#but i believe she cares about her daughter

[livwritesstuff]

Steve closed down his computer after his last therapy session of the day (it was a short day – it’s only three in the afternoon), and swiveled around in his chair to look out the window onto his backyard.

It’s nice out. He could go for a walk around the neighborhood or putter around the yard for a while –  probably one of the last opportunities before the fall weather starts to turn on them.

He knows he isn’t going to do either of those things though. Instead, he’s gonna sit around keeping one eye on his phone because he knows his oldest daughter Moe’s course schedule and he knows she’s about to be heading to her next class which means she’s probably going to be calling him just like she’d done two other times today.

Sure enough, only a few minutes later, Steve’s phone started to ring with a call from Moe.

“Hey,” he said as he answered the call.

“Hi Pop,” she replied, her voice coming through the phone a little crackly, broken up by the sound of wind and city traffic around her.

“You on your way to class?”

“Uh-huh. That chem for engineers course – Pop, you wouldn’t believe the shit that rats get up to in this city. It’s crazy. I literally just saw a massive one dragging a whole bag of those little…you know…the red cheese – well, the cheese isn’t red, it’s just–”

“Babybels,” Steve finishes for her.

“Yeah, those! Pop – an entire bag of Babybel cheese being dragged down the street by a rat," Moe exclaims before immediately heading down another tangent.

Two months into Moe’s freshman year of college, Steve thinks she might be a little bit lonely.

She’s always been independent (sometimes to a scary extent, if he’s honest) and she’d handled most of the transition like a champ, but that kind of independence has its ups and downs, and Moe’s never been all that great at the social stuff. Unlike her sisters, she hadn’t had a big group of friends in high school, just a few good ones that she’d made early on in school and stuck with until graduation.

Now, he thinks she might be having some trouble with the whole making new friends piece of moving to a brand new city (goddamn New York City, because these kids won’t let him see a second of peace, and even though he trusts Moe and knows she can take care of herself, Steve still isn’t really in a place yet where he can sleep easy knowing she’s out there on her own).

He knows that Moe will find her people just like he had done years ago. In the meantime, she's been fulfilling that human need for social interaction through lots of calls with him and Eddie (and he'd once even caught Moe and Robbie on a video call together, which he's pretty sure had never happened before).

Steve’s not gonna complain. He’d pretty much drop anything to talk to his kids.

After a few minutes, the background noise coming from Moe's side of the call fades away.

"Okay, I have to go," Moe says, "I might call you later."

"I'm around," Steve replies, because for her (for all his kids), he'll always be.

"'Kay. Love you Pop."

"I love you too."

He waits a beat for Moe to end the call and when she does, he gets up, sticks his phone in his back pocket so he'll know when it rings again, and goes on with his day.

[th3crow]

DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? , aemond targaryen

I DON’T KNOW WHAT FEELS TRUE, BUT THIS FEELS RIGHT SO STAY A SEC

aemond targaryen x fem cousin reader

warnings & notes: cussing, no use of y/n, little bit of aemond and reader being insecure, targecst, betrayal reader is daemons daughter with big phat daddy issues [haven’t read the book just seen the show so if anything’s wrong pls let me know!]

winter was creeping up on kings landing. a slight breeze mixing in with an eerie feeling and spreading all throughout the land. the people were tense, whispers of war slipping in and out of the lips of innocent, afraid people. since the crowning of king aegon ii and the death of lucerys velaryon the smell of death had invaded the streets, and even the walls of the red keep.

aegon of course, ignored it. he sided with his younger brothers actions—playing it off as a mistake and standing stern with his protection of vhagar. the council warned him about rhaenyra’s upcoming wars, telling him to better be prepared—but for the king, it went through one ear and out the other.

alicent was fearful, taking her stresses out with ser criston cole—she was aware of the mistake she’d been committing, but at this point she deserved something to herself. or so she thought. her father’s shadow had always hovered over her her entire life—and now it’s hovering over her children. she desperately wished for her father to stop with his “suggestions” to the king, and as for aemond…

well as for aemond alicent was reasonably upset, but had wished to believe her son was better than this.

and as for you, alicent truly had no idea what was going to happen to you. the boys and helaena had grown accustomed to your presence in the red keep. you had been raised alongside the three as if you were a child alicent had birthed herself. she still remembered the day daemon had shown up, pleading with viserys to take care of you because he was fighting an unnecessary war and your mother would rather but herself to a blade than take care of daemons child.

viserys accepted, leaving alicent and the other maids to raise both you and helaena at the same time. daemon visited every now and then, speaking short, soft words to you. teaching you how to wield a blade and arguments that would leave you in tears. of course, people whispered rumors that you were born out of wedlock.

you had heard the news of his marriage, and the birth of his two girls—ones that you hadn’t met until his wife’s funeral. it was an odd feeling, standing next to a family that wasn’t necessarily yours, watching as your father stood behind his two crying daughters. that night, aemond had found you angrily crying on the beach.

it had hurt him to see you like this. he had grown up with you, and despite what people had said—you were his family. so he had decided that night to steal something precious from one of daemons daughters, something that could make them feel the pain of being abandoned as they had made you feel.

so that night he claimed vhagar, an act of love that had costed him an eye.

to aemond, it was worth it. stealing the dragon, seeing the look on the girls’s faces as they sobbed and fought him—aemond would steal a million dragons just to make them feel the way you had. but was even more with it, was your comfort when you had seen what lucerys had done to you.

the fight between the boys was never yours to intervene, but you would gladly stand by aegon and aemond. by your family.

but now, years later with the death of lucerys and the feeling of war being closer than ever—aemond didn’t know what to do. he had believed it was an accident, he knew it was an accident. he hadn’t wished to hurt the strong boy, he was simply owed a debt. but he knew his mother didn’t feel that way, and the others in the council looked at him with disappointment.

when you first had found out, you looked at him shocked. it pained him, you saw him with the same eyes as his own mother. but quickly those thoughts were ignored when you had asked how he was feeling.

so now, late at night he finds his way to your chambers. hoping to the gods that you’re still awake, that you won’t look at him with the eye of disappointment and that you’d understand him. just as he always tried to do for you.

he walked up the stairs, towards your chambers. the echo of his boots bouncing off the walls and the torches lighting the hallway bit by bit, his heart beating against his chest. aemond had been to your chambers many times, he had talked to you many times, but this time was different. this time he had feared that he was going to lose you to your love for your father, just as he had lost his mother to her love for rhaenyra.

when he had finally arrived, he found it surprising that there was no guards outside of your door. he scoffed it off as something aegon had probably done, commanding the guards to get drunk with him or something along those lines. but a part of aemond was worried, worried that something that happened to you. maybe you had escaped off to dragonstone and there was no guards to stop you, or maybe they had taken you.

he stood outside your door, his hand hovering over the handle before the door whipped open. his eye had met yours, causing you to jump in the shock of him standing outside your doors. “oh my gods, you frightened me—i didn’t think you were going to be there, my apologies, my prince.” you whispered, placing your hand against your beating chest.

aemond chuckled slightly, “the apology is mine, i did not mean to frighten you, princess.” he looked behind you, looking for any signs that you had attempted to escape—or that you were possibly planning too. “where were you off too?” he questioned.

your lips hung slightly open, your eyes scanning his body. he wore all black, his hands tightly behind his back as he stood tall, a slight smirk on his face as he awaited your response. despite growing up together and being older, he made you nervous. “i was off on my way to see you, actually.” you confessed.

aemond let out a sigh of relief.

“i wanted to see how you were doing.” you whispered, watching as his body relaxed itself, thankful for the fact that you were not planning on leaving the red keep—leaving him.

“may i…may i come in?” he asked, his walking slowly towards you, pushing you slightly back into your room.

you nodded slightly, moving away from him so that he could enter inside your room. he scanned it ever so slightly, noticing the paper and quill on your nightstand. his eyes turning back to you. “who are you writing too?” he questioned.

“oh nobody in particular, im hoping to find another rat catcher. helaena keeps complaining about them.” you answered. “did you want something? wine? water?” you asked, moving around your chamber to grab chalices.

aemond shook his head, “only your company.”

you smiled, sitting down on a chair that was placed in front of him. you noticed something about him looked different, he didn’t have his usual smug aura that he always had—you had seen him at bad times but never like this. he looked tired.

“are you feeling ill?” you asked.

aemond shook his head quickly, “the maesters say i’m in perfectly good condition, physically.”

you scoffed, rolling your eyes as you stood up. “yes, well the maesters haven’t known you as i have.” you smiled slyly. you walked closer to aemond, examining his face, placing your hand against his forehead and his eye.

aemond relaxed in your touch, closing his eyes and feeling all his problems slowly disappear. this what he craved, he loved your affection—the way you actually listened to him and had attempted to help him. his mother was once like this, but not anymore.

not after what he did.

your fingers moved slowly against his face, examining every possible thing you could feel. you slowly hovered over his scar, inching it closer and closer towards aemonds eyepatch before you felt his hand tightly grab your wrist.

you gasped, his eyes were wide open now and stinging through your skin. aemond was always defensive, especially with that of his eye—he didn’t want you to see him like this, he didn’t want for you to think badly about him.

“i’m sorry.” you whispered slightly, looking at aemond confused and slightly afraid. he had never gotten ahold of you like this.

aemond sighed slightly, letting go of his grip on your wrist and sliding his hands on top of yours, guiding them to his eyepatch. you felt the coldness of his hand on top of the warmth of yours, then the hard leather touched your hand as he helped you slowly pull off his eyepatch. slowly, you pulled it off of his head—his hand falling from yours as he looked too the floor.

you placed the eyepatch to the side, gently grabbing his chin and lifting his face to meet yours. the bright blue sapphire shining bright in your eyesight. “does it bring you pain?” you asked softly, attempting not to anger him.

“not physically.” he whispered softly.

you sighed, feeling a pain in your heart. “i’m sorry about your eye, i’m sorry about all of this.” you confessed, “i must admit…when i had heard about lucerys and about you i was pained. i did not want to believe that you had murdered an innocent child, but then i was reminded of driftmark.” “of when we were younger in kings landing and what they had done to you…by no means are you innocent in this but your nephews had murdered your innocence and childhood.” you explained—hoping not to upset him with your confession.

aemond stayed silent for a moment. processing everything you had said, “did i ever tell you why i took vhagar?” he asked.

for a moment there was a stillness in the room. you could smell the musk of the stone on the walls, feel the warmth radiating off of yours and aemonds body.

“you desired a dragon.”

“yes but…”aemond stopped himself, his eyes locking with yours as you looked at him confused. even now, he could still see that girl he once saw crying on the beach at driftmark. the one who just longed to be with her family, her true family. “i had noticed the way you looked at him. at your father, as he stood with his new children. he talked to you once during the funeral and urged you to make conversation with baela and rhaena.” “then—then i saw you. you were sat on the sand, holding back your tears.” he scoffed, “it angered me, so much so that i wanted them to feel the pain that they were causing you.”

you shook your head, feeling the tears build up in your eyes at the reimagining of the old memories. “no..you do not speak truth, do not tell me that i’m the reason your eye was stolen?” your voice slightly raised, and started trembling. aemond noticed, reaching out to grab you before you moved away from him. “no! do not touch me, how dare you tell me that i’m the reason you’re in pain!”

aemond stood up quickly, “i would rather be horribly disfigured than to see you in pain.” he confessed. you looked up at him, confused. “the only time you cause me pain is when you’re not around me. that is the only time i feel true anguish. when the incident with my nephew happened i had feared that you would never speak to me again. that you would run off to dragonstone with your father.” he spoke, he was not yelling—but his voice grew louder.

“don’t do this to me aemond, i beg of you.” you said, a tear running down your cheek. “i do not want to be the reason that you are in pain, i wish not to burden you anymore than i have my entire existence.” you sobbed. “i have admired you, my entire life. please do not do this to me now.”

aemond walked closer towards you, grabbing onto your arms and pulling you closer towards him. both of your foreheads touching. “and i have admired you my entire life, my princess.” he whispered softly, wiping the tears off of your face.

you smiled softly, looking up at aemonds eyes before down to his pale lips. slowly, the both of you inched closer to each other, your lips grazing each others before they ultimately united. at first, it was soft, a kiss of longing and admiration before it grew hungrier and into a kiss of passion and want.

the two of you broke the kiss, panting as aemond smiled before leading you towards the bed, reconnecting the kiss. his lips finding his way towards your neck as you gasped his name, and clung onto him.

you laid down on the bed, facing aemond as he hovered over you, the two of you laughing slightly as he continued kissing you. your hands finding his way towards his hip and belt, and his undoing the back of your dress.

but before you could fully commit, aemond interrupted you. stopping to fully admire you, just as he had done his entire life. only then, you were just a product of royalty, and now you were his.

“i love you.” he whispered softly, a slight vulnerability escaping with each word. his entire life, aemond had felt alone—despite having you, he never knew if you had felt the same. surley, in this point in time, you had to have felt the same, right?

you smiled softly, you had waited a long time to hear those words. late nights in the kitchens, during sparing lessons, whenever you’d both ride your dragons out late at night. stolen moments like this between the two of you you had admired, but you wanted nothing more than his confession and now you had it.

your eyes flickered quickly towards the paper and quill on your nightstand. the paper was empty, the raven had already been sent out to dragonstone. war was to come, and daemon had promised to have you by his side.

“i love you too.”

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: In Which Izutsumi is Ace and also possibly a Time Lord

I heard that troll!Marcille is shredded. I heard she has an eight-pack.

(I can't believe that wasn't just the end of the chapter. I can't believe this wasn't the end of this book. What the fuck is going to happen in the NEXT chapter?!)

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omg, baby!Chilchuck! He once had hope in his eyes and joy in his heart!

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I just think he and Kabru should compare notes, by which I mean gossip.

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Laios: [explaining a new monster]

Marcille:

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Wait that's actually dodgy as fuck. Did they say something to her while Chlchuck was briefly in the bathroom or something? Threaten her?

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Marcille's imagine spot as Chilchuck's wife reminds me of that episode of Scrubs where each person imagines themselves married to Elliot. Amazing, no notes.

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Marcille's so valid tbh. He clearly lied before when he said he had only 1 daughter - he could easily be lying now, for all they know.

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....huh. Book 9 is the first book to have 6 chapters instead of 7. Story drama, or publication drama?

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this is sitcom-tier stuff. fantastic.

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Marcille: [dies and gets resurrected]

Marcille: :D :D :D I am going to study this! :D :D :D

(Marcille: So that nobody I love needs to ever die again. :) :) :) )

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She is, however, distinctly avoiding this question about her age.

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Izutsumi, confirmed for ace icon?!

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Izutsumi confirmed for ace icon!!

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Nooo babygirl! You have so much heart, it's just not exercised enough!

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<3 :3 <3

Also, Izutsumi also confirmed for Time Lord, I guess! (And her human half may be ace but her cat half is thinkin' about a big, good-looking panther ;3

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The very first image we see of Chilchuck's daughters is of a nightmare of them axe-murdered?! Geez louise.

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I don't even care if it's a demon or a god, I just laughed aloud so hard. Impeccable transition. I think the comedic timing in this comic might be getting better as it goes on.

Shoutout to Laios for being so weird that the succubus just had to kinda guess, "uhh only properly humanoid girl in the party?" for his greatest desire, until presumably it got close enough to pick up a more detailed impression.

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Hm. So, it's not lying...

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...nvm, now it probably is (lying).

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Oh yes this is a trap. A seduction.

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/giggling with delight - Oh my god, at the previous panel I was going to make a joke about Samwise the Great, Gardener of the World, ie the temptation vision the Ring gives Sam. But I guess I don't have to, we're just going there directly. What does pure power do to you, Laios?

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Wsdknsdvl even the Winged Lion is like, "but what about your judicial policy?" I love this comic sooo much.

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That's 'cuz you're a man.

[souliebird]

[[and then I met you || ch 22]]

Series: Daredevil || Pairing: Matt Murdock x Fem!Reader || Rating: Explicit

Summary:

A one-night stand years ago gave you a daughter and you are now able to put a name to her father – Matthew Murdock. Everything is about to change again as you navigate trying to integrate your life with that of the handsome and charming blind lawyer’s and Matt realizes he needs to not only protect his new family from Hell's Kitchen, but from the world.

chapter masterlist

Words: 4.3k

ao3 link

It takes you a little over an hour to get Minnie to go down for bed. Tomorrow is her birthday party and to say she is excited is an understatement. She was practically jumping off the walls and it took three different books, a bottle, and two lullabies to finally get her to drift off. You are thankful when she doesn’t sit up again and call for you after five minutes, because you have a lot to do. 

You need to clean up the apartment and decorate, you need to prepare pancake batter for a princess style breakfast, you need to finish wrapping presents, and you need to set up the couch for Matt. He will be coming by after his Patrol so he can stay the night and Minnie can wake up to the surprise of him being there, which is the perfect way to start her celebratory weekend.

But before any of that, you need to go take a shower so you can have a proper breakdown. 

When you were younger, you believed crying was a sign of weakness. Your parents had treated it as such, always dismissive if you cried. The reason had never mattered - shedding tears was pointless and for children, so you had learned to bottle everything up and push it all down until the act of crying physically hurt you. Only very recently did you accept that crying is healthy. 

You still hate doing it, though, and the only way you have found to balance your shame and your need for that emotional release is to treat it like another task you need to accomplish. 

You triple check your daughter is truly asleep before you close the door to the bathroom and start the water. You keep yourself composed as you strip and only once you are under the spray do you let the tears start to fall. 

So much has happened in such a short time and your anxiety has been through the roof. 

The first bill for your hospital stay arrived today and you have been too scared to open it. You are terrified to go back into medical debt - giving birth in the United States had drained a lot of your savings and you have built it back up. You know there are all sorts of hidden fees, and you are going to need to do so much work contacting the various billing offices to try to get prices down. 

It isn’t even like you are fully recovered from being in the hospital in the first place. You only just finished your antibiotics last week and your ear still randomly throbs or rings. 

But honestly, you don’t know if that is from being sick or almost having your head bashed in. 

You thought you would be okay after the attack. You thought Minnie would be the one with problems - having nightmares and jumping at shadows - but after the first day of making sure you were okay, she’s been fine. You haven’t been. 

You’ve been plagued with nightmares about hands around your neck. You’ve been jumping at shadows when you leave the apartment. 

You keep constantly checking your locks and you debate ordering pepper spray. 

You don’t know what to do.

You aren’t okay. 

You don’t feel safe. 

The only time you have felt secure is when Matt was there to hold you and remembering such only signals your brain to send a new wave of tears. 

He confuses you in a way no one else ever has. 

You have never met anyone who cares so much before. It is overwhelming how much he loves Hell’s Kitchen - enough so to become a vigilante to protect it - and it is overwhelming how much he loves Minnie. You thought only you could love her that much.

Seeing them together does things to your heart you don’t understand. You just want to watch them play and bond until the end of time. They smile and laugh, and it is the only time you ever feel Whole. You feel like everything is perfect when the three of you are together. 

You don’t know what to make of that. You don’t trust yourself with it - you’ve never felt like that before and you are scared that if you think too hard about it, you’ll find a flaw and the feeling will be ruined. 

You just want Matt to hold you while the two of you watch Minnie play and that isn’t an okay fantasy for you to have. You don’t have that type of relationship with him. 

He is a naturally touchy person with a huge heart. You’ve seen him hug Karen and Foggy before and you know he has only ever wrapped his arms around you to comfort you. 

And he wants to comfort you because you are the mother of his child. He wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for Minnie and that is something you need to remind yourself of. 

Matt loves Minnie. Family is extremely important to him, and he has told you time and time again that he strives to be the best dad possible for her - so of course that means he needs to take care of you and make sure you have a positive relationship.

If you and Matt butt heads, that wouldn’t be what was best for Minnie.

You need to do what is best for Minnie.

Which means you need to stop crying and get to work. 

You wipe at your tears until they start to slow, then wash your face while still under the spray. It takes a minute or two for you to fully calm down, but once you do, it is like the tap is turned off. Crying time is over, so you stop your shower and quickly dry off so you can get dressed.

You feel better, but in a kind of dull way. It is like all the pressures in your life have been turned down to something more manageable and you know you will be able to focus on your tasks without slipping into a panic attack. 

The apartment is not nearly as dirty as you believed it to be. You have to straighten some things up and you take the time to wipe down all the flat surfaces, but after that, you start putting things up. There’s a pink and yellow Happy Birthday banner and you blow up a few inflatables you found shaped like flowers and stick them to the walls. You twirl streamers together to decorate the back of the couch and the dining chairs, and your favorite piece is the pink sparkle fringe to hang over the hallway entrance. It isn’t the most elaborate of set ups, but you know Minnie will love it and that is all that matters to you. 

Once your living space is Birthday themed, you turn to the kitchen. You went shopping today to make sure you had everything needed for a spectacular breakfast. You found a recipe for extra fluffy pancakes, and it seems easy enough - it calls for letting the batter rest overnight and you particularly like that as it is one less thing to do in the morning while trying to handle a rowdy toddler. 

It doesn’t take long to get everything prepped and before you know it, it has been close to two hours since you put Minnie down to sleep and you feel it is finally safe to bring her presents out of their hidey holes to be wrapped. 

She has grown a bit since you last bought her clothes, so you got her a nice little haul, including a new princess dress for her to wear to the zoo. It has sparkles and tulle and the dress comes with a matching crown you just know she won’t want to take off. You are extremely proud of the find. 

You didn’t just get her clothes, though. Minnie has been more and more interested in helping you cook, so you got her a little kitchen play set. It comes with pots and pans, knives, utensils, bowls, plates, and some fake food. You thought it would be fun to have her practice her skills - she’s a pro at helping you stir and mix, and she knows how to use a butter knife to cut up fruit. You hope she enjoys pretending to wash her dishes, so you lure you into helping into that part of cooking, but you don’t think anyone finds that chore fun. 

Before you can start wrapping, you need to go through everything and remove all the tags and stickers. It is a boring activity that takes far too long, so you decide you are going to multitask while doing so. You grab your laptop and notebook and settle down among your pile of bags.

Since your talk with Matt about Daredevil, you have been in research mode. The first few nights, you read every article you could find about the Devil. You started with the reputable sources - purely focusing on news reports - and once you had a timeline of events down, you switched to opinion pieces. You quickly ended up sorting those into three categories - positive outlooks, negative outlooks, and outlooks written by Karen Page. 

You took notes on everything - making pro and con lists on each major event and circling back to jot down questions you had. You felt insane - and frankly a little invasive - but it was how you processed things. You wanted it all laid out nicely in front of you so you could come to your own conclusions. 

But to get to that final conclusion, you still have a lot of internet sleuthing to do, so you open up a new internet tab.

One of the most important things you want to know about Daredevil is how real people feel about him. Published articles are always biased - it is in their nature to be based purely on who produces them - but social media lets the mass in on the conversation. You learned that well after the Attack on New York. 

You remember the majority of the news singing praise for the Avengers and how they saved the Earth - which you truly did appreciate - but no one came and spoke to the people whose lives had been ruined. Sure, they talked about how much destruction had happened and how much it would cost to rebuild, but no one had mentioned how Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea had been almost flattened. No one cared about the low-cost homes that had been destroyed or the poor people crushed in debris - not when they could talk about the Big Bank buildings the Hulk had run through. Why talk about those genuinely affected when you could bring in a mouthpiece who was halfway across the world?

Iron Man didn’t give two shits about the people whose lives he saved. If he did, he’d help them in the aftermath, and he didn’t. None of the Heroes did - they started going around the world while an uncaring government was left to clean up the mess. Repairs went to the lowest bidder and many things were deemed too expensive and just left to crumble.

But only internet forums and ten second social media videos talked about that.

Matt talks so passionately about helping people in Hell’s Kitchen, so you need to know if it is real, or just all a puff piece. 

You look first into the forums and to your surprise, there is a whole section for New York vigilantes. You resist the urge to dive into the threads about Spider-Man and the Hero of Harlem and you have to scroll to the bottom of the front page to find something about Daredevil. 

It is CCTV footage of Daredevil chasing off what looks to be some teenagers trying to rob a pawn shop and there are a few dozen comments under it. You smile as you start to read them - the majority of it is praise for Matt, with the few negative comments being about the quality of footage.

And each thread you find about Daredevil is like that. You expected to see issues with excessive force like you saw in the opinion pieces, but there is nothing. People who you can tell are locals all comment about how he doesn’t hurt kids, and his punishments reflect the severity of the crime. Muggers get a few good swats while those who commit domestic violence are given as good as they gave. It is gang members and real dangers who end up in the hospital. There are about a handful of posts giving firsthand accounts of how the Devil helped them - ranging from them being in serious danger to Matt helping a drunk woman safely get a cab.

From what you can see, the people who post in this forum like the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen and genuinely feel safer with him around. The site is a little niche, though, so you switch to a more popular platform to see if you can find different opinions and different opinions you find.

Just not the ones you expected.

There is a new picture of the Devil that has gained traction in his tag that is rather good quality - Matt is squatting on a roof, seemingly observing a street, and is framed in such a way to show off his lower half. His thighs, which you know are all muscle, are highlighted wonderfully and the angle of the photo only emphasizes his backside. His upper back and shoulders are all in shadow, but you can tell just how broad they are. 

Twitter absolutely loves the image, and you think you have to agree with them. You can feel your cheeks heating up and you can’t seem to tear your eyes away from the screen.

Matt is beyond physically attractive, and it is no wonder the internet is lusting after him. There is a litany of lewd comments from multiple people and one made by a user with a cartoon frog as their profile picture has your core twitching and you quickly hide your face in your hands. 

“imagine him bending you over a rooftop and fucking you until all you can do is drool ♥”

You don’t want to think dirty thoughts about Matt. It makes you feel awkward and guilty but mostly they make you Want, and you desperately want to bat that away.

You very obviously have slept with him before and know what a good lover he is. You know what his skin feels like against yours and your mouth goes dry at the memory of how loudly he moaned while between your legs. His stamina is no joke, and you can only imagine it has improved since he’s started being a vigilante. 

You have no doubt he could easily fuck someone stupid.

You tell yourself you can’t think like this - you are supposed to be researching Daredevil to figure out how you feel about Matt being a vigilante - not ogling pictures of his ass and remembering your night together. 

You gently smack your cheeks a few times and tell yourself to focus. 

That only serves to make you more flush, so you make the executive decision that you have had enough screen time for the night and slam shut your laptop.

You have removed all the tags from the clothes, and you only have a few UPC stickers to pull off fake food, so you hurry through those so you can get to actually wrapping presents and not thinking about what you saw.

It is easy for you to get quickly lost in this new activity. Your perfectionist nature has you needing to make sure every crease is even and crisp and that each present looks picturesque, and you can't do that while distracted. Your thoughts shift from the way Matt’s breath felt against your skin to how many gifts Minnie has and how each one needs to look unique.

You know Minnie is going to tear through them like a wildfire, but it is important to you to make sure love is poured into everything. 

You never got that as a child. Your birthdays were practical affairs and more often than not your present was to go clothes shopping, so you didn’t get to unwrap things or have that grand surprise. You don’t want that for Minnie. You want her to feel like an absolute princess on her special day and if that means rewrapping the same present four times to make it perfect, then that is what you will do. 

You are finalizing bow placements on the gift bags you had to use for odd shaped items when your phone vibrates with an alert. 

For a split second you are confused - it is rather late, and you’ve muted most app notifications - but then you remember Matt is meant to be coming over. 

You don’t know how it could have slipped your mind and embarrassment burns through you. 

How are you going to face him after staring at a picture of his ass until your brain broke?

You hesitate to check your phone, but when you do, you obviously have a text from him saying he is on his way. You groan to yourself, wondering how you can save yourself from this awkward situation? 

Maybe you can go to bed early. You aren’t at all tired - you usually are up for another few hours - but you have a long weekend ahead of you. You will need rest.

In your bed.

Where Matt will not be. 

Because, for the first time in a while, he will be sleeping on the couch. 

Which you still need to prepare.

You finish fussing with Minnie’s bounty of presents and set about arranging them up the Happy Birthday banner like it is a Christmas tree. You have to resist your urge to nitpick and instead turn your focus to cleaning up your mess. You hurriedly shove the pile of trash you made into a bag so you can toss it and your wrapping supplies are tucked into the back of the closet, where they will live until you need them again. 

You do a quick once over to make sure everything is neat and birthday ready before you fetch your spare pillow and blanket. 

You try to not feel guilty as you start making up the couch. You know it isn’t the most comfortable and Matt will probably be sore after doing God knows what all night, but you can’t offer him your bed again. There is no reason for him to be in your bed. As frantic as you are, you don’t need any comforting. 

You just need to stop thinking. 

But not in that way. 

“Stop,” you hiss at yourself. “Stop being a slut. Pure thoughts. Have pure thoughts.”

Scolding yourself does not work as well as you mean it to and all you can do is pour your concentration into folding and refolding the blanket. You roll it up tight first like it is a sleeping bag, then you think that is stupid, so you fold it into a triangle. You realize that is trying way too hard, so into a square it goes. 

The knock at the door startles you and to your credit, you don’t scream. 

You do, however, bury your face into your hands again and take a deep breath. You are panicking over nothing. Everything is just fine. You are overthinking.

You mentally chant that mantra as you go to the door. You hesitate to open it, needing the extra moment to center yourself, and you are surprised you don’t automatically close it again at the sight of Matt. 

His normal daytime attire is a suit, and he wears them like a model, but you much prefer him dressed down as he is now. He’s in a t-shirt and joggers, with a five o’clock shadow and fluffed up hair, and he looks devastatingly handsome. He looks friendly and soft, but everything is just tight enough to show off how toned he is. 

Your body reacts exactly like it did to the picture, but this time you can’t hide. 

So, you run instead.

“Come on in,” you practically squeak out before hurrying to get out of his way. He’s got a gym bag with him - probably to carry his clothes for tomorrow - and your entryway isn’t the largest. It makes sense for you to go back to the living room. 

“Busy night?” He asks as he closes and locks the door, and you are completely thrown by the question. You must make a confused noise, because he follows up with, “You are out of breath, is everything okay?”

Your heart starts to beat hard in your chest and you can feel your entire body getting hot. Of course, he can tell what is going on with your body and you are nearly in full panic mode. 

You need to get to bed and away from him.

You fail at keeping your composure by gesturing around the living room, “Yeah - um - just been busy. Decorating and stuff - it’s a big day tomorrow.” 

“It is,” Matt agrees, a charming and boyish smile creeping onto his lips. You tell yourself he must be excited for Minnie’s birthday and that is why he is in such a nice mood.

“How was..how was your night?” 

He hums at the question, moving to set his bag down by the couch, “It was relatively quiet. With school starting up again and the heat, the younger crowd isn’t out. I made a few laps but didn’t find anything worth going after.” 

“So, there isn’t like…crime every night?” You ask, trying to wrap your head around it all. You haven’t actually asked what a Patrol consists of, so you don’t know what the average one is like.

“Despite what everyone thinks, no. There’s a good number of nights where I just keep things tidy, but being out helps to deter people as well. Not every night is drug busts and gang wars.”

“That is good to know.” And it is - it helps to ease your anxiety that he is out there constantly boxing people. People say New York is crime ridden, but it is not nearly as bad as it is made out to be. It is all scare tactics and sensational news - like the Satanic Panic.

Matt hums again, then tilts his head back towards where you hung the birthday banner, “That is a lot of presents.”

His smile is still bright, and you have to duck your head and bite your lip to keep your mind in check. Your mouth, as always, is quick to quip, “I’m not telling you what is in them. It’s a surprise.”

“A surprise, huh?” He teases, before kneeling down by his bag and unzipping it. You can see colorful wrapping paper peeking through, and you instantly wonder what sort of gift is inside.

“A surprise,” you repeat. “It isn’t any fun if everyone knows what is inside before it is opened.”

“I’ll concede to that, even if it is tempting to peek.” As he says this he stands up, holding three different sized packages in his hands. They aren’t as pristinely wrapped as yours, but you can tell great care went into it and you wonder if Matt did it himself. 

“Foggy said they will come over around noon,” he says like you aren’t on the verge of a crisis. “And Maggie was hoping we could stop by on the way to the park. I told her it would be up to you, but I know she has a few things for Minnie. We’re probably going to need to bring that wagon you got.”

The idea of so many people coming to your apartment for a party - especially a toddler’s birthday party - boggles your mind but your heart soars that so many people want to celebrate your daughter. You watch as he goes to add the gift pile and that confusing feeling swirls in your chest again, reminding you this is everything you ever wanted for Minnie. Matt being in your life means more people to love your daughter like she deserves.

“Okay,” you say because that is all your mind can produce. When Matt begins to stand again, you go into a panic thinking he might say something to start a conversation and blurt out, “I should get ready for bed.”

He turns to you, and you don’t know what to expect, but it is not for him to look bemused. He raises his eyebrows over his glasses and lets out a huff of a laugh, “It’s a big day tomorrow. You should get your rest.” He isn’t condescending or rude about it, but you can definitely hear the hint of teasing.

Your face burns as you nod and stupidly repeat, “It’s a big day.” You clear your throat to try and regain some composure and point towards the couch, “I, uh, left you out pillows and a blanket. The..uh..remote for the fan is on the coffee table. I readded the labels after Minnie tore them off.”

“Thank you,” he says with full sincerity, and you cannot take any more of his charm and muscular biceps. 

“I’m going to go to bed now,” you tell him as you start to back up towards the bedroom. You know you should tell him about the fringe covering the hallway, but you just want to flee and hide under your covers until your brain stops all of its nonsense.

“Okay.”

As you finally let yourself turn away from Matt, he says your name just loud enough for you to barely hear it. You freeze in place, but it is like your blood is boiling inside you. You breathe out his name in response.

“Good night.”

((“I love you.”))

--

a/n: orz please take this offering of a chapter - my brain is not working up to standard.

Also - Tomorrow is a Big Day

--

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[unabashegirl]

Enticing 46 — Harry Styles CEO

Summary: Harry is a young billionaire and CEO of his own company. He mostly keeps to himself, he is stern and very meticulous when it comes to business. He also likes to keep his personal life very private for the sake of his newly born son Oliver Styles. It isn't until he meets Y/N Y/L/N that everything changes. She becomes his new nanny after his previous one quits due to personal reasons. She is young, caring, and sweet. Will they ignore their feelings? Will Harry's girlfriend accept their love and leave them? Will she be able to cope with his busy agenda? What about Oliver's mother? Where is she? Who is she?

— masterlist of enticing —

word count: 1.5K

TAGLIST: @0oolookitsme, @kennedywxlsh, @hsfics, @stylesbrock, @sucker4angstt, @bluemoonedwings, @cherriesrae, @vornilla, @mellamolayla, @harryscurls21, @stilesissaved, @be-with-me-so-happily, @harryssattelitestomper, @jerseygirlinca, @tenaciousperfectionunknown, @n0vaj3an, @breezykpop, @kathb59, @sassamanda77, @sherbitdibdab

"Do you think it's a girl or a boy?" Y/N inquired as Harry gently brushed his fingers across her bump. They were seated at a cozy Italian restaurant conveniently located near both of their offices, having planned to share a lunch together.

"I'm hoping for a girl," Harry admitted, expressing his desire to have both a son and a daughter, just like he and Allison. He recognized the joy of having a sister, and he believed that Oliver would relish the companionship and growing up together. "But if it's not, that's perfectly fine too," he quickly added, not wanting his words to be misconstrued. Harry was genuinely excited this time. He felt blessed to be involved in every aspect of the pregnancy.

"I don't mind either way. I'm honestly not sure," Y/N replied with a slight frown before picking up her fork to savor the carbonara pasta before her.

"Speaking of the baby, we'll need to start getting everything ready," Harry noted.

"I'm sure we won't need that much stuff. We can use Oliver's things," Y/N suggested, assuming Harry had saved all of Oliver's newborn essentials.

Harry's expression shifted to one of confusion. "I mean, you kept all of Oliver's newborn stuff, right?" she inquired.

Harry smiled at her and looked down at his food, feeling a pang of guilt. He hadn't retained any of it; the majority had been donated. He hadn't anticipated having another child.

"That's absurd," she remarked, rolling her eyes at him.

"I donated it! It's not like I threw everything away, darlin'," Harry replied, his smile wistful as he took a sip of his wine. He had reservations about drinking in front of Y/N, but she had insisted, essentially making him share the moment. "When's your next doctor's appointment?"

"It's later this week," Y/N shared, her anticipation building. Perhaps they would find out the baby's sex this time. She hoped the baby would be more cooperative during the ultrasound. "Can you make it?"

"I'll make time. Wouldn't miss it," Harry assured her, reaching out to hold her hand and tenderly kissing the top of it.

"Is Allison mad at me?" Y/N asked bluntly, her thoughts consumed by the question over the past two days since Allison's departure. She knew she had stepped in when it wasn't her place, but Allison's disrespect toward Harry had pushed her to speak up.

"No, darlin'," Harry reassured her. "I think she realized she went a little too far." Y/N couldn't quite understand, but she suddenly found herself in tears. Sometimes, the weight of it all felt like too much. She had an aversion to conflict and despised making Harry feel bad, so she often kept her concerns close, not wanting to be a burden or cause him any distress.

"Oh, darlin'," Harry sighed, his heart aching at the sight of her tears. He was accustomed to her joyful smile, making the contrast all the more poignant. "Everything is alright. She's not angry or anything. Maybe she was just taken aback by everything. Would you like me to talk to her so she can apologize?"

Y/N shook her head, big tears streaming down her face. "No, don't. I'll just make it worse," she pleaded. "It might just be the hormones," she added with a self-aware nod, realizing how silly it all sounded. Harry gently wiped away her tears.

"You're just feeling a bit sensitive today, and that's perfectly fine," Harry assured her. "How about if I finish work earlier than usual today, and we spend the evening watching movies and indulging in some comfort food at home? Will that make you feel better?"

Y/N nodded enthusiastically through her tears, a soft laugh escaping her. Harry empathized with her, unable to fathom the challenges of pregnancy. All he wanted was for her to be as comfortable as possible. Despite his reluctance to leave work early, this time he was determined to do so, as she needed him.

After their lunch, Y/N and Harry returned to their respective offices, each with their own set of responsibilities. Y/N had an important meeting scheduled with William and some potential investors. She needed to pitch a significant deal to them and had meticulously prepared her proposal, backed by data confirming it was a worthwhile investment. She felt a mix of nervousness and excitement about showcasing her potential.

On the other hand, Harry had his hands full with various external issues to address. He had to meet with his associates in London, as their construction project had encountered several setbacks, including permit issues. Harry was sincerely hoping he wouldn't have to travel for this matter.

"What's going on, Thomas? I need some good news," Harry said, leaning forward in his chair. "What's happening with the construction crew?"

Thomas had been incessantly calling Harry over the past few days, reporting that construction had slowed down due to heavy rain in London. An unfortunate incident had occurred where a worker accidentally damaged a gas pipeline, necessitating a call to the fire department. The pipeline was temporarily sealed, suspending the gas supply to the building. This, in turn, delayed the laying of the concrete foundation and pushed back the permits by about a month.

Thomas was visibly anxious, fearing that Harry might reprimand him severely. He had always been meticulous in overseeing the workers, and Harry appreciated his attention to detail. However, this time, a momentary lapse in attention had led to a major issue.

Harry let out a deep exhale, running his fingers through his hair. He was growing weary of the challenges that came with the expansion project and simply wished it would be completed.

"I'm surprised, Thomas," Harry began. "How much is this going to cost us?"

"I'm truly sorry, Mr. Styles," Thomas apologized sincerely, and Harry could sense his genuine regret. It was the first time he had encountered a problem with Thomas in charge of construction. While it wasn't entirely his fault, he was the one responsible and had to bear the blame in front of the boss. "It won't happen again. I swear."

"I understand, Thomas. Everyone makes mistakes, and I was genuinely surprised that it hadn't happened sooner after all these years of working for me," Harry reassured him with a smile. "Sometimes, situations get out of our control. Now, tell me the cost so we can get it resolved."

Thomas proceeded to share the detailed cost estimates he had prepared for the meeting, relieved that Harry hadn't reacted with anger and fired him.

As the day transitioned into evening, the sky grew darker and colder, and the first drops of rain began to fall from the gray heavens. Harry parked his car in front of the apartment building and scrolled through the menu of a restaurant he wanted to try, all the while eagerly anticipating a cozy evening in pajamas, cuddling with Y/N.

"Y/N? I'm home!" Harry called out as he entered the apartment. He noticed Mrs. Johnson, their housekeeper, looking weary and troubled. Concerned, he inquired, "What's going on?"

"I tried, Mr. Styles, but he was very persistent," Mrs. Johnson replied, her voice lowered. "He basically let himself in," she whispered, nodding toward the office.

Determined and already angered that someone had upset Mrs. Johnson, Harry made his way into the office, only to find his father and mother inside. His father stood by the window with his hands in his pockets, while his mother sat on the couch, elegantly dressed in Chanel, with her ankles crossed.

"Does no one in this family respect privacy?" Harry blurted out, startling both of his parents. "First Allison, and now both of you?"

"That's no way to talk to your parents, Harry," Mrs. Styles chided, setting down a cup of tea that Mrs. Johnson had prepared for her after some disagreement. "It's good to see you."

"Why are you here? Did Allison spill the beans already?" Harry questioned, his frustration evident as he hurriedly untied his tie.

"She might have mentioned that your girlfriend is pregnant," Mr. Styles replied, his gaze intense. "So?"

"It's just very surprising. Is this really what you want, Harry? To have another child? To add more responsibility to the already intense load you carry?" Harry was taken aback. He felt betrayed by his own mother, as he had always considered her an innocent angel caught in a challenging relationship. Suddenly, his father seemed to have influenced her. "Because I'm sure your father and I can do something to fix this situation."

In response, Harry silently made his way to the small bar in his office and began pouring himself a glass of whiskey on the rocks. He was beyond angry.

"You don't have to stay with her, son," Mr. Styles finally spoke, his words laden with implication.

ENTICING HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED ON PATREON. ALL CHAPTERS HAVE BEEN UPLOADED ALL THE WAY TO CHAPTER 66! WITH AN ALTERNATIVE ENDING. FOR ONLY $3.00 YOU'LL GET FULL ACCESS TO ALL CHAPTERS AND HAVE A CHANCE TO READ THEM ALL. The best thing about it is that you can cancel right away and make a one time payment!

[dairymistress05]

Colin: A Search For Purpose in the Wrong Places

Colin Bridgerton is both handsome and charming so why is he often grasping for his place in the world?

From the beginning there is a common thread of insecurity attached to Colins character. He seems to struggle to know exactly where he fits, to find his purpose.

So where do these insecurities come from? Well to start, he is sort of the “forgotten middle child” in a way, he is the 3rd son after which are 2 daughters. While he and Daphne seem close, as they were close as young children, now that they are older Daphne is having her debut and becoming a woman in society. All while Colin is also there but there’s no significance for him becoming an adult. Daphne is often treated like a first child as she is the first girl after 3 boys and the first to debut in the marriage mart.

First he tries to find his place in becoming a husband, in parallel to Daphne. It’s possible he feels unseen while she is emerging into adulthood. He doesn’t know where he fits but if he vows to take care of someone, he will fit in, right?!

He is intrigued and infatuated with and Wants to “rescue” Miss Thompson from her older admirers and be her saviour, this is all before he knows about her “condition”. AND when he finds out he only wishes that she had been truthful with him. “You wish to know the cruelest part of your deception? If you had simply come to me and told me of your situation, I would have married you without a second thought. That is how In Love I believe myself to be. But I see now that was all a lie.” Read — Fixer! He wants to be the Hero, to be needed.

Following this betrayal Colin is once again set adrift and begins his travels. He has also sworn off women, as he later admits to Pen and is attempting to know himself better. This interaction is very telling to his feelings towards Pen because she says “I am a woman” to which he responds with “You are Pen, you are my friend, you do not count”. — yes this seems to some as not regarding her as worthy — but actually this hints at something else entirely. It’s an effort to separate her because in his recent context “a woman” lied to him and betrayed him and Pen would surely never do to him what Marina did.

At this point it is extremely telling that Colin is beginning to find his true self. However, part of that self is directly intertwined with his connection to Pen. “If Penelope can see me this way, then surely I can too”. She is arguably his most valued and influential female relationship outside of his family. Colin here is struggling to understand himself and his place in society and to contextualise what Pen means to him. All of this at a time in his life when he is struggling to keep afloat.

He visits Marina he seems awkward and is once again reminded of his “out of placeness”. He makes an adorable olive joke (He is such a dork!) and nerds out about plants with Sir Philip. He is more interested in their conversation than he was with anything he was talking to Marina about. Furthermore, while visiting he seems surprised and almost disappointed that Marina is well. Like what did you think was going to happen? You were you going to save her from her life? Babies and all? Honestly, Marina isn’t wrong when she calls him “a boy caught up in his own fantasies.”

His visit with Marian was a wake up call hut he is still left without the purpose he was seeking.

“After all, everyone else is finding some purpose to their lives…and here I am feeding the ducks.” This leads him to his interaction with Jack and culminates in his “saving” the Featherington ladies which leaves him feeling like a hero.

In all his following interactions with Pen in the second part seem to hint at his feelings, (whether he knows it himself or not) he loves her.

“…Our relationship has taken shape so naturally over the years, one could take it for granted. (Hint at season 3)

You have been so constant and loyal Pen”. And his “Lady Crane was right about you…” He very clearly doesn’t understand his friendship with her but it is important to him.

Outside of his family, Colin doesn’t seem to have strong relationships. This becomes even more apparent when he is spending time with his “society buds”. All along while he seems to be able to navigate society with ease, he has often always been on the fringes and his relationship with those guys just exaggerates this fact. One comment made at Lady Danbury‘s ball saying “you are much much more fun this season”. It’s unclear clear if Colin ever really socialised with the “society buds” prior to the end of season 2 much at all. He likely didn’t though, because had he spent much time with them in season 1, he wouldn’t have jumped into proposing to Marina so quickly. So his comment about “never dream of courting Penelope Featherington”, a misguided last ditch effort at fitting in? Maybe!

It is Colin going away again, only for Pen not answer his letters this time that helps to highlight his feelings of isolation. Imagine, writing to the one person you most want to feel connected yo and getting nothing in return, heartbreaking. It’s not a wonder he “puts on armour”. When Penelope was answering his letters, he held onto the pieces of himself that she most appreciated. When she wasn’t answering his letters, he lost himself trying to find his identity apart from her. This resulted in him trying on a persona that no one recognised. When she tells him it’s been vexing to see him back into society if you watch his face in that moment, it’s almost like she slapped him and you can see his facade cracking for a second before he offers to help her.

Each time he was home, regardless of feeling without a purpose, he was constantly finding comfort in Pen. We see it in the way he goes to her “like a moth to a flame” at every possible opportunity. Colin has always been at ease when speaking with Pen. He appreciates her humour, he enjoys her mind and tries to make her laugh. There is even an example of this in season 2 where philosophising and Eloise is like do not encourage him (but not only does Pen enjoy encouraging him because they match wits very well) Colin also genuinely seems to be hanging on her every word. Until he was no longer afforded those words.

Finally it was those very words that led him to realise that he didn’t need to be useful in order to be loved. That by being truly himself, He. Was. Enough. All this time she had always loved him AND he had loved her, he just didn’t see it. Colin found that seeing himself the way that Pen had always seen him was how to find where he belonged.

In this way, he found his purpose. It was to love assuredly, fervently, loudly. That true love is Not about being needed, but about being Chosen by his best friend, the only one who truly saw him and loved him exactly as he always had been.

[reginarubie]

hi I don’t know if you still do request tumblr prompts, but if you’ve lurked in the jonsa tag there was this post shared about a person asking if an adopted son can marry the daughter of the family that adopted him and I was wondering if, inspired and have time. Could you share a dabble or even dialogues with that in mind?. I don’t know, maybe literal conte yes or Jon posting this and people find out it’s him, anything really haha

Oh nonny, why not?

Aragorn married Arwen, though.

The first one to approach him, if one would believe it, is Rickon.

Jon was there when Rickon was born, small, shrieking and red haired. He had been there keeping hold on Arya to avoid she jumped on all the furniture of the hospital room in her excitement.

His little brother leans closer to him a couple of days after as he swings his backpack on his shoulder and as he munches on a protein bar, “Yes” he whispers, his breath smells of nuts, without offering further explanation. Then he smirks like Theon does when he’s about to whore his way out of some mess, and leaves.

Jon remains awestruck, and uncertain, on his feet at the isle of the Stark’s kitchen. He isn’t usually home this hour of the day, not since he’s moved out, but Ned needed helped with the tree-house and Jon needed a day off to get his hands dirty anyway.

Ned keeps looking at him strange all day, and Catelyn studies him with a knowing grin from the kitchen window, and when she brings out some apple pie for them during mid-morning, she takes great care to state that Sansa made it, with much love.

Jon chokes on empty air.

Ned is helpful enough, despite the way he has looked him all morning, to pat him on the back and tell him something that should sound wise and resigned but make Jon only feel uncomfortable.

He’s never been uncomfortable since the Stark officially adopted him when he was fifteen; and after helping set the table he skips — two steps at time — upstairs to find refuge in his old room.

Bran is there. Bran’s mischievous grin, as if he has Jon precisely where he wants him, makes him almost bolt for the door. But Bran is smart, and that wheeled chair is more flexible than he thought because he manages to reach him and knock him on the bed by grabbing him by the hem of his shirt.

“So,” Bran says “you want to marry Sansa, and have her babies. Or would she have yours?” he questions.

And that’s how he learns that all the Starks (barred Arya who is in Braavos for a fencing competition and Sansa who’s in the Vale busy with fashion school) have read his post.

Fuck.

“Would it make you want to hit me less if it was Arya?” he tries to smooth the tension that Bran has unnecessarily created.

Bran’ eyes narrow, “You want to marry my sister, have her babies or she yours; and you want to cheat on her with my other sister?” he demands and Bran can be pretty scary when he wants to, okay? He takes it after Catelyn.

“No…” Jon practically squeaks, and when Bran cocks his head on the side he hastens to add “no one is having anyone babies!”

“Yet!” Catelyn shouts from downstairs, “and until that is true, come down, lunch is ready!”

Bran snickers as Jon helps him down, “And I would not cheat on her,” Jon tells him, offended.

Bran doesn’t stop snickering and Ned is making a very peculiar expression where he’s sat at the head of the table.

“Don’t worry dear,” Catelyn tells him as she pats him on the head as she did when he was a child, “Sansa doesn’t know, yet”

Jon looks helplessly at Ned, his bastion. His father.

Ned just takes a deep breath, and stands up abruptly “We need something stronger than water for this” he states, moving toward his liquor cabinet.

“Eddard Stark stop there!” Catelyn shouts, “Doctor Luwin said…”

“I don’t care what Doctor Luwin said, woman” Ned replies “our son needs it, and to be frank, so do I”

What follows is perhaps the most uncomfortable lunch since that time that aunt Lysa’ new partner Petyr Baelish came visiting after uncle Jon’s death.

In the end though Catelyn sends him off with enough food to last him a week and promises him everything will be fine, “We knew,” she tells him and at Jon’ doubtful look she smiles, “I knew,” she amends, “and perhaps Bran, that kid knows far more than he tells. And Rickon is more perceptive that you’d think… perhaps, only Robb and Ned were not in the known”

Jon wants the earth to swallow him up, “And Sansa, but Sansa is always wilfully blind when it comes to you, so”

“Can we… pretend this never happened?” he pleads. Catelyn never looked more motherly.

“Of course dear, whatever you need”

But since Jon is an unlucky bastard, of course they can’t.

Arya just sends him a text, “My sister? You can do better” and then adds “actually, so can she” but then sends him a married cat couple sticker and they don’t speak of it further.

So perhaps they can really pretend it never happened.

Only, they can’t.

Robb ambushes him outside of his work, when Jon really thought that perhaps he had not given the matter any thought.

“We need to talk” straightforward as always.

“I’ve had a horrendous day, Robb. Can we save this for another time?”

“It’s about Sansa,”

Jon’ patience has grown thin since Rickon has kept pestering him asking to be flower boy.

As if he isn’t taller than him, to Jon’ vast dismay, and looks like he’s twenty-four and not sixteen.

And Bran keeps questioning his intentions.

And Arya hasn’t stopped sending him nauseated gifs all day long.

Even bloody Theon knows. And he and Catelyn keep trying to reign in the others by teaming up in their effort to tease the hell out of him.

He’d like to smash Theon’ face in, since his foster brother had once the very same problem when it came to Sansa. He’s been restless. Always making importune questions at the most importune times.

“Yes I’m in love with her, no she doesn’t know. No, no one is having anyone’s babies and no I would never cheat on her,” he lashes out, walking around Robb and completely missing his brother’ grin and the glint in his blue eyes.

“Wait a moment, Sans, I’m going to put you on speaker,”

And if Jon believed he has ever been embarrassed. Well… he was wrong. He now is properly embarrassed.

“That’s very comforting to hear Jon,” Sansa tells him from the speaker “it means Robb and I’s ten year plan to get you to fall in love with me has finally born some fruit,”

There’s blinding light and then Jon is beaming, grabbing the phone from Robb’ hand as his brother grins like a Cheshire Cat.

That very same night there’s Sansa comment under his question, pinned above all other comments (all kind of comments and Jon is quite offended by some of them).

There’s a particularly nasty one that almost knocks the breath out of him and Jon is on the point to delete the whole thing altogether despite being too giddy to do anything now that he knows Sansa actually returned his feelings.

Aragorn married Arwen, though💅—SStark🍋

Because there isn’t much more to say to that, is there? Gods. Jon loves this woman.

Sooo nonny! Hope you enjoyed!

Sending all my love ~ G.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Personally, I'm going to need more than just one single scene between aegon and his son to be convinced that he's a good father, especially after what we learned about him and his bastards in s1. And no I don't care what Tom said about aegon not knowing he had bastards, one because I've only ever seen people say that he said it and when asked for actual links to the article or video in which he said it there's nothing but crickets. Secondly because even if he did say that, it makes no sense. You expect me to believe that erryk, or arryk whichever one it was, was aware that the child was aegon's child, but aegon himself didn't. When he took his brother to the pits he points out the child like he had seen the child before, he only attended the pits with aegon, so I don't believe for one second that aegon looked at that very targaryen looking child and didn't realise it was his, again especially when erryk did. The whole point of that scene was to show aegon's depravity. Erryk is telling his brother look not only does aegon enjoy watching brutal fights between children, but it's worse than that, look over there that's his own child that he let's participate in these fights. This loses any significance and weight if aegon doesn't know that's his child. Erryk wouldn't have pointed out that child as an example of how depraved aegon truly was if aegon didn't know it was his child. Sorry but the argument that aegon just didn't know sounds like nonsense to me.

OK so he doesn't care about his bastards so let's talk about his true born children. I keep seeing all this praise for aegon, talking about how he is such a good dad, how he is so much better than viserys and daemon etc. But like I said we only got one scene between aegon and his son and during this scene we see him smiling and laughing at jaehaerys, which yes had cute vibes about it.

But honestly, watching the scene, I think it was less he was laughing in happiness and pride at his heir and more because he thought it was funny that tyland was being annoyed. I saw posts talking about aww aegon loves his son so much that he knows he likes pony rides and wants tyland to give him one, and I'm just like ???

First off every child likes pony rides, aegon doesn't have to know his son really well to know that he might like a pony ride, secondly this scene wasn't about aegon's love for his son it was about aegon trying to humiliate tyland. It was supposed to show how unsuited he was to rule. He brought his too young son to a council meeting where the child proceeded to cause a distraction and then he tried to use that child as a way to humiliate a member of his small council causing the queen mother to step in. This was not some display of fatherly love, he was entertained by his son annoying tyland because he himself is very childish.

What we are shown in this episode when it comes to aegon's fatherhood was that he came to the children's quarters looking for his heir, approached his daughter then proceeded to ignore her when he realised she wasn't his son, didn't know where his son usually spends his time, doesn't know where he attends his lessons, takes him out of his lessons to attend a small council meeting, let's his son disrupt that meeting and laughs at his bad behaviour and also tried to use his son in an attempt to humiliate tyland, before he sends his son away again when he told this is no time for entertainment.

Don't get me wrong, as I said before, the scene between them was cute, but it doesn't tell me that aegon is a good father. I mean, if the standard for determining how good a parent a character is can be judged by having one cute scene with their child, then viserys is a top-notch father, he had several scenes with baby aegon where he was smiling and laughing at him after all, and daemon too has excellent parenting skills after all there was that adorable scene between him and baela where he was teaching her high valyrian and she kissed his cheek.

Point is people are judging whether a character is a good parent or a bad one based off of single scenes. Aegon is a good dad because in one scene he smiled at his son, daemon is a bad dad because in one scene rhaena said that he ignores her, etc. But I'm getting tired with seeing tg posts saying that tb don't want to accept that aegon is a good dad and we just want to villainise aegon, or maybe we just don't think one scene where he's nice to one of his children is enough proof that he is in fact a good dad. They'll say tb need to accept that daemon is a shitty dad and point out that one scene where rhaena, one of his children, said he ignores her and then get mad when tb say that one scene isn't enough to prove he's a bad dad and then give examples of other scenes that show him being a good father. For me it's the hypocrisy, they can take a single scene and base all their arguments for aegon being a good dad on it, but if tb point out that daemon has shown moments of being a good parent they get angry and return back to that one rhaena scene.

At the end of the day, personally I think they are all, aegon, daemon, viserys, corlys and even laenor, both good and bad fathers at times. Because they are all humans who are imperfect, they are going to have moments when they do things right, but they also all have flaws and moments when they fail as parents.

I am sure that aegon has love for his son, I'm sure he's going to be devastated by his death and feel anger and grief, just like daemon feels grief and anger at luke's death, like corlys felt grief and anger over his children's deaths. But the writers need to give me more than a 2 or so minute long scene of aegon in the role of a father if they want me to come to the conclusion that aegon is a good father myself. And that's my opinion on it.

[ladylooch]

"The weakest link is your favorite so... I don't see that happening."

Can we get a little blurb on Nico and Sophie’s relationship? Or a cute Nico and Sophie moment?

On a cold Swiss night, Sophie Hischier sits on the stairs in a light blue dress. Her hair is curled into wavy brown tendrils that flow way down to her mid-back. On her feet are Louboutin’s her mom let her borrow for the occasion. Her makeup is done, heavy and slightly overdone, with a special occasion in mind for the evening. The wood stairs are hard beneath her butt as she sits with her knees together, eyes trained on the front door, with her chin propped in one of her hands.

He’s late for their date. 

Although to be fair to her father, he isn’t expecting this. 

As as surprise for his birthday, he is going on a date with his youngest. Both his older girls are gone. Lucie is in New York and Mack is away for a work trip. The only one home is Sophie, but she had told her dad she would be at her friends for his birthday. Lexi was away with her aunt. Nico was supposed to believe he was alone for the evening. It was all part of the plan for the man who is so good at pulling of surprises. 

Sophie hears the garage door lift, perking up in excitement of the telltale noise. She can hear his shoes hit the wood floor in the kitchen, followed by a weeks worth of mail slapping against the stone counter. A heavy sigh echos through the hallway as her dad shrugs his jacket off. He opens the closet door, stuffing it onto a hanger and hurriedly putting it away. 

When he turns around, he jumps at the sight of Sophie staring at him.

“Soph!” He exhales in relief. “You scared me. I thought you were at Naomi’s?”

“Nope!” She admits, popping the p in the word. “I fibbed! I’m here to take you to dinner!”

“Oh.” Nico chuckles. “You’re going to drive?” He questions with a raised eyebrow. Sophie is not a big fan of getting behind the wheel. She doesn’t take after her older sisters that way.

“Yep. I’ve been practicing with mama all last week. I’m gonna be brave.” 

“Wow.” Nico walks to the stairs, holding his hand out to help her down the remaining steps. “When did you grown up, sweets?”

“A long time ago.” She says stubbornly, trying to look older as she stands up taller on her heels.

“Mmm, yet somehow you still look five to me.” Sophie rolls her eyes.

“Are you gonna wear that?” Her tone and upturned nose suggest he should swap his workout pants for something nicer.

“I guess not. What’s the vibe?”

“Vibe… who says that?” Sophie wonders, giving him an unimpressed look.

“I was so cool back in the day. You and your sisters have no idea.”

“We have seen the brown and white shirt, daddy. There is no way any of us are gonna buy that.” Nico huffs, stepping around her to go upstairs to the master bedroom.

“Well, that shirt got your mom, so…”

“Mama was a nurse! She was too tired to care about fashion then!” She lifts her black high heel as if to point out how things have changed for her mama. 

Sure, Nico mutters to himself as he heads into the bedroom. 

Despite his teasing of his daughter, he is quite excited for tonight. He returns downstairs, dressed appropriately, giddy at the idea of uninterrupted time with his youngest. 

Keeping her promise, Sophie drives the five minutes into town to bring them to the Italian Bistro that is her favorite, but Nico doesn’t have the heart to tell her he doesn’t particularly enjoy the restaurant. The whole way there, she taps and slams the breaks, causing Nico’s seatbelt to jerk him back into place. Nico bites his tongue to prevent from blurting out that he will drive the rest or the way. She is trying. His brave little girl has a look of deep concentration while her knuckles turn white on the black leather. Every time the seatbelt locks into place, Sophie mutters an apology.

“Good job, Soph. I can tell you’ve been practicing.” Nico compliments her when they arrived safely. She grins at him, exposing her blue braces. A whole year left of those means these big smiles from his baby will continue to be rare. He’ll take that as his birthday gift tonight.

Inside the restaurant, Nico wines and dines his little girl, even though it is his birthday. He wants her to experience what it means to be taken care of. It won’t be long before Sophie is dating and he wants to set the bar impossibly high for the teenage boys who think they are worthy of his daughter. It’s only fair they find out early enough that they aren’t.

They share appetizers and get their own entrees, but return to a sharing mindset with dessert. There are two equal bites of tiramisu left, but Nico can’t possibly put another spoonful of anything in his body. He slides the bowl to her, smiling softly as she happily eats it up. She’s been a chatter box all night. Story after story of her return to school from winter break flows from her. Then she shifts to her conversation with mama early and oh yes! She talked to Lucie this morning and Lucie said it was okay if Sophie wanted to come for her off weeks in the spring. 

Nico smiles through it all, soaking up all of Sophie that he can get. 

“Daddy?” Sophie asks, after rummaging around in her little purse when the bill comes. “Um, I lost mama’s card… Can you pay for dinner?” Nico chuckles. Like it wasn’t all the same account anyway?

“Sure, baby. You get next time.”

“Next year for your birthday, I’ll be almost 18!” 

“Ah. Closer to 17 though.” Sophie huffs, rolling her eyes as he swipes the pen across the signature line.

“Why won’t you let me be grown?”

“I will when you are.”

“You were grown at 18. You left home!”

“I technically left home at 16.” Nico reminds her, putting his wallet back in his dress slacks. “But mama and I like you so we wanna keep you longer.”

“I’m not gonna leave you like Lucie and Mack did, daddy.”

“Promise?” He asks her, holding up a pinky to her. She grins, locking their last digits together.

“Promise.”

[sweetbuckybarnes]

Penelope Bridgerton’s 21st birthday

Pairings: Colin + Penelope Bridgerton

Summary: It is time for Penelope’s 21st birthday.

Main Masterlist | Polin Masterlist | Birthdays Masterlist

When Penelope was a young girl, she never properly celebrated her birthday. It was always pushed to the side as yet another day in the calendar. A constant reminder that she should have been born a boy and the heir to the Featherington estate.

Her older sisters (Prudence and Philippa) had always tore her down, giggling how Penelope preferred books, sitting by the window looking out onto Grovesner Square. Penelope didn't have the confidence to counter her sisters' words until she was forced into society a year younger than she had wanted.

She didn't realise what day it was, and the fact her 21st birthday had rolled around.

She woke up to find her husband between her legs (which wasn't an unusual occurrence), he brought her to her peak and shuffled his way up the bed.

"Good morning, my love," Penelope smiled, greeting him with a kiss - not caring, he still had some of her, left on his mouth.

"Good morning, Mrs. Bridgerton," Colin replied, pressing a second kiss to her nose. "Happy birthday."

Penelope knew she could easily blame the blissed-out state he caused for her moment of confusion. "Hmm? What did you say?"

"It's your birthday, Pen," he tells her, looking down at her with his own look of confusion.

"But, my birthday is the-"

"8th day of April. Which is today."

Penelope sits herself up and looks at Colin. "It's my birthday?"

The morning of her birthday (being one-and-twenty) was spent a lot different to how she had spent her previous one. Last year, she was acknowledged (somewhat) by her family, she and Eloise were not on speaking terms and she was ignoring Colin’s letters.

However, this year. She was married, happily. Ever so happily. And she had recently become a mama! To her darling Thomas. Deep down, she did not care what gender her baby was, she did hope for a little girl. A little girl all to herself.

Colin played with one of the loose ends of Penelope's updo, not really giving a damn what his mother-in-law was thinking about him. He was absolutely smitten with his wife. Nothing would ever change that.

He took his eyes off Penelope for just a moment, to glance out of the Featherington drawing room (the sounds of Prudence and Philippa complaining about anything falling on his deaf ears), he could see Anthony making his way across the square from Bridgerton House.

He felt a silent sigh of relief leave him. It wasn't that he didn't like his in-laws, but the way they treated Penelope grated him the wrong way.

"A visitor, Lady Featherington," Mrs. Varley told Portia as Anthony made his way into the yellow/green drawing room.

"Oh, my! Lord Bridgerton!" Portia gasps, sitting herself higher in her seat. Anthony was closely followed by Violet, who smiled (for just a second) at her daughter-in-law, cradling Thomas to her side, and then frowning just a little.

Anthony didn't say anything for a few moments. "I am sorry to interrupt this... lovely moment, but it is time Colin and Penelope came to Bridgerton House to continue the... festivities."

"What festivities?" Prudence asked.

Penelope looked down into her lap, reaching her hand over to lace her fingers with Colin's - acting as an anchor so he doesn't completely explode. "Whatever you are thinking, please, do not say it."

The hand, which wasn't laced with Penelope's, was now clutching the side of the patterned chair. "I believe it is time we were leaving, Pen," Colin tells his wife, as he hears Prudence repeat her words. "The festivities, Prudence? It is your little sister's birthday."

"It is your birthday?" Philippa asked.

“Oh, Phillipa,” Portia sighed, even before Philippa gave birth - she wasn’t the… smartest… of the bunch. Portia stood up and cupped her daughter’s face in her hands. “Do enjoy your birthday with the Bridgerton’s. We will be here when you come back for supper.”

Kate stood in front of the birthday girl, gently tying a party hat made by Violet beneath her chin. Penelope watched Colin chase the now toddling heir to the Bridgerton title - little Edmund II.

"Are you alright, Penelope?" The current Viscountess asked her sister-in-law.

Penelope was silent for a few beats. "How did you know you were expecting Edmund?" This was something they couldn’t discuss as Kate was on a trip to India with Anthony when Penelope realised she was expecting.

Kate looked at Penelope with wide eyes. "I was horrifically ill. You could not keep me away from a porcelain bowl if you tried," Kate chuckled for a moment. "Missing my courses was another sign."

"Were you ever tired?" Penelope asked. "I once had a three-hour nap on some sheets. Colin had to scrub the dried ink marks off my face,” they both giggled. “Before I was expecting Thomas, I loved salmon. But ever since, I haven’t been able to find myself in the same room. Even after the birth, I cannot stand it.”

Colin watched from the swings as Penelope and Violet were talking under the gazebo. He smiled as Violet reached over to play with the Featherington heir’s feet (although at 4 weeks old he is technically the new Lord Featherington).

"Uncle Colin!" Augie gave his uncle a child-like shove to his thighs. "Uncle Colin, you promised to play!"

Colin was somehow able to pull his attention back to his nephew. "Indeed, I did. I did promise you."

Colin crouched in front of his nephew, whilst keeping an eye on his mother, wife and son. There seemed to be a bit of a kerfuffle as something happened. He mentioned for Benedict to take over from what he was doing.

Augie made a noise of protest. "Auntie Pen needs to speak to me. Is it alright if Uncle Benedict plays with you?"

Augie's face twitched and looked at the other Bridgerton son. "I like you more," Augie told Benedict. The second-born son stuck his tongue out childishly as Colin got up from the ground.

"Pen?"

"Can you help me, darling?” She motioned to Thomas, who had sadly been sick all down the front of her new green dress.

Colin turned back around after sending Rae to get Penelope a new and (more importantly) clean dress from across the street, as well as something for Thomas.

“Come on, let’s get you both cleaned up,” he leaned down to kiss her but felt her step back. “Pen?” She has never stepped back from a kiss before.

“Do you honestly want to kiss me whilst I have your son’s breakfast down the front of my dress?”

“And I have never thought you could look more beautiful.”

“With Thomas’s breakfast on my dress?”

“As a mother to our baby boy, and being my beautiful wife.”

[androgynousblackbox]

How To Lose A Lucifer in 10 days. 1 [Appleradio, Radioapple]

Te sequel to How I Met Your Father.

A03 link

Step 1: Invite him to your daughter's birthday

It was by all accounts another normal day in hell. Lucifer sipped his tea as he heard the screams of the tortured souls, ocassionally accompanied by a growly laughter passing through a filter. Pretty normal indeed. He breathed in the smell of the breakfast already made for the other residents enjoying themselves at the table.

"Good morning everyone" greeted Charlie in the middle of a yawn.

Lucifer almost spilled his drink on top of himself on his rush to adress her. He coughed a little and left the mug on the counter, going up to her.

"Charlie!" said, hugging her tight. "Happy birthday, duckling! Aww, I can believe you are getting a year bigger! But you are still my baby girl and don't you forget it" cooed, pinching the cheek of Charlie softly until she giggled, moving her blushing head away.

"Thanks, papa" said, accepting the kiss on her cheek Lucifer. She looked around at the plates and tables, smiling to everyone, but noticing one particular absence. "Where is dad?"

"Oh, taking care of some overlords that were waiting outside" said Lucifer naturally, taking her hand to sit at the head of the table.

"It was kinda awesome" admitted Angel, still a bit sleepy. "Those guys brought canons with them and I saw Smiley just catching the balls in one hand. Hah, get it?" asked to Husk, who rolled his eyes and pushed him without too much force, murmuring it was too early for his bullshit.

"He didn't want you to deal with any reparations today, sweetie" said Lucifer, already serving her a pile of freshly made pancakes with melted chocolate on top. He snapped his fingers to serve her her favorite tea, with her favorite cookies on the side and jams for the toast. "Today we don't want you moving a single muscle. Just relax and let us take care of everything."

"Papa, it's okay."

"No, it has been decided" insisted Lucifer, moving another chair to receive a more sleepy Vaggie. She ploped on her seat, saying a quiet good morning before summerging her face on her own mug. "Today Emily wanted to take you out to the mall, right, sweetie?" asked over his shoulder, seeing a still wearing pajamas Emily come to the table.

Her hair was messy and she was rubbing her eyes, but at seeing Charlie she perked up instantly.

"Charlie!" squaled, running to hug her head. "Happy day of birth! For one more year of conscious existence and that you have many more to come!"

Back in Heaven they didn't celebrate birthdays. There was no need when every day was equally perfect. Despite that, she had been genuinely excited to participate on this particular tradition if it meant making someone else happy. Even if that wasn't already his purpose, spreading joy to those around her was just a natural part of her character.

"Aww, thank you, Emily" Charlie smiled, not bothering to correct her on anything. It was the sentiment that mattered anyway. "So you had plans?"

"Yes, absolutely!" perked up Emily, sitting on another chair and smiling when Lucifer left another plate of pancajes in front of her, adding a kiss on her cheek. "I went pass the mall the other day and they have so many new things we could do! We could have lunch there too if you want. What do you say, Vaggie?"

"Awesome" yawned Vaggie, lifting a thumb up.

"Uhm, are you okay?" asked Angel, arching an eyebrow. "Normally you are ready to yell at us to better leave this table clean."

"Stayed late to wait a delivery. They were very particular about the hour" commented Vaggie with another yawn, smiling up to Charlie. "Your present is already wrapped and ready, honey. But no opening until the party."

"I know that already, Vaggie" said Charlie, barely containing her smile. "Can I get a little clue at least? A tiny hint? At least tell me with which letter starts! No, wait, don't tell me! Unless you want to?"

"Nope" Vaggie chuckled when Charlie pouted. "I think you will like it, that is all I am going to say."

"That doesn't tell me anything. If it comes from you, of course I am going to like it!"

"Well, it's going to be an actual surprise then" Vaggie reached over to pat her hand and then looked around, frowning. "Isn't more quiet now?"

"The trash has been taken out, no need to thank me" announced Alastor, entering the kitchen with the flashiest smile that could fit his face. Anyone who looked at him would have thought he had just come back from the best nap ever. He strode over to Charlie to kiss her temple, rubbing her shoulders. "Happy birthday, my little fawn. You are officially relieved of your duties for today. I trust your father already told you."

"Yeah, I did" said Lucifer, bringing over a plate with cooked meat he had waiting for him. Alastor licked his lips ostensibly as he moved to another empty chair, patting the head of Emily when passing at her side. He sat down with fork and knife in hand, not waiting for anything else before he dig in. His ears twitched sligthly. "You girls go have fun. We can take care of everything."

Charlie sighed, knowing that when both of her parents agreed on anything then there was nothing else to do.

"Fine" accepted reluctantly. "But if someone new comes…"

"I will recieve them properly. My job is still part of that, dear" said Alastor, after swallowing a mouthful. Lucifer left his cup of boiling coffee nearby before sitting at his side. "Thank you, darling."

"You are welcome" Lucifer patted his hand before stretching his arms up. "So, how many were they today?"

Ever since Alastor had appointed himself as a king between overlords, it was almost weekly recieve at least one attack from some naive soul who still thought they could just take the title out of their hands. Sometimes Alastor even left some survivors to go and tell the tale of what happened to those who tried, which naturally encouraged even more people to do the same. Those fights were not usually demanding, but Alastor came back rejuvinated anyway.

"They brought all their contract souls with them" Alastor lightly touched his lips with a napkin before speaking. He sneared slightly. "42 souls in total. A respectable number, but still pretty low for what they intended to do. I bet they thought they could overwhelm me if they all went at once" Alastor chuckled, flashing a toothy smile. "They clearly haven't done their research."

"Almost 50? And it took you…" Lucifer at his phone for the hour, "around 30 minutes? You took your time, babe."

"Guilty as charged" Alastor shrugged with a not at all guilty smile. "What can I say? I felt in need of a small entertainment."

"What demon was it?" Lucifer shook a finger to have an obscene pile of syrup on top of his own pancakes before eating anything.

Alastor saw them completely drenched, but save any comments for himself for the moment.

"I want to say… painting demon? His face was a moving canvas at least. His blood tasted somewhat to acrilic paint."

"Awww, what?" said Niffty, standing up on her chair as she devoured her own pancakes. "He was a bad guy that I wanted to add to my collection!"

"Would this work for you?" sighed Alastor, taking out a bloodied up tie full of paint platter to pass on to her with a tentacle across the table.

Niffty took it and sniffed the fabric close. Seemingly finding a good aroma, she relaxed.

"It smells to death" giggled happily. "Did you choke him on it?"

"Briefly, before he bleed out first" The eyes of Alastor twinkled at saying that, as if he had only done the choking part at all to tell her about it later.

Lucifer had no doubt that was the case. Niffty would be the target of such indulgency.

"Nice!" Niffty sniffed it again and laughed, putting it around her neck. "I am going to try it out later."

"Niftty, no" Husk grunted, rubbing his face.

"Niffty yes."

"I am cutting that shit if you do that."

Niffty pouted and stick out her tongue at her, declaring him no fun. Husk could not care less. Sir Pentious cleared his throat.

"Sir, Alasstor, sir?" asked, swallowing. Despite the months that have passed, he still struggled to make eye contact with him. "By any chance, did those no good doers left any of their weapons behind?"

"They didn't had time to use them and I didn't eat them, so they must be there still" Alastor was in such a good mood he didn't mind answering without any underlying threath or biting comment.

Pentious looked at Cherri, both of them nodding in agreement to go pick it up for scraps later.

"Oh, shit, no, I can't" Cherri sighed, finishing her own coffee quickly. "I had an early shift today. Come on, Angie."

"Nooo" whined Angel, resting his head on the table. Ever since his contract with Valentino was nullified, he had gotten a job attending tables at the same dinner where Cherri was at. It was a lot less stressful, that was for sure, but the payment was shit in comparison and nobody ever wanted to be on costumer service if they could help it. With all of that, he still wanted to have something to do than not to get his money. Not paying for rent didn't mean that everything else was suddenly free. "Can't I just say that is my birthday too? You can't make me work on my birthday. Charlie, you don't mind sharing, don't you?"

"Come on, don't be a baby" Husk laughed, patting his back. "Nothing like attending some tables to wake you up in the morning."

"I hate you" Angel sighed, before kissing his cheek and dragging his feet to follow Cherri. "I am too hot for this shit! I should have a strong older sugar daddy already to handle all my money for me!"

"See you at lunch!" responded Husk, recieving another groan in response down the hallway. He finished his toast and stand up, cleaning up his hand. "Happy birthday, kiddo" said to Charlie, giving her shoulder a squeeze as he passed by.

"Thank you, uncle" Charlie smiled, holding his paw a moment longer before he moved to start with his own job. She sighed. "Alright, since I have no choice, what did you had in mind, Emily?"

Emily coughed a little, in the middle of eating her blueberry pancakes, and only after drinking some juice to wash it all down she explained excitedly her plans. Lucifer heard up until going to the nail salon when he started zoning out, just happy to be there. When the girls finished eating breakfast, Niffty didn't waste any time picking up all the plates except Alastor's to start washing.

Lucifer sipped his tea slowly, munching ocassionally on cookies as he waited for his husband to finish.

Well, technically not husband yet. The ring on their fingers was very much still a engagement one. Between him getting back into his royal duties, much to Satan's dissapointment, and Alastor getting invested on his role as a King of Overlords, they didn't had a lot of time left to start seriously planning the wedding or talk about a date in which to have it. The farthest they had gone until now was deciding they didn't want to make a espectacle over it and it was probably going to be small, but nothing else. Lucifer didn't mind literally just signing their names on a paper to make it official and call it a day, but Alastor was adamant about repeating his words back to him about doing it "properly" this time. Besides, Charlie and Emily would like to he involved on the event as well, so at least they had to have a small party so they could get some part of the fun.

Lucifer still had to appreciate the irony of it all. Getting married without even knowing each other at all, just because of a moment of drunk weakness from his part, to only later developing any kind of feeling and much after deciding to make their own family, to finally end up on square one where most couples did, with yet to make it official in demon law that they were, in fact, married entirely by their own free will. But who was going to change decades of habit to start calling each other by any other title that wasn't the one they started on?

He commented that to Alastor once and he was relieved to hear that it was the same for him, no question about it. Alastor was part of the Morningstar family, the other father to both his daughters and his husband. Fiancee had a nice ring to it, but it just didn't had the same comfortable feeling on his mouth. No small part of it was too the fact that if Alastor wasn't still his legally recognized husband, it had been entirely out of circumstances outside of their control and to have as a result the absolute worst five months that he had spend on all his years of existence. All of that had happened some time ago and the memory still haunt him.

He was getting better at it, at least. Now he only wanted for Alastor to send a signal of life through his mic to the hotel's radio, instead of needing to tag along in animal form to make sure nobody was going to kill him up all of the sudden or do something else to take him away. If he didn't do it after half hour had passed, a little and quick portalling to his location to check on him was usually enough before he was back home like nothing happened. It was almost like how a functional adult should act about their partner having a life, so that was a big progress for him.

Alastor would not admit it either, but he know something similar had happened with him. Whereas before they could spend their own free time on their own, if they were inside the hotel, it was a lot more common than not that they were hanging out in the same space. Not necesarilly talking, but aware of each other and more relaxed as a result.

Whenever he had to get out in order to take care of royal business, in more than one ocassion Lucifer had noticed a trace of Alastor's shadows blending with his own or hiding inside his pocket. Alastor later asked him about his day as if he haven't been listening in the entire time and Lucifer would tell him, never bringing it up either. As if both of them didn't know how sensitive he was to his magic already.

Charlie, on the other hand, had been a lot better than both of them handling the return. The first few weeks she would take any chance she could to hug Alastor and made up more activities to drag Alastor into participating with. All of the stories the radio demon had in his arsenal were told and repeated for the same captivated audience multiple times. She still did did both those things, but now it felt more out of genuine spontaneus affection and want to have her father close than because of a lingering terror that she wouldn't be able to anytime soon. With the presence of Emily and her own grandma to call to if she never needed it, she had mostly come back to the normal rythm of her life before the extermination.

Lucifer couldn't be more relieved about it. The entirety of hell wasn't big enough to deal with all of their issues at once. Alastor could be a stalker all he wanted as long he kept quiet about his own slippings. It wasn't hurting anyone anyway, especially both knowing that the other could defend themselves well on their own. It was like picking a scab of a small wound. He knew they should probably leave it alone and work on that, but what difference did it make another scar to their collection?

Maybe someday they would be able to reach Charlie's mindspace, but that day was not today and proof of that was when Lucifer reheated his own tea while waiting for Alastor to finish the huge chunk of meat on his plate.

"The sins will arrive at 6" commented Lucifer casually. "Your mom said she was going to be here a little earlier. Stolas and his daughter should be around the same time."

"Why?" asked Alastor.

Lucifer shrugged.

"He was the only Goetia who remembered her birthday, it was the least I could do. Since we are not doing a big event and it's just us in the hotel, the rest didn't even bother. Besides, Charlie likes Via. Remember when they used to play together as kids? It was so cute" Lucifer sighed. Now Charlie was the owner of her own establishment and Via had officially entered on her own teenage angst phase, of which Lucifer was not envious at all. Where did all of that time went? "Which reminds me. Niffty, can you get some rats to serve fried?"

"Of course, pretty scary boy! You want them complete or I can chop them off?" asked Niffty, furiously brushing the sponge all over an already clean plate.

"Complete, please, they like it more like that. Thank you, sweetheart" commented, chuckling when he saw Alastor snearing. "You don't have to eat it yourself, you know."

"Why does it have to be fried? That is so disgusting. Raw rats are a perfectly acceptble snack already."

"Stolas and Via like it that way. It's a birthday, everyone should have something they like. You can ask Niffty for some raw ones if you want" As Alastor did just that, Lucifer reclined himself on his chair. "What cake are you bringing?"

"Doberge cake" answered Alastor, proud of his choice. "I will ask you to please don't feel too bad when she asks for seconds."

"Hah! We will see about that, babe" Lucifer smirked. "I will make for my baby girl a Smith Island Cake that I am sure won't have a single crumb left on the plate."

"If I don't remember badly, that is exactly what you said the last birthday and there were still very much leftovers the next day. Unlike my own tray that came out clean."

Lucifer narrowed his eyes, with a similar teasing smile on his own face.

"Last year was last year, babe. Tonight is going to be a different story."

"Can't wait to see you try" Alastor chuckled softly.

When he finished with his food, he barely lifted it off the table before Niffty made it dissapear off his hands. As they stand out, Lucifer rememmbered to unlock his tail from around his waist like he had it the entire time they were sat down. Alastor never seemed to mind, but it was somewhat embarassing when others remarked on that details. More so when most of the time Lucifer wasn't even aware of what his tail had done.

"So" started Lucifer, contemplating the emptied lobby where only some large tables were placed, waiting to be accomodated. "How are we doing this? You take north and I take south?"

"And leave you with my rockola? Over my dead body" Alastor huffed. "You take the north and I pick the south."

Lucifer rolled his eyes. They had already agreed that Alastor could put the music on anyway, so the rockola wasn't a huge loss for him anyway.

"Fine" Shrugged, turning to his side of the place. "Ready?" called, feeling at his back the presence of the shadows as they open up in the floor. All Alastor's minions already coming out with string lights and other party decorations.

"Ready as you are, my love."

Lucifer nodded and in a snap of fingers, they started working to decorate the place to their liking. Ever since the first birthday of Charlie, they realized that they had fundamentally too different visions of what a party for their daughter should look like. Their constant disagreement had all the servants of the palace running from a place to another trying to set up things according to conflicting orders.

By the time they elevated their voices, Charlie brust out crying from her play pen, the guests were about to arrive and the only thing they had to show for was a complete mess that made neither of them happy. They somehow survived the event, but it taught them quickly that if they wanted it to work in the future the best idea was to divide already what areas was the other allowed to intervene with. Whatever decision it was made, the other one couldn't change it and they would have to live with it. For Charlie, that meant having two different cakes to enjoy with her friends and family and two parties combined into one. For them, it meant keeping score of what section of the party Charlie gravitated towards to and therefore gain the right to be smug about it for as long they lived.

During Charlie's tenth birthday, Lucifer's cake of choice had barely been touched at all and he was still recovering from that humilliating defeat. Likewise, he was never going to let go of the time that nobody danced to the selection of music Alastor had prepared for her seventh one. It was a crueling battle that they would take with all the seriousness it deserved.

"Papa!" called Charlie.

"One second, duckling!" Lucifer finished hanging the star shapped lights from the chandelier on his side before descending back to the ground. "Oh, you are all ready to go?" asked, noticing that she, Emily and Vaggie were already on their casual clothing.

"Yes, we are probably eating outside too" commented Charlie going up to him and Lucifer immediately opened up his arms, receiving her hug. He squeezed her tight, because it was her birthday and also just because she was Charlie. Charlie rubbed his back a lot, giggling. When she let go, she hold his sleeve for a moment longer. "If anyone comes to register, do call me."

"We are not doing such thing" said Alastor, coming over. "Enjoy your day, little fawn. Any new soul that comes in, can help with the decorations if they want redemption." Charlie frowned at that, but calmed down a little when Alastor pet her head. "You earn yourself a moment to relax, dear. I don't want you seeing doing nothing else under this roof, understood?"

"As he said!" supported Lucifer. "Emily, you are in charge of keeping your sister distracted."

Emily squealed, like everytime she did when someone call them sisters.

"Right on!" She threw an arm around Charlie's shoulder, squeezing their cheeks together. "We are going to have the bestest fun! I am sure that any sinner that comes around will be treated nicely enough without us being here, right?"

"Sure" said Alastor with a slight shrug, earning a a pout from Lucifer.

"Don't pay him any mind, sweetie" insisted, practically dragging the three girls up to the door, opening up for them. "We still have a lot to work on and you don't want to spoil all the surprises right away, don't you? We will handle everything here so don't worry. Just go and get yourself the cutest everything you can find."

Charlie sighed, taking the hand of Vaggie with her. Emily was already on the way to the limo, chatting with the driver a little. On the small time that she had become a Morningstar, she had managed to win already the hearts of all the imps at their service. She remembered all of their names and the details of their lives, as she was used to do in Heaven when talking to all winners.

"Fine, fine" Charlie groaned, but took the hand of Vaggie on her and turned around to wave at Alastor. "Love you, guys! See you later!"

"Love you too, duckling!" Lucifer waved at them back until they were inside the vehicle. Once they were gone, he closed the entrance to the hotel and grinned in direction to his husband. "She liked my decorations more."

"I didn't hear a word about it" Alastor turned quickly on his heels. "Are you sure you didn't drink fifthy gallons of whiskey while I wasn't watching?"

"Denial is an ugly look on you, babe! It's okay to throw the towell now if you want."

"You wish, my love" Alastor flashed him a smile, elevating himself on the air with his tentacles to reach his own higher decorations. They were mostly dark blues and green, like the bayou on their room at night was echanted to look as, while Lucifer side was going more for an orange and yellow upbeat vibe. Lucifer still could not understand how his husband was so comfortable reaching those highs with his tentacles, but absolutely hated flying with his own or anyone's wings. "This doesn't end until the actual party, darling. Then we will see who had the better taste."

"You mean when everyone prefers my side" Lucifer pulled out his wings again as he laughed, reaching the furthest walls. Their voices carried out easily on the accoustic of the place. "Sorry that you are wasting your time so much, babe."

"You would think trying to add some class would be a waste of time."

"Did you say something? I can't hear you over the fun I am having here. The gloom of your side is drowning out your words, honey."

"It's okay, I am sure Charlie will hear them loud and clear anyway when she is dancing with her old man instead of the oldest one."

"Oh, ho ho, at least I know music from after the fucking 40s."

Husk rolled his eyes, begging to the Heaven that had no reason to listen to him for a little bit of patience as he had to listen to this nonsense. On such ocassions Alastor used to summon Husk to help at his side or entertain Charlie while they worked. In every single one, he had seen this same song and dance be repeated.

He had no idea if this was their version of flirting or they were really that petty, or maybe a combination of the two, but he was more than happy to just stay out of their business and keep at his bar to finish a crossword on today's newspaper. If things started to escalate, only then he would intervene, for Charlie's sake at least, but for now they could keep going with their bullshit matches.

--

Things did not escalate. The lobby was big enough that, besides shouting taunts to each other, the pair really didn't had any reason to pay attention to what the other was doing unless they wanted to. When it was all said and done, they both presented quite an impressive job that Charlie praised when coming back. There was no consensus as to which side she looked the most at before she had to change her clothing. Her nails done with a rainbow across her fingers and her hair just trimmed at the tips, she was absolutely radiant when it came to greeting the very first guest.

"Hello, hello, sweetie pie!" greeted Rosie, hugging her with one arm as she hold a wrapped box with the other. "Happy birthday, oh, darling!" She kissed her cheek, leaving a mark of her black lipstick before she looked around. It was her first time experience with a Morningstar party was like. "Oh, my, someone got really busy prettying up the place!"

After her, the Sins started arriving. Asmodeus came carrying his partner on his arm, cooeing about how much Charlie was growing. He had brought a present for Emily too so she wouldn't get jelous of all the attention Charlie was getting, and didn't want to hear a thing when Emily insisted that wasn't necessary, really.

Bee came flying through the door and flying took Charlie with her, hugging her in the air as she laughed. When she saw the two cakes waiting, she whistled that Charlie was so lucky. Most parties only had one!

The mirror pocket started shaking from Alastor's pocket and he gave it to Charlie so she could greet her grandma properly, showing her off how lovely the place turned out to be. Between Evelyn and Charlie, there was never a moment of silence between the two.

Next was a goat demon with eight eyes, the biggest ones looking perpetually about to fall asleep. Her big hooves almost dragged through the entrance.

"Auntie Bel!" greeted Charlie, coming to give her another hug. The demon smiled with her fangs out, patting her with one of her flappy arms that looked as if she was melting. "Glad that you could make it."

"Lucifer called so I came" explained the demon easily, patting her head, despite having to reach for it. After Lucifer, she was the smallest ruler of hell. "Is your party fun, sweetie? I brought some pills that can help you relax more if not. Birthdays can be so stressful. Just don't tell Bee about it or she will pestering me to get some too."

"Oh, that is nice" said Charlie, her smile stretching tense until her papa came to the rescue.

"Please, don't offer drugs to my baby on her birthday" begged Lucifer, bringing her along. "Bel, we talked about this."

"What?" Bel frowned, only for a brief second, before her face defaulted to her usual tired expression. "I thought she was older now? That is how adults have fun too, Luci."

"Still no" Lucifer chuckled. "You remember Al, don't you?"

"Who" Bel looked around before her two inferior eyes landed on the radio demon in front of her and only then the rest followed. She blinked slowly, each eyelid moving at a different pace. Her memory issues were even worse than Lucifer's, so Alastor was only mildly annoyed by it. It was already surprising enough she remembered that Charlie was in fact an adult she could offer drugs to. "Oh, right, yes, the red one. How are you, dear?"

She flashed another smile, offering one of her hands and Alastor gave his cane for her to shake. She didn't seemed to mind, or didn't noticed at all, as she nodded. After a while of still shaking the cane, she frowned again.

"Wait… weren't you dead before? Are you a ghost?" She tilted her head, as if inspecting if he was see through. "I swear I went to a funeral with your face on it."

Lucifer flinched slightly, turning his gaze to a side and clearing his throat.

"I was dead" said Alastor, not missing that. "And then I came back, you Majesty."

"You did?" The eyes of Bel blinked slowly again. "Oh, that is nice. Good for you." That is when Bel looked at the two sets of decorations and the two cakes. "Oh, you are still doing the thing? Don't you ever get tired of it, Luci?"

"Why would I? It's fun to have more options" Lucifer winked an eye to Alastor.

"It would be nice to be on the same page too instead of making two books, that is all" Bel looked over at the door and continue speaking on the same monotone voice. "Satan is here."

Lucifer turned around, waiting for when he heard the knocking and he laughed, patting the back of Bel.

"High as a kyte, but your senses are still sharp, aren't they?" commented, going to open up as Bel turned her head back to Alastor.

"Did being dead made you different?" asked, rolling her head to the other side. "You feel different than other sinners. Your aura is all, um… weird, dear. Calm but weird."

"Yes, it did in fact" Alastor knew that was a safe response to give to this particular sin and wasn't wrong when she just accepted it without further question, nodding her head.

"Death can be funny like that" said as it was a known fact. "At least you still glow around Luci. As long you don't miss that, it's fine. Luci wasn't glowing when last saw him. I tried to offer him something to forget, but he didn't take it."

Before Alastor come out with a retort, the sin of Sloth made her way to the table of snack as if she had already completely forgotten their conversation. Alastor shook his head and went to join Rosie, talking to Bee about her new supply of eel demon meat.

"It's a little bit more chewey that expected, but a little bit the struggle can make a meal taste all the better, don't you think, your Majesty?"

"Oh, so you are like for real eating each other now? That is so metal, girl. Respect" laughed Bee, smiling when seeing him close. "Al, how are you? Sorry I didn't greet you before, honey pie. Everything good?"

"Can't complaint. But if anything I should be asking that, your Majesty" said Alastor, falling into his host role. "Can I bring you anything?"

"Not at all, Alastor" said Rosie, lifting a half full glass that he was sure didn't not come from the hotel. The dark wine swinged from side to side with the movement. "Bee here has been a sweetheart and provided for a lady in need. As expected of a fair and wise ruler."

"Yeah, bitch!I know a whine girly when I see her" Bee made another cup appear, this one more full, offering it to him. "Have a sip too, man, it's okay!"

Alastor reasoned that it would be more rude to deny the Queen of Gluttony than not, so he took the glass cup and clinked it with Rosie as Bee looked around, praising how stinking cute both sizes were this year. At some point Charlie left the mirror with Evelyn on the same table as Rosie and both women started talking, delighted to exchange the gossip with each other as Evelyn drank whine too on her side.

It wasn't a big gathering, but the conversation was vivid. When the swing music started playing, Asmodeus let out the biggest laugh and said he totally remembered that. He converted to a smaller size to dance with Bee as Alastor beemed at Lucifer when others, including Charlie bringing Vaggie over, joined in. The king rolled his eyes as a response.

By the time it came to blowing the candles on top of the two cakes, Lucifer had taken enough pictures of the party to fill an entire album.

"Wait, wait" said Lucifer, putting his phone on Satan's hand. "Take one of us now! To the count of three! Emily, come here!" called, positioning himself at one side of Charlie as Alastor stood in the other, on arm on the shoulder of Emily and another on Charlie's. Charlie likewise called Vaggie over, so Lucifer could wrap with his arm on his side. "Evelyn, want to join in?" asked to the image of the woman in the mirror.

"If you will have me!" She let out a little squeal when one of Alastor's tentacles brought her over. He hold it firmly with that tentacle just besides Emily, the mirror expanding to show more of her figure until she did looked as if standing right there with them.

The other guests started counting until Satan presssed the screen and Charlie blowed the fire out of both cakes, surrounded by their appluse. As he picked up his phone again to see the result, Lucifer turned around and kissed Alastor's cheek.

"Aww, you didn't glitched out!" laughed, showing the picture to Alastor, his own image perfectly clear. "I am totally framing this one. The first party with all of us together!"

Alastor smiled, ruffling his hair as he conjured up a big knife to put on Charlie's hand.

"Cake, cake, cake!" started chanting Bee. "Which one are you going first with, cheesecake?"

"Uh…" Charlie looked suddenly stunted, her eyes moving from one to another. She knew very well the weight this choice implied. "I… I think this one?" said, pointing to the one covered in white frosting as Lucifer made a dramatic gesture of holding his chest, as if mortally wounded. "Or this other one?" Now Alastor made a gesture of turning his gaze away, like hiding his tears from view while making a gesture that it was okay, she could continue to kill him inside anyway. Charlie huffed. "Okay, no, you both turn around and wait your slices then!"

When everyone got served on their respective plates, Lucifer saw with satisfaction that his cake was the most diminished from the bunch and ate every bite without losing his smile as Alastor made a valiant effort for ignore it completely. As the moment of the presents came in, they moved to the larger couch for Charlie to open up her presents. She thanked all of them, even the box full of pills that Bel gave her a thumb up for. Only by the end looking up with the most hope up as Vaggie approached with her hand on her back.

"It took a little bit of digging and some negotiating but… here" prefaced giving her a small box, tied up with a nice red bow. "Happy birthday, honey."

"Oooh!" said Charlie, as if she was already impressed. When she opened it up, she smiled big, pulling up a necklace with a black stone hanging from the center. "Aww, honey, thank you, I love it!"

"It's not just an accesory" explained Vaggie, opening up the clasp to put around her neck. "It's supposed to grant one wish. Anything you want will come true for you if you hold it between your hands."

"Oh, a original damned stone!" said suddenly Stolas from the group watching. When the eyes suddenly turned to him, he blushed with a weak laugh. "Sorry, dear, you were talking."

"Thank you, sir" Vaggie turned to Charlie, holding her hands. "But yes, what he said. These are supposed to give whoever ask for it any desire. They are very rare so it was hard to find. If anyone deserves to have that in all of hell, I know that is you, hon. It only works once so you really have to think it well."

Charlie squealed even louder than before and squeezed her tight. She looked around the room and smiled at Alastor, as Lucifer was taking even more pictures and Emily was smiling at her from the armsrest where she was sitting. What else could she ever want?

--

When they finally returned to their room, Lucifer chuckled as Alastor let himself fall to their bed.

"Not a word" groaned the radio demon, snapping his fingers to change to his pajamas and get into bed, stubborngly giving him his back.

"Aww, what is wrong, baby? Feeling sour because not even Bee wanted second of your own cake and mine was finished to the last piece? There is no shame in losing to the best, Al" reminded him, changing to his sleepwear too.

Alastor grunted.

"Your cake was too filling. There was hardly any space for air after they were done with it."

"Cake is supposed to be filling" Lucifer laughed, slipping under the covers and behind his back. He hugged the deer by the waist and kissed his shoulder. Alastor deflated at his contact and even though he couldn't see it, Lucifer knew he was pouting against the pillow. "Loser."

"Shut up."

Lucifer kissed his neck, nibbling softly the skin there until he heard a soft exhale. He hummed comfortably as he came closer until his chest was brushing against Alastor's back, entangling his legs with the larger ones. He could feel the breathing of his husband, the soft expansion of his ribs expanding relaxed and then falling down. The fluffy ears twitched on top. Lucifer bite his lip and whispered one word:

"Loser."

Lucifer was still smilling when one of the tentacles smacked a pillow against his head.

"Go to sleep, you idiot" Alastor snarled.

Lucifer chuckled softly and nuzzled between his shoulder blades. Eventually Alastor relaxed again, letting him have this for now.

[formyloveoflove]

I Ain't Never (The Bear One-Shot)

Picture this: the tension is bubbling over. The Inevitable Syd-Carmy blow-up has finally occurred, and there was nothing anybody could do to stop it. Everything is all out in the open. Everything. Carmy's worst nightmare comes true: he fucks up and Syd walks out again. And this song starts to play

You're a no good heartbreaker You're a liar and you're a cheat And I don't know why I let you do these things to me

She struggles to put on her green puffer. Between the biting wind and her uncooperating farmer's market tote, she was too distracted to walk straight. "Fuck!" she shouted. "Fuck" but she couldn't decide if she was saying: Fuck this! or Fuck him! or Fuck me! She shivered under the dropping temperatures; her anger engulfing her in more warmth than her jacket could ever allow.

She doesn't allow the first tear to fall. But she wasn't fast enough to catch the second.

My friends keep telling me That you ain't no good But oh, they don't know That I'd leave you if I could

Fuck! She should've listened to her dad. She should've listened to her guts. After the first time. But when she walked back in, he stared at her with the clearest eyes. She didn't have to question him. He wouldn't let her.

His focus was solely on her.

"Table-style?"

She should've looked away. Laughed her way out the door with as little tomato sauce on her last check. Saved herself from the heartache. But she couldn't break his gaze. She told herself that she couldn't say no to this opportunity. Under the gleam of the streetlights, swaying with the train's rattle, she gave herself permission to admit that she just couldn't say no to him. She wanted to do this, yes. But she wanted to do this with Carmen more.

But she did it. While he played make-believe, tore down walls, ignored her calls, her texts, drew pretty ass drawings, made a thoughtful chaos menu with his girlfriend, got a girlfriend, made her dinner, made time for her, made a life with her, left Syd with a rotted out piece of shit and a stain that never wanted to leave the floor, she did it. She picked the plates. She finished the book. She trusted him.

"I wouldn't even want to do this without you," his voice was so tender.

She believed him. She believed in him. Now she was stuck out in the cold.

The way you treat me is a shame How could ya hurt me so bad Baby, you know that I'm the best thing That you ever had

"Sydney, baby, what happened?" Emmanuel rose from his seat on the couch. Quickly gathering his trembling daughter in his hands, he rubbed her arms and wondered not why she was here and not in her new "I'm a big girl now, Dad. I can do this" apartment. "Syddie, you're crying, baby."

She nestled deeper into his neck. Her frost-rigid fingers gradually tighten around his shirt. "I'm sorry, Dad. I-" she sniffled, accidentally covering him in snot, and like the annoyingly benevolent father he was, he didn't care. "I just, um, had a rough day at work. Really knocked me off my feet."

"Ok," he kissed the top of her head. "do you want to tell me about it?" a quick shake of her head buried the snot deeper into the fabric. "Ok. Do you want to stay the night? Bath, cocoa and chin chin? One episode of Monk?" Syd lifted her hand, weakly waving up her pointer and middle finger. A soft chuckle erupted from his chest. Another kiss, and a gentle scream. "Two episodes. Then bed. You got work in the morning, right, Chef?"

"Yeah," she looked up at him, and he looked down at her, holding back from probing further. Trusting in him. Believing in her.

The wind never died down. They had less chin chin than they thought, but their choice of episodes made up for it. Her left-behind jammies felt heavenly on her shower-warmed skin. There's a remorseful Italian boy in her text messages, but he can wait for the morning.

Because she's coming back. She always does

Don'cha never, never say that we we're through 'Cause I ain't never Never, never, no, no (loved a man) (The way that I, I love you)

[poly-space-nerds]

Me and my brother were talking and had a theory about Alastor after ep 5. Right so he’s chained to somebody right? And it happens that his disappearance coincides with Lilith’s right? (i think? correct me if I’m wrong)

SO, what if Lilith has his soul? And the reason he’s so interested in the hotel isn’t because he’s bored, but because she’s making him keep an eye on her daughter and her project.

I don’t quite know her intentions, but I don’t think she’s gonna be a villain or anything. I think she just cares for her daughter and doesn’t want anything to happen to her. Like that scene where she took Charlie away from Lucifer? I believe that she didn’t want Lucifer to show her the things that Charlie would never be able to see and have. She doesn’t want her daughters heart to break like Lucifer’s did.

In the pilot, we saw how Charlie had left multiple voicemails to Lilith asking for advice and help in the past, and then who shows up to help? the All powerful radio demon for nothing more than ‘boredom‘. Even agrees to ‘an order from the Princess’ rather than a deal. which weird right? And who else would have Alastor on a leash than the Queen of Hell.

idk it’s a thing i’m now going to obsess over now

[swordmaid]

shri’iia mood board

[yore-donatsu]

An ordinary day for an ordinary little girl

(Theo the monkey boy is the @doodlesdreaming's OC)

[commsroom]

one of the things that makes wolf 359's characterization work so well and feel so genuine is how much it's about perspective. maxwell is a manipulative backstabber in hera's story, a "gift of a friend" in jacobi's, and - from their subjective perspectives - both of them are right about her. i love eiffel, and i'm completely on his side, but... if you were kate garcia and your ex you had a toxic relationship with, a man you had to tolerate in your life because you had a child with him, who - after you were awarded full custody - attempted to kidnap your daughter, and got in an accident that left her disabled... if you thought that man was serving 26 years in prison for what he did, and then you thought he was dead, and then he showed up alive - walking free - and wanted to make amends...? would you want to hear him out? eiffel has suffered so much, and he became a better person in a way carceral punishment would never have done, but from kate's perspective, it must seem like he has never had to face consequences for anything. and that's... complicated, but it's real.