#don’t know what’s the canon but mej

[detnu-a-h]

I’ve decided. Atom and Arthur are rivals.

One Arthur in a match kept killing me and I kept making it personal because I was Atom lmao

[splendidlyimperfect]

let me be your haven - chapter 5 [big feelings]

When Natsu runs into five-year-old Sting and Rogue at the Grand Magic Games, he thinks they’re cute kids with a serious case of hero worship. But when it turns out that they’re both Dragon Slayers and they belong to the ruthless Sabertooth Guild, something doesn’t feel quite right. Natsu and Gray quickly grow protective of the two little kids, and they do their best to build a relationship with them to try to keep them safe and figure out what exactly is going on at Sabertooth.

Chapter Summary: Natsu and Gray come back for Rogue's birthday and spend the day at the aquarium. Sting and Rogue both seem to be on edge.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Natsu/Gray, Rogue/Sting Characters: Natsu, Gray, Sting, Rogue, Lucy, Erza, Yukino Tags: Canon Universe, Dragon Slayers, Parenting, Adoption, PTSD, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, basically stingue are adorable baby dragon slayers and Natsu wants to adopt them, and then he kind of does, Trans Gray, Trans Sting, Nonbinary Rogue, ADHD Natsu, ADHD Sting, Autistic Rogue

-----

Gray and Natsu made it back to Ciralto the day before Rogue’s birthday. As soon as they’d picked up the kids from Yukino – who gave them both a grateful hug – Gray crouched down and looked both of them in the eye before asking, “Py’atu Isvan?”  

Rogue’s eyes widened and they nodded, giving Gray a shy smile. “Haj,” they said softly. “Ne py’at en ne me’nao. Te?”

Gray exhaled with a smile and grabbed Rogue’s hand tightly. “Yeah,” he said, switching to Fioran so Natsu could understand. “I speak it, too. I lived in Isvan, a long time ago. Is that where you’re from?”

Rogue nodded. “It snowed lots,” they said. “I like snow.”

“Me too,” Gray said, holding out his hand and letting a shower of snowflakes fall around Rogue. They giggled and stuck out their tongue to catch one. “When did you come here?” Gray asked.

“Before,” Sting answered. His expression was more guarded than Rogue’s and he gave Gray an uncertain look. “Master finded us.”

“How old were you?” Natsu, who had crouched down as well, held out his arm and let Sting cuddle up next to him. Sting held out three fingers, then wrapped both arms around Natsu’s neck.

“That’s pretty little,” Gray said, raising an eyebrow at Natsu. “Did you live with your parents in Isvan?” He tried his best to keep his voice light.

Rogue, who was still entranced by the snowflakes, didn’t answer. Sting peeked up at Gray from where he was wrapped up in Natsu’s arms and gave him a very small nod.

“My family lived in a little village called T’sehet,” Gray said, hoping to coax more information out of Sting. “My mom’s name was Mika, and my dad was Silver.”

“They died?” Sting asked. Gray could see something like grief flicker across his face, and his heart ached that someone so small was already familiar with the feeling.

“Yeah,” Gray said gently. “It sucked.”

Sting nodded. “We lived in the mountain,” he said. Gray could see something small and shiny in his hand, and it took him a second to realize that it was the dragon charm Natsu had given him on his birthday. “Rogue’s dad an’ my dad and we maked snowmans sometimes. But the snow falled too much an’ our dads got stucked and…” He rubbed his red cheeks with the back of his hand. “They couldn’t came back. Minerva comed and saided they were gone an’ we had to go with her to be safe ‘cause we were special.”

“Special?” Natsu frowned. Sting poked at the scales on his temples and scowled.

“’cause our magic.”

Gray exchanged another look with Natsu, whose own scales shimmered with barely contained rage. Something about Sting’s story gave Gray the impression that what happened to his and Rogue’s parents hadn’t been an accident.

“That’s not what makes you special,” Gray said, taking Sting’s hand and gently pulling it away from his scales.

“It isn’t?” Sting frowned and looked down at his hand in Gray’s. The scales went all the way down his arms and reached his fingertips, and they glowed a soft white under the bright summer sun.

“Nope.” Gray squeezed his fingers. “Even if you didn’t have magic, you’d still  be special.”

Sting looked dubious but didn’t argue. Instead, he looked over at Rogue, who was still trying to catch snowflakes on their tongue. Their scales were still mostly hidden by their long hair and the sleeves of their sweater that they wore, despite the heat.

“All right,” Natsu said, giving the two kids a bright smile. Gray could still see the anger in the lines of his face, though. “Where do you want to go?” The question was directed at Rogue, who looked up at Natsu with wide eyes.

“Go?”

“For your birthday,” Gray said, brushing the dirt from the knees of his pants and standing up. “We went to the fair for Sting’s birthday, but you get to choose today.”

“Oh.” Rogue looked at the ground, digging into the dirt with the toe of their shoe. “I dunno.”

“Yes you do!” Sting’s previously somber expression brightened, and he darted out from Natsu’s embrace to grab Rogue’s sleeve. “To the jello-fishes!”

Gray raised an eyebrow at Natsu as he reached out and helped him to his feet. “The jello-fishes?”

“At the care-ium,” Sting said. He grabbed Rogue’s hand and tugged on it. “Rogue likes the jello-fishes ‘cause they’re lots of colors and have weird legs.”

“Tentacles,” Rogue corrected. Their shy expression turned excited as they looked up at Gray and Natsu. “There’s lots and lots of them and some are bio… bio-limnus.” They frowned at the word. “Bioloomuses,” they tried again, then added, “They glow in the dark.”

“Bioluminescent,” Gray said, laughing as he realized that they were talking about jellyfish. “You want to go to the aquarium?”

Rogue nodded, rocking forward on the balls of their feet as they let Sting hold their hand. “Please,” they said quickly. “We only goed one time with Yukino an’ I was four.”

“Of course,” Natsu said, reaching out and taking Rogue’s hand. “Let’s go.”

~

As soon as they walked into the aquarium, Rogue tugged on Natsu’s hand, pulling him toward the small room where the jellyfish were kept.

“See?” they said, pointing at the glowing sea creatures. “They’re bio-loomus ‘cause they make lights inside them!”

“They are,” Natsu agreed, watching as the jellyfish flitted across the tank. “That’s pretty cool.”

“They don’t has eyes or hearts or bones,” Rogue informed him, pressing their face against the glass. “Or a brain!”

“Kinda like Uncle Gray, hey?” Natsu laughed as Gray elbowed him in the ribs.

“Can we see the whales?” Sting asked, tugging on Natsu’s shirt. “An’ the dolphins an’ stinging rays an’ seal lions?” He pointed toward an open area of the aquarium that led to an outdoor platform overlooking the tanks. “Please?”

Natsu looked down at Rogue, who was still staring at the jellyfish and watching them flit around behind the glass. “I think—” he started, but Gray interrupted.

“I’ll stay here,” he said, nudging Natsu. “You go with him.”

“Thanks, love,” Natsu murmured, leaning in and kissing Gray’s cheek. Gray felt his face grow hot at the endearment, and he quickly squeezed Natsu’ hand before gesturing for him to follow Sting, who was already halfway to the doors. Then he turned to Rogue and crouched down beside them, watching their expression as they stared into the water, transfixed by the bright colors.  

“Some of them are super duper super old,” Rogue said, pointing at one of the bigger jellyfish near the top of the tank.

“Yeah? How old?”

“More than a hundred years!” Rogue turned to him with a radiant smile – one that Gray had never seen before. “A million years! Lots of millions of years. An’ some of them are super scary and can kill persons.”

“Really?”

“Uhuh. They aren’t really fishes ‘cause fishes has bones an’ jello-fishes don’t. They’re inter… inverbates.”

“Invertebrates?”

“Yeah!

Rogue’s voice was soft but excited as they kept talking, telling Gray fact after fact about jellyfish. Gray shifted until he was sitting on the floor next to the tank and Rogue quickly curled up in his lap, still staring at the water and the jellyfish floating in it. They rocked forward and squeezed Gray’s hand, pressing their fingers into his palm in a rhythmic pattern.

“You sure know a lot about jellyfish,” Gray said when Rogue finally took a breath. He was pretty sure he hadn’t heard this many words from Rogue since they’d met.

“Mej a’yat,” Rogue said, switching suddenly to Isvanian. “Mej lira y t’ya seshet.”

I like them. I read a book about them.

“Where did you get the book?” Gray asked, continuing in Isvanian. Hearing someone else speak his first language after all these years made his heart ache with both longing and comfort.

“Yukino gived it to me after we comed here and I watched them for a long long time.”

Rogue leaned into Gray, resting their head against his cheek while they continued to tap a pattern on his hand. They sat for a while, watching the jellyfish float through the water, with Rogue occasionally pulling out another fact to proudly tell Gray.

“Do you wanna go look at the other stuff?” Gray asked after nearly an hour. Rogue made a soft humming sound and shook their head.

“No.” They shifted in Gray’s lap and cuddled closer to him. “I like these best. We can stay here?”

“Of course,” Gray said, even though his leg was starting to go numb. “It’s your birthday, we can stay as long as you like.”

~

Natsu was exhausted. It had been nearly two hours at the aquarium, and he’d spent most of the time running after Sting, making sure he didn’t get lost or fall into any of the exhibits. They’d watched the dolphin show and seen the sea lions play, and Sting had been thrilled when one of the staff asked if he’d like to touch a stingray. Now he was standing in a group of kids his age, all staring down at a waist-high tank filled with anemones and other sea creatures.

Natsu watched Sting carefully. He’d been out of sorts today – despite his exuberance at seeing all of the animals, Natsu had noticed that he was more on edge than the last time they’d seen him. He kept rubbing at his eyes and ears, and when Natsu had asked if he was okay, he had growled that he was fine and taken off into the crowd. He seemed fine now, though, leaning in and staring at a starfish on the side of the glass.

Natsu yawned and rubbed his face, then pulled his lacrima phone out of his pocket and flipped it open to his messages with Gray.

hows it goin?

It took a second for Gray to respond. We’re still at the jellyfish – Rogue doesn’t want to go anywhere else. I think it’s too loud for him.

Natsu started to type out a reply when he was interrupted by a shout from the crowd of kids. He looked up to see that the shout had come from the little boy who Sting was currently pushing away from him.

“It’s mine!” Sting said, and it took Natsu a second to realize that the other boy was holding the dragon talisman he’d given Sting for his birthday. Before Natsu could react, Sting hit the boy hard in the arm, then grabbed the dragon from his hand and pushed him again.

“I just wanna see it!” the boy yelled.

“No, you can’t! It’s mine!”

Natsu quickly made his way over to Sting, getting between the two boys before either of them could do any more damage.

“Sting,” he chastened. “We don’t push people or hit them. That’s not okay.”

Sting glared at Natsu; cheeks red as he clutched the dragon talisman tightly. He didn’t say anything to the boy, whose mother had appeared from the crowd and was talking quietly to him behind Natsu.

“I’m sorry,” Natsu said, turning to the mom, but she waved away the apology.

“It’s fine,” she reassured him. “Matteo should have known better.” She gave her son a stern look.

“It’s not fine!” Sting interrupted, trying to push past Natsu. “I don’t like him!”

“Sting!” Natsu’s voice turned sharp as he grabbed Sting’s hand and pulled him back from the other boy. “That’s enough. You need to say sorry.”

“I don’t want to!” Sting’s voice climbed in volume as he pulled his hand out of Natsu’s and backed away. “I’m stronger!” He was doing his best to look angry but Natsu could see his lip trembling.

“Sting,” Natsu said gently. “We don’t hurt people because we’re stronger than them, even if they did something wrong.”

“But he tried to take it! It’s mine, you gived it to me and it’s for me and it’s mine.” Sting’s voice wavered as he clenched the metal dragon in his fist and stared at the ground. When Natsu tried to catch his gaze, he ducked his head further and refused to look up.

“I know,” Natsu said. “And that wasn’t nice of him. But you should have asked me for help.”

“I don’t need help.” Sting scowled at the ground. “I’m not a baby.”

“I never said you were.”

“I’m six an’ strong an’…” He hesitated, clutching the talisman until his knuckles were nearly white. “I can’t reply on other persons.”

Natsu frowned at the strange sentence. “Rely?” he asked after a second. “You mean you can’t rely on other people?”

“That’s what I saided!” Sting’s voice grew in volume again and Natsu could feel the curious gaze of the crowd behind them. He reached out to bring Sting closer and was surprised when Sting hit his hand away. “Don’t touch me!”

“Okay,” Natsu said reassuringly, holding his hands up. “I won’t touch you if you don’t want me to.”

“I don’t!” Sting’s eyes were bright with unshed tears, and he still wouldn’t meet Natsu’s gaze. “I don’t want help an’ I won’t say sorry ‘cause sorry is for losers. You can’t make me.”

“Hey.” Natsu’s tone turned firmer, and he shifted closer to Sting, still not touching him. “That’s not a nice thing to say. I know you’re angry, but we don’t call people names.”

“I don’t care!” Sting’s voice was loud enough to hurt Natsu’s ears by this point, but he steadfastly ignored the concerned looks from strangers around him.

“You’re having a lot of feelings right now, hey?”

“No I’m not!” Sting shouted the word through breaths that were getting quicker and more ragged. “Feelings are stupid!”

“They’re not, bud. They’re important. And we need to figure out why you’re feeling them so we can feel better, okay? Can you take a deep breath with me?”

Sting’s whole body trembled as he shook his head. “No, no, no, I don’t want to an’ you can’t make me!” He stared at the dragon in his hand, then took a step back and threw it on the ground. “It’s stupid anyway. An’ you are too. I don’t like you anymore!”

Natsu sighed as Sting turned on his heel and started to run, weaving through the crowds of people toward the door of the aquarium. His quiet sobs receded the further he got until Natsu could barely hear him anymore.

“Should we go get him?” A hand appeared on Natsu’s shoulder and he looked up to see Gray and Rogue standing next to him. He shook his head, grabbing the dragon talisman from the ground and tucking it into his pocket.

“No.” He stood up and took Gray’s hand, squeezing it gently. “Let’s give him some space. I can find him, don’t worry.”

“Why Sting’s angry?” Rogue asked. They looked toward the front door with a solemn expression on their face.

“Someone tried to take his dragon,” Natsu explained, reaching out for Rogue’s hand. They took it carefully, rocking forward onto their tiptoes and back onto their heels. Natsu moved to head toward the door but Rogue pulled back, repeating the rocking motion a few times before nodding and following Natsu.

“They’ve been doing that all day,” Gray said quietly as the three of them headed toward the exit. “I think they’re anxious. Something’s wrong.”

Natsu nodded. “Sting, too. Maybe we should stick around for a few days.”

Gray hummed in agreement as they stepped out the door and into the warm summer afternoon. Rogue shifted closer to Gray and Natsu, trying to sandwich themself between the two of them while they made their way through the crowd.

“You want a ride?” Gray offered, holding out his arms. Rogue gave him a shy smile, reaching up and letting Gray put them on his shoulders.

“I see Sting,” they said, pointing through the crowd to the small park on the other side of the road. “He’s crying.”

“I know,” Natsu said quietly, heart breaking at the quiet sobs. “I can hear him. Why don’t we go sit where he can see us? Then he can come back when he feels ready.”

“’kay.”

The three of them made their way across the street and found a picnic table within Sting’s line of sight. Rogue settled down next to Gray on the bench, still holding his hand.

“You can make a jello-fish of ice?” they asked, looking up at him as they kicked their legs back and forth under the table.

“Sure, bud.”

Nearly an hour and several ice sculptures later, Natsu felt a small tug on his sleeve. He turned around to see a splotchy-faced Sting.

“I’m sorry.” Sting’s voice was soft and full of shame, and he refused to look at Natsu. “I don’t want to be mad. My brain was noisy.”

“I know, sweetheart,” Natsu said gently. “Thank you for apologizing.” Then he held out his arms. “Do you want a hug?”

Sting nodded, quickly climbing into Natsu’s lap and resting his head on his chest. Natsu ran his fingers through Sting’s hair that was tangled and damp with sweat. His heartbeat was still pattering quickly, and his shoulders trembled where he leaned against Natsu.

“It’s okay,” Natsu said as he held Sting close. He dug into his pocket and pulled out the dragon talisman, holding it out to Sting. “Here,” he said. “You dropped this.”

“I’m sorry I said it was stupid,” Sting said again, sniffling and wiping his face with his sleeve as he took the dragon and held it close to his chest. “I didn’t meaned it.”

“I know.” Natsu kissed the top of his head and leaned back against the tree. “It’s easy to make mistakes when big feelings take over. I’m not angry, I promise.”

Sting was quiet for a second, running his fingers over the metal, then asked, “Why not?”

“Why not what?”

“Why you aren’t mad?”

Natsu’s heart hurt at the uncertainty and confusion in Sting’s voice. “Because I love you,” he said. “And I know you didn’t mean it. I used to have a hard time with big feelings too. Sometimes I still do.”

“What’s big feelings?”

“Ones that make your brain noisy,” Natsu said, hoping the explanation made sense to Sting. “Any feeling can be a big feeling if it makes us feel overwhelmed.”

“What’s otherwhelmed?”

“Overwhelmed. It means there’s too many things happening and we can’t deal with all of them. Sometimes that’s noises, or touch, or emotions.”

“The care-ium was loud.” Sting tugged at his earlobe absently. “Lots of things is loud. It hurts my ears an’ I want all the persons to stop talking.”

Natsu nodded, catching Gray’s gaze across the table. He remembered the day he joined Fairy Tail – eight years old with heightened senses and no way to control them. Everything had been loud and bright, and there had been too many smells. He’d hidden under a table, and when Gray had tried to ask what was wrong, Natsu had bitten him.

It had taken several months and lots of help to get used to the overwhelming atmosphere of the guild hall. Erza, who had found Natsu crying out behind the guild after the first day, was the one who had taught him how to navigate the chaos.

“I’m tired,” Sting said quietly, curling up closer against Natsu and rubbing his eyes.

“Me too.” Natsu kissed the top of his head.

“Me three!” Rogue said. “You’re not mad anymore?” they asked Sting, holding out their ice jellyfish proudly.

Sting shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said again.

“It’s okay,” Rogue replied. They squirmed down from the bench and came around to Sting’s side of the picnic table, then reached up and hugged him tightly. “You’re still my favorite.”

“You too,” Sting said, sniffling and wiping his nose with the back of his hand.

Natsu looked up at Gray again, whose expression was still concerned but tinged with relief.

“Why don’t we head home for now?” Gray suggested, reaching out to pick Rogue up again. “I think we all might need a nap.”  

-----

A/N:  I've basically just projected my son on both sting and rogue in this story - ADHD on sting and autism on rogue. Sting's meltdown is very much what my son does when he's overwhelmed. Both ADHD and autism make it difficult for him to control and express his emotions, so lashing out in anger is pretty common. Natsu and Gray are in for a lot of work with these two~

-----

isvanian translations Py’atu Isvan = do you speak Isvanian? Haj = yes Ne py’at en ne me’nao. Te? = Not for a long time. You? Mej a’yat = I like them Mej lira y t’ya seshet = I read a book about them

[cheddar-the-dog]

b99 podcast episode 2:

relationship goals

@jake-and-ames and I have summarized what we think are the highlights of the second episode of the brooklyn nine-nine podcast. maybe those of you who can’t listen to the podcast for whatever reason can profit from it a bit

it’s under the cut because it’s quite long

[[MORE]]

Part 1 with David Phillips, Tony Nahar, Dirk Blocker, Joel McKinnon Miller

a season that’s focussed on Ensemble rather than singular performances

not filmed on stage usually but practical locations (rooms with walls)

3 cameras and their crews —> “single camera” style but multiple cameras that open opportunities to cross-shoot scenes

MEJ plays in the B99 softball team

they have 35 background actors of which 90% were there since s1

Scully and Hitchcock almost never have full storylines and often have punchlines or chime in (requires timing)

S7 spoilers around minute 14 but I blanked out tbh

Episode 12 of Season 2 The Beach House is a very significant episode for the cast and crew

Beach House Cold Open is where Holt spilled soup on his pants and Andy only needed one take for him to go into Holt’s office and spill soup on his own pants

Whole episode was originally Boyle story and his divorce but they went ensemble because it didn’t work

the Amy-Drink-Scale and 6-Drink-Amy (aka Gina’s Sasquatch) is elaborated throughout the episode (not revealed though if there is a 7-Drink-Amy)

Boyle’s borderline creepy lines are discussed around Minute 25

they spent 2 days shooting on location in Malibu and some of the cast stayed overnight and got to know each other more (Andy, Joel, Joe, Melissa and Chelsea and her then boyfriend now husband Jordan Peele)

it was so far away that on the first day when their call time was 7 AM they started shooting at 10:30 AM and it was hot but they had to pretend it’s winter

“Scully is a quintessential rennesaince man” - Joel McKinnon Miller

The bubbles in the hot tub were silent

there were lots of alts and the cast and crew just had fun and tried making each other break and corpse the scene - especially Andre

they intentionally made Holt apologize as an example of how a boss can behave vs how he would be expected to behave (Jake apologizing to him)

Part 2: Stephanie Beatriz, Laura McCreary, Luke Del Tredici

relationships (friendships, romantic relationships, bromances and Rosas coming out)

Steph doesn’t get recognized on the streets because of voice and mannerisms

in the beginning it was more focused on the Rosa/Charles relationship than Jake/Amy because Jake needed a lot of character work before they could think about getting them together/ him more fitting to Amy

Jake/Amy: pacing but also they don’t know how long they have, there’s no opportunity to really plan years ahead - if they would’ve know how long they have they would’ve held back longer with the romance but they knew from the beginning that they’re endgame

they try to avoid making Amy only “the wife”

“RIP Cheddar Number 3” - Laura McCreary

Rosa/Charles: they had Charles pining over Rosa in the pilot and according to Luke you repeat a lot of storylines in the beginning of a series because you’re trying to figure out who these characters are but as the show grew older so did the writers and eventually they realized it felt very inappropriate to not take no for an answer (Luke describes it as a “mistake” to not resolve it sooner)

Steph felt like it was inappropriate early on but didn’t have the courage to go to the writers and tell them how she felt because she was scared of losing her job and she didn’t know how things worked in that particular workplace bc she originally is a theatre actress

Charles and Rosa remain friends though and their relationship grows stronger. So much so that Rosa comes out to him first which Steph loved a lot

MEJ is still waiting for the vow renewal of Holt and Kevin (he pitched another idea during that episode)

Boyle/Peralta: McCreary said that because Jake can’t really mess up at his job because of stakes and he’s not perfect they made him mess up a lot with Charles’ friendship (also the ladies but mainly Charles)

Rosa had a good amount of relationships

“She’s trying. I don’t know if she’s living it but she’s trying.” - Steph

Rosa/Adrian: very opposite characters and she described Jason abd Pimento respectively as loose canons. Mantzoukas also taught Steph how to relax more in scenes (she’s praising his improv skills a lot as well as “he’s like a thorough bred dressage horse but kinda like crazy” - Stephanie Beatriz)

Rosa/Marcus: first on screen relationship that the writers used to get a Rosa/Holt dynamic going

Steph played Rosa queer from the beginning (she built on talking about Tonya Harding being hot for example)

the coming out episode: Steph was involved in creating the 99th episode and the coming out of her character a lot - she wanted Rosa to use the word bisexual repeatedly and the language that was used is a lot of what she had to hear personally. She talks about bi-erasure as well

The writers wanted to incorporate real life experiences into their show more to make it authentic and it was important to them to involve Steph and not just go for it because they had nobody who could speak for her specific experience

they emphasize the complexity of the characters and not just token diversity for brownie points. also different takes on classic masculinity tropes (a subject that repeats often also in Episode 1)

it’s meant to be a socially relevant show but they want to normalize the subjects they target and don’t make it 30 minutes of education and “here’s everything that’s wrong with x”

Terry/Sharon: a stable loving marriage between two black people

“Title of your sex tape” is a favorite joke, and since the series starts with established dynamics everyone in the squad is cool with joking about it/ it doesn’t feel inappropriate in their workplace because they’ve known each other for quite a long time

there’s a cut scene from the s6 finale where the vulture heard Jake say “title of your sex tape” and stole it to use himself which Jake in return hated more than anything he did, ever. And a similar instance (also a cut scene) where Hitchcock heard it and stole it as well