#at some point this became a warmup for the warmup

[sp0o0kylights]

Indie horror filmmaker Eddie Munson, high off his first big (underground but notable) success, knows the movers and shakers of the film world have their eyes on him. 

They're just waiting to see if he was a one hit wonder before they open all the doors he's been trying to kick down. 

His next upcoming film is his chance, his shot at finally making it. Of being like Rob Zombie and the other creators he looks up to that masterfully blended metal and horror. 

This is his golden ticket. 

The project starts off smooth. His last success has greased the wheels, and things fall into place faster than ever before. 

He's got the best idea for this insane haunted house story, a true "mazes in mazes" type of deal with a queer twist. A real look at how a place can haunt a person just as easily as a ghost can.

 Everything's going swimmingly--until one of his leads drops out the day they're due to start shooting.

No call no show's, and later, Eddie will find out the guy got a last second call back to be a contestant on one of those Love Island bullshit romance gigs (and laugh his ass off when the main love interest takes one look at Billy Hargrove and goes on a five minute rant about ugly mullets on national television) but right now? 

He's fucked. 

He's called in every favor he has for this film. Maxed out every credit card he owns, tapped every contact, got on his hands and knees and begged his rising star journalist best bud to help him market it. (Which Nancy agreed too, for way less cash than she should have.) 

 Eddie can't get anyone on the phone, much less find a replacement actor and the amazing place they rented, that is so dark and wonderfully eerie, is booked out the rest of the year as an AirBnB. 

If he doesn't film now, he loses it all.

Cue the other lead, unknown theater actor Steve Harrington, watching his hair pulling, tire kicking, 'cursing and hopping while holding a toe' mental breakdown and asks why Eddie himself doesn't act in it. 

"Just go full Kevin Smith man. Act and direct." He says, with an easy grin. 

Jeff, Eddie's tried and true videographer, trades glances with Gareth and Grant (Eddie's long used special effects and makeup team, who double for about twelve other jobs because they're also his best friends and they're all in this together, make or break.)

"We don't really have a lot of other options." Gareth hedges. "You're already using me and Grant as background characters." 

Eddie, hands fluttering around his face as though trying to wave away this entire situation, squeezes his eyes shut and lets out a pained hiss. 

"Fine, fine!" He announces with the air of a man running towards a fire. "Fuck it, this is our one shot and so help me I will be shooting it!" 

Steve politely hides a laugh with a cough. 

"Chuckle all you want big boy, I'm going to tragically romance you so hard people will forget both of our characters actually live." Eddie snarls.

Steve, the handsome bastard, just winks.  "Looking forward to it." 

Eddie blushes, but hides it with a surge of frantic energy, conveyed by lots of yelling and moving and getting the ball rolling. 

Two days later, Steve would give the performance of a lifetime down on his knees, covered in a literal pound of fake gore, booty shorts and nothing else as he sobbed about how a lover could become a home. His hands clawed at Eddie's jeans before resting a tear stained face on a slim leg as he bent his body towards Eddie like it hurt to be away from him. 

Eddie would later receive equal praise in his own acting during the scene, with the world and every reporter in it asking how he conveyed an otherworldly panic so beautifully throughout Steve's performance. What was he thinking, to evoke those expressions on his face? 

The way his own pale hand, unmarred by blood and acting as a metaphor for the plot, would come to stroke Steve's cheeks.

Eventually he'd come up with a smooth polished answer that cheekily pleased his audience, but nothing would ever come close to the truth. 

("Eddie I've known you since grade school." Jeff said that night, a scant few hours after they'd wrapped. "You can act man, but not like that." 

Eddie made a wild "shut up" gesture, looking frantically over his shoulder before admitting; "You saw how close his face was to the prince of darkness!? I was seconds away from popping a boner next to his lips, in front of the 4K camera!” 

Eddie bounced into Jeff’s face so he could hiss: “He fucking had his chin on my thigh, Jeff, and I am only a man. A mere mortal!" 

"So we're gonna unpack all of that later." Jeff said finally, when he'd managed to get his mouth working and Eddie back out of his personal space. "But dude, we've talked about you calling your dick the prince of darkness." 

Eddie flipped him off.) 

One year later and critics named Corroded the best horror film of the year, praising the camera work, practical effects, and how there wasn't a soul alive who was surprised to hear Eddie and Steve were dating after their explosive on screen chemistry.

No one ever quite understood the prince of darkness jokes or why Steve mentioning it made Eddie blush, but that was a secret to find out later. 

Today on WIP’s I have no intention of writing, indie horror movie AU!

[greynatomy]

protective

arsenal x reader

some family dynamics with reader and the team

———

You signed your first professional football contract when you were seventeen with Arsenal. Ever since then, your teammates became very protective of you. You were assigned to live with Lia, who instantly took you under her wing.

At the time, Lia and Caitlin had been together and became your team parents. They would make sure you’ve packed everything you needed for away games, packed you lunches, whatever parents did and you very much enjoyed the attention. Even when you went on loan for a season all the way to California for Angel City, they made sure to get Christen’s phone number to make sure you were bing taken care of.

What you hated though, was how protective they were of you and that protectiveness passed onto the rest of your Arsenal teammates and when you were called up to the Lionesses, Leah and Beth’s protectiveness passed onto the rest of your national teammates.

Fast forward four years later, you’re now twenty-one, still living with Lia, minus Caitlin. You loved to call yourself a child of divorce, the ex-couple finding it amusing.

Right now, you and Lia were walking into Emirates Stadium to get ready for the match. You walk over to your cubby right next to you other mom.

“Hey, babes. Did you take a nap?” Caitlin pulls you into a hug, kissing the side of your head. You only nod, still feeling the sleepiness.

You get ready in your game kit, putting your warm up shirt over. Grabbing your hairbrush and some hair ties, you walk over to where Steph is, sitting on the ground between her legs, where she starts doing your hair, no questions asked, on of the perks of being the team baby.

Running onto the pitch, you start to warm up, partnering with Kyra. Couple minutes in, the fans started cheering, louder than any cheer you’ve heard just during warmups.

“Hey, isn’t that the girl you’re always watching?”

“What? Like I’m some stalker?” Your eyes wide, not sure what Lia meant when she walked up to you.

“No, like movies and that show she did. What was it? Wednesday or something?”

You look up to where she’s pointing on the big screen, seeing none other than Jenna Ortega. Your eyes instantly lights up, not knowing she would be at your match, or even in England.

Before your teammates knew it, you were up in the stands giving her a big hug.

“That doesn’t look like a very platonic hug, doesn’t it?” Katie asks Caitlin.

With her brows furrowed, she walks over to her ex-girlfriend asking if she’s seeing the same thing.

“She needs a good talking to.”

“Her or the girl?”

“We’ll talk to our kid and make Leah talk to the girl.”

“Ah. Good thinking.”

Walking towards where you were on the stands, they both call you over, saying it’s time to go back through the tunnel.

“Well, those are my mums. I’ll see you after the game so don’t go anywhere.”

You give Jenna a crooked grin. She lifts a hand up to cup your cheek, giving it a little pinch.

“You’re too cute. I’ll be sure to stay here.”

“Okay. See you later!”

Giving her a quick hug, you run off to Caitlin and Lia, them wrapping an arm each around you.

“Who was that?”

“Yeah, when’d you get a girlfriend?”

Your eyes go wide and purposefully ignore the questions, running away from them.

———

The match starts with Arsenal’s possession. Everything’s been all back and forth so far.

Meanwhile, Leah makes her way to the stands where your very popular guest is sitting.

“Mind if I sit here?” Leah asks, pointing at the empty seat next to the brunette.

“No, go ahead.”

Getting comfortable, the two watch the match, not really acknowledging each other. Leah, the great speaker that she is, is having a hard time to give the apparent girlfriend of her little cub the ‘talk’.

“How rude of me. I’ve not introduced myself. I’m Leah.”

“Jenna.” She shakes Leah’s hand that was held out to her.

“It’s very nice to meet you Jenna.”

“You as well.”

“Okay. Now, I saw that you know our baby gunner over there.”

“Y/N?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, yeah. We’re close.”

“How close would you say is close?”

“I’m not comfortable sharing things about my private life.”

“Uh, how do I put this, I have been given a job by her mums to basically find out more about you.”

“You know her moms?”

“Well team mums. I’m like the big sister, so I guess I’m trying to give you the ‘talk’ which is not going so well right now.”

“Oh! I’m sorry, I thought you were a fan.”

“It’s all good. The whole team is just very protective of Y/N. We’ve known her since she was seventeen and filled in familial roles for her.”

The two were chatting it up, Leah getting to know the actress and paying attention to the match going on. Disappointment ran through both Leah and Jenna when the opposition scored in the twenty-fifth minute.

After that, everything’s been going back and forth, not much else happening. The Arsenal fans were losing hope once the ninetieth minute came. However, on the ninety-second minute, you stole the ball from your opponent, dribbling around her. Everyone was on the edge of their seat. You kicked the ball through their legs and shot a banger right passed the keeper’s gloves, equalizing the match.

You ran towards where Jenna was seated, seeing Leah next to her, but not thinking much of it, and sent a kiss her way, making her blush. Leah pretends to grab it and put it into her pocket making you laugh as you celebrate with the team.

Just two minutes after that, you sent a pass to Alessia, who makes it into the back of the net, giving you the lead. You run up to her and jump into her arms, screaming. The final whistle blows not long after, sending the fans cheering.

Leah as Jenna to follow her as she was going to the pitch, wanting to celebrate with her teammates. You, on the other hand, went to where Jenna was seated, not seeing her anymore, when hands cover your eyes.

“I can’t see!”

“You’re so cute.” You recognize the voice making your turn to face her.

“Jenna! I thought you left!” You wrap your arms around her waist, hers around your neck, standing up straight, her legs lifting off the ground because of your much taller form.

“I told you I wouldn’t.” You let her go, but keep your hands on her waist.

“Babes, you’re needed for an interview.” You tune to your right to see Lia and Caitlin.

“Ugh.” You throw your head back, not wanting to do an interview.

“Off you go. Don’t want to keep anyone waiting.”

“Wait for me again?” You ask Jenna, getting a nod in response.

Once you leave, Caitlin and Lia step closer to Jenna.

“Hi, I’m Lia, this is Caitlin. What are your intentions with Y/N?”

“Well, when she’s done, I intend to take her to this restaurant she’s been wanting to try, but not without me, so I’ve reserved a seat for us there. And for the future, the same thing I’ve been doing which is to be patient and love her all the same, even more.”

“Woah, you’re good.” Caitlin didn’t expect that response.

“Yeah, I’ve tried to give her the talk, very likable person she is.”

“Hey, guys! What are we talking about?” You join back with them after your interview.

“Your girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend? I-uh-d-don’t have a-a—”

“They figured it out.” Jenna interrupts your stuttered response.

“Fine. I have a girlfriend. It’s so cool right!” You give everyone your famous bright smile.

Caitlin and Lia wrap an arm each around you, walking towards the tunnel.

“We still have to give you the talk thought.”

“What? No, please don’t!”

[squidwen]

🐙After Hours with Azul

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Synopsis: You spend a lot of time at the Mostro Lounge, and Azul’s starting to wonder why. You’re not some creepy stalker girlfriend, are you? You two might be “official,” but you’re at the Lounge all the time!

However, Azul reckons there’s a reason behind it that’s deeper. More serious. After taking you to his room, the pair of you snuggle up, arms, legs, and tentacles, and Azul’s hearts simply can’t take the real reason behind your frequent visits.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

You preferred the Mostro Lounge after-hours. It seemed more like an actual Lounge, with nothing but the cool lights and the final tunes of the piano player on the stage. No one bothered you either. None of the waiters told you to leave. No one even offered to clear your drink and plate away. The staff cleaned their tables, hung up their aprons, and that was that.

Except for Azul.

He got up from the piano and crossed the Lounge over to your booth. Your breath hitched at his cool hand on your shoulder. You always preferred him without gloves. His hands were beautiful; long, slender fingers with a callous on his right middle one from years and years of endless writing.

‘Another evening claimed by my establishment,’ mused Azul.

At last, you moved. His words thawed you enough to stand.

Azul welcomed you into his arms. His other hand sparked against your ribcage as he rubbed circles into your back. Somehow his chilly touch melted you. You became almost gelatinous in his embrace, as if you were the octopus rather than the warm, sweet little human.

‘You’re coming here more often, angelfish,’ Azul said.

‘Naturally. The foods good and the music’s even better.’

‘I’m sure the music is not better.’

You pulled away.

Azul held onto you. ‘Sorry-’

‘You’re still doing it.’

‘It’s a bad habit.’

‘You need to stop thinking you’re not good enough.’

Your kiss on the shell of his ear silenced any protests. Azul shivered with bliss.

Everyone else had already left; there was no point in keeping up airs. Who would you be trying to impress? Azul was stronger than he looked. Although he masqueraded as a human, he still retained most of his cecaelian strength, and he lifted you out of the booth. You felt as though you were floating. You were as weightless as the exotic fish in the giant Lounge fish tank.

Azul tucked you into his chest, one arm under your legs and another under your back. You smelled his cologne; lavender and something that reminded you of the sea. The tips of his bangs tickled your forehead. Together, you slipped out of the Lounge and through the halls of Octavinelle, hiding around corners for the coast to be clear before ploughing on towards Azul’s bedroom.

A snap of the fingers and the door swung open.

A lilac bed, freshly made, beckoned you forward. Azul laid you gently down. The duvet and mattress moulded to your figure, gasping and depressing as you wriggled your shoes off. ‘I can’t believe you had the energy for that!’ you laughed. ‘After playing all night.’

Azul laid down beside you. His hands, warmed by your back and thighs, searched for yours and brought them to his lips. ‘It’s the nature of octopuses to be dextrous, my dear. Three hours of piano playing was nothing but a warmup.’

‘How modest.’

Azul reddened.

You kissed his nose. ‘Tell me more. If you can brag to anyone it would be me. Not that I need to be told about how amazing you are. You just carried me up to the top of Octavinelle as if it was nothing. I bet Jack couldn’t even do that.’

Azul, however, did not bring up anything. It still didn’t feel right to. Not with you. Not yet. He was still so new to this. He had never loved anyone before, and the pair of you had only made your relationship official a few weeks ago. Azul was trying to strike a balance between impressing you, and boasting. He wanted to seem cool, not conceited. You already accepted him for what he looked like… for some reason, but surely there was only so much you could take. You could tolerate ugliness, but vanity?

‘A good businessman never puts all his cards on the table,’ said Azul.

You rolled your eyes. ‘Business talk? Here?’

Shoot, Azul thought. Play it cool. ‘You are in the bedroom of the dorm leader of Octavinelle and the manager of the Mostro Lounge.’

‘I thought I was in my boyfriend’s bedroom.’ You started to pull away again. Azul gripped you tightly. His strong fingers were like suction cups. ‘Come on, Azul,’ you sighed. ‘If you’re a businessman, does that make me a customer? Or some associate? I know this is new to you. It’s new to me too. But just… let yourself be… well, mine. Even if it can only be in this room. I need that.’

You shifted closer to him and snaked your arm under his head. His ear rested in the crook of your elbow, letting your fingers fiddle with his hair. The fedora fell away. His locks were stringy from hours under a hat, but you didn’t mind. It was like his head was a giant snowdrop; the petals stuck together as it tried to bloom after a long winter.

Azul drew closer. The bed creaked.

‘My angelfish,’ he breathed.

You hummed.

‘Why do you stay at the Lounge for so long?’

Your stroking stopped.

Azul tensed. ‘If you don’t want to say then-’

‘No, no. It’s fine. It must seem creepy, like I’m some crazy stalker girlfriend who watches your every move now that we’re together. But it’s not. Seven, it’s not. I just… it’s just a soothing place. Some people like the library. Others like the park. But the Mostro Lounge is perfect for me. I’ve been going there all year just to unwind. You might not have noticed. You’re always so busy.’

‘No other reason?’

It was your turn to tense.

Azul detected it immediately.

Sitting up, his cerulean eyes pierced into you like icicles. He was the businessman again. All the tenderness had been leached out of him. Something was wrong. He knew it. Something he was determined to get to the bottom of. It wasn’t that he didn’t like you being at the Lounge. He loved it. Your presence always made him play better, and he was happy to smuggle you on-the-house desserts whenever he could. But you had been showing up too often, as if you were hiding, or escaping, something.

‘Let’s not have secrets from each other,’ he said.

‘Secrets?’

‘Please, angelfish.’ Azul blinked and his eyes became gentle again. The eyes of a lover; lidded and pleading. To prove that he was being open – and to give you permission to do the same – he lay down beside you again and transformed back into a cecaelia. His skin speckled with lilac until it was completely purple; his legs unravelling into eight black and purple tentacles.

Azul couldn’t meet your eyes as he transformed. It embarrassed him. He felt so grotesque. So hideous. But then, you came to him again, and wrapped your arms around his torso. The feeling faded. Azul took you into his arms.

The tentacles wound around your legs like ribbons around maypoles. Cool and slick; the suction cups kissing your exposed skin, making it prickle with gooseflesh. You stayed still to invite them higher. Azul delighted in the feel of you. You were more detailed when he held you this way. He sensed every inch of you. You were beautiful, and more tentacles came up to bind you.

Around your waist. Around your hips. Around your stomach. With ease, they pulled you in close to Azul. The cecaelia buried your face in his chest. You could hear his three heartbeats. They were fast. You couldn’t help but smile into Azul’s shirt.

‘Are you comfortable, my darling?’ Azul asked.

You nodded, too relaxed for words. Azul’s touch was velvety soft. All your dark bindings were gentle and plush, like a caterpillar wrapped in a chrysalis.

A final tentacle cupped the back of your head. You shivered as the suction cups kissed your scalp. The feeling wasn’t unpleasant, but it brought you out of your comfort just enough to feel like talking again. ‘What about you?’

‘I’m at my best when you’re with me,’ Azul said.

You melted a little more. ‘Same here. And I confess, that’s the reason why.’

‘Why what?’

‘I’m sorry. I know I’ve come on too strong and I’ve spooked you.’

‘No, not at all.’

‘I just…I… you know you’re my best friend.’

Azul’s heartbeats got even faster. ‘A-And you’re mine,’ he breathed. ‘The Leech twins… they’re not the same as you.’

‘The others aren’t the same as you either. Don’t get me wrong, Ace and Deuce are great, but they’re like twins, and Jack and Epel are dedicated to sports, and Sebek’s obsessed with Malleus. I sort of feel like I just touch-base with them, but I spend time with you. And even if it’s not “with” you, just to see you, hear you play, admire who my partner is, even just sit in your Lounge, is enough.’ You mustered the strength to crane your head back and kiss his jaw. ‘I’m millions of miles from home, but I somehow feel there when I’m with you.’

Azul had never heard anything like it. You were so sweet. So kind. No one ever complimented him without wanting his attention, or recognition; without wanting something in return. Octavinelle was full of sychophants, none bigger than the Leech twins, but you… you were as pure as driven snow. You loved every inch of him, inside and out; something Azul had thought was impossible for him to find. To deserve.

His tentacles bundled you up even more, pressing you in close until it was almost uncomfortable. His suction cups kissed you. Thousands of kisses. Small pecks, until the tentacle cupping the back of your head lifted you to Azul’s lips.

Velvet. Smooth. Soft.

When you broke away, you were both breathless, and exhaustion descended upon you. The night had been long; the conversation hard. Azul loosened his grip on you but kept his tentacles in place. He could think of nothing sweeter than to fall asleep to the feeling of you, and you didn’t mind. You had never been so comfortable; so warm and welcome.

With a final kiss, you snuggled into your cecaelia and drifted off to sleep, lulled by the rhythmic thump of Azul’s heartbeats.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Author note: Well hey! It’s been a while!

I hope you enjoyed the fic! I had to write an Azul one after being away for so long! He’s by far my fav character, and it was his birthday recently so I think we’re all in Azul-mode atm.

If you liked it, please like, comment, and share.

- Squidwen

[honeys-hotties]

Just Business (Mapi Leon x fem!Reader)

Got a fabulous request about a businesswoman reader who is accused of being a golddigger by the team, and I juts kind of ran with it! Fyi the team are pretty mean in the beginning, especially Ingrid, but don't come at me please! I love Ingrid, she's amazingly talented! Anyways, I was so stressed and had a little bit of a writer's block but these requests have been so incredibly helpful, so keep 'em coming! Love you all endlessly<3

Word count; 3.5k

“Five more minutes” I groan into Mapi’s shoulder. She chuckles into my hair, her grip on my waist loosening as she reaches to turn off her alarm. “Sorry mi amor, I have to get ready extra early for the match today, Alexia is stressed and I promised I would do some extra warmups with her today, plus she wants me to come over and watch some film of the other team before we go to the stadium.”

I sigh, sitting up in bed, letting the covers fall down my body. “And there’s nothing I could do to convince you to stay?” I ask shifting slightly towards her. 

She smirks, moving to stand over me at the end of the bed. “There’ll be plenty of time for that later. Besides, you have to get ready for work.”

I sigh dramatically, reaching for one of Mapi’s hoodies to pull on. “I run the whole company, they could survive without me for one day.”

“While I’m sure that’s true, my team needs me. Te amo, princesa. I’ll see you at the game.” She kisses me firmly, and I sigh. 

“Love you too. I can’t wait for the game! Tell Alexia I say hi!” Mapi nods, smiling, and grabbing her game bag and heading for the front door. I sigh and walk to the kitchen to brew some coffee, before pulling out my laptop to check some work emails before I get ready. 

I founded my company, Herstory, when I was nineteen. It soon became one of the largest worldwide media companies, focused on giving voice to powerful women who were often minoritized in favor of their male counterparts. The company had done extremely well and I, as a result, had carved out a fabulous life for myself. However, I refused to let the money take over my life and had tried to live as normally as possible. I didn’t even fully reveal everything to Mapi for the first few months of us knowing each other, and she only put the pieces together after seeing an interview I had done online. 

Mapi and I had been dating for the past two years, and they had arguably been the best two years of my life. We had managed to keep our relationship on the down low, only letting our closest friends and family know, which ended up working out absolutely perfectly. Well, almost perfectly. For some reason that I couldn’t seem to fathom, Mapi’s friends and teammates seemed to despise me. I had first met them six months after Mapi and I had begun dating after she invited me to a party the team was having. She was so excited, telling me how much I would love every single one of the girls she considered family and how they couldn’t wait to meet me, her “stunning and brilliant” girlfriend. I had been thrilled that, even though we were choosing to keep the relationship private, Mapi was so happy to introduce me to her friends, and being a little bit of a football fan myself, I couldn’t wait to meet the amazing Barcelona team. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The night had started out okay, and everyone seemed really friendly. I was sitting next to Mapi, with Ingrid on my right and Alexia, Claudia and Patri across from me. 

“I’m going to get a drink,” Mapi had announced to the table, before turning to me. “Mi amor, what do you want?”

I pointed to my half empty glass on the table. “A refill would be amazing, thank you baby.” She smiled, grabbing my glass and walking towards the bar. Watching my girlfriend walk away, I had missed the glance Ingrid had shot Patri, but when I turned back everything seemed normal. 

“That’s a really cool tattoo!” Alexia said, gesturing to the tattoo on my shoulder blade that had been revealed when I turned to watch Mapi, the open back of my dress showing off the ink that Mapi had done a couple of weeks prior.

“Thank you!” I said. “Mapi did it a couple of weeks ago, she’s so talented I swear! Her work is absolutely stunning.”

This time, I definitely didn’t miss the looks of a few of the girls at the table, but I brushed them off.

“So, what is it exactly you do for work?” Ingrid asked, turning to look at me.

“I actually have my own business!” I said proudly. I can’t help it, I’m constantly in shock of how lucky I’ve been to be able to do what I love. However, the team seemed less than impressed. 

“That’s…really interesting,” Claudia said, before whispering something to Alexia next to her. Alexia laughed quietly before, nudging Claudia with her elbow.

“Yeah, that sounds fun.” Patri said, glancing at Ingrid who had a little smirk on her face. 

“You must work really hard, you poor thing,” Ingrid said in a sickly sweet voice. “I can’t imagine having to run my own business, especially when it’s so hard to accomplish much when you put in so much effort.”

The girls at the table around me snickered, and I could feel my face grow hot. “Um, actually-” I started, but before I could finish Mapi sat back down beside me. “Here’s your drink, gorgeous.” She said, setting the glass down in front of me. I kissed her cheek in thanks before turning back to the table. I started to say something, but before I could get the words out, Alexia interrupted me, asking Mapi something about their upcoming match. Throughout the night, I kept quiet, leaning into Mapi’s side and trying not to make eye contact with the girls around me. I couldn’t understand what I’d done wrong, but I felt like I was back in high school, hiding from the popular crowd that would always make fun of me. By the time we got back to Mapi’s apartment that night I was on the verge of tears. She took me in her arms, sensing that something was wrong but that I wasn;t ready to talk about it. We stood in her apartment for who knows how long, me crying quietly into her button-up while she just held me. That’s one of my favorite things about Mapi (I could never just pick one). She seems to know what I need without me ever having to say anything. It’s like she can read my mind, and I hers.

Finally releasing me, she gently gripped my waist with one hand and lifted my chin to look her in the eyes. “Want to tell me what’s wrong, bebe?” she asked.

I nodded, wiping the last few tears from my eyes. “I just have this horrible feeling that your friends hate me, and I don’t know why.” I whispered, before lowering my eyes again. 

She gently raised my chin again, staring into my eyes with her piercing ones. “I’m sure that’s not true, maybe they were just tired? It’s been a long week, and I don’t think anyone could ever dislike you. You’re the most brilliant, funny, wonderful, kind, smoking hot woman I’ve ever known, and they would be foolish to not see this.”

I smile up at her, my beautiful beautiful girlfriend. Her tough exterior can be misleading, but Mapi is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. “I’m so lucky to have you in my life, Maps. I love you.” I tell her, kissing her softly. 

“I’m the lucky one,” she assures me. “Now go change, I’ll run us a bath, and then we can watch some TV with Bagheera.” She reaches down to grab the cat that had been threading itself through our legs, kissing his head before placing him on the couch.

I smile, walking towards her bedroom. How did I get so lucky?

I finish getting ready for work, before grabbing my keys and my bag with the clothes I’ll wear to the game. I don’t have time to come home after work, so I had packed everything I needed in my bag the night before. On the way to work, I listen to a playlist Mapi and I had made one Saturday with all our favorites, thinking about the day ahead. Work would be easy enough, I had a couple of meetings with some division leaders within the company, and a longer conference with a few of the women we were working with to get their stories into the world. I love my job, so every day brings me joy, but days like this are my favorite. Days when I get to listen to the stories of some of the most incredible women in the world and help them share their voices. Plus, I get to go see my amazing girlfriend play professional football later, which is a bonus. The only thing I wasn’t looking forward to was interacting with the team, who had continued to be increasingly passive-aggressive towards me. Mapi assured me they were just protective, but it seemed like something much more. However, I had yet to confront anyone about it, instead choosing to focus solely on my girlfriend. 

The day passes quickly, and soon enough it’s time to get ready for the match. I change into my Mapi kit, the special one she had made for me that has the date we first met printed on the hem, as well as a number of small hearts hidden among the fabric. Discreet enough that most people wouldn’t notice, but we both knew where they were. I put on the necklace and earrings Mapi had gotten me for my birthday a few weeks before (she had gone all out for the celebration, despite my repeated insistence I didn’t need anything, and I honestly loved her for it), before applying some light makeup and heading to the stadium. I showed my pass at the front desk, and was led to the family and friends section in time to see my girlfriend and her team take the pitch. The game passed in a blur, Barcelona scoring three times in the first half. Coming into the second half, Barcelona hits the ground running, scoring within the first two minutes. This seems to anger the opposing team, and they start to play dirtier. Tackles are flying, and in the chaos Alexia goes for a wide shot, which is ultimately deflected by the opposing goalie. Mapi lines up near the goal for the corner, and once the ball is in motion she times a stunning header perfectly, sending the ball into the back of the net. I jump to my feet, screaming along with the crowd. Mapi blows a kiss in my direction, before being swarmed by her teammates. 

The rest of the game passes quickly, Alexia and Patri both scoring before full time is called. When the final whistle blows, I cheer along with the crowd as the team takes a victory lap, stopping to chat with fans along the way. As the people in the stands start to leave, I make my way down towards the pitch. Mapi meets me at the barricade, and helps me onto the pitch. Once next to her, I launch myself into her arms, my legs wrapping around her waist as she hugs me tightly. “Amazing goal, amor” I tell her, as she discreetly kisses my neck before setting me back down.

“It was for you” she assures me, before wrapping her arm around my waist and dragging me towards the rest of the team. I greet her teammates, the women giving me lackluster nods before returning to their own conversations.

“Amazing goal, Alexia!” I tell the brunette next to me. She turns to look at me, giving me a tight smile. “Gracias” she responds, before pointedly turning back to Jenni who was standing on her other side.

“That’s a pretty necklace,” Ingrid said sweetly, gesturing to the one dangling from my neck. “Where did you get it?”

“I got it for her,” Mapi said proudly. “A gem for my gem.” I blushed, curling into her to hide my warm face, laughing slightly at her joke. I however, didn’t miss Ingrid rolling her eyes and looking sharply at Patri.

“Did Mapi get those earrings for you, too?” Patri asked sharply.

“Uh yeah, she did!” I answered, turning to face the woman. “How’d you know?”

She looked at me coldly. “Just a hunch” she said, before muttering something to Jenni who let out a loud laugh. Mapi, oblivious to everything, turned to look at the stands and saw a young girl holding out a sign with mapi’s name on it.

“Aww, babe, look!” she exclaimed, tugging me towards the sign. “Let’s go say hi!” 

I pushed everything from my mind and focused on Mapi’s interaction with the young fan. She was so attentive and kind, and watching her with the young girl couldn’t help but make me think of a future with her, and maybe a little kid of our own. 

“Hey, hermosa,” Mapi said to me, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Would you mind grabbing my warmup from the girls over there so I can change into something after I give this chica my kit?”

“Of course not!” I tell her, smiling at the little girl who looked like she was about to pass out at the idea of getting Mapi Leon’s kit. “I’ll be right back!”

I jog over to the team, who is standing huddled in even closer than before. As I approach, I hear Ingrid’s angry voice. 

“-and we have to say something! This has gone on for long enough, I can’t watch her stay with that gold digging bitch any longer!”

I freeze. Inching closer to the group, they thankfully don’t seem to see me.

“Come on Ingrid, is she really that bad?” I hear another voice, belonging to Marta. “She seems to make Mapi really happy, and she honestly seems like such a sweet girl. I think you are too harsh on her.”

My blood runs cold. Me? A golddigger? I would laugh if I didn’t feel like bursting into tears.

“I think we know exactly how she’s making Mapi happy” Jenni bites out, and the girls laugh.

“Honestly, I think we need to tell Mapi sooner rather than later, it’ll help her in the long run” Alexia says, and as most of the girls agree, I clear my throat.

It’s almost comical, they way they all turn to face me. Alexia’s face drops, as do the faces of most of the other girls.

I paste on a fake smile. “Have any of you seen Mapi’s warm up jacket?” I ask. “She wants to give her kit to that little girl over there and asked me to come find the jacket for her.”

Wordlessly, Sandra hands me Mapi’s jacket. I mutter a thank you before turning to walk towards my girlfriend. I pause for a moment, then turn back around.

“Just for the record, not that it matters, but just so you all know, I’m most certainly not a golddigger. None of you even know me, not really, but the fact that this is the conclusion that you have jumped to breaks my heart. Especially because it seems to be the reason you've treated me so horribly. If you really cared about Mapi like you say you do, you would have made an effort to get to know her girlfriend instead of jumping to ridiculous accusations and high school mean girl actions.”

Ingrid scoffs. “You are a golddigger!” she shouts. “Mapi is constantly buying things for you, paying for you, and we all know you’re just using her for her money! You’ll drop her the second you get a chance and we are not about to let that happen!”

Looking at Ingrid and the team standing around her, I break. The tears start to fall, slowly at first, then all at once, and I run off of the pitch. I run off so quickly that I don’t see Mapi, who had finished with the fan and found another hoodie to wear, walking up beside the team. Ingrid had been yelling so loudly she had heard the entire speech, and she was now standing beside the team, anger taking over every feature on her face.

“What the hell did you just say to my girlfriend?” she shouts at Ingrid, the taller girl spinning to face her.

“All of you! What is wrong with you? She is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and you have all been treating her horribly!”

“We are only trying to look out for you,” Alexia says, approaching Mapi. “We don’t want you to get used or for your heart to get broken.”

Mapi backs away from Alexia. “She makes more money than I do!” she shouts. “Her business is huge! And if any of you had taken the time to get to know her, you would know that.”

One by one, the faces of everyone on the team fall. “What?” Patri asks, hoarsely.

“I can’t believe all of you. You may have just ruined the best thing in my life. I hope you’re all proud of yourselves.” Mapi says, a tear falling.

Alexia looks at her friend, then back at her team. Instantly, she knows they have to go into damage control mode. If Mapi was crying, they had really fucked up. Mapi never cried, especially not around them.

Alexia gently approached Mapi, putting her arms around the shorter girl’s shoulders. “How can we make this right?” she asked.

Back at my apartment, I changed into an old shirt of Mapi’s and a pair of shorts before grabbing a tub of ice cream and sitting down on the couch, where I planned to spend the rest of the night watching television and crying. However, my wallowing was cut short. After only two episodes of Friends, there was a knock at my door. Assuming it was Mapi, I stayed where I was. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, but most of all I didn’t want to get up. I figured Mapi would unlock the door in a minute with her key, so I stayed where I was. There was another knock, before the door opened. I sighed, pausing the television, but not turning around. 

“Mapi, I’m really not in the mood to talk right now.”

“It’s, um, not Mapi.” a voice said. I turned around in shock, and saw Alexia standing by the door, the rest of the team visible behind her. I stood up, walking towards the team.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked. “And how did you even get in?”

“Mapi gave us her key,” Ingrid spoke up. “She’s on her way, but she wanted to give us a chance to apologize before she got here.”

“We can leave though, if you want?” Alexia said. “We just really wanted to tell you how sorry we are. We never meant for things to end up like this, we just got carried away in trying to protect our friend. But instead, you got hurt, and we don’t know what we can do to make it up to you.”

My eyes move over the rest of the team, and I’m shocked to find tears on Claudia’s face. Patri looks just as miserable, and Marta looks furious with her team, as does Sandra.

“I, I don’t really know what to say.” I stammer out. 

“You don’t have to say anything, if you don’t want to,” Ingrid assures me. “But we brought food and games, we thought maybe we could have a game night, or maybe a movie night?” 

I sigh slightly, before smiling a little. “That sounds really nice,” I say. “Come on in!”

I can hear the sigh of relief breathed from practically everyone, and they make their way into my apartment. Alexia, Marta, Jenni and Sandra carry a number of bags and follow me to the kitchen where they start pulling out containers and boxes of food to set up. The others start setting up games in the living room, and someone obviously brought a speaker because music starts playing. I smile, looking around my house, and almost miss the knocking coming from the front door. I open it to see Mapi, holding a bouquet and looking adorable in a pajama onesie I had gotten her as a joke (I have a matching one in my closet). She peers into the apartment, and, seeing the girls behind me, breathes a huge sigh of relief. I pull her into a tight hug, and she kisses me softly. 

“I’m so, sorry sorry bebe,” she says into my hair, pulling me even tighter into her embrace. “I had no idea what was going on, but I’m so happy we sorted everything out and I can spend the night with my favorite girls.”

I grin, and, grabbing her larger hand in mine, drag her into the house. 

The night is amazing, and, as Alexia assures me, the first of many. She pulls me aside later to apologize, as do Ingrid, Patri, Claudia and Jenni. It may have been a rocky start, but I can tell that these amazing women will turn out to be some of my closest friends in the world, and they prove themselves time and time again in the years to come, how much they have changed and how much they love Mapi and I. 

[itsprashimusic]

Don't Let Me Down

Summary - You loved him, really. But in the end loving him was more like your poison than your antidote.

Pairings - ex!Harry Styles x singer!Reader

Warnings - suicidal thoughts, mentions of wanting to die, ANGST, failed relationship, cuss words, using a real-life singer's songs for this fic, death of parents, absent partner, Harry is an asshole at the end (he threw things at reader), not entirely proofread Happy reading<3

Word Count - 4.5k

A/N - reader is female but can also be read as gender neutral. suicidal part will be labeled with (💔) for those who want to skip it.

flashbacks are in italics

also please reblog this, i spent a lot of time on it and reblogging it with tags would really mean a lot to me. love you❤️

You were getting ready for you first live concert in months. The familiar rush of adrenaline was coursing through your body. The type that only comes when you are performing. This was probably one of the best parts of your job as a singer. The better parts are probably the free items people give you just because you are a celebrity. The bad worse parts are definitely the paparazzi and publicity of everything in and about your life.

Your fans were wanting more music, and so that is what you gave them. A few months earlier you released an album. A lot of fans were expecting maybe some love songs surrounding your rumored relationship with famed singer and actor, Harry Styles.

You kept your personal life hidden from public view. But still they always were trying to guess who the current 'man in your claws' was. This time it was Harry Styles, but it was true. You and Harry had been dating for nearly 3 years.

Key word: had

You both had broken up. You weren't sure who broke up with who, but one thing was clear, it was not mutual. It was messy, very messy. Your house looked like a tornado went through it twice and again. Things were thrown, hurtful false accusations were thrown around, when you called him out on his bullshit, he just gave you another lame excuse as to how it was your fault for that specific flaw of his, you get the idea it was just a bad break up.

Fans around the world mourned your break-up, even though no official statement was given by either of you for almost 3 months post the breakup.

It has been nearly a year since your breakup, and you are still not over it. You admit it, you really did love Harry. He was the world for you. In the back of your closet sat a little box with a simple gold band resting in it, waiting to be worn by your life partner. You had a date planned out on which you would propose to him, two days after your break-up.

The part which hurt the most was knowing that he would've said yes, if things were fine in your relationship.

You stood in your dressing room. Being finished with your warmups, you stood, simply doing nothing. You just stared at yourself in the mirror. It was your supposed to be your largest tour. So of course, your nerves were on edge. You were standing in your dressing room, clutching the table with a grip so hard even you were surprised by it. You knew you were not doing well. A lot of the people around you even pointed out you looked unwell. You started feeling nauseous.

You were aware it was coming, the panic attack. Breathing became a bit difficult. You knew there was only one thing that would calm you down. A person to be more specific. Little did you know that this very person who could calm you down was rushing through the corridors, pushing people aside, just to find you. He knew that you would be having a panic attack.

Just as you were about to fall down, the door to your dressing room broke open revealing your boyfriend. He ran in enveloping you into a hug, hiding both your view of the others in your dressing room and their view of you, a gesture you were grateful for. One arm around your back, the other around the back of your head.

"It's ok darling, I'm here now." he said, his voice making things better, his deep soothing voice. He gestured for the others to leave the room so that the two of you would be alone. They left and shut the door giving the two of your privacy. You and Harry just stood there, him hugging you. You knew eventually you'd have to go out and perform, but for now just standing there felt right.

Looking at yourself in the mirror, you could see the tears forming in your eyes. This would be your first concert in a long time, and you wanted it to be one of your best. You remember that one concert, it was the best. The type that everyone remembers, has countless edits of, even years later, that kind.

You looked at the clock. 10 minutes. You stared yourself down in the mirror. 9 minutes. You paced up and down doing your warmups. 8 minutes. You nervously sipped water from a bottle. 7 minutes. You were called outside to get your earpiece put in. 6 minutes. Your hands were getting sweaty, so you rubbed them against yourself. 5 minutes. The earpiece is in and working. 4 minutes. You could hear the crowd waiting for you to make your entrance. 3 minutes. You and your backup dancers huddled up together. 2 minutes. You made your way to where you were supposed to come out from. 1 minute. You clutched the tissue paper that you took from the dressing room. You clutched it hard, knowing that the last time you were up on stage it was someone's hand instead of a piece of somewhat soft paper. 10 seconds. You got your cue and could hear the intro music playing and the smoke machines going off. And from then on everything felt like a dream but even through the performances, your mind was somewhere else. Harry.

It was oddly quiet in his house. Normally there was some type of noise, whether it was the heater, AC or just some new air purifier he found and thought you might like. Your keys jingled while you were unlocking the front door to Harry's house. He said he would be meeting you here and so you didn't expect anyone to be at home.

But little did you know Harry was standing behind the door waiting for you to come. He saw your car pull up below the building. He had a surprise that he wanted to share with you first. Just as the door swinged open the lights turned on and a bunch of confetti flew out from somewhere. It startled you and you yelled. It took you a few seconds but then you saw Harry standing behind the door with a sheepish smile on his face. "Honey, what is all of this?" you asked him, coming closer to him. He pulled you in by your waist and said, "My new album's coming out on December 13th. I want you to be the first one to know."

"Wait, you have another album coming out? I didn't even know you were working on one!" you said. "Love, I never stop working. And to answer your question, yes, I have another album coming out. It is going to be called Fine Line."

That was all years ago. You remember that day clearly. It was the day you thought he was the one. So much followed after that. You walked him backwards onto the couch, hands tangled in his soft curly hair, lips on his. Just as he fell onto it his head made contact with some leftover food that was lying around. It was messy and cut your make out session short. But it was sweet. After getting him cleaned up you both sat cuddled on the couch and continued watching Modern Family.

"How are we doing Manchester!" you could hear the crowd cheering through your earpiece. You finished the intro and now you were starting to get more comfortable. "You know, it has been a long time since I have performed here. I just got the warmest welcome of all time, and it's time to return the favor," you say just as a short whistle tune is played over the speakers making the crowd go wild. "Usually, people love dancing around to my songs, but for this one we have to sit still," you say, teasing the crowd when another whistle tune is played.

The song got over and slowly transitioned into your other single.

Crashing, hit a wall Right now I need a miracle Hurry up now, I need a miracle

It was a really low time in your life. You had just lost your father to covid, and your mother wasn't doing so well. Add to that, your boyfriend was stuck in England and you in America. And the cherry on top, your name was plastered all over the news. People were bored and decided to pull and poke fun at you and some of your songs to keep them busy.

But it sucked for you. You were dangerously close to swallowing a bunch of tablets and it sucked. You were on your own, got calls daily from the nearby hospital about your mother's health, which was declining and going through grief over losing your father 1 month ago. All you needed right now was a miracle. Only a miracle could save you.

Stranded, reaching out I call your name, but you're not around I say your name, but you're not around

You had just received news from the hospital saying that your mother had not made it. Being in the hospital for so long had benefitted her but in the end, she contracted covid. You did not take the call well. The second the doctor said the words 'I'm sorry' you felt your heart split into tiny shards of glass which embedded themselves into every part of your body. You did cry, you didn't sob, not even a voice crack by the time you finished the conversation.

You were numb. The only person you wanted was him, but it was impossible to reach him when he was on an entirely different continent. You called him. You texted him. You messaged him. You emailed him, but there was no response. You even tried Instagram but that resulted in nothing. You attempted to write him a physical letter, but there was no response.

You had no idea why he was ignoring you. And it wasn't like you called him 3-4 times a day. You called him 15-20 times a day, you were surprised no one was responding.

Right when you needed him the most in your life he decided to shut you out. It hurt more than any break-up ever did. It was like you were stranded on an island with no way to escape. And the person you were trying to contact to come and save you was not there, almost as if they didn't exist.

I need you, I need you, I need you right now Yeah, I need you right now So don't let me, don't let me, don't let me down I think I'm losing my mind now

That was when things started going south in your and Harry's relationship. When he finally responded back, he was nothing like the man you fell in love with. Though you were so desperate and elated that he finally responded, you didn't even notice the shift in his attitude. By the time you realized how out-of-love he was with you, you were ready to propose to him.

It's in my head, darling, I hope That you'll be here, when I need you the most So don't let me, don't let me, don't let me down

For the longest time you kept hoping that at some point Harry would respond. That he would come and save you from the hell you were in. That he would be there to put an end to your turmoil. But no. He didn't show up (not like he even could), he didn't call, didn't text, nothing. You were left to pick up your own broken pieces.

Don't let me down

'Harry please pick up, please'

A sob racked through your body, making you tremble.

don't let me down

'Leave on seen, even that will do, just please say something, please'

You were getting hysterical, one sob after another, pleas falling from your lips like a prayer, repeating it to yourself again and again and again.

down

'Letter number 12 and I will keep writing more, just please respond'

Ink was dripping down the paper like the tears on your face it was mixed with. Your vision was a blur.

down

'Maybe today he will respond, it's been 6 months, things are starting to open up, maybe I can go see him'

With each passing day your delusional hope kept getting stronger. You never knew you had this much motivation in yourself.

'Please don't let me down…'

You whispered to yourself every day, almost as if he could hear you begging him to save you, to heal you, to do some thing.

(💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔)

Running out of time I really thought you were on my side But now there's nobody by my side

You sat on the kitchen floor, three different items sitting next to you, each one waiting to be used. You thought of the knife and how if you used that it would be painful, but then when you were found people would talk about how much pain you would have had to endure to die.

You looked at the rope and the ceiling fan and how that would also be painful but at the same time a bit faster. It would certainly be the most dramatic way to go, overrated but dramatic. When you would be found, someone would see you hanging off of the ceiling suspended in air in the middle of the room. Headlines would be something about you not dying of the virus but of ill mental health. Maybe it would raise awareness.

You looked at the bottle of meds. Certainly, the most painless way to go but when you would be found and it would be announced that you died of an overdose, people would think you were desperate to die. Well, they wouldn't be wrong, just that you don't want people to every think you stooped to that level.

Look at you, thinking about if people thought you stooped to the lowest level of suicide when suicide itself is low. But what other option is there really? You father died around 8 months ago, your mother followed him about 6 weeks after, your sibling was in the military with absolutely no way to contact them and your boyfriend was blatantly ignoring you while the media has been having fun with ruining your name and songs because they are bored at home.

It felt like a clock was ticking, like time was running out fast, but for what? Your death maybe, that would be satisfactory for you but this clock felt like it was ticking down to something else. 'Well, if there is something worse, let it happen'

(💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔)

"Don't let me down." you reached your high note with practiced ease. Goosebumps erupted all over your skin as the crowd yelled loud enough that you could feel the sound waves. You kept going on for another 2 hours until the show ended, Harry not crossing your mind for the remainder of the show.

"Thank you once again for this lovely evening. Goodnight Manchester!"

You were in your hotel room, thinking back on your opening show. A smile played on your face when you thought back to fans' yell when the whistle tune played through the stadium speakers. But that smile left your face when you remembered who was on your mind as you sang the song which followed your opening track. Looking around you realized that the hotel room looked very similar to the room in which you felt your heart probably actually break.

You both had just returned from your best friend's movie premiere. It was late at night, which in your case meant getting a bit clingy and touchy. Nothing much, just hand holding, hugging, some neck kisses. You thought the night would be perfect, given that you were in the city of love itself. But little did you know that Cupid had a cruel joke in store for you.

You and Harry reached the hotel just fine. The night went better than imagined, it started in the bathroom and continued on in the bed until neither of you could keep your eyes open any longer. But then things changed in the morning. And it all started with, obviously, an article. This time the headlines were about the premiere last night.

When it comes to talking or interacting with people, you act the same with everyone and this included your best friend's co-star. He was a tall, brunette-dyed-blonde with 'sparkling silver eyes' (as the article put it). You were freaking out before the event and since you were meeting Harry at the location, you had no one to calm you down, so you decided to have a drink or two. By the time you reached the premiere, you were a bit tipsy. Harry knew this, of course, you tell him about almost everything that happens to you.

As you made your way around after walking the red carpet you were talking with people, socializing, networking. Oof, but the people who wrote this article only had pictures of you interacting with your friend's blonde co-star. You touched his arm at one point, were smiling widely when he cracked a joke and gave him a side hug when he wanted a picture with you. But this was enough evidence for people to think you were cheating on your boyfriend, someone who you almost worship.

Morning came, you and Harry were still acting touchy from the night before, you sitting in his lap while eating breakfast. You were having a shower when the room service came to pick up the dishes. Harry was mindlessly scrolling through his phone when he got a text from someone, an old friend who he started talking with and hanging out with recently. It was the article.

Now if Harry had seen this article 6 months ago, he would have probably just brushed it off as the media trying to stir up drama where there isn't. But sadly no. For the past 6 months you and Harry's relationship has been more than strained. There are constant fights, accusations about if the chicken got burned because of you or him and many cold shoulders. The second Harry read the article (and a few more covering the topic), he was hammering on the bathroom door demanding you come out immediately.

You had just finished your shower and had dried yourself when he was banging on the bathroom door. You opened the door to Harry angrier than he had ever been. He questioned you about the article. You told him you knew nothing of it.

"Baby, I swear I have no clue of what you are talking about."

"Then take the damn phone and read the bloody article!" he yelled, making you jump. You started realising that he wasn't just angry, he was furious.

As soon as you saw the pictures you realized what it was about. "Harry, you know me. I was not flirting with him, let alone cheating on you with him. The media just likes drumming up things that have nothing attached to it!" you saw, trying to get your clothes on.

He rolls his eyes, an unamused smile plastered on his face, "Do I know you, y/n? Hm, do I? Because over the past months it seems as if you are nothing like the person I met in 2018." "What do you mean 'nothing like the person I met'?! You are nothing like the person I FELL IN LOVE WITH!"

"Its just like you, always playing the victim. Instead of accepting that you're at fault you just find a way to blame it on me."

"Oh? Since when do you know so much about me? Didn't you just say I am nothing like the person I was before. And for your information, it's YOU who is at fault here. I have been the same person this whole time."

"So I'm the one at fault here? Huh, then tell me one thing that I have done wrong." By the time the argument reached here, you had all your clothes on, and Harry had grabbed a lamp out of frustration.

"With pleasure. Over the past 10 months whenever there was an article about me and someone else you would get jealous and think that I was cheating on you. You say that as if I don't worship the bloody ground you walk on, the water in which you bathe, the mirror in which you look at yourself. When you talk about something you like I give you my undivided attention. Even when I am exhausted, I still listen to you and respond with my 100% enthusiasm. Yet when I am excited about something you are either too busy, too tired or just plain uninterested. Oh and did I mention that for 8 months you did not answer one of my calls, any of my texts or emails?! That you were not there for me at a time when I needed you the most. That I nearly killed myself when you were not responding to me or the 15 letters I had sent to you. I called your mum, I called Gemma, I even resorted to Mitch and Sarah yet none of them could get me through to you because YOU TOLD THEM TO TELL ME YOU WERE UNAVAILABLE, WHY?! "

When you started talking about him ignoring you he rolled his eyes at you, folding his hands, gripping the lamp even harder. Ignoring everything you said before that he said, "Every single time I ask you to elaborate on what I did wrong, you bring that up. I have told you so many times that I told no one to tell you anything and for the last fucking time I did not receive any call/text/email or letter from you!"

When he screamed the last sentence he threw the lamp he was holding at you. It narrowly missed your head. The expression of shock was all over your face. You were no longer angry at him, you were scared of him.

"Harry what is wrong with you?! You threw a lamp at me." your chest was heaving, you looked at the lamp and back up at Harry. He took a step forward but you took a step back. "You keep saying that there is something wrong with me, that I am the one who changed, but please look at yourself first. Throwing things at people and not being bothered by it."

"You have no life outside of your work. You 'hangout with' Sarah and Mitch more often than you eat your food. Oh, and not to mention Leigha. You spend more time with her than with me, but do you see me complaining? There are more articles about you and her specifically. Yet you throw a fit about 1 article with me and a guy whose name I don't even remember."

"Don't you fucking dare say one more thing about her!" Harry moved closer towards you, picking up a vase at the same time. But you were more focused on calling him out to notice it. "And what about you and Louis? This actor might be a one time thing, but what about him huh? My old bandmate, you practically act like him with how much time you two spend together."

"Why? Do you care too much for her? Your 'old school friend'. And leave Louis out of this, I stopped hanging out with him long ago because you didn't like it. He was one of the only people who were there for me at my lowest, so shut your mouth about him. Plus, for your information, Leigha is nothing more than a self-obsessed man whore who was a nobody when you were in school." you were starting to get extremely riled up, your voice raising with each sentence. By the end of your sentence, you had pick up multiple items and left them all over the room, it was an anxious habit you formed. But you didn't stop there, you continued, "She failed senior year 3 times and got around the football team more often than other students studied. The only reason she attached herself to you was becau-" You were stopped by a vase hitting your head.

The anger on Harry's face could not be described. But the pain you felt could. Both the physical and emotional. The 3 inch cut on your forehead hurt really bad. You found it bleeding when you attempted to touch it. Emotionally, you felt betrayed. It didn't matter what Harry said next. You knew that this was the last straw, that it was the end.

Maybe if you kept your mouth shut there would have been a better chance he would have stayed with you. Maybe if you went ahead with your fatal plans those many months ago, you wouldn't have had to endure all this. But who are you kidding? The only reason you are alive right now is because of your sibling whose deployment ended. They flew from England and surprised you on a random Friday. After coming back they reminded you about how much you still have left to achieve, with your music, your future plans on a family, they reminded you of your fans and how they would feel, how your friends would feel, how they (your sibling) would feel, how Harry would feel. Though right now, you knew Harry would've felt nothing.

You only zoned back in when Harry was physically shaking you "Are you even listening to a fucking word I am saying?!"

"No, I am not. You just threw a vase at my head and are not even bothered about the bleeding cut on my forehead. You know what, I am done. I should killed myself a long time ago when I had the chance, because you don't love me anymore."

"Well, you got one thing correct; I don't love you anymore."

As soon as Harry said that you packed up your suitcase. Within three minutes you were out of the hotel on your way to the airport, taking the first flight back to Heathrow.

And during the flight, you kept rotating the box in your hands. The only which contained a simple gold band in it. As a tear streaked down your face you wiped it with the back of your hand. 'Why did I let him gaslight me for so many months?' you kept thinking this and many other questions relating to your relationship. 'It was so toxic, it was so unhealthy and moreover he was a dick.'

You sent a text to you sibling stating that you were on your way home. You even sent one to Louis. He was always there for you. Being your childhood friend and all. You both auditioned for the Xfactor at the same time. He got put in a boyband while you signed a contract with Simon separately. When your careers started, you both started hanging out less, but you remained good friends. The only One Direction member you met was Zayn and Niall, and that too on accident. The plane landed, and because no one was expecting you to be at the airport, there was no paparazzi for once. You quickly got a taxi and headed to his house after calling him.

You spent the entire night venting about your entire relationship.

a/n - this is probably one of the longest things i have ever written. let me know what you think. i hope i'll be able to write a part 2 to this, unless you feel i should leave it at this?

also i sincerely apologize to any Leighas out there.

Hope you enjoyed reading<3

[allekha]

Fun With Jump Arm Variations

When jumping, different skaters put their arms in different places, but generally they are pressed flat against the torso, especially on higher-revolution jumps. This compressed shape increases the skater’s rotational speed, which is important for attempting triples and quads.

But as anyone who has watched much skating has seen, you can jump with your arms in different positions, too. There are two main arm variations you will see in modern skating programs:

One arm above the head - these are nicknamed ‘tanos’ after Brian Boitano, who did not invent but did popularize the variation. Ones where the arm is bent a lot may be derisively nicknamed ‘helicopter tanos’, as some fans don’t like how they look. (Brian Boitano 1988 Olympics SP, Brian Orser 1988 Olympics SP, Petra Burka 1965 FS, Wendy Burge 1976 Olympics FS, Ekaterina Kurakova 2022 Euros FS)

Two arms above the head - these are nicknamed ‘rippons’ after Adam Rippon, who also did not invent them but popularized them when he started doing it on his lutz. (He did tanos on it for a while, but then started using both arms when he trained with Brian Orser, because he felt bad doing ‘tanos’ in front of Orser, who famously took silver behind Boitano at the Olympics.) (Adam Rippon 2016 GP France FS, Midori Ito 1988 Olympics SP, Ting Cui 2018 JGP Ostrava  SP, Sihyeong Lee 2021 Nebelhorn FS)

However, there are also other arm variations. These are all rare nowadays, although if you watch older programs, you are more likely to spot a variation that’s not a tano or rippon. Ones I’ve seen include:

Hands on hips - these used to be much more popular back in the day but have fallen out of fashion. I would guess it’s because they slow down rotational speed too much, as every one I have seen is a double except this one by Michael Chack, but I don’t know for sure. (Jill Trenary 1990 Worlds FS, Michael Chack 1992 USNats FS, Rory Flack 1988 USNats SP, Tonia Kwiatkowski 1988 USNats SP, Midori Ito 1987 Worlds SP, Anna Kondrashova 1988 Olympics SP, Yuzuru Hanyu 2010 JPNats FS)

Helicopter arms - this one has been used as a warm-up by Yuzuru Hanyu, and I’ve spotted it in competitions a couple of times with single and double jumps (Rory Flack 1994 US Open Artistic Program, Yuzuru Hanyu 2012 Finlandia Trophy SP warmup)

Arms behind back - I’ve only seen this one performed by Jason Brown in his Riverdance program, where depending on the event he placed either one or both arms behind his back during the second jump of this combo (2013 SA FS, 2014 Nats FS)

Arm switching midair - I’ve only seen this one in this lovely axel variation by John Curry (1976 Olympic SP)

Hands by the head - I believe I may have seen this used by at least one other skater, but the only example I have at hand is this one by Nancy Kerrigan (1990 Goodwill Games SP)

Beginning in 2009, ‘varied position in the air’ became a positive GOE bullet point for jumps. This was because they are supposed to add to the difficulty of a jump, although I’ve seen arguments back and forth from skaters about how true that is for some arm positions (and even if which arm is raised makes a difference for tanos). Years later, they exploded in popularity, particularly in the women’s competition. The trend had its beginning around 2014 or so; the previous season, junior World medalists Evgenia Medvedeva and Serafima Sakhanovich were given programs constructed to include raised arms on a couple of jumps, which wasn’t too unusual, but in 2014, their programs contained many more of them. Medvedeva would go on to dominate the senior circuit for several years and notably used raised arms on most of her jumps during that time, which started the trend in earnest among other skaters.

This GOE bullet point was removed for the 2018-2019 season. But if arm variations no longer get that bit of GOE, why do we still see them so often? There are probably a few reasons:

Skaters who trained them for GOE a few years ago got used to doing them that way and don’t want to mess with their muscle memory

They can add to a program aesthetically

Skaters and their teams may still hope to impress the judges by using them

Skaters have said that rippons help straighten their jump axis

I’ve also seen speculation that rippons can be used to help muscle jumps using the upper body in some cases

I would also like to shout out arm variations on jump exits that aren’t the standard check-out position. These aren’t as common as mid-air variations nowadays and rarely get talked about as their own thing - probably in part because they were never a GOE bullet - but they can add difficulty to the exit as well as give a nice choreographic touch to a program. You can see a few in the above gifs, but here’s a few more:

(Petra Burka 1965 Worlds FS, Yuzuru Hanyu 2021 “White Nights” EX, Anett Pötzsch 1976 Olympics FS, Hana Mašková 1968 Worlds FS, Claudia Kristofics-Binder 1976 Olympics FS, Brian Boitano 1988 Olympics SP, Vladimir Kovalyov 1976 Olympics SP)

[rowdyhughesy]

The story of us - Cole Caufield

“ I knew the second I met you that there was something about you I needed. Turns out it wasn’t something about you at all. It was just you “

- anon

word count: 1.7K

I. The day you met

It's been months since you first got to UW, yet this is the first hockey game you've ever attended. You liked hockey but had decided at the beginning of the semester that you were going to focus on school -parties if you felt like it-  it had taken some convincing from your roommates but ultimately you had agreed.

Dressed in a Wisconsin sweater and hat to keep warm you trail along behind your friends. Their loud chatter disguising the sound of skates and sticks on ice, the cold air of the rink biting at your cheeks.

"Y/N come on our seats are over here." One of your friends grabs your hand tugging you forward as if you're in a rush when in reality warmups aren't even over yet.

Seated closest to ice in the student section you just take in the atmosphere. Pucks slamming against the boards, players dressed in cardinal red and white flying across the ice. Engrossed in a conversation with your best friend you don't even realise the boy that comes skating across the ice until his firm body hits the boards. The loud noise startling you. Looking over your shoulder you're met with big blue eyes staring back at you behind the cage of his helmet.

His eyes squinting from the smile forming on his lips as he gives you a wave. Cheeks flushed from the attention you stare at the boy with wide eyes before pointing a finger towards yourself as if asking him 'me?' The unknown boy laughs softly before nodding in confirmation. Sneaking a glance at your friends to see them focused on something else you raise from your seat.

Walking over to him you fiddle with the sleeves of your sweater over your hands, a nervous habit you've had since you were a kid.

"Hey, I'm Cole."

II. The first kiss

Your plan to focus on school had went out the window after you met Cole Caufield for the first time. Suddenly the lonely evenings in your bedroom became study dates or movie nights every Sunday he didn't have hockey.

He was your best friend but his smile still made you blush like it did the first time he directed it towards you. It was easy to let go off all your worries in his presence. Cole was easy going, never letting anything bother him for more than two minutes. It was something you admired about him, one of many things in fact.

Laying in the space between Cole's legs, back pressed to his chest you watch the tv series he'd picked out for tonight. Blanket draped across your lap and soft glow from the TV illuminating your faces. It's currently 1:30am but neither of you feel the need to wrap this Sundays movie night up just yet. Way too comfortable in each others embrace.

Cole shuffles in his seat, arms wrapping tighter around you, pulling you closer to his chest. You can feel his heartbeat. Thu-thump Thu-thump. You’re pulled out of your daze like state when you feel Cole’s nose nudge against your temple. Turning your head slightly you get eye contact, noses bumping together from your close proximity. His blue eyes look like they’re sparkling more than usual in the artificial light from the screen. Cole parts his lips, a silent question if he can kiss you hanging in the air around you. Deciding to throw caution to the wind you lean forward.

It’s slow open mouthed kisses and breaths mingling together. Smiles so big your teeth almost clash when you turn your body around so you’re chest to chest. Tangling your fingers in his hair and Cole grasping your cheek in his big palm. The soft fabric of his sweatshirt and the smell of his cologne. The taste of your chapstick on his lips lingering as you pull apart for air.

“I was wondering when you were gonna do that.”

III. The first I love you

It’s a tough loss in tonight’s hockey game. You can see it on Cole’s face as the final buzzer rings, the look of defeat and disappointment clear. Anyone else wouldn’t have picked up on it but you can read your boyfriend even when he tries to mask his emotions.

Grabbing your belongings you push your way through the crowd trying to get out of the stands. Mind spiralling with scenarios of how Cole’s going to act when you see him. All you can do is hope he won’t try to shut you out.

Rushing out a hello to the security guard you stand in the tunnel, picking at your sleeves while you wait for Cole to come out. The minutes feel like hours before the locker room door opens. Waving to his teammates as they file out one after the other. Counting in your head you come to the conclusion Cole is the only one left. Looking to see if the coast is clear you walk inside.

Your boyfriend is sitting in his stall, hunched over with his head resting in his hands. Hair still damp from the shower. Taking note of the jersey and helmet thrown across the room you know he’s in a bad mood. Cautious you step forward before you come to a halt in front of his sitting form. He doesn’t acknowledge your presence until you slowly peel his hands away from his head. Wrapping his arms around your legs he rests his hands on the back of your thighs, forehead resting against your stomach.

“Tell me what’s going on inside that brain of yours.” Cole exhales a shaky breath, grabbing your legs tighter in his palms.

“I could’ve done better, I let everyone down Y/N. I had so many goal chances that I screwed up.” His voice cracks and your heart along with it. Stepping out of his hold you squat so you come face to face with the hockey player.

“Don’t ever say that Cole Caufield. This is not on you, it’s a team sport. You did everything you could tonight and sure it didn’t play out the way you wanted but don’t ever doubt what you can do. Me along with so many others know how good of a hockey player you are. Fuck you’re going to the NHL soon and if that doesn’t tell you how good you really are I don’t know what does. It’s only one game, you can’t win them all but you can chose to learn from it.”

Cole leans his forehead against yours, a couple of happy tears slips out as he blinks. “I love you so much baby, thank you for always knowing what to say.” Now it’s your turn to start crying. Crying because it’s the first time either of you have said those words aloud and you can’t picture a more perfect moment even if it’s the result of something sad.

“I love you too Cols.”

IV. NHL debut

It feels like a fever dream standing inside the Bell centre. A Montreal Canadians jersey on your upper body and a smile so big your cheeks hurt. After a rocky start the day has finally came for Cole to take his first steps on the ice as an NHL player. Standing beside his family in the stands you grip his mothers hand in a death grip as they announce that Cole is about to make his rookie lap. Your heart feels like it might leap out of your chest as he comes flying out on the ice.

He sports probably the biggest smile you’ve ever seen on his face and you don’t even realise that you have started crying. Paul Caufield wraps one of his arms around your shoulders and squeeze you in a side hug as all of you watch Cole skate around with proud smiles.

As he skates by where you’re standing you raise your arms up and start hollering. Shouts of his name and whistling. Cole comes to a stop in front of you blowing a kiss as you mouth out an I love you which he responds with an I love you more.

You know he’s going to become something great in the hockey world and you’re so unbelievably proud that the whole universe is about to see it as well.

Smiling at his parents when he skates back to the tunnel you wipe the stray tear from your cheek.

“I’m so proud of him.”

V. The first apartment

You can feel the sweat dripping down your neck as you drop the last box on the floor. Ripping the thick sweater off your body you plop down on the nearest piece of furniture which happens to be the couch. Cole following shortly after. Both of you letting out a sigh of relief that the last moving boxes and furniture are inside.

If anyone had told you at eighteen that you would be moving into an apartment in Montreal with your boyfriend it would’ve felt so far away but it’s not. Not anymore. It’s actually happening.

Looking around you, you take in the high ceiling windows, dark wooden floors and light coloured walls and it’s unbelievable that this is your home. You and Cole’s home. As if sensing that you’re having a moment Cole intertwines your fingers giving your hand a small squeeze.

Looking over at him you see a goofy smile on his lips that match your own.

“This is real right? I’m not just hallucinating?” Cole barks out a laugh at your question before lifting you up and onto his lap. Resting his chin on your shoulder after pecking the skin behind your ear.

“As real as it can be babe, this is all ours.”

Later that night as you lay close together on your makeshift bed -a mattress on the floor- you run your fingertips on his chest. Eyes heavy with exhaustion from today you feel sleep sneaking up on you. Trying to blink sleep away for only a minute longer so you can relish in the moment that is the first night in your new home.

Cole is softly snoring beside you, having fallen asleep thirty minutes ago while you whispered about tomorrows plans of assembling furniture. There’s been so many huge milestones in your relationship with Cole. But this, moving in together and starting the rest of your lives beats them all by a landslide.

“Welcome home Cols.”

[effervescent-au]

Hey, I know it's been awhile and unfortunately I won't be active in Tumblr often. But I just wanna know what's going on right? If you're okay about giving a small recap of the reason about having a new AU

Okay so there’s a couple reasons that I a) have this AU and b) am working on it instead of the Splat Chat.

First and foremost, Effervescent existed about a year before the Splat Chat, and while I wrote some stuff for it, I never shared anything for it. Effervescent was really the reason I got into writing fanfic, as that the story that I really, really wanted to tell. Back then, it just wasn’t very well put together, and I was not confident in what I had written. I also never worked on the old Effervescent fic consistently; I’d write 10k in a week, and then stop working on it for months. I ended up setting it aside for a while, as I was just not happy with how it was turning out.

Then Splatoon 3 came out, which I played day 1. That was my first time actually playing a Splatoon game (I was about to get splat2, but they announced splat3, so I decided to just wait ). I loved it, and then once I finished the story mode, I was reminded of my Effervescent fic, and I decided I wanted to give it another go. However, I had read a chat fic for another fandom that I really liked and decided that I first wanted to try writing a couple chapters of a chat fic as a warmup, and then I’d go back to Effervescent. So that’s what I did; I wrote a chatfic with some generic usernames and generic personalities, and figured I’d do like 5 chapters and call it done. I also decided to post it to AO3 since I liked how it turned out.

The Splat Chat got a much wilder reception that I could’ve ever hoped for. I loved having people vocally love my writing, so I wrote more and more, abandoning my intentions of writing for Effervescent and instead building out my own universe with the Splat Chat. I started building some lore, character quirks, and eventually named my agents. As we all know, the Splat Chat took off and became it’s own series, with the main fic and all the side stories.

So what happened? I kinda began to lose interest in the Splat Chat last summer. It got harder and harder to write for and think up plot. I really think I should’ve just ended the storyline after Raid Under Storm and Stress, but alas, I did not. The problem was that I never really had solid outlines for the Splat Chat, so I had very little direction besides some vague ideas in my head. Because I started losing interest in the Splat Chat, I ended thinking about Effervescent again. I went back to the old fic and began editing it again, with the intention of posting that. However, I soon realized that it was kinda not great, so I decided I would just rewrite it, and that’s what I did; I uploaded the prologue and chapter 1 in July, iirc.

Then I got caught up in moving out and trying to get ready for university, and I lost a lot of interest in writing in general. The only reason why I was able to post so much stuff for the Splat Chat anniversary was because I really kicked myself into overdrive to do it, because I had hyped it up so much and didn’t want to fall flat. But after that, I was really just exhausted with the Splat Chat universe and writing. I tried to get back into it for NaNoWriMo, but I ended up just getting back into Effervescent instead, and that’s when I started regularly updating that fic, and I’ve pretty much been focusing on writing for that universe since.

Why? Well, if I had to pick favorites between my AUs, it’s Effervescent. I actually have a really good outline and plan, so it feels much more cohesive, whereas the Splat Chat’s story was always messy. Effervescent is also the fic that I always wanted to write, whereas the Splat Chat just kinda… spiraled. I don’t always feel in control of the Splat Chat universe anymore. The Splat Chat just isn’t what it used to be, and I’ve had people point that out too. The cast is huge, the way the series and side fics are organized is horrendous, and it’s definitely a different fic that it was when it first started. I had someone comment that they didn’t like the new direction I was taking the series and they felt it was way too dark when I was working on the end of Amaranthine, and I got really discouraged by that. I was really trying to finish out my vision for that fic before I lost interest, but being told that it’s not what it should be really made me lose confidence in the Splat Chat series as a whole. It was the final nail in the coffin for my interest in the Splat Chat.

All in all, Effervescent was the story that I always wanted to tell, and I was just waiting for the right time. I do want to come back to the Splat Chat eventually, especially because I don’t want to leave a story unfinished when it was a fic a lot of people found solace in, but now’s just not the right time for me. At the end of the day, writing fanfic is just a hobby of mine, and I’m gonna write what I want to write.

Sorry that was certainly not a “small recap” but I think I needed to finally put an explanation down into words about what’s going on with my writing.

[lesbianpanic]

Stina's anxiety

One thing not many people know about Stina is that she has anxiety. The only people that know are her Swedish teammates, Jonas Eidevall, the Arsenal manager, and some of the coaches and wellbeing staff. She kept it hidden very well as it often wasn't a problem whilst at arsenal, normally peaking on international duty as she felt as if there was more pressure on her. 

Today was a weird day. Stina had woken up with a heavy feeling in her chest. She hated this feeling with a burning passion. It lingered all day, sometimes lasting weeks, and it left her having to use more effort to breathe than what was normally necessary. It also left her feeling nervous. Nervous that she might have an anxiety attack, or worse. 

She stood in her bathroom, hands firmly holding onto the sink in front of her as she breathed deeply in and out. She stared at her face in the mirror and tried to reassure herself that everything was going to be fine and that this was just her body playing tricks on her. She had gotten ready earlier than necessary, just so she could try and calm herself down. They were playing Leicester city at meadow park, so the drive was not too far. She was happy that it was a home game in a place she was so familiar with. 

When it was time for her to leave, Stina took one final deep breath before locking her front door and walking out to her car. It was warm-ish outside for the first time in a while which lifted her mood slightly as she got into her car. The drive was uneventful. Stina had the radio on quietly in the background as she drove, focussed on the road, the game later, and her breathing. Once she arrived, she sat in her car for a few minutes. She could not understand why she felt so uncomfortable in her own body. Nothing had happened, so why did she feel like this? She got out of the car and greeted the media staff as she walked into the building, then walked straight to the changing rooms to meet her teammates. Hearing the music, chatter and gentle laughter managed to make Stina forget about the heavy feeling in her chest as she walked into the changing room. After exchanging some greetings, she changed like everyone else and got ready to warm up. 

That's when it started to go downhill. During warmup, Stina could barely focus, the heavy feeling in her chest back. She was also feeling the slightest bit nauseous, a feeling she felt more regularly than she would have liked. It was getting to the point that with every minor movement she felt as though she was going to throw up, and it was making her anxiety worse. She decided it was getting unbearable, and so she made her way swiftly back into the changing rooms, not noticed by the other players. 

Once inside she made a beeline for the bathroom, going into the furthest cubicle before locking the door and sitting down on the floor. Her hands were shaking and she was breathing really heavily, trying not to throw up. Stina felt frustrated and upset, she had no idea why she was feeling like this. Suddenly she leant forward and gagged painfully, producing a small mouthful of sick which she spat into the toilet. Stina started to cry, a mixture of feeling anxious and sick and uncomfortable. 

As the rest of the team filtered into the changing rooms to get ready for the match, Stinas absence became apparent when she did not sit down in her cubby like the rest of the team. 

“Where’s Stina?” Alessia asked, as she noticed the cubby next to hers still empty. Everyone's eyes went straight to the empty cubby, and there were some worried murmurs of “I'm not sure” and “I don't know”. They were all very unaware of Stina’s situation in the bathroom. 

“I think I know where she is, but don't follow me,” Lina spoke before getting up and walking into the bathroom. Everyone in the changing room shared confused looks as she left the room. 

Once the door was closed, Lina called out “Stina, are you in here?” the swede did not verbally reply, opting instead to breathe in and out INCREDIBLY heavily, hoping that her teammate would hear her. Luckily, Lina had heard her, and guessed the situation that Stina was in, so that was all the confirmation that she needed. Lina walked to the furthest cubicle and knocked on the door. Once she heard the lock unlocking, she slowly pushed the door open. 

Stina sat, leant against the wall with her knees up to her chest. She was shaking, crying and on the verge of hyperventilating. Lina could smell the smell of sick and made an educated guess on what had happened. (SPOILER ALERT: she was correct). She knew instantly that Stina was having a pretty bad anxiety attack, almost a panic attack. Lina sat down next to Stina and pulled her body into her side and rubbed her hand over Stina’s arm and whispered swedish words of comfort into her ear, which seemed to help. Once Stina was drastically calmer, Lina felt alright to leave her and go and get Jonas. As she left the bathroom, she stood outside the door and looked around. Most people were focused on getting ready for the game so didn’t notice her, but Lia did and came over.

“Is she alright?” Lia asked.

“I’m not sure,” Lina replied. “Can I ask a favour? Could you make sure no one goes in the bathroom so I can go and get Jonas?”

“Of course”

Lina briskly exited the changing rooms and found Jonas in the corridor outside. She quickly explained the situation to him and they both hurriedly entered the changing rooms and went straight back to the bathrooms, Lia letting them pass. As they were walking to the end cubicle, they heard a cough, and the sound of liquid hitting the toilet bowl. Lina and Jonas shared concerned looks before knocking on the cubicle door, Lina announcing that Jonas was with her. There was no response from Stina, however the door was unlocked, so they pushed it open. Stina’s breathing was still thready and very heavy, but they put it down to her just throwing up. She was still shaking slightly and had a few tears running down her face, but it wasn't as worrying as earlier. Jonas leant over and flushed the toilet whilst Lina crouched down and comforted the poor swede. 

“I was going to bring you on in the second half but I'm not now. The rest of the team has to walk out soon, but I'm not expecting you too,” Jonas paused, Stina not replying verbally but nodding slightly, showing she understood what he was saying. Jonas carried on. “Don’t feel as though you need to stay for the duration of the game. Go home as soon as you want to, but I do want to speak to you about this on monday. I hope you're feeling better,” he smiled and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. Jonas walked out of the bathroom and Lina looked at Stina. 

“Do you want to go back into the changing rooms and get a drink? You'll feel better after you get some fluids in you.” 

“Sure,” Stina responded extremely quietly. They both got up, Stina relying heavily on Lina to keep her upright, and walked slowly into the changing room. Everyone turned to look at them as they did they’re final things before lining up. Stina buried her head into Lina’s neck, hating all the eyes on her. The team seemed to get the message and all turned away as Lina sat Stina down and Kim wordlessly handed her a water bottle and an electrolyte drink. 

“I need to get ready to go on, but i'll come and check on you in like 20 minutes, if you haven’t gone home. If you do go home before I see you, text me to tell me you’re alright,” Lina said as she gave a smile to Stina, which she somewhat returned. Once Lina left and she was the only one in the changing rooms, Stina took a deep breath in and out, and began to pack up her stuff. She still felt pretty awful and did not feel like hanging around. Once she was done she shot a text to Lina to tell her she had gone home. She then got in her car and drove home, dreading the talk with Jonas on monday. 

[millaneyy]

Why TOTK Ganondorf is the best Ganondorf in the series

This became a bit of an essay by accident hehe

Goes without saying: HUGE MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL BOSS AND ENTIRE STORY!!! All the gifs used are my own, and even though they're a bit crunchy, feel free to use them as you wish!

Anyways, starting at the start.

The Character

I'm not exactly a long time Zelda fan (botw was my first proper zelda game), and therefore didn’t know that much about Ganondorf before I saw him in the trailer and decided to research the lore like a crazy person. Based off of that, I think that Wind Waker Ganondorf is the best by far.

He had such an interesting aura to him- less like a power hungry madman and more like a wise old king who was also very evil, and his motivation made it difficult to see him as a true villain. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. His whole plan revolved around the fact that the Gerudo people, his people, were left to suffer in the desert while the rest of Hyrule prospered, and he decided to take action. At least, that's what I remember. Please correct me if I have that messed up!!

Anyways, I think that motivation is what makes WW G-man cool- he's a total asshole, yes, but he has this kind of twisted honour that almost makes you feel bad for him. And this brings me to my one little gripe about TOTK Ganondorf- he doesn’t really seem to have a motivation? At least, not that I heard of. So in that sense, he doesn’t really feel as driven as WW Ganon. We never learn WHY he wanted to rule over Hyrule, he kinda just did. He wanted power, that much was obvious, but that was it. On the other hand though, it’s always fun to have a villain who’s evil for the sake of being evil, and it didn’t detract at all from his presence in the game.

And boy, is he a PRESENCE. Some of his lines are incredibly cold- "I will rule. That is what a king must do" WITH THE ORGAN IN THE BACKGROUND AND HIS DEMON KING TITLE ON THE SCREEN, or "Do not look away, you witness a king's revival" (the line that drove the whole community insane for a little while- if you know you know) as he draws his sword with all the confidence of a centuries old evil incarnate.

Even better- "I will be taking far more than your arm this time", as if Ganondorf, through the Calamity, hasn't taken away everything Link knew and loved already. This dude is crazy.

(And a little bonus that I found out about right before posting this- apparently in the Japanese version, he does have a very clear motive? But it was lost in translation? I need to research that a bit more though. If you know anything about that, do tell!!)

Now, with that out of the way...

The Build Up

Thematically, I think that the build up to his fight is pretty awesome, even compared to the other three G's. If you did the entire story (geoglyphs included) beforehand, then you know that this dude:

a) straight up killed someone with his bare hands (he wasn't holding the knife when he killed Sonia, so I kind of just assumed he broke her spine or something)

b) is so powerful that 7 of the strongest warriors in Hyrule WITH secret stones couldn't defeat him, and was only taken down by sealing his power away- which is still only a temporary solution

c) lived on after reawakening despite being an actual emaciated corpse

d) was so busted that even in (kind of) death, the essence of his power (the malice) that leaked out of his seal was strong enough on its own to completely DECIMATE Hyrule

So yeah, I was a little scared on my way down because I knew this guy was going to kick my ass (spoiler alert: he did).

The little gauntlet of monsters to fight as you descend was pretty sick, and serves as a fairly good warmup for the army later on. The silver lynel totally caught me off guard though. As you get closer to the lowest point in Hyrule, you end up amassing some of the most powerful weapons imaginable thanks to all the silver enemies, which got me feeling so goddamn strong! That's important later.

And eventually, getting to the Forgotten Foundation and realising that I was back in the prologue area as that scary music started back up sent chills down my spine.

And the music. THE MUSIC.

Give this a listen (youtube because soundcloud links are jank, sorry)- skip to about 2:00 because that's the bit I'm talking about!

As you get deeper and deeper, the music gets more and more intense- and if there’s one thing I absolutely adore about TOTK, it’s the dynamic music throughout (see example: THE DUNGEON THEMES). The use of music that changes as you go- and this is by far the best example.

At first, you don’t really notice it while you’re preoccupied. You’re more focused on weapons and monsters and all that mess. But the first time I really noticed it was, as I said, when I realised I was in the prologue. The cut up voice clips and the drone in the background are a little creepy, and remind you of what happened the last time you tried to fight this guy,

Then, it starts to develop once you walk past the mural. There’s the choral singing, the drone in the background picks up into something with more melody, and the entire run up to the boss is completely enemy free- it gives you time to let the circumstances sink in as the music swells and you approach the heart of the depths. Also, the music builds as you get deeper and deeper, which from what I know is a subversion from the usual "music building as you climb his tower" or whatever he's in normally. Very nice.

Idk about you guys, but I slow walked down there for the DRAMATIC EFFECT.

At about 3 minutes into the video is how it sounds when you dive into the imprisoning chamber, where it all started (and I'll talk more about the parallels between this and the prologue another time... THE TORCH AUGHHSYWJHFH) and keep trucking on through the gloom, the horror movie piano kicking in as you walk through the final tunnel and stand on the precipice overlooking the dark, unknown pit below...

And jump.

Then the track finally reaches its climax as everything starts to overlap, the bells and organ (i think thats what it is?) screaming at you in the background as you fall, making the song feel like an epic of vengeance. There's so much dread, and an underlying ominous/threatening feeling that encapsulates the fact that Ganondorf is the embodiment of an ancient evil, one that has tormented Hyrule for centuries- but at the same time, there's an element of finality and inevitability, because you're going to put that evil down, and make up for all the grief and the death and loss that constantly follows in his wake.

I mean, just listen to the last 30 seconds or so of that track and tell me you don't feel excited. In awe. Because I deadass teleported back up to the mural just to hear it again.

I think I got a little carried away there, but moving on to the bit you probably came here for…

The Fight

Phase one - The Demon King's Army

Remember how I mentioned that the earlier monsters and busted weapons make you feel powerful? This is basically that x10.

The whole sequence feels very epic, ESPECIALLY after the build up, and with the appearance of the Sages mirroring the attack of the Champions from BOTW, it almost feels like victory is assured already as you cut down hordes of monsters with practically no effort, all while the strings in the background kick in and get more intense with every wave.

This serves to make you feel even more like God- taking out waves and waves of fairly tough enemies made me feel like I was on top, like nothing could stand in my way. It's pretty cool, a good way of integrating the monster army you keep seeing in the cutscenes, and manages to keep the energy from the descent going pretty well, while also being a casual reminder that this Ganondorf bloke can summon world ending horrors at will. ESPECIALLY when the dungeon bosses come back to life and force the Sages to stay behind.

Phase two - The Menace Unleashed

Once again, the music goes absolutely crazy. The first phase feels intense, but still like the fight is only just beginning. Just an ambient drone, near silent as he approaches, picking up as you start to duel. No one is here to help- no Sages, no Zelda- just Link and Ganondorf, a rematch that's been in the making since 2006.

If the army battle makes you feel powerful, then the first few seconds of this fight are what takes that power away- because this guy is a total damage sponge and moved a lot faster than I could predict. Additionally, you can't fast travel outside to heal gloom hearts if you have medallions set up (i thought i was so smart for that too), so if you used all of your sunny food during the army, you're doomed.

Most of his attacks in this phase are fairly simple, with only one or two for each weapon he can wield (and tbh the switching weapons really threw me the first time), but like I said, he goes pretty fast. Therefore, if you're like me and can't differentiate some of his tells, you're also going to lose a lot of hearts very fast. And did I mention he gives you gloom hearts instead of normal damage? Again, no sunny food = death of the instant kind.

On top of the general stress of trying to get the timing down, there were a couple of moments in this phase alone that had me yelling something along the lines of "WHAT THE ACTUAL SHIT"- one of which being some of the tricks he pulls under certain conditions. For example; a standard looking sword attack where he swings once, then as you lower your shield to get a hit in, as you naturally would, he swings at you again. He also kicks you if you hang too close, and fires off some of his gloom attacks faster if you're trying to attack him as he charges. It makes him feel more like an actual person you're fighting, and stops you from hanging close and swinging wildly the whole time.

(i was going to make this a video, but tumblr only lets you add one. anyways, see what i said about him swinging again if you lower the shield?)

As well as that, he taunts and mocks you when you get hit- make any misstep or stumble into an attack, and he'll laugh and insult your skill while he casually walks up to you like the absolute gigachad he is. It's not like the Twilight Princess walk where it feels a bit slow- this walk made me feel THREATENED. Circling in the opposite direction when he circled me with the spear made me feel like a pro swordsman. On one hand, I thought the taunting was super cool as a mechanic! On the other hand it made me want to kill him even harder.

And the other moment that made my jaw drop? This guy. Can DODGE your regular attacks AND FLURRY RUSH. And by flurry rush I mean take a really tough/fast swing at you. BUT STILL.

For as long as I can remember, the perfect dodge and flurry rush have given Link an unfair edge over most enemies and bosses- it's an opening to deal mass damage with no counters. It’s made link OP against everything the game throws at him- up until right now. This highlights the fact that Ganondorf is no pushover- him and Link are evenly matched, and you’ll need some actual consistent skill to take him out. The good news is that your own flurries are still pretty powerful, and 5 or 6 are enough to start the next phase.

As the fight progresses and his health starts to go down, the music starts to build up more (at about 1:25 in the video above)- the barely present drums starting to speed up and get louder, accompanied by sporadic piano, more choral snippets, and an ominous undertone as their duel grows more intense, eventually building to a climax and slowing down a tad (2:45) as he activates his secret stone and transforms, beginning the third phase.

Phase three and four - Master of the Secret Stone

Well this one was certainly something. Once again I jumped out of my seat and YELLED when his health bar started to refill past the normal amount, all the way off of my screen. It just didn’t stop. There are no words to describe the primal fear of realising how insanely busted this dude was. I tried to get it on the gif up there, but that made the video too long to convert :(

The music here is my favourite bit of the whole phase- as you face down the powered up Ganondorf and his phantoms, you hear the familiar but melancholy motif of BOTW/Dark Beast playing around the same time the Sages show up once again to deal with said phantoms (at about 3:22). For a second it's just that- melancholy, encapsulating the same kind of hopelessness that followed Calamity Ganon 100 years ago. But at the same time, as your squad comes to assist, you're reminded of the Champions and their aid, and suddenly it feels like you could still turn the tides of this seemingly impossible battle. Just like you did with the Calamity.

Yes it was cool, and yes I nearly cried.

The phantoms were actually the worst for a minute or so- it takes a while for the all of the Sages to appear and lighten the burden, meaning that you end up needing to take on 2-5 of these guys at once as well as the real deal. This got me killed more times than I'd like to admit. Once all the Sages arrive, the arena becomes a complete warzone with everyone duking it out at once, the real Ganondorf’s attacks start to get faster and harder hitting, and he starts to dodge and rush you more often- even dodging more of your attacks and forcing you to flurry him, so if you don’t have your timing down, this is awful. Not to mention, it's very easy to lock on to the wrong Ganon, which makes it harder to block the real attacks with a shield.

And also, this is the point where he starts destroying literally all of your shields in just a few hits, meaning that if you can't dodge or parry, then it's only so long until you're left defenceless.

Aside from that, this phase plays out like the Phantom Ganon fight in the Castle until you get his health bar down about halfway, when he recalls the phantoms and biden blasts the Sages away, beckoning Link forwards and starting phase four, which is basically phase two again but insane.

This is where the fight- for me, at least- became incredibly difficult, since Ganondorf not only dodges your regular attacks, but also dodges your flurry rushes and counters with his own EVERY SINGLE TIME, forcing you to flurry rush again to hit him. Not only does this require perfect timing, but is also the only way to damage him for the remainder of this fight (unless you cheese it with arrows or sneak in some hits in while he's switching weapons- but the latter is dangerous since he still attacks faster when you're close).

A little video to emphasise the flurry rush thing; the timing for that second dodge had to be dead on. What you can't hear is me yelling something along the lines of "GOD, FINALLY" after dying to this phase many times and mashing the y button like my life depended on it. LOOK HOW FAST THAT MF IS ON THE SECOND ATTACK

The soundtrack becomes super crazy again, this time using the motif of Calamity Ganon/the Blights (starts at 5:00, and you can also hear it in the video above) and bringing back that sense of hopelessness again- but this time with with a strong side of excitement since you're now in the final stretch of the fight. Because the Blights were supposed to be the equal match for each Champion, this bit of the theme makes it feel like Ganondorf is an equal match to Link- which I know I've said already, but that's kind of the thing that's blown me away the most about the whole battle.

It's the fact that you can't just wail on him and spam flurry rushes without him countering you in some way- which in this case mostly consists of him dodging you and attacking back at an insane speed. This isn't like Calamity Ganon where you just hit and dodge for five minutes, this is an actual proper swordfight, and exactly what I'd been hoping for from the final boss!

Additionally, the Blight/Calamity motif (well, more like entire theme) represents his ties to Calamity Ganon, the force of nature that took Link 2 tries to beat (with death included), and it's use in this part of the battle tells you that right now, Ganondorf possesses the same level of destructive power as that thing- and he's sure as hell going to make sure you know that.

As well as the whole "dodging the flurry rush and forcing you to pull it off twice" thing, he also pulls out a few more projectile based attacks. These aren't too bad (WE GET THE RETURN OF ARCANE PING PONG FROM OOT), but he usually follows them up with a quick swing, making them a distraction that takes a while to get used to.

And finally, as a last little surprise, getting hit by any of his gloom projectiles in this phase takes away one of your maximum hearts. PERMANENTLY. Not like the gloom hearts, where you can get them back and then heal. Nope. That shit is gone gone.

Once you finally whittle down his ridiculous health bar, we launch into the customary "massive beast" style phase as he straight up just rips the secret stone out of his head and eats it, giving up his mind, body and soul for the sake of defeating Link, becoming a Dragon and escaping through the top of the arena.

Phase five - Draconified Demon King

So like I said above, the Demon Dragon is basically Dark Beast 2, except it's so much cooler! The cutscene does a great job of highlighting the insane size of this guy- it's like 3x the size of the already massive elemental dragons and emerges from the depths in a way that eerily resembles the Calamity, right down to the glowing yellow eyes. And yeah, that's probably the point, but it's still cool.

Luckily for Link, Zelda/the Light Dragon swoops in and rescues him from the jaws of death (literally), taking him high up into the air so he can attack from above. It's an absolute spectacle, and the epic style remix of the game's main theme that plays makes it even better, instilling the same level of awe that Dark Beast does- at least for me.

Just like DB, the fight has you up against a massive malice/gloom infused monster (the dragon, in this case), getting close and attacking it's weak points and then finishing it off by destroying the secret stone on it's head. There's a lot of downtime, which is kind of to be expected with this style of fight, but I honestly don't mind because these colossal battles are supposed to feel less like a Dark Souls boss and more like a victory lap- like a "you're Link, the legendary hero, slaying this massive beast in the name of Hyrule" kind of thing.

My personal favourite bit of this whole phase is the fact that when you dive down to the Dragon's weak points, Zelda dives down next to you to get underneath and catch you afterwards. So sick. I also really like the use of skydiving! It pairs super well with the music and made me think of that final trailer we got in April- like THIS is the epicness we were promised.

(and also dodging the fireballs was way more fun than slowly sidestepping a laser. sorry dark beast, but i gotta say it </3)

Final thoughts

I'm gonna be honest: I kind of forgot to compare his fight to the other 3 mainline ones, but doing that now would make this way too long! I just love the TOTK fight so much and needed to get it out.

While I'd still say that each Ganondorf (in the mainline games) has their own unique trait that makes them cool: OOT Ganondorf is the original, and the most cunning, WW Ganondorf has the best character and TP Ganondorf is the most evil by a mile- TOTK Ganondorf feels like a combination of those best traits (minus the characterisation) paired with the greatest final boss I've ever seen in a Zelda game, which makes him the best for me.

The first phase in particular was my favourite- wayyyyy back in April when I saw big G in the trailer, my first thought was "oh man i hope we get an actual sword fight boss instead of calamity ganon 2.0" AND MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!!!

Ganondorf literally just rolled up, delivered some cold lines, and then kicked my ass with his cool sword. Many times. And I think that's exactly the kind of boss fight he deserves. I'm just so happy that it feels like we're in an actual duel, mano a mano, instead of just being able to chance a win like with Calamity.

FIN

thank you for reading my zelda obsessed rambles! i just beat the boss last night and have been working on this on and off all day, so any reblogs or shares would be massively appreciated <3

GANONDORF FANS UNITE!!!!

[smartycvnt]

caught in the middle

pairing: sasha banks x charlotte flair x reader

summary: sasha and charlotte compete for your affections.

Despite your obliviousness, it became very obvious very quickly what was going on. Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks had a thing for you, and they were both determined to make you theirs. It was sort of nice, having that attention on you. The issue was, you didn't know where the root of Charlotte and Sasha's affections were coming from. They had sort of started around the same time.

Charlotte had approached you first when you had arrived at a hotel the night before a show. The hotel was overbooked, so it wasn't looking like you'd be getting your own room. A few members of the roster had already paired up, including the people you had ridden in with. So, you had waited by the bar and gone through your contacts hoping to find someone who had a spare couch at the very least.

"You look like you could use this more than me." Charlotte's voice pulled your attention away from your phone. You glanced over at her to see her offering a glass of something your way. For a moment you hesitated, but ultimately took the drink from her. "I'm surprised you aren't up in your room by now. From what I've heard, you like your sleep."

"Trust me, if I could, I'd be face down and passed out, but I don't have a room apparently. They overbooked this weekend," you told her. Charlotte glanced at your luggage, which she hadn't initially noticed being next to you.

"I have extra space, king sized bed actually," Charlotte offered. You didn't hesitate to take the offer. Once you got up to Charlotte's room with her, you realized that she didn't mean an extra king-sized bed. You didn't mention it though, instead placing your things in the corner near the couch and sitting down on the edge of the bed. It was pretty late, so late that your mind didn't even start racing when Charlotte laid down next to you. "You can lay back, I don't bite."

"I don't know, those girls you came up with were kind of wild," you teased. Charlotte blushed a little as she pulled you to lay down next to her. There had been many stories about Charlotte's class at the Performance Center and FCW shenanigans.

"From what I've heard, you were the troublemaker in your group," Charlotte shot back. You couldn't deny that you had been a little rowdier whenever you were younger. In your defense, you had just partied your way out of college and needed something to make ends meet.

"I've grown up a lot since then. I am a totally different person," you scoffed. Charlotte laughed a little at your insistence that you were so different. She hadn't spent a whole lot of time around you, but she knew that wasn't completely true. You had less time to party and cause chaos, but that didn't mean it wasn't still going on.

"Whatever, just come here," Charlotte told you. You were about to ask what she wanted from you when her arms pulled you against her. Charlotte's head rested on your shoulder as she cuddled into your side. This had your heart racing in your chest, but you were still somehow able to fall asleep. Charlotte was warm and comfortable, and it had been longer than you were caring to admit since someone had shown you such innocent attention.

-----

After that night, Charlotte had begun inviting you to hang out with her more outside of shows. If the two of you were going to be staying at the same hotel for live events, you'd wind up in her room at some point watching TV and eating dinner together. You hadn't given it much thought, not until you found yourself at a hotel without Charlotte and started thinking about how much you missed her. To distract yourself from going down an emotional rabbit hole, you decided to hit up the hotel's fitness center.

It was supposed to be empty. Nobody in their right mind worked out at 1 in the morning. Still, as you got yourself set up on a rowing machine for your warmup, you could hear someone using a weighted machine. You didn't think about it, starting up the music from your phone and getting right to work. You didn't cross paths with whoever else was in there until you went to a treadmill for your run.

"You do know this doesn't help you actually run from your problems?" Sasha asked you. You shook your head as you continued on. "We can get a cup of coffee and talk. You look like you need it."

"I'm fine," you lied. Sasha stopped the treadmill for you and pulled you out of the gym herself. You didn't try to resist going with her. Just having company was nice, and you had always looked up to Sasha.

"Why were you in the gym so late?" Sasha asked as the two of you got back to her room. She had made you a cup of sleepytime tea rather than coffee, not that you were going to complain.

"I've been spoiled and can't stay in my own hotel room anymore," you said. Sasha looked intrigued, no doubt from the large number of dumb rumors from your past. "N-not like that."

"It could be like that, if you wanted," Sasha offered. You nearly spit your tea out as the two of you locked eyes. There was no pressure to make a decision, which was why it was so easy for you to set your tea aside and pull her in.

----

Weeks later and you were, both emotionally and physically on some occasions, fucked. You liked both Sasha and Charlotte a lot. You liked spending time with them, but they seemed to fight over your time. It was getting to the point where you were splitting every second you weren't working between the two of them. You hadn't been truly alone in weeks and that was how you realized that too much of a good thing was in fact, terrible.

"Good morning gorgeous." Charlotte greeted you with quick kiss as she set her phone down to reserve the spot next to you at the breakfast table. Today was the first time in over two months that you had gotten to sleep in your own room by yourself. Charlotte walked off to get herself some breakfast, which was around the same time Sasha emerged from the elevator and made her way towards you.

"Feeling better?" Sasha asked as she dropped down onto your lap. Subtly was neither woman's forte, but Sasha was more open with PDA than Charlotte tended to be. Sasha didn't care as much if someone stared at the two of you kissing at the hotel breakfast bar. She did care, however, when Charlotte tugged her face away from yours by the back of her hair. "What the fuck is your problem?"

"You need to learn how to keep your hands to yourself. I'm sure Y/n isn't all that comfortable giving the whole roster a free show," Charlotte grumbled. It was then that you realized they were both aware of each other. "I know from staying on the same floor as you, we've heard enough already."

"Jealous that she's moaning my name at night and not yours?" Sasha mocked. Charlotte clenched her jaw as she pushed around some oatmeal in a bowl.

"Hold on, you guys know about each other?" you asked. Both Sasha and Charlotte nodded, an obvious look on both of their faces. You felt sort of pissed, like they could have been cutting you a little more slack. There was a conversation that probably should have happened earlier so that you didn't run yourself ragged trying to make time to spend with both of them. "And not once did you think to bring it up?"

"Neither did you," Sasha pointed out. "You didn't have to keep accepting invitations to hang out. We'd understand if you needed time to think, maybe make a decision."

"I haven't had enough time to think that clearly lately. There's this really hot blonde who keeps making me watch dumb romance movies with her and very cudd-," Sasha held her hand up to cut you off.

"I'm not cuddly. We go to the gym together and then have sex, that's all," Sasha corrected. You scoffed, knowing that your time was mostly spent cuddling after the gym. Charlotte snorted at Sasha's statement, knowing Sasha well enough to know it wasn't true.

"We didn't want to rush you or anything either. Truthfully, at this point, we're fine with sharing you," Charlotte told you. "We'll just be more considerate of your time from now on. At least I will be."

"Don't act so high and mighty. I know she cancelled on me Saturday night because you were practically holding her hostage," Sasha teased. "But we're open to a schedule if you are."

"This is a lot, but that sounds nice. Maybe we could even find some time to spend all together too," you suggested. Both women seemed a little apprehensive, but ultimately agreed to negotiate something. They left you alone for the rest of the day until it was time to leave the hotel. You already had plans to ride with Charlotte, so Sasha decided to tag along to the next city with the two of you.

[inkareds]

Flying Together Miles Morales

nav // marvel m.list // ko-fi

✧.* word count: 3.3k ✧.* genre: Fluff ✧.* warnings: the reader is an aerialist so is assumed to be physically fit, but otherwise they are completely neutral

Miles finally realised how brave you truly were to be part of a circus troupe as an aerialist

This is heavily self-indulgent because I'm also an aerialist (mainly with lyra and silks) who desperately want to be able to do flying trapeze sometime in the future :')

"You do this without a safety net?!" Miles looked around as he walked into the gym space. All starry-eyed, he looked at the many aerialist training on their different apparatuses. 

“Well, the flying trapeze people get a foam pit, mostly because of space reasons.” You explained as you pointed over towards the specific area where a foam pit lay, on either side of the foam pit was a tower where people would climb and then perform their act. 

You couldn’t help but grin ear to ear as you watched Miles look around your space. The circus gym was like your second home at this point with how much time you’ve spent. So having him finally visit the space and meet all your teammates excited you. 

Miles looked about the space, it was built similarly to a gymnastic gymnasium. Though instead of the normal gymnastic apparatuses, everywhere he looked were gears for different kinds of circus acts. 

“Have you done all these?” He asked with so much admiration in his eyes that you couldn’t help but feel slightly flustered. 

“Not really,” you chuckled diverting your gaze from your boyfriend, “I’m an aerialist so I mostly stick to the aerial stuff. Y’know, like aerial hoop, aerial silks, static and flying trapeze oh but I’m also learning-” 

As you continued explaining, Miles listened to you intently. After all, it wasn’t every day he got to see you so passionate about something. He nodded along with what you were saying, not really understanding everything as you had now started to explain the semantics of being up in the air. He didn’t realise how complicated it was to actually be upside down until now, he just does it. Nothing happens thanks to his spider powers. 

But when it comes to you, you had to remember to breathe, remember not to be there for too long, and remember to engage your muscles lest you want to accidentally pull something. All of it became second nature to you once you got used to it. Though with him, all of it was second nature the moment he did it. He wondered if any of the other spider-people had to deal with the issues you talked about. 

Right as you started explaining about flying trapeze and your role in the performance your troupe was about to do very soon, one of your teammates called out to you. 

“Oh shit, I have to go, you can watch me practice if you want?” You shrugged off your jacket as you started your stretches. 

“Yeah, that’s cool.” He shrugged making his way over to the many benches on the side of the gym. 

Miles started to actually pay attention to the people around him the moment he sat down. 

There was someone in the aerial hoop apparatus teaching a student of theirs how to grip the hoop properly. Another person just got down from performing some flips on the silks only to groan at his burning hands, their spotters chuckling as they scolded him for not doing enough warmups. The final person he observed was you. You had just climbed up to the tower to get started on some flying trapeze routines. 

His eyes widened the moment he saw you confidently take off, your hands gripping the bar as your body swung by. He saw the large smile on your face as your core tightened to force your body to swing backwards and land back on the tower platform. 

You turned to speak something with your teammates, motioning to your hands before looking towards Miles and beaming him with a large smile all before jumping off again. At that moment he felt all the love he had for you rush to him like a crashing wave. Unbeknownst to you, he swung himself from building to building every single day. All with the knowledge that if he ever misstep, he had his healing factor, his inhuman strength, and his webs to catch him. 

But with you, every time you jump off that platform and you take off into the open air of the circus gymnasium, there’s nothing there to catch you if things went wrong. Only something to cushion your fall. Yet, you still do it, all with a massive grin on your face as you flipped around and a teammate catches you. 

He knows he isn’t special to be able to do what he does, there are thousands of spider-people out there doing the exact thing he did. Yet, when he looked around, seeing these truly fearless people put their trust into their hard work and muscles. When at any time they could fall, and those who didn’t do the trapeze, break a bone or injure themselves badly. He didn’t know how they could do it. 

Throughout the rest of your practice time, he had a warm feeling in his chest. 

~

When you finished, Miles insisted on walking you home. Joking about how it was the gentlemanly thing to do, to which you only responded by bumping his elbow. Stating how adorable he was when he tried to be chivalrous. Through the laughter and jokes, he finally asked you the question he had been dying to ask you ever since he saw you in action. 

“Do you not get scared?” You smiled at his question. 

“I used to, I still sometimes do, but whenever I do I just think about the fact that there’s this person out there who does exactly what I do but without the fixed routines and spaces I’m given.” You looked down at your feet as you explained, “When I think about it that way, I forget about being scared.”

Miles felt his chest tighten at your explanation. He knows you’re talking about Spiderman and the fact that his existence could make you feel that way makes him feel things. Though through the silence and wide eyes, he realised he needed to act normal about your statement. Quick, what would Miles who wasn’t Spiderman say to you at this moment?!

“Didn’t know you were such a fan.” He mumbled awkwardly after clearing his throat.

Shoving his hands in his pockets in an attempt to act casual. You rolled your eyes at his statement, lightly nudging his side. 

“I just think he’s pretty cool, that’s all.” Now Miles' eyes were wide open. 

“Really?” he elongated the y in the word. 

“Yeah, I mean he swings around and fights crime, who wouldn’t think he’s cool? Also, he does tricks in the air too! A lot of my teammates tried to do some of the tricks, they don’t do it as well though.”

“Well, I mean, he has powers, so I think his tricks are harder for normal people to do.” Miles rambled. “He also got his webs that lets him go anywhere, you don’t got that in trapeze or any of the other things there.” He explained. 

You nodded along with him, “I guess you’re right.” Miles couldn’t really pinpoint why, but he must’ve said something wrong as your expression fell slightly the moment he stopped talking. 

Before he could correct himself and lighten up the mood again, the two of you had reached the front of your flat. You both said your goodbyes, but the moment you got to your door you looked back to Miles. 

“You’re coming to my performance on Saturday, right?” You asked hesitantly. 

Miles nodded excitedly, “Of course I will.” 

His simple response made a bright smile creep its way to your face. 

“Alright, cause,” you hesitated, wondering if you should say it. “I based my routine off of you.” 

Before he could respond anything you opened the door to your flat and run in. Ignoring the fact that Miles stood there like a baby deer in headlights, shocked and speechless. Of course, all before a love-sick grin made its way to his face. He’s definitely looking forward to Saturday. 

~

When Saturday did come, you looked out the curtains when the first act had just finished to find that Miles wasn’t anywhere in the crowd. Your lips tightened into a thin line at the thought of Miles not making it to your big performance but you brushed it aside. He must just be late.

So, you toughened it out. There was still around an hour before your act, the final act. You wouldn’t be the sole flyer of the act, but you’d be the centre of everyone’s attention considering yours would be the furthest ones. 

You just hoped Miles was here to see it. 

To no knowledge of yours, Miles was currently trying to swing his fastest towards the location of your performance. He had decided to take up some daytime patrolling today, considering how he wouldn’t be able to do any of it at night due to being with you. But then he got way too caught up and one thing led to another, so now he was late.

As he swung around the city he passed by a street he frequented, a guy whose been watching him from across the block yelled out to him, phone in hand.

“Do a trick!” 

With a chuckle and, to be honest, for his ego, knowing it’ll be posted. He flew himself off his web and spun his body around in the air before webbing himself up from the ground before he could fall. The people around him cheered at him as he chuckled and quickly swung away in your direction. 

~

The time was nearing even more, the act right before your show had just wrapped up. You still hadn’t seen Miles around the audience. 

“Hey,” one of your catchers tapped your shoulders seeing how anxious you were getting, “He’ll show, don’t worry too much about it.” They spoke right before it was their turn to go up to the rig. 

You shook your head and gritted your teeth. They were right, Miles will show up, he knows how important this is to you. So, with a deep breath, you prepared yourself mentally for your performance. 

As the song started to play, you walked out with a bright smile. The crowd goes wild as the lights blared in your direction, blinding your view of the crowd. When the beat quickened you knew it was time for you to climb the trapeze rig and begin the tricks portion of your act. 

Your quickening heartbeat deafened your ears as you best to strain them to listen to the music beats through the loud noises of the crowd’s cheers. 

Though you didn’t see it, Miles had made it just in time. He realised he was extremely late, but knowing that your act was the final one he figured he’d still come in time to see your act. But because at this point all the seats were taken up, he stayed near the entrance of the show stage and watched from the corner. 

Miles mumbled your name under his breath when he saw the way you looked. You looked ravishing, your face caked with stage makeup and a shiny costume. Despite how far away you were from where he was watching his senses let him see you much closer than anyone else. 

He cemented the way you looked in his memory, wanting to sketch this in his book later on. But just as you were getting to the last hold to get up to your rig, your hand missed the hold. Almost on instinct, Miles readied to lunge forward his costume still underneath his civilian outfit. But, one of your teammates grabbed a hold of your hand and pulled you up. 

He saw the way your expression fell from the careless mistake. Why were you so nervous? Your head slightly turned towards the audience and he realised why you were nervous. You were looking for him. Miles immediately beat himself up for it, but he stepped forward a little towards the light. Hoping you would catch his eyes. 

You scanned the room a couple of times, your heart dropping at every second you didn’t see your boyfriend. But finally, your eyes met his, and just like that, all the anxious energy in your heart dissipated. 

“You got this.” Miles mouthed towards you. 

He knew you probably wouldn’t be able to see it, not with all the bright spotlight in your eyes. But from the way your eyes lit up and your smile got even larger, he realised it didn’t matter what he said to you. The fact that he was there at all was enough. 

Funny, he thought to himself. After all, the fact that you were there with him, despite not knowing the secrets he withheld from you, was also enough for him. 

With your confidence boosted you performed. 

Along with the music and the practised routine of your teammates, all of you performed with pizzazz. Miles watched and cheered along with the audience. Yelling slightly louder than the people around him more than once. 

When your final move came, you took a deep breath. You had only successfully tried this trick once, amongst the countless times you had practised it. You knew it was possible, after all, it is an official move. But no one else in your gym had been able to get it right. 

You wanted to get it right. 

You had to. 

After all, your choreo was dedicated to Miles Morales. You needed to hit this trick. 

Opening your eyes wide, you let the wind catch you as you leapt off the platform. The wind against your skin, your mind focused on the next things you had to do. For a moment, time slowed down. 

You could feel your palms burning from all the tricks you’ve been doing. You could feel the sheen of sweat and the way your stage makeup refused to melt off. You could hear the way the crowd’s breath hitched at the final trick. You had to make it. You will make it. 

Swinging ones to the front you pulled your body back for the momentum. When your body was high enough you immediately threw yourself forward, propelling yourself to the sky right at the moment you see the catcher in front of you leap from her own platform. 

The moment you let go of your bar you willed your body to stand in the air as your hands folded in front of your chest and you forced yourself to twist upon itself. Spinning mid-air, a full twisting double. 

Miles' eyes blew wide the moment you landed the trick, as you fell to the ground your catcher immediately took your hands in theirs and flung you to the other platform as crowds cheered. He stood there, frozen. 

That was Spiderman’s trick. You landed Spiderman’s trick. 

When the realisation hit him, he erupted into cheers. His own applauses were drowned out by the crowd but as he watched you take your bow he realised you were just looking at him. 

After your bows, you ran backstage and Miles followed. 

Behind the stage, acrobats and aerialists were already taking off their greasy makeup. Congratulating and hugging everyone they come across with tears in their eyes. Months of work and training have finally come to a close. And the show was a hit. 

Throughout the rush of people congratulating you for your success, you weaved around from them. Of course, you expressed your gratitude, but you needed to see someone else right now. 

Miles embraced you the moment he saw you. Not caring about your sweaty body or your stage makeup, not even your chalky hands that definitely left an imprint on his clothes. He only wanted to hold you right now. 

“You were incredible!” He enunciated every word, a bright smile on his face as he continuously cheered for you. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here from the start but the way all of you were just flying in the air! And that trick you did halfway through where you flipped mid-air?! How’d you do that?!” 

Miles wouldn’t stop talking as he kept complimenting your performance. 

“I’m just going to change and take all of this off real quick, wait for me?” Miles nodded enthusiastically. 

“Well, duh.” You chuckled before going to the dressing room to change. 

~

When you got back to Miles he was already ready to walk you home. The way back home was quiet, mainly because the adrenaline within the two of you finally ran its course. What was left was exhaustion on your part and a busy mind trying to process everything that just happened on Miles’ part. 

Because he was doing all of that, one moment stuck out to him. The last move, the last trick, was supposed to be the most special trick. It was the closing move and if your choreography was dedicated to him, why did you do Spiderman’s trick?

“Hey, what was that last trick you did?” Miles started. With the way your eyes lit up, he realised you were waiting for him to realise. 

“It’s a full-twisting double.” You smiled. 

“Oh- huh- guess you gotta sneak a move for Spiderman in there? Right?” he joked. 

Though his heart stopped when you stopped walking. Miles turned around to find you staring at him. 

“Is something wrong?” he started, slowly getting antsy. 

“Miles,” you spoke, “You know you’re not good at hiding it, right?” His mind ran a thousand different scenarios. Though it landed on one. 

“Pshhh, what? What are you talking about?” He shrugged, averting his gaze from you. 

“That wasn’t for Spiderman, that was for you, Miles Morales, my Spiderman.” You stepped closer towards him. 

“What?! Spiderman? Oh you mean like, you idolise me and stuff. I don’t know nothing about Spiderman.” He rambled on as took step after step closer to him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

To cut him off, you pulled him in for a kiss. Both your lips crash into one another in an unsynchronised manner. Miles let himself be shushed in favour of your affection. When you did pull away, he chased after you, causing you to slightly chuckle. 

With the way, you looked at him, all doe-eyed and in love. He couldn’t help but admit it. 

“How’d you find out though?” He said with a lop-sided grin. 

“Well,” And then you began explaining. It started with the inconsistencies. 

There were times when he’d disappear and you’d ask him where he went off to only for him to tell one story and then tell a completely different one the next time you asked him. At first, you thought he was hiding something else, but then other things started happening. 

The biggest one was the first time you showed off one of your tricks to him on video and his reaction, safe to say wasn’t like most people. 

“What if I was just some guy who wasn’t easily impressed?!” Miles argued. 

“Nope! That’s not it! You started talking to me about the physics of it and like the momentum and stuff. Something only someone who has done it would know about! That alone wouldn’t have been suspicious but c’mon with all the other stuff?! It was just a matter of time before when I’d get it!” 

Miles groaned while his head hung long. Though not long after he smiled. 

“Guess I didn’t have to worry about anything at all huh?” You shook your head at his response. 

It was true, he shouldn’t have worried about telling you his secret. You would’ve figured it out either way, but there was no harm in telling you. The most it would change was you’d be much more understanding now and he wouldn’t have to lie to you so much. 

A comfortable silence slipped between the two of you as you made the final stretch towards your home. A silence that was broken by your voice. 

“So, could you train with me with your webs when I can’t go to the gym?”

“No.”

[skittikyu]

Hey! I love ur art! But question: Why is there art of you marrying a horse??? /gen

thank you !

somebody's tomodachi quest horse became an in-joke on tumblr as part of some sort of ask blog roleplay(? i think?) and for some reason a bunch of anons decided i was married to him/her like a year ago. the drawing was a connecticut clark reference i did as a warmup doodle while my thesis film was frying my brain /lh

i wish i could explain how we got to this point but i genuinely do not know how this started i just one day started getting asks asking me why i was married to the horse and none of them would listen when i said i wasn't fgeuywhs

[s-creations]

Another New Step - Chapter 1 - The Aftermath Series

MK's been feeling...weird lately. At first thinking it was a normal illness. But further changes make him and the other's realize that something very weird was happening. 

Fandom: LEGO Monkie Kid       Rating: General Audiences       Relationships: MK&SunWukong, MK&Macaque, MK&Pigsy, MK&Tang      Warnings/Additional Tags: Everyone’s going to be here at one point or another, Things are changing, MK is changing, Obligatory ‘changing into a monkey’ story, You knew this was coming.

It started with, what MK thought was, a sore throat. But a weird sort of sore throat. One that only popped up when he was on Flower Fruit Mountain. Not only making his throat feel itchy, but had a sort of pressure to it. As if something was trying to crawl its way out. At first believing that maybe he suddenly developed an allergy, either from the plants growing from the mountains or from the animals that lived there. After all, the mentioned items couldn’t be found anywhere in the city he called home. Until he narrowed down further when the itchy, strained feeling occurred. 

 The first time he really noticed this strange situation was when he and Monkey King were getting ready to train. Before trading blows, Wukong insisted that they stretch. 

 “We don’t get that option when we’re in a fight.” MK pointed out the first time he’d been instructed to do so.

 “True. But taking the option now can prevent getting hurt while training. Meaning you’re in better shape when you need to fight.” Was the simple reply. 

 As the time passed, the small, white furred monkeys had started to outline the training grounds that had been selected for that day. Watching on curiously as their king and his chosen successor trained, preparing the younger for future problems. At least, the older members did. Any monkey counted as an adult would stay while the children would be called away from one of their parents when blows were about to be exchanged. To make sure the smaller monkeys were safe and away from the training, just in case it became too intense. The adults sound out chirps to gain their child’s attention to call them away. 

 It was something that MK had first ignored. Merely asking Monkey King what all that meant before leaving it be. Until the teen realized that, at some point, he had to hold himself back from making a noise. To reply back to the calls that weren't even directed at him. It was strange, really bizarre, to the point where he brought it up to his mentor. In a strange, not very helpful roundabout way.

 “So, hey, Monkey King, random question.” MK tried to make his voice sound as casual as possible. Blocking an attack before returning his own. 

 “Sure bud, what’s up?”

 “Remember when I asked what the monkey’s were doing when we finished our warmups?”

 “The chirps, yeah, what about it?”

 “Have you heard of anyone, like, say a human, try and reply to them?” 

 “To the chirps? From a human? Uh, no, not that I’m aware of. Why do you ask?”

 “Ah, no reason! Just curious.”

 Wukong frowned, seeing through the lie easily. Knowing what that strained smile on MK’s face meant. But he didn’t push the topic. “Alright, if you say so.”

 While the conversation fell away, that didn’t mean Wukong let the matter fully settle. Curious as to what the issue possibly was, the golden monkey started to pay closer to his successor. Namely during the time that MK had originally brought up this question. Trying to appear as casual as possible, Wukong kept his eyes on the teen. Nothing seemed out of place when they started out. MK not even caring or paying attention to the white furred monkeys that were surrounding them. 

 Then the familiar chirps sounded and Wukong saw an immediate change in his successor. MK suddenly went straight, eye dilating as they scanned the crowd, mouth opening slightly. Only for the teen to pull back quickly. Eagerness turned to confusion as a hand reached up to rub his neck. Mouth closing quickly and eyes now darted down to stare at the ground. 

 “Kid, you okay?” Wukong called out. Worried about the sudden change in emotions and actions. 

 MK looked up at that, hand dropping. “Oh, yeah! Sorry, I think I’m coming down with something, throat hurts a little.” 

 Wukong frowned, walking over to place a hand on MK’s forehead. Who stilled, feeling the foreign hand. “Mmm…you’re not warm, so you don’t have a fever.”

 “Uh, yeah, I’m sure it’s just a small cold.” 

 “Have you been feeling back for awhile?”

 “No…I actually only feel ‘bad’ when I’m up here. I kind of thought it was allergies, but I don’t feel that bad, and…”

 “And?” Wukong raised his brows, waiting for MK to continue. 

 “...I only feel it when we’re stretching. When the chirps sound.”

 “Wait, what?”

 “I know, it’s weird! But something just feels off when I hear the sound. Like…”

 “It’s okay bud, you can tell me.”

 “Like I want to reply back. B-But I know that’s strange! I mean, you even said it yourself, humans can’t respond back. So I just figured I was sick…or something.” MK finished weakly, looking away and griping the staff closer. 

 Wukong, on his part, was curious. “Have you tried?”

 “To do what?”

 “To respond back. I just watched you now. You seemed like you were going to, but pulled back, why?” 

 “...Because I figured it would be weird.” 

 “Kid, look around. You’re being trained by the Monkey King, while wielding a magical staff after saving the world so many times and fighting so many demons. I think you’re past feeling ‘weird’ about any of this.” 

 “But humans don’t do this-”

 “They don’t fight demons either! MK, you can’t compare yourself to everyone else. It’s not fair to you and it’s not fair to everyone to do so. Besides, you might feel better if you try it.”

 “...I guess.”

 “Wanna give it a go then?”

 MK faltered slightly at that. “What?”

 “As your mentor, I’m allowed to fill the role as…” Wukong quickly cleared his throat, suddenly looking nervous, “Look at it this way, chirps are loud and unique. If you’re able to respond, then we’ll have a good way to locate each other. A ‘just in case’ kind of thing. So, let’s try it out.”

 “...Okay.” MK gave a sharp nod, looking determined. 

 Wukong smirked before clearing his throat. The sound that escaped him was sharp and loud, echoing over the mountain range. MK actually jumped at the volume. Too shocked to reply. The two shared a small laugh, allowing the teen to relax and nod that he was ready again. 

 Another loud, sharp chirp sounded, once more echoing over the mountain. Prepared this time for the sound, MK replied. Startling both himself and Wukong with the rather weak noise. Sounding more choked than the sharp sound that the golden monkey had offered. MK even coughed after attempting, rubbing his throat. 

 “T-That felt so weird!” 

 Wukong couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, for your first try that wasn’t too bad.”

 “I almost choked!”

 “Ah, you’ll be fine. You’re just not used to doing it. Come on, one more time.” Wukong gave his call, loud and strong. MK replied, this time not as painful, but still not as strong. 

 It continued this way for a while. Each time MK’s cry becomes stronger and stronger with each attempt. Soon it all turned into a competition to see who could be louder. While Wukong clearly kept winning, that didn’t mean MK gave up that easily. Even going as far as, in an attempt to throw his mentor off, to try and tackle Wukong down. Not prepared for this but having good reflexes to grab MK’s wrists, both falling back. 

 The training turned to one more of ‘play’. The staff resting to the side, both parties trying to successfully pin the other to the ground. No words were said, instead only small noises and chirps were exchanged. Both giving smirks to the other. No attacks were given. Merely a movement of pounces and attempts to grab, soon moving away from the training grounds and into the surrounding trees. The white furred monkeys followed close to keep an eye on the other two. 

 It all ended when the two reached a small clearing. MK pouncing forward, grabbing around Wukong’s middle, the two rolling to a stop. Unfortunately with the golden monkey on top, pinning the teen’s wrists down and smirking down in triumph. 

 “Nice try kid.”

 “Oh come on! I was close though, wasn’t I?”

 “Ah, sure, we’ll go with that.”

 “Monkey King!”

The golden monkey’s laughter echoed through the mountain this time. 

 ____________________

 A wide yawn allowed MK to catch something strange one morning. In the mirror, the teen raised his upper lip, mouth open, showing his enlarged canines on the top row. Brows furrowed, wondering when this would have happened. He was pretty sure they were ‘normal’ size the night before. But now, they've grown at least a quarter inch and super sharp. Enough so that when MK ran a finger over it, he pulled back quickly feeling a familiar sting. Watching for a second as blood pooled up.

 MK let out a hiss of pain, running the finger under water while his other hand searched for his first aids. Wrapping the finger up quickly before focusing back on his teeth. The gums for these teeth were inflamed and sore, looking red in the mirror. His lower gums, namely where the newly enlarged canines touched, held indents where the teeth touched. 

 “Weird…” MK softly commented. But he wasn’t able to think long of it before the alarm went off. “Oh no, I’m gonna be late!”

 The day at work was difficult. There were the normal issues of so many orders, angry customers, and Pigsy shouting at him. But the thing that bothered MK the most was the pain from his mouth. It was a consistent pulse, one that would sometimes grow, sometimes turning to a sharp stab. Either from the inflamed gums or from when the canines would bite down into his lower gums. 

 By the end of it all, MK was in pain and close to either crying or snapping. 

 “Kid, what’s up with you today?” Pigsy asked as he watched MK rub his upper gums. 

 “My teeth… They grew over night or something, they just hurt. It’s been bothering me all day.” MK replied. 

 “Here, let me see.” The chef leaned over the counter, eyes narrowing on the discussed problem. “Geez, that looks painful.”

 “It is! I don’t know what to do…” 

 “Why not go to talk to Monkey King.” Tang’s voice suddenly sounded, pulling attention to him.

 “Um…why?” MK asked. 

 “Because you’re experiencing something that younger animals do. You’re getting your ‘adult teeth’, one that resembles closely to that of monkeys now that I’m looking at it. Now, I can’t speak on Pigsy’s part, I don’t teething items. If this is something Monkey King experiences a lot, as you said he has a lot of younger monkeys up on the mountain, he might have something to help you.” 

 “...It’s weird to say this, but Tang has a point.” Pigsy commented, ignoring Tang’s cry of ‘Hey!’ in reply. “First this ‘chirps’, now monkey teeth? Something weird is going on and, if it’s monkey related, it all points back to Monkey King. Go talk to him.”

 So, MK headed out, back to Flower Fruit Mountain. Keeping a hand on his cheeks in an attempt to create some sort of comfort from the pain that continued. It was not Wukong that greeted MK first, but a few of the white furred monkeys. Ones that MK recognized as the adults from the large group. 

 “Oh, hello, what are you all doing out here?” MK asked softly, uncaring as they climbed into his shoulders. He wasn’t really happy, however, when smaller fingers pulled his upper lip up, showing his gum. “Ow, hey, what-”

 MK wasn’t able to finish before those on his shoulders made small noises. All directed to those still in the trees, who turned and rushed up to where Wukong was living. The teen was overly confused by this all, but didn’t comment. Instead, he merely continued his way up. His hands used to ease the pain were replaced with two monkeys nuzzling against his cheeks. 

 “MK!” The teen looked up hearing his name being shouted. Wukong was clearly not ready for MK to visit. The golden monkey’s normal outfit was replaced with sweats, mainly yellow with blue and red lines going along the sides of the arm and legs. In his arms were a number of ice packs. Ones that MK had seen before, using them after getting a nasty bruise during training. 

 “Hi Monkey King.” The teen barely had time to reply before a tail was tucked under his chin, forcing his face from side to side as Wukong looked him over. 

 “They said you were hurt, what happened? Did a demon get the best of you? I’m not seeing anything, but they made it sound urgent-” All stilled when one of the shoulder monkeys interrupted, making a few noises that caused Wukong to relax slightly. The tail dropped, only for MK to wince as, once more, his upper lip was pulled up, this time by the golden monkey. “Oh, we need the other kind of ice bags… Come on in, kid. Let’s get you settled.”

 MK didn’t argue as he was led further into the cave and into the small hut Wukong called home. Instantly pushed down onto the comfortable couch as the golden monkey headed towards the kitchen. The teen heard movement, the freeze door being opened and closed, items being collected, before Wukong appeared once more. Holding more than just ice bags this time. A glass of ice, a packet of something that had the words ‘teething biscuit’ written on the side, pain medication, and a towel. 

 The teen said nothing as he watched Wukong set everything down, eventually settling down next to MK on the couch before turning on the tv. Mindless shows appeared on the screen, MK not even sure what they were watching. But didn’t focus too much on that when Wukong held out the ice pack. It was softer than others the teen had used before. Larger and shaped more of a pillow than normal packs, but it seemed to stretch and never break. 

 “Bite down on it kid, it’ll help.” Wukong said. 

 He did. MK winced as he bit down, the soft cold material reached the inflamed gums. The shock wore away as the teen finally felt relief as the pain was slowly numbed. Shoulder sagging as he leaned back into the couch, eyes closing as he bit down harder. Only opening them again when, after a few minutes had passed, Wukong shook the teen’s shoulder. Holding out the glass of ice, which had melted partially, and some medicine. 

 “When did you get your chompers?” Wukong asked, trying to sound casual as he watched MK down the medicine. 

 “This morning. I was fine last night and this morning was the first time I really looked at them. They’ve been bothering me all day, Tang saying I should come see you when I told him and Pigsy about this.”

 “Good call made on his part. It honestly looks like you’re past the worst of it. Now it’s just time for your mouth to get used to them.” Wukong passed back over the ice pack, MK taking it to bite down happily. The golden monkey didn’t argue when the teen leaned against him. “Take it easy kid, you’re okay… You’re gonna be okay.”

 ____________________

 MK felt like he was going insane. His skin itched and burned, the lightest touch making his shiver. The front of his hands and bottom of his feet were constantly sweating, seeming inflamed, as if MK was having some kind of allergic reaction to something. Walking became painful with MK not wanting to carry or touch anything. It had even become difficult to sit down due to a constant pain coming from his tailbone. 

 Exhaustion grew with each night he was unable to sleep. Training had to stop while the golden monkey attempted to help. But Wukong, just like the rest of MK’s family, had no idea what the issue was. Relief only seemed to come when Macaque allowed the teen to rest within the shadow realm the black furred monkey controlled. But MK couldn’t stay in for too long without gaining some negative repercussions nor could Macaque keep the portal just opened for a long period of time as well. 

 As it stood, everyone was at a loss as to what MK needed. Which MK could only respond with a shrug and pained noises. Just as confused as they were. 

 It was one evening, as the day of working at the shop fell away and the sky was an inky dark, MK collapsed on his bed. Not bothering to change into his sleepwear. The most he was able to do was kick off his shoes, shifting himself properly onto the bed so nothing was hanging off, and curling onto his side. Whether it was because he wasn’t in as much pain this evening or the fact that the numerous sleepless nights were finally catching up to him, MK felt himself drifting off. He didn’t fight back as he allowed himself to sink into the darkness.

 When he woke the next morning, MK was happy to feel well rested. For the first time in so many weeks. Yawning widely, he sat up and stretched, rubbing his eyes as he padded his way over to this bathroom. Noting that the only pain he felt still came from his tailbone. But even now, it wasn’t that bad as it had been. 

 Flicking on the light, MK looked towards the mirror…and let out a shriek of fear. Something loud and inhuman that escaped the teen. Wide eyes staring back at him as his heart hammered furiously in his chest. It slowly dawned on him that the creature staring back at him through the mirror was himself. 

 Overnight, everything about MK's appearance had changed. Large ears poked out from the messy hair. Cheeks and chin seemed to round out, nose changing to more of a ‘monkey’ appearance. Eyes became rounder, a bit wider as well, with yellow markings creating a mask around his eyes. Fur poked out from beneath his shirk causing MK to look down to find a majority of himself covered in black fur, with his chest with shorter, tan color fuzz. Back of his hand held some black fur, with the biggest change being small claws and pads on his palms and fingertips. Removing his socks showed the same outcome his hands had achieved. 

 “What…is happening?” MK whispered weakly, eyes darting up from the mirror and back down to his hands and feet. Mind racing with confusion and fear. Not wanting to deal with this alone, MK left the bathroom and raced downstairs. Thankfully, the restaurant wasn’t open yet. Meaning it was just Pigsy and Tang to greet him when he entered. 

 Both panicked upon seeing the changed teen. Tang out of his stool before Pigsy could even think, hands carefully placed on MK’s shoulders. There were few words exchanged, all of it amounting to no one having the slightest idea what had happened. MK was brought over to the stool, happily taking the offered bowl of noodles and began eating. Partially listening as the adults talked. 

 “Do we take him to a doctor?” Tang asked worriedly.

 “What are they going to do? Say the same thing we’ve said, that it’s just a strange thing?”

 “Maybe another form of puberty?”

 “More of a strange form of puberty, if that’s even the case…”

 “You’re angry. What’s on your mind Pigsy?”

 “It’s all monkey related. The chirps, the teeth, and now all of this? If anyone’s going to have an idea what’s happening, it’s gonna be Monkey King. We need him here to talk to us.”

 “What, do you think he did this deliberately?” 

 “I doubt it. But this is just too weird that he couldn’t be involved. We need to talk to him.”

 “I could go to him,” MK offered, sounding tired, “I’m not sure if he’d like to come to the city.”

 “I don’t really care what the Great Sage would or wouldn’t like to do,” Pigsy rolled his eyes, “I’m more worried about the fact you look dead on your feet still. That and how you now look like a monkey demon right now, which might draw some bad attention.” 

 MK didn’t argue as Pigsy pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number, instead going back to his bowl. Watching as the chef walked around to the front of the store and flicking the outside light off and flipping the sign on the door to ‘CLOSED’. The chef didn’t give a verbal reply at MK’s confused look, merely ruffling the kid’s hair before saying, “You’d better be up Monkey King, we have a bit of an issue.” 

 MK winced, suddenly hearing Wukong’s reply from the other side as if he had the phone pressed to his ear, “What? If it’s a demon, I think the kid-”

 “It’s about the kid.”

 “What’s wrong with MK? Is he hurt?”

 “More of he’s drastically changed, physically. Woke up looking a lot more like a monkey than when he went to bed.”

 “...Am I supposed to know what that means?”

 “I need you to get your furry butt down here to the shop and look the kid over. I need someone to explain to me what’s happening to him.” 

 “Okay, I’ll-” Wukong cut himself off, another voice sounding muffled was heard, “We’ll be over soon.”

 “Make it quick.” Pigsy jumped when a loud ripping was sounded followed by a ‘thump’. Looking over to an embarrassed MK. “Quicker, because MK just dropped a tail.”

 “...WHAT!?”

 Tang let out a yelp as the nearby shadows suddenly shifted, two forms emerging before becoming solid. Wukong and Macaque were now standing in the middle of the closed shop. Golden eyes quickly found MK and the Monkey King crossed the room just as fast. Macaque seemed content to stay away, instead turning to Pigsy. 

 “So, what questions are you wanting to shout at us?” The Shadow Warrior asked. 

 “I want an explanation for MK!” Pigsy shouted, “Look at him, this isn’t normal!”

 “Nothing that has happened since he grabbed that staff has been ‘normal’.”

 “But this?”

 Macaque shrugged his shoulders before Wukong took over. “It��could be a side effect. With sharing my powers with MK. But I really don’t have a way to confirm this. First human getting them and all that.” 

 “Is there a way to fix this then?” Pigsy asked. 

 MK looked up feeling Wukong tense, eyes widening in worry seeing how upset the golden monkey suddenly was. “Fix this? This isn’t an illness-”

 “You can’t be serious, the kid looks ridiculous! How are we supposed to deal with this?”

 “MK’s training will just entail how to ‘deal with this’. It’ll be fine.” 

 “And are you going to ask MK what he wants to do? You’re putting a lot of words in his mouth, this sounds like something you want. Not him.” 

 “Pigsy-” MK attempted to speak, but a hand on his shoulder cut him off. 

 “What does that mean?” Wukong said with a dangerous undertone.

 Pigsy huffed and crossed his arms. “It just seems like you’re putting the kid into a situation he didn’t agree to, again.” 

 That caused the Monkey King to falter, looking back to MK before facing forward again. “I didn’t plan this. This…This wasn’t intentional, this wasn’t like some ‘plan’ of mine. I didn’t mean to make this happen!”

 MK stood at that, standing between the two, looking frantic. “Wait, just wait. Pigsy, I don’t blame Monkey King for this.”

 “Kid-”

 “Just listen! I don’t blame Monkey King, I don’t blame anyone for this. I…I think this was supposed to happen.”

 “What?” The remainder of the party called out with different levels of confusion.  

 “I didn’t tell anyone, but when I got my powers the first time, before LBD, my canines started growing. Nothing like this and I thought I was going crazy, because it wasn’t that dramatic of a shift. When Lady Bone Demon attacked the first time and my powers were blocked…my teeth shrank. So, I think this was supposed to happen.”

 “...Doesn’t make it any less worrisome.” Pigsy commented. 

 “Well, we need to push past that,” Macaque commented, “What needs to happen now is training. A different kind of training. You can’t gain control over a tail overnight.”

 As if to prove the point further, MK let out a yelp when, as he took a step back towards his stool, toppled to the ground. His newly acquired tail wrapped around one of his legs. Wukong let out a low sigh before nodding. 

 “This is going to be interesting.”

[jordancallowayswife]

Dating Jordan Calloway

Requested: ✅

Warnings or triggers: none( there are cuss words tho)

Characters: jordan Calloway/ J.C, y/n, jayla(bestfriend), destiny (captain) (other side characters will be included)

Excuse any errors and enjoy the story!

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫≪•◦ ❈ ≪•

Omniscient pov:

Jordan and y/n have been dating for a few months now. Jordan (known as J.C by his friends) was very popular around the school. He ran track and also played on the schools football team. Y/n on the other hand was very shy and quiet and that's what jordan liked about her. Most of the girls in the school envied her because the two of them were together and some even went as far as trying to break them up by spreading rumors. Despite their efforts no one was able to break up the beautiful couple. Y/n also became a cheerleader.

Y/n pov:

Today was a very busy day for me at school. The boys had a football game tonight which started at 7:30pm, I really enjoy going to football games because I get to see Jordan play but it also meant long hours of practice. I looked at my phone and the time read 3:15 and practice started at 3:30. I entered the bathroom and quickly changed into my uniform. I was making my way down the hall when suddenly, I felt myself being lifted up from the floor. I turned around quickly to see who it was only to see it was Jordan. "You play entirely too much" I said looking at him. "Oh come on baby you gotta admit it was a little funny" Jordan replied. "Ok it was a little funny" I said laughing at what happened. "I really wish I could stay here with you longer" I added. Jordan pulled me into a tight hug. "I know babygirl. I promise we'll see eachother after the game." He said kissing my forehead. "Yo J.C we gotta go to the field for practice" one of Jordan's friends yelled. "I'll see you later baby I love you." Jordan said. "I love you too" I responded.

*timeskip to practice*

We were currently going over the last cheer we were going to do when suddenly, the captain known as destiny came toward you. "I think you might wanna work on that backflip. I don't think jordan would like you if you bust your face on the floor and make a complete fool out of yourself." She spat. I smirked knowing I was about to say something to her . "You know destiny, thinking isn't something you're good at. By the way jordan will never ever want you so stop trying." I said. Destiny picked up a Pom Pom and tried to throw it at me but missed. I turned your back on her and headed out the door. "See you just proved my point." I said laughing. " how are you gonna try and hit me with something soft and expect it to hurt." I added. "Fuck youu!" Destiny screamed and walked off. I flipped her off as I walked out the door.

Jordan pov:

The time was 5:00 and i still had time before the game started. Coach didn't mind us leaving and coming back before the game starts there was only two rules: be back in time for warmups and don't be late otherwise we'd get benched. Warmups were at 6:45 which means I had time to spare. I thought of an idea and made my way to y/n's house. Shortly I heard some movement which meant that y/n was home. Once she made her way up the stairs, I heard her sit her backpack on the floor next to her room door. When she walked in, she immediately ran up to me and hugged me. "I missed you so much" she said. "I missed you too my love" I replied. Y/n was clingy but I love her clinginess. We ended up watching a movie, cuddling, playing a few games and also talking and laughing. The time was now 6:20 and I didn't wanna risk being late. I prepared to leave when y/n came up to me and gave me one last hug before I left. "You coming back after the game?" Y/n asked looking up at me. "Yes my princess I'm coming back. Is it alright if I stay the night?" I asked her. "Yeah my mom and dad are out of town on a business trip but they're coming back in two weeks" she told me. I made my way out of the door and headed to the school for warmups and shortly after, y/n did the same.

*timeskip to the game starting*

Y/n pov: me and the rest of the cheerleaders went out and performed the first cheer. Our team had 10 points and the other team had 5. We did two cheers and when we reached halftime we took a break and let the band perform. My bestfriend jayla came over and we talked for a little. "Girll jordan has been eyeing you since halftime started. Y'all so cute together" she told me. "I know right. I can't even lie he looking so fine in that jersey." I said staring at him. "I'm telling him what you said" jayla said laughing. "No no jayla hush dat mouth I'll tell him myself " I said laughing.

*after the game*

Our team won 78-53 and the boys and other people were celebrating the win. But as for me I was tired and just wanted to go home. I met up with Jordan and we both rode home together. He had previously gave me his hoodie to wear because I was cold. I ended up falling asleep in the car and jordan carried me into the house. We both took a shower, ate, and fell asleep cuddled next to each other.

[lgckoda]

( star quality )

PRACTISE ROOM, DEBUT BOOTCAMP // OCT. ‘22 Koda and CHOI KAI try to improve their singing skills …

Koda isn’t a terrible singer by any means, he’s just not great. He can hold a tune, can find the right note, even put some emotion and style into the way he sings, but when it really comes down to it, Koda’s pretty average, especially when compared to the other trainees. He makes up for it in his charisma and presence, his ability to make himself look good, even if he’s not necessarily showing great technical skill. The good thing is, however, that Koda knows where he’s lacking, and he knows what he needs to do to improve it, but it’s never much fun practising on your own, especially when one of your closest friends is going through the same difficulties. So, when Koda finds himself in the debut bootcamp, struggling to match up to everyone else with his singing, he latches onto Kai, who also seems to be having a bit of a difficult time, and begs him to practise with him. This way they can point out where they’re going wrong—it’s always good to have a separate set of eyes and ears to pick up what you miss. 

The vocal lessons are half useful, and half utterly morale-crushing. Hearing other trainees belt out high notes, keep their voices stable, and strong, showing off their supreme breath control makes Koda feel less than satisfactory. “What if I’m just not cut out for this? I only became a trainee because I thought I could be a model. I should’ve just stuck to that! What the hell am I doing here? It’s not like I’m going to debut!” He complains, sitting opposite Kai as everyone takes some practise time to help each other out in small groups. “You heard me over there caterwauling like a dying animal. I’m doomed, Kai.” His shoulders slump, and a heavy sigh escapes him. They need to actually practise, or the vocal trainer is going to be around to tell them off any minute, but Koda still takes a second to make his displeasure at the situation abundantly clear. 

“Your voice is so distinctive, they’re bound to focus a lot on you. You’d be such a valuable person in a group.” Koda’s always thought Kai had ‘star-quality’—there’s something about him that just shines. “I can’t rap to save my life, so you’re already way ahead of me. You can at least do something, but I can’t really do anything.” But, they’re here to sing, and sing they must, starting with the usual vocal warmups. “Guess we’d better get on with it, or we’re both gonna have our asses kicked by the drill master over there.” He glances over to the vocal trainer on the other side of the room, answering someone’s questions.