#cuz whenever i open up more about sensitive stuff shes like.

[themetalvirus]

[phemiec]

your ocs Hag and Mire seem cool af, I gotta know some headcannons about them please~

Ahh! Thanks! Gives me an excuse to ramble about them under the cut (some bodyhorror stuff under the cut cuz it’s me and and it’s mutants just a heads up)

Okay so… basically in this AU Kurt and Toad have an enemies to friends to boyfriends thing near the end of high school, then go back to enemies after a falling out as the Brotherhood ramp up their violent revolutionary activity and go more underground so they can’t be stopped as easily.

I hc toad as trans in general but in this AU more specifically genderfucky in a kind of amphibious way, and actually giving birth out of his back like a Surinam toad (MAJOR Trypophobia warning if you look that up by the way) and so he thinks he’s just growing a couple new growths on his back and rolls with it cuz, hey, he’s used to his mutation changing his body a lot by now when suddenly OH FUCK WHAT THE FUCKS GOING ON then boom, uh oh, he’s got twins.

Toad doesn’t have any parental instinct at all really but even he knows a freedom fighting domestic terrorist cell is no place for babies so he breaks into the Xavier Institute in the middle of the night through Kurt’s window and leaves the girls with just a note that says “sorry. -t”

Kurt is obviously stunned and tries to find and confront him but no luck, the brotherhood are laying way low and using unknown tech to block Cerebro. Hank does some paternity test and finds out, yup, these are Kurt’s and Todd’s kids. Kurt has….a bit of an adjustment period, as well as some explaining to do as his and Todd’s relationship hadn’t exactly been in the open.

between everyone at the institute helping him though, he has a village of support in raising the kids, and he really does love them once he allows himself to accept that he’s actually a father, and he takes to it well. He is very doting and supportive but sometimes acts more like a friend than a parent. He’s not a great disciplinarian.

anyway on to the girls!

Hailey (Hag) is tough and rebellious and full of energy from a young age, she is always pushing limits, breaking rules and trying to come along on missions and combat training basically as soon as she can walk and talk. She has a tough time making friends and even as they grow up and more young mutant students closer to her age are recruited, she keeps to herself.

Especially after her acid spit and poisonous claws show up, she keeps everyone at arms length literally and figuratively. the only person she’s at all close to is her sister Mila, who she is very possessive of. She acts tough but is pretty sensitive to perceived rejection so it’s really more of a “hurt them before they hurt you” thing. Though she has some hero worship of the older mutants especially Wolverine as a kid and tries to impress him whenever he’s around, she quickly grows out of that.

Mila (Mire) on the other hand, is very social and curious, she is constantly asking questions and shadowing the adults and other students as a child. She is a dad’s girl for sure, but also thinks of Beast and Forge as paternal figures, ultimately she ends up working alongside them in the science lab quite a lot when she grows up.

She is extremely interested in mutant biology and the science of mutation more so than she is in fighting or politics. Though she is eccentric, and sometimes gleeful over things others find morbid, she is well liked by most of the other x-men because of her genuine, open minded and enthusiastic nature. She loves her sister very much and accepts her abrasive personality as just a quirk of character. Mila is the only person in the institute that isn’t a little unnerved or intimidated by Hailey, and in turn Mila is the only person Hailey fully trusts.

anyway eventually once they’re fighting out in the field they inevitably encounter Toad and he’s like “Oh shit! You’re those weird things that came outa me! I guess we should talk or something?” Kurt hasn’t told them anything about their other parent, so the girls agree, suspiciously but curiously, to sneak out and secretly meet up with Todd outside of battle.

when they meet it’s incredibly awkward for all of them, but Todd very plainly explains everything, and it matches up with what they’ve figured out so far. Mila sneaks some DNA from one of his hairs, and after it comes back positive the girls confront Kurt. Who sheepishly and regretfully fills in the blanks.

this is enough for Mila who has had her curiosity satisfied, but Hailey is furious. She is enraged that the enemy they’ve been fighting this whole time has been her other parent, and it spurs her paranoia over what else the institute’s been keeping from them. she keeps meeting up with Todd secretly on her own, and eventually meets the other brotherhood members and is gradually swayed over to their motives and methods.

Now feeling like her whole childhood was a lie, she tries to get Mila to leave with her and join the brotherhood, but when she won’t, Hailey feels fully betrayed, as though Mila is choosing everyone else over her. She leaves and joins the BH, and from then on it’s parent and child versus parent and child! Kurt and Mila are devastated and keep trying to get her back, but every attempt just bolsters her resolve, especially as she gets closer with Todd and forms bonds with the brotherhood members she never had with any of the x-men.

if there’s any reconciliation in sight I haven’t thought it up yet but that’s where they’re at in that drawing.

thanks for the interest! Been a while since I made such self indulgent OCs but I love them a lot lol.

[daryl-dixon-daydreams]

Words: 8714 Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader Reader pronouns: she/her Era: the Greene farm Warnings: Language, violence, gore, blood, severe injuries, fear, anxiety, death of a character A/N: This is the FINAL part of a miniseries! You can find the other chapters on the Masterlist! Summary: Y/N and Shane go missing.

Your name: submit What is this?

Two weeks later

“I can actually do it myself,” you insisted, feeling a blush in your cheeks as Daryl pulled your hand over onto his lap and bent over it, luckily oblivious to the pink glow now filling your cheeks.

He huffed at you. “I’m sure ya can,” he drawled, “but it’s definitely easier for someone with two hands, don’t ya think?”

You watched as he methodically and carefully snipped the stitches in your hand and pulled the sutures away, apologizing if they tugged at all. A lot had happened in the last two weeks. Pretty much everyone had come around to the fact that Shane had hurt himself in an attempt to get the group to abandon you. There had been a massive fight between him and Rick and since then Shane had been confined to his tent while he healed. When Hershel found out what had happened, he told Rick that Shane couldn’t stay, but Rick had already decided that he had go. His best friend seemed to be growing more bitter and more unstable by the day.

But Shane was still around temporarily, and because of that Daryl had refused to leave you to sleep unguarded at night. You’d argued that it would be fine and that you didn’t really think Shane would try to pull anything else, but the archer was insistent. Eventually, you caved. Daryl had hauled your cot and bedding to his tent and set them up along the opposite wall from his, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck at the strange nervousness and yet gratitude he felt knowing you’d be so close.

You both fell into an easy routine together. Your physical closeness may have been borne out of necessity but the other growing closeness developed organically. Spending time with Daryl was easy. He didn’t mind when you were quiet for hours on end, lost in your own head as you aimlessly tossed twigs into the fire. He didn’t mind when you wanted to talk about something specific or nothing at all, and you felt the same way about him. The silences didn’t bother you with Daryl and every time he did open his mouth it was either to make you laugh or to say something you were genuinely interested in hearing. He was constantly checking on you over the smallest things. If you shivered in the evening as you spent time around the fire, he’d insist that you moved closer to the flames or he’d go get a blanket from his tent and toss it down on your lap without a word before he took his place again. He’d make sure you were eating and would refill your canteen whenever he thought about it. You did what you could to return the favors but he usually seemed to beat you to it.

“I guess with these out I can finally start hunting again,” you said. “And going out and gathering stuff.”

“Mhm,” Daryl hummed, his eyes narrowed as he focused on removing the very last stitch. “There.” He straightened up and looked at the slightly raised pink scar down the center of your palm. He wasn’t sure what made him do it, but he ran a finger lightly down the length of it.

You startled at the unfamiliar sensation, a little strange due to the altered sensation along the length of the scar, but even more so because of the way your heart jumped at the touch of Daryl’s fingers so light on your palm. You involuntarily pulled you hand back and your eyes shot up to meet his.

He gave you a sheepish look. “Sorry. Did that hurt?” He regretted it the moment he’d done it, worried about your reaction.

You shook your head. “No, it just—”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing,” you finished quietly, chewing on your bottom lip a little anxiously. He quirked an eyebrow at you but simply stood up.

“Alright. Well, couple more days and that asshole will be outta here,” he growled, glancing over in the direction of Shane’s tent. He wasn’t yet allowing himself to acknowledge that he was worried things would go back to the way they were before once Shane was gone. That is, you’d retreat back to your space and back to yourself. He was really liking his time with you and he didn’t want it to end. The archer shook his head and glanced back at you. Your eyes were now on Shane’s tent, too but your expression was fretful. “S’matter?” he prompted you.

You sighed. “I just feel like it’s my fault he has to leave…”

“Nah. Nah, it ain’t. Y/N, if it weren’t you it’d be somethin’ else. He’s been spiralin’ down since Rick showed up alive and took his family back. It ain’t got nothin’ to do with ya, not really.”

You still looked unsure but the worry lines in your forehead eased a little. “Yeah. I suppose so.”

“Listen, I told Carol I’d go help her with that new tent. Ya gonna be alright over here?” he asked.

You nodded. “Mhm. I’ll be right here. Andrea gave me a new book.” You did glance a little longingly over your shoulder at the far tree line and Daryl was always amazed that even after the traumatic incident in those very same woods that you still wanted to be out there almost every minute of the day.

“Hey,” he said, calling your attention back to him. “We’ll go out and hunt tomorrow, alright?”

You nodded. “Tomorrow.” You watched his broad shoulders fade toward the main camp.

Carol was waiting when Daryl arrived. Her old tent had started to leak and Daryl had promised to help her get the new one they’d found set up. She stood up as he strode over, already flustered by the number of pins and ropes and metal poles. “If I’d known I’d be living out of a tent I definitely would have stuck with the Girl Scouts when I was a kid,” she said, giving Daryl a helpless look.

He let out a gruff laugh. “Ya got that the wrong way around,” he said, pointing to the pole she’d already slipped through the tent. She stared at it and sighed. “S’alright. That’s why I’m here right?” he said. “Gimme that,” he said, grabbing the bundle of poles in her hands and setting to work. In no time they had the tent upright and were going about staking it down. Carol handed Daryl another stake and he pounded it into the ground securing down the corner.

“So… what’s going on with you and Y/N exactly?” she asked him.

The archer froze and shot a look at her before returning his eyes to what he was doing, grateful for a task to focus on even as he felt his ears growing red. “What’d ya mean?”

“Well,” Carol continued, “you’re sharing a tent,” she said with a smile.

Daryl scoffed. “So? I shared a tent with T-dog once. Ya gonna ask me if we held hands?”

Carol laughed and smirked at him. “Well, did you?” Daryl rolled his eyes at her and she laughed harder.

“We’re sharin’ a tent cuz there’s a psycho that probably is blamin’ all his problems on her. And I don’t want shit to go sideways.”

“So, that’s it? You’re just sharing a tent for purely practical reasons,” Carol said. Daryl could hear the skepticism in her voice and he straightened up after tying off the knot to the stake.

“The hell are ya on about?” Daryl growled. But even as he tried to act gruff and brush her off, he felt that heat growing in his chest that was becoming familiar when he thought of you.

“You two just seem to get along,” Carol said. “That’s all.”

“Mmm,” Daryl hummed, moving to the next corner of the tent. Something about that response made Carol laugh again.

“You’re so sensitive,” she murmured, eliciting an eyeroll from him. “Daryl, I just like to see you happy. And lately, since you’ve been spending so much time with Y/N, you’ve been happy,” she pointed out.

He couldn’t deny that. She was right. He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, his hands still on the last length of cord before he tied it off and pounded in the stake. He stood up and stepped back, taking in the structure. “Alright. All done.”

“Thanks,” she said gratefully, surveying it. She gave his shoulder a friendly squeeze and smiled. “Do me a favor?”

“Hmm?” he hummed, chewing on the side of his thumbnail, glancing up at her.

“If you really like her,” she paused and shrugged, “tell her. Life is short these days.” She knew that as well as anyone. A husband, abusive asshole or not, and a precious little girl were gone to this world.

Daryl only ducked his head and lazily twirled a piece of grass between his fingers. “I’ll see ya,” he murmured, turning and heading back toward his tent. He was expecting you to be sitting beside the fire where you’d been when he left, but that spot was empty. He approached the tent and stopped outside the door. “Y/N? Ya in there?” When there was no answer, he unzipped it and peeked inside. No sign of you. The book that had been in your hand was on the tent floor and he bent and picked it up, setting it on the upturned box that was serving as a nightstand next to your cot. That’s when he realized your knife was there. He’d been thinking maybe you had to go use the bathroom, but you never left camp without your knife at your hip, whether it was for two minutes or two hours. And it wasn’t like you to leave a book on the ground. You treated the damn things like they were some sacred tomes. He felt panic start to grow in his chest and left the tent in a hurry, his blue eyes scanning the area where everyone else was set up and the tree line. He didn’t see you anywhere.

Daryl grabbed his crossbow and took off running toward the main camp. He found Lori and Carol preparing some food for dinner and stopped beside them. “Hey—have ya’ll seen Y/N anywhere? She come through here at all?” He directed the question at Lori since Carol had been busy with him getting the tent set up.

She stood up and dusted her hands off on her jeans, shaking her head. Her eyes went a little wide with worry as she registered the deep concern on Daryl’s face. “No, I—I haven’t seen her. You can’t find her?”

Daryl didn’t even stay to answer. He just tore off in the direction of the farmhouse and bounded up onto the front porch. Glenn and Maggie both stood up at the expression on his face. “Ya’ll see Y/N? Did she come up here?”

Maggie shook her head. “No,” Glenn answered, immediately worried. “What’s going on?”

Daryl swore under his breath and paced a restless circle, rubbing a hand over his mouth. “I—I was gone for maybe an hour helpin’ Carol and now I can’t find her anywhere. She wouldn’ta gone off without her knife or nothin’,” he said. His jaw clenched and Glenn watched the muscle twitch. Daryl’s eyes quickly landed on the tent Shane was confined to and he took off at a full sprint toward it. Glenn was on his heels now.

“Daryl! Daryl, take it easy!” Glenn yelled after him. It drew the attention of the rest of the group and soon Rick and Andrea were standing beside Glenn as Daryl ripped back the entrance to Shane’s tent.

Daryl’s stomach twisted. Shane’s tent was empty. He kicked out at a milk crate that had some of Shane’s things on it and it toppled over. “Shane’s gone and Y/N is missin’!” he roared at Rick.

Rick gulped. A hard pit formed in his stomach. “Daryl—Daryl, just calm down,” Rick said.

That had the opposite effect. “Calm down? Calm down?!” he roared. “This ain’t no coincidence! I told ya he didn’t deserve to stay here to heal up, and now look what’s happened!”

“We’ll find them! We’ll find them. We will. Just—”

“Nah. I’m gonna track that fuckin’ prick and if he’s laid so much as a finger on her, he’s a dead man.” Daryl took off without another word, racing back to the last place he’d seen you, his eyes scanning the ground the whole way, hoping for a track, a trail, something.

“Dale, get the guns,” Rick said. “Lori, you and Carol take Carl up to the house and see if you can wait inside with Hershel and the girls.” Lori nodded and gave Carol’s arm a gentle squeeze. Rick rubbed a hand over the stubble on his face.

Andrea was stunned. “What do we do?”

Rick shut his eyes for a moment and pulled in a breath. “We get our guns and we look. We hope Daryl can pick up a trail and we hope we aren’t too late.”

You had been sitting contentedly by the fire reading when you decided you wanted some tea. You knew there were still some dried spicebush leaves in your pack from your last foraging trip and you went in to get them. You were crouched beside your pack, digging in the pocket when you heard a metallic sound that was easily identifiable. It was the slide of a pistol being drawn back and released, a bullet moving into the chamber. You froze with your hands in your pack and slowly turned. You could see Shane outside the window netting and his gun was aimed right at you.

“Get up. Slowly. Leave all your shit.”

You gulped and did so, replacing your pack against the wall and abandoning your book on the floor.

“Come over here. Zip the tent up and don’t even think about trying anything because I will kill you right here,” Shane growled, and you believed him. “Let’s go. Now.”

Again, you complied. You glanced desperately toward the main camp, hoping with every part of you that Daryl would be headed back or somehow happen to look over and see what was happening, but you knew you didn’t have any options except to comply. Comply and hope for an opening to save yourself.

Shane’s gun was still trained on you as you stepped around the outside of the tent. He was gritting his teeth in anger as you stared back at him. You were determined to remain calm and in control.

He nudged the barrel of his gun in the direction of the tree line. “Move. Let’s go.”

You felt sick, knowing that once you went into those trees the chance that you would ever come back out was low. But what choice did you have? He had a fucking gun on you and you had nothing.

You made your way toward the woods. Shane pressed the muzzle into your back. “Faster. And don’t even think about making a fucking sound. I will shoot you right here. I don’t even care. At least then I wouldn’t have to worry about you going all psycho-killer. Wouldn’t have to worry about Lori anymore. Or Carl.”

You bit your tongue to stop a retort.

Soon, you were under the dark canopy of trees, cloaked in shade and moving further in with Shane’s gun at your back. He was nervous, on edge, and understandably so, because you knew if Daryl caught him… he’d be dead in an instant. You decided your best course of action was to try to reason with him. You really did believe that he was just fucked up from being in love with a woman he couldn’t have. This was all misplaced blame and aggression. He really wanted to fuck Rick up, but that loyal part of him, that police partner, wouldn’t let him. Some part of him couldn’t bear to do that to Carl and Lori, even while another part of him was desperate to. You were an easy target, the next best thing to blame for his failed attempts to get back into the place he wanted to be, to regain some control, to prove he knew best and was still The Protector. If he had been able to show everyone that you were really a threat and that he and not Rick had taken care of it, he really thought maybe that would win Lori over. But that had all backfired. Now you were just easy to blame for all his problems.

“Shane, I know this isn’t really what you want,” you said quietly.

“Shut the fuck up. You don’t know a goddamn thing about me,” he growled back, nudging you sharply with the muzzle of his gun again.

“I don’t want you to have to leave either. I know it isn’t fair,” you continued. “You took care of everyone for a while before Rick showed up.”

“I said shut up!” he spat again through clenched teeth. “Ya know what? Sit the fuck down. Right there, against that tree.” He shoved you hard and you stumbled, barely catching yourself with your hands on the large oak before your face would have collided with it.

You obeyed and sat with your back against the tree, gulping at the dryness in your throat, and turning to stare directly at the gun pointed in your face.

Something about how calm you were being, how steady, was completely freaking Shane the fuck out. He wanted you to snap. He wanted to be able to say that he was right about you and you were a danger to everyone in camp, like you were some unpredictable monster. But you just sat there looking up at him, now completely silent, your eyes flickering between the muzzle of his gun and his face. Shane swore under his breath and paced back in forth in front of you. Your eyes followed his movements. You bided your time, trying to come up with something that would defuse this whole situation.

“How is this going to fix anything?” you asked him. “This is only going to make everything worse.”

He didn’t stop pacing and occasionally shooting a look at you that made your blood run cold. You were starting to think that maybe there was no reasoning with him…

“You can just let me go. I’ll just tell everyone I needed to get out of camp for a bit. You can wander back in like nothing happened,” you said.

He pointed the gun at you again and his lip curled. “There’s no going back from this. No going back from everything that’s already happened. And I know there is something wrong with you. I know it. If I’m not going to be here to keep an eye on you, I need to end this now so you can’t hurt anyone. Because I know you will snap eventually. I saw what you did to those men.” Shane got right into your face, poking you in the shoulder with the muzzle of his gun.

“I was defending myself,” you said quietly, feeling guilty and horrified at yourself even as you tried to justify it to Shane.

“So you say,” he growled, his pistol now aimed at your forehead.

“If I was going to snap like you’re saying, wouldn’t now be a good time?” you said quietly. “Obviously you’re a threat to me. But I’ve done everything you’ve asked.”

He scoffed and straightened up again, resuming his pacing. “What—what the hell happened to you, huh? What fucked up thing twisted you to the point where you could do what you did to those men? Do you even remember it? Do you even know how many times you stabbed them?” he pressed. He was trying to agitate you, but it didn’t work.

Your stomach was churning with the foggy memory of being covered in their blood, of seeing their corpses on the ground, but you only stared back at Shane. No way in hell you were divulging what you’d been through to Shane, gunpoint or not.

He ran his tongue over his teeth and you watched as the muscle in his jaw clenched. He charged toward you again. “You know what? I’m done with this,” he growled. He pressed the gun to your forehead, aiming at a downward angle. The metal bit into your skin. You stared up at him briefly, eyes wide but surprisingly calm, and Shane watched in some disbelief as you finally just shut them and seemed to resign yourself to the fact that you were about to die.

That hesitation was all you needed.

You shoved Shane’s arm away and the gun with it and snatched the knife at his hip, ripping it free from its sheath and slashing at him, leaving a good gash on his arm. But a knife wouldn’t be any match for Shane with a gun. He was a firearm instructor and you knew his aim was deadly accurate, so before he could entirely recover from his surprise you ran at him full force and the two of fell to the ground hard. The pistol flew from his hands and landed in the leaf little a few feet away. You began to crawl desperately toward it, trying to put distance between you and Shane as quickly as possible, but you let out a yell as you felt him grab hold of you and pull you back.

The next thing you knew he was over you, trying his hardest to get the knife from your hand. You were slashing at him desperately, catching him on the forearms as you struggled beneath him. You caught him with a particularly strong slash but the next moment he had your hands pinned in his and he wrenched the knife from you. The rush of blood was loud in your ears and now you were on the defensive. You shielded yourself with your arms as best you could and continued to struggle beneath him, but his weight was too much.

Shane suddenly managed to push your arms out of the way and you saw the knife coming toward you as if in slow motion. It was heading straight for the center of your chest. You thrust your left arm out and felt the blade pierce it deeply before ripping clean and lodging in your left shoulder. You let out a scream of pain, but as Shane was now leaning over you, you managed to get your knee up underneath him and thrust it as hard as you could into his groin.

He let out an agonized yell and rolled off you, abandoning the knife that was still lodged deeply in your shoulder. You gritted your teeth and were vaguely aware of tears streaming down your face and the fact that you were trembling. But there was no time to stop. You couldn’t stop if you wanted to live. You clutched at the knife in your shoulder, staring briefly with shock at how deeply it was embedded, but didn’t dare to pull it out. Rolling over and holding yourself up on your lacerated forearms, you fixed your eyes on the gun and made a desperate lunge for it. You felt hands on your legs again, dragging you back.

Back toward the edge of the tree line, Daryl had picked up the trail easily and was frantically tracking. Rick and the others were on his heels, glancing around nervously, straining their eyes in the veiled darkness beneath the canopy and their ears in the closeness of the trees. But it wasn’t long that they had to trail behind the archer because soon a strained yell made it to their ears. Daryl felt his blood run cold.

He paused hardly for a moment before he tore off through the trees in the direction he’d heard your voice echo from. “Y/N!” He wanted you to know he was on his way. He needed you to just hang on. He pushed himself to run through the nausea that had risen when that sound, your pained voice, had met his ears. He tore through the foliage, the sound of pounding boots on the soil loud behind him as the others followed.

“Daryl! Daryl, slow down! We can’t just—” Rick paused as he had to bust through some shrubs. “We can’t just barrel in there!” But it was as if the archer hadn’t heard anything. He just continued running, trying to listen over his own gasping breath and pounding pulse but simultaneously afraid of what he would hear.

Crack.

The unmistakable sound of a gunshot.

Daryl skidded to a stop, frozen. His face blanched, almost ashen as Rick caught up and glanced over at him. Sweat was pouring down from their foreheads and running down their necks, soaking the thin cotton of their shirts. A small strangled noise escaped Daryl’s lips as he searched the ground frantically again for the trail, needing to know he was running in the right direction. He spotted it. Direction confirmed, he took off at an even madder pace than before. “Y/N!” There was no answer.

But he couldn’t allow himself to think the worst. He couldn’t. That couldn’t happen to you. After everything you’d already been through… how could he have let this happen? Why had he turned his back on you for even a minute with that prick still around? He felt shaky and weak even as he ran.

The group had just pushed through another thick swath of understory when Daryl saw a bundle ahead, lying motionless on the ground. His breath caught in his throat and his boots rooted into the soil for a moment. But he pushed himself to move forward again.

Behind him he was vaguely aware of a gasp from Andrea and some murmur from Glenn.

As he moved closer, he realized there was a second shape ahead and as his eyes refocused, he saw that it was you. You were leaned up against a big oak tree, propped up against the rough bark, your head lolled toward your chest. Some pained gasp or muted scream, catching mostly in his throat, left his lips before he tore off toward you again. As he fell to his knees beside you, he took in the soaked crimson of your shirt. Your arms were cut up and absolutely covered in blood. Then Daryl’s eyes landed on the hilt of the knife still embedded in your left shoulder. His hands shook as he hesitated before lifting your chin, terrified that your skin would be cold and lifeless. You were bruised and battered, bleeding from a swollen and split lip and a gash near your hairline, but there was some semblance of warmth still in your skin, though you were pale. More miraculously yet, when he gently lifted your chin, you started to stir and Daryl watched in desperation as you struggled to open your eyes, eventually succeeding.

“Hey, hey. S’alright. I’ve got ya. I’ve got ya…” He could hear his own voice shake as he spoke.

You gulped, wanting to clear the taste of iron from your mouth. “I had to,” you managed to croak out. “I had to.”

Daryl knew you were referring to Shane’s lifeless body behind him on the ground. “S’ok. It don’t matter. Don’t talk now, alright? Just rest. I’ve got ya.”

Daryl felt someone behind him and turned to see Glenn just behind him. His face was pale as he took in your condition. “Her shoulder... Oh my God,” Glenn gasped.

“She’s gonna be fine,” Daryl said forcefully. He carefully slid his arm behind your back and another underneath your knees. You were fighting to stay awake. “Daryl…” you murmured. You felt so small in his arms as he lifted you. Daryl was vaguely aware of your fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, gripping it hard before you fell unconscious again, going limp in his arms. He turned and started heading back to the farm, moving as quickly as he dared with you in his arms, conscious of the knife still wedged cruelly into you. The sight of it protruding from you made him sick with rage. Rick was kneeling beside Shane, his face downturned, as Daryl breezed past. Andrea stood just behind him with a hand pressed over her mouth, watching as Daryl carried your bloodied body past her.

As Daryl’s broad shoulders disappeared, Glenn bent and retrieved the pistol lying on the leaf litter among streaks of your blood. It felt like a lead weight in his palm.

_ _ _ _ _ _

Daryl sat slumped in a chair beside your prone form laid out on the bed, covered over in the blankets. He was leaned over forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped so tightly that his knuckles shone white.

After days of agonizing waiting, there was a soft noise from you and his eyes shot up urgently to see you stirring a little on the pillow. He rocketed to his feet so fast that the chair he’d been in clattered backward loudly to the floor. “Doc!” he yelled out. Hershel rushed in a moment later.

You dragged your eyelids open with a great amount of effort and the first thing you saw were Daryl’s piercing blue eyes looking down at you with immense concern. You moistened your lips with your tongue and cleared your throat, which felt dry and scratchy, preparing to speak. He watched as your expression melted into a veil of confusion. “I’m not… not dead?”

Daryl felt a painful pang in his chest as he watched you spinning with disbelief.

Hershel leaned over you with a kindly and somewhat sad expression on his face. “You most definitely are not. Though you surprised all of us after what you went through,” he said putting a gentle hand on your uninjured shoulder.

Your eyes turned back to Daryl’s. “Shane—” His name seemed to strangle and catch in your throat. “I—”

“I know. Ya had to. S’alright,” Daryl drawled, his brow furrowing low over his eyes.

You mouthed wordlessly for a moment, your eyes brimming with tears. “Is he—did he—?”

Daryl nudged his nose up in a nod, his expression full of concern. “He’s gone.”

You felt that you already knew the answer but it still made your stomach churn. You laid more heavily into the pillow and shut your eyes, a pained expression crossing your face. When your eyes finally fluttered open again they were still a little glassy. Daryl wondered at this display of remorse, of regret you had for a man who had clearly taken you into the woods to kill you.

But what Daryl saw next was you clearly struggling against some flashback. You squeezed your eyes shut and your breathing quickened. Beads of sweat broke out on your hairline and your face tensed.

Daryl’s hand shot out to gently grab yours before he even knew what he was doing. “Hey.” He gave it a gentle squeeze. “Y/N. S’alright. You’re safe,” he drawled.

Your eyes opened and you glanced down at your hand in his. Daryl withdrew, suddenly self-conscious. You nodded and seemed to come back to the present.

You reached across yourself to grip your left shoulder, a wave of pain running through you and a grimace tightening your features. You felt thick gauze beneath your fingers. As you moved you became aware that you had many little rows of stitches on your arms and a few gashes wrapped up in bandages as well. Even your hands were cut up from your attempts to defend yourself. You extended your arm in front of yourself and took in the damage done by Shane’s knife.

“I don’t understand,” you said softly. “I thought for sure I was going to die out there.” The way you said it was so matter-of-fact and Daryl felt a rush of anger overwhelm him for a moment. Shane was lucky he was dead when Daryl had gotten there… He’d gotten off easy with a single round to the chest.

Hershel nodded. “You have a lot of strength in you. Rest. Everything is going to be just fine. You’re going to heal up and be back to normal before you know it, though that shoulder may need a little extra TLC.” The doctor took his leave and your eyes found Daryl’s again. He read worry on your face.

“What is it?” he drawled.

You gulped. “I’ll leave as soon as I’m healed up,” you said, now avoiding his eyes.

Daryl’s brow furrowed more deeply. “Why the hell would ya do that?”

His tone was forceful again and drew your eyes back to his. “The others—after what happened, I can’t imagine they want me around anymore.”

Daryl sighed heavily and righted his chair again, sinking down in it close at your bedside. “For once yer wrong about somethin’,” he said. “Nobody wants ya to leave. Ya didn’t do anything more than defend yourself, just like ya did with those men before. Anyone can glance at ya for one second and see that.”

You shifted in bed, trying to make your injured shoulder more comfortable, laying your other hand over it absently, and you chewed on the inside of your cheek. You still looked unsure.

“Y/N, when we found ya you had a damn knife sticking out of your shoulder.” He paused and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck a little anxiously. “I—” his voice seemed to catch in his throat. “I thought we lost ya.”

You peered at him curiously.

He leaned forward. “Listen to me, if anybody even so much as looks at ya like ya shouldn’t be here, they’ll have to deal with me.”

Daryl watched, a little anxiously, as your lips parted softly. “I’m not sure I deserve that from you,” you finally managed quietly. “You’ve already done enough. Daryl, I suspect you saved my life.” You gulped and stared down toward the edge of the blankets. “In more ways than one…”

The archer averted his eyes down toward his boots and chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, nervous and wavering between his insecurity and need to reassure you, not allowing himself to really think on what you’d just said. “Hey. Yer a part of this group, even if ya ain’t always felt like it.”

You studied him for a long moment before you spoke again. “So are you,” you said perceptively. His blue eyes shot up to meet yours and you gave him a weak smile. “Can you do me a favor?”

He nudged his nose up in a nod. “’Course.”

“Can—can you help me take a walk outside? I need some air,” you said quietly.

“Are ya sure yer up for that? Ya had surgery on that shoulder. Ya lost a lot of blood. Ya just woke up after bein’ out of it for three days. I don’t think it’s—” Concern creased his forehead.

You nodded. “I’m sure. You won’t let anything bad happen to me. I’ve at least learned that by now.” You felt a bloom of warmth in your chest as you spoke those words, coupled with the realization of their truth almost at the same time as they left your lips. That burst of heat you felt was reflected in a pink hue in the archer’s face and the tips of his ears.

He looked a little bashful but nodded and acquiesced to your request. “Alright. C’mon,” he said, gently taking your hand, avoiding the injuries carefully, and doing his best to ignore how nervous he felt when his fingers closed around it. He helped you out of bed and steadied you as you got to your feet. You glanced up at him, and your expression was so open and earnest he was frankly shocked by it. Could it really be that you were looking that way at him? His fingers were light under your elbow and his other hand was ghosting behind your back, centimeters away from making contact if needed as you started toward the door. “Ya alright?”

You nodded and gulped at the rush of feelings his hand around yours had brought, trying your hardest to ignore it. All you could do was nod. The two of you emerged onto the porch and Glenn and Maggie stood up immediately from their place nearby in the seating area. Both of them were all smiles to see you on your feet.

“You’re up,” Glenn said, looking at you with a bewildered smile. “This is amazing. It’s so good to see you awake!” His expression was nothing but kindness.

“How are you feelin’?” Maggie asked.

You nodded, glancing back over at Daryl and relaxing some as you saw one corner of his mouth was twitched up. His blue eyes were fixed on your face and he couldn’t look away. Seeing you actually awake and already on your feet was a huge relief after many days of sickening worry. “I feel alright. A little tired,” you admitted. Almost as if one cue you wavered a little on your feet, your knees feeling suddenly weak.

Daryl’s hand landed flush against the small of your back, immediately steadying you. “Easy,” he rumbled. “Ya alright?” You nodded, quite sure your cheeks were pink, and when you glanced back at him and mumbled a small “thanks” you thought maybe his cheeks were pink too. You turned back to Glenn and Maggie and your eyes drifted to all the numerous stitches on your arms. “I’m definitely a little worse for wear. But could have been worse…” you trailed off.

“Definitely,” Glenn said, giving you a sympathetic look. “We’re all just so glad you’re okay.”

Just at that moment you heard boots on the stairs and you looked up to see Rick, thumbs slung into his pockets as usual. Your heart rate increased with anxiety and you gulped at the sudden tightness in your throat. You’d killed his best friend. You’d pulled the trigger and killed Shane. “I’m sorry,” you said to the Sheriff.

But Rick was smiling at you with tears in his eyes, shaking his head slightly. “This is my fault,” he said suddenly, a rasp in his voice from emotion and your eyes widened in surprise. “This is my fault and I am so sorry. Daryl told me—and I should have listened. Shane was way more of a threat than I was willing to admit. This should have never happened to you,” he drawled. “And I hope you can forgive me at some point.”

You stared at him for a long moment, blinking in the sun and breathing in the freshness of the outside air. “It’s already forgiven,” you said softly, nodding at him.

Daryl stared at you in awe of how, despite everything you’d been through, you still could extend that forgiveness so easily.

Daryl sensed some shift in you and his brow drew down low over his eyes. “Let’s get ya back to bed. C’mon.”

You allowed him to help you back through the farmhouse and even into bed as you struggled not to put any weight on your left shoulder, wincing as you moved. Daryl watched you settled in and stood a bit awkwardly at your bedside. He nervously ran a hand back through his hair. “Well, I’ll let ya get some sleep,” he drawled, turning to leave.

“Daryl.”

He turned back to glance at you and your expression was a bit hesitant. “Hmm?”

“Would you stay? …please?”

He didn’t need to hear anything else. He planted himself right back down in the chair at the side of the bed and watched as some of the tension on your face eased.

“Thanks,” you said quietly with a sigh. Daryl watched as you closed your eyes and shifted, trying to make your shoulder more comfortable, but a moment later your eyes fluttered open again and met his. “He put the gun to my forehead,” you suddenly said quietly.

Daryl’s stomach plummeted and then swirled with anger. He stared back at you, incredulous with rage easily readable on his face.

“I made my peace with the fact that he was going to pull the trigger.” Your voice was somewhat disconnected, distant. “But then… he hesitated. And I took the chance and I fought.”

Daryl gulped. “Ya made it. Yer alright.”

You nodded and looked at him for a long moment, seemingly on the edge of saying something else, but you finally just sighed and your eyelids, now heavy with exhaustion, closed again. Soon, you were asleep. And Daryl stayed at your bedside and drifted off himself. _ _ _ _ _ _

Some time later You tossed down the game stringer, loaded with squirrels, in front of Daryl. “Ten,” you said, a wide grin spreading across your face. “What’d ya get?”

He looked up at you and affected an unamused expression. “Nine,” he drawled, pointing to his harvest waiting to be cleaned.

“Ha! I win again,” you said, absolutely brimming with joy. “I thought you said you were good at hunting?” you teased him.

He rolled his eyes at you and looked over as you sank down beside him. “Ya beat me by one. Ain’t exactly a landslide, is it?”

“A win is a win,” you announced with satisfaction.

He rolled his eyes again, but his expression quickly turned to concern as he caught you rubbing your shoulder. “Sore?” he asked you, his brow drawing down. “Maybe ya shouldn’t be hunting with that bow again yet.”

Your face softened as you caught his blue eyes. “I’m fine. It’s just a little tired, that’s all. Hershel says I need to build my strength up again.” Daryl’s eyes caught on the scar where the knife had been lodged into your shoulder. It was matched by many smaller ones on your arms, all with the same pink hue due to their newness. He could also see the brand on your arm, 1048, the remnant from your time under The Copperheads. Before, you would wear long sleeves in the height of the Georgian summer just to avoid anyone seeing that mark. Now there were a lot more scars added to it, but you didn’t seem to care. It was like you finally had a weight lifted off your shoulders and you felt free for the first time in a long time, unencumbered by your past.

“We should get ya a crossbow, like mine. Then ya wouldn’t have to hold the draw with that shoulder.”

“I like my old-fashioned recurve bow,” you said, pulling it over onto your lap and looking down at it fondly. “Especially because I can still beat you with it,” you smiled at him.

Daryl seemed suddenly fidgety and you picked up on it immediately. His eyes turned down and his expression was suddenly serious.

“What? What is it?”

He shrugged, still seemingly avoiding your eyes. “Can I ask ya somethin’?”

“Mhm,” you hummed. “Always.”

He flicked his thumb along the sharp edge of his knife. “How—with everything that ya’ve been through, how come ya ain’t just angry? I’m angry just thinkin’ about it. And it didn’t even happen to me.”

“Mmm,” hummed thoughtfully. Your eyes turned out across the verdant pasture, toward the trees you’d spent the day under. “I am angry sometimes. But,” you shrugged, your right hand shielding over the scar on your left shoulder absently, “being angry doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t fix it. It all still happened.”

Your eyes grew a bit far-off, a bit distant. Daryl took several forced, deep inhales and gathered his courage before reaching over and taking your hand in his, pulling it away from your shoulder.

You looked over at him in surprise. Your hand felt small between his. Your gaze was questioning. Daryl’s heart was pounding so hard in his ears he couldn’t hear anything else. He gulped, trying to clear his throat so he could talk. “‘M gonna make sure nothin’ else bad happens to ya. As best I can,” he murmured.

You nodded almost imperceptibly, your eyes still a little wide from the unexpected action of him taking your hand in his. “Only if I can do the same thing for you.”

You saw him gulp nervously before he nudged his nose up in a nod at you. “Yeh, I think—I think that’d be alright,” he said.

You gave him a half-smile that he found incredibly endearing and his nerves finally got the better of him and he released your hand, clearing his throat and awkwardly rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “I’m, uhh, just gonna go grab some more firewood,” he drawled, standing up abruptly and internally cursing at himself as he left you sitting alone by the fire. Fuckin’ coward. Despite all his attempts at denial, Daryl had realized over the last couple weeks that he couldn’t ignore how he felt about you anymore, but now he was stranded in this place between where he was and where he wanted to be with no idea how to bridge the gap. He wandered back with an armload of firewood, internally frustrated and kicking himself, but his frustration vanished almost immediately when he had dumped it next to the fire circle and glanced at you again. You were looking at him with that open expression, this time with a little inquisitive lift in one of your eyebrows.

“Hmm?” he hummed, pulling his bottom lip back in between his teeth and worrying it anxiously.

You tilted your head toward the place he’d previously been sitting and he gulped as he sat down, still feeling your eyes steady on him. He thought that now you looked a little nervous. “Can I ask you something?” you said quietly.

The archer nodded, nervous flutters flitting to life in his stomach.

“Umm… is it just me, or have you slept like shit, too, since I moved out of your tent?”

Once you were no longer staying in the house healing up, Daryl had moved your things out of his tent for you since there was no longer any need to worry about Shane. It wasn’t that you had asked him to, or that he’d even wanted to, it just seemed like he should…Afterwards, you’d actually moved your whole campsite closer to his, directly next to it, but you still found yourself tossing and turning on your cot, unable to fall asleep or stay asleep.

Daryl stared back at you for a moment in disbelief. He’d slept like garbage since you’d moved back, and he hadn’t even had the heart to fill the cleared space you’d once occupied with the stuff he previously had kept there. Now the emptiness loomed, drawing his eyes, the physical manifestation of how he felt something was just missing. When you slept on your cot across from him, he’d wake up in the middle of the night and look over at the shadow of your sleeping form. He always felt some swell of relief and maybe something else he couldn’t quite identify… Something about listening to your calm breathing always relaxed him and he found himself able to shut his eyes and drift off again. Maybe he’d gotten used to it. Maybe he shouldn’t have. But since you’d left, he’d been restless and anxious at night, wishing the material of his tent and yours would vanish so he could check on you.

Your nerves were growing with each moment of silence as you anxiously watched him, waiting for him to say something. “No, I—“ he had to clear his throat, nerves making his voice come out strangely strangled, “I’ve—” he let out a scoff of a laugh, almost incredulous he was about to say it to you, “I’ve slept like shit since ya left.”

“…really?”

He nodded, finally meeting your eyes again. “Mhm. Can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, just feels like I lay there all the time w—”

You grabbed him by his lapel and pulled him toward you, pressing your lips softly to his, your eyes shut tightly, overwhelmed with nerves even while you melted into him. Your fingers cupped his face gently, like he was something fragile and Daryl was reeling.

By the time he reached back for you and got over his surprise you were already withdrawing and he blinked, bewildered, as he took in the wide-eyed expression on your face and your partially parted lips.

“Uhh—was that—okay?” you breathed, anxiety ratcheting up with each passing moment of uncertainty.

“Ya,” he drawled. It spilled from him like warm molasses. He watched as your face broke into a relieved smile and your cheeks burned pink.

“Good,” you murmured, unable to look at him any longer.

“Only I—I wasn’t ready,” he murmured. Your eyes flickered up to his again. He gulped nervously and reached out to move a strand of hair out of your eyes before clasping your face. His blue eyes were flickering between yours and then down to your lips. You could tell he was nervous and it brought a small smile to your face. Your eyes fluttered closed and you leaned toward him, only having to wait a second before you felt his lips crashing against yours.

This time the kiss was heated and urgent and he pulled you into him gently with his hand at the nape of your neck. You happily leaned in, smiling against his lips, your hand pressing flush to his strong chest and the other landing lightly on his side, driving him crazy. Daryl’s hand smoothed over your shoulder and down your bare arm, electricity rising in its wake.

When you broke apart this time, you were both all stunned smiles again, though now you couldn’t look away from each other.

“So, uhh—ya wanna stay with me tonight? Sounds like we both need some real sleep, ya know, and I dunno…” Daryl wasn’t used to asking for what he wanted so blatantly, or making himself vulnerable, but somehow you brought it out of him and he was willing to jump off that ledge if it meant he got to kiss you and touch you and hold you all night… things he had thought about plenty when he was lying on his cot, unable to sleep, but never saw as a reality.

You nodded, that same smile you always gave him glowing on your face. He was constantly amazed by the light you exuded; despite everything you’d been through… everything you’d shared with him.

He needed that. He needed the light. He needed you. You gave him hope.

That night you settled in against him, nervous but melting into the safeness of his arms around you. Daryl worried he was too overwhelmed to sleep, but moment by moment he realized how natural having you against him felt, how safe, how perfect, and before either of you spoke another word you both drifted off in blissful silence.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Hello. What about a villain SO who adores animals for Captain Hook, Hades, Dr. Facilier, Bill Cipher, Beetlejuice, and Jafar? Thank you hun😊🍯

Hope you like these ^^

~~~

Beetlejuice:

·         I wouldn’t put it past him to make one or two beastiality jokes…

·         But apart from that, he doesn’t half mind animals either! (And he finds it endearing to see you playing with them, not that he cares to identify at all the warm, soothing feeling in his chest when he sees you boop your nose against a tortoise’s.) He’d love a dog, or… a tiger. A dinosaur would be ideal.

·         But actually, its animals that tend to have a problem with him.

·         Cuz of course animals are a lot more sensitive than humans tend to be to ghosts, and demons, and souls. And his soul is pretty damn mucky. BJ has met exactly zero animal’s so far (Since his death) that haven’t taken an immediate dislike of him. They hiss at him, or growl, or try to wriggle away even if they aren’t being held by him; Just nearby to him.

·         He scares them because they can feel his evil and want nothing to do with it.

·         So your dreams of adopting a dog with your new ghostie bf will need to be put on a back burner. Maybe he can lasso a sandworm and y’all can name her Rose and she can be your pet? He absolutely does not want you to be sad because of him!!

Bill Cipher:

·         “ooOOH, what kind? Anglerfish? Clown fish? Sharks? Lobsters? Giant Squid? Wolffish? The Textile Cone Snail’s native to the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Oceania waters? Octopus? Lock Ness Monster? Mermaids? Shrimp? Koi? M E G A L A D O N S? OH OH- THE KRAKEN?”

·         “Wow, that was a lotta underwater stuff. I mean, yeah, they’re all great but also land animals and birds… And I don’t think all those are actually real?”

·         “Heheh, that’s what you think… “His body loses its colour and becomes like a Bill Shaped screen, like he does sometimes when he’s brainstorming, and you just catch a picture of somewhere under the ocean and a beautiful, purple tale flapping out of the picture and a flash of soft, human skin just above it. Your eyes blow wide open. “Y/N, remember 80 percent of the ocean is unexplored.”

·         SO, yeah. Bill’s really into underwater creatures. It is the most mysterious part of earth and in it lives some of the world’s freakiest creatures.

·         He’ll install a whole aquarium in your house out of excitement, and inside? Nothing but angler fish, giant squids to watch you while you sleep and beautifully coloured sea snails climbing up the glass walls.

·         Land animals though and birds? Very little interest. Birds get points only for being close to dinosaurs (You ask about reptiles in that case and his eye inverts in its colouring. His ‘skin’ goes red. “Those jerks know what they did.”), but still he’d much rather talk about star fish! Get ready to be more educated about the ocean’s weirdest creatures and mysterious happenings then you ever wanted to be.

Captain Hook:

·         He has very confused feelings about this- especially when you act so chummy with Tik Tok who, naturally, loves you and your T-Bone steak snacks.

·         On one hand, if you’re feeding Tik Tok then Tik Tok probably won’t feel the need or be able, to eat him.

·         But on the other- bEtrAyER! How could you feed and love that monster, that has plagued his life for years and made his existence a living hell?

·         But then again, the fact that Tik Tok is now often too full to bother with him rears its head again and he calms down.

·         Because of this, its typical that he says nothing when you have animals around (Any animal. They all remind him of Tik Tok. Scales, fur, or feather). He’ll want to. Gosh, the need to speak will overflow in his throat and he’ll take a deep breath- … but then no words come out. He forces it down. Because he can’t mention his dislike without mentioning his relief also, so speaking at all would really just make you confused and feel bad and leave him frustrated because he doesn’t know how either of you could change to make this better for anyone, so its just not worth it.  

·         So then he just walks away.

·         Its pretty humorous to see, actually. Because he’s just all grumpy and slouching off, maybe shaking his head and muttering, and you’re all wide eyed and confused. Holding, like, a budgie or a snake or something.

·         The other pirates are keeping a tally.

·         Bonus point: He’s not scared (Or allergic) of any other animals apart from Tik Tok, so you don’t have to worry about him being skittish or anything.

Dr Facilier:

·         Frogs are a difficult subject for him so enjoy amphibian cuties somewhere that he is not, please. Also rabbits- there was an incident before you came along that he does not speak of.

·         Other then that, Facilier is basically a normal person about animals. He can appreciate a nice zoo visit every now and then and pet the odd dog or cat but with you in his life he never wants to go to a zoo again. And he’s bored as hell by everyday pets.

·         But he won’t tell you he’s sick of all the animals. Nay, nay. Its one of those things where you love the person, so you put up with the crazy/annoying shit they love. Like ‘Yes, yes. Very interesting, cher… ‘ when you talk about it, while he’s actually reading the newspaper and he hasn’t heard anything you said. After all, you stay quiet when he’s plotting or cackling over something he did to a victim that day. Its only fair.

·         He is fascinated, though, when he’s just watching you (Sometimes he just sits back and observes you doing your thing. Its relaxing for him) and he notices little quirks you’ve picked up from various creatures. Like the way you curl up when you’re lying down on the couch and how you shrink back from things that happened to surprise you, similar to a big cat. Your eyes are focused like a wild animal, too. Very cute.

·         Lots of animal-themed nicknames.

Hades:

·         “You know, some tell me I’m a kinda animal, babe… “He wiggles his eyebrows at you over his mug of whatever-he-drinks (You fear asking, after watching him eat a bowl of worms), offering his best (And funniest) bedroom eyes to you.

·         “Yes, but are you as cute as this snake Hades?? Are you?? Look into these eyes and tell me this snek is not as cute as you are.” You lift the little grass snake gently from the table and onto your arm, letting him wrap its body around you and lift his head to look around; Checking out what’s up. He was getting his scales stroked good; Why has it stopped?  

·         “Pfft,” Hades rolls his eyes, returning to the chess board in front of him (He likes to play both sides and challenge himself).

·         Okay so, Hades can take or leave most animals. But it’s so cute that you love them, so he lets you keep them around. Whatever animals you like (Don’t worry, you also have the proper equipment and enclosures for them, and Hades makes another God, who is an expert on all things animals, come by whenever you have a question), and however many you like. I mean, what’s the good of being a God if you can’t spoil yourself and your preciously excited, human significant other?

·         So you have, like, Reptiles at the west end of his underworld castle, nocturnal animals on the east, more pet-type animals like dogs and cats and rabbits in the living area part of the castle, etc.

·         The animals give Pain and Panic a hugely hard time, which Hades thinks is a great bonus to doing this for you.

·         He really loves it when you call him and yourself the animal’s parents. Yes, call me Daddy, babes. Its fine by me!

Jafar:

·         Oh my god, the disdain in his voice when he looks from you, practically bouncing on the heels of your feet and to the fluffy white kitty you’ve gently shoved in his hands- which he holds at nearly a full arm’s length away from him. “Eugh. Really?”

·         “What’s wrong! ? Isn’t she the cutest?”

·         “She’ll get fur everywhere.”

·         “Oh, that’s rich… “You say, side eye-ing Iago, who’s making a face at the cat from Jafar’s other shoulder. “Iago stress moults- and you stress him out all the time!”

·         A dramatic, offended gasp erupts from one of the two males (Not gonna tell you who). “It is aesthetically pleasing mess!”

·         So basically if the animal doesn’t speak a language he understands, he doesn’t care for it. You’re going to be fighting him on this for the rest of your life, Y/N. (Or his. I mean, I heard evil double crossing sorcerer vizier’s are dying at an accelerated rate these days. Hm, mysterious.).

[avungerthatgotaway]

Baby it's the Sign of the Times

Eyoo guyzz! This is a new oneshot, I hope you like this❄ I'm currently rewriting my Hawkeye fic, so I'm not gonna post that one for a little. This one is a bit longer than my previous ones.

I totally recommend you to listen to this song while reading, even if you're not a fan of Harry's. It will really help the mood.

I don't own anything, even tho I'd like to have a few... choice words with Russo brothers about endgame...👍🏼🤔

Warnings: none

Summary: events when Peggy dies, mainly before Steve goes to London, and you comfort him. (I know it's stupid summary, but I don't want to spoil it, sorry)

Genre: angst

I don't mention civil war at all. No other avengers are at Peggy's funeral. There are no romantical pairings, and Sharon is not mentioned cuz she doesn't fit in the storylineeee.

----------------------------

She's gone.

In her sleep.

This words crushed Steve inside. He knew this was coming, but he'd never be ready for it, no matter what.

When he came from ice, he met her again. He knew they could never be together. No matter his actual age, Steve still had a full life in front of him. Unfortunately, same couldn't be told for Peggy.

Oh Peggy... She was always his ray of sunshine. Even through darkest of days. It is a cliché, but she was.

Was.

She is gone now.

Why did she have to go? Why didn't he get to spend a life with her? Steve's biggest wish was, and always will be, to spend a happy life with her. He didn't want any of this famous captain shit. He wanted a house in a village and 2 kids with Peggy. And a little dog. Or they'd be of service, and fight next to each other. Nevermind, Steve wanted a life with Peggy. For them to watch each other go grey. Maybe he could've been there for her as a husband now, through her sickness. Or maybe he'd be the one to go first. But still, that'd be a life...

One tear slipped down his rosy cheek, the other one following. Soon he had tearstains on his cheeks, but he didn't care. It was a silent cry. Those carry the most pain.

"Eyo, capsicle! You good there?" Tony snapped him outta his thoughts. Steve forgot the whole team was in the room. Fortunately, he was turned, so they were facing his back. He just couldn't talk to anyone right now.

"Yea yea, I'm good. I gotta go." he quickly got up and exited the room. He climbed up the stairs 2 more floors, but his toughts started haunting him again.

He's going on a plane tomorrow morning to say goodbye for the last time. Oh God, even thinking of a last time kills Steve inside. It's pretty late, but he didn't know what to do until morning. Sleeping wasn't an option, he knew that much. He gave in to overthinking again.

Of Peggy. Of her life. Of what could've happened if he didn't freeze...

"Just stop your crying, it's a sign of the times..."

"...welcome to the final show..."

"...I hope you're wearing your best clothes..."

Steve heard a silent piano in the background, and he heard an angelic voice. He still had tearstained cheeks, but he needed to hear what the voice had to say.

"...you can't bribe the door on your way to the sky..."

He was still clutching his cellphone in his hand, while following the voice. He came in front of Y/N's room. Y/N was a 16 year old avenger. She was very mature and wise for her age.

Her door was opened, and he just leaned against the doorframe, listening to her beautiful voice.

"...if we never learn, we been here before..."

"... why are we always stuck and running from the bullets..."

"...they told me that the end is near..."

Steve was crying a river at this point, and he didn't care. First shock was wearing out, and silent cries became little sobs. Yet, not loud enough for Y/N to hear.

"...just stop your crying, baby it'll be alright..."

"...we got to get away..."

She played final chords on piano, and then she turned around.

2nd person POV

You were singing "Sign of the times" and playing your piano. You loved this song. It was helping you relax, the melody was perfect. During the few last, silent piano chords, you tought you heard something. You softly finished and turned around. It was Steve.

But not the Steve you knew. This one had red puffy eyes, swollen from crying. He was sobbing quietly, trying to stop the sobs, but he couldn't.

You slowly came up to him, like to a wounded animal. He was just so hurt, you could see it in his eyes. You felt bad for him, but you wanted to know what happened. Who could hurt Stevie so badly.

"What happened, Big Guy?" you asked him. Steve just kept on sobbing even harder.

You moved him a little, so he was in your room, and you closed the door. You lead him to your bed, and sit on it, next to him. He was clutching his phone tightly in his hand, so you lifted his hand and gently tried to take it. He wouldn't let it go. You don't wanna pressure him, but whatever is on that phone is causing him this much distress.

"Stevie, cmon big babe" you cooed and rubbed the back of his hand with your thumbs. It may sound strange so someone, but Stevie really was like a big baby, so fluffy and vunerable inside.

He gave in and the phone just slipped from his hand in yours. You read the text and everyting was clear right away. You knew he went to visit Peggy in hospital, you didn't know she was this bad. I mean, Steve and you were close, but still that's too personal. You felt sooo sorry for him. He didn't deserve it. Not now. Not ever.

"Ohh, I'm so sorry Stevie..."

You immidiately hugged him close to you. He burried his head in your shoulder and neck, crying his eyes out, but at the same time trying not to cry. At least not to sob.

"Stevie, bear, it's okay to cry. Just let it all out."

That was all he needed. He started crying and sobbing uncontrollably, and your shirt was soaked in his tears. You didn't mind it tho, if it'll help him to feel better afterwards, he can cry as much as he needs.

After some time he lifted his head and looked into your eyes with his puffy baby blues.

"I'm sorry, Flower, I-I ju-ust can't believe s-s-she's go-one-e" he was still crying. You could see how much Peggy meant to him. You hugged him again, tugging at his hair softly to comfort him.

"Hey, hey no need to apologise Stevie. You cry yourself out, it'll help you. I'm here for you, Bear."

"T-tha-ank you. A-and and please... ca-can you-u not tell a-anyone about he-er ye-et..."

"Shhhh, Bear, I won't tell anyone about her. You wait until you're ready." you whispered.

You understood him. Not everyone in the team knew Peggy existed. And now telling them that she died, and what happened with them would be too much for Steve.

"T-thanks"

"Shhh, it's okay, it's okay." you whispered. You whispered to soothe him, you didn't know what to do when someone's loved one dies. But you wanted to be there for Steve so badly. Little did you know that what you did was just perfect for Steve.

-

Steve at first felt ashamed, because he cried in front of Y/N. But she talked just enough, whispering soothingly. He didn't have streinght to act like a big guy anymore. He craved comfort so badly, and he got it from Y/N. It felt nice.

-

Back to 2nd person POV

Something was bothering you. Steve didn't want anyone to know about Peggy's death which meant he was probably going to funeral alone. You didn't want that for him. At least he needed someone to be with afterwards. You knew Steve and how sensitive he was. You didn't want to think of things going through his head while he's alone after funeral. But if it was in London, as you tought it was, you had a plan.

"Stevie?" you said quietly playing with his hair a little.

"Mhm?" he asked, face still in your shoulder.

"When is Peggy's funeral? Is anyone going with you?" you asked. He lifted his head a little.

"T-tomorrow. L-london. And no. It's too much-h t-trouble for anyone. And I know it is Y/N, do-don't try to o--object" he smiled through his tears. You smiled back at him, your own eyes glistening with tears a little, but you didn't want him to notice.

He burried his head in your shoulder and neck again, like it was his safeplace, and he just cried. You couldn't imagine where those tears come from.

You softly stroked his short blonde locks, and started singing.

"Just stop your crying, it's the sign of the times...

...welcome to the final show

...I hope you're wearing your best clothes..."

Half into the song, you felt more weight on your shoulder. You looked down, and realised Steve fell asleep. You pressed one kiss to his temple, and moved him, so he was lying in your bed.

"Good night, Stevie Bear." you whispered.

-

When you exited your room quietly, you immediately called your best friend, Jon.

It was 2am, but you and Jon were just the best friends, you could call him whenever, and other way around.

Him and his family were going to London, and he invited you to go with them. You declined the offer, because you had to study so. so. much. But this was way more important.

"Heey, Jonny. Is that London offer still on?

Great. When are you going?

Ohhh, in 2 hours?

Yea, I'll be there. Thanks

And by the way, I'll have somewhere to go to tomorrow, around 4pm, I hope you guys don't mind.

Ohh cool. Thank you bruhhhh. Byee"

Great news. They still had a plain ticked to spare, and they'll pick you up soon.

You quickly packed your stuff, careful not to wake up Stevie. Poor baby. With everything he's been through, and now his Peggy dies...

You tell JARVIS to tell Tony you're in your friends house, and to wake up Steve 'round 6am. His flight was in 7. You knew this, and which Church it was in at what time because you did a little research. Aka, asked JARVIS for help. AI already heard everything, so it wasn't news.

You left the tower and went to meet up with Jon and his family.

-

Steve woke up by alarm ringing at 6am. He immediately realised he's not in his room. He was in Y/N's. And then he remembered how you comforted him. He was so thankful for you. Even though, you weren't here, and it was confusing. You probably went to sleep on the couch, or in some other room, and Steve felt bad about it. He quickly got ready, and tried to find you, so he could get you back to your bed. Fortunately JARVIS easened his search.

"Mr. Rogers, ms. L/N went on a trip with her friend a few hours ago."

"Oh. Thanks JARVIS." Steve said, and left the building. You didn't mention any trips, but then again, you two didn't talk anything except Peggy tonight.

-

(timeskip to Peggy's funeral, cuz no one wants to listen about the trip now)

-

3rd person POV

It's so devastating to attend a funeral on your own.

Even more so if it's a funeral of your lost loved one.

Maybe Steve should've brought someone with him. For comfort. At least to feel the familiar presence. He carried Peggy's coffin, and it was enough to make him feel empty and sad. It was nearing to the end of funeral, and Steve didn't want to be alone. He wanted comfort. Like when Y/N comforted him last night.

After the ceremony ended, he stayed behind a little. He craved someone's presence. Anyone familiar. And then he felt a smal hand on his shoulder. He turned around, and it was Y/N. At first, he tought he was hallucinating. But her petite hand on his shoulder felt so real. He felt so grateful for this small human being at the moment, he just wanted to thank God over and over for having her with him.

"Y/N, Flower, what are you doing here?" he asked, still in shock.

"Hey Bear. I figured out you could use some company after the funeral. But if you wanna be alone, I understand, I'll go."

"No no, I mean, if you can stay, it would mean a world to me. You really know me better than I know myself sometimes Y/N. Thank you so much, Flower." he said, and immediately came for a hug. You hugged back, of course.

"I'll stay for as long as you want, Bear. I'm here for you, as long as you want me to stay."

"I want you to stay forever kiddo" he mumbed in your hair.

"Forever it is."

----------------------------

@afictionaladventure16 @rae-is-typing @elles-writing @avengersarchive @avengersuniverse

[psychewithwings]

Jirou

Jirou x F!reader

Warnings: fluff, super fluff... use the name of someone who done you wrong in place of _______

Kyouka stood in the door way of your house. She was carrying a bag of snacks in one hand and her keys in the other. She took in your tear stained face and furrowed her brow. She took a deep breath and grabbed your hand dragging you towards her car. “Get in,” she commanded, reading your uncertain vibe. “Wh-where are we going?” You knew the answer to this question already but you wanted to hear her say it just so you could object. She climbed into the drivers seat of her black jeep and rolled her eyes. “Pull up that girl’s story,” she instructed. You knew it was better to just do what she said than argue with her. 

You found the girl on instagram and played her story for Kyouka. You watched her face twist in disgust as she saw another girl kissing on the person you had been dating, _______. “Wanker,” she grumbled and took off down the road. You watched as the street lamps took on the shape of stars through your wet eyes. “We don’t even know where they are,” you groaned impatiently. Kyouka laughed, “yeah we do, that girl was posting everything dude, they’re at that Italian desserts place as of 5 minutes ago... what’s it called... ‘Love you, Tiramisu.’” You put your head in your hands, “I asked _______ to take me there today... I guess they blew me off, on Valentines for another girl.” Jirou put her hand on your knee and you looked over to see her hand on your jeans. She always had chipped black fingernail polish, and today there was an addition of black jelly bracelets. You followed up her bare arm, the small tattoo of  the raven that sat on her tricep. “Hey, at least you know you give good date ideas,” she smiled. You watched her smug expression as she drove the car one handed.  You laughed, pained by her teasing. “Like they couldn’t be more creative?” she pushed. You smiled over at her and took her hand. 

“I really appreciate what you’re trying to do but, I think I’d rather just go back and eat the snacks and try not to cry,” you mumbled. Jirou squeezed your hand and said something she said to you often. “I’m gonna be honest with you and it’s only because I love you okay?” You gave an exasperated sigh, waiting for what painfully honest truth she was going to reveal this time. “You date these kinda people a lot. It’s not your fault... people are trash but... you gotta break the pattern with honesty.” You turned to look at her. “So what? I’m supposed to just roll up and tell them how I feel?” “Yep, you gotta get it out of your system.” You hated that she was right. Jirou was always right. You sighed, “can we at least go get changed... I don’t want _______ to see me like this...” Jirou turned to look at you, “like what? you always look hot.” You grumbled and looked away from her. “I’m serious, you’re beautiful,” she insisted. 

~

Jirou looked back to the road, gripping the steering wheel. Was that too obvious? She had liked you for so long. There were so many reasons she hadn’t told you sooner, the biggest being you were one of her closest friends.  She really valued you, your kind hearted nature, your sensitivity, even if you kept it hidden from most people... But you didn’t from her. You were becoming her greatest muse. Jirou couldn’t keep count of how many songs she’d written about you. It was getting a little out of control but she loved how you’d close your eyes and that peaceful smile would play across your face whenever she’d play for you. She knew there was a strong possibility that you would never return her feelings but with her hand on your leg she felt content to just love you in whatever way you would let her. 

Kyouka pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. “Hang on,” she said, and leaned over you to open the glove box. The smell of your shampoo and laundry detergent was intoxicating. She grabbed the microphone and plugged it into a jack in the car. “How? How do you even have a mic hookup in your car???” Jirou gave you a sly smile as she rolled down all the windows and cranked the volume up as loud as it would go. “This was from way back when Kaminari and I thought we could have a traveling band.” She took a deep breath and then spoke using her raspy, sultry voice. “Could I have the attention of everyone in this fine establishment?” Her voice reverberated through the sound system of her jeep and out into the night air. You burst out laughing half in anxiety, half in amusement of her brazenness.

 The doors swung open and a man wearing a white button up and a tie hurried out. He was still carrying an empty tray. He looked around flustered before approaching Jirou’s car. “Ma’am, you can not...” he paused not even sure how to describe it. “This is- you’re disrupting our patrons-” Jirou sighed, “yeah, it’s just that my friend here...” she gestured to you and you gave a small wave. “She got cheated on and I’m just trying to make her feel better, cuz ya know,” she leaned in and whispered, “it’s Valentines Day.” The man gave a nod and pondered what Jirou was saying. He opened his mouth to say something else and she slipped him a 50. “Listen, the cheating fuck is in there with another girl, we’re gonna buy a bunch of desserts after this, we just need a few minutes.” The man nodded his head understanding. He slipped the 50 back to her and held up his finger. He rushed back the way he came and disappeared into the restaurant. 

Kyouka looked over at you and giggled, shrugging her shoulders with you. “Thanks for this,” you said staring out the windshield. Jirou nodded and  you grabbed her hand. Her cheeks flushed when you started rubbing small circles with your thumb against her skin. There was a stillness that had settled over the car. Kyouka flicked her eyes towards you and you were looking back. “This is what it’s supposed to feel like... isn’t it?” Jirou blinked... the way you were looking at her had the butterflies swirling in her stomach and her heart hammering in her chest. “W-what’s what supposed to feel like?” “Love,” you clarified. Although it wasn’t very clear. 

~

Just then the restaurant doors opened and 20 patrons filed out. “What’s this all about?” a woman asked, clutching her purse. The waiter from before explained to her, “we just have a special Valentines announcement for this evening.” You locked eyes with _______ and you watched their eyes get wide as they let go of the hand of the girl from instagram. Jirou smiled at you encouragingly and spoke into the mic once again. “Thank you all for coming, we just have a brief announcement to make and then we will let you get back to your night.” She handed you the microphone and you took a deep breath. 

“Hey _______, hope you’re having a great time... being a liar.” Something was shifting inside of you, you were feeling a strange surge of power. “Everyone, I would just like you to know that I have been dating this person for 3 months and I asked them if they wanted to come here with me on Valentines Day... they told me they had to work tonight... and you know what _______? That’s horse shit... If you didn’t want to see me anymore you could have just been honest with me. Well anyways...” 

You watched as the girl began to turn and walk away from _______. _______ stared at you blankly through the glass of the windshield. People around murmuring and even the woman from before looked at them disapprovingly and said, “that’s terrible, why would you do that to that nice girl.” They looked as if they wanted to say something but turned instead and chased after the girl. You let out a big sigh and then started to laugh, your hands shaking slightly from adrenaline. You passed the mic back to Jirou who said, “that’s all folks, time to eat tiramisu.” 

The restaurant actually gave you a hell of a discount for the emotional stress that you had been through. Walking out of the restaurant you were laughing with Kyouka. “Man, what a weird day...” you sighed as you walked back to the car. Jirou giggled, “this was a great day what are you talking about? They gave us free stuff!” She held up the paper to-go bag. You laughed, “we will be back for sure.” Jirou started to get back into the drivers side of the car but you took her hand and pulled her back towards you. You put your hand softly on her shoulder. “I meant what I said earlier,” you murmured. You watched as her eyes became wide and then she turned her head away. “When you said what?” she asked. You smiled and leaned in closer. “That this, is what love is supposed to feel like.” Jirou closed her eyes and listened to her heartbeat in her ears... and when your lips touched hers, she heard the loudest silence.

[thebigqueer]

BILCO FANFIC - “The VSCO Demon”

Summary: Will is possessed with a VSCO demon that will turn him into the one and only Billiam Thabdrew Sksksolace, a VSCO girl.

Word Count: 3513

Note: This is my first writing on Tumblr so everyone sing happy birthday! also its terrible! also I GREATLY APPRECIATE FEEDBACK (but please give it to me gently cuz im a Sensitive Bitch TM) (if you even sound a little mean ill start crying)

ALSO: Credits to my online bff for Nico’s pet hyena, Bambi. (HI I LOVE YOU)

Nico knew something was wrong with Will.

He could tell that there was something always bothering him, hidden deep beneath that sunshiny facade he always seemed to use in front of other people. He was hiding something, and it seemed to be eating at him like a parasite. 

Nico’s suspicions began when he first noticed Will’s slight speech slipup. Will and Kayla were discussing the new demigods that were to move in soon, and Kayla let loose the fact that she was a little iffy about one of them. Will’s eyes had widened, showing off the blue of his eyes, and he said, “Anna oop-”

He clamped a hand over his mouth, but it was too late. He’d already said it. Nico didn’t know what it meant, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t nervous. (Was it some kind of prophetic power? Did Will just spew some words from a prophecy in a totally different language? Maybe Nico would ask Rachel later.) When Nico confronted him afterwards, Will just turned his head away and said he was going to head to sleep.

It wasn’t only his foreign phrases - it was also the stuff he bought. On their dates to New York City, Will would slink him and Nico away to a store and buy something. Sometimes it would be an oversized T-shirt, other times it would be scrunchies, and one time he even bought a gigantic water bottle. (“It’s called a Hydroflask,” Will told him.)

Will was scary in those moments. His eyes would get big as he eyed all his new items, and his hands would tap furiously on the wooden counters while he waited. Nico wasn’t sure what this meant, but it seemed that Will was going through something. Something terrible. 

And the moment they got back, Will would start immediately sobbing. Nico would literally have to hold him from falling face down on the ground because of how hard he would be weeping. He’d cry, “It’s not happening, it’s not happening! I can’t become VSCO!” 

All Nico was able to do was watch his golden boyfriend sob in his arms, unable to help, unable to understand.

It wasn’t until a late day in November when Nico found out what his boyfriend was hiding from him. Will had been antsy all breakfast, avoiding Nico’s eyes like it was the coronavirus; Nico knew that he wasn’t the only one who noticed - Kayla and Austin had given him furtive, sympathetic glances. Nico’s heart pounded in his chest, anxiety spiking his pulse and chilling him down to the bone. 

Nico couldn’t help but to wonder, Is he going to break up with me? 

Safe to say, his breakfast was ruined, and he pulled just a little away from Will. He didn’t miss the awkward looks he got from Kayla and Austin, nor did he miss Will’s slight flinch at the loss of contact between the boys.

After a silent breakfast, when everyone had left to start their daily activities, Nico stood to go. If Will didn’t want to talk to him, then fine. He’d manage that. 

But a warm hand clamped on his wrist, begging him to stay. Nico turned his face to Will’s, absorbing his golden features and the heavy vulnerability in those blue eyes. It hit Nico that whatever Will wanted from him, it wasn’t going to be good.

Nico sat back down carefully. Will’s pink lips were turned at the corners and, having a closer look at his face, Nico realized his eyes were puffy and red like he’d been crying.

Upon seeing his boyfriend’s expression, Nico reached out and touched Will’s tan face gingerly, brushing his own pale fingers through his golden locks. “Will,” he whispered, “what’s wrong? You’ve been so… so closed off from me. Is everything okay? And don’t lie this time, please. I’m serious.” 

Will opened and closed his mouth, then unlatched his eyes from Nico’s and closed them. He took a deep, shaky breath, as if gearing up for a long and tiring mission. Nico squeezed Will’s right hand - His baby hands, Nico thought ridiculously, all small and cute - and laced them together, squeezing lightly. A “Hey, I’m here for you” squeeze. 

Will turned his focus back on Nico, a small smile lacing the corners of his mouth, but not quite eradicating his internalized pain.

“Nico,” he began, “I… I have an issue.” Will’s freckled cheeks bloomed with bright red blotches and he sheepishly looked away again. 

Anticipation and anxiety gripped Nico like a vice and his breath hitched. “What’s wrong?” he asked, trying to tamper down his growing unease. He didn’t want to make Will feel more nervous than he already did.

Will swallowed, as if he was trying to keep down the words from ever appearing. Nico brushed his pale thumb over Will’s, hoping it would calm him a bit. A beat passed, and Will said, “I have this… demon inside me. It’s a terrible demon. I was possessed as a kid.”

“What?” asked Nico. “A demon? What do you mean?”

Will sighed shakily, his eyes focused on the floor. “It’s called a VSCO demon.” 

“Will…” Nico started, but he wasn’t sure what he would say. I’m sorry? That didn’t seem right, not at this moment. It seemed like Will wasn’t quite looking for pity. Instead, Nico opted to inquire more about this demon: “What exactly does the demon do? How much is it going to impact your life?” 

“Well… actually, it’s going to impact my life a lot. Essentially, it’ sgoing to make me a VSCO girl. You know what that is, right? I explained it to you.”

Nico nodded.

Will continued. “First, it’ll start off with more subtle things, like specific hand spasms.” Will demonstrated what he meant by bringing his right hand to his face and then turning to the side, then frowned. “There’s also some expressions that I might repeat a lot. Like… ‘anna oop-’, or ‘oooh, tea, sis!’ or ‘sksksksk.’” 

Nico watched Will’s expression as he said each phrase and his heart felt like it was being squished. Will looked like he was trying very hard not to let it take over him, let those stupid terms make him into a new person, but he was so exhausted. Nico touched his boyfriend’s face again. “I’m… sorry, Will. That’s terrible.”

Will nodded, but he didn’t seem to hear Nico. “When it gets worse, you’ll start noticing. I’ll be wearing oversized T-shirts, I think… scrunchies on my wrist, maybe.” He sighed again, but this time a small sob escaped from his lips too. When he looked up, Nico saw he had fresh tears glassing over his eyes. “I’m going to be carrying that stupid Hydro Flask with me forever, Nico. Forever.” 

That seemed to do it. In a matter of seconds, the floodgates of Will’s emotions had opened up and he was spilling everywhere. Nico pulled him close, despite not being much of a hugger, and drew small circles on his back. He felt Will’s tears soak through his T-shirt, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he felt so heartbroken by Will’s emotions, he wanted to start crying himself.

But he had to keep it strong, for Will. Nico bit his lip to keep himself from letting out a few tears himself. 

After several moments, Will seemed to calm down enough to pull away from Nico, even though tears still ribboned down his cheeks like liquified crystals. He pulled a tissue from his sweatshirt pocket and blew his nose, honking like he was the goosiest of all geese.

“Anyway,” Will continued, sighing heavily. “I have to tell you something else.” He threw the snot-saturated tissue over his shoulder, where some poor sucker would have to pick it up themself and throw it out. Taking a deep breath (Nico swore he was just trying to steal all the oxygen out of the air now, probably trying to photosynthesize or something), Will pulled Nico’s hands to his chest. “When the demon takes over me, Nico, my alter ego will come out. I will not be able to control it. His name… is Billiam Thabdrew Sksksolace.”

Will paused dramatically, letting that name sink in.

“Oh, Will,” Nico said quietly, throwing his arms around his boyfriend. “Is there a cure to this? Can you fix it?”

Will rested his head in the space between Nico’s neck and shoulder. “No,” he answered, his voice muffled. “There isn’t. I just have to live with being a VSCO girl from now on.” Pulling away so that he was mere inches from Nico’s face, he asked: “Would you still love me, Nico? Even after I become… become Billiam?”

“Of course,” Nico exclaimed, not a moment of hesitation. “Of course! You are more than your stupid demon. You can be as much of a VSCO girl as you become, and I will always love you.”

Will’s face crumpled again and he pulled Nico tighter, so close Nico could almost swear his ribs were going to break. 

“Thank you, Nico. Thank you.” 

~~~

It was only a few weeks until the real changes started showing up. 

When Nico went into the Apollo cabin in the mornings, sometimes he’d see Will in an oversized T-shirt, waving around a metal straw with his baby hands, exclaiming, “OOOH THAT’S TEA!” whenever one of his siblings said something, or referring to himself as Bill Sksksolace when someone called him Will. 

Those spells wouldn’t last long, but it was still discerning. 

As the days progressed, it got worse. The spells wouldn’t last in just the morning - they’d appear in the afternoon, in the night time, and at nine in the afternoon. Nico would walk in on a conversation Will was having with another camper, and just when things seemed like they were going smoothly, Will would mutter: “SKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKS.” The camper would look at Will strangely, laugh a little, then leave. 

Nico would have to sit with Will and tell him that it was alright, that it’s just part of the course. He’ll be alright.

Despite the fact that things were getting worse, it didn’t bother Nico too much. He already knew it would happen sooner or later, so there was no point anticipating and being scared over it.

And yet, nothing would prepare him for the gut punch of when it really did happen. 

It was a morning like any other. The sun shone above the camp in brilliant golden rays, and the wind was windy (as wind is) and just perfect for a November day. Nico was hopeful today; maybe they’d go out to New York City, like old times. Try to get Will’s mind off his doomed fate.

Nico had an inkling something was wrong the moment he knocked on the cabin door. Maybe it was the shift in the wind, maybe it was anxiety, or maybe it was the fact that he heard people shouting, “PUT THAT METAL STRAW DOWN, WILL!” that made him nervous. Nevertheless, he waited outside. 

Kayla was the one to open the door. She looked exhausted, like she’d been running after someone all morning. When she realized it was Nico, her expression told Nico everything he needed to know. 

Nico stepped in tentatively, nervous about what he would find. 

And boy did he have every right to be nervous. Nothing could prepare him for what he was about to find.

Will had transformed. Like, completely transformed.

Gone were his golden curls. In place of them was a messy bun at the top of his head, wrapped with a purple scrunchie. If one scrunchie wasn’t enough, he had literal sleeves of them over his arms, all the way up to his elbow, of all kinds of nauseating and headache-inducing colors. On top of that, a knee-length T-shirt covered him from the shoulders to his thighs, and in his small baby hands was a Hydro Flask with a metal straw sticking out of it, which was currently sticking between his teeth.

Upon seeing Nico, his eyes widened and he offered him a bright smile. “Sksksksk!” Will exclaimed. “Oh my gods, it’s literally Nico!” He rushed towards his boyfriend with his arms wide, and just when Nico thought he was about to get a crushing bear hug, Will surprised him last minute by shoving twenty scrunchies into his hands as well as a metal straw. 

Nico looked at the treasure in his hands - Where the everloving fuck did he get so many? thought Nico - then back at Will, and again back at his treasure. Tears pricked at his eyes and his chest constricted, making it harder to breathe. “Will-” he began.

Will looked genuinely confused. “Who’s Will? I’m Billiam Sksksolace. And that’s the tea here today.”

“Right. Billiam.” Even saying the new name hurt him in ways Nico didn’t even think were imaginable. He placed a hand on Will’s - No, Bill’s, Nico reminded himself - cheek, tracing his lover’s freckles. “How are you feeling?”

“Anna oop-” Billiam said. “I feel fine, sksksk. Why?” He raised his eyebrows and leaned in, tilting his head for a second. “Is there tea?” 

Nico sobbed, his heart wrenching. Where was Will? “No, not at all.” He kissed Bill’s face. “Not at all.”

20 YEARS LATER…

Nico had successfully gone crazy.

He and Billiam had three kids. Each one blond. Each one young.

Each one just as VSCO as their dad. 

It was an endless cycle of “SKSKSKS” and “ANNA OOP-” and they had about fifty thousand metal straws strewn around their house. Their kids didn’t even wear pants anymore, just oversized T-shirts. They didn’t even have the demon - it was a Monkey See, Monkey Do situation. 

And Nico was done. He’d even developed a twitch in his eye. From the moment he got up in the morning to the moment he fell asleep at night, his mind swirled with unwanted expressions and metal straws in his eyes and Hydro Flasks on the table and oversized T-shirts strewn across the bed and he was positively done.

There was only one thing left to do. 

Nico grabbed the knife from the kitchen drawer. Then he turned to the onions on the cutting board and started chopping with rage. (It was his turn to make dinner tonight, and he hated every moment of it.)

But he had something to look forward to, and he had everything ready. 

Bill was home from work now, sitting in the living room and scrolling through Instagram. Nico watched him, thinking about that fatal day several years ago at Camp Half-Blood when everything had gone wrong for him. 

Well, Nico would fix that today.

“Bill,” Nico called, gritting his teeth. Calling his beloved William “Bill” still stung him, despite it having been years later. “It’s time for dinner. Call the kids.”

Bill stood from the couch and fixed his messy bun, then called, “Billiam, Jr.! Litpollo! Percy, Jr.! Time for dinner! Sksksk.” 

Nico made his way down the hall and opened the garage door, crying out to his pet hyena: “BAMBI! Come on, boy. Time for your yummy chinken dinner.”

Bambi growled and bounded into the building, turning towards the kids that had now come into the dining room. Bill eyed the oversized cat with scrutiny. “Bae, I think we need to tame that thing.”

Nico turned his head to look at his hyena. He shrugged. “Seems fine to me.”

“He’s gnawing on our child’s head.”

Nico eyed his kitty, who had its jaws around their child Litpollo’s head. “No he isn't,” Nico decided. “It’s just licking Litpollo's head. Litpollo just has a really tiny head.” 

Bill opened his mouth to protest, but Nico clapped his hands and exclaimed: “Time for dinner!” He offered Bill a dazzling smile. “And I have a surprise for you.”

Bill’s eyes widened and a smile of his own flashed across his face. “Sksksk. I’m excited. Yass queen.”

Nico’s eye twitched. “Yes, time for dinner.”

The family of five (including Bambi the Hyena, it was six) sat at the dinner table. (Yes, Bambi sat at a dinner table. Nico considered that quite domestic of Bambi). 

“Now, before we start, I have a little something for Bill.” Nico stood again and pulled out something from his pocket. Bill leaned in to look at it, and realization dawned on him. He hissed and jumped up from his chair. 

“Skskskskskkssksksksk!” he exclaimed. “That’s a cross. Why do you have that?” Just being in the presence of it seemed to make him antsy.

Nico offered him a dangerous smile. “Well, you see, Billiam, I became a priest online. I have a certificate and everything.” He tilted his head innocently and, with that smile still plastered onto his face, said, “I am here to eradicate the Demon of VSCO.” 

“No,” Bill said shakily, but his voice had changed. It was rougher, scratchier, a voice he wouldn’t have on any other normal day. “No, you can’t. You’ve been going behind my back this entire time? How dare you.” 

“I’m here to save you, Bill. Or should I say… William.”

“NO!” Bill screeched, picking up Litpollo and shielding his face with the child. “I REFUSE! SKSKSK!”

Nico only smiled wider, his dark eyes shining with fearsome mirth. Suddenly, the lights flickered on and off and a harsh wind blew across the room. Outside, clouds started gathering like they were ready for a shitshow to happen. Nico rose from the floor, the wind carrying his weight like he was lighter than paper. He held out the cross in front of him, showing it to Bill’s VSCO demon. Bill hissed, and his eyes starting glowing bright yellow, clearly aggravated by the cross. He dropped the child, who squeaked and ran off to eat his dry chinken dinner.

Nico’s own eyes had started glowing, but his were a bright red flash like he was about to shoot lasers. “BY THE POWER VESTED IN ME,” Nico exclaimed, his voice projecting outward and all around the house, “I PRONOUNCE THEE, VSCO DEMON, GONE.”

Nico slammed the cross against Bill’s chest, making steam circle and sizzle around Bill’s chest. The blond cried out in pain, but Nico ignored him. 

“BEGONE, THOT!” Nico thundered.

A big bang resonated between them, and Nico and Bill were both thrown across the room. Their children screamed, but all Nico could think about was Bill and whether or not he was back. Despite being disoriented, he sat upright and looked across the room. Billiam was thrown to the kitchen, and his messy bun had come undone. The scrunchies on his wrists were hissing and smoking, but otherwise he looked fine. 

Nico stood up slowly, keeping his hand on the wall for balance. “Will?” he said quietly. It was strange using that name after so many years, but it felt good. It felt comfortable.

Bill didn’t answer. Nico’s heart started racing.

He rushed to Bill’s side, checking his pulse and touching his face, making sure was alive. When he decided that he was alright, Nico let out a breath of relief. He shook Bill gently. “Will? Will, please, wake up. Tell me you’re okay.”

For a moment, all was silent. Nico’s children had even stopped screaming, but Nico wasn’t sure where they were or what they were doing. Right now, it was only about Billiam. 

Suddenly, Bill started coughing. He sat up a little straighter and coughed into his arm, and Nico patted is back in means of helping his partner. Bill stopped after a few moments, but his focus was only on the kitchen tiles.

Nico’s heart pounded in anticipation. Was Billiam gone? Was Will back? Goosebumps prickled his skin. 

“Will?” Nico asked. “Are you okay?”

Bill started laughing. Nico wanted to take this as a good sign, but the laughter seemed eerie. He took Bill’s baby hand in his.

Bill turned to face him, a wide grin on his face. “YOU FOOL!” he exclaimed. “YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU JUST DID?”

Nico gasped and threw himself away from Bill, shaking his head. “No,” he whispered. “No. It should have worked! I went onto Wikipedia for the instructions!”

Bill only laughed harder. “YOU DIPSHIT! YOU MULTIPLIED ME!” His eyes danced with his laughter.

“Multiplied?” Nico exclaimed. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” He frowned. “Also, no swearing in front of the kids. Watch your fucking language, asshole.”

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Bill exclaimed. “MY CHILDREN,” he called, turning his face away from Nico’s. “COME!”

From the dining room, the children’s small feet pitter-pattered across the floor. Rage filled Nico’s chest, and he tackled Bill to the ground. “VSCO DEMON!” he cried. “What did you do to them? If you hurt them-”

“I did no such thing,” Bill said. “I would never hurt them.”

“Then what did you do?”

In creepy unison, all his kids exclaimed: “SKSKSK! I’VE GIVEN THEM ALL A PIECE OF ME! NOW I EXIST IN ALL OF YOUR FAMILY AND LOVED ONES!”

“NOOOOO!” Nico cried. “WHY?”

“Children,” Bill said, “what do we say to Nico?”

“SAVE THE TURTLES!” And they all took off their oversized T-shirts and threw them in his face.

The end. Nico sobbed forever.

[sasunaruotp]

"Haaaaaa hahahaha! Don't look so sour about it, teme! I'm sure Granny wasn't serious about the D-rank missions, and that old lady will forgive you for scaring her someday, I'm sure."

"Hn, if you're just here to laugh and make stupid joke then get out of my house, dobe."

They'd already been out drinking after the mission—Tsunade decided to take Naruto to some bars to congratulate him on starting his Hokage training. It had been his last mission before training and as a joke she'd made he and Sasuke help some old lady with her daily chores. They'd almost failed because they started arguing and when she found out she threatened to have Sasuke suspended to D-rank missions "if he can't even manage one mission without a fight breaking out."

Sakura and Kakashi had joined them at the bar, they'd eaten and drank, Naruto growing increasingly loud and boisterous as Tsunade kept making him do him more and more sake bombs. By the time the others decided to go home even Sasuke felt a little tipsy. That was probably why he agreed to let Naruto come back to his place and keep drinking.

"I'm not tired at all! Come on, Sasuke, we're finally adults and all you want to do is read all day and water your plants!"

Sasuke had glared at him but consented and allowed the loud blond willingly into his apartment. It wasn't even a good idea on a normal day, when no alcohol had been consumed, because whenever he and Naruto spent too much time together they ended up fighting and causing some kind of property destruction. Yet somehow Sasuke didn't want the night to end.

"Oi, you think we'll ever be like Gai and Kakashi-sensei?"

Sasuke gave him an alarmed look from across his living room coffee table. They were both sitting on the floor with open bottles in front of them. It felt warm in his house, though it was probably just from all the drinking. There was a blush on Naruto's cheeks that betrayed his own inebriation.

The alcohol must have been affecting Sasuke more than he thought, because instead of refusing to dignify such a ridiculous question with an answered, he replied,

"I'm not nearly as pathetic as Kakashi and you're only about half as obnoxious as Gai. There's no way we'd ever be that ridiculous."

Naruto's face showed amusement, annoyance, and then thoughtfulness.

"I mean, do you think we'll get tired of beating the crap out of each other all the time and start making up other competitions? We could try rock, paper, scissors?"

"That's a dumb contest, there's no skill."

"That sounds like something someone scared of losing would say!"

"No way, dead last. I'm not gonna fall for that."

"Whatever, spoil sport," Naruto muttered, pouting at his glass. He lifted it to his mouth, licking the perspiration around the neck of the bottle before throwing his head back to take a huge gulp. He set the glass back down and looked up at Sasuke from under his eyelashes. When he noticed Sasuke staring at him he glanced away, looking towards his lap.

Sasuke blinked and frowned at himself. He didn't know why he had been staring so intently at Naruto; it wasn't as if they didn't spent time together. It had been a few years since they were reunited (or, as Naruto called it, "punched Sasuke hard enough that he finally got some sense") (which was not, in Sasuke's memory, exactly what happened, but either way he had agreed to return to the village, so it didn't make much difference in the end) and they spent most of that time together. It was like Naruto was trying to make up for all the time they'd been apart—not to mention Naruto was one of the very few people Sasuke could stand to be around at first. He still had some trouble dealing with a few of his classmates and fellow comrades, but he was much more reasonable than when he'd first returned.

He looked up again to find Naruto telling him some dumb joke, and he completely forgot about the moment before, taking a sip of his own drink as he listened to Naruto try and come up with more competitions they could have instead of just rolling around on the ground wrestling or sparring until neither could move.

"You know, 'cuz I'm not gonna have as much time for that stuff. When I'm Hokage."

"Hn. Don't worry about it. I'll still find time to kick your ass if you want."

Naruto grinned, but then his expression fell.

"What?" Sasuke found himself asking.

"Granny just said it takes a lot of time. And she always seems like she's working. I don't want to be so busy I won't see anyone. I wonder how my dad did it…"

Sasuke hesitated, awkwardly unsure in the suddenly heavy room. He sighed and Naruto looked up at him curiously.

"The fourth was much cooler than you are," he said flatly. "You shouldn't compare yourself to him."

"Asshole!" Naruto shouted, tossing a pillow from the couch at Sasuke's head. He dodged it easily and smirked Naruto's way. He was glad to find that it had eased at least some of Naruto's tension.

The night pressed on, later and later. It was surely nearing morning and Sasuke should have been tired, but he wasn't. The night outside was wet and cool, but inside his apartment was warm and dry. He imagined Naruto would want to stay the night, and for once Sasuke was inclined to let him.

They bickered about the mission, the ninja world, their friends. Naruto laughed and Sasuke was drunk enough that he might have smiled once or twice. Once he realized his motor skills were affected he decided to stop, but Naruto continued drinking.

He brought another bottle up for a long sip, then groaned to find it empty. He shakily stood from the floor, heading to the kitchen.

"Time for another beeeer!" he crowed, and for some reason Sasuke found himself standing to follow the blond.

"You're going to get alcohol poisoning," Sasuke told him, leaning against his kitchen counter as Naruto opened the fridge door.

"I'm just training," Naruto replied, happily pulling out a cold bottle and closing the door. "According to Granny Tsunade, being Hokage means a loooot of drinking."

Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes. He watched as Naruto stuck his tongue out trying to get the bottle open.

"You're drunk off your ass," he commented, and Naruto made a face at him.

"Am not! And you're one to talk, all pink and happy. I've never heard you say so much, Sasuke-chan."

"Idiot!" Sasuke spat back, still amused to watch Naruto futilely trying to open the bottle with his hands. "Give that here before you hurt yourself."

Naruto sheepishly handed the bottle over and Sasuke searched through a drawer for the bottle opener they'd been using earlier.

"Hey… Sasuke?" Naruto asked, leaning beside him against the counter. His voice had changed—was suddenly serious like it had been earlier. Sasuke glanced at him to find him scowling. He opened another drawer looking for the bottle opener as he asked,

"What?"

"I'm serious, you know. I'm really going to be Hokage. What if I hate it? What if I fuck it up? It's finally happening and I'm—"

He stopped, voice catching in his throat. Sasuke gave up and set the bottle on the countertop beside him. He folded his arms and tried to focus on what Naruto was saying and not the heat of his body so close to Sasuke's. The alcohol was making his brain work harder than normal, making him sensitive to strange things. He shook his head.

"Stop worrying about it. You aren't even Hokage yet. Isn't this what you've been wanting your whole life?"

"Of course! I just—I don't know—what if I'm not good at it? Do you think I'll be good? I mean really, Sasuke."

Sasuke looked at him, stared into Naruto's anxious blue eyes. His face was still flushed, and for some reason Sasuke found himself glancing at his lips, moist and parted, before looking back into those eyes.

"I thought we decided this a long time ago, Naruto. You're the only person I trust to be Hokage. The only reason I'm here is because you're going to be Hokage."

He saw Naruto swallow, nod his head, and then look up at him from underneath his eyelashes again. Somehow it made the blush on his face more prominent and Sasuke blinked, annoyed that he let himself get so drunk.

"I'm really going to be Hokage, aren't I?" he asked, voice soft, like he was in awe of the whole idea.

"Yeah, and then maybe you can finally shut up about it," Sasuke replied with a smirk.

From this:

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/2331236/chapters/5137202#workskin

[masquerade-story]

Chapter 1 - Moving In

"Whose dumb idea was it to go camping like this anyway?" Grey grumbled, smacking away a tree branch that seemed determined to get friendly with his face.

Walking behind him, his twin sister Lillian rolled her eyes and poked the small of her brother's back. "Yours. It was your idea."

"Oh please Crystal! Please oh please might we go live at the haunted house in the woods where we'll certainly perish! I, Dorian Grey Duvall, swear on my sister's honor to let you protect me!" Rayne fluttered her eyelashes, lowering her voice to sound more like Dorian. She yanked the handcart she was dragging over a set of roots, careful to steady its contents before resuming her walk.

"Has to swear on my honor cuz he doesn't have any of his own left after the last time," Lillian snickered, while Grey pointedly ignored their teasing and continued clearing the overgrown path.

Bringing up the rear with a digital camera trained on everyone's back, Crystal grinned and panned the camera to take in the large, dense trees, and huge, leafy bushes. "For a haunted forest, it's actually pretty nice here. Ah, more meadow rue! Specifically thalictrum rochebrunianum, neat."

"Gesundheit," Rayne said, eliciting giggles from the group.

"The lacy one over there with the purple flowers," Crystal clarified. "There's some rue anemone and meadow rue 'splendide' around here too. Don't touch the white flowery plant up ahead by the way, it's giant hogweed. The leaves and sap can give you phytophotodermatitis, making you blister up in the sun."

"Bro, how do you remember any of this? And as for you, you're a scary bitch," Grey cringed away from the plant in question while swearing at it, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at its pretty little flower clusters.

"I read a lot."

"Me too, doesn't mean I absorb any of it! I spent like six hours on Wikipedia the other day, don't even fully remember what I looked up."

"Was it about The Hobbit or Merlin? Cuz that's all you ever look up."

"Look, Lils. I know I'm walking in the front and all, but you don't need to stab me in the back like that. Also sometimes it's Pacific Rim, thank you very much."

"Was it Pacific Rim?"

"No it was The Hobbit."

The group talking and laughing were the self-proclaimed 'Fairy Rock' band Aos Sí Echtrae. Each of them wore a hiking backpack containing personal items, while Rayne also tugged along a sturdy handcart holding supplies and instruments with ease - a drum kit, harp, bouzouki, and keyboard piled up alongside some smaller instruments and the camping stuff Crystal insisted they bring along.

Though their banter was light-hearted and comfortable, they took their excursion very seriously. After all, they'd temporarily rented a locally infamous haunted house to use for a music video! It was a large investment, but they'd become popular online and had enough supporters that they were able to fulfill one of their member's dearest dreams.

Dorian Duvall, or Grey as he preferred to be called by friends, and his twin sister Lillian Duvall played bouzouki and keyboard respectively. Both had the same willowy stature, button nose and almond eye shape, but despite their similarities they both gave off very different impressions. Where Lillian looked soft and gentle, with large doe-like green eyes, and a kind smile, Grey had a mischievous glint in his hazel eyes and a roguish grin that he utilized with careless abandon. Lillian wore her sleek black hair long and loose, falling down past her waist and kept away from her face by a cloth headband, while Grey wore his hair in a high ponytail decorated with small braids.

As the one who absolutely loved haunted houses and anything spooky, it was Grey's idea to film on location for their new Halloween-themed album, Masquerade. Though it was the middle of July, they were hoping to get everything ready for an September promotional release before the album dropped in October, and so hurriedly set up for their video shoot in order to give themselves plenty of time for editing.

All four of them worked together to compose their music, write lyrics, and design stage costumes as well as fan merchandise. They also lacked anything resembling a lead vocalist, taking turns depending on what sound worked best with each song, and preferring harmonies rather than solos.

"Ray! There's a log up here!" Grey called out suddenly, kicking the fallen tree blocking their path. Rayne grunted acknowledgment, and shuffled around Lillian to help move the obstruction.

Rayne Rose played the drums, and also did a majority of the heavy lifting due to being the strongest person present in any room that didn't involve professional weightlifters. Her muscular arms were covered with watercolor flower tattoos, which she proudly showed off by refusing to wear any shirt with sleeves. Her curly hair, dyed a gradient of aqua blue and purple, was cropped close to her face for summertime weather. The short style purposefully revealed ear gauges and more than a dozen total ear piercings, matching the many piercings on her brows, lips, and nose.

The twins had fresh yet roguish charms, while Rayne had a more heroic air with heavy brows and an intense black gaze over lips naturally curved into an amused smirk. She dusted off her hands after tossing the log aside with little effort, while Grey panted for breath from the exertion of merely helping her lift it. Crystal, for her part, made sure to get the whole thing on video for future blackmail purposes.

Crystal Rose, Rayne's older sister, played the harp. Unlike her athletic and statuesque sister, Crystal was on the soft and plump side. Her long, wavy blonde hair was pulled back into a messy twist to keep it off her neck, the ends still pink from the last time she dyed it. Her face was round and childish, with bluish gray eyes above an upturned nose and broad cheekbones, unremarkable features made more charming by her innate overwhelming charisma and natural exuberance.

She was the kind of person that random strangers would strike up a conversation with, lost kids would try to hold her hand, wild animals would approach like an old friend, and when she raised her voice even the most crowded room would quiet down. She was also the kind of person who got carded when buying alcohol despite being thirty years of age, due to what Grey dubbed 'Acute Babyface Syndrome'.

"Anyone need to clean their glasses?" Crystal asked, pulling a cloth from her pocket to swipe hers clean. Aside from Rayne, who wore her contacts, Grey and Lillian both opted to wear glasses for the hike so they wouldn't have to worry about losing a contact forever if they tripped - a serious and ever-present concern for the slightly clumsy twins.

"I'm good!"

"Not yet, thanks."

"I'll take it," Rayne said, keeping her expression blank, and Crystal narrowed her eyes.

"If you wipe your sweaty face with the glasses cloth I'll push you into the patch of poison ivy over there."

"Ope, nevermind then."

The haunted house was a thirty minute hike from the nearest road, along a mostly uphill path that hardly anyone ever used and certainly wasn't wide or steady enough for any automobiles. By the time they reached the stone fence encircling the house's enormous overgrown yard, everyone except Rayne was ready to collapse.

"I'm gonna be so in shape after this if my binder doesn't kill me first," Grey wheezed, leaning on the stone fence and looking up at the haunted house of his dreams with a longing yet exhausted expression. It stood atop a hill in the distance, surrounded by several acres worth of mostly empty property speckled by a few large trees and scraggly bushes. Behind it was a small barn, a chicken coop that hadn't seen use in ages, and a greenhouse conspicuously lacking anything actually green. "A stone brick cottage in the middle of the woods overgrown by vines, a sagging peaked roof with exposed beams, and gaping windows whose panes are cracked like spiderwebs... Looks spooky enough! If the door doesn't creak ominously when we open it, I'm filing a complaint."

Rayne pulled the handcart into the yard, then glanced over her shoulder at Crystal, who was panning the camera up to take a wide shot of the house from just inside the fence gate. "How's it feel, Coco?"

Crystal frowned, furrowing her brows. All four of them believed in the supernatural after they all experienced several strange circumstances growing up, and Crystal had long proven to have abilities that most people would've considered fake nonsense.

She kept a dream diary after experiencing incidents where she'd dream events before they occurred, and wanted to prove to herself it wasn't a figment of her imagination. Whenever something weird happened, she was the first to alert everyone and get them away from danger before anything bad happened, and had an uncanny sense of whether people were lying.

"Hard to say. It does feel... Weird. The walk through the whole forest was fine, but as soon as I walked into the yard... The air's different."

"Really?" Grey raised his eyebrows, hopping over the fence and holding out his arms. He was the second most sensitive to any external oddities, with a particular penchant for finding rather nasty unexplained phenomena. After a few seconds he frowned as well. "No, yeah. That's a weird vibe for sure. It's like, the forest was fine and funky fresh, then you get over here and it's..."

"Musty," Crystal and Grey finished at the same time, and exchanged wry smiles.

"Could be trepidation from perceived fears," Lillian pointed out, gesturing toward the house. Though she also believed in the supernatural, Lillian also liked trying to find reasonable explanations before resorting to the occult. "The big empty windows feel eerie because people expect houses to be brighter and look more lived in, right? It's possible it's just a subconscious response to an old, dilapidated building."

"Dilapidated..." Rayne muttered, raising her eyebrows as she surveyed the house. She had a sensitivity to people's emotions and motivations, and could sometimes pick up lingering feelings from objects, but she didn't feel anything in particular coming from the building. "I don't think it looks that bad? We've lived in worse."

"It hurts me, physically, every time you and Crystal tell us about that kind of thing," Lillian sighed, patting her hand over her heart while Grey nodded next to her. "This place looks gross! It's horrible to imagine little Ray and little Coco in a place even worse than this..."

"Hey, they hired someone to clean the inside and arrange some basic furniture for us to use," Grey said. "It won't be fancy, but the interior shouldn't be too gross! And we'll sleep in the same room for safety! After all... This is the Corpse Consuming Cottage!"

"Ugh, that name..." Crystal and Rayne both cringed at the same time, while Lillian's eyebrows shot up.

"Wait, it's called what?!"

"Yup! Bad, right? But it's earned the name cuz of how many people have gone missing here. Poof! Gone without a trace! Every single person who's ever bought this place has disappeared, along with any family they brought along." Grey grinned, wiggling his fingers at his suddenly horrified twin. "I even made a spooky spreadsheet citing all my sources, aren't you proud? It's legit, this place is either hella haunted or hella cursed."

"Will we be okay!?" Lillian muttered, color draining from her cheeks.

"There's a loophole," Rayne said, and Crystal nodded.

"Yeah, we didn't buy the house. We're just renting. Supernatural stories are always big sticklers on rules, right? Chanting something three times, turning a certain way, walking a certain pattern. If buying the house is part of the problem, then renting it shouldn't be counted as the same thing because possession isn't being transferred." Crystal turned the camera to zoom in on poor Lillian's pale face, hiding her mischievous grin behind the lens. "Theoretically."

"Don't even pretend you aren't absolutely terrified too, Miss I Can't Go On The Haunted House Ride At The Amusement Park I Have A Doctor's Note," Grey scoffed.

"I don't like ghosts or wraiths or poltergeists or whatever wicked whatsits terrorize the night because I feel bad for them thanks very much, but..." Crystal glanced over at the house and frowned, furrowing her brow again. "I feel bothered but not... Threatened? Like there's something here watching but it won't hurt us."

"That's as good as a gold star to me. Let's crack this bitch open and make some lunch!" With renewed vigor, Grey fished the key from his shorts pocket and ran up the creaky old porch to the front door. "Come on in, it's nice and cool inside! Comparatively speaking, I don't think there's an air conditioner. Just fans. But it'll be clean!"

Like he'd promised, the interior was cleaner than the exterior condition belied. Furniture was sparse, but they were all fine wood antiques with a hand-polished sheen. Everyone dropped their backpacks in the foyer and stretched for a moment before getting to work.

"Water's on!" Grey called from the kitchen, where he set the tap to run. "There's dishes and cookware in here too!"

"Silverware?" Lillian called back, in the middle of helping Crystal and Rayne unload the handcart.

"Yup, as requested! I think they're all antique like the rest of everything here."

"Don't you dare break any antique dishes, Dorian Grey!"

"No promises!"

"Electricity works," Crystal said with some surprise, flicking a nearby switch after setting her harp case on the floor in the living room, alongside a towering pile of boxes holding personal things they'd had delivered via the realtor. She held her breath to listen for any crackles or pops, but the overhead light didn't give so much as a flicker. "Wires might actually be okay? That's surprising, this house is really old. Must've been recently renovated."

"Probably to try and reel in prospective buyers," Rayne said, setting down three drum cases. The rest of her kit was already unloaded, so she took a moment to glance around the living room with Crystal. "Inside looks much nicer than outside."

"We can make it look spookier with filters and editing," Crystal said, running her finger against the windowsill. When it came up without dust, she furrowed her brows. "They were real thorough cleaning this place."

"Found the terrifying cellar!" Grey's faint muffled cry echoed from somewhere in the house, followed by the sound of Lillian shouting his full name and charging off after him.

"Any cold spots?" Crystal shouted down the stairs after circling the entire bottom floor trying to find them. The cellar door was tucked into the kitchen's pantry, which was a full walk-in room rather than a little cabinet.

Since the house was so far from town, part of the rental contract involved the current real estate agent making sure the kitchen was stocked before tenants took over. All the shelves were packed full with newly purchased dry goods and spices, mostly sorted into pretty glass jars for aesthetic appeal.

"No cold spots, just some nice shelving, big old ground freezer and a wine rack! Fruit preserves and stuff but they didn't leave any complimentary wine. Zero out of ten, not recommended."

"What makes it terrifying then?"

"Big spiders."

Crystal grimaced and backed away from the cellar door, narrowly evading Lillian as she retreated up the stairs at maximum speed.

The house was surprisingly large. The ground floor had a large open kitchen with an attached breakfast room, a living room, a dining room, a sitting room, a study with empty floor-to-ceiling bookshelves alongside display cabinets, and a laundry/changing room attached to a bathroom with an enormous sunken bath large enough to be used as a hot tub.

"I would buy this house just for the tub," Lillian said, stroking the porcelain with obvious affection.

"Please don't," Grey muttered. "We're evading the horrible disappearance curse via fairy loopholes, don't you go walking into the trap face-first like that!"

"Fine, but when we leave, we're bringing the tub with us."

"Yeah sure that's completely feasible and not at all slightly insane."

The upper floor had five large bedrooms with attached changing rooms, two lavatories, and a walk-in storage closet. Rayne carried their bags into the master bedroom, then returned to the handcart to retrieve the extra supplies they brought - a couple of brand new air mattresses, blankets, boxes of instant food, tents in case the house was in worse shape than expected, a first aid kit, and little tools like scissors, binoculars, and lighters.

"This place is supposed to be super haunted and cursed, yet..." Rayne hummed to herself, patting the mattress in the master bedroom. Every bed in the house was neatly made, with clean sheets and blankets that still smelled like soap. "Won't need the air mattresses. They really worked hard to make this place nice, huh?"

Finally, the attic under the peaked roof had a few small gaps in the shingles, but otherwise lacked any signs of weathering or exposure damage. The only things occupying the space were a few cobwebs in the darkest corners. "Ugh, nothing for us to snoop through," Grey muttered, poking his head into the attic for only moment before heading back downstairs to start moving boxes from the living room into various bedrooms for later sorting.

Crystal and Rayne turned the fans on in all the rooms to start circulating air, opening windows on the shaded side of the house to catch any stray breezes, while Lillian and Grey got started on making lunch. The house which stood empty for so long soon filled with laughter, conversation, and the smell of good food.

"I just can't get over how unhaunted this haunted house is," Grey lamented, tapping a fork against his empty plate. "I've been looking and there's not so much as a suspiciously shadowed corner or creaky stair board!"

"Are you sure those disappearances were legit?" Lillian asked, gesturing for Crystal to pass the salt so she could douse her potato salad. "You checked the sources themselves, right?"

"I did! That's why it's so weird!" Grey drained the remaining water from his glass, glaring down at the ice cubes rattling at the bottom. "Other than the terrible cell reception, weak internet signal, and our gut feelings, there's really no sign of anything being weird. I was promised jumpscares!"

"You were promised no such thing," Rayne muttered around a mouthful of grilled chicken sandwich, deftly capturing some lettuce before it escaped her lips and hit the table. "The outside looks spooky enough for use in our video, we can think of this like a vacation and relax for a bit until we have to leave."

"There's a barn out back, maybe that's haunted?" Crystal suggested, but Grey shook his head.

"I already checked... It's clean as a whistle. No disturbed earth or rattling rusty tools or anything!"

"Would you feel better if one of us got possessed by a demon?"

"Maybe. It'd have to be a really good possession though, if you're not crawling on the ceiling I want a refund."

"Oh, you're paying us?"

"Hell no, a refund of my feelings. My feelings!"

"Speaking of feelings, how do you feel, Coco? Lils?" Rayne interrupted just as Grey was about to get dramatic. "That was a doozy of a hike. You guys alright?"

Both Lillian and Crystal suffered from several health problems when they were younger, and were still weaker than the average person because of it. They had to work harder to remain healthy than most people did.

Lillian, since her mouth was full, flexed her arm and gave a thumbs up to show she was feeling alright. Once her mouth was clear of food, she added: "Mostly just sore, but nothing a long bath and some music won't cure!"

"Coco?"

Crystal gave a start, realizing she'd been staring out the nearest window for awhile and tuning out the conversation. She turned back to Rayne and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just feel a bit woozy, I think."

"Sensing something weird?"

"Honestly? I don't know." Crystal sighed, opening a can of grape soda and pouring it into her glass. "I still feel like we're being watched. And..."

She hesitated, then shook her head. No matter how Grey tried to cajole the rest of the sentence from her, Crystal kept the rest of her thoughts to herself. If she felt they were in danger she wouldn't be so tight-lipped, so they dropped the subject and started discussing their upcoming album instead.

After lunch they moved several beds into one room, turning the master bedroom into a big slumber party area. The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent getting video and photos of the house and its yard, trying to find the perfect angles for use during the actual performance recording.

Rayne gathered some logs for firewood after noticing a fire pit in the back with some carved stone benches surrounding it. Dinner consisted of an open flame barbecue using packaged meats they found in the fridge, and a few veggies and fruit rolled into foil packs.

"We've really gotta thank that agent lady," Grey said, reclining in his chair. "She really came through with the supplies! It's so good having a fully stocked kitchen from the start, I was worried we'd be having pancakes and instant ramen for days."

"I'll head to town tomorrow and grab more meat for the freezer in the cellar," Rayne said, chewing on a skewer of chicken. "It's got a little variety right now but I'd like to stock up so we don't have to make as many trips. You and Lils might be fine with rabbit food, but Crystal and I need that good good protein."

"We're natural carnivores," Crystal agreed.

"Is there anything else we need from the store?"

"Nah, I can't think of anything. There's like, four entire bags of toilet paper, and towels and wash cloths and soaps and detergent and even pads and stuff. Like, I know we paid for the service but the level of consideration is really impressive!"

Crystal stared into the flickering flames, watching the embers rise into the rapidly darkening sky only to flicker away among the stars. The strange feeling she'd had all day was building to a crescendo, swelling in her chest in anticipation of...

Something.

Rayne glanced over, nudging her sister in the arm. "Coco? You're out of it again."

Crystal nodded. She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened again. Seeing her strange behavior, Lillian and Grey both fell silent.

Finally, Crystal heaved a sigh and poked at the burning logs with a long stick. "Remember when we first posted the video for our band? It was uploading and we were all watching the loading bar while holding our breaths? How it felt?"

"Don't get nostalgic on me old man," Grey muttered. Though his tone was teasing, there was an affectionate smile on his face.

Lillian nodded and smiled. "It was so exciting and terrifying at the same time. Maybe nothing would happen, maybe we'd be one of many bands that never got any traction. But maybe... Maybe we'd get lucky."

"It was kind of a relief too," Rayne added, gesturing with the skewer in her hand. "Like, we did it! We made our first song, and did our first video, and were gonna show it to the world. It felt really real right then. All our hard work."

"Yeah... And remember what I said?" When they all shook their heads, Crystal chuckled and poked the fire hard enough to send a flurried shower of sparks into the air. "I said it felt like a change was coming. For better or worse, something big was about to happen."

"Right, right! We'd either succeed in our dream or fail absolutely, with no in-between. That's what you said, yeah?" Grey sighed, patting his full stomach. "I remember. Man, that was heavy. I couldn't even sleep that night, you know?"

"Is it happening again?" Lillian asked, her voice even softer than usual. "That feeling?"

"Yeah. I've felt that way all day. I thought maybe it's cuz we never did anything as big as this, renting a house and doing a whole video shoot on location, that maybe I was worried about how ambitious our idea was, but..." Crystal bit her lip, poking the fire again. She made a point of avoiding their gazes, focusing on the burning embers and crackling logs. "I think if we stay here tonight, there's no going back."

Silence reigned for a few minutes. Then, quietly, Rayne whispered: "Are we in danger?"

"It's not like that. It's just... A massive change, that feels... Overwhelming. This is bigger than the previous time."

"Bigger than chasing our dream?"

"Yeah."

Rayne reached over to grab Crystal's hand, while Grey hopped up and sprawled across Lillian's lap despite her protests. He just laughed and said, "What's that matter? No matter what happens tonight, tomorrow, or whatever! We'll get through it together like we always have. You and me, sweethearts. Us against the world!"

Crystal smiled and gently squeezed Rayne's hand. "Yeah. We'll be fine, no matter what."

Once dinner was finished, the fire fully smothered and the leftovers packed away for later, everyone did rock-paper-scissors to determine order of bathtub usage. One by one, they soaked away their worries, changed into the pajamas they brought, and crawled into one of the master bedroom's beds.

As midnight ticked over, a single shaft of light from the full moon filtered through the room's lacy curtains, illuminating their peaceful faces. The sleeping occupants remained blissfully unaware of the tendrils of fog creeping along the ground, emerging from the forest to wrap the entire house in a dome of mist.

Several hours later, as the first rays of dawn burst from the horizon, they were finally awoken by a piercing scream.

[clippy]

Before I go to bed, here's my full story about work today & why I snapped and I just need some consolation that I'm not 100% the asshole here...

For background: my manager has been here for a year. She knows less than a new hire would at the 90 day mark. On top of this, she has started singling me out in the past 4-ish months looking for tiny ways to get me in trouble, rather than, y'know, HELPING me like a good manager would ... HR was here earlier this month and she's now on a learning plan and has to learn X things by X amount of time...

Yesterday and today (and last week) were horrible... She's entirely regressed in her learning and treatment of me!!! Yesterday she nagged me several times to help her w her training and I told her multiple times that I'm busy but I'd be happy to help her if she put forth some effort in trying to figure out how to set up a print job on her own first/let me verbally walk her through the process.... Both of those were bad tho! And she won't take the "hey I'm drowning in customers and printing!" answer as a No so she kept being passive aggressive toward me saying I should be "excited" for her to learn and that I need to out forth a better effort in helping her when... This is something she needs to work on HERSELF? FIRST?

I got confirmation from the current acting DM about that! He said it shouldn't be put on me and the assistant manager to train our manager especially when she acts like that toward us and doesn't retain anything... This is coming from someone w some memory issues too!!! Like if I struggle THAT much with something I write stuff down or ask for help when it isn't busy.. it's simply that she is refusing to learn

So cut to today... We had supply counts, this happens once a month and since I open I always try to get as much done as I can in the morning.... Well, today it was busy in printing and I had a lot of foot traffic... On a normal day this would be fine! But on a count day? Not so much! So my manager shows up like 45 min early and just recluses herself into her office, not bothering to check on me despite the door constantly opening (with a door ding that I can EASILY hear in the office despite having some hearing issues, so I KNOW she can hear it cuz she has ridiculous hearing)

So like. I'm drowning. All morning. We're down a person cuz my immediate help that isn't her called in and instead of being like "oh! Carson is alone out there maybe I should just CHECK on him" she just stayed holed up in her office! So she eventually comes out and ignores me saying that help would be nice since I'm busy but still need to get counts going and starts... Working on stuff that isn't urgent.

So I'm still running everything. Alone. Until she FINALLY helps her first customer of the day which is... A large ski group. And she ofc takes 20 min to help them ship like. 2 packages. cuz she doesn't know when to keep a convo short to help with lines + she goes overboard on the up selling... She then tells me to look out for some emails from them w labels right as we got a delivery and I'm like... I can't? These are time sensitive? And as I'm finishing those, and helping two customers at once, she gets mad when I prod her to go check the email for those labels cuz she was just. Standing there. As if she was expecting me to still be checking?

Anyway store remains busy, and she helps maybe... Two more customers? While I'm still pinballing all over the place trying to get stuff done and then the AM comes in. It stays swamped. I'm desperately trying to help ppl quickly so I can go to lunch because I NEED a break (meanwhile literally everyone else is just. Free to kinda just Leave For Break Whenever Despite Crowds but I'm not :-))... It finally gets down to like two customers and one approached me when I was helping another guy and I was like "oh let me get [manager] to help u cuz I'm actually helping someone else right now!" And I look over and she's... Trying to help my customer? So I sternly say "hey can u help this customer because I'm Literally printing off his labels???" so she does

After she's done she comes over and said I "shouldn't yell at her in front of customers" and I lost it. Like first off that wasn't yelling!!! But I told her that I was literally about to lose it over how stressed I was today and how she REFUSED to listen to me today and yesterday over ANYTHING and ignored that I needed help and that I was tired of it!!!

I know for a fact I raised my voice and like. I shouldn't have. But I am not apologizing because I'm not sorry -- she never fucking listens to me when I'm polite, no matter how hard I try.

I immediately called HR and the acting DM about it and had a full on panic attack while on my lunch break... Like. My manager is malicious toward me and I know she's going to play the victim in this! She hates my guts and I'm genuinely afraid to ask her for help in the mornings because of how she treats me afterward (aka being passive aggressive and guilt-trippy) and I feel hopeless that it isn't going to change and I hate going into work because of how she treats me...

Like does someone getting upset at u, for the same things, not raise any red flags that ur behavior is off and that ur employee might be frustrated about it?! Like she can't possibly keep playing the innocent card here and blame me for everything? Like the stress of my job is beginning to cause some health issues and my anxiety is constantly getting worse.. but I sadly can't just walk out..... I'm so fucking tired, yall

[raijinhasverybigpecs]

tu’er headcanons that i probably should’ve done and posted along with the main oc post but it’s too late now

can i just say that he’s short lol. taller than awilix by a few cm

sentimental as hell, his temple is cluttered with lots of offerings. he’s kind of a hoarder but shhh

big tea lover, adores holding tea parties and little get togethers in his temple. naturally loves bubble tea as well 😌

natural recluse, aphrodite keeps trying to drag him out of his shell but he’s just a loser like that. also hates drawing attention to himself

yes he listens to pop music. do you really think a gay rabbit twink wouldn’t stan loona?

very private about his past. he won’t tell anyone.

good memory! you’ve got to have one when you’re matching people around the world anyways

cordial but distant relationships with most of the gods. hates violence so he won’t talk with the more chaotic gods at all. he’ll work with them in battle but not anymore than he has to

a cardio bunny, does a lot of running in some terribly short shorts. does a lot of gymnastics as well, it’s partly an excuse to wear bright lycra but being real flexible comes in handy in many different situations

sensitive hearing. you guess why :P

eyes change colour from red to light pink according to what mood he’s in. red is happy, negative emotions are very pale reds and positive & romantic emotions equal bright pinks

can change his appearance to some extent - can remove the bunny ears and tail (as he’s not actually a rabbit god, just somewhat associated with them)

romantic/god relationship/nsfw stuff below the cut!

romantic headcanons

naturally he’s very romantic. loves a big gesture but definitely not anything too gaudy or attention grabbing, something like chocolates and a teddy bear is very up his alley

subtle flirt, says little comments and compliments here and there to test the water then he pounces (or bunny hops?). he’ll keep up with whatever you’ve got if he’s looking for something carnal and isn’t afraid to talk dirty to get what he wants out of you

but if he’s romantically interested then’s he’s very easily flustered and embarrassed. he’ll only do that if he’s really into you though~

moves very slowly in a relationship but he falls in love quickly. it’s always been an issue for him but he’s learnt a lot of self-control so you’ll have to really show your dedication to him to gain his trust

god relationship stuff - kinda nsfw lol

also if someone isn’t included that doesn’t mean i hate them (hi cu chu...) i just got tired and these are the more obvious relationships i thought about lol. maybe send in an ask about other gods ;^)

achilles - gay alliance 🙏 they have that gay relationship where there’s a lot of flirting but they’re just having fun. tu’er shen recommends romantic things for achilles to do so he can get those brownie points (and he’s totally on the threesome list for achilles and patroclus lol)

amaterasu - friends! they like to geek over cute things while they go shopping with each other and tu’er shen helps pick out outfits for her dates. they often have tea together as well :)

aphrodite - they’re very close friends, they also have a mentor relationship. they’re very emotionally open with each other and it’s very common to find them talking to each other over tea. both will hunt you to the ends of the earth if you talk shit about the other

apollo - another gay alliance 🙏 apollo brings out the fun in tu’er shen and they do a lot of dumb stuff together. tu’er shen still dunks on apollo tho as he can never get a partner cuz he’s a clown. and they’ve messed around before, usually it’s for some god who wants to see two twinks making out (or doing something worse!) ;^)

bacchus - the top to tu’er shen’s bottom. yet another gay alliance 😳🙏 essentially just apollo but more intense. tu’er shen has done a lot of kinky stuff at bacchus’ parties that he says he regrets but they both know he likes being a thot lmao

bastet - like aphrodite but more playful and fun. tu’er shen basically knows that if he goes to visit bastet and they go out that he’ll end up having a one night stand somewhere and he’s not mad about it. tu’er shen gets teased a lot by bastet as well :^)

chang'e - a very quiet and peaceful relationship. sometimes chang’e will drop in for tea and they’ll spend some time enjoying each others company, otherwise they’re not super close. they’ll acknowledge each other with a nice smile and wave :) also tu’er shen really adores her relationship with hou yi as well (duh!) but less likes talking to hou yi cuz he’s a bit cocky

cupid - i refuse to write anything about this bobblehead lmao. cupid’s probs jealous about all that extra time tu’er shen is spending with aphro but he pros doesn’t care that much otherwise cuz he’s more popular lol

freya - just like aphrodite and bastet but tu’er shen sees her less. tu’er shen is a bit intimidated by her but whenever they get to talk they get on very very well. lots of romantic fluff between them

essentially aphro, bastet and freya are trying to get tu’er shen a boyfriend but he won’t let down his walls so getting laid is a decent alternative lmao. also aphro/bastet/freya and tu’er shen spend a day every few weeks watching romance films and naturally they’re common guests for tea :)

mercury - not a very close relationship (like chang’e!) but tu’er shen sometimes has him over for tea when he gets time between serving as a delivery boy as merc makes tu’er shen laugh. they might’ve messed aroudn a few times but it’s very casual :^)

mulan - one again they’re not super close but tu’er shen likes to help mulan take a break every now and then and she updates him on what’s happening. tu’er shen basically idolises mulan as well, he’s a bit starstuck by her whenever they talk lol

neith - they’re pretty close actually! they have a lot of things in common and they often hang around mortals any play matchmaker or just pretend to be human. it’s all very fluffy lol

nu wa - same as mulan, tu’er shen is very in awe of how regal and powerful she is. rarely do they meet up together but nu wa is a very smart and witty guest who sometimes knows tu’er shen better than himself

raijin - i mean... naturally i ship them but outside of that i will say that tu’er shen disliked him at first because he’s so loud and rowdy but seeing how friendly and loyal raijin is + them mascles + the fact that he’s just fighting for fun unlike many other gods makes him develop a lil ~crush~ on raijin. if i’m not shipping them together then they’d have tea together that would lead to casual sex lol

but yes, i’m shipping them together so suck it lmao. essentially they’re the bara jock and twink prep pairing which is how god intended it to be :^)

ravana - same thing as raijin inviting people in for ‘tea’. tu’er shen knows that if he really wants to get dominated he’s gotta see ravana in private and ravana is always ready... it’s rare when bunny boy has that urge but when he does they do stuff that’s intense enough for apollo to blush :^)

serqet - fashion. style. runway. nouns! they’re style buds and they help pick out outfits for each other and she comes around often for tea to gossip together~ he’s also a bit imtimdated by her but she’s very nice to him lol

tu’er shen likes to help neith and serqet make and try on outfits. that’s also how he’s got all those sexy bedroom outfits...

nsfw stuff :^) i mean who else is gonna write it lol

i like saying he’s a bottom but he’s vers and bottom leaning. adjusts accordingly for his partner as he’s happy to do whatever

flexible, no gag reflex, etc etc. he’s a pro and he knows it.

he doesn't actually have that much sex though as he’s (mostly) reserved. he is basically horny at all times but extremely good at controlling himself

prefers long sessions where he can release all that pent up energy and really get his partner to enjoy themselves and get into the lovin’ mindset. is ready to go again and again and again otherwise...

big collection of sex toys. it’s how he spends all that time alone...

loves roleplaying and wearing femme outfits. stockings are hot :^)

and with that eye colour thing, hot pink is when he’s really turned on <3

semen kink, actually likes swallowing. he likes a big finish, what can i say

[vivala-plutofuckyou]

Things no one tells you about being pregnant

-Keep track of your sexual encounters!! Whether you’re trying for a baby or not it’s a good idea to mark on your period calendar whenever you have sex. I downloaded the app P Tracker and it has a handy switch that you just swipe and you can put in the details, like if you used a condom. Keeping track of this will help your doctor more accurately narrow down your due date otherwise they just go off of when your last period ended and that could be way off.

-You will be sore to various degrees throughout the whole pregnancy! And this is totally normal! You’re body is physically changing and rearranging to make room for baby. Your pelvic bone moves, your ab muscles stretch, and your organs get pushed around during your baby’s growth. Don’t worry, you’re allowed to take Tylenol.

-You have to pee in a cup at every appointment. Make sure you stay hydrated and that you eat healthy. And even if it’s difficult at first, you’re gonna become a pro at peeing into a cup.

-There WILL NOT be an ultrasound at every appointment! Ultrasounds are used just to make sure baby is growing and developing properly and on time. Unless you really want to pay for an ultrasound, it’s not necessary at every appointment and it’s best to listen to your doctor on when you actually need to get them. Cherish them when they come around and if you can help it, don’t skip on the 3D ultrasound. It’s amazing!

-You get your blood drawn A LOT. Especially at around the 28-30 week mark. They’ll do this thing called a Glucose Test to see if you have any blood sugar problems. You’re not allowed to eat or drink after midnight the night before, not even chew gum. Then, they make you drink this kinda gross sugary drink. It comes in different flavors but I don’t recommend getting the colored drinks if you get sick easily. I had the lemon-lime flavor and it basically just tasted like thick, flat sprite. After that you have to wait an hour and they draw your blood. If for some reason you fail this test (like I did), then you have to go in again and this time they draw your blood 4 times. I recommend having a high protein diet and a lot of water the day before and bring snacks and orange juice for after. You’ll thank me!

-Your nipples change color. Yeah, you read that right. Not only do your boobs get bigger but nipples get darker and more sensitive. This is because your body is trying to make it easier for a baby’s developing eyes to see it’s food source. No, there’s no way to stop or prevent this. You just kinda gotta deal. Sorry.

-Morning Sickness is different for everyone. Personally, I only had a lot of “Nauseas cuz I didn’t eat/Nauseas cuz I did eat” for the first trimester or so but never got physically sick. My cousin, though, puked almost the entirety of her pregnancy. It was so bad she now has permanent dental issues and ended up losing a whole lot of weight after giving birth. Make sure you talk to your doctor about any concerns you have about your morning sickness.

-It’s okay to dye your hair! A lot of people think the chemicals are bad for you and baby but there’s been quite a bit of research saying there’s no harm done if you wanna rock a bright pink or just touch up your roots. My only advice here is make sure you’re in a well ventilated area. Those smells can really get to you!

-You’re allowed to eat seafood and steak! For a long time doctors would tell you this is a big No-No but there are some seafoods you’re allowed to enjoy! Crab, salmon, shrimp, and anything with really low mercury levels is perfectly safe in controlled amounts as long as it’s properly cooked. Steer clear of tuna though! It has very high levels of mercury and that’s bad for baby! As for steak, you can eat as much as you want so long as cooked medium or longer! Basically, all of the meat has to reach that temperature that kills bacteria that could harm baby.

-You don’t need to “eat for two”. Many people think you need to eat excessively once you become pregnant but that not true and often contributes to excessive weight gain during and after your pregnancy and can cause childhood obesity in your baby. You should eat your regular meals and then whenever you feel hungry. Don’t force yourself to eat more than you can just because you think it will go straight to the baby. That’s not how it works.

-Listen to your cravings! Often times when you crave a specific kind of food, it’s for a reason. You’re body is trying to tell you you’re missing something from your diet. Crave sweets or sugar? Drink a bottle of water and see how you feel, you might be dehydrated. Just want to eat a shit ton of ice? You could be low on iron, eat spinach and other iron-rich foods and bring it up to your doctor. There’s always a reason. And sometimes that reason is you just really want ice cream.

-Everyone’s pregnancy will be different from yours but that won’t stop them from thinking they know what you’re going through. People are constantly going to come to you with unsolicited advice, old wives tales, and stories of their personal experience. It’s going to get annoying and bothersome. Just try to keep a level head when you ask them to fuck off.

-Hemorrhoids are unavoidable. I’m sorry. Invest in prescription wipes and/or ointment.

-Nesting is a thing. You’re going to clean and reorganize the house so many times.

-It’s okay to google your questions! Not everyone has the advantage of a patient doctor willing to answer every single question and concern you have and some of you may even see multiple doctors throughout your pregnancy all of which may give you different answers. Google can become your friend here. There are so many forums and blogs and other online sources when it comes to pregnancy questions. You’ll be able to sleep easier, I promise.

-Buy thin underwear pads. Vaginal discharge can get more frequent as well as change color/consistency/smell and you don’t want to ruin your underwear.

-Doctors don’t always know best. This one is probably the most important. If you feel like your Doctor is bullshitting you, bullying you into decision-making, or just not listening to you, DO NOT assume “they’re the doctor, they know best”. You are 100% in control of your body and what you want your pregnancy experience to be. My friend’s nurses and doctors kept her epidural so high that she literally slept through her contractions and her dilation stalled to the point they had no choice but to do a C-section and it could’ve been avoided except her whole family assured her “the doctor knew best” so she didn’t express her concerns until it was too late. When my mom gave birth to my brother, the doctor let her have 2 seizures on the table after her C-section because he thought he “knew best” about her existing medications and her anesthesia and assumed that because she wasn’t a red head she lied about carrying the R1N1 gene which could’ve killed her. If you’re uncomfortable with your doctor, speak up.

Basically, this is just the stuff I can immediately think of. If you have your own pregnancy stories or tips or whatnot you want to add, please feel free, I’d love to read them. And if you have any questions, my ask box is always open and I’ll do my best to answer them.

[itbe-jess]

Bjorn Miller (test drafts)

For my Family Matters reboot.

It was 4:30 in the morning. A young lad awoken by his phone, with the Jackson Five's "The Love You Save" playing over the alarm. He grabbed the phone, and switched the alarm off. However, he didn't feel the strength to get up. He couldn't pushed the snooze, since he knew the alarm would go off eventually.

He had trouble sleeping last night, for he watched a stupid click-bait video titled "Top Ten Proof Of Ghost Existence That Will Leave You In Heebies-Jeebies All Month Long." He tapped the video, out of his own curiosity and boredom. After finishing the video, he was so scared, he sat up in bed, frozen in a single position for two hours, heart racing. The silence of the room made him imagine like he was hearing things. And a slight noise from outside his window made him jump. Then he accidentally broke his bed. ...again. After watching some comforting cute cat videos, he fell asleep at 3:00 am.

Now that he's awake, he's thinking of resting for a few minutes. Suddenly, his eyes shot open wide. Whenever he rests his eyes, he loses count of the minutes, and therefore falling into a deep snooze. Which means he will oversleep, and be late for school. And when he's late for school far too many times, it will affect his attendance, and probably his grade. No way he's gonna be held back twice!

"$@#&! Mama gonna be very upset if I don't graduate and earn a diploma! (Get your stubborn fatass up, boy!!)"

He threw himself off the bed, and made the room shake a little. Before getting ready, he put the coffee pot on. Then he brushed his teeth, washed his face, showered-- There's no time to shower! I'll do that tomorrow! He got dressed, packed his stuff, went over his belongings twice to make sure he didn't forget something, then drank his coffee straight out of the pot, with cream of course. For breakfast, he put a single piece of toast in his mouth. All ready, he went out the door. Unfortunately, while in a hurry, he broke the door away from its joints. He hurried back in a panic, then scrambled throughout the living room and kitchen for sticky notes. He wrote out a message, and stuck it onto the dislocated door before hurrying to school.

Ma, Will fix it again after school. Don't you dare go through the trouble of fixing it yourself! Your Baby, Bjorn.

Meet Bjorn Miller. Age 17. He's a 6'1 musclebound giant, widely thick in the middle, with a gut sticking out. His hair is a cross between a 90s' fade and an 80s' Jheri Curl. He's very strong, but quite clumsy because of it. He's gay, Jewish, and holds a case of anxiety that cannot be helped. He also battles with his own thoughts.

.................................

During lunch time, Laura was eating her lunch in one hand, and holding a history book in the other. She was multitasking, I guess. Bjorn slowly approached her. He stood next to the bench she was sitting next to. He wanted to get her attention, and hoped that she would start talking to him. He was too timid to start the convo himself. He tried coughing, but she didn't respond. He tried coughing louder, but Laura seemed to be more concerned about her studying.

Bjorn decided to get closer. He sat himself upon the bench, which broke down from his weight. He finally got her attention. Despite what just happened, all Laura asked was

"Hey, aren't you the top dog of scholastic wrestling?" "Yup. That's me." "Alright. I'm Laura Winslow! Nice to meet you!" "Bjorn Miller. That's me. Of course, you probably already knew my name, given the fact that, I am the strongest wrestler. ...of scholastic wrestling. The class where we wrestle for sport. (Reeeeeeeeeeal slick, 'top dog!')" "Actually, I didn't know your name." "Heh. That's an embarassment. ('That's an embarassment?!' That reply is an embarassment!)"

Then a long silence took place. Bjorn was expecting a conversation. If Laura doesn't say something, he might as well do it himself. But, with the wrong words, it might lead to the wrong results. He's worried about how she'll react. Lunch ends in 15 minutes, and judging how Laura had her nose buried in that book, she doesn't look like she'll be asking any questions soon.

"(BOY, you better say somethin', right now!) Soooo, that nerd, what's his name, has been following you around lately! Should I do something about it?" "Him? Oh, don't worry about him. ...unless he's coming at you with an accordion, or a jar full of roaches. That's just Steve. Steve Urkel. Everyone in school knows his name." "So he's popular?" "I would say infamous." "Wow. Hey, what's your relationship with said nerd? I mean, Steve Urkel. The way he follows you around, are you sure he ain't a boyfriend of some kind?" "No, I have better taste than that! He follows me around cuz he merely looks up to me as the twin sister he always wanted. His *Urkel voice impression* sibling from another crib-ling." "Oh man, that's a relief. ...TH-THANK God he's not some dirty little creep!" "Tell me about it. If he was in love with me, I'd have to beg my parents for a state transfer. Being friends with him is hard enough, but could you imagine, with someone of the likes of Steve Urkel, falling in love with you?" "That doesn't seem so baaaaaaaa- I mean, yeah! Just makes you wanna VOMIT!"

Laura hesitated for a moment. It made Bjorn a little uneasy.

"Why do I have the feeling you have a crush on Steve?" "WHAT?" "You pretty much gave it away at 'That doesn't seem so bad.' Plus, it looks to me you're obsessed." "That was a vocal typo! Those exist and that's what I call them! 'Obsessed?!' You straight girls think you know everything about gay dudes based on how we dress, talk, or look at other men! We are not your GBFs, we are not your shipping material, we are real people, dammit! Our reality is not your little pleasurable fantasy and okay you're absolutely right you got me. (BITCH!)" "Heh heh, c'mon, you shouldn't feel ashamed. We Winslows are accepting individuals. ...except for Eddie, just a little. ...and Grandma. "It's not the being gay part that concerned me, well okay by 1/2, it's who I'm hitting for. Have you seen him?" "Child, once you've seen an Urkel, you've seen them all. And I don't care who you have the hots for. Just as long as it's not Eddie." "Why?" "He's so homophobic, he won't even hug his male buddy in private. Despite that, he still pro-claims himself as an ally." "Does he ever refer to-" "Yup. 'The gays.'" "Yeeeeeeeesh. Well, thanks for this conversation! Remember not to tell anyone! You wouldn't break a tall muscle dude's promise now, would you?"

Bjorn was about to leave, but then Laura grabbed hold of his arm. Rather than stopping him, she got dragged along the ground. Taking notice, he stopped and helped her back up.

"Aren't we still discussing your personal issue?" "We are? Oh, we are! Sorry! I thought you had forgotten the subject after you brought up your brother! (Actually that was just an excuse to get away. I knew I would regret talking to you! Boy, am I lucky you can't read my thoughts. By the way, I hate that shirt.)" "If you love Steve, you love him! It doesn't even matter. Sure, he's annoying, weird, clumsy, socially inept, boney thin, laughs like this, 'Heeh heeh heeh heeh!! *Snort*', has bad taste in music, wears his pants too high-" "You sayin' you respect how I feel about Steve, yet it sounds to me you're trying to turn me off." "Sorry. What I meant to imply, my opinion, everyone else's opinion, should not affect yours. If that's how you feel about Steve, then don't deny it! (Plus, if you could get a date with him, we'd be so relived to have him off our backs.)" "That doesn't help me, but I appreciate the support." "Well, I'm technically not a shrink, so-"

Laura was then interrupted by a nasally, obnoxious, and familiar voice.

"LAURRRRRAAAAAAAAAA!"

It was Steve, bouncing his way over to his "sibling from another crib-ling," wrapped in measuring tape. Bjorn then panicked. The nerd was coming closer any second, and there's no where to hide. He just stood behind Laura, holding her lunch bag in front of his face. When Steve made it, he fell face flat on the floor. Laura helped untie him.

"Another invention gone wrong, eh Steve?" "Either my self-measuring measuring tape still has a few kinks to calibrate, or it just doesn't like me." "The second hunch is believable." "HEYYYYYYY!"

Even Bjorn himself was offended by Laura's statement. Suddenly, the bell rang. Laura grabbed her book and moved on to fourth period. Steve, being a helpful friend, grabbed his buddy's lunch, without noticing Bjorn standing there. The large man was left frozen in place. Him and Steve practically made eye contact, and he just ignored him like a stranger off the streets. Or maybe an inanimate objects. Steve loves to annoy strangers. Him and Laura didn't even finish their chat. Well, not like he wanted that chat in the first place. Bjorn began to hear static. He looked down at the measuring tape Steve left behind. The thing reactivated, then limped away on its own.

...............................

Bjorn was walking through the school hallways, carrying around a hall pass. Waldo came around, dragging an empty sack with him, which belonged to P.E. class. As Waldo spotted Bjorn, he greeted him with a "'Sup."

"Why are you dragging that empty sack?" "Well, have you ever tried to push one?" "I-" "Excuse me, I'm on my way to the cafeteria before the trash bins empty out."

Waldo then walked on with his sack, leaving Bjorn more puzzled. He would've asked more questions, but he knows how sensitive Waldo can be towards "personal topics," even if it is stupid. Suddenly, he heard banging from the inside of a locker. He then followed the sound.

"You alright in there? Look, if you just give me your combination, I could help free you! And, I know we've never had acquaintance with each other before ('ACQUAINTANCE!' everytime I try to say something fancy or smart, it only comes out sounding dumb!) and I really don't know who you are, but you can trust me on this! Your locker code will be safe with me! Hell, I forget easily! (Great, now I sound like a creep!)"

All Bjorn got in response was mumbling. It sounds like that person is being gagged. Maybe they're tied up in there, too! Bjorn just said "FUDGE IT," then ripped the locker door open in a second. To his surprise...

"Steve?!"

Of all the kids to rescue today, it happened to be that cute little nerd. His mouth was taped shut. Bjorn assisted his friend out, then removed the tape afterwards. Knowing his own strength, he tried to peel it off as gently as possible. However, even with the most littlest strength used, he still brought Steve into pain.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" "Calm down, little man! I was only trying to help! I only asked for your combination so I could save the school from property damage! Look!"

After screaming, Steve took out a crumbled up, now soggy, piece of paper from his mouth.

"No. Its not you. I think part of my lip teared off on that tape." "Don't worry, no part of your lip parted. Even if it did, I say you'd still look good. Uhhhhh, I mean that in a platonic statement." "Hmmmm. That's the first time I've ever been told I look good! Heeh heeh heeh, *Snort*" "(That laugh, oh my god! I just wanna &$#@in' hold you!) I hope I'm not making a nosey impression here, but how did you get yourself into this awkward mess?" "Awwwwww, you aren't being nosey at all, my friend! I AM a genuine intellectual! You ask the questions, we answer them!" "Even if it's just a simple one?" "Right-a-reeno! Now, let me see if I could trace back- Oh yeah!"

Steve straightened the paper that was stuffed into his mouth earlier. It revealed to be a flier. A Bug's Life Is A Living Life.

"It's an organization I arranged myself, to help protect those poor defenseless insects! You have to look out for the little guys, you know!" "They stuffed you into your locker for that?" "Yes indeedy! I just don't see what's the problem! What do they have against bugs? Sure, they're not the prettiest sight to the human eye, but they're quite misunderstood, I assure you! In fact, they hold such ecological and economic importance to our environment!"

While Steve was giving his monologue about bugs, Bjorn stared at the nerd, pretending as though he were listening. The way Steve felt about bugs is the same way he feels about him. Steve was unattractive, strange, and conceived as a pest. He was more of a frog than a prince. But, in Bjorn's case, he couldn't see any of those flaws. Steve was something special to him. What Bjorn loved about Steve was how he was good spirited, friendly, and carefree. He manages to stay positive no matter what people think of him. He was the opposite attraction to a worrywart like Bjorn here.

Bjorn wished he could be as careless and fearless as Steve. And the way he cares for his friends is just so wholesome. He cares for them unconditionally. Always popping up to lend a helping hand, always volunteering to give company. Last thing to add was how nice Steve can be. A little too nice, but it just goes to show you how much of a loving guy he is. If he sees a sad soul, he will do anything do put a smile on their face. Steve is always willing to fix a problem, even if it's not his business. He is also willing to stand up for those who have contempt towards him.

Steve may not be perfect, but at least he's passionate, supportive, and kind. People like that make Bjorn's heart beat. Although they have nothing in common, they both can be very clumsy. He wants to tell him how he feels. He wants to tell him before its too late. Whatever that "too late" might be, he won't allow it. But, what if Steve doesn't return his feelings? What if he's really heterosexual? So far, he hasn't witnessed or heard Steve give disgust towards same-gender pairs. It could imply that Steve may be queer himself, or he's just an ally. Bjorn thought, "I could respect Steve's choice, but I'll also be unhappy. It's not gonna be easy finding another one like him." He's got to tell Steve eventually. Now or never.

"Steve?" "Huh?" "Could we change the subject? If not, that's okay. Keep talkin' about your bugs, or somethin'." "Shoot!" "What?" "Go on! Tell the Urk my-ster what you have on your mind! I'm all ears!" "*Gulp* Okay." "My goodness, you're all sweaty! It must be very personal!" "(Now I wish you'd continue talking about your bugs again) Well, I wouldn't say it's MY problem. I have this... ...anon who posted this question to me yesterday on my blog." "'Anon?' Sounds like some slimeball con. That’s certainly something to get hot up about.” "No, Steve. Anon is short for anonymous." "Oh." "They sort of have an issue, involving a crush. They told me they love said person, but they don't know how to bring out a confession. How do I respond?" "Hmmmmmm... sounds like a hopeless romantic distress. Ya know, despite my lack of experience in romance, although the closest I've ever had was a unrequited affection for my fifth grade science teacher, Ms. Rohrback, one of the few pointers I could give to this so-called 'Anon' is to walk right up to said crush, and say, *Grabs Bjorn's shirt and speaks in a raspy tone* 'I can't help but think about you all day. My heart beats rabidly everytime I hear your name. You have no idea what this feeling is doing to me! Look into my eyes, and let me tell you... ...I love you.'"

Steve's gesture made Bjorn's heart beat louder, and he began to sweat more.

"Oh my! Bjorn, I think you oughtta see a nurse! You're more sweaty than usual, and I can hear your heart beat!" "No, I'm fine! Actually, maybe I will pay the nurse a visit! But could I ask a few more questions?" "Well, make it quick! You look as though you're ill, you poor lug!" "What if this anon happens to be shy?" "Tell them to take all the time they need!" "Yeah, but what if they are worried that said crush won't love them back? What if they get rejected?" "Ah, there's plenty of other fish in the sea." "What if they can't find another fish?" "Why are you so concerned with a person's, whom you've never met, social life? Unless these additional questions happen to belong to the Anon themself!" "Of course not! I mean, yes they do! I mean, I don't remember! I probably just dreamt of it!"

Bjorn is reaching his limit. Steve must be getting warmer to him. He is a genuine intellectual. Hell, Bjorn has likely gave himself away with all the sweat he's broken into, the loud heart beat, and these stupid questions. Bjorn yelled "I should get back to class now!" then ran straight through a wall, leaving Steve confused. The janitor came by and soon noticed the big hole. He turned his eyes towards the nerd.

"Well, now, don’t look at me! I didn't do that!"

[tk-writer]

A Ticklish Situation. - a DR2 tickle fic

*WARNING: Contains Danganronpa 2 spoilers. Read at your own risk.*

~~~

Mahiru woke up that morning with a pit in her stomach.

After the previous days’ events, it wasn’t a surprise. The sight of Byakuya’s bloodied corpse was still fresh in everyone’s minds. Along with Teruteru’s nightmarish execution at the hands (paws?) of Monokuma.

Mahiru shuddered at the thought and quickly tried to put it out of her mind. She looked at the clock next to her bungalow bed. It was 5:30 am.

So much for getting a good night’s rest, she thought to herself.

Another image popped in her mind: Nagito in the old lodge. The previous day, he had been knocked out and tied up by Kazuichi and Nekomaru after attempting to sabotage the first-class trial. Some of the students had been assigned to check on him and provide him with meals. After all, they weren’t trying to kill him, just make sure that he didn’t mess with anyone else and cause other murders to happen.

Today was Mahiru’s turn. She was supposed to bring him breakfast, and presumably feed him, since his hands were tied.

She figured she might as well get it done early before everyone else woke up. This might help her avoid the shame and embarrassment that comes with a girl feeding a boy. She was nervous at the idea of being alone with Nagito, but knowing he was unable to move help to ease her nerves. In fact, the idea kind of aroused her in a way…

~~~

Mahiru approached the old lodge with a tray of rice and fruit. Seeing the decrepit building sent chills down her spine. She remembered the fresh blood on the floor, the darkness of the room after the power outage, the screams upon the realization of what happened…

Enough! She gave herself a mental slap in the face. If I keep thinking about it, it’s just going to make it worse…

She entered the lodge and found Nagito sleeping peacefully. How he could rest in such an uncomfortable predicament was beyond her.

Nagito was quite vulnerable in his current position. His hands were chained behind his back with no give whatsoever. His legs were tied with rope from ankles to knees, making standing up on his own impossible. He was pretty much immobile, with little ability to wiggle. Whoever had put him in this restrictive bondage had done so very well. Mahiru had another strange feeling of arousal rising within her.

He should really be more on edge… after all, he’s pretty defenseless right now.

She felt bad waking him up, but she figured he would be hungry anyway. She wasn’t sure if anyone had brought him dinner after last night. Trying to avoid awkwardness, she patted his head.

“Hey. Nagito. Breakfast.”

No response. He was out like a light. She gently shook his shoulders.

“Hellooooooo?? Wake up sleepyhead! It’s time to eat!”

Nagito’s eyes slowly opened, groggily at first but they brightened when they realized who had woken him.

“Ah, the Ultimate Photographer… what a pleasure it is to wake up to such an exquisite sight.”

Mahiru felt her face get hot. She wasn’t expecting that sort of response.

“Ah… don’t say weird stuff! I just brought you some breakfast, so you wouldn’t starve to death. We don’t want another murder after all…”

Nagito gave her a sleepy smile. Mahiru swore there was some mischief hidden within.

“Well of course, I wouldn’t want my talented classmates to fall into despair. That is, unless that would inspire hope within all of you. I just want to see you all succeed. I care more about you than I do myself, you know.”

“Ugh, enough of that already! I just came ‘cuz I felt bad that you’re… here all alone and can’t just eat whenever you want. So hurry up and eat!”

Mahiru turned her face away and picked up a bit of rice with some chopsticks, trying to hide her blushing pink cheeks to no avail. She shoved it in his face and waited for him to open his mouth.

But nothing happened. Mahiru opened her eyes and look at the strange boy. He still had the same mischievous grin on his face.

“Aw man… Sorry Mahiru, I hate to come across as picky, but I actually hate eating rice for breakfast…”

“Wh-what??”

Mahiru shot a look of astonishment at the white-haired boy. His face looked serene, as if he didn’t realize the position he was in. He gave her a cheeky smile.

“What do you mean you don’t like rice?? I was nice enough to bring you breakfast and now you’re telling me you don’t like it??”

“I’m sorry Mahiru, but I simple have no appetite for rice in the morning. Some toast sounds pretty good, though…”

Mahiru slammed down the chopsticks, to Nagito’s surprise. His eyes widened in response to her dramatic reaction.

“Listen, you! I made you breakfast out of the goodness of my heart and came all the way here just as a favor to you! So you better eat this, or else!!”

Nagito smirked. “Or else… what? You’ll leave me here to starve?”

Mahiru was taken aback. Was she even capable of that? She scoffed, trying to play it off.

“Or else I’ll make you.”

“O-o-h? And how will the Ultimate Photographer make me eat? Will you pretend that the chopsticks are an airplane, and fly it into my mouth like a baby?”

Mahiru clenched her teeth. She was becoming increasingly more uncomfortable the longer this conversation continued. Being alone with a weirdo boy was already painful enough, let alone feeding him like she was his mother or something. She just wanted to do it and be done with it, so at least her conscience would be clear. But how? Nagito was refusing to eat. There must have been something she could do… think, Mahiru, think…

Suddenly, a funny thought popped into her head.

A thought that triggered more arousal.

She looked at Nagito’s tied arms and legs.

A warm feeling grew somewhere deep inside her.

Mahiru’s smile widened.

“I have another idea, actually.”

Then she poked Nagito’s side. She wasn’t sure if she’d get a reaction because people are all different, and you never really know with these kind of things, but the result was instantaneous. Nagito let out a surprised yelp and jerked away at her touch.

“Oh-ho-ho… a little sensitive, are we?”

Nagito’s expression changed from peaceful to fearful almost immediately. It was as if he didn’t realize how vulnerable he was until this moment.

“Oh-h-h okay Mahiru, I get it, I’ll eat the rice, just-“

“Hold on, you’re not giving in that easily, are you? You were so stubborn before! I wonder… is it because you’re super ticklish, Nagito?”

Nagito’s body tensed at the word “ticklish”. Mahiru knew she had hit the jackpot. That arousal she felt earlier was only getting stronger… her usually friendly smiled morphed into a devious grin.

“For being the Ultimate Lucky Student, you sure are in an unlucky position... What happens if I do this?”

Mahiru poked her index fingers on either side of Nagito at random and was delighted to hear even more loud yelps from him. For the first time that she had seen, he was struggling intensely against his bonds. This must really have been torture for him.

“AH-HA-HA-HA! NOOO! AH-HA STOP!”

Mahiru gave him some respite to catch his breath. He heaved and continued to giggle slightly, which made Mahiru chuckle to herself. This could actually be a lot of fun…

“Alright big shot… you ready to eat?”

Nagito nodded vigorously, “Yeah I’ll eat! Just please, don’t do that again. I really can’t take it…”

He sounded quite desperate. Up to this point, he always spoke with such an aloof and calm tone of voice and came across as someone who was very put together (despite his delirious rantings). However, this Nagito was completely different.

“Oh, really? Why not? It’s just a little tickling! It can’t be that bad, can it?”

“Yes, it’s really bad! I’m extremely ticklish, I can’t stand the feeling for too long…”

“Is that so… mind if I test that?”

Mahiru didn’t wait for a response. She spidered her fingers all over Nagito’s chest and stomach, searching for the areas that gave her the best reactions. She started at his sides, then moved up towards the ribs and gently dug into the spaces between them. All the while, Nagito squirmed like a worm, his attempts to escape her claws futile.

“AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! STOP IT! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA I CAN’T TAKE IT PLEEEEEASE!”

She ignored his pleas and deftly moved to his sides, wiggling them from hips to underarms and everywhere in between. Nagito desperately tried to flip over and shake her hands off him, but with the way he was tied it was utterly impossible.

He didn’t think it could get worse until Mahiru sat on top and started straddling him. Now, he had a lot less room to move and had no choice but to face her directly. Mahiru stared down, with a slightly evil smile, plotting her next move. Her heart fluttered at the sight of Nagito beneath her: frightened, meek, and utterly submissive.

“Tell me… where else are you ticklish?”

“N-Nowhere! That’s it! Please stop! No more!”

“Hmm, I don’t believe you. What about here?”

Mahiru dug her hands into his underarms and Nagito howled. This was obviously a very sensitive spot. What made it worse was the way he was tied, with his forearms stuck at his sides, so Mahiru sneaking her hands between them and his chest meant that they were trapped there and unable to shake off. Nagito acted as if he was being jolted by electricity. His shoulders thrust forward as if doing ab crunches, and he bounced up and down much to Mahiru’s amusement. The combination of her sporadic finger movements and her long, delicate nails were just too much to handle. Plus, the fact that he could barely move now with her on top of him made it even worse.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AH-HA! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA! I CA-AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-NT! NOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-HA-HA!”

Nagito’s volume and intensity increased with each passing minute. Finally, Mahiru lessened her attack to gentle strokes on his belly. She lifted his shirt, exposing the warm, baby soft skin and the slight muscle definition in his abs. The cool air against the unprotected area gave him tiny goosebumps all over. Mahiru started drawing slow, little circles around his belly button and side to side from navel to ribs. Seeing his stomach tense and hearing his tittered giggles brought her even more joy. For Nagito, this still tickled like hell, but it reduced him to mere giggles rather than full out screaming.

“Now, now… just relax…”

Nagito couldn’t even try to form a response. He was still recovering from her underarm attack, and the gentle strokes on his stomach were still unbearable. However, after a few minutes he let his guard down and his hitched breathing began returning to normal. This was his fatal mistake.

Out of nowhere, he felt a visceral tickle deep within the muscles of his stomach. He screamed higher in pitch than he had the entire time. Mahiru was digging her thumbs into two agonizing spots on either side of his belly, right above his hip bones. The sensation was pure torment compared to everything else before. Nagito’s struggles began anew as he flinched back and forth in a futile attempt to escape.

“AH! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! MA-HA-HIRU! STOP PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU-AH NOT THERE! NOT THERE! NOOOOOOOO-AAAAAAAAAH!”

Mahiru knew she was pushing his limits, so she let up on her torture and gave the white-haired boy another break. She took a good look at him. His face was flushed bright red, probably both from embarrassment and lack of air. Sweat caused his silvery hair to stick to his forehead. His chest heaved up and down, covered in damp perspiration

Mahiru couldn’t help but stare. From her angle, Nagito looked quite docile. The skin on his chest was smooth as silk and pale as the moon. There was some evidence of muscles in his abs, although not enough to call it a six pack. She had never been this close to a boy, especially with so much of his skin exposed. She felt herself grow warmer, the earlier arousal reaching an all-time high…

In an instant, Mahiru snapped back to reality and threw herself off Nagito. She looked at him one last time, locking eyes with him as he gave her one last pleading look with his eyes. She gasped, realizing how adult the situation had become, and without another word grabbed the tray and ran out of the lodge.

Jeez, what the hell got into me?? She wondered as she rushed back to the restaurant. That was totally out of character…

It wasn’t until she arrived at the restaurant that she realized she never actually fed Nagito, the entire purpose of her trip. Damn it!

Luckily, Hajime was sitting alone at one of the tables. Perfect, I’ll just have him do it…

[otakusheep15]

hi!! i know requests are open but if i misread/they're not, then pls feel free to ignore :> a matchup for twst please? thank you in advance!!

pronouns: she/her

sexuality: bisexual

positive trait/s: i am very understanding, to the point where i let people just do what they want (in a good way, that is) but i don't let them walk all over me and take advantage of me. i'm not a judgemental person, so people come to me sometimes when they just need someone to listen to their rants even if it sounds embarrassing ('cuz i wont judge them at all for whatever it is). i think i am a kind person to people, just as long as they don't betray or take advantage of me (basically, i'm the “treat others the way you want to be treated” kind of person).

negative trait/s: i procrastinate alot (but i still get stuff done, i'm actually an honors student). i am a people-pleaser and do not like confrontation. i think i'm prideful to an extent, where i put up this fake-confidence so people don't make fun of me. i'm very sensitive to criticism, which means i think about negative things said about me too much. i also overthink, like for example, when i talk to people, i wonder if my tone is friendly enough or if my hand gestures aren't annoying. i'm just trying to be confident but in the inside, i'm actually quite fragile and scared of what people think of me, which is why i try so hard to “fit in” with people.

hobbies: journaling, collecting stationary supplies (washi tapes, memo pads, all the cute ones like that i just cant help but buy them), napping (i take at least two naps a day,, its a problem), shopping for clothes and improving my wardrobe aesthetic. also cosplaying. i like cosplaying <3

favorite color: black and red

this ask may look familiar, that's because i already submitted a request a long time ago but for obey me!! i hope that's fine with you if i do it again, if not, just ignore this!! thank you so much again for taking the time to do my request! <3

I match you with Trey!

You and Trey share a lot of positive traits, and I think that's something he'd like in a partner. Both of you are very understanding, which would be very helpful in any kind of relationship. However, neither of you are one to let others walk all over you, and that's something Trey would admire a lot. He would also appreciate that you're super non-judgemental and open to hearing others' problems. Since Trey is considered the "mom friend" a lot, he's constantly having younger students come to him with problems and worries, so it'd be nice to have someone else around to help him out.

With your negative traits, I think you're quite similar to Riddle, which works out well since Trey knows how to handle these types of traits already. He's great at helping with procrastination, and would offer to help you out with nay work you're struggling with. He may not be a top student or anything, but he's still pretty smart. Trey would also most definitely see through your prideful exterior, and he would try his best to help you be more confident in your true self. Of course, he'd never push past any boundaries you might have, but he'd still be willing to help if you wanted. He's also super great at giving out criticism without sounding mean, so you might feel better about getting some from him. Overall, he's also pretty non-judgemental, and he'd be there for you whenever you may be struggling.

As for your hobbies, I could see him enjoying them a lot. He'd be totally down for helping you with your stationery collection, and he'd always try and find some for you when he goes out. You also cannot convince me he does not have a journal of some kind, because he totally does. he may not write in it often, but he does have one. If you wanted, Trey could also help you with your napping addiction, or he could just join you if you prefer that. He may not be the most fashionable person out there, but he'd be happy to go shopping with you if you asked him to, and he'd give you any clothing advice you want from him. Same thing goes for cosplay. Trey might not have the most experience, but he'd totally supportive.

Rules for matchups

[pagesoflauren]

A Thousand Years (vampire!Jack Lowden x reader AU) - Part 8

Part 7 Masterlist

“I bought us tickets to go to the history museum,” Y/N states plainly one evening as she’s eating dinner. Jack is amusing himself with one of Socks’s cat toys when she says this and he stops. “Which museum?” “Museum of Modern History.”

Jack snorts a laugh.

“What?” “Nothing, it’s just…some of my stuff’s there.” “What do you mean?” “Like, I told you I sold some of my stuff to collectors and museums? That museum is one of those places.” “Did they pay you well, at least?” “Oh yeah. They paid for the TV, its mount, the couch and this table.” “Why did you even get a dining table if you didn’t eat?” “We didn’t see the point in getting another couch to face the kitchen. Plus, if we ever moved out of the house, we’d just leave the table and then the new family coming in would have one.” “How generous of you,” she quips. “Anyway, I got the tickets for the ‘overnight hours’ for you vampire folk so that we don’t have to worry about the sun coming out while we’re there. We’re going Friday night at 10:00.”

“What in the freaking world,” Y/N says, tilting her head to look at a teapot that was meant to look like an elephant, but looked more like an elephant that got its body parts mixed up. “The 1700s was a wild time,” she says sarcastically, filling out the questionnaire her professor had given her.

She had to be here for an assignment as part of one of her classes to complete a history minor, which didn’t have much to do with her psychology major, but she liked history, so why not minor in it?

“I’ve made better teapots than that,” Jack critiques, wrinkling his nose. “Do you know how to do pottery?” “Yeah, it was the, um, what do you kids say? The ‘OG’”—he uses air quotes—“pottery wheel and kiln. No electronics, just a bunch of gears attached to a tabletop and fire.” “I can’t believe you just used the term ‘OG.’” “I’m trying to be hip and with it!” “Shh,” she hushes when his voice gets too loud, “Yes, dear. You’re catching up nicely with the modern lingo.” “Thank you,” he says, smiling a closed lipped smile, causing his dimples to appear and eyes to crinkle up.

Y/N giggles. “Whenever you smile like that it reminds me of a teddy bear. Or Winnie the Pooh! Like a little Pooh Bear,” she says, patting his cheek, “It’s so cute.”

Jack’s eyebrows immediately knit together, his face dropping down into a frown. “I’m not cute,” he says as she rolls her eyes and begins walking away. “I’m a vicious, blood-drinking monster with...with fangs and a body count!” “You’re a 167-year-old grump with a fluffy black cat who fusses over his girlfriend and acts all bashful when she kisses his face.” “I do not!” he says indignantly.

She balances on her toes and presses a light kiss to his cheek. When he doesn’t soften immediately, she kisses him repeatedly until he melts under her touch. “Told you,” she says, her face plastered with a smug look. “Come on,” she smiles, grabbing his hand and tugging him to another exhibit, “I gotta answer questions about your time.”

She leads him to the 1800s wing. There’s a slideshow of old photos projected against a wall while other artifacts litter the floor in glass cases. “Y/N, here, look,” he says, finger pressing against the glass to point at an old opened diary, the pages yellowed due to the passage of time and faded curly handwriting scribbled on it. “Is that yours?” “No, it’s Thomas’s.” “Hm, yeah, I don’t think your handwriting’s that nice,” she said sarcastically, a teasing smile on her face. “I’ll have you know I had some of the best handwriting in Oxton.” “Right, and that town has how many people in it…?” “Anyway, what’s the next question on your paper there?”

She laughs at his not-so-subtle attempt at changing the subject, her eyes scanning the paper before landing on the question she needs to answer. “‘What two occupations did John Cochrane have?’” “Oh, I had a beer with him once. He was a lawyer and a chess player. Smart guy but he’d drink himself stupid. I think he preferred just playing chess and hated his job being a lawyer, but I dunno.” “What was he doing in Oxton?” “Passing by. He had to spend the night at an inn before going to Edinburgh.” “How old were you?”

Jack thinks for a minute before answering that he was sixteen.

“Dang, look at you, brushing shoulders with Scottish greats and all.” “Not just Scottish ones, had dinner with Winston Churchill once.” “You had dinner?” “Well, he had dinner, I was just sitting at the table.” “What was he like?” “Didn’t really care much for me. There’s a bit of a stigma against vampires if you can’t tell. But your generation isn’t as bad as previous ones.” “Lucky for both of us,” she smiles and he leans down to kiss the crown of her head.

They’re pulled from their conversation when a tour group passes by and the tour guide gestures to a portrait of David Dunbar Buick. Jack’s heightened hearing sensitivity allows him to pick up a small tidbit of what the guide is saying: “…he was known to be a very generous and kind man, very intelligent, obviously…” Jack leave’s Y/N’s side and begins walking over, “Actually he was a cocky zounderkite who got lucky.”

He feels Y/N’s warmth coming towards him before he feels her hand tugging at his arm. “Jack,” she warns quietly. She’s comfortable around Jack, but at the moment there’s a crowd of vampires looking at him and now her. She could be imagining it, but it seems like they’re eying her as if she were a Christmas feast.

“Just a second, love,” he says dismissively, patting her hand, “He wasn’t generous at all! He flaunted his money everywhere because quite frankly he had nothing else to his name.”

“Actually, I wasn’t gonna say anything but it’s true,” another vampire speaks, coming to the front of the group with a boy in tow. Y/N’s eyebrows raise in curiosity; this boy isn’t quite as pale as the rest of the group.  “I grabbed a beer with him once and all he had to talk about was his money. He wasn’t very nice at all.” “Gentlemen, please, I’m just giving a tour and following a script,” the guide says, shrugging exasperatedly. “Yeah, love, c’mon,” the boy says, tugging the other vampire’s arm. He huffs and leads him towards Jack and Y/N, and she shrinks a little more behind Jack.

“Hey, mate,” the other vampire greets. “Hi,” Jack replies, holding his hand out, “I’m Jack.” “Garrett. This is my boyfriend, Ash.” “Nice to meet you, Ash,” Jack smiles, shaking his hand as well. “This is my Y/N,” he says, bringing her to his side. She smiles and shakes both their hands. Ash’s hand is warmer than Garrett’s. He’s human.

“Have you got Anderson as well?” Ash asks, pointing to Y/N’s clipboard with her homework packet on it. “I do! I’m in his 10:00 class.” “I am too. I sit in the back, though.” “Oh, no wonder I’ve never seen you, I sit in the front.” “What question are you on?” he asks, coming over to Y/N’s other side and looking at her paper. He’s only a little bit behind and she catches him up with her so that they can finish the worksheet together.

“So, how’d you meet?” Garrett asks as they trail after their significant others who are laughing animatedly and jotting down their answers to the questions. “Oh, I work at the bar across the street from campus, I don’t know if you know it, the Lion and Rose?” “Oh yeah, yeah, Garrett’s gone there with a couple of his mates after exams and stuff.” “Yeah, she just needed something to help her sleep and it was just me and her.” “Oooh, nice, did you tap it?” “What no!” Jack laughs, “No I didn’t. What about you, how’d you two meet?” “We met through a friend at a club. You know the one on Grand Avenue?” Jack shakes his head, “No, no, I’ve been—what is it the kids say—‘off the grid’ for the past twenty years or so. I’m catching up now since I’ve met her.” “Ah, I see. Well, yeah we met there, got a bit drunk at a club and did karaoke. I took him home and he asked me to stay, and I mean…I did, of course, cuz I mean, look at him, he’s adorable.”

Jack follows Garrett’s gesture to find them a good distance away, talking gesticulatively about a typewriter.

“And then he made breakfast for me and I just ate it away because I can’t say no to him—“ “I know that feeling.” “Right!? It’s so hard to deny him anything. I literally bought him a pair of shoes he didn’t need because he batted those damn eyelashes at me.” “Oh, I just spoil her. She gets mad at me then I just smile at her and then it’s fine.” “Aww, that’s so sweet. Oh, wait, right, the story. I mean, I didn’t wanna come out and meet the other uni students he lives with so I just stayed his room. We talked, watched movies and he kept feeding me. Then when the sun went down I was leaving and he started realizing that I didn’t eat. He started blushing—they’re cute when they blush, aren’t they?”

Jack chuckles and nods.

“Yeah. He kept apologizing and I just thought it was really sweet and endearing. We’ve been together for about four months.” “That’s so sweet,” Jack says.

“Do you know any other couples like…us?” Y/N asks. “I don’t, actually. But not a lot of people have really turned their nose up at Garrett. There were just issues when he met my parents.” “Yeah, I had the same thing. My dad is still such a stickler about it.” “I think they’ve come around to it now. Can I ask you though, have you thought about…the biting thing?” “Oh. Yeah, I have. I don’t want to be a vampire. Not yet, at least. I might change my mind later on. I’ve been wrestling with the idea of having kids. I’ve always wanted a family and I’d love to have one with Jack but I don’t know if it’s possible.” “Well I’m sure you guys can figure something out. I don’t think it’s impossible.” “Yeah. We’ll see. I’m just trying to graduate now.” “Same here. What’s the next question?”

Later, when Y/N and Ash have finished their homework, they make plans to have dinner together, Ash making a joke about how he’d love to actually eat with someone instead of eating while Garrett sits across from him.

“You know I can hear you, right?” Garrett says as he frowns. “Oh, please Garrett, you can’t possibly get upset over me actually wanting to eat with someone. And don’t worry, you’ll have Jack to grump about shit with.” “I am not grumpy!” both vampires say, scowling and crossing their arms. Ash and Y/N just laughed. “I’ll see you on Monday!” Y/N says, “And I’ll sit next to you now.” “Thank you, the people who normally sit around me are like rocks. They’re so boring.” “Don’t worry, we’ll be in the back talking shit about these two,” Y/N says, pointing at their boyfriends who only frown more. “Alright, that’s enough chatting for tonight, let’s go,” Jack says, reaching out for Y/N’s hand, who grabs it as she shares another laugh with Ash at their boyfriends’ eagerness to get the two gossiping humans away from each other.

They walk to the car, Jack having shed his coat to keep Y/N warm.

“You don’t actually think I’m a grump, do you?” “I don’t know, you’re kinda grumpy sometimes. But you’re also a big dork. And I love you, anyway. You’re like Hades and I’m Persephone,” she giggles. “Yeah, and Socks is Cerberus.” “And we’re all one happy little family.”

He laughs at that, leaning to kiss her cheek as he brakes at a red light.

“One happy, grumpy, mischievous little family.”