#he saw one of those boys threatening her previously:

[midnights-dragon]

people getting angry when abuse victims relate to billy hargove and sympathize with him because abused children who are never out from under their abusers thumb will lash out and be angry as a fear response since that’s all they’ve ever known is WILD

[ataleofcrowns]

Bonus Lore: Crowns of Old, Part I

Hey everyone!! I posted a lot of additional lore on the Patreon last year, and since the game itself will never dive this deep into it, I decided to release some of it and store it on the blog.

As the title says, this is regarding previous Crowns of Arsur - namely ones that won't have any relevance to the story. So, here is some lore about the reigns of the three Crowns after Crown Ashadūna.

The Second Crown: Cunning Arsāma

Crown Arsāma was originally a boy from one of the tribes of Sur who lived in what is now known as Zerat. His appointment as Ashadūna's successor was seen as rather fortuitous, if not convenient, for Ashadūna's newly-founded Empire: it strengthened the ties between the tribes of Sur and Arsur itself during a tumultuous time of transition. Not all tribes, after all, were like-minded or willing to submit.  

Even with Arsāma's appointment as Ashadūna's successor, however, there was still considerable anxiety among the other tribes. Some in the province of Hathura, as well, considered his appointment to be an act of revenge from the tribes that King Fravastis had previously waged war upon, which made them fear for what would become of Hathura under Arsāma's rule.

After Ashadūna's passing, however, Arsāma accomplished something remarkable: he prevented civil war, and solidified harmony within the empire. It may not seem a great achievement, and is often underestimated by those who look to Crowns with more distinguished achievements, such as Zana's brokering of trade routes or Keybanû's treaty with Ivia. However, Arsāma continued the unification process that Ashadūna had originally started. Not through force, but through diplomacy, as well as political cunning.

Threats from neighboring nations loomed large upon the horizon. Historians have recorded the ways in which Arsāma would deliberately provoke threats from the outside in order to give people within the Empire reason to remain united. One famous anecdote exemplifies this best: during a visit from a rather arrogant and temperamental Thalloi prince, Arsāma provoked his ire with subtle remarks that would seem innocent to most, but ones that targeted the prince's weaknesses expertly.

The Thalloi prince lost his temper in spectacular fashion, threatening to run Arsāma's Royal Protector--who was also Arsāma's promised one at the time--through with a spear. The prince was apprehended, jailed for three days and three nights, then finally banished from Arsur, leaving in disgrace. 

The storytellers that Arsāma had invited to the event recounted it throughout the Empire and beyond. Upon arrival home, the prince was stripped of his royal status by his mother, the queen, and disowned for his failure. Beyond humiliating the prince, however, it more importantly served as a cautionary tale to those who sought to sow discord from within: Arsur's enemies would destroy the Empire, if given the chance.

The Third Crown: Mighty Humati

Crown Humati's reign was not as peaceful as her predecessor's. While Arsāma built a unified foundation for Arsur, that same unification now meant that the Empire was a greater threat to its neighbors. Arsāma's methods had provoked many foreign relations, and once he passed and the young Humati took his place, several Thalloi city-states, as well as nomadic Sacati tribes from the northern steppes above Arsur, saw this as an opportunity.

Fortunately for Arsur, Humati was no stranger to war.

Her prowess in military tactics and battle strategy was second to none. She outmaneuvered the Sacati nomads as easily on land as she sunk Thalloi warships at sea. Humati oversaw key battles personally, as she not only understood military tactics but also the importance of logistics. She revolutionized the organization of the army, which now incorporated the combined soldiers of Hathura and Rojan, as well as the warriors of the tribes of Sur. 

Humati's armies were considered to be the most fearsome foe to have to battle at the time: Arsurian mounted warriors and battle magi still invoke fear to this day. Arsur came to breed horses with specific magical abilities to aid in battle, making them a nearly unstoppable force, and the specialized training of battle magi made them devastating on any battlefield.

There are famous ballads written about the Battle of Artioch's Pass, where Arsurian battle magi summoned enormous whirlpools in the Sea of Igris that pulled countless Thalloi warships under, wiping out the entire fleet.

During Humati's time as the Crown, Arsur did not lose a single war and did not have to make a single concession. For every battle she lost, she paid her enemy back tenfold. Despite her military might, however, Humati did not go on an expansionist campaign. Rather than conquer new land, her military principles were not guided by aggression, but self-defense: Arsur would not attack anyone, so long as they did not form a threat to the Empire. 

Humati realized the importance of building relationships, and moreover, she had personally experienced the horrors of battle as a young child and did not wish to inflict it upon her subjects unless it was absolutely necessary. While her tactics seemed ruthless to some, Humati always sought for ways to end a battle as quickly as possible, if it could not be avoided altogether.

This mindset has become a lasting guiding principle for how the High Generals of Arsur are also expected to act, taking Crown Humati as their example.

The Fourth Crown: Medya the Would-Be Priest

When Medya was chosen as the successor, he was recruited from a family of priests, as his epithet eventually came to reflect. He was a Crown that let religious principles guide him in all matters, often spending days at a time in seclusion for meditation and prayer.

His family was part of a sect of worshipers devoted to Apas, the Major Spirit of the Waters. Crown Medya, following its teachings, was a ruler known for long periods of reflection before making decisions. It made him prone to indecisiveness, and overly dependent on the advice of priests.

In fact, during his rule, he instated a special Office of Rituals and appointed a favored high priest, Lady Avjin, at its head. Usually spiritual advice is given by the Wisdom of the Crown who will deliberate with both spiritual and secular experts in order to give many possible perspectives on an issue, but Crown Medya changed this dynamic.

It was a controversial decision. Many praised him for prioritizing spiritual traditions, but just as many criticized him for elevating only certain traditions over others and forcing them upon the whole of the population. Some considered it to be in direct conflict with Ashadūna's aspirations to create a unified, but multicultural, empire.

Conflict continued to grow between various factions. Even the nobility, who first sought to take advantage of Medya's strict adherence to religious rituals, became aggravated at the Crown's insistence on involving his spiritual beliefs in every facet of his governance. Being chosen as the Crown likely had turned his previous, relatively normal devotion, into an almost feverish obsession for the spirits. This only became worse as time went on.

Soon, he named the high priest that he had previously appointed as Minister to the position of the Crown's Sorcerer. This was unprecedented. While a high priest could technically qualify, since priests are required to be trained as magi first, it was understood that the Sorcerer should prioritize magic, not spiritual guidance. Medya soon started to leave all matters of governance to his Sorcerer, preferring instead to pray and partake in religious ceremony.

Ironically, Lady Avjin was much more inclined towards governance than the Crown. While the public was still greatly dissatisfied with the situation, she managed to assuage the nobility merely by her willingness to bargain with them, whereas Medya had drawn a hard line in the sand before. While Lady Avjin essentially ruled, Crown Medya was rarely seen up until his death.

He became known as a mere figurehead, the only one in Arsur's history. Long after Medya's rule, Crown Keybanû would abolish the Office of Rituals.

[ Part II ]

[streets-in-paradise]

Stranger Things Headcanons: Being Dustin’s older sister, a nerdy metalhead, and becoming closer with Eddie and Steve - Part 3

Masterlist

Word Count 14 K (This is almost like an oneshot written on items) 

Warnings: Eddie and Steve simp for the reader in their different ways. There is one smut headcanon, but the description of it is more of an implication. Some more of my usual cultural references. 

Pairings: Eddie Munson x (Fem) Henderson!Reader, Steve Harrington x (Fem) Henderson!Reader. 

Notes: Im once again reminding you that my memory of the timelines suck, sorry for that. Like i mentioned in a recent post, this goes deep into the prom headcanons because i got very into imagining that concept. That means that this series is going to be at least one part longer than what I expected. In between this and part 4 I will be as well posting an oneshot that will follow the inmediate moment after this one’s ending. 

Also, I was halfway into writing this when I stumbled across this smut headcanon post for Eddie that blessed my dash and gave me some unusual inspiration. If you want to get more context for why I included that casual little hint of smut, reading that and being unable to stop the thoughts in my head afterwards made me do it. 

Tags: @losersclubisms​ @p-hoenix@bilesxbilinskixlahey @chalametnpeaches@beautifultypewriter-recommends​ @thatsonezesty13 @poppet05 @starkssnarks @tasmbestspdrman @shinycloudss @slut-for-bucky-barnes​ @rosecolorgardens @yourthebrokengirl @alexandraoonaghives @dark-angel-is-back

- News would travel fast but you decided to act faster by telling all your friends about your date. After all, you had nothing to hide because you were doing nothing wrong. 

- Well, almost nothing. Steve’s invitation was a huge surprise. Despite it having perfectly logical motives,you couldn't help feeling... Flattered? Amazed? He seemed so worried about your answer, it wasn't what you would expect from a friend that was simply asking you a favor... Why did he have to make you feel like a pretty girl for it? 

- That was exactly how you felt, for as ridiculous as it sounded to you... and he was causing it. His adorable nerves were something new, never before you saw a guy reacting like that in front of you. Even when you knew you weren't the case, you felt like one of those truly gorgeous girls that make boys stutter when they approach them.

- In reality, the closest and most believable explanation you found was that your new threatening look was what made him nervous. If you intimidated Steve, it must have happened in the spirit that would make someone fear a dragon, not the kind of fear making a boy nervous of approaching a cute girl.

- Your thoughts were going against the evidence of your everyday experience and realistic self deprecation. It was the proof that Dustin's wishfulness over you two was finally poisoning your mind. You were smiling to the idea of going on a fake date with your friend, wondering if that was how Carrie felt when Tommy Ross asked her out for prom, and feeling very stupid about it. 

- He treated you sweetly and he sold the concept to you so easily. It almost felt like if he truly wanted to take you on that date and you wouldn't be just the replacement for Nancy.

- A fact that you didn’t mention in your talk with Johnnatan. His reaction was of a similar surprise regarding Steve’s attitude, but your acceptance of the ask wasn’t that much of a weird turn for him. He guessed that you were invoking an old pact you two had for that sort of thing, making Steve benefit from the contract breaking because then he was the one without a girlfriend. Congratulating your friend for his romantic achievement, you were picking up the pieces of the mess left behind of it.  

- Or that was what he thought. Even if you wished that date was real, nobody would care. Populars would surely be making you two the token of all the jokes anyway, but no one whose opinion you actually cared to hear would see it as an issue. Despite his previously expressed arguments against Steve, you thought Eddie wouldn't care because he would never look at you like that.

- The truth that you wouldn't get to see by yourself was that he felt very conflicted and hopeless with the news. He cared, jealousy was killing him from the inside and he was even more surprised than you. 

- So far, his theorized fear was about you getting some hopeless crush on Harrington after he played hero in that fight with Hargrove. The new evidence turned everything upside down and he began to wonder what the basketball player wanted with you.

- " I am merely applying a standard protocol I have designed with Johnnatan under the assumption we both were going to remain as dateless losers till graduation." You tried to bring sense into the facts appealing to a very real thing of your highschool loser lifestyle. " My friend got a girlfriend far before that could happen, that girl dumped another guy for him and now that guy is graduating." 

" Bullshit, it is a thankful gesture for your brave knight. " Eddie replicated. He didn't seem pissed off, but he was clearly not happy with your explanation. " You just want to wear a cute dress for him and get to play Cinderella. " 

" I am a replacement, Eddie. Second choice, late hour call. He wanted to go with his girlfriend but now he doesn't have one anymore... How romantic do you think that can be?" You insisted, showing annoyance. " The protocol stands to protect any helpless loser friend of mine from being shamed over not having a date. Guess what? I am a helpless loser and I know how it feels to be rejected. " 

It wasn't completely obvious, but you were thinking on your assumed as unrequired feelings for him in that last phrase. 

" Prove it. "  

Since he would insist, you just had to make the simple one on one pact into an official rule valid to be applied for all your friends. In short terms, involving Hellfire into the agreement. 

" Anyone here needing the same sort of help I'm giving to Steve is welcomed to actívate the emergency protocol. " 

The silence indicated that it was most likely they were actually considering it. 

" What if a few of us would graduate at the same time? " Gareth finally spoke, with well intentioned curiosity. " You can't be everyone's date at once. " 

" In that case we may need to solve it the old way." You kindly answered, making up a new rule for a code that was imagined with only one guy in mind. " A tournament. Eddie picks the tests and we let fate decide. " 

- Eddie knew that he would have to invent some terrible excuse to keep his jealousy hidden. Everyone else seemed satisfied with your answer but he wouldn't get convinced.

" The code stays. It is a brilliant idea and not the actual center of my questioning." He replicated, faking a solemn neutrality. " I disagree with its applicability for the case of Harrington because he is not one of us. Before accepting his request for appealing to it you should have convocated us to council in order to deliberate if It was worthy of consideration." 

" IT IS MY CODE!!" You complained. " I created it with my loser best friend and I get to decide how to use it now that it doesn't hold any utility for him. " 

" If you want to be one of us you will have to accept that certain choices must be made in the community. Like, for instance, your involvement in that popularity shitfest holding hands with that disowned jock. "

- Despite the concept being a nightmare to him, he didn't make a single Carrie joke. In his mocks, he only compared you to Cinderella and that alone should have sended you a message. He was thinking on you looking all dolled up in some beautifull dress and it felt dreamy as fuck, what he hated given that he wouldn't be the guy taking you to the ball. 

- The most curious thing to you was that, for someone who hated the idea, he seemed way too interested in it. He would even make occasional asks about the state of your plans, encouraging you to ramble about the outfit ideas you were thinking.

- The style was your main struggle. If there was one thing you had in clear, that was how you didn't want the princess-like look of Carrie. In that snake pit full of popular people you would be at high risk of being mocked and you needed something that could give you confidence. The problem was that you had no idea of where to start digging for it.  

- The first clue on the direction you wanted to take came directly from Steve at one night he was at your house joining you, Dustin and Mike in watching one of your favorite tv shows. 

- It was a horror show dedicated to class B movies that were either too niche or too awful to be transmitted anywhere else. Your mother had some discrepancies about the revealing dressing code of the show's hostess, but she would allow Dustin to watch it with you anyways. In the opposite case, Karen forbade Mike from watching it because, of all the stuff the show displayed, she chose to get scandalized about the sexy gothic lady introducing the movies and laughing with the audience in self aware jokes. 

- Steve only knew of Elvira as a merchandising pin up girl, learning with you that the character had a cult show that was the delight of freaks. Like in any other case, you were ready to begin an exploratory ramble for him. 

- " She is more than a poster girl for horror fans, Cassandra Peterson is awesome. I read an article about her once in a horror fanzine and it was super inspiring. She is not there just to look sexy in a way that attracts freaks... She is one of us herself! " 

Your excitement was a bit adorable to him. 

" ... She came from a small town just like this one and she suffered a lot of bullying. She was an outcast girl, mocked for her looks because of some burning scars she got in an accident. She grew up being told that she was ugly and now look at her! She puts into her character and she shows such incredible charisma. I love that woman, I aspire to have that confidence." 

- Steve wasn't clearly thinking about what he said to you afterwards. Otherwise, he wouldn't have spit it like he did. 

" Well, you can work on the confidence part because you already have the nice boobs. " 

- He regretted it immediately but it was too late. Mike, the rebellious guest seeking to watch the forbidden program, was then visibly disgusted and your brother made the callout for you.  

- " SHE IS MY SISTER! Man, you can't be talking of her like that." 

" It's not like we forgot that you also used to date my sister. " Mike followed. " It's not cool, don't make it awkward. " 

You fixated on the TV screen pretending that you didn't hear anything of what was being said, but Steve made things worse with a dorkish sounding clarification of his misfortuned phrase. 

" Boobies are a totally normal thing that we shouldn't be ashamed of. I mean, she wears oversized rock band t-shirts for a reason. Looking like her I wouldn’t want to be the only girl in the nerds table at school, better if they don’t get to notice. "

“ Says the perv who is talking about her boobs” Mike rushed a comeback. “ Don’t stereotype us, we aren’t all creeps.“ 

“ I’m just saying that she is very pretty overall, but that is the sort of thing that gives those dudes clues about it.”

- Awkwardness aside, that conversation led you into a positive discovery. To let your fears of being mocked behind, you could develop through fashion choices an entire concept for a character you could play as a self aware joke of your weirdness. Make fun of yourself before others could do it, take control of the jokes and, maybe, abuse the court jester privilege if the context invited you to do it. As you said to Steve in the middle of your ramble, you wished you could be as much of a confident freak as Cassandra showed to be through the character of Elvira. 

- Your character had to be a witch. A dark goth vampiric looking approach wouldn’t work the same way symbolically and fashion wise. Censored Elvira, cleaned up from the sexy aspects of her look, was just Morticia Addams and you weren’t going to straighten your hair anyways. Curly hair was a pop culture trait of witches, an image so instaurated in common sense that the phrase “ witch’s hair” was used before by some well intentioned adults to describe yours in a bad hair day. 

- Besides, the popular iconography of the witch as a suspicious woman fitted better with the mysticism implied in the comments of Steve about you being the only girl in a numerous group of weird dudes. It was also an excellent way to satirize the entire concept of the club’s stigma.  

- Among all those very cool sounding reasons, you also picked it because Eddie had lovefully compared you to a witch before and his sweet words made you melt each and every time he did it. If confidence was what you needed, evoking those memories was going to be a good point. 

- The dress had to be red in honor of Hellfire. Elegant, but with some subtle accentuation of the cleavage. Enough to be a change in comparison to the oversized shirts, but nothing scandalizing. The witch thing was a thematic concept for a formal dress, not a Halloween costume. 

- As your preparations advanced, you made sure to consult Steve before adventuring into dress shopping. It was not your intention to spoil the surprise, but you needed to be sure if he was going to feel comfortable with what you were planning to do. 

- He was amazed to hear how much effort you were putting into something that was about him. You knew that you both would be surrounded by quite a few bullies so you were planning your way to stay strong for him. You were taking all that bother and you weren't even trying to make him like you through it. He adored you for it..

- " Facing normals as your date is not going to be easy, so I am going to create a confident character for it. A sort of thematic inspiration for my look and it is going to be about witchcraft." You were explaining to him" By now you must know that we are going to be mocked, that's why I'm going one step ahead of them. I'm not gonna be waiting for the bucket of pig's blood to fall over my head. " 

" That is great, I love to see you have fun with this. " Steve sweetly encouraged you. " I want you to be comfortable, whatever it takes to make you smile is good for me." 

That time you were the one blushing. 

- Joyce offered herself to take you dress shopping. It was normal between her and your mom to make arrangements on who relevates who over certain activities involving their kids.Yours and the Byers were the only fatherless homes in Dustin’s friend group and the only case in which all the existent siblings were very close friends with each other as well. Your mothers got used to helping each other in the work-life balance combining their schedules when necessary. 

 - She was like a second mother to you, her house was your second home. The bonding over the years of friendship you and your brother had with her kids made it particularly special. 

- Inviting Nancy wasn't an option, you simply couldn't submit her to that awkward moment. It was a bit of a letdown of the situation, because you two were getting progressively closer through discovering certain points of contact within your passions. The incredible amazement you felt at the realization that you were, in fact, like the intrepid reporter contextually forced to join forces with the (lowkey self insert) horror writer in a standard cliche horror-mystery novel shocked you in a positive way. 

- You could have got very sad about your lack of female friends to share that sort of thing with, but El's infinite sweetness took you by surprise as she asked you by herself to let her accompany you. 

- Max joined you as well, approaching your issue with sarcasm to make you feel less alone. " Does it look like I have many friendships with girls?" she told you at the time you were excusing yourself for bothering all of them due to your lack of girls among your same age friendships. The phrasing implied a certain ' It's just us' feeling and she closed the topic making a random joke about how you couldn't let a bunch of guys be your second opinion for a prom dress. 

-  Since you knew that no store would offer the exact same thing you wanted, you worried more about fitting. You tried on lots of red dresses strategically picking the ones you saw as more apted to be transformed. 

- Style changes could be made later, working with your mom and the sewing machine. Like in any October when Dustin would get an idea for a Halloween costume impossible to find at stores, you could be changing the details yourself while asking your awesomely supportive mom for guidance. 

- You all had so much fun, the company felt amazing and you didn't feel any sadness over not being able to bring a friend of your age. El and Max were the young witches of your small coven and that was nice anyways. In fact, one of them was actually like a real life witch. 

- You began to wonder if you were perhaps on a viable road to build with any of the girls something similar to what Steve got with Dustin. Be that cool older friend they could see as a support in the girl issues they wouldn’t talk with their male friends. Hero worship aside, of course, you didn’t need any of that. 

- Once you had what you wanted and began to work on the concept you noticed that there was a barely imperceptible missing piece that you didn't consider in that shopping getaway: you needed a new bra. It wouldn't make a difference for the outside, but it would for you. A red bra of perfect fitting, something that could make you feel perhaps a bit sexy and help with the confidence boosting. To the realization, you made your plans of going for it alone at some quick escapade after school. 

- Plans that Eddie almost ruined completely because, in his unawareness of it, he wouldn't stop insisting on wanting to hang out with you. 

- " You know how much I love to spend time with you, but I can't this time." You were trying to explain him without being direct, the light disappointment in his beautiful brown eyes was killing you. " I have some things to do, it's about my outfit for the party and I don't want you to get bored with that sort of shit." 

" I'm never bored when I am with you." He sounded so adorable and he was about to get even sweeter. " What's about? Do you need to try on new shoes? I volunteer to play Prince Charming for your Cinderella." 

“ Sorry to disappoint you, but I am not a princess.” 

- You had to tell him, there was no other way he would get why you really needed to be alone for that. 

- " Do you remember that I told you I am going to wear a red dress in a witchy style because I'm taking seriously that deal about representing Hellfire? " 

Of course he did and he loved you for it. 

"... Well, I need to buy a new bra. It seems like a minor detail but it can make the difference." You began to explain, trying to make the fashion talk equivalent of the old ' talking of menstruation to make men uncomfortable into stop asking questions' " I need one of the same color with nice fitting so I can actually create the cleavage effect in a way that wouldn't look cheap or overexposing." 

- His mind went blank after listening to your description. 

- " Sounds fun, sign me up." Was his unfortunate reply, that you interpreted as a joke. 

" I don't need any second opinions for that, thanks. " You answered after some brief chuckling. " Is a detail I want to add to the look for a plus of confidence. I haven't told the guys because I don't want to hear any bad taste jokes, but I got the idea from watching Movie Macabre. The comedy style of Elvira is an inspiration for girls with low self esteem and weird interests. "

He was listening in silence and you felt sure that the girl stuff talking must have accomplished its purpose. By the way he was looking at you, you guessed he had to be feeling uncomfortable, so you closed the topic. 

" They can't burn me at the stake if I am already on fire. I learned that from you and I want to make you proud."

- Eddie was a mess of mixed emotions, all feelings that were one way or another linked to romance, and he didn’t know what to do with them. You were his friend, the only girl around who showed herself willing to join the club and you were so excited about it that you were even trying to prove yourself a fitting member before asking to make it official. To you, simply being included in his group of weirdos was some sort of honor. 

- You were also one of the few confirmed existent Corroded Coffin fans. He felt his heart about to explode when you secretly confessed to him, after a couple of times seeing their shows, that he was your favorite band member. He was so happy after getting to know that he managed to impress you like he actively seeked to. 

- He was crushing on you so strongly and he admired you in every sense of the term. He loved your sweetness, your sense of humor, your awesome talent,your great imagination, your cool music taste and that wonderful way of understanding each other you two had… But he also loved your soft skin, your perfume, the taste of your lips, that he only tried once to end up dreaming awake with another casual chance to kiss you. 

- The thought of you wearing a sexy red bra was too much to take. Then you choose to share with him, only him of all the dudes in the group, that you were adding that invisible touch because your inspiration for the witch prom dress concept was the Mistress of the Dark herself. You were talking of the comedy aspects in the character's hostess routine, the part about making fun of the movies and of herself with the audience, but he wasn't nor couldn't think of that.

- It wouldn’t be your intention, for sure, but the mental association of concepts brought to him some interesting ideas that did not match the complete reality of what you were planning. Wildly loose hair, red lipstick … a sexy red dress making you look like the style of witch that could be cover art of a metal album. 

- There was no way you could have realized that your talk meant to make him feel uncomfortable in a ' I don't need to know more, just go' form caused a particularly contrary effect. What you were seeing wasn’t the awkwardness induced by something gross: Eddie was turned on. . 

- He knew that, despite how much he sucked at hidding it, you had no idea because you were so innocent. Not in the sense of pureness or prudeness, more of absolute unawareness. It was as if the possibility of causing that on anyone would never cross your mind. An understandable attitude for a shy loser girl used to being ignored, he still couldn't believe that his were your first kisses. 

- Knowing who you were made him feel awful about the things you made him think. Eddie was protective of you, his most adorable friend, yet he couldn't protect you from his thoughts. The romantical ones were nice crush induced stuff that he didn't mind indulging in because those were often inspired by your sweetness, but the sexual ones were torture for him. 

- It would have been better for his sanity in all the aspects if you could have gone for the princess concept in his jokes, risking to feel like Carrie. It was obvious that you weren't going to dress like in his dirty fantasies, but you were going to look so beautiful in a style that he would love and it was all going to be for the eyes of Harrington. A guy that wouldn't even catch the symbology behind the idea and wouldn't appreciate it in the same way. That asshole didn’t deserve what you were doing for him, he didn’t deserve to be your first date. 

- Like in your case, Eddie hasn’t dated much before. He may pretend in front of you to be this more experienced friend, but the real actual gap on that matter between you was not as huge as you thought. After all, you both were outcasts and even if you considered him way cooler than you, that was mostly in your perception but not a popular opinion. 

- There was some excitement in the rest of Hellfire after you shared with them a very vague idea of what you wanted to do for your date. It certainly dissipated any initial doubts about your involvement in Steve's prom. Some of the boys even offered collaboration with ideas for subtle characterization details. 

- Gareth was a total sweetheart, he wanted to do your makeup, but Eddie wouldn't miss the opportunity to make him his spy. After you accepted the offer, he gave him specific secret instructions of what he wanted to obtain. He could just show up at your house without warnings and find out by himself, but he wanted to avoid making a scene in case his jealousy could get out of control. After all you told him about your little brother, he couldn't afford causing a terrible first impression.

- Fortunately for you, things weren’t stressing because Steve made the ask with enough time ahead. Dealing with Dustin’s excitement was actually harder than the whole thing. It’s not like you didn’t appreciate his good intentions, but he was too young to understand certain things. Yes, you were going on a date with a sweet, handsome boy that cared to invite you, but that wasn’t an automatically erasing factor of your feelings for Eddie. Even if you could be catching feelings for Steve, that wasn’t going to make you forget him anytime soon. 

- Your brother’s well intentioned intromissions were what was driving you crazy, so you begged him to stop. That only made him limitate himself to keep invading just Steve’s planning, pretending that he wasn’t at all tracking yours.  In the spirit of his interventions, he even made him watch the film adaptation of Carrie. 

- “ When were you going to tell me that my character dies like an idiot?” Steve complained to him about the ending. “ If I would have known that, I wouldn’t have followed your idea.” 

“ First, it is a merciful death compared with the rest of the Bloody Prom. Second, it is symbolic.” Dustin defended his point by bringing out his inner horror nerd in a way that would have made you proud to see. “ Tommy is Carrie’s hope for happiness, social acceptance and love. He dies and that leaves her empty: now she has nothing to lose and is free to take revenge on everyone who ever hurted her. “

“ At least I can see now why my date has refused to take the spot of Carrie.” 

“ She switched the plan because she is trying to protect herself from the disappointment. Carrie chose to fall for the princess fantasy, she is running in the opposite direction.” 

“ I’m not like Tommy, I do want to date her.” 

“ I shouldn’t say this because it is technically violating some form of sibling confidentiality, but I’m going to do it because I love her and if this helps, she will eventually forgive me. ” 

Dustin made a pause, his silence was a strong indicator for Steve to understand that what he was going to say shouldn’t leave that room. 

“ My sister got used to facing disappointment with crushes, it runs in the nerd blood of the family. She is the sort of girl with spin the bottle traumas because no boy wanted to kiss her. You know when some dickheads do this thing of bothering the boy they know the weird girl crushes on, just for him to deny it acting repulsed by her so the rest can see her getting humiliated? Or the ‘ Hey, my friend likes you’ pranks? That was middle school for her. She has been crushless all High until she got to like some dude who didn't feel the same and that broke her heart. She is awesome, but she has lost all hope of crushing on someone who could want to be with her. Be her hope, Steve, that’s what I mean with this.” 

- The revelation filled him with angry sadness because it just wasn’t fair that you had to feel that way. Steve was then able to understand why you were so worried about the mockery. It wasn’t about you not wanting to face the jokes, you were trying to protect him because you feared that having to stand that situation could repulse him. You deserved so much better than the bullshit lessons in your bad experiences, it was unbelievable for him to hear that you have lost any awareness of your attractiveness to isolation, bad romantical luck and bullying. 

- For how long have you been ignored or mistreated to convince yourself of that? Did he ever indirectly participate in it? He did remember that Carol used to pick on you, doing the femenine counterpart of his bullying to Johnnatan. That seemed to stop precisely as you got close to Munson and his group, the fear he inspired surely made her think twice before daring to keep bothering you. Steve couldn’t remember any particular episode, but the mere idea of you suffering because of something that Carol said and he stupidly supported was killing him. If it happened, it was surely just to see Johnnatan’s helpless anger about your pain, but he wasn’t able to forgive himself thinking that he could be part of your problem. 

- Those were all lies of people that didn’t know you for real, fools that wouldn’t look at you twice like he once was. You deserved to know how beautiful you were, to stop separating yourself from the concept of a pretty girl. It was so normalized in your trivial speech to do that, not even in debate at any point of your normal conversation, and that was frustrating to hear for someone who fancied you. He was able to understand where it came from, but you didn’t have to feel that way if he still had any power left to do something about it. 

- Every single praise commentary he said to you, he meant it. Even the terrible ones like that one escaping out of him accidentally in front of Dustin and Mike. It somehow ended up expressing a true inner worry he had about your bonding with other guys. You were the only girl, a hot nerdy girl, hanging out with a bunch of lonely nerd dudes. As a friend, that triggered on him some protectiveness. Because of his crush on you, he was perhaps a bit jealous. 

- He had no clues of what your dynamic with the group was like, but he was able to imagine you as their freaky queen. All the nerds at your feet, subtly fighting each other over who is going to clean up some space for you to sit at their table because all of them want to be close to you. As their leader, Munson decides that you should sit next to him and you smile in agreement, unaware of what was going on between them because of your presence. 

- In that imagined escenario, Steve thought that it must have become an implicit rule among them that the leader was the only one habilited to make subtle moves on you. It was his way of explaining why he was the only one of them who was so damn close to you all the time. Everytime he got to see Munson at school, it always happened around you and he was always touching you. 

- Hugs from behind that he used to casually give you in the middle of a conversation that he wasn’t initially taking part in, but seemed to enjoy interrupting. Forehead kisses, playing with your hair tracing the patterns of your curls with his fingertips. Once he even got to see him sneaking his hands underneath the back of your shirt to make you squeak from the metalic coldness of his rings. It was a joke, but it showed a high level of physical intimacy between you two 

- That used to awaken some secret jealousy on Steve. If he could just touch you as easily, if you could only show to be so physically comfortable with him as you were with your so-called friend Eddie. You two have hugged many times, but it wasn’t the same. He craved for chances to try different levels of physical intimacy and his prom would be the perfect space for that because it was, after all, a date. He wanted to test waters in all kinds of romantic approaches: hand holding, slow dancing, sweet whispering of cute nonsense.  

- Perhaps, if there would be a proper opportunity for it, he may even try to kiss you. A bit of a rushed thought, especially remembering the advice he gave to Dustin on the matter some time before, but he couldn’t contain the excitement. It was strong enough to force him into a self reminder of not staring at your lips for too long while paying attention to your talk a couple of times. He was counting the left days until having you really close and all for himself. 

- Then, the day finally presented itself and, along with your own excitement, you got to discover that your mom was one within your brother’s. They were both practically on the same page, but for different reasons. She was more about showing pride over your social accomplishments. Over that school year you made incredible progress and there were some noticeable changes, besides from the more obvious one in your self embraced appearance. You had a circle of friends that were around your age, you were going out and having fun like parents expected from their teen kids. Although she appreciated Jonathan, she was glad that he wasn’t your only friend anymore and you were keeping that very important friendship while cultivating new ones. Your social life was expanding and that was a great thing. 

- What you told her of Eddie and Hellfire was very vague for some obvious reasons, including your secret getaways to see the shows of their band that she wasn’t supposed to find out. However, she wasn’t the kind of paranoid mother worrying over ‘ bad companies´. It was pretty pointless with you, since you never ever gave her troubles and your loneliness worried her more than that. For so, she was very supportive of what she got to hear regarding your involvement with them. Hearing that Gareth was going to come over to help you out with your make up got an optimistically happy reply out of her, insisting on your permission to invite any of your new friends anytime. She really was the best mom ever, so adorably supportive that you felt slightly bad for the tiny details you were hiding. 

- For her, your date with Steve was like a peak in that started process of improvement she detected going on in you. Only the fact that you were going on a date was a wonderful thing to celebrate, but it was even better knowing who was taking you out. She got to adore Steve while getting to know him first as this very nice new common friend of her kids. His attitude around her helped, but she was already inclined to have a high esteem for him.

-  Time before she was listening to Karen brag about the wonderful boyfriend of her Nancy, ´What about your (y/n)? Any boys on the radar that you may have heard of?’ She asked her right afterwards, a question that sounded well intentioned but it was more like an extension of her bragging under the known assumption that you weren’t like Nancy. 

- The funny thing was that when she got to find out about the breakup, because your best friend would talk with you about his dates with the eldest Wheeler, your mother was unaware of a lot of things. Very important pieces of the context for that breakup were lacking, like how Nancy and Johnnatan got close through the first interdimensional crisis. Those gaps gave her proper space to develop her own theories. 

- She got convinced that Steve dumped Nancy for you because the dates matched that explanation. Since he began to show up at your house at the very same time that relationship ended, she thought that his initiated friendship with his son was an excuse to see you. The incredible amount of pride she felt about it was vindicating, even if it was based on lies your brother allowed her to believe. She couldn’t wait for you to go on that date so she could later brag back, she even invited Joyce to witness the moment so her claims would have backup. She was going to show up anyways, but the idea of helping Claudia to make Karen swallow her shitty casual comments for once was great too. 

- Will and Johnnatan came with her too, which surprised you for a few reasons. The youngest Byers boy knew that Dustin would be at Steve's, providing him of support during his own preparations, while the oldest could get into an awkward situation if crossing paths with your date. 

-  “ I have to remind him of taking good care of you. If you get bullied because of him and this dumb idea I swear I will kick his ass again.” Your best friend explained when you got to ask him about that part. “ and this time I’ll not be alone..” 

You smiled, touched by his support yet intending to ignore the teasing reference, and replied with a little harmless joke made in complicity with his little brother. 

“ I’m so sorry that your family has dragged you into this, Will.” 

- El was also going to come, you invited her after getting to notice how purely happy she was when getting to do girly things in company. Hopper was supposed to bring her and leave, but he chose to stay as soon as he saw Joyce. They both became the adult company keeping your mom entertained. 

- The greatest surprise was that Max showed up to be there for you while you were getting ready. You weren’t waiting for her because, after all, your little date was going to take place in the same context of Billy’s prom. In that simple gesture, just with her presence, she was indirectly showing to choose Steve and you over her step brother. It was sad, but it gave you a special kind of joy regarding the chances for bonding you had with her. 

- You actually wondered if Billy cared for it, if he would notice her absence and get upset. Would he be taking it on both of you at the party? Should you get ready for it? It was a pretty evident possibility anyways, he was still obsessed with Steve even after stealing from him everything he used to care about. He was going to be crowned King in the once rightful place of your friend, yet it wouldn’t be enough. Billy was so stucked in his fixation with proving to be better than Steve at everything that you wondered if, deep down, he was jealous of how Max seemed to prefer him. 

- At that particular time, she amazed you at a personal level through her accidental development of a similar role to the one Dustin was assuming with Steve. They were both, in their different ways, being the leading encouragement in your cheer boosting processes previous to the date. With the blasting of loud music as a confidence inducing factor, both kids were there to pump you up. 

- In your house, the witch was being awakened to Motley Crue’s ‘ Shout at the Devil’. Despite your once expressed choice of giving up on Crue, because the mental association with the new asshole king of the school almost ruined their music for you, the truth was that their tunes were your place to go when you wanted to feel confident in a bitchy way. That was something that usually happened only behind the closed door of your room, but would have to come out in public for the situation you would be facing. 

- Inspired by Max, you decided that Billy would only take Crue from your cold, dead hands because you weren’t giving up their music as you wouldn’t either give up your confidence to his possible attacks on it. Gareth arrived just in time to see the merry scene Max, El and you provided while jamming to ‘ Looks that Kill’ as you were working on your hair styling and he mocked you a little bit. First because he catched the joke, but also about how glam metal was esentially born as strip club music. However, you both agreed in the aspect of the awesome make up and he ended joining the mood anyways on the ‘ Helter Skelter’ cover. The Byers boys later laughed of the whole thing and you chose to take advantage of the opportunity to practice your first few in character jokes with them. 

 - Gareth made a good first impression on the kids, but he was terrified of Hopper and practically ran to your room so he could hide from him. He did nothing particularly scary to get said reaction, your friend just wasn’t expecting to find the chief of police chit chatting while having coffee with your mom and Johnnatan’s. 

-In a secret conversation, you simplified explanations for him saying that you bonded with Hopper through being his sitter. That sweet girl who complimented his black painted fingernails was actually the chief’s adopted daughter and a friend of Will, Max  and your then absent brother, who was with Steve. That didn’t stop him from freaking out, but you tranquilized him a bit claiming that it was a good thing because, if Eddie would ever get in trouble, you may be able to help. 

- In the meantime, Steve was with Dustin pulling out a full show to ‘ King of the Mountain’ by Bon Jovi, fooling around together as he was getting ready. In the process of becoming close with you, he passed from a casual listener to an actual fan of the band and the associated memories had a lot to do with that. Even if it wasn’t something you would listen to all the time, or wouldn’t admit to your Hellfire friends to enjoy that much, Steve associated it with you precisely because it was this little first thing you got to share. 

- Back when ‘7800 Farenheit’ was released he wanted to get a cassette copy of the album as soon as possible so he could share it with you, but his plan for you to indulge together in your guilty pleasure wasn’t about doing it in the safety of your home. Steve brought it to school so you could listen to it in breaks sharing your walkman. 

-For as simple as that sounded, that ended up being an intimate moment between you two.. You needed to be very close to share the earbuds and the silence going on as you listened forced you to communicate with less words. Staring into each other’s faces to share reactions, subtle touching, Steve even got a good while to hug your waist and you seemed to be comfy in his arms. At some point you even ended up laying your head in his chest as you closed your eyes, but the damn bell announcing the end of the break screwed up the moment. 

- He slowly began to embrace the comparison Dustin created around him and the marketed personality brand of the band’s singer. Deep down, he liked the idea of being this sweet, non threatening handsome boy bringing in some romance into your life and that was exactly what he wanted to do. That’s how he wanted to romance you, if there were any chances for it.

- El was the one who brought the question about romance to you. Comparing it to her experience as Mike’s date at the Snow Ball, she asked you if you were excited about dating Steve. Of course you were, but you weren’t going to get into the lovey ramble that she expected to hear. You created a deviation of topic through a self aware joke about your dating experience being shorter than hers despite you being older, what got you into the ‘ ‘first dates’ talk instead. Gareth made a joke from the perspective of the boys, something over the lines of ‘ How do those kids get to play dnd and get dates?’, to which you answered with another self aware mock. ‘ I know! Compared to me at their age, they socialize like preps.`` 

- There were no suspects on him from your side, you didn’t know nor imagined Eddie had intentions of spying on you through Gareth, but you wouldn’t confess in front of him anyway. 

- The final result of the visual concept in your look for the party was outstanding and you were so happy. You felt to have accomplished your goal of looking slightly hot in an elegant look that had parodically rebellious undertones in its conception. Not audacious enough to break the dress code, but sufficient to make Joyce stop Hopper from throwing a protective comment as part of his immediate reaction. 

- It was definitely a brave stance coming from you, perhaps one of the bravest you ever had, and you couldn’t wait to know Steve’s opinion. Your teen friends seemed impressed, Johnnatan being mostly shocked by the great change while Gareth was more about appreciating the final result of something you accomplished together. 

- You hated to think about it as intensely as you did, but you were dying for one of Eddie’s reassuring comments. He would have praised you so enthusiastically, making a scandal of your looks in a way that wasn’t proper of any of your other friends. His supportiveness was different, it would feel so different to you and you thought that perhaps that had to be with your huge crush on him. 

- Yet, there was something else about him. Certain doubts that you couldn’t decipher, so you labeled those as silly hope inspired perceptions. Eddie didn’t have any other female friends, there was no way for you to check if that was his standard behavior in friendships with girls. 

- Confusing details, like the pet names. Johnnatan had a friendship of years with you, absolute trust, yet he would never be calling you his sweetheart. Eddie had a long list of lovely things to call you, that being the one at the top of it. Baby girl, dollface, my best girl, no other friend of yours was using words like those… with the exception of Steve’s heartfelt sounding ‘ darling’. There was also that time he called you babe and Eddie didn't let it pass without making fun of him. 

- Another previous similar incident also derived in teasing, but from a very different sort. While Eddie mocked him as if he wouldn’t be allowed to use those sorts of words with you, Billy laughed at you as if you were the proof of Steve’s downfall. ‘ Are you that much desperate for pussy, Harrington?’ he said in the short pause between his loud laughing from a similar joke Tommy commented before. As if that could be the only reason Steve should have to call you nice things and that should be a shame for him because of who you were, a plain looking nobody compared to the girls he used to have before. Never in years did you wanted to slap someone so badly. 

 - There were no justifications afterwards, as usual when a pet name for you would sneak into his phrasing. In that particular time, Steve was also too worried about comforting you against any possibility of being affected through an insulting comment that was meant for him.  

- Looking good, in the measure of your possibilities, was a matter of honor. Not only yours, but Steve's. You weren't Nancy, but wanted him to feel at least a bit proud beside you. The proudest he could be alongside a girl like you, what wasn't saying much in your opinion. 

- 'If only you could be good enough to make that dickehead regret from spitting hate', you would think while remembering the rage you felt. If he would have known, Eddie would have found the way to convince you of it.

- Despite the normal  doubts, you were feeling the change as some sort of dehinibitive transformation. You were ready to ruin with your attitude any possibilities for anyone to bother Steve through you.  

- By the time the doorbell rang you were still being photographed by your friends. It was Johnny's time to shine, he took some pics of you with the kids, with your drummer friend and a few solo ones while you were playfully pretending to pose for him as if you were modeling. Max took a few Polaroids for you as well, relieving the photographer so he could also get pics with you. 

- Dustin rushed to find you before Steve would, all smiles because of how happy he was about the whole situation. 

- " You look so beautiful and badass. " He commented on your looks with excitement. " You ARE a beautiful badass. "

You hugged him on spot. 

" I love you, Dusty." 

" ... and you will love me more once you will get to see Steve." 

- It took him an instant to notice the stranger around and his mind got quickly into one wondering. The dude looked like a metalhead, but he couldn’t tell which one. Was he the one you have been suffering about? The one who got your date with Steve THAT MUCH delayed because you simply couldn't stop thinking about him? 

- ' Chill, he is the drummer. ' Johnnatan whispered at him ríght before introductions would happen. 

Dustin didn't have to speak for him to guess what was going on in his mind.

- All you got to see was your brother gently welcoming your friend as they were being introduced. Dustin actually asked him about his instrument, wordlessly guessing him a member of Corroded Coffin. When Gareth confirmed for him that he was a drummer, he gave him a weirdly on spot compliment. According to the kid, it should have been easy to guess because he looked like he could fit into the ' smiling sunshine drummer' stereotype. 

- There was no doubt he was your little brother, he knew exactly what he was talking about. A few minutes of small talk were enough for him to give proof of the awesomeness you always described. 

- Before doing your walk of glory in direction to your date, you deviated for a quick last look in the full body size mirror on your mom's bedroom. What you found was pretty nice, definitely not that bad. You were a fitting replacement, good in a double context. Your looks worked as a different, but mildly adequate substitute for Nancy as Steve's date. Also, as you heard Dustin pridefully commenting, you looked like you could be a censorship pushed replacement character in your beloved trashy horror show.

- In that one you had to disagree, you were seeing it more like an imaginary occasional supporting character showing up from time to time to pop a joke with Elvira and only in very few episodes. That was the energy you were feeling at the moment, a more adequate description of how you were mentally preparing to deliver the comedy mechanism in case of need. 

- On the long awaited meeting the amazement was very much mutual. You managed to hide it behind your smile, but Steve was almost gone in the contemplation. You had no doubts that you must have surprised him, because only your voice got him back to reality. 

- " Hi, Steve. " You shyly saluted him, the confidence you were feeling faded a bit because of how handsome you found him. " Are you ready to do this?" 

" You are stunning. " He replied, still in awe. Heat flowed through your cheeks because he said it as if he was truly convinced of it. " Who the hell cares who will be crowned tonight? You are a queen... Can witches be queens or is it against your rules? " 

" I'm sorry if you expected an alliance with some enemy kingdom through this arranged marriage. " You joked as a parody of what you imagined as a fake date situation. " I am just a witch. I can only be called a Queen through you, since you are King Steve" 

" Not anymore." 

There was acceptance of that in his voice, not the same disappointment you heard some  time before. Yet, you couldn't help yourself and you just had to say the sweetest thing that crossed your mind. 

" Thorin didn't stop being acknowledged as ' King Under the Mountain' by the dwarves of Erebor just because Smaug usurped his kingdom. You may have been kicked out of your spot, but I don't mind who has it. You are still my King… and you look way more handsome than Tommy Ross ever could." 

- Steve wished he could have kissed your lips ríght there, but he gave you a tender peck on top of your forehead instead. You later kissed one of his cheeks and caressed the other. 

- From that startpoint, the romance could only escalate.

- After the typical smiling prom couple photo session, and some more pics with Dustin that you wanted to have now that he was there, you both were ready to go. The adults filled you both with typical goodbye advice and congratulated your date for his graduation one last time, while your best friend took his moment to make the promised warning. It didn’t come out as a scary threatening thing, but Johnnatan was letting Steve know of how much he cared for you. The chief of police would have loved to help if a scare would have been the intended effect, but he was pretty sure that Joyce’s son was handling things very well. 

- On the way to your destination Steve filled you with all sorts of reassurance. He told you for the hundredth time that he was absolutely happy with the choice he took when he invited you, revisited your plan with you and even allowed you to listen to whatever music you preferred on the car ride. 

- As a result, you arrived there blasting “ Go to Hell” by Alice Cooper, a track in a mixtape you picked from your own collection. Self aware self-bullying making fun of claims made by others,a middle finger to the horror inspired in the normals. Your maniacally sounding singing, purposely trying to make your voice deeper, was hilarious to him. The party wasn’t even beginning and your warming up to get in character was already making him chuckle really hard. 

- You stepped in holding hands, a gesture that you initiated halfway in the parking lot. Steve couldn’t help rooting for you as he felt in your tight grip the nerves you were trying so hard to hide. That time you were for once the clueless one crossing unknown territory: it was your first date in your first dance since middle school. You were going 0 to 100 in one take, about to attend a prom night when it wasn’t even your graduation year. 

- People did stare at you, showing a mix of reactions that oscilated between surprise and amusement. It was most likely that many weren’t expecting he would show up there with you for real. No one would say a word, of course, until the King and his little court would make the honors. Tommy and Carol, commanded by Billy, couldn’t wait to begin the humiliation of Steve. 

- “ You know? When I said ‘ There are plenty of bitches in the sea’ … I didn't mean this.” Hargrove cassualy commented to him, making the opening for the other two. 

“ … Just when we thought you hit rock bottom. '' Tommy followed. “ Have some fucking self respect, Harrington! This is low, even for you. A whole new fucking level of low, you are taking out the freak’s trash!” 

- Glancing at your date with confidence, showing determination, you let him know that you were going to handle them and he was invited to join the fun. 

“ Which freak’s trash am I ? You gotta be more specific, I know way too many dudes that fall on the label: Byers, Munson, Hellfire itself.” 

“ The perv, not the satanist. “ Carol added, happy to get a free way to bother you once more like in the old times. “ He got rid of his puppy friend because he doesn’t need it anymore, now he has the princess.” 

“... While this dumbass is stuck with me because he is alone.” You cutted her off. “ Yeah, I know. Thanks for the reminder, Carol. Pointing out the obvious, as always. Steve over here should be ashamed of himself for showing up in public with the bitch that not even the perv of Byers would fuck. A sad, pathetic maggot that he befriended to feel bigger than someone else for once and now Munson protects for pity.. Is that the whole speech or am I missing something? “ 

She didn't see it coming, neither did her boyfriend. Time before, back when it was only Johnnatan and you against the world, you would have remained silent. 

“ No one asked you, Henderson. Enjoy the princess’ spot, but you are still a frog.” 

You cracked a strident laugh, not forcefully delivered in a witchy tone, but so spontaneous that it felt maniacal. 

“ Is that all you have, Hagan? “ You clearly challenged him, intense eye contact showing so. '' On that you are mistaken, allow me to show why. While you got distracted playing Tommy Lee for Billy’s terrible Vince Neil-like acting, I found my purpose. What I was always meant to be: I am not a princess, not a frog … I’m a witch. “ 

- You blatantly ignored the happily hateful couple, confidently advancing towards Hargrove. At that point no one, not even Steve, could tell what you were about to do.

“ I have the most wholehearted thanks to you, Billy. You came to change everything.  ” You ironically commented. “ Last year I used to think that Steve Harrington,Tommy Hagan and his bitch were the worst bullies in existence… but you showed me the light! The truth is that Steve sucks at being a bully and his pathetic ex followers barely do a bit better. They are dumb children compared to you! Our true King, the previous one would never reach your league! King Steve was clearly meant to join your crew of flatterers, hoping he could learn a thing or two to improve his bullying routine, or perish in exile among outcasts like me. My lips don’t tremble at saying that you, Billy Hargrove, are the most efficient King Hawkings High ever had and you leave behind yourself a legendary legacy.” 

He was genuinely confused, but didn’t stop you because he was evaluating Steve’s reaction. After all, it was a flattery speech even if it was for the wrong reasons.

“ Your inaugural act? Stealing the more plastic and badass looking aspects of metalhead culture.. FREAKIEST FREAK SUBCULTURE? Woow, what a power move! You told us all that this time it wouldn’t be just insults and punches, you came here to take our identity. You were a threat for what we weren’t immediately prepared for, you managed to surprise the most cynical and skeptical crowd here … and that was just the start. “ 

“ I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you, but I can't say that doesn’t sound flattering.” He mocked you, trying to bother your date through that. “ See, Harrington? Even your freak bitch knows I am better than you and she is not even afraid of saying it.” 

Steve was about to cackle, but he allowed you to continue to not spoil the surprise effect.. 

“ Of course you are, Billy! The best ruler we ever had, for so, the most despicable human being I have come across in my goddamn school life. “ Was your speech’s punchline. “ You have no idea of what your rullership has created, or how it personally helped me. I owe you so much, I will be eternally thankful. Because of you, the freak nation has finally united and I stopped hiding. You took our shit, you beated up our children … you gave us no choice. In the peaceful times of King Steve I wasn't joining forces with Hellfire yet here I ended up!  Laughing my ass with Eddie Munson because of how dumb you look when you copy some of the badass shit that made him famous as a weirdo. The same shit I love, but wouldn’t make evident because I was afraid of being me in front of the lovebirds hiding behind you. ‘Fearing WHO?’ I began to ask myself, ‘ IF THAT DICKHEAD OF HARGROVE CAN DO IT, WHY NOT ME?’ “ 

You were absolutely unhinged and you could feel it in yourself. 

“ Your realm ends tonight. Next year we will have to face Jason Carver’s realm of terror, but we will do it more united than ever. When the Spanish Inquisition will be hunting down heretics, I will not be hiding anymore and I owe that to you.” 

“ Seriously, man. I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of your successor. “ Steve followed you. “Those freak bitches are crazy! Because you invaded their thing now they think they have the right to invade ours. Great job, King, you leave this place in chaos!” 

An ironic comment about how you were there because he invited you that he closed while giving Billy a path on the shoulder, then turning back cackling with you. 

- When the heat of the moment calmed and you realized what you did Steve was even more excited than you and his ramble about it actually got to impress you. 

- " THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!! We just did the same thing the Sex Pistols did to the british queen. You were two seconds away from saying ' God Save the King’ " 

He kept laughing, unaware that you were staring at him in awe. 

" How do you know about that?" 

Realizing it slipped from him accidentally, Steve got a bit nervous while explaining himself to you. 

" I have been learning stuff in case of needing a cool conversation topic so you wouldn't get bored. " He admitted. " Fantasy was way too complicated, the world buildings are so confusing, so I tried with some history of rock. " 

- it was the sweetest caring gesture he could have shown to you, making you feel as weak for him as he was for you. 

" I can't believe it! You have been saving it all for tonight.”

" I didn't expect to be talking about the founding fathers of punk so soon, but what we did was very punk." 

"... Wait, wait.. Are you learning about subgenres?" You asked, with curious amazement, then delivered a little tease. " Stop ríght fucking now, Harrington. Coming from you, that feels like dirty talking." 

“ I just want to keep my date entertained.” 

“ Damn it, you are so sweet! Now I will have to learn about sports rules.”

- Despite the fact that there was a world of people there, you were too deep into each other to care. You laughed, drank and danced, not caring for what others would think of you. 

- Of course, you also got into some casual talking with whoever that would dare to approach you. Many people did, mostly to salute Steve. Joking was your way to go in your own interactions or when asked stuff about you. Steve was able to tell that the amount of complexity was proportional to your comfort in the social situation. When being around people that made you feel mildly comfortable, you would pull the sillier ones. When the environment was more hostile, you would get creative. 

- Then, Chrissy Cunnighan approached and you went insane. Not like the last time, it wasn’t ironical aggressiveness. You were excited because the sweet cheerleader had a very positive reaction to your jokes. Her first comment directed to you, after greeting Steve and commenting about this older friend of hers who was graduating with him, was a compliment about your dress. 

- “ I gotta say it, I’m getting strong Carrie flashbacks with this.” 

She laughed, what surprised you for real, because to do so she had to understand the reference. 

“ Do you know what I am talking about?” 

“  I watched the movie once.. The bullied girl that moves things with her mind, right?” 

- Your immediate thought? No wonder why Eddie liked her, that girl was a ray of sunshine. Still, you didn’t let your jealousy ruin the moment and you choose to react with the same excitement you would in front of any other cheerleader catching one of your horror references. Keeping your harmless mocks,you told her that the red dress was your self brought bucket of pig’s blood and you weren’t Carrie, but you were still a bit of a witch.

“ Don’t worry, (y/n) is not here to kill us. “ Steve added, joining you for support. “ She wants to look like a witch because of some stupid nickname Tommy and Carol have given to Nancy. They call her princess, so my current date wasn’t feeling comfortable in a princess dress.” 

You glanced at him, feeling exposed because of a motive you didn’t tell him, while his response was smiling at you with something stronger than support. 

- Some of your more creative comedy material was delivered there for Chrissy in a non confrontational way. Following the dress topic, you invented a story about how it was made for you in Hell on the same red fabric of Satan’s cape. A boatman brought it to you on Express Infernal Mail, a parody of Charon that you presented as the Devil’s delivery guy bringing stuff to the lakeshore. The tale was getting exponentially crazy as the laughs of your two persons only audience intensified, your imaginative storytelling being then at the service of the comedical goals. 

- It was a matter of time until Jason would arrive to try to screw up the moment. Protectiveness over his girlfriend and his own spite against you caused blatant horror on him as a witness of the situation. 

- “ I know that you want to be nice, but some people just don’t deserve it.” He sweetly explained to Chrissy right after doing a shitshow about how you were a freak and she shouldn’t get close to you. 

- Steve’s blood was boiling, but he choose to defend you by following the rules of your defense mechanism. 

- “ Chill, she is vaccinated and free of fleas. I made sure she wouldn’t be bringing up anything contagious before bringing her in.” 

You immediately followed the joke, acting out as if you were a dog angrily growling and teasing with biting if Jason would get any closer to you. 

- It wasn’t your intention, but Steve couldn’t help finding your attitude a bit hot. The challenging way in which you were pulling out the joke made him think of you more as a shewolf than his dog pet. It probably had to be with the fact that he was already into you, but he definitely found it sexy despite it being intended to be funny. 

- Chrissy kept chuckling and she commented to her boyfriend on how funny she found you and how surprised she was by just finding out that you were Steve's date. Jason told her that he had heard of it before, but refused to believe it. 

- There was such an outrageous disgust on that dude, as if you were committing a crime against nature just by standing there next to Steve. It inspired you into bringing on the best joke of the night. 

- “ It’s not a date, he is a zombie. I hexed him and now he obeys my will. “ You began to explain in a deathly serious tone to make the crazy tale even funnier. “ Some time ago Billy Hargrove attacked the group of baby freak friends my little brother is in. He wanted to beat the crap out of them, so I told myself ‘ Enough is enough, I have to protect my boys: time to get a jock babysitter’, and Steve was right there. I put a spell on him and.. problem solved!” 

Seeing that Steve was comfortable with the joke, you got straight to the great finale. 

“ He is my first prototype, Eddie thinks that by the time I will become a master of the magic arts I will be able to create an entire army of zombie jocks solving our every need. My plan is to give each one an unique function: Steve is the babysitter, I’m thinking I could take revenge on Hargrove by making him a trophy manwhore… What is yours good at, Chrissy? Besides basketball and ruining everyone else’s fun.” 

-  Before the madness could escalate, Steve made Jason follow him into getting you and Chrissy something to drink. It was an excuse to have private conversation while giving you a bit more time to interact with the person who made you feel the most comfortable there, besides from himself.

- " Seems like our dates are having fun without us." He commented to Jason with a certain amusing complicity that only reflected how happy he was for you. 

There was no direct answer, only a return from the point he made before that this time felt like honest jock to jock advice. 

" I don't get you. What are you doing with that freak, Harrington? Are you out of your mind?" 

" More like thinking on my own for the first time in my life. " Steve frankly confessed. " I know, you look at her and all you see is a weirdo. People like you,Tommy, Carol, even Billy... You think of her as some sort of abomination and she knows it, that's why she chooses to act like that. She is giving you all what you want before you could try to get it violently, bullying her. Look at yourself, for instance: you used to ignore her, you don’t even know her name,yet since she hangs out with the nerds she has become to you the witch servant of the devil you see in Munson… You have no idea of how wrong you are. " 

He could have stopped there, but he chose to trap his interlocutor into a ramble about very precise little things showing the niceness in you. 

" She is top of her class in English and she wants to be a writer. She practically begged me to let her check the writing on my college applications because she wanted so badly to help me out, but i refused because she is so smart and I didn’t want to look dumb in front of her. ``was his introductory point. “ ( y/n) is a total sweetheart: she refuses to read Pet Cemetery because the thing about animal death makes her extremely sad. She thinks that someday she will be able to, but hasn't tried yet. She cries to the original Frankenstein, even more now because for some reason mad science horror reminds her of a little girl who is friends with her brother. “ 

He made a very brief pause before getting into his favorite topic. 

“That boy is her life, she loves Dustin more than anything in the world. Whenever he has had a bad day, feels nervous or sad, she sings him. He is 13 and super ashamed of letting anyone know that he still enjoys it, but I discovered it once when I stayed with them for a sleepover just to cheer him up. It is always the same song: Stairway to Heaven. She thinks it is the most cliché thing ever because it is the most cliché Zeppelin song, but she began doing it years ago when she didn't remember by heart as many rock song lyrics as she does now. Since then, she has never been able to switch the song. She once risked trying with Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult, but she felt it didn't have the same effect. She actually doesn't like her singing voice because it is not a metal voice and that is a bit of a frustration for her. It's true, hers isn't raspy or aggressive and she complains about how all she sings ends up sounding like a lullaby, but I think that's magic. That girl over there, that you see as some bitch doing business with the spawn of Satan, loves her little brother to death and sings to him like a freaking angel. " 

That wasn't going to change a thing, but at least he spoke from his heart. If you would have been able to hear, you would have discovered the pure adoration he had for you being blatantly exteriorized. 

" Maybe there is some truth in what she says, you could be hexed for real. Have you thought about it?" Jason concluded, a mock regarding the evident and very fast change in Steve." I would be more careful if I were you."

- It wasn’t a spell, those were his feelings talking for him. He simply couldn’t stand the way in which that guy showed to despise you. It didn’t seem fair, especially because you were having a good time right before that.  

- The highest peak of awkwardness happened when Chrissy and Steve danced together for a short instant, leaving you and her dickhead boyfriend one on one wondering what the hell were you both supposed to do. 

- You two couldn’t even attempt to do small talk without pissing each other off. 

-  " It is part of the cult initiation to develop Munson's nonsensical sense of humor? " 

His comment was nonsensical, but you didn't mind answering to it. 

 "That was just my own version of a horror comedy routine, moron. ' Elvira, Mistress of the Dark' ... Ever heard of that character? " 

Jason looked at you in the most despicable ' Are you serious?' way. It only made you want to snark back harder. 

" Ríght, I forgot. It must be hard to find chances to watch tv on the ruins of an abandoned summer camp. All you must be doing is sharpening that machete waiting for the next round of dumb teen campers. " 

As silly as it sounded, that still seemed to annoy him. It was most likely about being used to being the one controlling the jokes, not being laughed at. 

" Do you really think you are funny just because that freak of Munson cheers for you? " 

" Of fucking course, I am hilarious.” You confidently affirmed. “If you were smart, you would be preparing a Jason Vorhees costume for Halloween, but I know you aren't gonna do that. You are incapable of admitting a flaw, you can't laugh at yourself and that's where I win." 

Inspired by the situation, you finished with a simple warning. 

" I feel I need to let you know I am not switching masters. Perkins and Hagan lost the power over me they once had, but you are not gonna be occupying that void. Never again, I will not let anyone of your kind bring me down. "

He managed to deliver a comeback that actually surprised you, although that reaction wasn't about him. 

" Harrington believes you are different, he even seems proud of you. Try to not disappoint him. "

- You didn't hesitate in asking Steve what was that about. It was how you got to find out that he tried to pitch you to Carver as a nice person. 

-" I did it because he upsets me, that lame ass church boy doesn't know shit about you. " Your date justified himself. " You are the sweetest, kindest girl, you would give anyone a second chance. That's what you did for Johnnatan after that questionable photography scandal we all try to forget. Later you did it for me, giving me a fresh start after all I have done. You have given Munson the first chance that nobody gives him and I am sure that you would even give a second shot to Hargrove if he would someday ask for it. That's who you are, you have the patience and mercy of a saint. " 

" Don't exaggerate, you don't have to keep praising me like that. I really don't care about your past as a bully. " 

" But I do care about other bullies hurting you." He sweetly insisted. " Next year I will not be there for you at school. If Carver is taking the lead, I wish he could be a bit nicer to you. All i did was planting the seed, what he does with that is on him. " 

His concern was adorable, you really loved him for trying despite of how naive that was. 

" Are you trying to make me his exception?" 

" Chrissy seems to like you, she was having a lot of fun with us." 

" Jason Vorhees makes no exceptions. He is a zombie settled in automatic pilot to kill anything that triggers him. You can't beg for your life, you can't argue with him. All you can do is disguise yourself in his mother's sweater to distract him and pray for the best as you pick a weapon to fight back." 

" What if Mama Vorhees tells him that you are a good girl?" 

His occurrence was way too funny. 

" Do you see yourself as Mama Vorhees in this, Steve?" 

" Well, someone has to and it can't be Chrissy. That would be too weird."

- He was hugging you and you began to laugh so hard that you buried your face against his neck to hide. Ríght there, he felt he couldn't be asking for anything more.. Except, maybe, feeling you place a kiss or two since you were in the fitting position for it. That would have been heaven. 

- Steve was determined to get that first kiss, his feelings were overwhelming him. As the night advanced, he kept revisiting in his mind his perfect fairytale plan to make it be the most romantic moment of your life. 

- After the coronation, during a slow dance. It was the most meaningful moment to do it, showing that he really didn't care about anything you thought he did. Only then you would see that you weren't there just to be a post breakup, post popularity emotional support.

- His heart was racing at the moment of the announcement, an ironic contrast to how the old Steve would have felt. If he once thought he would have been excited about getting the spotlight through being crowned King with Nancy as his Queen, all he wanted then was getting lost in the shadows with you. 

- Things took a very unexpected turn when, as Billy and his date were proclaimed elected royalty, you were the one pulling Steve closer for a kiss and you wouldn’t let him go. Your spontaneous reaction got him into the happiest shock, he would have never seen it coming. 

- That wasn’t how it was supposed to go. You, his so far dateless freaky friend, kissing him before he could get to kiss you? It was a ‘Carrie revealing her power’ level of surprise, but with very happy consequences. 

- “ What the hell was that?” He whispered to you immediately afterwards, blissfully numbled to anything else. 

“ I’m making Max proud.” Was your vague explanation, some of your usual shyness returning from the high. 

“ You really transform into someone else with this look. Is it like your superhero costume? Are you the Scarlet Witch now? “ 

The sweet tease surprised you again.

“ Steve!” You happily exclaimed. “ Where did that come from?” 

“ I’m making Dustin proud.”  He confidently explained before falling a bit into dorkish territory once more. “ I heard him making jokes and just tried to copy that. I have no idea who she is besides a witch dressed in red.” 

You smiled sweetly for him and that was all he cared about. 

- Although you had a clear objective, it couldn’t be said that you weren't acting on your own impulses. Your main goal was to ruin Billy’s chance of bragging to Steve from the peak of Olympus, preventing him from obtaining a direct reaction when he would glance in his direction. However, a part of you did want to kiss him. 

- What was the point of not doing so? You didn’t have a boyfriend. Your friend/crush was into someone else and that girl was so wonderful that just in one interaction she made you wish you could befriend her. 

- Strictly speaking, you were applying the very same concept Eddie taught you when he offered himself as guide and test subject of your first making out experiment. Steve needed a distraction so when Billy would search for his reaction from his spot on the stage, he wouldn’t get it and wouldn’t taste the triumph. That’s what friends are for, it would be rude not to do so. 

- After a while to cool things down, Steve made you follow him into the very first real slow dance of your life. “ I Want To Know What Love Is” by Foreigner was the sounding background of your clumsy attempt in replacing Nancy at the peak romantical moment of the night. That was the time in which you were expected to pretend to be the princess, but even a thirteen years old girl raised in a lab once showed to be more ready than you for that.

- “ I wasn’t made for this.” You mockfully excused yourself to Steve in a shy whisper that sounded like a true call for help. 

“ You aren’t self bullying out of this one, darling.” He cutted you off.” Not with me, I know your game and I have seen enough of it.” 

He stared intensely into your eyes, absolutely serious in what he was about to say. 

“ You deserve lovely things happening to you because you are lovely. There is no one else I would want to be dancing with here and now.” 

- Changes in the original idea aside, his plan was still accomplished and it was the most romantic thing that ever happened to you, at least in a traditional sense of romance. 

- You arrived back home late and your excitement was such that you were sure you wouldn’t be able to sleep. Dustin fell asleep waiting for you, he passed out on the couch and you chose not to wake him up. There would be plenty of time in the morning to talk about everything. 

- All you wanted was to lock in your room to collapse in your mattress and think, process all the stuff that happened before you could get to focus on understanding it. Once you got there, switching lights on and sitting in your bed for an instant, you thought on what to do next. 

- First, you needed to remove your make up and get in comfy clothes. Get rid of your alter ego, back into your usual approach. After a good while passing by the bathroom to collect some of the stuff you needed, like a remover lotion that was in a shared little cabinet for makeup, you returned to your bedroom and into a shocking discovery. 

 - “ Hi, sweetheart! You should really check that backdoor. Does your brother sneak out a lot or are you the naughty one?.” Eddie received you, standing in front of you and inside your bedroom with the sweetest, most innocent smile. 

There was no immediate reply, you were confused and speechless. 

“ … Look at you, honoring us all while looking so damn gorgeous. “ He continued and you couldn’t help feeling weak, even if you weren’t sure of how to process his presence. “ You are a hot babe.. You know that? It’s like if you were born for that look, too metal for jock hell. I bet you terrorized a lot of populars.” 

Your brain was begging you for self control, yet you giggled like an idiot. 

“ Are you up for an after-after- party? Just you and me, of course.” 

[gumballavocadoharry]

Harry and River;

Lost and found:

I had to get groceries at the store today and River had to come with me. It was a damp day and I was already kinda tired from work so I was really counting on River's cooperation today. "Come on Rivie, we have to go now!" I called from down the stairs. "I'm coming daddy!"

River came rushing downstairs with Rexie in his hand and his jacket halfway dangling off his shoulder. "I'm ready!" I couldn't help but giggle a little. "Honey, lemme fix that for you." I adjusted River's jacket and zipped it up for him. "Okay let's go." We got in the car and went to Giant Eagle to buy a few things for the week. "River what would you like dinner this week?"

"Pasta and lasagna." "Okay, I guess we can get both." I put them in the cart and I saw River grab some cookies from the shelf from the corner of my eye. "Rivie, no cookies this week okay? We have cake mix and brownies already at the house."

"Okay." River gave them to me to put back on the shelf. I got everything I needed and went to the self checkout. I had to take River out of the basket for one minute because he was sitting next to the bread and I didn't want him to smoosh it. But it wasn't till I looked up that River was gone. It felt like I was on a tightrope a million feet in the air trying not to fall. That fight or flight feeling turned my stomach into tight unmerciful knots.

A cold sweat, encased my forehead as I couldn't see River anywhere from the aisles we had previously gone down. Panic erupted in me after 5 minutes of looking for my lost little boy, but still no sight of him anywhere. I knew I had to say something so I alerted the first worker I saw.

"Hi, my son is missing, he's a 4 year old wearing a orange shirt and blue jeans. He's about 4'6," I was choking back tears that were threatening to spill despite my glossy eyes. "Okay, what's his name?"

"River." She nodded and alerted security. My heart was beating out of my chest, my palms were sweaty. I only felt a rush of relief when the worker promised to watch my basket full of groceries if I decided to search some more.

I took her up on the offer and checked every single aisle, practically tearing up the entire supermarket.

"Harry, Mr. Harry styles we have a special present waiting for you at the lost and found." The lady said in the intercom. I zoomed over to the lost and found as fast as I could. I checked the employee at the front desk. "Hello, I'm Harry and you said there was a present waiting?" I said out of breath from racing over to the other side of the store so fast.

The lady smiled and took me back to a waiting area where I saw River sniffling and holding....a package of cookies. I wanted to be furious, but I couldn't but run and smother those little chubby cheeks in kisses. "Oh river! I'm so thankful you're okay." I cried, tears finally releasing themselves from my terrified worries.

River cried into my arms. "I just wanted the cookies....I didn't see you anymore." He sobbed. Poor thing was shaking from fear, which provoked me to hug him tighter. "It's okay daddy's here now. And he's not going to let anything happen to you ever."

"Can we still get the cookies?" He said as I pulled away. I took the cookies and set them aside, warming myself up to rebuke River for the amount of worry he caused. "No. I don't ever want you doing something like this again! Someone could have snatched you! You are very fortunate that there were very nice people trying to help you, I had no idea where you were. Anything could've happened." I said very sternly.

River looked down. "I'm sorry daddy," He said quietly. I sighed. "Let's go." I took River's hand and went over to the lady and our basket. "Thank you very much." I said. "You're welcome. I'm glad you found River."

"Thank you, me too." I plopped River into the basket seat and rolled out of the grocery store, still angry over what happened. This wasn't the end of it when we get home. I took my time putting the bags into the trunk before putting River in the car and buckling him into his carseat. Once I got back from the putting the cart away, I got into the car and drove off not saying a word despite River's constant apologies.

I kept River in the car until after I took all the bags inside the house. Then I took River. I hoisted him up to his room, where I set him on his bed and took a seat across from him. "River....daddy is really upset about what happened at the store today. You ran to get cookies, when you know I want you to stay close to me for a reason."

River looked down clearly ashamed. "I'm sorry daddy." I nodded. I gave River another hug before going back downstairs to put away the groceries. I left River in his room for awhile. He needs to know about stranger danger. And this was a way to teach him.

[dani-luminae]

Happy Halloweenmonth: A ghost story, but not that spooky

I’m re-writing and posting a story that I previously posted, for @unusual-ly and her ghost stories day of Halloweenmonth! I can’t currently find my previous post so I just wrote down as much as I could remember here.

Anyone who has been following me for years maybe remember this story (and other weird stuff that happened in my former college dorms.) For those of you that are new, welcome!

To set the scene, we have (some names changed bc these are real people):

Me, Dani, nineteen at the time this happened;

My roommate, Lizzie, also a college freshman at the tail end of our first semester;

Becca, another girl who shares our dorm;

Matilda, the fourth girl who shares our dorm.

(The way our dorm was set up was like a mini-apartment, bc Honors students got the best dorms; there were two single rooms and one double room, we all shared two bathrooms, a common living room area, and a kitchenette; Lizzie and I shared the double bedroom, Becca got one of the single rooms, and Matilda had the other single room.)

And Payton, a boy from the floor below us who commonly hung out in our dorm with us. He all but slept there. He was very welcome there.

Bear with me here, because the corporeal living nonsense is somewhat important to the supernatural thing that this is about.

Matilda, Becca, and Lizzie were all extroverts who got along like a house on fire and spent the majority of the first semester being absolute best friends. I, being the autistic introvert I am, was very happy to sit at my desk in my room and let them be best friends. However, near the end of December – and right as finals arrived to challenge us mere freshmen – Matilda had a major change of mood and a GIGANTIC falling out with Becca and Lizzie. There was screaming, doors being slammed (by Matilda), and for the first time since I moved into that dorm, we all started actively locking our doors because we were worried that Matilda would steal from us.

(Looking back, I see that there were far better ways to handle this. But from the perspective of me then, facing such conflict for the very first time away from home, I didn’t know what to do.)

Eventually, Becca and Lizzie felt threatened in their own dorm. I still hadn’t been fully involved in Matilda’s mistreatment, but I supported Lizzie and Becca when we went to the RA (basically, the dude in charge of dealing with any room/ roommate disputes on our floor) to see if something could be done to change rooms.

It wound up being turned back on us. RA promised to talk to Matilda, and even called in his supervisor about the situation; but when we were called back after they talked to Matilda, we were told simply that it seemed we were the bad guys in this situation and we needed to be “more supportive” of her.

Yes. Apparently we needed to be more supportive of the girl who was acting intimidating towards us in our own dorm.

(Again, looking back, there were better ways to handle this, I’m sure. At the time, I had no such ideas.)

So we go back to our dorm. We gather in Lizzie’s and my double-room, across the common area from Matilda’s room and Becca’s right next to it, where Becca has a panic attack because of all of this.

Alright, here’s where the ghost stuff finally comes in! Throughout the semester, I had learned that Becca believed the spirit of her deceased, beloved grandfather had become her guardian angel. This was the least of the spooky things that had come to light, considering that I swore my deceased dog slept at the foot of my bed (I heard her tags jingling! A lot!) and there was a ghost named Josh who haunted the building (and had made plenty of things go missing.)

So we call Payton, because we have no idea who else to call, who’s across the tiny campus doing training for his campus representative (tour guide) job, and he comes running to us. And as he comes in, he asks us who else was here.

What do you mean, who else? We say. We haven’t called anyone.

Payton says he saw an old white-haired man coming out the door of our dorm room (the main door, into the hallway, not the door to the double bedroom.) He thought at first that the man was the counselor on 24/7 duty that night and that we had called him, because the man beckoned to Payton and then walked away down the hall as Payton opened the door.

When Payton describes the man, Becca says it matches her grandfather exactly.

So maybe Becca’s grandfather thought he could help.

We did end up calling a counselor about this to see what could be done. When she arrived, she was a lady in her thirties with dark hair. Nothing like an old white-haired man.

So yeah, maybe not a spooky ghost story, but I have no reason not to believe what Payton saw.

There were far weirder things on that campus.

[lovelyjasmari]

Twisted Wonderland Reaction Part 15 ~ THIS IS NOT A GODDAMN OTOME GAME Edition

Hello everyone!

Welp, after a long work week/weekend, I finally finished reading the first part of the Phantom Bride event! This was actually one of 4 twst events I hadn’t previously read ahead, the others being Vargas Camp, Endless Halloween Night and that Epel-centric one JP got back in winter. I tried reading it afew months back, but 30 seconds in I was jumped by 4 of the twst boys proposing to me (ROOK INCLUDED) and I immediately noped out and spent the remainder of the night screaming into my pillow. Soooooo...yeah...

But I’m really loving it so far, Eliza is the worst and everyone is being petty af and it’s awesome! Warning: Pic heavy, violence, swearing, simping (A LOT OF SIMPING), twst boys trying and failing to be smooth, references to my ocs and some Idia slander. LET’S GET IT!

Sorry, Ace. You gotta get in line behind Rook, Vil, Malleus, and Lilia...

I feel like this was put in for those who felt Elsa was making some profound statement against romantics when she said something similar.

Always, my handsome, sexy, sus-as-fuck hunter of love! The blue really suits him and I know some ppl think he looks odd without his hat but I don’t. Rook is beautiful with or without it. Ohhhhh, I can’t wait to read his vignette! I think Eliza will REALLY like him but hopefully not because then she and I might have to fight.😊

Grim, when are we NOT being evicted or being threatened with eviction??

THE FUCK YOU MEAN “AGAIN”?! Don’t you think you should have warned us of the potential of this shit when you airdropped us into that shack?! God this bird man makes me sick!

Bitch unless you’re putting me up in a new place (preferably Diasomnia or Pomefiore for reasons...👀) KICK THE GHOSTS OUT! Actually, where are the usual ghosts when this is happening? I’d think they’d put up a fight too wouldn’t they??

Ortho is such a sweet little bro. But I do understand Idia’s appeal, hell, 17-year-old weeb me probably would have killed for a BF like Idia! Though he’d probably only want a uper petite Asian girl or a kawaii idol or e-girl type to live out his anime waifu fantasies. Don’t boo ,me, you know I’m right. 

That’s Disney talk for IDIA’S GOING TO FUCKING DIE

Have I mentioned that this bird man makes me sick?? 💀

Idia has absolutely doxxed ppl with Ortho’s help. Don’t tell me how I know this, I just do. 

Isn’t it always at this fucking school?! 

Edward Elric vibes right here, maybe Riddle should drink more milk...

Floyd, please shut the fuck up before Riddle puts a collar on you...

You shut up too!

 I’m still not over his bullshit from the last part of Book 5 either. GET HIS ASS VIL!

She’s awful beyond awful but I like her design at least, reminds me a lot of Emily from Corpse Bride.

Why does Idia sound like me trying to get my non twst friends into twst?? 😭😂

Somewhere in the distance, I can hear my brother’s girlfriend squeeing. I got her into twst a while back and she is a TREMENDOUS Leona simp, which is hilarious for me since I simp so hard for all the ppl Leona hates. 😂

And the violence has begun! But really, this shocked me when I first saw it, like DAMN THIS BITCH REALLY JUST BACKHANDED LEONA FUCKING KINGSCHOLAR! To be fair he did a pretty shitty job wooing her but still, violence is never the answer, kids! 

OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😍😍😍😍😍😍 I really wish this was voiced because we know from Book 5 that Vil can sing quite well and I would just DIE if Vil sang to me! MMMMMFFFFF I’m getting giddy just imagining it! 

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH HER?! So what if Vil doesn’t have a dog, I would think she’d prefer to be the only bitch in his life anyway! 

Okay, look, I know that was terrible. But seriously, it was at this moment that Eliza officially ended up on my shitlist. I really hope she doesn’t slap Rook in the next part cause I will dropkick a ghost, I do not care! 

And unfortunately, Sebek was doomed from the start. Sometimes I wonder if he ever envies Vidaria for obvious reasons...

She’s got a point tho, one of the few times she actually said something sensible. Say what you will, but Sebek totally deserved that slap.

SIDONIE! COME GET YO MANS!!! 💀💀💀💀💀🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Aww, at least he’s being sweet abt his obvious failure. It’s funny cause when I write him with Sidonie, he’s very smooth and charming but here? An absolute dork! But a good natured dork and that’s what Sidonie loves about him. 💖

This cannot end well...

Bitch WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?! Why are you even here?!

Oh god, Jade is so goddamn charming that my heart would absolutely go if he offered me a flower. But at the same time it’s Jade so I would be terrified as well. Such odd, polarizing feelings he stirs within me...👀

WHERES MY STICK

Jade was literally the closest thus far in yeeting her back to the afterlife and you snitched on him because you were lonely in the slap corner? PET-TY!

Ya’ll ain’t shit, you know that?! NONE OF YOU! Except Rook, we’re still cool and haven’t needed to beat him with my stick yet. The rest of these clowns tho? Maybe THIS is the reason twst isn’t an otome game! 

Welp, let’s see how these fellas fare with Cater’s cringe ass nae nae talk...

Sadly not any better...💀

WHAT SEBEK SAID

Ugh, once again I find myself agreeing with this bitch. Modern dating is a nightmare and I am so glad I’ll be getting married soon myself to probably one of the last men on the planet who truly is a decent person. 

Oooohh, I really like Idia’s tux tho, and I’m not an Idia simp in the slightest but damn it suits him!

Good to see his priorities are in order. About to die? Yeah no biggie. About to die without reading the newest manga, TRAGIC!!!

In all seriousness tho, while pulling for Ace, I got Ortho’s ceremonial robes card and after reading the accompanying vignette, I can kinda understand why everyone’s so reluctant to help him. As a painfully anxious introvert myself, I REALLY hate Idia’s apathetic attitude. It’s going to take some PROFOUNDLY deep and tragic shit in Book 6 for me to think differently of him but as of now, nah I can’t with him, especially since I know ppl like him irl and they are actually the worst. 

Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, something tells me I’m going to be screaming into my pillow ALOT more when part 2 drops. Pray for me, guys...💙

Eliza better slap him first, if she want’s any sort of redemption in my eyes. Sadly I didn’t get Ace or Epel and I won’t be pulling hard for either since Vil will be coming home soon. And since the other vignettes are still locked, with that, the first part of the Phantom Bride event is done! So far, so good! And I just realized, I began this post with an Ace pic and I’m ending it with an Ace pic! Not intentional though, I swear! ❤

[jasminelyoko57]

HypMic x Detective Conan AU [Part 2]

After introducing our hero, Ichiro and his friends in the previous part, PART 2 HERE WE GO!

Best read while listening to “Ai wa Kurayami no Naka de” by ZARD feat. Aya Kamiki (LISTEN IT, I DARE YOU) or “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Aohitsugi Samatoki (Asanuma Shintarou)

PART 1 - PART 2 (you’re here!)

Jiro Yamada and Saburo Yamada

Ichiro’s two younger brothers and part-time workers at Odd-Jobs Yamada. Jiro is an athletic street smart, yet lazy second year high schooler and delinquent. Saburo is an intelligent, yet insufferable know-it-all third year middle schooler who is a computer expert. They are the second people to discover that their older brother have shrunken into a child after Samatoki.

Despite their constant bickering with each other, Jiro and Saburo are Ichiro’s invaluable staunchest allies in his struggle against the yakuza which responsible for shrinking Ichiro’s body to a 10-year-old boy. Saburo occasionally would help Nemu to develop the CASTOR-IX antidote.

In order to keep Ichiro’s transformation a secret, they refer Ichiro, by his alias Hiroki Ohtomo, as their “cousin” in public. However, they will refer him by real name when around people who they deemed “trustworthy” (e.g. Samatoki, Nemu, Jakurai, Hifumi, and Doppo).

Jakurai Jinguji

A Public Security Bureau (PSB) agent who is Hifumi and Doppo’s direct superior. He has previously been a part of the yakuza under an alias. He chases after the yakuza in the present time. Before joining the police force, Jakurai was a professional assassin with 100% body count rate and a former member of The Dirty Dawg.

He was introduced as a mysterious man who was spying on Ichiro Yamada and later Nemu Aohitsugi. He ordered his agents to discreetly photograph her in order to confirm the newly appeared “Chika Aoyama” as Nemu during the Film Development Studio case.

At the moment, he works at Shinjuku Public Hospital as a doctor. He is unaware by the fact that nurses are in love... ahem, admire him.

Jyuto Iruma

The lead operative of the yakuza who poses as an active-duty police sergeant in the Organized Crime Unit of the Kanagawa Police, introduced during the yakuza's initial hunt for Nemu Aohitsugi.

An expert at impersonation, he is a notoriously independent wild card even among his own allies and always puts his own interests above all other goals. It turns out he has history with the main characters, Ichiro, Samatoki, and Nemu in particular.

While he has no hesitation in manipulating Ichiro, Samatoki, or threatening those around him, Jyuto would do almost anything to prevent Ichiro (including his two brothers, Jiro and Saburo) and Samatoki from being killed.

Rio Mason Busujima

A former sergeant-ranking naval officer. One of the yakuza's most dangerous operatives, and the one who is unknowingly responsible for Ichiro's current condition. 

He appears to be one of the highest-ranked members, as most other yakuza are shown frightened to him and he can even threaten Jyuto without repercussions.

Rio is quite perceptive and amazing at deduction, being able to spot traps and discrepancies others fail to. His cold greyish blue eyes or the mere mention of his name can make Nemu shudder in fear.

Notes:

- YESSSSSSS JYUTO AS BAD GUY IS MY EVERYTHING (his role as the mole in the police force is inspired from a character in Yakuza 4).

- When I saw Rio, he would be a perfect traitor hunter lol.

- Jyuto and Rio are Nemu’s nemesis. They're DREADED to her more than any yakuza members.

[misty-purple-haze]

A LESSON TO REMEMBER

TW: Cheating Lucifer, Minor cusses, Body Shaming, If I missed something please tell me <33(it would be really appreciated)

Taglist: @rosawolf1, @swan-chan, @fantasy-dating-sim-trash, @sadgenderfluidhours (sorry if I could tag some people!!)

PROLOGUE PART 2

PART 1

PREVIOUSLY:

You wiped off your tears and decided to send some food to Lucifer when you heard noises coming from his room. It sounded like… no. This can’t be. Right? You swung the door open only to find…

CURRENTLY:

You saw Lucifer having a full on make out session with a succubus… his tie loosened, hair disheveled, face flushed red with cold sweat, tongue deep inside her. He moaned into the kiss as the succubus unbuttoned his shirt and started sucking hickeys onto his neck. You froze on the spot. He had never shown an ounce of emotion every time you kissed him. Anytime you tried to get out of your shell and initiate something with him he shut it down immediately. Even now as he moaned her name out loud he managed to speak out how better she was at pleasuring him than you. Infact, they both were so into it that they didn’t notice you drop the plate and run from the door with tears on your face.

It was then you bumped into Mammon who was searching for you along with Asmodeus. “Oh Mc there you are- Mc? Why are you crying??” Asmodeus asked. “Human? Who hurt you??” You blurt out the scene you saw upon entering Lucifer’s office. Both of them were fuming. It didn’t take long for the rest of the brothers to find out and boy were they angry. Satan was in his demon form being held back by his brothers while Beezlebub and Asmodeus tried to cheer you up by hugs and food. Belphegor merely hugged you and rubbed your back in soothing circles while whispering how Lucifer didn’t deserve you and how he was an asshole. This made you crack a smile at their antics. That night you all decided to ignore the obvious moans coming from the eldest’s office and decided to do a movie night. They all did so much for you to forget Lucifer and move on. You all ended up sleeping furthest away from the eldest’s room with the brothers making sure you were okay every minute. The next morning when Lucifer came to the breakfast table no one paid any attention to him. Normally he would be greeted by you and the others and he would find food on his plate but now? Literally nobody noticed his presence and even if they did, he was blatantly ignored while the others gave you more food than usual. “Eating so much again Mc? You really should take care of yourself you know? You may gain weight and I may not like you as much after this you know.” he stated glaring at you but you just focused on your food and focused on the other brothers instead who seemed to be ignoring him too. Of course the avatar of pride didn’t take it well but he suppressed it all in. You all finished your breakfast fast and left for RAD leaving Lucifer behind. This action of yours left him confused but hurt. Normally you would wait for him no matter how late he became to RAD even if it was extremely rare. Your change of behaviour hurt him. But he needed to learn a lesson. He needed to know that what he was doing is wrong and that you weren’t a doormat to be walked over.

RAD went relatively well, you spent time with the rest of the brothers and the royals, the angels, and the sorcerer. Somewhere along the line everyone else had been informed of what Lucifer had done to you and they were all livid. Especially Diavolo. The prince was always sure of his friends loyalty towards those he cared about but this? This was shocking. He excused you from classes the rest of the day and spent the day with you cheering you up and bringing a smile on your face. “Mc?” “Yes my lord?” He removed some hair from your face and cupped your jawline while smiling at you. “I’m sorry for what Lucifer did…” “can we please not talk about him? He’s hurt me too much and I just want to move on.” You stated with tears threatening to fall as the memory of him cheating played in your mind again. “Okay. If he says anything please let me know. We all care about you, you know?” “Sure. If anything comes up I’ll let you know.” You nodded and continued painting the scenery in his garden. You both continued painting until you felt wet paint on your cheek and turned to the prince looking at you with a childish grin. “My lord-“ “come on Mc, smile a little will you?” He grinned. You giggled at his antics with a small blush oh your face. You both spent the entire night spending time with each other and giggling and throwing paint at each other as you both “painted” the night away. “Hey Mc?” He asked you. “Hmm? Need anything Dia?” “If it’s not too much…. Would you join me for a walk on the palace grounds later?” “So like a date?” You raised your eyebrow which caused him to blush. “If that’s what you want it to be…” “of course Dia, I’d love to!” You hugged him, which he gladly returned. “Hey Mc?” “Hmm?” “Would you mind staying the night here as well? I mean, it’s late so…. And I don’t want to put you in danger……..” “sure why not? It’s way too late.” You agreed with it and spent the night there, much to the irritation of Lucifer.

You and Diavolo grew closer and closer everyday. The rest of the brothers and the other exchange students and the students of RAD shipping you both everytime they saw you together. No one paid any attention to Lucifer anymore. It was safe to say that no one trusted him anymore. Lucifer was only spoken to if it was really important. No one left you alone with Lucifer anymore. Anytime he was near one of the brothers always stood by you and simply opted to take all your attention to themselves by holding you protectively by the waist. Even the lesser demons and the student body of RAD lost respect for Lucifer as they opted to take your attention to themselves by sitting next to you during lunch, class, walking you to class, smothering and spoiling you with gifts and attention just to see you crack a smile and become the happy human you used to be. No one, not even the teachers trusted him anymore and only approached him if it was absolutely necessary. Lucifer only felt more and more left out. He slowly felt his pride cracking and breaking down. And mostly it was because he felt like he didn’t have any control as he had on people before. It also killed him watching you get closer and closer with Diavolo, while you were ignoring him.

It was then you were walking alone to class as everyone else had their classes and left you alone hesitantly. You assured them that Lucifer wouldn’t try something funny on you again and again for them to get off you. Suddenly someone grabbed you into an empty classroom. “Who the hell-“ you grabbed you head as you had hit it on impact with the table and you felt the door click. “What the fuck-“ and that’s when you saw him.

TO BE CONTINUED

[silversatoru]

step-dad nanami + brat taming 😼?

dark content event!!!

yes yes yes yes yes yes yesyyesysyesy mmm so good mm very tasty idea ily and i got very carried away

nanami + brat taming

tw: nsfw 18+, f!reader, psuedocest (nanami is your step-dad), brat-taming, noncon/dubcon, impact play, power imbalance, mild size kink?, manhandling, fingering, nanami said fuck jujutsu and is a very rich business man au

wc: 1.7k

you knew your mother’s new fiancé was a moderately successful business man, but you certainly weren’t expecting to pull up to a security gate on the day that you moved in with him. a large house constructed with dark-colored bricks loomed over your mom’s dented toyota prius, and you wondered what the hell one lonely man needed all this space for.

the white-haired butler that opened the front door and offered to carry some of your bags seemed nice enough, but you couldn’t help but scoff at the entire situation. walking onto the pristine and shiny floors in your scuffed up sneakers made you wonder just how your mom had managed to gold-dig her way into this one. either she was terribly convincing, or this guy was horribly desperate — either way you weren’t opposed to reaping the benefits. a butler, a giant in-ground pool, a bedroom that was three times the size of your old one?

yeah, you’d settle in real quick.

and you did just that, taking whatever you wanted and not feeling a shred of guilt for it. this guy, nanami kento, had more than enough money to go around, so why shouldn’t you indulge yourself? why shouldn’t you throw unsolicited pool parties while they’re at work? invite boys over to spend time in your king sized bed? your mom forced you out of your hometown to move in with this rich asshole, might as well make the most of it.

and things were going pretty fucking smoothly if you do say so yourself, or at least they were until nanami caught you sneaking a boy through your window one night.

you thought your were so smart, so slick with the way that you used his house as your personal playground behind his back. but why would he own such an esteemed property and not have security cameras? you weren’t smart at all, in fact you were incredibly, incredibly stupid.

and you’ve been getting on nanami’s nerves for a while, sashaying around the house in tiny outfits surrounded by a horde of immature boys. he’d watch you through the security footage while he worked — blood boiling at the way you flaunted his home as if it were your own.

those boys were never going to be enough for you; you’d walk all over them with your inflated ego and terrible attitude. you needed a man, someone grown, who could put your back in your place — you needed nanami — and fuck, he’d wanted you since the day you walked through his front door. he’d been patient, very patient, but this was enough to snap the thin wire that was holding him back.

he didn’t hesitate to kick the boy right back out the window he climbed through, threatening to call the cops if he didn’t leave his fucking property right now. and then a firm hand was wrapped around your wrist, dragging you up the stairs and into his bedroom.

he gave your arm a harsh tug, tossing your body towards his large neatly made bed. the edge of the raised mattress whacked you in the gut, your face falling forward and mashing into the silky comforter.

“what the fu-,” you snapped your head back to look at him, but were immediately met with a rolled up black sock being shoved into the back of your mouth.

you coughed and whined through the fabric as he grasped both your wrists in his one large hand, his other weaving the leather belt that was previously looped through his trousers around your wrists. he had zero patience for you right now, and he was making that evidently clear.

“i’ve tried to stay patient with you, but you’ve forced my hand this time,” he looked at you with dark eyes, one of his hands undoing the zipper at the back of your skirt.

you tried to kick with your legs, tried to cuss him out through the sock, but it was entirely ineffective, his strong hands holding you down and the cotton preventing a single coherent word from leaving your lips. your skirt was gliding to your feet now, your bare ass exposed and looking nanami right in the eyes.

“sneaking in another boy? how many times should i spank you for that? five? ten? i think ten would be suitable in this situation,” he used one hand to keep you pinned to the mattress, and the other to caress the smooth skin of your upper thigh, “what do you think?”

obviously you tried to reason with him, tell him that you didn’t deserve any spanks, that you weren’t a child, that this whole thing was fucking weird — but none of that made it out of your mouth, not through the soggy sock that was still in your way.

“i’m glad you agree, ten it is,” he gave you a thoughtful look, raising up his hand in preparation to strike you for the first time.

“one”.

his hand swung down with incredible force, a piercing smacking sound echoing through the room as you squealed and kicked under his touch. it felt like a thousand pins piercing through your skin, a blazing fire that burned through his fingers and straight through to your brain.

“two”.

the second smack was brought down with even more strength, your whole body lurching in response to the impact. you still kicked, still fought, still screamed through gag for him to fuck off, but a small part of you was already anticipating number three.

“three”.

the third strike to your backside flipped a switch in your brain, your legs falling limp and your screams replaced with pitiful whimpers and whines. his hand on your skin was starting to hurt so good, bits of the sock becoming trapped in your clenched teeth.

four, five, and six came quickly after, only a few seconds of rest between each of them — and nanami knew that he’d won when your feet began to push up onto your tip-toes, your ass wiggling closer to him as you waited for more.

“you count the next ones,” he reached forward and plucked the disgusting sock out of your mouth, tossing it to the floor and caressing your cheek.

seven came down hard, goosebumps lining your arms as you yelped; your tied up hands grasping at air. a shameful “seven”, rolled from your tongue a few moments later, your shaky voice flooding nanami’s ears.

“good girl,” he cooed, “three more”.

the next three stung the worst, nanami hissing at how badly it hurt his own hand — but your were a lightheaded, dizzy mess; practically drooling on his sheets by the time he was done. you’d done exactly what he asked, taken all ten and even counted out the last four — you were so good for him, and it was so easy.

he helped you roll over onto your back and then slipped his hand under the waistband of your panties, pulling and letting them fall down to your ankles. you’d taken the punishment pretty well, so it was only fair that you were rewarded now.

he sat down on the edge of the bed next to you, one of his hands pressing down onto your puffy clit. you knew how inappropriate this was all becoming, but your head was much too hazy to care.

he dipped two of his fingers low, slipping them into your slimy cunt and gently pushing them up inside you. his fingers were long, a sharp whimper flying through your teeth as he curled his fingers against your walls.

what the hell would happen if your mom got home right now? if she saw her soon-to-be husband fist-deep in her daughter?

those were the things you should have been thinking, but they didn’t cross your mind once. how could you care about the what if’s when nanami was stuffing you full with his thick fingers on one hand, and expertly massaging your clit with the other.

no one your age had this experience, and none of the boys you’d messed with had ever made you feel this good with such little effort. nanami was opening your eyes to his expert hands, and you began to wonder how many sorry brats had ended up in this exact spot before. maybe this is what he did for fun — romancing middle-aged women just to prey on their college-aged daughters until they inevitably get caught one day — and then the cycle continues.

but right now, on the edge of losing yourself around his fingers, you didn’t care if you were the hundredth step-daughter he’d done this to — it was worth it.

your walls clamped around his fingers as he thrusted them deeper, his other thumb rubbing hard and consistent circles over your sensitive nub. it was impossible to hold out any longer, the ball in your stomach flying undone as you rolled your hips into his hand and creamed all over his fingers. the room was filled with the prettiest mewls and whines, your body shaking and lurching as he kept feeling you even after your orgasm was fading.

only once you accidentally kicked him from the intensity of the overstimulation did he unsheath his fingers from your cunt, his skin glistening with your fluids. he shoved them into your mouth, your eyes widening as he offered a simple: “suck”.

but you did what you were told, you’d quickly learned that disobeying him would only lead to something worse. he smirked for the first time after he plucked them from your mouth, your lips making a satisfying popping sound.

“never gonna invite those boys over again, right?” he taunted you, an obvious bulge sitting in his dress pants.

you quickly shook your head no.

but if breaking the rules meant this would happen again?

you’d be breaking them every goddamn day.

[cjsinkythoughts]

Suits, Dresses, and Heels

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader

Word Count: 4000

Warnings: !FATWS SPOILERS!, Cursing, More Mentions of PTSD, Gun Violence, Slight Mentions of Drinking, Club Dancing (You’re all gonna hate me for that part, but I’m not sorry)

A/N: Here’s Part 4.2 - The Second Part to Episode 3 - as requested. This is a little more scene-by-scene, but there are some off-screen moments. I’ll be posting Part 4.3 (which will have the rest of the episode) later tonight.

There’s a bit more information on Reader, but not as much as the last chapter. Sharon comes in during this part, so you get to see her and Reader’s relationship.

Also, I have mixed feelings about Zemo at this point. Not in the story, the Reader’s not a fan as you learned previously, but for me personally, he’s surprised me a couple times by coming back and helping.

Anyways! Thank you so much for reading! This isn’t beta’d so excuse any mistakes! Check out my other parts before you read! Thank you again! Stay tuned, loves!

FATWS MASTERLIST

cjsinkythoughts MASTERLIST

!SPOILERS UNDER CUT!

The dress was far too tight for your liking, and showed way too much skin. Not that you didn’t like being a tease every once in a while, but for this mission, you’d rather have more cover and movement.

You had to admit though; Zemo had nice taste. The dress fit deliciously - which made you wonder how he got your size. The color and cut was devastatingly flattering. Plus, he let you do your own makeup.

Being the only female, you were in a separate area of the jet getting ready. Once you were done, you made sure to knock, even though you’d walked in on Sam changing too many times to count while on the run and had seen Bucky answer the door in nothing but a towel. It was mainly for Zemo’s sake, just a warning that you were walking in whether or not they were ready.

“Damn, girl! You clean up nice!”

You rolled your eyes at Sam, painted lips quirking up as you studied him, shooting him a wink. “You should try a mirror, Sammy.” You turned to Bucky to find him staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed at you. “What do you think, Buck?”

His mouth snapped shut and he cleared his throat, eyes exploring the dips and curves your body. “You…” He blinked once. Twice. His tongue darted out to wet his lips, his intense eyes making you heat up, before he shook his head. “You look good.” He rushed out, before spinning on his heel shoving past Sam who was snickering.

“Where’s Zemo?” You noticed he wasn’t in the main area of the plane when you walked in.

“Rearranging our ride once we get there.”

You huffed, fixing your hair. “Oh God. We’re really doing this.”

“Yup.”

“Okay.” You looked down at yourself before looking up at the boys. “Something’s gonna go wrong, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely.”

“No doubt.”

Giving a slight groan at their simultaneous answers, you nodded. “Let’s try not to screw up too badly, boys, alright? I at least want to live long enough to see Peter graduate.”

Sam rolled his eyes with a scoff. “That kid’s a punk.”

“You’re a punk.” You shot back.

Bucky raised his hand. “I second that punk thing.”

“For which one?”

“Both of them.”

You chuckled as Sam gaped at Bucky, who shrugged innocently. The former assassin tilted his head in your direction to shoot you a grin and a wink, making you laugh more. Shaking your head, you go to make a joke when Zemo walked in.

“It’s time. We’re landing now.”

And just like that, the teasing atmosphere dissipated, leaving you anxious and regretful.

*******************

You walked by Bucky, arm linked with his metal one, listening as Zemo told Sam about his “character” he was to play.

“He’s a known womanizer - always has a gorgeous lady on his arm.” Zemo gestured towards you. “It’s the only way they’d let in a woman.”

“Aren’t we going to see a woman?” You questioned, gently patting Bucky’s metallic bicep when his hold on you tightened.

“Which makes it more imperative that you don’t act threatening. Women don’t make the same mistake men do; they don’t underestimate other women.”

You nodded. He had a point there. Bucky faced you, a frown on those pretty lips. “I don’t like this.” He mumbled.

“You think I do?” You whispered back. “With you being him again? Even if it’s just pretend? And need I remind you whose idea this was?”

“I know, I know. Just…” He sighed. “Promise me you won’t get hurt on purpose.”

Your forehead creased. “Why would I-?”

“To protect people. You always do. And I get it, I do. It’s why you started this in the first place, but…save yourself first, this time, okay?”

“Buck-”

“Promise me.”

It wasn’t often you could see the fear in his eyes, hear it in his voice, but you could then. Unable to do anything else you nodded, a soft, “okay” falling from your lips. He nodded back, pressing a kiss to your head, before letting you go as a car approached.

Bucky helped you in - the heels you were wearing were no joke - before sliding in himself, Sam getting in on the other side of you. “And you two can’t be…” Zemo gestured to the two of you as the car started moving, eyeing your still connected hands. “Doing that.”

“This isn’t my first theater production.” You snapped at him. “We’ll be fine.”

He raised his hands in surrender, turning back to look out the windshield. Once you arrived, you gave Bucky’s hand one last squeeze, before accepting Sam’s hand to get out on his side, linking your arm with his like you were doing with Bucky earlier.

“I finally get to see one of your performances, baby.” Sam grinned at you.

You smirked back. “Best seats in the house, too, Smiling Tiger.” He groaned at your jest, nudging you playfully with his elbow as you giggled.

“This way.” Zemo cut in, jerking his head in the direction you’d be going. You took a breath, steeling yourself, before the three of you nodded at each other and followed his lead.

You found the fellas reactions amusing, their heads turning to study and scan everything they could see. You were more subtle in the way you analyzed your surroundings, feeling a bit more at home in this situation than, say, fighting super soldiers on top of semi trucks.

Your jaw tightened, as did your grip on Sam’s arm, when Zemo started speaking Russian, the four of you pushing through a crowded bar. Sam ran his fingers over your arms, giving your hand a little squeeze, silently reassuring you.

It was a bit obvious Sam hadn’t done much undercover work, put he stayed in character and you were impressed. Especially when the bartender started cutting up the snake, which you had to look away for because if there was one thing you couldn’t do…it was snakes. You nearly gagged when Sam reluctantly downed the drink. 

Bucky eyed you, lips pursed in a way you recognized as him trying to hold in a smile. That made you feel a little better, hiding your own smile by turning into the crook of Sam’s neck. “Not. Funny.” He growled through clenched teeth, lips not moving.

“Kinda is.”

He grumbled under his breath, before the two of you tuned into the conversation between Zemo and a thug that came up, learning about the apparent power broker of Madripoor, which you a bit of from your time undercover there.

Sam held you tightly when Zemo turned to Bucky, knowing what was about to happen.

You didn’t like it. You didn’t like how easily aggressive he became. You didn’t like the little smirk Zemo gave as Bucky attacked. You didn’t like the cellphones being pointed in his direction. You didn’t like it.

“Didn’t take much for him to fall back into form.” You gave Zemo a warning glare, a shaky breath leaving you.

He’d been doing so well. At least, for someone who had been through what he had. Especially considering it’d only been a few months since he’d been pardoned - half a year since everyone came back. You knew bringing Zemo on board had been a bad idea, but-

A squeeze to your hand pulled you out of your thoughts. You let out an inaudible sigh of relief as Zemo allowed Bucky to let the man he was choking go.

“Selby will see you now.”

One step down. You hoped that would be the hardest part, but you knew it most definitely wouldn’t be.

“You good?”

Bucky sniffed, giving you two a curt nod, before following Zemo. You bit your lip. “That wasn’t really an answer, was it?”

Sam shook his head. “No. No it wasn’t.”

Selby wasn’t exactly what you were expecting, but you’d come to expect that. You stayed on Sam’s arm, giving the guards coy smiles and playing with the fake nails you had on in faux-boredom.

When she purred at the man besides you, you and Bucky glanced at each other, with you resisting the urge to scrunch up your nose. “And who is this gorgeous creature?”

Your eyes snapped back to Selby, giving her a slightly bashful smile. “Celeste Addams. Pleasure.”

“Trust me, dear. The pleasure is all mine.” Alright, you thought as she scanned you with a smirk. She was swinging for both teams. You could work with that. “What’s the offer?” She looked back to Zemo.

Zemo gave her the offer - information about the super soldier serum for the Winter Soldier and the code words to control him. Your blood boiled as Zemo touched Bucky, fingers grabbing his chin. You swore, once this whole thing was over, you would kick Zemo’s ass. You should make a list, just to keep track of all the things he’d done, and no doubt would do, to piss you off. That way he’d know why exactly you were beating his ass.

A name came up, Dr. Wilfred Nagel, along with the knowledge that the super soldier serum was, in fact, in Madripoor. You and Sam met eyes. Second step down.

But before they could get anything else, Sam’s phone buzzed. You ducked your head, closing your eyes, mumbling “fuck” when you saw it was Sarah. Sam’s responses just made you inwardly cringe even more.

“The bank, yeah. We laundered so much mo-” He chuckled nervously. “Yeah. They’ll come around.”

Is he fucking serious? For the love of God, Sammy…

And then she called him Sam. Next thing you knew, Selby was shot and you, Bucky, and Sam were taking out a guard each, you growling at the fact that you couldn’t use your legs because the dress was too damn tight.

You had no choice but to trust Zemo’s lead, but word traveled very quickly here, and less than a minute after walking outside, you were getting shot at.

“C’mon!” Bucky grabbed your arm, pulling you besides him.

“Can you not right now?!”

“I can’t run in these heels!”

You glared at Sam, the killer six inchers on your feet feeling like hell. “Hell no! You did not just say that in front of me!”

“You started it!” You scowled at him, following Bucky into an alley, only to duck as shots rang out. Chest heaving, you looked around for the source of the bullets that killed the men chasing you.  Your “guardian angel” as Zemo put it.

She soon appeared in all her stunning, blonde badass glory. “Sharon?”

Sam quickly explained the situation, trying to get her not to shoot Zemo who she had a gun pointed at.

“I stole Steve’s shield, remember? I also took the wings for your ass,” she pointed the gun at Sam, then Bucky, “so that you could save his ass, from his ass.” And the gun was back on Zemo. She shot you a smile. “And your ass is looking beautiful as always.”

You grinned back. “Thanks. You’re not looking too bad yourself.”

As she spoke, your lips turned down. You had tried calling her after Germany, but it always went to voicemail. First thing you did when you got back was try to get everyone pardoned, but it was a process. And then you found out about Wanda and ever since…

Sharon was your first real friend. She was only a couple years younger than you and had been one of your first partners during your time with SHIELD. And the fact that she’d been on the run for years now, even with the Blip, her family not having seen or talked to her since…that was exactly why you couldn’t take a break. She was family and you found there was nothing more important than family. But when she needed you, you were out searching for someone who didn’t want to be found.

How were you supposed to choose between two sisters? How could you cope with the fact that you chose the wrong one?

“Sharon, we need your help.” She laughed at Bucky’s statement. “Please,”

She glanced at you and you nodded. “I’d appreciate it, Share.”

She gave a sigh before nodding. “This isn’t over. I have a place in High Town. You should be safe there for a while.”

She turned and started walking, and you were about to follow, when you remembered something.

Spinning around, your fist connected with Zemo’s cheek, Sam and Bucky shouting in surprise while the man stumbled back. “Don’t you fucking dare touch him like that ever again, or I will break every bone in your body.” You threatened, your expression twisting into a scowl as you grab his hand and bend it awkwardly. He grunted but didn’t move, knowing one wrong turn would break his wrist. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.” He ground out.

You pushed a little more, making him wince, before letting go and rounding back to Sharon, who was smirking at you. “Let’s get moving.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She jerked her head back over her shoulder to where a car was waiting, leading them over.

You quickly followed after her with Bucky on your heels and Sam dragging Zemo along. Speaking of heels, as soon as you got in the car - getting shotgun for the first time ever at Sharon’s insistence - you prodded the stupid shoes off your feet.

“Nice kicks.”

“Yeah.” You scoffed. “Unless you’re trying to kick.”

“Did you rip the dress?”

“I was tempted to.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll get you in something more comfortable. And you’ll look just as good. Not that you wouldn’t look good in literally anything.”

You chuckled, giving her a look. “Let’s not test that theory.”

She smiled back, nodding. “Fine. I’ll let you pick something out.”

Sam huffed, crossing his arms best he could, being squished with the two other fully grown men in the back seat. “Women.”

The two of you exchanged looks, rolling your eyes at the three pouting guys. “Men.”

*****************

“I’m gonna go check on the boys. But I’ll be right back.”

You nodded, looking through her closet. No dresses. And absolutely no heels. Flats, if you had to, but you’d definitely prefer sneakers right now. You decided on shorts and an off-the-shoulder blouse, grateful for the looser clothing.

“They’re idiots.”

You laughed and looked over at the door as Sharon entered. “Yeah. I know.”

“Cute.” She commented on your outfit, sitting on her bed. “They explained the situation. Sam said if I help, he’d clear my name-”

“Sharon.” You sighed, biting your lip. “I tried. I really did. I-”

She shook her head, smiling at you reassuringly. “No, I know. It’s why I’m not mad at you. Sorry I didn’t call back. How’ve you been?”

You shrugged. “Fine, I guess.”

“Even with the whole ‘Cap is back’ thing.”

“Walker’s the government’s pet. He’s not Captain America. He’s not…”

“Steve?”

Looking up at her from the ground, you nodded. “Yeah.”

“Do you miss him?”

You smirked, wagging your eyebrows at her. “Do you?”

She rolled her eyes, tossing a pillow at you. “It’s kinda weird now, isn’t it?”

“Maybe a little. But I can’t blame you. Have you seen him shirtless? Good God.”

Sharon laughed, shaking her head as you joined her on the bed. “How come it��s always you getting wrapped up in these things?”

“I have no clue.” You chuckled, crossing your legs underneath you. “First I’m answering a phone call from Bucky at five in the morning and next thing I know, I’m being kicked off of semi trucks, breaking criminals out of prisons and running in six inch heels.”

“You answer Bucky’s calls at five in the morning?”

You gave her a look. “Sharon-”

“No, no. Hey. That’s cool. Some girls like bad boys, some like jocks, others like nerds. You like super soldiers from the 40’s. Everyone’s got a thing.”

A playful shove turned into a pillow fight, which turned into a sparring session, during which you pin her on her back. “You’re getting better.” You complimented, getting up.

She glared at you, taking your outstretched hand and letting you pull her up. “I guess that’s why you’re an Avenger.”

“That’s still weird to say.”

“Why? You’ve been an Avenger since, what? Ultron?”

You nodded, straightening your clothes. “Officially, anyways.”

“Right. Because you were there for the Battle of Manhattan as the secret seventh superhero.”

“Yeah…I miss it. The anonymity. I’m pretty sure I’m one half the Senators’ speed dials.”

Sharon frowned, brows pinching together. “What about the other half of the OG? Where are they?”

“Thor’s in space, Bruce is MIA - which I can’t really blame him for - and Clint’s retired with his family.”

“You think he’s gonna stay retired?”

You shrugged. “I hope he does. He’s been trying to retire for years. He deserves it. Knowing him, though…probably not.”

Sharon crossed her arms, nodding at you. “So that leaves you.”

“Yes it does.”

“Do you ever think of taking a break?”

You gave a half-sigh, half-groan, making her smirk in amusement. “It’s…come up a lot recently. I dunno. I think I’m burning out, anyways.”

“What makes you say that? I was watching you guys with Selby. You’re still one of the best I’ve ever seen.”

“I-I’ve been having…problems.”

Her eyes narrowed, her hands setting on her hips like a mother about to scold her child. “What kind of problems?”

“Just flashbacks. Of different things. It happens at random times. Certain triggers; something someone says or does, or something I smell or hear.”

“PTSD?”

“Something like that.”

“Has it affected you in the field?” Hesitating to answer was answer enough and she nodded. “Then…maybe it’s time you do start considering retiring.”

You snorted, shaking your head. “At 36? There’s no way.”

“C’mon. It’s not too late for you to settle down. Go one a few dates. Meet someone. Maybe have a couple kids-”

“Woah, woah. Slow your roll.” Your features scrunched up in incredulity. “Pump your breaks. No one said anything about marriage or kids.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying…think about it. I heard even Bucky’s been on a few dates.”

It was your turn to narrow your eyes at her, hearing the suggestive tone in her voice and seeing the eyebrow raise. “Yeah. He has. A few. I told him to. Told him it might be good for him to, I dunno, get back out there.

“Or, you could just…go out there with him.”

“Not you too! Have you been talking to Sam?”

“Is it Steve? Is that what’s stopping you? Because you know he’d just want you to be hap-” She stopped as he phone vibrated, grabbing it and reading the text. “Company’s arriving.” She pointed a finger at you. “You got very very lucky. This conversation isn’t over. I’m not dropping this.”

You bit your cheek and nodded. “Alright, mom. Can we go party now?”

She breathed out a laugh and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go party.”

**********************

“Hey, gorgeous! There you are!”

You smirked at the boys as they met you near the top of the stairs, eyeing Sam and Bucky appreciatively. Damn, could Sam pull off a turtleneck. And Bucky in black and skinny jeans? Sharon sure had good taste. “Today’s the day for attractive outfits, huh, gentlemen?”

“I’ll say.” Bucky hummed, glancing at your own outfit. “You look beautiful, doll.”

“You look very dashing yourself, Barnes.” You grin, pulling at the lapels of his black blazer and fixing the collar. You smoothed your hand down the front of his shirt, looking up at him with an eyebrow raised when he caught your wrist, keeping your palm over his heart.

He clenched his jaw, taking a breath, before letting it out, almost dejectedly, and letting your hand go. “Um,” He cleared his throat, hand falling down by his side. “Did, uh, did Sharon say anything more about these friends of hers to you?”

“Nope.” You shook your head. “Just told me to enjoy the party.”

“I guess we should go enjoy the party, then.” Sam nodded towards the stairs, where the music was floating up, her guests already pouring in.

You made your way downstairs, looking around the room. Sharon sure did know how to throw one, that’s for sure.

People were pushed together, dancing to the beat of the music, drinking, with colored lights flashing every which way. Bucky’s hand found yours almost instantly, and you smiled at him. “C’mon.”

“What?” His eyes were wide as you dragged him towards the groups of people dancing. 

“Dance with me.”

He shook his head violently. “I-I can’t.”

“I thought you used to be a dancer?”

“Used to. And I was a swing-dancer. Not…” He gestured around to the people bobbing up and down, moving their bodies with each other.

You waved dismissively, pulling him closer. “All you need to do is feel the beat. I’m sure you can do that, can’t you, Mr. Tough and Scary Assassin?”

He licked his lips, looking around nervously. You brought his hands to your hips, making his eyes snap back to yours, your own arms winding around his neck. You started moving rhythmically, nodding your head to the music, smiling up at him and giggling at the adorable concentration on his face.

“You, uh, you go to parties like this a lot?”

“I specialized in undercover operations, remember? I practically lived at these places for some of them.” He licked his lips, his grasp on your hips tightening. “Loosen up a little.” You laughed, catching his jaw between your fingers and making him look at you instead of the crowd surrounding him. You scratched at the scruff, speaking softly, but loud enough for him to hear. “It’s just me.”

He nodded and, slowly, a bit hesitant, started moving his body with yours, relaxing his tense muscles the longer you two danced.

“Nice hit, by the way. With Zemo earlier.”

You shrugged, turning in his arms, biting your lip when he pulled you closer, your back to his chest. “I didn’t like the way he grabbed you. It was unnecessary. I was thinking of making a list, actually.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” Your arms wound around his neck again, your head falling back to his shoulder. “Of things he’s done so far that warrant’s me beating his ass once this is done.”

He chuckled, warm breath tickling your cheek, thumbs tracing circles on the bare skin just above the waistline of your shorts. Your own fingers had found home in his hair holding his head where it was, his lips centimeters away from your ear. “Share it with Sam. I’m sure he has a few things to add.”

Your breath hitched as his metal fingers danced along your bare navel, arm tightening around your waist. “I’m sure he does…I thought you said you can’t dance.”

“I guess I just needed to warm up. I’m a bit rusty after eighty years.”

“Don’t seem that rusty to me.” You breathed out, turning your head to look at him. His tongue ran across his lips again, his eyes glancing to your own.

“Hey, guys!” The world and your situation came crashing down on you, the music you didn’t realize you’d been tuning out, along with the crowd’s boisterous laughter and cheers, rushed back to yours ears. The little bubble with just you and Bucky shattered. You both stepped away from each other; you cleared your throat and pushed down the heat that had nothing to do with the hundred bodies in the one room, while Bucky rubbed the back of his neck, the tips of his ears red with no help from the colored lights. Both of you were panting lightly, avoiding eye contact with the other three staring knowingly at you. Sharon nodded her head, gesturing behind her. “I found him.”

Sam nudged Bucky - who was staring at you, his jaw ticking and his throat tightening as he swallowed thickly - before jabbing his thumb in Sharon’s direction. “Here we go.”

You nodded, eyeing Bucky with a small smile. “Here we go, Buckaroo.”

[kamino-blues]

can i request gregor flirting relentlessly w reader who doesnt quite know how to respond?? bc they think this is just the way he acts? so he literally has to be straightforward and vulnerable w them to convince them that he likes them 🥺🥺🥺 LOVE UR WRITING SO MUCH !!!!

Rating: Pg & Sfw

Warnings: Some really cheesy flirting, reader mentally complaining at the beginning about said flirting, a tiny bit of jealousy from the reader (For a few paragraphs, just used to move the plot forward!), Pre-relationship, living together, Bartender!Reader, confessions

Word Count: 2k

Note: Hi this ask is absolutely adorable, I had so much fun writing this!! I went on a chaotic quest of looking up cheesy pick up lines I'm ngl 🤣I really hope you enjoy, thank you so much for the ask!!! 💕

Working at Cid’s bar has been an experience, to say the least. You have met a variety of patrons, from tough bounty hunters to those just trying to escape from their usual life. Nothing, and you mean nothing, has prepared you for the chaos that is Gregor.

It wasn’t like you hadn’t worked with clones before, you had interacted multiple times with the Bad Batch. They just didn’t interact the way that Gregor did with you.

When you first met him, he was being helped into the main area of the parlor by Echo. There was a loopy looking smile plastered on his face as he was lightly placed on the floor. Quickly you slid out from behind the bar, looking at the pair in front of you.

“What happened?” You quickly uttered out, getting ready to sprint back to Cid to let her know that there was a mysterious (and handsome) clone sprawled out on the floor in her bar. Echo opened up his mouth to explain what was going on, but the mysterious clone spoke over him.

“People I know call me different names, I don’t care what they use. But with you, I’d prefer if you call me mine~” The clone purred out with a wink, falling into a small fit of giggles. You were utterly speechless, staring at the clone with a blank look on your face. A light blush slowly started to slip onto your cheeks as you realized what he had said to you. You quietly let them know that you were going to grab Cid, practically running away from the pair to the back room.

You heard the clone yell out to ‘Comm him’ as you ran away, and you went to hide in Cid’s office, letting her know what was going on.

After that interaction, you figured that you would only have a few more interactions with him before he would leave. What you didn’t realize was that Gregor was being dropped off by the Bad Batch to stay at the bar.

The biggest surprise to you was that it was decided that he would be staying in your apartment while he recovers. It was an interesting night when you found out, the doorbell ringing as you were getting ready for bed.

Opening the door, you suppressed a groan, seeing the flirtatious clone you saw before standing in front of you.

“Let me make a call real quick, um I don’t think I ever got your real name.” You muttered out as you started dialing Cid’s number into your comm.

“Can I help you?” You spoke, your tone blunter then it would normally be. The mysterious clone rubbed his neck, a little titter falling from his lips.

“Cid sent me over, she said that I could stay with you?” You raised an eyebrow at him, before opening the door to let him in.

“Gregor’s the name sweet-“ You took your focus off of him as Cid picked up the phone, walking out of the room into the kitchen.

After a long talk, it was official. Gregor would be staying with you, and also working with you at the bar. Letting out a sigh, you rested your head in your hands, leaning against the kitchen counter.

You heard footsteps, stopping a few feet away from you. Moving your hands from your eyes, you saw Gregor looking at you curiously. You gave him a small smile, accepting your fate as you pushed yourself up to sit on the counter.

“So you are living here now,” You stated, not moving your eyes from him. Gregor nodded, giving you a small wink.

“I guess I am,” You saw him glance at your comm, and you could almost see the lightbulb go off in his head, especially with the way he started to smirk.

“You know, I think there’s something wrong with my comm. Your number’s not in it.” You stared at him for a few moments before rolling your eyes, taking your comm off to throw it at him. He fumbled with it, before successfully capturing it in his hands.

“Put your number in there than wonder boy.” You muttered out, turning away from him to cover the blush that was starting to form on your cheeks.

Your movement didn’t stop you from missing the large smile that slipped onto his face when you threw the nickname out. You heard him typing on your comm, you turning back when he exclaimed that he was done.

Gregor held the comm out, your hand brushing lightly against his as you grabbed it. The blush wasn’t leaving your cheeks, especially when you looked down and saw that he put his name in as ‘Wonder Boy 💛'.

You quickly let out that you were going to head in for the night, and practically jogged to your room. But Gregor couldn’t leave without wishing you goodnight in his own way could he?

“Sweet dreams… I hope I’m in them!” You heard him call out, and as soon as you shut your door, you leaned against it, sliding down with your face in your hands.

Your face was completely flushed, not knowing how to handle the constant flirting. It just had to be his personality, surely he was just messing with you. In fact, you were positive that he was just joking around! But why were you so affected by his words?

The next few weeks went by pretty quickly, even though you weren't used to the constant attention Gregor was sending your way.

It almost felt natural, him living with you. As much as you didn’t want to admit it, he was honestly a sweetheart, and also a big help around your apartment.

You were falling headfirst for him, and there was nothing you could do. So as you were making drinks behind the bar, it was your goal to stay focused on your work instead of him.

However, it was almost as if he heard your thoughts, him sliding over so he could ‘clean the bar’.

“Any chance you have an extra heart? Mine’s been stolen!” You rolled your eyes, and he held his chest in dramatics. “I’m serious! You don’t want me to die do you?”

“I mean-“ You stifled the laughter that threatened to fall from your lips. The look on his face was priceless, and you couldn’t stop the giggle that slipped from your lips. You saw Gregor trying to conceal his own smile.

“You wound me!” You couldn’t hold back your laugh, and the both of you fell into a fit of giggles. You heard Cid yelling at the two of you to get back to work, and you both fought off your giggles as you went back to what you were previously doing.

The rest of the night went by pretty smoothly, until right before closing. You were almost done with cleaning up until you saw Gregor laughing with a cute girl.

Your eyes widened, before your face flushed in embarrassment. Why were you falling for him? It was clear that he was like this with everyone. You finished up, before walking out of the bar, leaving without waiting for Gregor.

After a little while of wandering around, you stopped at the local park, sitting on one of the benches. You brought your knees to your chest, tears in the corner of your eyes as you looked around.

You felt your wrist buzz, and you knew who it was right away. You paused, not wanting to pick up. Though you knew better, he would probably scour the whole city to make sure you were ok. Tapping the answer button, you took a deep breath.

“Hello?” Your voice cracked, which caused you to flinch.

“Hey, where are you? You were here one second and then gone the next,” you heard him let out a nervous giggle, before a sigh fell over his lips. “Are you safe?”

You nodded, before you realized he couldn’t see you. “Yeah, yeah I’m all good. Don’t worry about me, ok?” You heard him take another breath, him seemingly debating on what to say.

“You may be out of sight right now, but you’re never out of my mind.” Gregor settled with, and you groaned. He let out a small laugh, before his tone turned serious. “Really though, where are you?”

“The park, the one a few blocks away from the parlor,” You told him. As much as you didn't want to see him face to face, the tone he had was the most serious you had ever heard so you complied.

“I’ll be there in a few, stay where you are ok?” You heard him shuffling, and it almost sounded as though he was running.

“Ok wonder boy, I’ll see you soon,” You heard him click off the comm, and you rested your head on your knees, mentally preparing yourself for the conversation you weren’t ready to have.

Gregor was true to his words, he was there in a few minutes. He slipped onto the bench next to you, taking in your form. Spotting the tears, a frown slipped onto his face.

“You don’t have to answer this, what’s wrong cyare?” You tilted your head at the nickname, before looking away from Gregor. You had so much you wanted to say, but at the same time you weren’t ready for the embarrassment.

“I.. When you talk with me, you’re joking around right?” Your face was bright red in embarrassment, not wanting to come out and ask him if he meant the flirting. Gregor stared at you, it slowly clicking in his head what you meant.

“Do you.. want me to be joking?” You squeezed your eyes shut at his response, not knowing how to respond. You shook your head, and you felt his arm wrap around your shoulders. You leaned your head on his shoulder, thinking of what to say.

“When I saw you with that girl in the bar, it clicked with me that you probably flirt with everyone, that it isn’t just me. I mean, you’ve been like this since minute one-“ you felt his grip tighten on your shoulder, a sigh falling from his lips.

“I wasn’t flirting with her cyare,” He let out another nervous giggle, “Ever since the last incident I had with my old line of work.. Before the gunshot I mean,, I’ve had a hard time filtering some of my thoughts and emotions. Flirting with you was the only way I could handle my crush on you. I.. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” You were sure he felt you tense in his arms. Gregor started to move away, but you lifted your head, moving to grab his hands in yours.

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable Gregor, not at all… I just misinterpreted…” You trailed off, looking up at Gregor. He had a small smile, eyes light as he looked at you.

“Can I borrow a kiss? I promise to give it back,” You let out a small giggle, him joining you until you responded.

“Of course you can,” Gregors face had a wide smile on it, and you couldn’t stop yourself from giving him a peck on his lips. You moved to pull away, but he moved his hands onto your mid back, pulling you towards him.

Your lips collided once again, lasting for a lot longer than the last kiss. Your eyes slipped close, savoring the soft kiss that you never thought that you would have. As you both slowly pulled away, you leaned forward, resting your forehead on his.

As you basked in each other's presence in the cool evening air, it truly felt like the start of something new.

[introvert--weeb]

Hello, can I request angst where kokonoi sees reader as akane since she looks like her and acts like her sometimes and reader is tired of it so she ultimately decides to leave him since staying would only hurt her more.

You're breaking my heart anon! As I am keeping it a X reader scenario, I won't be making her look like Akane in an identical way but maybe as more of how her innocence and general aura is exactly like hers and that's what drew him in.

But thank you for requesting and I hope you enjoy it!

Kokonoi X f!reader (angst)

TW: mentions of manga spoilers, heartbreak, obsession (mild), unhealthy relationship traits

--

Kokonoi had experienced the worst heartbreak anyone could. His beloved Akane, the woman who had promised to wait for him to get older, had died and he was unable to save her. He had accidentally saved his best friend, something that secretly haunted him constantly.

So when he had seen you with your pretty features and eyes that held so much innocence, he had thought Akane had come back to him finally. That is what first got him to approach you. It was as your conversation continued that Koko began to realise that you were as loving and caring as Akane was.

He was convinced that a higher power had simply remodelled Akane's looks and placed her back into his life. Maybe it was fate that made it so he could finally be with her again.

You fell for the delinquent, his charms and many compliments had you hooked. He was everything you thought you wanted in a boyfriend. And so, in no time at all, you and Kokonoi had gone from strangers to in a relationship.

It all started off so well. You had been introduced to Inui (or Inupi as Koko referred to him) and had quickly built a solid friendship with the blond. Everything seemed to be perfect in your eyes as you were treated like a queen. Koko would splash money on gifts for you like it was going out of fashion which you did appreciate but kept telling him to cool it down. You didn't need all those gifts as long as he loved you.

You just didn't notice all the warning signs. You had missed how he would suggest you wear outfits that he would often see Akane wear; how he would bring up library dates you don't remember going on only to have him brush it off as you not remembering. Even Inui noticed how his friend would talk about you as if you were his lost sister.

Inui had tried to warn you, telling you about how it was unhealthy for your relationship that he couldn't let go of Akane. That he only saw Akane when he looked at you instead of loving you for everything that made you, you.

You simply shrugged the comments off, insisting that Kokonoi loved you for you and that he had gotten over his obsession with the dead girl. However, you could not get rid of the voice at the back of your mind that knew it was true.

After the talk with Inui, you had picked up on all the signs you were previously blissfully ignorant to. It made you question whether you hadn't noticed them or purposefully ignored them so you could stay with the boy you loved with all your heart. The way he would brush your hair into the style you had seen from photos of Akane; the mentions of dates you couldn't remember going on because you didn't; the way he would tell you he was thankful you had waited for him. You noticed it all now and it was breaking your heart.

The last straw had come when he had accidentally called you Akane while you were cuddling in his room. How Kokonoi had said it with such love and care that it had finally clicked. He never loved you. He loved how you resembled Akane.

You would never be good enough for him. And it was proving impossible to not let the tears roll silently down your cheeks. In your mind, there was a battle happening. A war which would only leave one option left for you to take. One side wanted you to remain ignorant. Ignore how he will never truly see you and you get to stay by your lover's side. You would get to be with him which is what you so desperately wanted.

The other side though was telling you to break it off now, to save yourself from a future of being compared to someone you could never hope to reach. Akane was the standard that Kokonoi wanted you to be at but it was impossible. You could never become her and you don't think you wanted to.

"Koko... We need to end this." Your voice was cold, emotionless as the tears continued to roll down your cheeks. Each word broke you heart as they left your mouth. It looked like rationality won this war, your heart taking a backseat for now.

Kokonoi didn't understand. You were made for each other. How could you possibly want to leave him when he loved you with all his heart? But was it you he loved, that he didn't want to acknowledge. Akane had been brought back into his life in the shape of you and now she was threatening to leave again.

"You can't leave me again, Akane!" There was that wretched name again! Anger was quick to bubble up within your chest as you stood to glare at the boy you loved. It was all her fault that you couldn't have a happily ever after with the one you loved so dearly! Why did she have to capture his heart and mind back then!

"I'm not Akane, Kokonoi! I never fucking was! Why can't you see that?!" Sobs broke up your words as angry tears flowed freely down your face. Your heart was breaking into tiny pieces as you realised he still saw Akane even after you told him you weren't her.

"I'm done Kokonoi. I hope you have a good life." And with that, you grabbed your bag and left his house.

[apocalypticgargoyle]

𝘽𝙐𝙍𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙀𝙔𝙀𝙎. ҂ 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢

back by popular demand! xx thank you for supporting my ramblings! this is kind of filler.. sorry...

pairing: dream x fm!reader

warnings: blood, slight angst, using ccs real names, guns

← previous chapter | ao3 | request |

Clay pushed himself to sit away from the wall, dragging you up with him. “How can you not hear that?” He urged mildly. Fear began to pick at your nerves as you noticed the same reactions filling the shelter. Nick stood up, following some of the other guys who heard whatever they were talking about. Clay slipped from your grasp. “I’ll be right back,” he muttered and you grabbed his hand. His eyes flashed a different color as he looked at you.

A few of the women followed the group, attempting to get their companion’s attention before one of them opened the shelter door.

Your eyes grew wide as the crowd moved from the shelter. It seemed that only the women in the bunker were protesting against leaving the shelter, the men focused on shrugging out of their hold. The night sky was lit up by a foreign object you had yet to lay eyes on, Clay’s figure blocking most of your vision as you were sandwiched between him and Nick. You could feel your heart beating in your ears, your grip tightening around Clay’s arm. 

The crowd spread out in the field near the bunker, gaze cast towards the northern sky where a large planet hovered on the horizon line. You covered your mouth in shock, slinking backward as a few of the women screamed. The bright spots on its surface reflected in the eyes of the men across the field from you. You yanked on Clay’s arm, attempting to pull him back into the safety of the bunker with you. 

He turned, an amazed smile flashing to his face as he looked down at you. It was only then that you noticed the crimson lines of blood draining from his ears. “Can you hear that?” He asked, voice raspy and verklempt. You furrowed your brows, your chest rising and falling unevenly as your mind raced to figure out what was happening. Clay’s soft hair moved in the night breeze, his features looking sharper as the light from the planet cast shadows across his face. 

His face dropped suddenly, his brows knitting together as his breathing seemed to slow. You reached out to touch his face but instead, his eyes rolled and he collapsed into your arms. Nick dropped to his knees beside you as well, forcing you to reach an arm out so he didn’t face plant in the dirt under your feet. You swore under your breath as Clay’s weight forced you into a sitting position. As you held him to your chest, keeping a tight grip on Nick’s t-shirt, you hiccuped, hot tears beginning to stream down your face. 

You sat, waiting for them to wake up, for what felt like hours. Various women were wailing, while others smoked stale cigarettes and paced, theorizing what the planet could be doing. You drug your fingers through Clay’s hair, your other hand cramping from its hold on Nick’s shirt. You’d pulled him closer to settle his head on your leg beside Clay. You felt like a mother hen guarding her chicks against the winter. 

You hated it. 

One woman stood with her hands on her lower back, staring up at the planet. Every few minutes, she held her palm out to it, spreading her fingers out wide before biting her cheek and continuing to stare. You inhaled and attempted to soothe yourself by holding the boys closer to you. “They’ll wake up,” she said, her voice breaking into a quietness you hadn’t realized had settled over the field. You looked up at her, rubbing your cheek on your sleeve to rid yourself of salty tear tracks. “The big one, he still has eye movement.” You looked down at Clay, noticing her fact. He looked as if he were dreaming up the plot of a new Lord of the Rings book. 

You sighed in relief, pressing your cheek against his forehead as your hand loosened on Nick, fingers brushing his collarbone softly. It was then that you realized how warm he was. Your brain switched into panic mode as you touched his forehead, his skin burning beneath your hand. You pulled his hat off his head and set about pulling his hoodie off. 

The woman joined you at your side. “He has a fever. We have to-” you bit your lip as more tears threatened to spill. You were so tired of crying, but for some reason, you couldn’t help it. Especially now, as the lives of the man you loved and a dear friend were literally in your hands. “We have to get it down,” you managed, fingers yanking at the material. “He could die.” 

The woman settled a hand on your shoulder, slowing your movements. She removed Nick’s hoodie, balling it up and pushing it beneath his head. “He’s going to be okay. Obviously, his body’s fighting something off,” she assured. “You should move around a bit. So your legs don’t go completely numb.” 

You shook your head, looking back toward the two. “No, I can’t leave them,” you answered softly. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw her nod in understanding. “What were you doing over there?” You asked, nodding to where she was previously standing. 

She moved to sit cross-legged, turning her head to look back up at the planet. “I was seeing if it was moving,” she responded. “I swear I’ve seen it before. Like in a book or something.” You nodded at her words slightly. “I think it’s Callisto, one of Jupiter’s moons.” 

You dragged your sleeve across Clay’s cheek, wiping away the dried blood. “Callisto…” you repeated, attempting to jog your memory if you’d heard of it before. “So NASA was wrong, huh?” You joked, attempting to be light-hearted, but your voice reflected a dark sadness from the depths of your chest instead. 

She shrugged with a small grin on her face. “Unless it wiped us out completely as this is your hell for eternity.” You snapped your eyes to her, making her laugh. “I’m joking. Unless this is my hell,” she joshed. “It depends on what you believe is real or not, I guess.” 

You shut your eyes, a shaky breath rippling through you. “Please stop talking.” 

Before she could say something else, Clay’s eyes snapped open. He muttered your name almost as if he didn’t believe it was you. He turned his head towards where Nick was laying. “Nick?” His voice cracked slightly as he sat up. He looked at you as if asking what was happening before he turned to peer up at the planet again, his eyes shifting to a more brilliant green as if it evoked something within him. You watched his irises shift towards a glowing color before he looked at you again. 

Nick stirred in your arms before shivering. You rested your hand against his forehead once again, the heat of his body becoming more alarming. Clay was on his feet, looking quickly around the field as various people woke up, startled just as he was. You gently moved from beneath Nick, letting his head rest on his jacket as you moved to comfort Clay. He pulled you into his arms and you could hear his heart beat against his rib cage. Everything was beginning to happen so quickly as you stood on your toes to peer over Clay’s shoulder, watching as various men began to act strangely. 

You heard Nick mumble Clay’s name, causing you to break away from him to look behind you. As you did so, Nick grabbed your arm gently, his hand searing the flesh of your forearm. You let out a muted scream, yanking your hand from his as his worried eyes burned a bright orange.

THREE YEARS LATER

You tied your hair back, staring back at your reflection in the dirty mirror. It was the Callisto Anniversary, therefore you couldn’t help but think of what you used to look like; practically a child compared to who you were now. You almost glared at the scars on your arms from those nights when you all thought the world was ending. You wet your lips, tugging on your jacket and propping open the door of your bedroom before carrying yourself down the long hallway. Various people greeted you from their rooms as you passed by their opened doors. 

As you trudged down the various flights of stairs, you silently repeated the words of the cultists' propaganda posters covering the walls in the stairwell. You passed them every day; hating them more each time you saw them. You’d only let them hang the posters after they threatened to burn down the hotel, thus eliminating yours and several hundreds of other people’s homes and businesses. 

After the planet, which you now knew for sure was the moon Callisto, settled into the Earth’s night sky, reports of enlightened men popped up everywhere. The male population seemed to be a favorite of Callisto’s as most of them possessed some kind of power, whether useless or beneficial. Conspiracy theorists believed it was because of the creatures in the water beneath its surface attempting to create a new generation of Poseidon's sons. With the moon ruining Earth’s power supply, it was difficult to experiment and prove various theories. 

It’s the radiation, some would say. 

It’s a government conspiracy. 

It’s an alien experiment. 

You’d heard it all. The only thing you were certain of was what Eden told you, the woman you’d met when Callisto appeared. She was convinced of the Poseidon theory; though rather scornfully. “One more thing to strengthen male privilege...” She often accounted. She’d worked as a biology professor before the day of reckoning, therefore she could tell you the chicken came before the egg and you’d believe her. She explained the phenomenon of Callisto as a result of the ocean tides and gravitational pull, yet couldn’t figure out how Callisto could travel 4.3 AUs and why Earth would be its landing place. 

Your feet thumped against the cracked linoleum of the hotel lobby, the various dividers failing to provide sound barriers between the various groups of engineers and their counterparts as they worked and chattered. After finding the hotel, you’d given most of its space to Eden and her team as well as the brutes working for you. 

You grabbed an apple from one of the food stations before following the sound of Eden’s voice as she argued with someone about the patterns of Callisto in the sky. A radio lulled from the table in the middle of her chaos. She tugged her dull blonde/gray hair back into a ponytail before massaging her aging temples with two fingers. 

The front doors opened, ringing the small bell attached to one of the handles and drawing your attention. The group of men shrugged out of their wet jackets or shook out the rain out of their hair. You scanned the group from Clay’s white ski mask, an intimidating feature that signified who he was. Just as you had given up, he pushed through the crowd, pushing his mask on top of his head. You waved at him and he brightened before walking towards you. He leaned down to press a kiss to your lips, the smell of the Earth hanging against his damp clothing. 

“I saw something while I was out, and I’ve had a rough time keeping it in my head,” he stated with a slight chuckle, mindlessly asking you to follow him to one of the tables with a few workers. You watched him silently as he fished into the barrels of spare gun parts before throwing what he’d found on the table. The people around you paused what they were doing. Clay’s eyes began to glow, the green almost iridescent as the pieces began to morph together before shaping a new kind of gun. 

That’s really what your group was known for: arms manufacturing and dealing. 

Clay built them and you had the connections to sell them. On paper, it was simple. 

Clay held the gun in his hand, turning it over and looking down at you for praise. You furrowed your blows slightly. “Does it work?” You asked, making him shrug and bump a clip into it before firing it at one of the walls. 

You sighed. “How many times do we have to talk about shooting inside?” He giggled sheepishly at your words. You examined the gun in his large hand, trying to place where you had seen it before. It was a souped-up version of whatever you had previously seen. 

“Looks like a cop gun to me, Dream,” a familiar voice stated, making Clay chuckle proudly before looking up to see Nick with his arms crossed. Clay quickly tucked it into the back of his belt and Nick rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I meant to radio in on my way but I got caught in the storm.” 

You swatted off his apology and hugged him. “It’s good to see you, Sapnap,” Clay lightened. The boys had begun using their radio call names as if they got them from their mothers. “Happy Callisto Day,” Clay charmed, wrapping an arm around your shoulders as Nick picked up a gun piece. 

Nick’s eyes flashed to the burn scar on your wrist from him. The fever he had was due to his power. Clay always teases him with nicknames like Prince Zuko and Warren Peace for it. “Have you guys seen Karl? I have a friend that figured out how to make something similar to nail polish.” 

You snorted. “He should be hovering around Eden,” you answered, gesturing to the opposite corner of the lobby space. 

After Nick parted, Clay turned back to you. “I think I found a way to get supplies into the East Sector…” he mumbled, just audible enough for you to hear. You perked an eyebrow at him. The East Sector had been closed off to any kind of weaponry, but that didn’t mean the demand wasn’t high. It was a farming community outside of the city where most of the religious zealots lived and based the Cult of Callisto. 

You chewed the inside of your cheek. “How dangerous is this  way  you’ve found?” 

Clay smirked slightly. “They call him Techno. He’s a chlorokinetic. Apparently, he kills people and turns them into plant food too,” he stated, wiggling his eyebrows. “Plus, he’s an enemy of Quackity’s group.” He crossed his arms, leaning against the table behind him. 

“So, pretty dangerous, then?” You simplified. 

He smiled slightly. “In a fun way…” 

[ackerdaddy]

hi! can i request for a oneshot for levi where he and his s/o are in the middle of a reallyyyy nasty fight where levi himself couldn’t help but lose his cool and raises his voice due to sheer frustration. but in the end they were able to find a common ground and made up. the setting will take place in the aot world but if u wanna turn it into modern au that’s fine too. :D i want to see levi lose his composure then return back to his stoic but loving self. also, i just want my angst and fluff 😂😂😂 tysm! 💓

Heya! I definitely made Levi into a soft boi for this one. It turned out to be longer than expected, so hope you enjoy <3

Parings: Levi x Reader

Genre: Angst, fluff

Words: ~1500

Summary: You recklessly put yourself in danger trying to save a friend while out on an expedition and Levi is not so happy about it

You knew you were in shit the moment Levi had glared at you from his horse across the formation as the squads retreated. The sheer intensity of his gaze had you suppressing a shiver that was threatening to run down your spine. You were excited when you were given the news that your squad was running a joint routine with the Levi squad out past wall Rose. Levi, however, had his own opinions on the matter; he hated that you were a part of this operation. It made him incredibly nervous to know his full attention wouldn’t be on keeping everyone else alive because your safety would constantly be lingering in the back of his mind, although he would never admit it.

He only said six words to you the day you left the walls.

“Don’t be stupid out there. Survive,” he tightened his grip on your wrist and sternly reminded you that he needed you to return home with him. While it seemed like he was scolding you, you knew in your heart that he said those words out of pure love and concern.

Everything had been going smoothly until you heard a blood-curdling scream that ripped from the mouth of your best friend. Looking to your left flank, you saw her being squeezed in the massive palm of an 8m titan. Your body reacted before your mind could protest, whipping your horse’s reins and taking off towards her and the beast. Once you were in range, you fired your ODM gear straight at neck of the titan and felt your body being pulled aggressively towards your target.

“Y/n, NO!” your friend screamed as you flew in. You were coming in much too quickly and at a very bad angle, desperate to save your companion.

The warning that fell from her lips was carried by the wind and alerted Levi to your location. Watching in horror from his position some leagues away, he kicked his horse into gear and galloped towards you faster than he’s ever ridden. He was forced to witness as the titan grabbed the wire of your ODM with its other hand, thrashing your body down and into the ground. You were unable to move from the sheer force of the impact, and the titan seized the opportunity. It picked you up, and all you could do was scream and slam your fists into its hand, although you knew your efforts were futile.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. You looked at your best friend in the titan’s other hand and the two of you exchanged a look of both complete terror and complete love. The wide-eyed expressions on both your faces told each other that you knew your fate had been sealed. At least you were dying together. You scrunched your eyes closed and awaited what you presumed to be your gory demise.

Your eyes sprang open in shock when you felt yourself falling rapidly through the air. The fall left you no time to gather yourself and your back hit the hard ground with a sickening thud. Your tailbone was definitely broken. Wheezing and bloody, you frantically looked around to get your bearings. Footsteps approached you and when you gazed up at your saviour, you were met with those steely eyes looking down at you with an expression you couldn’t quite put your finger on.

You groaned and cringed internally when you saw Levi approaching you as you dismounted your horse.

“My office. Now.” He was using his Captain’s voice, and you knew you had to obey.

“Hey, you wanted to see me?” You said, feigning innocence. You busied yourself with shutting the door behind you and fiddled with the lock for way longer than necessary to avoid looking him in the eyes.

“Y/n, look at me.”

You turned around to face your partner and gave him a sheepish smile, hoping it would melt the ice in his voice, even just a tiny bit.

“What did I tell you?” He asked firmly.

“Not to be stupid,” you replied, voice filled with shame.

“Exactly. And what did you do?” He pressed.

“I was just-”

“The complete opposite of what I asked,” his voice was laced with frustration. He sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose before bringing his piercing gaze back to meet yours. Normally, your boyfriend was so calm and collected, but today there was a something else burning behind those guarded eyes. Nevertheless, it was becoming increasingly bothersome that he was talking to you in such a condescending tone.

“That doesn’t mean you need to treat me like a child,” you snapped, eyes ablaze.

“If you’re going to act like a child then I am going to treat you like a child. It is that simple,” he fired back.

“So you’re saying that I should have just left my best friend to die? Is that it?” you challenged.

“Oh for god sakes y/n!” Levi stated pacing towards you, causing you to back up until your back was flush with the door. Still, he continued, “Do you think I haven’t watched countless people that I care about die? You can’t be throwing yourself directly into the path of a titan without even thinking for a single second about the repercussions!” He shouted, his demeanor becoming increasingly heated. “If I hadn’t gotten there, you would have both been killed. How noble of you to give your life for the cause!” the venom in his voice dripping with sarcasm. His palm whizzed past your head and slammed into the door. The loud clap of his palm against the wood rang in your ear.

Your mouth slightly agape, you turned your head slowly turned to observe the hand that had smacked the door, then back to Levi, whose breathing was ragged and veins were popping out of his forearms. Unable to wipe the incredulous look from your face or form a coherent sentence, you continued to stare at him with wide eyes. You had never seen him this worked up before. His raven bangs fell haphazardly into those normally reserved, cool eyes. Today, there was a fire alight in them. They shimmered with an intensity that felt like it went right through your being, to the core. You felt naked under the vigor of his gaze.

“I’m . . . I’m so sorry Levi,” you choked out, blinking rapidly and trying hard to swallow the lump in your throat. You didn’t usually show this kind of weakness with anyone, and were almost embarrassed that your partner – humanity’s strongest – was seeing you in this state.

The instant that he saw the fear and sadness in your eyes that was threatening to spill over, the fiery light that was in his eyes was completely extinguished. This time, it was replaced by a soft look of compassion and love.

“Shh, it’s okay,” he tugged at your wrist, pulling you swiftly into his chest and resting his chin on top of your head. “I’m not mad, I was just worried. Y/n . . . I can’t lose you,” he admitted, his voice low and soft; almost a whisper. The low rumblings of his voice in his chest reverberated through your own, comforting and grounding you as you relaxed into his embrace and sighed through your nose contently.

“So . . . what you’re saying is I’m special to you?” you asked playfully, the crackling tension that had previously been in the air all but evaporated.

“Oh you’re special alright,” he joked, chuckling as he moved one calloused hand to caress the side of your head, guiding your face to his, your eyes locking. You heart melted when the corner of his mouth turned up ever so slightly into that crooked smile you loved so much. “You’re such a brat,” he teased, but the tone of his voice was interwoven with nothing but adoration.

“Yeah but I’m your brat,” you retorted, stretching up on your tippy toes to plant a tiny kiss on the tip of his nose.

“Must be my lucky day,” his voice was soft and warm as he leaned in to capture you lips in his.  

[robininthelabyrinth]

Targets - ao3

- Chapter 6 -

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mistress Wen,” the boy with the gentle smile who called himself Meng Yao said, bowing. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Wen Qing did not especially want to talk to – anyone,  really, but she really didn’t want to talk, least of all, to a boy some seven years her junior, from another sect with everything that entailed. But just over his shoulder, she could see that Wen Ning was smiling, his cheeks almost bulging with the force of it, as he spoke with the other children, making friends for the first time in his life, and she supposed it was in her best interest to make friends as well.

“I’m not planning on staying, you know,” she told him, just in case, and he nodded agreeably. “I’m a prisoner of war.”

A very comfortable prisoner of war. Who may or may not have put up very little fuss about getting captured when her supposedly secure carriage escort had gotten raided by the Nie sect, especially when their sect leader had recognized her by sight on first meeting and bowed politely instead of taking her head off at once as she might have expected. He’d even asked after her brother’s health – Wen Ruohan hadn’t done that once in the entire time she’d known him, and still less after he’d abruptly gone mad.

And he had, in fact, gone mad.

There was no other way to explain his behavior.

One day he’d been fine, scheming and vicious and narcissistic the way she’d always known he was but also cautious and thoughtful, set upon a slow and inexorable scheme of domination that would see him eventually claim all that he desired, and the next moment he was – very nearly unhinged. He saw himself as the rightful master of the cultivation world, just as he always had, except now it was as if he had had safely it in the palm of his hand and then had it snatched away from him, rather than anticipating a future prize to be eventually savored; he was frustrated and so, so angry, lashing out at all around him.

His sons had loved the idea of attacking the other sects – Wen Xu was old enough to plan out battles, the son of Sect Leader Wen’s previous wife, while Wen Chao, who was still young but old enough to tear off the limbs of small creatures, couldn’t wait to torment the children that had shown him up in achievements, stealing the accolades that he viewed as belonging to him.

They were still young, she’d told herself, and didn’t know better, could still be educated into something like kindness and compassion, but she’d also known that that wouldn’t help them if the other sects defeated theirs - that was the problem with war like this, where there was no room for mercy. What idiot would permit them to live long enough to seek vengeance for their clan?

What idiot would allow her and Wen Ning to live, assuming the same would be true for them?

As a result, Wen Qing had been much less enthusiastic about the whole project, although after her uncle had made an example of the few generals that dared to protest his decisions she was very quiet about her lack of enthusiasm. It didn’t mean she agreed with anything he was doing – that wasn’t new, she hadn’t agreed with anything he was doing for years now, but she’d gotten used to closing her eyes and shutting her ears, but nowadays it was much worse than before. He was acting as though he’d already finished all his carefully-laid plans – the ones he’d previously recognized were necessary as a foundation for the strike he would be ready to make in five or ten years, the one-shot-kill domination of the cultivation world – and nothing, seemingly, could be done to convince him otherwise.

Not even the risk to his precious sons.

The Fire Palace was full of new people, and new things, too, and if Wen Qing ever found out what sick, twisted mind had come up with those torture machines…

“Of course you’re a prisoner, Mistress Wen,” Meng Yao said smoothly. “I am merely acting as a prison guard. Would you like some lunch? Or a bath, or some rest…?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not a servant,” she said. “Your clothing is too fine for that.”

“I’m a disciple of the Nie sect, a new one,” Meng Yao said, and she thought he almost sounded surprised about that. “That doesn’t mean that I can’t see to your comfort.”

Wen Qing looked again at Wen Ning, who was now being lured onto the training field and a bow pressed into his hand by excited youngsters. His cheeks were bright red, a sure sign that someone was complimenting him – probably the Wei boy, the Jiang sect’s ward, who was waving his hands around very enthusiastically as if he were trying to sell Wen Ning whole and entire, clothing and crown thrown in for free. The other children seemed just as enthusiastic, though, excluding perhaps the Lan sect’s second young master who mostly just looked harassed but continued to linger as if he were hoping for even more harassment.

It seemed…exhausting.

“A bath would be nice,” she said, giving in with a sigh and wishing, not for the first time, that she wasn’t one of the oldest of her generation. Wen Xu was older, yes, but he obviously wasn’t here, and most of the Nie sect that were her age would be away to war soon enough if they weren’t already. She foresaw a great deal of babysitting in her future. “And then, perhaps, a conversation with some relevant individual to pass along important battle information that I definitely wouldn’t have access to, being a humble and unimportant doctor?”

Meng Yao grinned at her.

“Oh, I think something like that can be arranged,” he said cheerfully. Probably more than he would be if he knew half the information she had to offer was completely insane – for example, her uncle had gotten terribly fixated on demonic cultivation of late, claiming that it would allow a single man to take down a battalion, except he had no idea how to make any of it work. She hoped he never figured it out. “The more the merrier here, Wen-jiejie, and I think we’re all of the opinion that the sooner this war is over, the better. Wouldn’t you say?”

“You’re not the only one who thinks so,” Wen Qing said tartly, not sure if she appreciated the intimacy or not. At least it boded well for her future survival, and Wen Ning’s... “Part of my uncle’s insanity has been his – quite frankly – ridiculous conviction that he needs to kill all of you specifically before you, and I quote, ‘threaten to shoot down the sun’.”

What madman would target the sun?

Maybe they should, though, she thought, and not as unwillingly as she’d always believed she’d be if it ever came down to it. Wen Ruohan might be her uncle, her patron, the one who pulled her up into the sky, and she’d always been resigned to the fact that if he was shot down, so would she; the knowledge had paralyzed her, forced her to be indifferent to his crimes. But the Nie sect was treating her as if she were still Dafan Wen, just different enough to be left out of the dirty water Qishan Wen was splashing all over her surname – through war, through domination, through the attempted kidnapping and murder of lots of innocent children...

Maybe it would be good for him to understand what it’s like to be made a target.

“I like that,” an unexpected voice behind her said – it was the Nie sect leader again, looking unusually boyish without his war-armor and with a smile on his face instead of a scowl. She abruptly wondered how old he was, and how much he’d suffered collaterally when it had been his father who’d been the target instead of her uncle; it hadn’t been something she’d thought much about before. “If there was ever a need to shoot the sun down, it’s now, with Wen Ruohan equating himself for it…it’s like aiming at kite flying in the sky that’s in desperate need of deflating. We could call the war the Sunshot Campaign.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Wen Qing couldn’t help but scoff. “What’s the likelihood that something like that catching on?”

[hanatiny]

Perfect Illusion

a/n: this fic is inspired by this post (although I modified the idea a bit)! for those interested, I even made a spotify playlist to hopefully enhance the experience~

pairing: royal guard!San x royal guard/spy!f!reader

genre: smut

word count: 2113

warnings: royal AU, weapons (knives and daggers), brief mention of infidelity (which I do not condone), swearing, teasing, dry humping, hair pulling, name-calling (they keep insulting each other... oops), enemies with benefits, implied enemies to lovers (kind of), slight knife kink, implied pain kink, exhibitionism, unprotected sex, no clear dom/sub roles

-----

Despite excelling at undercover work, you weren’t known be incredibly ‘out there’ in the way you executed your tasks, so this particular mission you had been given must have been the one you disliked the most as of now, not to mention that you despised the tactic of seduction.

You did your best to attract as little attention as possible in order to carry out your information gathering in peace. Although it seemed that in doing so, you had become a little too suspicious for one of the guards. You heaved a sigh, meeting his eyes while most of his face remained covered by the hood and the mask he wore to not look like the odd one out at the royal masquerade event. He nudged his head towards a nearby balcony after asking for one of his fellow guards to watch his spot, signalling you to follow.

Albeit slowly, you did what was asked of you - your beliefs were much too deeply rooted in obedience not to. Once outside, the guard closed and locked the door behind you. Shrugging off his hood, he took off his mask while you did the same so the two of you were equally bare to each other.

“San?!” “Y/n?!” You both gasped aloud in equal shock and surprise, slapping a hand over each other’s mouths to prevent anyone from hearing how casually you spoke with each other.

Prying your hand away from his face, although still holding it in his own, San quirked an inquisitive eyebrow at you, “What, pray tell, are you doing here at this party wearing that?”

Your voice was teasing as you spoke and he gestured towards the black dress you were wearing, “Oh, this old thing~?” He rolled his eyes at your playful tone but allowed you to continue, “As much as I didn’t want to, His Highness requested me to keep my eyes and ears open for anything or anyone suspicious... and had the bright idea of having me use seduction to get the job done.”

Despite knowing how much you hated the technique in question, San thought it fun to tease and rile you up about it, “Do I classify as suspicious then? Cause you’ve definitely caught my interest and seduced me...~”

You rolled your eyes, grabbing him and pulling him close by the tie he was wearing before whispering in his ear, “With how flirty you’re being, definitely. I might have to arrest you now, sunshine~ But if you play your cards right, I might let you fuck me, pretty boy.”

It was your turn to cock an eyebrow when San nonchalantly turned the situation around on you and pinned you against the wall roughly, both of your wrists above your head in one of his own while an almost bored grin danced across on your face at the act. “That all you got~?”

“Not at all, sweetheart...~” “Show me then,” you challenged without hesitation, hooking one of your legs around his hip to draw his body closer and flush against yours, “show me what you can do, unless you want to admit that a woman could dom you~”

Bullseye. You hit him right in his sore spot, knowing him to be much too competitive to let such a cheeky comment slide. You saw something shift in his eyes, something dark, and you knew you had him right then and there, “You asked for it... don’t complain if you limp afterwards.”

“Wanna bet~?” San effectively shut you up by melding his plush lips to yours, your hands tugging greedily at his already messy hair while the grinding of your hips against his coaxed a soft moan from his lips.

“You really don’t intend to make it easy for me do you, little vixen...” He whispered against your lips, his voice low and raspy as he did so, causing you to give him a casual shrug, “You know me, I always want to be the one who comes out on top. Whether that is in the physical sense or not couldn’t matter any less to me, frankly.”

San huffed softly, he knew you were competitive but so was here. However, the difference between the two of you was that you were willing to play dirty to get what you want.

As such, you couldn’t prevent a slight smirk from tugging at your lips when his breath hitched audibly after he pushed the hem of your dress up to your hips and spotted the daggers strapped to one of your thighs. “Staring longer won’t make the image imprint itself in your mind any faster. And in case you haven’t noticed with how much you want my daggers on your body, I’m worked up and hereby telling you to hurry up and fuck me. Right here, right now.”

“Getting feisty and demanding, are we? Two can play that game, Y/n...~” Reaching into the inside of his jacket, San pulled out a knife and held it to your throat while the cocky smirk never left your face, “Are you just gonna keep threatening me with a good time so that I’ll walk right back in there and tell everyone you’re my bitch, or are you actually gonna do something about that obvious boner in your pants?”

San’s eyebrow twitched at your audacity, the discovery of the fact that you had foregone underwear tonight not helping his dwindling patience in the slightest, “Pathetic how desperate you are for my cock, you minx. Needing to cover it up with such a tough girl act...”

He trailed off, watching you closely as he pocketed his knife and used his now unoccupied hand to quickly unfasten his pants and free his aching length from its confines. He stroked himself a few times, the seconds passing torturously slowly in your eyes as you licked your lips in anticipation before throwing your head back against the wall with a strangled gasp when he fully inserted himself inside of you without warning.

“You son of a-” “Shush doll, don’t want anyone to hear what we’re doing out here do you~?” You huffed as he interrupted you, pretending to think for a moment before shaking your head with a smile, “I actually do, imagine the surprise when they’d hear that two of the royal guards are all over each other...~”

San’s eyes darkened once more before narrowing them at you, “You asked for it, then... Be prepared to scream.”

“Such big words from the man who’d let me spit in his mouth~” You weren’t having it though, only mewling and moaning softly while San repeatedly snapped his hips into yours. His pace was rough and quick, eager to get both you and himself off, “Won’t even, fuck- won’t even scream for me... am I not fucking you hard enough?”

“Mmh... nope~!” You replied with a toothy grin, gasping sharply when San thrusted inside of you particularly harshly. “That better?” “Much~” He continued to move at the harsh pace he had just set, his breath hitching when his hand accidentally brushed against the leather garter still fixed securely around your thigh.

He felt himself twitch violently when you spoke through low pants, his thrusts stuttering, “Wouldn’t you love to have me trail one of those daggers over your sensitive skin, sunshine? Perhaps even pierce it a little here and there to show who you belong to~?”

Those last words came out unintentionally but you didn’t feel the need to correct yourself, considering that your possessiveness appeared to be the last straw for San judging by the warmth that filled you as he came, your own orgasm washing over you shortly after. Once you had both caught your breath, he carefully pulled out of you and helped you straighten out your dress after doing the same to his own clothes.

You implying that he was yours was undoubtedly a matter to be discussed, but for now, you two had a masquerade to return to. As such, San handed your mask back to you after having previously stored it in one of his jacket pockets. You both secured your masks back on your faces so that your identities were concealed once more, although San decided to not pull his hood back up.

He unlocked the balcony door before turning to you with a teasing albeit charming smile, holding his hand out for you to take, “Will you let me have this dance, m’lady~?”

You found it amusing how quickly he could switch back to his professional persona, placing your hand in his own regardless, “It’d be my pleasure~”

He led you back inside of the large, well-lit ballroom where no one was any the wiser of what had transpired mere minutes ago, your dress swaying slightly while you danced with San, a small grin painted on your features.

You ended up getting to bed incredibly late, almost stumbling out of it the next morning before quickly making yourself presentable after being requested in the throne room by His Highness himself, wondering what it could possibly be about.

You ran into San on the way there, finding out that he had been called to see the prince as well. Pushing the heavy wooden door open, you weren’t particularly surprised to find it empty besides the presences of you, your companion and Yeosang, who had placed his crown on a pedestal near himself.

Letting his emotionless facade crack a bit, he gave a small smile when he saw the two of you kneel before him as it was custom for the subordinates or the royal family.

“Those who want to wear the crown need to prove they are able to bear its weight.”

Yeosang’s voice rang out through the room, causing you and San to look at each other questioningly and then back up at him in confusion. The older male had never been more glad to not have any other of his court officials or guards besides the two of you inside of his throne room, relieved that he could be blunt about his message.

“I’m sure you both are aware of how I came to be where I am presently, yes?” You both nodded in response. “Then you know my mother was not a true queen and slept her way to the throne. Hell, I’m even a bastard child - her husband was not my father. In short... she was a whore.”

San gasped quietly next to you in surprise at the word choice, causing you to nudge him gently to remind him to focus and listen.

“I don’t want to keep the two of you here any longer than necessary,” the unrightful prince leaned forward, his weight still resting on the arm he had previously propped himself up on, “My coronation is set to be held eleven days from now. Whichever of you comes up with the better plan to cover up my ‘coincidental’ disappearance by then gets to claim the throne.”

It was a tempting offer, that much you had to admit, but it sounded almost too good to actually be true.

“Your Highness-” “Please drop the formalities Y/n, you’ve known me since I was a little child.” The young man in question corrected softly as you cleared your throat with an understanding nod, “Are you sure this will work out as you intend it to? I’m not sure anyone would believe one of your royal guards to be allowed to inherit the crown just like that...”

“Y/n. Surely you’ve noticed how desperate the people are for a ruler who stands with them, even with all the time you spend working? They’ll accept just about anyone. As long as neither of you exposes the truth about any part of my family... do we have a deal?”

San looked at you and met your eyes, lingering for a few beats before getting up from his knees with you following suit as you looked up at the prince and spoke in unison, always up for a challenge - especially if it just so happened to come with a high reward like this one did, “We have a deal.”

“That’s what I like to hear. Now off you two go, there is work to be done~” Yeosang hummed, you and your ‘companion’ bowing respectfully and nodding before turning on your respective heels.

San pulled his hood back over his head and glanced at you with a smug grin that you happily mirrored, both of you making a run for it out of the throne room.

After all, it was only a matter of time and of who created the most perfect illusion, aware that only one of you would come out on top.

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