#don’t mind me while I sip coffee & watch Halloween movies all night

[yaaaasthankyoudaddy]

Happy Halloween to all of you ghouls & goblins 🎃👻💀🦇🕸️

[yourmcu]

V-Day

Pairings: Natasha Romanoff x reader

Summary:

You’re not like most people who enjoys Valentine’s Day. Can a certain redhead change that?

A/n: just a late valentine related imagine for all of u bc I’m incapable of posting this sort of stuff on the exact day. enjoy! (I’m finally using this iconic gif don’t mind me)

Word count: 1,753

Warnings: fluff

The 14th of February is just another normal day for you. You always find Valentine’s Day cheesy, you don’t see the point of celebrating it. That sort of thing isn’t as important as Christmas or Halloween. Not that you're bitter because you're single, you couldn’t care less about that, it just isn’t the occasion for you.

Tony outdone it this year. The compound looks like it was powdered pink and red overnight from all the decorations when you step out of your room. You almost don’t want to know what the main area looks like. Sam and Wanda are probably getting started on breakfast which would consist of everything shaped like hearts.

Your plan for the day is to stay in your room, only coming out for snack and drink refills, simple as that.

“Hey, Happy Valentine’s...” you pretty much tone out every v-day greeting that came your way, rolling your eyes playfully as you sit down with everyone, greeting them with the usual good morning. You expect the compound to be deserted by midday since surely all of them have plans with their partners for the rest of the day, which is perfect. For you. And for them, of course, yeah.

Sam and Bucky made their way to you. “So, Y/N, how are you?” Sam greets. You already suspect that they were hyping you up for something. “Food good, coffee good... sleep well?”

You turn to them with a smile on your face. “Alright, what do you want?”

“Well,” Bucky lets out a breathy laugh. “Sam here was just helping me-”

“That is not what’s happening. What he wanted to say was,” the birdman cuts him off. “We both wanted to take you out to dinner tonight, we can’t settle on who, so we’re letting you pick.”

You blink. They have to be joking. Do they not notice your routine during this time of the year? After socializing with the team you’d grab a day’s worth of snack, head back to your room, lock the door and lose your mind on video games until the next day.

Unhealthy, but it's for one day.

“Only if you want to,” Bucky adds hastily.

“Come on, this is a chance of a lifetime!” Sam insists, wiggling his eyebrows.

“We’ll go to your favorite restaurant.”

“It’s just a friendly date.”

What you fail to notice was Natasha listening to the events happening. Her foot taps against the floor as she discreetly waits for your response, taking coffee sips and bites of food and looking away whenever she looked like she's eavesdropping. No one else is paying attention, everyone has their own conversations.

Inside, she pleads that you’d turn both of them down, just because she’s planning to ask you out herself. They just beat her to it.

“I appreciate the thought but I’m sorry, I have plans,” you shrug. “Why don’t you take each other out instead? Not literally.” You give them another smile and walk out of the room, coffee in hand. 

Sam and Bucky nods indicating they understood. Sam tells his friend that if he had more appeal you’d agree to the date. But they take you up on your advice, already planning a guy’s night.

Natasha almost cheers when she hears the first part, only to spiral when she hears that someone had already asked you beforehand. You're unavailable. She could ask you out any day, but you deserve something extra special. She sees this day as her only chance to confess her feelings for you.

Her eyes trail you as you walk out, turning to Wanda when you were out of sight. “Do you have any idea who asked Y/N out?”

“I don’t,” Wanda replies, a bit distracted. “They’re lucky, I’ve never seen Y/N show interest in anyone since I met her. Anyway, I have to go, Vision and I have a whole day planned...”

Natasha huffs while people slowly file out of the kitchen. As far as she knows, Tony's with Pepper, of course, Wanda and Vision, Steve is probably going to join Sam and Bucky on their night out, and Clint is back at his farm celebrating with his wife.

And you’re with that person, which most likely someone who isn’t on the team otherwise she’d know. She's left by herself to mope.

-

Few hours have passed, maybe three, it’s lunchtime. As you suspected the compound is empty, so you make your way to the kitchen to make yourself something to eat.

Boxed mac and cheese is the only thing you knew how to make.

“Y/N?”

You almost drop your stirring spoon at the sudden voice. You feel embarrassed about your choice of outfit, you feel and look like a grizzly bear while she looks stunning, even if it’s just plain workout clothes.

“Hey, Nat.”

“I thought you were... out with someone?” Knowing you, she might’ve misunderstood when you said you ‘had plans’. You look so cozy she would love to hug you on the spot if she isn’t so sweaty.

You let out a curious hum, turning off the stove. “I was?” You giggle. “Where’d you hear that?”

“I didn’t, just, I assumed you’d be,” she mutters and finishes her water bottle. 

You're now grabbing a bowl for the mac and cheese you made. “I mean, Sam and Bucky did ask me if I wanted to but... y’know, if I’m being honest they’re not really my type.” You pause to look at her who was staring back. “Have you eaten? This batch I made is enough for three people, I think.”

Natasha nods at your offer. “They did say it was a friendly date.”

You stop scooping the macaroni and perk your head up with a grin. “So you were listening.”

“Not like I had any choice, I was in the same room.” Quick save.

“Mmhm.” 

Then there's  a minute of comfy silence as you clean the area you made the meal on, putting the pot away and stuff.

“Why don’t you have a date today?”

“What?”

“Anyone would kill to go on a date with you, Nat.” Is what you say in your head. But instead you say, “Well, you know, I didn’t expect you be here too.”

Natasha shrugs and before she could answer you add, “No one’s caught the notorious Black Widow’s attention yet?”

She chuckles at your words, looking up at you. “Who did you think I’d go out with?”

“I dunno, Steve-”

“God, no,” she quickly cuts you off and laugh,  you laugh along but at the same time sigh in relief.

“Crap, I just remembered I have a game to finish,” you hold the bowl of cheese and macaroni and stick two spoons on the side. “I’m cordially inviting you to my room, you are very much welcome, after you change.”

Natasha tells you she’ll see you there in a bit.

-

“Huh. I just noticed you do this every Valentine’s Day,” Natasha notes as she takes everything in. Your PlayStation's on, your trash bin is almost full of snack wrappings, couple of beers tucked at the side of your bed. “Cozy.”

“Why, thank you,” you say sarcastically, picking up a controller and waving a vacant one at her. “Feel free. Or you can just watch me fail at this game.”

Natasha decides to join the game a little later, now she's lost in thought on how someone like you spends such a day like this, or how beautiful you looked as your eyes dart at every direction of the screen and how you sometimes bite your lip when you're that focused in the game.

It's always the little things she likes about you.

Glancing at you one more time before eating a spoonful of mac, she turns back to the TV to watch how you're doing.

But you're witty, kind and easy to get along with, why wouldn’t you have a date - or why wouldn’t you want a date on Valentine’s Day?

If only you knew how she feels, she’d make sure to treat you well. Like you deserve. She’d take you on dates you’d enjoy every time the 14th rolls by. If you don’t like the holiday for some reason she’d find a way-

“NO WAY,” you cover your mouth and bump your head to Natasha’s shoulder in defeat, making her come back from her trance to look at the big red words on the screen, indicating you lost. “I almost had it!”

Natasha leans into your touch and pats your back. “You can try again.”

You groan. “I definitely will but for now, I’m gonna take a break.”

“Great,” she shifts a bit to get comfy, switching to Netflix and choosing whatever’s trending right now. “I’m just curious but, do you like someone?”

You hum in response, sipping on a beer, not completely processing what she said. “I - yeah. I guess so,” you tug the blanket closer and pout at the movie that’s on. You don’t like romance movies. You always prefer an action or a mystery one any day. “Do you?”

Natasha feels her heart ache for a moment. “Yeah. She’s kind and sweet, goofy but can still seriously kick your ass type.” Your eyes land to her hands. You knew fully well Natasha isn’t straight, she admitted and definitely doesn’t act like it. “There’s just something about her that makes me... love her.”

“She sounds great,” you mumble, starting to get lost in your own thoughts. “I guess I just-” you hesitate, just because the woman you're about to describe is the same one sitting next to you. “I feel bad for her that someone like me likes her.”

“Why would you think that?” Natasha chuckles, shaking her head.

You shrug. “She’s amazing. So out of my league, I’d say she’s so close but so far away but that would be really cheesy and ugly,” you laugh. “I don’t know, she deserves way better.”

Natasha hums. “Sometimes I think she needs to her worth, because what she doesn’t know is, she’s very much amazing in her own way.”

Looking up at her from her shoulder, your eyes light up and you don’t know when it happened, but you just found her lips pressed against yours softly.

Even if it was just a short kiss you feel breathless when she pulls away to look at you again.

“Just so we’re clear, we’re just describing each other like idiots right?”

“Yeah.”

Natasha leans in to kiss you again.

---

oh my god I want a hug

[shameless plug] check out my natasha romanoff ambience here

[courageous-she]

Extracurricular- Charlie Gillespie

Teacher!Reader x MusicTeacher!Charlie

Word Count: 2707

Author’s Note: Hi everyone! Just wanted to say thank you for all the love on “Needing You”! I wrote this up, a little self-indulgently, but hope that some of you will find some enjoyment from it!

It had always been your dream to be an elementary school teacher. For as long as you could remember, you would play school with your American Girl Dolls or stuffed animals as your students. When the time came for college, you’d picked a program that would allow you to get your Master’s quickly. After student teaching and some substituting, you finally had your own fourth grade classroom.

You hadn’t been at your school long, seeing as it was only October, but you’d been there long enough to meet some of the other teachers. You got along well with your team teachers, and even made a few teacher friends you could hang out outside of school with.

It was a Wednesday and for some reason your students had more energy than normal, and it was taking a toll on you. Luckily, they had Music in a few minutes, so you decided to end the lesson early and have them start getting ready for the special. They were quiet in the hallway, giving you a quick break before dropping them off at the music room.

“Hey, fourth grade!” the music teacher, Mr. G said with enthusiasm as your class approached. You students began to file into the classroom, high-fiving or fist bumping Mr. G as they passed. “Hey Ms. Y/L/N.” Mr. G said more softly to you.

“Hi Mr. G. They’re a little more energetic than normal today.” You said, providing a well needed update on the class. Mr. G smiled, chuckling lightly at the statement.

“Nothing I can’t handle I’m sure.” There was a short pause before he continued, “Got any plans this weekend?” he asked you. This weekend was Halloween and you wanted nothing more than to spend it on your couch with a bottle of wine.

“I was just going to drink some wine and watch a movie.” You replied honestly, “Why? Have something in mind?” It wasn’t unusual for Mr. G, or you could probably call him Charlie, to ask you about your plans. A little harmless flirting was normal between the two of you seeing as you were the only two 20 something teachers in the school.

“I had about the same idea in mind. Would you maybe want to drink wine and watch a movie together?” He asked, a smirk playing on his face. As you were about to respond, one of your students came over and grabbed Charlie by the hand, tugging him into the classroom. You smiled and let him know that you would text him before letting him go to teach the class.

You: 7:00 my place?

You sent the text to Charlie, having had his number from staff meetings. The two of you liked to text during the meetings instead of actually paying attention. You didn’t expect a response right away anyway considering he was teaching your students. You took the 40 minutes your kids were at music to sit in the quiet and grade some classwork.

When you went to pick your class up, Charlie was waiting by the door, your class lined up behind him.

“7:00 sounds perfect. I’ll bring the refreshments” he said quiet enough so the class didn’t hear.

“I’ll text you my address” you said, smiling, “Alright friends, what do you say to Mr. G?” you asked, addressing your class.

“Thank you, Mr. G!” rang out in unison by your students.

“Bye guys! See you later!” Charlie waved, again high-fiving some kids on their way out. You turned around as your class walked to the end of the hall and Charlie shot you a quick wink before heading back into his classroom. Friday night couldn’t come soon enough.

*****

When Friday night finally did come, Charlie texted you around dismissal to make sure your plans were still on.

You: Definitely! But I hope you know I will be in my baggiest of sweatpants

Charlie: Glad we’re on the same page, I don’t wear real clothes outside of school, its sacrilegious

You chuckled at the text, making sure to send Charlie your address and apartment number. Your students filed out one-by-one until it was only you left in the classroom. You made sure to shut down everything and turn off the lights before making the quick trip to your car.

Once home, you threw your work clothes into your hamper and got into your designated sweatpants. Knowing that you were having company later encouraged you to give your apartment a good clean, something you hadn’t been motivated to do recently. You lived alone, but you preferred it that way. Sometimes after a long day of school it was just easier to come home and not have to talk to anyone about your day.

Soon enough, the buzzer in your apartment was ringing signaling that Charlie was downstairs waiting to be let up. You pressed the button to unlock the main door and waited by your front door for his knock. When it came, you opened the door to see Charlie carrying a large pizza, a bottle of wine, and bag of Halloween candy.

“You came prepared Gillespie” you said, taking some of the items from his hands. He kicked his shoes off by the door before following you into the small living room. You set the items down on the coffee table before getting comfortable on the couch, Charlie following suit next to you.

“I told you I’d bring the refreshments, didn’t I?” He asked, pulling a corner of your blanket over his legs. You laughed, grabbing the remote and turning the tv on. Once the Netflix screen showed, you passed the remote to Charlie who gave you a confused look.

“I can’t decide on movies for the life of me, so this one’s on you” you said, opening the pizza box and grabbing a slice. You ate and watched as Charlie flipped through the movies, settling on a horror film. “Should have guessed you’d try to kill me tonight” you laughed.

“Hey, when you put me in charge of the movie, you can’t complain about what I pick” Charlie laughed, opening the bottle of wine.

“Oh! Let me get us some glasses,” you said, starting to remove the blanket from your lap. Charlie’s hand stopped you from getting any further.

“I’m fine with drinking out of the bottle if you are…” he suggested. You shrugged, not really caring about sharing the bottle with him. The two of you settled into the couch, eating pizza and sharing the bottle of wine. You definitely jumped at some parts in the movie and Charlie laughed at you each time.

About halfway through the movie, the both of you had finished eating and were now resting comfortably on the couch. However, the movie only began to get scarier as a really gory part showed on the screen. You jolted with surprise and shoved your face into Charlie’s neck, hand gripping the shirt material on his chest. 

“You can’t really be scared of this!” Charlie laughed.

“Of course, I’m scared!” you replied, voice muffled by his skin. Charlie only chuckled and wrapped his arms around your shoulder, pulling you closer to him.

“Don’t go in there!” you shouted a few moments later to the girl in the movie.

“Of course, she’s going to go in there!” Charlie retorted, “it’d be no fun if she didn’t”

“Who said any of this was fun” you replied, getting ready to hide your face against Charlie again, “I can’t watch.” Again, Charlie pulled you closer, protecting you from the demons on the screen.

As the movie ended, you let out a sigh of relief. You quickly stood and made your way over to your fridge, pulling out another bottle of wine. 

“After that movie, I need more of this, and a new movie to forget that one”

“I’m down for another movie. But you’re choosing it this time” Charlie said, grabbing the bottle from you and taking a sip. As you scrolled through the choices, you landed on one that had made you cry the first time you watched it.

“Okay, Gillespie.” You said, selecting the movie and hitting play, “Time to see you cry”

“Oh, I don’t cry” Charlie said, a smirk on his face. You made a “let’s see about that” face and the two of you settled in to watch the movie.

As the sad part began to get more intense, you stole a glance over at Charlie. You could see tears slowly cascading down his cheeks. 

“I thought you said you didn’t cry” you joked, pushing on his shoulder with your own. Taken aback by the fact that you’d noticed him, Charlie quickly began to wipe the tears from his face.

“I’m not crying, my eyes are sweating.” He replied.

“Sure, tough guy. Don’t worry about it, crying is manly” you said, leaning into his side. He chuckled at you before pulling you closer to finish the movie.

*****

Two movies and two bottles of wine later, you stood to throw out the empty pizza box and candy wrappers.

“Shit, I didn’t realize how late it was. I should get going” Charlie said, looking at the time on his phone.

“You’ve been drinking, Charlie, probably not the best idea to drive right now” you said, holding up the two empty wine bottles. Charlie gave you a knowing look.

“Let me see if my roommate is still awake, maybe he can come grab me” But before you could even let Charlie unlock his phone to text his roommate, you blurted out a proposition.

“Or you could just spend the night here” You stared at Charlie, shocked the sentence even left your mouth. It was probably the alcohol that helped. Charlie looked at you, making sure he heard correctly.

“I mean, if you’re cool with me crashing on your couch…” he spoke slowly.

“Oh no, you can’t sleep on that. It may be good for sitting but if you sleep on it, you’ll wake up with a broken back. My bed is big enough, we can share…. If you’re okay with that” you quickly added. Charlie mumbled a quiet ‘yeah’ before helping you clean up the rest of the mess. As you made your way into your room, you turned on your bathroom light. “I have an extra toothbrush you can use,” you said, handing Charlie the blue toothbrush.

The two of you stood side by side in the bathroom, looking at each other in the mirror while brushing your teeth. As Charlie finished, he made his way back into your room while you took a moment to wash your face. When you walked back into your room, Charlie was sitting on the edge of your bed scrolling through his phone.

“You didn’t have to wait for me to get in bed” you laughed. Charlie sheepishly looked up at you, locking his phone and putting in on the end table.

“Wasn’t sure what side of the bed you normally slept on” he replied. You went over to your side of the bed and got under the covers. Charlie followed suit on the opposite side of the bed. You clicked off your side lamp and turned to face Charlie.

“Sorry in advance if I kick you in my sleep” you said.

“If you kick me, we’re going to have a problem” Charlie laughed. It wasn’t long before the two of you dozed off comfortably facing each other.

*****

You woke up the next morning to your head resting on Charlie’s chest and his arms wrapped tightly around you. You laughed at the sleeping boy, noticing that he was no longer wearing a shirt. You tried to get out of bed without waking him, failing as his arm only wrapped tighter around you and a low groan came from the boy.

“Where’re you going?” he asked, voice low and eyes still closed.

“I was going to go make us some breakfast” you said. Charlie turned so his body was now facing yours, eyes still closed, and arms remaining around you.

“Five more minutes” he grumbled. “If you leave, I’ll be cold” he whined. You could only laugh.

“If I don’t get up, then you won’t have anything to eat in five minutes”

“I’ll buy us breakfast if you promise not to move” he said, voice low and soft. You replied with a quiet ‘okay’ and began to get comfortable.

“One thing though” you said, Charlie hummed in response, “When did you take your shirt off?”

“’mm like 2? Not sure, does it matter?” he asked. You mumbled a small ‘no’ not wanting to admit that you liked the feel of his warm skin against yours. You snuggled into him, hands reaching around and lightly dragging up and down his back. When you thought he’d fallen asleep, you let your hands stop, but when Charlie’s hand reached around to grab yours, mimicking your earlier motion, you continued.

You hadn’t realized that you’d fallen asleep, but you woke up in the same position, only this time Charlie’s fingers were lightly grazing up and down your back.

“Mornin’” he hummed, “Didn’t think you’d fall back asleep, did ya?” he teased. You lifted your eyes to meet his, taking in his bed head as well.

“Well, if you’d have let me get up the first time, I could have had breakfast ready for you” you mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes.

“Breakfast is ten minutes away” Charlie said, brushing your hair away from your face. You looked up at him, a little shocked he’d woken up and ordered breakfast. Your eyes met his and you watched as his fell to your lips. Your breath hitched and before you knew it, Charlie’s soft lips were on yours. 

It was gentle and quick, too quick if you were honest. But having kissed him once already now, you worked up the courage to kiss him again, this time taking the lead. You moved so that you were straddling him, his hands quickly finding a home on your hips, rubbing small circles on the skin under your shirt.

A moment later, you found yourself lying on your back, Charlie hovering over you. He only pulled away when his phone buzzed from next to you. He quickly checked his phone, looked at you, and placed a quick kiss on your cheek before getting up and pulling his sweatshirt on. Just as quickly as Charlie had gotten on top of you, he was off and out the door. 

Sliding out of bed, you threw on your sweatshirt and padded out to the kitchen. The front door opened and Charlie came in carrying two bags of food.

“What the hell did you order, Char?” you asked, grabbing a bag and beginning to open it. All kinds of breakfast foods laid out in front of you. Two arms landed their way on either side of you, locking you between him and the counter.

“Char?” he asked, voice low in your ear. Your face was warm as you turned around in the small space you had, noticing the smirk on the boy’s face. You weren’t sure how to respond, the nickname just kind of slipped out. But before you could respond, Charlie’s hand gently held your chin and his lips met yours once again. “Don’t worry” he said against your lips, “I like it”

He quickly lifted you onto the counter, slipping in between your legs and placing another kiss against your lips. The two of you stayed like that for a bit, tasting each of the foods that Charlie had ordered.

*****

As the two of you cleaned up the kitchen a little while later you asked, “So, am I going to have to compete for your attention at school?” Charlie gave you a confused look, not sure what you meant by that statement. “Considering how all the fourth and fifth grade girls have the biggest crushes on you?” you asked, a smile playing at your lips.

Charlie chuckled, coming over to rest his hands on your hips, forehead resting against your own. “You’re the only one who gets this kind of attention” he quietly said before placing a kiss on your lips. You smiled, wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling him in for more.

[atlafan]

Boo!

a/n: alright, I think this is the last Halloween fic I’m gonna due, I had one more in me. Thank you to everyone who sent me requests. I tried to sprinkle them all into the four different fics I wrote. This one was mostly inspired by someone who asked for a scared neighbor, and someone who asked for one of them to work at a haunted house! Reblogs and feedback are always helpful! Enjoy! (not proofread)

Warnings: pining, fluff, and smut at the end

Words: 6.6K

Y/N was a scaredy cat, plain and simple. She loved Halloween, and the fun that came with it, she just hated the things that absolutely made her skin crawl like jump scares, fake blood, movies that were made with the sole purpose of scaring you, and haunted houses. Never has she once wanted to go to a haunted house in her life. She went when she was a little girl, and she ended up being one of this kids that just screamed and cried the entire time. She somehow made it through both It films, but had nightmares for weeks, so she just stays away from these things.

She was a recent graduate, just starting her master’s program, and living on her own for the first time. She loved her flat a whole lot, getting to decorate it however she wanted, and only having herself to blame if the dishes got stacked up or if the bathroom needed tidying. Another reason she loved her flat? Her very cute next door neighbor. She wasn’t sure if he was also in grad school, or was just from the area. She learned his name was Harry one day as they were both checking their mailboxes, and from there they would exchange pleasantries in the elevator or if they saw one another coming or going.

Harry was a tad mysterious in that he was quiet, but his smile always let Y/N know she wasn’t a bother. She had no idea if he was single or not. His apartment was often quiet aside from the occasional person he might bring back with them. She only ever heard muffled giggles, and the sound of his voice lowering an octave, but her bed wasn’t pressed up to the wall they shared, so she really didn’t pay much attention to it. It did make her more mindful for when she brought someone home, though, not wanting him to hear her.

Y/N always liked the little interactions she’d have with her sweet neighbor. It made living alone a little more exciting. She’d have her friends over when she could, and sometimes they got a little glimpse of Harry, and then they’d understand why Y/N couldn’t help but word vomit about him sometimes.

One day, a couple of weeks before Halloween, Harry spots her in the hall just as she’s keying into her place. He grins and comes up behind her.

“Boo!”

“Ah!” She turns around and nearly decks him. “Jesus Christ, Harry!” She clutches her hand to her chest.

“Shit, I didn’t think you’d be so jumpy, I’m sorry.” He rubs the back of his neck.

“No offense, but you’re a large man coming up behind a small woman to scare her on purpose…I think anyone would be scared.” Her face flushes with embarrassment.

“When you put it like that…yikes.” He clears his throat. “Um, I’m glad I caught you, though.”

“Oh?” She perks up a bit. He had genuinely wanted to talk with her?

“Yeah, I work seasonally at this haunted house downtown every year, it’s a lot of fun.” He takes a piece of paper out of his pocket. “I’m supposed to give out some coupons, if you bring a group of five you get a discount, see?” He hands her the coupon and she looks it over.

“You…you work at a haunted house?”

“Just seasonally as a side gig, it pays pretty well. Plus, I get to dress up as different things and scare people.” He smirks.

“Well, I can see you definitely enjoy doing that.” She chuckles slightly.

“I really am sorry about that.” He runs a hand through his hair. “It’s a charity thing, so half the proceeds goes to UNICEF…if that persuades you at all.”

“I’ll, um, I’ll see if my friends want to go, thanks.”

He smiles at her and nods.

“Well, have a good one.” He says, and continues his way down the hall and to the elevator.

Y/N goes into her flat, and sighs heavily. She was fucked, absolutely fucked. She knew her friends would be down to go, but she more so worried about needing to wear a pair of depends or not because she was sure to wet herself at a haunted house.

//

“Why didn’t you just tell him you don’t like haunted houses?” Billy asks her over coffee.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Niall says to the group. “It’s the first time the guy’s said more than a few words to her, she wasn’t going to turn it down. Isn’t that right, Pet?”

“On the nose, Ni.” She sighs. “I looked like enough of a wimp when he scared me in the hall, I didn’t want to look like a total baby by telling him they scare me. Maybe we could go and I could just putter around outside.”

“Why don’t like you like them again? They’re harmless.” Sadie says as she sips on her tea.

“I don’t like the jump scares. I wanna see everything clearly in front of me. I also feel bad for clowns.” Y/N pouts.

“Clowns?” Rob questions.

“Yeah, like, clowns are supposed to be sources of joy, and they’ve been turned into these scary monsters for no good reason.” She takes a bite of her lemon-poppy scone, and swallows. “So…I mean, I have the coupon, would you all come with me? At least he’ll know I have friends.”

“What’s his name again?” Sadie says, taking her phone out. “Harry Styles?”

“Yeah, don’t bother looking him up, he doesn’t have any social media. Or if he does it’s all super private.” Y/N says.

“Of course you’ve tried to look him up before.” Niall teases her.

“Well, he is my neighbor, I wanted to see if I was living next to a creep or not.”

“I think we should go.” Billy says. “We haven’t done anything spooky this season yet.”

“That’s because you’re all too grown to come carve pumpkins and bake cookies with me.” Y/N huffs.

“Tell you what, you roast the seeds from the pumpkins and I’ll come bake with you.” Sadie says, throwing an arm around her friend, and they both giggle.

Later that day, Y/N happens to get into the elevator at the same time as Harry, and she was excited to give him the good news.

“Hey.” She smiles at him. “Um, I talked to my friends, we’ll be at the haunted house this weekend.”

“That’s great! I’ll be there Saturday night for sure.”

“What will you be dressed as? Will you be walking around outside, or will you be inside doing the real scaring?”

“If I told you any of that it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now would it? No built up suspense.” They both get off the elevator and head down the hall. “See you then.” He winks at her, and she stands by her door a moment going over the interaction in her head.

She just wanted to prepare herself as much as possible. She knew half the fun for the stuff was to actually get people scared, but there was a difference between jumping and laughing at something, and genuinely screaming to the point of tears. Would she actually survive this?

//

Saturday evening, Y/N and her friends head downtown for the haunted house. There was a lot to do outside, so they stop off for candied apples before getting their tickets. She shows her coupon to the cashier, and the group gets their discount. It was just starting to get dark outside, and there were tons of people in costume walking around outside. Some people were taking pictures with them after getting spooked, and Y/N started to feel herself getting nervous.

“Don’t worry, Y/N.” Niall throws his arms around her shoulders. “Bill and I are gonna make a little sandwich with you so you’ll be right between us to grab onto while we walk in.”

“Thanks.” She says.

“Do you see him anywhere, or do you think he’s inside?” Rob asks.

“He wouldn’t tell me when I asked, so I have no idea.” She sighs.

“Well, let’s go get in line, it’s starting to fill up.” Sadie says, and they all head to the line to get inside.

There was someone dressed up like a witch scanning the tickets, and reminds everyone it is single file as you enter the house. Everyone nods, and Y/N grips onto both Niall and Billy’s hands as they form their line.

Harry was outside at the front of the line scoping out the scene. He was taking a little fresh air break before he needed to get back into his room. He was dressed like a dirtbag with a fake chainsaw in his hand. As he scans over the crowd in line he spots Y/N. His eyes widen as he practically sees her trembling. He watches as one of the boys she’s with raises her chin with their finger and says something to her. She smiles at him, and kisses his cheek. Harry furrows his brows in disappointment, and goes back inside.

It’s dark as they all step inside, and her death grip on the boys grows stronger.

“Y/N, close your eyes if you need to, we can guide you in.” Billy says to her as he grips her shoulders.

“Yeah, don’t feel like you even need to-“

“Ahhh!!” She screams when a few ghouls pop out at them. She nearly jumps on Niall’s back from it. “I should have just stayed outside.” Her bottom lip quivers.

“We’ve got you, just keep going.” Sadie says from the rear.

It really was just the jump scares and the darkness. The rooms they were walking in weren’t that scary. Some of them have flashes of lightening and rumbles of thunder, creepy music and floorboard squeaking. Harry’s room was up next. All he had to was pretend to saw into someone’s neck, and let some fake blood out. The only thing was, his room was pitch black, so no one could what was happening until he ripped the cord for the chainsaw.

He recognizes Y/N’s pitiful scream instantly. Usually he gets a kick out of it, from anyone, but when he glances over at the group, and sees her cheeks stained with tears, he feels terrible. The scene is supposed to last a little longer, but he gives a signal to the lighting crew and they make it go dark again. His room was last, so Y/N practically gasps for air once she’s back outside.

“I’m sorry if I ruined it for you all.” She sniffles and wipes her cheeks. Niall sighs and helps her clean her face up.

“You didn’t, Lovie, it’s fine.” He says to her.

“You actually did a lot better than we thought.” Rob says.

“Are your panties dry?” Billy asks.

“Well…yeah.” She giggles.

“Then you did amazing!” Sadie says. “I have to say, I’ve been to my fair share of haunted houses, and that one was fucking scary.”

“Can…can we go get some pizza or something? Maybe some hard ciders? I need a fucking drink.” She jokes, and everyone agrees. She wished she had Harry’s number so she could at least text him that she actually showed up. “Wait! I just wanna go inside and leave a note for Harry.”

Everyone waits outside as she goes back up to the ticketing register. She asks if she can leave a note for him, and the girl at the register all but squeals, and says yes.

Made it through the house, just wanted you to know. Thanks again for the coupon!! – Y/N xx

“I’ll make sure H gets it.” She smiles at Y/N.

“Thank you.” She says, and out the door she goes back to her friends.

Harry felt even more gutted when he received the note. He had been part of the reason she was crying. Why would she have gone if she really didn’t like being scared? Did she go just for him? No way, that other guy she kissed had to be her boyfriend, right?

//

For about a week Harry contemplated knocking on Y/N’s door. He even thought to slide a note underneath, just to be cute, but he chickened out. One night he was getting some studying done when he heard a loud yelp. His head turns in the direction of the sound. Did she have someone over? He’d occasionally hear the squeal of her bed, but in all honesty Harry had a feeling Y/N wasn’t exactly getting her shit rocked. Either that, or she was just one of those really quiet girls. Not a minute later does he hear a quiet tap on his front door. He gets up and pads over to it to look through his peephole. It was a shaking Y/N.

“Y/N?” He says as he unlocks and opens his door. “Are you alright?”

“N-no, I…I don’t know what happened, um, I think something short circuited, and I…I feel so stupid for saying this but I don’t know where the breaker box is.”

“Oh, Pet, you’re not stupid. Took me forever to find mine, do you want some help?”

“If you don’t mind.”

He follows her out into the hall, and into her place.

“Gave you a bit of a fright, didn’t it?” He asks softly.

“Y-yeah.”

Poor thing must have been embarrassed. She was in a pair of pajama pants and a tee shirt, clearly not wearing a bra. He thought she looked adorable, and just wanted to scoop her up, but he couldn’t. He uses his flashlight on his phone, and she involuntarily latches onto his wrist.

“I’m sorry, I’m petrified of the dark.” She tells him.

“It’s alright.” He shifts so he can hold her hand. “The breaker box should be in your pantry, that’s where mine is anyways.”

He heads her over to it, and she lets him open the door. She had a tidy flat, nothing to hide. He opens the box, looks away, flips the switch, and the lights all come back on. She lets out a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank god. I thought I was going to be without heat! Thank you, I have no idea what happened. I don’t have anything overly plugged in.”

“No problem at all.” He smiles at her. “Sometimes it happens at my place, it’s not exactly the newest building, Love.”

“Right.” She swallows and lets go of his hand. He looks in the direction of her kitchen and sees she has a couple of pumpkins on the table.

“What are you up to?”

“Oh, well, I was going to get some cookies in the oven, and then carve some pumpkins. My friends aren’t really into it, but I like it.”

“So you don’t totally hate Halloween then?”

“No, not at all! I…I’m just not a fan of the scary stuff.” She chews on her bottom lip. “Would you…would you care to join me?” It was bold. He probably had plans, or probably just didn’t want to hang out with her.

“I’d love to! Can’t remember the last time I carved a pumpkin.”

“Oh! Well, alright then.” She smiles and leads him into her kitchen. “I have those sugar cookies with the pumpkins and black cats on them. I was about to slice them up before the power went out.”

“I love those, can I help?”

“Sure.”

She preheats the oven and gets a baking sheet out with some parchment paper. She lets him slice up the roll with the black cats as she does the ones with the pumpkins, then she pops them in the oven. She grabs a couple of bowls to place on the table and he raises an eyebrow at her.

“My friends like when I roast the seeds, so we need one bowl for all the guts, and then one for when we separate them.”

“Gotcha.” They each grab one of the little carving knives and cut open the tops of the pumpkins. “Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“If you don’t like the scary stuff then why did you come to the haunted house?”

“Oh…well…I didn’t want to disappoint you. You invited me, and…well….I’ve always wanted to get to know you better, so I thought that would be a good start.”

“You have?”

“Well, yeah, I think you’re the only other young person on our floor.” She laughs. “Are you still in school?”

“Yeah, I’m in grad school.”

“Me too!” She says excitedly and starts scooping the guts out of her pumpkin. Harry does the same.

“You could have just told me, you know, I was using the coupon as an excuse to talk to you.”

“R-really?”

He nods and starts separating the seeds. She watches as his fingers work nimbly. She frightened when she hears the timer go off for the oven.

“Jesus, Y/N….I feel terrible that you’re so jumpy.”

“I think I’m just still a little worked up from the power going out.” She takes the cookies out of the oven and puts them on a cooling rack.

She comes back over and sticks her hands in the bowl of guts along with Harry’s, and they brush together. They look at each other and blush.

“Y/N, do you have a boyfriend?”

“No, do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.”

Everything sort of happens quickly from there. Without caring about the mess, Harry cups her cheeks and pulls her into a tender kiss. He backs her up against the wall next to the fridge, and she groans into his mouth. Her messy hands tug at the collar of his shirt to pull him down more to her so she can wrap her warms around his neck. He smiles against her.

“Were you eating some of the cookie dough earlier?”

“M-maybe.” She giggles. “Why?”

“You just taste really sweet.” He leans down and sucks her bottom lip between his teeth, and lets it snap back. “I’ve wanted to do this for a while, to be honest with you. You just seem like such a nice person.”

“I’ve…I’ve wanted to kiss you too.” Her heart was beating like crazy. Her eyes glance over at the pumpkins. She really did want to carve them. “Um…would you…would you like to get the pumpkins carved? And then maybe we could watch a movie while the seeds roast?”

“I’d like that.” He steps back from her. “I got your cheeks covered in guts, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.” She chuckles and grabs a paper towel, wetting it under the sink faucet. She wipes her cheeks and continues to separate the seeds with him.

Harry begins carving his pumpkin while she lets the seeds rest on some paper towels. They munch on cookies, and giggle as they make horrible designs with the pumpkins.

“Okay, hold on.” She says and grabs two little lights to put inside the pumpkins. “Aw, they look so cute.”

“How come your friends don’t like doing this? I had a great time.”

“It’s a lot of work to them.” She shrugs. “Kinda glad they’re not here, wouldn’t have needed you to rescue me.”

“Guess it all worked out for the best.” He smiles at her.

“Go get get comfy. I can make us some tea while I ge the seeds in the oven if you like.”

“That would be great, thank you.”

It was a Wednesday night, Harry had class tomorrow, but he truthfully didn’t care. He was enjoying getting to know his neighbor, and he was hoping to get to know her a bit more.

“Alright.” She sets the mugs on the coffee table and grabs the remote. “I don’t know about you, but I’d love to watch Halloweentown.”

“A classic, throw it on.”

She feels almost giddy at his willingness to humor her. She flips the TV to Disney+, and puts on the movie. Just as she’s biting into another cookie after the opening the credits, she asks him the question that had been rattling around her brain over the last week.

“So, are you going to tell me who you were dressed up as at the haunted house?”

“Oh…I was the chainsaw guy at the end…”

“Oh.” She says quietly.

“I had them end it quicker when I saw how scared you were, I felt terrible.”

“Great, so you saw me crying like a baby.” She sighs.

“Hey.” He smiles at her. “I think it’s really brave that you went through the whole house.”

“You’re just saying that.” She pouts at him.

“No, I mean it.” He lifts a hand to stroke her cheek.

“You never responded to my note.” She says, just above a whisper.

“I…I didn’t know how. I didn’t know if one of the guys you were with was you boyfriend or not, and I didn’t want to just slip a response under your door.”

Her body relaxes under his touch, and she smiles softly at him.

“The guy who willingly scares people to the point of tears was too shy to slip a note under my door?” She smirks, and he lets go of her with a scoff.

“I resent that. There’s a crazy amount of confidence you get when you dress up like someone else”

“Sort of like stage presence?”

“Yeah, sort of.” He puts his arm around her and pulls her close to him. “Be quiet and watch the movie, would you?”

She giggles but listens to him. After she pulls the seeds out of the oven to cool, they get especially cozy on the couch with him laying behind her to spoon her. It was incredibly cozy, and everything she could have hoped for with him. The kiss earlier was nice and all, but she was hoping this was the sort of guy Harry was. One to be okay with staying in and watching a classic movie with a plate of cookies close by.

//

He was reluctant to leave, giving her smooch after smooch at the door, but he didn’t want to be groggy for class, and she had class too, so it was best for them to part ways. He did, however, ask for her number so he could ask her on a proper date some time and she happily gave it to him.

Y/N told her friends about the previous night, and they were really excited for her. They couldn’t believe the two had kissed over pumpkin guts, but hey, whatever works, right?

“You should invite him to my Halloween party.” Sadie says.

“He probably has to work at that stupid haunted house.” Y/N sighs.

“You won’t know unless you ask. Besides, it’s not like that place will be open super late. He could meet up with you.”

“That’s true. What if he thinks my costume is lame? I’m only dressing up like a witch.”

“The cutest witch as that, he won’t be able to resist.” Niall winks at her and she rolls her eyes.

“Okay, I’ll text him.” Her eyes grow wide as she takes out her phone.

“What is it, Peanut?” Billy asks her.

“He texted me this morning and I missed it!” She scrambles to open the message and text him back.

Harry: morning, beautiful, I had a lot of fun last night. Can’t wait to do it again…8:09AM

Y/N: so sorry for just responding, I’m horrible at texting! I had a lot of fun last night too. Do you have plans on Halloween??...11:17AM

She sets her phone down with a sigh, taking a sip of her tea as her friends continue to chat about Sadie’s party. She sees her screen light up and she smiles.

Harry: lol no worries, I’m sure you’re a busy person. I have to work the day shift at the haunted house, don’t worry, we tone it down for the kids, but I’m free in the evening, why?

Y/N: oh, well, maybe I should have gone during the day then haha my friend Sadie’s having a party and I was wondering if you’d like to go with me? It’s okay if you don’t…

Harry: don’t be silly, I’d love to go! I’m assuming it’s a costume thing?

Y/N: great! Yeah, it’s a costume thing, but it’s not like over the top, I’m just going as a witch

Harry: bet you’ll be the cutest witch there 😉

Y/N: oh stop 😳

Harry: I mean it! I definitely have plenty of costumes, so I can pull something together. What time’s the party?

Y/N: I was hoping to get there for 9

Harry: works for me, see you then!

Y/N: see you then

“Oh my god.” She giggles to herself.

“What?” Sadie asks. “Is he gonna come with you to the party?”

“Yup?” Y/N grins. “And he thinks I’ll be the cutest witch there.”

“Oi, I literally just said the same thing to you!” Niall says.

“Yeah, but…I’m interested in him romantically so it means more.”

“Piss off.” He says with a glare and it makes her laugh. She throws her arms around her friend and kisses his cheek.

“Don’t worry, Ni, you’re still my number one man.”

“Mhm, sure.” He scoffs, and everyone else laughs.

//

Y/N never really fretted over a Halloween costume before, and she felt silly for being so nervous, but she just wanted to look…sexy? She sighs as she changes her outfit about three different times. She also wanted to be comfortable. She slides her legs into a pair of black slacks that come up just over her belly button, and had a slight flair at the bottom. She pairs it with a black lace bralette so only a sliver of her torso was showing. She curls her hair and brushes it out to look wavy, and applies some fun makeup to make her eyes pop. Last, she puts on her small witch’s hat, and waits for him. When she hears the knock on her door at ten of nine she takes a deep breath, grabs her purse, and opens it.

“Oh, Babe, you look amazing.” He says almost immediately, giving her a hug. She smiles up at him when she sees he’s dressed like a casual vampire. Donning similar black attire (slacks and a button up), along with some fake blood painted at the corners of his mouth.

“Thank you, is that what you wore today?”

“Yeah.”

“Way less scary.” She chuckles, and locks her door.

“Do you wanna wear my jacket?”

“Maybe later? I’m okay right now, but thank you.”

He nods as they step into the elevator. He casually takes her hand in his, intertwining their fingers. The walk to Sadie’s doesn’t take too long, and Y/N lets herself in when they get there. It was the usual group, plus some other friends from school and work. She introduces Harry to all of them, and get the two of them some sherbet punch.

“It’s spiked, is that alright?” She says to him.

“Yeah, thank you.” He takes the small cup from her and takes a sip.

Harry gets on with Y/N’s friends way better than she expected. It eased a lot of her anxiety because it wasn’t often she brought a guy around them so soon, but she talked about the him enough that they all already felt comfortable around him. He was also really funny, so that helped.

It was a great night all around. Y/N won a couple of round of Cards Against Humanity, and partnered up with Niall for a game of beer pong. Somewhere between midnight and one in the morning, Y/N and Harry decide to call it a night, he had worked all day after all.

“Care to come to mine for a nightcap?” He asks her as he shimmies his jacket off his shoulders and onto hers for the walk home.

Normally she wouldn’t yes so quickly, but they lived right next door to each other, and they had already gotten the first kiss out of the way, so she agrees. She was also curious to see how he had set up his place compared to hers. He leads her inside, and she stays wrapped in his coat as she goes to sit on his sofa. He comes back shortly with two glasses of red wine, only a little in each.

“Thank you.” She says as he hands her a glass. He sits down next to her, and grabs two coasters for his coffee table before setting his glass down.

“I had a lot of fun with your friends tonight. They seem like really nice people.” He sits with one leg underneath himself, and an arm slung over the back of the sofa.

“They are! I couldn’t ask for better friends, honestly.”

“Maybe you could meet mine sometime.” He blushes. “I don’t have as big of a circle as you do, but the friends I have are great.”

“I’d like that.” She smiles at before taking another small sip and setting her glass down. “I can’t believe I’ve been living next to you since June and it’s taken us this long to get to know each other.”

“Feels silly now, doesn’t it?” He reaches to tuck some hair behind her ear.

“Yeah.” She inches closer to him, and looks up at him with wide eyes. “Would you kiss me again, I really liked it last time.”

He smiles at her and leans in, pressing his lips to hers. Her eyes flutter closed as she tastes the sweet red wine pass from his lips to hers. He tugs her onto his lap to create a more comfortable position, causing his jacket to slip from her shoulders, but neither seem to care. She laces her fingers into his hair, and opens her mouth for him. He licks into her as his hands splay on her back, not wanting to be too grabby too soon. Their tongues swirl around each other, and she moans softly into him. He had the first few buttons of his shirt undone already, so it was easy enough to kiss from his jaw to his neck. He holds her close to him as she mouths at his sensitive skin. She moves to his collar bone, and bites down, sucking on him. He groans and squeezes at her back. She moves to look up at him, biting down on her bottom lip.

“Would you…like to see my bedroom?” He asks, clearly testing the waters.

“Yes.” She says, much to his surprise. She was full of surprises tonight. He pecks her lips, and lets her get off of him. He takes her hand and leads her to his bedroom. “It’s nice in here, Harry.” His bed was made, and his desk was tidy. A few clothes on the floor, but that’s much to be expected.

“Thanks, the, uh, comforter is new.”

“Looks comfy.”

“It is.” He cups her cheeks and kisses her. Her hands go to his love hands and she squeezes him.

They make their way over to the bed, and they lay down with him hovering over her. She wraps her legs around his waist while he kisses on her neck. His lips move down between the valley of her breasts, and nipping at the parts of her that were spilling out of the lace.

“This is such a sexy outfit.” He says, hot breath against her skin. She groans and pushes her hips up towards his to feel his growing bulge.

“What, um, what do you feel like doing, Harry?” She runs her hands through his hair.

“Honestly, I’d like to fuck you, but-“ She yanks his face up to hers so she can kiss him. He chuckles as he pulls away. “We can, uh, wait if you want.” He clears his throat.

“Do you want to wait? I wouldn’t mind if you fucked me.”

“Well, look at you! The girl who’s so bloody afraid of the dark and haunted house and all things spooky is up for a little shag?”

“I may be scared in the streets, but that’s not how I am in the sheets.” She grins at him and his eyes darken a little.

“Alright, then.”

He sits up and takes his shirt the rest of the way off. She gazes up at him and runs her hands up and down his stomach. He was toned, yet soft, the perfect mixture. She reaches to undo his belt, and unzip his pants. He gets them the rest of the way off, and then kneads her breasts through the bralette. She arches up into him, and moans when he sucks on her nipple through the fabric.

“Can I take this off?” He breathes.

“Please.”

She sits up a little to help him, and he tugs it off of her. His large hands cup her breasts, and he goes back to sucking on them, leaving little love bites behind. He works his mouth down her stomach, and his hands work to undo her pants. He looks up at her and she nods, lifting up her hips to help him get them off. He leaves her underwear on for now, kissing on her hips, and opening her legs up. He sucks a bruise on her inner thigh, and she gasps. He kisses her over panties before hooking his fingers into them, and dragging them down her legs. She blushes as she opens herself up for him. She had done a full body shave, and now she was regretting it because she must look like a child to him even though she was the same age as him.

“I…I’m sorry, that must look weird.” She chokes out.

“What?”

“M’like a little too smooth, don’t you think?”

Harry runs his fingers over her folds and up her pelvis.

“Listen, whether you look like this, have a full bush, or something in between, I wouldn’t really care. It’s all about comfort, right? Does being shaved like this make you more comfortable?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Okay, so, no problem, Babe.” He smiles. “It’s actually kinda cute.”

“Harry.” She whines and runs her hands down her face. “Will you get on with it?”

He nods and lays between her legs. He uses his thumbs to spread her apart, and starts by licking at her clit. She gasps as he flicks the tip across the bud, and then laps around her folds. He licks over her center, and presses circles with his thumb into her clit. He dips his tongue inside her, only for a moment, before looking up at her. He runs a fingers around her wetness before pushing it inside, and putting his mouth back on her clit. She watches him with her mouth hanging open.

“God, that feels so fucking good.” She praises him, and he moans against her in response.

He gets a second finger inside her and makes the ‘come here’ motion over and over, petting over her front wall and pushing against her g-spot. His tongue continues to work her clit, and she starts to feel her orgasm approaching.

“Oh, oh my god, oh my god, Harry, fuck, I’m gonna come, ugh, don’t stop, I’m…I’m, fuck!” She all but screams as she releases around his fingers.

He fucks her through it, removing his mouth, but still pumping her slowly with his fingers. She was unraveling for him, and he loved the sight. He retracts his fingers and cups her cheek with his other hand.

“Liked that, huh?” He smirks.

“Felt amazing.” She smiles up at him dreamily. “Do you want me to, um-“

“As much as I’d love to get those pretty lips wrapped around me, I really just wanna fuck you, is that okay?”

“Works for me.” She chuckles, and watches him reach into his side table for a condom, which makes her smile grow more.

He slips his boxers off, and her jaw drops as he rolls the condom on. She was definitely thankful he fingered her first. He gets back between her legs, and runs his tip between her folds. Her hips buck up towards him, just wanting him to put it in already.

“Want me to fuck you?” He says.

“Yeah.”

“How bad?” He says as he just presses his tip against her and then pulls it away.

“R-really bad, Harry.” She nearly begs. “Please, fuck me.”

He presses his bulbous head into her, and she moans out from the stretch. He feeds her, inch by inch, and bottoms out. Her nails dig into his forearms.

“M’gonna move.” He says and she nods.

He rocks his hips in and out of her at first, letting her adjust, and then he grabs one of her ankles to throw over his shoulder, and he drives it in deep. Her mouth falls open, but no noise comes out. No one had ever filled her up like this before. He grips the head board with one hand and continues fucking into her. She moans out, maybe a little too loudly, but it wasn’t like his neighbor was home. No wonder she could hear whoever he brought home sometimes, he really knew what he was doing. With a stroke of boldness, she slides her hand up to his neck, and grips him lightly. He looks down at her, a little shocked.

“Is this okay?” She pants.

“Yeah, do it harder.”

She groans and does as he says. He grunts and moans as he starts to hit her g-spot again. It was quite the hot sight, seeing her small hand around his thick throat. Her other hand moves to rub her clit, and he almost loses it watching her.

“Y/N, I…fuck, I don’t know how much longer I can go, I’m s-sorry.” He bites his bottom lip to try to focus on something else.

“I’m almost there, almost there! Just keep going, please!”

Her back arches as he gives her a sharp thrust and she comes around his cock. He spills into the condom not too long after and collapses on top of her. She hugs him to her chest, and runs her fingers through his now damp curls. He lifts his head to kiss her, licking into her mouth. She welcomes it, molding her tongue to his. If he wasn’t so sensitive he’d probably grow hard again. She winces as he pulls out, and he quickly goes into his bathroom to get a warm rag to clean her up.

“You don’t have to do that, I can just use the bathroom.” She says as her legs lay limp. He chuckles as he runs the rag over her.

“I know you can, but I thought I’d help out a bit.” He knees back on the bed to lay next to her. “Will you stay the night?”

“You really want me to?”

“Yeah.” He runs his fingers up and down her torso, raising goosebumps over her body. “I don’t know about you, but in about ten minutes I for sure could go again.” Her head turns to him and she scoffs. “Or…not, we could also just cuddle if you like.”

“Mm, I like the sound of that.” She rolls over onto his chest, and he kisses the top of her head.

“Did I go a little too hard?”

“Maybe, but I like it like that so it’s fine.”

“You’re full of surprises, I like you a lot.” He blurts out, and she looks up at him.

“You do?”

“Mhm.” He smiles.

“Good, because I like you too. I’m glad you’re not a proper dick and didn’t kick me out.”

“Couldn’t do that to you, Babe. In fact, tomorrow morning, I’m gonna make you a big breakfast.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, and then we’ll get cozy and eat it in bed. Have a nice lazy day…you know, if you want….”

She giggles and moves to straddle him. He grips her hips and looks up at her confused.

“You’ve sold me, I can go again.”

[reidswritings]

times they were just too cute

word count; 1.5k

warnings; nothing i think... nothing but horribly written fluff

authors note; i am the WORST at writing fluff. so i hope this is as good as i think it is. this will be a series,,, and right now i have five for sure planned but depending on how well it does, i might do some more!! so i hope y'all enjoy!!

one; spencer reid gives a very sleepy Y/N a piggyback ride through a farmers market. 

Spencer’s warm hand held a slightly cooler, smaller one, as he and his girl walked through the outdoor market. They marveled at each and every tent, smiled at all the fruit and vegetables that they passed. They passed the small, little rooms filled with different knickknacks and toys. It was nearing the holidays— Halloween, both Spencer and Y/N’s favorite. She, all day, picked up numerous seasoned figurines and handed them over to her Sweet Boy and he would laugh and kiss her head before placing it back down where she found it, swearing up and down that they had enough little things in their house (and that was true, the small nicknacks littered the small apartment. so much so, that it was borderline obsessive). 

His Pretty Girl had suggested that they go and pick up some pumpkins to carve later in the week and squash to cook for dinner that night as well as fruits to snack on, while they watched the list of movies they had created to get them in the Halloween spirit. Spencer, being the homebody he is (but if we’re being honest, he wanted to stay home because he just wanted to have his girl all to himself. well, that and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to spend his day with a bunch of random germy people), was on the fence about spending the day with hundreds of other people in a small area— but his girl got the better of him and he ultmetely agreed. Like she had told him, they barely ever got a day off, they should spend it together— not one person out running errands while the other slept the day away.

They had been walking—shopping— for hours, both Spencer and Y/N’s arms filled with too many bags of good food and cute nicknacks, and carve-worthy pumpkins. The Pretty Girl was hoping to carve the pumpkins the following weekend— that is, if there wasn’t another case that desperately needed their attention— don’t mistake it, Y/N (and Spencer) loved their job more than anything (expect, maybe, each other) but sometimes they craved the break from the constant string of dead bodies with the cold eyes. And if there weren’t, she could already imagine her and her Lovely Boy carving silly faces into the orange melon and sipping on flavored coffee and stealing quick kisses— even in her fantasies, it was perfect. 

They were both exhausted— Y/N more than her Genius Boy, of course. The tired girl was moping next to him, feet dragging beneath her. Her bags were falling to the bottom part of her arms, only inches away from the dirt covered ground. 

“Spencer,” she whined, dragging out his name. Spencer laughed to himself shaking his head, feigning annoyance. He knew this would happen. He knew that she would be too tired to continue on and that he would end up carrying all of the things— not that he minded, he loved the time spent with his favorite girl. No matter the cost, he’d move mountains just to be near her.

“No, no. No, you can carry your own bags— I have enough.” He joked; he knew that sooner rather than later, he’d be holding all the bags. And that was true, he was carrying most of their bags. Y/N had tried to carry more but Spencer was too much of a stubborn gentleman and refused to let her carry more than three. Not that she hadn’t tried, because she had, Spencer was just too stubborn— a trait he more likely than not learned from their good friend, Derek. She knew that he had given the innocent boy some tips when they were first going out. Much to Y/N’s surprise, too; she was glad he had done this, she was sure that with out the help, Spencer would’ve been a much different boyfriend— not that it would’ve been bad. It would’ve just taken him longer to let loose, to really be in the moment with her. Though, regardless, she would’ve loved him the same. 

“Spence, I’m sleepy.” Y/N straitened her posture, and shifted the bags to a more comfortable spot. She giggled, tugging on his arm, nudging it with her head before kissing his bicep. She then looked up at him and his heart swelled. He was caving; it was easy, though, when Y/N L/L/N was the person who held his heart in her hands. 

It was a Saturday afternoon— Hotch had given the whole team the weekend off, following a harder case (one involving the small humans— no one’s favorites).

The days were beginning to get cooler and the trees were starting to change color. And it made them happy to see that the world could still be beautiful despite all the darkness they would see in their day to day life. 

The boy laughed again, conceding. “Alright, hand ‘em over. Give me your bags, sweetheart.” 

It warmed her heart— the nickname that Spencer so easily called her. Spencer was not one for pet names or PDA or anything of the sort— but sometimes the love he had for the Pretty Girl got the better of him and he just couldn’t keep his hands off her. 

The sleepy girl perked up, smile wider than normal, warming the boy’s heart for the millionth time that day. She jumped up and down a few times and yipped excitedly (the Genius Boy’s mind compared her reaction to his young godson) and handed him the few bags she had wrapped around her wrists before he could change his mind. 

“Thank you, Pretty Boy!!” she smiled at the boy, who was now blushing and ducking his head, as if to hide the pink on his cheeks. The two had been together for over five years and he still was easily embarrassed and that warmed the young girl’s heart— just knowing that after all these years she still had that affect on the skinny man. 

They walked the long way back to their car, hand in hand, in silence for a few minutes before the tired girl once again groaned— pulling a loud, obnoxious laugh from the genius beside her. 

“What now?” Though the question seemed harsh, Y/N knew that there was no real fire behind the words. She let a laugh pass her lips too, body heavy, “I’m still tired, Spence.” 

As if to prove her point, she stopped, pulling her hand away from her boyfriend’s only to throw her arms out in a very obnoxious manner (another comparison to the young boy he saw so often). She yawned in the loudest possible way she could, her eyes scrunched shut, before she peaked one opened to watch his reaction, arms over her head, stretching.  

The boy had stopped too, bags falling to the ground with a inaudible thud. The Genius giggled and Y/N let her arms drop and she smiled. She loved it when he laughed like that. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it made her swoon for the innocent boy all over again. 

His mouth morphed into a smirk, he knew what she wanted, but he still asked, “What do you need from me?”

She grinned even wider, eyes wilder than any four-year-old being handed candy. “Carry me?” 

He would’ve said no, he would’ve joked and said she had her own two legs to walk on and that he was tired too and that she should carry him, but then he saw the look she was giving him.

She was giving him the look that she knew made him weak in the knees. The look that got her anything she wanted. The look that everyone knew was his soft spot. 

She gave him the look that caused his heart to swell more than it had ever had. 

And so, with his heart three times bigger than normal, he laughed and lowered himself enough that she would be able to jump onto his tall frame. “Get on, but you’re carrying the bags then!”

Ecstatic, Y/N gathered all the bags and jumped onto his back. The boy under her gripped her thighs, refusing to let her fall— no matter how tired he was, he would carry her until he couldn’t anymore. 

And maybe a few miles after that, too. 

Her arms, totes up to her elbows, wrapped—lightly, as to not choke the poor boy—around his neck and she giggled as he began to walk again. 

The boy smiled too and he said, “You know. . .you’re lucky I love you.”

“I know.” She ducked her head into the crook of his neck, bouncing with each and every step he took. She left a few, soft, kisses there, goosebumps raising in response. She felt the boy shiver beneath her. “And, I love you too, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.” Another giggle and another kiss to his neck and then his cheek.

[toomanyrobins]

December

Summary: Clint Barton, college football star, has a new interest: Y/N Y/L/N. But with her father gone all of the time, a younger brother, and going to college, Y/N has no time for dating. Will Clint get the yes, or will life get in the way?

Pairing: Clint Barton x Reader

Content warning: nothing really yet, occasional cursing, mentions of drinking and sex later

Word Count: 1.5k

Winnie had invited Nat, Y/N, and Asher to spend Christmas at the Barnes’ home. They had been hesitant to intrude, but once she explained that Steve was already coming and that she let anyone who couldn’t be with their family into her home, any arguments were thrown out the window. The only requirement was an ugly Christmas sweater had to be worn. Asher had been worried that Santa wasn’t going to know where to bring the presents, but as soon as Y/N explained that she had written him a letter, he had hopped on board.

What Y/N and Clint didn’t know was that behind the scenes everyone else was coming together to hang mistletoe and get them together. Even after Asher’s party and the football game, neither had made a move to make it official and it was making everyone lose their minds. Clint hadn’t been with anyone since that day in the parking lot where Y/N had rejected him. The will-they-won’t-they had gone on too long.

Christmas Eve, the Barnes home was packed to the rafters with holiday cheer. They all gathered in a giant bundle of blankets, pillows, and hot chocolate to watch Christmas movies. When it reached 10 p.m. they brought the kids up to Becca’s bedroom to sleep. They sent Winnie up to bed with the promise of cleaning up from dinner. The exhaustion from the day settled in and they lazily collapsed back into the pile of blankets. Y/N buried her head under a pillow, “I don’t want to move ever again.”

Clint chuckled at her dramatics, “We have two kids in the house. You’re gonna be awake in like six hours.” She lifted her head up to glare at him. Steve, Bucky and Nat decided that they were done for the night and headed upstairs, leaving the two of them alone. Before she went up the stairs, the redhead turned around and winked at Y/N, who glared back.

As soon as they were gone, Clint pulled Y/N into him, resting his chin on her shoulder. She smiled at the closeness, “Can we watch Nightmare Before Christmas? Please.”

He groaned, “We’ve had this discussion before. That is a Halloween movie.”

“It’s multi-holiday. I even waited until everyone else left so only you would be tormented.”

“Oh, I’m honored,” he deadpanned. Y/N looked at him with wide eyes and sticking her bottom lip out. Clint groaned, “Fine! We can watch the Halloween movie on Christmas Eve.” She grinned at him and pulled the movie up. They moved up onto the couch and as soon as the opening song began, she curled up into his side. He decided that he would watch this movie on every holiday if it meant spending alone time with Y/N.

It was only about 20 minutes into the movie when she realized how tired she was and didn’t fight as her eyes grew heavy.

Someone moving beside her had jarred Y/N awake. She groaned and put her hand out to keep them close, thinking it was Asher. She loved to force him to cuddle with her and the bed was warm. When she heard the deep chuckle, she realized it wasn’t her little brother. Clint leaned over and kissed her forehead, “Sorry, darling, I’ve got to go put my presents under the tree and help Winnie with breakfast.”

Y/N, still not fully awake, grumbled, “But you’re warm.”

“Alright, one more minute,” he curled back up with her on the couch and stayed until he was sure she was back asleep. Clint wanted to stay with her, but he knew had to get up before she did. He pulled the blanket up so that she was covered and headed to the kitchen. He quickly pulled the presents that he and Y/N had hidden in the closet and put them under the tree, before turning on the coffee maker.

Winnie came downstairs soon after and they started making breakfast for everyone. She leveled him with a knowing look, “I hope you kids didn’t stay up too late.”

“I think we were all done by 1:00. Y/N convinced me to watch Nightmare Before Christmas but she was asleep before we got halfway.”

“You need to ask that girl out and be done with it.”

He grumbled in embarrassment, “Ma, I’m going to. We’ve both been busy and I want to do it right. I have a plan though.”

“You’re a good man, Clint Barton,” Winnie patted his cheek and passed him the pancake recipe he’d requested.

When Y/N woke up again, she pulled on Clint’s Christmas sweater he’d left on the nearby chair. She padded into the kitchen and greeted them sleepily. Winnie passed her a mug of coffee with a smile before going to make sure everything was in the stockings and under the tree. Y/N’s head was still muddled from sleep and Clint couldn’t help but smile at how she looked. Her hair was messy and the sleeves from his sweater bunched around her hands as she sipped on the coffee. Y/N shuffled over to look at what he was doing and found him making Mickey Mouse pancakes, “What are you doing?”

Clint looked nervous, “Am I making them wrong? I got the recipe from Win. You said you made them for every holiday.” She was melting inside at the sweet gesture. She tried to think of something to say and couldn't. Her hand wrapped around the front of his shirt and pulled him in for a kiss. Clint dropped the spatula on the counter and wrapped an arm around her waist, burying his other hand in Y/N’s hair. She tasted like coffee and smelled like cinnamon. He heard her whimper as his tongue traced over hers.

“Something smells like it’s burning,” Steve walked into the kitchen, “OH!” They jumped apart and Y/N immediately mumbled something about checking on Asher before rushing upstairs. Clint turned back to the stove and dumped the burned pancakes, ignoring the amused look on his friend’s face. “Sooooo,” Steve drawled.

“Rogers, don’t,” Clint pointed the spatula at him, “You saw nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“But…”

“Nothing!” Clint walked upstairs to talk to Bucky about what had happened. He needed to get his shit together and hoped that Y/N would like his present. They had danced around each for long enough and Nat had been very helpful with ideas. His thoughts distracted him as he walked into Bucky’s room. If anyone else in the house was asleep, they were awake now after hearing his screams, “Oh shit! Oh God, MY EYES!”

A pillow whizzed past his head, “Clint, get out!”

Y/N came running out of Becca’s room, where the kids were sleeping. Clint had a traumatized look on his face and when she realized what had happened, she started laughing. Nat came stumbling out, pulling a sweater on. Steve had rushed up the stairs to see what had happened. When he realized, he threw his hands in the air, “Am I the only one not getting lucky this morning?”

Nat, who always loved gossip, gasped “Who was getting lucky?” She turned to Clint and Y/N, who were both suddenly very interested in the carpet. “Did you two…” Before she could pry any further, Becca and Asher rushed out of the room calling for presents. Everyone followed the excited kids and gathered around the tree to watch them open their gifts. They oohed-and-aahed at the gifts and after the kids had torn apart all of the paper from Santa. Winnie directed everyone else to start opening things from each other. Y/N leaned over to whisper in Clint’s ear, “Bucky already got his present from Nat.”

He dropped his head onto her shoulder with a groan, “Darling, I beg of you, never speak of that again.” Everyone was exchanging gifts now. The kids were playing on the floor while everyone else was on the couch. Clint pulled a small box out and handed it to Y/N, “Merry Christmas.”

She admonished him, “I thought we said no gifts.”

“Did you really think that?”

“No, I got you something too”

“Open this first.” Y/N was shocked to see two tickets to an art exhibit she had wanted to go to. It had sold out before she could get one and had been very disappointed. “I thought it could be our first date.”

“This is crazy. How did you manage this?”

“Pepper knows some people.”

Y/N looked around to check if everyone was busy and kissed Clint quickly, “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say thank you and that you love it.”

Y/N smiled, “Thank you. I love it,” She walked over to the tree and brought his gifts over, Okay so I have two presents for you. One is serious and one is fun. So take your pick.”

“Serious first.”

Y/N handed him a small box and was chewing on her bottom lip nervously. He opened it and picked up a key. “It’s to the house. You spend enough time there —”

Clint cut off her rambling with another kiss, not caring who saw, “I’m definitely going to use this key a lot.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@be-patient-be-good​

@spntiel​

[jefferoni-quotes]

things that go bump in the night

Posting this for a second time, cause I deleted the first one oops! I'm an idiot who messed up the first time.

This is Jamilmads! Just some pure fluffy Jamilmads for Halloween. There is nothing scary, just BAD puns

1225 words

Reblogs > Likes

Full fic under the cut!

Jefferson hates Halloween. He despises it. He hates the stupid costumes, the dumb obsession with horror movies, the kids that ring his doorbell all evening and into the night begging for sweets. 

But most importantly, he absolutely despises how jumpy he is. How easily scared he is. How simple it is to get a ridiculously girly scream out of him, just someone jumping out on him rips a terrified shout from him.

Even more than that, perhaps the most, he hates how the office takes advantage of that.

He knows it's Halloween, not based on the calendar, nor the sudden influx of party-sized bags of Snickers in every Walmart store, but by the dumb fucking 'scary' decorations littering every square inch of his office.

Goddamn it, everyone in the building is above thirty! How are they all so damn childish-? He'll never know.

Thomas physically winces at all the horrendous puns hanging in the office.

"Resting witch face" actually made him groan with dismay as he passed it, the puns got worse every damn year. 

There was a shiny, orange plastic banner hung in almost every room, made to look like pumpkins. They were often accompanied by black streamers, and when he stopped off in the break room, he found the coffee machine covered in fake cobwebs and plastic spiders.

Thomas sighs as he pushes the decorations off to pour himself a coffee, "that must be some sort of safety hazard," he mutters, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He watches his coffee pour, the air around him cool and quiet. His humming, usually silenced by the buzzing atmosphere, is a clear tune for once. It doesn't hit him until he's sipping from his mug while walking down the hall towards his office how… quiet it is.

It's so impossibly eerie…

Thomas takes a louder sip, hoping to alert the bat-eared Alexander. The man's biggest pet peeve was always people slurping their drinks, could always seem to hear it from offices away and would come storming in to insist they stop.

But one of his boyfriend’s does not come. Not even a whip of the man's emerald green coat tails fly down the hall. It's beginning to- not scare him. No, he's not scared, he's… apprehensive. Worried. On edge. It unnerves him, even as he pushes into his office. Still silent. Madison doesn’t appear with Alexander, the both of them are nowhere to be found. Neither of them. 

Thomas takes another drink from his mug, slurping again and burning his tongue. "Ouch," he hisses through his teeth and places the mug down on his desk, leans on it and peers around. 

Were the lights always off in the hallway?  

It feels ridiculous, a horror movie move, but he narrows his eyes. It's so quiet. Like the office has been deserted. Is it a day off and he merely hasn't been alerted? Surely Washington would've sent an email, and Thomas would've seen it! He reads his emails religiously every morning, an hour after he wakes as he scrolls through the news reported on through the night. 

"Hello-?" He finally calls, suspicious. "Is- is anyone there?" He swallows thickly. A slow creeping eerie feeling grows in his chest, a little swelling bubble of anxiety. His office door is ajar, showing off the dark hallways.

There's nothing. 

Thomas sticks his head out the doorway and suddenly there's something and it's jumping at him and he stumbles backwards with a yelp until he loses his footing as the thing screams.

Then the lights flicker on. 

Thomas groans, rubbing his forehead. He had landed on the ground, thankfully his office was carpeted. There's laughter, and a hand on his shoulder.

"Gotcha," the voice is smug as Thomas opens his eyes. Fucking Hamilton. Of course it's Hamilton dammit. "We tried to scare you in the break room but you moved-!"

"We-?" Thomas stares back at the doorway and of course- James is standing there, laughing to himself. He has a wide grin, eyes clustering with tears in the corners that occasionally drip down his cheeks. He wipes under his eyes with his thumbs. “I should’ve guessed-” Thomas scowled, getting ready to push himself to his feet, but Alexander sets a hand on his shoulder, sitting down on the floor beside him, crossing his legs to sit criss-cross (apple sauce). 

“You moved out of the break room, so we had to rethink our entire plan! We had to convince everyone to come in late just to pull this off! You know the things we have to do?” Alexander keeps speaking, as James collects himself in the background. Thomas can practically hear the cogs whizzing in his mind, clunking together to think up his next words very carefully. With whatever James is about to say next, no one can tell. There’s a fifty-fifty chance that it’ll be something either - gorgeously philosophical or a blatant, awful awful attempt at a ‘dad joke.’ A bad pun, a terrible hilarity. Whatever you may call it, when it comes to James Madison, truth be told no one knows what he’ll say next. 

“I have to do Angelica’s paperwork for the next month and Jem agreed to sign Lee’s next vacation leave for him!” Alex finally finishes his ramble, huffing and crossing his arms. “Your reaction was so worth it though-” he snickers, hand over his mouth as he laughs through his fingers.

James clears his throat, and suddenly the attention is on him. Alexander expects a poetic comment, a silk thread of words, sewn together by an expert hand. However - Thomas knows better. He knows fine well that the next comment is going to be some awful, cringeworthy pun. He waits. And then James’ smiles, eyes devilishly focused on Thomas. “Oh, yeah. You tried to run away,” he laughs before he even says the next thing, clearly pleased with himself. “You could be Jekyll but you still couldn’t Hyde.” 

Thomas groans at him and finally reaches into his pocket, tossing a pen in James’s general direction. It hits him in the stomach, but James casts it aside and keeps laughing, not bothering to hold it back. “That was scarier than you jumping out on me.”

“You love us really!” Alex cuts in, nudging Thomas on the side with a snide looking smirk. James still bares his beaming smile, and Jefferson can’t help but melt a little. His frown fades into a sheepish smile, a little sliver of teeth until he’s spouting small giggles. Alexander joins in until all three of them are laughing together in Thomas’ office. 

“You’re damn lucky I do,” Thomas ruffles Alex’s hair until he scowls and bats at his hands. “C’mere, James.” He gestures, beckoning him over until they’re all huddled on the floor together, crossed-legged and occasionally falling into little fits of laughter.

It’s silent for a long moment, just smiling as they scramble to collect their trains of thought until James’ lights up again.

“Let’s creep it real,” James starts and Thomas’ smile almost automatically falls. “We’re three gourd-geous men,” he snickers, as does Alexander.

“Who’re all Hallow-queens,” Alexander snorts, listening to Thomas’ noise of complete and utter dismay.

“Shut up,” he drawls, placing his hands over his ears with a screwed up face. James and Alexander laugh, cackling like witches.

“Don’t be a jerk-o-lantern!”

“James, I’m going to kill you.”

-

Yayy! Hope yall liked it 👉👈

PLEASE leave feedback I THRIVE on comments. I read the tags on every single reblog, it means a lot to me!!

[emutempo]

Strike A Pose (domestic SuperCorp one-shot)

Summary: Everyone has the day off but Supergirl. And even though it means leaving Lena home alone for much of the day, Kara's determined to make the best of it.

Posted to my Ao3 here. 

Notes: It's 4:40AM and I just couldn't sleep without getting this out of my head. And since I'm still anxious about posting any of my fics, I figured once again it'd be better to hit that post button before I get too nervous and hit delete instead. Anyway, I hope this brightens at least one person’s day.

----------

Rays from the sun pour in from the windows of Lena’s bedroom and her eyes flutter open as she feels the heat on her face. She forces her eyes open and stretches into a yawn.

She looked across the bed and first saw a mess of golden hair splayed across a pillow. Kara was still fast asleep after a long week working at the DEO. It had been a long week for both them and Lena was looking for to a relaxing Friday with no work.

 She was happy the 4th of July landed on a Friday this year. It usually meant she had a three day weekend with Kara all to herself. No L Corp, no CatCo. Except, today, Kara was on call. Even though the DEO was operating with the minimal crew, Kara had volunteered to cover for J’onn, Winn, James and Alex. They had been so accommodating of Kara’s requests for days off to spend with Lena that Lena didn’t mind.

Today would be like any other busy weekend day for them. They’d lounge around the house, playing board games, watching their favorite movies and cuddling on the couch. And when Kara was called away for her Supergirl duties, she’d give Lena a quick goodbye and take off to deal with the problem before eventually coming back to Lena and resuming their activities like nothing had interrupted at all.

For now, it was still early and the city itself was still waking up so Lena turned over and cuddled against Kara. Her head, barely hit the pillow before she fell back into slumber.

—

Later, Kara and Lena were sat up, cuddling on the living room couch, each with a cup of coffee in hand. On the TV, an episode of QI playing. Kara took a sip of her coffee before

Kara and Lena had taken to watching QI on their lazy mornings. Kara was fascinated with the random knowledge and discussion on the show and more-so with Lena’s endless intelligence. This morning, they were talking about the history of astronomy.

Kara cleared her throat, “so when did people start thinking the Earth was flat again? It’s like they’re afraid the Earth is round. They’re lucky it is or they’d be off floating somewhere in space!”

Lena loved these little conversations with Kara. No matter how long she’d spent on Earth, still so much surprised her. Lena shrugged. “You know, the only thing flatearthers fear is sphere itself.”

It took Kara a moment to realize Lena’s joke before a giggle escaped her throat, still a tinge of morning gruffness in her voice.  Lena stared into her eyes, trying to memorize the beautiful sound of Kara’s laughter. But it was short-lived as Kara suddenly tilted her head, listening.

Lena smiles, knowing in that moment that duty was calling to Supergirl. National City needed its savior. Kara looked up apologetically to Lena. “Small kitchen fire. No extinguisher. Should be quick.”

And a moment later, a whoosh fills the Lena’s living room as Kara disappears for a moment before another whoosh brings Kara back, clad in her blue suit and red cape. Lena blows her a kiss. “I’ll be waiting for you, Supergirl.”

Kara mimes catching her kiss in the air and puts it to her lips before stepping out onto the balcony. Even though Lena’s a little disappointed, she can’t help but smile as she watches her go.

Kara has the goofiest grin on her face she holds Lena’s eye contact. Lena smiles, shaking her head. She knows what’s coming and she waits for it…

Lena watches as Supergirl turns around and takes a big step away from the balcony door. She turns around in place and mimes pressing an elevator button before taking a patient stance with her arms crossed in front of her, as if waiting. A moment later, still ‘standing’ with her arms crossed, Kara slowly floats up into the air as if riding an invisible elevator until she’s out of Lena’s view. But not before giving the Luthor a playful wink.

Lena can’t hold back the laugh caught in her throat. It’s loud and she knows Kara hears it.

—

Later, they’re sitting on opposite sides of the coffee table, a chess board between them. It’s Kara’s turn but she’s gone on a rant and Lena doesn’t have the heart to interrupt her.

“I just don’t understand. Why are ALL of them so sad? Isn’t there a single period drama about two women falling in love where they get to be together? The endings are always so tragic. Unrequited love… pre-arranged marriage… and that’s only if we’re lucky enough one of them doesn’t die! Doesn’t anyone run away together? Or say ‘screw you’ to all the cranky old men?”

Lena can’t stop herself. She leans over the chess board and kisses Kara. It’s soft and sweet. When she pulls back, she gestures to the chess board and Kara finally realizes it’s her move. She hastily moves one of her pieces and by the look on Lena’s face, it’s not… the best move. But Lena ignores it.

“I think they’re just trying to be historically accurate, love. Times were a lot harder for us not too long ago.”

Kara doesn’t seem satisfied with that answer. “Well, I still don’t like it. No more sad movies like that one we watched last night. Here Comes the World… or was it… A World to Come?”

“The World to Come,” Lena reaches forward to brush a hair out of Kara’s face. “We could watch Gentleman Jack.”

Kara pouts. “That doesn’t sound promising.” Lena chuckles, about to launch into an explanation of the history behind the titular character of Anne Lister when she sees that signature head tilt again and Kara’s eyes focus into the distance. Lena’s puts her hand up over the chess board about to say, “Kara, mind the chess board—“ but it’s too late. Two back to back WHOOSHES and Supergirl is again standing before Lena, who’s eyebrow’s cocked in ITS signature position. Kara notices the chess pieces all over the floor and looks at Lena apologetically, “you were winning anyway?”

Kara leans in and gives Lena a quick peck on the cheek. “Drunken brawl. I’ll get everyone settled down and be right back.” She keeps her eyes on Lena’s as she backs her way toward the balcony door. The look in their eyes and the suppressed smiles on their faces tell us that, again, they both know what’s coming. Lena watches as Kara steps outside, her cape flapping in the breeze, and takes her superhero stance. She double taps the emblem on her chest and then puts her hands out behind her and takes off in flight… Is she serious?

Lena guffaws and yells after Kara. “Iron Man? Are you kidding me?” But Lena giggles. Kara knows she’s gonna give her a hard time for that one later. As if to dig in even more, Kara loop-de-loops and flies by the window on her way to the drunken brawl.

Yeah she definitely heard that.

—

Back at home with Lena and Kara relaxing in front of the TV. Kara channel surfs while Lena plays with her hair. She lands on a movie that’s just started.

“Oh, I love Megamind! Have you ever seen it?”

Lena shakes her head, “I think most of the animated films I’ve watched in my entire lifetime on Earth I’ve seen first with you. And we haven’t watched this one yet.”

Kara scoots up closer to Lena. “Can we? Can we watch it together? It’s one of my favorites.”

Lena puts her arm around Kara and pulls her in. “How many times have I ever said no to your movie picks?” Kara turned around, wearing a hurt look on her face even though Lena knows it’s put-on. “You keep saying no to Hocus Pocus!”

“That’s because it’s a Halloween movie and we should watch it on Halloween.”

Before Kara can protest… another head tilt and yep, a WHOOSH away and back.

“Car wreck on the bridge. Firefighters’ jaws of life aren’t working. Back in a jiffy. We’re not finished discussing this.”

Kara went straight for the balcony and Lena thought she wasn’t going to get a special send off. But, of course, Kara had something else in mind. She turns around and grabs her cape, pulling it up over her head in a somewhat childish maneuver.

What the hell is she doing this time? Then Lena gets her answer when the cape puffs up revealing Kara blowing air into it to resemble a parachute before she floats up, up, and away.

“Ok, that was a good one.”

She can picture the shit-eating grin on Kara’s face and shakes her head, turning back to the TV and hitting play.

—

Kara and Lena in the kitchen, making an early dinner. Kara’s arguing a point and waving a spatula around like a judge waves a gavel.

“You agree that Bette Midler’s amazing and this is one of her favorite roles she’s ever played. She said so herself. I know because she follows me on Twitter.”

Lena flicks a gravy-covered whisk at Kara, flinging the brown sauce onto her shirt and face. Kara mouth drops open and she freezes in place, shocked at Lena’s gravy betrayal.

“That’s what you get for showing off.”

Kara, hands and face still frozen, pivots to face Lena, “oooh, you’re going to be sorry for that.” With a burst of speed, Kara reaches out and tickle Lena’s sides. Lena squeals as she tries to escape but she knows it’s futile. There’s no way she’s escaping Kara’s grip so she does the next best thing and flicks more gravy at her. And now it’s Kara’s turn to squeal. “You are gonna HATE gravy by the time I’m through with you!” Kara dives for Lena but before she can catch her up in her arms again… you know what it is. The head tilt. Kara listens for a moment as she wipes gravy from her face and licks it from her finger. Lena takes a swipe for herself too.

Kara quickly glances at Lena before a smirk takes over her face. But Lena can’t stop her before…

“Kara don’t—“

… Kara WHOOSHES away, spinning the gravy off her body and flinging it EVERYWHERE, including Lena.

“—Do the whoosh thing.”

Lena stands there for a beat. Now SHE’s the one frozen with gravy-face. Kara whooshes back into the kitchen and licks a spot of gravy off Lena’s face.

“Break in at the pawn shop. Don’t try to sneak any kale into the fagioli ‘cause I’ll know.”

Kara makes her way to the balcony but Lena doesn’t turn around. She waits a beat for the tell-tale whoosh but doesn’t hear one. She knows Kara’s waiting for her to turn around and although part of Lena doesn’t want to give her the satisfaction of turning around, she does. Supergirl has places to be and she doesn’t want to keep Kara waiting.

Kara smiles as Lena turns around before jumping onto an invisible broomstick and doing her best interpretation of a witch cackle as she ‘flies’ off.

Lena rolls her eyes as she wipes the gravy off her face with a towel. “Ok, ok! We can watch Hocus Pocus when you get back.”

Lena goes to the fridge and grabs the bunch of kale she’s hidden in one of the fridge drawers.

—

The evening. Lena and Kara lay on the couch, the remnants of their dinner on the coffee table in front of them. Kara swipes a remnant of gravy from one of the plates and quickly dabs it on Lena’s nose. Lena’s nose scrunches at the cold liquid as Kara fights to keep a straight face. So does Lena.

“I’m starting to understand why these witches want to eat these children.”

Kara playfully smacks Lena’s arm. She knows Lena isn’t mad in the slightest. Kara giggles as Lena tries to lick the gravy from her nose with her tongue. But her tongue can’t reach. Kara leans forward and licks it off for her.

“I could eat you.”

Lena blushes and leans in for a kiss. It’s tender and sweet. Lena pulls away to look Kara in the eyes. “Well, you have put a spell on me so I’d probably let you.”

Kara’s eyebrows perk up and she bites her lip, “is that a request, Ms. Luthor?”

But of course… Lena doesn’t get the chance to answer before Kara’s head tilts once again. A beat before… WHOOSH.

“Run of the mill creep following a woman home. Give me five minutes to set this guy straight.”

Kara plops a kiss on Lena’s nose where the gravy was before she turns and runs straight out for the balcony. She doesn’t wait for Lena to turn around but Lena watches anyway as Kara takes a running leap toward the balcony bannister and lands on top of it. She takes a few more jumps like she’s on a diving board before leaping and tucking into a somersault as she “dives” off the bannister and disappears below the balcony.

“Go get him, love.”

Lena hits pause on the movie and sits back, staring off through the balcony windows at the city, her eyes filled with a dreamy haze. She’ll wait for Kara to come back and watch with her.

—

Later that night, Kara and Lena are finally lying in bed cuddling and listening to the last of the fireworks going off.

Kara flips through Twitter on her phone while Lena reads a book in one hand and uses the other to stroke Kara’s hair. She hears a small yawn escape from the blonde’s mouth and looks at the clock.

“It’s getting late. Are you ready to go to sleep, love? Should I turn off the light?”

Kara drops her phone dramatically and tucks her head into Lena. Her arm lands with a thud across Lena’s stomach, collapsing as if exhausted.

“I’m not tired if you’re not.”

Lena strokes her head a few more times before she dogs ears the book she’s reading and places it on her night stand. She leans over to turn off the light when she feels Kara sit up. She turns and sees Kara’s head tilted, listening. Lena picks her book back up, ready to continue reading while she waited for Kara to come back from another rescue.

“What is it this time? Wild assassin penguin on the loose? Three crazy witch sisters kidnapping innocent children?”

Kara stiffens up and tilts her head the other way. “No, it’s a woman…”

Lena sets her book to the side, noticing the serious tone in Kara’s voice. “Kara, what’s wrong?”

Kara looks at Lena, seemingly concentrating on a sound in the distance, a look of concern across her face. “She’s dying… of patience.”

Lena’s eyebrows scrunch together and she squints at Kara, confused. “What?”

Kara turns to face Lena, still as serious as ever.

“She has this girlfriend who keeps rushing off all over the city, leaving her alone at home and she’s just… been so patient.”

Lena’s face relaxes and falls into a lazy grin as she catches on to Kara. Kara can tell Lena’s savvy to her playfulness but she doesn’t drop the series tone.

“See, she’s a very important and very busy lady who doesn’t get a lot of time off to spend with her girlfriend and when she does, her girlfriend always has to fly off. So, if it’s ok with you, I’ve gotta go fix that.”

Lena pulled Kara in close. She didn’t try to feign shock or surprise or play along. She was too consumed with earnest love and she didn’t want to waste any more of their time today, “so how long will it be this time?”

Kara leans in close, kissing Lena with soft lips and tenderness, “forever.”

[mashtonasfuck]

there’s a ghost in the back of this room

Pairing: Ashton Irwin x Calum Hood (and also a bonus side of muke that happened accidentally)

Prompt:

Person B is a ghost in Person A’s house and they would be really freaked out but Person B always leaves really good advice using the kitchen magnets, so Person A is not really bothered

Warnings: mention of a missing person who reader knows is dead/a ghost

Word Count: 3K

A note from Lucy: This is part of the halloween writers collab organised by @maluminspace​ and @h0tsos. The masterlist can be found here. See the end of the post for more notes. Hey look, I managed to write cashton fic without it turning into smut! Thanks to @loveroflrh and @kindahoping4forever for reading this over for me 💙

If you’d like to be added to my tag list then please fill in this form

You can find my masterlist here

This work must not be reposted anywhere - I do not give my permission for it to appear anywhere other than on my blog, or on my ao3 page.

——————————————————————————

“Ashton, why does your fridge say ‘stop being an idiot’?” Ashton glanced over to where Luke was staring at the fridge door in mild amusement. 

“Oh, that’s just Calum - ignore him. I usually do” Ashton rolled his eyes as a picture fell off the wall as he finished speaking, the thud causing Luke to spin around, eyes wide.

“What was that?” 

“I just brushed past the picture and knocked it off, that’s all.”

Luke narrowed his eyes at Ashton, the older man chuckling as he hung the picture back up. 

“Come on, let’s watch this damn movie you don’t shut up about.”

–

Why did you tell Luke to ignore me

The question was on Ashton’s fridge the next morning, the letters a mishmash of colours and cases. Ashton pinched the bridge of his nose as he read it - only he would get a self conscious ghost living in his house. 

“Calum, are you here?”

A cupboard door opened and a mug floated down onto the counter a few feet away from him - Ashton took that as a yes and shoved a pod into his coffee machine before grabbing the mug and pushing the button. 

“I was only messing with you, Cal. Besides, you’re my ghost, it has nothing to do with Luke.”

Ashton watched as the letters on the fridge rearranged themselves, sipping on his coffee and humming at the bitterness dancing on his tongue. 

Do you not want your friends to know about me

Ashton groaned internally, how could he explain this to his house ghost without offending him? 

“I think they’d be pretty freaked out if they knew I lived with a ghost. You saw Luke’s reaction to you knocking that picture off the wall. Besides, I like keeping you a secret, you’re mine.”

It’s pretty hard for me to be yours when you’ve never even seen me

Ashton had in fact seen Calum. Or at least a photo of Calum. 

– 

He hadn’t been in the house more than a month when he started to realise that things kept happening. A photo moved slightly, the couch not being quite as tidy as he’d left it. The day Ashton had realised he actually had a ghost, he’d come home to find a new photo of him and Luke floating in midair. 

“Um, hello?”

The photograph was dropped hastily, as though Ashton had scared the ghost he evidently had living in his house. After that, Ashton started talking to the ghost, even though he never got a reply aside from the odd knock on a table or a wall. It was while he was at a store grabbing something for dinner that he saw the fridge magnets. He grabbed all of the packets they had and drove home with a grin on his face.

“So, I bought you these today,” Ashton held out the magnets towards where he hoped his ghost was, “I thought maybe you could try talking back to me?”

Ashton felt a small whoosh of air as the ghost moved around the kitchen and he tore open the first packet, dumping the contents into a drawer he never used. Almost immediately the letters started floating from the drawer towards his fridge and Ashton watched as the ghost arranged the letters into a sentence.

Hello Ashton

“Hello, ghost. Oh - what’s your name? It feels weird calling you ‘ghost’.”

The letters arranged themselves once again.

My name is Calum

“Nice to finally know your name, Calum. How was your day?”

I’m a ghost Ashton

The brunette snorted as he watched the letters form another sentence.

Boring thank u for asking

Ashton laughed before spending the next few hours conversing with his ghost - with Calum - via fridge magnets. Calum had told him his full name after Ashton insisted upon knowing it.

“If you ever piss me off, I need to know what to call you.”

Calum Hood

It lingered there for a few seconds before ‘Hood’ was moved over.

Calum Thomas Hood

Ashton turned it over in his mind. Why did that name sound so familiar to him? He thought nothing more of it until he was at work a few days later.

STILL NO SIGN OF MISSING MAN 

Police are still searching for Calum Thomas Hood, 24, who disappeared from his home 6 months ago. They’re urging anyone who may know anything about his disappearance to come forward. 

Attached to the article had been a photo of the missing man, and Ashton knew it was his Calum. (He’d later cut the photograph out of the newspaper and taped it to the bottom of his desk drawer where no one would find it.) When he’d got home from work that day, Ashton had asked Calum how he’d died. 

Not sure don’t remember

Ashton had debated telling the police that he knew exactly where Calum Thomas Hood - or at least his soul - was. He’d told Calum this one evening and a single word had appeared on his fridge.

Crazy

– 

Calum was bored. 

Sure, being a ghost meant that he could walk through walls and move things with his mind, but being bound to one place had its drawbacks. There were only so many times you could move things around waiting to see how long it took Ashton to find them before you’d moved everything. 

(He’d even tried to swap all the furniture in Ashton’s bedroom with all the furniture in his living room, but Ashton had come home earlier than Calum had anticipated and made him put it all back to normal without any help. Moving things with your mind was tiring. 

“You’re a ghost, Cal, how can you get tired?”

Calum had used all of the ‘i’s and the ‘l’s to make a middle finger on Ashton’s fridge door.)

Calum thought that Ashton could sense how restless he was. Ashton seemed to find new reasons to work from home during the day so Calum wasn’t by himself. Not that they could really interact unless Ashton was in the kitchen. They’d tried using a pen and some paper once, but Calum’s ghostly abilities didn’t seem to extend to pens. He couldn’t seem to get the pressure right to actually leave ink on the paper. Ashton had laughed at him before being met with a cushion to the face. 

Calum missed being alive. He missed being able to go outside. He missed coffee. He missed being able to pet dogs.

Most of all, he was frustrated that he couldn’t remember how he’d even become a ghost. At night while Ashton was asleep, Calum tried to remember what had happened. (There wasn’t much else to do while your best friend was sleeping.) He’d get so far into the memory and then something would tug him back into the present moment. It was disconcerting. Calum could sense that he was close to finding out the truth, but something was stopping him. He’d tried to explain it to Ashton but ran out of letters and gave up. He’d debated asking the other man to buy more, but had resigned himself to the fact that it just wasn’t worth it. Ashton wasn’t going to be able to help him figure out what had happened - it was something he needed to figure out for himself.

– 

“Hey Cal, how do you feel about me throwing a Halloween party this year?”

Although Ashton couldn’t see him, he knew that Calum had raised an eyebrow at his question. 

It’s your house Ashton

“Well excuse me for wanting to make sure my resident ghost wasn’t inconvenienced.” Ashton smirked at his fridge as Calum spelt out a new message.

Appreciate it

Sure, have a party

Ashton cheered aloud and began reeling off his ideas to Calum, barely giving the ghost time to form a sentence. Calum shook his head fondly at the man standing opposite him - if Calum had been alive and met Ashton, he was sure that they’d have been best friends. When Ashton had finished speaking, Calum had one thing to say.

You already have a haunted house Ash

– 

The party had taken Ashton weeks of planning and he’d dragged Luke into the prep early on in the process. 

Calum liked having Luke around - he was fun to mess with. He’d taken to moving Luke’s glass from wherever he’d put it down and putting it on the other side of the room. Watching Luke’s bewilderment was a new favourite activity of Calum’s - Ashton had to keep taking the fall for his antics. 

As Halloween rolled around, Ashton’s house really did look haunted. Every room was shrouded in black and there were cobwebs all over the place. (Calum’s favourite thing was the skeleton hiding behind the downstairs closet door that jumped out whenever you walked past it.) According to Ashton, the outside looked just as scary as the inside, but Calum had to take his word for it. 

As people started arriving, Calum retreated into Ashton’s room. He didn’t usually go anywhere near the other man’s room, but Ashton had told him that it was okay if he needed to get away from all the people. Calum was worried about being walked through. Ashton had done it a few times by accident, and Calum had felt sick every time it had happened. That was something they were both eager to avoid, especially once Calum had explained to Ashton how it felt. 

A knock on Ashton’s bedroom door piqued Calum’s interest and Luke’s head appeared around the door frame.

“Ash, are you - oh. You’re not here.” Luke started to close the door but stopped suddenly, pushing it back open and slipping inside before closing it behind him. He glanced around a few times, gaze running over where Calum was sitting on the end of the bed. 

“This is going to sound crazy, but is there someone else in here?”

Calum cocked his head at Luke’s words; he knew that Ashton wasn’t particularly forthcoming with Luke about his existence. He shifted off the end of the bed, moving across the room to stand about a foot away from Luke. The blonde let out a breath as he felt the temperature in the room drop slightly.

“Calum, right?” Luke’s voice was quiet as he spoke, Calum smiling at the fact that Luke remembered his name. He picked up a pillow from Ashton’s bed in response, tossing it gently towards Luke. The other man caught it easily, eyes growing wide at the pillow that was suddenly in his arms.

“Holy shit, you are actually real.” 

Calum let out a laugh at Luke’s words, amazement etched into the blonde’s face. 

“I’ll be right back, don’t go anywhere.”

The blonde left the room, returning a few minutes later with an armful of stuff. He dropped it all on Ashton’s bed before turning around and facing the room. 

“So, um, I bought a small magnetic whiteboard and some of the letters from Ashton’s kitchen drawer and I was wondering if we could talk about something?”

Luke watched in shock as the letters began arranging themselves on the whiteboard.

Hi Luke

What’s up

Luke sucked in a breath before he started talking.

– 

Calum knew this was crazy. 

Luke was crazy.

Just because it was Halloween, it didn’t mean that Ashton would suddenly be able to see him. Calum had always thought the whole ‘veil being thinner on Halloween’ thing was bullshit. Luke was insistent that it wasn’t, telling him that if anyone would be able to see him it would be Ashton.

“He’s in love with you, I think.” 

The way Luke had said it had been so casual, but it sent Calum’s mind reeling. Ashton couldn’t possibly love him. He barely even knew him. Luke had dismissed Calum’s concerns before he’d even completed a sentence on the board. The more Calum thought about it, the more he was sure that he was the one in love with Ashton. He paused rearranging the letters for a moment as he stared at Luke. 

Think I love him too

Luke had lit up with a smile at Calum’s words before slipping out of the room to find Ashton. 

Calum was sure if he had any contents in his stomach, that they would be on their way out by now. He was so nervous. Luke was so sure that this would work, that Calum found himself believing the blonde man wholeheartedly. It felt like an eternity before Luke finally returned dragging Ashton behind him, along with another man that Calum had never seen before. 

“Calum, this is Michael. He’s my boyfriend and he’s also slightly psychic.”

Michael blushed a deep red at Luke’s words, scanning the room before he locked eyes with Calum. 

“Hello, Calum.” 

Calum waved gingerly at the green eyed man staring at him, Michael breaking out into a smile. He glanced at Luke and nodded slightly, the blonde smirking at Ashton. Ashton was standing behind Luke looking bewildered as he watched the exchange between his friends. 

“Can someone please explain to me what’s going on? Luke, how did you find out about Calum?” 

Luke glanced over his shoulder at the brunette man and rolled his eyes. 

“Please, I don’t know why you thought no one would find the picture you’d taped to your desk drawer. Coupled with the fact that you kept blaming ‘Calum’ for things. You weren’t exactly subtle, Ash. I put two and two together and did a google search.”

Ashton’s jaw dropped open as Luke spoke, Calum snickering at his reaction. Michael smiled widely at Calum and turned to face Ashton. 

“You already know what Calum looks like, right?”

Ashton nodded slowly, fearful of where this was going.

“As we all know, the veil is thinner on Halloween, therefore allowing spirits to pass between the realms. I’ve never tried to bring an actual ghost through the veil, but there’s a first time for everything, right?” Michael rolled his shoulders as he spoke, turning back to face Calum. “Provided this goes right, we should all be able to see you. I mean, I already can. But Luke and Ashton too. Worst case scenario is that only I can see you, and this doesn’t work. You only live once though, right?” 

Calum rolled his eyes at Michael’s words, bracing himself for whatever the man was about to do. 

“Oh, wait.” Michael glanced at Ashton before looking back towards Calum, “Say something to me, Calum. I need to know if I can hear you already or not.”

Calum raised an eyebrow at Michael.

“You’re such a know-it-all, Michael.” 

Michael broke out into laughter, Luke and Ashton looking at him in confusion.

“This is gonna be fun, nice to meet you Calum.” Michael smirked at him before cracking his knuckles, “You’re gonna fit right in with us all, I’m sure of that.”

“Michael, what exactly are you going to do?” Ashton’s voice was nervous, he didn’t like the fact that Michael could see Calum when he couldn’t.

“We, my dear friends, are going to summon Calum firmly into the realm of the living.”

– 

Calum felt the air around him grow fuzzy as he watched the three figures sat on the floor in front of him. 

“Now Ashton, I need you to imagine Calum standing right in front of you. Really imagine it. See him in your mind’s eye. You got it? Good.” Michael looked away from Ashton and back towards Calum. “Cal, whenever you’re ready, I need you to come and stand in front of Ashton. I’m 80% sure that this is going to work. It depends how well Ashton is visualising.”

The brunette huffed in Michael’s direction and Calum smirked. 

“Is he always like this when I’m not around?”

Michael grinned at Calum before nodding and gesturing to the spot on the floor in front of Ashton. 

“Whenever you’re ready, Calum.”

– 

Holy shit

“Cal?” Ashton’s voice was barely a whisper as he stared at the man suddenly standing before him.

“Hi, Ash.” Calum blushed under the other man’s gaze, casting a look towards Luke and Michael who were both sat on the floor smirking.

Ashton blinked a few times before slowly standing up and reaching towards Calum. The other man grabbed his arm as he stood, helping to pull him off the floor. 

“How - how are you corporeal right now?” Ashton looked over at Michael who simply shrugged in return.

“You must be really good at visualising. It was only supposed to make Calum visible and hearable. Whether or not he was corporeal was out of my control.” Michael pulled Luke to his feet as he stood up, taking the blonde’s hand, “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to go and make out with my boyfriend in Ashton’s spare room. Nice to meet you, Cal. I daresay we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other in the near future.” 

Michael dragged Luke from the room, the blonde waving absentmindedly at Ashton and Calum as they retreated, closing the door behind them. 

“It’s really you.” Ashton ran his hand up Calum’s arm. The other man was wearing the same clothes as in the photo Ashton had seen, Calum’s leather jacket feeling smooth against his fingers. 

“It’s really me, Ash.” Calum brought a hand up rest against the back of Ashton’ neck. “It’s so weird to be able to talk to you and for you to actually be able to hear me.”

Ashton laughed quietly at Calum’s words, leaning forwards to rest their foreheads together. 

“I can’t believe you’re really standing here and I can see you. Remind me to get Michael a case of beer or something.” 

“Noted.” Calum grabbed both of Ashton’s hands, lacing their fingers together. “I’ve thought about being able to touch you for so long.”

Ashton hummed quietly at the other man’s words, the realisation finally setting in.

Calum was here. He could see Calum. He could hear him. He could feel him. 

“Ash, I need to tell you something.” Calum nudged Ashton’s head up so they were eye to eye. “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you.” 

Ashton smiled softly at the admission.

“Pretty sure I’m in love with you too, Cal. I mean, it’s kinda complicated because you’re a ghost and all, but I really do love you.”

Calum searched Ashton’s face for any sign of hesitancy before closing the distance between them. 

——————————————————————————

Notes: I deliberately left this open ended so I can come back to it in the future. I hope you like it, I’m really unsure about it 🥺 please let me know what you think here

Taglist: @pxrxmoore, @irwinkitten, @kindahoping4forever, @sadistmichael, @loveroflrh, @adoringlrh, @pinkbubbles-and-bigtroubles, @maluminspace, @malumsmermaid, @lashtonswildflower, @irwindoll, @castaway-cashton, @everyscarisahealingplace, @converse-luke, @zhangyixingxing1, @mrs-joel-pimentel-23-25

[ibelieveinharrystyles]

Chapter Nine: Baby You’re A Firework

In some ways life had become easier for Ashley since her pregnancy was leaked to the press, she could freely walk Daisy to school each morning without having to wear the baggiest jumper she could find. She was also inundated with kind messages from other women, who like her were raising children as a young adult, she finally felt ready for her baby’s arrival. Knowing the baby was due to come any day, Daisy was behaving more angelic, perhaps in an attempt to make Ashley’s life easier, or maybe it was to ensure she wasn’t forgotten about when the baby arrived. “”Mummy, when the baby comes will I still be it’s big sister?” Daisy asked as the pair walked to school.

“What do you mean Dais?” Ashley asked.

“Harry isn’t my Dad is he? But he’s the baby’s daddy.” Daisy replied.

“You’ll still be the baby’s big sister darling, in fact you’ll be the best big sister ever.” Ashley assured her. 

“I promise I will be mummy.” Daisy smiled as they approached the school gates.

“Be a good girl today poppet, and remember we’ve got Lou and Lux’s fireworks tonight.” Ashley told her, holding her tight in the warmest of hugs.

“Love you mummy!” Daisy cried before running through the school gates.

“She’s a sweetheart,” One of the mums beside Ashley remarked.

“I don’t know where she gets it from, I was a little tear away at that age.” Ashley replied.

“Surely it’s her dad, he is a national treasure after all.” The lady smiled.

Although Harry wasn’t Daisy’s biological father, the whole world just assumed he was, he loved her like she was his own, and for Ashley that was enough.

“So do you feel ready for the new baby?” Gemma and Ashley had planned to shop for bits for the baby, but the british weather has other ideas. They’d managed to find shelter in a small vegan coffee shop in the back streets of Hampstead. It was one of those cool instagrammable places with hanging ivy trailing across ceiling beams and pink neon light signs.

“It’s less scary this time, even though Harry won’t be there for the birth, I know he’s going to be the best dad.” Ashley replied, sipping on her hot chocolate.

“Definitely, he’s finally mastered flat pack furniture, he’s set up a little nursery in the room next to his.” Gemma smiled.

“You know a mum at the school gates referred to Harry as Daisy’s dad, but I didn’t correct her. Because it felt right.” Ashley told her.

“Daisy will always be his world, we both know that.” Gemma assured her.

“Yeah, she adores him.” Ashley replied.

“And he adores you. He’d move heaven and earth for you if he had to. Where did it go wrong for you two? You were so good together.”

“Maybe we were always just destined to be best friends, and nothing more.” Ashley sighed.

“Ash, I’ve seen the way you look at each other, even at your house when the pregnancy got leaked, he could’ve easily contacted Jeff to protect his reputation and let us look after you, but he went straight to you. For Harry, it will only ever be you.” Gemma explained, she knew her brother better than anyone else, she knew they were right for each other since they were kids. She saw Harry’s face on the day of Ashley’s prom, when she was a bridesmaid at Anne's wedding and when she was on his arm at the Brits, he adored her and he cherished her. If Gemma could put the way Harry felt about Ashley into bottles and sell it, she would, because no matter what happened, or what anyone said, he would only really ever have eyes for Ashley.

It was late in the evening, thankfully the rain had held off, Ashley and Daisy were at Lou’s house for a small bonfire night gathering, the kids were playing in the garden, toasting marshmallows on the bonfire with Lux’s dad Tom, while the mums sat in the kitchen eating the leftovers of the takeaway pizza the kids had obliterated. “So when are you due Ash?” Lou’s sister Sam asked.

“I was due for halloween, but clearly this one enjoys it in there more than Daisy did.” Ashley told her, she knew the baby would come soon as every so often she’d feel a little flutter or a kick in her ribs.

“Have you got any names?” Lottie asked, from across the table.

“There’s a couple, if it’s a girl I love the idea of another flower name to match Daisy, and if its a boy, there's a few nature related names I love.” Ashley had one name in mind, regardless of whether it was a boy or a girl, she wasn’t planning on telling anyone yet, but she knew it would be a name Harry would love and hold close to his heart forever.

All the other parents and children had left, Lux and Daisy were curled up on the sofa drinking hot chocolate while they watched a movie on the TV. “Hey Dais, what are you watching?” Ashley asked as she poked her head around the living room door.

“It’s my Harry.” Daisy whispered, Ashley looked at the screen to see Harry and the boys performing at the O2, the girls had chosen to watch the One Direction movie, a film that captured so many moments that Ashley held close to her heart.

“Do you think I made a mistake?” Ashley asked Lou as she returned to the kitchen.

“What do you mean?” Lou asked, Ashley raised her eyebrows, “You mean Harry don’t you?”

Before Ashley could explain her epiphany the sharpest shooting pain hit her spine.

She gripped onto Lou’s marble top counter, “It’s happening Lou, the baby’s coming.”

“Are you sure?” Lou asked.

“That’s definitely a contraction Lou.” Ashley winced, “Why do I only go into labour in kitchens?” 

“Tom’s out the back, I’ll ask him to stay with the girls, Daisy can stay here tonight. Where’s the baby bag?” Lou replied.

“In the hallway, in the cupboard under the stairs.” Ashley told her.

“Ok I’ll grab that and call us an uber, you sit down and I’ll tell Gem to meet us there too.” Lou instructed her.

Ashley pulled out her phone, ringing Harry, even though she knew full well he would be on set filming, “Hey Harry,” She winced as it began recording her voicemail, “It seems as though our little one is on it’s way into the world, Daisy’s in safe hands, she’s watching This Is Us with Lux, she is so proud of you H. I know you’ll worry but don’t because Lou is taking me to the hospital and Gem said she’ll meet us there. I’ve been a bitch these past few months, I should’ve let you in, but we both know that after the way other people have treated me before, that being open and vulnerable scares the shit out of me. I want you in the baby’s life and I want you in mine, frankly at this point I don’t care what capacity it's in, because you mean the world to me Harry, you’ve been the one constant source of happiness in my life since the day we met. From the day my dad died and you slept beside me because you were scared of what I might do to myself, when I had my first period and you spent your pocket money on a box of all my favourite things and when you were like a father to Daisy, that meant more than anything else ever could. Whatever happens between us Harry, whether we parent our baby as best friends, or whether we grow old and grey together, I will always be your golden girl.”

Compared to Daisy’s birth, this one was a walk in the park, Ashley was sat up in the hospital bed, already fully dilated and the nurses had given her the epidural to relieve some of the pain. “Right Ash, it looks like this baby isn’t hanging around, shall we get going?” The midwife said as she pulled on her surgical gloves. Lou had returned home to the girls, but Gemma stayed by Ashley’s side, holding onto her hand for reassurance. “When you’re ready Ash, I need you to push on the next contraction.” The midwife instructed her, “You are sensational Ash! That's the head delivered, I need you to push really hard to get this little one’s shoulders out now.”

“I am never letting your brother get me pregnant again.” Ashley huffed to Gemma after pushing through another agonising contraction.

“This baby is a chunky one Ash, I need you to give me one last almighty push, use every last bit of energy you have to push it out.” Ashley used every muscle in her body to push the baby out as hard as she could, until the once silent room was filled with the shrill cries of her new baby. “Congratulations Ash, you’ve got a little boy.” The midwife cut the umbilical cord and immediately placed him on Ashley’s chest.

“Hello little man, aren’t you a beauty?” Ashley whispered, a single tear of pride rolling down her cheek.

“He’s perfect Ash,” Gemma smiled, “You were incredible.” 

“Welcome to the world baby Robin.” Ashley whispered, already completely infatuated with her new baby.

“Robin?” Gemma smiled.

“I adored your stepdad, when we lost my dad he was always there for me, he always looked out for me, and I know how much Harry loved him, and it’s the only name that feels fully suited to him.”

Ashley was in love, her brand new baby boy lay sound asleep in her arms, his delicate little hands poking out of the sleeves of his baby grow. Gemma had gone home to get some sleep, which Ashley had encouraged her to do, so now it was just the two of them in the little hospital room. Ashley’s phone began to buzz and she picked it up to see Harry’s face, “Hello stranger.” Ashley grinned.

“Is everything alright? I got your voicemail.” Harry asked from the comfort of his trailer.

“Everything’s great you could even say perfect,” Ashley whispered, “Do you want to meet him?” 

“Him? We’ve got a little baby boy?” Harry replied, a smile stretching from cheek to cheek.

“This is our little baby boy, Robin.” Ashley told him.

“Robin? You know Mum is going to adore that, and I adore him too, thank you for naming him that.” Harry smiled.

“It only felt right, I think I always knew that’s what I’d call him, it just seemed to make sense.” Ashley replied, staring at her little boy in adoration. “He’s way bigger than Dais was, he weighed almost double what she weighed when she arrived.” 

“She’s going to love him.” Harry whispered, “I can’t wait until I can see you all in person again, I miss you all like mad.” 

“We miss you too.”

Robin made Ashley feel truly complete, it was the following morning and she had just changed into a comfier t-shirt and joggers, along with one of Harry’s tour hoodies. Robin was sleeping peacefully in his little cot, having just been fed, as she sent Harry yet another picture of their little boy, a little person popped their head around the door. “Hello Mummy,” She heard a whisper. 

She looked over to see Daisy, holding a balloon and a gift bag with Lou beside her, “Hello my best girl, how are you?” Ashley crouched down, greeting her daughter with open arms, “I’ve missed you so much angel.”

“I’ve been very good, Lou made us special pancakes for breakfast.” Daisy told her.

“That’s lovely,” Ashley smiled, “Thank you so much for having her Lou.”

“It’s no problem really, she is an absolute sweetheart.” Lou replied.

“Daisy, would you like to meet your little brother?” Ashley asked, Daisy nodded in response as Ashley lifted Robin out of the cot. “This our little baby Robin.” 

“Like my Grandad Robin?” Ashley was taken aback, she wasn’t sure if Daisy remembered him, but everyone loved to talk about him fondly, so Daisy must just have picked up on it, it melted Ashley’s heart that Daisy called him her grandad.

“Yes Dais, just like Grandad Robin.” For once it seemed as if life made complete sense, Ashley had two beautiful children who she loved more than anything else, and finally she knew exactly how she felt about Harry.

[maemi324]

Black Coffee

Hey there friends! It’s been a while hasn’t it? Today i come at you with a new piece for a new My Hero character! Well new to me writing him.  Here we have....Villain Deku! Inspired by this tiktok! https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJUywn9t/ it just screamed Villain Deku to me. This is my first time writing him, so if he seems a little OOC, that’s probably it.  Here are some songs I listened to while writing this 1. headless waltz- Voltaire 2. Don’t go by the river- Voltaire 3.House of Myth, Such horrible things, Gorey Demise, Grave Robber, Greatest Show Unearthed, Aim for the head, Buried Alive- Creature Feature 4. Spooky Halloween Mashup, Syndicate: Underground- Cover by Peter Hollens. Warnings: Robbery, Guns, violence, let me know if theres more I need to tag please! Only edited by me, so I’ve probably missed some stuff! With that! Let’s get into it!

Dawning light streamed in through the windows, the scent of coffee heavy in the air, steam from the hot drink you made rising softly. Soft music flowed through the room, other employees taking the chairs off the tables and whipping them down. 

You sipped your drink, your eyes barely staying open as you leaned against the counter.  It was far too early to be awake. Pain flashed through your mouth as you reluctantly swallow, your tongue protesting not only being burned but the now cool air that touched it. 

It was too early for your own nonsense. 

As the sun rose in the sky customers began their daily migration to the bean and leaf juice they all craved. Thankfully it was still rather early, only a handful showing up, and even fewer deciding to take a seat and enjoy their purchases. 

“I can help whoever’s next?” you call out, closing the cash register and looking up to the new customer with a bright smile. 

Bright viridian eyes stared back into your (e/c) colored ones, ones that you hadn’t seen in a very long time, since middle school in fact, his green hair cementing just who he was. Recognition dawned in his eyes. 

“Y/N?” “Midoriya?” 

A surprised laugh bubbled up, catching you by surprise, “I haven’t seen you in months- years even!” a short glare from your manager got you ready to enter in his order. Taking a peek behind him you saw that the line had lengthened considerably. “Y-yeah, it has been quite a while hasn’t it?” He stated his order, as you typed it in and gave him the total amount. He must have been pretty tired still as he stared into your eyes. You waved a hand in front of him, snapping him out of his daze as his face flushed a deep red, frantically digging his hand into his pockets to fish out his wallet- where had the damn thing gone- oh it was in his hand already. 

Even after all these years, Midoriya was still just as much of a spaz as he’d always been. He moves to the drink pick up location, leaning against the counter as you made his drink. “I wish I had more time to talk, but with the line growing…” 

“Well What if I came back later today? Or tomorrow?”  You prepped the cup, adding a drizzle of caramel to the sides, offering him a kind smile

“Yeah, I’d like that,” 

You handed him his drink and sent him off with a wave. A disgruntled Karen decided to ring the service bell as you hadn’t jumped back to take her order. 

Why did it have to be a Karen?

Unfortunately you were unable to see him later on that day.

However, just as you turned the sign from closed to open that next morning, you were surprised to see those same bright eyes aimed at you. 

“Well, you’re here quite early” you teased, opening the door for him as you walked in. It would be a while yet before people came into the little shop. He rubbed the back of his neck, eyes looking tired with circles under his eyes, “It’s been a long night,” He laughed off your look of concern, “Just work, nothing too terrible! I just thought I’d swing by earlier before I had to get back to it” 

Your coworkers paid no mind as the two of you walked to the counter as you made him and yourself a drink, taking a seat at one of the tables. No one was here and wouldn’t be here for a good half an hour. 

“So tell me, how have things been? Is your mom alright?” 

“Huh? Oh! Yeah she’s doing fine, still at the same place! She’s retired now actually” “Oh, good for her! I hope she’s enjoying it” you sipped at your coffee, thanking just about everything that you didn’t burn your tongue in front of him. 

“But what about you Midoriya? Last I checked you were wanting to become a hero?” While it would have been hard to be a quirkless hero, It wasn’t impossible. It probably wouldn’t get you ranked in the top five or even the top twenty, but so long as you were a good hero, what did rank matter? 

His eyes shifted from contentment to something a bit more sad, a deep sadness that surprised you. Just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, a hesitant laugh served as a cover. “Well, I did try, but eventually I just gave up. It just hit me that no matter how much I worked, I’d just be in the way of the pros. I could do some things sure, but...it’s not...it wasn’t enough. So I took a step back and found myself getting into computers, fixing them up, making sure they’re running properly. It’s...It’s nice” 

You place a hand over his, an overwhelming urge to comfort him raced down your bloodstream. His hand jolts at the sudden touch, but he doesn’t bat your hand away. “I always believed you’d make an incredible hero” it made you feel guilty that you hadn’t been there for him when he clearly needed someone, anyone even just to listen to as his one and only dream crashed around him. 

“I know you did, I appreciate it (Y/N),” he offers you a more content smile, “But I’m happy where I am now, really! Plus if I was a hero, I might not have met up with you again” 

You let go of his hand, though not before he gives it a gentle squeeze, picking up your drink and taking another sip. 

“I’m glad to see you're happy though, you said you were fixing computers?”

“Yeah! It’s not a big thing really, just a little repair shop. Clients bring me their various electronics, I clean them and fix them up! It can be really challenging sometimes, especially when it’s an older model! I swear I’ve seen some that I could have sworn were from the early nineties!” 

You listened as he rattled on about his clients, his eyes lit up, a subtle blush on his cheeks as he talked with his hands. More than once you had to back away from getting a straw to the eye, but you hardly minded. 

It became a regular thing, He’d come to the shop at various hours of the day, typically right at opening, on your break, or right as the last customer shifted out the door. You always had his favorite drink ready for him, though you had to fight him to keep him from paying. You didn’t mind after all, paying for his drink. He somehow always managed to sneak in the exact amount into your pockets or purse before he left, leaving you to discover it when he was far and unable to take it back.

The ass.

The more you met up the more open he became, you both talked about work and your grievances there. Now you were talking about anything and everything, TV shows you’d recently watched, movies you were excited to see, stupid stories about Karen's getting owned was a personal favorite. 

However His favorite happened to be the news. He was still hero obsessed as he’d always been. However, there was a more...critical insight into it. 

“Ugh” he huffed out, turning his attention from the TV, though muted, the subtitles were still on. It was currently showcasing Endeavor, how he rescued some civilians from a collapsing apartment building, from a disgruntled worker who had turned to villainy when kicked out of their apartment. They decided to take revenge on the landlord, though it quickly turned to chaos as the entire complex crumbled.

“What is it?” You paused from chewing on the straw to take a sip, “ is it Endeavor?” You knew damn well it was, but it was better to let him process through his words. “Yes! Look at him, smug as can be. He doesn’t even care about those people he rescued, He’s shown no comfort towards them, not even a glance to the children he’d saved. He acts as if he’s too good for them. A real hero would be reassuring, give a sense of calm to everyone involved in a rather tragic turn of events”  he sipped at his drink angrily, nearly choking on it as you patted his back.

“ You mean a hero like All Might?” you offered, knowing that the hero had a special place in his heart. 

Instead of the perky response you would have expected, his lips turned to a thin line, staring into a far off place beyond the TV.

“Yes....just like All Might” 

Figuring he was still going through the appalled emotions from Endeavor, you didn’t press the matter, turning to focus on something else, his latest client, or even a Karen you had encountered earlier that morning. He took your bait readily, eager to listen.

It took you awhile to notice, but during your lunch breaks, on the days he didn’t come in early, he would always be watching the news. He’d rip them to pieces with a barely concealed snarl. He’d rant and rave, while keeping in mind the other customers. He talked about the villains even, and how they were people as well, forced into unfortunate situations, where were the heroes then?

As much as you would have liked to stay in the hero worshiping normalcy, the more he went on the more you began to realize, heroes were actually rather corrupt. You could feel yourself becoming angry alongside him. Why did they do that? What about the people they were rescuing? What about these so-called villains?

You shook your head from your thoughts, looking down to see your next customer that afternoon, a young girl no more than ten years old just out of school and looking to buy a snack and a small drink. 

You sent her off on her merry way, happily sitting down at a table and munching on her snack. Checking your watch, you realized it was time to take your lunch. You sat down at your usual booth and waited for Izuku, sipping at your own drink.

The bell by the door went off, your eyes instinctively looking to see who had entered. Time slowed down as three men came in, guns at the ready and masks pulled over their faces. The first had a black mask, the second having a red one, and the third having a white one.

“Alright! Nobody moves, and no one gets hurt!” the first one shouted, as horrified shrieks went off in the small shop. “Put your hands up and go over there!” he motioned with his gun to collectively gather in a corner. You obeyed along with everyone else in the shop.

The second one aimed his gun steadily at the barista at the register, “No! Not you, you’re going to fill this with all the money you have!” He threw a bag over at the barista who shakily picked up the bag where it had landed, tears running down her cheeks. 

The third held out a bag to the gathered group, “ Put anything valuable in here! Watches, Jewelry, Money, Phones, all of it!” He shouted, an elderly woman shakily began taking off her earrings, another gentleman taking his wallet out. 

The young girl stared with wide eyes, tears falling rapidly down her cheeks, face red as she tried to be quiet, but her hiccups would not allow her. When red looked over at the little girl, her wails increased tenfold.

“Hey! Shut up before I give you a real reason to cry about. You don’t want that do you?!” he shouted, taking a step forward the girl took an extra step back as she put her arms out in front of her to protect herself.

“I said QUIET!” he raised his hand.

Your body moved on it’s own. 

You took the hit for the young girl, your cheek stinging from the impact. That didn’t matter, not over the safety of the little girl, the roar of your heartbeat thumping against your cheek.

“What the hell?!” “Just leave her alone! She’s a little girl, she’s just scared!” You held your arms out, effectively blocking her from view. The elderly woman took the girl to her side, watching for the slightest movement from the robbers.

“ So you want to take her punishment? Is that it brat? Fine,” He shoved you down to the ground easily, glancing over to the young girl, “Take this as an example of what happens when you disobey me!” 

You couldn’t hear anything, your sight blinded as well as his foot collided with your stomach, sending you rolling across the ground. He pinned you down as he punched you, over and over again, arms, stomach and your face, seeing stars as your head hit the ground.

Izuku...Izuku please....

You didn’t know what you wanted from him, whether it was to save you from the pain somehow, or to not show up at all in fear he’d try something heroic like you did. 

The shop doors burst open, a cloth or tape like substance shooting out from someone you couldn’t see, wrapping quickly around the robbers, dragging them to ram into one another, the shock of it making them let go of the guns they held so tightly onto. You faded in and out of consciousness, even though the sounds of battle continued on.

It was all a blur as you slowly came back into reality, sitting in an ambulance being checked over by a nurse. The other heroes who had arrived stood before you, scolding you for your actions.

“What were you thinking?! You put yourself and the girl at risk! They could have made you watch as they hurt her!” 

What was I supposed to do, let her be beaten?

“There were so many other things you could have done! Next time think through your actions before you do anything!”

What could I have done? You fail to mention what else I could exactly do. I didn’t even know what I was doing.

But you didn’t say that. You took the abuse as the nurse began to shoo them off, proclaiming that they’d made their point, nothing more could be said. It wasn’t long before the nurse gave you your results. You were a bit battered but otherwise alright, you’d bruise like hell but you amazingly didn’t have a concussion. Once you were home you were to Ice the bruising spots. With that they sent you with your things back home.

Upon entering your home you changed out of your clothes, something bubbling under your skin. It felt so up close and in your face you couldn’t decipher it. You changed into some incredibly soft shorts and tank top, wincing as you moved to change. 

The silence was too much in your apartment, with shaking fingers you called the only person you could.

“(Y/N)?” “Izuku..” something in you snapped as you heard his voice, a sharp gasp turning into a sob. “(Y/N)? What is it, what’s wrong?”  “I...Can...can you come over? Please? I...I don’t think I can over the phone”  “What? Yeah, Yeah of course, I’ll be right there!”  You gave him your address and hung up after that, flopping onto your couch and hugging a pillow.

It only took him twenty minutes to arrive, but it felt like forever and a second simultaneously. The swift knock at your door startled you out of your blank and racing thoughts. He was dressed in casual clothing, some jeans and some random white button up, a thin green vest over top. Your vision blurred as he stepped in at your allowance, going head first into his chest as you sobbed. He grunted from the impact, but wrapped his strong arms around you regardless. “ Shhh, shhh, it’s alright, I’m here. I’m here” he cooed softly into your ear, “ Here, let’s go to the couch alright?” You nodded but didn’t let go. You shuffled your way to sit on the couch with him, only parting to readjust his hold.

“There was an attempted robbery at the shop today,” you sniffed, resting your head on his shoulder, “ There was a little girl there...she was so scared, she was crying. The...one of the robbers got angry at her, which made her more scared. So I...I took the hit for her”

He lifted your face gently, examining the forming bruise. His frown showed his worry, but he didn’t comment on why you ran to this girls side, “ I was wondering about this black eye I see” You nodded, continuing your story, “Yeah...He didn’t like that I’d taken the hit for the girl...so as an example he beat me up. I don’t remember too much after the ‘heroes’ arrived.” you spat.

“But the heroes arrived and saved everyone, that’s good right?” he prodded. If you had been more aware, you would have heard the underlying tone in his voice. He didn’t really believe the heroes had done well, not with how you spat their name as if it was venom. 

“They told me i was stupid for putting myself in front of the girl, that I should have done something else! What else was I supposed to do? My body moved on it’s own! They could have tortured the girl to get a rise out of me, or hurt the both of us…” As you said those words, another sob tore from your core. “Maybe they were right, maybe I should have just...I don’t know. I’m so sorry I didn’t think of anything faster.”

Izuku cut you off gently cupping your face in his hands, thumbs softly brushing away stray tears. Your eyes refused to meet his.

“Oh darling, look at me,” hesitantly you looked into his eyes, filled with concern, determination and...something else you couldn’t quite place, but it was so soft...so powerful. “You’ve done nothing wrong, you are perfect darling. Without you, that girl could have ended up beaten, or worse!” 

The endearment was new, but not unwelcome, his words wrapping you in a soft blanket of safety.

“You did nothing wrong, you are perfect, everything about you, you’ve done nothing wrong. So please, don’t apologize” You leaned forward to hide in his chest as his words brought a fresh wave of tears. He gently rubbed your back, taking care if you so much as winced to move his comforting circles. 

“It isn’t right that they lectured you. You had just gone through a traumatic event, you needed reassurance, kindness. You aren’t trained to be a hero, you acted on instinct. An instinct that hardly anyone else in that room had. They acted so wrong to you” he whispered, “Those ‘heroes’ are what's wrong with the hero society as a whole. Things need to change”

“But I don’t know how to do that, or where to even start” you whined, your hiccups slowly dispersing. 

“Join me” 

Wait...what?

“Join you...I don’t...I don’t understand…” You look up at him, searching for any hint that it was a badly timed joke. You found none. 

“When I told you I worked with computers....I wasn’t lying, but only technically. You see, I work with this group, as a hacker. We’re going to show the world what these heroes really are, and the need to fix them. The roaches will have nowhere to hide, not from the public, and certainly not by the hero commission”

That was...quite a bit to process. He was a Villain?! All this time?! 

You were shocked, your heart sinking to your stomach. “Why...why didn’t you tell me?” You knew why the second you said the words...but you needed to hear if those were the same words he’d say back. 

“If I’m being honest darling...I was scared. You were always so kind, so soft hearted, to learn you were talking with a villain? Plus, it wasn’t like I could just...tell you in the shop right?” the corner of his mouth lifted up into a slight smirk, though it quickly vanished.

You thought back to today, how angry the heroes had made you. How many others did they tell the same thing when they were just trying to help? How many children paid the price? How many people? 

But the feeling of fists landing on you echoed back in your rapidly increasing heartbeat. You couldn’t do that again, not against a villain, not against heroes, not against anyone!

“I...I’m not cut out for villain work Izuku, you see what happened to me! I...I couldn’t go through that again...I don’t want to go through that again”

He pressed a soft kiss to your forehead, warmth blossoming from the spot. “You don’t have to, just...supporting me is enough, more than enough” he took your hands in his, gentle circles rubbed into them. “You wouldn’t have to quit your job, or move, or anything, just knowing you support me? It fires me up, I have to do this, for you, for everyone, to right the wrongs that have been done. What do you say?” his green eyes were lit up in hope.

Your hands squeezed his, “I do.”

[deanstop13billyjoeltraxx]

Superposition

a deancas college roommate au :)

Chapter 8 is up on AO3! Chapter-by-chapter masterlist here. 

CW: mentions of verbal abuse, homophobia, alcoholism, jail time. instances of smoking. 

some notes: I usually go through and italicize as necessary when I’m posting on tumblr because it doesn’t copy over from my og text, but this chapter is like 6200 words and i’m just not gonna do that. recommend reading on AO3 for the best experience!!

An Exercise in Futility

Three Years Earlier

Castiel was convinced that his life was one massive, cosmic joke.

He’d been considering the possibility for some time. Being the gay son of a homophobic pastor does that to a person. When he discovered, sometime around the age of twelve, that the girls in his Sunday school class were far less interesting than the boys, he could practically feel God laughing at him. Then there was high school, where the religious prattling was replaced by what felt like endless torment at the hands of his peers. 

He felt like college was quickly becoming the third punchline.

Not that things were bad. Things were good, actually, better than they’d been in years. He was learning about things he cared about. He passed his midterms with flying colors. He even had friends. He spent a weekend watching all of the Lord of the Rings with Charlie. He had switched seats in accounting to sit next to Meg.

And, of course, there was Dean. Dean, who dragged Cas to a football game and didn’t drink a sip of alcohol the whole time in solidarity; Dean, who, after Tombstone, insisted on movie night every Tuesday; Dean, who, demanded that Cas print out a copy of one of his short stories and sign it (“When you’re a famous douchebag, this is gonna be worth so much money”).

It seemed that, on all fronts, Castiel had finally capitalized on the collegiate promise of a second chance. 

But by his own estimation, he was doomed.

Because sometimes, his palms started sweating when Dean stood too close. Sometimes, his heartbeat skipped when Dean threw an arm across Cas’s shoulders. Sometimes, Cas woke up from a dream so vivid, he was disappointed to find himself alone in his bunk bed.

He could see how easy it would be to fall in love with Dean Winchester, what with the blond hair and green eyes, bright smiles and southern lilt, funny jokes and considerate actions. The prospect was utterly terrifying, and Castiel was doing everything in his power to stop dwelling on it.

He’d been down the “falling in love with your straight best friend” road before. AP biology class brought Cas a lab partner in Ben Wright. Soccer team captain, A-student, all around nice guy. Maybe Ben didn’t do anything to stop the constant verbal torment, but he never took part in it. At first, being around him was exhilarating. Sharing looks, catching smiles, trading inside jokes; Cas was intoxicated. He was so high on first love that he made the mistake of confiding in Bartholomew. Cas had always considered him to be a role model, friend and brother at the same time. But that night, when Cas came out, Bartholomew looked at him like one might look at spoiled food. He’d agreed not to tell their father, on the condition that Cas never speak about the matter again, that he figure out some way to “cleanse himself.” They hadn’t spoken since that night.

And so the feelings that once propelled Castiel to school with anticipation suddenly made him dread it. Not only did baring his soul to a brother get him a one-way ticket to estrangement, but Ben started dating someone else, a girl from his English class. Now every shared look was painful, smiles were false, inside jokes stopped being funny.

It was somehow worse, knowing Ben could never feel the same way. It certainly didn’t help the feelings of guilt and shame brought by his family.

Cas would do anything not to feel that way again. 

He started by insisting that Dean invite Benny and Charlie to more of their nightly dinners. And while he honestly liked the both of them, he would be lying if he didn’t admit that their presence was, first and foremost, a distraction from Dean. He took up running again, as a way to get himself out of the dorm when Dean decided to stay in. He spent more time studying with Meg.

Meg was shockingly easy to befriend. She wasn’t nice — Cas had watched in shock when, once, she dumped a hot coffee on a skateboarder who had knocked her down on accident — but she never said a mean thing to Castiel. She was like him: a black sheep, the child everyone wished they could forget. Only, where Cas had become an agnostic and gone to college, Meg had become a Satanist and gone to jail for arson.

But this was her new leaf, she told him. Maybe it didn’t matter why someone needed a second chance, only that they were willing to take one.

They had been working for an hour when she threw her pen at his head and said, “Cas, you should come with me to Sig Ep’s Halloween party tomorrow. Be my date.”

Cas took a moment to process the meaning of party + date + with Meg. “Uh, I don’t — well, um, parties aren’t really —”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re allowed to say no, hun.”

Cas panicked. Meg was looking at him expectantly, her resigned smile making it clear she was prepared for rejection.

“Well, I… It’s not because of you — you’re very beautiful, and smart. Actually, you’re one of the most wonderful people I’ve met here.” She grinned at that. “It’s just, I don’t really… Go on dates. With girls.”

She studied him a moment before understanding lit up her face. “Oh.”

Castiel fidgeted with his pencil, refusing to meet her eyes. He’d only ever done this once, and it hadn’t gone well. But he liked having a friend, and more than that, he liked having Meg as a friend. He didn’t want her to think he wasn’t interested because of any fault of her own.

“Cas,” she said. When he didn’t respond, she poked him in the arm. “Castiel.” He raised his eyes. “It’s cool. It’s not like you can just choose to like girls when a pretty one asks you on a date.”

“I… Understand, if you would rather not be friends,” Cas said, cautiously.

“What?” Meg’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about? Why would I not want to be friends?” She laughed a little. “That would be super ironic, considering I told you I went to juvie and you didn’t bat an eye.”

“Because I’m gay,” Cas said quietly, looking down again.

Meg grabbed both his hands. “Cas, hun, there’s nothing wrong with being gay.”

He looked up again, eyes wide. “What? I mean, I know that, I just… Not everyone does.”

Meg smiled sadly at him and gripped his hands a little tighter. “Well, I do. No biggie. We’re going to be iconic together, you and I. Sexiest gay-straight alliance of all time.”

Cas smiled weakly, relief flooding his entire body. “Thank you, Meg. I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to make any judgements on your character. It’s just… This,” he motioned at the air between them, “has never gone well for me.”

Meg shook her head. “That’s a shame,” she said. “I haven’t known you that long. But I think I can tell that you — all the parts of you — are awesome.”

“You can still come to the party,” she added after a moment.

Cas shook his head, capping and uncapping his pen repeatedly. “Parties… They’re not really my scene.”

“All right. You know who to call if you change your mind.”

                   On Halloween, Castiel returned from his nightly run to find Dean pulling on a flannel. He checked his watch — he had barely made it. 6:57 pm.

“Right on time,” Dean said. “I was about to leave without you.”

“I would have never forgiven you if you did,” Cas joked. Then, “Are Charlie and Benny coming?”

“Nah, they’re both busy tonight. Halloween parties, you know.”

“Oh.” Castiel took a large sip of his water. “You’re not attending a Halloween party?”

Dean shrugged. “Wasn’t really feeling it tonight. Plus, I have a feeling you’ve never seen The Exorcist?” When Cas shook his head, Dean rubbed his hands together. “Oh man, we are totally watching it tonight. Unless you’re busy,” he added, raising his eyebrows at Cas.

“I’m not,” Cas replied. Dean knew this already, of course, otherwise Cas might have made something up. The waters in which he tread got more dangerous each day. He couldn’t escape the warm feeling flooding his chest at the idea of Dean ditching the parties for a movie night.

It was precisely that feeling that caused him to hurriedly ask, “Would you mind if I invited Meg to dinner?”

“Who?” Dean asked, lacing up his boots.

“Meg Masters. She’s the friend from accounting that I told you about.”

“Ah,” Dean said. “Right. What, just me isn’t good enough anymore?” Cas thought he was joking, but it seemed forced.

“Dean —”

“I’m kidding, man,” Dean said with a short laugh. “Sure, she can come.”

Castiel hurriedly splashed his face with cold water and shed his sweaty t-shirt in favor of a hoodie. Dean feigned a sniff in his direction and made a face, to which Cas replied with an eye-roll. As they left their dorm, Cas sent a text to Meg.

CN (7:02 pm)

Would you like to get dinner with Dean and me?

CN (7:02 pm)

Unless you’re already at your party, in which case, be safe.

MM (7:03 pm)

Party not til later. hot roommate dean?

CN (7:04 pm)

...Is that a yes?

MM (7:04 pm)

Yes please ;) shocker dining?

CN (7:05 pm)

Yes. We’ll meet you there.

Dean grabbed a burger and an inordinate amount of fries while Castiel loaded his plate with spaghetti and a salad. Meg walked into the dining room just after he and Dean sat down, and Cas waved her over.

“Meg,” he said, offering her the seat next to his, “this is Dean Winchester. Dean, this is Meg Masters.” Dean smiled at her with a mouthful of french fries. Cas dropped his head in exasperation.

“Pleasure,” Meg said with a half-cocked smile. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Dean shrugged. “I am pretty awesome. Can’t say the same about you, though.”

Cas went bright red. He shot Dean a glare, then turned to Meg. “He’s joking —”

Meg’s grin only widened, and she giggled. “It’s all right, Cas, I’m not very interesting.” She raised an eyebrow at him. He became extremely intent upon eating his dinner.

Dean stared at her for a moment, chewing a bite of burger. “So,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “You know Cas from accounting?”

“That’s right,” Meg said brightly.

“So he’s your tutor or somethin’?”

Cas interjected. “Actually, Meg is far more capable than I am. She essentially taught me everything about liabilities.”

“Adorable,” Dean grumbled.

“Isn’t it?” Meg asked sweetly. “And you’re his roommate.”

“Yep.”

“Lucky you.” She gave him a wink. Dean choked on his diet Coke, and Castiel prayed to whomever was listening that he might cease to exist.

“Meg,” he said, giving her a pointed look, “did you finish the homework?”

She pulled her eyes away from Dean. “Yeah, I did.” She dropped her voice. “Did you want to go over it? At my place?” She winked at Cas, who stared at her in horror. Why was she acting like this? “You know,” Meg continued, “We can do other things too. Besides accounting.”

Dean cleared his throat loudly. “I’m gonna go grab some more fries. Do y’all want anything?” 

Cas and Meg shook their heads. When Dean had left the table, Cas gave Meg a death stare.

“What’s wrong with you?” He hissed. “I thought we covered this —”

“Yes, Cas, hun, I know you’re extraordinarily gay,” Meg said with an eyeroll. “I’m not actually interested. I’m just conducting an experiment.” 

Cas narrowed his eyes. “What ‘experiment’—”

He closed his mouth abruptly and leaned away from Meg when he saw Dean returning from the buffet line. He returned to his seat, looking between Cas and Meg suspiciously. Cas downed his water in one swift action.

“So, Dean,” Meg said after taking a bite of her pizza. “I hear you’re educating our friend here on pop culture.”

Dean didn’t bother to look up at her while he swirled a fry in ketchup. “Guess so.” 

Cas cleared his throat to interject. This direction of conversation was much better. “Meg asked what my favorite movie was,” he explained to Dean, who still hadn’t looked up from his plate. “I told her about how much I liked Back to the Future when we watched it last week.” 

Dean gave him a small smile. “Yeah, that movie’s friggin’ awesome.”

Cas turned to Meg. “We’re watching The Exorcist tonight.” 

Meg gasped dramatically. “So that’s why you blew off our date?”

Dean sputtered into his drink. “Date?” He said through a cough.

Cas looked helplessly at Meg, who unhelpfully smiled back. He was going to have words with her after this. 

“I asked him to come to the SigEp party, but he said he was busy,” Meg said, feigning a pout. “But I get it, parties aren’t really Cas’s thing, anyway.”

Dean’s eyes flickered quickly between Cas and Meg. “All right, am I missing something?” He asked. His leg was bouncing against the table leg, hard enough that Cas’s plate was vibrating. 

Cas looked at him, panicked, and stuttered out, “I don’t —”

“Like what?” Meg asked, sipping on her water.

“You his girlfriend or somethin’?”

This question delighted Meg. “Why don’t you ask him?”

Dean turned to Cas with an exasperated look. “Well?” He prodded.

Cas was sure he was about three different shades of red at this point. “What — I — no,” he sputtered.

Dean seemed to relax a little. Meg was still grinning like a madman. “There you go,” she said.

Castiel could not formulate a single coherent thought. He was confused as to how they even ended up here. The silence between the three of them was thick and awkward. Meg paid it no mind, just popped a strawberry in her mouth and gave Dean a sickly sweet smile. Dean excused himself to use the restroom, hitting his leg on the table and nearly tripping over his chair. Once he had left, Meg turned to Cas, her eyes sparkling.

“You are so in,” she said.

“What the hell was that?” He asked her. “What just happened?”

“He thinks I’m into you,” she explained. She took a bite of her pizza, then continued, “And he thinks you might be into me. And he hates that.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Cas scoffed.

Meg laughed, throwing her head back. When Cas fixed her with a glare, her eyes widened. “You really don’t see it?”

Cas pinched the bridge of his nose. “There’s nothing to ‘see’. I already told you.”

“Yeah, right. Whatever, you’ll thank me later.”

“For creating what is perhaps the most awkward dinner I’ve ever had in my life?”

She waved him off. “Don’t be such a baby, it wasn’t that bad.”

Cas gave her a look that suggested otherwise. She sighed.

“Look, the way you talk about him…” Meg grabbed Cas's hand when he rolled his eyes. “I’m serious. You like him, and now you know he likes you too.” She sat up proudly. “I just did all the heavy lifting for you.”

“Right,” Cas said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Obviously, this interaction points to an inevitable romantic encounter. Except, and I think this is important, Dean is not gay.”

Meg raised an eyebrow. “Well, the way he looks at you, he’s not straight either. Plus, he apparently still thinks you’re straight, so you two haven’t had that conversation yet. He could be flamingly bisexual and you would never know.”

“This conversation is exhausting.” Cas felt like he was watching a Disney Channel Original Movie, and Meg was a fifteen-year-old matchmaker.

Meg laughed. “I’m sure you’ll survive. By the way, did you actually want to go over the homework this weekend?”

“Yes,” he said, relieved at the change in subject.

Dean returned then. “Are y’all done?” He asked, pointing to their plates. Cas and Meg both nodded, offering “thank you’s” as Dean took their plates to the dish rack. They followed him to the exit, the crisp air sending a chill through Castiel.

“Did you want me to walk back with you, Meg?” Cas offered.

She beamed at him. “You’re so sweet, but no. I’m getting an Uber to Sig Ep, anyway.” She dug into her coat pocket and pulled out something small and black. “Plus, if anyone tries anything, they’ll find themselves electrocuted. Just a little bit.”

Cas grinned. Dean raised an eyebrow.

“See you on Monday, Cas,” Meg said, giving him a hug that lasted just a touch too long. “It was good to meet you, Dean.”

“You too,” Dean muttered.

They watched her walk away for a moment. Cas wanted to avoid looking at Dean for as long as humanly possible. He had no idea how he was supposed to explain the previous interaction.

“So,” Dean said, clearing his throat. “She’s… Nice.”

“She is,” Castiel agreed earnestly. “Dean, I’m sorry, Meg can be a bit…” He struggled to find an adequate descriptor. “I think she enjoys others’ discomfort a bit too much, sometimes,” he finished.

Dean let out a short laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. It’s not a big deal, man.”

They stood in silence, Dean looking at the ground intently, Cas tugging on the strings of his hoodie. Dean kicked a rock, then sighed. “You, uh, you ready to head back?”

“Yes,” Cas replied.

The walk back to their dorm was quiet. Castiel couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought Dean looked bothered. He felt bad — he had honestly expected for Meg and Dean to get along. He had thought them to be similar in their confident and boisterous personalities. Now, he wondered if that was precisely the problem. Too much personality at the same dinner table. He winced internally at his own poor judgement. Meg obviously took no issue with the encounter, but he worried that Dean might hold it against him.

Dean let them into their room, then wrinkled his nose at Cas once more. “Dude, seriously, go take a shower. You’re gross.”

“Actually, I enjoy the feeling of my sweat drying all over my skin. I was thinking of going straight to bed like this. It’s not as if I didn’t take a shower because of your constant insistence upon eating meals at the same time every day”

Dean made a gagging motion. “Hey, we had an appointment, and you were almost late. How is that my fault?”

Cas just rolled his eyes and gathered his things to head to the showers. He let out a muttered, “Crap” when he realized nearly all of his laundry was dirty. He’d been busy this week, and running every day tended to render his clothes unwearable after a single use. He made a mental note to do laundry first thing in the morning. He was able to find an old pair of gym shorts, but not a single t-shirt remained in his closet. Cas groaned inwardly. So he would simply have to sit next to Dean for approximately two-and-a-half hours, shirtless. Fantastic.

When he returned from his shower, Cas found Dean cooking two bags of popcorn, the title menu of The Exorcist already on screen. Dean stood up from the microwave when Cas entered, and was halfway into a thumbs-up when he did a double take.

“Uh… We goin’ shirtless tonight, Baywatch?” He said, tugging at his collar.

Castiel tilted his head. “I don’t understand that reference.”

“Of course you don’t,” Dean said with a chuckle. “Seriously, though, dude.”

Cas sighed as he sat on their beanbag. “I have a lot of laundry to do tomorrow,” he said by way of an explanation.

Dean didn’t respond, but made his way to his own closet. He ruffled through it for a moment before Cas was hit in the face by a t-shirt.

“Here, just wear one of mine,” Dean said. He coughed and crossed his arms over his chest. “‘S kinda cold in here, anyway.”

Cas held up the shirt. It was a Led Zeppelin graphic tee, vintage, from their tour in 1977. Cas raised his eyebrows at Dean.

“It’s pretty awesome right?” Cas donned the t-shirt. “Sammy got it for me from a Goodwill a couple years ago. Another of my prized possessions.” He looked at Cas with feigned scrutiny. “Looks good on you,” he said.

Cas played with the hem as he said, “Thank you.” Dean coughed again and walked back to the microwave to retrieve their popcorn. The air was palpable with awkwardness.

Dean turned out the lights. They settled onto the beanbag, as had become custom in the last few weeks. 

Not even thirty minutes in, Dean’s phone began to ring. “Hey, my brother’s callin’, can you pause it?” Dean said.

Cas obliged, and Dean stood as he said, “Hey, Sammy, how’s it goin’?”

Cas sat awkwardly with his hands in his lap, doing his best not to eavesdrop on Dean’s conversation. Though, he supposed if it was private, Dean could have moved to the hallway. Instead, he leaned against the door, twisting the beaded bracelet on his left hand. 

“He did what?” Dean suddenly yelled, and Cas jumped. Dean shot him a quick apologetic look. “

“Sammy, calm down, it’s okay,” Dean said, and Cas couldn’t pretend to not listen anymore. He looked at Dean with a silent question, but Dean was staring hard at the wall, his free hand balled into a fist. 

“Put him on the phone,” Dean said in a low voice. A pause. “What, so now he’s allowed to treat you like shit whenever he wants?” Another pause. A slow exhale from Dean. “No, you’re right. I don’t… I won’t make it worse.” Pause. “Do you want me to come down there? Because I will, you know I will.” 

Dean was silent for a long moment before asking, “Are you sure?” He sighed at whatever his brother said on the other line. “Okay. Let me know if you need anything, I guess. And Sam? I’m really fucking sorry. I should’ve stayed, I don’t…” He trailed off and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, I know. Yeah. Okay, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” 

Dean lowered the phone from his ear. He stood silently for a moment, angry gaze directed at the floor. Then, causing Cas to jump once more, he turned and hurled his fist at the door. 

There was a loud thud upon impact, and then Dean was yelling “Fuck! Goddammit!” as he cradled his hand. Cas stood abruptly, but had no idea what to do. He walked toward Dean, cautiously.

Dean’s eyes were closed, and he was heaving deep breaths. Cas put a hand on his shoulder. “Dean?” He ventured.

“Sorry,” Dean mumbled, still not looking at Cas. “I just — Fuck, that was so stupid,” he said, shaking out his affected hand. “Sorry,” he repeated to the wall. 

“It’s fine,” Cas said, even though he thought it definitely wasn’t. “What happened?” 

Dean just shook his head. Cas’s hand remained on his shoulder. He tightened his grip, a little nervous that Dean might shove him off. “Dean,” he persisted. “You can tell me.” 

Finally, Dean looked at him, and Cas thought if that level of rage was ever directed at him, he would promptly die. Instead, he raised an eyebrow. “Are you all right?” 

“No,” Dean growled. “I gotta — I don’t know, I need to calm down. I don’t actually want to break something,” he said, motioning to the door. “I’m gonna go for a smoke.” 

Cas dropped his hand and folded his arms across his chest. “I’ll go with you.” 

“Cas —” Dean started, but Cas silenced him with a look. He grabbed one of Dean’s flannels from his desk chair and threw it at him. Dean caught it with a cross between surprise and irritation. Cas grabbed his own windbreaker and put it on, looking expectantly at Dean. 

“Are we going?” He asked. 

Dean looked at him as if he was trying to decide whether arguing was worth it. A sigh confirmed that it wasn’t. He silently pulled on his flannel and opened the door, ushering Cas through before exiting himself. 

They walked in silence, despite the fervor of Cas’s concern and curiosity at Dean’s outburst. Dean’s jaw was set, and he took a long, slow breath when they hit the crisp fall air. When they reached the Impala, Cas silently moved to lean on the hood while Dean retrieved his lighter and a cigarette. 

Dean joined Cas as he took a long draw. He exhaled the smoke upwards, his eyes closed. His face was still turned to the sky when he asked, “This really doesn’t bother you?”

“What?”

Dean brandished his cigarette in answer, turning to raise an eyebrow at Cas. 

Cas shrugged. “It’s not particularly comforting. But, there are worse things.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked up thoughtfully. “Besides, you’ve been smoking for years. If anyone could convince you to quit, your random college roommate isn’t the most likely option.” 

Dean gave him a strange look before exhaling another plume of smoke. He coughed a little. “I think you have long passed the line between ‘random roommate’ and ‘new best friend.’”

Cas gave a little chuckle. “That’s good to hear.” Inside, his world was falling down and rebuilding itself anew. Dean thought of Cas as his best friend. Cas had never known that feeling, to have someone care about him like that. Cas wondered if that could be enough, being Dean’s best friend.  

He didn’t say anything more, though, just let Dean finish his cigarette. After throwing the butt on the pavement and stomping on it, he heaved a sigh. 

“My dad…” He started, but paused. “He, uh, he said some stuff to Sam. My brother.” 

Cas nodded, doing his best to keep his face neutral. Talking things through wasn’t Dean’s strong suit, and Cas didn’t want dramatics to make it more difficult. 

“What did he say?”

Dean shifted and rubbed his hands together. “Bunch of bullshit. ‘It’s your fault your Mom’s dead, it should have been you instead of her.’” Dean rubbed a hand over his mouth. “I mean, he used to say that to me. He gets into these moods when he drinks, says a bunch of shit he doesn’t mean.” 

Dean shoved himself off the hood and began to pace in front of Cas. “But I could take it, you know? Sammy’s just a kid. He doesn’t need to hear that.” 

“Your father says things like this often?” Cas asked, a tinge of horror in his voice. 

“He used to. But only to me. Never to Sam.” 

Cas took a deep breath, trying to discern how best to proceed. “Dean,” he said slowly, “he shouldn’t say those things. Ever. Not to Sam, and not to you.” 

“I’m just confused,” Dean said. “And pissed. Sam and him are usually okay. I mean, they’re not buddies or anything, but Dad leaves him alone for the most part.”

“I don’t want to overstep,” Cas said, “But it seems like your father used you as an outlet for misplaced rage. A punching bag, if you will. And now you’re gone, so Sam is the next best thing.” 

Dean met Cas'seyes with a horrified look. “God. I didn’t… You’re right. Shit, this is my fault, I can’t believe I —”

“No, Dean,” Cas growled. He stood and grabbed Dean by both shoulders. “This is your father’s fault. Not yours.”

“But I left Sam, alone, with him,” Dean said, and Cas could see panic rising in his eyes. “How could I do that, why —” Cas interrupted him again. “Why did you decide to attend college, Dean? What’s the real reason?”

“What?” Dean gave him an incredulous look. “I don’t know.” 

Cas tilted his head down, skeptical. 

Dean let out a long sigh. “Okay, all right. I went because Sam is smart, and he needs to go. But we don’t have any money. So I figured if I came and got a degree or some shit, I could make enough to throw him some cash while he goes to school. Get some summer internships and save up for his college fund. He’d probably still have to take out loans and stuff, but if I got a good job, I could help him pay them off.” 

Cas wasn’t sure what answer he had expected, but it wasn’t that one. He felt his heart break for the man standing in front of him, who did everything he could and more for the people he cared about and never felt like it was enough. 

“Would Sam ever hold that against you?” When Dean didn’t respond, Cas continued. “I know I wouldn’t. I have four older siblings, and not a single one of them has ever done something like that for me.”

“But—”

“You’re making yourself miserable over something that isn’t your fault,” Cas said. “Did you have anyone protecting you when your father went on a tirade?” 

“No, but—”

“Is Sam incapable of handling himself?”

“No, but Cas—”

“He’ll be alright, Dean,” Cas insisted. “You can’t live your whole life as his shield. You’ll break yourself trying.” 

Dean was silent, and wouldn’t  meet Cas's eyes. Cas dropped his hands and leaned back against the Impala. “Did you ever think that Sam might have wanted you to go to school simply so you could get yourself out? Did you ever think that Sam hates the way your father treated you as much as you hate what he did to Sam tonight?” 

Dean pursed his lips together, but his jaw relaxed slightly. Finally, he muttered, “I guess I never thought about it like that.” 

Cas felt relief wash over him. He’d never seen Dean like this — angry and frantic. Cas wondered if Dean always did this, shouldered the blame for every bad thing his brother had to endure. The thought made his chest hurt. 

Dean’s hands were hanging limply at his side. He looked exhausted. Against his better judgement, Cas grabbed Dean by the forearm and pulled him into a hug. Dean was still for a moment, but then sighed and rested his head on Cas's shoulder. 

“Sorry, man,” he said. “I didn’t mean to act like that, punching things and shit. I just get so angry, and I don’t know what to do with it.” 

Cas was trying very hard to form a coherent thought. “There’s no need for apologies. I understand.” 

A chuckle escaped Dean’s lips. “You must think I’m a complete nutjob, huh?” 

Cas tilted his head in consideration. Dean’s hair tickled his cheek. “No. I think your father spent years verbally abusing you, and you’re doing your best in spite of that.” 

Dean broke the hug abruptly. The sudden space between them felt criminal. “I mean, I don’t know if it’s abuse…” He started, but, at Cas's look, he trailed off. Dean rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks, Cas,” he said quietly. “Honestly, dude, I don’t know what I would have done without you.” 

Cas's cheeks warmed, and he shrugged. “You would have done the same for me.” 

Dean gave him a small smile. Cas’s heart nearly broke with relief. “I’m beat,” he said. “Bed?” 

Cas nodded eagerly. “Bed.” 

When they reached the stairs, Dean broke the heavy silence.

“So…” He began. There was a false brightness in his voice; he was obviously searching for levity. “You hanging out with your girlfriend tomorrow?” 

“If you’re referring to Meg, she’s still not my girlfriend,” Cas replied vacantly. “And yes.” He suddenly felt exhausted. First the mortifying dinner with Meg, then the heavy conversation with Dean. He hardly had it in him to field jokes about Meg being his girlfriend.

“She’s not your girlfriend yet,” Dean amended, giving Cas a smirk that didn’t meet his eyes. 

And what was Cas supposed to say to that? Meg was funny and smart and beautiful. She and Cas studied together on the regular. There was absolutely no reason he shouldn’t be interested in Meg from Dean’s perspective. 

Of course, if Dean knew he was gay… 

Cas didn’t know if he could face the consequences of coming out to Dean. Would he be upset that Cas hadn’t told him earlier? Would he be uncomfortable with a gay man as his roommate? As his friend? Cas may have expanded his social circle, but he still couldn’t bear to lose Dean. 

But, then again, Dean had defended him once already, without knowing whether or not he was gay. He’d sounded indifferent to the possibility then. And just tonight, he’d called Cas his best friend. Dean cared more deeply for his friends and family than anyone Cas had ever met. Cas was in that group. Dean wouldn’t shove him out of it because of who he loved.

Right?

As they reached the entrance to their hall, Dean poked Cas in the shoulder. “Hey, Earth to Major Tom,” he said. “You okay over there?” 

Cas realized he hadn’t said a word since they started their ascent up the stairs. He sighed heavily.

Perhaps this was as good a time as any. 

“Dean,” he said, but closed his mouth. He should just say it. He had nothing to worry about. This wasn’t Bartholomew. He knew that, but the words remained stuck in his throat.

“What?” Dean said, eyebrows raised. “Cas,” he prodded, waving a hand in front of Cas’s face. 

“I’m not…” Cas swallowed. “I will never date Meg,” he finished, with a pointed look. 

Dean side-eyed him as they walked to their door. “What, she’s not your type?” 

Cas gave him a lopsided smile. “You could say that.” 

“I dunno, man, maybe you should reconsider, you two are pretty adorable, in a gross way —”

“Dean.” Cas was about to rip his hair out. He wasn’t taking the hint. “She’s not my type. She’s a girl.”

Realization dawned on Dean’s face. “Oh,” he said.

“I apologize for not telling you sooner,” Cas said, bracing for the worst. “If that makes you uncomfortable, I understand —”

“What?” Dean practically shouted. At Cas’s look of surprise, he lowered his voice. “No, Cas, are you kidding? I thought I told you, after all that shit with Cole. It’s not a big deal.”

“Knowing your roommate might possibly be gay and knowing he is, indeed, gay are two very different things.”

Dean looked at Cas like he had just made the worst joke in the world. “I’m not gonna, like, try to move out.” As they approached their room, Cas stared resolutely ahead, walking with purpose. But Dean jumped out in front of him, a hand on Cas’s chest to stop him in his tracks. 

“Dude, it’s gonna take more than that to get rid of me. I lost my shit and punched a door, like, an hour ago, and you barely even blinked.” Dean crossed his arms over his chest.

Cas met Dean’s eyes and found unparalleled sincerity.

“I don’t… You’re not the least bit upset?” Cas asked, slightly incredulous. 

Dean shrugged. “You’re my best friend, Cas,” he said as he straightened. “Nothing’s gonna change that.” He pulled on his bracelet. “I do feel bad though, for making you feel like you couldn’t tell me. Not that you had to, or anything,” he added in a rush.  

Cas shook his head vigorously. “It has nothing to do with you, Dean. I’m… I’m new at this,” Cas explained. “The first time, with Bartholomew… I believe he was, as you would say, a dick about it.” 

Dean’s eyes turned stormy. “Bastard,” he said. “I’m sorry, Cas. You shouldn’t have had to deal with that.” 

Cas nodded. “You’re right. It was rather unfortunate. I haven’t spoken to him since the night I told him I was gay.” 

Dean moved back to Cas’s side and slung an arm around his shoulders. “His loss,” he said. “You’re friggin’ awesome, dude.” 

Cas smiled. Dean patted him on the back and let the two of them into their room. 

Cas brushed his teeth and climbed into bed. Dean returned minutes later from a shower, and he flipped off the lights as he made his way to his own bunk. 

Cas pulled off Dean’s shirt and threw it across the room. Dean’s head caught it, and he yelped.

“Thank you for the loan,” Cas said, smiling. 

An odd expression crossed Dean’s face before he threw the Zeppelin shirt back to Cas. “Keep it,” he said. When Cas gave him a confused look, he put a hand on the back of his neck. “I meant what I said. Looks good on you.” 

---------

tagging @nguyenxtrang :)))

[trashyswitch]

Picani's Therapy House

Chapter 2: Closing Hour Vibes

Patton and Remy are nearing the end of their shift, and are commenting on the people they've met and the work they've done, or rather hasn't gotten done. Things quickly turn silly.

“Half an hour, Pat! Half an hour till I can get my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season.” Remy said excitedly, cheering with 1 hand up in the air.

Patton smiled as he moved his fingers all over the keyboard in front of him. “Sweet!” Patton reacted.

“You bet it’s sweet! Pumpkin season is back baby, and back to give me that sexy, spicy autumn flavor. Mm, mm, MM!” Remy cheered.

“I think you told me that last year...almost spot on, too.” Patton told him.

“Did I?” Remy asked.

“Mm hmm.” Patton replied.

Remy stared off and blinked a few times. “...Huh.” Remy hummed.

Patton’s keyboard tapping was still going on. Occasionally, the tapping would switch to mouse clicks, before switching right back to the apple keyboard clicks. They weren’t extremely loud, and only made enough sound to administer some background white noise. But the apple keyboard had a specific higher-frequency tapping sound that sounded...almost calming if you liked it. Most of the time, Remy didn’t mind the sounds of the keyboard. It was usually a sign that Patton was hard at work. But at 4:07...you’d think the keyboard typing would die down…

“What are you even working on?” Remy asked.

“New patient profiles.” Patton replied.

“Did you finish creating a new profile chart for that blanket-obsessed emo?” Remy asked.

“Working on it right now.” Patton told him.

Remy grabs onto Patton’s shoulder, and pulls him aside slightly so he can see the screen. “Is he single?” Remy asks him.

Patton jumps at the sudden action, but quickly relaxed into a smug grin. “Why? You interested?” Patton asked.

Remy looked at Patton. “No. Just...curious.” Remy replied casually.

“Sure…” Patton teases as he takes a sip of his apple juice.

Remy sighs and scrolls down on the screen with the down arrow on the keyboard. “Is he a coffee drinker? What kind of music does he like? Is he a trick or treater on Halloween? Or does he lay low and watch scary movies all night? Does he sleep in often? Is he an insomniac? What kind of books would he read if he could choose? Does he prefer the sound of a storm, or the sound of chirping birds in the summer-”

Patton pushed Remy away with his hand. “If you’re so curious, why don’t you find out? I have his number right here.” Patton suggested.

Remy looked at the number, and bit his lip. “Mmmmm...nah. I might just wait till he shows up again.” Remy decided before he started to walk away.

“How do you know he’s coming back?” Patton asked.

Remy paused his walking and turned to look at Patton with slight worry in his face. “He’s coming back...isn’t he?” Remy asked, worry showing in his voice.

Suddenly, Picani walked by the office and peeked his head in. “Virgil is scheduled to come in on Thursday of next week.” He told Patton.

Patton smiled. “Sounds good!” He replied.

Remy let out a sigh of relief at the great news. “Hm...Cool.” Remy stated.

Patton rolled his eyes at Remy and smiled. “Looks like you have a chance…” Patton encouraged.

Remy smirked. “More like you do.” Remy teased.

“Don’t be ringing this back onto me. I’m not the one who fell head over heels with the new blanket monster of the Therapy House.” Patton mentioned.

“Hell yeah I did...Do you know how intimidating, yet adorable it was?” Remy asked. Then, Remy placed his soda onto the table, jumped over the empty spot on Patton’s desk and went to the chest filled with blankets. Grabbing a couple of the blankets, Remy covered himself in them and started walking around like a hungry zombie. “RAAAAWWWRR! I AM VIRGIL THE BLANKET MONSTER! FEAR MY COTTONY PRESENCE!” Remy declared in a deep voice, with his arms in front.

Patton allowed himself to laugh at the weird employee before focusing his attention back onto his computer. But he only got a few more sentences in before he was interrupted by a hand on the top of the computer screen. “How DARE you ignore the almighty blanket monster?! Blanket Monster is now greatly offended!” Remy told him in his deep voice.

Patton only continued to laugh and shake his head at the silly man. “Awww! Poor muffin!” Patton whined sarcastically.

“You dare not take the blanket monster seriously?!” Remy reacted in his deep voice.

Patton snickered a little bit and bit the tip of his tongue for Remy to see. Then, he shook his head before attempting to focus back onto the computer.

Remy jumped over the desk and landed behind the man with a loud stomp. “NOTICE ME!” Remy yelled at him.

Patton giggled and hung his head with a big smile on his face. “Noho.” Patton replied.

“NO?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO?!” Remy yelled.

Patton let out a snort as he hid his face in his arms on the desk.

“I NEED ATTENTION 24/7! NO MORE, NO LESS!” Remy shouted in his deep voice as he poked Patton’s side.

“AAAH! REHEMY!” Patton jumped as he reached for Remy’s hands.

“Don’t make me tickle you more.” Remy ordered.

Patton leaned back against the chair and giggled more. “Yohou barely tickled me.” Patton told him.

“Must the blanket monster resort to tickling in order to get their daily constant attention?!” Remy asked evilly as he started wiggling his fingers on Patton’s sides.

“HAHAHA! Ihihihihi’m wohohohorkihihing!” Patton laughed.

“Well guess what Pat? Work time is over! I need attention!” Remy declared.

Remy turned the chair towards him and skittered his fingers all over Patton’s belly. Patton’s eyes widened alongside his smile while he bursted into even more laughter. “NAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OHOHOKAHAHAHAY! IHIHIHI’M SAHAHAHARRYYY!” Patton begged as he struggled to defend himself.

A big smug smile grew onto Remy’s face. “It’s too late for apologies. Now:” Remy paused and started tickling Patton’s ribs next. “Accept your rib-tickling fate!” Remy declared.

Patton squealed and fell into a fit of cackles. His tied sweater sleeves swayed back and forth as he squirmed and wiggled around in the chair. Patton was even kicking his feet out in front of him!

“Wow! I knew my puns were funny, but I didn’t know they were THAT funny!” Remy teased.

Patton whined amidst his laughter. “IHIHIHI’M LAHAHAHAUGHIHING BEHEHECAHAHAUSE YOHOHOU’RE TIHIHIHICKLIHING MEHEHEHEHE!” Patton yelled at him.

“What? I’m not tickling you!” Remy reacted right before throwing his hands to his sides. “My hands are right here! Not tickling you or anything!” Remy told him. Sure enough, Patton was still hysterically laughing despite the sudden change. So, Remy took advantage of the amazing reaction for as long as he could, before resuming his swift tickle attack on Patton’s ribs.

Patton threw his head back and let out a lower, stronger bout of laughter. Remy gasped at the sudden change in laughter. “Wow! You have a low voice?! I had no idea!” Remy reacted.

“IHIHIHI DOHOHOHON’T! IHIHIHI DOHOHOHOHON’T!” Patton yelled back.

“You’re right: you don’t have a low voice. But boys with a high voice are naturally adorable. And that’s 100% something you are!” Remy told him before moving his fingers to Patton’s hips.

“Ihihihi’m nahahat CUHUHUTE!” Patton protested.

Remy gasped and stopped tickling him almost right away.

“Did you just...did you just tell me you’re NOT adorable?! Are those actual words I heard from your mouth just now?!” Remy clarified.

Patton couldn’t help but keep laughing at his dramatic reaction.

“Girl, you are a LITERAL HUMAN PUPPY! AND THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD THAT IS CUTER THAN A PUPPY!” Remy told him, cupping Patton’s cheeks.

Patton giggled and looked away. “Wehehehell...Baby pandas are cuter.” Patton muttered.

Remy sighed and hung his head in disappointment. This reaction alone, managed to make Patton burst into even more laughter. “How dare...how dare you contradict my opinion...how dare such an ADORABLE BEAN contradict my words! I am offended!” Remy jokingly scolded him.

Remy grabbed the blanket that was sitting on his shoulders, and wrapped it around Patton’s head to make him look cuter. Patton giggled and blushed before he made his smile even bigger to show it off. Remy just about exploded from the cuteness. How DARE this cute being exist in the regular world! How on earth can one man carry so much cuteness in one face?! How is this even possible?!

“Having fun there?” Someone asked through the door in the back of the secretary spot. Remy moved Patton’s squished face towards the therapist at the door. “How does one not die from seeing such a precious bean?” Remy asked Picani, showing him Patton’s slightly squished face.

Upon seeing Picani’s face, Patton gave him a smile and a wave. “Hi Doctor!” Patton greeted.

“Hello Patton! I see that Remy is going off on another one of his cuteness rants?” Picani assumed with a smirk.

“Mm hmm…” Patton replied, both embarrassed and amused by this.

“HE’S TOO CUTE!” Remy shouted again, squishing Patton’s face more. Remy removed his hands from the man, and squished Patton’s cheeks with his index fingers this time. “Squishy bean! Squishy bean!” Remy cooed.

Patton laughed and waved his arms around to get Remy’s hands away from his face. “Stahahap ihihit! Ihihi gehet it! I’m cute. You don’t need to repeat it.” Patton told him.

“But I must! I really must!” Remy told him.

“Oh please...Şüräle is much cuter than me by a long shot!” Patton argued.

Suddenly, Şüräle popped its head out from inside Picani’s shirt pocket. “Yes? I heard my name?” Şüräle called.

Patton paused the argument and quickly ran up to the man and his mouse. “Hi there Şüräle! We were just talking about you and how cute you are!” Patton greeted.

Remy snorted and rolled his eyes. “So unconvincing. I will admit: Şüräle is cute. But Patton beats him in the cuteness scale by a long shot!” Remy explained.

Picani’s smile quickly morphed into surprise. Wait, what did he just say?

“Nohoho ihi’m nahat! Şüräle is a mouse stuffy! There is nothing cuter than a mouse stuffy!” Patton argued.

Picani’s surprise morphed into relief. He didn’t want them accidentally insulting the mouse right in front of him.

“Ugh, come on Patton! Your face practically radiates happiness!” Remy told Patton as he sent him a few tickles onto the ribs. Patton squeaked super high pitched, and bursted out in cackles once more. “And it always will until you pass into the heavens!” Remy added.

Picani was smiling at the cute scene. But he was also biting his lip as he thought of Şüräle’s feelings. He could tell tiny Şüräle was fuming in his pocket. “Now Şürry, let’s think about this-” Şüräle jumped right out of Picani’s pocket and onto the desk, before sprinting up to Remy.

“Uh oh…” Picani warned. “You should be careful of what you’re saying, Remy.” Picani warned.

Patton looked down, and widened his eyes at the crawling stuffed mouse.

“What do you mean?” Remy asked.

Immediately after those words left Remy’s mouth, Şüräle crawled into Remy’s pant leg and sprinted up his leg.

“Wha-aaAAH! ŞÜRÄLE! GET- NOOOOHOHOHOHOHO! EEEEEEHEHE!” Remy shouted. Patton’s surprise face slowly grew a smile as he watched Remy quickly crumble to the ground.

It appears Şüräle had decided to start tickling Remy for his ‘insulting’ words! Feeling absolutely amused, Patton started cheering on the mouse! “Keep going, Şüräle!” He cheered. Suddenly, Remy’s underarms felt filled with a pair of arms. His shoulders were restrained by, you guessed it, Patton! With Remy pulled back yet still able to struggle, Picani had bent down, grabbed onto Remy’s feet and removed his shoes from his feet. With Remy’s feet exposed, Şüräle took advantage of the free spot and exploited the heck out of them! Remy’s protests, laughter and squeals filled the therapy house for a good while. It didn’t take long for an audience to build to see the surprisingly adorable sight, that is Remy being tickled by Şüräle.

By the time 4:30 came along, Remy was a giddy, giggly mess. It didn’t take long for Remy’s giggle mood to turn into a cuddle mood because soon, Remy was giving Şüräle all the belly scratches and all the cuddles for a few minutes.

By the time Remy had actually gotten his pumpkin spice latte, it was nearing 5:00. Yeah, Remy had to spend a few extra minutes at the therapy house against his will. But, he did get the chance to properly laugh and boy; was it worth it!

I'm gonna be starting a college course tomorrow, so the fanfic writing is going to be lessening for a couple months. This is not a full year college course: this is just a course that's a couple months long. So, I will most likely be back for more frequent fanfic writing. But for now: I hope you enjoyed my fanfic!

[spooky-draws-stuff]

Late Halloween post, sorry

The Egos horror movie

Written by me

Jackie and chase stood outside marvin's  door, waiting for him to answer. It was the month of October, and they needed to help marvin prepare for Halloween. Every year, marvin would dress up in a fancy costume and hand out candy to the kids in his neighborhood. He would decorate his entire house and cover it in lights. This year was going to be different because he decided he wanted to open his doors and allow guests to come over and vist for a party.

Jackie sighed and turned to chase. "It's hard to feel happy during this season. There's so much pressure on people to clean their houses and waste money on candy. I feel too old to celebrate Halloween."

Chase nodded and took a sip of whiskey. "It's not so bad though. You could come over to my place and we could watch a movie together."

"But we already did that last year! I'm just tired of being lonely. Ever since I moved away from the city and got a new computer repair job no one has been showing up to work on time. It's so boring getting only a few customers a day but it pays well." Jackie explained.

Chase finished his whiskey and handed the bottle to Jbm. "You shouldn't let others expectations bring you down. I know living in the city was a rough time for you and I get it, I understand. Sometimes it's hard to move forward. You can't just give up like this. You mean so much to me. You're my friend and I really care about you."

Jackie smiled, then knocked on marvin's door. "Hey marvin! What's taking you so long? Get your ass over here and open the god damn door!" Jackie's smile disappeared and he kicked the door aggressively. Marvin! Hey marvin! I SAID OPEN THE DOOR!" Jackie's eyes widened. The door slowly creeked open. Fresh blood was soaked into the living room floor as Marvin's lifeless body was posed in a disgusting shape. His mask was broken and chopped into bits. Large wounds covered his face as maggots crawled into his exposed ribcage. He had been dead for weeks.

Jackie fell to his knees sobbing and screaming. Chase threw up all over the lawn. "DAMN IT MARVIN! Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you call me? I should have never had that argument with you! I never got to apologize!" "I should've known better, I could've done something to make sure this didn't happen again! It's not my fault I swear!" Jackie stood up and turned around aggressively. "It's time chase. He has returned, and he's going to come for our sorry asses if we don't do something about it."

Chase looked confused. "Who's coming to get us? What do you mean?" he shuddered, his voice a childish tone. "How the hell should I know chase? He comes back every Halloween, and he won't stop until everyone of us is dead or even worse...A puppet..." "Think about it chase...He's always wanted the channel....and he's always hated Jack...but with us out of the picture, it gives him the perfect opportunity to strike and to take over. Once he has Jack in his grasp, there's no telling what he'll do to him...And then the fans, our fans chase...The ones who love us and support us will have no one to turn to...We have to stop him before Halloween night. We have to save Jack before it's too late..." Jackie exclaimed.

Chase didn't say anything at all. "I know a place where we can go, but we need to get a car first."

Schneep was driving home from work when he suddenly got an alarming phone call. Since he was driving on the road, he had decided not to answer it. The phone rang again, but he still refused to answer. 

Once Schneep was at his house, he opened the door to his garage and parked the car. Once he was sitting comfortably on his couch, he finally answered the phone call. "Hello? Who is this?" Schneep questioned. A bunch of static sounds layered over Chase and Jbm's worried voices played.

"We're in the car now"

"to your house!"

"Hurry!"

"It's an emergency!"

"Not much time"

"Only a few days"

"Marvin's dead!"

Schneep hung up and sat there, staring blankly at his Tv. Panicked thoughts raced through his mind. "Marvin's dead? Since when? Emergency? Where? Why are they driving to my house? What's going on?" "What did they do this time?" "Are they in danger?" "Should I call the police?"

Finally after a long wait Schneep stood up and walked into his bedroom. He reached into his drawer and pulled out a carving knife. In his closet, he pulled out a medicine kit with bandages in it, and then started packing a bag filled with surgical tools. He walked outside to the shed in his back door and carried wooden planks and a tool box into his house. He locked the back door with a padlock.

Inside the tool box were multiple chains and locks, a wrench, a wrist watch, a sledge hammer, a regular hammer, and nails. Picking up the board, Henrick took some measurements and started to nail it over the window. He did this to every window in the house. Once chase and Jbm arrived, he shoved them inside and locked the door.

"What where you doing out there, standing alone together like that? That's how you get killed," Schneep scolded.

"Chase, hand me those canned goods. Jackie, I need you to go into the pantry closet and search for the flashlight. There should be a notebook in there and a flare gun. The flare gun is for emergencies only, do not mess with it. After that, cut the power supply and turn off all the lights. Chase, I need you to start restocking the fridge and the pantry. Jackie, use the notebook to keep track of how much food we have. Everyone stay calm, do not under any circumstances use your cellphone at anytime. He can interfere with the signals and find you easily that way."

Chase and Jbm nodded and got to work right away. "But what about Jack? Is he safe too?" Chase turned to face schneep.

"Forget about him for now. We're going to survive this." Schneep pulled out a beer from the fridge and smashed it onto the floor.

"Hey! I paid good money for that thing!" Chase whined in protest. Schneep sighed heavily and face palmed, shaking his head. "If we're going to prepare for his return, then we're going to have to cover some ground rules."

"Who are you, my parent?" Chase talked back. Jbm continued to scribble into the note pad, humming a peaceful tune. "Chase, you are the most childish and immature person I have ever met in my entire life. You think I could trust you with the simple chore of handling a gun?" Schneep growled.

"Yes." Chase soon regretted what he had said and stood there awkwardly. Schneep left and pulled a white board into the living room. He started writing with a marker.

"Rule number one, never go outside"

"Rule number two, no more Tv"

Jbm walked over to the Tv and started smashing it with schneep's sledgehammer. Schneep nodded a silent thank you and continued his lecture.

"We already know he can travel through television. Same thing with radio signals, he can listen to our conversations. No more internet, he can find our address  that way too.

"Rule number three, do not let anyone into our house without my permission. He can disguise himself to look like us."

"Rule number four, he can't find you if you stay quiet. If you make a noise, he'll kill you."

"Rule number five, this is a hard one. No more alcohol. You cannot fight back if you are drunk. Common sense."

Schneep rolled the board to another room. Jbm layed down an air mattress.

Chase fell asleep on the couch. Schneep walked to his coffee maker.

Jack was busy planning for his next Halloween video. He had already emailed some ideas to Robin, and they were talking about where they could film it, which cameras they would use, what clothes he would need to buy, and what time during the day it could be released. He was thinking about doing another ego skit, but was also wondering if he should just buy a pumpkin instead. It was quiet that evening and the sun had already started to go down. Jack walked to his kitchen to get a glass of water and a snack. He sat down at his table eating a brownie. He paused after hearing footsteps somewhere. He shivered, the air was freezing cold. Jack grabbed a kitchen knife and held it close. "Hello? Anyone there?" he whispered. A tall shadow breathed heavily behind him. Jack squeaked as the glitch's arm choked him.

Jameson and Robbie were chilling at their apartment. Since Robbie didn't have a job and couldn't work due to his medical conditions, Jameson took care of him when schneep wasn't there to visit. Jameson worked at a local library for kids, and he didn't make that much money. The Tv was on, and the two of them sat at the couch watching their favorite show. Jameson looked at Robbie. "Hey, you want any popcorn?" he questioned in a friendly manner. Robbie nodded slowly, his faded purple hair brushing past his face. Jameson hopped off the couch and opened the pantry. Robbie waited patiently for his food. Jameson fell over, and his wrists started to burn as fire rose from the stove. He layed motionless on the ground, unconscious. Two strong arms reached for his legs and carefully dragged his body through the open window. Robbie looked up at the ceiling. "Where...Did..You go...Jameson?" he spoke slowly. Robbie felt a warm hand brush past his shoulder. When he looked behind him, no one was there. Robbie looked outside to see a moving figure in front of the house. Robbie's white eyes glowed angrily. "Give...Him...Back..." he muttered while crashing his body through the window. Anti smiled holding Jameson. Red strings pulsed in his hands. He didn't speak, but it seemed he was saying "Come over here an get him."

Robbie leapt high into the air, attempting to pounce on Anti. He became confused when fistfuls of grass and dirt filled his hands. Robbie's eyes stopped glowing. "What?" a blurr dashed by him, and then there was nothing left. Robbie, Anti, and Jameson disappeared.

Jack opened his eyes. Colored spots danced in his vision. He saw Jameson hanging from the wall, with two knives pinning down his arms. Jameson was still breathing, but had 2 syringes poking outside from his neck. Anti was busy sewing, carefully cutting some red thread. Anti's eyes glowed green in the dim light of the unknown location. He turned slowly, and Jack instantly panicked as soon as he saw him. Anti held a spool of thread and a needle. His messy brown hair covered half his face, and blood dripped from his black boots, the silver buckles on them glinting in the moonlight that poured through a tiny window. Robbie stood up, his eyes bleeding. Anti handed Robbie a scarf from the table. Anti pointed at Jack, and Robbie obeyed. Robbie approached Jack, cautiously tying the scarf around his mouth. Jack's entire body started shaking. Anti stomped on Jack's leg, the sound of Jack's bones cracking broke the silence in the air.

"Anything...Else...You...Need?" Robbie's arms went limp at his sides. "W-What did you d-do to him?" Jack stuttered, his whimpers muffled by the cloth. Anti snarled, and dropped down to his knees. He stared at Jack, his eyes stopped the light they emitted in the darkness. Anti shoved his clawed hand over Jack's mouth. "Shhhh..." he hissed, and looked behind himself quickly.

Anti picked up the needle and thread and Robbie looked at the chains holding Jack's arms. Anti then took his time to make careful incisions along Jack's left wrist. Anti sewed the thread into Jack's skin, making even stitches and avoiding his veins. Tears flooded Jack's eyes as he was forced to feel tiny pricks and thread under his skin as warm blood glazed his hand. Anti moved on to the next wrist, repeating the process. When it was over, he smiled and gave Jack a pat on the head. "Good puppet." he whispered hoarsely.

Anti's footsteps echoed across the wooden floor. He brushed his hand along the knife that was in Jameson's arm, and moved his head, admiring his work. Whistling to himself, he used his fingers to follow the blood trail on the wall. He meticulously pulled out the two syringes in Jameson's neck and shook Jay's head gently, making sure he didn't break his neck. "Wake up Jay. I've brought you a friend." Anti laughed. Jay said nothing, his eyes were shut tight. "Oh...That's disappointing...Maybe next time..." Anti returned to his work table and picked up a cloth that was soaked with blood. "No, not this one."  he talked to himself quietly. He put the cloth down and picked up a carving knife. "I'm going to give you a nice smile, Jack."

A loud scream belted from the cabin. Birds raced away from the danger.

Schneep was passed out on the floor, while chase and Jbm were drunk and playing uno. They had a secret stash of liquor bottles that went undiscovered by schneep. "Now listen here you little shit, my card, the red card says that I'm going to reverse what you just did, because you decided you were going to fuck up my entire strategy." Chase slurred. Jbm shook his head as his body swayed. "No, it says in the rules you're supposed to draw 20 or admit that you're too stupid to finish this game!" Jbm face planted onto the ground. "Oh god oh fuck I'm bleeding my nose oww"

Schneep jolted awake. "What is going on with you two? Haven't you watched any movies at all? IF YOU DRINK, YOU DIE! Any character who drinks gets killed, and you just ruined everything for yourself. So don't blame me if you two get dragged away or stabbed to death. Schneep yawned and then kicked the bottles away. He grabbed chase's hat and smacked his face with it. "Now stop goofing off, tomorrow is Halloween." he sighed and sat down on the couch, loading a shot gun. "Go clean up Jbm, and chase, go get some water. I'm sending myself to the front lines, I've been training all year for this day."

Schneep's house was very tall and well built. The windows were boarded, the power lines had been cut. The front door was locked multiple times, and the back door had been bolted shut. The car was filled with emergency supplies, a spare tire, and a full tank of gas. All possible weapons were removed from the garage, leaving empty space and lots of room to move. Schneep had drawn a map on the whiteboard and went over the plans for the layout in the house. Chase and Jbm had gathered anything they could use to fight with:Gardening tools,(Chainsaw, weed eater, Lawn clippers, and a rake) Knives, and the items in schneep's tool box(Hammer, sledgehammer, and a wrench) Schneep held his gun close to him and looked at the time on the alarm clock. "You have your pistol ready, chase?" Schneep took a sip of tea. Chase nodded. Jbm held up the rake. "It reminds me of my bow staff at home. I can definitely fight with this." He held it close to himself eagerly.

Schneep walked up to the window. He waved his hand at chase and Jbm.

"You see something?" Chase whispered.

Schneep peered through the hole he had carved into the wood that allowed him to have a tiny view outside of his house.

There stood a man, large and frighteningly tall. His brown hair covered his emerald eyes. A red wound oozed blood against his pale, icy skin. Dressed in black, his silver buckles were the only colors present on his boots.

Gripped tightly in his right hand, he held a large kitchen knife. In his left hand, he held up Jack's body. Schneep frantically glanced back at Chase and Jbm, struggling to breathe. His hands shook rapidly as he began to pick up shards of glass and cut up his own arms. Chase and Jbm said nothing, they were helpless to stop it. They were paralyzed against their will. They had seen Anti too. Before schneep fell onto the floor, he had written only a few words. "The Glitch returns." Schneep lied motionless before being able to move again. He tore off a piece of his shirt and covered up the hole. "New rule...Don't look at him" Schneep picked up his med kit and injected himself with Antibiotics before cleaning his cuts and bandaging himself.

Chase and Jbm hid behind the couch as the back door rattled viciously. A few rustling noises and the crackling noise of a lighter was enough to tell them to run. Too fearful, they did not move. Bright orange flames licked at the door. Footstep sounds moved to a new location. The door burned, the nauseating scent of ash and smoke filled the air. "Why didn't you tell us the door was made of wood?" Chase whispered harshly at schneep. "I didn't think that through!" Schneep shouted a little too loudly. A fist knocked a hole into the door. Everyone in the room held up their weapons. A boot pounded through the bottom of the door and succeeded, wood splinters and shavings littering the ground. Anti gripped both sides of the door before tearing it off completely. Fire bounced onto his clothes, and he calmly ignored it. With a clap of his hands the flames stopped. Without muttering a word, he tossed Jack's body onto the floor. Stitches were sewn into his cheeks, giving him the appearance of a forced smile. His mouth bled, and his jaw was damaged. His eyes were open, and he was still breathing.

With wild eyes Jack reached out to grab Chase's leg, crawling towards him. Chase lifted up Jack and they scurried into another room to hide. Anti did not follow them, it seemed he was not interested in his old prey. Schneep fired his shot gun multiple times at Anti, but Anti just teleported out of the way. The only time a bullet hit Anti was in his arm. Anti pulled the bullet out and dropped it onto the floor. The wound closed up as he regenerated.

Schneep picked up the sledge hammer and swung at Anti's chest. Anti's ribs make a popping noise, but they only mended back together. Anti grabbed schneep's shirt collar and choked him, lifting him high off the ground before slamming him into the floor. "You puppets are no fun to play with anymore." Anti took his time holding up his knife in an over strike motion as schneep scrambled on the floor. Schneep 's hand landed on the handle of a wrench and he tossed it at Anti's head. Anti dodged and he pinned Schneep down with his foot. Anti stabbed schneep in his stomach, blood spewing out of schneep's body. Anti took his foot off and picked up a hammer. He paused, and stared at it lost in his own thoughts.

Chase and Jack were in the garage, attempting to start the car with no luck. Anti had already cut the wires in the car battery. Jack was alive with only mouth injuries and a broken leg. He was missing a few teeth, and the strings sewn into his wrists were not deep into his skin.

Jbm was behind Anti being very still and silent holding up the garden rake. With speedy reflexs he wacked Anti on the head with the metal part. Fresh markings oozed crimson across his face. Anti touched his face and examined the blood on his fingers. He shrugged and stared at Jbm completely expressionless. Jbm took off running outside from the back door that had burned down. Anti picked up a chainsaw and started the mower, following Jbm at a snail's pace. Jbm stopped at the tool shed and desperately fumbled with the locks on the door. Anti was right behind him and turned off the chainsaw. "I don't need the channel in order to be feared. I don't need Jack in order to have control. I don't need the fans in order to have power. I am my own person now." He started the chainsaw again. "Now tell me, Jackie. Haven't you always wondered what your insides looked like?"

Chase hopped out of the car. "Jack? Can you speak?"

Jack nodded. "It...Hurts...Somebody...Please....Help me...The glitch...Anti...Has lost it....We're all going to die now...." He coughed.

Schneep was flat on his back on the sofa. Ropes tied his limbs together in complicated knots. He had multiple knives poked into his back. He wept softly into the night.

Jbm fell to his knees, begging for another option. Anti smiled and held the blade closer to his throat, the engine roaring. "Make a promise, and I won't decapitate you." he compromised.

Jbm nodded. Anti turned off the chainsaw. "Allow me to appear once a year for this little game. I hunt you all down on my favorite holiday. All you have to do is survive. Do you understand?"

Jbm nodded again, his entire body shaking.

Chase hugged Jack. "I'm sorry....I'm so fucking sorry...." Jack's eyes glowed green. "That's okay..." his voice distorted as he stood up and started healing, his body radiating a green color. He hovered above the air, his hair floating in different directions. "You don't have to be." Jack leaned back, his jaw unhinging as a sickening cackle unleashed itself from his body. Red strings shot up from the ground and wrapped around chase, encasing him in thread. Eventually the rest of his body was covered in thread.

"No...I never did." Jbm smirked. "What's so funny? What kind of last words are those? Isn't this the part where I enjoy killing you?" Anti tilted his head, curious why his prey was so talkative.

Jbm pointed at the sky. "It's sunrise. Time for you to hurry back home."

"No! NO! I CAN'T GO BACK!" Anti howled before going into shadow form. Smoke emitted from him as he raced to his cabin, where Robbie and Jameson were .Sunlight only hurt him the day after Halloween night.

Jbm looked in horror at the discovery of schneep. Schneep wailed in agony. Chase carried Jack, who had lost his memories of Anti but his body had fully recovered. "At least we're alive." Chase commented absent mindly.

"We sure are" Jbm gulped.

Jack cautiously pulled out the knives from schneep's back. "Not even that deep...He just wanted to torture him. Let's get him to a hospital. Jack examined Schneep's injuries before cutting the ropes that restrained him.

"Hey um chase....How did you get out of that rope trap anyway?" Jack asked.

"When the sun rose Anti lost his hold." Chase replied. "Who?" Jack looked confused.

"The glitch."

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 97

97

Keith never wanted to move again. Lance was preheat for a week, Coran having him stay with Keith to help keep his hormones and emotions stable, while Matt and Rieva were staying with Matt’s parents, Blue at Shiro’s. A new group chat was made between the four of them, plus Shiro, so Matt could keep them updated and see if the pair needed anything. What Keith needed was to be left alone with Lance. They’d spent three days at the hotel, Keith knew Shiro extended their stay, but he’d thought one extra day, not two. Lance tried to downplay his symptoms and tried even harder to be normal about the situation. Keith had to give a full report over what had happened on his end of things went the stakeout went south. Shiro had not been a happy camper. Keith forced through a whole heap of tests to prove he was fine, like he’d told them a hundred times. So when he finally escaped Platt to Lance’s house, he never wanted to leave.

And then Lance’s heat came.

Oh dear lord, had Lance’s heat come. The house would need a thorough scrubbing from top to bottom. It lasted four days, five if you included the fact it rolled into the morning of the fifth day. They’d “accidentally” discovered Lance really, really, liked it when he used the pocket pussy on him during sex. Blindfolds and restraints weren’t their thing. Keith thought maybe, but seeing Lance like that made him feel weird not in a sexy way, and the butt plug seemed to help Lance sleep better between the waves of need. The fifth day had been pretty brutal despite Lance’s heat tapering off. His boyfriend spent most of the early afternoon making love to the toilet bowl, while Keith “snoozed” against his back.

Coran had given them emergency contraceptives, but neither of them wanted to go without a condom, despite what their fevered minds told them before, during, and after. It was completely whack that their bodies got mad at them for being in a happy relationship that didn’t need a baby to prove it. Lance’s waves were more intense then when he’d smelt Sendak for the first time, but they’d made it through. Lance swallowing down one of the yellow pills on the fourth night when they noticed things definitely starting to calm. Keith had the suspicion that Lance’s vomiting was a side effect from that, and the stress of having so much sex that his dick felt broken.

Cuddling up together on the sofa later on the fifth day, Lance fell asleep sipping on one of his blood bags before his energy finally ran out and his boyfriend turned into a bat. Keith would have too if he could have, because even trying to walk had him shuffling. Lance’s body had wanted sex, his mind wanted a baby, but Lance himself wanted him to be okay. The moment his heat would simmer down, Lance would be asking if he was okay. His boyfriend too fucking sweet... and his arse too fucking good. They’d flirted with fire the first time, Lance’s legs locked around his waist, barely giving him space to pull out in time. Keith would like to say that was the only time, but when you wake up very hard and very in your boyfriend, you thanked whoever was out there for contraceptives as you wondered if you’d done this the first time around... as well as being amazed you could get in there when your boyfriend’s butt was already preoccupied.

Lance had spent two days as a bat, cuddling Keith wherever he went as he stayed clinging to Keith’s shirt. He’d had to go shopping for coffee pods and lactose free milk, Lance tucked up inside his jacket where he squeaked to make his wants known. They made a pretty good team, though one or two members of Garrison’s general public might now believe Keith was crazy from the amount of time he’d spent “talking to himself” in the supermarket. Keith didn’t care. He wasn’t dating them, nor was he friends with them, so he wasn’t going to let their opinion of him get to him.

Keith was in the bath with Lance when his boyfriend finally turned back. After a ridiculously long day. He’d brought a container up so his boyfriend could float without drowning. Lance had seemed sceptical, but after nearly losing him hiding too much body wash and filling the sink with bubbles, this seemed safer to both of them. Keeping their friends under control had seemed like less work than trying to clean up the bathroom after Lance accidentally flooded it with his sudden transformation. They’d worked out a system. Lance couldn’t push the buttons on the phone, so Keith asked him how he wanted to reply... kind of getting into being both of them, but not enjoying it when he’d make his boyfriend flap his wings and squeak his protest over something Keith said for himself.

He’d also gotten himself into trouble for calling himself an idiot when accidentally broken a plate and cremated his toast. Lance had bitten him for it. When Pidge and Hunk had learned Lance was not only home but also a bat, they’d invited themselves over. Pidge was the only one game to try give Lance flying lessons. His boyfriend couldn’t fly straight if his life depended on it. He’d flap his wings, get a few feet, even a couple of metres before gravity would remind him of its existence. Both their friends were disappointed when he and Lance came down humanish.

Still exhausted from the medication and his heat, Lance collapsed on the sofa, Pidge wrapping her arms around him and cuddling Lance tight. With Hunk on the other side, the bear of a man rested against Lance, arm around Lance and hand resting near Pidge’s knee. Neither of them knew what’d happened, they simply wanted to comfort their friend... while Keith fought down the need to protect Lance. He felt as if he really would have shot someone had they tried to come near Lance sooner. Had they come during Lance’s heat, he wouldn’t have lifted a finger to help them if Lance had torn their throat out. They could say what they liked about him, or try to pick a fight, but when they went for Lance, he wouldn’t stand for it. Like Lance wouldn’t stand for the same happening to him, or their friends.

With a sleepy Lance, and Keith not providing of their “romantic week away”, Hunk headed to the kitchen to make popcorn as they decided on a movie night. Lance mumbling about some movie starting with “G” that they had to watch together. Pidge pulling Lance’s hair for it and Lance pretending to snap at her finger with his fangs. Hearing something from the kitchen, Lance called out that he should invite Shay tomorrow for a family dinner. Pidge taking teasing Lance over having forgotten everyone thanks to his vacation. Cuddling the gremlin tighter, Pidge sighed dramatically, pretending to make a deal out of it, when Keith could see she was happy being back with Lance. Things were good.

This all led to Keith not wanting to get up and human the next day. He’d had his coffee, Lance bringing up breakfast in bed, to draw out their alone time together before the house swarmed upon by Shiro, Matt, Rieva, Curtis, Hunk, Shay, and Pidge. After having Lance alone to himself again, he wished he hadn’t mentioned Lance was bat, so they could have spent some more time together being boyfriend’s and not adults. Cuddled up after breakfast, Keith nearly jumped when Lance’s voice broke the comfortable silence between them

“I may have done something”

“Mmm?”

Lance moved to lay across him, looking him the face with a semi worried expression. Now Keith was getting nervous

“I... um... okay. So I know you’re like me and birthday’s are a bit of an issue... but I am... might have made plans for yours seeing ours are like three months apart, well, a little less”

Keith groaned. Yeah. Now he got why Lance didn’t want to talk about his

“Babe...”

“Do you remember when you said you liked hiking?”

Keith didn’t have a single clue where this was going. He liked hiking, but Lance didn’t seem so keen on it

“Yeah”

“And do you remember how you haven’t had much time to work on your photography?”

“Mhmm?”

“I may have organised for us to go camping for your birthday”

Keith blinked half a dozen times at his boyfriend. Camping for his birthday?

“What?”

“Not “camping” camping. But like a three night stay over the weekend... All of us too, but there’s like 3 seperate cabins and a small communal kitchen area. We’ll have a cabin, Matt and Rieva will have a cabin, and then the others will share the main one”

He’d done what? When? Since when had Lance had the time to sneak this in on him?!

“You did what?”

Lance winced. Keith too shocked to feel guilty at the harshness in his tone

“I’m sorry. It seemed like a really good idea at the time. It’s like a three hour drive from here and then a hike up to the cabins...”

“How? What... hang on... we haven’t even talked about my birthday”

“I know. I should have asked. I got carried away trying to think of what I could do for you on your birthday. I know Shiro’s been working pretty much nonstop and I thought maybe it’d be nice to be away and I should have asked but when I saw the photos I got excited and kind of maybe booked it on the spot”

Lance dropped his head to Keith’s chest, his boyfriend kind of seemed less than happy now he’d told him

“Hold up. I didn’t even want to do anything for my birthday”

“I know. We don’t have to make a big huge deal... I just thought... I thought maybe we could be there to show you that we care... and you know, hang out as a group somewhere other than here... and I thought it’d be a nice place for you to take photos”

Lance seemed really happy with the coffee table album Keith made up. It lived on the living room mantle between the bobble heads Shiro gifted Lance. But there was another problem to this whole plan

“What about work?”

“Coran okayed it because you have to work Halloween security and because, you know, you had to work my birthday too...”

Keith could see Coran being easily swayed when it came to Lance. It was kind of hard not to be

“You should have asked”

Lance sighed, rubbing his cheek against Keith’s chest

“I know. I know... I’m stupid and impulsive. Plus the next few months I usually get swamped with work. The holidays are hard for a lot of families. Sometimes I’m even working on Christmas Day and there’s been too many times I’ve had to request welfare checks”

Keith had had to work Christmas days too... all the Christmas crowds tended to bring out the less desirables, preying on people getting their Christmas gifts...

“But you don’t even like camping. Can you even go camping? What about the blood?”

Lifting his head back up, his boyfriend’s chin dug lightly into his chest

“Thanks to this super modern invention that science has gifted us with, there’s this super magical thing called ice. You see, you put stuff in ice and it stays cool”

His boyfriend was a dick. Ice was hardly a new invention

“What about the sun? How do you hide the blood?”

Lance shrugged a shoulder

“I cover up, and I’m the only one who drinks red wine. Pick a dark bottle, wash it out, then pack it”

That was... impressive. With the blood being red, you wouldn’t think it blood at the first glance of a wine bottle.

Reaching out, Keith ruffled Lance’s hair

“You’ve kind of... really smart”

“It’s not a perfect system... I mean, I only came up with it because Pidge wanted to hunt things like Mothman...”

“Mothman is real”

Until he proved otherwise, Mothman was real. Lance patted Keith’s chest

“Of course he is, dear. Anyway, I’ve got the information on my laptop”

“I still don’t know when you had the time”

“At the hotel on my phone. You keep saying you’re not great at this boyfriend thing, but it was really nice at the hotel. I thought about maybe going to the coast for a week, but you’ve got work, and Rieva’s got work, and so do Shay, Shiro, Curtis, and Hunk at his parent’s garage... so I thought a weekend would be better. Head down Friday around lunch, then back either Sunday night or early Monday morning”

“I suppose next you’re going to tell me you’ve gotten me a present”

“Yep. Only because you told me what you wanted”

“When did I do that?”

“Pretty much within the first month of meeting you. And if you’re worried, everyone else has chipped in to cover their part of the rental costs for the weekend. I covered yours because you’re the birthday boy”

Keith hadn’t thought about that bit. Lance could afford to treat them all, but knowing Keith would be uncomfortable with that had let everyone else contribute

“It’s not too much is it?”

“Nah, it’s off season at the moment with things cooling down. Apparently people don’t want to risk hiking when you could get soaked”

Pfft. He and Shiro had hiked in the rain before. It wasn’t terribly awful, but it wasn’t always great

“Whimps”

“We can take Kosmo too. He’ll have to be on lead up there and around the camp site. They used to trap there before humans over hunted the deer population. Matt and Rieva should be fine to run around the forest as long as Shay doesn’t see them”

Not as well as everyone else. Did Shay like him?

“I barely know Shay”

“Dude, you totally know her enough. She’s like Hunk’s soulmate”

Hunk was soft and gentle... Sometime’s Shay could be as ruthless as Pidge in chat

“She’s a lot like Pidge”

Lance rolled his eyes at him

“Who’s Hunk’s platonic soulmate. Shay is super shy until you get to know her. Then she’s as ruthless as Mami”

“Have you called Mami yet?”

“Nope. Wanted to do it with you. We should probably get up”

“If she was closer we could have brought her to dinner”

Lance brightened right up. His boyfriend always seemed kind of amazed that Keith thought of Miriam as much as he. Kissing his cheek, Lance pulled away, Keith knowing he was about to be forced up and to human

“That’s a great idea... I’m gonna call Mami and see if she can stay the night”

With Lance now super excited and wearing his “determined face”, Keith bit down talking Lance out of it. For her own safety, and the safety of her sanity, Mami really was better staying in Platt. All their friends were weirdos.

[stardancerluv]

Gotham Lockdown 2020

Part 5

Summary: You are a few months into the lock down...there has been an intesting turn of events.

Warning: Sadness, Frustration over being in a lockdown because of the virus, Drunkness, Jealousy, Implied Smut

Side Story to Creative Fervor

Stretching, it was another day where Roman slept in his office. He had been drinking more heavily in the last month. He had stopped shaving, which you never thought Roman would do. It was heavy on your heart that he had very little to do with the two of you. You knew he could go through moods or out bursts. Now there was no way to get Roman out of the funk he had settled into because of this invisible enemy. In the last month, you two had barely spoke much less spend time together.

You brushed out your hair, then braiding it, your heart twisted painfully as you glanced that the two framed pictures of you two that sat on your night stand.

One was when he was feeling quite cheeky and took a shot of the two of you on a hot summer day naked at the end of the bed. You had managed to grab a blanket in time. The other was of the two of you celebrating your first Halloween together. You had stolen his top hat and you were wearing some magnificently shiny dress.

Happy with the loose braid, you got up shaking your head, shaking away the tears that wanted to come. You slipped on some comfy shorts and oversized t-shirt.

You padded over to kitchen you smelled something good. Fresh coffee and toasted cinnamon bread you believed. That meant Victor had come up and was joining you for some mindless tv watching. Leaning on the counter and going on your tip toes, you grabbed a bowl. You filled it with some fruit and yogurt. You smiled when you saw the back of Victor’s head as he sat there, flipping through the channels.

“Hi Victor!” You said sweetly as you plopped down beside him on the sofa. You knee grazed his as you did so.

“Hi little bird.”

He gestured with his shoulder to the back of the penthouse and spoke in a low voice. “Anything different?”

You pressed your lips together and silently shook your head.

“Damn this fucking virus.” He muttered. He drew his attention back to the tv. Then he found something. “Hey have you seen this?”

You shook your head.

“It’s funny.” He shrugged. “We need a good laugh.”

“Ok!” You settled in and happily enjoyed your breakfast.

*****

He looked at the beard and sneered. Ruffling his hair he went over to the bar. Finding, a bottle of Bowmore he took a hearty gulp, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

A peel of light laughter floated to his ear. He had always enjoyed making you laugh. It had been awhile since he had done that. He took another hearty gulp. What the fuck could you possibly be laughing about. He took another gulp. “Fuck this.” He mumbled and began to go where he heard your laughter coming from.

*****

“Oh Victor...” You were breathless from laughing so hard. “This is fantastic.” You grabbed his arm and laughed again into his arm at the next scene.

This time he joined you in laughing. This was one of his favorite movies.

“What the fuck is so funny?”

You turned surprise filling you, he barely spoken a word to either of you in a week, maybe closer to a week in a half.

“Roman,” You said softly.

“I asked,” He took a sip. “What is so fucking funny?”

“It’s this movie.” You pointed to the tv. “Victor suggested we watch it. It‘s hilarious. Join us, Roman!”

*****

Your laughter brought him right up behind you and Victor. A hot knot formed in the pit of his stomach as he watched you move with your laughter. His fingertips tingled as he took in the sight of your naked back as your shirt had drifted off your shoulder.

You laughed again, grabbing Victor’s arm he watched as you buried your face into his arm. His blood began to boil. What the fuck was going on? You were his.

He came closer to the two of you, and rested his bottle on the back of the sofa.

“What the fuck is so funny?”

Seeing the surprise splashed across your face did not sit well with him.

“Roman,” The sound of your voice pulled on him.

“I asked,” He brought the bottle to his lips and took some gulps. “What is so fucking funny?”

“It’s this movie.” Looking at the TV, he didn’t see anything funny. He looked back at you. “Victor suggested we watch. It’s hilarious. Join us, Roman!”

He looked at Victor. He saw how you sat with him. You two quite close. He was certain that he had never seen the two of you sit so close before. Heat rose in his face. His desire to be with you, to make you his again consumed every fiber of his being.

“Get up.”

Your brow wrinkled. “Roman, I’m watching a movie with Victor.”

He came around the sofa, he was not going to take no for an answer.

“Get the fuck up, I want to spend sometime with you. We can play a game of pool.”

He saw the two of you exchange a look. “Come the fuck with us,” He looked at Victor then at you. “Victor can stay with us, If that fucking helps you to come with me.”

“I..Roman..” You voice trailed off...then he saw you swallow. “Alright...alright we can go and play some pool.” You get up.

Hearing that you would come, made him feel a touch better. “That’s my baby.”

“Can I have some?” You held a hand out to the bottle.

“Sure.” He more then happily gave it to you. About a quarter of the bottle was left.

“Y/N, I’m not sure you...” Victor held up a hand.

“Why the fuck do you care all of a sudden?” His anger was back.

Victor shrugged.

He watched you, perhaps how your lips rested on the bottle or how without needing a breath you drank what was left in the bottle; a knot of desire for you grew. It was something that had been hiding in the shadows and he didn’t know why.

*****

“Oooooo...” you exhaled as the liquor kicked you hard in the stomach. “We need another bottle, if we’re gonna play pool. “Looking at Roman, his jaw was sharp in his eyes, you could see anger and something you could not put your finger on, it clicked something off in you. Despite seeing the anger, you grew excited, breathless something you had not felt in a while.

“There is probably one in the bar by pool table.” Victor suggested.

You had become grown numb! The invisible killer was stalking the globe. Infecting whomever it chose. You suppressed everything. You tried to be bright and cheery. You didn’t want Roman or Victor to know how scared you were.

You nodded. “Great!” You exclaimed. “I want the first drink!”

Victor had become such a great friend, like a brother. Roman, was the turbulent storm that own your heart and body. In order to survive these last few months, you distanced yourself from him Yet, you grew closer to Victor.

“Wooooooo!” Roman hollered, his arm wrapped around your waist.

You felt another arm, it was Victor’s. “Victor?”

“I’m not sure about this but I’m coming to play pool.”

“Alright!” You exclaimed. Upon reaching the room, you playfully wiggled free from both. You leaned against the table, your shirt drifted down your arm. “Someone has to rack those balls.”

You heard the mumbled voice of Roman and Victor, you were relieved neither was screaming.

Going behind the bar you scanned the bottles. You spotted only a partially drank bottle of the Bowmore.

“I found one!” You exclaimed holding it up like it was a trophy. You came around from behind the bar.

You twisted off the cap and giving them a smirk. “To help me win!” You took a gulp. “So who’s racking and who’s gonna be on my team.”

“I’m racking.” Victor began collecting the balls.

“You’re are gonna be on my team baby.” Roman came over and took the bottle from your hands and took a swig. He kissed your bare shoulder. His beard, which is something you never thought you’d see grow on Roman’s face tickled.

You giggled, meeting his eyes. “Can I break?” You grabbed your cue-stick.

Roman, nodded. “Go ahead baby girl.”

As you lined up your shot he came over and smacked you on the ass. You squeaked, jumping up, you looked at him as you rubbed the cheek he smacked. “If you can sit that close to Victor, I can smack you on the ass.”

“Ok.” You said demurely. The scotch was beginning to make itself be known in your body. You eyed him and then went back to lining up your shot. You inhaled and took your shot to break.

The balls, spread like a starburst which made you smiled and then you cheered as a solid was sunk! “I guess we’re solids!”

“Here take another drink baby.” Roman held out the bottle toward you. You came over to grab it and he continued to hold it but he kissed you. You closed your eyes and kissed him back, but you broke it. “You wanted us to play. We are gonna play.” Though you were now breathless and he could tell. You took the bottle and had a few swigs, then put the bottle down.

The kiss had rattled you, you missed your shot.

You looked at Victor and smirked. “Your turn, good luck.”

You grabbed the bottle, turning you saw where Roman sat. “Come ‘ere baby.” He patted his thigh.

As you went over to him, you could feel the fuzziness of the alcohol moving through your system. You offered him the bottle but instead saw on the arm rest of his chair. He gave you a look. Months ago, you would have never dreamed of doing that but with the alcohol and you had this strong desire to play with him.

Victor stopped and considered a couple of shots.

“Victor, don’t take all day now” Roman barked.

You felt as his warm hand sneak under your shirt. “You feel so good.” You moved gently with his hand. It made your excitement grow.

Victor missed his shot. “Damn.” He muttered.

Roman got up then and only wavered a little on his feet. He bent down to you. “Give me a kiss for good luck, baby.” He said in a loud voice. As you moved in to do so, what he said soft enough for only you hear made you bite back a moan. “Do you think Victor would mind if I fucked you in front of him?”

@darling-i-read-it @spn-obession @vintagemichelle91 @xxxeatyourh3artoutxxx @ewanfuckingmcgregor @zodiyack @angel98624 @starwarsprequelfangirl @nebulastarr @emyliabernstein @thepeachreads @itsknife2meetu