#figured the fandom could use some christmas cheer

[saywhatjessie]

Drunk on Christmas

Day nineteen of the Advent calendar! Using this list. Day 19: Secret Santa Fandom: Ted Lasso - Pairing: RoyJamie 2.2k[Ao3]

“Oi!”

Everyone in the locker room immediately quieted, giving Roy their full attention. He bit back a smirk.

“We’re doing Secret Santa,” he told them, lightly shaking the shoebox in his hand. Phoebe had decorated it so some red glitter fell gently to the floor at the movement. “I know the idea of Christmas is so fucking prevelant in this country, people don’t think of it as a religious holiday anymore and that’s extremely fucking annoying to those of us who aren’t fucking Christian–”

Some whoops went up from some of the boys and Roy nodded at them in approval.

“-but giving and receiving gifts is still nice. So we’re fucking doing it anyway. Come pick a name from the box.”

Everyone cheered, scattered talk coming up from everyone about gift ideas.

Roy passed the box off to Isaac who manfully didn’t grimace at the amount of glitter that was about to get all over him, and turned to go back to the office.

He paused at the door to turn back to them. “Oi! And no booze!”

Most of them started whining at this but Roy shut them down with a glare.

“I don’t want to hear it!” He said. “You’re not just gonna go trading bottles of liquor, you’re going to think about your fucking teammates and deliver something heartfelt or all of you are doing laps until your feet blister so badly they get infected and drop off.”

“Well that’s vivid,” Jamie commented, idly.

Roy bared his teeth at him. Jamie winked back.

Roy growled and turned into the office, closing the door behind him.

“That was sweet,” Beard commented, not looking up from his book.

Roy growled at him, too, coming around to sit at his desk.

Nate peaked his head through the door from his office. “What’s sweet?”

“Roy making a no alcohol rule for Secret Santa so Jamie wouldn’t be singled out or receive a gift he can’t drink,” Beard answered, looking over the top of his book to smirk at Roy. Who wasn’t looking. He could just feel it. “Real thoughtful, coach.”

“I will set your book on fire,” Roy said.

Beard blew him a kiss.

“Is the no alcohol rule for staff as well?” Nate asked, worriedly. “I mean it’s a nice sentiment and all, I’m just not sure how well I actually know Karen from finance.”

“Spoilers,” Beard said, scandalized. 

“There is no Karen in finance, he was being hypothetical,” Roy said, rolling his eyes. “And that’s up to Rebecca so we can ask her. I think she’ll be fine with alcohol, though. Her problem is the spending limit.”

“I think we should just let her spend eight thousand pounds on Kenneth the bus driver,” Nate said, smiling. “I think it would be funny.”

“And Kenneth could use it,” Beard said. “His MLM is hemorrhaging money.”

Roy sighed.

Later that week found Jamie curled up on Roy’s couch frowning at his phone as he tried to figure out what to get Zorro for Secret Santa.

“You really shouldn’t tell me this shit,” Roy said to Jamie’s grumbling, looking up from his book on the other side of the couch. “I shouldn’t be involved.”

“You’re not involved,” Jamie said, wiggling his toes further under Roy’s thigh for warmth. “That’s why I can tell you. You’re on a whole different Secret Santa. So it’s fine.”

Roy grunted, acknowledging the logic in that. “I’ve got Will,” he said. “Figured I’d just get him some nice noise canceling headphones. He hears too much.”

“That’s by design,” Jamie grinned. “Kitman’s a little freak. Good lad.”

Roy grimaced. “I don’t like that.”

“Prude.”

Roy rolled his eyes. “Fine, so no headphones. I’ll think of something else.”

Jamie hummed, a crease between his  eyebrows from his frown. Roy fought down the impulse to rub it away with his thumb. “You’re lucky all your other shopping is done,” Jamie said. “Hanukkah was so early this year. I still have to buy for mummy and Simon and Keeley and Phoebe and–”

“Why are you getting Phoebe a present?” Roy asked. “You already bought her those pokemon cards for Hanukkah. Which she’s obsessed with, by the way.”

“Obviously,” Jamie said, but he still preened at the praise. “But she celebrates both, don’t she? So I gotta get her presents for both.”

“You don’t,” Roy told him. “Have to. You already give her so much.”

“Yeah, and I want to, so lay off, grandad,” Jamie looked at Roy over his phone, his chin jutting out stubbornly. “She’s the best kid in the world and she’s my friend and I love her so I’ll do what I like.”

Roy swallowed, his chest feeling tight. He grunted, nodding at whatever Feeling this was giving him, and turned back to his book. Jamie made a triumphant little “Hmph” and turned back to his phone.

Roy had been having this Feeling a lot lately. When Jamie laughed at a joke or made himself at home at Roy’s house or looked at Roy after he’d done something particularly clever on the pitch, sort of proud and seeking approval. He didn’t know where the Feeling was coming from or why it was happening. But it was there and Roy couldn’t figure out what it was or what to do with it.

But, to be fair, he really wasn’t trying that hard,

“What do you think about skin cream?” Jamie asked. “For Zorro, I mean. He’s got that big bald head, it’s gotta need moisturizing, yeah?”

Roy hummed. “I say don’t get anyone soap products unless you know what they’re skin is like.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Jamie frowned at Roy, kicking him a little with one of the feet still tucked under Roy’s legs. “I will break you, by the way. I will find a skin care routine that doesn’t harm your delicate skin with impure metals.”

“Leave my doctor prescribed body wash alone.”

“Why are you using body wash on your face?!”

“Fuck you. No, do not buy Zorro skin cream.”

Jamie grumbled, turning back to his phone.

“I don’t know what the fuck your problem is,” Roy said. “You’re great at giving gifts. It’s annoying.”

“You only say that because of the gifts I’ve gotten you.”

“Well, yeah, what other gifts would I have to go on?”

Jamie whined, pulling his feet out from under Roy and plopping them in his lap instead so he could sink further down on the couch. “It’s easy to get gifts for you. Been obsessed with you since I was a kid, haven’t I? I already know what shit you’d like or find funny.” Jamie sighed, letting his head think back against the armrest. “I haven’t always been the best teammate.”

Roy put his book down, resting a hand on Jamie’s ankle. “Yeah. You were shit.”

Jamie dropped his heel on Roy’s thigh in a gentle kick, not picking up his head.

Roy breathed a laugh. “You’re not now, though. So get the fuck over yourself – your gift will be fine.”

Jamie snorted. “I can do better than fine. It’ll be mint.”

“Fucking prove it.”

Jamie picked his head up, smirking at Roy and looked back at his phone. He left his feet where they were.

Roy smiled when he was sure Jamie wasn’t looking at him anymore. He watched Jamie’s hair, worn loose even after all the walnut mist had grown out, as it fell delicately over his eyes. Jamie made a stupid face when he was concentrating: his mouth all pouted out, his top lip coming up to touch his nose. He whined at Roy every time he pointed this out, saying he wasn’t doing it on purpose and Roy’s face was more stupid than his could ever be.

Fuck, there was that Feeling again.

“Do you know what part of Canada Zorro’s from?” Jamie asked and Roy had to rush to fix whatever his face was doing before Jamie looked up.

“Montreal,” Roy answered. “Why?”

“I’m trying to find locally sourced maple syrup,” Jamie told him. “It’s gonna cost a fuckload to ship but what’s all my money for if not to show my teammates I love em?”

And Jamie had said the word before when he was talking about Phoebe. And he told Keeley he loved her and he signs off every phone call with his mum with an “I love you”.

But something about Jamie saying it just then, his warmth on Roy and his face all soft and looking perfect against the backdrop of Roy’s house – of Roy’s life – made that fucking Feeling rocket like a pinball from his chest into his brain and go clink.

“Fuck!”

He shoved Jamie’s feet off him and stood up, moving quickly to the kitchen.

“Oi!” Jamie complained from the couch. “Be gentle with these feet - they were kissed by God, remember?”

Roy pressed his forehead against his fridge and tried to breathe. Fuck. Fucking fuck fuck fuck.

“You let me know when you’re done with whatever that magical realization was,” Jamie called. “I still want your opinion about the syrup thing. They also have syrup candy? But it seems like you make that yourself. That could be fun to do as a team.”

Jamie was still talking. Roy’s entire life just rearranged itself and Jamie was still talking.

“There’s also this Canadian brand called Roots or summat. It has sweats and stuff? But also hats. That’s something I can get him to protect his bald head. Man, you’re right, I am good at this.”

Roy slammed his hand against the fridge and stalked back to the living room.

Jamie looked back, taking in Roy’s stress position but looking completely unconcerned. “Oh, good, you’re back. I think I’m gonna do the syrup and the hat. That way he can eat one and keep one, yeah?”

“Are we in love?”

Jamie jerked, his phone nearly flying out of his hand. “What?”

“You and me. Have we been in love this whole time? I just found out.”

Jamie’s eyes were wide, both his hands curled around his phone, held to his chest like he was protecting it. A strand of his hair was somehow caught on his stupidly long eyelashes. He looked so beautiful.

Roy was going to punch himself in the dick.

“Fuck!” he cried again, collapsing back on the couch. He put his head in his hands and waited for his stupid heart to feel normal again.

That was looking less and less likely, though, as Jamie moved closer to him (slowly, ever so slowly) and put a hand on his back.

“Um–” Jamie started, and his breath hitched a little. “I mean, I am. In love. I mean.”

He let out a frustrated breath and Roy turned to look at him.

The crease between his eyebrows was back and Roy actually did reach out a hand to smooth it out this time.

Jamie leaned into his hand. “I hoped, you know?” Jamie said. “The way you let me hang around so much and how much time I get to spend with you and Phoebe and you’ve met my mum and she loves you and your sister seems to trust me which is mint and–” he took a deep breath. “I thought maybe you loved me. Since you haven’t gotten sick of me yet.”

Roy grunted. It wasn’t a nice enough sound so he tried words next. “What about you?”

Jamie snorted, moving closer to Roy until their sides were completely pressed together. “Man, I’ve been in love with you for years. First I was just a fanboy, you know? Wanked to your poster, studied your play, wanted to impress ya. But then I knew you and you were better than I imagined. Because you were a fucking prick.”

Roy snorted, shaking his head.

“No, really!” Jamie continued. “Before that you were like a god, you know? Untouchable. But then you were mean but gentle with your niece and a little clumsy and believed in ghosts and you were a person and there was nothing on earth that could stop me from loving you.”

Roy sighed, letting his head dip down and rest against Jamie's. He took a deep breath in, inhaling Jamie’s air.

“So we’re in love,” he clarified.

Jamie laughed, turning his head to kiss Roy’s temple. “Yes, Royo, we’re in love.”

No one else was surprised they were in love. Higgins already had the paperwork set aside when Roy asked for it. Rebecca took out a bottle of champagne sticky noted with ‘For when Roy finally gets out of his own way.’

Beard turned out to be Roy’s Secret Santa and gave him two tickets to Marbella in his and Jamie’s names.

“For the off season,” Beard shrugged. “If you want them.”

Roy growled. “This is definitely over the price limit.”

Beard smirked, flipping his sunglasses down and crossing his arms.

Roy looked past him and into the dressing room where Jamie was receiving his Secret Santa gift from Bumbercatch: a pair of huge pink mittens. HIs face was so bright and happy and Roy loved him so much.

He had to look away. It was so embarrassing having feelings in public.

He looked back at Beard who was holding out a shot of spiced whisky.

Roy took it with a grunt. “Thank you,” he threw back the shot. “And fuck you.”

“Fuck you too, bud,” Beard raised his class and threw his own shot back.

Maybe alcohol was needed for Secret Santa.

[sylphidine]

[Fic] Call Signs, Chapter 30

Fandom: Deltarune

‘Verse: Human AU

Pairing: Swatch/Spamton [Swatchton]

Characters: Spamton Addison [flashback], Mike Cowley [flashback], the "Serif brothers", as in those two skeletons from UNDERTALE [flashback]

Rating: Mature

Chapter title: Trash Landing, Part One

Chapter summary:  Heights and lows.

Author notes:

So much gaslighting that Mike dishes out.

So much whump that Spamton goes through.

[So much Deltarune canon lore and meta references, mixed with my own AU trappings. PLEASE, dear readers, tell me you see some of the Easter eggs I've tossed in here.]

Spamton's first person past tense POV continues straight from the end of the previous chapter as he's trying to explain the last few years to Swatch. Take it as read that Spamton is stuttering away like mad, but he's getting his points across to Swatch while reliving these horrible memories. [Yes, the author's cheating a bit and using a weird narrative device.]

____________________

Mike does his best to cheer me up over the week between Christmas and New Year's. 

We'd already discussed neither of us doing a lick of work while I was scheduled to be with my family. Mike had said, while I was packing, that he'd be catching up on some of his hobbies during the downtime, like practicing card tricks and other kinds of sleight of hand.

I had thought he was joking at the time, like a sad clown, but it turns out he's really good at stage magic. We end up at Tannen's Magic Shop after one of our dates.

We go out every afternoon that week, even though it’s cold and windy. No bars. No networking.  Just real, honest-to-goodness, down-to-earth dates.

A hole-in-the-wall all-you-can-eat buffet. 

Window shopping on Canal Street. 

Tea and scones at The Potbelly Stove. 

Dance Dance Revolution at an underground arcade. 

Jazz at The Blue Note.

On New Year's Eve the wind is much too strong and I’m tired of getting bundled up to fight the bitterly freezing weather, so we stay in to watch the ball drop on television rather than braving the crowds in Times Square and getting frostbite.

 I admire our afternoon’s decorating handiwork. Somehow Mike has acquired six or seven canisters of Silly String, and now the living room is festooned with multicolored silicon tangles. 

To me… It looks…. Well, silly. Not something two full-grown men would admit to enjoying, but definitely a unique stay-at-home date to wrap up our vacation week.

The tendrils sway in the air coming from our heating vents like wacky wires, or vines. They remind me of the strings on the marionettes we saw yesterday at FAO Schwartz.

Mike comments on my unconscious frown. I mention the accusation about puppets I'd yelled at Ballew; he “hmmms” thoughtfully in response and then changes the subject.

The champagne gets poured at midnight and for the first time in a long time I drink too much. I wake up with a headache to end all headaches, half-dressed in my office, with my arms wrapped around the black rotary phone. 

I can see my reflection in its waxy surface. 

I can feel fingertip-shaped bruises on my hips.

There are long, long strands of bright green Silly String trailing off both my wrists. 

There’s also a note on my desk from Mike that says he tried to talk me out of brainstorming my great new idea for a new advertising campaign until we both went back to work on the 2nd, but that I was very insistent. He ends the message by asking if I want to go out to the neighborhood hangover brunch.

To my sodden brain, that sounds like the best plan ever. 

My great new idea, as it turns out, is a slogan I’d written on a cocktail napkin while we were both lifting a toast to a successful 2018 and beyond. In sloppy, blocky, straggling capital letters, it spells out “HAVE YOUR HOME RUN LIKE CLOCKWORK”, accompanied by a stick figure drawing that could either be a robot or a scarecrow. 

I’ve never made any claims to be an artist, but even I have to laugh at how crappy it looks.

Mike says that the idea has good bones and we can rough it out over the next few months.  He teasingly tells me I was raving for hours about a book I’d read as a kid about a clockwork man.

I vaguely remember the title after a few minutes, including the movie that was made from the book, and I blame the rest of my amnesia from last night on too much bubbly.

We each polish off a huge plateful of greasy scrambled eggs and clink our coffee cups together.

It feels like a great start to a better year, and like I can stop looking in the rear view mirror.

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

We hit the ground running in January. 

Mike is either constantly in my office when he’s home, or on the phone with me when he has to work long hours with the science team, whom I’ve never met.  

The receiver of the black rotary phone never cools from the heat of my hand, and I feel like I’m never alone. 

I desperately, desperately need to NOT BE ALONE. 

If I’m not alone, there’s no room in my mind to think about what or who I've left behind.

My New Year’s Eve brilliance inspires Mike to show me a whole series of articles on “mechanical men” built between the 1700s and the 1800s. We pore over them together on my laptop, sitting practically in each other’s laps, his hand always on my shoulder or my thigh.

The automaton that strikes both of us as the most incredible is the Draughtsman-Writer.  Mike points out that it even looks like me, if my cheeks were a little rosier. Dark hair, a pointed chin, and a dreamy gaze in its eyes.

It’s a short leap to the next idea. I practice with makeup and a selfie stick before Mike and I storyboard the next GASTER commercial together. His hands guide mine and make me feel like a priceless musical instrument.

And thus “Spamton G. Spamton”, the mechanical salesman, is born.

I’m a bit uncomfortable at first with the look of the hinged jawlines, but I get used to it. I start practicing a new kind of vocal patter that has barely perceptible stops and starts.

In the meantime, I still have sales outreach work to do.  I’m back to nineteen-hour workdays, much of which is spent immersed in nightlife, but I’m so energized that I don’t care.

Over the next few months, we shoot four more GASTER commercials that are in constant rotation on the airwaves. I voice the opinion to Mike that maybe the red suit is getting stale after more than a year, and that it might be time to change up my image again.  He agrees, but he wants to keep the “mechanical man” look. So I compromise; the makeup can stay, but I want something that’s sharp and memorable.

Tallulah has closed up her Chelsea apartment for the summer and gone to France, so she’s not around to consult with.  Not in person, at least.  But I start looking at some of her past fashion collections in a retrospective issue of a magazine, and there’s one season’s looks that really grab me, even though I don’t really know why. All the pieces seem to be some variation on tuxedos, but they’re each paired with what I guess Tallulah would call “accessories”, in hot pink and yellow-green.

I lay my hands on some good old-fashioned tracing paper and some colored pencils, and I start sketching. I’ve never done something like this before. It’s like something or someone else is guiding my hand. But when it’s done, I’ve got the look I want. A black single-breasted swallowtail coat with lapels in hot pink and neon yellow, and a pink-and-yellow satin lining. Tailored white suit pants. Crisp white high-collared shirt like the old Leyendecker ads.

Mike… doesn’t hate the new suit, but doesn’t love it, either.  It does gradually grow on him, especially when I add a Cungadero-red bowtie, the same shade as his favorite of the red suits, and a pair of sunglasses that are sort of like his eyeglasses… round instead of diamond-shaped, pink and yellow instead of orange and gold. An unspoken compliment and an apology all in one.

It hangs on the closet door in my bedroom and remains undisturbed by probing hands.

________________

The SUIT (I've come to think of it in Capital Letters) gets its debut at my 21st birthday party on the third of May, in The Bellecour Room at Restaurant Daniel. 

Twenty of GASTER's biggest corporate sponsors send representatives; the rest of the group of fifty are assorted hangers-on that I've met here and there over time.

I sip on my Merlot; the bitter wine fits my mood tonight.

In my mind's eye the glitterati at the tables around me fade out, and in their places are my old friends.

Gazlay showing off her gorgeous gams in a high kick worthy of a Rockette.

Vazzana tittering behind his ostrich-plumed fan that someday he'll be Queen.

Pitch and Coz engaging good-tempered barbs with one another.

Winkelsas playing one of his toddler sister's compositions on kazoo and passing along the message that she wants me to be in her band.

Jack Sickle reciting Poe's " The Raven '' without a single stammered word when he doesn't know any of us are watching.

And of course I mentally summon the images of my brothers and my sister… and yes, even Saffron.

The images of the past dissolve like burning film, and the sight of the room full of happy strangers returns me to the present.

I’m a stranger here myself, as the saying goes. Might as well put on the mask of a happy one.

The party finally breaks up somewhere around 2am, and Mike doesn't protest when I ask if we can just head straight home. 

During the limo ride back to the Pandora Palace, I make the comment that this shindig will be hard to top, but he's got four more years to plan for the next big milestone. 

He asks me in seemingly idle curiosity what's more special about being 25 versus being 21. 

When I bring up how I'll finally be financially independent by then because of my trust fund, he gets very quiet. 

The multicolored glow of street lamps and neon signs shines through the limo windows. The garish light plays over Mike's angular face and casts pockets of shadow. Offset by his black blazer and white turtleneck, his head almost looks like a floating skull.

Then he smiles. It's a soft, fond look.

I'm almost expecting him to propose marriage, with how thick the tension in the air gets, but the moment passes.

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

Spring turns into summer. Summer turns into autumn.

For months we’ve been discussing registering to exhibit GASTER at some of the technological trade shows around the country, and I start looking into travel arrangements for two.

Until Mike yanks me up short by casually mentioning that he’ll be staying behind to run things while I’m on the road.  

And he already has an itinerary mapped out for me. 

And it’s going to keep me on the road for weeks at a time, over the course of the next year. 

My first reaction is that he’s putting me on.  My second reaction is panic.

Chicago. Denver. Los Angeles. San Francisco. Seattle. Minneapolis.  San Antonio. New Orleans. Nashville. Atlanta. Washington DC. Philadelphia. Finally back in New York in late September of next year.

It doesn't matter what I say, how many logical arguments I try to make. For the first time since I've known him, Mike actually gets visibly angry. 

No, it's the second time. The first time was when he chased off Werewolf Guy, way back when.

But it's the first time he's been angry with ME.

It's a cold rage, delivered with the same dry voice he used to use in the classroom. He counters my reasoned protests with logic of his own that I can't fight.

How many people under the age of thirty, he tells me, can say that they've achieved the success I have? It takes work to KEEP the success happening, and if I don't want to do the work, he won't know what to think, other than to be gravely disappointed.

Those are the magic words. With everything Mike has done for me… a home, luxuries, connections… I can't disappoint him. I just can't. I'll be nothing but a sponge, or the lowest kind of worm, if I don't go along with this plan.

So I give in, and tell him I'll do the trade show tour.

Mike practically purrs and lets me know how pleased he is, as he backs me up against my office desk.

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

The itinerary has me traveling the entire country by train. A few weeks in each city, booked into different extended stay suites in the Mansion Hotels chain. The trade shows are each a week long, and the rest of the time, when I'm not on a train, I'm supposed to be schmoozing and glad-handing with the locals.

And I’m traveling with a pair of boneheads.

I should probably be kinder in my thoughts about them; at heart, both the Serif brothers seem to be decent guys. They're along to do the booth set-ups and breakdowns, as well as to make sure I get where I'm supposed to go. They've done this tour before, they both say, with other "heroes", and they know all the weird routes.

But I get very tired, very quickly, of one brother's non-stop puns and the other brother's exaggerated sense of his own importance. Wherever Mike dug these two up, it seems a long way from my old hometown.

Any excitement I might have had about visiting new places gets ground into nothingness pretty quickly. One city feels the same as any other. 

The exhibit halls could be interchangeable backlots on a soundstage, for all the individuality they have, which is none. Concrete floors covered in paper-thin carpeting that does nothing to muffle the sound of foot traffic or the voices of the other vendors and attendees. I come back to my hotel room every day with a headache from the stagnant air and the endless noise.  

The views from the hotel windows all look the same. And the hotel rooms themselves are so uniform, as befits a national chain, that it really feels like Time is standing still. The windows are always sealed. No sound rises from the streets, unlike the cacophony of the trade show venues.

But even when I’m back in my “home on the road” accommodations after leaving the exhibit halls behind for the day, the constant sound of a phone ringing shatters any peace and quiet I might hope for.

You see, there's one thing that's particularly disturbing about the sameness of each successive Mansion Hotels room I stay in.

They each have the exact same waxy-finish black rotary phone on the room's desk as the one that Mike set up on MY desk in my office, back at the Pandora Palace. 

The ringtone is exactly the same, too.

When I unlock the door of my hotel room, the phone always sits in a pool of light from an overhead lamp, just like mine does back in New York. 

It doesn’t matter if I’ve turned off the room lights before I head out for the day. The phone has its own spotlight, like Yorick’s skull in a production of HAMLET.

It feels like it never stops ringing.

I almost want to ask the front desk at each hotel whether I can swap out the phone for a more modern model, but I can't think of any way to do so without sounding like a lunatic.

Mike calls frequently, never at consistent times. His calls keep me off-kilter, to the point where I think I'm hearing the phone ring when I'm nowhere near the hotel room. It gets so bad that I have a doctor check me out for tinnitus.

It gives me bad dreams at night. 

One of the recurring nightmares has a monstrous version of Proto, telling me to "beware the man who speaks in hands", while pointing to the phone which has no cord and isn't plugged in and shouldn't be able to ring.

It's an unreal life.

Every time I put my makeup on, I feel more and more like a puppet. I am afraid to look too long in any mirror in case I find that I've  actually become one.

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

The frequency of the phone calls from Mike slows down noticeably between the San Antonio and Nashville legs of the trade show tour.

The incoming calls stop completely while I'm in DC.

My frantic outgoing calls are not answered.

My sales, which had been stable if not as stellar as when I first started with GASTER, take a sudden nosedive.

I stumble through the DC and Philadelphia trade shows feeling like a corpse. I don't go out painting the town red every night, the way I used to. I get room service when my body reminds me that I need fuel, and I spend the rest of my time just staring at the ubiquitous black rotary phone.

Willing it to ring.

Dialing and hoping to get an answer.

Nothing.

I'm alone.

In my solitude and the fear that solitude inspires, I do some hard thinking.

I'm twenty-two years old, going on twenty-three, yet I have the responsibilities of a middle-aged person, for a company that should have taken fifteen years to get where it is with its market share.

nstead, it's only taken three.

The math doesn't add up.

Could Eos have been right, that GASTER is too good to be true?

I may loathe the name of Addison, but I've picked up enough from the family business that I start having some nasty suspicions.

If those suspicions are true, then my current career track isn't on the up-and-up.

A huge wave of homesickness hits me. I want to see my siblings.

All of them.

Any of them.

And I almost get my wish.

As the saying goes… Be careful what you wish for.

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

At the end of the four weeks in Philadelphia, the Serif brothers give me an unpleasant surprise; they tell me they're not joining me in New York. They've heard from "our boss" that they're supposed to work some other job, and they're taking all the demo devices with them.

When I ask, rather snappishly, what I'm supposed to show off at the Javits Center without the gizmos and gadgets to wow the crowd, the shorter, stockier brother just smiles and hands me the rolled-up booth banner, as though he's passing along a torch to me. Then he walks off whistling.

The taller, lankier brother claps my shoulder, tells me it's a puzzle all right and he wishes he could be the one to solve it, and ambles off to catch up with his kin.

Leaving me to retrieve my own luggage and find my own way from Philly to Penn Station.

I'll be damned if I spend another night in another hotel.  I want to go to the Pandora Palace and have it out with Mike and DEMAND to know why he's abandoned me.

And to demand to know what's really up with GASTER.

Of course, when I drag my bags up to the apartment, Mike's not there.

But at least my keys still work. I was afraid for more than a few seconds that they wouldn't.

The apartment seems antiseptic, impersonal, dingy. Mike has probably had a cleaning service in while he's been away, but I'm struck yet again by the perception that this is a workspace, not a home.

I look aimlessly into all the rooms on the lower floor. Mike's office is locked; his bedroom is not, but it's tidy and doesn't look like it's much used.

There's a pile of newspapers stacked on the kitchen floor. The top one has a folded-back page showing photos of my sister's wedding in the society column.

My sister's wedding.

In June.

When I would have been in Atlanta.

Near enough to have flown to New York and back again in a 36-hour turnaround time, and not missed much of anything business-wise.

I wander out of the kitchen in more of a daze than I walked into it.

Mike has left me a long, long, handwritten letter on the coffee table in the living room, which feels as big as a stadium or a skating rink after so many dinky little hotel rooms.

The letter is a strange mix of praise and recriminations. It goes on for five double-sided pages, and leaves me no clearer in my mind at the end than it does at the beginning.

Does he care about me? Does he hate me? Are we partners, or enemies, or just two tired old horses stuck in harness together?

I haven't a clue.

I also haven't got the energy to climb the spiral stairs to my bedroom on the second floor. And I'm too conflicted to just use Mike's bed when he's not here.

So I crash on the couch in the cavernous living room, and curl up into the tiniest ball I can manage.

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

I head to the Electronics Expo at the Javits Center via taxi the next day. 

It’s an unmitigated disaster.

All I have to adorn my booth is the now-tired-looking banner with Penniman's clockwork boy as a logo, with the now-faded caption "Have Your Home Run Like Clockwork!". 

All I have to display are some ratty business cards and some dog-eared brochures.

Some Big Shot I am.

Billy Joel's lyrics taunt me as an earworm I can't escape.

I don't have to exaggerate my "mechanical man" movements; my limbs feel like lead. And the stilted speech I've been cultivating through this whole tour has taken on  a life of its own; I now have a genuine stutter that I can't shake.

People walk past my booth to get to other booths with more enticing setups.

Like I’m invisible.

So it doesn't surprise me that, when I'm feeling at my lowest and least confident, my brother Ballew shows up.

His hair is freshly cut. When he stops in front of my booth, I get a fleeting whiff of his cologne. I don't recognize the scent; it's not the British Sterling that I give him every Christmas.

Used to give him, that is.

He looks so tailored. 

So polished.

So disapproving.

The suit that I was so proud of designing all on my own, once upon a time, feels like a cheap Halloween costume now.

He reluctantly takes the business card I reluctantly and silently hand to him. 

His bitter comment about my enjoying being a puppet is excruciating and painful. I can't blame him, and I can't dismiss the truth of his words.

I've been Mike's puppet. 

I *am* Mike's puppet.

I don't know how to stop being Mike's puppet.

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

The rest of the week at the trade show passes in a blur.  I don’t even care about the sales I'm not making. Take a taxi to the Javits Center every morning, take a taxi back to Chelsea every evening. Each day I go through the motions and plaster on the dummy’s grin.  Each night I pray for an end to it all.

I feel like I’m coming down with some kind of flu bug. Maybe a delayed reaction to everything. My heart is constantly pounding. I can actually feel my pulse in my ears. My brain is full of cobwebs.

Finally the time comes when I can pack up and go…

Home?

Mike’s apartment isn’t home.

But it’s the only place I’ve got left to go.

So I head there in yet another cab, and have a nasty shock.

My credit card gets declined by the cab driver’s swipe machine. I apologetically give him what cash I have, which pays for the ride but precious little for a tip.  The driver yells at me like I'm some annoying dog and zooms off before I realize I’ve left my laptop bag and the trade show banner in the back seat.

Fortunately I still have my wallet and keys, and I’m wearing The SUIT.  But everything else I’ve been carting around to do work for Mike for the last year is gone.

I'm feeling hollow as I nod to the doorman, who tilts his head in a birdlike fashion and asks if I'm alright.

The elevator operator gives me a quick look of pity as she takes me up to the fourth floor.

Wait a minute.

Doorman? Elevator operator?

Why don't I remember them? They have to have always been here, right? This is the Pandora Palace, with amenities fit for royalty.

My memory from a week ago, of having to carry my own bags up the stairs of a rodent-infested four-story walk-up, gets overlaid by this current reality.

I must be running a fever. It’s hot behind my eyes. I shakily let myself into the apartment and barely make it to the little bathroom off the foyer before I collapse onto the cold tile floor.

The sound of footsteps approaching registers in my mind, but I keep my eyes tightly shut. Then I feel bony fingers threading themselves through my hair before I’m yanked up into a sitting position.

I have to look at him now.

Mike bends over me, impossibly tall, and says in a hissing whisper that I would be nothing without him, that I owe him everything, and he’s going to get his money’s worth.

And then he picks me up off the floor and cradles me to his chest. As though I were his most cherished possession.

I don’t know how to cope with any of this anymore.

My body does me a kindness and shuts down into unconsciousness.

[mamamittens]

Tinsel, Lights, and Popcorn Strings

Day #10 of the 2022 December Event

Fandom: One Piece

Ship: MarcoXRay(OC)XAce

Warnings: Overly cute Christmas tree decorating and mild threats of violence

No, you didn't miss several days, I just knew my friend was having a difficult time and wanted to cheer him up! And it's easier to remember where I was in writing fluff after a coughing fit than smut (but the last one is next I promise!)

Also, the 'rat' decorations are absolutely inspired by my own childhood decorations but I made them rats instead of the mice the originally are. Super cute decorations istg, they make me soft just thinking about them

Word Count: 1,740

If there's anything that needs adjusting let me know!

Merry (early) Christmas darling (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧!

@marco--the--phoenix

There was one single, gargantuan task that most Whitebeard pirates feared above all else.

It wasn’t enforcing yet another booze ban on their captain and father figure.

It wasn’t doing the dishes after every meal.

And it wasn’t even the prospect of doing the laundry for the entire crew.

…

It was decorating the tree.

The task no one wanted to do was decorate the tree. It seemed rather odd to Ace, truth be told, that the Whitebeard pirates feared this task so much. But it wasn’t until he actually tried to do it himself that he understood why.

There wasn’t anyone across all the blues as fucking picky about ornaments as Marco. Oh, it was such bullshit.

See, this ass sits back like he doesn’t have a care in the world but you try and use ‘too much’ tinsel on the bottom half of the biggest damn tree Ace has ever seen on a ship and suddenly Marco is ready to wage war.

Not that Ray is of any help, heckling the shit out of Ace’s honest attempts to decorate a tree with ‘helpful’ suggestions about which ornaments to use and where.

“Why not put the glass snowflakes lower, Ace?” Ray suggested, instantly earning an irate snort from Marco.

“And have them get knocked over and shatter across the floor? Nice try, Ray. I know you just want to replace them with candy.” Marco snarked, plucking the offending ornament from the box of ornaments.

“What’s wrong with candy canes on a tree, Marco? We’re putting popcorn all over it!” Ray huffed, gazing at the tray of specially prepared candy Thatch had made for them to use along with popcorn string long enough for Oyaji to use as a jump rope.

“You know, if you have such high standards for the damn tree, the least you could do is help.” Ace snarled, barely remembering that he was handling ornaments probably older than himself. Marco rolled his eyes and leaned back against the far wall.

“You’ve got it just fine without me.”

“Clearly not if you keep complaining you dick!” Ace hissed, tossing a wad of tinsel at him. It exploded into many short strings of tinsel, spraying the area and Marco in glittery confetti. “Either help me or stop riding my ass!”

Ray smirked, opening his mouth to say something with a glint in his eyes—

“Don’t.” Marco snapped, brushing the tinsel off of his clothes. Ray seemed to deflate a little as he sighed, rolling his eyes as he stood up and looked into another unopened box.

“Fine. Be that way.” Ray muttered, pulling out a string of lights that had wound up into a right ball. “How much tinsel and string lights do we need anyway?” Ace almost wept when Marco finally got off the wall and dragged open a box, efficiently unwinding the lights like it didn’t take Ace himself twenty minutes to accomplish the task on his own.

At some point, Ace is going to suspect this was all on purpose just to fuck with him.

“The point is to fill up the tree all the way to the top. Ornaments go on last so they don’t catch on the tinsel, lights, or popcorn. We got a bigger tree this year so we should be able to use everything this time.” Marco commented lightly, eyeing the string of lights in his hands. “The candy canes are to fill in any gaps left over.”

In a flash of blue fire, Marco transformed and started plucking up lights as Ray fed the line efficiently. Arching around the tree ever higher as he picked at them until he was pleased with their placement on the thick branches.

“Oh, now you guys decide to be useful! Couldn’t have done that an hour ago, huh!?” Ace huffed, picking at another wad of tinsel as he debated if it was worth trying to shoot Marco out of the air with it.

Marco slammed into the ground behind Ace, clicking his beak inches from his ear with a loud clack as a warning.

“Don’t even think about it, yoi~” Marco cooed, tugging on a stray loop of tinsel just to watch it explode open in Ace’s hands.

“Shit!” Ace cursed, tripping over the sudden mass of loose decoration at his feet, the other two laughing at him as they started on the tinsel. “You know, the fact that you both can do this just fine on your own is really starting to piss me off!” Ace growled as he crawled out from under an ever-growing pile of decorations.

“Maybe we just wanted to decorate with you, sweetheart.” Ray laughed, reaching down to help him up. “No one else is brave enough to argue with Marco over decorations.”

“You manage just fine.” Marco scoffed, plucking at a line of tinsel with his talons as he did more minor adjustments.

“Well, that’s because I know you don’t bite…” Marco and Ace gave Ray a look. “Much.” Ray brushed off Ace’s hair as a rain of glitter and tinsel bits fell to the ground. Ace huffed, glancing at Ray with a sullen expression. The older man just smiled, adjusting his glasses with his Christmas sweater threaded with stray bits of tinsel. Horrendously, it looked all too similar to his floral shirts. But no less terrible than Marco’s, which was decorated solely with pineapples and candy canes.

To say nothing of his own sweater with cheery skulls and fire that he was too touched to throw out and too embarrassed to admit he loved to pieces.

“There. Now, we can add the popcorn and move onto the real decorations.” Marco declared, plucking the end of the chain impatiently.

“He’s just mad he’s not allowed to eat it.” Ray whispered conspiratorially to Ace. If Marco heard—which he definitely did—he didn’t act like it. Tossing the popcorn string along the branches in gentle curves along the branches until he reached the bottom.

Wanting to get it over with before something else happens, Ace opened a nearby box and looked inside.

The decorations were carefully swaddled porcelain. A set of some kind, featuring small rats with individual decorations. One was gleefully riding a scooter with packages in it’s paws. Another in a dress with a sewing needle shoved into a popcorn bit as an umbrella. One with a tree and a cute couple on a pocket watch. It was weird but cute. Ray plucked the and handed them to Marco to distribute to his liking.

They both looked oddly nostalgic about the decorations as they were placed on the tree one by one.

More traditional decorations such as bells, balls, and snowflakes were equally distributed with no real determination. Occasionally another unique set or decoration would pop up and would be handled with care. Ace assumed that they were bought or made by a specific crew member but refrained from asking. Just glad he wasn’t being buried alive in tinsel again.

There was a set of spun glass decorations that looked like different types of booze that got a good laugh though.

“Pft. Who’s are these? Oyaji’s?” Ace asked, holding up one that was no bigger than his thumb. Marco let out a bark of laugher, plucking it from Ace’s hand.

“Yeah. One year he was banned from drinking during the holiday and tried to sneak some in anyway. The nurses got him this set as ‘the closest he was getting to real booze until well after the new year’.” Marco grinned, hanging them up cheerfully with Ray handing them over as he went.

Of course, as they got further up the tree, it mostly just turned into Ray and Ace holding up ornaments for Marco to pluck and place as he pleased. Thankfully, Marco didn’t have nearly as much complaints when he was the one putting up the ornaments.

Finally, there was only one thing left. The tree topper.

“Uh… isn’t there supposed to be something at the top?” Ace asked, sneaking himself a candy cane to eat. Ray rolled his eyes but allowed it, stealing one for himself.

“There’s a competition every year where Oyaji decides the best tree topper. Last year Izo made a paper lantern with a light dial inside it and he didn’t stop preening for weeks.” Ray explained.

“Oh… Are there rules to it?” Ace asked curiously. Marco sighed, stretching his back out as he admired the tree.

“No fire for obvious reasons. Nothing too big for the tree or messy. Other than that, it’s free game. Oyaji keeps the winning tree toppers on a shelf in his room after the tree goes down.” Marco informed him, taking the time to ruffle his hair vigorously. “I expect you’ll do well!”

“Hey! Who said I was competing?!” Ace yelped, smoothing back down his hair from the mess Marco made to no avail.

“I’m pretty excited to see what you come up with myself.” Ray agreed. Ace scowled at the two of them and their shit eating grins.

“Either one of you would make good tree toppers, you know…” Ace grumbled mutinously.

“Oh, you want to use our feathers for your tree topper? That’s so sweet of you, Ace! I’ll see if I have any good feathers lying around to give you. What do you say, Marco? Should we help Ace win this year?” Ray asked cheerily. Marco rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Hmm… I think I can manage, yeah. I look forward to seeing the results, Ace.” Marco conceded, much to Ace’s displeasure.

“H-How the hell am I supposed to make a tree topper out of feathers?!” Ace grumbled, face burning almost to the point of combustion. Ray smiled softly and kissed his cheek.

“You’re resourceful. I know you can figure it out!” Ray declared.

Naturally, Ace couldn’t stand down after that.

And his crafted tree topper looked beautiful on top of the tree. Made of cinnamon, myrrh, and vanilla sticks woven into a nest. Cradling a bird made of clear spun glass with one of Marco’s feathers inside it, casting light across the iridescent pigeon feathers and beads that peaked through the spice nest. It glowed softly, even in the dark, with a delicate array of light. Absolutely worth the three days Ace spent trying to melt glass by hand before someone took pity on him and showed him where he could find a proper furnace on the island they were docked on.

[neonnoir-ao3]

Some Words of Comfort.

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of people (especially those who have read spoilers/are actively searching for leaked content) lament about their future reactions to the deaths of our beloved characters in-game.

We all knew this was inevitable, and that them living was not an option for the plot of the game, but the time has finally come to face it head-on.

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I understand that someone outside this community might be like “it’s just a game”, but I know it’s way more than that to many: the concept of a female villain that, to many, can be seen as sympathizable and even endearing, is a bit of a new concept— especially on such a large scale as this instance.

In addition, Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters have become a bit of a comfort item for some (with an emphasis on sapphics/wlw, from what I’ve seen personally) in the form of a large, protective, and caring hypothetical partner, or even just a maternal character one can appreciate simply because of her love for her children. Regardless, most of us are here due to some desire for comfort.

Take my own story with this community, for example:

(tws for death, covid, suicide, and general medical emergencies)

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

Frankly, 2020 and the beginning of 2021 have ruined me. I lost two men who were the only two positive father figures I’ve ever had. The last of the two tested positive for covid and deteriorated within days, to the point where less than a week after testing positive, my family was making the choice to pull the plug. This all occurred days before Christmas and my birthday. On the first day of the spring semester, having not had the time to properly mourn my grandfather, my mother is in the ER for multiple days with an internal infection that doctors said likely would have turned septic if she had waited to come in any longer. This led to three surgeries throughout the next few months. (Oh, and one of my relatives quite literally dropped dead on that first day of class, too). I am also estranged from one of my parents, and they have been trying to contact my family: they have multiple untreated mental illnesses (severe NPD, bipolar, and more) and they are extremely aggressive in that state of mind and they are agitated extremely easily. That only brings more stress, along with resurfacing trauma and related emotions. Every moment of every day has been a struggle. So much so that I failed half of my classes voluntarily simply because I couldn't do them anymore.

To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t expect to be here right now. I expected that the pain of simply moving forward would have finally overridden my fears of death and that I would have already ended my suffering by now.

Then, in late January, I saw something trending on Twitter. About a new female villain in an upcoming horror game. And it went from there.

As cheesy as it sounds, this fandom and its content seriously saved my life. In the darkest of days, I’ve come to this tag for comfort. The oddest way I found said comfort was through those who were attracted to Alcina aesthetically. I have extremely long-term trauma related to being bullied and being the victim of a hybrid catfishing/'Oreo Game' on early social media by peers in middle school to the point where I do not think of myself as being able to be loved, let alone being worthy of it. Finding this community not only provided a great form of escapism (and opened a door into a fantasy world where I could imagine my own person vampire milf gf), but also gained a little bit of self-esteem (as many of you know, I share a lot of visual qualities with Alcina. -yes, I'm still kinda freaked out about it-) via seeing people where features/attributes like mine were actively praised and desired rather than insulted and pushed away like they have been until now.

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(okay sorry that kinda turned into a trauma dump but I needed to emphasize the fact that this community has seriously helped me during a really dark point in my life, and I know I can't be the only one with that sort of experience)

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What I’m trying to get across here is that, like many others, this community and its content have been comforting and therapeutic, and it really is more than just a game to us. It’s entertaining and even a form of escapism in these extremely trying times. We all have some degree of PTSD from surviving a literal mass plague— and this is something we're using as a method of coping. a distraction. a coping mechanism.

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

With that being said, here are some ways to hopefully assist in lessening the emotional stress:

(please note that I am not a mental health professional and these may not be healthy coping mechanisms for everyone.)

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Understand that it’s just a game.

I know, this sounds completely counterintuitive, but it’s more or less about keeping your level of immersion down. Personally, I can’t do scary shit in general: I have to listen to music on low volume while watching dark ARG vids at night or when I’m alone because I get too into it, and then my paranoia kicks in. Sometimes just pausing for a moment and grounding yourself/reminding yourself that this is a video game: a jumble of code and 3D rendering that doesn’t have to affect your views/headcanons if you don’t want it to. Did your favorite character just get slaughtered? Nope, that 3D rendering of them just got un-alived, that’s all.

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Ignorance is Bliss/We are the Captain Now

Simple: Capcom can’t even pronounce Dimitrescu right, or even acknowledge the way it’s correctly said in Romanian culture itself. How can you trust them to give you a perfect canon? That’s the thing: with that logic, you can’t. What they say is true means little (if anything, for that matter) to your headcanons and preexisting ideas of the Dimitrescus. In short: fuck ‘em.

I’m currently seeking a double major in pop culture, and one of the cool things I’ve learned so far is affirmational vs transformational fandom. Affirmational is where official canon is seen as the law of the land, and followed to a T. Transformational is seen as much more inviting for audiences, allowing them to bend canon as they wish to fit their own creations. This fandom is obviously transformational, so take that game canon, rip it up, and get back to whatever you were doing.

Capcom’s canon is not the end-all, be-all. Far from it, actually.

Want to still acknowledge canon? Godmod your way out of it.

Character A died? It’d be a shame if they emerged from the rubble they 'died in' a few hours later, very beaten but alive nonetheless... how awful would it be if they sulked away, nursed their wounds, and continued to live... (/s)

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Ignore it completely.

Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there w be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the in any way. Stay with the version in your head that makes you happy.

Get Creative!

If you're into creating fanart, writing fics, or even just posting a list of headcanons, take some advice from the late Carrie Fisher: "Take your broken heart, and make it into art". Make the fluff oneshot of your dreams! Draw the fanart you've been wanting to! dump lighthearted headcanons into the tags! Not only will it cheer you up, but sharing it with the community will spread the love!

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I know a lot of people are struggling with this emotionally (especially with the pandemic making entertainment like this even more important sources of escapism and coping mechanisms) and I hope that, at the very least, I was able to help comfort one person who reads this.

Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there will be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the flowers that bloom after major wildfires: after a period of loss, some beautiful can still come of it.

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💙

[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

Twelve Months - Good Omens fanfic

Happy 31st Anniversary of Good Omens! :D

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I have posted a slightly-sad, slightly-sweet Wake the Snake fic on AO3, because our demon has been napping for a whole Twelve Months, and sometimes Angel gets a little lonely!

Thank you all for another fantastic year in this fandom!

--

Twelve months.

Aziraphale pushed open the door to Crowley’s flat, a simple shopping bag tucked under his arm.

The lights were still off, the curtains drawn in the awful empty room he called a study. Nothing had changed.

He passed through the enormous, rotating section of wall and into the solarium. This was still bright—many of the plants flourishing despite being unattended so long, despite clearly not having enough water. A few had started flowering. They waved their branches at him as he entered, perking up eagerly.

The angel waved back, but first he peeked into Crowley’s bedroom.

He was still where Aziraphale had left him, on his last visit a month before. Bright red hair spilled across black pillows, grown into a stringy mop. Duvet pulled up to his messily-bearded chin. One hand curled up beside him on the bed.

Still asleep.

With a sigh, Aziraphale crossed over to the plants, who greeted him excitedly, unfurling their newest leaves, a few vines hanging down to brush his face.

“Hello, my lovelies. How are you all doing? Look at you, grown at least a foot since I saw you, I’m sure. And you! What beautiful pink buds. Very impressive.”

He didn’t think Crowley would approve of how he spoke to the plants, but the poor things had been so distraught on his first visit, straining to keep upright, trying to hide their yellowing leaves. So much healthier now, much happier for just a bit of attention. He picked up the watering can and gave them all a quick splash. He didn’t know how much water each needed, but it didn’t seem to matter.

“You keep it up, dears. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Picking up his shopping bag again, Aziraphale headed down the hall to the kitchen. The kettle sat on the island where he’d left it, and he quickly refilled it and set it to boil. While he waited, he pulled his latest creations from the bag: a small pumpkin spice cake from a recipe he’d been perfecting since fall, a lemon coconut cake, and a few apple cinnamon muffins.

Two plates—a muffin for each, a slice of the coconut cake for himself and the pumpkin spice for Crowley.[1] The rest went into the refrigerator, where they would never go bad or stale.

Aziraphale put the plates onto a tray, along with forks and napkins. Next he found two mugs and pulled the little tin of his second-favorite tea out of the bag just as the kettle boiled.

For himself, a teaspoon of the expertly blended leaves, steeped for exactly three minutes, resulting in a pale brown tea with a slightly spicy aroma. For Crowley, he dropped a tea bag into boiling water and let it sit until it was almost black.[2]

He carried the tray back to the solarium and selected a bright red-and-gold tulip that was nearly vibrating in its eagerness to be noticed. A moment to assure the other plants that they were still doing fabulously—particularly a self-conscious little succulent that had rather drooped over the winter but was making a fine recovery—and he once more headed into Crowley’s bedroom.

Crowley had rolled over, and now sprawled on his back, sleeping soundly. He’d apparently kicked a bit, too, as the blanket had slid down past his stomach. Aziraphale smiled as he set the tray on the chair he’d brought in some months ago and got to work.

“It’s wonderful to see you again, dear,” he started cheerfully, carefully rearranging the objects on the little bedside table. “I have a few things for you again, I hope you don’t mind.” Just enough space to slide the mug and the little plate. Perfect.

“I received a package from Tadfield again. Everyone wrote a note and then gathered them all together, really quite clever. They’re all doing well, if a bit bored.” The table was nearly overflowing with little items now, brought in by Aziraphale to cheer the place up. Framed pictures of their human friends, quarantining with their families, clustered in one corner so tightly you could hardly see them anymore.

He pulled the latest out of the shopping bag. “Anathema has started a garden,” he explained, pausing to show the photograph to Crowley’s sleeping form. It showed the witch, kneeling outside her little cottage, working on growing several rows of herbs. “I got the impression she was off to a rough start, but she hopes to send us some mint in the next package. Although Newt warned me not to expect too much, as they’d already forgotten which patch is mint and which is oregano.” He set the picture with the others, and slid the potted tulip alongside it. “I’m sure she could use some advice from you, when you’re ready to share.”

“Nnnnh.” Aziraphale spun eagerly, but no, just Crowley shifting in his sleep again, rolling onto his side.

The angel paused to pull the duvet back up to Crowley’s chin, tugging it straight and smoothing a hand down his back. In a way, his friend was nearly unrecognizable, with that hair and ridiculous beard, but in another way looked the same as ever. That was always Crowley’s way, of course, constantly changing yet somehow always the same.

He lingered, taking in the shape of that face, leaning close, lips hovering above his cheekbone—

Aziraphale pulled back, quickly digging into his bag again. “Oh! Ah, the, um, the children have been making projects for their art class. This past month was sculpture, and they sent us some. Look!” He pulled out four little figures of oven-baked clay. “Ah, young Wensleydale has made a very clever model of a train car. Brian’s is…abstract.” He turned the next a few different ways. “And Pepper’s is, ah, either a very complex symbolic representation of the Patriarchy, or…a troll, I think.” They just fit on the edge of the table, all in a line, a very mismatched tableau. The fourth, on the end, was the best, in Aziraphale’s opinion. “Adam made a little Dog, and it’s very well done, don’t you think?” The canine figure posed with one leg raised and head cocked, ready to play, but the shadow it cast was just a little too large, too ominous, for such a small creature.

With a sigh, Aziraphale shifted the row this way and that. “I sent a letter to Warlock, over in America, but haven’t heard back since Christmas. I believe they’re very busy with something. Politics. You know how it is.” When the Dowlings had left England, they’d planned to return for a visit the following summer. A global pandemic had had other ideas.

“In any case, that just leaves Tracy and Shadwell. I understand he’s decided to hate the concept of literacy this month, so no word on how his war with the squirrels is going. And Tracy has declared she will spend the summer making a fairy garden. I thought her sketches looked very promising, and she promised to send us an update in June. I’m sure you’ll find it charming.”

“Hrrrrm.” Crowley sank under the duvet, nestling down a little deeper. Aziraphale smiled, settling into the chair with his plate and mug.

“Things are loosening up again,” he explained, taking a bite of cake. Delicious, if he said so himself. Sharp and not too sweet. “People are getting vaccinated, shops opening up. It’s really a lovely breath of fresh air, at least when you’re not wearing a mask.” A long sip from his mug, then he held it, fingers tapping. “It’s been nice walking through the park again, just in time for the baby ducks. And that record shop at the corner, they’ve had some wonderful new additions. Which reminds me.”

Putting aside his mug, Aziraphale dug through the bag again and pulled out a handful of square plastic cases. “They had a whole shipment of those little records the Bentley likes. Modern music. I picked out the ones with the rudest names. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.” He pulled out the first disc and placed it atop Crowley’s phone. The device blinked in confusion a few times, then obediently copied all the music.

“Of course, it’s not all good news.” He stacked the rest of the discs atop the phone and returned to his tea. “Reopening means the customers are coming back. Yesterday, this one individual spent almost an hour browsing the same three shelves. And then he tried to make off with one of my books.” Another long sip. “Granted, he offered to pay, but still. What sort of establishment does he think I’m running?”

Aziraphale paused, waiting for Crowley to respond, not that he ever did. The demon’s eyelids moved a little, but no more.

Sighing, Aziraphale turned to his muffin. “You know, many times in the last year, I’ve wished you were there. Particularly during reopening phases. You could have posed as a customer, and then I’d be able to tell people I was at the capacity limit. Oh, and the people who would call to try and buy my rarest books. Collectors, or so they claimed, but then they just turn around and sell to anyone for twice the price! I’m sure you’d have some biting things to say about such people.” He smiled at Crowley’s sleeping face. “I’ve missed that, and your jokes. Rather more than I expected to.”

When his plate and tea were finished, Aziraphale set them on the floor and reached again into the bag. “Now, I have been attempting to teach my computer how to use the internet. I think it’s going quite well. Adam and his friends gave me a ‘homework assignment’ to find articles on recent news events, and I made the most wonderful discovery. Did you know that humans now share their news through humorous pictures? I printed out my favorites to show you.”[3]

He flicked through a few. “Ah, to start with, a few months ago there was this American politician with amusing mittens who showed up everywhere for a few days. It was extremely droll.” He leaned closer, holding them up for Crowley to see. “Ah, a few more from America. The murder hornets arrived, though by that point everyone had forgotten them. The election became increasingly confusing, and it all ended in a parking lot. For a little while everything was ‘This-or-That Total Landscaping,’ and before that everything was cake.” He showed a few extremely clever illusions. “I did try to make my own, but couldn’t manage it without miracles, which I felt was cheating.”

Really, leaning like this was starting to strain his back. Aziraphale shifted to sit on the edge of the bed, the better to share his pictures. “Ahhh. Also for a time everyone’s calendars were stuck on ‘March.’ And then earlier this year, a group of people learned how the stock market works, but sadly not how to spell it. The whole situation seemed very much like the sort of thing you’d be involved in. And…Oh, this angel from a television show was sent to Hell for…reasons.” He glanced at the shape beside him. Crowley had curled in slightly, pressing against Aziraphale’s back. “Yes. Various reasons. And then this musician, I suppose, went on his own. Both had many people extraordinarily upset.”

The next few images would really tickle Crowley, if he could actually see them. “The biggest news is that a large ship got stuck sideways in that canal in Egypt. Stopped half the world’s shipping for a few days while they dug it out! I’m sure you would have liked that very much. Exactly your sort of trouble. The humans were all very excited.”

The final photo was another of the ship, an image Aziraphale had made himself, printing out a blank version and writing on it in felt-tip pen. The hull of the enormous ship was labeled, “An eternity putting up with the tedious bureaucracy and frequently conflicting commands of my superiors until I begin to doubt my own judgement and sanity,”[4] while the small digger working steadily beside it was “Crowley.”

Aziraphale watched the demon beside him, not really expecting a reaction, certainly not getting one. He reached over, brushing brilliant hair back from Crowley’s forehead. “I think you’d have had rather a lot of fun last year. Or perhaps you’d have been upset you could only watch from a distance. Or…”

He’d leaned much closer than he’d intended, hovering just above Crowley’s forehead.

“Well!” Aziraphale stumbled to his feet. “I suppose that’s just about everything.” He picked up the tray from where he’d rested it on the floor, starting to re-load it with everything he’d brought in. Crowley’s cake and tea sat untouched, as always, but Aziraphale wouldn’t dream of skipping them. “We’re all very optimistic for the summer. Two months and everything should be just…just tickety-boo. Perhaps we can go for that picnic soon, if…yes…”

They’d made such plans for 2020. All the things they would do now they were free. Plans, and other thoughts carried in their minds, possibilities that would play out in their own time. Not too fast, just a slow, steady exploration of everything they could be…

“Well. Pleasant as that idea is, best not to—to plan too much, as the previous year made fools of us all. I just…” He turned away from the tray and watched Crowley sleep, hands clasped before him. “I miss you terribly. And I wish…very much…”

He picked up his shopping bag. One item still inside. The same one he’d been carrying for months, trying to find the courage to bring it out.

With a shaking hand, he reached in and drew forth a soft hand-made doll. He’d spent much of the winter on it. Simple white cotton for the head and body, wooly curls for the hair, and stiff white lace for the wings. Dressed in waistcoat and bowtie made from Aziraphale’s favorite tartan.

He still wasn’t sure why he brought it. He’d stitched several little toys, particularly a lovely black-and-red serpent with gold button eyes that had watched him from the sofa since November. But this, for reasons he couldn’t articulate, this one was for Crowley.

“I, ah…” He shuffled closer, doll clutched in both hands. “I made, um…” Back to the edge of the bed, one hand fumbling across the duvet. “…thought you might like…”

Crowley’s face stood out in stark contrast to the pillow, pale skin and bright hair. Aziraphale wanted to drink it in, memorize every detail, to hold him over until next month. The curve of his nose, the sharp angle of his cheekbones. His lashes flickering as his eyes moved. His lips, pursed ever so slightly…

“Bless it, Angel, are you going to kiss me or not?”

Aziraphale gasped, pulling back from the bright gaze of slit-pupil eyes. “You—you’re awake!”

“Nnnh. Half.” Crowley shifted, head moving across the pillow, eyes threatening to shut again. “Wouldn’t miss your visit.” One hand reached out, plucked the doll from Aziraphale’s unresisting fingers. “For me?”

The angel nodded. “If…if…you like it…or I could—I could just…”

Without a word, Crowley pulled the doll under the duvet and curled up, tucking it under his chin, a faint smile on his lips.

“If you were awake you—you should have said something! I’ve been going—going off like a fool all this—oh!” Aziraphale could feel his face turning hot as he recalled a few times his tongue had been a bit too loose for propriety.

“Mmmmmh.” The golden eyes were shut again.

“Crowley?” No response. “Crowley!” Aziraphale scowled. “Anthony J. Crowley, if you’ve fallen asleep again, I swear, I’ll—”

He’d do what? The angel fumed, but what could he really threaten? To stay away? Never.

“Alright then, I suppose I’ll see you in June. I’ve had several new requests for extremely rare manuscripts and I need to go pen some responses reprimanding these vultures for their cheek. I can—”

“You can stay.”

He spun around. Crowley had one eye barely cracked open. Gently, he pulled back the duvet, showing there was just enough space for Aziraphale beside him.

“I…I couldn’t.” But he stepped forward, not back. “I have business tomorrow, things to—”

“Just tonight then.”

His fingers brushed the mattress and pulled back as if burned. “You—you don’t really mean this, you’re just talking in your sleep.”

“Nah.” Crowley settled the doll by his pillow, making space. “Why else would I give you my key?”

“I…to…water the plants?”

“They take care of themselves.” Crowley held open his arms, eyes shut once more. “I missed you, too.”

Well. What could he say to that?

Aziraphale took off his shoes and slid into bed, into Crowley's arms. They wrapped around him gently as Crowley wriggled closer. “Mmmm. Y’r softer than the doll.”

“Oh.” He’d been called soft many times, generally as a way to imply he was a failure as an angel. But just this once, it made him feel rather pleased. “Soft is good?”

“Verrrry good.” Crowley twisted a bit, trying to find a comfortable way to rest his long limbs, and finally settled curled up against Aziraphale’s chest, tucked below the angel’s chin with a leg hooked over his knees.

The angel smiled. “And you’re…you’re noodlier than a stuffed snake. Err…”

A chuckle, just a stirring of breath across his throat. “Can’t wait to hear the story behind that.” Crowley nuzzled against his shoulder with a sigh. “Good night, Angel.”

Aziraphale swept the brilliant hair back again and bent down, pressing his lips to Crowley’s forehead. A soft, gentle kiss that made his friend smile a little more broadly. “Good night, my dear.”

Crowley drifted off again, burrowing close, as the angel continued to gently tease the back of his hair. Perhaps, he thought, perhaps tomorrow's work wasn't so very urgent. Perhaps a bit of rest would do him good. And perhaps...

Well. Don't plan too much. But for the first time, Aziraphale felt a bit of optimism about the coming summer and its possibilities.

“Sleep well, Crowley.”

[1] Crowley had invented pumpkin spice, and Aziraphale assumed he must like it. In truth, Crowley despised it, and regretted every autumn how it took over the entire world. He missed apple cider season. [2] Aziraphale had suspected since the early 1950s that Crowley secretly took his tea with several lumps of sugar, but would continue to pretend he didn’t know until Crowley confessed. Considering current circumstances, that was unlikely to be any time soon. [3] Aziraphale’s fax machine, revived after over three decades of disuse, had been somewhat confused to be asked to perform any task at all, much less to print memes onto photo paper with perfectly balanced color; but like the plants and Crowley’s phone, it couldn’t stand to disappoint the angel. [4] It was possible he hadn’t quite mastered this new form of communication.

[thenerdybaker523]

12 Days of Christmas: Decemeber 21

@12daysofchristmas @thunderkiss86

Title: It All Started with Hot Chocolate

Theme: December 21 (Cocoa)

Fandom/ Character: AEW/ Jungle Boy

Warnings: Fluff

Word Count: 511

🍫 I don’t own any of the GIFs or Photos in this

🍫 This is my first time writing, so please let me know what you think.

Jesse's POV:

Getting out of the shower, I heard knocking at my hotel room door. I had just lost my title match and wanted to be left alone. Hearing the knocking continue, whoever it was at the door was not getting the hint. I groaned and stuck my head out the bathroom door shouting, "I'll be there in 5 minutes." I hurriedly got dressed in my pajamas and pulled on a pair of socks, heading to the door pulling my hair up into a messy bun.

Answering the door, I found Jack Perry on the other side holding a couple of grocery bags full of stuff. I moved out of his way so he could come in and set stuff down. "What're you doing here, Jack?"

Putting the bags on the bed, he turned to me, "I saw how upset you were when you left, so I ran to the store and picked up a couple things to hopefully cheer you up."

Opening the bags, Jack started pulling out everything he bought. He pulled out a couple of Christmas movies, several bags of chips, some candy, a couple of water bottles, two mugs, whipped cream, and what surprised me the most, was my favorite brand of hot chocolate. I stared at him in shock. Not many people knew my favorite brand, so I had no clue how he knew. Looking up at him confused, I asked, “How’d you know my favorite brand? I’ve only told a few people.”

Jack looked up at me while getting ready to make the hot chocolate for us. “I heard you mention it to Tay the other day. I figured since you were upset, it would help.”

I couldn’t help but think that it was so sweet of Jack to do this. While he was making the hot chocolate, I went through the movies to see what he bought. Seeing Last Christmas, I grabbed my laptop and put the movie in. Jack brought over the hot chocolate,, handing me mine before sitting on the bed beside me. I started the movie and grabbed a box of candy. At the end of the movie, I found myself cuddled up to Jack. I turned the movie and looked out the window and saw it was snowing lightly. “You want another hot chocolate?” Looking up at Jack, I nodded my head yes, before looking back out the window.

While he was getting the second cup of hot chocolate done, I went to the window and just watched the snow falling. I heard Jack set the mugs down and walk over to me. Looking up at him, I couldn’t help but notice how gorgeous he was. I don’t know how I never noticed that before. Turning toward him, I stood on my tip toes and kissed his cheek. Pulling back, Jack was looking down, smiling down at me. “Thank you so much Jack. You have no idea how much this has helped.”

“It's no problem. I’m glad I could help.”

“I’d love to do this again sometime.”

“I would too.”

[byronblogs]

Squealing Santa 2020- Cheating

“You should have thought about that before you cheated.” Iida shows Kaminari what happens when he cheats. @tickly-floof @ticklygiggles  

Kaminari finally succeeds in cheating on his Hero History test when it rubs Iida the wrong way, punishment ensues. (He is the Class Rep and all.) Fandom; BNHA/MHA

A/N: Sorry that the characterization might not be great, but I figured it was pretty close for someone who hasn't written anything creative for months😁 hope you like it! Merry Christmas❤

    For once in a lifetime, Class 1-A was actually warned about a test before Aizawa Sensei walked into class with the paperwork in one hand and a sleeping bag in the other. Everyone had prepared differently, some spent a whole week pouring over assignments and textbooks, some let it slip into the background and crammed at the last minute, and some decided they could sneak past the Class Rep while he was leading a study group and steal the answers. Kaminari thought he was smart, and he spent a good hour patting himself on the back for getting the test copy without his teacher or Iida noticing. 

    Normally, Kaminari would have shared, if he was honest he intended to, but he was already so impressed with his expertly executed recon mission that he didn’t want Mina to accidentally say something at the wrong time or have Mineta find out and bribe him for answers. Yes, Normally he would have shared, but a success like this was hardly normal. 

    Kaminari’s second success was when he somehow managed to sneak his answers into the class and turn in his test without revealing himself. He was sure that at this point, Aizawa was either letting it slide or losing his touch. 

    Not more than a day later did the tests come back, and kaminari could not have been happier. He’d thrown a few answers to look less suspicious and managed to land himself a solid B, the highest grade he’d had in years. He was so busy fawning over it in the dorms that he never even noticed Mina come up behind him in the dining area. 

    “Is that your test, Kami? Ooh! Let me see, let me see! Did you flunk it too?” Mina had pulled the test from his hands before he could even react to her presence, thankfully she was out of the way before a startled shock jumped between his fingertips. 

    “Woah! Hey, lay off!” Kaminari twisted in his chair as he tried to grab his test back, “Be careful, you’ll crumple it!”

    “You say that like you wanna tape it to the fridge, what did you get, an F minus?” Mina giggled, using one hand to push Kami away and the other to hold the paper up as she scanned it, “Woah! What the hell, Kami!? How’d you get a B?” Kaminari nearly fell out of his chair when she removed her hand from his face to cradle the test in both hands.

    “You what?” Iida’s voice echoed through the room as he stood up on the other side of the table where he, Midoriya, Todoroki, and Yaoyorozu had been going over their grades. The Rest of the class must have been off doing the same in the solitude of their rooms.

    “Nice work Kaminari!” Midoriya cheered from his seat, ever encouraging. Several positive reactions came from around the room as Bakugou appeared seemingly out of nowhere to tear the paper from Mina’s hands.

    “Damn, Sparky, not bad, you cheat or something?” Bakugou scoffed, eyebrows quirked as he scanned the test over before Iida stomped over and took the test as well, earning an indignant growl from the blond.

    “Precisely my question,” Iida frowned over the test before narrowing his eyes at Kaminari, “Cheating is forbidden in all testing environments,if you achieved this grade through dis-honest means-”

    “Woah woah woah! Everybody slow down, I didn’t cheat! I just studied! Can we please just stop playing Ring Around the Rosie with my test?” Kaminari begged, speaking a little too quickly as he leapt from his seat to grab his test, only for Iida to catch his wrist.

    “Oh, I don’t think so, you never study, especially of your own accord. Don’t lie to me. Did. You. Cheat?” Iida seemed more bristled than usual, his frown deeper and his height towering. 

    “Jeez, Iida, let me have this!”

    “Answer the question.”

    “I- well…” Kaminari gulped, “Okay fine! Yes, I cheated, but I think I should be getting a pat on the back anyway,do you know how hard it was to sneak past you and Aizawa Sensei? My recon skills should be applauded!” He pulled his wrist from Iida’s grip and threw his hands in the air, pouting.

    “Kaminari!” Iida chastised, “You are a student of UA, you should be holding yourself to a higher standard than this!”

    “Calm down, Iida! It’d just one stupid test!” Kaminari held his hands out defensively as Iida started stepping closer, Kami stepping back. At this point, everyone had grown quiet. Bakugou had stepped back to watch the show, Mina simply taking a seat on the table to stay out of the fray, and the study group in the corner sharing looks, wondering if they should be breaking this up.

    Nobody had ever seen Iida this angry, however, nobody had ever successfully cheated on a test either, “It is not just a ‘stupid test!’” Iida’s voice had yet to raise, but it certainly seemed more strained as he stepped forward, jabbing a finger at Kaminari with every step as the test crumpled in his other hand. “As Class Rep, it is my job to ensure that 1-A is holding a standard and behaving as future heroes should, and as of this moment you have done nothing but shatter that image!”

    Iida had backed Kami into a wall, leaving the boy nowhere to go but sideways, causing Iida’s poke to miss its mark on Kami’s chest and land on his side instead. It was the strangled yelp that left Kaminari’s throat that seemed to sober Iida for a moment.

    “Kaminari?” His voice was calmer, concerned as he scanned over his classmate, “Are you alright? Did I hurt you?”

    “Nope! I mean! Uh-” he swallowed, “I’m fine! All good! I would like to leave this conversation though, so if you don’t mind-” Kami moved to pass Iida, a faint blush on his cheeks, only for the taller boy to gently push him back into the wall by his shoulder and reach for his side.

    “Absolutely not. You don’t have much of an honesty streak going,and if you’re hurt your injuries should be addressed!” Iida gingerly started squeezing Kaminari’s side, searching for whatever injury caused his outcry, paying careful attention to how the boy stiffened.

    “H-Hey! Easy, Iida, I told you, I’m fine!” Kami insisted, pushing at Iida’s hand, still firmly planted on his shoulder. “Seriously, man, just lay- Ah!” The squeak certainly caught Iida’s attention.

    “Is that where it hurts?” Iida questioned, gently pressing on the little spot beneath Kami’s ribs to feel for injuries.

    “No, Iida! Wahait!” Kami dipped his head low and pulled a leg up to his stomach as his giggle escaped, trying to block Iida’s fingers. 

    It took the Class Rep about ten seconds of confused staring to finally get it. “Oh.” The subtle grin that spread across Iida’s face was devilish, and his tone was no better, drawing Kami’s wide eyes up to meet his.

    “Oh god, don’t you dare.”

    “I think I dare.”

    The attack was sudden and brutal, the test still held between Iida’s hand and Kami’s shoulder was forgotten as the larger boy dug into Kami’s lower ribs, rippling his fingers up the boy’s ribcage as he squealed. 

    “Iida! No no no waIT! Gaha! Gehet ohohoff! Iida!” Kami flailed, floundering between pushing Iida away and slamming his arms down, eventually settling to slide down the wall and try to turn out of Iida’s gip, the test fluttering to the ground as his escape was cut short by a large arm pulling Kami’s back to Iida’s chest and digging into his ribs.

    “Well, I think I’ve just figured out how to discourage cheating in the class.” Iida proclaimed as he dove his second arm into the frey, scratching at Kami’s stomach. By now, the rest of the room had relaxed and started chuckling along, Bakugou grumbling something about wanting to see that fist fight and leaving for his room. Mina had taken to giggling hysterically and shouting tips from the sidelines, not that Iida was hearing any of it. #

    “Iidaha! Stohohop, oho my Gohohod! Plehease! I cahahan’t!” Kami kicked wildly as he clawed at the hands assaulting his torso, squeezing his eyes shut and slamming his head back against Iida’s shoulder.

    “Maybe you should have considered that before you cheated, after all, your plan was so well executed.” Iida spoke in Kami’s ear, causing the boy to crinkle his neck and pull his legs to his chest momentarily, a squeak breaking through his laughter. When holding his weight grew too distracting, Iida chose to sit down right where he was, trapping Kami in his lap as he counted up his ribs. 

    “Tell you what, if you can tell me the correct answer to one of these test questions without your cheat sheet, I’ll let you go. Sounds good?” 

    “Whahahat!? Nohohoho! I cahahan’t! Iidahaha, plehehease!” 

    “Great! Now, let’s see here…” Iida leaned to the left a little, peeking at a question on the first page, Kami had spent plenty of time staring at it, he must have learned something, “What President approved ‘Hero’ as a job in the states?”

    “Ihihi- ohoho gohod! Ihihi dohon’t know!” Kami started sliding down in Iida’s lap with his squirming, laughter bright if not a little panicked.

    “Sure you do! Guess.”

    “Uhuhum! K-Kehenedy?” he shrieked a little as Iida flipped him out of his lap and onto the floor, leaning over him as he started drilling into his hips. 

    “Not even close. Maybe you need some encouragement.” 

    “IHIHIIDAHA! Nohoho! Nohohot theheheHEHERE! Gehehet ohohohoff!” Little sparks started jumping from Kami’s hair and skin, not enough to hurt, but enough to be startling, so Iida pulled his hands away just in time for Kami to arch his back and kick the wall, connecting his heel right with a wall socket and promptly knocking out the power. For a moment, all you could hear was Kami’s huffing breaths and slowing yet hysterical giggles as he calmed down, this quiet was short-lived, however, as the whole room busted out laughing.

    “Oho my Gohod, Kami! What did you do?” Mina cackled, Midoriya wheezing like a dying seal in the corner, bent over the far end of the table. Even Todoroki was Chuckling wildly. 

    “What the FUCK, Sparky!?” Bakugou called from upstairs, presumably seething. Kaminari stopped sparking just as a glowing-eyed Aizawa walked into the room with his Capture Weapon gripped in his hands.

“What is going on in here!?”

    The chorus of different students laying out blame on Kami and Iida did the poor eclectic hero no good in his explanation of his test results.

[pastel9girlbunny000die]

This is written though to @mizunetzu Christmas event secret Santa. I didn't know when to post it but on the day of the deadline. So I hope the person whoes secret Santa I got to be like it and it is good? Which I doubt.

Warnings: none

Fandom: my hero academia/ Boku no hero academia

Title: The Love Letter

Ship: Mirio x male Reader

☆☆☆

Mirio is quite a good guy always fun to be around, he turns to look at the positive side of things.

And that's what made you like him even more, his great and fun. Since the day he met you he stuck around like a log every corner you turn you met him with a wide smile spread across his face.

At some point you started having romantic feelings towards the said boy, a little afraid to speak up. You didn't know his sexuality or what kind of person he's into, it kinda confused you since he surrounds himself with all kind of people, different personalities, genders, ages and taste.

His definitely a attention seeker, for great friendships.

Instead of pouring your heart out in person not wanting to face humiliation, or be seen spilling tears. Not wanting to be friend zoned in person.

You could only do one affected thing...

Write a love letter♡

Yes go a bit old school and express your feelings through written words on a piece of paper and stick it into his bag, anonymously.

***

"Hey, (L/n) look here isn't this dress really pretty or what?" One of the girls in class leaned over showing a certain (h/c) who was bored out of his mind face down on desk drool running down his chin

"Huh?" Lazily turned to look at the girl as she shove the magazine into his face. Forcefully taking it for her sitting up straight again so he can actually she what she was yapping about

"Yeah, I guess so?"

"I mean like yeah it's cute isn't it?"

(Y/n) ignored the rest of the girl's blabbering turning his attention back to the book in his hand flipping through the pages, it was pretty noisy in class being break and all everyone can enjoy their food as well as break.

"Did you hear, Mirio Togata another girl confessed to him."

"I heard he rejected her."

"Really, I bet its cause he doesn't have a quirk anymore."

"What a shame I guess his not worth it anymore."

"Its so sad how he keeps smiling like that."

A few girls whispered. (Y/n) had enough slamming his hand onto the table startling the girls

"His not worthless, his power isn't the only good trait about him! He has a great personality and strong believes!" The boy yelled taking his stand turning away leaving the classroom

Most of the class was shocked especially Tamaki and Nejire knowing (Y/n) isn't actually a person that gets easily angry

***

"Wow that really happened?" Mirio questioned a little surprised, Nejire just told him what you did for him first he thought it wasn't necessary but then again you were brave enough to defend him. It was sweet in a way made him happy to know your looking out for him

"Yeah, my the way you where going to show us what's in your hand?" The purple haired girl says trying to speak past her friend back

"Oh! This-" Mirio paused reaveling the Piece of paper that was behind him, a bright smile spread across his face he was practically sparkling

"O m G, is that a love letter!" Nejire gaps getting happy for her friend, her heart all pounding even if it wasn't meant for her she would always care and love her friends, even Tamaki cracked a shy smile taking a quick look at the happy blonde

"Yep, it's a love letter. Found it in my bag."

"Really what does it say what does it say?!"

"It is the most beautiful and loving thing I have ever read, the feelings and emotions poured into writing it, the reason why they love me made me feel completed, when and how got me to tears and laughter I couldn't help but smile. I'm in love." Mirio smiled softly a single year sliding down his cheek arms hugging the paper tightly to his chest

"Wow.. who sent it?"

"Anonymous. They where to afraid to give it in person or speak up, it makes me sad to think so."

"Oh.. mmh?" A concern look spread on Nejire face feeling bad for her friend "so you'll never know who it is?" She whispered is a sad tone

"Oh! No," Mirio laughed rubbing the back of his head "I know this hand writing anywhere I've seen it too many times, I know who this is."

"Really?!"

"Yep. Now if you'd excuse me I gotta a crush to hunt down" Mirio waved disappearing down the halls, leaving his two friends behind

***

"Why that bitch!" (Y/n) cursed kicking the wall leaving dusty shoe prints on the stone, anger written all over his face, sadness building up in his eyes

'Why would anyone be valued to their power? Instead why not love them regardless of what they are, who they are, what gender they are or not. You should love the person not what they have!'

"It pissed me the fuck off!"

"What does?" A kind voice traveled with care and a little worried to (Y/n) ears, making him turn to the owner of the loving voice. Mirio stood there a small smile on his face soft gaze upon your form

"Oh! Mirio sorry it's nothing." (Y/n) says looking away avoiding eye contact his shyness immediately returns with a aching heartbeat and a uncontrollable blush

"Hey, (Y/n) buddy I wanna talk to you." Mirio slowly walking toward you till he was face to face trying to catch your attention by going into your line of sight but it only ended up with you turning your back to him, unable to control your heartbeat wondering if he could hear it just as loud as you are

"So, I wanna thank you. I heard from Nejire what happened and I'm really grateful that you stood up for me I didn't know you care that much. So thanks (Y/n)." The words made you so happy, if this makes you feel like your about to die what would a kiss do?

"There's something else I want to talk about too, this is kinda girly but. I got a love letter today!" Mirio started talking in an unsure tone till he ended the sentence with a much more gleeful and cheerful tone all smiles and rainbows

"R-really ?" You took a quick glimpse at the paper in his hand turning back to the wall

"Yeah, wanna hear what it says?"

"N-no-" your voice came out below whisper unheard from Mirio as he continued

"I was thinking today about how very much I love you, and how I never have the courage to tell you that. So I wanted to sit down and let you know how truly in love with you I really am Mirio.

I still remember the first time I met you I thought you were weird and you till are, we were both still in middle school so I didn't know much about my feelings, it took me very long to figure out, You were smiling ear-to-ear and absolutely lit up the room it made me feel shy and awkward around you which I'm not. I tried avoiding you but like paper you stuck to me like glue.

Till today you still make me happy and shy. Weak to my knees along the way

I truly think you are the most handsome guy in the world. I love the feeling of your gaze on me even the tiniest brushed of skin makes me hyper. Your smile lifts my spirits on even my worst days. I love your laugh and your ability to find humor in every situation. I’m so grateful for everything you do for me.

You truly complete me. These last few years have been the happiest of my life. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to always have my best friend by my side, but I'm too scared to face rejection and see a sorry look on your face.

I'd rather keep myself hidden in your shadow. So I can just love you for awhile longer

I truly love you. Mirio Togata."

"Yeah that's really pretty." I sighed, why would he read it to me? I send it anonymously it hurts just knowing I can't be with him

"Yeah it, is really pretty it makes me happy to know someone cares this much about me and is afraid to tell me in person. This letter is making me happy but I'm already in love."

What? He.. why do I feel like crying? My heart ached worse and it hurts

Tears started falling dripping down into the ground disappearing beneath the sand, (Y/n) body started trembling as he hugged himself feeling hopeless and pain

"(Y/n) what's wrong?... why are you crying?!" Mirio panicked not knowing what to do, only to turn you around facing him and hug you tightly to him pressing your face into his soft chest arms securely around your back

"Its okay, it is okay (Y/n) I'm right here you can talk to me, does it hurt somewhere did someone say something mean." He spoke softly between your sobbing and whimpering holding you tight as possible

"I-I ... lo-love you-you Mi-rio.. please don't g-go!" It made a kind smile appeared on the blonde face he lift you chin so that your eyes met, his shirt was all wet from your crying but that is the last thing on his mind

"Hey, calm down. Its okay I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere." You finally steady your breaths you heart still beating out of your chest, as Mirio whips away your tears

"I love you too. (Y/n) (L/n), the love letter is truly beautiful."

☆☆☆

I hope you enjoyed. ~

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Gift of Magi; Brian May x reader

*Author’s note*

Here is yet another little special Christmas fic I have for you all. If you loved my Joe Mazzello one then you guys are REALLY GONNA ROT YOUR TEETH WITH THIS SWEET FIC. As you can see by the title, this is inspired by the beloved Christmas tale of the same name, for a year now since getting into the Queen/BoRhap fandom I’ve wanted to do this fic with one of the members of Queen but I didn’t know which one to do it with. Finally after doing some thinking and planning and realizing I hadn’t really done  a solo Brian May fic in a long time, I decided our beloved space poodle DESERVED this story. Enjoy my lovelies :)

Warnings: TOOTH-ROTTING FLUFF, Brian’s sickness (takes place in 1974 so that’s when he had his hepatitis scare along with some other things I had read up that happened during that time), Roger’s chaotic behavior, Freddie being a loving fairy godmother (you’ll see soon enough), and fluff, fluff, and you guessed it EVEN MORE FLUFF!!

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things​

@waddles03​

@psychosupernatural​

@ixchel-9275​

@simonedk​

@queensdivas​

@queen-paladin​

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels​

@queendeakyy​

@geek-and-proud​

@wormzteef​

_______________________________________________________________

There it was.  The perfect gift for Brian.  The Refractor telescope, 30 power.  Don’t ask me what I just said cause I wouldn’t be able to tell you what all it does.  All I can say is that Bri’s been eyeing this bad boy for years and with an empty tripod he’s had since graduating University, he needed something to look up at the stars with (one of his classes he had to rent out a telescope and then return it to the professor once the semester ended).  

Yeah dating an astrophysicist Rockstar is one thing, but shopping for said astrophysicist rockstar is another, especially around the holidays and birthdays.  Sure he says all he needs is my love but I want to prove myself to him.  Plus I want to give him something special after the major health scare he had when he and Queen were touring with Mott the Hoople at the beginning of the year.

It was horrifying but I was there to help Brian recover from his Hepatitis scare and assure him that the band wasn’t going to replace him (bless his little heart, he was so sure the band was gonna abandon him) but they didn’t and they were there whenever they could, also they would send in some demos for me to play for Brian so that he could still have a say in the songs for their Sheer Heart attack album.

Now that Queen was slowly now getting recognized for their talents after “Killer Queen” made the top 10 in the charts, scratch that the entire album was going up the charts I wanted Brian to have something special to go with his tripod.

I took out my wallet and counted up my tips that I had been saving all year to buy this telescope. I was still a few pounds short but after today I should finally have enough to buy the telescope for my guy.

“Don’t you worry Bri. You’ll see the stars once again.” I put the money back in the side pouch of my purse and looked down at my watch. “Shit I’m gonna be late for work!” I exclaimed and quickly raced down the block towards the tree shop.  I had taken a second job at the Christmas tree shop to help with getting better tips for Brian’s telescope.

When I finally arrived, I walked into the open tree lot and punched in my timecard before the loud exclamation of my boss’ voice cried out.

“YOU’RE LATE!!”

“I’m sorry sir, I was……”

“Doesn’t matter! Now get out there and get those papers organized we’ve got customers out there who need trees!” I nodded and quickly went over to my desk and took out some of the reserved papers that some people filled out to confirm their tree orders.

The day was long and cold but every little penny counted.  I filled out the paperwork, helped the customer’s find their tree and even bypassed the boys at the shop and helped put the trees on top of the customer’s cars.

“Welcome to Mad Pete’s Tree shop how may I help you?”

“Yeah see my mate here is looking for a pretty cute tree, around (y/h), (h/c) and has two of the star glistening eyes he’s ever seen.” I looked up and low and behold there stood Roger and Brian.

“Really Rog? Did you have to go and say all that?”

“Hey bout time you got a taste of your own medicine of what we’ve had to deal with everytime you miss (n/n)!” I shook my head softly chuckling.

“So you guys really here to shop for a tree or are you trying to get me into trouble with the boss again?”

“Hey Fred and I did not cause that fire!” Roger defended himself.

“You guys were the only ones smoking at the time, you’re lucky I didn’t get fired from that little stunt.” I sassed him.  Brian gave him a disapproving look while Roger tried to brush it off, but as soon as he saw my scowl, he submitted and put on that puppy dog face of his.

“Sorry lovie. Can you forgive me?” I went up to him and embraced him.

“Of course I do yah big puppy dog.” I ruffled his long golden locks which made him exclaim as he tried to fix his hair back to normal.

“Oi! Do you know how long it takes for me to get my hair like this? It’s called a miracle darling.”

“Now you didn’t answer my question, what are you guys really doing here?”

“We figured we’d go and get us a tree since we couldn’t get one last year. Since we got some money now instead of hardly anything.” Brian said.

“Ahh I see. Well let’s see what I can help you with. Follow me gentlemen.” I guided them towards the back and there were some of the smaller trees that hadn’t been reserved and that could be affordable for Bri and Rog.  “I know it’s not much but I know you guys can afford these trees. Pete’s been trying to skyrocket the prices, especially for his prized 10 footers.”

“It’s perfect love, thank you.” He kissed me softly on my lips.  I slowly wrapped my arms around him when I felt him take my string necklace revealing my great grandmother’s diamond encrusted locket. “You know, that locket deserves a beautiful golden chain.”

“Brian.” I took his hand in mine and held it against my cheek. “You know you don’t have to.”

“But I want to. Just imagine in, that scared locket chained up to a beautiful chain around that pretty neck of yours.” I blushed and pressed my head against his chest.

“You flatterer. You may not know your way around the dance floor but you have a way with words. No wonder you’re an astrophysicist. Speaking of which, you still got that tripod right?”

“Yeah. I still keep it cleaned, even though I’ll never be able to afford a telescope of my own for years if I’m lucky.” Oh little does he know.

“Well you never know. Santa has his ways.”

“You know love, it’s kinda weird how you still believe in Santa Clause even at your age.” Brian said. I let out a dramatic gasp.

“How dare you! You are never told old to believe in Father Christmas. Right Rog?”

“Damn straight! Just ignore your boyfriend (n/n), he thinks he’s too clever for Christmas.” Rog said as he took me away from Brian and wrapped an arm around my neck.

“Now hold on I didn’t—” a throat cleared and that’s when I saw a middle aged couple with their two small children.  The father who had a greying beard and wore some prescription circular glasses.

“Excuse me, we—we’re looking for a tree.” He said shyly.

“Oh did I hear you folks looking for a tree? Well step right over here and I’ll show you the best trees I’ve got!” Pete soon came in saying and guided the parents away from the smaller trees, right towards his prized 10ft.  I glared at him and turned to the guys.

“Think you both can find a tree yourselves?”

“No worries love. Do what you’ve got to do. I’ll see you tonight though right?”

“Of course. I’ll be over at your flat by 6pm on the dot. At least I’ll be on time unlike you are, yah scatterbrain.” He gave me that disapproving scowl (you know where he tilts his head down and his brow raises up and a deep frown crosses his lips). I giggled and pecked his lips and said, “You know I love you right?”

“With those insults I’m starting to doubt it.” He mocked.  I playfully swatted his arm which made him chuckle then I proceeded to follow the family to get them a more affordable tree.

After looking and looking through the very back of the lot, I had found the perfect tree that would suit the family just right.  I took it around to where Pete had his 10 footers displayed.

“I really am sorry madam but the rest of my trees have been reserved, these are the only ones I’ve got. You don’t want these kids going without a tree this year do you?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“We are gonna get a tree? Aren’t we daddy?” the little girl around 5 years old said.

“But—this is all we have.” The father said as he took out what looked like one pound and threepenny pieces.

“Then that’s just enough for a down payment.” Mr. Pete said as he readied the contract.  Okay that’s it.

“Ugg excuse me!” I made myself known. “I’m sorry to interrupt but uhh—I managed to find this out back. It hasn’t been reserved or anything, maybe you and your family would like this.” I walked up with the tree and set it down.

The kids all ooed and awed at it, it was just slightly bigger than the two of them were.  The father shoved the contract back into Mr. Pete’s hands and he said to me joyously.

“We’ll take it! Oh thank you so much miss.”

“No problem, let me help you get this tree set up onto your car.” I took the father’s money for the tree and walked with them back to their car.

As they drove away waving and thanking me for the help, I waved goodbye back to them and wished them a Merry Christmas.  I counted up my tips and felt my heart skip a beat.

“I did it. I—I actually did it! Oh it’s finally enough to get Brian that telescope!” I cheered as I jumped up and down until a shadow came over me.  I stopped and slowly turned around and saw Mr. Pete seething down at me, his cigar bit between his yellow teeth.

“I HAD THEM HOOKED ONTO BUYING ONE OF MY TEN FOOTERS!!” he yelled in my face which made me slip and fall flat on my back in the snow. “And I’ve decided to take what I would’ve made out of your payment!” he snatched my bag of tips out of my hand.

“No let go of that! I need it for someone special’s Christmas gift!” I exclaimed as I tugged on the other end of it trying to take it back.

“Not. My. Problem!” he said.  With one final good yank, I was once again back in the snow as Mr. Pete pocketed my tip bag. “And just for the record. YOU’RE FIRED!!” he walked away from me with my bag of tips.  Not just from working at his lot but my waitressing job tips as well.

Of course I wasn’t upset about getting fired from the Christmas tree lot, I was just upset that all my hard work was now for nothing.  Guess I’ll be going to Brian’s empty handed.  I stood up, brushed the snow off my pants and walked away solemnly from the lot.

Thinking just how in the hell I’m gonna get Brian that telescope now.  There’s no way I could come up with the money by 4 o’clock today.

*Brian’s POV*

After picking out the perfect tree from the lot, Roger and I drove down back to the flat.  As we drove down the road I quickly said to Roger.

“Pull over.”

“What?”

“Just pull over Rog!” I snapped.  He muttered angrily and pulled the car into the pawnshop parking lot and I quickly stepped out and went up to the window and saw it.  The gold chain I’ve had my eyes on to give to (Y/n) to go with her locket.

“Forget it Bri, you’ll never afford it!” I heard Roger exclaim from the car.  I glared down and turned towards him.

“You underestimate me Rog.”

“All I’m saying is that we barely had enough to buy this tree. Trident is really screwing us over with our payment. John’s trying his best but he can’t seem to prove it legally. Yet.” He said to me.

“I know. It’s just I want to give (Y/n) the perfect gift this year. After everything that’s happened especially with my health, I want to show her just how much she’s meant to me. Without her I—I doubt I would even be standing here right now.”

“Now don’t go getting sappy on me now mate. (N/n) is a diamond in the rough, but you know she’s never wanted any riches or fame. All she ever says she needs in the world is you. God now you got me talking sappy! I hate you both sometimes!”

“Oh what? Mr. Hard-rocker can’t take a little sweetness in his life?” I teased as I got back in the car.

“Shut up or I’ll run your arse over.” He threatened.  I softly chuckled as Roger pulled away from the pawnshop.

Soon.  I’ll get that gold chain soon enough.  I just need to figure out a plan, but I only have 6 hours left so I need to think fast.

*My POV*

GRRRRR!!! Why can’t life be like a fairytale sometimes? I sure could use a fairy godmother right about now to give me enough money for Brian’s telescope.  I sat down at a nearby park bench and fiddled with my locket.

“(Y/n)?” I perked up my head. “(Y/n) darling is that you?” I looked up and there I saw Freddie with row upon row of shopping bags.

“Freddie? Wha…..what are you doing here?”

“Doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Of course shopping for that man of yours is a nightmare! Okay a living hell! No offense.”

“None taken. He—can be difficult to shop for at times.” I said solemnly.  Freddie cocked his head curiously like one of his cats and he asked me.

“You okay dear? No offense but you look like someone threw you in a dumpster and the dumpster spat you back out.”

“I could be better.” He came over and set his bags down at our feet and he said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

“C’mon. You tell ol’ Freddie what happened darling? Why are you so down at this festive time of the year?”

“To put it bluntly, I got fired from Pete’s tree lot.”

“What?! Alright that’s it I am going to march straight down there and have a little chat with Mr. Pete.” I grabbed Fred’s arm and said.

“That’s not what’s bothering me though Fred. Honestly, I could care less whether or not I worked there next year or not.”

“Then what else happened that made you so sad?”

“If I tell you, will you promise not to tell Brian?” he gasped.

“Please tell me you’re pregnant.”

“What no! No! Fred that’s not it at all. You see, you know how Brian always has that empty tripod at yall’s flat?” he nodded. “Well I did some digging and found the perfect telescope that can go with his tripod. Since the start of the year I’ve been saving up all my tips just to get him that telescope. The tree lot’s really been helping my tips grow compared to my waitressing job. And today I managed to reach my goal.”

“Well that’s great so—”

“But that’s when Pete took my tip bag away. All of it.”

“What!? Why the fuck would he do something like that!?”

“Because I stopped him from selling this sweet family an expensive 10ft. tree. They knew they couldn’t afford it yet Pete was pressuring them. So I sold them a small and affordable tree and they were excited about what I showed them and took it. Pete said he was gonna take what he would’ve made off the tree out of my pay. So he took everything. My entire bag of tips that have been saved since this year.”

“That low-life…..you sure you don’t need me to go ‘speak’ to him?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore Fred. I only have 2 hours till the shop closes and no way of paying for that telescope. Now Brian will never be able to look up at the stars the way he dreams of doing.” I leaned my head against Fred’s shoulder and he wrapped his arms around me, gently rubbing my arm and pressed a soft kiss on top of my head.

“You know what I always found to be the cure for a sour face?” he asked me.

“What?”

“Trying on new clothes. C’mon let’s go down to BIBA and pick you something nice to wear for the party. My treat.”

“No, no Fred I can’t do that. Plus what about your shopping?”

“Ahhh I was done with it anyways. Now c’mon. Maybe taking your mind off of your sad morning will help you come up with a plan. And here why don’t you take this?” he reached down and grabbed one of his shopping bags. “It’s something I was planning on giving to that space man of yours, but it seems you need it more than I do.”

“Freddie I—I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll take it. That way you can at least not feel guilty of coming to our flat empty handed. And maybe give me a sneak peek of what to expect from you for my Christmas present.”

“In your dreams Mercury. I never spill Christmas secrets.”

“Damn it!” he pouted.

“C’mon you, I was promised a shopping trip so I expect you to deliver.”

“Darling have you met me?” he stood up and I helped him with some of his bags and the two of us walked towards BIBA.

After finally getting into a warm store, I shivered and rubbed my arms frantically trying to get some friction on them and warm myself up.  Freddie and I then proceeded to try out some clothes.

Freddie was right. After awhile of trying out various types of clothing and giving Fred my personal opinion on what he could possibly wear for a future concert, I was starting to feel better.  Currently I was trying on a winter hat and looking at myself in the mirror.

“Hold everything (Y/n) darling! I’ve found the perfect thing for you!” I heard Freddie exclaim all the way from the other side of the store.  I buried my face under the hat as people looked towards me.  Fred came racing over to me and he held up a cute red Christmas shawl with little snowflakes on it.

“Oh my god this is cute!” Fred then tied it around my neck but tied it in a fashion knot, making sure my locket was the key feature showing above my shawl.

“Figured this could go great with your great-grammy’s locket. That thing is worth millions.”

“Yeah. Pure diamond encrusted and……” I trailed off. “That’s it. THAT’S IT!! Fred what time is it?!” I asked him urgently.

“Uhh it’s uhh…..10 till 4.”

“Uggh! There’ll be no time to get there by the road. Nevermind I’ll just run. Yeah run as fast as I can to the shop and get Brian’s telescope! Thanks Fred you’re the best but you can take Brian’s gift back I think I’ve found the perfect way to get Brian that telescope!” I ripped the shawl off my neck and handed it back to Fred and raced out of BIBA and ran as fast as I could.

Now running and snow are not a good combination but I couldn’t stop now.  Not even as I was slipping and sliding along the crosswalks, all that mattered to me was getting to that shop on time.  I would look up towards Big Ben to see how much time I had left and time was running short.

I still had about six blocks till I got to the shop and I was down to my final 3 minutes on the clock.  I soon spotted some teenager boys sledding up along some railings and bus benches.  I walked up to one of them and quickly asked them if I could borrow his sled for a moment.

At first he pondered on the though till finally he agreed to let me have it.  I told him where he could come collect it in the next five minutes and I proceeded to sled the rest of the way to the shop.

Now gaining some speed, I could see the shop just down the hill.  I took a deep breath and proceeded to slid down the street towards the shop but as I got halfway that’s when Big Ben began to gong out the next hour. GONG……GONG…..GONG…..GONG!

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! As I got to the bottom I saw the shop starting to close up, the lights went off and soon the old shopkeeper came out and locked up. I stood up and ran towards him.

“Wait sir wait!” he turned to me.  He was an elderly man roughly around his mid-60s, he wore prescription glasses and his hair was white and thinning, he also was growing out a small white beard.  “I—I was wondering if you’d be willing to make a trade?” I took my great-grandmother’s locket off my rope chain. “I was hoping to trade in this locket for that telescope you have on display. The 30 power Refractor one. It’s for my guy.”

He took the locket from my hands and observed it closely.  He hummed sadly and said.

“Sorry ma’am. That there is a pretty locket but it won’t do much in my shop.” He handed me back the locket and pocketed his keys. “Well, Merry Christmas.” He told as he began to walk away.

“Please sir this locket was a family heirloom. It belong to my great grandmother back in the early 1890’s. It’s diamond encrusted and pure gold you can see if for yourself.” I said walking alongside him, showing him the locket once again.  He sighed and told me.

“I know love but—what I sell in my shop is stuff people actually use in their lives. And as I said before as pretty and as valuable as that locket is, no one will want it in my shop.” I stopped and looked down heartbroken. He hummed sympathetically and continued as he placed a comforting hand on my shoulder “Tell you what, why not go down to the pawnshop across town and you can sell it there? Then once you got the money, come back here the day after Christmas and then we’ll discuss about that Refractor 30 power telescope.”

“But I need it by tonight. This was my last chance to get my Brian something special after the horrid year he’s had. I would give anything in the world to get him that telescope, even if it’s a precious family heirloom.”

“Anything?” he asked quizzically. “Tell me poppet what else are you planning on giving for that there telescope?” he said with his arms crossed.

“I’d give all my love if I could. As sappy as that sounds but it’s true. Brian he’s—” I looked towards the sky and could already see the first star in the sky. “He’s my shining star.” I heard the shopkeeper chuckle.

“Now that’s how you make a sale. Sure wish there were more young compassionate lovers like you and this man of yours. Reminds me of me and my wife Gertrude. God rest her soul. C’mon in come on in and we’ll discuss that trade.” I smiled and in my adrenaline of pure joy, I hugged the old man and heard him softly chuckle.

Later that night, I arrived at the boy’s flat ready for the Queen Christmas party.  The boys along with Mary, Veronica, and Roger’s girlfriend Jo were all there by the time I arrived.  We had a warm and delicious Christmas eve dinner and exchanged the gifts. First the guys gave out gifts to each other, then us girls proceeded to give our gifts to each other.

I had gotten Ronnie some baby clothes (yes she was a couple of months pregnant at the time and had given us the big announcement just a month ago).  I gave Jo a copy of her favorite Jimi Hendrix album, and as for Mary I got her some new makeup from the latest designer line.

I had gotten some winter hats and scarves from Mary, a copy of my favorite Shakespeare play from Ronnie, and Jo got me the new Beatles album.

After most of the gifts had been exchanged, I quickly went to the back of the tree and pulled out my gift for Brian.  I groaned and heaved it up.

“Jesus (n/n) what did you get him a pool table?” Roger asked as he lit up his cigarette.

“Ha-ha you’re hilarious Taylor.” I sassed sarcastically.  I then turned to Brian and I said to him, “Hey Bri, why don’t you go get that tripod out from your room?” he chuckled nervously and fiddled around with his shirt collar nervously as he said.

“Actually….why don’t you open yours first? And maybe even let us see that locket of yours. I don’t think Jo’s ever seen it before.” Now I started getting nervous.

“Oh she wouldn’t be interested in that old thing. Here, why don’t we open our gifts together?”

“At least do something!” Freddie and John both slapped Roger over the head making him exclaim in pain. Brian handed me my gift, a small but beautiful wrapped box with a gorgeous red bow, while I carefully handed him my giant box.

The two of us unwrapped our gifts and opened up the tops and my eyes widened as I let out a soft gasp.

“A—a gold chain to go with my……locket.”

“Oh my god (Y/n)! You got me the Refractor 30 power telescope for my—tripod.” Wait why did he trail off at the end? I turned to him and saw that he had a sorrow-filled expression on his face.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?”

“Oh (Y/n) I love it. I really do, I’ve always wanted my own telescope it’s just—” he sighed heavily. “I just had to trade that old tripod to get you that gold chain.”

“What?”

“Pawnshop’s son was into space and he needed a tripod for his telescope. So I told the pawnshop owner that I had one since that one was practically collected dust instead of stars.” Oh Brian.

“And I traded my locket to get you that telescope.” Brian and everyone else softly gasped.

“Oh (Y/n), I can’t believe you would trade away a family heirloom for me.” Brian said.

“I would’ve given anything Brian. After—everything that’s happened this year. From your hepatitis scare, to the ulcer and even fear of losing your arm I—wanted to give you something special. I don’t care if it costed me an arm, leg or even my own heart. I would’ve done anything to at least see you smile that real Brian May smile I’ve come to love.”

He cupped the side of my face and brought me closer to him, our lips joining together in a soft, delicate, loving kiss.  Of course Roger and Fred just had to make it embarrassing by telling Bri to give me more tongue.

“Come with me.” He silently said urgently as he guided me out to the small backyard behind their flat. “There now we got some privacy away from the pests that is Freddie and Roger. I swear those two are mentally 5 years old 24/7.”

“Well Fred is, Rog is more like 3 years old.” He snorted out a soft laugh.

“Anyways what I wanted to bring you out here to tell you is that while I appreciate what you did to get me the telescope, you didn’t have to trade your locket. I know how much it meant to you.”

“I know but like I said earlier, I would’ve given anything to see you smile again.”

“Just being by my side is enough to make me smile.” He said as he cupped each side of my face, his calloused thumbs caressed my cheeks.  I smiled and he pressed his forehead against mine, our noses gently nuzzling against one another’s before he captured my lips in another kiss.

For the rest of the night, we all sang some Christmas songs, watched some Christmas films and when it got late we all decided to turn in for the night.  I was in Brian’s room, the two of us cuddled up close on his bed.

“I just hope by next Christmas we’ll have ourselves a house.” He said.

“Let’s take it one step at a time my love.” I said as I tucked my hand into his unbuttoned t-shirt softly stroking his collarbone and gave the junction between his neck and shoulder a kiss.  “For now I’m content to how this Christmas turned out.”

“Me too. Even though we basically recreated the gift of Magi tale.” I smiled and felt Brian kiss the top of my head which his fingers slowly stroked up and down my spine. “Happy Christmas my stardust.”

“Happy Christmas my space man.” Brian covered the two of us with his duvet and we fell into a peaceful slumber in his arms.

[yumeka36]

Thoughts on Rebuild of Evangelion (all movies plus ending interpretation)

*Artwork credited to リオ on pixiv*

Now that Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, the last movie of the Rebuild of Evangelion saga, has been released, I'm finally ready to discuss all the movies as a whole, including my interpretation of the ending...

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

I've been a fan of Evangelion for nearly 20 years, starting back in 2002. After hearing the series praised by some classmates, I asked for the DVD set of the original TV anime for Christmas that year. I was 15 years old and a fairly new anime fan at the time, so naturally I was blown away by the show. The Internet was young then, and since there were no fandom wikis or YouTube explanation videos available in those days, I had to rely on a few scattered fan sites and my own resources (mostly bonus features on the old DVDs) to try and figure out the lore and symbolism. Even though many aspects of the series, as well as the eventual "true ending" movie, End of Evangelion, left me scratching my head, I still loved it and it left a long-lasting impression on me. And now, here I am almost two decades later, sharing my thoughts about the new movies...

-Before Thrice Upon a Time was released, I hadn't touched Evangelion since 3.33 came out in 2012. I had forgotten many details, and since Evangelion is a franchise that is fraught with nuances and subtleties that can be key to understanding what the heck is going on, I wanted to watch all the Rebuild movies again before watching Thrice Upon a Time. So I plowed through all four movies this week, and I gotta say, after being away from the franchise for so many years, I'm happy to report that I still thoroughly enjoyed it. But I can also recognize that it is definitely not a series for everyone. The drawn-out technobabble, constant introduction of lore jargon with little to no explanation, and the ambiguity between what's real and what's symbolic, can certainly turn off casual viewers (it gives Kingdom Hearts lore a run for its money!) Funnily enough, as I was watching the Rebuild movies, I was thinking, "I understood the lore better 20 years ago than I do now, lol" (maybe it's because I was younger and didn't have as strong of a theorizing mind as I do now!) But after reading through a bunch of pages on the EvaGeeks Wiki, I learned enough to get a gist of the story's vaguer elements. But unfortunately, the fact that information necessary for understanding the plot can only be found by Internet research, could certainly be a turn-off for viewers. But at the same time, for those willing to make the commitment, or at least appreciate the series' other qualities even if you can't follow many aspects of the lore, it's definitely an anime unlike any other. There's a reason it's been such a well-known franchise in Japan for so long.

-Asuka has been one of my favorite anime characters ever since I saw the original Eva TV series, and thankfully, I'm happy with what they did with her character in the Rebuild movies. My only complaint is that I preferred her original backstory that emphasized her relationship with her mother, rather than having a "clone-complex" similar to Rei. However, her character development in this new storyline made up for it. The Rebuild movies really nailed her abrasive, no-nonsense personality that hides depth within. There were also more scenes that showed her "softer" side, something I always felt was lacking in the original series, such as when she confides in Misato towards the end of 2.22 and when she confesses her feelings to Shinji in Thrice Upon a Time. I also felt her initial dislike for Shinji and Rei was a bit more warranted this time; despising the fact that they were able to become Eva pilots purely by connection to Gendo while she had to work hard for it. But again, we get more hints at her kinder side when she makes the sacrifice to help Rei get Shinji and Gendo together. This is pretty contrasting to the original series, where she was always oozing hate for Rei. Even their infamous elevator scene ended differently in 2.22 compared to the TV series, where instead of hitting and yelling at Rei, she agrees to help her (in her subtle, Asuka-way). Asuka and Rei also had a brief scene together when they were at Village 3 in Thrice Upon a Time, and the way Asuka talked to her made me feel like she actually cared about her, or at least didn't hate her. But even with the Rebuild movies giving Asuka more scenes to show her goodness, they still stayed true to her tough-love personality - it's not like she suddenly started smiling a lot, or gave Shinji a passionate hug, or broke out in tears...they developed her character without making her do a 180 change, which I appreciated. Even in her final scene with Shinji on the beach before he saves her (loved that scene, and the shoutout to End of Eva there) she still reacted in her "tsundere" way (though not as harshly of course). I'd also like to mention that they made the fourteen year time-skip in 3.33 very believable in terms of Asuka's growth. I really liked the hardened, lone-wolf, protector role she had in Thrice Upon a Time because it makes sense - fourteen years had passed and she not only matured during that time, but she had spent all those years being the sole Eva pilot along with Mari fighting to protect humanity, so settling into that kind of identity makes sense for her. But yeah, Asuka's always been a great character, and the Rebuild movies made her even more awesome in my opinion.

-When I first watched 2.22 years ago when it came out, I was puzzled that they decided to put Asuka in the Eva that Unit-01 ends up destroying rather than Toji. But looking back on it it now, it worked better since they had a plan for Toji's character that had nothing to do with the Evas. I did kind of miss Asuka's friendship with Hikari though (they could have tied that into her staying with Toji and Hikari at Village 3 instead of with Kensuke). I actually wrote a WYDS fanfic for End of Evangelion way back in 2003 that emphasizes Asuka and Hikari's friendship (that's somehow still on Fanfiction.net!) But she got a friendship with Mari instead, so it's fine, lol (I also liked that they removed her crush on Kaji, which I never thought fit well in the original series). But I do wish we got to see what was going through her mind while she was stuck in the Eva and getting attacked by Unit-01. We know she was aware of what was going on because she knew what Shinji did (that he didn't try to save her or attack) so it would have been nice to see a scene or two of her reactions.

-Misato was always my second favorite character after Asuka, but I wasn't thrilled with the coldness she exhibited towards Shinji after the time-skip in 3.33. I know she probably got hardened after all those years and maybe still felt resentment towards him for initiating Near Third Impact (which killed Kaji among others). But even so, I felt like her coldness was more to keep the suspense rather than stay true to her character (plus she was the one encouraging him to do what we wanted at the time of Near Third Impact). It makes sense for Asuka to be cold to Shinji, since she was always standoffish like that, but Misato was always shown to be a source of warmth and the most "human" of the characters. But at least she made up with Shinji in the end and got to finish her story arc with a bang (literally).

-I'm not sure if it's still a thing now, but back in the day, Shinji got a lot of hate from anime fans for being too whiny and indecisive when confronted with his task of piloting the Eva. But even all those years ago, I always thought those reactions made him believable. Maybe it's because he's compared to anime shonen heroes like Naruto and Luffy, who are always cheerful and brimming with motivation, while Shinji is pretty much the opposite of those kinds of characters. But it makes sense for him to be like that...if I were a fourteen-year old kid who never knew my mother, had a father who abandoned me, and had to live on my own in a crumbling world while witnessing death and destruction all around, I'd be pretty hesitant and scared too. He's definitely not a "wish-fulfilling" protagonist like many shonen and super heroes are, but a protagonist grounded more in reality, representing a disillusioned youth. So it was nice to see him finally get over his insecurities and be proactive with saving everyone at the end of Thrice Upon a Time (compared to everyone giving him the pep talk at the end of the original series). Though I did think his personality shift was a bit abrupt...he was at his lowest point at the beginning of Thrice Upon a Time, but the one kind gesture from Rei seemed to immediately snap him out of it. A little more gradual build-up to his change would have been better, but it's a nitpick.

-Mari was an enigma in 2.22 and 3.33, so I was hoping Thrice Upon a Time would give us her origin story. Unfortunately, it didn't offer much and maybe brought up more questions than not. My main question is, we see that she knew Gendo and Yui when they were younger, yet if she was their age then, that doesn't match up to the age she appears to be when Shinji first meets her. So she must have been afflicted with the "Eva curse" all those years back, which means she must have become an Eva pilot around that time, but it seems too soon. I thought the first Evangelion pilots didn't exist until after Yui died, so Mari should have been older...I don't know, I'm still having trouble figuring out her place in the timeline. But besides that, I did like her relationship with Asuka that we see in Thrice Upon a Time. Again, it makes sense in terms of the time-skip that they'd develop a good friendship after spending all those years being Eva pilots together.

-I don't have a lot to say about Rei, since I feel her story arc is one of the simpler ones (which isn't saying much for this series, lol). The scenes of her in Village 3 in Thrice Upon a Time were endearing, though I knew they would end in tragedy. Actually, that whole part of the movie with the characters spending time in the village was great. The world-building in those scenes was fantastic too - it really felt like what a post-apocolyptic survival camp in that situation would be like. It was nice to see the characters partaking in and reacting to situations that don't have to do with Angels and Evas (spin-off series for this when?)

-And lastly, how did I interpret the end of the Rebuild saga? Was I satisfied with how it ended? Right after I watched Thrice Upon a Time, I wasn't totally sure. But after reading some more wiki pages and watching some explanation videos, especially this one here (it's a great explanation if you can forgive the bad pronunciation of the names), I've realized just how brilliant of a conclusion it is. There's been speculation that the story involves a time loop, with the events of the original TV series, as well as the Death & Rebirth and End of Evangelion movies, being different versions of the time loop, while the Rebuild movies is where the loop ends because Shinji finally overcomes the pain of his past and can restore the world this time (while he had failed to in the previous loops). I don't think it's a time loop so much as a cycle that keeps resetting and repeating. Further support for this theory is that Kaoru acts like he's met Shinji before, since he's reborn in each cycle to meet Shinji only to be killed by him later (all the coffins seen on the moon are for his past/future selves). I think the final movie title is symbolic of this too, with "Thrice Upon a Time" meaning "three times upon a time," the three times being the three cycles of the Evangelion story: the original TV series, the movies Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, and finally the Rebirth movies. But mostly, the scene towards the end where Shinji meets Rei in the anti-verse, and they're standing in what appears to be a filming room while projected images from the Eva TV series are shown behind them. This to me symbolizes that the original Eva series exists in the Rebuild movies as one version of the cycle, and Shinji has now finally broken out of the loop. Once Shinji has saved everyone, the filming room (which symbolizes the old versions of the story, as I believe it's supposed to be the room where live-action footage used in previous Eva works was filmed) fades away and the literal animation around Shinji begins to break down into its purest forms, as key animation, then layouts, etc., - a near 4th wall-breaking depiction of the world resetting. However, Gendo and Yui had sacrificed themselves so that Shinji wouldn't have to, so Mari is able to pull him back into the world, just like she had promised. In the end, Shinji is able to join his friends in the new world that's free of Evas. Without the Eva curse, all the pilots are now their proper ages as well. The movie closes with Mari and Shinji heading off somewhere in their new lives while the environment merges into live-action footage, representing the fact that the story has now transcended animation and is now "real" because the cycle has finally ended and a true Neon Genesis took place. Like many aspects of the franchise, there are many ways to interpret this ending, but this is the interpretation I've settled on.

-While I am satisfied with the ending overall, I do wish the epilogue showed us more of what the other characters were doing, especially the survivors from Wille and Village 3. I know we can assume they're living out their lives as well, but it would have been nice to get confirmation of that with a few quick cameos. But there are some main characters whose fates are uncertain, particularly Misato, Kaji, and Fuyutsuki. I'm assuming the only people Shinji was able to save were the ones whose souls were still bound to Evas, namely Asuka, Rei, and Kaoru. I don't know about Kaji since I'm still not clear on exactly how he died. Maybe Shinji couldn't save Misato because she died "for real" and wasn't just trapped inside an Eva/Angel. But it is implied that many souls, not just Eva pilots, were saved when the world was restored...so maybe she was too? And like Kaji, I'm not sure what happened with Fuyutsuki. Did he turn into LCL because he gave up his humanity in some way, like Gendo? I'm also a little salty that we didn't get a decent shot of adult Asuka at the train station, lol. I'm not sure if the ending was hinting at Mari and Shinji being an item...possibly Rei and Kaoru too, maybe even Asuka and Kensuke. Like many things in the franchise, the eventual pairings, or lack thereof, could be interpreted in many ways.

In conclusion, while there were some aspects of the old Eva TV series and movies that I liked better, the Rebuild movies overall did an excellent job of retelling the story with the same rich lore and thought-provoking symbolism that we're used to for the franchise, but with enough new twists to make it stand out. And as I mentioned in my interpretation of the ending, these movies weren't just a retelling but a redefinition of the franchise as whole, bringing together the previous versions of the story and giving them true closure. Though we could see some spin-off material at some point, Thrice Upon a Time does seem like it was intended to be the final installment of the Evangelion series. While I was satisfied enough with the endings for the TV series and End of Eva movie, having watched the Rebuild movies, I do believe they're the "retelling we didn't know we needed." It's a tad bittersweet to know that such an influential franchise, and one of my favorite anime for years, has come to its true end. So, to translate the text in the below fan art...

"Thank you , Evangelion."

*Artwork credited to リオ on pixiv*

[ladyideal]

Ficmas~ Day 17

Pairing: Leonard McCoy x Gender Neutral!reader

Word Count: 1205

Warnings: Slightly suggestive in the beginning.

Summary: You and Leonard have a day off on the Enterprise.

Requested By: @night-running-echo

A/n: Smh. I enjoyed writing writing this one. Almost got derailed lol.

7:00 AM

Sounds of an alarm pierced the silence. With a groan, your boyfriend smacked the button with a spare hand. Yawning, he watched you still sleeping, undisturbed. Waking up beside you every day was something he didn't imagine two years ago. 

It was a pleasant surprise. 

Gently, he traced your features, careful to not wake you. From the forehead, down to the nose, and stopped at your lips. There was nothing he didn't love about you. 

"Mornin', sleepyhead," He spoke against your cheek. 

"Lennn," You whined quietly, squirming around in his arms and blearily opening your eyes to look crossly over at him. "It's too early to be awake. Go back to sleep. We both have a day off."

You were the one thing he did right this time. This was where he wanted to stay, forever and always beside you. 

"I've missed you, darlin'," He silently agreed, laying his head back on the pillow. Only smiling to himself when you didn't answer. 

9:00 AM

"Pancakes or waffles?" You asked, finally sitting up in bed and reaching for one of your boyfriend's shirt.

"Pancakes." He spoke, watching intently as you padded out the room in nothing but a thin shirt of his. 

Maybe one more time. 

He enjoyed watching your ass before you disappeared out of sight.

"Gonna call your mom today?" You asked, flipping a pancake as you stood in front of the stove. 

"Momma would get mad if I didn't. I've seen her holler at Donna before. Not a pretty sight," The doctor emerged from the bedroom, giving you a nice once over before hugging you from behind. "Smells good in here, sweetheart."

"Leonard," You warned, sliding the pancake onto a plate. 

"Hmm?"

"What did we say about keeping our hands to ourselves?" You scolded lightly, adding more batter into the pan. "We don't want breakfast to burn, do we?"

He pouted at you, giving you one of his most adoring faces. You kept your resolve firm, frowning slightly at him. Looking like a scorned child, he turned to the sink to help wash and cut the fruits that would be placed later onto the plates. Laughing mostly to yourself, you continued your work and ruffled his hair. 

"Good boy."

You swore you heard a growl.

11:19 AM

Managing to finish breakfast and calling his mom and daughter, you and him scrolled through your respective PADDs. He, as the Chief Medical Officer of the ship, meant a daily review of chartings and reports. For you, as a scientist of Commander Spock's elite research team, your team was in constant communication over new findings, theories, and scientific equations.

"Enough, this is our only day off together. Who knows when the last time we get this chance again?" You placed your PADD down, and stacked the used plates and utensils together. 

Breakfast tasted far better than the cardboard version from the replicators.

"What should we do on the day off?" Leonard asked, flicking you with water as he washed the dishes. It was one way to keep the relationship interesting. 

You swiped back at him with the kitchen towel you used to dry the plates, sticking your tongue out playfully at him. "Maybe watch some holos or some classic hallmark Christmas ones? Haven't done that or decorating the place yet."

He grunted in response which you took as a reluctant assent. "What do you want to watch, sweetheart?"

“Iron Man 3! My favorite Christmas movie!” 

“FOR THE LAST TIME. IRON MAN 3 IS NOT A CHRISTMAS MOVIE.”

You laughed at his response. "Take that back, Leonard. Iron Man 3 is perfect for any season."

3:52 PM

Laundry. 

You didn't know how after so long after so many cultures and technology coming together, that no one within the Federation figured out a way to quickly fold clothes. Essentially, folding clothes were the absolute bane of your existence.

As Leonard folded the last of the cycle, you placed his away grinning at the thought. "Remember that time when you wore my uniform and you wore mine?"

He snorted. "How could I not? Even Chris didn't mention it the entire day. Said my abs looked much better than Jim's at the end of Alpha. At the end, it was Geoff that mentioned the wrong uniform. I was made a laughingstock of my own medbay."

You shook your head, chuckling. "Not making that mistake again, are we? I'm sure you were fine, doctor. The nurses must have had a wonderful day in the Medbay. Jim got a kick out of it too."

"He knows?" Leonard gasped loudly. "How the hell did the infant know about it?"

"Surely a bird told him about it."

He eyed you, the same look he'd give when his orders were being questioned. Before you could take your words, his long talented hands began tickling you. 

"Stop! Ahh," You giggled, weakly trying to shove his hands away. 

"Say 'Doctor McCoy looks better.' or I'm not stopping."

"Doctor McCoy looks better," You wheeze out, thankful that he relented. "You win, you win."

Smugly, he sat down beside you on the bed. "I missed this."

"I missed this too," You agreed, getting to your feet again. "But I know what else you're not going to be missing anytime soon."

Ding Dong!

"Coming," You winked at Leonard before happily prancing towards the door. Thanking your friend, you lugged the large cardboard box inside. 

"Ta da!"

"What the hell is this?" Your boyfriend prodded at the decorations within, as though afraid he would catch the Christmas cheer. 

"Oh this? Some tinsel, lights, some stockings, small nutcrackers, pillows for the couch," You dug through the box. "Some mistletoe somewhere here."

"Mistletoe?" He echoed. 

"Afraid to be caught under one, Doctor?"

8:01 PM

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Had a very shiny nose

And if you ever saw it

You would even say it glows

"Remind me why I can't kill the carolers?" Leonard grumbled once the carolers left for their next destination.

"Because you hold an oath," You reminded, washing away the last of the plates. Dinner was wonderful as usual. Real chicken noodle soup was always delectable.

The living room was transformed in time for the holidays. Tinsel glinted from the ceiling, stockings hung beside the TV, a small tree sat at the corner decorated with its own baubles and lights, and mistletoe hung right on top of the threshold into the bedroom. Pillows on the sofa was changed out, pumpkins were changed out for plastic snowmen, and a wreath hung right beside the door. 

"Come on, Mister Grinch, admit it," You admired the living room, taking out two mugs out to make chocolate. "You enjoy Christmas."

"It's a fire hazard, Y/N," He answered, pouring in a generous glug of whiskey into both. 

"That's not a no I'm hearing," You dunked in some small marshmallows before handing the beverage. 

"Only with you, sweetheart," Leonard clinked his mug with yours. 

"Why don't we watch a holo together? Nyota mentioned the Nutcracker ballet, a true Christmas classic." You offered. "Take the rest of the night off."

He groaned good naturedly, but sneaked a kiss in with your hot chocolate ones. 

"You're all I would ever love."

Eats Everything: @asraime @aspiring-ginger @bluesclues-1234 @mournthewicked @also-fangirlinsweden @keijibum @groovyfluxie @ladylizzieofdarbyshire @mysoulshideaway @fandom-imagination-ss @mayday1284 @sayanythingcreations @supergeekfangirl​ @your-sparklywinnercollection​

Trekkies: @marvelouslytrekking @lykxzandlove @writerdee1701 @piccolaromana @mrs-l-mccoy @strange-old-worlds @april-showers-and-flowers @scraftskhu35 @worm-cant-read @fandomismymiddlename @childofthecornflakes @yueci @lgbtqcontinuum @dartheldur @goddess-of-many-fandoms @crackheadcastdirector @readingtrek

McCoy: @cobe76 @yakuzussian @space-cowboy2227 @lacychick @fxngsfogxarty @samanthasmileys @kimberlyfletcher

Urban: @justa-traaash @fandomsfeelsandfamily

[sheerfreesia007]

Things To Do

Title: Things To Do

Fandom: Teen Wolf

Pairing: Stiles Stilinski x Reader

Author: @sheerfreesia007​​

Words: 1,712

Warnings: Cursing, sex with clothes on

Permanent Tag List: @paintballkid711​, @fioccodineveautunnale​, @phoenixhalliwell​, @synystersilenceinblacknwhite​

Teen Wolf Tag List: @linkpk88​, @pure-ghost​, @awkwardnesshabitat​

Author Notes: So this last one was inspired by the prompt “Sorry we’re late, I had things to do.” “By things she meant me.” And it just seemed to fit Stiles so perfectly. Welp another Thirsty Thursday in the books! I hope you all enjoyed the birthday themed fics. I sure did! Feedback is always appreciated.

Gif Credit: Google

         “Lydia I don’t know what to wear!” you huff out loud as you stare at all the clothes flung about your room. You’re standing in the middle of your bedroom in a satin navy blue bra and panty set as you try to figure out what it is you’re going to be wearing for the birthday get together the pack is throwing for you. You run a hand through your hair and blow out a breath in frustration.

         “Babe, whatever you decide to wear is going to make you look gorgeous. Don’t sweat it. Besides I’m pretty sure Stiles will want to rip it off your body anyway.” Lydia says over speakerphone and you laugh softly. “That boy can’t control himself around you.”

         “Yeah you’re right but I just wanna look cute.” you complain softly to your best friend.

         “Wear the sexy maroon Henley with the three buttons on the front and your favorite pair of jean shorts. That’s always a super cute look on you.” Lydia says decisively and you nod your head along as you pull the mentioned articles of clothing from the piles around your room. “Match it with your converse and those dangly gold earrings I got you for Christmas last year and you’re set.” she instructed and you smiled over at where your phone lay on your bed.

         “You’re the best Lyds.” you say sweetly and she laughs brightly.

         “Now let me go so I can finish decorating.” she chastises you before the two of you hang-up with each other. You’re walking around your room picking up the clothes you had thrown about in your panic and begin to put them back in your drawers and closet. As you bend over to pick up a shirt a voice rings out in your room making you gasp and jump.

         “I didn’t realize it was my birthday today.” comes a familiar voice and you whirl around to see your boyfriend Stiles leaning against your door jam with his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face as his eyes rake up and down your body. You chuckle softly as you roll your eyes at him before walking over and placing a soft sweet kiss to his lips. You go to pull away but his hands grab your waist and keep you pressed against him.

         “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.” you tease softly and he nips at your bottom lip softly. When his teeth catch on the flesh of your lip your whole body heats with desire for him. You whimper softly and you can feel his smirk against your lips.

         “Yeah but you look so good in navy babe.” he responds easily as his hands slide up your back to pluck at the clasp of your bra. You groan softly and pull away from him.

         “C’mon I gotta get dressed so we can go to the party.” you admonish him softly. When you go to pull away from him again and get dressed his hands splayed across your back and pull you back into him. “Stiles.” you groan out softly.

         "I can't help it when my girlfriend, who is the birthday girl, looks as good as she does right now. Things just pop up." He grinds his hips against yours after his last words and you moan softly when you feel his erection digging into your hip.

         "You're gonna make us late." You scold halfheartedly and his smirk is sinful now as he looms over you.

         "You're the birthday girl; the party doesn't start until you get there." He quips back as he begins to walk you back to your bed. Once the backs of your knees hit the bed he leans down and presses his lips to yours heatedly. "Besides I wouldn't be a very good boyfriend if I didn’t give you birthday sex as many times as I possibly could." He whispers out to you when he pulls away.

         His hands come up to cup your face and his lips slant against yours passionately. You're drowning in his loving affection and you don’t want to come up for air. You can already feel yourself growing excited knowing what's about to happen. His lips trail from your lips to press a soft peck at the corner of your mouth and then travel across your cheek to just under your jaw bone where he sucks a wet kiss into your skin. Your hands are fisted in his shirt and you're quickly dragging it up and over his head to fling to the side. When you gaze at his naked chest you can’t help the reflex your fingers have to touch him.

         He moans against your neck, where his lips have been placing more sucking kisses, when you're fingers card through the chest hair in between his pecs. His hands slide down from your face and down your arms to your hips where he tugs you forward and presses you against him. You can feel him harden even further as you buck your hips against his.

         "Stiles please I need you." You murmur out into the air on panted breath. Your body feels too hot even though you're practically naked. All because of the young man in front of you. Finger slide down his chest to fiddle with the belt of his Jean's. He groans softly and his fingers come to help you undo his belt.

         "I wanna fuck you with your underwear still on." He pants out against your skin as he looks down at your body clad in the navy blue material. "You look so pretty with it on I wanna fuck you in it."

         "Yes, yes please." You beg him and suddenly a loud growl fills the room as it resonates from Stiles' chest. His hands on your hips spin you and push you forward so that you land on your hands and knees on your bed. A sharp sting blooms on your ass while a loud slap fills the air. "Stiles!" You yelp out.

         "Couldn't help myself. It's just there." He says heatedly as his palms come up and squeeze your ass cheeks. You moan and let your head fall forward between your shoulders. His fingers then dip under the material of your panties and you moan again at the sensation of feeling his skin on your own.

         Suddenly his hands are gone and you mourn the loss of his touch before you hear the ripping of a package and you know exactly what he’s doing. Looking over your shoulder you spy one of his hands gripping his hard cock and the other rolling a condom onto it. He steps closer and his fingers are back on your ass sliding under the material of your panties and pulling them to the side as the head of his cock glides up and down your slit slowly. 

         “Stiles, please.” you beg softly and he’s sinking into you quickly. You groan and throw your head back at the sensation of him filling you completely. “Oh shit, yes.” you gasp out. His hands flex against your hips when he's fully seated inside of you.

         "Fuck, you always feel amazing around me babe. So fucking good." He groans out as he leans over your back to press kisses against your shoulder blades.

         "Fuck me Stiles. Please." You whimper feeling his cock pulse from inside you. Your walls flutter around him in response and he begins to slowly slide in and out of you.

         "Damn the navy blue looks so good on you." He grunts out softly and slams his hips into yours making you gasp and fall forward onto your elbows. He's thrusting into you now at a steady pace that's making the winding coil of desire twist tighter and tighter. His hands seem to be everywhere on you at once, gripping and groping at your flesh.

         "Stiles please." You call out as you feel yourself climbing higher with the pleasure.

         "Please what birthday girl? Tell me what you need." He husks out to as his hips continue to snap against yours.

         "Make me come. Please make me come." You gasp out as your head falls back. His hands slide up your back to grip at your shoulders and he thrusts up into you hitting that deliciously sensitive spot inside you. You mewl once he hits it a second time and he's making sure he hits it each time now. You're gasping for air as he slams into you again and suddenly that pleasurable bubble that had been growing inside you pops. Your orgasm slams into your body and you moan so loudly you're pretty sure Scott can hear you with his werewolf hearing. Your walls clamp down on Stiles and he groans as he stumbles forward. His hips snap against once, twice more before he's stilling and spilled his release into the condom with a loud long groan.

         "Fuck birthday girl. That was amazing." Stiles says as he falls forward onto your back making the two of you fall onto your bed. 

         "Hell yeah it was. Best birthday present ever." You gasp out underneath Stiles' weight and he laughs softly as he falls to the side of you and pulls you into his side. 

           The two of you just lay there for a few moments catching your breath before you move and climb off the bed to get dressed.

         It's about an hour after Lydia had told you to show up and everyone is already there waiting for you. They cheer as soon as you and Stiles walk through the door. Everyone greeting you with cheers of happy birthday and warm hugs. When Scott pulls away from you with a knowing smirk you blush and address the pack.

         “Sorry we're late, I had some things to do at the house." You explain not meeting any of the werewolves' eyes.

         “By ‘things’, she means me." Stiles supplies as he throws an arm around your shoulders and presses a kiss to your forehead while everyone jeers at the two of you. "Just wait birthday girl once we get back home you'll have more things to do." He whispers in your ear and you grin as you turn fully into his side and press a kiss to his lips.

[chayacat]

Devil’s Sweet Star (19)

Fandom: Dead by Daylight

Ghostface x Female Reader  

Rated M for Violence, Language and Smut  

***

Ahhh...Love. The most wonderful thing in the world for anyone. Being in love and loved by someone can make you grow wings... figuratively. Life seems more radiant, exciting, fun, enjoyable when you are in love. A bond is forged between you and the one you loved. This bond can become, at the end of each road, stronger or more fragile. This is what I will call: gold yarn and black yarn. The golden yarn represents a strong love, a love that has gone through all the trials and that has come out stronger and stronger. This yarn is unbreakable.

The black yarn on the other hand... Represents a broken love. A love that ends up cracking on all sides. A love in which arguments follow, which sometimes comes to the hands. A love that, despite the desperate attempts of one or the other, ends up broken permanently. And in the end, we separate, each one rebuilding his life. Sometimes you get there. But some can't stand it... and the consequences are irreversible.

But let's go back to the positive side! It is in a serene, cheerful mood that you got up this morning. After all, there's enough! You and Jed are dating now! last night was the best night of your life. Knowing that it’s reciprocal, and that, despite the arguments to come, he will support you when it’s necessary, makes you feel lighter, more soothed. It will all be very different compared to Alex... you promised yourself that.

You and Alex dated for two years. You’ve met him in high school, he was a little genius and a sportsman, while you were more linguistic and theatral. While the first year was pleasant and fulfilled, the second was a disaster. He cheated on you from the beginning with someone else, but he didn't want to tell you. The worst part is that for him, all this was normal, the other girl was prettier, more... generous in terms of her forms. While you were just a little girl in her eyes. It broke your heart and you kicked him in the ass.

“This is all he deserves for doing that to me. Bastard.” You said to yourself.

And you’re right. No one should play with feelings. No one. But Jed is different. You know that. He'll never let you down for another one. But... What if another woman tries to steal him from you? What if she used her charms to seduce him? And that it worked? You couldn't stand it; you couldn't bear the fact that you were still abandoned because of a hottie who only wants sex and nothing more.  

Don't start thinking about that! this is just the beginning of your relationship. You've got time. And knowing Jed, you think he won't be stupid enough to succumb to the charms of another.

“I’ll treat you like a queen. Do you prefer a boring life to that? Think carefully...He or I.”

The words of Ghostface came back to you. It's true that you like to have a life of risk. That you're willing to do crazy things. But you have your own business now. Maybe it's time to think about a more settled life. Quieter. And with Jed, you can't dream better. And then, Ghostface treating you like a queen? What a good joke. You imagine Ghostface bringing you a cup of tea... filled with sleeping pills. And once asleep.... he could do whatever he wants with you.

And then, if in the early days it would be "nice", Later it will be blows. insults. And in the end, he will force you to participate in his massacres. A life that would shame your parents if they were still alive. In a sense, and even if it's sad and mean to admit it, you're glad that your parents are no longer here, or that you don't live in the same city as your uncles and aunts. Who knows what Ghostface would have done? Kill them? Surely. To use them to blackmail you and never leave him? Also. And you don't even dare imagine if you had children with this lunatic. Explain to your child that his father is a murderer, but otherwise everything is fine. You're talking about a family life.

Today is your day off. Yes, technically you spent two days in the hospital because of a fool who had the good idea to attack you in broad daylight in front of everyone. Let's hope he enjoys his time in prison. So, in real life, you could have worked today. But you're not sure you'll have a lot of people. Melina isn't working today either. It's her day off. She sent you a message last night saying she would come by today to discuss it. So, she's going to hear the news from you. And knowing her she's going to bother that poor Jed, as soon as she gets back to work tomorrow.

“Melina is Melina. I don’t think that anybody can change her. But at least, it may be better that she is so. You never get bored with her. And then... I know that she will move away all those who want to separate us, knowing her temper.” you said to yourself, laughing.  

First thing to do...clean the apartment a bit. Because since you've been here and especially since your short stay in the hospital, you live with dust sheep. And if you personally don't care, to receive guests it's not very elegant. And after cleaning, a good shower is required. Then kitchen operation! Knowing that Melina will surely come to eat at your home, hurry to know how yesterday's evening went.  

You spend a good hour cleaning everything before you shower and you dress comfortably. That's when Melina knocked on the door. All excited she gave you a big hug, a little too tight for your liking. But she finally lets you go and both go into the living room. You serve her a glass of rosé, the only alcohol you have for the guests. While for you, a homemade orange juice is deserved.

“Then tell me! How did it go last night? How was he dressed? What did you eat?? Did you kiss? Are you together??” She asks, excited like a child waiting to receive his gift at Christmas.  

“Calm down, calm down. I'll tell you all about it. But stay quiet, you look like a little girl at Christmas or in an amusement park.” you respond laughing, seeing your friend's enthusiasm.

“Sorry! It's just that...when he told me that you have a dinner with him, I was so excited to know how it happened!”  

“Well... he was really cute. Very elegant, we had a good laugh. And we eaten very well. He had made everything from starter to dessert. And we explained and...”

“Aaaaaaand ?”

“We kissed. Twice. So, we can say that we are officially in a relationship.”

“I knew it, I knew it, i knew it! Oh (y/n) you don't know how happy I am for both of you! She answered so happy.

you can't help but laugh. She's really sweet. You both eat a small pasta salad, with surimi, piquillo's, and a little tuna followed by a strawberry pie. Melina had taken the cheese and bread; she was not the type to come to someone's house empty-handed. You talk about everything and nothing, laughing at jokes, innuendo and other stupid things like that. It was good for you. You needed it. Then the phone rang: Mr Parkson. There was a click in your head.

It's been a week. And you haven't even thought about inheritance. What are you going to tell him? To give you an extra week? impossible, he had told you: a week no more. He warned you that he'll be here in an hour to talk. Then he greeted you before hanging up and when Melina saw your face restless, her smile disappeared. No choice... you’re going to have to tell her, too.

“Somethings wrong?” she asks worried.

“It was Mr Parkson. He'll be here in an hour.”

“Your Banker? It must be important for him to come to your house.”

“Well...He’s not my banker.” you answered by going back to sit down.

You tell her everything in detail. The death of your parents, the fact that you are the only heiress, that you've pushed back, all this time, that fateful moment because you're still struggling to accept this... Melina had listened without saying anything, going from attention to emotion, very sad to know the reason why, you have family photos everywhere at home.

“Well...you lie. But that is clearly understandable. No one wants to tell that kind of thing. We would like to forget it or that it never happened. We always hope that it was a nightmare and that when we wake up, we see our loved ones or call them. But deep down... we know very well that it’s real. And so, this guy... is there to carry out their last will. But you're the only one? no other family member can touch it?” she said confused.

“No. I’m the only Heiress. But my uncles and aunts deserve their shares too. My parents bequeath their house to me, and the total of their life insurance. As well as a small pecul that they had set aside. And the jewels. But I don't want it. It would hurt me too much.” you respond sadly.

“I understand. But you should take it. And then give it to your uncles and aunts. Or ask him if he can do it. “

“Yeah...you’re right.”  

Melina changed the subject to make you smile, cheer you up. She's so adorable. She's the perfect best friend for you. And yet, you only know each other recently. After an hour, Mr. Parkson knocked on your door. You don't even wonder how he knew your address, he said it to you: when he has to find someone, he's looking for information. He greeted Melina and you explain to him that she knows about it and that so she can stay. He nodded and settled down to a chair coming out of his little briefcase the documents. you offered him a coffee which he accepted as well as a coffee for you and Melina.

“Right. I don't think I need to remind you why I'm here. I left you another week to think. Now I'm going to need an answer: yes, or no?” He said placing his glasses on his nose.  

“Yes. But I want to be clear: my uncles and aunts inherit on the one hand. Everything I want to keep from my parents... are their wedding rings. Plus, my mother's amethyst. Everything else, the house the money and everything else will go to my uncles and aunts. Do you understand that?”  

“...As you wish. But your parent’s life insurance goes obligatory to you. It will be paid into your bank account automatically. It will be up to you to withdraw the money and give it away or send it to your uncles and aunts if you wish. As for the rings... I've got them here.” He replied before taking out a small jewellery pouch where your parents' wedding rings and your mother's rings were.  

“I knew your parents well. They were great people and very good friends. They wanted you to give their wedding rings for your wedding day... and your mother absolutely wanted you to give her jewels. The amethysts is there, too. If you'd rather keep only this one and give the rest to your family, I will." He said a little smile on his face.

“Thanks a lot Mr... I appreciate it. Have... Have we found the murderer? Or at least, did we find clues to know his identity?” you ask.  

“Unfortunately, not miss. He vanished. And he may even be dead by now. I am afraid that unfortunately we never know the answer to this terrible question.” he responds.  

You sign the documents, to which he adds notes on your exchange, then got up, greeted you and Melina before leaving. He left you a copy of the documents and, as requested the desired rings. Then it was Melina's turn to leave after 2 hours of discussions to cheer you up. Again. She left you her phone number and you gave her yours, so you could communicate.  

You clean the table, do the dishes and sit on the couch, the rings on the coffee table. You take them gently in your hands, tears rising slightly in your eyes. From the beginning, they intended to give them to you on your wedding day... Day they will never attend now. the rest of the day was sullen. In the evening even more. All you wanted was for Jed to be there, to hug you right now. But the poor man already has a lot of work, it's better to let him rest for now.

He sent you a message to find out if everything was okay, and you answer him by lying so he wouldn't worry. The poor man replied that he had a lot of work to do between the two Ghostface murders, but with a little coffee, he was going to make it. He wished you good night hoping to see you again soon, and you did the same. You put your phone on the table before looking at the rings again, no longer holding back your tears. They hadn't done anything...

“Well, if I knew I would have brought a handkerchief. Unless you prefer a hug? I'm very good at comforting people you know... especially women.”

You look towards Ghostface which was leaning on the table making you this little hand sign so special of the character. he's the last person in the world you want to see right now.

“Are you really going to come to my house every night? You have no better thing to do like killing poor innocent people like the sick you are? Or am I doomed to support you for the rest of my life as you told me so well?” You said a little grumpy.

“But it's that we're a little cranky tonight... my poor darling, I sympathize with your sorrow.” he said, approaching you.

“You? have compassion??? You kill innocent people who have asked for nothing and you DARE to say that you have compassion for me???”

“hey calm down my angel. I’m maybe a psycho to you but I'm still a human. I know what it's like to lose those you love. Especially when they are killed without them being asked for anything. In those moments when you have the murderer in front of you, you want only one thing: to make him regret. But back to us. I see you've made your choice quickly. I wonder if he enjoyed your lips as much as I loved them. Definitely I think I would never understand women.”

“What does that have to do with you? I much prefer Jed than you!”

“Sweety; sweety, sweety... You don't realize how lucky you are. I keep you alive because I have a soft spot for you. I could have killed you, gutted you, dismembered you, made you the most beautiful of all my masterpieces.” He lay you down on the couch, blocking your arms and legs with all his weight, and through his mask, you can guess a demonic, unhealthy smile. He drew his face closer to yours, very close to your ear. “Compared to him, I can take you beyond the seventh heaven... You'd be happy every night.”

He freed one of his arms, holding yours with the remaining arm to raise his mask slightly at the level of the mouth. Then he lifted your t-shirt stripping you to the chest. Then he lowered his head to your belly button and threw a tongue at it. Little by little, he went up his tongue to your chest. He smiled as he felt your skin shivering at his touch, while you're holding out a single sound. With his free hand, he unbuttoned your jeans, just enough for his hand to attack your privacy. You bite your lips, holding you to moan at all costs. Don't give him what he wants. Or he'll benefit even more.

“Are you resisting? How cute. I like it even more. I don't like easy women. There is no pleasure.” He replied, pressing his finger against the sensitive point, causing you to startle a little.

He chuckled, passing his finger up and down on your intimacy, which eventually made you let go of a little moan. He continued for a few minutes before stopping and getting up, hiding the bottom of his face again, allowing you to get dressed. he recoiled, sneering, while you stare at him, ashamed and angry.

“I'm going to make you languish a little. That'll be your punishment. maybe it'll make you think. or maybe not. But in any case, I'm going to enjoy it. Remember that you belong to me.  On this... I wish you good night my sweet little star. Sweet dreams.”

Then he vanished like usual. you sighed, slightly annoyed by what had just happened. He's strong, very strong even. But at least you know he's lost people in his life. At least that is what he suggested. If that happens, it had nothing to do with him. But keep that in mind. That's a good clue. In the meantime, it's time for you to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, and you need all the rest you need.

Sleep well...

Little one.  

***

(And that’s it! I'm not too far from being able to pass my code exam! but I confess that driving does not enchant me too XD but hey it's always like that at first, right? If you have any questions, feel free! Oh, one last thing! I wouldn't normally be present from April 6 to 8. So, the current chapter at that time will come out a little later than expected! this will also be the case on April 16, 17 and 18! I apologize in advance I would do my best to advance them as far as possible! Good weekend everyone! See ya!)

[doyouever-daydream]

Day 4: All I want for Christmas is you

A/N So... I had the idea for every fic but time wasn’t on my side, but this one was already finished so I thought I would post, maybe next year I’ll be able to complete the 12 days of Garvez Christmas lol. I’m also currently writing another fic, hopefully I’ll be able to post it before the year ends! THE YEAR! If you somehow end up reading this, I’m happy you’re here and I’m proud of you all for making it through all of 2020, one of the highlights of my year was coming back to the CM fandom, falling in love with the show all over again, posting CM fics and of course, finally seeing Garvez become canon!!! I was just re-watching that scene and I remember ugly crying and just feeling my heart burst with joy and excitement, good times before the pandemic lmao.

Have a safe and happy new year!

P.S. The prompt for this fic was “You made me a Christmas playlist but it’s just Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is you”. I can’t tell if you’re hitting on me or if it’s a joke”, I really loved it ‘cause this song is one of my favorite Christmas songs ever and I’ve been listening to it since late September. 

Pairing: Penelope Garcia x Luke Alvez

Warnings: None.

Masterlist

“Thank you for helping me Pen” Luke entered the living room with a box in his arms.

“Are you kidding me? I love decorating for the holidays”

Luke laughed “Of course you do, now where do we start” 

“Well, bring out the other boxes so we can go through what you have” He scratched his neck while pressing his lips together.

“This is everything I have” Penelope’s jaw dropped.

“WHAT!? Oh my god growing up I had a box this big that had my decorations just for my bedroom”

“Yeah, sorry to disappoint” 

“Good thing I brought some stuff, follow me” They both went out to get it out of her car, and five boxes later they were finally starting to decorate.

“You truly came prepared” Luke eyed all the decorations that were starting to bring Christmas cheer to his home.

“I take this task seriously” She said as she fluffed a pillow shaped as a snowman.

“Me too I even made you a playlist” He exclaimed while unlocking his phone and plugging it to a speaker.

Suddenly “All I Want for Christmas is You” blasted through his living room, she rolled her eyes, as much as she loved Christmas songs, that was the one song she couldn’t stand and he knew it.

Penelope remained silent, trying to keep her cool and not give him the satisfaction of seeing her annoyed, when it was over she sighed, but as soon as she did, the song started playing again.

“Are you kidding me?” She shot daggers at him, he smirked.

“What? I loved that song”

“You do not, the other day when I said I was sick and tired of it you agreed with me”

“I don’t remember that, beside maybe this is a message, think about it while I go and grab some lunch for us” He winked and left her standing there annoyed and confused.

“What does that even mean?” 

“You’re smart, you’ll figure it out” And with that he closed the door behind him.

“Stupid Luke” She muttered to herself and Roxy who barked “So you agree with me, huh?” Penelope didn’t give much thought to  his words until half an hour later, she found herself singing the song, much to her dismay.

“... I just want you here tonight, holding on to me so tight, what more can I do?..” She trailed off, was Luke really trying to let her something or was he just messing with her? Penelope shook it off and just as she was about to turn off the speaker, Luke entered carrying their food.

They ate almost completely in silence, with the holiday tune playing in the background, Penelope paying attention to the lyrics and convincing herself that it didn’t mean anything.

“So what are your plans for Christmas?” Luke commented as he finished his food.

“I’ll go to JJ’s, I want to be there when Santa arrives and surprises the kiddos”

“That’s great, you’re gonna spend the whole day with them?” He wondered.

“I’m not sure, I don’t think so” She started petting Roxy, and just when she was about to ask about his plans, Luke spoke

“If you don’t have dinner plans maybe I could take you to dinner on Christmas?” He almost stopped breathing as he finished the sentence, waiting for her response.

Penelope swallowed, she wasn’t sure he heard him right, her eyes remained on Roxy “L-Like on a date?”

“Well.. Yeah, didn’t you listen to the song?” He chuckled nervously and she finally looked up to him.

She shook her head while she smiled “Pick me up at six o’clock?”

“You can count on it” He returned the smile as he reached for her hand and lightly squeezed it, suddenly Penelope didn’t dislike the song anymore.

[5am-the-foxing-hour]

The Adventures 2020

X-mas (December 24th) Gift giving

Year 2020’s Adventures

5 parter, each part posted on advent: 1st 29th November, 2nd 6th December, 3rd 13th December and 4th 20rd December and the last part on Christmas 24th of December

- - -

Characters: all of them, orange side being a cryptid again.

Words: 1591

Warnings: no warnings I believe.

- - -

General Fanfic Tag list: @ebony-wolf, @nashiraneko, @i-sold-my-soul-to-thefandom, @rabbitsartcorner, @punsterterry,  @sleepyssnail,  @nightmaresides, @virgilswritings, @ninja-girl2846, @ninjago2020, @starryfirefliesbloggo, @garecc,  @sympatheticdeceit, @cookiethedevil, @askthesnake,  @all-bridges-will-burn, @tacohippy56900, @little-euro-girl, @aggressiveshipper, @imbasicallyshakespear, @slayerofspiders, @prinssess61, @underthesea73,  @suicidalcitrusfruit,  @sander-side-stuff, @franthehorsegir, @kingpridesanders, @multi-fandoms-posts

- - - 

The others were gathered in the living room, sitting around the christmas tree. All having one present before them.

  “Can’t we start now?” Roman whined.

  “No, we have to wait for Remus and Janus.” Logan said

  “Uuuuuuuuugh but they have no concept of time!” Roman groaned as he let himself fall back to the floor to lie down, arms crossed and pouting.

  “Now, now Roman.” Patton said as he patted Roman on the knee. “I’m sure they’re on their way.”

  “SNAKEY! GET OUT OF BED!” A voice suddenly shouted from upstairs, unmistakingly belonging to a certain duke

  “GET YOUR FILTHY PAWS OFF ME!” Came another voice, just as loud and more hysterical clearly belonging to Janus, a screech followed.

It didn’t take long before Remus came thundering down the stairs holding a loudly cursing Janus, who was bundled up in a bright yellow fluffy blanket, in his arms.

  “We’re here!” Remus cheered as he unceremoniously dropped Janus down between Thomas and Patton. Janus hissed louder as he grabbed his blanket and glared at Remus with murder in his eyes.

  “Remus, I swear, you better keep your snacks hidden or I will change them for Healthy food!” Janus snarled.

  “NO! NOT MY SNACKS!” Remus cried holding his hands protectively before himself.

  “Everyone here now?” Thomas asked.

  “Is…?” Logan started turning to Janus.

  “No, he hid even harder from Remus so I doubt he will show face.” Janus grumbled into his hand that he was leaning his jaw against, as he made himself a bit more comfortable on the floor. 

  “Then yes, everyone is here.” Logan said and nodded at Thomas. Thomas smiled and sighed in relief, as Roman cheered and sat up, only to snort at the birds nest that was Janus’s hair.

  “No hat?”

  “No, because someone didn’t have time to let me finish preparing for the day.”

  “You were taking too long!” Remus nagged. Janus just clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Virgil sighed, and Logan rolled his eyes before he clapped his hands to gain everyone's attention.

  “Since everyone is here now, why don’t we get this year's secret Santa started?” A chorus of agreements followed and soon the sides and Thomas waited as Janus summoned his hat after Roman sent him some puppy eyes to use it to draw the name on who was to hand over their present first.

   “Virgil.” Logan read from the piece of paper he had taken from the bowler hat. Virgil grimaced before he huffed

  “Well… better to get it over with… I had you Logan...” Virgil said as he summoned a package, wrapped in purple paper with white stars, he handed it over to the other side who took it in surprise.

  “Are we opening the gifts now or are we waiting til everyone got theirs?” Thomas asked.

  “It’s more fun to open them together.” Patton said with a smile.

Logan carefully placed the purple present down on the floor, before he picked up a present wrapped in dark blue paper.

  “I had you Janus.” Logan said as he handed the present over. Janus blinked before one arm appeared from the blankets and took the present, a small chuckle left him as he thought he had an idea on what it was Logan had given him.

  “Thank you.” Janus said as he put the present down. “Roman I had you.”

  “Oh… yay...” Roman said only to yelp when two of Janus’s arms suddenly appeared from the floor holding a big yellow box. Roman gaped as he took it, missing how Janus’s arms disappeared back into the floor. Roman floundered a bit before he put down the big box and took out a smaller red present. “I had you Thomas.” Roman said as he handed over the red present to Thomas, while Patton cooed at how small it was.

  “Aw it’s so small and cute~” Thomas chuckled at Patton’s comment before he took the gift, not really surprised that he could touch it. 

  “Did you and Janus work together on this one?”

  “Not at all, I totally didn’t make you forget ever buying that thing.” Janus said with a smile. while Roman chuckled and rubbed at his neck.

  “Well, I had you Patton.” Thomas said before he told Patton to hold his hands open and then concentrated, a rainbow coloured present plopped down on top of Patton’s palms and he squealed.

  “Oh I’m sure I’ll love this!” he said as he put it down and brought forth a baby blue present from behind his back and held it out to Remus. “I had you Remus. Here.”

  “Oh goodie!” Remus cackled as he took it only to blink when he felt that it was a soft present. He squeezed the paper a bit, a grin growing on his lips. “Here raccoon.” He said distractedly as one of his tentacles held out a badly wrapped gift painted green with acrylic paint to Virgil. Virgil took it with a startled yelp, grimacing when he felt how the paint was still wet.

  “Ugh.. thanks...”

  “LET*S OPEN THEM!” Remus and Roman called at the same time, causing Patton, Janus and Thomas to chuckle.

Getting a nod of approval it didn’t take long for Remus to tear into his present, to find a neon green knitted scarf, it didn’t look the best but he held it up and gaped, before he squealed and hugged it close, before happily wrapping it around his neck and bit into one end of it, chewing the chick wool. Patton chuckled at the sight before a loud gasp from Roman made them look over to find how Roman was taking out a huge stuffed lion, pale yellow with a bright red mane and green eyes and Roman’s logo on a necklace around the neck.

  “Where did you get this?!”

  “I uh… made it.” Janus said as he rubbed at his hands, gloves covering all the patches that took up his fingers from where he stabbed himself with the needle. Janus couldn’t help the blush that grew on his cheeks when Roman gave him the biggest most happy smile in years.

Patton opened his gift next, a happy sob leaving him when he saw the little stuffed frog, glittering blue in the light and a pair of big blue eyes, a pair of glasses and the cat hoodie around it’s throat.

  “It’s meee...” he sniffled.

  “Yeah, I know the first time was a bit of a bad moment, so I wanted to get you something to help you feel better about it. Logan and Roman helped me figure out how to make it.”

  “I love it.” Patton mumbled as he hugged the soft frog close.

The sound of tearing present paper was heard followed by a chuckle.

  “I knew it. Thank you Logan.” Janus said as he held a thick book in his hand. “I don’t suppose you want to go through it at a later date and discuss the content.”

  “I would lo- like that.” Logan said with a small smile.

  “So THAT’s where that lego set went” Thomas said, having opened his own present to find one of the several lego sets he bought before him. “Thanks guys.”

Logan opened his own present and blinked down at a space themed cup with a bundle of book marks filling it up, all holding different constellations on them.

  “I heard you grumble about running out of book marks last time you and the snake had your book talks, and you keep using your favourite cup so often it’s always in the dishwasher.” Virgil murmured “It’s not much but-”

  “Thank you Virgil.”

Virgil looked down at the sticky present Remus gave him, before he sighed and snapped his fingers to make the paint dry, before he unwrapped it, cursing every piece of tape he found. Before he found a bag full of stim toys, he picked up a fidget cube the same size as a rubik's cube, instantly pressing all the buttons. Remus caught sight of it and grinned.

 The evening found them all still in the living room, snuggled tight as they watched the Polar express, Logan’s request. In queue was the first Grinch movie, A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, and several other Christmas movies.

Thomas felt warm and content, tomorrow he would have the “real” celebration with his family, eating his fathers food and spending time with his mom. but for now, now he would bask in the calm that came, all the sides cuddled together. Somehow Logan had found his way into Janus’s blanket, hugging around the snake like side as the two leaned against Thomas’s side. Patton took up his other side, as Remus sat on the floor, purring as Patton played with his hair. Roman and Virgil sprawled on the remaining sides, Roman having the weighted lion lying on top of him acting as a weight blanket. while Virgil absently fiddled with the stim toys in the bag Remus gave him.

Thomas smiled, only to blink when a clementine was dropped on his lap, he picked it up looking around, no one else was around, Thomas turned it over to find how “Hi” had been carved out from the skin. as well as a smirking smiley. Thomas huffed and rolled his eyes.

  “He’ll show his face sometime...” Janus mumbled into his shoulder making Thomas glance at him, to see how Janus was looking at the clementine he was holding. “He’s just going to be a cryptid first.” A snort left Thomas and he chuckled, returning his attention to the TV

  “Yeah.”

[lycorogue]

For your ask game... 7, 13,15 and 16!

Livrever! You're just as bad as @cyhyr! You should also be well aware of my wordiness! Welp. Looks like I'm dusting off that good old Long Post hashtag again today. 😂

[Fanfic Writer Ask Game Questions]

7. What story/headcanons do you feel the proudest of?

By far the headcanon (which became a story) that I'm proudest of is the origin story of the lucky charm bracelet Marinette gave Adrien in "Gamer."

She already had it on-hand, and she didn't seem to have made it specifically to gift to Adrien. She even said he could "borrow" it, but never got it back. I think the charm bracelet was a spur of the moment decision to try to cheer him up and build up his confidence. When I was a kid, my mom gifted me various inspirational cards and worry stones to help me through finals and remind me that I could achieve anything I put my mind to. It felt fitting that Marinette's parents would do something similar, and THAT is where the bracelet originally came from.

If you want to read the full headcanon-inspired story, you can find it here: Build Your Own Luck

I love this headcanon so much I'm making sure to work it into my "I promise, I'm still working on it" WIP One and the Same.

Honorable Mention for favorite headcanon would be the headcanons I came up with for my Plagg-centric/Plagg-Appreciation story Forever in Darkness. In particular, my headcanon that Plagg was Aladdin's "lesser genie of the ring" from the 1001 Arabian Nights tale. I basically had that headcanon since I first saw Origins and Plagg mentioned meeting a genie before.

(Also, ya know, I still consider my first completed multi-chapter story Peeping Tomcat my magnum opus... so... yeah... proud of that one too)

13. When did you start writing fanfic?

I've been dabbling in fanfic pretty much ever since I understood what fandom was. When I was in elementary school I would create a whole series of X-Men OCs (only to discover a decade or so later that nearly every OC I thought of is already a canon X-Men character, they just never made the cut for the 90s cartoon).

In middle school and early high school (so roughly ages 12 through 15), I created a self-insert Batman OC (and love interest for Dick Grayson's Robin). She was Selena Kyle's niece that moved in with her. She struggled between excitedly being her Aunt Selena's apprentice as a cat burglar, and using those skills to be a hero with Batman and Robin. I can't recall the character's name anymore, but she went by the alias Black Panther (because that was my school's mascot and I'm a nerd like that).

About the age of 16 or 17 I joined my first play-by-post role-play game where I played Harley Quinn. It didn't last long before the game master went to college and the whole thing fell apart.

Then there was a fanfic dry spell. I did work on original works almost constantly from the age of 10 straight through to college. Then I had a college professor that more-or-less broke my creative writing spirit, sadly. I still wrote for video production classes and scriptwriting classes, but I didn't write anything recreationally for over 5 years.

Then, in 2009 I got back into the "Hey, Arnold!" fandom. August 2010 I wrote my first fanfic for the fandom. It would be the first fanfic I would ever publish online. I've been working on fanfics again ever since. 😁 (if you don't want to read the story on FFN, you can find the import over to AO3 here)

15. What is the fanfic you’ve written that you’re most proud of?

As I said before, I still think of Peeping Tomcat as my magnum opus. It is the longest story I've written. It is the first multi-chapter story I was able to actually complete. There are a lot of moments in that story that I just love to reread myself. It's the first story I've written that I felt compelled to write a sequel to (sadly, said sequel, One and the Same, has been stubborn the past 4 years and won't properly form, so that's still a WIP). It's the only ML fanfic I've published that has inspired fanart (but it's not my first fanfic ever to inspire art. That honor goes to my sadly abandoned HA! fanfic What is Truly Meant to Be). Plus, I got to emotionally torture poor Adrien, but also give him a happy ending.

Runner Up, I think, would have to be Prescription for Love, which is my interpretation of what Adrien did off-screen during the season 3 episode "Backwarder." A lot of my reviews have stated how much people loved Kagami in that story despite not particularly enjoying her canon characterization at that point in the series. Plus, Adrien is an oblivious little mush.

Honorable Mentions to the aforementioned Build Your Own Luck as well as my first Christmas-themed story Woven Heartstrings. I am still amazed at how perfect the gifts are for all of the characters, and I was the one who thought of them!!!! Plus, I've had a surprisingly large number of kudos/comments on that story outside of the holiday season, so it must really resonate with people even outside of December. Final Honorable Mention goes to the aforementioned Plagg-Appreciation story Forever in Darkness.

16. What fanfic tropes do you avoid writing for?

Goodness. I actually don't write for tropes. Not really. I aim more for "how close to a legit episode can I make this story?" or just general "This plot bunny showed up and I guess I'm nurturing it now???"

I don't know if I even KNOW all of the basic fanfic tropes....

If I used the This or That (Fanfic Edition) game as a guide, I think the tropes off of that list I'd avoid would be:

Flower Shop AU - I don't know much about flowers for that to be worth trying

Historical AU - I am TRASH at historical anything... although I'm a HUGE steampunkest... go figure

Major AU reworks in general - I am perfectly content snuggled into the canon. I like this show for a reason. And I like fanfic because the world building has already been done for me.

Crack??? - I don't have anything against crack. I quite enjoy it. I just... I'm not creative enough to come up with something so bonkers????

Whump - Not intentionally, at least. I almost never go into a story with the goal to torture the characters. That just... kinda... sorta... happens??? Sometimes???

Enemies to Lovers - I ADORE this trope, but I don't know if I could ever manage to write Adrien/Chat Noir as Marinette's/Ladybug's enemy nearly as masterfully as the other works already out there. Especially when some of my "competition" includes Discordant Sonata by @edendaphne and Curiosity and Satisfaction by @imthepunchlord.

Whew! This was even longer than the 4-question ask from Cyhyr! You ladies sure do know how to get me to talk. 😁

Thanks so much for the ask! Anyone else interested in getting to know more about me and my writing style? Feel free to drop me those asks. 😁