#been a hot minute since I last used that tag haha

[celestie0]

gojo satoru x reader | college au [18+]

kickoff ch.12 how you get the girl

ᰔ pairing. college au - soccer player! gojo x film major! reader

ᰔ summary. gojo satoru is the most popular guy on your college campus. he's tall, funny, hot, not to mention he's the most talented soccer forward the school has seen in years. but he's also a frat dude, which puts him in a world very different from your own, as he spends most of his nights partying while you spend most of yours working on your annoying film major assignments. but when he reaches out to you for a favor, you realize that helping him out might have something in it for you too.

ᰔ warnings/tags. 18+, fem reader, fluff, angst, smut, college au, fraternities, sororities, partying, drinking/alcohol, romance, jealousy, pining, slow burn, opposites to lovers, friends to lovers, she falls first he falls harder, gojo being an idiot, marijuana use, sexism, sexual harassment (verbal only)

ᰔ chapter. 12/x (probably 18)

ᰔ words. 11.3k

a/n. man the color scheme for this chapter is kinda giving BRAT lolol...i mean gojo IS brat. anywho, i don't have much to say at the beginning of this chapter but i do have a LOT to say at the end of it sooo see y'all at the bottom!! hope u enjoy. also BIG THANK YOU to @whereflowerswenttodie who beta read parts of this chapter for me n convinced me not to scrap it lol

nav. masterlist

☾·̩͙꙳ moodboard no.1 :: ♬.*ﾟplaylist

11:03am you: hi! 11:03am you: good luck today 11:03am you: incase i don’t see you

11:05am Gojo Satoru: Why wouldn’t you? Aren’t you gonna be on the field for your newsletter shots?

11:07am you: i mean yes but idk where i’m gonna be stationed so 11:07am you: it might not be on UTokyo’s side of the field

11:08am Gojo Satoru: Okay then I’ll look for you before the game starts

11:10am you: no pls don’t. coach yaga thinks i distract you. i don’t want to get yelled at again. he scares me :(

11:12am Gojo Satoru: Haha you’re silly 11:13am Gojo Satoru: East side entrance at 2 11:13am Gojo Satoru: Be there

11:14am you: or be square?

11:15am Gojo Satoru: Yea whatever shape you wanna be in is fine cutie

It’s a bright sunny day outside, perfectly blue sky with a scattering of fluffy clouds seen outside the window of your shared room in your apartment, and you realize spring is fully here from the way birds chirp past the glass. You’re stuffing your camera case full of chilled Kodak film rolls, your last stash left, and it’s the last piece of equipment you pack before slinging the strap over your shoulder and heading out the door.

Mina had offered to give you a ride to the stadium since your car’s still at the shop, but you’re happy you opted for the bumpy bus ride and although you come close to low-grade concussions from the bang of your head to the window at every other speed bump, the music in your ears while someone else is operating a public transport vehicle helps you think creatively before shooting shots.

It was surprise enough that Mina of all people was going to this game, and when you questioned her about it in the morning, she looked at you like you were absurd to assume anyone from UTokyo wouldn’t be at this game, and sure enough, it’s all anyone on Instagram has been repping on their stories or talking about in the bustling minutes before lectures. Even Utahime was going to this game, and she hates all intercollegiate sports. You knew the game was a big deal, given the way Coach Yaga was yelled at via email by the Dean of UTokyo to make sure the team wins today because a multimillion dollar Nike sponsorship would be greenlit by the prospect (for some reason you were cc’d in an email chain among divisional higher-ups, but you weren’t opposed to snooping in on conversations that were entirely outside of your tax bracket).

It’s because it’s the second to last home game before the season ends, and apparently this has been statistically the best season the UTokyo D1 Men’s Soccer team has played since the new millenia. No pressure to the players on that fact, but failure wasn’t much of an option for them anymore. 

And you can feel the stakes the second you step inside the stadium. Packed would be an understatement, there were people flooding the aisles, overbooked for the sake of the university pocketing an extra buck no doubt, but spectators could care less since they were able to at least get in on the basis of that irresponsibility in the first place, despite the stadium’s capacity having long been reached before the pregame festivities even start. Banners and signs drape over railings with the school’s striking blue and golden colors, every single replay screen is lit up and brightly pixelated at every north, south, east, and west entrance for inclusive viewing. As you pass VIP security and make it into the lower field-level entry, the scattered chants from the crowd amplify in volume and you almost wince a little to yourself from the noise. The stadium felt like a living, breathing entity, pulsing with the collective heartbeat of everyone inside. 

You’ve never been more overstimulated in your life, except instead of finding it frightening, it was electrifying. And for once, you think you can understand what an athlete must feel when playing on their own home turf surrounded by those that are wholeheartedly rooting for them.

Hana is quick to spot you, panic clear across her face as she regards you with a couple pages with your assigned vantage points, a rushed briefing session, and then she’s darting down the sidelines to make sure equipment is set up appropriately where needed. She’s understaffed, given you told Utahime about Kai’s little intervention last week and she made a nasty point to the university (and possibly a handful of legal threats) and they relented in firing him. So now the three of you were down a photographer, and the extra work shows in the instructions she gave you as you skim the sheets. 

A glance at your phone tells you it’s close to 2pm, and your eyes take in the expanse of green on the field. UTokyo’s players practice kicking shots off to the right goal post, while YCU’s players practice shots off to the left. You can’t spot where Gojo is, but you faithfully head down to the East Side entrance like he asked you to. 

When you round the corner, you almost crash right into an Ichiko mascot, but swiftly dodge, and then you stop in your tracks when you see Gojo standing right at the concrete entrance. He’s leaning back against the adjacent wall, arms crossed at his chest, and he’s stretching his neck side to side with a creased brow, an intense look in his eyes, lost in serious thought, scanning the wall across from him like he’s mapping out plays in his head. 

When you approach him and catch the corner of his eyesight, he leans off the wall and flashes you one of his so extremely charmed to see you grins on reflex, and suddenly there’s nothing your senses seem to pick up on except him. Like everything else around you just disappears.

“Hey, you,” he says when he comes up to you, and you walk him like a dog back to a corner that’s tucked further away from noises and sights. You lean your back against the wall now, the coolness of concrete seeping through the fabric of your shirt, and he stands a step in front of you. Your hands toy with the strap of your camera.

“Are you ready to win today?” you ask him, and look off to the right into the flourishing seats that are still being filled to the brim, “clearly there’s no pressure.”

He breathes in deep, and releases it slowly, like there really was tension to relieve. “We’ve got no choice but to win.”

“Is that something Coach Yaga says to you guys often?” you ask him, because the man recited the same thing about five times in that email chain. “Also, apparently you take years off of his life.” Another thing he recited about five times in that email chain.

Gojo only addresses what he wants to address, as per usual. “Yeah, it’s something he says to us often.” 

“So,” you say, “what did you want to talk about?”

He looks at you puzzled, tilting his head to the side. “Nothing. I just wanted to see you.”

It’s hard to assume that he didn’t have something to talk about with the intention of telling you to meet him here, because this is the same place you confessed to him a few weeks ago, and so is also the place he so painfully rejected you. But maybe he doesn’t think about these kinds of things as much as you do. “I see.”

His tongue pokes to his cheek as he studies your anticipating expression, and then he sighs, his shoulders slumping slightly. “What are we doing? I mean, I like you, and you like me too, at least I hope you still do. Why don’t we—…why don’t we just give it a go already? I don’t see how we can move forward if you won’t at least let me take you out on a date.”

Your hands stop fidgeting with your camera strap from his words, and you lick your lips, suddenly unable to keep eye contact with him so your gaze drifts down to his chest in front of you. His uniform is clean, no smudges of dirt or grass, just pure white fabric underneath heat-pressed blue and golden accents, and of course, that signature number 10. You’re sure he’s all you’ll ever think of when you see that number now for the rest of your life. 

You know when you want something so bad you don’t know what to do once you have it? Because it almost seems too good to be true? 

“I just wanted to let stuff between us breathe for a little bit,” you confess, “it’s just, it was a lot to deal with. Being around you when I thought you didn’t want me the way I wanted you. I don’t know if this is odd to say, and maybe I’m overthinking it, but I just feel like somewhere along the way, I kind of…forgot who you were for a little bit.” This kind of vulnerability would have you running away with your tail between your legs with anyone else, but not with him. Not after everything. 

His expression softens, melting away that confrontational energy he had earlier, and he nods slowly. He opens his mouth to speak, but he can’t seem to find words. The presence of them is there, though, you can feel them. But what good are his thoughts if not voiced? 

“I just wanted to spend a little bit of time getting to know you again, I guess.” You squeeze your arm in reassurance of yourself because he wasn’t giving it to you. You let out an awkward laugh. “I don’t really know what I’m saying right now, to be honest.”

You can tell he’s at a crossroads, and you think back to this week and his efforts to get you to open up to him again. You know how he feels right now, because it’s exactly how you felt when he rejected you. Like when someone is so close, yet so far, you can feel that they’re within arms reach but never truly. And they’re slipping away for some reason that you may never know, but all you can do is assume that it’s a fault of your own. You’re not really sure what he can do to make you feel secure about this whole thing anymore, and you can see the slight panic in his eyes when he realizes that too.

“I don’t mind waiting,” he tells you, rushed with a desperation entirely contrary to his words, “what’s a week or two when I want to spend a lot more of those with you anyways.” But he takes a deep breath, like he’s already mentally preparing himself for an agonizing wait in his head.

There’s a sound over the stadium speakers, something technical and sporty and goes entirely over your head in dismissal, but to Gojo it seems to have a different effect, as he’s suddenly attentive and stands up straighter, that focused expression on his face from earlier resurfacing. You realize he needs to get back to the field. 

“Can we continue this conversation after the game?” he asks you hastily, already turning towards the center of the stadium. And he adds an obligatory, “sorry.”

“Yeah, sure,” you quickly agree, suddenly feeling like you’re taking up his time. 

He gives you a small smile, unsure in its presentation but pure in its intention. But he can only take one step towards the field before you reach out and pinch the fabric of his jersey to keep him still. He feels the tug of it and fully faces you once again. 

“Um. Just a sec,” you say, “I have something to give you before your game.”

“Oh?” he looks at you with interest, “I fucking love things.” 

“You have to close your eyes though.”

“…what is the thing…” He squints at you with a what are you up to expression.

“Just close your eyes!” you snap at him.

“Okay, okay, jeez,” he holds his hands up in front of him in surrender, shaking his head to get his hair out of his face and then he closes his eyes. “You’re scary as hell sometimes. Excuse me for being cautious.”

You roll your eyes, useless because he doesn’t see it, and then take a step towards him. You cup his jaw with the palm of your hand, his cheek twitching slightly from the unexpected contact, and then you raise on your tiptoes to press your lips to his cheek. It’s short and sweet with the sound of a peck.

“For good luck,” you whisper, then you quickly lower yourself back onto your heels, take a step back and tuck some strands of hair behind your ear. The ground suddenly interests you.

He opens his eyes, blinking a few times with shock and his hand comes up to brush the tips of his fingers against the spot you kissed him, and then his gaze goes comically dazed when he reaches out to hold you. “Alright, c’mere you,” he says, closing his eyes and puckering his lips as he leans down to kiss you but you laugh and push his face away.

“No no no, only on the cheek for now,” you say with a small laugh.

He does nothing to restrain his frustrated groan. “You can’t do something that cute and then expect me to be chill about it.”

“If you win, then, maybe I’ll let you kiss me for real.”

“Maybe?”

“Yes. Maybe.”

He’s close, towering over you near this bustling east side entrance that he seems to like so much, and his eyes drop to your lips. “Alright. I like those odds.” 

You give him a smile and slip away from him to get back towards the field, and you feel his eyes on you as you walk away.

The pregame events are a blur, with blaring music accompanied by the sounds of the sports announcers clipping across the speakers, finally quieted down in time for the players to line up on the field for the national anthem which was then followed by UTokyo’s alma mater. 

You’re stationed on the same side of the field as Minato, UTokyo’s side, while Hana is covering the sidelines of the opposite end with the opponents goal post. Minato’s filling up a cup of Gatorade for himself at the athlete’s station and then he comes back around to find you.

“Are you ready to take your shots? I see Hana wanted you to shoot on film today,” he says to you as he sloshes around Glacier Freeze in a flimsy plastic cup.

You twist your aperture dial with your thumb. “Yesss, all set. I’ll try to keep up.” 

He nods at you in approval.

The atmosphere feels nerve wracking. Something felt different about this game, the stakes feeling high. Well, of course they’re high, because if they lose today then they’re out of the tournament. But the stakes feel high for other reasons too, an energy you can pick up on but can’t quite discern. 

Your eyes drift across the field where you can see a referee placing a ball at the center of the field. Off to the right, you can see Gojo standing with a few of his other teammates, including Geto, Nanami, and Choso, and they’re all gesticulating to various corners of the field as they discuss what you can only imagine have to do with their plays for today. And you realize— it’s their last college soccer season. Their second-to-last official home match before the championship, and for those of them that haven’t qualified for the national league, it may be their second-to-last match of this caliber for the rest of their lives. One of the final chances that they have to prove something of themselves. The determination was palpable. 

The chief referee’s whistle cuts through the air with three short chirps, and that gathers the attention of all the players on the field. UTokyo wins the coin toss, choosing to kickoff, and YCU’s players choose to attack the left side goal.

Your stomach churns with anticipation, the crowd hushing too as all the players take their places on the field. If you feel nervous, you can only imagine how the athletes feel. There’s a rhythm that you’ve learned over the past couple of months getting to know the sport, where players stretch out their necks and kick out their feet and take subtle deep breaths as they survey the stands. Idle moments before the start of the match where they have no choice but to look forward and only forward, so they take a moment to stay in the present for as long as they can gather. You’ve never been much of a sports spectator, and perhaps you’ve only recently had some personal interest in the team, but you realize you feel pride in your school as you stand behind chalk sideline and see UTokyo’s colors scattered across the field in uniform. And fuck, you wanted them to win. You wanted them to win with fierceness and wrath, and it’s a desire you share with the crowd. 

Gojo spends a minute talking to the referee before the black and white striped man pats him high on the back in the good sport and urges him towards the center of the field. He lifts his foot up onto the ball, rolling it back and forth underneath the spikes of his cleat, and you can see it in his eyes, even from all the way over here, that he seems to have different ideas in mind for this game too. High stakes. Pre-determined, set with will, evident in the clench of his jaw and the concentrated furrow of his brow as he surveys the field with his eyes, and you’re lost in the sight for what feels like forever because you can hardly register the chirp of the ref’s whistle. 

And then the kickoff starts. 

The ball is tapped to Geto to start the play, and the first few minutes were intense as the ball was passed back and forth between UTokyo’s players, placing pressure on YCU’s defense as they inched closer and closer towards the goal. A pass between UTokyo’s #4 was intercepted by YCU and the ball was rushed down towards the left side, the crowd’s horror evident in the uproar as they raise to their feet in fearful anticipation, and with ruthless offense, YCU’s forward takes a clear sink shot towards the goal, and the crowd holds their breath before they watch Choso lunge for it in air, gloved hands firmly grabbing the ball and then pulling it to his chest with a possessiveness you can only expect to see from a skilled goalie, before he crashes down into the ground and the crowd releases relief in the form of rowdy roars.

Ten minutes in, with everyone on their toes, each team tested each other’s defenses. UTokyo were known for stellar offense, especially within the past few years with players like Gojo Satoru and Takuma Ino joining the league as powerful forwards, but UTokyo’s overall offense was still statistically second to none other than YCU. And the pressure YCU was putting on UTokyo’s defense was wearisome to say the least. You glance to see Nanami, who is UTokyo’s best defensive player, huffing and puffing as he stands between two light-footed YCU players in an attempt to guard, and fails an attempt to steal the ball before it gets to the feet of YCU’s striker #6, passed in a split second off to his teammate, with a fake so seamless that it has Choso just a couple inches away from touching the ball before it’s sent flying into the net. 

The noises from the crowd are still loud, but dampened in spirit. 

With the referees hand signal up in the air, the current score is confirmed. 0-1, YCU. 

Coach Yaga calls for a sub, in which he switches Nanami out for who you believe is a 2nd-year defensive player name Yuta you’ve seen around practice with a promising statistical record for interceptions, and you watch as Nanami takes the bench before he swipes the sweat off his face in exhaustion. God. Just fifteen minutes into the match, and YCU already has UTokyo’s defense winded from play. 

You bring your camera up to your face, forgetting for a moment that there was still a job to do here, and you position the direction of the lens towards the center of the field, where Gojo takes his place at the ball once more. Yuta briefly passes by him, signaling some play to him by holding up a number three, likely something Coach Yaga asked him to pass on to Gojo, and you see him briefly nod, his mouth slightly agape as he breathes slowly and pulls his jersey up to wipe at the sweat at his forehead. 

The referee chirps the whistle, Gojo taps the ball to Yuta, and the play starts. 

YCU immediately puts pressure on UTokyo’s offensive play once more, with eager movements to steal the ball, but it’s passed between UTokyo’s players with ease, more practiced and more sure. The kind of play that you and the rest of the school was used to seeing from them. However, Geto loses the ball on a left-back pass, but right when YCU makes attempts to cover field in a long-shot kick towards the left, Yuta intercepts the ball and swiftly passes it to Gojo.

The crowd immediately rises to their feet in anticipation, watching as Gojo shuffles the ball down the field, dangerously close to off-field boundaries, a signature tactic he uses because he knows there’s not a single player in the league that can match him in precision and control to keep the ball in-field on a steal, and he swiftly passes it towards Geto with a side-swept kick, beelining down towards the goal post, in perfect time for Geto pass-back to meet his feet and when Gojo was this close to a net, there was no stopping him. 

He draws his right foot back, and explosively kicks the ball forward, chipping the grass under it in the motion, and it’s sent flying towards the goal, and then threaded past the goalie right to the back of the net. The cheers that erupt across the stadium rumble the ground beneath you. 

1-1, even match.

UTokyo spends no time celebrating, other than a few pats to Gojo’s back as he nods in acknowledgement, no emotion on his face other than pure concentration and greed. The greed to win, like a righteous sin. He stretches his neck out, panting slightly as he takes his place towards the right side of the field and the referee chirps his whistle to signal YCU to start the kickoff.

They quickly make attempts in moving the ball towards their scoring-end of the field, but face push-back from UTokyo’s defense, unable to make it much further past the midfield line, and you bring your camera up to take a snap of Gojo, who you see is still standing off to the right side of the field. But when you position it and peer through the viewfinder, that space he once stood at was empty. You pull your camera down, and blink at the sight, and then the crowd is picking up in volume once more.

Gojo sprints down the flank, cutting past every defender, and moves towards YCU’s attacking goal, which was a shocking place to be for a center forward, but you could feel his desire and determination to steal this back-and-forth ball, and succeeds when YCU makes an open pass, thinking they were in the clear, only to have Gojo sneak in at the last moment and get the ball at his feet. 

The play moves by in a flash, a blur that you or anyone else in the stadium could hardly keep up with it, movements so fast you were shocked a human being was capable of even running that far in such a short amount of time, and in an almost embarrassingly easy play, Gojo makes a fool out of YCU’s defenders as he slips the ball through the legs of his last obstacle before he struck it with sharp precision, sending it soaring to the corner of the goal, past the outstretched arms of the goalie, and into the net. 

2-1, UTokyo.

It was electrifying, the feeling that strikes through the stadium, one that reaches you in your own blood. You’re shocked, standing here, after witnessing Gojo score two goals within the matter of minutes, against one of the top three teams in the league. It’s a shock that reaches everyone, including Coach Yaga who’s standing about ten feet down the line from you, his arms crossed, and you see his eyes for the first time as he takes his sunglasses off to get a better look at what he’s seeing.

You trail his sight, dragging your gaze across the field until it lands at Gojo, who is barely acknowledging the encouraging pats and shakes and goodhearted shoves that his teammates were giving him, because he was focused. It might sound crazy to say, but you swear his eyes looked like a fiercer shade of blue, like they were lit up, and you’re insanely glad you’re not one of YCU’s defensive players at the moment because you feel fearful of him even just standing on the sidelines. 

Your gaze trails back to Coach Yaga, who slowly puts his sunglasses back on but his brows are narrowed tightly as he crosses his arms over his chest tightly.

The “athletic zone”... You’ve heard of it before. A state of pure focus, of peak performance, where an athlete experiences optimal concentration and a sense of effortless control over their actions. In which they perform at their highest level, where time slows down, any and all distractions fade away, and they’re completely immersed in their sport at hand. At the task at hand.

Coach Yaga seems to pick up on the fact that Gojo was on the edge of tapping into that state. 

YCU makes a substitution, and you watch in anticipation as they begin the kickoff. 

There’s fire in their veins with desperation to even out the score once more, rushing the ball down the off-field line, one of their center forwards mimicking Gojo’s signature attack pattern, and Yuta struggles to keep up with the expert dribbling of a fourth-year player with more experience on him, so much so to where he completely leaves the ball unguarded and there’s an open shot, but Geto places pressure at the last moment, in a fierce battle for the ball, before YCU’s center forward loses the ball over the goal line. 

Choso picks the ball up, tapping on it harshly a few times as he surveys his eyes down the field, and all offensive players begin to shuffle towards their attacking goal in anticipation for the goal kick. He signals his hand down and then holds up two fingers in the air before placing the ball down on the six-yard box. He tightens the strap of one of his gloves, eyes squinting, and you follow his gaze down to a part of the field where you note UTokyo’s best aerial players are located and being guarded by YCU’s defense. And with complete trust in his team, that’s exactly where he kicks the ball. 

Geto makes first contact with the ball, his chest colliding with two other YCU players as his head comes out on top and he headbutts the ball closer towards the inner field, and Gojo immediately gains access to it with a bounce of his knee. The crowd holds their breath, fear that they’ll lose the ball to a steal in the split second it spends floating in the air, but Gojo urges it forward with a bounce off of his chest and then rushes it straight down towards the goal post. 

You wonder what sight he sees right now. Where you’re dead center, at no angle, lunging towards the sight of an open goal with a sole goalie standing in the center, anticipating to block your shot, and three defenders on your tail. There’s no room for error, no time to think, only instincts that you cultivate in the last leading milliseconds. They say that, in sports, athletes channel one hundred hours of practice in just a brief second on the field. A split second success that was years in the making. You can’t even imagine possessing that level of perfection in your body, or possessing that level of confidence that you can follow through with it in a moment as dire as this.

It was unreal, the way Gojo fades away from all the defenders, and faces no fear when confronted with the sight of the goalie in front of him while drawing his foot back to kick the ball. You lift your camera up at the last second, no time to think about aperture or ISO, just like he had no time to second-doubt a single twitch in his muscles, and his foot makes contact with the ball so harshly that you can hear the explosive sound even among the delirious cheers from the crowd, before he hook, line, and sinks it straight past the goalie’s head, rushing by like a scarcely deflected bullet, and into the net behind him. 

3-1, UTokyo.

The whole stadium is momentarily speechless, all players and referees and recruiters and reporters and coaches and employees alike, before the most deafening cheers you’ve ever heard in your life scatter across the stands.

There’s a moment of brief reprieve, where the players can catch their breath while YCU makes yet another substitution, as if they’re just trial-and-erroring it at this point, and the cheers in the stadiums remain idle as you can’t tear your gaze away from Gojo.

It’s one of those moments where you realize that someone who you thought was so familiar to you was actually someone you hardly knew at all. You knew he was a talented soccer player, everyone on campus knows it, potentially one of the best to ever grace the league, and the amount of times you passively watched his plays on a lecture hall projector screen as your professor enthusiastically broke them down during class, even before you met him, was good enough for you to realize that he was insane, a one-in-a-million, a talent you cannot replicate, one you have by divinity. One you were born with. 

And yet, somehow, getting to know him these past couple of months, he just felt so human. For someone so seemingly beyond you, he felt so…close? In those moments where it was just the two of you, it was hard to imagine that he was capable of such greatness, and that so many people were rooting for him with wholehearted tears in their eyes and cheers from their hearts, because most of the time, when he was with you, he was just a dorky idiot. You find that your heart is beating fast in your chest, that feeling of being unsure of what to do with what you’ve been wanting resurfacing powerfully. 

“This is insane,” you hear Minato say from beside you and you jump a little from your thoughts being interrupted.

You twiddle with your camera straps. “I know…almost done with the first half and we’re up 3-1…I thought YCU are number one in offense for the league?”

“Oh, yeah, I mean, yes, that is insane too. But what’s even more insane is that three of the goals so far have been scored by one player.” He tips his chin towards the right sight of the field and you trail his line of sight. “By Gojo Satoru.”

Your brow furrows as you watch Gojo, his hands on his hips and his mouth slightly open as he indulges in a few shallow breaths to gain energy while YCU prepares for kickoff. Three goals, by just one player. Your eyes widen when you realize that is insane, especially for a D1 semi-final qualifying match.

“You know what the divisional record is for most goals scored by a single player during a championship match, y/n?” Minato asks you as he lifts his camera up to take a picture of the area Gojo was standing in. 

You shake your head and wait for his response.

He drops his camera down and glances at the photo on his screen. “Four. During Keio Uni vs. Osaka Uni, near the beginning of the tournament back in 1997 by Osaka’s center forward number 24, Yuji Nakazawa. Meaning no one’s managed to beat that record since the new millenia, for a couple decades. Although a few players came close.”

You blink at him, and Minato is jerking his chin over in the direction of Gojo again.

“I think he’s trying to beat the record.”

You can only widen your eyes at Minato in realization, and then the chirp of the referee’s whistle draws everyone’s attention back to the field. 

The sports announcers go wild on the speakers, the crowd raving all the same, standing to their feet like the team just won the championship match.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! We are watching HISTORY in the making!! Gojo Satoru, UTokyo’s very own 3-year consecutive MVP, has scored his 34th goal of the season, highest of any player in this year’s season so far, and is now on the road to beat the league’s long-standing record for most goals scored by a single player in a championship match since 1997!!” And the crowd roars even louder as you stare out at the field in awe.

YCU starts the kickoff following the prompt short chirp of the referee’s whistle, and with two minutes remaining on the clock for the first half, make desperate attempts to book it down the field towards their attacking goal, one of their midfielders making a clumsy attempt to strike the ball to the net in the final minutes of the half, and Choso easily catches it in his arms, right before the buzzer of the timer sounds, and the match moves into halftime. 

All of UTokyo’s players immediately flock towards Gojo in sportful glee, finally having a chance to surround him and harass him with harsh pats on his back and ruffles of his hair for his play in the first half. Choso even puts him in a headlock because they all don’t know what else to do with their excitement and adrenaline rushing through their bodies. Their win for today was basically confirmed with the way he was playing. 

You catch a glimpse of him through the crowd of people, and he has a boyish grin on his face, reveling in the embarrassing amount of attention from his teammates, that focused look from before dissolving into his normal self again. But you can see through him, as well enough as you’ve learned to at least, and you can tell he’s not satisfied. He’s thinking it’s not enough. There’s still more to be done, and it’s not time to celebrate yet. 

His eyes scan down the sideline until they find you. 

Your heart jumps a second in your chest. He stands up straighter, despite his teammates still clinging to him, and there’s a twinkle in his eyes when your eyes meet. 

Cheerleaders take their place out onto the field, performing their numbers with loud music blaring, and the recruiters seated at their white tables get up to roam across the sidelines in discussion with referees and with Coach Yaga and with whatever players they can sink their greedy teeth into, as well as sneak at refreshments while they’re at it. You can see off to the right that Hana has reunited with Minato and she’s showing him some of the shots she took over at the opponent's side. 

UTokyo’s players start to make their way to the benches to grab for towels and drinks of water and to sprawl across in rest, and you hear loud familiar laughter approaching as you watch the players sprawl across the benches, so you avert your eyes towards the source of the sound. 

You see Gojo approaching the benches, two of his teammates slung with their arms around him in some type of adrenaline-drunken glee as they talk dramatically and theatrically which Gojo entertains with his own drunk-off-of-adrenaline glee. And you raise an eyebrow at his demeanor when he makes eye contact with you.

“There’s my freaky little photographer,” he says, and he’s standing up straight and—wait, is he puffing his chest out as he makes his way towards you? Oh for fucks sake.

Gojo has always been confident around you, for as long as you can remember, but in the fair few moments he’s been cocky, he’s been a menace. And you can only assume the testosterone-induced high of being on the verge of breaking a league record in front of the entire school then subsequently getting homiesexually praised by his teammates for the better part of the past five minutes, not to mention with the crowd and the reporters feeding his ego with a spoon across the speakers, he’s been transformed into the final boss of cocky.

His teammates surround you too, their hands on their hips as they assess you and Gojo when he meanders right up to you, arms held out to hug you, a sleazy sight you’ve seen probably six times this week, and you feel a rush of warmth in your cheeks as you place a hand on his chest to keep him away.

“You’re sweaty and gross, please stay away from me,” you reprimand him, “this is an expensive lens that is not humidity-proof.” 

“Hey, you’re the girl that Kentaro socked in the face with a ball the other day at practice, right?” one of his teammates asks, leaning in towards you to take a closer look at your face.

“Oh yeahhh, ‘cause Satoru wasn’t paying attention,” another one of his teammates chimes in teasingly, hardly heard over the loud remix playing in the background as the cheerleaders continue to perform on the field. 

You shrink a little from where you stand. Gojo’s got an irritated look on his face and he’s shrugging his teammate’s elbow off of his shoulder.

“I really hope you’re getting my good angles,” his teammate to the left comments before winking at you, and you purse your lips together. 

The one on the right leans in too, looking at your cheek with an assessing look in his eye. “At least it didn’t leave a scar on your cute face—”

Gojo shoves the both of them back and away from you by elbowing them in the chest, and they make deep eugh noises before stepping away and rubbing at their sternums with pouts on their faces.

“Get the fuck away from her,” he grumbles, “she’s mine.”

Your cheeks flush slightly with warmth at the attention, and you watch as his teammates scurry away to adhere to some social hierarchy Gojo seems to possess over them.

You raise an eyebrow at him. “Yours?”

“Yes. Eventually. Whatever, did you see me out there?” he turns his torso towards the field and points behind himself with his thumb, “when I—”

“Oh god, you know what’s soooooooooo super sexy to me?” you interrupt him. “When guys are humble.”

“Oh c’monnn,” he curls his arm around your waist and pulls you to him, to where you stumble a little on grass and he holds you when you fall into him with more clumsiness than grace. “Tell me you aren’t at least impressed by me.”

You pout, because you are, and you’d really like to give him some reassurance and validation, but for some reason his cocky attitude is setting you off. “Satoru,” you sigh, wiggling a little in his hug, but he holds you tighter, “I’m working right now. Cut it out.”

He lets go of you at that, sober enough from the adrenaline to realize you’re being serious, but he steps into your space so only you can hear him. “What? Are you embarrassed?”

“Of what?” Your face twists with confusion.

“Of me. Are you embarrassed of me?” he asks.

“No. Why would I be embarrassed of you?” you ask with sharpness.

“I don’t know, just, sometimes I feel like you’re always annoyed by me,” he says with a sigh. “It’s like, you’re really sweet sometimes, and then kinda rude out of nowhere, and it’s sort of messing with my head.”

You pout. “You were messing with my head for weeks.”

“And I’m sorry about that,” he quickly interjects, like he already knew you were brewing up that counterargument, “but you don’t have to act like you’re all disinterested and indifferent just to get back at me for it.” He places his hands on his hips and wipes his temple on the round part of his shoulder when he feels a drop of sweat trickle down from his hairline. “You don’t have to act embarrassed around me either.”

“I’m not embarrassed,” you deny, and your cheeks feel hot, and for some reason you feel angry. “In fact, I’m the one that should be asking you that question. Because I still very clearly remember that time you said I was just someone you know in front of your friends.”

He groans and tilts his head back with frustration. “Can you just let that go? Things have changed between us since then. Move on.” 

“You kissed me and then pretended I was just a stranger to you in front of your friends,” you grit as you cross your arms. “That’s the level of sincerity that I know from you, Satoru.”

“Oh, okay, so there’s nothing else I’ve done that shows you that I’m serious about you?” he asks rhetorically with incredulity, throwing his hands up in the air in disbelief.

No. That’s not true, not true at all. But he’s pissed you off now and so all logic was to the wind. “Doesn’t matter. If you’re not embarassed of me, and if you’re really serious about me this time, then fucking prove it.” You’re speaking out of spite, and you fear you’ve just set him off too.

“Fine,” he says, and he grabs the microphone straight out from a passing reporter’s hand, replacing it with a gatorade bottle. The reporter stares at the bottle he’s now holding with confusion. “I will.”

“W-Wait—” you squeak out, feeling the hair at the back of your neck bristle in anticipation and a shiver gets sent down your spine. The cheerleaders are making their way off the field at the end of their routine, and you can hear the thumps across the loud boisterous speakers when Gojo whacks his palm to the microphone to make sure the thing was on before he jogs to the center of the field.

The crowd is already cheering, ecstatic to see the afternoon's star player and pride & joy of their school, and Gojo takes a moment to soak in all the glory in comical appreciation with bowing towards all 360 degree angles of the stadium.

“Uhhh,” you hear Choso from beside you, who’s strapping his thick goalie gloves tightly to his wrists, “Why the fuck does Satoru have a microphone while standing in the middle of the field.”

“It can’t be for any publicly decent reason,” Geto muses.

All you can do is watch.

“Hi, uh,” Gojo starts, static blaring slightly across the speakers and the crowd winces with him, “sorry. I’m Satoru, Gojo Satoru, you might know me from—uh, the game you’ve been watching?”

Cheers all around, because as if a single person wouldn’t know who he is. The stands were rowdy and most definitely drunk off of sidestep beers the stadium has been serving all afternoon long. 

Gojo is about to continue speaking, when he catches sight of the table of recruiters in the corner of his eye and he turns to face them out of respect. “Oh, yeah, uh, number 10,” he tugs his jersey up at the shoulder to stretch out the fabric, the 1 and the 0 flattened in view, “division player ID 233-997. Coach Yaga keeps my business cards in his purse if you want one.”

“SAAAAATTOOORRUUUU!!!!!” you hear Coach Yaga yell from somewhere in the distance.

“Anywho,” Gojo continues, and the music dims slightly, so he glances at the stop clock on the screen, which shows him he’s got roughly five minutes left to pull off whatever idiocracy he had in mind before the second half of the game starts. “Just here to say that there’s this girl I really like.”

The crowd gets louder, almost deafening, and sonically mostly feminine in (delusional) hope he’s gonna name call one of them.

Gojo’s voice is crisp and clear through the speakers as he clarifies. “She’s standing over there,” he says as he nonchalantly points to your exact latitude and longitudinal direction, “with the big camera slung around her neck that looks like it could pull her down to the center of the earth. Yeah. She’s super cute and I really like talking to her.”

“Uh-oh,” Geto murmurs from beside you, and you glance at him to try to get a read on the situation but you can’t.

Gojo starts to pace across the center of the field now, like he’s working the crowd. “But get this—she thinks I’m not fuckin’ serious about her!!!”

The crowd groans with him in unison. Yep, most certainly drunk. Or high off of glee. Either way, he’s playing them like a violin.

“Huh?” Gojo’s voice sounds distant now, away from the mic, and you can see on the large pixelated screen that he’s being interrupted by someone that looks like one of the videographers, “oh, what’s that? This is being broadcasted? Uh-huh. Oh. I’m not allowed to cuss? Oh fuck, okay. Er— shit, okay. Wait—shoot, okay.”

Choso’s smirk is heard from beside you, and you catch Geto and Nanami shaking their heads in your periphery.

“LIKE I SAID,” Gojo continues into the mic, “the girl I like thinks I’m just messing around, so. Uh. To show her that I’m serious about her, I’m gonna…” He looks up at the sky to ponder, and you can hear people shouting all sorts of suggestions of nonsense from the crowd. And instead of saying proclaim my undying affection for her through a romantic soliloquy straight from my heart in the presence of the entire school, he says—“I’m gonna strip. Yes. Down to my tighty whities, Imma strip.”

H–

Huh?!?!?

You don’t even have time to be horrified or scared, you’re just bewildered beyond belief that that’s what he came up with.

What the fuck kind of reassurance did you ask for. And what the fuck kind of reassurance were you about to get?

The crowd goes wild, it’s no surprise to say everyone and their mothers wants to see him naked, even the straight dudes would dig it for the gym inspo. And he points straight to you, sleazy look on his face and you’re going to ignore the fact that he just winked at you too as he crosses his arms to hold the hem of his jersey and pulls it up over his head in the most raunchy and slutty way a man can take his shirt off.

The music manager is quick with the bit, and is most definitely a fellow Gen Z college student, because Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack (ft. Timbaland) starts playing across the speakers and the crowd goes ballistic.

“Ayo why’s Satoru Magic Mike’ing the field right now?” one of his other teammates calls out through a mouthful of protein bar, “What the fuck did I miss?”

The cameraman does God’s work in a hella zoom-in of Gojo’s sweat glistened abs, then pans up the naked expanse of the perfect taut skin across his chest, and you can’t help but stare even among all your horror. It’s like when a male bird embarrasses the fuck outta himself to attract a female bird sitting on a perch, except instead of within the context of a NatGeo documentary, this was your real life. Everyone wants him, but he’s making a fool out of himself for you. 

He pretends to stretch his arms up into the air, a cover-up to flex his biceps, and then he kicks his cleats off, and the socks come off too. Entirely unnecessary, as showing one's ankles is simply too slutty, but alas he’s a whore. And when his thumbs dip into the waistband of his shorts, and there’s anticipating screeching from the crowd, he finally gets chased by security. 

Except he’s an intercollegiate D1 athlete, why the fuck wouldn’t he be able to outrun a bunch of dudes in black?

The camerawork on him is phenomenal as he runs across the sidelines of the field, eliciting a wave down the bleachers. So good in fact that you’re pretty sure the camera man could shoot for the Olympic track and field, with the way the stadium’s got a clear sight of Gojo mouthing the lyrics Them other fuckers don’t know how to act from the song still blaring with satirical rage on his face as he makes a fool of the men chasing him around the perimeter of the field.

And then he does it, drops his shorts, discards them with a kick, and he’s down to his tighty whities as promised. Cameraman has got to be displaying some previously undiscovered level of talent as he zeroes in on a shot of said tighty whities, with Gojo’s—forgive me, I need to be crass—huge bulge prominent in Big Dick Energy fashion except his tighty whities have little red hearts in rows across the fabric so do with that duality what you will.

He’s outrun security with a steady grin on his face as he eats up the drunken crowd’s cheers and riots and roars and you feel like you’re the only sane person in this stadium, or maybe you’re just not used to the fanatics of a college sports crowd. You peep the men in black trailed all the way on the left side of the field where they abandoned their pursuit of Gojo.

He taps imaginary pockets at his thighs, very muscular thighs you take indulgence in noticing, as if he expected to find something there, and he looks around when he doesn’t. He shrugs and grabs the microphone of the next passing sports commentator he spots, and then he makes his way back to you.

His breathing is a little shallow, and he inhales deep to catch his breath. “Baby.” The crowd SCREAMS at the way he purrs the word into the mic. “Will you do me the honor,” he’s huffing and puffing, heard across blaring speakers, “of being my lawfully wedded girlfriend?” And then he holds the mic to your lips.

“W-Wha—” you stutter, and there’s chanting across the crowd with words that barely make sense until you finally realize they’ve started to yell say yes! say yes! say yes! “Oh my gosh, okay, yes, fine, now please, for the love of god, put some freaking clothes on!”

The crowd goes wild with cheerful glees, and Gojo shoots fists up in the air in celebration as he runs all the way towards the center of the field with high knees, and you’re gawking at the sight, before he falls backward onto the grass and makes delirious snow angels on the ground. You see Coach Yaga’s vein popping in his neck from pure agitation as he storms off towards the center of the field to knock some sense into Gojo, but you know that Coach Yaga can’t kick him out, because they still have a game to win. The perks of being the most valued player in the league is getting to act like an absolutely insane idiot because you know they still need you in the end to bring it home.

You glance to the right, seeing his teammates nodding slowly then getting back to wrapping athletic tape around ankles and stretching out shoulders, with immediate acceptance of his actions like it wasn’t even out of character for him to do. And you realize again that you don’t know Gojo as well as you think you do.

And then the halftime timer is up.

You see Gojo approach the benches in a quick jog, squeezing some water into his mouth with his green gatorade squirt bottle, and when your eyes flit up to the screens on all four entrances, you see that the cameramen are still all focused on him accompanied by the continued buzz of conversation among the crowd following his public spectacle. But he seems to already be past any semblance of embarrassment as he takes the attention with ease, before he glances up to make eye contact with you and then lightly jogs right up to you.

“Did that prove to you that I’m not embarrassed of you?” he asks you, cocking a brow with a smug look on his face as he gets all up in your personal space. 

“I don’t know, but I’m certainly thoroughly and expeditiously embarrassed of you now,” you say, cheeks feeling flush when he leans forward so he can make eye contact with you at eye level. “I’ll have to move to a different country.”

His grin is relaxed. “Yeah well you asked for it.”

“Maybe. But I underestimated what a lunatic you are.”

“You’re my girlfriend now, you’ve gotta get used to it.”

Your heart skips a beat in your chest. “Satoru–”

“Tomorrow,” he cuts you off, “Hinode pier. I’ll pick you up at six. It’s a date, so wear something cute. And preferably easy to take off.” And then he���s attentive to the chirp of the referee’s whistle in the air before jogging backwards towards the feel and eventually turns on his heel towards the field while you’re left with warm cheeks and a heart that felt like it was moving at a mile a minute.

The timer for the second half refreshes on the screen while you loosely hold your camera in your shaking hands. It occurs to you that you haven’t taken a single photo of him before the start of the kickoff, and so you bring the piece of consolidated metal up to your eyes, peering through the viewfinder and focusing it on the center of the field. And there he was. Your muse.

Gojo lets out a breath, which you can see even from here that it’s shaky and staggered with resistance, and he lifts his jersey up to swipe at the sweat trickling down his face as he eyes the ball underneath YCU’s player’s foot just prior to the start of the second half. There it was—that look again of pure focus. 

3-1, forty-five minutes on the clock. And the referee chirps the whistle to start the second half.

It’s immediately evident that YCU has returned to the field following halftime with renewed energy, pressing high down the flank relentlessly past UTokyo’s defense, so fast it was hard for anybody to even keep a steady eye on the ball with the fluidity of their passes. The persistence pays off in the fake double-pass that slips past Geto’s feet, a moment of hesitation in the broken flow of UTokyo’s defense, and one of YCU’s strikers has the perfect line of shot towards the goal before digging his foot under the ball and sending it flying towards the corner of the goal post, scoring themselves a goal within just the first five minutes of play.

3-2.

The pressure mounts at the next kickoff, and with about seven minutes of solid play, with back-and-forth passes, multiple attempts at both goal posts to no avail on either side, it was clear that exhaustion was bustling in the veins of all the players.

One of YCU’s offensive players seems to capitalize on this, jumping on a defensive lapse of a pass Nanami attempted to make towards Yuta, and the ball is swiftly stolen then raced back towards the goal post. Choso prepared himself at the line, light on his feet paired with a solid stance, but in a millisecond of a moment, YCU’s offense unexpectedly passes the ball to a player racing up the midfield, and the player chips the ball neatly into the exposed corner of the goal despite Choso’s attempt to lunge for it in mid air.

Equalized, 3-3 game, momentary shock across the players’ faces, and the crowd bustles with something that sounds less like glee and more life fear. YCU was prepared to live up to and hold onto their title as the league’s number one offense, and as Minato explained to you during your time working in this job, an offensive team isn’t good at scoring goals, but rather exceptional at breaking down the other team’s defense.

Your eyes zero in on Geto, who stands in the center of the field for kickoff, and he’s huffing and puffing. He's the lead of defense for the team, and you can only imagine the level of pressure he feels right now. He glances around to his players, over to Nanami who seemed to share the same level of exhaustion, and then he glances towards Gojo who stood in front of him off to the right. Except you notice that Gojo looks relaxed, albeit still exhausted, but there’s a composed expression on his face even in the moment of heightened stakes. With locked eyes, Geto nods at Gojo and raises two fingers up into the air to signal a play, of which Gojo seems to respond to by closing more distance between him and the goal post prior to the kickoff, positioning himself almost directly in front of it, to which YCU’s defense immediately begin to guard him in a tight radius. 

The kickoff begins, with Geto making a few passbacks with Nanami as they close distance towards the field before passing it off to UTokyo’s string of offense and then receding back to their defending goal. UTokyo continues to close distance, raising stakes for YCU as their defense begins to falter under pressure, and the ball gets passed to Gojo, who only keeps it in possession for less than three seconds before he passes it back to Yuuji, a risky decision to make in the second half of a semifinal match, but the first-year swiftly unleashes a powerful shot that rockets past YCU’s goalkeeper, up towards the corner, except–

It bounces off the metal of the goal post, shot off with projectile speed back towards the center of the field, but with razor-sharp reflexes, Gojo headbutts the ball in air, twists his torso and strikes the ball with his foot past a dumbfounded goalie who can’t even move an inch to guard the ball that he already knew was going to sink right into the goal, and that’s exactly what it does. 

The stadium erupts with the momentum.

4-3, UTokyo. 

It was a sweet moment, one you manage to capture on camera of Gojo running up to Yuuji and ruffling his hair in reassurance, despite the missed goal. Your heart feels warm in your chest, feeling your own sense of melancholy that this was one of the last times they’ll ever get to play together on a team. 

Your eyes widen when you glance at the scoreboard, realizing that he’s tied. Gojo is tied for the most goals scored during a championship match. There were less than three minutes left on the clock. UTokyo either preserves their lead, or they risk moving into overtime, which, judging by the exhaustion on the UTokyo players’ faces in the wake of YCU’s relentless offense this entire game, moving into overtime would be a hefty, hefty risk. 

YCU’s center forward takes his place in the center of the field, fire evident in his eyes as he glances across the field. YCU are light on their feet, channeling everything in their bodies into these last moments of the game as they prepare to start the kickoff. You glance across UTokyo’s players, and although they look spent, there was a resolute look to all of them. It wasn’t the time to give up or feel at ease even near the end of this grueling battle. Now was the time to play. 

The referee chirped his whistle, and the kickoff began.

YCU immediately presses hard, as all their other plays have been all game, in their desperation to score. You can already see UTokyo’s midfielders move sluggishly in comparison to YCU’s offense, a drag to their feet as YCU pushes past the first layer of defense towards their attacking goal. Geto takes an aggressive approach, making moves to steal the ball while Nanami and Yuta guarded both flanks, and there was a relentless pass-off happening that ate up more than a minute of the remaining time.

Nanami succeeds in stealing the ball, but immediately loses it under his feet by a YCU midfielder, who makes a broad pass down the sidelines to YCU’s star forward who then powerfully kicks the ball towards the unguarded area of their goal, a dangerous shot that was clear towards the crossbar and Choso makes a leap for it, high into the air, his glove brushing against the ball, the entire crowd holding their breath in anticipation–

And the ball lands in the net. 

4-4, tied game. With one minute and seventeen seconds left on the clock. 

There was no time wasted in getting back to center field. No time spent dwelling in the horrific roars of the crowd as they watch with anxiety and fear. No time spent to process or consider or signal any plays. Not even a single second used to catch breath. When there is this much at stake, an athlete thrives on momentum. 

To your surprise, Gojo isn’t the one that takes place at the center of the field to start the kickoff. Yuta stands there instead, and you notice his eyes are erratic as he surveys all corners of the field. 

The referee chirps his whistle. 

Yuta immediately passes it off to the side to UTokyo’s midfielder, who curls it towards their attacking goal with a swift pass to Ino, who closes distance towards the goal, but one of YCU’s defender slips in, undoing any progress they had made in their offense by stealing the ball and sending it back towards mid-field. Forty-three seconds. The crowd’s roars heightened as YCU continued to push forward, thirty yards now from scoring, and UTokyo’s defense was desperate to stop them but their momentum was cracking in the wake of their exhaustion. 

It was a moment you don’t think you could ever fully or truly recall, one that you wish you had focused all your energy and attention to so that you could commit it to memory for the rest of your life. The image of Gojo pushing all the way to ten yards before their defending goal, a place where no center forward should really be at in a game like this, but it was exactly what their defense needed. It was exactly what the team needed. It was exactly what the school needed. For the ball to be in his possession.

With twenty-two seconds left on the clock, he steals the ball from right under YCU’s offensive feet, and then charges towards the opposite side of the field. The crowd rises to their feet, thunderous roaring that overtook any and all senses, as Gojo weaves through forwards, center forwards, midfielders, and defenders, covering the entire span of the field in lightning time. Fifty yards, forty yards, thirty yards, twenty hards, ten yards–

In a moment you couldn’t believe, he digs his foot underneath the ball, and sends it flying out towards the goal. There was not even a margin of an inch in which it slipped past the goalie’s hands, past his head, and swiftly flew right into the net.

With three-two-one seconds, the match was over. 

5-4, UTokyo’s win.

The final whistle blew, and for a moment, there was silence. As if the world paused to catch its breath. Then, all at once, the crowd erupted with glee that shook the entire stadium at its core. Flags waving, scarves held high, toasts of beer held up to the sky, it was deafening, and it almost makes you want to cry. Thousands of voices shouting in unison, celebrating the hard-fought victory of their school’s team. A type of pride that was fostered, and well-deserved, and long-lived.

You quickly glance towards the field again, and see Gojo standing right at the same spot where he had kicked the last and final goal, staring towards the net. You can’t see the expression on his face, but it surprises you how still he is. Like a statue, staring at the goal with the ball tucked into its corner. The very epitome of what it means to succeed in this sport was right in front of him, and it seemed like he wanted to soak the visual in for as long as he could.

His trance is abruptly interrupted when his teammates swarm in, rushing over like a wave of pure adrenaline. They slap him on the back, ruffle his hair, shout his name, the sounds of gleeful disbelief mixed with exhausted sighs of relief swarming into the air. And Gojo finally melts away from the tension of the match and into the celebration as he weakly returns the embraces of his teammates while he catches his breath. 

“IT’S OFFICIAL!! IT’S OFFICIAL!! UTOKYO’S VERY OWN GOJO SATORU HAS OBLITERATED OSAKA UNIVERSITY’S RECORD FOR MOST GOALS SCORED BY A SINGLE PLAYER IN A CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH!!” 

The speakers are blaring the voices of the sports announcers, along with ambient music to match the intensity of the match that everyone had just witnessed. 

You should probably be doing your job. You know, take a picture of the huddle of players on the field as they bask in the glory of a close victory, but instead your feet start moving on their own. Like a magnet drawn to him, you make your way towards Gojo, only a slight hesitation in your step as you stop about ten feet away, suddenly unsure. But when he makes eye contact with you, all that fear melts away.

He hastily pats the backs of some of his teammates, acknowledging their praise at the center of the huddle before tightly squeezing past them to make his way over to you. Your heart is beating fast in your chest, feeling an almost overwhelming sense of pride in your school’s team, but more importantly, in him. What was the acceptable thing to do? Run to him, into his arms, and hug him while he twirls you around? Tackle him to the grassy ground? Kiss him like your life depended on it? You have no clue what the acceptable or sane or normal thing to do is. But he’s made his decision for you when he walks right up to you, his hands holding your waist as he pulls you towards him. He smells earthy, of grass and salt and sweat and of all the hard work he poured into today, the wear and tear of the game evident in the wear and tear of his jersey. He only manages to huff out an exhale at the sight of you, like some relief washing over him just by looking into your eyes. Forget the fact that the crowd was all watching and that all of the screens you could see past his head were focused on the two of you, because all you could hear or see or think was him.

“I believe you owe me a kiss,” he says, huffing as he catches his breath but that doesn’t stop the smile that makes its way onto his face.

You nod your head, giving him your own version of a sweet smile as your arms slide up past his shoulders, crossing behind his neck, and he leans down to kiss you.

You hear a swell from the crowd, some teasing comments off in the distance from some of his teammates, you’re pretty sure you hear Coach Yaga yelling at him to get back to the benches, but it all melts away with the feeling of him smiling against your lips as he kisses you at the center of this stadium.

It was a moment so pure, so sweet, so picture perfect, and for once, you’re not the one behind the camera taking the photo. You’re the one that’s in it.

.

.

.

.

.

[end of kickoff ch12]

a/n. aaa thanks a lot for reading!! pls the fucking public stripping scene was so stupid i apologize on behalf of kickoff gojo for his behavior 😂😂 i’ll put him in his cage dw this chapter had some of what i consider to be the most challenging aspects of writing for me (internal conflict, grand public gesture, sports jargon) and so writing it felt like an uphill battle the ENTIRE time i wrote it and edited it. i considered scrapping it sooo many times cuz i just wasn't happy w it...but whatever i can't expect to be 100% happy w every chapter i put out there haha. i think kickoff has become a lil sacred for me since i've been working on it for a while now but likeee...sometimes u just gotta say fuck it we ball (tbh kickoff gojo probably says that to himself before a match) anywho, i am veryy thoroughly excited for what i've got planned for the chapters to follow, especially moving into the last angsty arc before the end of the series!! so i look forward to picking up momentum w this series again :0 honestly chapters 10 through 12 were the most difficult things i've written so far for a lot of reasons, but i have a feeling things will go more smoothly for me creatively going forward since what i've got planned falls well within my writing comfort range oh also there seems to be a little confusion about the number of chapters left, as i know i had originally said 12, but i anticipate that there will be about 18 chapters of kickoff total!! so still around six chapters left before the end :)) much lovee thanks for reading!!

OH WAIT ONE LAST NOTE I'M SORRY i didn’t really have a way of organically incorporating this into the story n i’m not sure if i’ll get a chance to in the upcoming chapters, so i just wanted to share this part of ch7 (gojo’s pov chapter) that is relevant to this chapter:

During the thrilling semifinal match between Keio Uni, Gojo’s father’s team, and Yokohama Uni during the end of his senior year, spectators witnessed a game that most college soccer enthusiasts would deem was a once-in-a-lifetime watch. Both teams engaged in relentless offense, and Gojo’s father was on his way to shatter the record of the most goals scored in a single championship match within the history of the league, but when he received a call from his wife during a timeout with the most life-altering news he could have ever heard, he abandoned everything on the field that day to go home and be with her. Grainy footage from the televised broadcast still exists online today—the moment he sprinted across the field, confused players glancing in his direction, amidst the uproar of the crowd. She called to let him know she was pregnant. 

the record that gojo broke in this chapter is the same record that his father almost broke before he got the call that he was going to be a dad :0 

➸ you're all caught up!

additional notes. please do not pressure me for updates or ask when i will next update (read rules); taglist is currently closed (consider subscribing to the story on my ao3 for email updates if you'd like! :0)

taglist:

@megumisdivinedogs @witchbybirth @avatarl0v3r @mwtsxri @asherheed

@wynney @delulux3 @higurumapet @zombriesworld @xenop0p

@phoenix-eclipses @who-can-touch-my-boob @mo0nforme @reagan707 @lost-resonance

@foulprincesscycle @luniunia @alekssashka7 @beabadobeee @thexmistress

@tsukikourito @pickuptruck01 @gabriiiiiiii @4y3sh4 @tiredflame132

@cliosunshine @btszn @izayas-rings @semra4 @ethereally-lyann

@drthymby @bbyxxm @fvsm4x @sadmonke @zoinks1010

@joemama-2 @horisdope @banenemilk @nanasukii28 @spindyl

@ri-sa20 @thexmistress @mwtsxri @ritsatoru @sashisuslover

@chwesuh-imnida @megumisthirdog @imjustaweirdnerd @angelicscribe

[taglist is closed]

[amee-racle-ofmyown]

Restless, Respite

my take on the final scene of the Hold On ending | Head Engineer Mark x The Captain (can be read as platonic) | Words: 1,232 | read on AO3

basically I was thinking far too much about how we are presumably the last to wake up that final time (besides the colonists) and how it seems like the crew has been up for a while and how engineer Mark might be feeling about that (not good)

The Head Engineer tapped his fingertips anxiously on the rim of his coffee mug.

The Captain hadn't woken up yet.

It had been a good half hour of the Invincible II’s various personnel filling the bridge and every other area of the ship. The crew leads conferred with each other and their respective teams to ensure everything was fully functional and ready to move on to the next phase of the mission. The entire crew was bustling, eager to set foot on their new home, the promise of a new life awaiting them.

Still, the Captain did not stir.

Despite assurance from the computer AI that all systems were nominal, Mark had checked every major system personally, and with a little more caution than usual. If anyone noticed the slight lack in his typical blasé confidence, they didn’t mention it.

They'd had time to run diagnostics, prepare equipment and shuttles to take down to the surface, and all have their “morning” coffee. All except The Captain and Mark.

With a quiet sigh, he pressed a few icons on his tablet, issuing a command to the system to reheat their drink for the fifth time. They'd wake up any minute now, for sure.

Celci let him know that all one hundred thousand colonists were doing well, and seemed a little surprised when his response didn't hold quite the same bite as most of their interactions. (She also insisted that there was nothing wrong with the Captain’s pod, and people wake up at different speeds.) Burt assured him that the reactor was stable and had fared well with the journey, followed by Gunther enthusiastically reporting that the advance team was ready to head down to the planet's surface to scout ahead.

For once, there was no emergency. It was almost too good to be true. There was really no need to wake the Captain prematurely. If they needed a few more minutes after all they'd been through, that was fine.

And yet, Mark couldn't help the growing pit of dread in his stomach.

The details were a little fuzzy, but with every passing minute his memories of the wormhole and the ensuing chaos became clearer, more solid — the freshest of which being a pained exchange with his Captain, his dearest friend, in the warp core room, as the weight of the multiverse fell heavy on his shoulders with realisation and the subsequent guilt and remorse, the walls of reality literally beginning to crumble around them.

Remembering it all was like waking from a dream in reverse; images of each universe and lifetime stung in the tight grip of his psyche instead of slipping from recollection. His mind began to race, panicking slightly as he remembered times his Captain hadn't woken up at all.

Mark took a small sip of coffee. He felt a headache coming on.

As if on cue, he felt a gentle bump against his leg. He cast his gaze towards it and was happy to see Chica softly nudging him, panting cheerfully with her big eyes aglow.

‘Hey, bub.’

He smiled and bent to pet her soft fur with his free hand, grateful for a comforting distraction from his wandering thoughts.

‘Yeah, any moment now,’ he muttered under his breath as he went to retrieve the Captain’s coffee mug while Chica trotted away.

‘Initialising Wakey-Wakey Protocol.’

Mark’s head shot up at the sound of the AI voice announcing their emergence from cryo-sleep. Relief flooded him as he saw them slowly step out of their pod, tentatively poking a crew member as if wanting to make sure this was real. He understood the feeling.

‘Mornin’, Captain!’ Mark beamed as he strode over to greet them. He eyed the Captain up and down with concern. They looked about as exhausted and on edge as he’d felt upon waking up this time.

‘Ooh, you look like you’ve been through hell. Yeah, cryo-sleep sucks, but coffee can help.’ He offered them their mug which they took automatically. With a friendly clunk of his own cup against theirs, he made his way around the main console to talk with various crew members while the crew leads took turns speaking to the Captain.

‘Computer, let’s get those blast shields open.’

The head engineer let out an awed sigh at the view. ‘The trip was smooth. Just a few rocks, couple cosmic rays, nothing the computer couldn’t handle on its own,’ he reassured, hoping to ease their obvious trepidation. To his relief, they seemed to relax immensely at the sight of the planet before them. He watched as they reached out a gloved hand and pressed gently against the glass (memories of said glass shattering flashed across his mind, which he quickly dismissed).

A whole array of emotions crossed his Captain’s face as they admired the planet that would soon house the new colony. He could almost swear that he saw the tell-tale glisten of tears forming in their eyes. Eyes that were now wise and weary beyond their years. Eyes that had seen countless people die and the very fabric of time and space glitch and collapse and attempt to put itself together again. Eyes that could pierce right through his and pull him apart at the seams with a single look.

‘She is a beauty, isn’t she, Captain? The long range scans did not do her justice. Perfect in almost every way. We’ll still have to do top to bottom scans once we’re down on the surface but we’re moving equipment as fast we can. The crew is eager to get off the ship and onto solid ground. I think you can understand the sentiment.’

They watched as the shuttles disembarked from the main ship and made their way towards the planet. The Captain looked pleased to see progress already being made.

Mark hesitated for a moment. There was so much he wanted to say. To ask. Lifetimes worth of emotions lay pent up inside of him, itching at the walls of his throat and the tip of his tongue. But the guilt still bore down on him, and the fear of truly acknowledging and dwelling on all that had transpired between the two far outweighed the desire to talk and have it all laid out in the open where it couldn’t gnaw at his insides. No doubt his Captain would probably want to discuss it all eventually. Maybe they hated him right now and were just trying to hide it. Hell, he’d deserve it if they did. But he couldn’t have that conversation here and now. Not with the whole crew present and the colony to build. Not with so many people looking to both of them for direction and guidance. Maybe that was an excuse.

Instead: ‘And, uh, thank you…’ he uttered simply, voice low and earnest, as he felt their gaze turn towards him before finally bringing himself to meet their eyes, if only briefly.

‘...for, uh, not giving up on me. Just… thank you.’

The Captain gave him a sincere smile and he returned it with a nod. He wasn't sure he remembered the last time he saw them smile like that.

They brought the coffee mug up to their lips. It was one he’d reserved especially for them, bearing a clear message in bold text: ‘#1 Captain’.

As they finally took a sip, Mark hoped they understood that he meant it.

[shunin-gumis]

Designs of Happiness - Track A08

L4mps Main Story Translation

Title: ep.2 What you have

Characters: Yodaka

Summary: As the bar closes up for the day, Yodaka feels a certain way about their mundane day-to-day… 

Thank you aca @463ce6, jes @arcanecrayonn and myun @/myuntachis for helping me with proofing!

Location: Ten Nights of Dreams BAR

Yodaka: I wonder, has the rain stopped yet?

Yunyun: Ah~ I was thinkin’ about that too.

Yodaka: It’s difficult to tell since we don’t have any windows.

Chouun: According to the precipitation radar, the rain should stop in 30 minutes.

Yodaka: That’s impressive, Chouun. I didn’t know you had a function like that.

Chouun: Yes, Yodaka-dono.

Yunyun: What are you on about, boss~? Chouun’s a state-of-the-art pet robot, y’know~? You’re like, the only one who’d use ‘em as a glorified jukebox. 

Yodaka: Perhaps I should request weather reports from now on too.

Chouun: …Understood.

Yunyun: Huh… No wonder we didn’t have many customers today.

Yodaka: I think we can call it a night. Would you mind switching off the signboard outside?

Yunyun: Sure thing~

Chouun: …Yodaka-dono. What would you like to do about the music?

Yodaka: Please continue playing it as is.

Chouun: Understood.

Yunyun: And that’s that for closing up… Oh, right! I forgot to tell ya– That wallpaper in the bathroom? It’s seen better days. 

Yodaka: I’ll contact the vendor tomorrow morning.

Yunyun: I’m countin’ on ya, boss~ Oh, and while you’re at it, mind replacing the freezer, too? That thing’s been here since forever, even before we took over. I’m telling ya, it’s on its last legs.

Yodaka: I see. I’d been quite fond of it, but I suppose we should have it replaced before it causes problems.

Yunyun: Yay~ I totally looked into some options already, I’m way too good at my job~

Yodaka: How very diligent of you.

Yunyun: Like, look at this one! There’s also this, and maybe even that one… There’s even models that can produce pure ice, ain’t that just wild!? We don’t need to go outta our way to buy ice cubes any more!

Yodaka: Hm…

Yunyun: Ah, the price tag’s givin’ you cold feet, huh?

Yodaka: You could say that.

Yunyun: Speaking of which~ What happened to that deal from before?

Yodaka: Hm? What deal?

Yunyun: You know the one~ From that beautiful and busty CEO~

Yodaka: Ah… You mean her… 

Yunyun: She’s been dropping by here all the time ‘cuz she’s got her eye on you— She even offered to franchise our bar, and she seemed pretty hyped about it too!

Yunyun: With her backing, the investment’s gotta be some crazy amount! I wonder where we should open up our next store~

Yodaka: We won’t have to worry about that. I turned her down.

Yunyun: Wha–!? Are you for real?

Yodaka: Of course. 

Yunyun: Wait, whaa– C’mon! I mean, I kinda knew you’d be like this, but!

Yunyun: What a waste~ That’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance y’know~~!

Yodaka: …..

Yunyun: I mean, that prez was a total hottie. I could like, totally see hearts in her eyes whenever she was lookin’ at you, Yodaka-san.

Yunyun: I’m totally sure that she had the hots for you! You could’ve just gone for the gold!

Yodaka: For the gold?

Yunyun: Marrying into wealth! That’s like, my dream y’know~

Yodaka: This is the first time I’m hearing of it.

Yunyun: Aw man~ I mean, if we open up more shops, that means more employees, right? Then we could hire some cuties who’ve got a little extra in the chest department~ And then I’d make ‘em fall for me with my charms~

Yunyun: And I’m saying me, not you, mmkay~?

Yodaka: Haha, of course.

Yunyun: I coulda totally built my harem heaven right here y’know? And you’d be loaded with cash too, no doubt about it~

Yunyun: This could’ve been my ticket to a super-duper happy life and yet…! Why’d you gotta dash ‘em all like that, you big dummy!

Yodaka: .....

Yodaka: “To know you have enough.”

Yunyun: Enough of what? Beer?

Yodaka: This is a famous quote from Lao Tzu. He was one of the founders of Taoism, one of the three popular religions in China.

Yunyun: Huh… Never heard of ‘im.

Yodaka: “To know you have enough is to know true enrichment.”

When one is satisfied with what they already have, that is when that they become enriched in both body and soul. It is one definition of happiness.

Yodaka: It’s important to learn to be happy with what you have, and to not be too greedy. I completely agree with this sentiment.

Yunyun: I mean~ Are you sure a teaching from some old fogey of years past is gonna hold water in the present?

Yunyun: It’s definitely better to have money than to not, and I know for sure I’d be happier havin’ a pretty lady hangin’ off my arm than bein’ all on my lonesome!

Yunyun: I’ve got a point, right!?

Yodaka: Leaving aside women… Even that CEO had said that having money isn’t enough to guarantee your happiness.

Yunyun: Eehhh~!?

Yodaka: I’ve had many opportunities to wine and dine some capable company owners. And yet, they all had similar opinions on this matter.

Yodaka: That they should have quit while they were ahead. After they hit a certain degree of success, rather than being happy with their progress, they can only worry and stress about how to make it bigger, and better. 

Yunyun: Hm~ Sounds like some first world problems to me~

Yunyun: So you’re saying to be happy with what I have?

Yunyun: Wait, is this some kinda plot to tell me you’re not gonna give me a raise!?

Yodaka: Haha, of course not. It’s simply a ‘plot’ to tell you that we can get a new freezer, but just a regular one. We’ll continue to buy our ice cubes from our usual supplier.

Yunyun: Fiiiiine…

Yunyun: Well, I already knew how much you like your vintage stuff from the moment we set up shop here.

Yodaka: …..

Yodaka: I must ask you, however. Are you not happy now?

Yunyun: Eh.

Yodaka: Time that is flowing slowly, peacefully, as we wind down for the day. Within a bar full of old but trusty equipment and peeling wallpaper. 

Yodaka: A quiet and relaxing atmosphere. The moon that comes out to greet the sun.

Yodaka: Quality jazz music playing in the background and… Conversation with a good old friend. 

Yunyun: …..

Yodaka: I think that these carefree days spent with you, in our cozy bar, is when I’m the happiest… What about you?

Yunyun: Well… That’s… 

Yunyun: That just ain’t fair, askin’ me somethin’ like that.

Yunyun: Can’t say I’m not happy…

Yodaka: I’m relieved to know you feel the same as I do.

Yunyun: *Sigh*... You truly are an incorrigible flirt… 

Chouun: …Yodaka-dono. Are you certain that I am fulfilling my role here?

Chouun: If you would update my software to the latest version, with the addition of some extraneous parts, I could be 8 heads tall to help serve customers as well.

Yodaka: Yes, you’re doing just fine as is. Thank you.

Yunyun: I mean, a Chouun that’s 8 heads tall? That’d just be scary… 

Yodaka: Let’s update the playlist for tomorrow.

Chouun: Understood, Yodaka-dono. What kind of selection would you prefer?

Yodaka: For tomorrow… Let’s see.

Yodaka: Play the kind of music that would put a certain worrywart of a bartender at ease. 

Notes:

"To know you have enough" is one translation for the saying 吾唯足るを知る by Lao Tzu.

The ideal human proportion is considered to be 8 heads tall.

Whenever the term 幸福 (happiness) comes up in these "flashback" episodes it's highlighted in green.

[justtwotired]

Whispers of the night - Lloyd Garmadon x F!reader

Part 1 - previous - next

——————

Tag list:

@bodieohbo

——————

Your POV

It has been three days since the threat came in. I told my friends already, and they were going into protection mode, even though half of them would run if a mouse got within ten feet of them.

We normally had two bodyguards around the house at all times and now one of them was assigned to me, to protect me wherever I went.

He is pretty chill though, he just hangs around in the teachers area and I have a scare button on me, so if something happens, he will be with me in a minute.

When I’m in the park with friends, he is just hanging around, hidden in plain sight probably. My dad had decided to not make it obvious where my guard was and how our schedule worked, it’s easy to plan around that.

But currently, I was in school, talking with my friends at my locker, mostly mocking Charlie and Flora who had been all lovey dovey the night before at a hang out.

“We weren’t like that!” Flora laughed as me and James where fake flirting with each other and I raised my eyebrows at her. “Oh, you are right, you where more like this,”

I grabbed James by the collar and let myself fall back against the lockers, his face close to mine. I laid a hand on his upper arm and the other dramatically on my forehead.

“Oh Charlie, you are so amazing and hot,” I said with closed eyes making my friends laugh as Charlie sarcastically let out a ‘haha’ before telling me to stop.

James grinned and immediately went along, putting one hand on my waist and the other cupping my cheek.

“Oh Flora, you look so good, I can just kiss you all night,” he said and we both laughed as the couple tried to shush us in embarrassment as the others laughed with us.

“Charlie, Lets get out of here and leave these losers, I only need you in my life,” I mocked again. Of course it wasn’t this bad at all, we just loved over exaggerating.

“Yes of course, everything for you my love.” He said trough laughs. I threw my head back against the locker, letting out a small yelp of pain making the others laugh even harder.

“Charlie, lets-” I tried to talk but laughed, making me start over. “Let’s run away and leave everyone behind, we only need each other,” I said dramatically, putting one hand on his cheek and James immediately saw where I was going with it.

“Oh yes, you are everything to me,” he said trough giggles. I then put my thumb on his lips and we both leaned in, pressing our lips against my thumb and Charlie then pulled James away.

“Okay, that’s enough, that’s enough.” He said and we laughed at his red face. I cleaned my thumb with my sleeve and then leaned against James for support to keep myself standing.

He was my best friend since before we even started school. Our parents where friends and we where the very start of our friend group.

Millie joined us in kindergarten and in middleschool we met Luna and at the end of middle school, the twins where the new kids and we also adopted them in our group.

Charlie joined at the start of high school and last year he started dating Flora who we immediately accepted.

When the bell rang, we bid each other goodbye and broke up in a group of two, heading to our classes.

Lloyd POV

I had not received anything from Y/n since our hang out. Of course, I could’ve reached out too but the mission I had that I was called in for when we where hanging out, had been long and tiring.

It had kept me busy as we also still needed to handle things after the happenings. When it was done I had slept for about ten hours before being woken by Kai.

“Lloyd, I’m sorry, but everyone else is busy and I really need to go now to meet up with Skylor because I forgot our date and I have no one to cover my self defence classes.” I had groggily sat up and sighed.

“Yeah, fine, go. I’ll cover for you,” I yawned.

I already regretted going, because when I turned a certain corner, I saw Y/n leaned back against the locker, flirting with a guy before pulling him in and kissing him right on the lips.

I had walked on with clenched teeth and taught the first self defence class of the day. I had hoped to have Y/n in my class that day but was actually relieved when I found out I did not.

I walked home moping, kicking rocks on my way and muttering cuss words as I went.

As I entered the monastery and headed to the kitchen, I was met with Kai and Cole who where arguing about who could get the last piece of cake.

“Jeez, what happened to you? Where you floored by a student?” Kai joked and I looked up in a small haze. “What? Oh, no its nothing, I’m fine.” I said, walking past them to grab something from the fridge.

“If you say so, kid, but if you need advise, we’re right here.” Cole said and I gave him a smile before it fell and I headed for my room.

As I drank my soda, I decided that maybe I should train to get my mind of her, when my phone rang.

Incoming call from ‘my personal trouble maker’

I was about to hang up but stopped myself. No, I was being a dick. I ignored her already a few days ago, and now because I saw her kiss someone I was going to stop talking to her?

That was unfair, just because I liked her, didn’t mean she had to like me back and couldn’t date or kiss other people.

I took the call and pressed the phone against my ear.

“Hey,” I said and she chuckled on the other side. “Lloyd! Jeez, took you long enough, listen, I have so many things to tell you!” She said and it sounded like she was jumping up and down?

“Hm, is that so?” I asked a bit bored and she stopped her giggling. “Are you alright?” She suddenly asked worried and I cursed myself mentally.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m a bit tired, but do tell me,” I apologised and I could just feel her grin from the other side of the line.

Your POV

“Alright, so first of, sorry for not texting a lot has happened, I was threatened with a note or something? Well they where threatening my father with kidnapping me, but that was just a bit vague, though it brought lots of worry to my parents.” I started of, pretty excited to tell him the story.

“But anyway, now I have a bodyguard who follows me to the places I go which is cool I guess. Police are still figuring out what’s going on and all that sort of stuff.” I said and I could hear him splutter on the other side of the line.

“I’m sorry what? You where threatened with a note?” He asked in disbelief, worry in his voice. “Yeah, but it’ll be fine, the police will track them down in no time,” I reassured, even though that was never said by anyone, I just didn’t want him to worry.

“Wait but a bodyguard follows you around?” He asked and I chuckled. “Yeah, pretty cool, huh?” I asked and I heard silence on the other end.

“Wait but- you didn’t have a bodyguard with you today?” He said and I furrowed my brows. “Excuse me?” I asked and he stuttered on the other end.

“That’s sounds weird, sorry. I saw you at school, I covered Kai’s classes again.” He quickly explained. “They will stop next month, did you know that?” He said as if trying to change the topic.

“Why didn’t you come and say hi?” I asked, a bit disappointed at a missed chance to see him. I heard an unexpected huff on the other end of the line, making my brows furrow.

“You seemed busy,” he said rather bitterly and I was silent for a moment in confusion. “With what? What’s wrong?” I asked and it was now his turn to be silent.

“I saw you kissing someone, I thought I’d let you be,” he finally said and I cracked my brains. I kissed someoene today? Who did I kiss? What happened- ohh, James!

“Oh come on, that was just James, we where joking to piss of the couple of our group by fake flirting, my thumb was between that kiss,” I said with a laugh and I could hear him swallow on the other end.

“Really?” He asked a bit sceptical and I was about to answer before stopping. “Lloyd Garmadon, are you jealous!” I called him out and he stuttered on the other end.

“Oh piss of,” he said and I could basically hear his smirk. This boy is going to be the death of me.

I shook my head with a sigh. “If you’re so jealous, you can take me on a date if that’ll make you feel better,” I said and he chuckled on the other end.

“Are you asking me for a date?” He said and I grinned. “Actually, I’m asking me for a date so you don’t have to.” I said and he laughed.

“Alright then, I can see you tomorrow at the same restaurant we went to Monday?” He asked and a giddy smile spread across my face. “Yes! Yes I can’t wait,” I said, embarrassing myself with my over excitement.

“See you then,” he said and I quickly bid him goodbye.

When we hung up, I let myself fall onto the bed and kicked my feet in the air out of happiness. I had a date- of course I had had those before, but I had never developed such a huge crush on someone in such a short time.

I think I could call this the first time I ever had such a big crush.

I quickly called my girls and they did waste time in coming over.

“Damn, your security isn’t joking, we had to do a weapon check at your front door.” Luna said and I chuckled. “Yeah, dad is worried for everyone now, but it’s just basic procedure, it’s not like you are suspect or anything.

“Hmm, does you bodyguard know that? If looks could kill, I swear,” Flora asked and I shrugged. “Both our guards are high on edge since the threats started,” I said and Luna interrupted me.

“Hold one, threats? As in plural?” She asked worried. “Oh I forgot to tell you? Yeah another one arrived, but it didn’t have anything about me in it, so yeah,” I said and they bombarded me with questions… which I couldn’t answer.

“Hey, they barely tell me anything, it’s real unfair, you know?” I said and it was silent for a moment, but Amelia decided to wash away the bad news.

“Well, fuck that! Girl you have a date! Come, we need to find you some decent looking clothes,” she said and I scoffed at her. “You make it sound like I am not wearing decent clothes.” I said and she looked me up and down before shrugging.

“Hey! What is that supposed to mean? Millie!” She walked towards my closet ignoring me and Luna and Flora laughed at us.

I was trying in an outfit and they where judging if it was alright to wear while we made sma talk.

“But, didn’t you just met Lloyd?” Luna asked as she made a gesture to me to turn around, which I did.

“Well, it’s already been over two months, and like- the whole time we hang out it’s just constant flirting, it’s about time we go on a real date,” I said, looking in the mirror I was facing to check out the outfit.

“Jeez, it’s already been two months?” Amelia asked, dismissing the outfit and looking for a new one in my closet with the help of Flora.

“We should really go skating again soon, I mean it is October, then it’ll be more dangerous because everything is wet!” Luna said excitedly. She was one of those people always looking for danger and trouble.

“Here, try this,” Amelia shoved some clothes into my hands before her and Flora sat back down. “Honestly, I started skating around December and that was just scary, I only got better over the summer, now my progress will be gone again,” Flora complained.

We went on like that until we finally found a good outfit for me to wear to my date.

The next day, I was driven by my bodyguard who would be waiting for me in the car.

“Awe come on, Malcolm, you’re not giving me anything to work with,” I slumbered in the back seat as I was trying to pry information from my bodyguard.

“N/n, you know your father gave me orders not to tell you anything,” he chuckled and I threw my hands in the air. “Still! It’s unfair how I’m kept in the dark while I’m also being threatened,” I said and he shrugged.

“I understand that you might feel that way, but I was given orders, which I have to follow,” he said and I grumbled some cuss words.

“Language,” he said and I gave him a look. “Hey, your my bodyguard, not my babysitter,” I said making him grin slightly.

He had been working for my family since before I was born, I’ve known him all my life, he is basically like some sort of uncle.

He stopped in front of the restaurant and looked at me trough the rearview mirror. “Did you you need me to open your door aswel, madam?” I asked with a chique accent.

“I can do that myself, thank you very much,” I laughed, making him smile. “No funny business in there, alright?” He said and I gave him a look. “Don’t you be like that,” I said and stepped out of the car.

Lloyd was waiting for me at the entrance and gave me a smile when I came walking up.

“Don’t you look stunning,” he winked and I chuckled and rolled my eyes slightly. “You look great yourself, who helped you?” I interrogated and he rose his eyebrows in a cocky manner.

“Who says I haven’t decided on clothes myself?” He asked and I gave him a look. “Yeah, no I wouldn’t believe it either. Nya helped me,” he confessed and I smiled.

“Doesn’t surprise me one bit,” I said, before we headed inside of the restaurant. We where sat down at a table and given menu’s.

I didn’t even have to look at it, having already decided I would have the same as last time. He looked, before deciding to go with the carbonara.

When the waiter stopped by, we ordered and he took out menu’s again.

“You where driven here, I saw?” Lloyd said and I shrugged. “I wasn’t allowed to go by myself, but Malcolm will leave us alone, he’s just here for his guarding duties,” I said.

“I wasn’t worried,” Lloyd winked and I gave him a light kick under the table making him smirk.

The conversation carried on, we had a beautiful spot at the window and suddenly the conversation changed to space.

I was fascinated by some of his knowledge and happily talked along, being a huge astronomy fan.

“Don’t you find it weird that every moon as a name except ours?” Lloyd asked and I gave him an offended look, catching him of guard.

“Excuse me- her name is Yue and she is a kind, gentle, loving, lady!” I said and he gave me a weird look before a grin spread across his face.

“Was that an avatar reference?” He asked and I nodded with a huge smile at finding out he knew the show.

The remaining of the date went amazing, it wasn’t your normal date where you have awkward silences and weird questions, no it was fun and genuine.

We fought over who would pay the bill and had a good compromise.

“Alright, how about this. I pay now and you can pay for the next date,” Lloyd suggested and I smirked. “Ohh, is there going to be a next date?” I leaned on my hands, looking into his.

“Well, only if you want of course!” He quickly said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly and I chuckled. “Of course, yes sounds fun, I’ll be taking you to the most luxurious restaurant in town,” I said and he gave me a look.

“Or just a noodle house, whatever you prefer,” I waved my hand and he chuckled before waving over our waiter so he could pay.

After he had paid, we put on our coats and headed outside.

“Thanks for tonight, I had a lot of fun,” I smiled at him, tilting my head slightly to the side. “I had fun to, thank you to making me ask you out,” he said making me laugh.

“I’ll see you another time then?” I asked and he nodded. “Definitely!” He assured.

I hesitated for a moment before standing on my toes and kissing his cheek. His mouth fell slightly agape and his cheeks dusted pink. Mine did aswel and I took a small step back.

“Hey! What did I say? No funny business!” We looked at my bodyguard who had opened the car window.

“Fuck off Malcolm!” I yelled and he grinned as I shook my head. “I’ll catch ya later!” I said and darted towards the car.

When I closed the door and then the window, I glared at the man next to me. “Was that necessary?” I interrogated and he smirked. “Definitely, I told you no funny business,” he said and I grumbled as we drove off.

I was half asleep as we made our way home and woke up with a start when the car came to a sudden stop.

“What is that idiot doing?” Malcolm questioned and I sat up straight to watch.

There was a man on the road. He had a black coat and was wearing a hat, I couldn’t see his face and he walked over to the car.

Not wasting a second, Malcolm locked the doors from the outside and I saw his hand itch to his belt where he held a gun.

The stranger was at the front of the car and laid something on the hood of the car before running off. Neither of us saw what he had laid down and Malcolm unbuckled his belt.

“Stay in the car and I if say you have to exit you do so immediately,” he told me and jumped out of the car to see what the strange man had left.

He looked at it and his eyes narrowed. He dug in his pocket and took out a pair of plastic gloves which he put on.

He picked it up and- it was a note? Again?

He entered the car again and didn’t say anything, I looked at him but he didn’t look back at me.

“What does it say?” I asked, my voice shaking. “It’s another threat- god damnit I should’ve gotten out of the car,” he sighed and I shook my head.

“No, we don’t know what that guy had on him,” I disagreed and tried peaking at the note. With a sigh, Malcolm held it up to me.

Bold are you?

This is your last warning, if you don’t cut it out, you’ll never see your precious daughter again. And don’t think we are bluffing. I have eyes on her as I write this, and that bodyguard outside in the car isn’t going to do much.

My heart started beating faster. They had watched me as I was on my date with Lloyd…

When we got home, Malcolm immediately headed for my dad and I was ushered upstairs, being told to stay in my room and lock my window.

This was so stupid!

[baldwinboy5ive]

I was going to post these screenshots and say "haha AU where the Blades gang, including Aerin, does the Morellan equivalent of the Hot Ones challenge"

but then... I wrote... a whole... stupid fic. I absolutely promise you that it is so, so stupid. Please don't read it without having acknowledged that.

Name on the Wall

Pairing: Aerin Valleros/F!MC, Blades of Light and Shadow Other characters: Tyril Starfury, Nia Ellarious, Mal Volari, Imtura Tal Kaelen, Kade of Riverbend Rating: ...T...? BOLAS says "godsdamn" is a swear haha. Word count: 3441 Summary: See above. It's total fluff. It's "HEY let's give Aerin and MC a happy ending! A VERY happy ending!"

I am tagging @lovehugsandcandy @lilyoffandoms @malthemagnifisent because they requested (or demanded haha) a tag, and @oh-so-youre-a-nerd because you said you wanted even CRUMBS of Aerin haha

Raine had once said to Cherta that her friends were her found family, and Cherta had told her that she needed to work on growing the “found” part. Well, it was finally happening. Raine couldn’t help smiling as she approached Riverbend, ready to begin a days-long celebration of her engagement to Aerin Valleros, former disgraced prince of Morella, now pardoned citizen and hero of the realm for his part in defeating the threats to their kingdom. 

Tyril was first to arrive and meet Raine and Aerin, and greeted the former with a fierce embrace, and the latter with a curt nod. Kade was next to appear, and they waited for Mal and Nia’s arrival with Threep and Loola. They all planned to meet in the town square with Imtura, and drop the nespers off with an old neighbor of Raine and Kade’s, where they were to be given plenty of food and attention until tomorrow, when everyone would be in attendance of an engagement party. 

Upon its arrival at the town square, Threep and Loola immediately burst forth from a carriage, fluttered their wings, and flew up to Aerin, nuzzling his face and purring. 

“The entire way over here! ‘Snacks! Snacks! Snacks!’ They wouldn’t even stop when I threatened to turn the whole carriage around and go back to Whitetower!” Mal yelled, throwing his hands up in exasperation as he hopped down from the carriage. 

“Because they knew you were bluffing,” said Nia, stepping out of the carriage behind him. 

Tyril, ignoring their banter, looked at the affectionate display by the nespers, and then wordlessly turned towards Raine, expectantly raising a hand and waiting for an explanation. 

“Oh, yeah. You know they always used to hiss at him. Especially Loola. You know. Not so happy about being locked up and all that, especially while Aerin was walking around in those dungeons. Well, she finally got to him the last time we were in Whitetower, that time you went to go see your family back home in Undermount. She clawed his face up pretty bad,” said Raine with the tiniest of smiles. 

“Ever since then, Aerin’s been bribing them with treats,” finished Mal with a loud snicker. “He basically would buy out my buddy over at the pier and dump a whole bag of fish on them, and now look at those spoiled things.”

“You can still see it!” Aerin said, pointing to some faint scars on his cheek, while obligingly throwing some fish out of his pockets to the nespers. 

“Yeah, he could finally pretend he was big enough to cut himself shaving!” said Mal with an obnoxiously loud laugh. 

Aerin rolled his eyes. “And I have two nespers here who’d do anything I say for a few more of these anchovies, including making you look like you’d cut yourself shaving.”

“Sorry, Mal,” said Threep, who at least had the decency to look abashed. “An anchovy’s an anchovy. You understand. It’s nothing personal.”

“Hush, Threep. Mal, you know he wouldn’t, really,” said Loola. 

“Wait a minute…” began Kade as realization dawned on him. “I was locked up, too. Hold on. You mean I could’ve been getting free stuff from Aerin this whole time?!” 

Before anyone could answer, Imtura came striding up towards the group. 

“Landrat! Princeling!” Imtura said, clapping both of them on the shoulders with a hand each. “Time to get our hot sauce on!” 

“Huh?” said Aerin. “I thought all the party stuff was tomorrow.” 

“It is,” replied Raine with a mischievous grin. “Today we’re doing the Saucy Folks Challenge.” 

“Yes!” Nia said giddily. “I’m scared! And also excited! But mostly scared!” 

Tyril nodded emphatically. “To be honest, I feel quite the same way,” he said. 

“What’s… going on?” said Aerin dubiously. 

“The Saucy Folks Challenge,” Raine repeated. “Ten hot sauces in order of increasingly intense spiciness. The challenge dictates that each participant eats fried pargallus wings tossed in the hot sauces, in order, while answering deep, burning - pun intended - personal questions. You can drop out anytime you like, but if you make it to Number Ten, you get your name on the wall of honor, and a bunch of free food. It’s… mostly a bunch of fried stuff.” 

“And bragging rights, don’t forget the bragging rights,” added Mal. 

Aerin groaned. “You mean you four knew?” 

“Well, uh, yes,” Nia stammered. “She and Kade said it was a tradition. I couldn’t see the harm in it.” 

Aerin turned to Raine, and asked, “Then why didn’t you just tell me that’s why we were coming here early?!” 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Imtura said with a booming laugh. “You know godsdamn well you would’ve said no. That girl isn’t stupid.” 

With a rueful smile, Aerin said, “I don’t have a choice, do I?” 

“You don’t; I think I’ll bow out, though,” Kade said. 

Mal chuckled. “I’ve been eating spicy food my whole life - I thought I had a leg up on all you guys, but I didn’t think you were going to quit before we even got started!” 

“Yeah…” Kade said absently, looking off into the distance at some of the stores in the town square. 

Raine shook her head. “You’re wrong, Mal. Kade’s already beaten the challenge. You can see for yourself. His name’s on the wall… at the tavern.” 

“Ohhh. The tavern. That’s where this challenge is hosted,” Aerin said, as understanding came over him. He and Raine had talked extensively about their families - including the sheer amount of trouble Kade was always getting himself into when he and Raine were growing up in Riverbend. “You just don’t want to face that barkeep again.” 

The group - minus Kade - laughed. 

“Come on, just come with us,” Imtura insisted, slinging an arm around Kade’s shoulders. 

“Besides, Raine’s here, and she’ll never let him kill you,” Aerin pointed out. 

“That’s true,” agreed Tyril. 

---

A collective cheer came from the crowd gathered in the tavern as the group stepped inside. 

“The heroes of the realm!” several people shouted. Tankards of ale were raised, and the heroes were clapped on their backs and shoulders as they made their way to the bar counter. 

“Raine! Back home already? To what do we owe the pleasure?” asked the barkeep. 

“That,” answered Raine, pointing to the wall behind the bar. There was a painting of a pargallus, a small domesticated bird found widely throughout Morella, raised for its feathers, eggs, and meat. It was dramatically engulfed in flames, and its eyes were crossed out with black X marks. This was the logo of the infamous Saucy Folks Challenge, so named for the Saucy Sausage that originated from Riverbend, along with the other nine hot sauces that made up the challenge. 

“See? Right there,” said Kade proudly, pointing to the long list of names under the cartoon pargallus. 

“All right, I concede,” said Mal, raising an eyebrow. 

“Hah! The Saucy Folks Challenge! Wonderful! Any special occasion, or just because?” asked the barkeep, who was already beginning to gather some trays and baskets.  

Raine glanced over at Aerin, who flushed a crimson so deep he almost resembled the burning pargallus, and she showed the barkeep the royal ring she wore on her hand. “He gave this to me when we first met. A lot’s happened since then. But now it’s official: we just got engaged.”

There were several surprised gasps from the tavern patrons, and then a second round of celebratory cheers made its way throughout the establishment. 

“Well, then, I offer my congratulations!” said the barkeep. “Our little Raine, all grown up, about to get married! To a prince, no less!”

“Well, that part is currently up in the air,” corrected Aerin. 

Mal smirked. “I think the term they used was ‘On Probation,’ or, alternatively, ‘We’re Watching You, Young Man.’ They may be on a three-strikes system. Or something.” 

“In any case, back in the king’s good graces,” continued the barkeep, his voice becoming stern. 

“Ehhh…” said Raine, teetering her palm back and forth in the air. 

The barkeep’s expression turned deadly serious. “What I’m getting at is, surely this family is now prospering. I mean it, Kade. It was cute at first, but this has gone on long enough. You think it’s easy making a living here? I don’t care that you’re a hero of the realm, Kade, you’re our hometown boy first, and I expect our folk to take care of each other here in Riverbend - and that means paying your tab in full!” 

Kade sat on his barstool taking this in quietly, all while a big smile spread across his face until he was positively chortling with joy. 

“What’s so funny?!” demanded the barkeep. 

Kade, still with the giant grin on his face, swiveled around on his stool to face his future brother-in-law. 

There was an awkward pause. For a moment, no one spoke. Then Aerin relented, groaned, and said, “Fine.” 

“Hooray!” exclaimed Kade, putting both hands in the air and spinning on his barstool. 

“Wait, really? I’m finally getting paid?” said the barkeep with no small amount of astonishment. 

“Hand over the tab,” said Aerin with a sigh. He accepted a thick stack of paper from the barkeep, and his eyes grew wider and wider as he scanned over it. “What the three hells, Kade?” 

“Thanks, Aerin! I can tell we’re going to be great as brothers-in-law!” Kade said with a laugh. 

“Yep.” 

---

“Here it is!” Raine said brightly, approaching the table around which her friends were gathered with an enormous tray filled with fried pargallus wings, each basket of wings being labeled with a number. 

“The local butcher’s family has been making these hot sauces for generations. People around here say that they just keep getting hotter and hotter every year. They partner with the tavern to host the challenge, since… well, people want a lot of ale while doing it,” Raine said with a laugh. 

“All right,” she continued excitedly. “You ready? It starts with our hometown favorite, Saucy Sausage, and it only gets hotter.” 

“It starts with Saucy Sausage?!” said Nia with great trepidation. 

“I warned you,” replied Raine with a grin. 

“So, Kade? You in or not?” Mal said, nudging Kade in the ribs. 

“I was going to say I have nothing to prove - I’ve already got my name on the wall. But you know what? What the hell, my only sister’s getting married! I’m in!” 

The table cheered. 

“A lot of people do it for weddings, but it’s not a wedding-specific tradition,” Kade clarified as he sat down. “It’s just a thing people do in Riverbend. No special occasion needed, really. People make any old excuse to get together with friends and do the challenge.”

“Then I suppose, as we are here, celebrating an occasion, with friends, it appears we are all set to go,” concluded Tyril. 

As everyone began to grab a basket for themselves and get seated, Aerin hesitated. 

“Come on, you can sit next to me,” said Raine warmly. 

Aerin, however, stayed where he was, and fixed his eyes on Tyril. “Did you mean that?” 

“What?” 

“Well…” Aerin began hesitantly. “That we’re friends?” 

“Yes,” said Tyril flatly. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because… you don’t really treat me all that differently than when you all were threatening to kill me every two seconds?” 

Mal, Imtura, and Nia all exchanged amused looks with one another. Then Imtura gestured towards Tyril and said, “You think he doesn’t like you? I think you offended him, Aerin.” 

“Yeah, he looks confused and offended,” added Mal.  

“Yeah, tell him, landrat,” Imtura goaded Raine. 

Aerin felt that Tyril appeared exactly as he always did. 

“Um… no he doesn’t,” Aerin said, to which everyone else but Tyril laughed. 

“You keep hanging with us, princeling, and you’ll start to see it,” Mal said good-naturedly. 

“Yes, that’s just how his face is, Aerin,” Nia explained patiently. 

“Not you, too,” Tyril grumbled at her. 

“It’s just… well, I just assumed you still hated me,” said Aerin. 

“Then why would I be here right now?” Tyril asked. 

“To support Raine, of course.” 

“If we still hated you, we would have simply thrown a private bachelorette party for her without you.” 

“Ooh, we could still do that, too, though,” said Imtura. She and Nia exchanged a look, ensuring that this was definitely happening. 

“Then… you’re here for the free ale?” Aerin said helplessly. 

“Former Prince Aerin,” Tyril said icily, “I assure you that if I should ever attempt to make nice with Raine’s acquaintances, even if I did not like them, it would not be for the paltry reward of free ale and a basket of assorted fritters.” 

“You also get your name on the wall,” Mal interjected. 

“And hey, those fritters are good!” Raine insisted. 

Tyril turned away to look out of the tavern window in order to hide the mixture of amusement and annoyance on his face. When he turned back around, he was perfectly composed. 

“You are, as they say, stuck with us,” insisted Tyril. 

“Huh. So we’re friends,” said Aerin, a teasing grin finally appearing on his face. 

Tyril Starfury let out a breath and, in his heart, cursed Raine of Riverbend for letting things come to this point. That boy really was annoying. 

“The things I do for my friends,” he muttered aloud. 

“So?! We starting, or what?” said Imtura. 

“Yes, we’re starting!” Raine said decisively. “All right, everyone ready with Sauce One? All you have to do is finish those wings to move onto Sauce Two. Oh, and think up some really good questions, everyone!” 

“Wait, hold on, landrat,” cut in Imtura. “You never told us how we win.” 

“Yes, we did,” said Kade. “You get through all ten sauces in order, you answer all the questions that are asked of you, and then you win.” 

Imtura’s face was a mixture of astonishment and dismay. “No, I mean, then who wins?” 

Kade and Raine both looked a little confused. “Everyone who gets to Sauce Ten?” Raine said. 

“Then how do you…?” Imtura trailed off. 

“You beat the challenge by getting all the way to the end, that’s it,” said Kaid simply. 

“So you’re saying there’s a chance that all of us could win, and no one single person is the champion?!” Imtura demanded.

Raine snorted. “I’m not so sure that all of us will win.” 

Then it was Mal’s turn to scoff. “I’m the one who introduced you to Purple Parnassians, kit.” 

“Mal, those things are probably a one on the scale, maybe a two.” 

“Hah!” barked Mal, though Raine didn’t miss the look of apprehension that crossed his face. 

Imtura narrowed her eyes at Mal. “Ooh, I’m beating you, at least.” 

Aerin, who was familiar with Purple Parnassians back in Whitetower, looked even more nervous than he was before. “So I really have to do this?” he said. 

“Oh, just you wait, you who mocked Saucy Sausage,” replied Raine. She then turned towards Tyril, and added, “And so did you, if I remember correctly.” 

And so the challenge began. 

“Oh, gods,” cried Tyril. “This is horrible.” He shot his arm out towards Imtura. “Ale. Ale.”

“Help!” wailed Mal. He cast a stricken glance over to Nia, who herself was in excruciating pain from Sauce Five, and was not capable of thinking straight. Nia grabbed a pitcher of water and threw it upon herself and Mal, leaving the two of them sputtering. 

WIth tears in his eyes, Tyril straightened his shoulders and summoned up what was left of his dignity. “This isn’t working,” he declared. “Hand over the milk.” 

“With the ale?!” gasped Imtura, who was fanning herself with her napkin in between gulps of her own ale. 

“Not together!” growled Tyril with aggravation. 

“This burns more than the Nerada Stone,” sobbed Aerin. 

“I’m in too much pain right now to decide if that’s too soon or not, Aerin,” said Mal. 

“Wait,” Tyril suddenly said, who was in slightly better shape for having had some milk. “I just remembered we were supposed to be asking questions.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Mal. “Okay, I’ll go first. So, comparing this to the Nerada Stone: too soon?”

“No, it was funny,” answered Tyril with grave sincerity, readying himself for another pargallus wing. 

“Agree,” said Kade. 

“You don’t even know funny!” shot Mal. “And this proves it!”

“Just eat your wings!” Tyril roared back, more tears welling up in his eyes. 

Nia was panting hard, and dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. “Imtura, did you ever feel that you lash out at people sometimes because your mother wasn’t generous enough with her affection?” 

“Whoa!” Imtura sputtered, spitting out some of her ale and coughing, in equal measures from shock and from the heat of Sauce Five. 

“Priestess isn’t holding back!” Mal exclaimed. 

“Well?” Tyril prodded. 

“Yes! Happy?!” Imtura growled, tearing viciously into a pargallus wing. 

“All right, Mal, you’re up,” said Raine. “Deepest darkest secret you’ve never told anyone else ever.” 

Mal managed to bark out a weak laugh amidst his panting and gasping. “Why do I get that one?!” 

“Everybody can answer that one, too,” said Raine diplomatically. 

“Um… don’t have any,” said Mal. 

“Boooo!” shouted the rest of the table. 

“Fine! I had a crush on Raine when I first met her!” 

“EVEN MORE BOOOOOO!” yelled Imtura. “We all knew that!” 

“Yeah,” said Nia, sniffling through her tears. “Raine said, deepest darkest secret no one knows!” 

“Very funny,” Mal said, himself sniffling through tears as well. 

“Kit this, kit that,” Tyril mocked savagely. “It could not have been more painfully obvious.” 

Mal turned towards Tyril with venom in his eyes. “Oh? And you?” he said accusingly. 

Tyril then had a coughing fit from his efforts to make it through Sauce Seven. When he recovered, he said, “Everyone liked Raine. That is no real secret.” 

“Is no one going to ask Tyril about the existential crisis he had when we went to Zaradun?” challenged Mal. 

“Just eat your wings!!!” shouted Tyril with more emotion than he’d shown all day. 

“Ice, elf boy, please,” huffed Mal, pushing a glass of water towards Tyril. 

Tyril obliged, using his magic to drop some ice cubes into Mal’s water. “Only because you said ‘please,’” he said grimly. 

Ignoring this, Nia asked, “Raine, did you ever have romantic feelings for anyone else in your adventuring party?” 

Raine, who was soldiering through Sauce Nine, but visibly struggling, eventually gained enough composure to answer. “Maybe. I might have. If Aerin hadn’t come along when he did.” 

“Who?” 

“Yes, who?!” 

“Tell us!” 

“Oh, I don’t know! You guys know I flirted with everyone back then!” 

“Who could forget the bug monster…” Mal said darkly, as he wiped his brow and downed some more ale. 

“Done!” Raine suddenly shouted, throwing a bone down into the basket in front of her, and raising her tankard of ale. “Sauce Ten!” 

The tavern patrons all cheered and whooped, and thumped the tables. “Raine! Raine!” some chanted. 

“All right, I am not getting left behind,” said Imtura with renewed determination. She clenched her jaw, and then tore through Sauces Eight and Nine. The others followed suit, amidst sobs and yells, and dramatic gulps of their ale. Sauce Ten was now in everyone’s sights. 

“We’re gonna add a whole bunch more names to that wall tonight!” shouted Kade. “I get a special mark for doing it twice!” 

“Keep fighting!” growled Nia. 

“We can do this!” added Imtura. 

“Put mine up there!” screamed Mal, his face bright red and shiny with perspiration and tears. “Done!” 

“Done!”

“DONE!”

“Sauce Ten, done!” 

Raine turned towards her fiance, and gave him a triumphant smile before leaning in and kissing him. 

“Feels like fire,” he said with a big grin. Raine couldn’t tell if his face was red from the kiss, or - well, frankly, it was probably mostly from the challenge. 

Aerin looked around at the people surrounding him - sweating, coughing, wiping away tears, gulping down milk and ale - and even through the sheer pain he was feeling in his whole face from going through this ordeal, he realized he didn’t want to be anywhere else, doing anything else, with any other folks. 

His family wasn’t the one into which he was born. His family was the one that took him in, forgave him for the things that he’d done, and relentlessly teased him every chance they got. 

He gritted his teeth with determination. They were his new family. Therefore, his name godsdamned well better be joining theirs up on that wall. 

“Done! SAUCE TEN!” he shouted, and it brought the house down. 

The tavern erupted with a deafening cheer. 

There was no better way for Raine and Aerin to start their celebrations and new life together. 

[nero-vanderwolf]

HAIII tag Beanus so I don't have to send it to him too

Since that first "little" incident at Lisa's school, she had unfortunately found herself hanging out with Eikichi quite frequently. Really, she only wanted to spend time with Tatsuya, but he attracted an odd bunch.

Time spent with the group was still time spent with Tatsuya, no matter how tainted it was. And so she sat, feigning interest in whatever Maya and Yukino were researching for their latest articles. Tatsuya was off in his own world, reading the manual to a motorcycle he did not even own.

Lisa had begun checking the clock every few seconds to see just how late Eikichi would be. Two minutes, five, ten-

"That kid said he had something special going on, then he flakes on us!" Yukino finally snapped.

"Mhm, definitely suspicious," Maya added, though she was significantly calmer than her hot headed friend.

Lisa sighed and slouched back into her seat, "I'm not surprised he's dumb enough to get lost on the way to a diner two streets down from his school."

The little bell above the door rang and rang when the door slammed open. Everyone looked at the panting Tatsuya. His clothes were drenched and his makeup looked like a half melted clown.

"Look who's finally here," Lisa narrowed her eyes.

"Shut up," Eikichi groaned, "Ginko."

"Undie Boss."

The tunnel vision that always accompanied Lisa's mockery of Eikichi had stopped her from noticing the person he brought with him until she stood silently at the end of the table.

The first thing just about everyone noticed was the dress that was not appropriate for the weather. There were slits on either side, with a big red shash in the middle. Lisa had to stop herself from immediately laughing at the odd outfit.

"This is Lyn, and Lyn, these are Tatsuya, Maya, Yukino and Ginko," Eikichi smiled.

"Hi," she said quietly.

They all scooted over on the bench to make room for both Eikichi and this friend he brought with him.

"What area are you from?" Lisa asked.

"Just outside town," Lyn oddly said, for it contradicted what Eikichi had said at the exact same time, "Caelin."

"Excuse me?"

The two exchanged odd looks and Lyn whispered a bit loudly, "You said I needed a cover story!"

"Yeah, when talking to my parents cause they'd call us both crazy! These guys are normal though," Eikichi answered.

They looked back at the rest of the group, who had all been staring at them with blank expressions. Even Tatsuya had put down his "magazine" to listen to whatever they were yapping about.

"You got your stories straight now?" Yukino asked.

"Yep!" Eikichi answered, "Lyn came out of a portal in this alley near my home. She's from a region in this other world called Caelin."

"At this point, we may as well say I'm from Sacae," she said.

Eikichi quickly corrected himself, "Yes, right. Lyn is from a country called Sacae."

Strange. Whatever this prank was that Eikichi had agreed to with this new friend of his, it wasn't particularly entertaining. Lisa merely rolled her eyes while trying to think of something mean to say.

"You sure she didn't come out of a wardrobe?" Yukino said deadpanned.

"Haha, very funny, but I swear I'm not lying!" Eikichi demanded.

"Why a wardrobe?" Lyn asked.

Lisa grinned, finally having thought of a cruel joke, and faced Lyn, "You must get off on humiliation if you agreed to help Eikichi with a joke like this."

"I don't like these people," Lyn said.

The table desolved into a little argument between Eikichi and Lisa, with the occasional mean remark from Yukino. Lyn still could not figure out the wardrobe joke. Maya had put in earplugs and taken out her notebook to review her recent work. No one had thought of Tatsuya at all for the last few minutes.

"Can we see the portal?" he muttered.

Lisa paused mid incredibly rude sentence and looked at him funny, "Not you too!"

"No, that's a great idea!" Eikichi beamed.

"I don't know. A group like this could attract unwanted attention and everyone from this world seems to be..." she paused for a good long moment while her eyes rested on Lisa, "Untrained in combat."

At that last remark, Lisa had had enough.

"Alright, take us to this portal right now!" she demanded.

The group left the table in no time (while Maya briefly stayed behind to pay for their drinks and apologize to the staff for causing a ruckus) and made their way to the fabled alley in the pouring rain.

Eikichi stomped all the way there while Lyn trailed closed behind. The others walked slower as they huddled around Maya, who was the only one smart enough to bring an umbrella.

Eikichi and Lyn turned a corner into an alley that smelled bad from several meters away. While the others walked in, Lisa stood just outside. Trash bags littered the place and there seemed to be an entire rat civilization amongst the garbage. What a vile little place she had been led to.

"Just over here!" Eikichi smiled.

He stood behind a dumpster, out of sight.

In unison, Maya and Yukino gasped at whatever they saw. Lisa could not see it, only the amazed looks on their faces. Had you told them all their dreams came true, it was doubtful they would look even half as surprised and as they did then.

"We're going through the portal without you, Ginko!" Eikichi laughed.

One by one, they all disappeared. Lisa stood alone, staring into that dark alley. She could not decide if it was worth it to follow them and she stood there for several minutes. Her clothes were soaked and she began to shiver. Maybe she should turn home.

But just when she moved her feet, she heard a sound. Tatsuya emerged from the portal and he looked at her.

"Are you coming?" he asked.

When she did not answer, he stepped over trash and boxes until he was on the street again. He did not say anything when he took her hand and led her to the place they had all disappeared only some moments ago.

Before them was a ring of light in all the colors of the rainbow and inside it was a rippling vision of lush fields with a bright blue sky. Lisa did not have time to react when Tatsuya pulled her through with him.

Her stomach turned and she felt a sort of nausea come over her. But as suddenly as it had come, it disappeared as well. She opened her eyes and found she stood in a gorgeous field. The air was warm and pleasant breeze that smelled of elderflowers had already begun drying her clothes.

Tatsuya let go of her hand, and gestured towards Eikichi, Maya, Yukino and Lyn, who were already several paces away.

"We're gonna visit my grandpa!" Lyn shouted.

Whatever. The weather there was nice, there were no rats, and admittedly, Lisa was curious about this strange new world.

@beantothemax PSPSPSPPSPSSPSPSPSPS

AJSJDBB I DONT KNOW WHAT I WAS EXPECTING WHEN YOU SAID P2 FIC BUT SOMEHOW I WASNT EXPECING LYN!!!! YAYYAYAYA LYN AND EIKICHI FRIENDSHIP IS REAL im clawing and knawing on this so hard you have no idea. you also characterized the characters so well for your first p2 fic AKSJDB <3 BRAVO i know little to nothing about fe7 but i enjoyed this fic so much ehehehehehe

[ayyyez]

May I please request a scenario of a one night stand between Kame and Yaku @ Ayame's place w/ Kuroo camping outside the room in the morning waiting for the walk of shame, thank you ily bye

A/N: HAHAH alright alright you asked and I delivered our glorious creation. As usual I got carried away with Kuroo and Ayame in some parts and then swooped back in with Yaku and Kame haha ily <3

SUMMARY: Kuroo is in a friends with benefits relationship with Ayame while pining for more at a party she throws for the V.League. At the same event Yaku and Kame hook up and have a one night stand. Kuroo and Ayame happen to catch them sneaking into a guest room and Kuroo is determined to catch Yaku's walk of shame as pay back for all the years of teasing his situation. (Ayame is my OC and Kame is @loveskitkats OC)

TAGS: pining, friends with benefits (Kuroo), blowjobs (Kuroo), Making out, Kissing, smut, teasing, banter, fluff, Kuroo uses babe once, flirting, kind of peeping for a hot minute but not in a sexual way, begging, Kuroo being a simp, Bokutos strong drinks, drinking

WC: 4734

CHARACTERS: Kuroo Tetsurou/OC Ayame Saikawa, Yaku Morisuke/OC Kame, Bokuto Koutarou

It’s the last V.League game of the season. Since it’s in Tokyo Ayame naturally decides to throw one of her house parties. It makes it easier for those out of town to have a place to crash and keeps the players out of the public eye. Everyones free to do what they want without too many repercussions.

Ayame likes to joke with Kuroo that being friends with benefits with her seems to have a lot more benefits for him in the workplace than in the bedroom. He would argue that being with Ayame is nothing but beneficial. The only cons are the feelings he has to constantly keep in check.

Those pesky feelings he pretends not to have every time someone asks why they aren’t dating. The feelings that threaten to spill over every time he watches the V.League players he invited here carelessly flirt with her. 

Yeah those feelings. 

The ones he’s trying to swallow right now.

Kuroo curses his younger self for not fessing up sooner. He had plenty of opportunities during their on again and off again non-relationship. But he always chickens out. Scared of losing everything. So instead he clutches onto whatever they have now in the hopes it will work itself out. 

Even now, as he watches Ayame from the living room, with the party in full swing, he wonders how easily he could walk over there. How he’d push Bokuto’s stupid face out of the way and tell her everything. How he didn’t want to hover over her the whole party for her sake. That it just invites those kinds of questions. And sure she can handle it better than him but he doesn’t want to put that on her. She’s been too good for him. 

‘Whatcha drinking?’ Yaku says, slapping him on the shoulder.

‘Hmm.’ Kuroo is pulled from his daze as he turns to him. ‘What?’ 

‘I asked what you’re drinking, dumbass.’ 

‘Oh, just beer.’ He opens his hand a little to show the brand. 

Yaku raises his brow and nods. ‘Sure you haven’t had too much or…’ He follows where Kuroo’s eye-line was before. ‘You just pining over the girl you’ve had a heart eyes for since highschool?’ 

‘Shut up.’ Kuroo says, kicking his leg. ‘I was just thinking about getting a top up.’ 

‘Oh is that what the kids are calling it these days? She gets on top and does all the work while you–’ 

‘Oi, would you shut up?’ Kuroo goes to kick him again but Yaku dodges and retaliates by kicking him in the shin. 

‘Would you stop kicking me?’ He sighs. 

‘I’m giving you a taste of your own medicine.’ 

‘Wouldn’t be so salty if you didn’t deserve it, tch.’ Yaku takes a sip from his cup. ‘Seriously though, just tell her you love her already, sheesh.’ 

‘Who does Kuroo love?’ Comes a sing-song voice. 

‘Kame just in time!’ Yaku smirks, gesturing for her to come from the doorway. 

‘Oh, fun is this about Ayame?’ 

Yaku snorts. ‘Could it be about anyone else?’ 

‘Mm, Kenma?’ 

‘Nah, that’s old news, a passing crush.’

‘Excuse me!’ Kuroo interjects. ‘I am here you know? While you two graciously analyse my life.’ 

‘We know!’ Kame smirks, patting his head. ‘It’s fun too.’ 

‘Yeah, I’ve actually missed this.’ Yaku says more to the room than them. 

Kuroo watches as he swirls his cup in his hands. He and Kame swap a glance and he shrugs. 

‘Well, then I have an idea,’ Kame begins pushing Kuroo forward. ‘Why doesn’t Kuroo go over there and show us just how NOT in love he is while Yaku tells me all about Russia.’ 

‘Oh, now there’s an idea.’ Yaku agrees, giving Kuroo a whack on the back, shoving him even further forward. ‘How about you accompany me to the bar set up over here and get a drink with me?’ 

‘Why thank you, sir.’

Kuroo looks back at them with a glare, watching Yaku lead Kame by the hand to the bar. He wants to yell something at them but he knows it will be met with something at his expense back. They have too much on him. Both of them. 

Kame is Ayame’s twin and blood or not, that girl knows how to torture him should he ask for it. That’s not something he’s willing to test. 

With a sigh Kuroo heads for the kitchen seeking out the presence he craves the most. 

Coming up behind Ayame he wraps his arms around her core and plants his face on her shoulder. Rumours be damned he wants this right now. She’s cool and soothing and he wants to touch her. 

‘Now, which tall man would dare hold me from behind in my own kitchen?’ Ayame muses leaning back into his touch. 

‘Your sister is bullying me.’ Kuroo says, turning to bury his face in the safety of her neck. ‘Yaku too.’ He whispers against her smooth skin. 

Yeah this is nice. 

‘Ah, Kuroo of course.’ She chuckles and he can feel the vibrations run into his body. ‘What did you do?’ She asks, turning her head towards his, cheek purposefully brushing against his face. 

God he wants to press closer.

‘Hey! Who says I did anything?’ He squeezes her closer, prompting her to run her hands over his, their fingers interlocking. ‘I was over there minding my own business, thank you very much.’

‘Mmm, a likely story.’ Her lips move against his cheek with each word. ‘Do you need me to go over there and teach them a lesson?’ 

‘Yes, please protect me with your fearsome presence.’ 

Kuroo turns a little, ghosting his lips over her neck as they sit on his words for a second. 

The two of them are snickering a second later as the words sink in. 

‘You’re a loser.’ Ayame says, turning fully in his arms. 

‘Oh, yeah?’ Kuroo replies, pulling her in by the waist. ‘What does that make you?’ 

She hums thinking about it. ‘Someone who sometimes sleeps with a loser?’ 

Kuroo lets out a dramatic gasp. ‘You wound me!’ His grip on her tightens as he leans back feigning hurt. ‘I can’t believe you are so mean!’ There’s still a wide smirk on his face despite his dramatics. 

Ayame’s laughing, her hands coming to his chest as they stumble around the kitchen a little. Neither of them care about their surroundings. The party guests long forgotten. Most are too drunk or distracted to care anyway. 

‘Aw, I’m sorry.’ Ayame says, cupping Kuroo’s face, still letting bursts of laughter slip through. ‘Want me to make it up to you?’ 

His brows raise at that. Now this is an interesting proposition. 

‘Oh? How are you going to make up for such a painful slight?’ 

‘Want to go upstairs and I’ll blow you?’ She says seriously with the addition of a sultry brow wiggle. 

Now Kuroo thinks he has died and gone to heaven. He almost considers shoving his fist in his mouth to suppress the groan that wants to creep out. She is going to be the death of him. 

Fuck, he loves her. 

‘Yep.’ He says as casually as possible, noticing his voice has gone a little high. ‘I think that’s, yep, let’s do that.’ 

‘Easy there.’ Ayame strokes his cheeks a little, an effort surely meant to calm him down but all he can think about now is her touch. How he wants more. 

She seems to notice too. 

Ayame smirks and takes him by the hand and makes a break for the stairs. It’s when they’re halfway up, hearing the way their footfalls echo in their foyer that Kuroo is thoroughly aware of how hot his cheeks are burning. How hot his body is. It just seems to burn for her. 

The anticipation is killing him. He needs her now. 

The second they’re up the top of the stairs he’s pulling Ayame to him, taking her into a deep kiss. She kisses him back immediately, tugging him closer by the collar of his shirt. He almost stumbles when they reach the door of her room. 

‘Easy.’ She says, breaking the kiss. ‘I’ve got this, don't worry.’ 

There’s that reassuring smile across those perfect lips. Kuroo can’t take his eyes off them as he follows her into the room in a daze. He’s already on cloud nine and they’ve barely kissed. 

God, he’s probably a little hard already but he’s so tingly and worked up he can’t bear to look down. 

‘Wanna go sit on the bed?’ Ayame says shutting the door behind them.

He’s been in this room a thousand times before. The fact he knows his way around gives him both pride but also a craving for something more. He wants them to be something more. Right now though they need to take care of something else. That’s what they came here for after all. 

Kuroo wanders over to the edge of the bed and sits down. From there he watches Ayame take her shirt off so she stands there in her bra, which is one of her more fancy ones; black and lacey. He tickles himself with the idea that perhaps she wore it for him. 

She isn’t sleeping with anyone else, right?

Then reminding himself who Ayame is, perhaps it’s simply for herself. 

Kuroo feels a bit foolish trying to monumentalise himself in her life but he can’t help it. She’s so important to him that he just can’t help but crave for it to be the same way in reverse. God, please let it be so. 

‘Hey.’ Ayame taps his leg from below. ‘You good there, or you overthinking your life away?’ 

It’s only now Kuroo realises that she is already on her knees in front of him. That she has seen right through him, down to the overthinking mess that is his mind. Man, he loves her. Why can’t she just know that and make it all okay? 

‘I’m good.’ He says, forcing a smile. ‘Want a kiss first, though, if that’s okay?’ 

‘Of course.’ 

Ayame reaches up and pulls him down into a long drawn out kiss. When she goes to pull away Kuroo gently clasps the back of her head and pulls her back in. His mouth opens with purpose against her’s. Tongue slipping in and running in a smooth, drawn out rhythm. He knows he’s getting emotional. He can’t stop it. 

Finally, Kuroo breaks the kiss and lets her go. 

‘Okay,’ he says, voice hoarse, ‘I’m good.’ 

Ayame nods, a little dazed as she comes back down. 

Then her hands are on his thighs, slowly sliding their way up as Kuroo releases a shaky exhale. She slides one hand over his bulge—shit, he was already a little hard and sensitive too—and she rubs him in hard drawn out motions. 

Fuck—she knows just how he likes it. 

Kuroo lets out soft whines as he leans back a little. He could happily stay up there and forget about the party. He’s already forgetting. 

Ayame moves to unbuckle his belt and undo his pants. Kuroo raises his hips a little as she shimmies them down, leaving his briefs up for now. Ah, so it’s going to be a bit of teasing first. He can work with that if he needs—

‘Ah— shiiit.’ Kuroo hunches forward. 

Once again, Ayame’s palm pushes down hard against his shaft through the fabric of his briefs creating a maddening friction. He’s feeling extra sensitive from the build of anticipation. His head is already spinning. God, he’s not sure how long he is going to last at this rate. He doesn’t want to say that though because then she might edge him more and he really wants to cum. 

‘Yeahhhh–’ Kuroo urges, feeling Ayame’s ministrations lighten and quicken against the fabric of his briefs. ‘That’s mm, good.’

Ayame continues that lighter pressure, grazing her fingers over the head of his cock and gathering the fabric there over where the pre-cum seems to be building. It causes Kuroo to shudder. Between her hand and the fabric it’s tantalising. 

‘Look at you falling apart and I haven’t even put my mouth on you yet.’ Ayame says, pushing her hand down hard against his cock. 

Kuroo groans. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck.’ He squeezes his eyes closed suppressing a shudder. 

‘What’s wrong, you want me to stop?’ 

Ayame softens the pressure and speed. 

Kuroo furiously shakes his head. ‘Don’t stop.’ 

‘You want me to use my mouth though, right?’ Ayame gives him a hard squeeze for emphasis. 

‘Fuuuck.’ Kuroo quickly sits up, breathing heavily. ‘Ayame.’ He chastises, pouting. ‘Stop being a tease and blow me like you said you would.’ 

She smiles wide, like she’s having the time of her life. 

‘You want me to beg? I’ll beg, I don’t care.’ Kuroo grips the blankets hard. ‘Please suck my dick, I’m begging you to stop drawing it out, I’m going crazy.’ 

Ayame lets go of him altogether. 

‘Well, since you asked so nicely.’ She stands up and presses a gentle kiss to his lips. ‘I guess I’ll have to now, won’t I?’ 

Kuroo breathes a sigh of relief, watching her return to her knees and help him slide his briefs down out of the way. 

The cool air on his cock is a welcome sensation compared to the teasing beneath the confines of his briefs. Although he normally would let her do what she wished for hours, something about tonight is different. He’s got this new found sense of desperation. He needs to feel her. It’s like he’ll combust if he doesn’t. 

Ayame’s taking him into her mouth before he can think another thought. He gasps falling back onto his arms. The wet heat of her mouth is all consuming. It’s too good and he almost cums right then and there as she takes all of him. He has to reach one hand out and into her hair to ground himself. To keep from going over the edge. 

She hums as she pulls back, the vibrations running over his cock. It’s maddening. She’s licking a broad stroke up beneath his shaft all the way to the head. Kuroo squeezes his eyes closed as she works the head. It’s all too much as she takes him in again. 

Yeah he’s definitely not going to last. 

Between his feelings and the fact Ayame gives the best head ever, he’s a goner. 

Kuroo lets himself give in to the moment. He lets go of her hair and collapses back against the bed. He can’t even think straight. His whole body is on fire, tingling as the heat builds inside, threatening to push him over the edge each time she takes him in full. 

‘S-so good babe, so good.’ He’s a babbling mess and can’t stop the words spilling out of him. ‘Don’t stop. F-fuck. You’re so good. You’re s-so hot, mmm feel so good. Mmm, Ayame.’

He’s cumming hard. Fisting the sheets in an attempt to ground himself. It’s absolute bliss in this moment as he forgets that they are only friends with benefits and nothing more. He’s wrapped up in the fact he’s just had the best blowjob and he got it from the woman he loves. 

Ayame rides him through it. Swallowing all of his cum and cleans him up. That sight alone, as she pushes her hair out the way and pops off his cock, could make Kuroo cum all over again. 

‘Come here.’ He says, voice hoarse as he reaches out a hand to her. 

She takes it. Kuroo drags her on top of him, pulling her into a hot, messy kiss. He doesn’t care that he just came in her mouth. He doesn’t care that they still haven’t talked about furthering their relationship. He just wants her. 

‘You wanna fuck?’ Ayame asks, hands running down his chest.

Kuroo nods, pulling her against him. 

‘So yeah, it’s pretty interesting there but putting up with Lev is a whole other story.’ Yaku says, placing his drink on the counter. ‘But you know volleyball stuff is the same old. I’m sure the same could be said for half the people in this place.’ He gestures around the party. 

Kame chuckles. ‘You mean volleyball players actually pursue volleyball in their lives, who’d have thunk?’ She twirls her empty cup between her fingers. 

Yaku smiles. ‘You know what I’m saying. I just mean I’m sure you don’t want to just talk about that all night. I know I don’t.’ 

‘Oh, you didn’t hear? I live and breathe volleyball now.’ 

‘Really?’ 

‘No.’ She shakes her head with a snort. ‘I’m still a swimmer at heart, sorry. Doesn’t mean I don’t like it though.’ 

‘Oh, of course, how else would you have been able to survive here all these years?’ Yaku playfully nudges her shoulder. 

‘Exactly!’ Kame nudges him back. ‘But it is a little bit of an exchange. I listen to the volleyball rants, they listen to me coo about turtles and swimming things. Win-win, really.’ 

‘I can think of worse things to listen to.’ There’s a pause as he frowns, like he’s thinking over something. ‘Hey, speaking of swimming, you still compete right?’ 

‘Yup, you’re looking at an olympic competitor, my friend.’ She gives him a finger gun gesture that turns into her poking his shoulder. 

‘Right! Duh.’ He smacks his head. ‘I knew that. In a: I totally don’t stalk and keep track of you sort of way.’ 

That makes Kame laugh hard. 

‘Of course, of course.’ She smiles against the palm of her hand. ‘Same here but I totally do stalk you.’ She winks at him. 

There’s a pregnant pause.

‘Okay, I know you’re joking but it doesn’t help that your nickname has wildcard in it!’ Yaku brings his hand to his chest. ‘You always have me going!’ 

Kame chuckles. ‘That’s the idea.’ She leans in close. ‘You never know when I’m going to strike.’ 

‘God, I thought Ayame was something.’ Yaku smiles, shaking his head. 

At her mention, Yaku automatically looks to the kitchen, finding Ayame is no longer there and there’s no sign of Kuroo either. 

‘Speaking of your sister, where is she?’ Yaku asks. 

‘Hm?’ Kame turns back to the kitchen too. ‘Huh, guess they’re off not being in love somewhere.’ She turns back with a smirk. 

‘They went upstairs.’ Bokuto says placing a martini shaker in front of them with a warm smile. ‘I saw them head up there a while ago holding hands.’ 

‘Pfft.’ Yaku can’t contain himself. ‘I guess Kuroo can’t even act like he’s not in love when there’s a party going on.’

‘I knew there was still something going on between them.’ Bokuto says, picking up the martini shaker and shaking it with two hands. 

‘Aw you know too?’ Kame asks, leaning against the bar. 

‘Of course, they’ve been hooking up since university when Kuroo lived with me, remember?’ Bokuto gestures the shaker toward them. ‘Drink?’ 

‘Oh, yes please!’

Yaku just nods. ‘It seems everyone on the planet knows Kuroo loves her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew too. He should just fess up like I said.’ 

‘Mmm would you?’ Kame asks, pulling away from sipping her drink. 

‘What just because it’s Ayame?’ Yaku asks, taking his drink from Bokuto. 

‘She’s scary hot but nice so I don’t see what the big deal is.’ 

‘Pfft it’s not that it's the history they have too.’ 

Yaku thinks about it and takes a sip from his drink. ‘Well, maybe if we all have some liquid courage, who knows what the night will bring?’ 

‘Why not.’ Kame agrees, cheersing her drink with his. 

Kuroo and Ayame lie there, limbs wrapped around each other entirely fucked out. Their bodies are sweaty and panting. 

Ayame presses a kiss to Kuroo’s chest. 

He doesn’t have the energy to reciprocate so he runs his fingers down her back, lightly tracing patterns. Her skin is so smooth and addicting. Truthfully he wants to go a few more rounds. He’s not sure he has the energy though. 

There’s the familiar clunk of footfalls coming up the stairs. They seem heavier than usual. Like they’re hurried and uneven. Then there’s more heavy thuds. And a loud almost clutter against the wall. 

‘What the hell is going on out there?’ Ayame asks, moving to sit up. 

‘Noooo.’ Kuroo protests, reaching out to her. ‘Come back!’ 

She’s already standing with the sheet wrapped around her. 

‘Pfft, I’ve got to make sure no one is dying or destroying my house, hang on.’ She starts to move away. 

‘No, don’t go please!’ Kuroo sits up. ‘Let them do it. I’ll pay for the damage.’ 

She snorts. ‘Don’t be a baby and come with me if you want.’ 

Kuroo huffs and climbs out of bed spinning around in search of his briefs. When he finds them he remembers the pre-cum conundrum and throws them off to the side. He quickly hurries over to the draw he happens to keep spare clothes in. Totally just a friend with benefits thing to do, have clothes there. 

‘Hurry up!’ Ayame whispers by the door. 

Kuroo quickly scrambles to get his briefs on, tripping onto the bed in the process. 

‘Fucking, shit, fuck.’ He says, scrambling back up. ‘I’m coming.’ 

He meets her by the door which she steadily cracks open. 

‘Oh shit.’ She says covering her smiling face with her hand. 

‘What?’ He asks, pushing over her to peer through. ‘Oh shit!’ 

He sees it immediately. 

Yaku and Kame are making out against the guest room door. And quite enthusiastically too. 

Kame is against the door, her leg wrapped around Yaku’s core, sliding it up and down in an attempt to bring him closer. Yaku is pushing against her, one hand flat against the wall to steady them. The other is both holding and kneading her thigh, occasionally moving it up to cup her ass. And their kissing is intense, each pushing like their lives depended on it with such passion and intensity. 

‘Well, well I never thought those two were going to give us a show.’ Ayame whispers up to Kuroo. 

‘You know if this was the other way around they’d never let us live this down.’ Kuroo says, snorting as he watches Yaku kiss down Kame’s neck. 

‘You? Definitely not.’ Ayame bites back a laugh. ‘I think he just grabbed her boob. Who knew Yaku was a tits guy?’ 

I did. Kuroo thinks. Remembering the times Yaku had made that clear with his crush on Ayame back in highschool. Luckily he has moved well beyond that. Well, right onto her sister it seems. 

‘I am not letting them get away with this.’ Kuroo decides. 

‘Oh? So are you just going to march right on out there and tell them you see them?’ 

‘What? No, I’m not that kind of guy, gosh.’ 

‘Then what?’ 

‘I’ll just wait here until Yaku comes out of the guest room in the morning.’ He gestures to the door. ‘I’m assuming that’s their destination and you can’t get downstairs without passing this room so guess who will be waiting for him.’ Kuroo smiles very smugly. 

‘God, Kuroo. You can’t just let them have their fun?’ 

‘No way they always tease me!’ 

‘About what?’ 

‘About…’ Oh shit he is really caught out here. About us obviously but he can’t really broach that subject yet. ‘Just…about everything, okay.’ He finally says with a pout.

‘Alright, whatever you want to do.’ Ayame relents, leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek. ‘It’s probably time to stop peeping and go to bed for now though.’ 

‘Right.’ 

Kuroo turns to join Ayame, entirely caught off guard by the sweet gesture. 

Kame’s arms wrap around Yaku pulling him closer. His cologne fills her senses as her hands slide up into his hair giving it a little tug. It makes him moan into the kiss. She’s sure he’s hard but she doesn’t want to move yet. The wall is keeping her upright. Her legs are a little shaky. 

‘God.’ Yaku says, kissing down her neck and across her chest. ‘You’re so hot.’ 

‘Yeah.’ She says, pulling him back by the hair and looking him in the eye. ‘I know.’ 

He smirks and kisses her again, playfully nipping at her lips while groping her ass at the same time. 

Then she’s pushing him away. ‘Hang on.’ Her eyes scan the hall. ‘I know it’s here somewhe—there!’ She shuffles away to the hall table where a bowl sits and grabs it before returning to a panting, dishevelled Yaku. 

‘What’s that?’ He asks squinting a little, like it is a puzzle he needs to solve. 

‘Three guesses what.’ She says scooping the packeted contents out of the bowl and throwing them over his head, letting them rain over like confetti. 

Yaku looks down to see them clear as day. Condom and lube packets of various kinds laid out at his feet. He can’t contain his laughter at 1. Ayame has this in her house for guests and 2. Kame just knows exactly where they are. He can’t complain though. Safe sex is what he needs right now. 

Yaku takes a handful of the supplies in his hand and mimics Kame’s motion, throwing them over their heads. 

A wide smile crosses her lips. 

‘Condoms!’ She exclaims, twirling around in the rain down. ‘Woo!’ 

Yaku can’t even begin to describe the bizarre nature of this moment but he’s glad he’s there with Kame. Right now he wants her more than he’s wanted anyone in his life. And honestly, he can finally understand Kuroo a little now. He wants to keep this moment all to himself. 

‘Come on,’ he says, taking her hand, ‘let’s go in.’ 

She takes his hand and together they head into the guestroom and away from prying eyes with the condom bowl. They’re sure to leave a couple on the floor. They don’t want the other guests to go without. 

Ayame wakes up early to find Kuroo has dragged one of the arm chairs directly in front of the door and propped it open with the stopper. He’s drinking a coffee and reading the paper in said chair while looking up every now and again. It’s like he’s afraid he’s going to miss something. 

‘Morning.’ Ayame says, sitting up with narrowing eyes. 

‘Good morning.’ Kuroo says, a little too chipper. ‘Want some coffee?’ 

‘I’m good thanks.’ She reaches out to pet her cat Miso who is sleeping peacefully on the bed next to her. ‘Whatcha doing over there?’ 

‘Oh, me? Just enjoying the morning.’ 

‘I can see that. Would you perhaps be waiting for Yaku to emerge from the guest bedroom? 

‘Oh right! That!’ Kuroo fakes forgetfulness and badly. ‘They did that last night, didn't they?’ 

‘Kuroo.’ 

‘Alright! Yes, I’m waiting!’

Ayame sighs, rubbing her eyes. ‘So, no sign of either of them yet huh?’ 

‘Not a peep.’ 

‘How long have you been awake for?’ 

‘Since about 5am.’ 

‘Kuroo, what the fuck!’

‘What? I couldn’t sleep! What do you want from me?’ 

‘Nothing.’ Ayame sighs again, sliding her legs over the side of the bed and walking over to him. ‘I think I’ll have some coffee after all.’ 

 ‘Good, I brought up the milk you like.’ Kuroo starts pouring her a cup, eyes still flicking in the direction of the door. 

‘He’s not a ninja who is going to sneak past while you pour coffee.’ 

‘Right, right. Just keep an eye for me would you?’ 

‘Yeah whatever.’ She runs a hand through his hair which he pushes back into. ‘Nothing yet, commander.’ 

‘Oh commander, huh? I like that.’ 

‘Is that so, commander?’ 

‘Yeah, here’s your coffee, Ms.Subordinate.’ 

Ayame takes the coffee, eyebrows raised. ‘Mm I don’t care for that one.’ 

‘No? I’ll work on it.’ 

Then there’s a click, the sound of the door opening and Kuroo jumps to his feet rushing over to the open doorway. 

‘HA, I caught you!’ He says before even reaching the entrance. 

‘Oh, really?’ Comes a voice that is definitely not Yaku. ‘And what did you catch me doing?

Ayame snorts, recognising the voice. ‘Hey Kame.’ She walks over to the doorway. ‘Don’t mind him, he's had too much coffee and was waiting for Yaku.’ 

‘Goddamnit.’ Kuroo groans, smacking his forehead. ‘So close.’ 

‘So did you enjoy your night?’ Ayame asks, taking a quick sip of her coffee before adding, ‘Oh and I expect that bowl to be put back.’

[wraenata]

i was tagged by fellow raven enthusiast @redstringraven, thank you! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Oops I trauma dumped in some of these what a surprise

share your wallpaper:

My phone lock screen is a alternating picture of my cat Sally, or her sister Jenny who passed two years ago. In both photos they look like super models <3

My computer wallpaper is a alternating slideshow of like over 100 landscape and animal photos. Idk I got them from the microsoft store free at one point. They change every 30 minutes. I like the variety.

last song you listened to:

For some reason when I got home today I decided to watch the amazing Reverse animatic and then since I am finally using a new browser Firefox it started auto playing and went to the Roaring 20s animatic, and my brain decided to listen to that on repeat the entire night. I do not know why.

currently reading:

SO MANY FANFIC and I'm behind on all of them

On my immediate list to catch up right now are

We'll Meet Again Soon by chiangyorange

all the ashes in my wake by paperxcrowns

Change of Perspective by characcoon

last movie you watched:

Honestly have no idea. Probably the Rise movie. In two weeks it will be Spider-Verse and I will not be normal about it.

craving:

Energy to be alive

what are you wearing right now:

Yeah I get home from work at 3:30, finish dinner before 4:30, shower and in my jammies by 5 pm. This is how I live my life haha. It is a bit cool today so I opted for my big pink sweatshirt from a campground.

how tall are you:

5 foot 4 inches just barely, which is 162.56 cm according to an online converter. I'm short.

piercings:

So my ears were actually pierced when I was like 3 or something by my parents' friend. No I don't think she asked permission haha. Anyway I had to have an x-ray done not a year later so the earings came out and never went back in. My parents religion we converted into though actually did not allow piercings, so I never got them repierced. No jewelry was allowed. Some of the more strict southern churches didn't allow even wedding bands.

tattoos:

None. Tattoos were literally the reason my mom made us leave the normal church and go to the cult one. Tattoos were not allowed. Maybe I'll get one some day but it's not something I really think I need. But nothing is stopping me anymore if I wanted to.

glasses? contacts?:

4 eyes that's me :) Got glasses in 6th grade yay. I'm not super blind but unless I'm pretty close I'm losing out on a lot of details. Had to buy special prescription safety glasses for my lab job. When I'm at home I don't wear them. Details not important.

last drink:

I literally only drink water. And I drink a lot of it. Gave up soda when I was like 8 because I was afraid of wasps getting in the can. I don't drink alcohol or juice. Maybe a hot cocoa or tea but that is very rare.

last thing i ate:

Sugar snap peas! I love them <3

last show:

Lets be honest it was rise.

favorite color:

I like a forest green. But also I love pastels. I do not like red. You can thank my mom for that.

current obsession:

Rise of the TMNT. Also Spider-Verse.

unrelated obsession:

Nature related strategy board games. My favorites are Wingspan and Everdell but I have so.many.board.games. I got into the hobby because it was the only thing I could tolerate spending time with my mom with but now I don't want to do that anymore, so the games have gone unplayed since Christmas.

any pets:

My 19 year old tortie Sally! She is deaf and a box of rocks and so expensive with her health problems but I love her to bits. She's my baby and has been with me through everything.

do you have a crush on anyone:

I mean I had crushes in school but, oh shocker I was never allowed by my parents to date. And even then it had to be a fellow pentecostal and I sure as hell wasn't going to do that. I was too bogged down with family issues to ever consider it even after I left. I don't know if I'm capable of loving someone? Idk I have always had a huge identity crisis of who I am and what I want. But I also don't want to be alone forever. It's complicated.

favorite fictional characters:

Ninja turtles, Rise Casey Jones, Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner), Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Spider Gwen, Snoopy, Cinderpelt.

the last place you traveled to:

Ugh, the bachelorette party of my nightmares this past weekend. It was in a tourist town a few hours away. Unless work counts cause I went to work this morning.

tagging I'm not going to tag anyone because this is a lot, but if you would like to do it I encourage you to!

[winterandwords]

Word find tag (wood/s, dark, ground, tree/s)

The lovely @thegreatobsesso tagged me to search my WIP for wood(s), dark, ground and tree(s). Thanks, friend!

These are from Bridge From Ashes and I realised after I chose them that they're all pretty effective introductions to some of the women in the book. Notes in italics!

WOOD

She follows my eye to the glass case. “Do you like those knives?” I’m not sure how to answer that. “I have ones nearly the same. I’ve never seen any so similar.” “They’re very unusual. I’ve only ever seen sets like that come from one source.” She gives me a sad, knowing look and directs us to an orange velvet couch with years of scratches and scores in the varnish of its rolled wooden arms.

📝 Indira Enginn, underworld crime granny, dishes out turmeric lattes and hard truths wrapped in love, provides you with new clothes to replace the ones you got covered in blood when you killed that guy.

DARK

She slides down from the stool and I catch her arm before she walks away. “What’s up?” she says. “Nothing. Just take it easy, OK?” “For you, lovely?” She smiles. “Anything.” And I think that’s what I needed to hear. All the darkness, all the shit, all the fucked up mess no-one can fix, inside my head and outside of it, but she looks happy. Even though she isn’t, not really. And maybe so do I, even though I’m not either.

📝 Freyja El Khatib, sweetness and light with a crunchy knife-throwing centre, make a mess of her bar and you won't walk out of there in one piece, will match you drink for drink and break your hands if you piss her off.

GROUND

She taps a finger on the back of my hand where the line from the graft has long since vanished. “And you would’ve left him dead in a pool of blood on the floor in temp holding if I hadn’t stopped you, which would’ve been a whole mess of paperwork that we’d both have had to deal with. There’s no moral high ground here.”

📝 Agent Zola Kartheiser, forced into Authority service after conviction for illicit data trade, impossible to say no to, it's not technically murder if someone else does it for you.

TREE

“I got tenth, twenty-second, and seventy-third floor.” She pulls out another pack. “And these. Premium rooftops. These hit hard. Real hard. Wild abandon right at the start, a blast of freedom, then brutal panic just before the final rush. I was going to take out the last-minute regret, but I thought better of it. It’s part of what makes these so hot. I wouldn’t recommend them to most people, but I know you can handle them and I reckon they'd be right up your street. That what you’re after?”

📝 Viande McCavitt, aggressively talented engineer of mind-altering frequencies and prosthetic body parts, thinks you're a very interesting machine, would kill you for getting in her way...haha only joking (but not really)

Tagging @felixwriting, @forthesanityofsome, @juls-writes and @kaiusvnoir. If you'd like to do it, the words to search you WIP(s) for are smoke, cloud, mist, and steam 💜

[azurahearthborne]

Update

Soooo...

TLDR

I'm starting a Patreon, AND I'll be posting fanfic on ao3 again!!! ^v^

If u want the full effect:

It's been a hot minute since I logged onto my ao3. Officially over a month since I last posted.

And I've been thinking. Mulling over some things.

So. Announcement. I'm starting a Patreon.

It'll have all types of cool things. People who sign up for the right tiers will be invited to a private community, so y'all can chat with one another and have rambunctious fun! I'll be making merch with the right prompting (I'm accepting fanart bc I'm no good at drawing on a cpu haha... uwu). I'll be doing livestreams (I'm thinking in the old YT fashion, where they didn't show their faces ^o^ ). I'm going to be breaching into territory that's largely untouched for me in content that will be exclusive to patrons - I'm gonna introduce the full extent of Big Dommy Mommy XD, and give y'all some of my regular original content.

So frfr, get ready. Much more is to come! Hope you will too! 😈

All that said, I know it is my civic duty as an author on ao3 to fill it with as much smut as is filthily possible right now. So I shall. I will continue pumping it full of fanfic, the sluttiest, filthiest stuff I can possibly think of. (we're talking puss in boots w the knotting tag. We're going to pound town on the bowuigi tag. We're tarnishing the sanctity of the church under Halone. I'm gonna have fun writing it all! No holding back, no spelling checks, no sitting around for 20 minutes looking for the best possible word to use. Just pure, unadulterated SMUT. (And it'll somehow still be better than anything a damn AI could crap out).)

So, if u wanna see the pure, unadulterated SMUT alone, I'll still be there.

But if u wanna watch as I write it? Listen while I struggle to stay focused, too busy laughing my ass off? Have access to the exclusive content I write that I'll put my heart into? Sign up for my Patreon! I'm gonna try to make TONS of different tiers for membership, so whichever one calls to you, go for it ;*

[horanghater]

━━ nine people i'd like to get to know better ━━

it's been a hot minute since i did a game like this, ty for tagging me @cheolism! <3333

last song: 🎵 sacrilege by cain culto 🎵 i love a good mix of boppy and funny!

favorite color: green! and no i don't believe all greens are created equal! mint and pastel are superior.

last movie/tv show: watched cobweb last night. it had a lot of potential and the case was really great, but the twist didn't hit for me. :/

sweet/spicy/savory?: SWEET! genetics are not my friend in the tooth department, but alas - i still love sugary treats and drinks the most.

relationship status: so incredibly married - at this point i think most of my mutuals know that haha. it was never a secret, but i have a thing with the perception that i'm using dearest cherry for clout so i don't bring it up much on the timeline.

current obsession: it's spooky season which means my love for horror is renewed once again. sad and scary media: pump it into my veins!

last thing i googled: "wallpaper on textured walls". we moved this summer and i'm on a mission to make the apartment as cozy as possible....preferably without painting because i'm lazy. verdict: suck it up because wallpaper just doesn't play nice with textured surfaces sigh :(

tagging all of these lovelies, but no pressure i promise!: @playmetheclassics @the-boy-meets-evil @eoieopda @gyuwoncheol @shadowkoo @wonwussy @onlymingyus @beomcoups @multi-kpop-fanfics

[deluxinn]

I posted 5,209 times in 2022

31 posts created (1%)

5,178 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@sawnik

@pabs-art

@wehavecometoanend--maybe

@iinsectaa

@peachienicolasa

I tagged 124 of my posts in 2022

#gintama - 13 posts

#stream - 7 posts

#elden ring - 7 posts

#lgbtq - 6 posts

#birthday - 5 posts

#my art - 5 posts

#twitch - 5 posts

#art - 5 posts

#video games - 4 posts

#q - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 128 characters

#the first shirt is a very lazy recreation. i bought the actual shirt for 3 euros at a dr martens outlet store in the netherlands

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

[people i want to get to know better]

Thank you for tagging me @iinsectaa

Last song: Dear Maria Count Me In (Japanese Version) (Lmao)

Last show: I watched Moon Knight/Spy X Family

Currently watching: Spy X Family, and I think that’s it. I wanna start that one anime with that chiki chiki bang bang or something song. I also been watching Reggie Vs Dark Souls

Currently reading: It’s been a hot minute since I gave myself time to read ;(

I tag @cptn-handsome @crinoid @rivka-nikola @tokyomauve @your-1up-girl

5 notes - Posted May 7, 2022

#4

Rules: make a new post and spell out your URL with song titles, then tag as many people as there are letters in your URL.

@bizzyfish tagged me! Thank youu, good thing I made a shorter url name lmao

Y our Soul - Forrest. and Biskwiq

U pside Down - Vita from MXM

R ivers In The Desert - Lyn

E arth Angel - Death Cab For Cutie

I t’s The Right Time - Daichi Miura

S ick Like Me - In This Moment

H appy Ending - Mika

A ntidote - Faith Marie

Haha the mood goes from lightest to darkest, I feel BUT

I shall tag @crinoid @cptn-handsome @lnszhl @newtypetokyo @fabujasu @navyblueprince @sungilaska @idontmindbeingonlyyours

6 notes - Posted March 26, 2022

#3

I got tagged to do 10 fandoms, 10 characters, 10 tags!

Thank you @iinsectaa for the tag!

1. Gintama - Tsukuyo

2. Dead By Daylight - Jake Park

3. Jojo - Josuke 4

4. Dark Souls - Siegward of Catarina

5. Resident Evil - Ethan Winters

6. Persona - Haru Okumura

7. Night Comes For Us - The Operator

8. Final Fantasy - Garnet

9. Yakuza - Ichiban Kasuga

10. Gekkan Shoujo - Kashima

<It's like I always forget what I like during these things LOL>

I tag @crinoid @your-1up-girl @ruvikdraws @navyblueprincegaming @floresilustradas @lnszhl @kumamilen @rivka-nikola @sassytabris @seraphicheartx

7 notes - Posted October 5, 2022

#2

Story under cut!

Made with short prompt suggestions from @fenharael @mintythesweettooth @omelevate and @iinsectaa

“Fi, are you sure this is the way to Pumpkin Con? We’re in the middle of the woods and I don’t even see the festival grounds anymore.” said Dime.

“Uhh, yeah. There was a sign like 20 mins back that pointed at a building saying that was where Pumpkin Con was but that doesn’t make sense like what kinda Pumpkin Con takes place indoors? Plus it’s an escape room so obviously it was trying to mislead us.”

“…Fi.”

“Dime.”

“We already beat the escape room like an hour ago!”

Fi paused and was seemingly trying to hide something behind her back.

“Mmmm. I wish you told me that earlier. I sorta searched some dude’s carriage cuz I thought it’d have some clues or something on how to escape this maze. In hindsight I’m seeing that I got us lost and also this thing is way too fancy to be a prop.”

She held up a thick book made up leather that radiated a faint purple glimmer.

“Holy shit. Yeah that’s fancy alright.” Dime said.

“I opened it to see if it’d have any clues or directions to the con but none of them really make sense. Like what does mooaloomoo even mean?” Fi asked.

As she spoke the words, the aura around the book grew and briefly extended as far as they could see before returning back to its small glow.

They paused and looked at each other.

“Okay that didn’t look like directions to me.” said Fi.

“So. Shall we run?” asked Dime.

“Ya.”

The two dashed toward the direction they came from, hoping to not have forgotten any steps but it was a bit difficult to recall which way they headed in the woods.

Fi tried to check her phone but her battery was already at 1% and what if she needed it for more important things like keeping a Snapchat streak?

Dime was also the owner of a dead phone, with their only hope being able to remember the way back.

But neither of them could remember. They were beginning to lose hope and accept that they will miss that day’s Pumpkin Con. At the height of their despair, that’s when they heard a voice.

“Moo?”

It was a cow. Then another. Ten cows?

Fi and Dime were surrounded by cows and the herd seems to be attached to them. One walked up to Fi and rubbed its head on her.

Another started sniffing Dime’s hand and licking them.

“The book did this? Pretty cool but I can’t imagine what magician would need this spell.” said Dine.

“Okay but like.. I love this and I might do this too all the time.” Fi replied.

“That’s true it is kind of lovely. Be better if we weren’t lost though.”

The cows seemed to look at the two of them with concern. They understood the sentiments of the two!

“Hey Dime, you know what Pumpkin Con has a lot of? Cows of course! Maybe these guys can lead us back there! And also maybe love us enough to hide the fact that I stole this book from someone!”

See the full post

9 notes - Posted September 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Art by @sammilimyy

My partner is having a birthday stream on April 21st at twitch.tv/bigenderly !

Join us if youd like and hang out !

We’ll be playing lots of online party games

13 notes - Posted March 31, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[witchyweasley]

Unfinished Business ~ Ron Weasley

Pairing: gamer! gamer!Ron Weasley x fem!Reader

Summary: Ron has been gaming with his friends for too long, so you take matters into your own hands.

Word Count: 1.5k

Warnings: smut, 18+ themes, exhibition (?), oral,

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

“Ron you’ve been playing for hours, I thought you said you’d be done in 20 minutes?” I sighed, flipping over on the bed behind his gaming set up. The dual screens flashed different things, one being a chat room, the other was the game.

“I will, we just have to do this before we can get off,” Ron said, not taking his eyes away from the screen.

“That was 2 hours ago, I thought we’d spend some time together tonight since it’s the first night off I’ve had in ages,” I whined. The lace set I had slipped on after my shower to surprise Ron with was now itchy and uncomfortable, these things aren’t meant to be worn this long.

“Just a minute babe,” he said, his eyes still glued to the screens in front of him. I decided to try something after another 10 minutes of keyboard clicking and him talking to the boys over headset.

Making sure his camera was off, I quietly stripped out of the sleep set I had on, finally revealing the lacy set. I threw my shorts over at Ron, landing right on his shoulder.

“What the-, oh bloody hell,” he said as he turned around and saw me in his favorite set.

“Hey,” I said, walking over to him. I heard him mute his mic quickly.

“How long have you been wearing that…” he asked, his eyes fixed on my hips as they swayed.

“Long enough, but go ahead and play your game, I know you promised them you’d finish this game,” I said, kneeling down in front of him.

“What are you- oh fuck,” he moaned out as my hands palmed his erection through his pants.

“Go ahead and keep playing. I can hear them asking you where you are,” I winked as I released his dick from the confines of his pants, pumping it slowly and feeling him get even harder.

“Hey guys, sorry about that. I uhhh, I just had to get some water.” He said as he unmuted himself, watching me in disbelief as I licked up his length before swirling my tongue around his tip, collecting any pre-cum.

He let out a low groan as I took as much of him in my mouth as I could, but quickly covered it up with a cough when he remembered his friends could hear him.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just a tickle in my throat, haha,” he rushed out in response to the boy’s questions.

I bobbed my head and hollowed my cheeks as I took more of his length in my mouth, swirling my tongue on the tip as I reached the top. His hand pushed my hair into a makeshift ponytail, lightly pulling on my hair the way I like.

I looked up at him and found his head dropped back and mouth open as he tried to hold back his moans. Right as he started to buck his hips up, I released him from my mouth and sat back on my heels.

“How’s the game going babe?” I smirked, pumping his length in my hand as I look up at him.

“...tell her we say hi!” I heard Harry say over headset.

“Actually, why don’t you tell her yourself. Here you go babe, the boys want to talk to you,” Ron smirked, pulling the headset off and placing it on me.

“Hey…” I said slowly, confused at the smirk on Ron’s face. Ron stood me up and swiftly switched so that I was in the chair and he was kneeling on the ground.

“Hey! How have you been?” Harry responded.

“I’ve been...great!” I breathed out as Ron’s hands slid up and pushed my legs up so they would rest on the arms of the chair. My breathing hitched as his thumb brushed over my clothed clit, rubbing agonizingly slow circles.

“How’s work? I heard you’ve been pretty busy lately,” Dean asked me.

“Oh um, yeah! Quidditch season is always busy at the hospital…” I said quickly, trying not to moan as Ron’s finger pushed the lingerie aside so he could swipe his tongue through my folds.

“Are you okay? It sounds like you’re out of breath?” Neville asked, sounding a bit worried. I bit my lip and let out a sigh as Ron swirled his tongue around my clit.

“Yeah! Yeah! I um…. I just got done working out,” I lied, bucking my hips up as Ron continued lapping up my juices.

“I didn’t know you worked out! Do you want a gym buddy? Ginny keeps trying to recruit me for it, but I don’t think I can handle that,” Harry laughed.

“That’s...that’s a good idea, but- I only just started and I think she would kick my ass,” I stumbled as Ron sat back and used his thumb to circle over my clit, smirking when I stumbled on a word.

After swiping his tongue through my pussy for a final time, Ron held my hands and pulled me up, holding me tight as his lips attached to my neck. If it weren’t for the tight grip on my waist, I’d be a puddle on the floor right now. He flipped me around so that I was facing the monitor and his back was pressed up against mine.

“Hey boys, do you mind if she plays a round while I go grab a snack really quick?” Ron said into the mic of the headset.

“Sure! You know what you’re doing, right?” Dean asked me.

“Uh, yeah… I’ve watched Ron play it enough, I think I can figure it out,” I said, a bit confused as to what Ron’s plan was.

As the next round started, he pressed his hand to the middle of my shoulder blades and pushed me down so that I was bent over in front of the desk. His hands smacked my ass lightly a couple times before he pulled the lingerie aside again and swiped the head of his cock through.

“Oh fuck,” I said quietly as he slowly pushed into me, filling me inch by inch.

“You alright?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, I-uh, I just fell off something, that’s all,” I said.

“I hate when I do that, it’s the worst,” Neville chimed in.

I stumbled through the game as I tried to focus on something other than the way Ron’s cock was stretching me out right now. His pace was slow and steady, fully taking himself out before slowly sheathing himself back into me.

“Hmmm, is there any way to go faster?” I asked the boys, but hoping that Ron caught onto my message.

“If you press the CTRL key, you should run faster,” Harry said. I barely heard him though because Ron thankfully did catch on. He pounded into me at a much better pace, causing my tits to bounce out of the low-cut lingerie and my breathing to pick back up again. His hand snaked around to toy with one of my nipples as his other one guided my hips back onto him. It took everything in me not to scream with pleasure as he hit all the right spots.

I accidentally let out a loud whine as I came on Ron’s cock, causing the boys to ask questions.

“I died,” I quickly said to cover up the noise.

“You lasted longer than I did, I died a while ago,” Dean said.

Ron was panting as he continued pounding me, trying not to make too much noise. It wasn’t long before me pulled out and finished on the small of my back. He pressed a couple kisses to my back before heading to our bathroom to grab a towel.

“Not that we don’t love playing with you, but is Ron back yet? I feel like this is the longest he’s taken to get a snack,” Harry said once the round was over.

“Ah-ha, here he is! Thanks for letting me play you guys, I’ll let you all talk to Ron,” I said as Ron came in with a towel. He cleaned me up as the boys said their Chorus of goodbye’s before I put the headset back on him.

Ron immediately muted the mic and pressed a hot kiss to my lips, “That was quite possibly the hottest thing I’ve ever seen, holy fuck.”

“Oh you’re not off the hook yet. We have some lost time to make up from earlier,” I smirked before pressing a kiss to his lips and crawling onto our bed.

“Hey guys, so it looks like I’ve gotta head off here. There’s some, um, unfinished business that I need to take care of,” Ron said before logging off and pouncing on top of me, attacking me with kisses and love.

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

Tag list: If you want to be added just shoot me a message!

@a-malfoy @amityyyjade @amourtentiaa @dracos-apple01 @georgeswh0re @lim-bus @partr1dge @weasleywhore07 @willowestelle

[chrisbitchtree]

Flash Pt. 3

@neonponders Your tags got me laughing, thinking about Billy running away from Steve, and since my husband says I have to turn everything into a joke (he's not wrong), here's a tiny little part 3!

@memes-saved-me I wanted to badly to find a way to incorporate Billy running to get a ring into it, but that may have been a bit much for an 18 year old, haha

@edith-moonshadow @geormenia @m0ltin9

Part one is here

Part two is here

***

Steve watched Billy run, an amused smile on his face. He pulled out of the Hargrove’s driveway, easily catching up with the other boy. He rolled down his window. “Billy, can you get in the car, so we can talk?” Billy shook his head, continuing to run down the street, impressively fast for someone running through snow on the side of the road. Steve followed along. Good thing he’d filled his gas tank on the way home from work. He continued to drive alongside Billy, tuning out the stares they were getting from people passing them by. He tried to reason with the other boy again. “Come on, baby. I know this is a shock. It’s a shock for me too, but we have to at least talk about this. We’re literally destined to be together.” That gave Billy pause, and he slowed down for a minute, leaning in the passenger window of the BMW. “What the fuck does destiny do for us, Harrington? My parents were soulmates and they got 11 measly years together before my mom fucking died. You’ve heard me talk about my dad. Look what her death turned him into.” Steve wasn’t sure that Billy’s mom dying was the only contributing factor to Neil hargrove’s behaviour, but he held his tongue. He leaned over, taking Billy’s hand in his own. “Can you please get in the car, baby? It’s getting really cold out. I promise everything will be ok. Please.” Billy sighed deeply, but he did get in the car, so Steve considered it a victory. He continued to hold Billy’s hand as he drove them up to the quarry. When they were parked, he turned to the other boy. Billy looked away, arms crossed. Steve took Billy’s chin in his hand, turning his head. “Look at me, Billy. I know this is scary. I know nothing is every guaranteed. But I promise you I will do everything I can to take care of you and protect you for as long as I have with you. Will you give me that chance?” Steve could see tears running down Billy’s face as he nodded. Steve pulled the other boy in closer, kissing the tears away. “Tell me, Billy. Tell me you’re in this with me.” Billy nodded again, pulling Steve into his arms. “I’m in this. You and me, Princess, forever.” He sighed and tucked his head into Steve’s shoulder before he continued. “It’s not just the soulmate though. It’s my dad. He doesn’t believe in gay soulmates and says that gay couples who say they’re soulmates are making it up, so they can be together.” Steve could feel himself tearing up at memories of flashes of Billy’s father calling him a faggot. He sniffled, pulling Billy closer, running his hands through the other boys curls. “I’m gonna get you away from him. I swear I’ll keep you safe. I’m going to get an apartment for us. You can finish up your last year of school, and go to college, and someday we’ll head out west. I’ll buy you a house by the ocean and a ring. You can surf and I can swim and we’ll grow old together. You're going to look fucking hot with grey hair, even if our kids will tease you about it. I promise. How does that sound?” Billy smiled through his tears. “It sounds pretty good, princess. Pretty fucking good.”

[chasingpj]

𝐂𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐝-𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝

"Ehm, is this like a seven-minutes-in-heaven thing?”

pairing: percy jackson x child of hecate!reader

words: 5,236

warnings: none? pls let me know if i missed anything

timeline: post sea of monsters

if you want to be tagged every time I update this story click here

a/n: hi hi! i hope you guys like this chapter. i fell in a little bit of a rut about my writing so I've been holding off on posting but I think I'm pretty satisfied with how this came out. i'm so fried after editing this so if i happened to miss any typos, sorry, i tried haha.

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven

The heat and dimness from the cabin surround you like a warm hug making it challenging to stay awake. Your eyelids droop against your wishes to study, fatigue messing with your vision as it blurs the letters on the page you were trying to read. As you find yourself mindlessly reading words, you decide to give in, and soon you’re settled in an in-between state of consciousness.

Suddenly, you’re standing at the entryway of the kitchen in your home, the first thing you notice is the scent of your favorite meal as it fills your nostrils, and you smile sleepily as your father looks at you. He’s hovering over the stove, right hand stirring something in a saucepan, and he smiles widely at you.

“Stella, you’re home!” He announces as he pushes his round glasses up the bridge of his nose, “Go, sit! Dinner is almost ready.”

You smile at the nickname your father has called you since you were a child. He said that the first time you cried in his arms, your little body illuminated like a supernova, and since then, he’s called you Stella, the Latin word for star. You make your way past the kitchen island on your left, noticing the history channel playing on the small TV in the corner of the counter like always. A sense of nostalgia hits you in your core, and you sigh, feeling safe. As much as you loved the camp, homesickness was unavoidable.

You settle yourself at the black round table in the back of the kitchen, chin resting on your palm as you look outside of the window beside you. The small garden of herbs and flowers you have in the backyard is as you remember. Every summer, your father cultivates herbs and flowers in dedication to your mother. He uses most of the herbs for spells, and at the end of the summer, he would make a bouquet out of the brightest flowers in the garden and rest them on your mother’s alter.

The reminder of your mother made your stomach feel heavy, and you quickly push the thoughts of her away. You weren’t in the mood to deal with them, especially not in a dream like this. The thumping of Atticus’s footsteps coming down the stairs catches your attention, and soon your brother appears in the doorway with his usual wide smile.

“Hey! I thought you were making my favorite tonight.” His shoulders slump, and he playfully narrows his eyes at you. You shrug,

“What can I say? Must suck not being the favorite,” you joke, and Atticus gasps dramatically. The sound of your father’s laughter fills the room as he tilts his head back.

“I love you guys equally! That’s not nice to say,” he says as he points the spatula at you as he squints. You snort as Atticus joins you at the table,

“Yeah, Y/n, that’s not nice,” he repeats, poking his tongue out at you, and you return the action. You and your brother have a short competition of who can stick out their tongue harder as your father puts the food on the table. At the sight of your favorite meal, you let Atticus win, turning to put a portion on your plate.

Amidst your dinner conversation with your father and your brother, the deep growl rumbling in Ambrose’s chest makes its way into your dream. A soft hum leaves your lips, your neck relaxing against your will, and your head jolts forward as your cheek slips off your palm. You blink a few times, groaning since you’ve lost your dream.

“Ambrose, shush.” Your chin returns onto your hand, and you submit to your fatigue once again. The image of a ravenous bunny, cartoonishly stomping its way through a candy cane forest, filled your mind, projected on your eyelids like a movie in a theater. It’s too ridiculous to give much thought, and you were too busy relishing in the soothing feeling of sleep.

All of a sudden, Ambrose bursts into a series of short high pitched barks, jolting you awake. Your eyelids fly open, and you turn in your chair. Ambrose stands up tall, his fur contouring to his muscles as they flex. His ears are perched up; his focus fixed on the back wall. Whatever he was looking at, he didn’t dare to approach.

"What? What is it?"

The bunk beds obstructed your view, but you are sure you are alone. Everyone was out and about doing their normal camp activities; if anyone had entered the cabin, you would have heard them.

You groan in your hands as they rub your face to shake off the remaining fatigue, growing annoyed at Ambrose’s persistent barking that nips harshly at your eardrums.

“Ambros-”

A bitter breeze fills the room, and your breath gets caught in your throat at the feeling. Your arms wrap around your frame, failing to prevent goosebumps from forming on your arms. It was impossible. Today’s weather report called for a hot, humid day like it’s been all summer. As the hair at the back of your neck stands straight, and you have an idea of what’s happening, but you hoped you were wrong.

Ambrose abruptly ends his barking with a distressing whine. His ears sag low on the sides of his head as he retreats, his large body shrinking in fear. With cautious steps, you approach him in the middle of the cabin. The thumping of your pulse is loud in your ears, and for the first time in a while, a familiar pang strikes you in your gut. You’re being watched.

Despite his fear, Ambrose guards you finding the courage to stand tall and confident after cowering a few seconds ago. You let out a shaky breath, and warily, you finally catch sight of what has his attention.

A tall, dark figure stands still at the end of the room. The light that bleeds through the thin curtains behind it wasn’t enough to expose its face but instead illuminates the swirling black vapor that made up this human form.

From your years of experience, you learned how to deal with these kinds of things. Ghosts gravitated towards you like a moth to a lit flame. Most of the time, the spirits are harmless, looking for some company, and were eager to ask for favors you often couldn’t fulfill. Other times, they were more malevolent entities, existing to feed off your fears, and had the reputation of being stubborn guests.

From the way, the room turned impossibly cold in the middle of a sweltering summer afternoon and the heaviness in your gut, the shadow in front of you was definitely the latter.

"Who are you? How did you get here?" Your voice booms through the silence. "Why are you here-"

The cabin door slams open, the shadow dispersing the moment the sunlight bleeds through the room. You jump, gasping as your whole body turns around. The two figures at the doorway are dark, the sudden beams of light blinding you for a moment before you manage to recognize Connor and Travis.

“Why is it so damn dark in here? And cold? Jeez, Y/n, open the curtains at least,” Travis nags with a smirk on his lips.

“I don’t need light to see.” You groan, turning your face away, the sun shining right at you as Travis begins ripping open the curtains. “And I hate when the sun gets in my eyes,” you complain, stepping aside where sunlight doesn’t reach. Though you saw the shadow disperse, you glance at the back of the room, double-checking that what you saw was gone.

"You know... “

Your focus returns to the two boys standing side by side a few feet away from you. Both of them sporting the mischievous smirk that all the Hermes kids had when they’re about to stir up trouble. Connor only uttered two words, but it was clear they were up to something, and you were about to be involved.

"You've been locked up in here, in the dark, alone, for a while now. It's been like a week and a half since the incident, and we know you’re still a little down,” he trails off, swaying on his feet.

"... yeah?"

"And we think we have the perfect way to cheer you up!" Connor gives you a toothy grin, and as confident as he looked, you don’t quite believe him.

"And that is?"

"I think it's time we execute our bunny prank on the Ares cabin!"

You press your lips together in a thin line; head cocked to the side. "That's supposed to cheer me up?"

"Yeah!"

"How is putting my life in danger going to cheer me up?" Your gaze switches between the two as they exchange looks with each other.

“Um…” Connor says, lost for words.

"It'll be fun. We promise!" Travis insists, waving your comment off. He moves to sit in your chair, leaning back as he props his legs on your desk. "So, have you thought about how we're going to do this?"

You sigh softly, not bothering to protest. If you denied participating, Connor would be quick to remind you what’s at stake.

"I have," you admit. After your last interaction with Clarisse, the prank did come to mind.

The Stoll brother’s faces grew almost as bright as the sun outside. Connor takes a seat on the bed closest to you, leaned in with his elbows on his knees, "Tell us the details then,” he urges.

"Okay, so I found a shape-shifting potion in my spellbook. It's pretty simple. I have all the ingredients except for one. The only thing I need is the hair of a rabbit. Get that for me, and I'll make it." Connor and Travis nod eagerly, and you can already see the gears turning in their heads as they formulate a plan to catch a bunny.

"If you can get it to me in a few hours, we can sneak into their cabin while they're practicing in the arena. Then I can pour a few drops of the potion into their water cooler. The potion is potent; you only need a few drops for it to work."

"Sounds like a solid plan. They'll be thirsty after practicing, and boom, they’re all cute little bunnies,” Travis says, legs unmounting from your desk, and he hops onto his feet.

"So hurry and get me rabbit hair!”

A small, almost manic laugh comes from Connor’s lips, "This is gonna be epic!"

"Should we ask the nymphs for help?" Travis ponders out loud as he makes his way out of the dorm.

"Wait! We should get scissors! Do you have scissors?” Connor asks you, and you giggle. You grab a pair of scissors from your desk drawer, and Connor quickly swipes them from your hands the moment you present them to him.

"Thanks, Y/n!” Swiftly, he turns on his heels, trailing behind Travis.

"Be careful, please! Don't hurt the bunny!"

"We won't! The worse we'll do is give it a bald spot; they’ll be fine!" Travis shouts.

After the slamming of the front door and the ragged footsteps of Connor and Travis’s departure, your smile falters as the silence regresses. The figure you had seen comes to mind, and you frown, Ambrose whining as he sits close to your legs.

"That was weird, wasn't it?" You lean down, affectionately scratching the backs of his ears as Ambrose licks your wrists. The sight of his drooping eyes told you enough to know that this wasn’t the last time you’ll be seeing whatever that was.

"C'mon, let's not worry about that now. We have to make that potion." An uneasy grumble comes from Ambrose's chest as he nuzzles his snout in your hand.

"I know, I know," you whisper before standing up.

☆’.･.･:★:･.･.’☆

"Shh, they’re coming,” Travis announces in a whisper, silencing you and Connor’s conversation. The distanced chattering and footsteps of the Ares campers become louder as Clarisse pushes open the front door. The three of you duck lower in your place as they scatter to their beds, beginning to take off their armor. Travis slowly rises from his crouching position, peaking enough to see the inside. He gives you and Connor a nod, a silent okay to peek yourselves. Cautiously, you come up, watching the group now crowding around the water dispenser, playfully telling each other to hurry up.

Connor lightly pats your shoulder with excitement, and you scrunch your face, anticipation swirling in your stomach as one by one, they begin taking sips from their water bottles. Your jaw drops as Mark forms a snout, his hands flying up to his face.

"W-what?" He sputters, moving closer to his reflection in the mirror. "What is-"

The rest of his words became soft squeals, his whole body shrinking and shifting into a stark white bunny in the blink of an eye.

“Um? Did that just-?”

“How did-”

“You have bunny ears!” Ellis shouts, pointing at Clarisse while she formed a pair of her own. Clarisse didn’t have time to comment as Ellis joins her half-brother. One by one, they began shrinking, and small shrieks fill the room.

"What are you guys doing?" The three of you practically jump out of your skin, heads snapping in the direction of the voice.

Percy’s eyes are wide and curious, furrowing his eyebrows at the chaos breaking out in the Ares cabin. You open your mouth to say something but stop yourself, not wanting to blow your cover.

“It must have been the water!”

“When I see the Stoll Brother’s I’m going to-” Squeal.

Travis’s face was a tint of pink from holding in his laughter. He doesn’t respond, simply waving at Percy to come and see for himself. You and Percy exchange a smile before turning back to the window.

His chance at seeing the pool of white bunnies went down the drain; the four of you met with an angry Clarisse instead. To your dismay, she didn't completely transform. Her normally brown eyes are now crimson and her mouth transformed into a whiskered snout. White bunny ears peek through her brown hair, making it look like she was wearing one of those bunny ear headbands they sell at the pharmacy around Easter time. You’d be laughing as much as the Stoll Brothers if Clarisse’s stare wasn’t fixed on you and only you. You give her a nervous smile as you step away carefully, and the moment Clarisse moves to jump out the window, the four of you bolted.

“She’s gonna kill us!” You exclaim; Travis and Connor burst into laughter, hands over their stomach as they run beside you.

“Split up! She can’t kill all of us!” Travis suggests, already making a beeline into the forest with Connor.

“Yeah, cause she’s gonna go after me!”

“We’ll weave you a nice shroud!”

“WOW, THANKS!”

The cackles of the two made you roll your eyes, and you make a mental note never to help them with a prank ever again. You grunt as Percy grabs onto your wrist, and you stumble for a second until you catch up to his pace.

“You can’t run from me forever!” Clarisse shouts, running close behind. She was right, you couldn’t avoid her forever, but you just needed her to calm down. "When I catch you, I'm tying your necks like shoelaces!"

You cringe at the threat as you and Percy burst through the swinging doors of the Arts and Craft center, weaving your way through the campers.

“Sorry!” You shout over their groans as you’re pulled into one of the hallways. Seeing the closets along the walls of the hallway gave you an idea. You bite your lip, focusing on the door leading to the outside. Reaching your hand out, you flick your fingers forward, causing the door to burst open fast enough for it to lock in place.

The moment you approach the last door in the hallway, you grab the knob. A grunt leaves Percy’s lips as you drag him in the closet with you. He loses his footing from the change of direction, spinning hastily toward you, and the both of you stagger into the closet. You yelp, the weight of Percy’s body sending your back right against the wall, and the knob comes out of grip right as it slams closed.

Percy grunts, his hands push against the wall beside your frame, promptly lifting himself away from you.“Sor-”

“Shh.” Your index finger rests your lips as you look at the door. Your shoulders tense up, afraid that Clarisse had heard the slam. Soon, Clarrise’s pounding footsteps rise like a crescendo and, to your relief, gradually fades as she runs right out of the building. A shaky sigh leaves your lips before glancing at Percy, who’s directly in front of you. You smile sheepishly, foot moving to step back only to be met with the wall.

Percy’s heart beats loud in his chest, and he was hoping that you couldn’t hear it. He tried to step back as well, but Percy’s foot was met with the shelves behind him to his dismay. He scans your face in the dim lighting for a few seconds. Suddenly, he’s reminded of how he stumbled on top of you, making him too embarrassed to look at you any longer. His focus falters to the shelves beside him, forcing himself to find interest in the tubs of paint stacked on them.

“It’s your fault,” you accuse after some silence. Shock flashes across Percy’s face,

“Huh?”

“Because you were so nosey, you blew our cover.” You reach over, and you poke his shoulder. Percy’s peers down at where you poked him as if he was offended.

“At least I ran with you. Travis and Connor left you for dead!”

“Great friends, they are, huh?” You ask, your voice laced with playful sarcasm.

Percy laughs, "I think you've taken the trophy of being the most hated by Clarisse," he jokes.

"I don't think I can one-up you. You literally fought her dad and won," you point out. "I think if we split up, she'd definitely come after me. Imagine the last thing you see when you die is Clarisse looking like… that. "

Percy laughs and you laugh, too, feeling comfortable with making light of the situation now that you were out of harm's way.

"How did that even happen!?”

"I don't know!” You sigh, bummed that Clarisse had managed to be the only person who stayed human. “Maybe she didn’t drink enough water?”

“Wow, the only person you needed to transform into a bunny just didn’t,” Percy says as he crosses his arms over his chest, leaning against the shelves.

“Pretty much.”

“You have amazing luck, Y/n,” he says sarcastically.

“Whatever,” you mumble, eye faltering to the shelves beside you. Percy’s laughter fills the small space, making it hard to prevent the smile from creeping on your lips. The sound of footsteps interrupts you as you open your mouth to say something else and it brings Percy’s laughter to an end. Your shoulders are practically up to your ears as you look into Percy’s wide eyes before he mouths, “we’re dead.” If it is Clarisse, you guys are cornered, and you prepare to shadow travel even if it meant you might pass out, especially if you bring him with you.

You furrow your eyebrows as you hear two familiar voices, and soon the door opens, revealing you both to Beckendorf and Silena. There is a moment of silence, Silena blinking at the both of you, her head tilted slightly to the side as she observes the tension. Beckendorf’s right eyebrow raises, glancing between you and Percy’s face.

"Ehm, is this like a seven-minutes-in-heaven thing?" Your face gets hot, and you exchange a look with Percy, noticing the tips of his ears are bright red.

"No, we were hiding from Clarisse,” he stutters out, gaze snapping to the two, and you nod quickly,

"Because I turned her into a bunny and-"

"She didn't transform all the way-"

"It's okay. Charles and I would sneak around at first, too," Silena interrupts, her lips curled up in a satisfied smile.

"We were just talking!" You and Percy say in unison. The more defensive you got, the more suspicious you both came off. From the way Beckendorf and Silena smiled at each other, you knew they weren’t buying it.

Beckendorf shrugs, and he steps forward, reaching between the two of you to grab the box of beads from the shelf. He hums, “It’s clear we interrupted something. I just needed this. You guys can carry on,” he teases, amused at how embarrassed the both of you are.

“But- we-” you stutter, unable to finish your sentence, Beckendorf shutting the door, and Silena makes a sound between a giggle and a squeal as they walk away.

Percy clears his throat, interrupting the short silence that fell between the two of you, “Um, should we…?” His voice falters, not finishing his sentence, but you already knew what he was going to ask.

“Yeah,” you agree awkwardly, opening the closet. “Let’s go,” you mumble, stepping out with Percy close behind you.

"Where should we go now?" Percy asks, opening the door to the outside for you, and you smile, finding it sweet. You thank him shortly, and you shrug,

"I'm not sure, but I don't think Clarisse has calmed down yet…" you trail off, catching sight of a fuming Clarisse standing beside Chiron a few meters away. “Dammit.”

☆’.･.･:★:･.･.’☆

You shift on your feet, standing in Chiron’s office alongside Travis, Connor, and Percy. Clarisse’s crimson eyes are still narrowed at you as Chiron sighs, backing into his wheelchair before his backside disappears, allowing him to sit fully into it.

"I understand you guys are just having fun. However, I believe the Ares Cabin deserves a little break from the pranks, don't you think?" He asks as he looks at Connor and Travis.

You fiddle with your fingers, your shoulders slumped along with Connor and Travis’s shoulders. Travis nods, and he hums as if he considers it for a moment.

“We could prank the Apollo Cabin instead?" Connor suggests, and Chiron opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. You press your lips together in an attempt to refrain from smiling, discovering that Percy was doing the same. You became more amused at his face turning a little pink as he holds in his laughter, and you quickly look at your hands to recollect yourself.

“I’d prefer you tone down the pranking altogether,” Chiron clarifies. Connor frowns, and he nods slowly,

“Oh. Yeah, we could do that, I guess,” he mumbles, his hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. Chiron nods, shifting his gaze to you,

“Y/n, what did you used to transform them into rabbits?” You hum softly,

“It’s a shape-shifting potion from my spellbook,” you explain.

“How long will it take for them to transform back?” You look up for a second, trying to remember your notes. While recalling the day you went through Ernest’s potions book to jot the recipe in your Book of Shadows, you realize how many forms of the potion there were depending on the transformation length. Ernest had mentioned in passing something about reading his notes carefully. It wasn’t until now did you realize that the potion you had made was not the short-term one.

“About … 24 hours,” you admit, and Connor snorts beside you.

“What!?” Clarisse snaps, her fists clenching on her side. “You mean, they’re going to be like that until tomorrow afternoon?”

“Yes, that’s what 24 hours means,” you snap back; her presence was enough to annoy you. Clarisse’s glare burns into your face, and she moves to take a step, about to charge at you.

“Clarisse, please! They will be punished accordingly,” Chiron reassures her, making her halt in her place, and she groans, her arms crossing over her chest as she waits for Chiron’s verdict.

"Well, I was going to assign you four to clean the Pegasus stables, but now that it has come to my attention that the potion lasts 24 hours, your punishment is to feed and clean up after them while they’re under the spell."

“Ew, I’d rather clean the stables,” Connor mutters, and you furrow your eyebrows,

“But wouldn’t the pegasus stables be more work?” You ask, hoping to get him to change your punishment. The last thing you wanted to do was be surrounded by a bunch of angry bunnies. Sure they were small, but you did not doubt in your mind that you were going to be attacked by them.

“They are a big group; I think it is fair that Clarisse gets assistance in taking care of them,” He says calmly, his fingers intertwined as they rest on the desk in front of him. “Feed them before you go off to dinner, accommodate their sleeping arrangements and clean up after them before morning check-ins,” he decides. You sigh softly. At this point, as long as Clarisse wasn’t on the hunt to kill you, you were okay with it.

As Chiron dismisses you, you catch the satisfied smile Clarisse was sporting, and you felt your anger swirling in your chest. You grunt as you turn on your heels, Travis and Connor behind you as Percy walks by your side. You sigh, lazily trotting off the steps of the big house,

“This...”

“Sucks,” Percy finishes your sentence, and you nod, the both of you frowning.

☆’.･.･:★:･.･.’☆

“Stop biting me!” You complain, nudging off the crowd of bunnies from your arm. Percy laughs, seated on the floor beside you as he helps you make a nest of blankets big enough for the bunnies.

“They hate you,” he comments, amused. His smirk falls flat, and he hisses as one of them gets a good bite on his finger. “Ow!” He squints at the bunny before picking it up. It was your turn to laugh, and you watch curiously as he walks to one of the dressers and plopping it on top. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re in time-out,” he grumbles.

“Wait, that’s actually really smart!” You look down at the bunnies around you. “They can’t jump from that high!” As you reach for the closest bunny, they run out of your reach, squealing, and soon they were huddled under a bed.

Percy smiles as they disperse, “well, now they’ll leave us alone,” he says as he sits beside you to continue piling the extra blankets you found. “You should have let me play that rock-paper-scissors game with them,” Percy mentions.

The two of you were stuck making a makeshift bed for the Ares campers since Travis and Connor had to round up their cabin for curfew. Well, one of them could have done it, but they insisted that it was a two-person job. You said it was unfair if they skipped out and they offered to settle who will go with an intense rock-paper-scissors game; best of three. You had accepted the challenge and lost miserably.

"I should have known there was no point in trying with their luck."

"Yeah, you walked right into that."

You side-eye him, "anyways, you would have lost.”

“How are you so sure?”

"Because, you just would have," you say shortly, and you smile as he turns to you.

“Well, considering how lucky you've been all day," he says sarcastically, and you squint at him. "I would have had a better chance,” he gloats.

“You’ve been real sassy today,” you mumble, and he laughs. “It’s fine. There’s not that much to do anyway.” Carefully, you roll the sides of the blankets into a nest shape after Percy finishes piling them. You rise on your feet, “It’d sleep there if I were a bunny. What do you think?”

“I would too. It seems comfortable,” Percy smiles as he stands up.

"Are you losers done?" Clarisse walks into the cabin with bowls of water for her siblings, and you roll your eyes as she puts them on the ground.

"Yeah, is it to their liking?" You ask with fake politeness, straining a smile. Clarisse observes the bundle of blankets as her siblings get in to try it out. She furrows her eyebrows, listening attentively to the various squeals. She had inherited most of the bunny traits, and though she didn’t transform completely, she could understand what they were saying.

“Eh, it’s good enough,” she concludes after hearing all the complaints of her siblings. “I’m sick of seeing your faces; get out.” She didn’t have to tell you twice, and you don’t waste any time as you turn on your heels. You were sick of seeing her face too.

Walking down the steps of the Ares Cabin, Percy follows beside you. A slight hum comes from his lips, and you look over,

“I was wondering when you’d come back to sword fighting,” he mentions, and you nod, recalling that you had agreed to attend classes after sparing with him a couple of weeks ago. “Your brother has been coming more often; he’s gotten a lot better.”

“That’s why my body has been aching so much,” you mutter more to yourself. For the past week, you thought you were staining your body in your sleep.

“Huh?”

“Long story,” you wave your hand, and you think about his question.

If you were completely honest, you weren’t as depressed about what had happened anymore. After you talked with Percy, you had finally come to terms with many of the thoughts that were tormenting you. However, you still stayed locked up in the Hermes Cabin because in the past week or so, you’ve gotten so much studying done. You wanted to stay in and read, and you were planning on milking your excused absences for as long as you could. But now, you considered that maybe you should return to your normal activities. Connor and Travis were becoming more worried, so were Atticus and Lou Ellen.

“I could join tomorrow,” you say hesitantly, your heart fluttering as Percy’s face brightens up. “Are you that excited to beat me up?” You joke, and Percy laughs, shaking his head.

“No! It’s just… it’s weird not seeing you around.” He admits shyly as he looks away. The cool summer breeze blows on your warm cheeks, and you swallow,

“I’ll go tomorrow,” you confirm, sounding more sure of yourself this time. Once you approach the steps of the Hermes cabin, you turn to him. “Good night, Perce.”

The sides of Percy’s eyes crinkle as he nods, “Good night,” he says as he slowly backs away. “And try to wake up on time, yeah? I’m not feeding the Ares cabin alone tomorrow,” he teases. You did have a habit of being the last person to arrive at breakfast. He must have noticed.

“Yeah, yeah. Worry about yourself, waterboy.” You smile, hearing him scoff. Opening the door to the Hermes cabin, you look back at him one more time. You take in the wide grin on his face, and he nods,

“Got it. I’ll remember that when you’re being chased by Clarisse again.” Your mouth drops open, eyes glinting at his banter.

“You better go before the harpies eat you!” You shoo him away as he laughs, then with a short salute of his two fingers, he walks off to his cabin.

masterlist taglist: @xxyrr @nct127bee @mochabreezeee @minamisulemisa @yanfeisluvr @-thatgirloverthere- @sanovr @passionswift @nanskidoodle @Slytherclaw-kitten @zhethugisa

[lifewithdavefarts]

DaveFarts - Episode 9 “Trapped In The Closet” [Episode List] Following the most blatant sit-com tropes you can think of, Dave decides to spy on his girlfriend, Dana, because he thinks she’s hiding something. Tim reluctantly decides to join his friend, but the two end up stuck in the girl’s closet, which will eventually turn into a gas chamber.

Trapped In The Closet

“Yeah Dana. Sure. No problem.”

Tim was working on some college tasks, but couldn’t help but to eavesdrop Dave’s conversation with his girlfriend, Dana, on the phone. He could only hear his friend’s replies, which being only the 50% of what they were talking about, it didn’t make a lot of sense. Not that he was interested: Dave was simply hanging out in his room because he had nothing better to do during that warm Summer evening, apparently, and so he simply showed up to Tim’s place with a couple of beers and a remarkable amount of procrastination powers.

Despite being relatively hot outside, Dave was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of long, grey levi jeans, kinda loose as usual. Something that Tim hated about his kink is how quickly he checked his friend’s outfit, something that he always did since Dave is now basically his “fart bud”, against all odds.

“Yeah… yeah… I love you. No… I love you more!”

Kinda funny how Dave, 24, would revert back to an awkward teenager at times whenever he and his girlfriend were on the phone. They probably even acted like that on purpose, because love is doing stupid things together after all.

“Tim. Car. Now!”

Dave hung up and turned weirdly serious, got up and walked downstairs, saying something about getting in the car.

“Wait, what?” Tim asked, questioning whether his friend was being serious or not, but he did follow him to wherever he was going.

“We don’t have much time, Tim. Dana will come back soon. She’s out with her own friends and we have… like… 15 minutes.”

The two walked outside and headed towards the girls’ house, actually only a few blocks away from Tim’s. Tim himself reluctantly followed his bro into this, knowing that, at best, it may turn into a funny mishap to tell to their other pals while being drunk and laugh about it.

“I’ll just pretend your words make any sense, like I usually do…” Tim chuckled, sarcastically, but still following his friend.

“I think she’s hiding something.” Dave explained, walking at a fast pace, Tim right behind him. ��She’s been strangely elusive lately and I want to check her room for clues.”

Tim just chuckled in response. “Dave, you do realize that this is not a 90s sit-com, right? Her room? Really? What are you hoping to find out, exactly, anyway? That she’s having some kind of affair behind your back?” he asked, trying to reason with him.

“An affair? You think I’m that kind of guy?” Dave answered, looking surprisingly offended by Tim’s question.   “I just want to make sure she’s fine. She seemed worried about something and she’s like this organized haf-woman/half-machine hybrid who keeps sticky notes in her room to keep an eye on her busy life.”

“Oh…” Tim replied, rather sarcastically.   “Now that makes a lot of sense.”

“Leave your sassiness for later, dork. Can we take your car?” Dave asked.

“Why? We’re already right in front of her house…”

Dave realized that he was so worried that they did, in fact, walked for a couple of blocks and found themselves stepping in Dana’s backyard without even noticing. He just laughed a bit about it.

“Sorry. Love makes me blind.” he joked, knowing that it was a rather silly thing to say anyway.

“Not the words I would have used, but ok.” Tim answered.

“Come on, let’s get inside.” his bro said, with a smirk.  

“Alright… but please, let’s keep a low profile and no awkwa-”

But as they approached to the girl’s house, Dave awkwardly started muttering some kind of theme song that was oddly reminiscent of the Mission Impossibile’s most iconic soundtrack. This guy has a girlfriend, everyone.

“So much for keeping a low profile, Ethan Hunt…” Tim joked.

Dana’s room, following the usual   “average american house tropes” that the writer of this story grew up with in the 90s, was on the second floor. Luckily, the house was empty, so both Tim and Dave could easily climb it without fearing of someone noticing their totally legal actions.

“Look at Tim, such a rebel! Such a fast climber!” Dave whispered, noticing how good Tim was at climbing the girl’s house.

“Thanks. I learned it when I visited your mom.” he joked.

“I thought you’d prefer my dad, you know.” Dave played along, with a rather noticeable reference to Tim’s homosexuality.

“Just… just let’s get done with this.”  

After some awkward climbing, the two found themselves in front of a window leading to Dana’s room. The duo was sitting on a small portion of slanted roof, wondering how to get inside.

“Alright. I could just punch through the window and open it. But you know I don’t like violence against windows.” Dave said, somewhat joking, but really trying to come up with a way to get through this final obstacle.

“Never mind, it’s open.” Tim said, as his hand passed right through the window.   “Or, you know, I got ghost powers all of the sudden, but I doubt it.”

“You’re so funny I forgot to laugh.” Dave commented, as he got inside his girlfriend’s room, making sure no one was there, immediately followed by his sassy friend.

The room was fairly big and messy, books and magazines scattered all around the floor and the bed. Dana was a busy woman: she got a degree in economics but, given the tough times, she had troubles finding a decent job lately. Dave actually suspected that this was the reason she was being nervous about, well, everything, understandably.

“Why don’t you just ask her instead of acting like the perfect boyfriend material that you are?” Tim stated, in his usual snarky tone, noticing Dave basically rummaging through Dana’s more personal stuff.

“Just… let me do my thing ok?” he was serious again, trying to find something that could be clue, deep down knowing that all of that was quite non-sense and even ridiculous, but his stubbornness was showing.   “Wait…”

Something drew his attention. A red (therefore important, according to Dana’s code) sticky note on the nightstand. Something was written on it.

“Oh… I guess I was right…” Dave whispered, eyes glued on the note.

“Something about her job?”  

But Tim didn’t get an answer, as they heard someone coming from downstairs. They probably were so focused on their mission that didn’t even notice how someone got inside the house minutes after them. They went silent and tried to listen to the person’s footsteps.

“Yeah. I’ll keep you posted.”

They heard a muffled female voice getting closer, probably talking on her phone. A voice that was very familiar.

“Fuck! It’s Dana!” Dave whispered.

The two looked around, looking for a quick solution or a place to hide, blatantly ignoring the window they used to get inside in the first place.

“The closet!” Dave said.

Without even questioning whether this was a good idea or not, the duo sneaked inside Dana’s closet and closed themselves inside just as the girl came into her room, still talking on the phone about something.

Tim and Dave managed to mess things up however, as they ended up in a very small section of that apparently big, spacious closet, so they had to arrange themselves in a weird position. Dave was standing up, towering over Tim, who found himself sitting on the floor instead, right behind his friend… with his face perfectly aligned with his loose jeans butt. As his eyes got adjusted to the dark, Tim started to distinguish the seams and texture’s on Dave’s jeans ass, and the tiny red Levi tag on the right back pocket. He couldn’t help but take a look, which he felt really unnecessary, given the context.

“So… this is where you lived for most of your life…” Dave joked, looking around, as if the closet was some kind of fancy mansion.

“Haha! Another gay joke! Great timing, Dave!” Tim muttered instead. The last thing they had to do was talk.

The two waited for a couple of minutes, hoping that Dana would just leave again or even just go downstairs, so they’d have enough time to get out of there in the hopes that Dave didn’t leave any clue of his presence.

“As long a we remain silent…” Tim whispered.   “We have nothing to worry about.”

Only moments after saying that, he felt a very familiar sound greeting his face. It was a long, rumbling sound coming from Dave’s denim ass. It was one of his usual, well-known loud farts, a fart that he was desperately trying to keep as silent as possible. Luckily, Dana was too busy with her phone to even notice the weird noise coming from inside of her closet.

“Dave! What the fuck?!” Tim hissed.

The gassy friend tried not to laugh, realizing how idiotic the whole situation was.   “I’m sorry dude.” he murmured.   “You know what happens when I’m nervous!”  

The smell was unbearable already. Being in a such small space didn’t certainly help. Those were probably some of the smelliest farts Dave ever managed to rip in Tim’s face, although this time was, against all odds, more like an accident.

“Tim…” Dave whispered, carefully placing his butt closer to his friend’s face.

Another fart erupted, sounding dangerously louder than the previous one. The rough surface of Dave’s denim gently caressed Tim’s nose. The blast of gas then turned into something much more subtle, but still otherwise bubbly. Tim felt his nose burn, as really he had no choice but to breath all of that in.

“Dave I swear. If you don’t stop, Dana’s gonna–”

But another   “slow-paced” rumbly fart cut him off. Dave was seriously trying to contain his well-known farting abilities. Tim, instead, was trying to remain calm, feeling like the Universe was somehow messing with him. That was an insane situation: he certainly wasn’t new to Dave’s farts, but in that context, it felt almost like one of his weird dreams about his fart fetish.

“Tim I’m sorry, at least I know you don’t mind… I hope”

Funnily enough, despite the slightly amused tone in his whispering voice, Dave sounded genuinely sorry. Yet he was right: Tim was insanely enjoying it, but knowing that Dana was out there made the whole thing almost surreal. And, once again, as much as Dave always proved so chill about this stuff, he couldn’t help but feel somehow awkward about having his friend face-farting him so non-chalantly.

And yet another   “ninja” fart was ripped all over his face.   Being nervous really turned Dave’s stomach into a messy cloud of gas, and Tim’s nose was there to vacuum it all up, completely defenseless, standing before the sheer power of the gassy friend’s powerful denim-covered anus.

Even though the situation was absurd, Dave couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. After all, the smell hit him too, and it was getting insane even for the farter himself, whose gas just didn’t stop building up.

“Sorry bro… I have to do this.” he whispered.

Tim felt Dave’s hands gently grabbing the back of his head, holding it still, as he pulled him in the clutches of his denim butt. The warm fabric of the jeans was soaking in that unbearable smell. The sniffer then felt the weight of his gassy friend almost crushing his skull. Despite being dark, Tim realized that Dave was basically sitting on him, using his head as some kind of human stool.

The fart was directly ripped in Tim’s mouth at that point, that rumbly sound once again renewing the already destructive stench. It was supposed to be loud, so loud, that Dave had to basically use his friend’s face to deadpan its impressive thunderous noise. The gassy bro was trying to rip it in the form of a long series, hoping that Dana would fail to hear (or even recognize) his well-known gross, but rather impressive talent.

Tim heard his friend’s sighs of relief after each, rumbling fart, but Dave was also trying not to burst into a laughter that could blow their cover. Fart fetish or not, he couldn’t help but to find it more hilarious than gross.

As much as the lack of space in that closet wouldn’t really allow it, Dave even lifted his right leg a bit, while still   “sitting” on his stool-friend, as a way to facilitate the impressive amount of gas gushing out from his anus. It’s not like he had to worry about Tim passing out or finding it too gross, anyway.

That fart itself was lasting longer than both of them anticipated. They lost count of how much time passed, probably a full minute. Tim’s face was warm and sweaty now, still trapped in the clutches of his gassy bro’s denim butt, directly living in person that thin line between Fart Heaven and Fart Hell.

A final sigh of relief, followed by a louder toot and a chuckle.   “Sorry, bud.” Dave muttered, hoping that his plan worked.

Indeed, Dana didn’t hear a thing. She hung up and left the room, her footsteps slowly turning into a far, muffled sound, until silence announced that the duo was now free to get the heck out of there, especially considering how they were almost both choking on farts.

Tim forgot what fresh, non-fart air felt like in his nostrils and so took a deep, refreshing breath the moment he stepped out of that gas closet. Ironically, Dave did the same, maybe even wondering how would Tim even endure something as overwhelming as his farts, but he didn’t really mind anyway. Despite everything, that was oddly hilarious, as the two stared at each other and then bursted into a laughter.

“Now let’s get out of here…” the farter suggested.

But before the two could even walk towards the window, Dana showed up again in her own room. She didn’t even startle.

“What are you two doing here?” she asked, sounding more like an inquisitive mom than an angry girlfriend. She was fairly mature, after all. “I don’t know what you Dumb and Dumber are up to, but I swear if you–”

“I heard the news, Dana. We were just outside your window…” Dave explained, slightly tweaking the truth. “We wanted to play a stupid scary prank but then I heard it, while you were on the phone you know…”

Dana shook her head and laughed a bit. She hugged her boyfriend and kissed him.

“Yes! I got the job!” she giggled. “Sorry I’ve been so cold lately. The job interview made me so nervous…”

“It’s fine, Dana. You’ve always been stone-cold anyway!” Dave joked, earning a playful slap on his chest by his girlfriend.

“Yes, that’s a very import–wait what’s that smell?” the girl asked, sniffling loudly the air around him.

Tim’s heart almost stopped while Dave did his best to not just laugh like an immature prankster. His hair, clothes, skin, were completely “soaked” in his gassy bro’s gas, so naturally he’d himself smell like flatulence.

“Never mind. It must be you, Dave. He farts like crazy when he’s nervous, Tim, I swear.” she said, disgusted but slightly amused as well.

“Ow… it’s part of my charm, babe.” Dave replied, using what he would have considered an irresistible flirty tone of voice, which was super awkward instead.

“And yeah. Tim’s very aware of my skills, right?” he joked, winking at him, like the big teasing bastard he’s always been since he found out about his fart kink.

Tim just shrugged, faking a disgusted look, his heart racing fast, knowing that all he had to do after that was take the biggest shower in the hope that such unbearable stench didn’t fuse with the atoms in his body.

“Well, it’s gonna be a wild ride!” Dana exulted, happy about her new job offer.

“How about a round of beers to celebrate?” Tim suggested. “It’s on me, no worries.”

“Great idea, but I’m paying. I got the job, you dumb-dumbs get to drink!” Dana replied. She was in a very good mood.

“It’s fine, Dana! It’s the least we can do after-“ but Dave interrupted him.

“Come on Tim, stop living in outdated gender roles and let the pretty girl buy you a drink.” he said, faking a serious tone.

The girlfriend simply rolled her eyes and left the room “Just… meet me downstairs when you’re done saving the world, ok?”

As Dana was nowhere in sight, Dave simply turned to Tim and let another huge, long one rip.

“Shhh. Just tying up some loose ends here.” he said, shushing the gay friend, blasting what was left of his gas out.

“Are you finish-“ “Not yet” he simply said, as if he was making sure no particle of gas was left behind.

With one high pitched final note that was met with some immature laughter, Dave sighed in relief.

“With that said” he chuckled “You might want to take a shower.”

Tim simply nodded with an unamused expression.

“Oh, and you might want to leave the other closet you’ve been hiding.”

That was out of nowhere.

“No pressure bro, just know that we’re all always more than happy to have a beer with you.”

“Thanks Da-“

“Despite your bigoted views on gender roles of course.”

“I’m going to punch you now.”

The duo then headed downstairs and no one got punched luckily.

Tim thought about his friend’s words and how it was probably time to leave that metaphorical stuffy closet soon or later, not that he felt forced or anything.

Dana’s closet, however, that’s probably the only one he enjoyed being trapped into…

End of Episode 9