#but time got away from me

[larkbunny]

[lorekeepersstory]

Lorekeepers Act One: The Sound of Static

CHAPTER FOUR: Jailbirds

It was not a very long night, and this was primarily because he could not remember whatever happened next.

Lore woke up on a flat, uncomfortable cot, starting straight up at a ceiling he didn’t recognize. Being in an unfamiliar environment sufficiently threw him off his rhythm, but in his fuzzy just-woke-up haze, he couldn’t find the energy to freak out, and so he instead decided to look at his surroundings.

There wasn’t much to look at. It was an empty room made of concrete, with a steel door on the wall across from his cot. The room was entirely barren, save for an odd word emblazoned in bold black lettering on the left wall.

LOGOS.

Turning his attention away from the walls, he noticed that there was another cot to his right. Sitting idly on it, kicking her legs over the side was, to Lore’s relief, Summer.

“‘Suuuuuuup,” she said, exhausted.

Lore swung his legs over the edge of the cot and got to his feet. He looked around again for reasons he could not pin down, as he knew he wouldn’t find anything new in this barren room. In his borderline delirious state, he walked over to the door and tried the handle.

Locked. As he expected.

Why was he doing any of this?

“Yeah, we’re stuck in here,” Summer noted matter-of-factly. “I’m honestly surprised I didn’t wake you up when I…” She gestured toward the door, and it was only now that Lore noticed a few hardly noticeable dents, small blemishes on the otherwise perfect metal finish.

“Are your hands okay?” Lore asked.

“‘M fine,” Summer grumbled, shaking her hands as though to force the pain to fly away. She turned over and laid down in her bed, making herself look terribly small.

It was at this moment that Lore realized that Summer had tried all she could, which, admittedly, was not much. He looked desperately toward the door, then to the ceiling, then to the floor, his eyes scanning every corner of the cramped room to search for something, anything to get them out of this. Predictably, he found nothing.

This is a prison, moron, he told himself. There’s no way out.

There’s nothing you can do.

Lore focused on his breathing, trying to quell the anxiety rising in his chest, but every breath he took felt too shallow, as though a boulder was crushing the air out of his lungs, and as soon as that thought entered his brain, he began to feel dizzy. He clenched his fists, tapped his foot in an attempt to take his mind off his fear, but his eyes inadvertently looked at the bold lettering painted on the wall, and in his shock, Lore fell backward onto the ground.

The static in his ears returned, this time louder than he had ever heard it. What was LOGOS? He thought. Did they have something to do with that monster? Were they the faceless men that imprisoned us? Why are we here, anyway? The questions only compounded in his mind the more that he thought them, until it eventually felt as though his skull were about to burst. There was no answering these questions. It was useless. He was useless.

Useless.

USELESS.

USELESS!

All of a sudden, he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, and instinctively, he jerked away, ready to lash out at the source, until he met Summer’s striking blue gaze. She was kneeling at his side, a look of all-too-familiar concern etched into her features. The static crackled, and Summer winced.

So, she could hear it, too.

All thoughts of the monster returning disappeared from his mind when Summer placed a hand on her chest and smiled at him before closing her eyes. Lore, in turn, closed his, and again focused on his breathing, and the feeling of Summer’s hand in his.

In… Two… Three… Four…

Out… Two… Three… Four…

Again.

In… Two… Three… Four…

Out… Two… Three… Four.

When Lore opened his eyes once more the sound of static had disappeared. It was just them, Lore and Summer, alone in their cell.

“Thanks,” Lore whispered, not having enough energy for more than that.

“No problem,” Summer grinned. “Do you wanna talk about what the issue was?”

Lore looked at Summer for a very long time, unimpressed.

“Yeah, stupid question, I know,” she laughed. Summer yawned, and slowly rose to her feet. “Just figured I’d ask.”

The two were left in a strange, pregnant silence. As usual, Summer was the one to break it with a pertinent question.

“So…” her voice trailed off. “What do we do now?”

“What can we do?” Lore responded. “We’re kinda stuck here for the foreseeable future.”

Another silence, this one even more uncomfortable than the last. Lore wondered how Summer must be feeling in this situation. He, at the very least, was intimately familiar with the feeling of entrapment.

Another silence, this one even more uncomfortable than the last. Lore wondered how Summer must be feeling in this situation. He, at the very least, was intimately familiar with the feeling of entrapment.

“What even is here?” Lore asked.

“You think I know?” Summer replied, her voice weary. “I mean, I’m guessing this dumb word has something to do with it. Any ideas?”

Their eyes glanced toward the word, LOGOS, painted on the wall.

“Well,” Lore pondered, “logos is an appeal to reason, logic. Remember, from English class?”

Summer blinked.

“You didn’t pay attention to anything she was saying, did you?” Lore deadpanned.

“I’m not going to answer that.” Summer’s eyes scan the room one more time. “What do you think it means? Like, we know the definition, but why is it on the wall?”

“I wish I knew,” he sighed. “Anything to do with that monster?”

Summer groaned. “I was hoping that I imagined that part.”

Lore slowly stood up. “That thing, whatever it was… it brought that static sound with it, right? You think that’s connected to the static sound that I’ve been hearing?”

“I always just assumed that was a metaphor,” Summer supposed. “For, like, anxiety, or depression, or whatever.”

“I mean,” Lore stammered. “It’s not not that. But maybe… maybe it’s something more. That monster, and those guys with no faces. Maybe it’s all connected.”

Summer raised an eyebrow. “Are you actually on the verge of figuring this out, or are you just saying things?”

Lore looked to the ground and sighed. “So, what do you suggest we do?” he asked, trying to bite back his frustration.

Summer got to her feet. “I guess we go to sleep. We can figure this out once we have more info,” she chirped, trying and failing to appear as chipper as she usually was. “Night.” And before Lore could say anything else, Summer had flopped over onto her cot, her back turned to him in a gesture that gave a clear message.

This discussion is over. We’ll figure this out later.

So that was that.

As Lore got to his feet and trudged over to his own flat and uncomfortable bed, he lamented being again alone with his thoughts. In his musing and hopes that this would not lead to yet another panic attack, his thoughts turned to the piercing radio static that accompanied these spikes in emotion. Summer had heard them this time, too, and the monster had not reappeared as he had initially dreaded. Which could only mean…

Lore laid down on his cot, and in the moments before drifting off to sleep, for no particular reason at all, he looked down at his hands. He very well could have imagined it, and if he were in any other situation he would assume that he had, but after the night he and Summer had just had, his eyes were fixated on the small, almost unnoticeable blue spark that had erupted from the tip of his pointer finger.

There was but one thought that went through his mind, before he fully succumbed to his exhaustion.

The sound of static. It’s coming from me.

He would not remember this thought when he woke.

[blackbearmagic]

so ya boi has been super depressed, like clinically, for way longer than usual and it led to me heading down to the local psych urgent care for an evaluation today

During the eval, which was over zoom, the person assessing me asked me if I keep any "gods or ancestral gods" in the house.

I'm thinking "weird question for a psych eval, but okay sure", and I get about two sentences into describing my weird pagan ways before she leans into her screen and says "GUNS. Do you keep any G U N S or have ACCESS TO GUNS in the house."

so that's probably the funniest thing that's happened to me recently

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Don't Wormy About Me.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[mugwot]

someone

[dreamofbecoming]

listen i know we all love steve “completely ignorant of queer culture to the point that bisexuality is a surprise” harrington being roasted and educated in turns by robin and eddie, yadda yadda, good stuff. i read “they made a horror version of rocky?” in a fic recently and cackled. also a big fan of “he knew he was bi from the start and just never talked about it” as a trope, love it excellent well done

but what about steve who realizes after starcourt that the most important person in his life now has this thing that’s a major part of her life that he knows nothing about, and what if he fucks it up? what if he says something ignorant or rude by accident, and hurts her? what if he loses her because he didn’t know the right thing to say? what if he can’t keep her safe because he doesn’t know what to look out for? absolutely fucking not, this steve says

and listen she’d never say anything, because she can tell that he can tell how much she likes teasing him and teaching him things, so he plays dumb, and she thinks it’s very sweet. but she notices when the zines she keeps under her bed that she buys at that one secret bookshop in indy when she can sneak away on family trips start going missing, always one at a time, and replaced in a few days with another disappearing. and she finds the new ones he must have gone to buy the weekend she was at her aunt’s house hidden in the back of his closet when she goes to steal one of his sweaters. and she notices when he slips more of her queerer movie recommendations into his personal take home pile rather than the movie night stack when he thinks she’s not looking.

she doesn’t notice when he drives to indianapolis after she tries to explain to him why she can’t just ask out a cute girl, tries to impress on him the fear attached to every moment of attraction that he simply has never had to feel, but later she finds a crumpled receipt from a diner in one of his jacket pockets when she’s looking for his keys, and the address is across the street from the bar the gorgeous woman at the bookstore told her about, the one she memorized the address of but hasn’t worked up the guts to think about visiting, and she knows he must have gone looking for a place like that, must have been trying to understand, must have been scoping it out to make sure it was somewhere she could feel safe, after she told him she never had.

so when eddie nearly pops a blood vessel when they clock each other and she mentions that steve is the only person she’s ever come out to before, her hackles come up. because she gets it, she does, he’s only known king steve until recently, so it makes sense that he would be afraid, be concerned for her safety.

but steve is her person, and no one- no one- has ever made her feel as protected or as cared for as he does. no one has ever tried as hard to understand her, no one has ever put so much work into making her feel safe and seen and loved. and she thinks maybe even if no one else ever does, that’s ok. because she has steve, and more importantly steve has her, and that means no one gets to question his ally credentials in her presence without a dressing down to remember, no matter how well they mean or how recently they helped save the world.

(and maybe she’s not as surprised as she could be when he figures out bisexuality all on his own, because she’s been reading all the same pamphlets he has, after all. and she’s seen the way he looks at eddie, i mean come on. maybe no one else has noticed, but then, nobody knows steve harrington like she does.)

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Does

Does Barnaby

Does Barnaby tell the others to get off his lawn when he's angry

psh, who do you think he is, an old man? he'd Bark, like any lively young dog

[bonefall]

⭕️Hey Bones! Is it ok if you explain and/or elaborate how Crowfeather is abusive to Breezepelt if please?⭕️

I do KNOW that crowfeather is indeed, abusive to Breezepelt, due to the fact that he emotionally and/or physically neglected him - with child neglect being known to BE a form of child abuse - and I also heard that he slashed and/or hit him within one of the books, which I believe is in the book Outcast, in chapter 16.

But I also wish people would talk and be informed about it more within the fandom, because in the parts of the fandom I’ve known portrayed Crowfeather’s neglect on Breezepelt as negative and bad, but not in a way that made me think and/or feel: “Wow, that’s pretty bad. That’s…actually abusive.” I suppose? So I hope more people will talk about it more in that type of way.

Also, please be aware that I have NOT read PoT, OoTS, etc. or barely any warrior cats books, since the majority of the information I got from the series is from the wiki and the fandom, so that probably explains why I didn’t know this part of Crowfeather’s character is as bad as it actually is until now. Also, feel free to talk about Crowfeather’s abuse on Breezepelt I haven’t mentioned and/or don’t know right now as well if you want.

I’m SO sorry that if this ask is unintentionally quite long, and feel free to make sure to take all the time you need to answer it. Thank you!

OH LET'S GOOOO

Breezepelt is both physically and emotionally abused by Crowfeather. I'm not talking about only child neglect; he is screamed at, belittled, and even once hit on-screen.

The fact that Crowfeather both neglected and abused him is very important to the canonical story of Breezepaw. There's actually a lot more to this character than people remember! Even from his first appearances he displays good qualities, a strained relationship with his father and adult clanmates, and is clearly shown to be troubled before we understand why.

As many problems as I have with the direction of Breezepelt's arc (especially Crowfeather's Trial), his setup is legitimately a praiseworthy bit of writing from Po3 which carries over into OotS. To say that Breezepelt was not abused is to completely miss two arcs worth of books SCREAMING it.

BIG POST. Glossary;

INTRO TO BREEZEPELT: The Sight and Dark River

ABUSE: Outcast, Social Alienation, the Tribe Journey.

DARK FOREST: How these factors push him towards radicalization.

For "brevity," I'm not getting into anything post-OotS. I'm just showing that Breezepelt was abused, the narrative wants you to know that he was abused, and that his status as a victim of child abuse is CENTRAL to understanding why he is training in the Dark Forest.

INTRO TO BREEZEPELT: The Sight and Dark River

Our very first introduction to Breeze is when Jaypaw walks off a cliff in the first book of Po3 and is rescued by a WindClan patrol. He's making snarky remarks, and Whitetail and Crowfeather are not happy about it. Whitetail snaps for Crow to teach his son some manners, and Crow growls for Breezepaw to be quiet.

But our proper introduction to him is at his announcement gathering, when Heatherpaw playfully introduces him as a friend,

From the offset something's not entirely right here between Breezepaw and his father. He's cut off by Heatherpaw here, but he's touchy whenever his father is involved, and we're not entirely sure why.

Throughout Book 1, he's just rude, with a notable xenophobic streak. He's a bit of a mean rival character for Lionpaw, as they're both interested in the affections of Heatherpaw and make bids to get her attention, but nothing particularly violent yet.

He participates in the beloved Kitty Olympics and gets buried in liquid dirt with Lionpaw, basically a rite of passage for any arc.

(And Nightcloud has a cute moment where she watches over them until they fall asleep)

As the books progress, the relationship between Crow and Breeze visibly deteriorates. They start from being simply tense with each other in The Sight, to the open shouting and hitting we see in Outcast.

In the very first chapter of Dark River, we learn where his behavioral issues are really coming from;

Crowfeather.

Breezepelt is getting xenophobia from his father. Occasionally he says something bigoted and his dad will agree and chime in, and those are the only positive moments they have together.

(Note: In contrast, Nightcloud explicitly pushes back against xenophobia, chiding Breezepelt for his rudeness to Lionpaw in back in The Sight, Chapter 21. The Sight is the book where a lot of "evidence" that the Evil Overbearing Woman is actually responsible for the rift between father and son but. No. She's not. Though she can be overprotective; Crow and Breeze have a bad relationship when she's not even around in Breeze's first appearance and even his Crowfeather's Trial Epiphany refutes it. Anyway this post isn't about Nightcloud.)

So he starts acting on his bigotry, accusing cats in other Clans of stealing, running really close to the border. What's interesting though, is that this is not entirely his doing. The first time we get physical trouble from Breezepaw, DUSTPELT aggressed it. Breezepaw and Harepaw were just chasing a squirrel and hadn't yet gone over the border at all.

We learn that WindClan is teaching its apprentices how to hunt in woodland, and tensions between the two Clans is starting to escalate as ThunderClan isn't entirely trusting of their intentions.

The second time, fighting breaks out over him and Harepaw actually crossing the border and catching a squirrel. WindClan is adamant that because it came from their land, it's their squirrel. So it's as if Breezepaw is modelling the aggression around him, learning how to behave from the older warriors and his father.

When he joins Heatherpaw and The Three to go find Gorsetail's kits in the tunnels, he's grouchy towards the ThunderClan cats, but very gentle with the kittens. Notably so. When Thistlekit is dangerously cold, he cuddles up next to her, and even assures Swallowkit when she's scared,

Through this entire excursion, he's the one in the comforting roles for the kittens. Breezepaw is the one who is taking time to tell the kits they'll be okay, that he'll protect them, and physically supporting them when they're weak, even when he's terrified.

And it's always contrasted to Heatherpaw who's way more 'disciplined,' as a side note. It's a detail I'm just fond of.

All this to point out,

Breezepelt displays his best qualities when he's away from the older warriors of WindClan, and he's at his worst whenever he's near Crowfeather. Even while he's essentially just a bully character for The Three to deal with. He's gruff but cooperative when it's just him and Heatherpaw interacting with The Three, but mean when there is an adult to please.

We're getting to the on-screen abuse now, but Po3 actually sets up Breezepaw's troubles and dynamics well before it's finally confirmed that he is a victim of child abuse.

ABUSE: Outcast, the Tribe Journey.

In Outcast, Breezepaw's problems have escalated into open aggression towards cats of other Clans, and is now a legitimate concern for his own safety. Yet, he's spoken over by older warriors, and reprimanded at nearly every opportunity, right in front of the warrior of another Clan.

Squilf just asked the poor kid how his training was going, and then Whitetail JUMPS to talk over him so she can complain, RIGHT in front of his face.

They can't even wait until they're alone to grumble something rude about Breezepaw, who is still just a teenager here;

They taught him already that a bit of prey that runs off their own territory still belongs to WindClan, encourage him to blow past borders in pursuit, and started a battle with ThunderClan over this. And then they're pissed off at him for being aggressive, thinking it's deserved to scold him in public.

When Onestar announces that he wants Breezepaw to go on the Tribe Journey, he's devastated by it...

Because he thinks WindClan doesn't like him, and he's right. He's gossiped about, torn into in front of a ThunderClan warrior, and even his own dad doesn't want to be around him. It's clear that Breezepaw's impulsive "codebreaking" behaviors are a desire to prove himself, and once you realize that, the way that he's being alienated is heartbreaking.

But Wait!! Hold on a minute! Where did he get a "patrol of apprentices" from to confront the dogs with, exactly?

Simple. Breezepaw CAN make friends! He actually values them a lot! So much that it's the first thing Crowfeather snaps at him over, out of frustration that his son is also being forced on this journey with him. It's an angry response to his child having emotional and physical needs, resentment that will continue all journey long.

Note that it's plural, friends. Breezepelt has multiple friends, at least one who is not Heatherpaw, and she promises to say goodbye to them.

Up next, they state over and over, Crowfeather and Breezepaw do not like each other. Crowfeather resents being around him and dealing with his rudeness, embarrassed and angry, and Breezepaw is absolutely miserable being sent on a journey to the mountains with a man who hates his guts.

The whole while, Crowfeather is brooding longingly about Feathertail, already thinking about her as soon as he kitty-kisses Nightcloud goodbye, his eyes looking somewhere distant. He makes a jab about loyalty when Breezepaw doesn't understand why they're helping the Tribe.

Breezepaw gets smacked after he's "shoved" at Purdy and acts rude to him, while the other three manage to be polite (while still having internal dialogue about how stinky he is).

Without so much as a, "cut that out," Crowfeather raises his paw and hits him. Breeze is quiet after that.

I don't give a shit how rude your teenager is being. Do not hit kids. Being throttled on the head is not okay.

In spite of the Three not liking Breezepaw, or even Crowfeather, they're constantly noting that their arguments are not normal, and that Crow is a cold, unsupportive father who digs into his kid constantly, and the only time he ever DOES "discipline" his child it's through immediately smacking him.

At one point, the apprentices get hungry, and decide to foolishly hunt in a barn that they know has dogs in it against Purdy's warnings. Once again, JUST like the first two books, Breezepaw is more friendly when Crowfeather is not around.

EVERY time he is alone with cats his own age, he's grumpy but cooperative. Even enthusiastic at times! The minute Crowfeather is in the picture, he's nasty.

Naturally, the dogs show up, but Purdy rescues them. Though Brambleclaw also chews his kids out (and i have strong opinions about bramble's parenting style for another time), Hollypaw is taken aback by the contrast of what a scolding from Brambleclaw looks like vs how Crowfeather reacts.

The narrative is desperately trying to tell you that the way Crowfeather treats his son is not normal.

And then Crowfeather is pissed off that Breezepaw is exhausted from running for his life from hungry dogs,

And he's constantly losing his shit whenever Breezepaw says something as innocuous as "dad im hungry"

Then, Breezepaw is made to watch his dad pine over the grave of a woman who died long before Crowfeather was even considering his mother for a mate. What he feels is jealousy, because he knows his own father doesn't love him anywhere near as much as he loves the memory of Feathertail.

This really goes on and on and on. The ENTIRE trip is like this, with Crowfeather treating Breezepelt poorly, giving him a smack before even verbally warning him, pushing him past his limits and blowing up on him when he asks simple questions about eating or resting.

It all comes to a head in this one exchange, towards the end. Hollypaw ends up snapping at Breezepaw for his rudeness, before having an epiphany.

It's explicit. Crowfeather's emotional abuse, his "scorn" for Breezepelt, is what is driving a wedge between him and all of his older Clanmates. Between EVERYONE in Breezepelt's life who wasn't already his friend. This awful treatment is only making him worse and worse.

Realizing this, she has more sympathy for him, but it's too late. He continues to be rude to her because he feels insulted, and her patience completely runs out. She's just a kid. They're both just kids. She's not responsible for fixing him when he's pushing everyone away at this point.

That's the end of Breezepelt in Outcast. It can't be helped anymore. Any spark of friendship they had together in the barn, or in the tunnels, is gone.

As the series progresses, Crowfeather continues to refuse any personal responsibility for the mistreatment of his son, even pinning all of Breezepelt's behavioral problems on Nightcloud. He is a cold, selfish father who only ever thinks about his own pain and reputation.

DARK FOREST: How these factors push him towards radicalization.

Everyone talks about the Attack on Poppyfrost, which happens in the first book of OotS, in oversimplified terms. YES he is going after a nun and a pregnant woman. I've never said that's not Bad.

But no one talks about "WHY", and that reason is NOT just that he desires power like so many other WC villains. Breezepelt makes his motivation very clear on the page.

Escalating to violence was about making Jayfeather feel the way that he does.

When Breezepelt says that he wants Jay to be surrounded by "lies, hatred, and things that should never have happened," he's talking about the way HE grew up, knowing his father never wanted him, and that his Clan HATES him as a result. Killing Poppyfrost is about trying to frame Jayfeather for her murder, so ThunderClan won't trust him anymore.

When Jayfeather points out the simple truth that what Breezepelt is saying doesn't make any goddamn sense, his hatred "falters." He's blaming his half-clan half-brother for his own treatment because of the reveal, but totally failed to consider that JAYFEATHER'S ALREADY GOING THROUGH IT... so his response is just this pitiful, "s-shut up, man."

Then the ghost of Brokenstar and Breezepelt bounce him back and forth between them like a beach ball for a bit until Honeyfern's spirit shows up.

Breezepelt's childhood abuse and social alienation was a hook that the Dark Forest latched onto, to reel him in. His anger at his half-brother is so obviously misplaced that its absurdity was something Jayfeather pointed out.

We soon learn that it's the Dark Forest who's planting that ridiculous idea in his head;

The narration is SCREAMING, "The Dark Forest is validating the anger he feels towards his father, and redirecting it towards The Three." He's described as 'kitlike,' Tigerstar's eyes are compared to a hypnotizing snake.

This prose could not make it more obvious if it drove to your house, beat you with it, and then spoon fed you the point while you were hospitalized.

At the end of this scene, Tigerstar sends Hawkfrost to recruit Ivypaw. This scene where Breezepelt is being lovebombed, and the command to start grooming Ivypaw, ARE LINKED. That was a choice.

A VERY GOOD choice! Again, as many issues as I have with OotS, its handling of indoctrination is unironically fantastic, and it owes a good amount of that to the outstanding setup of Breezepelt that was done back in Po3. And that setup doesn't work if Crowfeather was merely distant.

Breezepelt was abused by his father, both verbally and physically. It drove him to be more aggressive to prove himself, modeling the battle culture around him. The adults of WindClan judged him based off Crowfeather's responses, shunning and belittling the 'problem' teenager, which eventually drove Breezepelt to the only group that he felt "understood" him.

In a book series that is RIFE with abuse apologia, this is one of the few times that there's any behavioral consequences for abuse and the narrative holds the perpetrator accountable for it.

But people hear Crowfeather's deflective excuse in The Last Hope where he says he never hated him, blames Nightcloud for everything, and just lick it up uncritically.

Gee whiz, I wonder why the guy who never blames himself for any of his problems would suddenly say it was his ex-wife's fault. Real headscratcher!

(Crowfeather's Trial then goes onto, for all my own problems with it, also hold Crow accountable as the reason why Breezepelt turned out like he did. But that's a topic for another day.)

[72ww]

what about lili and milla? feel like there’s not enough content of milla being maternal towards lili, especially with how lili’s probably spent more of her life being watched by milla in the summers at whispering rock than not

You are so so so so so right

Here re some sketches I did on that thought ^_^ Thank you for the interesting request

[hiphopcherrrypop]

a cat with homophobia in its eyes ❤

[heich0e]

natsuo sits with you in the bathroom while you bathe pretty much from the very beginning of your relationship. he's a bit clingy, even so early on, but he makes no attempt to convince you otherwise. though a bit awkward at first, the routine soon becomes normal and easy: he perches on the closed lid of the toilet and chatters away about his day, or asks you about yours, as you wash away any lingering traces of the day from your skin. but something you always find a bit strange is that he never takes you up on the offer to join you, and finally (years into establishing this easy habit) you reach out with a wet hand and clutch at the sleeve of his shirt, firmly insisting this time that he get in.

he looks away, grimacing a little, a flush crawling up his throat. "oh, no," he says, shaking his head. "i'll get in once you're done, that's alright!"

you frown.

"nat," you say to him, your fingers still twisted into his shirtsleeve, clutching him tightly as though the strength of your grip might sway him. "please get in."

your insistence, though quiet, seems to make him falter. his cheeks flush even more and he hangs his head.

"...cold."

you cock your head to the side, having lost half of his sentence to the way he mumbled it. "hm?"

he peeks up at you, his lashes fluttering when he meets your gaze. his lips are pursed in the sweetest little pout, slight but still there. "i'll make the bathwater cold."

you blink for a moment as you process his words.

"you're worried... about the bathwater?"

he looks away again in embarrassment. "yeah."

he reaches up and takes the hand you have gripping his sleeve in his own, his touch cool against your bath-warmed skin. he twines your fingers together, watching raptly at the way his own hand seems to just fit with yours.

"i don't have a very strong quirk, you know that," he mumbles, his voice almost a bit shy. "but when i'm with you, it just... i can't help it. it slips out."

you already know this about natsuo. already had a conversation about it early in your relationship. he tried to explain the physiological side of things to you in terms you didn't really understand, but sensing your confusion, he then put it simply: you make my heart beat really fast, and it makes my temperature drop.

now you're used to his cold fingertips tracing along your body. used to how his tongue is always cold and slick. used to how you can sometimes see the faintest cloud of his breath on his exhales when he's panting over you in bed, or find delicate swirls of frost marks on the headboard where he was gripping it.

no. more than used to it. you like it.

"natsuo,"—you hold his hand a bit tighter, squeezing his fingers with your own—"i don't care about the bathwater."

his eyes snap up from watching where your fingers are tangled together, meeting your gaze. his cheeks are still pink, but his eyes are hopeful.

you guide his hand up to your cheek. his palm is cool against the heat you feel burning underneath your skin.

"please. get in with me?" you ask him again.

and this time he doesn't deny you—not least of all because he knows that when you've got your heart set on something you won't give up.

but he's used to that part of you, too.

(and he likes it.)

[prism-forgone]

frisky

[skrs-cats]

day 21

in the medicine cat den, post oots

[gerardwayoftheday]

Today is Monday, January 15th, 2024. Have a great Monday and enjoy your Gerard Way of the day.

[modernbaseball]

do you think kendall and stewy ever...u know...Smith College Girls for i-D Magazine 2004?

[tired-biscuit]

yes, i am a sucker for a good ‘play fighting leads into something more’ scene between best friends that obviously harbour feelings for each other, sue me.