#i didn’t draw him this way but it’d be cute if prom was one of the elderwood folk also.. <3

[rhinoyo]

had to make an ffxv fantasy life au or i’d explode or something. so

[mrs-hollandstan]

hello! could you do an angsty fic based on the song yes to heaven by lana del rey where reader is pining after peter but he just doesn’t realize please?

This is actually really cute and I kinda dreaded writing it at first haha

If you dance, I'll dance

Peter was your best friend. Since kindergarten. You were there always, and you, like Ned (and now MJ) knew his deepest secret. And even though he knew you like the back of his hand, he didn't know your deepest secret. 

Tonight was Prom. The biggest night of your life, or what was supposed to be and maybe it would be, but you knew that you hadn't been asked to Prom by anyone which meant going "alone" even though you had a group of friends you'd be with, but you knew that he had asked her and that was somehow worse than not having a date yourself. 

You'd watched him go for Liz, and you supported him, and you were glad when she went away. You thought he'd remain your little, single, best friend, but then his attraction shifted to MJ and it was like a punch through your heart. You had been heart-eyes for him for so long and he never noticed and you knew that even if he did, it would never come to fruition because he was your best friend. You were his and that was a big no no. You could dream though right. 

And if you don't, I'll dance anyway

You had a beautiful dress and pretty heels and your hair and makeup were done to the best of your cousin's ability. You knew that you weren't ugly (you weren't the prettiest in school but who wants that, they're bitches anyways) and you knew that at least a few pairs of eyes would be on you. Even if those weren't Peter's, it'd be okay. You could fill that void with… Flash Thompson or something. 

You found the group near the back, Peter and MJ facing each other as they danced together, but not touching, and Ned makes a noise, drawing your eyes to him. Betty leans against him, 

"Wow Y/N, you look…"

"Killer." Betty finishes for him, admiring you just as much as her on-again, off-again boyfriend had. Damn, everyone really had someone huh?

"Oh yeah, you look nice Y/N." Peter speaks up in that overly innocent voice of his, eyes never leaving your face before he diverts his attention back to MJ who doesn't even give you a glance. When had he ever not called you by a nickname? Was that something he started doing when she showed up, calling you by your formal first name? 

Give peace a chance

You fall into the routine. Distracting yourself with the less obsessed with each other couples and the singles in your group, dancing and mingling, sipping punch and snacking on crackers and chips and dip. It was nice. For once you didn't feel like you had to distract yourself from them. It was natural. Grooving along as a few slow songs replace the upbeat ones you were grooving to and joining the loners on the benches brought back that overwhelming dull feeling you had whenever you watched Peter with his girlfriend. The way he swayed, arms wrapped around her waist, forehead pressed to hers. What it's like to be Ned and Betty, unphased by the fact that your best friend is so helplessly in love with someone else while all you can do is suffer in silence being in love with them. You swallow back the tears and the lump in your throat at the thought of Peter marrying her, having kids with her, and you being alone forever. You have to look away. Downing a few more glasses of punch, Betty and Ned strike up a conversation, letting you forget about the searing jealousy within you. And it's back to the dancing soon enough. 

Peter and MJ are comfortable enough that her back presses to his chest and he wraps his arms around her and they sway, singing together. Her smile is bright and so is his and it kills you. 

Let the fear you have fall away

She turns to him, a faint squeak sounding along the polished floor since she's worn tennis shoes and his smile widens when she says something to him. 

You've been in love with Peter since Kindergarten, you're pretty sure. He's always been adorable and of course you've always tried to chalk it down to him just being like a brother to you, but it's so much more. You've never realized how much you really do love him. He's been by your side, he's helped you through personal and work related issues, he's confided in you when it came down to Spider-Man and the emotional toll it was taking on him. He leaned on you and you let him, and you held back the tears until he couldn't hurt you or comfort you. He was oblivious and you seemed fine with it but if he knew, you knew he'd hate himself and he'd beg for your forgiveness, but he surely would never make you what she is to him. Their relationship is too powerful and he doesn't like you like that. It would never happen. Maybe it's because he's never had to save you. You've never put yourself in harm's way. 

I've got my eye on you

As you watch, with his strong arms wrapped around her, he leans in the same way she does and they kiss, so softly you can practically see how in love they are. You've never seen them kiss and you could really have gone without it. 

You glance away but the heartbreak is already setting in. Your breaths are short, chest tight, eyes stinging as you fight the tears. 

What hurts the most is that you'll never be her for him. He has someone he loves while you obsess over him. You have no one now, and he has everything he's ever wanted. Sure, you're happy for him, but it still kills you. 

Turning, Betty reaches out to hold your wrist, eyebrows knitting together at the look on your face, 

"Hey, what's the matter?" You shake your head,

"N-nothing. I need… I need fresh air." 

"I'll go with-"

"No!" The outburst draws all kinds of eyes to you including MJ's and Peter's, his eyebrows knitting together. Betty jumps as if she's been stung and her eyes widen just a little, Peter straightening up as a tear slides down the side of your nose, "I just… I need to be alone." 

I've got my eye on you

You dart away from the group, your heels clicking along the polished wood floor until you're pushing into the halls. The music is muffled behind the closed doors, allowing you to drop down to the floor and sob. The cracking in your chest is so damn painful. It feels like any moment, your heart will disconnect itself and leave your body to avoid the pain. 

The tears splash off the floor and you'd hate to see how your makeup looks but you don't think you're going back in there. You can't will yourself to convince people you're fine. Especially not your group of friends. As you're picking yourself up from the floor, the doors behind you burst open and Peter emerges, reaching out for your arm. He doesn't realize it when you pull it out of his reach, 

"What happened? Are you hurt?" You shake your head, brushing your tears from under your eyes, 

"I'm fine." 

"You don't really expect me to believe that do you? You're crying at prom, in the middle of the hallway." He states like its the most obvious thing. You swallow, 

"I just need air." 

"Okay… I'll go with you." 

"No, I need to be alone." 

"I've known you my whole life and I know you hate being alone." If he thinks he knows you so well, why doesn't he realize he's the one causing you so much pain? 

"There's a lot I don't like Peter." 

"What do you mean? Y/N, what's going on with you?" He asks. 

Say yes to heaven

Turning to him, you stare into those cool brown eyes, eyes that have always calmed you and you can't help it. Your lip quivers, 

"You don't always have to understand what's going on with Peter. I can handle myself." 

"You know I believe you, but you don't have to hide it. You can tell me anything. I'm your best friend and I would kill for you." If only that were true. I mean… you'd never wish death on her but… it'd be easier. It'd lessen your panic. You shake your head, 

"It's fine Peter. Just… go back inside." You turn to start away from him but he has so much that tells him your every move. Not only, as a normal human, can he read you like an open book, but with this new superhuman power thing, he senses when something is wrong. His face shows it, 

"I'm not leaving you. Especially with all that… suicide, drunk driving crazy crap going on that surrounds prom. You're storming out of there for no reason, crying and I… you shouldn't be alone." 

"Peter-" 

"No, talk to me! I'm your best friend and I am not going to let you die and have to tell your parents, your family, our friends that I didn't do anything to protect you." He yells. He really thinks this is a call for help, and it is, but not that way. You scoff, wondering how boys are so oblivious, glancing at him as you lean against the handrail behind you.

Say yes to me

"You really wanna know?" You ask him softly. He nods, moving in closer, 

"Of course. I hate seeing you in so much pain." He tells you. Your smile is sinister because he's so damn stupid. Closing your eyes and rubbing a hand across your face, you sigh, 

"I like you." Is all you state at first. He frowns, eyes glancing down at the floor. He's confused because he likes you too but he would never think you like him that way unless it was directly stated, "I've liked you since we were kids. And yeah, I'm so, so, so happy for you for having a girlfriend that loves you and you love her, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt for me. You'll never love me like that and that's fine but… I can't just watch you guys be in love. It fucking kills me." You explain to him. His mouth hangs open in shock and you cross your arms, 

"I can't pretend to be fine around you guys. You and Ned got girlfriends and all and yeah, maybe I could get a boyfriend and it would hurt less but you know I love your personality and I always have and I don't know that anyone will ever come close to that. So now I'm alone and I'm not going to take you from her to pity me so I don't really… have a best friend anymore. If I want to be around you I guess I can just come find you and be a third wheel." You tell him. 

Say yes to heaven

You watch his eyes change. He's panicking a little, 

"Are you saying… you don't wanna be friends anymore?" 

"It's not that we can't, it's that I… I don't know if I have it in me to put up this facade. I'm not telling you to give her up, I'm just saying… I think… now that we're about to split up for college… maybe it's time to start doing it now. I- it hurts too bad and I just… I can't." 

"Y/N, please don't do this. You've been my best friend for decades. Why can't we just… I mean… I can figure out how to split my time between the two of you." 

"No you can't. That's not fair to her and I'm not going to do that to you two. It's just better if I move on. I'll probably go to California for college anyways. It's for the best to separate ourselves now." You conclude. You don't know what will hurt worse, but after a while, you'll hurt less moving on without him. He takes another step forward, 

"Y/N, c'mon, you can't do this." 

"I won't ruin your life and I won't hurt myself because I have a selfish little crush on you I would've never acted on." You tell him. You stand and stare at each other before you stand and brush your tears from beneath your eyes, sighing,

"You're destined for greatness Peter Parker and it would've happened eventually. Now just gives me a reason to start." You tell him, voice shaky. His face softens, 

"I don't wanna lose you." He says, his voice just as shaky. You shrug, crossing your arms and preparing yourself to walk away from your best friend for the last time. You sigh, 

"I'm not going back in there. This is kinda… it. I have to go home."

"At least let me take you." 

Say yes to me

"No! You have a girlfriend in there and I'm not going to let you! Goddammit Peter, I have to get away from you, don't you get that? I can't be what I need to and it hurts too much. Just… fuck off." The look on his face is pure pain. He hates that you're abandoning him. And maybe you should be forced to settle as just his friend, but you can't. You can't sit back and watch them be happy together. The pain is unbearable. They're better off without you and your selfish jealousy. He's better off without you, 

"Y/N, don't do this. You're just as important as MJ, I can't go without talking to you. Please." You hold up a hand as he nears you again. You stare into each other's eyes, tears in both sets. You shake your head, 

"I'll never be more to you than her. Maybe when we were kids but… we're different now." 

"Y/N-" You shake your head again, swallowing the lump. You know he feels the same way you do. The pure dread of giving up your best friend because the love you feel for him is just too strong, "please." He whispers. It breaks your heart further as you meet his eyes again and sniffle, 

"Goodbye Peter." You say. And you turn your back, and walk away from your ex-best friend. And it stings. But hopefully it will keep your heart in your body staying away from him. God you hope so.

[ecto-american]

Prom Season

Phic Phight Oneshot for Rikaleeta and ghostgothgeek: As Prom draws nearer, Danny finds that he has competition in asking Sam to prom. Danny/Sam

Read on AO3 and FFN

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"Dude, you're staring again," Tucker nudged him. Danny blinked, snapping out of his daze, and he stood up straight, tapping his fingers anxiously on the counter.

"Sorry, dude, it's just. What the hell would Dale want with Sam?" he scowled.

The jock was standing near Sam, the two chatting idly by Sam's favorite part of the comics store, the vinyl section. Sam was smiling, nodding and agreeing with whatever Dale was talking to her about.

"Dale's been eying Valerie lately, maybe he's asking Sam about her?" Tucker suggested. He smiled politely at a customer who came into his line, promptly beginning to check them out. "Even so, why do you care? Sammy's a big girl."

"Prom season's coming up, somebody might ask her," Danny argued lightly.

"And why's that matter?" Tucker asked. In no time at all, the customer had paid and left, and the two were left standing in the mostly empty comics store.

"Dude, you know guys!" Danny grumbled, throwing his hands up as if it was obvious. "They only want one thing, especially after prom! You should know. Don't you and Star plan on finally doing it after prom?"

"Probably, but mostly because we've already been doing it," Tucker shrugged. Danny choked on nothing.

"Wait, what? How come you didn't tell me!?" Danny asked. Tucker opened his mouth to reply, only to jerk his head to Sam.

Dale had left the store seemingly, and Sam was already at the counter, clutching a new vinyl. Danny chuckled.

"This is why we can't visit Tucker at work, you'll always end up with something," he teased her. She rolled her eyes.

"But Tucker works here now, so he'll be sweet and let me use his employee discount?" she half-asked hopefully, staring at Tucker with a bright smile. He sighed, and he entered his employee discount code as he rang her up. "Thank you!"

"Anytime," he assured her. He handed her her bag. "So did Dale ask you to prom?" Sam snorted in amusement.

"Oh hell no," she replied. "He wanted to know if anybody had asked Valerie, and if I thought his plan to ask her would go over well."

Tucker sent Danny a sideways "I told you so" smirk, and Danny made an annoyed grumble.

"Either way, you ready to drag me to Hot Topic?" Danny asked.

"Only every day," Sam said. She turned to Tucker. "You close tonight, right? Do you want us to swing by and take you home?" Tucker shook his head no.

"Nah, it's okay!" he assured her. "I have my uncle's old car now, remember?" Sam lit up a bit.

"Oh yeah! Well, just drive careful!"

Tucker waved her off with a grin.

"Don't worry about me. You two lovebirds have fun," he teased. "But not too much fun."

Danny could feel his cheeks burn. A glance at Sam, and he could see her own face flushing some. However, she rolled her eyes and jokingly flipped Tucker off, getting one in response as they walked out and into the mall.

"Do you want me to carry your bag?" Danny offered, holding his hand out.

"Sure!" Sam agreed, and she handed it over. "Have you thought about the piercing? I'll buy you one if you're going for it."

"Eh, I'm still trying to figure out how badly my mom would flip if she saw that I got my nose pierced, and if it'd be worth it lecture," Danny shrugged.

"You should totally do it, then deflect it by coming out as Danny Phantom," she joked. Danny snorted. "Come on, we could match!" Sam had gotten her left nostril pierced almost a year ago, currently occupied by a tiny black skull, as well as four total piercings per ear. As expected, her mom nearly lost it over the nose charm. She poked his nose. "You could get a little white ghost charm." He couldn't help but smile.

"Now you're tempting me to risk it," he admitted.

He gestured to the Hot Topic, and Sam went inside first, him right behind her. She went right for the piercings display, looking. After a moment, she tapped on the case, looking over her shoulder for Danny.

"See? Right there, you could get that cute little silver ghost," she told him. Danny peeked over her shoulder. She pointed at another charm, one in the shape of a laptop. "Oh! And Tucker could get that one! We could all kinda match!"

"Pretty sure Tucker's mom would actually kill him if he came home with another piercing," Danny replied. Sam had already convinced Tucker of getting his ears pierced, and his mom was Very Unhappy about it. "Just like my mom would kill me if I came home with a nose piercing."

"You're already half dead though," Sam pointed out. Danny gave a half shrug and smile.

"Got me there. Alright, I'll get it," he said. Sam grinned widely, going to the counter to immediately ask for an employee to retrieve it.

They only browsed a bit more before they finally left. No sooner were they out the door…

"Sam!" a familiar voice called out excitedly. The not-lovebirds glanced over to see Paulina and Elliot coming up to them, Paulina a few steps ahead as she excitedly half-jogged over to Sam. Elliot was carrying two Starbucks cups, taking his time following. Paulina threw her arms around Sam, hugging her tightly, the goth only giving a half smile and lightly patting her back. "If I knew you were coming to the mall, I would have invited you to get your nails done with us! Look, Elliot and I match!"

Paulina pulled away to show off white nails with pink details.

"Oh they look nice!" Sam complimented. "It's okay though. Coming today was kinda a last minute thing." Or rather, they decided to hang out here after catching the Box Ghost, who was making himself home in one of the new stores that hadn't quite opened yet.

"You got me Starbucks?" Danny joked as Elliot finally came close enough to properly hear him. Elliot rolled his eyes. "How sweet."

"If you wanna give me the four dollars it costs, sure," he joked back. He handed Paulina the clear pink drink, and she took a long sip from it. Danny noticed that he did kinda match her, with black nails and matching details, only in a pastel blue.

"What are you guys up to?" Paulina asked. "We were just about to see if Macy's had any cute prom dresses out yet." The mentioning of prom made Danny's stomach feel a bit weirdly queasy.

"We're gonna go get Danny's nose pierced!" Sam replied, pointing to his nose. Danny snapped out of the feeling.

"Wait, what? We're doing that today?" he asked. Sam grinned.

"You're eighteen, they'll let you!" she replied. She reached into the Hot Topic bag to pull out the piercing. "I gotta make you put it on before you change your mind." Oh, a bit too late already.

"Ooh, that's a lot more interesting than prom dresses!" Elliot mused. "I can drive us." He put his free hand to his ear. "I've been thinking about getting another piercing anyway." Paulina hummed thoughtfully.

"Spike should be working today, so I might see if he has my new tattoo design ready," Sam mused.

Another thing that her mom, if she were to ever find out, would flip out over. Sam already had two that her family were oblivious to. Danny knew that she had a spider on a web on her ribcage; he had held her hand while she got that one done (and nearly ended up with a broken hand). The other was a black and deep purple rose and vine on her thigh, which he had only seen right after she had gotten it. Jazz, out of everybody, had gone with her to get it, and even came back with a tattoo herself. Though Jazz, like a nerd, had opted for a book tattoo. Danny had never seen it before outside of the photo Jazz took of it, but knew that it was on her ribcage and something Spike gave her as an anniversary present.

"I guess that settles it!" Elliot grinned. "Let's go to the tattoo and piercing shop!"

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After somehow surviving Elliot's crappy little car, only somewhat affectionately called "the shitbox", they were huddled in the waiting room area of the shop. Paulina, already filling out the usual safety and health and consent forms, was standing and staring at the wall of previous art done.

"You gonna get a tattoo instead?" Elliot teased her as he handed the receptionist his own filled paperwork. Paulina shot him a smile, but still slapped his shoulder.

"Papa would kill me," she insisted.

"So? Get it where nobody will see," Elliot replied. Paulina playfully slapped him again.

Danny rolled his eyes, continuing to fill out his form as he drafted all the excuses he'd have to give his mom when she inevitably chewed his ass out when he got home. Whelp, he was already bound to be grounded sooner or later cause of the ghosts. Might as well spice up the grounding reasoning once in a while.

Sam appeared from the back, clutching a piece of paper up. Spike was behind her. Sam made a beeline for Danny.

"Dude, look at how nice it is!" she told him, holding it out for him to see. Danny glanced up. It was a skull with flowers growing out of it.

"Oh, that's sick," he commented.

"I know, right?" Sam grinned. Danny smiled, returning his attention to the paperwork.

"So you wanna get that this Saturday?" Spike spoke up.

"Uh, Danny are you free Saturday?" Sam asked. Danny glanced up at her, raising an eyebrow.

"After today I'll probably be grounded," he joked, signing his name for the last time on the forms. Sam chuckled.

"True," she replied. "Hmm, ah whatever. I can tough it out." Danny quickly looked up again as it suddenly hit him why he needed to be free. Sam had already turned to Spike. "Yeah, let's go for Saturday."

"Oh, if you want somebody around, I can come," Elliot popped up.

"That'd be awesome!" Sam grinned. "This one's going on my back, so it's supposed to hurt."

"Well, you can break my hand, I don't care," Elliot assured her. Danny's chest squeezed a bit as he felt a hot flash hit him.

"No it's okay, I can just sneak out!" he said immediately. Sam glanced at him.

"Nah, it's okay. I don't wanna get you into anymore trouble," she assured him.

"I don't care," Danny quickly blurted out. Spike chuckled.

"Man, Mrs. Fenton's scary when she's pissed, your best bet is to just obey her," Spike told him. He nodded at Danny. "Did Jazz tell you about how she nearly got into a fistfight at the bridal shop a few days ago?"

"No?" Danny raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"Basically when Jazz went in for her dress fitting, she had apparently gained a little bit of stress weight since the last fitting, cause she's been driving herself insane over grad school applications," Spike explained. Danny nodded understandingly. "and the lady fitting her dress kind of gushed over it cause she thought Jazz got pregnant. It made her cry, and man. Mrs. Fenton went off on her, and apparently nearly began throwing hands with the manager."

"Oh man, poor Jazz," Sam said somberly. Danny couldn't agree more as he gave a low short whistle at the audacity. Between graduating early, grad school applications, and getting married, he had never seen Jazz look so stressed out. "Why don't you guys push the wedding back a bit?"

"She'll get more money from FASFA and scholarships, plus better housing, if we get married sooner, and she doesn't wanna just elope and have a party later," Spike shook his head a bit. "But uh, either way though, I got some numbing cream for ya Sam if you're worried about pain." Spike shot Danny a reassuring smile and a wink. He felt a little better. Sam sighed with relief.

"Please," she confessed. "It's not too bad when Danny's here, but if I'm alone I know I'm going to get a little anxious."

"Aw come on, I'm not reassuring?" Elliot teased. To Danny's relief, Sam also playfully slapped Elliot on his shoulder.

"Are you kidding me? You'd probably actually ruin my tattoo by making me laugh the entire time," she told him. Danny's heart squeezed again, and he got up to silently hand the receptionist the forms.

"I think I might get a tattoo," Paulina finally spoke up. Elliot's interest was immediately piqued.

"Oh?" he asked. Paulina nodded, pointing to a tattoo on the wall, a pretty collection of flowers.

"This is sooo pretty, I think I'd get something like this," she said. Sam glanced at it.

"That'd be like, what? Four hundred-ish dollars, Spike?" she guessed. Spike glanced at the reference photo and nodded.

"Yeah, give or take," he replied. Paulina made a face.

"Maybe one day in the future," she decided. "I need money for a prom dress." Sam waved a hand.

"Prom dresses are temporary, tattoos are forever!" she told her. Paulina made a noise of disinterest, and Sam shrugged.

"Danny, did you wanna go first?" the receptionist asked as she glanced at the three stacks of piercing requests.

Danny coughed a bit nervously. He glanced at Sam, and he nodded.

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"Thanks again, Spike!" Sam beamed. Spike smiled fondly at her, offering her a hug. She gladly accepted it.

"Anything for my favorite future sister-in-law," he teased. Sam's face instantly burned. Danny scoffed as he lightly touched his new piercing anxiously.

"Sam isn't related to us, dude," he told Spike. Spike gave him a weird look, then shook his head.

"You're lucky you know how to do math, man," he told him. "Also let me know if Mrs. Fenton kills you." Danny gave a nod.

"Don't worry, you'd be invited to the funeral," he joked. Spike chuckled. "Also I give you permission to tattoo my corpse before they put me down."

"Sick," Spike grinned. "I'll give you some of those lil blob ghosts the float around."

Elliot and Paulina were chatting a mile a minute outside the shop. When the not-lovebirds came out, Paulina immediately pushed her hair behind her ear to show off her new helix piercings. Danny could already see Elliot's singular orbital piercing.

"Look! I feel so punk!" Paulina gushed. Sam snorted in amusement.

"Girl, I'm gonna have to get you into a lot more black and leather before you're anywhere near punk," she teased. Paulina giggled.

"Maybe some leather pants," she mused. She shrugged. "Anywho! Elliot and I were gonna go look at the prom dresses! Wanna tag along?"

"Yeah, sounds fun!" Danny agreed.

"Yeah! I still need to get mine," Sam agreed. "I really want your opinion on a dress anyway," she said to Paulina. "Cause you know I'm going to customize mine no matter what I get."

"Yeah, I might ask you to do the same to mine, like help me tailor something if needed," Paulina mused. "I need my dress to be absolutely perfect. But we need to make another Starbucks run."

"Really?" Elliot raised an eyebrow at her. "Boo, this is your third trip today." Paulina pouted cutely at him. He playfully chuckled. "Alright, alright. I kinda want another iced coffee anyway."

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"So, has Elliot talked to you about it yet?" Paulina asked, taking a long sip of her drink as they waited near the door to the popular coffee chain. Danny made a confused "hm?" noise as he took a sip of his own. "That he wanted to ask Sam to prom?"

Danny's heart stopped, and he instantly returned his attention back to the pair of goths. They were customizing their Starbucks drink at the counter, smiling happily and chatting casually about something he couldn't heart.

God, of course! Fuck, he was so focused on every other dude that he forgot that Elliot wasn't gay. God damn it, and Sam would potentially actually say yes to him too.

"Uh. Um. I-uh." Danny coughed into his elbow as he tried to think of some way to respond that sounded normal. "No, he, um. Hasn't said anything to me yet." Nice response, Fenton.

"Oh, well, be prepared I guess," Paulina replied, taking a sip of her fancy-looking pink drink in the clear plastic cup.

Danny took a huge gulp of his coffee as he tried to process it. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He needed to think of how to reply to Elliot if the guy were to actually confront him or talk to him about it. His gut twisted. How was he supposed to reply? Elliot didn't deserve to go out with his Sam. What the fuck was that moron thinking? They were just friends.

"You guys ready?" Elliot glanced over his shoulder at them.

"Yup!" Paulina chirped. Elliot walked over with them, Sam quickly behind.

"You got your hourly Starbucks?" Elliot teased her.

"Mhm!" she hummed.

"You almost need to start working at Starbucks," Elliot told her.

"But then I'd just spend the whole paycheck on Starbucks," Paulina playfully protested.

"Fair, fair," Elliot hummed.

They exited, and they all piled into Elliot's car. Danny and Sam in the back, Paulina in her normal position in the passenger's seat.

"Do you know what kind of dress you're looking for?" Paulina asked as Elliot pulled out of the parking lot. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, definitely something black or purple," she said. "I'm really into long dresses lately, so probably a long dress, but I dunno! Short dresses are cute too."

"Oh short dresses are sooo in right now," Paulina agreed. "I want a short dress! Definitely pink, I want a really cute pastel pink maybe? But any shade of pink, I think it looks best on me."

"Hmm, yeah but greens look really good on you too," Elliot spoke up. "Like pastel and light greens?"

"They do but it's prom so I really want something pink," Paulina replied.

"Hmm, I think I look good in purple and black," Sam mused. "What do I look good in Danny?"

"Purple, black, red, and green, but like? An ecto green if that makes sense?" Danny said. Sam thought about it.

"Yeah, I really do like ecto green," she agreed. She shot him a sly smile. "Reminds me of Danny Phantom. And well. Ya know. I think he's really cute." Danny flushed, shyly smiling back.

"Ugh he's sooo cute," Paulina gushed. "His eyes are the most beautiful shade of green I've ever seen. Elliot, why are your eyes so dark." Elliot chuckled.

"Cause both of my parents have dark green eyes," he replied. Paulina huffed.

"I think that was rude of you. You should have bright green eyes like the ghost boy," she said.

"Yeah, it's pretty rude," Elliot agreed. "I'll fix that tomorrow."

"Do you actually think Danny Phantom's cute?" Danny asked Sam. She smiled, giving a half-shrug.

"Absolutely one of the cutest guys I've ever seen," she confirmed.

Danny took a long drink of his coffee, hoping that chugging some of it would help explain why his cheeks were beginning to burn.

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"Oh, this is sooo your color!"

"Oh my god! I love it! Do they have it in my size?"

"Hmm, um, lemme see...yeah! They do! Here!"

"Ugh I cannot wait to try it on! Oh! Oh look! Look at these sleeves, it's like a princess dress! I'm going to grab one to try it on."

"Ooo, that's going to look so good on you. Hm, I think I might try on that one too, cause it comes in dark purple and those sleeves kinda look witchy...Danny what do you think?"

Danny snapped out of his zoning out to look at Sam. The goth was holding up a short dress with long, flowy sleeves. It was a mid-dark purple and plain, though he had no doubt that Sam would likely customize it to her liking. She did that a lot with clothes.

"Yeah, looks good," he said neutrally.

"Oh, that'll look so good with your bat heels!" Elliot pipped up. Danny nearly forgot that the dude was sitting with him on what was dubbed the boyfriend bench near the dressing rooms. "Especially if you wear a corset over the midsection. Like if you found a purple version of that red one you have, with the black lace over it."

"Oo, that would potentially look so cute," Sam mused. She put the dress over her arm on top of two others. "I'm gonna go try these on."

"Oh, I should too," Paulina mused. Unlike Sam, her arms were overflowing with four, five? Danny counted at least ten different potential dresses if he went by the different looking fabrics alone.

"Yeah, you need to narrow some down," Sam told her.

"They're all just so pretty!" Paulina complained. "I wanna wear them all!"

"Well, let's just eliminate some," she suggested.

The girls went off to the dressing room, and Danny leaned back against the boyfriend bench. He pulled his phone out, and he replied to a message from Tucker and another from his mom. Man, was he not ready to face her later.

"So, Sam huh."

Danny glanced at Elliot.

"Uh, yeah. She's great," Danny replied shortly.

"She is, she is," he agreed with a slight hum. Elliot shifted to rest his elbows on his knees. "Ya know I was thinking about asking her to prom." Danny felt a lump stick in his throat.

"Really?" was all he could think to reply.

"Yeah!" Elliot smiled. "I mean, yeah. I wasn't the best dudes four years ago, but I feel a lot better about myself, ya know? I think I finally know who I am now, and I still really like Sam. She's funny, smart, really pretty. Love hanging out with her. Kinda wondering if she feels the same, and if she'd be down to go with me. What do you think?"

Danny bit his tongue to avoid an unnecessarily harsh reply, but he did get anger. How dare he. After all the lies he told Sam, and the way he lied and manipulated her. Sam deserved better than that.

"I um. I don't think you should go for it," Danny said hesitantly. Elliot raised a curious eyebrow.

"Why, did she tell you something?" he asked. "Or did somebody else ask her?"

"Um. Well, not exactly," he hesitated. Danny bit his lower lip. "I mean, I know she likes you. As a friend!" he quickly added. "But uh, I dunno man. Just don't think it's a good idea."

"What do you mean, is somebody else going to ask her?" Elliot asked.

"Why does it matter?" Danny nearly snapped. "You asked me what I thought, and I said it."

Elliot snickered in amusement, rolling his eyes. It only served to irritate Danny even more. Foreign phony. God, why did they even hang out with Elliot? Paulina and Elliot made sense, cause they were both huge prep kids and did cheerleading and soccer respectively, making them both jocks. But why did he have to hang out with Elliot. Well, because Sam and Paulina were friends now, and that meant that Danny also had to be friends with Paulina's friends. Of fucking course.

"What's so funny?" he demanded to know.

"I think I get why," Elliot smirked.

"What do you mean?" Danny questioned. Elliot just shook his head. Danny opened his mouth to question again.

"Hey! Whatcha think?"

Danny shut his mouth as Paulina bounce out in her first dress option. It was a bright pink dress that came to her knees, the skirt incredibly puffy and reminding Danny of a ballerina tutu, with inch wide straps.

"Oh, it looks so good on you boo," Elliot cooed to her. Paulina beamed, twirreling. "But that may also just be you, you look fabulous in everything." Paulina put her hands over her chest.

"Thank you," she gushed. "Can you take my photo? I wanna compare all the dresses I wear."

"Of course," Elliot agreed, pulling his phone out. He snapped a photo of her.

"Oh Sam!" Paulina squealed.

Danny noticed the goth coming out in a fully black dress that also came only to her knees, with a much slimmer skirt and short sleeves. It looked fairly plain, but man. Sam still made it look great. Danny was glad he was sitting, because he knew he was weak kneed.

Sam was smiling brightly, giving Paulina a light wave.

"I take it you like it?" Sam questioned, doing a quick turn around.

"Girl you always look so good in black," Paulina praised.

"She's sooo right," Elliot agreed. "It just looks so good on you, no matter what. Just." Elliot made a chef kiss motion. Sam flushed a light pink, and Danny glared at him. Dude, shut up. "No wonder you're goth. You were just made for black."

"I dunno, I think you're exaggerating," she replied. Sam glanced down at her outfit. "I mean, it's fairly simple. What do you think, Danny?"

Danny swallowed hard.

"Oh uh, I think it looks great!" he said, smiling brightly. Sam returned it. "I mean like. It's kinda? Plain but I know you'd make it something great. You always do." Sam hummed.

"Mm yeah. It's pretty plain, but I dunno if I wanna put in the amount of work it'd take to make this dress really poppin'," she mused. "I'm gonna go try another one on."

The two girls went back to the dressing room, and Danny could hear their lighthearted conversation. Soon as they turned the corner, he spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Danny demanded to know. Elliot snorted.

"Bro, just admit that you like her, and that you don't want me to take her to prom," he said.

"Where on earth would you get that idea!?" Danny scowled. Elliot rolled his eyes.

"Dude, you've been crazy about her since like, what? Ninth grade at the earliest? Paulina says you two have been making googly eyes at each other since like third grade," he said. Danny felt his cheeks flush. It had not been since the third grade. Had it?

"It's not like that," he insisted. "I just, you know. Really love and worry about her, she's my best friend."

"Best friends don't get worked up like this, this much, over a mutual friend asking them out."

Danny just glared at Elliot before rubbing his face with the palms of his hands. He took a deep breath, exhaling hard.

"How's it look?" Sam's voice asked. Danny glanced up, and his heart just absolutely flipped.

She looked amazing. Beautiful. Stunning. Like a plant goddess, a model, an angel. He felt like there wasn't a flaw to be found, and he had never seen somebody look more enchanting. Her dress made her look even more divine, emphasising and showing off the best parts of her. The purple matching her eyes, the dress fitting her absolutely perfect as it flowed almost to the floor and the strapless feature making her hair flow smoothly over her shoulders. This dress was perfect for her.

But none of those descriptors came out. Instead all he could do is nervously swallow, tongue tied as he felt his cheeks burn up. He struggled to pick just one of those adjectives, and his brain settled for just saying nothing at all and simply staring at her instead.

"Oh, you just look so lovely!" Elliot spoke up. He stood up, going over to walk around her. "It fits you perfect, like it hugs your hips just right and really shows off your-"

"Pretty!" Danny suddenly half-yelled. The group looked at him oddly, and he felt his face flush harder. "It makes you look pretty!"

"Thank you," Sam replied, pausing a bit as she raised an eyebrow at him.

"...Uh, yeah. Um, yes!" Elliot clasped his hands together. "Just stunning. I love this purple on you, it's such a beautiful color. This dress specifically was made for you."

"Dude, chill," Danny grumbled. Sam gave him a Look, and he flinched.

"Danny, can I talk to you for a moment?" Sam asked through gritted teeth.

He had no opportunity to respond, as she grabbed his arm, painfully hard owwie, and began to drag him away, towards another boyfriend bench near a jewelry display counter and out of earshot.

"What's going on?" Sam demanded to know. She finally let go of his arm, and he huffed for a moment. Instead of responding, he put his hands behind his head, pacing back and forth. She quickly grew impatient. "Well? Say something!"

"Elliot wants to ask you to prom!" he blurted out, letting his hands fall. Sam blinked.

"He does?" she asked, sounding clearly surprised and...not angry. Sam smiled a little. "Really?"

"Oh don't tell me you're gonna actually take that foreign phony up on the offer!" Danny snapped. Sam instantly glared at him, crossing her arms.

"Elliot's our friend, dude," Sam reminded him. "Why do you care?"

"B-b-because!" Danny's arms were moving wildly as he talked. "He lied to you for months, and you're just going to ignore all that!"

"That was years ago, and he apologized," she said. "He's more than made up for it. And he's a super sweet guy. I like him."

"You like him!?" Danny nearly shouted. Sam slapped his upper shoulder with the back of her hand.

"Calm down and lower your voice," she told him. "And well, yeah. As a friend. Maybe I kinda like him more than that too."

"What the fuck, Sam!?" Danny, in fact, did not lower his voice. He dry-heaved for a few seconds, briefly making Sam start to watch him worriedly. Finally, he took a deep breath, and he returned to a normal inside voice. "What does he have that I don't?"

She went from worried to a blank stare.

"Apparently liking me enough to say or do something, especially when I've dropped so many hints or made moves myself," she replied. She brushed past him and left, returning to their friends.

Danny found himself taking a seat on the bench as he tried to collect his thoughts and the wide range of emotions that accompanied them. He put his head in his hands, rubbing his face. God he was so fucking stupid.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"And it's just! Why him! Why Elliot?" Danny continued to vent after spilling the whole story. Jazz gave a small hum of acknowledgement as she finished writing another name out on the envelope. She set it aside for Danny. "I've liked Sam for so long, and I thought she liked me too."

"You're an idiot," Jazz immediately concluded. Danny glared at her as he folded another wedding invite, slipping it into an already addressed envelope before putting the sticker on the back to keep it sealed shut, and a stamp on the other side. Both were sitting on the floor of the apartment she shared with Spike, with each sibling on the opposite side of the coffee table, with Jazz resting her back against the couch and Danny sitting within reaching distance of their TV.

"Hey!" he protested. Jazz gave him a Look, grabbing another envelope.

"I mean it. She does like you, and she has for a while," she told him. She began to write out another address. "You just always never responded. You pushed her off in favor of another girl or because of some weird commitment issue that you seem to have going on. So be honest with me, and yourself. What's the problem?"

Danny silently folded two more invites, repeating the process of putting them in addressed envelopes and putting the sticker and stamp on.

"...I'm scared," he finally admitted.

"What of?" Jazz asked, not looking up from her activity. Danny had to really think. He casually tossed the finished wedding invite into the 'finished' basket.

"I guess just...it not working out. What if it doesn't work out? What if it drives us apart, and we lose each other?"

"You won't know that until you try," Jazz replied.

"She might also reject me, cause of the same mentality. What if she still likes Elliot more, and-"

"Danny," Jazz interrupted. She finally looked up from writing. "You will never know what the future will and won't hold. Just talk to her, and let her be part of the choice rather than blowing it all off due to fear."

He thought about it, and he gave a small sigh.

"Yeah...I think she's kinda pissed that I haven't been letting her be part of the choice anyway," he mused. He glanced at the pile of envelopes next to her. "How many invites do you have left?"

Jazz checked her list.

"Least a hundred more to go," she sighed.

"What the fuck, you have like no friends! Who are these people!?" Danny cried out. Jazz glared at him, reaching behind her to grab a pillow to hit him with.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Knock knock knock.

Danny floated awkwardly outside of her window. She didn't answer, but he could tell that she was there. Her light was clearly on, and he could hear her music playing.

Knock knock knock.

"Sam?" he called out. "Sam, can we please talk?" He knocked some more.

The longest minute of his life passed before he heard the music turn off. The curtains opened, and Sam was on the other side, staring incredibly annoyed at him. She gestured for him to come inside, and he did. His feet landed on the floor, and she reshut the curtains.

"What do you want?" she snapped. Danny exhaled deeply.

"Sam…" He took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry about how I've been acting. I've just been…"

"Stupid?" she suggested.

"Yeah. But more importantly. I." He paused. "I've been honestly such a huge coward. Still kinda am, actually. Like…" He swallowed nervously, glancing at the ground. "I've been too afraid to bring it up or to really even talk to you about it."

Sam cocked her head to the side. She took a few steps back, sitting down on her bed and patting the spot next to it.

"Talk to me," she encouraged. Danny plopped down next to her, turning human as he did so.

"I want to be with you," he said bluntly. "But just...I get so caught up in all these what-ifs. What if it doesn't work out? What if you get tired of me? What if you eventually realize that it sucks being with somebody who has to cancel dates or who ditches you because I have to stop Skulker or Technus or Ember? What if you get hurt because of me? What if…" he trailed off, not even wanting to get into deeper thoughts.

"I wish you had told me this sooner," Sam spoke softly. "We could have talked about it." Danny sighed.

"I know, I know. I just." He rubbed the palms of his hands up and down his thighs as he tried to provide some kind of a rational answer. "I'm afraid. Even now. I don't want to lose you."

"You're not going to lose me," Sam reassured him. She put her hand on top of one of his, and he stopped. "You're one of my best friends, and I love you so much."

"...I love you too," he confessed. He turned his wrist, moving to intertwine their fingers together. "I can't imagine a future without you being there in some way. And I just...I guess I've always been worried about you not wanting to be there anymore."

"I'll always want to be there," she smiled. She leaned in, lightly pecking his cheek. He sighed deeply in relief. "Even if we tried, and we found that it didn't work, that doesn't mean we can't still be friends after. But we'll never really know unless...you know. We tried."

"So, I guess that means that um...you'd be interested in maybe going to prom with me?" he asked.

"Of course, ya dingus." She lightly tapped his new nose ring. "So. How much trouble are you in with your mom?" Danny flinched.

"Man, let's just say I'm surprised she didn't fully kill me."

[poetrusicperry]

hi!! i was wondering if you could do a matchup/ship for me? some things about me is that i have short, curly brown hair and blue-green eyes, i’m not sure if appearance has anything to do with it but i thought i’d add it in! i’m pretty sarcastic around my closest friends and generally good at making new ones, even though i get a bit anxious at big gatherings like dances and parties. i stick to a close group of friends, like 99% of the time. i’m also an avid theatre kid lmao—i’ve been singing and acting for over a decade. i write a lot. like, i have twenty seven half-finished book drafts and a million poems in my notes app. i make super super extensive playlists in which every single song has a specific reason for being on the playlist. i also work at a coffee shop and have an addiction to caffeine! i’m a maladaptive daydreamer, so i’ll literally spend hours daydreaming about being in my favorite movie/book/tv worlds and romanticizing relationships with my favorite characters (i’m bi, so there’s a big playing field in this lol). i have legit zero volume control at times and i’m an empath (like, too much empathy at times that it makes me physically incapable of doing anything). i read a lot and i like to annotate/highlight my books. i write on my hands a lot (i have a million markers and pens it’s insane) but i’m t e r r i b l e at drawing. i do lots of peace signs and finger guns when i don’t know what to say or just at random times so i don’t have to continue conversations lol. i don’t know if this affects anything, but my favorite dead poet is definitely todd—i relate to his anxiety but i love seeing his character grow and make friends and become more confident throughout the course of the movie! he’s so sweet i love him so much. AH that was a lot of information that you probably didn’t need, but i really appreciate you confusing these ships!! i honestly love them so much, they make me smile like crazy. thanks love <3333

thank you so, so much for sharing all these details about yourself !! i relate to a lot of what you said, so writing this was very fun for me. i really hope you like it and thank you for the inspiration <3(:

ship:

shipping you with charlie, but you’d most definitely be best friends with todd ((:

hcs:

charlie would absolutely thrive off of your sarcasm. you guys would definitely have a lot of tension, but like… the good kind ? like it’d just be very flirty between you two almost immediately lol

hanging out with todd at big functions (prom, ball, concerts, etc.); you guys would find a corner that would be mostly quiet and just try very hard to disappear into your own worlds while this big event was going on

staying up for HOURS just writing with todd and bouncing ideas off each other, charlie begging you guys to just quit for the night and for you to come to bed, but you guys would be completely stuck on writing your hearts out

charlie surprising you at work where you’d make him his favorite drink (plain, black coffee)

gifting charlie a cd/mixtape with a playlist you made just for him, with extensive descriptions about what each song means (he would absolutely love this– the amount of attention you paid to him would make him absolutely thrilled)

you and charlie would have absolutely CHAOS-FILLED nights with lots of yelling and screaming song lyrics at the top of your lungs, laughing, and just being agents of chaos/mischief

you’d be one of the only people that todd trusts to help him when he’s not feeling his best. your way of being there for him was one of his favorite things and he appreciated it endlessly (‘:

running lines with neil, where he’d love to pick up on your techniques bc you’ve been acting for so long and he really admires that

charlie would like to read books after you had finished with them bc he liked reading your little annotations and stuff

you’d take to drawing on charlie’s hands, and he would find it so cute. he’d return the favor as well

charlie’s family would probably like how happy you make charlie (: you’d bring out this whole new side of him. like a side that was still all goofy, but also empathetic and deeply caring

blurb:

you and charlie would have a really fun first date; he’d take you bowling (where you both would do pretty terribly, but the music and the jokes you two would crack made it completely worth it), and then to have dinner at one of those 60s diners. he’d give you quarters to pick music on the jukebox and insist on dancing in the middle of the floor with you, even though you were a bit nervous/embarrassed by it at first. when you got home from your date, you’d write about it, sharing it with todd, who thought you and charlie were very cute together (‘: he’d mention to charlie that you had written something about him and plead you to read it to him. when you finally caved (bc who could say no to charlie dalton??) and read it, he’d sit there completely enamored with you and the way you could wield words to your advantage. hearing the way you described him and how much you cared for him would make him fall that much harder for you. and he would look so forward to future nights where you two could be your rambunctious selves with one another.

[inadaydream99]

He’s Her Lobster

Hyunjin friends to lovers oneshot

A/N - welcome to part two in my inspried by Friends oneshot series. “See, he’s her lobster!” from ‘The One with the Prom Video’. I hope you enjoy!

“You see, lobsters have soulmates and once they are found they walk around their tanks holding claws.” Jisung explains passionately. He’d been watching some sealife documentary and had been reciting all the facts about lobsters and their links with love to Hyunjin in an attempt to make him feel better.

“And how exactly is that going to help me get (Y/N) to stop being mad at me?” Hyunjin softly speaks, still feeling upset that you are mad at him. He feels like he’s lost any chance to redeem himself and get you to forgive him now... and he’s not far wrong.

“Because you’re her lobster!” Jisung exclaims like it’s obvious.

“I’m not her lobster. Because in case you weren’t aware, we’re not sea creatures.” Hyunjin exasperatedly sighs before standing up in a strop and walking away.

The situation you and Hyunjin find yourselves in is complicated. It all started when he found out that you had a massive crush on him, which resulted in him confessing to you that he also felt the same. However, one small bump in the road is that Hyunjin had a girlfriend at the time and claimed that he was happy with her. Though the instant he found out about how you felt he began having his doubts on whether he was in the right relationship or not.

His predicament became bigger when you caught him listing all the cons to dating you. And although you shouldn’t have been evesdropping on his conversation to Seungmin and the fact that he was also listing cons about continuing dating his current girlfriend, you were deeply hurt.

Ever since you confronted him about that situation, you’ve ignored his existence. It’s for your own good you keep telling yourself. So why doesn’t it hurt any less?

~

“Look, you’re clearly not coping very well with all of this. I really think it’d do you good to sit down and hear Hyunjin out.” Chan cautiously advises you, preparing himself for you to begin ranting about how that’s the last thing you should do and that Hyunjin doesn’t deserve to be heard at all after the heartbreak he’s put you though.

But it never happens.

“I don’t know... maybe. It just, still hurts to see him.” You sigh, your tried eyes locking with Chan’s surprised ones when you don’t put up any resistance.

“Re-really?” He stutters from pure shock, gawking at you for a second before a proud smiles adorns his face. “I mean, take your time, but remember that if you leave things too long then it’s only going to be harder to rebuild your friendship... if that’s what you want.” He sits up straighter in his chair, proud that he’d broken through to you after so long of trying.

The small smile that breaks out across your face makes Chan feel happy, it’s the first time he’s seen you genuinely smile since the whole Hyunjin event and it’s nice to see. He hates that you’ve been so hurt and seeing your change in attitude is the first sign that maybe things are beginning to get better for you.

~

“(Y/N)!” You’re cheerfully greeted by Jeongin as you are welcomed into the guys dorms, a smile hiding your nervousness as you accept his warm hug.

“I’ve missed you Innie.” You giggle, ruffling Jeongin’s hair in affection.

“Chan found some old videos we’re gonna watch back!” Jeongin informs you excitedly. You chuckle at how endearingly cute he is before following him into the main room where everyone is waiting.

You’re nervousness grows as the voices become louder with each step you take, rounding the corner to enter the room. You walk in behind Jeongin, all eyes turning in your direction. You take in a deep breath, smiling back at the seven sets of eyes that land on you. All but one smiling at you warmly.

“(Y/N), it’s great to see you.” Changbin envelops you in a hug, being the first one to reach you.

It hadn’t been that long since you last saw him, the only one you haven’t seen for ages being Hyunjin himself. But there’s still a part of you that feels awkward, like his eyes are burning holes into your side as you settle into the group and take a seat between Chan and Minho.

You shyly look up through your lashes to meet Hyunjin’s longing gaze, though your eyes dart away the second you realise he is already staring at you, shuffling uncomfortably before drawing your attention onto Felix who’s picking through the choice of videos on the tv.

“Oh! This ones from the Christmas party a few years ago.” Felix announces though a wide grin. You watch as he shoots Chan a look, you assume in search of confirmation to watch that one first, before Felix presses play and everyone quiets down.

You remember the party like it was yesterday. Your boyfriend at the time had let you down last minute so he wasn’t able to go with you. You’d been so excited to spend your first Christmas with him, wanting to introduce him to all your friends and make him part of the group.

“Look, there’s me daring Jisung to drink as much alcohol as possible!” Minho cheers, laughing heartily when Jisung whines in complaint of him pointing it out. No one would have noticed otherwise because they were in the background.

You definitely wouldn’t have noticed, you barely did anyway, too focused on the scene that was in main focus.

It captures you sat on the sofa, crying into your hands in distress. Chan has his arm over your shoulder, trying his best to comfort you by whispering things in your ear to try and cheer you up and get you in more of a party mood.

What you also notice now that you didn’t before, is that Hyunjin is stood not too far away, watching you through a pain filled expression. He’s not dressed up for the party at all, in fact he looks like he’s been forced out of bed for this, a frown permanently etched on his face. You almost scoff out loud at first, thinking about the audacity he has to have sympathised with you back then, but you manage to refrain, not wanting to cause a scene.

“Dude, you should go get dressed up and take over as (Y/N)’s date.” Changbin encourages Hyunjin who looks at him in confusion before catching on. “Go get her.” Changbin cheers as Hyunjin rushes up the stairs to get ready.

Minutes later the camera pans to show Hyunjin at the top of the stairs, all dressed up and making some final adjustments to his hair in the mirror. Felix is stood with him now, having walked up the stairs to get a better view of him as camera man, and you hear some laughter emitt in the room around you as his little hand comes into frame and holds out a bunch of flowers for Hyunjin to take.

“How do I look?” Hyunjin nervously asks Felix who nods the camera to indicate his approval.

“Like a true prince.” Hyunjin beams at Fleix’s responce before letting out a deep breath, beginning his descent down the stairs.

“Look out (Y/N), your Prince Charming has arrived.” Felix commentates into the camera, following Hyunjin back down the stairs again.

You gasp when the video shows Hyunjin abruptly stopping, his hand holding the flowers dropping to his side defeatedly. This is when you finally tear your eyes away from the tv screen to meet Hyunjin’s, his eyes already staring back at you, brimmed with tears, before he suddenly stands up and makes his way to the closed door. He leans his back against it as he creates distance from everyone while the tragic scene continues to unfold. He doesn’t want to stay but he also can’t bring himself the leave, conflicted in his emotions.

The moment your eyes land back on the tv you see Hyunjin turning to glance at the camera, looking incredibly disheartened. Behind shows you hugging your now ex boyfriend, laughing and smiling brightly at the fact he’s shown up.

Then the video cuts out and the room falls into an uncomfortable silence, no one knowing what to say next.

You turn to look at Hyunjin who is shyly looking at his feet. Why didn’t anyone tell you about this before? It’s the most caring thing anyone has ever done for you.

Before anyone can process what is going to happen next, you act on impulse, standing up and making your way towards Hyunjin. You don’t notice but Felix and Chan share a knowing look before turning their attention back onto you. Their plan had worked, forcing you to realise that Hyunjin has always cared about you and his stupid slip up over the pros and cons list was one huge mistake.

You gently place your hand under Hyunjin’s chin, coaxing him to look at you properly.

“I can’t believe you did that.” You softly whisper, finally smiling at him properly. It’s been so long since you’ve had any direct interaction with each other that Hyunjin’s breath hitches in his throat. He’s nervous and tense, desperate for you to make the first move and break down the barrier between you.

You gaze into each others eyes intensly, forgetting about everyone else in the room. It’s just you and him now, as you nussle your noses together, leaning up on your tip toes to crash your lips against his in a hungry, passion filled kiss.

Hyunjin instantly responds, his hands flying to your waist to keep you close. Both of you lost in the moment.

You pull apart with cheesy grins on your faces, your eyes fluttering open and your senses kicking back in. You both let out an elated giggle when you hear all the guys cheering behind you.

“See he’s her lobster!” Jisung cheers triumphantly, happily making his point that he was right all along.

Hyunjin interlaces your fingers with his, bringing your hands up to his chest and holding them there.

“It’s always been you.” He whispers, no need to speak any louder with you barely inches from him.

You’re first and only responce is to kiss him again. And as you both close the space between you, you know that all the heartbreak and pain you’ve been through is in the past. Now it’s time for a new beginning in your relationship. A new future with Hyunjin, the love of your life.

[needs-to-stop-looking-at-valves]

Hey, I’m coming in from Cookie’s plug in to ask ya the same question. What HCs ya got for the construction bois?

Yes I remember you! It’d be an absolute pleasure! I’ll keep them fairly clean unless you ask otherwise, and welcome to the boys club! (btw, I did post a few fics of them if you’re interested. One is called ‘no homo bro’, its a bit of a long boy).

Scrapper and Mix steal Netflix and other streaming services from Optimus. They refuse to pay for that shit, and have zero issues stealing that stuff. Mix even hijacks cable tv. Mix likes to watch sports, while Scrapper loves dramas. Neither can understand the other’s show, but they’ll watch it with the other regardless.

Scrapper cares more for his finish than Mix. Not the same level as Knockout, but he likes to look good on the job. Mix meanwhile, honestly doesn't give a shit.

The reason for the whole ‘no homo’ mentality is totally because of their creation. They were ‘born’ on earth, and were previously surrounded by Detroit construction workers. Being called ‘gay’ was an insult, so they don’t use that word. Scrapper is a bit more inclined though, as he’s been educated that being homo is normal both on Cybertron, and just in general.

They do NOT like how energon tastes. They got sparks, but they’re human vehicles, and human machines usually don't run on energon. They’ll drink it to be nice, but please keep some oil in stock. They damn near spit that stuff out.

They love earth kids! You ever see those videos of construction machines filling up kids toys with dirt? That’s them!

They both fucking love a good pun. Their record for laughing at a pun is actually ten minutes straight.

Speaking of laughing, Scrapper’s laugh is VERY loud and annoying, especially the more he does so. Mix really loves it.

Scrapper tends to lean on Mix a lot. It’s a comfort thing, and Mix is a bulky guy, so he doesn’t mind it.

Scrapper and Mix are VERY strong! Mix is arms and upper body strong, while Scrapper has his strength in his core, and his legs.

Scrapper loves the dinobots, but Grimlock favors the company of Mix. Probably because he feeds him cookies, and doesn’t like being called ‘puppy wuppy’.

Mix is a loud guy, but he hates certain loud noises. It’s why he has big ol earmuffs (cursed thought, what if he could take them off. And he just, has actual fucking ears there).

Scrapper draws better than Mix.

They’re VERY good at directions. Anyone lost in Detroit is usually helped by them, be it pointing the way, or driving them to where they need to go.

Both dance like single dads at their kids prom. Whatever you imagined, is better than it actually is.

Mix stole the ice tea machine from Chipotle, just because Scrapper mentioned how much he liked it. They somehow didn't get caught, even though they keep it right in their fucking kitchen.

If they really wanted to, they COULD eat actual food! It won’t kill them, but they can’t have it all the time. Mix likes chips, Scrapper likes pumpkin spice doughnuts.

Neither can really...cook. They can do simple shit, but they don’t dare host dinners.

They have nicknames for EVERYONE. Like, “Lil red” (Sari), “Oppy”(Optimus), “Bumble” (Bumblebee). No one is really called by their own names.

They can fix up ANY house. They’re trained to rebuild, and even do waste management if need be. For most its gross, to them, its just a normal Tuesday.

Scrapper says ‘I love you’ at least a hundred times a day. Mix usually responds with actions, like nodding or patting his cheek. It’s cute when you see it first hand.

[raleighcarrera]

saturday

ride or die | colt kaneko x mc (ellie wheeler)

~2.2k words | T

baby you look good, you look gorgeous / this right here your city, i’m a tourist

or, alternatively, ellie shows colt around the east coast. for @choicesjunechallenge day one! (wander)

rod tags: @choicesarehard, @lovehugsandcandy

they were invisible, out here. in manhattan, ellie was probably always at least a little invisible, but there was a certain freedom in knowing that absolutely no one was looking twice at him or them -- that they had a whole uninterrupted weekend to explore stretched out ahead of them. 

back home, he was starting to reach a level of notoriety that brought few places he could go without attracting stares with it. the new crew was coming together faster than he thought it would, and colt was admittedly pretty pleased with his progress, so far. when ellie came back home for the summer, there might actually be something to show her. something that might even have a shot at impressing her. 

her anonymity would evaporate as soon as he got the chance to show her off, back in l.a. -- so he figured they might as well take full advantage of this weekend, making the most of their time as nobodies while they still could. 

ellie lifted the hand that wasn’t twined through his and pointed up at a nondescript building on the corner, just a block from her apartment. “this is one of the buildings i have classes in,” she explained, “my biochem lab and my stats class are both in here.”

“you know, if you’d been at my college, maybe i wouldda considered hanging around.” there were few things he cared about less than the ins and outs of her coursework, but the thought of ellie in some lecture hall, with her nose buried in a book was something that never failed to endear him to her. she was almost unfairly cute.

“what, there weren’t any girls you liked in boston?” she asked playfully, shooting him a look as they waited at the corner for the light to turn. 

“there were plenty of girls,” he smirked, “but i wouldn’t say i liked them.” what he means goes unsaid, but he knows ellie is smart enough to read between the lines: she’s the only person to ever do this to him, the only girl he’s actually made room in his life for. 

she’d wormed her way in so effectively he’d hardly even noticed it. try as he might to push her away, she was always there -- challenging him when he did his best to shove her to the side with calculated barbs, comforting him when he didn’t think it was what he wanted at all, caring for him when he hardly felt like deserved it. 

before her, he hadn’t been interested in anything like this. people were always a disappointment -- without fail, anyone who could get close would find a way to take advantage. feeling the way he did about her was messy and painful and not something he was keen on exploring, at first. he knew it’d be a disaster from the moment he met her, but ellie didn’t let herself be deterred by a few casual insults. she dug her fucking heels in and blended into his life seamlessly, until he found himself in a suit dancing with her at her high school prom like an unrecognizable idiot. 

only a moron with no sense of self-preservation would’ve told her they loved her, so of course he had. for the longest time, it felt like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop -- for her to change her mind, for her to do what he’d long since expected and make him regret ever forcing himself to take that step out of his self-imposed isolation and into the sun. 

but ellie was nothing if not a master at proving him wrong -- at making him eat his words. at defying the expectations of everyone around her, including him, sometimes, when he was dumb enough to underestimate her.

the way she was tugging on their clasped hands recaptured his attention, shaking him out of his reverie. “this place has the best dollar pizza. there’s, like, forty pizzerias within a ten-minute walk but this one is the best and cheapest. during midterms i ate here twice a day for two weeks straight.”

“sounds like you’re getting spoiled,” he remarked, dropping her hand to wrap his arm around her shoulders, instead, pulling her in close on the sidewalk. “what’re you gonna do when it’s back to l.a. burgers and tacos all the time?”

“i do kinda miss the street food,” she mused, leaning against his side. he’d been all over her last night, when he first arrived, relearning the curve of her body with his hands and his mouth over and over again, hardly able to get enough of her after so long without the real thing. pictures and videos and late-night facetimes were all well and good, but nothing could make his heart leap like pulling her into his arms in person. finally.

he still hadn’t had his fill, but she was adamant about showing him around the city, so -- they got out of bed. and even if they stayed inside all weekend, colt was certain they still wouldn’t be able to get through even half of everything he wanted to do to her.

“oh!” she exclaimed suddenly, guiding him to the right with the arm she had around his waist. he dipped his head on a smile he just couldn’t hold back when she slipped her hand into the back pocket of his jeans. “this was what i wanted to show you, come on.”

they ducked into an alcove between what looked like two office buildings. there was a small fountain and a few abandoned tables -- for a moment, they were completely alone, under an arch of spring flowers that provided a brief respite from the bustle of midtown, waiting for them just beyond the sidewalk. 

“i always come here to study. i feel like it’s so peaceful.” ellie was smiling up at the flowers, hardly paying him any attention -- so colt took a moment to let himself look, studying the sweet expression on her face with a smile. it’d been so long that he’d almost forgotten how beautiful she was, if that was even possible. but seeing her here, now, was like a kick to the stomach; she knocked the wind out of him just by doing nothing, just by being herself -- every goddamn time.

“it’s pretty cool,” he agreed, forcefully tearing his eyes from her to look around, too. “i mean -- we’re alone, so.”

ellie laughed, turning under his arm to face him. “is that all it takes for you?”

colt shrugged the shoulder she wasn’t tucked under, shooting her a wide grin. “what can i say? i’m a simple guy.”

“well -- we knew that.” she squirmed away giggling as he pushed her playfully in retaliation, rushing over to the far side of the fountain. colt followed, stepping up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, burying his face in the side of her neck.

he exhaled. there weren’t words for how relaxing it was to know he didn’t need to look over his shoulder, here, with her. for once, there was almost nothing on his mind -- just the blissful peace of a weekend spent with his favorite person. some of the leaden weight that seemed to be perpetually pushing on his shoulders was slowly starting to ease as he stood there with her, under the curtain of the peonies above them.

colt fished in his pocket for a quarter, offering it to her. “wanna make a wish?” 

ellie took it from his hand immediately. “you’re getting soft on me,” she murmured, huffing out a small sound of amusement when he nipped at the side of her neck in return. colt hooked his chin over her shoulder, watching as she flipped the coin into the fountain. 

“what’d you wish for?” he asked, just so he could see her do what she did, which was spin around indignantly in his hold, scoffing.

“i can’t tell you! then it won’t come true.”

he rolled his eyes at her. “that rule isn’t real.”

“well, i don’t want to risk it.” 

colt lifted both hands to her face, cupping her cheeks and drawing her in for a slow kiss. ellie melted against him prettily, as responsive as ever -- how sensitive she was never failed to light a fire somewhere within him that he had trouble ignoring. the little sigh that slipped from her mouth into his felt like water after walking through a desert, and he swallowed it greedily, tilting her face up with fingers at her jaw for an angle that would allow him to deepen their kiss insistently. 

ellie entertained him until she had to break away to breathe. he backed off at the first push of her hands, the expression on his face splitting into an obnoxious grin as soon as he noticed the light flush spreading out across her nose, creeping onto her cheeks. the way her nose turned red every time they made out, without fail, would probably never stop being absurdly appealing to him.

that was another annoying thing she’d done to him. colt constantly found his brain getting stuck on the most absurd shit, where she was concerned. things he’d never even thought about before, like an errant lock of hair, curling into her eyes, or the flash of a bare shoulder when her oversized sweater slipped down suddenly seemed more erotic than porn, just because it was her. 

“you’re gorgeous,” he mumbled, pressing his thumbs into her flushed cheeks. “i can’t stand it.”

ellie was still working to catch her breath, instilling him with a sense of pride he didn’t bother trying to push away. “sorry. i can try to work on that.”

“you’d better.” his eyes dropped to where her hands were fisted in the front of his sweatshirt, clinging tightly to him like she was afraid he’d slip away at any moment. colt could feel the expression on his face soften the longer he watched her, the pounding of his heart ratcheting up dangerously when she licked her lips and glanced up at him seriously.

“i’m really glad you’re here,” she said finally, shattering the sudden stillness that seemed to have surrounded them -- in the middle of manhattan, of all places. “you have no idea how badly i missed you.”

colt’s thumb stroked her cheek. he was pretty sure he had some idea. “you’re sure i can’t convince you to transfer, right? ‘cause... ucla is, like, a twenty minute drive on my bike --”

ellie laughed. the sweet trill of sound did little to temper his racing pulse. “shut up, come on. there’s so much more i want to show you.”

he let her spend the rest of the day playing tour guide, pulling him around the city, until they’d eventually wandered into some unfamiliar neighborhood downtown, far enough away from the main avenues that the foot traffic on the sidewalk was considerably less. finally, they could take their time, instead of ducking out of the way to avoid the rushing speed of people in a hurry, ignoring glares from busy new yorkers disgusted by the way they kept stopping to kiss in the middle of the crosswalk. 

colt bought her an ice cream cone because her excitement was too cute to ignore, grinning to himself as he snuck glances over at her, enjoying it. it was going to be pretty much impossible to tear himself away from her on sunday night, but he was trying not to think about that.

“anything special you want to do tonight?” she asked between licks, drawing his eyes to the way her wrist flicked to keep the swirl of vanilla soft serve even all the way around. 

“i have a few ideas.” she caught sight of the smirk on his face and rolled her eyes. “i’m open to suggestions, though.”

“well -- i did have a place in mind for dinner,” she said, though he hardly heard her over the way she licked a trail of melting ice cream from her wrist, “and then i thought we could walk around some more... and turn in early.”

“you know, that’s exactly what i was thinking,” he answered with an agreeable grin, already fantasizing about just how late she’d allow him to keep her up and all the things he could do to her with several uninterrupted hours holed away in her single. a part of him he did his best to ignore most of the time was also already dreaming about the inevitable lazy sunday morning that would follow, when he could wake up with her for the second time in too fucking long and put all his energy into keeping her in bed until the last possible minute. 

that guy was such a sap.

“should i be afraid of that look?” ellie questioned with a smile, the happy expression on her face doing wonders for his already calm mood. they continued slowly down the street in a direction that he thought might’ve been back towards her dorm, though once they dipped below the numbered streets all sense of navigation seemed to abandon him. whatever. it wasn’t like they didn’t have time to wander aimlessly some more, and he wasn’t too proud to admit he loved getting lost with ellie by his side.

colt grinned unabashedly at her, watching her finish off her ice cream cone with a few bites. fuck it. they were invisible here, so why not let himself indulge that other guy? once he was back in l.a., all of this was done for -- he’d be back to his rough edges like they never softened in the first place.

“nah,” he promised, reaching out for her again and pulling her in close, dropping a kiss onto her temple. “we’ll carb you up at dinner. you’ll make it through.”

[simpsonssitcom]

Character Design (Pt. 1)

The Main Family

I want to preface this by saying I already wrote a post about the designs in this AU, but it was vague, uncertain, and most importantly, deleted by a tumblr glitch after a couple of days. This is an updated version of that. I also won’t put at many pictures; I’ll try to just name episodes and/or condense photos into a collage for a single character.

Anyways, this post is about changes to the design of the main family. Anything not addressed will remain the same. These will also only cover standard, present, everyday designs. Special clothes and flashback designs will be addressed as they come up.

Marge

Marge’s physical changes might be the least drastic. Her hair, still blue, will be one “head” smaller. By this I am referring to her pages in “The Simpsons Handbook: Secret Tips From The Pros.” Marge’s hair is broken into three sections: around her head, one head size above, and another head size above. Let’s level that down to only one “head” above. She’s not hiding rabbit ears anymore, we can do this. As for her outfit, I had a little trouble in deliberation, but I’ve decided on it mostly being the same, except her green dress has a sleeveless turtleneck on top like her orange peplum dress. This is mainly due to her job as a cashier now; her apron would look weird over a tube dress and I wanted her to have the same outfit at work (like how Homer wears a tie over his normal shirt at work). She has two bracelets like her early design (from her sisters) and still has her necklace. I considered maybe adding the flowers from her early design to her dress. After all, she has an art streak not just in painting but in sewing (think of her cute modifications to her pink Chanel outfit) and adding her own pattern onto the dress to “spice things up a bit” would be such a Marge thing. Still, I didn’t want to made her design too busy, and I also didn’t think flowers were super Marge. She’s more into classic looks and solid colors, I think.

Homer

Anyways, Homer’s shirt is pink now! I outlined a ton of reasons for my Homer outfit decision in the original post, but I’ll make it brief. It’s mostly that pink was a strong color in the early stages of the show, that Homer isn’t as aggressive in this AU, and that we know pink with blue (his jeans) is a good color combo on him from his outfit in Stark Raving Dad, his prom outfit, and his suit at Lisa’s wedding. Speaking of Lisa’s Wedding, his bodily appearance will closer resembling that of that episode. It’s only a five year timeskip so he won’t be too different (no eye wrinkles for example), but he’ll be more top heavy, his shoulders and neck getting larger to even out his pear shaped beer belly we have now. His hair will be deteriorating too, instead of a zig-zag on the sides, it’s just individual strands.

Maggie

The children will change the most, as obviously they are growing up. They’ll get taller and their hair will change too to better distinguish them. Maggie’s got fairly consistent hair in her future appearances: longer and parted with three spikes in front and 4-5 in back, depending on the episode. Her hair isn’t that long yet at 5, but it’s certainly parted already. Her face, to help distinguish her from Lisa, has a mouth more like (younger) Homer’s, with the curved upper lip.

So, I have something I’ve added as part of Maggie’s character which I’m only mentioning on this post because it helps inform her design. I am autistic and, although I know there’s a running gag in future episodes that she’s apparently talks a lot, here Maggie is nonverbal autistic. Anyways, I’m bringing this up because of my #1 favorite in-show future Maggie design choice: her pacifier necklace. You wanna know why? Stim jewelry. Now, Maggie has a necklace like Lisa or Marge, but hers only has one bead, and she sucks or chews on it sometimes to stim. Next, what do to about the onesie? I’d like to keep it something comfortable, maybe very loose, because that gag of Maggie constantly dripping over her own clothes can be kinda funny (so long as it doesn’t seriously hurt her, I never liked that trend of just tagging on characters for no reason) A blue sweater (looking like the top half of her onesie) and some bootcut jeans that are too long for her legs is essentially what I wore at that age, why can’t she do the same? All that matters is that she’s comfy.

Lisa

Okay, we gotta talk about Lisa’s dress. A middle school girl in a strapless dress? Has the world gone mad? Yes it has, but in the American public school system, that’s not gonna fly. So what do we do, put straps on her dress or give her a whole new outfit? After a lot of consideration, I decided on a skirt the same color as her dress (blood orange, or is it “fucking red”?) with the spiky bottom too, with a lavender polo. Why lavender? Well, Bart’s imagination in “O, Brother, Where Bart Thou?” gives us a good look at that color combo (complete with white neck accessory) on someone with the almost exact same features as Lisa. We also see Lisa’s dress with straps, which looks okay for adult Lisa, but there’s too much cleavage for what I’d consider putting on a thirteen year old.

In addition to getting taller, like all of the Simpsons children, Lisa’s hair is changing, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. In a all her future appearances (much like Maggie, likely to help differentiate since they’re almost identical when grown), her hair is always styled one way: pushed back and down. But specifically I’m going to draw her hair design from, you guessed it, Lisa’s Wedding! What can I say, it’s just a good episode for character design... mostly. But I love the way her hair starts to curl in that episode. If we take the curl as coming from Marge, it’d make sense if she grew to look more like her parents.

Bart

Alright, Bartman! Bartholomew is probably getting the most change, hence why I put him last. After all, he’s changed a lot in the show too (the color of his shirt from blue to... again, is it orange or red?) and his future appearances arguably vary the most. His hair is interesting, because although the design I’ve settled on for it matched fairly close to his 15-year-old self in Barthood, it’s actually based off of the music video for Deep Deep Trouble. He got his head shaved as punishment, and since I saw it I HCed that this happens whenever Bart gets in big trouble, so his hair is constantly a buzzcut because it’s always just growing out. As he matures a bit and doesn’t get caught as often, he can grow his hair out more. As for height... although most of his aged up appearances have him keep that pear shape to look like Homer, I figure since he has a bit more of an active lifestyle, he would shed some baby fat. I particularly liked his lanky look in that one “2006-2013 Family Portrait” couch gag, where he just kinda... stretches. It makes him look like he took after Marge some, which I like.

Clothes are fun. Bart has always been a rebel, and a very creative kid, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he started expressing himself in his clothes more. His lucky red cap and his earring from Simpson tide would almost certainly appear more, but in terms of his clothes, a simple orange shirt won’t cut it anymore. The bright orange might be too close to homer’s salmon pink or Lisa’s warm red, I’m altering the shade to be more brick. The shirt itself will be a floral button up (the pattern being his classic orange and OG blue as an homage) inspired by his clothes in Homer’s Phobia, Bart to The Future (where he also has an earring), and this post by @springfieldblues, which I love.

That’s it for part one! Part two will focus on the nature of how character design will function in this AU as a whole, as well as changes to more minor characters. 

[sapienveneficus]

Elsie Fest 2019: A Broadway Music Festival Sans Broadway

Another year, another Elsie Fest. This year marks the Broadway festival's fifth anniversary, and it also happens to be the fourth Elsie Fest I've been able to attend. Coming off a the high of 2018's festival, this year's event had some mighty big shoes to fill. Did it succeed? In a word? No. I had fun last night, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't help but be disappointed by several aspects of the event. Let me break it down for you.

For those who haven't been to Elsie Fest, there's a rhythm to whole thing that's important to explain right at the top. The seating at the venue is, for the most part, general admission so people line up well before the gates open to secure the best spots near the stage. I joined the line about 2 hours before opening and, therefore, managed to snag a pretty good spot. I laid out my blanket, sat down, and took part in the hour-long showtunes sing-a-long lead, once again, by our favorite dynamic duo from Marie's Crisis. This hour of fun was a highlight for me; it always is. But this year especially it proved to be one of the few celebrations of Broadway to be found at this Broadway music festival. More on that later.

As the hour came to a close, and the guys from Marie's Crisis were wrapping things up on stage, I took a look around the venue. I couldn't help but notice that it wasn't as full as it had been the year before (or the year before that). That observation got me thinking, why was attendance down this year? After a bit of brainstorming, I came up with a few potential causes.

First up, timing. Elsie Fest has always been on a Sunday. Since the show moved to Central Park back in 2017, it has specifically been the Sunday smack dab in the middle of Columbus Day Weekend. For any international readers, Columbus Day is a federal holiday (like a bank holiday) here in the US that falls on the second Monday in October. So, for the past two years, Elsie Fest was been held in the middle of a 3 day weekend. Which meant it was generally easy for folks in the tri state area to make the trip into the city. Also, falling on a Sunday evening meant it was easy to get Broadway folks (even those currently in shows) to stop by since most shows only run a matinee on Sundays and typically have Mondays off. By choosing a Saturday this year, the organizers made it harder for some regular attendees to come out (people tend to have things to do on Saturdays plus, for some, it's the Sabbath), and they cut down on their talent pool significantly because they wouldn't be able to get anyone currently working on or off Broadway.

This segues nicely into the second reason for the potential dip in ticket sales, namely the featured performers. There weren't really any big names this year. Last year, for example, we had Sutton Foster, Joshua Henry, Grant Gustin, Matthew Morrison, Alex Newell, Nick Jonas, Zachary Levi, Casey Cott, Rufus Wainwright, Jodi Benson, and performances from Be More Chill and The Prom. This year, up until about a week before, the only big-ish name attached to the show was Gavin Creel. I say a week before because last week they announced Cynthia Erivo. I'm guessing she was added last minute in a desperate attempt to sell tickets. Which sort of worked, the venue wasn't empty, but kinda proves my point. By having this on a Saturday they weren't able to bring in the talent that they had in years past and, without those big names, they weren't able to bring in as many attendees.

Finally, the third reason for the lackluster ticket sales was New York Comic Con. This doesn't require much in the way of explanation. This weekend was New York Comic Con. Lots of the big panels, sales, and cosplay events fall on Saturday, and it's not a stretch to assume that NYCC and Elsie Fest are drawing from similar, if not the same, pools of people. So that probably hurt sales a bit as well. Though I suspect the two other reasons were larger contributing factors.

Okay, back to the show itself. After the sing-a-long, we were shown a quick trailer for High School Musical: The Musical – The Series. (You are not misreading what I wrote, that's the show's actual title) After the trailer, two of the kids came out to sing Breaking Free. Their performance was super cute, and I was reminded of the fact that HSM debuted in early 2006. Which means that all the tweens and teens who grew up with this film series are now fully-fledged adults. And they were out in the audience, in full force, singing along. It was a sweet moment to witness. And, not going to lie, I was singing along as well. I have a soft spot for the series myself. It'll always remind me of my first year of teaching. My students were obsessed HSM, and I was right there with them.

Next, Dyllon Burnside came out and performed an RnB version of Luck Be a Lady from Guys and Dolls. This number was okay. Dyllon's got a great voice and the woman who came up with him to dance as Luck was talented. But the performance had a rocky start because there wasn't an introduction. Someone just said into a mic, here's Dyllon Burnside, and then it started. I remember standing there thinking to myself, “Who's Dyllon Burnside?” I googled him today and found out he's on that Ryan Murphy show, Pose. It might have been a good idea to give that info up front. Anyhow, like I said, his performance was okay. RnB is not my cup of tea, but he had a good voice and a commanding stage presence so I could put up with that style for a single song.

After Dyllon, the composer of The Lightning Thief, Rob Rokicki, took the stage with a few backup singers. He performed Good Kid, The Lightning Thief's opening number. This performance was an example of how the timing of this year's festival hurt its lineup. Rob's a composer with a passable voice, not performer. And this song needs a cast of performers to be done properly. Unfortunately, Rob’s talented cast couldn't be there because it was Saturday night, and they had an evening show to do over at the Longacre. So we, the audience, were stuck with Rob. No offense to Rob, he seemed like a sweet guy, but he's not a performer. He should have been there to introduce his cast, not perform in their place.

After Rob, came the first set of the evening, a series of songs performed by Anais Mitchell, the composer/creator of Hadestown. I should probably begin this paragraph by explaining that I have not drunk the Hadestown kool aid. I have seen show, I did not like the show, but that is a matter for another post. Going into this set, I figured Anais would do a song from Hadestown and then take a few other Broadway tunes and put her folksy spin on them. That is not what happened. She sang 4 songs from Hadestown, and then a medley of songs from her newest album. To put it bluntly, her set was bad. Even if I liked Hadestown, which I do not, I would still have to be honest and say that she really missed the point of the festival. She was there to celebrate Broadway in general, not her show in particular. It'd be like Lin Manuel Miranda showing up and performing a whole bunch of songs from Hamilton. I mean, that'd be AMAZING, but I would have to be honest and admit that he would also have missed the point. What she should have done was a song from Hadestown, probably at the beginning, and then pick other Broadway songs. She could have told stories about showtunes that evoked special memories for her or demonstrated how certain showtunes might have folk elements hidden within them. What we didn't need was an ad for Hadestown/her latest album, but that was what we got. It was a real shame.

After Anais, Ariana DeBose took the stage. Thankfully, they gave her an introduction this time. Ariana's not a name yet, but that may change after Spielberg's West Side Story opens next year. (She's playing Anita) She kicked off her set with an RnB version of Shall We Dance from The King and I. Ariana is one of the artists who's been working on the R&H Goes Pop project on YouTube. Again, RnB is not my genre, but it was a good way to raise the energy there in the venue (as it at plummeted during the previous set) and to showcase her talent. Ariana has great tone, an impressive range, and real stage presence. So while I didn't enjoy the song itself, I was impressed with her performance overall. The next song she did was Invisible by Jason Robert Brown. It's a song off his latest album that he wrote for the Ronald McDonald House. This song was also done in an RnB style and, at this point, I started to worry that her whole set would be like this. Her next number was a medley of pop songs that dealt with cheating. It was fun, high energy, but again, it wasn’t Broadway. She could easily have used this to transition into Cell Block Tango or any other showtune about cheating (there are quite a few), but, alas, that wasn't the case. Instead, she covered Cold Play's Fix You. It was a great cover, don't get me wrong, but still not a Broadway song. At this point, I'd gone from starting to worry to full on worrying. Where were the showtunes? This is Elsie Fest, it's the one music festival for Broadway fans where their music is celebrated. That's why I love it so much and keep coming back year after year. So when her next number started off with All That Jazz from Chicago, I thought, “Finally!” but then she mashed it up with a few other Broadway/pop songs all sung by various “Divas” and my excitement diminished. Despite all of that, I held out hope that she'd close out her set with a song from West Side Story. It only made sense to get the crowd excited for next year's remake, right? Nope! Instead, she mashed up Donna Summer's Love to Love You Baby with Beyonce's Naughty Girl and I think an third song I didn't recognize, who knows? At that point, I was just glad to see her leave the stage; what a disappointment.

Gavin Creel was up next. He began his set with a mashup of hits from all the shows he's been a part of. I heard Put on Your Sunday Clothes, What Do I Need With Love, Ilona, Bad Idea, You and Me (But Mostly Me), and a moment of I've Got Life. This was a great way to kick things off; a reminder of all he's accomplished on Broadway thus far. Next, after a joke about always finding your light onstage, he performed Moving Too Fast from The Last Five Years, a personal favorite of mine. Then he did a song he wrote for a showcase he'll be putting on sometime next year. After that, he sat down at the piano to do Something Wonderful from the King and I. He ended his set with The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In. Now, I knew he'd do something from Hair. I'd been hoping it'd be either Going Down (if you really want to hear someone gush about his version of that song, check out Seth Rudetsky's review on YouTube, it's delightful) or Where Do I Go?, but he chose the closing number instead. Not a bad decision, but it's not a song that can be performed solo. So, as it came time for the female lead's part in the song, I figured Cynthia or Ariana would come out to join him. That's the sort of thing that happens a lot at Elsie Fest. People will pop into each others sets to help out. Last year, famously, Will Roland, Grant Gustin, and Darren Criss teamed up to do Sincerely, Me during Grant's short set. And who could forget Aaron Tveit popping up during Leslie Odom Jr.'s set to duet with him on What You Own? But, for some unknown reason, Gavin tried to do the whole song by himself which just didn't work. So his strong set ended on kind of a sour note. I will say, Gavin's approach to crafting his setlist was perfect. He chose a good variety showtunes (old and new) and gave us a taste of what might be coming next for him. People working on set lists for next year ought to take notes. My only critique would be the lack of a female voice during his last number. Other than that, flawless.

Next, the cast of the upcoming show, Jagged Little Pill, took the stage. I had been looking forward to their performance as the show's been generating quite a bit of buzz since its out of town tryout last summer in Boston. At last year's Elsie Fest, both The Prom and Be More Chill performed two numbers a piece. So, with that blueprint in mind, I figured Jagged Little Pill would do maybe a lesser known Alanis song first and then end with a big hit. They started their set with Forgiven. It was a lesser known song that utilized the entire cast so it made for a strong opening number. I figured they'd end with something more well know like, You Learn or You Oughta Know. So I was genuinely shocked when they left the stage after only performing one song. What happened to their second song? Did they run out of time? Or, if for some reason they were only allowed one number this year, why did they choose such an obscure song? This was their chance to get the audience fired up for their new show, and by only performing Forgiven, they failed to do that. It was such a bizarre choice.

Cynthia Erivo, the lady of the hour, was up next. I'd missed her set at Elsie Fest 2016 so I was all the more eager to see which songs she'd choose to perform this time around. I figured she'd have to do one from The Color Purple, but the rest was anyone's guess. Would she go modern? Classic? A mix of both? There was no way of know, but I was excited to find out. She came out on stage, full of poise and grace, wearing these adorable cat-eye glasses and greeted the audience in such a sweet way. She seemed genuinely thrilled to see us all. She kicked off her set with Elvis's Can't Help Falling in Love. She sang it beautifully, but it was an odd choice. Then she sang Ain't No Way by Aretha Franklin. Again, she sang it flawlessly; this is Cynthia Erivo we're talking about. Everything she sings could be recorded and used as part of a master class in vocal performance. But where were the the showtunes? We were 0 for 2, and I was starting to get that worried feeling again. Then Darren came onstage with his guitar and accompanied her on Miss Celie's Blues by Quincy Jones. Also not a Broadway song, but it was featured in the film version of The Color Purple so it was a sort of nod to Broadway, I suppose. Then she did One Night Only. Finally, a showtune! Not one that I happen to like, but that point, I was desperate for something, anything. Next, she did a slowed down version of I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston, and I sighed internally. It's not that I don't like the song, I do, but it was yet another pop song. Clearly, no one had given the night's performers any sort of guidance so they were just singing, whatever. Cynthia followed up the Whitney Houston number with Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. If you're thinking to yourself, that's not a showtune either, you would be correct. The Lauper tune was how she ended her set. Again, like everything she performed, she sang it beautifully. My issue with her set was the overall lack of Broadway. This is Elsie Fest, a celebration of Broadway music. As a Broadway fan, that's what I want to hear. If I wanted to hear nothing but oldies, I'd go to an oldies music festival, if I wanted to hear all rock and roll, I'd go to one of those festivals, and so on and so on. I come to Elsie Fest for the showtunes, both old and new.

The last set before Darren's was Michael Feinstein's. Right off the bat, saving Michael's set for so late in the night was a very bad idea. He should have gone first or very nearly first when the audience was fresh and more forgiving. Michael is a very wealthly older gentleman. I don't know how he made his millions, but he was able to buy and open the cabaret club 54 Below so he's clearly got a few pennies tucked away. Maybe he flashed a few of those pennies to get such a prime timeslot, but that was a mistake. The audience was bored to tears by his set. Standing there while he performed I started to feel like the whole night up to that point had been a bit of a lousy dichotomy. Either listen to pop and RnB sung beautifully when all you want to hear are showtunes, or listen to showtunes sung poorly. I was standing there thinking, “Isn't there an option C? Didn't I pay to attend option C?” Yeah, Michael probably had a lovely voice back in the day, but that day has long since passed. He started his set with A Lot of Living to Do and then gave the audience a lecture on why Bye Bye Birdie is so important to the history of musical theater. Next, he did I Only Have Eyes for You from 42nd Street. He'd lost the crowd at that point. People were BORED. Then, after another lecture, he did the St. Louis Blues, badly. Then he put together I Don't Want to be Lonely Tonight with One Less Bell to Answer. The next song he did cannot, apparently, be googled so it will have to remain a mystery. Finally, at long last, he closed out his set with a Frank Sinatra medley. Darren came out to join him, which woke the audience up (some had literally laid down and gone to sleep). Looking back over his set, all 6 songs (5 too many if you ask me), I can't help but draw the conclusion that he gave the organizers of Elsie Fest an inordinate amount of money for a chance to perform. I hope they spend it wisely next year.

At long last, it was time for Darren's set. He had to go on 20 minutes late so we'll never know which songs he was forced to cut from the lineup. All I do know is that the 7 songs he chose were all winners. He kicked things off with a Glee song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. It was excellent, pop at its finest. Next, he did Waving Through a Window and the crowd lost their minds. Fear not, I was right there with them; cheering and grinning like an idiot. If the crowed seemed keyed up during the Dear Evan Hansen number, they found a new stratosphere of joy to reach when he next performed Wait for It from Hamilton. It felt like suffering through all the bad sets that night had been worth it, almost. Next he pulled out his guitar and started to perform Wig in a Box and, I kid you not, I almost started crying. It had been a long night, full of disappointments, and Darren's set was pure perfection. He then paused, midway through the song, to bring out Lena Hall. What a treat! She sang her verse powerfully and then, Darren paused again to introduce John Cameron Mitchell, and the three of them brought the song home. I felt so euphoric at that point that I lack the words to properly describe it. What a historic moment! How do you follow something like that up? By taking things back to Hogwarts! First Jamie Lyn Beatty joined Darren on stage to perform Harry from AVPM. Next, Joey Richter and Lauren Lopez performed Granger Danger to riotous applause. Then, for the final number of Elsie Fest 2019, the entire Star Kid crew came out do do Goin' Back to Hogwarts. It was such a special moment; being in that crowd of fans singing along 10 years after the musical blew up online. After team Star Kid took their final bows, Darren thanked us and said he hoped to see us back next year.

Final thoughts, I hope to see him back next year too. But I also hope the organizers of Elsie Fest take a good hard look at how things went this year, and make some changes. First off, the festival needs to be held on a Sunday. To put on a festival, you need attendees and performers, and you're not going to get enough of either on a Saturday, you're just not. Second, they need to start booking talent now. They need names to bring people in. Because, even if fans are available, they're sure as heck not making the trip to see Michael Feinstein, someone who will be in a Spielberg film next year, and a kid from Pose. I'll even leave a few suggestions here: Ben Platt, Jonathan Groff, Lin Manuel Miranda, Jessie Mueller, Alex Brightman, Ethan Slater, Renee Elise Golsberry, Telly Leung, Eva Noblezada, George Salazar, Jenn Colella, etc. Third and finally, they need to have a good long think about what they want Elsie Fest to be. If they want it to remain a celebration of Broadway, then they need to book performers who are committed to that vision. If they want to change the vision, they need to let the audience know ahead of time so they can make an informed decision when buying tickets. To be perfectly honest, I felt a bit duped this year. I had paid for one thing but had gotten something else instead. So, there you are, Elsie Fest organizers. Do those three things between now and next October, and you'll have a successful festival in 2020.

[silverarmedassassin]

Day Six: A Christmas Date

Pairing: Bucky x Reader (College AU) Word Count: 4269 - sorry this one kind of got away from me whoops Summary: Bucky is desperate to find a date for his fraternity's Christmas party. You happen to stumble into the conversation at the wrong time. Or is it? 

A/N: And we’re back! I’ve had a really rough past couple of days and couldn’t get any writing done, so I’m going to be playing catch up for the next few days. I hope to have days 7, 8 and 9 all out by tomorrow evening, but we’ll see. I have tomorrow off so I’ll have plenty of time to write and edit what I already have written! Enjoy! 

2019 Christmas Masterlist 

“Come on Stevie. Peggy has to have at least one cute single friend she can hook me up with!”

Steve looks over the top of the espresso machine he’s working with and glares at Bucky. His best friend is currently sulking over his coffee at the pick-up counter as he complains about this week’s girl issues. “Buck, I’m working.”

“But Dot’s gonna be there with her new boyfriend! If I show up alone, I’m gonna look like a total loser!”

“You’re going to look like a loser no matter what you do,” your voice chimes in as you walk up next to Bucky at the counter. You smile at Steve as he starts to prepare your usual order, and Bucky grumbles into his coffee. “What’s this one crying about now?”

“His fraternity is hosting a Christmas party and he doesn’t have a date. Word is Dottie’s gonna be there and Bucky’s freaking out.”

“Ahh,” you hum as you lean on your elbows and look towards Bucky. “What happened to the girl - was it Misty? - that’s been hanging around the past few weeks?

He glares at you as he straightens up. “It was Mandy. And we wanted...different things.”

“Oh, so she wanted something serious and you just wanted to get your dick wet?”

Bucky nearly chokes on his coffee, and you’re sure you’re going to have to call an ambulance on Steve for how hard he’s laughing. You can’t help but chuckle yourself as he leans over the counter to fist bump you between his wheezing.

“You know Buck,” Steve says as he attempts to steady himself, “you should take Y/N!”

“What!?” you and Bucky exclaim at the same time. Bucky in a panic and you shocked that Steve would even drag you into the situation.

“Yea! She knows you’re a terrible date, and she can put up with your shit. Plus, there’d be no,” Steve wiggles his eyebrows then, “expectations at the end of the night. And she’s the only one in the group that’s single.”

You scoff and cross your arms. “What about Carol? She’s not seeing anyone.”

“Everyone knows Carol is gay. It’d be too unbelievable.” Steve shrugs his shoulders like his suggestion is the obvious answer.

Bucky was quiet throughout the entire exchange while he fought his own internal battle. On one hand, he’d been considering asking you to be his date. Not out of desperation, but because he truly wanted to spend time with you, show you off not just to Dot, but to everyone.

But on the other hand, the sensible, realistic hand, he knew you’d laugh in his face if he’d ask you. Not that you were cruel, it was just that your friendship hadn’t always been as carefree and easy as it was now. Plus, he didn’t want to use you of all people to rub in Dot’s face.

The party was in less than eight hours, however, and he was getting a little bit desperate. Maybe Steve bringing up the date could really save him.

Fuck it, Bucky thinks to himself, I’m just gonna ask her.

“Yea! Come on, Y/N, be my date!” He puts on his best pouty face and bats his ridiculously long eyelashes at you. “Pleeeeease? Can’t you pretend you don’t hate me for just one night? I’ll buy you your coffee for an entire week straight. Please!”

“Okay! Okay, okay, you’re making a scene,” you shush Bucky as his pleas grow louder, drawing the attention of those sitting closest to the counter. “I’ll go with you, just stop!”

Bucky stops pouting and gives you an exasperated look. “Wait, really? You’ll really go with me?” He tries not to let the excitement seep through his tone.

You shrug nonchalantly. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to a good party. Plus, I’m never going to pass up free alcohol.”

Bucky bites his lip in an attempt to hold back a smile, but his excitement is too much to contain. “Yes!” he says as he punches the air. “You don’t know how much you’re saving my ass, really I-”

He’s cut off when his phone starts to vibrate. Pulling it out of his pocket, he looks back to you and Steve. “Listen, I gotta run,” he says as he starts backing up towards the front door. “I’ll pick you up at your place at 5:30, okay?”

Before you can respond, Bucky is planting a chaste kiss to the side of your head and running out of the coffee shop. You sigh as you lean back and watch him through the shop’s windows.

“You know, if you could just keep it in his pants for more than a day, maybe he could find someone to commit it.”

Steve slides your drink over the counter towards you as his best friend disappears down the street towards campus. “Yea,” he says, turning his gaze on the back of your head. “But I think the girl he’s really interested in is too far out of reach for him.”

You turn and grab your coffee and shrug. “I better get going too. You have a job to do and I have a dress to go buy! Thanks, Stevie!”

You wave as you make your way towards the front door, and Steve just shakes his head. “They’re such idiots,” he says under his breath before turning his attention back to his work.

When 5:20 p.m. rolls around, you’re standing in front of the mirror in your room, twirling side to side so that you can examine your dark purple, crushed velvet dress. The skirt, as your roommate Natasha described it, is a nice flirty length, falling midthigh. Although not too revealing, the dress still revealed enough skin on top to be a little hazardous. With the neckline scooping to just above the valley of your breasts, and the back going down just as far, you felt

“Are you sure this is okay?” you ask as you examine your backside again.

Natasha, who is sprawled out on your bed, sighs and looks up from her chemistry textbook for the fifteenth time in as many minutes. “I told you, it’s perfect. You’re going to have every guy at that party begging on their knees for your attention.”

You make eye contact through the mirror but quickly avert your gaze. “Yeah, but what will Buc-”

“What will Bucky what?” Natasha interrupts you as she sits up fully. “It’s just Bucky. Since when does his opinion on what you do or wear matter?”

You bite your lip. She’s right, it is just Bucky. But that was the problem. You’re not sure when just Bucky started causing your stomach to do somersaults and your heart feel like it was going to explode in your chest.

It’s not like you hadn’t known Bucky for almost three years. It’s not like you had fallen for his devilishly handsome looks the moment he stepped foot into your freshman English class. Or his ridiculous charm when you accidentally ran into him in the dorm hallway one morning when you were running late for class. 

And it’s not like you’ve spent the last four years burying those feelings under every ounce of willpower you had. No, it’s just Bucky and his opinion doesn’t matter at all. 

Except it does.

A knock on your front door draws you from your thoughts and does nothing to calm the cage of butterflies that had been released in your tummy the second you’d agreed to go to this party.

Natasha jumps off the bed and out into the living room. “Coming!” she sing-songs as she makes her way to the front door. “What a gentleman, coming to meet the parents before he takes ya on a date.”

“Nat” you grumble as you grab your bag and phone from your dresser. With one final look in the mirror, you sigh and turn off the light. Here goes nothing.

As you emerge from the hall, Natasha has already ushered Bucky into the apartment. Your steps falter a little when you catch a glimpse of him. He’s wearing your favorite red Henley and dark jeans combo with his worn leather jacket thrown over the top.  

He catches your movement out of the corner of his eye and turns to look at you. A shy smile creeps across his face as he tunes whatever Natasha had been talking about with him out. She picks up on this, because she turns to look at you too.

“Oh goody!” she claps before pulling her phone from her back pocket. “Get together kids, I need to document this moment! It’s like you’re going to prom!”

“Nat,” you hiss as you make your way towards the door.

“Just one picture. We need to document the one and only time James Barnes has clean hair and looks like a right gentleman!”

One picture turns into five different staged photos, and before you know it Bucky is pulling at your arm to get you out the door. “I’m sorry Tasha, but we really have to go!”

“Be safe, kids! Use protection! I don’t any any grandbabies yet!!” Natasha calls after you, wheezing as she does so. You were going to kill her when you get home tonight.

You take a deep breath as Bucky pulls up in front of the massive fraternity house. The white colonial-style home, complete with columns and a beautiful front porch, was far too nice for a group of college-aged men to living, breaking and...doing god knows what.

“Nervous?” Bucky asks from the driver’s seat. He doesn’t dare rip his gaze from the line of cars in front of his.

“No,” you say far too quickly to be convincing. Why the hell were you so nervous?! “Are you?”

Bucky shrugs then and unbuckles his seatbelt. “First time seeing Dot since the breakup. It’s not my idea of a great party.” He turns to look at you then, a soft smile playing on his face. “But I’ve got a beautiful date to make me feel a little better.”

You roll your eyes and unbuckle your own belt. “Shut up,” you grumble as you shove the car door open. It’s like he knew exactly what to say to get under your skin and right to the butterflies.

Before you can even make it out of the car, Bucky is around to your side holding the door like the gentleman he isn’t. He sheepishly smiles when you give him a look and shrugs it off.

“Gotta make it look believable,” he says with a laugh.

As the two of you make your way to the front door, Bucky is stopped by a few of the guys. Fortunately, you know most of them since your group of friends spends a decent amount of time together, so no introductions are needed. A few of them do, however, side-eye you for a moment before patting Bucky on the back in a congratulatory manner. You try to brush it off as guys just being guys.

When you finally reach the far-too-grand front door, complete with an old-fashioned knocker, Bucky stops.

“Are you okay with me touching you?” he asks shyly.

“What?!”

“Not like...Y/N! I mean like, holding your hand, and dancing. You know, like boyfriend things.”

Please, you yell inside your head. Outwardly, you keep your calm.

“Get enough alcohol in me,” you say as you pat his scruffy cheek, “you can do whatever you’d like.”

If you’re going to make it believable, you might as well embrace the part, right?

Bucky practically chokes on his own tongue. “Right. Uh, shall we?” he says as he motions towards the door.

He guides you through the foyer and into the main room of the house where bodies were spilling out into the hall and into the smaller library and sitting rooms, hand firmly planted on your lower back. It seems like every other person you pass wants his attention, but he’s focused on getting the two of you into the heart of the party, probably to camouflage himself so Dot wouldn’t spot him.

“Hey. Bucky!” Christopher, who you know as the fraternity’s president, waves at Bucky from around a box of store-bought chicken. “I know you helped all day, but can you give me a hand with the rest of the food? It just got delivered.”

Bucky looks between you and Chris and sighs. “I’m really sorry,” he starts, shoulder dropping in defeat knowing he can’t possibly say no. He is one of the biggest and strongest of the brothers and was used to getting called upon to do the heavy lifting around the house.

“It’s fine,” you say waving him off. “I’m going to get a drink. Want your usual?”

He smiles at this and nods. “I’ll be back in five, promise!”

You watch him jog out the door Chris had just emerged from, and you turn to make your way to the kitchen. It was quieter, not as many bodies lingering around, so you decide you’ll camp out in there until Bucky comes back.

You’re just grabbing a beer for Bucky and wine cooler for yourself when a familiar voice calls your name.

“It is you!” Dot says when you turn around to see who was beckoning you. She hurries over and gives you a tight squeeze like it hadn’t been three months since she broke the heart of one of your best friends. Like she hadn’t destroyed the one person who’s happiness sometimes meant more to you than your own.

Taking one look at her, you suddenly feel very self-conscious. She’s an absolute vision in a deep evergreen dress that falls just above her knee. One thing you’d always loved about Dot was her effortless, vintage style. The dress screamed the 1940s and was something that would have made you look like you were in costume.

Her red hair was curled to perfection and framed her striking features perfectly. You were silly to think that Bucky would ever feel anything towards you when he had dated her for nearly four years. The encounter had you second-guessing why you’d even agreed to come to this party in the first place.

“How have you been? I miss seeing your smiling face every day!” Dot says cheerfully. In her typical energetic way, she doesn’t give you time to respond. “You look beautiful by the way! That color really suits you!”

“Not as beautiful as you,” a man you don’t recognize says as he walks up and wraps his arms around Dot’s middle.

“Oh hush,” she giggles as she leans into the kiss he plants on the side of her head. You shift your weight from side-to-side, uncomfortable with the exchange in front of you. It must catch Dot’s attention because she snaps out of the love bubble she had been in and looks back to you.

“Oh! I’m so rude! Y/N, this is Danny. Danny, Y/N.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Danny says as he extends one hand away from Dot to shake yours. You give a tight smile and return the gesture.

“Y/N and I ran in the same group for a while at the beginning of college. But, you know, life got in the way. It’s so nice to see you, though! I don’t think I ever saw you at one of these parties back when...” she just shrugs and decides not to finish the thought.

“Things change, I guess,” you awkwardly laugh.

Before things can get any more awkward, Bucky comes in through the door calling your name. He doesn’t see Dot and Danny at first, and so bounds over to you in two quick strides before wrapping an arm around your shoulder.

“I guess they do,” Dot says as she watches Bucky pull you closer into his side.

You want to preen at the obvious change in tone, an almost bitterness lacing her words now, but you know it’s just for show and she has nothing to actually be bitter about. This is the exact reason Bucky had even wanted you to come with him, and at least for his sake, it was working. Without thinking, you wrap an arm around his solid, broad middle.

“Dot!” Bucky exclaims in his smooth, confident tone you’d come to love. Bucky was nothing if not confident with the ladies, which is why he had a new one almost every week since the duo had broken up. He was also a great actor. You know for a fact that this confidence was just a front. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“Surprise,” she says, pulling Danny’s arms a little tighter around her middle. Her gaze lingers on Bucky’s fingers as they start absentmindedly tracing shapes along your velvet-sleeved arm. “I didn’t know you two were...together.”

You can feel the rumble in his chest as he laughs. “Surprise!”

The tension in the room is so thick you could cut it with a dull knife. You look up at Danny who is glancing back and forth between Bucky and Dot, obviously not knowing what was going on. Unable to stand the awkward tension, you pat Bucky’s side gently to gain his attention.

“I’m, uh, gonna run to the restroom. Come find me when you’re done in here?”

Bucky glances at you and swallows hard. His eyes are pleading you to stay, but there’s nothing you can do to remedy the situation. Just like you’d told him on the way over, if he ever really wanted to let this go, he was going to have to talk to her sooner or later.

You take pity on him though and lean up to kiss his cheek. “I’ll be gone for just a few,” you whisper before releasing your grip on him and making towards the hallway.

When you emerge from the bathroom three minutes later, you can hear yelling over the music. As you make your way back towards the kitchen, you come to find that it was Bucky and Dot who was the source of the commotion.

Everyone has cleared out of the kitchen now, including Danny, so you choose to stay away. Deciding you’d rather not hang awkwardly around waiting for Bucky, and not feeling like striking up a conversation with anyone you know, you head out to the front porch. Luckily the weather has been mild this year, so you won’t freeze while you wait for Bucky to come to find you.

Ten minutes went by, then twenty, and you start getting a little antsy. There’s no way he was still in there talking with Dottie.

Despite the faux-date, you had been hoping to spend some time with Bucky. You thought that since he’d asked, begged you to come with that he would at least keep you on his arm while he made his rounds. But it was starting to look like that was not going to happen.

You check the time again and sigh, deciding that you’ll just call Natasha or even Clint to come to pick you up. You didn’t feel like wandering around the party by yourself, and you didn’t want to ask Bucky to leave in the middle just to take you home.

You shoot a quick text to Bucky to let him know what was going on, told him you weren’t feeling well and Natasha was coming to pick you up. It wasn’t completely a lie, just not the whole truth either. You call Nat and luckily she’s in the middle of a study break and agrees to come to get you in fifteen.

You wait for a text from Bucky, hoping it would be him telling you not to go, but it never comes. So when Natasha pulls up, you decide to leave the party, and hopefully your feelings for Bucky behind.

You’re awoken at 3:30 a.m. by your phone buzzing. You pointedly ignore it and turn over and try to go back to sleep. As soon as the call ends, another comes in immediately. You huff and roll back over, angrily yanking the phone from its place on your nightstand. Bucky Boy the caller id reads.

Before your tired brain can process what’s going on, the call ends and another immediately starts back up. “Hello?” you rasp into the phone, throat dry with disuse.

“Y/N!” Bucky slurs into the phone, obviously drunk. It startles you for a moment before you remember that he doesn’t need to drive anywhere since he lives at the frat house. “You left me at the party.”

You pinch the bridge of your nose and sigh, definitely not wanting to have this discussion with drunk Bucky, let alone sober Bucky. “I wasn’t feeling well so I came home.”

“But you looked so pretty and I didn’t even getta tell ya. I didn’t even getta dance with you!” You can hear him pouting through the phone and you can’t help but give a silent laugh.

“Buck, you’re drunk. Go to sleep.”

“No!” he shouts defiantly like a child. “Ya gotta listen to me, Y/N. Dottie...Dot, she tried to tell me that I didn’t really like you, that she could see through our facade. At first I got real mad, because that’s not what wasna sposed to happen. She was supposed to see us together, because it’s us, and get real jealous.

“But ya know what, Y/N, she was always jealous of you. ‘Cause you’re smart and caring, and funny and nice, and,” he stops to hiccup then. “And you’re jus so beautiful, ya know? She should be jealous of you because she’s not you and you’re you, ya know? And I know you’re gonna try and tell me I’m jus saying this ‘cause I’m drunk, but I’m not!”

Your head starts to spin a little as he continues talking. Every other word is slurred worse than before, which helps remind you of the fact that, yes, he is just saying this because he’s drunk. He’s drunk and upset about Dot so he’s projecting. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

“Ya know, I still remember that first day in English. I stumbled in half asleep and late and the seat next to you was the first one I saw. I hated it because it was in the front - I mean come on Y/N, who sits in the front of the classroom! - and vowed to never sit there again, but I did. I did every day for the rest of the semester and I’m so glad I did.

“You know why Dot doesn’t like you? Because I think she figured it all out before me. She broke up with me because she knew she wasn’t ever gonna live up to you. And I hate myself for only being able to tell you this while I’m drunk, but please, in the morning, make me say it again, okay? Because I like you and I think the feeling is mutual, but I’ve always been too scared to say something.

“And then stupid Dot came along and she was safe. I couldn’t ruin a friendship if there wasn’t one to begin with, so I settled. But I don’t wanna settle anymore, okay? So make me tell ya all of this again in the morning ‘cause I need to. You need to know.”

Tears start to drop down onto your cheeks, leaving salty trails as they do so. You’re not sure what to say, so you sit there and let him ramble on. You’d dreamt about this moment countless times before, Bucky confessing his feelings to you, but you never thought it would happen like this. Not when you’re half-awake with terrible bedhead and with Bucky three sheets to the wind. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but you’ll take it.

Bucky’s quiet a little too long then, and you can hear his breathing over the phone as slowed a little. “Bucky?” you ask quietly into the speaker, but you’re met with only his soft breaths. He must have fallen asleep. Good. A sniffle a little before letting out a deep breath. “Good night, Buck. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

In the morning. Hopefully, in the morning everything he had just confessed to you would still stand true. That you would be able to confess your own feelings and something good could finally come from it.

You hang up and shoot him a quick text before you can second guess it. Returning your phone to its charger on the nightstand, you roll over and feel the butterflies come back. In the morning.

You: Hey Buck. Drunk you had some interesting things to say tonight. He wanted me to make sober you retell me everything in the morning, so I’m holding you to it. How about breakfast? We can make it a date. A real one this time. 

[taelaxies]

pinky swear

“So you’ll let a complete stranger touch you and not your best friend?”

Summary: Yoongi and you were inseparable friends. Since your childhood you’ve played this game together in which you had to be completely honest when your pinkies were linked. Until one night, the game went too far…

Pairing: Yoongi x reader

Genre: Smutty SMUT. | Warnings: A lot of tongue technology.

A/N: So this is my official first smut. As an American Horror Story fan you should know that the pinky game is based on Kai’s game in Cult. Of course, without the creepy sh*t. So I hope you like it, I’ll get better I promise, pinky promise. Words: +2.3K

“Pinky to pinky. Naked truth, brutal honesty. If you lie, I’ll know.”

You both knew the rules: once your pinkies touched you had to answer each other’s question with nothing but the truth. It started as a game you had heard from a girl from your school, and now your best friend and you were hidden under the blankets with a flashlight as the only source of light - and your pinky fingers linked.

Your faces remained expressionless waiting for one of the two to make the first move.

“Are you going to leave with your dad?” you finally asked, your voice cracking as the tears wanted to fall from your eyes.

“I told you, Y/N! I’m not leaving you!” Yoongi raised his other hand and placed it on his chest, where his heart was located. “I promise.”

“You can’t lie with your pinky.”

“I know.” He smiled, causing his eyes to almost disappear, “I’ll stay and we’ll be friends forever.”

There was a knock on your bedroom’s door and then your mother’s voice could be heard from the other side, “Time to sleep, kids!”

He kept his promise and stayed after his parents divorced. You were eighteen now, and he was still your best friend, the person that knew you since your childhood.

However, nothing stayed exactly the same.

When his parents divorced, Min Yoongi changed. The cute eight-year-old boy was long gone, and now was known as a fuckboy and the kind of guy other guys did not want to mess around. That was useful for you though, people knew you were his best friend and that kept bullies away from your smart ass.

You watched him sleep from your seat in class, he was wearing his usual black hoodie but you could still see a glimpse of his minty hair under the cloth. That was part of his routine, he slept in class and then you helped him study later.

The bell rang and you shook his shoulder with your hand. He turned his head to a side and looked at you just with one barely open eye, “Hey.”

“Will you ever stay awake in class?” You grabbed his bag and handed it to him. He yawned and took it, standing up and offering you a hand to do the same.

“Who cares. I have you to teach me better.”

You both walked out of the classroom and your eyes met Ara, his last conquer. She was one of the prettiest girls of school and she was waiting for your best friend with her books against her chest and a shy smile on her face. You were used to it, but she clearly didn’t - her smile faded as soon as she realized Yoongi walked past her without sparing a glance in her direction.

“Suga!?” She yelled his nickname at him.

He shrugged and sneaked his arm around your shoulder while you remained in silence until both of you were far enough from her. “I honestly thought you were going to prom with her. Everybody wants to take her to prom.”

“Ara?” A sarcastic laugh escaped from his lips, and he looked at you in disbelief, “I’m not going to prom anyway.”

“Yeah, I thought it would be uncomfortable to be around all the girls you fucked in the same room.” You pointed a finger at him and smirked, “You’ve made a wise decision.”

“Shut up, Y/N” he smirked back at you. You found your table for lunch and as usual it was just the two of you. You took a seat opposite to him, and took your lunch and his out of your bag.

He looked at the food with a frown and a silent question on his face. “My mom said you should eat healthier so she sent you some chicken and salad. I told her not to.” you explained. “You’re invited for dinner tonight, by the way.”

Your mother cared about Yoongi more than his own. Since you grew up together, she helped him a lot facing his parents’ divorce and that was something Yoongi always appreciated and thanked. So even though he wanted some trashy food, he took the fork and ate your mother’s food in silence.

“Are you going to prom?” He suddenly asked.

 You swallowed hard and thought your answer for a second. “I wasn’t, but since you’re not going maybe I have a chance to be invited by someone.”

It sounded cruel. Yes, thanks to him bullies were scared to lay a finger on you. But it was not just a bullies problem. All the boys were scared to lay a finger on you. No matter how many times you said you two were just childhood friends, at school you were “Sugas’s property”.

You waited for a funny reply but he did not say anything and just finished his chicken.

“See you tonight for dinner then.” He muttered before leaving you alone.

He ignored you for the rest of the day and you scolded yourself for being too honest with your answer. It was not like you had your pinkies touching, you could have softened your thoughts a little.

You nervously waited for him to show up at your house that night. He did like he said and he also carried his bag full of books, expecting you to explain to him the lessons he missed while he was sleeping.

Maybe he was not offended anymore. He looked… normal. He answered your parents questions like he normally would and even made sure you ate your food. 

“Well” he said, patting his full stomach, “we should go study before it gets too late.”

Min Yoongi wanted to study? You frowned and watched him get up from the table and thank your parents for the food. Your eyes followed his figure as he made his way upstairs to your bedroom.

“Y/N, do you want me to bring the dessert to your room?” your mother asked.

“No mom… I mean… maybe later. Don’t worry.”

You went to your bedroom with a knot on your throat. He was mad at you, there was no way the Yoongi you knew willingly asked you to study together.

You held your breath and opened the door, finding him sitting in the middle of your bed, with his legs crossed and a flashlight in his hand. “Turn off the light” he ordered.

You obeyed and once the room was completely dark, you joined him in the middle of the bed. He covered both of you with a blanket and placed the flashlight in the tiny gap between your bodies. He licked his lips and offered you his pinky finger.

“Pinky to pinky. Naked truth, brutal honesty. If you lie, I’ll know.” he stated.

You sighed and linked your pinky to his, examining his features as he admired your pinkies together one more time.

“You said no one invited you to prom because of me.”

“Yoongi I didn’t mean it like that.”

“You did.” He raised your linked hands. “You can’t lie.” Yoongi moved his body even closer to yours. “Who would you like to take you to prom?”

Your eyes danced between your fingers and his face near yours. “Jeon Jungkook,” you whispered.

“Who?”

“Jeon Jungkook.” You said, louder this time.

He hummed. His eyes looked even darker and the poor light from the flashlight was not helping you relax. Your hands were sweating and your heartbeats felt like drums in your chest. You watched him lean closer to you and brush his lips on your ear, “So you’d let that bunny touch you and not me?”

You were still breathing but you felt like you couldn’t breathe. You’ve never dated anyone and never went further than kisses - Yoongi was in fact, the only guy you usually felt comfortable around. “You are my friend.”

Your best friend moved his free hand from the mattress to your knee, drawing circles up your thigh with his thumb. “So you’ll let a complete stranger touch you and not your best friend?”

You tried to free your pinky from his but you couldn’t. He stopped moving his hand on your thigh and waited for your reply, staring at you expectantly.

Why was he doing this? Was this his kind of punishment because he felt hurt? Your skin burned under his hand and you couldn’t think clearly.

“Why..? What do you want?” You asked squeezing his pinky as a reminder that he had to be completely honest.

He didn’t hesitate and bit his lips before speaking, “I want to eat you out until you come in my mouth, knowing that no one has done it before because all of them - including Jeon Jungkook, know you’re mine.”

You hoped that flashlight didn’t show the red color you knew your cheeks had. The air surrounding the both of you under that blanket felt even heavier than before. Saying that you had never thought about having sex with Yoongi would be a lie, since you always wondered how it’d be like - to feel him like you knew other girls had.

This was the side of him you didn’t know - until now.

You glanced at the growing bulge inside his jeans, then your pinkies linked in between your bodies and finally his eyes that were glued to your thighs.

“My parents are downstairs.”

“Who cares. Do you want it?” He asked, moving his hand again, “Because I really do.”

You nodded, incapable of pronouncing a word, as you felt his fingers reach your underwear.

He let your pinky free and yanked himself on the bed placing your thighs on his shoulders, his eyes never leaving yours.

The flashlight was pushed aside, illuminating a different angle of his face as he traced a line on your inner thigh with his tongue. The skirt from your uniform was a mess rolled up at your waist and you bit your lip when you felt him press a kiss on the fabric separating him from you.

“Take your shirt off for me.” He said, but felt like an order. You did as he told, tossing the shirt to the darkness outside the tent your blanket made.

He pushed the underwear to a side and his hot breath caressed your sensitive skin before giving a long and slow lick to your slit.

“Ohmygod” you whispered, throwing your head back against the mattress.

 He smirked and placed his hands on your hips, preventing them to move when his tongue moved against your core quicker this time. His eyes were absorbing the new expressions he had never seen on your face - your mouth open and your eyes closing involuntarily because of the pleasure.

His mouth found your clit and your legs pulled him even closer to you.

“I don’t know why we took that long for this” he mumbled, moving one of his hands to your face, where he shoved two fingers inside your mouth. “Suck.”

His lips returned to your clit, sucking hard while you muffled the moans escaping your mouth with his fingers. Watching his head moving between your legs, your hand instinctively travelled to his hair - making sure he wouldn’t stop.

His fingers left your mouth and traced a line from your neck to your heat, where he pressed one of them against your entrance. He could tell you had never been touched like that: because you were about to reach your high real fast and because of the way his finger entered you with difficulty. But once he felt your tightness he couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to have his dick buried inside of you, and a growl escaped his throat, “Fuck, Y/N”.

‘Yeah, Fuck’ you thought. You couldn’t handle the way he was touching you anymore, and your hips and legs shook as you reached your orgasm around one of his fingers. You expected him to stop, but he didn’t. Yoongi climbed on top of you leaving your faces on the same level. His finger moved slowly inside of you and his eyes were fascinated with the view of you being totally wasted.

“No one has fucked you before.” He stated, amazed by the idea. You didn’t answer, scared that the moans you had contained until then, escaped from your mouth. He added a finger and curled the two of them, stretching your walls and finding a spot that made your eyes water. His lips slammed against yours, finally allowing you to release some quiet whimpers.

His tongue played in your mouth as you imagined it did with your clit - his lips then traced a wet path from your lips to your neck. “Do you think other guy will take care of you like I do?” He mumbled against your skin, biting his way to your breasts, “Like this?”. He pumped his digits faster and you had to press your lips into a thin line to suppress your noises.

Pulling your bra down, he appreciated your bare chest for a moment before finally attaching his lips to your nipple.

“Yoongi, I can’t-”

“Yes you can.”

He felt you clench around his fingers and quickly pulled them out of you. He told you he wanted your cum in his mouth and he meant it. You watched him lower his head to your entrance again, and licked circles around it, teasing you before shoving his tongue inside.

He touched your clit softly, testing how sensitive it was. He thought you could take it and finally rubbed his thumb against it - fast.

You didn’t know how long it took when your orgasm hit you again. But this time you tried to keep your eyes open, taking in the sight of Min Yoongi swallowing your juices with a satisfied expression plastered on his face.  

He gave you two long final licks and then planted small kisses on your inner thigh. His eyes met yours and a smug smirk spread on his features, watching your chest go up and down -trying to catch your breath.

“Are you sure you want bunny to take you to prom?”

[sasuhinasno1fan]

Nail Art Confession

Hi @saltedsaltine, I’m your gifter for the @vldshipexchange. I’ve been watching this k-drama about a nail shop and I like the headcannon about Lance being really good at all the stuff like that. I also noticed that you like FFXV, Prompto especially so I thought, why not throw them in there? I hope you enjoy.

Keith knew he should be working on his homework, but his fingers were itching to get messy from charcoal in his sketch book. Of course, his usual suspect kept turning up on the pages.

Lance.

He and Lance were in the same friend group, friends themselves though not as close as Lance was with Hunk and Pidge and how he was with Shiro. Somehow they would usually find themselves hanging out more. Lance was loud and attention grabbing and Keith was sure that it’d be hard to really bond with him but Lance was extremely respecting of his boundaries. Whenever Keith would blow him off because of personal issues, Lance always made sure he was ok before telling him it was ok and to let him know when he was feeling better. Sometimes Keith would find himself going to find him even if he was sure he wanted to be alone but there was something about Lance’s presence that he found calming when it was just the two of them. He panicked when he realised how he felt about Lance, avoiding him at first until Shiro tracked him down, asking him what was wrong.

“Keith, having a crush is normal. It’s terrifying, don’t get me wrong but you know Lance. He understands and respects you so it’s not like it’d be a horrible idea to date him.”

“But what if I mess it up?”

“I somehow doubt that but I think Lance respects you too much to make your life hard if that does happen. But only do it if you feel comfortable ok? Don’t do it because you feel like you have to. I’m sure Lance is willing to wait.”

“Wait, does he know?” Keith asked panicked even more

“No, no, no. Just…tell him when you’re ready ok?”

Keith avoided Lance for just a bit longer before he decided Shiro was right. Lance respected and understood him, there was no way he’d embarrass Keith if it didn’t go well. Didn’t mean he’d tell him just yet though. Lance had been worried though, which made Keith feel bad but a hanging out session with some of Lance’s favourite foods forgave him.

It was hard trying to have to hide how he felt but Keith was fine just hanging out with Lance. He didn’t want to lose him so he just kept his feeling under lockdown and drew them out on the ever filling pages of his sketch book. No one ever looked in it without his permission, so he didn’t feel so scared about filling pages upon pages of Lance’s profile or different expressions. They were mostly of Lance smiling. He had a really amazing smile that lit the whole room up.

‘God, I’m gay.’

Keith looked over at the sound of a phone buzzing to his roommate waking up from his nap and fumbling around for his phone. Noctis could sleep just about anywhere, yet somehow he was still passing all his classes. Honestly he only ever saw Noctis studying if he was being bugged by Ignis, one of his friends and apparently nephew to his dad’s secretary. When Prompto, Lance’s roommate and Noctis’ best friend, was over they played video games, watched movies on laptops or leave the room for hours on end doing whatever.

“Mmm,” Noctis mumbled sleepily, no doubt trying to get his brain to work, “Prom’s coming over.” He announced

“That’s fine.” Honestly Prompto hadn’t been to their room in a while. Something about a photography internship

Somehow Noctis fell asleep in the span of when he spoke to when Prompto came slamming the door open. Actually, he was still asleep.

“Sorry. Noct, Noct, wake up dude!” Noctis groaned and turned away from his best friend. Keith could sympathize. Trying to wake Noctis up was a struggle yet his phone going off got him up in a second. Prompto pulled the pillow from under Noctis’ head and wacked him with it. “Get up!”

“What?” he whined sleepily, finally turning to his best friend

“Look at what Lance did.” At the sound of his crush’s name, he paid more attention and watched Prompto shove his fingers in Noctis’ face. “They’re chocobos! Aren’t they cute?”

“He painted your nails?”

“Yeah, he said he usually does it with his sisters and he’s been feeling a bit homesick so he’s been looking up a lot of different designs and I offered to be a model and he did this.”

“It looks good. Can I go back to sleep?”

“No! Come on, I wanna show Iggy and Gladio and you’ve been in bed all day since classes ended. Come on! Sorry again.” Prompto apologized as he pulled a protesting Noctis out of bed and out the door, leaving Keith in silence.

Nail art? Keith knew Lance liked things most people would consider feminine, but he knew that his relationship with his sisters made him not care what people thought. He knew Lance could do hairstyles and was usually begged by the girls in his dorm to do their makeup but he didn’t know that he was also good at doing nails. He went with his mom once to a nail saloon once for her birthday and he had been impressed with the almost effortless skills the manicurist did his mom’s nails. Imagining Lance in that spot was almost as effortless. The desire to see the concentrated look on Lance’s face while doing it prompted him to pick his phone up.

Prompt came bursting into my room to show off his nails.

Oh yeah, here let me show you the pic I got

A picture came in of the art on Prompto’s nails. It was the top of the feathered head, the cartoon blue eyes just peeking over the cuticle. It was cute, and it was pretty amazing.

I had no clue you were so good at art

Not like you. Nails are more my canvas. Now that I think about it, I’ve done everyone else’s nails except yours. Would you be interested? There’s a design I want to try but I did mine last night and I don’t want to take it off.

Well, Keith had a habit of chewing his nails sometimes so it would stop him. It would also mean having Lance hold his hand for a certain amount of time.

Sure. Should I come over?

Yeah! Door’s open and I have mom’s cookies.

Like he needed anymore incentive. Lance’s mother’s cookies were to die for.

“I heard cookies.” Keith said after Lance called for him to come in.

“Hi, Lance. How are you? Oh fine Keith, do you want a cookie? Oh I couldn’t. I swear, I don’t know who’s worse. You, Pidge or Hunk and Hunk tries getting the recipe out of my mom while he does it.” Lance said, sitting at his desk and opening the window, no doubt to try and get rid of the smell of nail polish and nail polish remover.

“Your mom’s cookies are good. You can’t blame a cooking god like Hunk to want to learn the recipe.”

“What am I then? Just the delivery boy?” Lance asked annoyed, though Keith could see he wasn’t really.

“And my manicurist apparently. I would have come to see you anyway; the cookies just moved me faster.” Keith admitted, slightly embarrassed but not really. He liked spending his time with Lance.

“Aww, Keith. You’re the only one who cares.” Lance joked, holding up a Ziplock bag half-filled with assorted cookies. Keith was able to quickly find the double white chocolate chip and take a large bite out of it. “Consider that half your payment. You can get the rest after I do your nails.” Lance said, moving the bag out of the way and gestured to the other chair on the other side of the desk.

Keith sat down after shoving the rest of the cookie into his mouth and took his seat. He watched Lance as he filled a small bowl with soap and a few drops of essential oil before pouring water from Prompto’s electric kettle, judging from the chocobo stickers on the handle. Lance brought it over with a towel to rest it on and guided Keith’s hands into the water, which was pleasantly warm.

“So I’m basing this design off something my sister told me. I think you might like it.”

“Are you going to tell me what it is?” Keith pried but Lance shook his head. “Fine, I’ll wait. When did you learn to do this anyway?”

Taking one of Keith’s hands out of the water and wiping it off before picking up a cuticle pusher and gently pushed Keith’s cuticles back, Lance launched into his tale of how when his aunts would come over, all the older girls would join them in the kitchen to gossip and talk, everyone doing their nails. Lance had one older brother close to his age but at that time he was more interested in trying to hang out with the older boys leaving Lance by himself. Like the mommy’s boy he was, he decided to latch onto his mother who sat in the kitchen with all the other woman. His sister Veronica told him if he was joining them, he had to do his nails as well and he agreed. Even as he got older, he’d join his aunts, sisters, cousins and mother in the kitchen learning the trade, mastering everything until he could do it just as good as getting it done at a salon. Keith had been intently listening, letting Lance move his hands however he wanted to, only really looking at his hands when Lance painted a red similar to Keith’s favourite jacket onto his left fingernails. But for the most part he’d been focused on Lance’s own focused face, committing it to memory to draw in his sketchbook later.

“Alright. I still have to do the design, but how does it look so far?”

Keith looked at his right hand, his nails rounded and red. There wasn’t a spot missing or any polish on his skin, Lance quick to remove it when it did happen.

“Better than I can ever do.” Keith said

“The highest of praise, thank you.” Lance turned on a small fan that sat on the desk. “Put that hand in front of the fan.”

“What about the design?”

“It’ll just be on the left hand.” Lance said, focused on the nails in his hand, strangely having Keith’s fingers curled so he couldn’t see them.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Keith didn’t believe him.

“Lance.”

Lance suddenly looked a bit embarrassed. “So my sister told me about this guy who paid for a girl to get her nails done, he just asked the manicurist to do a certain design. Thing is, he was just friends with this girl but he wanted to become more. So the girl got her nails done and was given the design of his name spelt out on her nails.” Lance put the top coat on and finally let go of Keith’s hand. When he looked at his nails, starting from his pinkie finger and going across, it spelt, L-A-N-C-E. “He told her that he wanted people to know that she was his and he was hers.” Lance put his own hand on the table and even though it was upside-down and backwards, Keith could still see his name spelt out on Lance’s hand.

1-How the hell did he miss that?

2-Oh. Oh!

‘So this is what Shiro meant.’

Keith didn’t notice his silence of his revelation was worrying Lance into thinking he made the wrong decision.

“You know what, never mind, I obviously made a mistake so I’ll just take it off and we can just-”

“I draw you a lot.” Keith burst out. “In my sketchbook. It’s half the reason I don’t like letting people look at it. Also, I really like being around you because you understand me and never push me and I really like you but I was scared I’d mess things up so I didn’t say anything.”

“I thought I’d mess things up with this.” Lance said, looking much calmer now. “I’ve been ranting about you for a while and it’s been annoying the others on why I don’t just say something and Prompto suggested that maybe I do it this way since its subtle and if it didn’t go well, I could play it off as a joke. Which it isn’t, because, you know, I do like you.”

“Me too.” this was new and strange and he was sure he’d need an hour or so to digest everything but Lance liked him, like, liked liked him. He felt strangely giddy. “So is this how you’re going to show me off to everyone else?”

Seeming to be back to his normal self now that he had confirmation Keith felt the same, Lance said as he pulled out a canister of quick dry spray, “absolutely. Just you wait; Pidge is going to never want to be around us with all our domestic love and everything. Ooh, you should let me braid your hair! I mean it’s long enough to put it into a ponytail. I think I can even braid your bangs. Plus I can finally take care of that dry skin of your.”

“Hey!”

“No point in denying it babe,” babe. The name already felt so right to Keith. God, he was gay.

[queen-of-the-merry-men]

When We Were Young {SSU Flashback}

Here’s a short flashback from the Sunny Side Up verse for Day 6 of the @oqpromptparty​! Based of prompt #194. (Young OQ AU) Regina is dating Robin and she can’t wait to go to prom with him but something happens and she can’t go so. I took some liberties to fit it to the story but I hope you like it.

{Read the actual fic}

--------------------------------

There was no American rite of passage more anticipated than prom night. For most girls it was an event almost as revered as a wedding. A night of magic and gowns, music, dancing and with any luck romance. One final celebration of youth before being shipped off to independence and and adulthood.

Regina had been looking forward to her prom ever since she was a child. She wouldn’t dare tell anyone - not her friends, especially not her mother - but it’d been all she could think about since entering high school. She’d given her all in every class, on every test, loaded up her spare time with extracurriculars all the while just dreaming of the one night when she’d be allowed to forget her future for one moment and just be a teenager. It was all she’d wanted.

She’d bought a dress, she’d picked a hairstyle. The limo had been rented, the photographer paid. She’d even managed to scrounge up a date for the evening, just some pretty face from the baseball team but still. Everything had been in place and she’d been excited.

But of course, life decided to kick her in the teeth. Or, more accurately, in the leg.

It was prom night and due to her own actions Regina Mills was sitting in a hospital bed with a broken leg, a bowl of green jello and an old static-prone television as her only source of entertainment. She sighed resting her head against the pillow. Her throat grew tight as she glanced over at the clock above her door.

8:15.

Everyone was probably arriving at the venue by now, all dressed up and glamorous, ready to have fun at their “night among the stars” as the planning committee had opted to call it. She cursed under her breath. The whole situation was such crap but it was still… nobody’s fault but her own.

Well, that damn cat could certainly shoulder some of the blame.

So stupid.

She’d noticed the fliers, they’d been up for the past week at least. A small grey tabby cat that belonged to her neighbors had been missing. They’d even gone around the neighborhood asking everyone to keep an eye out.

She’d been riding her bike to the store for some last-minute lipstick when she’d seen the damn thing just idling in the street. It was calm when she called out its name, even when she started to walk toward her, but once the car appeared on the road it froze. Her instincts kicked in and she’d gotten it out of the way, but not before the car had knocked her right in the leg.

The driver skidded to a stop and she lay in the road screaming out as the pain of a bone fracture erupted through her thigh, while the cat had scurried off. It showed up in its owner’s backyard less than two hours later.

And now here she was, laying in the hospital, watching shitty 1920’s movies on TCM while missing out on what was supposed to be the greatest night of her life. Closing her eyes to take a deep breath, she tried not to cry. This wasn’t fair.

“Well, looks like somebody’s not having a good night.”

Her eyes popped open at the voice intruding on her solitude. Immediately, she rolled them when she saw him standing in her doorway.

Of course it was none other than her best friend, Robin. Like something out of a corny movie he stepped into her room, still dressed in his rented tux with a paper bag hanging from his hand while she lay there in nothing but a crinkling hospital gown. He sent her a sympathetic smile as he approached her bed.

“Regretting your heroism?” he guessed.

She poutily lifted her chin and folded her arms. “If you’re here to check on me you wasted a trip. I’m just as crippled as I was this morning.”

He’d been the first person to visit her in the hospital, after her parents. Him and Granny. They’d both been present to witness her meltdown after the doctor had told her that she wasn’t leaving the hospital until the morning. Not exactly her finest moment and, frankly, she was still a little bit embarrassed by how she’d acted.  

Robin ignored her attitude and pulled a chair up next to her bed.

“I suspected as much,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I know it’s gotta suck being stuck in here.”

She took a seething breath as she nodded. “I spent four years waiting for this night. Threw it all away on a damn cat.”

“Hey,” he drawled, sympathetically patting her shoulder. “It’s not all bad. At least you got recognized for your heart of gold.”

With a smirk he tilted his head toward the handmade card in her lap and she rolled her eyes.

Her neighbors had stopped by a few hours earlier to thank her for her actions. Their six-year-old daughter had presented her with a card she’d made herself. A simple half-folded piece of paper with the misspelled words “Tanks for savin our kat!” and a colorful drawing of the mischievous little feline under a rainbow. It was cute and if she was honest she’d admit that it had cheered her up for a minute or two. But damn it she was in the hospital, she didn’t have to be honest if she didn’t want to be.

“I’m throwing it in the trash as soon as I get home,” she lied.

(In actuality it’d be pinned to the wall of her dorm all through college.)

Robin shook his head, chuckling to himself. Of course, he saw right through her. Regina eyed him suspiciously.

“Shouldn’t you be at the dance,” she mumbled. “It’s after eight. Thought you’d be on the dance floor feeling up Shaw-na through her dress by now.”

She over enunciated his girlfriend’s name with her usual disdain and Robin rolled his eyes. Despite her best efforts Regina had never been able to hide her displeasure with his choice of romantic company.

He leaned back in his chair and sighed. “You know, an hour ago I thought I’d be on the dance floor too but…turns out I’m not the funnest person when my best friend’s in the hospital.”

Her eyes softened as she uncrossed her arms. “Robin…”

He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just a dance.”

“It’s prom.”

“Not without you there, it isn’t,” he said, shaking his head. “If I can’t go there with my best friend what’s the point of going at all?”

Her heart swelled at his insistence. If she were a better person, a less selfish one, she’d force him out of the hospital and off to the dance. But she wasn’t. Tonight she was not selfless, she was just grateful.

A small smile tugged on her lips. “How did Shaw-na take it when you ditched her?”

“Shawna was much more gracious than you give her credit for,” he said, haughtily. “She completely understood why I left. Didn’t even put up a fight.”

“Aww.” Regina tilted her head. “She’s pissed at you, isn’t she?”

“Extremely,” he replied, giving up the ruse. “I may have gotten a smack or two for my sacrifice.”

Regina couldn’t help the giggles that fell from her at the thought of Shawna pitching one of her vicious fits decked out in her prom dress as Robin abandoned her for the hospital. At least someone was having a worse night than her.  

“I’m sorry,” she lied.

“No, you’re not,” he laughed, shaking his head. “I know how much you hate her.”

“I don’t hate her,” she drawled, unconvincingly. “I just think you can do better.”

“Sure you do,” said Robin, rolling his eyes.

Regina gave up arguing. With Robin it was useless. She’d known him practically her whole life. Hiding her feelings from him was damn near impossible and not usually worth the effort. Instead she nodded at the brown paper bag he’d set next to his chair.

“What’d you bring?”

A sly smile appeared on his face as he lifted it into his lap. “Well,” he said, “lucky for you I realized I didn’t want to go to prom without you when we were arriving at the restaurant for dinner.”

He pulled out a takeout box. “So I figured if you couldn’t make it out for prom, I’d bring a little bit of it to you.”

She grinned in excitement when she realized that he’d brought her dinner from Gaston’s, the fancy restaurant she’d picked out for the night. He set aside her forlorn jello and presented her with a slightly lukewarm steak and a serving of mashed potato and broccoli.

“Medium-well?” she asked.

“As if you’d eat it otherwise,” he smugly replied, passing her a knife and fork.

“Thank you,” she happily drawled, sending him her first genuine smile of the night.

He raised a hand. “But that’s not all.”

Reaching down into the bag he added, “No prom night is complete without its court.”

He pulled out a cheap plastic tiara, complete with fake rubies, that had her rolling her eyes.

“Congratulations Regina Mills.You’re officially prom queen.”

She scoffed at him. “I’m not wearing that.”

“You have to. You’re prom queen,” he deadpanned.

Grin still plastered on her face she shook her head. “No way.”

“Hey I gave up dance floor groping for you,” he playfully pointed out. “Least you could do is wear a cheap crown for me.”

Groaning, she rolled her eyes and placed the crown atop her head. It sat on her hair barely touching her scalp; it was so light. “There,” she said, “How do I look?”

“You look beautiful, your majesty,” he said.

“You’re such a dork,” she laughed.

But he was her dork. Looking over at him she was struck by how good he looked. Robin was not the type to clean up. He was a sneakers and holely jeans type of boy, but he looked good in his tux. All black with a white shirt and black tie, a pink boutonniere peeking out of his breast pocket. No doubt intended to match Shaw-na’s dress. He looked older, more mature. And she couldn’t help but think he’d wasted his clean up moment sitting in a hospital room with her.  

She looked over at him, suddenly serious. “Robin… why’d you come here?”

His smug smile faded away as he leaned back in his seat again. “I don’t know. It’s just… I was getting ready and we were taking photos and getting in the limo and it just hit me it was prom night. In three weeks we’ll be graduating. High school will be over and everyone’s gonna go away, even you.”

She tilted her head at him, sympathetic. Her acceptance letters had started coming in a few weeks ago. She’d gotten accepted to more than a few decent schools but had settled on Columbia for the fall. Robin had gotten into an in-state college and another one across country, but in the end he’d decided that school wasn’t for him. He planned to stay in Storybrooke for a year or two and figure out what he wanted to do next.

Shrugging his shoulders, he shook his head. “I don’t know… when I started looking around and it hit me that you weren’t there I realized I wanted one more memory of us, before you head off and I lose you to the bright lights of New York.”

He forced out a chuckle at the end of his sentence, as if trying to lighten the mood, but she saw right through it. He was worried.

“You won’t lose me,” she said, tightly grabbing his hand.

He tried to pull a smile on his face but she could tell that he was having trouble believing her. She didn’t even blame him. They’d both heard the stories from their parents and teachers. How high school friends would head off to college and simply never speak again. Stories like that had been weighing on her ever since the first day of senior year. Clearly, they’d been weighing on him as well.

Silently, she thought back to all the time they’d spent together since they’d first met.

“Hey, do you remember when were 12 and Granny had just opened the diner so both of our parents sent us to that camp for the summer?”

He nodded, a smile appearing on his face. “Camp Misthaven, I remember.”

“And do you remember the rope bridge?”

“Of course I remember the rope bridge.”

A blush crept up on the cheeks as she recalled the wobbly, braided rope bridge that had been tied between two pine trees at least eight feet off the ground. The thing had been the bane of her existence for all through camp.

“All summer the counselors kept trying to get me to cross it but I was too scared,” she reminisced. “Until that day when you decided to coax me across from the other side. Remember?”

“Obviously,” he chuckled. “Longest thirty minutes of my life, I’d seen glaciers move faster than you did.”

“Shut up,” she ordered. “I’m trying to make a point.”

A smug look was still plastered to his face but he stifled his laughter.

“The point is I couldn’t make it across the bridge until you were in front of me,” she reluctantly admitted. “You made me… brave.”

She shrugged averting her gaze. “And as much as it kills me to say it… I still need help with it every once in a while.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding her head. “Robin, in less than four months I’m supposed to leave this town where I’ve spent all my life and strike out on my own in New York. In case you haven’t noticed I’m terrified!”

It was a truth she’d refused to admit ever since they’d started high school. Robin made her better. She took risks when he was there, she was more confident when he was by her side and truth be told he was really the only friend she had. The thought of going to school hundreds of miles away from him… well it terrified her.

“You’re not gonna lose me Robin,” she said. “Because I still need you to make me brave. Now more than ever.”

Goddamnit he’d gotten her tearing up now.

“I’ll always be a phone call away if you need me,” he pointed out.

“I know,” she said with confidence. “And I’ll be emailing you at least once a week.”

The weight of their promises filled the room and they weren’t empty ones, they knew that. Regina would probably be writing to him at least once a week, and Robin would probably be calling her to fill her in on everything that was happening back home. But it wouldn’t be the same and they knew it. They wouldn’t have lunches in the quad anymore or movie nights at his house. No walks through the park when one of them needed to clear their head or midnight meet-ups when they couldn’t sleep. The thought that things would change was terrifying. Even more terrifying was the thought that they would change as well.

Squeezing her hand Robin softly said, “I’m really gonna miss us.”

“Me too,” she mumbled.

Sighing, Robin patted the sheets of her bed. “Scoot over. I can’t see the tv.”

Rolling her eyes, she shifted to the side allowing him to halfway climb into the bed with her. Crown still on her head she let her chin fall against his shoulder. In all the times she’d imagined her prom night she never pictured herself in a hospital bed, splitting a steak dinner with her best friend, watching shitty old movies and staring down the future like the barrel of a gun.

Yet, somehow she couldn’t imagine changing a single thing about it.

[shimmershae]

"It's really not that complicated."  (a Walking Dead ficlet, Caryl).

Teen Caryl AU.  I blame my growing weakness for teen Caryl on this.  Oh.  And those beautiful pictures.  I mean, my God.  Do they look gorgeous together or what? 

 To be continued?  That depends, lol. 

  It’s really not that complicated 

    He’s been half in love with her since the 3rd grade. 

  Wonder Woman lunchbox in hand, sweet smile on her pink lips, she’d braved all the bullies’ taunts and quietly joined him at his lonely table.  Introduced herself by offering him her small, delicate hand and shrugging off his feigned indifference when he’d just stared at it, plopping down on the plastic seat beside him and crossing her ankles before opening up her lunchbox.  She’d offered up half of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and her easy friendship, not even blinking those big blue beautiful eyes of hers at the fact that she’d breached that invisible divide with such a simple gesture.  That gulf that existed between being popular and being one of the outcasts. 

  So, yeah.  He’s been half in love with her since the 3rd grade and it’s too bad, really.  Because she’s one of the best friends he’s ever had.  The best friend, actually, and he’s not about to do something stupid like blurt out his true feelings on prom night.  He don’t care that she’s his date or that Glenn and Tara seem to think it’s a good idea.  What do they even know about it anyway?  They’re just a couple of freshman band nerds crashing a party, Eugene and Olivia’s dates because friendship is solidarity and he should know.  Shouldn’t he? 

  Shouldn’t he? 

                                                                                                     The fast song that’s been matching the irrational pounding of his heart morphs into something slow, something sweet that makes Carol sway in her borrowed heels, those long, crazy red curls of hers slithering across her bare back and making him think of a gypsy queen.  Whatever that even is, and shit.  He really shouldn’t have let Merle talk him into that swig of Jim Bean to relax him because he thinks it’s backfiring.  Igniting little sparks all throughout his bloodstream and making his palms itch to touch her, his fingertips ache to trace and map out all those pretty freckles, and Jesus Christ.  He really needs some air. 

  The grass beyond the gymnasium is overgrown.  The trees tall and looming, casting long shadows on the crowded gravel parking lot and shrouding the blanket of stars winking overhead. 

  The music is muted out here, just a hum beneath the crickets’ insistent song, and Daryl welcomes the respite.  The familiarity.  He tears at his knotted tie with fumbling fingers and takes a ragged breath, lets the sultry spring Georgia air swallow him up in her embrace while he wills his heart to calm. 

  Ultimately, it’s as useless an endeavor as trying not to love her.  Impossible.   

  Because he opens his eyes and she’s right there.  Just like that moment all those years ago now.  Just as quietly and just as bravely, she’s sought him out and her painted lips are lifted in a smile, sweet and easy, and hell if he don’t feel guilty for abandoning her back there.  But he don’t have near the courage she does.  Never has and probably never will.  Hell of it is, he’s pretty sure they both know it.  Gruffly, he lets her off the hook.  “Didn’t have to follow me.” 

  “I know.”  Her answer is soft and simple and she steps closer, the sequins on her fitted skirt catching the faint light and shimmering.  She tilts her head and wrinkles her nose, lifting one hand to her shoulder to toy absently with the thin spaghetti strap dark against her pale skin.  Letting the other brush up against his own, warm and hesitant.  “But Every Breath You Take started playing and you know how I feel about that song.” 

  Nodding in understanding, he agrees and shifts on his feet as he searches his pockets for a cigarette, subtly pulling away from her and putting some space between them again.  “Song’s creepy.” 

  “Yeah.”   

  She shudders for effect but she’s still smiling that smile at him, and he forgets all about the cigarette, tucking the unlit stick of tobacco behind one of his ears instead.  Watches her.  Because she’s swaying gently once more, to music only she can hear, and he’s entranced.  His heart racing again and his throat dry and awkward apologies are tumbling from his traitorous lips before he can make half an effort to stop them.  “Ain’t much good at this.”

  “You don’t say.” 

  She’s teasing and he knows it.  But his insecurities run deep and he denies her the smile she’s angling for, the reassurance.  “M’serious.  You deserve better.  Somebody that ain’t so fucked up.  Ain’t even a good friend.” 

  She stumbles to a stop then, her feet rooted to the spot.  Her eyes flash with anger, instant and white hot, and her hands dart out.  Grab the loose ends of the noose she’d begged him to agree to wear and tug.  “You take that back.” 

  He ducks his head, swears beneath his breath when she pulls him closer.  “Which part?” 

  “Every part,” she demands, abandoning his tie to grip his broad shoulders.  Travel up his neck to cup his face.  “You take back all of it.” 

  He refuses.  Can’t even bear to look at her.  Because she’s beautiful in ways that make his heart hurt.  She’s bold in ways that just reinforce his feelings of inadequacy.  She’s the best friend he’s ever had and he’ll gladly fuck that up to save her from a nobody like him because she does deserve better.  She deserves everything.  “Can’t,” he says.  “Won’t,” he insists when her pretty features twist into a frown, sadness tugging heavily at the corners of her mouth.  

  Unsure fingers sweep through his shaggy hair and she sighs, leans her forehead against his own.  “Why?” 

  His mouth works to form the words with difficulty, all the reasons why she shouldn’t look back, should run as far and as fast as she can in the other direction, but all he can manage is a hoarse, “Because.” 

  Frustrated, she pulls at the ends of his hair.  Takes a page out of his book and growls. 

  It’d be funny.  Damn cute if his heart wasn’t threatening to split open wide.  But it is and it ain’t.  He’s pulling away before she’s even had a chance to respond, turning his back on her and walking away.  He doesn’t get far.  She doesn’t let him before her soft voice stops him, makes everything, everything stutter to a stop.  His heart.  His lungs.  The whole wide world around them. 

  “They’re right, you know.  Tara and Glenn.” 

  Slowly, he turns.  Stares at her as if he’s never seen her before.  And maybe he hasn’t.  Not this version of her.  Because her blue eyes draw him in, deep and daring and brimming with unspoken emotion.  “Hell did you just say?” 

  “I said they’re right.  Tara and Glenn.  It’s really not that complicated.”     

  “Stop.  Just stop.”  He pleads with her, but he knows it’s no use.  She’s stubborn.  Strong.  A helluva lot stronger than he is, and there’s the rub.  “You don’t know…” 

  “I do, Daryl.  I know.  You really think I don’t?” 

  “Carol, please.” 

  “No.  No.  It’s not that complicated.  You either love me or you don’t.  Which is it, Daryl Dixon?” 

[astrxd]

Stopping Time (part 1)

A/N: Exc i te dh u mm i ng. Basically, they’re ridiculously close friends and Astrid’s been stressin’ but it’s okay because there’s cute conversations and jokes. I love ‘em to pieces. Modern AU. :) [AO3 Link (with part 2!)]

Hiccup loved Friday nights, because Friday nights were his Astrid Nights. Basically, after winter break drew to a close, they quickly became the only time of the week where Hiccup could actually spend time with his (human) best friend.

But hey, he was willing to take what he could get.

They alternated both their location and their activities weekly – some evenings were movie marathons in his living room, and others were game night at her house, but they’ve recently consisted of Astrid being too exhausted to do anything other than curl up on his bed and half-consciously mumble everything else it was that she had to do during the weekend, all with Toothless curled up at her feet as he kneaded at her legs.

And, really – with three AP classes on her plate, alongside various other extra curricular activities weighing her down, Hiccup couldn’t blame her for needing the occasional night dedicated solely to catching up on sleep that he knows she skips out on from time to time. Plus, what kind of person wasn’t there for their best friend when said friend was prone to suffering from sleep deprivation-induced hysteria? He was certainly no superhero, but that was a task even he could accomplish.

“I should review the budget for the school dance,” he heard her say from behind him. The statement was punctuated with the groan of his mattress moving beneath her weight, but Hiccup was quick to swirl around in his seat to face her, his pencil pointed at her in an accusatory manner. “No, you should be resting. It’s Friday, Astrid,” he implored her, waving the pencil in her direction in a manner that could just barely constitute as reprimanding. “The dance isn’t for another, what? Two weeks?” “It’s next Saturday, Hiccup,” she said, looking at him like he was crazy.

(Hiccup knew it was the upcoming weekend, though – of course he did. If it weren’t for Astrid’s involvement in all things school event related, he probably wouldn’t even know about the winter dance.)

The blonde swung her legs over the side of the bed, tipped her head back, and sighed, all while scrubbing at her eyes with the heels of her palms. Toothless hadn’t shifted in the slightest. “It never ends. I’m ready to physically and mentally implode, and it’s not even prom season. It’s just a winter formal.” Astrid seemed to cringe at the mention of prom season, and Hiccup couldn’t help but laugh. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he silently admired the steely resolve of her features. But only after he recomposed himself. “How about this,” he proposed, tapping the end of his pencil against his chin in thought. “I help you budget the dance tonight, and you… You’ll…” A wicked grin tugged at his lips, and he did very little to suppress it. Why should he, when Astrid was obviously in desperate need of a break? Even if she wouldn’t directly admit that she was tired, such didn’t cancel out the fact that she definitely was exhausted. He could tell. It was in her eyes – the ones that started to lack the same vigor and life that shone in them when she was actually well-rested. It was in her shorter fuse, her almost constantly barely knitted brows, her stiff stature and posture. Hiccup was more than capable of noting all of these little details, even if the last time he got a chance to really look at her was last Friday, so he’d be damned before he just brushed it all off in favor of just enjoying her company. “What are you thinking?” Astrid queried cautiously, but Hiccup could easily hear the note of amusement in her tone as she leaned forward and crossed her ankles. A lock of blonde hair seemed out of place among her braid as it spilled from the crown of her head, and Hiccup had to refrain from standing up, crossing the room, and brushing it away from her face. He twirled his pencil as a distraction. “Not that I’m denying your help just yet, even though you’re not even in student council, but I’m… Curious.” Hiccup smiled, knowing that he had already managed to get her attention and, if all went well, a solid confirmation. “Well, uh, you could start by agreeing to sleep over tonight and–and maybe, actually sleep? For once?” He joked, leaning forward to prop his elbows on his knees. “You help me crunch numbers in exchange for me sleeping over?” Astrid said, almost incredulously. “You sound surprised.” “It’s just – you know, that’s not exactly very fair. It seems like you’re just getting the short end of the stick,” she continued, pulling one of the bed’s pillows into her lap so that she could hug it and drop her chin onto it. Toothless, vying for attention, sat up to press his forehead against her arm, only to promptly receive generous pets. It’s not something to be jealous of, but it also is. “Kind of a shitty deal, if you ask me.” “Well, what were you expecting? What did you want me to ask for, one of your legs?” Hiccup grinned as he quirked a brow at her, suddenly tapping his prosthetic against the carpet of his room. An unbidden – but no less amused – laugh left Astrid’s lips, and he watched as she tossed her head back.”It’s been awhile since you have, too. What’s the harm?” “Mm. You’re the worst,” she sighed, and Hiccup detected a note of fondness in her voice. She scooted over on the mattress and patted the vacated space. “Damn your persuasiveness. It’s a deal, though – but only if we’re ordering pizza.” “Who do you think I am? Someone who’d let a perfectly good, new pack of root beer to go to waste?” Hiccup snorted. He stood up and bridged the gap of space between them to sit beside Astrid, leaning against the pillows stacked against the headboard as Toothless shifts and makes himself comfortable in his lap, while the blonde retrieved a notebook and her laptop from her bag at the foot of the bed. She was quick to rejoin him, though, and soon enough, they were hip to hip… But looking at one another. Another one of her blinding smiles. His heart skipped a beat. He mentally cursed it for doing so, but it didn’t really help – not when it’s been doing that for at least the past few years of his life. “Alright, down to business, then. Let me run you through the supplies list, all the prices, and who needs to be reimbursed. Check my math?” “Yes, ma’am.” “Oh, and I rescind my previous statement, by the way. You’re the best again,” she said, handing him the pad of paper as she booted up her device. Hiccup scribbled with his pencil in a corner of the page. “Because I bought root beer and let you order pineapple on our pizza.” He responded, shaking his head.

“Well, yes, but also because you’re doing all this… For me. And it’ll only be on half of it, so don’t diss, Haddock.” She grinned at him, nudging him with her elbow. “You had all of middle school to back out of this friendship, so now you’re stuck with pineapple on our pizza.” “Duly noted. Maybe I just really like budgeting, though. Or–or, or maybe I want to be an accountant. You don’t know my story,” Hiccup half-heartedly defended. The two of them shared another look there, silently watching one another… …Before simultaneously bursting into the briefest fit of laughter. The mood lapsed into something much more them; much more comfortable. Astrid leaned her head against his shoulder and Hiccup sighed silently; contently. He laughed – they both laughed – because it was beyond obvious that yes, Astrid actually did know his “story.” She knew practically everything about him. ...Except for the fact that he’d been in love with her since they were in middle school. One of the many reasons why he hadn’t “backed out” of a friendship with her was because he had a strong feeling that it’d be the closest he’d ever get to knowing the girl of his dreams. So, yeah, she knew everything.

Everything except for that.

By the time midnight rolled around, the two of them ended up relocating to the living room downstairs. A nearly empty pizza box and several bottles of root beer were laying atop the coffee table in front of them. The winter formal had been successfully (re)budgeted and Astrid was making good on her end of the bargain – they were pajama-clad, seated on the sofa with blanket draped over the both of them, and had some movie playing on the TV. Toothless was perched comfortably on the cushions behind their backs and near their heads, sleeping soundly – yet again. He couldn’t think of anything that’d make the evening any better. That is, not until Astrid yawned and let her head fall against his shoulder once more. A brief glance at the wall clock in the room revealed that midnight was, in all actuality, several hours ago, and a small smile tugged at Hiccup’s lips as he flipped his gaze toward her. He lifted his arm to accommodate for her frame, which was automatically slotted against his own within moments. She then slumped against him, so Hiccup looped an arm around her shoulders, further drawing her into his side. “Hey,” she mumbled, though her voice was slightly muffled by the fabric of his sweater as she buried her face in his shoulder. That, and it seemed to be slightly tinged with drowsiness. “Hi,” was Hiccup’s only response, but half of it was a laugh. Astrid briefly pulled away to send him scalding look, but her expression was quick to soften as she nestled back against his side. “Thanks. For today.” “I hardly–” He was promptly interrupted by a tight hug. Astrid’s arms were looped around his middle and she was practically sitting on top of him at that point, with her legs swung over his lap. Not that he minded – in fact, he was more than happy to snugly secure the blanket they’d been sharing around her shoulders as she started up again. Cuddling – platonic cuddling. It was a common thing, especially between them. “Yes, you did. So shut it.” “I–” “Nope, shut up.” Hiccup… Hiccup only smiled. It was a small tilt of his lips as he regarded her, but it was a smile all the same. Fond, gentle, genuine. Astrid shifted a moment later, and he found himself staring back into inquisitive blue eyes. “…What?” Hiccup just barely furrowed his brow. “You stopped talking.” “You told me to shut up.” “I didn’t mean shut up,” Astrid snorted, suddenly appeased, if the way she curled up against him again and re-tucked her head beneath his chin was any indication. A quiet, contented sigh seemed to leave her lips. “God, I really needed tonight. Between dance committee and track season starting and school and life, it almost feels like I’ve hardly gotten to see you.”

“I mean, there’s before school, lunch, after school–”

Astrid sat up a little then, if only to stare at him quizzically. Her expression became somber.

“I get to school an hour before you for student gov meetings, I spend my lunches catching up on homework, and I have conditioning nearly every day after school.” The tone of her voice was almost grave and it held a note of sheepish apology.

Alright, fine. So, yeah – Hiccup had noticed a distinct lack of Astrid in his life over the past few weeks. Friday nights proved to be the only times he really got to see her, because passing periods simply didn’t cut it. While Hiccup wholeheartedly understood Astrid’s reasons for having been so absent, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t a little – or, okay, maybe more than a little – upset with the fact that he hasn’t been able to share some of her time with her. Hiccup knew wanting to monopolize it entirely was just childish, but he, at the very least, wanted to see her from time to time.

The thing was, when he did get those chances, he felt bad for taking her away from most likely more important things she could be doing. And that, in and of itself, was a terrible feeling.

“…Okay, valid point. I don’t mind, though. I get it: you’re busy. You can’t help it.”

Astrid frowned. “I just wish time would stop.”

“Well, we do have right now.”

“It’s past midnight.” “Stay for breakfast, then?” It wasn’t an outlandish request, surely. Not only would it give them some time together, but Astrid’s spent the night at his house so many times that some of her clothes and a toothbrush took residence in a drawer of his upstairs – in fact, even the pajamas she currently wore had been neatly folded and placed into said drawer. Their lives in general were so deeply integrated with one another’s that anyone who didn’t know that they’d known each other since middle school would think that they were dating. …Heck, people who did know them still thought that they were dating. The only thing that crushed him a little was how prompt Astrid was about shutting those people – and rumors – down when they arose. As if the very idea of them ever getting together was ridiculous and inane. Well, at least he could dream... But boy, did he dream. Dream of evenings, just like this, only where he could punctuate his sentences with kisses and have the liberty to blurt out those thoughts of how beautiful he thought she was.

“Maybe,” she hummed in response, drawing him out of his thoughts. “We can try doing pancake art again. Even though we both know how that ended up last time around.”

“It was supposed to be a whale–”

“–Ohoh, yeah, a sperm whale! That thing would have been perfect for middle school sex-ed classes.” She laughed, and Hiccup threw his head back in mock exasperation at the joke. He was pleased to find that the mood of their earlier conversation, the one that bordered just barely opening the can of worms he’d been avoiding, had shifted entirely, and lapsed into something much more casual.

“It looked–it was fine! It was just, just the flipping part that ended up distorting the picture, okay?”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Hicc.”

He didn’t mean to think out loud… But he ended up thinking out loud anyway.

“…Yeah, well, you’re right here, so.”

And he swore that Astrid hugged him a little tighter. It wasn’t very long before her breathing slowed altogether. There was a distinct sense of comfort that came with being this close to her. It was in the warmth of her person; it was in the slight part of her lips and the thick lashes catching the light of the changing frames of the TV, casting dim shadows across her cheeks. When it came to Astrid, Hiccup was awfully observant, but that much was probably a given. It was impossible for him not to be – not with the way she made it so… 

So easy. Easy to laugh with her, to stare at her, to admire her. Now it was his turn to sigh. Craning his neck, Hiccup pressed a light kiss to her forehead – that’s as platonic as kisses could get – before mumbling words of how pretty and peaceful she was when she slept. She never failed to shock him with how effortlessly she accomplished perfection, but what shocked him even more was that (even if it were just as her best friend) someone like him was privileged enough to cradle her in his arms like this. Another moment was spent with half lidded eyes, looking fondly upon the Hofferson…

A meow made his head jerk to the side, where he found himself looking right into milky green eyes. It wasn’t odd to be eye level with Toothless, but Hiccup wasn’t the biggest fan of the look the cat was giving him.

“Oh, quiet,” he sighed, casting a lukewarm glare at the black feline that gave him a disturbingly knowing look. It wasn’t until Toothless set his head down that he felt a little more at peace… Even though he did end up lifting a hand to scratch the underside of his cat’s chin.

Toothless purred contently, Astrid breathed deeply… And he dreamed, about the same things and in the same way he did for as long as he could remember.

When Hiccup woke up, he found himself properly laying down on the sofa with his arms around a pillow. Though he hadn’t remembered taking it off, his prosthetic was propped up against the foot of the couch, and several blankets that he didn’t remember bringing downstairs were draped over his person.

On top of all of that, though, Hiccup woke up to a distinct lack of Astrid Hofferson.

And also a distinct lack of Toothless.

Not willing to stand for it (and also unable to stand for it, because he had yet to reattach his leg), Hiccup shook off the remaining wisps of sleepiness clouding his brain with a languid stretch. Thankfully, his father had invested in quite the comfortable sofa, so the pop of his spine was rather minimal. Nonetheless, by the time he had tossed aside the blankets and strapped on his prosthetic, Hiccup had registered the state of the coffee table.

Spotless. No pizza box, not a single crumpled napkin, no empty bottles.

Not at all perplexed by these revelations, Hiccup yawned and carded a hand through his hair, already well aware of who was behind all of the shenanigans. A brief thought pondering what he had done to deserve a person like Astrid in his life crossed his slightly drowsy mind, but it was fleeting, mostly because he was also wondering just what time it was.

The kitchen wasn’t far from the living room in the Haddock household. The size of the house was strikingly significant, but just beyond the actual dining room (otherwise known as the home of the all-too grand table that was much too massive for Hiccup and his father to use on a daily basis, and was instead reserved for special occasions) was the entryway to the kitchen, where Hiccup was certain he would find Astrid and Toothless.

His hunch proved to be correct, too. When he rounded the corner of the kitchen entrance, he leaned his shoulder against the archway outlining it, only to find Toothless perched on a corner of the island table, with Astrid humming along to the stereo on one of the counters as she stirred the contents of a bowl. Based upon the materials set out before her – eggs, milk, flour, sugar, and the likes – Hiccup could only assume that she was making pancake batter.

The slightest of smiles pulled at his lips as he watched her concentrate on then transferring the batter to squeeze bottles they had hidden away from their last attempt to make pancakes. There was a slight furrow to her brow, but with every passing second, Hiccup found his heartbeats grow increasingly more spread out.

The entire thing was terribly domestic, but if Hiccup didn’t know a domestic Astrid, then nobody did. He had yet to summon his voice and make his appearance known, but it wasn’t long before Toothless picked up on his presence and decided to meow as an announcement. That had garnered Astrid’s attention, causing her to look up at him while drawing a jokingly offended scoff (and a broad grin) from Hiccup as he crossed the rest of the room. He passed by Toothless’ stainless steel dish at the foot of the island counter, only to find remnants of food that was previously not there.

“Traitor,” he addressed the feline, shaking his head. “Thanks for blowing my cover.” Even then, he said it with a smile, but the cat expressed his pointed indifference by licking his paw. That, of course, didn’t stop Hiccup from both claiming the space beside Astrid and starting to run his hand over Toothless’ back.

“Well, good morning to you, Sleeping Beauty,” Astrid quipped, smiling wryly. “I already took care of his breakfast, but ours–” She gestured to the bowl in front of her. “–still needs to be finished up. Wanna take care of the rest while I clean up?”

It wasn’t so much of a question, and was more of a… Rhetorical request. One that Hiccup didn’t hesitate to fulfill, either. While he went about retrieving a pan and a spatula, Astrid started putting things away – and, really, the fact that she knew where everything was and where it all belonged was nothing short of astonishing. Granted, time and time again in the same kitchen would probably instill such things into her memory, but still.

As Hiccup poured a circle of batter onto the now-heated pan on the stove, though, Astrid seemed to stare blankly into the contents of the fridge.

“…Hey,” she started, slowly. Hiccup glanced up at the sound of her voice, but his attention was quick to drop back to the buttered pan heating up on the range. He thought little of it – because, if anything, she was just going to question the whereabouts of another thing in the fridge, or something, right? It made sense, and it was the first thing that popped into his mind. Maybe she needed to find the orange juice, or the strawberries or something.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been meaning to tell you something.”

…Nope, not about strawberries. Something slammed into his chest like a truck and he tried really, really hard to keep looking down at the pan because something about the tone of her voice was worrying. “Oh-kay. Are you gonna tell me then, or what?” Astrid heaved a sigh and made her way over to him and leaned over the stove to turn off the heat. He was forced to face her properly, and the apprehension on her face did nothing to ease his nerves. Was it possible to best-friend break up with someone? Was that what was going to happen? Hiccup opened his mouth to speak– “Before I caught up with you yesterday after school… I kinda-sorta got asked to the winter formal,” Astrid blurted, looking a little flustered. And she rarely ever got flustered. When she started to tug at her hair, Hiccup knew this was a big deal. …Ouch. He could already tell: she got asked, and she said yes. Hiccup didn’t really do school dances – or dancing in general. The only reason he ever went to school events was because Astrid usually poured her heart into a handful of them. Since freshman year’s homecoming, the two of them attended every dance together, including junior prom the previous year. And never because Hiccup managed to ever get his act together and ask her properly. It was always just… An unspoken agreement. He picked her up, they headed to the school gym, then hung out afterwards. Nothing else to it. And that was where the problem was, he soon learned. He raised an eyebrow at her, pretending not to be as deflated as he was. “Is this a, a bad thing? You said yes, didn’t you?” “No! God, no,” Astrid assured him immediately, wrinkling her nose and shaking her head. Her fervent denial was more comforting than he’d like to admit. “I can’t believe you’d think I’d consider going with someone who’s not you.” “Oh,” he said – really lamely. “So, um, why are you…?” “It was just, it was kind of the first time anyone’s ever done something like that. There were flowers, and people holding signs, and it was such a surprise that I didn’t know what to say,” she prattled on, eyes elsewhere. Hiccup didn’t blame her. “It made me realize how not-normal my high school dance experiences have been And this is the last one before senior prom.” Yikes. That was his fault, wasn’t it? Hiccup visibly winced, but Astrid was quick to reach out and set a hand on his arm. She always was a step ahead of him. “No, Hiccup, I don’t regret turning him down. I was just, thinking that maybe–” “Maybe?” He said, and it was such an undignified little squeak of a noise that he feels like his voice was going through puberty again. “Maybe we can make this one – this dance – you know… Different. Or, more regular, I guess? Different for us, but the same as the rest of the school, or something.” He blinked blankly at her, obviously not following. Astrid sighed and shook her head, but something told him that she already anticipated needing to spell this all out for him.

“Well, for starters, maybe we could actually… Dance?” Now that was uncharted territory. Hiccup didn’t know what to say, but he didn’t have to – not when Astrid was, once again, thinking ahead. She held out her hands and he carefully placed them in her palms. Her hands were small, but by no means dainty. Astrid guided one of them to rest just beneath her shoulder blade and he suddenly realized how much taller than her he has gotten over the years. Hiccup tried not to swallow thickly as she set her hand on his shoulder and adjusted the grip of the one still holding his... So that he was the one doing more of the holding. “Okay?” She asked, and he managed to nod. She brightened a little. Astrid wordlessly guided them in what he assumed to be some simple ballroom dance that he never bothered to learn, all in their little pocket of space that was the Haddock household kitchen. He kept his eyes on their feet as he tried desperately not to squish her socked toes with every step he took. …Or, more specifically, his eyes clung to his false foot. He was pretty sure that Astrid quickly realized this, because minutes later (even though minutes had started to feel like hours – not that he was complaining), the hand on his shoulder was gone– –And was instead placed on his cheek. Hiccup looked up so quickly, he nearly got whiplash. Astrid was… Stunning. She was always stunning, but looking at him – only at him – allowed him to appreciate the icy blue of her eyes closer than ever before. He didn’t realize it, but the space between them was now nonexistent. And, for once, neither of them were half asleep. She bit her lip, and God, he’d much rather be the one doing so – which was exactly why he nearly fell over when she spoke up again. “…Would it be weird if we kissed?” He tried to say something clever – something like ‘not weird, just different’ or ‘I thought you’d never ask.’ Instead? Instead, Hiccup just barely managed to nod.

…

Her lips touched his, and time stopped.

[todokori-kun]

WELCOME BACK!

 <3 I really missed you, and it’s so great to hear you had fun! (and omg yes so ready to see all those beautiful pics)

Yaaayyyy join me in MCU feels hell. And oooh, you have a ship for the fandom now! Like, Stoki’s still my favorite Steve pairing but Stony’s really cool too…you know I ship almost everything XD (also am I the only person who sorta hated almost everyone by the end of CW? Like, of course they’re still my favs and there are still some cinnamon rolls, but, come on. Why couldn’t you all just get along ;-;)

Speaking of Illumi, do you know that Hisoka/Illumi is an incredibly popular ship in the HxH fandom? Probably because both of them are so horrible that they have like 0 friends other than each other. Nobody else wants to hang out with these losers. (Chrollo tolerates Hisoka and the adults in Illumi’s family seem to spend enough time with him to give him orders, but that’s about it.) It’s a trash ship with two trashy people and tbh I love it XD

So continuing with the eye jokes, imagine. Hisoillu version of Helpless. Hisoillu version of Satisfied.

“Look into his eyes and the sky’s the limit”

“Intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame”

(I know you did thise one before but still) “But when I fantasize at night, it’s Illumi’s eyes”

just, I’m imagining animatics for this with the ‘camera’ zooming in on Illumi’s dead fish eyes every time the lyrics mention them. It’s hilarious and also mildly terrifying

(though I guess if we’re actually making a Hamilton AU Hisoka’s way more likely to do something like Say No To This…)

idk if I’d want to be a parent either really LOL. Kids are adorable but I don’t think I’ll ever be responsible enough to raise one…

If Ishida makes a plot twist or something about it being someone else pretending to be Hide I'm actually gonna get mad. Dude. Not only would that bring the Hide feels right back it’d just make absolutely no sense omg

(also you read the new chapter, right? So, let’s talk about Juuzou and that huge death flag)

I’ve heard of Soul Eater and considered reading it but it’s not really the kind of thing I’m into…artwork’s cute, though, and Death the Kid seems like an interesting guy so maybe someday XD

AGH I’M ACTUALLY SORTA JEALOUS BECAUSE WOW I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW TO WATCH THAT LEGALLY HERE IN KOREA. (unless I ask my dad for help but he doesn’t like manga/anime at all, so…) But yes, I’m really happy Lizzy finally got her moment this time! Now anime-only fans can’t complain about her being a ‘shallow’ character so hopefully there’ll be less fighting over Lizzy in the Kuro fandom :D

FINALLY. Fellow Death Note fan <3333 Who’s your fav? Do you have any ships? Are you done with the anime??? :D (also do you know…you picked a really interesting time to join the DN fandom. The American live-action movie just came out and it sucks so freaking bad, like I haven’t even watched it yet and just from the reviews/clips, here’s what I got:

-They turned Misa into this Harley Quinn-type character. Only without any depth.

-Light/Misa is an actual canon ship, like, it’s not abusive or one-sided like it is in the anime/manga, it’s just…a thing. Light loves Misa. Misa loves Light. It’s like every cringey high school romance movie ever, only with more murder

-They freaking bent the Death Note rules just so Light could get away with all sorts of ridiculous stuff

-L cries, L rants, L is overly emotional

-Light tells L where he hid a page from his Death Note. Light doesn’t deny being Kira. Light shows Misa his Death Note when they like barely know each other and she’s still a complete stranger to him. Light acts like an idiot.

-Oh sure, he’s Kira, God of the New World, but he still cares about going to prom with his girlfriend and making stupid faces as they pose for pictures

-So much unnecessary gore. Heart attacks are Kira’s thing, Light isn’t that emotional about his kills, he doesn’t care as long as the 'villains’ are dead, so why???

-Apparently Rem does not exist. Sayu doesn't exist either. Light’s mom is dead (probably so he can angst over her)

-Light Turner. Light TURNER. Out of all the surnames they could have chosen…

-And now, for the most unforgivable sin:

How dare they not include the Potato Chip scene)

And then random things: JJ and Light have the same voice actor. Yurio and Mello (imo…have you met Mello yet?) could be long-lost twins.

Also:

I’ve fallen into Steven Universe hell and now I’m imagining so. Many. Gem AUs. Have you ever heard of SU?

(look:

1- don’t stress about the messages, and come on, I’d never get mad at you over something like this! You’re way too awesome.

2-  I don’t really know what to say 'cause I’m bad at comforting people, but ugh, it sucks to hear that school’s tiring you out! Queen Luna’s gonna get through this, though. I mean, you’re great at so many things and you’re freaking smart and…this is awkward but maybe you understand Evans Language by now? XD Guess I’m just trying to say that I’m sure you’ll do great, and if you ever need someone to talk to I’m (almost) always free *hugs*

3- Um. So, other than tumblr, I think the only way I can talk with you right now is if we email each other? The email address I used this time is my real one (or rather, my dad’s, since I don’t have one of my own yet…) so maybe we can talk about this more through email and find a better way to contact each other? If that’s ok with you can you send me a message there?)

P.S:

I’ve started college and have no idea what I’m doing

*slams head against keyboard* guess who managed to get sick. It’s only been a week since school started. Whatever, I’m still going to school, but I woke up breathing like a fish on land, bc asthma. Yay.

I’m definitely gonna upload the pics today!!

Okay, but one thing I’m wondering about, is How? Not in a malicious way or anything, I’m genuinely curious to why you ship Stoki (and where it began). Was it that redemption fic you told me about or did you ship it before? 

Tbh, I didn’t hate the characters in CW, I hated the situation. Because there’s so so much pointless conflict that could easily be solved if everyone sat down and talked like normal people. But nooo we have to go around attacking each other. ((ALSO CAP’S LETTER TO TONY, I AM DEAD))

I’ve already learned (and experienced) that shipping is a very weird and unusual thing, so I’ll be honest and say I’m not even surprised that ship exists. At least it has some basis XD

I’m actually tempted to go through the lyrics of the whole musical and find every single eye line there is, only to replace it w Illumi’s eyes.

Not only zooming in on the eyes, the word itself is louder than the rest XD man if only I could draw…

Tbh I’d say I’m responsible enough (HA, that’s more or less a lie), but I’m honestly way too irritated with the little ones to be able to have one of my own. My cousin recently celebrated her 3rd bday and I was stuck looking after her during the party, bc all the adults were talking among themselves and I swear to god, I haven’t moved that much since I had to run 2km for PE. Where do they get their energy. Not to mention the adults thought it would be a good idea to leave me w her, because I’d already drunk 3 glasses of wine (i was bored and not allowed to do anything other than stare at emptiness or look after a 3yo). Turns out my tolerance isn’t that bad after all.

Lol let’s be honest, Ishida would totally do that. He knows the fandom would riot and that’s the whole point.

All the death flags. Tbh I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s obvious that either Touka or Juuzou are probably gonna die and I wan’t neither (If I have to choose tho, I’d rather Juuzou survives.) Also Naki. HNNNNNNGH

I think you’d actually like the manga? It takes a pretty dark turn compared to the anime and deals with lots of mental issues (the whole theme of the later volumes is Madness). Also, lots of death XD Well, the artwork changes drastically, so which one are you talking about XD

The girl in the coat (left first pic, middle 2nd) is the same person for reference. Death the Kid was one of my first anime crushes. The guy has OCD and is a total badass. 

MUHAHAHAHA I think someone uploaded the Lizzy fight to youtube so you can probably find it there, but I am in love. The animation is beautiful, so that’s also a huge plus. All in all, it was handled really well.

Death Note

So last I’ve watched is ep 25, aka the one WHERE L DIES. And i am not okay. I am nowhere near okay. Nope. Not at all.

Oh i’ve heard all about the adaptation. Tbh I find the whitewashing hilarious. Setting the movie in America removes so much of the series’s logic, so why? L being the way he is is probably my favourite mistake. They took the best character and ruined him completely.  POTATO CHIP SCENE NOOOO But my question is: did everything go just according to the keikaku?

Have fun w SU! I’ve watched it for a while, but gave up at some point. I might pick it up again if I have the time ^^ Word of advice, watch out for the fandom, they’re among the most toxic ones I’ve ever encountered. One time, they almost drove an artist to suicide because she didn’t draw Rose ‘thick enough’. So yeah.

What did I do to deserve you as my friend TT^TT Thank you so so much, those words mean more than you can imagine.

Um. Looks like we’ll be staying here, because I never, ever check my mail, despite getting school assignments there, so yeah. If we used mail, you’d probably get a response every leap year.

How does the education system work in Korea? Like, at what age do you start going to which school?

Also, I’ve told you about Mystic Messenger? I think you’d like the newest update, because damn, it’s creeping me out. Also, it’s in Korean, so + ((My thoughts during the prologue of the new route: Nani the fuck))