#help i need to figure out what my general tags actually ARE for this stuff

[waywardsalt]

link being in a position of authority (first mate) in post ph is so interesting is that even something he’s cut out for. with the composition and whatnot of the post ph crew its not like he has to be an actual authority figure but at the end of the day he’s higher ranked than damien and bellum. linebeck probably talks to him the most about sailing and adventuring plans and he likely gets a lot of input on what they do. he probably stays in charge of the cannon. also least assigned to swabbing the deck probably but i doubt he dislikes doing it

[sttoru]

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 '𝐍 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐒, CHAPTER I: you finish your last lecture of the day and head to get dinner before returning to your dormitories. you stumble upon an injured figure on your way home, laying in a dimly lit alley. despite the fear in your heart, you decide to reach out towards the unknown man in need of help.

wc. 3.7k

tags. assassin!toji x female reader. sfw; fluff-ish, angst. reader's best friend oc appearance (yona). mentions of murder, blood, knives, anxiety. general warnings for all parts of the series: size difference. age gap (reader early 20's, toji early 30's).

ten seconds. you shut down your laptop and close it. nine seconds. you put your laptop in your tote bag. eight seconds. you close your books and do the same. seven seconds. you put your coat on. six seconds. you check your phone for any messages.

five seconds. you’re thinking about what to eat once you arrive home. four seconds. you decide on a pack of noodles. three seconds. you realise that you’ve ran out of them. two seconds. you make up your mind to go to your local supermarket. one second. you stand up from your seat.

“..that’s all, students. have a nice day and i’ll see you at our next lecture.”

a sigh of relief escapes your lips. you’re finally freed from the shackles of your statistics class. not like you’ve paid much attention to what your professor had been yapping about anyway. it was too boring. the daydreaming you did about your potential future boyfriend and all the cheesy romantic stuff you’d do together was all the more important.

“earth to my best friend,” your friend’s voice snaps you back into reality. you look to your side and find yourself apologising for not hearing her the first time. yona chuckles and waves her hand dismissively.

“i asked if you had any plans after the lecture,” she continues whilst scrolling through her phone. you take a peek at her screen and notice that she’s already looking up available restaurants in the area.

you’re grateful that she’s looking out for you in her own way, but you’ve already made up your mind. a pack of your favorite ramen noodles will fill you for tonight. you’re low on cash this month anyway. a fancy restaurant would have you surviving on water for the rest of the week.

“ah, i actually do. gotta go grocery shopping ‘n stuff,” you pout apologetically before buttoning up your coat. yona nods in understanding, knowing the struggles of being a college student.

“aww, all right. we’ll go next time then,” she replies with a smile.

you walk out of the building with your friend by your side, chatting about how boring the lecture was. of course, you also learn all about the recent gossip around campus. yona is practically your plug for that.

“did you hear about that one girl that allowed her boyfriend to stay with her in her dorm room for a whole month and then got snitched on by her roommate?” yona snickers, not caring if anyone around you could hear the gossip.

you raise an eyebrow in surprise. your university has strict rules about guests staying over in the dormitories. they can spend a day or two, but you’d have to sign them in. plus the resident assistants usually check the rooms for any unusual activity every other week.

to hear someone had gotten away for a whole month is quite a surprise.

“he could’ve stayed for longer if it wasn’t for the roommate snitching,” yona continues and rolls her eyes. she takes a quick snack from her bag and bites into it.

you shake your head and shrug, making sure you don’t trip and fall down the stairs whilst you’re talking, “guess the roommate got enough of the random man in their room. i mean—they pay for that room as well. not like the girl is the only one living there.”

yona nods and turns a right. you follow, your eyes scanning the busy hallways. some students are rushing between the crowd to catch their train and others are making their way to their next two hour lecture. those poor souls.

“mhm. i wouldn’t wanna live with a man i don’t know either,” yona eventually adds after swallowing the last bite of her snack, “let alone for a whole month.”

she throws the wrapper in a nearby garbage can—which is overly full already. talk about a ‘hygienic’ school.

“right,” you shiver as the thought gets put into your head. a random man living with you. . . sounds like a nightmare. you’ve heard enough stories about how dirty they can be. in both the physical and mental aspects.

after some walking - and getting annoyed by random people who block your way due to how slow they’re moving - you reach the exit of the building. yona stretches her arms and grabs her phone before turning to you.

“anyway, see you later, hun!” she enthusiastically gives you a hug. you return the affectionate gesture with a gentle smile, rubbing her back. you exchange your last words before both going your own ways.

music plays in your ears as you walk down the street. the wind blows against your face. it’s a cold day. you wouldn’t be surprised if it were to rain in a bit.

‘gotta be fast’, you think. you are not carrying an umbrella with you, so you’d have to hurry back with your groceries. your legs pick up their pace and pass all traffic as fast as they can.

it takes you quite a while to get to your destination. that’s the drawback of living in such a packed city like tokyo. there is no way to move, especially in the evening, when everyone is returning home.

you reach a crosswalk and wait for the light to turn blue. whilst you’re waiting next to a bunch of people, your eyes wander across the scenery. from the huge billboards to your right to the multiple cars to your left.

your gaze stops at one specific billboard. it’s playing some of the latest news. a recent incident had taken place just a few kilometres north from your university. three people had been found cruelly murdered in their apartments.

the definite cause of their deaths is still unknown. there wasn’t any sign of a forced entry, even when reports say that all three victims had been killed in the same way.

they speculate that the person involved must have been quite skilled—someone who’s done this multiple times before. there are absolutely zero traces of them left neither. the only reason they’re able to conclude that it is indeed a homicide, are the similar wounds left on the victims’ bodies.

another comment from the investigation team shows that there might be a survivor who’s escaped the cold blooded killer. that person is now considered missing.

the police are still thoroughly investigating the matter; that’s all you get to know before the news reporter moves on to the next subject.

you look down at your shoes. such scary stuff does make you afraid. you’re living on your own after all. you’d be less scared if you had a roommate, but you currently don’t.

some call you lucky for that since it’s a rare occurrence, yet you still wish you had someone living with you. that would make walking back home at night less stressful.

the increase of footsteps around you makes you realise that the light turned blue—a sign for you to cross the street. you eventually reach the other side. you tilt your head back, anxiously staring at the sky.

‘please don’t, please don’t, please don’t,’ you chant in your head. like the weather is going to listen to your desperate pleas. you rush inside of the supermarket.

you’ve been here often enough to know which products are in what aisle. you scurry over to the ramen, grabbing two packs. you get a few snacks along the way. unhealthy crap, that’s what you’re surviving on.

you stand in line at the cashier. you tap your shoe and bite your lip, your gaze fixated on the sky outside. you beg god to give you just a few more minutes. a few more minutes of drought.

you check your phone and go through your recent notifications to kill time. you swipe left on almost all of them—none being time sensitive or urgent anyway.

you greet the cashier politely once it’s your turn and allow him to scan your products for you. you await for him to announce your total before handing him your debit card. your eyes flicker over to the television hanging right behind the cashier’s head.

that gruesome news again. twice in a row. you shiver and try not to think about it. your mind is already overthinking the entire thing; what if you’re next?

well, that should be the least of your worries. you grab the plastic bag and walk to the exit of the supermarket, taking a deep breath. what you actually should be worried about is getting home dry.

“just my luck,” you mutter under your breath. your prayers are left unanswered as the first few drops of rain fall on your head. you kiss your teeth in annoyance.

you can’t help but silently agree as a couple walks past you, complaining about the sudden change of weather. you watch as a few more people rush past you with their bags above their head.

looking at the bright side of things, you won’t be the only one who’s running home with a bag as a shield against the rain and wind.

you take a deep breath again and mentally prepare yourself for the quick journey you’re going to make. you look to the left and then the right. when the coast is clear, you dash into the direction of your dormitory.

the rain is not letting up. you rush past a few people, those carrying umbrellas walking the slowest of them all. ‘damn them’, you think, ‘they have it the easiest right now.’

you turn a corner and nearly bump into a woman. you politely apologise before continuing your little run home. damp droplets run down your forehead. the rain is already starting to block your vision.

you tightly hug your tote bag to your chest with one arm. the last thing you want is for your laptop to get water damage. you’ve wasted tons of money on that thing to help you get through college.

you look down at the plastic bag with your food. that’ll survive. at least you think it will.

you squint. the rain is only getting worse and thus your blurry vision will as well. you try blinking the water away, but end up making it worse for yourself.

great.

your shoes are going through it. the deep puddles you’ve run through leave the material moist and you can already feel the droplets seep into your socks.

greaaat.

you turn a left. this narrow street is one you hate to be near when it’s dark. it’s a fast shortcut, but also a scary one since it’s isolated from the bustling main streets.

you think back to the cruel news you’ve heard earlier. scary images flash through your mind. your heart races a thousand miles per hour. you once again make up a doom scenario that could possibly happen.

what if the killer on the run is going after you next?

it doesn’t make sense, logically, but everything is possible now that your anxiety has overtaken your rational thoughts. you have no connections to those victims and yet you think you’re next.

you are next.

you whimper out of fear. it feels like the walls of this narrow street are closing up on you the faster you run. you look over your shoulder, excepting someone to be there—following you.

no one is there. you turn your head again and run as fast as you can. if only you had someone with you. someone who’d console you and tell you that there’s nothing to be afraid of.

that’s the worst thing about the entire situation: nobody seems to pass by this backstreet. the only things that could possibly give you any sense of comfort are the random boxes and trash laying around.

time seems to slow down once you see the end of the backstreet. there’d actually be people once you make it through. you gulp and give yourself the motivation to get over there without scaring yourself any further.

the shadows looming over you due to the lack of lightning in this alleyway creep you out. the entire atmosphere is eerie—like something or someone can jump out of those shadows and grab you by the ankles. drag you into the darkness and finish you off there.

you want to return to those vibrant lights you know so bad. you do.

your eyes are so intensely focused on the end of the streets to the point that you forget your surroundings. it’s already too late to realise that you’re tripping over something. you process that you’ve lost your balance when you’re already mid-fall.

your body lands on the wet ground with a loud thud. luckily enough, your hands touched the concrete first, softening the fall for your head. you grunt and groan; it still hurt.

your ears pick up on the sound of running water. your head lays right next to a broken pipe that’s leaking water onto the pavement. cold droplets fall in a rushed rhythm.

“ah, fuck.”

your eyes widen. the sound of a man behind you sends a shiver down your spine. is that why you tripped? did he make you trip?

‘i’m so done,’ you conclude quietly. it’s probably the killer you’ve heard about—the one who’s coming for you next. just like you had thought.

you shut your eyes tightly, awaiting the strike that would finish you. like the wounds that had finished the other victims. though, it never comes. the stabbing doesn’t happen.

the only thing you can pick up on is heavy breathing. low grunts, barely audible. the sound of cloth ripping. a man mumbling under his breath.

you sit up on your knees and look over your shoulder. slowly, little by little.

the revealed sight is like a dream. or a nightmare. you don’t know which it is. perhaps a mixture of both.

all you know is that this is the last thing you expected to see. the last thing you expected to experience today. you feel your heart drop and you freeze in place.

you’ve seen your own fair share of blood, but this is simply too much. it’s like time has stopped for you. like time has stopped inside of this backstreet.

the world outside of this alleyway continues moving. the people keep walking, chatting and living their lives. the rain keeps falling. as if nothing is occurring at the moment.

as if there is no bloodied man on the dirty ground, leaning against the wall, with crimson stained hands clutching his abdomen. his wet bangs cover his eyes which makes his identity even more mysterious.

you probably tripped over his leg that’s stretched out in front of him; also bloody. you feel bad for not noticing him earlier. your own selfish desires to get out of this alley caused you to overlook a person in need of urgent aid.

you don’t think twice before reaching out towards him. it’s like your body moves on its own command—not waiting for your brain to figure out what to do.

“oh my god,” you’re shaking badly, but your body crawls closer to the injured figure. you don’t think twice. something you have always taught yourself to do before diving into unfamiliar situations.

not right now, however. you don’t hesitate to check up on the stranger. if you didn’t see his chest moving with each shaky breath, you’d have concluded that he’s dead.

“s-sir?” you panic. what do you do? you’ve never landed in such a predicament before. you look to your left and then to your right. no one to help you nor the bloodied man.

he doesn’t reply to your voice. that further worsens your anxiety. your eyes wander down towards the man’s abdomen. the wound was deep and painful, that much you can tell from the way he’s holding tightly onto it.

a bullet wound? you’re not sure.

right—the piece of cloth he’s keeping against the wound. that’s what you do to try and stop the bleeding. the warm red liquid stains the man’s baggy pants. his black shirt is nearly ripped to shreds, the material hanging on by a thread. literally.

“uhm, uh,” you look around and spot your bag on the floor. in a puddle. you pray that your laptop has made it. you don’t recall having anything with you that could help treat wounds.

you gulp and hastily take off your scarf. you carefully kneel in front of the half-conscious man. his head is held low. you don’t know if he can even hear you.

you reach your hand out towards him, aiming for his own bloody hands that hold onto his abdomen. you cringe due to the sight, but try your best to be of assistance.

the man hisses the moment you touch the his hand. your fingers stop mid-air, not wanting to touch him if he didn’t want to.

what am i thinking?

now is not the time for that. he’s bleeding out and you have this urge to get him to safety as soon as possible. even if you’re internally panicking because of the huge responsibility that fate has suddenly assigned you.

“i’ll call an ambulance. please hold on,” you try to be reassuring, however your choked up voice betrays your true feelings. you change the old cloth with your scarf, pressing it tightly against his injury.

you fish out your phone from your pocket using your other hand. the rain makes it hard to do anything. your screen is wet, your vision blurry. you type in the first number of the emergency services.

suddenly, a bigger hand swats yours, causing your phone to go flying to the other side of the street. you watch with wide eyes as your cellphone comes to a stop right next to a big puddle of rain.

you whip your head to the direction of the injured figure in front of you. the man tries to lifts his head, slowly, so he could look you in the eye. your heart stammers in your chest.

“sir, you’re bleeding out, you need to—“

“i don’t need anythin’.”

you don’t dare to move nor let out a single breath. you can feel the tip of a sharp blade rest under your chin—nearly penetrating the flesh. one wrong move and you will lose your life.

the man had moved too fast for you to even process. you don’t know how you even ended like this. with a bloody knife to your throat and an unknown man’s face right up against yours.

“leave,” the stranger demands. you know he’s not to be messed with, even in his weakened state, “i don’t need y’r help.”

his voice sounds rough. deep and raspy. it shakes you to your core—makes you listen to what he has to say. it’s hypnotising. a gust of wind blows over the both of you.

his bangs move and your gaze finally meets his. the background noises fade for a split second. your entire focus is on those beautiful emerald orbs staring into your own eyes. they’re gorgeous.

they're gorgeous; even if they lack that sparkle of life. his eyes tell stories—the rough journeys this man probably had to endure throughout the years. you’ve never seen such a sight. it tugs at your heartstring and urges you to help him.

you don’t know where these feelings came from, but amidst your anxiety, there’s an underlying desire to take care of him.

you shake your head, showing your unexpected defiance. you’re playing with fire. you know that all too well and yet you don’t care.

“no. i won’t leave,” your breath hitches. you notice the dangerous glint in the man’s eyes. he looks like he’s going to lose consciousness any second now. though his grip on the knife tells another story, “i won’t leave you alone. not like this.”

the injured stranger grunts in annoyance, but also in pain. your persistence makes him want to shove you to the side. to leave this place already and find a way out on his own. he doesn’t want your help.

he may actually need it, but he does not want to accept it.

despite those thoughts, he’s too weak. way too weak. he doesn’t like being weak. feeling weak is not his thing. vulnerability doesn’t suit him.

“you have a fuckin’ death wish,” the man scoffs. he doesn’t know how much longer he can hold onto consciousness, but that is the last thing he cares about. he wants you gone. out of sight.

you stay in place. even through his chilling death threats. you can feel the blade start to invade the first layer of your skin. it hurts already. normally, you would’ve run. you want to. your mind tells you to get the hell out, but your heart and body yells at you to stay.

“i’ll give ya three seconds,” the stranger continues. he’s close. so close that you can feel his hot breath against your freezing cheeks. it’s intimidating, however not enough to scare you away.

the tighter your grip on the scarf against his abdomen, the tighter his grip on the handle of the knife. time will tell who’ll win this battle.

“three.”

the countdown starts. you swallow your own spit. the rain has you completely drenched. you catch a glimpse of the puddle underneath you both. the colour of it a light red as the man’s blood flows and mixes with the clear water.

“two.”

his voice is quieter than before. he’s losing his strength, but is stubborn enough to firmly keep the knife below your chin. you’re sure that your own blood is already trickling down the shiny metal.

the man’s lips part to announce the last number. your last chance. your final opportunity to escape and act like you have never seen him. you can go back to your normal life—continue living in your own world. the one you are familiar with.

one without this unknown man. this man with an aura of a cold hearted killer.

you fingers curl tightly against the scarf pressed against his wound. you refuse to let up. even if it means your own death. your eyes close—cold damp droplets roll down your cheeks. you don’t know if they’re your tears or if it’s just the pouring rain.

you hear a low, frustrated groan. he sounds so close yet so far from you. you can feel the man’s arm move to adjust his grip. probably to try and flawlessly puncture your jaw.

if only you accepted to eat out with your friend. if only you turned around and went back to your dorm the moment you knew it was going to rain. if only you didn’t take this shortcut today.

if only your fates hadn’t clashed.

“one.”

TO BE CONTINUED. . .

[aoioozora]

Simon.

Part 7

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13

Character: Simon Riley / Ghost

Content: Biker! Ghost x Fem! Reader, strangers to lovers, fluff, civilian au

Note: Reader and Alejandro interactions that make Simon jealous and a wee bit insecure. Tags: @cmbghost @gluttonybiscuits @paintlavillered @eatingtheworldsoffanfiction

____ pulled into the underground parking lot of the apartment complex, sighing. She had just come back from an underwhelming meeting with her editor. 

She had proudly submitted the first few chapters of her manuscript, hoping they would be a hit, but was instead bombarded with the many suggestions of changes that should be made; while the plot itself was alright, the main complaint had to do with the male lead. 

“Frederick is not captivating or interesting enough. He needs more depth and personality… Definitely something different from Elystran,” the voice of the editor echoed in her thoughts as she killed the engine of her car and stepped out of the car. The thought of it once again made her shoulders slump with disappointment. 

Just as she did, out of the elevator across her parking spot came Alejandro. He spotted her and smiled. “Hey,” he greeted, twirling his car keys around his finger. 

“Hey, where you off to? I thought you were at work already.” 

He shrugged, “Took a day off for a doctor's appointment.”

“What happened?” 

“Nasty back pain,” he sighed. Then noticing her dull spirits, he asked if she was okay. 

“Yeah, I just came back from a meeting with the editor and apparently, I have a lot of stuff to change in my manuscript.” 

“Ah,” he nodded solemnly, “I'm sorry to hear that.” 

She shrugged. “It is what it is.” 

Alejandro was silent for a moment, unsure whether to ask whatever he had on his mind. He decided to just go for it. “Do you mind if I read the manuscript? I'd like to see what it's all about. Maybe get a sneak peek into your next book too.” He winked at her. 

“I was actually thinking of asking you just that.” She beamed, happy that he asked. 

Alejandro raised his eyebrows. “Really?” 

“Yeah. Actually, most of the problems in my manuscript are with the male lead, so I think your valuable input as a man would really help me out. And your general opinion as a reader too.” 

The man couldn't help but feel flattered. “Is that so? Then I'd be happy to help you out. Just send me the manuscript and I'll read it soon.” He threw his car keys in the air and caught it in his rugged, tan hand and smiled. 

“Perfect.” Just as she was about to say something else, she got a notification on her phone, which she immediately took out, hoping it was a message from the editor changing his mind about the manuscript. 

But it was Simon. Though a little disappointed, she still smiled, and he noticed.

“Boyfriend?” he asked, raising his eyebrows teasingly at her.

“Yeah,” she nodded, grinning. She kept the phone back in her pocket, deciding to answer him later. 

Alejandro found it a little odd that she wouldn’t reply to Simon immediately, but he figured, “Maybe it’s just me,” and decided to let it be. 

“I’m offended you didn’t tell me you started dating,” he smirked, playfully putting on a tone of feigned offense as he put his hand on his chest. “How’d you two meet?”

She laughed at his dramatics and then briefly related the incident to him. 

“So you two started dating only a month and a half after meeting each other? That's… quick.” Alejandro remarked, raising his eyebrow. He knew people could fall in love at first sight, but that wasn’t the case with everyone. 

“Yeah,” her voice squeaked and her gaze faltered; she cursed herself for it. “We found a lot in common and… hit it off.” 

“Hm…” he exhaled, noticing the vagueness and lack of conviction in her voice and body language, but decided not to comment on it, not wanting to jump into conclusions too soon. “Well, good for you. I’m glad you found someone,” he said with a smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He then looked at his watch. “I should get going. Don’t wanna be late for the appointment.” 

“Alright, see you later!” she said with some eagerness, wanting to end the conversation, for she didn't know how else she could cover up. 

“See ya, muñequita.” 

Simon had recently followed ____’s spam/personal account, and saw that the skeleton plushie made a very frequent appearance. It showed up even on her main account to her tons of followers. 

The story on her personal account posted late in the morning showed the skeleton perched against her laptop screen along with the caption, “Serious writer’s block rn. He’s cheering me on!”

The next image, posted three hours later was of Alejandro in front of a laptop that looked like hers, captioned, “@-alevargas is giving me some pointers. He's ruthless 💀”

Simon grunted, feeling a spurt of jealousy. He rolled over on his side on Gaz's sofa, nearly kicking Johnny– who was seated on the floor– on the back of his head. 

He didn't hear his friend's yelp as he was too busy feeling bummed that she didn't ask him, especially after the two shared meaningful conversations over her novel before. 

“It's not like I can control who she chooses to share her work with,” he told himself resignedly, “Besides, we're just friends. I'm not supposed to be feeling jealous like this.” 

Yet he couldn't help it. 

Simon decided to scope out his competition by paying a visit to Alejandro's Instagram page. Upon reaching there, he found that the man was an up-and-coming part time model with a fair amount of followers. Even though Simon saw him in real life and found him to be a handsome man, his modeling photographs rendered him dangerously handsome; he had perfectly tanned skin, thick glossy black waves styled gorgeously to suit his masculine features, straight pearly whites for teeth, a near perfect five o'clock shadow, an athletic and muscular body, and a dazzling smile characteristic of motivational speakers. He was Mexican, to top it off, which meant that he most definitely was an outgoing and energetic guy. 

Simon felt his confidence fade into insignificance. Here was a man perfect in every respect like an expertly cut diamond, and compared to him, Simon felt like an ugly, misshapen rock. His own features contrasted with Alejandro's in his brooding, glaring eyes, his pale skin, thin lips, crooked teeth, his somber and quiet outward personality, and most of all, his marred face and body. 

He immediately exited Instagram and dropped the phone on his chest, sighing. “Yeah, with a bloke like him as competition, there's no way I'm winning,” he thought to himself, now resting his arm over his forehead. 

“Oi, Ghosty,” Johnny nudged Simon's leg with his elbow. 

The familiar nickname irked him all of a sudden, as it felt like a reminder of his flaws. “What?” he asked, trying not to sound snappy. 

“Did ye ask ____ if she wants tae come for our one night camp?”

Simon grunted. “I'll ask later.” 

“No. Yer gonna forget. Also, tell her that Lindsey is coming too.” 

Lindsey. Simon remembered Johnny telling him about her soon after he confessed their stalking. A short, freckled, ginger girl; Johnny spoke about her a lot and with excitement too, even calling her ‘Jolene’ in reference to the Dolly Parton song. Simon wasn't particularly surprised that Johnny was gallivanting with yet another lady; that's what he had always been doing since high school. His wit, charm, smiles, energy, and particularly his Scottish accent recommended him greatly to the opposite sex. He only hoped that Lindsey wouldn't take him too seriously. 

Simon picked his phone back up and sent a quick text to ____  about the camping trip and its general details. No sooner was he about to throw his device aside on the coffee table to pay more attention to Gaz who was playing his electric guitar nearby, her reply came. 

Author Girl: of course I'd love to come! 

Simon Riley: great. I'll let you in on more details later

Simon Riley: Johnny has invited your friend too apparently

Author Girl: Really? She didn't even tell me.

Simon Riley: u better ask her about it then. 

There appeared to be a slight delay in her reply even though she was online, and he wondered what she was up to. Finally, a reply came after two minutes. 

Author Girl: I'll do that :) 

Simon Riley: Are you busy? 

Author Girl: yeah kind of. Alejandro is giving me some suggestions for my story

He felt a twinge of jealousy again. “He's still there? At this point, maybe they make a better pair than she and I,” he thought despairingly. 

Simon Riley: yeah, I saw ur Instagram story. How's it coming along? 

Author Girl: it's coming along great. We're almost done here

Simon Riley: he's at your place? 

Author Girl: yeah, he came over to give me some enchiladas he made and I invited him to come in. 

Another twinge of jealousy, and another skill to add to Alejandro's repertoire. 

Simon was so close to typing, “I wish you invited me instead,” but immediately deleted it. 

Simon Riley: cool. 

Simon Riley: I'll leave you two then, I got other things to do

Author Girl: sure. I'll text u back soon :) 

Simon Riley: alright. Cheers

She noticed how he went offline so quickly and stared at her phone for a moment. “Is it just me or did he seem a little off?” she wondered to herself, hoping she wasn't reading too much into it. She shrugged it off, thinking it had to do with whatever he was busy with. 

“Muñequita?” Alejandro's voice interrupted her reverie.

Her eyes snapped back to the man sitting across her. “Yes?” she smiled, not realising she had been engrossed with Simon. 

He looked at the clock on her wall. “I should get going now. It's gotten late,” he said, now placing her laptop on the coffee table and rising. 

“Oh right, I've kept you here long enough,” she chuckled as she rose too. “Wait here for a moment.” 

Alejandro, confused and curious, stood by the coffee table as he watched her disappear behind her kitchen door. She soon appeared with a can of soda, which she put in his hand. 

“That's for you, as thanks for the enchiladas and helping me out,” she said, grinning at him. 

He chuckled and playfully gave her forehead a gentle knock with the edge of the cold can. “Thanks, muñequita,” he smirked, opening the tab of the can with a single finger and taking a long sip of the soda. “Well,” he began as soon as the sip was drowned, “I'll be off now. Good night.” 

“Good night, Alejandro. Take care,” she said as she walked him to the door. 

“You too, nena,” he gave her a little smile. “Call me if you need any more help, alright? I'll be at your beck and call,” he said only half-jokingly, giving her a wink. 

She rolled her eyes and smiled. “You don't need to do that, but I'll let you know.”

As soon as he left, she breathed a heavy sigh. The conversation with Alejandro was fruitful, but she was exhausted. She decided to decompress and wind down for the night by taking a nice, long shower and a soak in the bathtub. She then had a simple dinner and just before bedtime, she was found on her bed in her satin pajamas and her phone, cuddled with the cushions and plushies; Little Simon, the most preferred and well loved, was tucked under her arm and pressed against her breast. 

Her cute animal video marathon was interrupted by a message from (Bigger) Simon. 

Simon Riley: wyd? Are you busy? 

Author Girl: watching videos. Hbu? 

Simon Riley: [photo] 

Simon Riley: watching a film with the lads. It's boring 

The photo showed a glowing television screen in a dark room, and a little cameo of Johnny's familiar mohawk at the bottom as he was seated on the floor in front of Simon. 

Simon Riley: I'd rather talk to you

She felt her heart skip a beat. 

Simon Riley: I hope I'm not disturbing you btw

Author Girl: no no you're not

Author Girl: tbh I'd rather be talking to you too 😂

It was now Simon's turn to feel his heart skip a beat. 

Simon Riley: good, because I'm in for a conversation 

Author Girl: what do u wanna talk about? 

Simon Riley: hmm

Simon Riley: how did it go with Alejandro? 

Unbeknownst her, Simon had to revise that text several times so as to not make himself sound unnecessarily overprotective, prying, and smothering. He hoped that he sounded casual and carefree enough. 

Author Girl: went well. He gave me a lot of pointers for my male characters. My editor wasn't so happy with my male lead so I had to consult an actual guy to help me out

Simon Riley: you could've asked me

Author Girl: yeah well Alejandro was the first guy I came across so I thought I'd ask him. I was going to ask a bunch of different guys too so I'll be asking you next 😁

Simon Riley: good. I'll be glad to help. 

Simon Riley: btw about the trip

Simon Riley: I need to fill u in w the finer details. Can I call you rn? 

Author Girl: sure

She sat up straight on the bed with bated breath. Though he had a few phone calls with him, she still felt a little bit nervous. She was about to get lost in her thoughts when the blaring of her ringtone made her jump with fright. She scrambled to pick up the call. 

“Hey!” she squeaked in a high pitch, and immediately cleared her throat. 

“Hi darling,” he said, his voice deep and affectionate; she could hear him smiling. “You alright? You seem a little… I don't know, surprised?”

“No,” she said breathlessly, “No, no, I'm fine.” She chuckled. When she heard the faint sound of traffic on his side, she asked, “Are you out already?” 

“Just the balcony,” he answered.” How could you tell?”

“I could hear some traffic.” 

“You're sharp,” he complimented. 

She smiled. “Thanks. Now, what did you want to discuss?” 

“Right, yes,” his voice immediately turned serious. He gave her all the finer details of the trip for a few minutes and at the end of it, he asked, “We're planning on using a car to get there since it's gonna be the five of us and it will save on petrol. Do you think we could use your car?” 

“Well if my car is in good enough condition for you, then I don't mind,” she said, a hint teasingly. 

He chuckled. “If I check it and find anything wrong, I'll give you a bollocking,” he teased back. 

“Oh come on,” she rolled her eyes, smiling, “You gave me enough of a bollocking the other day when my battery died. I'm not going to let you do it again.”

She heard him laugh, and like it always did, her heart melted. 

“You deserved it,” he scoffed. “But anyway, batteries and bollockings aside, you're okay with your car being used?”

“Absolutely.” 

“And you're comfortable driving long distances? Like I said, it will be a three hour drive, which is quite long by European standards.” 

“I'm okay with it. It's been a long time since I've driven that long though.” 

“Don't worry, if you're tired, I'll take your place.” 

“You? But didn't you say you were a bad driver?” she smirked. 

He could hear her smirking and thought he'd try to make her laugh. “If I try really hard, I can avoid hitting a tree.” 

She burst out laughing. “You're banned from the driver's seat!”

He smiled, gratified. “Whatever shall I do,” he said sarcastically, smiling and shaking his head. 

“If you can prove that you won't hit anything within the first five minutes of the drive, then maybe I'll consider letting you drive for longer,” she challenged, shifting in her seat on the bed and running her finger over the contours of Little Simon on her lap. 

“Challenge accepted,” he said with a self-assured snort. 

She smiled at his confidence and willingness. “So where are we all meeting again?” she asked. 

“At my place. I'll send you directions for it after this.”

“Okay,” she exhaled, now thinking of what his place looked like. What sort of decor and aesthetic he preferred, what sort of colors he liked, and if he kept house plants. 

The two continued to converse a little more until their eyes felt heavy and they started yawning. 

“Are your friends still watching the movie?” she asked, by this time half sitting up and half laying down on her bed. 

“I think it's almost over,” Simon, who was still seated in the balcony, looked over his shoulder at Gaz and Johnny who had their eyes still glued to the television set, despite them having melted into the sofa. “You sound sleepy, darling. You should go.” 

“Hmm…” she sighed. “But I don't want to go,” she whined in a soft, sleepy mumble. 

“Why not?” he questioned smilingly, not wanting her to hear how her sleepy whine was making him melt. 

“I like talking to you,” she replied in a tone that was trying to convince him to stay. She rolled over on her side, holding Little Simon close to her chest. 

The man's distant eyes softened as he heard this and he felt a little tickle in his stomach. His voice deepened, quietened, and mellowed as he replied, “Same here, my darling, but we'll talk again soon, alright? You sound like you're gonna fall asleep right now.” 

He heard another little whine, and he chuckled, unable to stop finding her cuteness so endearing and sweet. “Go on now,” he encouraged gently. 

She finally relented. “Good night, Simon,” she said in a half-whisper. 

“Good night, my love.” 

There ended the call, and Simon kept his phone on his thigh, feeling his face turn warm against the cool, damp air of the outdoors. He inhaled deeply and then exhaled. 

“Fuck me…” he murmured, running a hand through his hair. 

This phone call was a huge boost to his earlier insecurity. Their banter, her acting cute, her not wanting to stop talking to him was evidence enough that she preferred him over Alejandro. He could only hope that his hunch was right and that she wasn't doing the same thing with the other man. 

When the sound of her puppy-like whine echoed in his mind again, he groaned, wishing he could punch a wall so he could feel manly again. 

Any more, and she was going to be the death of him. 

The same woman, blissfully unaware of how her unintentional cuteness affected Simon, was now half-asleep on her bed, fingers curled loosely around her phone, and Little Simon nestled under her arm. 

“Elystran, from your first book, was bubbly and energetic. So I think that it would make sense for Frederick to be a little more reserved and aloof, but someone with power and authority, unyielding, and kind to nobody but Adelheid. Maybe if you knew someone with similar traits like these, you could use them as a model.” Alejandro's words from their earlier discussion echoed in her thoughts. 

Like lazily floating clouds on a clear summer's day, her thoughts drifted, trying to think of who would make the perfect model. 

Her thoughts settled on one man: 

“Simon.”

End of Part 7.

Part 8

Thank you all for your love on this series! I enjoy writing this and all your wonderful likes, comments, and reblogs fuel my passion some more. It's sm fun to write fluff; too bad I don't see a lot of it on tumblr lol. But anyway, thank you all once again. Remember, if you enjoyed this and want to be notified for updates, leave a comment so that I can add you to my tag list. x

[nexysworld]

Hello!

I hope it’s ok for me to request this (and sorry if my English is not well)😭👉👈

Can I request for Leon and his girlfriend/wife being on a mission together (maybe during re4r, vendetta or re6) and during the mission reader finds out she’s pregnant with Leon’s kid. She’s maybe reluctant on telling him because it might jeopardize the mission or put more weight on Leon’s shoulders, but eventually tells him.

Leon is truly over the moon with the news but at the same time worried since they’re on the mission and was about to call Hunnigan to get her to safety. but girlfriend/wife refuses to abort the mission and leave Leon.

the angst and overprotective and soon to be father leon >u< pls

Thanks so much for the request! The plot for this one actually got away from me more than expected so it's not quite as angsty as I had planned. I had most of it written already so I didn't want to scrap it tho. I hope you like it anyway - I might just redo this one in the future because I like the prompt so much and think I could do it more justice - especially expanding more on Leon's internal feelings. ~ Expectations to Keep Going ~ Read on AO3 🖤 Requests are Open 🖤 Masterlist Pairing: Fem!Reader x Vendetta!Leon Tags: Fluff, Angst, Comfort, Unplanned Pregnancy Word Count: 2.2k

You paced back and forth in the living room of your once-shared apartment. 60 seconds felt like 60 minutes as you watched the timer slowing ticking down, heart racing. With a shaky hand you picked up the stick and to your dismay saw the little + indicating it was positive. “For fuck’s sake, this can’t be happening right now.” Ever have one of those moments where you say ‘at least it can’t get worse.’ Well, this was the universe’s way of reminding you that things can always get worse. 

Leon had walked out on you. He didn’t explicitly say the relationship was over, but he didn’t really need to. He’d shown up drunk, shoving everything he owned into a suitcase, and disappeared on what he called his ‘vacation.’ Except that vacation had lasted weeks now, with not so much as a phone call home. When you attempted to contact him, same thing, radio silence.

You tried remaining calm, knowing what had happened on his most recent mission. You just told yourself he needed time, but with each passing week the feeling that things were over kept washing over you. 

You weren’t one to wallow, freak out, or really deal with your feelings in general. So you did the only thing you knew to cope, you threw yourself into work. Mission after mission, clearing them as fast as you could – that was until weird stuff began happening. Fatigue was the first thing you noticed. You were always tired no matter how much sleep you got. Then came the nausea. Your skin had even begun to break out, your breasts were sore. It was like PMS cranked up to the max – except no period. That in of itself hadn’t been alarming since you didn’t really get one on birth control, the other symptoms though? They had freaked you out, leading you to this moment right now, standing alone in your apartment, positive pregnancy test in hand. 

“I can’t deal with this.” You said to yourself, slumping back onto the couch. Luckily for you, your phone rang. “Redfield? Yeah…yeah…No, I don’t know where he is…yeah, I can help.” 

A mission. Relief flooded through you. Was it a good idea to accept it considering your current condition? Probably not. But a mission would make a great distraction right about now. Besides, with enough willpower, you were sure you could overcome any symptoms for at least a few days, especially if the fate of the world was at stake, right?

That’s the plan. Save the world again and afterward, you’d figure out what to do. 

Your heart stopped when you saw him at the table chugging down another glass of alcohol. He didn’t look great, and he didn’t look happy to see you or the two companions who’d followed. His normally clean-shaven face was now scruffy, the bags under his eyes intensifying the steely blue even more - his hair was dark and greasy. This wasn’t your Leon. You would’ve been happier to not have seen him like this, but Chris and Rebecca insisted on locating him. “Cancel that!” Chris shouted when Leon attempted to order another glass. Leon instantly pulled out a flask from his back pocket with a smirk – of course, he had a backup. It honestly would’ve been funny and so very Leon if the context of the situation didn’t have you feeling so awful. Leon hadn’t acknowledged you once, and you hadn’t tried to speak. What could you possibly say? Now wasn’t the time to talk about your broken relationship or the other elephant in the room - he looked so broken down. “I never plan that far ahead anymore.” He slurred to Chris. “There’s no point. There’s always some new bad guy to fight. My life is just a vicious loop. So what’s the point in thinking about the future?”

Ouch .

Those words definitely stung, adding to the growing barrier between the two of you. Now a new worry bubbled in you that if you did tell him, it would be too much. That would be the thing that sent him spiraling over the edge he was already teetering - you couldn’t do that. Not to him, not to yourself. No. This was something you would need to deal with alone . 

This was a mission. You were a professional. That’s all that mattered right now – let everything else go. Following through on that was hard. Much harder than expected, especially now that you’d found yourself alone with Leon, separated from Chris, and Rebecca abducted.

Nausea had come back in full force, this was the third time you found yourself making him stop his bike so you could lurch behind a dumpster to spill stomach acid and spit. 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” “I’m fine.” You assured standing up. You knew he wasn’t buying it, even a half-sober Leon still remained a great agent, sharp as ever. Moodier than usual - even if you hardly spoke. Slower than usual - almost getting mowed down by the Gatling gun in the hotel. You almost never got sick - now you’d spilled your guts several times. Something was definitely up, and he didn’t need to accuse you for you to see the suspicion on his face. Not to mention how he’d been hovering over you like an overprotective guard dog ever since the attack at the hotel.

Guilt. Guilt is what you felt when he looked at you. He was worried about you and you had the truth of what was wrong kept caged behind closed lips. You took in a few deep breaths to help ease your sour stomach - it doesn’t work and you’re in tears now as more gagged coughs are ripped from your throat. A comforting hand rubs your back as a bottle of water is placed in front of you, not bothering to question where he’d gotten it. Greedily you downed the entire thing, using the last sip to swish the terrible flavor from your mouth. “Were you bitten?” 

You shot him a glance of horror. “No! Of course not.” “Then tell me what’s really going on.” “I’m fine.” “You’re obviously not fine.” “Well of course I’m not fine. I’m stuck alone on a mission with the guy who walked out on me after 10 years together. Now can we go?” You don’t know why you said that, your mood just kept ping-ponging through different emotions. You guessed this time it just landed on anger. When his hand was on your back you wanted to cry from the comforting touch, but now that you had to stand and look at his face you were annoyed. This wasn’t the time or place. You knew that, you’d reminded yourself of it several times, and yet emotions were getting the better of you. Damn these stupid hormones. His brows came together in thought and confusion, you really weren’t acting like yourself. “That’s not what I’m talking about.” He finally responded. “I know. I’m sorry I shouldn’t have – “ “No, I deserved that. I’m surprised you didn’t come into the hotel swinging, honestly, I wouldn’t have blamed you. It was shitty how I left.” It wasn’t an apology, but the acknowledgment definitely helped a little. 

The two of you stood there awkwardly for a while. Leon had radioed Chris for a status report, his team had breached the building and were on a steady path of clearing out the enemy. It bought you and Leon a little more time to continue your awkward stand-off. He brought his gaze to meet yours again. “Look, I know I don’t deserve to know what’s going on with you. I get it. But at least for the sake of the mission, tell me what’s wrong physically. If we need a medic–” “I’m pregnant.” You didn’t know what possessed you to say it after you’d spent the entire time telling yourself that you couldn’t - no - shouldn’t. It was probably the fact you couldn’t stand the way he was looking at you anymore. But there it was, the truth slipped right out.

“What.” “I’m pregnant.” “I don’t understand.” You’d never seen such a stupefied look on him before. It was like you had just spoken in tongues, for some reason that irritated you. You finally confess your big secret in the middle of a super important mission, and that’s all he had to say? “What don’t you understand? I’m pregnant and it’s yours. You got me pregnant. I am pregnant with your baby. You put your –” You were cut off by your own crying, feeling every emotion simultaneously, the tears continued to spill against your will. Damn. Damn. DAMN these stupid hormones. 

“Ok. Ok. I get it, calm down.” He put his hands out defensively as he walked towards you, caging you against the wall. “I can’t!” You shouted. Leon pressed your foreheads together, snaking his arms behind you into a hug. He didn’t say anything, just held you tightly for a few moments letting you sob it out. Once the waterfall of tears was reduced to some hiccups and sniffling, he began to rub soothing circles into your lower back. You dared to glance up at him through wet lashes, there was an unmistakable smile plastered to his face. “It would be just like you to distract yourself from huge news with work. But you shouldn’t be here if you’re pregnant. Let me call Hunnigan, we can have a ‘copter sent in to pick you up.” “No!” You brought your hands up to push him away from you, shaking your head. “No, I am not abandoning this mission. Chris needed my help to unlock the building’s computer systems so they can collect the virus’ information. I’m not going anywhere - wait - why are you smiling like that?” His gleeful look didn’t waver. “Sweetheart…you’re asking me why I’m smiling? Obviously, because I’m happy.” “What?” “I’m happy? You told me I’m going to be a father. There’s going to be a little ankle-biting Kennedy running around. I’m happy! Not quite as happy you knew and came here anyway. I guess that’s my own fault though.” “I don’t understand. You left me. You literally said there was no point in planning for a future.” It was your turn to look absolutely stunned, it was so far from the reaction you had expected it almost gave you whiplash. He reached out and grabbed your hand, squeezing it assuringly. “Yeah, I was wallowing in some deep self-pity. But seeing you almost get killed in the hotel was a sobering reminder of what I can’t afford to lose. Hearing that I’m going to be a father? That doubles it for me. I realized I was looking at things the wrong way. I know I’ll always be running headfirst into danger, but maybe having a future to look forward to is the motivation I need to stay alive while I do it. Wait are you seriously –oh, come on Honey don’t start crying again.” He sighed pulling you close. “I’m calling Hunnigan and getting you out of here.” “No! I have to complete the mission. Just give me a minute.” Your words lacked the bite you intended. “Look, I think I’d already flop at this whole fatherhood thing if I let the mother of my baby get hurt or killed on day 1.” Leon pressed a few soft kisses on your forehead and wet cheeks before finally connecting your lips together. He tasted like alcohol masked with mint and the short hairs on his face scratched you, but it was still comforting. “Let’s negotiate then.” You offered. “This isn’t the time for that. You’re jeopardizing the mission and you could get killed, it’s not safe.” His tone was caring, but stern now. “Look. I know it was stupid of me to take this on while pregnant. You’re right it was a distraction and I thought I could handle it better. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m the only one who can get into those systems.” You managed to finally get the tears to stop, rubbing your eyes dry and raw. You could see he still wasn’t fully convinced. “Leon, there isn’t going to be a future for our baby if we can’t stop this. Please.” “Fine. But only if you promise to stay on the defensive and avoid action as much as possible. Do as I tell you to and let me handle any enemies that his team may have missed.” “Come on Leon, I can handle–” “No. We do things my way or I’m calling Hunnigan and you’re leaving.” You were annoyed despite knowing he was right. You would’ve argued further but the look of worry on his face shut you up instantly. “Alright. Alright. I’ll follow your lead, promise.” 

“Good, and Baby?” “Yeah?” “No more missions for a while. Got it?” “Deal.” You shook his hand as if it were a business meeting, rewarding you with a laugh on his part. He captured you in one more quick kiss before leading you over to his bike, both steeling yourselves back into your professional personas. You hopped onto the back, wrapping your arms around him tightly as he took off in the direction of the building to get the remainder of the mission over with. 

[cheri-2047]

Can I request aether x reader x kazuha (can be seperate) with a really insecure reader. Slightly chubby, anxiety ridden, slightly touched starved.

I need a hug and these two are my comfort characters.

Of course <3 I’d be happy to write this for you. Thanks for requesting ! (And mb if I wrote this bad or mischaracyerized them, I really tried 😔)

So so sorry this is late btw I had some stuff I had to fix :(

REQ ARE STILL OPEN!!

Aether and Kazuha x insecure reader

TAGS: none, all fluff

CHARACTERS: Aether, Kazuha (separate)

AETHER:

You and Aether were at a party with some close friends one night. As all of you were cheering, drinking and having fun in general, Aether noticed the way you lightly clutched your clothes.

You were lost in thought in your own head, only snapping back to reality a few times when your friends would laugh, or when someone spoke to you, but every time the group just kept talking, you couldn’t help but zone out and start overthinking once more about yourself.

“….”

“…?”

“Darling? Hello?”

You snapped back into reality, before seeing your boyfriend Aether holding your hand and trying to unclench it.

“Sorry- sorry I-“

“It’s alright, you okay?”

You nod, but you see the light look of worry in his eyes.

“If you say so….”

His thumb lightly brushed over the back of your hand, as a way to provide even a slight bit of comfort.

“Oops!”

You saw Aether spill a bit of his drink onto himself

“Damn it-“

He mumbled softly

“Sorry sorry, I need to get this cleaned up. Reader can you help me?”

He says before holding out a hand to you and trying not to get your outfit stained with his drink.

As you nod, he brings you to the washroom nearby, before quickly wiping his shirt and cupping your cheek after.

“What’s wrong love…? You haven’t been much like yourself tonight, do you want to go home?”

“Oh have I? Haha… didn’t notice. Just a bit tired is all.”

You didn’t notice it but your hands start to clench a bit when he cupped your cheek.

“Please don’t lie, what’s wrong?”

As you tell Aether about your worries and insecurities he nods and waits for you to finish before speaking

“May I hug you? Is that okay?” You nod before he wraps his arms around your waist and rubs your back comfortingly with one hand.

“You know I don’t care about how you look right? I love you for how you are…” he mumbles, pressing a kiss to your cheek.

You told him how you felt insecure about your weight and after that he pulls away from the hug before holding both your hands

“I think you’re perfect…” he says, keeping eye contact with you.

“Please look at me…” he says as he tries to show how much he cares for you.

He presses another kiss to your cheek. “I think you look perfect darling, it doesn’t matter if you think you look bad because to me you’re the most beautiful person here. Archons I bet people would even be jealous of me because I got such a beautiful person like you….” he chuckles, as he cups your cheeks.

“If youre uncomfy here right now, that’s okay. I can bring you home. The choice is yours darling.”

KAZUHA:

Kazuha noticed your mood a bit low today so he decided to surprise you.

“Do you want to go shopping?”

“No it’s alright” you smiled, and that’s when he knew something was actually wrong.

“I want to go, please?” He said as he got a bit more worried for you.

“Okay…”

Kazuha smiled when he was able to persuade you. quickly getting ready for the day and walking with you to a nearby mall.

“What do you want to buy? Maybe we can get more supplies or clothes or anything really.”

Kazuha would try to take note of your small actions to try and figure out what’s wrong.

From time to time you see him scanning over your movement, which caused you to be a slight bit uncomfy.

“Clothes maybe? I haven’t gotten anything new in awhile.”

He nods and takes you to your favorite clothing store. As you two walk through the aisles, you pick up clothes.

“Wait here, I’ll go change.”

Kazuha nods, sitting on a chair outside of the dressing room, as he patiently waits for you to show some outfits.

Every outfit he genuinely loved, and he expressed it clearly too.

“You look ravishing honey…”

He says with a soft smile.

After a few more fittings, he noticed how each one took longer for you to put on than the other. He thought it was just cause the outfit was hard to put on, but even simpler shirts took long.

The next outfit you chose you didn’t know what tk feel about it, in turn 2 minutes turned into 5, 5 to ten and that’s when Kazuha got worried.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah- just um.”

You tried to find an excuse, before you could he spoke once more

“Hey if you don’t like the outfit it’s alright, you don’t have to feel forced to-“

To his surprise, you came out with the fit.

You wanted him to not worry, so you just showed him instead.

“You look amazing…”

He smiled pressing a kiss to your forehead, noticing how you took many glances to the mirror.

“Do you not like this?”

He asked, as you shook your head.

“It’s okay, we don’t have to get it.” He smiled, feeling a bit more worried for you.

“Alright darling I..just have to ask… are you okay? Please be honest”

“….why do you ask?”

“You’ve been acting different all morning, and I don’t want you to suffer alone”

You frowned and told him how you felt like you looked bad in the clothing and how you felt insecure about your body, face and everything.

“I love you… I think you’re the most breathtaking person I know… I don’t love you for your body, I love you for you.”

He said, patting your head.

“I think youre perfect, and I’d never judge you for everything, you know that” he chuckled.

“If you don’t like any of these, we don’t have to get it. Anything that makes you happy and comfy love…” he said, kissing you on the forehead.

Im so sorry kazuha’s part was a bit cringe and cut short and it might be mischaracterized cause I don’t know much about him IM SO SORRY. I really tried 😞 anyways thank you for requesting!

This wasn’t proofread

Also btw a/n (if this doesn’t stand for authors note please tell me)

1) I hope hee okay :( I hope this fic helped at least

2) please a reminder that you’re perfect and if you don’t feel like it, even with flaws and all you’re still perfect. Everyone is beautiful even if people don’t see it, and if u need more docs like these to help, I’ll do it :)) thank you <3

[jojo-oliver]

How to tumblr for artists… my own version

A collection of things that have been working for me, but may not work for everyone

~~~ your posts ~~~

!!!reblog your own stuff!!! you need to reblog your own stuff, there is nothing morally wrong with reblogging your own stuff regularly. in fact, it is morally right to allow the chance for more people to see your artwork.

~~~ queue it!! ~~~ my queue is 500 posts strong. maybe don't try to make your queue hundreds of posts strong in the same day omg but like… once every month or two i'll go through my whole blog and just scroll and "add to drafts" to every one of my own posts i have. then i'll use the "mass post editor" to add content warning tags. and add to queue, and shuffle. and then I write down what the date was for when I last added my posts to be reblogged on queue. this is helped by turning on timestamps for posts in tumblr "dashboard preferences" settings.

queueing is necessary and life saving for me. It takes out so much work with decision fatigue and the anxiety around posting. It also guarantees that even if I suddenly need time off or away from my phone, I don't just disappear and lose all traction. It also breaks the instant-gratification cycle that you expect when you finish an artwork. It's hard to keep creating when you post something and, when you're expecting to get that gratification, you get none... If you queue your new artwork to come out at a later time, you've separated that expectation - with time. It hurts less and contributes to a more consistent gratification thing instead of peaks and troughs.

~~~ tag ya stuff ~~~ when you're making a new post, the first 20 tags are what gets put into the searchable tags. do not feel shame for using lots of tags. shame is the mind-killer. tags are hard. hard to know what to tag a post with. hard to remember the tags. so I found some ways to help myself. maybe they'll help you too. dedicate some time towards just figuring out what tags you want to use. i have a list in my phone notes that i add tags to and reference whenever i'm making a new post. i have the phone right beside the laptop while i'm tagging so that i can just look at it and scroll. tags are the only way for people to find your artwork, other than people manually coming to your blog because they saw you somewhere. there is no algorithm. posting without tags, until you have an established fanbase, is throwing something into the void.

When I'm doing tag research, I look at what people seem to use - when you put something in the search bar, tumblr recommends you some that have a higher following, typically. Looks like this on desktop:

if you like one tag, look at what other people who use that tag also tag their posts with. Observe and learn how this tag is used. search through a bunch of them and write them down.

here's what i got in my notes, for the specific kind of art I post and look for:

these tags are sort of specific to me and the kind of art I make. You'll want to research your own tags, but this is an example of how I keep them organized to make posting more effective. I generally only write down a tag when it's got more than 2k followers. You might be tempted to use the tags with millions of followers, but I've actually found those a lot less functional for small artists. If your stuff doesn't immediately get a bunch of notifications, you're drowned out and pushed to the bottom much faster. But the bigger tags are better than no tags, so I keep them if I can't think of anything else to tag something with.

~~~ post at the right times….? ~~~

fridays and saturdays is when I post fresh new things... usually. every website has it's own peak hours, and you can find those hours in many different online articles that try to sell you social media growth services. tumblr is unique in having later hours.

here's some random graph from google images:

please don't over think this. please don't let this consume the idea of when to post, preventing you from posting at all. it doesn't mean too much - if you post during very active hours, maybe your art would just be pushed down the feed faster. if you post at the end of hours, maybe everyone's going to sleep… if you post at inactive hours, maybe there's less 'competition'… if you post at the beginning of active hours, maybe that's just more time for your post to circulate for the day, if you have enough people reblogging it once it drops....

this also is in EST. So fuck the other time zones, I guess. I'm over here in europe knowing that the "best" time to post would be like 2-3am or something. It's like this for most english-speaking majority sites - higher traffic in north american time zones.

it's also worth mentioning that this is scattered as heck, compared to other social media sites. and it's not like, the activity times of your followers. it's not the best time to post for your niche. this is just tumblr, broadly. all of tumblr.

~~~ Plan ahead for annual dates ~~~

Your artwork will get more circulation if it's posted on a celebratory day. You could just put them on your calendar and if you're wondering what to make, look on the calendar for what's coming soon. For example, asexual awareness day, trans day of visibility, location-specific holidays, etc. Here's my phone notes thing with my own recorded annuals:

I got these dates from googling and reading different articles, but I find that I still miss dates, and then I add them for next year. If you know of some I missed, tell me and I'll add them please <3

~~~ reblog other people's stuff ~~~

tumblr is sorta about ecosystems. things get passed around within groups of people that are all following eachother. to enter this ecosystem, you must engage and reblog other people's stuff too.

if you reblog other artists' stuff, sometimes they'll come over and reblog your stuff too. sometimes they'll follow you back. this is called becoming a mutual. I'll search specific tags for the kinds of people I want to follow and the kind of art I like - those are listed in the screenshot of my tag note under "Tags for finding new people".

I see a lot of blogs out there that are very clean, posts are tagless, and are only for the artists' content. like scrolling through a portfolio. I imagine this is good for people who are migrating to tumblr but already have their own established fanbase from elsewhere.

you don't need to do reblog other people's stuff on your art blog, you can do this on a separate blog. but if the two don't look very closely correlated, it's hard to tell who you are when you're interacting. and hard to make sure people know that you are the same person as your art blog. and you gotta remember to promote yourself on your personal blog.

~~~ have an art tag ~~~

make your blog easy to search!

if i go to your blog, and you've written 'artist' or 'sometimes art' in your bio, i wanna see it… it make me so sad when i don't get to see it. i want to reblog it. please let me reblog it :(

to make a tag on your own blog searchable, you don't need to repost it to add a tag. you don't even need to reblog it. you can actually just go back to the original post and edit it to add your tag. I've seen post people just have their art tag be something like #(blogname)art . you can see my own in my tags image above. if it's very unique, then it'll work tumblr-wide. I think that's good, since the tumblr search function is really weird. Otherwise it should still work if it's not entirely unique, people just have to make sure they're searching specifically your blog to see only your stuff.

I like to have a link in my pinned post where people can click to have immediately searched for my art tag. Convenience is king. Keep in mind that most people are on mobile, and if something isn't immediately clickable, they often won't find it.

~~~ be consistent and be patient ~~~

!!!this time will pass anyway!!! how many notes you have is not correlated with how good you are as an artist. wanting to earn something from your art means you essentially have two jobs. two potentially full time jobs. this shit's difficult. most of the job is promoting yourself. don't undersell how hard it is to do… don't feel bad for not immediately succeeding. I would write about how hard it's been to promote myself, but it would just be long and sad I think.

This isn't a full guide, please feel free to add more!!

I'm sure in another year I'll disagree with a lot of this, it will become irrelevant with time, and I'll have a lot of different opinions. Chip in and share what you've been doing? Teach me? This is very overwhelming. Don't do it all at once, just like, try one thing at a time, and see how it works for you. Your niche might be different. One size does not fit all. If you're confused about some of the things I talk about in here, you might be on mobile. I do most of my queueing and posting from the desktop browser version.

I will update this with more as things change, but I think you'll have to click through to see the updated post

[rosetowers]

I need to stop making Aus and not do anything with them, but Prince Ballister has a hold of my brain, so have some little ideas.

EDIT: forgot to tag @mvjerbs bcs their art caused this

Bal's adopted by the queen during his "breaking-into-the-Institute-bcs-he-wants-to-be-a-knight" thing, and she goes "free baby" and scoops him up.

He has a generally easier time, even if he's a bit disappointed about not being a knight. It's one thing for even the queen to stray from Gloreth's doctrine and allow a commoner to be a knight.

Like, people don't like a commoner becoming heir to the throne, but that's seen as being up to the queen, and the closer relationship protects Bal from people's scorn.

The Director becomes concerned as Bal gets older and more involved in politics, as he starts suggesting stuff like helping the lower classes or anything that affects the status quo, which could put the city (*ahem* the Director) in danger.

The queen had been a bit sheltered from problems in the realm, but takes Bal's advice seriously and starts looking into ways to help people.

I have a couple of ideas as to how he meets Nimona:

Follow canon, somewhat. They meet after the main plot kicks off with Nimona opening Bal's eyes to how much worse the situation is and how corrupt the Institute is etc.

Or, they actually meet when he's younger, and she gives him far more radical ideas as to how they can help the realm.

For the first one, just Bal suggesting they should allow commoners to become knights would be enough to set the Director off, but in the second scenario, Bal could suggest actually trying to explore beyond the walls.

Not sure if I'd have Bal be framed in the second scenario: I feel like they could announce the intention to take down part of the wall ON the wall, and the Director makes it look like someone from outside attacks the royals.

Bal survives, but loses an arm. Thanks to Nimona, he suspects the Director, who demonises him and makes herself regent.

As for Goldenheart, Bal still wanted to learn how to sword fight, so Ambrosius was assigned to be his sparring partner.

Gloreth's descendents also often become royal bodyguards.

This can involve anything from pining over not being able to be together, to saying "fuck it" and doing so behind closed doors.

In the "Bal has known Nimona for years" scenario, Ambrosius knows about her too and agrees that they should help people and explore beyond the walls.

If nothing else, it does give him the opportunity to do something new as Gloreth's descendent.

He still believes in the Institute and doesn't think the Director would hurt anyone, but he also still believes in Bal's plan and doesn't like how he's being treated after the queen is murdered.

So there's some tension going on there as he tries to figure out what he should do.

Again I have put too much thought into this, and I'm not gonna have the attention span/confidence to write a whole fic, but I needed to get it out of my head lol.

[cripplecharacters]

Hello. I have a character (a couple, actually) who has an fictional, congenital physical disability. The closest-real world disability I might compare it to is EDS possibly? Her knees when they are "straight" are 15-20 degrees past 180 (what a normal straight leg would be), and her ankles and feet are malformed. Her ankles seem "swollen" and her feet are very small and squished. This of course causes her trouble walking, frequent dislocations and other injuries, balance issues, and chronic pain.

Also caused by the same fictional illness but can be given a name are moderate to severe arthritis from birth, autism (MSN/lv 2), apraxia, and (because of her disability she was treated poorly) PTSD.

So with that backstory, my question is what kind of mobility aides would be helpful for her? I've thought about a 3-base cane for stability and all that good stuff, but would forearm crutches or something else be more beneficial? I've also thought about rubber grips on cups/cutlery. What other things could I look into?

The other character with this disability has a similar build to her legs (though possibly more severe, instead of just her knees being hypermobile the joint is not formed very connectively) and is missing her ring and pinky fingers and 3 small toes on each foot, which causes her chronic pain and of course mobility issues. I figure her situation is pretty similar but in case there is anything that would be specific to her I figured it'd be worth asking.

And one last side note, if there are any real-world disabilities that better fit the description of this condition, I'd definitely be interested in looking into them for further research so please let me know.

Hello!

I definitely agree that Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) would be the closest real-world match for what you're describing. For that, I'd suggest looking at some of the mobility aids used by people with EDS.

We've made a few posts contrasting the different mobility aids out there (You can take a look through the #mobility aids tag to check some of them out!), which can be helpful for some general information on mobility aids and the advantages/disadvantages of each individual option.

For your character specifically, it sounds like they would need more support than a cane can offer. While a cane can help with balance issues, it likely wouldn't offer much support for the frequent dislocations and chronic pain described.

From the sound of it, forearm crutches would be the best option if you're looking for mobility aids with a similar style to a cane. They're more weight-bearing than a cane is and would provide more support for her in her day-to-day life. That being said, if she frequently has trouble walking long periods of time, a wheelchair or rollator may be better suited to her needs.

Aside from mobility aids, other tools that may be useful for her can include orthotics, braces, compression devices, etc.

Orthotics are shoe inserts that help provide support for parts of the feet that take the brunt of it when walking. They can be especially helpful for your character because of her "malformed" feet and ankles as they can help keep them aligned when walking. This article [Link] talks a bit about the benefits of orthotics and explains them better than I'm currently able to.

Braces can help to prevent dislocations and just generally offer some support for her joints. They can also have a beneficial effect on her swelling but compression socks may be better suited for that specifically.

Compression devices (Specifically compression socks for her) would be able to help reduce the swelling of her ankles as well as decrease the pain from her ankles and feet in general. If she also has poor circulation, these can be beneficial in that way too.

Another aid that could be helpful for her would be grab bars, especially in the shower and by the toilet. Grab bars are generally very helpful for people who have poor balance or general weakness/instability in their legs. I cannot count the amount of times that grab bars have saved me from faceplanting in the shower (Including this morning😅).

If she struggles with her fine motor skills, rubber grips for utensils can definitely be helpful or even just utensils with thicker or rounded handles in general. Because of my own problems with grip strength and fine motor skills, I typically use the Ikea plastic utensils when I'm eating because the slight roundness to them makes them easier to hold. (There's also the added benefit of not making a terrible metal-on-floors sound when I inevitably drop them but that's unrelated)

Though you didn't specify how her autism affects her, noise cancelling headphones or ear protection in general can be helpful for any sensory aspects, along with sunglasses, blackout blinds, and/or a weighted blanket.

For the second character you mentioned, holding a cane may be especially difficult for them due to their missing fingers. When you use a cane with your full hand, most of the pressure is being sent through the wrist and goes up your arm. Using it without the use of the ring finger and pinkie means that the pressure is going straight to the wrist. Though it may be possible for short periods of time, it would likely cause issues with their wrist, shoulder, and arm in general if they use it long-term. Because of this, a rollator may be more effective for them -- especially since it's more weight bearing and supportive than a cane is -- or a wheelchair, depending on their needs.

The other supports mentioned for your first character (Orthotics, braces, grab bars, etc.) may all be beneficial for your second character, potentially more-so if their condition is more severe.

Although I can't think of any other real-world conditions that would parallel what you've described, the community here may be able to suggest some!

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[miiilowo]

i feel like theres not a lot of great resources out there so i figured id just ask -- how would you recommend ways of living with/helping out someone else with npd? :)

youre right! most of the time when u look up NPD stuff its "THE ABUSER DISORDER: KNOW HOW TO RECOGNIZE IT AND DISABLE NARC DEFENSES SO THEY CANT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU" which isnt. Great

all it really comes down to is listening to them n addressing their needs if they've communicated them to you. ill try to simplify it so i dont get too into details, though i will likely fail, and most of this advice will be based off my experiences, so idk how much itll apply to whoever ur talking about BUT:

generally (and w me especially) you can safely say that NPD mostly has to do with ego dysregulation. Our [as in myself and people w npd] mental health and general happiness tends to rely on how people perceive us, and if that perception is anything but positive, we feel like poopy doo doo dogshit. we kinda need to be paid attention to in a way that feels meaningful, yknow? compliment them, make sure theyre included in conversations (esp group ones), and try not to ignore em in any way. if youre talking to them and youre busy, for example, make sure you include that detail so they don't feel like youre brushing them aside. stuff like that. if they make art, and you genuinely like it, try going into detail as to why, whether its the colors or linework or what have you. if they write, tell them what you liked about the story or poem, etcetera. Tag them in stuff that reminds you of them if you have their socials, or send them things, show it to them, whatever.

lots of us tend to actually be very insecure, even if it doesn't seem that way, which might be important to keep in mind. sometimes we can get whats referred to as "narc crashes" (im not particularly a fan of the term narc, though theres nothing actually wrong with it, so ill just call it an NPD crash) where for whatever reason, we go from feeling great and secure in our egos and our stability and happiness and security to falling 600 feet down directly into hell no recovery absolutely awful 0% joy 0% light 100% agony. dogs with human teeth screaming at you and shit its really just no good. calling you a dunderhead

they usually (though not always!) come after a high where we feel fantastic, and most commonly the cause of a crash is we get hurt by someone, humiliated, or made to feel lesser in some significant way. for me, they're the worst when i no longer feel confident that people like me, and i become incredibly worried everybody secretly hates me. which is a very very very awful train of thought to be experiencing when you have the "EVERYBODY NEEDS TO LIKE ME NOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" disorder. so if ur friend seems depressed or upset make sure to ask whats going on and bump up the praise and stuff up a notch. its the best way to recover for Me, at least. crashes dont have a consistent like. timeframe? i think it highly depends on the severity of what happened and whats being done to fix it, though im certainly no psychologist lmao

i feel like when folks w npd Are mean or unfair its because their needs arent being met, theyre doing awful, and they need support so they dont desperately lash out for it. god knows thats the case for me. thats another thing thats important to keep in mind i think

a lot of traits of NPD aren't pretty, and thats just a fact of the matter. its a disorder for a reason and all. even if we dont express the almost inherently negative traits all the time (usually because we are aware they are unfair to other people), its very likely that we are feeling them, and it does erode your brain after a while. The DSM-5 list of traits is probably the best way to go for this, as per this government website:

"A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and with lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood, as indicated by at least five of the following:

Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements, expects to be recognized as superior without actually completing the achievements)

Is preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, brilliance, beauty, or perfect love.

Believes that they are "special" and can only be understood by or should only associate with other special people (or institutions).[milo note: its hard for me to find something specific to make bold in this definition, but generally, i do not express that i think that i am better than other people even if i think it]

Requires excessive admiration.

Has a sense of entitlement, such as an unreasonable expectation of favorable treatment or compliance with his or her expectations.

Is exploitative and takes advantage of others to achieve their own ends.

Lacks empathy and is unwilling to identify with the needs of others.

Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of them.

Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors and attitudes."

Ive bolded the ones that would negatively affect people that, I, at least, try not to express but still feel, or feel the desire to do, near constantly.

As you can see, thats a pretty hefty chunk of them! I'm sure some people could take problem with every trait listed here, in which case they can suck my whole dick, but those are the ones I've noticed upset people the most, or make relationships the most difficult. I bring these up because if someone does express these, you need to keep in mind it is because of a personality disorder. That doesn't always make them acceptable, and if they are really upsetting, you should talk to them about it, but thats just like. basic relationship shit lmao. just try to be an eensy bit forgiving

Though the MAIN reason I wanted to bring up the traits is due to the 'entitlement/unreasonable expectation of favorable treatment/compliance' one. This can manifest in a whole lot of ways, but it is genuinely infuriating when someone ignores what i want them to do/what ive asked them to do/etc, especially if its for a reason that doesnt 'feel' solid enough, like them just not wanting to do it. it can be incredibly frustrating if someone with npd says they need something from you or want you to do xyz and it doesnt happen, so try your best to listen to them. if you cant do what they desire for whatever reason, make sure thats clear, and why. Most of us will recognize we're being unfair, but will still be mad; Just know its not because of you, its because of the disorder, and most people will not hold it against you because they're aware its unreasonable in some fashion.

i think thats like. the main things when it comes to meeting the needs of someone w NPD. to summarize and dumb it down:

make sure to compliment them in meaningful ways, especially when you really mean it

pay attention to them; try to prioritize them in conversation and such. it feels very nice. dont ignore them for the love of god

keep the crashes in mind, and try to uplift your friend as much as you can. reassure them you care about them, maybe not directly by saying "i care about you" but with your actions in general

listen to them and adapt to their needs as best as you can

remember that if they are being unpleasant its probably because of The Disorder and they are not doing well. dont let anyone be a prick to you but try to be kind. everybody goes through shit

if anyone has anything to add, or if you have any followup questions, feel free to ask ^_^ i very much didn't cover everything here, and again, this is mostly based off of my experience as someone w NPD, and everyone is different to some degree. The most important thing to do is ask about their needs, and try to adapt to them the best you can.

i think thats all i have to say for now tho so. sayanora. if i come up w anything else ill add it in an edit

[hotluncheddie]

🍓🍓

this is honestly kinda random but my part two of the @thefreakandthehair summer fic challenge is done!!! so pretend it’s summer and not halloween, these boys r bring goofy all year round!

prompt: picking berries | cw: none | rated: G | part 2/2 | tags: disaster gays steve& eddie. besties robin & steve. jeff is an angel.

read part 1 here!

-

‘rob? um. is it gay to take your male friend berry picking’ steve asks while he’s pushing the full returns kart over to the romance section. he feels his eyebrows scrunch as he tries to read the labels on the tapes.

‘uh’ comes robins faint reply from where she’s slumped on the counter.. not helpful.

‘if uh. what if he really likes strawberries. like so so much.’ steve asks, focusing on trying to read the tapes even harder as he feels his neck get warm the longer he hears no reply.

‘no right? no, i don’t think so. it’s like friendly bonding. totally wholesome.’ steve gives up on the tapes. coming around to stare at robin across the counter. he gnaws on his cuticle and stares at her eyeballs so hard he goes cross eyed.

‘what the fuck’ robin whispers ‘it’s 9 in the morning’

‘robinnnnn’ steve whines because she not helping and he needs her to help, like so much, like right now.

‘ok ok! ask me again.’ she demands, finally looking alive and like she’ll actually fulfil her best friend duties like he needs.

steve takes a deep breath. ‘is it gay to…’

‘yes.’ robin interrupts before he can finish.

steve opens and closes his mouth a couple times. his mind is blank. blank except for an image of eddie and an image of a strawberry and an intense need in his gut to have the two connect.

‘shit’ steve rubs his hand down his face.

‘fraid so, it’s super gay and i hate to be the one to break it to ya.’ robin pats him on the shoulder, genuinely looking like she feels sorry for him. until her face shifts into a grin that’s a touch feral. ‘your crush on eddie is officially terminal.’

steve feels the heat on his neck slither up and bite at his cheeks. ‘who, uh, who said it was eddie?’

‘oh come on steve! i’m your best friend i see how you look at him.’ robin laments, rolling her eyes with her whole body, instantly calling his paper thin bluff.

steve groans, pushes away from the counter and starts pacing ‘ugh okay yes fine! i wanna take eddie on a gay strawberry date and make him smile and hold his hand and other stuff and, and im kinda freaking out here rob!’ steve feels frazzled. he cards a hand through his hair and tuggs.

‘okay. okay! it’s fine see, it’s fine.’ robin says, giving steve two big thumbs up and a smile that does nothing to hide the panic in her eyes. steve whines again and goes back to pacing.

‘uhhh okay! is this gay stress or eddie specific stress?’ robin joins him in pacing but she stays behind the counter. ‘because i know we talked about that kid in camp and you had a lot to say about that one guy you saw at a swim meet and then when we watched blade runner you talked over it a lot like normal but also got like really quiet when harrison ford was all kinda sweaty and stuff.’ robin finally takes a breath and turn back to face steve who is gaping at her. he feels like she just dissected his brain like it was a frog.

‘so i feel like we discussed the whole’ robin flails her arms up and down his general being. ‘bi thing. so i’m thinking this is more a like eddie specific freak out and so, like, shut the fuck up actually? hes obsessed with you steve!’ robin finishes, finally.

‘who’s obsessed with steve?’ eddie’s asks. because eddie’s there now. flanked by the three corroded coffin boys, all looking at steve like he’s something to be wary of.

‘uh’ robin and steve say in unison.

‘kieth!’ robin shouts with way too much enthusiasm for their manager who barely does his job. ‘yeah, ha. he’s been doing the schedules so the two of them overlap like, all the time. steve here always figured the guy hated him but, uh, times they do be a changing. yeah, he’s to-totally obsessed.’ robin smiles way too big and steve can only match it. staring at her, trying to make her shut. up. using only his minimal bran power.

‘oooh’ eddie says because he’s an angel who would never make fun of robin even if she’s being super weird.

‘uh, we’re gonna go look at the sci-fi section ed’s.’ Gareth says, his face one of confusion and maybe a little bit of fear.

‘buckley. harrington.’ jeff says nodding his head in acknowledgment of the two before they all wonder off. gareth and (unnamed freak) repeat the motion and follow.

huh. that’s good. eddie’s friends are taking longer than most to thaw to steve. he gets it, but, still, sometimes it stings.

‘cool yeah.’ eddie says watching them slip away. ‘movie day.’ eddie explains, smiling so big his eyes squish into little crescents, bouncing on his toes.

steve feels his actual heart clench. like god himself is reaching into his chest and squeezing it.

‘that’s great man’ steve says, voice coming out breathy but eddie’s smile only brightens further when their eyes lock. so steve has to spend a second remembering to breath in again.

‘you want to join? oh uh. i mean. you can’t. your working.’ eddie babbles, slowly going strawberry red. ‘and like, i know you don’t love horror and stuff and that’s kinda the vibe we’re going for so, maybe um, maybe some other time. a time your not working but when it’s not like alien over and over. uh yeah.’

‘doyouwanttogoberrypicking. with me?’ steve blurts. feeling his whole head heat up and run down his chest. he clamps a hand over his mouth, eyes wide.

eddie looks shocked, eyes so big and confused and pretty.

but before steve knows it, the sun peaks over the mountains and the corners of eddie’s mouth curl into a grin that’s so delighted steve’s toes almost curl.

‘yeah. course i would.’ eddie says, so softly, so shyly through his still strawberry red smile..

‘hopeless am i right?’ jeff says as he steps over to the counter next to robin.

they’re both gawking at the two fumbling through making a plan. all pink cheeked and goofy.

‘hopeless.’ robin confirms, rolling her eyes and going back o actually doing her job. she smiles down at the tape in her hand.

[firstprincehornyramblings]

Stress Relief

Summary: Henry has had a very stressful day. And Alex knows exactly what kind of distractions will help make it better.

(18+) Kinks/Tags: firstprince, dirty talk, fingering, orgasm, oral sex, (playful/light) daddy stuff, desperate kisses, (mild) impact play, penetration, some fluff, Henry top, some cum swapping, general Henry being a slut (for Alex). Huge shoutout to Jon (@bigassbowlingballhead) for helping me out with some formatting stuff and bouncing back and forth ideas with me. (you da best) TW; brief Phillip mention.

———

"Baaaabbbyyy.” Alex called as he opened the door to Henry’s bedroom. “How’d your meeting go, I brought Starbucks and surprises. I figured that you deserved a cake pop after putting up with….” Alex paused as he looked up and caught a glimpse of Henry’s face, “Oh no, what’s wrong?” he asked immediately walking over to where Henry was sitting at his desk, looking distraught. Henry was sat with one elbow on the table, his face had been in his hand but he’d lifted it marginally to look up at Alex coming in. “Baby, what is it?” Alex cooed again, setting down the cups and his bags, stepping over to where Henry sat, rubbing the blond’s back gently.

“It’s..” Henry began shaking his head “This whole.. bill parliament is working on, and of course we have to approve it, and you read it.” He was pausing to look at Alex’s sympathetic face, the understanding nod. “And of course I’m not in favor and we discussed it today you know, and Phillip is being.. unrelenting and I’m almost entirely sure it’s to spite me.” He said it sounding both so angry, and so on the verge of tears at the same time. It wouldn’t be the first time Alex had seen Henry angry cry.

“Do you want me to throw something at him?” Alex asked, trying not to smile as he actually got a half-hearted laugh from Henry. “No, I’m so serious,” Alex continued, “Like it doesn’t have to... be dangerous, like I can miss on purpose. But make it something really threatening like a lamp.” “Oh my god, stop it Alex!” Henry said playfully swatting at the other man, but giving a more genuine smile. “You’re sweet,” he said after a moment, leaning up to rest a hand on Alex’s cheeks, tugging him down for a kiss.

“I’ve been told.” Alex said into the kiss, before giving Henry a few more kisses, “But in all seriousness, I’m sorry, I know that shit fucking sucks, and I know you.. don’t like it anyway. Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked moving behind Henry then, beginning to massage those tense shoulders. 

“Mhn, you.. can keep doing that actually.” Henry almost hummed, leaning back into Alex’s fingers, “Just because I do have to deal with it doesn’t mean I have to think about it right now.” He said despite it sounding much more like it was talking to himself than to Alex. And Alex didn’t believe it was for him for a minute either, but he nodded. “That’s right baby,” Alex said, doing his best to sound proud. His thumbs working at knots in Henry’s shoulders that made the blonde hiss. “Besides, I did bring treats, and a few surprises. Well, one surprise, but treats.”

“Please tell me you didn’t bring a puppy back here, Alex.”  Henry half groaned. It was a tone that was playful, but also partly serious. “You don’t think David needs a brother?” Alex teased, his fingers still working Henry’s shoulders. “David has anxiety, Alex.” Henry said in a much more serious tone now. “You.. didn’t get a puppy did you?” he asked actually turning to look back over his shoulder.

“No!” Alex laughed, shaking his head, “I would not spring a puppy on you, at.. this point in our relationship.” He clarified to a still stern looking Henry. “First off, coffee.” He said grabbing the iced coffee cup and setting it in front of Henry, with body language that made it seem more like a peace offering. “Second, cake pop.” He said setting the small Starbucks baggie beside the coffee. “It is incredible to me that you are in a palace with.. all of the equipment found inside of a Starbucks, and the staff to make it, and yet..” Henry said, despite taking out the cake pop already. “Thank you though.” he said taking a bite. “It’s just better.” Alex said sipping his own iced coffee before picking up another all black label-less bag. “Okay so I went to get us lube, we’re almost out.” Alex explained, pulling out a bottle of lube that made Henry get rather wide eyed.

“Do we need that much?” Henry asked breaking into a smile. “We absolutely do!” Alex defended, smiling so wide as he spoke, “I mean I don’t know about you but I’ve got this super hot boyfriend.” He teased; only grinning wider when Henry rolled his eyes with an ‘alright alright’. “Anyway,” Alex continued, reaching back in the bag, “They had these at the front, and I couldn’t say no it was just SO cute.” he was already defending his choice before showing Henry. But he pulled out a miniature riding crop then, no longer than a foot long ruler. The top of the crop was heart shaped, and the handle even had a tassel, clearly it was meant to be more cute than functional. “Alex!” Henry immediately scolded, nearly choking on the coffee he’d been sipping. “You did not! A riding crop? You can /not/ keep that here in the palace!”

Alex couldn’t help but laugh, he knew that was coming, “Oh right because people frequently go through your bedroom drawers, and it would be an international scandal if someone found this in your own home?” “Well,” Henry started before seeming to find his argument again, “It’s ridiculous, we are not using that. And it’s going back to your house, in /your/ luggage!”

Despite the protest from the blond, Alex could see the light blush forming in his cheeks. This was one of those moments, where it was the slightest bit hard to tell if this was just the British Royal coaching; or how Henry felt. “You know, I’ve seen you use a crop before,” Alex edged in, “And you were.. pretty handy with it, you definitely knew your way around.” “Oh my god that was on a horse Alex! Where it belongs!” Henry scolded, “You’re such a deviant.”

“Okay okay,” Alex playfully held up a hand in surrender, “I’ll put it in the drawer..” he said as he held up the crop, walking to the bedside table, and opening the drawer, laying the crop in, “See, I’m putting it inside the drawer.” He was looking back to Herny, watching his every move as he closed the drawer. “And it's hidden, we’re the only ones that know.” Alex reassured, walking back to Henry. “However,” he said once he stood back in front of Henry, who was currently in the middle of a permanent pout, sipping his coffee. “You still seem.. stressed, it’s making you grumpy.” Alex was grabbing the back of Henry’s chair then, tugging it back from the desk, and then turning it to the side, so Henry was no longer in front of that desk. “You’re ridiculous.” Henry laughed, shaking his head as he took another sip of that coffee, “What are you planning?” he asked in a much more playful way.

“Well,” Alex crooned, “What if I help you relax?” he was setting his hands on the arms of the chair Henry was in, so he could lean down more. “I think you just need a way to take out your frustrations. I mean you /do/ have a super hot boyfriend too.” Henry fought back a laugh, unable to keep from grinning like an idiot at Alex. “I do,” he said nodding as he leaned forward just a bit, brushing his lips over Alex’s, before giving him a soft kiss. “Well, what do you propose we do?” Henry’s voice was genuine, and in part because he’d made enough decisions today.

“I think you should let me help you unwind, get you relaxed and then whatever stress, you’ve got in that pretty little head, you take out on me.” Alex said it like it was a secret, smiling as Henry nodded into another kiss. “Perfect.” Alex cooed, and he was slipping down on his knees in front of Henry, already beginning to undo the belt on those way too expensive suit pants. He felt Henry’s eyes locked on him as he slipped the belt out of the loops and dropped it beside them. His fingers already undoing the button, unzipping the pants. “You.. really are a godsend.” Henry almost sighed as he watched Alex carefully slip those pants down. “I know I.. tease you a lot.” He added as his eyes followed Alex’s hands tugging down his underwear now, leaning up to help the boy in front of him. “But you’re perfect, and I love you.”

“Am I perfect because I know if we got cum on your suit, you’d have a fit?” Alex teased, reaching up to undo Henry’s shirt, tugging those buttons until it was open, and pushing at it, like reminding Henry to take it off. “Well, that’s one of the reasons.” Henry said with a laugh, pulling off his dress shirt, and laying it across that desk beside them. “But there’s.. a long list of other reasons.” He said in an affectionate way. “You know I want that whole list right?” Alex asked, his hand moving to wrap around Henry’s length now, his long fingers slowly moving up and down. He leaned in looking up at Henry as he ran his tongue up the underside of the blond’s cock. “Please?” he asked after flicking his tongue over the tip.

Henry’s breathing was shuddering, just at the touches, the lick making him gasp as he reached down, tangling his fingers into Alex’s dark curls. “Well right now the top of the list is what you do with that pretty mouth.” The sound that left Henry as he finished that sentence was almost like a laugh, but the end turned into a moan. One Henry just didn’t quite manage to stifle as he felt Alex’s mouth on him. Alex pulled his head back slowly, “Please do keep going.” He said, before dipping his head back down, wrapping his lips around Henry’s cock. His hand held the base of the blond’s length, just for steadiness. At this point, Alex was just slowly bobbing his head as he kept sucking, teasing with the tip of his tongue some. He did live for any compliment Henry could possibly throw at him, but he also lived for the way he felt his boyfriend’s cock get harder and harder in his mouth. It made him give the softest hum against the sensitive skin which only served to make Henry’s brain fuzzier.

“Uhm..” Henry tangled his fingers tighter in Alex’s hair, his eyes locked at the site in front of him. Some days he still couldn’t get over that boy being his, and today was one of them. Alex’s eyes looking back up at him, made Henry remember he’d started to speak, “Uh,” he started again, “I.. love those curls they’re lovely,” he said almost playfully as his fingers tugged Alex’s hair. He was certain he’d meant to say something more romantic, but he did notice Alex smiling up at him anyway. “Not to, sound incredibly shallow, but you do look.. so fucking good doing that.” Henry panted softly. Alex was slowly pulling his head up, pulling back with a soft ‘pop’, “I don’t care how shallow you sound baby, I know how deep you can get when you want to.” The way he said that made it obvious there was more than one meaning, and if the tone alone didn’t, the grin and the playful wink he shot Henry certainly did.

“You’re.. obscene.” Henry said, smiling so wide down at Alex. Alex was leaning back in, wrapping his lips back around Henry’s cock and bobbing his head a few quick times, letting Herny gasp at that, before pulling back just enough to (attempt to) speak. It was bad, a muffled garbled sputter. “Yhour thdick s’litherlee en mah moufth.” He waited for Henry to look at him, mouth agape and eyes wide. Alex just doing his BEST not to laugh before going back to sucking, bobbing his head a few more times. It was enough to silence Henry. Honestly, Alex was just so happy that it seemed like Henry’s mind was a million miles away from what had been bothering him earlier. After a bit more of the soft moans and the soft noises of Alex keeping steady work, Henry’s fingers tugging those dark curls, Alex pulled back again. “You wanna fuck me?” he asked grinning up at Henry, looking delighted to ask. “Maybe it’ll be easier to list all the things you love about me with your dick in me instead of in my mouth.” He encouraged.

Henry couldn’t help but laugh softly, leaning down so he could give Alex a kiss. His hands resting on Alex’s cheeks as he gave the brunette a slow, rather sloppy kiss. It thrilled Alex when Henry got messy like that, and he leaned closer, his own tongue playing with Henry’s until Henry broke that kiss. “Yes dear,” Henry whispered against Alex’s lips. “I love you,” he followed immediately after, “You are the sweetest, cutest man, in the whole world, and I’m.. so lucky you’re mine.” He knew Alex was trying to cheer him up and it was working, incredibly well. Partly because, Alex was good at it, partly because the idea of Alex trying so hard in itself was an incredible feeling. “I love you too,” Alex whispered up at Henry, “And I’m lucky you’re mine too, but, you didn’t get out of giving me more compliments that easily.” He teased, standing up then and taking Henry’s hand, “Come on,” he said tugging him toward the bed.

“Hold on, hold on, the door.” Henry said, padding over and locking the door before walking back toward where Alex stood impatiently, already chewing at the plastic seal on that new lube, tugging it open with his teeth and then removing the rest. It made Henry chuckle as he reached down, lifting Alex’s shirt, and tugging it off. “You could be carved out of marble,” Henry hummed, running his fingertips over Alex’s chest, smiling as his fingers traced those muscles there. “Nuh uh, not pale enough.” Alex teased, “But keep going.” “Well,” Henry tilted his head before he undid Alex’s jeans, “Most of the sculptures that we have in viewable conditions today were found in-“ “Babe,” Alex gave the blond a look, “I meant compliment me, not give me an art lesson.” He teased, despite once again just being happy Henry was fixated on something else.

Henry was getting those jeans down by now, using one foot to hold them on the ground as he helped Alex step out of them. “Right, sorry, would you rather me tell you how big your cock is?” Henry teased, his fingertips snaking into Alex’s underwear, pushing it down as well, and pulling Alex’s hips closer so he stepped out of those as well. “Absolutely,” Alex said very seriously, “Or how perfect my ass is? I mean your art lessons are great baby, but not right now.” He teased as he leaned in to give Henry a soft kiss. “Noted,” Henry whispered into that kiss as his hand wrapped around Alex’s cock now, slowly stroking up and down. “You should let me put it in my throat while I warm you up.”

“Well, if you insist, who am I to refuse?” Alex almost laughed, stealing another kiss and then moving to get back on the bed. “Want me to get a pillow or something?” He asked looking at Henry crawling onto the bed with him. “If you want darling, whatever makes you comfortable I do prefer you on your back though.” He said already picking up the lube Alex had opened. Alex nodded and grabbed a pillow, shoving it under himself, sliding it down his back until it reached just the right angle to make it a bit easier for Henry.

Henry was opening the lube, getting a bit on his fingers and applying some between Alex’s cheeks. He was getting just a bit more on his fingers before using them to massage Alex’s entrance, and then slowly pushing two inside. His eyes darted up to Alex’s face immediately, checking for approval. Alex nodded to Henry, his lips lightly parted in a silent moan. It wasn’t that Alex wasn’t used to it, they switched it up often enough, but it had been a few days since Alex had bottomed. “It’s good baby,” Alex almost whispered, “I’m so fucking hard, you could do anything to me right now.” It  was true, Alex could already feel himself clench against Henry’s fingers. He could feel those waves of heat running through his body, his skin prickling like needles.

“I can tell.” Henry almost hummed, his fingers beginning to work into Alex, pumping them steadily as he leaned a bit lower on the bed. His free hand wrapped around Alex’s cock and slowly moved up and down, only for a moment before he wrapped his lips around it. “Fuck,” Alex immediately cursed, one hand moving down to run through Henry’s hair, messing up that neat combover. Those lips and those fingers together were already driving him insane as he leaned up just a bit to watch Herny. The blond was moving his fingers a bit faster, steadily pumping both of them into Alex. Every so often he would curl them, making Alex’s hips jerk in response, earning himself the most desperate moans from the brunette. Henry was bobbing his head continuously, his free hand sort of held the base of Alex’s cock, but between his thumb and index finger, his palm flat on the other man’s skin. Almost every time he would bob his head, Alex felt the back of Henry’s throat. Plush lips moving all the way down to press against where Henry’s on fingers rested at the base. Occasionally, like when Alex’s hips jerked, the blond would give a light gag, but overall he had this mastered.

The thought briefly crossed Alex’s mind, now just like every other blowjob, that he had never loved and hated anything nearly as much as experiencing what Henry had learned at boarding school. It was.. perfect, mind-blowing, every time. Just the right amount of suction, and Alex could never recall feeling teeth, just.. tongue. There was some underlying jealousy that Alex felt about it, it was too good for him to be okay with anyone else having ever experienced it; he wanted Henry to be all his. As per usual, the small sting of jealousy, only drove him. “More.” Alex panted, his fingers tugging Henry’s hair for effect, “Like now, like fuck me, if I don’t get your dick in the next five minutes, I’m going to go crazy.”

Henry’s eyes looked up, as he hummed a soft ‘Mhm’ in response. Though all he did was push a third finger into Alex, pumping them faster almost immediately. He kept up the work with his mouth, constant and eager, his own eyes fluttering shut every so often in just such a worked up way. He could hear Alex making those desperate noises, he could feel the hips squirming under his touch, every time he curled his fingers he heard a chorus of curses and hisses. Alex, did not let five minutes pass before he sat up, “Holy.. shit, come here.” He panted, letting Henry look up in mild confusion as Alex gabbed those broad shoulders. “Now, I need it now, fuck, you’re taking forever.”

Large hands moved Henry up, and then back, so that he was laying flat on the bed, looking up at the brunette over him. Now would have usually been where Henry chastised Alex for impatience, but the most loving smile was plastered on Henry’s face; today it was endearing. In a strange way it felt like Alex had absorbed all of his frustrations and was acting them out for him. That train of thought ended soon enough as Alex straddled Henry’s hips, one hand reaching behind himself, taking a hold of Henry’s cock and positioning himself over it.

“Ah ah, wait,” Henry scolded now, “Lube,” he said grabbing the bottle and offering it to Alex. “Don’t hurt yourself darling.” It was a soft, paternal tone that the blond used. “I’ve done it before. I’d be fine.” Alex grumbled, despite taking the lube, opening the bottle and getting a bit more. Grumblings aside, he knew Henry was right; if he didn’t listen, he’d be the one complaining later. “You would not be fine, and you know I’m right.” Henry couldn’t help but smile as he looked at Alex, applying more lube to the both of them.

“Alright alright daddy, I get it.” Alex rolled his eyes as he closed the bottle of lube and dropped it aside, reaching back behind himself to line himself up with Henry’s cock again now. “Careful,” Henry cooed with the softest gasp as Alex began to slip down onto his length. “You know that pet name doesn’t have the antagonizing effect that you intend it to.” He managed a steady voice for that, but his breathing immediately shook as Alex finished sliding entirely down onto him. “Yeah daddy?” Alex asked it with a grin as he leaned up some, resting his hands on Henry’s chest as he began to bounce then. “You like how I ride your dick, daddy?” he was doubling up on it just to provoke even more now. “You are, such a brat.” Henry panted, his hands running up Alex’s arms, before he leaned up on one elbow, just to reach and rest his hand on Alex’s hips. His hand was trying to guide the other man’s hips, rocking his own hips up to meet each of Alex’s motions. “But yes.” He panted, looking up at the brunette. “I love how you feel on my cock. You take it so good for me, baby.”

Alex’s lips spread into a grin, nodding down at Henry, and watching that hand try to guide his hips. “Oh you want me to go faster huh? Now you’re the impatient one? You gotta learn how to be patient, daddy.” His tone was teasing, as he kept bouncing, but then purposefully slowing down to just grind against Henry’s hips now. “Oh my god,” Henry groaned, half in pleasure half in annoyance. “You’re demonic.” He panted, “Actually where is that..” Henry was looking aside, glancing at that drawer beside their bed. “You wouldn’t.” Alex teased. “Watch me.” Henry shot back, taking the hand off Alex’s hip and leaning over, just a bit, not enough to disrupt Alex at all but enough to pull that bedside drawer open. He had to strain his arm some, patting around in that drawer until he finally pulled out that riding crop, holding it up with a grin of his own. It was a silent threat, but Alex was the exact opposite of scared.

“I thought I was a deviant for suggesting that belonged anywhere other than around horses.” Alex teased, so clearly pleased with himself for getting Henry this far. “Well, when you’re training a stallion for riding, sometimes, you have to break out the equipment to do so,” Henry almost purred it, reaching up to put the tip of that crop under Alex’s chin, playfully pushing there. “Are you going to make me use it?” “I don’t think you’re supposed to call boys stallions Henry,” Alex quipped, almost immediately, that grin still plastered on his face. “Oh, you are impossible!” Henry scolded, “A stallion is /literally/ a male horse!” he said before leaning up just enough to pop Alex’s ass with that riding crop. “Will you just fucking ride me!” Alex did yelp at that initial pop before giving such a bratty giggle, “Yes daddy, sorry.” He purred in a way that was not at all sorry. He placed both hands on Henry’s chest then, partly for balance, partly as a power play, before going back to bouncing again, faster this time.

“So much better..” Henry panted, nodding to Alex then, taking that crop and giving one of Alex’s thighs a pop, “Keep going.” He cooed. Alex gave a little gasp at that second pop, but looked down at Henry with such a hungry expression, he was bouncing.. so much faster now. Enough that both of them were a moaning mess, both of their breathing so ragged. “So, you just needed some encouragement?” Henry teased, leaning just a bit to pop Alex’s ass with that crop again, “Do you like this thing?” he asked. Alex gasped at that pop, but nodded, “So fucking much, it’s hot, like you’re reminding me to do my job, keep doing it.” He moaned, his head falling back some as he kept up his pace. “You’re so fucking deep. Fuck, I love your dick baby,” as Alex spoke his hands were almost groping at Henry’s broad chest, massaging over the blond’s pecs.

“It is your job baby,” Henry hummed, leaning up to pop Alex’s ass a few more times with that crop “It’s your job to get my cock off today.” He pulled his hand back, and gave Alex’s thighs a few more little pops, smiling so wide as the redness appeared. “The red hearts are so pretty on your skin baby.” His tone was almost loving despite how desperate he sounded. Alex was slowing down again now, just grinding against Henry, who gave an audible whine at it. “Just give me a second, I’ll get back to it, it’s not like it’s a super short dick for me to bounce on babe.” Alex teased. “Oh I know,” Henry whined, “And you’re an angel but, I’m… way too horny for this.” He said leaning up, and grabbing Alex, tugging him down, and then immediately rolling the both of them over, so he was on top. Alex gasped, partly at being shoved around, but partly at the feeling of Henry’s cock sliding back into him once he was on his back. “So deep daddy,” Alex almost whined. “You want me bad, huh?” He was wrapping his arms around Henry now, who was taking one of Alex’s legs, pushing it up as he pressed his hips tighter against the brunette.

“So, so fucking bad.” Henry whispered, steadying himself a bit before starting to thrust up into Alex. Both of them were moaning out immediately, and both of them definitely sounded so desperate at this point. Henry was getting a bit faster already, Alex wrapping his arms around Henry neck this time, pulling him in closer. “Fuck me daddy,” Alex panted, a grin still on his lips. His free hand reaching to grab that riding crop and before Henry could even notice he swung it down, popping Henry’s ass with it once. “Harder daddy,” Alex groaned as Henry gave a wide eyed gasp. Alex took his opportunity to swing down another hit with that crop, “Come on daddy, harder.” He teased. “You were so stressed earlier, you’ve got to take it all out on me.”

Henry did gasp again at those hits, but he couldn’t help but give his own devilish grin down at Alex, “Yeah? You need daddy to give it to you harder?” he whispered, his lips brushing Alex’s. “Please.” Alex whispered back, giving a nod and then letting his mouth fall open as Henry did get rougher. Fast, deep, almost slamming up into Alex, who could only really hold on and take it. He felt chills run up his body as those thrusts got so deep inside of him. “Fuck, yes daddy.” Alex almost whimpered. He took one hand off of Henry’s shoulders, reaching between them and wrapping his fingers around his own cock.

“Oh is it that good?” Henry panted, leaning himself up some, just to look between them, “You’re so fucking hot.” His voice was husky, low, and just a bit condescending. It was a tone Alex had gotten to hear fairly often since they’d got together, and fuck, he loved it. Part of why he loved it was because he knew he was the only one Henry spoke to that way. It was all his, Henry was all his. Almost as if that thought resonated Alex shifted the leg Henry had lifted, wrapping it around Henry’s hips now. “You’re gonna make me cum.” Alex panted, his eyes fluttering up to Henry’s face, “Please don’t stop,” the pleading came naturally, he was way too far gone to see that there was no chance of Henry stopping anytime soon.

“Let me see it baby,” Henry panted, in such a breathy voice, “Cum for me,” his own voice desperate but once again paternal. Between that tone, and the way Henry was hitting so deep inside of him, that was it, Alex felt that snap. His own hand still stroking his cock so fast right up until the last second. His head back as his body arched instinctively, mouth open, and curls a mess by this point, cheeks red, it was a sight to behold. Long ropes of white streaked up Alex’s stomach and chest, with each stroke of his hand, and each shove of Henry’s hips. “Fuck yes baby, fuck me, fuck me.” Alex whined as he rode it out, his hand still tugging the last few drops of that orgasm from his cock, as a low whimper took over.

That visual, was all it took for Henry, how could he possibly need more? Even if he didn’t, the feeling of Alex clenching against him as he rode out that orgasm certainly would have been enough. Those last few pushes he was giving Alex over the edge were the same ones where he spilled into the brunette. His hips rocking against Alex as he rode out his own orgasm, lips open, breathing so ragged as he kept his eyes on the man under him. “God, I fucking love you,” Alex panted, catching his breath finally, coming down from his high. His hand finally moving away from his own cock as he glanced at the mess over his chest, “Fuck you made me cum so hard.” He said with a little laugh.

Henry was nodding in agreement, swallowing hard to catch his own breath. “I love you too.” He said in a pant, leaning in just a bit closer, careful not to press his chest against Alex’s as he gave the brunette a slow soft kiss. “You made a mess.” He whispered against Alex’s lips. “I did, sorry daddy.” Alex said with feigned sincerity, his hand resting on Henry’s jaw, his thumb stroking over the blond’s cheek until Henry broke the kiss.

“It’s alright darling,” Henry hummed, “Let daddy clean you up.” It was a soft, almost playful tone, but that didn’t mean that Henry wasn’t shifting so that he slipped out of Alex. The sensation made Alex almost whine, cursing under his breath. But Henry was leaning down, beginning to lick at the cum on Alex’s chest. He dragged his tongue over each stripe, slow, and careful, giving the softest hum as he did. Alex couldn’t help but lean up, looking down at Henry as he watched the blond move down lower. Henry licked over Alex’s abs, even over the last few drops that clung to the fuzz on Alex’s stomach. After he’d finished that, gotten every drop, Henry paused where he was, looking up at Alex and opening his mouth slightly, displaying the cum he’d collected there.

“Oh, you’re.. so fucking dirty baby,” Alex laughed, a grin on his lips. “That taste good?” he teased. But Henry only closed his lips, giving a soft ‘mhm’ in response, Alex noting that he didn’t see Henry swallow. The blond moved down even more now, spreading Alex’s legs and moving between them. Within seconds, Alex felt Henry’s tongue on him again, and he gasped leaning up a little to try and watch. He didn’t want to disrupt, but he desperately wanted to see what he felt. Henry’s tongue, between the Alex’s cheeks, hands spreading gently as he licked the cum dripping from Alex’s entrance.

“Holy.. shit.” Alex almost gasped, “I.. can’t believe you’re doing that.” At this point, he’d learned Henry was filthier than his ‘outside of the bedroom’ demeanor let on, but occasionally the prince surprised him. “I think it’s hot though,” Alex clarified after a moment, giving a soft gasp as he felt Herny’s tongue give a few deep licks, before the blond pulled back. Henry moved up now, crawling his way back up and over Alex’s body. Once they were face to face, Henry reached one hand to grab Alex’s jaw, lining their faces up, his thumb brushing over Alex’s bottom lip, like tugging it. Immediately catching on, Alex opened his mouth, even sticking his tongue out a bit for the other man. Alex’s mouth was open, and Henry leaned in close, so their mouths were maybe half an inch apart, before slowly spitting the contents of his mouth into Alex’s. He didn’t give Alex time to swallow, immediately crushing their lips together, Henry’s tongue pushing it’s way into Alex’s mouth.

Their tongues were brushing against each other, teasing, and twisting, both of them tangling hands into each other’s hair; and both of them moaning into those kisses. Finally, Henry did his best to ‘scoop’ some of their mixture onto his tongue before slowly breaking the kiss, and just locking his eyes on Alex’s as he swallowed the contents of his own mouth now. “We taste, so fucking good together.” Alex was swallowing the rest in his mouth himself, trying not to look too shocked at Henry. It was a good shock, not a bad one and the last thing he wanted to do was discourage this behavior. “So good baby.” Alex said in a pant, leaning up and giving Henry another messy kiss, breaking it slowly after a moment. “That was so hot.” Alex whispered against the blond’s lips.

“Was it?” Henry asked, nodding, “Good, I hoped you’d be into it.” He said with a soft smile, “Another reason you’re perfect.” He hummed. “Oh, so into it,” Alex nodded eagerly, “Like.. kind of made me horny, into it. Like.. maybe we should have some lunch and then go again kind of horny?” he asked in a playful way. “Ugh,” Henry groaned, his eyes half fluttering, “Absolutely, I’m starving, you.. really are perfect.” He cooed, leaning in and giving Alex one more kiss before moving to the side, shifting so he was laying beside Alex, resting one hand on the brunette’s chest, his cheek against Alex’s shoulder. “Thank you, for this, today, really.” He said kissing Alex’s shoulder once. “I needed it, and you couldn’t have been more perfect.” He said smiling.

“You’re wrong actually.” Alex said, looking at Henry, who arched a brow, giving a confused look. “I brought home like a dozen cake pops from Starbucks actually.” Alex clarified. “My god..” Henry said softly, “I was wrong.” He said with a serious nod, before smiling, leaning up and giving Alex a soft kiss. “I love you,” he hummed into that kiss. “I love you too.” Alex whispered against Henry’s lips.

[foone]

As the person I follow who does reverse engineering, do you have any suggestions for finding resources on reverse engineering Android apps?

Specifically, there's an app I'm playing with, where after seeing the structure of the "export as Markdown" output I want to know what the internal structure and representation of the data is. The end goal of understanding it is to be able to add certain kinds of data dynamically, rather than up front. That's certainly doable typing in raw markdown, but being able to do it "app style" would be more convenient.

The google Play Store entry does not mention any open source licenses, or looking for the source code and hopefully a git repo or something would have been my first step.

(I'll probably need to bang together a crappy app to do what I really want regardless, but maybe this app's data structure would be more convenient than doing so with markdown.)

So, android stuff:

First you need the APK. You can do some trickery with your phone to pull it over the ADB connection if you install the android SDK, but generally I just google "app name APK" and you'll find some greymarket site that'll give you a copy.

Secondly, APKs are just ZIP files (JAR files, technically, but JAR files are also just ZIP files!). Unzip them and you can find lots of interesting stuff, often.

For disassembling/decompiling them, my go-to program is jadx. It's a java decompiler that's been around a while and can natively open APK files and decompile them. There's some weirder new APKs that it can't handle (something to do with a newer bytecode revision, I think?) but I can't recall the details on how you handle those. Those are rare, in my experience. jadx is pretty good, but you'll occasionally find methods or entire classes that it just can't figure out, and it'll give you a bytecode dump. I don't yet have a good solution for those, other than "get good at reading JVM bytecode".

If you're dealing with games, another useful thing can be UABE and dotPeek. These are unity/C# tools, but you would be surprised how many android games (and non-games!) are actually unity under the hood.

Bluestacks can also be useful, because it'll let you run the app on your desktop and that can be handy for things like running WireShark to log all network traffic.

Speaking of logging, the other handy thing I've done is enabling android developer mode on my phone to get to one specific option: Bluetooth HCI snoop log.

Now, actually getting that log is tricky and varies from phone to phone, because for some reason manufacturers like to move it around, but it's one of the best ways to reverse engineer bluetooth communication stuff. You basically turn on the log and everything your phone does to communicate with your Smart Toothbrush or whatever will be logged to a file, then you can yank that file over and stuff it into Wireshark.

So... hopefully some of that is a helpful start? I've not done a huge amount of Android reversing so I'm not super familiar with the tools used, but these are the ones I've got on hand for when I do.

also sorry for all the horny robotgirl posters who saw "android reverse engineering" in the tags and thought this was gonna be about taking them apart with screwdrivers and rooting around in their insides. Not today!

[t00thpasteface]

hey sorry i’m sure it’s a little dumb but how did you find a community/make mutuals on here? i swapped from twitter to here last year & haven’t been able to make friends like i did on twitter ;v; sorry if this is all silly but figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. love your art & blog !!!

as i like to say, it's like lifting an anvil: it's very simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy. as someone who's a 12+ year veteran that lurked for a couple years and remade a little while ago, really it all comes down to putting yourself out there!!! don't just sit around twiddling your thumbs and lurking. it's tough to do it without coming off as a pandering tryhard, but honestly as long as you're polite, upbeat, and posting regularly, then you're golden.

if you want a big list of wordy bullet points, here's what i've got, and i think you'll find it's pretty applicable to basically any site/community you want to get involved in:

post a lot. this is number one with a fucking bullet! POST! POST LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT. but crucially...

post GOOD STUFF. don't bash yourself in the caption/tags, don't say "sorry this is shit" or whatever, don't self-deprecate, and don't admit to posting low-effort stuff just to hit a quota. imagine it's open mic night and go crazy. this is a good site to use like a journal and a scrapbook, but if you want to actually get some traction, you need to bring something interesting to the table. of course, just being funny and nice goes a very long way.

encourage audience feedback. people LOVE to tell you about themselves and give their opinions. get them responding and make the questions and calls for engagement so interesting or fun they can't help themselves.

tag effectively. use both fandom/content tags for searches, and organizational tags for your visitors' use. the tagging system is tumblr's bread and butter, so make it work for you.

follow a lot of blogs you like. then see who they follow, and add those to the list. build a good circle of engagement and keep your finger on the pulse of the site culture for whatever niche(s) you're in... or want to get in.

reblog a lot and be funny/kind in the tags. generally leaving a lot of comments/replies to post is kind of hit-or-miss, but tags are a good harmless "inside voice" to use that doesn't clutter the post itself and yet still engages with op and people seeing the post

engage with people when they ask for engagement. things like polls, ask games, etc... scratch people's backs and they'll scratch yours. and it's just a nice thing to do regardless :)

panhandling is not always the best route. people will balk if you look desperate or openly beg for engagement, like directly asking people to reblog something or being passive-aggressive about how much engagement you are/aren't getting on something. a genuine joke about it is fun and relatable, but snarky comments just kill the vibe and scare people off.

REMEMBER THERE'S NO ALGORITHM. lurking will not put you or any of the stuff you like out there!! REBLOG POSTS! SEND ASKS! this site will NOT SPOON FEED YOU ANYTHING. like taming a wild stallion, you can make this work for you, but you have to put in the effort first.

some people will think you're annoying, and that's okay. probably not very many, but they'll be loud. this is an unavoidable part of Being Known. you can be the sweetest peach in the world but there'll still be people who just don't like peaches. don't take it to heart, and if you do happen to drop the ball or rub a few people the wrong way, don't let that keep you from trying again :)

i've enjoyed the many friends i've made on this site in the past decade-and-then-some, even though both this site and my blog are both something of a ship of theseus. here's hoping you can make it work for you and your interests, too!

[veryace-ficrecs]

Xedgin Fic Recs Part 1

This list will include all ratings and tags, so read at your own discretion! :)

Click Here for general recs

and Here for Part two of my Xedgin recs!

he loves me, he loves me not by phiroths - Rated T

“What?” Edgin’s response was snarky, carefree with a hint of annoyance as he ties his last knot of his gift of golden strings to his aging instrument.

Doric sighs, her attitude shifting, “Ed, he keeps buying you stuff. They’re not even things you can use on quests or something, they’re specifically designed for you. They’re tokens.” Her explanation is slow as if it’s common sense that flew over his head.

He snorts, testing his lute and tuning it accordingly. “Okay? It’s not a bad thing, they’re great tokens, and it’s even better since he doesn’t expect anything in retuーoh shit.”

A note came out flat under his fingers.

Edgin was being courted.

Fuck.

It's Him Again by Triss_Hawkeye - Rated G

  Edgin is finally feeling at ease, which is instantly interrupted when a familiar figure enters the tavern. 

tenets of devotion by weatheredlaw - Rated E

Ed leaned forward and put his head in his hands. “This is ridiculous. You know that, right?”

“Eh, I think you’ve done weirder things.”

“Weirder than marrying a paladin and infiltrating a cult together?”

Holga shrugged. “You’ve done a lot of weird things. Don’t make me list them all.”

or: xenk needs edgin's help to take down a cult. absolutely nothing can go wrong. right?

Braided Threads by stele3 - Rated M

“Xenk?”

Turning, Xenk watched Edgin enter the stables at a jog, then stumble to a halt. He looked at Xenk’s face and visibly blanched. It had been some time since he had done thus; Xenk could hardly blame him. The mark on his forehead had caused so many to recoil from him over the years.

“Nice, uh, nice horse,” Edgin said after a moment.

“Greetings, Edgin Darvis,” Tyr said aloud.

“Nice talking horse.”

Xenk wiped tears from his face. “Edgin, I present to you my god: Tyr, the Sword Above the Clouds, Keeper of the Door.”

“Your god is a horse?”

Beckoning Life by Mirach - Rated T

  When Xenk learns that Edgin was hurt and needs him, he rushes to him hoping to help with his healing touch. But healing is not effective against a wound caused by a Red Wizard Blade and Xenk has to face his own demons to be able to save Edgin. 

We can burn much brighter (if we don't look back) by enchantedsleeper

- Rated T

  Xenk learns that Sofina tried to unleash the Beckoning Death on Neverwinter, and grapples with the fact that his past almost repeated itself while he was too far away to help. Restless and unable to sleep, he goes for a walk, and finds that he's not the only one struggling to come to terms with recent events. 

Not If It's You by G_Moore - Rated G

NO SUMMARY - TAGS

touch-starved xenk

touchy edgin

Fluff

not even quite romance

maybe romance eventually

half your life (you've been hooked on death) by roundtriptojupiter - Rated T

Almost six months after the events of Honor Among Thieves, Xenk shows up on Edgin's doorstep. 

if you get lost, i'll hold your hand by yourstrulytay - Rated T

If you get lost, take my hand and I will guide you.

The words keep swirling around in Edgin’s head, and he’s unsure as to why he can’t seem to get them to stop.

He almost wants to ask further questions; get clarification on why the paladin had felt the need to even say such a thing.

It’s- not bothering him, per se, but it definitely- okay well, bothering him a lot, actually.

Does he seem so helpless? Do they all? He knows their group is somewhat ragtag, all of them pieces belonging to different puzzles, but they all have their strengths. They won’t need help from some big, dumb, strong, handsome-

Nope. No. Ed’s not going there, thank you very much. He’s annoyed at the paladin, not attracted to him.

or, the three times that Xenk holds Edgin's hand for totally platonic reasons and the one time it's absolutely not for platonic reasons

  it's always darkest (before the dawn) by puffvisionary - Rated G

Xenk is not the type of person you can expect to come home every evening, a tired smile on his face and a request for a hug on his lips. He's not the type to step through the threshold of their home and shake off the heroic. His dedication and single-minded focus to his oath doesn't come on or off along with his shiny breastplate.

Edgin knows this, understands this, and accepts this.

That does not mean he's ready for the day when Xenk comes home without any recollection of him, of them, of what they have.

Well, shit.

Touching in the Dark by Bestbuds55 - Rated T

Edgin isn't the biggest fan of Xenk Yendar, but that is obvious to everyone. Well, except maybe Xenk himself. 

Odd Little Family by hollyjolly_42 - Rated T

"Kira found it practical to believe that her father would someday remarry, and even more so to believe that it would be to the woman who was already a trusted, guiding figure to his child.

Therefore, it was much to her surprise when a tall, handsome man interrupted her lute practice to ask her blessing in his proposal to her father."

Someone Lit From Within by BlackEyedGirl - Rated T

Edgin takes a detour when he realises they're near Mornbryn’s Shield. Xenk brings him along on a side-quest and the two of them have a number of enlightening conversations. (Holga has some concerns) 

Solitary Burdens by cupiscent - Rated T

Edgin's wife died years ago, but he's only just now letting go. He can't talk about it with any of the others, but Xenk - aggravatingly - understands. Perhaps neither of them need to carry these burdens alone.

Windows XP love confession by veryace - Rated G

  It wasn't common for Ed to wake up in an unfamiliar place, but it also wasn't uncommon. He had his fair share of unfamiliar bedrooms and houses in his years of barding before he found Zia. It was, however, his first time waking up in a seemingly endless field, with no landmarks to help him figure out where he was.

[compassionatereminders]

I know it may seem weird to you, but people do look to this blog for advice and support. Especially with the general lack of mental health support there is globally, this blog does provide a sort of safe space for healing.

Think about all of the influencers out there that will give out advice/life philosophies, that will end up being misinformed at best or can actually be toxic or hurtful if actually followed.

Which is why finding a good self help blogs id different. Generally if people feel lost in life, self help blogs are a safe place where you can rely on positive advice and support, so there can be at least one place people can feel safe to go towards when they need help figuring life out.

Which is also why people speak out when they start seeing kink stuff and talk about drug use on their feed lol but you’re a person so you can express yourself however you want on your blog.

I think really the point of all of this is just to let you know that people don’t really think of you the way you generally think and feel about yourself (unless you only look for those that think of you the way you think about yourself, in which case I hope you think positively about yourself!)

I'm happy when my blog helps someone, but I cannot stress enough how much y'all have zero right to "speak up" if I dare to post something you personally don't approve of. You get to dislike it. You get to filter the content you're not interested in (all mentions of drug use and kink are tagged consistently), or even unfollow me. But you don't get to tell me what to post.

[sothischickshe]

I was tagged by @bourbon-ontherocks (ty! 💛💛💛) to answer 20 questions for writers:

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

21!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

278,245

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The only fandom I've ever published fic for is good girls

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Bringing down the neighbourhood

waiting for someone who needs me🧞

What a sight to see🧛🏻

(a) time to kill

yourself and others

I'm not sure the middle 3 would def be there were it not for the anon kudos bombing but w/e it's nice having some single chapter fics in the top 5 🤘

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! 🥺🥺🥺

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

A time to refrain (from embracing) methinks!

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Both installments of the Are you afraid or is it true series are pretty fluffy. Maybe the second part (Through the park and by the tree) wins out? 🤔

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not generally. There was someone in the gg fandom leaving mean bookmark notes tho 🙄🗑️

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. What are the kinds? 👀

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I haven't, and I don't imagine I would?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, not that I'm aware of. It could be interesting to see how it would go!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes actually, as kids me and a friend co-wrote a tortall 'verse crackfic.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Ooof. Maybe spuffy? That met me at a very formative time of my life, and I didn't expect it to become so canon (as opposed to like under a spell etc) and I think that experience really reshaped my brain 🤯🤯🤯 but fundamentally faves questions are immoral thus this is a very rude question.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I hope I'll finish all of them, and do intend to! I'm not sure I'll ever write the hilarious abortion fic tho.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Mm, a love of language/interesting prose. A love of brevity/somewhat chiselled sentences. A love of editing/willingness to improve. Interesting stories. Dialogue, tho brio get little bc theyre annoying. Characterisation!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Well I violently dislike plot. I don't feel super strong on creating original characters. I'm slow! I'd rather let things be confusing than beat readers over the head with info, which I think can be detrimental. I wouldnt say my descriptions are super strong, though I think they've improved a lil. Sometimes there's too much internal monologue at a go which breaks up the pacing of an eg dialogue scene (though again think that's improved somewhat). My love of planning and love of pantsing are at constant war lol, I get grumpiest abt stuff not having been established earlier and thus needing to state things which couldve been well demonstrated. Blocking, sometimes. I love short stories and oneshots but I'm apparently prone to writing long fics & continuing things into series which I consider a real weakness, lol.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I'm not against it in principle, I've read a lot of books which contain a lot of eg French or Spanish (often untranslated). We've got access to Google translate or w/e right? I do appreciate it when translations are provided bc lazy (and I think Ao3 does poss let you do hyperlinked superscript?). I feel the same way abt it in fic as in other media I think -- if you're happy for it to be a bonus to those that understand and everyone else needs to work to figure it out, I concur. If you think it needs to be understood, then providing translations (even if just as notes @ the end) makes sense.

But I also think pls don't write it via Google translate... If u don't speak the language/don't have someone who can help u translate it, don't write dodgy shite Spanish or w/e 🙈 not everything needs to be literal dialogue u can just say 'he explained to his grandmother abt the change in plans' or w/e I swear

...o wait I'm guessing the q meant me as a writer not reader 🤦 I don't think I've done much of it? Altho I do always seem to imply that every character speaks French, a language I don't really speak so who the hell knows 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Published for: good girls. Wrote for hmmm I guess tortall books maybe? 🧓🤷🏼‍♀️

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Ooof, immoral question! Let's say upon your ignorance (and the gray despair) of your ugly life tho bc every time I remember I wrote a fic where rio & Dean swap bodies I giggle 😂 there's so much abt this fic which is very funny to specifically me teehee

Tagging🔖🔖🔖🔖🔖: @hereliesbb @nakedmonkey @nottonyharrison @inyoursheets @bensonstablers @blizabrth @delicatelingon & U right in the middle of your forehead if u wanna play 😚🎯