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just-a-little-cellist · 1 year

Note

Hey its me who asked for your The Unexpected Guest, and it was brilliant! I love the idea of part 2 it makes more sense!

I loved your idea of once they get to Rivendell Thorins and readers feelings are explored and some spicy stuff happens

Thank you, and love your work!☺️x

(I'm really glad you enjoyed it! I'm really sorry for the wait for part 2 - uni work, work work and writer's block are not a great combo and I didn't want to rush this (this part also got WAY longer than I thought it would), plus I've made some minor edits to part 1 since I wasn't totally happy with it - been a hot minute since I wrote smut so I hope this is ok :D thank you all for being so patient and I hope you enjoy!!)

(link for part 1 - warning for NSFW content below, oral (m receiving), p in v sex, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it))

ghivashel - treasure of all treasures, amralime - my love

An Unexpected Guest pt.2 (Thorin x AFAB!fem!human!reader)

The journey to Rivendell was taxing on all of you, though you couldn't help but feel most sorry for Bilbo. The hobbit was so new to adventuring - you doubted he had ever been out of the Shire before now - and you had decided to support him wherever you could as a helping hand. Just helping him set up camp, saddling his pony in the morning, offering him water, little gestures seemed to make a difference in his demeanor.

Spending time with the hobbit to keep his morale up, especially after the troll attack, did mean that it was getting harder to find a spare moment with Thorin. The two of you had spoken much more frequently since his confession, and you wished for more time, but the whole group was in poor spirits as it was. While they were all happy for you, public displays of affection were just likely to irritate everyone further. And Thorin's burden of leadership would likely not be eased while you were still on the road. For the moment, all you could do was keep moving and offer comfort to whoever needed it.

Needless to say, arriving at Rivendell was a weight off your shoulders. Even if the dwarves tried to pick a fight with Elrond.

You had all taken your time to settle in and relax, having taken full advantage of the elves' hospitality (and you were forever grateful for being able to feel clean after the long journey). When the group of you were provided with dinner and the inevitable food fight broke out, you were happy to see how everyone's spirits had been lifted. However, you couldn't help but notice your One stood to the side. There was a content smile on his face, but you could easily see the tension that still bristled through him.

You soon found him after everybody had retreated to their rooms for the night. It was hard not to hear him - the pacing in his room seemed to echo through the hallway, if only slightly. Raising your hand, you softly knocked at the door, hoping that he wouldn't be too stubborn to talk to you.

"Come in."

Even his tone of voice betrayed his stress. He visibly relaxed when you entered the room though, shutting the door behind you, and you felt glad to at least be some comfort.

You smiled in greeting, and spoke softly. "Will you tell me what's going on with you?"

"I assure you, I am fine. Do not trouble yourself."

You closed the distance between you hesitantly, giving him the chance to back away, and took his hands. "Please, Thorin. I can see something is troubling you."

"I am just... concerned. About the future of this quest, about everyone's safety." You saw a struggle in his mind of not wanting to be vulnerable, but he seemed to give in, and sighed in defeat. "I fear that people are going to be hurt because of me."

"Oh, my love..." you breathed, pressing your forehead to his. "You are the best leader any of us could ask for, and I promise you that you will not be the cause of any hurt."

He gently pulled back and looked into your eyes. "You truly believe that?"

"Of course I do. Those in this company are strong and intelligent. Perhaps with the exception of your nephews," you chuckled, and Thorin couldn't help but smile. "They are all capable of making their own decisions. They knew the risks of coming along, but they have all chosen to join anyway because they saw a courageous dwarf that they wanted to follow."

"I only want to do right by my people."

"And you will. We all have faith in you."

He pressed his forehead to yours again. "You're far too good to me, ghivashel," he murmured.

"All I want is for you to be happy, my love."

And with that, you tilted your head up and kissed him, your fingers tracing his cheekbones as you pulled him closer. It wasn't rushed and clumsy, as it was when Thorin first confessed, but slow and loving, every movement of your lips against his a confession of love in itself. His hands found their way to your waist and pulled you flush against him, trying to feel as much of you as possible.

When you separated to take a breath, meeting his lust-filled gaze was all the encouragement you needed.

"I wonder if there's any way I could relieve some of your stress..." Your tone was playful as you slid your hands achingly slowly down Thorin's chest, and you heard him inhale as you stopped just at his hips.

"Amralime, are you sure? If we start I will not want to hold back."

"I trust you, Thorin." You smiled and nodded towards the double bed. "And we may as well take advantage of the luxury while we have it."

He smirked. "I'm beginning to think you came here just to bed me."

"Hey, I would never-"

Your sarcastic reply was cut off by him kissing you again, with a desperation you hadn't seen from him before. Maybe you had awakened something long kept under control, but any coherent thought of that was soon lost when he shrugged the furs off his shoulders and his fingers found the hem of your shirt.

Soon becoming restless feeling him trace the curves of your waist, you broke away from the kiss just long enough to tug your shirt off. Thorin did the same, and after some hurried fumbling between more stolen kisses, you were both undressed. His hands never left your body as he backed you up towards the bed.

"You are so beautiful, ghivashel..." he murmured, lips trailing along your jawline and down your neck. It was so easy to get lost in the sensation, but when he tried to sit you down on the bed, you stopped him.

"Tonight is about you, my love." You turned the two of you around and gently pushed him back to sit down, taking the time to admire his toned body as you knelt in front of him.

Thorin's eyes were wide with surprise and he almost looked as if he wanted to protest, but the twitch of his already hard cock gave him away.

"You... you don't have to-"

"I want to." His breath hitched when your lips traced his thigh, and you smiled. "Relax, my king..."

Any further protest was soon lost when you leaned forward and licked a long stripe up his length, wrenching a gasp from his lips. Your movements were slow, mapping out every inch of him with kitten licks until he was writhing impatiently before you, until you were done teasing and sucked his tip into your mouth.

The room was filled with the sounds of breathy groans and muttered Khuzdul that you could barely focus on as you continued. Thorin twisted his fingers into your hair when you began taking him inch by inch into your mouth - his grip was firm, but never controlling - and when you started bobbing your head he was certain that he must've been dreaming.

Looking up at him and pressing your thighs together to suppress your own arousal, you watched his head tilt back in ecstasy every time you pressed your tongue flat against his tip when you rose. The sounds he made were so beautiful that it was becoming more and more difficult to control yourself. Fortunately, it seemed you wouldn't need to for much longer. You felt the tension in his body increase with every bob of your head, every swipe of your tongue, and as your movements grew faster you wrapped your hand around the base to stroke what you couldn't fit in your mouth. Yet, when you next looked up at him, he gently pushed you away, denying himself climax.

"Is everything alright, my love?"

He leant down for a brief kiss, still breathing heavily, and nodded. "That was... incredible." He took your hands and guided you to stand, then pulled you closer to straddle his lap.

"Then-" You inhaled sharply feeling his lips and teeth over your throat. "Then why didn't you let me finish?"

Thorin didn't answer for a moment, too busy creating a cluster of pink marks along your neck. When he was satisfied with his work, he tugged your hips down to press his hard length against you.

"Because I want to finish inside you, amralime."

You simply nodded, feeling too flustered and on edge to offer any sort of response beyond a whispered, "Please..."

Thorin stood up holding you, his lips continuing their assault on your neck, and carefully laid you down in the center of the bed. He slotted himself between your legs and wasted no time in moving to prepare you. Pausing to receive a nod of consent, he slid one thick finger into you, and you gasped at the sudden feeling. He soon added a second when you began rocking your hips against his hand impatiently, begging for more.

"Patience," he chuckled. "I do not want to hurt you."

"I don't care." You moaned breathlessly with every curl of his fingers. It felt like so much already, but still not enough. "I need you now, Thorin."

"Who would I be to deny my queen?"

He withdrew his fingers and you immediately pulled him forward to kiss you, a soft gasp being pulled from you when he ground his hips against you, ever so lightly pressing against your clit. Holding himself up over you with one hand, he used the other to guide his tip to your entrance and, swallowing your cries in the kiss, he slowly pushed into you.

His hand found yours and your fingers intertwined while he waited for any signs of your discomfort to fade. It was an uncomfortable stretch to fit his thick cock, but it soon became a welcome sensation, and you wrapped your legs around his waist to urge him on.

He moved carefully at first, until your cries of pain became cries of pleasure, and soon his hips snapped back against you much more firmly. Each thrust hit so deep inside of you, filling you up so perfectly, and his fingers gripped your hips almost tight enough to bruise. You clutched onto him tightly, trying to stay grounded amongst the sensations. One hand was buried in his hair, keeping his forehead pressed against yours, the other was digging into his back, leaving scratches that you were sure would last a few days at least. Though it didn't seem to bother him - every time you dug your nails into his back, it seemed to be encouragement, and he relentlessly kept up his pace. It was firm and deep, but never rough, though part of you wondered how hard he would go if you asked.

With each thrust, you bucked your hips to meet him, trying to get more friction to ignite the coil of heat growing in your core. Thorin's moans soon grew louder, despite him trying to remain as quiet as he could, and when his rhythm grew unsteady his fingers slipped down to circle your clit as his teeth latched onto your neck again.

"Ghivashel..." he murmured, his voice strained. "I'm so close..."

Your mind was spinning with pleasure, and you felt yourself reaching your peak as well. "I am too..." you panted.

His hips shifted just enough to hit a spot inside you to make you see stars, and along with the attention on your clit and your neck, it was enough to push you over the edge. Your grip on him tightened as the coil snapped and heat spread through your body, and you buried your face into the crook of his neck to muffle your cry of pleasure.

It seemed to last forever, and in your pleasure-filled haziness you registered Thorin also growing tense, and you heard his deep groan as he reached his climax and came inside of you. He felt so perfect, and you both stayed clinging onto each other, lost for breath, until you both came to.

Still catching his breath, he kissed your forehead and pulled out to lie next to you, and you couldn't help but whimper at the sudden emptiness.

He lay on his side, facing you, and brought your hand up to his lips. "You are so wonderful, amralime."

You smiled softly and shuffled closer, putting an arm over his waist and tucking your head under his. "So are you, my king."

You glanced back at the door to the room and chuckled.

"What is it?"

"Maybe we should lock the door next time."

#the hobbit #thorin oakenshield #the hobbit x reader #the hobbit smut #the hobbit x you #the hobbit x y/n #the hobbit imagine #thorin x reader #thorin x you #thorin x y/n #thorin imagine #thorin oakenshield x reader #thorin oakenshield imagine #thorin smut #thorin x reader smut #thorin x reader lemon

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augustjustice · 4 months

Text

you wanna feel how it feels? (let's exchange the experience), 1/?

AO3 Link

Summary: After the Spring Break from hell, Eddie and Steve become fast friends, with a possible hint towards something more…except they're never quite sure what the other one is actually thinking. But maybe, just maybe, walking a mile in each other's shoes can lend them some much needed insight.

Notes: The long awaited first chapter of bodyswap fic is finally, finally here! This chapter is primarily just set up for the shenanigans yet to come.

I went ahead and added a taglist below for some of the folks who have been following along with the progress of this one. Apologies if I missed anyone, and if you'd like to be added to or removed from the list, please just let me know!

It was a typical Saturday night in late April–at least, typical post-the radical turn of events that had started with Eddie’s own personal nightmare during the Spring Break from hell, that series of dominoes tipping over and taking his life up to where it was now. And where he found himself was at Hawkins’ very own local Dairy Queen with Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, and a rabid pack of six hungry teenagers and one formidable preteen who could rule them all with an iron fist if she wanted, following up yet another successful session of Hellfire with some celebratory ice cream.

Being able to hold a meeting of the Hellfire Club at all was cause for celebration in Eddie’s book, especially since the school would no longer allow them to host events on school grounds, despite the fact that all the charges against Eddie that had started the witch hunt in the first place had been dropped. Hawkins wasn’t exactly a forgive-and-forget kind of town, something Eddie had always known and been even more acutely aware of given the even more frequent, vitriolic stares that had been following him around since March.

Still, he was soldiering on for now, at least until graduation–thanks in no small part to the apocalypse stopping crew currently clamoring over each other at the front counter. Despite the school’s best efforts, the club venue had been relocated to the Munsons’ newly minted trailer, courtesy of the government suits. And with the revival of their D&D campaign came the start of this new tradition–begun by none other than Steve himself, who had pulled up to Forest Hills to pick up the kiddos that first night, stuck his floppy-haired head out of his BMW like an overgrown puppy, and offered to meet everyone at the local DQ, his treat. The Corroded Coffin boys had begged off coming that first time–and the week after that, and the week after that–but, still. Standing under the hazy fast food fluorescent lights and with the promise of a chocolate malt ahead, life–for the moment, at least–was as good as Eddie could ask for, all things considered.

“Hey, hey, hey!” With three quick snaps of his fingers, Steve tried to corral the kids into some semblance of order, one hand already settled in its customary position on his hip. “One at a time, you guys. Try to cut, ah…”

“Brandi,” the brunette behind the counter supplied helpfully when she saw Steve squinting at her name tag, face blooming into a bright grin.

Eddie was pretty sure he recognized her from his second senior year math class, and there was a vague memory of seeing someone who sort of looked like her in the cafeteria tickling at the back of his mind, sitting a few tables from the jock zone amongst the lucky hopefuls looking to catch the attention of a baseball or basketball playing potential boyfriend. If so, that definitely explained the big moon eyes she was currently shooting Steve’s way.

But Steve only returned her smile with a harried one of his own, his attention still firmly focused on the demands of his many babysitting charges. Eddie tried to tamp down the sick twist of satisfaction he felt when Brandi deflated slightly.

“Right. Try to cut Brandi here some slack, alright? Believe me, slinging ice cream is plenty of work without having a bunch of little menaces shouting in your ear.”

As the group finally managed to file themselves into something that resembled a line–with plenty of jostling and grumbling along the way–Erica gave Steve’s polo a sharp tug and then jabbed two fingers in his direction.

“Free ice cream. For life,” she emphasized, the same way she did every week, like Steve needed the reminder.

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve waved a dismissive hand in her direction even as he pulled out his wallet, same as he did week in and week out, putting on a show like he didn’t already know he’d be footing the bill for most of the munchkins’ orders.

Robin had explained the situation to Eddie when he’d asked after their first DQ outing, with the same airy tone they all often used to describe the truly mind-boggling shit they had been through over the last few years.

“Oh! It’s a leftover debt, from when we infiltrated the secret Russian base under Starcourt. Free ice cream was Erica’s price for getting involved. Never underestimate her ability to drive a hard bargain.”

Eddie had nodded, trying not to let how gobsmacked he felt about the entire story show. “Yeah, I, uh…wasn’t planning to. Lady Applejack is a force to be reckoned with.”

“You have no idea,” Robin had agreed, looking almost strangely…proud about the fact.

That evening, when Eddie sidled up to join them, leaving Robin in position to guard the three booths sequestered off towards the back they had claimed as their own, he caught the tail end of the sheepies excitedly recounting tonight’s session for Steve.

“And D20 is…good, right?” Steve asked, still watching the register as Brandi passed a vanilla cone with a hefty serving of whipped cream and sprinkles off to El.

“Yes, Steve, it’s only the best roll you can possibly make in the entire game.”

The no duh tone of Dustin’s voice was enough to have Steve raising an eyebrow at him, completely unimpressed.

“Like sinking the winning shot after the final buzzer at the championship game kinda good,” Lucas explained, much more helpfully, his grin wide.

“Oh,” Steve nodded, and Eddie couldn't help but get distracted by the way his lips, pink and shining with a hint of chapstick, parted perfectly in understanding.

Eddie seized the opportunity to catch Steve off guard, hooking an arm around his shoulders and tugging him into his side. Delight bubbled in his chest at the way the gesture made Steve let out a loud, startled laugh.

“Should've figured that's all it'd take to rope you into playing sometime, Harrington,” Eddie shook his head solemnly. “Sports metaphors.”

“Always with the sports metaphors,” Dustin echoed.

Steve reached out and swatted the brim of his cap, the force of it just enough to send it slightly askew and trigger a string of cursing from Dustin.

“Hey, I never agreed to that,” he argued, ducking out from under Eddie’s arm in one seamless motion. Jock reflexes, Eddie had decided, were both a blessing and a curse.

He had learned that lesson firsthand in the past few weeks, as Eddie had grown more and more comfortable indulging in a little light rough housing with Steve, despite the fact that he knew there was no way in hell he had any better shot than their gangly freshmen did at not getting his ass handed to him. Eddie was stronger than he looked, sure, but he wasn’t exactly former basketball captain level athletic, not by a long shot.

But was it really losing when he got to be pressed up against the firm planes of Steve’s chest, wrapped up in his strong arms–even if it was in a death lock grip–or occasionally pinned to Eddie’s own bedroom floor by him? Eddie definitely didn’t think so, and part of him was also just happy his recovery was going well enough he could scuffle, again. On his good days, at least. Doing it with his hot friend–and crush–was just an added bonus.

“You know, it’s not my fault Lucas knows how to explain shit to me. I’ll stop talking in basketball when one of you two nerds actually manages to tell me what Mordor is.”

Dustin let out a huff. “If you just read the books–”

Steve cupped a hand around his ear, leaning down towards Dustin and hamming it up for all he was worth. “Huh? What was that? Cuz it didn’t sound like much of an explanation to me, Henderson.”

Eddie tugged a strand of hair across his mouth, trying to hide his grin. “Harrington, trust me when I say–you do not want to open that can of worms. Do you have any idea how long I can go on for once I get started? Hours, man. Days, probably.”

“Can’t be any worse than that time Robin tried to explain, uh…shit, what was it called? German New Wave? Or, no, maybe that was French Expressionism. I don’t know, the point is, it can’t be more boring than that was.”

“It's French New Wave!” Robin called from the back despite the distance, freakily intune with Steve as always. “Or German Expressionism. And sounds like you're due another lesson, Stevie-Evie. Don't worry, I've got a tried and true method to guarantee it all sticks this time.”

Steve groaned, dragging a hand over his face and into his hair–but his apparent grief at the thought of another Buckley-led film history lesson was quickly diverted when he realized it was his turn.

From there, placing the rest of their orders passed by with little fanfare–apart from the brief, minor hiccup that came when Steve tried to pay for Eddie’s treat on top of everybody else’s.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Eddie waved a finger at him, just barely managing to step around Steve and hand his fistful of dollars over to Brandi. “Your money’s no good here, my liege.”

The title was enough to produce a patent Harrington scowl, all drawn eyebrows and pouted lips.

When he opened his mouth to protest, Eddie cut him off again. “Seriously, Steve, I’ve got it. One shake isn’t gonna break the bank, you know?”

“I know that,” Steve huffed. “I just–would it seriously kill you to let me treat you once in a while?”

Steve had done more than enough, and Eddie thought he damn well knew that. Between literally saving Eddie’s life when he’d been about to bleed out in the Upside Down and then sticking around through all of his recovery in the weeks after, the amount he had done was approaching near superheroic levels.

“You know you don’t have to hover, right, Harrington?” Eddie had asked him one day towards the end of his stay in the hospital, gnawing anxiously at his bottom lip, as he watched Steve look up from the Sports Illustrated sprawled across his lap.

The truth was he hadn’t wanted to say anything, too afraid bringing it up would lead to Steve doing just as he was suggesting…finally leaving. But the anxiety humming in his ears that Steve was just here out of pity had finally become worse, forced the words from his mouth.

“You saved Dustin, man,” Steve had replied, expression earnest, “and helped distract the bats from me and Nance and Robin, too. I’m not going anywhere. So, you know…get used to it.”

He had punctuated the last statement by giving Eddie a light, friendly slap on his knee, and Eddie had to bite back the beaming, relieved grin that threatened to split his face.

Steve had stayed pretty much a permanent fixture in Eddie’s day-to-day life after that, proving time and again he was serious about being in it for the long haul. Even through all the embarrassing shit, like Eddie hobbling around on his cane like a baby deer on shaky newborn legs, or needing somebody to help him wash his hair. Not exactly the ideal position to be in with a hopeless high school crush that had come burning back to life with a vengeance, but Steve would hear none of it when Eddie tried to insist he didn’t need to go out of his way like this.

“What, you want Henderson in here instead?” Steve had asked with a snort. “You gotta be kidding, Munson. Like I said, better get used to being stuck with me.”

“Happy to be stuck together with you anytime, big boy,” Eddie had flirted, the shameless bravado in place to cover up the very real fluttering of his heart.

In other words…Eddie had already accrued more life debts to Steve Harrington than he could ever hope to repay. And while Steve might have insisted he was more than happy with nursemaid duty, Eddie really wasn’t looking to turn himself into a charity case. Not if he could help it.

So Eddie let his grin grow, obnoxious and wide enough to show off all his teeth.

“It might,” he quipped. “And how would you feel, Harrington, knowing that this was the thing that finally managed to do me in? I’m just trying to spare you the guilt, man, I know what a complex you’d get.”

“Whatever, Eds,” Steve scoffed, steering him towards the designated babysitter’s club booth with a nudge of his elbow, hands full of his and Robin’s matching strawberry sundaes.

Steve took his customary spot on Robin’s side of the booth, the pair of them, as always, practically glued at the hip. Their friendship, Eddie had learned, was a boundary free zone, one that frequently involved holding hands, devolving into childish slap fights with little warning, and falling asleep sprawled on top of each other while watching bad daytime soaps at the Harrington house. Only their vehement denial and the goo-goo eyes Eddie caught Robin making at the red-haired chick–Vickie, he now knew–from band convinced him Dustin’s loud, frequent, and insistent claims that they were dating were total bullshit.

As he was just about to slide into his own place across from them, a commotion at the table behind them called for Eddie’s attention.

“Eddie, El wants to hear you do the roar again!” Mike requested.

Eddie tilted his head to one side, stroking his chin, as though trying to recall what exactly Mike was speaking of. Biting his lip to keep from smiling, he gave Mike a shrug.

“No clue what you’re talking about, Little Wheel.”

A chorus of cries rang out from both tables the party had overtaken, shrieks of “Eddie!” and “C’mon, man!” reverberating again and again in his ears.

Spinning on his heel as though he was set to ignore them, Eddie answered Steve and Robin’s expectant expressions with a quick, subtle wink.

When he leapt up from the floor and into a crouch on the booth seating, Eddie felt a sharp tug at his sides, his scar tissue very eagerly making itself known. Gritting his teeth, he refused to let the hot flash of pain show on his face as he loomed over Will and El, hands curving into claws as he reached towards their table.

“Kas the Bloody-Handed demands vengeance!” he bellowed, letting his voice drop into a deep, growling register.

His performance was met with what might as well have been a standing ovation, in his book–a series of delighted shouts from the boys, eerily similar head shakes from Max and Erica while they both visibly fought back their smiles, and El letting out a peel of giggles as she hid her face in her brother’s side.

When Hellfire had started back up again, Eddie had considered starting over from scratch, maybe even trying this deep into the game to veer their campaign in a different direction. He didn’t want something that they all loved to become somehow…tainted, by reminders of everything that had happened.

“Nah, man, just leave it like it is,” Steve had suggested, one afternoon when Eddie’s fretting had finally bubbled over to the point he couldn’t hold it in any longer. “It's good for their…trauma processing? Or something. I don’t know, you’d have to ask Owens about it. The point is, they wouldn’t want you to change it. Not unless you want to.”

In the end, Eddie had heeded Steve’s advice, figuring he knew more about the way those little hellions ticked better than probably anybody else, at this point.

Moments like these made him glad he did, proof positive his instincts had been spot on.

Eddie dropped, satisfied, down into the booth, his foot knocking straight into the side of Steve’s under the table. A little spark of pleasure shot through him when Steve simply bumped his Nike sneaker against Eddie’s Reebok in answer and then left it there, pressed close together.

“No wonder you did drama,” Steve observed, twisting a bite around in his mouth as he sucked up the bright red streak of strawberry syrup. “You’re a total natural, man. Kinda, like…hypnotic.”

Eddie tried not to make it too obvious, how closely he was following the way Steve licked up every last morsel.

“Yeah, until he dropped out like a quitter.”

“What can I say, Buckley? Organized–well, anything really–just ain’t for me.”

“Says the guy who literally runs an afterschool club,” she pointed the end of her plastic spoon at him in accusation. “Sounds to me like you’re full of it, Eddie.”

“She’s got you there, man,” Steve agreed with a shrug, a drop from his sundae dribbling onto the table as he swirled it around yet again.

“Oh, napkins!”

Slapping a palm against her forehead, Robin clambered over Steve and out of the booth, not so much as hesitating to give him a chance to stand up.

“You know, if you wanna see more where that came from–my flare for theatrics, that is–you could always, I don’t know. Stick around when you drop off the kiddos next week?” As Eddie posed the question, he wondered if the lilt in his voice sounded too hopeful. “I won’t even make you play. You have my word as a dungeon master and a gentleman.”

“Yeah, uh…fat chance of that happening,” Steve murmured, voice low, almost like he didn’t want Eddie to actually hear him, “your friends fucking hate me, dude.”

“They don't hate you,” Eddie protested automatically, feeling the need to defend them even as his own heart sank in his chest, “they're just…a little skittish, after everything that went down with Jason. You–you get that, right?”

“Sure,” Steve shrugged, looking down as he stirred his spoon through his steadily melting soft serve. When he glanced up at Eddie again, a tenseness crept in around the edges of his smile that Eddie desperately wished he could help wipe away. “I get it.”

Robin returned to the table before either of them got a chance to say anything else, sliding over Steve’s lap with enough clumsy limbed flailing it prompted a, Sheesh, Rob. Watch the elbows, will you? out of Steve.

Seeing an opening, Eddie quickly changed the subject.

“So, speaking of the ins-and-outs of living in the institution that is our organized society–how is Family Video treating my two favorite, upstanding, and gainfully employed Hawkins citizens?”

Robin snorted. “It’s minimum wage, Eddie. How good could it possibly be?”

“Well, I mean–you could trade places with me if you wanted. Be gainfully unemployed with a side hustle that went up in smoke since that whole–you know, accused of being a ritual Satanic murderer thing put the local law enforcement on your tail.”

Both Steve’s eyebrows shot up at that. “The cop’s still giving you trouble?”

“Not in so many words, but, uh–let’s just say they’ve made it pretty clear I’m not exactly their favorite person, right now. So, yeah. Officer Callahan must have circled the trailer park like–three different times, last night.”

“But…you were exonerated,” Robin protested, the force of her distress clear from the way she slapped a palm down flat on top of the table. “That–that’s a total misappropriation of police funds, not to mention harassment of a private citizen.”

“You ever think that maybe they’re just keeping an eye on the place?” Steve suggested hopefully, “You know…after everything that happened.”

“Your adorably positive outlook has been noted, Stevie. Noted, but ultimately dismissed.”

“Want me to talk to Hop for you? Get him to tell them to stand down?”

“Nah, man,” Eddie gave a forceful shake of his head, hair whipping around him in a messy cloud, “I can handle it. I’ve got plenty of experience, evading the Hawkins Police force.”

Rubbing a finger over his sideburn, Steve tilted his head from side-to-side in consideration, before he casually added, “Guess we all do, now.”

“A band of fearsome outlaws, that’s us,” Robin agreed, her nose crinkling as she laughed, loud and bright.

“More like Robin Hood and his merry men.” At Robin’s pointed glance, Eddie was quick to amend, “…And women, of course.”

The conversation flowed along at a rapid fire pace from there, the three of them at first trying to assign different characters from the story to all the members of the party before devolving fast into a debate about which cinematic performance of the lead character was the best–and sexiest, though Eddie didn’t divulge that was most of the metric he was using for his answers–and thus which adaptation came out on top. Robin fell into the same camp as him–Errol Flynn all the way–while Steve was a firm defender of the Disney version because, That little fox guy is cute and charismatic, guys, you can’t even argue with me on this one.

When he had slurped up the last remnants of his malt, Eddie stretched his arms above his head, leaned back against the booth’s cracking red vinyl, and sighed.

“Fancy a smoke break?” he asked, pulling the pack from his pocket and waving it tantalizingly for Steve to see.

Steve laughed with a roll of his eyes.

“You know I quit, dude.”

“And so should you,” Robin added pointedly, an argument she’d made countless times since Eddie got out of the hospital, pretty much every single time she caught him lighting up.

“Cut me some slack, Buckley,” Eddie said, same as he always did. “I’ve been through a traumatic experience. Ciggies are good for the stress, since I can’t exactly smoke weed outside this fine, family friendly establishment.”

“Uh-huh,” Robin replied, deadpan and unconvinced as ever, “we’ve all got our fair share of U.D. related trauma, Eddie. That’s not an excuse to suck on those…little sticks made out of cancer.”

“Alright, well. Fancy a stand-outside-with-me-and-bullshit break, then?” Eddie directed at Steve.

Robin raised an eyebrow at him, and Eddie couldn’t quite read the expression on her face. It seemed…knowing in a way he was too afraid to totally unpack.

She saved him the trouble of having to do so by letting out a put upon sigh, dramatic enough for him or Steve either one when they got going, and a true reflection of the fact she had stuck it out through almost four years of high school theater.

“Stealing away my own best friend to go join your boys’ club, Eddie? Really? And right in front of me, too. You know, this is just like second grade, when Trevor Milligan convinced all the boys in our class girls had cooties, and Bobby B. wouldn’t race me on the monkey bars anymore.”

Laying a hand over his heart, Eddie had to fight down the grin that threatened to split across his face. “I solemnly vow to bring him back all in one piece, Buck. I know who's top dog around here.”

The nod she gave him was swift and authoritative. “And don’t you forget it.”

With a wink and a click of his tongue, he mock saluted her. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

She turned to Steve, giving his bicep several sharp pokes. “But just because I'm the girl doesn't mean I deserve to get saddled with child-rearing responsibilities, you know!”

“We're not children,” Red interjected with a dry sort of exasperation from the next booth over.

Her point was immediately undermined by Lucas, using the makeshift catapult he'd made from his spoon to fling a maraschino cherry at Dustin. The other boy let out an indignant squawk when it missed his mouth entirely and got caught right in his curly hair.

Even from behind her glasses, it was pretty obvious what sort of look Max was giving her boyfriend.

“Correction…I'm not a child.”

“Sorry.” Lucas's grin was sheepish.

“Rob,” Steve said flatly, ignoring the kids’ antics to instead pin her with his own look, like she was being ridiculous.

Which was…pretty fair, this time, in Eddie's opinion. He wasn't sure he'd ever met anyone with quite the same intense level of tired dad–mom–whatever energy as Steve had, and all before he'd even hit his early twenties. When it came to babysitting duties, he definitely wasn't a slacker.

“I'm just saying, as a feminist, I thought you should know,” Robin waved her spoon at them, managing to pull the move off without so much as a drip of her ice cream plopping onto the table.

“We agreed that you'd be the fun uncle,” Steve argued, the lack of protest from Robin proving that was, in fact, a conversation they'd already had, “so then be the fun uncle while Mom and Dad step outside.”

“Mom and Dad?” Robin echoed, eyebrow raising and face scrunching in transparent disbelief–and Eddie had to admit, he was caught on the exact same thing.

Steve only waved a hand at her, rolling his eyes.

“You know what I mean. Look, it’s only gonna be like fifteen minutes, tops. If you do it I’ll–” Steve spun his hand around in several aimless, pinwheel like motions before finally snapping his fingers in revelation, “I’ll let you put on whatever movie you want at work on Monday!”

Robin stuck her hand out to him. “Make it ten, and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Tapping a finger on his top lip, Steve pursed his mouth in thought for a moment.

“...Twelve,” he bartered. “And you can make it a black and white one. With subtitles.”

Robin’s face lit up, teeth glimmering with the sheer force of her glee.

“Look at that. You really do know the way to a girl’s heart, Steve.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve grumbled, giving her hand one firm, business-like shake.

Eddie was already up, having impatiently shimmied several paces away from the booth, by the time Steve stood and fell into step beside him.

Cupping his hands around his mouth, Eddie couldn’t resist shouting over his shoulder, “Make sure they eat all their vegetables!”

Steve met Eddie’s shit-eating grin with one of his own before adding, “And no scary movies before bedtime!”

Seven individual hands all popped up, shooting them the bird as one.

By the time they stepped out onto the sidewalk, they were both stumbling into each other’s sides with laughter.

—

Once they were outside and had managed to pull themselves together, Eddie stuck one of the smokes in his mouth and went straight for his lighter, his craving growing palpable. But, as that meant he had to rummage around the tangle of other things jammed inside his pocket, just laying in wait to come spilling out–like a nearly empty pack of Big Red gum, a crumpled receipt, and the spare die Eddie kept on his person in case of D&D-related emergencies–he fumbled it, the BIC hitting the ground with a sad thump.

“Jesus H. Christ,” he complained out of reflex, both from general annoyance and just a tinge of embarrassment, feeling the burn of it with his klutziness deciding to come out around Steve in full force.

Nat 1 on charisma, Munson. Critical failure.

Steve waved a dismissive hand at him. “I got it, man, I got it.”

And before Eddie could protest, he was stooping down beside him to pick the lighter up off the asphalt of the Dairy Queen parking lot, giving it a toss into his hand like the total show off he was.

Eddie was about to make a crack about it, something along the lines of You just gotta demonstrate your athletic prowess in front of us lesser mortals, doncha, Harrington?–except, well. He didn’t get the chance.

Because, one second, Steve was popping up and waving the lighter cockily at him, grin bright on his face, and, the next…

The next, and totally without warning, he was leaning in close, cupping his hand to light the cigarette dangling from Eddie’s lips for him.

Eddie inhaled on instinct, taking a long drag as the cherry glowed to life, a stark red in the fading light of dusk. As for the sudden rush that went to his head–he had little doubt that it was just from the hit of nicotine alone.

And–maybe it was a trick of the low light. But for a long, breathless moment, Steve’s eyes seemed to linger on Eddie’s mouth, and Eddie’s heartbeat kicked up in answer, rabbiting wildly in his throat. The air between them grew thick, heavy-laden with tension that seemed to almost crackle like electricity.

Eddie took the cigarette from his lips slowly, dropping his hand to let it hang at his side. And, still, Steve’s gaze never wavered, eye line still leveled directly at his mouth. If one of them were to just finally cave into the building pressure, sway forward and close that distance between them, maybe they could…

But, then, from one blink to the next, the heated expression on Steve’s face cleared, replaced by a guileless, easy smile.

…Eddie tried to tamp down on the flare of disappointment he felt at the sight of it.

“You know, man–Robin’s totally right about those things.”

Steve dragged a finger across his throat, pretending to choke as he briefly mimed his own dramatic death scene. The Eddie of a year ago wouldn’t have believed it–but the Eddie of now knew better, had been exposed to Steve’s silly antics on more than one occasion. He could be just as big a goofball as Dustin, as any of the kids, as Eddie himself when he wanted to be.

“You really should cut back.”

It was all so…normal. Casual. A light chiding about bad habits in an airy tone, like…

Like everything before hadn’t happened at all.

Eddie stared at Steve for a long moment, trying to read the expression in his wide, hazel eyes. But…they were totally and completely inscrutable to him.

And, look. Eddie was queerer than a three dollar bill–had been since gawky adolescence hit him like a freight train, all too-long limbs and sudden, embarrassingly consistent morning wood. Dudes or chicks, it didn’t matter. Like Bowie, Eddie was an equal opportunist…for all the good it had ever done him, able to count the times he’d made a pass and hadn’t struck out on one hand. Being Hawkins local freak would do that to a guy, and that was before the murder charges and cult-leader accusations.

But the thought that Steve ‘the Hair’ Harrington was anything other than stalwartly heterosexual in the most apple-pie, white-picket-fence, boy-next-store way imaginable? The idea should have been laughable. And a year ago, Eddie would have done just that, laughed it off with a no way, man rolling easily off his tongue.

But now…now he wasn’t so sure.

Because there was something electric about the growing familiarity that had popped up between him and Steve the closer they’d gotten since their fateful spring break excursion to the Upside Down. He felt it, when Steve slung his arm over the back of the couch when Eddie sat next to him during movie night, or laid a hand in the small of Eddie’s back, easy as anything, to keep him steady when the kids all jostled ahead of them to get through the door at the arcade.

Maybe it was all just some vestige from Steve’s high school glory days, leftover jock rituals Eddie knew nothing about. Maybe it was total wishful thinking on Eddie’s part, as his crush steadily grew into something gargantuan. Shit, that’s what he tried to tell himself most of the time, if only for his own sanity–but he was still reluctant to say it was all in his head. Especially when moments like this kept cropping up more and more.

…Eddie was too afraid to push it, though. Hardly over a month old, technically–even though some days it felt like a lifetime–the friendship between them was new. Not delicate, not hardly, but still not something Eddie was looking to scare off when it’d only just gotten started.

So as the uncertainty settled over him, Eddie finally ducked his head for an instant, gnawing at his bottom lip. Then he reached over and gave Steve’s temple a teasing tap.

“Sometimes, I just wonder what’s going on inside that pretty head of yours, Stevie.”

The flirtation was thick, sure, but it was easy enough to play it off the same way he always did–just some harmless teasing between two guys, nothing serious. Plus, Eddie figured Steve was more than used to his antics by now. Sometimes, his over-the-top personality really did pay off.

But behind those words was the truth of Eddie’s thoughts, swirling over and over again.

Fuck. If only I could get inside his head. Then, maybe I’d be able to figure out what the hell he’s thinking.

For a split second, he could have sworn Steve’s shoulders stiffened, posture going unexpectedly rigid. But then Steve laughed, brushing the swoop of his hair back, fingers dancing tantalizingly close to Eddie’s own, and Eddie was left to wonder if it was just more of his mind playing tricks on him.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, man. I’m like an open book. Ask anybody around and they’ll tell you–you don’t have to put yourself out to get an answer. It’s pretty much all, like…hair care tips and sports stats, 24/7 up here.”

“Come on, Steve,” Eddie scoffed, “I don’t believe that shit for even a second.”

Steve only shook his head, smile still firmly in place.

“Not sure what to tell you, dude. It’s true. Besides,” the word came out lower, almost as if Steve was talking to himself, “between the two of us, pretty sure you’re more the man of mystery than I am, dude.”

At that, Eddie let out a startled bark of laughter.

“Me?! You cannot be serious with that one, Harrington, no way in hell. Have you seen me? If anybody’s the open book here, it’s me. I’m practically a screaming headline on the late night news. Every single thought and feeling I’ve ever had automatically comes flying,” Eddie pressed his hand against his lips and made a sound like an explosion, splaying his fingers out, “straight out of my mouth. Always has. Just ask my old man, he used to bitch about it all the time. ‘Quit that blubbering and toughen up, Eddie, or life will steamroll right over you.’”

Steve’s lips pursed, the same knowing but insulted look he always wore when the infamous Munson patriarch came up in conversation.

“Your dad sounds like a real jackass, Eds.”

Eddie could only hum his agreement.

Everybody in Hawkins knew Al Munson, low down no-account that he was. His reputation preceded him–and Eddie, more often than not. But Steve had more of the inside scoop than most, Eddie having opened up to both him and Robin about his home life.

Still, he wondered at the vehemence with which Steve defended him, any time the mention of his absentee patriarch came up. By contrast, Eddie didn’t know jackshit about the Harringtons apart from the fact that they were hotshots around town. Steve never mentioned them, not really, and Eddie had never run into them the times he’d been over to Steve’s place. Which was…pretty weird in and of itself, wasn’t it?

Yet another mysterious piece of the puzzle that was Steve Harrington.

“I don’t know, man,” Steve shrugged, voice gone quiet again, tugging Eddie out of his reverie. “I kinda think your book might be in Hobbit, or whatever it’s called from those books you guys love so much, because I don’t really see you that way at all.”

Reaching out, he suddenly caught a strand of Eddie’s hair between two fingers. Eddie sucked in a sharp breath at the gesture, face going hot.

“Besides, haven’t you ever heard of tall, dark, and mysterious? If the hair fits.”

Steve gave the curl a light tug before dropping it. Eddie immediately snatched it back up, tugging it like a curtain across his mouth, desperate to hide the faint color on his cheeks.

“Guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one, dude.”

Steve let out what sounded like an amused huff. “Looks like it.”

When Steve looked down at his watch, Eddie realized, in the time they’d been talking, that he’d smoked his cigarette down to a nub.

“We should probably head back inside,” Steve gestured over his shoulder with his thumb, “before all of Lucas’s toppings somehow end up in Dustin’s hair, and Robin decides to ground them all until they’re twenty-five.”

As he stubbed out the bud with his shoe, Eddie fiddled with his rings, trying to subtly shake off some of the tension that had seemed to build up in the air around their conversation. When he met Steve’s eyes again, he was all cheery smiles, hoping he didn’t look too manic as his cheeks stretched with the force of it.

“Well, now, we couldn’t have that,” Eddie agreed, even as he added, “–Thought she said she wasn’t parenting material, though? Pretty sure fun uncles don’t have to ground people.”

His own uncle was more like a father than anything else, and still he’d never really bothered to try grounding Eddie–his disappointed stare always did more to deter Eddie away from his own stupidity than anything else ever had.

“Sure, she says that, until somebody gets chocolate ice cream on her new favorite button down. Then it’s goddamn,” Steve let out one long, forlorn beep followed by two shorter ones–an unmistakable imitation of Pac-Man’s game over death knell, and proof of just how much time he spent at the arcade with the kids, “over for everybody involved, including me somehow.”

“I mean, you did call us Mom and Dad, man. Guess that makes us responsible whenever the kiddos misbehave.”

Steve sighed, long and loud and clearly just a little exaggerated for Eddie’s benefit, if the way Steve widened his eyes in mock fear was anything to go by.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about. Those little shits can stir up all kinds of trouble in ten minutes flat. No telling what the damage is.”

So, with one last jocular pat to Eddie’s back, he began herding him back inside the shop.

And when Eddie’s own traitorous heart gave a twist at such a small, meaningless gesture? All he could do was send a silent curse up to the sky, and do his best to ignore it.

—

That night, Eddie fell through a tangle of twisting, nonsensical dreams.

At first, he was in the stolen RV, relieving a memory. The Upside Down crew–Nancy, Robin, Steve, Dustin–stood all around him, preparing for that fateful last trip to try and stop Vecna. After reciting their orders, his hand clapped down on Dustin’s head in reassurance, a last show of camaraderie before they headed off into battle.

But then, without warning, the ground seemed to shift right beneath his feet.

Coming out of the haze, he found himself staring at a refrigerator, standing in a kitchen he didn’t immediately recognize. On autopilot, with a feeling like his body was being tugged by invisible strings he couldn’t quite control, his hand swung down again, the motion identical as he gave Dustin a fond scuff over his cap. Except…Dustin was shorter, this time, and undeniably younger. And Eddie, well–the Members Only jacket hanging over his shoulders was definitely not his own, though he thought he had spotted one identical to it hanging in the back of Steve’s closet.

He barely had time to register those weird little details before the world was going topsy turvy yet again.

Eddie was on his back, a swirl of bats circling overhead like a storm against the violent red splash of Upside Down sky. As his sides screamed in agony, wooziness clenched down on his mind with a vice grip, not at all helped by the fact that the scene around him kept changing.

One second, he was shirtless, dampness and grime clinging to his chest hair, Nancy Wheeler’s mouth a grim line as she stared down at him with an oar in hand. Then he blinked, and Dustin’s face swam into view above him, fuzzy as Eddie’s own vision blurred around the edges.

Blink. Wheeler and Buckley, fighting off demobats like two warrior women worthy of only the grandest of campaigns.

Blink. Dustin, screaming his name so harshly, his throat had to be raw from it.

Blink. The outline of Eddie himself, shouting up at the sky, demanding they give him all they’d got despite the fucking bone-deep terror he knew he’d been feeling. The out-of-body sensation that slammed into him, existing somehow both inside and outside the moment all at once, was so jarring Eddie’s stomach lurched, like he was going to be sick.

Back and forth, again and again, like the world’s worst, most bizarre merry-go-round…until finally, Dustin solidified, Eddie’s own memory draping over him like a well-worn but ill-fitting shirt. He flinched a little as he felt dampness drip against his cheeks, and a long moment stretched on before Eddie fully realized that it wasn’t rain hitting him in the face, but instead the fat tears currently racing down the bridge of the other boy’s nose.

He knew this moment well, viscerally, a long, hellish stretch that had revisited him night after night the past month–and one he’d do almost anything to forget.

His final goodbyes exchanged, Eddie’s eyes slipped shut of their own accord. It wasn’t peaceful, exactly–some part of Eddie deep down still railed, pissed as hell at what was happening to him–but he was also so fucking tired, after days on the run. Worn out and fed up, and ready to just get some fucking rest.

So, when the blackness swallowed him, he couldn’t help but wonder if this time, it really would be for good.

–And then a faint, familiar voice rang out in the distance.

“Dustin?!” Eddie heard Steve scream, like a tether pulling him back into his own body. “Eddie?! You gotta be fucking kidding me, where the hell are you guys?!”

The heavy thud of footfalls drew closer, and Eddie practically felt the ground shake as another body collapsed beside Dustin.

The world flashed, spun again. Suddenly, Eddie was sliding across the rough terrain of the alternate world on his knees, the sound of Dustin’s soft cries making his heart ache…and his own lifeless body spread out on the ground in front of him.

Large hands fisted in the front of Eddie’s vest, tugging at him urgently.

“Munson! Munson!” Steve’s words spilled from Eddie’s mouth as his grip on the fabric tightened, giving him a hard shake. “Eddie, come on! I told you not to be a hero. Don’t even think about it, dude–you’re not dying on us now!”

Eddie remembered this, too. Steve’s steely, urgent tone, brooking no arguments, like he could actually will Eddie back to life if he wanted to. Except this time–this time Eddie actually felt the terror behind the words, the urgency making Steve’s voice tremble in his throat. Experienced, in real time, the relief hitting like a truck, flooding through his veins, when his own brown eyes slipped open.

“Did-Didn’t realize you were my commanding officer, Harrington,” the Eddie on the ground murmured–more like croaked, the sentence breaking unpleasantly in the middle.

“You’re damn right I am,” Steve answered, jaw clenching, and Eddie could feel his muscle twitching with it, “if that’s what it takes to get you to stick around, man, consider me a five star general.”

He’s alive, he’s alive, the Steve in his head sang, again and again, thank fuck, he’s alive.

Because, there and then, he…was Steve. The twin emotions of Steve’s own swelling hope that Eddie might make it coupled with Eddie’s own real shock from what Steve was feeling at the time warred inside him, threatening to overwhelm him.

Then, like the force of that emotion had thrown him, Eddie landed hard on his back again. Confusion hit him as he glanced down and realized that he was shirtless–Steve was entirely shirtless. Because this had been his memory, before, and now Eddie was back in it.

The revelation had barely settled before agony quickly drowned out anything else, the demo-bats starting to gnaw at his bare sides. One of their tails wrapped tightly around Eddie’s throat, and his hands shot up, uselessly trying to pry it off. He could feel that darkness creeping in again, the familiar sensation of being knocked unconscious rising up to meet him.

Fourth time’s a charm, I guess, the voice inside Eddie’s head was wry, and it still definitely wasn’t his own. You made a good run of it, Harrington, but looks like your luck finally ran out this time.

The resignation of it, the acceptance, was enough to shake Eddie to the bone.

No-no-no, no! Some desperate, deeply buried part of him screamed out. You–You’re the goddamn hero, Stevie. You don’t get to give up.

When the oar slammed down near his head this time, Wheeler calling out a quick Hey, there with Robin and Eddie himself at her sides…Eddie had never been so happy to see someone in his entire fucking life, freaky out-of-body experience be damned.

The vision, memory, whatever it was…it released Eddie, finally.

And then Steve was there, standing before him, clad in nothing but sleep shorts and his gray Hawkins Phys Ed shirt, his hair mussed. Darkness surrounded them on all sides, too fuzzy and dim for Eddie to make anything out apart from the figure facing him.

Steve’s lips moved, the shape of them making out what Eddie thought was his name. Dread dripped down his spine, however, as he realized that no sound–not so much as a peep–followed.

“Stevie?” he answered, the panicked shrillness evident in his own voice even as he couldn’t hear Steve’s own. “I can’t–shit, man, I can’t hear you.”

Steve’s face drew down into a frown, forehead wrinkled, concern and frustration warring on his face. He tried to speak again, but still, Eddie couldn’t hear a thing. Hand flying upwards, Steve gestured to his own ear, finger tapping it once.

Eddie shook his head. “Sorry, dude, I–I’ve got nothing.”

On instinct, he reached out a placating hand. Glancing down to see it extended towards him, Steve did the same. Eddie felt his chest clench a little, finding comfort in the thought that even in a moment like this, when they couldn’t hear what the other was saying, they still managed to broach some common ground.

Their fingertips brushed. A spark ran through Eddie at the touch, seeming almost to infect their surroundings as red lighting suddenly flashed all around them.

Between one blink to the next, Steve disappeared.

Before he had a chance to cry out, Eddie realized, horror steadily climbed up his throat, that the figure now staring back at him was…himself?

And not a memory version this time, either. No, this was a living, breathing double.

His doppelganger’s brow furrowed, head tilting to one side, a bit like a confused puppy.

It was like the sound had been turned on all at once, because when the other Eddie spoke, he could finally hear him.

“Eddie?” his mirror image asked, looking past Eddie, around him, anywhere but directly at him.

If he had ever made it to that shrink Owens recommended, he bet they would have had a field day unpacking whatever this was.

Hands Eddie hadn’t even realized had still been clasped parted, slipping away from each other.

And then, Eddie was sucked back into darkness, feeling adrift as any chance at seeing Steve, his doppelganger, anything and anyone vanished into the distance. He was lost, totally and utterly, and he felt it, every bit of it, the weight crushing in on him as the last dregs of the dream faded away.

—

The next morning, Eddie woke up in Steve Harrington’s bed.

Part 2

Taglist: @highkingpenny @tinytalkingtina @starryeyedjanai @sidekick-hero @thefreakandthehair @lingeringmirth @eriquin @bifuriouswaterbender @fuctacles

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #the party #buckington besties #brotp: babysitter's club #steddie bodyswap au #bodyswap au #my writing #my stuff #my things

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skyloftian-nutcase · 6 months

Text

The evening brought a chill as Abel held Link closer. Tilieth was working on cooking dinner for the family, and they were in an area he had just cleared of monsters, so he knew they would be safe for now. It left him time to just hold his son, to look him over and be content in the moment.

Considering such moments came so rarely, he would take what he could of it.

It hadn't even been a hard day. Aside from the skirmish with the beasts, they'd found nearly half a dozen shrines, and they'd all been simple puzzles. No strenuous climbing, no catapults, no endless pits... and at the end of it all, Link's wounds had improved greatly with each spirit orb they found.

And now, Tilieth hummed off tune as usual, bringing a smile to Abel's lips as he gazed at his boy. Link looked serene, resting comfortably on his father's lap, and he turned his head slightly to snuggle in closer. Abel felt his heart speed up a little at the sight of it, considering the boy was usually not reactive at all. Were the spirit orbs really helping that much?

Link sighed steadily through his nose, and then his eyes fluttered open.

Abel jumped a little, reaching for some broth they had set aside for the next time the boy woke. He sat Link up a little, whispering, "Hey, little knight. Time for some food, okay? Can you stay awake?"

Link kept his eyes open, drinking the offered broth as Abel tipped the bottle back for him. The boy had been far more interactive lately, though still clearly not really lucid. At least the fear of him dying of dehydration or starvation was greatly lessened than it used to be.

Link hummed when he was finished, leaning against his father's shoulder and smiling. Abel stared at him, blinking, completely caught off guard. Slowly, he put the bottle down and poked the boy's chest. Link scrunched his nose in response.

Could he be...? "...Link?"

He looked at him.

His boy was looking at him.

Abel stared into the teenager's blue eyes, breathless, his own eyes blown wide. Link blinked blearily, tired, but smiled a little more. "Hi, Papa."

Tilieth's humming stopped immediately, and the sound of a ladel clattering to the ground came next as she rushed over. "Link?!"

Their son turned his head to look at his mother as she fell to her knees beside him.

"Link!" she sobbed, holding him as Abel continued to stare in shock. He--he was--

"Oh, honey," Tilieth cooed, rocking him and holding and probably never ever letting go again. "Honey, you're okay, you're awake!"

"Mama," Link muttered into her collarbone. "You're squishing me."

Tilieth laughed. "That's all you have to say at a time like this?! You silly little goose, do you--"

His wife sobered for a moment, and continued hesitantly, "D-do you remember anything?"

Link watched her curiously, face still bright and open, as if he had no recollection of the Calamity whatsoever.

He doesn't remember it.

Abel came back to life, eyes stinging, hiccups tearing out of him. Link immediately looked at him, wiggling out of his mother's grip. "Papa?"

Abel's lip wobbled, and Link scooted back to his lap, letting his father practically collapse on him. "I missed you, son."

Link stiffened a little before returning the hug in full. "It wasn't your fault, Papa."

Abel jolted. "I--what--"

"It wasn't your fault," his son repeated, emphasizing his words and holding him tighter. "I love you, Papa. I love you so much."

Try as he might, Abel couldn't stop the tears. Something about the boy's words and tone, the fact that he was awake--everything poured out of him at once, sorrowful and joyful and beautiful, and he held his boy so tightly.

"I love you too, little knight."

Link held tighter. And tighter. And tighter until it felt like he was squeezing the life out of him, like he was trapped, and--

Abel opened his eyes, tangled in blankets, hearing Tilieth snoring beside him. Breath tickled his neck, and he looked down to see Link, pale, frail, and injured, sleeping between the parents.

The former knight poked the boy. He didn't stir.

Sighing, Abel wiped away the tears that had somehow managed to fall despite just dreaming, and went back to sleep.

#April Fool's suckers #and by suckers I mean Abel #poor dude #FOR THE RECORD #I blame Tellie and Oma for this #they helped brainstorm how to torture Abel #it was horrible #I loved it #poor abel #blood of the hero #abel #tilieth #breath of the wild link #botw link #writing

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copperbadge · 9 months

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Hey Sam, it looks like I'll be in Chicago for a few days next May. I'm going through all the typical sight seeing websites, but do you have any recommendations for a first time visitor? I'm not huge on architecture, parks or crowds. History, art and music are a big yes. I'm considering the Big Bus hop on/off tour for practicality. Any tips would be appreciated!

I used to have a "guide to Chicago" that I would link people to, but I think it probably badly needs updating, since a lot of what it talks about is pre-pandemic, and some places don't exist anymore (which is not necessarily down to the pandemic, Chicago is an ever-changing place). RIP Apocalypse McDonalds. Definitely before you follow anyone's advice including mine, look up what you're going to go see to make sure it's still there.

So, couple of quick recommendations; thanks for telling me some of what you're into, that always helps :) I'm going to assume you're either staying somewhere close to downtown or willing to trek into the city from outside it. A lot of people who tell me they're visiting Chicago are actually visiting Rosemont, which is a nice place but not Chicago and not super close to most of what I'll be talking about. Chicago is extremely large, and if you are staying around the O'Hare airport area (Rosemont) it will be an hour by public transit or at least $50 by rideshare/cab to get downtown.

I will say whenever I'm visiting somewhere, my first stop is always Atlas Obscura, which usually lists the really weird shit to do. :D

I've never done the Big Bus tour, but it's much nicer to do it in May than, say, December, and the people I know who've done it found it a convenient and inexpensive way to get around the city without having to deal with public transit, so while I can't personally recommend, I've only heard good things.

I know you said you weren't into architecture, but if you want to see a lot of Chicago in a very relaxed fashion, while incidentally getting some architecture knowledge, it's tough to beat the Chicago Architecture Center's boat tour. You just get on the boat, buy a drink if you want one, sit back, and drift down the river and back while someone narrates the history of Chicago architecture to you. You'll also, in May, see lots of other folks out on the river and get a real taste of Chicago's downtown scene. If you'd like to see the river without the cost of the architecture tour, I'd check out the water taxis and see if there's an opportunity to take one when going between other places you're visiting. They do a lot of tourist-destination stops.

For history, the Chicago History Museum is a natural fit and a lot of walking tours leave from the museum, although most of them are architecture :D I would also HIGHLY recommend Adam Selzer's Mysterious Chicago tours; Selzer is a very smart local historian and if you'd like to do reading ahead of time I also highly recommend his book Ghosts of Chicago. If he's offering a tour of Rose Hill or Graceland cemeteries, I'd jump on that; Graceland was my old "home" cemetery (it was literally my backyard for about a decade) and I think it's extremely interesting and beautiful. If you do go to Graceland, I can recommend Byron's nearby as a great place to get a burger, fries, Italian Beef, or a hot dog. But pretty much any tour he offers I would recommend whether I've been on it or not, he's great.

For art, again, the natural choice is the Art Institute Museum; to avoid lines, I'd recommend buying your museum ticket ahead of time and entering through the Modern Wing on Monroe Street, which is less attractive but also way less crowded than the "Lions" entrance on Michigan Avenue. I always recommend people make sure not to miss the Thorne Miniatures (they're in the basement so easy to miss, but any docent can direct you there) and the Ugliest Vase in the World. They move the vase around quite a bit, but if you check the website for the Londonderry Vase before you go, it'll tell you where to find it. Its hideousness must be seen in person. Also make sure not to miss the Chagall windows, they're off in a corner by the entrance to the cafe.

I'm not really much on music so my reccs are weaker there, but if you'd like some Chicago blues in a tourist-friendly environment, Kingston Mines is good, as is Buddy Guy's (which also has great food and is closer to downtown). If you like fried chicken, Harold's Chicken Shack is near Buddy Guy's (it's all over, it's a small chain, but that's usually the easiest one for people to find). The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is pretty great for classical music, and in the summer they often have special guests. If you like the NPR show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", they record live in downtown Chicago at the Fine Arts building; you usually have to buy pretty far in advance, keep an eye on tickets here.

More general recommendations: the Museum of Science and Industry is really fun, especially with kids but even without, but it's also the furthest out from downtown and can take some work to get to. Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium are both fun times, although the Shedd is kinda pricey I think. They're right next to each other though so a day doing both is convenient. If you are doing any of the museums, keep your eyes peeled for the "Mold A Rama" machines, where for $5 you can watch the machine injection-mold you a souvenir. Often the museums have custom machines for various exhibits (the Death exhibit at the Field had a skull one, for instance).

There are two train systems in Chicago: the "El" (the color-coded trains you see in movies all the time) and the Metra. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TAKE THE METRA TRAIN ANYWHERE. The Metra is a commuter rail designed for people who know how to use it, and they don't announce stops or even sometimes have signage; often the train won't stop at a platform unless it's told to during certain times of day. It is extremely easy to get extremely lost on the Metra and end up somewhere you do not want to be. If you are taking public transit, even if it seems less convenient, stick to buses and the El trains. The El and Metra run on different tracks so it's easy to avoid the Metra, but I always like to warn folks.

Okay, I think that's the highlights, minus some parks and such; I hope you have a great time! Feel free to hit me if you have questions.

#chicago #tourism

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guppyfish77 · 9 months

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Another year Another summary of Art! An Entire Year of Submas lets gooooooooooo!!!! This year I feel like I really pushed myself when it comes to illustrations and I feel like I've learned a lot! But at the same time I feel a little tired, next year I think I wanna relax and experiment a bit more, I gotta learn to loosen up! Might get more art out if I do :p

I also feel the Submas grip ever so lightly relaxing (unless they decide to do Unova remakes haha XD), so I might introduce some of my numerous ocs in 2024! I'll probably start with the conductor oc ;]

Thank you for all your support! (you are all very nice! ToT), I still have a good amount of submas stuff planned in the works so look forward to that (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

If you are interested, I also have some commentary and behind the scenes for some of my submas illustrations! I wanna talk about it and now seems like a good time to do so now that the year is over! (Beware! its going to be long!)

All titles are linked to the original post

Lunch Break

hoho! This one is the sort of AU thing in which the only thing that changes is that I give Emmet a Victini friend (not a part of his team, I dubbed them the "victory duo" because Emmet likes winning and Victini is the Victory Pokemon), I planned out a few wordless comics regarding the idea, they were all very lighthearted slice of life kind of stuff, usually Victini causing some mischief and the brothers having to deal with it

and here's the thumbnails for this piece! I played around with various angles but decided to keep it simple and choose a straight on angle. It was originally a snack break and Emmet sharing a granola bar with Victini, but as I was planning it, submas unexpectedly showed up in the Pokemon Anime where they were serving ekiben, after learning about it it quickly turned into a lunch break! (how fun when new information lines up with an art piece you are working on hoho! ^ ^) After studying what foods Ekiben usually have in them (there was quite a variety!) I took what I learned and try to make the food look like the gear station logo :D

In the background there are children drawings because in the battle subway one of the trainer classes you can face off against are preschoolers, and I thought at least one of them would share their drawings with the subway bosses (and of course why wouldn't they hang it up?), there is also a trophy in which you can get in the players room if you beat the subway bosses on the super trains (one day, battling competitively is not my forte), I did my best to make Emmet's office feel lived in by adding a little bit of clutter (like adding a note) but overall very organized

(hey hey that joltik mug looks familiar in the corner there, its the same one Rei is holding in the christmas drawing)

Bonus Emmet and Victini Drawings

aw come on dude, not on the trains!

ah this one, it gave me quite a bit of frustration! This piece I used to challenge myself on perspective, and challenge me it did! The version you see now is I believe the 6th iteration of this drawing! The reason for restarting so many times is because I originally wanted it to be in 3 point perspective, but I couldn't get it to look right so its now in 2 point... Haha Some valuable lessons learned there!

This illustration was inspired by the history of New York Subway Trains and Graffiti! I read about it when I got to visit the New York Transit Museum and found it super interesting!! Then I went I gotta do something with this! Since Unova is based in New York after all!

I got so many subway surfer comments, they don’t know I forgot subway surfers existed while making this and that I am a huge nerd lmao

I had a lot of fun designing the graffiti on the train (yes it says among us) stylizing the fictional letters was so fun! I studied some graffiti to see how they do it, I could've pushed the graffiti style more but then it would be illegible! I also mixed in elements of Grafaiai graffiti, and trainer that is running away is the artist trainer class in SCVL because they are graffiti artists! And the train that got graffitied is the Wifi Train, due to BW (and the DS) servers being shut down, I doubt that train gets used much anymore, which makes it a perfect target!

Derailed!

hohoho! This was a fun one! I'm not sure how many of you guys read my tags, but in there I did state that this piece was based off the fact that model trains are powered by electrifying the rail it runs on (very low watts mind you) and the fact that Joltik eats electricity, but thats not the only inspiration, it was also inspired by those videos of cats laying on the layout and derailing the train!

Theres quite a variety of thumbnails for this idea (including a comic!), and the idea was there in 2022, but this year I decided to fully commit to it! I started rendering the top right one and almost finished it, but it felt really boring to me, so I switched it up and made some thumbnails in a new perspective and viola! thats what ended up being finished!

The train that is being derailed are Sanriku Railway Type 36s, based off a model train I have in my collection! (While sharing this fact on the original post Haiku Bot detected it as a Haiku?! and this art went out of my target audience, that certainly was a day (⊙□⊙;))

Also I straight up put a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine in the background, I'm not sure if people noticed cuz its quite blurry, the fact that nobody said anything means I probably would’ve gotten away with it before sharing this fact, so hehe :3c

Unexplained Melancholy

eyy! this one! It started out wholly different

It was originally me dropping Warden Ingo in various natural landscapes around Hisui as I didn't feel like drawing anymore linear perspective (ah, but heres the thing, all environments require a little bit of perspective lol), and it was just going to be Warden Ingo hanging out in a lush forest, specifically by the train rock that was shown in his concept art! but after sitting on it, I realized I could do something more with it! by making it a snowy environment I could make callbacks to Emmet's coat being white! hence the "SNOWY!!!" being scribbled there, that was added like weeks afterwards, Then I realized I could push it even more by making the whole environment about Emmet's colors! So the new thumbnail is in color because thats whats its about!

The moon smile thing was stumbled on by complete accident, while working on it it felt empty there and I added Emmet's smile to fill the space before going "moon!!!"

The piece is also a sort of a parallel to last years piece “I am Emmet, I wish for Ingo and I to be a two-car train once more” composition wise, sort of, I tried to at least 👍

Black Tower and Whitetree Hollow

Ah! I was quite proud of this one! Black City and White Forest are some of my favorite places in Unova mainly because the parallels are so very cool!

As the thumbnails suggest it was all going to be in complete black and white, as I was working on it though I could not help but add some values in there so yup! I quite like both compositions but the perspective won me out, plus that one focuses more on the characters than the other one (as much as I love backgrounds, it really is supposed to be about Emmet and Ingo U_U)

Being places of duality and having a battle challenge in there, it really fit them!

Emmet drops the hottest single of all time 🔥🔥🔥

Not really much to say about this one since it was very much done on a whim, but

its not the first time I drew Emmet with his hat backwards, I did this little doodle around the same time I did the train graffiti piece, been wanting to do something with this silly idea, and when I heard that audio, I went :o

Following Some Rumors of a Time Machine

the finale! I decided to choose Area Zero because its a very cool place! I am inspired by cool places! and I decided to give it my all for this one!

The thumbnail I made was more for jotting down the idea, and the landscape was going to be more eyelevel? Later I decided to make it so you were looking down into the crater and you get to see the fog blocking the crystal caverns, to show that Emmet was going deeper into Area Zero and the Deepest part is his destination (the time machine, not the underdepths, I didn't know about that yet haha!) I was always going to make Emmet encounter a Slither Wing, with it being based off Volcarona, a gen 5 pokemon :]

Anyways, That's all I have to say! I hope you found it interesting! (and enjoyed my varying quality in sketches and thumbnails XD) Thanks for listening! see you in 2024! ✌

#Art Summary 2023 #Art Summary

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yesimtrashforit · 4 months

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My Thorough Examination of klaus.xls (Klaus' spreadsheet) (as of TMAGP 19) PART 1

Hey all! So as many of you may know, for The Magnus Protocol ARG, a couple of spreadsheets were created. One of them was this file:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1B-t8II1ogRaqJdyBGzZsVzDtnqaRTIqxPAqQRye_0SI/htmlview?pli=1#

It appears to be a filing spreadsheet of cases for the OIAR, created by Klaus. Klaus is confirmed to have been the IT manager at one point or at least employed by the OIAR.

Here is my thorough examination of the file and its contents:

1. The Basics

The file has 103 cases on it. Many are unknown due to the data/date being indecipherable.

It has 7 different columns:

1. Matter #

Basically the code like we see in the description of each episode. For many of these, it is unknown. Some do have the date of the incident followed by blanks which I assume to be the date it was processed by the OIAR.

2. Date

Plain and simple. The dates range from 1991 to 2023.

3. Location (the most interesting!!)

For nearly all of the ones with dates, a location is put next to it. All but one of them are real locations throughout the UK. Some are very vague, just being cities, others are specific buildings/sites. I will be going into those later on!

4. Category

(Also seen in the description of each episode.) We still don't know what defines a case's category. At least, I am unsure about it. Categories 1-3 are very common. However there is one that says 13 and one that says 12.

5. Rank

Really unsure about this one. The established ranks are S, A, B, C.

6. TSHU (don't know what this stands for)

It's the case's number depending on the contents. (Also seen in the description of each episode.)

7. Notes

I'm pretty sure these are notes that Klaus or someone put when they were mucking around. They don't seem to be that serious or weird compared to what we know.

The only notes I see are:

"Cats LOL"

"Mr. B" (certainly Mr. Bonzo)

"Martial people"

"Avoid"

"Unhappy child"

"Ext."

"Like"

"ink" (certainly ink5oul)

"Mr. m"

"I hate witches"

"Lady M" (certainly Lady Mowbray)

"Never again"

Some repeat, some don't.

User @tenthgrove did a fascinating post examining the filing system in more depth if you're interested!

Here's the link to their post:

2. Some episodes cases DO line up with several entries on this spreadsheet

By searching for the numbers on each episode's description, I found that some of them line up with a couple cases in the spreadsheet.

A. Episode 2 - Making Adjustments is #80 on the file

Here it is in the spreadsheet:

The number matches up! And it has a note saying "ink" obv lining up with Daria's situation.

The rest of the columns say [data damage].

B. Episode 3 - Putting Down Roots is #64 on the file

Spreadsheet:

The rest says [data damage]

C. Episode 5 - Personal Screening is #75 on the file

Spreadsheet:

The rest says [data damage].

D. Episode 7 - Give and Take is #77 on the file

Spreadsheet:

E. Episode 14 - Pet Project is #25 on the file

Spreadsheet:

F. Episode 17 - Saved Copy is #20 on the file

Spreadsheet:

Part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/yesimtrashforit/752561988257890304/my-extremely-thorough-examination-of-klausxls

#the magnus protocol #the magnus protocol theory #the magnus protocol spoilers #tmagp #tmagp spoilers #tmagpod #tmapg #tmp #tmp spoilers #the magnus protocol arg

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mushroom-madness · 1 year

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🍄 Round 1: Match 25 🍄

🍄 Vote for your Favorite Fungi! 🍄

Descriptions Below ⬇️

Zommoth

“Zommoth is an optional/hidden boss in Bug Fables, fought at the end of the Leif's Request side story. It is also a cordyceps fungus inside a moth host and Leif (whom we also submitted) refers to it as their sibling. It was an experiment to see if bugs could be given magic by infecting them with the parasitic fungi, and the result was This Beast (affectionate). There are other cordyceps in the same laboratory it's found in, but Zommoth is the strongest and the most notable by a large margin. Very little is known about it as a person but it's stated to be a "guardian" figure and implied that it was protecting the lab and the other zombies in it. We are emotionally attached to it. Also, its color scheme is the nonbinary flag.” - Submission 47

“Oh boy, do we LOVE this fungus! Zommoth is a cordyceps beast and immortality experiment made in search of the power of the Everlasting Sapling, a thing said to bring eternal life. Unfortunately, as it often is with this sort of things, they the fungus and they the moth were both quite displeased with being involuntarily used for the sake of roaches chasing immortality. It killed everything in the lab and proceeded to take it over with their many, many fungal siblings.

Technically speaking, Zommoth is a blend of both the fungus and its moth host, now twisted beyond recognition and unable to separate even if they wanted to, but we do think it still counts. It's at least 50% fungus. Probably more, it doesn't seem to have had much use for most of those moth bits. It is loving sibling to many undead fungal hybrid abominations, and its hobbies include screaming, firing lasers at people who intrude into its lab, and crawling out of the water like a beast from a horror flick. We believe it deserves to compete, and also to win.” - Submission 52

“Oh yeah this thing is a fungus isn't it. Positively overflowing with cordyceps. Honestly kinda forgot about it for this but saw my mutual bring it up and I figured it would need the support. It sure is a Phucking Phungus” - Submission 68

“A zombie moth full of Cordyceps fungus, the result of a horrific experiment. “Sibling” to Leif, as in created through the same unethical project, if you read my last submission.” - Submission 105

Bug Fables Wiki

Room

“Room is a giant radiation-mutated mushroom and the partner of Lou (the smartest person in Laketown City) (a genius teenage girl) who often carries her on their shoulder and stuff and is the brawn to her brains. Also this is my way of saying listen to Join the Party campaign 2, it's D&D reskinned for a modern day superhero setting and hey. Mushrooms play a big part in the plot ;)” - Submission 58

No Wiki Available. Sorry Room, I’ve been trying to flesh out character descriptions so everyone has about the same amount included in the posts in an effort to create a fair vote and include links for everyone since I started including links for some. But I just. Couldn’t find anything other than the submitter’s description. Only image I could find too.

#mushroom madness #polls #zommoth #bug fables #join the party #join the party pod #room join the party #round 1 #poll #bracket #competition #tournament #room #Zommoth bug fables #bug fables zommoth #bf Zommoth #Zommoth bf #join the party podcast #join the party campaign 2

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arecaceae175 · 7 months

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Ties That Bind Us

Summary: There is a very important meeting in Warriors’ era, but he only lets some of the Links come. He doesn't want anyone else to be misgendered.

3k, angst and hurt/comfort, Wars Sky and Twi focused. Everyone is trans :D also featuring nonverbal autistic Time :D

Warnings: misgendering and transphobia

Excerpt below the cut :D

That afternoon, Warriors herded Sky and Twilight into his room and dressed them in the finest clothes he could find on such short notice.

Warriors was standing in front of his mirror fixing his hair while Twilight lounged on his bed and Sky tried to figure out the layers of her outfit. Warriors’ heart was beating faster and faster with each passing minute, but he thought he was doing a commendable job of not showing it.

He had to warn them, though. They didn’t deserve this. The least Warriors could do was make sure they went in prepared.

“Wars?” Sky asked. “You okay?”

Warriors realized his hands had frozen over his hair. He let them fall to his side with a sigh and turned to face Sky and Twilight. Twilight sat up on the bed with concern clearly displayed in his expression.

“Artemis asked for everyone to attend. There’s a reason I’m only letting you two come,” Warriors said.

His throat tightened. He hated bringing them into this. “I tried to get all of you out of it, but she insisted at least some of you needed to join.”

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, one hand on the hilt of their sword.

Warriors’ eyes dropped to the floor. He took a deep breath, then forced out the words.

“You’re going to be misgendered,” Warriors said. There was a beat of silence.

“Oh,” Sky said. Warriors felt his stomach sink.

“I’m sorry. I had to bring someone, and you two are the only ones who can deal with being called he. The others don’t…” Warriors ran an anxious hand through his hair, then cursed and turned back to the mirror to fix it. He found this was easier with his back turned, however cowardly that made him.

“Hey, wait, I’m not upset,” Sky said. Warriors glanced over and saw he had a small smile on his face. “I go by he, too. It’s fine.”

“Same here,” Twilight said. He wasn’t smiling, though.

Warriors sighed again. He straightened his collar and made sure his shoulder pads were in place. His hair was as good as it would get, probably. It wasn’t like it would make a difference.

“As a warning, they’re going to misgender me, too,” Warriors said. He put in a conscious effort to keep his voice from getting too small. If he acted unbothered, hopefully the others wouldn’t make it a big deal

#ace writes #linked universe #lu warriors #lu sky #lu twilight #the trio ever #transgender #bigender #demiboy #trans man warriors #trans link #tehehe #autistic time #autistic link #transphobia #misgendering #tw misgendering #tw transphobia

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fangirlwriting-stories · 19 days

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Afterlife Lessons

Masterlist

Art For This Chapter: @junicane-dp link

Chapter Thirteen:

It took a little bit for Sam to decide how she felt about the fight with Phantom. They didn’t see him again that day, and neither of them felt particularly inclined to go looking. Some time to cool off sounded like the best idea. It gave Sam some time to think, and by the end of the day, she’d realized a couple things.

For one, Phantom was clearly not doing so hot. People don’t insist they’re fine and can handle everything themself while bleeding out of a wound in their side unless they’ve got some stuff going on.

But his motives still aligned pretty neatly with what Sam understood about him. He wanted to protect her and Tucker. The intensity was a little confusing, but mostly because Sam wasn’t really confused by it. The three of them had only technically met a little over a week ago, but she didn’t question Phantom’s very firm insistence that he needed to protect them, she just knew it made him an idiot.

Idiot or no however, it did make him a great example to give to Danny in regards to a ghost that clearly wasn’t malicious. So the next morning found her in front of Danny’s locker, waiting for him to show up. Before he did, however, Tucker got there first and headed over to her.

“Hey,” he said. “So I figured something out.”

Sam turned to face him. “Yeah?”

Tucker nodded. “We shouldn’t talk about it here. After school?”

Sam nodded back. “Okay. You sure?”

“Yeah. Before we meet up with Phantom.”

Sam gave him a curious look but didn’t argue.

“Uh, hey, are we all having hangouts by my locker now?”

Sam turned to see Danny approaching and started grinning. She stepped aside and let Danny open his locker, and then started taking.

“Hey Danny,” she said, trying to keep her voice more casual than mischievous or smug. “I have an argument for you.”

Danny sighed, long and exhausted. “First thing in the morning?”

“Phantom saved our lives yesterday.”

Danny set his bag in his locker and slammed it shut. “No he didn’t.”

“Hey, how would you know?” Sam asked, crossing her arms. “You weren’t there.”

She saw Danny clench his jaw, and she knew she was getting to him in at least some way.

But then Danny said, “I know because there’s no way that menace actually did something helpful,” and Sam felt her own jaw clench.

“Don’t talk about him that way.”

“Why not?” Danny said, starting down the hallway. “He’s the worst ghost out there, isn’t he? That’s what everyone says.”

“No, that’s what your parents say,” Sam said. “And if you got your information from literally anyone else in addition to them, you’d know better!”

“I know enough,” Danny snapped. “He’s a worthless excuse for a hero who can’t even save people right, and he’s gonna get someone killed one day.”

“Hey,” Tucker said, sounding just as angry as Sam did. “You really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, and honestly Danny, I think we might know Phantom a little better than you do,” Sam said.

Danny snorted. “Oh, do you,” he said, and then he turned and walked into homeroom before either of them could respond.

Sam huffed and crossed her arms. She was a little surprised by how angry that conversation had made her, but only a little. It wasn’t a conversation about all ghosts in general, it was about Phantom, and he was her friend, and she cared about him. Maybe this “using him as a good example” idea was a double edged sword. And she’d let it go, except now Danny had directly insulted her friend, and she couldn’t just let that slide.

So, she walked into homeroom, slid into the seat across from Danny, and said, “What exactly does he do that makes him not a hero? You think—”

“Well, just for starters, he’s fought my parents before,” Danny said without looking up.

“No, your parents fought him. There’s a difference. They initiated things.”

“He’s a ghost,” Danny said, glaring up at Sam. “If they hadn’t, he would have.”

“You understand how biased that is, right?” Sam snapped.

“Doesn’t change the fact that he fought them while they were trying to protect everyone,” Danny said. “He made it harder for them to do their jobs.”

“Your parents couldn’t hit a ghost if one hovered in front of them and asked them to,” Sam said.

Danny blinked in surprise, then narrowed his eyes. “Hey.”

Okay, maybe that was a bit too far.

“Hey, let’s all calm down,” Tucker said, drawing both of their attention. “People are starting to stare at us.”

Sam glanced around and saw that it was true. And yeah, having a knock-down drag out in homeroom maybe wasn’t the best idea.

“Fine,” she said. She turned a glare back on Danny. “But don’t think this conversation is over.”

Danny rolled his eyes and turned his own glare back to the table. Neither of them spoke again for the rest of homeroom.

…

“So your only problem with Phantom is that he fights your parents sometimes?” Sam asked as soon as Danny walked up to the lunch table. She’d use the loud noise as an excuse when Tucker got there.

Danny groaned as he sat down. “Honestly Sam, just drop it,” he said. “Why do you care so much, anyway?”

“Because you’re being really unfair and insulting to someone I really admire,” Sam said, crossing her arms.

“Why do you admire him?” Danny asked, looking up at the ceiling. “Pick a better option.”

“Well the only reason you’ve given me not to so far is that he’s mean to your parents sometimes,” Sam said, narrowing her eyes.

“That is not the only reason,” Danny snapped. “That’s not even the reason I gave you, but that’s hardly the point. You want reasons? How about the destruction of property following him everywhere he goes, ruining homes and livelihoods?”

“That’s not his fault! It’s not like he goes around destroying buildings! They get smashed up when he’s fighting ghosts!”

“And? He should be better at this by now,” Danny said, and he shoved a chicken nugget in his mouth.

“Oh sure, and of course you’d be much better at protecting property during fast paced dangerous ghost fights,” Sam said.

In response, Danny shoved another chicken nugget in his mouth.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“You know what, I really don’t have to sit here and take this,” Danny said. And before Sam could ask what that meant, he picked up his lunch and walked off.

“What— Danny! Get back here, you prick!”

Danny didn’t give her any kind of response, and Sam glowered after him. Whatever, she had food to eat, and he wasn’t worth chasing after over that. She’d catch up to him later and keep giving him a piece of her mind. For now, Tucker was walking over to her, looking at Danny leaving the lunchroom as he did, which meant she’d have to explain.

“What’s up with him?” Tucker asked as he sat down.

“He can’t stand the fact that someone’s trying to defend Phantom right to his face,” Sam snapped. “As if it’s impossible for a ghost to be a benefit to society.”

Tucker sighed and sat down. “Do you want to give it a rest? We knew he’s like this.”

“Yeah, but that was with ghosts we didn’t know,” Sam said, stabbing her fork into her salad.

Tucker sighed. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “I’m annoyed too. Just, you’re not gonna change Danny’s mind in one day.”

“No, but I can sure try.”

“Sam.”

“I just want him to admit he’s not the worst ghost out there,” Sam said. “Seriously. I need to hear him say that.”

Because she did. Both because Phantom was her friend, and she didn’t like hearing him talked about that way, and because… she wasn’t sure. But there was something else bugging her.

Tucker seemed to read at least some of that in her face, because he nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Just, make sure you don’t push too hard, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sam sighed. “Okay.” She thought for a minute. “Maybe we talk about it more casually in a hangout. Like we offer going over to one of our houses to play Doomed or something. So we’re not just arguing back and forth.”

Tucker nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do that.”

So next time Sam saw Danny in class she asked if he was up for Doomed after school. Danny gave her a suspicious look, but ultimately agreed, and offered his own house as the place to go, since he had the console they were most familiar with all playing together. Sam agreed, and Tucker was down with it too, meaning after school found them all there on bean bags in front of Danny’s console. The feeling was casual and lighthearted enough that Sam almost didn’t want to ruin it.

But the something else that was bugging her wouldn’t leave her alone, so eventually, in a pause after she beat a level, she turned to face Danny.

“Okay, genuine question,” she said, hoping to at least try to keep the lighthearted tone. “You really don’t think Phantom is a hero?”

Danny groaned, and put his hands over his face. “God, again, really?” he asked.

“I’m asking! It’s not a stance most people have,” Sam said, crossing her arms. “You know, with all the ways he fights ghosts and protects everyone in Amity Park?”

“Stephanie Bacon,” Danny said, counting off on a finger. “A five year old who got caught in the crossfire of a ghost fight with Technus. Donna Smith, a middle aged woman who got crushed against a building and broke her leg during a battle with Ember. Anthony Walker, an old man Phantom grabbed too roughly to pull to safety, breaking his wrist. Riley Adams, a teenager who got a bad concussion after Phantom failed to catch them in time and they hit the ground—”

“Uh, hold up. What is that?” Sam asked.

“Everyone who’s ever gotten hurt during one of Phantom’s ghost fights,” Danny said, looking down at his controller and fiddling with the buttons instead of meeting her eye.

“Dude,” Tucker said. “Do you have that memorized?”

Danny nodded.

“You—” Sam took a very unsuccessful calming breath and ran her hands through her hair. “Danny, do you understand how completely unfair to him that is?”

“Oh, yeah?” Danny said, glaring up at her with so much fury that it actually caught her off guard for a minute. “If he’s going to claim to be this big hero, he needs to be held accountable for his fuckups.”

Sam shook herself, and went back to glaring at him. “That’s not how you hold someone accountable,” Sam snapped. “That’s how you hold onto an unfair grudge. Ghost fights are fast and dangerous. You can’t expect him to make perfect decisions all the time.”

“If he wants to say he’s actually helping people, he needs to learn how to do better than that,” Danny said. “People could get hurt in ways that don’t heal.”

“That wouldn’t be his fault either,” Sam snapped.

“You’re going way too far to defend him, Sam,” Danny said, glaring back down at his controller, which he was squeezing so tight Sam was a little concerned it might break. “When would you stop? What if someone gets killed on his watch? Is that something that you should just let go?”

I already did, Sam didn’t say.

Instead she said, “Do you honestly think Phantom wouldn’t try absolutely everything to stop that from happening?”

“Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t,” Danny said. “That’s not the point. If it’s not enough, that makes him just as much of a monster as every other ghost.”

And honestly, Sam had about had enough of this. Maybe Danny had gotten most of his knowledge from his parents, and Sam had tried to give him a little grace with that. But she’d been consistently pointing out flaws in that kind of thinking, examples of ghosts being different than his parents thought, and he hadn’t changed his mind at all. And if he was going to be this prejudiced towards one of her actual friends, Sam was done putting up with it.

So, she walked over to Danny’s bedroom door, locked it for safekeeping, turned and met Danny’s confused face now gazing back at her, and transformed.

Danny’s mouth fell open.

“I’m a ghost, Danny,” Sam snapped. “Am I a monster?”

Danny looked faint, even as he stood up from his bean bag. “Y-you— you just—”

“Sam!” Tucker called, running over in front of Danny and sticking his arms out as a barrier between him and Sam. “What are you doing, you idiot?”

Sam saw Danny look at Tucker, probably processing that Tucker “knew” or something.

“Wh- I don’t understand,” Danny said, taking a couple of steps back. “Why would you show me that?”

Sam noted with slight confusion that Danny wasn’t asking any questions about “what” or “how” and had instead jumped straight to “why.” But she could wonder about that later.

“Because you’re being a total prick and I’m tired of dealing with it,” Sam snapped. “And because, somehow, I trust that you’ll keep it a secret.”

She felt a little crazy even saying it, but she did. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Danny wouldn’t tell anyone. Even now.

Apparently there were a couple of doubts in Danny’s mind, though, because he shook his head and took another step back. “How— how do you know?” he asked weakly. “What if I just go and turn you right over to my parents so they can rip you apart molecule by molecule?”

Sam snorted. She turned intangible, flew right through Tucker, dropped the intangibility and leaned right into Danny’s face. “Go on then,” she said. She pointed behind her towards Danny’s bedroom door. “Do it.”

Danny stared back at her with wide eyes, and Sam met his gaze with a firm determined one.

Finally, Danny pulled his gaze down, away from hers just slightly.

Sam leaned back, satisfied. “That’s what I thought.” She turned to Tucker. “Come on, Tuck,” she said. “You want to fly home?”

Tucker looked hesitantly at her for a second, then back at Danny, and then nodded, and transformed just like her. He looked at Danny for a moment, and Sam looked back over to see something strange and broken on Danny’s face.

But she was done cutting him slack.

“Come find us when you stop being a dick,” she said. Then she flew through Danny’s wall and started home, Tucker right behind her.

Sam took off as fast as she could as soon as she was outside Danny’s window, letting the anger and adrenaline fuel her into getting as far away from Danny, as fast as she could.

“Sam!” Tucker called, flying faster to try and catch up with her. “Sam, wait!”

Sam stopped with a huff and turned around, only for Tucker to soar right past her.

“Woah!” he said, spinning around and doubling back. “I uh, thought I’d have to chase you a bit longer.”

“Can you believe him?” Sam snapped, gesturing angrily back towards Danny.

“Uh, yeah,” Tucker said, looking… not angry? Why wasn’t he angry? “Sam, I… I don’t know if he was being a hundred percent honest there.”

Sam blinked. “Honest?” she asked. She’d attributed a lot of things to Danny’s behavior. Prejudice, ignorance, stubbornness. She hadn’t really put ‘dishonesty’ on the list. “What do you mean?”

Tucker looked back over his shoulder, seeming hesitant. “Sam, that thing I was going to tell you? It’s about Vlad Plasmius.”

Sam blinked. “What? What are you talking about?”

“That thing I discovered is about Vlad Plasmius. Phantom said he was a half ghost too, right? Well, I think I figured it out. His human half is Vlad Masters.”

Sam blinked again. “Vlad Masters like Danny’s piece of shit godfather who won’t stop hitting on his mom?”

Tucker nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay? So?”

“So, don’t you remember what he said? When we were asking panicked questions about what he wanted and who he was? He said we’d get a much better explanation from Danny.”

Sam nodded, vaguely recalling something like that. “Yeah, okay.”

Tucker looked at her like that meant something. “Sam, why would Danny know anything about that?”

“He knows about ghosts?” Sam said. “Or, he thinks he does.”

“Okay, sure, but knowing about ghosts is one thing. Knowing about half ghosts seems to be another thing entirely.”

“What’s your point?” Sam asked.

“And you know,” Tucker said, ignoring her question. “Didn’t Phantom seem awfully sure what Danny’s reaction to us telling him anything about ghosts was going to be? And then Danny reacted exactly like Phantom thought he would?”

“Maybe Phantom was just a good guesser,” Sam said, though she didn’t really believe it.

Tucker shook his head. “Sam, Vlad seemed so sure Danny knew things about half ghosts. And that he’d be talking to us about them. But Danny hasn’t said anything to us about them, ever.”

“Okay,” Sam said, trying to ignore the queasy feeling in her stomach. “So that’s… what does that mean?”

Tucker gave her a look, like he didn’t want to believe it either. “Sam, come on,” he said. “We know what it means. I know I’m not the only one who’s noticed everything.”

Sam opened her mouth, but nothing came out, because Tucker was right. Everything familiar about Phantom, and Danny’s sudden hatred of ghosts that seemed to come out of nowhere. The weird something else that had been bugging her the whole time Danny had been shitting on Phantom. The way he’d asked “why” instead of having any questions about “what the fuck are you.”

Sam squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, goddammit.”

#danny phantom #sam manson #tucker foley #danny fenton #halfa trio au #no one knows au #invisobang #afterlife lessons #my fic

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stelladoesstuff · 2 years

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I have an Ace Attorney oneshot request, though you don't have to do it if you don't want to. It's basically just Apollo realising he has feelings for Klavier and, in a panic, asking Phoenix on how to ask someone out because, HEY, he's dating the chief prosecutor! He probably knows something about romance! Turns out, Phoenix isn't dating Edgeworth and is simply pinning/has a crush, and then Phoenix asks why he's asking for romance advice because he just assumed Klavier and Apollo were already dating like how Apollo thought Phoenix and Edgeworth were dating. This is kinda long, I know, I just want some fluffy Klapollo and Wrightworth shenanigans

I love this prompt so much. Just saying. The idea of both Apollo and Phoenix being so oblivious to their own situations is hilarious.

Anywho, hope you enjoy! :D

---

Word Count: 3150

~ ao3 link ~

---

Apollo sat on the couch in the Wright Anything Agency, spinning a pencil between his fingers. He was working on a pretty straightforward case, files laying strewn across the table, but every time he tried to pick up a file he just couldn’t seem to focus on it, mind wandering to a certain prosecutor he knew he’d be facing in the trial. He wasn’t even sure why Klavier had decided to take this case, all of the evidence was pretty obviously leaning in Apollo’s favor, but he couldn’t complain. Not when it meant he’d get to trade banter with the man, subtle smirks across the courtroom, Klavier’s many rings catching the light when he objects-

He groaned, hiding his face in his hands as if he could shut out the imagery. This was so stupid, he just needed to work on the case! Why couldn’t he focus?

Well, he knew why. Didn’t make it any less frustrating.

Gavin was… charming, to say the least. He would strut around crime scenes, get way too invasive of people’s personal space, make flashy flirtatious comments, and just be an all around arrogant jerk. At least, that’s what Apollo’s initial impression of the man had been. How could it not have been when, in Ema’s words, Klavier fit the definition of a “glimmerous fop?”

And yet, there was more to him than that.

Klavier was dramatic to a fault, always putting on a show. He could be arrogant, but that was usually just an act he put on to appease fans. Same with the too-wide smiles and overly confident flirting. All of those things built up the general public’s vision of ‘Klavier Gavin, Rockstar Prosecutor,’ but they weren’t who Klavier really was.

Ever since the Misham Trial, Apollo had managed to start seeing through those walls. Who he found beneath them was… well, Klavier.

Klavier, who could nerd-out about different types of guitars and their pros and cons for hours. Klavier, who stumbled over his words and would accidentally slip into full-German when he got tired or was caught off guard. Klavier, who snorted when he laughed and got embarrassed about it afterwards. Klavier, who preferred small, local restaurants to big fancy ones despite absolutely having the money to afford those luxuries.

Klavier, who’d slid his way into Apollo’s heart without him even noticing.

Apollo sighed, leaning back against the couch and staring at the ceiling. He wasn’t getting anywhere like this. He hadn’t even noticed it had gotten this bad until the night before, laying in bed, flashes of Klavier’s laugh playing over and over in his head like a broken record. All he had been able to do was lay there in the dark as his entire world turned upside down. And worse, he couldn’t even talk to anyone about it!

Trucy would tease him relentlessly if she found out. She already joked about him and Klavier going on dates, he didn’t need to add more fuel to that fire before he was ready. Clay came to mind, but he was away at the space center until further notice, and Apollo wasn’t sure he could take the teasing from that side either. And there was no way he was telling Ema about this–he’d never live it down.

Well, that was it. His entire friend circle was out, so there was nothing left to do but sit and wallow in his own self-pity-

“Apollo?” He jolted upright, so startled he almost broke the pencil he was still aimlessly spinning around. Nobody else was supposed to be in the office, Trucy had gone off to practice magic tricks and Mr. Wright had gone out to lunch with Mr. Edgeworth-

And yet there Mr. Wright stood, having just walked into the office, a humored expression on his face at Apollo’s reaction. He must have just gotten back from their lunch date… wait. Wait, that was it! Of course, why hadn’t he thought of it sooner?!

“M-Mr. Wright!” Apollo basically screamed, then winced at the sound of his own voice. Wright didn’t seem all that phased, used to the assault on his ears by now.

“Lost in thought there, kid?” Wright chuckled, tossing his briefcase haphazardly across the room. Apollo was too distracted to make a comment about it, he had priorities. Wright walked over and slumped down onto the opposite couch, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees. “Case got ya stuck? Want me to take a look?”

“Yes- wait, I mean no, the case is insultingly simple, but yes!” Apollo stammered out, his poor boss simply raising an eyebrow. “Yes, meaning I was lost in thought, not about the case though. But I think you can still help?”

“Ah, you’re looking for some good ol’ Phoenix Wright wisdom then.” Phoenix leaned back, holding a hand up to make a finger-gun motion. “Alright, kid. Shoot me.”

“H-huh?” Apollo paused, and Phoenix chuckled.

“Figure of speech, Apollo.” Apollo blinked, and Phoenix sighed. “Forget it. What’s on your mind?” Apollo shook his head, taking a breath before opening and closing his mouth, trying to figure out the best way to word this.

“Well, uh…” Holy Mother, this was awkward. He rubbed at his bracelet, furrowing his brow. “So, uh, I’m gay?” There was a moment of silence, Apollo screaming internally because that was not what he’d meant to say why the fuck did he say that, before Phoenix burst out laughing.

“Yeah, that was pretty obvious.” Apollo stammered in response, flushing.

“L-look, that’s not the point, ok?” It took a moment for his boss to stop laughing at him, but when he did, Apollo continued. “Thing is, I… I like this guy. And I don’t know how to go about handling that because he’s a prosecutor and a really cool guy and I’m me and I don’t wanna mess up our friendship but also I can’t stop thinking about him and then I thought ‘hey, Mr. Wright is married to Mr. Edgeworth who’s also a prosecutor’ and so I thought you might be able to give me some advice because I have no idea what I’m doing?” The entire thing came out as a jumble of words, and probably wouldn’t have made any sense to anyone except for Phoenix Wright, who was used to deciphering Trucy.

Even so, Phoenix looked baffled. Apollo sighed, opening his mouth to repeat himself in a more understandable manner, when Phoenix cut in.

“Hold on, just- ok, wait. Slow down.” Wright leaned forward again, putting a hand to his head like he suddenly had a headache from the influx in information Apollo had just spat at him. “I’m gonna go in order here, ok?”

Apollo clamped his mouth shut and nodded.

“Ok. Number one: This ‘guy’ you’re talking about. It’s the Gavin kid, right?” Apollo felt his heart stutter for a moment, considering playing dumb, before he remembered his boss literally had a lie-detecting rock. Silently, he nodded again. “Ok. Ok. Follow up question, then… you two aren’t already dating?”

Apollo blinked. Then blinked again. Then he finally processed what had been said.

“WHAT??” He shouted, loud enough this time for Wright to flinch back, covering his ears. “Wha- what do you- ALREADY DATING???”

“Ok! Ok! Calm down.” Phoenix shouted back, putting his hands up in a placating motion one might use to calm down a puppy. Apollo tried to interject again, but Phoenix beat him to it. “To be fair, you thought me and Edgeworth were dating, so we’re even.”

Apollo felt like his eyes were going to shoot out of his head. Scratch that, like his entire brain was going to be shot out like a cannonball and sink to the bottom of the ocean.

“YOU’RE NOT-”

“Volume, Apollo, volume!” Apollo clamped his mouth shut again, letting his eyes do the screaming for him. Phoenix met his gaze for a moment before letting out a sound that sounded like a mix between a sigh and a laugh. “Ok, this is gonna take a while. Coffee?”

“I- you-”

“Coffee it is!”

~~~

By the time Wright returned with coffee, which took much longer than it should have since the coffee machine was literally in his office, Apollo had partially calmed down. Only partially.

“So, let’s start this the easy way.” Phoenix said, seeming far too chill about all of this, though Apollo could spot about three different ways he’d been fidgeting in the past five seconds. On a normal day it was usually only two. “What are your questions?”

“You aren’t dating Mr. Edgeworth?”

“No, I’m not.”

“...you’re both aware of this?”

“Yes, we are.” Phoenix, despite his obvious confusion, chuckled at that one. Apollo spared a glance at his bracelet, which sat unmoving on his wrist. Not a lie. Damn. Well, there went that logic. He paused for a moment, thinking, before looking up at his boss with a dead-serious expression.

“And you have no intention of ever dating?” His boss froze, and Apollo smirked. Gottem. Phoenix opened his mouth to reply, likely to deny the implications, but his eyes wandered to Apollo’s bracelet and he stopped. After a few moments, he sighed, a defeated look crossing his face.

“You can’t say anything about it, you’re pining for a prosecutor too.” Apollo gawked, flushing, as a small smirk grew on Phoenix’s face.

“Those are two entirely different scenarios!” He insisted, voice raising in pitch.

“Really? How, exactly? Because how I see it-”

“Well, for one, I’ve only known Klavier for a few months max. You’ve known Mr. Edgeworth for decades. You were literally childhood friends, like c’mon! Sure, you probably didn’t like him like that until you two were adults, but that’s still a long time.” He expected a refute, but Wright wouldn’t even meet his gaze after that last sentence, chuckling awkwardly.

“Well, you see…” Apollo blinked. Then blinked again.

“No.”

“...yeah.”

“Mr. Wright, no.” Apollo groaned, torn between laughing at his boss’s expense and feeling bad for him. “Since you were children?? What grade did you even meet in?!”

“...fourth grade. We were nine. He defended me in class after someone accused me of stealing his lunch money because I was missing in P.E.” Phoenix rubbed the back of his neck, an embarrassed smile playing on his lips. “We uh… we hadn’t talked before that.”

“Are you telling me this was love at first sight in the fourth grade??” Apollo screamed.

“Please, Trucy told me how your face looked when you met Gavin for the first time. ‘Lovesick puppy’ is how she described it, I believe. You can’t tell me you don’t believe in love at first sight, kid.”

“I never said I didn’t, but that was like, six months ago, tops! And I’m trying to figure out how to act on it! Meanwhile you two are sitting there acting like a married couple when you’re actually just a pining hooligan!” Apollo’s words caught up to him, and he smacked a hand over his mouth. He’d just said that. To his boss. Oh, he was so fired.

Or he would be, if this wasn’t Phoenix fucking Wright.

“...acting like a married couple?” Phoenix echoed, raising an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You mean it isn’t on purpose?” Apollo started, eyes wide, as Phoenix just stared back at him, dumbfounded, and shrugged. “You two have literally discussed the economic benefits of marriage, at length, numerous times.”

“Well, yeah, because Edgeworth is interested in that! If that’s your entire defense-”

“Oh, I’m not done.” He smirked, leaning back and crossing his arms. “He’s at every single one of Trucy’s performances despite mentioning how busy his schedule is whenever he needs to make plans. You’ve walked in here wearing magenta turtleneck sweaters that absolutely are not yours. You both spend your lunch breaks together at least twice a week, hell, you just came back from visiting him! Not to mention the sickening longing in both of your eyes whenever you’re within like, a mile of each other. Like seriously, if Mr. Edgeworth thinks he’s being subtle when he slides the phrase ‘that man’ in every other conversation, I’m not sure how he wins some cases. He literally has a chess board with pieces custom-made to be themed around you two just sitting in his office! Also, just look at him for two seconds when he goes up against you in court! He’s literally staring at you with that look in his eyes-”

“Apollo.” Wright cut in, voice sounding much harsher than before. Apollo immediately shut up, having gotten so lost in the rambling he hadn’t noticed his boss stiffening up.

“...too much?”

“What- oh, no-” Phoenix shook his head, sighing. “It’s just- half of the things your saying aren’t even relevant to what you’re trying to prove.”

“...huh?”

“You’re giving me examples of why you thought me and Edgeworth were in a relationship, right?”

“...well, married, but yeah.”

“Married-” Phoenix choked on the word, but recovered. “-regardless, you keep giving inaccurate examples of Edgeworth’s actions.” Phoenix reached down to take another sip of his coffee, and Apollo furrowed his brow, playing his own words back in his head to try to figure out what Phoenix was talking about. How was any of that inaccurate? He’d only listed off all of the ways they were quite obviously pining for each other, that should be proof enough! He was literally a witness to this, after all-

…unless.

“Mr. Wright…” Apollo started, hesitantly trying to figure out how to ask this in the most respectful way possible so as to not be stuck on toilet duty for the next… forever. “You, uh… you are aware that Mr. Edgeworth quite obviously uh… he very clearly has romantic intent Mr. Wright.”

Wright choked on the coffee he was trying to drink, sending half of it right back into his mug.

“I-” He was cut off by a coughing fit, catching his breath before continuing. “What, no, that’s just… that’s just Edgeworth, Apollo!”

“...right. Tell me, who else does he always make time for despite his work schedule being so crammed sometimes he should probably have a team of people doing his job? Who else does he offer to replace a broken printer for ‘just because,’ or spend hours consulting on cases despite knowing he’s helping you beat him?” Phoenix went to respond, then blinked. Apollo could see the exact moment when the pieces clicked in his head–the way his eyes widened just slightly, his breath caught, and a slight tremor went through his hands.

“Oh. Shit.” Phoenix said, staring intently at the floor before bursting out in sporadic laughter, startling Apollo. “Wow. Wow, we’re both idiots, then.”

“Yup, you and Mr. Edgeworth-”

“No, no.” Phoenix cut in, still wheezing. “Me and you, Apollo. I mean, yeah, me and Edgeworth have… quite a bit to talk about, it seems, but that wasn’t the meaning of that ‘both.’”

“What-” Apollo began to ask, then it hit him. Immediately, he backtracked. “Oh, oh no, no, Mr. Wright that’s not-”

“You were so gracious as to list off the reasons you thought me and Edgeworth were involved, so how about I return the favor? The Justice and Gavin Chronicles, ey?” Phoenix smirked, and all Apollo could do was sit there, dread building in his stomach.

“You really don’t have to-”

“Ah, yes, but that’s what makes me so generous.” He did a mock-bow while sitting down. It looked stupid. When Apollo’s embarrassed glare didn’t ease up, the smirk fell slightly off of Phoenix’s face, shifting into a softer grin. “Look, bud. You like him, that much is obvious, right?”

No point in denying that one at this point. Apollo confirmed.

“Good. Now, you’re pretty good at putting pieces together, so let me give you the pieces, and you can choose how you wanna see them.” Phoenix leaned forward, looking far less smug about all of this than Apollo had when he’d been listing off examples. It almost made him feel guilty. “You mentioned me and Edgeworth going out to lunch, looking over cases together–you do the same thing with Gavin. Gavin flirts with you every time you step into a room, and sure, he does that a lot with people, but anyone with eyes can see the difference when it’s with you. He just seems more relaxed, and…”

Phoenix pulls a small green rock out of his pocket. Apollo distantly recognizes it as a magatama.

“He isn’t lying when he says stuff like that. Not in the slightest.” He puts the magatama back in his pocket, and instead gestures to Apollo’s bracelet. “I know you know that. Even if it was a joke, you’d be able to pick up on subtle tells, right? Tell me, Apollo, do his comments set off your bracelet?”

Apollo stared down at his wrist, knowing the answer immediately. No, they don’t. He knew because he’d specifically paid attention to it, he’d focused on it, looked for any sign that Gavin was just playing around with him… and he never was.

Something on Apollo’s face must have revealed his thoughts, because Phoenix shot him a smile before standing up, walking over to the door. It seemed like he was about to walk out-

“Hey!” Phoenix stopped, casting a glance over his shoulder. “Where are you going?”

“Back to the prosecutor’s office.” Phoenix replied, cracking the door open. “I just realized I left something pretty important behind. Figured I’d go find it.”

“You did?” Apollo raised an eyebrow, glancing over to where Phoenix’s briefcase was still haphazardly laying on the floor. “I thought you only brought your briefcase with your case files?”

Phoenix stared at him. Apollo stared back.

Then it clicked.

“Oh.”

“Oh, indeed, Apollo.” Phoenix chuckled, winking. “If Truce asks where I am, let her know-”

“Herr Wright!” Both Apollo and Phoenix froze at the familiar voice. Phoenix slowly opened the door to the agency the rest of the way, revealing the one and only Klavier Gavin standing outside, who then spotted Apollo sitting on the couch. “Herr Forehead! Figured I’d stop in and see how the case investigation was going, exchange notes, ja?” He held up a case file, beaming.

Phoenix sent Apollo a knowing look. Apollo glared back.

“Yup, cool, bye Mr. Wright!” Apollo squeaked, and Phoenix huffed a laugh, patting Klavier on the shoulder before walking out, leaving the two of them alone. Klavier stood in the doorframe, shifting his weight between his legs and spinning one of the rings on his left hand with his thumb.

“So… the case?” Klavier sounded so unsure that Apollo couldn’t help but find it endearing.

Well, if Phoenix could walk out of here with the intention of telling Edgeworth, Apollo wasn’t going to be the coward. Finding it weirdly easy to smile, chest feeling light, Apollo beamed back.

“Shut the door behind you, yeah? I’ve got something I wanna tell you first.”

#ace attorney #narumitsu #wrightworth #klapollo #phoenix wright #apollo justice #klavier gavin #miles edgeworth

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isa-ghost · 1 year

Note

hey it's the anon who asked what dr*m did,

I decided to do my own research (mainly cause I was curious) but... I can't find much? let me rephrase it - I did find the allegations from 6ish months ago, that he's going to court with one(?) of them, but that's... all? I didn't find the court's verdict, confirmations, or him admitting either... and any post or video I find has both the OP and the comments mostly on his side and believing that it's either not true or true but not grooming, even people who say they're not his fans or don't even like him.

so Im not sure if the confirmation didn't reach youtube or if I'm searching wrong or something?

but honestly while researching I realized that I cant stand him lmao, gotta agree with some comments I read - he made a mistake by showing more of his personality online, looks like any time he can handle a situation wrong/respond wrong he does it

so dunno, guess I didnt find the confirmation but at least now I don't find his old minecraft videos interesting anymore so theres that

Yeah he can't act properly to save his fucking life

Also I think most of the threads on Twitter and stuff that have all the proof he's guilty/etc is probably long buried, unfortunately. You could probably try to ask around saying you're trying to get the whole picture but tbh it's not a huge deal if you can't. You can try searching my blog but Tumblr sucks with that shit. The fact that this and his other controversies have been buried and lost to the void of the internet is typical white boy with a monstrously big platform shit so I'm not surprised. I never heard any details about court (prob for legal reasons) or a conviction either. All I know is there was screenshot proof from the victim that they talked, and Dr*m confirmed the screenshots were real but didn't say anything about other details. But those details literally can't be false if the screenshots & the shit said in them are true.

Anyway, as far as his other bullshit goes:

People found old kkk meme edits on his yt account through the wayback machine. More than once if I'm not mistaken

He has a history of defending himself using the r slur

He cheated "on accident" in a speedrun (the least important thing ever but everyone always brings it up)

He claimed he was going to donate all proceeds during pride month to lgbt+ charities & he'd do charity streams all month but never did

He defended himself about replying to haters, which would send thousands of his toxic stans after the person getting them doxxed/death threats/etc and he refused to address that it was irresponsible of him bc he was too entitled to immaturely clap back at the antis. Even other ccs, like B/itzel called him out about shit related to how he uses his platform irresponsibly & he unfollowed & shaded them like a bitch baby

The whole "accidental" copycat shit with QSMP/USMP and basically softcore stalking Q/uackity online.

His "apologies" for all of the above fucking sucked in multiple ways. And that's just 2021-Now shit I can remember off the top of my head, I lost my Twitter in May last year so now I get my info from people's posts about it on here or links to tweets.

Everyone largely suspects he spontaneously reignited d/smp lore & started the finale to cover up the groomer thing bc he has a history of doing smth "new and cool" every time he causes drama to divert attention and avoid accountability.

He's also suspected of suddenly rewriting the d/smp finale to paint his Irredeemable Abuser Villain Up Until The Last Stream as a sympathetic poor baby out of nowhere and wrote that his victim, c!Tommy apologized to him, which sends a HORRIBLE message about abusive relationships. T/ommy and T/ubbo have both subtly mentioned not liking the finale and that Dr*m had AWFUL communication during the last like 6+ months of the smp.

He also suddenly showed up in T/ubbo's chat lurking while T/ubbo happened to be mentioning he'd do his own research on the grooming situation instead of blindly siding with Dr*m and it was some shit out of a horror movie is2g, he suddenly dmed T/ubbo out of nowhere during it on discord saying they'd talk about it after T/ubbo wasn't streaming. Basically sounds like he was gonna bias T/ubbo about his innocence. Like he hadn't been in chat all stream long but SUDDENLY he was there the second the topic came up. But the d/smp ccs also can't say anything about the situation since it's a legal matter, so a handful of ccs have just stated/implied they don't support him other ways

He only quit MCC bc he threw a tantrum about how he couldn't practice for it but now that MCC island exists, people were getting better than him. He's habitually a sore loser about that kinda shit

He's got that whole weird "is he, isn't he" bullshit going on about him being lgbt. I personally think he's just catering to his stupid d/n/f shippers bc they like to truth their relationship & sexuality all the time and he's never explicitly said he's bi or smth. He's just vaguely been like "yeeeaahhhh I mostly like girls like 99% but maaaayyybeee I like guys idkkkk. 🤪" But he's also done that multiple times so who tf knows. I'm not gonna fully dismiss him & I understand no one including me is entitled to his specific sexuality, but he has garbage credibility on like everything so I'm neutral on the matter and find it hard to believe him

Not directly him related, but his stans went on a long and horrifying witch hunt on Twitter during the kkk ordeal doxxing, death threatening & harassing ENTIRE mcyt subtwts who spoke out against him and called him out on his racism, performative activism, shitty apology, etc. For example, I was part of S/neeg's subtwt and all my mutuals and me had to go private to avoid getting doxxed. It felt like being raided in some dystopian ass horror film. Entire subtwts were going private, panicking, paranoid they'd get outed & stalked & harassed by people just for condemning racism, raising Black voices, etc. It was borderline traumatic to some people, I know people who lost sleep over it bc they were so afraid.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head but the end of 2021 to early 2022 was a fucking nightmare between him being an immature entitled piece of shit and his stans blindly defending him and going out of their way to endanger people who rightfully opposed him.

#dream situation #<- this tag on Tumblr might be really helpful to you actually. a lot of ppl tag posts about current drm drama with it #if you go back far enough you might find threads about the allegations and stuff

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nights-flying-fox · 9 months

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Leo Blues

Leon (Future Leo) realizes that his younger self is feeling a bit blue and decides to help him feel better.

I wrote half of this months ago and the other half today. Shoutout to my friend @little-banjo-frog for giving some ideas and helping with the fic!!! :D

This is part of an AU but you don't really need to know context. Just that Future Leo is back to past, and maybe some other family members, and he is hanging out in the lair with others.

Oh also this is inspired by @tmnt-event-blog 's prompt (basically what motivated me to finish it haha)

Word Count: 2530 ☆ Fandom: rottmnt ☆ Warnings: a very brief implication of death/losing someone close ☆ AO3 Link: Here!! ☆

Leon knew himself well. Not himself himself, but his younger self. Leo was a younger version of Leon after all, and Leon knew what it did mean when he sulked away from everyone.

Today Leo was less chatty, he didn’t leave his room other than to get breakfast and join his brothers to help them with some things. These two things were more than enough to tell Leon his younger self was in a bad mood.

That is exactly why right now Leon was on his way to Leo’s room. He didn’t tell anyone else, since he knew how he used to be around on such days. Always hiding his negative emotions and keeping it to himself. Not wanting to share the hurt and make anyone else sad. Leon was worried that he wouldn’t talk to him either, but he had to try his chance. What were your future selves if not to help you when needed, right? Ignoring the 'annoying them till they start throwing stuff at you' part, of course.

He knocked the wall before opening the curtain and entering Leo’s room. As he expected, he found the boy sitting on his bed with legs crossed, his phone in his hand but his eyes blankly staring at the ground. Leon wasn’t even sure if he heard him coming. He most probably didn’t, considering how he flinched when Leon put his hand on his shoulder and sat next to him.

“Hey, pequeñin ,” He said as he kept his voice low and smiled softly.

Leo gave him a confused look before smirking. “Hey, anciano .”

The older turtle rolled his eyes, but said nothing. He wasn’t here to jokingly bicker with his younger self. “Haven’t seen you around a lot today.”

“Eh, got stuff to watch and catch up.” Leo shrugged.

Lies. “Ah, so feeling blue , huh?” Leon stated the fact, but not without smirking at his word choice.

“Blue suits me well after all.” Leo replied casually, with a wink and matching smirk.

Leon felt himself relax a bit, at least his younger self felt comfortable enough to open up with how he was feeling to him, even if it was in the form of joking. “Has no one ever told you being this blue is too much?” Leon asked.

“I thought you’d know the answer already, considering we share the same sixteen years of the past.” Leo answered.

“Heh, you’re right. How did I miss that?”

The two sat on the bed for some seconds, enough for Leo to slowly lean towards his bed frame and for Leon to come up with a quick plan to repaint Leo’s mood.

As he got up he said “I’ll be right back, and don’t worry I’m not bringing anyone.” to Leo. The other was quiet, only watching him leave.

Leon’s first destination was the living room. The last place he had seen Leo’s tablet (which he probably had forgotten to pick it up yesterday). Entering in, he saw it was still on the same spot as before. The room was empty, nobody other than Splinter who was enjoying his usual commercials. Leon smiled at the nostalgic scenery. No matter how long passed since he returned to the past, he still couldn’t get used to the fact he once again was back at home. Back to the casual chaotic life he had before the apocalypse. The little simple things would forever make him feel warm.

After picking up the tablet, he walked towards his next destination: His room. Or rather his, Future Mystic Hands’ (they really needed a shorter ‘official’ nickname that both Mikeys would accept) and Case’s room. He took the extra blankets (Mikey Two wouldn’t need them anytime soon) and left.

Next up was the kitchen, which was the final room to visit before returning to Leo’s room. As he came close to the entrance he heard the chatter. Casey, Donnie and April’s laughter filled the kitchen. The three were sitting on the chairs, mugs of three different kinds of drinks on the table. Casey was the first one to notice him: “Hi Sensei!”

"Hey Case," Leon ruffled the boy's hair as he walked by him. Casey grumbled in protest, but Leon could see his grin. What a hypocrite.

"Will you join us Big Blue?" April asked with a smile, "Mikey's made hot cocoa."

"Sorry guys, got other plans."

"What other plans?" Casey questioned, raising a bow.

"Finally catching up on some TV series." He answered.

"All by yourself?" April asked.

Leon got two mugs. "Yeah, myself and I."

"I see, you mean you and Leo ." Donnie pointed out. "And here Future Boy was telling us some future stories."

Leon turned to squint at Casey. "What kind of future stories?"

"Ummmmm…" Casey looked away. Bad sign. A very bad sign.

"Nothing you should worry about." April said and sipped from her cocoa.

"Somehow this makes me worry even more." Leon deadpanned. Then he turned back to what he was doing.

Donnie smirked, "You'll most likely find out soon anyways."

That could only mean an embarrassing story. But hey, two could play that game. "Well, maybe you'll find out more future stories too."

"Oh ho ho, tell us all of them man." April sounded excited to learn more embarrassing stories. Leon couldn't blame her, there were a lot of crazy silly things going on even in the doomed future.

"Maybe not all of them." Casey chipped in, looking with somewhat pleading eyes to his sensei.

"Perhaps." Leon replied, meanwhile finishing with preparing the tray with the snacks, leftover pizza and hot cocoa mugs. "But not yet."

"Leaving us at cliffhanger?" April huffed.

"I didn't even start saying anything."

"The trailer was enough."

Leon grinned, "Soon in the lair… stories from the future." He said dramatically.

"Three V.I.P. tickets, please." Donnie said after sipping his probably way too sweet coffee. "For the premiere."

"We accept payment with story sharing." Leon smirked.

"Deal. Junior shared plenty."

"Sweet."

Leon turned to look at his protégé. Casey watched with confusion. Then Leon realized that the boy didn't know– or rather didn’t remember. "Do you remember cinemas, Case?"

"Yes?" His eyes shined brightly the moment he connected the dots, "Oh!"

"...Future didn't have cinemas." Donnie announced his own findings as he thought out loud. "I hadn't considered that."

"I believe you guys can fill him with some culture of the present?" Leon asked.

"Of course, there's so much for the Future Boy to discover!" April got her arm around Casey's neck and pulled him closer. Casey smiled, putting down his mug of tea to side hug her.

It was good to see the boy had gotten better at being relaxed. Being always on alarm was a hard habit to break from after everything he went through.

As the three began talking about all the places and things his future lacked, Leon left the kitchen and headed back to Leo's room.

The boy was now under the blanket. Leon could tell that he still was on his phone from the subtle light.

"Hot cocoa delivery," Leon announced.

"Mikey's?" Leo asked from the spot he was in.

"Yep."

He peeked and then reached to him, "Gimme!"

Leon gladly gave him one of the mugs. "If you come out we can share the snacks."

This perked Leo's interest a bit more. He squirmed out of the blanket, no more laying on the bed. He noticed the rest of what Leon collected on his short trip in the lair.

Leon took his place next to him and wrapped the blankets he brought around them. He placed the snacks and pineapple pizza between them, and the tablet in front of them. "What do you wanna watch?"

Leo shrugged, "Dunno."

Good thing Leon was still a Leo. He knew what his comfort movies were and he could use this to his advantage. “Kung Fu Panda?”

“Sure. Are we doing a marathon?” Leo asked.

“You bet. After all, it has been a while since I last saw them.” Leon grinned. He barely could remember the movies, or the days he would watch them with his family thanks to Donnie, in the middle of the apocalypse. He really hoped they could do that again, just not in an apocalyptic situation.

Leo looked at him, with a glint of sadness. He quickly looked away towards the screen. “You better plan watching Secrets of the Scroll too, then.” He said. Voice completely normal, as if it wasn’t him who was hiding under blankets a short while ago.

“You know I will.” Leon hummed. He hadn’t missed that look, and he would help himself. “Before that… is there something you want to talk about? You seemed like you wanted to say something a second ago.”

He seemed uncertain for a moment, “Ah, no. Nope.”

“Are you sure?” Leon knew that this was a lie. “Because whatever you say, stays between us.”

“Yeah, yeah… just…” Ah, there it was. “Remember last night’s patrol?” He said a bit quietly.

Leon nodded, “Yeah. Didn’t you guys end up kicking Stockboy’s butt?”

“Yes… but…” Leo pulled his legs towards himself. “I almost failed.” He whispered.

“But you didn’t.” Leon pointed out, urging his younger self to talk.

“But I almost did!” Leo repeated. His hold on the mug tightened.

“And why is it a problem?” Leon questioned, genuinely. He wanted to know why Leo found it such a big problem.

“Because the last time I failed, everyone I loved almost died .”

Leo sounded so tired, and equally panicked. And Leon couldn’t even blame him. Not when he did the same thing. Not when he did lose them. Not when he froze once he heard the words.

Leo took a breath, “Sorry, I… I didn’t mean to. I…”

Leon looked at him. The boy he once was. So young, sad, broken… Unfairly punished by a cruel fate. And never ever let himself relax, to be seen weak. Especially after the apocalypse. After losing so much. After becoming a leader, responsible for whatever is left. This boy had almost experienced it. He almost had the same life as him. And even though he managed to escape the hell, he still was suffering from it. Even though he literally had sacrificed himself, he had given his everything to save everyone, he was still hurting thinking of what could’ve been. Of what happened.

And, oh, how unfair that was.

He put his mug aside, then gently took the mug Leo was holding from his hands (who looked at him confusedly) and put it next to his. Then he pulled the boy into a tight hug. “It is okay, Leo.” He said, voice small but powerful. “It has passed, everything will be alright.”

“But what if I make another mistake? What if everything goes bad again, because of me ?” Leo responded, his voice trying to stay strong but clearly close to breaking.

“You will make mistakes.” Leon said. “You will make so many of them. Just like I did. Even after everything that happened. Even when I was a leader.” He pushed away the memories full of pain, regret, and shame that creeped from the back of his mind. He had learned to accept them, once he had time to recover and focus on himself. Or rather he was learning to, it was a hard process to return to what you had locked to survive. He didn’t want Leo to do something similar, or let his fear destroy him. “And you know what? It is amazing that you make mistakes. It means you are trying something new. You are trying to be better. To learn. That you realize them means you are trying to learn from them.”

“And what if I don’t have time to learn from them the next time I make a mistake?” Leon knew Leo had shut his eyes and was doing his best to not let everything out, to not break in front of him. He was holding Leon tightly too.

“You will have time. Trust me.” Leon affirmed. “After all, what is important is the fact that you are trying. You aren’t giving up. You are trying to be better. And I am so proud of you.” He broke the hug and looked at his eyes. “I know you think otherwise, but you are actually a much cooler dude than me. You are even teaching me new stuff every day.”

Leo smiled a bit, a shaky one. “How so?”

“You were the one to remind me what I always fought for, you are the one to remind me who I was– or rather, I am .” Leon smiled at him. “You are beating yourself up for something impossible, and while I know it is hard to not to do so, I also know you are strong, Leo. And you are never alone.”

And with those words, Leo finally let himself relax and smile. Then Leon saw as tears fell, right before Leo hugged him tightly. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t really have to. Leon knew how much it meant to be reminded of having someone by your side even at the worst times. For someone to confirm even when the world felt like it was ending (which was not an unfamiliar concept for both of them, sadly) things would turn out well. So he held the boy, until he stopped crying and shaking, letting everything out after who knows how long.

When Leo broke the hug and sat, leaning to Leon instead of his bed, Leon patted his head. “How blue are you feeling?” He asked, handing back now luke warm hot cocoa. Somehow, they hadn’t gone cold, which to be honest was weird.

“Less than before.” Leo smiled. “I never had thought I’d end up getting hugs from my older self, but here you are.”

“Isn’t it insane?” Leon replied with a smirk.

“It is.” Leo grinned. Then he added. “Thank you.”

“Don’t even mention it.” Leon replied. “Now drink your cocoa and get ready, because I want to watch Kung Fu Panda.”

Leo grinned. “Sure thing, old man.”

“No, even after those hugs? You are cruel.” Leon teased.

“Those are just facts.” Leo smirked. Then he sipped the hot cocoa, “Mmm, this is good.”

“I bet it is.” Leon said as he sipped his. Oh, it was even better than he remembered it to be. “It really is…” He nodded. He had missed this so much.

“So are we watching the movies or..?” Leo asked, a fake hastiness in his tone.

Leon laughed, “Yeah, let’s start.” He grinned as he opened the movie.

He didn’t think much of it, but he was grateful for Leo. He wouldn’t ever talk about it, but those words he told his younger self? He needed to hear them too. He had forgotten them. He may have had his family back, but still sometimes it was hard to remember things weren’t always bad. That things would be okay in the end, and that he wouldn’t ever be alone.

So in the end of the day, both blue masked turtles had ended up feeling better– or as they would call it, less blue.

#if there any typos well. its 2 am so lol #rottmnt #nighty writey #rottmnt fanfic #rottmnt leo #rottmnt future leo #rottmnt au #rottmnt leonardo #tmnt #save rottmnt #unpause rottmnt #i also dont know spanish so if those words are wrong please correct me/tell me #ok now i shall sleep love you guys bye #let's grab a slice together #lgast au

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skyloftian-nutcase · 1 year

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Hey lovelies!!

Did you know that @bokettochild graduated college??? Did you know that she’s awesome and deserves to be celebrated and have her tumblr family celebrate with her??? Because she 100% does.

So! I’m declaring a graduation party post for Ketto! Reblog this post, tag Ketto, and send her some love/accolades. ❤️ I’ve got a few gifts for her from some of us!

Here’s some art from @nancyheart11!

And some art from @kikker-oma!

And here's a gift from me :D

Lon Lon Ranch had been lovely. It really had. But Legend wasn’t accustomed to staying in one place for too long, and seeing a Hero of Courage settled into such domesticity was…

The veteran sighed, crossing his arms irritably.

At least they were done. A part of him felt bad even thinking that, but he was too annoyed and tired to worry about it much. Malon was wonderful, and he would love to visit again, but… whatever. He woke up irritated today, he was sore and hurting and wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone.

When the sailor bounced over and started talking excitedly to him, Legend did his best to make an exception for the kid. He didn’t have to speak much when Wind was around anyway - the youngest Link usually did enough talking for the whole group.

As Wind started showing Legend his seashell collection, however, the veteran’s patience started to wear thin. His acknowledgements grew shorter by the second, and when the sailor paused to rifle through his bag, Legend pat the kid’s back and walked away to just get some distance.

Which was then taken away from him by Wild stepping in his path. “Hey Vet, I had an idea about your fire rod–”

“No,” Legend immediately said dully. “You’re enough of a pyromaniac. You’re not touching it.”

“Well, technically the captain has it now–”

“And I can take it from him whenever I want. He’s borrowing it.”

“Long-term borrowing,” Warriors pointed out with a smirk as he waved the rod. “Thanks again for that, though.”

Legend waved his hand dismissively, stepping around Wild.

“Hey, I found it!” Wind chirped cheerily, completely missing the fact that Legend was desperately trying to be alone.

“I don’t care,” the elder Hero finally snapped. Wind’s brow furrowed in exasperation and the kid huffed.

Warriors rolled his eyes. “You’re already not a morning person, are you not an evening person either? Is there any time you’re not a grouch?”

Legend felt his ire bubbling more. “Not everyone can babble aimlessly for two hours like you can.”

“What’s eating you up?” Warriors asked, his face pinching in annoyance.

“You are! Anything is! I’m just tired, damn it, aren’t I allowed to be tired?” Legend finally snapped before pointing accusingly at Sky. “Sky’s always tired and nobody gets on him for it!”

The area quieted, most of the boys looking in his direction. Legend regretted saying it the instant he did. Sky’s exhaustion was both a point of contention and a point of concern to many in the group, most notably Sky himself.

Feeling even worse now, the veteran stormed out of the camp, ignoring Wind’s call.

They had traveled fairly far in the day since they’d departed Lon Lon Ranch. A portal has fed into a bright, forested area, and they’d cut their path through hills until they hit the base of a mountain and had settled for the day. With fresh energy within his body, fueled by frustration and an ache he couldn’t put words to, Legend traipsed up a set of stone stairs that overlooked the forest sloping down the mountainside. He traipsed onward, foliage and sticks snapping in his wake, birdsong echoing in the air alongside the distant call of fairy magic. The air cooled the higher he climbed, his face flushed and stinging by the time he emerged from the dense woods.

The vague path he’d been following bled into a wide opening, the peak of the mountain, a place of harshly cut stone and constant winds and a view of the world below. He climbed the rock a little ways before sliding into a seated position, the wind settling a bit as crickets heralded the oncoming dusk.

Legend sighed.

He… hadn’t meant to snap like that, but by the triforce it wasn’t like he hadn’t been trying to hold himself together.

There was the sound of a foot slipping on rock, and Legend reached for his blade automatically when he turned and saw Sky.

The veteran hero froze, unsure what to expect. The Skyloftian was huffing a little, clearly winded, but trying to keep it quiet as he followed Legend’s path up the steep rocks. Eventually, he settled beside Legend with a little smile.

“Sorry for the captain,” Sky offered after a moment. “He means well, but he pushes too much sometimes.”

Sky had followed him all the way up here to apologize for someone else? Legend’s annoyance grew, but it died just as easily. He didn’t have energy to be upset about this anymore. He wanted to be alone, he wanted comfort, he wanted isolation, he didn’t know what he wanted.

“No, it’s…”

It’s more than that. He knew it was. Spending too much time at the ranch… it…

It reminded him of everything he didn’t have. Everything he could’ve had if he hadn’t lost it. And maybe it was stupid to feel that way, especially when he did enjoy adventuring so much, but…

But sometimes it just hurt.

Sky watched him for a little while, body relaxing as he had time to catch his breath. Legend didn’t know what to say.

“Do you miss home?” Sky asked.

Legend huffed. “Not much to miss. Besides, I’m on a new quest. I don’t think about home much.”

The elder Link’s brow furrowed slightly at the words, and then Sky grew pensive, staring out at the view in front of them. A falcon flew across the way, gliding by their line of vision as it let the wind carry it effortlessly.

“I didn’t want to be a Hero,” Sky said softly, making Legend stare at him. The crickets filled the silent void that followed before the knight continued, “It didn’t make sense that it was me. I was the lazy one, the guy who was always tired and daydreaming. I didn’t really have a direction or plan for anything. I just… coasted through life.”

Legend watched him, unsure what to say about the situation and still too caught in his own head to offer words anyway. Sky smiled softly, his eyes distant. “But the goddess had other plans. It’s… comforting to know we all have paths laid out for us, and it’s fun figuring out where we fit in with the world around us, you know?”

Sighing, the veteran hero nodded, gaze drifting to the valley below. He puffed out his chest a little. “It’s an honor to be a Hero. I’m thankful for that honor.”

“Yes,” Sky agreed, though the lilt in his tone indicated there was more to it. “But your path has sucked.”

This startled a laugh out of Legend, harsh and bitter and surprisingly vulnerable. The veteran hero hiccupped and covered his faux pas with a little quip. “That wasn’t the most eloquent way to phrase it.”

Sky shrugged with a chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m not really an eloquent guy. But I can tell when there’s more to things than people say.”

His friend looked him in the eye, eyes seeming to bore into his soul. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Legend was held hostage in the gaze, words caged in his chest alongside his breath.

His uncle. Marin. He’d lost many on his journeys. He’d been isolated, hurt, terrified.

His breath released shakily, shoulders slumping as he looked at his lap, breaking the hold Sky had on him. “.....Yeah.”

The crickets chirped gently as a breeze brushed by them, cooling the hot flush of tears threatening to spill. Legend closed his eyes a moment, letting the wind carry him, feeling his hair tickle his face.

Sky’s hand was gentle on his back. “It’s… okay not to be okay sometimes, you know.”

The words were so simple. Ridiculously simple. Stupidly simple. Legend bit his lip.

He truly did love being a hero, he truly did love being able to help others. Why wasn’t that enough? He didn’t need to let everything else phase him.

It’s okay not to be okay sometimes.

Legend hiccupped. Folded in on himself. Shuddered.

And then he cried.

It was embarrassing, really, and at first he tried to downplay it. The hiccups and sobs tire out of him in startled gasps, but the more he tightened into a ball and tried to muscle through it, the gentler Sky’s hold became.

Legend tried to snap at Sky to lay off and leave him be, and all that came out was a loud hiccup that caught him so off guard he had to laugh at it. Sky took it as an invitation, pulling him sideways so his head settled on the knight’s shoulder, and Legend couldn’t stop the tears and desperate gasps that escaped him.

Sky’s head relaxed over Legend’s, his body warm at the veteran’s side. He didn’t say anything, and he didn’t have to. Legend cried until he only had little pathetic hiccups remaining, and the younger Link sniffled, grumbling as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pouch.

Legend blew his nose and had a snippy halfhearted remark at the tip of his tongue before he sighed and pulled away, letting himself be vulnerable a moment longer. “Thanks. I… thanks.”

Sky’s smile was as soft as the clouds overhead, eyes watching him carefully. “You’re welcome. Want to head back?”

The air grew chillier by the moment, and though Legend probably would prefer to stay up here, he knew the others would start to worry. Warriors and Twilight would probably go searching for them soon. He took a breath of the mountain air and let the wind dry his tears, and then he nodded.

When they returned to the camp, everyone was waiting in various states of worry or curiosity. Wind offered a small hello, and Legend smiled at the youngest member, reassuring him that his earlier outburst was not the sailor’s fault.

The veteran hero hugged himself a little, not caring for all the scrutiny he was receiving and definitely not knowing how to backtrack on his earlier outburst. He didn’t have to, though - everyone settled into a routine, worry abated by Sky’s smile and nod. The team huddled around the fire for dinner, a quiet cheer bubbling from Link to Link in the form of snippets of conversations.

Wind flopped onto the ground with a laugh. “You should’ve seen the captain and the rancher, they were about ready to arm wrestle over who was gonna find you two!”

“Arm wrestle?” Sky asked with a laugh as he slipped his sailcloth off.

“The old man suggested it because they kept trying to one up each other,” Hyrule explained with a smile. “The captain would say it was his responsibility to make sure you were ok and then Rancher would say he was the better tracker and it went on for like forever.”

Four silently laid out some blankets for a softer seating area, and he and Sky settled with a space in between as the knight plopped his cloak over his friend.

As Legend settled beside Sky, comfortably wrapped in his sailcloth, he accepted Wild’s hearty stew and sighed with a little smile. “Thanks. I… I don’t deserve you guys.”

“Ah, yes, you are correct, you absolutely do not deserve me,” Warriors tutted with a false air of superiority and a wink. “But I shall grace you with my presence nonetheless.”

Legend shoved the captain with a roll of his eyes, chuckling despite the maneuver, and the group shared a hearty meal that warmed his heart and soul alongside his stomach.

#lovelies if you want to join the party pls reblog this post and tag Ketto with whatever you want to say/show #or just throw confetti and add balloons and streamers and munchies in the reblog #I'll tag this as writing I guess since I wrote something...#writing #lovely bokettochild #CONGRATS ON GRADUATION KETTO <3 #WE LOVE AND SUPPORT YOU <3 #IT'S KETTO LOVING HOURS Y'ALL

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