#i always crawl back from my permanent art block for art fight ^^

[fiotarya]

first Art Fight attack of the year LETS GO WEREWOLVES!

this is the gorgeous Kaia Faelyn by @magspy

come attack me if you want! i love friendly fire as well and will revenge either way :>

https://artfight.net/~fiotarya

[slasher-smasher]

16 yrs old

Sinclair Twins x Reader

A huge thank you to the wonderful @thesightstoshowyou for beta reading my mess. I know I just posted the first one, I just have a lot in my head and want to get it down. Thank you for those who are reading, really makes my day. This one is a bit longer. Other parts here: 8 yrs, 19 yrs pt1, 19 pt2\

Warnings: none

Today was a beautiful day. There were no clouds in the bright blue sky, and the trees swished with the caress of an unusually cool breeze that blew through the town of Ambrose.

You were walking toward the station and laughing with friends you made while visiting your Uncle over the summer. Your parents have been fighting more at the most ridiculous things, so you relish the time you get to run away to the busy town.

“There’r drinks at the station we can ‘ave,” you say while wiping the sweat off your forehead.

As your little group enters the blissfully cool garage, you pass your uncle who was currently tucked underneath the body of an off-yellow vehicle.

“Hey Grumps, can we git some soda from the cooler?” You squat down next to him so you can hear him better.

“Sure, don’t care,” the muffled grumble replied, “Er, that Sinclair boy left gifts for ya’ earlier. Sumthin’ ‘bout yer birthday. It’s in my office.” You stand with a puzzled look on your face.

“Sinclair boy? No way it was Vinny. He never leaves the museum.” You ponder while walking to the small office that was tucked into the back. Looking at the desk you find the “gifts,” and let out a short laugh. One was of a poorly whittled wooden rabbit. Or, at least, you think it’s a rabbit.

“Oh Lester,” you sigh with a smile on your face. Next was a wax sculpture of a moth. The figure itself was unnerving in the usual Vincent fashion that just made you love it even more. The moth’s wings have the image of a woman’s face. It was a joke from when you embarrassed yourself when hanging out with Vincent in the House of Wax.

You moved some old papers and let out the highest pitched squeal when a large moth fluttered at your face from being disturbed. You tripped over the chair that was behind you. There was no noise but you could see Vincent’s shoulders shake from his place by the piano, his eye shining with amusement.

“Oh shut it! The damn thing tried to jump on my face!” You could feel the blood rush to your cheeks, but you were happy that the normally stoic man was laughing. A voice that sent chills down your spine broke you out of reminiscing.

“Ya gunna pay fer that?”

‘Oh no,’ you panicked as you gathered the gifts and raced out of the room.

You come into the sight of your friends protesting and saying Y/N gave them the drinks. The eldest Sinclair himself leans against a yellow car that looks like he was working on judging by the grease on his coveralls and cheek. His arms are crossed over his chest, pale eyes set in a frown.

“Bo Sinclair, quit bein’ an ass! Ya’ know Grumps lets me ‘ave some drinks.” You stomped right up in front of the young mechanic, clutching the figures to your chest. He was a whole foot taller than you, so the intimidating effect from your friends’ point of view was a bit washed out.

As Bo looked down at your face, then the sculptures.

He straightened and grabbed your jaw in a firm grip with his right hand, rough from the engineering he likes to study.

The touch making a dream you had flash like lightning behind your eyes of the way his hands caressed your skin and how you awoke breathless, angry, and slick.

His lips slid into a smirk that made you want to slap it off…or maybe run your tongue across it.

‘Fuck off hormones!’ you scolded.

“How was I supposed to know they were with you Prince/Princess?” he asked in that condescending way of his. The blood in your cheeks boiled. You would never admit nor understand why this bastard of a man gets under your skin so easily.

“I told you not to call me that,” you gritted out through your teeth not taking your eyes off his blues that now shined with glee. Oh, how he loves revving you up.

Bo was just about to make a retort that would make you want to break his handsome face when your Uncle yells, “Boy! Git the fuck over ‘ere and help me with this tin can. What am I payin’ ya’ fer?”

Bo closes his eyes and growls under his breath. When he opens them, they are a darker shade, the same shade as when he is angry.

“Another time, sweet cheeks,” he winks as he caresses your cheek with his thumb before he letting go and turning to lean over the hood while your uncle is under. He acts as if you two weren’t surrounded by tension so thick you can suffocate on it.

“Yer still on the fucking fan belt? Damn it old man let me do it.”

“Prick,” you huff and turn to your two friends who seemed like they were frozen, “Let’s go, ya’ll. I want ter see them new puppies they got.” The offer of cooing over cute things seems to perk them up and the chatter and laughter resumed as you all exited the garage.

As you leave you can feel the red-hot burn of Bo’s eyes crawling up your legs and body. Mainly, your ass.

‘Nope, not looking.’ You force yourself to face forward, not at the stormy eyes that follow you as you walk to the pet store down the street. You did your best to ignore the tingling on your face where he touched you.

Later, you find yourself lounging on some dusty couch under the House of Wax where Vincent usually works on his art and spends most of his time. You were facing the ceiling, lost in thought, arms draped over the back, legs crossed at the ankles. The candle that Vincent had for a light source bathed your skin in a warm glow. All you could hear was the scrape of a pencil over the paper as Vincent sketched in his book.

You were thinking about something one of your friends said while you were gushing over the tiny puppies.

“Hey, are ya and Bo together?” she had asked while cuddling a wiggling puppy to her chest. You let out a sharp bark of laughter and shook your head violently.

“With that jerk? Hell no. Most of the time I wanna bop him in the nose whenever he opens his mouth.” You giggled as you watched the pup you were giving attention nibble on your fingers.

“Yeh, but ya’ basically grew up wit them Sinclairs and even went ter the funeral. You guys must be close righ’?” asked your other friend. The mention of Trudy and Victor’s funeral made you sad, though it didn’t show on your face.

You had mixed feelings about it. They weren’t the best of parents; God knows you know firsthand with your own. But you were saddened about how it all ended; Trudy getting sick, and poor Dr. Sinclair. Despair, like a black viscous goo consuming every good thing in your life, swallows you up too. They all deserved better.

You remember when you saw Vincent, Bo, and Lester all standing in front of the casket, heads bowed in their black suits. Lester, being at the age of seven, only knew that his Momma and Pa are gone, too young to grasp the concepts of sickness and heartbreak.

Vincent was, as usual, stiff, and with his mask on you couldn’t tell what was going through his mind. You wanted to comfort and embrace them, but what made your heart feel like it was constricted by fishing wire was Bo. His hands were balled into fists, his face pinched like he was going to scream any second. One would think he would start throwing things, but it was his eyes that gave it away. The watery bright blue eyes that were looking at the face of his mother and jailer.

You have never seen them that clear blue before. A dark, stormy ocean seemed to permanently take residence in his eyes, but not that day. You will never understand the relationship the boys had with their parents, the twisted love they had. Hopefully, the neighbors who volunteered to take them in will fill the gaping hole that has been created.

You doubt it.

The scrape of a chair on the floor made you blink. Lifting your head, you watch Vincent get up from the desk and stand in front of a small block of wax that will soon be transformed into a creature born from the man’s dark imagination. His head cocked to the side as if debating what to do. His midnight hair that is getting longer every year brushed over his right shoulder. Getting up from the couch, you groaned at feeling of the small pops when you stretched.

‘God, how long was I zoned out?’ you thought. Walking behind him, you bit into your bottom lip in hesitation. You knew you had a bit of a crush on the quiet and probably emotionally stunted artist. He was so much better to deal with than that bastard of a twin of his.

‘Ah fuck it,’ you thought, then proceeded to wrap your arms around Vincent who stiffened like he’d been electrocuted.

“I never thanked you for the moth. It’s lovely,” you whispered into his shoulder blades as you laid your head on the middle of his back. He was still like a statue and you started to get worried you overstepped, about to let go when you felt him relax and squeeze your fingers once with his soft warm hands, the total opposite of Bo’s. A soft raspy, “Welcome,” could barely be heard.

You let go and step next to him, tilting your head to see his good eye. You always felt naked when that light blue eye was on you. You did not see any expression in them, just a cold emptiness.

“It was a monster of a moth by the way. I nearly escaped death.” You grinned as you saw him roll his eye in exasperation, “Also, Lester is gunna cut his fingers off wit those knives of his. He’s just thirteen. Where is he gettin’ all those damn things?” Vincent just shrugged and picked up some tools from the tray and proceeded to make his next creation. You huffed and walked back to the couch and ungracefully plopped onto it, content to watch him work in silence.

[greetingsfromthebottomofthewell]

NES GODZILLA CREEPYPASTA - CHAPTER 4: DEMENTIA

[directory]

unforgiving cold

[source] [triggers]

When I got back to the game, I was getting very upset and confused.

I thought about the way the monster looked at me. The game COULDN'T have heard what I said, that's impossible. It had to be a random occurrence. But why did it happen precisely at the moment I insulted the monster?

Nothing about this game made any sense. The new Godzilla monsters, the weird replacement monsters, out of place imagery like the green temples, quiz levels, and the red monster chases. It didn't seem to add up in any kind of meaningful way.

If it was a prank, it wasn't funny in any way I could understand, and they clearly put far too much effort into it.

If they were trying to make a genuine sequel with new Godzilla monsters, then why did they add..everything else?

Maybe it was some kind of art experiment? Some group project made by a bunch of really talented and crazy people, and they lost the cartridge somehow? Or maybe they intended for some random person to find it?

It was all just fruitless guessing. As far as I could tell, there was only one way to figure out what the deal with this game was: To play it through to the end. Maybe, just maybe, there would be something in the credits, an explanation by the creators as to why they made this. Or it could be something much more cryptic and strange, maybe even something horrifying.

Before I got a good look at the Dementia board, I considered replaying Trance to see if the red monster would look at me again. But I decided against it. I wanted to keep moving forward. I was also somewhat worried that backtracking might cause the game to become even more strange.

The Dementia board music sounded a lot like the Saturn music, except it was slowed down, and played with a piano-sounding instrument. Like most of these new map themes, it had a dangerous suspenseful feel.

While listening to the music, I looked at the Dementia board. There were four boss monsters this time: SpaceGodzilla, Manda, Gigan, and Baragon. I was surprised that there were two new Toho monsters this time. But the best surprise was still to come.

I started the Quiz level. Here's another list of results in the same format as the last one:

Quiz 2

Can you Swim? Answer: Yes, Reaction: Happy

Do you like fish? Answer: Yes, Reaction: Sick

Can penguins fly? Answer: No, Reaction: Sad

Can it spin in all directions?(There was no clarification of what Face meant by "it" so I just guessed)Answer: No, Reaction: Surprised

Do you breathe oxygen? Answer: Yes, Reaction: Weird Face #8

Does it taste good when you bite a woman?(I don't know who came up with this question, but I really hope they're getting mental help)Answer: No, Reaction: Annoyed

Is it night where you are? Answer: Yes, Reaction: Weird Face #6

Do you like cats? Answer: Yes, Reaction: Confused

Is water wet? Answer: Yes, Reaction: Angry

Have you ever broken a bone? Answer: No, Reaction: Happy

Do you like your job? Answer: Yes, Reaction: Hurt

Would you like a new monster? Answer: Yes, Reaction: Weird Face #11

I wasn't entirely sure at the time what Face meant by "new monster", but I couldn't resist answering "Yes", just to see what would happen.

The result was mind blowing.

The game took me back to the board and I had a new playable monster in the form of Anguirus! Ever since I was kid, I always wanted to play as Anguirus, since he was my second favorite Godzilla monster (And plus I never liked Mothra all that much).

I moved my new Anguirus piece over to the level right next to it, eager to test out my new monster.

Before I get into the level description I'll talk about Anguirus a bit:

Using the up and down buttons you could choose whether Anguirus stood in a bipedal stance or crawled around on all fours. It wasn't a huge difference, but being able to stand was helpful in boss fights, and crawling sometimes helped dodge obstacles and attacks.

He could punch and kick like Godzilla, but no tail whip. Instead he had something far more interesting: The ability to curl up into a spiked ball of death and roll around. You could still take damage, but it was lessened. It was a good way of clearing out stage enemies, but unfortunately doing this also drained the power bar.

But the spiked ball wasn't his only special ability. When you pressed Start, he would fire a beam of energy from his mouth. It resembled Titanosaurus' sonar attack, and if this were a hack it may have been inspired by the Roar attack from Atari's Godzilla fighting games.

Also of note is that when playing as Anguirus, the "Level" meter gets glitched up. Judging by the life and power bar, I'd say he's on Level 10.

Now onto the level:

As you might have guessed from the level icon, these levels are green palette swaps of the ground and background tiles from the Blue Mountains. But what immediately caught my attention was the water, which has a transparency effect.

Was that even possible for an NES game? I know the Super Nintendo could do it, but I had never seen a transparency effect in a game on an NES.

The Green Mountains music was played with the same instrument as the Blue Mountains, but the melody was totally different. It was a very simple song with a lot of abrupt pauses, followed by a loud note every few seconds.

Anyway, I went through the usual strolling through the level. And again there were no monsters or anything, but pretty soon I had reached a cliff above the water.

There was nowhere to go but into the water, so down I went. The water transparency made things a bit harder to see, but it's tolerable. After going underwater I encountered two new enemies: a giant piranha and some kind of spiky bottom feeder thing. I liked the piranha because I could easily tell what it was.

It was a sane enemy design that would appear in a real game, and there were very few enemies like this.

They didn't take much hits to kill, but they were quite annoying, and could considerably trim down your life if they got close enough. They also tend to travel in packs.

As for the bottom feeders, they're easy to deal with. They swim along the bottom of the screen towards you, and are easily crushed with the roll attack or jumped over. In this screencap you can see me about to run one of them over, and there's a pack of piranha behind it.

After I beat that level, I moved Godzilla onto the blue castle icon. I started the level and I got a title screen, with the text "UNFORGIVING COLD".

The level itself looked like a castle dungeon made of blue bricks,with rows of identical white statue faces on the walls.These statue faces had a permanent look of horror on their faces.

There was also some flickering gray static, which didn't really obscure my vision, but it adds to the very unsettling mood of these levels. The music was a twelve second loop of a low pitched choir vocalizing, that sounded very familiar to me.

Whenever I played through one of these levels I got this sudden, horrible feeling of anxiety. I had the feeling that the farther I progressed through the level, the closer I was getting to something unspeakably evil.

There weren't any enemies, but these were the some of the longest levels in the game. I only played one level, but it took seven minutes to complete.

I didn't want to admit it to myself at the time, but I realized something playing the blue castle level: This game has the power to make the player feel certain things.

I don't mean in the sense that you get irritated playing a crappy game, or get unnerved by something scary in a game. What I mean is that certain events in this game can instantly make you start feeling something.

I know that sounds completely insane. I don't blame you for not believing me, I wouldn't believe any of this either if I didn't play the game myself. But there is something very, very wrong with this game, and I still don't know how to explain it.

So...then it was time to fight Baragon's replacement.

Although Baragon was originally the smallest monster in the game, his replacement was the largest. It was so tall in fact, that the "ground" was noticeably lowered, and Not-Baragon's head still barely avoided collision with the bar at the top of the screen. And he was just as frighteningly bizarre as he was huge.

You may be wondering how he attacks without arms. Well, he has the most powerful kick in the game. But his other fighting technique is much stranger.

First he blasts a cloudy breath of pixels down at you, which causes you to freeze, then he walks back to the right corner of the screen and...extends a huge gatling gun from his abdomen.

That might seem amusing to you, but it certainly wasn't to me when I was playing the game. This attack is almost as annoying as Gigan's saw, and Not-Baragon could have been unbeatable if he consistently used it. Thankfully he only did it twice while fighting him.

Once you unfreeze, you can run up and start damaging the gun, which does extra damage to him. This helped me to destroy him, and then it was time to play the third level type. I decided that I was going to use Anguirus to fight Manda and Gigan, and then fight SpaceGodzilla as Godzilla (it was only fitting).

Before getting into the battles, I'll describe the third level type: The Arctic.

The Arctic is exactly what you'd guess from the name, an icy tundra with a few watery segments.

The music reminded me a bit of "Northern Hemispheres" from Donkey Kong Country, in 8 bit form. A very dangerous sounding song, it made me think about being trapped in a tundra and freezing to death.

There were two new enemies in this stage. The first was a creature frozen in a block of ice. They block your way and you have to use the heat beam to thaw them out of the ice. They look a bit like a smaller version of Not-Gezora, only without the eye.

When freed, they do a strange crawling movement and push you backwards. It doesn't cause any damage but it's a bit annoying.

After dealing with the Iceman, I kept walking for a minute or two and came upon a water segment. I jumped in, and this time I managed to get a screencap showing how the water splashes when you jump in. Dunno how they programmed that, but it's pretty impressive. Another interesting thing is how the screen changes focus when you go underwater.

Here you can see the other new enemy, a little thing I call "Spike Walker". They walk towards you and explode randomly(or instantly if you attack them), sending spikes in every direction. The spikes don't do much damage but they did get me dangerously close to falling into a pit a few times.

Oh, speaking of the pits: Down into the water, the game has a platformer element: bottomless pits. There weren't any of these in the original game, since it was strictly an action game, but the pits were a neat addition.

After getting back on land, I encountered a very unexpected miniboss: Maguma, the Walrus Kaiju. I know this game had some obscure monsters to begin with, but wow. Not that I'm complaining, it's a pretty cool cameo for an unappreciated kaiju.

Maguma's fighting tactics were very simple, he had a freeze beam, and he could charge into you. Not very challenging but certainly more entertaining than the Matango miniboss in the original game.

One really interesting thing about Maguma is that he doesn't die when you defeat him, he turns tail and retreats. This was the first time I had ever seen an enemy monster change direction, let alone retreat. I tried to chase after him, but he dissapeared after I got in the water. Poor bastard.

And that does it for the Arctic. I'll talk about the Manda fight next.

I forgot to mention before, but the music that played during the new monster fights is re-used from themes actually in the games.

So far the themes have been:

Titanosaurus: Gezora's music Biollante: Hedorah's music Orga: Baragon/Moguera's music Manda: Varan's music Spacegodzilla: MechaGodzilla's music

As for the fight, Manda was a fairly crafty opponent. When it realized one tactic was ineffective, it would immediately change to a different one.

Manda used quite a few tricks, like spitting fire, biting, and the most irritating of all, constricting.

It doesn't mercilessly drain your life down like Gigan's cutter, but it was by far Manda's strongest attack.

One last thing to note (that I found pretty cool) was that the Atragon showed up during the fight to help me out. Manda crushed it with ease, but it was still cool.

After I slayed Manda, I played through an Arctic level for health power-ups and then it was on to Gigan's replacement. When the fight started, I was very confused, because there was nothing there. I thought this was going to be like the Titanosaurus "fight" in Pathos, but just about the time it would have been going back to the map, a piranha appeared onscreen.

But it wasn't there for long. As soon as it appeared, the speakers emitted an ear-splitting screech, and Not-Gigan flew in and ripped the poor fish into pieces.

Well, that's one way to get the player on their toes. That abrupt entrance scared the hell out of me and got my adrenaline rushing. Which in retrospect was a good thing, because Not-Gigan was one of the fastest, most unrelenting opponents in the game.

Not-Gigan was tough, but my new skills with Anguirus helped to even the score. This was still an incredibly intense fight! Not-Gigan's attacks consisted of a some kind of blood laser he spews from his mouth, and a downward slash. I was expecting some hellish variant of the buzzsaw attack, but thankfully there didn't seem to be one.

The Howl attack was invaluable in defeating him. I would have taken more screencaps of the fight, but I really had to concentrate.

After that, there was just one monster left to take down: SpaceGodzilla. As mentioned earlier, I used Godzilla for this fight.

Spacegodzilla's fighting technique was rather frustrating, but admittedly a very clever idea.

SpaceGodzilla would use his energy to create two flying crystals, which would reach the ground and become crystal spires.

These spires not only block you from reaching SpaceGodzilla, but it also allowed him to constantly recharge to full energy, and blast you with a deadly fully charged Corona Beam until you broke the spires.

SpaceGodzilla would eventually drain his own spires of energy until they shattered, but if you waited for that to happen you'd probably lose a lot of life. Heat beams actually seemed to re-energize the spires, so you had to use physical attacks.

When you finally got close enough to hit SpaceGodzilla, he was no pushover. When I punched him, he hit me back just as hard. SpaceGodzilla does everything in his power to knock you back to the left corner of the screen, so he can create more spires.

By the time this was over, I only had about five life bars left. But it didn't matter, because I didn't need to fight anymore. I needed to run.

Here we go again. I decided right then that I really wanted to see the end of this game. As terrifying as these levels could sometimes be, I had to beat them to get though.

I decided that no matter what happened, no matter what the game showed me, I was going to get to the end. And I also made sure not to say a damned word while playing a chase level from here on.

For this chase I tried out Anguirus, since his roll attack allowed me to move faster than Godzilla or Mothra. The chase started off like the first two, except there was a river of blood below the ground. I was beginning to get the hang of it, and the extra speed from the Roll helped me get an edge on the red monster. Especially since I didn't have to worry about a power limit, and could keep rolling endlessly.

Like the previous levels with water, the ground inevitably reached a stop. So I rolled off into the blood. To my surprise, the hell beast didn't follow after me, it just stopped at the edge of the ground and grimaced. "I guess it can't swim" I thought to myself.

So I went "underblood" and continued moving. There wasn't anything around, but I knew something was up. The chase wasn't going to end that easily, could it? Surely something else had to show up. And sure enough, I heard the bellowing roar, sounding slightly different...

...And the monster was following after me in a new aquatic body! I had no idea it was a shapeshifter. After it reappeared, the chase started to get into the difficulty I had expected. Being submerged slowed me down, putting me and the beast at about the same speed. The only thing that would keep me alive was fast thinking and reflexes.

I encountered some bottomless pits, in which mines floated up from. I assume that if you hit one, it would damage you and knock you back. Considering how fast the red monster swims, hitting the mines would be instant death, so I went through great effort to avoid them.

But that wasn't all I had to be wary of. Halfway through the chase the hell beast revealed yet another surprise: a tentacle formed of intestine and tipped with a clawed set of jaws burst from its mouth, trying to pull me in and devour me. I only barely avoided both the tentacle and the mines, but I could tell the beast was getting desperate, because the chase was nearly over.

And about a minute later, I had spotted a bit of ground that served as the exit. I leaped with all the might I could muster (without breaking my controller). The beast screamed with rage and jumped out of the blood river in one last attempt to drag me down, but I escaped its grasp. This time.

I fell back on my bed and took a deep breath, satisfied with yet another successful escape. Now I was headed to the fifth world: Entropy.

[previous] | [next]

[smttnpegasus]

Plenty of Room

Fandom: Clexakru

Ship: Clarke Griffin/Lexa

Rating: G

Word Count: 3107

Read on AO3!

Thinking back, Clarke can't remember the last time Lexa didn't stay at the house. Maybe she should do something about making sure that doesn't change?

The sun was warm on Clarke’s face as she sat on the floor sketching the scene unfolding around her. Lexa was laid on the floor in a sports bra while Aden gleefully colored the large tattoo on her back. It had become a Sunday ritual that just the three of them would spend the day together. Movie night was for everybody but Sunday was just for them. It was raining today so they decided to spend a lazy day inside watching movies.

The current movie choice was The Princess Bride. This was one of Aden’s favorites so it was always high on his list when asked what he wanted to watch. They usually ended up watching it almost every Sunday. Aden always giggled like crazy when the sword fight between Westley and Inigo was about to happen. He would play Wesley and Lexa would be Inigo and they would sword fight across the living room.

They were nearing the end of the movie and Aden was much more absorbed in his coloring than what was happening on screen. Lexa’s head and arms rested on Clarke’s out-stretched leg with her head facing the TV. She was fully engrossed in the movie and Clarke was enjoying sketching her calm features.

She set her sketch book aside and started playing with the baby hair at the back of Lexa’s neck that had come out of the bun messy bun she had it in. Lexa hummed in satisfaction but stayed still so she wouldn’t disturb Aden’s determined coloring.

Clarke sneakily walked her fingers down Lexa’s neck until she could tickle the edge of her collar bone. The brunette jumped and tried to sit up to escape those wandering fingers. Aden put a small hand on her shoulder, “Don’t move, Rexa! I have to stay in the rines.”

“Yeah, Clarke, he has to stay in the lines, so no more tickling!” Lexa said and pointed an accusatory finger at the blonde.

Clarke raised her hands in surrender, “I’ll behave I promise.”

Lexa narrowed her eyes but laid her head back in Clarke’s lap. The end credits of the movie started rolling and Clarke picked up the remote with one hand while the other played with Lexa’s hair.

“I vote we watch a Disney movie.” Lexa said as Clarke started the search for what they would watch next.

“Ooo, can we watch The Hunchback movie, Mommy? I rove the gargoyres, they are so funny!” Aden said as he picked a new color for the next portion of Lexa’s tattoo.

“Hunchback of Notre-dame, it is.” She said scrolling through till she found the right movie and started it up. She looked down and saw what Aden had down so far. He was coloring most of the tree in browns and greens but with bright pops of color for the animals and flowers. It gave her an idea. I think I have some loose canvas in the studio and plenty of paints. Now to get Lexa to agree. Maybe tonight after Aden is in bed.

She settled in to watch the movie and let her mind wander. It had been a few months since Lexa’s ex had blown into town and tried to push them apart. Since then Clarke could tell that Lexa was trying harder than ever to show Clarke that she wasn’t going anywhere. The blonde had been trying to think of a way to show her that she appreciated that effort but had yet to come up with anything.

She had also spent the last few months thinking about her own fears and insecurities that had been brought to the surface. Unfortunately that meant she had been thinking about Finn quite a bit. Looking back now it seemed so obvious the kind of man he was, and she questioned herself on how she hadn’t seen it sooner. She supposed it had been easy to overlook quite a bit while they were in school. She was so busy with her nursing courses she barely had enough time to eat and sleep let alone worry about where he was or wasn’t. She’d only started to really notice something was off after the wedding. Living with someone made it easier to notice concerning patterns.

She looked down at where Lexa had dozed off in her lap and smiled. The more she thought about her past relationship the more it became clear how very different Lexa was. The brunette made a point to not only be there for Clarke but Aden too. Like these Sundays, Lexa already came to movie night every week but she still set aside another day specifically for them. She makes me feel so special and loved. How can I show her the same thing?

Clarke was smoothing out a drop cloth over the bed when Lexa walked in after putting Aden to bed, “What’s all this?”

“I wanted to try something before you showered. Watching Aden this afternoon gave me an idea, but it would require you take this off…” Clarke said leaving the statement open ended as she pulled at the hem of Lexa’s soft t-shirt. Lexa lifted an eyebrow but pulled the shirt off. Clarke smiled but motioned to her chest with a smirk, “That too.”

Lexa looked down at her sports bra before pulling it off as well, “Not that I mind, but why do I need to be completely topless for this idea?”

“I want to paint your tattoo and transfer it to canvas, so I need full access. Lay down while I get the last of my paints ready.” Clarke said as she organized the colors across her paint palette.

“So you just want me to lay here…like this?” Lexa questioned as she settled onto her front on the bed.

“Exactly, I’m sorry if this paint is a bit cold.” Clarke said as she crawled up on the bed and straddled Lexa’s lower back.

The brunette nodded and rested her head on the pillows. Clarke traced her fingers up the defined lines on Lexa’s back. Throughout the day the colors from Aden’s markers had faded but Clarke could still picture the vibrant colors clearly. She dipped her brush into the green on her palette and touched it softly to Lexa’s skin. The women sucked in a soft breath at the chill of the paint, but relaxed after a few moments.

Clarke worked quickly to block the colors out and then she added a second coat to insure the paint would be wet enough to transfer to a canvas. She grabbed the loose canvas and rolled it carefully onto Lexa’s back. She smoothed her hands over the material and then pulled it off. She flipped and was pleased with the transfer. She would do some touch ups back in the studio over the next few days.

“Can I see?” Lexa asked turning her head and Clarke angled it away from her.

“Not yet, this was just the transfer, I have some finishing to do before you can see it.” Lexa pouted but the blonde just chuckled and kissed her shoulder. “You go wash the paint off and I’ll get this all cleaned up.”

“Or you could join me in the shower?” Lexa asked and wiggled her eyebrows at the other woman.

“Tempting, but I need to put this on an easel before it gets too dry. Now off with you.” Clarke said and playfully pushed her shoulder before turning to leave the bedroom.

By the time Lexa walked out of the bathroom Clarke was laid in bed smiling up at her. Lexa had her towel wrapped tight around her chest and her still wet curls hanging to one side of her neck. She smirked at Clarke when she noticed the woman’s shoulders were bare where they rose from underneath the comforter.

“Should I lock the door?” She asked and Clarke simply grinned and raised an eyebrow.

Lexa took the few steps over to the door and turned the latch to insure no one could come in then flicked the light switch next to the door. The room was enveloped into darkness aside from the soft moon light that filtered through the curtains. Lexa dropped the towel and walked to the bed. Clarke lifted the comforter and pulled the brunette to her. When their lips met it was soft and slow, neither felt the need to rush the smoldering passion they both felt.

Clarke found sleep evading her. Lexa breathed softly against her chest where she was curled her arms wrapped firmly around the blonde. Her fingers traced a line on ink on her arm. Even though Clarke’s body felt soft and sated her mind wouldn’t stop whirring. She felt there was something she should do. Something she needed to do, but her mind couldn’t figure out exactly what that was. As she watched the subtle lift and fall of the tan shoulders in front of her she realized one thing. She wanted this. Lexa, here in her bed, curled around her, soft and vulnerable. She wanted to wake up to those springy curls in her face and strong arms holding her tight. She wanted all of this more than she could fathom. Every night to end with her and every morning to start the same way.

Come to think of it when was the last time Lexa didn’t stay the night? Was it two or three weeks ago? Clarke’s closet had become an amalgamation of both of their clothes and she had started just leaving her toiletries in Clarke’s bathroom because it was too much hassle to move them back and forth. Maybe it’s time to make this a permanent arrangement.

“Hey, Aden, can you come in here for a minute?” She called out from her art studio. She was putting the finishing touches on the painting pulled from Lexa’s tattoo. It had been a few days since she made the decision to ask the brunette to move in, but she hadn’t found a good time to talk to Aden about it yet. She didn’t think he would mind, after all he loved Lexa as much as she did but she had to be sure.

The boy stood quietly in the doorway until Clarke turned to look at him. He wasn’t usually allowed in the studio after he used half of Clarke’s expensive paint to draw her a picture. It melted her heart to see him waiting to make sure it was okay for him to come in. “It’s okay, Sweetie, you can come in.”

He smiled and skipped over to her. She swung him up into her lap and he giggled like crazy. “So I have an important question for you?”

“I didn’t eat ar the fruit snacks, Rexa did.” He said quickly and looked at his hands.

Clarke shook her head and booped his nose, “That wasn’t my question but now I know I need to get more fruit snacks.”

“I’m not in troubre?”

“No, Sweetie, you aren’t in trouble.”

Aden tilted his head, “Then what did you want to ask me?”

“Well, I wanted to talk to you about Lexa and her coming to live with us.” Clarke said and watched the small boy’s face for any small changes.

Aden just seemed slightly confused, “But doesn’t she aready?”

Clarke smooths her hand over his hair and smiles, “No, she has her own home, like your aunts and uncle.”

“Oh…but she’s here ar the time?”

“I know. That is why I want to ask her to move in. So this can be her home too.” Clarke said and Aden seemed to think on it, “Would that be okay with you?”

“Of course! I rove Rexa and having her around ar the time! She makes you smire a rot and reads to me before bed and makes the best pancakes. Even better than Grandpa’s!” He was bouncing excitedly on Clarke’s lap and the joy in her heart swelled. Aden stopped his excited rant and scrunched his eyebrows together.

“What’s wrong, Aden?”

He took a few more minutes to finally vocalized what was on his mind, “If Rexa needs a prace for her stuff she can have my room. I can stay on the couch, I fit on it better than Rexa anyway.”

Clarke hugged him at that and rubbed his back, “You don’t have to give up your room, Lexa will stay with me just like she does now.”

Aden nodded and held up his small hand and ticked off fingers as he listed, “So, I get to keep my room, Rexa wir be here ar the time, and she can make pancakes every day. This is the best idea ever, Mommy!”

“I’m so happy you think so, but for now can we keep this between us?” She asked and Aden seemed puzzled.

“Why?”

“Because I haven’t asked Lexa yet and I want it to be a surprise.” She said and Aden slipped off her lap after he nodded, “Okay, go play, Sweetie.”

He walked out of the room but was back a few minutes later holding his stuffed lion close to his face, “Mommy, can I watch you paint?”

“Sure, baby,” She scooted her stool over so he could sit on the floor and look up at the canvas.

“Clarke?” Lexa called when she pushed through the front door. The blonde had texted her to come by when she was finished at the store. She had something she wanted to show her.

“I’m in the living room.”

Lexa walked into the room and saw Clarke sitting on the couch with a large package wrapped in simple brown paper leaning next to her. She patted the seat next to her and Lexa sat down.

“Hey, Lex, how was work?” the blonde asked after she leaned in for a quick kiss.

She shrugged and slumped into the blonde’s side, “Incredibly boring and I had a scene stuck in my head all day so I couldn’t focus for anything.”

She curled her legs under her and nuzzled Clarke’s neck. The other woman threaded her fingers in long brunette curls and massaged her scalp. The brunette let out a soft sigh and Clarke pulled her closer.

“So what scene are you stuck on?”

Lexa groaned and buried her face further into Clarke’s neck, “One I am nowhere near being able to write, so it just rattles around in there with nowhere to go.”

Clarke turned so she could see the brunette’s face. Her eyes were closed but she could still see her eyes darting back and forth underneath her eyelids. Clarke traced a finger gently along Lexa’s jaw. She could just imagine how at this moment she was lost in the world she had created. “Your mind never ceases to amaze me.”

“Hmmm…really?” Lexa said as she opened her eyes slowly.

The blonde nodded, “You created a world and then filled it with characters. I don’t know how you do it all.”

A soft blush bloomed on her cheeks as she hid her face in Clarke’s neck again. A few minutes went by and Clarke thought Lexa may have nodded off until she spoke up, “So can I ask about the brown paper-wrapped elephant in the room?”

Lexa leaned away and looked directly at the package. Clarke smiled and put a hand on the corner of it, “Actually I’d like you to open it.”

She seemed taken aback but then jumped up, “It’s for me?”

Clarke nodded and turned it towards her so she could pull the paper off. The brunette attacked the paper and her jaw dropped when she revealed the canvas underneath.

She could clearly see the intricate lines of her tattoo but it was like Clarke had brought it to life with vibrant colors. The animals looked alive while still blending in with the tree and flowers. Lexa looked at Clarke, “You made this from that imprint?”

Clarke nodded with a broad smile on her face as Lexa tried to take it all in, “It’s breathtaking!”

“So where are you going to hang it?” She asked and the brunette racked her brain for where the painting would go back in her apartment.

“I don’t even know…”

Clarke stood up and lifted the painting to line it up over the small mantle piece on one side of the living room, “I was thinking right here would be perfect?”

“You want to hang it in your home?” Lexa said and felt at a loss for words. There was no doubt that the painting was gorgeous but the fact Clarke wanted to hang it to be seen melted her heart.

Clarke lowered the painting and looked at her with a soft but serious expression, “I was hoping we would hang it in our home…”

Lexa’s eyes snapped up to Clarke’s and she didn’t know how to respond. Is she saying what I think she is saying?

“Our…home…?”

Clarke lifted an eyebrow and Lexa waited for any kind of confirmation, “I mean it is basically a technicality at this point. When was the last time you actually stayed at your apartment…two…three…weeks ago?”

Lexa felt her cheeks flush. I was hoping she wouldn’t notice that. “Closer to four actually.”

The blonde took a step closer and ran a hand up her arm, “See? So what do you say? Wanna rent a u-haul?”

“U-haul? Really? Isn’t that a bit cliched?” Lexa said but lifted her arms to rest on the other woman’s shoulders.

The blonde shrugged, “I’m okay with this particular cliche if it means someone will be moving in. Aden even offered to give you his room so you could have a place for your bed.”

“Aw, he would. He is so precious sometimes.” Lexa giggled and Clarke nodded her head.

The blonde then held up a finger, “He did have one stipulation though?”

“Anything.”

Clarke’s smile was wide as she explained, “He demands pancakes.”

The brunette looked towards the ceiling as she pretended to contemplate this demand, “I think I can handle that. Speaking of Aden, where is the little guy?”

The blonde fiddled with the hem of Lexa’s shirt and dragged the back of her fingers along smooth skin, “The gang thought today would be the perfect day to take him bowling. Pizza, ice cream, the whole thing…could take hours.”

Clarke yelped as Lexa scooped her up into a bridal carry, “Then we have to use our time wisely. To our bedroom?”

Clarke leaned in to connect their lips and smiled as she pulled back, “Sounds perfect.”