#hes my little guy. my crusty senior.

[sunjoys]

my boy <3🐰

[trashmouth-richie]

TWIN FLAMES

Eddie Munson x female!reader

“You and I we are embers from the same fire, dust from the same star, echoes of the same love.” -Craig Crippen

Summary: Your boyfriend Steve is everything you’ve ever wanted. Handsome, kind, a great lover. Nothing could ever stray you away from him. Or is there?

<w/c> 5.7k (1/??)

Pairing: Steve Harrington x y/n female!reader Eddie Munson x y/n female!reader Vickie x Robin

Warnings: underage alcohol use, drug use, fighting, mentions of child abuse, mentions of murder.

A/N: happy saturday, this is a first ever fic for me! Like everyone on the planet, I am obsessed with Eddie Munson, I’m nervous very nervous to be posting this! But feedback is greatly appreciated! Also shout/out to @boomhauer for reading this and giving me advice ❤️‍🔥

knock knock no vecna here ❗️his crusty ass does not exist in this fic and will never

masterlist

———————————————————————————

You and Steve Harrington have been dating since freshman year. Both of your dads went to Harvard together and you had known Steve since you were infants. Always together during the holidays and weekend trips to Indianapolis, your friendship blossomed into something more. He wasn’t always big hair and a cute ass in jeans, he was once a pimply preteen with a puberty voice and braces. But it didn’t matter, you loved him then and loved him now. Going into your senior year you couldn’t wait to graduate high school and leave Indiana behind with Steve by your side. You had both already talked about going to Harvard to follow in your parents footsteps. It was the perfect, ideal life you had always wanted. It was a safe option, And you were smitten.

Living in Bridgeport which is east of Hawkins about 15 miles and an even smaller town than Hawkins, you didn’t really know anyone besides Steve’s friends that went to Hawkins High. So when he picked you up on that hot July night to go to a party at some farm in Hawkins, you didn’t expect to meet anyone in particular.

“Steve can you please slow down, I’m going to poke my fucking eye out back here!” Robin yells from the backseat, Robin had been trying to achieve the perfect smoky eye look for the last 10 miles.

“Oh piss off Robin, Vickie will be too busy staring at your boobies to notice whether or not your eyeliner is even” Steve shoots back.

You stifle a giggle, their banter is something you miss during the school months when you’re dealing with the assholes at your school. Steve squeezes your thigh and gives you a wink before turning up the radio and singing along to REO Speedwagon.

“Hey did you guys hear that Susie and her family are moving to Hawkins?! I thought Dustin was going to lose his voice when he told me he was screaming so loud” you added through the car.

Steve turns the radio down and agrees, “yeah he was pretty excited, honestly I am too it’ll be nice to actually meet her instead of listening to him talk about her 24/7”.

“Fucking finally!” Robin says as Steve pulls up to the large nearly run down barn. Usually the parties you accompany Steve to are at his house but, both of your parents were there throwing a “Wine Club” party for the Hawkins elite. So Tommy Johnson, who must have been a senior like Steve, decided to have the pre holiday celebration at his parents abandoned barn. It made you feel a little uncomfortable drinking somewhere you’ve never been before. Both Steve and Robin assured you it was cool, Tommy’s parents were friends with the Hawkins Police and they never bothered to even check in.

Robin is the first out of the car before it’s even in park, she grabs her bottle of Boonesfarm from the trunk and makes her way over to where Vickie is dancing along to Michael Jackson. Before you can even unbuckle your seatbelt, Robin and Vickie are all over each other. You clear your throat to Steve pointing out Robin and Vickie. Steve rolls his eyes and laughs.

“She deserves to be happy, it took her a long time to find someone who wasn’t just using her for a one time experience”. A single tear wells up in his eyes and you can see how incredibly happy he is for his closest friend.

Robin truly is one of a kind. Taller than most girls and uniquely her own, Robin was sweet and your first friend from Hawkins outside of Steve. In the 4 years you’ve known her, she has never forgotten your birthday or your and Steve’s anniversary. You had heard of the awful things people would say to her knowing that she was different, the popular girls even accused her of staring and taking pictures of them in the locker rooms while changing for P.E. She was the town pariah until Vickie showed up, saving Robin in ways no one else could.

Slamming the door shut to the car and making your way over to Steve, you smile up at him as he wraps his arm around your waist walking into the Christmas light lit barn.

A mixture of gravel and loose dirt grating beneath your shoes is muffled as music begins pounding through your ears. The barn is crowded and sweltering, sweaty bodies are bopping along to the music. Beer is spilled all over the wooden splintered floor becoming puddled in places the old floor has been warped from use. Looking up seeing Steve wave to some familiar faces, you start to recognize a few people who are regulars at Steve’s parties.

Nancy and El are opposite Jonathan and Mike; a long makeshift table between them. The closer you get you notice the “table” is a door, ripped off its hinges and sitting atop two sawhorses. Red plastic cups filled to the brim with warm cheap beer are set in a triangle in front of the girls, only two cups missing. Across the table, four cups are arranged in no particular pattern in front of Jonathan and Mike. Clearly the girls are whooping their asses in beer pong.

“El! No powers, it's not fair!!” Mike yells removing another cup as Johnathan chugs one previously removed. El wipes her nose and high fives Nancy.

“Balls back bitches!” Nancy squeals, jumping up and down. You wave politely to the crew and they all hoot and holler back at you and Steve. Max and Lucas are standing hip to hip in a small crowd watching Max’s brother Billy do a keg stand and cheering and counting along,

“25, 26, 27….”

“That’s a fucking record Hargrove!” a tall red haired teen shouts holding his hands up to his mouth imitating a megaphone, a cigarette staggering between his fingers and ashes falling like snow to the ground.

The teens holding Billy’s legs set him down as he throws both arms up in the air like a boxer being announced champion. He leans his head back, hair sticky with sweat, eyes glossed over clearly the effects of another stimulant. He puckers his mouth as if to whistle but instead spits beer in the air towards the crowd. You watch as the girls in the crowd open their mouths to catch any fallen drips of beer from the atmosphere as if Billy is the second coming of Christ himself.

Steve gives you a look of disgust and rubs on your back and guides you both towards a beat up green patterned couch. You know Steve is not Billy’s biggest fan, only tolerating him because of Max, calling him an outright unhinged psycho. He frequented Steve’s parties and made his presence known by doing the infamous keg stands. Girls flocked to him, hoping to become his flavor of the night like he was a goddamn celebrity.

Careful not to sit on the exposed springs on the beat to shit couch, you scoot to the end of the couch, leaning against the side taking in the smells of dusty hay, weed, and spilled alcohol. Steve grabs you a beer before plopping down next to you throwing his arm around your shoulder. He leans into you and whispers “you’re the prettiest girl here y/n” in your ear before kissing your temple and blowing a raspberry into your ear. You squeal and dig your maroon painted fingers into his armpit knowing that’s his most ticklish spot. You both laugh and share a kiss, cuddled up as you watch the party and giggle as people start dancing terribly to ‘Thriller’.

“Oh shit, hey babe I’m gonna go talk to Tommy really quick, you okay here for a bit?” Steve whispers into your ear. You nod and he gets up, leaning down to give you a quick kiss on your lips.

“Be right back!” He says, as he saunters off through the crowd.

Tapping your foot along to the music, you take some long swigs of your beer. letting your mind wander. It's crazy to you how close you are to being a senior and how not soon after that you will be going to college with Steve. Both of your mothers had talked you both into getting senior pictures done together last month. It was a perfect cool June morning that day and you and Steve had on slightly matching outfits, light faded jeans with white button ups. Your mother was tearing up behind the photographer as Steve’s mother clung to her wiping her nose. You can’t believe how lucky you were to have Steve in your life. He was your first everything, boyfriend, kiss, you both were virgins before each other. It was perfect. You couldn’t wait to spend the rest of your life with Steve and to become Y/n Y/m/n Harrington.

Soon your beer is gone and Steve has left the sixer in the trunk. Looking around you spot another keg opposite where the one Billy and his cronies were. You get up making your way across the party lightly bumping into peoples shoulders and squeezing your way around a couple making out. Nobody is around the keg when you finally spot it. Eyeing a plastic cup you place the nozzle into it and begin pumping the tap on the keg— nothing happens. A small trickle of cream foam makes its way out of the nozzle falling into the cup like molasses. Well that settles why no one is around the keg.

Standing on a nearby crate you look around the barn for Steve. Shouldn’t be too hard, just need to find that perfect suave head of his, he isn’t called “the hair” because he uses Irish spring as shampoo. But to no avail, Steve is nowhere in site. You climb down from the crate and begin pushing your way back to the other keg Billy has claimed for himself. Walking through a dense cloud of weed smoke you hear someone singing “Free Bird” and two other voices giggling. Coughing a bit and nearing the keg, you hear Billy shouting at someone.

“Hey watch it dick!” Billy is now wearing a pink sweater? No wait, that’s a girl wrapped around him like a leech, her mouth still attached to his neck as he yells.

“What the fuck did you say to me Hargrove?” a guy in a green letterman jacket yells back.

“I said, watch where you’re throwing that tic tac you call dick around before I knock your ass out” Billy grunts pushing the girl off of him and stepping towards the other guy so that they are nose to nose. He is sweating profusely and wearing a big purple hickey where the human sucker fish girl was previously.

They are both staring at each other with looks that could kill. “Oh real—" the comeback is cut short by Billy as he leans back and throws a hard punch right into the other guy's jaw.

The guy stumbles backwards into his friends as he caresses his jaw. He stands to his full height and shoves Billy backwards. Everyone starts yelling and you realize you are in a compromised position. You aren’t sure how it happens but you are caught in the mix of the fight and before you know it, you get knocked backward, hard.

Your head connects with a loud thwack as it hits a wooden post extending upwards to support the old barn. Almost immediately you can feel the headache pumping through your eyeballs. Sitting up as the room begins to spin and touching the side of your head, you can feel a warm thick liquid beginning to pool on your shoulder. The cut feels small but since you have been drinking the blood comes quickly. Before you can even understand how to get out of the barn or to find Steve, arms come behind you and under your arms, helping you stand up and ushering you towards the door to outside.

“Move! Get the fuck out of the way!” The voice behind you says. You’re fading in and out. You suddenly feel the lightness of your body floating. A bed? No, a cloud has wrapped around you and is carrying you higher and higher to the sky. The sensation is comforting and you can hear someone talking to you in a sweet angelic voice. When you finally open your eyes, a pair of warm rough hands are holding your face, a slight sting to them.

You look up to see a pair of melted hershey's kiss eyes staring back at you.

But they aren’t the usual brown eyes you are used to seeing. These eyes are so brown they could fill a naughty kid’s stocking at Christmas. The ones you always see are lighter— like little pots of honey. The shape is different too, these are big, almost doe like. The outline of a face finally comes into view. It’s not one you recognize. You blink repeatedly trying to focus your vision on who is in front of you.

———————-

“FUCK JULY!” Eddie shouts to anyone who will listen. “It’s hot, sticky, fuck— how the hell am I supposed to wear a leather jacket if it’s 110 degrees out here?!”

“Simple, you don’t” Jeff says wiping his brow. “But if you would shut the hell up we could get done faster”

“Why the fuck did you want to do this outside?!” Gareth whines.

Tonight was the night any small town drug dealer waits all year for. All the jock bastards and their girlfriends and their older brothers and sisters are home for the 4th of July holiday and the only thing they are looking for is to get high. And since Reefer Rick was locked up since April.. Eddie is the main attraction.

Instead of Eddie’s usual lunch box he toted around for quick deals, he turned the back of the van into a full blown operation. The three teens have been rolling joints and blunts since sun up this morning. The morning was a decent 75° but once the wind died down it was game over for the metal heads. Gareth had seriously been thinking of cutting off his jeans into a daisy duke type outfit. Eddie, refusing to do anything not metal, was full clad in jeans, leather jacket and shaggy curly hair. Jeff had retired his shirt and tied it around his head in a makeshift bandana.

The thing about Forest Hills trailer park is that there is next to zero shade. So there they were, huffing it out in the back of Eddie’s van, arms coated in sweat and hair stuck to the back of their necks. Each getting more and more irritated as the day goes on.

“Alright boys let’s split these up into bags: 5 to a bag on the left and 10 to a bag on the right.” Eddie directs.

Jason Carver had been the one to make the call to Eddie and specifically ask for weed and coke for Johnson’s party tonight. That white powdery shit is a BIG payday for Eddie and as much as he hates carrying it, never having even touched it himself… Okay fine! There was that one time where Rick and Sal had convinced Eddie to snort a pixy stick, and it turns out they traded the sugary colored powdered candy out for coke. Yeah hilarious. Since then, Eddie hasn’t touched the shit, but knowing it was a “rich man’s” drug he really couldn’t resist the extra cash. And if it would take all day to arrange the drugs to make a big sale, he would do it.

With everything set up and ready to go Eddie stands to his feet hitting his head with a thud on the roof of the van.

“Jesus H Christ!” He grunts, rubbing his thick, tangled and sweaty hair against his head.

“Alright boys,” Eddie says now leaning forward and ducking out of the van, “I’m gonna take a shower and I suggest you both do the same if you plan on trying to get laid tonight.”

Jeff lets out a laugh wiping his face with his bandana shirt combo and hopping out of the van, “what time you picking us up Eddie?”

“Yeah no shit, I still have to get Mark to buy us some booze” Gareth chimes in.

“Ehh 9:30 and not a minute later, here’s $20 for my beer.”

Eddie says handing Gareth the money. He slips it into his pocket and they disappear in Jeff’s car, a cloud of dust trailing behind them out of the trailer park.

Eddie stretches the cramps out of his long legs and climbs the steps up to the trailer. The blast of lukewarm air hits his face and the relief enters his pores and begins the cooling sensation all over his body.

After taking a longer than normal cold shower only getting out after hearing Uncle Wayne pounding on the door, “Damn son, you better have all of your laundry in there washing it by hand with how long your skinny ass has been in there for wasting that water!” Eddie emerges from the bathroom with a towel hung low on his hips.

“Sorry” he chuckles to Wayne. “It’s just fucking hot out today”

“Listen I don’t want to know what you’re doing in there just try to cut it short alright” Wayne says tussling Eddie’s wet hair giving him a grin through parted lips a cigarette hanging between them.

—————————————————————————

Finally getting ready and picking up the boys, Gareth, Eddie and Jeff made it to Johnson’s barn and are shotgunning cool beers in celebration. Suds run down Eddie’s chin and he wipes them away with the back of his hand. The deal between Eddie and Jason has been dealt with and all that was left in the van were a couple of joints.

Gareth is hunkered down in the back of the van doing smoke tricks trying hard to impress some junior girls. Eddie looks back and gives his friend a thumbs up and a shit eating grin. Jealousy is something that comes quickly to Eddie. Not that he was jealous of Gareth, hell no. He just was jealous that a girl was paying attention to him in that way, well any sort of way.

Eddie always thought of himself as not only a lost sheep but a black sheep as well. “Stealing, dealing, Victor Creelin’” that was the ‘Munson men’ mantra that was engraved in his brain since he was 7 years old. And as badass as that sounded, he just didn’t fit the bill.

Instead of stealing whatever was valuable and doing shady deals and killing whoever got in the way like his dad, Eddie started working full time at only thirteen years old in the summer time for Jimmy at his garage in town. Begging Jimmy and promising he wouldn’t turn out like his old man, Eddie was a natural at learning the ins and outs of the cars that came through the bays. Jimmy taught him everything he knew from airing up a tire to repairing motors, he took Eddie under his wing and showed him the ropes. Giving Eddie some pride for the first time in his life from someone other than his uncle Wayne.

After being tossed in juvy at eight years old for being an accomplice to a string of gas station robberies and even the murder of one of the clerks and naive enough to think that his dad would take the blame only to pin it all on Eddie: he vowed to never take anything his dad said seriously again. The county finally pulled their heads out of their asses and Eddie was released.

He even gathered enough courage to tell his dad to fuck off when he asked for Eddie’s help one week after his 6 month stay in juvy for one more job, earning him a black eye that the whole town turned their heads at.

But not towards him to see that he was being abused at home, but away from him, regarding him as trailer trash and that whatever happened he probably deserved it. Wayne stepped in after that, being awarded full guardianship over Eddie since his dad was locked up and would be for life.

That was twelve years ago, and Eddie hadn’t seen his dad since. Wayne and Eddie moved on from the past trying like hell to change the “Munson men Mantra”. Wayne was rough around the edges, skin like leather, voice gruff but he was honest, hard working and showed Eddie how to make an honest man’s wage. As grateful as Eddie was for Wayne, there was always something missing. He knew Wayne cared for him but what Eddie yearned for was someone to love him in a way Wayne could not. He wanted to love someone like in those cheesy romcom movies he caught Wayne sometimes watching.

The daydreaming gaze in Eddie’s eyes is lost at the sight of Dustin Henderson and Will Byers double fisting some beer. “Ah, good sirs, what have we here?”

“Eddie! Man I didn’t think you would show up to this party! Mike, Will and I begged Nancy to drag us along. Mike told her that he would tell their mom if she didn’t bring us with! Pretty cool right?!” Dustin brags. Eddie can’t help but laugh at how ridiculous they both look. His Hellfire crew, his little lost sheep that he had a brotherly love for. He would die for these kids and they all knew it.

“Yeah, give me one of those,” Eddie says, grabbing a beer from both of them.

“Hey Eddie I was wondering if I could—” Will stammered.

“Nope you know my rule, I don’t deal to under class-men especially ones whose brothers already buy from me.”

He stops Will before he can even get started. Will hangs his head and pushes around some dirt around with the toe of his shoe.

“Sorry man, I just can’t bring myself to do that. I don’t have many rules but what kind of man would I be if I didn’t have at least one?” Eddie reaches up to ruffle Will’s stick straight bowl cut a bit and gives him a toothy grin.

Jeff takes another long pull of his beer and is dragged by Dustin out into the clearing to have a stick fight.

“Loser has to do the other's homework for a week!” Dustin yells behind him to Jeff.

Gareth and his lady friends have made their way into the barn laughing and swaying along singing “Freebird” leaving Eddie and Will behind the van.

“‘scuse me Will, I gotta drain the main vein” Eddie says crushing the finished beer in his hand and tossing it behind him. Eddie walks to the front of the van setting the cold can from Dustin on the dented, paint faded hood.

“cause I’m as freeeeee as a birrrrrd nowwwww” Eddie sings to himself, unzipping his pants and baring his birthday suit to the blackness around him. Trying to write “Eddie” in cursive in the dirt below him, Eddie hears what could only mean one thing.

“FIIIGHT!” Is screamed from inside the barn, yanking up his pants careful to not zip up his manhood, Eddie runs inside to see what’s going on. Billy Hargrove and some other asshat are punching each other both piss drunk. He’s about to walk out of the barn, when something catches his eye, and that’s when he sees you. Leaned up against a post with blood dripping down your face. Pushing his way through the crowded, drunk, yelling assholes in the barn, he manages to get behind you yanking you up, yelling at everyone to move out of the way so he can get you out of the chaos, your body goes limp and Eddie starts carrying you bridal style to the van. He fishes in his pockets for his keys and tosses them to Will who is still standing beside the van. “Unlock it!” Eddie instructs.

“Oh shit! What happened?!” Will screams. Eddie sets you down in the back of the van holding your head in his hands. “She got knocked out in that fight, here help me, do you know her name?” He asks Will as he leans you up against one of the amps. He gently slaps your cheeks trying to wake you up.

“No, I have no idea who she is,” Will says frantically.

“Come on come on!” Eddie repeats, Your eyes start to flutter open and you look up at him. In that moment Eddie felt as if his entire life meant nothing until this very second. He had never seen anyone quite like you before. But that’s not what kept him staring.

—————————————————————————

Fireworks. You swore there were fireworks in those eyes staring deep into your soul. The guy looking back at you was someone you have never seen before, yet it felt like you have known him for years.

He had long curly brown hair, surprisingly plump lips, and those eyes… wow.

“A-are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?”

He takes his hands off of your face and holds up 3 ring adorned fingers. Without your eyes leaving him you manage to stutter out, “th-three”.

“Ah, she speaks” he coos with a toothy grin.

His veiny arms fall to his sides and you take in the rest of him. He has broad shoulders and a slender waist. Tattoos peek out from the collar of his shirt and his sleeves decorating his alabaster skin. He’s wearing a Black Sabbath shirt with black jeans and converse.

“Do you remember what happened sweetheart?” He asks, concern in his eyes.

“I uh.. I think I fell over and hit my head” you stumble over your words.

Your tongue feels like thick and heavy and your mouth is suddenly dry. His hands are on your chin turning it gently to the side to assess your head injury. His fingers feel like a lightning strike against your skin, it’s electric, burning, but oddly comforting.

“I don’t think you need stitches, but here, hold this so it will stop bleeding.” He hands you a wadded up shirt, lightly grabbing your hand and placing it at the site of your cut.

“Will, run to the house and find whatever you can to get this thing cleaned, bandaids, peroxide some water probably to clean her up.”

You didn’t even notice that there was a boy standing beside him. The younger but taller boy runs off towards the house. You aren’t sure if it’s because you hit your head that you didn’t see the other boy or simply because your eyes haven’t left the dark chocolate ones staring into yours since your eyes opened. Your stomach is doing flips and your heart is racing.

“What's your name sweetheart?” he grins at you.

“Y/n” you reply in barely a whisper, mouth still feeling dry.

“I’m uh, I’m Eddie” he stammers out a light shade of blush tickling his cheeks and ears.

Eddie? Hmmm… the name doesn’t ring a bell. But why do you feel like you’ve known him before?

“Are you from Bridgeport?” You blurt out the annoying feeling of knowing someone but can’t remember where taking over.

You couldn’t explain it but there is no way this is your first time meeting him. You feel a powerful unearth like connection to him. Something past the soul, deeper than any ocean, seeing him fills you with a comfort you never knew was missing from your life and suddenly you feel complete.

“No, I’ve lived in Hawkins all my life.” Eddie replies, chuckling lightly. “But it's odd I feel that way too, like I’ve met you before but I can’t understand where.”

Eddie doesn’t know much about science or the Earth’s gravitational pull but this definitely feels like some sort of scientific reasoning as to why he feels this way. He can’t take his eyes off of you. You are both new to him but also recognizable. He’s certain he has never seen you before, he would have surely talked to you if he had. But the loud thumping in his chest is telling him that he knows you. Maybe on a different planet, a different plane. A spiritual one. He doesn’t know and doesn’t care, all he knows is that you’re the one his soul has been searching for. The love he wants to give and reciprocate is right in front of him, in a twist of fate.

You shiver under his gaze realizing how crazy this situation is. But you have yet to look away from him. You can see yourself in his eyes. Like someone is holding a mirror up and you are him, he is you. How can that be? How can you feel this way towards someone you quite literally are just meeting for the first time?

“So you’re not from Hawkins?” Eddie asks, licking his lips and squeezing into the van beside you. He crosses his long legs into a crisscross pretzel situation and you turn facing him. He searches his pocket for a lighter and grabs one of the joints from the baggies on the floor of the van. He holds the joint to his lips, keeping eye contact with you the entire time. He flicks the lighter and you watch as the end of the joint turns crimson and he inhales deeply, holding it in for a few seconds before rocking on his side to lean out of the open van doors, throwing his head back and exhaling into the open midnight sky.

If sex was a physical person to would be him. You have never seen anyone like him in your entire existence. You forget he asked you a question so he asks again.

“Ohh, s-sorry, no I’m uh— hah —- I’m from Bridgeport.” you stutter out. Mesmerized by his good looks.

Eddie blushes again looking at you, he thought for sure a couple hits from the joint would make him relax enough to stop staring or fumbling his words.

“Okay I’m sorry,” he blurts out, “I want to figure this out because it’s bothering me…how— how does it feel like I’ve known you my entire life? Where the hell did you come from? I’ve never seen you before but I also feel like I was meant to meet you.” Eddie says all in one giant breath.

“Y-yeah, me too, I think I know what you’re saying” you sit up on your knees leaning closer into him. “I’m going to ask some questions so we can figure this out”

“Let's do it,” Eddie says, clapping his hands together and rubbing them like a homeless man over a barrel of fire.

“Are you a senior?”

“Yes, third times the charm”

“Me too, only this is my first time, where do you work?”

“Jimmy’s Garage since I was 13, you? Sweetheart, don’t tell me you’re secretly Robert under there and you’re gonna Scooby Doo unzip yourself and scare the shit outta me!���

“No! Oh my God” you say laughing, Eddie is also laughing, his dimples poking out as he smiles. “I work at the Bridgeport pool, kinda a ‘if you can’t beat ‘em join em’ situation I didn’t learn to swim until I was almost 13, I almost drowned once” you admit.

“No way! No fucking way! I also almost drowned but I was a little younger and didn’t learn to swim until I was 12.” Eddie’s face lights up as he looks at you and he leans in a little closer.

Going back and forth for a few minutes you find out that he is in a band and plays at the Hideout, a small dive bar in south Hawkins. You tell him all about your life in Bridgeport, along with being a lifeguard you sometimes babysit on weekends.

So far, outside of the weird coincidences of both being afraid of dogs, and both having birthmarks on your inner elbows. Nothing is adding up. You have never been to the Hideout, nor did you even know that Hawkins had a mechanic shop. Eddie had been to Bridgeport once with his dad as a kid, but that was more than ten years ago. Again that rush of electricity is pounding in your chest, this is too weird, the similarities, the feeling of comfortability with him. Your heart is soaring, you have never felt this way about anyone in your life. It’s like you’re on the same page of a book that only you two have copies of.

Everything about him is drawing you closer to him, he smells like cheap cologne and muted cigarettes. He pulls the hand that’s holding the shirt to your head away to see if it’s still bleeding. His touch is gentle but fierce. Digging around in the back of the van he finds a water bottle and dumps it on the clean side of the shirt.

“I’m not sure if Will is crawling to the house and back but Uhh, hold still I’m gonna attempt some doctor shit” Eddie says giving you a wicked smile.

He cleans the blood away from your face, down your neck, and in your hair. The water is cold and feels good, you can feel his breath in your neck as he wipes it clean.

Your stomach starts to flutter as your mind wanders watching his tongue peek out from his lips in concentration. He is comforting like a warm blanket right out of the dryer. Eddie places his hands on either side of you leaning in, “there, good as new pretty girl” he says with a wink. You blush from his compliment and turn your face away. Eddie grabs your chin forcing you to look at him.

“I don’t know what kind of magnetic pull the universe is doing right now princess, I’ve been fighting this since the moment I laid eyes on you,and —fuck I can’t fight it anymore.” Eddie whispers.

Eddie grabs your face with both hands, his hands warm and the cold stinging of his rings bite at your cheeks, leaving a static currant pulsing from him to you. You feel almost animalistic in the way your body is responding to him. Like you don’t even have to think of what to do your body is ready for his next move. Without missing a beat you wet your lips and lean into him. Your consciousness is screaming a name into your head. But it’s muffled and you can’t make it out. Feeling Eddie’s lips on yours the name finally rings clear.

Steve

———————————————————————————

Taglist: @inourtownofhawkins 🫡🫡 @gathered-moss 🫡🫡

[mrhowells]

Smallville 4x03

such an iconic episode, I'm so ready😩 (edit: ignore any typos you might find, I was going through it💀)

NOOOOOOOO THIS IS SO FKN FUNNY PLS LOOK AT THIS MAN'S HAIR I CAN'T BREATHE

Honestly I'm so thankful that not a single one of my schools was like this, it's like everyone just reached an unspoken agreement that bullying was uncool and we'd mind our own business.

needles😬

"Have I told you how much I'm gonna miss you?"

no you haven't but you definitely should, go on😌

*in unison* around where????

HELL YEAH FORCED PROXIMITY FTW

"Come on, do you know how many people would kill to relive their senior year of high school?"

No way in hell, and I had a relatively peaceful experience💀😭

"The last thing I want to be is a reporter."

She would absolutely be perfect but let's get one thing straight: If there's a person on this show who knows when to mind their own fucking business, it's LOIS🤷🏻‍♀️

I mean both Chloe and Lois make valid points, she's 17 and while I totally understand why Abby did it, it really is a bit concerning. Especially considering her mother has been pushing her to do it for the last 3 years😬

I got a comment from a helpful user under my post for last episode (ty🥰), apparently Jason is roughly the same age as Lex?? And he started dating Lana when she was 17?? AND HE'S THE FKN ASSISTANT COACH AT SCHOOL?

Clark wants to try out for the team again🥺

Jonathan let Martha have a job off the farm dude come on, be supportive. YES THANK YOU

omg did he fake his parent's signature on the permission slip???

"...they want people to look at them differently."

he's making points🤷🏻‍♀️

UGH I'm so weak for happy, excited Clark just look at himmm😭🥹

"Maybe if I'd been more patient I would've seen who you really are." EEEEEEEW throw the whole man away🤢

honestly fuck everyone who destroyed her self-esteem to the point where she's flattered bc a crusty man like that shows interest

asjaksjaksj

he's not even denying it-

PLSSSS their faces, especially Lois😭

I LOVE THEM YOUR HONOR

and look at Lois "not interested in journalism" Lane right on the story😌😌😌

I'm connecting some dots here and I don't like ittttt😬😬

"I still can't believe that you have a job at my school."

I feel like Lana has had more personality in these last few episodes than she had in the last 3 seasons combined, so that's great to see.

Lex knowssss👀

OMFG LOIS I LOVE YOU

I'mghfdjfghdj LOIS ARE U FREE ON MONDAY-

look at herrrrr😭 LISTEN IF I HAD CLARK'S POWERS-

I mean I agree that beauty is on the inside but that's very easy to say when you look like a literal angel💀 OOp evil surgery lady just said the same thing I did idk how to feel about that💀💀

I love that they're already establishing little things about her, she's messy, she can't spell etc. (though Chloe sounded a bit passive aggressive in both instances, maybe I'm just reading it wrong tho😬)

"It looks like Lois is one step ahead of us." THAT MAKES ME SO PROUD🥺🥺

Clark saving Lois and then Lois saving Clark is something so personal to me actually-

UGH LOOK AT THEMMMMMM😭

*kicks woman* "Bitch."

her lil smile seeing her article in the torch😭

yesss she has fans as she fucking should😌

(Can I just quickly say that as much as I love Homecoming, they could've had at least ONE person at the reunion remember Lois from high school, watching that shit left permanent scars on my soul, it was so cruel😭 Like come on, if reading her article was a "life changing experience" for some students, it would make total sense for SOMEONE to remember her. (yes I'm super salty and what about it))

FUUUUUUUCK I JUST REALIZED I HIT THE 30 IMAGE LIMIT AND I'M NOT EVEN AT THEE DUNK TANK SCENE😭 (off to delete some of them I guess😭)

omg here it comes

"Come on Lois, didn't those guys at the base teach you anything?" "Wouldn't you like to know."

akasjkasdjak YOU KNOW HE WOULD

they wanna bone so bad it makes them look like absolute fucking clowns there I said it

DOESN'TMATTERCAUSEYOU'REGOINGDOWNTHAT'LLBETHEDAYSKADWNKW can you tell I'm losing my last shred of dignity here

ALTERED MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY CLEARED MY SKIN IMPROVED MY GRADES WALKED MY DOGS ETC THIS SCENE CHANGED MY WHOLE FUCKING LIFE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND-

and Tumblr won't even let me upload my 5732893 screenshots where's the justice😭

[wonderlandleighleigh]

Not really the Schneider-verse (or it could be, who am I to say) but Jess and Rory getting the catch up they deserved in Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out - either Logan not turning up or them meeting up between that and the Prodigal Daughter Returns, either or neither, just some Literati love please <3

They find a tiny Vietnamese place open late in Hartford, with enormous bowls of Pho, and overstuffed Banh Mi sandwiches.

Jess pours a disgusting amount of sriracha and hoisin sauce into his soup, before squeezing an obscene amount of lime wedges in, and Rory follows suit. The soup is divine, the broth clearly simmered for days on end.

"So?" Jess asks as he uses his little ladle and chopsticks to shovel broth and noodles into his mouth.

"So," Rory agrees as she takes her own mouthful.

"You left Yale," Jess states.

She nods slowly. "I...did. I did. I left Yale. It was for the best."

Jess looks at her as if she's lost her mind. "That's not-"

"It is," she insists. "Look, I...I had this internship, and it- it didn't go very well. The person who gave it to me told me I don't have what it takes to be a journalist. And I came to realize that he was right, so I...stopped chasing something that's not going to happen."

Jess gazes at her a little sadly and it makes her avert her eyes. "Okay. So...what's the new dream?"

"I don't know yet."

"Have you thought about it at all?" he asks, slurping down more broth, grabbing a piece of beef from his bowl to munch on.

"No."

"Can I say something you don't wanna hear?"

"No."

"I'm gonna say it anyways," he announces, setting his utensils down. "I you worked yourself so hard, and you're so used to people telling you what you want to hear? That you had a breakdown."

Rory stares at him silently.

"And that's actually okay," Jess insists. "Breakdowns happen. I had mine. Running away to California like a fucking idiot."

"I don't want to talk about that," she says quickly.

"My point is," he says, getting back on track. "That no matter what happened at that internship? It doesn't matter. It's a drop in the bucket. One guy told you you're not good enough. Sucks for sure, but also fuck that guy. You work hard, Rory. You've always gone after what you want. Why stop now?"

Rory stays silent, looking down at her soup.

"You're really gonna let some crusty jerk get in your way?" Jess asks.

"He's not a crusty jerk - well, he is, but he's a very wealthy, powerful, crusty jerk," Rory says.

Jess smirks at her. "And won't it be the best feeling when you make him eat his words?"

Rory laughs a little. "I guess you have some experience with that."

He shrugs. "Well, all of Stars Hollow thought I'd end up in jail, and here I am. Paying for dinner with money I made from writing a book and editing for an independent press. I stopped by Stars Hollow and sold Andrew a few copies. I wish I could see Taylor's face when he sees them."

“Taylor may die.” 

"I hope he'll at least have heart palpitations, I'll take that," Jess volleys back.

Rory takes a breath and goes back to eating her soup. "What if you're wrong? What if I really am not good enough to follow this path?"

"There's no 'good enough,'" he points out. "You either work your ass off to make it happen, or you don't. And considering all of those Friday nights we spent in senior year, where you studied, and I napped until you were done...I think you've got this covered."

She huffs out a breath. "I miss school. Logan...- Logan, my boyfriend - Logan and I do a lot of partying, and I just...feel..."

"Bored?" Jess supplies.

"God, I'm so bored."

"Ivy league drop-out," Jess sings in a terrible voice, trying to emulate Grease for her. "Go back to college..."

She bursts out laughing, almost spitting her soup out. "Oh, my god do that again, I want a recording."

"Never."

"Jess."

"Eat your soup. You've got a sandwich coming, you don't want 'em to overlap."

"Jess!"

"No."

*****

He drops her back at her grandparents' place, only to find another car waiting there.

"Logan," Rory smiles as she gets out of the passenger's side.

Jess joins her, handing her her leftover dessert.

"No," Rory says, whirling around. "You keep them."

Jess laughs. "What? No more mung bean bonbons for you?" he asks. "You're missing out."

"Yuck," Rory complains. "Logan, this is Jess. He's an old friend from Stars Hollow - Luke's nephew. Jess, this is Logan, my boyfriend."

Jess nods. "Hey."

Logan nods, looking wary. "Hey, man, good to meet you."

They shake hands briefly, and Jess holds up the bag. "Mung bean bonbons?"

"Uh..."

"We got Vietnamese food," Rory explains. "Jess got adventurous with dessert."

"They're not that bad."

"Yuck," Rory repeats, making Jess laugh.

"Seems like you two had a grand old time," Logan remarks.

"We haven't seen each other in a long time," Rory explains.

"You two date?" Logan asks.

"Yes," Rory responds truthfully. "But that was a long time ago. Jess wrote a book, and he's been going to small bookstores, selling copies. He was in the area."

"A writer. You a writer, Jess?" Logan asks.

"Sure," Jess responds slowly, lifting an eyebrow.

"Got many influences? Hemmingway? Proust? Kafka? Tolstoy?"

Jess turns to Rory, looking a little weirded out. "Is this guy a real person?"

Rory gives him a stern look. "Jess..."

"I'm just sayin', if Mattel made a Ken doll that was supposed to encourage little girls to go to an Ivy League school, it'd probably look like him."

"Oh, he's funny," Logan snarks. "Funny guy, huh?"

"And on that note, I'm gonna head out," Jess tells them. "Rory. Happy early birthday. Logan...you were also here."

Rory huffs. "Jess, wait."

"Let him go, Rory," Logan tells her.

She narrows her eyes at him and follows Jess to his car. "Hey."

He turns to her, raising his eyebrows.

"Sorry about him. He's...he's just..."

"An asshole," Jess tells her. "You're dating an asshole. Can I bribe you to break up with him if I sing the Grease thing again?"

"No."

Jess grins and leans in, kissing her cheek. "Go back to Yale, Rory. Stop boring yourself."

With that, he squeezes her arm gently, and hops into his car, driving off.

[mcondance]

Ion know if you care just a little story this was during my senior year (last year) there was this science teacher I had I was stuck with her for awhile I hated her sm she would always touch my hair and I have extremely curly hair and I hate it sm sometimes because it’s hard to keep healthy and she would come up and put her nasty old ass crusty hand on my hair “Oh ___ your hair is so pretty.”

Then she would randomly rub my shoulders and whenever she would ask to touch my hair I would just stare and look at her because she would say it outloud so I would be in a awkward position 💥 I hated that teacher sm I had her husband as my teacher when I was in middle school and he was the most respectful and sweet guy oh my god how do you get married with someone like that.

This was also was the same teacher that had me turn off the lights and she acted like she couldn’t see me A: you are a white old ass teacher don’t be makin jokes like that B: in her words “your not even that dark” I’m mixed (black and white) and I was sitting by the window wear the light was shining on me during that period of time half the class was gone so there was mostly white kids in there and I was the only kid in the room at the time who had black in em and she decided to make that joke now 💥 she even took my phone at the end of the year because I confronted her about taking points off of everything because it was “plagiarism” and that’s not how I write BITCH don’t tell me how I write tf you are not my ELA teacher smh.

i read this when u sent it and it was so entertaining omg i don’t even have anything to say

[jonasrev]

In lighter news, Liberty Bell mittens bell Leigh rolling around in my old underwear. 

Luckily I have a birth certificate for liberty bell her name is actually for whom the Bell tolls to be perfectly precise… It wasn’t my intention to seek out an Edgar Allan Poe girl… I like Edgar Allan Poe just fine he is a Pisces Moon I think I think he’s an Aquarius with a Pisces moon but I might be wrong but he has I think of Pisces anyway

Just in case you guys wanted to say that Liberty Bell was rolling around in your crusty underwear as an earthy little slut bitch…

That isn’t true

But if I knew how to get certain information across to people who had questionable integrity but very little in their bellies

Because I know that certain circumstances push people…

Well I’m gonna have to contact that African industrialist and see if he has good ideas so that I can get a business happening in a way where we are getting even $2.95 to a person in need in any place in India or any place in the Philippines any place in Thailand any place in China pray for North Korea please play pray pray pray for North Korea

If we could get $2.95 to North Korea…



My Liberty Bell is a gangster she is actually from the east side of Cleveland Ohio and I don’t know if my bitch Mabel is online or not I know you guys it’s an Anna Faris moment

For my honor and hers…

But we like lucky creatures my friend Mabel and I I love her I absolutely do I think that she is the nearest person that I ever met Will there are a lot of really cool girls but some girls are just too much fun and they will open up your asshole chakra in such a beautiful way that you’re like OK OK let’s be stupid

And even if you make white girl face or something it’s OK

If people like Tom and Lois would give fairly to the African-American community some of these kids could have everything and I want to be able to help if there’s any possible way because I know how important your cat and dog really can be to you and white people in America do not understand the importance of love or warmth I said warmth but also once upon a time once upon a time they all thought they could steal everything from everyone who would never be theirs of course and then we have Mark teasing me about envelopes and mail and email perhaps wearing a shade of brown

Senior year dreams… I didn’t wanna be a cheerleader because I was always gonna use my spirit fingers and pretend stoic I kinda I don’t care whatever I’ll be booger brie it’s whatever no no I said booger Bree I’ll be bigger as well that’s what else well you know what up what do you think T?

Fuckin eh right.

Hey Dr. Hussein? I don’t know if you got that I knew how to use my cheerleader spirit fingers or not I figured I had to use them before you guys decided to crush them into rheumatoid arthritis or something like that

[jiminrings]

hi OHMDHHD STEM KOO is the cutest and sulky stem!koo!!! r u kiddinggg. So What if jungkook sees yoongi eating off of y/n's lunchboxes and his mind just goes...

stem koo sees someone else eating from his lunchbox(s) and freaks out 🥺🥺! senior oc is like o_o! thank u for writing

cold senior!y/n x stem major!koo masterlist :D

stem koo’s so mad that he might pop a vein

“do i even wanna know what happened to you last night?”

yoongi grimaces at you first thing in the morning, his grogginess proving no hindrance in being annoying himself

you’ve woke up with no hangover at all because you didn’t go back to the party to get your fill, the fresh experience still a little new

“jungkook asked me if i could walk him home and i did.”

:O

you did wHAT now

sure, yoongi knows that no matter how ruthless you could be, you’d still go the extra mile if someone asked you to

but for jUNGKOOK?!?!

as in jungkook, the junior you have (maybe had at this point) a crush on, and have been making lunchboxes for a duration of two weeks?

also jungkook, the same guy who was a colossal asshole and have been more or less giving away the lunches you’ve secretly been making him??

THAT jungkook????

“y/n what do you have to say for yourself?” he gasps audibly, trying to shove at you but not without almost poking his eyes from pointing out the crusties

alright you expected this

you kinda deserve this

“buT he was like, two seconds away from a breakdown so i felt compelled to take care of him.” 

that bit’s actually true and kook was about to cry in the middle of a party right then and there

he would’ve also rubbed his eyes raw to the point that he’d forget he made the stupid decision of wearing his eye contacts!!!

“yeah, yeah, i understand that part!!!” yoongi admits and he commends you in all honesty, “but what if he misinterprets that?”

oh

you stop in your tracks at making a hangover bagel, attention clearly more piqued this time

“but there’s nothing to misinterpet..?”

LMAOOOO

ok maybe that’s where you’re wrong

yoongi scoffs at the question marks floating above your hand, scoffing even more when you still don’t get it

“no offense, but have you ever seen jungkook? he looks like the type to get attached too quickly. to the delivery guy. to a stain on the wall. to a laminated copy of his class schedule. he’d be a puppy sniffing at your heels in no time, y/n.”

>:(

“no he wouldn’t.”

......

uhhhhh

you, in fact, should probably listen to yoongi more

it’s monday and for the entirety of your day up until lunch, you’ve been getting stares at the back of your head!!!

you can’t see who but you kNOW that someone just keeps looking at you

you want to stare back to creep them off but you just!! can’t!! tell!! who!!

it’s frankly getting annoying and it’s making the hairs at the back of your neck stand up

“you’re the bEST!! you made me lunch and i didn’t have to beg??” yoongi exclaims when you slide a lunchbox towards him, hugging you by force when he sees that it’s his favorite rolls inside

lol cute

if only you didn’t view yoongi completely platonically and in a very repulsive way, he would’ve been your boyfriend by now

“yesterday. you didn’t beg yesterday and you only had to beg twenty times in the days before that,” you chuckle as he squeezes you, having to tug at his hair as soon as the hug started getting too long

man that is fREEING

you wipe off the imaginary crumbs he’s given you, scratching at the back of your neck when you furrow your brows in annoyance

“hey yoongi, is there someone behind me? jesus, someone’s been staring at the back of my head all day and it’s literally burning me.”

he’s been glancing up the whole time, cheeks full from the rice and it’s only when you call him out loud that he sTOPS chewing, head tilting automatically

yoongi actually starts chewing faster and that makes you THINK he has something to say, making you feel pressured nonetheless that you jostle him to get him to chew faster

jeez why’s he choking now

you offer your water bottle to him that he takes a longer than necessary sip from, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, only to nonchalantly gesture to the back of you

“you mean jungkook?”

huh

alright WHO now

listen

you have nEVER seen jungkook like this

BUT NEITHER HAS JUNGKOOK EVER SEEN YOU LIKE THIS

NOR YOONGI

NOR EVERYTHING LIKE THIS!!!

he woke up extra early and all because he was beyond motivated

and he even stayed up last night to search up crafts!!! 

origami box crafts to house your eyedrops that he was gonna return to you!!!

but tHEN he realized that the paper would quickly be ruined regardless if he puts them in his pocket or backpack

and so jungkook mADE a little drawstring pouch instead

but then it started looking a little too plain and a little too perfect that you’d probably think he got it from the store and that he didn’t make it himself!!!

SO NATURALLY

jungkook had to design it somehow and learn how to stitch on a heart!!!!

but what if that was a little too romantic for eyedrops?? :///

alright fINE

he stitched on an outline of a carebear holding the heart

bUT WHAT IF you’d think it was just a ratty hand-me down or something???

jungkook stitched on your initials on the carebear

..... hold on

is he even sure that those are your initials

fuck it

jungkook has an origami box, a carebear heart initial drawstring pouch and a plain ol’ ziplock baggie in his backpack just in case

he devised a strategic plan on how to drop in the item at the last minute when he decides which approach to take after he finds you

a-after..... he finds....... you

is that..

is that his fucking LUNCHBOX????

THAT’S HIS LUNCHBOX???????

jungkook could literally see red

his yearly check-ups are all up to date but holy fuck absolutely NO ONE said that his blood pressure is capable of rising up like this

all he has is tunnel vision for his pastel blue lunchbox and the unfortunate blonde guy attached to it

he has NEVER walked this fast with so much purpose

he doesn’t even realize that people are going out of his path because sheesh they’ve also nEVER seen jeon jungkook from stem ever look this determined nor furious

he’s clenching his jaw so hard that he might not have to get his wisdom teeth taken out

“that’s my lunchbox.”

jungkook seethes from his teeth and the vein at the side of his neck is making the same appearance as his flared nostrils

he’s seeing red to the point that he doesn’t even realize that he’s seething at his senior, and even min yoongi at that

he’s seeing red and his blue lunchbox at the same time that he doesn’t even realize that you’re sitting rIGHT next to where he’s stood while he stares yoongi down

no one knows how to react actually

you’re too frozen, yoongi’s too appalled, and jungkook’s too angry

oh my fucking god

wAIT

it’s actually dawning on you that you’re about to get found out in front of jungkook and almost half of the entire university a-and-

“you think you’re the only one with the same blue lunchbox in the world?” yoongi recuperates from his shock and saves you as soon as he realizes the gravity of the situation when your eyes are wide and emotional instead of being narrowed and blank, “you’re not that special. think again, kid.”

yeah his tone might’ve been patronizing

but gOD yoongi is beyond offended

yeah jungkook might be a lil pissy bitch but he IS eating from “his” lunchbox or whatever

but never in a million years did he think that the kid would have some balls on him to approach him like that

fyi yoongi would nEVER come to his senior like that!!!! he wouldn’t even have the gall to come up and approach seokjin like that just some years ago!!!!!

jungkook balls his fists at that and he comes down off of the situation a little, but it never gets quite diffused

“maybe i’m not.”

his gaze lightened on yoongi but it’s still as hard as it’s skeptical, walking away wordlessly but not without sending you a soft gaze quickly

“but i know that sticking my nose to where it should belong is my specialty.”

[lovinkiri]

If The Roles Were Reversed || One

UA!Dabi x Reader

UA!Shigaraki x Reader

UA!Toga x Reader

UA!Twice x Reader

UA!Compress x Reader

Author's Thoughts: Okay so I was just thinking, what if the LOV were seniors in UA, and emotionally stable enough to not be villains, and ekvekbd

Warning: Swearing, Scratching, etc.

EVERYONE IS 18+

Touya Todoroki (Dabi)

People couldn't help but stare at the two of you. You knew it was because of your boyfriend though, who was used to the stares by now.

"What happened to him?"

"They really let guys like that in the hero course? Look at the scarred face."

"The whole course looks like a group of villians, I'm not surprised."

You went to speak out. I mean, it wasn't his fault his quirk was self destructive. Though he was taking courses in Quirk Control, the scars he'd gotten before enrolling in UA stuck.

But before you could utter a word, Dabi sighed and wrapped an arm around you, giving the gossips a look that could scare a pro.

"Don't worry about it, babe. It's alright. I just wish they'd say it to my ugly scarred face." He spoke loudly and sarcastically, raising his voice even more towards the end.

You huff and glare at the already scared freshmen. "I just wish they'd take a look in the mirror themselves."

And now they were scared and offended.

You look back to Dabi and sigh. "You know you're sexy, right Touya?" You raise an eyebrow, Dabi snickering at how serious the question was asked.

"Can't look that bad if I've got such a cute little thing on my arm." He smirked, watching as you immediately got flustered.

"Y-Yeah, c'mon." You pull him to class, Dabi chuckling.

Upon entering the classroom, he immediately looked to Shigaraki. "Hey, Crusty."

Shigaraki glared at the Dabi. "Morning, Crispy."

With Shigaraki, you let it slide. You knew this was their way of being friendly to each other. Then Toga came bounding over, hugging you from behind.

"Hi, Touya! Morning, Y/n!" She grinned. Dabi scoffed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "It's Dabi."

"You let Y/n call you Touya!"

"Are you Y/n?"

"No.."

"Okay then, Crazy."

"Crazy?!"

You laugh and smile. It was never boring, being with Dabi.

Tomura Shigaraki

"Tomura!"

He sighed and looked at you, drowning out the rest of the hero course. You walked over with your lunch and plopped down next to him, slapping his hand away from his neck. "You're scratching again. I know it's a bad habit but-"

Tomura rose an eyebrow, wondering what caused your silence. Then he followed your gaze to his hands.

Before he could speak, you broke out into a grin. "You got your new gloves! Now we can hold hands!"

Sighing once more, he shrugged. "I don't get why its such a big deal. You were more excited than I was."

He was lying. He was secretly just as excited. The thought of holding your hands, running his fingers through your hair, holding you without having to be careful of his fingers. He couldn't wait.

You kissed his cheek and laid your head against his shoulder. "Can we hold hands later?" You asked looking up at him with irresistible eyes.

"You don't have to ask, you know." He grumbled as he wrapped an arm around you. The rest of the hero course let out either genuine or sarcastic awww's.

"Its not fair. How did Shigaraki start dating before any of us?" Toga asked with a pout. Dabi snorted in laughter. "They like 'em crusty and flaky."

Tomura glared at him. "Better crusty than charred and burnt." He retaliated.

Dabi gave a lazy grin. "Oi, I'm not burnt. I'm crispy."

The entire table, not including Tomura, devolved into laughter. Tomura rolled his eyes, laying his cheek against the top of your head. "Idiots. They're all idiots."

You smiled. "Please. You love 'em."

"Tch. Whatever." He huffed.

Himiko Toga

You waited by the school gates patiently for Himiko. You knew she was probably getting some new upgrades to her hero costume, so you didn't mind.

"Y/n, Y/n!"

You turned and Himiko jumped into your arms. Thankfully, you were able to wrap your arms around her and steady yourself. This wasn't the first time so you had practice.

Grinning, she wrapped her arms around your neck. "Hey, your reflexes are getting better!" She pointed out.

You smiled and chuckled in at the remark. "Thank to you. You seem more excited than usual."

"Oh yeah! I got this awesome new upgrade." She said proudly. Pulling away from the embrace and instead holding your hand, she started to pull you along.

"Yeah? What is it?" You asked, tilting your head. Himiko proceeded to go into a detailed ramble about her upgrade, her free hand making exaggerated motions.

You couldn't help but admire how her eyes seemed got so much brighter. It was obvious she was excited to test it out.

Others who weren't used to seeing you guys around stared, but minded their business as you glared at them. You weren't gonna let anyone bring her down. Knowing people already whispered about how odd she seemed in the school hallways, you'd decided she didn't need to hear that outside of school too.

"And so it'll be easier to shift between forms!" She finished, looking at you, looking for your approval.

Kissing her cheek, you chuckled. "That sounds amazing. And it was your idea?" You grinned as she enthusiastically nodded. "Yeah! Of course, you inspired me! Remember last week when you said it'd been cool if I could switch between forms more freely?"

Your expression morphed into confusion. "Huh? That was a month ago."

She shrugged. "A week, a month, a year! It's all the same!"

Laughing softly, you nodded. "Sure, Himiko."

Jin Bubaigawara (Twice)

Jin smiled as you pulled his mask on, trying to nuzzle into your hands.

"Jin- I can't get it on when you do that." You chuckled, a smile tugging at your own lips. "I don't see why you couldn't put your own mask you."

"Because I like it when you're near me! Stop asking questions." He responded, pulling you closer by your lower back.

Rolling your eyes playfully, you quickly pecked his lips before fully getting the mask on. "You a sweetheart, you know that?"

He nodded. "I know!" Then quickly shook his head. "I have no idea what you mean."

"Right. Well, be careful at training today. I think they're gonna make you fight Dabi." You warned. You knew Jin was strong but Dabi was something else. Losing usually made him fight harder. And sometimes, he lost himself.

"Oh please, that's nothing. Nothing but a death wish! He's still pissed at me for spilling juice on him at lunch today!" Your boyfriend began pacing, holding his head dramatically.

His head whipped to you as you started laughing. "Why are you laughing? Last time we sparred, I had to sleep with an ice pack on my ass! For a week! And he was sleepy!" He pressed, mocking betrayal once your laughter continued.

"I-I'm sorry, Jin! I'm just remembering that pillow you had yo sit on in class. You know, as to know irritate the burns on your butt." You covered your mouth to stifle anymore sounds of amusement.

Jin whined at the memory, placing his hand on his ass. "It's not funny, babe!"

You grinned and cleared your throat, taking a breathe. "Alright, alright. But you were just distracted that day. And the voices are a lot easier to ignore when your mask comes off in combat now, aren't they?"

Walking over, you gently placed your hand on his cheek. He immediately leaned into your touch, almost cat like. "It's so much easier to focus now. But it can be kinda difficult with you lookin so damn good while watching me!"

Jin leaned down, attempting to kiss you from under his a mask. You laughed and tried pulling away, hands on his chest. "J-Jin!"

"Oi, are you done yet? It's our turn Jin!"

Gulping nervously, Jin lifted his mask a bit to give you an actual kiss. You returned it, humming softly then pulled away. He shrugged. "In case I die."

Then there was an burst of heat. "Get over here, Jin!"

Atsuhiro Sako (Mr. Compress)

Atsuhiro smirked at the villian before him, twirling his cane ever so casually. "Tsk, tsk. You've got a flashy quirk, but there's no flare."

What was supposed to be a training retreat turned into a surprise attack. These villians never knew when to give up.

He quickly dodged another attack and gave a mocking hum, as if he were thinking. "Oh I know!" He hit his fist against his palm. "You're missing the element of surprise! You're completely predictable!"

Laughing as the villian the got angry, he shrugged. "Unlike me!" He dodged once more before shooting out a marble that you'd been compressed in for a while.

Once free, you launched an attack to the villiain. "Surprise!" You grinned as you foot connected into the villian's back, the impact sending him tumbling into a tree.

Atsuhiro caught you in his arms and you spread yours out. "I see, you haven't met my lovely assistant, have you?" Sitting youdown, the two of you prepared for another attack.

"Delaware Smash!" The villain cried out, running to the both of you, dodging Atsuhiro's efforts at compressing him.

You managed to dodge, but Atsuhiro wasn't so lucky, taking blow after blow before colliding into a tree.

"Hiro!" You yelled out, running towards him. It was when you held a hand out that you halted. "Now, now, Dear, worry not. It is not who's in trouble."

The villain's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. That's when you noticed a marble rolling from compresses hand. It would seem the villain noticed to but it was too late.

Before anyone could react, Spinner was there dishing out attacks. Atsuhiro stood, leaning against the tree. Running over, you helped him to balance himself.

"You had Spinner this whole time?" You asked in surprise, eyes wide. He chuckled softly and gave a small bow. "As I said, the element of surprise is very important."

"Boss! The heroes are here!"

The villain glared at us, dodging Spinner and jumping from place to place. "This isn't over." He mumbled before bounding off.

Spinner went to go after him, but Atsuhiro had his cane in front of him in a second. "Let them be."

Spinner opened his mouth to protest but sighed and nodded.

You guys soon grouped up with the rest of the class, only to see Toga on the verge of tears.

"Himiko, what's wrong?" Spinner asked, you guys rushing over. Holding back a sob, she looked up.

"They kidnapped Shigaraki!"

[joontier]

Subliminal in Scrubs | V2; report xiii

pairings: dr. jeon jungkook x female reader

chapter rating: NC-17 | genre: humor, workplace relationships

warnings: swearing 

word count: 1.8k

g/n: decided on a bit of a filler for this one as a sort of prelude to future scenes 👀👀 ((likewise manifesting my plan to post another chapter this week))

[taglist]:  @nottodayjjk @ditttiii @zeharilisharaban @btsbunny07 @turquoiseandplaidinautumn @aamxxrii @codeinebelle @btsmakesmehappy @stargukkie @moonchild1​

Subliminal in Scrubs (the records) |  navi. | m.list

Jungkook locks his apartment door behind him, jiggling the doorknob afterwards for ‘double security’ as one would usually call it. He grabs his backpack from the floor and places one of the straps on his shoulders and heads on his way. As he passes by two of his neighbors who live in the same floor, he nods at them, adding a brief hum in greeting. 

“Hey man!” One of the men, Jikwang (as what Jungkook believes this man’s name was), calls out just before Jungkook reaches the elevator. “There was this hot girl asking about you last night.” 

Jungkook raises a brow. He hadn’t really met anyone recently, besides that one cute law student who was looking for a new tenant - and eventually turned out to be your neighbor this whole time. She was cute and all, but she didn’t seem like the type that was ‘hot’ to these types of people. 

Jungkook racks his brain for anything, trying to remember the very few number of his one night stands.Surely,none of them would have gotten pregnant with protection on….surely? On top of that, he hadn’t really disclosed his address to a lot of people too, so there was no way someone would be looking for him, all the more a “hot” woman,as these two would claim. 

“Did she say what her name was?” 

The one beside Jikwang shakes his head, adjusting his beanie. He’d seen this dude a couple of times hanging around, but he never actually got his name.  “Nah bro, I don’t think you’re the commitment type of dude…” he comments, dark eyes looking at Jungkook from his head down to his toe. Who was this guy anyways and who was he to judge whether Jungkook was the type to enter a committed relationship or not? 

“She just...looked rich, rich. She had a driver... who helped her come down from a nice Benz.” 

Jungkook feels his heart drop to the ground. No way in hell. 

“I think her name was Hee something...Junghwa? I dunno man, I’m not good with names. But it sounds similar to that…” 

“Was it Junghee?” 

“Yeah I think that’s it…” bonnet-dude replies, tapping a finger against his chin as he approaches Jungkook. “You think maybe you can set me up? With you know…” 

Jikwang knocks the back of bonnet-man’s head. “I got dibs first, shithead. “If she’s not already yours though,” he adds, delivering a wink aimed at Jungkook. “Her friends will do.” 

Jungkook squints his eyes at the duo. “No. She’s my sister. And she doesn’t have any friends.” A chill courses through his spine as he replies, wondering how she managed to find out where he lived, and why would she even reach out? Why now, when she had so many years to do so? 

Beanie guy simply laughs at him - if it was even considered laughing, when he was practically splitting his sides with laughter - like the thought of having a sister was hilarious to him. “You’re real funny, man. There is no...way...in hell… that that lady was your sister.” 

Ah yes, this man is a health vice personified. Jungkook notes the discoloration of his teeth, the god-awful odor coming from his mouth, and they both reek of alcohol and drugs combined. From a safe distance, Jungkook watches their amusement over the subject that is his sister, thinking about why he even indulged these two in the first place. For all he knows, they might have been shitting on him the whole time. 

“Sorry man. I mean...she’s rich and hot… and you?” Jikwang shrugs his shoulders. 

‘And he?’ What about him? 

What the hell was that supposed to mean? 

Jungkook clicks his tongue silently, clearly taking full offense with Jikwang’s statement. Did they just imply he didn’t look rich and hot too? Well, compared to them though, they’ll obviously have way longer to go. 

Jungkook blinks before equally returning their level of disbelief. “For real, bro?” These men diss him, won’t believe he has a sister whose aura dwarfs his by a million percent, and now they want him to set up a date with her? He shakes his head. Only crooks like these would say insane shit like this. 

If only this wasn’t the cheapest and most convenient apartment he could find to accommodate his daily hustle, Jungkook would have moved out of this crap excuse of an apartment building a long time ago. 

“Keep dreaming man.” 

“Hey, this is what I get for selling you my bike for a good price?” Jikwang eyes Jungkook, taunting him. 

“I owe you nothing. I paid for it ages ago.” Jungkook turns on his heel, leaving the two in the crusty ass corridor of their apartment building. He needs to get a new place. Quickly. 

With a sigh, he pulls on his down jacket, keeping himself warm as he walks to the garage. 

‘King Auto’ 

There’s a certain warmth that envelops Jungkook whenever he sees the garage, a place he’d rather call home than his terrible apartment building. It sits right at the corner of two busy streets, just six blocks away from his apartment. 

Funnily enough, it wasn’t him who first found out about the garage but the other way around. Well, technically, the owner did. Lee Dongmin, owner and manager of ‘King Auto’ repairs and restores almost all types of cars and bikes alike, occasionally servicing high-end cars on lucky days. 

Dongmin would usually see Jungkook pass by the garage in the morning on his way to the university or his part-time job.Well, being located at a busy street in the city of Seoul, there would normally be a lot of passersby but Dongmin knew these people either worked or lived around the area; Jungkook, however, always lingered when he walks past the garage. 

It had come to Dongmin’s knowledge a few months later that Jungkook purposefully used a longer route on his way, walking two extra blocks just so that he could pass by the garage. Dongmin hadn’t initially done anything about it, as he thought Jungkook simply took interest in cars - especially when the shop had its fair share of servicing cars from the western market. 

There was this particular day though one summer, that their paths would finally cross. Jungkook’s bike, the same bike he bought from sketchy Jikwang, broke down. Coincidentally just in front of King Auto too. Funnily enough, no one in the garage was familiar with fixing up bikes, but Jungkook simply asked if he could borrow a few tools and he’d fix his bike himself. 

Ultimately, Jungkook became part of the King Auto family. He’d spend his spare time in the garage when he’s not busy with his part-time jobs and on occasion, Jungkook gets to keep a tiny commission whenever he helps out with the repairs. 

Jungkook goes through the front door greeting the new receptionist, Clark, a good morning before heading straight to the garage. Jungkook spots a familiar shade of blue peeking through the scissor lifts, just by the end row. He practically dashes to the car in excitement, too thrilled to greet his favorite car he had worked on previously. 

“My baby!” The boy exclaims as he rests his chin on the Porsche Panamera’s roof. “Kook! Get your hands off that! I just had it cleaned!” gruffs Mansik from the other side of the car, flinging his towel at Jungkook who mumbles a sorry but continues to cradle the car, a little more gently this time. 

“If you continue doing that, you know a towel isn’t the only thing Mansik is going to throw at you.” Lee Dongmin’s voice is low, careful that the man he’s referring to won’t hear his words. “I’m glad he hasn’t resorted to tools yet...just a couple of smelly socks and a t-shirt that smells like it hasn’t been washed for months... “ 

“Fuckers.” True to Jungkook’s foreboding, Mansik does throw a sock ball from out of nowhere, one which barely misses Jungkook’s face. Dongmin simply shakes his head at his workers, who he has considered family at this point, Jungkook included. “I’m just glad none of that fell into my first coffee of the day.” Dongmin observes, drawing himself father from the Porsche and any flying objects later on. 

“By the way, the owner is actually here to pick up the car. I may or may not have mentioned your infatuation with it.” 

Jungkook almost instantly jumps to his feet, searching for the owner inside the garage, but disappointingly ending up with all the familiar faces at the garage. “Chill, kid. He just grabbed some coffee down the street,” Dongmin mentions as he takes a sip of his own. “Ah, speaking of the devil,” the latter states, nodding his head towards someone behind Jungkook. 

“Seokjin-sunbaenim?” 

“Oh hey! Wasn’t expecting to see you here...Jungkook, right?” 

“Yes sir!” Jungkook’s pupils shake, animatedly looking back and forth between the garage owner and his upper-level resident. “So...you’re the one who owns this Porsche?” Seokjin raises his cup, adding a small nod in Jungkook’s direction. He internalizes his excitement, before confessing his love for Seokjin’s Panamera. 

“And so, Dongmin here mentioned. Also said you were the one who fixed her up. Thanks man!” 

Dongmin looks at the two of them, eyebrows creased in the middle. “You two know each other?” 

“Seokjin-sunbaenim is a senior of mine at Woocheon.” Seemingly shellshocked at the new piece of information, Dongmin turns to Seokjin, “You’re a doctor?” The owner of the Porsche rolls his eyes fondly, “Yes, Dongmin. We can have lives outside the hospital too, you know.” 

“Anyways, ‘Mera’s ready to go yeah?” 

“Of course. Kook fixed it up just fine.” 

“Alright. Got a shift today man? Need a ride to the hospital?” 

Jungkook is tempted to give in, but merely fixing Seokjin’s car is enough honor for him and he can’t take advantage of his generosity. “No thank you, sunbae. I’ve already got a ride to work today.” Jungkook points to his bike on the other side of the garage. 

Seokjin tuts his disbelief. “You’re kidding me right? In this weather?” The older doctor points outside, then rubs his palm against his down coat. “No way in hell, kid. Get in the car.” 

“Really?” Jungkook mumbles, dimple on display as his lips form a thin line. Seokjin makes a hum of approval as he takes off his jacket while Jungkook dashes back to where he’d left his backpack. “He’s a good kid, Jungkook. Can be a bit of a delinquent sometimes, but he’s good. Take care of him, yeah?” 

“Huh,” Seokjin smirks, “this handsome face got nothing he can’t handle.” Dongmin rolls his eyes this time, “Seriously doubt we’re the same age honestly.” 

Jungkook returns to where the Porsche is parked, and Seokjin gets a spur-of-the-moment idea. The surgical resident throws his keys to Jungkook before settling inside the passenger seat. Jungkook, surprised as ever, simply stands there in surprise. “Well?” Seokjin asks, ducking towards the dashboard so he could take a look at Jungkook, “We’re gonna be late!” 

© joontier 2021

[navegandoaciegas]

I love my baby to death

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader 

Warnings: fluff, friends to lovers, tiniest bit of angst but really tiny I promise, 3.5k words, set after Endgame

Summary:  “Say, hypothetically, there’s a 100 year old fossil who’s a bit confused most of the time but he’s got the spirit, right?, and he’s outside with a packed duffle bag, what would you do?”

You were supposed to enjoy a solo roadtrip after years of Avenging, but Bucky invites himself along and you can’t say no to his happy face.

A/N: I haven’t slept in a week because of nightmares and I just needed something to cheer me up, I guess. Reader took Steve’s side in CA:CW and spent two years with him as a nomad. You can choose to see her and Natasha as a platonic relationship or a romantic one, it’s up to you.

masterlist

Read the sequel to this here

“They’re just so fuckin’ gross I don’t understand how you can eat them.”

Bucky sends you his best death glare as he continues digging in his soggy cardboard In-N-Out fries.

“We could have literally stopped by Arby’s three miles west of here” you continue, “they have the best fries. We’re missing out, clearly.” you deadpan eyeing his food skeptically. 

“The curly ones? God no, they’re so spicy. I don’t know why you like your food to hurt but I don’t.”

“Okay, first of all they’re not spicy at all, I don’t know where you got that from. And second, they have a taste at least, unlike these.” You reiterate your point by swinging one the fries in his face. Bucky just grabs your hand and bites the fry, almost biting your fingers off too.

“Yeah, like that god-awful spicy chicken you forced on me the other day? No thank you, ma’am, I’ll stand by my own food choices.” 

You snort. “Not my fault your post-Depression ass can’t handle anything other than salt and black pepper. But sure, go ‘head and enjoy your sorry excuse of a meal, Buck.”

“People from your generation sure love complaining, huh? Back in my days you ate what your mama made you and never bitched about it, or else you went to bed hungry.” 

God, he’s such a grampa. You make a show of rolling your eyes and huffing in annoyance. He likes his senior citizen card a bit too much. He tries to stifle a laugh when he sees the look on your face and just shakes his head at you. 

California (and Bucky Barnes) has stolen your heart and you’ve loved this road trip so much you often wonder why it took you being snapped and facing the end of the world twice to retire from the avenging business. 

Fresno is interesting, to say the least. 

He wanted to stop by, saying something about wanting to see “an old pal from the war” ’s hometown for himself, and you’ve been dreaming about exploring Yosemite for as long as you can remember.

-

Online pictures of Yosemite National Park were stunning but the real thing is just breathtaking. 

You never thought camping would become your thing and you never imagined you’d enjoy stargazing so much. In five months you’ve discovered how big of a nerd Bucky really is and he’s been trying to teach you the names of all the stars and constellations. 

He sees Big Dipper, Orion, Ursa Major and Minor; you see pretty twinkling lights and the occasional shooting star. Nevertheless you sit through hours and hours of explanations, because when he speaks of the things he’s passionate about, Bucky is the most beautiful thing in the world.

“You know, the stars are one of the things I missed the most.” he says softy, furrowing his brows as he does when he remembers something from the past. “Stevie and I used to do that as kids sometimes. We’d sneak out of our houses and go on the roof of this abandoned building to watch the stars. Now there’s so much goddamn light everywhere, you can’t even see them anymore.”

Sometimes when you stop and think about it, really think, you can’t imagine how hard it must have been for them, having everything, even the night sky taken away from them. 

“Steve never told me.” 

“He probably missed the stars too.”

You eye him looking for clues on how he might feel, but you only see a sad smile on his face. “You miss him, don’t you?”

“Every damn day.” his voice cracks and you hold him closer.

“I know Buck, I miss him too. I miss him so much that sometimes I feel like my life has no direction without my Captain.” You’re barely holding back your own tears at this point, “But we’ve got Sam if we need orders, yes?” but you still try to make him smile. You’re always going to try for him.

Your attempt works and he snorts. Always bring Sam up to cheer Bucky.

“I hope he was happy, you know.” he says, “I hope he made the right choice and never regretted a thing. I hope that now he looks back and thinks he wouldn’t have had it any other way. His happiness is all I could ever ask for.”

You cling to each other that night and cry until the early morning. It feels good to let it all out, to let Steve go and look at the future. You’ve lost too much but tonight you only have hope.

-----

New York

Five months before

“Words on the street is you’re retiring your crusty old ass from the field.” 

Sam is leaning on the door of your hotel room with his arms folded and a pleased look on his face.

“Rumors travel fast in this post-apocalyptic word, I see.” you say as you continue stuffing a duffle bag with all the clothes you have left.

“How are you?” Sam asks, with his newly found Captain voice. You wonder if it’s something in that damn shield that gives them that stern commanding tone.

“Tryina analize me, Sammy? I’m not one of your guys at the VA.”

It’s not like you’re pissed at Sam, you love him with all your heart, you’re just angry at the world and Sam’s the one standing in your way right now.

You hear him sigh, “I know what you’re feeling right now, I understand why you would think that-” “Don’t” you interrupt him, “Don’t give me that speech, Fury did that for you already. I’m not running away from my problems.”

“I’m not saying that-” you really don’t want him to talk today, so you stop him again “No but you’re thinking it.”

“I know what it’s like.” he says raising his voice “To lose who you care the most in the world. We all lost someone important but you lost Natasha and I know, trust me I know what you feel right now, because it’s what I felt when I lost Riley.” 

You stop and swallow the tight lump in your throat.

Your eyes well up with tears as you turn to look at him. You’ve been so blinded by your own pain and anger you didn’t stop for a moment to think about others. “I’m sorry Sam, I shouldn’t have treated you like that.” you say sobbing.

Why did she have to leave you?

Stupid, stupid Natasha. Why did she have to sacrifice herself for the world?

Why her?

He hugs you tight and rocks you back and forth. “I understand why you’re leaving and I’m not here to stop you, I promise. Just keep in touch, yes? Text me everyday so I’m not tempted to track you down and fly wherever you are to see if you’re good.”

You smile for the first time in a long time.

“Don’t worry Sam, you’ll get tired of all the selfies I’ll send you, eventually.” 

“You know I’ll never get tired of this pretty face.” he says raising his eyebrows suggestively, making you laugh. “Good, that’s my girl. I missed this laugh so much.”

You stay in his arms a while longer until it’s time for you to leave.

“This is not the only reason I’m here.” he says and clears his throat, “Say, hypothetically, there’s a 100 year old fossil who’s a bit confused most of the time but he’s got the spirit, right?, and he’s outside with a packed duffle bag, what would you do?”

“What?” you manage to stammer out. “Bucky just... wants to...tag along?” 

You are now as confused as Bucky is most of the time.

Sam shrugs. “I guess? You know he’s weird like that.”

What he really means is he’s just like you, lost and confused and in desperate need to live a little, but he doesn’t say it out loud. There’s no need to.

“So, would you mind if he came too?”

You see Bucky standing outside, leaning on your SUV. He’s cut his hair short and he looks hotter than you would like to. He turns around and waves at you with a big smile on his face. Like Sam often says, you too like his energy.

“No, I wouldn’t mind at all.”

----

Denver, Colorado

It’s a long way from New York to Colorado and if you’re honest, you’ve loved every minute of it and you’re glad Bucky came along with you. He’s witty, laid back, snarky, smart and overall a fun guy for someone who was a prisoner to nazis for 70 years.

“Look all I’m saying is I think Edward is a fuckin’ creep. Would you like it if someone stood in your room and looked at you while you sleep?”

“But is that someone a hot vampire, Bucky?”

“It literally doesn’t even matter.”

“Stop saying literally Buck, you’re a 100 year old man, not a valley girl.”

-

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Lemme check a map.”

“Bucky it’s on the screen there, Google says we have 20 minutes left.”

“But can we trust this Google guy?”

-

“All I’m saying is if you made and enjoyed congealed salads you probably don’t deserve your right to vote for the future of this country.”

“I mean...fair enough?”

-

“Do we count blipped years or not?”

“At this point it, it barely makes a difference in my case, doll.”

“Honestly you’ve got a point, old man.”

-

“How are you so calm right now?”

“My standards are so low it’s practically impossible to piss me off.”

“But you aren’t even a little bothered?”

“Chill, it’s just a flat tire, it’s gonna take 10 minutes to fix.”

“Buck we talked about the things that are unacceptable. ‘Chill’ coming out of your mouth is one of those.”

It’s your second week in Denver already, and you’re having the time of your life. 

Bucky is spooning you like he usually does. You think back to the first time you’ve shared a bed and you almost giggle at the memory. 

“Uh, Buck?”

“Yes?”

“We might have a problem.”

He enters the room after you and his eyes widen when he sees it.

There’s a bed in the room.

A single bed.

You weren’t expecting much from this place that gives you ‘Bates Motel’ vibes, but you thought you’d have two beds, or at least a couch.

“I’ll just sleep on the floor, don’t worry about it.”

“What?” you shriek “Absolutely not, I’m not letting you suffer all night. We’re going to share.”

“But I-”

“No buts, you know how many times I slept with Steve? I’m used to you supersoldier men by now, I’m no longer affected by your kicks.”

He stays silent. “You and Steve used to…?”

Only then you realize you could have phrased it better.

“God no, I meant just, ya know, share bed.”

He smiles and nods. Why does he look relieved?

Now he clings to you every night, and most times he’s the little spoon because he likes to be held. You used to hate sleeping tangled with someone else until you woke up on top of Bucky, his hands caressing your back, and he told you he had the best night of sleep he’s had in decades.

There’s a lot of things you do just because they make him happy, actually.

But how could you not?

There’s no point in denying your feelings.

----

Salt Lake City, Utah

God, you love Utah.

You drive through immense stretches of red desert whilst Bucky blasts Nicki Minaj like his life depends on it; that’s how it always ends up when he rides shotgun.

He insisted on visiting Monument Valley despite it being out of your way, but you can never find it in yourself to refuse him anything, so you drove 9 hours straight from Denver to the southern border of Utah just so he could see a place that looks a lot like the ones in those Western cowboy movies from the 50s and 60s he loves so much.

“Yasha would have hated it here so much.” you say as you pull over the Airbnb you’ve rented for a couple of days in Salt Lake City.

He snorts, “Yeah, I bet she would have.”

You thought time would heal all wounds and that someday you might stop feeling the void in your life when you think of her, but now you know you’ll never stop hurting. She was such a big part of your life for so long that your heart will never stop aching for her. 

Sometimes you think how she never got to see you again after you were snapped. 

You wonder if she ever stopped missing you.

You know you’ll never not miss her.

-

You’ve driven for more than humanly possible in two days, but he’s a supersoldier and you’re really stubborn, and now you can’t wait to sleep in a nice bed for the first time in a long while. Usually you just make do with motels, but tonight you wanted to treat yourselves.

You enter the place and notice immediately the two queen size beds. 

You should be relieved, and if it was 4 months ago when you first shared a bed you would probably be, but now you’re so used to his warm body next to yours, his flesh arm over you and his face resting in the crook of your neck that you don’t know if you’ll ever be able to fall asleep without him.

“I’ll go shower first if you don’t mind.” you say as you mentally berate yourself for your thoughts. 

Your goal to not fall in love with Bucky Barnes flew out the window somewhere in the green fields of Western Iowa, but at this point you’re just treading a dangerous path and you know you’re going to get hurt.

There’s no way Bucky feels the same about you, right?

You get out the shower, put on a t-shirt you’ve stolen from Steve ages ago and get out of the bathroom, only to stop when you see Bucky on the bed you claimed as yours.

“Sorry, I hope you don’t mind but I feel better when I sleep with you.”

Maybe he does.

----

Nevada

Technically it takes roughly 43 hours to get from New York to Sacramento by car. It took you almost five months.

You’ve been covering Interstate 80, stopping and visiting towns, cities and parks along the way as you pleased, sleeping in seedy motels, your SUV or that fancy ass tent Bucky bought somewhere in Ohio. You’ve begged Bucky to drive from Salt Lake City straight to Sacramento, stopping only when it’s absolutely necessary; you’ll be visiting Nevada after California anyways, so for now you’re just enjoying the scenic drive, with the windows rolled down and the air messing up your hair.

“What’s that song called?” Bucky asks and raises the radio’s volume.

“That’s Dani California by Red Hot Chili Peppers.” you answer absentmindedly, distracted by the seemingly endless stretch of black asphalt and yellowish nothingness around it.

She’s lover, baby and a fighter

Shoulda seen it coming when I got a little brighter

Bucky sings along and smiles glancing your way.

“I like this.” he exclaims when the song ends “Can we listen to it again, please?”

You smile softly and play it again. If there’s one thing Bucky is capable of is listening to the same song on repeat multiple times until you’re so sick of it you don’t ever want to hear it again.

 Who knew the other side of you

Who knew what others died to prove

You never thought Bucky would be like this, or that you’d be privileged enought to see this side of him.

There’s a big smile on his face and the orange hues of the sky reflect in his clear eyes. He’s got one hand on the steering wheel and the vibranium one resting on the car’s door and he looks so different from the man haunted by his past and loneliness you met in Budapest all those years ago. He looks so carefree and relaxed now, so happy. 

You are proud of him.

California rest in peace

Simultaneous release

California show your teeth

She’s my priestess and I’m your priest

I love my baby to death

------

San Diego, California 

You’ve hiked the hills of southern Cali and gone parapending in Torrey Pines. You landed on a breathtaking beach with beautiful dark sand and soon found out, much to Bucky’s dismay and utter disgust, that it was a nudist beach.

He grumbled something about ‘hygiene’ and ‘decor’ and you just laughed at his flustered state.

“First time seeing a naked woman, old man?” you asked in between fits of laughter.

You didn’t notice the sea lion swimming next to you in La Jolla and not even Thanos’ creepy gang could have scared you as much when you turned around and looked him dead in the eyes. Bucky got his revenge filming you as you shot out the ocean with a shrill, covered in algae and terrified. 

You are loving the San Diego area so far. Minus the sea lions.

“Hey I- uh- do you mind if I take the car? I wanted to go do some shopping.” Bucky tells you.

He’s really embarrassed for some reason.

You shrug and mumble a ‘sure’ before going back to basking in the sun by the pool of the hotel you’re staying at.

“Okay, I-I guess I’ll g-go then, I’ll come pick you up at 5.30 for dinner.” he stutters out.

Weird, you think, but you don’t give it too much thought. Bucky is like that.

-

Dinner time rolls around and as promised Bucky comes pick you up on time.

You’re wearing a short green dress with white daisies printed on it and a pair of strappy white sandals. You look good and you know it; Bucky knows it too, judging from the glances he tries to sneak your way.

“So, uhm-” he clears his voice, “I know it’s going to sound weird but I promise it’s not. Can I- Can I blindfold you?”

Can he...what? You could split me in half and I’d be glad about it, you’d like to say.

“Kinky. You could at least buy me differ first, tho.” you settle for something safer instead.

He blushes three shades darker than his usual color and you take the black scarf he’s handing you, barely concealing a teasing smile.

He drives around for a while. When you get to your destination the first thing you hear is the waves beating on the shore and the smell of the ocean. He helps you get out and guides you somewhere.

“Wait here.” 

You hear him park the car in reverse, open the trunk and fiddle with something. He comes up behind you and removes the blindfold. You feel his hot breath on your neck and it sends tingles down your spine straight to your pu- “You can look now.”

When you open your eyes you are stunned for a moment. You turn around with a big smile that turns even bigger when you notice the blankets and the little picnic he’s assembled in the trunk.

“Buck, this is- I can’t believe you remembered.”

Somewhere in Colorado you mentioned how romantic you thought Sunset Cliffs were, and how much you wished you could do something like this. It was a fleeting moment, a thought uttered out loud absentmindedly over a couple of drinks in some bar. You were tipsy and you were running your mouth about all the things you’d want in a partner to some random girl who became your best friends for the night.

You realize you’re tearing up when his fingers grace your cheeks.

It feels nice to be cared about so much. It’s been too long since someone took such good care of you.

“I thought I’d do something special for you.” he says with an adorable blush.

“Thank you Bucky, I love this.” you hug him tightly and bury your face in his chest, inhaling his scent.

“Anything for my girl.”

“When did I become your girl, huh?” you ask teasingly.

“Probably when I invited myself on this trip.”

You both laugh at that.

You swallow hard when you see the look on his face. God, how did you miss the signs? You were always a better sniper than a spy, Yasha always told you.

Your heart is beating out of your chest in anticipation as he leans down slowly and your lips brush lightly. His hands are on your waist and yours on his broad shoulders. He kisses you timidly at first, and more passionately as he gains confidence. 

“I wanted to do this since Bucharest.” he confesses after your lips part.

“Took you long enough, Sarge.”

But it was worth the wait.

-

Tonight’s sunset will be burned in the back of your mind permanently. 

You kiss and laugh some more, and feed eachother seedless grapes because they’re the only ones you eat. He’s brought strawberries, white wine because you don’t drink red, hummus and pita and an assortment of cheese and crackers.

You kiss and talk, cuddle, laugh and kiss some more all night.

You’ve accepted long ago that you’ll never fill the gaping hole in your lives, but that night when you make love to eachother the void in your hearts that Steve and Natasha left behind doesn’t seem as encompassing as it usually is.

---

Thank you for reading! If you liked it, please reblog and comment, feedback is always appreciated 🥺🤲 might fuck around and write Bucky’s POV too.

[bittywitches]

Baby Girl | G.D [Part One]

A/N: This is my first time doing a multiple-part fanfic, so pls don’t judge me too harshly 😅 I’m not completely sure where this is going yet, but I thought that I might as well post the first part :P

Basically: Y/N is a young innocent girl, senior in high school, and her good friend Cameron is helping her out with uni applications. What Y/N doesn’t know is that Cam’s younger brothers are hot as fuck and one of them has taken a liking to her..

Hope you guys enjoy it :)) Lmk what you think (If I should continue this or not hehe)

Word Count: 6.2K

You’d known Cameron for a while since she was pretty good friends with your sister. They hung out frequently whenever she visited LA, and a lot of their time was spent at the apartment you shared with your older sister. So, it resulted in you and Cam getting pretty close, and you thought of her as a sister figure, but one you were still a bit awkward around. 

When Cameron suggested that she help you out with your uni applications, you were excited but also nervous. She was visiting again, and she was staying with her twin younger brothers. You didn’t want to feel like you were imposing, but she said she was happy to help you out. She’d helped you out a lot with your assignments throughout high school, so when she invited you over to the house she was staying at so you guys could get to work, you didn’t think much of it, especially since she told you that her brothers would probably be out for most of the day. She’d, of course, made sure with them beforehand, so you weren’t too concerned about going over there. You’d brought a bag full of a few stuff you’d need, and made your way over. Her smiling face that opened the door put your anxieties at ease.

That, however, seemed to change when you both heard the front doors open, followed by the sound of laughter.

You and Cam were sitting at the breakfast table, and she was helping you work through the application. You looked up at the sound of the door opening and saw two large figures enter through it. Suddenly you could feel all of your anxiety return in an instant, bubbling around in your stomach. You weren’t expecting anybody else to come, and you hadn’t prepared yourself for meeting anybody, which was why you were dressed as if you had been home for the past three weeks (aka crusty looking sweatpants and an old t-shirt, with your hair up in a messy bun). You’d put on the bare minimum amount of makeup to give the illusion that you were somewhat prepared for the day.

“Hey, Cam.” The taller body said. His deep raspy voice surprised you, and when you looked up, It was as if your body was acting on its own because your eyes immediately clung to his bare chest. Droplets of sweat trickled down his toned abdomen, and you genuinely had to take a few seconds before getting ahold of yourself. He was holding a skateboard at his side, but you were entranced by his model-type physique that you didn’t seem to even acknowledge anything else for a moment. You casually let your gaze fall lower, almost drooling at the sight of his v-line, barely covered by his shorts that were riding too low for your comfort. You physically had to grip the side of the table to keep your head straight. The movement of his arm going up to run his fingers through his hair was what finally shook you out of your daze. You glanced at his bulging bicep, gulping at just the sheer girth of it. Your eyes followed it up his tan arm to finally look at his face. His chiseled jawline seemed to call out at you, intimidating you but drawing you in all at once. He had a bit of stubble crawling up his neck and around his chin. You glanced up at his eyes quickly, but you were too embarrassed to keep them there, and they finally rested on his pink lips. You couldn’t help looking at them. You weren’t used to looking at guys like this ever, but you’d never met a high school boy who’d looked like this before. You subconsciously licked your lips before getting interrupted from your thoughts.

“Hey, Grayson.”

This had all happened in a matter of seconds, of course, but you already knew that you were obsessed with this man, whoever he was.

The second twin closed the door, walking up towards the table. He was wearing a pair of shorts and a loose tank top, which you thanked god for since he was coming in very close proximity to you and you didn’t know if you’d be able to handle it if the first one had come near you like that.

You could tell from looking at them that they were twins, but the difference was so clear to you as well. Grayson’s face was a bit narrower than his brother, and his nose was a bit skinnier as well. You were obsessed with his locks of hair and had to keep yourself from staring at him for too long.

If you’d known Cam had such good looking brothers, she would’ve suggested working at your place.

“Who’s this?” The new twin asked, resting his forearms on the empty chair in front of him.

“Oh! Right. You remember my friend, Angela, right? This is her sister. She’s the one I’m helping out with the university application.” She turned to you. “these are Ethan,” she pointed at the one closest to you, “and that’s Grayson.” She pointed at the one leaning against the sofa in the living room.

“Nice to meet you,” Ethan said with a smile.

You returned it, but your eyes drifted back to the broad twin in the living room.

“What’re you guys doing back so early?” Cam asked.

“Oh, well, Kyle ended up having to...” he went on, mentioning something about a friend (you assumed) having to leave for some reason or another. You, however, had completely forgotten about the application in front of you and found your attention drifting back to Grayson, who was now looking at something on his phone.

You couldn’t quite put a finger on what about him captivated you so much. Sure, he was hot, and made you feel like you were going to pass out any second, but Ethan was also hot. But he didn’t give you that same feeling. Something you hadn’t felt like about any old boyfriend you’d had before. You already wanted all of his attention, and you literally hadn’t even met him yet. You wanted him near you, close to you. You shifted in your seat, trying to get a better look at his face from the other room. His jaw was clenched in a way that made you want him in ways you’d never wanted anybody else before. And you could tell that he’d be able to destroy you if he wanted.

It seemed like you were staring for too long because Grayson looked up and caught your eye. Your breathing stopped, and your eyes widened at seeing his for the first time. His dark, chestnut eyes seemed to draw you in, making your chest pound.

He tilted his head at you, seeming to be amused by your small panic because he gave you a small smile and waved. 

You turned her head away incredibly fast, your face heating up fast and colour spreading to your cheeks. You coughed, clearing your throat.

However, your panic would not settle, as you could see Grayson getting up off the couch and make his way over to the table you were sitting at.

“Gray, go put a shirt on for Christ’s sake.” Cameron scolded, and the tan boy rolled his eyes. 

“Whatever.”

“You’re going to taint her baby virgin eyes!” She reached over to your eyes to cover them, but you swatted them away with annoyance.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Grayson said, looking over at you again, only making you flustered once more and turn away.

“Not much of a talker, is she?” Ethan interrupted.

“Yea, she’s kind of shy, but we’re trying to shake that.” She tried to ruffle your hair playfully, but you swatted her arm away again, huffing.

“Where’re you applying to?” Grayson asked, turning his attention back to you.

He was leaning against the chair in front of him on his forearms. Your eyes immediately went to his large hands firmly clasped together in front of you, your eyes widening at the sight of him. You wondered just what it was you’d done to deserve this.

It was hard to focus on anything with the large hunk of muscles standing before you. You couldn’t help it, he really was the most gorgeous person you’d ever seen. All the boys you’ve known throughout high school barely caught your eye, but it felt like Grayson’s gaze alone was holding you tightly, making you freeze on the spot. This was an actual man, and you were not able to handle it.

His dark eyes seemed to melt you into a puddle because you found it hard to form any words at the moment. 

“Uhh..” You started, feeling like the butterflies were having a wrestling match in your stomach. He straightened his back and hoisted his arms on his waist, and that action alone had you sputtering for another few seconds.

You cleared your throat. “Caltech.”

“Damn,” Ethan said. “Didn’t know you were friends with geniuses, Cam.”

“Shut up.” She slapped his wrist, and he chuckled. 

You could see Grayson’s eyes lingering on you while you pretended to focus on Cam and Ethan, and it made you want to curl up into a ball and hide away. The fact that someone as pretty as him was paying any attention to you at all made you feel naked under his gaze. 

But you were absolutely loving it.

Grayson cleared his throat. “Well, I’m gonna go take a shower. You girls have fun.”

He smiled at you once more before heading off to his bedroom, and you let an audible sigh leave your lips as you finally relaxed into your seat.

Ethan snorted. “Looks like the little girl has a crush on Grayson.”

“Ethan shut the fuck up! Get out of here!” Cam slapped him again as you blushed incredibly hard, and he laughed, heading for his bedroom as well.

“I’m sorry about them,” Cam said, and you gave her a fake laugh, telling her that it was no big deal.

“You totally do have the hots for him though.”

“Cameron!”

・ ・ ・

“Oh- careful. The paper’s gonna fall.” You and Cameron were now in the twins’ backyard, beside the pool. She had suggested working outside, as it would get you more into the mood of being productive. What she didn’t plan for was all the stuff you’d be bringing out with them, but you didn’t mind. 

She laughed. “Okay, maybe working out here wasn’t the best idea.”

“No, it’s okay.” The sun was just starting to set over the horizon, so it left a beautiful rosy orange that gently shone over the furniture. “I like it, it’s pretty out here.”

She smiled at you. You worked in silence for a while as she idly scrolled through her phone, but your peace was interrupted by the sound of the glass sliding door opening suddenly.

You looked up from what you were doing to see Grayson standing in the door frame, wearing nothing but a pair of swim trunks and a towel around his neck. You widened your eyes at the sight, your face beginning to heat up once more as you looked away.

“What’re you doing out here?”

Cam inquired, looking up from her phone.

Grayson grabbed the towel from his neck and threw it over the side of the couch. “Thought I’d go for a swim.”

“Ah.” She paused, her eyebrows furrowed. “Didn’t you just shower?”

“Yea.”

“And your gonna swim now?”

“Yea. Why?”

She paused for a second, then opened her mouth as if to say something, but then shook her head. “Okay, whatever weirdo.”

He made his way over to the side of the pool, your eyes following him without a second thought.

“Jeez, drool much?” Cameron laughed, and you groaned.

“How are you related to him?” you gaped, watching him stretch his thick arms over his head.

“Wow, thanks.” She rolled her eyes at you, then proceeded to get up off the couch.  “I’m gonna go shower too. If you need anything, let the guys know. I’ll be back quick.”

“Wait, don’t leave me with him-”

“He’s not a dog, Y/N. He won’t bite.” You blushed at that, and she rolled her eyes again. “Now stop gaping at my brother and do your work!”

Grayson turned his head at the sound of Cameron’s exclamation, causing your face to turn beat red.

“Did you say something?”

Cam waved him away. “No, I was just talking to Y/N.” She looked back at you with a smirk.

“I hate you so much.” You said as she walked off towards the guest bedroom.

“Do your damn work!”

You sighed, rubbing your face in your hands to try and shake away the embarrassment. 

“Okay, okay…” you mumbled to yourself, opening up the requirements tab for the essay you were writing. You crossed your legs underneath you, trying to get back to work.

After a few minutes, however, you noticed Grayson’s body moving out of the corner of your eye, and you couldn’t help but look up at him. He had just set his phone down and was kicking his slippers off. 

You took in a deep breath. You knew you should probably head inside since it was getting darker, and there was absolutely no way you’d be able to focus with him out here, but there was just something about him that made you so curious. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of him. He stood there for a while, his hands on his waist, just looking at the beautiful scene before you both; the warm colours of the sun spilling before the trees. The only thing you were staring at, however, was his broad back, and the beautiful tattoo inked onto it. The way the lions moved on the surface of his skin when his muscles shifted made you ache, and you didn’t even know why.

“Fuck,” you muttered, biting your finger as you marveled at the sight. He walked up to the edge of the pool, leaning forward with his arms bending in front of him. He kicked of the side, diving gracefully into the pool with a splash much smaller than you would have expected for a man of his size. It took a few seconds longer than you would have thought for him to resurface, taking in a deep breath as he shook the wet hair out of his face. His chest heaved slightly, a bit out of breath as he brought his large arms up to rub his face. You tilted your head at him, watching him as if he was a piece of artwork. So when his hands left his face and his eyes connected with yours, your face flushed again. He smirked at you, finding your expression hilarious whenever he caught your eye. He waved at you once again, and this time you finally got up the nerve to give him a small wave back. He grinned at you, finding your behaviour to be incredibly cute. He bobbed his head back under the water again, and you let out a huge breath.

“Jesus.” You groaned, shaking your head as you turned your head back to your laptop. “Do you goddamn work, Y/N.”  you mumbled to yourself.

…

Around twenty minutes later, you were just about done with your first draft of your essay. You set the laptop down on the table, stretching your arms out as you yawned. Now all you had to do was wait for Cameron to come read it over and tell you everything you’d done wrong.

You sighed, but your eyes perked up at seeing Grayson climb out of the pool. You stared at his drenched chest for the second time today, feeling a bit embarrassed not having your laptop on your lap to hide behind. He shook the water out of his hair and ran his hands through his drenched locks to bring them away from his face. You sighed, unable to comprehend how someone like this existed. Water dripped down his chiseled torso, and you wanted more than anything just to touch him. Your eyes clung to the tattoos on his thighs, beautiful tapestry on top of an already gorgeous artwork. He walked over to you now, making you instinctively look away from him the closer he got. He grabbed the towel that he had thrown over the couch sometime before. He rubbed his hair and shook it out once more. You grabbed your laptop from the table again, propping it up on your lap so you at least looked like you had something better to do than marvel at the boy in front of you.

Grayson pulled the towel away from his face, looking at you from the corner of his eye. He could see your eyebrows furrow, heat seeming to radiate from your face.

Grayson liked you. He’d heard you speak about a total of three words, but he knew that he liked you. You were new, different. You were exciting. You were the first new person they’d had at the house for a while, apart from the people who’d come over to work on his and Ethan’s short films. To see someone new who had no idea who he was or had no intent to gain anything from him, AND wasn’t obnoxious or rude was, frankly, a bit refreshing. And the fact that you were so young. Even if you were an “adult”, you weren’t even out of high school yet. Sure, you were technically only two years younger than him, but so much had happened for Grayson in those two years. He was a completely different person than he was when he was eighteen. He’d grown and matured. Looking at you now, he thought you were precious. Pure. A gentle angel who he’d found sitting at his breakfast table in a pair of sweatpants. And who’s small figure was now sitting gracefully in his backyard. You were the sweetest thing he’d laid his eyes on, and to be completely honest… he wanted to get a taste.

“What’re you working on, baby girl?”

Grayson sat down on the seat across from you, continuing to rub the water out of his hair.

You genuinely felt your heart stop when he said those words, unsure if you’d actually heard him correctly. You stared at him for a few seconds, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape as your face flushed even redder than before, if that was even possible. You coughed, sputtering as you looked away in embarrassment.

When Grayson didn’t hear you respond, he brought the towel down from his face again to look at you. He was going to ask what was wrong when he noticed your beating red face, which lead him to chuckle.

“Sorry, do you not like that nickname?”

You peered up at him gently. 

You did like it. But you didn’t want to say it.

“My bad. I won’t call you that from now on-”

“No!” You sputtered, speaking almost at a normal volume. Grayson tilted his head at you, a confused look on his face but that charming smile still there nonetheless.

“I… I do like it.”

He grinned at you. He was already having too much fun. “Well, that’s good to know, because otherwise I’d have had to tell Cameron to stop calling you that.”

Your eyes widened at that, looking up at him with an incredulous look. “Cameron calls me that??”

“Oh, yea. All the time.”

She didn’t. But he liked calling you that.

“It’s the only thing she refers to you as when she talks to us.”

“Oh my god!” You said bringing your knees up to your chest, keeping the laptop balanced on your thighs. “I’m so gonna kill her….”

Grayson laughed at that, and you couldn’t help but smile, despite your annoyance at his older sister. 

He leaned forward, looking at you intently while resting his forearms on his knees. “So.. what’re you working on?”

“Oh…” you cleared your throat. “Just these short-answer essays.”

“For the application?”

“Mhm.”

“Sounds pretty intense.” He leaned over the table to look at the requirements page you had printed out for yourself. 

“Yea…” You swallowed when he grabbed the paper, his brows furrowing as he skimmed the list.

“Wow. You must be really talented to get into a school like this.”

You blushed as he set the paper back down on the table. “Yea, well... Let’s hope so.”

He looked up at you. “I’m sure you’ll get in.”

You smiled. “Thank you.”

“What do you plan on studying?” he leaned back, crossing a leg over his knee.

“Well, my goal is to get a degree in Astrophysics.”

“Fancy.”

You giggle. “Yea. I’ve wanted to be an aerospace engineer since the beginning of high school, and well…” You gestured towards the paper. “That’s the first step.”

“That’s really cool.” He gave you a warm smile, which you returned.

He rubbed his bare arms with a shiver. “It’s getting a bit chilly, isn’t it?” He reached over to grab a baby blue sweatshirt hung over the arm of the couch. He slipped it on, a bit to your disappointment since you were enjoying the sight, but he looked cozy in it, so you didn’t mind too much.

“I think I’m gonna make myself a coffee.” He stood up, making his way over to the glass door before turning around. “Do you want anything?”

“Huh?” You were distracted by his tattoos again, this time getting a better look at a gorgeous looking sunset on his thigh.

“Do you want anything to drink? Tea or coffee, maybe?”

“Oh.. sure.”

He hoisted his hands onto his waist. “You gotta pick one, sweetheart.”

Your face heated up again for the millionth time that day. The way his deep and raspy voice seemed to whisper that name in your ear, you couldn’t help but imagine him saying it to you in a different context.

You’re such a good girl, aren’t you, sweetheart?

“Uhm, tea is good,” You spit out, trying to shake the thought from your head. 

Grayson tilted his head at you, smirking because he loved what he was doing to you with no effort at all. “Gotcha.”

He left for the kitchen, leaving you a melted embarrassed mess. You smacked the sides of your face to get those stupid thoughts out of your head. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” You mumbled to yourself, scolding yourself in your head. 

Relax, you horny virgin.

“Stupid brain,” You grumbled, looking back down at your laptop in frustration. You rubbed your eyes with your palms, trying to refresh your thoughts. This was Cameron’s brother. You couldn’t be thinking like that…

You tried to zone out, getting back into the flow of working. You decided to get a head start on reading over the draft without Cameron. After a few minutes passed, however, a random thought popped into your head.

“Oh, shit.” You realized you’d forgotten to ask for milk in your tea. You set your laptop down on the couch beside you and got up, walking towards the house.

“Grayso-” You started, but the words flew out of your mouth when you smashed into the front of a broad chest, followed by a gasp as you felt a hot burning sensation all over your chest and shoulders.

“Oh my god!” You shrieked, jumping back to find Grayson’s cup of coffee along with your cup of tea spilt all over you.

“Jesus, fuck,” Grayson said, staring at the ground. When you looked down, you saw one of the mugs he was holding smashed to bits. 

“Shit, I’m so sorry!” you said, cupping your mouth with your hands in horror at what you had just done. After the shock had subsided, the searing pain you felt across your skin from the boiling temperature drinks resumed once again. 

“Ohhh my god.” you pinched your t-shirt and pulled it away from your chest, trying to fan yourself in the process.

Grayson looked up at you, realizing that he’d just spilt the drinks all over you as well. “Oh Jesus, I’m so sorry- God, uh.” He cleared his throat. “Are you wearing something under that?”

You blinked at him. “What?”

“Are you wearing anything under your t-shirt?”

“Y-yea, a tank top.”

“Okay, you’re probably gonna wanna take that off so you don’t get a scald.”

“What??”

“Okay.” He grabbed the towel that was laying on the arm of the couch. “I’m gonna go soak this in cold water, but seriously, you should take that off.”

“O-okay, but first let me clean up the mess-”

“No.” He grabbed your shoulder, and you winced at his touch, causing him to recoil away very fast.

“Fuck, sorry. Don’t worry about this, I’ll clean it up.” He made sure that you sat down before running back into the house.

You debated on what to do. You didn’t want Grayson seeing you shirtless for the first time because you made an embarrassing mistake, but you also didn’t want to allow the pain in your chest to get any worse. You finally decided that you really didn’t want to get completely burned, so you reluctantly took your top off, leaving you in your small tank top with spaghetti straps, your chest and shoulders basically completely exposed. Your chest hurt really bad, but you were more embarrassed by the fact that you’d let this happen in the first place. When Grayson rushed back outside, you crossed your arms in front of your chest.

“Here.” He handed you the wet towel. You reached for it, not meeting his eyes while doing so.

“Thanks.”

He nodded, letting you clean yourself up while he bent down to clean the broken shards of the cup off of the ground with the dustpan. 

“Wait, did any of it get on you?” You just realized how selfish you were being, since Grayson probably got splashed as well considering your guys’ close proximity. You got up to hand the towel back to him, but he waved you back down. 

“No, I’m fine. You use that quickly though.”

You nodded, sitting back down in your seat. When the cold surface of the towel touched your burned skin, you let out an audible gasp, but then sighed in relief as the pain slowly started to dissipate. After cleaning the actual tea off of your skin, you laid the towel on top of your shoulders. You turned your attention back to Grayson, who was sweeping up the final shards of the mess.

“Sorry for breaking the cup.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

…

“Sorry for spilling tea all over you.”

“It was my fault, I bumped into you.”

“Still, sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

He got up and faced you. “Do you want me to wash it and give it back to you?” He pointed at the towel since it had warmed up to room temperature quite fast.

“No, it’s okay. You gave it to me pretty quick so I’m fine now.” You gave the towel back to him, your arms instinctively going back to cross over your bare chest. 

He left to go dispose of the waste he’d collected in the dustpan. You groaned, burying your face in your hands. Of course, you’d do something embarrassing right after meeting the prettiest boy you’d ever seen. You’d basically proven that you were just a clumsy young girl straight from the get-go, so that was great. And now you were completely exposed.

“Damn.”

When Grayson appeared once more, you brought your arms up and around your shoulders, trying to shield yourself from him. 

He looked like he was about to say something, but he stopped himself. Grayson didn’t know what to do with himself in this situation. He was obsessed with your small form, and for some reason just knowing that you were in a bit of pain hurt him. He wanted to make you feel better. Feel good. 

  He scratched the back of his head, trying not to look at you because he knew if he did, he wouldn’t be able to help himself. “Do you want to wear my sweatshirt?”

You paused for a second, but then nodded just enough for him to notice. He brought his arms up and grabbed the back of his sweatshirt, pulling it over his head in one swift movement. 

Sure, you were embarrassed, but you could still appreciate what you got to see.

He handed you his sweatshirt and you accepted it gratefully, pulling it over your head. You were immediately hit with a gentle but calming aroma. The scent of sweet vanilla filled your nose, and you sighed when you finally tugged it over your body, feeling snug in the oversized apparel. You closed your eyes for a moment, feeling like you were in a beautiful garden, a floral scent tickling your nose now, You were obsessed with the smell of him, and were dying to get close enough to get a whiff of the real thing.

You cracked your eyes open when you felt the cushions on the couch shift, and you saw it was because of Grayson setting himself down next to you. You grabbed your laptop and placed it in your lap, so he’d have more room on the couch.

“Thanks,” he said, and you smiled in response. You returned your attention to your work, finally being able to focus now that you were no longer so tense.

Grayson leaned back on the couch, resting an arm on the top of the back. He gazed at you, not being able to help but have a small smile grow on his lips. He loved the way you looked in his sweatshirt. The way you seemed to be able to relax in it as if that’s where you belonged. Like you were entitled to it. Your small body looked even more petite in his clothes, the arms draping far lower than yours and going far past your fingertips. He imagined seeing you like this, with your hair up in your messy bun and in your sweatpants, every morning. Waking up to you like this. Holding your face in his hands as the sun broke through the blinds. 

You shifted in your seat, trying to get more comfortable, but it seemed that you had moved your shoulder in a way that made the now small burn hurt, and you hissed at the pain.

Grayson’s hooded eyes now widened, leaning closer to you. “You okay?” he brought his hand up to lightly brush your collar bone, which was easy for him since the sweatshirt was so large on you, it left the area around your neck a little exposed.

You flinched at his contact. “Yea, I’m fine. Just moved weirdly…” 

He put a bit of pressure on a spot on your chest. “Is it here?”

You hesitated. “No..”

He shifted his hand closer to your shoulder. “Here?”

You flinched again, this time from the pain. “Ah, yea, there.”

“Okay, we’re probably gonna have to put some ointment on that.”

“Okay.” You looked up at him, and the concern you could see in his eyes made your insides melt.

He looked back up at you. “Seriously, I’m really sorry.”

“No, it’s okay.” 

Was his face really this close to yours right now?

You could feel his breath, and you could start to smell the pure floral scent you’d already become obsessed with. Your heart was pounding in your chest. You’d never felt like this with anybody before. And you couldn’t help it, he was so close to you now that your eyes fluttered down to his lips for a second. It was quick, and hopefully unnoticeable.

But it didn’t go unnoticed. Grayson was looking at you so intently because of something he wanted to do so bad, so when he saw your eyes drift down so quickly, his hand naturally went to grip your neck.

You breathed out slowly, not knowing what to do. Grayson looked down at your lips now, so anxious to get a taste now. He needed to know just how sweet this angel was. 

So when you nodded your head slightly at his questioning eyes, he took no time to lean in and press his lips to yours. You gasped, but it was short since Grayson made sure to get as close as he possibly could. He relished the taste of you, sweet like the cherries he used to pick out of his mother’s garden. Brows furrowed, his arm went up further from your neck to grip your hair, causing you to sigh into his lips. When his other arm came around to grip your waist, you could feel yourself get light headed. His hands were warm against you, and at the moment they seemed to burn your skin more than the tea. You were afraid to touch him but leaned in closer still. He moaned softly, and your insides felt like they were bubbling within you. It was an immediate rush that you couldn’t get down from. 

Suddenly the sound of the glass door sliding open once more brought you both out of your daze, and Grayson pulled away so fast, it made you ache. 

“Hey Y/N, are you done?” It was Cameron, finally coming back from her long-ass shower to check in on you.

Grayson covered his mouth, rubbing his chin gently. He rubbed his lips with the back of his palm as discreetly as possible, trying to get the colour of your lipstick off of his lips.

You, however, were still high off of Grayson’s touch, your chest heaving slightly from being out of breath. Grayson looked over at you, his eyes widening for a moment, and he began rubbing his lower lip intensely, trying to signal to you.

You were confused for a few seconds, but your face flushed when you realized what he meant, going to rub the smeared lipstick off of your bottom lip.

“What are you still doing here?” Cameron said to Grayson, walking over to the both of you. 

“Nothing.” He ran his hand back through his hair. “Just getting to know Y/N a bit better.” He gave you a side look, and you had to cough to keep your red face from being so obvious. 

“You think you could do that while wearing a shirt for once?” She crossed her arms, and Grayson rolled his eyes at her.

“Speaking of, isn’t that…?” She pointed at the sweatshirt you were wearing and raised her eyebrows.

“Uhm..” you began.

“There was a little accident.” Grayson cut in, saving you. “I accidentally spilled some tea on her.”

“Wow, what a great way to make a first impression.” Cameron laughed, and you chuckled along with her awkwardly.

“Shut up.” He got up, now making his way for the glass door. “Speaking of, she needs some ointment or something. There’s a burn.”

“Are you serious?” Cameron hurried over to you, sitting at your side. “Where? What happened?” 

“I’m fine.” You assured her with a smile.

You peered behind her to see Grayson leaning against the door frame, a smirk on his lips.

Oh yes, you were much more than fine.

“It’s just a small burn.” You shoved her hand away from you.

Cameron turned back towards her brother. “What is wrong with you? Do you plan on ruining every person I bring here?”

“Calm down, she’s fine.”

She scoffed. “Like you’d even care!”

“Cam…” You grabbed her arm, trying to settle her down.

He rolled his eyes once more. “Whatever. I’m going.”

Cameron groaned as her brother walked back into the house.

“I’m really sorry about him.” She said, looking back at you.”

You shook your head. “No, he was actually really nice.”

She narrowed her eyes at you. “You’re just saying that because you have a crush on him.”

“CAMERON!”

“Don’t yell at me, I’m right!” She laughed, grabbing your laptop as she got up. “Okay, grab your stuff. It’s getting dark. And we’ll get something for your burn.” She rubbed your shoulder, then went back inside the house.

“..kay.” You mumbled after. 

When you were sure Cameron was out of earshot, you collapsed onto the sofa, pressing a hand to your chest to check if your heart was still beating. 

It was, and so fast.

You buried your face into your hands, inhaling Grayson’s heavenly scent from his sweatshirt.  You couldn’t even comprehend what has just happened, it had gone by so fast. His lips were on yours, and a split second later Cameron was sitting next to you. 

“Oh my god, oh my god…” Your chest was pounding. You’d never felt a sensation like it. His soft lips, the taste of roasted coffee beans mixed with vanilla, The feeling of his hands touching you, heating up your skin, curling up into your hair… it made you head spin. And you wanted so much more, so badly. 

But this was Cameron’s brother. 

God, what had you gotten yourself into?

[themonotonysyndrome]

Our Intertwine Dream

Another oneshot about Papa Lilia and Malleus with their human teenage son, Silver! I think I’m gonna turn this and the previous oneshot into a series while I’m still having fun writing ‘em and yeah, even if it’s a little late, I wanted to do something to celebrate Silver’s birthday. 

-

“Such a fair and gentle child you are. Quiet too.”

“...”

“My, my what a big yawn that was! Is it nap time already?”

“...”

“...How curious.”

“There you are, grandmother. Lilia said that it’s Silver’s feeding time now.” 

“Oh dear. The little one went out like a candle’s flame. Poor thing must be tired from playing.”

“Silver just woke up three hours ago.”

“Is that so? Say, Malleus dear, how about you and that Fae of yours stay in the castle for a couple more days. I would like to... investigate something.” 

“As you wish, grandmother...”

-

Silver wakes up when he heard his phone vibrated. Blinking a couple of time, he then rubs his crusty eyelids blearily before pushing himself up from the soft bed and sigh deeply. Dawn has made way for bright, morning rays to creep into his room despite the thick curtains.

When his phone on the bedside table vibrate again, Silver snatch it to check his text messages. 

Like any other day, Lilia’s attempt to wake him up for classes is by spamming his phone with a series of pictures that he find interesting or funny. Before, the Fae used to called his phone and sometimes even break through the door when he quickly realised that Silver would actively ignore the calls, but the few success that Lilia managed to get him out of the bed, Silver still ended up sleeping with his face planted inside a bowl of cereal. In the end, practically every one in Diasomnia knew that Silver will wake up whenever he can and the teaching staff of the school allows a little leeway because of his conditions. 

Today, Lilia is spamming his phone with pictures of Savanaclaws’ First Years students chasing each other on the field. Behind them, the sun made its slow ascension to the sky. 

Silver threw his phone on the bed and begin to get ready for the day. If he hurries, he can still make it to breakfast. Freshly showered and donning his uniform, he quickly check that he has his phone, magic crystal and wallet before leaving the dorm. The younger students loitering about the hallway and common room greet him good morning as he head towards the cafeteria.  “Who was that?” “That’s Silver-senpai. A Second Year student. He’s the one I told you about last week. You know, the senior that tutored me and the guys for History of Magic?” “The one that took a nap halfway?”

“Oh, Silver-senpai is always like that. I heard that he can sleep anywhere! But he’s really good at History of Magic though. I even got an A for my test!” 

Silver lets out a yawn as the conversation fades behind him. He had tried his best to stay awake during that tutoring session but the table looked as soft as his bed and before he knew it, the words on his text book look like worms and he blacked out. 

It was nice for the First Years to called Lilia when he was knocked out though. 

Today, the halls of Night Raven College are relatively peaceful. Friends huddled at the courtyard, taking pictures and laughing amongst themselves. A couple of Scarabia students are mingling with two Ignihyde seniors with their laptops out; probably a tutoring session. A Pomefiore student is humming to himself as he pick fresh flowers near the water fountain and a pair of Heartslabyul and Octavinelle students are playing cards; most likely UNO because one of the Heartslabyul student suddenly shrieked, “WHY DON’T I HAVE ANY GREEN!? YOU GUYS ARE CHEATING!” 

“Oh! Good morning, Silver-senpai!” Yuu suddenly greeted Silver just as he was about to enter the cafeteria. Behind the younger boy, he could smell fresh baked breads and strong black coffee wafting in the air. The smell is so strong that it’s probably enough to keep him awake for a whole day. “It’s rare to see you up so early!”

“I managed to wake up on time for once.” Silver reply with a shrug. “Might as well catch up on some classes that I’m lagging behind.” Sebek would scold his ears off if he caught Silver slacking in class, ever. Something about bringing shame and disgrace to Malleus and Lilia and honestly, Silver tends to tune out whenever Sebek started to rant about how great his parents are. 

“That sounds like a great idea Silver-senpai! I’m sure you’ll do well.” Yuu said with a cheer. For some reason, the boy is completely alone; no Grim or those two First Year Heartslabyul students that constantly flank his sides. Unaware of Silver’s musing, Yuu continue, “Anyway, I just saw Lilia-senpai and the others at the table near the hot drink section.” 

“Oh. Thanks. Guess I’ll see you around - ” Silver begins but then Yuu’s eyes suddenly blow wide and before Silver could ask what’s wrong, Yuu hurriedly interrupts him. 

“Ok, nice talking to you Silver-senpai, gotta go to class now! If anyone asks, I’m not here, ok? Bye-bye!” Yuu then ran off without even looking at him. Leaving Silver to stand alone awkwardly in front of the cafeteria’s entrance. 

“Well... that was something - ”

“Oh? If it isn’t Silver-san.”

“What a rare sight to see Jellyfish-san floating in the morning!”

The Leech brothers are smiling widely when Silver slowly turn around. It didn’t escape his notice that, Azul is not with them. Floyd tilts his head - rows of sharp teeth pokes out - and ask, “Say... you don’t happen to see our cute Shrimp-kun, have you?” 

“No.” Silver easily fibbed. Whatever is going on with the Leech brothers and Yuu (and probably Azul) is none of his concern. He decided to leave the twins be when they stare at him with an odd expression; as if trying to decide whether he’s lying or not. True to Yuu’s words, Silver easily spotted Lilia and the rest of their group when he zooms in on the drinks table. Sebek is furiously muttering to himself as he reads a textbook; pages constantly flipping. Lilia is checking his phone with a content smile and beside him, Malleus is diligently cutting his veggie omelette into small pieces. Plates of cold cut fruits, bread and pancakes along with juices and a cup of coffee for Lilia are spread on the table. 

The three of them occupy the large dining table despite how crowded the cafeteria is. 

“Good morning.” Silver greeted the group before taking a seat beside Sebek.

“Silver! You’re awake! Did Mr.Trein’s cat pictures woke you up?” Lilia teases. He tucks away the phone to cupped his face and grin lazily at him. 

“Had a weird dream.” Silver reply and made sure to thank Malleus when the Fae handed him the cut up omelette and a tall glass of orange juice before resuming his own breakfast. He waste no time and dig in. 

“Oh? What was it about?” 

“The face is a bit fuzzy but I was sitting on someone’s lap at a... garden, I think. She had a nice voice.” He said after sipping on his OJ. “It ended when I heard Malleus-sama’s voice.” 

Sebek jerk his head away from the textbook at that. Before he could demand what Silver meant, Lilia interjects with a hum. 

“That sounds too... normal to be a dream. More like a - ”

“A memory.”

Malleus put aside his napkin when the three of them turn their attention to him. He stares at Silver with a thoughtful expression. “It was a summer morning. I came to the garden when Lilia told me that you were with grandmother for the day.” 

Sebek is now in sheer awe - like usual when it’s anything related to Malleus - while Silver’s cheeks are dusted red as Lilia laugh, clutching his stomach in delight. “I remember that summer! It was Silver’s first time visiting the Castle of Thorns. You were such an adorable little one that Malleus’ grandmother insisted that we extended our stay.” Lilia then sigh fondly. “That was a nice summer...” 

And... there Lilia goes, off reminiscing Silver’s childhood. Silver quickly put a stop to it with an embarrassed cough. Lilia merely teases him some more in retaliation. Breakfast continues on until Sebek suggest they head to their respective classes now. Lilia and Malleus had P.E, Sebek went to join a crowd of First Year students drifting upstairs to the second floor; leaving Silver with his Alchemy class. 

He allows himself to be pull along by a couple of his classmates when they notice him rounding the corner. Silver finds it easy to join their conversation since it was about homework and soon enough, they chatted their way to the classroom. 

Mid conversation, Silver yawns. When he rub his watery eyes, something bright red accompany by a smile flash pass him. So quick and sudden, almost like a ribbon - 

“Silver-san?” One of his classmates call out when they notice that Silver had suddenly stop walking with them. “Is something wrong?” 

Silver blink; realise that he had automatically whip around to catch that flash of red but after looking at his sides, students in familiar uniform are mingling around him. No one stood out of the ordinary. 

“Just thought I saw something...” Silver slowly admits. There’s something nibbling at the back of his mind but it refuses to surface despite how hard Silver tries to remember. 

Classes passed through the day without a hitch. Silver finds himself staying awake for all of them that a surprised teacher even commented about it. When homeworks are done with enough time to spare before dinner, he wonder what the others are doing right now. Putting away his books and pencil case into his bookbag, Silver left his room for the dorm’s lounge. Usually Sebek is there around this time and they would bicker and wait for Lilia and Malleus to show up so they could have dinner together. 

But when he reaches the ground floor, Silver is surprise that Sebek is nowhere in sight. Perhaps he’s with his other group of friends? 

He looks around the lounge thinking that Sebek might be hiding behind the book shelves or something, yet only some Third Year students are relaxing on the couch; talking quietly amongst themselves. From the foot of the stairs, a few students walk down behind him. 

“ - did you see Vil-senpai’s new MagiCam post?” 

“The one on tips for short hairstyles? Oh! Is that why you tied up your hair differently after P.E?” 

“What do you think? I’m digging this new look!” 

“Well... at least people know that you actually have eyes now.” 

“Wa - did my bangs really covered my face that badly!? Why did no tell me before?!?”

The chatters gradually fade into background noises when Silver caught an unusual scent lingering behind him; a scent that makes him heady and eyes drowsy, almost instantly. It carries a subtle smell of smokey cedarwood, and blooming tuberoses that remind Silver of hot, creamy crème brûlée that melts on your tongue. 

But the magnetic scent immediately vanishes the moment Silver turn around to chase after it, frantically searching which student wore the cologne. 

“There you are, human! Don’t you know that you’re keeping Malleus-sama and Lilia-sama waiting!?” 

“Sebek?” 

Sebek appear at the entrance of their dorm wearing an unamused expression, hands firmly on his hips. When did he arrive? 

He roll his eyes when Silver continue to stare at him in stupor. “Well? Are you coming or not?” 

Silver shut his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose. Shaking his head once, it took a while for him orientate himself. “Right. Let’s go.” 

Sebek didn’t question his terse’s reply as they walk towards the cafeteria, thinking that the Second Year student is in one of his moods again. He did throw an odd glance whenever Silver turn around as if he’s looking for someone or something. 

Later when the night grows long and the Diasomnia dorm is silent, Silver lies wide awake; staring listlessly at his bedroom ceiling in the dark. Scrolling through his phone did nothing to tire him out nor did reading boring textbooks help. 

Although, Flyod’s weird MagiCam post of him in a selfie with a happy Jade sitting prim and proper on Azul’s bed and Yuu’s black hair poking from underneath the duvet in the background was... something.

With a huff, Silver twist and turn underneath the duvet before closing his eyes in hopes that he could finally settle in for the night. 

Time seem to creep on before exhaustion claims him and Silver finally falls asleep. 

When he open his eyes, Silver found himself sitting on a picnic blanket. Soft morning rays shine through the tall tree above him. He notices small, bite-size food that are for children are laid out for him on a paper plate. A picnic basket is put aside near the tree’s roots, lacqured boxes of food were placed on the centre of the blanket and an uncapped thermos of hot tea is ready for anyone who wants to drink. 

He also notice that he was sitting on someone’s lap. 

“Oh? Are you finally hungry?” Silver tips his head back to see Lilia smiling down at him. His arms move around his small body to encase Silver in a hug. It was then he realise that he’s in a child’s body. 

“Here. Want some apples? It’s yummy!” Lilia coo as he tries to entice Silver to eat the sliced fruit by wagging it in front of him. 

“Maybe we should try some oranges again?” Malleus suggest, awkwardly holding a whole, round orange in one hand as he inspect it with uncertain, knitted eyebrows. 

“I rather not have him throw them at my hair again, Malleus.” Lilia sighs and put down the sliced apple when he no longer had Silver’s attention. 

As the Faes discuss on how to get him to eat, Silver understand that he’s reliving one of his childhood memories. Sure enough, he could easily spot the castle that belongs to Malleus’ grandmother looming behind the sea of trees.

This is the first time that Silver is consciously aware that he’s dreaming. It feels so surreal being able to coherently think like an adult but posses the speech capability of a seven year old. He grunts and whine to show his displeasure when it’s beginning to feel too warm in Lilia’s embrace. 

“Alright, alright, little man. Stop squirming for a moment...” Lilia neated Silver’s little clothes before finally release him onto the soft grass so he could play. “There! Hopefully you’re tire yourself out until you actually want lunch.” 

“...Is feeding a human child always this difficult?” Malleus couldn’t help but ask when he watch Silver wobble around, looking at everything and anything. 

“You know what? I don’t know.” Lilia admits though he didn’t sound all that concern. He knows that Silver will eat when his little tummy rumble soon enough. “I heard that some kids from a human village can be fussy when it comes to food. Silver might be one of those type.” He hums and tap his chin as he recalls their last meal time. “Then again, I heard that human kids loathe vegetables but Silver enjoyed eating your salad during dinner.” 

The Faes continue to talk while occasionaly keep an eye out on little Silver who is critically inspecting a wild patch of daisies. 

Back to Silver, he internally wonders why he’s reliving this particular memory. He tries to remember what else this memory entail when something pull him away from the flowers. 

That strange scent - cedarwood and crème brûlée - slips around him, thoroughly capture his attention in an instant and deafen him from Lilia and Malleus’s conversation. It envelopes his world that even the sunlight starts to dim when his eyes grows heavy. 

And before he realises it, Silver’s little legs begin to carry him towards the forest. Where the scent seem to be. 

The deeper Silver travese into the forest, the world around him begin to grow dark, as if the tall trees are blocking out the sun. Even the crickets and chirping birds are silenced the longer he walk and yet, he still couldn’t find the scource of that smell! 

“...er?”

Silver pauses. What was that? It sounded like - 

“...ver?”

He wanted to turn around, to move his arms but no matter how hard he tries, Silver stands there, frozen stiff as a statue. 

“...Silver?”

The scent is slightly stronger now. It smells so sweet, so comforting as if beckoning him forward and his legs begin to move again. 

A hand shoot out from the dark to gently grab his shoulder from behind. A familiar voice chimes in, “There you are Silver! I was beginning to worry, little one.” It’s Lilia. It’s Papa. His touch is like an anchor, bringing him back to a sense of safety and familiarity that Silver could sob in relief. “Come on now; it’s time to wake up, love.” 

At that moment, Silver jerks up; eyes wide awake and his heart racing. His room is so bright and warm that he had to squint his eyes a little to adjust his vision when he notice a silhouette that vaguely resemble Lilia sitting on his bed.

“Hang on, let me draw the curtains.” When the room is a little darken, Silver rubs his weary eyes and find that it’s indeed Lilia; his coat uniform and cap drape over the bed. For some reason, he’s studying Silver with a complicated expression; lips pursed and eyebrows knitted in worry. 

“W-What? Silver croak, hating how parched his throat feels. 

“How are you feeling?” Lilia asks immediately. He hovers close to Silver, cupping his clammy face with bare hands as he checks for... something. 

Silver lets the question sinks in for moment. “...Tired.” He admits with a sigh. His heart finally calms down when he leans into Lilia’s touch, eyes heavy but this time, he just wants to bask in Lilia’s warmth. 

Lilia bits his lower lip and slowly withdraw his hands before taking a sit on the bed. “What was the last thing that you did? Did you drunk any funny potion before bed?” 

“What? The last thing I did?” Silver repeated, a little lost but answer him nonetheless, “After dinner, I couldn’t sleep so I tried to bored myself by reading and when that didn’t work, I went to bed. I managed to fell sleep soon enough.” He explains and uneasiness churns in the pit of his stomach when Lilia still look at him strangely. 

He had never seen Lilia wear such expression before. 

“Silver... you’ve been asleep for four days.” 

The ancient Fae’s tentative announcement made Silver’s heart drop like a heavy lead. “...What?” 

“Calm down. Hey, can you look at me, Silver?” Lilia’s voice drops to soothing when he sees the far off look in Silver’s eyes. He holds both of the teenager’s hands when he heard Silver’s breath hitches. He continue to grip on them even when Silver meets his gaze. “It’s alright; you’re awake now and that’s what important. Can you remember if you’ve been dreaming or...”

“We were having a picnic back when I was a child. It’s somewhere behind the Witch’s castle - ”

“I remember that.” Lilia assure him calmly. He only spoke like that to Silver whenever he was spooked but it’s been years since the Fae spoke in such tone now that he’s all grown up. “You were such a curious child. You insist on wanting to pick wild flowers when we’re supposed to have lunch.” 

Wait - 

“...What happened next?”

“You plucked a bunch of daisies and gave them to me and Malleus; dirt and all. You looked so proud despite that you made a mess on the picnic blanket that I scooped you into my arms and we cuddled until you tried to gnaw on my hair.” Lilia laughs softly. “You were so attracted to my hair because of the colours that I had to buy you a black and pink teddy bear for you to obssessed on. Do you remember that?”

No. Silver doesn’t remember any of that... 

And that frightens him.  

“Silver? Talk to me; what are you thinking about?” Lilia pleads when instead of a flustered Silver like he’s hoping, his son in all but blood pales. 

Despite the warm morning, chill runs down Silver’s spine when he said in a detached tone, “I... I think I had a nightmare, but... I can’t remember of what.”

[alluringoneirataxia]

Long Winding Road Stay Strapped My Dude

By: Astoria Cathryn Andromeda

Alrighty, this is a long one boys. So I touched briefly on this in my Welcome to Literally Everything post. No worries I'll recap you, so you don't have to switch back and forth. I just diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and then ADHD when I was 18 years old, and even then I had to fight for it after countless hours of research. See, there seems to be a wee bit of misogyny in the neurodiverse diagnoses. When I say a wee bit, I mean that scientists used to think that only boy could be autistic or ADHD. They only studied autism in males. Fortunately, nowadays we know that girls can be autistic and/or ADHD, but we present the traits differently than boys, and a lot of our traits are played off due to gender roles in society. For example, being overly talkative in girls is called chatty, whereas boys who can't sit still are sent off for testing immediately. This also causes problems for the boys, because little Johnny gets put on Adderall at the ripe age of 6 years old, just because he can't sit still for 8 hours straight, which by the way should not be expected of any elementary school kid, By the time, he's 25 he's 1) completely dependent on amphetamines 2) his body will stop producing dopamine due to being on the medication for so long. Nicht Gut. Generally, boys who are on the spectrum get picked out earlier due to late speaking, or lack of social skills. This is the one thing that girls happen to do better than boys. Girls are good at masking, which is basically taking social traits, phrases, personalities, demeanor, and copying them. In public, they put on a mask and at home, they have a meltdown. Girls are still not picked up as being on the spectrum, because shyness is called being 'ladylike' and 'dainty', and having a meltdown is just because :( girls are oh-so emotional, boohoo. Anyways tons of women do not get diagnosed with autism until they are well into their adulthood, I actually can be considered lucky to have technically still been a teenager when we finally got all the pieces together.

Alright, let's start with I don't know me as a baby. I did not speak until I was 2 years old, and then it was immediately full sentences from then on. I didn't do the babbling thing, which I don't know how impactful that really is to the topic. I was a very shy little girl. I was teeny tiny, we didn't know I if I was going to make it to 5 feet tall until I had a big growth spurt in 7th grade. I am 5'2 now and definitely done growing in case you were wondering, so not that short anymore. I did not like talking to adults, especially strangers, especially men. I did not look anyone in the face, and I will always hide behind my parent's legs when they would try to introduce me to people. I am an only child, and I spent a lot of time entertaining myself. I always had seasonal affective disorder, where my grades would dip in the winter. My parents knew I had a timer, they had 45 minutes from the moment they stepped into a restaurant before I would start breaking down. If I got off schedule as a toddler in any form, it was a catastrophe. Or this is what my parents and family tell me. I didn't really notice. I did not like being out in public a lot, I was a very picky eater, and I was extremely hyper. I was a very eccentric child, I only had 1-2 close friends and they were always a very well-liked outgoing girl who I just followed around. Looking back, I don't know how we missed it. I was shy because I didn't understand how social interactions worked, I was anxious about it because I didn't understand, I had sensory overloads, routines, and a very bland diet with a safe food which was ketchup. I put that shit on literally everything, eas, apples, mac and cheese, pizza, all meat, anything something forced me to eat that I did not like. But because I could sit still in class, and because I could zone out and daydream all day through school and still make A's nobody ever flagged me for anything and how I was supposed to know that not everybody just copied other people, scripted things before they talked, and could never pay attention. My mom always required me to be in a sport, and I was a gymnast and a swimmer for a long time, two very high-intensity sports, to help lower my energy levels, and because my mom has mild depression and she knows that exercise does help. Skip to middle school, my mom tells me I'm being bullied at church. It's not that I wasn't observing my surroundings I knew I was being excluded, but I didn't understand vindictive behavior, I thought it was my fault. I had zero friends in 8th grade until I sat down next to a random acqutaince I had gone to school with since I was 4 and the same gymnastics place. Then we were immediately attached at the hip after that. She is my best friend due this day and definitely got me through high school. Led me through so many social situations without either of us knowing. I had a very close friendgroup in highschool, all of them were on the drumline which I met through my best friend, and my first boyfriend was my best friend's neighbor. I ended up playing bass guitar for my high school's indoor drumline, and it was the best experience ever. I love my friends, but I had really bad depression when I was 15-now:) jk It's better. I didn't really realize I was depressed, I just didn't want to go to school, or swim practice, or do anything so of course, my mom noticed, and then once it was pointed out to me it got worse. My severe anxiety spiraled with my depression. Senior year of high school, my boyfriend and I were like toxic star crossed lovers, hurting each other over and over again without meaning to. My friends and I were self harming, all my close friends gad some demon going on. I finally decided to try therapy again after the disaster of being forced to go when I was 15 and the lady told me I wasn't depressed because I had a boyfriend and good grades. It helped a bit, I was able to get my panic attacks under control. Then I went away to college and stayed dating my senior high school boyfriend, we were just up and down as always, but with slightly better communication. My freshman year of college I joined a fraternity, a research lab, and my first hs boyfriend/ex/best friend and I went to a Christian campus place. By second semester, I had a lot of people who knew me and talked to me, but I didn't have any close friends, and even less close friends who were girls. All my close friends who were girls were at another college. My parents were worried about me, so they made me rush a sorority, which I knew was never my scene, but my parents made me join and I found a few girls I liked. Soon I was going to 6 classes, fraternity chapter, research lab meetings, christain crash group meetings, soriorty pledge meetings all on every Tuesday. I was different person at each of these events and wore a different mask. I was having what I know now were autistic burnout meltdowns every single day on the phone in my crusty dorm's stairwell. It was not cute. His mental health had always been bad too. Finally I decide I need to try a psychatrist and go back to therapy, and then he broke up with me. Then I made my first close friend, a guy who was in 3 of classes, and I took him to my fraternity's formal, and then coronavirus happened.  Rona kinda saved my grades, and mental health by sending us home event though it did suck. I got on anti-anxiety meds and things went up, but I was still having what I thought were panic attacks, they were austistic meltdowns. My psychiatrist, he's kinda an asshole, he diagnosed me with Obessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. I'll insert definition here: (OCPD) is a personality disorder that's characterized by extreme perfectionism, order, and neatness. People with OCPD will also feel a severe need to impose their own standards on their outside environment.> Basically hr told me I had rules for everything like how everyone drives on the right side of the road, but nobodythinks about it andwhen I broke one of my rules I got depressed, and when wasn't perfect I got depressed, and when I made an A I was relieved not proud. The diagnosis seemed to fit really well, and my therapist and I started working finding my rules, and getting rid of the bad ones, and making the others less harsh. I had thought every once and in a while in my life when I was really upset, what if I'm on the spectrum, because I just felt so hopeless for social interactions and I didn't understand. I always felt like I was a very specific person, but after the ocpd I started thinking more and more, and I saw a tik tok of a girl with lae diagnosed autism basically describing me and ranting about the misogyny. I did more research and I decide, yea I'mm gonna bring it up to mypsychatrist well he's a dick, so he was like um you don't act like sheldon cooper from the Big Bang theory,and I was like wellI just I have always thought I might have adhd like be neureodiverse, and he was like your grade point average in hs was a 97.8%, you're not adhd. I immediately cried, because I can't handle when anyone says anything in a even a slightest stringent tone. I'm baby, I know lmao. It made me angry though because I felt like he just brushed away all of my struggles I had in my whole life. I spent hours researching and typed up a 47 page document on evidence for why I was on the spectrum, and had my parents help will some of checklists to make sure I was getting outside perspectives. I rally my parents to be my back up and next psychiatrist appointment we actually talk about it and he asked my parents questions about when I was young and such and finally he was okay you're on the spectrum. I felt so validated and like I could start being myself. I slowly got more and more confident, changed my style of clothing, and researched more about adhd pushed to be tested, and oh look at that I also have ADHD. So basically discourse: "I feel like as a child I coded a machine to do life for me so I didn’t get bothered except I didn’t know about the machine I thought i was the machine and now I’ve become self aware and I have to learn how to read the code and rewrite the code because it’s dysfunctional because I’m not functioning well as a human being. I was really shy as a child. I would turn beat red when people talked to me or looked at me so I think I started cookie cutting situations and using them over and over again because they worked until I accidentally hard wired these expansion rules and expectations for myself. I didn’t may attention is class ever I just day dreamed and if I got good grades i wouldn’t be bothered i could just stay in my head and if I did my sport well my parents didn’t bother me. I was never asked if I did my homework I just did it so I wouldn’t be asked and have to deal with that situation. I would cookie cutter situations in class that would draw the least attention to myself.

I feel like i don’t have friends I just fulfill the expectation like a side quest on video games" I wrote this down pre autism confirmation when i just thought I had ocpd. Now I don't directly identify with ocpd, but I definitely think I developed that personality disorder a bit from living with undiagnosed autism. I am linking below the very informative Tik Toks by the lovely Paige on autism in girls. The imposter syndrome one really hit home. I had had so many panic attacks about thinking I tricked people into being my friend, or thinking I was smart.

I highly suggest watching these short tik toks, you'll definitely learn something

https://vm.tiktok.com/wVvcYA/

https://vm.tiktok.com/wqRRUf/

https://vm.tiktok.com/wnqhvX/

https://vm.tiktok.com/wqeyYg/

https://vm.tiktok.com/wnoE7u/

https://vm.tiktok.com/Kas6gB/

https://vm.tiktok.com/owM9hs/

Imposter syndrome

I am also linking an article about Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory and Autism that explains why my psychiatrist was wrong, and also I am a girl and the spectrum is called a spectrum because it's a fucking spectrum no two autistic people are exactly the same it's like a color wheel.

http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/news/problem-sheldon-cooper-and-cute-autism-387783

Here is a fun comic about the spectrum and how to view it.

https://the-art-of-autism.com/understanding-the-spectrum-a-comic-strip-explanation/

I am still learning about myself, and how to be me, and how to be myself but without breaking bad social rules. It's quite humorous though because I'll learn something is related to autism and I'm like oh shit again, like still, like, we're still discovering things.

"Tu ne me manques pas"

Bis später,

Astoria.

[marshmallow-phd]

Charming Instruction

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Supernatural, Wolf Au

Pairing: Junmyeon x Reader

Summary: You were just an average, everyday college student desperately trying to graduate. Only one more year stood between you and that celebratory walk. However, due to an oversight by your adviser, it seemed that the one class you never wanted to take was required to take that walk. It wasn’t the subject matter that made you uncomfortable. It was the teacher. Your heart sped up every time you saw him and you didn’t want that distraction in your life, attractive or not. With meeting him now an inevitability, you swore that you would keep your hormones in check. But after your first day of class, a series of hi jinks and weird situations lead you to discovering the secret of your professor and why he seemed to bombard your every thought.

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I Final

**

No, no, no, no, this could not be happening to you.

For the last month, you’d carefully planned this day. It was the first day of your last year of college. You’d picked out the outfit - fully aware that within two weeks you’d throw all cares of your looks and clothes out the window - and meticulously scheduled your day to be able to start off your year right. And you needed this year to go as smoothly as possible. As a senior, these last two semesters were the most important of your life. Three previous years of hard work could go down the drain if you didn’t keep your focus.

Okay, you could still probably graduate, but you wanted all the honors that came with graduating with top grades. And you wanted to make your parents proud. And you needed the good GPA in order to get a good internship or entry job after graduation.

When you’d sat down with your advised a few months previous to go over your schedule for the upcoming school year, you’d been itching with excitement. The classes that awaited you weren’t too difficult, but they would definitely be challenging and require your absolute attention. Which – given your past history – shouldn’t have been a problem.

Until the ultimate bombshell was dropped by your adviser.

You wanted to be an archaeologist. Someday. For now, you were settling for field assistant because you didn’t want to spend any more years sitting in a classroom reading about great finds when you could be a part of them. You didn’t care if your name was just a footnote about the people who were present in the digs, you just wanted to experience the thrill of finding evidence of an ancient civilization.

But to even get that far, you needed to graduate college. To graduate college in your specific field, you needed to check off all required classes. And you thought you had.

One little folklore class, one little elective that you had once been told was only an option and one you didn’t have to take, had snuck by you. When your adviser explained to you that there must have been some misunderstanding and that this class was in fact a required credit in order for you to complete your degree, your stomach had dropped. It was like your worst nightmare coming true. Not quite that dramatic, but close enough.

It wasn’t the subject matter that made you want to avoid the class. Actually, you found it somewhat intriguing considering how myths and old lore helped shaped the old world and influence their everyday lives. As someone who wanted to keep their focus on ancient civilizations, it probably would be a good class to have under your belt.

If only it was taught by someone else.

There was nothing wrong with Professor Kim. Maybe that was the issue. He was too… perfect. From the way he styled his hair to the glasses perched on his nose to the button-downs and slacks he wore for lectures.

It was your sophomore year of college that you first laid eyes on him. He was a brand new professor and the talk of the campus. Every other teacher on campus looked like the average college professor who was typically much older than the student population and usually had the fashion sense of two decades ago. Not to mention, most of them weren’t as fit or well put together. But when you walked out of the library with your two best friends, you realized that all of the gossip about the latest addition to the university staff was more than just talk and he was nothing like the average professor.

He was standing profile from you at over fifty feet away talking to other teachers, but your glasses helped you focus enough to be able to see his face. And your heart nearly leapt out of your chest and ran in his direction at full speed.

You were so enamored by his too-classic looks that you tripped over your own feet and nearly took Gemma down to the ground with you. In your embarrassment, you took off with Gemma and Cam, your two best friends, on your heels, calling out for an explanation. When you finally came to a stop, you huffed out what they wanted to know. Of course, they just laughed at you and your innocence when it came to attraction of the opposite sex.

After your disastrous freshman year relationship of seven months, you’d sworn off relationships and had never even given the thought of dating a chance since, too focused on your career goals to entertain the idea. Besides, you didn’t exactly know how to interact with them anyway. Sure, you’d had guy friends in the past, but that was different. You weren’t attracted to them. Maybe you just weren’t built for it. You were too awkward and didn’t exactly have the “street smarts” to navigate that world.

It was probably for the best. You never really found anyone that gave you butterflies or made you blush, anyway. There had never been a chemical reaction in your body like that ever not even with your fluke of an ex-boyfriend. Until you saw Professor Kim.

And that was exactly why you’d abstained from ever taking his class or stepping anywhere near him. If you saw even one single hair of his head, you’d take off in the opposite direction. The feeling you got in your chest whenever you caught a glimpse of him scared you. Keeping your head in your books and studies until graduation and then going on a dig far away from this place sounded like the perfect plan. And for the past two years, you’d done a bang up job of it.

It seemed fate just really liked to kick you down when you were skipping along happily.

In the end, there was no way around taking the class and you were forced to have your name added onto the list, probably bumping off some poor, unfortunate student who had thrown away the money just to be able to spend time in the presence of Professor Kim on a weekly basis.

You were a planner, though. And every plan had its deviations, right? Now that you were stuck in that lecture hall, you’d simply make sure that you sat all the way in the back where Professor Kim would be nothing but an ant in your vision. Most of the time, you might even be able hide him from your line of sight with your laptop.

In order for this mastery to work, you needed to wake up early enough to get from your apartment right across the street from the university to the classroom to secure your seat in the back. But you also had to make sure that you didn’t arrive too early so that it would only be you and maybe a few other students scattered across the room while Professor Kim wandered around the front getting ready for the first day of class.

You were initially set up for success. The alarm was programmed and on the highest volume your phone would allow. It was plugged in for the night to charge and you’d already picked out your outfit so there would be no time wasted in the morning.

Instead of waking up to your obnoxious alarm, however, you were woken up by a pillow to the face.

You snarled as you sat up in bed, sleep still crusty around your eyelids that refused to open all the way. Gemma was standing in your doorway, leaning against the frame with her arms crossed and one wrist elevated as she stared at the watch.

“Don’t you have class in like twenty minutes?” she snickered.

Still half asleep, you scratched the back of your head. “No. My alarm hasn’t gone off yet.”

“Try again.” Gemma stepped up closer to you and showed you the time.

Shit!

You grabbed your phone and pressed the home button to check what had happened. Then you found the issue. At some point, probably very early in the night, the charger had come out of the plug in the wall and your phone had died. You wanted to cry.

Jumping up out of bed, you were at least thankful for the clothes already laid out. You’d have to skip any other form of grooming and pampering this morning beyond a quick fix of your hair. After grabbing a granola bar and chugging a glass of juice, you ran out the door and prayed that you didn’t forget anything behind and that you still had a good spot to sit in.

When you arrived in the lecture hall, your stomach plummeted to the floor.

All the chairs in the back were taken, mostly by the male students, or those who just really didn’t care about the face of the teacher up front.

Slowly, you took one step down at a time, searching for any empty seat that you could take. Every semester, the World Folklore class was filled to capacity. There was even rumor of a waiting list to take the class. How could one professor be so popular, magazine-level handsome or not?

Finally finding the one empty seat in the entire room, you nearly cried. It was in the third row, right near the middle. What were the odds of that being the one chair that was free?

You scooted past the other students, apologizing on the way. One tiny piece of luck you got, at least, was that you didn’t hit any of the students with your bag. Settling down in the chair, you tried not to look too forlorn as you pulled out your laptop and readied yourself for the period.

Professor Kim wasn’t in the classroom yet, for which you were a little thankful. As you kept your head down on the keyboard in front of you, your glasses kept sliding down your nose and you kept pushing them back up a bit aggressively.

The consistent hum around the hall died out. Looking up, you shrank back in your seat. Now was the time. Just breathe, don’t settle on his face. You could do this. You could keep your mind focused on the material and not the teacher.

Walking up to the middle of the room and leaning up against the desk, Professor Kim smiled brightly.

“Welcome, everyone, to World Folklore. This class is about delving into ancient societies and learning about their stories that shaped their cultures.” As he went on with his lecture, his eyes searched around the room aimlessly, never settling even as the occasional student sat up straighter. “I want you to really get inside your heads and really tear these stories apart. Don’t be intimidated by the course work or the speed at which we go through the different types of stories. Unlike other credits, I want you to have fun and-”

He stopped suddenly, his hand that was keeping him balanced against the desk slipping and making him jerk a bit before stabilizing himself.

And he was looking right at you.

The smile was gone from his face, replaced with shock and awe. You shifted in your seat. Why wouldn't he just look away?

With a shake of his head, he did just that, after several seconds too long.

“I want you to have fun and really explore the possibility of ‘why’.” His earlier enthusiasm was gone, replaced by a slight nervousness. “Why did they create these stories? Why were they so scared of these tales? As we break down the different mythological creatures and their spread over the world, we just might end up answering those questions.”

While that might have been the same speech he gave every semester, you had a feeling that no classroom had ever heard it spoken quite like that.

Professor Kim spent the rest of the hour going over the syllabus and his expectations of the semester. Explaining in few details the different papers that would be written over the next few months, you had a sneaking suspicion that he was avoiding your section of the room. He’d always turning quickly, giving a majority of his attention to the left and right sides of the stadium seating. Somehow, rather than putting you at ease, it made you even more uncomfortable.

Your personal reasoning for wanting to avoid Professor Kim and keep your bubbling hormones in check was logical. Why Professor Kim was acting in a similar manner towards you was the real question. You’d never actually met the guy so there was no way he knew who you were. Right?

The time for the end of class came. From your experience, the professor always stayed behind in case of questions or simply took their time gathering up their things to avoid the sea of exiting students. Professor Kim did no such thing. Leaving behind his papers, he practically ran out the back door.

Murmurs echoed around you and you even felt a few questioning stares thrown your way. It was hard, but you suppressed the whimpers that were tempting your vocal cords and tried to stay invisible as you hurried up the stairs and to your next class for the day.

**

This was not happening. This was not happening.

Waking up this morning, Junmyeon had been in a good mood. He’d gotten up in time to get ready, picking out a nice tie to match his light blue shirt hanging from his door. The break between semesters had been a bit boring, just keeping an eye on his brothers and making due with what the town had to offer while he waited for the new school year to start.

But now the new semester was here and Junmyeon was going to be back in the classroom where he loved being.

Everything had gone smoothly as he drank his coffee without spilling any on him, made it to the college without terrible traffic and in plenty of time for his first class. The only mishap was running into Yoo Shin, a fellow history professor at the university. Catching up with him had nice, but it made him a few minutes late and Junmyeon couldn’t stand tardiness.

The students hushed as soon as he came in. It happened every year, but it still boosted Junmyeon’s ego a bit with how easily he could quiet the room. Going into the usual speech to loosen his new students up, he sized up the audience, letting his eyes roam around the room.

And then he found you.

Right there in the third row was the person he’d been searching for so long a time. The shock of you appearing in front of him made him lose his train of thought. He couldn’t even remember the rest of his speech.

But you were his student.

Of course he’d be in this situation. Nothing in his life could be easy for him, could it?

Anyone else in the world, he’d be happy to pursue, to finally get to know his mate. He couldn’t exactly start a relationship with his student. It went against his personal standards... and school statues.

Unable to remember to rest of his usual spiel, Junmyeon had to make up the remaining part of his speech on the fly, cringing on the inside. Was he even making any sense? It was the hardest thing to keep his focus on anything but you and that was making it difficult to know what was even leaving his mouth.

So close. You were so close to him, but he had to act like you were just another student, like you weren’t the most precious thing to him on this earth now as the wolf in his chest whined with glee. After waiting so long for his mate to show up, it seemed like a miracle - and like a slap to the face.

A professor and his student. It sounded like a bad drama. He didn’t even know your name. He’d learn it soon, but he wanted to learn it by introducing himself like a normal person, not by the papers and quizzes you’d hand in.

Groaning, Junmyeon tossed his glasses down on the desk and hid his face in his hands.

As soon as class had ended, he’d booked it out of there and headed straight for the sanctuary of his office. It would have been too tempting to stay behind, to try and catch you and talk to you. He wanted to hear your voice. Was it as delicate as you looked? Or was it stronger, sassier, taking anyone who might underestimate you by surprise?

He’d already caught bad attention from the other students given his very obvious reaction to you. Keeping you after class right after that would have started rumors. That was not something Junmyeon needed right now.

Knock, knock, knock.

Junmyeon jumped at the noise, his heart racing in his chest. It didn’t calm down until Sehun poked his head in.

“Hey,” Junmyeon nodded, leaning back in his chair.

Sehun smirked. “It’s day one. You can’t be this stressed out already?”

Junmyeon shook his head. “I’m just needing a second cup of coffee, that’s all.”

The look on Sehun’s face clearly said that he wasn’t buying it, but right now wasn’t the time to talk about it. Junmyeon knew that divulging the latest upset in his life would come with a hail of questions. Ones that he didn’t have answers to yet. So, instead, he’d keep that information to himself. At least until he knew who you were and how to get to know you without crossing any lines.

“Well, I’m not getting you any,” Sehun teased as he shut the office door behind him.

“I wasn’t even going to bother asking,” Junmyeon laughed. Resting his elbows on the desk, he asked, “What are you doing here? Don’t you have class?”

“Not for another hour,” Sehun shrugged, sitting down in the chair across from him. “I was bored, so I figured I’d come bother you since you aren’t busy with grading yet.”

“That’ll start soon, though,” Junmyeon reminded him.

Putting his feet up on the desk, Sehun leaned back in the chair and folded his hands behind his head. “Until then, you’ll have to continue beating the girls off with a stick.”

Junmyeon shoved the feet off. “That joke is old.”

“Still better than yours.”

It was hard, but Junmyeon let that slide. The guys were always making fun of his jokes, calling them weak and overused. But he liked keeping the mood up and that was one of the few ways he knew how.

“So, why aren’t you hanging out with the others instead?” he asked.

Sehun scrunched his face up in an annoyed fashion. “Everyone is hanging out with their mate in between classes. I prefer not to be around that too much.”

“It’s not an infectious disease,” Junmyeon laughed.

“Might as well be,” Sehun grumbled. “With how quickly everyone’s finding their mates, it feels like the pack has been passing around a cold. Not that I care too much, but I’d still prefer not to catch it next.”

Junmyeon sighed and smiled at his youngest brother. “It’s simply the natural order of things for our species. One day, yours will find you and you’ll start singing a different tune.”

Sehun cringed. “Can I be last?”

With a scoff, Junmyeon waved him out of his office. “Just go get ready for class. Or go find Tao, he’s with you on not wanting a mate.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll get out of your hair.” Standing up, he headed for the door. With one hand on the doorknob, he looked over his shoulder and asked, “Hey, hyung?”

“Yeah?”

“If something was going on, you’d tell me, right?” The look on his face was suddenly so innocent and trusting. Junmyeon almost gave in and told him to sit back down.  

Junmyeon let one corner of his lip to turn up into a sorrowful smile. “Yeah, of course. If something comes up, I’ll tell you.”

Once Sehun was gone, Junmyeon picked up his glasses and placed them back on to his face. He didn’t necessarily think it was a lie. Eventually, he’d tell Sehun and the rest of the pack about finding his mate. He just needed some time to wrap his head around the situation. After that, he’d say something.

They were so going to give him crap for this.

[nowanoddconstellationofthoughts]

pink with pineapples (because pineapples are bucky's favorite)

warnings: none...?

word count: 925

summary: “B-4.”

“Aha! Bucky. Suck my cherry flavored ass.”

i’m sure this prompt has been done a million times before, but y'know what, when was friend asks for stucky bingo date night, you gotta deliver.

also on ao3

"B-4."

"Aha! Bucky. Suck my cherry flavored ass."

Steve chuckled. "Maybe later, old man. We've still got four more rounds to go."

Bucky gasped dramatically. "'Old man?' Do I mean that little to you?"

"I mean, you are older-"

"So?" Bucky shoved his chair back and presented his backside to Steve. "Does this look like 101 years to you?"

Steve threw a bingo chip at Bucky's ass. It bounced right off. "Okay fine, you've got a nice butt. You're still old."

Bucky's phone rang, and he stood up, swiping the phone off the counter, answering the call, and flipping Steve off in one smooth move. "Barnes."

He was met with the chattering of a busy restaurant. "Heyyyy gramps, whatcha up to?"

Bucky made his way back over to the kitchen table. He straddled steve's lap, who let out a low oomph, but wrapped his arms around Bucky's waist nonetheless.

"Date night. You knew that." Bucky rested his forehead on Steve's. "Say hi Steve."

"Hi Steve," Tony and Steve said in unison.

"Oh fuck off, both of you," Bucky poked Steve in the stomach. Steve chuckled. "Whaddya want, Stark?"

Tony sighed exaggeratedly. "Oh y’know, Pepper went to the bathroom and left me all alone so I figured I'd give my two favorite senior citizens a call."

Steve paused. "Are you... in the middle of a date?"

Tony made a noise of affirmation.

"So you interrupted our date because there was a lull in yours?" Steve narrowed his eyes at Bucky, who simply shrugged and readjusted his position in Steve's lap. The blond sucked in a breath. He pinched Bucky's side in retaliation.

"Oh come on," Tony protested. "It's not like you two were doing anything anyway. You're old. Besides, you answered the phone, so it clearly wasn't that important."

Bucky coughed, causing Steve to make a face and lean back. "Fuck you, Stark, it was too important."

"Yeah, lemme guess, bingo?"

"It's pronounced 'Bucky,'" Bucky corrected, at the same time Steve said, "yes."

Stark was silent, the clinking of dishes and sophisticated laughter the only noise coming through the receiver. Finally, he spoke, horror tingeing his voice. "You're not serious."

"Bet on it, goatee," Bucky said gleefully.

"I had FRIDAY make him a set of boards that said 'Bucky' on them," Steve added, trying not to laugh.

"They're pink with pineapples on them!" screeched Bucky.

"FRIDAY!" Tony's anguished wailing crackled through the receiver, "How could you betray me like this?"

"I'm sorry, sir," the AI spoke through the phone, " I did not know you would be upset by this."

"'I didn't know-'" Tony mocked hysterically, "Of course I'd be upset by this, FRIDAY! You're enabling them! They're old men! Frail minds frail bodies! They need taking care of!"

Steve pressed his face to Bucky's shoulder, shaking with laughter. Bucky held the metal fist to his mouth.

FRIDAY began to respond, "I do not think-"

"Tony!" a feminine voice chided, "Really? Phone calls on our date?"

"Please, Peps, it's Cap and Barnes," Tony's voice was rising in pitch. "Tell- guys tell Pepper what you did."

"We're playing-"

"Bingo! They're playing bingo!" Tony screeched.

"It's called Bucky!" Bucky protested.

"And the board's hot pink. With pineapples," Steve wheezed.

"Aww, that's sweet." Pepper's voice was amused, but she didn't laugh.

"Sweet? Peps, no, no it's not sweet, it's horrifying!"

She sighed, and Steve snort-laughed into Bucky's shoulder, making him giggle even more. "Tony, dear, we've been over this, if you have a problem with what someone else does-"

"But they used FRIDAY in this! They had her print the boards! They've turned her against me!"

"Sir, if I may protest-"

"You may not!"

"Tony!" The audio went fuzzy like someone had hit the phone. "You're making a scene!"

Tony shrieked, "They're playing bingo! On a date! They might be old but they can still play good games or at least have normal dates like dinner or a movie or something that doesn't involve bingo cards and chips they're probably just gonna shove up their asses later anyways!"

Bucky howled, and Steve started crying.

"Tony!" Pepper hissed. "We are not doing right now."

Steve wiped away a tear. "No no, please, by all means, keep going."

"Yeah, Pepper," Tony cried hysterically, "let's keep going, so the whole world knows Crusty Cap and his prehistoric fuck buddy play bingo on date nights. Let's make fuckin' posters and put 'em up all over town!"

"Okay," Pepper groaned, "I apologize, boys, have a nice rest of your date."

"Bye bye Pepper! Bye Goateeeee," Bucky called. Steve was too busy sobbing to form coherent sentences. The call ended.

It took a while for both of their breathing to even out, but eventually, they calmed down.

"So," Bucky wrapped his arms around Steve's neck, "what should we do now?"

"I dunno. Stark's idea of shoving the bingo chips up our asses sounds like fun."

Bucky leaned in, just barely touching his lips to Steve's ear. "I can think of better things to shove up your ass than that, babydoll."

Steve's breathing hitched. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Bucky abruptly pushed back and sat in his own chair. He slammed his hands on the table. The chips clattered slightly. "Beat me at Bucky. Then we'll see."

Steve stared at him in dismay. "But-"

"Nope! No complaining. Just playing."

"Asshole," Steve muttered.

"You're right, I do love assholes, Stevie. That's why we're playing." He raised his eyebrows. "Now. Are you in or not?"

Steve grumbled. "You're lucky I love you."

"Yes," Bucky beamed. "That I am."

[blitzandthebarracudabrigade]

Prologue 2.1: Salmon Running and You

Welp here’s the second prologue story, with guest cameo by @blueplayer2‘s OC Akio and featuring @flowingchiaki‘s OCs Hazel and Fil(bert), @patar-fuifui / @inkdazzled‘s OC Andy, and @theoneguardian‘s OC Brayden! 

(Music linked in the story isn’t mine, obviously)

Not gonna lie, I’ve been wanting to work on this prologue story for a while ever since Salmon Run was revealed at last year’s E3 event with Nintendo and I had so much theory crafting going on. More or less the game mode was everything I expected it to be and more, what with the locations and special Grizz Co. weapons to play around with. But anyway I hope you enjoy “Salmon Running and You!”

*Beep beep beep beep!*

“Mmm... not now babe. A few more... minutes.”

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

“Damnit alright I’m up!”

An inkling grumpily slammed his hand down on an alarm clock next to him, causing the blaring device to go quiet. For a few moments the inkling smothered his face on his pillow in an effort to clear the sleep out of his eyes. Eventually he pulled himself off his bed and clumsily stood up and walked to his bathroom. Looking into the mirror he reached a hand to his cheeks and pulled them down, trying to get his eyes to widen.

Ugh... I knew I shouldn’t have had those drinks last night.

Despite his groggy condition he had to get himself together for his new job. He hastily brushed his beak, took a quick shower (a cold one at that), and went to the kitchen to grab a snack. He glanced to his phone and saw that he was running late to his job; a first for him.

Damn, gonna have to call a guy to get me on time.

Keeping his phone out he taps on the Sc.Uber app and scrolls down the list of drivers. Finally he spots one he knows is reliable.

“Yo how’s it going? Uh I need you to pick me up asap. Yeah I-I know it’s pretty early but I’ll pay you compensation for it. Alright, cool.”

The inkling was about to put his phone away he heard tires screeching in the distance before a sports car pulled up to his house.

“Hey,” the driver yelled as he pulled down his driver side window. “you ready to go?”

“Yeah I am!” The inkling ran down and got into the passenger side before the car revved up and sped off, leaving behind long tire marks on the street.

“Hey, thanks again for picking me up at this hour. The app showed you were the only one available and-”

“Don’t sweat it dude!” The driver bumped his client’s shoulder with a fist and clutched the gear up a notch. “Now where to my good sir?”

The passenger pointed towards Inkopolis Plaza. “That way.”

The driver nodded with a grin and pressed down on the gas, pushing the car’s engine to the max and speeding through the light traffic. The inkling sat back and looked out the window, watching various landmarks pass by like Moray Towers and Urchin Underpass. A few minutes later the car arrived at the square’s parking lot. 

“Alright, here’s your stop.”

“Thanks,” The inkling took out his wallet and gave the inkling a roll of cash. “Keep the change.”

“Thanks Aeto!” The driver gave him a sincere smile and rolled up his window. 

Aeto grinned back and took a bite of his snack. “See you again Akio!” He turned to the inkling social hub and started making his way in, wolfing down his food along the way. He looked around to see that the local shop vendors were just getting their doors opened up and waved to a few. He even saw Crusty Sean pulling in with his food truck.

Hmm, maybe I’ll get one of his Seanwiches during my lunch break.

A few minutes later he reached his destination: the GrizzCo. Industries building. Albeit looked more like a run-down store than a true building it was where Aeto’s latest occupation was located. He walked inside and set down the few possessions he brought with him into a locker before reaching up for his work uniform. In a moment’s notice he donned the company’s signature hat, rubber overalls, and a white jumpsuit before heading for his desk. He took out a pen and clipboard and scanned over the list on top.

Looks like we’ll be getting 3 volunteers for the morning shift. 

Aeto set down the clipboard and tapped the pen on his head. 

But they’re new to the business so that means I’ll have to show ‘em the ropes huh? Oh well, guess that’s why Mr. Grizz gave me that new job as trainer.

He pushed back on his chair and got up to stretch his arms over his head, feeling his back finally getting some much needed attention. He looked to his locker and pulled out a rental Splatterscope and strapped the charger over his shoulder, waiting for the volunteers to arrive.

(One hour later...)

The first of the volunteers arrived as Aeto leaned against the doorway to the building, eyeing the crowds of inklings and jellies that walked to and fro. He glanced down to his clipboard and saw three names scribbled down and tapped on each one.

They should have came in almost 15 minutes ago...

The inkling sat back down behind his desk and kicked his legs up, leaning back on a worn out folding chair as he flipped through the few papers attached to his clipboard. However he didn’t hear a pair of footsteps walking to the building until someone coughed.

“Excuse me, is this where we sign up for Salmon Running?”

Aeto hesitated for a moment before sitting upright and fixing his cap. He looked to the entrance and saw two inklings looking at him quizzically.

“Uh yes this is it,” He stood up and walked towards them before reaching out to shake their hands. “And you two are...?”

“My name’s Hazel, and this is my little brother Filbert!” The inkling girl wrapped her arm around the younger sibling, who shyly smiled back.

“Come on sis, it’s Fil!” He hissed back to her, causing the older sibling to giggle mischievously. 

Aeto nodded and looked to his clipboard, seeing their named printed on the top of the recruit list. He lifted the paper up and saw two pictures of said inklings.

“Alright, please come inside and wait in the lobby while the other two show up.” He motioned with his hand for the pair to take a seat by a set of chairs. As the senior freelancer was about to head to his desk he noticed another inkling standing at the front door waiting.

“Ah, are you here for the morning Salmon Run shift as well?”

The inkling nodded, a stoic silent look stared back at Aeto as he glanced down to the clipboard.

“Brayden, correct?”

He nodded again.

“Okay, please come inside and take a seat by the other recruits.”

He nodded once more and walked in before setting his belongings under his seat. At the same time Aeto took a moment to himself to check off his list.

That’s three present. The last one to arrive is-

“E-excuse me?”

Aeto heard a soft and slightly jittery voice calling from the doorway and looked to see an octoling boy peeking in.

“Ah, hello there. Are you, by any chance, Andy?” He looked back to his list and saw the last name printed.

“Mhmm.” The octoling nodded and peeked in a little more.

“Well, welcome aboard!” Aeto reached to him with an open arm. “Glad you could make it young octo!”

At first Andy recoiled from the sudden loud burst from the senior inkling but felt himself calm down before reaching out to shake his hand. 

“Thanks.”

“Now come in, the others are waiting for you to take a seat. I’ll get with you all in a minute.”

The octoling thanked him again and hurriedly found a seat a row ahead of the others before setting down his own items before sitting down. In a few minutes Aeto approached the four with a projector under his arm.

“Alright recruits! Now, Mr. Grizz has told me to show you this video tape of the basics on how we run things around here,” He then placed the device on a stool and pointed it towards a tarp on an adjacent wall. “But I thought that would be pretty boring so we’re just going to say that you watched it.” He pushed the stool aside and dragged a crate to the front of the room. 

“So... what are we going to do instead then?” Hazel questioned, crossing her arms.

“Glad you asked!” He took out a crowbar and cracked open the container. The lid flew off to the side, revealing a plethora of ink-based firepower to the group. “Because I’m going to show you how to Salmon Run myself!”

All four looked into the crate and reached in to get their hands on some of the weapons inside. Brayden pulled out a Heavy Splatling, looking it over before making a nod of approval. Hazel and Fil picked out a pair of Dapple Dualies and a Splattershot respectively. And finally Andy chose an E-Liter 4K Scoped. He looked through the sights and smiled that they were just right for him.

“Now remember, these are rental weapons so don’t go losing or breaking them. I’d rather I not have to pay for damages,” Aeto joked as he grabbed a large duffel bag from his locker before slamming it shut. “Anyway just follow me to the tram and we’ll get on our way to the work area.” He watched as all of the freelancers readied their rentals and trailed behind the senior trainer through the back of the building and out a back door. There the group approached a large truck and piled in the back as Aeto took seat in the driver’s position, fired up the engines, and drove to Port Mackerel.

(A few hours later...)

“Hey, Mr. Aeto?” Andy called to the trainer. “Are we there yet?”

“We’re a few minutes from reaching the Spawning Grounds Andy. Why?” Aeto looked back from his spot on the boating wheel, the sea-worthy vessel the group was on cruising through green polluted waters.

“Oh... no reason.” He replied back as he held a hand to his mouth.

“Yeah,” Hazel grumbled to them, her face having lost some color since disembarking from Port Mackerel. 

“Oie, if you’re feeling seasick take one of these.” Without looking away from his post he reached for two small paper bags and waved them to the seasick pair. Almost immediately the inkling and octoling grabbed them and hurled their breakfast into it before closing it up.

“Thanks...” The two grimaced before tossing the filled bags into a trash can.

“Just sit back down in the cabin and take it easy,” Aeto motioned to a small room behind him. “I’ll let you know when we’re there.”

The now sickly duo took his advice and found a bunk bed inside and laid down on it. Meanwhile the other two recruits were staring out at the open waters, taking in the not so graceful sights around them.

“Geez, the seas here are gross,” Fil mumbled to Brayden. “There’s piles of trash all over the place.”

“Yeah,” Aeto yelled over the sound of the boat’s motor. “The Salmonids around these parts just let their waste and junk float back up to the surface. They’re not exactly ‘eco-friendly’.” 

“How come they make so much trash then?” Brayden asked out of curiosity.

“Good question but for another time,” Aeto powered down the boat’s motor to a slow drift. “We’re here freelancers.” He then knocked on the cabin door to get Andy’s attention. “C’mon, it’s time to show you how Salmon Running is done.” The octoling, feeling slightly less seasick, walked out and followed the group to the back of the boat.

“Now before we head to that big island you see over there,” He pointed behind them towards a large landmass. “There are a few things you need to know. One: the areas where we freelancers work in are surrounded by an unexplained barrier that prevents us from super jumping at will. So we have this giant satellite dish on this here vessel,” He motioned to them said device. “to temporarily break this barrier in order to send ourselves onto land.”

“So that means we can’t super jump to each other?” Fil cocked his head, a pang of worry in his eyes.

“No, but the islands we’ll be on are pretty small so super jumping is kind of redundant.”

“But what if we get in trouble?” Brayden pointed out.

“I’ll explain that later. Two: Each of you will be carrying Splat Bombs as your secondary weapons. Out of all the explosive subs we tested, Splat Bombs are the most effective when tackling the Salmonids.” 

“Why not something like Burst Bombs or Auto Bombs?” Brayden 

“Long story short, Mr. Grizz finds Splat Bombs to be the best,” Aeto shrugged the question off. “And three: Since this is a training run you won’t have to worry about being overrun by Salmonids. Understand?”

The group nodded in agreement.

“Great. Any more questions?”

“Uh...” Andy was about to raise his hand when Aeto clapped his together.

“Wonderful! Now everyone please stand on this platform behind me.” The senior trainer stepped forward to allow the freelancers some room to get on.

“Uh, Mr. Aeto? Are we going to have a lunch break when we’re done?” Andy tried to ask.

“Ready?” The inkling opened a panel on the satellite.

“W-wait you didn’t answer my question-”

He pressed a few buttons and reached for a lever.

“Mr. Aeto! Are we gonna have a break at all-”

He pulled the lever, which caused the dish to activate and started spinning. A moment later the group watched as the air around them momentarily wavered before it went back to normal. “Everyone, super jump to the island now!”

The four didn’t have time to ask any more questions as they all changed into their squid and octopus forms and flew away towards the isolated landmass. Aeto then reset the lever and reached for a pair of binoculars to see if they landed safely. It took him a moment to find all 4 flying towards the island before they landed on what they guessed was a landing pad. The four took a second to recover from their surprise flight and changed back to their bipedal forms.

“Ugh, my head...” Fil grumbled as he rubbed his temple.

“Ugh, my face...” Brayden groaned as he touched his nose.

“Oooh, my stomach...!” Andy held his gut before running to a trash bin and hurling once more into the container.

“...ome in freelancers! Ca... you hear me?” 

All four heard a static voice coming from around them.

“Did you guys hear that?” Hazel asked as she continued glancing around. Fil and Brayden nodded while Andy recovered from his episode of illness.

“Hold on... a sec.” Another moment passed as they heard more static and inaudible chatter until they heard Aeto clearly. “There, that should do it. Can you four hear my voice clearly now?”

“Yeah, we hear you loud and clear.” Hazel replied, grabbing a Dapple Dualie in one hand.

“Excellent, it looks like you all made it in one piece.”

“...mostly.” Andy mumbled.

“You’ll be alright Andy. Now take a good look around you,” The group did as such and saw that the island around them was more than just a patch of dirt in the sea. They saw several structures built around the landing pad, such as ramps, catwalks, and walls. “You are currently at the Spawning Grounds, one of the first locations where Salmonids go to migrate and... well spawn. You will also notice next to where you all landed a square metal panel.”

“You mean this thing?” The group looked to Brayden who was standing on top of it, a raised eyebrow looking down at it suspiciously.

“Yes Brayden, that square metal panel,” A moment later the panel opened up and a large cylindrical net popped out and launched the Splatling wielder into the air, falling back on the landing pad. “Don’t stand on the egg basket please. I told you that I really don’t want to pay for damaged property of Mr. Grizz.” 

“Ugh... sorry.” He stood back up while rubbing the back of his head. 

“No worries, just stick together and I’ll run you all through the training exercise.” The four heard a horn blow from the boat Aeto was in. “Alright, the first thing you’ll notice is that the egg basket is empty. Look around for a big glowing fish that’s holding a big frying pan.” 

They looked around but didn’t see any such creature. 

“We don’t see it.” Fil said as he glanced around the area.

“You’re gonna have to look for it yourself,” The trainer sighed. “Go check around those catwalks. There should be one hiding out over there.”

The group then headed to where Aeto suggested and, sure enough they saw a large gold-scaled fish wandering around. The late morning sun glimmered off its metallic body, causing the freelancers to stare at it in an almost trance-like state.

“Oie, noobies. Don’t just stare at it. You need to take it down to collect some Golden Eggs!” Aeto radioed to them, causing the group to snap back to reality.

“Uh, sorry.” Andy blinked his eyes until he could see clearly. He then aimed his charger and lined up his sights on the Salmonid. He took a moment to breathe out before releasing the trigger and-

SPLAT!

They watched as the toga-totting fish turned into an ink splotch on the ground as well as 3 glimmering orbs.

“Woah, those must be the Golden Eggs.” Fil muttered to his sister before heading down a ramp to get them.

“Wait, Fil!” Hazel yelled to her younger sibling, racing behind him. Brayden followed suit to grab an egg of his own leaving the octoling charger to watch their back. But as he watched his new squad mates he noticed that small bubbles were forming by the edge of the island next to the eggs. He aimed to them only to see another Salmonid popping out of the water and headed right for the eggs.

“Guys! Watch out!” Andy warned as he took aim at the intruding sea creature. The others stopped dead in their tracks to see it going straight for the eggs instead of them.

“It’s trying to steal the eggs!” Brayden prepped his Splatling while the other two made a mad dash for their objective. In what they felt was a small eternity, Andy lets loose another shot from his E-Liter while Brayden unleashes a torrent of ink shots. At the same time Hazel and Fil changed into their squid forms and grabbed hold of an egg each. The two looked up to see that the overwhelming firepower did more than enough to splat the Salmonid, leaving one last egg for Brayden to simply walk up and take.

“Alright!” Fil leapt up with joy as the others cheered. 

“Good job freelancers. Now get those gold goodies back to the basket and deposit them in.”

The three egg holders regrouped to Andy before heading towards the basket. As they stood by it a slot underneath the container opened up, allowing them to drop their prize in and see the eggs pop up within it. 

“That wasn’t so hard.” Fil chimed as he waved his Splattershot around.

“Trust me kid, this job is a lot tougher than it seems,” Aeto radioed in. “Don’t forget that this is just a training session.”

The four drew silent for a moment before they heard their comms crackle. 

“Now, what you just saw were Salmonids called a Goldie and a Snatcher. Obvious of what the big glowing fish is but the Snatcher will come ashore and try to steal any eggs you might leave out for too long. So be sure to collect as many Golden Eggs as you can.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Brayden calls to the others, his weapon in hand. The others nod with him approvingly.

“Looks like you all are ready for some more action,” they heard. “Now let’s see how you lot handle a wave of them Goldies.” A moment later a foghorn blew from the ship, followed by bubbles forming around the edges of the island. One by one the group watched as the bubbles slowly became Goldie Salmonids, leaving behind a thick, viscous green slime as they made their way inland.

“Let’s take them out!” Hazel rallied to her team as she ran down towards the beach section of the Spawning Grounds and immediately started taking on a pair of Goldies. 

“Well, you heard the lady. Take out those Goldies and get those eggs in freelancers!” The others heard Aeto order through their radios. They readied their ink weapons and joined Hazel, splatting the Goldies as they showed up. For several minutes Aeto watched from the boat as the recruits worked on their egg collecting. Andy stayed on top of a high wall and provided long range support by taking out sneaky Snatchers or lone Goldies that tried to ambush the others. Brayden took it upon himself to keep himself a good distance away from the shorelines, keeping the beach inked in their color. This left Hazel and Fil to the task of luring the Goldies in closer and grabbing eggs as quickly as they could. 

Not bad for a bunch of noobs. Aeto thought to himself, keeping an eye out behind them in case the Goldies attacked from a different angle. As he panned his view towards the docks section he noticed some bubbles forming by the far left pier. He was about to reach for his radio to warn the others when, instead of a Goldie coming up, he saw the all too familiar sight of a gigantic armored Salmonid with pipes protruding from its mouth that led to a launcher on top of its head.

“Freelancers look out behind you!” Aeto warned. The first to look was Andy and when his gaze fell upon the looming Salmonid closing in on him he yelped in horror and started to slowly back away. Brayden glanced back and saw the behemoth and turned his weapon to it, charging his weapon fully before blasting away. But he could only observe as his ink shots splashed harmlessly off the massive fish’s body.

“Uh, guys. What do we do?” Brayden gulped and backed up as well. Hazel and Fil stopped their egg harvesting and gazed in fear at the new Salmonid. 

“S-Sis, what is that?“ Fil stuttered, almost dropping his weapon.

“Everyone! Get back from that Salmonid!” Aeto called to them. “That’s a Steelhead! Attacking its armored body won’t do a thing!”

“Then what do we do?” Andy cried out. Just as he said that the Steelhead stopped moving and began to tremble. The octoling looked up and saw that the monster fish was gurgling green spit in its mouth, causing the charger user to almost vomit a third time. But he also noticed that a plastic sac was beginning to inflate on top of the Steelhead’s face.

“Quick Andy! Splat that inflating bomb before it launches it at you!” 

He reached for his E-Liter and aimed it right at the bomb. The others rushed to his aid and tried to distract the giant but to no avail, as the Salmonid filled the sac up with more slimy drool. Andy took one last moment to aim and let loose a discharge of ink and watched it pierce through the explosive. The Steelhead recoiled from the implosion and ruptured, leaving behind bits of armor and three eggs.

“You did it Andy! Well done!” Aeto sighed with relief, watching as the octoling stand up and pick up and egg.

“Thanks Mr. Aeto.” He chimed back with gratitude.

“Just call me Aeto, freelancers,” He chuckled and saw them deliver the remaining eggs left on the beach. “Good work you lot. Now head back to the launch pad and-”

He couldn’t finish talking as he saw the water around the Spawning Grounds beginning to fizzle and boil.

“What the...?” Aeto looked around and watched in utter shock as Boss Salmonids started to surface. More Steelheads began to approach along with lesser Salmonid Chums from the docks, Fly Fishes and Drizzlers popped up from the catwalk area and took positions by the far corners of the sector, and Scrappers charged their way up the beach, denying the recruits’ chances of an escape.

“W-what’s going on!” Fil quivered in his uniform as Hazel, Brayden, and Andy found themselves surrounded by very angry looking Salmonids.

“Hehehe,” One of the Steelheads approached the group with a sneering, cold-blooded grin. “Looks like the hunters have become the hunted!” The other Bosses laughed maniacally as they watched all four freelancers clump together in fear. “For too long we’ve been slaughtered for our eggs. Well,” It grabbed the nearest recruit, Brayden, by the life saver on his back and glared at him. “No longer will our people have to struggle to preserve our own kind.” The monstrous fish tossed the inkling back onto the ground and moved back with its waiting comrades. “Salmonids! Who wants a taste of some revenge?” The others roared with blood-thirsty cheers.

“Hang on you guys!” Aeto tried to reassure them as he dashed to the boat’s cabin. He reached under the bunk bed and pulled out a metal locker, grabbing hold of his own custom charger: the Splat Bolt Action. Please, just hang on a few more seconds! He rushed outside and, hastily switching on the satellite, super jumped to the landing pad on the island.

“G-guys, I’m scared!” Andy huddled close to his coworkers as the Scrappers boxed them in. The Steelheads then began to inflate their bombs, the Fly Fishes opened up their rocket pods, and the Drizzlers aimed their Ink Storm mortars. But just as the Salmonids were about to unleash their attack, Aeto landed behind them all and whistled to the fishes.

“Hey! You leave them alone you slime-sucking freak shows!” The entire island’s occupants looked towards the source of the shout and saw another inkling gazing towards the confused Salmonids. “Recruits, get down now!” They did as he told and hid in an ink puddle. Aeto aimed his charger and fired away, his shots penetrating the Steelheads’ armored plating and causing them all to get splatted. With each shot he cocked back a bolt on his charger, ejecting a glass tube, and loaded another ink cartridge before resuming his onslaught. He redirected his fire at the Scrappers and blasted them to pieces. Reloading his Bolt Action, he scoped in on the Drizzlers’ mortars and disabled them in seconds, leaving them utterly defenseless before piercing their umbrella-shaped shields and killing them instantly. Finally he saw the remaining Bosses, the Fly Fishes, realize their dire situation and attempted to flee. But the sharpshooter ran towards the now retreating Fly Fishes and annihilated the airborne assailants with swift and deadly accurate shots to the pilots. In less than 60 seconds Aeto had single-handedly wiped out the Boss Salmonids, protecting the recruits and leaving behind dozens of Golden Eggs. The senior freelancer took one more scan of the Spawning Grounds and, satisfied that no more Salmonids were present to harass them, holstered his weapon and met up with the others.

“Hey, you four alright?” He checked each of them for any injuries as they changed back into their bipedal forms.

“Y-yeah....” Andy stared at Aeto, though unsure if it was awe or fear he felt at this point.

“How... how did you take out all of those big scary Salmonids?” Fil repeatedly hopped up and down with excitement. “That was awesome!”

“Don’t worry about that, alright?” He patted the young inkling on the shoulder. “Just collect all the eggs around here and head back to the boat when you’re done. I’ll keep watch to make sure no more Salmonids show up, okay?”

They all nodded and headed off in pairs to gather the eggs. Aeto stood by the basket and kept a close eye on all of them while in deep thought. 

Why did all those Salmonids attack? The training session was only suppose to have Goldies show up... In a few minutes the last of the eggs were harvested and accounted for. Aeto closed up the basket and motioned for them all to head back. But as he was about to super jump back he noticed something peaking out from the ink a few meters away. He walked up to the mysterious object and pulled it out, seeing that it was actually some sort of recording device.

What in the world is this...? He thought and examined the device over. But his train of thought was interrupted when he heard the recruits calling him through the radio to hurry up. He took one last glance around him before pocketing it in his satchel and joined the others, sailing off to Inkopolis.