#but yeah anyway its both very fucking refreshing to talk to someone just like you but its simultaneously very different to experience

[hecksupremechips]

The only problem with being an autistic person who doesn’t have big emotional reactions and talking to another autistic person who doesn’t have big emotional reactions is that when you talk to each other its just awkward silences and it’s like you have an idea of how a person is supposed to react to things cuz you’ve had this script memorized for years but now this person isn’t sticking to the script so it’s like OH GOD I FUCKED UP

[cafedanslanuit]

chapter guide | prev. chapter | next chapter

✖   —   summary:  porco wasn't surprised when you called him at three in the morning because you were too drunk to drive back to your place. he would always be there when you needed, both as your best friend and the guy who was completely head over heels for you. and both of them were sure zeke jaeger was cheating on you.

✖   —   pairing: porco/reader & zeke/reader

✖   —   tags/warnings: so far it’s sfw but rating will change in future chapters, college au, hurt/comfort, angst with a happy ending, unrequited love, cheating, toxic relationships, friends to lovers

chapter one: save your love

“Thanks for picking me up, Pock. You didn’t have to.”

“Tch. Of course I did,” Porco replied, putting his arm on the back of your seat on his car and reversing, getting out of the bar’s parking lot. You took your time observing him and noticed the bags under his eyes. You shouldn’t have been surprised. What were you expecting when you called him at 3 am asking him to pick you up from the bar because you were too drunk to drive home?

Porco rested his arm on the open window of his car, his other hand handling the wheel with ease. There were very few cars on the highway and the chilly air refreshed your body just right, making the ride home a lot more comfortable than you pictured. You closed your eyes, basking in the feeling of safeness you always felt whenever your best friend was around, plus the sweet dizziness on your head from the vodka and Porco’s cologne.

“What did the fucker do this time?”

It didn’t last long.

“He didn’t do a thing.”

Porco scoffed. “Yeah, right. Are you really going to pretend you didn’t end up in that bar because of what Zeke’s ‘friend’ just posted on her Instagram?”

“Porco, please.”

“What was the caption again? Oh, right. ‘Movie night’, devil face emoji, fire emoji,” he recalled with a snicker, his eyes fixated on the road. “She even tagged him on it, her legs resting on his lap and shit. Was it the same girl he took to the cat shelter for some ‘volunteer work’ last week or another?”

You didn’t answer. You knew Porco already knew who she was.

“She’s very pretty,” you mused. “It makes sense.”

“Please, have you looked at yourself?” Porco asked, taking a right turn.

Jokingly, you took the rearview mirror and angled it towards you. Your mascara was a little worn off and there were only traces of the red lipstick you had put on before heading to the bar. Your hair was messy as well and you look like you desperately needed a bottle of water.

“I look like shit,” you laughed, putting the mirror back to its original place.

“Shut the fuck up, you look good.”

“Pock, look at me. Whatever is going on here,” you said, gesturing at your face, “ain’t good. If you think so, your taste is really lacking.”

Porco chuckled, eliciting a soft smile from you.

“I like to think I have really good taste.”

“If we’re being serious, you have way too high standards,” you yawned, extending your arms and feeling some cracks on your back.

“How so?” he inquired, arching an eyebrow.

“You haven’t been in a relationship since I know you, which is what— a year?”

“And?”

“And I’m starting to think you’re afraid of commitment. Maybe you’re just afraid of a relationship,” you shrugged.

“Are you done, Freud?” he teased, sparing a quick glance at you before looking back at the road again.

“All I’m saying is you’ve had both beautiful girls and boys at your disposition and you have never even tried to date them. Well, no, my bad, you did take this one girl on a date. And what happened next?”

Porco chuckled. “Look, it’s not like that, we just didn’t click and—”

“You told her you were better off as friends and to this day I haven’t listened to a solid reason as to why you would drop such a pretty girl like her.”

“She just didn’t have what I was looking for,” he shrugged innocently.

“See what I mean? Unbelievable high standards. None of us is worthy of the mighty Porco Galliard, the lacrosse team captain who can fit seventeen marshmallows inside his mouth.”

Both of you broke in laughter, not caring about waking up someone from the houses alongside the road. You looked around and immediately recognized the neighbourhood, your laugh ceasing immediately. You patted Porco’s arm, trying to get his attention.

“Can you turn left at the next intersection?”

“We need to keep straight to get to your place.”

“I want to go to Zeke’s for a minute.”

Porco’s face twisted into a scowl. “Why would you want to go to him right now?”

“I— he told me he was watching movies by himself. I just want to check on him, we don’t even have to step off the car.”

“Hey,” he said sternly, catching your attention. “Don’t do this. You saw her Instagram post, you know what happened between those two. Are you really going to believe him after you just saw fucking evidence?”

“I know him,” you insisted. “He wouldn’t just flat out lie to me, not like that.”

“And the photo from tonight? How do you explain that?”

You took a deep breath, a sharp pain in your head making you close your eyes tightly.

“I don’t know,” you sighed. “Please, just— drive past his house. If his lights are out, then he must be sleeping after watching those movies by himself, just like he told me so.”

Porco scoffed.

“Porco, please,” you pleaded, squeezing his arm as you got closer and closer to the intersection. “Please.”

Rolling his eyes, Porco turned left as you asked him to and started driving to Zeke’s house, following your instructions. He didn’t try to come up with conversation again, instead, his eyebrows furrowed in annoyance as he pulled up crossing the street, a couple of houses away from your target.

Your heart immediately relaxed when you looked at Zeke’s window: the lights were off. You let out a long, tired sigh, letting your forehead rest on the glove compartment of Porco’s car.

“I don’t understand you,” Porco sneered, resting his chin on his hand, his elbow pressed on the open window of his car. “Him having the lights off means nothing, he could—”

Porco turned to you as you sat back up, your eyes meeting his. He bit his tongue, silently cursing and looked at his wheel, setting both his hands on it.

“He could what?” you insisted.

“Nothing,” he quickly replied, passing a hand through his hair. “His lights are off. Can we go now?”

“Yeah, yeah,” you whispered, sitting back against his passenger seat and getting comfortable.

Right when Porco was reaching for his keys, a noise in the quiet neighbourhood startled you. Both of you raised their heads as a black car passed alongside them and parked in front of Zeke’s house. A tall, blonde girl exited the same house, accompanied by none other than your boyfriend. You recognized her as Yelena, who had begun appearing more and more frequently in his pictures at the same time he started posting less and less about you.

Zeke walked her to the car and you watched in horror as she pressed a kiss on the corner of his lips before getting in the car. He closed the door after her and patted the roof of the car twice before sending her off. Porco gripped the wheel tightly as Zeke stretched his arms and walked back home, dragging his feet without a care in the world.

Sighing, Porco turned to you, who were already dialling Zeke’s number.

“No, c’mon,” he said, trying to take your phone away but you swatted his hand away, putting a finger on top of your lips, asking for silence.

“Hey baby,” you greeted in your fake, cheery voice. Porco couldn’t believe after spending two years with you, Zeke couldn’t realize that when your voice got too high-pitched, it meant you were faking every word. “Yeah, I know it’s late. Sorry. Sorry. Yes, I just— I know. I know it’s too late to call.”

Porco could feel his blood boiling at every apology that came out of your mouth even after witnessing Yelena leaving his house not even five minutes ago.

“I just wanted to ask how you were doing? Were the movies fun?” you made a pause, your smile tight on your face. “Ah, I see. Wasn’t it boring to watch all by yourself?” you pressed and not even you could maintain your smile after hearing his response. “Mhm, I do know you prefer to watch movies alone. Anyway, it is quite late. Talk to you later, I love—”

You looked at the screen on your phone and noticed the call had already ended.

“Well, there’s that,” you mused to yourself before putting your phone back on your jeans.

Silently, Porco started his car again, driving away from the suburbs and heading to your place as he had intended in the first place. The comforting silence was now poisonous, his eyes flicking from the road every minute to check on you, who was looking outside the window with your eyes lost. your mind probably too full of thoughts that he couldn’t begin to understand.

It didn’t mean he didn’t want to, though.

He kept driving in silence until he reached your apartment, parking in his usual spot. He left the engine running, even if you knew he always waited until you entered the building to drive away. He unlocked the doors and let out a long sigh.

“Drink some water before getting to bed,” Porco reminded you, both his hands on the wheel.

You didn’t move a muscle, eyes lost on his glove compartment, the events of the night running around your head. Yelena’s Instagram photo. Zeke’s text telling you he was alone. Him kissing her goodnight at 2 am.

“Hey,” he called, startling you. “Are you okay?”

You opened your mouth but then closed it, not knowing where to start. You pursed your lips and tugged at your fingers in discomfort.

“Talk to me,” Porco insisted.

“Can you stay tonight?” you asked in a small voice. “Annie is out and I don’t want to be alone with my thoughts tonight.”

Before you could finish your sentence, Porco was already killing the engine.

It was a silent walk to your apartment. You checked yourself in the elevator's mirror, realizing how awful you truly looked. Your eyeliner was smudged along with your mascara and the bags under your eyes were more noticeable than ever. As you inspected your face, Porco grabbed your cheek between his thumb and index, playfully pulling it from side to side until you were laughing, asking him to stop.

When you entered your apartment, you immediately walked to the bathroom, in deep necessity of a shower. Porco knew your apartment like the back of his hand, so after a quick detour to the kitchen, he made his way to your bedroom. He saw your laptop on your bed, messy sheets and clothes on the floor, probably how you had left it after seeing Yelena’s post on Instagram and decided to go to your favourite bar and forget about it for a while.

Porco took off his shoes and started picking up your clothes and put them on your spare chair, your laptop now on your desk. While he made your bed, he listened to you using your hairdryer in the bathroom and figured you would be out soon. He took out his phone from his pocket and looked at this schedule. It was already four in the morning and he had classes at nine. It was okay, he told himself. He had a hoodie in his car he could change into the next morning, and no one would say anything about him arriving in sweatpants. Well, no one that cared enough about their reputation to try and make fun of one of the golden boys of the university, at least.

You stepped off your bathroom already wearing your pyjamas, a tank top and small cotton shorts. Being friends with Porco for so long, it wasn’t the first time he had seen you in your pyjamas but it was truly the first time he saw you so small while wearing them. Maybe it was because of everything that happened that night, your tired eyes or the way you were standing, but Porco had to fight off the urge to put his arms around your body and protect you. From what? He wasn’t quite sure.

He handed you a bottle of water he had grabbed from the kitchen and you drank it all in one try.

“The only true secret to avoid being hungover tomorrow,” he reminded you.

“I know,” you smiled, leaving the empty bottle on your desk. “C’mon, let's get to bed.”

Porco had slept with you before, sure. You had travelled to the beach together with some friends and your sleeping bags were always put next to each other, which only prompted you to talk all night, telling each other embarrassing stories from your younger years. You had also fallen asleep in Porco’s dorm before, after a party that left you too tired to go back to your place. He would always let you crash on his bed and you slept soundly, knowing you were safe if he was around.

Zeke had never liked that. But Porco couldn’t care less.

He got into bed first, scooting to the wall and making space for you. You laid next to Porco, facing him and sighed happily when your head finally hit your pillow

“Thanks for making the bed, Pock,” you smiled.

“Why are you still with him?”

You averted his gaze, your smile dropping in an instant. “I love him,” you muttered.

“Do you? Do you really love someone who is lying to you like this?” he insisted. You felt a knot forming on your throat. “You understand he was fucking Yelena, right?”

You nodded softly, hugging the pillow under your head.

“Then why waste your time with an asshole like him? What are you waiting for, what do you want him to do so you finally leave him? What’s your tipping point, huh?”

Porco’s voice was gentle yet firm as he tried to get to you. He watched you as you laid still, not willing to answer any of his questions. He wondered if maybe you didn’t want to know the answer either.

“You’re smart. You’re— fuck, you’re one of the smartest people I know. Why are you letting him treat you like garbage? Why are you allowing him to hurt you like this?”

Once again, he was met with silence.

“You’re are fun, beautiful and yet you’re drunk at 4 am on a fucking Wednesday because your boyfriend is cheating on you and not only that— he’s fucking her and letting everyone know. Why are you doing this to yourself?” he inquired, his voice getting a little desperate. “You should be with someone who treats you right, who— fuck, someone who knows how much you’re worth. Someone who would never hurt you like this.”

You couldn’t suppress a cold laugh.

“Yeah, like who?” you scoffed, nuzzling your face on your pillow.

“Like me.”

You snapped your head to Porco, eyes open wide and lips parted, trying to form words.

“W-what?”

You looked at Porco, his eyes looking intensely at you. He opened his mouth and closed it almost immediately, shaking his head.

“No,” he said, almost to himself, shifting on the bed and propping up on his elbow, his body still facing yours. “I said what I said. I… I love you. Have loved you for quite some time now,” he admitted. You watched heat rising to his cheeks, tinting them deep red.

“I— I love you too,” you said softly. “You know that. I always tell you how grateful I am to have you in my life and that I—”

“You know I don’t mean it like that. I don’t love you as a friend,” Porco muttered, rolling his eyes.

You stayed in silence, your eyebrows furrowed in confusion as your eyes scanned the bed sheets between both your bodies. Even if Porco was being crystal clear with his words regarding his feelings towards you, somehow it didn’t make sense in your head.

“Why?” you whispered.

“What do you mean ‘why’?”

“Why do you… well—”

“Why do I love you?” Porco asked, raising an eyebrow. He watched you nod softly. “Well, ‘cause it’s you. Ever since we met, I just couldn’t stop thinking about you, your weird sense of humour and your irrational fear of panda bears,” he said, making both of you laugh, helping in releasing the tension both of you were carrying since his confession. “C’mon, you honestly thought I was so full of myself I didn’t think anyone was worthy of dating me? Fuck, I—,” he let out an honest chuckle, passing a hand through his hair. “I was just in love with you. And trust me, it’s not fun going out on a date with someone when all you can think is ‘Oh, she’d love this place’ or ‘I would be having much more fun if she was here instead’.”

“You really did that?” you asked in a small voice.

Porco smirked, cocking his head towards you. You knew his confession was playing a big part but you couldn’t stop noticing how handsome he truly was. Sure, you had always known he was good-looking, you knew this when you teased him for not going out with other people, but you never realized how truly beautiful he was.

Looking at him lying on your bed, the moonlight coming from your open window and hitting his face, it was as if you were looking at him for the first time, noticing the smallest details you had been ignoring for so long. Like how his eyes weren’t hazel but golden and that he had a few freckles on his cheekbones, decorating his slightly tanned skin. His lips also looked soft, even for someone who had woken up in the middle of the night to pick up their drunk friend. The white t-shirt he was wearing exposed his toned arms, making you feel the need to bury your face on his chest so he could put them around you.

You hadn’t realized you were moving forward until you felt Porco’s hand on your shoulder, preventing you from getting closer. You should have known you wouldn’t have been able to notice his freckles from afar. Porco’s eyes went from your lips back to your eyes and you sensed how bad he was rethinking his choices as he gently pushed you back on the bed.

“Listen, I—” he started, his blush only getting more noticeable, now making the tip of his nose turn red as well. “I’m not going to be your rebound, neither someone who you fuck out of spite or to get back at your boyfriend. Fuck, I don’t even know why I told you this,” he sighed, putting down his propped arm and laying his cheek on the pillow next to you. “Just… do better. For yourself. You deserve much more than that monkey man who hasn’t realized he’s a four dating a ten.”

You giggled at his remark and he smirked, proud of himself. Porco and you looked at each other’s eyes, a soft smile lingering on your lips. Tentatively, you reached for his hair, his golden locks feeling soft under your touch. Porco stayed still as you played with his hair, even closing his eyes as you did so.

After a few moments, your hand travelled to his cheek, making him open his eyes again. Your thumb gently stroked his skin, soft and tender under your touch. Porco’s eyes were fixed on your face as you caressed him silently. Your other fingers started running over his skin with a feather-like touch, entrapped in the sweet moment between the two of you.

Porco turned his head just enough for his mouth to meet your palm. He pressed a kiss on it, his eyes never leaving yours. You felt your heart skipping a beat and a smile creeping on your face.

“Can I hug you?” you asked in a whisper.

Porco nodded, opening his arms for you. You scooted closer to him, sliding your right arm around his waist, bending your other arm and flushing your head against his chest. Your legs tangled together, not taking too long before finding a comfortable position.

Once you were settled, Porco’s left arm draped around your body, pulling you closer to him gently. He pushed his right arm under your pillow, loving how easy it felt to be like this with you. It was as if you were always meant to sleep like this, with your face against his chest and your hand on his back. He looked down at you and pushed some of your hair away from your face

“Are you comfortable?”

“Mhm,” you hummed, taking a deep breath and sighing contently against his chest. Porco’s cologne filled your senses and you couldn’t help but smile at the homely feeling.

He pressed his lips against your forehead. “Goodnight,” he whispered, closing his eyes. You imitated him and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

...

When Porco opened his eyes the next morning, he felt as if only a couple of seconds had passed since he had closed his eyes. He sighed. Well, it wasn’t the first time that he had sleeping problems but a part of him innocently hoped it would change after he got to sleep by your side. He looked at your sleeping face. It was way too innocent from him to think just because he got to rest by your side he would have had a good sleep.

He looked down at your sleeping face and couldn’t help but smile a little. He recalled the moment you leaned into him, searching for a kiss before he had to push you away. Porco exhaled, his eyes travelling to your lips. There wasn’t anything he wanted more than to kiss the girl of his dreams— hell, he had dreamt about that for almost a year now.

But not like that. Never like that.

Porco took his phone on your bedside table and checked the time. Seven in the morning. He yawned, burying his face in the pillow. He hated his inability to go back to sleep after he had already woken up. His first class was in three hours and while you didn’t have any classes in the morning, he knew you would probably wake up regretting having drunk so much the night before.

Carefully, he pulled away from you and headed to the kitchen. You had mentioned Annie was going to be out and he figured either she hadn’t come home yet or she was asleep as well. Just in case, he tried to be extra silent while preparing coffee. He thanked Annie was the closest thing to a coffee connoisseur he knew, because he couldn’t help but let out a happy hum when the smell of coffee filled the kitchen.

As he watched the coffee drip on your mug, he leaned on the counter, his mind going back to the night he’d spent on your bed. How your fingers traced his hair, how your hand felt against his cheek and the way you looked at him when he kissed your palm. Even if he had stopped you from kissing him, somehow the tender moment you shared had felt even more intimate. Like it was always supposed to be like that: just you and him.

It wasn’t until several minutes later that Porco realized he had been smiling the whole time. He had told you he loved you. You hadn’t pushed him away after knowing how he really felt about you— not only that, you had shown him tenderness by cuddling with him the whole night. Even if Porco was aware things were far more complicated than that moment, he also knew it was a step in the right direction. He could almost see you sitting on the counter in front of him, morning light hitting your face and your legs swinging while you looked at him with a soft smile.

A shuffling noise made Porco snap out of his daydreaming. He peeked from the kitchen door, thinking Annie was back home but instead he found you stepping out of the room, wearing shorts and a big hoodie while you checked your phone.

“Thought you didn’t have class until later today,” Porco said, walking into the living room and startling you.

“Hey Pock— and no, I— Zeke called. He said he wants to talk, that he needs me, so I… I called an Uber, I’m going to his place now.”

“Are you serious right now?”

You looked into his eyes and immediately back to the floor, his glare too full of the truth for you to endure.

“The Uber is waiting,” you said in a small voice. “Thanks for… driving me home and staying. I have to go.”

In silence, Porco watched you walk past him to your apartment door and carefully close it behind you. A part of him wanted to think it was nothing but a joke from your part, that you would open the door any second now.

The song of the coffee machine turning off let him know he should have known better than to hope.

[lesbiradshaw]

Hello! Literally just started following you and I'm aready in love. It's so refreshing to see someone in the stevebucky fandom who doesn't worship (or even like really) the actors and is able to separate them, not to mention the army of peggy stans who are on the rise, who diminish the importance of comic steve and mcu sam. I can't help but agree with every word you say, as former mcu stan and current mcu hater who still loves the cap quartet dearly. Do not get me started on the performative white feminism on pushing Cap Peggy down our throats (and in MoM where they introduce openly queer woc. I did't see Mom bc I refuse to support Mcu any longer but I doubt her being a raging lesbian is even mentioned, and she's a literal child so it's not like we'll see her happily flirt with every female character like she does in the comics. It's very obvious that the new wave of mcu stans are mostly just the Rat's fans and never even touched the comics which are, while also sometimes problematic, much more diverse and deep dive into their characters instead of cheaping them down so they can appease to your average yt us straight viewer

NOT TO MENTION I always thought America Chavez was... afro latina? And as a person of romani heritage, I take great offense to Wanda and Elizabeth Olsen, but that's another topic of its own. anyways, thank you for your posts!

(mashing both your asks into one bc your points were all so good <3 also MoM spoilers ahead for anyone who didn’t see that tag)

before MoM even came out there was a tweet from film updates on twitter talking about how the movie had been banned in a few countries for including a queer relationship on screen (america’s mothers) and a prominent queer character (america whose sexuality was only alluded to by the little pride pin on her jacket) and almost all of the quotes and replies were people joking about dr. strange being gay for ironman or wanda being a gay icon and maybe it’s just because i’m a hater but i got so fucking irritated that no one was acknowledging the actual lesbian of color who was in the movie .. even if it was just for the jokes (which were all about white characters being gay because they hate acknowledging poc can be queer) and having seen MoM (with my friend’s free ticket because i would not have paid for it otherwise) most of the people are ignoring america completely, or blaming her for ‘contributing to wanda’s suffering’ as if wanda doesn’t spend the entire movie trying to kill her. like what ? AMERICA IS A CHILD 😭 but yeah, in MoM they also have this entire bit where it’s revealed the the multiverse worlds have numbers and guess what number the mcu is …. 616. it’s such a fucking joke considering the fact that the mcu is nothing like half of their supposed comic sources, and especially fucked up because this movie prominently revolves around mcu wanda who we all know is VERY VERY VERY VERY UNLIKE HER COMIC COUNTERPART aka one of the most whitewashed characters with erased heritage in the mcu and that’s saying something because the mcu loves changing characters that way. even when cast poc for poc roles they choose lighter skinned people most of the time. very odd of them … i also find it very odd that a lot of #stuckies are now championing mcu wanda as their queen (after saying they didn’t like her being whitewashed) just for slicing captain carter and are also pretending to be outraged on sam’s behalf because of her live action inclusion when i have seen half of them shit on sam before for the benefit of bucky. it’s like their hate for peggy is so strong they think about her more than they do the characters they actually like/love using other characters as a tool to fuel their hatred of her and TRUST ME i don’t like that woman either but 😭 the irony of being enraged that sam is being put to the side in favor of the white woman while also only caring about sam when the white woman is involved … mcu stans have no brains i SWEAR and that is why i only care about what happens to a very select few characters at this point. thank you for your kind words and making me feel sane 🫂 america chavez and comic amerikate i will avenge you ….

[angryschnauzer]

Do You Want Some Hunny

Summary: Your roommate brings you to a Halloween costume party and your costume is Winnie The Pooh, and you find another resident of the Hundred Acre Wood there who shows you just how well Tiggers can bounce.

Pairing; Henry Cavill x Female Reader (Moodboard disclaimer: Usually i keep any physical images of women out of my moodboards, but i couldn’t find a shot of the shorts without a model in. It is mentioned in the story that the reader purchased the shorts and they/she were not the same as the model)

Warnings: 18+, NSFW, Crackfic, Smut, Public fingering, Oral Sex (female recieving), unprotected sex, Creampie.

I do not operate a tag list, but please pop over and follow @angryschnauzerwrites​ and put that blog onto notifications. You’ll then get an alert every time i post a new story.

Masterlist can be found on AO3, Link HERE.

Do You Want Some Hunny?

You hurried along the pavement, trying to keep up with your roommate as she stalked ahead in her sky high heels, somehow managing to not get them caught in the trim of her Morticia Addams costume. You had opted for your Red Converses that matched your costume and yet still you were having to trot behind her. Fighting against the wind that whipped at your bare legs, you clung to the long parka coat you’d thrown on over your costume, cursing the fact that what you’d chosen at the last minute from an urgent amazon prime order had been more designed for warm climates.

The Winnie The Pooh ears you’d had left over from a trip to Disneyland a few years back were what started it all, a red t-shirt borrowed from your roommate that seemed a lot longer on her than you, and the only thing missing was something yellow to wear with it. You hadn’t wanted to wear a skirt, so had opted for a pair of velvet yellow shorts, however they were a lot shorter than had appeared in the photo, and were very much hotpants rather than shorts. Anyway, they had arrived just a few hours before the party, so it was them or forgo a costume, and not wanting to be a party pooper you decided to go with it. 

Following ‘Morticia’ up the porch steps, your heart sank when you saw everyone else’s costumes as they milled around; it was all spooky, dark, and horror movie costumes. Nothing as cute or fluffy as Winnie The Pooh. The host called out to your friend - her girlfriend - and you smiled as you watched the other woman who’d slicked her hair back and had drawn on a mustache to look like Gomez Addams embrace. ‘Gomez’ turned to you and grinned;

“Thanks for coming, i was worried people wouldn’t want to come, let me take your coat”

Shrugging your jacket off you handed it over and fidgeted as she glanced over your costume, you tugged at the shorts;

“Yeah, it was a last minute costume… not very Halloweeny like everyone else”

Gomez winked at you;

“Oh you’re not the only resident of the Hundred Acre Wood here tonight, c’mon, let me get you a drink seeing as my love has wandered off to behead the roses again”

-

Two hours later you were pleasantly buzzed from a couple of beers, and had been introduced to the other Hundred Acre Wood escapee that was at the party - Tigger - who tended to go by the more human name of Henry. 

Six foot of pure muscle was now animatedly installing the virtues of PC gaming having discovered you were starting to learn how to play yourself, all whilst dressed head to toe in a Tigger Onesie. On anyone else it would have looked absurd, but with the zipper undone just enough to show off an inviting patch of chest hair he managed to pull it off. And it wasn’t the only thing you wanted him to pull off. Your attention wandered to his hands and how he was able to circle a beer bottle with his fingers and your words faltered as you explained how you were the hosts girlfriends roommate, instead turning the question back to him;

“So, how do you know Gomez?”

“We’ve been working together on a production here, she’s let me stay in her guest room whilst we’re on a break from shooting”

“You’re an actor?”

He actually blushed at that point;

“Yes… and its quite refreshing to talk to someone that doesn’t immediately recognise me”

Before you could say anything a shout came from the living room;

“Come on! Movie’s about to start!”

Henry led the way and you discovered most of the seats and spots on the sofa’s were taken, finding a single soft chair as he flumped down into it, his legs spread. You paused for a moment before he took your hand without even thinking and pulled you onto his lap;

“There’s enough room for two”

The room was cold, so as the movie started you found yourself snuggling up to the warmth emitting from Henry, envious of his onesie. The room was dark and the massive screen was at the furthest point of the room so everyone’s attention was trained away from the two of you. The movie was one of those modern creep-fests, with ghosts creeping around and the stars oblivious of the entrance to hell they built their cottage on, and with every scare you clung to Henry tighter, his strong arms wrapping around you. Soon you weren’t even paying attention to the movie, your nose hooked under his chin and you let out an involuntary shiver as you were surrounded by his scent.

“Cold?” he whispered

“A little”

He reached and grabbed a blanket that had been tossed over the back of the chair, pulling it over the two of you and it suddenly felt like you were in your own little cocoon. With the warm fabric up to your shoulders you shivered again when Henry slid his hand down beneath the blanket, a grazing touch against the curve of your breast and you found your body arching for more of his touch. He turned to look at you, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth as his gaze consciously focused on yours, licking your lips you gave the smallest nod as he pressed forwards. The kiss was silent and as his plump lips caressed yours you sank into his embrace, his hand finding the edge of your top and slipping beneath the fabric, moving to cup your breast through your bra. As his thumb brushed over your nipple you let out a tiny gasp, but it was enough for his tongue to slip inside your mouth. 

The kiss deepened and you shifted on his lap, suppressing another groan when you felt him starting to harden beneath you and even through the thick fabric of his onesie you could tell Tigger had a lot for you to bounce on.

Henry however had traced his wandering touch down your body and was toying with the edge of your shorts, a featherlight touch over the inseam had you gasping against his lips. His voice was low as he spoke, barely a whisper;

“Does Winnie want me to play with her Hunny Pot? I bet you’re delicious”

“Henry!” you shushed him; “We can’t, not here!”

“I wasn’t going to eat it, i was just going to taste it… for now…”

Slipping a finger beneath your shorts he hooked them to the side along with your panties, his thick digit swiping through your folds and seeking out your clit, rubbing firm tight circles against it before letting the elastic snap back into place as he brought his finger to his mouth, humming as he tasted you.

Just at that moment there was a pop and the power went out, the movie shutting down and the emergency light in the hallway the only illumination. Gomez stood and said she was going to call the power company, returning a few minutes later with the bad news that a car had taken out a utilities pole down the street, knocking out power for at least a few hours. A suggestion of heading out to a local bar was floated, with general agreement, but hidden by the noise of everyone else your groan of disappointment was both heard and felt by Henry;

“Lets stay here” he whispered; “Come up to my room. We can… snuggle…”

“Just snuggle?”

His wicked grin told you he wanted to do a whole lot more, and in the melee that followed as people searched for their coats by the light of their phones, Henry was able to lead you through the house and up the back staircase, grabbing a couple of halloween lanterns as he went. 

-

Pressed into the mattress you were buck naked as Henry pressed kisses down the valley of your breasts and across your stomach, before disappearing between your thighs. You ached to run your fingers through his hair however he still wore the Tigger Onesie, and what made the situation seem so surreal was that all you could see from between your legs was the top of Tigger’s head. 

Henry’s tongue worked utter magic on you as he slid two thick fingers into your tight hole, sucking on your clit until you were bucking beneath him, clawing at whatever your hands could reach before he suddenly pulled away;

“Fuck, that pussy tastes amazing… but i wanna be inside you…”

Kneeling between your legs he unzipped the onesie all the way, his dick springing out from the open zipper.

“You were going commando?”

He grinned at you and winked;

“I was enjoying hanging loose and free until you walked into the party… from the moment i saw you i’ve been sporting a chubby…”

Fisting his dick he lined it up with your entrance and pushed in, the both of you gasping at the feel of skin on skin and the stretch of his fat cock filling you. Setting off slowly he rolled his hips, finding that delicious spot deep inside you almost immediately;

“Fuck, Henry…. Please, harder…”

“You asked for it Winnie… just watch this Tigger bounce!”

He started to pile drive into you, fucking you into the bed you were sent to heaven and god turned you around and send you straight back down again, Henry pushing his legs further apart to get even deeper, the slapping of his balls against your ass and the thick root of his dick rubbing against your clit almost overstimulating you already, trembling around him as he fucked you even harder;

“Are you gonna cum for me, soak me in your hunny?”

“Yes… keep… keep doing that…”

Just a few more thrusts and you were cumming hard, your body gripping him tight as he slowed his thrusts. As you lay trembling with aftershocks from your orgasm, he pressed kisses to your neck and chest, muttering soft praises before he carefully pulled out;

“I’ve gotta take this off before we continue…”

“Conti…. Oh… you haven’t cum yet…”

“Nope… hope you’re ready for round two”

You watched as Henry finally stripped himself of the Tigger Onesie and you got to seem him in his full glory for the first time; dark brown curls, wide shoulders and incredible arms, a chest you just wanted to lay your head on and sleep. As your gaze unashamedly travelled further, you clenched as you followed the thick trail of hair down his stomach to his crotch, his dick still standing hard and proud, before taking in the thick thighs;

“I wanna ride you…”

He laughed, a deep rich cry of happiness as he climbed onto the bed and kissed you before rolling onto his back. Holding his dick steady he watched as you straddled his waist and positioned yourself over him, before slowly sinking down. When you were fully seated he held up his hand;

“Wait a sec…”

Grabbing your Bear Ear headband he lifted it onto your head;

“C’mon Winnie, work that Hunny Pot for me…”

Just at the moment the bedroom door opened, and in the faint light of the halloween lanterns you saw Morticia and Gomez look in shock then laugh;

“Yeah, Tigger and Winnie are fine…”

The door clicked shut and you felt a light smack on your ass, bringing your attention back to Henry. Resting your hands on his chest you rolled your hips and gave it all your worth, giving him the full rodeo. Soon you could feel him start to tremble beneath you, and he quickly sought out your clit, rubbing circles against the tight bud with his thumb as you started to cum, your walls squeezing him tight and setting his own orgasm off as you milked him dry.

He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you to his chest, pressing kisses to your face before you rested your head on him.

-

When you woke the pale light of November 1st was creeping in through the drawn curtains, and for a moment you forgot where you were. Then the heavy muscled arm of the beast you bedded the night before pulled you closer, the warmth of his chest pressing against your back;

“Morning Winne”

“Tigger…”

His hand slid down your stomach, brushing against the patch of hair;

“Hows your hunny pot this morning?”

You hooked your leg over his as you turned your head to look at him;

“Ready to be refilled”

[milkacchan]

Request for anon: Hi! If your still accepting requests I was wondering how would the Bakusquad react to an omega s/o that in public is rather stoic and mature but in private they can get rather submissive and gets easily embarrassed when they get smothered in affection

• Bruh girl

• yeah I got you

• this is literally me

• just even in private I'm not as submissive unless its bedroom stuff

• SO

• tbh it amazes them

• bc in public ur like • _ •

• but in private ur like 😳

• That could be bc of family trauma

• or societal standards

• and not being able to particularly process affection the right way

• you'll never know

• anyway

• these fuckers can't get anything out of you in public

• they don't necessarily try to

• they've picked up you don't particularly enjoy being part of pda in lublic

• but at first they did try to pry reactions out of you

• and they never could elicite a reaction from it

• Occasionally you'll hold someone's hand, most of the time its Bakugou or Kiri. Usually its only if you're nervous around someone or something, a typical Omega response

• You know all your mates are capable of taking care if you if things go south- But Bakugou and Kiri tend to be scarier than the rest of them

• They serve has a good prevention if anyone has their eyes set on you

• But other than that, you're pretty independent in public

• you avoid hugs or compliments

• you avoid holding hands or kisses

• your face is usually blank, unamused or just void

• It was like a whole different person

• Because behind closed doors you were much more submissive

• They had a hunch it was because once you were in a position you didn't need to be in control, you liked to relinquish it

• Like a break

• N they were fine with it

• As alphas, they had the need to provide and protect

• And if they could provide you a place where you could relax, without having to worry about everything, they were going to do so

• You were a lot more affectionate behind closed doors

• If Kaminari asked for cuddles, you'd sit smack in the middle if his lap, arms around his neck

• You'd give Mina a soft kiss before going back to whatever you were doing

• You'd run your hands through Katsuki and Eijis hair

• You'd kiss Seros cheeks while he talked

• You were more open, more vulnerable

• More willing to laugh or cry

• they like that

• but you can't recieve attention as freely as you give it

• and they caught onto it very quickly

• the first time Mina kissed you (she was the first to do so) you were quiet. Like dead silent

• and at first she thought she fucked up, maybe you weren't ready and she goes to apologize

• but then she sees you blushing

• your face is bright red and you're trying to hide behind your hair and sleeves

• and she leans in to brush your hair away and everyone in the room LOOSES it when you s q u e a k

• they're going fucking feral

• "Shut the fuck up!" You huff

"Absolutely dutley NOT!"

Another huff. "I hate you,"

"Aw, princess, don't be mad." Kirishina grins, "it was cute."

"It wasn't fucking cute."

• so they use that to their advantage in the future

• and they SMOTHER you in affect

• and LOWKEY you live for the attention

• but it's hard to accept still lmao

• your heart always beats really fast

• You tend to be a lot more calmer behind closed doors too

• a lot more willing to participate in cuddles and movie night

Nsfw-

• S u b

• it doesn't take much to make you crumble behind closed doors

• Bakugou has a 'voice' and when he uses that voice you have no choice but to listen

• He only has to say one thing and you're on your knees for him

• They have plenty of little accessories for their little omega

• I'm talking collar, ropes, leash, straps, those leather cuffs, and many more 😌

• Most dominant in order

- Bakugou

- Mina

- Kirishima

- Kaminari (he lowkey a bottom sometimes tho)

- Sero (not a bottom but he's super laid back and he prefers his sex on the more laid back side)

• Bakugou is particularly rough (tho there are times he can be gentle. Get you a man that can do both)

• He's got his fair share of kinks and he's pleased (ecstatic really) that you can keep up with them. Enjoy them even

• He LOVES ordering you around

• He also loves asking what you what just so he can see you turn into a stuttering blushy mess. Of course he already knows what you want.

• His favorite parts to kiss during sexy time is your neck and the inside if your thighs

• Mina LOVES domming you

• However she's more of a soft dog and you're less bratty with her

• Like bakugou will spit in your mouth and make you tell him how much you enjoy it, Mina will hold you close and whisper in your ear what she's going to do while she pushes you face down into the bed

• Her favorite place to kiss is your ear and down your back

• Kirishima can either be a diet dom or rough. He usually leans to the soft dom tho. However sometimes he dies snap

• it when he does its glorious

• Mating press is his go to position, usually with your legs or hand tied

• Though other times he'll have you laying on top of him, back on his chest as he fucks into you, hands on your throat or on you hips

• And he'll deadass having you screaming in release

• He's very into body praise however, and he makes sure you know that he thinks you're perfect

• His favorite place to kiss you are your lips and your neck (he enjoys leaving hickeys)

• Kaminari isn't super kinky or very dom, as I said before, sometimes he likes to bottom or sub

• He definitely has a tongue ring 😌

• yall know what that means

• He likes to have you ride him, he likes the view of chest all swollen and red, and your head tilted back in pleasure as you tried to think straight

• he likes it when you stutter and he takes the opportunity to face into you and you're begging for him

• His favorite places to kiss you are your lips and chest

• Sero is a lot more mellow than the rest of them

• He's just really laid back and he wants to make you feel good

• And honestly its a great refresher

• because as much as you like being pushed around and gagged by your Alphas, soft, mellow, vanilla sex is what you need.

• He's soft, fingers tracing your body as his gaze flickers between your face and your sopping cunt

• he loves the feeling of your legs squeezing around his head

• he likes the feeling of his hair in being pulled when he's doing a good job (totally moans when you pull his hair. He 100% has a hair kink)

• He likes feeling the vibrations of your moans or sobs

• he's definitely an overstimulator

• 100% you'll come from he tongue alone at least twice before he'll even think about fucking you

• while he's chill and more on the vanilla side, he's an absolute tease which absolutely leads into the overstimulation kink

• Once you're BEGGING for him to just hurry up and fuck you

• He'll rise from between your legs and grip your thighs, pushing them to your chest and then fucking you

• He also do be a missionary boy

• will occasionally use his tape but not super often (mostly by your request)

• He has a really good knot, top 3 in the group

• I mean they all have good knots, but his is just so satisfying

• And when you're in heat you're definitely pleading for his knot

• That brings me to another aspect

• You're heats are always interesting

• its its only been recent that you've allowed them to share heat

• But when you get heat sick- and you want nothing more than to be stuffed and breeded and used, jts good to have all those alphas

• its good too bc they can shift if some of the others get too tired

• so you're left fucked out and satisfied and they get a break when they need it :)

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

Request (from this post):

@scarlet-gryphon suggested: Modern pre-3zun AU where for whatever reason, Meng Yao is challenged to do a tough rock climbing wall. Cue the italicized ‘ohs’ from Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue at his flexibility. (also posted to Ao3)

This kind of thing is very much outside of my usual wheelhouse of ideas so thank you so much for the challenge, it was super refreshing! Hope you like it ^_^

--

Fucking work retreats.

“ ‘It’ll be fun’ he says,” Meng Yao grumbles to himself as he plasters an extremely fake (perhaps slightly manic) smile on his face. “ ‘Lighten up, A-Yao’ he says,” he mocks again, his grin twisting into a mocking sneer for just a split second before he smooths it away again.

The benefit of being wildly unpopular is that no one milling around stops him on his hunt to try to chat, and finally after a few minutes of prowling he finds his prey.

“Nie Huaisang,” he says icily and he has the immense pleasure of seeing the Jiang Corporation heir and his brother look sharply at him over Nie Huaisang’s shoulders in (slightly eerie) synchronicity, both of them looking sufficiently aware of whatever it is they see on his face that promises danger for Nie Huaisang. Of course it’s in their own ways, which means Jiang Wanyin glares first at him and then at Nie Huaisang, and Wei Wuxian’s usual happy grin goes a bit manic as well, eyes glittering as he scents fresh mischief.

“A-Yao, there you are!” Nie Huaisang cries far too cheerfully as he turns, his ever-present fan already fluttering nervously in front of his chest. Why he insists on carrying that thing everywhere he goes Meng Yao doesn’t understand whatsoever, but he’s currently wishing he had the guts to tug it from his hands and snap it right in half.

“Could I speak to you for a moment?”

The fluttering of his fan gets a little faster. “Ahhhh hah, but we’re about to get started!! You know how da-ge is, hit the ground running and all that. Can’t it wait?”

“No,” he says with such a poisonously sweet smile and a faux-innocent little tilt of his head that even Wei Wuxian takes a step back, the brothers leaving their best friend high and dry to face his wrath alone. Sensible of them.

He holds his arm out for Nie Huaisang to take and, with no safe alternative options, the other man reluctantly takes it and lets himself be led away from listening ears.

“Now, A-Yao -”

“When were you planning to inform me that my father’s company would also be present at this retreat?”

“Oh good, you already know! So now the answer doesn’t matter, does it?”

“I’m going to murder you in your sleep, A-Sang. I’m in charge of our company’s hotel assignments. I know exactly where to find you.”

“Aiyah you do not, who in the world stays in their own hotel room during company retreats? Well I guess some people have to, But I definitely don’t. I’ve already found myself better accommodation,” he says breezily, flicking his fan shut to tap him on the forearm a couple of times. “And you’ll lighten up a little if you do too! I heard the Lans are coming~,” he adds, his glance at him out of the corner of his eye far too sly. Meng Yao can’t quite resist glaring at him right back. Nie Huaisang just walked headfirst into dangerous territory, but part of him (a very small part of him) can admire that his sort-of-friend, sort-of-employer is daring enough to tease him when he’s clearly irritated.

“You’re horrendous,” he replies sweetly and Nie Huaisang laughs as he turns them around to head back towards where everyone else is gathered.

“Oh hush, stop glaring at me and go find Xichen-ge, stare at him until you feel better. I’ll bet he’s dressed casuallyyyy~~,” he teases as he snaps his fan open again to flutter it and add to the flirtatious lilt in his tone.

“Lan Zhan!!!!” Wei Wuxian suddenly cries loudly enough to carry over the general chatter and in the next instant he goes flying across the spacious hotel lobby, a blur of black and red as Jiang Wanyin shouts after him for him to stop. Nie Huaisang giggles at his side behind his fan as heads turn to watch Wei Wuxian’s progress to where the Lans have stopped to check in.

“Oh perfect timing, and you won’t even have to waste any time searching! Wei-xiong is so useful, don’t you think?”

Meng Yao says nothing, just glares at Nie Huaisang until the man winks over his fan and carefully extricates himself from where their arms are linked to return to Jiang Wanyin’s side to pat his shoulder as the man fumes. Meng Yao sighs and after a moment he follows in the bemused wake Wei Wuxian had left behind himself on his way to his boyfriend. Though the retreat isn’t being held on any participating company’s actual properties, the Nie Corporation is still technically hosting it so it’s not entirely out of character for him to go and greet the new arrivals.

And if Lan Xichen’s smile when their eyes meet makes his frustration with Nie Huaisang and the presence of his own family melt away like snow in spring, then that’s his own business.

----

A few days into the retreat, Nie Mingjue’s patience is at its limit. He hates these things, he can’t remember just why the hell he let Nie Huaisang talk him into hosting this bullshit, but he can’t change it now. At least the Lans agreed to come - without Lan Xichen here to force him to enjoy himself he really would have become too miserable to bother staying for the whole retreat, he would’ve already packed up and dragged Meng Yao home with him to get back to work. Not that it would take much dragging, most likely. Meng Yao is as much of a workaholic as himself, maybe even more of one (which he hadn’t thought was possible prior to meeting him), and the Jins have been extra insufferable to him on top of that. It wouldn’t surprise him at all if Meng Yao was looking for an easy out of the whole affair.

“Oh dear,” Lan Xichen says softly at his side and Nie Mingjue pulls himself out of his ruminations to glance at him and then look at where he’s focusing on only to sigh as he spots Meng Yao being harassed by his horrible cousin - again.

“How long has that spoiled brat been talking to him this time?” Nie Mingjue growls as he pushes his sleeves up to his elbows and flexes his fingers a few times. God he’d like to use that asshole’s face as a punching bag. Mostly because he feels like Meng Yao would appreciate it and Nie Mingjue is maybe slightly too interested in doing things that make Meng Yao get that pleased little smirk on his face. But in his defense it’s also because he’s seen that smirking face far too many times to not want to rearrange it a little. If it happens to be because he’s bothering Meng Yao then that’s the perfect excuse, just two birds with one stone.

“About a minute, but it seems that’s long enough to behave unpleasantly,” Lan Xichen sighs, crossing his arms over his chest in a rare show of open disapproval, his lips turned down in an uncharacteristic frown. “What could he and his friends possibly have to bother him about now?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. I’m gonna beat the shit out of him, I’m tired of this.”

“Mingjue!” Lan Xichen cautions with a sudden grip on his arm. “Please, don’t embarrass A-Yao and make a scene, it won’t help him.”

“Well what do you want me to do?! We can’t just leave him over there.”

“Ah...I believe we are not his only knights in shining armor,” Lan Xichen says, suddenly sounding amused and Nie Mingjue follows his gaze again to see Wei Wuxian, of all people, shoving his way through the crowd looking positively gleeful at the sign of trouble brewing, Lan Wangji trailing along behind him as serenely as ever. Such a weird pair, in his opinion. And of course, because it’s Wei Wuxian, his voice carries perfectly over the general hubbub of people chatting and the clink of carabiners from the people currently scaling the rock wall they’re all supposed to be taking turns climbing.

“Meng Yao!” Wei Wuxian cries and Nie Mingjue can see the man in question’s shoulders tighten all the way from here as Wei Wuxian throws his arm around them to lounge against him. “Are you holding back to spare the rest of us from having to watch you kick our asses without breaking a sweat? Oh. Hey asswipe.”

“Wei Wuxian!”

Nie Mingjue snickers just a little at the scandalized tone in Jin Zixun’s voice, and even Lan Xichen chuckles softly next to him.

“Yeah? Hi uh...hm. Can’t say I remember your name, Jin something-or-other, right? No, don’t tell me, it doesn’t matter and I want to keep thinking your name is ‘Asswipe’.”

“What the fuck is your problem?!”

“Problem? I don’t have one. What’s yours?”

Lan Wangji says something then, far too low to carry the way Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixun’s voices do, but whatever it is makes Wei Wuxian laugh and turn to Meng Yao. He lets go of him to turn and face Meng Yao fully, putting his back to Jin Zixun, but whatever he says next is lost in the noise of someone reaching the top of the wall and hitting the buzzer. 

“Are you sure we should trust whatever Wei Wuxian just did to solve this?” Nie Mingjue grumbles, already knowing what his best friend’s answer will be.

“He’s a good man,” Lan Xichen replies, because of course he does. “I trust him wholeheartedly, and it’s a good solution don’t you think? Everyone expects him to make a scene anyway, A-Yao need not be embarrassed about being rescued if it’s him.”

“Are we sure he even fixed whatever’s going on?” Nie Mingjue watches Meng Yao square his shoulders and step up to take a spot next to one of the employees at the rock wall and he can’t help but frown, still concerned. “A-Yao didn’t want to participate.”

But then he’s quickly strapped into a harness around his hips and thighs and maybe it wouldn’t hurt to just….watch...for a second...

Lan Xichen’s slightly choked noise at his side is all the confirmation he needs that they’re in agreement. 

Nie Mingjue tears his eyes away from Meng Yao just long enough to see that he’s lined up with the rest of the Jin employees that are in attendance and he blinks as he realizes what’s going on.

“This is Wei Wuxian’s solution?” he snaps. “To put A-Yao up against his stupid cousin and his cronies? He’s supposed to get A-Yao away from them!”

“Patience, Mingjue, trust Wei Wuxian’s methods, he knows what he’s doing,” Lan Xichen soothes, returning his hand to his arm though he still hasn’t looked away from Meng Yao as the man listens to the instructions and allows himself to be fitted with a rope attached to the front of the harness.

“You just like seeing A-Yao tied up.”

“Mm. Multiple things can be true at once.” 

Nie Mingjue snorts at that but shakes his head in defeat and goes back to watching, staying still as Lan Xichen subtly steps closer to him and tucks his hand into the crook of his elbow as the start timer counts down from five.

Whatever Nie Mingjue was expecting before the competition started, it certainly wasn’t what ends up happening as soon as the buzzer sounds.

His eyes go wide as he watches Meng Yao instantly take the lead by putting his foot above his head and launching himself a full body-length up the wall while everyone else is still trying to find their first handhold.

“Oh my god,” Lan Xichen breathes at his side and Nie Mingjue is in full agreement. Meng Yao practically flies up the wall, taking the lead by miles simply by virtue of skipping over at least five footholds at a time to get to the highest one he can reach - which is never lower than rib- or shoulder-height.

Nie Mingjue has never seen anything like it and he can’t take his eyes off him. He doesn’t even hesitate, he just makes these impossible jumps and pulls until he smacks the buzzer at the top and turns to sit on the top of the wall, feet dangling and the dimples in his cheeks visible even from this distance as he grins down at the others still halfway down the rest of the wall.

“Oh shit,” it’s Nie Mingjue’s turn to exclaim as Meng Yao wiggles his fingers in a little wave while Jin Zixun slips and falls a few feet before tension gets applied to his rope, leaving him dangling in front of the hardest course on the wall like a sack of turnips.

“That was..oh my.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So flexible,” Nie Huaisang pipes up suddenly from his other side and Nie Mingjue doesn’t yelp but he comes close.

“Huaisang!!”

“Hi da-ge, er-ge. Enjoying the view? It’s very scenic.”

“Don’t be crude, A-Sang,” Lan Xichen chastises without any heat and Nie Huaisang snorts.

“I’m not the one checking out Meng Yao’s ass like a couple of creeps. He’ll want a drink this evening, by the way - he hates dealing with his family.” Nie Huaisang leans forward to look up pointedly first at him and then at Lan Xichen next to him. “Maybe even two drinks.”

“I can feel you winking at me, A-Sang,” Lan Xichen says with a smirk without taking his eyes off Meng Yao and Nie Huaisang laughs behind his fan. 

“Good, then we’re on the same page! Does this mean I should tell Wei-xiong not to talk him into going up there again or do you need more convincing?”

Nie Mingjue coughs at that and does his best to glare. “No one said he has to stop. If he wants to go again to prove his point to that smarmy jackass cousin of his then who are we to stop him?”

“Subtle, da-ge,” Nie Huaisang drawls. He stretches his arms above his head with a little sigh before he steps away to look at them over his shoulder with a sly wink. “As many times as he’s willing to go, then? Noted, I’ll let Wei-xiong know right away,” he teases and then he’s off with a laugh.

“Well. That was..”

“We’re definitely buying him drinks tonight, right?” Nie Mingjue checks and Lan Xichen’s responding hum is perfectly easy to interpret as they watch Meng Yao rappel down the wall and set up to go again. “Good.”

[angloie]

Rivals. Nothing more. (1/2)

> Percy is annoyed on how Annabeth always was. Her passion to win, to suceed, to be better than him. He hates that. It's totally not hot, or whatever.

> Warnings: swearing and kinda (?) suggestive undertones, my writing

> Genre: fluff, mutual pinning, Percy having a huge fat crush on Annabeth.

You can find the second part here!

Percy wasn't very fond of smartasses who talked back.

I mean, who wouldn't? They were truly insufferable; acting like they knew everything and spat out facts here and there, all high and mighty.

Annabeth fit that description perfectly.

She's such a stuck up nerd; always beating his spot just opened place higher than him. When they spar, Percy can't help but feel a overwhelming urge pushing him to win. Annabeth struck back with the same passion, every strike, slash, push, thrust, holds her need for victory.

And when Percy does win after a long match? It feels amazing. The refreshing mood when you get exactly what you want- for once beating enemy number one. Annabeth shakes hands with him after and it infuriates him all over again. Why can't she feel more embarassed? Devestated? Shame? She walks away from the training arena calmly like she won over him.

Oh, Annabeth does feel embarassed. Devestated, too. But the look in Percy's eyes when she acts all stoic- seated stop her high horse- is simply electrifying. No better feeling than antagonizing your rivals, right?

They first meet at twelve. Both still young and insufferable, being the natural rivals they were. After all, their godly parents were two of the biggest rivals between one another: Athena and Posiedon.

Then they’re thirteen. Rivals, yes, but they can get along better now. Much better, in fact. Annabeth just feels the tiniest bit of attraction. It's just platonic. That's what she likes to tell herself, really.

Fourteen and Percy and her still bickering and arguing like usual. They can respect each other's boundaries still, all while they make crude jokes about the other. People say that they might be best friends, but the two of them shoot their ideas out of their heads. Who would wan't to be friends with that loser, anyways?

The ripe age of fifteen. Same old Percy, and same old Annabeth. They grow stronger together, and even more stronger as they progress. It's such a heartwarming thing to watch. Annabeth becomes more aware of how Percy looks. His apearance. Once a couple inches shorter than her becomes level-height. And then Percy has the audacity to grow taller than her. 

He likes to tease Annabeth about it. Holding books above her head, or anything he can grab that's hers. It's more blood-boiling when you remember the fact that people in ancient Greece associated height with power. Percy? Have more power than her? Unaceptable.

Percy on the flip side becomes more aware of how his endearing his rival becomes. Annabeth puts him in awe sometimes, incredibly witty and smart. But the snobbish attitude from her makes him want to gag. Maybe not as much as it did in the past other years. Annabeth, (as much as he hates to admit it) is someone he can trust. After years of being partners in both battle and else, that was expected. Percy still can't trust Annabeth with his blue cookies though.

Sixteen, finally. A confusing year for Percy. It becomes a growing problem for Percy when his heart beats erratically when Annabeth is near. Her shampoo smells so heavenly from where he's sitting, which is at the end of her bed. Annabeth sits crossed legged from him, flicking the pages of a book. Percy just saw the lights on from her cabin and crawled through the window. That would make her annoyed, right? No other reason; just to annoy her. Totally not because he wants to see her again.

Annabeth doesn't have the slightest clue in her mind about why she let him in. Or why he opted to sit on her bed directly, instead of sitting on one of the very comfortable seats in the large room. Annabeth doesn't complain. The cabin is empty; her other guests singing along at the campfire or elsewhere. 

Percy gets up wordlessly as Annabeth continues to stare at her book. Words are flowing through, forming, but she can't seem to focus to comprehend the book.

She notices his arrival when the bed dips with his weight. Percy has a blob of water in mid-air, floating just above the palm of his hand.

“You better not get that on my bed,” Annabeth chides, “Or I'll make sure to kill you.”

“Really now?” Percy makes the water floating towards her, threatening to soak her face. It stops inches before her- stopping from wetting her clothes along with it. She doesn't flinch.

Annabeth gives a sticky sweet smile, but her eyes say otherwise. Something along the lines of 'You better be digging up your grave now'. Percy flinches back in surprise, hands braced in a defensive position. The water shifts and floats back to him... to only float around the room aimlessly.

It's times like this when he feels truly at peace. The air is tense, sure, but he feels calmer than ever before. It's liberating.

The water leaks a bit from the moving. Annabeth is amazed how it moves so effortlessly. It's Percy moving it, but that didn't matter. Sometimes Annabeth wished she had powers... Her smarts and wits were amazing, but she felt that she could achieve even more if she had them. It's a painful thought.

Percy sits back on her bed, staring at the white celling. Different coloured sticky notes and red strings are hooked together by flimsy thumb tacks. Talk about being a nerd.

Both lost in their thoughts and a good book, the water comes back around the room to splash on-

Just fucking peachy.

On Annabeth.

“Percy!” She screeches, hair damp with liquid and some finding it's way on her white shirt. Due to the thin fabric and cool water, he shirt becomes a little more. How do you put it? transparent. Translucent.

“Oh shit-” Percy jerks upwards, moving his hands around frantically. If he stares any longer, he might become more aware of the now visible uhm- undergarments. He also might notice that they are blue, his favourite colour, and how it looks so fucking good on her. 

Okay, he's noticed all of that in a matter of seconds.

“Quit staring!” Annabeth protests more, as Percy gets up to face the wall and cover his eyes. 

“I didn't mean to!” He says, still facing away from her. “I-it was a accident!” I swear!”

“Quit you're blubbering and get out!”

“Sorry!” Percy says again, and again. “I’m really sorry!” Until he finds his way to the large mahogany door and steps out.

“I- uh-" He tries to reasonate, tries to make up with her. But it's quickly shut off when Annabeth slams the door in his face. Leaving a very stuttering and blushing Percy.

Seventeen. It's a dreadful year for the two of them.

It becomes painfully clear why Percy had been a blushing, embarrassing mess around Annabeth. Clear on why he feels like he's on cloud nine when she pins him down in the sparing arena. And incredibly clear why Percy thinks about her eyes, her smile, her everything. Even the random facts he always thought was annoying and stupid leave marks on his brain. 

The oblivious son of Poseidon denies his feelings. Just some rivalry feelings! Some of which include him wanting to kiss Annabeth so bad sometimes, or even wanting to hold hands while walking along the sand. Maybe he does have the occasional dream of some less than appropriate things. Percy's rather embarassed about that.

It's when Grover, his reliable and trustworthy best friend finally makes him realize his true feelings. Ones hidden layers of sarcasm and sharp jokes.

“You think about her twenty four seven,” Grover starts, leaning back on the thick trunk of the oak tree. Percy had just came to him mid-spar to tell him how Annabeth was absolutely destroying him.

“And you also blab about her nonstop. I dunno dude, that sounds like a crush to me.” Grover sighs heavily. Percy blinks once. Then twice. And then three times.

“Do you get jealous when you see her with someone else?”

“Yeah! It's sickening! I feel all weird and stuff, so I-”

“You have a crush~” Grover teases.

“No? I think it's just-"

“Its a crush, Percy. You're so oblivious that it'll never progress more than that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Percy scowls at him. A bead of sweat trails down his forehead, caused from the hours of training.

“It means you have to confess.” Grover simply states, getting up. His hooves clomp down on the hard-packed earth as he trails away. “You gotta do it sooner or later, before someone else does it!”

That thought makes bile rise in his stomach. Annabeth? Go out with someone's else? Other than him? No way. Negatory.

But what if she declines? Annabeth is completely free to do that; but Percy would probably die of heartbreak. And if she started to date someone? Percy would explode.

It's settled, then.

He's going to confess.

-

- a/n:

(re-uploaded to fix some mistakes, lol)

[jajanvm-imbi]

Headcanons of Krel living on earth because he’s my favorite and I love him and I haven’t seen anyone do this yet so I feel like I have to

^^^^^because of this very moment I love the idea of Mary and Darci befriending Krel.

Since Aja,Vex and Eli went back to Akaridion-5, Mother was destroyed, and Claire was busy with Trollhunting stuff, earth gets pretty lonely. So Mary and Darci adopt him into their friend group. 

At first Krel was a little apprehensive to joining their friend group, but he quickly warmed up to it because, he, being Krel, loves the attention.

like I can totally see Mary and Darci taking Krel to like a mall or something and doing those like teen romcom movie shopping montages where he goes into a changing room and the girls judge the outfit until they find the perfect one.

I personally believe Krel would adopt a soft boy look, with like oversized button ups and t shirts tucked into jeans, but thats just me.

anyway, because he’s friends with Mary and Darci, Krel has a new found social popularity in Arcadia.

because of this, Krel would prolly get nominated for Spring Fling king and shit

I would say Krel wouldn’t really care about being nominated, but seeing how he cared so much about the science fair and the Battle of the Bands, he would definitely care

Steve is conflicted because he wants to be Spring Fling King, but he can’t mess with Krel like he did with Jim and Eli cause Krel is his girlfriend’s brother 

Krel notices this and takes advantage of it to mess with Steve and actually tries to win.

like Krel would just dominate the contests, and his theme presentation would be the flashiest and most appealing and people would just generally like him, and that would really worry Steve

like Krel, with four arms would be really good at the Touch-a-Truck-athon or whatever its called.

Krel would prolly let Steve win anyway because watching Steve squirm and freak out over prolly losing the crown and not being able to do anything about it cause he's Aja's brother is much better than any highschool dance crown

also the school 100% asks Krel to DJ future dances and events to save money, and Krel absolutely loves it

He would also definitely do the school play. Seeing how much he enjoyed being in Toby and Eli's short film, and again, he loves the attention, he would totally be down 

Also it would just be another chance to mess with Steve to be the lead. 

Because of this, Ms. Janeth would do another Shakespearean play, but do one of those modern renditions. Like it's the same play just in a modern setting, to take advantage of Krel's Akaridion form like they did with Jim's armor. 

If not in the play he would do stage crew/tech.

Like he would create elaborate settings for them using A5 tech and Ms. Janeth would adore it 

moving on, because home life is pretty lonely with just the Lucy and Ricky for company, Krel loves to host his friends for parties and sleepovers and whatever

and since Krel lives in the coolest house on the block, they love coming over

He hosts girl’s night every other week with Mary, Darci, and Clarie (becauuse she deserves a fucking break) 

since we’ve all agreed that Krel is 100% a gaylien, I love the idea that he casually comes out during a girls night

like Mary would be like “So Krel, are there any girls you like?” and Krel’s just like, “*snort* Girls? Who ever said I like girls?” and the others are like “….....?“ and Krel just rolls his eyes and says "I like boys, ladies” and they’re like “ooooohhhh, okay. Cool.”

So now they spend girls night talking about boys. Claire and Darci about their mans and Mary and Krel about cute boys.

One day the girls give Krel a little rainbow pin and Krel’s just like “what’s this?” And the girls tell him that it’s an earth symbol for the gays and he’s like “theres a symbol for that here? I didnt think it was that big of a deal. On A5 it’s pretty normal” and the girls explain why theres a symbol and he’s like “oh shoot wow, thanks" and he put it on his backpack.

He’s pretty confused the first time someone is homophobic towards him cause like that kind if behavior doesnt happen on A5 and hes just like, “why does this bother you? I hardly know you” and just brushes it off. Its doesnt really bother him, mainly cause he doesnt know the earth insults towards gay people so he doesn’t even realize, but if the girls (or Toby, or even Steve, too) catch anyone being homophobic towards their friend they will attack that asshole on sight. Especially Mary and Steve

Random person on the street: Ha, *slur*

Marry: WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HIM BITCH???

Krel: Marry its fine, it’s not that big of a dealoHSEKLOSANDGAYLENMARYGETOFFOFHIM

Marry: SAY IT AGAIN ASSHAT, I D A R E YOU

Claire and Darci: *trying to hold Mary back* maRY NO

Steve: THATS MY NINJA KICKING SPACE ANGEL GIRLFRIEND'S BROTHER BUTTSNACK I'LL END YOU

Toby: *now chasing after Steve to stop him* stEVE NO

Mary would 100% find out who the rando is and destroy their life on social media. Like she would leak their job, phone number, email, school/college (if applicable) to her thousands of followers and absolutely ruin them with no remorse. And honestly, good for her

Also whilst on the subject, Krel can not drive or cook for 2 reasons: 1. Hes gay and 2. He’s a prince so he’s never had to do either before

Like he can obviously do math but that’s it.

Proof? That one scene in Wizards when Douxie had him drive the airship. You know the one.

Coach Lawrence refuses to get in a car with him at Drivers Ed after the 3rd day Krel shows up.

Krel gets addicted to sugary coffee shop-esc drinks thanks to Darci. Not coffee cause we saw in 3Below Part 1 that he doesnt like coffee, but refreshers, coolattas, frappuccinos etc…? Definitely.

As for warm drinks, he’s more of a tea person.

Moving on

He face calls Aja everyday because he really misses her

He tells her all about school and his friends and whatever and Aja tells him about the changes she’s making to the A5 government

Thanks to the wormhole they visit each other often. Sometimes Steve tags along cause he misses his ninja kicking space queen angel girlfriend. (And Eli, but that's also for another post)

They take turns housing Luug.

Krel genuinely loves it on earth, but he hates the primitive technology so he begs Aja to send him supplies and materials for his projects. 

He would 10000% apply to HexTech for an after school job. Seeing his reaction to HT in Wizards and the fact that “Akaridion tech and magic are so compatible”, he would be the perfect addition to the HT staff. 

The Wizards wouldn’t be sure at first but after he shows them A5 tech and Douxie’s email of recommendation about the time loop thing they made together, the wizards are like “oh yeah we definitely keeping this kid. This is going to be so much fun.”

Their inventions become more and more extravagant because Krel can and he's just extra and the wizards love it.

He would definitely find a way to use magic using A5 tech. But he would have to study magic in order to figure out how, so the wizards help him learn all about magic. And since he's learned everything there is to learn about science and technology and whatever, he's super excited to learn about something completely different and interesting. The wizards are happy to teach him. He would be the first Akaridion to learn and use magic

Like he would make his own staff with his serrator and everything. He's like "earn a staff? Nah fuck that going to make my own"

Speaking of which he really likes human swear words. But he doesnt know when it is and isn't inappropriate to say these swear words so he's gotten in trouble a few times for swearing at the wrong time

For example:

Ms. Janeth: excuse me Mr. Tarron?

Krel: what the fuck do you want?

Everyone in the room: krEL NO

Anyway, back to Krel at HT, thanks to Toby, he would definitely have a bowl of candy in his little lab. More like multiple jars of different candy just scattered around the room. Small candy like fun sized chocolate and skittles and jelly beans and whatever

And a mini fridge, of course.

Steve, Toby and Arrrgh come over to the lab alot to mess around.

Toby has a lot of sci-fi requests for Krel to make

Toby: do you think you can make a shrink ray? Laser blasters? Invisible ray? My own hoverboard? My own serrator *gASP* WITH A WARHAMMER SETTING???? WITH SPACE ARMOR TO MATCH???!!!???!

Krel: Toby you already have a warhammer and armor why do you need more?

Toby: I dont have a space warhammer and armor Krel!!!!!!

Going back to school life, I feel like Krel would take an interest in Spanish class. I mean, his human form is latino and in Trollhunters (I'm pretty sure the lightning in a bottle episode) he said "Si" in response to a question someone asked him, so I feel like he would like to learn another human language. 

I also feel like he would just like to learn about Latin American culture in general since Mother gave him that form. He'd like to get in touch with his human self. 

Claire (when she isnt busy Trollhunting with Jim and the gang) is happy help him learn about Latin American culture and help him with his Spanish. 

Krel, being a fast learner, becomes fluent quickly with a perfect accent. 

Señor Uhl, who already liked the Tarrons to begin with, would really appreciate this. 

Claire's dad would also appreciate this.

Since he has such a fascination with human music, Krel would especially love Latin American music. Specifically reggaeton, since its kind of like techno music in a way and he already likes techno music.

And naturally, he learns to dance. All the styles of latin american dances. And he becomes quite the favorite on the dance floor.

He and Claire become great dance partners cause they both have the natural Latino rhythm and because Jim respects and trusts his girlfriend he doesnt mind them dancing together at parties and stuff

Although, Jim does ask for dance help at some point cause it looks like fun and he wants to dance with his beautiful talented incredible amazing gf and Krel is happy to teach him and anyone else who wants dance help. 

GUITAR LESSONS with Douxie cause in 3Below Krel said he really wanted to learn how to play guitar, steals Shannon’s guitar from the bonfire and is seen multiple times strumming it throughout the series. So of course this is included.

Toby introduces Krel to YouTube and Krel instantly makes his own channel.

of course his channel is called DJ Kleb and he posts his tracks and remixes. and maybe even some vlogs

its a little slow at first, only Arcadia Oaks students are subscribed to it but Mary blows it up by posting one of Krel’s tracks on her own social media and now he has thousands of subscribers

he also gained other forms of social media like Instagram and Tiktok, platforms to post his music

At this point every girl in school wants to be friends with Krel but not in the toxic GBF (gay best friend) way, girls just genuinely think he's 10x more interesting than every other boy in Arcadia Oaks

I think that's it for now sorry this is really long I just really love Krel and I had so many ideas. Feel free to add on!!

[beautiful-and-terrible]

dazed ‘n‘ confused (part 3)

A/N: 3500 fuckin’ words y’all lmaooo i am so stupidly invested in this dumbass and his hot neighbor.

Ship: Rodrick Heffley x OFC

Warnings: underage drinking / drug usage, dubious consent (both parties inebriated), swearing, etc.

---

Nicole shouldn’t have worried so much about what to wear. When she showed up in Rodrick’s garage, his friends Ben and Chris were there, both dressed in ripped jeans and flannel shirts paired over band t-shirts. By comparison, Nicole’s black skater skirt and combat boots felt almost fancy.

“Hey, I’m Ben,” the dark-haired one holding a red electric guitar came up to her and gave her a fist bump. She almost laughed, not having fist-bumped anyone since she was 13. “Nicole,” she replied, smiling.

“I’m Chris!” the blonde called over, waving, before turning back to adjusting his microphone and checking the settings on their audio.

Rodrick seemed to appreciate her style, at least. He came through the garage door, carrying a four-pack of Monster energy and whistled, giving her a quick up-and-down glance, “Hey, groupie.”

Nicole punched his arm as he walked by. “I came here to listen to you play, so… play.”

“Your wish is my command,” Rodrick said with a dramatic bow.

Nicole found a relatively comfortable spot as far from the speakers as she could get - this wasn’t a concert, but loud speakers could still be painful after an extended period of time. The clack of Rodrick’s drumsticks alerted her, and before she knew it there was a blast of noise and a blur of limbs.

Honestly, he wasn’t bad, Nicole thought to herself after they had played a few songs. He could use a little more control, but what musician didn’t get caught up in their music? Glancing outside, Nicole saw that it was finally growing dark out. The sky had turned a soft purple, and she could see a few fireflies flashing in the cooling grass. She checked the time on her phone - 9:15.

“Hey, do you guys know Caitlin?” she asked the group. They turned to look at her.

“Caitlin Irving or Caitlin Peters?” Ben asked, taking an impressive gulp of Monster before burping loudly. The boys fell into fits of laughter. Nicole couldn’t help laughing, too.

“I don’t know her last name, she works at Starbucks, though.”

“Ohhhhhh, Caitlin! Yeah, we know her. Why?”

“She invited me to a party tonight, but I don’t really know anyone but her. Would you guys wanna be my plus-three?”

Ben and Chris high-fived each other, and Rodrick saluted her with his drumstick, whacking himself in the head in the process. Nicole hid a laugh behind her hand, not wanting to embarrass him. “For sure, Nikky. As long as there's drinks, we’ll be there,” Chris said. 

“C’mon, we can take my van,” Rodrick said, shoving his drumsticks in his back pocket and running inside to grab his keys. The other boys started down the driveway toward the white van, garishly painted with the band's name on the side in bold, black letters.

When Rodrick returned, Nicole gave him a smug look. “I thought it needed repairs?”

Rodrick stopped walking mid-stride, looking like a puppet caught on its strings. “Uh. Yeah. Well. My dad helped, when you were over at your house. Getting ready. It’s fine now. He’s the best mechanic I know.”

“Uh-huh. You sure you didn’t just… want to ride home with me from work?”

Rodrick scoffed. “You wish.” But as he rounded the front of the car to the drivers side, you caught the scarlet color of his cheeks against his tan skin. As if he could be any more endearing, he even offered Nicole shotgun. Chris grumbled the entire time, but begrudgingly gave you the seat he had worked so hard to acquire. 

“First stop - Capital. Ben has a fake, so we can BYOB,” Rodrick said, practically peeling out of the driveway. Nicole clutched the seat for dear life, heart stuck in her throat.

“Are you sure this thing is secure?” she squeaked, feeling the seat shaking a little in its bolts.

“No one has been ejected yet, Nikky,” Rodrick laughed.

“Go-go gadget get me the fuck out of here,” Nicole groaned, planting her feet on the floor to try and stop herself from flying forward as Rodrick squealed to a stop in front of a seedy looking liquor store.

Ben barely avoided taking the sliding door off its tracks when he opened the door. Chris lit a cigarette in the back, the acrid scent wafting to the front of the van. Nicole didn’t mind the smell much - honestly it reminded her of her Grandmother's house - but she hoped the smell didn’t linger on her clothes. That would be hard to explain to her mom. Speaking of, she sent off a quick text to her parents telling them that she’d be back late. Luckily, Nicole had always been the responsible type, so her parents trusted her to make good decisions and as a result, let her have free reign of her life (especially now that she was 18).

Ben returned after a few minutes, carrying a 24 pack of Natty Light and lighting his own cigarette.

“You have the address?” Rodrick asked, and you showed him Caitlins text.

“Yo, that's in Heather Hill’s neighborhood. Maybe we can tee-pee her house later,” Rodrick said, already zooming off again.

“Heather Hills?”

“Major bitch,” Chris called from the back of the van. Rodrick shrugged. “She’s not a bitch she’s just… not very nice.”

Nicole laughed, “You don’t have to defend the honor of all women by not calling her a bitch. If she’s a bitch, I believe you.”

Rodrick looked at you out of the corner of his eye, thinking briefly.

“Yeah, she’s a stone-cold bitch. She ran over my foot once. With her car.” 

Nicole grimaced in sympathy.

“Last year, we played at her Sweet Sixteen party, and Rodrick broke her ice sculpture bust. It was awesome,” Ben said.

“Oh, so you aren’t always perfect?” Nicole teased. Rodrick flipped her off.

Soon, they pulled up in front of Caitlin’s house. Nicole could already hear loud music from outside the house, and there were rainbow strobe lights flashing in the windows. Swallowing her nervousness, she followed Rodrick, Chris and Ben up the front walkway.

As they walked in the house, Nicole was hit by the fragrant, herbal smell of weed. From far away, the music had seemed loud, but coming in the house the music seemed to vibrate her ribcage - it was something with a repetitive bass, stuff Nicole didn’t normally listen to but she enjoyed it nonetheless. She followed Rodrick further into the house, trying to find the kitchen, weaving between people dancing and couples making out.

There were people surrounding an island in the center of the kitchen, decorated with colorful bottles of liquor and sodas to mix with. Nicole spotted Caitlin talking to a tall black guy, drinking out of a red solo cup. Nicole gave her a wave, and Caitlin excitedly came over to greet her.

“Hey! I’m so glad you made it.”

“Yeah, me too. I haven’t actually ever been to a high school party.”

Caitlin’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Well, you’re gonna have one hell of a first high school party experience, girly. Let's get you a drink.”

Caitlin turned to the kitchen island and poured about four shots of rum and filled the rest with coke in a red solo cup. Nicole took a sip. She could barely tell it was spiked, so she took a few more chugs and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. 

“Do you wanna dance?” Caitlin asked, and Nicole nodded before following her back to the living room. Already, the rum was making her limbs feel looser and her brain fuzzy. She finished the rest of it in one go, enjoying the feeling of her nervousness and insecurities fading away. Nicole had never been unpopular, per say, but she tended to stay to herself and only had a few close friends at her old school, anyway. It was refreshing to feel included, and she couldn’t help feeling that this was the way her teenage years were supposed to be - loud and exciting and living moment to moment.

As they danced, Nicole swaying in place and occasionally spinning around, she couldn’t help but feeling a little awkward. Caitlin was actually a really good dancer - she knew how to move her body in all the right ways so they hit on beat with the music. Nicole envied her easy grace, but was quickly relieved when Caitlin accidentally bumped into someone, causing them to spill their drink. Nicole stifled a laugh, not at Caitlin’s expense, just at the irony of the timing. At least Nicole wasn’t the only clutz. 

They had been dancing for only a few minutes before Nicole felt a hand on her waist, making her jump slightly.

“Hey, the guys and I are gonna smoke some weed in the backyard. Do you wanna come?” Rodrick said. His voice was almost in her ear, close enough that she could hear him over the blaring music, his breath tickling her sensitive skin. 

She turned around to face him - in the dim light of the house, he looked much more appealing than usual - she hadn’t even noticed he had put eyeliner on, but it made the dark of his eyes look even more obsidian. Nicole nodded, giving a thumbs up, and pulled Caitlin along with her.

“I need you for moral support,” Nicole said, making Caitlin laugh.

“Have you ever smoked weed before?” Caitlin asked.

“Nope.”

Caitlin raised her eyebrows and pulled her closer as they walked to whisper in her ear.

“Okay, take a small hit the first time, don’t try to impress anyone. But breathe it fully into your lungs - I like to start by pulling it into my mouth first, and then inhaling fully. And if you cough, don’t worry, almost everyone does their first time.”

Nicole gave her a grateful look as they approached the circle of people sitting on lawn chairs in the backyard. Ben and Chris were already there, with two other girls Nicole didn’t know. However, there seemed to only be two more lawn chairs available to sit on.

Nicole was about to plop down on the grass before Caitlin grabbed her hand.

“You should sit on Rodrick’s lap,” she whispered, and Nicole almost choked on her drink.

“What?” 

“Dude, he’s totally into you - I don’t know what your sitch is, but I think he’s probably a little nervous about making the first move. Just do it, and if he asks, say ‘sorry, there weren’t enough seats and I don’t wanna get bug bites from the grass.”

Nicole stared at her, mouth agape. The alcohol in her brain was telling her it might not be the worst idea ever. And you know what? Fuck it. You’re only young once. Nicole made up her mind, and squeezing Caitlin’s hand, she walked over to where Rodrick was sitting before primly making herself comfortable on his thigh.

She felt him tense beneath her immediately, before his hand came up to her waist to steady her. Before he had the chance to say anything about it, the joint was passed to him, and he took an impressive hit, the cherry glowing red at the end for several seconds. Nicole watched him with interest, hoping she wouldn’t mess up too badly and embarrass herself. 

Rodrick looked up at her as he exhaled the smoke, holding the joint out to her. Not paying attention, and entranced by the eye contact they were holding, she reached out to take the joint without looking and promptly burned her hand on it.

“Fucker,” she hissed, shaking her hand to try and get rid of the pain. Rodrick just laughed.

“Do you want help?” Rodrick asked, before taking another hit of the joint. He reached up behind Nicole’s head, threading his fingers through her hair, before pulling her down close to his face, their lips inches apart. Nicole instinctively opened her mouth, half from surprise and half in anticipation of being kissed. But Rodrick simply blew a steady stream of smoke into her mouth, - their lips didn’t make contact. Belatedly, Nicole realized she was supposed to be inhaling, so she did quickly, trying to hold the smoke in her lungs for as long as possible. 

Somebody wolf-whistled in the group. Nicole was pretty sure it was Caitlin.

Eventually, she ended up coughing it out, Rodrick rubbing her back but still laughing.

“You’re a green at the green, huh?” Rodrick asked, and Nicole rolled her eyes.

“That obvious?”

“Yeah, but it’s cute. I’m glad you’re having your first high with me,” Rodrick said, smiling sweetly. Nicole’s stomach fluttered. Already, she could tell that this wasn’t alcohol she was feeling anymore - the buzz she had been feeling earlier was replaced by something much slower and velvety, like the world was moving through maple syrup.

“Dude,” Nicole said after a minute, realizing she had been staring at nothing. Rodrick looked at her. She looked at him. They both started cracking up laughing.

“What are we laughing at?” Nicole hiccuped through her laughter.

“No idea,” Rodrick said, wiping his eyes free of tears of mirth.

“Rodrick, pass the J,” Ben called out, breaking the two of them from their trance. Without thinking about it, Nicole leaned back onto Rodrick’s chest, enjoying the warmth of his body. It wasn’t a cold night, per say, but Nicole was only wearing a skirt and a t-shirt, and she had always had poor circulation. She shivered involuntarily.

“Do you want my flannel?” Rodrick asked, already taking it off. Nicole sat up, ruffling his hair playfully.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you just want to show off your arms,” Nicole said, slipping on the warm blue flannel and resting her hand on Rodrick’s exposed arm, once again in a cut-off tank top. Rodrick gave her a funny look.

“What do you mean?”

Nicole suddenly found herself tongue tied. “Uh. I mean. You just wear a lot of tank tops.”

Rodrick raised an eyebrow, but said nothing else. Nicole leaned back against him again, feeling simultaneously self-conscious and exhilarated. They had never touched for this long before. She wasn’t sure exactly what was happening between them, but she liked the direction it was going. Even though they hadn’t known each other long, Nicole felt more comfortable with Rodrick than she did anyone else - even though most of the time she had known him, he had been a nuisance to her. Well… maybe not a complete nuisance.

It was funny to think that only a few days ago, Rodrick was just an annoyance she dealt with at her job and admired from afar, and now she was sitting on his lap, wearing his flannel. She leaned her head back, looking at the stars. She hadn’t noticed that Caitlin had left, but suddenly she appeared over her line of vision, grinning.

“Do you want a beer?” she asked, holding a cold can over Nicole’s forehead. Nicole reached out to take it, sitting up before cracking it open. She wasn’t in the habit of enjoying beer for the flavor, so she’d rather get drunk off it quickly. It tasted like wet cardboard, but Nicole managed to chug it down.

“Damn, girl, where’d you learn to drink like that?” Chris asked, laughing as Nicole belched loudly. 

“Years of rigorous practice and intense concentration, young padawan,” Nicole replied.

“Do you wanna shotgun one with me?” Chris asked, half-joking, but Nicole was feeling overly confident from the buzz she was feeling and readily stepped up to the challenge.

“Whoever spits it out owes the other ten bucks.”

“Fuckin’ deal,” Chris grinned, Ben cheering him on as he threw a beer toward Nicole. She (surprisingly) caught it.

“Wait, gimme one,” Rodrick said, making grabby hands in Ben’s direction, who threw him a beer.

“On three, okay?” Ben counted. They all started to crack open their beers, Nicole with her house keys, Rodrick with his car keys, and Chris with his pen knife.

“One.. twoooooo…. Three!” Ben yelled, and they all tipped their heads back, drinking from the hole in the side of the can. Nicole’s eyes watered, but she was too competitive to back down now. Foam spilled out of the side of her mouth, but she kept drinking. She could hear people chanting her name as she finally threw the beer can down on the ground, raising her hands in victory. Both Rodrick and Chris were covered in beer foam, but Nicole somehow stayed relatively clean, minus the beer she wiped off her face.

“Ten motherfucking bucks, Chris,” Nicole slurred slightly, grinning at him as he pulled out a crumpled bill from his pocket and threw it at her. 

“Rodrick, how the fuck did you lose, dude? You were the one who taught me how to shotgun,” Ben said, causing Nicole to throw her head back in laughter, before letting out another massive burp that lasted for several seconds. The whole group dissolved into laughter. 

Eventually, the joint got finished, and people started to move back inside. However, Rodrick and Nicole stayed outside, talking about whatever came into their heads.

“Were you ever into Greek mythology as a kid?” Nicole asked, watching Rodrick’s eyes go comically large.

“Does Percy Jackson count?”

Nicole pretended to consider it deeply for a moment, before shaking her head. Rodrick pouted. 

“I only got into Greek mythology because of Percy Jackson. So, I think it still counts.

“Fine. But do you know shit about the constellations they’re associated with?”

Rodrick pointed at the sky, at a random cluster of stars.

“For sure - that's Dingus Humongus, he was a Greek hero with the fattest ass known to man.”

“Sounds like my kinda guy,” Nicole replied, sticking her tongue out as Rodrick squawked in indignation.

“Besides a fat ass, what do you look for in a guy? Not, like, that I care. Just. Wondering.”

“Very good English, Rodrick,” Nicole laughed, “I guess my type is… someone kind. And funny. Someone who tries to be cool and is actually a huge dork. And musical, that's always a plus,” she said, feeling very bold as she looked directly at him. It took Rodrick a moment, but eventually his mouth formed a small “oh” as he realized who she was talking about. His eyes flicked down to her lips. Then he frowned, “I am not a dork.”

Nicole rolled her eyes, “And I’m totally not waiting for you to kiss me right now.”

Nicole watched as the color slowly rose in Rodrick’s cheeks, turning them rosy pink, visible even in the shadow-drenched backyard. Nicole decided to pull yet another risky move, and adjusted herself on Rodrick’s lap so that she was facing him, her thighs on top of his arms around his neck. For such a seemingly confident boy, Rodrick seemed more nervous than she had ever seen him, even when he asked her to come to band practice earlier. Hell, he hadn’t even been that nervous to shotgun the joint into her mouth.

“Sorry, I just… I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. I don’t wanna be bad at it,” he confessed. Just as Nicole thought she couldn’t be any more endeared by this boy. She slid her hands into his hair, thick and soft. She leaned in and gently nosed at his jawline, placing small kisses against his warm skin. Right at his jugular, he smelled like cologne and nighttime and boy, the right mix of clean and sexy. Seemingly gaining his courage, he grabbed Nicole by the back of her head and brought her up to his lips.

It was soft, at first, merely a press of skin to skin, but the two gradually deepened the kiss, moving against each other like they were made for it. Nicole felt like her heart might beat out of her chest - or maybe she was just that high.

Feeling emboldened by Rodrick’s enthusiasm, she slipped her tongue between his lips, gently tangling their tongues together. He let out a low moan, and Nicole could’ve blacked out from how turned on she was by that simple sound. The warmth of his body against hers and the slickness of their mouths together caused a rush of liquid heat to form between Nicole’s legs. Goddamn, he was good at this. Nicole wasn’t sure how many girls Rodrick had kissed before this, but if he was a rookie at this she was damn impressed.

Rodrick’s hands, which had been resting on her waist, slowly moved down her ass and under her skirt, causing Nicole to gasp as he started to knead and grab at her cheeks - not hard, but enough to get her even more hot and bothered than she thought possible.

“Is this okay?” Rodrick asked, his voice low and rough. 

“Yeah, I’m good,” Nicole replied, running her fingers through his hair and scratching her nails down his neck. She felt him shiver beneath her, sending a heady rush of power to her stomach and lower. He pulled her closer to him by her ass, so that their crotches pressed together. Nicole was taken aback by the sensation of his bulge pressed against her, but didn’t pull back, instead grinding down on him.

“Are there still people out here?” Rodrick asked shakily. Nicole pulled back and looked over her shoulder - the backyard was empty, thank god.

“No, just us,” Nicole said, turning back and bringing her lips to his ear, biting and licking the sensitive flesh. Rodrick whimpered, grinding up to meet her, and Nicole almost lost it then and there.

The alcohol and weed in her system were slowing her reactions, but also kept her from thinking too much about what she was doing - all she could think about was how much she wanted this. Sober, this might’ve never happened - she was too nervous about what he would think if she ever made a move, constantly overthinking her every word and action. This dumb boy, who rode with her to work, who stayed to the end of her shift and bought her slushies, had wiggled his way into her every thought and every beat of her heart. She knew she was fucked.

She only wished it was literally.

Nicole opened her eyes briefly to catch Rodrick’s gaze, and out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed the red-and-blue flash of police lights. Rodrick caught sight of the lights at the same time.

“Oh, fuck.”

[volturicangetit]

A.V/J.V- Loved at last

Summary: After getting rejected by your imprints, Emmett and Rosalie, you needed a fresh start. So you go to Italy where you meet two interesting vampires. Maybe they can show you what’s it’s like to be loved.

Reqeust: YES/no @rexburn12​  : Where Male Reader Was Banished From La Push For Imprinting On Emmett, and Rosalie They Reject Him Which Almost Kills Him, and Makes Reader Extremely Sad and Reader Moves To Volterra, Italy To Work As A Mechanic. Alec and Jane Smell A Amazing Scent They Follow It To See Their Mate Reader At Home Who Looks Sad Which Makes Them Growl in Anger and It Catches Reader's Attention He Looks At Them, and Imprints On Them Making Him Shocked. Since Imprinting Is A One Time Thing For Shifters.

Warnings: swearing, self hate

Wordcount: 3226

A/N: I’m turning 17 tomorrow ( may 19 )! I can’t really celebrate my birthday but at least I can celebrate it with my parents and siblings. Also I’m born on the same day as Jojo Siwa so that....nice?

PART TWO

MASTERLIST

Saying that you ' hate yourself ' can't even express the amount of disgust you feel towards yourself. You know that it's something you can't control, something that isn't a choice. But still feel like it's your fault that you imprinted on not one, but two vampires. You didn't even know that it was possible to imprint on something that died decades ago. The fact that they both rejected you didn't help. You knew that they wouldn't love you but you were hoping to at least be friends.

" You fucking what? " Rosalie screams at the top of her dead lungs. You flinch as she takes a step towards you, lowering your head. " They can't control it, " Carlisle tries to reason, but Rosalie and Emmett ignore him. You feel Emmet wrap his hands around you and lift you off the ground. Within a second you're outside of the house where he roughly pushes you onto the ground, right into the mud. You sit there on your hands and knees trying to regain yourself which is very fucking difficult when your covered in mud and getting soaked slowly by the rain pouring down on you. It was like the universe wanted you to suffer even more.

" Did you seriously think that we would accept you? You're a fucking dog. " Rosalie says as she and Emmet are standing on their porch. It's only now that you see the contrast between you all. They're standing dry in their expensive house while you're laying in the mud, which comforts you for some odd reason. You stand up quickly, pushes some of the rain of off your face.

" Please, you know I wouldn't have come here if I could just go without you. ". Your voice cracks at every word. You came here vulnerable and onto the land of your enemies. If Sam knows that you're here, he will rip your head off. Emmett shakes his head but doesn't say anything. He can't bring himself to do so. Sure, he wants to scream at you. To yell some words at you he knows he's going to regret but it's like his mind has shut off. Rosalie, on the other hand, can't stop the words from flowing out. " Go away, you disgusting thing. "

You let yourself slide down the side onto the floor of your shower. The water streaming down onto your already burning skin is way too hot, yet you don't care. You don't deserve nice warm showers. No, you deserve scolding hot showers that makes your skin feel like it's going to fall off. A sob breaks out of your body, causing your shoulder to rumble along with it. You tried so hard to stop yourself from crying. But now you let it all out. Every emotion, every pent up bit of anger, every sad thought. It all comes it whether you want it to or not. Whines and groans come out of your mouth along with the sobs. You know the other pack members can hear you, not just crying, but also through your mental bond. Their voices and questions of concern are being blocked out by you. The only thing you can hear if your own sobbing and a dull ringing in your ears.

You don't know how long you've sat in the shower, but you do know that you're going to have a ridiculously high water bill this month. When you get out of the shower and have gotten dressed in a simple pair of sweat pants and a sweater you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. You stop in your track and stare at your own reflection. Your face seems foreign to you. Your normally gleeful eyes are now puffy and look so sickly that you might as well be dead. Your lips are broken from all the screaming and biting at them you've done. It looks weird to see yourself look so broken, but then again, it is said that rejection by your imprint is sometimes not even survived. " What's going on? ". You jump a little as you quickly turn around to see Paul standing behind you. He's leaning against the doorframe, glancing between you and the mirror. " Nothing, you lie. ".

" Oh, come one. We can hear your thoughts, remember? " he says as he taps his temple with his pointer finger. You nod, still looking down at the ground. When you remain quiet, Paul sighs and pulls you into a hug. You freeze at first. He never hugged you, or anyone for that matter. " Those bloodsuckers rejected you? ". You nod as you bury your face into his chest. You needed this. A hug, to help ground you and get you back to reality. " They don't deserve you, you know? ".

" I think I...I think I need to go away for a while, " you keep your voice soft while you speak to try and keep it from cracking. Paul nods before he lets his chin rest on top of your head. " How about Italy? The weather is a lot better there. I know some people there, " Paul suggests. You pull him closer to you. Italy. Nice, warm Italy. Away from Emmett and Rosalie, away from the pack. It will hurt like shit, but it's the best for you. A fresh start. A normal life. No vampires living right next door, no pack fights, no drama between Jacob, Bella and Edward. Just you and Italy. " Yeah, it sounds nice, "

---

Two months. Two months without cloudly Forks. It has done you good. Extremely good. You didn't realize how depressed that place made you until you left. The moment you felt the comforting Italian sun hit your skin was the moment you knew you made the right choice. You didn't talk to Paul's friends a lot. You got a place of your own after a couple of weeks, due to how small the town was everyone who was trying to sell their house was practically begging you to buy their house. You picked up your hobby of tinkering again, now using to be a mechanic though. The town needed one so you were happy to oblige. It was refreshing to have new faces around and a new environment. The sadness that once had its grip on your has disappeared, now only present in dark memories.

You pick up an apple that is laying on your kitchen table before making your way out of your house and towards your work. Not many costumers would come in, if at all. A festival is being celebrated in a nearby town. Naturally, almost everyone in the village has gone there to have a party. You didn't want to do that though, be around people and all. Plus this new free time would give you time to catch up with work and make some preparations for the next day. The walk to your work is short, yet you still enjoy it every day. Back in Forks, you hated the sound of the birds singing but here you enjoy it so much. The birds sing a different song here. One of joy instead of sadness.

" Buongiorno, " you say to your coworker as you walk into the store. Your Italian is far from perfect but it's getting better every day. " Come va? " your coworker, Piero, asks. " Bene. And you? ". He just nods at you with a smile before he resumes to fix what looks like a clock. You really couldn't tell though, most things that come to the store for fixing are broken beyond recognition. You sit down at your workspace and take in the mess that is laying before you. You need to clean that, definitely. You have enough time today to do so anyways

Going for a stroll through the city isn't something the twins would normally do but today was an exception. A sudden rainstorm has been hovering over the area, blocking out the sun and allowing them to go outside without fear. That and the fact that most inhabitants of San Cipriano were now in Volterra for the festival. They dressed down, replacing their usual robes with a dress in Jane's case and jeans and a sweater for Alec. They talked about normal things like the new store that just opened up down the block and books they've read. It feels nice to them to feel so normal. Anyone who saw them would think that they are just a brother and sister enjoying the cool afternoon weather and not two vampires who work for the three kings.

" They have this machine that can induce dreams, " Alec says as he tries to explain the plot of ' Inception ' to Jane. She nods as she only half listens to his story, more focussed on watching a group of children play hide and seek on the other side of the road. The two siblings are sitting on a bench right next to the cemetery, ironically enough. " Sounds fascinating, " Janes says.

Alec nods before resuming his explanation. Jane enjoys seeing her brother so happy. They were both way too serious for their age, not having enjoyed their childhood years as they should have. Seeing him so passionate and happy about something surely put a smile on her face. Alec stops his words however when a sudden gust of winds blows a particularly sweet smell towards them. Both siblings look at each other as they inhale the scent. " Apple, " Jane says

" And rust. Delicious, " Alec adds. Jane slowly points towards the direction of your store. Alec nods and stands up from the bench, getting what his sister means. Both twins slowly stroll to your shop, they want to see who this scent is coming from but at the same time are to content to feel any sort of rush.

The sound of a bell ringing notifies you that someone entered the shop. " Un momento! " you call out from the back of the shop. You quickly wipe the oil that has been building up of your hands with a cloth before making your way to the front of the store to help the new costumers out. The moment you lay your eyes on the twins is when the world stops. You'd be lying to say that they aren't beautiful. Every birthmark on their skins seems so perfect that it has had to be placed there by the angels themselves. A sudden rush of adrenaline fills your body. Every detail about them become highlighted. You know this feeling, you know what this means. You didn't think you could imprint again but here you are, imprinting on the twins. Apparently, your wolf seems to have a preference for imprinting on duos. " I...I...Can I.... ". Your mind can't seem to form words at the moment. It's too busy with taking the twins in, to memorise every single thing about them.

The moment your mind starts to get clearer, you can start to smell them. The dry, campfire-like smell that comes of them suddenly starts to make sense. Vampire. Of course, you had to imprint on vampires again. Jane and Alec also caught the hint of dog and forest in your scent, both realizing that they're in deep shit now. They know you're their mate, they didn't need to notify the other on it. The way they both feel this need to protect you and the way your scent has intoxicated them both said enough. " You're our mate, " Jane says softly. Her usually cold and stern voice now sounds honey sweet.

The realisation of the whole situation only seems to be catching up to you now. The whole two months you spent here, trying to rebuild your life and your mental health seems to be for nothing now. They will reject you. Those words seem to float around your head. You shake your head softly, feeling tears pricking up into your eyes. You take a couple of steps back and away from them. " I-I'm sorry. I can't. Not now, " you say before disappearing into the back of the shop and leaving the confused twins behind in the shop.

You can feel your wolf aching under your skin, begging to be let out. You rush out of the store through the backdoor. You chose your place of work strategically, right next to the forest, which you are very thankful for right now. You let your walls down and let the wolf in you come forth. The ache under your skin stops as your shift begins. Within seconds you're in your wolf form. Tall and frightening for most you stand there for a second, looking back at the store before making a run for it and into the forest. You sit there in your own mind, drowning in your own thoughts as the wolf takes control of your body. Normally, you would try to at least have a sliver of self-control, not now, however. Now you want nothing more than to get lost into the woods.

It doesn't feel like your in your own body, it feels like your floating above it. Memories is all your seeing. Rosalie and Emmett screaming at you. The disgusted looks in their eyes and the harsh words them threw at you without a second thought. They'll do the same. You're sure of it. How could a vampire ever love you? How could someone ever love you?

---

Wet grass brushes against your cheek. The prominent smell of dirt and daisies fills your nose. Slowly, you open your eyes. You're laying on your back, which you only realize now. You stare up at the dark sky above you. The sun is long gone. Now it's replaced by the moon and a thousand stars. It must be later than three a.m. Maybe even later. You should probably move and get inside before you catch a cold but you can't bring yourself to do so. You're to mentally and physically drained from your shift earlier this evening. After regaining yourself, you finally find the strength to get up from the grass. Every bone in your body aches as you stand up for the first time in hours. You stretch a little, getting used to your human form again. Slowly but surely you walk to your front door. The warmth that meets you the moment you open your door falls over you like a blanket. Sudden tiredness washes over you. You let out a jawn as you walk over to your living room, reading to crash on your couch.

Instead of an empty couch, you find two vampires sitting on it, the same there were in the shop earlier. " What are you doing on my house? " you ask. Your body fills with adrenaline again. A warm fuzz fills your brain now that you're around your imprints. " I'm Jane, ". You nod at her statement.

" Cool, and I'm very fucking confused about why you're in my house. ". Both twins laugh a little at your joke. " You got humour in you, alright. " Alec says. You nod, slowly walking a little more towards them. You hate that you're so drawn to them. They like us. You stop in your steps. Why could you hear Jane's thoughts? Is this another part of this weird vampire-imprint thing?

" I'm sure that you have some question, " Alec begins. You cut him off before he can finish his sentence thought. " Yeah like why two members of the Volturi are in my house. ". Both look at you with big eyes, confused as to how you know them. You throw your arms up in the air. " Oh come one, I lived in the same town as the Cullens! You guys came over like every other weekend for Bella and Edward! ".

You sit down on your couch. Letting your elbows rest on your knees so your hands can hold your head up. You let out a deep sigh. Why did this kind of shit always happen to you? " Look, I know you won't want me and that's fine. Just break the news to me, we don't have to tiptoe around it, " you say, just trying to get them to get to the point. Alec's hand is suddenly underneath your chin. He angles your head in a way so that you're looking up at him. " You think we don't want you? ". You nod.

" No, don't ever think that, " Jane says as she sits down beside you. " It's maybe a bit...unusual to have a wolf as a mate but we definitely want you. If you want us. ". You can't help the small smile from spreading onto your face. They want you. They didn't reject you or call you a dog. " Of course I want you, have you seen yourself? You're both hot. ". The twins send each other a smile. Jane gets up from the couch and stands in front of you next to Alec. She holds her hand out for you to grab. " Come home with us. ". You nod at her before grabbing her hand. Finally, you can go to a home where you're loved.

---

The ringing of the phone seems to go on so long that you're afraid you're calling won't be picked up. You wanted to call home, to tell them how well you're doing. You just hope that someone will pick up. Finally, the call gets picked up. " Hello? " Seth says on the other side of the line. " Seth! " you call out happily. The annoyance in his voice is gone in an instant and replaced by happiness. " Y/n! You called! How are you? ".

" Better than ever, " you say happily, glancing over at Jane and Alec who is standing on the other side of the room talking to Demitri and Felix. You know that they are probably listing along to your call but you don't care. " I'm really good. I um...I imprinted again. ". You wait anxiously for Seth's response. " Really? That's great! Who is it? ".

You and Seth continue to talk for another thirty minutes. Back home things are going great for him and the pack as well. Apparently, Emmett and Rosalie are really sorry but you couldn't care less about them. Not now that you have Jane and Alec. " It was nice to talk to you again. Give my greetings to the rest, yeah? Bye-bye. ". You hang up the call. Within a second, Jane and Alec are standing next to you, both giving you a questioning look.

" He's happy for me. Really happy, " you say with a bright smile on your face. Alec grabs your hand and gives you a kiss on top of your knuckles. " See, I know he would be. ". You nod at his comment. You stand there for a moment before pulling both the twins in for a hug. They wrap their arms around you. Sure, it's a little awkward to hug with three people, but it's comforting at the same time. You take in their scent. At first, you hated the smell of vampire but now it smells like home. You feel happy, truly and utterly happy. Maybe someone could love you after all.

TWILIGHT TAGLIST:

@scuzmunkie​ @thanossexual​ @prettyinblack231​

[dramaticsnakes]

The Revived - Chapter 15: Quiet

This is chapter 15 of the Dream SMP multichapter fic @rainbowbutterfrosting​ and I wrote together! I hope you’ll enjoy!

AO3

Read in order (on Tumblr)

Characters in this chapter: Wilbur, Ghostbur, Tubbo, Ranboo, Michael

Word count: 3501

Cw: food mentions, tension between characters, crying, feelings of worthlessness

Fic summary: Wilbur was alive, and it was such a magnificent feeling, that made his mind spark with anticipation. It didn’t take long, however, for Wilbur to realize that this new breath of life, was not just his own. An echo-y voice hides in the back of his mind, and before he knows it, the transparent version of him he saw at the endless train station, is a lot more ingrained than he’d expected him to be.

And Wilbur really shouldn’t care. Because he’d be damned, if he spent the life he’d awaited for so long, babysitting a lost cause of a ghost, stuck in the very same limbo Wilbur spent so long in. It was an even exchange, and one Wilbur wasn’t going to mess with. Why exactly he ends up setting out to get the ghost out of his mind, in order to save the both of them, however, is beyond him. And perhaps Wilbur’s past isn’t as easy to leave behind, as he’d hoped it would be.

The walk to the nether portal was even more strained than it had been all the other times combined. It was stupid, because really, not much had changed. Wilbur still knew next to nothing about his situation or how he got there. Most people were dismayed to see he was alive at all, and he was trying his best to get used to his heart beating. He even grabbed some sugarcane along the way, hoping there would be a comment about the strange feeling. Instead, silence rang in his ears that made him disappointedly put it in a jacket pocket. There was a ghost… While he was silent, there was still a ghost inside of Wilbur’s head.

Though the silence was just it. It was the only real change there was, when overlooking some of the strained interactions Wilbur had had in the meantime. But what really changed the situation was the silence, and that for some ungodly reason, managed to get to Wilbur.

“So, we’re going to visit Michael again, huh?” Wilbur tried, his voice cheerful to the point where he almost felt like he was mocking himself, “And Ranboo! You like him, right? Whatever it is he has done.”

No response.

“We can go play with Michael and all that. We can have some food too, maybe.” Wilbur said.

No fucking response.

Wilbur withheld a frustrated sigh. He didn’t want it to be interpreted as if he was angry at Ghostbur. Though maybe that was true. At least that was the simplest explanation for the fire within himself. Angry at everything perhaps. Angry at everything that hadn’t been blown up with himself. “We can talk to all of them. There’s still quite a bit of catching up to do.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be quiet,” Ghostbur suddenly said, his voice hushed. Wilbur’s eyes widened, the sound taking him entirely by surprise.

“No no you don’t have to.” He sounded far too desperate than what he was proud of. He was met with nothing but silence again. 

“I’m going to go in the portal now,” he said, and did exactly as he’d narrated. He felt himself being whisked away to the nether, the warmth once again surprising him. “I’m here,” he said. “There’s pretty much nothing but red netherrack as far as the eye can see. Oh! And there’s a zombie piglin a bit to the left, though it’s not a threat. No match for us, you know.” He added a quick laugh, but it almost sounded like a sob. He took a deep breath as he continued ahead. 

“The nether really is big,” he cleverly observed. “I’m going onto one of the bridges now. I remember the way to the mansion, I think.” He heard a ghast make a sound, and picked up the pace. “And we’re safe, don’t worry. I’m wearing good armor, and it won’t be long.”

For the silent moments until they made it through the portal by Snowchester, Wilbur almost felt as if he was holding his breath along with Ghostbur. It was nice, in a way, and Prime Wilbur despised how that was comforting. How pathetic had he really become, if something as simple as doing something with someone who wasn’t even alive was enough to make him feel at home? The familiarity of Ghostbur’s constant presence had gone to his head.

He stood in the snow, which was a nice change of pace from the time he’d landed there with all the burns and the screaming from within. He once again became aware of his bandages. “We’re out,” he said. There wasn’t a response in words, but he could feel a relieved sigh. 

He started walking in the direction of the mansion, his steps a little slower than they had to be. “We’re in Snowchester now. There are actually a lot of buildings here. I’m not sure what they-”

“Wilbur?” Ghostbur said suddenly.

“Yes?” Wilbur said, a little too quickly.

“I’m sorry.”

“What?” Wilbur said, relief and confusion mixing in his mind, until a quick laugh followed

“I’m sorry for… For invading your life.” Ghostbur said, sounding a lot more serious than he usually did, “When I came here instead of you, I couldn’t quite fill the role you left behind.” He sounded almost defeated, but so unbearably sincere, “This is your chance to do so, and I shouldn’t get in your way like that.” 

Wilbur could hardly comprehend what he was hearing, because it was so unlike his own understanding of events. It was unlike Wilbur’s image of Ghostbur, and completely different from what he’d wanted the ghost to say. “What… What the fuck, no.” Wilbur said, shaking his head, something dark settling around his heart, “Ghostbur, you were nothing like me.”

“I know, and I-”

“And you think that’s a bad thing?” He said, with a huff, “Ghostbur, the last thing I did was blow up a fucking nation, and you think they’d all rather have had someone like me on here? Come on.” It was hilarious really. How Ghostbur was so blind to the fact that everyone was probably dying to get him back in Wilbur’s place now. How everyone would be so sad on passive little Ghostbur’s behalf. Including Wilbur himself for some reason. “For crying out loud, you are so fucking good it hurts.”

“What? I’m sorry I don’t mean to hurt you, I-”

“Shut up!” Wilbur said suddenly, standing in the middle of a solitary street in Snowchester, “No fuck- wait, don’t shut up. Don’t shut up, because it’s honestly really boring without you.” The last few words slipped out before he could stop them. They slipped out quietly enough to be genuine, and perhaps that was an issue on its own.

“What?” Ghostbur tried, sounding confused, “But you don’t always like when I talk, and no one else can hear me anyway. I thought that maybe you’d want some peace and quiet after all that. I’m disturbing you.”

“Perhaps I want you to.” He hissed through his teeth, before shaking his head, “I don’t know I don’t know I just-” he took a deep breath, collecting his words, “Ghostbur, you don’t need to apologize. I slipped up, and I… It gets boring without you here, okay? So you can keep talking.”

Perhaps Wilbur was still a lost soul, stuck at a train station, desperately grasping and wishing for even the slightest hint of interaction. Perhaps it was selfish of Wilbur, to want the only person who was forced to be with him at all times, to continue talking to him. Perhaps Wilbur was being just as cruel as he knew he was, throughout all of this, begging for attention as usual. Begging for someone who had every right to despise him, to keep him company.

And perhaps, he didn’t even care about any of that. Because Ghostbur clearly had it all wrong, and if it took Wilbur’s selfishness to prove it, so be it. “If you want to talk, you can,” he said, hoping that he would no longer feel as if he had to fight to reach the surface of the ocean on his own.

“Oh,” Ghostbur said, sounding uncertain still, but in a different way. “It… It gets lonely without you. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to stay put like this but I don’t want… I don’t want to be alone.”

Wilbur didn’t either, but he knew he couldn’t say that. Wilbur Soot wasn’t lonely, because he couldn’t afford to be, and he was alive. “Then I can keep you company,” he said instead. “You won’t be alone.”

A fondness slipped into Ghostbur’s voice, part of it was quieter than it should’ve been, but Wilbur didn’t mind, “Thank you.”

Wilbur let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He wanted to say how he didn’t need to be thanked for such a simple thing, but he didn’t want to spark a disagreement when Ghostbur was already in a fragile state. “No problem.” He started walking towards the mansion, before quickly adding on, “Headin’ inside the mansion.”

Ghostbur gasped so quietly, Wilbur almost confused it with a gust of wind, “I thought you were just saying that.”

Wilbur stopped walking for a moment. “No I… I wouldn’t lie to you.”

Ghostbur spoke quietly, “You lied to Tub-” He sharply cut himself off. Wilbur winced at the truth Ghostbur knew. 

He couldn’t think of a response as he heard a familiar voice call out, “Oh, Wilbur, you made it here a little earlier than I did.” He turned around and saw Tubbo there. 

Wilbur smiled softly towards him, “Yeah, we must’ve barely missed each other. Didn’t see you in there at all.” And I wasn’t talking to a ghost at all either, part of him wanted to add. 

“Yeah, that’s weird,” Tubbo didn’t seem skeptical of him, but he wouldn’t doubt if the boy was a good actor. He was a spy for part of the war, with a library even he was unaware of. Though he tried to put his thoughts aside.

Tubbo walked up to where Wilbur was, and the both of them moved together towards the front doors of the mansion. The two walked together in silence, something that he typically wouldn’t have even acknowledged. Yet, with the quietness of Ghostbur returning, he couldn’t help the concern in his eyes. Tubbo seemed to look at him slightly differently, but neither of them bothered to comment on it.

Tubbo pulled the door open, the warmness from inside being a nice refresher from the cold. They walked in as Tubbo called out, “Ranboo?” He closed the door behind them. 

A muffled voice came from upstairs, before Ranboo’s head popped out of Michael’s room. He met Tubbo’s gaze, before hesitantly smiling at Wilbur’s presence. “We’re just coloring in here. Did everything go alright?”

Tubbo nodded and made his way up the stairs with Wilbur close behind. “Yep! Of course there’s still a bunch of questions I wouldn’t even know how to find out, but there’s a lot of new info.” Tubbo paused for a moment before continuing, “I’ve got a few theories in my head, but it’s all messy.”

Ranboo nodded understandingly, “I’m glad it went well.” Ranboo looked down from behind the door. A grin came across his face, “Michael, guess who’s here?” Tubbo and Wilbur made it to the top of the stairs, but the latter couldn’t see what was happening behind the door.

“Noo, not grandpa.” Another second passed, “Not Puffy.” A few moments passed before Wilbur heard a frustrated snort. Ranboo chuckled, “I guess I’ll just have to let you see.” He opened the door all the way, and Wilbur’s eyes immediately caught Michael’s. He quickly knelt down as Michael ran into his arms. He reciprocated the hug, his eyes closing for a moment, just holding the presence of warmth in his arms. 

Too long must’ve passed as Tubbo playfully mentioned, “Michael, how did you miss Wilbur that much? You saw him earlier today.” Time must've flown by Wilbur as he quickly let go. Michael smiled and grabbed onto Wilbur’s arm, tugging him toward the room him and his father were recently in.

Wilbur laughed, “Alright, alright, I’m coming.” He stood up slowly, making sure not to accidentally hit Michael, and walked into the room. It looked the same as last time, except now there was a small bin on the table. It seemed full of crayons, with most of them being new. There were small light red chairs around the table, clearly made for children. Wilbur didn’t know if they would collapse under him and decided to sit on the floor, resting his calves under him. 

Michael sat down on the chair next to him, pulling it closer to Wilbur as he grabbed a piece of paper on the table. His left arm was against Wilbur’s as he slid the paper to him.

Wilbur understood the message and looked at the paper. A goofy smile slipped on his face. It was a drawing of what appeared to be Michael. The lines were shaky, but it was some kind of pink blob that wore an orange and black long-shirt with blue overalls over the top. While the image itself didn’t look like it, that’s what the Michael holding his arm was wearing. The drawing had a smile on his face that mimicked the one Michael wore. A higher-pitched cheerfulness flowed easily with his words, “Did you draw this?”

Michael eagerly nodded, his face rubbing against Wilbur’s sleeve. After the moment, Michael proceeded to rub more of his face into it, enjoying the sensation.

Ranboo chuckled, “That must be why he likes you so much.”

Wilbur tilted his head slightly, though his gaze stayed focused on Michael, “Hm?”

Ranboo shifted in his position, “Oh, I mean- he sorta likes certain textures? We don’t really know how it works since it’s a bit difficult to communicate, but he just likes rubbing his face on stuff.”

Wilbur quietly stated, “I’ve noticed.” Though the sentence wasn’t harsh, Ranboo moved slightly away.

“I think I’ll head outside for a second.” The turned his back away from Wilbur and walked out of the room. Tubbo whispered something to him, and with a brief nod, he heard echoing steps down the stairs. Michael propped himself slightly away from Wilbur and grabbed a different paper on the table. It was a few black lines that went up and down, some parts looking almost like black rectangles. There were also some scribbles near the right, that took Wilbur a second to realize it was writing. He squinted at the words, and slowly he realized it was the word, “Dad”. 

Wilbur looked between Michael and the page when realization struck. “Oh, Ran- Dad is alright. He just needed to do something.”

Michael nodded and Wilbur gratefully sighed at the toddler’s lack of overwhelming curiosity. Wilbur grabbed one of the blank papers on the table, his gaze wandering over the container of crayons. He searched the container and put a rainbow of colors in front of himself. He frowned slightly at the lack of yellow, but didn’t take it personally. 

Michael squealed excitedly at the empty paper and grabbed a green crayon. He started making quick jagged lines that formed a semi-straight line near the bottom of the sheet. He quickly scribbled it in, coating the white paper as Wilbur grabbed an orange crayon. 

Wilbur forgot Tubbo was even there as he quietly spoke, “I’m gonna start prepping dinner. Ranboo will probably be back soon.” 

Wilbur nodded, “Sounds good to me. You need any help cooking?” He looked directly at Tubbo for a moment.

Tubbo shook his head, “I’ve got it, you two have fun.” Tubbo smiled as he turned to leave the room. 

Wilbur chuckled, “Said and done.” He looked back at the paper, finding the bottom of the page to be mostly colored in with green. There were white patches at the bottom that littered the area, but he didn’t blame the toddler as he found it quite adorable. 

Wilbur’s hand went to the top right of the page as he started outlining a small circle with his orange crayon. Michael grabbed a gray crayon and continued adding something towards the left side. Wilbur focused on applying less color onto the paper, the orange shifting into an awkward yellow. The yellow-ish circle stood proudly on the page as he added lines around it to show that it was emitting sunlight.

He looked back to Michael’s part of the page. He saw something that resembled a stickman with a smile on its face. There was a clump of gray on top of the person and Michael made grabby hands for the orange that Wilbur held. He quickly gave it to the toddler and grabbed a blue, though his gaze didn’t leave Michael’s portion of the paper. 

The child took the orange and drew it over the stickman, quickly scribbling in an oval over it and looked at Wilbur expectedly. Wilbur furrowed his eyebrows together, “Who’s that?” Michael grabbed the blue from Wilbur’s hand and drew a dog-like figure next to the stickman. But the dog was blue and had a smile that paralleled the other drawing. 

Wilbur tilted his head slightly, still not understanding, but with eyes so bright an innocent, he realized it was a look he'd received before. It was akin to the eyes of a young Fundy, displaying his art for Wilbur to hang on his wall in their little home in L'Manberg. It was much like that of Tommy, when Wilbur told him about the plans to create a nation. It so bitterly reminded him of Tubbo, agreeing to anything and everything Wilbur said. Three times was perhaps a pattern, just as Wilbur had been told. And perhaps, that was all the more reason he should've expected this to happen again. Should've expected young eyes to look to him for guidance. And the bitter truth was, that just as all the other times, it filled him with a strange sort of pride and joy. 

Perhaps Wilbur had barely changed at all. He wasn't surprised at that. In fact he'd known for so long.

What he hadn’t known, and only realized in the moment, was that the drawing in front of him was Ghostbur. The orange oval was probably supposed to be a sweater of sorts, but the orange was too dark for him to recognize sooner. The gray stickman’s skin color looked similar to the ghost he saw before exiting limbo. 

His eyes lingered on the blue dog in the front on the paper. Wilbur facepalmed when he realized that the blue dog was a sheep. He didn’t know why he didn’t recognize it sooner. 

Wilbur was about to open his mouth to say something, when Michael pointed at the drawing, and then pointed at Wilbur. It was almost like a silent question, and the child looked at Wilbur so expectantly.

Oh.

Of course. Wilbur wasn’t sure why he’d expected anything else. No one had probably explained the situation properly to the child. Prime knew that would be one hell of a conversation. Still, Wilbur caught his treacherous heart dropping at the gesture. He frowned, despite himself. “No,” he said briefly, shaking his head.

Michael looked at him for a few moments. Then he nodded back, and turned towards the paper again, his expression barely changing at all.

Still, Wilbur felt misplaced. As if he’d walked inside a war meeting hosted by his enemies, or had put up walls around a nation that turned out not to be his. Every single second Wilbur had known Michael, the toddler hadn’t been aware of exactly who Wilbur was. Perhaps Michael had thought he was hugging Ghostbur. Thought he was smiling with awe at someone he knew positively, rather than an inconvenient stranger, whose presence made very little sense in the first place. The only reason Michael offered to show such basic kindness to him was because of a simple misunderstanding. Even a child who unconditionally loved every soul he met, couldn't love Wilbur without thinking of someone else. 

Wilbur felt an unwelcome tear creeping into his eye. It was likely due to the fact that he was nearly alone, as it provoked the futile vulnerability he preferred to keep at bay. He looked away, trying to keep his face out of view as he listened to Michael continuing to work with the crayons. What else has Wilbur expected? He’d done little to nothing to deserve the child’s affections, and that was alright. It was perfectly alright, because Wilbur was a genius, not an uncle.

He suddenly felt a tug at his arm. He shook his head quickly, trying to grasp the world once more. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Michael, trying to show him something. With a quiet laugh, that came out a little too broken, he turned his head. “What have you got there?” he asked.

Michael was holding the piece of paper from before, proudly displaying it with both hands. Wilbur looked at it for a long time, trying to comprehend exactly what he was looking at. The same figure as before was staring back at him, grey with an orange jumper, and a big smile. The blue sheep was standing in the same spot. Next to the ghost however, Michael had scribbled another figure.

A similar one, but with beige skin and a brown jacket, with fuzzy lines drawn on it. The figure had a white streak in its dark hair, and was smiling as well, brightly.

Oh.

Standing right there, next to the ghost and the sheep, was Wilbur. Wilbur Soot, creator and destroyer of L’Manberg, drawn with such confident crayon lines from a toddler. Wilbur let out a shaky breath, as Michael pointed to the drawing, and then to Wilbur.

Wilbur swallowed something in his throat, his lips curving up as he let out a quiet laugh. “Yes. That’s me.”

[spahhzy]

No Title -Chapter 2: Headache.

*Dimension 63 OG*

"Last of the pancake stacks are done, seriously I could bring in three pancake factories and she'd eat them out in a week!"

"Anyways...uh where were we? Oh right the explosion and what came after...ah yes Cinder sulked for a few minutes after a reality check from Watts."

"Jaune, Yang, Emerald, Ren and Oscar all survived the explosion and learn that Ozpin is indeed alive...hmm ooh and the warm tender reunion ah was so nice to see...but sadly...the warmth didn't last long..."

.

.

.

"I have always promised to defend this kingdom; its technology its future...from those who'd see it destroyed" Spoke Ironwood on the monitor almost towering above his viewers.

"Our enemy is crippled but one individual denies Atlas its salvation...the protector of mantle" Ironwood says as the Ruby and Co, glare at the screen.

"Penny wherever you and your friends are I need you to listen" he starts looking down in a brief sadness.

" I know how much Mantle means to you so im going to give you a choice..."

.

.

.

" in all actuality it wasn't really...much of a choice Mantle is doomed be it by Ironwoods hand Or Salems...though I feel for the latter as things were spiraling out of control..."

"General Ironwood reminds me of a certain analogy....oh how'd it go again? Ah yes!"

"When a duck swims ontop of water you only see it glide apparently effortlessly across the lake"

"But underneath as in beneath the surface well its a whole different story its legs are moving like he's peddling a bicycle up a fucking mountain!"

"That's Ironwood, he is THAT duck"

"Let's go to the manor hmm?"

.

.

.

"I'm glad your alright" Spoke Ren to Nora as looked away from him as Jaune arms glowed with his aura trying to heal his teammate.

Nora said nothing.

A few more moments of silence followed before Jaune gave up.

"Sorry but no matter how much I boost you they...won't go away" He told her before kneeling down at her bed side, Ren at the edge of the bed still looking down.

"Don't apologize I got hurt doing what I always do...just another ditzy move from Nora" Nora spoke as she sat up from the bed back resting against the bed frame.

"T-that's not true" Ren said as he stood up, Nora still didn't look at him.

"How would you know?" She said her voice cracking a bit.

"We were supposed to be a team but that didn't matter to you!" Her voice rose as Jaune brought his head down as she continued her verbal assault with Ren.

"When things went wrong you pushed us away!" Ren looked down to the floor again away from Nora.

"You shoved people out so you don't have to feel things that are hard!" She said before laying back against the bed frame finally stopping as Ren processed.

"You're right" He finally said

"I should be apologizing to both of you...when we lost Oscar and things got difficult I said terrible things" Ren said as he sat down at the end of the bed again.

"I've just been so angry at myself for not being as good as the aceop's...."

.

.

"Ah a little lovers quarrel but his anger and frustrations are understandable...I too felt what he was feeling before"

"Its was good that he was able to talk about it apologize to those around him and forgive himself...yes Lie Ren you certainly are a very good friend"

"Unfortunately..."

.

.

.

"My biggest failing was as a teammate and a partner" Ren said as he looked into Nora's eyes and vice versa.

Jaune just looked back and forth between them realizing that they were about to have a moment...

"Haha! All water under the bridge buddy!" He states before walking to the door that leads out to the hallway.

"I'm gonna go see if Klein needs help with Penny" He says looking behind him as both Nora and Ren didn't even pay attention. He smirks before closing the door.

Jaune now standing in the hallway chuckles.

"They'll get through this" He said to himself as he looked down the hallway

"Which way was Penny's room again?" He said laughing before suddenly a massive headache came to him that it made him close his eyes and clutch the side of his head. The throbbing was intense as it brought him to one knee.

"-me -om-" a whisper or what he thought was a whisper but it wasn't clear because of the damn pounding in his ears.

Jaune gradually through the pain stood up breathing a bit heavily before finally taking his hand away from his face, he'd find some advil in the bathroom.

Yet when he looked around he was no longer in the hallway...much less in the schnee manor.

He was standing on a grassy field...he looked around but all it was was just green grassy plains and big cloudless sky...a mountain range way out in the distance as well.

He continued looking until he stopped as he realized...he wasn't alone.

There about thirty five yards away was a robed figure Jaune couldn't make out any details as the light from the sun was blocking them out.

"What the?..." Jaune thought as he walked forward and as he did so to did the mysterious figure.

That caused Jaune to stop and momentarily reach for his blade...but all he grasped was air.

"Who-" He didn't get far as suddenly the scenery changed rapidly as now gone was the grassy plains, but now a quiet little village...

"Wha? Wait...this is...Ansel? My home?" Jaune said as he was freaking out a bit...wondering if something/someone might have drugged him or such.

"But wh-"

"Look Auntie! I'm a knight who's come to rescue you!" Spoke a voice which caught Jaune's attention as he looked to the source.

There was a little blonde boy no older then six. with a makeshift wooden sword and woman dressed in black who was chuckling at the boy.

"Oh my brave little knight has come to rescue me what a dream come true!" Said the lady playing along as the damsel as the blonde boy slayed the evil imaginary dragon and approached the lady.

He dropped his wooden sword and ran in to the lady's stomach giving her a tight hug. The lady just hugged him back with equal affection.

"Mom and Dad don't like you very much" The boy said too which the woman said nothing.

"I don't want you to go..." He said in despair.

"I'm not going nowhere little knight I promise" said the lady with strong conviction.

"...om" he mumbled in her stomach.

"What was that...no mumbling now" She chuckled.

"I wish...you were my mom too"

The scene then changed once more back to the grassy fields again as Jaune was still trying to piece together what he saw.

He looked ahead and the mysterious figure was still there looking straight at him Jaune still couldn't tell who it was but was surprised when the figure extended their arms...as if inviting him.

"Jaune"

The throbbing headache intensified as he once again dropped to a knee.

"Jaune"

Weakly he tilted his head up to see the figure closer to him and all he could make out were red eyes.

"Jaune!"

The figure still with open arms started to speak but Jaune could make out a word of it.

"Jaune!!"

He was back in the hallway still on one knee and clutching at the wall for support.

He looked up to see the concerned face of Klein looking down at him.

"Are you alright Mr. Arc? You look unwell" Klein said as he offered his hand to help.

Jaune looked around still confused, though the headache had just vanished. He took the hand and stood up.

"Uh it was nothing serious Klein..." Jaune said to him but it didn't really convince Klein or even himself for that matter.

"Heh come on let's go check on Penny and ill help where I can" Jaune said as he dusted himself off.

"Are you sure your okay Mr. Arc I can get you some refreshments if needed" Klein offered but Jaune shook his head.

"Penny needs us first let's go help her right now...I'll be fine" Jaune told him to which Klein looked him in the eyes before walking forward.

"Very well...I take it was just a big headache...who wouldn't have such after whats been going on" Klein said too which Jaune chuckled before looking out the Schnee Manor back to city and the rising sun.

"Yeah...just a big headache"

.

.

"But it was so much worse then that"

[floralcalaveraa]

MEET THE MUSE

Rules: Answer in-character. Repost, don’t reblog.

► NAME ➭ He waves around proudly at the imaginary crowd his mind conjured, assuming a performance that one would put up when live on camera for an interview. Typical Guzma, thinking that he is all that, but he is not. “Hey y’all~” He says with a chipper, sing-song voice to continue convincing ... the dashboard? “Clean the wax outta yur ears; I’m only gonna say this once and I expect chu to say the WHOLE fucking thing when you call me. It’s Guzma Kehlani Kaliko- I’m joking.” The emotion in his performance stops abruptly at the end and he acts like normal again. But then again ... when was he ever normal? His voice is modest now. “Just keep it up to Guzma.”

► ARE YOU SINGLE? ➭ Guzma doesn’t hold back on widening his eyes upon registering the question and emphasizes the reality of his words when he curls a curl on his finger and bats his eyes, pretending a coy nature. “Yeah~ So if anyone out there single too and you want a good sex, come on down; my number is-” And then a convenient beep censors the sound of his voice because Guzma is doing too much.

► ARE YOU HAPPY? ➭ “Hmm, I’m aight right now. Is not like ... I’m going through anythin ...” He asks himself, looking at the sky for an answer. “Or am I?”

► ARE YOU ANGRY?  ➭ “Who isn’t? I know I am. Like, when’s a rich white guy gonna give me all his money ya know? Those fucking billionaires don’t know how to spend it, like, give me your money I’ll show you.”

► ARE YOUR PARENTS STILL MARRIED? ➭ All that talk from earlier? That magic disappears. Guzma falls silent for a moment, but tries to salvage his enthusiasm from earlier. “Weeeeeeeeeeeell ... they never married to begin with? Yeah, very telling of their relationship, ya know?” ‘I don’t want them to ever marry. That is not love, I wouldn’t attend to it should it ever happen.’

NINE FACTS!

► ‘BIRTH’ PLACE ➭ “In. This. Stupid. Region. Called. ALOLA!” Each word came with a jumping stomp to the ground, like if this tantrum would make the region he chanted out loud crumble in his stomps.

► HAIR COLOR ➭ He grabs a strand of his hair, stretches it out, and watches it recoil back to its original curly condition, feeling a bit shy to divulge. “It’s ... it was my daddy’s hair color. I didn’t like that. So I colored it to look like my mami’s ...”

► EYE COLOR ➭ “A stupid fucking grey. Can you believe that? Not even the universe wants me to own anythin’ gold like damn give me a fucking break.”

► BIRTHDAY ➭ “...” He remains silent, connecting the dots about this scheming universe. “Y’know, this life really doesn’t want me to be first in anything; July 2nd.”

► MOOD ➭ “Now that I made that realization, I’m feelin’ pissed.” Guzma says with a relative ‘ :-) ’ expression and relaxed voice.

► GENDER ➭ “A guy, wish I was a God though or somethin ...” A hand grabs his chin lightly, but pensively. “Or a bug ...”

► SUMMER OR WINTER ➭ “OOOh summer’s are sexy! Ya feel me?”

► MORNING OR AFTERNOON ➭ “I know I’m gonna sound like a cheesy old white lady but like, watching the sunset be kinda romantic tho-”

ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE!

► ARE YOU IN LOVE? ➭ “I either hate or love the people in my life. Never in between-”

► DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? ➭ “Oh that’s fucking cute, yeah. It only exists to the right people though, not bitches like me.”

► WHO ENDED YOUR LAST RELATIONSHIP? ➭ Who ended his confidence? This question. It’s going to make him mention Her name. Her. And that scares him. Madam Prez. He sinks into his chair in shame. “I ... I’m the one that messes up.”

► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN SOMEONE’S HEART? ➭ “Yeah, I’m a real heartbreaker~” But his pride ends when he is left at the thought of the  loneliness that comes after break-ups.

► ARE YOU AFRAID OF COMMITMENTS? ➭ “... Yeah.” It is brief, in fear that entertaining it more would make him reveal the reasons why. After all, he wouldn’t want to bad-mouth Lusamine, no matter how vile she was to traumatize love for him.

► HAVE YOU HUGGED SOMEONE WITHIN THE LAST WEEK? ➭ “No because then they’ll smell my b.o ya know?”

► HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SECRET ADMIRER? ➭ “Not that I know of ... I don’t know-”

► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN YOUR OWN HEART? ➭ “I guess ... I know that there were times I have to bite my tongue to stop myself from saying ‘I love you’ to someone ...”

CHOICES!

► LOVE OR LUST ➭ “Lust hell yeah 😎” Love.

► LEMONADE OR ICED TEA ➭ “I don’t give a fuck I just crave a refreshing drink right now; all this talking and answerin’ invasive, personal, intimate, scar-opening questions to a complete stranger has my throat all dried up like yo sex life.” Giving drawn out answers does nothing to help.

► A FEW BEST FRIENDS OR MANY REGULAR FRIENDS ➭ “I have my stinky siblings at Po Town. Sure they can be annoyin’ as fuck eatin’ my food, wasting water, stanking up the bathroom, wasting money, leaving the house messy, and all that, but I wouldn’t want them any other way.”

► WILD NIGHT OUT OR ROMANTIC NIGHT IN ➭ “Aw c’mon! Both are sexy! ... Aight, the one that will end with me gettin’ laid- ...” He sighs. “Aight, the one that would get me to know my companion better.”

► DAY OR NIGHT ➭ “I like to feel dramatic in the night. Like, ‘staring out from the window, musing about yo regrets and desires while seeing nobody but chu outside thinking about yo life’ kind of dramatic.”

HAVE YOU EVERS!

► BEEN CAUGHT SNEAKING OUT ➭ “Apparently not cuz my parent’s ain’t find me yet haha!”

► FALLEN DOWN/UP THE STAIRS ➭ “’Falling up the stairs’ sounds like some Loony Toons shit if I’m honest- Just imagine, you falling down the stairs, but then rewind it to make it look like you fell upward. Lol.”

► WANTED SOMETHING/SOMEONE SO BADLY IT HURT? ➭ A hand grabs at his chest, at his heart, as he yells at the top of his lungs, “GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING MONEY!!” Stability. Love. Healing. Those he had to let go in fear of having them punished by Lusamine. Honor. Respect. Freedom. And in truth, money, to support his family.

PREFERENCES!

► SMILE OR EYES ➭ “Oh I love both; a smile in someone that doesn’t do it often though. And eyes, those that are gold, blue, or green are pretty ...”

► SHORTER OR TALLER ➭ “Ain’t nobody gonna beat me and my 6′9″ ass. ‘Sides, I love my shorties anyways.”

► INTELLIGENCE OR ATTRACTION ➭ “Attraction. Not askin’ anyone to be smart in order for me to like chu-”

► HOOK-UP OR RELATIONSHIP ➭ “I only get casual hook-ups, night-stands ... C’mon, just look at me-”

FAMILY!

► DO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GET ALONG ➭ “Talkin’ bout the one in Po Town? Yup.” He nods proudly, not acknowledging his biological one.

► WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE A “MESSED UP LIFE” ➭ “Baby, I got a fucked up life-”

► HAVE YOU EVER RAN AWAY FROM HOME ➭ “Yeah. Best decision I ever made or else I wouldn’t find the real family I have now.”

► HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN KICKED OUT ➭ “I kicked my own ass out before my daddy did.”

FRIENDS!

► DO YOU SECRETLY HATE ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS ➭ “Ooh that Plumeria, I can’t stand her! Her big butt be hogging up the whole sofa when we watchin’ t.v! Do you understand how irritatin’ that is?!” Seconds after this ‘wrath’, he bursts into laughter.

► DO YOU CONSIDER ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS GOOD FRIENDS ➭ “No because they are talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, sexy friends.”

► WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND ➭ “Oh come on don’t make me pick n choose- Plumeria and Gemali (his Golisopod) has been my longest, how about that?”

► WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU ➭ “Oooo it’s just me, myself, and I baby- Ain’t nobody gonna understand my twisted mind better than I.” Can be deciphered by Plumeria or Lusamine.

tagged by: @obliviouskind​ wrow cryus, having a spot for love .. u know cyrus if u say josefina’s name 3 times she will appear easy as that

tagging: @maxskulline​ , @akuromatico​ , @kyohansha​ (me🤝erik: making you do this twice. BUT OKAY SRSLY U DONT HAVE TO ONLY IF U WANT-) , @unovasgambler​ , @theprxfessorpair​ (hemlock!) , @draconscious​ , @littlesilverplatinum​​  (me🤝myself, hand-gripping my other hand: making you Erik do this twice.)

[dripkingpetey]

puppy-e.pettersson

a/n:probably the only fic this week! hope you enjoy<3

1.5k words

You always looked forward to the summertime cause that meant you could spend more time with Elias and go to Sweden with him.

“I was thinking we could drive up to my parents house and spent the week in Ånge, what do you think?” Your boyfriend who was sitting across from you on the stools in the kitchen while you were making a salad. “What if they don’t like me? what if I mess it up?” You panicked while taking a sip of water.

“Älskling, they’ll love you.” Elias reassured you placing his hands on your waist and hugging you from behind after you panicked at the idea of meeting his parents and making a bad impression.

“You think so?” You mumbled quietly as Elias placed a kiss on your neck, sucking on it a little which left a red mark. “I promise, y/n.” 

You knew he meant it but you were still pretty nervous about meeting them and leaving a bad first impression so you called Fanny to ask if Irene liked any presents in particular, you thought about asking Emil but you knew he probably wouldn’t know anything and would tell Elias.

After talking on the phone with Fanny for awhile also talking about other things, the both of you decided that you were going to get his mom some of her favourite flowers from a flower shop near Elias’s apartment in Sweden that made beautiful flower arrangements.

“Are you sure these are okay? Do you think I should get something else?” You started panicking towards Elias again while looking at the flower arrangements, it wasn’t that they looked bad, they were beautiful but the stress was just getting to you lots. “They’re as gorgeous as you y/n, my mom is going to love these.” Elias started massaging your back to relieve some stress and smiled at you. “Now, if we want to make it there before dinner we should leave soon.” Elias grabbed everything as you checked around the apartment one last time before you guys leave.

Elias could tell something was off with you as he pulled into his parents driveway so he placed his hand on your thigh and tried to calm you down. “C’mere babe,” He unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled you into a hug, he rubbed your back softly as you let out a big sigh and relaxed in his grip. He knew he didn’t have to say anything, all you needed was for him to bring your mind off of the stress. 

“Okay, let’s go in.” You took a deep breath in before getting out of the car and grabbing the flowers. Elias smiled and held your hand as he knocked on the door, Elias’s father Torbjörn opened the door shortly after and greeted you with a hug. “hello! it’s so nice to finally meet you!” He said to you before Irene came up and said hello to you as well. 

“Here, I got these flowers for you!” You passed the flowers to Irene as she thanked you for them and gave you another hug. “Thank you so much, bring your stuff inside guys.” And you did as she said, you and Elias grabbed your bags from the car and settling them in his childhood bedroom and taking it look at it before heading downstairs, you decided it was fun to fuck with him a little so you whispered lightly in his ear. “How crazy would it be if we fucked in the room you grew up with.” You laughed a little after saying that and you knew that would absolutely kill Elias. He shot a death stare at you and you smiled at him knowing you’ve done your job as you headed down to help Irene with dinner.

-

“This is one of my favourite spots in sweden,” Elias said as he lead you down a little pathway, at the end there was this large beautiful lake with a huge dock. “It’s my grandparents property, I’m thinking about buying it once I save up some more money. Build some cabins around the lake.” Elias set his stuff down and smiled at you. 

“This place is incredible, I think that’s a great idea babe.” You thought in your head for a good while about having kids and living the rest of your lives together but you quickly snapped out of it when Elias was trying to get your attention. “Y/n?” 

“Yeah, sorry what’s up?” You gave your full attention over to him as he took his shirt off to jump in the lake. “Do you want to go for a dip?” Elias smiled at you as you nodded and took the clothes you were wearing off revealing your bathing suit. 

“3,2,1 jump!” You squealed as you felt the cold water rush around your body as the both of you jumped in. “I think summers over,” Elias shivered as the both of you tried to get out of the water. “I think so too.” You shivered and thanked Elias for wrapping you in a towel as you sat in the sun. “Sorry, I didn’t think it was going to be that cold.” Elias chuckled while passing you his hoodie to warm you up. You slid the hoodie on and leaded your body into him signalling that you want him to cuddle you. “Its okay, it was kind of refreshing to be honest.” You said with a laugh as he rested his head on yours.

You were slipping on your shorts as you saw Elias kneel down on one knee and start speaking. “Y/n, I never thought I could love someone as much as I love you. You’ve made me love myself too and love you even more, talking about getting a dog when we go back to Vancouver the other day made me realize how much I want to spend the rest of my life with you and raise kids of our own. Maybe not kids right away but eventually down the line. Will you marry me and make me the happiest man alive even though I already am?” Elias pulled out the ring and he saw that you were crying.

“Yes. Yes I will.” You squatted down to hug him and you could feel the giant grin on his face, you and Elias stayed like that for awhile before pulling apart to slip the ring on your finger. You always made fun of people for saying how they can’t stop staring at their ring but now you knew what they truly felt cause you couldn’t stop staring at your ring for the rest of the night either, Elias even joked saying that you love the ring more then you loved him.

-

It started getting cold again in Vancouver, you always looked forward to the cold weather but not the rain. After Elias proposed to you in Sweden, the both of you decided to finally decide on the idea to get a dog. You and Elias went to an adoption centre and immediately fell in love with an Australian Shepherd puppy, you guys ended up adopting him and named him Ollie.

Elias had gone out for waffles with Quinn this morning while you decided to stay home cause you needed to finish some work for university. “Ollie shhh, stop barking.” You lightly scolded the dog as you heard Elias unlock the front door of the apartment. “Hey guys,” Elias said with a big smile on his face trying to hug you while Ollie was jumping all over him. “Hey babe, how was brunch with Quinn?” You pecked a light kiss to his cheek before pausing your work. “It was really good, talked about how pumped we are for the game later. I Brough you some waffles too by the way.” Elias handed you some waffles as you smiled at him in awe.

“Can we hangout for a little bit before you have to leave for the game? I know you were gone for like an hour but I missed you so much.” You wrapped your arms around his shoulder and going in for a kiss as he did the same, Elias held your cheek lightly as he kissed you and teased you a little by gently biting on your bottom lip when he pulled away from you which resulted in you frowning at him. Elias had a light smirk on his face before picking Ollie up so the both of you could pet him. 

“Your daddy’s very mean isn’t he?” You mumbled into Ollies fur while petting him. Elias chuckled that the interaction and let Ollie lick him all over his face. “C’mon let’s go watch a movie, and maybe you could do that to my face instead.” Elias placed Ollie back down on the floor before giving him a treat and leading you to the living room. 

You ended up picking the movie mean girls to which Elias cringed at but you knew he would watch it with you anyways. You were snuggled into Elias’s chest as ollie jumped on the couch and nuzzled himself into the tiny space between you and Elias’s leg.

[redtail-hero]

Tags: @meganshinsou-tm @bakugoukatsukiswife @simplybakugou   @gr0vndz3ro @bakugousbrat @gallickingun @brebaguette

Rating: MATURE. 18+

Pairing: Bakugou x Reader x Kirishima

I tried really hard to make the reader gender neutral, so anyone can insert themselves in the story. Ultimately this is my time trying to do this. In my head the reader is female and I might switch over by accident. I apologize in advance if I do that.

This chapter has a little Bakugou X Kirishima in it. Just forewarning of a little boy love. It's toward the end if the chapter so it's easy to skip if you want.

Pt. 6 Tag Team

"You both have to face it. You've both practically jumped down the rabbit hole willingly but refuse to admit it." Sero chuckled. 

"Still don't know what you're even talking about." Bakugou replied grumpily as he watched for the signal that it was time to 'rescue' victims of the 'natural disaster'. 

"What rabbit hole?" Kirishima asked, looking over at his friend. 

"Oh, you're in denial too Kiri! It's so obvious. I've seen they way you both look at Y/N - like they're the only damn person in the room." Denki stated. "They're extremely comfortable with each of you, which is surprising since Bakugou usually acts like there is a stick up his ass."

"Watch it Sparky." Bakugou growled. 

"He's not wrong. Y/N's always joking with you and teases you guys." Sero agreed. 

'Oh they tease me alright.' Kirishima thought to himself. 

"Alright, I'm used to Sparky frying his brains daily but apparently this heat is getting to you both and you're beyond delirious."

"Deny it all you want, we know what we see." Sero stated. "There's the signal, wonder which of you will find them first." He chuckled and used his tape to shoot himself off to find someone to rescue. 

Kirishima and Bakugou stared at each other for a moment, neither moving to do their task yet. 

"Just think about it. Y/N definitely feels something for both of you. When it's their night to cook dinner they always switch between your favorite meals to make. They baked cookies for you guys 'just because they could'. During your work studies Y/N prepared both of your lunches every day." Denki stated, shaking his head at the two of them. 

"That's just how Y/N is. They'd do the same for everyone else." Kirishima scratched the back of his neck trying to ignore the face his face was heating up. 

"See that's where you're wrong. Y/N doesn't do that for anyone else… Are you blushing?" Denki laughed. "About time you guys notice what they do for you." With that he took his leave. 

"Tsk." Bakugou looked down at his shoes. "They're not wrong are they?" 

"No, I guess they're not." Kirishima sighed. 

Bakugou didn't stay any longer, using his quirk he blasted up off the building. 

"Uh, good talk…" Kirishima talked to himself. He walked all over the disaster area, looking for anyone he could pull out from the rubble. 

It wasn't too long, maybe a rough 15 minutes later he found you sitting in a pile of rubble, whining at him to help you out. He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. You just being there made him feel happy. 

Excited that he was the one to find you he hurried down and started removing debris off of your legs, tossing it behind him in every which way. 

There was a shift behind him, a light rumble noise sounded before you yelled out his name. He reacted before he could even think. His body hardened as he covered your body with his, pulling you close to protect you. 

The heavy impact never came, instead a loud blast was heard and pebbles of debris rained down over the two of you. He knew it was Bakugou and was thankful for the assistance. 

Mina was with Bakugou, not that Kirishima paid any attention to the girl. Red eyes glared down at him. 

"Tch. Idiot, watch where you're throwing that shit around. You would have been buried if I wasn't around. 

Eijiro frowned. The blond wasn't wrong. You both could have been injured and then he wouldn't have been any help to you at all. He couldn't focus on anything except his small fuck up. 

"Hey Kiri, " His eyes snapped to yours. "are you okay?" 

"Of course. Are you okay?" 

"Yes, now… want to get off of me?" 

He was suddenly very aware of your limbs being tangled together and your skin against his. No, he didn't want to get off of you. You were very comfortable to him. He couldn't just stay that way though. "Oh, Haha, sorry about that." He resisted the urge to roll his hips against yours and pushed himself up immediately missing your skin against his. He brushed himself off and offered you his hand. 

You had come up with a brilliant idea to get him to carry you out of the debris but forcing his hand, laying on the defenseless citizen-act real thick.  The look of embarrassment fell upon your features as he scooped you up in his arms bridal style. A small string of protest came from your lips. 

He noted that you felt right in his arms as you rest your head against his chest. Breathing in deeply he could smell your natural scent he couldn't help but grin. He could get used to this. 

It unfortunately didn't take him long to get to the rest area. There was a table with red solo cups of water lined up. Other classmates were already refreshing themselves with the cool drinks. His eyes caught Katsuki's, the blonde glared at him. Kirishima couldn't help but chuckle at the jealousy rolling off him, not that the boy would ever admit it. 

Kirishima announced your arrival to the rest area. You scrambled out of his arms so quickly that it surprised him. He watched you grab a cup and down the water in seconds. 

Small talk fell upon the small group while waiting for other classmates. Mr. Aizawa gave some instructions for the following day. 

Thirsty, Kirishima walked up and kept a respectful distance between you. Asking for a drink, you politely help him out grabbing him a cup. A small collision of hands caused a spill of the water on your arms. 

"Hey, you got me wet!" The glare you gave was playful but the words were so suggestive. The words shouldn't have had any effect on him, but they did. 'Play it cool.' He couldn't help himself. "That's nothing." He pretended like he was going to splash you and you backed away. 

It ended up turning into a huge water fight among the class. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. Everyone was game now, he splashed Mina and then Sero. Before long the ground was soaked. 

Bakugou was chasing you around the table and Kirishima hit Denki on the shoulder, motioning toward the 5 gallon bucket of water. The two of them lifted it together and waited for the perfect moment. Sero stepped in to help by cutting you off. You halted to a stop and Bakugou grabbed you around the waist. 

Kirishima and Denki lifted the cooler and poured it over the two of you, a loud squeal of surprise could be heard. Everyone roared with laughter at the "drowned rat" looks the two of you now sported. 

“Kirishima! I’m soaked!” The words barley left your lips as he watched the water droplets dance down your skin. His mind went right to the gutters, he felt a small twitch in his pants. 

You looked up at Bakugou who could only nod as he stared at you. He swallowed deep and you were confused. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah… Just fine.” He swallowed as he looked you up and down. 

Kirishima also noticed what Bakugou did. It was hard not to stare and it was entirely his fault. His eyes caught a droplet of water and followed it down your skin to under your shirt. 

You covered your body, hiding the details of your body.  “I- I have to go! You guys clean up!” With a wave you rushed out of the building. 

The two of them were disappointed to see you leave so quickly. A hand slapped on both of their shoulders. "Oh boy, you guys have it baaaaad." Sero let out a hoot of a laugh.

"Yeah, he's not wrong. You guys were acting like little kids trying not to flirt with their crush, but failing miserably." Denki added with a laugh of his own. 

"Both of you shut it. I'm fucking out. Damn extras." Bakugou stormed off. 

"I'm just gonna check on him." Kirishima excused himself. 

"HEY! WHAT ABOUT CLEAN UP?" Denki yelled to them but neither boy turned around. 

Bakugou stormed into the dorms, he made a beeline to his room - thankful that your room wasn't anywhere near his. He stripped of his hero gear and fell back on his bed. He glared hard at the wall as a knock came on his door. "Go away Shitty Hair."

Kirishima opened the door anyway and entered. He locked the door behind him as they needed to have a serious talk and didn't need anyone else walking in. 

"Are you deaf? I said go away."

Ignoring him, the redhead sat at the end of the bed. "What are we going to do man?" 

"What are you talking about?" 

"Don't try to pretend. You can't tell me that when you're going to bed at night that your mind doesn't bring you back to that damn lollipop."

Kiri flopped back on the bed, closing his eyes tight. "Y/N's lips wrapped around that lollipop. They sucked it so good. Licking the stickiness off their lips. Fuck, I wanted a taste. No, I wanted to be that lollipop. I imagine Y/N taking me so well." He absent-mindedly palmed his crotch, hips lifting slightly. 

The mental image alone made the blonde groan in frustration. "It doesn't even need to be bed time." He admitted. "I just hear it. I hear the moans and groans of when I gave them that massage." As if on cue he could wear he heard you moan out loud. "And then I can't just ignore it, it doesn't go away on its own. I need the release." He motioned to his tented pants. 

"I get it man. It's to the point where my own hand just doesn't cut it anymore. I want the real deal." Kiri's cheeks were shaded scarlet. "We need to figure this out man. I don't want bad blood between us. You're too important to lose over this."

"You're not gonna lose me Shitty Hair." Bakugou sat up. "So, we like the same person. We don't even know if they feel anything for either one of us."

"I just don't want something to happen between one of us and them and the other one be angry." 

"So, we don't let that happen." 

Eijiro sat up and turned to face his friend. "And how exactly do you stop something like that? It's not like we can tag-team and take turns fucking Y/N. " He sat on his knees and looked down at his friend. "Are you trying to tell me that if Y/N walked in here one night and did this," he touched Bakugou's hard on once, before giving a gentle squeeze. "that you would just tell them no?" 

Bakugou hissed at the contact, hips snapped up into his friend's hand. "No," Bakugou licked his lip. "But I don't see that happening." His eyes closed as the motions on his lower half didn't stop. "Kiri…" He hissed out a warning to the redhead. 

"Did you see this happening?" Kiri asked as he pulled his friend's pants down, releasing his hard cock. 

Bakugou's eyes snapped open as he was about to tell his friend off. The words died in his throat as Kirishima's hand wrapped around his cock and moved up and down. A slight twist here and small tug there had the blonde gripping the sheets. 

"You want release. You stated that yourself. I'm just sexually frustrated and I can't handle it anymore. What if Y/N was doing this to you? Would you really stop them?" He pulled his shirt off before leaning over Bakugou's cock. "Let's see you not let this happen." 

Bakugou groaned, his hips snapped up as Eijiro engulfed his cock into his warm mouth. "Fuck…" He didn't know how he was feeling right now. He never pictured his best friend on his cock but here they were. He was blaming you. This was entirely your fault. If you weren't so damn attractive then this never had been an issue. Fuck, they had it bad for you. 

It didn't take long for him to spill into his friends mouth. He felt relief like he hadn't in a while. 

"Now, let's take care of my problem." Kirishima licked his lips and pulled his pants down. 

 Thoughts? 

[sachigram]

Telescope Now Chapter 5

((click here to read on ao3!!))

“Okay, can you explain this to me one more time?”

Izaya stays where he is, doesn't want to look up at either of the men in his apartment. He can feel them both watching him with judgment disguised poorly as concern, and at this point he's not very interested in what either of them has to say. He knows what he sees, knows his own mind better than anyone else. He won't be swayed into thinking differently.

“I already fucking explained it to you!” Shizuo is angry, which is refreshing. He was acting much too friendly before, much too human. It's funny to Izaya that Shizuo is acting so upset on his behalf.

“Yes, but it was over the phone, and you were acting...frazzled,” Shinra answers in a placating tone. “Just once more, please.”

“It's what I said! Flea's fucking losing it way worse than you let on before. He's acting weird as fu—“

“The urns?” Shinra interjects. Izaya can hear Shinra moving towards the counter, the sounds of glass sliding, and then there's a pause.

“He says they're empty,” Shizuo says lowly, but it's almost as if he's incapable of whispering.

“They are empty,” Izaya says, sitting up at last to face them both. The blanket falls down into his lap, and he rubs at his eyes, blinking lights out of his vision. He was lying in the dark for so long with the TV as the only light source, and now Shinra has the main lights on.

“Izaya-kun, they're not,” Shinra says, lifting an urn into his arms. He pads towards the couch and tilts it towards Izaya. “Look.”

Inside is the same emptiness Izaya saw before. He thought it was a joke at first, the urns being empty, thought maybe the staff of the funeral home were trying to pull one over on him, but no. Everyone else thus far has found the urns to be full. Izaya scoffs and flops back onto the couch, pulling the blanket over his head.

“I can't look at nothing, Shinra. I don't know what you want me to say.”

“See?” Shizuo asks, and there's the rustling of fabric, the sound of footsteps. “He really thinks it.”

“Well, I didn't think he was faking,” Shinra says. There's some more movement, and then pressure next to Izaya as someone sits beside him. “Izaya-kun, I want you to come stay with me.”

“No. You think I'm crazy, I can tell. Who knows what horrible experiments you'll do as soon as I'm unconscious?” Izaya curls further into himself, wishing the others would just leave. This is awful enough without them both observing Izaya as if he's a rare exhibit at the museum.

“How many times do I have to tell you I don't think you're crazy?” Shinra asks, and he tugs at the blanket until Izaya relents to letting it pull away from his face. Shinra smiles at him sadly. “Will you trust me, please? Let's just talk through this. What could the urns being empty mean, exactly?”

“That they're actually alive, that something worse could be happening to them, that Shiki-san is somehow involved—“ Izaya lists, and Shinra holds a hand up.

“You realize what you're saying. You realize how this sounds. You're saying a powerful executive, a made man, is trying to convince you that the twins are dead. What exactly would his motivations be here?”

“I don't even know how they died!” Izaya shouts. He's gone over these facts, assessed them over and over in his mind, and having Shinra spout them as if Izaya is just being willfully ignorant is asinine. “Every time he starts to explain it to me, he stops short, like he can't piece the story together for himself.”

“Izaya-kun, he has explained it to you. He's explained it to me as well. You're blocking it out because—“ Shinra sighs and reaches for Izaya's shoulder, but Izaya swats his hand away. “You're traumatized,” Shinra continues. “This is a perfectly acceptable response to what you're going through.”

“Bullshit,” Izaya snaps, sitting up once more. He glares at Shinra, wants nothing more than to strangle the man, and he wonders briefly if this is how Shizuo feels all the time. “Tell me, then. Tell me how they died.”

Shinra opens his mouth, and his lips move, but Izaya can't hear anything. He looks from Shinra to Shizuo, trying to decide if they're messing with him, but Shizuo looks uncomfortable, as if he doesn't want to hear this story, and Shinra's expression is morose, like he's giving a patient bad news.

“They aren't dead,” Izaya says, and he draws his knees up, rests his head on them. “If they were dead, I'd know it.”

“I saw the bodies, Izaya-kun,” Shinra says gently.

“You fucking didn't. You don't even know how they died!”

“Flea, he just—“ Shizuo tries, and Izaya throws his hands in the air.

“I didn't ask for either of you to be here! I'm not asking you to believe me! What the hell do I care what either of you think when you,” he points to Shinra, “work closely with Shiki-san, and you,” he points to Shizuo, “hate me anyway?” Izaya glowers at them both, and then he flops back down, exhausted suddenly from all these emotions.

“We're trying to help you,” Shinra says, and his voice is calm. Shizuo scoffs in the background. “Neither of us has anything to gain from lying to you.”

“Yes, you do.” Izaya doesn't elaborate, doesn't think he needs to. “Get out.”

“As your friend, I can't do that, and as your medical professional, it would be nothing short of irresponsible of me to leave you on your own when I think you might be a danger to yourself or others,” Shinra says, and Izaya rolls his eyes.

“Yeah? You just said you didn't think I was crazy, and now you're saying I'm dangerous?”

“If you really think I'd be out to get you, then I have to assume something might not be right,” Shinra says coolly, and he narrows his eyes when Izaya glances at him.

“Then you leave. Shizu-chan can stay,” Izaya says.

Shinra has the gall to look hurt. “Izaya-kun...”

“I already know Shizu-chan hates me, so I won't be inclined to listen to him. Get out, Shinra, I mean it. I'm not interested in convincing you or anyone else of the truth.” He folds his arms over his knees and looks over at Shizuo, almost daring him to say something. Shizuo is uncharacteristically silent, though he still looks as annoyed as ever. He shrugs at Shinra, his lips turned down, and Shinra sighs loudly before standing.

“Have it your way, but I'll be back soon,” Shinra says. He passes by Shizuo and motions for Shizuo to follow him, and the two of them move towards the door while murmuring back and forth.

“I'm not crazy,” Izaya says to himself, and he glances at the urn Shinra left on the coffee table. It stares back at him almost vindictively, a worthy foe, every bit as empty inside as Izaya is.

The door opens and closes, and Shizuo returns, his hands in his pockets, his dark eyes focused on Izaya. “I really, really don't know what to say here.”

“I don't expect you to say anything, monster. Actually, I'd rather you not talk at all.”

“Why the hell would you prefer me to Shinra? He's right, you hate me.”

“Most of the people in my small inner circle hate me, Shizu-chan. It's easier to deal with openly hostile people, as there's no trust between us. You can't possibly betray me, as I don't trust you to begin with.” Izaya lies down once more and turns to face the TV. “Can you turn the lights back off? They're hurting my head.”

“Shinra said you should eat. Come on, I brought you fatty tuna.” Shizuo moves to hover over Izaya, and he lifts the bag as if to remind Izaya of its presence.

“I'm not hungry.”

Shizuo growls, and Izaya smiles, wonders how far he can push Shizuo before Shizuo lunges at him with intent to kill.

“Fucking eat it, or I'll shove it down your throat,” Shizuo snaps, throwing the bag at Izaya. “Dying of starvation is too nice a death for you.”

“That's absolutely terrible, Shizu-chan! It's a slow, painful death, you know?” Izaya considers throwing the bag to the floor, but the ootoro smells delicious. His stomach rumbles.

“See? You're hungry. Just eat it.” Shizuo sits down, his elbows on his knees as he leans toward Izaya. His fingers twitch.

“Did you poison it?” Izaya asks.

“I didn't even take it out of the bag!”

“Mm, you could've put poison all over the lid though... It could seep into my skin and leave me paralyzed or worse. I doubt you could come up with such a scheme, but that little friend who works with you would definitely know where to get poison. She might even be on her way here to help you dispose of my body as we speak.” Izaya knows he's reaching here, but it's just so easy to make Shizuo angry. It's Izaya's favorite toy to play with.

“Do you mean Vorona? Don't fucking talk about her to me,” Shizuo says, and he grits his teeth. “She doesn't even know I'm here. No one does except Shinra.”

“Are you saying I'm your dirty secret, Shizu-chan?” Izaya lifts his hand to his mouth, feigns shock. “I see your angle now! I never would've expected this from you, but... You always surprise me, Shizu-chan! Okay, so then the next thing for me to ask is this.” Izaya sits up, purses his lips, bats his eyelashes at Shizuo. “I don't have any money for this sushi. Is there any other way I can pay for it?”

Shizuo looks like he swallowed something sour. He snarls at Izaya before he stands up and looms over him. “You have until the count of three to eat a piece of sushi, and if you don't do it, I'm gonna make it where the only way you can eat anything is through a straw.”

“But then how will I suck your dick, Shizu-chan?” Izaya lilts, and he barely manages to move before Shizuo roars in what can only be pure frustration and lifts Izaya's entire couch to throw it across the room. It crashes into the bookshelf, knocking all the books into the floor and splintering the wood. “Ah. I guess this means you want to go to the bedroom, then?”

“Would you fucking quit it?!” Shizuo yells, and he stomps towards Izaya, lifts him by the front of his shirt. “What's with you? Why are you saying all this gross shit? Is this some new plan of yours to piss me off more than you usually do?”

“Well, being openly hostile to you doesn't seem to be working as well as normal.” Izaya shrugs as best as he can with Shizuo shaking him around. “I thought I'd see how you responded to a little flirtation.”

“How about you shut the fuck up and eat your sushi off the floor like the rat you are?” Shizuo asks, and then he lets Izaya drop.

“I think you like the flirtation! It really seems to be getting a rise out of you. That's good, Shizu-chan, you were being boring before.” Izaya turns away from him and goes to the kitchen where he fetches a bottle of wine. He's in the middle of opening it when Shizuo follows after him.

“Goddammit, Izaya, I'm just gonna call Shinra and ask him to come back. I can't be nice to you, okay? It's too fucking weird for both of us, and you're only gonna hurt yourself more to spite me.”

“The real question here is why do you care?” Izaya asks, and he pours himself a glass of wine. “Call Shinra, leave, it doesn't matter to me. I've got no problems being on my own.”

“Oh, yeah?” Shizuo asks, moving forward. He has Izaya cornered, Izaya's back pressed to the counter. “You wanna know why I care? Because you're a fucking wreck. I said I didn't pity you, and I meant it. Anything that happens to you is still less than a leech like you deserves, but letting you lose your mind first is an act of mercy I'm not capable of. I'm gonna kick the shit out of you one day, but I wanna make sure you feel every bit of it, and I wanna make sure you know why it's happening.”

Izaya sips his wine before he sets the glass on the counter. Keeping his eyes on Shizuo's face, he hops up to sit beside the wine, spreads his legs to make room for Shizuo, who growls when he realizes the suggestive position they're in.

“There's nothing wrong with me, Shizu-chan. You want me lucid so you can kick my ass? Fine, I'm perfectly aware of everything now. Get it over with and then get out. And put my couch back where it was. I'd tell you to organize my books, but I think even holding a book in your hands might send you into a meltdown.” Izaya smiles sweetly, and then he picks his glass back up.

Shizuo slaps the glass into the floor.

“Can you stop destroying my things?” Izaya asks with a pout, and Shizuo leans closer, his arms on either side of Izaya's thighs.

“Can you stop being a pain in the ass?” Shizuo asks.

Izaya lifts his finger to Shizuo's nose, taps it playfully. “Boop.”

Shizuo shouts angrily and shoves away from Izaya. He goes to the window and opens it, fishes in his pocket until he's pulling out his cigarettes and a lighter. Izaya watches him with a frown, and then he carefully gets off the counter, mindful of where the broken glass is. He carries the entire bottle of wine with him to his desk.

“I don't remember telling you it's okay to smoke in here,” Izaya says.

“If you want me to stop destroying your shit, you'll allow it.” Shizuo blows smoke out the window before he scowls at Izaya. “You piss me off.”

“Yes, I know. Those were the first words you ever said to me, you know? I'm well-aware.” Izaya logs into the Dollars chatroom as Chrome and reads over the conversation thus far. He blinks as a private message opens.

Kuru: Is this really what you're doing with your free time? You think everyone is pulling an elaborate joke on you, and you're getting drunk off wine and doing nothing about it?

Chrome: I know this isn't real.

Kuru: Real enough. Real to you.

Kuru: Why do you think the urns are empty?

Chrome: Where is Mairu?

Kuru: She's here too. She doesn't talk much in the chats. She's on a time-out for being vulgar.

Chrome: Where are you?

Kuru: The real question is where are YOU?

“Shizu-chan,” Izaya says, and his voice trembles.

The anger drains away from Shizuo's face. “What is it?” he asks.

“Can you tell me what the screen looks like to you?” Izaya scoots his chair over to make room for Shizuo, who flicks his cigarette out the window before moving to Izaya's side.

“Just looks like the same chat Celty is always on,” Shizuo says.

“You don't see the private window? You don't...” Izaya grips the desk to stop his hands from shaking. “Why is it just me?”

“Flea.” Shizuo nudges Izaya with his arm, and Izaya glares daggers at him for it. “Look, I'm not a doctor or anything, but maybe the alcohol isn't helping?”

“Fuck you,” Izaya mutters, and he takes a pointed sip from the bottle.

“Like I said,” Shizuo says, moving away from the desk. “You're a wreck.”

“I don't need your help.” Izaya uses his feet to push his chair, and he wheels after Shizuo. “You keep saying I hate you, but you leave out the part where you hate me right back. You leave out the part where you hated me on sight.”

“What's that gotta do with anything? We were teenagers.”

“It fucking matters!” Izaya snaps, and he stops the chair short of crashing into Shizuo when Shizuo freezes in place and whirls to face him. “It matters,” Izaya repeats.

“Okay. Okay, fine, then I'm sorry for that.” Shizuo rubs the back of his neck, and he looks uncomfortable. “That was a rough time for me.”

“That's it?” Izaya asks in disbelief. “You're apologizing, just like that? Your excuse is that high school was a rough time for you?”

“Well, it was!” Shizuo says. “People kept picking fights with me and Shinra wouldn't leave me the fuck alone about meeting you, and then—“ Shizuo stops abruptly, a faint color rising in his cheeks. “And then you came at the worst possible time.”

“Right. I should've booked an appointment before meeting you.” Izaya scoffs and scoots the chair back towards the desk. He grabs the wine again. “You're the one who ruined it. You're the one who started this.”

“I just said sorry! Fuck, Izaya, what else do you want from me?”

“I want you to leave.”

“No. You don't need to be alone,” Shizuo says, and he crosses his arms, a stubborn set to his jaw.

Izaya laughs. “What kind of idiot are you? I'm always alone, Shizu-chan. Believe me, I've gotten pretty used to it.”

“Me too. Doesn't mean it's not lonely.” Shizuo watches Izaya take another drink, and then he holds his hand out. He rolls his eyes when Izaya gives him a dubious look. “I'm not gonna pour it out. I want a sip.”

“All I do is share my expensive drinks with you,” Izaya laments, but he passes the bottle. He's aware Shizuo doesn't seem like a wine drinker, and his assumptions are confirmed when Shizuo makes a face. “You just don't want me to drink it all.”

“You're an annoying drunk.”

“I thought I was a sad drunk?”

“Crying is annoying.”

Izaya snorts before he slides the chair to the cracked bookshelf. He finds the takeout bag close to the couch, and he opens it, pleased to find the little plastic container isn't crushed. He pops it open and eats a piece of ootoro, a smile appearing at the taste. It's been so long since he's had it.

“Good flea,” Shizuo says, and he wheels Izaya out of the way before he cracks his knuckles and lifts the couch. He carries it back to its place in front of the TV and drops it.

“You know, if you get fired from your current job, you could be a professional mover,” Izaya says.

“You try to get me fired again, and I'm gonna snap your neck,” Shizuo replies.

“We'll have to work on your customer service, but otherwise I think you'd be good at it.” Izaya eats more sushi and feels almost happy for the first time in a long while. He doesn't say so, of course, but Shizuo seems to be aware. It's easier to ignore the elephant in the room with someone else here to provide a distraction.

“Its weird. You were right before when you said I don't know anything about you. I guess I made it a point not to know things. But now I know your favorite food,” Shizuo says as he crosses the room to pick up the discarded couch cushions. He carries them back to the couch and throws them on.

“All you have to do is pay attention. I know a lot of things about you,” Izaya says, and he smirks when Shizuo glowers at him.

“See, that's creepy. You're a creepy bastard.”

“Ask me something about you! Go ahead!” Izaya wheels back to the desk where Shizuo sat the bottle of wine down. He takes a long sip.

“No thanks. I'd rather not know how long you've been watching me.”

“Why not? It's not the least bit flattering to you?” Izaya asks.

“Why would it be?”

“I'd be flattered if someone cared about me so much,” Izaya says, and he immediately regrets saying it. His face heats up, and he turns his back to Shizuo, absolutely mortified. “I'm usually overlooked, is all I mean.”

“Overlooked? You?” Shizuo asks, and he barks a laugh. “Sorry, flea, but you really suck at blending in.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I'd know you anywhere.”

Izaya spins his chair around, laughing to himself. Shizuo is probably the only one in the world who always notices him, never looks past him. Izaya has wanted it more than anything else, no matter what he had to do to get it. Shizuo needs to look at him, even if it's with hatred, even if it's out of the desire to kill. Shizuo needs to look.

“Do you think things would be a lot different if we were friends?” Shizuo asks suddenly. Izaya stops spinning, feels a little sick to his stomach.

“Oh, come on, Shizu-chan. You wouldn't stoop to the level of being friends with me.”

“I mean it.”

“Don't you know it's rude to kick someone while they're down? How monstrous of you.”

“Flea. I mean it.” Shizuo moves closer to Izaya. “Maybe if I hadn't been fighting that day, maybe if I was in an okay mood when Shinra introduced us...”

“Stop it.” Izaya has had the same thought himself plenty of times: What if? “Even if you liked me at first, you still wouldn't like what I do, wouldn't like who I am as a person.”

“Can't you just stop being a prick?” Shizuo asks.

“Can't you just stop losing your temper all the time?”

“It's not the same thing!”

“There's that hypocrisy again! Tell me, how many excuses do you give about your temper? Someone always pisses you off, even when they aren't doing anything to you. There's always a reason for your fights, right? It's not just the fact you have an extremely short fuse to go along with your incredible strength?” Izaya smiles, sips more wine before passing the bottle to Shizuo, who snatches it.

“What's your fucking point?”

“I don't make excuses, Shizu-chan. You ask me why I do the things I do, it's because I enjoy them. It's as simple as that.” Izaya spins around. “Have you considered the reason you fight all the time is because you actually like it?”

“No, because that's not true. I hate fighting,” Shizuo says.

“Then tell me this.” Izaya stops spinning and scoots closer to Shizuo. “Have you considered you chase me around so much because you might actually like me?”

“God, are we back to the flirting now? You're running out of tricks, flea.”

“Mm. Maybe you should think about it. All those excuses of yours, you must really not know much about yourself. Denial is enough to give anyone an anger problem.”

“You wanna know what I think?” Shizuo barks, stomping forward and putting his foot out to stop the chair from moving. “I think you're the saddest, loneliest, most twisted piece of trash who ever lived. I think you tell yourself all this shit and make excuses to yourself. It doesn't matter if you own up to them out loud, does it? Not if you still try to convince yourself you're happy being alone when really you hate yourself. Don't you?”

“You're not saying anything profound, Shizu-chan. I already told you I was a coward,” Izaya says, not bothering to address the rest of it.

“Yeah, well now you're a hypocrite, too.”

They glare at each other, and then Izaya turns away, laughing at the absurdity of all this.

“Maybe we're both cowardly hypocrites. Maybe that's why we're in each other's lives. Maybe you hate me so much because I remind you of yourself.”

Shizuo removes his foot from the path of the chair, lets Izaya roll away. His eyes narrow. “So is that the reason you hate me, then? Or do you hate me because you actually like me?”

Izaya stops rolling, huffs and eats another piece of sushi. “I don't like you.”

“Right.” Shizuo drinks some wine, scrutinizes Izaya's expression. “It's okay if you do.”

“Oh, is it?” Izaya asks, eating the last of his sushi and throwing the container at Shizuo's head. “Well, thank you, Shizu-chan, that really cleared things up for me. I'm a new man, and I'll never have to bother you again!”

“God. Fuck. It's impossible to be civil with you, you know that? You make it impossible.”

“So call Shinra, call him and leave. I'm not asking you to stay.”

“No. I'm not gonna let you be by yourself.”

“Why? Why not, what business is it of yours—“ Izaya starts, standing from his chair. He falters when Shizuo kicks the desk, splitting it into pieces so the monitor crashes into the floor.

“Shut up!” Shizuo shouts, breathing heavily. “I fucking mean it, flea. One more word, and I'll kill you.”

“That desk was top of the line, you know? It probably costs more than you make in a month.” Izaya steps forward and snatches the wine from Shizuo. “I don't care what you do anymore, monster. You want to sit in silence and keep an eye on me, convince yourself you're saving me? Go ahead. It won't change anything, will it?”

“Do you really think the urns are empty?” Shizuo asks, breathing heavily, and Izaya scowls.

“Yes.”

“Then I'm staying.” Shizuo goes to the couch, flops down onto it. Izaya grins, takes a gulp of wine, and sits close to Shizuo, probably too close. “Flea,” Shizuo says warningly.

“I'm cold,” Izaya says. He pouts up at Shizuo. “You're here to help me, right?”

“If you try anything weird...” Shizuo trails off.

“Define 'weird',” Izaya says.

“Keep your hands to yourself,” Shizuo hisses through clenched teeth.

Izaya's grin stretches into a leer, and he fits himself against Shizuo's side, surprised to feel just how warm Shizuo is. He wraps his arms around Shizuo's arm and nuzzles his face into Shizuo's sleeve.

“Get off me!” Shizuo hisses, and Izaya shakes his head.

“Nope. You're like a monster space heater. I'm tipsy and I'm cold.”

Shizuo grumbles and leans back into the cushions. He changes the channel to some MMA thing, and Izaya allows himself the liberty of inhaling Shizuo's scent. It's odd, it's exactly how he imagined it: the musk of sweat, cheap cologne, cigarette smoke. Izaya loves it, hates that he loves it. He loves it so fucking much.

“Shizu-chan could wipe the floor with all those guys,” Izaya says, voice muffled in Shizuo's arm.

“Nah, they have actual skill. I just get mad,” Shizuo replies. “Your TV is amazing, by the way. I feel like I'm really there.”

“Mm.” Izaya passes Shizuo the bottle of wine, watches Shizuo's throat bob when he drinks. Shizuo tilts towards Izaya's body very slightly, probably for comfort reasons. Izaya smiles, closes his eyes, wants to memorize this exact moment down to the tiniest detail because it's already so much more than he ever thought he'd get.

“Just tell him you love him,” Mairu's voice says, and Izaya jumps backwards, away from Shizuo, who looks at him with alarm.

“Flea?”

“I heard Mairu,” Izaya says, looking around. He doesn't see her, but the urn is still on the coffee table.

“What'd she say?” Shizuo asks.

“You didn't hear her?” Izaya asks, though he knows the answer already. He laughs, falls to his side, and curls his knees to his chest. “Shizu-chan, do you think I'm losing my mind?”

“I don't know,” Shizuo says honestly. “I have no idea what you're going through. It could all be normal. And even if it's not, I think you're allowed to be a little crazy right now.”

“Why are you being so nice to me? Is it just because Shinra asked you to?”

“I don't know,” Shizuo says again, and he doesn't say anything else.

“I'm going to go to bed,” Izaya says, and he stands, lingering over Shizuo. “Stay the night, I don't care. I have a guest bed, or you can crash here in front of your beloved TV.” He looks at the urn in front of him, and then at the one on the counter. “I can't be around these things anymore.”

He goes upstairs and quickly brushes his teeth, doesn't bother with washing his face. He's so tired, so tired of everything, and somehow, knowing Shizuo is below him calms him enough to fall asleep.

He wakes in his parent's house.

He's on the couch, rubbing at his eyes as the twins argue loudly over a doll, Mairu pulling an arm, and Kururi pulling a leg. He groans and sits up.

“Can't you two just share your toys?” he asks, and they both glare at him.

“Easy for you to say! You never had to share!” Mairu shouts.

“And look at me now, sharing everything,” Izaya replies. He reaches out, takes the doll from them, and moves her around through the air. “She wants you to share her, and...what's that?” He places the doll next to his ear. “Ah. She also wants you to let me sleep.”

“She does not. It's daytime. Why are you so tired anyway?” Mairu asks, swiping for the doll. Izaya pulls the doll out of reach.

“I study at night. I also have to work.”

“Work...” Kururi repeats, tilting her head.

“I have my own private assignments, you know?” Izaya looks between them as he remembers everything, and the dream seems to shift. “Are you really dead?” he asks suddenly, and they look at each other before looking back to him.

“What do you think?” Mairu asks.

“I think you aren't. I don't think it's denial on my part. I really think if you were gone, I'd know it.”

“So then...what do you think is going on?” Kururi asks softly.

“I don't know. It...” Izaya inhales, smells a floral scent, but he doesn't know where it's coming from. “I don't know what's happening.”

“You do,” Kururi says, and then she smiles. “You've known for a while.”

“It's okay, Iza-nii,” Mairu says, and she reaches out to squeeze Izaya's hand in hers. “We're here!”

Izaya wakes up thrashing. It takes him a few moments to realize he isn't alone. Shizuo is hovering over him, holding his arms in place.

“Calm down, dammit! You woke me up again,” Shizuo says, and his grip relaxes when Izaya stops fighting him.

“You're still here...” Izaya says dazedly, his eyes full of tears. He's grateful for the darkness of his room, doesn't want Shizuo to see his face.

“Well, yeah, you...” Shizuo stops talking when Izaya's hands settle on either side of his face.

“Shizu-chan...” Izaya murmurs, his hands pulling. Shizuo follows his lead, inhales sharply when his forehead rests against Izaya's.

“Flea?” Shizuo asks.

“I had a dream. Only they aren't dreams. Or they aren't always dreams. I just...” Izaya caresses Shizuo's face, doesn't care anymore how this looks. “Can you stay up here?”

“You sure?” Shizuo asks, though he makes no motion to leave.

“I need to know you're real.”

“What are you talking about?” Shizuo asks, and Izaya shakes his head.

“I can't explain it all. You'll really think I'm insane. You can go downstairs if you really want to, I just...”

“No, I'll stay.” Shizuo rolls off Izaya, settles next to him, and Izaya doesn't hesitate at all before he's scooting closer, wrapping his arms around Shizuo and pressing his face into Shizuo's chest. “You're really freaked out, huh?”

Izaya doesn't reply. He takes greedy breaths, tries to keep Shizuo's scent in his nose for as long as he can. He feels Shizuo's arms settle around him, but he doesn't dare read too much into it. Shizuo has no choice here, after all. He's trying to make sure Izaya is okay, is doing a favor for Shinra. It's not anything more than that.

“Fuck, Izaya, you're shaking.” Shizuo hugs Izaya tighter, his face pressing into Izaya's hair. “Talk to me. What is it?”

“They're alive,” Izaya says weakly. “I know it. I know they are.”

“They aren't, flea. It's like Shinra said, you're protecting yourself from the truth.”

“I am, but I don't think the truth is that they're gone.”

“So then what is it? What's the truth?” Shizuo asks, and Izaya clings tighter to him. They lie together in silence, and Izaya is so warm, so content in Shizuo's arms that he's close to sleep once more when he hears footsteps below. He jolts, and Shizuo grunts irritably.

“I heard something,” Izaya says, trying to lift to his elbow. Shizuo pulls him back down.

“You didn't. C'mon, Izaya, just try to sleep. You'll feel better if you do.”

Izaya hesitates before he curls back in to Shizuo. All these bizarre instances, these things he can't explain, he's almost willing to overlook all of them for this: the feeling of being held, the feeling of being worried over. Izaya has never known this kind of comfort in his entire life, and he thinks he's beginning to understand why he's feeling it now.

“Christ,” Izaya mutters. If he was at rock bottom before, he's lower now, somewhere in the layers of Hell. It's cruel that it's like this, but Izaya can't say he doesn't deserve it. He reaches up with trembling hands and undoes the buttons of Shizuo's shirt. Shizuo only watches him, a calm expression on his face.

“I don't think you're a coward, Izaya,” Shizuo says, and Izaya raises an eyebrow in response, though he's not sure Shizuo can see it in the darkness. Shizuo continues anyway. “Before, you said you were, but I don't see how. You're not scared of anything. You're not even scared of me, and you really should be. Even I'm terrified of me.”

“There's more than one definition of a coward, Shizu-chan,” Izaya says, and then he presses his face into the warmth of Shizuo's bare chest. He slides his hands up and under the back of Shizuo's shirt, sighs softly and blinks back tears.

“Oh, yeah? Well, some of us don't have the time to dig up all these other definitions for simple words. Must be nice to be self-employed,” Shizuo huffs, but he keeps holding Izaya, and Izaya wonders if Shizuo might be the only thing holding him together.

“It is, it's nice. It's lonely. I'm...” Izaya's voice trembles. He swallows, forces his voice into neutrality. “If being brave means you're afraid to do something, but you do it anyway, then a true coward is someone who never tries in the first place to face their fears. Someone complacent.”

“But you put yourself in crazy situations all the time. You don't back down even when I'm trying to kill you,” Shizuo argues.

“I have a list of fears, actually. Whatever you think of me, I'm a person.” Izaya listens to Shizuo's heart beating faster. “I accept everything about everyone, I tell myself nothing they do can hurt me, not as long as I'm willing to accept any and every outcome. I love all of humanity because I see the worst of humanity every day and I can still love them, but no one sees me. No one does, and no one can, because I won't let them. You were right before when you said I'm a hypocrite, too. I am, and I know it. I want to see everyone, but I don't want anyone to see me.”

“So you hide,” Shizuo says.

“The only one who knows me is me, and I don't even like me. How am I supposed to just let people see me as I am? It's amazing, isn't it, that people can be so vulnerable with others! To let your guard down and seek comfort and love from your fellow man— It boggles the mind! Humans are social creatures; we subconsciously drift together and long for another's touch, but at the same time, we fear each other, fear existence, do terrible things to avoid being known! Isn't that amazing?! We're a paradox in ourselves!”

“I'm pretty sure you're doing the opposite of calming down,” Shizuo says, and he punctuates it with a yawn. “You're getting all manic and flea-like. Hiding from other people doesn't make you a coward, and if it does in some way, then I'm a coward, too. Whether it's to protect yourself or others, sometimes it's better to be on your own if the alternative is everyone getting hurt.”

“You're not on your own, you barbarian. You fucking should be, but you're not. You don't know the meaning of true loneliness.” Izaya seethes, digs his nails into Shizuo's back, but of course Shizuo probably doesn't feel it.

“And now you're getting all pissy. See, this is why it's hard to talk to you. You go on and on about random bullshit, and then you work yourself up, and then I just really wanna punch you. It's a cycle.” Shizuo nuzzles his face into Izaya's hair, and it has the tightness leaving Izaya's shoulders before he knows it. “If you wanna be comforted, then I'm right here. All the other shit you were saying doesn't matter, does it? You're a person, you want comfort. What's wrong with giving into nature every now and then?”

“That's so easy for you to say. You're a creature of pure instinct. And I really want you to know the emphasis I'm putting on the word creature.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. You know, the more you babble about things, the easier it is to see through you. I can actually tell you're putting all these walls up, and it's kind of stupid. It's actually really stupid for some brainiac like you. Aren't you supposed to know better?” Shizuo asks.

“It's paradoxical, as I said,” Izaya replies, and Shizuo hums.

“It must really suck to have so many thoughts all the time. No wonder you're crazy.”

Izaya lifts his leg and kicks Shizuo, and Shizuo rolls over him, partly on top of him, and he presses his face into Izaya's neck.

“Go to sleep, flea,” Shizuo says.

“That's your expert advice?”

“It sure as hell can't hurt anything, can it?”

Izaya purses his lips, chooses not to answer that. He feels Shizuo falling asleep on top of him. It happens gradually, Shizuo's body sinking further, the tension leaving his muscles. He makes a soft noise, and then his breathing evens out, his exhales tickling Izaya's skin. Izaya waits until he knows for a fact Shizuo is out of it, and then he lifts his hands, threads them through Shizuo's hair.

“I don't need this,” Izaya murmurs. “I'm doing this because I want to, not because I need it.” Shizuo's breathing is the only answer he receives, but somehow it's an answer all the same.

Izaya stays where he is even after day starts to break. It's still dark out, raining again, and he has no idea what time it was when Shizuo came to bed with him, but it must have been close to morning already, because Izaya doesn't feel like much time has passed. He doesn't sleep, doesn't dare to. He refuses to miss a single moment of this, Shizuo clinging to him, completely relaxed, drooling the slightest bit into Izaya's neck. Izaya keeps his hands in Shizuo's hair, keeps them moving, because when he tries to stop, Shizuo grunts in irritation. Izaya stops a few times anyway, just to feel Shizuo's angry little breaths against his skin.

More time passes, it must, because soon enough Shizuo is moving around more. Izaya thinks Shizuo is awake already and choosing not to get up, though whether it's from wanting to stay the way they are or not wanting to acknowledge it, Izaya can't say.

“Did you sleep?” Shizuo asks after a while. His voice is deeper than normal, gravelly from the remnants of sleep. He still doesn't move.

“Nope. I was never planning on sleeping in the first place. I'm tired of the dreams, you know?”

“Hmm.” Shizuo lifts his head slightly, rests his lips against Izaya's pulse point in imitation of a kiss, but there's no pressure. “This is nice.”

“You're spoiled, you know? I spoiled you overnight. You just wouldn't let go of me, you clingy beast.” Izaya closes his eyes when Shizuo's impression of a kiss becomes more accurate. He inhales sharply, his hands clenching in Shizuo's hair when Shizuo suddenly bites down.

“It's raining again,” Shizuo says, and he kisses Izaya's neck again, slightly higher than before. “And it's early, isn't it?”

“Probably. I can't say for sure.” Izaya shivers when Shizuo's tongue meets his skin, bites his lip on a gasp. “Fuck, what are you doing? I didn't say you could drool on me even more than you already have.”

“I think you like it,” Shizuo says smugly. “I think you really like it, flea.”

“You don't know anything about me or what I like,” Izaya argues. He opens his eyes when he feels Shizuo lifting up, feels Shizuo's nose on his cheek. Shizuo pulls back, and their eyes meet.

“Don't gotta know you to know what you like.” Shizuo leans in and stops short of pressing his lips to Izaya's. He grins at Izaya's frustrated little noise. “But I guess since I don't know you at all, I won't force it.”

“Yes, we can't add this to your list of atrocities,” Izaya replies. They watch each other closely, and when it becomes clear Izaya isn't going to budge, Shizuo breathes a laugh before he rolls over and sits up.

“Man, I hate working in the rain.” Shizuo lifts his arms, stretches until his joints pop, and Izaya lifts to his elbow.

“So then call out,” Izaya says. Shizuo turns to look at him from over his shoulder.

“I can't call out. I have a job to do.”

“That woman is there. She's capable.” Izaya tosses the covers off himself and scoots closer to Shizuo. He wraps his arms around Shizuo from behind, rests his head on Shizuo's shoulder. “Stay with me.”

“Flea...” Shizuo leans back against him, his hands settling over Izaya's. “You sure?”

“Just for today.” Izaya presses his face into Shizuo's shoulder. “I feel like it's the end of the world. Maybe it is, for me. Just indulge me this once, and I won't ask you for anything else.”

“That's a lie if I ever heard one,” Shizuo huffs, but he makes no motion to leave Izaya's grasp. “Hey. Goddammit, you're shaking again. What is it?”

“This is Hell. Isn't it?”

“Okay, no more flea shit.” Shizuo turns and cups Izaya's face. His hands are callused, but his touch his gentle, as if he's being as careful with Izaya as he can. “You're spouting nonsense, and all that's gonna do is piss me off. You want comfort, right? You want me here with you?”

“Yes.” Izaya leans in, brushes his nose against Shizuo's. What has he got to lose anymore? This probably isn't even real.

“Then shut the fuck up,” Shizuo says, and then his lips brush against Izaya's. There's a slight pause as they pull away, both of them apprehensive about the other, but then they're kissing forcefully, hard enough that Izaya forgets to breathe at first.

“Shizu-chan...” Izaya gasps, pulling back. Shizuo doesn't allow him to retreat far, just tugs him closer and seals their mouths together once more.

“I said to shut up,” Shizuo murmurs. His hands trail down Izaya's sides, his fingers sliding under Izaya's shirt as they make their way back up Izaya's body. “I've heard enough of your yammering over the years. Does it really make you so happy to deprive yourself and be miserable?”

“Fuck you,” Izaya spits, and he groans when Shizuo answers by licking into his mouth. There's a hint of desperation to their kisses, to their touches. Izaya wonders if Shizuo can also feel how finite this is, but he must.

It's all effortless, much smoother than it has any right to be. They fit together, and there's none of the awkwardness Izaya would usually associate with Shizuo. Shizuo is a fumbling moron in his own right, scared to touch and to be touched, but there's no issue with this, and that's enough to drive home that something isn't right. Still, Izaya is incapable of listening to himself at the moment. Shizuo was correct before: Izaya is so tired of fighting against himself, and just this once, just for a little while, he wants to feel what he's always been so afraid of.

“Shizu...!” Izaya's mouth drops open when Shizuo slides inside him. Their breaths mingle between them, and Shizuo is watching Izaya through dark eyes, his lips red and wet from kissing Izaya.

“Fuck...” Shizuo winces, his hips snapping forward minutely as he tries to let Izaya adjust around him. “I've thought of this so many times. Thought I was...crazy for it...”

“Move, you idiot!” Izaya swats at Shizuo's shoulders, angry that Shizuo is so calm during this when he isn't. Shizuo grins at him and thrusts forward, and Izaya's insults die on his tongue.

It's good, it's perfect, it makes no fucking sense. Shizuo knows exactly how to touch Izaya, exactly how to move, and Izaya has watched Shizuo enough over the years to know Shizuo has absolutely no experience with this. Still, Izaya is left panting, biting back screams as Shizuo pounds into him with powerful motions, with a confidence he shouldn't possess. Izaya comes hard, hard enough to where he forgets where he is, and he clings to Shizuo as Shizuo growls in his ear and keeps fucking into him.

“This...isn't... Fuck, Shizuo— How are you...doing this?!” Izaya manages to blurt between his gasps. Shizuo doesn't respond, but he does bury himself as deeply as he can inside Izaya before coming. Izaya shivers, barely recognizes that he's got his arms and legs wrapped tightly around Shizuo's body. He offers a soft moan when Shizuo kisses him again.

“I gotta call Tom-san,” Shizuo says when he pulls back a bit. He growls and looks around. “Fuck, where did I throw my pants?”

“How should I know?” Izaya asks. He's boneless and satisfied, too happy for it to be a good thing. He can't lose himself in this fantasy. He bristles when Shizuo smiles at him. “What?”

“You're so cuddly like this. It's like all the fight's gone out of you.”

“Keep thinking like that and I'll slit your throat.”

Shizuo has to leave the bed to find his pants. They're in the corner, close to the door, and Izaya watches listlessly as Shizuo calls Tom and feigns an illness.

“You don't get sick. You really should use a better excuse,” Izaya calls, and Shizuo flips him off.

“Yeah, no, it's just like...a tickle. A throat tickle. Yeah, it's weird. I feel weird.” Shizuo is pacing now, his eyes trained on Izaya in bed.

“Tell him you killed someone, that's believable,” Izaya says. Shizuo throws his pants at Izaya.

“I will. Yeah, I'll let you know. Sorry Tom-san. I'll see you tomorrow,” Shizuo says into the phone, and then he hangs up, tossing his phone off to the side. He hurries back to the bed and pounces on Izaya, and they continue where they left off long into the afternoon.

Later, when they've exhausted themselves, Izaya is once again carding his fingers through Shizuo's hair. He doesn't think he'll ever forget Shizuo's taste, his scent, the way Shizuo feels inside him. It's too good to be true, Izaya knows that, but he also knows this is probably the most he'll ever get, and like all things in his life, good and bad, he accepts it.

“Fucking flea,” Shizuo mumbles, his voice muffled against Izaya's chest. “How am I supposed to leave the bed when you're being all cuddly?”

“You aren't,” Izaya says simply. He tugs on Shizuo's hair. “Are you hungry?”

“Starved,” Shizuo answers, and Izaya snorts.

“Mm. I suppose I could order something for you, since you stayed here with me today.”

“Least you could do,” Shizuo replies.

“You'll have to grab one of our phones for me,” Izaya says.

Shizuo groans. “I'm not hungry after all.”

“You are. Your stomach is annoying me.”

Shizuo sighs loudly and lifts up, pouting at Izaya, and then he rolls out of the bed. He fumbles around, trying to find his phone in the floor, and then he glares at Izaya.

“Where's your phone, huh? In your pants?”

“Nope. Downstairs. Guess you have to look harder for yours, Shizu-chan!”

“I-za-ya.”

“For fuck's sake. It's right there.” Izaya points to a spot on the floor, and Shizuo looks from it back to Izaya.

��Where?”

“There! Where I'm pointing!”

Shizuo shuffles forward and turns in a circle, looks around thoroughly. “There's nothing here!”

Izaya grins and lifts his own phone up. “I know. I have mine right here; I just wanted to watch you look for yours.”

Shizuo scowls at Izaya, and then he crawls back into bed, fitting himself into Izaya's side.

“Do you care what I order?” Izaya asks.

“None of your super healthy shit. I want something good.”

“'Good' doesn't mean covered in grease.”

They wind up ordering Thai food. Izaya orders his spicy, and Shizuo growls before saying he wants the same, refusing to let Izaya beat him in this nonexistent challenge. When the food arrives, Izaya is the one who answers the door, his bathrobe haphazardly tied. The delivery man pointedly looks away, and when Izaya grabs the food and closes the door, Shizuo is immediately behind Izaya, mouthing at his neck and untying his robe.

By the time they eat, the food has gone cold. Shizuo complains about the spice, and Izaya rolls his eyes, informs Shizuo that no one made him order the spiciest items on the menu, though it's almost too hot for him to enjoy either. They're camped out on the floor, their bodies entwined as they share all the food they ordered. Izaya is slurping up noodles when he notices Shizuo is staring at him.

“What?” he asks.

“Nothing, just. This. Us.” Shizuo smiles and takes a bite of his own food. “I'm happy.”

“Oh? Shizu-chan is happy in the arms of his greatest enemy?”

“Yeah, I am.” Shizuo leans in and kisses Izaya's bare shoulder. “I'm happy to see you coming back to life.”

“Yes, I'll be terrorizing you within the week, I'm sure.” Izaya swirls his chopsticks around in the noodles, a contemplative look on his face.

“What is it?” Shizuo asks.

“Do you really think we could ever be like this? If things were different, if we were different, could you have really been happy with me?”

“What are you talking about? We're here now.”

“This isn't really Shizu-chan.”

Shizuo's brow furrows, and he sets his takeout container down before he gently takes Izaya's from him as well. He pulls Izaya into his lap, wraps his arms around him.

“I want you to be okay, Izaya. I think maybe you should...talk to someone. Someone besides me and Shinra. You know, like a grief counselor. I can't really help you deal with this aside from being here, but...” Shizuo's arms tighten.

“This helps,” Izaya says, tilting against Shizuo. “Certainly makes it harder to focus, but maybe that's your goal.” Izaya laughs breathlessly, his eyes closing as he inhales the scent of Shizuo's skin. “I imagined so many times how we'd be if we came together like this. I always went back and forth with it, thought you'd either be overeager and clumsy or surprisingly good at it because you're an instinctual beast. In the end, I guess I don't know how you'd be, Shizu-chan, because you always surprise me. But like this, it's easier to say I don't think you'd be this gentle. Not with me.”

“Izaya—“

“I think you'd try, but that would just annoy me. I've never liked being treated like I'm delicate, and that's part of what drew me to you in the first place. You looked at me and you weren't fooled by my appearance. You knew immediately I was someone who could keep up with you, and that's why we gravitate together the way we do. Life without Shizu-chan would be so boring. I imagine you feel the same way, but you don't allow yourself to think it. You've gotten so used to the idea of having a quiet, peaceful life that you hate me for not allowing you to have one, but you've never considered how bored you'd be if you attained it. You've never blended in. You don't know how it feels to yearn to stand out.”

“Izaya.”

“And that's stupid, isn't it? You and I, we're so different and so similar. As cliché as it is, we really do complete each other, and coming together like this, it would be so easy if we only allowed it to happen. But we won't. We won't because I'm me, and you're you, and if we stop fighting and actually coexist, we won't have anything left but to accept the fact we need each other, and that's terrifying to us both.”

Shizuo is squeezing Izaya now, his eyes wide as he observes Izaya's face.

“You've done everything possible to isolate yourself, and I've done all I could to keep you alone, but here you are, beloved by others. It really is so stupid, Shizu-chan. I wonder if you really did try to save me. I don't put it past you. I think you probably tried to.” Izaya smiles at Shizuo before he kisses Shizuo's worried frown. “It really would be so easy, to stay with you like this.”

“So stay.” Shizuo's hands cup either side of Izaya's face, and he looks so scared, so human. “You want to, right? You want to be with me?”

Instead of answering, Izaya kisses him again, sighs when Shizuo deepens it. He allows Shizuo to pull him down, allows Shizuo to taste him, spread him open, fill him until the empty spaces inside Izaya feel fuller than they ever have before. It really is so real. It's cruel, so cruel, and Izaya knows he deserves every bit of it.

Shizuo winds up passing out on top of Izaya right in the middle of the floor. The takeout containers are still scattered around them, as are pieces of shrapnel from the various things Shizuo destroyed. The urns look on, looming, daunting, and Izaya holds tightly to Shizuo, a smile on his face.

“Iza-nii.”

Izaya tilts his head, looks to Mairu. She's standing above him, isn't fazed by his nudity or the compromising position he's in.

“I know,” Izaya says. “I always told you both to have a little bit of patience.”

“We're bored. And worried, but not just for you! For lots of reasons!”

“Mostly for you,” Kururi says, appearing at Izaya's side. She touches his hand.

“We just don't fancy being alone. Plus, we owe you so many kicks, you know? You can't get off this easy!” Mairu chirps. She touches Izaya's other hand. “Maybe it'd be easier to give up, but you can't! You're a super stubborn jackass, so we know you're not the type.”

“The urns are empty because you're not dead,” Izaya says.

“We have lots of things to tell you. You love gossip, right?!”

“You're really here with me, but you can't hear me, can you?” Izaya asks.

“We think Shizuo-san visits you. We don't know for sure, but we've seen him around,” Mairu continues.

“I'm the one who isn't really here,” Izaya says, and his sisters vanish. Shizuo vanishes. The apartment around him blurs until he finds himself sitting on the rooftop of Raijin once again. His younger self is there, watching him, book still in his hands.

“Welcome back,” he says, closing the book. He stands.

“Is this the part where you tell me all I've done wrong?” Izaya asks, and his younger self grins.

“Why would I do that when you've already tortured yourself?” His head tilts to the side. “You figured it out faster than I thought you would.”

Izaya smiles, thinks of Shiki and Akabayashi coddling him, thinks of Shinra caring about him, of Celty asking him for cooking lessons, sincerely enjoying his presence. And then he thinks of Shizuo.

“People are rarely so nice to me.”

Izaya turns to look as Shizuo marches onto the roof, his uniform jacket tied around his waist. He stops in front of the younger Izaya and picks him up, slams him against the wall before devouring his mouth in a hungry kiss.

“In this universe, Shizuo wasn't in a mood that day. He was happy when he met you, because you were just a little softer, a little less damaged.” Another version of himself appears at his side, watching the scene unfold with indifference.

The roof blurs and disappears, and then it becomes Ikebukuro at night. Izaya watches himself face off with Shizuo, watches them fight, neither of them running or holding back. He recognizes the look on his own face, the look of someone who has nothing left to lose.

“Do it, monster.”

“Here, he really does almost kill you. You wind up in a wheelchair, traumatized. You run away from the city!” Mairu appears, taking the place of Izaya's doppelganger. “You leave it all behind!”

“I've always been a coward,” Izaya says, and the scene dissolves again, is replaced with another.

He watches himself meet Shizuo as a child, watches as another version of himself never meets Shinra, and therefore, is never introduced to Shizuo. He sees a world where his parents are around more, where he doesn't grow up too much, too fast. He sees every possible variation of himself all at once, and he realizes no matter what, even when they aren't together, even when they never meet, every version of Shizuo completes every version of Izaya.

“Do you have regrets?” Kururi asks, appearing by her sister. They look at Izaya, and he smiles, laughs before he can hold it in. He shakes his head.

“I never blamed anyone else, did I? I stayed true to myself no matter what. I didn't let anyone destroy me but me.” Izaya laughs again, his body shaking with the force of it. He falls to his knees, still cackling. “How many people can truly say that?!”

The twins observe him with pitying eyes, and they blur until they're gone, leaving Izaya in Ikebukuro on a sunny morning. He's on the sidewalk, and he turns as he hears hammering footsteps, watches as another version of himself rounds a corner, narrowly avoiding being grabbed by Shizuo, who looks pissed beyond belief. There's the sound of honking, some shouts, a woman screaming, and Shizuo stops abruptly, skids to a halt as he tries to grab Izaya's hood, his eyes wide with fear, and Izaya watches himself step into the middle of the road, solidifying what he already knew: the truck didn't miss him after all.