we consider the grilled lamprey stand?"

"Funny. I was just thinking I was in the mood for some fried fish." Komachi let go to adjust her scythe, which had nearly fallen from her shoulder in the collision, then held out her hand. "How about we go see what else fate has in store for us tonight?"

And so they did, continuing down the road together, filled with newfound appreciation for the beauty of spring nights.

[timefirewrites]

I won NaNo!!

Words written: 525

Total words: 50280

Favorite lines from the whole story:

“Uh, state your business.” 

“Current objective unknown. Error.” 

Well, that was helpful.

------

Right. The robot didn’t know about their foolproof plan yet. 

“See that train? We’ll sneak onto it and ride it into freedom.” 

“Understood.” 

Silence. Wow, Neb had to do everything on their own, didn’t they. 

“We need to get into that freight car.” They pointed at a random car in the middle of the train. 

“Understood.”

What a thrilling conversation. Neb mumbled something under their breath and strode towards the hovertrain, head kept low again.

-------

“The stuff we’re mining here. Dark black, dusty. Makes the air hard to breathe. Looks like your metal, except less shiny. Also COLE and Coal sound similar.” 

-------

“Hey.” Coals head immediately turned to face them. “Please stop squeezing me. I don’t wanna die just yet.” Neb spoke painfully slowly, not yet having regained complete control of their body. Coal on the other hand was very quick to act and stopped pressing Neb to their chest. 

------

“What’s up with your display?” Their voice sounded more steady now, which was good. 

“I do not understand.” Their voice on the other hand just sounded confused. 

“Oh, right. You probably can’t see it. You’re currently displaying an error message. Which just reads ‘error’. Not very helpful.” 

“Fuck. I didn’t deactivate it.” 

------

They settled on two things they were pretty sure were edible: a soda labeled “SpacePop: the best soda in the universe” with a “multiple sunsets on Madoras” flavor and some leftover pizza. (They were pretty sure Madoras didn’t exist, they never heard of that planet before. Maybe they shouldn’t drink that soda after all.)

------

“We could just go in and race to the top.” 

“What? No. Why would we do that? We can’t afford to get caught, we need to make a plan, Coal.” 

“You said you wanted an adventure. Plus, I do not think we could create a plan, seeing as we know next to nothing about its defence and security.” 

They said that because of them? They were just rambling earlier, not really thinking about it, just talking to fill the silence. 

“Okay. But if anything goes wrong, it’ll be your fault.” 

------

“Then let me go. This is my spaceship now, go steal someone else’s.” They crossed their arms. 

“Your spaceship? I think not. Believe me, I know which ship we’ve been waiting for and it’s that one.” Cap gestured to the ship the child was still standing in. 

“And? Who cares.” Cap repressed a long sigh and/or a string of curses. 

“Joshua White does. Because that’s his ship. What did you do to him?” If that child killed him, then Cap had no problem with just letting them go again. 

“Who? I stole it. And? It doesn’t matter anyways!” Someone was worked up about something. Cap was as well. 

“So you mean to tell me that our target is back on Earth?! Stranded! On one of the most secure planets in this part of the galaxy! With no way for us to get down there without dying!” They took a deep breath. And then another one. Then, they threw their damned breathing exercises out the window.

-------

“Where are you?” 

“What?” The voice was taken aback. 

“I mean, I can’t see you anywhere?” Neb looked around again, and yes, there still wasn’t some small alien they just didn’t notice the first two times. 

“Oh. I’m the ship. Nice to meet you?” They sounded somewhat embarrassed, like they can’t believe they forgot to mention they’re a ship. 

------

“Then that’s it. Welcome to the 35th century. Here we have technology that works most of the time.” 

------

“I’m Laser, my gender is a burning trash can and my pronouns depend entirely on the mercy of the universe.” 

-----

“I was really looking forward to never seeing this thing again.” This comment earned Laser a punch in her ribs from Ahdia. 

They signed something to Laser, who flipped them off, [...]

-----

In the community room, the screen went blank, just as the bad guy held the heroes at gunpoint. 

"Darling, I know you resent my taste of movies, but this is way below you." Mer did not look pleased. 

"You're outnumbered now! Coal agreed to watch Love On A Foreign Planet with me. So, uh, get moving, Fishsticks." 

"I can't believe you already brainwashed them. It's not even been a full day, give them a break first, darling." As if to illustrate his point, Mer draped herself over the couch, an arm covering their visor and sighed dramatically. They reached for the remote control and turned the screen back on. Rude. Com turned it off again. 

"You are insufferable, darling."

-------

“I’m okay!” 

Another crash, another sentence yelled: “Fuck!” 

------

Laser seemed to be enjoying it as well, while Mer stared at Neb's skewer longingly. 

"You want some?" They're the last person to not share their food. 

"No thanks, darling.” Okay, Mer stared at Neb’s skewer with disgust. 

-------

“A word of advice, don’t insult the only person preventing me from killing all of you.” Laser typically spoke with a monotone voice, but this was different. It was ice cold. 

-------

“Stop staring at me, you creep.” Laser didn’t open her eyes, and if Lifo wouldn’t have noticed her mouth moving, there would be no indication that she was awake at all. 

“Make me.” Fel was concerned. It’s been a while since Laser last passed out. 

“Ugh. Fine.” She slowly reached up, grabbed the scarf that was still hanging from her head and threw it at Lifo. She missed by half a meter or so.

------

“Ah, good. You’re, uh, awake again.” 

“Good morning to you too.” So much for enjoying breakfast in the comfortable silence of his room. 

“Actually, uh, it’s already afternoon.” Huh. The stuff Nova gave him must’ve been stronger than he remembered. Or maybe he had just been very tired. Ugh, Cap probably wanted to talk to him as soon as he got up. 

“Cap wants to, uh, talk to you.” And there it was.

--------

Somehow, Neb ends up at the medbay. Nova was in the middle of doing something very important on his display, which certainly wasn't playing Gen’ros Apocalypse with Com. 

-------

“Understandable. But hey, once we’re done you can probably spend the rest of your life on whichever planet you want.” Mer let out a chuckle. 

“I highly doubt it’s going to be that many creds, Arequos live very long after all.” At least as long as they don’t show their face on planets that want them dead. 

-----

“And let me guess: you’re planning our downfall right now.” Laser tried to look unimpressed, but the way the corners of her mouth lifted up ever so slightly ruined the act. Not everybody is born as talented as Mer, after all. 

“Maybe so. Perhaps I’m thinking about the best way to shove you out the airlock and how to pretend it was all a terrible accident.” 

“As if your reflexes are fast enough to overwhelm me like that.” 

“Darling, you know me by now, I’m more than capable of startling you.” 

“Prove it.” 

Well, Mer couldn’t refuse an invitation like that, now could they? Moving as sleek as ever, she was up in Laser’s face in the blink of an eye. 

“Surprise.” It was barely audible, but the grin on his face spoke for its own. 

--------

“Ugh.” Fel wanted to say something more, fel really did, but apparently fel had spent too much time with Mer because Lifo dramatically collapsed onto the floor, face first. 

------

“It worked! Fuck yes! It worked!” Nearly bursting with excitement, Coal punched into thin air - and accidentally fired bursts of energy at the ceiling.

------

It was green. No oceans, no land that wasn’t overgrown. But it was a sick green, like all the plants were infected with something and slowly rotting. And that only got worse as they entered the atmosphere and Cap could start to make out more details. Nothing was moving. But that was probably just a trick of… the light or something. It would be impossible for a whole planet to be absolutely frozen in time, right?

------

“Good luck to you two and don’t take too long, I really want to get back.” He opened the door for them and Cap gestured to Coal to go first. 

“Believe me, I don’t want to either. Don’t move. Unless, you get, like, attacked by some plant monsters, then please do just that.” Laser gave them a thumbs up and Cap left as well. 

------

So Coal went to pick them up, but both of them realized half way through that they had no idea what they were doing. Coal ended up clutching Cap to their chest in a weird, one-sided hug and proceeded to lift them out the water. Wait, what? 

“What are you doing?” 

“I am going to fly. I am sick of wading through this mud.” Cap didn’t know they could do that. 

The flying turned out to be more of a hovering and it wasn’t particularly fast either. 

“Can’t you go any faster?” 

“Sure. If you want me to spend an hour or two afterwards recharging.” At least the mental image of the two hovering across this bog walking speed managed to push back the horrible feeling that grew stronger and stronger the longer Cap was on this planet. 

------

“Attention. Intruders on floor minus 30. Everyone keep calm and stay in your rooms, the COLEs will take care of it. I repeat: intruders on floor minus 30.” 

“Fuck.” Cap and Coal said in unison. 

“What do we do? Fuck, what do we do?!” Cap gestured wildly around. 

“Keep calm and stay in our room?” 

“That’s. Not. Helping.” 

------

There was no reason in getting back to the others quickly, so Cap took their time. A big disadvantage of disrupting the radars on the planet below them was that their own radar couldn’t pick up any signals anymore either. They don’t remember when exactly, but at some point Coal shut down, not having enough energy to keep going, still clutching the weapon tightly to their chest. 

Taglist (ask to be added/removed): @black-lakritz-dragon​ @marewriteblr​ @spacetimewraithwrites @emmaschoutenwrites @abalonetea

[coll2mitts]

#77 Grease (1978)

Slick your hair back and grab your team jacket, we’re hand-jiving our way through Grease, a movie about bunch of hot, self-motivated ladies with their whole futures ahead of them settling for a bunch of schmucks.

Grease is a strange experience to relive as an adult, because it was (as I suspect with a lot of people) ever-present in my childhood, and I didn’t understand the great majority of references then.  This movie was intended as an 8th birthday present from my mother; I came home from school one day and the VHS was sitting on our kitchen countertop unwrapped.  I didn’t recognize it, so when I asked my mom what it was, she feigned confusion for about 10 seconds before she gave up and said, “I bought it for your birthday, I guess you get it early now.”  She promised me I’d like it when I popped it into the VHS player, and she wasn’t wrong.  I hadn’t watched this movie in over a decade and I still could recite the majority of the dialogue.

While this movie is a toned down significantly from the stage show, it is still fairly raunchy in parts.  What is kind of hilarious to me is Grease’s gradual shift in categorization over time as a “kids musical”.  In 5th grade, my sister played Sandy in her elementary school’s production of it.  I asked if she remembered any of the lines they changed to keep things “appropriate” (the Kidz Bopification, if you will) and she responded, “No, I just thought it was weird I had to go out and buy a sexy outfit.”  Conversely, my 5th grade play was about the history of America and I dressed up like Martha Washington.  I’ll never forget the 50 Nifty United States from 13 original colonies... SHOUT ‘em, SCOUT ‘em, TELL all about 'em, ONE BY ONE till we’ve given a day to every state in the U-S-A.  AL-A-bama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, CON-NE-TI-CUT...

Anyway, do I think it’s weird that a movie about a bunch of horny teenagers has become Baby’s First Adult Musical?  Sorta.  Not really.  I mean, the dudes act like children for the majority of this, so I’m not surprised, at least.  It had, for sure, turned me off from wanting to date high school dudes when I was in high school.  The high school girls, however... we’ll get there.

It’s the first day of school, and the oldest high school seniors I’ve ever seen are poised to take on their last year at Rydell High.  The “T” Birds and their very uncool matching jackets are reunited after a summer apart and their super-senior leader Kenickie, played by the late Jeff Conaway, regales the tale of lugging boxes to earn money for a sweet ride, which you could feasibly do back in the 1950s.  Danny, played by John Travolta, spent his summer getting action at the beach, which he eloquently describes as “flippin’”.  

Frenchy and her new neighbor Sandy rendezvous with the Pink Ladies, who have very cool matching jackets and the unabashed confidence to go with them.  Stockard Channing, who plays Rizzo, is turned off by Sandy’s pure, seemingly holier-than-thou persona, and is dismayed when Sandy starts to describe her sickly sweet summer romance.  Her interest is only piqued when Sandy mentions her hunky date was notorious playboy and Rizzo’s ex, Danny Zuko.  

Sidenote: When I was a child, I thought Sonny asked if her “jugs were bigger than her nets”.  I asked my mother what “nets” were, since I surmised that jugs meant breasts, and she didn’t know, which I thought was weird.  It wasn’t until THIS MOMENT that I realized he was asking if her jugs were bigger than Annette’s.  Who the fuck is Annette?  Like the Mickey Mouseketeer Annette?!  Rizzo sings about her later and I’m just like.. this revelation has lead to more questions than answers.

Rizzo hatches a plan to call Danny out on his shit and reunite Sandy with Danny at the school pep rally, as they know her boyfriend is an asshat.  He predictably reacts maturely; Not wanting to admit his previous story of getting fresh with some cute Australian girl down in the sand was somewhat hyperbolic, he plays it off like he doesn’t give a shit about her, reducing Sandy to tears.  Frenchy comforts Sandy like the supportive queen that she is and invites her to join the Pink Ladies at a sleepover.

Honestly, a Pink Ladies sleepover looks lit as fuck.  As a kid (and now, tbh) I was Jan, I wanted to be Marty, I wanted to fuck Rizzo, and I wanted Frenchy as my best friend.  I would totally be down to drink champagne, eat Twinkies and mutilate our body parts with needles.  Sandy is a bit of a late bloomer and reacts to these series of events by puking.  Rizzo decides to be a bit of a slag and make fun of Sandy for being an inexperienced virgin before shimming down a drainpipe to get laid by some jerk with a shitty car and a 6-year-old condom.

Sandy, whose night has done nothing to alleviate her heartbreak, sings a song about being in love with a coward.  Part of the deal Oliva Newton-John signed to be cast in this movie specified she have her own solo number, so “Hopelessly Devoted” was written and filmed after the rest of the movie had been completed.  This feel pretty obvious, since it gives off a very strong 1970s pop Best Original Song vibe.  When I was a kid, I used this song as a break to use the bathroom or grab a snack, but as an adult I find myself humming it every so often.

Speaking of contract-obligated solos, we’re treated to a Travolta-led “Greased Lightning”, which I always thought was weird, cause like, who is going to sing a song about their friend getting tit in their sweet car?  Jeff Conaway played Danny on Broadway, he deserved better...  Also, I’m CONVINCED this song got the Pop-Up Video treatment, but couldn’t find it online anywhere.  Otherwise, how the hell else would the fact that they thought John Travolta putting the saran wrap on his crotch was too racy live rent free in my head for like 20 years?

After encountering Sandy on a date with a jock, Danny decides he’s going to join a sports team to prove to her he can be a motivated team player.  Instead, he just physically assaults several members of his school, but it’s fine because he’s wearing a uniform when he does it.  This is enough to impress Sandy, as she accepts Danny’s invitation to the school dance.

The other gang members are going through their own drama, as Rizzo is sick of giving it up to Kenickie without receiving a modicum of respect.  

“A hickey from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card.  When you care enough to send the very best.”

Danny regresses and continues to act like a shithead to Sandy in front of her friends.

“I don’t like tea.” “You don’t have to drink tea!” “Well, I don’t like parents.”

Jan and Putzie begin an innocent and adorable romance, which proves it’s possible to start off a relationship with mutual respect, even if your friends make fun of you for it.

“I also think there’s more to you than just fat.” “...Thanks.”

I love this scene, there’s so many good lines.

Frenchy, who had dropped out of Rydell to pursue a career in cosmetology, is also in crisis as her stint in beauty school went very poorly.  After hours, she somehow hallucinates Frankie Avalon advising her to get her high school degree.

As a child, I was so proud of myself when I realized all these women played other roles in the movie, as if facial recognition was an important skill.

The day of the big dance finally arrives, as National Bandstand comes to Rydell High with roofie-wielding predator and television host Vince Fontaine.  Rizzo arrives with the leader of the rival gang, while Kenickie has his best girl, Cha Cha, as his date, because they are both very well-adjusted teenagers that know how to work through conflict by communicating and not using desperate attempts to make each other jealous.  Danny and Sandy are cutting up a rug until Sonny attempts to physically assault Sandy, and Danny just lets it happen because another one of his exes, Cha Cha, starts to dance with him while Sandy is rebuffing Sonny’s advances.  Cha Cha and Danny subsequently win the contest.  Honestly, this is so fucked up, I would have dropped Danny after this lapse of good judgement.

But no, Sandy still allows him to take her on a date to the drive-in, and it’s not until he elbows her in the boob and then tries to cop a feel in front of everybody that she finally blows him off.  Then he has the absolute gall to act emo about it because he’s afraid people will think he’s a loser.  Jesus Christ.

Kenickie is also hurting, as he discovers that Rizzo is pregnant and she doesn’t want anything to do with him, regardless of what being an unwed mother will do to her reputation.  He decides to process these emotions by racing Greased Lighting for pink slips, as he likes to live his life a quarter mile at a time.  Unfortunately, Danny steals Kenickie’s thunder (road) yet again, as he’s forced to take his place in the race because of a car door-related closed head injury.  Sandy is impressed by Danny’s driving skillz and decides to sex herself up for an unreliable and emotionally manipulative teenager.  Danny has a similar inclination and decides to put on a nice sweater to win Sandy back, which is something, I guess.  They declare they’re the one each other needs, oh yes indeed.

The school year ends, and all the boys end up paired with the girls.  Rizzo finds out she’s not pregnant and reunites with Kenickie?!  Marty ends up with Sonny even though he’s a handsy creep.  Danny and Sandy are just an mess with incompatible expectations of each other.  But at least Jan and Putzie and Frenchy and Doodie are fairly inoffensive.  The end.

This movie is great, even all these years later.  The entire cast is fantastic, even those with smaller bit parts.  I was *living* for the school staff, Principal McGee and Coach Calhoun especially.  Grease also jump started my lifelong love for Stockard Channing.  She’s great in The West Wing, but her part as Sister Husband in Where the Heart Is may be my favorite performance of hers.  I’ve watched that movie so many times I can’t even call it a guilty pleasure, I love it so much.

Olivia Newton-John wasn’t even sure she wanted to be in this movie and requested a screen test so she could see if she was good at acting.  John Travolta was enamored with her and helped convince Olivia she was perfect for the part, and he wasn’t wrong.  She gives such a strong performance as Sandy; I bought her transformation from clean-cut cinnamon roll to sexpot completely.  John Travolta was also unbelievably charming as Danny, and I found myself giggling at his line deliveries constantly.

The songs are also unbelievably catchy (albeit somewhat annoying after you’ve heard them 700 times).  Barry Gibb, my favorite Pras-adjacent composer, wrote the theme for the movie and it just bops so hard.  As a well-documented detractor of Doo Wop music, there’s not a whole lot else here for me, but that’s not going to blind me to the excellence of this soundtrack.  There is a reason this movie is revered as much as it is.  10/10, fun for the whole family, as long as the kids don’t understand the references.

[jess-the-vampire]

The Demon Next Door, Chapter 8

Previous/ Next

It had only been a few weeks since that day with Jackie.

That day marco hadn't made a complete fool of himself and ruined his chances with his crush.

And as a result, on occasion he found jackie waving to him, visiting his karate lessons, even coming over to their usual table to sit with him and his friends. She had actually chosen to sit with them, instead of her usual seat. It was a jolt of surprise and marco still felt like he was dreaming, he'd been hoping someday for her to be his date to the upcoming school dance in a few months from now and that dream was closer then he thought.

Even tom and star getting along better was a relief, tom didn't disclose much details but marco got the impression the two had been meeting up on occasion to talk outside of time with marco and whatever had caused this change seemed to have worked quite well. The two were kinda laughing together and cracking jokes and actually could be in the same room together without star being how she was before around tom.

Guess that meant tom was doing just as well with his own crush.

He was pretty happy for tom, but he was also always on the lookout for him, he found himself listening closer to the gossip around the school for any of the rumors around tom. Though on the plus side he hadn't heard any yet, however that could all be due to the fact everyone knew he and tom were close and marco would probably tell tom or call them out if they heard.

And marco would, he felt he would snap.

Tom was physically stronger then him, sure.

But Marco was willing to protect his friend anyway he could and he typically wasn't quiet about it when his friends where being mistreated.

He was so relieved when Saturday hit, he was invited over to tom's house for a sleepover, some one on one time with tom was just up his ally right now. He wanted to avoid the stress as quick as possible and just hang out with tom as per usual. Star was good to have but even he was worried she'd cause him a little stress right now since even she was a little too obsessed with Brittney's nonsense.

When Star first moved in she was more oblivious to how mean that girl was, but even she had to agree all the stuff being said about tom was a little too far, and she just did nothing but get frustrated every time she heard some rumor from janna or jackie or who knows who. Star was a bit popular, so she was bound to hear more then marco normally did and the more he heard the more his mood acted up.

Tom protected him from one of the bullies who plagued him, so he was going to do the same if he could, though maybe not by using karate on the rich Asian.

But he needed to calm down and just ignore that stuff, save it for when they got back to school and keep his mind on the positives.

He could actually see tom's room, hang out, even hang out with his parents some more since they were always happy to see the boy. Those were all things to look forward to tonight, marco offered to bring a movie or some games but tom insisted this time marco enjoyed tom's own things this time around, so marco's pack came with jammies, a fresh set of clothes and bathroom needs.

Though he was having a hard time leaving as his mother kept making sure he was fully packed when marco had already checked that 8 times before this point to make sure he had everything. "Mom, i'm only going to be gone tonight, and i'm across the street, i'll be just fine...if i forgot something you can just go across the street or i can and get what i need.".

"I know sweetie, just making sure!".

This wasn't a big deal, he's slept over with star on occasion, even if it was usually on the couch because her dad was super protective of his "Delicate flower". He'd be just fine, tom probably could chop someone's arm off if they came into his room in the middle of the night if he really wanted to. Besides, his parents didn't seem like people anyone wanted to mess with at all.

He'd be safe, his only real danger was making a fool of himself.

Though with one last check his mother kissed his forehead, marco said bye to his dad and little sister and headed across the street to ring the doorbell of the Lucitors. Hopefully whoever greeted the door didn't screech at him or crush him with hugs as soon as he entered.

He hadn't had many visits that didn't have either at this point.

Thankfully it was Tom himself who answered, followed by his dad, who had probably been nagging tom just as much about being ready for marco to come over no doubt.

But nonetheless, was happy to see him.

"Marco!".

"Tom!".

Marco was quick to hug his friend as the older man took marco's bags from him and brought them inside, leaving them on the nearest couch. The boys quickly headed inside and marco was greeted by the spooky red walls and dark furniture. The place still looked like it could easily be the setting of a vampire movie but marco had gotten used to it by this point.

And he shook Mr Lucitor's hand who now that he'd seen tom's strength, he felt foolish for not expecting it before.

Tom's parents clearly gave him their strength.

Though the first thing that really hit marco was the smell of fresh pizza coming from the kitchen, with garlic bread. Tom's parents had made their own, and it was amazing just to look at. His parents made amazing food too that honestly he hoped the two families would exchange recipes at some point, Mrs Lucitor was already there and waiting for him

And she was quick to crush marco with a big hug.

Marco was already part of the family as far as they were concerned.

"Mom careful, you don't wanna get too cosy with marco, then he won't ever wanna come back", tom teased, but considering it did avoid all the embarrassment marco had at home sometimes, he might just take tom up on his offer. He and tom were quick to pile up on pizza and bread and start munching at the table, Tom's plans seem to consist of video games, movies and ice cream.

It sounded great.

Tom's dad was chatty, going off about tom's karate lessons and how tom was already almost a green belt within a few weeks of class because of his skills and fast learning. Though granted Sensei probably just wanted him to upgrade faster so he didn't have to waste more time then he already did. But Tom's parents seemed super proud and seemed to believe it was all thanks to marco.

Marco doubted he was completely the reason tom was so good so quickly but it still was rather nice to hear their praises of him.

He was usually torn apart by his peers for karate, especially being in a class of mostly young kids and for especially being a green belt when at his age he could already be a red belt by now. But that seemed to not be the case with this family, tom thought it was amazing and so did his parents, honestly it was easy to see why tom was the way he was to an extent.

Well, minis the anger issues, but maybe there were some things tom wasn't telling him.

Dinner was spent chatting and enjoying good food, thought marco noticed tom's great great uncle never showed up at the table once again. He in fact hadn't seen the guy once since they moved in despite knowing he was there and being told he was there. Maybe the guy was bedridden? Or maybe he was out for the day ? Maybe he was actually sleeping instead?

Marco just had to admit his first encounter with the man really affected him so much he couldn't not forget it, it was utterly horrifying and he nearly fell down and hurt himself on the sidewalk because of it.

He sounded unpleasant though, not someone marco really WANTED to meet, especially at a nice dinner.

"-But we've gotten better about living around here, right?", the man looked to his wife who simply petted his head gently, "It's a lot calmer then back home, the streets are quiet and the people don't try to start fights with you whenever you meet them. It's honestly pretty great, and makes life at least a little easier for us. Tom's helped us get a better idea of the area thankfully...".

Wait, fights? What kinda weird place did they live before this point? Were they living in a violent community? They didn't read off as anyone who'd have previously lived in a violent city full of criminals but then again marco couldn't prove that for sure either.

Sounded crazy, maybe that was why tom was so good at fighting.

Tom finished his last scoop of ice cream before sighing, "Well, me and marco outta head up, uh...we'll let you know if we need anything or...you need us...uh...g'night!". He was quickly racing upstairs and he probably expected marco to follow with and his parents to leave but his dad grabbed his arm and shook his head, "Nah nah, we'll watch the movie with you down here...you both can go up later...not that we don't trust you boys but we want to keep an eye on you.".

Tom quickly seemed annoyed.

What did they need to worry about? Tom was...mostly responsible, at least enough to go to marco's alone, what was so bad about here?

But tom didn't put up a fight, he sighed and headed up to change, marco excusing himself to go up and follow to get into his own pjs. Tom was clearly upset and marco didn't want to sit here awkwardly while tom was in a bad mood, he wanted to go up and check on him to make sure the guy was alright. Seems whatever tom was upset about, well it was something marco had yet to really understand for sure.

"Tom?".

He was on the upper floor but then remembered he hadn't been up here before and didn't know which was tom's room, looking around before signalling it out through observation and knocking.

After all, he doubted anyone but tom would have a picture of him and tom on the front of his bedroom.

He knocked again and tom let out a little "Yeah?".

"Hey? Tom? You ok? I uh...I need to get changed and uh...", tom opened the door quickly marco finding the boy in a tank top and sweatpants, already changed and ready. "Oh...uh...sure...c'mon in...". He opened the door wider for marco to be let in and marco was greeted by red walls, rock posters, a tx, game system, large bed with flame print, a stereo, and so much more.

Though something was quick to catch marco's eye about it.

On a table nearby, was a cage, consisting of a little bunny rabbit inside, sniffing the bars and looking up at the teen. Marco was super quick to get up close and get a good look at the adorable thing, "Tom! You never told me you had a pet! What's their name?". Tom shrugged and leaned against the nearest wall, he was still irritated about what happened downstairs but he welcomed the change of topic, "Oh...marshmallow...he's...he's cool.".

"I've always wanted pets but never got any...star has dogs though, like...a bunch of cute puppies...so they're nice to see, but they're the closest thing I've ever had.".

"Puppies...huh...", tom said, pondering as marco wiggled his fingers at the bunny, "Can i take him out and pet him?". Tom didn't object, in fact he seemed happy to know marco was interested in his little rabbit, opening the cage for him and carefully showing marco how to hold his pet rabbit safely. "Marshmallow was basically my therapy animal when I was going through...issues...he's been my friend through it all.".

Marco softly pet the rabbit's head, taking a seat on tom's punk bed and putting the rabbit on his lap.

"Well, that's awesome tom...you seem to take great care of him!".

Tom beamed, "Thanks, he means a lot to me, so I try my best to take great care of him...he loves people...".

He watched marco with his rabbit and his face seemed to soften quite a bit in affection, before he turned his eyes away and tried to retain his cool demenor.

"Well anyways, sorry uh...about my parents...I wasn't expecting them to pull something like this, I thought it'd be more private but uh...guess they feel more comfortable uh...hanging with us for a little bit.". It was rather strange, but marco couldn't complain too much, he was in tom's house, tom's parents made the rules here, if they wanted to watch with them they could.

As long as they didn't well, make things weird it couldn't be that bad right?

"It's fine dude, I love your parents...we'll go downstairs and have a lot of fun ok? I'm just happy to get to hang out with you!".

Tom snickered, 'Yeah, yeah you're right, i'm happy to get to hang out with you too.".

Well as marco got changed, tom quickly left the room, and marco placed his rabbit back before following the boy out to go and join him downstairs. They'd get to hang out more in tom's room later when they were ready for bed. His matching jammies fit comfortably and he was careful not to slip on the stairs on his way back down the join the family sitting in the living room.

Seems tom's parents had picked out a superhero movie to watch with them, which was fine with marco, at least it wasn't something cheesy like his parents always insisted on watching when he was with them.

And tom had nachos and a bowl of popcorn ready for him, and marco looked delighted.

"You made my nachos?"

And the boy grinned back at him, holding up the plate, "Yeah of course! Wouldn't be fun without them right?".

And marco felt a ping of affection at the sight.

The movie had actually been fun, tom's parents were actually quiet outside of a few laughs and tom and marco got to talk among themselves when they weren't watching and snacking during the film. Though marco could tell tom once and awhile was glancing over at him, for one reason or another. Though that wasn't something marco focused on too much.

Tom was probably looking to see if he was having fun more then anything.

If anything, the most awkward thing was during the halfway point when they both grabbed for nachos and instead grabbed each other's cheese covered hands.

Marco didn't notice at first, as he wasn't even thinking about it, but the wiggle of tom's hand in his grasp seemed to snap something inside of him, and that immediately made his heart stop.

it only lasted for a few seconds but marco's face burned before he tugged his hand away, avoiding tom's gaze entirely as to basically avoid what just happened. He needed to relax, it was an accident and now he was getting worked up over it for no reason. Tom's parents hadn't seemed to notice and tom himself wasn't making as big of a deal out of it.

So all this was doing was making marco look weird, overreacting to what was clearly an accident.

And yet his hand never re-entered the nacho bowl again that night.

That didn't count as holding hands, it didn't, they just accidentally grabbed each other, way different. Couples held hands, friends accidentally held hands or just held them for practice, or comfort, and now he was freaking out even more then before. He took a deep breath, he needed to just finish the movie and move on, they had the rest of the night to have fun after all.

Though he was having a hard time paying attention to the rest of the movie, he didn't even seem to notice when the credits begun to roll. Not that it mattered, he'd seen this movie before, but it was telling how much the rest of the film had been a blur to him since that moment. Tom turned the movie off and nodded behind him, marco looked to see the boy's parents fast asleep.

Time to go, before they woke up.

Tom and marco quickly grabbed the food and headed upstairs, right back into the tall boy's room. Tom looked more then happy to get out of there, though marco was still distracted by the semi hand-holding they just did. Tom putting the food down and stretching, pointing to his smaller tv nearby, "You can pick out a game you like if you want? Go right ahead."

He quickly headed over to check on his rabbit as the awkward boy avoided his gaze to go and put his attention elsewhere. He needed to stop, this was supposed to be a fun night with tom and he was letting something small that seemed to not bother tom at all bother him. He should just pick a game and try and enjoy the rest of the night with tom, have a good time.

He looked under the tv, a small table under it with a cupboard.

Opening it, marco went looking through the piles of games for something to play before stumbling across something he didn't expect.

"Tom...is this a love sentence cd?".

Tom turned around like lightning, looked red in the face as he looked for an excuse, clearly not intending for marco to have found this at all. Tom looked like he was about to make an excuse but then marco's eyes lit up like the prettiest stars ever. "I didn't know you liked love sentence too!? Was this what was in the package i dropped off for you? That's so cool!".

And tom's face of embarrassment turned into one of shock.

But the blush was still very much present.

"You-you like love sentence?", he stammered, marco standing up with excitement, "Yeah! Who doesn't!? You should've told me sooner, we could've shared favorite songs and jammed out together weeks ago!". Marco's excitement seemed to entirely make him forget about earlier, but now tom was the one getting blushy at the sight of the excited teen who loved the same band as him.

And his lips formed a small smile.

"Yeah...uh...i've liked them for awhile...uh...I didn't know you liked them marco...I thought-".

"It's ok, c'mon, before we play, can we put on tunes?", he looked almost as if he was begging tom to do it and tom couldn't not do it now. Laughing and taking the cd from marco, "Ok, but let's try and not wake up my family ok? I don't need that right now.". But marco didn't mind, as long as they did it regardless, tom finding an playerand quickly putting in his cd in a Love Sentence designed player.

Whoa.

Most people didn't use cds that much but there was something nice about having them regardless.

"What's your favorite song?".

"Awesome feeling, no question", tom answered back quickly, "Yours?".

"It changes a lot, but I do like that song a lot too.".

"Cool", tom was clearly trying to play himself off as cool despite how giddy he clearly was and it was something marco couldn't help but smile and laugh at. Tom was kinda more of a dweeb then he ever imagined.

It was nice to see tom so happy about something he liked.

Marco wondered what else they had in common as far as interests, maybe he and tom were not as "opposite" as people like Brittney or Star liked to assume about them, maybe they were two peas in a pod. Honestly tom could have a lot more stuff about him marco didn't know about, and now he found he wanted to know more and more about the guy.

The song was turned on and tom was already humming and singing to himself, he already knew all the words so perfectly, he was such a geek. Since he didn't say anything marco had to guess tom rarely shared this kinda thing with anyone, and if he did share it he seemed afraid he'd be made fun of for liking it. Maybe cause he felt it ruined his cool "Bad boy" look?

Who knew tom had anxieties like this?

Marco almost wanted to reach out and hug him, but tom looked so happy right now and he was quick to start dancing to himself, marco comfortable enough to stop thinking too hard and joining him. Tom and him singing and dancing together and marco had to admit he found tom's singing voice not half bad, even though they both seemed nervous to sing in front of each other.

But tom was happy, and he felt happy.

Tom quickly got tired and feel on his bed, laughing, his laughter like music.

Marco hoped he got to see tom like this more often.

Happy and joyful and playful and full of so much life.

And Brittney wanted to claim this boy of all is in a gang of all things?

He liked bunnies, pink, boy bands, if he was in a gang he was the softest gang member ever.

Marco could tell he was staring at tom a little too much, quickly averting his eyes and tom continued to laugh. "I should've said something about love sentence before, it's just one of those things i've never been comfortable sharing about with anyone...if you looked in my closet you'd find a shrine and everything...it's a little embarrassing is all. I didn't think I'd make any friends if people knew...".

"Hey I wouldn't judge...you know me. If It makes you feel better I wear ballerina shoes around the house sometimes...", tom actually looked bemused, "Really? I didn't know that". He didn't seem hurtful or mean or anything, he actually might of been more touched marco was being so open about it. "Yeah and I also like dresses...and skirts...I-I don't wear them in public but y'know...I find them all comfortable.".

"That's cool dude, I hope someday I'll get to see them...I bet you look great".

"You think so?".

"Yeah, of course.".

Marco felt red-faced, he turned away quickly, smiling, but also not wanting tom to notice how much is words seemed to be effecting marco. He would definitely tease him if he knew and marco couldn't live that down. The music was turned off but tom still returned to the bed, taking a seat, "Hey...marco? Uh...y'know, i've never really been good with people...or being a friend...so..I'm never sure if I'm doing it right but um...thanks for uh...helping me, and just being supportive of me...uh".

Tom still seemed bad with words but the gesture was appreciated.

"Hey it's ok...I guess after dealing with whatever happened with your anger issues...it's probably hard trying to make friends again.", his words seemed to bring up some memories back for tom, the boy's smile fading and his eyes wandering to the ceiling. "I uh...I really screwed up...back then...I was just so...angry, all the time...and...It ruined everything and I just...Marco I just felt like i'd never get better.".

"But you did!".

"Yeah but at the time...I just...marco I thought...".

"Yeah?".

"I thought I wasn't cut out to have friends...or...a girlfriend...I just...I felt...alone...and that things wouldn't get better.", he sounded sad, and marco imagined tom years ago, sitting alone by himself. No hanging out with friends, staying in his room all day, never speaking to anyone, being terrified of himself and his own self harming those he cares about.

He must've been so miserable, it was so hard to imagine seeing him happy now, but that pain must've torn the boy up for so long.

"Well...I'm proud you've made it through, you're working hard and you're doing a great job...", marco said, wanting tom's smile to return back and his musical laughter.

"Well, It wouldn't have been so great if someone didn't give me a chance...you...gave me that chance...it means a lot.", that was true, tom came here probably not expecting to be given much of a chance by anyone and marco did, giving tom time to grow and learn. It was honestly by pure chance tom ended up here, that marco ended up being the student to speak to him and offer help.

It could've been star, or janna, or even jackie.

He almost liked to think of it as fate in a strange way, like thy were meant to meet and become friends.

He wondered if the same thoughts had even run through tom's own head since the day they met. If Tom ever felt like he and Marco meeting was fate and they were always meant to become friends and help each other out together. It was probably wishful thinking on his part but he couldn't help it, it gave him a rather warm feeling to think about it.

"Games?", marco said to tom, challangingly.

Tom smirked back, "Games...let's go.".

Tom was passed out on his bed, tired and belly full of snacks, marco sleeping on a makeshift mattress nearby, but wide awake on his end. Maybe it was all the sugar he had but he couldn't sleep nearly as well, his thoughts mainly focusing on what happened today at their sleepover. He didn't understand what was up with him, he got so weird today.

Getting frozen, blushing, staring at tom talk, his insides getting weird.

He just felt so...strange...and he didn't know how to explain it? Nerves maybe? He was really nervous about him embarrassing himself in front of tom after all.

Whatever it was, he was having a hard time sleeping right now.

His mind was getting too distracted and having it be so distracted made it harder for him to properly fall asleep, all he did was toss and turn and just...look at tom. Tom looked so happy, he was so peaceful. Looking at him however seemed to only make marco feel even weirder and he quickly forced himself to turn away from the boy, trying to go back to sleep and distract himself from whatever he was feeling.

He just needed to sleep, and things could go back to normal tomorrow.

"Marco?"

Marco woke up with groggy eyes, clearly he hadn't slept much last night and we was still tired. The blurry outline of tom in front of him, smiling and laughing above him and his tired body and brain, "We're making chocolate chip pancakes, the sooner you get up the sooner you can get to make some in the shape you want.". Marco took a few blinks before tom fully came into view as his usual goofy looking self, messy hair, pink streak, green eyes and everything.

Though his close proximity made marco jump, his heartbeat rapidly beating and his face red again.

"Uh...I".

Tom pulled away, ushering him to the door, "Whoops, sorry for scaring you...you ready? You aren't sick on ice cream right?".

"Uh...I...No no...I'll be right there.".

Tom nodded to him and started heading downstairs right away, marco shaking off his thoughts and hitting himself in the face to wake himself up and well...pull himself together in general. He needed to focus, otherwise he would barely get to enjoy himself with tom at all and just be thinking about stuff that didn't matter. He didn't want to ruin their sleepover by being distracted like that.

He came here to have fun, and he that's what he wanted to do from start to finish.

He quickly fixed himself up to join tom downstairs with his family, the young boy super excited to see him finally arrive and eat with him and his family, who were also in their pjs, just as excited to see marco join them. Marco felt himself calm down just a little, immediately following tom into the kitchen as his father sat at the table drinking what marco assumed to be coffee.

He gave marco a smile and a wave and pointed to the nearby kitchen where his family was working.

Chocolate chip pancakes huh?

Honestly those sounded good right about now, though marco would be sick all day from having so much sugar in these last few hours, only star could survive this much suger at a time.

Eh, he'd live, he was pretty hungry for the time being.

As soon as he walked in he could spot tom's mother pouring some batter in the shape of a rabbit, a bat, a skull, and a few dogs.

Animals and being spooky, their family in a nutshell.

Tom took the plate of pancakes that was already full over to the table to set up and marco was quick to tell his mother some cool pancake shapes she could make for them. Soon enough they came back into the dining room with a platter of pancakes that looked like hearts, bones, and music notes. Syrup and butter on the now set up table for the family.

Apply juice being poured out for everyone as they started grabbing their pancakes and chowing down on the surgery goodness. Tom's family all in good spirits and complimenting mother lucitor's cooking. Things seemed to actually be going rather well, the room easing up for marco and finally back to being as comfortable as always around these folks.

What had he even gotten so worried about anyway?

Everything was fine, they were having a good time and it as just a regular fun sleepover between best friends. Just handing out and watching movies and getting snacks and just having a good time together as friends. Friends who sang together and danced together and grabbed at each other's hands and laughed and supported each other and felt amazing around each other.

This had been so much more fun then his ones with star, but then again usually either her family drive him and her nuts or star plunders his home into chaos. He loved their sleepovers but tom's felt so...calm and fun and just...great. Something about it was different then star's in ways's marco couldn't yet explain, he just somehow knew it was different in a good way.

And he wanted more of it.

"So marco, tom's been telling us you've managed to make friends with this jackie girl recently? She sounds rather nice from what i've been hearing, i'm glad to hear you're helping tom make new friends!". Oh, right, jackie, the girl he was getting closer with and was still trying to pursue, he hadn't even been thinking of her much throughout this whole sleepover.

"Oh, well, i've known her technically since I was little, but we just now got close...and uh...yeah she's hanging out with me and tom."

"Well she sounds lovely, honestly the more friends tom makes out here the better!".

Yeah, jackie indeed had been a good friend recently, to him and tom, even star. She wasn't as close as the three of them seemed to be getting, but she had been hanging out with them more often that hanging out with her just started to feel natural for marco. He didn't seem to freak out around her as much, he still had his moments, but he was getting so comfortable around her.

"Yeah, she's great, jackie's great".

Why did he sound so awkward all of a sudden? Probably because talking about his crush with tom's parents was a little too weird for him, he didn't even talk about it much with is own parents after all.

He finished up the rest of breakfast and got himself dressed in tom's room, gathering his stuff to head back home, the fun was over and it was time to get back to his parents and sister. At least with tom being across the street, it meant they could do this kinda stuff more often. Honestly marco was really looking forward to that after how everything went.

Even though he was nervous, he still wanted more nights like this.

"Hey...", tom said, leaning against the entrance of the door, marco collecting all his things and clearly spooked by tom's sudden appearance. Tom laughed a bit before coming in for a hug, marco wrapping his hands around tom's warm body. "Thanks for coming over, it was really great hanging out with you...I hope I get to see you tomorrow and everything".

"Yeah, yeah, of course.", marco hugging him tightly, "I'll text you later tonight...ok?".

"Ok, yeah we'll text and talk more later...say hi to mariposa for me!".

They disbanded and marco started heading on his way out, hugging immediately by tom's parents and crushed under their strength. Mrs Lucitor fixing up marco's hair before he headed out the door, tom waving to him until marco got back inside his home once again, greeted by his happy parents and baby sister sitting in the family room together and with fresh cookies for the boy's return.

"Marco, hijo! How was your time over at tom's ?", his dad quickly grabbed marco's things to move them upstairs and marco felt a blush creep across his face, though he was currently chocking it up as just feeling hot for the time being. "It was...It was great...I had a really great time, and I think me and tom are even closer now, at least I want to think so".

"Well that's wonderful marco! Whenever you want to bring tom over to sleep over here, you just let us know!".

"Yeah...yeah...of course.", marco said, thinking back to last night, emotions mixed and all over the place. What happened last night to get him in such a mess right now? He took a cookie off the nearby plate set out for him, thinking back to tom's laughter and smile and how warm the guy was. Till his thoughts warded off and he took a bite of the fresh cookie in his hand.

Looking back at the creepy house across the street, and the window to tom's bedroom.

"I'll let you know".

[finn-wolfhard]

I need me some quality content and this is the best place for it. Could I get some being Steve's sister and dating Robin? (If that already exists somewhere then please direct me to it bc this idea is like crack to me) Thanks!!

Yo! I've just gotten back into Tumblr since quarantine has given me an abundance of time. I can guess that you ended up getting this elsewhere, anon, but for the folk who also want to read about wlw Robin B and Big Bro Steve - this ones for you! 

Enjoy x

I Do 

“Turn that shit down! GOD! I feel I’m listening to them in concert.” Steve was screaming from downstairs for me to turn my music down and before I could move an inch to do so, he barged through the door. “Look, I don’t want another complaint from Mrs. Fritz next door. Can you please turn it down. I promised mom and dad that the roof would still be on this place by the time they got home. I’m heading to work. The money for delivery is on the table. Just try not to get yourself into bother, OK?” 

“Yeah, sure, sorry Steve. What time will you be home?” our parents are both out of town on business and so Steve has been appointed man of the house. Last time we were left alone, Mrs. Fritz called the police on us, placing a noise complaint. It was just me playing my radio a little bit too loud in my room. My bedroom window is right next to her living room. 

“I’ll be home around 8. Do you want to wait till I’m home to order pizza?”

“Sure thing, dude” I answered, giving him a thumbs up and a grin.

“You’re a goof. I’ll see you at 8.”

Steve and I’s relationship is reasonably good for the average brother and sister. He’s a year older than me and has the same interests. Such as; Hair, Pizza, our looks, and girls. I’ve known I’ve been into girls since I was a little kid but dad would kill me if I ever brought a girl home. Mom would be a little more understanding, yet still against the idea - and I don’t even know how Steve would react if he found out. I think he’s the only person I’d be fully comfortable telling, but I don't want to risk it going the complete opposite way.

I hear the door slam and decide to get out of my pajamas and actually DO something today. The schools broke up for summer last week and all I’ve been doing is reading, listening to music, and waiting for my best friend Jennifer to get home from vacation and tell me all about it. She’s due home in three days. I finally muster up enough self-motivation to move from my cozy, pink bed to the bathroom. The cold tiles under my feet wake me up and I stare at myself in the mirror for a bit. I had managed to grow a little spot just below my hairline (which I quickly treated with zit cream) but that was about as far as the flaws went. I usually take good care of myself; drinking enough, taking my vitamins, brushing my teeth after every meal. I do care about my looks and I shouldn’t be ashamed of that. It helps gets me a lot of attention in school, and I’ve never been an outcast. I guess having Steve as a big brother does contribute to the high school fame, but I don’t let it get to me much. I'm just glad I’ve gotten through high-school without being bullied at least once. I looked at my scraggly hair. I had just had a perm done two weeks ago and it seemed to be holding up pretty well. I scrunched my hair to make it look nice and messed it up a bit to give it volume. 

In the kitchen, there was the money on the table, like Steve said, and a note next to it. 

Save me a slice! Steve :)

He must’ve written the note then realized that a slice won't suffice after a long shift at his dorky Scoops Ahoy! job, and asked me to wait up for him. It's a shame people don’t get to see this side of Steve and I. I know how we come across to other people. I’ve heard the odd remark here and there about how he’s a player and I’m a priss. It mostly comes from the social outcasts in the school, the ones who aren’t in our friend circles, and don’t get to see what we’re really like. Even then, our school personalities are a bit of a performance to uphold our popularity. Only Steve knows my real self and vice verses, and we both understand why it has to be like that. Its an unspoken rule type thing. 

I open the fridge and get some milk for cereal. I pour a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. Fred smiles at me from the box as I grab the phone off the wall and dial Amanda’s number. 

“Hey Mands, you want to go to the mall today”

“y/n! Hi! That sounds great. I need a new outfit for my date with Justin on Friday.”

“Cool, so, 12? That sound ok?”

We agreed on 12:30 (since she had to take her dog on a walk) and she suggested we meet outside the Gap. Soon enough, 12:30 rolls around and I see Amanda smiling wildly at me, where she said she'd be, outside the Gap. She sweeps me into a warm hug and we gush about how much we’ve missed each other since school broke up. 

“Ok, so I need to go to Claires to get some earrings.” I agree to help her find a pair that would, quote “make Justin harder than math.” I don’t really understand how a pair of earrings could do this to a guy, or even if guys pay attention to earrings at all, but I was open to being proved wrong. We start making our way to the stairs when Amanda realizes she’s suddenly craving ice cream. I put it down to the fact that there were Scoops Ahoy! Adverts on every trash can (I’m unsure if that is a sign or not). We make a detour to Steve’s work and I make a plan to pull a few strings to get a free cone or two. We enter the ice cream parlor and… Steve isn’t there. Instead, a girl with short blonde hair is serving the queue of customers. 

I squint at her, trying to remember her name. Rosie? No, that's not it. It begins with an R for definite. Its to do with an animal… a R-R-Robin! Her name is Robin. And she’s…pretty? Like, really pretty. And not very girly? I can’t tell since she’s wearing a silly uniform… but god, is she pretty. 

As I’m staring at her, a slew of slurs come racing into my mind. Slurs I panicked were being shouted at me down the halls but never were. They were always aimed…at her. At Robin. Words beginning with D and F that make my blood boil. Chip, A boy in my own friend group, muttering “Stay away from my sister, homo!” In class. I put a hand up to my mouth to hide a gasp. This girl was outed, by someone she thought was her friend from band, in Hawkins - which isn’t known for being the most accommodating and accepting town.

Amanda and I reach the front of the queue and I find myself unable to look directly at the girl serving me. 

“Hi! Welcome to Scoops Ahoy! What can I get you today?” She seemed overly enthusiastic for some reason. 

“Hi, is Steve here?” I say, breaking the awkwardness I had built up in my own mind. She looked away, disheartened? I couldn’t tell. 

“Steve, your sisters here” then she whispered something that sounded like “you can leave your little nerd friend to figure it out for a bit” but I wasn’t really sure. 

Steve appeared from around the corner.

“what do you want, squirt?” 

“2 sundaes please” I replied, smiling.

“that will be five dollars pleas-“

“STEVE! Can’t you gift your baby sister with a sundae for once?” I cut him off, appalled that he’s making me pay, but still keeping it lighthearted. 

“…fine. But only this ONE TIME” he shot back. I winked at him, thanked him, and waited for him to finish our sundaes. He brought them over and sat with us. 

“Who’s that girl?” I instantly questioned, trying not to sound too interested but failing miserably.

“Oh, that's Robin Buckley. She’s in your year at school, don’t you know her?” I do know her. But I don’t want to admit that yet, I want to play it cool.

“I think I’ve seen her around yeah, I’ve just never had a good look at her before. I think she’s in my social studies class?” I look to Amanda to ask this question but Amanda is already nodding by this point. Steve looks unconvinced. 

“well, I invited her for pizza tonight,” he said, not wanting to ask ‘is that ok?’ In front of Amanda to keep up his macho ‘I’m Steve Harrington’ persona. I glance over at Robin. By this time, she’s known as lovely Robin in my head. Not that I could help it, along with the butterflies in my stomach or the extreme excitement that she was going to be having dinner. With me. In my house. Tonight!… What am I doing? Get a grip of yourself! You’re not out - as if that is ever going to happen anyways - and Robin was coming for Steve. Of course she was. I mentally roll my eyes. Just my luck.

The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly. Amanda gets her outfit and ‘math’ earrings - which I still don’t understand - and I get a few cute t-shirts and skirts thanks to my allowance mom gave me before she went away. By the time I get home, it is 4 pm which means I have precisely 4 hours to get myself ready for tonight. I go to my room, read for a bit, then put my makeup on in my vanity mirror. I don’t want to mess this up, but then again, why am I caring so much?. I eventually get myself sorted and wait for 8 pm to roll around. At 7:45 I phone Hal’s Pizza Shop and order 2 pepperoni pizzas and 1 plain Margherita. I came to the decision that If Robin is vegetarian then she can have the just cheese, but if not, I’ll take it.  

I hear Steve’s key in the lock and he shouts to me from downstairs.

“Hey that's me back, y/n, did you order the pizza?” 

“Sure did!” I came to the top of the stairs and looked down at the front door. Robin was staring up at me and I couldn’t help staring at her back. Steve obviously missed this whole exchange of tension.

“Good! Because I’m starving. I’m gonna put a video on, anyone down for watching Indiana Jones?” He mimics a whipping sound and runs off to the living room, leaving Robin and me to awkwardly start a conversation. 

“So, you work with Steve. I’ll apologize on your employer's behalf.” I laugh, eventually. Robin looked relieved that I had said something, and even more so that it was a joke. 

“It's not as bad as you would think, he brings in loads of customers with that ‘magnificent hair’” she replies, making fun of Steve’s obsession with his, admittedly, perfect mane. 

“I’ve seen you about school before, sorry I’ve never talked to you before,” I said. I really meant it, she seems cool. And kinda hot? But that wasn’t important to me…

“Yeah, I guess our groups don’t tend to mix as much. I'm surprised you even know my name” she looks at her feet. She knows I know about the slurs and bullying, I can tell. Just then, there's a ring at the door and Steve reappears, running to get the door that we are standing 2 inches away from. 

After sitting, eating, chatting, and laughing our way through Indiana Jones, I realise Steve has fallen asleep beside me. So does Robin. We both snicker at him and then collectively tuck him in with the blankets on the back of the sofa. We sit in silence for a minute. 

“Robin. I want to say I'm sorry for all the stuff you get called at school. It's not cool and especially from my group-“

“it's fine” she cuts me off. She seems distant though. 

“I don’t think you understand what it does to me hearing people shout words like that at someone. It's inhuman,” Robin looks at me over her cup of hot chocolate Steve made us halfway through the movie. She looks on the verge of tears. “I mean, I don’t know how I would cope with that if people knew I was one too.” I look away from her confused stare in embarrassment. Robin is the first person I tell this massive secret to and I've only been in her company for the past 3 hours? But it felt right. It felt too right, almost.

Robin picks herself up from her space in the armchair and comes to sit on the arm of the sofa. She doesn’t hesitate to put her arm around my shoulders and squeeze me in for a side hug. I hadn’t realized that I had started to cry and I wipe my eyes and nose with the back of my hand. 

“I’m so sorry they said those things to you” I whispered while silently sobbing.

“Don’t worry about it, y/n, I have pretty thick skin when it comes to bullying. I've been in band for the past 3 years,” I look at her and let out a small laugh. The smile fades from her lips and a serious look takes over her face. “You don’t need to feel ashamed. Or embarrassed. I’m honored you told me, I know how much trust that takes. Thank you.” 

We sit embracing for a couple of minutes and I try to defuse the tension. “You know, I think you’re pretty hot.” She laughs, and I can feel the heat radiating off of her. She’s blushing. 

“You’re not too bad yourself, Harrington,” she gives me a small smile. “I think you’re the prettiest girl in our year.” Now it was my turn to blush. I’m not sure if she’s saying this out of courtesy, sympathy, or if she really means it. 

“You don't have to say that” I roll my eyes and let out an embarrassed giggle. 

“I do.” She whispers back, the darkness multiplying the tension by 10. After a while of nervous silence, not sure what to say next, Robin asks you a question.

“I hope I’m not out of line for saying this, and you can one hundred percent say no,” I looked at her, questioningly, “but why don’t we go out sometime? We can go to the park or we can go to the cinema. Your choice… if you want-if you want to.” She was visibly nervous. In the pitch black, with only the dim glow from the paused movie TV static lighting up the room, I agreed to go on a date with her (”I’d like that”). We both can tell the other is excited but can also tell the other is exhausted. Robin moves back over to the armchair, which was just big enough for a teenage girl to curl up in, and I curl up to my sound asleep brother. It takes a while to finally get to sleep, but I can’t help my mind doing laps, thinking about my future date with Robin Buckley. 

[taylorinthetardis]

Only Human - Prologue and Chapter 1

Hey everyone! So this is the Pride and Prejudice AU I’ve been working on for a while now. It’s set in Modern Day London and told from Darcy’s POV. It is cross posted on AO3, the link to it will be below. I promise I will update it soon, I’ve just been a little bit blocked for a while. But I promise there will be more. So here we go, the prologue and first chapter are under the cut! Enjoy!! Feedback is much appreciated!! If you like it and want to be on a taglist, please feel free to say so!!

Thank you to @madbaddic7ed for all your encouraging words and for convincing me to cross post!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22109365

Only Human

Summary:  The events of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as seen through the eyes of Darcy. Story takes place in modern day London. Lizzy and Jane are American students studying abroad. Their sisters take turns visiting them throughout the story. Bingley and Darcy are recent business partners, but longtime friends. Caroline is as snake-ish as ever. George Wickham is an actual rapist - the rape will not be described in detail.

Pairing: William (Will) Darcy x Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bennet; Charles Bingley x Jane Bennet

Rating: Explicit due to eventual smut

Warnings: Swearing

Word Count: 2.8K

                                                       Prologue

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I, William Darcy, am an arsehole. The following tale, dear reader, will explain how that came to be and how, I hope, I have made the preceding statement a falsehood instead. The following tale does not often show me at my best. I hope, however, that you may look past my faults and forgive my disgraceful, ignorant, and often impure thoughts as I relay to you the circumstances by which I came to fall deeply in love with the most wonderful, challenging woman I’ve ever met, the method by which I nearly ruined an incredibly important friendship, and the events surrounding the creation of a familial fissure that will never heal. I hope you will not judge me too harshly.

                                       Chapter 1: Hanover Terrace

I was sat in my office. My office. Still getting used to that. When I took over control from my Aunt Catherine in April, a lot of work was done to make this office mine. Catherine’s taste in furniture was, how should I phrase this, medieval. I was honestly surprised we didn’t have to remove any torture devices when her furniture was cleared out to make room for my more practical mahogany desk and overstuffed leather chairs. My degree from Cambridge’s Judge Business School was propped in my bookcase with photos of my parents and Georgiana on either side. The office is still rather spartan in comparison to Charles’ but I don’t mind it. Our companies had recently merged, an event that proved profitable for both parties and served to deepen our friendship. Our offices are across the hallway from each other now, as opposed to being across the Thames. The economic windfall had been excellent for Charles. He had decided to purchase a new home, one big enough for himself and his sister and closer to her university. Charles is an orphan, like myself, and the sole caretaker of his younger sister Caroline, who recently began her studies at the fashion and design school at Regent’s University. I feel for Charles sometimes. His younger sister is an absolute terror, but I guess we can’t all be blessed with saints for sisters. Caroline is an uncommonly cruel young woman. She delights in shit-talking friends and strangers alike. She also is labouring under the delusion that she will one day be my wife. Her older sister, Louisa, has enjoyed several years of trophy-wifery and it seems Caroline has decided that is the life she wants to live as well. Although she just recently came of age, she has flirted with me non-stop since the first day Charles invited me home with him. We’ve known each other since we were 18 years old. We are now 25. Damn near seven years. SEVEN YEARS. Seven fucking years dealing with Caroline’s shite. She just turned 18 earlier this year. What the hell did she think I was going to do with her when she was eleven goddamn years old? Go to prison? I sure as shit think not.

Charles entered my office at around 1. He was bouncier than usual. He had either had more than one of his normal sickly-sweet coffees or he was in love again. Turned out it was both.

“Oh, Will I’m so happy you convinced me to snatch up Hanover Terrace. I met the most beautiful woman in world yesterday. I never would have known her if I hadn’t decided to take your advice. I invited her and her sister out with us tonight. You don’t mind, do you? Even if you do, once you meet her, you’ll forget you were ever bothered.” He spoke at such a speed that I only caught about every third word. My ears perked, however, at the ‘out with us tonight’ part. Out with us? I don’t remember agreeing to go anywhere with Charles. He always wants to go to nightclubs. He knows I don’t dance. He always does this. Drags me to some poppy nightclub with strobe lights and terrible music.

“And how did you meet this one Charles? Spill your coffee on her? No, wait, you were walking Caroline’s stupid pug and she thought it was cute and wanted to pet it.”

“Christ, am I becoming that predictable?” Yes Charles. Every girl you’ve ever fancied has fallen into your life in a cliché.

I nodded.  He sighed.

“Well, it’s different this time. She isn’t like any other girl I’ve been with. More beautiful than Sarah, kinder than Tilly, oh and her sister Will. Her sister has got to be one of the most intelligent women I’ve ever spoken to in my life. They’re both very beautiful Will. If I was a betting man, I’d wager that Lizzie might even be beautiful enough to tempt you out of your shell and entice you to have some goddamn fun for once. Maybe she’ll even get you to dance.” He nudged me with his elbow, winking. Yeah right Charles. Not even Charlize Theron could get me to dance at a nightclub.

“I seriously doubt that Charles. So, what’s this one called, hm?”

“Jane.” He said it with a sigh. Oh, he’s already long gone. “Her sister is called Elizabeth, but she prefers Lizzie. They’re American, Darce. From the Midwest. They’re both studying abroad at Regent’s for the year.”

“And to what godforsaken place will you be attempting to drag me to tonight?”

“I was thinking Drama? I wanna show off a little Will. I really like her; I want to impress her.”

“Drama might be a little much for a midwestern girl, don’t you think? What about that place we went in Camden a few months ago, by the lock?”

“Lock 17? Isn’t that a little down market for you Darce? There isn’t even a dress code!”

“Come off it, you know I couldn’t care less Charles. I don’t even like going out. I just think Lock 17 will be the better choice for her. You don’t want to scare her. Anyway, I think you’ll have a nice time. Without me.”

“Nuh uh, you aren’t getting out of this. You come or you’re dead to me.” I rolled my eyes. Jesus he’s such a goddamn drama queen.

“Ugh fine I’ll go. But I’m not dancing and you can’t make me. I’m a grown man Charles. So, meet at Hanover Terrace at, what, 8pm? Or should we meet earlier?”

“I was thinking 7:30, that way we’ll all have plenty of time to get ready and you can get to know them before we go. I’m going to order the cab for 8 so we’ll have plenty of time to get there if there’s any slow spots.”

“Please tell me you’ll be leaving Caroline at home.”

“Yeah, so she can kick my arse over it later? No chance. Besides, we’ll probably lose her to the dance floor as soon as we get in. She’ll find some nice dumb boy to buy her drinks and you won’t have to see her all night.” No Charles she’ll be on me like white on rice all damn night and you bloody well know it.

“Alright. But I’m not dancing.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I arrived at Hanover Terrace about 7:30. As soon as Charles opened the door, I immediately regretted my decision to come. I should have told him I got food poisoning from lunch or something. Caroline was stomping through the front room, going from box to box screaming that she couldn’t find her favourite clubbing heels. Who the fuck has a favourite pair of heels for clubbing? Heels seem so impractical for dancing. Charles’ new love and her sister had yet to arrive and Charles appeared to be in a slight panic.

“What if she doesn’t come Will?” He said shakily. Christ he’s in a full meltdown.

“I’m sure she’ll be here in a few minutes Charles. It’s not even close to 8 o’ clock yet. You’ve got plenty of time, just relax.” I took a minute to look around his new home. He had barely unpacked. I helped him get everything in order for the move about two weeks ago and he moved in a few days later. Everything was basically where it was when I visited three days ago. “Have you genuinely not unpacked anything Charles? How are you even living in here?”

“I’ve got enough clothes unpacked upstairs to last another week probably. Caroline’s rarely home in the evening anymore so I just keep getting take-away. There’s a Chipotle just around the corner on Baker Street. You know I love a burrito bowl. Something I have in common with the lovely Jane.” Gag. Well, at least the movers got his furniture set up, although most of the downstairs furnishings were unusable because they were covered with cardboard boxes and plastic totes and suitcases. The sofa in the main living area was clear enough that I took a seat. Caroline continued her tear through the front room until a triumphant screech echoed through the relatively empty house. The heels in question were easily six inches high, sparkly platformed monstrosities. They completed a look which can only be described as what a disco ball would look like if it was a contestant on Love Island. Hopefully Jane and her sister would be a bit more sensibly dressed, like Charles and myself. I decided on a plain black tee and black jeans with my black and white trainers. Charles had gone with a less monochromatic palette, wearing a bright blue button down that was almost the colour of his eyes and a pair of dark blue jeans. We’re wearing the same shoes. Us and every other man in London. Suddenly there was knock on the door. I checked my watch, 7:35. I told Charles he was worrying for nothing. He bounced towards the door like Caroline’s pug when he needed a shit. He opened the door to reveal a young blonde woman and a younger looking woman with auburn hair.

“Jane, Lizzie, I’m so pleased you’re here. Sorry about the mess, haven’t had much time to unpack yet, with work and all.” Charles led them through to the room I had posted up in. The dark-haired girl peered at me through purple framed glasses. Her sister gave her a little nudge. Well fuck, Charles wasn’t kidding. God they’re both gorgeous! They were dressed considerably more sensibly than Caroline. Jane wore a low pair of black heels that complemented her red cocktail dress. Her sister was even more comfortably dressed, in black leggings, Doc Martins, and a plain white t-shirt. She wore a black leather jacket over the tee. Neither girl appeared to be wearing much make-up. Both were possessed of the natural beauty that Caroline tried to fabricate in her hour-long make-up routine that left her looking like she had Photoshopped her own face, but in real life. I stuck my hand out. “Will Darcy. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” Wow, sound more like you’re a hundred years old, why don’t you Will?

“Will, this is Lizzie,” he gestured to the brunette, “and this is Jane.” He put his hand on the small of the blonde’s back and she blushed redder than Charles’ hair.

“Lizzie Bennet. It’s so nice to meet you Will.” She took my hand with her considerably smaller one and shook it. It was a firmer handshake than I’d had from some of my business associates. She dropped my hand and her sister took up the vacancy. Her handshake was much softer, grip much lighter, much more feminine. Looking at the two women before me, I wouldn’t have known they were sisters if Charles hadn’t told me. They couldn’t have been more different. One blonde, one brunette. Jane had soft blue eyes, Lizzie’s were bright and hazel. Jane was tall and slender, her sister shorter and softer around the middle. Taking all of her in I came to a sudden realization: she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Okay Will be cool. For once in your bloody life be cool. I opened my mouth, but before I could speak Lizzie launched into an animated conversation with Charles about her day. It was all I could do not to stare at her mouth while it moved faster than Charles’ ever had, no matter how in love he was or how many Frappuccinos he had consumed. I sat back down on the sofa, while Lizzie sat on the carpet, Charles on the coffee table, and Jane remained standing. Lizzie told us about one of her professors, an archaeologist who taught university classes when he wasn’t on digs.

“He’s like a real-life Indiana Jones except without the bullwhip and the hat. And he’s not Harrison Ford. But still. Oh, and don’t even let me get started on my Shakespeare professor. George. He’s my most favourite.”

“I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying your studies Lizzie. But don’t forget to explore the city while you’re here! London is full of endless things to see and do. I’ve lived here most of my life and I still haven’t seen everything!” Charles is so blessed. I wish I could just talk. Talking is better than staring. C’mon mouth, work! “Wouldn’t you agree Darce?”

Shit, I have to talk now? I nodded, again opening my mouth to speak, but no words came. Charles picked the conversation back up, turning to Jane to ask if she had a pleasant day as well.

“Yes. I took a lovely walk through Regent’s Park today. I only have the one class on Thursdays so I’ve been using the rest of the day to explore a bit. Lizzie’s schedule is so much fuller than mine so I’ve been finding places for us to go on the weekends. We’ve gone to Camden Market and Hyde Park. When you met us the other day, we were on our way back from the Tate Modern, I don’t remember if I said or not.”

“Yes, you said Lizzie was disappointed because she thought you were going to the Tate Britain.”

“Do you have something against modern art?” Oh, cool. Thanks, mouth. Why did that come out like I’m angry about that? Modern art is dumb. How is a pile of rubber or a cut-up McDonald’s bag art?

“I can appreciate that its art, like how I can appreciate that romance novels are literature or techno is music, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I prefer the old masters and classical art to a splash of paint on a canvas. My little cousin can do that too, does that mean her art belongs in a prestigious museum? Naw fam it sure don’t.” Yes. I wholly agree. Why does she have her eyebrow raised at me? Does she think I don’t agree? What is my face doing? Am I scowling? I don’t want to scowl. Did she say ‘fam’? That doesn’t matter. Why does it feel like it matters?

“You’ll have to excuse my sister. She’s never been shy about her opinions. And she has a lot of them.” Jane shot her sister a disapproving look. Lizzie just shrugged. Caroline chose that moment to come swanning into the room. Seeing there was a perfectly good space next to her brother on the coffee table, she chose to throw herself down into my lap. Oh, for fucks sake. She’s gonna get fake tanner on my trousers.

“Will, my love," I threw up in my mouth a little, "we’re going to have such a wonderful time at Drama tonight.” I can’t wait to burst her bubble.

“Caroline, did Charles not tell you? We aren’t going to Drama. We’re going to Lock 17, in Camden.” I tried to move her from my lap, but she dug her heels into the carpet for grounding. Fat Christ, Charles will you get your sister under control?

She sputtered, on the verge of a full tantrum directed at her brother when, blessedly, Charles’ phone vibrated. “That’ll be the cab. Caroline are you still coming?”

She jumped up off my lap and straightened the piece of sequined cloth trying to pass itself off as a dress. “Of course I’m going Charles. I put all this on, I can’t just not go out now!” She stomped off to the dining area to get her bag from the table. Charles led Jane towards the front door. I extended my hand down to Lizzie, who took it. I pulled her up from the floor. You should let go of her hand now Will. You’re being weird. I dropped her hand like it had burned me. Smooth. She looked at me, smirked and cocked that eyebrow again. Saying nothing, she followed her sister and Charles out the front door. Caroline took advantage of my initial inaction by slipping her arm into mine, leading me towards the cab. And my doom.

[lalahbug]

End of Summer - Death the Kid x Reader

Fandom: Soul Eater Word Count: 1,661 My Masterlist Warnings/disclaim: general None Author’s Note: Originally posted on DeviantArt, under the same username, on 10/06/2016. Was revamped/edited in 2020 ___ is a blank for your name/oc/whatever you prefer Line/header is to separate paragraphs to indicate time skips, as Tumblr hates my formatting. Story under cut

          Maka and Kid were sitting on the bench at the basketball court while Soul and Black*Star were playing a one on one game, with Patty being their cheerleader, well until she got distracted. Tsubaki and Liz were planning the party, occasionally asking Kid questions, since the party would be at his house. They were sitting near Maka and Kid so that they could easily ask each other questions

          “I feel like we are missing someone from our guest list.” Kid thought loud-out to Maka, who had just read the list off to Kid, so he wouldn’t freak out over the asymmetrical writing.

          “What about ___?” Tsubaki asked.

          Everyone went silent. Kid just stared at her.

          “Well, she used to be our friend. I sort of miss her being around.” Liz said, to back up Tsubaki, who went quiet and shy from Kid’s cold stare.

          Kid looked away from Liz and Tsubaki and over to the idiots playing basketball. “She won’t come.”

          “It’s the thought that counts, we can at least sent her an invitation,” Maka said trying to change his mind.

          “Fine.” Kid stated and stood up. “I have to go put in the order for the invitations then.” He walked away.

          Once Kid was out of sight. “I didn’t think he would become gloomy at the thought of her.”

          “Well they stopped talking right before school ended and she hasn’t been around since,” Liz commented.

          “Why did they break up anyway?” Tsubaki asked.

          “There was a rumor that they got into a fight, but Kid won’t talk about it. I think she started to feel insecure and inferior to Kid, with him being a reaper. But the truth is they never really broke up, she just stopped talking to him and avoided him. They haven’t talked all summer but he hasn’t really tried more than once to talk to her. She ignored him once, and he never tried again. There was no closure. I think Kid is just hurt and doesn’t understand...”

          “I think they should talk it out, they have been together for like two years.”

          “Death doesn’t approve of ___.” Soul came over, all sweaty with Black*Star.

          “What why?”

          “She’s not strong, she’s very easy to get information out of, unlike the Great Black*Star!” Black*Star gloated.

          “How do you know this?” Maka asked Soul.

          “She told me. I ran into her about a week after school ended.”

          “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

          “Because she’s been training with Stein, to be stronger. So Death will approve of her. I figured they’d be back together by now, so I didn’t feel like it was important”

          “Although he’s unconventional, he is a good teacher.” Liz shuddered at the thought of training with Stein. “Well I am tired of seeing Kid in a slump and I miss ___. So we’ve got to make a plan!” Everyone nodded in agreement.

           ___ was drying her hair after her shower when there was a knock on the door. Wondering who it was, she quickly put the towel down and headed to the door and opened it.

          “Hey, ___!” Maka and Tsubaki said in sync.

          “Oh, hey.” She stood back and opened the door more so they could come in.

          “It’s so nice to see you.” Tsubaki hugged her, which caused ___ to smile and hug her back.

          “It’s nice to see both of you.”

          “So, we did come for a reason.” Maka smiled at ___. She tilted her head to the side in response. “There is an end of summer party at Gallows Mansion. We want you to come.” Maka extended her arm, with the invitation in her hand. ___ stared at it for a moment before taking it from Maka, then looked at her.

          “I don’t think I should go.”

          “You should, we all really miss you. You’ve been with all of us for two years. Don’t just leave us.” Maka grabbed ___’s hand. “Please?”

          “I don’t think, Kid would want to see me.”

          “What about us though? You can just hang out with me and Soul at the party, you don’t even have to see Kid. The whole school will be there, it’s so unlikely you’ll even see him.” She smiled at ___.

          “Okay, I guess.” ___ smiled back.

          “You promise?” ___ nodded. “Soul and I will pick you up on the night of the party, it’s formal so make sure that you dress up, I don’t want you to feel out of place.”

          “I don’t have any dresses though.”

          “What about the dress Kid bought you for a long time ago? It’s really pretty on you and you haven’t worn it in a long time. I doubt Kid will even remember that was the dress he got you.” Tsubaki smiled, easing ___’s mind.

          “He probably doesn’t.” They all giggled and started talking about different things.

          “Oh, thanks. So do you. Where’s Maka?”

          Soul knocked on ___’s door and waited for a moment before knocking again. ___ opened the door.  “Wow, you look great.”

          “Liz needed some help with something at the party, so I was asked to escort you.” He offered an arm out to her, she smiled and took his arm and they left for Gallows Mansion.

          Soul and ___ walked in, with her clinging to his side, a little scared. Kid was up on the balcony, watching everyone. He noticed her immediately. Absolutely beautiful, yet she looked scared. Kid was debating on going up to her when Liz came by.

          “Let her be.”  

          Kid glared at her. “Why?”

          “At least, for now, let her relax a bit and have some fun. Plus, remember what I told you. You’ve worked that out with your Dad, you can work it out with her soon.”

          “I guess,” Kid sighed. “She looks amazing and I don’t like her clinging to Soul.” He grumbled. Which caused Liz to giggle a bit.

          Maka and ___ were hanging out together.

          “Hey, ___, do you want to go get some drinks then sit down?” Maka asked while linking arms with her, she nodded. They walked over to the refreshments table, getting some drinks. “Now let’s go sit somewhere quieter.” Not waiting for a response, Maka dragged ___ into a room with an open door. Carrying ___’s drink for her. Then Maka pushed her into the room. “Sorry!” Then she quickly closed the door.  

          Confused, ___ turned around and tried to open the door.

          “You can’t avoid me anymore.”

          ___ froze before slowly turning around to see Kid standing in the corner. She leaned back against the door, as Kid walked towards her.

          “You look really beautiful,” he looked into her eyes, his eyes seemed sad. She felt heat come to her cheeks. “You’re only making it better by blushing.” He smirked, she looked away and an awkward silence hung there for a moment. “Will you come to sit down with me? I want to talk to you.” The young reaper walked away to sit down. ___ stayed against the door for a moment. “Please?” Kid pleaded.

          She hesitantly moved from her spot and sat down on the couch, but ___ sat far away from Kid.

          “I still love you,” he paused, but she didn’t reply. “I know what my dad said, I wish you would have just talked to me. But instead, you ran.” He glanced over at her, she was listening, but was looking at her hands in her lap. He faced her more and sat closer to her. “I’m sorry for not trying myself, but you should have talked to me. Why didn’t you just talk to me?”

          “Because I don’t want to hold you back. Death told me I am unfit to be with you because I’m not strong enough. I guess I proved his point by running away,” she smoothed out her dress a bit, she was shaking, but kept her words level.

          “You’re strong enough to leave me behind, so I can have a better future. Even though you love me,” he reached over and took her hand. “But my future seems very somber without you, I had to actually find out how glum my life is without you now. I’ve talked to my dad and Stein. They are to stay out of our relationship. My dad has finally seen how happy you make me.” He sat closer to her but noticed her flinching a bit as he came closer.

          “Please come back to me?” Kid kissed her cheek and she flinched again from the kiss. But she didn’t refuse him, nor answered him. “___?” Kid put his hand on her arm, then moved his hand up to her face. Taking her chin and moving her face so he could get a read on her.

          “Look at me… Please?” Kid was almost pleading.

          ___ slowly let her eyes meet Kid’s. His eyes were filled with sorrow. She looked back down.

          “You’re weaker when you’re with me.”

          “No, I’m not. When I have you, I am stronger because I have someone I love and want to protect. I am weak when you’re gone. Don’t do this to us,” Kid moved her face closer to hers, leaning their foreheads together. “Get that shit out of your head. Forget what my father said. I know that you love me.”

          “I do.” Everything she had held to onto, came undone. Tears started to stream, she moved to cover her eyes, unsure why she was even crying.

          Kid hugged her close to him. “You don’t have to be strong. I just need you to be my emotional support and I’ll be your strength.”

          ___ hugged Kid tightly before kissing him.

          “Finally!” Soul groaned, with the gang behind him.

          “Thank you for arranging this.” Kid smiled while ___ blushed.

          “Anything to make sure our end of the summer is happy again.”

          “Yay~! Happy ending!” Patty cheered.

          “But we have school starting Monday,” Maka said happily, earning a groan from everyone.

          “So much for a happy ending,” Liz mumbled, before smiling at the renewed couple on the couch.

[mhdiaries]

Freaky Fusion Hybrids Avea Trotter Diary

6/14

I went for a gallop along the beach this morning for a couple of reasons. One, because I thought the sand might feel nice on my hooves, and two, a nice gallop always clears my head. There was a lovely tailwind, too, that caught my wings and helped carry me along. It was almost as if I were flying down the beach, almost. I passed a ghoul and a manster who looked like they were my age. The ghoul was trying to teach the manster how to surf, but he didn’t look scary comfortable.

I didn’t stop to watch, though, because I was just getting my second wind and was really starting to enjoy myself. I also saw Sirena bob up out of the water and then sink again beneath the waves. She didn’t see me, so I didn’t stop for her either, as there was no guarantee that Sirena was going to come back to the surface anyway. I love Sirena to undeath, but I can never make wings or tails out of what she’s about to do next. She tends to drift down her own path, and if it happens to cross the one you’re on, it’s always a treat. In fact, as flighty as she can be, Sirena is the reason Neighthan, Bonita and me all met and became friends. All of us were in middle school together, but we really didn’t know each other very well. I was standing by my locker one day when this vampire kid asked if I wanted to come to his little brother’s birthday party and give flying pony rides. I wanted to kick the unliving dayfrights out of him, when Neighthan and Bonita walked past. Neighthan and Bonita stopped to try and play peacemaker, but the kid’s friends ganged up on us, and pretty soon they were chasing us all down the hall. We turned a corner, and there was Sirena. “Follow me if you want to unlive!”, she said as she touched a brick in the wall that opened a secret passage. We all ran in, and she closed the door behind us. Bonita asked, “How’d you find this place?” Sirena just shrugged, “Sometimes not paying attention to where you’re going gets you to places you really want to be.” None of us understood what she was saying at the time, but we’ve all been beast friends ever since, and no matter how many schools we’ve bounced around to, we know we can always count on each other.

6/20

Every monster knows about Monster High, but not every monster wants to go there. I suppose there are different reasons for that. I’ve heard monsters say that the school isn’t old enough to have traditions, that it’s just a fad that will “run its course” and be replaced by some new creepy cool high school idea. I’ve also heard that the headmistress there is such a stickler for details and excellence that some members of the ghoul board think it’s making it too hard to attract new students. I don’t really know what to think, although it has some pretty passionate monsters that say it’s the beast school ever. I know mom and dad are hoping that they accept my application so I can start there in the fall. I doubt that I’ll get in, but I’m filling out the application anyway. Part of the application is a section where we’re supposed to give a brief history of our monster scaritage. I started to just write: Father – Centaur, Mother – Harpy, and leave it at that, but I’m proud of my parents, so I didn’t. Dad’s a scientist who specializes in researching monster remedies and medicine. Mom is, or I should say was, an aerial surveyor. Now she works with dad as his research assistant. He calls her “his ghoul frightday” and lays all his success at her feet. They met when they were working at a jungle research station with Dr. Boolittle. I don’t think mom and dad liked each other very much at first. Apparently, dad had a habit of getting lost in the jungle, and mom was always being sent out to find him. Dad says he never got lost – he just wanted to see what was over the next hill, even if that hill was 20 miles away. One day a monster storm was blowing in, and dad hadn’t returned to the research station, so mom flew out, again, to find him. Mom found him about the same time a powerful down draft from the storm sent her crashing into the trees. Dad found her, but mom’s wings and one ankle were so badly sprained that she could neither fly nor walk. Dad felt so bad about mom getting hurt because of him that he put her on his back and carried her out of the jungle. Mom said this act of kindness caused her heart to melt right out of her chest. Dad also said that on the trip back they found out they had a lot more in common than they both realized and that by the time they made it out of the jungle he felt like he’d found his best friend. Now mom says dad helps keep her grounded while dad says mom makes his heart soar. They’re the beast parents ever, and they make me proud of what and who I am.

7/2

I’ve been accused of being as stubborn as some four-legged normie animal that for some reason I can’t remember the name of right now. I’m not sure which side of the family that stubbornness comes from, but mom and dad both have their moments. Sometimes it’s a good trait to have, like when I’m out for a run and my mind says, “STOP!”, but I know my body can keep on going and sometimes not, like when I won’t back down after I’ve been insulted. For instance, one of the most insulting things you can say to a centaur is, “How about a ride?” Centaurs don’t give rides. Most monsters know this, but because I also have wings, they think it doesn’t apply to me. I know I should have thicker skin by now, but there are just some soft spots that certain barbs always seem to find. I guess that’s what makes me distrustful of other monsters. Yeah, yeah, I know; you can’t judge every monster by the words and actions of a few, but I’ve really gotten to the place where I assume any new monster I meet is one of the few until they prove they’re not. Mom always tells me that no monster can take my dignity, but I can give it away by the way I react towards those who are trying to steal it from me. My mom has a lot of dignity stored up, while I constantly feel like I’m dropping a single coin into a very large and very empty vault.

7/10

Neighthan, Bonita and me all went to the movies tonight. We invited Sirena, but she said she would see where the currents took her. At least she’s consistently inconsistent. The movie was the last one Veronica von Vamp made before she returned to her life as Elissabat and took the throne as the queen of the vampires. Of course, she could always make another one, after all, what’s the point of being the queen if you can’t do what you want every now and again. It was fun, and I liked the theater. It has a standing room only section for those monsters that don’t really fit into a standard size seat. After it was over we went to the Die-ner to grab a late fright snack, but I guess every other monster must have had the same idea, because we had to wait around a while for a table. While we were waiting, we heard two ghouls behind us talking about Monster High. They were exchange students of some sort, one was a lake monster from Rotland and the other was a bigfoot from Monster Picchu. They mostly were talking to Neighthan, which was fine, since he’s genuinely friendly, and ghouls seem to think he’s cute. I don’t see it myself, but that’s probably because I’ve known him for so long, he’s more like a brother to me. I was actually wishing we were closer to this Minotaur manster that was ahead of us in line. He really made my wings flutter, but he was also with this sweet little Cyclops ghoul, and you could tell they only had eye for each other. We finally got seated, though, and our waitress was this vampire ghoul that tried to give us the wrong food twice, but she was so funny and apologetic about it that we had a hard time getting irritated at her. Neighthan said she was the daughter of Dracula, how he knew that I’m not sure, but like I said, he’s much more friendly than the rest of us, and he probably just asked. Sirena finally came floating in after we were finished. She said that she had been exploring the catacombs and met another ghost named Spectra. “I totally lost track of time, and then I got distracted, and then I couldn’t remember where I was supposed to be, so I just came here,” she said. We all talked for a little while longer about our chances of being able to start at MH in the fall. “We’re going to get in,” Neighthan said, “I’m not worried at all.” Bonita was worried, though, and she started chewing on the sleeve of her shirt as we were talking about it. I’m not worried as much about getting in as I am about fitting in. what if it’s the same as every other school we’ve been to? I’m tired of being the odd-monster out, and if they don’t want us then they can just have their stupid school, I don’t care how great it is… deep breath Avea… deep breath. It might be the beast thing to ever happen… or possibly the worst. Maybe, I’ll just cross my fingers and hope for something in the middle.

7/30

I loped down to the mailbox today, hoping to find the new pair of gloves I ordered, palomino in color, velvet in material and just the right size to fit my hands. But what did I find instead? A letter embossed with the Monster High crest and a wax seal stamped with the initials HHB. This put a little giddy in my up, as it was certain to be a rejection letter. So I was all prepared for the thought of yet another year trying to find a school where we’d be welcome. I gave the letter to mom and trotted back to my room. After about a minute I heard her crying, “Yep, I thought, rejection.” Not that I’m cavalier about mom’s hurt feelings. But since I already knew what it was going to say, I guess I just wasn’t going to get all emotional about yet another high school that didn’t want me. I walked back to where mom was standing and gave her a big hug, “It’s okay, mom, we can always try again next year.” She didn’t say anything, she just smiled through the tears and held up the letter.

Miss Avea Trotter

Dear Avea,

We are delighted to inform you that your application for enrollment at Monster High has been accepted for the fall scaremester. We trust that you are as excited to become part of the student body at Monster High as we are to welcome you into it.

Sincerely,

Headless Headmistress Bloodgood

Then, just for a minute, I started crying, too – I’m not sure why, maybe, some part of me hopes this will be the one place where I’ll be accepted for who and what I am… now wouldn’t that be a real kick in the pants.

[deanstop13billyjoeltraxx]

Superposition

a deancas college-roommates AU

Chapter 5 is up on AO3! Chapter-by-chapter masterlist here. 

Fell on Black Days

Present

The drive back to Dean’s apartment was painful. 

He didn’t speak a word the whole way. Not that he could have, even if he had wanted to. The pain in his head from the sunlight was unbearable, and the bumpy roads of Lawrence made him feel like emptying his stomach at any moment. Dean just shut his eyes and gripped the bottom of the leather seat. 

He knew, logically, that Cas couldn’t be staring at him, that he had to be watching the road, but Dean couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being assessed. Carefully considered. Cas in the driver’s seat made the cabin air feel heavier. It pissed Dean off.

Finally, they arrived at the dinky little apartment complex Dean called home. Cas turned off the engine. Dean exited the car and took a massive breath of fresh air, still squinting against the offensive sunlight. 

“Here,” Cas said, handing Dean a pair of sunglasses. 

Dean stared at him. “Where were these twenty minutes ago?” 

“I thought you were sleeping.” 

“Whatever.” 

Dean put on the sunglasses, which helped the ache in his head ever so slightly. He led Cas to his door, beckoning for his keys. He suddenly felt a little embarrassed at his one-bedroom apartment that he’d been living in since he left WSU. He was sure that Cas hadn’t lived in a place like this since their freshman year. 

Cas said nothing as the two walked into the space. Dean threw his keys on the counter and moved to close the blinds. Darkness was an absolute necessity if he wasn’t going to wear the sunglasses inside, he had learned that much. 

“Make yourself at home,” Dean said, sitting gingerly on the couch. 

“Actually, I’m heading back out.” 

Dean blinked. “What?”

“I need to retrieve my suitcase, at least, from Mr. S — from Bobby,” Cas said. “Then I’ll need to find a hotel.” 

“Right,” Dean replied, clearing his throat. “Whatever, man. I’d offer to drive you, but you wouldn’t let me, so I’m not even gonna try.” 

Cas rolled his eyes and made to leave. 

“Do you need anything, Dean?” 

“A beer and a cigarette would be great,” Dean deadpanned. 

Cas turned at the door. “You’re… Smoking again?” 

“What’s it to you if I am?” 

Cas stared at him for a long moment, his eyes narrowed, and Dean wondered idly if he was about to get the shit beat out of him by his old college roommate. At least he could claim foul play — he was concussed, after all. 

“What is your problem?” Cas asked, carefully annunciating each word. 

“Are you serious, Cas?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

“Fuck me, man,” Dean said, squeezing his eyes shut once more. He wanted to say, where do I start? He wanted to say, you up and left and never said goodbye. He wanted to say, you were my best friend and you dropped me like I meant nothing.

He didn’t say any of those things. He just said, “It’s not important.” 

Cas was standing very straight and very still, glaring at Dean with something like holy wrath. Dean averted his eyes. He couldn’t deal with any of this; being concussed, Cas being back. It was too much to handle.

Cas opened his mouth, but seemed to think better of it, and closed it again. He breathed out, slow and loud. When Dean chanced a glance, he no longer looked angry, just… Sad. Defeated. 

“Dean…”

And Dean hated it, the way Cas was looking at him, imploring for him to explain, the way he felt cosmically small sitting in this room with his once-best friend. He was hurt and he was mad and he was tired and his brain couldn’t decide which of those three feelings should be winning out. 

“Stop,” he said. “Go find your motel, or whatever.” Exhaustion seemed to be inching out a win. 

Cas gave him a final, morose look before muttering, “Get well soon,” and closing the door behind him. 

 Despite his earlier argument with Cas, Dean did indeed avoid the beer in his fridge. He simply laid on the couch in the dark, Bob Seger streaming quietly from the speakers next to his television. His eyes were closed, but sleep refused to come. 

Dean thought the universe must have it out for him, because there could be no other explanation for Castiel’s car conveniently breaking down ten minutes away from his shop. Cas, whose entire existence was shoved in a “Fragile: Do Not Shake” box in the back of Dean’s mind, right there with his dead parents. Thinking about Cas just made him sad, or angry. Mostly angry. Now, he’d had a full interaction with the man he hadn’t seen since he was nineteen, and those feelings were a million times worse. Before now, Dean could have pretended that memories of Cas were too closely linked with memories of his father’s death, and that was why they hurt so much. He couldn’t pretend anymore.

Mostly, he avoided thinking about his brief stint in college altogether. He hadn’t even been back to Wichita since he’d failed out. It held too many reminders; of the life he’d almost had, the people he’d loved, how, for once in his life, he’d been good enough for something. No, those memories, too were tightly bound and tucked away in the deep recesses of his mind. He’d peak in occasionally; maybe “Wish You Were Here'' played in the grocery store, or maybe he was a few shots too deep in whiskey. 

And life was better that way; hell, life was good that way. He’d suffered in a private hell for months after John died, waiting for someone to pull him out, surely someone would pull him out. When no one ever did, he’d had to do it himself. He buried his fake ID in Sam’s sock drawer and wouldn’t touch it until he fixed his life. He begged Bobby for a job, worked his ass off to prove he was capable. He found a shitty little apartment for him and Sam. He took his brother to school every morning, cooked dinner every night, and worked every hour in between. It was hard, it was painful, and he’d bloodied his knuckles in frustration more than a few times. But he did it. He rebuilt his life. It was stable. It was good.

He’d thought it was good. 

Dean was about three pissy thoughts away from losing his security deposit when his phone began to buzz. He paused the music.

“Hey, Sammy.”

“Dean!” His brother yelled into the phone. Dean winced. “Jesus. You sound awful.” 

“Nice to hear from you too.” 

“Bobby called, told me what happened,” Sam said. “What the hell did you hit?”

“No clue,” Dean said. “But it knocked me down pretty good. Had to get eight stitches.” 

“Damn. You’re okay, though?”

“Well, I’m not bleeding into my eyes. But I guess I have a mild concussion.”

Dean could practically feel Sam rolling his eyes. “Yeah, it sounds really mild. You’re not going back to work, are you?”

“I think if I set foot in the shop, Bobby would kill me himself,” Dean replied bitterly. 

“Good.”

They were both quiet for a moment, then Sam said, “Bobby also told me that some guy drove you to the hospital. He said he recognized him from a picture on your desk, was it Ca-”

“When you comin’ home?” Dean interrupted. He did not need to talk about Cas with Sam “Tell Me How You’re Feeling” Winchester.  

“Uh, my last final is tonight. I should be in Lawrence around eight tomorrow night.” 

“Awesome. Guess I gotta get the air mattress set up for your dumbass,” Dean said. He’d never admit it, but Dean really did miss Sam. It was his first semester of college, and he was all the way in Austin. Dean was proud, so proud, but it still hurt knowing his baby brother was ten hours away. 

Sam chuckled, but it sounded forced, even to Dean. “Yeah. Yeah, can’t wait.” 

Dean sat up, and the room wobbled a little. Too fast. He groaned a little before asking, “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah, um, everything’s fine,” Sam said quickly. “I just… I think I’m gonna spend a little time in Kansas City this year, that’s all.” 

“What?” Dean snapped. “Why?”

“Well, there’s this girl in a few of my classes — her name’s Eileen — and her family is in KC, and, well, she kind of invited me to spend some time with them, so I thought, you know, since it’s so close…” Sam trailed off. 

“What, did you just meet her? Why are you going Christmassing with some random girl’s folks?”

“She’s not a random girl, Dean, we’ve been… She’s been a great friend to me this semester,” Sam said, sounding irritated. “And I’m still gonna be in Lawrence for Christmas, I’m just not gonna be there the whole break.” 

Dean pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Right. No, that’s great, Sam. Haven’t seen you in four months, but go ahead, spend some time with a girl you’ve never even mentioned to me. Hell, no one fucking tells me anything, so I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if you show up married.”

“Dean —”

Dean hung up. 

He almost felt bad, but he was too busy being pissed off. The last twenty-four hours had been ridiculous. 

He almost turned on the TV before remembering the no-screens rule from Dr. Barnes. Muttering to himself, he stood slowly from the couch and made his way to the medicine drawer in his kitchen. He wasn’t sure about the adverse effects of taking NyQuil with a concussion — conveniently, he also didn’t care. He threw two back with a large gulp of water, then laid back down, waiting for sleep to take him.

-----

tagging @nguyenxtrang :)))

[uas-fics]

Title: Beer and Expectations

Rating: T

Summary: Stan’s birthday party is ruined so he goes behind the library to sulk

Ships: Stenny

Content warning: Underage drinking

Other: For @stenny-week​ prompts birthday and addiction

Read on one Ao3

---

Ever since he turned ten, Stan didn't like his birthday. Something always went wrong, and eight years after the first catastrophe, nothing had changed a bit.

His dad showed up, high as normal, and shoved a crudely wrapped box into his hands. In front of all his friends, Stan opened the box to find it empty save for a crumpled plastic wrapper.

With the dumbfounded expression that long ago became his norm, his dad demanded to know who ate Stan's gift and proceeded to blame every person there and several who weren't before Stan could usher him to the guest room and out of everyone's line of sight.

When he returned, faces of pity or mocking amusement locked on to him.

Most of the pity came from his friends, the people he'd actually invited to the party. The mocking amusement came from everyone else. He wasn't sure how the football team got wind of his party, but when they did, nothing he could say would stop them from showing up--and bring their romantic partners with them.

His embarrassment lasted until he waved goodbye to the last guest and well into the night.

Which was why he sat in the back corner behind the library, curled up into himself with tears in his eyes. He didn't try to blink them away or hide them. The light on that side of the building burnt out a while ago. No one could see him.

"Hey."

Stan looked up as a can rolled across the snow and hit his shoe.

Kenny held up a box in one hand and an open beer can in the other as he walked over.

"If I share, can I join you?" He asked, already taking a seat. He held his can to his mouth and spat his chewing tobacco into it before rolling it away. Some brown sloshed onto the snow. Stan wrinkled his nose in disgust. Kenny paid it no mind.

He settled the large box between them. The box had been torn open. Not along the perforated edged, but randomly at the top as if someone stabbed a knife into it then started ripping.

Stan took the can by his shoe and settled in it into the snow by his side before reaching for one that wasn't shaken up.

"Happy birthday, but," Kenny started, cracking open a beer can, "that party of yours..."

"It sucked." Stan wiped his eyes on the heel of his hand.

"I was going to say it had a good cake, but I guess that works too." Kenny took a drink, and they lapsed into silence.

Stan glanced at Kenny, who leaned back against the brick wall, the yellow glow of the streetlamp on that side of the building bathing him.

He'd acknowledged for years he had a crush on Kenny, but he wasn't sure if Kenny knew about it or not. Stan had confessed once, but he couldn't say if it was in real life or a dream.

They had been drinking at Kenny's house. His parents were out, Karen at a friend's, and Kevin was the one who got them the bottle in the first place before leaving with his girlfriend.

All Stan remembered was pinning Kenny down while wrestling over the remote, becoming flustered, kissing him on the neck, and admitting his feelings right then and there.

He blinked and the next thing he knew he was back in his room with a headache.

If he did confess and it wasn't a dream, Kenny didn't say anything about it, so he couldn't be sure.

Kenny took a long drink, tilting his head back. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. He didn't even hide the can's label.

No one cared if Kenny was drinking behind the library. He wasn't on any sports teams or in any extracurricular school activities, unlike Stan. If Stan got caught drinking beer at eleven at night, his coach would chew his ass out and he'd be benched for a couple of games. His scholarship chances couldn't risk that.

Kenny took another drink. Without turning his head, he said, "You're staring, Staniel."

Stan chuckled but didn't look away.

"How does it feel?" He asked without thinking. "How does it feel knowing no one cares what you do?"

Kenny started. He turned towards Stan with a frown.

"Did you really just ask me how it feels to have no one care about me?"

"What? No, I mean," Stan waved his hand at him, "no one cares that you're out here drinking when your underage."

"I'm not underage in Japan," Kenny pointed out. "Remember, I am a Japanese princess."

"You weren't of age when we started drinking together two years ago," Stan countered with a snort.

"Are you calling me an alcoholic?" Kenny laughed, gently punching Stan's arm.

"Takes one to know one." Stan raised his beer. "Now stop dodging the question."

Kenny looked down at his can and sighed. "It's nice to be invisible sometimes, but, it sucks, too. No one cares because they don't expect much from me more than a stupid hick to begin with."

"That's because they don't know you. Remember the score you got on the SATs? One point away from a full-ride scholarship."

Stan remembered how the high school counselor stared at Kenny when he told her what score he got with a shrug. He'd always done so-so on the practice tests, but when the actual test came around, he aced it. Stan was sure the counselor still thought Kenny must have cheated somehow. He didn't, of course. Kenny could excel if he applied himself.

"They don't know me, but they know my dad." Kenny screwed his beer down into the snow.

Stan flinched, taking his attention back to his can.

The embarrassment that his own dad brought him surged back to life. His ears burned hot.

"Dude, I'm scared."

"Scared? Of what, Stan?"

"Of being my dad." Stan squeezed his knees to his chest. "What if I turn out like him? We might joke about being alcoholics, but, we still have got together nearly every week since we were sixteen to drink and bitch." Stan didn't mention he'd been sneaking booze from his dad for longer than that, though he didn't know why. Kenny had done the same. He wouldn't judge.

"’Tegrity Farms might have cost him his marriage, but he'd still rolling in the dough. Your dad is successful." Kenny stretched out, hands slipping in his pockets. "My dad knocked up a teenager when he was in his late twenties and hasn't held a study job for more than a year."

He nestled down into his fluffy coat hood. "I'm scared I'll end up like him. Do something stupid and irresponsible and ruin two peoples' lives because I did something impulsive."

"You're not stupid enough to go down on a girl without protection," Stan offered. "And you're not really that irresponsible either."

Kenny gave him a half-smile. "Does it matter? It only takes one time, and, boom, I end up being just like my dad, and his dad, and his dad. A poor man in a shitty house with a wife that hates me because I took her future from her and saddled us with a kid we can't take care of."

In the light from the streetlamp, tears glinted in his eyes. He blinked them away, but they didn't stop. With a groan, he rubbed his eyes on his jacket. Even with the tears mostly gone, the whites of his eyes still remained pink.

[Img description: the above scene of Stan and Kenny sitting side by side at a corner in the snow with a box between them]

"Better than a rich man in a big house with a whole family that hates you." Stan scooted the beer box aside before sitting next to Kenny. "My dad has no one. He just kept fucking everything up thinking it would make him happy and everyone else would rise above his mistakes and forgive him. I don't think he ever considered that he could lose Mom or me or Shelley like he did."

Kenny wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"Let's just agree both our dads suck dick." Kenny laughed.

"Ah, yeah, dude," Stan agreed. He reached back around for his beer as Kenny stared at him. Something behind his eyes made his skin prickle, but not uncomfortably.

Kenny leaned over, setting a hand on his shoulder, close to the curve of his neck.

"You know," He breathed, the scent of beer and wintergreen on his breath, "it would be pretty hard to have a wife that hates you, if you don't have a wife at all."

"What are you...?"

Before Stan could finish, Kenny slipped his hand up to his cheek and leaned in. Both their lips were chapped from the cold air, but Stan didn't complain. It was nice. No expectations, no assumptions, just one of his closest friends kissing him.

Kenny jerked back suddenly, his face red from more than the chill in the air.

"Oh, God, I'm sorry. I didn't even think." He shook his head. "Fuck, dude, I'm really sorr--"

Stan grabbed his thick jacket and pulled him back into another kiss.

"Don't be," He panted, feeling better than he had all day. "I needed that. I, uh, I like you, dude. More than just a friend so, don't be sorry."

Kenny smiled wryly. "What? No Shakespearean monologue this time? This is one of your weaker confessions."

"One of them?" Stan wrinkled his brow. "I've confessed before? So it wasn't a dream?"

"You confess your love for me all the time, man. It's how I judge when you're at your limit since you get all clingy and kissy and shit before you puke and pass out."

Stan blushed. At least Kenny hadn’t had to turn him down thousands of times every time Stan confessed for the ‘first’ time.

I..." He glanced at the box beside them. "I think we should stop this. The, you know, all this."

"What?" Kenny blinked. "But we've been drinking for two years. Are you getting sober on me, Staniel?"

"Maybe we should? Get sober, I mean." Stan shrugged, "Your SAT scores will get you into any college you want. There are college scouts at almost every game anymore." He tightened his grasp on his jacket. "Maybe we can outdo our dads. Prove everyone wrong by being successful and happy."

"You know that'll be hard, right? Both college and getting sober?" Kenny coughed a laugh. "What are you even really suggesting? We work together towards a common goal as boyfriends?"

He laughed again, but there was an extra edge to it. A nervousness about the answer that Stan was happy to quell.

"Yeah. Exactly that." He nodded, jokingly batted his eyelashes at him. "Please, Kenny, for me? It is my birthday today."

Kenny craned his head down the street towards the electronic sign at the gas station.

"Actually, your birthday ended about five minutes ago," Kenny stated matter of factly then offered a crooked smile, "but I guess this could be a late present if you don't mind."

Stan couldn't help the smile that spread across his face.

"I don't mind at all."

[mobius-prime]

129. Knuckles the Echidna #26

The First Date (Part One of Three): She Loves You… (And You Know That Can't Be Bad!)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Chris Allan Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So this arc is kind of… eh, awkward and dull. There's really no action, and it's all centered around love and dating and whatnot like we're suddenly watching a bad will-they-won't-they sitcom. Everything is extremely heteronormative - like look, I get this is the 90s, but everything is about "boys and girls" and just ends up sounding really juvenile as a result - and everyone is really out of character, too. I mean, do Knuckles or Julie-Su seem like the types to wander around all lovesick like shallow high schoolers? Not to mention the Chaotix, especially Vector, are… well… ugh, let's just jump into this and get it over with.

The Chaotix are hanging around in their usual burger joint, when Espio mentions that recently he's heard some surprising news about Prince Charmy - namely, that he's gotten engaged!

Now, you remember how a while back when the Chaotix were first introduced I had to clarify that unlike in the games, where he's six years old, in the comics he's sixteen? This is one of those moments that completely threw me when I first read the comics, because I had been operating under the assumption all this time that he was six. Now, obviously sixteen is still pretty damn young to be getting engaged, but I was sitting here with my eyebrows furrowed wondering why Charmy's friends didn't seem more concerned that this six year old child suddenly had a fiancée. I thought that his parents had arranged his marriage to Saffron (for whatever reason her name is misspelled in this issue, with only one F) and that by going back to his role as a prince he'd basically doomed himself to having his love life strictly controlled. But no, I guess somehow in the short time since he left the group and went back home, he got into a serious enough relationship with Saffron that he proposed (or hell, maybe she proposed, who knows). It's possible there was still pressure from his parents considering his heritage, but for now we can only assume that it was a totally voluntary action on his part to get engaged to Saffron, which is just… really, really weird.

Now Vector is very displeased to hear this. Vector is, in fact, something of a gigantic sexist douchebag in this issue, talking big about how no woman could handle him, prompting Espio and Mighty to joke that Julie-Su is more than his match if they were to go head to head in a fight. We then cut to Julie-Su angrily and viciously firing her blaster while shouting about Knuckles "running out on her."

Geez, man. You think her insurance covers blaster burn marks on the walls? She's mostly angry because she wants to talk to Knuckles one on one, but he's not there with her right now. He's with his father, in some kind of apartment-like space within Haven (it's not really clear, but I'm assuming Haven given we're talking about Locke here) as his father makes him breakfast. Out of nowhere, Knuckles asks his father about "why boys and girls get together," prompting Locke to immediately spit out his coffee. Knuckles, unfazed by the sudden brown-colored backwash all over the table, starts going on about how whenever he's around Julie-Su, he feels "weird."

This is maybe my least favorite part of Kenders' worldbuilding in the comic. Apparently, the Soultouch is an instant romantic attraction between two members of the opposite sex amongst echidnas, essentially love at first sight. It's not outright stated, but in case you haven't guessed, this is why Julie-Su so abruptly left the Dark Legion when she first spotted Knuckles many issues ago, feeling like she "had to find him" but didn't know why. Knuckles asks that if the Soultouch is accurate, why Locke and Lara-Le ended up splitting up, to which Locke shrugs and says that he doesn't know, but even the best of relationships require a lot of work, which is maybe the most accurate thing written in this entire arc. Knuckles then utterly hilariously, and completely accidentally, makes his case for homosexuality by saying he thinks things would be easier if guys stuck with guys and girls stuck with girls, noting that he gets along way easier with his male friends and "doesn’t even think about other girls." Kenders clearly wasn't meaning to characterize Knuckles as a closeted gay, but that's how it comes across and it's amazing. Let Knuckles be gay if he wants, man!

Meanwhile, out on the street, Espio and Mighty start challenging Vector's flippant attitude toward women, taunting him that he probably doesn't even have the backbone to ask a girl out on a date right now. Vector, his fragile masculinity sufficiently rattled, stomps away and begins casing out the women in the area in perhaps the most uncomfortably out of character series of panels I've ever seen.

*sigh* Kenders… why in the unholy hell… did you think this was okay? Remember the sweet but clueless Vector in Sonic X who did his utmost to help Vanilla out and give her nice things because he had a crush on her, not caring about how "hot" she was or that she was a single mother with a little kid? Yeah, this isn't him. Ugh.

Julie-Su, meanwhile, has had enough of moping around in her apartment and takes a walk outside, trying to think of ways she can improve herself and become more confident. She happens to pass by a clothing boutique and glance inside, and as she muses to herself that perhaps she needs to stop being so serious all the time and learn to have a little fun - probably a good idea, considering she was part of a technological military group for so long - a passing echidna suggests to her that she go inside and try out the hat she was absentmindedly staring at. She's startled, but allows herself to be led inside by the echidna and an attendant of the store.

I very much disagree that it's "so her" - I feel like Sarah-Connor-style badass tank tops and combat boots are more her aesthetic - but regardless, the echidna encourages her and then invites her out for lunch. Fun to contrast his polite and complimentary approach towards Vector's more misogynistic one, huh? Back in Haven, while Locke is out of the room, Knuckles' musings are interrupted by Archimedes poofing in and immediately noticing his lovesick state. Upon hearing that Locke was rather awkward in trying to explain the source of his feelings, Archimedes offers his own advice for Knuckles' problem which basically boils down to "you'll never know if you don't take the plunge." Knuckles, encouraged, stands up and has Archimedes poof them away, and a second later Locke walks back in, surprised to see the room empty. Back in the streets, Vector is still trying to "score" to prove himself to Espio and Mighty…

That is the most uncomfortably-drawn swan I've ever seen. Like… why in the world does she have boobs? She's a bird! Birds don't need boobs! Argh! Archimedes poofs Knuckles straight into a restaurant, apparently having homed directly in on Julie-Su, because there she is, out to lunch with Raynor the echidna who asked her out, and to Knuckles' shock, she's holding his hand… better make a move fast, man, cause this polite dude is gonna win her over first!

Friend in Need

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Manny Galan Colors: Barry Grossman

So I think this is actually the first KtE arc that has a secondary story at the end of each issue - previously, they've all had one story taking up the full span of the pages. This story follows Mighty, in which he is approached by Nicolette the Weasel, who prefers to go by Nic due to her full name "not sounding tough enough for a bounty hunter," and who is Nack's previously-unmentioned sister (and looks exactly like him but with eyelashes and a crop top, because girl). She gives Mighty a red collar, which in shock he realizes used to belong to Ray the Flying Squirrel, whom he used to know. He agrees to come with Nic on her latest treasure hunting venture, providing the brawn she needs in exchange for his chance to look for what happened to Ray. While they're flying to their destination, Mighty becomes lost in memories of how he met Ray, leading to one of the most jarring character revelations next to "Charmy is a prince" - all we've ever known about Mighty up till now is that he has super strength and likes hanging around on the Floating Island, but apparently, six or seven years ago he was captured by Robotnik's forces and taken to a goddamn slave labor camp, where he found himself on a prisoner transport cart along with Ray. Ray had a very bad stutter, most likely due to fear and trauma, but was still kind to those around him, and Mighty began to look after him even though he was shackled due to his strength. But unexpectedly, one of the other prisoners on board this cart was Sonic! Keep in mind, we're talking about a cart full of eight year old children that Robotnik was shipping off. Mighty was skeptical of Sonic's confident attitude, with Sonic claiming that he was there to break everyone out, and that Robotnik didn't suspect him since he was only a child and up until recently adults had been carrying on the fight. However, with recent losses, the Freedom Fighters formed by Sally in the Sonic Kids special started taking up arms against Robotnik as well.

Let that sink in, man. This is why the leading members of the resistance against Robotnik were children and young teens. All the adults were dead or roboticized. Anyone who could have fought was gone. These children had no one else to stand up for their freedom; circumstance forced them to step forward and take the lead instead. Remember what I was talking about a while back, about Sonic having trouble settling down after Robotnik's death and how he was so used to war as essentially a child soldier that even in peacetime he found himself unable to relax? This is the true horror of the war against Robotnik. King Acorn's abrupt disbanding of the Freedom Fighters several issues ago may have seemed dismissive and uncaring, but in the end, his point of view does make sense - he doesn't want literal children robbed of their chance to, well, be children. Just think of how many main characters, and hell, even side characters, thought for so long that they were orphans until their family members started turning up after the war. Think about how many are still orphans for all their know - where are Amadeus and Rosemary Prower? Where's Bunnie's parents? Antoine's mother? Amy's parents? That is what the war against Robotnik cost society. It's actually kind of chilling.

Anyway, Nic wakes Mighty up from his train of thought as they land at the site of the now-deserted labor camp. Mighty is a little jumpy, still reluctant to trust Nic fully, but suddenly an unexpected face makes her appearance…

Fiona? As in, the robot that Tails supposedly fell in love with right before his solo adventure? She's a real person? And Mighty somehow knows her? Oh boy, there's a lot to cover here…

[buckybabybaby]

Mr Hollywood (Chapter 11)

Summary: Bucky Barnes, an underpaid teaching assistant in a small English village, dreams of a movie career back in his home country of America. He finally gets the break he's always wanted, and if it wasn't for you, his best friend, he wouldn't have been able to take it.

But is that fact enough to save your friendship when it's tested by the pressures of Hollywood?

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Reader (Gender Neutral)

Word count: 1591

Chapter summary: the magic of an old diner and it's healing pancakes

Warnings: nothing really

Previous: Chapter 10

Mr Hollywood Masterlist | Main Masterlist

*****

Sitting in the car-park, watching the flashing neon sign above the 'American Diner' minutes off the bypass outside the village, you fight with yourself to not turn the engine back on and drive away. Last weeks talk has answered most of your questions, and you're now receiving replies to texts within an hour of sending them to Bucky, but you still feel nervous about actually seeing him again.

He's already inside, you spotted him talking with the owner just like he always did when you used to come. Quite early on in your friendship you'd dragged him along in order to see how authentic he thought the food and ambience was, and since then it had become a little tradition for you to spend Saturday evening's together trying out different combinations of pancake toppings and planning a road trip around his home country you never got around to taking.

Picking at the fraying end of the tassel on your keys, you wonder if it will ever be as easy between the two of you again.

You fell in love with Bucky over milkshakes and fries, working out which states you'd visit and in what order, listening intently as he spoke of long car journeys as a teenager, escaping the city as soon as Dayton got his licence. He desperately wanted to show you where he grew up, but the timing was never right, so you settled with taking him back to your home town instead. You hadn't exactly moved a great distance, just nine stops along the line on the slow train, so whenever the weather was nice during the summer one of you would pack a picnic and spend the day strolling along the river side. Sometimes you invited your parents to join you, delighted at how well Bucky got along with them.

You're forever grateful to them for not pushing you when you claimed you were just friends, knowing they could see something more there, but not wanting to make you feel uncomfortable.

You're brought back to the present by your phone lighting up with a message from Bucky, asking if you're ever going to come in, and when you look back to the diner's entrance he's standing there, waving with a grin. You wave back and nod, finally grabbing your bag and exiting the car. Conscious of his eyes on you, every step feels awkward as you walk towards where Bucky is holding the door open for you.

You duck in, the scent of frying food reminding you of many weekends when you'd spread out in a window booth and stay until closing. He leads you over to one such table and sits on the far side, smile a little more forced now when you slide in opposite him. You stare at the menu, not reading it, just needing to look somewhere else than over at Bucky as the tension rises.

Before either of you can speak, a waitress bounces up to you, the same one who spilled orange juice all over Bucky on her first day and hasn't stopped apologising since. She looks more confident now, more sure of her role.

“Mr James and Y/N! So good to see you again.”

You smile at her, surprised to be remembered after nearly a year.

“Your usual?” She asks.

“Our usual? Do you still know what that is?”

“Of course!” She rattles of the list. “And coffee for the road. Right?”

“Right.” You're impressed at her memory. “Is that okay with you Bucky?”

He agrees and she leaves with a swish of her ponytail.

Without the distraction of ordering, the atmosphere is strained once more. Sitting in a painful silence, so far away from how you used to be together, it's feels more like the beginning of a friendship than one that's half a decade old. You'd become friends so quickly you'd slipped past this awkwardness, so it's like moving backwards along a path you never went down in the first place.

He takes the plunge first. “Thank you for coming, I wasn't sure you would. And then you did but looked so conflicted I was sure you'd drive away again.”

“I did think about it, but I wouldn't have. I miss you, despite how badly you hurt me.” He flinches at your honesty.  “It's not that I don't forgive you, it's just a lot to take in.”

“I know.” He sits up straighter. “And I know I've said sorry but I wanna say it again, Y/N. You'd be completely within your right to not speak to me ever again.”

Drinks are placed at the end of the table but you hardly notice, too engrossed with each other.

“We've all made mistakes, Bucky. You've explained yourself, and I'd be a much worse person if I couldn't get past that.”

“You're too good Y/N. This is a lot more than I deserve.”

“Don't say that.”

“It's true. I don't know who that person was who said those things to you, it wasn't who I ever wanted to be, that's for sure.”

“The dark side of Hollywood got to you, that's all.”

He raises eyebrows, considering your suggestion. “I guess you're right. I wasn't prepared for it to be the way it was, and I let it become between us. I'll spend as long as it takes to make it up to you.”

You share a soft smile, unsure if you should thank him or make him swear on something precious that he'll keep his word.

The waitress is back over with the food, and Bucky leans back into his seat at she places it in front of you both. The small talk during the meal, mumbled around mouthfuls of fruit, is strained, but you're slowly becoming more relaxed around each other, helped by the normality of the location. When you've finished eating, you twist in your seat until your leg is crossed comfortably underneath you, watching Bucky fumble in his bag until he produces an envelope.

“Can I give you this?” He holds it out, placing it against your crossed arms when you don't move to retrieve it.

It feels heavy. “What is it?”

“Tickets to the première next week, backstage access. It would mean the world if you came.”

“I'll have to see.”

“Of course.”

He bites his lip as he pushes the remaining syrup around his plate. “I know I have to go but I feel sick every time I think about the amount of people who'll be there.”

“You can play a character in front of cameras for an audience of possibly millions, but a couple hundred people alongside a red carpet is too much?”

“It's different,” He insists. “I'm just myself in public. What if I'm not enough?”

You cease your teasing, reaching out to take his hand. “You're more than enough, Bucky.” His terrified look breaks your heart. “Look, let me see if I can get there.”

Opening the envelope and pulling out one of the tickets, you search the print for a date and time.

Bucky helps you out. “It's next weekend, the Sunday of the bank holiday. I thought if you wanted to come and it's late at least you won't have to get up for work the next day.”

“Got it all figured out, haven't you?” You chuckle.

“I just don't want it to be an inconvenience. Do you, er, do you have someone to bring?”

You squint at him confused.

“As a date?” He clarifies.

“Oh!” You look away as your cheeks heat up. “No, nothings changed on that front.”

Bucky's thumb strokes yours comfortingly. “Okay. If you don't have a date then maybe Dayton could have the other ticket?”

“You really have thought this all through, huh?” You smile drops as you realise what he's said. “Wait. Do you only have the two tickets to give away.” He nods and you frown. “And you were going to let me have both? Me and some possible... boyfriend?”

“Yes?” His voice cracks under your scrutiny.

“Why not give Dayton the chance first?”

“I need you to be there more than anyone else.”

There's a pause in which you look towards your joined hands to avoid his intense stare. Your heart is thumping against your rib cage as you attempt to work out the meaning of his words, unsure if you're over thinking everything.

The air crackles with tension again, and he changes the subject quickly. “Did you see I brought your shopping back?”

It takes you a second to figure out what he's on about. “Oh, yeah. Thank you. I didn't know that was you.”

He hums. “I made the taxi circle back, after checking you got home too. You stayed with Peggy that night?”

“I didn't really have a choice, you remember how she is.”

His laughter dies quickly, thoughts of that night still plaguing his thoughts. “Did I hurt you when I pushed you?”

You shake your head. “Just my pride.”

“I can't believe I was that awful to you. The one person who I-” Breaking off, he takes a shaky breath. “The only person who believed in me all those years when I got nowhere.”

“It wasn't just me who believed in you, Bucky.”

“Some days it felt like it.”

“But look at you now. Proved them all wrong.”

He squeezes your hands. “I did, didn't I? Just got to get through the interviews and premières now.”

“And you will.” You link your fingers together properly, gazes locking as you promise him. “I'm going to make sure you do.”

*****

Chapter 12