#god damnit I want to be normal and I have normal problems that I can explain to others and they can relate to

[talenlee]

Finding Pokemon That Wear Pants

Pokemon are lil guys. They are in many cases, just lil guys. But there are some Pokemon that exist further on the continuum of ‘a weird lil guy’ than other Pokemon. I’ve said in the past that if you found out your server at a fast food store was a Lucario, your reaction wouldn’t be ‘oh gross there’s an animal back there’ but ‘oh hi there lil guy.’

One of the traits of a lil guy versus an animal, though, is that lil guys do things in human ways – tool use, language, cultural practice, but most importantly of course, is wearing pants. Pants are how you represent a character as having some engagement with a greater society at large, which is pretty weird when you consider the nature of pants being gendered. Yes, it is a way in which we accept the Pokemon as being individuals in society, in that they buy into a gendered form of clothing. Wait, where was I?

Clothes! Clothes clothes clothes, fashion, style, these are important things for the identity of Pokemon. After all, Meowth engages in fashion, you Philistine, and Team Rocket’s Meowth is very high on the Lil Guy O Meter. If we assume a Pokemon needs to wear pants to ascend up into Lil Guy Status, then there’s surely a list of ways to investigate that, thanks to the Bulbapedia page of Costumed Pokemon.

(By this metric, Donald Duck isn’t a lil guy.)

Some Pokemon wear ‘stuff’ as part of their normal look. Particularly, Machoke wears a belt and what looks like booty shorts, which is fun because Machoke and Machamp have no gender dimorphism, which suggests that this beast has enough of a sense of modesty to not want something on their crotch exposed, but for all of the Maches, it’s tits out. Similarly, Mandibuzz has a bone in its … hair? Which is either a really weird thing for it to grow naturally or it’s an expression of some kind of aesthetic. Cubone and Marowak wear a skull, according to their pokedex entries (but the skulls of WHOM, we’re never clear on). And what’s more, there are, no doubt, a lot of Pokemon who wear pants in fanart — and whatever’s going on with Lucario is no doubt going to get edited by enthusiastic artists.

(Considering a regional variant of Lucario that has side pockets turning their thighs-that-look-like-shorts into cargos.)

Here is where we find ourselves with a problem about the assumptions of clothes-ness. The assumption for this sake is that unless we see some indication otherwise that the Pokemon’s component elements can be removed or changed, it doesn’t really ‘count’ as clothes because we can’t, for sure, say that it’s not just part of their body. Both Smeargle and Slowking look like they’re wearing hats but we know one of them it’s explicitly a symbiote and the other, we have no reason to believe it’s not part of its body.

Do we have any place where Pokemon wear clothes that are explicitly and obviously actually clothes, not standardised as part of the Pokemon’s design? Well, there’s a few obvious examples, in the form of the cosplay Pikachus from Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that lets Pikachu take on the form of things like a Luchador or a Rock Star. Pikachu can wear one of a number of hats, as well, and of course, transition her gender. Which is an odd thing to say, but that is literally what it looks like it’s doing. Continuing away from the Pikachu Privilege space, Pokemon Go brings us the Event Pokemon, which includes Squirtles wearing sunglasses, Pikachus wearing hats (god damnit, there they are again), and honestly pretty cute things like Blisseys in flower crowns, but nobody wearing pants. Jigglypuff, Pichu and Pikachu in Smash Bros don some headgear – caps and bandannas and crowns and bows, those are all accessorising. If we’re looking for signs of a Pokemon wearing pants, so far, all thse avenues leave us stuck looking at only Pikachu, and largely, it’s when Pikachu is doing some kind of a costume.

But hang on, what about skirts? The discerning person’s pant? Well, turns out that a whole range of Pokemon wear skirts in the anime! Serena has a Braxien that wears a skirt, and Dawn’s pokemon don skirts not just once, but thrice – and they’re different skirts!

Skirts, clearly, are more important than pants. After all, Pikachu has worn basically one kind of pants, so far and Buneary has worn an ice dancer skirt, a cheerleader skirt, and a maid skirt, which means that Buneary is three times the man Pikachu can be.

Still, the ever expanding leviathan of Pokemon is relentless and in its growth it eventually picked up a MOBA game, which… exists. Pokemon Unite is a game that allows players to buy skins that put ‘holographic’ clothes on their Pokemon, which I find a particularly novel idea because on the one hand, hey, clothes, on the other hand: why are they holograms. The fact they’re holographic clothes kind of underscores the idea that yeah, okay, sure, we’ll put these things in clothes but they’re not going to be clothes clothes. And they’re honestly, pretty sick! They look cool, and they really ramp up the lil guyness of the Pokemon wearing them!

Mostly though?

They don’t add pants.

Obviously at this point I am down a rabbit hole. I started looking into Pokemon clothes because it was interesting and then that led me to ‘pants’ because I thought that Donald Duck joke upstream was pretty good and that then led me here, and now I’m finding myself wondering just why pants are so rare in these kind of character designs. Across all the Pokemon Unite hologram outfits, I tracked about seventy five that I think count as wearing something like ‘pants’ or a skirt. There are some challenging judgement calls here, though; Blissey, Delphox, Hoopa and Tsareena are all built like their design incorporates a skirt, and their outfits don’t change that skirt design, either putting something above or below that, and I don’t know how to make that judgment call.

There are some truly unhinged choices in these designs, though. Originally this started out as a joke to make a sort of spreadsheet of the kinds of things that you can do with a Pokemon’s design but buckle up because now we’re dealing with something truly crackers. I want you to see these things. I want you, the majority of the people in the world who have not and never will play Pokemon Unite that read this blog, to see the way they decided to implement some of these outfits.

Over 378 costumes, about 73 of them introduce something like pants or a skirt to the Pokemon in question. Of those outfits, there are some truly amazing choices, like Absol asking and answering the question ‘if an Absol wore shorts, it would wear them like this.”

Where Pokemon with ‘skirts’ don’t change them with clothes, amazingly, Lucario and Cinderace, who look like they’re wearing shorts, add on extra elements that integrate those shorts, but also have costumes that change the shorts into other kinds of shorts. Which means that this outfit – well, okay, it’s a hologram we know how the outfit does it, but this outfit is basically painting their legs to fit a different aesthetic. Which I guess makes Cinderace a homestuck?

Special shout out here to Greedent, where taking a shirt and applying it to a pokemon that has otherwise entirely benign design of chest fur, somehow makes that fur look like some truly uncontrolled pubes.

I did also find that there’s a point where Mr Mime in Pokemon Unite can wear one outfit that adds shorts, which is somehow more perverse than not wearing them at all.

Alright, what does this tell us?

Absolutely nothing

But in the process I got to show you this picture of a Slowbro wearing gardening clothes, and the Mamoswine sticking its teeth through its hoodie sleeves made for them.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[mrburnsnuclearpussy]

I wish so badly that I never started watching Downton abbey because here I am now having near anxiety attacks over a fictional character and it’s just miserable and I want out!!!! This obsession hurts more than it feels good but I can’t get rid of it and idk how 😭

[ainywanie]

૮₍˶Ó﹏Ò ⑅₎ა OF LOVE AND DREAMS

synopsis: or, in which a stressed out and overwhelmed kenji sato eats takeout with you and slow burn occurs.

requested by; anon / requests are open!

*⁠･⁠゜ﾟ⁠(⁠^⁠O⁠^⁠)⁠↝ read this as well in ao3

Baseball. Fatherhood. Ultraman.

What did those three things have in common? Absolutely none. That was the problem. Neither of those three things had any correlation which made it hell to learn how to split them all evenly. Had Kenji Sato found out earlier that his life would involve tons of juggling things around he would've signed up to be a clown instead of a celebrity.

“There ya go.” Kenji whispers, him in his Ultraman form cradled the adorable Emi who chirped and cried and did everything else but fall asleep in his arms. He's been having a long day and truthfully all he wants is to be less miserable than he was now.

He taps the girl’s back, the small Kaiju looking up at him with — which he swears he can practically see— literal stars in her eyes. “Daddy's here.”

Despite how normally he'd find some sense of contentment and probably even relief or satisfaction from finally soothing Emi from her distress, right now all his mind could try to even focus on was baseball and the fact the KDF were after Emi.

And, for a horrible moment, his heart clenches at the very thought of everything in his life just going away. He's already beating himself up with the recent games, he didn't need anything else adding onto that ever growing giant pile of lists on why Kenji Sato wasn't all that he said to be.

So, here he was, ready to just drown himself (and his sorrows) away with a can of unfortunately healthy coconut water. Couldn't a man drink and get drunk? A nice bottle of alcohol and wine would definitely hit just right for him at this moment.

“God damnit— Mina!” He exclaims, sighing and running his hand through his hair while he examines the drink in his hand, placing it down with a rather miserable expression. ‘This thing’s going to kill me before anything else’ He mutters to himself.

“It is best to incorporate a healthy lifestyle, especially with your many responsibilities lately.” Mina appears with her typical monotone and robotic voice.

“I'm as healthy as you can get.” He argues, walking around the rather huge kitchen he's got. Stardom tends to give out a whole heap of money, and that wasn't anything Kenji could just decline.

Mina stares at him —at least— he's sure if she were a real person with an actual human body she'd probably be staring at him with an unimpressed look. And then his mind flashes to his mother who'd also most likely be doing the same.

“I work out,” Kenji starts, deciding to defend his case. “I wake up early,” He adds, looking around the cupboards and making a mental note to get groceries soon. Soon would be way too far in the future. Soon is barely a day close to tomorrow considering he's already got a lot going on.

“I'm a professional athlete.” Kenji scoffs, leaning against the counter.

“Indeed you are. That is why I contacted—”

Just in time, the front door rings. He doesn't hesitate staring at the robot in disbelief and anger at the sudden visitor. As sudden as the visitor came, Mina promptly went away. “You've gotta be kidding,” He mutters, sighing as his hand rubs his temple while he walks over to the front door to see you at the other side.

His face falls, eyes widening in surprise as he didn't expect this whole thing. “What's up?” He asks, doing a 180 and attempting to be his typical suave self, though, internally he's already hitting himself for being so panicked.

What kind of greeting was ‘what’s up’?

“I bought take out.” You say with a smile, bringing up the paper bag filled with food and drinks and instantly it's almost like Kenji was a teenage girl. Nodding his head and promptly moving aside to let you in, he shuts the door behind you and follows after you into the kitchen.

“So,”

“So?”

He stares at you, watching as you take out plates and utensils for the two of you. “Seems like you've got this whole place down. I would've thought you owned the place instead.”

“I wish I owned this.” You only laugh, shrugging your shoulders, watching him stare at you and you swore he could melt things with how intense he's looking at you. “Seriously, when are you giving me the ownership of this house?”

He only rolls his eyes, walking over to you and nudging you lightly by the shoulder, helping you set the whole thing before he recognises the familiar look of the meal. It was from that one restaurant he'd promised to bring you but never got to.

“Thank you, by the way,” Kenji says, glancing at you from the corner of his eye with a soft smile. It was really the only thing he can say considering it was his mistake to have put all else before you.

“For the food?”

“For everything.” He corrects just before wincing at how absolutely lame and cheesy it sounded. “It sounded better in my head.” He quickly adds, watching you laugh.

“I'll take it.” You reply, enjoying how sweet he was being at the moment. It wasn't even a rare sight for him to treat you so nicely —he always did— but somehow something about the way he talked and looked at you just felt like something was up.

Kenji clears his throat, insisting you sit down on a chair next to him as you two dig into the food you bought from a restaurant that just opened up that you and him always talked about going to. “Wow, it's really good.” He says, glancing at you with a smile.

“Here, taste.” He holds up his chopsticks, the tempura in between as his other free hand is at the bottom opened up to catch any crumb that falls.

“Tastes good, right?” He asks without letting you get another word out as he eats more. “I should've brought you there— the restaurant. I think it would've been a nice experience for us.” He laments without another thought.

“It's fine. Eating takeout with you right now is the same as eating inside the place.” You assure, taking more bites of the meal. “Anyway, what's up with you lately?”

He raises a brow, turning a bit to the side to look at you as his hand stops midway before he takes another bite of his food. “Excuse me?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Do I really?” He shrugs his shoulders, attempting to push and change the topic. Kenji feels his brows furrow as he pushes the rice in his bowl around with a clear frown.

“Ken.”

And god does it drive him crazy when you call him by just that: Ken. Not Sato, Kenji, nor Ultraman. Ken. Which was weird considering you weren't the first nor the only one calling him by that nickname, but all he knew was that the way it rolled off your tongue just melted him and made him feel good in a way.

Ken sighs, groaning somewhat. He knows there's no escaping you when you set your mind full onto something.

“Okay, I've been busy with other things.” He admits.

“You mean baseball?”

He almost corrected you. Almost. Unfortunately he remembered you weren't aware he was Ultraman or that he was technically the father of a huge 20-foot Kaiju that lives in his basement.

Ken sighs, looking at you with a rather sad and clearly exasperated look. It's clear that he's really tired with whatever he's been busy with. And truthfully, you didn't want him to feel like he was being forced to tell you the truth.

“You don't have to tell me.” You whisper, taking a hold of his hand and squeezing it as you look up at him with a smile. “You'll tell me about it anyway in the future. Eventually, at least I hope.”

He smiles, letting out a small chuckle as he looks at you with a certain gleam in his eye, his hand squeezing yours back. “Yeah. I probably will.”

“See? And whatever those ‘other’ things are,” You bring up, attempting to cheer him up. Your fist connects with his shoulder playfully before your hand just naturally rests there. “I'm sure you'll handle them just fine no matter what.”

“Besides, I'm here if you need help.”

“I know.” Ken looked over at you, his hand coming up to hold the one you had on his shoulder. He can't exactly find the words to explain things: whatever he's feeling, whatever this moment meant, or whatever you and him were. Why would he need to ponder on your relationship?

You both just sat there, looking at each other expecting something yet also nothing at the same time. Would he? Would you? Neither one of you had any idea on what to do.

“I could kiss you right now.”

Now it was your turn to look at him in astonishment at his blunt words. You could practically feel your eyes leaving your socket and your jaw falling open. “Excuse me?”

“Platonically.” Ken adds in a panic. He sounds surprised and shocked at what he said as if it wasn't him who literally said it out loud. “Like on the mouth— cheek. On the cheek.” He clears his throat, completely looking away from you now with both shame and horror evident in his expression as his fingers begin to drum on top of the table.

The air is tense. The place was now quiet save for the sound his fingers make as they tap. “I appreciate it,” You awkwardly reply, looking away and it's clear both of you are extremely flustered. “The kiss on the cheek.” You said but was that really all you wanted?

“You would?” Ken raises a brow, managing to find some strength in facing you despite the way his heart started to beat in his chest furiously. “Great. I guess we could.. Do that?” He clears his throat, once more already imagining himself hitting his head from the back with a bat. Why did he have to keep talking?

“Deal.”

Despite the tension, whether it be because of the awkwardness or something else entirely neither of you cared as you laughed and ate the food. He told you stories, about his childhood, his work, or whatever he's just been up to in general; and in turn, you told him hilarious and rather stupendous jokes you often hear from your coworkers, but it always makes him laugh so you suppose it does the job.

“— and then I accidentally hit her on the head so you can bet it wasn't nice afterwards.” He told you the story of him teaching Emi baseball, disguising Emi as a girl he babysits ‘on the side’ often whom he also grew pretty fond of watching over. “She's a sweet girl. Needy. But sweet.”

You laugh, enjoying his stories which were never dull and always filled with a sense of amazement every time he tells you one. “Well, what else did you expect from a kid?” You reply with an amused smile.

“I knew what to expect, okay?” He chuckles, shaking his head as his thoughts drift to his times of being with Emi and spending time with her who he practically saw as a daughter. “I just didn't expect things to be hard.”

You send him a raised brow and a playful smile. “If I didn't know any better, I would've thought this Emi was your daughter.” You comment. It wasn't really that hard for you to notice how proud he looked when he told you about this Emi. And frankly, this was even the first time he brought her up so it was a surprise for you to learn he even did babysitting as a side job.

Ken nearly chokes on his food at your words. He couldn't be that terrible at keeping his facts straight and making up a whole cover-up story, could he? He turns to you with a forced chuckle leaving his lips. “That just shows how she means to me now, yeah?” He attempts to reply.

“Guess so,”

Eventually, it was getting late, and not wanting you to travel alone back to your home, Ken had insisted you sleep in his room on his bed which surprises you.

“You've got two beds?” You ask, surprised but you follow him to his room nonetheless. In it, you're not surprised with how minimalistic the whole place is. Though you'd probably also be concerned if it was uncharacteristically decorated and done.

Ken raises a brow at you, gesturing to his single bed in the room. “Just that.” He answers, fixing up the bed for you before grabbing some extra blankets and bedsheets from his closet where he neatly places them on the floor.

“Don't sleep on the floor.” You say, stopping him before he can pull some of the pillows down. “I don't mind sharing.”

And so, now, here you both were. Laying down side by side and staring up at the ceiling as silence is present. You're both beneath the sheets, still somewhat wide awake.

“I really appreciate you coming over.” Ken whispers, shifting a bit so he's on his side and looking at you. “You were just what I needed.”

You smile, shifting as well to face him and so you're both staring at each other with wide grins yet shy looks. He was also what you needed. You could tell both your moods improved with just one dinner despite how uneventful it sounded, it meant a lot.

“Thanks, Ken.”

“For what?”

“Everything.”

Baseball. Fatherhood. Ultraman.

Maybe he should seriously start wondering if he should also add love onto the list. But for now, with a quick kiss to your cheek (which takes you by surprise), Ken turns around and closes his eyes and feels himself start to dream.

[sexydoffyman]

Can you write a size kink scenario where Konig has anal sex with a much larger m!reader, and m!reader's cock is too big for him? M!reader is 8ft tall and built like a shot putter, for reference.

SIZE KINK

genre: smut

characters: König

A/N: I researched the size of a male 6’10 human rectum just for this post I hope you appreciate it!🐞

He was panting uncontrollably. He wasn’t used to stuff like this. His hands were shaking and he was barely able to hold himself up. Usually, it was he who was the bigger one, he never understood why his partners always asked him to be more gentle. He felt as if He couldn’t get more gentle. He always felt like they were overreacting. That was until he met you.

You had him pressed into the mattress. This time he wasn’t the one in charge. He felt humiliated that a man as huge and masculine as him was in this position. His mates dared him to go on a one-night stand with you. For some reason he accepted. He told us straight away. “I got dared to sleep with ya.” Was what came out of his mouth.

You understood right away why they dared him to do it. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t, but he was about to find out. He felt strange and embarrassed that he had to ask you to slow down. This was the first time someone had him pinned down. He couldn’t move at all.

“Common, get up sweets.” You laughed at him, teasing him. He was a dick, and you were there to put him in his place. When he eventually tried to get up, you pressed deeper into him. He made an unholy sound and completely stopped trying. Frustrated, he yelped out “How big even are ya, you monster?!”

You found this as an opportunity to tease him even more. “Desperate to find out?” “Agh! No, fuck off!” He was so pissed. So pissed that he wasn’t able to take you. “Too much for ya sweets?” He hated it when you called him that. He was always calling people degrading nicknames. Now he was the target.

He kept grunting. He knew he would win that damned dare no matter what. “Common sweets try harder.” You chuckled as you thrusted with what you felt was a normal amount of force. He didn’t feel that way. You were basically rearranging his insides.

“God damnit!” He grunted. He was close, and you could feel it. “Let it all out darlin.” “FUCK OFF!” He yelled as he came into your sheets. “You are so cute when you struggle.” Now, he had to face another problem. He was done, but you weren’t.

He felt so pathetic that you made him cum. You went a bit rougher, not caring about his well-being. Your moans filled the room as he just let you use his body to get off. He felt relieved when you finally came. You filled him up. Sperm leaking out of his asshole. You pulled out only to see his stretched anus. You had to laugh to yourself.

You got up and started putting on clothes. He felt weird that you didn’t want to stay. And that’s when he realised. That this was all fucking planned. All the things he did to people smaller than him you did to him. You were probably paid to do this.

As you were leaving the room, you looked at him. “You look like you enjoyed that way too much, so stop lying to yourself. Whenever you want to be dicked down, you know where to find me sweets.” You smirked at him. “No way that he actually enjoyed that. You had to be faking it.”

He couldn’t finish thinking when you turned to him one last time. “You asked how big I am.” He waited for a follow-up. “Looking like a puppy at me. You really have to want it inside you again.” He sighed you tricked him again. You opened the door and started to leave. You spoke one last thing before you closed the door.

“Eight inches”

[starpirateee]

Drabble request:

somehow, some way, Tinky manages to smush Abstinence Camp Lautski and NPMD Lautski into the same realtit

this idea has been ROTATING in my brain forever thank you goodnight

OH MY GOD-

Anon you can't just give me an idea like that and then duck out!!! And with no way to find out who you are either???

Anyway, that's cool as hell, let's get this show on the road!

Steph didn't know when she started seeing double, but at some point, she started swearing she could see... Another of her. Exactly the same in appearance... Mannerisms...

The other her was perfectly fine with everything until the moment the two of them locked eyes across the way. Then she just stared, stock still, unable to believe what she was seeing, or what the hell was going on. Out of an instinct she didn't know, Steph had beckoned her over, trying to pretend like any of this was normal.

It took a while, but the two of them managed to air things out. Stephanie- which the stranger decided upon because it was slightly easier- said she thought something was off earlier that morning, but given that Hatchetfield was notorious for never changing, she couldn't place anything wrong.

Steph had to agree. Nothing ever changed in Hatchetfield, and frankly, she wouldn't notice if anything was wrong either.

Neither of them could make sense of it. Stephanie said she'd not come alone, and after that the two of them came to an arrangement. She was going to find the friend she'd mentioned, and Steph was going to meet her again with the one person she thought might be able to make ends of any of this catastrophic mess. If he couldn't by himself, then the four of them likely could, in any case...

Pete was smart. Logical. He probably knew all sorts that she couldn't even comprehend. That's why she decided to call him first. In her head, even if he couldn't sort this out, he would at least make an effort to get things to make more sense.

"... Hey, Steph!"

He picked up quickly. He always did. And he always seemed so happy to hear from her. The very thought of it brought a smile to her face. "Hey, Pete." Before she could set them off into one of their long conversations, she needed to get to the point. Otherwise they would never get to it. "Uh, I've got a bit of a problem here..."

"A problem? What kinda problem?" She heard the creaking of his bedframe as he sat down. Damnit, now she had to make it make sense to herself, too! She seriously tried to think, to break it down, but nothing was working. There was no sensible way of explaining that she had seen and spoken to another version of herself. Eventually, she just sighed.

"I don't think that I can explain it well enough..."

Another creak. "Take your time, I'm not going anywhere."

"No, uh- I really don't think I can explain... I think you gotta come see this for yourself." Yeah, that was a good way around it. He could make his own judgements if he just saw it plain. Better than her trying to work it out in a few words.

"Sure... Okay. If that's- uh- if that works better?"

She nodded, knowing full well that he couldn't see her. "Yeah, maybe it will. How fast can you get to the park?"

He hummed. "The park? From here? I can be there in maybe ten minutes? How's that?"

"That's perfect. Thanks so much..."

Steph left him alone, and immediately, he sunk back, his brow furrowed in thought. There was a lot to think about, after all. She had left him with a fair deal for consideration. For someone who was normally so good with words, it was strange to have her so inarticulate. He needed to see something, and apparently, that was the only way she could properly explain it. Sure, it seemed a little weird, and Steph seemed a little apprehensive, but he hoped that she was right, that it would make sense when he got there.

No, of course it could. Steph knew what she was talking about, it would totally make more sense when he saw... Whatever it was she wanted him to see. He pulled on his shoes and left without much of a second thought.

In no more than a quarter of an hour, he'd reached the park. Steph was waiting for him on a bench, and waved him over as soon as she saw him. He quickened his pace until he'd reached the bench, and then they started to walk together.

"So, what's the problem?" He asked, glancing behind him.

"This is weird as hell... But, this morning, I swore to god that I was seeing double, but I was wrong..."

"Seeing double? In what way?"

They'd made their way across the park, and instead of an explanation, Steph pointed over at one of the larger trees in the grove, to a girl, who was leaning against it, talking to a boy on the floor.

Pete stared, adjusted his glasses, and stared again. They were far enough away that it wasn't obvious, which was lucky on his behalf, because he was able to do little else. He didn't have to ask for an explanation; it was right there in front of him. "Holy shit, is that _you_?"

"Yeah, it's super weird. When I saw her, I felt this kinda... Connection? Like, I knew straight away that she and I were the same... If you know what I mean."

He didn't. But he nodded anyway, making a note to himself that _this was just another thing he had to get an answer for, if he could._ "Not to mention you look... Pretty much exactly the same."

"Creepy, right?" The two of them approached the pair by the tree, and Steph raised a hand in greeting. "Stephanie, hey! This is the guy I was talking about, the one who might be able to make sense of what's going on here?"

"Well, maybe... No promises," Pete smiled, rubbing the back of his neck. He held out his free hand in the direction of the familiar stranger. "I'm Peter."

He watched Stephanie's eyes widen. She looked at the boy on the ground, then took Pete's hand with a soft smile that still somehow managed to portray all of that warmth and brightness that he knew so well. "This can't be a coincidence..."

Pete also glanced down to the boy on the ground. He was around his age, with large glasses and a head of curly brown hair. When their eyes locked, Pete saw something flash and dance between them. Something yellow, like a crackle of lightning.

It felt familiar, and something in Pete's brain clicked. The pieces started to fit together; the coincidence, the surprise etched on Stephanie's face, even the way that boy was looking at him... 

He nodded slowly. "Let me guess... You're Peter, too? Peter... Spankoffski, by any chance?"

"Yeah. Steph filled me in," Peter nodded towards Stephanie, who raised her eyebrows. "I think I might know what's going on?"

"Really?" Steph asked, impressed.

"Well, not exactly, but it does kinda make sense... In a way. I could probably work it out."

Pete looked to Stephanie. "We'll make this easier. Call me Pete, then."

The situation as far as the four of them could work out was as follows. Steph and Pete hadn't felt any kind of displacement or anything wrong with the world. Both would've been fully content to take it at the same level as any other Saturday. Maybe they would've hung out together anyway. Maybe they would've taken advantage of Solomon being so busy with preparations for the Honey Festival...

Neither of them had noticed anything was wrong at all until Stephanie came into the picture. Stephanie did. Peter was convinced he'd mistaken the feeling for something else. Now there was two of both of them. What was weirder still was the fact that the two Stephs looked near enough identical to one another, while the two Petes couldn't be more different.

The crackles of familiarity were mutual. Pete knew to recognise his double through nothing more than that spark.

"While we figure out how the hell you got here, and maybe how the hell to get you back..." Pete sat down on the ground near to his double, and glanced between he and Stephanie. "How about you guys tell us what we're missing out on?"

"What you're missing out on?" Stephanie asked, folding her arms over her chest.

"i'm just assuming we don't have identical lives, but who knows, huh?"

"What about you two?" Peter asked curiously. "You seem... Close, right? How'd that happen?" There was a smile playing on his lips, one that suggested his seemingly genuine interest at finding out how Pete and Steph managed to find each other.

"Close?" Steph echoed, amused. "I guess you could say that... Well, we got close after he let me cheat off him for a bilogy pop quiz."

Peter's eyes widened. Pete laughed. "Don't look at me like that! I was sitting in earshot, what else was I gonna do?"

Peter realised a little too quickly that he'd have done exactly the same thing if he was in earshot of someone like Stephanie Lauter too, there was absolutely no argument about it. He sat back against his hands with a resigning shrug, and let Steph try to continue her story.

"After that, it was like everything happened at once. Max Jägerman- uh, you know him, right?"

Stephanie nodded. "Yeah, sure, I know him. The backup QB. Everyone in school knows Jägerman."

"Backup? Wait, who's the quarterback for you guys?"

"Brad Callaghan."

"Asshole," Peter muttered under his breath, and Stephanie hummed in agreement. "Jägerman too, while we're on that. Anyway, uh- what about him?"

"He... Went missing." Steph was trying to cover her ass and Pete's at the same time. She was going to admit that Max turned up dead, but for the sake of both of them, she was going to deter as far as possible from the fact that they were technically the ones who killed him. "Things started to go downhill fast after that. He turned up dead, So did a couple other kids in our grade."

"Then the mayor, too. And a couple others," Pete added all too hesitantly. He was also trying to avoid thinking about what has happened in the Waylon Place that night, evem though the memory of it wasn't so much haunting as a major guilt trip. He knew he shouldn't feel bad about Max; he made their lives a living hell, and he still didn't feel bad about what happened, so to speak. Especially since it was an accident and the three of them had the memories to prove it. "But this is where it gets less believeable. See, all of those killings... Were done by Max. He came back, y'know? Back from the dead..."

"Woah..." Stephanie whispered, straightening up from against the tree.

"No shit?" Peter, however, leaned forwards, his intent gaze fixed on Pete. He lifted a hand to adjust his glasses, and saw his double nod. "Jeez..."

"We're the lucky ones," Pete hummed. "We're still here... Can't say that about the others, mind. Once we got rid of Max... That was it. They were as dead as he was..." He sighed heavily. Ruth and Richie were never not on his mind, not as things stood. He'd allowed himself to geel guilty about that over everything else, but he didn't have a reason to feel bad about Max. Those two were a different story entirely...

Steph sensed his discomfort at the topic, and for good reason too. He was still far from being able to think about anything else that wasn't his friends, now that the whole thing had blown over and everything had settled in. So she tried to change the subject quickly, turning towards Peter. "So what's your story then? How'd you two meet?"

"This is the stupidest story ever." Steph defended quickly, rolling her eyes. "Both of us got shipped off to fucking idonwannabang."

This seemed to resonate somewhere in Pete's mind, and he blinked. "Damn, wait, really? Peter, was that Ted's idea?"

Peter nodded, seemingly more drawn back than he was moments ago.

"You got scammed, man. D'you really think he of all people woulda survived that place?"

"It wasn't one of his best ideas, that's for sure..."

The tense change sunk in. Pete didn't want to think that as the immediate possibility, but what else made sense with the way Peter phrased it? He held his breath, hoping it was just another case of his overactive mind jumping to conclusions again. "... Wasn't?"

Peter frowned, exhaling a sigh that was probably a lot deeper than he expected it to be. "Yeah. Wasn't. You say you're the lucky ones? Heh, yeah... Me too."

"What... What happened to him?"

"I don't know. Never will. He was the one who dropped me off, but by the time summer was over, he was- he was fucking gone. I... don't want to ask."

[therealvinelle]

Hi! You've talked about how the Cullen lifestyle is unsustainable because of modern technology and social media (totally agree!), but what do you think will happen to normal nomadic vampires? As CCTV becomes more and more common, how will they be able to hunt humans without the secret getting out? What will the Volturi do to protect the secret? Only let vampires hunt in deep wilderness with no technology?

Thoughts on the Volturi re: modern technology

One caveat: for a CCTV recording to be of use to anyone, it has to be viewed. If there is no reason to believe anything happened at a given train station in the middle of nowhere at one in the morning, however, then who's checking it?

Not to mention, there will be spaces that are CCTV free. And, perhaps a no-brainer, but it deserves mention: vampires hunt at night. Darkness -> lower image resolution. Bad for investigators, good for the vampires.

Or, rather, to explain in my favorite way: let's do case studies.

John Doe is taken from a train station

John Doe left his friend's house at nine PM, and walked to the nearby train station. He would have gotten on the train after a ten minute wait, and arrived at the station a fifteen-minute-walk from his home after an hour, and then been at work again at eight the next morning.

Sadly for John, he was stolen away by a vampire shortly after arriving at the station. The CCTV records that he is there one moment, the next he... isn't.

(As I imagine vampires wanting to hunt in subtlety will prefer to kill their victims in the woods, or near lakes- places where hiding the blood and gore is no issue. If you rip a human apart at a train station, you're either a world class cleaner or you've guaranteed yourself attention.)

The CCTV will be checked: it will, however, likely not yield anything useful.

If it does, then the Volturi do have a problem, but that is where the linked post comes in: I think they would keep their heads down, pass out word to the vampire world to BE CAREFUL DAMNIT, because if it's just John Doe seen murdered in this way in an English village and then one Jane Doe in Bangkok two months later, the odds of the cases being connected are miniscule.

In other words, the important thing to the Volturi is that the police don't realize these murders are happening all the time, and if it's just the occasional CCTV capture with no discernible pattern in terms of frequency, location, or victim, then they have time to adjust (and to send word to everyone to BE DISCRETE, FOR GOD'S SAKE.)

Jane Doe is taken from her house

Most people don't have indoor cameras, and if you want to be sure you wait for her in her bathroom.

Jane, taken from her home at an unknown time and with no recording of her being taken, will be investigated but the only aid modern technology can offer is that investigators know when her phone stopped being used or moved that night.

The Volturi are not worried about the Janes of this world.

John Doe is murdered in an alley

The CCTV was on and saw the entire thing, and for argument's sake we'll say the culprit was a careless newborn. Blood and gore galore.

However, who's to say anybody sees the recording? I'm not being obstinate - but for someone to regard hundreds of hours of footage from a place, there has to be a known missing person as well as reason to believe they were taken from X location at roughly Y time.

If John was living alone and no one knew he'd gone out to kebab place A for a late night snack, no one searches the CCTV in that area.

-

My point with all this is, CCTV will be a problem but I don't think vampires are getting revealed overnight either. They will learn new tricks, or rather, be beaten over the heads by the Volturi with "Take people from their homes or else!!".

There will inevitably be recordings, there just won't be all that many of them. And when a recording of a vampire attack does go viral (I do agree it'll happen sooner or later, it's just I'm putting my money on "later"), the Volturi are likely sitting very quietly and not rocking the boat.

After all, should the secret be broken, that's not actually a problem for them. (Post 1 on that, post 2)

[theshotsheardacrossworlds]

Live

Lily does not deal with Elminster's visit well. At all. SFW.

“I’d hoped to introduce you to him in less dire circumstances, but those are hard to come by these days.”

Lily was not in a charitable mood. Rage was slowly building inside her after Elminster Aumar arrived at their camp and told Gale about Mystra’s request. “He didn’t seem much of a friend, showing up and demanding you kill yourself.” she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

Please, don’t make this harder than it should be. Gale shook his head. “It’s not a demand he wanted to make of me. As Mystra’s Chosen, he had no choice but to deliver her message, however much it pained him to do so. For Mystra to have sent him…The severity of her bidding could not be clearer. Or weigh more heavily on me.” I thought I had more time. Time to learn, to read, to love you… “Time seems so infinite when you are young…a month is an age, a year is a lifetime…it is a strange feeling, to realize how little of it one might have left.”

Her mouth dropped open, exposing her fangs. “You’re seriously considering doing what Elminster said?”

“Of course---he offered the clearest solution to our problem. All I have to do is find the right place and time, close my eyes, and let go…” And think of you. I want to imagine your beautiful smile as I leave this world. “Then the slate will be clean, wrongs will be righted, the Absolute will be gone…and I along with it.”

She was growing angrier by the second. “So that’s it? You’re on a suicide mission now?”

Please. I beg of you. Make this easy for both of us. He smiled halfheartedly. “Possibly the most spectacular one ever conceived, but essentially yes. I am living on borrowed time, in more ways than one. Perhaps…perhaps this is now it must be.” As she began to protest, he raised a hand. “But that remains ahead of us for now. The Heart of the Absolute must be discovered before I can stop its beating.”

“You’re not blowing yourself up, Gale. I won’t let you.” Lily yelled; her fists balled at her sides.

“Let’s save such certainty for the moment such a decision is upon us. You may feel differently, once we know what we’re truly up against.”

“OH FUCK THAT SHIT!” She exploded, throwing her hands in the air. “FUCK THAT, GALE!” Turning, she stomped so full of anger but also very elegantly in her way away from his tent. Their other companions dared not look at him.

He found her not too far away from camp, swinging the Everburn Blade against cursed trees. She was clearly in a rage, her normally demonic purple eyes burning red. And it appears her wild magic has created a barrier of protective lights around her. Gods, she is so beautiful…

“FUCK THIS! FUCK YOU! FUCK OFF, MYSTRA WITH YOUR BULLSHIT! AND FUCK THAT OLD MAN COMING INTO MY CAMP AND TELLING THE MAN I LOVE TO KILL HIMSELF!”

Gale’s eyes widened. She…she…she loves me. He cleared his throat and watched the tall, voluptuous tiefling turn to face him. “Lily, be calm. It’s only me.” He held up his hands and smiled gently. “Be at ease, my dear.”

She ended her rage and within seconds, crumpled to the ground and sobbed.

A lady in distress?! MY LADY IN DISTRESS!!! My knees are going to be sore later but needs must! He crouched next to her (oof, that’s my knees cracking) and tried very awkwardly to wrap an arm around her broad shoulders. “Dearest, please dry your tears. It breaks my heart to see you cry.” See and hear. The first few nights when I heard her crying for her mother. Crying when Shadowheart was treating her for some awful wounds. And now she’s crying for me.

Lily sobbed into her clawed hands. “I-I don’t want you to die, Gale! I love you.” She suddenly pulled him into a tight embrace. As if she’s afraid of letting me go. Oh gods. “I love you. Please, please we will find another way. I promise. I don’t know where it is yet, but I’ll find it. I swear!” Tears continued to flow down her freckled cheeks. “I’m a barbarian of Clan Wildheart, and I will protect you damnit. I will fucking save you.” A broken sob emerged from her, making Gale’s heart break even more. “I will save you…”

“Of that, I have no doubt.” He shifted so that she could rest her head against him, and he inhaled her scent. Lavender soap from the Emerald Grove. She bought it from that halfling fellow. I remember her saying her shampoo makes her smell like cookies. Good gods, she’s the perfect woman. “And for the record, I do not wish to die. I’m terrified.” He felt tears in his eyes. “But with you at my side, I so firmly believe that we will survive this. That we must survive this. Do you know why?” My heart is beating at a tremendous rate. “Because I love you too, my darling girl. I wish to spend every day for the rest of my life making you smile. I wish to greet the days with you and make love to you all night.” He chuckled. “All day as well, if I’m being honest.” Relief washed over him as he felt heard her chuckle, her strong yet incredibly soft body rippling. “So please understand that I’ve no desire to end my life prematurely. I will fight for you, alongside you, however you want me…for as long as I can.”

They sat (on the bloody ground---my poor knees) for a few minutes in a comfortable silence. Lily held one of Gale’s hands in hers, caressing the top of his hand with her thumb. “You know,” she whispered. “Da always said everyone has their fish---their ultimate catch. You’re my fish, Gale. I’m not letting you go. Not ever.”

“That is quite possibly the most heartfelt and infinitely strange way to describe falling in love I’ve ever heard, dearest.” He smiled. My heart feels as if it will burst with the purest, most radiant joy I’ve ever known. His fingers gently traced circles where soft, freckled skin was exposed. “I love you.”

Sighing contentedly, Lily closed her eyes. “Love you too, magic man.”

I could stay like this for eons and never grow tired of it. However…there is something else she should know…whether she accepts it is another story. Straightening and tapping her hand lightly, he cleared his throat. “I, erm, there’s another…issue of sorts we need to discuss, darling.” Gale watched her gaze search his as she sat upright. “This earring isn’t simply a fantastic piece of jewelry.” He squeezed his eyes closed as he caused the glamour to disappear. “I-I understand if this is a deal breaker---that I lied. Again. However, I can explain—”

Gale never got a chance to explain.

Because Lily’s lips crashed into his, kissing him passionately and cupping his face in her strong and sexy hands. She chuckled as she leaned her forehead against his. “You’ve got nothing to explain, love.” She wrinkled her nose and giggled before kissing him again. “You’re still very yummy.”

“Is that so? I’m…yummy?” Yummy? No previous lover of mine has ever called me yummy. Am I yummy?

Lily gave him a quick peck on his bearded cheek before heaving herself up to stand and then offered a hand. “I can see the wheels turning, Gale love, and yes, you are yummy. Very much so.”

He very gratefully took her hand and stood. Oof, that’s my knees again. And my back. “I would say the same thing of you, darling, but first things first,” his brown eyes sparkled as he wrapped his arms around her thick waist and rested her head under her chin. “I love you, sweetness. I promise I will do everything to live. To survive.”

Before Lily had a chance to speak, her stomach did for her.

Rumbleeeeeeeeeeeeee.

They burst into laughter, and Gale could not help but giving lady love the most gentlemanly tap on her luscious ass. I wonder if she’ll let me—

“To make dinner?” she asked with a grin.

He stepped back and bowed. Again with my damn back!!!! “As my lady commands so I shall fulfill all her wishes, including dinner!”

It wasn’t the finest dinner---a pork stew with potatoes.

But I know there will be thousands more to come…

With my beautiful Lily at my side.

[i-only-want-endless-happiness]

Dear pjo fandom

I just read the sun and the stars and i was so happy to come here and see all the little cute fan arts and what i find is a bunch of adults complaining about a child books series istg this fandom is one of the most toxic ones out there.

Now i could tell you that if you want to consume a product whatever it is movies,books,tv shows ecc that's explicitly for kids/preteens you have to approch it with the right mentality which is letting your inner child enjoy the product if you're 20+ something, cause of course the adult you won't feel the same wonder, and sure kids products don't have to be bad or bland and there are other things out there aimed at kids that are better than tsats BUT it's not a bad book, mark oshiro did such a good job at portraying healing and trauma, they also did an amazing job at presenting to middle schoolers the idea of romantic relationships being not all roses and flowers and unicorns, human relationships are hard no matter the kind, it's something difficult to accept and to deal with especially when every single fairy tale you read as a kid teaches you that there is a happily ever after, that after adversities everything gets solved and goes fine, when you grow up you learn that nothing is further from the truth than that, i could also tell you that of course the concept is extremely simplified but again it's a book for kids/preteens, i could tell you to not go for something you know it's not targeted to you if you want approch it in a cynical way, i could give you as example that reading tsats and wanting maturity out of it is like going to watch a disney animation movie and then complaining they sing too much. Cause now you have to tell me when rick riordan has been mature or not cringe in the whole entirity of the pjo saga? He literally wrote a dam joke after killing off a 12 years old, added a judo flip to a romantic reunion of two characters that haven't seen each others for almost a year, wrote a romantic declaration from a 20 years old something to a 16 years old girl, wrote about gods falling for the stupidiest shit said by teenagers demigods, made percy at 12 years old won a fight against the fucking god of war and i could go on so if that has been ok with you till now what is even the point? The truth is y'all are not complaining cause the book feels immature/cringe/ooc ecc y'all are complaining cause you hate will and you hate him cause you ship nico with percy,jason,leo or who knows who and that's ok you don't have to like will or solangelo you can ship whatever you want (i'm an "anomaly" in this fandom i never shipped percabeth, i started prefering percy and rachel and i ended up loving the idea of annabeth and piper, still i can be objective enough to read a whole saga where percy and annabeth are the main couple and not shit on it just cause i don't ship them together) of course you can complain about this book but at least make an effort and think of valid reasons. The real problem is why did you decide to buy and read a book that focuses as one of the main plots on a relationship you hate so much, if you can't stand them as a couple why did you read it in the first place? This book is not perfect it lacks things and there are topics that needed to be handled better sure, but it's not bad,ooc or cringe, cheesy maybe but not the kind of cringe you are trying to make it pass. The real deal here is you don't really care about any of those things you just hate the ship the book revolves around and again that's fine but just be honest it's way more respectful than taking away the work af a queer author that tried to settle more the idea of a queer couple being normal and equal to a straight one to a group of young people who are living in a society that still is against queer people.

Damnit shut up, do it for the gay kids

A former kid (still queer tho)

(if i made mistakes forgive me english is not my first language)

[dr-docktor]

Vethylm and Benchmark my beloved. I love a duo where they’re both entirely competent and intelligent on their own but the moment they’re put together, any and all common sense flies out the window.

Anyway enjoy this thing I wrote (I am severely out of practice)

Vethylm thinks - knows - there is something off about Benchmark.

No, it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that his eyes are an unnatural hue of yellow, the fact that his pupils are shaped like stars, nor does it have anything to do with how he’s abnormally warm to the touch. Well- it sort of does…

”Your brain must be frying in there, little buddy”

“Whuh? Oh! Haha, yeah it probably is.”

There! That’s the problem! The non-answers. The way he’ll play dumb and flash a harmless grin as he bobs and weaves his way out of a straightforward answer. The way that he expertly navigates conversations like a dance or even a duel. The way that his strange eyes flicker back and forth during every intense situations, running the possibilities through his head.

And y’know, that wouldn’t be a problem normally. It really wouldn’t. Yet somehow, after all of that silent analysis, this man somehow chooses the DUMBEST option every single time.

Even Veth’s very first encounter with Bench felt like long sitcom gag. After all, a guy booking it down the street wearing a wedding dress, cackling madly while several uniformed figures clamor after him is hardly an everyday occurrence.

“By the way, Benchy. What in the Sam hell was that whole wedding-dress business about?”

“Oh that? God- y’know, it’s really hard to explain. Just trust me when I say it was extremely funny in the moment.”

And there it is again! The evasiveness! It’s downright infuriating how nonchalant he can be. And the worst part? It doesn’t even feel cold or cruel. Benchmark is truly so friendly and bright, something odd for a man who’s constantly carrying a sword with him.

But that’s just Bench for you. Someone with 300 years of experience under his belt is bound to be a bit eccentric.

Wait. 300?

“What on earth do y’mean ‘300’? 300 years?”

“Yeah, uh. I really don’t want to talk about it.” Benchmark grimaces, shutting down the conversation.

And for a second it feels like the world stops. A straightforward, zero bullshit answer.

Veth desperately wants to pry. Humans don’t just receive immortality out of nowhere. What was with that reaction? Who IS this man?

But then again, his response was laced with this deep sadness, brows furrowed together in a brief but striking moment of weakness. It tugs on Veth’s heartstrings a bit.

God damnit all.

Against his better judgment, Veth holds his tongue. Maybe he’ll learn to appreciate the man’s mysteries. Even if they remain, to this day, incredibly infuriating.

[work-the-wasteland]

Working The Wasteland (FO4)

*FEEDBACK* Uh... is this thing on? Ahem. People of the commonwealth. Do not be afraid. I come in peace. I am... Sam! It's me again, back with more tips and tricks to make the commonwealth your bi-*FEEDBACK, FOLLOWED BY STATIC*

-een at that point where we need something done for us, right? Whether we don't have the skills or the scrap to do it, we've all had to ask for help, y'know. Don't be ashamed, it's perfectly normal to underperform your first time. Well, now I've got the perfect solution for all of your problems...

*Sounds of sawing can be heard in the background* *Door opening and closing* A new, state of the art... SYNTH! With my new product called DO-IT-MYSELF (patent pending) a Gen 3 synth will be sent to your settlement to do work for you! This synth's personality will be that of a construction worker, and thus will be able to do any building that you can't do all on it's own! Each synth has it's very own unique shutdown code and module, so if you've got a terminal or a pip-boy, you can shut it down remotely in case things go haywire. Each of these bad boys start at the low low price of 12000 caps for the full package! I know, quite the investment, but with all of the added safety features, it's a bargain!

The full package includes:

1 Gen 3 synth (6000 Caps)

1 extra right arm, left arm, left leg, and right leg (1000 caps)

1 remote disable code (500 Caps)

1 synth shut-down holotape (Free!)

Software that automatically keeps the synth calm (1000 caps)

2 replaceable eyes (1000 caps)

3 different sets of clothing (500 caps)

1 Shovel, 1 Hammer, and 1 Screwdriver (Free!)

and 12 months of Anti-Liberation warranty! (2000)

However, if you just want the basic package:

1 Gen 3 synth (6000 caps)

1 synth shut-down holotape (Free!)

1 set of clothing (Free!)

1 shovel, 1 hammer, and 1 screwdriver (Free!)

1 month Anti-Liberation warranty (Free!)

So, if you're interested, please head to the dark alleyway behind the Cambridge Police Departmen- *whispering*

What? *whispering* ALL OF THEM?

GOD DAMNIT! DO PEOPLE KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO FIND THESE DAMN SYNTHS? IT DOESN'T HELP THAT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY THERE'S SOME DAMN BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL FU- *STATIC*

"Is it working now...? Frank here. I think our radio just shut down. Whatever. Back to our regularly scheduled music. Here's You're Driving Me Crazy by... Guy... Lumbago? What?"

[dualityvn]

Takes a very very deep breath, before covering my entire head and body with the blanket as a makeshift cocoon.

(Dear God, let this be a testament to what I'll put myself through for this one man.)

"...Tenebris, do you even realize how horrifyingly close I am to having a breakdown right now?

I'm literally wearing very few layers of clothing, in your guys' bed nevertheless, and just woke up to you witnessing me in that state. Which is embarrassing, and mortifying if you take into consideration I do have a problem with nudity and especially towards people that I'm not currently dating, perceiving me in said partly nudity. Dear God, seeing you in the near future will be very embarrassing.

Normally, you know, I would just live through this embarrassment and carry on as normally as I could.

But, if that wasn't scary enough and I haven't heard enough horror cases where in similar situations some very unsavory stuff happen. You, a literal being that can break a human like a pretzel, go ahead and threaten me... While I, may I remind you, am already having a literal panic attack. This is probably the scariest situation I'll ever find myself in and I'm very tempted to throw whatever heavy object is next to me, and call you so many names. I would be very justified to do any of these actions, because please excuse my language in advance. What the absolute fuck???

Don't even get me started on the nerve you have, to find this as a great opportunity to have such a serious talk. When you literally see me almost everyday in this house??? And you chose the one night where those questions of yours would have already been answered by what I had been planning for weeks. Weeks!

You wanted to know why my behavior keeps switching? Because as I promised, I'm trying my best to try to show Keith that I'm trying. Therapy has definitely helped me have those little sweet moments with him without anything going bad. But I have times where I revert back to the old mindset of self sabotaging and being emotionally unavailable. Why? Because it's easier to do so than have to face the fact that I'm experiencing feelings I never had for a guy. It's not always a nice experience, sometimes it hurts, and can suck so much. I feel so weak and vulnerable and I hate it. It's easier for me to lie and act like I don't have any feelings, it feels safer at times. And it's stupid, it's stupid because Keith is a wonderful guy and yes, he would never hurt me intentionally. But you can't shake those habits off. Fears are always stupid but they are not easy to deal with. Keith isn't the only one facing his demons, I too have had past experiences that made me like this.

Do you think I love not being able to hold the hand of the poor guy I'm trying to date? I would just break down if I did it. And yes, I know Keith would be very understanding. Yet what if he blamed himself or thought I was repulsed by him? I don't want him to be sad, I don't want to constantly be the cause of his sadness, damnit. Sure, I could tell him, and I was planning to actually. This was me trying to build up towards maybe you know, talking and then trying to do something small? So he wouldn't feel like I'm just constantly using excuses, or that I don't truly like him. I just can't help it. Sometimes this relationship tends to feel that it's going way too fast for me, way too intimately. Then I shut down and I fear that I accidentally hurt him. Whereas for others that stuff is so easy for them to do without a second thought. They don't have to second guess their actions and words, they don't have to think twice before even initiating a single touch.

And hell, I already had a similar conversation with Keith, I told him that I'll need more time before my words match my actual feelings. That in the future, I'll become someone deserving of him and who can love him without fear. For now, he's okay with me trying to express everything through the little everyday things I do for him. Though if Keith was feeling this insecure, I would have preferred to learn it from him. Unless, it was so serious that you had to get involved and tell me that maybe I should try harder because he was lying about being okay. Please god, don't let him actually feel this way, he doesn't deserve it.

I won't lie and say I'm not mad at you right now. I'm not that delusional to think you care about me trying, you don't even trust me. You're just waiting for me to slip up and say that you called it. You don't care whether this relationship will work out. Hell, you probably hope it won't and that Keith will end up finding someone better. And even though all my previous points still stand and you could have handled this so much better, I get that you're just looking out for him. He's practically a brother to you and you want only the best for him as well. So I don't even want an apology, and I'm sorry if I made it seem that I'm giving mixed signals. I can't promise I won't do it again, but I am slowly building towards a place of being able to be openly affectionate with Keith without feeling like I opened up too much...

Just, after you're done lecturing me, can I please talk to him? Please, Tenebris? I have a few questions to ask him and would prefer he knows at least the summary of this situation. The last thing I want is for him to feel I'm hiding stuff from him, because I know this situation will get brought up in the near future."

"Excuse me?! You're sitting in my bed, yelling at me for walking into my own room and finding you in it? Of course I'm questioning you! You're fucking weird to me! I don't get how humans work. All I know is you keep saying dumb awful stuff for no reason. And he doesn't even question you! Whatever, just put on however many clothes you need to make you not throw shit at me. You can talk to him after." - Tenebris, right before he marches out

[roseworth]

"What happened?" "Do you want the long version or the short version?" "Uh, short?" "I made a mistake." "Okay, long version." "I made a very very big mistake." with Jason & Steph and/or anyone else you feel like! <3

send me a prompt <3 <3

--

Jason wasn’t sure why he even bothered having a lock on his door at all. Everyone that knew where he lived would pick his lock or climb in through the window (or in Artemis’s case, kick the door off its hinges) whenever he wasn’t home, so apparently there wasn’t much of a point to having a security system at all.

He came back from the store with grocery bags hanging from his arms to see that his door was unsurprisingly unlocked. He sighed quietly and pushed open the door, then locked it behind him. He was not in the mood to be dragged into whatever problems his pseudo-siblings were having today.

“Jason!” Stephanie greeted as he walked in. She was crouched on his kitchen counter, holding one of Dick’s escrima sticks in front of her defensively. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“I live here,” he said drily as he set his bags down. “What brings you here?”

“Your apartment has more weapons than anywhere else I know,” she answered simply. 

Jason blinked. “What about the Batcave?”

“He can get to me in the Batcave.”

“Who?”

A loud knocking on the door broke them out of their conversation. “Todd!”

“Don’t answer it!” Steph yelped.

“Steph…”

“He’s gonna kill me!”

“What the hell did you do?”

“Do you want the short version or the long version?”

The knocking at the door quickly turned into angry pounding.

“Uh… short,” Jason said.

“I made a mistake.”

“Okay, fine, long version.”

“Todd! I know you’re in there!”

“I made a very very big mistake.”

The lock started clicking, and Jason rolled his eyes. “How many people are going to pick that lock today?”

“Oh my god,” Steph whispered. “Hide me.”

“There’s a spot in the bedroom where you can–”

He turned around and Steph was already gone. 

Damian burst into the room seconds later, holding a knife in one hand and another one of Dick’s escrima sticks in the other. “I know she’s here.”

Jason sighed and rubbed his temple. “Who’s here?”

“Stephanie.”

“Nope, no Steph here,” he said. “Maybe you should check with Cass.”

Damian narrowed his eyes, then started searching the room. “No, she would have come here,” he said. “She’s predictable.”

“Apparently not as predictable as you think, kid,” Jason shrugged. “She’s not here.”

Damian turned his glare away from his search and toward Jason’s face. “You shouldn’t be protecting her, Todd.”

“I’m not.”

Damian held his knife up to his chin. It was supposed to be menacing, but the fact that the kid almost had to stand on his toes just to reach his face made it a lot more cute than scary.

“I know your secret.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “I don’t have any secrets.”

“I know about your relationship with the Lantern.”

Fuck.

“So?” Jason replied, crossing his arms.

Damian smirked. “I’ll tell Father.”

“You can tell Bruce whatever you want, I don’t give a shit.”

“I’ll tell Mother.”

Jason frowned and glared at him. Damian glared back.

“Damnit,” Jason muttered. “She’s in the bedroom.”

“Traitor!” Steph yelled, throwing the bedroom door open.

“You!” Damian hissed, going in to lunge at her. 

Jason looped an arm around Damian’s waist and picked him up before he could go in for the kill. Stephanie, who had apparently found one of Jason’s swords, was holding it in front of herself menacingly. 

“You’ll rue this day, Brown!” Damian shouted, wriggling in Jason’s grasp.

“Don’t you guys normally annoy Dick with your issues?” Jason groaned, then slung Damian over his shoulder. 

“She almost got me killed!”

“That’s an oversimplification and you know it!”

“How about going to Babs?” Jason continued. “I’m sure she would love to hear about this problem instead of me.”

“Todd, unhand me now, or I swear I’ll make you ever regret leaving that hole you crawled out of!” Damian yelled.

“Jason, if you let him kill me I’ll haunt you both for the rest of eternity.”

“Alright, alright,” Jason held an arm up. “No one’s killing each other today, okay? Now how about someone tells me what’s going on.”

“Stephanie made me jump off a roof,” Damian spat.

Jason closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m gonna need a little more than that.”

“We were on patrol together,” Steph explained, still holding the sword defensively. “And I thought it might be funny to prank him.”

“So you made him jump off a roof?” Jason asked, a little incredulous. 

“No, the prank wasn’t supposed to involve him jumping off the roof.”

“She acted like she fell off the roof,” Damian frowned. “I thought she fell because of her own incompetence, so I jumped down to save her.”

“But I had already grappled back up,” she added. “So Damian couldn’t find my body on the street and he freaked.”

“I did not 'freak,'” he defended. “I was irritated because you’ve managed to get killed in the line of duty before, and it would be unbecoming to do it again.”

“Hey! You’ve died too!”

“Okay, okay, we’ve all died,” Jason said placatingly. “Let’s all just chill out, right?”

“I cannot chill out, Todd,” Damian yelled. “She made me think she was dead, that is unforgiveable.”

“So you’re going to kill her over it?”

“No,” he rolled his eyes. “I’m going to make her regret ever living.”

“Fuckin’ hell,” Jason said under his breath. “Why am I on big brother duty for this one? Steph, you’re only a year younger than me, and Damian’s basically a 40-year-old dressed as a 12-year-old.”

“Thank you.”

“Damian went to Dick first,” Steph said. “And he gave him an escrima stick to take revenge. I went to Dick to tell him off for it, so he gave me the other escrima stick to defend myself.”

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose. “Listen, you guys are perfectly capable of figuring this out on your own.”

“He’s not really in the mood to talk it out,” Steph argued.

“She’s right, Todd, put me down and we will figure it out through combat.”

“If you guys are gonna fight to the death, do it in Dick’s apartment and not mine.”

“I don’t want to fight to the death!” Steph shouted.

“Then how about you try apologizing while I’m keeping the kid from killing you.”

Steph sighed and moved to look at Damian from where he was still dangling over Jason’s shoulder. “Dames, I’m sorry I worried you when I fell. I didn’t mean to make you upset.”

“I wasn’t upset,” Damian mumbled.

“Damian–”

“Fine,” he frowned. “I was worried you were hurt. And I would rather you did not fall a roof.”

“Aw, Damian!” Steph beamed.

"I forgive you for this time," he said. "But if you make me believe you've died again, I will not be so easily persuaded."

"Deal," she nodded with a grin. She threw the sword on the ground and held her arms out. “Wanna hug it out?”

"No." 

She held her arm out instead. “Handshake it out?”

“Fine,” he agreed. “Set me down, Todd, we’re working things out.”

Jason snorted and put Damian back on the floor. He reached out his arm for a handshake, but Steph grabbed it and yanked him into a hug instead. He yelped, then grumbled quietly and wrapped his arms around her.

“Wanna team up on patrol again tomorrow?” Steph asked.

“...Yes.”

They broke apart, and Jason picked up the forgotten escrima sticks. Steph raised an eyebrow. “What are you gonna do with those?”

He pressed a button, and the electricity on them crackled to life. “I’m gonna go have a conversation with Dick about making me deal with his problems,” he said. “Don’t break any of my stuff while I’m gone.” He saluted with one hand and slipped out the window. 

“Wanna go watch them fight?” Steph asked with a slight mischievous grin. 

“Of course I do,” Damian answered, his expression mirroring hers. 

“I’ll bet $5 that Jason makes Dick cry,” she said, slinking out the window to follow Jason.

“Please, I’ll bet $10 that Richard makes Todd cry.”

“You’re on.”

[tarabyte3]

I Want You to Show Me Weak

Fandom: Andor

Pairing: Kino Loy/F!Reader

Chapter 14/27 (3.3k words)

->start at chapter 1<-

<- Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 ->

Summary: You're pretty sure Kino Loy hates you. He screams at you, grabs you, and shoves you against the wall, and it's becoming a problem because, well...it shouldn't fluster you as much as it does.

Warnings: Explicit rating, Smut, Prison, Prison sex, minor non-graphic injuries, Dom/Sub, sexual tension, dirty talk, praise, hair-pulling, light choking, unprotected sex, oral, angst, orgasm denial, humiliation, slut shaming, references to domestic abuse

A/N: I hope everyone had a lovely, peaceful holiday weekend. I severely underestimated how much of my time and effort my family Christmas gatherings would take up, but I did it 😅 Heads up about a new, minor warning. Work title is from "Poison" by Vaults. Chapter title is from "I Wanna Be Adored" by The Raveonettes. Chapter links above.

AO3 Link

Chapter 14 - I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me. I wanna be adored.

The next morning, you're lying on your bed, your hands pressed flat against your temples, with both elbows sticking up, and you're trying to convince yourself you can make it through today. That you can focus and be normal and not moan every time you see Kino. You can behave. Because you need to be focused. Like, desperately need every ounce of focus to not fuck up.

That's how Alis finds you when sticks his head around the wall and into your cell.

"Hey, you find out anything more about Vage for Taybus?"

You groan loudly and let your hands slide to your face. "No! I'm a terrible friend." You peek over at him from between your fingers. "Did you?"

"Yeah." He moves so he's leaning against the wall in the opening of your cell. "I found out he likes holonovels and racing speeders."

"Oh," you flop your arms down, "is that where he got that?"

"Nope," Alis shakes his head, amused. "Bro found that out all on his own. I didn't get the chance to tell him because he was already chatting him up. So I've basically done nothing either."

"Well, damn." You sit up and swing your legs over the side of your bed. "Maybe we don't have to do shit anymore. Maybe he's got this."

Alis sniffles and pretends to wipe a tear away. "Our little man is growing up so fast."

You chuckle. "It helps that Vage is obviously totally into him. You saw that, too, right?"

"Yep. Lit up like a communications panel when I said his name."

"And from his place at Table 1, who is directly beyond me in his line of sight? The little shit. It's a slam dunk."

"He really is an idiot and I'm so proud of him."

You both stare at each other for a moment. You know exactly what he's thinking because you're thinking the same thing and you're both waiting for the other one to say it in a weird game of chicken. So of course you cave first.

"Wanna bet how long it takes before they're messing around at the other end of the hall?"

"You know I do!" He bounces on his feet in excitement. "Nine days. He's shy. It'll take him a bit to work up the courage to make a move, and then a few days to get past kissing and holding hands."

You jump up from your bed and slide onto your bench. "Four days." You grin mischievously.

"Four? No way. You're dreaming." He shakes his head and looks down the hall.

"Yes, four." You lean forward to make your case. "Because Taybus isn't going to make the first move. Vage is. He's the more confident and experienced one. He's been eyeing Taybus for a while. He's gonna stick his tongue down his throat tonight or tomorrow night, and then his hand in his pants a day or two after that. And Taybus will happily let him take the lead because he's never done this before, he has it bad for him, and Taybus is gonna be the passive one in that relationship."

Alis sighs as he mulls your points over. Then he throws his head back with a, "Fuck! You're probably fucking right, god damnit."

"I know I am," you grin. "What do I get when I win?"

"Now, hold on. IF you win, thank you. Taybus's inexperience could still slow them down."

"Okay, IF I inevitably win like I'm going to."

Alis rolls his eyes, but thinks for a minute. "We don't really have anything to bet, do we?"

"We really don't," you sigh.

"It's gotta be a wager of action, then. How about…if you win, I gotta walk naked from the showers all the way to the other end of the locker room."

"Okay, okay, promising start. Very embarrassing, continue."

"And if I win, you gotta walk up and kiss Kino in the hallway."

You hesitate. "Kino won't like that."

"No risk, no deal. Besides, weren't you just overly confident you would win anyway?"

"Yeah, but…he would be really upset with me. I don't want to make him angry." You recoil, unsure, and Alis gives you a calculating look.

"Okay, then how about if I win, you tell me what the fuck is up with you two. Is he controlling or something?'

"No!" You protest. Probably too quickly because Alis looks even more concerned and suspicious. "I swear it isn't like that! Though," you wince, "I can see how it looks from the outside."

"My sister dated this real piece of work that…" Alis winces, "that hurt her." Then his voice becomes serious and intense, which are things you've never heard from him. "You promise me you're okay." You feel touched that he cares so much about you.

"Alis," you look directly into his eyes and give him the most sincere expression you're capable of. "I promise you, Kino would NEVER hurt me or do anything without my consent. He could never be that person. He's a good man. I trust him completely and without hesitation. I am okay."

"Good." He relaxes and nods. "I believe you."

"Good."

"So it's some dominant and submissive thing, then."

You stiffen and look at him in alarm. "I never said that," you hiss.

"You didn't have to. You forget, I got around out there. I've experienced the galaxy. I've seen some shit, is what I'm saying," he says, amused.

"Okay, I get it! Keep your voice down!" You say in a harsh whisper and look around to make sure no one is listening.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. Not my thing, but it's pretty normal. I get it." He shrugs, unphased. "Makes sense with you two anyway."

"Yeah, well, I don't think most people are as experienced as you are, Alis, and they fucking wouldn't." You're trying not to freak out because he's being casual about it, but also, that's one of your biggest secrets. And you've been anxious someone would find out someday and be disgusted with you or that it would ruin how they look at you. That it would ruin the imitation of a life you've built in here. So you can't help but react with panic.

"Fair. Can't imagine Sorrek wrapping his head around that," he chuckles. "Though I bet you he and his wife were a little freaky. Like, he's gotta be intense in bed, right?"

"Probably, and also I refuse to think about Sorrek sexually." You give him a nauseated look and suddenly feel empathy for Taybus. "Did you know he used to be a fighter?"

"Yeah. You didn't?" He looks surprised.

"No! Kino told me. I teased him about being afraid Sorrek would kick his ass."

"Oh, I don't blame him for being afraid." Alis winces. "I thought he genuinely might when you were so upset." He pauses to think for a minute. "Wait, why were you so upset, then? What was up with that?"

"It was a misunderstanding," is all you say.

"What the fuck does that mean?" He whispers. "Taybus made the spanking comment and you freaked. I'm starting to think he wasn't that far off."

"Fine," you sigh. "He thought we, you know, had something and I'm a fucking idiot and thought he hated me. So he…did some things that, uh, well…"

"Oohh, he thought you were into it and you weren't."

"Oh no, I was still very into it, which was the worst part. Imagine really wanting to fuck someone and you think they hate you and are trying to humiliate you for it."

Alis lets out a long, stunned, heavy exhale. "Damn."

"Yeah."

"Okay, I get it now."

"He apologized and told me it would never happen again. And it wouldn't have happened in the first place if he'd realized." You sigh and shake your head. "You know, I swore none of you would ever find out about this and that I would never talk about it. Ever. Because the truth is a lot different to accept than finding out we're a thing. But it's actually a relief getting it out."

"Hey, man. I'm glad." He punches you lightly on the shoulder. "I won't say shit to anyone and it doesn't weird me out, I promise. I have done and had friends into some actual wild shit. Takes a lot more than that to crush my delicate sensibilities."

"I honestly thought Threl would corner me first. I can see his wheels turning up there all the time. At the very least, he knows I like it when Kino gets worked up, but I don't think he's connected any dots yet. Hell, I don't know if he would. Like maybe this is too far out of the realm of his experience, I don't know."

"Mine were turning, too, I'm just better at subtlety." He grins. "Kind of wondered if that wasn't what was going on from day one."

"I should have known," you laugh. "You wanna know something kind of sad?"

"What's that?"

"Even taking everyone I knew before this hellhole into consideration, I think you might be the best friend I've ever had." You grin at him, but still blush in embarrassment at the admission. "You get me."

"Wanna hear something just as sad? You're probably mine, too. Most of my friends were assholes, but in a shitty way. You're an asshole in a good way. I'm really glad you're stuck slowing my ass down."

"Hey! It's not my fault you're freakishly fast!" You slap him on the arm.

"Ow! Careful with the goods, lady!" He recoils playfully. "Seriously though, I finally have someone in here that can keep up with my wit and appreciate my hilarious jokes."

"Keep up with? Please. You wish you were as hilarious as me."

"Being hilarious by accident doesn't count."

"I take it back, you're the worst friend." You glare at him.

"You love me." He nudges you with his elbow.

"Maybe, but you're on thin ice."

"I thrive on thin ice, baby!"

You roll your eyes at him and the two of you settle into a companionable silence, looking down the hallway to watch everyone else talking and getting ready. Threl and Jevid are a cell down having a conversation that makes Threl chuckle, and his deep rich laugh makes you smile. Someone from Table 6 is talking to Edii and Sorrek, though Sorrek seems to be doing most of the responding. Taybus is missing and you hope that means he already went to see Vage.

"Soo," Alis says casually, breaking the silence, "you get laid yet?"

"Oh my god," you whine, "no! I'm about to lose my god-damned mind, dude."

"What's he waiting for? Marriage?" You give him a panicked, horrified look. "I'm kidding! Terrible joke, sorry," he laughs. "Seriously, though, what's his hold up?"

"If I knew, I would have done something about it. Or died trying. Like, don't get me wrong," you lean in and say in a half whisper, "I'm still getting my shit rocked every night."

"Hell yeah!" He holds his hand up for a high five, and you slap his hand with a smug grin.

"I told you about Lene, right? The girl I was with before I got locked up in here?"

"The one you were going to propose to, but caught with your friend, and I casually asked what planet she was on and definitely not because I was gonna stink bomb her place and put fish guts in her vents. Yeah, you mentioned her."

Alis laughs, "That's her. Before that, though, I really wanted to get everything right, you know? Like, I always wanted things to be special and to put in effort because I wanted it to last. Maybe that's what he's doing. Waiting for the right moment or something."

"Hmmm." You try to imagine Kino fretting over how to make you happy. Fretting over making things special just because they involve you. You wonder if there's a future he thinks about that includes you. It's a lovely, painful thought because you don't know how you would feel if there wasn't. "You think?"

"I don't know, but I got nothing else. Otherwise dude has willpower of steel."

From halfway down the hall you hear Kino yell out, "Alright everyone, let's move! Time to line up!"

"You have no fucking idea," you say as you push yourself down from your bench. "It's a blessing and a curse." You keep close and your voice lowered as you both go to stand in line. "But if we get first today and I, by some miracle, keep my mouth shut and behave, I think my chances are finally decent." Kino's words the night before echo in your mind.

"Say no more, girl, I got you."

The morning goes by smoothly. Table 7 and Table 3 pass first place back and forth for a while. You think you might have a chance, even while you, Alis, and Threl grill details from Taybus about Vage, and he describes the plot of some holonovel about a murder mystery for an hour. It's either too crazy to be plausible, or Taybus is really bad at remembering details. Either way, it entertains all of you for a bit. You and Alis don't even poke holes in the plot to irritate Taybus.

Finally, you ask, "So, have you kissed him yet?"

"No," he mutters as he blushes.

"No rush, man, do what feels right." Alis glances at you with a grin, pleased with himself.

"But I want to!" Taybus whines. You give Alis a bigger grin and he scowls back at you.

"Get him to kiss you," you offer innocently.

"How?? I don't know how to do that!" He says helplessly.

"Okay, here's what you do." You make sure your hands are still tightening bolts and moving as you talk. You really can't afford to let Table 3 widen their lead, even if you want to set Taybus up for success. "Make sure you stand a little closer to him. Make it intimate. And don't cross your arms! Leave yourself open. If you're sitting, make sure your knees are turned towards him, like he has your full attention. Like you're drawn to him and you want to be a little closer. Look at him like he's the only person in the galaxy. As if everything he says is the most interesting thing you've ever heard." You hit the top of your joint to let Jevid know you're done. "Smile shyly on occasion and look at his lips when he talks. And blush! Make yourself think about him kissing or touching you if you have to, that will get you all flustered. That's all you gotta do."

"That's…actually excellent advice." Threl says without looking up.

"What can I say? I know how to flirt." You wink at Taybus, who looks a little overwhelmed.

"That's all? That's a lot!" He neary shrieks and stands there, staring at you.

"Keep moving! Lock the joint." You point down at his wrench and he fumbles as he gets back to work. "Also, no it's not. It's all the things you want to do naturally anyway, you just don't because you're nervous. Just follow your instincts."

"She's right, bro." Alis sounds disappointed and you try not to laugh. "All of that will work."

"How do you know?" He pouts and Edii slaps the part.

"Clear!"

You take a step back and sigh. "Because he's into you, dude!"

Taybus blinks at you in shock as the center of the table moves and lifts the next piece. "What?"

"He's so into you." Alis agrees. "You're the one he was checking out."

"He looks at you a lot. I see him." Edii nods. "You are worried for nothing."

You give Edii a thankful, knowing look. Then you watch Taybus's face change from panic and insecurity to disbelief.

"Oh." He says quietly.

"Yeah. That feeling right there is overwhelming, huh?" You remember sitting down on your bed in shock when you realized Kino wanted you.

"Yeah. It is." A goofy smile spreads across his face. "But it's nice."

"Feel better?" You smirk as you wait for Alis to fetch the arm part.

"Yeah. Thank you." He beams at you. "Do you do all that stuff with Kino?"

"Uuuhhhhh." You aren't prepared for the focus to suddenly shift onto you. "Kind of? I don't really have to flirt unless it's tactical," you clear your throat uncomfortably. "He knows I'm into him.."

"Yeah he does," Alis snickers.

"Hush, you, and hold the arm still, the hole keeps moving." Which just causes him to laugh harder. "Alis!" You scold. "I'm serious! I can't get it in." You immediately groan and the rest of the table erupts into laughter at that. Even Edii is smiling in amusement.

"Dude, I'm trying, you just gotta be faster at getting it in." They all laugh even harder.

"Ha ha, you're all very mature men." You roll your eyes. "I expect it from the rest of them, but this betrayal cuts deep, Sorrek."

"It was funny," he shrugs.

"Edii is the only one of you not annoying me right now."

"Thank you."

"No, thank you for actually working so we can get first place."

"I'm working!" Taybus protests. Then he opens his mouth to add something else, but instead his expression falls. "Kino incoming."

"Shit. He look pissed?" You whisper, concerned, but trying to stomp down your excitement as well.

"No." He rushes to get to work on the part.

You help Alis set the piece into position just as you can feel Kino behind you. Not directly behind you. Maybe two steps back. You wait for him to say something, but he doesn't. He just watches quietly while you struggle to stay focused and do everything perfectly. Ignore him ignore him ignore him oh god ignore him.

Several minutes pass and he still hasn't spoken or moved. You know he hasn't, even as you fight the urge to glance back at him to prove yourself right. You also know that he knows you're aware of him. And how could you not be? Not after last night. Not after what he said. Your wrench slips and you curse as you fit it back over the bolt.

Oh, you realize. He's trying to fluster you. Well, you think as you help your table lift the finished product to take to the cart, it's not going to work. Probably. At the very least, he's going to have to try harder than that.

On your way back to your spot, you finally meet his eyes as your heart speeds up because it's Kino. He's right there, and he's untouchable. He stares at you impassively. So you let your gaze drop to the front of his pants and quickly lick your lips, then look back up to his face just before you take your position. As you work, whenever you bend over to grab a tool or reach across the table, you stick your ass out further than necessary until he mercifully moves on.

Two can play that game.

As you're walking to the bathroom during a break, you catch his eye across the room and give him a suggestive smile. Then you disappear without waiting for a reaction. Either he follows you, or he doesn't but he's thinking about you as he stalks around. It's a win for you either way, you tell yourself. You'll be okay with either outcome, you think.

He doesn't show.

And you're fine as you head back to your table. You're fine as he doesn't meet your eyes on your way back. You're fine that he only passes by behind you so you have to look around for him if you want to see him, only to be met with the back of his head.

He's still trying to fluster you and it's not working. It's not! You're fine.

Because why would Kino not want you to get first place?

A/N: Boy, I bet you were all expecting a much different chapter, huh? 😏😇

NEXT CHAPTER->

[thekimspoblog]

"Sheepdog" (AKA the Kim Wexler Pregnancy fic) Chapter 4: "The Living Blood"

Kim’s back was against the wall. She just realized she’d taken the fire exit. Good! Whatever silent alarm she’d just tripped, let the courthouse sort it out! She was just so hurt and scared and angry, and they couldn’t see her cry! No matter what happened, don’t let them see her cry…

Someone else had been standing here not too long ago. A squashed cigarette butt on the pavement still had 2 small embers glowing. Kim did her best to hold her jacket over her augmented body; she couldn’t linger here; the last thing she needed was a public indecency charge on top of everything else. Storm clouds were gathering as she got into her car. Raindrops started pelting her exposed midriff. God damnit! This pregnancy, or alien parasite, or ancient Egyptian curse or WHATEVER was happening to her, it had popped three of the buttons clean off her blouse. Admittedly, not the biggest concern at present, sure, but god dammit! This too?

She’d be half an hour early to see her GP about this arising circumstance, but all things considered, she obviously should have seen a doctor this morning. What had happened in court was her fault really, her punishment for thinking she could brute-force her way back into making today feel normal. Either way, there wasn’t time to waste kicking herself about it. She felt sick, but she didn’t feel sickly. It was time to get some answers about this; beginning with whether this transformation was going to kill her and if not, how was that possible?

…

Our heroine sat as still as a statue on the examination table, and still the paper covering found excuses to start shredding itself under her. She called Jimmy- Just like she promised she would.

“Hey…” the warmth of his voice carried through over the phone.

“Hey” she sniffled, “I made it to the appointment. I’m just letting you know where I am”

“Are you crying?”

“Hormones,” she brushed it off, “It’s just really nice to hear your voice. I had a bad day at work. Like Chernobyl bad. I’ll tell you about it when I get home. If I can stand to, that is”

“You know, I was planning to work until 5…” Jimmy offered, “But I can be there with you if you want. All I’ve got is two skin-heads and a botched tattoo removal settlement”

“Aw, aren’t you chivalrous…” Kim smirked but her eyes wandered back to her briefcase, and the comb she had stashed inside, “But no. I think I’m ok on my own”

“Is there anything else I can do? And think big; we’re talking lasso the moon here”

“Hmm… I think ice cream would solve at least some of my problems right now”

“Alright well now you’re just being ridiculous! That’s way above my pay-grade! … ah shit I’m going through a tunnel. I’ll call you back!” Jimmy said as he began to break up.

“It’s fine,” his wife raised her voice for the receiver, “A nurse came in to get my weight and bloodwork, and she said the doctor would be back any minute”

The other end of the call became garbled static, and the only discernible word which cut through may or may not have been “sandwich”. Then Kim’s phone beeped as the connection was lost completely. Another minute passed. The room was still quiet. She considered getting her work out to review, but the piles of matted narratives and memos had become stuffed so thick into her briefcase, honestly she pictured herself undoing the latch and they’d all immediately erupt out of their folders and onto the floor. She’d get back to it. Just not here, not now. She was too worn out for it.

On the TV at the end of the hallway outside, she could hear a Muzak cover of “No Surprises” by Radiohead. It was hard to tell if the voices were also coming from the TV, or if it was the nurses talking outside. Might as well investigate…

“You can hear it can't you? That little voice. The one that says, ‘Don't stare too long. Don't touch. Don't do anything you might regret!’ I used to be the same. Whenever I wanted something, I could hear that voice telling me to stop. To be careful. To leave most of my life un-lived. You know the only place that voice left me alone? In my dreams. I was free. I could be as good, or as bad, as I felt like being. And if I wanted something, I could just reach out and take it. But then I would wake up, and the voice would start all over again.

So… I ran away! Crossed the shining sea. And when I finally set foot back on solid ground, all I found was the same old shit. Then as if to mock me, that goddamn voice came back ringing in my ears again. And do you know what it said?”

“Kim?” a short doctor with big watery blue eyes introduced herself.

“Sorry. The ad on the tv was starting to get its hooks in me. That’s all”

“It is loud. I’m Dr. Daniels. You said you’re here because you recently found out you were pregnant?” the doctor said with her peepers lazing over her subject’s protruding stomach.

“I could lie and say I’d been putting off a visit for eight months, but that wouldn’t sound any less crazy, so I might as well tell the truth…” the words caught in Kim’s throat, but she managed to spit it out, and as a result she finally broke down sobbing, “I’ve been attacked! Someone in a red cloak came up to me and stabbed me in the arm with a needle! That’s how the KGB killed Georgi Markov, you know! It’s not science fiction!” Dr. Daniels handed her a box of tissues. “Thanks. Well the needle part isn’t, at least. But I have enemies! There are people trying to fuck with me! And they’re crafty; I don’t know what they are and aren’t capable of. I must stress again, I’m not paranoid. But I kid you not, I’ve caught cars following me! Read my chart - no history of mental illness! - well ok my mom’s an alcoholic, but that doesn’t automatically apply to me - I am only telling you this because we have doctor-patient confidentiality! I’m in it deep! My husband and I are both lawyers and a client we took on happened to be a high ranking cartel member. Now he’s stalking us, harassing us, giving us money I can’t even ask where it came from. If I go to the police, he’ll kill my husband, he’ll kill me, kill you too probably if confidentiality isn’t enough to motivate you. God knows what favor he’ll ask us to do next!

And the worst part is I can’t even talk about this to Jimmy! I mean I can; it’d be worse if he was keeping this whole thing a secret from me. But he thinks I’m stoic! If I show him I’m scared - really out-of-body-experience scared, it’ll all be over between us. I refuse to let that happen. But of all the twisted things I had anticipated, in my wildest dreams I never imagined this!” the pregnant woman blew her nose. Her eyes were glassy with subsiding tears. “The world has officially stopped making sense to me. Everything I knew about the laws of physics… biology… has been proven wrong. You could tell me my whole life has been a John Carpenter movie, and at this point, I’d believe you”

The expression on Daniel’s face was solemn.

“Do you have a therapist?” she asked.

“He retired” Kim sighed, “You don’t believe me either”

“It’s much worse than that. I didn’t believe this story the first time I heard it. But in the last - what was it? - three months, you’re the twenty-second patient who’s told me something like this”

“... What?” Kim had spent her whole morning too much in her own head, and this was the first thing to get her complete attention.

“Well the whole part about the cartel is new. It’s not my job to judge. But the other details; the red cloak? The white mask? The unprovoked assaults with syringes full of mysterious pink gel? The supernaturally fast gestations over the course of less than two days? They’re only becoming more frequent!”

“Stop!” Kim had scooted herself to the edge of the examination table, “You’re saying there’s others?”

“My female patients have every right to be terrified. I don’t know who will be affected next”

“That’s great! Why isn’t the hospital issuing warnings about this? Go to the District Attorney; I can give you his number! This needs to be in every headline in New Mexico! At the very least”

“No it isn’t great!” Dr. Daniels threw her hands up, “You don’t think I’ve tried?! Of course I know this is front-page news. The brick wall is my chief of staff. He won’t listen. He’s not contesting any of the facts, but he says he doesn’t view this as a priority. I’ve gone to the papers! Same problem!”

Ms. Wexler furrowed her brow, “And you don’t think that’s weird”

“Why are you being so hard on me? I’m trying to help you”

“Ok,” she pressed, “But two authorities, completely independent of eachother, are choosing to ignore what is clearly an emergency, and are providing the same rationale. That points to a Watergate level conspiracy! I can’t think of an alternative explanation”

“I can!” the doctor replied as she began to gather up the tools for an ultrasound, “Not all conspiracies are done entirely on purpose. All it takes for an effective conspiracy to work is one person with a malicious design; everyone else could be operating in accord with their own status quo. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but ‘The System’ does a lot of unfair things to women. 1 in 10 of us have some sort of reproductive-related ailment, the only tool I have to treat it is Loestrin, and with the money spent paying off the cottage industry which surrounds sewing confusion about equal pay, They could probably just pay us more already”

If Daniels went around every day this exasperated, it would explain why her eyes were always so puffy. She interrupted her own lecture to ask Kim to lie down.

“It doesn’t have to be so tin-foil-hat all the time. It’s commonly understood that the things it’s worth raising the alarm about, and the things it’s convenient to raise an alarm about are very different. Not just for the bottom line, but for the people who have to toe that line, or else that abstract thing will, like you said, kill their friends and family. I’ve prayed almost every day for ten years that a new supervirus doesn’t emerge, because we aren’t prepared. And god forbid if it only affected women? They’d do NOTHING about it! But I know that with the conditions of the factory farms being what they are, it’s really only a matter of time”

Dr. Daniels had a point, or at least her words weren’t any more bs than anything else which had precedent, but Kim had stopped listening again. She was haunted by the moving silhouette on the black and white screen, and the rest of the world was closing out around her. Was she a bad mother if the first thought to enter her mind was “stupid baby”? She was just still in shock was all; she’d pictured something more in-line with how long she’d been given to process this news, a cluster of cells or some early big-headed skeletal lifeform. Not this! She could discern the outline of the fetus sucking its thumb. She could feel the windows of opportunity being slammed closed. Every other path yielding to the one right in front of her. “I don’t know. I love you, I guess! Shut up!” she thought to herself.

“So!” Daniel’s voice cut through the white noise, “Do you want to know?”

“Know what?” our protagonist replied spacily.

With gentleness and understanding, the physician’s assistant clarified, “If you’re having a boy or a girl…”

“Oh! Right!” Kim stammered, “Uh… sure! Yeah”

Daniels moved the wand higher on her patient’s bump. “Well I could always be wrong… but I don’t think I’m seeing a penis anywhere. I think you’re having a daughter, for whatever that’s worth”

It’s too much pressure, Kim lamented in her head. All these expectations parents foist on kids before they’re even born. It wasn’t fair. Maybe it was good she wasn’t more excited; maybe most of this excitement from new parents was performative anyway. Especially taking into account what a fluke it was that there was life on Earth at all, it was a miracle she was even here to conceive a child. She wasn’t excited, because this was what real unconditional love felt like: this little person was still a complete stranger to her. There was no way to know whether her child would grow up to be masculine or feminine, same way there was no way to know which life choices her child would go on to make that she’d approve of, and which she wouldn’t.

There were only three things Kim was certain of: (1) If she thought of her daughter as a mistake, she meant it as a compliment, because (2) it was an appealing idea to her, that something or someone could perform a transgressive act by its mere fact of existing. It conjured up imagery of some mutant animal with a hairline evolutionary advantage. And (3) even if it hadn’t been too late to go back and “fix” this mistake, she’d decided she was beyond the point of return, and therefore it was true. And now she’d defend that decision at any cost.

“I don’t care” she announced as she wiped the goo off her stomach, “This news still comes to me as a relief. I was seriously worried I was having a nervous breakdown. But if there’s twenty-one other women this has happened to? I can work with that! I’ll start a- a class action suit! Taking the hospital and the papers and anyone else to task for negligence! I’ll make it too loud to ignore! If you could put me in contact with these other patients? Right, no, confidentiality. I’ll figure something out! Oh!”

It was easy to get carried away with this new fire which had been lit under her. But there were a few more questions she had before she was free to charge out the front door. She went over to her briefcase and fished the comb out of the front pocket.

“This is my husband’s comb” she continued, “I was wondering if you could DNA test this. Or do you have to wait until after the kid is born before you can do that?”

Dr. Daniels shrugged, “That can be done easily enough. I’d have to take an amnio sample, which I needed to do anyway. Although for the record, the other women who were in here asked for a paternity test as well, for the obvious reason. And thus far, whatever the results of the test said, for each of them it was 100% what they had wanted to hear. The babies resulting from this mutation weren’t just clones of their mother; the husbands, the boyfriends, the long-term life partners, all the tests came back showing that the fathers were who my patients wanted them to be. At first, I thought this was going to help me narrow down what exactly that pink gel was. I thought maybe it was just extremely powerful at negating their birth control methods. Then a lesbian couple showed up complaining of this… the father in that case was the girlfriend as well. So I don’t have any theories! Deep breath, sharp pinch…” she said as she jabbed the long needle into Kim’s womb.

The spot where the needle had poked was going to be sore for another hour at least, but this reassurance brought our heroine another step closer to accepting what had happened. It was a warming thought, after all, that this stranger was going to be half her and half Jimmy. Even if it all but guaranteed this new animal would be an apex predator…

“Don’t rush out the door just yet!” Dr. Daniels stopped her as Kim was redressing in her ill-fitting and torn skirt, “I still need to do a bloodwork panel”

“Can’t you use the blood you already took?”

“I haven’t drawn any blood yet”

“Not you, but the nurse already stuck me before you came in. Remember, the vials had purple rubber caps?”

Daniels looked confused and turned to hammer away at the computer terminal, “Nobody performed a blood draw. There’d be a record of it. Even if it was less than an hour ago”

Kim’s veins turned to ice. She thought she was being careful. She’d waited 'til the door was closed before spilling her guts. She’d made sure there were no security cameras to capture her betrayal of the cartel. But what if it hadn’t been a record-keeping mistake? If her enemies had infiltrated the hospital, if they were impersonating medical staff, then… then how could she be sure Daniels wasn’t working for them as well? On the other hand, what did these red cloaks have to gain by alerting her of the deception? On the other other hand, she didn’t know what these people were capable of, let alone what they wanted. She made some excuse for why that was enough phlebotomy for one day and beat a hasty retreat without another word to those big, watery eyes.

In the basement of this same facility, technicians were loading trays of blood samples into a refrigerator. On the right-hand side, the vials capped with orange rubber. A label was affixed to the bottom lip of the tray. In black marker, it bore the word “Control”. The tray had been sitting out at room temperature for some time now and the vials had lost their crimson sheen. Where there was an imperfection in the orange cap, a droplet had escaped but already clotted into dry rust. The purple-capped vials next to them, however, did not seem to age. The contents stayed bright red, even though those samples weren’t any younger than the orange ones. A droplet had escaped the purple rubber as well, but it refused to denature in the presence of oxygen. This tray had a label too: “Test Group”. A fly buzzed loudly until it caught the scent of the drop. It perched itself on the vial and rubbed its legs together.

[familyvideostevie]

Can you write some Steve Harrington fluff fic where Dustin and the reader decide to throw an impromptu dance party for the Party to blow off some steam after Vecna and Steve is just so in love with her that they're in their own little world when she gets him to dance with her? You can decide if they’re a couple yet. BTW I LOVE your writing, you've got a real talent and I look forward to whatever comes out next <3

you are so kind, sweet! thank you for requesting this and being so patient, i know it's been days!! i loved writing it and i really got carried away and need to stop fussing with it. i went for friends to lovers bc, how could i not, and let's pretend they defeated vecna and everyone is fine <3 | 2.5k, fluff, friends to lovers, fem!reader

"Do you ever actually sell anything in here?" Dustin says in lieu of a greeting. He barges into the record store where you work, but no other members of the crew pour in behind him. Worry settles at the base of your spine out of habit. Is someone in trouble? Why is he alone?

"Hi, Dustin," you chirp, trying to sound unbothered. He comes right up to the counter and plants his hands on it so he can lean across and into your space.

"I think we need to have a Party party." He's as serious as you've ever seen him, but you have no idea what he's talking about.

"I'm not buying you booze, Dustin," you say slowly. "And why did you say party twice?" He throws his hands up in the air and backs away, starting to pace. Clearly you've missed something important.

"No, no, not like that! Jesus, use your brain, would you?"

"Hey--"

"I mean like, a party for the Party. And you and the other...elders can come, too." Your eyebrows raise, but the anxiety starts to disappear. So, a normal problem, then.

"Elders? You sure you want my help?"

"God, you and Steve hang out too much, you're both impossible--"

"Dustin." He rolls his eyes but stops pacing.

"Okay, sorry." He even sounds like he means it. "Listen. It's been a month since Vecna but I think everyone is still kind of...shitty." You soften even more, knowing he's right. Steve has nightmares most nights, and you know Max has only just started to take her headphones off when she's not with Lucas and Erica. Nancy has taken up running, for chrissakes. You know Robin is never going to set foot in the lake again. Even Dustin, who has stepped up immeasurably to control the group morale, has to call Eddie almost every night to see if he's okay. The return of the Byers and El has helped a little, but things are still tough. And they will be for a long time.

"What do you have in mind?" you ask him. He launches into plan mode.

"We could make it a surprise, but that means you can't tell anyone. Even Steve." You hum an agreement, tapping your fingers on the table. As your best friend, Steve knows everything about you -- well, almost everything. Maybe not one big thing. But that's not the point.

"You're going to tell Steve, aren't you," Dustin says flatly.

"I'm going to tell Steve," you admit, shrugging. You don't feel even a little bad about it.

"Damnit! Love sucks," he moans. You open your mouth to protest but he waves you off. "Yeah, yeah, you and Steve are just friends, I've heard it before. He'll tell everyone, so scrap the surprise."

"It's better if we plan this with help, Dustin," you chide. "Steve will help, I'm sure. I'll call and tell him it'll be at his house tonight and we'll get some snacks and you just tell everyone it's happening. Okay?" You know Steve won't mind, even if it's movie night for you two. He hardly refuses you anything, especially if it's to do with the kids. Dustin nods enthusiastically and you flush out a few more details before he runs out of the store, this mission on his mind.

You call Family Video as soon as he's gone, twirling the chord around your finger and trying not to be overwhelmed with how fond you feel of this family you've found. The line rings once, twice, before your favorite voice in the world sounds on the other end.

"Family Video, this is Steve, how can I help--"

"Hi," you say, mirth curling in your chest at his customer service tone. You don't even let him say hi back, launching into a recap of what has just occurred and what you need him to do.

"God," he groans once you're done. "I can't even be shitty about that. It's a great idea, even if it wrecks movie night. You just owe me two movies next week, 'kay?" You hear Robin say something in the background that sounds suspiciously teasing before Steve tells her to shut up. "Robin is in, too, she heard it all. I'll grab you once I'm done here and we'll go to the store. Gotta go though, customers!"

You hang up and don't bother hiding the smile on your face, beaming into the empty store. And there it is, the biggest, most important secret you've ever kept from Steve: you're in love with him. You don't even know when it started, when being his friend grew into something deeper, something unshakable. But you've carried it around long enough to know how to work with it, to quiet the explosions in your brain when he looks at you, to keep your cool when you're next to him, when he touches you. Maybe someday you'll tell him -- you almost did in the days before Vecna, but then things happened so fast and all you could focus on was keeping him alive. And that ended up being harder than you wanted.

There were moment that week when you thought you knew for sure that Steve loved you, too. Well, he does love you, you know that. But in the same way, in a I-want-you-forever kind of way. The way he held you, the way he was manic, out of his mind when you were hurt even though he was bleeding just as much. The way you slept in his bed for days after because he didn't want to let you out of his sight. Yeah, Steve Harrington loves you. Maybe someday he'll say it. For now, you are content to thrum with love for him, to circle each other like planets in orbit.

The day flies by and before you know it you're closing up and Steve is waiting for you, pretty as anything in the fading light of spring where he sits in his car.

"Hey stranger," he calls.

"Hey yourself," you say, climbing into the passenger seat. "Where's Robin?"

"Dropped her off already so she could get dig out her tapes and some other shit, I guess. We'll get her on the way back to my place." You glance in the backseat and find it mostly full of bags from the grocery store, chips and cookies and sodas poking out of the plastic.

"Got off early so just went to the store real quick." He shrugs as if it's not a big deal for him to always be the one taking care of things. But that's what Steve does -- he sees needs before they exist and he rises to meet them. He's always there when it matters, whether it's for a ride or a fight or a smile. He asks you about your day and you don't take your eyes off of him as he drives to your house so you can grab your things. It's not even a question that you'll spend the night at his. Honestly, tonight might turn into a big sleepover anyway.

When you get there, your parents aren't home so you head upstairs without delay, Steve trailing behind you. He sits on your bed and looks at your room, the room he's seen hundreds of times, but loves to catalogue because it's another piece of you.

"Wanda came in again today to ask for Top Gun," he tells you. "I tried to explain that we don't carry tapes that aren't even out in theaters yet, but she didn't believe me."

"Poor woman just wants to see Tom Cruise as much as you do, Steve," you joke. You open and close drawers and try to decide if you want to change or not.

"Can't blame me! And you said you'd go see it with me as many times as I want." His voice is fond, like he knows you'd do just about anything he wanted as long as you got to do it together.

"Ugh," you groan. "Maybe I'll just wear this. I don't know why I'm changing anyway."

"You look pretty," Steve says. His voice is soft but you hear his words as loud as if he'd shouted them.

"Oh?" He's leaning back on his hands, polo pulling tight across his chest. His eyes are bright, mouth quirked at the side. This is it, you think. It's happening,

"Well, yeah. I have eyes that have looked at you almost every day for years. Think I'd know that by now." A blush creeps onto his cheekbones, a dusting of pink so delicate you want to run your fingers over it. So you move to do just that, stepping into the space between Steve's legs. He puts his hands on the back of your thighs automatically, palms warm through your jeans. You love him so much you could just stand there forever, looking at him, being near him, and have it be enough. His lips part just a little, his eyes soft, and you reach a hand to cup his jaw when the phone rings.

"Christ," he says, thumping his head into your stomach before letting you go. You laugh, giddy from the moment even if it's unfinished. Almost of its own accord, your thumb brushes across the top of one of his cheekbones, right over the blush. The phone rings again and you grab it. Dustin's voice rings out on the other line, telling you that everyone is going to be at Steve's in less than an hour.

"So stop flirting, or whatever you must be doing, and get your shit together," he grinds out before hanging up. You hold the receiver in one hand, open mouthed as you turn back to Steve.

"Did you hear that?" you scoff. "The nerve!"

"Such a dick," he grumbles, standing from the bed. "Alright, we've got a party to setup and shitheads to please." His step falters on his way out like he's hesitating, and then he turns back to you. He comes at you so fast you don't have time to react before you feel his lips on your forehead, featherlight, and then he's out of the room again.

__

As soon as you get to his house, Robin crammed into the backseat with all of the snacks, you go absolutely nuts on Steve's first floor. You stand on chairs to hang up the streamers and balloons Robin found in her basement as Steve fills every bowl he can find with the snacks and calls to order some pizzas. Robin sets her stack of tapes next to the silly stereo system Steve's parents have and puts on Blondie first and before you know it the front door is open and the kids are spilling in, Nancy and Jonathan and Eddie on their tails. You hover at the edge of the room, watching all of these people you love let loose a little.

Lucas tries not to hover as Max talks to Erica, but you see her looking up every few seconds to find him. Mike and Dustin are showing him some kind of line dance while El and Will sit on the floor and watch. Robin and Eddie throw popcorn into each other's mouths as Nancy and Jonathan try to snatch the kernels out of the air. And Steve? Steve is on the other side of the room already looking at you. In every room, crowded or empty, he's always looking at you. And he looks so happy and relieved that you want to have him in your arms right this second.

Robin switches the tape and it's so upbeat that everyone gets up to dance, snacks abandoned, and laughter bubbles up in your chest. You wiggle your eyebrows at Steve and he rolls his eyes but makes his way to meet you on the living room floor, the kids yelling with joy as he starts to sway, starts to shimmy. As soon as he's close enough you grab him and make him dance with you, flailing and looking absolutely out of your minds.

Then he grabs your waist and your hand and parades you around the room in a sloppy waltz and even though you're surrounded by your small family you know you have your home in your arms. The music is loud and everyone is singing and laughing but you hear Steve as clear as if it was just the two of you as he laughs in your ear. The song changes and he takes the chance to pull you into the kitchen to catch your breath. You hop on the counter, breathing a little labored, and he moves right away to stand between your legs. Just like you did to him in your bedroom.

He's a little flushed and you are too, eyes bright as you just stare at each other, absolutely giddy. His hands fall to your thighs and he parts his lips.

"Stevie," you say, right as he says, "I--" He grins. You feel on top of the world when he looks at you like that. He taps your knee, a gesture for you to go first. You bring a hand up to his warm face and he leans into your touch.

"I love you, Steve. You know that? I am so in love with you." It's easy as anything to tell him, to finally let loose the one secret you have. Because you know that it'll be alright. If there's one thing you know, it's that you're safe with Steve Harrington.

You didn't think it was possible for him to look happier but he makes a punched out sound, something so joyful you feel it in your bones. He's beaming at you, nuzzling into your hand as he brings his own up to cover it.

"God," Steve breathes out. "God, baby." The endearment sounds so sweet in his mouth, like it was a word he made up just for you. "I've loved you for so long. I love you."

You pull him forward, wrapping your arms and legs around him as if you could fold him into you, as if you could become one person.

"I didn't know I could be this happy," you whisper into his hair. "I didn't know we would ever get here. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before." You can hear laughter from the living room, can feel the happiness thick in the air like a fog. It's both a big moment and a small one, these confessions of yours. Like a train pilling into the station after a long journey that you've slept through, dreaming of something wonderful, only to find it waiting for you on the platform.

"S'okay, cause now I know. Might've always known. And here we are," he says, breath hot on your earlobe. "Went through hell and this is on the other side." He pulls back from you and cups your face. He's holding you like he's done hundreds of times before, but it feels different somehow. It feels bigger.

"Gonna kiss you now, okay?" You nod and he leans back in, stopping just before your lips touch. Your eyes flutter shut as his nose rubs against yours. "S'not a dream right?" he mumbles, your mouths brushing a little.

"Not anymore, Stevie," you say. "It's real."

He kisses you and he tastes like salt and coca cola and the good guys winning and years spent loving and loving and loving him and it's everything you've ever wanted.

want to be added to my tag list for full-length (non-ask) fics? send me a message and specify for steve, eddie, or both!

tags bc i really like this one even tho its just an ask: @sunlitide @gloryofroses19 @carpediem1219

reblog, send feedback, requests open, masterlist here!

[0o-venus-o0]

S.O.S

Loki x reader

Warnings: fluff, smut, oral (f receiving), cursing (not a lot)

Oh. my. God. You were internally screaming. You had decided to go out with a guy that you had met on tinder. Big mistake. On the surface, he seemed great. Tall, handsome, well built. But, when you met him, you came to find out he was a huge egotistical, narcissistic asshole. During the entirety of your date, all he did was talk about himself. In an attempt to get yourself out of your current situation, you text Loki “SOS” as discreetly as possible. A minute later your phone started ringing. 

“Oh, hold on one second,” you interrupt the man’s non-stop blabbering. You check to see the caller ID and to your luck it was Loki. You swiped over and answered the call.

“He-,” before you could even speak one word he started yelling.

“(Y/N)! Please, I need your help! It’s an emergency!” he screamed frantically.

“O-oh, oh my gosh! I’m on my way!” you said quickly back.

You tucked your phone back into your purse as you turned to your date.

“I’m so sorry, I have to go,” you told the man urgently. You gathered your things and left as quickly as you could, ignoring his attempt at trying to get you to stay.

You rushed out of the restaurant and into the chilly night air. You started walking down the street when you felt a pair of arms wrap around and yank you into a nearby alley. The hand over your mouth muffled your cries for help. As your adrenaline ran through your body you bit the attacker's hand.

“Agh! Damnit!” the stranger yelled in pain. You knew that voice anywhere.

“Loki?!” you yelled back, utterly confused.

“I save you from whatever horrible position you were in and this is how you thank me?” he responded with false annoyance.

“Well, you’re the one to talk! You just dragged me into an alley!” you responded gruffly, smoothing out your dress. His gaze landed on you, taking you in. You were wearing a short emerald green dress. The silk fabric hugged your curves in the best ways possible. Your hair looked flawless and your jewelry sparkled in the moonlight. Loki couldn’t take his eyes off of you. You raised your head to look at him, noticing the dusting of pink on his cheeks.

“Hey, are you ok?” you asked concerned, cupping his face in your hands trying to see what was wrong.

“Oh, u-uh, yes don’t worry, I’m fine,” he managed to stutter out, softly moving your hands away from his face. He was already trying not to stare and the physical contact made it harder for him to control himself.

“Well, since the rest of my night is free I can return the favor as thanks for saving me from my awful date,” you offer, rolling your eyes at the memory of the tinder guy. Unnoticed by you, his eyes widen at the word “date”. He couldn’t help but feel jealous. The god of mischief was madly in love with you. He is scared to tell you because he doesn’t want to damage the relationship he has built with you. So, in fear of rejection, he kept his feelings hidden. Yet, you seemed to be dealing with the same problem. The tinder guy was just an attempt to distract yourself from the man you truly wanted. The devilishly handsome raven-haired god himself.

Loki.

Of course, not believing that the feelings would be returned you pushed them aside, scared of losing him. You mean so much to him as he does to you. But, alas you two were too scared to tell the other. But, maybe tonight would be different.

The two of you set off to your apartment due to your suggestion of having a movie night. As you sat in the car, an awkward silence fell upon you.

“Uh, thank you again for answering my SOS. I couldn’t be around that guy much longer,” you thanked again, hoping to break the silence.

“Of course, darling. What made the date so bad?” he questioned, hoping he didn’t sound jealous.

“Oh my gosh! Let me tell you!” you exasperated. “It started off normal. He was very attractive so I decided to try it out. Come to realize he has no personality and just loves to talk about himself and his work as a lawyer.”

“Well, good thing I was there to rescue you,” he smiled, glancing over to you. You gave him a smile in return as you felt heat rise to your cheeks.

Loki pulled up to your apartment complex and the two of you made your way out of his car and up to your apartment. You enter and make your way to the kitchen to get the snacks ready for the movie while Loki sets up the T.V. and gets blankets and pillows to make the couch extra comfy. After you guys got everything settled, you sat down to begin your movie night. Since you did owe Loki you let him choose the movie to which he chose horror. Not your fav but it gave you a good excuse to be close to him. So, that’s how your night began. You had gotten halfway through the movie and you were clinging to Loki’s side, head buried in his chest, hiding away from the screen. He chuckled at your behavior but he was definitely not complaining. You almost thought it was your imagination but you swore you felt Loki’s hand graze your thigh. So, being oddly bold, you decided to lay your legs across his lap. He hesitated for a moment, him too thinking it was his imagination, but he took the opportunity that was presented to him to lay his hand gently on your thigh. The feeling of his cold hands against your warm skin sent sparks straight to your core, causing your thighs to clench together subconsciously. And of course, this did not go unnoticed by Loki. He slid his hand closer and closer to your center. You let out a soft whimper which causes him to stop his movements.

“W-why did you stop?” you whispered, barely audible.

“Whatever do you mean, Love,” he said knowing full well what he was doing. And you knew too. He wanted you to be verbal with your wants. He wanted to hear you ask for it.

Again, you shifted into his touch slightly whining, feeling embarrassed at the thought of asking him.

“Nuh-uh, I’m not doing anything until you are verbal with me,” he said sternly, tightening his grip on your thigh.

“Pl-please,” you said softly, avoiding his piercing gaze. “Please touch me.” Your eyes are finally meeting his. His irises were clouded with lust, a smirk spreading across his features.

“As you wish,” and with that, he gave into your request. His hand fell down to where you needed him most. His hand cupped your heat, your hips involuntary bucking up to create friction. He saw how needy you were and just wanted to see how far he could push you. He pulled your shorts off and tossed them to the floor. He dragged his fingers ever so slightly over the wet spot that had formed on your underwear. Again, you whimpered slightly at the lack of contact that he was providing.

“Loki, stop teasing,” you complained, getting tired of his antics.

“What do you mean darling? I'm doing exactly what you asked me,” he said, playing dumb.

Getting fed, up you swing your legs over and straddle his hips. You put your hands against his chest and stared deep into his eyes. You are tired of waiting and you were getting annoyed with his feather-light touches.

“Loki, please. I am begging you, please touch me,” you pleaded with him, your frustration grew as the words left your mouth.

“That’s all I need to hear,” he said slowly, flipping you over so you laid back along the couch.

With a wave of his hand, your panties vanished. You were about to complain but before you could he licked a long strip up over your slit causing a gasp to escape. Once again, your hips bucked up in hopes of finding some sort of relief but because of that, your hips were pinned down as Loki wrapped his arms around your waist. Your eyes widened at the sudden shift in his demeanor as he began to devour you like a starved man. He sucked harshly on your clit and he took one hand to finger your needy hole. The double stimulation was sending you. This was honestly the best pleasure you had ever had. No man has ever been able to do this and you were in heaven.

“L-Loki, mph, I’m g-gonna-,” but before you could utter the word he pulled away, your slick covering his mouth and chin.

“Not yet, darling, I want to feel you,” he growled. He got up and leaned over you. He rid himself of his own clothes and stroked his length. Your gaze shifted down and saw what he was packing. Your jaw dropped. You had never seen one that big and Loki could see the shock on your face. He smirked to himself, knowing he was going to tease you about it later. He lined himself up with your entrance but before he went any further he grasped the side of your face with one of his hands. You two looked into each other's eyes, looking for any sign of hesitation.

“Loki, please, I need you,” you begged once more. That was all he needed to hear before he bottomed out within you in a swift movement. A loud moan was let out from you and a low groan from Loki. He slowly started to move his hips gradually getting faster and faster. Soon enough he was pounding into you, your legs thrown over his shoulders. One of his hands traveled down and met your clit. He started to rub circles against it, enhancing your current pleasure. You were in pure bliss and so was he.

“Oh, darling. You feel so good wrapped around me. So tight and just for me,” he panted out.

“Mmh, Loki, ah, please don’t stop,” you pleaded, your eyes brimming with tears as the knot in your stomach tightened.

“Oh love, I wouldn’t dream of it,” he chuckled lowly.

Stars started to fill your vision as he pushed you closer and closer to your release. And then finally, the knot snapped and a string of profanities and chants of Loki’s name fell from your mouth. At the feeling of your walls gripping him even tighter, Loki let go and released inside shooting his load deep within your cunt. His movements slowed down as he pulled you both through your highs. You reached up and felt something wet on your face. And then you realized that you had cried.

“Damn, that has never happened before,” you said really just to yourself but Loki looked up to see the tears that had streamed down your face.

“Oh my goodness, darling, are you ok? Did I hurt you? Did I go too far?” he started to question you frantically, scared he pushed you too much.

“Oh, no no no,” you quickly reassured him. “It was the best sex I have ever had.”

You could see him relax at your words but as soon as you had said them you knew that it just went straight to his ego. He was about to say something but before he could he glanced down to see you fast asleep. He smiled to himself. He cleaned the two of you up and took you to your room. He laid down with you in his arms and you slowly stirred awake.

“It’s alright, baby, I got you,”’ he whispered to you. You looked up into his icy gaze and finally said what you had been wanting to tell him since you had met him.

“I love you Loki, so much,” you whispered, a smile spread across your face.

“I love you too, my sweet girl,” he ushered back.

And with your feelings confirmed, you drifted back to sleep.