#for realz let's do it again sometime!

[valentine-writes]

for you!

「 tws + notes: no tws, fluff, not edited, kinda ooc my bad,, im learnin,,, 」

↳ ft. gwen stacy, hobie brown/spider-punk, miguel o'hara/spider-man 2099, miles morales, and pavitr prabhakar

「 gn! reader, can be platonic or romantic <3 」

author's note: obvi strictly platonic for miles, pav, + gwen but like. anyways!! just practicing writing for them becuz otherwise they will be So OOC for everyone's reqz and i literally would die. highkey struggled a bit but i'm tryin y'all!!! ("trying" but this is unedited ASF) ...eveyone look away from my obvious bias for gwen i heart her. i wanna,, also write for more characters eventually,, sooo,, hc reqs,,, hehehe :3 no full ficz,,, yet-

GWEN STACY headcanons:

▸ she doesn't do friends. not really anymore. oh but like. aside from miles, ur also an exception.

your friendship just kinda. happened?? it was a slow process but eventually y'all got close

▸ you supported her in her band endeavours! u know how knives chau rocks the homemade sex bob-omb merch in scott pilgrim vs the world (sorry 4 being a scott pilgrim fan and referencing it. im battling DEMONS.) THATZ U. biggest supporter for realz!! and she appreciates it so so much :,(

▸ she tries to hold u at arms length initially but ends up missing u too much when ur not around :( you've gotten really close to her over time– something neither of you had expected. but having a friend is refreshing for her. she's secretly always just a little anxious about losing you.

one time, in the middle of your developing friendship, she just kinda... dipped. left you on seen, didn't return your calls– you hadn't seen her in a while. but she came back, apologized profusely (through a lot of stumbled sentences and awkward rambles), and then swore never to do it again. you were... conflicted. so you asked her if anything was wrong and she mustered the courage to be vulnerable with you.

you are probably one of the first people in a long time that she'd actually been able to open up to.

▸ sleepovers where u jus stay up and watch slasher films. idk man i just feel this one in my heart. even if ur not particularly fond of horror, gwen is cool abt it if u need to cover ur eyes or hide under a blanket. y'all are practically screaming at the screen whenever the protagonist makes a dumb choice, acting like the characters can actually hear u

"if you go into that FUCKING BASEMENT I SWEAR–"

"nah– she's doing it. watch. WATCH."

"I CANT"

HOBIE BROWN headcanons:

▸ u are NOT calling this guy hobart. the first time u ever called him that Everyone Else was thrown off. like. no. we gonna stick w/ hobie for this one.

you, however, had the funny little idea of shortening his nickname even further. now sometimes– just on occasion– it's bee.

naturally, he's too cool to care abt what he's called, so he doesn't seem to have too many feelings about your overly cutesy nickname for him.

▸ you know any instruments? great. jam sessions with him. you don't? he'll teach you to play guitar. few ppl are given permission to touch His Guitar... but he can afford to make exceptions.

as he's teaching you, his chest collides against ur back a couple times, his hands guiding yours. he'll gently guide your fingers on the fretboard and yeah it's like– maybe not the most efficient way to learn. but whatever. he's pretty good with helping you figure it out.

▸ if you express wanting a piercing, tattoo or wanting to change up your hair (dying it, cutting it, whatever–) he's immediately gonna be like. "yea? ok. bathroom. right now." he'll help you out. king of diy truly.

and hey, the piercings never get infected, the stick and pokes turn out fine, the haircuts never look that bad, and the hair dye doesn't turn out awful so like. win???

supports you in your impulsive choices– piercings can close, diy tattoos fade, hair can grow– but the joy of self expression iz 4eva!!!!

▸ he lets you steal clothes from him. totally will point it out, but won't be all that bothered by it. HE'S GONNA BE TAKING FROM UR CLOSET TOO you practically share a wardrobe at this point. the others slowly become unable to differentiate which clothes you and hobie own individually. even if your wardrobes are completely different– trust he will find a way to keep a small piece of you with him

MIGUEL O'HARA headcanons:

▸ this man is emotionally distant asf. how did you achieve this relationship with him. answer: no clue!!! (｡･･｡) now that ur tight w/ him i am begging you. for the sake of the multiverse. get this man a therapy consultation RIGHT NEOWWW..... they literally have therapy services available in the spider society hq. if you dont HAUL HIS ASS OVER THERE–

▸ it's really no secret miguel has a soft spot for you. though he is very adamant about the fact that he doesn't– most people know that he's a little less grumpy with you around.

you seem to be one of the only people who can actually make him smile. which is. crazy. the first time he ever laughed at a joke you made you just kinda froze and stared at him, wondering if you had just vividly hallucinated miguel being happy. it was a light chuckle, where he kinda,, put his hand over his mouth and looked away. but it was SHOCKINGGG

▸ if you managed to get along with miguel, you're probably also besties with lyla. miguel however does not enjoy this. mainly because you two gang up on him. a lot. aka whenever ur arguing about anything w/ miguel, lyla is more likely to take your side. for funzies!!! she calls you her favourite– and it's like. man. are you getting along with miguel just for his little hologram assistant? i would but im gon shut my mouth on this one

it's funny how easily u two get along. she has officially attached all his bank info to ur online shopping accs and gaming shit. go wild. he'll never know (he finds out.. eventually.)

▸ it's actually really weird how you affect him. and everyone's noticing. he's constantly overworking himself to preserve the safety of the multiverse and when he's not, he's reminiscing on the past- but you give him something that he hasn't had in a while- an actual break. you pull him away from his responsibilities, from the screens he gazes into for so long, and for once he can relax. even if it's just for a minute

MILES MORALES headcanons:

▸ i saw hcs of a friendship w/ miles like gumball and darwin and i literally cannot get it out of my head. y'all r tight like that!!!! itz canon now. considering miles doesn't have a lotta friends (in his universe, at least) he's glad to have you!!! you're probably one of the people he hangs around the most. if you're somewhere, miles is probably somewhere around you too. and if he is not? he's probably just late. spiderman-ing around nyc probably

▸ his parents have really grown to like you too!!! let's assume u dont pull a gwen and address them by their first names. (i love her so much no shade at all but PLEADYUWEGFEHF that was So White of her) miles always has you over to hang out– which usually means you're invited to have dinner with them. his mom especially is always makin sure ur feeling at home and u got enough on ur plate (she is so sweet i adore her)

miles is constantly hearing: "when are they coming over again? you haven't had them over in a while-" rio hearts u. (and i heart rio.)

▸ STREET ART WITH MILES STREET ART WITH MILES– he def taught u what he learned from his uncle aaron. eventually u found a place you two can spray paint 2gether and u go w/ him whenever u need to destress a bit ^_^ it doesn't matter what ur skill level is in art, he's happy to teach you! sometimes, for practice, he'll even draw you!!! and though he hasn't shown you yet,,, he's been comfortable enough w/ you to leave his sketchbook open when you're around

▸ ALSO!! your hangouts probably have a killer soundtrack. u share a collaborative playlist w/ miles and swap recommendations every so often– so whenever ur both 2gether and jus chilling you've got good music 2 blast which is a combo of both ur tastes!!! he probably loves ur music, even if itz something he doesn't typically listen to. it's jus so you.

▸U ARE HIS CANVAS NOW. if u let him, he'll doodle in pen on your arm. he's always so focused, his eyes fixed on your skin as he doodles all over your forearm and hand. his grip is gentle as he turns your arm, tilting it every so often to make sure it looks right. there is no awkward silence, no pressure to make conversation- the quiet shared is comforting.

eventually he runs out of space and blinks up at you,, almost forgetting who he was drawing on. he'll apologize for getting so carried- but his drawings look amazing.

...and then he realized it was permanent marker and immediately doubled his apologizes.

PAVITR PRABHAKAR headcanons:

▸ im going to put this here and i dont know why specifically this came to mind. but never play just dance with him. you will LOSE. one of thse people who don't have to try to win. but he WILL put his 100% in it and eat you UPPPP.

sorry u can't outdo him </3

like bro those moves AREN'T EVEN PART OF THIS DANCE HOW ARE YOU STILL WINNING???

▸ gym bro but not Insane Gym Bro just.... gym bro. will try to get you to workout with him,, but like. cool if you don't wanna! is the most supportive gym buddy to have though. will always encourage you throughout the entire thing and not even just to get you to push through a set- this boy genuinely jus believes in you so much.

▸ he's constantly talking to you about gayatri. he loves his gf sm. if ur one of those people who Don't Like hearing abt other ppls relationships he'll make an attempt to tone it down

but trust he NEVER. EVER. makes you third wheel them. gayatri also will make sure of this- so now... more than often... if you're tryin' to hang with the both of them- THEY BOTH TRY TO PLAY MATCHMAKER FOR YOU.

LIKE. you can't just be LONELY. they're gonna make sure of it. pav and gaytri number one wingmen,..,, women,,, besties

▸ probably texts u like crazy. the type of guy to send u things throughout the day like "this is so you :]" he loves his bestie (YOU!!!)

sometimes it's like,, a particularly interestingly shaped cloud. maybe a cool bug that landed nearby him. a flower growing out of the pavement cracks.

and then sometimes it's like. this.

"this is you."

[poetry-protest-pornography]

I'm mostly just gonna copy paste my real time conversation with @hotasfahrenheit here, with a free added bits of thoughts:

My Stand In episode 2 thoughts

I wish they translated the title song, because it's tonally confusing

I love when the makeup team adds hickeys

I definitely watched some of this second episode, but I do but remember how far I got, so I'm just rewatching all the crazy

I really need this orgasm-sneeze to be the thing that tips Ming off

I need it

Joe, baby, you've known this man for five seconds, please do not tell him where your spare key is

Ming stop being so fucking awkward challenge

Ugh, Tong is such a dick

Why does anyone hire him? He's always late, he complains about having to do his job and threatens to need weeks off if he has to do one (1) thing....

Ming: "I'm feeling jealous, so I'm gonna be petty about it and hurt Joe's feelings"

Joe: "yeah, I should've expected this"

Ming: are you bisexual (accusatory) or banging the makeup guy?

Joe: I have friends???

(Mia: Listen Ming doesn't have friends so he doesn't understand what those are

Me: oh, that's very clear. Gee, I wonder why that is 🤣)

I love that Ming dresses exclusively in $500 shirts 🤣

Wait, is this girl supposed to be set up with Ming 🤣 He's such a bitch 😆 I love him (forgot to tell with Mia about his slutty little rich asshole silk robe, but bless him and the slutty little rich asshole robe)

(Mia: Ming doesn't know how to function as a person but he does know how to look like a rich bitch)

Joe translating his anger at Ming by being hard on his trainees... Oh baby, no

He's really just "I'm asking for a friend"ed 🤣🤣🤣

Oh, I love this girl actually

Joe with the sex puns, lmao

Ming smiling and then immediately suppressing it is so sad actually

Get therapy, my dude

THE SHEETS ARE WET I AM SCREAMING

THE SNEEZES OH MY GODDD

Also, the work bathroom hook up cut with the training session was *chefs kiss* (the way this built tension and also narrative, and like, showed Joe's inner thoughts? Incredible.)

(Mia: Pepzi, our queen) FOR REALZ

He knows Joe's coffee prep

This is so domestic? (This makes me feel crazy, actually. And Joe's genuine awe at being seen in this small way breaks my fucking hearrrt)

Joe. Baby. Again, it has been five minutes and three orgasms, you cannot invite him to move in

He's being so nice to the stunt men today 😂

Ming:

The way he said Joe's name while staring at Sol like "okay bitch, watch this" killed me

He knew Joe would go to him and he wanted Sol to know real bad

Sol is ready to Fite

Listen, I knew he made him sleep on the floor OF HIS OWN HOUSE, bit it's still deeply funny to me

And then, he's just staring at him while he sleeps waiting for him to wake up so he can give him the bitchiest look known to man

Ming: *is jealous AF*

Joe: you jealous bro?

Ming: No, who would even like you?

Joe: *is the world's saddest puppy*

"sit ups break my back, live breaks my heart". Baby, no.

Lovesick Joe= drill Sergeant

Post orgasm Joe = kindergarten teacher

Sad Joe = bad poet who can't do a sit up

(Mia and I had a conversation about how sometimes, very drunk people want to be on the floor in a blanket, and she is very correct)

Wait.

...

Did Ming go home and make himself the same ramen Joe made for him? (Because he was jealous and bitchy and ran away after making the boy he likes Dad on purpose)

THIS IS MAKING ME INSANE, ACTUALLY?!

Okay, considering Ming is in love with his sister's boyfriend, they actually have a really sweet sibling dynamic, and she is actually The Best.

Why can't we go to a movie and eat fondue? Why did Thailand get movies so much better than we do? Let me watch a movie in a bed or eat fondue while I watch my favorite blorbos.

But also, he clearly just needs like, so much therapy

Like, his thought process is "I love him, no one else can have him, I'm gonna kidnap him". Which is .. Not Normal People Thoughts

"even if I could be happy, I shouldn't be"

THERAPY. THERAPY FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

Sol: " I will flirt by kicking his ass and hoping he kicks mine back"

Oh shit, Joe really just fucking knocked him out 🤣

Ming having a crisis hearing Joe talk about what love is, and then that little smile when Joe said he wanted then to be a couple... (Joe's like, pathological inability to let himself experience emotions is... Several Problems)

This man is insane

Listen, if I'm supposed to hate Ming, they shouldn't have had Up play him

NOW HE'S AT JOE'S HOUSE PLAYING HOUSE HUSBAND. (WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM?)

Rip curry

It's the ramen of suppressed feelings again

JOE STOP MAKING ME CRY CHALLENGE

Look, is Ming:

LADY AND THE TRAMP AND THE GRIP YOU HAVE ON THE THAI BL INDUSTRY

They're so cute that it's actually a crime that I know Ming is a whole red flag parade

The way Joe did the cutest little "please, tell me, please please please, I wanna hear you say the things we both know (you jealous baby)" and Ming was like "yeah okay, I will hum a quiet affirmative and we will never speak of it again" was so fucking cute. I am prepared to cry and scream and have my feelings hurt, but gosh do they do this well.

Okay, I have like, real actual thoughts about this, but also I do not. I am obsessed and too deep in it right now to words, but AAAHHHHHHH

[ministry-twilight]

((So before we continue this train of thought, let’s look at the questions I couldn’t answer...))

Belle's Story is basically... Well first you take an Eggman who has lost his mind and forgotten who he is but still retains his skills in craftmanship in robotics. So he builds a little wooden toy doll. This doll is basically his child and she views him as such, but when Eggman returned to his true self. They didn't see them as the same figure as their father, and viewed the man they saw as dad being dead and Eggman having killed him. 1/2

Also Belle had some of her father's skills with robotics, able to fix up Metal Sonic even when Starline did a command override signal for all of Eggman's badniks. An art I'm sure you could equal if something like that were to happen here. Then again her realm's Metal is kinda more loyal and is sometimes treated like a son to Eggman. So the fact she helped fix Metal wasn't as insane as it'd be in this realm. Hell I think the idea of a brother-figure version of Metal might be an idea... 2/2

Like for realz if you think about the idea... Turning a copy of Metal Sonic Eggman's Greatest work of Art, into something even better (IE: Just as loyal as you) yet just as powerful. Might be an idea worth looking into... Wierd how I started off with talking about Belle now I'm rambling about the idea of a Brother-Unit version of Metal. 3/2 ~ @the-green-anon

If you need this much text to ask a question, please don’t send it. This is a lot of stuff for a subject I already know. And basically Eggette is basically this idea. Not to mention Sage in Sonic Frontiers now.

King Sombra : So Master Grogar wants to over a nother world ? I know he can do it.

So is Dr.RobotNick good or evil in this world ? And why is is fighting the mlp badguys ? ~ @evilkingsombra

Eggman is evil. But Bad Guys rarely play along.

Wow Grogar is stupidly strong. Eggman might have an issue here.

Doc Robot does suck ass... Go kick his ass Grogar!

suddenly grogar was teleported to the void where he's unable to use his magic at all.

meanwhile with another twilight sparkle and meanwhile with forgetful twilight sparkle.

meanwhile within the other universes being merged into one. ~Anonymous

Yeah, I really can’t do anything with these specific questions.

Can I help with the sprites for this comic?~ @sublimecherryblossompizza

I don’t think you can. I tend to work a lot faster and try to make comics ahead of time. If I need help, I usually now commission people for sprites or a picture I need.

Yeah, Grogar... expecting a hall way to make things simple for keeping him at bay will not work. Sonic is basically the Living Definition of Unexpected. Even the likes of Discord or HIM could learn a thing or two from him. ~ @ominousbrony

Green Anon: I'm rooting for Sonic to win this fight.

Did Starline die in your story when Rouge fell on him? ~Anonymous

Some more questions I couldn’t use. And as you saw, no. Starline is still alive. Still is now.

What if Grogar isn't covering the entire Universe in an energy field. What if he just create a large wall of energy that moves to instantly intercept any attempts at contact of travel between the Universes at the point they are connecting? ~ @ominousbrony 

No, it’s fully covering the universe. Multiple people go into this universe and back. 

[jenohi]

stranger

PAIRING ▸ Watanabe Haruto x fem!reader

GENRES ▸ pining, high school au, lacrosse au, I’m not really sure what genre this is lol

WARNINGS ▸ traumatic events?

SUMMARY ▸ When Haruto moves halfway around the world the last person he expects to see is you. His former nemesis...or so he thinks.

PLAYLIST ▸ Still Don’t Know My Name by Labyrinth

WORD COUNT ▸ 9626

UNIVERSE ▸ YG High; Treasure Lacrosse Team

A/N ▸ I’ve decided from here on out all my stories will probably fall within the same universe. I only really have like 4 universes in mind so I’ll label them just so you know. Also, I’m looking to add some art to my stories to bring them more to life but I am useless at graphics/edits, so! If you’re really into making graphics/edits and you enjoy my work please please PLEASE reach out to me!!! I would love to work with an amazing artist! <3 <3 Plz enjoy.

A/N 2 ▸ This story is like a lot of crossover with Jeongwoo’s story but I hope I was able to bring justice to Haruto’s character and bring his story to life. :P ok now enjoy for real realz.

You were the prettiest girl Haruto had ever known in his life. But to him, you were also his rival. You always managed to score just a few points higher than him on each exam, each quiz, each assignment. To him it always felt like the teachers liked you more, so he made sure your classmates liked him more. The thing that made him really mad was that you were so unbothered. You were ambivalent to him and you didn’t even know his name. If you really were strangers and never sat in the same class he could understand. But you had been in the same classes for years. Each time you spoke to him, you politely asked for his name. As if you were strangers.

When his parents told him that his family was going to move to another city, far enough that he would have to transfer schools, he had mixed feelings. This was his last chance to confront you. To understand why you’d never bothered to remember his name, but each time he approached you he found you furiously scribbling in a notebook. Although he resented you for not knowing his name, he could never get himself to disturb you when you looked so stressed scribbling whatever it was in your notebook.

What Haruto didn’t know is that you did notice him. You noticed the handsome, tall, skinny boy that was always in the corner of your line of sight. But you had no idea what to say to him. So you never approached him. He was a stranger.

Haruto wished he could forget you. He was a bit uncomfortable transferring to a new school at first but thankfully, three other boys had transferred with him. Asahi, Mashiho, and Yoshi had become literal brothers to him. The school also had a transfer students program and he made a new friend, Hanbyul. She was a chatterbox and sometimes she could literally chat his ear off, but she was also sweet and helpful. But she wasn’t you.

But that didn’t matter because Hanbyul had another guy on her mind all the time anyway. “You know we’ve just been friends for such a long time and lately, I’ve started to...I don’t know. I feel different. Nervous. Is it normal to feel nervous around your best friend?”

“I don’t know. Is it?” Haruto responded.

“No, I suppose it isn’t. But he probably doesn’t feel the same way. I doubt he’s ever even thought about me in that way.”

Haruto felt someone nudge him, he turned to see that it was Asahi. Haruto leaned over to hear what he was going to say. “Is she talking about Jaehyuk’s brother?”

Haruto nodded.

“Jaehyuk talks about his little brother and this chick all the time. She’s so off the mark. The little brother definitely has feelings for her if Jaehyuk is anywhere near the mark.” So both parties had feelings for one another but both parties were too chicken to say anything to each other. And for no good reason.

In a way that reminded Haruto of himself and it pissed him off. He knew that spending so much time with his new friend would raise suspicions but he didn’t care. He knew that spending so much time with her pissed Jeongwoo off. It didn’t take a genius to recognize it when they went to the Big Bang Concert together.

Haruto thought he was going crazy when he spotted you a few spaces over at the concert. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times to make sure it was really you. Haruto stormed over to you once he decided that it was in fact you. He had spent months thinking about what to say to you if he ever saw you again, he wasn’t going to miss this opportunity. Haruto didn’t even think to tell his new friends where he had gone.

You saw a tall, handsome figure approaching your direction. You took a second to check him out, but then turned back to the performers and continued to enjoy yourself. Your parents were reluctant to let you go out to this concert on your own but it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you wanted so badly. You smiled sadly at what might happen when you woke up tomorrow.

“I didn’t know you were a fan of Big Bang.” You heard a voice from behind speak into your ear. You jumped in surprise and turned around to see that it was the handsome stranger you saw sauntering your way earlier.

“Hi, what’s your name?” You asked with a polite smile on your face. This is probably exactly what your parents were worried about, creepy men that would try to approach you. You started to think about the best way to remove yourself from the situation safely. The now unamused expression on his face alarmed you.

“When are you gonna cut the shit. You know who I am.”

You looked at him puzzled. “I do? How? From where?”

Haruto felt something in his chest crack. “I used to go to school with you. You’re Y/N right?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s me.” You furiously racked your mind trying to remember what you had read but your memory came up blank. You couldn’t help but cringe and turn away. This is why you tried your best to keep to yourself and away from people. You looked up to see Haruto staring down at you with a curious expression. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you. You said you used to go to school with me? You don’t go to school with me anymore? Can I get your name again? I’m really sorry. I’ll try and remember.”

“My name is Haruto. I don’t go to school with you anymore. I transferred to a new school a few months ago.”

“Oh, I see.”

Haruto wasn’t sure how to feel when he realized you actually had zero recollection of him. For some reason seeing you up close and seeing you really trying to remember him made him feel a bit sympathetic. He couldn’t understand why. It still totally irked him that you didn’t know his name. But something told him to sit down with you and get to know you.

“Well, do you like your new school?” You asked, looking up at Haruto. Your heart was beating hard and fast. You prayed that your face wasn’t flushing.

“Why don’t we just enjoy the rest of the concert for now and we can grab a late night meal after the concert?” Haruto proposed. His own palms were sweaty and his heart was beating fast.

You thought about it for a second, then nodded and smiled. Haruto felt like the world had a glittery filter for a second. He’d always acknowledged that you were attractive, but up close smiling at him, you were drop dead gorgeous.

“Awesome.”

After the concert, the two of you walked side by side as you left the crowded venue. You noticed Haruto took a second to text someone on his phone. He caught you snooping and laughed as you turned away. “It’s fine. I was just letting the friends I came with know that I was gonna head out with you.”

“Oh, if you need to get back with them it’s fine.” You said, maybe hanging out with Haruto was a bad idea after all.

“Not a chance, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you. I’m honestly curious to know how you are and how things are back home.”

Your face flushed at his words. You couldn’t remember the last time you had spent time with a guy like this. Was this a date?

“Alright. Then what are you in the mood for?” You asked, pulling up a list of restaurants that were still open at this hour.

“What’s available now? What are you in the mood for right now?” Haruto looked over your shoulder at the menu as he asked.

“Um, what about McDonald’s? I’m not that picky and there’s not that much open right now.” you said.

Haruto stared at you with wide eyes, were you always this cool? So the two of you made your way to the closest McDonald’s and debated which was better, Coke or Sprite. To Haruto, Coca-Cola was non-negotiable.

“How is your new school?” You asked Haruto, munching on a few of your fries. “Do you like it?”

“What are you doing here?” Haruto interjected.

“What do you mean?”

“We’re not in Japan. This is far from home. Why are you in America?”

“Oh, I’m uh- I’m visiting family. I’ve actually transferred to a school around here for the time-being as well.” You jumped in surprise when Haruto shrieked.

“You’re here now? Like for good? Like you go to school here? Where?”

You giggled at the questions he rained down on you. The way he asked you with his cheeks full and eyes wide was rather endearing. “Yes I’m here now. I’m actually, uh, home schooled for the time being.”

“Oh, interesting. Why are you homeschooled? I remember you were always really good at school.” Haruto said before he shoved another chicken nugget into his mouth. The irritating thought that you were always better than him at school, just by a little popped up in his mind but he pushed it away. That didn’t matter anymore. He had your attention now.

You felt your face flush. Even with your condition it was true that you maintained your good grades. So Haruto must have actually known you back in Japan. You eyed him again, when he caught you staring at him you turned away. Haruto smirked.

“Enough about me. Tell me about your friends. You said you came with friends from your new school right?”

“Well I’d say one of them is actually who I’d consider a friend. The other one is a mutual friend. A childhood friend that has feelings for her.”

“Her?” it slipped out of your mouth. Haruto’s smirk reappeared and his eyebrow jumped up when he looked at you. You looked away, what was this funny feeling in your chest? It was weird.

“Our school had this transfer student program and she just happened to be assigned to me. She’s really cool, I’m not into her like that and she’s not really into me like that. She likes her friend.”

“How do you know?”

“She told me.”

“Oh. That feels like something important. Like a secret.”

“Well, I told her a secret as well.”

You stared at him. He didn’t indulge in the secret. Haruto was wholly focused on sipping the last of his Coca-Cola before putting it down on the table and letting out a sigh.

“Well so what’s going on with them now?” You asked.

“Hopefully, they both pull their heads out of their asses tonight. I gave them time alone so the best case scenario is that they just talk it out. The dude, Jeongwoo, I actually met him for the first time tonight and he’s a cool dude. It would be nice to have more dude friends around here.”

“You don’t have any guy friends?”

“I do. There are 3 other transfer students from Japan and they’re all dudes and I’m friends with them. Actually, Americans like to play this sport. Lacrosse? My friend told me to try out for the team and I think I might. Mashi, Asahi, and Yoshi agreed to try-out as well so it’ll be fun.”

You nodded, you had no idea what lacrosse was and you didn’t think you would be that interested to learn either. “I should get home.”

“Right of course.” Haruto said, getting up. “Where are you headed? Let me call you an Uber.”

“No, it’s okay. I can actually walk back home from here.”

“Oh really? Well, at least let me walk you back.”

You hesitated for a second. Would it be smart to show this guy where you lived? But then you shook it off, he seemed pretty harmless throughout the night and you trusted that he knew you from school in Japan. So you agreed.

“Do you have to be home-schooled?” Haruto asked.

“No, I don’t think so.” you answered.

“Would you be interested in attending school in person again?” Haruto could feel the devil on his shoulder kicking him. What was he doing? He had already gone to school with you before and the fact that you always did just a smidge better than him drove him nuts.

“Um, I haven’t really thought about it. Why?”

“You should consider transferring to my school?”

Your eyebrows shot up. “What?”

Haruto stepped back a bit and raised his hands. “It was just a suggestion. Honestly, I struggled a bit when I first came here. I can’t imagine how lonely it must be to be here and just be home-schooled so I figured it might be nice to have some sense of community.”

“Um, I’ll think about it.” You weren’t going to think about it. You looked up and breathed a sigh of relief when you saw the familiar apartment complex. “This is me. You don’t have to walk in with me. I’m gonna go now.”

“Wait.” Haruto said. You turned around to look at him, a thin smile on your face. “I, uh, I had fun.”

“Yeah, this was nice.” You said truthfully.

“We should do it again sometime.” Haruto said. You stared at him, he looked perfectly composed to you. But his heart was practically beating so hard he thought it might fall out of his chest.

“Honestly, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

Haruto felt a heat and anger flare up in his chest. But he did his best to tamp it down and get it under control. This was literally the first time you had acknowledged his presence. He put a smile on his face. “Well, then maybe we’ll just run into each other again sometime.”

“Maybe, it’s all up to fate now. Good night Haruto.”

“Good night Y/N.”

The second you made it back into your room you pulled out your diary. You scribbled the notes you had logged into your phone throughout the day as quickly as possible. Briefly reliving each moment as you wrote them down. By the time you had gotten to the end of the list and began to recount the concert you could feel your eyelids getting heavier and heavier and your hands writing more and more frantically until suddenly, you crashed.

The next morning you woke up and read your notes. You squinted at the last thing you had written. Your handwriting became illegible near the end. ‘Haruto?’

The next morning Haruto woke up and smiled at the memory of you. Asahi and Mashiho eyed their roommate as he pranced around the living room and kitchen smiling and singing. But nothing could bring Haruto down. Well until he saw his friend looking depressed as hell.

“Dude what’s up?” Haruto asked. “Did you and Jeongwoo figure your shit out?”

“Uh, about that. Well, no.”

“No? What do you mean no?”

“Well what about you? Did you run into her?”

“Nuh uh, this isn’t about me. You literally had the perfect opportunity to make something of it. To make a moment! Did you guys have a moment?”

“Yes, I think we did. But I got scared. I don’t want to lose Jeongwoo as a friend, but at the same time I don’t think he has any feelings for me like that. I just, I think I need space. Maybe if I just distance myself from him a bit then I can get over my feelings and…”

“No offense, but that’s the stupidest thing I think I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“Well I don’t care if you think it’s stupid. This is my decision and my decision is that I don’t want to see Jeongwoo for awhile. Ok? I’m not ready for the conversation. So you better get used to seeing me more often!”

Haruto sighed as he watched his friend storm out of the room. He turned around and exchanged looks with Asahi. “Did I say something wrong?”

Asahi shrugged. “Honestly, I think you’re valid. I think her logic in avoiding Jeongwoo is pretty dumb. The dude’s in my gym class. Honestly, he’s chill. I don’t think he’d react badly to her if she confesses regardless of how he feels.”

“I should probably find her and apologize anyway.” Haruto said, exiting the room. Eventually he found his friend and they sat together in the cafeteria.

“Sorry about what I said earlier. I’ll admit it was kind of harsh. But honestly I can’t say I understand your logic at all.”

“It’s fine Haruto. You seemed extra happy when you walked in this morning. Who was the friend that you saw at the concert?”

“It was her. Y/N.”

“No way! Isn’t she in Japan?”

“That’s what I thought too. I was so shocked to see her.”

“What did you say to her? What did you guys talk about? Did she recognize you?”

“That’s the thing. The best part of it all was that I actually had her attention. You remember I told you about how she never acknowledged anybody right? She was always reading her notebook in the hallway. In the past when I spoke to her she never even knew my name! She had to ask me every single time. But this time, there’s no way she wouldn’t remember me!”

“Your relationship is weird. But I guess that’s sweet. What does she write about in her notebook?”

“I don’t know. Why does it matter? She knows my name now!”

“That’s another thing. You went to school together for years and she never remembered your name? Why?”

“I don’t know.” Haruto said. Now he was grouchy. All the questions that had been brought up to him were valid, but these weren’t things he wanted to think about.

A few weeks before the lacrosse tryouts in the spring Haruto went to the hospital to get a physical done.

Once he was done he stumbled into a small cafe right next to the hospital. When he saw who was manning the cash register he rubbed his eyes and looked away and looked back a few times to make sure he wasn’t being deluded. When he was confident that he wasn’t going crazy he stood up and walked over to the register.

You saw a tall, handsome, and skinny guy walk up to the cash register. You cleared your throat and stood up straight. “Hello, what can I get you?”

“Y/N! It’s fate. We ran into each other again!”

“Again?” You put a smile on your face and thought of a response. “Hey, it’s so good to see you! How have you been? What’ll you have?”

“Do you...remember my name?”

You felt your heart picking up speed and your palms beginning to sweat. But you kept your composure. “Of course, let me take your order and we can chat for a second.”

Haruto beamed. “Okay, then I’ll just have an Iced Americano.”

“Okay, that’ll be $3.30. The ice machine is in the back so I’ll be right out in a second. You rushed to the back of the cafe and pulled out your diary and flipped through the pages, reading the entries as quickly as possible. Out of the corner of your eye you noticed a torn piece of paper that had slipped out of your bag. You picked it up, it matched the paper in your diary. You flipped it over to see that it had a name written on it. Haruto.

Was that this guy’s name? Who was he to you? Darn it, why hadn’t you written more?

You quickly filled the cup with ice and walked out filling the cup with cold brew. You grabbed the marker and scribbled Haruto on it. You walked back over to the cash register. This guy’s eyes were practically glittering in anticipation. Was it normal for someone to get this excited over a coffee?

“I’ve got one iced americano for Haruto?” you said.

If his eyes were glittering before, they were practically flashing light strobe lights at a nightclub now. A matching beaming grin on his face. “Yes! Y/N it’s fate. We ran into each other again!”

“Right. Yeah, of course. What are the odds.”

“Do you have a minute?”

“Um, I’m working right now. I’d rather not get in trouble. Maybe another time?”

Haruto swiveled around, eying the cafe. “It looks pretty empty to me. I don’t think you’d get in trouble if you came out for a second just to keep me company.”

“Still…”

“Is your manager even here right now?”

“No.”

“Then come on. Just come out for a second.”

You looked around the cafe, cursing at how vacant it was. You tugged at your sleeves for a second before answering. “Fine.”

You followed Haruto out from behind the counter. He walked over to a table and pulled a seat out from underneath the table. He smiled as he waited for you to sit down. You walked over to the table and turned around. Haruto slid the chair underneath you as you moved to sit down. Once you were seated Haruto ran around to the other side of the table and sat down.

“How are you? How have you been?” Haruto asked.

You stared at the boy sitting in front of you. He was so handsome. “I’m doing well. How about you?”

“I’m good. I was in the area because I needed to go to the hospital.”

Your ears perked up. “Why were you at the hospital?”

“Why do you wanna know? Are you worried about me?”

You didn’t say anything. You just stared at Haruto. Haruto cleared his throat and looked away for a second. “I’m just playing with you. I went to get a physical.”

You nodded, tracing the patterns on the tablecloth.

“I needed one for lacrosse tryouts.”

“Lacrosse? What is that?” you asked. Haruto thought the way your nose scrunched in confusion was adorable.

“I told you about it last time! Remember? It’s this sport that Americans like to play. I had never heard of it in Japan either.”

You didn’t remember. “Right.”

Haruto couldn’t understand the dynamics of the conversation. He watched as you avoided eye contact with him and intensely focused on tracing the pattern of the table cloth. Then you would stare out the window of the cafe, it almost appeared as if your eyes were glazed over. “What are you always writing about in your notebook?”

Your head spun over to look at him so fast, you thought you might have gotten whiplash. “What?”

“Your notebook. I remember in school back in Japan I always saw you either writing things down in a notebook or reading the same notebook. What’s in it?”

“Um, nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“Why? It can’t be that bad. I promise I won’t laugh no matter how embarrassing it might be.” Haruto said. Leaning forward over the table so that he was in your face.

“Forget it.” You said, leaning back and looking away. You glanced over at your bag that was perched far back behind the counter and breathed a sigh of relief. “Look. I gotta go. I’m supposed to be working right now. I think you should go now as well.”

You stood up from the table so quickly that the chair you were sitting on toppled over. You didn’t bother to turn around and pick it up. You walked back towards the counter without looking back.

Haruto watched you as you walked away. He narrowed his eyes when he saw you grab your bag and walk to the back of the cafe. There was only one thing on his mind as he walked out of the cafe. Your notebook. What was in the notebook?

You frantically flipped to today’s page in your notebook. In all caps with your boldest, darkest black marker you wrote at the top of your notebook. ‘Beware of Haruto. Tall, Handsome. Asked about notebook.’

Then you shut the notebook and exited the back room, breathing a sigh of relief when you noticed that the cafe was vacant once again. You walked over to the cafe table where you had previously sat and picked up the chair that had fallen over when you had left the conversation.

The next day at school Haruto was deep in thought. What could possibly be so important about a notebook? When Hanbyul shoved him, Haruto shrieked as he fell out of his chair. “Dude, what the hell is your problem?”

“What are you thinking about? You look like you’re thinking so hard that your brain might break.”

“Do you have an important notebook? Is that like something girls do?”

“You mean like a diary?”

Haruto snapped his fingers and looked up. “Yes! Exactly like one of those. Do you have one of those?”

“I did when I was younger. I don’t keep one anymore though. Why do you ask?”

“My friend. The one from home, Y/N? I think she has one. I asked her about it yesterday and she got all dodgy and weird.”

“Ah, well. Back when I did keep a diary it held all my dirtiest secrets. I don’t think I would want to share it with anybody or for anybody to know about it. Not even now, and as an elementary schooler I really don’t think I had any secrets worth keeping.”

“It was so weird. She got so defensive over it. I didn’t realize bringing it up would be such a touchy subject.”

Hanbyul shrugged. “Different things matter to different people. Are you ready for tryouts? They’re coming up soon aren’t they?”

Haruto nodded. “Asahi, Mashiho, Yoshi, and I have started going to that gym that you recommended. Lacrosse is actually pretty fun. Mashiho is the best though. Are you coming to tryouts?”

“Of course I am. I’m practically making you go so it’s only fair that I be there to see how you do. I reserve the right to totally make fun of you if you embarrass yourself though.”

Haruto rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever.”

Soon enough it was the first day of lacrosse tryouts. Haruto had frequented the cafe that you worked at in hopes of getting the chance to speak to you again. Unfortunately, what he didn’t know was that you had quit the job and diligently stayed home and studied.

Haruto was agitated at the thought of not being able to speak to you again. When he tried to sit down and rationalize it himself he couldn’t make sense of it. A year ago he despised you for not knowing his name. You know his name now, right? What more did he want from you?

“Haruto? Haruto! Hello? Are you even listening to me?”

Haruto turned to look at Hanbyul. “Honestly no, sorry. What’s up?”

“I feel bad for how I treated Jeongwoo. You were right, avoiding him was not the right thing to do. But why hasn’t he said anything to me?”

“Look I can’t tell you what’s going on between the two of you any better than you can. My assumption is that he’s a bit hurt and confused at the moment by how you’re acting and he doesn’t want to make things any worse than they are.”

“Can’t you say something to him?”

“Me?” Haruto looked up from his stick that he was re-taping. “What do you want me to say to him?”

“I don’t know. Just...just get him to react.”

Haruto scoffed. “If you want me to do that I can but again I feel like it’s not going to produce the results that you want. Like I think if I say anything things are gonna go really sour so I think you should think long and hard about this.”

“Haruto!”

“Look, I gotta go. Tryouts are starting.” Haruto said, turning away and walking onto the field. He didn’t miss the hard stare coming his way from Jeongwoo. Haruto ignored them and focused on his gameplay. Lacrosse had actually become really cathartic for him and he found that he really wanted to make the team.

Haruto noticed that the coaches seemed to be reacting favorably to how he was playing. He also realized that Jeongwoo was also really good but he played really aggressively, like he had something to lose. At the end of practice Haruto figured his hunches must have been correct because the coaches called him over to speak with him.

“I’m sure you know Varsity tryouts were this morning, all of your friends from Japan did great as did you and so we’re thinking about pulling you up to varsity. So tomorrow I want you to come early and try out with the varsity team, alright?”

Haruto beamed and nodded.

“Good work son.” The coach slapped Haruto on the shoulder. He did his best not to fall over. Thankfully the coach didn’t notice.

Haruto walked off the field and headed towards the school parking lot. Just as he pulled his phone out to call someone for a ride home his phone pinged, he tapped on the notification to see that it was a message from Mashiho.

Mashiho: Haruto have JV tryouts ended?

Haruto: Yes, I just finished

Mashiho: Cool. Have you found a ride home yet?

Haruto: No, do you know anyone who can come get me?

Mashiho: Ya, a lot of the guys on varsity can drive. Junkyu is over now but he offered to come pick you up.

Haruto: Junkyu?

Mashiho: He’s trying out for the varsity team. He’s cool. Kinda goofy but cool. I’ll come by with him.

Haruto: Alright, thanks dude.

Mashiho: Np.

Haruto checked the time on his phone before putting it back into his pocket. 6 P.M. Would you be at the cafe? The last few times he had gone by he hadn’t seen you. He put the thought away when a car appeared in front of him. The window rolled down and Mashiho cheered when he saw Haruto. “Get in the car! You smell!”

“Shut up and unlock the door Mashi.” The car door clicked open and Haruto hopped into the backseat. There was a large dude sitting in the driver’s seat who kept fidgeting with a bunch of random controls.

The guy turned around with a giant grin on his face. “Hello! I’m Junkyu. You must be Haruto! Nice to meet you!”

Haruto bowed. “Hello. Yes, I am Haruto. Nice to meet you as well.”

“Ruto! How were tryouts?”

“They were really good. Coach pulled me over at the end of tryouts and told me to come early tomorrow morning and try out with the varsity team.”

“Damn! You must be so good!” Junkyu said from the driver’s seat. Haruto tried not to be concerned by the way Junkyu was driving. His head kept swiveling from left to right. “Did you guys play sports back in Japan? All of you were insane at tryouts today!”

“We all played football. I think Mashi and Yoshi played basketball as well.”

“Football? Do you mean football football or soccer football?”

“Eh?”

“Do you kick a ball or do you carry a ball?”

“You kick it. Duh. Why would you carry a ball? That’s just dumb.”

“Americans call a totally different sport football. Don’t worry about it too much. But it’s awesome that you guys are so good.”

“Well to be fair, we were told about that Lacrosse Club and we had a few training sessions every week leading up to try outs.” Mashiho said.

“Ahh! How’d you hear about that? A few of us have been playing on their club teams for a while.”

“My friend told me about it. She’s the person responsible for me in the foreign exchange students program. Hanbyul?”

“Oh! I know who you’re talking about. Her brother was a legend at this school. He was a top recruit since his sophomore year here. But right before the most important game of his senior year he tested positive on a drug test and he couldn’t play. It totally turned him, his team, and the school around. He got dropped by the college that was recruiting him. But I heard he struck a deal with a pro-team and I guess he’s been training with them. The dude was in a league of his own.”

“Damn. That’s insane.”

“Yeah, our school takes lacrosse pretty seriously. The best players at our school get recruited to some of the best schools so it’s a great opportunity.”

Haruto knew there were probably more important things to be thinking about in this conversation but he couldn’t help but wonder if he could get you to come to one of his games.

The second day of tryouts Haruto was absolutely on fire. His shorts were shart, his passes were quick, and his steps were light. The varsity team was definitely of a different caliber but Haruto found the challenge fun. It was nice to be able to play with the rest of the Japanese boys as well.

At the end of varsity tryouts the coach pulled him over, “you were great out there today. How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling alright coach.”

“Up for a few more hours?”

Haruto paused, but then nodded. He wasn’t in a place to argue with his coaches. “Sure.”

“Great. Then I want you to continue through JV tryouts. Grab some water and then head back out onto the field.”

“Alright coach.”

Haruto jogged out to the edge of the field. He was surprised to see Hanbyul sitting at the edge of the bleachers. “What’s up?”

“Hey, what are you doing here?”

“What do you mean what am I doing here? I came to watch your second day of tryouts.”

“Are you sure you’re here to watch me?”

“Shut up. Why are you all sweaty already?”

“Coach had me try out with the varsity team today.”

Hanbyul’s eyes widened. “Dang, you must be awesome. The last two boys that made it onto the varsity team as sophomores were my brother and his best friend Bobby.”

Haruto shrugged. “The game is fun. It would be awesome to play on varsity.”

The coach blew his whistle, signalling all the players to come back out onto the field. Haruto turned around and gathered around. Every so often throughout the day Haruto ran back to the bleachers where Hanbyul sat. His bag was stowed away there as was his secret stash of Coca-Cola. It probably wasn’t smart to be drinking Coke in the middle of tryouts but every so often he needed a pick-me-up.

“You need to quash that habit.”

“Yeah yeah.”

At the end of the day the coach told Haruto to wait for him inside his office. So Haruto did just that.

“So what’d you think about tryouts today?” Coach asked.

“It was intense.”

“Yeah, what did you think of the way the varsity team played?”

“They were quicker, sharper, and more nimble.”

“Good observation. Do you think you were good enough to play on their level?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then answer me another question. If you had to pick another player from the JV tryouts today to pull up to Varsity who would you pick?”

Haruto thought about it for a second. The answer was obvious. The only other person who seemed to put up a fight with him was “Jeongwoo.”

“Good guess.” The coach laughed. “I don’t know what they feed you kids in Japan. But all four of you are good.”

There was a knock on the door. Haruto turned around to see Jeongwoo. He smirked when he saw the sour expression on Jeongwoo’s face. But it was gone once he had walked into the room and stood adjacent to Haruto.

“The two of you have demonstrated amazing capabilities and I am considering pulling one of you up to the varsity team. Take this opportunity seriously. Tomorrow is the last day of tryouts.”

The last place Haruto expected to run into you was at the hospital. The last thing you were expecting at the hospital was for a dude to come up behind you and scare you. It was horrible, you can’t remember the last time you screamed so loudly, let alone at a public place.

“What are you doing here Y/N?”

“Uh, I’m-” you hesitated, trying to craft an answer that was vague enough that you wouldn’t have to tell the whole truth but not vague enough that he wouldn’t continue to ask questions. But thankfully Haruto seemed to take it upon himself to fill the silence.

“Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry that I totally misjudged you when I first met you? In fact, I thought I hated you.”

Alarm bells went off in your head. Was it normal for a person to come to you and tell you they hated you? “Uh, thanks?”

But Haruto continued. “But I wanted to say I totally read you wrong. You’re actually really cool. And I wanted to say thank you. For remembering my name.”

That was the first time someone had ever said that to you. You stared at him blankly unsure of how to respond.

“Haruto! Haruto! Haruto! Please report to waiting room 105, the doctor is ready for you now.” The voice over the loudspeaker belted.

“Well, that’s me.” Haruto said with a soft smile on his face. He got up and waved goodbye to you before heading to the back of the office.

Once he was safely out of sight you pulled out your notebook. Your face paled once you flipped through it a few times. You thought about what to do. What did this guy want? You wrote out all these questions in your notebook. Then you came to a conclusion of what to do and wrote that down in your notebook as well.

You ripped out a piece of paper from your notebook and scribbled your number on it. Then got up to the receptionist desk. “Hi, I don’t know if you’re allowed to do this. But when that guy Haruto comes out. Would you mind giving him this?”

You handed the sheet of paper over to her, the receptionist gave you a look and then a wink before accepting the sheet of paper. You figured that meant she accepted, so you waved goodbye and left the hospital.

“Excuse me sir!” The receptionist lady called out to Haruto as he was about to head out of the doctor’s office. What felt and looked like a nasty possible sprain on the lacrosse field just turned out to be a measly bruise.

Haruto approached the reception desk. “There was a young lady earlier. She asked me to give this to you before you leave.”

Haruto looked at the slip of paper. His eyes widened into the size of large gumballs when he realized what was on it. He felt like his heart would explode. But then his mind pumped the brakes, he wasn’t ungrateful, but why did you give him your number?

On the way back home you second guessed your decision at least 30 times. Why did you give him your number? The only reason you could think of was that you didn’t want to not know the guy. Contrary to what your mind and your diary told you. Your heart didn’t want to give him up. Maybe it was selfish and confusing, who knew? But who cared?

Haruto’s excitement was cut short when he finished punching your number into his contacts. Before he could even send a message to you, his phone rang. Hanbyul.

“Hey Hanbyul, what’s up?”

Haruto became alarmed when he heard a sniff and a muffled sob. “Haruto, I miss him.”

Haruto sighed. “He’ll come around soon.”

“Is there nothing you can do to make him come around sooner?”

“Hanbyul. If all goes well he’s going to be my teammate. Plus, what could I possibly say to change things?”

“I don’t know. He probably thinks there’s something going on between us.”

Haruto paused. “Is that why you’re friends with me?”

“No, no I swear it’s not. You’re an amazing person and you’ve been an amazing friend.”

“Hanbyul.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t like what you’re asking me to do. But you are my friend. If you’re really sure this is the way you want to go about it.”

“I’m- I’m not sure. I just need things to change.”

On the third day of tryouts Haruto was in a funk. And it showed. The events of yesterday night haunted him, he was happy to see you but he was sorry for Hanbyul. Haruto didn’t really like to fight with anybody, but he found her requests unreasonable and the questions she asked about you probing and uncomfortable.

It seemed as if Jeongwoo was the same way. Haruto gave into the niggling voice inside his head and said probably he shouldn’t have said. “You’re gonna lose your girl to me and now you’re gonna lose your spot on the team to me?”

It pushed Jeongwoo off the edge and the two of them went at it. Haruto played ferociously and aggressively. As did Jeongwoo. The game ended when Jeongwoo illegally body checked Haruto.

“Dude what the hell is your problem?”

“No, what’s your problem? Your comment back there? Absolutely uncalled for.”

Valid. But Haruto wasn’t going to admit that. “Please. Pull your head out of your ass. You’re hurting your friend. Talk to her.”

Haruto stood by as he and Jeongwoo got scolded for their behavior. Eventually, tryouts ended with neither one ending up on the varsity team. Haruto knew he probably should have been more bothered but he wasn’t. He had other things on his mind.

When Haruto exited the office he saw Hanbyul waiting outside. She turned to look away from Jeongwoo back to Haruto. Tired and hopeful that their saga would end, Haruto smiled and jutted his chin out towards Jeongwoo. Hanbyul smiled and ran after Jeongwoo.

Since the fateful day you have Haruto your number. Whenever he had a free moment he would ask to see you. After each time you saw him, you thoroughly wrote down everything that had happened in the day. You didn’t want to forget.

A few Mondays ago, you went to get ice cream together. “What’s your favorite food, Haruto?”

“Me? Anything unhealthy.”

You whacked him on the arm for that.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“For being a stupid teenage boy. And because I’m jealous of your metabolism.”

A couple Thursdays ago, Haruto asked you if you wanted to go watch a movie with him. The Uber and the weather didn’t quite work out. “Sorry we missed the movie by 45 minutes. But on the bright side, it’s not raining anymore!”

You laughed. “I guess you’re right. What should we do instead now that we’re here?”

Haruto looked around. He pointed at the grassy meadow. “We should just lay down on the grass and look at the stars.”

“The grass is wet.”

“Look, they're selling plastic tarps over at that convenience store. Let’s just buy one.”

“Okay.”

Haruto paid for a plastic tarp and spread it down out on the grassy meadow. The two of you laid on the ground parallel to one another. Until Haruto turned to you “can I hold you?”

You felt your face flush and you looked away. You hesitated for a few moments but eventually Haruto smiled when he heard a soft “yeah.”

So he moved his arm as you lifted your head to rest on top of it. You curled into him as his arm wrapped around your upper body. Haruto’s stomach exploded in butterflies. Your face was on fire. But the two of you were happy, blissful.

Last Friday night Haruto asked you to come to one of his lacrosse games. “Y/N, this is my friend Hanbyul. Hanbyul, this is Y/N.”

“Y/N?” Hanbyul stared at you eyes wide. Like she knew something. She looked like she wanted to say something but she held it in. You wondered what it was, but decided not to think too much about it.

Hanbyul was sweet. She kept you company throughout the game. But she was an aggressive cheer-er. Most of her attention was spent yelling at the field. Her energy was contagious and by the end of the game you were standing on the bleachers cheering “Go Haruto!”

Now it was Saturday and the two of you had finally gone to see the movie that you had meant to see a couple Thursdays ago. You clasped onto the arm that Haruto had held out for you as you exited the movie theater. “That movie was so good! It was so crazy!”

Haruto laughed. “Yeah it was okay.”

“Just okay? You didn’t like it?”

“No, I liked it. It wasn’t bad. But I feel like there were better movies from this cinematic universe you know?”

“Yeah I guess.”

“Which one was your favorite?” Haruto asked.

“Huh?” You looked up at Haruto to see him looking down at you. You turned away. “Um. Would you wanna come back to my place?”

“Huh?” Haruto wasn’t normally caught off guard but this time he was.

“I mean. Not like that. I just, I don’t know I’m not ready for the night to end and I figured since my place is close by we could just go back and chat.”

Haruto smiled. “Yeah, that sounds nice. Let’s go.”

Soon after the two of you arrived at your place, Haruto got situated on the couch and after making sure he was properly settled in. You had gotten up to go fetch your drinks. Haruto spotted your notebook sitting on the edge of the coffee table. He glanced over to see that your attention was fully occupied on making your drinks. Haruto turned back to stare at the notebook. No. The notebook was staring at him. Haruto knew it was wrong. He knew he shouldn’t peek.

But he couldn’t help it. Every time he saw you he either saw the notebook with you or he saw you writing the notebook and every time he even remotely looked in its direction you guarded it with your life. This could be his only chance.

And so, Haruto grabbed the notebook. He flipped through it and saw that it was very meticulously dated. Upon closer inspection he noticed that each entry was timed as well and every timed entry had extensive details about what you saw, what you talked about. Then he flipped backwards and found one page not like the others.

This page wasn’t dated. Instead, it was titled. Haruto. Haruto’s eyes widened. Every line of his designated page was filled. There were things about him on there that even he hadn’t realized he had said. Why had you written all these things down? All these details didn’t seem that important to him. They were like things that were probably easily remembered. Or things you could ask him about, he’d answer if you ever asked him about.

Just as he was about to continue flipping through the pages of the notebook. “What do you think you’re doing?”

An index card fluttered out of the notebook right at Haruto’s feet. Haruto bent down to pick it up. But in a panic you kicked his shin and as he howled and grabbed onto his leg you snatched the card. “What the hell Y/N?”

“No. I should be asking you that. I’ve made it abundantly clear that this notebook is not to be touched. It’s incredibly private to me.”

“What is it? Why is it so important? I asked Hanbyul what it might be and she just said it was probably a diary. What is so special about yours?”

“What is so special about mine?” you were so angry you felt like your head was about to pop. While your head didn’t pop. Your mouth certainly did. “What is so special about mine? This notebook? This notebook. Is my memory. I don’t have a memory.”

You tossed the card at Haruto. He picked it up and read the words on the card as you spoke.

“At age 13 you were involved in a very traumatic car accident. The accident left you in a coma for two weeks. After you recovered from your coma you were diagnosed with anterograde amnesia. From that day on, you no longer have the ability to make memories. The memories you make within a day will only last until you fall asleep wherein your memories of the previous day will be wiped. Use your notebooks to keep track of your days. Use these notebooks to help you remember.”

You could hear your voice waver as you finished reciting the contents on the index card.

“Y/N, I-” Haruto said. The world seemed grayer and grimmer. Everything made so much sense now. Why every time he spoke to you in school you had to ask for his name. Why sometimes you looked confused or blank when he mentioned something or attempted to crack a joke.

“So now you know.” You whispered. You could feel your body start to heave, your breathing became heavy. The gravity of what you had just exposed started to weigh down on you. “You need to leave. You need to leave and never come back.”

“Y/N. I wish you would have told me.”

“Why?” You snarled. “Why would I tell you that? Each day I wake up I can’t even remember who you are. Why would I have told you anything? Just so you could go around pitying me? Telling everyone else about me? Absolutely not.”

Haruto started to feel tears well up in his own eyes. He felt trapped in his own body as he watched your body fail yours. When he saw you collapse something snapped in his head and he got up and picked you up. One arm held you under your shoulder blades and the other below your knees.

“Get. Out.” you said in between wheezes.

“No. Y/N. I’m sorry. I don’t want to. Let me help you.”

“Get. Out.” you said, barely conscious.

“Y/N. You’re scaring me. What do I do? How do I help you? Let me help you and I’ll leave you alone.”

Your eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. Honestly, you weren’t even sure what exactly was going on. Maybe it would be smart to have Haruto call your doctor before he left. “Emergency Numbers. Notebook.”

Haruto placed you down on your bed just as you had passed out. Haruto immediately ran back to the living room and grabbed your notebook that had fallen onto the ground. He flipped through it frantically. What page were the emergency numbers on? He saw them scribbled on the inside of the back cover. He grabbed his phone and dialed the first number listed at the top.

“Hello? Is this Y/N’s doctor? She’s just passed out and I don’t know what to do. I’m in her apartment right now. Someone please come help me.” Haruto hadn’t even realized that tears had been streaming down his face until he saw wet splotches appear on the notebook. He wiped them quickly and sniffed. “This is scaring me.”

“Yes, this is Y/N’s doctor. I’m on my way over. Who is this?”

“Haruto. I’m a friend of hers.”

“Haruto. You did good, son. Just wait. I’ll be there in a second.”

“Doctor. Is she gonna be okay?”

“Honestly I can’t tell you right now. I have to check up on her. Right now I’m in front of her door so you can let me in.” The call ended and Haruto opened the door.

“Is she in her room?” The stout man asked.

Haruto nodded and followed him back into your room. He tried to help the doctor but eventually the doctor turned to him and said “son, just relax. Give me some space. She should be fine. She had a panic attack, something must have worked her up. But she’ll wake up. But, it might be better if you aren’t here by the time she wakes up.

“I understand, doctor.”

The doctor took a good look at him. Then nodded grimly before turning his attention back to you. Before Haruto could leave though he saw a stack of index cards, a roll of washi tape, and a pen sitting on your desk. He was still holding your notebook from earlier. He grabbed the materials and headed back out to the living room.

Before he left he scribbled out a note. Then pulled something out of his wallet and taped it to the back of the index card. He then taped the index card to the inside of the front cover before shutting the notebook and leaving it in the middle of your coffee table. He held in a sob as he got up. How had things gone so sour so quickly?

Haruto walked back over to your room and peeked in. Your doctor was still busy doting on you. So he turned around and exited your apartment. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Junkyu. “Hey, can you pick me up?”

“Yeah of course. Send me the address.” Junkyu said, trying not to be too alarmed by the tone of Haruto’s voice.

Eventually, you woke up. After reading the note that your doctor had taped to your hand explaining the situation you took a deep sigh. What a shit show. You needed to find the notebook your doctor had mentioned in his note.

It was sitting in the very middle of your coffee table. You flipped through the last few pages to read your entries. Your eyes started to water and you felt yourself get emotional. You could sense that you had grown close to someone. You read about yourself and how you felt about Haruto, but who was Haruto? For the most part you had made peace with your situation but for the first time in a long time, you began to feel frustrated. Angry. Cheated of a normal life that other 16 year old girls got to live.

Just as you were about to shut the notebook you noticed there were two index cards taped to the inside cover. The first one explained your situation. It was more or less what your doctor had just explained to you. But the second one was new. You lifted it up to your face and began to read it aloud.

Y/N,

If you’re reading this, I want you to know that you are the love of my life. My name is Haruto Watanabe and I am 16 years old. I met you for the first time in our freshman year of high school back then when we lived in Japan. We were only 14 years old. I used to be jealous of you, how you beat me in school every time even if just by a little bit. I also resented you because I thought you never bothered to remember my name.

By some stroke of fate, we both ended up in America. Whether by fate or not we saw each other a few more times and met up with each other and I really began to fall for you. You are the kindest, most beautiful, and genuine person I have ever met in my life.

I want you to know that even with your condition. My opinion and my feelings towards you have not changed. I want to be honest with you and tell you what I did and I hope in time you can read this and not feel angry.

Y/N, I did something bad. I invaded your privacy. You see, every time I saw you you fiercely guarded this notebook. Everytime I asked about it or possibly glimpsed at it you would react so strongly so eventually the curiosity of needing to know what was in the notebook killed me. And one day when your attention was occupied elsewhere, I read it.

It seemed like a regular diary to me but you caught me in the act and got upset with me. You explained to me your condition and I want you to know I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry I behaved so insensitively. If I were a more selfless man I would have left your life for good. But I am not. I’ve attached my school I.D. to the back of this card. On it has my name, my picture, and my phone number.

If you ever find it in yourself to forgive me. Please give me a call. I will always love you.

Love,

Haruto Watanabe

You flipped the back of the card over. Sure enough there was a school I.D. taped to the back. You pulled the card off and stared at it. The boy in the picture was handsome. He was tall. His height was 6’2”. You scoffed, at least you had good taste.

You saw his phone number at the bottom. You pondered over whether or not to call him, what would you even say to him? Where would he even fit in your life?

These were the questions that ran through your mind as you pulled your phone out and dialed his number. You stared at the numbers as you recited them aloud again. Your thumb hovering above the green button.

[rintoya]

They accidentally kiss their crush headcannon

Iwaizumi Hajime

Iwaizumi Hajime, everyone knows him as the vice captain of the volleyball team and the best friend of Oikawa Toru. What they didn’t expect was for the tough third year to be a in love with his girl childhood friend Y/n L/n. The trio being friends since elementary school, Oikawa noticing how his his best friend has a crush on the girl decided to try and help him. “Iwa-chan!! Want some advice in how to ask out-” “There is no way in hell I want your help Shittykawa.” “So mean!!” This would go on for so many years, until they reached their third year in high school, when Iwa and Y/n’s relation grew into something more then friends. They would gone on ‘dates’ and they would spend nights at each others houses. It’s a joke between the other third years on the team for when Iwa see’s Y/n he would become “Mr. Suave” whenever she was around. Today was no different, it was normal for Y/n to stop by after practice to walk home with Oikawa and Iwa. Y/n just entered the gym, “Hey!! How was practice?” “Yahoo~ Y/n-chan how was your day?” “It was go-OW!” The two years looking to where the ball came from, “Haji, did you throw that at Toru?” Mattsun and Makki snickering at the face that the Iwaizumi Hajimen is getting scolded by a girl a few inches shorter then him. “I-Um...Yeah..” “What do you say to him?” “I won’t hesitate to do it again.” “Iwa-chan!! So mean.” “Yeah, yeah let’s go we need to change back.” A chorus of Yessir was heard throughout the gym, “Wait near the locker room Y/n” “I know the drill Haji, we have been walking home for more then 10 years together.” “See ya in a few N/n” Walking into the locker room the third years started laughing, “Iwaizumi when will you accept the fact that you like N/n.” “I don’t know what your talking about. “Sure, just so you know I heard someone from Shiratorizawa got a thing for our little Y/n. So confess or she will be on the enemy team.” “Shut up Makki.” “Um...Let’s go Iwa-chan. Y/n is waiting.” “Fine” Iwa grumbled, they were walking down the stairs to where Y/n was. Thinking many things at once, Iwaizumi Missed a step and lunged forward, accidently falling on Y/n. “WHOA IWA-CHAN I DIDN’T THINK YOU HAD THE BALLS TO KISS HER.” Realizing what situation he is in, he kissed the girl he had a crush on since Middle school. Pulling away he spoke, “I-I’m So sorry. That was an accident-” “Hajime it’s ok, calm down.” Oikawa noticed how tensed his best friend his, “Um...Lets go.” The trio walked, Iwa still silent when he felt a hand holding onto his hand, looking to his hand to see it’s connected with Y/n’s. The two giving each other a warm smile, maybe their friendship can become a romantic relationship really soon.

Ginjima Hitoshi

It’s a known fact between the team how Ginjima has a huge crush on Y/n L/n, a girl who also returns strong feelings for him. The team always silently hoping the two would get together, they see how the two would be flustered messes and always stutter when they have a conversation. Today was different because Ginjima was finally gonna ask Y/n on a date. The whole team talking in the cafeteria when Aran noticed Y/n by herself, “Ginjima look. Y/n is by herself. It’s time to ask her.” The team smirking at the blushing boy, “Fine, wish me luck.” The team watching their teammate about to make a move on the girl he had is eye on for nearly 2 years now. “Hello Y/n” The team chuckling at the sight of the girl getting flustered in front of him “G-good morning H-Hitoshi.” “Can I ask you a question Y/n?” “A-anything” “Do you want to go on a-” Both the pair and the team turned to see a group of girls screaming, making the twins groan. “Why now?” “I don’t know ‘Samu but they better not come over here.” “Too late” The team see’s the girls speed walking towards them unknowingly bumping into Ginjima. The push making him trip and he out of instinct sprayed out his arms accidentally trapping Y/n. The fast movement making the two second years kiss, Suna pulling out his phone quickly to capture what just happened. The two separating quickly with bright red faces, “I-I’m so sorry!! It was an accident and I-” “I-it’s ok, anyway C-continue what you were saying...before that happened.” “I-I-I wanted to know If...you would like to go out sometime?” The team ignoring the girls in front of them, trying to hear the conversation. “I would love too, Hitoshi. Friday afterschool?” “Yeah!!, See you then” The two having goofy smiles, the teams cheering can be heard throughout the cafeteria.

Yamaguchi Tadashi

Yamaguchi and Tsukishima walked into the locker room with different faces, Yamaguchi had a love-sick smile while Tsukishima was smirking at him. The rest of the team was confused, about the way the duo is acting. Tanaka and Noya then spoke, “What’s up with you two is it a girl?” The two boys laughing at the joke they said, until Tsukishima spoke. “Actually Yeah, wanna tell them Romeo?” Tanaka and Noya nearly fainted at what Tsukshima said, “Yamaguchi you have a girlfriend?!?!” The team staring at Yamaguchi waiting for an answer, chuckling softly cheeks growing red. “W-well um, I have been going on a few date with Y/n these past month and-” “Sorry to interrupt but isn’t Y/n the girl you said you have a crush on?” “Yeah!! It has been going great, a-and she is coming over during p-practice and-” The teams scream can heard “SHE IS COMING OVER?!?!” Then Tsukishima spoke, “Yeah and he is gonna ask her to his girlfriend finally.” Leaving the room, Yamaguchi nervously chuckled before following Tsukishima, “TSUKKI!! why did you say that?” The rest of the team entering the gym to see Yamaguchi talking to a girl, both of them with blush pink cheeks. “I guess thats her, they make such a cute couple.” “Alright Ballerinas time to work!!!” “ROMEO WALK AWAY FROM JULIET!!!” Yamaguchi walking away from Y/n with an embarrassed look, while y/n had an equally red face. “Good luck Tadashi!” Practice went by normal, it was until the end of practice where chaos started, Yamaguchi and Y/n were in the doorway talking, “Y-you know Y/n w-we have been getting closer this past month and I was wondering...” “Yes Tadashi?” The two first years were realzing how close Tanaka and Noya were. “Come on Noya lets get ready so we can walk KIyoko home!!” “YEAH” The two boys rushing past the teens bumping into Yamaguchi. “Would you like to go out with me-WHOA!” The gym fell silent looking at the pair, the force caused Yamaguchi to move forward and crash his lips against Y/n. Pulling away the two teens were bright red, and Y/n grabbed Yamaguchi’s hand and they left the gym. Everyone left the gym and when they were walking towards the gate they saw two figures near, the gate. “Looks like Yamaguchi finally got the girl.” The team agreeing seeing the new couple walking down the street holding hands, seeing Y/n give Yamaguchi a kiss on the cheek.

[amyscascadingtabs]

we’ve found a love to cross the ages

Jake and Amy celebrate their third wedding anniversary.

(happy anniversary, jake and amy 💕)

read on ao3

~

Even though he’s only seven months into the joys of parenthood, Jake is starting to feel like he’s got the key points of it down. He’s mastered several valuable skills to near perfection - for example, how to best change a diaper without getting peed on, how to heat up bottles of pumped breastmilk in complete darkness, and how to feed yourself with one hand while you're holding your baby on the other arm. He’s learned that his son is objectively the best and most magical person in the entire Universe, and that he would do anything and everything to make sure his son is safe, happy, and loved. He's learned that the last part is a feeling that grows exponentially, strengthening by the day.

  Most of all, however, Jake has learned that babies do not care about your plans. They don’t care if you're exhausted from your work shift and craving a night with more than four consecutive hours of sleep, they don’t care that it's the fifth time you've changed shirt today because of various baby-related stains, and they certainly, as proved obvious in the case of this particular night, do not care if it’s their parents’ third wedding anniversary, for which they had been planning a proper date night with fancy attire, dinner reservations, and Broadway tickets. At the very least, Mac doesn't.

Jake supposes it’s not technically his son’s fault. Double-sided ear infection, ruptured eardrum on the right, had been their pediatrician’s judgment when they took Mac there this morning, following a night of so much crying that in the end, their son wasn't the only one whose ears were seriously hurting. Amy had ended up staying home with him for the day, whilst Jake had spent his workday downing a dangerous amount of coffee to not incidentally fall asleep if he as much as leaned against a wall for a second too long, and they had ended up canceling the date plans. Mac wasn't his usual happy self, it wasn't fair to hand Charles a feverish baby for a night, and neither of them really had the energy to dress up for dinner at a restaurant when running on less than two hours of sleep. Date night - officially canceled.

“Well,” Amy groans as she confirms the babysitting cancellation with Charles over text for a third time, assuring him that yes, they would be okay, and yes, they would call him the next time they needed a babysitter. “This wasn't how I had planned for tonight to go.”

“I don’t think it was anyone’s plan,” Jake tries to comfort her from a distance as he starts on his n-th lap walking around the kitchen table while bouncing Mac in the Babybjorn. Through a joint and arduous effort, they’d finally managed to get their son to take some baby Tylenol without spitting it out, and half an hour later’s worth of crying, he was finally dozing off. “Least of all Mac’s, I bet.”

Amy pouts, watching her son with the same worried gaze that Jake recognizes from times in his life he’d rather forget - a car outside a farm in Pennsylvania, a filled courtroom, the nights after he came home and the nightmares kept them both up. “I know. It breaks my heart to see him like that - I wish there was a way I could just take that pain from him, because he doesn’t even understand it, you know? I’d much rather suffer myself than see him doing it.”

“I know what you mean.”

“Yeah.” She sighs. “But I’m also sad about not getting to celebrate our wedding anniversary. I was going to wear a dress, and do my makeup, and get to hang out with just you for several hours and spend ninety percent of that time talking about how much we miss our baby, but still. I wasn’t planning for sweatpants and a sick baby.”

“I know, Ames.” He stops behind her on the kitchen chair, quickly pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Me too.”

“I’m just so exhausted,” she mumbles, pulling down the sleeves of her grey NYPD hoodie and resting her chin on her hands. “He slept for two hours, so I tried to do some work, but it’s riddled with typos, and I could swear there’s a dangling participle in there somewhere. Imagine if I’d sent that to Holt! I need a nap, and I need to pump, because he’s been glued to me for the entire day but he’s barely wanted to eat.”

“You could combine those things?”

Amy snorts. “I wish. If I’d figured out how to pump while asleep, I would be so efficient. But no.”

  She lets out a yawn, and as much as Jake can feel his own exhaustion like a dull, weighted blanket on top of him, relentless despite the caffeine he’s tried to combat it with, he only needs to glance at his wife to know her day’s been worse. Sure, policework is tough, but he knows from experience exactly how much more demanding a full day of caring for a sick, fussy, baby can be. Jake loves his wife, but she’s categorically useless at letting herself rest sometimes.

“You can go to sleep for a bit,” he tells her, nodding when she raises an eyebrow. “Or pump, then sleep. Whatever you need.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Mac’s sleeping, and you’ve taken care of him the entire day. I’ll take him for a couple of hours, and you get some sleep, okay? You need it.”

“Rude,” she grimaces, but there’s an air of relief over her when she stands up, brushing her lips against the stubble on his cheek - shaving’s becoming less and less of a priority for him these days. “But okay. I love you.”

“Love you, too,” he whispers, and she gives him a knowing smile before heading towards their bedroom.

  He had been looking forward to their anniversary date, too. Not for the reasons Amy seems to believe; Jake loves her in fancy dresses and makeup, but he loves her just as much when she hasn’t washed her hair in two days and she’s wearing pajamas with milk stains and baby spit-up on it. He had been looking forward to spending some child-free time with her, but not because he prefers it over an evening at home with her and Mac. No, he’d really just been longing for a chance to show his tired, hard-working, champion of a wife how special she is to him, how much he loves her, and the life they have built. A proper date had seemed like the perfect way to do that, whereas a night at home with their sick baby did not seem nearly as strikingly effective, but Jake figures that shouldn’t mean it’s impossible.

“Come on, Mac,” he whispers, stroking his thumb over his son’s still-rosy cheeks. “Let’s see if we can surprise Mommy.”

  The living room is far from what Jake would categorize as messy, but he knows it’s already at a level that would bother Amy, so he starts by cleaning. He rinses the used water glasses, places a used muslin blanket in the laundry, folds the knitted blanket over the side of the armchair. He finds a number he knows he wrote down in his phone once, an Italian place that Charles recommended and which does delivery, and orders them dinner all while bouncing on a yoga ball to soothe Mac when he starts whimpering in the middle of the call. He closes the curtains, dims the lights, and finds the battery-operated tealight candles they’ve resorted to ever since Mac started trying to crawl, spreading them out on the dinner and couch tables. He puts on a Spotify playlist with piano music and finds a bottle of white wine he’s not sure when they bought, but which looks fancy enough for a date night.

It’s not much, he thinks, not when he has neither flowers nor a card nor a fancy anniversary gift to present - he’d thought to buy the first two things after work, then ended up rushing home to help Amy with Mac - but it’s something.

  Judging from the gasp she lets out when she comes into the living room, and the puzzled look she gives him as she realizes, it seems that Amy agrees.

“What’s all this, babe?”

“Well, I thought…” He scratches his neck, shrugging as he looks to the makeshift table setting on the dinner table, “even if we can’t go out, and even if we’re in our sweats, that doesn’t mean we can’t still have a date night for our anniversary. I’m sorry it’s not much, but… I thought it could be nice.”

“Jake, this is…” She shakes her head, looking around at his improvised decorations. “Wow.”

“You like it?”

“I thought we were just going to eat frozen pizza in bed,” she says. “Seems like I was surprised.”

“Surprise,” he grins, and it makes her laugh.

  They eat their dinner one at a time, because Mac begins to cry if they as much as attempt to put him to sleep on his own, but it’s still great, and Jake makes a note to text Charles a thank you for the recommendation. After dinner, they dig out a tub of salted caramel ice cream from the freezer, and the whole family snuggles up together on the couch as Mac eventually accepts a bottle, drinking the whole thing in Jake’s arms before he passes out again.

 It’s far from the most glamorous or ambitious date night they’ve had. Jake thinks back to their very first official date as Amy leans her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes, remembering to the haircut and suit and the Kamikaze shots needed to kill the initial awkwardness between them. He’d been so nervous before that date, deathly afraid to mess things up and scare her away, scared to love too hard and scared to love too little.

He hadn’t known it then, but it hadn’t been long before he’d started feeling the first sensations of something both ever-changing and permanent; a safety he hadn’t known before, but instantly craved more of. It had lingered, and it had grown, and it had brought him more happiness than he could have ever imagined that morning all those years ago when he kissed her for realz in the evidence locker and she kissed him back. Kismet, happenchance, or an amalgamation of the two - somehow, they found each other, and found the things in each other that made the work of building a relationship worth it.

Jake’s never needed fancy, anyway, he thinks as his eyes grow heavier and he lets them fall closed for a second. Life gets considerably less fancy when you have a baby, it’s part of the deal, and they’re always tired now. There’s less time for just about everything, and most days their topics of conversation circle around logistics and their baby ninety percent of the time, but having the safety of every day with her, with Mac, with his family - it’s more than Jake dreamed he would ever get, better than he ever thought he deserved.

  “It’s weird to think he wasn’t here the last time we celebrated our anniversary,” Amy says, playing with the curls near Mac’s neck and using her newly acquired, already finely tuned, mom-reflexes to put in her son’s pacifier before he even notices that he spat it out. “It feels like he’s always been.”

“He was growing inside of you,” Jake corrects her. “But yeah. From a tiny little bump to a fully-fledged human. Or fully-fledged baby, at least.”

“Yeah.” Amy smiles. “You know, there are some days when I miss going out on nice dates, or sleeping through the night, or looking a little more put together than this,” she gestures to her uneven messy bun and oversized pajama pants, “but even on the hard days, like today, it’s still better than when he wasn’t here. So I guess, even with the canceled dinner, this is still my favorite anniversary.”

“I know. I think it’s mine, too.”

“Would you have guessed?”

“Guessed what?”

“Three years ago, when we got married - would you have guessed that this is how you’d celebrate your third wedding anniversary?”

“I don’t know,” he confesses. “Maybe? I don’t think I ever thought that hard about it. I knew I wanted the rest of my life with you, and then, well, you know how I felt about kids for a while; I wasn’t sure about the rest. But now… I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than here.”

“Me either,” she whispers.

“Would you?”

“Mm-hmm?”

“Would you have guessed this?”

“Oh,” she says, pursing her lips and scrunching her forehead. “I hoped, I guess? I dreamed. But this is better.”

Sitting up straighter, she kisses him. It’s a little clumsy with Mac preventing them to get too close to each other, and it’s over way too soon when he starts whimpering and Jake is up on his feet again, bouncing his son slightly until peace seems to be restored.

 “We’ll schedule another date, right? Once he gets better?” Amy asks as Jake tries to sit down again, Mac seemingly back asleep in his arms. “I know you say you don’t mind, but I really do want you to see me in something other than sweatpants at some point.”

“Sweatpants are like, my favorite outfit of yours,” he mumbles, and she gives him a surprised look. “But yes, definitely. Make-up anniversary date, as soon as our baby is healthy again.”

“Yeah. Happy anniversary, babe.”

“Happy anniversary.” He gets an idea, and even though he knows it’s risky when Mac literally just fell asleep again, he lifts Mac’s little fist anyway, imitating a voice that’s supposed to be their son’s before pretending to answer him. “Happy anniversary, mom and dad - why, Mac, thank you so much!”

  Amy rolls her eyes at him, but she chuckles. Jake thinks that some things, no matter how much everything else changes, stay exactly the same.

[reactingwithexo]

Bonnie & Clyde (7) - Baekhyun

Part 1/ 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Summary: “Babe I want you to know how much I love you, how much I need you”

genre: mafia/gang au!, angst, fluff sometimes, smut

warnings: filthy smut(!), car sex, fingering, dry humping, just all these stuff, don’t read it if you’re not over 18 ok?

word-count: 3.3K

A/N: This is hapenning for realz, thank you so much for everyone who has been supporting me lately, I’m getting so much love here that I feel I am not worthy of, hope you like it.

He put his hands on his pockets and paced a little bit “I don’t know yet”, he stopped and looked at you “Can I ask you something now?”

“Hm, yes, one question”

“That might be a little bit selfish of me but, would you be willing to go on another adventure with me?”

“What? Baekhyun, you’re being investigated”

“I know”

“What the hell are you planning?”

“Ah” he takes exact three steps in your direction and stops right in front of you, you could feel his breath on your cheek before he said “you didn’t answer my question”

“You need to be honest with me if you want an answer”, you said while he kept his stare on you.

“I’m not asking you to go back there with your brother, I’m not, I promise, I have something else in mind, just us”

You were confused if this was another trap or if he had some honesty within him when it came to you “I am not going to go on another quest with you while you keep passing info to my brother”

“Y/n...” he took a step closer to you yet again “It’s not like that this time” he took your hand in his and gave it a gentle kiss “I don’t think I can do this without you, I understand if you want to move on, or even” he paused and swallowed “help on my arrest, I probably deserve it for fucks sake but, I also thought that maybe if you’d payed attention to everything that hapenned since we met, you’d see that I care about you, for real”

You knew he did try to protect you multiple times, I mean the guy was shot for you more than once, still part of you thought that maybe it could be a scheme, but part of you wanted to give in.

“You know what?” He asks while your forehead touches his after he pulls you even closer, his hand still holding yours, his gaze now directly on you “I give you the choice, if you want to help the police, fine, if you want to disappear and never see me again, that’s fine too, or if you’re willing to give me another chance”

You felt that you were holding your breath and your heart was racing “what is really your plan?” you decided to focus on your fingers tangled to his “just run away?”

“Not exactly” he stared at your hands too and started to swing them left and right slightly “I have some places to go, unfinished bussiness”

You hummed “is it legal?”

He smiled “depends”

You backed away and felt yourself frown “ah baekhyun, are you kidding me? I just told you I don’t want to be involved in stuff like these”

He shook his head “y/n, it’s not about your brother, you didn’t even le-”

“You wanna start your own mafia now is that it?” you exclaimed.

“Hey!” he alerted you to the fact that you had police all around the room before continuing “y/n, you’re so silly sometimes”.

He took two steps in your direction, closing the distance between you two yet again “you need to remember that, if you accept tagging along with me it won’t be entirely legal getting out of here ” his lips aimed to whisper in your ear “but i can’t stop thinking abou-”

There were two subtle knocks on the door and Baekhyun seemed to loose his train of thought, he swiftly whispered “if you choose to be with me, try to meet here at 10 pm, the door will be unlocked” 

It was so fast you couldn’t react to what he said and Baekhyun had already stepped back from you as Namjoon stated your time to talk was over. You just nodded his way and left the room turning around looking back at him to see he stopped his pacing to give you a side smile.

“So when are you avaiable to start the testimony? We need it as soon as possible” Namjoon asked you as soon as you left the room.

“I don’t know yet” You looked down “I thought I could have some time to assimilate all of this”

“I think you had enough time, no? By the looks of it you were taken care of just fine” he said with an unpleasant tone.

You felt anger coming through you as you turned to him  “What the fuck is your problem with me?”

He seemed shocked for a split of a second before his expression turned into a grin as he opened his mouth to answer you “listen to me, I don’t trust you as much as I don’t trust your friend in there”

You were ready to answer him with gritted teeth when Taehyung showed up “hey.. everything alright?”, he looked back and forth between you two.

You just looked at him and realized you had made your decision “Yeah I just.. need to rest, can I stay in the infermary for a little bit? my head hurts”

“Yeah of course”, he promptly helped you to get there and you saw Namjoon from the corner of your eye shaking his  and letting out a huff while you were leaving his sight.

You followed until the infirmary when Taehyung asked you “are you okay? you look a little off”

“I’m fine , just confused”

“Oh , the talk didn’t go well?”

“I guess you could say that, but I think I just need to rest really” You answered with a reassuring smile

“Okay , Imma leave you here” he turned around to leave the room when you asked “Where’s Flora?”

“She’s probably taking care of other things right now, sometimes she goes to other units”

“Oh , so she won’t be here during the whole day?”

“She should be here before 8 pm”

“Hm I see, thanks”

“Why ? Do you have any specifics you wanna talk to her or something?”

“No no, I just didn’t see her here so I wondered”

He didn’t seem to be fully satisfied with your answered but let it slide anyways “Okay, I’m gonna check on you later then and we can talk”

Fuck.

You smiled “yeah sure, see you later”

He nodded and left the room.

Ok so you’re fucked. Flora will be here before 8 pm and Taehyung will probably reappear in a few hours , how the hell would you endure until 10 pm and leave without being noticed?

Furthermore this place is full of cameras didn’t Baekhyun think of that? How would you two get out?

Maybe this was a sign of the gods for you to rethink your decision, or maybe Baekhyun didn’t think this through. Maybe you should just go out and never look back.

“You seem to be worrying too much for someone as young as you are” Flora entered the infirmary with some supplies on her hands and a big smile on her face.

“Hm..I guess you could say that” you tried to laugh it off but she didn’t seem to buy it as she still stared at you

She started to organize some cabinets before asking you quite discretly “I’ve been asked to ask you if you really do have a commitment at 10 pm?”

“What?” your head turned to her immediately. Was it possible she knew? What if everyone already knew and this was a way of the police getting to you?

“If yes, I’m gonna help you out” She continued as you looked at her in shock “There aren’t many people here after 8 pm so I don’t think it will be complicated”

Yes it could be a trap but what were your other options really? “Are you serious? What did I miss”

She laughed and turned to you “Sweetie, I’ve been in the service for a long time, you learn to make friends at both sides to survive in here for as long as I have, believe me”

“I see” 

“But I don’t think this one is that bad, he seems to have good intentions at least”

“How can you know that?” you asked more to yourself.

“Sometimes you just know sweetie” she answered with a smile “So you’re going I suppose -” she laughs a little “how silly am I, of course you are”

“Why are you laughing?”

“Judging by the look on your face and his eagerness for my help, I’d say it is obvious.”

And Flora was right. Of course you’d go with him, you probably would regret everyday if you didn’t, and even more if you helped with arresting him, deep down a part of you believed he was a good person, he was just raised in a bad environment and that’s all he has known.

Flora helped getting taehyung far off telling him you ended up sleeping there after taking medicine for a ‘terrible headache’. It took some work to convince him but she still managed it “experience” she exclaimed proudly when you looked impressed over her abilities.

She handled you a big bag from one of the cabinets and asked you to follow her, instead of following the path you’d been guided earlier, you entered through the back where there was a kitchen and some deposit right after, you realized there weren’t any cameras there, contrary to almost every other room in the building.

You quickly found yourself reentering  where Baekhyun was.

The look on his face when he saw you two enter was something you wish you could have recorded, or maybe it was just something from your head, but you felt this more than usual urge to kiss him right there.

He seemed to have the same thought for a split second but the adrenaline of the moment kept you two while you focused on Flora’s last tips for leaving.

“The exit has many more guards than usual, you must be something kid” she tells Baekhyun before moving on “but there’s a way, I’ll have to distract them because it is the only way out but you have to be really fast, so I hope you’re both ready”

Baekhyun took your hand in his as you followed her once again, you two looked at each other for a quick second before she rushed you two.

You don’t really knew how she managed but with her sympathy she really managed to get all the guards concentrated on whatever she was talking and as she indicated with her hand you and Baekhyun managed to run out of the building.

Maybe you were being stupid but you two just kept running until you couldn’t anymore and as you exchanged glances and he smiled at you, you both started laughing while you gave up on running and took a seat on a bench near by.

“Oh my god Baek..” you gasped while still laughing “I don’t know what I’m doing” you leaned your head on his shoulder and it was his turn to talk while he wore this cute smile.

“Not even I know for sure y/n, but now we’re here right?”

“Yeah..so what’s the first stop? We shouldn’t be sitting here , they’ll come looking for you eventually”

“Yes you’re right, we need to get the car before” he took the bag Flora had given you earlier, opening it and checking some of what was inside. “Great, just like I asked”

Following that , you two rented a car with some fake id baekhyun had and he rushed to start driving as fast as he could before anyone realized he was not where he was supposed to be. He also told you the trip would last 3 days.

“3 days in a car? Oh my god are we moving countries?”

“Aish, of course we’re gonna stop to sleep y/n, you won’t spend the whole day in the car gosh, did you forget how we used to do?”

“We weren’t fugitives that time, I was more relaxed”

“Considering you were running away from your brother , seems like a lie”

“Whatever Baek, just tell me when we get to sleep”

“You’re awkwardly a whiner today, already regretting coming with me?”

You just smiled and answered “We’ll see in the next few hours, maybe if I get too bored i can head back and head you over to the authorities”

“Hmm but you’d be in trouble too for helping me escape in the first place” he placed the hand he wasn’t using to drive on your knee

Silence seemed to take over for a little while and he started to take his hand higher to your thigh, it may have seemed like it was just a non calculated touch but the electricity between you two has been so overwhelming ever since your last kiss that any touch you two encountered from the other already set the sparks high.

“I could just tell them you seduced me to help you” you mumbled “Or maybe even blackmailed me and I didn’t have a choice”

“You know I feel bad when you have to lie because of me” he says with a slight smile on his face “and we’re not that far from where we escaped so there’s a possibility we’ll get caught soon”

His hand caressed your thigh more surely “So maybe I could seduce you so you won’t have to lie about it”, you two traded looks and he pulled over on some residencial street you were passing through so he could focus on you properly.

“Seduce or blackmail me?” You asked and he answered by taking your chin with the fingertips of his other hand guiding your look directly to his eyes “maybe both”

You didn’t loose time going for the long awaited kiss and his lips felt like the most delicious thing you have ever tasted.

The kiss held some of the urge you both kept inside for a while and the promise of something more to come

While one of his hands helped deepen the kiss pulling you closer through the back of your neck, his fingers brushed the place you wanted him to touch you the most and you letted out a small gasp swallowed by the kisses.

You felt annoyed about the restrainement on touching him in reason of the distance between the car seats and decided to stop the kiss so you could straddle him in the driver’s seat.

His hands immediately fell to your sides as you both laughed into the next kiss, when he pushed the seat all the way back to give you both more space, you felt him bellow you and started to grind down on him slightly.

It didn’t take him long to react by urging to take your shirt off, he gathered your hair with one of his hands as he opened space for his mouth to kiss and mark all over your neck until you started to release moans with the stimulation of grinding.

“I need you so bad” he whispered between kisses as you had heightened the speed of your movements.

He furthered his mouth to your collarbone and then stopped to admire your breasts, you took advantage of the moment and took off your bra, his look expressed hunger and defeat.

You decided to tease him a little bit when he was about to touch your breats, you slapped his hand away and touched them yourself, gaze never leaving his as you dry humped him.

 His chest was rising and falling quickly as he didn’t let you look away either “So you just want to use me to get off?”

“It would be a fine punishement for everything you’d done” you said while bringing your body closer to his again.

“You really want me not to move a finger anymore?” he reached to tease your almost exposed core through your underwear, you unconsciently bucked into his touch and he smirked at you “that’s what I thought”

He didn’t seem to give up on getting reactions from you this time as he teased your clit in small circles, he only seemed to be satisfied when you gave in and let out small whimpers, he kept one finger close to your clit while he used his middle finger to enter you. He murmured in your ear “You’re so wet for me baby”.

“Baekhyun...I need more” you moaned while he kept a steady pace, you heard him let out a little laugh as he added another finger into you.

“Ah Baek this isn’t eno-” you were cut by your own moan when he motioned the tip of his fingers in his direction inside you.” You have to stop complaining all the time and be a good girl for me”.

Baekhyun kept doing the same movement with his two fingers while the other now rubbed circles on your clit, you felt yourself tightening around his fingers “Should I let you come already?” he asked while speeding up his actions.

While you felt that part of you was reaching your high, you didn’t wanna come just yet. “No no” you shook your head.

“No?” He asked you with an amusing glint in his eyes.”Why? Tell me where you wanna come baby”

“I wanna ride you” you whined.

“You wanna ride my cock baby?” 

“Yes, I want it so bad Baek” He seemed to have had enough teasing you and  stopped his motions before kissing you hungrily “I’ve been waiting to do this with you for such a long time” he said after your lips separated from each other.

You had unbuttoned his shirt while you were kissing and now it was your turn to kiss his skin “Ay now you’re gonna tease me?” he asked.

“Just let me kiss you a little bit” you told him as he lowered his pants, you motioned your hand up and down his length and savored in the gasps and noises he let out, you took the condom he got from his pants and put it on him yourself.

After you felt sufficient with exploring his body, he helped you lowering yourself on his dick, the sensation felt as a relief for both of you and the sexual tension it has been building up since the last time you got to do this.

“Ah fuck” he said in the middle of a grunt when you started moving around him. “You feel so good”

You started speeding up, the orgasm that had been taken aback from you by Baekhyun, was begining to build up again and you began to exclaim non sense in the middle of both of your gasps and moans.

He helped you guiding your movements at first but as you seemed to be reaching closer to your peak he started thrusting up into you and that’s when you had to close your eyes to just focus on the sensation. He pulled you closer and whispered “come for me baby, i’ve got you”

His thrusts felt deeper from this angle and it didn’t take long for you to get to where you were in the verge of orgasming, in a moment of intense pleasure you gathered energy to bounce on him and he helped you reaching for your hips.

“That’s it baby, don’t stop” 

Indeed you didn’t as you felt your awaited high, you shook around his body with endless moans of his name slipping out of you.

Feeling you tighten and shake around him couldn’t have taken him closer to his high and soon enough he came as you were almost done savoring your own orgasm. 

You both seemed to just look at each other for a while when you’d both came down from your own respective peaks and slowly a smile creeped onto his face and you followed incousciously.

“We could have gotten arrested and it would all have been in vain”

“Worth it don’t you think?” You both laughed as you observed the situation you’ve put yourselves in.

He caressed your cheek with the side of his hand “I really do love you, you know?”

A/N: Ooof, I did it, hope you still like the series and don’t hate me too much for taking so long, as you all know I’m back for real and don’t plan on going anywhere. Any feedback is accepted, also I was so embarrased I didn’t proof read it so I’m sorry if there are many errors.

[ninjakitty15]

Chapter 5: A Basic Witch (Loki x OFC Pairing)

"So archery, huh? Let me guess, you were born in the wrong century."

Clint glanced back at me while flying Tony's "borrowed" flying thing I wasn't quite sure was a plane or jet. "You might actually be worse than Tony with those quips of yours."

"You love it really," I teased.

"Love is a strong word, I tolerate it...moreso with a raise."

I cackled. "They not paying you enough to put up with me? Gotta feed the kids somehow though, right? Have you thought about being a hooker, they're always hiring."

"Do you want him to shoot you?" asked Loki though he had a smirk on the entire time I was bugging Clint.

"I could keep talking but then I took an arrow to the knee," I jested. "Not quite the ring I was hoping for there."

"You know, I read about you people," Clint commented.

"What do you mean 'you people'?"

"Necromancers. Don't you normally require certain things to do what you do? Google images suggest you need a staff at the very least."

I snorted but also took out my new smartphone Tony was nice enough to give me and looked up what people thought necromancers looked like, allowing Loki to see what I see as well. "We also apparently only wear black attire and wear bone jewelry. Really? That's still a stereotype? Bone jewelry? Okay some voodoo practitioners might wear that for shock value but it doesn't have any real purpose and more important is super fucking tacky. We're already made of bones, why do we need more and why wear them on the outside if we need more, they're brittle as fuck, especially if they're old. This is where you got your info from, Clint?"

"Not exclusively," he tried to recover.

"So I'm expected to wear the least practical attire and accessories all time? You any idea how much I stick out looking like Skeletor's little sister here without wearing all black all time while dragging some long metal or wood staff like I'm Sarumon summoning orcs against Rohan. Sure I might blend in well enough at night in all black but the stealth is gone with all the bone jewelry rattling with each movement. Let's just throw some chains in there too, I'm sure they won't see me coming then. Seriously, who comes up with this bullshit? When you caught Loki, did you ask if he gave birth to a horse too?"

"You don't think I did?" Loki responded in amusement while snatching my phone and scrolling through all the depictions of what people thought I'd look like.

"From what I'm told, your adoptive father is too arrogant and vain to ride a horse you created."

"Clever girl. You are correct, that is a myth created to deface me more than they already have. Surprisingly he didn't ask me anything, too busy plotting my death after I got in his head."

"Someone's a sore loser," I mused under my breath so only Loki could hear me. "We there yet? And did you find any actual facts about 'my people' or just what the internet told you?"

"We're nearly there....and I'll let you know when I do," Clint muttered.

"We used to need instruments like a staff or something to be fair," I told Loki quietly. "But they are an eyesore for everyone and can easily get lost, stolen, or broken so we adapted and found another way to channel power. You need three things typically, well two now but at one point it was a staff to channel, a jewel to draw from and collect, and a blade to end it all."

"You don't have any of those though, do you? You were found with just what they told you to wear and what powers you had in you. They didn't..."

"You need to be a necromancer to even know what to do with those three let alone wield them for their intended purpose but no, never had a staff for obvious and previously listed reasons. My blade is kept hidden until I need it which thus far I haven't, as for the jewel...that's hidden elsewhere as well." I stopped at a fanart pic of a necromancer wearing all three items in an over the top armored black robe surrounded by bones. "Well that's just pretentious. Who goes around wearing everything they need to gain the upper hand out for all to see?"

"What about that one? I could see you wearing that," Loki purred, pointing to one necromancer woman wearing a cloak and more or less a black leather bikini while raising a skull above her.

"I bet you could, I wouldn't be caught living in that, nice try."

"Alright, we're here as requested, everyone out of my jet," Clint called back to us.

I opened my mouth to point out it was once again Tony's plane but Loki just held up a hand and shook his head, sometimes it was better to just roll with it. "You've damaged his ego enough, let him dream a little." The plane landed in a park that had been conveniently shut off from the public, probably Tony's doing and we hopped out. I took one long deep breath and smiled at scent of fresh salty sea air and a little bit more. Loki stepped out behind me, in his ironically all black suit in place of armor or leisure robes but he didn't seem to stick out in them, just rocked them like a death metal band, hardcore.

"You feel that?" I murmured under my breath so Clint wouldn't know what we were talking to.

"You're right, there is something otherworldly about this place, something strong but subtle."

"Alright you two, I'll be watching you but won't get in your way unless I have to, go and explore Salem," Clint informed us.

I grinned and lead Loki into the heart of witch city. I took him to all my favorite little shops, both the tourist traps and the legit ones where wiccan things are sold, to some of the museums, explained more of the city's history and how it became a safe haven for those with magic in their blood. Eventually we stopped by where the final resting place of the victims were, the memorial stones that often had fresh flowers resting on so they'd never be forgotten. It was empty beside myself, Loki, and the dead so I dropped to my knees then in front of the small stone gated graveyard, my hands digging into the ground to feel for any unrest and breathed out. Let those who linger rest easy and those with unrest tell me how I can help. My eyes shot open completely white as the unquiet spirits came forward. I could feel Loki watching me from where he stood some feet back but kept my attention to the unseen souls asking for peace. When I did all I could for them, my eyes faded back to their normal murky color and I slowly stood up and brushed myself off, signalling Loki to walk over and beside me.

"All of these people were innocent?" he asked me quietly.

"This wasn't about actual magic, this was about fear and power, this is what you get when you mix religion and politics, the innocent burn while the guilty rises."

"And now people celebrate here what their ancestors were accused of."

"I like to think of it as saying fuck you, we are the children of witches you didn't burn."

"Brilliant," he breathed out. "You're right, I do like this place already."

"Of course I'm right, I'm always right, the sooner you accept it, the happier we'll both be for it."

Loki chuckled but didn't disagree. "When did you find out about this place?"

"As a kid, everyone's taught about the Salem Witch Trials in school, we were then driven there for a field trip like this to see for ourselves. There's many places of magic in America, but this is my absolute favorite place ever. This is my home." I paused mid stroll, took a deep breath in, closed my eyes and opened my arms, welcoming the wonders of witch city.

"Do you hear a high pitched squealing noise?" murmured Loki while watching me embrace my inner witch.

I didn't get a chance to reply as I was suddenly knocked several feet to the side and off my own feet by a pair of boobs with arms attached them engulfing me. "You're alive!" a familiar voice cried in joy.

"Not for much longer if you keep that up," I grumbled, stumbling back onto my feet and straightening up to meet a more familiar face. I was then hugged again and then roughly shaken around almost angrily. "Not everything you love is a fucking cocktail, stop shaking me!"

"Where the hell have you been, woman? We all thought you were killed off or burnt yourself out like the ones that went missing! You left without warning, no calls, no texts, not even a damned email I would've accepted, not a damned thing!" the tall Louisianan woman shaking me around exclaimed.

"Would you believe I was away on business?"

"Your business is here, try again."

"Attacked by ninjas?"

"This ain't feudal Japan."

"Chuck Norris with a bbgun?"

She just glared at me with her hands on her hips tapping a foot impatiently.

"Hydra got me midflight back home."

"Fo realz? How'd they know?"

"Someone had to have tipped them off, I used my aliases the entire time, kept low profile, all that jazz."

She had to sigh and drop the frown in acceptance and squeezed me hard again. "It has been soooo boring without you causing trouble around here, are you back for good?"

I picked up the frown she dropped and shook my head sadly. "Day trip, didn't get out of Hydra on my own, out of the fire and into the frying pan."

"By who?"

I glance back at Loki who was closely watching the two of us, not sure if she was friend or foe to him and the team. "Avengers plus one."

"So that's why it's been boring, you took all the fun with you and didn't think to share, as always."

"Bitch I ain't your source of entertainment, get your own damn rescue team."

"Sharing is caring."

"Do you see the care on my face?"

"I missed your face, can you believe that? I got addicted to IZombie just so I could see someone that looked like you."

"Not the first show I got you hooked on, I regret nothing there."

"Your face though..." she now turned her attention to the god watching from the sidelines. "You're not from around these parts, are you?"

"Where I'm from has been completely destroyed," he replied stiffly.

"Didn't you try to take New York City ages back?"

Before Loki could defend himself, I decided to step in. "Let she who is without a body count, cast the first stone."

"What? I'm not judging, I don't like NYC either but you are the same guy right? God of mischief and alien invasions?"

"I might be," Loki spoke up. "And who are you that seems to know Nell so well."

"I'm her best friend, Zari."

Something clicked in my head about what she said moment earlier then and before more introductions were made, I spoke up. "Hold up, they burnt out?"

Zari blinked and recalled what I brought up and arched an eyebrow. "When they were found they were shells and around their remains was all dead, that has to be it, they burnt out like overrused acid leaking batteries."

"All of the missing?" I murmured.

"All except you...what are you thinking?"

"My zombie senses are tingling. This doesn't feel like a coincidence, that's doesn't feel like an accident either. How many of us are left?"

"A fourth of what we started as."

"We're becoming an endangered species."

"You always wanted to be a tiger as a kid, now you got something in common with them besides a body count."

I scowled or attempted to, I did love tigers after all. "Hunted to near extinction wasn't what I had in mind."

She snickered and glanced at the amused god before returning her attention back to me. "So here for today at least, you show him all the cool places I hope."

I pretended to look offended and held a hand to my chest. "It's like you don't know me at all."

"Either way, there's a few places you missed that I'm sure you'd love to see," she nudged me with a wicked look in her eyes and I instantly knew what she meant.

"By all means, lead the way."

She took us to a small cafe she worked at that actually had a hidden passage way underneath the kitchen and leading to the Hawthorne Hotel, away from Clint's prying eyes for once so we all settled down in a nice suite permanently reserved under Zari's name. There we caught up and explained stuff to Loki we trusted him but not the Avengers with...for reasons. Zari was actually more a witch or voodoo priestess, not as powerful or naturally gifted as a necromancer but still pretty damn dangerous with her own form of death magic.

"Barton probably called in the cavalry in our absence," Loki muttered. "We should return to the open before the Avengers ruin the day again."

"We probably should, would hate for them to ruin my happy place. We should go somewhere public and totally open so they look like idiots before they yell at us though," I suggested.

"That can be arranged easy enough, well done. Zari, it has been a pleasure."

"Look after her, Loki. And Nell...don't let the bastards get you down," she reminded me.

I grinned. "Nevah." I took Loki's outstretched hand once more and green mist swirled around us before we popped up by a bench looking out at the sea by the Waterfront Hotel. I smiled again and didn't let go of his hand, I could feel the ocean then, feel the sun, the sea, everything that drew me to it before I died. "Some day," I murmured.

Loki gave my hand a squeeze and didn't let go as well but kissed the top of it. "I'll make sure of it. Here they come."

Right on cue, Clint followed by Nat and slightly annoyed Steve jogged over to us, all looking different shades of unhappy. We both turned and looked at them innocently while Clint breathed a sign of relief, Nat just rolled her eyes at us, but of course the do-gooder Steve looked like a father about to reprimand his child for sneaking out the window after being grounded.

"You know, while we were hunting you down, I gotta say, this place has its charms," Nat noted.

"Of course it does, can't be a witch without some," I informed her. "Who here likes seafood?"

Steve opened his mouth most likely to lecture me on staying in sight but bless Clint for thinking with his stomach after a long boring day of watching me and Loki frolic around town. His hand shot up almost as fast as his arrows shoot forward so I led the little team to the Oyster Bar by the Waterfront. "Ah food, my second favorite four letter F word."

Eventually it was time to return to homebase as the gang led us back to the jet and I found myself surprisingly worn out from the day of fun, leaning against Loki on the ride back. I found myself too tired to walk out myself when we landed and Loki immediately scooped me up and carried me out of the jet and into the main building himself. My eyes got heavier each second but somehow I could still hear what was going on.

"Clint tells me he lost sight of you two for a bit, you care to explain that?" Tony was demanding.

"Do I care to? Not really since you asked. He got distracted by one of the local performing street witches most likely, did you know theres one going around in full witch garb on rollerblades? Very amusing to say the least," Loki replied smoothly.

"Oh I'm aware Salem is full of weirdoes."

"Which is exactly why you weren't invited, you boring old fart," I muttered, burying my head against Loki's chest to try and drown out their voices only for Loki to laugh against me.

"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady," mused Tony. "I'll have you know I've been voted the world's most interesting man many times."

"And Trump's been voted for president, votes here don't mean shit so you're bragging rights right now are kinda in the crapper."

"Go back to sleep."

I turned to face him in Loki's arms just to stick my tongue out but curled back into Loki after. "Have a good night, don't let the zombies bite."

[showtimeinwonderworld]

(Hey gang, Balan-Mun here. And like my muse said in the last post, it’s been quite some time since I’ve last been on here. Hell, it’s been a month since I last posted here and let’s just address that now. Shall we?)

tl;dr

-Wasn’t depressed or anything, I accidentally ghosted y’all because I got too into working on my own original works -I’m killing a lot of my current threads to start fresh, only taking on 4 threads at a time to make sure I give everyone equal reply quality. However, I’m keeping two going which I’ll be replying to when I come back on Friday, FOR REALZ -If I go ghost again, you can find me on Twitter, Discord (dm for that one) and my WIP OC RP blog

(So I’m sure some of you are wondering ‘WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO, ERIC!? WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT ‘maybe sometime next week’ FROM NEARLY A MONTH AGO?!’.)

(I’ll shoot straight: I really got into a groove with my OC stuff.)

(Really. That’s it.)

(I wasn’t done in the dumps, I wasn’t feeling depleted of my energy. Arguably I’ve been firing on all cylinders during this time creatively! It’s just that I ended up neglecting the Maestro, unintentionally doing all of you and him dirty like a bad friend without word.)

(I deeply apologize for ghosting like that. Again, I had to capitalize on my sudden coldsnap of creativity before it burnt out.)

(But the good news is that my plate is less full now, so I can start devoting some time back here! That being said, I am rolling back some stuff since it’s been a while and I want to start mostly fresh.)

(And by that I mean...I’m canning most every on-going thread I had, save for two.)

(I know this’ll more than likely get some folks upset, but I’ve taken some serious thought about it and I think one reason I gassed like I did had to do with me taking on a lot of threads at once, thus stretching my energy far too thin to everyone equally quality replies.

(Going forward I will be taking on 4 threads at once (2 new, 2 old), to keep things fair and balanced (AY~!) for everyone! However I’m still open to doing small threads and you’re all more than welcome to bombard the maestro via the ask box! And to everyone I’m cutting loose, I’ll owe you one thread in the future, whether it be on this blog or another.)

(And that’s that. As much as I am ready to get back into the hat of this maestro, I’ve got work tomorrow...But Friday, I WILL BE BACK. But before I go, I’ll answer an ask or two~)

(Double and, just...thanks for being patient with me guys. I really do appreciate it~ I promise I’ll try and stay on top of things staying forward! But should I disappear without word (because it’s a bad habit of mine), feel free to ask for my Discord, follow me on Twit if you’re so inclined to and I’ve got an OC RP blog in the works!)

(Alright, I gotta jump of this post. Peace~)

[creativetomato]

Platonia

Chapter 2

toska – n. a dull ache of the soul, a sick pining, a spiritual anguish

 Weronika Anastazja Kucharska was rather pleasent company he had to admit. She seemed submissive enough, listened to him, followed his advice like a lost puppy would, and when she didn’t know something and had questions she came to him. She was depended on him. Which only played right to his hands.

Tom saw her as a little toy, a pretty doll with big eyes and silky hair, he could use and play with. But he didn’t use her and kept from playing useless mind games with her. In all of her submissiveness, in all her politeness and calmness, there was barely any honesty in her. It was as if she had no real personality of her own. Not really. As if she was afraid of showing who she was. Was it fear? ...or rather, she was hiding her true self, her true intentions which made him more wary of her than he’d like to admit. She was a mystery to him, a girl full of contradictions, a person he wasn’t able to read, an enigma. And he hated that. When he had tried out his Occlumency skills on her there had been no reaction, no thoughts he could read or memories he could see. Just blank nothingness. By lack of her reaction he guessed she hadn’t even realized he had tried to read her mind, so, it was only natural he didn’t leave her out of his sight. Because something he didn’t know or couldn’t control was something that could stand in his way of reaching greatness. With these revelations Tom started to observere her every movement, like a hawk watching its clueless prey. Because Weronika Kucharska was not a normal teenage girl. There was something wrong with her, something he couldn’t grasp and when he reached with his magic he could feel her own sizzling like hot water dropping onto ice. Her magic was chaotic and restless, constantly in movement. Usually restless magic was seen in magical children, not in taught girls that had wands and used magic. There was something hidden in her magic, something far-off, and he fully intended to find out what it was. Because someone who had no control of their magic could be dangerous. Not only to his plans but to students and teacher, to Hogwarts, as well. With these thoughts he had started to keep her near him and when he had explained the classes to her, showed her homework she could start to work on as well during the holidyas, he was disappointed to realize there was no genius behind her, just average intellect at best. Yes, in some classes she was better than others. She excelled in Anicent Runes. Her knowledge on runes and languages was marvelous, but when it came to Herbiology she was just mundane. Everything they had to write down, theory and essays, she was simply average. She really only exceeded in Ancient Runes, and to his surprise in potions. At least that was what he could tell as lessons hadn’t even started yet. Students would return in the upcoming days though, as classes would start next week again.

„How do you know so much about runes?“, he asked her one day after New Years eve, after his birthday, sitting with her in the Slytherin common room and working on school work. At that she looked up from her essay, her bright eyes looking into his dark ones. He wasn’t used to people looking into his eyes so directly. She didn’t even flinch. She truly was an enigma.

„It… It was an important subject at my old school.“, she told him and dropped her gaze quickly. Too quickly. Tom had observed how she tried to avert topics that had to do with runes and he wondered why. His fingers twitched with burning curiosity, wanting to dissect her like a toad. Because she wasn’t telling him everything and it irked him to no end not being able to read her mind. So he had to ask her: „Your old school?“

Weronika didn‘t look up this time and simply nodded: „I went to Czocha College of Wizardry. It’s a rather small school. I should have gone to Durmstrang, but they don’t take muggleborns. And the one school in Russia… I can’t speak Russian. But I can speak German and Polish, so I was send to Czocha. It’s near the border to Germany.“

Tom started to get intruiged by that school he had never really heard anything about. She must have seen, or rather felt, his disbelief, as small as it was. She could also be used having to explain where she came from, probably having explained to teachers which school she had gone to.

„It’s really small. Only around two hundred students. Most of them muggleborn because of Durmstrang… over there I learned English too, just in case…“, she finally looked up at him and he obersved her face, every twitch and every emotion that crossed her features. Now he was even more curious: „Tell me more.“ He hated not knowing something and in his mind there was nothing more powerful than knowlegde. Surprised by the demand in his voice she looked up to him before she slowly nodded: „Alright… so… there are five houses. I was in Faust, the house of knowledge and power.“ She scratched her neck in thought and put down her quill she had written with on her paper: „Every house is based on one culture and Faust is based on German culture. We learn Alchemy, Runic Magic, Arithmancy, Herbology and… erm… let me think. Ritual magic…“ She started to count the number of lessons with her fingers. She really was a forgetful person, something he had been able to observe as well: „Beastology, Magical Defence and Theory, and… Mind Magic. Sorry, can’t remember the rest. It’s been a while since I left and so many things had happened.“ An apologetic smile graced her pale features and Tom smiled as well: „It’s quite alright. Still, the things you were thaught seem different than here at Hogwarts.“ At that Weronika nodded: „That’s true. But I’m fine. I mean… Alchemy and Potions is basically the same. Runic magic always fascinated me the most. Together with…. Well, really everything that has to do with magic. I’m only not that good at theory. I am more the type of person who just… does things. And I don’t like thinking too much about them, which also, you know… depends on the situation, and sometimtes I do think too much. But, still… I’d much rather just act.“

„How… un-Slytherin.“, he chuckled at her and that was something she had not expected. Not at all. His chuckle sounded deep, and a little breathless, but he was just a teenage boy and she knew his voice would change and mature, become deeper with age. She felt a blush creeping up her neck as emberrassment rushed through her: „Oh, stop it. There is much more to being ambitious or cunning… And I’m actually a pretty good liar.“

„A good liar? Do you think all the Slytherins are liars?“, he mocked her and her blush deepend: „I- I didn’t mean… stop putting words into my mouth.“ Again he chuckled amused: „I apologize. Although, with what you’ve told me… rather wanting to act… you would fit much better into Gryffindor than into Slytherin, I think.“

„No, not really.“, she shrugged her shoulders, „Because… I don’t just act. I… plan. I decide. Or I just… I think about decisions and try to find out what outcomes they have and… yeah, I’d rather act, that’s true, but not before planning it. And I am ambitious about the things I want. Buuut…“

„…but?“

„Sometimes I have reaaaally bad impulse control.“, at that she laughed for a moment and he smiled with a nod: „I see. But I am still not convinced if you really fit into the House of snakes, Weronika.“

„Niki.“

„What?“

„Why aren’t you calling me Niki?“

„Because Weronika is your name and I like it better. I barely use nicknames.“, he simply explained and resumed working. A few seconds later he felt her gaze leaving his form and she followed him, the only thing being heard the scraping of quill on parchment as she still felt the burn in her cheeks.

-

Somehow, without realzing it, he had started to feel comfortable around her. She was just there with him, spending time together. Him reading, and her doing the same or writing or sketching something into her notebook. It looked well-used and reminded him of his own diary. He didn’t like it; didn’t like how well she fit into his life, how she had just made herself comfortable around him, sitting with him at the table, eating and him helping chosing the right food to not over extert her stomach. She was never too loud but talkative, never overbearing but ever present. Sometimes she would leave, probably exploring the castle or talking to the teachers, and going to the Hospital Wing to get checked as she still hadn’t fully recovered from her escape to the British Isles. At one point she had taken her bag and wore thick clothing and told him she would go to Hogsmade. She had Albus Dumbledores permission.

„And what do you want there?“, he had asked her and she had just shrugged: „I want to take a walk on the fresh air. I rather enjoy the snow, you know? And see what I can find in Hogsmade. See what kind of stores there are…“

„Shall I accompany you, then?“, he had asked her after that, which had not only surprised her, but him as well. Because he truly wanted to go with her, spend time with her. Because he didn’t want her to go alone into the cold. She had a reather weak constitution and he would feel much better if he knew she would have someone with her. Yes, that was the reason why he didn’t want her to go alone; because she was his responsibilty, nothing more, nothing less. It didn’t matter how only a few days had passed since she had been here, with him, a calming presence beside him, always there. He didn’t like that. Not at all. He drew his eyebrows together but she was distracted by looking and rummaging through her worn out leather bag, smiling: „No, it’s fine, really. I want to go alone, think about things and… well.“ Weronika shrugged at her own words before shouldering her bag again when she was sure she had everything she needed. With that she looked up and smiled at him, her eyes twinkling: „See ya, later, Tom.“

So, she turned around and left the Slytherin common room, leaving him standing there, not liking how this new girl still intrigued him and somehow wasn’t what she seemed. She wasn’t normal. She was like him. Yes, Tom realized, she was just like him in the way he was special. Because she was special, uniqe. He just had to find out what made her so special.

A few hours passed and when she came back Tom was sitting in one of the couches, surrounded by books, one in his lap. As soon as she came in he closed the heavy book to turn his attention to her. Her cheeks were glowing, her nose even redder from the cold winter outside. There were snow flakes already melting on her thick clothing and her hat, melting on her glasses as the snow flakes turned into little water droplets. She pulled the hat down and her messy hair was electrified and simply put a mess.

„Whew, let me tell you, it’s pretty cold outside.“, she sniffeled a little and he slowly got up from his sitting position to make his way towards her. He noticed how there were no gloves on her hands and unhappy with this new revelation he clipped his tongue. At that she looked up at him before he took both of her hands. They were ice cold. He didn’t like that. She could get sick and she still needed some time until she was fully recovered. He knew that from experience.

„When you came here you were already in bad health. You really shouldn’t have left while it was snowing this hard outside.“, he chastised her with a scowl he hadn’t realised he was wearing. He didn’t even look at her face as all his attention was on the hands he was holding and rubbing inside his own, trying to warm the cold skin.

„Tom, it’s… it’s fine, really.“, there was awe in her voice and only then did he stop. What was he doing? What was he doing? Acting like a fool, caring about her and her stupid cold hands. Yes, she was mysterious and he wanted to know everything about her, wanted to know why he wasn’t able to read her mind, but it didn’t mean he wanted to be close or intimate with her. The relationship he was building with her was just a means to an end. However, as soon as she stepped into the room he had been concerned with her wellbeing, remembering what she had looked like that first day; broken and weary, twitching at every sound and restless in a way that was too farmiliar to him. It had been over a week since then, and again, did he think about how she had carved a place beside him. No, Tom didn’t like that. Not one bit.

He dropped her hands as if he had burned his skin on her own.

Quickly he straigthened his shoulders and there was a command in his tone he usually only used with his knights: „Go, take a shower or a bath, and warm yourself up. I’ll wait for you, so we can go to dinner together.“ After his order he turned briskly around and went book to the place where his books waited for him. The silence that followed was heavy and filled with uncertainty but he didn’t care. He did not care. He shouldn’t care about other people. He should only care about himself.

Tom didn’t look up when he heard her steps leaving the room to get to her dorm room. The only reason he should keep her so close was to find out her true intentions and why she was able to shield her mind so well.

-

When Weronika had left she had still been in awe. Back in the common room she had been surprised and even weirded out and somehow out of touch with reality. She could only stare at her now warmed hands he had held so lovingly. Because Tom had cared. He had cared about her and her well being, to the extent of even being worried. He had wanted to come with her, too. She looked down at her own hands and remembered the warmth of his skin. She never would have thought he would be this warm. And she should be mad too, with how he had ordered her to get warmed up, but she had been too awestruck. He had seemed like such a cold person from the beginning, and he just seemed like this unapproachable character; or maybe she just wasn’t used to such kindness anymore. And after spending this much time with him she had realized what a genius he was, how much he knew, and God, how good he was at teaching. Usually, when someone had tried to explain something to her she had not understood, people had grown impatiend, but not Tom. He stayed calm, answered all her questions as best as he could, was patient with her and wasn’t even angry when her mind started to wander again. And when he realised how restless she became, with her leg twitching uncontrollably, he would stop with homework or with whatever lesson they were doing, because before she knew it, he knew she needed a break. No one had ever been this patient with her. Not her friends, and not her family. She wasn’t used to someone caring about her like this.

Weronika took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her hands still in front of her as she had looked at them. Slowly her hands turned into soft fists. She shouldn’t get distracted by Tom. He was charming and good looking and his voice could do things she should hate. But she didn’t hate it. Far from it. Her body reacted in ways she had no control over and if there is one thing they had in common it was the love for control. Alright, she had to admit, she wasn’t that good at it, but still, she loved knowing everything about everybody, not because she wanted to blackmail or something, but because… just because. There was no real reason, really, only the traumatic experiences of her past that made her wary of others, and knowing everything about everyone made her feel safer. More prepared. Yes, it was all about being prepared in case someone had the ill intent of wanting to hurt her. Because she had been hurt enough in her life. By family, by friends, by enemies, by her own hands. And it was no surprise that she had no healthy coping mechanism when it came to her traumatic experiences and anxiety. To cope with her emotional anguish she liked to hurt herself, and she was good at hiding it. She opened her eyes and looked again at her hands. It wasn’t that she was cutting herself. Nothing like that. It was just that sometimes when things got too much, she couldn’t stop herself from harming herself until she bled in ways that wouldn’t leave scars.

Again she took a deep breath before going to her bed. Her thoughts returned to Tom and while she started to underss to get under the shower as he had instruced she wondered if he would still act the same when the other students returned from the holidays.

When she was finished with her shower she dressed into one of the uniforms she had gotten. Stockings and the green pleated skirt went to her knees, the design high waist as was appropriate for the decade she was in. She stuffed her blouse into the skirt and put on the beige soft cardigan that warmed her enough. Then came her brown leather boots she had came to Hogwarts in. They weren’t thick and not appropriate for snow, but good enough for Hogwarts halls. When she was finished she put her hair into a messy bun. She shouldered her bag that she had filled with schoolwork and her sketchbook before she decided to return to Tom. Dinner was waiting for them.

-

There were no words exchanged as they had gotten on the way to the Great Hall. They were pretty much the only students in all of Hogwarts, as all the students had left to their families to make sure they were safe from the raging war and danger that were both Hitler and Grindelwald. Tom had no family to return to and Weronika? Weronika had lost her family. With a gulp and a heavy heart she remembered her mother, her step father and her brothers, and how it gnawed at her heart that she didn’t miss them as much as a daugther and sister should. There were no friends to miss either; except the selected few.

When they arrived at the Great Hall they sat opposite of each other like they had the days before. She was still trying to eat slowly and to not over eat as he had warned her several times. At the memory on their first dinner together she looked up at him. Since she had returned from her short shower he hadn’t said a thing. He seemed to be colder than usual, withdrawn and she felt as if she had done something wrong. Nibbling on her lower lip she ignored the food before her as she thought of anything she might have done to anger him. But no. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Had she? Then why was she getting the silent treatment? The cold shoulder? Maybe she had overstepped her boundaries? She did that sometimes. Her mother had always warned her to not step out of line, to be the perfect church going daughter, so she always tried to be good, always tried to do nothing wrong. It didn’t always work; being good and sweet.

„…Tom?“, she saw the tensing of his shoulders and suddenly she felt her anxiety build up inside her chest into a tight knot. „Tom.“, she tried to sound more sure of herself, more secure, and was glad when she did a somewhat good job, „Are you alright? You… you seem different than usual… erm, have I done something… wrong?“

When he looked up from his meal he realized she hadn’t taken one bite and he also realized that she was worried. Worried that she had done something wrong. And her worry was honest. Through her glasses he could see the worry in her blue eyes. Tom had to admit he was angry. Not at her, although she was the reason for his anger. No, he was angry at himself, because he had gotten too attached to her. Yes, attached. To another person. In a matter of days. But it didn’t matter. Soon enough his knights would return and with that his attention would be drawn to things that had nothing to do with her. Simply put they probably had spend too much time with each other as she was the first person he had over concentrated on this much. Not even his knights enjoyed the amount of attention she received.

So, he smiled a reassuring smile: „No, don’t worry. I was just… thinking. In a matter of days the other students are going to return and with that my obligations. I won’t be able to spend as much time with you anymore. Also, in the next few days I’ll have to prepare myself, too, so… I hope you will be able to study on your own.“

„Oh…“, that… that was not what she had expected. Not at all. Because they had become somewhat friendly with each other, too, which was… strange for her, to say the least. Having some kind of companion was strange and she simply wasn’t used to befriending people. Never was.

At his look she quickly tried to find the words for a better answer: „Ah, yeah, it’s fine.“ She smiled nervously at him: „Really, I get it. I just thought… well, nevermind. But I do hope you won’t forget me in all your obligations.“ Her answer made him smile a disarming smile and she blushed at that. Dinner turned peaceful and so were the next few days. And true to his words Tom had less time to spare for her. Which was fine, really. He had been nice and charming and forthcoming and he was just acting like a gentleman. Which only angered her. Was she really so easily swayed? On the other hand she had been exhausted, emotionally and physically, and she had needed a few days to recover. In her weakened state her concsiousness had wanted to lean on to someone and with Tom being so forthcoming it was no wonder she had chosen him. Truth to be told she still needed time to recover, wanted even to depend on him, but time was limited, at least for now, so it was only good Tom had put some distance between them as it cleared her mind.

She was here to change things that should never be changed, nontheless she wanted to try it. It was too late to stop now and she had already lost a part of herself during the process. The things she had done to be safe in an unkown future could be called immoral, but she didn’t have the privilege to be morally good. A long time ago she had realized that being ethical was just a cage people liked to build around themselves. It condemend them to untruths and comfortabilty and only allowed change to a certain point. Morals were things people hid behind like a warm cloak during a storm and after realizing that she had put away her morals to do whatever she could to protect those she had learned to love. Slytherins were loyal to a fault and she was no exception. With shame and new determination she tried to ignore her hurt feelings because she had no time for friendships, no time nor energy for useless comardrie that would only drag her further into a pit of anguish and torture. She had to figure things out, had to get healthy and well again and before she could do anything about her life in Hogwarts she had to think about repaying her debt. Because without him she never would have made it to Hogwarts.

Tom only distracted her and she had gotten too attached too fast to him. The reason for that were not unkown to her. She was a touch starved being – ironically hating to be touched by other people – and starved when it came to love and affection. Toms patience and gentleness, how fake it may be, was something she could fall into, a warmth she had missed her whole life, a carressing hand that should have been her mothers. She sighed; and ultimatly held Toms attention again. He seemed to misunderstand her sigh as he straightened himself before leaning forward towards her.

„Look, Weronika…“, he started quietly and she looked up at him, „I… enjoyed our time together. I really did.“ Why he told her that she wasn’t sure of, but every of his words could be a lie, even if they didn’t feel like lies. She lost her trust in people a long time ago.

„But I am Prefect and I tutor a few students. Also, I am part of the Quidditch team, and there are many other things I do in my free time.“, he explained to her and she wanted to tell him that it was fine, that he didn’t have to explain himself, and somehow she couldn’t. She just stared at him, touched at his attempt to make her feel better. Had she looked that saddened by the fact he would have less time for her?

„…it’s fine.“, she said and her quiet voice sounded uncertain and a little embarrassed, „You don’t have to explain yourself to me. We… We aren’t dating or anything like that… it was just… I think going through the things I went through… I think I just started to depend on you because I… I didn’t have anyone for a long time. It’s… It’s hard to explain but… gosh… Ich fühle mich so dumm… dumm, dumm…“ She shook her head, murmuring the last words to herself and he looked at her with a expression she couldn’t quite read. So, she smiled: „Sorry. It’s just…“ And before she knew it tears started to swell in her eyes. A break down? Now? Gosh, how pathethic.

Her fork fell onto her dinner as she started to wipe her tears from under the glasses. From out of nowhere he had conjured a handkerchief and held it out to her and she took it with mumbled thanks. As she started to wipe her tears away he took one of her hands in a comforting touch, his thumb stroking the soft warm skin of the limb. More tears started to wreck her body, accompanied by silent sobs that shook her into the depths of her soul. She wanted to explain herself to him, wanted to tell him it wasn’t because of him she was acting this way, but she couldn’t find the words, only holding on to his hand as if he was her lifeline. She didn’t know how much time had passed until she was somewhat calm, his handkerchief wet with her snot and her tears. She laughed then, a humourless sound: „Sorry. I just…“Then she shrugged and he nodded as if he understood. But Weronika knew he didn’t understand. No one understood. People may have went through traumas, but everyone was different, everyone percieved things differently, and no one would ever understand the pain she was going through. She was selfish in that regard and holding on to her pain and being afraid of losing all the other things she was still able to feel. Happiness had left her to die on a bed of tragedy a long time ago and now she had cloaked herself in the blood of her tears and forged a weapon with her pain, striking everyone who would dare to stop her from her goals, the only thing giving her the power to do so being hope.

„Ya‘ know…“, she started, sounding strange because of her stuffed nose, cheeks hot and eyes burning, „I used to dance ballet.“

At that a stunned look crossed his features but he kept silent and let her talk: „I started when I was really young. Maybe… four or something? Before I even knew magic existed. My family was poor but my mother wanted me to have a good life – a life she never had. So… so she send me to tutors for ballet and piano.“ She shrugged at that and tried not to look at him. Strangely he had not let go of her hand and had not stopped carressing her warm skin with his thumb. He had beautiful long fingers and big hands, a little rough from playing Quidditch. Hands worthy of a piano player. She liked the image of it.

„But at some point… only weeks before I got my letter for Czocha… we changed shoes.“, Weronika sniffeled and knew she needed to explain this, because she couldn’t imagine him knowing about the footwear of ballet, „At first I learned dancing in… in comfortable shoes. Made out of leather and silk, and… then… when I was good enough we changed to… to pointe shoes. They… They are very uncomfortable and… well, uncomfortable isn’t right.“ She laughed at that and wiped her nose with the handkerchief he had given her, the food now untouched and ignored by both of them, ignoring any curious glances thrown their way: „They are fucking painful. After training for the first time with them I wasn’t able to walk the next day. They… They are hard on the inside at the front, so-so that dancers may stand on their tip toes, and… and… God, it just hurt so much. So… So I stopped. My mother didn’t like that, of course, but then came the letter and… and it was blessing in disguise, really. And… And I hated pain, I still do, but... when I was still just eleven years old I thought that would be it. But by now I have went through so much pain, I just…“ Her breath hitched and she had somehow lost herself in her words, forgot what she had wanted to tell him with the little part of her life she just shared with him. So, she shook her head, before she tried to find the meaning behind her words: „What… What I want to say is… is… I… after all this pain I have went through… I guess I just sucked in the attention you have given me. So, it’s alright if you don’t want to be friends or anything like that. That... That’s all I wanted you to know, I guess. That I’m just this weird foreign girl sucking in any affection like a sponge.“ Her pointed look at his hand holding her made him realize what she meant, so he nodded. But he didn’t let go.

„I see… and I am sorry you have went through so much pain.“, he told her, his voice quiet but his gaze never leaving her, his eyes burning into her soul, „And I wouldn’t mind being friends with you.“ A slow smile twitched at the corners of his mouth and before she knew it she gave him a watery smile as well. Squeezing his hand thankfully for understanding her she finally pulled back her hand.

„And now I’m not hungry anymore.“, she laughed as if to say how silly of me when in reality she only wanted to change the topic. Tom humored her although he wanted to press her for more answer. Had she been anyone else he would have already used Legilimency on her; he would have unwrapped every single one of her secrets and read her like an open book. Instead he had to rely on her words and expressions, the way she cried and smiled and moved.

Hours later, when he was lying in his bed and thinking back to their conversation he mulled over her words; over and over again, analyzing them. From what she had shared with him pain had became a part of her life at some point. There was also a desire to be accepted and loved, to be held and embraced. When he had been a small child he had held the same desire, but now he scoffed at these romantic notions. He was a powerful wizard, he only needed himself. Affection wouldn’t help him achieve his goals, but girls like Weronika were dependend on them. With her tale she had shared the way he would be able to control and manipulate her. He smiply had to become the person she would confide in the most, the person she could lean to and trust. If she truly was as touch starved as she thought it would be easy, really, to get on her good side. He could whipser sweet meaningless nothings into her ear, make her blush, hug her and coddle her like a babe. It was a small price to pay if it meant he would be able to gather all her secrets like the collector he was.

A smile grew on his lips as he slowly drifted to sleep. Yes, it would be easy to turn her into his submissive little pet.

[mattatouile]

Bullet Point J x B highschool fic

who wants another bullet point fic?

Jaime’s in the locker rooms, the guys (Ron, Hyle, etc) try to get him into the bet to deflower Brienne. Jaime is disgusted by the bet. He doesn’t know B well, no one seems to except her two friends Pod and Sansa. His cheerleader sister has referenced Brienne sometimes, about what an oafish, hideous beast she is. Jaime doesn’t defend B because Cersei has always been an asshole and Jaime doesn’t stand up to her about anything (except Tyrion??)

Brienne is an outcast, got bullied horrifically during middle school. Has two good friends, Pod and Sansa. Basketball or volleyball or track + field or swim team or soccer? Some kind of sport. Her years of bullying have also made her distrust basically the world.

Jaime sits down at her lunch the day after he finds out about the bet. Brienne is essentially like “fuck off, what the fuck?” Jaime is insistently friendly.

Hyle and Ron etc. also start being nice to Brienne. She is super suspicious, and demands Jaime tell her what’s going on. He figures if he tells her, she either won’t believe him, or think he’s mocking her, or she’ll be mortified and he knows how badly she’s been bullied and doesn’t want to do that to her. Also, he can protect her from them if he becomes her friend and he does find her super amusing and it’s very fun to make her blush. So he tells her that it’s just that everyone follows his lead like sheep. She’ll be popular by association. Just wait. Brienne insists she doesn’t want to be popular. Jaime smirks, “Everyone wants to be popular.”

Jaime invites Brienne to a party at his mansion. Brienne says hell no. Sansa makes her go. Puts makeup and a blue dress on Brienne that Brienne insists is too short. She also does something to Brienne’s hair?? Something that isn’t just a ponytail or braid. Jaime is actually startled to see her. It’s not that she’s suddenly pretty it’s just that it forces him to consider her. Except she looks SO UNCOMFORTABLE and keeps yanking at the hem of the dress but also trying to pull the neckline up. He teases her but she gets pissed and storms off. He follows, apologizing the whole time. Cersei is an asshole to her at some point about how pathetic it is that she tried to look hot. It’s not like Jaime will ever want to fuck her. Brienne doesn’t even want Jaime to want to fuck her. (FALSE) But a bunch of people overheard and she’s humiliated. Jaime tells Cersei to fuck off, essentially. That makes it worse for Brienne. She doesn’t need him defending her.

Jaime ends up following Brienne out of the party, apologizing for Cersei and everything is. B is near tears and she just cannot cry in front of him. She’s basically like, “I don’t know what you’re plotting but I won’t be Carrie at the prom. I’m not an idiot, Jaime.” That’s so close to the truth, but he’s really starting to genuinely enjoy her company and maybe want to kiss her which is confusing because she’s so salty. She storms off.

Jaime goes to her house the next day. Begs her to let him prove that he wants to be her friend for realz. Invites her to do an activity with him. Paintball or rock climbing or hiking or SOMETHING physically active. This turns into them going on these non-dates with each other. Jaime realizes oops he has feelings and now he’s fucked if she ever finds out about the bet and it’s just...too late to confess. At some point, Jaime and Brienne both desperately want to see some nerdy AF movie. They decide to go together awkwardly. It’s a date but neither of them can admit it. They accidentally touch hands. When Jaime drives her home, he literally says, “Oh, fuck it,” and kisses her. She doesn’t respond and jerks away. Asks what the hell that was. He smiles, but not mockingly, “It was a kiss, Tarth.” “I know that. Why?” “Because I’ve wanted to kiss you for weeks.” She gapes at him, turns very red. He leans in very close and says, “I’m going to do it again unless you tell me not to.” She does not tell him not to. He smiles and kisses her again and this time she kisses back.

Jaime and Brienne slowly start to date. Ron gets shitty because he’s shitty. Ron congratulates Jaime in front of everyone in the cafeteria for winning the bet. Brienne goes white as a ghost. “Bet?” Jaime panics. Brienne sees his face. Ron smirks. “Don’t tell me he didn’t tell you. The team had a bet about who could fuck Brienne the Beast first. Looks like Lannister won.” Brienne goes numb and has to leave. Jaime runs after her (he does this a lot). She tells him if he ever touches her again she’ll break his arm. “Brienne, please. Let me explain.” Brienne glares at him with an awful combination of hurt and fury. “I don’t know how I could be stupid enough to think you were different. You’re just like the rest of the assholes.”

Jaime tries texting. He tries calling. He tries showing up to her house. Selwyn is like, “Look kid, I’m not going to hit you, but I will bodily remove you from my property if you don’t leave.” She avoids him at school. Pod and Sansa all but form a protective barrier around her. 

Jaime knows. He has to sacrifice himself on the altar of dignity. He stands up on a table at lunch and declares for the entire school that he is crazy about Brienne Tarth and lists all the reasons he’s crazy about her (she’s kind and strong and unfailingly understanding and FUN okay, SHE’S FUN, and he loves spending time with her, and hurting her was the dumbest thing he’s ever done and he gets it if she never forgives him, but he wanted her to hear it from him because she deserved it before)

Brienne softens a bit. He was just really sincere, and she’d like to believe she knows when someone -- well, she didn’t know he was lying, but maybe he wasn’t lying there at the end. And what he said wasn’t some overly flattering bullshit about her being sexy. It was about who she was as a person and all the things they did together.  So -- so maybe.

She finally texts HIM and says he’s going to have to earn back her trust for so long. So fucking long. He’s going to grovel forever until she learns to believe him again. She’s been hurt by a lot of people, by nearly everyone, but -- but he can try to earn her trust back if he actually wants to. 

Jaime. Grovels. So. Hard. He sends a vat of her favorite movie candy (junior mints). Invites her rock climbing again, but doesn’t try to hold her hand, because he knows she’s gotta come to him. He even grovels to Selwyn. Brienne, in a fit of GENIUS, asks Jaime to come to dinner at her house. He knows it’s not actually a request, it’s a test. AND HE WILL PASS THIS TEST. AS HE HAS NEVER PASSED ANY TEST.

So he comes to dinner and he lets Selwyn absolutely rakes him over the coals in the most subtle way possible. And Brienne kind of smiles the entire time and tries not to laugh but Jaime doesn’t get bristley at all, and he is the bristliest person usually. So...yeah. It’s nice. He just smiles at her and his fucking eyes twinkle and he’s so handsome and... he’s kind. She can’t quite ignore that he’s kind. He’s been so patient. When dinner’s finally over and Selwyn makes it clear he doesn’t HATE Jaime but that it’s time to go, Brienne walks him to the door. She glances over her shoulder at her dad and pulls the door until it’s almost shut, so she can run if she needs to. Jaime looks at her and he’s just shining with hope and it makes something inside of her warm, like a long sip of tea in the morning, and she kisses him. 

His grin is so wide and he looks so happy and she’s still super scared. She even tells him, “This doesn’t mean I forgive you. You still have to prove yourself. But -- but maybe you can prove yourself as my --” and she just CANNOT bring herself to say the words. So he says, “as your boyfriend.” And she blushes furiously and mumbles, “Yeah, that.” And somehow, SOMEHOW, his grin gets even wider and he says, “I think I can do that.” And then he kisses her and it gets a little deeper and then her dad clears his throat so loud she can hear it through the small gap in the door.

They date forever. Don’t worry about the high school sweetheart thing. Jaime never stops really groveling and she realizes at some point he isn’t groveling it’s just how Jaime is. Like, he just wants to treat her that way and he always did and it was never really a lie. So. That’s good. That’s really good. 

THE END.

[jordm]

Heartland 13x02 - Wild One review

“Bring your horse to Heartland, we’re not murderers” is a great tagline. & that’s all I gotta say about that.

Anyways, its definitely Kirk after last weeks debate.

AMY & TY

Lee, their contractor has apparently drilled holes TWICE and found no water for their well... which means, more money. You would’ve thought that they checked for this... before they decided where to build no? Bets on if the house will be build by the end of the season? I say no. 

Since Amy gave up Sam’s offer and decided to turn down the offer to break Kaz, they are running low on money - so Ty decides to sell his motorcycle. Truly a grown-up decision, and he can probably just buy it back at a later date if he wants. Besides, its nice to see SOMEONE struggling for money caus you’d think that living on a ranch would be more of a struggle than we see.

Another question, are they even doing anything to mitigate their image? Surely they can’t just be hoping that clients come to them - get the word out there, get their side out in the press, rebuttle against Kirk’s angry blogs or whatever he’s doing. Surely they must be doing SOMETHING to rehabilitate their image.. right?

LUKE

Luke’s mom cancelled their visitation visit thing, and apparently this isn’t the first time. I feel so bad for Luke - he already feels like his mother ‘abandoned’ him even if it was to get better. Luke, above all, after all is a kid, and sees the world through simpler lenses and by now has learnt that his mother can give empty promises.

Luckily, Ty can relate with his mother giving empty promises to himself when he was younger and he seems to assuage his fears... a little. It turns out Luke has never had his own room - with his mother, they slept in the same room and the loft was one giant room. Luckily, Amy assuages his fear with stories of how she always slept with a dog and it just that happens that ‘Georgie’s dog’ is right there to make sure he sleeps okay. 

Perhaps it’s been a running joke, now incorporated that Ty is the person who connects with Luke to most due to their past; something even Amy sees, but it was nice to see Amy make a connection with Luke in a different way than Ty’s. Amy and Ty can both provide comfort and help Luke in different way and its nice to see Amy (and Luke) Luke realize that.

JACK

Jack being the face of the Garland farms ad is just amazing. And Lisa gushing over the photo just melted my heart. “Because it’s a really great picture”

This does not go over well with Tim who cannot seem to accept that the focus group did not think that he had the right image, because let’s face it, Tim can’t accept when things don’t go his way.

Jack: Wise (very true)

Mitch: model dressed like a cowboy (i mean, it’s true lol. he was always more of a city folk before he came to the ranch)

Tim: does not have a trustworthy face (i mean, to an extent, is he trustworthy? he has good intentions but... the way he gets there can sometimes be iffy. also, the white hair might not be helping)

SAM

Oh hello, new owner of Big River ranch. Too bad Tim isn’t feeling it, but is he ever? Anyways, Sam has no issue with the wild horses... or even the lease for the colts and instead, speaks Tim’s language about wanting to buy a few of the wild horses and tame them. 

Amy feels like she’s breaking Kaz’s soul and heart or something and she tells Sam this. Here’s the thing: while Sam should be trying to compromise and listen to Amy since y’know she’s the one doing the breaking of the horse, I doubt he even fully understands what she means when she says ‘he’s different’ from the others. 

Should Amy have given in as fast? Probably not being seeing as neither was budging AND at the same time, he’s caught her at this bad moment in her life where she needs the business to build their new house and you know... live, since she lost all her clients, so she’s very hard pressed to say no.

At some point, there was a breaking point where she realized she couldn’t, even if she needed the new business, however they did part on good terms and he seemed to understand that he didn’t understand what she sees, so... I guess thats good if he wants to break any other horse?

GEORGIE & THE CAMPUS TOUR

Peter is back! & It is nice to see Peter and Lou being on the same page, and even weirder seeing Georgie in the loft as her main casa and Peter seemingly having no issue with it. So, off to Mont Royal they go! 

* Wyatt and Georgie left things on a good note but then Wyatt never called or texted because it’s less personal ( his bad but also COUNTERPOINT: neither did Georgie!! The phone works two ways!) *

So, the “amigos” decide to go on a tour together and don’t worry, they’ve both “moved on”, but like, HAVE THEY?!?! They keep on grilling each other on their dating life; until Adam breaks and tells Georgie that Wyatt has been on one date and even then he had Adam emergency call him. Guys, Adam just wants to be friends again - even if this only lasts a few episodes.

Once their “friends” again, it turns out Wyatt isn’t going to University but rather taking a year off and travelling, and Adam is going with him the first few weeks. They would’ve asked Georgie but figured she’d be busy with horse stuff.

FTR it’s probably true and Adam probably didn’t want to be stuck in between them if they were still fighting and mad at each other, however, it must’ve hurt to know she wasn’t even asked, even if she knew it probably wasn’t the best idea to go on a road trip with her ex. I mean, this idea was probably brought up WHEN Wyatt and Georgie weren’t on good terms. And then how about the fact that they see JEN AND PETER KISSING. 

Awks though for realz. Your dad is dating your exes mother and if they get married you’ll have dated your step sibling; yep not awkward at all.

Georgie decides to take the Summer off from showjumping, which IMO is a good idea if she wants to be a teenager and have fun, and especially if she doesn’t want to continue jumping in university, but now i’m wondering if something in Europe happened and is another contribution factor.

and guess what?! This road trip they’re all going on now should be interesting especially if Wyatt and Georgie get back together and Jen/Peter make things official. 

I’m also going to hazard a not so wild guess that Wyatt is not-so-over Georgie and perhaps Georgie is no-so-over Wyatt.

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

Is it because of this taming the wild horses that causes Ty to rescue Amy in the promo?

Are Adam and Olivia still together?

I’m wondering if the events in Europe are another contributing factor in why she is so dead-set on taking time off jumping? This was kind of out of the blue and all we know is that before, she was very gung-ho on jumping and everything.

What season is this?!?! If Georgie just got back, its the start of school (Sept) and from my experience, University applications are due beginning of January, which means that of course, Georgie hasn’t applied yet! It’s probably barely November and she has lots of time. You could submit earlier, and get early admission but unless you’re really smart (like Adam), applications aren’t typically due until Jan and most people start getting acceptances early February. o

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE @heartlandians

I’m in Love With You - Bob Hillman

The Great Escape - Amelia Curran

Home is Where You Are - Michael Logen

[abeautifulblog]

hi! thank you again for writing such a lovely fic. what do you think about amanda and val bonding times (have they texted each other, joking about their dads? is amanda in total awe of her?) and/or robert and amanda in general-- i feel like it'd take robert a lot to get to that point because he's definitely doesn't want to fuck it up and he doesn't know how to act around amanda, but he wants to try? have they hung out since thanksgiving, would they? (i really enjoyed that moment w betsy btw)

Thank you! I really enjoy the drunk-with-Betsy-in-the-woods sequence too, it’s one of my favorite scenes in the whole fic. XD

So this turned out to be interesting, because apparently I hadn't fully worked out in my head the evolving dynamic between Robert and Amanda (and Amanda and Val), and in the rambling act of writing this, Robert's position became a lot more clear to me. This is not as well organized as a lot of my meta, because I was figuring it out as I went along.

First off: Amanda and Val (and Naomi) -- my headcanon is that they got some quality time in on Thanksgiving (I talked about how Thanksgiving went here), and the three of them were getting along so well that when it came time for Val and Naomi to head out (they stayed in a hotel in Maple Bay, because of the weather), Amanda went with them, for a sleepover where they all stayed up late chatting and doing girly stuff, and then went shopping with them the next day.

My original idea had been that Val, with her mature & sophisticated fashion sense (that Amanda obviously admires), would take Amanda shopping and help her start building her grown-up/professional wardrobe -- and then I remembered that the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, and hell if any casual clothes shopping happens on Black Friday. Shopping on Black Friday is more like observing the results of a sociology experiment, like pacing yourself through a marathon, you must resign yourself to very slow progress and be prepared to face adversity. So it wasn't actually about the shopping, they went out just for the Black Friday Experience, bought maybe one thing for Amanda, and then got coffee and hung out until it was time for lunch with the dads.

Thanksgiving + Black Friday was when their friendship became an actual friendship, that they got to know each other and really hit it off, not just "this is someone I'm going to be running into sometimes because our dads are dating." Obviously Amanda's got a bit of hero-worship for Val going on, and I think Val and Naomi really get a kick out of having a protege to spoil & mentor. Neither of them ever got to have a younger sister, but Amanda is charming and a treasure and I think they would embrace suddenly having one now. So they start sister-bonding even when it’s still a little premature, since Robert-n-Gene are dating and doing well, but not to the level of WE ARE FAMILY yet.

*

Meanwhile, Robert is... way less comfortable around Amanda than Val is. Val clicks into the "sister" slot for Amanda pretty easily, but Robert doesn't click into the "father" slot -- he knows he's not her dad, not even in the running to become one--

(And indeed, I don't think he ever does. She likes him well enough, and they do grow comfortable with each other eventually, but I don't think he ever steps into a parental role for her -- partly because of his own insecurities, and partly because he just arrived too late on the scene. Gene is her dad, and Robert is her dad's boyfriend, and that's how they stay.)

--so how is he supposed to interact with her? Robert knows how to talk to kids (see: the episode with Ernest), and knows how to talk to fellow adults, but Amanda's at the liminal age between childhood and adulthood, and I think it would be unclear to Robert whether he's supposed to have any sort of authority there, whether he's supposed to be approaching her as a friend, or whether he's supposed to just keep his distance and leave her to Gene.

(The more normy dads like Mat and Hugo (and the rest, I guess, but those are the two that jump out at me) would have a much easier time of it, because (1) they're bringing their own kids, not just themselves, so it's more like a merging of families, putting them on equal footing, rather than being "dad's boyfriend," outnumbered, and (2) they are much more secure in their identity as fathers and would be comfortable stepping into that role for Amanda. They know how to treat their kids with affection and respect, how to be an authority figure while still respecting their kids' autonomy, and it would be easy for them to extend that to Amanda as well. (And I think Amanda would accept them as father figures, if not quite on par with her actual dad.) Robert, on the other hand, never seems to have gotten the hang of dadding, so he doesn't have any of those instincts/habits to fall back on.)

Robert assimilating with Gene and Amanda is also kind of like the problem with mixing friends-groups -- that the way you behave around Person A isn't the way you behave around Person B, so it gets really awkward when you're trying to hang out with both of them at once, because it highlights that gap and makes you feel like you're being insincere, or like you're showing the wrong side to someone. In Robert's case, he's aware that the way he behaves as Gene's boyfriend (taking up 100% of Gene's attention; often overtly sexual; modeling bad behavior, ex: alcohol) is inappropriate around Gene's daughter, but he's not sure what would be appropriate -- what level of PDA is okay, what conversation topics are off-limits, what percentage of Gene's attention he's entitled to. (I expect he errs on the side of fading into the background and letting Amanda have 100% of it, and Gene has to actively work to include him, at least initially.)

And lastly, Robert is very much the outsider coming in to their family, being assimilated into their household and their life; he's the one encroaching on other people's territory, out of his comfort zone and having to do way more adjusting and adapting than Gene and Amanda are. How much space is he allowed/supposed to take up in their home? He spends a lot of time there, but it's not really HIS home -- is it? When does it become his home?

(When he officially moves in, I suppose, which is going to take a while. From Thanksgiving onward he (and Betsy) are virtually living with Gene, he's got clothes in Gene's closet and kibbles in Gene's pantry, but he still keeps his own house and retreats to it sometimes when Gene's busy, or when Robert hits a bad patch and wants to be alone. And Robert's mostly past waiting for the other shoe to drop, he trusts that their relationship is solid, but moving in FOR REALZ, FOR PERMANENT is a big deal, and it takes about a year before he's willing to take that plunge. Not just "Oh hey, we're actually doing this, we're saying that this is going to be our lives FOR EVER AND EVER now," but also cutting off any escape route behind him.)

Gene's on more familiar ground, not only because it's his house and his daughter, but also because he had Alex, he's accustomed to dividing his attention between Amanda and a spouse, of balancing both the role of a father and the role of a lover.

(In fact, that's kind of what he's talking about in the conversation with Craig when he says that he has things he needs to figure out too, before he pursues a relationship with Robert. I have trouble articulating this, but: Gene wants to make sure that he's not thoughtlessly falling back into the same relationship behavior/patterns he's used to. He wants to make sure that he's responding to Robert as Robert, not just picking up the entire template from his previous relationship and dropping it on top of Robert. By "template," I mean everything -- for example, knowing how your partner likes to give and receive attention/affection, how to communicate with them, what roles and responsibilities they want to fill in the relationship, knowing what causes them stress and when to step up your support -- in short, how to treat your partner.

Obviously the template for Gene's relationship with Alex was a very good one, loving and healthy, but it was specifically FOR ALEX, it had evolved over the years to fit ALEX perfectly, it's not necessarily going to be what Robert wants or needs. A new relationship needs a new template -- it needs Gene to pay attention to Robert as an individual and see how he wants to do this thing. And Gene's got a solid model to work from, it just needs tweaking. Robert, for his part, is on such unfamiliar ground in this relationship that he's in no danger of treating Gene like one of his hookups -- until it comes to sex, where he's having a hell of time keeping himself from going onto autopilot.)

Anyway, both Robert and Amanda are trying to get along (because both of them want to make Gene happy), and I kind of regret that I couldn't work in a snapshot of Life At The Woods Household after Thanksgiving, because that's when that process started. She and Robert spent slightly less than a week living under the same roof before she went back to Chicago, and there was a degree of... acclimating on both their parts. (The first time they had interactions that took place in pajamas.) Suddenly Robert's AROUND, in her HOUSE, she'll walk into a room and he's just THERE, sans Gene sometimes, and the polite thing to do is acknowledge each other and exchange some words -- interactions that gradually become less stilted as they get more practice and it becomes less unfamiliar.

It’s going to be a bit jarring for Amanda to be confronted with the visuals of Robert stepping into what is coded in her head as Alex's space -- that is, to turn the corner and find him kissing her Pops. (And it's going to be a while before the knee-jerk, "That's where DAD is supposed to be" reaction fades, despite the fact that she's absolutely rooting for Robert and Gene to be together and happy.)

I suppose what Robert settles into eventually is more like the renegade uncle role -- that he's not exactly an authority figure, but he is someone who's older and been around the block a few times, and can weigh in with genuinely good advice from his own lived experience. (Even if that advice is "don't make this mistake that I did. srsly, it sucks.") Moreover, his life history is very different from Gene's, a lot of it spent fucking up and hanging out in low places, and so there's a lot of perspective he can offer that Gene simply can't. If Amanda finds herself embroiled in something Bad, where she feels like she made a shameful-bad mistake, I can see her actually being more comfortable telling Robert about it than Gene -- that she feels like Robert's more likely to understand (unlike her shining wholesome pops who would NEVER have made such a mistake), that she can get grown-up help without having to disappoint her dad.

(I believe I once saw a Robert/dadsona fic summary where Amanda -- underage drunk at a party and suddenly wanting/needing to get out of there -- calls Robert for a rescue instead of her dad, and I was like, Yes, that is the relationship I see developing between them, that is Robert's niche in their family dynamic.)

Anyway, the last chapter has a pretty long Amanda-POV section of the first Christmas they all spend together, that shows how she and Robert are settling into their places in the new-and-improved Smallwood family. I enjoy it a lot. 👍

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

Sailor Pluto: "I'm going to go be human for a while, see how they live." \ Pluto: [meets aliens on Earth] \ Pluto: Wait what. \ Noh-Varr, who somehow ended up talking to her at a bar, both assuming the other is a Real Human and trying not to act too weird: Hey, do you like close harmony girl groups? I've got some great vinyls at home if you want to hear some. \ Pluto, confused: Sure? \ Pluto, watching Noh dance half-naked to retro music: This was a mistake. \ Pluto: A REALLY HOT mistake.

lmao ok so i saw this right before I went to bed and thought about it while I couldn’t sleep and went “well, I never do anything but super niche things anyway so why not”

because like. first of all, correct, I truly believe Sailor Pluto (especially before she actually comes to Earth for realz) has the same level of human behavior comprehension as Noh (which is to say, if they actually put effort into it, a lot, but who wants to put effort into it?), but i think she’s way more likely to wind up accidentally dating Sif and/or Valkyrie

BUT upon further consideration I decided that the Senshi would super love Noh. Think about it: he’s super strong, hard to freak out, and eats anything. The girls can work on their cooking skills at all the terrible food experiments will not go to waste because he will still eat them. 

I’m seeing Noh meeting them post-canon, so while they’re in college or out of it, but I could also see Usagi running into him as a high schooler and just yelling “NOH PLEASE EAT MY TEST I GOT A 45 ON IT”

“SURE THING KID.”

but anyway.

I actually…think…that in suggesting this AU, how dare you, that I’ve found the PERFECT girlfriend for Noh! 

And I wish I could say “oh it’s Rei or Mako” but like. Noh really goes for the fighty girls and it doesn’t work out well for him, does it? And he and Usagi are the bro-est of bros

So like. Power couple Noh and Ami.

One of Ami’s defining traits is her compassion and understanding, and there haven’t been a lot of people like that in Noh’s life. Someone patient enough to sit down and say “okay, that was a terrible decision. Why did you make that choice?” I think Ami would really get the “he is literally an alien so he doesn’t get some of this stuff” and the Senshi have dealt with aliens who don’t get Human Stuff before so it’s not like this is a conversation Ami’s never had before.

She’s outside the Marvel Universe, so she doesn’t think of him as “that guy who betrayed us” or “the guy who set fire to New York” but she’s a Sailor Scout, a superhero in her own right, so she’s not going to get freaked out by his superhero stuff. Probably just really curious. (He introduces her to Dr. Strange so she can talk about balancing a medical career and a superhero one only to find that Strange truly has no advice for her, and also his fridge is full of snakes, but she also meets Loki, who talks to her about magic/science overlap and then takes her out dress shopping and maybe to case a bank for a robbery??? Ami is still not sure)

I don’t see Ami as being super interested in sex (I don’t think she’s opposed to the idea of it, it’s just not a priority for her) which I feel like…is maybe a relief for Noh? He has to worry less about mind control saliva (”Noh could I do a cheek swab? For…science.”) and let’s be honest Noh has had a lot of people doing horrible experimenty things to his body so  it might be nice for him to have a relationship that was primarily mental and emotional than physical, at least to start with. (They are super cuddly, though. All the time cuddles.)

And having a doctor or medical student in the Young Avengers extended family is really useful because Ami just sighs and goes “Hawkeye-chan, why are you covered in shark bites.” (and before someone comes to me like “I don’t think she’d use -chan in this situation”, you are probably right but when you’re bandaging up someone’s 26 sharkbites because they won’t go to a hospital after invasion of landsharks and you’re too polite to call them an idiot, what else is she gonna call Kate? This is the third time this has happened, and Ami has no frame of reference for this)

Noh has a spaceship that he and Ami tear apart and improve tech stuff on. AMI LOVES COMPUTERS. Noh is smart, even if he doesn’t always act that way, so he can keep up with Ami, mentally, which is really nice. He can also keep up with the Sailor Scouts if they need an extra hand. He’s diffused at least two conflicts by invoking Dreamgirls? They’re all still really confused about how that worked.

….also you will be hard pressed to convince me that Noh doesn’t play music while Magical Girl Transformations are happening. From an old skool boombox, for the Aesthetic.

Noh: Did you guys need someone killed? i can do that.Ami: we try not to kill people, Noh.Noh: but sometimes. you gotta.

Not to mention–Ami is a calming influence, and hanging out with Rei and doing Spiritual Exercises with her has helped him control his anger so when he gets mad it’s more controllable? And it manifests more it being really protective of Ami (not when she’s a Scout. She’s fine as a Scout. Noh and Tuxedo Mask are the Sailor Scouts traveling cheering section) but at parties or mixers or whatever when Ami is Really Polite and doesn’t call people on interrupting her and Noh will just go “EXCUSE ME, AMI WAS SPEAKING IT’S VERY RUDE TO INTERRUPT.” followed by. the most terrifying glare. 

Noh is a Supportive Boyfriend. (he’s been working on it). He’s trying to be more attuned to Human Things so he reminds Ami when she needs to sleep or eat or that studies show a thirty minute break of dancing to motown for every two hours of studying improves information retention. Ami never had impromptu dance parties before Noh and now she has them all the time. And…they do help her maintain focus.

Noh went through her entire apartment building during finals and threatened bodily harm to anyone who disturbed the peace and at least three little old ladies laughed at him and gave him food to take back to Ami. He’s losing his edge.

idk man I just feel like they’d help one another grow as people–Noh in becoming more aware of how his actions affect others and thinking before he makes terrible choices and getting better at asking for help, and Ami in being a little more impulsive and self-indulgent. Neither of them do a complete 180 or anything but just…a bit more balance.

Ami, I think, really and truly does see people for the good and bad in them, but focuses on the good, and again...I think someone who believes that Noh is fundamentally good and not a screwup--or that his screw-ups don’t define him--would be a game changer. Ami very, very secretly thinks about Noh’s white hair and his spaceship and his flying boots and thinks her boyfriend is kinda an angel, and even though she never says that, Noh can sense it, you know? He knows Ami believes in him. She holds him to a high standard, and by god, he wants to exceed it.

Also? Noh helping Ami study, using her legs as a pillow while she plays with his hair

[praphit]

Choose or Die: when you want something crappy

Sometimes, I get in the mood for a crappy horror movie. I know that some of you can relate, and I know that some of you think that's weird. It's understandable to think that's weird. It is. Nobody goes to a notably bad restaurant, in hopes for a bad meal. We don't do this with concerts, or schools...we don't purposely read poorly written books... we don't do this with other movie genres.

But, I wanted crappy, so... "CHOOSE OR DIE"

Allow me to describe the trailer for this movie:

A girl is playing an 80's style video game. She is navigating the character around the dangers of the game, while simultaneously, hearing the screams of another character (her mom) fleeing with fear. Why? BECAUSE THE GAMES ARE REAL! It's kinda like "Saw" meets "The Matrix" Instead of waking up in some old white dudes warehouse, all trapped - you're IN the game (idk... let's say "Super Mario Bros", for a visual) But, IF YOU DIE IN THE GAME, YOU DIE FOR REALZ!

(oops, fire in your ass)

So, the game asks you to make choices, and then it magically makes the choices a part of someone else's life (OR DEATH!!!)

The first scene of the movie shows us a family arguing in the dining room. Well, most of the fam... the father is upstairs, hiding. While cowering away from his responsibilities, words appear on his computer screen (again, like "The Matrix"), asking him to pick a prize.

He chooses a beer, cuz his family sucks. ALL OF A SUDDEN, he has to choose or diiiiiiiie!!!!!! The words pop up that he must choose the tongue or the ears. Now, there's no warning that this game is for realzies, or whom this game impacts, or rules or if this is even real. We learned two things: 

One, free beer will get many to do anything (more of a reminder than new info:) and Two, whatever is going on, whatever type of entity that we're dealing with.. is a real asshole.

AND voiced by Freddy Krueger, so that's... everything you'd expect it would be.

The story centers around two young heroes (a guy and a girl) and a mom who's on drugs. I'm not sure of the age of these two heroes, but they look young, and they're on a path to banging. The young guy keeps taking swings and missing, but the young lady is going to catch something, eventually.

A free will game about terror and dying?? - how about a free will game about safe sex or abstinence? Can a get an amen, parents?

Choose:

A) cold shower?  B) stay over? ^^^ A) play some of The Weeknd's sexy jams?^^^  B) play some slow gospel music? A) contraception?  B) raw? ^^^ A) missionary? B) whatever the hell this is?^^^

YOU CHOSE POORLY. YOUR PARENTS ARE ON THEIR WAY. YOU'RE GROUNDED FOR YEAR.

Great game.

People, this movie is TERRIBLE! Not "crappy" in the way that I had hoped.

Any game that you play always has an objective; it always has a winner. There are no winners here! The only objective here is terror, which normally (in this context), I'd be all about... but then they'd have to go all in on only being about terror; they don't do that. At the end of this movie they try to make some sort of sense of it about a lab and a curse and blah blah blah... NO. None of it makes any sense! It tries to make it about some sort of retribution against the wicked, but as far as I could tell, this evil ass game was going after everyone, from creepy, rapey drug dealers to honor roll students.

The acting was rough - like athletes doing commercials rough. The production was bad. You could tell that they didn't have any money for this film, but there are ways around that with good writing. And what little bit of money they had went to a scene where some dude puking up the tape in a cassette and the game creating two doors to choose from - a red one and a blue one. And get this - they choose the correct door (as in no terror to be caused), and the Freddy Krueger voice tells them to choose the other door. What the hell is that?!!

What if Vanna White refused to let you choose the correct letter to solve the phrase? You'd be like "Bitch, give me my letter!" I want my prize!

Speaking of - they completely get away from the whole choose your prize part of the game.

I'm tellin you. That game is an asshole.

There wasn't really much of a body count, because there wasn't much of a monster around. No, I'm wrong. There was a scene with a monster in it, but they didn’t show the monster, only what the monster did (I give them credit for this scene. Some legit creepiness). The "monster"  was a bunch of rats or maybe a giant rat... we don’t really know. SOMETHING ate through a door, and wrote the word "MEAT" on a wall. This is a scene where druggie mom (spoiler alert, but who cares??) jumps out of a window. Mom definitely saw what was chasing her. But, we'll never know much about that, because the cops didn't think it was worth looking into. I guess they just looked around, shrugged their shoulders and said "Cocaine is a hell of a drug."

Grade F!

F this movie! F this effing game! F Netflix for suggesting that I watch it. And F Freddy Krueger, who is really the only winner here; laughing his ass off at any chump who sat through this nonsense.

Idk if y'all are aware of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (look it up). They're all about torture by means of bad movies. This one might be too torturous.

This movie was so bad that it cancelled out other badness of my day. I was in a mental funk, but the anger I held after watching this movie gave me the focus to break free. I had hurt myself (minor) playing a sport, but the only pain I could feel after this flick was the pain of having an hour and a half ripped away from me. Out of a longing to cleanse myself from disappointment, I went on a binge of comedies and partying in the streets. I had successfully suppressed the spiritual stinkiness of this film. I had a great time!

Thanks?

[letitrainasunnyday]

Hi :) what do you think of Kaito Kid? (Just curious and I always love your answers)

Hiii! I’m so glad I’m getting these asks again! I missed them!! 

Listen, I love my man Kaito. He’s always such a great addition to the plot, he’s an actual intellectual challenge for our boi Shinichi, and their rivalry (kind of rivalry, potato potato) is such a fun dynamic to presence that I am always a slut for Kid cases, honestly. 

But I’m fond of our man Kuroba whenever he’s in Gosho’s hands. So let me make it clear: the fandom and the anime staff and the merch teams have exploited him SO FUCKING MUCH that it’s very hard not to get tired of him. Which, to be honest, sucks because I really do love Kaito to bits and pieces. I love his story, I love his relationship with Toichi (who is for realz not dead honestly) and I love his relationship with Aoko. I follow the Magic Kaito manga and honestly 14/12 would recommend. But the fandom always puts him EVERYWHERE, and the Movie staff always writes him as weirdly repetitive and out of character (like they cater to fanservice more than they care about staying true to Kaito), so it’s hard sometimes not to get bored of him, ya feel? 

So, essentially, whenever he shows up on the manga i’m like YEEEESSS YYYYEEEEEES HIT ME UP WITH SOME GOOD OL MOONLIGHT MAGICIAN YAAASSS KAITOOOO DAAAAMNNNNNN YAAAAAAAAAAS 

But then whenever there’s another Kid movie i’m like do we really have to like really??? He gon cosplay as Shinichi again??? I’m gon have to sit and watch that with my own two eyes again???? We gon play the love triangle stupid ass shit again???? No