#i don't wanna get sappy in the tags but i love this dude and it does get me emotional

[imaginarycyberpunk2023]

OC: Vinnie Gallo

Happy Birthday, Vinnie!

Omggggg, one year ago I created this creature, person, choom, man, player, V. And I decided to make it his canon birthday as well.

He's getting it all - booze, blunts, booty and ballons, so I don't wanna hear any complaints.

It cannot be overstated how much this dude does for my mental health, I am discovering me through him and I love that. So I'm celebrating him today and that the universe (and CDPR) gave me the chance to create him.

And thank you fine people for loving him and thirsting for him and basically motivating me to keep sharing him with y'all!

Happy Birthday, Vinnie 🧡

[steddieas-shegoes]

oh love, i'm terrified

for @steddielovemonth prompt 'love is terrifying'

rated t | 1,585 words | cw: negative self views | tags: falling in love, getting together, love confessions, sappy and fluffy

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

He thought he was being obvious.

He doesn't do this stuff for everyone else. He doesn't show up after work to hang out for no reason other than just wanting to be around the other person. He doesn't talk on the phone for three hours in the middle of the night to comfort the other person after nightmares. He doesn't fucking stargaze with anyone.

But with Eddie he does. Steve always goes out of his way for Eddie.

He knows why, and he feels like everyone can see it too: he loves him.

But somehow, Eddie doesn't see it, or chooses not to.

Even Dustin, oblivious to human emotion as anyone else Steve's ever met, pulled him aside after Hellfire one night --yes, he even attends Hellfire now-- to ask if he knew he was flirting with Eddie so much.

Robin and Nancy had called him out on two different occasions for touching him too much in public, but he hadn't even realized his hand had gone to his waist!

And Eddie still seemed clueless.

Or at least, most of the time he seemed clueless.

Sometimes, though, Steve could swear he looked at him in a specific way, a way that Steve would think is understanding and maybe even returned feelings. But he never said anything, never did anything out of the ordinary for Eddie.

Months of wondering what the hell he could do differently, months of being less and less subtle every day, months of showing how much he loved him without actually saying it.

All for Eddie to still be oblivious.

But not tonight,

Tonight, he was going to Eddie's to have dinner and watch a movie. Wayne was on a fishing trip with his buddies from work, and all the kids were at the same summer camp, probably torturing underpaid teenage counselors.

No interruptions were possible.

He could bring out all his moves, and if Eddie still didn't get it by the end of the night, maybe he could even use his words.

"Dinner's almost ready!" Eddie yelled from the kitchen as Steve let himself in. "I didn't burn anything!"

Steve rolled his eyes fondly. "Sounds like something someone who burnt dinner would say."

"I didn't! I mean one edge is a little crispy on the lasagna, but I think that's because our oven is older than Wayne. You think the government could've given us a better oven for my troubles, but apparently not," Eddie turned to Steve standing in the doorway. "You look...nice."

Steve always liked to look nice, but he'd decided to dress up a little bit tonight, try to make his intentions clear right from the start. His hair was done as usual, but he was wearing his khaki slacks instead of jeans and his nicest navy polo instead of the t-shirts he'd mostly been wearing outside of work. He even sprung for his watch that his dad gave him as a graduation gift. He hated to know how much money was wasted on it, but it did look nice.

"Thanks. You do too," Steve replied.

Eddie looked down at his own clothes and back up at Steve. "Dude, I'm wearing sweats and a t-shirt that has more holes than cloth. You don't have to lie."

"I'm not lying. You always look best when you're comfy," Steve shrugged. "Need help with anything?"

Eddie shook his head. "Not unless you wanna grab beers from the fridge. I forgot to get some this afternoon so they're just Wayne's PBRs, but a cold beer's a good beer, right?"

"Right," Steve agreed, walking to the fridge to grab the beers.

Dinner went as dinner usually does, except they actually sat at the table this time instead of the couch. Eddie seemed surprised when Steve set his things down in front of the chair he only sat in to keep Eddie company while he planned for campaigns, but just silently joined him.

They talked and joked, they made themselves laugh so hard beer almost came out of Eddie's nose. It was perfect.

After, Steve started working on the dishes, Eddie standing by the counter watching.

He was quiet, which was unusual, especially when no one else was around to fill the silence.

"Everything okay, Eds?" Steve asked as he scrubbed a particularly difficult area on a fork.

"What? Oh. Yeah."

Steve turned to look at him, suddenly worried when he saw Eddie's face turned down to the floor. This wasn't them. They'd just had a nice dinner, and now Eddie was being...shy?

Now was his chance. He could say it. Robin would be proud of him for finally just doing it.

Hell, he'd be proud of himself for doing it.

But something seemed wrong, and the last thing Steve wanted was to turn a good night bad because he couldn't reign in his feelings for a bit.

He wiped his hands on the towel by the sink and turned fully towards Eddie.

"What's wrong?"

Eddie shook his head once, then sighed. "I kind of feel like I've been wined and dined tonight. And that's ridiculous because you're just one of my best friends, and you're straight, and it's all been in my head for months, but-"

"Woah. Wait." Steve interrupted. "You've been noticing that for months? And you didn't say anything?"

"Well, no. I didn't wanna ruin our friendship because I can't handle my own hopes getting up." Eddie leaned away from Steve further. "I know you don't mean it that way. I don't want you to change anything."

"Eds-"

"And if you do want to, that's fine! Whatever would make you comfortable. I just have to say it's feeling very 'I have romantic feelings' for you territory and I know you don't so."

"Eddie."

"I'm also not good at that though. No one's ever shown interest in me other than one girl in high school who ended up moving away a week later so I didn't even have to break her heart."

Steve crashed his lips to Eddie's, half hoping it would shut him up, and half hoping he would somehow keep rambling. He kind of loved watching him ramble.

It did shut him up. Even when Steve pulled away, Eddie's silence was deafening.

"Sorry. I should've asked if I could first, but I don't think you would have even heard me. Was that okay?" Steve asked.

"Why did you do that?" Eddie sounded heartbroken.

That's not what Steve wanted at all.

"I wanted to. I have wanted to."

"No you don't."

This was not going the way Steve had hoped for. "How would you know I don't?"

"Because I'm me! I'm just the dude who gets the good weed, and says funny shit, and cooks dinner sometimes. I'm not a girl Steve Harrington falls in love with, or even takes on a date. I'm not the type you build a relationship and future with. I'm just the guy who gets to watch everyone else do that. I'm not good for that."

"What the hell do you mean?" Steve was angry now. Who had convinced Eddie he couldn't have good things, couldn't be loved or love someone, couldn't be important? "You're Eddie Munson. You saved us all from an evil wizard dude and nearly died doing it. You're the guy who makes me a sandwich when I come over for Hellfire even though there's strict no eating during the campaign rules because you know I've been working all day and need to eat. You turn all my bad days good, and make my life better just because you're you."

"Steve-"

"My turn." Steve crowded him against the counter, hands cupping his cheeks and eyes boring into Eddie's. "I need you to understand something. I've been trying to show how much I care about you, how much I love you, for months, and I've been thinking I've just been terrible at it. I thought I truly did lose all my charm. I've been pulling all my moves out for you. I was starting to think maybe you just were trying to ignore it all to let me down easy, but it isn't that. It's because you don't see how fucking amazing you are, isn't it?"

Eddie's eyes were shining with unshed tears.

"Because you are. You're incredible. Maybe the best person I've ever known other than Robin. I find excuses to be near you. I find reasons to talk to you. I didn't even have a nightmare the other night, I just wanted to hear your voice. I'm in love with you. Like, the real stupid, do anything for you even if it hurts me kind. And if you don't feel anything for me besides friendship, I'll leave right now and I'll do my best to get over it so we can be friends."

"And if I do?"

"If you do love me, then you should kiss me."

"I've never kissed anyone."

"That's not true. We kissed two minutes ago," Steve smirked, his heart racing in his chest.

"I'm scared," Eddie's whispered admittance nearly broke Steve's heart.

"Oh love, I'm terrified. Love is like that. But we've faced scarier things, haven't we?"

Eddie's soft lips against his own was the only answer he needed.

Love was terrifying, even for Steve, maybe especially for Steve, who was used to giving a lot more love than he received back. But as they kissed in Eddie's kitchen for seconds that turned to minutes, minutes that turned to hours, they got just a bit less scared.

[onyxisnotuniqueenough]

petnames rating tag game ask thing grade tag stuff thing

since my last post was about nicknames i thought that i would rate pet names that i see in fanfiction or online in general

Baby - basic but somehow not good. I can tolerate it in songs, not in speech. Get that word out of your mouth rn. 3.5/10

Babe - i somehow tolerate it more - but it has to be the right character (which it often isn't.) or else it's ugly 4/10

Sweetheart - hey, not that bad dude! fits on most characters even if they would obviously say it in different ways (that's where author comes in to be canon-accurate) but overall okay. 5.3/10

Darling - this is not cringe city this is cringe country. why. only works for 0.5% of characters. Critically overused for ones that would never say it - and that overuse ruined it 3.5/10

Honey - my favourite one of this list. sounds natural on most people, can be used in teasing ways, is not ruined by accents or personality of characters usually. is not cringe or overly sappy (because it can also has been used by friends or parental figures to make it a more casual word!) yes. 8.5/10

Honeypie - very different from its counterpart. can only be said ironically or mokcingly or teasingly or else it's just kind of ew. 1/10

Sweetie pie - 500x worse than honeypie. if the character is saying this SERIOUSLY i will have to stop reading that for a while, so make sure the rest is good to pull me back in 0.3/10

Sweet pea - NO. the only scenario where i could accept it is if a character was named BEA and it was switched to Sweet BEA. that would be kinda cute. otherwise, only your grandmother can call you this. 2,5/10

Pet - NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS DO I WANNA SEE THIS ON MY SCREEN OR HEAR IT OR SMELL IT NEVER EVER. WOULD NEEVR RECOVER NO PLEASE NOOIO -100/10

Love - if the person is not british, no. if the person is british, please handle it carefully. it's like the british honey, but somehow a little different in it's connotation. it sometimes is too casual for important scenes or a lil too much for who you're talking to depending on situations. if a non-british person uses this i will also have to take a break from reading your work, out of cringe. 5,6/10

Lover - you'd think it would get a higher grade. it doesn't 3/10

Princess - will never recover if i read this somewhere. NO THANK YOU. cringe and dyspoo-poo. i am TRYING to FORGET that i'm reading a FEMreader or from the pov of a FEM character so please no. and even if you were a fem person who even likes this ew. only use this ironically for breaking bad characters 0.1/10

Babygirl - the only thing i can hear is gru saying "bABY gORL" so it at least has a funny factor, that soothes the rash in my eyes i catch when i see that fucking pet name. NO NEVER. NO. NO. NOOONONONONONONONOOO;O 0/10

i'm tagging @tiromiro and @prettyeyesnof4ce to rate pet names if they want to. no pressure, feel free to ignore if you don't want to do it, we get it dw. and also tagging whoever wants to share their ratings! add more pet names or grade only one - i'm interested