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#but I'm fairly sure I didn't dream of them
cross-my-heartt · 2 years
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Crosshair’s dialogue
I cannot overstate how important The Outpost was for me because we now have proof that Crosshair is someone who says things he doesn’t mean and that’s so so important. Which is why I’m going to talk about it.
“No point in carrying dead weight.”
“Remind me not to die on your watch.”
If there’s one thing we know about TBB it’s that plot heavy episodes (especially those relevant to the main story which we can safely categorize 12 as because of its ending and how pivotal Crosshair is to the show) it’s that they don’t waste time on frivolous dialogue. Even more so when it’s Crosshair’s dialogue given how taciturn he is as a character.
Now we all know how the episode ends and why the first line of dialogue is monumental here. But I’d also like to focus on Mayday’s response because it reminds us that most things Crosshair says, and that I’m going to reference here, are taken at face value.
We know that because Crosshair managed to provoke Rex enough to earn himself a punch. We also know that because his long speeches on Kamino convinced his brothers that he was fully committed to the Empire’s cause. Hold that thought for now.
Episode 12 shows us in a very non roundabout way that Crosshair will go to great lengths to ‘carry dead weight’ if that weight is a brother. That for all his remarks about regs and their disposability he cares enough to go through extreme hardship to try and save one and even avenge him with catastrophic consequences to himself.
But what if he’s only recently had a change of heart, you say, what if he literally changed his mind when Mayday pushed him out of the way to save him in the avalanche. That's certainly possible. Only we’ve seen this behavior with Crosshair before:
He says all those things about Echo and regs only for us to see a glimpse of him putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He implies that the batch will become his enemies if they refuse to join the Empire and then saves Omega and we’re given no indication that he’s reported their survival to the Empire.
All throughout the show we see instances of the writers trying to convey who Crosshair is, despite the things he says, through his actions and less obviously through symbolism and other more subtle means.
Which brings us back to Kamino.
How much of what Crosshair said on Kamino was the truth and not him posturing and deluding himself? How much of it was his usual bravado, the biting brutal cynical things that he keeps saying and people keep believing about him? How much of it was the refusal to show vulnerability and sympathy and just a damn defense mechanism?
You could see episode 12 as a sudden change of heart for him but I like to see it differently: to me episode 12 was a crescendo in the arc of a character that’s been slowly built up as someone who says cruel things and tries to convince himself of them (maybe even succeeds at points, because it’s easier that way, safer) but at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, his actions speak louder than his words.
Crosshair cornered himself into a situation where he had little choice. Obey or die. That’s something he carries responsibility for no matter what, even if we suppose everything he said on Kamino was a front and claim that the batch were wrong for taking it at face value.
Crosshair did have a choice on Kamino, he made that choice and it left him with two horrible options. And he opted to die (because what else can you expect when you do something as egregious as shooting a superior in cold blood) in the name of a brother.
Good soldiers follow orders but he spat in the name of that in one glorious moment of defiance. He called Lieutenant whatshisname just so he would turn and look him in the eye when he delivered the biggest ‘fuck you’ to the Empire.
Chip or no chip, change of heart or no, that’s one of the most bamf moments in Star Wars, period. And as with most things Crosshair, it was his actions that were speaking in that moment, not his words.
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writingoddess1125 · 1 year
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The old men of One Piece finding out they have a child with you. Pt. 2
Due to popular demand I have a part two for you guys!
Shanks, Buggy, Mihawk xFemreader
Healthy Mix of Angst and Fluff
Support me on Ko-Fi
Part 1 <- -> Part 3
Buggy
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The crew was quick to follow orders, Cabaji grabbing you as others grabbed your sons. Dragging you from the restaurant you called a home and out onto the streets, screamed fill the air as the village was being ripped apart. Your boys crying out in fear as the crew harshly brought you onto the ship you once were apart of.
You yelped as you were thrown into Buggy's room. Your boys being tossed in as well, you quickly grabbed Dee and Bee and brought them to your chest. Running your hands through their hair as they sobbed against you, shaking like a leaf and terrified.
"Ssshh it's okay my loves it's okay" you whisper trying to soothe them, holding them tightly to try and ward away the bad dream. After a few hours they finally fell asleep, You carefully rolling up and placing them on Buggy's large bed. It wouldn't be best to let them sleep in your arms since they were fairly large and when asleep could kick and roll. You couldn't risk injury if you were going to escape with the twins.
You tucked them into the big stripped bed and sighed- Surrounded by more of this circus shit made them look way more like Buggy then you cared to admit. Smoothing Dee and Bee wild blue locks with your hand you sighed heavily. Trying to come up with a plan to escape- but the plotting was short lived as the bedroom door opened.
Buggy stared at you and then glanced at the boys as they slept soundly in his bed. He was holding a large tray and set it down on the side table, meeting your eyes as he picked up a fork and took a bite from each both and even a bite of the bread, before taking a seat clearly wanting to show it was safe to eat and feed the children. You looked at the food it was 3 healthy servings of pasta with fresh bread and 3 drinks, 2 milks and a ale. You looked at him in question but you didn't dare voice anything. Instead gently shaking the twins awake-
"Eh? Mom?..." Dee mumbled as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. "Dinner is here" You say calmly, holding a bowl out to Dee who gently took it in his tiny hands before waking up Bee with a bit more force and doing the same. Splitting the bread in half and giving each half to your sons to make sure they had full bellies.
You ate your own food, Watching as the twins hungrily ate there like they hadn't had a meal before, havjng to make sure they didnt mess up the nice bed. However you kept glancing back at Buggy, feeling his eyes on you.
He sat across the room stull, watching you closely as you wiped their faces clean with your dress and handing them their drinks and even taking your own ale and sipping it. You saw Bee wat hibg Buggy closely, the two staring at each other silently.
"What are you looking at Old Man?-" Bee snapped as he glared at Buggy. You snapping your finger quickly at him.
"Attitude-" You hissed in warning. However heard a shuffle to see Buggy snorting a laugh and turning away to giggle-
"Damn these really are my Kids- I was at least 90% sure before but now it's 100%!" He laughed, actually Wiping the tears from his face.
"Mom what is he talking about?" Dee questioned first, raising a brow at the Clown in their room.
"Yeah and whats with hi-" You smacked your hand over your sons mouth. Knowing that the following question would lead to a fight you didn't have the strength for.
"Boys this is your father... Buggy the Clown. He's a Pirate Captian"
"Our Dads a clown-" Bee deadpanned as his face looked at you in what can only be described as confused horror. You sighing mentally by this, as Dee stared at Buggy suspiciously.
"How do we know?-" Dee started, But Buggy pulled the hat from his head and bandana to show his blue locks that were identical to their.
"Our Dads a Clown!?" Bee said again this time
"I'm a porate clown-" Buggy shot back as he frowned at the boy. The two locking in gaze of equal stubbornness and attitude.
Dee started to say"Is that why you took us?" But was cut off gloriously by Bee"If you're our dad then you suck! Why did you grab mom by her hair and make her cry!" He proclaimed, Jumping up on the bed and pointing to Buggy angrily. You urging the boy to sit down, But Buggy's gaze softened.
"I apologize- I didn't see it was her or else I would have never raided you town. Instead just picked you three up to take with me" He admitted calmly. The seemed to take the wind from Bee's sails as he sat back down- You also surprised to hear Buggy apologize or be so vulnerable.
"I want to have you three here with me and be apart of my children's life" Buggy started as he stared at you- You started to protest but he held up a hand.
"60 Days, that's all I ask. If in 60 days you don't want me in their lives I'll drop you and the boys off at a Marine Base with some berry. Enough to be comforble for the rest of your lives"
It was a good deal- a damn good deal. It's not like you had a berry to your name or a place to return to. That and he genuinely seemed interested in the boys, you gave a defeated sigh.
"Alright... 60 days- then we will talk from there" Buggy smiled at hearing you agreeing to this. Excitement shining in his eyes as he jumped up from his seat.
"Perfect! You all rest here. I'll leave and bring some supplies for you all" Buggy said calmly as he stood up and quickly left, a grin plastered on his face as he left you.
You should have known that Buggy was planning something. For the next 3 days it was like he turned the ship into a child's dream. There was suddently a absurd about of toys, sweets, every game imaginable too seemed to have suddently appeared. Buggy all to happy to shower the twins in anything they asked for, played any game they wanted.
You inwardly sighed as you watched the twins start to warm up to Buggy, More like clinging to him. Bee seemingly the most interested in him while Dee seemed to just love sailing. Having to be coaxed down from the crows nest were he would hide all day. At the mess hall however is were they fit in the best- It was like Buggy had cloned himself the two perfect best friends, aka himself.
Dee had taken to keeping his hair up due to his time in the crows nest and also had become more confident- pushing his brother back whenever he messed with him a bit too much- As for Bee it was like Buggy 2.0- Loud, flashy and ready to find trouble. It had been only 3 days but so much had changed, Currently it being evening dinner time.
Sitting next to Buggy in the mess hall, who had made it a habit of keeping you close you glared as your son then Buggy who was just laugjing "Benny (Y/L/N) get your monkey ass here right now!" You yelled as you saw your son running down the tables of the mess hall. Singing a made of sea shanty that the rest of the freaks were actually drinking and singing along to.
"Let the boy have some fun (Y/N)! It's not like he's hurting anyone- Besides what's the worse that can happen! Stop with the snooty attitude" Buggy proclaimed with a laugh, you saw Dee get a mischievous look in his eye before slipping under the table. You give a sarcastic smile, knowing your twins all too well.
"Fine then, I won't be snooty for the next hour whatever they damage you gotta clean" You proposes with a smile. He laughed and nodded.
"Deal! Finally now we can have some fu-"
And like a symphony of madness all hell broke lose. Dee had popped put from under the table and grabbed Bee's foot nid step. The singing child falling into a massive bowl of mashed potatos which managed to spray everywhere- coating all the people at the table in potatos and the floor which made a few Crewmates who had been walking slip and slam into tables flinging more food and creating more mess paired with a hunk of cake landing right in Buggy's face. Wiping the frosting as he watched the two boys make a run from the mess hall cackling like two Imps.
"Boys!!" He yelled, trying to wipe more of the pink frosting from his face. You smiled and handed him a napkin.
"Have fun Captian!~" You said with a grin and patted his shoulder as Buggy sat there red faced and glaring at you half heartedly. As if taking your cue, you got up and left. Giggling as you hear Buggy snap at some crewmates to grab something to help clean the mess.
Deciding to take the time for yourself you went to the main deck. Leaning against the rails as you watched the dark waves of the ocean and the setting sun. You couldn't lie and say you didn't miss the ocean, or the time to yourself. You stood there watching as the sun set and plunged the ship into darkness, the lanterns of the ship turning on as well as the ship seemed to be sailing in darkness.
"Enjoying your free time?" A deep voice snapped you from your thoughts. Seeing Buggy walking towards you, his face washed of makeup and hair in a ponytail. Having clearly just bathed after getting the mess hall cleaned.
"Yeah, I forgot how nice it is being on this ship.. How are the boys?" Buggy smiled at hearing you enjoying yourself before shrugging.
"Got them washed up and put them to bed.....They seem to like me" He boated, seemingly proud he had formed such a strong bond.
"That they do" You reply. Watching as he put his hands in his pockets a bit awkwardly, that tough Captian Facade crumbling a bit under his own anxiety.
"(Y/N) Why did you leave?... Was it me? Were you ashamed of me or-" He started, the back of his hand brushing against his nose as the enxiety slammed into his chest.
"What?.. No that's not why I left Buggy- I was scared. How the hell was I suppose to go through pregnancy on a ship? Hell the labor?! That was 36 hours to give birth to both of them!" Buggy winced at the thought, you leaned against the railing and stared at him.
"It was the fact that I couldn't predict how you would react and no idea how to raise a baby here. So in a village with at least some stability seemed like the best option- Even if it ment having to do it alone"
You admit, Buggy messing with his gloved hands. Sadness bleeding through his gaze as he sighed.
"I suppose- I can see your point... but I would have put everything on hold if I knew-" Buggy admitted, before rubbing the back of his head a bit hesitantly.
"You know- We only got 60 days and I've been wanting to take a vacation. Drop off the crew maybe for a bit and I know this really nice island" Buggy said casually. Your eyebrows raising at hearing this- He wanted to stop pirating just for you and the twins?
"What?-" You started but he cut you off quickly. "I mean it would only be a little bit of course- unless something urged me to stay a bit longer. However I think being on the open ocean can be damaging for super long term- I mean the meals can cause scurvy and who knows what else" He quickly justified, even at this distance you could see his ears turning red. You couldn't help but giggle at this, which caught his attention quickly.
"I'd like that Buggy.. But I don't want to take you away from what you love" you say, Watching Buggy take a hesitant step towards you.
"Who knows... 60 days can quickly turn into eternity.. if you want it to.. and i lost what i loved once- Ill never let that happen again" He said locking eyes with you which made you smile brighter.
Shanks
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It had been 3 weeks since Shanks arrived- and it had been one journey, The man clearly loved to be a father. Willing to do anything for Vivian, her having the powerful pirate wrapped around her little finger and not even knowing it.
Shanks having let his crew take the time for essentially a vacation on his dime while ge stayed in your guestroom. Excited every morning to wake up and play with his daughter. He bought her so many toys, a chest full of pretty dresses, a giant stuffed monkey and a play wood sword since she had been so interest in his.
She had even taken to tying her favorite green ribbon on his sword since "It looks pretty" and he didn't have the will power to take it off. So for the most part, it had been complete and total bliss.
It was early morning when you heard some loud Noises coming from the kitchen area of your home- Getting up from bed and put on your robe and walked to see what all the noise was.
You stood in the kitchen with a raised eyebrow, the only word fitting this situation was- Hilarious. There sat Shanks, sat on the floor with his back leanes against the oven holding a old muffin. His eyes were covered in a thick layer of green glittery eyeshadow (from your makeup bag) hot red lipstick that was sneered on other parts of his face. Some bows randomly scattered in his red hair. His coat that usually covered his missing arm dropped over your daughter who was still in her baby blue tight gown and she was dragging behind her as she adding things to the spread on the floor. A bag of sugar, some water, a scattering of teabags and whatever had been in the fridge- including half eaten sandwiches and cupcakes which Shanks was currently chewing on.
"Starlight, I don't think there is anyway you can make the wate- I mean tea any sweeter" He said calmly, Watching Vi try to pour more sugar into her little China set with her chubby hands. Shanks cringing a bit at this as she poured him a cup and handed it to him.
"See! Now it's perfect!" She chimed and giggled loudly. He gave a smile as he set aside his muffin and sipped the tea, trying to suppress the cringe from the unholy amount of sugar that was mixed with water and a hint of a poor teabag.
"It's delicious Baby Girl- Fantastic" He choked out, working through a smile as he forced himself to take another sip. You couldn't help bit to laugh, which brought the attention of both Red Heads.
"Mommy!" Vivian chimed loudly running towards you still wearing Shank's cloak and you scooped her up carefully.
"I must say Shanks, you look fabulous" You said with a smile. Shanks Grinning up at you as he sat on the floor.
"I always thought I'd look good in green" He said, Gesturing to the sloppy eyeshadow. Rolling himself up to his feet as he smiled down at you.
"By the way are you ready for today?" You raised a brow-
"Oh boy what do you have planned?" Shanks only gave a wide smile before grabbing a box from the kitchen table and holding up a lovely yellow sundress for you and a similar one for Vivian.
"Fun day out!"
Shanks hadnt beem kidding about a fun day, staring with a lovely resturant on the island, sailing, having in a meadow and then time out at the park the sun started to set. Shanks held Vivian who was passed out against him, walking back to your home. The two of you talking about the time you two where together in the past.
"Thank you (Y/N).." He said softly, Smiling as he watched the sun set and the two of you walked up hill.
"For what?" He smiled brightly at you "Making me the happiest man in the world" You couldn't help but blush at hearing this. Looking away bashfully as you came up to your home, Seeing a man standing there a bit awkwardly.
"Yasopp! Glad you stopped by, This is (Y/N) and my darling daughter Vivian. She's asleep right now but I'm sure she'd love to meet ya"
Shank smiled brightly at seeing his fellow crewmate. However the look on Yasopp face said otherwise.
"Its lovely to meet you (Y/N)... but Captian- we have to talk.." He said softly, Shanks frowning at the tone he gave before gently passing Vivian to you.
"I'll be in a sec" He said, nodding you quickly head inside to get Vivian ready for bed. Yasopp and him talked outside, Shanks looked angry. Staring at the letter and running his hand through his hair clearly stressed. You finished cleaning Vivians face and got her in her PJs, tuckering her in for the night. In the hallway you could hear the should of bottles shifting, turning to see Shanks in the kitchen grabbing the bottle of whiskey you kept on the top shelf- his face twisted in anger as he plopped on the couch.
"You have to leave.. don't you-" You finally blurted out, watching him open the bottle with his teeth and take a sip. His eyes shiny with unshed tears, he nodded soberly as he took a hard swig of the drink.
"Shanks you can't finally meet her and just leave her life-" You stressed, anger bubbling in your chest as you stared at him. He sat slunched in the chair a swirling of different emotions in his eyes.
"They need my help.. and I can't risk it (Y/N).... I can't risk them finding out about you and Vi... they would kill you both" He whispered, shock slamming into you. Your eyes drifting to Vivian's room were she laid sleeping.
"...How long will you be gone" You whispered finally, sitting down on your sofa sadly.
"I don't know..." He whispered, defeat written on his face. Holding the bottle out to you, which you took and started to sip before passing it back.
"When do you leave?" Shanks took another heavy swig of the drink and held it out to you. "Tomorrow morning..." You nod at this- Taking another sip of the whiskey.
"...I-Is she going to hate me?" Shanks whispered, Looking up at were he knew Vi was. You shook your head "She doesn't have it in her heart to hate.." You said softly. He nodded at this and messed with the ribbon she tied on his sword, staring at it hard.
"I love her (Y/N).... so much it hurts.." His voice cracked. But he instead stood up, taking a heavy breath.
"I'm going to get some sleep... you should as well" He said softly, Turning and walking back to the guest room. Leaving you alone with the whiskey bottle, as you put it back in its rightful place. You could have sworn you heard hushed sobs... but left them be and went to cry in your own bed as well.
In the morning, the nice breakfast was made. Shanks feeding Vivian her oatmeal and letting her talk his ear off, you knew he needed this moment. Needed to have this with her. Once breakfast was finishes the three of you started the walk to the docks, Vivian holding Shanks hand as they talked about the pretty ocean.
Walking to the docks he saw the ship being loaded up, Vivian staring in awe at the massive vessel and giggled at the sight of all the men who stared at her and gave friendly waves. Shanks taking a deep breath to look at you both. Hurt shining in his eyes as he swallowed a hard lump in his throat. Kneeling down he looked at Vivian, his hand cupping her chubby cheek as he took a shaky breath holding back tears clearly. "Princess, I've got to go for a while.."
"But why?... you just got here?"
"I know baby girl- But, see there is this trouble maker- His name is Luffy. Think of him as your big brother, he needs my help.. And I don't want to put you and your Mommy in danger while I go get him. So I have to leave-"
He said, Biting his bottom lip for a second as he let a few tears roll down his cheek. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out a solid gold coin- it was quite large and he carefully handed it to Vivian. Her little fingers holding the big coin and touching the detailed design thay decorated it, his Jolly Roger.
"But I promise I'll be back.. but until I do- you have to keep this with you. It's special, it will protect you from Pirates- And when I come back, and I promise I will. I'll trade you that coin for your ribbon back okay?"
He said softly, watching Vivian smile up at him at the promise.
"Okay Daddy.." She said softly before jumping and hugging around his neck. He held her tightly, wrapping his arm around her as if he didn't want to let go.
"Captian-" Yassop said softly, Shanks nodding and carefully standing up. Handing Vivian to you a bit reluctantly, Vivian own eyes starting to water. You held her close as tears rolled down your own cheeks. Shanks leaning in and kissing the tears on your face and one gingerly on your lips.
"I'll see you two again, I swear" He said softly, Stepping back as he followed after his crew. The crew somber like their Captian as he boarded, yelling out commands to set sail. Looking back as the ship began to leave the harbor, Waving at the two of you. Vivian waving back gently as tears rolled down her chubby cheeks clutching the coin close to her chest.
You and Vivian standing on the docks as you watched the ship sail and disapear over the horizon. You sniffles and wiped your eyes of the tears you didn't know had still been running down your cheeks.
Your daughter looking at you and wiping your tears, giving you a smile just like Shanks "Don't worry Mommy.. Daddy said he'd be back"
Mihawk
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You stood in your tiny kitchen, rubbing your temple as the days situation settled on your bones. Your son standing next to you chopping vegetables silently, Clearly ignoring the elephant in the room.
"Alucare- Do you want to-"
"No" He cut you off quickly, quickly cutting down on a carrot like it had wronged him. You sighed at this setting the kettle on the stove to start a pot of tea. Knowing damn well what was coming- right on cue there was a knock to the door.
Turning you went to let in the Warlord, he looked like a kicked puppy. Awkwardly standing there at your door with his hat removed, his eyes glancing up at you hesitantly.
"(Y/N)..." He said softly, surprising you that he had even remembered your name. He stepped to the side, inviting him into your home and guiding him to your dining room were he took a seat at the kitchen table.
You took a seat as well, Alucare not turning from preparing the vegetables. A awkward silence following the trio as there was only the sound of chopping.
"Mihawk.. It's been a while" You finally speak, the Warlord nodding in agreement. Silence falling over you two again.
"Oh for God's sake. Alucare sit down please, we are going to get this out" You said, Hearing the shuffle of your son moving from his spot and sitting next to you. You couldn't help but stare in awe- The two sitting across from each other made it seem like they were looking at some odd mirror, they looked almost identical except for the age and minor changes.
"Mihawk this is Alucare, your son. As we can clearly can see. Alucare this is your father Dracule Mihawk"
You introduce, swallowing thickly as the two continued to stare at each other. Silence falling again over you all, Mihawk sighed and rubbed his temple. Turning his eyes away from this odd sort of staring contest.
"Alucare.. That's a good name.. How old are you?" Mihawk asked, staring at his child for a moment before Alucare looked away.
"I'm 16..." He said softly, Mihawk nodding at this before his eyes landed on you.
"How come you didn't tell me- I would have been here, helped you. I have a home and more" He asked, his eyebrows betraying him in pure confusion and he frowned. You sighed and rubbed the back of your neck.
"I was scared- How would it look like if some random person claimed to have some famed Warlords child.." You mumbled, still embarrassed by the whole ordeal. "Besides it wasn't even until after are alleyway escapades that I understood who you were-"
"I see..." Mihawk sighed as he stared at Alucare again, who seemed to grow a bit uncomforble at the direction of this conversation.
"Alucare do you wish to ask something of your father?-" You encouraged. Wanting to create a olive branch between the two.
"What is there me to ask? It's not like it's a secret that we are related or his reputation. The only thing I would wonder is how you found out about us-" Alucare said a bit dismissively, you felt genuine surprise at this. He had never shown anyone disrespect before until now-
"There were rumors of you that traveled to a Marine Base I was at- how a child looked like the famed Mihawk... eyes and all" Mihawk clarified. Alucare only rolling his matching yellow eyes at this, standing up from his seat.
"I'll be dismissing myself. Thanks for the talk" He said calmly, walking out the back door and slamming it shut behind him. You sighed and looked to Mihawk
"Hes normally not like that, I don't know what to say" You admit. But the Warlord just stood up with a understanding nod.
"Hes angry... that I understood.. I'll return" He said before following out the back door as well.
Standing by the grove of trees next to the house Alucare let the cool blade of the knives brush over his fingers, sighing as he quickly released the blade at lightning speed at the carved target on the old tree hitting bulls eye. Alucare walking to retrieve the lone blade and repeat the process.
"Impressive shot-" The deep voice only belonging to Mihawk sounded behind the teen. Alucare glancing back at the man as he resumed his position and went back to throwing his blade.
"Thanks I suppose-" Alucare mumbled as he continued to task. Mihawk sighing softly as he glanced at the sky.
"What is the true reason you resent me- One that you don't wish to express with your mother around" He finally asked, staring at the sky. Alucare faltering in his movements for a moment, keeping the blade in his hands for a moment.
"If you had been anyone else she wouldn't have had to suffer so much-" He admitted, his eyes showing a deep sadness as he sighed "I saw the way they looked at her, despite her smiling and ignoring it.. how she acted as a human shield for me. Because we share blood- How she would sit on the bed after working day and night to put that home over our head... how tired she was and then emotionally carying the brunt of people looking at her in either pity, fear otlr disgust for my sake"
He admitted, throwing the blade once again watching the blade stick deeply into the tree the handle being the only thing that showed. Mihawk quietly listened and clenched his hands.
"I understand... if I had known I would have protected her... I would have protected you- Nothing I can say can make up for 16 years of hardship... but I do apologize" Mihawk said, bowing his head gently.
Alucare looked at him silently for a moment. Looking away for a moment and went to grab the blade.
"...How do you sharpen a blade-" Alucare asked, In his own way accepting Mihawk apology and extending a form of communication. Mihawk gave a hint of a smile on his lips as he stepped forward.
"I can show you-"
Tag List-
For all the people who requested Pt. 2
@lunanight1021 @lolavegas20 @cuteastrash @thatcharmingmushroom @marsilis @thesadvampire @amecchii @zaphira-san @matronofthevoid @mothmans-left-nipple
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itsonlybaby · 5 months
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𐙚ᣟ݂﹒𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 - 𝐛. 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞﹒
◜♡﹒﹒𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭﹒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭﹒𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭
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putting out so many bellamy fics, here's the playlist I listen to while writing fics
Bellamy Blake - Arkadia
꒰ ୨୧ ꒱ ⸝⸝ You had a dream about your best friend Bellamy, and you try to suppress the feelings by avoiding him. Bellamy doesn't let this slide. ﹒   ⊹  ⤷ cw: smut, piv, praise, nsfw, gentle Bellamy
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His hand glided along my thigh, sending shivers down my spine. My breathing became erratic the closer and closer he got to my cunt, the place I craved his touch the most. Bellamy leaned down, giving sweet kisses to my stomach area before I finally felt his fingers on my pussy, sliding up and down coating his fingers with my slick.
I just about came when he pushed two fingers inside me, thrusting them up and hitting my sweet spot.
"Hey!" Octavia, my roommate, yelled.
I shot up instantly looking around taking in my surroundings, a wave of disappointment washing over me, suddenly missing the dream I had just awoken from. Why had I been dreaming of Bellamy of all people? He was my best friend!
My disappointment was replaced by my guilt.
"You've been asleep an hour past breakfast, wake up." She spoke, putting on her black boots and lacing them.
An hour? What happened to my alarm clock?
Octavia noticed my confused look towards my clock, "You didn't set it last night,"
Shit.
I climbed out of bed and almost tripped on my blanket. I walked to my dresser and pulled out a fairly cute outfit. Shorts, a tank top, and Bellamy's guard jacket I still needed to return. But I knew he'd have to steal it back to get it.
"Where are you off to today?" I asked Octavia, putting on my socks and then my brown boots. I saw her stand and grab her sword, placing it in the holster on her back.
"Gonna spend the day with Lincoln, makes things less boring around here." She opened the door to our room and left.
Leaving me to only my thoughts memories of the dream came flooding back to me. It was like I could actually feel his touch on my thigh. His big, calloused hands, his soft kisses to my stomach, touching me as if I were a porcelain doll.
Shaking my head I snapped out of my thoughts, I had things to do today.
Walking to my little clay shop beside the Armory I sat down on my stool. Reaching under the desk I brought out a lump of clay I left to dry.
I had a clay shop, though it wasn't really a shop. Bring me the dirt and I'll make you whatever you want. It made the days less boring and brought smiles to everyone's faces, people would commission things for their partners, moms, siblings, and friends. Knowing my little sculptures could bring such joy to the people of Arkadia was a nice feeling.
Slapping the lump down on the desk I rolled up the sleeves of Bellamy's jacket and began kneading it, this is where most of my strength came from. Once I was sure it was soft enough to work with I sat back down, dunked my hands in the water, and began sculpting. Taking mini lumps from the big piece of clay.
I had finished two before my thoughts caught up with me.
Kneading the clay again, I thought about Bellamy's hands, mouth, hair, and body. How good he'd feel against me.
"Clays not gonna knead itself," Bellamy spoke in an amusing tone.
I hadn't even noticed I stopped kneading.
The sight of Bellamy made my heart drop, without his usual jacket you could see his muscular arms, a sight I needed engraved in my brain.
Looking at his face my eyes were wide, I had hoped he didn't notice my unusual staring. I needed to get my head out of the gutter.
"Yeah, just got distracted," I replied, an awkward laugh coming after.
Bellamy raised an eyebrow, bringing his hands to his hips. He definitely noticed.
"You okay, princess?"
That name again. I practically melted every time he called me it, though I'm sure he meant it in a friendly manner it just sounded so good coming from him.
I let out a series of stutters before taking a breath, "Yes," It came out as more of a question than an answer, and I knew he didn't believe me.
Then finally, my saving grace came.
"Oh, look, customer," I say, the look on Bellamy's face still evident.
A customer from two weeks ago approached my shop, Bellamy looked between us and took his leave.
A part of me felt bad knowing I had pushed him away slightly. But id never get any work done if he was standing there looking so damn good-
"Hi, I'm here for the fox statue. For my boyfriend." She greeted me with a bright smile, clearly full of excitement to see the final result.
I returned her smile and nodded, "I remember! Let me get it,"
A few hours had passed since then and the sun was setting, many happy customers, and I somehow seemed to get a lot of work done.
Closing down shop I washed my hands in the bucket of water and walked towards the mess hall, feeling my stomach rumble.
Entering the room I looked to see what was on the menu for tonight's dinner.
Fish and tomatoes were an odd pairing but given our resources it was fairly good.
Grabbing a plate from Sinclair I searched for some familiar faces, to which I only found Bellamy.
Thinking the previous feelings for him faded I walked up and sat in front of him, a smile greeted me at my presence.
"Where is everyone?" I asked, getting comfortable and taking a bite of the fish. Not very flavorful.
"They headed to bed early,"
"Why didn't you?"
"Wanted to ask what was up with you earlier,"
Thank god I had finished my food, the intensity of his stare would've made my appetite vanish.
"I've just been distracted," I stated, hoping he would just take that for an answer. But I knew he'd keep budging.
"With?"
"I'm getting pretty tired, I'm gonna head to bed," I stood abruptly, not wishing to continue the conversation further. How else am I supposed to tell me best friend I had a wet dream about him and everytime I see him it comes back to me?
"Bye, bell," I flashed a nervous smile and quickly walked off before he could say anything else.
I knew I'd have to confront him sometime, but I'd hold off as long as I could until then.
Making it to my shared room I quickly opened the door and entered, Octavia probably spending the night in Lincoln's room. I was grateful for that, tonight I just needed to be alone.
Getting undressed I put on a pair of pajama shorts and just used Bellamy's jacket as a top.
Climbing into bed I slid under the covers, making sure to set my alarm this time.
Staring up at the ceiling for a good hour my mind clouded over with thoughts of Bellamy, it was expected at that point. I hadn't even noticed my hand going towards my cunt, rubbing myself through the fabric. Letting out soft, quiet moans at the feeling. As good as it felt I needed more.
My hand slid underneath the shorts and I teased my entrance, just as Bellamy did in my dream. Pushing into myself with two fingers the feeling was amazing, but imagining It was Bellamy again wasn't enough. I craved him, and in my lusty haze, I shot up and headed for the door.
I couldn't believe I was going to do this, I couldn't believe how badly I needed him.
I made a B-line for Bellamy's room, knocking on it. I was practically banging on it. A few seconds passed until I was met with the sight of Bellamy towering over me, his messy hair going in all directions, his shirt that hugged his arms so well, and his sweatpants that barely hid anything.
"Is your roommate in there?" I ask breathily.
With a shake of his head, I connect our lips in a messy needy kiss. The feeling of our lips touching for the first time makes me shiver, Bellamy makes no motion to push me off, instead, he pulls me inside, shutting the door with his hand. He picks me up and carries me to the bed, needing this just as much as I do.
He only pulls away when he sets me down on the bed, unzipping the jacket to find nothing under making him slyly smirk, my face flushed with an unimaginable redness. My mind now catching up with my heart.
This was really happening.
His hands gently fondle my breasts, soon snaking their way down my sides, to my hips, and then to my shorts, with every touch of his fingers, my body shivered, bathing in the attention from his hands and eyes.
He easily took off my shorts, the cool air hitting my now vulnerable warm cunt.
Bellamy was at a loss for words, never seeing something so beautiful before. The bulge in his pants now makes the material stick out in a more than noticeable way.
The feeling of embarrassment caught up with me, I moved my arms to cover myself but was stopped by Bellamy's tight grip.
"Don't," He demanded, letting go of my arms once I nodded shyly.
With a flushed face, Bellamy lowered his pants, revealing his cock. He took ahold of my legs and placed them on his shoulders, "Okay?" He asked, making sure this was really happening.
"Yeah, that's... that's good," I replied, reassuring him.
He guided his tip along my slit, coating it with my wetness as a type of lube. The feeling of him being so close to me made the hairs on my neck stand up.
I had wondered for a moment what people would think of us, but too in the moment to care.
Readying himself, Bellamy looked down at me again, taking in the sight of me with his jacket on.
"Please, I needed this," I muttered, "Needed you,"
"Feelings mutual, princess,"
And before I could reply he pushed in slowly, giving me time to adjust to his size. I let out a moan as he bottomed out in me. My hands reaching out for his, he met me halfway and grabbed ahold of them. His big hands intertwined with mine. He placed our hands above my head and gave them a squeeze.
I squeezed back, hard.
"Can I move?" He asked, he so badly wanted to move. But he wanted our first time together to be gentle, sweet, and full of genuine love.
I nodded hesitantly, preparing myself for the pain and pleasure.
Bellamy pulled out and pushed back in at a slow pace, agonizing to him, it took everything in him not to just slam back into you at a rough pace.
The moans I let out sounded like heaven to him, he couldn't help but join in with his own grunts of pleasure, the way I would tighten around him started to become too much, and he couldn't keep his own sounds in.
"You're doing so good," Bellamy assured between groans, his voice had become gruff.
I bit my lip to try and stay quiet, fearful the room next to him might hear.
Bellamy didn't like that at all, "Let them out, princess,"
And when I shook my head 'no', he slammed into me hard, forcing my moans out as I squeezed his hand more.
"Bellamy!" I moaned out.
This only egged him on, loving the way his name sounded on my tongue.
As much as it hurt, it felt amazing how well he filled me, and how easily he could hit my sweet spot.
"Faster, please," I begged, staring into his eyes.
"Alright, princess,"
Bellamy leaned in closer making my legs bend more, letting him go deeper inside me. His pace began to speed up, making my moans grow louder in volume.
Every thrust was a new place deeper inside me, I felt my legs begin to shake, the familiar feeling of ecstasy creeping up my stomach.
He must've caught on, "It's okay, cum on my dick, princess, go ahead,"
His reassuring words put me over the edge, "Bellamy, Bellamy!"
My back arched as I reached my high with Bellamy fucking me through it.
My climax brought him even closer, the way my pussy clenched around his cock was overwhelming for him. His thrusts became sloppy and unhinged. He tried to keep it in, to make this moment last longer.
His brows furrowed while he stared into my eyes, saving this memory forever, "You're so beautiful," he breathed out, "So pretty with my jacket on,"
With a few more erratic thrusts he quickly pulled out, finishing on my stomach, bringing a newfound warmth all over.
Full of hesitance he let go of my hands, taking off his shirt and cleaning his cock and my stomach off while catching his breath. He threw the shirt into a bin in the corner of his room. Now taking a place next to me, wrapping his arms around my exhausted body.
"Been dreaming of that since we met," He whispered in my ear, placing kisses all over my neck.
I smiled.
If only he knew.
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◜♡﹒﹒𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭﹒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭﹒𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭
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bigwishes · 1 year
Text
Tummy Trouble
Connor flexed at himself in the mirror, he'd been lifting for years but still was no where near as big as he dreamed to be. He looked at some of his buddies in the gym that had gotten bigger than him taking roids but Connor didn't want any of that crap, he wanted to get as big as he could naturally, without risking his health.
Still he couldn't help but wish he was so much bigger.
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Connor was on his way out of the gym when someone stopped him.
"Hey bro," the man grabbed Connor by the arm
Connor turned to see a unbelievable tall man who was insanely muscular. The straps to his tank top where barely visable between his shoulders and traps, the length of his tank top wasn't quite long enough to cover up his entire torso and his gym shorts looked more like spandex underwear. Connor was both turned on by the sheer size of the guy and turned off, he was clearly a roid head.
"eer, hey man"
"hey bro you look real fit, are you training to get bigger?"
"yeah man, as big as I NATURALLY can" Connor made sure to pretty much shout naturally at the guy, he'd had too many roid heads try and sell him gear in the locker room before but never had one brave enough to try it out the front of the gym
"aw yeah man, nice nice, look I got a sample for you"
"sorry man, Im not into enhancements or roids or whatever"
"you got me all wrong bro, no roids, its free gym gear we are giving out some clothing samples and asking for feedback for payment"
Connor's face turned bright red with embarrassment, now he seemed like some entitled asshole who thought he was too good to even talk to anyone not natural.
"bro I'm so sorry, I just, normally when a guy like you asks me if I want a sample in the gym" Connor began to stumble over his words trying to back peddle realising he basically just called this guy a roidhead without proof
"a guy like me?"
"yeah, eerrrrr, ya know big and..."
The giant man began to laugh and slapped Connor on the back "I'm just fucking with you mate"
Connor let out a sigh of relief
"but hey mate, so you're all about the natural look yeah? but you also wanna be a massive tank?"
"yeah man, look I know I might be dreaming but I wanna be fucking huge, like you, I just don't wanna take any enhancements"
"I think I got something for you mate, here"
The giant handed Connor a small carboard box with the words "Big and Bulky" written in bold black letters and a gift card for $100 Food delivery service stapled to the top.
"Free of charge mate, put em on when you get home and I'm sure you'll be feelin like a freak in no time" The giant man winked.
Connor took the gift and continued to thank him multiple times trying to make up for the fool he'd made of himself just moments before. He got in his car and sank in his chair. He opened the box seeing a pair of briefs, he couldn't exactly try them on in his car, he thought it'd be better to just come back with some feedback tomorrow.
----------------
Connor stepped out of the shower and dried himself off, he began his normal flexing routine in his mirror but thoughts about being staying lean and small invaded his mind fairly quickly. He contemplated if staying natural was worth it if it meant he'll never get his dream body. Pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind Connor slipped on the briefs he was gifted earlier and......they felt like normal briefs. He couldn't work out how these were made special for athletes but at least he got a food gift card out of it.
Connor picked up his phone going to take a photo whilst he looked good in the light when suddenly a golden light began to shine off the waist band of the briefs. It was like sunlight was coming out of the fabric itself. He saw the letters B....I.....G slowly appear and he watched in the mirror as his body began to swell. His shoulders broadened, chest expanded with every breath, his arms began to swell up and soon his pecs and arms were competing for space. His thighs became tree trunks and he had to readjust his package so it didn't get crushed between them, even his feet began to grow outwards. Soon it all slowed down and all Connor could do was stare at himself in amazement.
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Somehow, by literally magic he had swollen up into the size of his dreams. he couldn't help but start flexing and even licking his own bicep. A small noise, like a shop bell interrupted his self worship as a tiny slip of paper was ejected from the top of the box. Connor picked it up...
"Thank you for choosing Djinn.co transformative clothing, the transformative clothes you have chosen will permanently change your body, no need to workout to stay in shape never loose muscle keep the body of your dreams... NOTE: Your attendant for the day was Big Guy Bob he has added extra command words to your transformative clothing, we here at Djinn.co only print two command words on our clothing however your interaction with Bob had him convinced you deserved more"
Connor was amazed, surely this was a dream, there was no way he had stumbled into a pair of magic transforming clothes. As Connor was caught up in this thoughts light began to shine out of the other side of the waist band, the Connor felt his body start to get bigger. A part of him thought he should take the underwear off but he wanted to get bigger, he wanted to be a giant like the guy he met today. Another light began to shine from begin but Connor couldn't see. He flexxed in the mirror looking at the letters B...U....L....K....Y appear on the waist band. He flexed as hard as he could expecting to see his muscles to double in size again.
Connor's muscles became slightly large but nothing really changed. He dropped his arms to his side hearing his stomach make a slight gargling noise.
"awww, is that it, nothing even hap-"
*FWOOOMP
Connor almost fell forward as suddenly his six pack expanded into a loose gut. Hair quickly coated his entire body and he started sweating worse than he normally would at the gym.
"WHA...M...MY ABS...MY SIX PACK WHAT THE FUCK"
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Connor rubbed his new tummy on the verge of tears.
"oh god...what the fuck do I do with this thing"
His stomach let out a loud hungry growl as if almost to respond to him.
He picked up his phone and used the gift card to order some food, as if on auto pilot he spent the entire $100 instantly and even dropped another $100 from his own bank account on food.
Connor just stood in the mirror staring at his new belly disgusted. He had all the muscle he had dreamed of but felt his gut, pecs and ass wobble as he flexed. Soon the doorbell rang and Connor went to go grab his bags of food.
Bringing the bags in from inside and placing them on his kitchen bench his hands instantly dove in grabbed a handful of fries out the box without even taking the box from the bag, without realising he had stuff half the box of fries in his mouth, salt fell from his lips into his new forest of chest hair and he simply wiped his salt covered hand on his brief whilst opening a bottle of off the shelf protein shake. He began chugging it down and could feel little bits slips from his lips and into his new beard. Connor picked up all the bags and moved to his couch.
Connor blinked awake as if from a trance, all around him were empty plasic bottles from protein shakes and soft drinks, multiple empty fry boxes littered the look around him and he noticed his chest hair was tangled with salt, some burger lettuce and dried protein shake, his briefs were also covered in stain from where he had wiped his hands. He slid his briefs off noticing 3 words painted on the ass he didn't notice appear. "SWEATY, HAIRY, SLOB". Connor rubbed his new gut and tossed the briefs to the side.
His stomach began to gurgle and it sounded like a water cooler. He watched as his loose gut started to become firm.
"oh...god...whats happeneing now"
each time Connor inhaled his stomach felt worse
"I....god what the fuck"
A small ding noise interrupted Conners panting and panicing as another small slip of paper magically was printed out of the top of a closed chip box. Conner leant forward and read it.
"Hey man, Big Guy Bob here, today you expressed wanting to become a natural tank, so I made sure you got a pair to turn you into an absolute unit but I know you were worried about people thinking you might be on roids, just look at today you were so quick to think I was on them, so I added some key words to not only turn you into a huge tank but to turn you into a huge slob, enjoy the size bro"
Connor groaned as he tossed the note to the ground.
"FUUUUUUUCKKK IM SO.......BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPP"
the pain subsided and his stomach went soft again. Connor stared at his enormous body in the reflection of the black glass of his TV.
"mm...mmaybe i can cut?" Conner said aloud, completely unaware of the cupcake he was stuffing into his mouth as he spoke...
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I hope everyone who wanted me to write a weight gain story is happy with this one, this is probably as far as Ill every go with this kinda stuff but yall voted on it and I was happy to write it.
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ckret2 · 7 months
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Chapter 40 of human Bill Cipher, in spite of his fondest hopes, still being stuck in the Mystery Shack:
As much as Gideon wants out of the evil magic game, the survival of his father's used car dealership rides on Gideon's help.
And, relatedly, Bill's started receiving psychic car commercials.
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1981
Ford had been in his study for what felt like forever, staring at the pile of papers and numbers on his desk, trying to stop the figures from shifting and swimming before his eyes; when something from behind him lit up the dim room with golden light and he a heard a familiar voice behind his shoulder—
"Heeey, Stanford! You've been having a lot of dreams about tax forms lately, what gives?"
Ford was startled out of his thoughts. He turned around, smiling in relief. "Oh, Bill! Hello." Apparently he was dreaming. Thank goodness. It explained why he couldn't seem to get these forms to make sense. "How long have you been watching me?"
"About twenty years."
"What?"
"About twenty minutes," Bill said. "I wasn't going to bug you tonight, but usually your dreams are a little more adventurous! You're starting to worry me, kid." He disintegrated the tax forms with a gesture and floated down to sit on Ford's desk, like a razor-thin glowing paperweight. It was strange to see him cross his legs. "What's on your subconscious?"
Ford hadn't thought his Muse cared that much about his day-to-day human troubles. It was comforting to know someone was worrying about him—someone so far beyond human potential that maybe Ford didn't have to worry he'd be disappointed to learn Ford was struggling a little. "It's my grant money," he sighed. "I feel like my research into Gravity Falls is nowhere near completion, but that money will only last for so long. It won't be long before I'll need to ask for more funding, and I'll have a hard time convincing anyone if I don't have anything to show for it, but I don't want to share incomplete research..."
"Ah, money. The second-worst curse human society's ever inflicted on itself."
"What's the worst one?"
"Marriage."
Ford barked a laugh. It wasn't even that funny a joke; it was just such unexpectedly human cynicism for such an otherworldly entity. It sounded like a joke Ford's dad would make.
"Well, money. What to do..." Bill drummed his fingers on Ford's desk, gazing off into the distance as he thought. Ford realized that, at some point while he was distracted, most of his study had vanished, leaving his desk and chair sitting precariously atop a faint gridded plane in the starry blue void where he usually met Bill. Finally, Bill said, "Have you considered buying gold?"
He hadn't. "Will it help?"
"Sure it will! Eventually!"
"In time to help pay my mortgage?"
"Hmm." Bill thought a moment longer, then snapped his fingers. "Got an idea." He floated off of Ford's desk to eye level, strange sigils appearing in white-blue light around him. "Do you happen to know where the people who decide your funding live?"
"Er... the general area." It had to be near the Backupsmore campus, didn't it?
"Then I might be able to help you!" The symbols solidified around Bill. "I know a little spell to help persuade people. It'll let you plant ideas in their dreams—give 'em a little subliminal nudge. It could make some bigwigs come around on the importance of the research you're doing out here."
A fascinating concept. Ford studied the sigils greedily. He didn't recognize them, but they looked fairly simple. "You're not... talking about mind control?"
"Nah, that's not in my wheelhouse. It'll just let you... talk to them! Like I talk to you! I'm not controlling you, am I?" His eye curved up in a facsimile of a smile. "But you'll find most people have a harder time ignoring you when you're talking to them inside their own heads. What they do with that when they wake up is up to them. Just think of it as a way to schedule an interview where you'll have their undivided attention."
Ford pressed his lips together as he thought; then shook his head. "Thank you, Bill, but no. I wouldn't feel right earning money that way. I'd rather know they were impressed by the scientific and historical value of my work—and if I use magic, I'll never know for sure if they really thought my work measured up."
Bill laughed. "That's what I like about you, Stanford! You really shoot for the stars—and you've got the work ethic to get there! You don't want the fame and fortune unless you earn it!"
Ford was momentarily taken aback. It was rare that his muse openly complimented him; on most nights he dealt with Ford with a sort of cool, detached fondness, something a little too distant to be real affection. When he did voice his approval, it was like the sun coming out after a month of cloud cover. There were nights, when Ford was really feeling his isolation in these woods and he'd half convinced himself all his years of research had been a waste of time, when he was half willing to chase that sunshine to the ends of the earth.
"You'll do whatever it takes to finish your research, won't you?" Bill asked.
Ford gave Bill an awkward, self-conscious smile. "Of course I will. How could I not?"
"Hey, not everyone has your ambition! Most people take the easy way to the top. Cheating, copying, riding on greater men's coattails... Some guys earn the dough to buy their gold, others just want to dig for someone else's." Bill spread his hands in a shrug. "Well, it was an idea." The sigils started to fade.
Ford raised a hand. "Hold on. I don't want to use it, but... do you think I could learn that spell anyway?" He smiled hopefully. "For research?"
"For fun?"
"For fun."
Bill laughed. "I was waiting for you to ask!" The sigils reappeared, and next to them appeared an incantation. "All right, I'll walk you through it. Pay attention, I don't think you've got enough time to go over it twice this REM cycle."
Ford nodded, focusing fully on Bill, determined to remember the spell well enough to record it in Journal 2 when he woke up.
####
Spring, 2013
Tentatively, Bud Gleeful said, "Son... now, I know you lost that spooky grimoire of yours. But... don't you have anything left that might help out the dealership?"
Gideon growled in irritation. "I told you, father! Everything I knew was in Journal 2! It's gone! Anyway, I'm just trying to be a normal kid now. I don't want to get mixed up in any more magic. I'm through with it."
"I understand," Bud said, nodding. "And I think that's mighty admirable of you, turning over a new leaf like that. Shows real maturity." He hesitated, wringing his hands together. He pre-emptively winced and said, "But it's just that... business hasn't exactly been booming, ever since your little tenure as Bill's sheriff. And you know I love the fellas you made friends with in the penitentiary, they're all such... colorful characters; but having them hang around does make folks a little wary to drive into the parking lot..."
Volume doubling, Gideon snapped, "Are you saying it's my fault?!"
"No, son, no. You know I'd never." Bud knelt down, and—cautiously, like he was trying to pet a feral cat—put a hand on Gideon's shoulder. "But, well... business is slumping, that's all. We'll be fine as long as we live within our means, don't you worry about that—but our means might not cover luxuries like those fancy suits and fine new boots you like so much, you understand."
Gideon lowered his gaze, tugging self-consciously on the sleeve of his favorite suit jacket. It was already just a little too short to be fashionable; he probably didn't have long until he outgrew it completely.
"Your mother and I are doing all we can," Bud said. "If there's anything you can do... well, you don't have to, of course. But—it'd be a mighty big help."
Gideon grit his teeth, glaring at his feet. (How long until he outgrew all his shoes? He had a growth spurt coming "any day now," he'd been told. The prospect didn't excite him.) He balled his hands into fists; and then muttered, "There... might be one spell I remember... the sigils were pretty simple..."
####
June 2013
Bill could see it in his mind's eye: if he kept pushing and pushing eventually there'd be no more room in two dimensional space for his mother to fill, and then she'd be forced to bend UP, up into the third dimension, all that open free space. Then she'd see the dark, she'd see the far points of light—
"STOP!" His mother howled in pain. He kept pushing. She was out of room. She didn't bend up. He shoved—and she splintered. Bone snapping, cartilage tearing, he could see inside her thin body as things broke and ruptured. He didn't know what to do.
And for several long, long seconds—he couldn't remember what was happening. The world seemed to bend wrong, and he couldn't remember.
At least, he couldn't have remembered a few weeks ago. He hadn't wanted to. But he'd been studying a book on lucid dreaming since then; and the first things it taught was how to remember more of his dreams. And now, he recalled exactly what happened next when he pushed his mother and she splintered and ruptured:
He pushed harder.
Her skin fractured and peeled off, strand after strand. It filled the spaces between his fingertips, wrapped up his arms. He could shut his eye but he still saw it through his eyelid, still felt it tickling at the corners of his mouth. 
"You want me to tell everyone the third dimension's full of dead shapes?! Huh?!" All he could see was blood and bone and peeling skin. "Then why don't you go find them for me!" He let out an angry, hysterical, broken laugh.
Her hand grabbed weakly at his.
He let go and jolted back, gasping—and almost retched. What had he done? He hadn't meant to. But he'd kept pushing—but it was too late by then. It was too late by then, wasn't it?
"What have you done?"
Bill whirled around to face— "Dad?"
The green trapezoid looked as sick as Bill felt, eye darting in horror across the crumpled line in the corner. He couldn't even see most of it from where he was—his eye didn't work like Bill's, he couldn't look through the mess of skin to the gore beneath.
"It was an accident," Bill whispered. (He'd kept pushing.) "It really was, I promise."
His father tore his eye from the corpse to Bill's face. "What are we going to tell your followers?"
Bill looked past his father. Through a wall so thin Bill almost couldn't see it, hundreds upon hundreds of shapes were settled, waiting—to see him. He was sure: somehow, somehow, they could see him too. They knew what he'd done. His life was over.
A thunderous voice boomed, "Whooee, what a fix! Boy, you look like you could use a getaway car, couldn't you?"
Bill blinked. He blinked again. He looked up-but-not-north.
A human in a pink Hawaiian shirt, standing on top of the universe, looked down at him.
Bill said, "What."
"Here, let me just—getcha right—" The human plunged his hand through the second dimension, scooped beneath Bill, and popped him right up off the surface of the universe. "Now, if you'll pardon my saying so, you look like you could use a little help getting somewhere far, far away from here!"
Bill stared at him. "What."
"And I've got just the thing to help you!" the human declared. "Aren't you feeling stuck? Trapped? Just can't take your obligations anymore? Miserable you can't hit the road and see all of—well—" he gestured vaguely out at the flat surface of the universe stretching into the distance "—whatever this is? Then you need to visit your buddy Bud Gleeful—(that's me)—at Gleeful's Auto Sales, the finest used car dealership in Roadkill County! We'll get you a set of wheels that'll carry you on the cross-country police-evading tour of your dreams!" He dropped his voice and murmured to Bill from behind his hand, "Warranty expires at the state line."
"What." Bill looked down at the universe—and was disappointed but not surprised to see he wasn't a triangle anymore, but a human. He looked at Bud again. "Are you advertising to me. Is this an advertisement. Am I getting advertised to in my sleep."
"And if you sign before you leave, we'll throw in a free air freshener," Bud added.
Bill stared at him in horrified amazement. "I am going to kill you," he said. "And then I'm going to wake up and kill you in real life."
"Ah, well. That's a right shame."
####
Bill shot straight up with a roar of rage. "Oh, when I get my hands on...!"
"Whoa. Bad dream?"
Bill whirled around with a murderous glare. Dipper's spirit, ghastly and pale, was hovering in the middle of the attic. Bill snapped, "You're a bad dream!" He scrambled after the spirit.
"Whoa! Hey!" Dipper tried to swoop away from Bill toward the stairs.
Bill caught him by the back of the neck. "You are going back in your bo—bed, you're getting in, and you're not getting back out."
"Ow, let go!" Dipper squirmed in Bill's grip, kicking his feet in the air. "I was just going to turn off the TV! I heard it playing an advertisement, I think that's what put me in... you know." He gestured at himself. "The sleepwalking dream."
Bill hesitated in front of the kids' door. "What advertisement?"
"I don't know, it was too far away to tell. But I know it was an advertisement, it sounded... advertise-y."
"Hmm." Bill considered that. And then he flung Dipper's soul through the door.
"HEY!"
"I'll turn off the TV," Bill said. "Go back to sleep!"
Ugh. Everything ached, his stomach was trying to turn itself inside out in an attempt to escape and go forage for food independently, and the world held a vindictive grudge against Bill personally. He trudged downstairs, muttering crabbily to himself.
He wasn't surprised to discover the TV was off.
####
"I'm conducting a survey," Bill said. "Did you hear any advertisements from the TV last night? Maybe have any dreams that might have been influenced by hearing an ad?"
"Uh..." Soos slowed at the bottom of the stairs as he thought. "Nope. Slept like a baby all night."
"Interesting." He waved at Melody to try to catch her attention. "Hey, how about you?"
"Nope!" Already dressed for work, she hurried from the stairs to the living room without even glancing Bill's way. She tended not to linger when he was nearby. He told himself he was flattered.
"Dude," Soos said, "What happened to your arm?"
Bill looked down. On the underside of his forearm were two thick lines set at an angle, burned so dark brown they were nearly black. "Leaned on the stove after someone used the burner. Oops."
"Do you need...?"
"Don't worry about it, it's already healing." Bill rolled down his hoodie's sleeves as he leaned into the kitchen, "How 'bout you, Stan? Hear any phantom ads last night?"
"Nuh-uh. But I sleep with my hearing aids out," Stan said. "The only things loud and grating enough to wake me are a car horn or your voice."
"Ha!" Bill looked from Stan's side of the table to Ford's—and Ford wasn't facing him, but he was glancing from the corner of his eye toward Bill's arms.
Bill turned away without asking anything. No point. Obviously, Ford had been too far underground to have picked up anything. Bill told himself Ford was seething at getting the cold shoulder.
"What're we talking about?" Mabel asked, coming downstairs with Dipper close behind.
Bill looked at her—and then let his gaze sweep past her with the same cold disinterest he'd favored Ford with. He brushed past her to head upstairs. "Hey, somnambulist." He shoved Dipper's hat down over his eyes as he passed. "TV was off. No one else heard anything. You dreamed your stupid ad."
"Hey." Dipper pulled his hat back up. "Jerk."
Mabel called, "Bill?"
He ignored her and kept walking.
####
"What was that all about?"
Bill was curled up in the attic window seat, flipping covetously through an issue of Gold Chains For Old Men; at the sound of Mabel's irritated voice, he merely said, "Oh, hello." He turned another page. "Here to try to make a fool of me some more?"
She planted her hands on her hips. "Bill, what are you talking about?"
"Tell me about those 'Mysteries' of yours. Did you plan your story any deeper than that? Were you going to arrange for me to catch you with a cloak and dagger just to make me wonder?"
Mabel paused. "Oh." She laughed weakly.
"So how many people were in on it, huh? Was it just you and Stanford, or did you have the whole house laughing at me behind my back?"
"It—it was just us two." She leaned on the wall by Bill's feet. "Um, so... are you actually mad?"
He shot her a venomous look, then lifted his magazine so he couldn't see her any more.
"Come on!" She poked his knee. "It was a harmless prank! And you lie to everyone all the time."
"No I don't."
"You're so sensitive."
"I am not," Bill said indignantly. "I'm proud. I have pride. And lately pride's about the only thing I have going for me. And I didn't think a friend would try to undermine it."
Mabel heaved a sigh. "Okay, all right. Sorry."
Bill lowered his magazine to peer at her skeptically. "Are you really?"
"Well, yeah." She leaned against the window seat. "It was just a joke, I don't wanna hurt your feelings."
He stared her down a moment longer, assessing her sincerity. And then he sat up and pulled her into a hug.
She squawked in surprise, but returned the embrace. "Bill! What—?"
"You're sweet, you know that, star girl?" He gave her one last squeeze and let her go. "When you aren't trying to make me look dumb. But you don't rub salt in the wounds, that's what matters."
"Pfff. I kinda think you'd try to kill me if I did."
"Mmyeah, I might." He wouldn't. Only person in this entire dull rotten world who was willing to apologize for wronging him. He wasn't giving her up easily. "Hey—did you happen to hear any commercials last night? Maybe have any dreams that might've been caused by one?"
"Nope! I had a dream about cats fighting a war against an octopus."
"Oh, that one. Did the octopus win or did the lions show up in time?"
Mabel paused. "It's always creepy when you do that. But the octopus won this time."
"Aww. That poor picturesque beach town."
"I tried to get between the octopus and the town when the cats failed."
"Did you stop it?"
Mabel shrugged. "Dunno. I woke up before it reached me."
"Too bad! But hey—you've been making big progress with your lucid dreaming. You'll get it next time!" No salesmen offering cars as war chariots for the cats, though. It was almost a pity. Bill would've liked to hear about Bud getting eaten by a giant octopus.
"So I guess Dipper was the only one who thought he heard a commercial."
Dipper and Bill. "Guess so."
####
The large, empty floor room, down the main hallway at the far end of the house, was among the few places Bill was allowed to go. Except when the humans had some big event like a dance or a museum exhibit planned, there was nothing in it but a flat old sofa, a fireplace he couldn't turn on, and Soos's electric piano taunting him. In spite of its relative isolation from the rest of the household, Bill rarely had reason to visit it.
But when he wanted space to pace and think, there was no better room.
Last night's advertisement was magic, no doubt. And he suspected he knew the exact spell. The Mystery Shack was way on the outskirts of Gravity Falls; probably nobody else here was affected because they were just out of range of the signal. The only reason Dipper had nearly picked it up was because he didn't have his thick skull in the way when his spirit was out of his body.
But Bill's psychic abilities had been heavily suppressed since he was put in this body. How was he channeling the signal so much more clearly than anyone else?
He thoughtfully ran his tongue over his new golden tooth. "Hmm."
####
Bud entered the Gleeful house flipping through a pile of mail. "Junk, junk, bills, junk... Here's your subscription, honeybunch." He held out an issue of Nervous Wrecks Weekly magazine. His wife paused her cycle of polishing the front window to stiffly take it.
"Junk, coupons... Gideon! You've got a fan letter!" He checked for a stamp indicating the tiny envelope had passed through a state correctional facility. "And it isn't even from the prison, isn't that nice!"
"Coming!" Gideon ran out of his room, snatched the letter from Bud's hand with a little grunt, ran back to his room giggling, and slammed the door.
Bud chuckled. "Joy, sweetie, you remember when that boy got so much fanmail he used to throw it out? These days he's excited for every single letter." The corners of his mouth turned down. "Suppose it's good for him, learning to appreciate the little things."
"Mhm." She looked down at the roses outside the window. She'd need to trim those soon. "I suppose it is."
In his room, Gideon studied the odd envelope. It was tiny—barely large enough for the address and the stamp, no return address—and when he turned it over he discovered lines of text printed on the paper. The flap was tucked carefully into a fold in the envelope that held it tight.
As he pulled out the flap, he realized that the envelope wasn't held together with glue; it was some sort of cleverly-folded origami craft that began to unfold in his hands as he pulled out the flap. The letter was written on the inside of the envelope. "Why—what a delightful little creation!" He sat at his dressing table to focus on unfolding the letter, careful not to damage it so he could re-fold it later.
Once he'd smoothed it out, he could see that the paper was carefully torn from a book. The outside of the envelope was made from the last page of a chapter, with only a few lines of text at the top of the page and the rest left conveniently blank. It talked about telling the difference between waking and dreaming.
He turned the page over to read the letter.
GIDEON–
IT'S ADORABLE THAT YOU'RE USING A DREAM COUNTERFEITING SPELL FOR CAPITALISM! I BET YOUR PARENTS ARE PROUD! HOWEVER, MY FILLINGS ARE PICKING UP AUTO DEALERSHIP ADS ALL NIGHT. IT'S REALLY ANNOYING. CUT IT OUT.
In place of a signature, there was a triangle with an eye.
Gideon's blood ran cold.
He read the letter again, then studied the words themselves. He didn't recognize the tall, thin, crooked handwriting. He flipped over the envelope. No return address. He noticed for the first time that the letter wasn't addressed to "Gideon". It said "STAR BOY". Fan mail. Right.
The postmark was from Gravity Falls.
"It can't be Bill," Gideon muttered to himself. "Bill's dead. It's got to be some prankster with a twisted sense of humor..."
But then, how could some prankster know he was doing dream magic? Did anyone else even know that Bill had called him "Star Boy"?
No. It had to be a prankster. If Bill were alive, he'd be doing much worse than sending letters and complaining about fillings.
He crumpled up the letter and threw it away. His father's business needed Gideon to do whatever he could to help. Gideon's own financial future depended on it. He wasn't about to let some prankster stop him.
####
There was a rumble of several motorcycles and a revving car engine outside the Gleeful house, disturbing the late evening still. Gideon came in the front door wearing a little backpack, waving behind himself as he came in. "Thanks for the ride, Ghost-Eyes! Good talk today! I'll see y'all this weekend for brunch!" He shut the door as the engines receded into the distance.
"Welcome home, son," Bud said from the couch. "How were the ex-convicts this week?"
"Oh, great, just great. Graybeard's daughter is gonna let him meet his grandson and Spiderwebs got a new job."
"Oh, that's wonderful to hear. I know you were real concerned for Spiderwebs."
"I shouldn't have worried! He got work at an alpaca ranch on the other side of town, did you know there's an alpaca ranch 'round here?"
"Can't say I did!"
"I think it's a good fit for him. Being out in nature calms him down."
An uneasy silence fell over the room as they waited a polite amount of time to change the topic. In the kitchen, Joy cleaned the same dish for the third time.
Bud cleared his throat. "Well, uh—you know, it's been a couple of days since we've run a 'nighttime ad.' Do you think it's a good time to...?"
Gideon squeezed his backpack's straps. He could still see that spindly text reading "STAR BOY". "Do you think? I don't want to put 'em too close together, folks might notice..."
Bud grimaced. "It can't hurt. It's been almost two weeks since I sold a car."
Gideon scowled. But he nodded. "Yeah, all right. I'll go set up."
"You know how much your mother and I appreciate it," Bud said. "I'll go heat up dinner."
Gideon went to his room, tossed his backpack on his bed, rolled out the tarp on which he'd drawn the circle and sigils in permanent marker, and set up the candlesticks and candles around the perimeter. His father called him to dinner; they watched an evening talk show; and after a little more dawdling, they figured it was late enough that most folks would be asleep, and went to Gideon's room to get to work.
As Bud awkwardly lowered himself to sit in the circle and Gideon lit the candles, Gideon asked, "Father, do you ever... remember who you talk to? I mean, whose dreams you're in?"
Bud considered that, pursing his lips. "No, can't say I do. It's a bit like I'm dreaming myself," he said. "And it's sort of a jumble of a few hundred dreams, too. Like I'm visiting the whole town at once. All I can recall is a blur!"
Gideon frowned. "I see."
"You sure you don't want to be sitting in the circle this time?" Bud asked. "I'd bet if folks saw you in their dreams telling them to buy a car, why, they'd just rush right down."
These days, Gideon wasn't so sure. Sourly, he said, "I don't want to get involved." He'd gotten enough of starring in his father's car commercials when he was younger. He'd thought he'd escaped that completely when he picked up the telepathy act; he didn't relish the thought of using telepathy to star in another car commercial.
"All right, suit yourself. Just keep it in mind." Bud got as comfortable as he could on the floor and shut his eyes.
Gideon took a deep breath and began chanting: "Dreamers, hear me, from far far away; tonight you'll dream of what I say; dreamers, hear me, from far far away; tonight you'll dream of what I say; dreamers, hear me, from far far away..."
The flames flickered and turned bright blue. A purplish shimmery light surrounded Bud; and as Gideon kept chanting, the light expanded to the edge of the circle and beyond, creeping across the floor, over the bed—
A shrill wail filled the room. They both started, losing their concentration. The wail persisted several seconds before it resolved into a eardrum-bursting roar of words: "HI I'M SCOUT YOUNGER AND I'M IN A PICKLE SO YOU CAN DRIVE FOR A NICKEL! I'VE GOT SO MANY CARS I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO PUT 'EM! SO WE'RE GIVING THEM AWAY FOR FIVE CENTS, THAT'S RIGHT FIVE CENTS! SCOUT YOUNGER, I'M A DEALER BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE—"
"Dagnabbit," Bud shouted, "that's the man undermining my no-barter-for-a-quarter deal and getting all my business! He's halfway to Portland—but darn it, his commercials are so catchy!"
"—THAT'S YOUNGER PATRIOT CARS, ON THE NORTH SIDE OF INTERSTATE—" The commercial was cut off with a clap of thunder that made them both jump again.
And before the dying rumbles of the thunder had fully faded, a second voice spoke—a high-pitched, furious shriek that Gideon hadn't heard in nearly a year but instantly recognized: "SEE HOW YOU LIKE GETTING USED CAR ADS SHOVED DOWN YOUR THROAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, YOU LITTLE TWERP. THIS IS MY FINAL WARNING!"
There was another crack of thunder; and then nothing.
Nothing but a faint, muffled, mechanical whir coming from Gideon's bed.
Slowly, Bud said, "Is that...?"
Gideon looked under his bed; then on top, tugging over his backpack and unzipping it; and he pulled out a still-running cassette tape player. A complicated sigil was painted on top of the player and stretched over the play button, glowing shimmery purple as though it had absorbed the magic from Gideon's spell.
Bud took the tape player, stopped it, rewound a bit, turned down the volume dial, and hit play: "—your throat in the middle of the night, you little—"
He stopped the tape. He and Gideon looked at each other.
Bud said, "Don't tell your mother."
####
"Third lap!" Dipper crowed as his car zoomed over the line on the digital racetrack. "You'd better catch up fast!"
"Aw, c'mon," Mabel groaned. She tilted her body along with her game controller as she steered her car around a tricky curve, as though that would help her go a little faster. "No fair, I'd be winning if you didn't throw a goose at me—"
"Pff, shut up, you always use the goose."
Bill was sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching the fish tank—as far as either Dipper or Mabel could tell, having a staring contest with the axolotl—but without breaking eye contact with the tank, he leaned over to elbow Dipper's knee. "Hey kid. Go left."
"What? No, shut up." Dipper tried to kick Bill's arm away.
"Go left. Trust me, it's a hidden shortcut."
"No! You're not even watching."
"I'm psychic. Go left."
"No." Dipper jerked his car to the right. It drove off the track and landed in quicksand. "Aw, man—"
"YES!" Mabel sailed past him. A fanfare played as she crossed the finish line. "The winner! Woo-woooo!"
Bill beamed as Dipper glared at the side of his face.
Somebody knocked on the door—and kept knocking, frantically hammering for attention. Dipper and Mabel looked over.
Bill glanced over, rolled his eyes, said, "You don't want to answer that," and looked back at the fish tank.
Dipper glared at him again, stood, and went to answer the door, Mabel close behind. "Hel— Gideon?"
"Told you," Bill muttered.
Gideon was sweating, panting, and wild-eyed with panic. "Mabel! Dipper!" He paused to give Mabel a sweet smile. "Hi Mabel~♡" And straight back to panic. "We've got a problem! I know y'all don't want me 'round here, but—but this is an emergency!"
Dipper glanced at Mabel. She sighed, but reluctantly stepped back to let Gideon in. "All right. What is it?"
"I know I sound insane, but—but you have to trust me," Gideon said. "I don't know how, and I don't know why, but Bill Cipher's back! I'm sure it's Bill, it can't be anyone else, he... he knows things only somebody with his powers could know!" He paced anxiously in front of the twins, "He's been sending me threatening mail and harassing me and—and I don't know what he's up to, but we've got to find him and stop him! You've gotta help me!" He grabbed Dipper's arms. "I think he might be trying to kill my family!"
Dipper and Mabel turned to glare at Bill.
He was determinedly studying the fish tank.
"Hey, Goldie," Dipper snapped.
Bill glanced over with an expression of mild interest. "Hm?"
"Gideon here says that Bill's been harassing him," Dipper said. "What do you think about that."
"Oh wow," Bill said, extremely unconvincingly. "That's so crazy. I can't even believe it."
Gideon's anxious gaze darted past Dipper and Mabel. "Who's...?" He thought he remembered seeing that stranger around Wendy.
Dipper stepped between their line of sight. "Thanks, Gideon. We'll handle this... problem."
The stranger got to his feet and sauntered to the entryway. "Hey Gideon. Just out of curiosity, what were y—"
Mabel cut in, "Bye, Gideon!" She tried to push him toward the door. "We'll see you later!"
The stranger leaned over Gideon, planting a hand on the doorframe. "—what were you doing that got on Bill's nerves so much, I wonder—"
"Shhh!" Mabel tried to push Bill away.
Had Gideon not heard the voice so recently, he might not have noticed anything odd about the stranger in front of him. But as it was, a chill instantly ran up his spine. He slowly looked up. The menacing smile was unfamiliar, but the eye... something was wrong with that eye. The longer he stared into it, the more he could see the cruel, mad, golden inhumanity.
Gideon squealed in terror and bolted out the door. 
Dipper squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. "Seriously?"
Mabel chased after him. "Gideon! Gideon wait!" She caught up with him rounding in front of the gift shop and had to tackle him into the dirt.
"Get offa me! You're working for him, you traitor—"
"Gideon, listen! We're not working for him, he's our prisoner!"
"Oh." Gideon stopped struggling. "Well, that's a different kettle of corn, isn't it."
Mabel sighed in relief. She backed off Gideon, but had to hold his ankle to make sure he wouldn't bolt again. "Okay, look. We don't know how, but Bill's stuck in a human body, and he's got no powers."
"How do y'all know he isn't faking it?"
"Because he tried to kill us and we beat him up." She winced. "We've... kind of beat him up a lot."
Gideon nodded. "O... okay."
"But you can't tell anybody," Mabel said. "If there's an angry mob or something and he gets executed, the real Bill might hatch from his body like an egg and he'll take over the town again!"
Gideon shuddered. He could almost still feel ache in his legs and the blisters on his feet under the adorable sparkly pink shoes.
"So he's fine here with us. We've got everything under control, he's not dangerous like this—" Mabel turned around to shout, "—and HE SHOULDN'T BE SENDING THREATENING LETTERS, BILL."
Bill's voice drifted from around the corner of the house: "YOU CAN'T PROVE ANYTHING!"
Dipper said, "What did Gideon do to warrant that, anyway?"
Bill glowered into the distance. "He knows what he did."
"Okay, I-I won't tell anyone. I promise." Pitifully, Gideon asked, "Can I go home now?"
"Yeah, you can go home now." Mabel let him go. He got up and ran as fast as his little legs would carry him.
####
They reconvened in the living room. Dipper and Mabel stood in front of Bill, glaring. Bill sat on the sofa, smiling innocently.
"Bill," Mabel said. "You should be ashamed of yourself."
"Oh, yeah?" Lots of people thought he should be ashamed of himself, but not many had the guts to say so.
"Bullying Gideon like that!"
"I have an excuse," Bill said. "I've been crabby this week. Body made me crabby. Some kind of human neurotransmitter imbalance. I didn't sign up to have neurotransmitters, it's completely out of my hands."
"That's not an excuse," Dipper said.
"Plus, you're an entire adult thing!" Mabel said. "You're picking on a little kid! He's like, eleven!"
"So? There's not a lot of difference between eleven and a hundred eleven when you're a million million years old."
"Then maybe you're too old to bully anybody."
Bill blinked in mild surprise. "Huh."
Dipper said, "Plus, you're gonna blow your cover and get everyone in trouble!"
Bill shrugged. "He can't prove anything! Anyone could have sent a letter pretending to be me."
Mabel asked, "How did you send a letter, anyway?"
####
"Hey, Soos," Mabel yelled, "Can you send a letter for me?"
"Sure thing, hambone! Just stick it on the pile in the kitchen."
Mabel licked a stamp, haphazardly slapped it on the envelope to her parents, tossed it on the other mail, and ran back upstairs.
Bill crept into the kitchen, peeled the stamp off Mabel's envelope before it dried, stuck it on his tiny origami letter, and stuffed them both into the middle of the mail pile. "Sorry, kid," he muttered. "You'll just have to resend this one."
####
"I have my ways," Bill said.
"And how did you 'harass' Gideon?" Dipper asked. "What could you possibly do from in here to harass him?"
####
Bill sat on the sofa in the floor room with Mabel's boombox radio on the floor, a cassette tape player/recorder he'd salvaged from the museum held up to the speaker with his thumb hovering over the record button, his other hand hovering over the key with the thunder sound effect on Soos's keyboard, an air horn between his knees, and a nearly-dead marker he'd fished out of Mabel's trash and revitalized with rubbing alcohol waiting next to him for drawing a magic-activated sigil. He glared at the boombox as the local radio station played an advertisement for air conditioning installation. "Come on," he muttered at the boombox. "Play the stupid car commercial."
The next ad started. "Bargain alert, bargain alert! I've got more used cars than I know what to do with! Hi, I'm Scout—"
"Yes," Bill hissed. He hit the record button, squeezed the air horn between his knees, held the tape recorder up to the boombox until the end of the commercial, kicked the boombox's power button, quickly held the tape recorder up to the piano, and triumphantly hit the key that produced the sound of a flushing toilet.
"NO!" He kicked the electric piano's leg, flung the tape recorder to the other end of the sofa, and flopped face down on the cushions. After permitting himself a moment of grief at the injustice of it all, he dragged over the tape recorder, stopped it, rewound it back to the start, hit the lightning key several times to make sure he had it, and then set up again to wait for the next time the car commercial played.
####
"Hey Wendy, could you get this door for me?"
Wendy gave Bill a puzzled look. "That's the wrong hallway. Rainbow Club's down that one." She pointed at the door across the room.
"I know, I'm just looking for the restroom! I need to dooo... girl hygiene things?"
Wendy looked at the tape player-shaped lump under Bill's shirt, looked at his face, and raised her brow.
"Okay, okay. I'm gonna prank Lil Gideon."
Wendy opened the door, leaned through, and opened a second door to a coat closet. "Good luck. We're all counting on you."
Bill saluted her, and rummaged through the leather biker jackets in search of Gideon's little backpack.
####
"You've got no idea what kind of dark powers I still have at my disposal," Bill boasted, leaning back and lacing his hands behind his head.
Dipper turned to Mabel. "Yeah, he's got nothing. He probably bribed a tourist to call Gideon's house or something."
Bill scowled, but didn't dignify Dipper with a response. "Anyway, the game's over now that Gideon knows where I am. I won't do it again."
Dipper scoffed. "Yeah, sure. Why should we trust you?"
"Because," Bill said calmly, "if I do it again, you'll have to tell your uncles, and I'll be in serious trouble. So I won't... and therefore, you won't. Right?"
Dipper frowned, but looked at Mabel. Mabel was considering Bill with her hands on her hips. She prompted, "Aaand...?"
It took Bill a moment to figure out what she was aiming for. "And I've realized I was mean and I'm very remorseful for my hurtful actions."
Mabel pointed at him. "That's what I wanna hear!" She looked at Dipper. "I think we can let him off with a warning."
Dipper shook his head in resignation.
Mabel said, "But you're not stopping there, Bill."
"How's that?"
"Come on, man, think!" She poked her finger against her temple. "You know the answer! We just watched this episode yesterday!"
"Episode?" Dipper asked.
"I've been using Color Critters to teach him social skills."
Bill said, "I have social skills, all you're doing is showing me what'll be on the test."
"That's how learning works, dummy! I wanna hear you regurgitate that textbook answer!"
Bill opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue, and pantomimed sticking his finger down his throat and gagging; but then he said, with a blatantly artificial chipper tone, "'If we hurt our friends, we should try to find a way to make it up to them and make sure it can't happen again.'" 
"That's right! 98 points! I'm taking two off for attitude."
"So how do you expect me to make it up to him? I can't exactly un-send him a letter. Unless you're gonna loan me that time tape—"
"Stop asking for the time tape," Dipper said, "it'll never happen."
Bill shrugged. "Then what do you suggest."
"Figure it out yourself," Mabel said. "You're the one who's gotta make it up to Gideon, not us."
Bill rolled his eye. "Is this part of the terms to buy your silence?"
"Yeah, it is."
"All right, fine." Bill sighed and stood up. "Give me a bit to brainstorm. I'll be upstairs." He meandered out of the room.
Mabel called after him, "You better not think you're wiggling out of this!"
"Relax! I won't disappoint you, Shooting Star. Promise."
Once he was out of earshot, Dipper turned to Mabel. "How do you expect him to make it up to Gideon?"
"He should say 'sorry.'"
Dipper nodded. Okay, sure, that sounded reasonable. "How long do you think it'll take for him to think of apologizing?"
"I'd give it a couple of hours."
####
(If you recognize the dealership being parodied, we now share a warrior's bond. Anyway hope y'all enjoyed, I've been looking forward to introducing Gideon for a long time! As always, I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts and comments on the chapter!)
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meggtheegg · 11 months
Text
FNAF Movie Theory...
I'm pretty sure there's still one major plot twist in the universe of the movie that's been set up for a sequel but hasn't actually happened yet. Heavy spoilers under the cut:
After watching the movie in theaters and then revisiting a few scenes on Peacock, I'm still kind of convinced that Mike Schmidt is Michael Afton.
Here's my reasoning. A lot of the characters spend time acting like they know something the audience/other characters don't, and those things are...mostly resolved. But some of them just...kind of aren't.
The main thing that sticks out to me is William's whole storyline. Starting with the scene where he offers Mike the job, his behavior is almost explained by the movie's logic. He sees Mike's name, seems...kind of deeply upset, looks at him very closely, stands to get coffee, and has a moment of visible internal conflict. Then he instantly offers him the Freddy's job. The way the movie frames this, it seems to be saying that he recognized the name of one of his victims, realized this was the kid's brother, and decided to kill him right then and there. Which is passable as an explanation, but it has a lot of holes, if you look deeper.
Why would William so instantly recognize a fairly common last name as the brother of some kid he killed that wasn't even anywhere near Freddy's? Why did he kidnap/kill Garrett in the first place, in some random forest in Nebraska? Why did he see the name on the file, then immediately stop and examine Mike's face so closely, when Mike's memories/dreams pretty clearly show that they never saw each others' faces when Garrett was taken? Why did he send Vanessa to "keep Mike in the dark" if he purposely gave him the job to get him killed? Why not have the animatronics kill him right away? He didn't know that Mike was searching for the man who took his brother, and while he could have maybe guessed he was still actively haunted by what happened based on Mike beating up a guy that he thought was kidnapping someone, it still feels like a weird choice to go and hire him, then just have him do the job with no issue for a few days.
As for Vanessa, we see that she's been cleaning up William's messes for years. Why is Mike the one she changes her mind and stands up to her father for? There's no implied romance between the two and no particularly meaningful connection beyond them both having family issues. I guess she cares about Abby because she's a kid, but kids getting hurt clearly never stopped her from helping her father before.
And, on a more meta level, this is Scott and his storytelling style we're talking about. The man puts plot twists inside of plot twists and everything always ties back into the Aftons, somehow.
So, here's my theory: I think that Mike is William's kid, but Mike's mom left Afton when he was young and remarried the man that Mike thinks is his father.
It seems convoluted and maybe cliche, but if it's true, then suddenly there's an answer to all of those questions. "Michael Schmidt" isn't exactly an eye-catching name, unless you had a kid named Michael and your ex-wife married a guy with the last name Schmidt. Garrett's kidnapping, then, becomes an act of intentional, petty revenge rather than an extremely random coincidence. Giving Mike the job and sending in Vanessa suddenly becomes about piecing together how much he knows and figuring out if he's worth trying to reconnect with or is just a threat that needs to be killed. (It feels worth noting that William is as far as I can remember the only person to call him Michael in the whole film. He also very pointedly never says "Schmidt" until he's decided to kill Mike and suddenly announces his full name out loud. If he went by Michael as a little kid, that is what William would default to calling him, but if he took the new husband's last name, that would be like like salt in the wound that he wouldn't want to voice. By finally saying it out loud, it feels like he's making the decision to fully separate himself from Mike.)
As for Vanessa, if Mike is her brother, it makes sense that he would be the person she'd turn against William to save. It would be weird for her not to tell him, but she could also be trying to protect him, in some way. There's never any mention of her mother, and it seems like it's just been her and William for a long time. Also, ending the movie with her in a coma feels like a strange narrative choice, but it makes sense if she knows information that's purposely being kept hidden for the sequel.
Of course, it could just be that the movie has kind of messy writing and I'm trying to fix it because I want there to be a deeper reason for it. Maybe there is no Michael Afton in the movies, or maybe he's off chilling and doing his own thing somewhere and we'll see him in the sequel. Only time will tell.
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bigglywiggly · 14 days
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The day had finally come, you were finally going to meet the girl of your dreams, in person! Her name was Honey, she was a beauty streamer you had been watching for ages. Try-on hauls, pool streams, workout videos, all of it, you'd been here number 1 fan since day 1, donating thousands of dollars over the years to fund her lavish lifestyle, sending skimpy clothes and outfits for her to try on during her streams. To say you were smitten was an understatement. You would've done anything for even a minute with her, and luckily, that day had finally come.
One day, as you're tuning in to her stream, she posts a link on her page for "boyfriend applications." She wants to let her fans submit credentials and headshots for a chance to get more intimate with her, in a more personal way. You were astounded by this and instantly clicked the link and submitted an application. Seemed like pretty basic questions: height, weight, income, a headshot, basic things to understand the attractiveness and practicality of a person she deemed dateable. After filling it out to the best of your ability, you sent it in, a flutter and a hope in your chest. After, you tuned into the rest of the stream for the night.
The next week didn't go by quickly. Every day, you would sign in, check your inbox, emails, in hopes to see a response. As the end of the week neared, you lost all hope until you heard that melodious ding on your phone. At the top of your mailbox, you saw a new, unread email from who else, but Honey.
"Wow, you're super cute! I'd love to get to know you better, we should totally meet up!"
You almost dropped your phone, the air left your lungs and you were astounded, you punched and kicked yourself to make sure you weren't dreaming.
Nope. This was real. This was happening.
After that, time flew by to this very day. You had hopped aboard a plane, flew across the country, took an Uber to her house and were now standing on her doorstep. The reality of it all was finally hitting you. What if this was a scam? You'd heard about these fake streamers that lure unsuspecting fans out to these abandoned homes and robbed them, leaving them with nothing. This surely wasn't one of those times, right? Maybe you should text someone to let them know where you were? No, there's no way your parents would understand, and your friends would just mock you for being some sort of pathetic weirdo. You'd gotten this far, you were gonna see it through.
You walked up to the door, with a pit in your stomach, and shaking, reached up to press the doorbell.
*RING*
Silence. You sat there for a few seconds, but nobody showed. Was this all fake? You went to ring again, out of hope, when you heard footsteps from behind the door. Fairly heavy footsteps. You could almost feel it, and...were the sidelights shaking? Must've been your imagination. 3 more thuds and you heard the lock click. Then another lock. 3 locks? That seemed odd, but who knows, she's pretty famous, can't have enough security right? The door swung open, and the first thing you saw made your jaw drop.
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"Hey cutie~!"
You looked up and there she was. As stunning as the day you first tuned into her stream. Face first with the most incredible curves you'd ever seen, if you weren't so entranced with her body, you may have also picked up on the sheer height of her. You weren't short by any means, you stood at a comfortable 5'11, but this woman was something else. As she filled the door frame, you were face to face with a trench of cleavage that could strangle an elephant.
"Nice to meet ya, I'm Honey! I see you've met the rest of me already! *Giggle*
You blushed, quickly snapping your head up to meet her gaze. As you locked eyes with her, it was like the whole world vanished. Pale, blue swimming pools stared straight into your soul, piercing through you.
"Umm..sorry. Yeah, hi, ma'am, I'm-"
"Oh sweetie, I know who you are! And what's with the ma'am? It's Honey!"
She playfully pushed your shoulder, slightly for her, but you felt there was some gusto as it almost made you step back.
"Well come on in! No use standing outside gabbin!"
She stepped to the side and gestured you in, you carefully stepped into the house, walking light footed as if you needed to be delicate or careful, like what you were doing was lascivious.
"Take your shoes off, make yourself comfortable!"
She spoke behind you, closing the door and doing up the 3 locks.
"I don't often get visitors here, so apologies if the place is a bit messy!"
As you walked into the house, something already felt odd. Like there was a chill in here of sorts, but you figured it was just from standing with the door open so long. You heard her thuds from behind and she walked past you, beckoning you to follow her into the main area. Following her, you started to take in your surroundings. Pictures on the wall of just Honey, all above your head though, if she lives alone it makes sense though, but to only have pictures of yourself up seemed a bit odd, no?
Stepping into the main area, you encountered another odd feeling as you took it all in. The furniture was surprisingly tall, taller than you'd seen. The couch looked like it came up to your waist. Stools at the kitchen counter were almost shoulder height to you. Had she custom ordered all this furniture? Some of it almost seemed even too tall for her?
"I see you noticed the furniture, don't worry, I'm still growing into it myself!"
Growing into it? What was that supposed to mean? Maybe just a figure of speech? You pondered this as you saw her walk over to the couch and plop down. She shot you a glance and patted the cushion next to her.
"Come sit! We should get to know each other better, this is our first time after all."
You awkwardly smiled back at her as you walked over to the couch. As you got closer to the furniture, your observations weren't unfounded, this couch was truly massive. Her sitting on it made it look like a normal sized piece of upholstery, but next to you, it made you feel like a kid again.
"Sorry, couch is a little high, I gotcha though!"
"What do you-?"
No sooner did the words come out as she put two hands under your arms and lifted you up, with ease, and plopped you down on the cushion beside her.
"Wow, you feel a lot lighter than you listed on your application! Granted, maybe this growing girl just doesn't know her own strength yet!"
Growing girl? Twice now she's referenced growing and still it made no sense. This girl was already massive and clearly approaching 30, how in the world was she growing?
"So, before we start, I wanted to thank you. I've noticed you in my streams for the last couple years. I see the donations you send and the clothes you ask me to try on. No doubt these gals have caught your eye." She shimmied her shoulders and gestured to the heaving shelf of breast hanging from her torso.
"I appreciate the clothes a lot, it's never easy covering these puppies up, believe you me. I swear, they eat up whatever I cover myself with and then some."
You blushed, she was clearly very comfortable in her skin, I mean hell, she shows herself off online for millions of people to see, why were you surprised. You kept darting glances down to her chest as she spoke. God they were huge, unrealistically so. How could something so massive come into being? Something so warm and inviting yet erotic and arousing all at the same time.
"Ahem. Did you hear anything I just said?"
"What? Sorry, I was jus-"
*Giggle*
"I'm just messing with ya! You clearly are having a little trouble paying attention, almost like somethings...caught your attention?"
She slowly rose from the couch and crawled towards you. Her heaving chest swinging from even the slightest motion as she closed the distance between you. The closer she got, the more of your vision was obscured by that inviting trench in front of you. God what you wouldn't have given to dive right in there.
"Ya know...these girls really have a mind of their own sometimes...they get hungry, and when that happens, there isn't much I can do to calm em down. They just keep growing, year after year, bigger and bigger as time passes."
Inches from your face now, you can smell the sweat from her skin as her cleavage floods your vision. Swinging, back and forth, pendulously in your face, they're all you can see.
"Would you like to...see them get even bigger?"
Oh god. You're on the brink, you feel your faculties leaving you, almost as if you're regressing to a more animalistic state. You need to touch them, feel them, taste them, you need to be between them now. In an instant you throw up your hands on either side and dive face first into that canyon.
*Giggle* "You're not one to mince words, are ya? Just going headfirst, well don't let me stop ya, explore to your heart's content."
You mash your face in between them, pressing down on either side, burying your face more and more. The more you explore these mighty breasts of hers, the more you seem to lose yourself, the less the world around you seems to matter. Squeezing, smushing, licking, this has become your world now.
"There's a good boy, you really know how to make a girl feel good..."
Her voice invades your mind and almost snaps you out of your trance, you start to notice little changes. When were you on her lap? Was she always caressing your back? Wow, these breasts truly are enormous, it's incredible how your hands just...sink into them like pudding. It's almost like...the longer you caress and squeeze, the bigger they get...
As these thoughts flood in, you notice that you're struggling to breathe a little. You haven't come up for air in a while. You try to pry the breasts back a little bit to let yourself some air but...they won't budge? In fact, they feel so heavy, you're hardly even squishing into them anymore. You place your hands on the front of her breasts and start pulling back, trying to pry your head free, until you finally released yourself with an audible *POP* and tumble backwards.
The world all slowly comes back into view, your surroundings start to become more clear, but something's off now. You start to pull yourself up to stand, but feel the couch beneath your feet? Your senses start to come back rapidly as you see you're standing on the couch, but the back of the couch is towering over you. You gulp, shocked and start to panic.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"Shhh, sweetie, relax."
You hear her low, sultry voice as you look back on her and almost fall back by what you see. There she is, on the far side of the couch, vastly looming over you. From your vantage point, she must be at least 35ft tall.
"What's going on?! What did you do to me?!"
"Aww, baby, can't you tell yet?"
She reaches out to you, you quiver as you see her gigantic hand approaching you, each finger bigger than a summer sausage. You try to push her hand away, but to no avail, she's far, far stronger than you. She wraps her fingers around your torso, lifts you up and carries you over to her face.
"Sweet pee, I wish you could see how cute you are right now. You're like a little bitty toy. You've done so much for me already, I wanted to thank you. You've really made an excellent donation."
"Donation?? What do you mean? Why am I so small? Change me back!!"
"Oh hon, I wish I could but your size is going to somewhere much greater. Just watch."
You see her bite her lip as the changes slowly take effect. You hear a subtle groaning as you witness her transform before your very eyes. You first notice the fingers holding you in place start to thicken, covering more and more of your torso. Then you see her thighs slowly plumpen, growing thicker and lusher. Then you notice the biggest part: her chest. Each breast begins to balloon, almost as if inflating, growing outwards and upwards, you can hear her bra beginning to creak and snap under her newfound weight. Her tank top straps strain and spaghetti before snapping and falling limply down her torso.
By the time it's all done, you see her take a deep breath as the tatters of her old outfit start to slip away.
"Wow, that was the best one yet! I just knew you'd be my biggest supporter. Apologies for these old rags though" as she gestures to her clothes, "allow me to slip into something more...fitting."
In a flash, you see the clothes on her body begin to morph, a black tank slowly forms from her old rags and lines up to hoist up her immensely enhanced bust. The straps, incredibly thin, squish down into her soft, pliable flesh.
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"There, that looks better on me, dontcha think?"
"What the hell is going on?? How are you doing this? Why are you doing this?!"
She lets out an exasperated sigh.
"Hon, how do you think I got like this in the first place? How do you think I got this incredible body that lead to all these followers and all this fame? Donations of course! The sweet, perverted masses like yourself that so kindly add to, well, these masses!" She says as she honks her left breast, it's girth pouring out between her fingers.
"But, why? You don't even know me! I loved you and your content, I was happy to make those donations if they made you happy!"
"Hon, you and I both know why you made donations to begin with. You haven't been able to look at anything else since you got here, that's why you came here in the first place. You don't care about me as a person, you care about this body. Well, now you've made a contribution to the maintaining and improving of this body! You're almost there!"
You feel a sinking feeling in your chest as you swallow deeply.
"Almost?"
She flashes you a devious grin.
"Of course, hon." She speaks in a deep, sultry tone. "There's still so much of you left."
Your eyes open wide as you start kicking and flailing in her grasp, doing anything you can to get away from this monster, but to no avail.
She lets out a low, echoing chuckle, "You'll have to try harder than that, hon! I can hardly feel your weight, let alone your struggles! And as much as I LOVE watching your little flailings, Mama's got a stream to do tonight, so."
And with that, she slowly brings you closer to her chest, dangling you above the gully that is her cleavage, and flashes you one last smile.
"Thanks for the donation, hon!"
With that, she stuffs you down between her breasts, deep, deep down, almost as if into the core of some desolate planet. As she reaches the centre, she releases her grip on you and retracts her hand. What little light you see from above vanishes as her hand leaves your prison and the crushing weight of her bust surrounds you. You try to move, try to kick, punch, scream, bite, anything, to no avail. You feel a vibration echo around you, clearly she's laughing at your struggles. The pounding of her heart starts to fill your ears, it's low, resonating rumble almost calming you as you miserably accept your fate. You close your eyes, awaiting the inevitable.
-Hours later-
You slowly awaken, hot and sweaty, a dry scratchy feeling in your throat, no doubt from your screaming. You're not sure where you are though, your eyes are hazy and struggling to adjust to the darkness, but you see a small sliver of a silvery haze far, far, far above you. Moonlight? You reach out for it, only to feel a warm, moist mass beside you. What is this? It almost feels like-
Your heart starts racing. You start to panic and snap your head around to acquaint yourself with your surroundings, until you hear a loud, roaring rumble echo around you. A snore. You find yourself plastered to the side of her breast, deep within her bosom, the sliver of light a small amount of moonlight peaking into her cleavage. You try to yell out, but you're still hoarse. You can hardly move your limbs as you try to scratch her breast. You feel a sudden movement as you think you've gotten her attention. Your hopes are instantly crushed as the light vanishes and you start to feel the weight of her other tit come crushing down on you. Your incredibly mild annoyance only caused her to roll over in her sleep, crushing you further down as the goddess around you rests. All that's left to hear is the subtle beat of her heart all around you.
You close your eyes and let out a single tear as you accept your fate, the irony of the situation finally settling in.
You always wanted to contribute to those beautiful breasts, and now, you finally have.
166 notes · View notes
jayflrt · 4 months
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𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝟕𝟖𝟔 39. we can't do this
content warnings: so much pining and yearning and praise and some thigh riding (wow!)
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ONCE CHAEWON HAD LEFT THE ROOM, YOU HEARD A KNOCK AT YOUR DOOR WITHIN MINUTES.
Your heart all but jumped in your chest. It had to be him, and even though you were the one who asked him to come over, you were still nervous to see Jay.
You figured that after your little interaction with him on the airplane, something would eventually happen. After all, you two were in Europe and spent all this time together. There was clear tension between you two, and you had been patiently waiting for it to break all weekend.
It was never this hard; you were fairly confident when it came down to getting a guy's attention. All you had to do was get a little closer and smile a little bigger around them.
But Jay? You felt like you were losing your mind. Not only did he avoid eye contact with you all day, but you found it next to impossible to even talk to him properly. First, it was because he kept running away before you could strike up a conversation, then it was because he made you so flustered that your mouth went dry whenever you wanted to talk.
You thought being featured on his Instagram story was a feat to be celebrated, but that fizzled out as soon as Jay went back to talking to everyone but you.
When you opened the door, he looked as confused as you were with his eyebrows narrowed and his expression stony.
"Hey, what's up?" he greeted, his eyes doing a quick sweep of the room. He was always so observant around you, and why would he be if he didn't reciprocate your feelings? "Are you okay?"
You opened the door wider to let him in before closing it. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just wanted to see you."
"We could've just gone out for drinks together."
"No, alone," you insisted, sitting down at the edge of your bed and looking up at him. "I wanted us to be alone."
You noticed him swallow thickly before he asked, "Why?"
"I just..." You hesitated before continuing, "I just wanted to make sure that what happened on the plane was real."
He looked more puzzled, if that was even possible. For a second, his reaction made you wonder if you had dreamed about the entire encounter. It was plausible, considering the whole thing felt like a fantasy that ended far too soon.
Jay took a seat next to you and placed his hands on his thighs, staring ahead at the wall as he tried to piece together what you were getting at.
"You mean... Shrek."
So you weren't hallucinating. Never did you think you would feel so much relief over hearing the name Shrek.
"What happened during Shrek, I mean."
"Oh, like—"
"When you had your hands on me," you said gently, taking his hand and placing it right where he had it earlier. The familiar warmth put you at ease while causing a flush of heat to rush to your cheeks simultaneously. Jay didn't move his hand, but he looked down at it and stilled. "Like this."
"What're you—"
"Is this okay?"
It took him a few moments to process that you were fully on top of him, but, eventually, Jay nodded slowly. "Yeah, you're good."
Neither of you said anything for a while, and the seconds felt so unbearably long that you spoke up first, asking, "I'm not going crazy, right? I just thought maybe we feel the same way."
He did that nervous habit of his again where he swallowed hard instead of answering, so you pressed on, "You told me to sit on your lap." You maintained eye contact with Jay as you moved to straddle him, sitting closer to his knees without much care for how your skirt rode up. Keeping your voice as steady as possible, you took his hands and placed them on your thighs again, murmuring, "And then you did this."
He breathed out, "Yeah, I just—"
"But you ignored me all day," you cut across him, and although you felt bad for interjecting so much, the flush of pink across Jay's cheeks was too endearing for you to stop. "I felt like I was invisible to you."
You knew he wanted you, too; it was the longing in his eyes, the way his grip tightened around your thighs, and the way he hung onto every word of yours as if it was the last sound he was hearing. It was unmistakeable, but why did he keep pulling away whenever you toed closer?
"You're not," he said sincerely, gazing into your eyes with an unrivaled intensity. "You're not, I swear. I wasn't... trying to ignore you or anything." For a moment, he stopped talking and just looked down at where you were sitting on top of him. "Actually, I felt like I couldn't stay away from you until I let Heeseung drag me away."
"Really?"
A little hopeful tug of your heart made each concern of yours peel away one-by-one.
"It'd be"—he shook his head in a decidedly frantic manner, all the while keeping his gaze locked with yours—"absolutely impossible to ignore you."
Everything you felt for him, everything you felt in this moment, it all festered and billowed around you until you couldn't keep it under the surface anymore. Your confession had been hanging on your lips for days, and it was somehow easier than breathing to let it slip.
You bit back a small smile. "I like you, Jay."
You couldn't understand why his face crumbled as soon as you said those four words, why the longing in his eyes felt like an endless pit you could drown in. Was it possible that you were misreading the situation? How could that be the case when it looked like his feelings for you were overwhelming him?
His steady breaths grew shallow. "We can't do this, Y/N."
"Why not?"
"You're... you're so... I can't." The desperation that clung to his syllables made his frustration clear.
You frowned. "I'm what?"
"You're perfect. I can't"—he shook his head again—"I just can't give you what you want, or I'll end up giving you all of me, and that can't happen." He leaned forward a little to let his head hang, and you were certain it was to avoid looking you in the eye. "I want you to be happy. I want you to find someone who treats you right."
"You're saying you won't?"
"I can't," he whispered, agonized. He stammered a few times before starting, "Hoon—he'd definitely be upset about this."
By the way he hardly elaborated, you figured there was more reasoning that he simply didn't want to share yet, but you could still understand why Jay was cautious because of Sunghoon. Not only had you two broken up around three months ago, but now Jay was close with your ex-boyfriend. Part of you felt a little worried about how starting something with Jay would affect the group dynamic, too, but you knew that pretending like nothing was going on would make you feel worse.
You slid up further onto his lap, hooking your arms around his shoulders. Jay drew in a sharp breath by your sudden action, but he squeezed your thighs all the same. The flutters in your stomach from before had now become arousal pooling between your legs. You pressed your lips together and looked up at him again; hunger dawned in his eyes, and you could almost feel the way he was ravaging you with a single look.
"We could keep it a secret," you offered shyly.
"I'm sorry, it's impossible," he replied, sighing. His voice was hardly loud enough for you to hear. "I'm so sorry."
You couldn't help your emotions from pouring out when you squeaked out, "Am I really that bad?"
"No—no, never." He nearly shouted the words, his eyes burning with wicked desire. "I just promised myself I wouldn't do anything to you."
"But why?"
"You deserve better, Y/N. I won't let myself ruin you."
You hated hearing that phrase. Despite the pleasant goosebumps that prickled your skin at the thought of him ruining you, you couldn't understand why Jay thought so lowly of himself. He wasn't supposed to decide whether he was better for you or not, and you wished he could see himself the way you saw him���someone who gathered and fixed all of the stars in your sky.
"But I want you to ruin—oh." Your breath hitched upon the jolt of pleasure that left heat blooming under your skin. Whether intentional or unintentional, Jay had gripped your thighs so hard that he ended up pulling you up higher onto his legs, and the friction against your cunt left you needing more. "Jay, you—"
"Don't say that," he warned sternly, and when you looked up at him again, he looked as though he was fighting an addiction that he hadn't quite slipped into yet. And then his expression was pained, and how mad he was for you was as clear as day. "I've forced myself to stay away from you every single day, and my emotions always betray me. Just let me have this, at least. Let me stop feeling like I'm out of my mind."
And then his eyes softened, and he brushed away a loose strand of your hair. "If my circumstances were different, I'd have agreed in a heartbeat."
His words should have made your heart swell (and they did, to an extent), but you felt a strange sadness lingering in your chest. It didn't seem like he was going to elaborate on his reasoning, but you felt indubitably unfulfilled. You didn't understand, and he wouldn't let you understand.
Perhaps it was the fact that you had never been turned down like this, or you couldn't fathom getting this far and still being pushed away, or a rather unfortunate combination of both, but you couldn't stop yourself from tearing up. Even though he had been so, so kind, his words were like a dagger in your gut.
"It's okay," you warbled out, and before you could furiously wipe at the stray tear streaming down your cheek, Jay got to it first with a gentle, steady thumb. "I kind of expected it."
This time, he frowned. "You did? Why?"
"This is the first time I've liked someone like this... tried for them, you know. It's just hard for me to believe that you'd ever want me the way I want you."
Your words seemed to ignite something in Jay for the gentle flicker in his eyes was replaced with a blazing fire that only burned hotter when his eyes narrowed to slits. Your breath was caught in your throat when you felt the pads of his fingers press into your skin with a bruising grip.
The way he looked at you made you feel like you had burst into flames, too.
You weren't sure how long Jay had harbored such feelings for you, but they all came out at once in a fury. It was as if he pushed it deep inside, allowed it to simmer for months before it grew too wild to be contained. It was only a matter of time before everything came up to the surface, and now, it was on display.
"You think I don't want you?" He nearly barked out a laugh, disbelief thick in his voice. He let his head drop onto your shoulder, breathing out a few more baffled laughs before you felt his hot breath fan your skin. "You have no idea what you do to me. God, Y/N, you consume my every thought—day and night." When he raised his head again, there was a piercing intensity in his dark eyes. "I punched Hoon for you. I punched him 'cause he hurt you." He closed his eyes and sucked in a sharp breath that seemed to shake his entire body. "I'm not a violent person by any means. I just couldn't stand hearing how he treated you."
Your lower lip was caught between your teeth. You could hardly believe you were hearing his unfiltered emotions like this, but you didn't want him to stop. You were only afraid that he would snap out of it soon and push you away again, so the least you could do was tell him a secret of your own.
"I have something to admit, too," you started. "Back in Seattle, I might have lied about the hotel availability because I was having so much fun." You paused to gauge his reaction, and you were pleasantly surprised that there was no trace of anger in his face; his eyes simply widened a fraction. "I was also freaking out about us sleeping in the same bed, but... it's not like I disliked it."
Jay went silent again, and you peered up at him curiously, waiting for a reaction. Eventually, he sighed heavily and pulled you an inch closer to his body, letting you chase that addictive friction for a split second.
"Please, Jay," you couldn't help but whimper, which, in turn, caused him to clench his jaw. "Don't make me feel good if you're not gonna keep going."
He shifted, cursing under his breath. "I can't, Y/N, I can't..." He then removed his hands to rub his face, aggravated. "I can't do this to you."
But then you saw his bulge strain against his pants, right in front of the apex of your legs—so close that you could simply move forward so that your cunt was flush against it. Jay didn't mention his boner at all, but he followed your gaze and ended up blushing scarlet under the dim light.
"Just ignore that," he muttered quickly. "I can take care of it myself."
"Are you sure?" You pouted. With Sunghoon, you always got him off first before he touched you; there were only few exceptions to this, but it was basically a ritual for you to pleasure him before he took care of you. "You're gonna go back to your room like that?"
Jay pressed his lips together in a thin line. "I'll figure it out, but are you gonna be, uh, okay?"
"I can manage just fine; I've handled it myself plenty of times."
It caught you by surprise, but those were apparently the words that drove Jay to the brink of madness; you stretched him thinner and thinner until he had finally snapped right then and there.
His voice was pitched dangerously low when he asked, "Are you serious?"
"Yeah? I thought that was normal."
"No fucking way." Jay scoffed. He shook his head in dismay. "Sunghoon's an idiot."
Careful not to push his buttons, you mumbled, "But... aren't you doing the same thing, too?"
He gave you a long, hard look. The weight of his gaze almost made you want to wither away on the spot. You trapped him with that one, and he seemed to be very aware of this fact when you heard him let out a half-frustrated, half-tired groan.
You quickly added, "Sorry, I didn't mean—"
"One condition," he interrupted. "I'll help you, but you're not allowed to touch me." He had a firm grip on your thighs again. "I'm not moving my hands, either."
Your heart stopped.
"Please."
That ache between your legs grew more desperate, and you felt like electric currents were running under your skin just by the way he held you. Truthfully, you did feel yourself deflate a little when he set down the rule that you weren't allowed to touch him, but then Jay sat against the headboard and pulled you back onto his lap with his eyes fixed on yours, and you couldn't remember anything anymore.
He was truly committed to only pleasuring you; even though his cock looked painfully hard through the fabric, Jay was adamant about keeping you on his thigh. His leg muscles were strong, you gathered, as he guided your hips down to grind against his thigh in torturous circles.
Immediately, you were dizzy with pleasure. Each motion ended with a little pressure against your clit that sent shocks of bliss throughout your body. He flexed his muscle enough for you to whine from the stimulation.
"F-fuck, just like that."
"Wow," Jay got out in a rush, his voice raspy and fervent, relishing the way you were bouncing on his thigh with occasional whimpers and moans falling from your lips. "You're perfect, Y/N. Everything I've ever dreamt of and more."
And when he called out your name, it felt like he was worshipping you, like your name was a prayer that he needed to chant to preserve some semblance of sanity. Jay was using all his might to suppress the all-consuming desire that threatened to take over every rational decision he had made so far.
Not that this was a rational decision in the slightest.
Not being able to hold onto him was the worst punishment you could've gotten. You were drawn to him, as if you were magnetized, but he put up a very clear boundary that you wouldn't dare push. You had already gotten this far, and you weren't going to push your luck any further—not when you were already seeing white flashes in your vision as he continued his rhythmic motion of helping you ride his thigh.
Maybe it was because you hadn't been taken care of in months, or maybe it was because Jay had tapped into some hidden talent at getting you off, but your climax crept up upon you unexpectedly. One minute your eyes were locked with Jay's as you ground your hips into his thigh, and the next you were arching your back and gripping the sheets underneath for leverage as your orgasm rushed over you.
You threw your head back as you succumbed to the current of pleasure that ripped through you. When you opened your eyes again, Jay was staring at you like he wanted to kiss you, and you were so sure he would for a moment. You leaned up, lips barely grazing his before he pulled back with a groan and dug his fingers firmly into your thighs.
Jay didn't stop even as you gasped and moaned his name throughout your orgasm. (It did seem to rile him up a little more, though.) He only tightened his grip so that he could continue the same, ancient rhythm that ended up driving you to the edge of your second orgasm.
"Oh my god," you gushed out, finally losing your balance and using your shaky arms to keep you upright.
Jay finally slowed down until he was sure you had fruitfully ridden out your orgasm. You were a fucked-out, panting mess by the end of it, and you craved nothing more than for Jay to pull you into his arms and show you just how much he could make love to you.
If he could make you feel that good by only holding your thighs, then you would surely be ruined if you two went further.
But, to your dismay, he gently moved you off of him and sat at the edge of the bed, letting out a soft sigh and staring down at the carpet.
"Are you leaving?" you asked once you regained your composure, slightly hopeful that he wouldn't.
"I should." He stood up and looked down at you tenderly, almost reaching down to fix your hair but stopping himself when he was inches away. "I really would spend the night if I could, I swear."
"I believe you," you said, "but we're gonna talk about this soon, right? I don't think I can just pretend this didn't happen."
Jay pondered for a moment before saying, "Yeah—just not right now."
"Okay," you breathed out, relieved. Blood rushed to your cheeks again. "Thank you."
He only blushed in response, ducking his head to hide how flustered he was.
"Are you going back to your room now?" you asked.
Jay nodded, but the two of you stayed where you were for a moment, and you were hoping he'd give you something—a hug or a kiss—before he left. He went with the former, which you had no complaints about, and squeezed you into a tight hug that you only had a few seconds to reciprocate before he pulled away.
His eyes lingered on your lips for a moment too long. His searing look left you with a curl of desire seizing you so viciously that you were certain you would feel empty for the rest of the night.
"Sleep well, Y/N."
You managed a smile for him, even though you oh-so-badly wanted him to stay. "Goodnight, Jay."
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prev | masterlist | next
SUMMARY ▸ private investigator jay park just wants to complete his mission quietly and move on with his life. you, his new assignment who keeps consuming his thoughts, don't make that very easy for him.
TAG LIST ▸ @zdgx1 @smouches @heesdazed @teawithbucky @leep0ems @peachpie4you @niniissus @kgneptun @jaeyunluvr @zerasari @sophiko22 @iselltulips @hoondiors @baekhyunstruly @jays-property @woninluv @heerinnie @fakeuwus @yizhoutv @theothernads @y4wnjunz @dammit-jjk @en-happiness @mari-oclock @soonyoungblr @jakeslvt @taetaenic @jebetwo @fairysungx @hsgwrld @shmooooo @ineedsomezzz @mrowww @enha-stars @seongclb @lockburn-castle @alyssajavenss @enczen @calumsfringe @w3bqrl @luvyev @uhsakusa @luvnicho @wildflowermooon @navsnct @hooniesuniverse @enhalov @enhypens-baby @isawritesss
AUTHOR'S NOTE ▸ if ur reading this chapter and thinking omg jay's so screwed 😭 ur so right but this is crucial to the plot so let me cook
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mariclerc · 9 months
Text
A late teenage dream☆ | cl16
Summary: In where you confess to Charles that he is your first love ever and how much that embarrasses you.
Warning: Nothing, just fluff Charles and him being lovely and patient as always.
Author note: Hi guys! I had thought a lot about writing this, because I think that many of us will feel identified with this topic, I personally feel very identified and I ended up crying like a dumbass. I hope you like it!
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It was a fairly quiet night, you were lying in bed a little sleepy with blankets around you, next to you was Charles, his hand rested around your waist and with his fingers he made some circles in the area. His eyes were closed and to you, he looked like a Greek god or something. You have been dating for at least a year and every day feels very special and amazing with him.
"Mhmm... Charlie? I can't sleep." you said a little sleepily.
Charles opens one eye, and rests his warm, sleepy gaze on you.
"Anything on your mind, amore?" he said with a little smile on his face.
"It's just... sometimes I think about, you know... About us," you say with some hesitation.
Charles hums, drawing you closer to him.
"What about us, honey?"
"How we are... How you're... everything." you say quietly as you look down.
He nuzzles your neck, his breath tickling your skin.
"Everything? In what way, my little dreamer?"
"You're my first everything." you say quietly.
Charles tenses slightly, his brow furrowing in concern.
"Your first...? What do you mean, cara mia?"
"Well... My first date, my first boyfriend, my first kiss.... You're... all of that, Charles." I said as I looked down to twiddle my fingers, feeling very embarrassed.
He pulls back, his eyes searching yours. You see a flicker of surprise, then something softer, something understanding.
"I never knew princess. I... I thought maybe you were with someone before me... I mean, you're so beautiful, so kind, radiant. I couldn't imagine..." he says with a slightly husky voice.
You nod, a shy smile gracing your lips. "I've never had a date in high school. Guys just...didn't see me, I guess... Or maybe I was the one who didn't see them... Maybe I was a little shy and that's why I hid from the romantic scene." Your voice dips a little. "I used to think there was something wrong with me, you know? That I wasn't enough for anyone." You said as you looked away embarrassed, trying to ignore his soft gaze.
He cups your face in his hands, his thumbs brushing away a stray tear that escapes your eye. And the truth is that you were always the "spectator but never protagonist" type of girl, you always looked at your friends going out on dates, having their first kiss and they even told you the most intimate things about their relationships, somehow that made you question if there was something wrong with you and why no one ever asked you out on a date when you were 16.
"Never say that again baby! You are perfect, just as you are. And I'm so grateful you chose me, that I get the chance to be your first... I promise you, amore, I'll be sure it's the best fucking teenage dream you'll ever have." he said tenderly.
"You already have, Charles. Every touch, every smile... it's magic." you say while your eyes were shining.
He leans in, his lips meeting yours in a soft, lingering kiss. It's slow, gentle, filled with a sweetness that makes your heart soar. As you melt into his embrace, you know he's right. This isn't just any relationship; it's a love story written in stolen glances, whispered promises, and the gentle unfolding of a first love.
You started to think for a few moments while he was kissing you... Is this how your friends felt about their boyfriends when they were 16? Did they have that tingling sensation through their veins every time they looked at them? Every time their boyfriends looked at them like Charles looks at you? Chances are, they were also feeling like you are doing right now, and even though your teenage love didn't come just when it was supposed to happen, it came at the perfect time for you! You really liked the idea that Charles was the right one for this experience. And somehow, at 23, it feels like the most perfect teenage dream come true.
As you pull away, a breathless laugh escapes your lips. "You were right," you say with a big smile. "This is better than any teenage dream I could've imagined."
Charles smiles, his eyes mirroring your own joy. "Good," he says, pulling you close again. "Because this is just the beginning, baby. Our very own love story."
And as he kisses you again, the lines between a teenage dream and real love begin to blur. This is your first love, but it's also a love story that transcends age and experience. It's a love that feels like coming home, a love that promises forever, and a love that you know, in your heart, will be worth every wait... It may have arrived a little later than expected, but it was worth every second of the wait.
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acidinduceddaydreams · 3 months
Text
Misreading the Room
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Bang Chan x younger reader
Synopsis: You’re too young. He has a girlfriend, you have a boyfriend so why do you give him butterflies?
Warning: angst for a bit. Reader is in her early twenties and Chan is in his late twenties. Fools are in love your honor. Jealousy. I think that’s all lmk if you pick up any.
a/n: this came from a dream I had😭 anyways enjoy.
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“Wait does that mean I can bring my boyfriend?” You questioned your eight best friends as you stood in the hallway leading to their living room. They had asked you to come to a get together they were hosting. Chan saying he would bring his girlfriend set off something in you to ask if you could bring your own plus one.
“Boyfriend?” was said almost as a chorus from all of your friends.
“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was I a relationship it was just fairly new."
"Hey," Changbin said, looking over his shoulder at you, "We'd love to meet him, maybeee interrogate the shit out of him."
"Stop! Don't scare him, I'd like to keep this one" you said, waving your hand dismissively. You trailed off, not sure how to finish that sentence. The truth was, you didn't want to bring your boyfriend along. Not because you didn't trust him, but because…you didn't want Chan to see him. Not like this. Not when you were still so hung up on him.
"Look," Minho said, nudging Changbin, "I think we should just get this over with. Y/n's boyfriend can't be that bad, right?"
"I don't know, Minho," Changbin said, hesitating. "What if…what if he's better looking than me?"
You rolled your eyes, trying not to smile. "Oh, please. As if that's possible, you're the most handsome Bin." "I'm right here Y/n!" Hyunjin said sarcastically before receiving a disgruntled noise from Changbin and drawing giggles from Jeongin and Felix.
Chan shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, of course." His voice wavered, and he glanced at you out of the corner of his eye. You couldn't tell he was lying. He was jealous, just like you were since finding out he had a girlfriend. You couldn't tell if you got into this new relationship solely to 'get back' at Chan for unknowingly breaking your heart and maybe by doing so you were unknowingly breaking his.
"Well, if that's settled," Jisung said, clapping his hands together, "Can we go get food now?"
You decided to wear a dress that made you feel confident. You didn’t want to face Chan and not feel like you had a leg to stand on.
As you took a seat on the couch, you couldn't help but steal glances at Chan. He was sitting across from you, with his girlfriend Seulgi perched on his lap. They were laughing at something Felix said, but every so often, their eyes would meet, and that made you feel sick.
You took a deep breath, trying to steady your racing heart. You knew this night was going to be anything but easy.
As you sat there, watching Chan and his girlfriend interact, you couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy deep in your chest. It was irrational, you knew that. But seeing them together, so comfortable and at ease with each other, made it hard not to feel a twinge of envy. You glanced over at your own boyfriend, Jonghyun, who was talking animatedly with Seulgi, and found yourself wondering what it would be like to be in their position. To be able to laugh and joke and not feel this constant undercurrent of…something.
The conversation flowed around you, and you found yourself lost in your own thoughts. You couldn't help but wonder what Chan was thinking, if he felt the same way you did. Every so often, your eyes would meet, and there would be a moment of recognition, of understanding. But then it would be gone, swallowed up by the chatter and the noise and the awkwardness that seemed to permeate the room.
You forced a smile, trying to pretend that everything was fine. That you weren't sitting here, feeling the weight of your conflicting emotions pressing down on your chest. But it was hard, so hard, to keep up the façade when all you wanted to do was reach across the room and grab Chan's hand, to feel that familiar warmth and comfort that you had once taken for granted.
Eventually, the night wore on, and the conversation turned to other things. You found yourself laughing along with everyone else, trying your best to fit in and act like this wasn't the most awkward situation you had ever been in. But no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, that the air between you and Chan was charged with something unnamable. And when the party finally began to wind down, and your boyfriend started saying his goodbyes leaving you, you knew that the night hadn't been nearly as easy as everyone had pretended it to be.
As you stood in the doorway, watching your friends leave in pairs and small groups, you felt a hand slip into yours. You looked down to see Chan standing there, his expression a mix of sadness and longing. "I'm sorry if it was weird for you," he said softly. "I didn't know what else to do."
You swallowed hard, forcing yourself to meet his gaze. "It's okay," you lied. "It was…complicated, but I'm okay." You paused, then added, "Are you?"
He shook his head, the motion barely visible in the dim light. "No," he admitted. "I'm not." And then, before you could say anything else, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to yours, a desperate, hungry kiss that left you breathless and aching for more. As his hands found their way up your back, pulling you closer, you could feel the weight of your conflicting emotions giving way to something else, something hot and needy and entirely too familiar.
You wrapped your arms around his neck, deepening the kiss, as the tension that had been building inside you all night finally found its release. For a moment, you could almost pretend that things were the way they used to be, that the world hadn't changed and your feelings hadn't grown so complicated. But you knew that was just an illusion, a brief escape from the harsh reality of your situation.
"I should get you home," he murmured against your lips. "Your boyfriend…" His voice trailed off, and you knew he was thinking about the same thing you were: about how awkward it would be when the truth finally came out. But for now, you were both content to ignore it, to lose yourself in the moment and pretend that everything was going to be okay.
You led him through the house, your movements a little unsteady from the alcohol and the weight of his touch. He followed closely behind, his fingers tracing along your lower back, sending shivers down your spine. The air in the hallway was cool against your skin, and you could feel your breath catch in your throat as he leaned in to kiss you again.
"I've missed this," he whispered, his lips brushing against yours. "I've missed you." You didn't know how to respond, so you just wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him closer, feeling the heat between your bodies grow more intense with each passing moment.
As you reached the front door, he paused, taking a deep breath before meeting your gaze. "I know this is a mess," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I wish I could go back and change things, but I can't. I just want you to know that I do love you, and I'm so sorry for everything." His words hung in the air between you, heavy and weighted with regret.
You looked up at him, searching his eyes for some sign that he meant it, some sign that maybe there was still a chance for things to go back to the way they were. But all you saw was the same conflicted expression you'd seen all night, the same sadness and longing that seemed to be tearing him apart.
"I love you too," you whispered, your voice barely audible even to your own ears. "I just…I need some time." His face fell, and he nodded, understanding. "Okay," he said softly. "Okay."
And with that, you stepped out into the cool night air, closing the door behind you. You stood there for a moment, the breeze rustling through your hair, the sound of his voice still ringing in your ears. You knew this wasn't the end. It couldn't be. But for now, you needed some time to sort out your feelings, to figure out what you really wanted. And in the meantime, you couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before you saw him again, and what you would say when that day came.
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seventhcallisto · 11 months
Text
PROLOGUE
—Deep Down.
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Toc/cw; scenting. omega in heat. talk of s3x. featuring alpha g-idle. Language. Mature Content! Talk of gender, sex, and the weird system that a/b/o roles have, including the terrible hierarchy system. It's my series so I make my own rules, period!
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Never, absolutely never, does a person get their second sex when they're born. It's no surprise they get it towards puberty, yet the majority of times, heats or ruts do not start happening until they're in their late teens- early twenties. Betas never went through that issue. They hardly ever were considered more than peace makers. For a while, they were the least chosen. While not as valuable as an alpha or as wonderful at comforting like an omega. There was still some dull middle ground. They weren't that special.
That was only for a bit, anyway. Eventually, omegas took that spot, lower on the hierarchy, whilst betas gained the middle place. You didn't agree with the system, though. It doesn't matter your second sex. It matters how you hold yourself, how you go about through life with a second sex.
And you stood by that for decades.
You took hold of a company and shaped yourself to fit their mold. Although a foreigner in this strange city, following a dream you didn't know you could grasp, you still went for it. You molded yourself to fit whatever they wanted. A calm, level-headed, peace-maker, beta. With a heart of fire and determination that'll set a field ablaze. You worked your ass off. Getting up as early as possible. Practicing. Making something of yourself. Training yourself. Learning the language.
Someone who could make even the quietest of omegas open up, and the loudest of alphas silent. You were a patient and composed person.
And when you came out on top, the very top, unreachable and untouchable, you knew you maxed out your potential. It was only then that you let it slip from your hands and into the grasp of another. You let them see what you could do, and now it was their turn.
They took it with stride. Quickly, you found yourself linked to a group you'd be a part of for life. You were surprised, to say the least.
"It smells like testosterone in here," you grimaced.
Eventually, you did get used to the stench of 8 alphas. Soon enough, you could actually smell their undertones. A mix of everything drowns every corner of the apartment you live in with them.
You were fairly the least popular in the group by a good amount. Sometimes, you chalked it up to people being oblivious. It never hurt you, why would it? You're a rare gem. Sometimes, it needs a light shined on it to really sparkle.
It's years later of cleaning up after messy alphas and teaching yourself tricks to get used to their behaviors, that you suddenly notice a difference in yourself.
"Hey, you smell different," seonghwa scruches his nose, a pleasantly surprised look on his face. You slip your shoes off in the doorway, closing it behind you. "New perfume," you reply, half hazerdly, sliding your keys into the key bowl. "I thought you liked your own scent?" He comes over and helps you with the handbag in your arm.
You hand it over to the taller guy, slipping your mask down your face. "I'm starting to stink, so i changed my perfume scent. Maybe your guys' stench is making me allergic, or I'm getting sick." You sigh tiredly when he hangs your jacket up in the closet. "No, not sick. I know what you smell like when you're sick," seonghwas eyebrows scrunch.
"You smell.. sweeter.. have you been hanging out with any omegas lately?" He questions, folding his arms over his chest. His white sweater is rolled up his arms, and his black pants hang loosely. Surely, if seonghwa is to lounge around, he's gonna do it with style. You laugh, avoiding his eyes when he catches you looking him up and down. "Ha, yeah, actually. I'm helping Kimmie prep for her heat. She plans to have a couple of mini devils running around this summer. Can you believe it?" You scoff, mentioning your long time once-trainee close friend who you grew attached too.
"Kimmie with kids, I would have never thought," you mumble under your breath, years ago you would of scoffed at the idea of young- impressionable kimmie, mature enough to consider having kids with her beta husband whom you also knew to be a trainee from before. Are you really getting that old? Seonghwa stares for a couple of seconds. His piercing eyes guide you up and down. You're staring back now. Seonghwa doesn't flinch. "Right, let's hope kim is ready for that," he laughs, and just like that, the tension breaks.
You both shuffle into the living room. Calling it a night.
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Not even two days later, you're on the couch scrolling mindlessly on your phone whilst you wait for the guys to get dressed. The practice video for one of your group songs is soon. You've only been able to practice by yourself up until that point.
Yeosang takes a seat next to you, pushing you into his side. The alpha gently taps your leg to gain your attention. "What's up?" You put your phone down, giving him your full attention. "My scent is wearing off on you," he almost pouts. You smile, turning towards him and opening your arms. "Okay, c'mere." You beckon his face into your neck. Afterward, you let him take the lead.
It takes two seconds for you to realize he's not scenting you anymore. He didn't even start. "Yeosang?" You call out, threading your fingers on the back of his neck hairs. He hums, and it sounds so far away. His scent grows heavier. "You okay?" You attempt to pull back. he chases your neck. You can hear him breathing heavily, struggling to catch his breath after every strong inhale. His soft hand snakes around your neck, gently leaning your head the opposite way so he can get more room.
You follow, cause you trust your pack member. You can feel his mouth part, his lips drawing closer to your pulse. Your eyebrows furrowed. What are you doing? Obviously, something is up. You pull away from yeosangs grasp. Backing up just a bit. You put a hand to his chest to distance yourself. It's a few seconds before yeosang seems to come back, his foggy eyes focusing. "Sorry, I.. you smell really different lately," he admits, twisting his fingers in his lap.
"How so?" You question him. "Like.. sweeter. I can smell it linger, deep down under our scents I can smell.. an omega," he admits, his eyebrows twitch down. You haven't been to Kimmies house since seonghwa asked, yet you've completely washed and cleaned yourself of her scent entirely. You don't know what to say.
"Well," you fold your legs into your lap. "I think I might be coming down with something, I changed my perfume. It could be that, too?" You can't tell if you're reassuring yourself or yeosang. He hums. His eyes search your front, glancing up at you and then down to your neck where your scent glands are. "Could you wear one of my shirts for practice? I didn't get to properly scent you, and it'd make me feel better. " his tone is more of a demand yet hes still a little shy with it. Behind his eyes, you can see the strange look he casts aside.
You smile wearily. "Sure."
Yeosang had picked a black shirt he wore very often. It took him a hot minute, but by the time you watched him go through everything in his closet, the guys were done and slipping on their shoes. Once he was satisfied with his choice, he handed it to you. A shirt that would be tight fit for yeosang hanged off you. The deepest scents you can pick out are cocoa butter and honeyed citrus, like lemonade. There's the distant scent of strong tea. The cocoa butter blends well into his scent, perfectly layered. Perfectly yeosang.
You took a deep enhale, liking the freshness of his smell. Not noticing the satisfactory smile on yeosangs face, you slipped off into his bathroom and exchanged your shirt for his. Leaving yours behind. Once you came out, you were surprised to still see him there. His scent is everywhere in this room, heavier than normal.
His eyes look your form up and down. You give a tiny spin, smiling awkwardly. Finally, his eyes meet yours, clouded with an unknown emotion. It's a few seconds of silence. You never break off eye contact.
"We're gonna be late!" Hongjoong shouts out from the front door. His voice echoes in the hallway, leading to yeosangs' room. Yeosang smiles, looking away. He makes haste to the door and leaves you. You let the breath out you were holding. What was that?
Practice takes a hard minute to start, the coolness of the room makes it easier to warm up. You're not sweating when you begin repeating steps, adjusting what you deem unfinished or sloppy. Not long does the heat kick into the room. You find yourself removing your hoodie.
"Let's get started" the manager hits the button on the camera, beginning the recording. Your eyes follow your own movement. All of ateez has said you're the ace of the group, in everything you do it seems well-executed. You doubt that sometimes.
Every move and every breath is conditioned from years of practice everyday 'til you couldn't feel your legs. Sometimes you'd go as far as to even run, dance, and jump in terrible stilletos. Which worked out in the end since the majority of the time you'd have to wear heels or platforms to match the height of the guys during every event and performance.
Sweat pools on your collar, your neck, and your forehead as you work across the room. You can smell every one of the guys as they pass around you, a flurry of scents clog your senses. You try to focus on the choreography.
You tried until your shoulder slams into someone, throwing you off balance and onto the hard wood floor. Your elbow bounces off the wood. You slide to a stop quickly. "Fuck!" you curse at the sting in your leg, hip, and ankle. The room grows extremely quiet, the music stops as quickly. Mingi bends down to your level, shock still evident on his face. "Sorry! shit, my bad, are you okay?" He reaches for your head.
"Ow" you whine, like actually whine, instead of brushing it off like you normally would. Touching your elbow. You both simultaneously notice the blood dripping off your elbow. "Why aren't you watching where you're going!?" Yunho walks up to mingi. Mingi stands up from next to you. "I didn't do it on purpose!" Mingi defends, his jaw clenches. The two stare daggers, a tense standoff so sudden you don’t know truly if you falling is the cause of it or if something else is at play. Hongjoong steps forward to stop them. A heated discussion begins.
Wooyoung and San stand back, Jaws clenched, at any moment they look ready to pounce. Yeosang stands with Seonghwa and Jongho, who look just as concerned about the growing argument, yet their faces murge into something completely different at the smell in the air.
It's something no one can put their finger on.
Your ever growing weirdly sweet scent is surprising to even you, your gut twists in an unsettled way. You don't look at their faces, trying to understand the smell and your sudden shift. What the hell is going on with you?
"Boys, out in the hallway now, please" Jongsik. The manager you've had for years steps forward. As the oldest in the room take charge, the guys looked challenged. "What about her!?" Yunho shouts out, fustrated. In the distance another aurgument begins. Mingi squats back down to your level, gently pulling your attention back to him with his hands on either side of your face. "it's not that bad, yeah? It's alright?" He wants to reassure you. "Mingi" you practically whine, pulling at his wrist. The smell of harsh and swirling emotions makes your nose scrunch, it's intense and somewhat intoxicating.
You're dizzy.
Jongsik stands firm. "Out!" He repeats himself pointing to the practice room door. He reaches for mingi's shoulder. He who pushes the older man off, standing abruptly.
Hongjoong, the pack leader, is the one that rounds up the boys and pushes them out, even mingi. Before he shuts the door. He looks at you. He's so tempted to just run back in, coddle you and wrap your elbow in bandages. Yet he closes the door anyways.
There's no defiance or whining from you. because jongsik is a beta, and already mated. He's taken on a fatherly role to you when he pulls you to your feet. "I don't feel good.." You slur. Placing a hand on your head.
"Hey, it's gonna be alright. We're gonna get you to the hospital, alright?"
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You lay on an examination bed, squirming by yourself. Anxiously you wait twirling your hand around the bandage on your elbow.
"This is something we've never seen before." With your heightened hearing, you can feel they're talking about you.
"She showed signs of being a beta for years. How could something like this happen so suddenly? It's impossible." Whispers echo in your mind.
What the hell is going on?
"Hello," a doctor, also a lady, steps in. her face is covered with a mask. "I'm Dr Liana." You try to focus, but the ache in your stomach is distracting. "It seems to have been there for a while, most likely due to continuous, omega activities, from what my colleagues and I have assumed."
"Have you been noticing anything different from your usual routine?"
You recount what you can, anything you find weird yourself. And there's so many clues, like when you stole each hoodie and wore it from everyone for a week straight just because 'you wanted too'. Or how touchy you've been recently especially with hongjoong, your pack leader. The scent change, the continuous need to please your members and let them have their way lately.
How you, oh God, how you've started collecting everyone's clothing in your closet, you called it a clothing pile. It's a nest. You've been nesting.
You've been not so subtlety feeding this hunger within you.
Realization has dawned on you for the first time in a month. And after a few more tests, you've spent a total of two days in the hospital.
Once you're out, you're immediately escorted to a heat sanctuary. A common locked and secure place for omegas going into heat.
"What I'm hearing is you're about to go into heat. It'll be a difficult process for you considering you're a beta turned omega, and it's fairly late for you to be getting your first heat, but I'm sure there's plenty of options for you."
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There were plenty of other options, yet you opted for the least embarrassing and least dreadful one. It was too late to take heat suppressants. Now, you're stuck in a somewhat luxurious hotel room with glorified room service and plenty of meds to sedate you for a week or less. They're actually so you can't feel the actual pain that comes with a heat without having a knot to sedate the feeling. If you really hoped you could sleep it off, you'd be dead wrong.
The specific question of; "do you have anyone in mind that could take care of you during your heat?" Really lingered. You thought about it. Maybe more than once, but you turned it down. No way. Nooo wayyyy. You wouldn't dare go past the first pack of alphas your mind landed on. Wouldn't even touch that book or open it in your minds eye.
Everything is very sensitive for the first day. You sweat a ton. You feel like you've lost weight, although you eat when you're not... 'foggy'. You feel the sweat pool at every corner of your temporary bed.
Anything you can get your hands on you pull, hard, and rip and tear. A pile of blankets and pillows are strewn on the floor in one giant large pile. Every once in a while you'll come back to your senses and childishly get upset at what you're doing.
No you've got nothing against omegas. You just didn't ask to be one, so therefore you're mad about being one.
Once satisfied, you spraw out and get to working on yourself with whatever you can, clothes and all. Toys. Plugs. Lube. You would have never guessed you'd end up this way. You name it, and they have it. They say there's nothing more satisfying than a knot, yet you don't enjoy the idea of what comes after. Pups? Ew. Is there even anything to counteract that? How do people just sleep with a stranger during a heat and not feel scared about what will happen in the moment? There's nothing wrong with it. It's just not your particular cup of tea.
As a beta, or.. when you were one, it wasn't very hard to find someone to hook up with. Betas have the abilities to hook up with anyone, alphas, omegas, and other betas. Although pregnancies and knotting aren't as easy for betas(you're not a big fan of wrapping it) it'll work eventually if tried enough. There's this middle ground for betas who can have it all. Relationships get difficult when you aren't as drawn to each other as an alpha and omega are, but with patience, it'll work.
There's this gross scent lingering under your skin, you can still smell the scent of your old skin, the beta you once were is suddenly being washed away by a sweet, tropical smell, an omega in full bloom. It's your second day. Yet you couldn't get more miserable. Two or three more days of this? Seriously.
You've never been a girly girl, begging for your way or kissing up to get it. You were commonly told you were a tomboy growing up. Maybe that played its role on your first designated sex. Your company pushed that role, too. Tough girl act. Rapper, Dancer. Never the face of the group. But you weren't complaining. You were the top of top trainees. Nothing could beat you down.
Yet, dressing up in baggy clothes and never looking sexually appealing was your role in the group. Tomboy rapper. Compared to the beginning of fourth gen, you were considered a girl crush but nothing else. least lines, least screen time, least roles. I mean. You trained for this, right?
Now you're stuck with a new second gender you didn't ask for. Pushing you farther behind the scenes. Just your luck.
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As soon as your first heat ends. You realize you weren't as bad. Apparently, the first heat ever is the easiest. You're supposed to get worse. Seriously. Worse? God. You can't take this. You go to the only people you know won't make a big deal out of your new.. thing.
Soyeon places a hot cup of tea right in front of you. And you can smell the scent suppressant coming from the steam. "this is supposed to help?" You sniff at it warily, grimacing at the factory like smell.
"You came to us, at our dorm, smelling like the biggest ball of 'fuck me please', take it or leave it." She clicks her tongue at you, propped up on her bed. Minnie takes a seat opposite of you, as does shuhua. "You cant even smell me, you're on scent suppressants" you groan, swirling the tea. "How do yall cope." You sigh and chug the content of the large tea cup. Soyeon laughs, minnie grimaces, and despite having a shocked look, shuhua pumps her fist in encouragement.
You've come to the group of alpha women cause, well, they're your best friends. And they're the most encouraging about any and all supplements and suppressants. They've single handedly encouraged everyone you know to take suppressants. From the front door, you hear it open and close, stepping down the hallway comes yuqi and miyeon, who do a double take.
Yuqi takes a giant whiff, and her eyes bulge. "What happened to you!?" She coughs at the stench of omega. Something she doesn't find common in their room when you're around. Miyeon scoots to the side when Soojin pushes through with a cake of some sort and a tiny charcuterie board. She places it down in front of you. You can tell the alpha in her is desperately trying to please you.
"Somehow, our poor, once beta, girl friend has changed sex." Soyeon speaks through a bite of twizzlers. You don't comment at her choice of words. Yuqi and Miyeon scoot into the room, staring at their doting member.
"There you go." Soojin pats your head and takes a seat on the bean bag in front of you. "Thanks," you sigh, digging in. The cake, which soojin explains, is a long-lasting scent changer. Magic is baked into every bite.
As for the charcuterie board. It's just something to get you some protein with the lack of good supplements in your system. In her eyes, you've lost at least half of your body weight. You haven't. Yet she's still encouraging you to take care of yourself from such a rushed heat.
"Poor girl," miyeon sighs, "I've never heard of that happening to anyone before. How's that even possible?" She takes to removing her hoodie and placing it down properly. Yuqi shuffles off her bag. Plopping onto the bed next to you. "How'd the guys react?" She steals a piece of meat from your board.
"I haven't told them" you sigh, the room goes silent.
"That's fucked up" yuqi laughs. Miyeon slaps her ankle. "So we're the first to know?" Shuhua confirms, you nod. "Wow, I'm sure they'll be happy about that," soyeon laughs lightly. You tear your eyes off shuhua. "What do you mean by that?" You clearly speak, eyebrows pulled down. Minnie places a hand on your ankle to get your attention. "Well, we're your girl pack. We'll always be your girl pack." she looks nervous.
"But the last time I hung out with you, your boys stared at me like I was an intruder in their territory." she pats your ankle. Your eyebrows pull taunt. You want to defend them. "What? No way.." You truly think about it. "Whatever you say, your boys aren't as good as we are at keeping up with our contribution to not being alpha whores" soyeon sighs pushing to sit up. "Especially mingi, he's the whoriest of them all, he goes into rut every week it seems. He needs a heavy dose of rut suppressants." she takes another chunk off her twizzler.
"You shouldn't feel obligated to tell them first. Butt.. you shouldn't be surprised when they get upset about you telling us first." The girls all nod. You fall back onto soyeons pillows. A puff of sandal wood and cinnamon surrounds you. Slowly dying down as the tea takes its hold on your heightened senses. "Maybe I should have thought this through," you rub at your eyes.
"You're always welcomed here." soojin clears your mind, patting her hand against your hip in a friendly gesture. "This won't change anything. You're still my- our best friend," soojin speaks on behalf of the girls. Everyone hums to confirm.
"Thanks," you say genuinely. "It's a bit late for you to get a drive all the way home, What'd the company say to the guys?" Miyeon perks up from the edge of the bed. "Something about me needing medical evaluation. I'm pretty sure they think I'm still in the hospital." Yuqi scoots up next to you. "Did you check your phone?"
You didn't even think about it, pulling it from your pocket. You try to power it on. "No, everything was rushed. I didn't have a chance to check anything before I had to give it up so I wouldn't expose the place I was at." The screen doesn't light up. It's completely dead.
"It's dead," you pass it to soojin, who already had her hand out to take it. She plugs it into soyeons charger. "Well, I guess you're stuck here." Shuhua and yuqi topple on top of you, squishing you into the mattress.
"Sleepover!"
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The next morning, you wake up sore. Not because of anything the girls did but because of such a long trial of whatever you did to yourself in the haze of heat. You groan when you shift your hip, burying yourself closer to the center of the makeshift bed you made in the living room.
The night was full of movies and being doted on by every one of the girls. Things aren't supposed to change because of your new sex, and that's remained true. They just baby you a little bit more than usual. "Shuhua, 'mega! Come eat! Now!" Minnie yells from the kitchen. The nickname startles you, something you've never heard before is somewhat pleasent to your ears. There's stomping towards the living room. Your head slams back down onto the pillow, pretending to sleep.
"I know you're awake." yuqis smile can be heard through her words. You can't help the prying of your lip. "Nu-uh," you grin, eyes still closed. "Get up!" She jumps on you, pulling you into a suffocating hug that she wiggles around in. You laugh and pull her equally as close. After the struggle of a couple of seconds, your exhaustion returns. Your arms fall limply around her waist.
"You doing alright?" She asks, picking herself up and off of you so you can breathe. "Yeah, I just tired myself out this week." you laugh, embarrassed. "Don't worry," shuhua perks her head up from the couch next to you. "You should have heard when yuqi had her first rut," shuhua laughs menacingly, yuqi springs up. "Shut up!" She yells. "She wouldn't stop! All night and day! We had to quarantine the whole top floor!" Shuhuas words stop on occasion when yuqi is wrestling to cover her mouth. You laugh at them.
"Hey," soojin stands over, ignoring her members. "Hi," you smile back. "Hungry?" She lends you her hand, pulling you up off the floor. "Starved," you take it, embracing her rose filled scent.
A platter of delicious food is placed right in front of you. Breakfast in their apartment is somewhat new to you. You've never really been able to stay long when you visit. Maybe you're starting to realize the guys have a stronger hold on you than you thought. Speaking of the guys. As soon as you finish your plate, Soojin places your phone down in front of you. The screen is still black, signaling she hasn't turned it on.
"You're gonna want to answer your boy toys before they stalk you down themselves," soyeon gestures. She's not wrong.
You power your phone on and let it reboot for a second. Yuqi is still eating with shuhua, talking to miyeon and minnie about something you don't pay attention to. Your phone makes a continuous notification sound when all of your messages pop up.
104 missed messages. 32 missed calls.
You're in deep shit.
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Taglist: @0325tiny @bratty-tingz @lelaleleb
(Thank you for reading ♡)
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nelkcats · 1 year
Text
Dad War
Danny Fenton became a father and he's not panicking at all (this is a lie)
Danny should have known that asking for an uneventful week was an exaggeration. He tempted fate by saying that "nothing bad could happen now that ghosts and humans lived in peace with each other"
Of course, it was right after saying that sentence that his daughter cousin appeared in front of him with her arm melted. Having gotten used to that particular scenario he steered her into his ecto-dejecto reserves, both of them panicked when this didn't solve anything.
With no more options, Danny took her to Far Frozen, surely the Yeti would have a better idea of what was happening to the girl.
Frostbite examined Ellie just like the first time but instead of scowling like Danny had expected he looked extremely pleased, almost satisfied.
"The time has finally come" Frostbite told him happily "you must let it happen, Great One"
"Do I have to let Ellie melt down!?" Danny yelled in concern, he never thought the Yeti had a sadistic streak in him. Ellie looked just as shaken by the information.
"Not like you're thinking" The Yeti noticed his mistake and decided to explain himself "she's not melting, she's stabilizing"
"If I'm stabilizing, why is my arm goo?" Ellie groaned, the sensation of melting never failed to be strange.
"That explanation is much simpler" Frostbite smiled "how old are you, little Phantom?"
"Uh" Ellie tried to assign herself an age, she aged much slower than the other halfas "16?"
"You didn't understand the question, I didn't mean how you look" Frostbite denied affectionately "how old do you consider yourself?"
“…5” Ellie muttered in embarrassment, even if her age was a bit older than that number, she felt much younger, like a child. She didn't count her early years, between Vlad and traveling the world she hadn't begun to think about it.
Even with all the knowledge stored in her head, she wanted to experience a childhood like other children, to make friends. Something that her adolescent appearance did not allow. As much as Ellie loved talking to Val, she was one of her only friends and unlike her, Val had a whole life to live.
"There is your explanation" The yeti pointed out "ghosts take the appearance of how they see themselves, your core takes into account your wishes and therefore you are reforming into a child"
Danny remembered when he first shifted into his ghost form and Frostbite explanation made sense, but his head reminded him of a very important detail.
"Wouldn't that be troublesome? A lot of people in Amity know you as my cousin” Danny pointed out worriedly. The secret of the halfas was still closely guarded.
"Well, there is a way to leave her appearance the same as it currently is, but that's up to her" Frostbite looked at the girl waiting for an answer.
"No" Ellie denied "I want it to happen, I also...I also want to have a childhood, like the others"
Ellie had always felt bitter about being the only halfa exploring the concept of death more than life; unlike Vlad and Danny who had lived fairly normal lives before their respective accidents, she had been robbed of the possibility.
She wanted to live too.
"It's settled then," Frostbite nodded "Now, this is just getting started and someone has to look after your core while you reform. Do you have any candidates in mind?"
"Danny, can you?" Ellie asked, taking the sleeve of his suit, she wouldn't have considered asking anyone else. Even if she didn't admit it, Ellie always saw him as her father.
"You don't even have to ask, I'll be here when you get back" Danny ruffled her hair with a smile.
"Thank you, dad" Ellie closed her eyes as she let herself be carried away by the sensation of her core. It was a little strange that what she thought would kill her was fulfilling her dreams.
Before the halfa could reply to the comment, Ellie melted, and the ectoplasm was quickly absorbed into her core.
Danny looked at the green stone in his hands with concern.
"How long do you think it will take her?" he asked the Yeti.
"A couple of hours" Frostbite sat down next to him "it's hard being a new parent isn't it? I still remember when my children were born"
Danny avoided mentioning that he had no idea about his children. He wondered if he had them in life or death.
"I- Ellie is my cousin," Danny tried to tell him, but his argument sounded weak.
"She doesn't seem to see you as such" The Yeti shrugged as he handed the boy a cup of tea, but the halfa refused to take it as long as he held the stone in his hands.
Frostbite snorted while setting the mug aside, a new parent, in fact.
"Uh, looks like it's time for me to leave my parents house, don't you think?" Danny tried to joke, even Jazz had her own house in another place.
He had temporarily tried it when he was balancing his college life with his spooky duties, living with Sam and Tucker was fun but in the end he came home.
"It seems so" The Yeti shrugged "congratulations, it's a girl"
Danny laughed as he held the stone closer to his chest. He had really become a father, hadn't he?
His core purred at the thought, while an invisible thread connected the two half-ghosts.
Being a parent didn't sound bad. Maybe it wasn't even as hard as people made it out to be.
───────────────
Danny regrets that last thought, he regrets it so much.
He just had to think that, didn't he?
As usual, he called Jazz to inform her of the day's events as he held the stone to his chest (Frostbite had told him it was safe to do so).
Jazz didn't seem too surprised by the news, on the contrary, she started recommending him books on parenting, so many books.
Danny tried to tell her that Ellie probably wouldn't be a difficult child, he got a 30-minute lecture on how she'd probably regress to the mental age of 5 or 6, and therefore he had to be prepared for it.
Deciding to listen to his older sister, Danny googled for advice.
Checking on wikihow how to take care of a child didn't work, Danny could attest to that.
The halfa sighed as he looked at the "I'll bring you some books tomorrow" message that Jazz had send him. Did he really have to read?
It couldn't be that hard, right? His parents took care of Jazz and she ended well!
Danny was ignoring Sam's voice in his head saying that "Jazz is the spiders georg of children and should not be counted"
Of course, Danny was also avoiding to look at the fact that his parents also took care of him and he kinda died. Ellie was already half dead so he couldn't fucked up that part.
He put his phone aside as he stared at the stone on his chest. It had been hours, was Ellie okay? Perhaps something had gone wrong?
He frowned wondering if he should call Frostbite when he noticed the glowing core. Before he knew it he had a 5-year-old girl crushing his stomach.
"Ouch," Danny groaned in pain "fatherhood hurts"
"Daddy! Daddy!" Ellie jumped on his stomach, she didn't seem to notice the change in title "Look! Look! Do you like my new look?"
Realizing that Jazz was right, Danny pretended to think for a few minutes, Ellie looked bummed out at his lack of response.
"Of course I love it!" Danny scooped her up into his arms as she giggled "you look perfect!"
Ellie chuckled as she ran off to Danny's room where she had kept his phone before the whole mess.
"I'll be back soon! I have to tell Val!" The girl ran off, probably forgetting that she could go through the ceiling and get to the room faster.
Danny gave her a thumbs up, as soon as Ellie disappeared down the stairs he lay back on the couch rubbing his stomach. His daughter had strength.
"We're definitely moving" he muttered, closing his eyes. Not in a million years would a girl with that much energy go unnoticed.
Danny checked his phone again and saw messages from Sam and Tucker. The halfa pouted, Jazz was a gossip.
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"Are you sure you have everything?" Tucker asked, checking a list on his PDA. No matter how many years passed, he still loved his technology and refused to throw it away.
"Definitely sure" Danny yawned as he loaded the boxes onto the GAV. Ellie was asleep in the passenger seat.
"Papers?" Tucker checked the list.
"Legal and illegal" Danny held up a folder "Thanks for that, by the way"
"You're welcome man" Tucker shrugged. He had created Ellie's papers a while back, but they had never been needed. Adapting the age was a surprise.
"Food? Money? Clothes?" Tucker recited the list, to Danny's nod he continued, "materials to put together the new portal?"
"Ready" Danny pointed to the box that said "danger", there were also the ectoplasm samples.
"I still think that's a stupid idea" Sam rolled her eyes "that thing killed you"
"Yes, but we need ectoplasm on a regular basis and well, building one was the easiest way to get it" the halfa shrugged. It still made him shudder to think about the accident but the portal was necessary "Besides, portals don't measure distance in the Realms, I can build one that's only a few feet from home"
Also, having Far Frozen close to them was always an advantage and the ghosts had promised not to invade the new town without his permission. He still couldn't believe he was moving to New Jersey.
"That's the only reason I'm letting you get away with it," Jazz snorted as she bent down to kiss her brother's forehead "Remember, we're just a phone call away"
"I know, I know, you don't need to move out as well" Danny shook his head amused, he felt that if he didn't stop them they would really try to " I never thought I would have to move"
"It's been so long since the accident" Sam remembered as she placed a hand on her hip "even though it seems like yesterday"
"It feels like it happened yesterday" Danny admitted while touching the scar on his hand. The memories of the electrocution were still fresh in his mind.
"By the way dude, are you sure to leave Vlad as her biological father?" Tucker winced at the document, he could see the reason but he didn't like it.
"Of course, that idiot must pay me child support" Danny smiled "eat the rich and all that"
Having an excuse to spend Vlad's money was always fun. And if his stupid biological sex could help that, he would use it. Danny was honestly relieved that his legal documents had been changed. He wondered if Vlad knew the real reason why he was never able to create a male clone.
"You could just ask us for money" Sam patted his shoulder "Tucker and I could support your poor ass"
Both had been very successful in their respective fields. Sam had graduated in law and was getting another degree as an Environment Protection Technician, she had changed a lot in a short time. On the other side, Tucker had created his own Technology & Security company, he was currently negotiating a deal with Wayne Enterprises.
Danny had a feeling that his friend wanted to use him to close a deal and had suggested the city as an option for that reason. Bludhaven wasn't far from Gotham after all.
"Just because I'm unemployed doesn't mean I'm poor" Danny pouted "I'll get a job in the new town before you know it"
"I hope so, your savings aren't going to stretch that long" Jazz sighed. Her brother's lack of planning never ceased to be worrisome "Oh, and don't forget to take off your blinder, you need to breathe"
Danny frowned at the comment but nodded. His ghost form was more comfortable because it suited his chosen gender, he wondered if he could change the human as well.
"Okay, I guess that's it" Tucker put the PDA away  "remember not to drive like either of your parents, we don't want you to get a ticket so quickly"
"Nor that the weather news announces when you're going out" Sam smirked, she remembered when Lance Thunder started announcing when Jazz and Danny were learning to drive.
"That's impossible, you know I'm an excellent driver and therefore I'm not going to get a ticker" Danny stuck out his tongue at his best friend.
"Whatever you say Danny" Sam snorted "call us when you get there, and have a safe trip!"
His friends and sister said goodbye to him as he got on the GAV. He started driving away from home. It wasn't long before he passed the "Welcome to Amity Park" sign. The little ghost drawings around it made him smile.
Still, Danny was offended by the skepticism of his friends, he was sure that he was not going to get a ticket anytime soon.
───────────────
An officer was giving him a ticket.
Danny banged his head against the steering wheel of the vehicle as the police officer asked him the routine questions.
"Does this vehicle have a license?" The officer raised an eyebrow. Danny sighed as he handed over the GAV papers, he had licensed all of his parents' inventions long ago "Okay- wait, is this a SUV?"
"No, it's a GAV" Danny growled without further explanation, he was still annoyed by the situation. Clockwork was laughing at him from his damned tower, he was sure "Do you need anything else, officer...Grayson?"
Officer Grayson looked at the vehicle with doubt, the damn thing had more modifications than the Batmobile, he really hoped the boy wasn't some future villain.
He had so many questions to ask.
Before Dick could question him further or Danny risked murder on his first day in town, Ellie woke up from her nap.
"Daddy?" Ellie yawned looking at the driver's seat curiously "Are we there yet?"
All the halfa's anger melted away and his attitude took a complete turn.
"No honey, we got pulled over for speeding but we're in town now" Danny leaned down to brush her hair out of her face "you can go back to sleep"
"You're a bad driver" his daughter smirked, she wondered if driving skills were hereditary.
"Are you new in town?" Dick leaned in curiously, the girl reminded him of his own daughter.
Danny was about to tell him it was none of his business but Ellie answered first.
"¡Yes! We're moving" Ellie smiled "That's why we brought all the boxes, I'm going to enroll in a new school and dad is going to get a job"
"That sounds wonderful" Dick smiled softly as he handed Danny the ticket along with the GAV's papers "You should be more careful on the streets, I don't think there is anywhere that accepts 120 km/hr as a normal speed"
The halfa frowned, didn't the officer have a heart!? At least he could forgive a new neighbor for a silly mistake!
"Yeah, yeah, thanks" he murmured as he put the ticket in the glove compartment.
"Well, all seems to be in order" Dick straightened up "you can follow your way, enjoy Bludhaven!"
Danny hoped that he would never see him again.
When he arrived at his new house, the halfa carried Ellie to the couch and let her sleep, after which he began to unload the things from the GAV.
He wondered if he should start unpacking everything or just sleep. He felt tired at the thought of opening all those boxes and fell asleep on the couch with his daughter.
When he woke up it was night, Danny peeked out of the window as he heard a motorcycle park next door. Perhaps he could see his neighbors?
He gaped at the sight of fucking Officer Grayson reaching down to grab a little girl and carry her into his arms.
Wasn't it enough to be physically perfect and heartless, but he also had to be a good father? Damn everything!
It had to be a fucking joke
X
1K notes · View notes
bethanydelleman · 11 months
Text
Writing Villains (Advice from Jane Austen)
One of the reasons that I find Jane Austen's novels so wonderful is that they have amazingly realistic villains, some that are fully fleshed out characters. Austen's biggest strength is that she gives her villains clear, logical motives. In fact, for many of her villainous characters you can turn the entire story around and see a rational story from the other side.
For example, Lucy Steele. She doesn't attack Elinor out of mindless evil, but because Edward Ferrars is her golden ticket to wealth and she knows that Edward loves Elinor. Lucy might twist the knife a little on Elinor out of sadism, but generally she attacks Elinor in an attempt to secure Edward. When it comes to other characters, Lucy is overly sweet if she wants something from them, otherwise she acts normally. As an example, she leaves Marianne alone because Marianne is not competing for Edward and also can't do anything for Lucy. Anne, Lucy's sister, likes her. Lucy has friends and family she stays with, she's a fairly well-rounded person.
You can put yourself in Lucy's shoes, you can turn the entire narrative on it's head and play it out from her perspective and it would make complete sense. You could even make Lucy sympathetic! She probably sees herself as a hardworking underdog, trying to wrest her one chance at prosperity away from the conniving Elinor Dashwood. I'm sure she thinks the pain she causes Elinor is justified.
If you can't do that with your villains, then there is a good chance they are just evil for evil's sake. I picked Lucy Steele on purpose because I hate when the entire motivation for a antagonist female character is "bitches be crazy". Bitches may be mean, but almost always for a good reason.
Even Mrs. Norris, who is probably the most cruel of Austen's female villains, can be perspective switched. Her life is about being useful to the Bertram family so she can feel important because her married status/wealth is lower than she wished. As she must always be deferential towards the Bertrams, she takes out her negative emotions on those below her, the servants and Fanny, while also showing off how good she is at "managing" those people. (And yes, she is your childhood bully)
We often hear her perspective and she clearly sees herself as a useful part of the family and a defender of Sir Thomas's wealth. She thinks she's a good person! Which is also an important point: most people doing wrong do not believe that they are doing wrong. That is what really makes a villain scary. Mrs. Norris thinks she's helping Fanny in a very twisted way by teaching Fanny her station in life. If you asked her, she'd give you a self-justified answer and she'd probably actually believe it.
Another way to do a good villain is to just make a person very selfish. Henry Crawford doesn't sit around all day laughing about how much pain he causes women, he doesn't think about it. He only thinks about the fun of flirting for himself, not the harm to others. The glimpses we get into his perspective are not cruel at all. It's the same with Willougby, he thinks only of his own pleasure and tries very hard to ignore that he has crushed Marianne and destroyed Eliza Williams. When he is forced to accept that people were hurt, he blames everyone but himself.
Wickham thinks that he's a victim, Caroline Bingley is ambitious and doesn't care who she steps on to get to the top, Mr. Elton is insulted that Emma could even dream he's a match with Harriet but he can't touch Emma so he punches down at Harriet. They all make sense, they all probably believe that their actions are justified.
Also, imagine taking the heroine/hero right out of the story, would the villain still act the same way? If Anne didn't exist, Mr. Elliot would still try to bring himself into the Elliot family because he was afraid of losing the title. If Elizabeth didn't exist, Wickham would have had another favourite in Meryton. If Fanny didn't exist, Mrs. Norris would have found some other puppy to kick. The villains don't just appear for the plot of the main characters, they have their own reasons for moving around and messing shit up.
Lastly, explaining but not excusing (though unfortunately some people will excuse anyway but that's not your fault). Mary Crawford is mercenary and doesn't seem to believe that love is even a real thing. It's pointed out several times in the novel that her defects have to do with being raised in an immoral environment and a broken home. She was taught by her aunt to marry for wealth and disregard love. Austen doesn't excuse Mary, she doesn't give her a happy ending, but she does explain how she came to be. She's not just greedy, she has been taught that wealth is the best recipe for happiness. As an adult now, it is her responsibility to question that maxim or remain a villain.
Austen wrote amazing morally grey characters and "villains" (a term I used a little liberally here, some of them probably only count as antagonists, not full blown villains). I love how real and human she made her characters, it's something I aspire to myself!
Linking my Caroline rant because it's related, people remove her motives so often and flatten her into a "bitches be crazy".
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bluecollarmcandtf · 5 months
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Typical Day for a Mall Cop
My name's Bill, and I've been a guard at the mall for almost a decade now. It wasn't my dream job, but life has a way of creeping up on you with kids and a mortgage. I needed something to pay the bills, and I've always had a knack for watching over people.
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Like any other weekend, the mall is fairly busy, so I stay on my feet and patrol the halls for most of the day. Occasionally, I'll check in with the other mall cop, but my time is mostly filled with watching shoppers come and go. If anybody gets too rowdy, a stern look is enough to keep them in line.
A lot of the time, teenagers will loiter in stores. Some of them even try and bring their skateboards in, but it isn't too hard to make them adhere to the mall's strict policies. They might be young and clueless, but that doesn't mean I'll cut them any breaks.
Over by the fountain, I see one of the boys I admonished a week ago. I think I caught him shoplifting or something. Thieves normally get banned from the mall, but I didn't do that with this one. He said something that completely caught me off guard; he said he could hypnotize me.
I laughed in his face.
Amused inwardly by the boy's foolish claim, I walk over to check in with him. I'm sure he'll remember the security guard that almost kicked him out of the mall last weekend.
The kid is chatting with his friends, but they fall quiet when they notice me looming behind them. Like we'd discussed last week, I drop to my knees and kneel in front of the troublemaker. He explained that this is the best thing for me to do when I see him around, and I can't help but agree. I know the boy deserves my respect.
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I plant a kiss on both of his sneakers, and then wait for him to speak first. It takes a minute because he and his friends are busy cracking up over some unspoken joke. Whatever it is, clearly went right over my head.
"How you doin', mall pig?" the boy laughs.
I smirk at the nickname he's given me. We've gotten in the habit of calling each other by these pseudonyms, and I don't mind it.
"Very good, sir," I answer, using the name I've come to associate him with, "How are you?"
"Fine, I guess," he shrugs, "I spent your cash on kicks for my crew."
That reminds me of last week again. The boy had made it seem like a good idea to give him all the money I had, which included the paycheck I'd earned for last pay period. On the ground, I had a close view of all the vibrant sneakers the teenagers were wearing. It was nice to know he'd put my gift to good use, even if my wife had been pissed that I'd come home without my month's salary.
"You have another check for me, fat ass?"
His friends laugh at his new nickname for me, but I shake my head and answer a solemn, "No, sir."
The teenager groans and leads his gang of friends away, already bored with me. It seems like he's just going to leave me there, kneeling in the middle of the mall, until he turns and beckons me to follow. Inwardly, I'm glad that he's not done with me yet. I've come to enjoy our interactions a lot.
I follow the boys, crawling behind them all the way into a bathroom.
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"If you ain't got any cash to keep me and my crew entertained, then you're gonna have to do something to make us laugh," he explains.
"Of course, sir!" I smile, trying to express how willing I am to impress him and his friends.
"We'd find it hilarious if you dunked your head in each toilet," he adds blandly.
I light up. He's just explained how I can be of service and now all I have to do is follow through. I'm sure it'd be hilarious for them to watch a fully grown security guard giving himself a few swirlies. That's peak comedy!
"Watch this, sir!" I laugh, crawling over to the first toilet and shoving my face into the water without any hesitation.
I know the guy that's supposed to clean these bathrooms, and it's obvious he slacks off because there are skid marks all over. I try not to think about it as my cheeks and forehead brush against the bottom of the bowl. When I pull my face out of the flushing toilet, my ears pop and hear a roar of laughter behind me. The kids find it hilarious, which only fuels my desire to keep going.
With a gaping grin, I shuffle over to the next stall and repeat. There are six toilets in the men's restroom. Some are cleaner than others. The last one is a clogged mess, and the boys find it hilarious when I come up with toilet paper plastered to my face. I laugh through it all, even if the urge to puke is growing.
By the time I'm done, I'm soaked in toilet water, and the teenagers are in tears.
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"Alright, toilet guy. That was disgusting," the leader of the pack chuckles, grimacing in my direction, "You have a car or something?"
"Yes, sir. I've got a minivan in the parking lot."
"A minivan?" he seems disappointed, "Hand over the keys anyway. We wanna drive around."
"You got it, sir," I say, fishing the fob out of my damp pockets.
He swipes the keys out of my hand eagerly and turns to leave the bathroom. I start to follow the boys out, but he stops me.
"Why don't you stay in here 'till you dry off," he snorts, "You can spend that time in the corner, thinking about what you can do for me next time I'm at the mall."
"Yes, sir," answer, and the boys leave.
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Briefly, the thought of getting back to work crosses my mind. I really should be out there keeping an eye on the vendors and their merchandise, but that goes away. Like suggested, I stare at the dirty tile wall and begin to brainstorm what I can do for the boy the next time I see him.
My walkie goes off now and then with the voice of my coworker wondering where I am, but I ignore it.
After an hour or so, I've dripped mostly dry, but a strong stink still lingers around my head. Still, I've come up with a few different things I could have ready next week. It'll take some overtime to make extra cash for the boy. My wife won't be happy about that, but it'll give me a chance to actually have cash ready for him when he asks for it.
The only other thing I have to offer is the perks of my job. Maybe his friends and him would like a tour of the security office? I'd give them free reign of everything in the confiscated bin.
Speaking of my job, I should probably get back. My partner is probably angry at me for not answering the radio. He'll be happy when I tell him I'll take the late shift for the next few days. Hopefully he won't say anything about the smell. God, it's awful!
Just another day working as a mall cop!
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just-j-really · 1 year
Text
Concept that grabbed me and wouldn't let me go:
Dreamling soulmate AU, only they're not soulmates.
I have ideas for the canon timeline, but for the sake of argument, let's go with a modern AU. Dream and Hob aren't friends, exactly, but they're in the same friend circle, so they see each other fairly often. And one night, Dream's been dragged out drinking with some friends, and he overhears a very drunk Hob saying that soulmates are stupid, HE'S not going to go along with it, he'll fall in love with whoever he wants! So Dream (a hopeless romantic) makes some sort of bet with him, that when he finds his soulmate he'll be blissfully happy with her.
After that, whenever they run into each other at other's friends' events Dream will ask Hob if he's met his soulmate (Eleanor, according to the messy handwriting on Hob's arm), and Hob will be like "Nope! But I've got a job at this weird startup!" and then talk at him for three hours. The bet goes from a bet they're taking seriously to an excuse to talk to each other to a Weird Bit that's an essential part of their friendship.
And they are, genuinely, friends at this point, which is why it's such a betrayal for Dream when Hob answers his joking "found your soulmate yet?" with a quiet, "I think I might have. He's been asking me that question for like a year now."
Dream does not take this well. He believes in soulmates, wholeheartedly. He can't figure out a single interpretation of Hob's declaration that doesn't leave him feeling used: best-case scenario Hob legit believes what he's saying (but is still using Dream in this obviously doomed experiment of his), worst-case scenario Hob's noticed that Dream is attracted to him (even if that will never ever go any further than meaningless attraction because they are not soulmates) and is deliberately trying to take advantage of him to prove his point.
They argue. Dream storms off.
Somewhere in here, Dream has a relationship with his Actual Literal Soulmate, Alianora. It is extremely Messy, and she breaks it off because they may be soulmates but clearly this is not working. She's not the first person ever to end things with their soulmate, but it's extremely rare, and the fallout is shit-awful for both of them because everyone in their lives is trying to figure out whose fault it was, never mind that the answer was "nobody's- they met under really awful circumstances and the specific cocktail of that and the pressure, both internal and external, they were under to Be Perfectly Happy Together Forever just. Poisoned their relationship and they didn't deal with it until it exploded and by then it was too late."
Eventually, Dream and Hob resolve their argument, complete with an inn-building-equivalent Big Gesture from Hob. Their relationship goes back to the way it was, mostly, except that Dream is undeniably aware that Hob is sad and pining after Dream and trying to hide it from him. And Hob being sad is Basically the Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen.
Dream is... more aware of the implications of that thought than he'd like to be.
And once he's noticed that it's really, really hard not to notice how gorgeous Hob is when he smiles, the way his heart flutters whenever Hob calls him a nickname or makes sure to grab Dream a coffee when he gets one for himself, the fact that he'd be perfectly happy sitting and listening to Hob talk for hours...
And things are different now. Dream's soulmate doesn't want him, he's not betraying her if he starts a doomed relationship with someone else. Hob will be happy. The only person getting hurt here will be Dream, when Hob inevitably meets his soulmate. He's setting himself up to get hurt, yes, but at least he'll get to be happy with Hob before that.
So one night he very tentatively asks if Hob still meant what he said, about Dream being his soulmate. Hob's like "Crap I thought I was hiding it I'm so sorry I don't want you to be uncomfortable."
Dream's like "You are not actually that subtle. But I'm. Glad. You still feel that way."
It takes Hob a few seconds and a fairly terrible emotional rollercoaster to figure out what Dream meant by that, and Dream is not good about clarifying. But when he does he asks Dream on a date, and Dream agrees, and before he knows what's hit him Hob's moved in with him and is very cautiously hinting around about engagement rings and he can't possibly be in love with Hob, right? Whatever's between them is too easy, too natural, too much like they added romance to their existing friendship and somehow it worked perfectly and-
Oh. Shit.
And just when Dream realizes he's invested- not just invested, committed, this was Absolutely Not how the story's supposed to go and it's terrifying but he desperately wants it anyway- just when he's got something to lose-
Hob meets Eleanor.
And almost immediately asks if Dream would mind him explaining things to her one-on-one, since he thinks it would go more smoothly that way. Dream says he doesn't, and braces himself. It's not that he thinks Hob is lying to him. He 100% trusts that Hob has made this meeting to turn Eleanor down.
He's just also 100% certain that the moment Hob has a conversation with his soulmate he'll realize just how important a soulmate is, that Dream was right and that next to the person he's destined for, Dream means nothing to him.
When Hob gets back from the meeting he's happier than Dream's seen him in months, maybe ever, and Dream braces himself.
But the first thing Hob does after closing the door is kiss Dream, for several minutes.
And the second thing he does is excitedly tell Dream, "It went really well! She said I'm not worth it!"
And Dream's like "...what."
And Hob explains that he'd told Eleanor that he was very sorry, but he already had a soulmate, and she'd been upset but essentially told him "Yeah fine, if you're this adamant about not wanting a soulmate it is not at all worth it for me to pursue anything," with a grudging sort of understanding.
And Dream's like "...what."
And they go back and forth for a bit until finally Dream's like "But she's your SOULMATE. You're not even going to TRY to have something with your soulmate in order to stay with a man who is so bad at romance his soulmate left him."
And Hob's like "I've been saying for years now that you're my perfect other half, soulmates and destiny be damned, and I meant it. You're perfect, and I'm not letting you go for anything."
And Dream... still can't entirely believe in an undying non-soulmate romance the way Hob does. But he wants to, and he trusts Hob enough to try. And several years later they're married, maybe talking about kids, and in some mundane little domestic moment Dream realizes he does entirely believe in this now, in a way that snuck up on him gradually.
And he tells Hob he's won the bet.
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blakeswritingimagines · 7 months
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Everything Has Changed
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Summary: Being the only one to believe in your best friend turns out to be your best decision ever.
Word count: 4.8k
A/N: Not all of it fully follows the movie but I went where it felt good!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Gran Turismo characters, nor do I claim to own them. I do not own any of the images used, nor do I claim to own them.
You stood silently as you watched Jann pack his bags, unsure of whether to be happy or sad that he was leaving for the Nissan Academy. You let your eyes fall to the ground in order to avoid his gaze. You had to admit, it hurt knowing he was leaving. You have been friends with Jann for a few years now. He was one of your only friends, maybe even more. "Jann, are you sure you want to leave? I will miss you so much." You looked at him and there was sadness in your eyes because you were worried that he was gonna forget all about you. You watched Jann finish packing his bags. You can’t help but shake the thoughts of him being gone, of finally being alone. You felt a pit in your stomach at the knowledge that the only person you felt comfortable around was now about to exit your life.
Jann slowly turned to face you, his expression somber. He slowly nodded in response to your question. "I want to leave." He told you softly, but there was a conviction in his words. He knew that this was something he had to do. "I know this may be hard for you to understand, but being at the academy is necessary for me if I'm going to achieve my dream." He paused for a moment before adding, "I promise I'll come visit you whenever I get the chance, okay?" You bit your lower lip, trying to hide the hurt you felt. "I know," you said quietly. You didn't want to hold Jann back from achieving his dreams especially since his dad often did, but you can't help feeling a pang of jealousy. "Good luck," you managed to say and forced yourself to smile at him. You knew it would've been selfish to ask him to stay, but you just couldn't. “Okay, Jann.” You took a deep breath. “I just wish you didn’t have to go.” You looked down, trying not to cry. “I’m happy for you. I know you’ve always wanted this opportunity, and you definitely deserve it. It’s just so hard to accept how different my life will be without you.” You swallowed and sniffled. “I don’t know what I’ll do without you nearby.”
Jann was silent for a moment, contemplating your words. He had thought that you would be more upset at him leaving. In fact, the fact that you seemed to accept his departure so easily made him feel guilty. "I'll miss you too," he finally said, his voice quiet and melancholy. "But I'll be fine. I promise. And like I said, I'll visit whenever I can. But until then, I think I should get going." He slowly turned back to his bags and started to pick them up. You nodded slowly. "Just promise you'll send me a text when you get there so I know you're safe." You said, trying to keep your voice steady. "And I want all the details, okay? I want every little thing you get up to while you're away. Don't keep this to yourself." You said playfully, trying to ease the situation a bit. "But please just come back as soon as you can. I'll feel pretty lost without you" You said, with a pout and puppy eyes. You sighed but nodded slowly. “Okay Jann. It’s time for you to go.” You were trying not to cry and didn’t want to beg him to stay, as you knew it was something he was determined to do. You slowly walked over to him and gave him a last hug and looked up at him, trying to hold in your tears. “I’m so proud of you, Jann. Go chase your dreams.” You said with a loving smile.
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You would receive letters from Jann on a fairly regular basis when he was away, as well as the occasional picture. As time went on, you would receive other pictures, specifically of him posing with his car before races. You could see the happiness in his eyes every time even as you made it clear to his family each time. However, he made it a point to visit you when he had the chance. Months later, you would come out to see him during one of his races. Your eyes were glued to the track as you saw his car blaze past everyone else and take the lead. You couldn't help but smile and cheer. You would continue to watch the race, your eyes not leaving the car at all. But as he came into view, your stomach flipped and your heart started racing. As he crossed the finish line, you couldn't help but scream and cheer even louder, filled with excitement and happiness. You stood and started walking toward the finish line to be able to cheer him properly. You waved your hands at him happily, full of excitement and joy. You couldn't wait to get close to him and tell him how proud you were all this time.
Jann was able to hear your cheers from the track, and as he approached the finish line, he saw you standing there waiting for him. His heart skipped a beat at seeing you. He wasn't expecting you at all. As if in a trance, he drove his car off the track and over to where you were standing, waiting for him. Once he had arrived, he stepped out of the car and walked over to you. His expression was one of sheer joy and he embraced you tightly. He had been waiting for a moment like this. He gave you a warm hug and kissed you on the cheek. "You came to watch!" He said excitedly. "How am I supposed to not win with you out here cheering me on?" He was filled with joy at seeing one of his closest friends so excited to see him again. You smiled and laughed as he approached. “Of course, I came to watch,“ you exclaimed, your eyes wide with excitement at seeing him so happy. Then you quickly pulled him into a tight hug, your arms tight around his body. As you tried to contain your joy at hugging him again. "I missed you so much, Jann," you said with a bright smile, your eyes sparkling with joy. "I’m just so glad you’re doing well and that you’re happy. I'm proud of everything you have achieved."
Jann smiled back at you as you hugged him back. Your arms felt warm and comforting around him, and he let himself enjoy the hug for as long as you wanted to hold him. When you finally pulled away, Jann couldn't help but smile. You were always so supportive and encouraging, and seeing you there made him feel so much better. "Thank you. For everything." He said sincerely, meeting your gaze. "I wish we could see each other more often, I do. But I'm glad I got to see you for this race. I missed you too." He said softly, holding you close to him as he hugged you again. It felt fantastic to have you so close again. He couldn't believe it had been so long. "Thank you. I don't think I would be here if it weren't for you." He said sincerely. "You were one of the only people who was supportive of me. I appreciate that, and I hope you know that as my career continues to unfold, I'll always have a spot for you right at my side." "I'm just happy to see you do what you enjoy and be successful at it." You said, your eyes looking at him lovingly and with admiration of all his achievements thus far. "That's amazing, Jann. And yes, I will always support you. I have your back, and you're just so amazing." You laughed fondly, your eyes showing nothing but happiness at seeing your best friend doing what he loves. "Always," you said, as he held you close to him. You meant what you said too. In your mind, this wasn't just a fun little conversation you were having; these were words with promise, words with a future together. You felt so happy he appreciated the friendship just as much as you did. "I don't want you to ever forget that." You pulled back a little bit and looked into his eyes. You were so close to him, your body pressed against his, and you were starting to feel a little nervous being so close to him. "I'll always be here, Jann."
Jann smiled at you as you spoke, listening intently and remembering every word. You were so supportive and encouraging, and he appreciated that so much. He looked into your eyes as well and felt something he hadn't felt in a while. He hadn't forgotten how good it felt to be close to you and wanted to hold it for as long as he could. He put his hand on your cheek, leaned in closer, and kissed you lightly. He was surprised at what he had done, and suddenly wanted to pull away. You were surprised by the kiss but didn’t stop him. You kissed him right back, putting your hands on his cheeks. You put your whole body into it, feeling the warmth of his lips. After a couple of seconds, you both pulled apart, still smiling at each other. You looked up at him as if in a trance, not wanting to let go of him. But slowly you turned your head and looked back at the track, growing flustered about what just happened having only dreamed of this exact moment. You let out a small giggle, not quite believing that the two of you just kissed. You looked at him with those puppy eyes, as if asking him for a bigger kiss. You wanted more than that, but you were too afraid to tell him.
Jann didn't want to break the moment as well, as he was feeling the same way as you. He kept his face close to yours for a few more moments, enjoying the feeling of your lips against his. When you turned away and glanced back at him, he couldn't help but smile and lean in once more. He wanted to feel your lips again, and this time he wanted to keep them pressed against his. He leaned down to meet you, and kissed you again, this time more passionately. The feeling of your bodies pressed together was intoxicating. This time, your lips pressed closer to his, trying to feel as much from it as you could. When your bodies met, you felt your heart racing, and your hands trembling. You gave in and let it all happen, not knowing nor caring what would happen in the future. With passion and intensity, you kissed him back once again, this time not wanting it to stop. You were still holding your breath as this happened, your eyes closed and your heart racing. You pulled away, breathing heavily, your eyes slightly teary and your lips slightly swollen.
After a moment, Jann ended the kiss by pulling away slowly. He could feel his heart beating fast in his chest as well as his breath being shallow. Thinking the same feeling only came when he was driving, as you broke the kiss, he looked down at you with a smile. "That was amazing," He whispered softly, staring into your eyes before slowly caressing your face. "I think I need more of that." He said playfully, still blushing, but hoping that this meant the beginning of something even more than friendship on both sides. You looked up at him, your eyes sparkling "Yeah, it was amazing," You said with a smile. "I- I think I do too" You added, with your voice trembling slightly, trying to keep the words steady and not losing control. You were still trying to catch your breath. "So does this mean what I think it means?" You asked nervously, with a slight smile on your lips. You tilted your head sideways, your hands on his cheeks, waiting for his answer.
Jann nodded slowly, smiling back at you. He couldn't believe that you felt the same way that he did. "Yeah, it does. It definitely does." He said softly. "I want to be more than friends with you, will you be mine?" He softly caressed your face, looking at you with adoration. "Is that okay with you?" You could feel his heart beating quickly in his chest, matching your own. The question gave you a moment of panic, your body shaking. "Yes." You said, with your voice trembling. "A thousand times yes," you whispered as you got closer to him and smiled. "Oh my god, you don't know how long I have wanted to hear those words," you said with a big smile on your face. Your eyes were sparkling. You then got closer and gave him a long, passionate kiss. You pressed onto him as you kissed him, not wanting to miss a single second of this. "I love you." You whispered softly. Jann pulled you into his body, holding your head gently as he embraced you. The way you pressed your body against him made him blush, his heart beating rapidly. It felt like the beginning of something new, and he was overwhelmed with joy. He pulled you close and kissed you again, pouring into you all the love he had stored up inside of him for so long. "I love you too." He said softly as he continued to kiss you. "I've been waiting to say that to you for so long, and I don't want to waste another second."
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A few months had passed since you and Jann started dating. You had become closer than you had ever been before, taking things slowly and not rushing into anything. You felt happy and content and wanted to share this feeling with Jann. Cheering him on as you watched the race as his family was there as well happily, everything around you seemed to fade out with a ringing in your ears as you stared at the screen in horror. You'd just watched Jann's vehicle violently crash into the barrier of his Nürburgring race. It looked horrific. His car flipped multiple times until the news cut out with nobody knowing anything. Feeling as if you were going to be sick while thinking it must've just been some cruel joke taking place instead. You didn’t know what to feel. You wanted to cry. You wanted to scream and yell. You wanted to break something. But most of all, you wanted to see Jann alive and well again. You looked around, as if in search of an answer to this nightmare you were living. But you knew the answer. The image in front of you was no lie, and Jann wouldn’t come marching up to you and tell you it was all just a joke. You fell on the floor crying. You didn’t need an answer you knew the answer all along.
Your heart started beating faster and faster when you heard the report of Jann's crash. Your mind went blank, and all you could do was stare at the television hoping and praying this was all a nightmare. When the news cut out, you felt yourself being pulled back to reality. A wave of emotions hit you, and you quickly burst into tears. You had known Jann for so long now, more than words could describe, and now you felt like a part of you was missing. You cried for so long, wondering what you were supposed to do now. Life just felt so cruel. You rushed to the hospital as soon as you processed what happened after the crash at the race. Inside, you searched desperately for any answers. You were still trying to process the news you had seen. You couldn’t bear the thought of losing Jann, not after everything you had been through. You looked around for someone, anyone who could give you some sort of update, some news, anything. But there was nothing. You asked one of the nurses, with a quivering voice: “Do you know anything? How is he?”
The nurses were kindhearted and were able to provide you with a bit more information on the situation. Jann was fine and had sustained no major or fatal injuries. He had only bumped and bruised himself but needed a bit of rest as they didn't want him to overexert himself. They also told you that you could visit him to make sure that he was alright. You quickly went over to his room where he was resting, and smiled as you saw him lying there, eyes closed and still breathing. "Jann?" You spoke in a soft whisper. He opened his eyes and saw you standing by the door before slowly moving closer to him. His eyes widened for a second before he nodded, trying to sit up. "Babe?" He said softly, with his voice filled with joy. "Are you okay? I'm sorry about the race. I know you were waiting for me…" He trailed off as he tried to move, only to suddenly jolt in pain. When he saw that you were looking at his various bruises, he quickly attempted to put on a brave face. "I'm fine. They're just scratches." He said, attempting to ease your concerns. "I'm so happy to see you." He said as he lifted his hand to reach out for yours. He wanted to pull you closer, to be surrounded by your comforting presence.
"It's okay, sweetheart, don't move." You rushed to his side, gently taking his hand in your own, trying not to cry as you did so. You caressed his hair and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, trying not to feel overwhelmed. You cupped his jaw tightly, not wanting to let go of him this time. You were thankful to be there for him and didn't let go. "I thought something happened to you," you whispered softly, trying to control your tears, but failing to do so. "… I'm sorry." He mumbled, still trying to move despite your plea. He wanted to wrap his arm around you and pull you close, to show you how much he cared. He tried to get his mind off of the crash by thinking back to the last couple of months. He had spent every free moment with you, whether it was sharing dinner in the evenings, taking long walks throughout the city, or just talking late into the night. He loved how calm and peaceful of a presence you had, and felt safer than he ever had before.
You wanted to make Jann feel comfortable. You gently tried to lift his head a little and caress his face. "Don't worry, darling. I'm here. Do not apologize for something you cannot control. Rest and relax. I will stay by your side as you heal." You said softly, as your tears filled up your eyes again. As if trying to show Jann how much you cared, you reached your hand down onto his chest and kept it there. It was as if nothing mattered to you at that particular moment, other than Jann's wellbeing. Jann tried to smile back at you, despite feeling like it was hard for him to do so at the moment. However, as soon as you placed your hands on his chest, he felt a sense of peace wash over him. You were the only thing that he wanted to see in this moment, and when you put your hand on his chest, he let out a small sigh. He said softly, his voice weak and raspy. "I'm sorry I worried you. But I'm glad you're here."
When Jack and Danny walked in wanting to check up on the driver, Jann felt his heart skipping a beat when he heard that someone had passed away in the crash. His brain couldn't process the news, and he sat there in silence for a moment. Jann's eyes widened for a brief second upon hearing the news, but he had a feeling it was worse than he had originally thought. He tried to move, but he was too scared of what he might do to his injuries. His voice was soft and weak. He was still processing the news and just wanted to be with you for the moment causing him to yell at the older men to leave. "Stay with me. Please." He whispered softly. "I don't want to be alone." "I am not going to leave you, Jann," you whispered. You looked at him with love in your eyes and caressed his face. You held Jann close, trying to give him a warm embrace as if you only wanted to make him feel comfortable and safe. It seemed as if everything around you but him had disappeared, leaving only Jann and yourself in the room. You had no idea that someone had passed away yet.
Once he was able to go home all he could really do was hold onto you not wanting to let go. Late into the night as he was holding you close Jann slowly took a deep breath, trying to figure out what he wanted to say. He knew that the crash had affected him, and he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to get behind the wheel again. "I- I don't know if I want to drive again." He said softly, taking another breath. "I know I said I would be racing until I retired, but I'm not sure if I can anymore." He looked at you with sadness in his eyes, not wanting to let you down. You held Jann, listening to his words intently. You could see the fear on his face, and your heart broke as you heard him say that he might not drive again even if it did make sense. You wanted to make him change his mind, but you also wanted to be supportive of his decision. But maybe he would change his mind if something could just convince him not to give in to the fear. “Jann, love, I understand how scary it must be right now,” you spoke to him in a soft voice. “But, I am sure that you are stronger than you think and that you will get through this, okay?”
Jann listened to your words intently and slowly nodded as he thought about what you had said. "I-I don't know." He said softly, still sounding uncertain. "I guess a part of me just wants things to go back to the way they used to be…" He looked at you, hoping that you understood where he was coming from. "I just wanted to make you proud, to make my family proud." He said. "But if I stopped racing now, would I be a failure?” You took a deep breath when Jann finished speaking. You couldn't believe he was asking this question, a question you knew the answer to. "Jann, darling, if you were to stop racing, you would absolutely not be a failure," you spoke to him, not knowing what else to say. "The only thing that matters to me right now is that you are safe and healthy." You said softly, your voice steady and reassuring. "I love you, and I would love you no matter what you do," you told him, gently placing your hand on his forearm. Jann sighed lightly as he absorbed your words. He felt better knowing that you would still love him no matter what he decided to do. He looked at you with adoring eyes. "I love you too. More than I could put into words." He was still trying to figure out what to do with himself, but knew one thing: he wanted to be with you more than anything. As he looked at you, he couldn't help but smile.
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After Jack's pep talk, Jann was finally convinced to try the 24-hour race again. A few months had passed since the crash, and Jann was feeling better than ever. Jann thought about Jack's story, and although he was hesitant at first, he eventually agreed to do the 24-hour race. He felt like he owed it to himself to try one final time, and it would also help him get back into the rhythm of things. The day of the race arrived, and Jann felt a bit nervous as he got ready. However, as he sat in his car and put on his helmet, he felt a rush of adrenaline. He knew he could do this, and he wanted to show everyone and himself that he was still as good as ever. As he prepared for the race, you and he were constantly in contact. You both sent each other numerous messages, expressing your love for each other and wishing for safe travels. When the race started, Jann was finally back on track, feeling more confident than ever. His family, along with you, were there to cheer him on as he raced.
You were anxious, your heart racing as Jann sat in his car, preparing for the race. You could feel the pressure and the stress of the situation, not just for him but also for yourself. You knew how important this race was for him, but you were still scared of what might happen. What if he didn't like his racing anymore? What if he crashed again? But most importantly, what if he was going to get hurt? It was a very hard moment for you, but you had to keep a level head. You had to support Jann as best as you could. As the race continued, Jann became focused. The world around him disappeared as he focused on the race. He felt his adrenaline pumping, as he was doing everything he could to win this race. He sped past other racers, leaving them in his wake. The crowd around him grew louder as they cheered for him. Almost as if he could see you smiling at him, your eyes sparkling, as he sped by. He was more determined than ever to win this race. As the race came close to its ending, Jann was still in the lead. You got even more excited now, your heart racing at his speed.
The hours passed by quickly as Jann raced. With the wind blowing in his hair and the sun setting behind him, he felt invincible. He pushed the car to its limits and enjoyed every second of the race. As the hours passed, you got more anxious, watching the hours tick by. When Jann crossed the final line, your heart was racing fast. You stood up quickly making your way to him, waiting for him. As Jann finally stepped out of the car, he was greeted by your warm embrace and your joyful yell. "Oh, my love." You screamed as you hugged him tightly, tears in your eyes. Jann was filled with joy as he climbed out of the car, his hands raised in the air in celebration. He knew that he had done it. He had raced in the 24-hour race and survived. Jann felt like a king as he got out of the car and was greeted by the hugs and congratulations of the supporters around him. He looked at the crowd of family and friends, but his eyes were quickly drawn back to you. He saw how excited and happy you were for his victory, and it made him all the more glad that he had continued to push himself. When he felt your arms wrap around him and squeeze you tightly, his heart raced as well. He let out a long sigh as he finally had the chance to take a break and soak in what had just happened. "Hey, babe." He said softly, still breathing heavily from the race. "I did it… I'm so happy I did it…" He smiled softly, still holding onto you tightly.
“I couldn't be happier,” you said as you leaned close and kissed Jann’s cheek, tears still in your eyes. “I am so proud of you, my love.” You continued to hug him tightly, your arms around his neck, your faces so close your breaths misted against each other's cheek. “You did it. You did it,” you whispered into his ear, your voice trembling. You tried to suppress your excitement, but you just couldn't help yourself. “You really did it.” You kept repeating this as if to reassure yourself that the victory was real and that you both weren't just young dumb kids anymore. "Yeah, we did it." He said softly, smiling as he looked at you and kissed your forehead. He was still trying to catch his breath as his body was feeling the fatigue from the stressful race. He leaned his cheek on yours as he pulled himself closer. He held you tightly as well, not wanting to let go, not wanting this moment to ever end. "Thank you, baby. I couldn't have done it without you." He said softly. "You were there for me every step of the way, and I can't thank you enough for that. I love you." He whispered into your ear, and his voice trembled as he repeated these three words once again.
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