#i leave for a while and everything exploded i guess rip

[sc0rfanos]

[cjjohansson]

what if love isn't enough?

natasha romanoff x reader // part 1...

angst? yes. sad? yes. am i sorry? no x x x

“Were you going to tell me?” you breathe out into the room, Natasha stills when she hears your voice. 

“Tell you what?” She tries to act innocent but you know better. You won’t fall into her games right now. 

“That you're seeing some girl, some doctor in the medbay?” Natasha stays quiet, and part of you feels like you can hear your heart break. 

“Ha, ok, nice. See you around Natasha.” And now it is her turn to feel like she can hear her own heart break too. 

You and Natasha have a long history. Years of flirting turned into a one night stand, which led to multiple dates. Which then turned into a relationship that floated naturally, without one another having to say a thing, without actually having to verbalize it. You shared a bedroom; well not for about 3 months now, that’s how long it has been since you two separated over a stupid argument about how she didn't want you to go on a solo mission. Nights spent in that room worshiping each other, treating each other's wounds after a bad mission, comforting each other after horrible nightmares, sharing i love you’s…

How can you be with someone for 5 years and claim you love them so much that it hurts, to then start seeing someone only 2 weeks after breaking up? 

Because according to a conversation you overheard in medbay, they’ve been seeing each other for just under 3 months. 

You mindlessly drift through the compound, ignoring everyone who tries to speak to you, you can’t do this right now. 

How can you do this when only 5 days ago, she was in your bed breathlessly moaning your name after you both needed some comfort after a bad mission?

How could she do this? That’s all that was running through your head as you approached the punching bag in the corner of the gym. 

How could she start seeing someone so quickly after you broke up? How could she then sleep with you while seeing someone else and not even tell you? How could she rip your heart out all over again? 

You hated it. You hated how much emotional power she held over you. 

But you guessed that’s what you get for falling in love right?

“Hey.”

“Fuck off.” You huff to Bucky as he approaches the bag and holds it still, taking the force from your punches like they're nothing to him at all.

“You know…” That makes you stop. Your hands falling to your sides as you stare at him confused.

“I know what Buck?” You watch his eyes widen as he takes a step back, putting some distance between you. 

“I was going to tell you, I was, I promise you. We both just got caught up in missions and when I was here you weren't, and vice versa you know?”

“I know what James? Do not make me ask a third time!” Your anger is building, you already know the answer.

“About Nat and Dr-”

“Fuck you.” 

“Y/n…”

“NO! FUCK YOU!”

“Calm down, let me talk!” 

“No, you don't get to talk to me. You’ve been my best friend since we were 3 years old! You kept this from me! How could you! How could you…” You sob as you turn and walk out the room. You can’t be here. Your own best friend knew? Who else knew? Everyone most likely if Bucky did. 

You find yourself mindlessly drifting back through the compound, only this time no one stops to try and talk to you. You can’t imagine you look good right now, you're so close to exploding. 

You end up in your bedroom, walking into your closet to grab a suitcase from the top, dragging it to your bed as you work your way through your drawers and closet, grabbing everything and anything you could get your hands on. 

You need to leave, it is the only thing that you can actually think straight on. If you stay, you won’t survive. It’s been hard enough the past 3 months let alone knowing she is with someone new. 

“Babe…” You don't stop grabbing clothes. You don't bother to fold them, you just throw them straight into the suitcase as quickly as you can.

“Can you let me talk, let me explain.” You stay silent. You can’t even look at her right now. 

“I’m not, ugh, I’m not seeing her. I don’t know what you heard, but you know how rumors spread around here. I’m not seeing her.” You lose it. 

“You're fucking her though, right?” You turn to face her, keeping the distance between you. You're so angry, you're hurt, this is ruining you. 

“Y/n… We broke up.”

“Oh so that just makes it okay to go fuck someone days after we break up? 5 years of my life wasted for what? Did you actually ever even love me? Or did you just love the attention I gave you?” 

“That is not fair. You know I love you, I love you so deeply that it hurts, it aches. But you were the one to walk away, don't try and act like a victim here. YOU LEFT ME! You broke my heart. So you do not have the right to stand here and be upset and angry with me for doing that, when you were the one who walked away first.” That isn’t fair, that isn’t what happened at all. 

“I did NOT walk away. You gave me an ultimatum. I had to go on that mission, you knew I did-”

“YOU DIDN’T! Bucky said he would go instead! The lead up to that mission was driving you crazy, for months you had nightmares, you worked yourself to exhaustion. I tried to be there for you and you pushed me away! I stayed until I couldn't anymore! I couldn't stand by and let you ruin yourself. I left because in return it was ruining me too. Because if I stayed you would have hated me anyway.” Both of you are breathing deeply, the tension flowing around the room. How can any of this be happening? How is any of this fair to either of you?

“I love you. But you didn't love me enough to stay. So I walked away and every step I took, it fucking killed me. I stripped myself bare to you! I gave you so many parts of myself that I have never given to another person before, that I will never give to another person ever again! So yes! I slept with someone, I can hold my hands up and admit that I did. It was soon, and that was a shitting thing to do but you leaving was really fucking shitty too Y/n. I do not owe you an explanation or an apology for how I deal with my own pain, not anymore.” Natasha’s breathing picks up, tears flowing down her cheeks with no intent of stopping any time soon. 

“Natasha…”

“I am not seeing her. I slept with her once. And I have regretted it every single day since it happened. Because she isn’t you, but no one is going to be you, ever. And that’s my burden to carry.” Natasha turns to leave the room but you find yourself rushing towards the door and holding it closed before she can exit. Her back is pressed against your front and all you can smell is the perfume you bought her for valentines day. 

“Stay…”

“How can you expect me to stay when you wouldn’t?” Her forehead rests on the door as she continues to breathe deeply. Her words completely throw you. Because she is right.

“I know that mission drove me crazy, but I need you to understand that I needed to do what I had to do tasha or it would have ruined me even more. They…they ruined me, they took me apart and put me back together wrong over and over as they saw fit, day after day. I was the one who needed to finish it. Not anyone else. Because if I didn’t finish it, it would have eaten me alive for the rest of my life. That night, when I left, all I felt and saw was rage. They stole everything from me, I needed it to be over, and I’m sorry that it meant I had to leave you to be able to do that. But I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to ruin you too. I never meant for any of this Natasha. Believe me when I say that, please.” Your voice cracks as you rest your forehead on the back of her head. Your tears falling into her hair, you can feel her body moving from her own sobs. 

“I know you didn’t. I didn’t either but we both did. How can we even move forward from this Y/n?” She turns in your hold, your forehead now resting on hers and you stare into each other's red eyes. 

“I love you. After all this time, I still love you. It’s always been you, it was you yesterday, it was you 2 months ago, a year ago. It is you today, it will be you tomorrow and for the rest of my life it will be you, I love you Natasha.” 

Her hand moves to your face, your own head leaning into her palm as she takes the weight of it. 

“But what if love isn’t enough y/n?”

part 2

[awstrck]

I felt forced with a gun to my head by the replies on my Cable!Son post so here is a snippet, lmk if you like it :)

BOOM.

The cave ruptured.

Chunks of ceiling crashed down on her workspace and the spit. Her fire snuffed out in a huff of dust and ash.

OH FUCK! Not my food—

Sand poured in like a flood, swallowing her cot, her gear, her half-finished portal device—everything. The only mercy was the backup meat still hanging across the cave.

Figures began landing one by one in the chaos, boots crunching against the stone.

“Well this is a shithole, but at least it’s got shade.”

“We did just plow through with dust and rubble—”

A piercing screech sliced through the cavern like a blade. The variants screamed, dropping like swatted flies, clutching their ears as they stumbled and collapsed. Static sang through their skulls.

And then she dropped down.

Like a ghost. Like a curse.

She landed in a crouch among them, eyes blazing with fury, electricity snapping at her fingertips.

“First, you attack my world,” she hissed. “Left hundreds—millions—dead.” Her voice rose with each word, venom sharp enough to cut steel. “And now you have the AUDACITY to wreck my cave—and RUIN. MY. FOOD?!”

She exploded forward, electricity bursting from her in a wild arc, the scent of ozone crackling through the air.

The wasp-looking one suddenly erupts into a twisted blend of pain and laughter.

“Fuuuuck, that’s gonna cost you one, babe.”

He wheezes the words out, still clutching his ears, but somehow he’s already rising—shaking off the shockwaves like they’re an inconvenience, not a warning.

And then—ZOOM.

A sonic blur.

Before she can blink, her vision jerks sideways, the air ripped clean from her lungs as a vice clamps around her throat. Her feet leave the ground. The cave blurs behind him. His face is right there—wild eyes lit with mania, teeth bared in a smile that’s way too wide.

“Not my first time with that sneaky little trick,” he snarls, “You’re gonna have to try harder than that if you wanna knock us down—”

He tilts his head toward the others, still squirming and howling in the dust.

Pathetic.

A quiet click of his tongue.

“…Well. Me, I guess.”

His grin widens, nostrils flaring with delight at her attempt to free herself from his grip, and he tightens it while wandering his free hand up and down her form, "I honestly thought you had somehow escaped being caught in the portal." He murmurs, tilting his head with mock disappointment.

"Made me a little sad, though. I was just getting acquainted with your spinal cord." His lips curled into a pout.

His hand then slides down to her hipbone, "So then imagine my surprise when I see an insect zipping around, looking for scraps before scurrying back to her hole."

Then he grips.

Hard.

White-hot pain shoots through her side as his thumb digs into the joint like he’s threatening to pop it out of place. She cries out despite herself, knees buckling mid-air.

He moans, low and taunting, like her suffering is a song he’s been dying to hear.

"Now I know why he's obsessed with you."

A loud hiss erupts, taking his attention away from her as an unstable tear opens midair, the cave pulsing with unstable energy as an interdimensional rift claws itself into existence. The shockwave discs short out instantly, the variants on the floor groaning as the pain around them abruptly cuts off.

A hand shoots out first. Then a body follows, tumbling into the cave with unsteady footing before straightening up, widely looking around in confusion at the variants on the floor, and then his eyes lock onto Wasp, and the woman choking in his grip.

CRACK.

“Get the fuck away from my mom.”

Dust explodes around them. Sinister gasps—eyes wide, shocked, pinned.

(Y/N) drops to her knees, coughing, the sudden void of pressure in her throat a whiplash shock she can barely process.

"(S/N)!?"

[lunajay33]

Are You Happy?

•🩵🪽•

Summary: You find out you’re pregnant but Happy never said anything about wanting kids so how will you tell him you’re carrying his child

Pairing: Happy Lowman x f!reader

•Masterlist•

The life of the MC was crazy, never a dull moment but that also brought a lot of danger to anyone associated with them, and me being the craziest members old lady made Happy even more protective of me and after what I have to tell him it’s gonna become 100x more

They crew had some troubles with the Mexicans and we had to go into lockdown which only made my nerves worse

I pull up to the clubhouse getting out with my over night bag, the sun was still high as I see other woman and kids walking into the club when I feel myself being picked up bridal style making me squeal in laughter

“Happy what’re you doing?!” I smile as I wrap my arm around his shoulder

“My girl gets princess priority in this club” he smirks as he walks me through the doors, tigs and chibs whistling as he sets me down on one of the bar stools, wrapping his arm around my waist

Being the only one to get this treatment from the “Tacoma killer” made me feel special, maybe I shouldn’t but I do, he’s the only man that’s ever made me feel loved and worshipped the ground I walk on in his own twisted ways

When I first met him I was helping his mother with her groceries as she was my neighbour and I hated to see her struggle so when I finished packing the bags away I turned seeing him, tall, strong and handsome but his eyes were observant making me feel like a predator was watching its prey until his mother came back into the kitchen smacking his arm and scolding him did I see him falter and apologize

From then on he’d show up more and more, making excuses to visit me I knew most of the time he was lying but I didn’t care, I liked to see him and everytime I heard that rumble of his motorcycle pull into the driveway I got excited and now three years later I’m his old lady and pregnant with his child

“So lassy, we haven’t seen ye in a while anything new?” A blush explodes on my face and I can’t help but look at him frozen, I was never good at lying and now they could all see it, happy leans forward to look at me better

“Oooooo she’s got a secret” tig says like a child making me scoff

“First I’m hearing of it” happy says his voice extra raspy

“Come with me” I take his hand and lead him back to our shared room no one else was allowed to use especially with a croweater

I close the door behind us and he sits on the bed, looking up at me with worried eyes something he’d never show to anyone else, I stand between his legs and his hands instinctively go to my hips

“You know I love you right?”

“You’re freaking me out girl, you better not be dying”

“No im fine but I don’t know how you’ll feel about it, I guess I should just rip off the bandaid……im pregnant” he was silent as his eyes blew wide and looked at my belly, his hand tracing over it

“You’re serious?”

“I know….i know this isn’t ideal with your life style and we never talked about it before, but I want this baby, I want it with you Happy” he wraps his arms around my hips and pulls me forward resting his head on my stomach so I run my hands down his shoulders knowing he wasn’t one for words when he rarely got emotional

“I know it’s a lot Hap, would it be easier for me to leave, give you some time” his head shoots up looking at me

“No you’re staying girl, never really thought of kids till the day I met you and knew I’d want everything only with you” my heart grew every word he spoke

“Really?” He nods before standing and pulling me into his chest

“Wanna tell the others? Might boost the moral” I say as I hold his cheeks secretly knowing he loves it

“That’s why you’re my old lady” he squeezed my ass and we head back out to the room crowded with people

“Everyone we have some news!” I yell as the room falls silent and they all look at us

“SHES PREGNANT!” Happy screams like a lunatic and the room roars with cheer, the guys surrounding us congratulating me and happy, Chibs giving me an extra long hug blessing me for having the strength to handle happy making me laugh

We settle at the bar I don’t drink of course but the guy use it as an excuse to party

“It’s gonna be a girl” happy days shocking up all

“I’d thought you want a boy”

“Nah don’t want him in this life plus she’d be as beautiful as her mom” the guys rarely saw this side of happy

“Look at you big softly for your lady” Bobby jokes and happy shoots him a look that could kill making everyone laugh

•

It’s been nine months and my baby girl is here and he was right it’s a girl, she had dark brown eyes like happy and brown hair, she was small in my arms and the cutest baby I’ve ever seen

“We made the cutest baby ever” I whimper as she wraps her tiny fingers around mine

“Agreed, let’s make another” he says as he sits on the bed beside me

“Hold your horses ol man, we’ve got time, for now let’s enjoy our little girl”

•

If you wanna be tagged in all my SOA stories lmk!!

[a-midnight-smoke]

Never meant to leave him here like this

___

Mydei x Phainon (Honkai: Star Rail)

___

content: angst, pining, established relatioship kinda but in separation, exploration of a character a bit

trigger warnings: i guess Mydei talks about ripping his heart out and stuff like that a bit

words: ~1 200

___

Listen, this is just me being insane about homosexuals from a gacha game. If two years ago you would have told me I'd be playing a gacha game other than cookie run I would have shot you with a gun and then myself, but here we are.

I didn't even finish the 3.1 update, but I'm done with Mydei's part of the plot and I SCRAMBLED to write some angst about Phaidei. Also, everyone and their mother talked about this but THE BATH SCENE??????? GET THESE FAGGOTS OUT OF MY FACE!!!!!!

I'll probably write a second part where they're fucking but who knows with me.

This is pretty short, just had to get it off my brain before I exploded, ok bye.

___

The goodbye was… painful. More so than Mydeimos could have imagined it would be, with the way his chest constricted and ached more than from any wound his immortal body had endured. While looking into those sad, bright eyes the colour of the sky, at the edge of Okhema, the last king of Kremnos wished his emotions were taken away the moment he gained divinity. He wished the bloodlust thrumming under his skin had taken over his mind, had let him throw himself into a senseless, neverending battle against the Black Tide, his body breaking and remolding itself every time he fell. But, he wasn't even granted that momentary respite every ‘death’ brought him before. His body was of the strongest steel and most of his foes did not require him to even stand up from his crimson throne. A flick of his gauntleted hand was enough to overwhelm a swarm of enemies before they even managed to come within fifty metres of him. He still fought with them in close combat on occasion, even if just to keep his physique in prime condition befitting the strongest warrior of this world.

During moments of peace, when even the Black Tide seemed to need a respite from the relentless assault, Mydeimos would wander through his kingdom, abandoned and in disarray. He would arrange the books, and stone slates back on their respective shelves, read through those he found curious and practice his Kremnoan that was average at best. He would clean up the debris littering every space in the fallen kingdom, his godly strength making the task almost menial even when faced with picking up entire fallen statues.

It brought him some semblance of peace, a normalcy that he hasn't been granted since he was casted into the Sea of Souls. 

And if he was busying himself with anything and everything at any possible moment that was his to know and for everybody else to not care about. He needed something to focus on lest his mind remind him of how terribly lonely he was. A single moment when his thoughts weren't occupied and the bright, azure eyes, always brimming with unbridled joy whenever they met his own golden ones would appear in his mind's eye, that grin that was equally infuriating and utterly beautiful on the Deliverer's handsome face.

Yet it was also always in moments where the bloodlust tinged his vision red that those same shining eyes brought him back to his senses, the memory of them and the hope and promise of seeing them again someday. In the next life, he hoped.

The ‘next life’ was something he found himself thinking about sometimes, despite his efforts of keeping his thoughts occupied. Fantasies, because they were nothing more than that, of what life could've been, if they lived in different times. Would've Mydeimos ascended the throne after killing his father, if Nikador hadn't gone mad? Would he have continued the conquests and the millenia old tradition of Castrum Kremnos, and not give his people a new path? Maybe he would've come across Aedes Elysiae, fought against its lone, snow-haired protector and ultimately took him in as a spoil of war? A gift, since it would be a shame for such an exquisite warrior to die in a far away village. Oh, the hatred Phainon would've felt for him, for destroying his homeland, for making him into a spectacle - a gladiator fighting for his life and glory in the arena, while Mydeimos watched from his throne up high. They would've clashed someday in the arena, and the King of Kremnos would have spared Phainon's life, in complete disregard of their traditions.

Over time, Phainon would have grown a reluctant respect for Mydeimos, and maybe, after years of winning every Kremnos Festival up until having to fight the king, they would've spend a night in the royal hot bath, after Mydeimos invited the gladiator to join him, a sign of respect and a protection all the same, not that Phainon would need it.

Mydeimos liked to think they would grow to love each other even then, he wanted to believe that their love entwined them in all their lives, as cheesy and corny as it sounded even to his own ears.

In a different fantasy, Mydeimos imagined he and Phainon would have grown up together, maybe in a world where they didn't have to worry about prophecies, the Black Tide and impending apocalypse. They were neighbours, in a village like Aedes Elysiae. From what Phainon told him under the shade of night, with his blue eyes full of sorrow, their legs tangled on the bed, it used to be idyllic and peaceful. It would’ve been nice to grow up in such a place, Mydeimos thought. Running through fields and laying under the golden sky. It seemed almost impossible to the immortal king, such a life was so removed from everything he grew up among, and yet it was Phainon’s reality even in this life. Loving him would’ve been so easy in that fantasy, he was certain it, at the very least, wouldn't make him want to rip his heart out and give it to the Deliverer.

‘Love’. That was a peculiar concept in and of itself. Gorgo loved her son, she gave her life fighting for his dignity. Mydeimos loved his mother too, he avenged her death. But that was a different kind of love. Phainon was infuriating him, he wasn't a Kremnoan yet his prowess rivalled those of the kings. He was stupidly handsome and charming and people swarmed to him where they feared and despised Mydeimos - despite the king’s attempts at softening his image. He wasn’t a brute, but Okhemans had a hard time believing it. Phainon didn’t. He saw past the rough exterior immediately, saw him playing with children, cooking for and spending time with his people and knew he was soft at heart. Phainon carved a space for himself inside Mydeimos’ chest and the king cherished his place there, as scary as it was, and as much as he now hurt, knowing the distance between them, and not knowing whether they’d have a chance to meet in this life again.

Truth be told, Mydeimos didn't even know how much time had passed since he returned to Castrum Kremnos as its new god. The sky was forever dark and the only thing marking the passage of time was the slow and arduous restoration of the moving city-state done by one lonely god-king. Sometimes, a fleeting thought passed through Mydeimos’ mind that said he should've let his fellow Kremnoans come with him back into their homeland, just so he could have someone to open his mouth to. But that thought always passed as quickly as it appeared. His people were better off forging their new path, and not giving themselves into the cycle of violence of their ancestors. That was his burden to bear. The last Kremnoan king, and the new god of Strife - Mydeimos, son of Gorgo. Destined to warding off the evil plaguing their world, all on his own.

…

“Mydei?” That would've been the case, if only Phainon wasn't a puppy desperate for his attention and a stubborn fool refusing to quit.

[moonpie016]

Y'know, I never really thought about how (in my own interpretation, headcanon??) of how Heart became blind.

Other than being annoyed by how contradictory I made his vision previously, I never really made a reason as to why he just can't see. And I could say that Mind or Soul caused it. But...for me it wouldn't really fit. Most likely would make sense for the two ("intimidating") figures of the headspace with aggression, would cause such a thing.

But. Since I write and portray Soul with some understanding and more patience to everything, and Mind wouldn't stoop down low to Heart's actions (unless necessary).

I figured, ... why not themself?

---

CW/TW:

The rest of this will mention themes of self mutilation/harm (to the eyes), guilt/regret, and other things that might be uncomfortable.

(the eye description is a physical representation to me of blocking things out, like memories, actions, anything. So while this includes these mentions, the only thing it reflects is the mental/internal wording of it. Nothing actually physical. (If that's a worry, I'm just here to clarify.)

---

---

I don't know what I'm doing.

I thought of this while daydreaming, rereading my work and just thinking..

I would think that after so much that would happen to HMS, Heart in an instance, fueled with anger and hate, hate for their actions, everything that they chose to do.

Thinking that he could've done more and everything would be fine. That everything would all blow over and be just how things were before. He'd perk up a smile, a small teasing remark, anything to potentially cheer his siblings up.

That doesn't happen. He doesn't smile, he doesn't lift everyone's spirits up, he puts Whole into a depressive state that lasts for weeks, a month, time isn't even a thought in his mind. If he could prevent everything from happening, then just maybe, he wouldn't have to keep seeing it every day. Seeing her face. (In a way, Love Interest could represent in a way past mistakes, relationships, just past stuff in general.)

So, he with all his might, thinking that it'll fix everything, it will if he didn't have to see anything bad happen ever again.

While this is... something of an interpretation. I guess it could reflect my own state of.. doing things? Like the saying is, "out of sight, out of mind". (I think.) If Heart can't see what's causing him and their vessel this pain, then.. everything will work out faster.

It doesn't get reversed, the loop isn't a time loop. Nothing gets reversed. It stays. Not all the time. Sometimes the scars stay or peak through. And while it would be better to ignore them. ..it wouldn't be good in the long run.

And sometimes expressing or talking about it just helps. Painful, yet freeing. Even if for a little moment.

Maybe that's why Heart is something to me. Emotions are a tough thing to understand. Why we did this, why we did that. And..Heart ripping his own eyes out of his sockets, leaving just this purple scarring.. Again with the violence being depicted here as not of malice, or hate, (like full blown hatred to kill each other) or a "punishment". He's just. Him.

Through every terrible outburst, comes more understanding to work it out. Still not the best at handling things under intense clouded gazes, vision pointed at the one thing that's on your mind. And you just explode.

And in some cases, you do things that hurt you, internally or externally. (More internally for Heart, yet still somehow both.)

The two, to the best of their abilities, try to work things out. Even though Soul going through the whole (no pun intended) "out of sight, out of mind" tactic. And even Mind.

Them acknowledging it and growing from it is lots better. They'll get stuck, Heart will get stuck in his anxieties and reminders. But he has comfort. It's not all good. But not all bad either.

---

Ok, I wasn't expecting to go off this long. I thought I was going to explain this in...how many numbered paragraphs, and be done. But I guess I had more to express.

I think what makes writing these guys so...easy somehow? Is just looking into my own head and piecing things on them that would make sense. To my understanding of everything at least. Is this a perfect explanation? Probably not at all. But I had a nice yet interesting time writing this.

And this wasn't written with sad intent, I just wanted to ramble about Heart and his everything.

Man's has flaws. Flaws exist. (<- Saying this in a non causal way, by the way.)

Hope you all have a good day, and.. enjoy?

---

[superman86to99]

Superman: The Man of Steel #35 (July 1994)

"WORLDS COLLIDE," Part 1! And "THE FALL OF METROPOLIS," Part 2! And a Wonder Woman crossover! And a long-time character dies, as spoiled by the cover! This issue might be peak '90s. This is the most '90s you can cram into 22 pages without the comic exploding.

Things are a bit rough in Metropolis after Lex Luthor's main lackey launched some missiles that destroyed almost every building in the city (Action #700). Keith the Unlucky Orphan and his friends are trying to gather food from what's left of their orphanage, when a bunch of gangsters with machine guns show up to steal everything, reminding us why we call him Keith the Unlucky Orphan. Luckily, though, the kids are protected not just by Keith's pal Superman but by Myra, the Orphanage Lady, who decides to keep a couple of those machine guns in case the ruffians return.

Combined with the scars she got on her face after saving Keith from an hypnotic lizard lady last issue, Myra is only some shoulder pads away from looking like a badass '90s anti-hero.

While Superman tries to help people around the ruins of Metropolis, a Giant Robot That Shoots Death Lasers From Its Chest (GRTSDLFIC) emerges from the ground and starts creating more ruins. The monster runs into Keith and the other orphans, so Myra bravely stands in front of it with her new toys and tries to distract it.

And she does! For about a second.

As he holds Myra's body, Keith yells out for Superman, who arrives right in time to save him from getting death lasered too. The Special Crimes Unit also stops by to help, and the GRTSDLFIC turns out to be smart enough to target Maggie Sawyer out of all of the officers because it can tell she's the top dog (or maybe it's just homophobic, dunno). Superman saves her, because one strong female supporting character death is enough for this issue.

Superman realizes the GRTSDLFIC is alive and needs to breathe, so he flies it up into orbit to take out its air and leaves it suspended there while he goes deal with other problems. (Presumably by also throwing them into orbit, like usual.) Meanwhile, Keith begs Maggie and SCU to take Myra to the hospital, but it's too late for her. The kid has an understandably tough time accepting that another mother figure has left him.

RIP, Myra the no-nonsense orphanage lady. When we met her back in Man of Steel #1 (1991), I don't think anyone guessed that she'd die wielding dual machine guns while facing a Giant Robot That Shoots Death Lasers From Its Chest. But we should have, dammit. We should have.

Plotline-Watch:

So, wait, why is this part of a crossover called "Worlds Collide"? Because a whole 5 pages are devoted to Lois Lane's mailman, Fred Bentson, who is still having weird nightmares where he finds himself in another universe. Professor Hamilton meets Bentson at a Red Cross shelter and takes him to a clinic to treat his sleep disorder, which involves becoming immaterial while he sleeps and being haunted by an inter-dimensional monster. At the clinic, some rather shady psychologists hook Bentson up to a machine that can project his dreams, and they all see him naked as he's chased by the nightmare monster and tries to get help from... STATIC?!

By the way, the shady sleep clinic happens to be located right under the bridge that was half-destroyed during Superboy's fight with that Spider-Man wannabe called Stinger almost a year ago, which is still half-destroyed. At least it doesn't stand out from the rest of the city anymore (thanks, Dr. Happersen!). The half-bridge will be a relevant plot point during this storyline.

And why is this a Wonder Woman crossover? Because she appears for a single panel while Superman is fighting the Giant Robot and wishes she'd picked another issue to come ask for his advice. The comic tells us to buy Wonder Woman #88 (which briefly shows WW helping Superman against the robot) for the rest of the story.

On that subject, Don Sparrow says: "Superman doesn’t appear very prominently in the connected issue of Wonder Woman #88. All that happens is Wonder Woman requests that Superman stop her if she ever loses control of herself. It’s not a great issue, largely because Christopher Priest writes both Diana and Superman fairly out of character throughout, and the art in the issue manages to depict Wonder Woman as both matronly and pervy. (The issue also features the choice line of dialogue “female be trippin’”, so if you don’t rush out and find the issue, you’re not missing much, apart from another great Bolland cover featuring Superman)."

Yes, the Keith stuff is pretty depressing, and could be seen as another example of Superman comics going all "Dark Age," but at least it'll lead to positive things for the character in the near future. Now, those other orphans who lost Myra, not so sure...

Patreon-Watch:

The results of the Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey bonus artwork poll are in, and after tallying up the votes here and at Patreon, the character who will get drawn by the great Don Sparrow is... Maxima, in her post-Doomsday purple suit! Who won by a whole vote! (For those keeping count: 5 votes for Red Cyborg, 10 for Pouch Superman, and 11 for Purple Maxima.)

Don's work will be posted for all to see, but the original artwork will be given away to one of our patrons, Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, Gaetano Barreca, and Dave Shevlin. If you'd like to decrease their chances, join them at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99!

And speaking of Don, stick around for his section, after the jump...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

It’s an interesting cover, with the protagonist and even the title trade dress obscured by shadow.  It’s not really an action-type pose, but Superman’s angry expression indicates that action will follow.  We also get a hint at the tragedy within, with an injured Myra Allen below Superman.

Inside the book, we get our first glimpses of post-cataclysm Metropolis, seen through the eyes of hard-luck Keith.  The double page spread on pages 2 and 3 is a great drawing of Superman, exuding power even in a static pose. 

The cybernetic monster, who in this issue gets neither a name, nor an origin (unless the story’s title, Afterburn, is maybe the robot’s name?) but it’s an appropriately Fleischer studios-like design for Bogdanove to draw. 

Normally I quite dislike photo-stat backgrounds, but the panel with Superman carrying survivors gets a pass from me, because I love images of Superman saving kids—especially the way Bogdanove draws it. 

Myra Allen’s last stand against the robot is stirringly drawn, and to me visually recalls Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons’ “Martha Washington Goes to War” which was hitting newsstands around this time.   It’s interesting to see Bogdanove’s version of the famed Brian Bolland pose from Wonder Woman #72, even if she’s facing away. 

Keith’s grief at Myra’s passing is as powerful and sad an image as we’ve ever seen in these books, and my heart breaks for the poor little guy (look at his little hand clutching the cape!  What an astonishing detail!).  Though he’s fictional, it’s hard not to feel for him, when he’s endured so much tragedy in his young life.  I appreciate the restraint here, from a story standpoint—Superman offers no words of comfort, or guidance at what comes next, because they would only be trite and empty in a moment such as this.  All Superman can do, he does—which is to hold Keith, and let him weep.

Our final cameo of the book is Milestone’s Static, another character Bogdanove seems born to draw.  The introduction to him, as the milquetoast Bentson jumps to the Milestone world is fittingly energetic.   

SPEEDING BULLETS:

I appreciate the detail early on that Superman has put “a lot of time into locating” gas leaks and shutting them down.  It’s nice that the writer considered something like that.

We’ve known for a while that the DCU version of Coca-Cola is Soder, but nice to be informed that Sprite is called “Spritz” here. 

Professor Hamilton is perhaps a bit casual about the fact that Bentson was briefly immaterial! [Max: Maybe he's like "Have I been immaterial before? Maybe during the Husque storyline? Don't remember..."]

The great Jose-Luis Garcia Lopez gets a sort of shout out on page 7, as a fresh fruit stand bears his name.

At the time of this issue’s release I remember being very curious about the Milestone characters, and excited about them crossing over with my favourite character, but I still question the choice of having an uninteresting character like Bentson be the initial conduit between the worlds.  Maybe if the previous issues had established him as a recognizable Metropolis fixture (as well as Dakota City) like Whit or Allie or someone, it would have a little more impact (though they do try to build up his importance here, as the mailman who delivered the damaging evidence about Lex Jr.).  But I find it hard to really care about the Egon-looking guy, particularly when he’s running around naked.

[synthy-sizer]

You could take the short path of launching yourselves straight up, or maybe even crashing through the window, but it only feels right to go the slow way. Two sets of footsteps shuffle up the steps. Your shoes making contact with creaking stairs and crunching shards of glass and debris are once again the only noise in the tall stairwell. Every building, every street echoes. The whole world has abandoned this derelict city and moved out, leaving everything feeling like a nearly empty warehouse on the final day of a clearance sale. That must be how they thought of it, too. Always in it for the money. You and Lust pass by one entrance after another. Some doors are barricaded. Some are ripped off their hinges, and the beam of your flashlight reaches into a deep abyss. And of course, there's everything in between. Shattered windows, plywood…sometimes you can't believe that even at the end of the world things just continued. That when a glass door shattered someone would come in and put plywood over it to keep people from cutting themselves on the broken glass. Why even fucking bother? In a few more years every living being would turn into a monster and the only source of light in the dark would be the iridescent multicolored glow of an angel.

Finally, you reach the 13th floor. “This is it.” Lust looks at you. “Are you ok?” Is anything ok? “I think so. Let's try not to stay here too long.” You roam the familiar halls. Memories you've worked to suppress float to the surface, and you do your best to force them back under the waves. Your fingers trace the old walls, causing old paint to chip and fall from the lightest of touches. The doorways to old classrooms beckon but you refuse to look at them, much less indulge their invitations. Lust follows you silently. She's never been here, because you didn't want her to be here. You're sure she's curious, but she politely follows your lead and doesn't explore. It already feels bad enough exploring here, like touching an open wound. Exploring the old rooms would be like shoving your fingers into it.

Finally, you reach the place you've been aiming for, the only reason to come here at all. The wall of fame. Most of the plaques have fallen now, trophy cases have been toppled and reduced into piles of glass, and old tacky banners and words taped to the walls have long since faded and fallen, resulting in a patchy mess of missing parts. You bring your attention to one of few plaques still hanging on the wall. You know it well. The 1985 graduates who earned the prestigious right to a fast track working at Apollo. The students who showed the most potential in science and development fields. Engineering, coding, genetic engineering and biology. Looking back, perhaps the latter half should have been a sign. But how would you have known? You look down the list of names, until you see one that feels like a knife to the heart; Avery. You pause for a moment, and take hold of the shotgun you always keep on your hip. You step back, point the barrel at the plaque, and fire. There's a spark of hot, orange light for a split second and a loud boom as it fires, and the plaque explodes in a wave of shrapnel, as does the wall behind it. The barrel is still smoking as you wordlessly shove it back into its harness. Lust watches you quietly for a while before speaking up. “Do you feel any better?” You think you do. “Let's go to the roof.”

You both dangle your legs over the edge of the roof. After the suffocating atmosphere of the building and its contents, the open air feels incredibly refreshing. “Hey, thank you for coming with me. And for respecting my boundaries.” You feel for her hand. “And for knowing what I wanted more than I did, I guess.” Her fingers lock in yours. “You're welcome.” Evening is creeping in. You can see the sky starting to turn orange. “Do you think it'll work?” “I think so, yeah. We've put so much into the rocket. So many hands have touched it now. There's no way it won't work.” “You know I don't just mean that. Using the megastructure feels like a long shot.” “It's all a bit fuzzy I guess, yeah. But we don't have a choice other than making it work.” You glance at the moon hanging in the sky. “Why haven't you told Sofia about what the megastructure actually is, anyway? And what it's doing?” “Because I'm scared, Lust. I'm scared of hurting her like that.” “I thought you wanted her to be ready. Didn't you get upset that she was scared of using a gun?” You sigh. “Maybe I'm softer than I thought I was.” She laughs. “I never thought we would have a chance to raise a kid. Fate has a twisted way of making that happen, I guess.” You sit in silence for a while longer. “We need to get back soon. Final preparations and all that.” You nod, and your heart races. “Hey, Lust. I know we've had trouble talking about it, but if we don't get another chance…I…uh...” You're choking on your words.

She hushes you. “Don't worry, I know.”

NEXT

PREVIOUS

[shummashum]

Zeus Brundle Ch14 [11~15]

luckily, they weren't in a lifeless state!

And finally, she faced with the Minotaur. roll the sanity dice!!

ah… now I understand Luci failed his sanity roll and went into a state of temporary insanity, so he ran away in a panic. maybe I should have thought a bit more leniently about him

okay, she rolled over her current sanity score now we have to determine how much her actual sanity score will decrease...

huh ranged attacks are reflected?

oh… how on earth did he slice down the magic arrow? isn't magic in the form of energy? or perhaps, magic materializes into matter the moment it is emitted…

oh well I don't even know what I'm saying, I'm bad at physics

Meanwhile, Minotaur continued pummeled the walls as if nothing had happened.

as the dimension rip has great utility, it also has high risks well it's definitely not fun to have that kind of ability without any downsides, I like this…

but you know, instead of sending the whole body, couldn't he just space-cut off a part of its body and send that alone?

At that time, Caesar stepped forward.

he made the sphere explode completely to prevent reflection? plus additional explosion damage? quite good, huh…

what did she say someone cover her mouth!!!

aaaaah you damn idiot

well seems like it's true that ranged attacks don't work… but they can't leave everything to Hiro, besides there's no guarantee that meele attacks will work what kind of party has two ranged dealer while having no tank

Then, Al tugged a bottle of white liquid from his pouch and threw it, saying there was no other way.

ooh… blind debuff!

So the three of them ran towards Liz and Zeus, taking advantage of its state of blindness.

trust him! this is a very disadvantageous situation anyway when else would you try something like this? perhaps it will be a game changer…

Al and Cae agreed to use the magic circle he created, but Klaus responded with a reluctant silence as if he was disapproving of something. well… I can understand his silence, he is very aware of 'that incident'

oh… she somehow got everyone's agreement Hiro didn't answer, but. he didn't object, so?

wait they said three people came towards her three, Klaus Al Cae where's Hiro eh

Its aggro was directed at them, and they confronted it to buy time.

this is it that… the second trial she should have done it with Zeus back then, I knew it!!

Anyway, Zeus held out his hand, completed the magic circle.

let's fucking gooo

did it work?

-Ch14 End-

+) let me guess in his happy ending, everything will be resolved in his normal ending, there will be some problems but it won't be the worst outcome then, in his unhappy ending, the summoning fails and everyone dies?

whoa so unhappy

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

ive never seen the bh6 show- what about globby is so similar to spot :0?

WELL anon, I'm glad you asked because I constantly feel the need to infodump about Globby and I often don't really get the chance to!

Note: okay so I ended up going WAY more in depth about Globby's first couple appearances then I probably should have so quick TL:DR; they're both Just Some Guy(tm) who went through a horrific, life changing accident and decided to become a supervillain because of it. They both start out as relatively incopetent joke villains that the main cast doesn't take seriously, but after fucking up and falling into a hole in the ground, they find out that they're much more powerful than they thought they were and then kick the heroes' asses, all while maintaining the "literally just some guy" energy. They also both fuckin- bully the shit out of a 15 year old-

You can read my massive infodump if you want though it's under the cut :)

See, Globby is a recurring antagonist-turned-ally in the Big Hero 6 spin off series, Big Hero 6: the Series(creative title I know). He starts off the show as a petty theif named Dibs who, in his first(cameo) appearance is getting dangled off of a roof by that bot fighter from the first movie, Yama. Also I know this doesn't sound similar to the Spot yet but we'll get there I promise-

After that, he doesn't *officially* get introduced until a few episodes later in Big Roommates 2. This is where we find out his name, his occupation, and how bad he is at being a thief on account of his general clumsiness. So in a bid to prove himself as a theif, he steals Honey Lemon's chem purse. As in her purse full of literally every chemical known to man.

So after unknowingly stealing possibly the most dangerous thing he could've stolen, Dibs runs off to the abandoned warehouse that Callaghan was using to mass produce Hiro's nanobots in the first movie, where he tries to open the portable chem lab. He manages to try a couple of times before Allistair Krei, also from the first movie, just walks into the warehouse, forcing him to hide. Turns out he's been using this warehouse to house a secret project, a rip off legally distinct copy of Hiro's nanotech headband thingy that can, appearently, control anything it's linked to? Very unclear how that works but he tells his assisstant it's worth billions and they leave. Now Dibs, ever the opportunist, decides that he's gonna steal that now actually. He ends up putting it on, but through a series of accidents, also ends up making the chem purse explode all over him, launching what I can only assume is a horrible concoction of every chemical known to man onto him. THIS is where the similarities start appearing between him and the Spot, because instead of dying like he absolutely should have, the chemicals end up fusing to his body and he becomes basically just a sentient mass of goo being held together by a very special headband.

And so after being horrifically mutated, Dibs decides to do his best Michael Afton impression and just. Walk through a busy street in the middle of the day. Because reasons I guess. See, I think the main difference between him and the Spot is that, while Spot had pretty much everything to loose when he went through his horrific life altering accident, Globby had nothing. Not to say he didn't have *some* things going for him, but he didn't have a job(unless being a theif counts as a job?), he was already estranged from his family(as proven in a later episode), and he only had one friend, who also happens to be the chillest man alive. So this is less of a life ruining thing for him and more of a minor inconvenience that he mostly chalks up to being incredibly unlucky and his main motivation is just getting some modicum of control over his new physiology. At least in this first episode. Anyways blah blah blah Fred names him Globby blah blah blah he kidnaps Krei blah blah blah he decides to be a supervillain and runs away. Though I think I should also mention that, while Globby doesn't really blame anyone for how he ended up like this(despite kidnapping Krei), Honey Lemon does blame HERSELF even though it is absolutely not her fault that he stole her purse. Idk just felt like an interesting thing to inject into the analysis.

Now Globby's NEXT appearance in the episode Failure Mode is where most of the similarities between the two show up, because Globby's arc in this episode is literally just Spot's arc in the movie. Like I'm not joking it's the same thing-

Globby attempts an art heist and is immediately stopped by Big Hero 6(sans Wasabi and Gogo), who immediately don't take him seriously because of course they don't, he sucks at this. Their individual reactions are kind of mixed bags, with Hiro making fun of him, Fred just being excited to fight a monster I guess, and Honey Lemon just being kind of upset that he's trying to steal a painting she really likes. Globby ends up putting up a decent fight but in the end gets takin down by Big Hero 6. They don't catch him though because, in his words, "they don't even make pants that can hold (him)!"

A couple scenes later, we switch from the kind of boring subplot about Hiro's school project back to Globby's second attempt at the heist! This time he gets in, but ends up trapped in the building when it goes into lockdown mode despite literally saying in the last scene that he can't be contained(he's an idiot I love him sm). He doesn't get out of the museum until Big Hero 6 arrive, and this confrontation goes pretty much the same as the first. EXCEPT!!!!!! After Baymax took the painting he tried to steal back and Globby splatters all over the asphalt, Honey Lemon makes an ice ball to throw at him. This frightens Globby enough to make him turn into water and go down the sewer grate next to him. Y'know. As ya do.

After flowing through the sewer, Globby ends up filtering out into a random field just outside of town. He reforms into his usual purple-ish pink-ish goo form, astounded by what he just did. So he decides to experiment and this scene is literally just a shorter version of the spotted demension scene in ATSV. Like it just. It is.

And so, after fully mastering his insane power set, Globby goes back for one more attempt at the heist aND ACTUALLY SUCCEEDS???? Yeah my man's kicks every single member of Big Hero 6's ass ON HIS OWN and then manages to run off with the painting! Which, sidetracking from the Spot comparisons for a sec, that just doesn't happen very often in superhero cartoons! Like the villain almost never beats the main characters in one off episodes like this, which I really appreciate the writers doing. Idk it's just kinda refreshing. Oh yeah also we find out Globby is working for the main big bad of the show in this episode but that doesn't really matter for this analysis-

ANYWAYS you can see what I mean by Globby and the Spot having the same arc, right??? Incopetent villain wants to be taken seriously after an attempted robbery gone wrong. They end up falling down a hole because their powers backfire on them a bit, but this leads to them discovering their full potential and they end up beating the shit out of the main heroes and achieving their short term goal. The only real differences are that Globby is working for somebody and doesn't turn into like. An eldritch abomination at the end of the episode.

Anyways that's where the super big similarities end, since we don't know what's gonna happen to the Spot after his "Failure Mode arc" is what I guess I'm calling it for the sake of this analysis. Globby ended up redeeming himself at the end of the first season, though it was kind of rushed, and tbh I hope that's what they do with the Spot in Beyond bcuz I want the silly to be okay :(

Anyways there is one more thing I want to point out and it's that both of them are really out here beating the shit out of 15 year olds huh. Like you could make the argument that Spot doesn't actually know Miles is a teenager, which would actually make sense and also be really funny, but Globby does NOT have that kind of excuse. Like Hiro doesn't cover his face very well at ALL, it is very obvious that that man is a child. And even if Globby DIDN'T pick it up on his own, Obake, his boss, DOES know Hiro is a child, and based off of Globby's reaction(or lack there of) to seeing Hiro unmasked, it's probably safe to assume that Obake told him who Hiro was under the mask. Which MEANS Globby willingly went up to a fuckin child and called him WEAK AND USELESS????? HELLO????? Seriously omfg I know Obake told him to do that but he WENT ALONG WITH IT DESPITE PRESUMABLY KNOWING HIRO IS A CHILD AT THIS POINT- LIKE I LOVE YA MAN BUT THAT'S REALLY HARD TO DEFEND-

Anyways uh. Yeah. That was my Globby infodump disguised as a comparison between him and the Spot. Hope you enjoyed :)

[neneeeen]

Hi guys smeeee again😍

Alex Volvov…🤨

It all started with Alex cousins wedding. And the late invite.i had a two hours to find a dress fitted for the wedding. And not only that Alex and me were both stressed to the attitude and sass was crazy.

“What about this?”

I said spinning around for him in a dress. It was meh. A bit too long for my taste. I liked them short.

“Perfect”

Alex said not even looking up from his phone. God this man drove me fucking crazy.

“Alex. I’ll go to that wedding fucking naked if you don’t start helping me find dresses”

I said rolling my eyes. I knew Alex didn’t handle disrespect that easy. Especially when I rolled my eyes. He stopped and stared at me for a moment with a frown on his face, still sitting down.

“You do that one more time tonight and I’ll fuck you so hard you’re gorgeous eyes will get stuck like that.”

I lick my lips deciding if I should test fate and roll my eyes again or actually go look for a dress. I decide keep looking for a dress is the best option as we were actually stressed. As I leave the locker room and I hand the bag to Alex not caring if he didn’t want to hold it. I guess today he did.

“What are you so snappy for hmm?”

He asks me as we walk into a store called VS.

“Alex shut up you know why and you still ask me?”

I siad a bit more loud than necessary. Knowing he was teasing me but it only made me more mad. I was going to explode soon. I rolled my eyes again out of instinct and hoped he didn’t see it.

I walked not really caring if he was mad or shocked from my response.

“Who are you telling to shut up exactly?”

He says scratching his stubble looking agitated. We were walking to the locker room as we went back and forth with the comments.

“You. I’m telling you the freaking man that wont stop asking dumb questions. When are we done? Yeah pick that dress. Perfect. You didn’t even look up”

I said. Imitating his dark voice but making it sound a bit more stupid. I went inside the locker room with a dress that was more short than necessary but didn’t care. He sat outside, this time with his phone in his pockets trying not to rip open the door and fuck the attitude out of me.

I walk out a little breathless since the dress was tight. It was black with some glitter on it and it stopped right above my ass. If I bent over everything would be on show. But it looked gorgeous on me.

“Yeah you’re not wearing that.” He says immediately. His eyes going up and down my body.

“Yes i am” I said rolling my eyes, I guess that was his last drop.

He stood up and stalked towards me. Looking at me like prey. Clearing his throat before pushing me inside the room and closing the door. Grabbing the hanger for the close and making make shift lock. Oh.

He grabs my hair and tugs it. While slowly kissing my neck from behind as he manhandled me. My face being pushed on the wall as he was behind me.

“I swear I’ll fuck the attitude out of you. How does it feel hmm? Knowing you’re gonna get fucked in a locker room by youre husband? Hmm?”

He said unbuckling his pants and lifting my dress up. Spanking my ass and smoothing the area over.*

“Answer me.”

He said spanking my ass harder making me moan.

“It’s feels good”

I said he hums as he pushed two fingers inside me. Pumping in and out as I moaned. He pulled his fingers out and licked them. Grabbing my jaw and making me turn my head so I saw what he did. He smirks at me and grabs my throat while kissing my neck.

“You’ve been a very very bad girl. And I’m gonna make sure you remember your place.”

He said. Giving me no warning before pushing his dick inside me. Pulling out to the tip slowly before slamming back inside. He keeps going at this pace before going even faster. Groaning in my ear.

“You’re gonna stop being such a bratty slut and start acting right hm?”

He said breathless in my ear while my eyes were rolling back. The pleasure to much to handle as I felt myself about to climax.

“Answer before I stop”

I try to find my voice as I’ve been moaning his name for the last five minutes and screaming every-time he filled me up fully.

“Yesyesyes~I’ll stop”

I said. Feeling my legs shake as my climax rolled in. He spanked my ass again before cumming inside me. Filling me up and thrusting even more just to make sure nothing dripped out. He pulls out and watches as his cum slowly drips down my thigh. He kisses my neck while holding my waist

“Drop the attitude. I get it youre stressed but come on baby don’t be like that…”

He said. Hugging me as I sighed. I guess it was a well needed fuck.

[ihateoc]

Dusk

(word count: 1,367) (part 2 of 4)

The pirates charge towards Dusk, two brandishing scimitars while one remains unarmed. Something shifts within her. It's like a transformation from anxious to predatory, fueled by determination and vengeance. 

With swift reflexes, she eliminates one assailant by knocking him off the cliff with her bow, then hastily reaches behind her to grab an arrow from her quiver, impaling the other with a precise strike to the neck. For the last adversary, she traps his neck beneath her bow and incapacitates him by driving his head onto her knee, knocking him unconscious. 

Dusk is consumed by a sense of desperation as she frantically scans the area for Xav, who's nowhere to be seen, "Xav! Dammit! Where did they take him?" 

Her heart beats wildly against her chest, mirroring the chaos around her. She barely even registers the terrifying drop as she utilizes her bow on a nearby zipline, riding down to the end of the cliff. 

It's only when a group of angry townsfolk start advancing towards her with blazing torches and deadly harpoons does her fear make itself known again, leaving her stomach in knots. 

"Dammit," She curses under her breath while her trembling hands grip tightly onto her bow, ready to defend herself if needed. 

She won't let this stop her from finding Xavia, but... Why is everything going wrong tonight? 

"You damn pirates," The man standing at the very front of the crowd spits out, pointing the end of his harpoon at her, "Grave robbing now, even? You sicken us!" 

The crowd hollers along with his words as Dusk raises her hands in a show of surrender, though she doesn't loosen her grip on the bow. Her brown and purple eyes meet the angry man's gaze steadily. 

"Wait! You've got this all wrong, I'm no pirate!" She counters defensively while trying to keep voice calm. 

I mean, maybe they did a little grave robbing but the locals didn't need to know that. Besides, the spyglass is in the pirates' hands now anyway. 

"As if we'd believe that!" 

They begin firing their harpoon guns at her, while a few of the men come at her with their melee harpoons. Dusk dodges sharply to the side, narrowly avoiding a barrage of projectiles. Her heart pounds in her chest as she quickly loads an arrow and takes aim. 

"Guess you leave me no choice then!" She retorts before shooting her arrows in a rapid succession. 

She doesn't want any unnecessary blood but the locals are really forcing her hand here. The duo's troubles are far from over tonight. 

Dusk moves fluidly, her honed instincts guiding her actions. She narrowly avoids another swipe of a weapon before spinning and launching herself at the two men attacking her, knocking them both out cold with swift precision. Her legs tremble slightly under the weight of exhaustion trying to creep up on her but she pushes it away, focusing entirely on the flurry of harpoons flying around. 

A wayward spear tears into her left leg, a scream ripping through Dusk's lips at the sensation. Pain explodes up her side, white-hot and blinding. She staggers backwards, clutching at the injury while adrenaline keeps pushing away dizzying waves of pain. 

Ignoring her instinctive urge to cry out for Xavia, she grits her teeth against the panic rising within her, forcing herself to remain calm. 

Suddenly, the main man holds his hand up and shouts, his voice echoing throughout the group, "Stop!" Everyone halts in their tracks, turning to look at him, "You ain't lying, are you, girl? You don't fight like no damn pirate." 

Pain throbs in her leg, making it harder to push past it. But at the man's words, Dusk forces a grim smile, "I told you so," She retorts weakly but with that determined fire still burning within her dual-colored eyes. 

Why couldn't they have realized this earlier before she exhausted her energy and her arrows? Now she just needs to find Xav before something else happens. 

Amidst the island, the piercing wail of sirens fills the air. The villagers freeze, their faces contorting with deep concern and worry, "The fog is rolling in. We need to get inside." 

"No way in hell am I leaving without Xav!" She asserts defiantly, ignoring the pain pulsating in her leg. She absolutely refuses to leave him behind. 

One of the other townsfolk steps forward, shouting, "You need to come with us, girl!" 

"I can't! I refuse!" She responds, raw emotions of desperation lacing her tone. 

"Dammit!" The main man curses, "Stubborn girl. This is for your own good!" 

Dusk barely has time to react before the man swiftly knocks her out, darkness swallowing her whole. Her last conscious thought is of Xav, a silent prayer that wherever he is, he's safe. 

When she awakens about an hour later, she's back in the Drunken Eel, lying on a sofa. Her leg is bandaged up neatly, however, her first thought is to jump up and rush towards the front door. The two locals from earlier call out to her as they hop out of their seats at the bar and reach out to grab her by the arms. 

"Hey! You can't go out there!" 

"P-please let me go!" Dusk stammers out, her voice hoarse. Physical restraint immediately triggers fight instincts, prompting her to punch them both in the nose, but she quickly regains her composure, "I'm sorry. I am so damn sorry! I didn't mean to!" She apologizes profusely even while struggling weakly against their hold, feeling startled and disoriented. 

"Ow! Dammit, girl!" The main man grumbles while retracting one arm to hold his bloody nose in his hand, "Why are you so stubborn?" 

Dusk winces apologetically at his remark but doesn't budge away from her position, replying through gritted teeth, "Because I have to save someone who matters more than my own life!" 

The other man speaks in a softer tone in an attempt to get her to listen to reason, "You can't go out there, miss. It ain't no normal fog. It'll drive you to insanity." 

Fear grips her once more at his warning, a chilling reminder of what's still lurking outside. But the thought of losing Xav to this unknown danger spikes her determination back into overdrive. Insanity be damned! She can't leave him out there! 

"I don't care! I'll take my chances!" She retorts recklessly, trying desperately to wrestle free from their grip. 

"We will knock you out again!" The same man warns her with a shout. 

"Look," The main man starts, explaining to her, "You can't help your partner if you go mad. We absolutely won't allow you to go out there." 

"Then I guess you'll have to knock me out again!" She challenges them while continuing her feeble struggle against them. 

The main man shakes his head before abruptly questioning her, "What's your name?" 

"Dusk," She replies instinctively, her gaze never leaving the exit. 

"I'm Don," He says before motioning to the other man, "And this is my friend, Soma. We've lived here all our lives and we ain't ever seen someone come back from that fog. It'll drive ya mad. Just listen to our instructions and wait this fog out before going after your lover." 

Despite her initial refusal, Dusk halts her struggles momentarily at his comment, confusion and embarrassment painting an interesting mix of emotions across her face, "He's not..." 

She heaves a sigh at their words. Maybe they were right but she wasn't going to fully give in. 

"Can the door stay open then?" 

Don furrows his brow in confusion before shrugging casually, both of the men letting her go, "Yeah, that's fine." 

That was all she needed to hear. 

"XAV!" Dusk yells out, each shout echoing her hope into the dense fog, her gaze fixated on the darkening horizon. If he somehow escapes and finds himself lost in that fog, her voice would guide him back. 

And she knows he'll be back for her. 

"You're insane," Don remarks with crossed arms, "He'll never hear you." 

"No! He'll hear me. I know he will!" The dark-haired girl murmurs back before she raises her voice once more, calling out to the one person who has her heart. 

[alice-angel12x]

Life + Death is a Balance

Death Au + Origin Au

In the beginning, there was only Time and Space. Space created a realm for them to exist in, but Time was not satisfied with just that. Time asked Space for Something to Happen, but she was content with simply existing and sleeping. Time was tired of the unchanging darkness, so gathered some of his power and poured it into a small being.

The antlered being opened his eyes, revealing emerald pools.

"W-what am I?" the new creation asked Time.

"I shall call you... Life. And you will fill this void with anything and everything. Whatever your little brain can imagine," Time said simply.

Life looked around and saw nothing about empty darkness. So letting their magic flow for the first time, Life focused all his power in one spot. When suddenly it exploded and created a Big Bang!

And light filled the void for the first time. Space awoke to the sudden brightness, and questioned Time what he had done.

"You would not entertain me, so I made my own entertainment. I promise not to bother you anymore. As long as Life is around and all that he creates," Time bargained with a smirk.

For a while, Space didn't see anything wrong with this arrangement. However, as things went on the Void started to fill with all of Life's creation, and Space complained to Time about the tight space.

"Well I can't stop him, I guess you're just gonna have to make more Room," Time said simply.

"Can't you control your own creation?!" Space growled.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to make him if you did more with your energy. So do what you were meant to do and Expand," Time said coldly.

So she did just that and made more room, but Time made no attempt to retrain Life. So the young begin kept creating, forcing Space to create more room. Soon Space had to make dimensions and an alternate universe to contain everything.

Space eventually had enough and decided to do something to something to get back at Time. So she two made something. Something stronger than Life.

"Who am I? And what is the purpose of my creation?" The new being asked.

"You are Death, and You are going to destroy all Life," Space ordered. "Destroy everything."

"Of course," Death bowed.

And thus the long war between life and Death. Death would senselessly destroy all life World by world. At such a rate that Life couldn't keep up. So much room was reclaimed, finally giving Space time to rest.

Life had enough and laid a trap for Death. When Life finally got Death where he wanted them, he sealed away a large portion of Death's power. Death could no longer destroy the world in one blow like they used to.

With Death's power weakened, they had to become smarter. So they created the pledge, Monsters, and disasters. But to really spit in Life's face, Death twisted Life's creations. Animals began to eat one another, and humans and other intelligent beings turned on each other.

Life had enough of Death and planned to finish this war once and for all. The two fought, destroying things around them in their battle. Sadly a small elf caravan was unfortunate enough to be in the line of sight of the beings.

Death saw them in the distance, and Space's words echoed in their ear. Death with all their might shoved Life to the ground and pinned them with their sword.

Life noticed what Death was about to do, and cried out for the Elves to run. He begged For Death to leave them out of their fight, but they slaughtered them all without an ounce of pity.

Life watched with pure horror as Death ripped through the mortals. "Your A Monster!" Life cried out in sorrow and rage.

Death Just stared down at Life and ran off to cause more Havoic. But Life would not just let this go, so he cursed Death to be feared and hated by all things that live. So to spite Life, they created the underworld. To hold all the souls they collect and take from Life.

Life tried to create other godlike beings to aid in the fight with Death, but it did little to help. Other than serving as eyes for Life, they mostly liked ruling over the mortals of their surviving worlds. Some even ally themselves with Death, some by choice and a few for other reasons.

With some helping hands, Death was able to spread destruction at a faster rate. So in one final attack Life, managed to trap Death and impression them deep and a lifeless planet. Of course, this also greatly weaken Life too, as he retreated to his home to recover.

Time didn't want his fun to end, so after a while, he weakened the barrier just enough. As he did so, he whispered promises in the underworld gods' ears, that they could become the strongest if they could take Death's power. Only one Underworld god did not buy into those words, and that was Hades.

But when the others freed Death, the god immediately attacked the weakened Death. Luckily, Death managed to escape but was left badly hurt and vulnerable.

________________________________________

After managing to escape to another world, Death sat down in a lone forest and winced in pain. But Death knew they were not alone. Though they knew they can't be killed, they were so weakened a mere human could overpower them in this state.

So they sat and glared as the bushes began to shake and rustle, only to stare in confusion as a human child stepped out. What Made Death even more confused was that the child wasn't frightened by them.

They were scared of something behind them, as the little girl ran and hide behind Death. Before Death could even possess what was happening, two vicious wolves appeared from the bush. The leading one jumped and bit down on Death's arm. Death glared and grabbed the wolf by the throat and used it as a club on the second wolf.

With a pained cry from the wolves the two beasts quickly ran, tails between their legs. the Little stared in awe as Death turned to look at this strange child.

"Your... So... COOL!!" The girl awed as she hugged them.

(Death.Exe has stopped working)

Death didn't know what to do, think, or say at that moment. The warm feeling in their chest was something foreign to them.

"Ah, your hurt! Don't go anywhere, I'll ask mommy for healing potions. I'll be back as soon as I can," The Little girl promised as she dashed off the way she came.

Death still hadn't said anything as they just watched in confusion.

"What...was that?" Death asked themselves as they placed a hand over their chest. the source of the warm feeling came from.

And as the girl promised she returned with some healing potions. Sadly before Death could even turn down the offer, the little girl shoved a bottle into Death's mouth. The girl smiled proudly as she believed she was saving someone, but Death eventually spat the bottle and the potion.

"Wha! No, You have to drink your medicine!" The little 9-year-old scolded.

"No," Death smirked as the little one huffed in frustration.

"I don't want you to die! Please take the medicine?!" The girl began to cry.

With a sigh, Death decided to be nice for once and pretend to consume the potion. The little girl smiled as sat next to them and began to talk about everything and anything.

"Oh, what's your name? Sorry I forget to ask sometimes," The girl smiled.

"I don't have one, call me whatever you like," Death said simply.

"Okay! Hmmm, I'll call you Y/n," The girl hugged.

And long after Death got better, the little girl continued to seek them out. Death watched as the little grow, and as her friend she showed everything the world had to offer.

For the first time ever, Death would down and smell the roses. And when the little girl would leave for the night, death would continue to explore and observe everything.

One day, the girl didn't come. So Death snuck to the edge of the village to see what was happening. As they got close they could feel a wave of sadness throughout the village. With little power, they recovered and transformed into a Nightingale. From the wall, they could see a parade of injured warriors.

The little girl later would explain how there was a bigger town nearby, trying to "Bully" them into giving them all their food. Sadly things got bad and now they were fighting. Her father went out to fight and died.

A heavy and cold feeling tightened inside their chest. Later that night the girl and Death walked along the hollowed grounds of the burial. Many know widowed wives were still at the graves, crying over the soil of their loved ones.

Death soon saw the little girl do the same. With a new pair of eyes, for the first time saw the consequences of what they brought. The wails and cries of the mournful filled Death's ears.

'Am... Am I ... Am I Evil?' Death silently asked themselves. 'My master said that this was necessary. She said to destroy everything.'

"What's wrong Y/n? Is your dad buried here too? Or other loved ones?" The little girl asked.

"Loved...ones?" Death asked. "No, I have no such thing. And... I don't deserve to be loved."

"Well!" The little one jumped up and hugged Y/n. "You have one know. And Mommy says everyone should have at least one."

Death slowly and hesitantly patted the girl's head, but the girl had to let go eventually. Cause Death had no body warmth whatsoever.

As the "little" Girl grew older, she would share her dreams and wishes with Death. Y/n smiled slightly as they watched her grow older, found a loving husband, and eventually formed the family she always dreamed of.

As Death wandered the forests, the once little girl called out to them. She had her newborn daughter with her. She said she wanted to Y/n to meet the new member of Y/n's loved ones. Death stared down at the new mortal, and the baby stared back.

Daughter-like mother, the baby laughed and reached out to death, wanting to be held. Death cringed a bit as they stepped back a step, but the girl handed the baby to Y/n. Death held the baby and was stiff as the baby reached up to them.

They were internally panicked when they felt a pair of tiny hands on their cheeks. Death looked down to see the baby smiling as examining them. As they stared suddenly their vision started to blur as something fell from their eyes.

"W-what is this," Death panicked as they handed the baby back to its mother.

"Oh my, I don't think I've ever seen you cry before," The woman gasped as she tried to wipe Death's tears.

"I don't understand what's happening?" Death gasped as they tried to get rid of their tears.

The woman just smiled and pulled Y/n(death) into a warm hug. This time Death was quick to reciprocate, but they did have one question.

"Why aren't you terrified of me?! I was cursed to scare everyone away?" Death sobbed.

"I'm not sure. It's probably My unique magic, which protects me from curses," the woman answered with a shrug. "And you could have hurt me all these years, but you didn't."

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

Sadly Time had other plans. While Death was roaming the world, taking in the beauty of it all. When they suddenly felt a sudden large amount of flaming life being snuffed out.

Death tried to get back to the town, but a lesser being of the underworld blocked their path. Yet, Death made quick work of it and ran towards the town. As they got onto the familiar path toward the town.

"Y/N!" the woman cried as she ran, covered in soot and blood.

She was running with her child in her arms, fear in her eyes. But upon the sight of Y/n coming to her aid, she smiled as she reached out for them. When an arrow to the heart snuffed out her candle flame of life.

Death reached out and caught her and the baby before they could hit the ground. Death looked down in horror as the woman lay lifeless and her baby cried out for her. The soldiers that were hunting the two froze in their tracks at the sight of the stranger, a wave of terror washed over them as Death slowly looked up at them.

Yet before they could even scream, Death had finished them off. Sadly this was not enough to quell their blazing fires of wrath. They hunted down the enemy soldiers and went on to the village itself. When Death's wrath finally went out, nothing of the enemy village remained.

As Y/n returned to the woman's village, they saw the great damage to this once-peaceful town. The only survivors were the children of this town, whom the enemy was planning to enslave.

Y/n knew that they couldn't help with their curse as strong, and Life was never going to lift it. So they had no choice but to plead and beg to Time and Space.

Space simply chastised her creation for suddenly deciding to slow down on their purpose. She tells them because of this, the void is starting to fill again. So Y/n turned to Time and pleaded for his help.

Time uncharacteristically of him decided to help Y/n this once. So he made a pendant that would repress the curse for about 3 decades. Though once time is up, the pendant will need to restore itself for at least a century or two.

So with this tiny aid, Y/n quickly returned to the village and rounded up all the children. They helped them mourn by burying the dead and staying for the day.

But Y/n knew what would happen if they stay for too long. After some convincing Y/n managed to get the children to follow, and far away from the enemy and their allies.

And they found this place, which will later in the future be called Harveston. Y/n would stay with the children and raise them as best they could. Teaching them, raising them, Playing with them, and even giving the children each individual attention.

As the children and town grew, and Y/n's time was about to end, the woman's daughter, now 29. Meet with Y/n at the edge of the apple orchard.

"Y/n, you've been distant lately? What's wrong?" The girl asked.

"I'm dying?" Y/n lied.

"W-what! No, you can't die. We all still need you, I need you," The girl teared up. "Is that why you made Pierre mayor?"

"He is a kind heart boy, with a good head on his shoulders. I know he will do whatever it takes to protect you all," Y/n explained.

"We all lost our parents. And You show up, give a chance at life, and being a parent to us all," The said, getting choked up.

"I wish your mother was here. She was a good friend and dreamed of having a family, an amazing daughter," Y/n reminisce.

"What was her name?" The girl asked.

"Her name... Was Reine Felmier. So your full name is Marie Felmier," Y/n smiled.

"W-would I be everything she hoped if she were here?" Marie asked..

"You would surpass what she could have ever hoped for," Y/n said gently.

A week later Y/n "Died". Leaving the town's people devastated, but when the dust cleared Y/n quickly left the town. With 30 years of new experience, Y/n new things had to change. So the first thing they did was erase the underworlds, and either let souls wander their world, or turn them into stars to light up the night sky.

Life noticed the sudden lights in the vast darkness of the void, and could only stare in wonder. As he stared out into the void.

"Look Out! It's Death!" The Jerrys cried out for their boss.

Life gasped as he got into a fighting stance, but Death just stood, not even raising their blades. The Jerrys gathered the souls and ran away from the scene

"Sir Life, I have not come to fight. Simply to apologize and discuss some things," Death said, but Life quickly tackled them and pinned them down to the ground.

Sadly Life was not too keen on listening, not after the many time Death had tried to trick them in the past. He quickly began to press the end of his staff at Death's neck.

"Don't you dare attempt to fool me again!" Life growled. "And Even if this was genuine, I would never accept it. Not after all the terrible things you've done."

"I know. I corrupt your creations, I create things to make them suffer, and for I time I took without thinking. And I understand that you will never forgive, and I am truly sorry. I simply wish to discuss an important matter with you," Death tried to reason, but Life teleported Death far from his home.

Saddened but not surprised, Y/n was left with no choice but to continue on. And to attempt equilibrium, to sadly kill off to make room for new life. Yet this was difficult since Life just kept making more and more without restraint.

Space hated that her creation was becoming docile and soft. So she called to the remaining once underworld gods and granted them powers on pare with Life and Death. She commanded them to pick up the slack.

So the 6 gods turned their sight on the tree of Origin, at Life. So, like a hurricane, they stormed the home of Souls and Life.

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

(200 years later

Life hung by his wrists as sharp chains of obsidian bound him to the ceiling. The gods of chaos stormed the tree, destroying the little souls that had yet to live. Captured life and dragged him to a long-dead world, deep in its cold core.

The Obsidian chains dug into his tan olive skin as ichor ran down his arms. The cruel beings tortured the god of life. They whipped and ripped at his skin, hammered off his antlers, and forcibly possessed his body. Forcing him to create an abomination of destruction, and releasing them on worlds.

Life could hear the horrified screams of the mortals as they are snuffed out. He tried to call for help from Time, but he never answered. Life hung his head as he tried to think of another way out, but the enchanted chains blocked his powers. The other gods turned their back on their creator. Wanted some sort of selfish gain out of his death.

His aids at home didn't have the strength to compete with beings like his captors. As he hung there a terrible and sad thought came to his mind.

'If I were to die, Time could simply make another... Another being of Life, so why waste his efforts. I knew Time only saw me as a tool for his own amusement. Space hated me, and never told me why when I asked her. Instead, she just created someone to destroy me. I'm valued by no one,'

As he was about to give up, the scream of bloody murder caught his attention. A god of chaos lay dead at... Death's feet. Death slowly approached Life, as he quickly shut his eyes waiting for the worst.

When suddenly with a crack, he felt his body fall. Only to suddenly feel a pair of cold arms catch him before he could hit the ground. Life looked up to his enemy, but black spots filled his vision as he eventually passed out.

____________________________________________________

Pt. 1 ends here

to be continued. Part 2 here

[butler-on-beale-street]

Night Terrors | Austin Butler X Reader 

Warning: angst, bad dreams, vague allusions to body insecurity, fluff.

Word Count: 1.6K

A/N: This was requested a few days ago and I liked the idea! So, I created this little one shot. Hope you guys enjoy.

Summary: He said the worst things imaginable to you. It felt so real--your life was falling apart. Everything was a lie. And then you woke up.

“What do you mean, ‘I don’t love you anymore’?” You asked tearfully. You sat with Austin on the front stoop of your shared New York City brownstone. He appeared quite intoxicated, leaning against the stair railing, his expression unbothered. 

“I don’t love you,” he repeated, looking you in the eye. He watched your heart shatter and didn’t move an inch to console you. He only blinked, clearing his throat. 

“You don’t love me? All of this was a lie?” You choked through the tears. “We live together!” 

“I used you, Y/n.” He reached into his pocket and retrieved his juul, taking several drags from it, looping white clouds into the night sky. Anger overtook your body. How could he be so nonchalant? You snatched the device from his lips and tossed it as far as you could into the street.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Your voice rose. 

“You know what? How could anyone love you?” It was as if he had ripped your heart from your body and tossed it on the sidewalk, stubbing it out like a discarded cigarette. “You don’t take care of yourself. You complain about the way you look all the time, yet you do nothing about it. I’m sick of it! You can be miserable, but I fucking refuse.” He cut you into pieces. He knew it. He didn’t care. He wanted you to hurt so badly that you’d go away forever. 

“How dare you speak to me like that? I’ve never done anything but love you.” You reached out to touch him. Though he was breaking your heart, you still loved him. It was natural for you to want him–to want to be with him. Instead, he recoiled and moved further away from you. 

“No. Just stop. I’m done, Y/n. I’ve been done for quite a while.” He looked at you briefly before pulling his knees to his chest, resting his elbows on them. 

“What does that even mean? Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” You asked, wiping the tears from your cheeks with your palm. You sniffled, yet your face was still a dripping mess. 

“Can I be honest with you?” He asked, turning to you. He rubbed at his mouth and chin like he was mulling over a thought. You nodded, your throat contracting and releasing in a choked sob, causing you to whimper. “I cheated–and it’s not the first time. I’ve cheated many, many times. And honestly, I regret nothing.” He shrugged coldly, raking his fingers through his blond coif. “It was how I got by.” 

“So you treated me like a live-in fuck-toy? To fuck whenever you wanted? To wash and fold your clothes, make you dinner, make love to you? Just so you could betray me with any tight pussy you could find?” You shot the words out at him, your voice rising with anger. 

“Guess so.” 

“You know what? Fuck you! Get your shit and get the fuck out of my house.” 

“The house is just as much mine as it is yours.” 

“I’ll call the police to escort your ass out.” 

“What will they do, Y/n? They’ll ‘diffuse’ it and leave. So I’m not going anywhere. Figure it out and get a hold of yourself. You’re acting crazy.” You looked away from you. In that moment, you couldn’t control the rage that exploded from your body. You reeled back and slapped him as hard as you possibly could, feeling the sting of contact against your palm. 

“I hope whatever sorry son of a bitch that meets you next finds out how fucking pitiful you really are. You had it good, Austin. You had me–someone who would die for you. I would have done anything for you!” You shouted, pointing your finger in his face. 

“You’re pathetic, Y/n.” He laughed. Chuckled, even. 

Deep within your throat, you felt the pain. The muscles contracted tightly as if they would tear at any moment from shear tension. The roar of your scream ripped away from deep within your chest. You squeezed your fists as tightly as you could, feeling your fingernails digging into the flesh of your palms. You shrieked as loudly as you could at him, releasing all of the hurt, the pain, the fury and betrayal, and the grief that shattered you completely. 

“Hey, hey. HEY,” Austin said, his hands wrapped around you, waking you up from the nightmare. “Shhh, calm down. I think you had a nightmare.” 

“Wh-what?” You asked, pulling out of your stupor. You jolted awake, pushing him away in your half-sleep state, desperate to get away from him. “Get away from me!” You barked. 

“Huh?” Austin asked. You retreated into your body, making yourself as small as you could under the covers. You were conscious, but not enough to differentiate what was real and what wasn’t. “Okay, okay,” he said, moving to the edge of the bed. He sat with his legs crossed, rubbing sleep from his eyes. Tears began to pour down your cheeks as you remembered the hurtful things that he had said to you in your dream. 

“You didn’t love me,” you sobbed. You pulled your hands to your eyes, swiping away the brutal tears as they fell. “You said I was pathetic and that no one loved me.” Austin took the cue to move closer to you, pulling you against him. That was when the real tears came. Your body shook from misery, your body racked with sobs. You vaguely felt him rubbing your back, squeezing you as close to him as he could, letting you cry–even if it didn’t exactly make sense why you were crying. He kissed the tops of your shoulders as he waited patiently. It took you a while to calm down in order to stifle the tears, but when they did slow, you leaned back and sat opposite him with your legs crossed. 

“May I hold your hands?” He asked gently, asking permission. You nodded. He took your hands in his, running his thumbs lovingly over your knuckles. “Do you feel comfortable telling me what happened?” You nodded again, sniffling loudly. You lifted your hand to wipe the tears from your face and push the stray hairs behind your ears before returning your hand to his. 

“I had a bad dream–and you were so mean to me. You acted like I didn’t matter. You told me that you cheated on me over and over and that you didn’t regret it.” You couldn’t help the tears from flowing again. Austin disconnected his hands from yours, raising them to your cheeks to swipe the tears away as they fell. “You said you didn’t love me.” 

“I never said that, baby.” Austin said softly. “Even if it was a nightmare. That wasn’t me. I would never, ever treat you like that.” He returned his hands to yours. You nodded, but didn’t look at him. He wasn’t convinced that you understood. He took your face in his hands, urging you to look at him. “I adore you. I am in love with you, Y/n. I think you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and I tell you that every single day.” 

“I know you do,” you said softly, your lips trembling. “But it felt so real.” 

“That’s why nightmares can be so scary.” Austin began. “But they also come from stress. Is something going on?” He asked carefully. “I’m here for you, honey.” 

“I don’t feel like myself right now. I feel ugly and I feel like I am undeserving of love. I haven’t told you, but I’ve felt like this for a while. I’ve just tried to push it away because I didn’t want to feel this way.”

“Sweetheart,” He said, softly, taking your face in his hands once more, his thumbs stroking your cheeks. “You are deserving of the love that you are given. Why? Because you are a wonderful person inside and out. You don’t see it right now, and that’s okay. I am here to remind you every day of your worth. It’s okay to have bad days. I know it doesn’t just go away, but I want to be here for the good days, the bad days…everyday. I don’t just love you when it’s sunny.” He paused for a moment. “I won’t go into lame daily devotionals, but…”

You chuckled through the tears, causing him to grin. “But I truly love you. I’ll love you for the rest of my life. That won’t ever change. Let me in. Let me know about the hard things. I don’t just want to be your boyfriend. I want to be your partner–your life partner.” You nodded. 

“I trust you,” you said softly, looking him in the eye. “That just hurt a lot,” you continued, referring to the dream. 

“Yeah, well sometimes our dreams betray us by exploiting the things we hold most dear.” He said, leaning in to kiss you on the forehead. 

“Lay back down with me, Austin.” 

“C’mere first,” he said, leaning forward, taking your face by your cheek as he placed his lips on yours, offering a feather-light kiss. You reciprocated, bringing your hands to the back of his neck, your fingers tugging at his blond waves. He pulled you against him, laying down once again. You stared into his eyes for quite some time. The moment wasn’t awkward, and there was no push to end it. You lay next to him, taking his hand in yours, silently stroking the softness of his skin. 

“I love you,” you finally said, breaking the silence.

“I love you too, Y/n. You’ll never truly understand how much. But I’ll show you every single day.” 

You turned your body so that he could spoon you. You felt safe within his embrace, his arm pulled protectively around your body as you cocooned yourself within the covers. You fell asleep listening to the give and take of his breath, mixed with the soft chirps of crickets from outside your bedroom window. 

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[gaywattpadstorykid]

Chapter 2: Rose

Someone is ringing my doorbell; I haven’t heard that old thing in an eternity, so I didnt know what it was at first. But now I’m pretty sure it’s the doorbell. What’s the fuck?

Eh, It’s probably an accident… I’ll just wait until they realise they’re at the wrong door…

I start getting impatient…. And then it stops.

See, I kn- Now they’re knocking?

“Rose! Open up, I know you’re in there. You haven’t left that goddamn apartment in months! … if you don’t open up, I’m gonna assume you kicked the bucket and I’ll open this fucking door myself…!”

What? What does she want from me? I haven’t talked since forever. I stand up, I’m kind of worried about my wound, I didn’t check to see whether it healed fine. Another ring.

“Open this fucking door right now, kid. Or I’ll break it open.”

I panic. She wouldn’t do that, right? I jump to my feet and the wound stings so badly I almost wince out loud. Almost.

I creep up to the door, take a breath and then open it. My landlord looks like she was about to ram the door. “Holy shit! Don’t scare me like that…” Her eyes wander over me, resting on my face. “Girl, how long since you last washed yourself? Ever taken a look in the mirror?”

I don’t look at her and open my mouth to say something, but I close it again, wordlessly. “Go on, speak.” she exclaims, while grinning at me. Does she think this situation is comedic in some way? “I- “

I try to something, but my throat is so sore saying even a single word would feel like someone has ripped my vocal cords out of my larynx. “Coward”, she scoffs. How am I a coward? I haven’t talked in months, and I didn’t drink today, and yesterday, only a small amount. I’m not a coward for not speaking because of that. And if I could, I’d shout it in her face, but I can’t, so I don’t. “Speak.”, she looks annoyed. I don’t. I can’t. Otherwise, I would, of course I would. Before I cut myself off from society, I was really short tempered. I used to hit other children, sometimes until they bled, back in the adoption center. Doesn’t matter though, that’s from the past. Now I’m here. In front of this bitch of a landlord.

“Ok, then you won’t talk, freak. Anyways, you’re not renting this apartment anymore.” She’s quiet until she adds “I’m throwing you out is what I’m saying.”

I look her in the eyes. Not a single sign of pity. She doesn’t care, does she? Why would she throw me out? I’m paying her. Is not leaving the apartment a crime now? What the fuck?

“Wh- “I cough. “What?”

“Oh look! It’s talking! What a surprise!”

“-Why?” My voice is so shaky and raspy. It’s not because I’m about to cry, but because my voice isn’t stable enough to talk a full sentence, really. My throat is so dry. Talking hurts almost as much as my foot, which is still hurting like shit. I don’t care though, it doesn’t matter. Really.

“Ah, you don’t know why, right? Because you haven’t paid your goddamn rent the past two months. I even contacted you, because I’m so professional”, she says in a mocking tone, “But I guess you don’t check your shit, so you wouldn’t know. Well, you’ve got ‘bout a week, then you’re out.” I nod, talking hurts too much. I shut the door in her face.

She curses a bit before stomping down the stairs. Fuck. Fucking shit, fuck, fuck, fuck. Okay, alright, what do I do? The pain on my foot and the huge fear of being homeless is overwhelming me, it all caves in on me at the exact same moment. Knowing you can’t do shit about a situation, that you’re helpless… It’s the worst feeling imaginable. I just wanna go back to bed and rot away like I always do. At least then I had a feeling of closure. I feel so weak. I feel so… my foot hurts so much. I’m shaky and weak on my own legs, it feels like they can’t hold me anymore, I’m like a skeleton that’ll fracture at any given moment… I haven’t eaten in the past 3 days; I didn’t drink today. My head hurts, I have a headache and it feels like my head is about to explode. Everything is horrible, everything is ruined and it’s all my own fault.

Rainy Days

TW:signs of depression, blood(described), wounds and later chapters WILL discuss suicide and self harm. If you are triggered by these themes do not read this. I will make happier stories

I do not relate to this, and this might not be accurate. My grammar and writing abilities aren’t good, please correct me or give me constructive criticism ❤️ also, this story was PERFECTED!!! With AI, I wrote it myself, everything, but because I’m German and my whole family doesn’t know much English, this is one of my only options. I have the original where I wrote it into my notebook and made notes for myself and I still have it in it’s earlier stages (I already wrote much more when I was younger, my grammar was pretty bad tho) if anyone wants proof (the notebook) I’ll release it on @toulouseradiosilence <3

enjoy!

Chapter 1: Rose

I wake up to the sound of rain pouring onto the roof. The first thing I do after lying on my side for another 5 minutes is to look at the alarm clock. The time it’s displaying is barely visible, yesterday’s meal is standing in front of it. Would you call that dinner or breakfast? It was at about 4AM, so I’m not really sure, but it also does not matter, so I shove the leftover ramenbox and cheap diet lemonade off of the bedside table. The bottle shatters on the floor, startling me. Besides the cars, rain and airplanes outside this is the first noise I’ve heard today, and probably one of the ones I will hear. I finally look at the time. 10:30 AM. I’m not late to anything, I haven’t been late to anything in months.. or years. Because there is nothing to be late to. Nobody needs me, I’m not part of this “system”. And I think that’s not as bad someone would expect. I don’t have any responsibilities whatsoever. I don’t have to take part in this society, I can do whatever I want. And I choose to lay in my bed, draw or sleep. I have food in my storage (ramen, diet lemonade/ water). Sometimes I crave foods I used to eat when I was younger, but it’s certainly not worth going to the store for. Some days I eat a lot, some I don’t eat at all. Most days, actually. Some days I don’t get out of bed and some I don’t even wake up. Others I don’t sleep. Sometimes I look at drawings or other posts on tumblr. That’s all I really do. Sometimes I think about signing up and posting my drawings, but I’m not good with social stuff and this is too social for me in many ways, so I don’t. I have to go to the toilet, which is pretty unusual for me, considering i barely drink anything. I don’t want to get up though, so I continue lying in my bed for another 20 minutes, until I feel too uncomfortable. I sit up and put my feet onto the ground. Something sharps cuts into one of them. I don’t do anything; I don’t even look down to see what just hurt my foot. Another minute of just sitting there and staring goes by until I decide to check. A piece of a broken diet lemonade bottle. I stand up and shove the trash under my bed, I didn’t remove the shard. I start walking. The cut stings. I really do not care though. Dragging myself into the bathroom, I push the door open and catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, but I quickly look away. I sit down onto the toilet and.. pee.. yeah, I pee. Afterwards I continue sitting on the toilet and my eyes trail along the way I was walking on, from the toilet to to the door. The door is open. I live alone. There’s a trail of blood on the floor. What? Oh. It’s my blood. Wait, yeah, of course it is. Who else’s would it be? I put my leg into the other to look at my foot. The shard is still in there. I actually kind of panic because it looks really, really bad. Almost my whole foot is cut open. And THAT is a reason to stay in bed all day (as if I wouldn’t do that anyway.. but now I have an excuse, I guess.) I limp over to my bed, but before laying down I check whether I still have some water. Luckily, I do. So I let myself fall onto the bed back first, take a chug of water and start to sleep.

Next chapter will probably release next week❤️

[ghosttotheparty]

everything you need, anything you want

also on AO3 based on this post

So eighty-six wasn’t his year.

It’s not like Eddie’s never been wrong before.

He lives in the Harrington home. After the “earthquakes,” Steve’s parents move to Norfolk. They leave Steve in Hawkins. Not that he would have gone with them anyway, but an offer would have been nice.

They leave him the house. And enough money to get by. His mother leaves him a kiss on the cheek. He wipes it off when she’s gone.

Eddie stays in the guest room.

Steve’s parents’ old room remains empty, save for a bare mattress, a bed frame, two dressers and his mother’s vanity. Steve contemplates taking it all out back and having a bonfire.

When they found Eddie in the Upside Down, cowering in the shadows, no one thought he was real. Eddie didn’t think they were real either, after all the tricks the Upside Down has played on him. Robin said his name.

He hadn’t used his voice except to scream in the past year, so it was rough and scratchy and dry when he spoke.

You’re real?

They were.

Solid and breathing when they embraced him, and then he was crying, and for some reason it was Steve on the ground with him, his arms around Eddie tightly.

He’d been whispering to Eddie.

I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Eddie, I’m here now, I got you.

As if he’d known at all how much of Eddie’s mind he’d occupied the whole time he struggled to survive. As if he’d known that he was what kept Eddie warm at night. (Or, what Eddie assumes was night. Time seems to move differently in the Upside Down. Simultaneously slower and faster, five years passing in an hour, twenty minutes in three weeks.)

The reunion had to be put on pause. They’ve all gotten too good at stopping their emotions, at shifting gears at the blink of an eye.

It resumed in Steve’s house, late at night, after they’d all nursed their wounds and drank some water and showered off the Upside Down.

Eddie sat on the coffee table. He was wearing Steve’s clothes now, his own too ripped and worn and disgusting. (He threw them into a bag after dressing and told Steve to burn it all. Steve swore he would.) Steve’s sweatpants were warm, soft, and his hoodie was too big, the sleeves hanging down over Eddie’s hands. His hair was wet and cold against his skin, but he couldn’t remember the last time he felt so at ease in his own body.

Except that everyone was staring at him like he was about to explode at any given second. Except Steve. Who looked like he was about to burst into tears.

Dustin spoke first.

You died. I— I watched you die, I heard you stop breathing.

Eddie gripped the ends of the hoodie sleeves tightly.

I know.

Did you not? Robin had asked weakly, like she was going to be sick. Did we just…

No, I did.

He did.

He doesn’t know how he knows, but he knows.

I died, but then I just…

All their eyes were wide. Confused. Sitting in an awful fucking silence that made Eddie want to rip his skin off.

I’m not the same. As I was. There’s something… Off about me.

What is it? Nancy asked. Her voice was quiet, almost just a breath but still audible in the silence.

He had squeezed his eyes shut, his legs drawn to his chest. How the fuck was he supposed to explain it? That he wasn’t quite human anymore? That he could smell all their blood, and then he wanted to consume it? That he was fucking starving?

He just shook his head, shivering, letting his head fall to his knees, and then Steve was touching him, sliding his hand over Eddie’s back in front of everything. Eddie could feel the heat of his skin through the hoodie. He spoke to the floor without lifting his head.

I’m a fucking vampire or something.

And the room was silent, until Nancy spoke again.

Explain?

So he explained.

It’s all fucking insane, but Eddie guesses in the grand scheme of things nothing is fucking insane anymore.

Steve stayed close to him the whole time, his hand on Eddie’s back, and after a while, Eddie reached for his other hand, taking it as he spoke. No one said anything about the way he held it for the rest of the time they were in the living room, playing with Steve’s fingers as he talked about the place he already knew he’d have nightmares about.

He stayed in Steve’s room that night. Neither of them said anything as they found their way toward each other, as Eddie held onto Steve’s arm, as Steve slowly pulled away so he could wrap his arm around Eddie, pull him against his chest.

I’m sorry, Eddie. I—I wanted to bring you back, but— but the gate was—

I know, Steve. ‘S okay.

It was probably better that he didn’t wake up in some morgue in town or something. Better that no one else (especially Steve) had to witness him discover that he’s not human, had to witness him learn how to kill creatures just to drink the blood from their still-warm bodies.

He woke up the next morning with his head on Steve’s chest. He could hear his heartbeat. Steve was playing with his hair, combing through his hair and untangling his curls gently. Eddie could hear some noise downstairs, clattering in the kitchen, steps in the hallway. And it was warm.

It was so, so warm.

There were tears on his skin before he even processed his eyes burning. He squeezes his eyes shut, turning his face into Steve’s chest, and tried not to cry, but Steve could feel him shaking, could hear his soft breaths, and Steve slowly sat up, holding Eddie to himself.

It’s okay.

Eddie clutched at him. Gripped his shirt in tight fists, hid his face in his neck.

He sobbed.

Steve was crying too, his arms tight and firm around Eddie, listening and understand him even though his voice was cracking and weak.

It was so cold, Stevie, it was so— it was so cold.

You don’t have to be cold anymore, Eddie.

The sun was shining brightly in Steve’s room. Eddie could feel it on his skin. He’d missed the sun.

They spent almost the whole morning in bed, even though they can hear the others downstairs. Steve kept his arms around Eddie the whole time, until they both stopped crying, until Eddie just sat next to him, leaning against him. Eddie looks at home. Gazed at him. The sunlight hit his eyes in a way that made them glow, and his hair in a way that made strands of it look like golden thread. His eyelashes were clumped together with tears, and Eddie remembered why he always thought Steve had princess eyes.

Steve’s hair was longer than it was when Eddie died. Overgrown carelessly and pushed back, and Eddie’s eyes got caught before he reached up and pushed it up from where it had fallen over his ears. The side of his head was shaved.

Eddie’s eyes widened, and Steve was laughing even before Eddie was sitting up and manhandling Steve’s head to check the other side.

You cut your hair?

Yeah, I… I wanted something different.

…It suits you.

You think?

Eddie nodded. Ran a hand under the overgrown hair and over the shaved part, watched as Steve tilted his head up into the touch. They were quiet for a moment before Steve spoke again.

When my parents left, I… I kinda started acting out. They always cared about keeping appearances, so I… I don’t know. Kinda weird to have a rebellious phase at twenty one.

Is that why your walls look like Polluck paintings and the rest of house looks like a museum?

Robin helped.

I assumed.

Eddie had continued petting his hair. Steve had seemed to like it.

What else?

I, uhm. …You’re gonna laugh.

I won’t laugh.

Even if you say you won’t, you’re gonna.

Okay, I might, doesn’t matter. Tell me.

I… I started listening to, like. Metal and stuff.

Eddie laughed. Steve hit his chest.

How’d that happen?

…I missed you.

That had hurt.

Eddie exhaled and his hand fell from where it was pressed into Steve’s hair, falling to rest on his neck. He could feel Steve’s pulse. He wanted to sink his teeth into it. He ignored the desire.

I, uhm… I remembered you mentioned Ozzy, so I went to a music store and asked about it, and…

You like it?

It keeps my head quiet.

Steve had directed him to the other side of his room, where his tapes and records were. Eddie looked through them while Steve watched. Ozzy, Metallica, Dio, Motörhead, Twisted Sister. Eddie’s face had hurt. He hadn’t smiled in a long time.

I kept your vest.

You did?

Yeah. Wore it sometimes when I missed you more than usual.

Eddie wanted to cry again.

Got some t-shirts and shit you might like.

Can I look?

‘Course.

Eddie looked. Carefully rifled through Steve’s shirt drawer. Looked at the worn, probably second-hand t-shirts. Grinned at the Judas Priest shirt and the AC/DC shirt.

You’re a regular punk, aren’t you, Stevie?

Maybe a little. …Maybe more than a little.

What’s that mean?

Steve paused, his cheeks flushing prettily as he shrugged. Eddie just raised his eyebrows, and Steve stared, his jaw working for a moment before he opened his mouth to reveal a metal stud at the centre of his tongue.

Eddie let out a loud What? and rushed across the room to see, dropping the AC/DC shirt, and Steve laughed. Eddie landed on the bed next to him, on his knees, and grabbed Steve’s chin.

Open up. Let me see.

He repressed the urge to tell him what a good boy he was when Steve immediately followed directions. The stud was black, shining. Eddie wanted to touch it. He wanted to spit on it.

Did it hurt?

They shoved a needle through my tongue, Eddie. Yeah, it hurt.

Alright, attitude. Very metal, Stevie.

Thanks.

So that was that.

Neither of them are the same anymore. Eddie’s teeth are a little sharper, his skin a little colder. Steve is a little more rough around the edges.

They figure everything out. It takes some time, but everything gets sorted. The fridge in the garage is stocked with blood at all times for nights that Eddie can’t go out and catch squirrels or deer. They sleep in separate rooms, but immediately find each other in the morning. Eddie leans on Steve’s back while Steve makes coffee in the kitchen. They sit with their legs locked between them under the table. Steve puts his hand on Eddie’s leg while they watch TV or movies together.

Eddie always ends up pulling Steve against himself. Steve always ends up falling asleep.

Steve doesn’t sleep often.

Eddie knows he doesn’t sleep much at night. He doesn’t either, plagued by nights and memories, staring at the ceiling in the dim light of a lamp that sits on the floor.

Steve leaves his bathroom light on night. When Eddie leaves his room to get water he can see the glow of it under Steve’s door, and he wonders what he thinks about late at night. If he stares at the the ceiling like Eddie does. If he sleeps with his blankets wrapped around him tightly. If he gets cold too.

•••••••••••••••Eddie rolls onto his side and pulls his blanket around him tighter. All of his bedding smells like the rest of the house, almost like Steve but not quite. (Steve smells better.)

Eddie hates nighttime. He likes that it’s quiet, that it’s calm, that nothing is really expected of him, but it’s too dark. Darkness is suffocating. Even with a lamp on.

He looks across the room when there’s a shuffle in the hall, looking over his shoulder. He holds his breath.

After a few moments there’s a soft knock on his door.

“Steve?” Eddie says quietly, and the door opens slowly. Steve is still holding the doorknob, his eyes shining, and he looks so tiny it makes Eddie ache. “What’s wrong?”

“I…” Steve pauses, blinking at him and taking a breath. He’s wearing a Judas Priest shirt and some shorts, his hair tousled, looking sleepy and pretty. He also looks like he’s going to cry, which Eddie hates, but can’t deny that it also looks pretty. “Are you okay?”

Eddie blinks at him.

“I’m fine,” he says quietly. “Are you? What’s happening?”

Steve continues to stare at him, his eyes tracing him almost desperately.

“I just— I had…”

He’s breathing hard, like he’s been running.

“You had a nightmare?” Eddie asks softly. Steve nods. Eddie pauses, looking at the anxious shine of his eyes, at the way his hands are trembling. “You wanna come over here?”

Steve just steps inside and shuts the door wordlessly, using both hands to make it quiet, like they’re keeping it a secret from the rest of the house. (Which feels like it’s watching them sometimes, if Eddie is honest.)

He sits on the edge of Eddie’s bed, facing the wall, his eyes blankly tracing the posters pinned to the wall. Eddie moves closer to him, watching his chest rise and fall quickly.

“Steve,” he says, sitting cross-legged, facing him. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“You were gone,” Steve says quietly, his voice breathy and rough. “We— We were in the Upside Down, and we found—“ he cuts off, taking a small gasp, and Eddie leans closer, placing his hand on Steve’s back gently. Steve squeezes his eyes shut, his breath stuttering in his chest. “We found your body.”

“Steve,” Eddie breathes, running his hand over his back, catching the folds of the thin fabric of his shirt. “I’m right here.”

Steve squeezes his eyes shut, and Eddie’s chest clenches. He moves closer, carefully pushing his hand up Steve’s neck into his hair to run over the shaved part, furrowing his brows with Steve takes a gasping, stuttering breath.

“Hey,” Eddie says softly. “Stevie.” Steve opens his eyes, his expression so pained it makes Eddie’s bones ache. “I’m okay, sweetheart.”

“You died, Eddie,” Steve says weakly. “You were dead, you…”

“I’m alive, Stevie,” Eddie whispers, running his fingers through his hair. Steve just whines, his eyes closing as tears fall. “Hey, I got a heartbeat,” Eddie says quietly. Steve’s eyes open. “You wanna feel it?”

Steve takes a breath, turning to look at him, and he nods.

“Come here, gimme your hand.” He takes Steve’s trembling hand, pulls it toward himself so Steve shifts to face him, and presses it to his own chest, his fingers holding Steve’s hand tightly. He takes a deep breath, and Steve’s eyes watch his chest rise and fall.

“You feel it?” Eddie asks softly after a few moments, when Steve’s breath has slowed, and Steve’s hand presses harder, his lips pursing as he frowns, almost pouting, and Eddie tilts his head fondly, almost smiling. Steve’s hand slides up after a moment, over the collar of Eddie’s sweater, until it’s sliding over Eddie’s neck.

Eddie’s breath catches in his throat when Steve’s fingers wrap around it, his fingertips pressing into his skin tightly. Steve is still panting, his eyelids fluttering. It takes a moment for Eddie to realise Steve’s fingers are pressing into his pulse.

Steve nods, closing his eyes, breathless.

“I feel it.”

Eddie nods. He can’t breathe. Steve’s hand is hot against Eddie’s skin, holding him tightly.

“I’m okay, Stevie,” Eddie murmurs, sliding his hand to rest on the side of Steve’s neck. Steve exhales shakily, his fingers tightening, and Eddie thinks he might pass out. His lips part, and his eyes flutter closed before he reaches for Steve’s wrist.

“Steve, you gotta stop.”

Steve’s eyes open and he looks up at Eddie, hurt snd worry shining in his eyes.

“‘S just—“ Eddie tries to fix, squeezing his wrist. “It— This… feels good.”

Steve’s eyes are glazed over, and his fingers shift. He doesn’t let go. His voice is slurred when he speaks.

“If it feels good, why would I stop?”

Eddie’s mouth goes dry.

“Just…” He squeezes Steve’s wrist again, tugs it away. “You had a nightmare, Stevie, you need…”

“Need this,” Steve mumbles, twisting his hand to hold Eddie’s. “Please, Eddie.”

Eddie’s eyes flick back and forth between Steve’s, like he’s trying to see into him.

“I just—“ Steve cuts off, his eyelashes fluttering as his eyes shine with unshed tears again. “I just wanna feel your heartbeat, Eddie, please.”

“Okay,” Eddie breathes. Steve exhales as if in relief, his hand finding Eddie’s neck again, and Eddie wants to cry. “C’mere.”

Steve crawls closer, moving so he can lay against Eddie heavily, taking a shuddering breath.

“I got you,” Eddie murmurs softly, wrapping an arm around him and laying down, pulling Steve with him so he lands on top of Eddie, his head on Eddie’s shoulder. Steve giggles softly, his hand tightening on Eddie’s neck, and Eddie exhales sharply, closing his eyes.

“Are you still gonna be here in the morning?” Steve’s voice says quietly.

Eddie pulls him in tighter. He could be sarcastic. That they’re in his room, that he doesn’t have anywhere else to go. But Steve’s voice is so soft, so small and vulnerable, that he can’t.

“Of course.”

•••••••••••••••The others notice it too, that Steve isn’t entirely okay.

Steve insists he’s fine, that everything is under control.

Eddie does what he can to help, cooks and cleans and does everything he can to make sure Steve can relax at home, but it doesn’t really seem to help at all. Steve is always tense, fidgeting anxiously, picking at his skin and lips and nails until he’s bleeding. Eddie reaches over to take his hand, holding it gently to stop him.

Even Robin does it, laying across his lap and holding his hands in her own while they talk.

Eddie’s heart hurts. The skin around some of Steve’s nails is red and raw, his lips cracked.

“I’m just saying, Steve, maybe you should take a break,” Nancy says, watching him cross the room. He’s chewing on a nail, looking at her.

“From what?”

“Steve,” Eddie says softly. Steve shrugs at him, and Jonathan lowers his head to his knees. “Come on—“ He cuts off with a soft breath, stopping himself from saying sweetheart in front of everyone. Argyle looks at him. He can probably tell.

“You just gotta relax, man,” Argyle says, looking away from Eddie. “Smoke some weed or something.”

“I can’t walk around high twenty four-seven,” Steve says, frustrated. “I have— responsibilities, I gotta— I gotta take care of the kids, I’m…”

“Stevie,” Robin says, sitting up from where she’s laying on Eddie’s lap. “We don’t mean to move to Florida or something permanently, just… relax.”

“I’ve tried,” Steve says adamantly. He’s pacing. “I’ve— I’ve smoked, I’ve tried fucking reading books, and listening to music, and I’m—“ Steve cuts off, tossing his hands.

“I can try something,” Eddie says before he can even think, and everyone looks at him. His face burns.

“What?” Steve asks quietly, biting his nail again.

“I…” He looks up at Steve from the sofa, ignoring the others’ stares, and he takes a deep breath. “It’s gonna sound fucked, but there’s… this thing I do when I hunt, that’s…” Steve is staring at him intensely, his eyes shining. “It’s like putting them in a trance, it… calms them down.”

“Like hypnotising them?” Nancy says, and Eddie looks at her. Steve keeps staring at Eddie.

“I guess, but it’s—“ He rubs his cheek anxiously. “It doesn’t have to be weird. It just calms them down so they don’t run away, and it kinda makes me feel better because they’re not scared when they die, but, I mean… Obviously I’m not gonna kill you,” he adds, looking at Steve again, who stares. “But it might… help.”

“Okay.”

Eddie blinks.

“Okay?”

“Yes,” Steve says almost breathlessly. Eddie’s eyes look back and forth between Steve’s. “Please.”

“…Okay,” Eddie says softly. “Uhm.”

He stands slowly, standing in front of Steve, his cheeks hot as everyone stares. Steve’s hand lowers from his mouth, and he looks at Eddie anxiously. He looks the same way he looked when he spent the night with Eddie: small and vulnerable and scared, and Eddie’s chest hurts.

“If you… change your mind,” Eddie says softly. “Tell me. Okay?”

“Okay,” Steve breathes.

“Okay.”

Eddie takes a deep breath.

“…Relax, Steve.”

Steve’s eyes flutter shut, and his shoulders slump, and then he’s falling.

“Woah.” Eddie catches him as the others shout, and he falls to his knees, holding Steve, looking at his face desperately. “Steve?”

“Oh my god,” Nancy says, standing as Argyle sits up.

Steve exhales heavily, his head rolling as Eddie tugs him carefully into his lap. Robin kneels next to Steve, touching his face worriedly, saying his name.

“Stevie?” Eddie says softly as Nancy and Jonathan look over his shoulder.

“‘M fine,” Steve mumbles without opening his eyes.

“Steve,” Eddie says, finding his hand and holding it. “Can you open your eyes?”

Steve lets out a soft noise that makes Eddie’s breath catch in his throat.

“Steve, open your eyes.”

Steve’s eyes open, and it takes a moment for them to find Eddie above him. They’re glassy and glazed over.

“You okay?” Eddie asks softly.

“Yeah,” Steve breathes. “Feel good.”

“I feel like we shouldn’t be here anymore,” Robin says quietly, looking up at Nancy, who frowns with a soft, “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Argyle agrees. “He’s, like, super vulnerable right now.”

“Yeah, we should go,” Jonathan says when Steve blinks blearily up at Eddie, his fingers shifting on Eddie’s.

“Okay,” Eddie says softly, gazing down at him. Robin gets up and leans down to rustle Eddie’s hair affectionately.

“Take care of him, Eds.”

“‘Course.”

They all leave quietly, Jonathan and Argyle patting Eddie’s back gently as they pass.

“You feel okay, Stevie?” Eddie murmurs when they’re gone. Steve hums a soft mhmm. “Use your words, honey.”

Steve swallows, taking a breath, looking at Eddie with glassy eyes.

“I feel okay.”

“Yeah?”

“I feel so okay.”

Eddie smiles softly, letting go of Steve’s hand and reaching to gently push his hair back.

Steve’s eyes close again, and he’s smiling, his face more relaxed than Eddie’s ever seen him. He traces his fingertips over Steve’s face, over his eyebrows and cheekbones and jawline and the bridge of his nose and his lips. Steve’s lips part as Eddie’s fingertip is trailing over them, and Eddie scoffs, moving to hold his chin.

“You wanna stay here for a while?”

“Please.”

“Can I lay down with you?”

“Mm.”

Eddie moves, letting Steve lift his head off his lap so he can shift to lay on the floor next to him, his arm bent under his head.

“Hi.”

Steve just exhales, blinking at him, smiling softly.

“‘S it okay if I touch you?” Steve lets out a short hum. “Words, sweetheart.”

“Touch me,” Steve breathes. “Please.”

“I got you,” Eddie whispers, moving closer. He reaches out and touches Steve’s face again, watching his eyes flutter shut as he trails his fingertips over his cheek. “Pretty boy.”

He waits for a moment, pushing Steve’s hair back, petting the shaved part gently.

“Can you tell me how you’re feeling?”

Steve doesn’t say anything, just exhaling and tilting his head so it presses into Eddie’s hand.

“Steve,” Eddie says softly, hesitating. “Tell me how you’re feeling.”

“So good,” Steve says softly. “‘S so quiet.”

“What is?”

“…My head.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm.” It almost sounds like a moan. “Wanna stay here.”

“Where?” Eddie whispers.

“The clouds.”

Eddie can’t fight his smile, and he carefully drags his nails over Steve’s skin, watching Steve shiver.

“You can stay here for a while.”

Steve closes his eyes.

Eddie can tell that he’s not asleep. He knows what Steve’s breathing sounds like when he’s sleeping, which maybe could be weird, but he doesn’t worry about it.

He keeps trailing his fingers over his hair lightly, gazing at him, tracing his moles with his eyes like he’s stargazing.

He lets him float. Waits for him.

Until Steve sighs, and slowly opens his eyes, blinking at Eddie like he’s waking up.

“Welcome back,” Eddie says quietly.

“Sorry,” Steve says.

“Don’t apologize,” Eddie whispers. “Was it nice?”

“Yes,” Steve says without hesitation. “I liked it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.” Steve looks like he might cry.

“We can do it again sometime.”

“Can we?”

“Yeah, Stevie.”

“Okay.” He’s quiet for a moment. “Where are the others?”

“They left a little while ago,” Eddie says quietly. “Wanted to give you some privacy.”

“Oh.”

Steve closes his eyes again. Presses his hand up against Eddie’s, holding it to himself.

“Are you comfortable here?” Eddie asks softly. “The floor isn’t too bad?”

“No, ‘s fine.”

“You wanna…” Eddie pauses. “You wanna come closer?”

Steve smiles, and he moves closer, sighing as Eddie lifts his arm to set around him. He tucks his face into Eddie’s neck, and Eddie almost shivers when he feels Steve’s breath on his skin.

“Thank you,” Steve murmurs. “Thank you, Eddie.”

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

“Like it when you call me that.”

“‘S good, I like calling you that.”

Steve nuzzles into his neck, his hands tucking against Eddie’s chest.

•••••••••••••••They talk about it the next day. Eddie asks if it was okay. If he took anything too far, if Steve was uncomfortable with anything. Steve just smiles. And hugs him.

Tell him that it was perfect, Eds.

They don’t talk about it again.

They don’t really need to.

The others seem to just pick up on it, how something has shifted between them, without anyone saying anything about it. Steve sits closer to Eddie than he used to, leans against him and holds his hand wordlessly, like it’s the easiest thing in the world. The others all see it. Eddie’s face flushes with heat every time.

He’s started kissing him. His cheeks, his forehead, the top of his head, every time Steve floats away, every time he rests against Eddie and hides his face in Eddie’s neck. It makes Steve smile. The first time Eddie does it, he tucks Steve’s hair back and presses his lips to his cheek, just under his eye, and Steve’s face turns pink even though his eyes are glazed over and he’s swaying.

So Eddie does it every chance he gets. Of course.

He’s not sure what they are.

Eddie’s never even come out to him, and Steve’s never mentioned liking men, but somehow Eddie doesn’t worry about it.

They sleep together more often than not, usually in Steve’s room. Eddie steals Steve’s clothes to wear during the day while he’s gone, and Steve sleeps in Eddie’s t-shirts and sweaters. He leans against Eddie’s back while Eddie plays guitar, humming along, listening.

It seems to get easier for Steve.

It makes Eddie happy, getting to see him relax, getting to see him smile and sigh and laugh at Eddie’s stupid jokes and puns. He still has days, days where he just comes home and curls up on the sofa, hiding his face and staying silent when Eddie tries to talk to him. And he has other days where he comes home and just won’t stop, cleaning and cooking and rambling until Eddie stops him.

Sometimes while he’s floating he holds Eddie’s neck, feeling his heartbeat. It’s nice.

•••••••••••••••“Hey, sweetheart.”

Steve just responds w a soft groan, falling against Eddie’s back. Eddie laughs lightly, looking over his shoulder, pausing with the dishes.

“Long day?”

“Yeah.”

“Wanna tell me about it?”

Steve is quiet for a moment before he sighs, and his arms wrap around Eddie’s torso. It makes Eddie’s cheeks heat up.

“Scars have been hurting all day.” He presses his face to Eddie’s shoulder, squeezes, squishing his cheek and muffling his voice. “‘Nd my head hurt for a while at work, ‘n just… nothing was working for me. ‘M tired.”

Eddie finishes with the dishes, leaving a pot full of water so he doesn’t jostle Steve while he cleans it, and he shuts the water off, reaching for the dish towel and drying his hands before he turns around.

Steve hugs him before he can say anything, wrapping his arms around Eddie’s neck and pulling him close, and Eddie squeezes his eyes shut, hugging him back tightly. Steve slumps against him. Eddie kisses his temple.

“Alright?”

“Can you put me under?” Steve asks softly, lifting his head.

Eddie kisses his cheek.

“‘Course. Want you to eat some dinner first, though.”

“Okay.”

They eat together at the table, D&D materials pushed out of the way for their plates. Steve tells him more about his day. Eddie admires him across the table. He sits with his legs crossed on his chair, leaning over them so he doesn’t spill anything. (Steve once said he was never allowed to sit like this as a kid.)

Steve changes while Eddie finishes cleaning up. He wants to help, but Eddie refuses to let him.

“How do you wanna do it?” Eddie asks when he’s finished, when Steve is back, wearing a pair of cut-off shorts and a Sabbath shirt that Eddie thinks might be his.

“Wanna sit on your lap,” Steve says, his voice already a little slurred. Eddie grins.

“Sofa?”

“Mm.”

Eddie leads him to the living room, their fingers hooked together. Steve gently pushes Eddie to the sofa, and Eddie looks up at him, smiling, but Steve doesn’t sit across his lap the way Eddie expects. Instead, he lowers himself to Eddie’s lap with his knees on either side of his hips. Eddie’s cheeks flush with heat.

“Hi,” Eddie says softly as Steve settles, setting his hands on Steve’s hips gently.

“Hi.”

“This okay?”

Steve’s hands find their places on Eddie’s shoulders, holding him.

“…Take a deep breath for me..” Steve’s eyes flutter shut for a moment as he inhales, his hands loosening on Eddie’s shoulders. “Good boy, one more.”

Steve smiles as he does it again, his cheeks pink.

“There you go,” Eddie murmurs, his thumbs brushing back and forth over his hips. “Do your scars still hurt?”

There’s a moment before Steve shakes his head.

“Your head?”

Another shake.

“Everything’s okay?”

“Yeah,” Steve murmurs, his eyes half shut. “I feel good.”

Eddie smiles, tilting his head so he can press a kiss to Steve’s wrist.

“Can I do something?” Steve asks quietly, his eyes glazed.

“Anything.”

Steve smiles softly, his hand sliding from Eddie’s shoulder to his neck, where his fingers wrap gently around his throat. Eddie inhales, his head falling back. Steve’s smile grows, and his fingers tighten.

Eddie’s hands grip Steve’s hips, his eyes locked with Steve’s, and Steve releases him, watching him intently.

“Does that feel good?” he asks quietly, his voice soft.

“Yeah,” Eddie breathes. “It feels good.”

Steve smiles brightly, his fingers tightening again. Eddie exhales sharply, smiling.

“Thought I was supposed to be putting you under,” he mutters. Steve giggles, shifting closer, his fingers loosening, and Eddie bites his lip as heat flushes his cheeks. “What are you smiling at?”

“I can feel your heartbeat.”

“Ah.” He swallows, feeling Steve’s fingers press and rub at his neck. “So you know I’m dying.”

Steve just grins lazily at him, tilting his head almost curiously, his fingers lifting to trace Eddie’s jaw lightly. Eddie slides his hands up his waist, catching the thin fabric of Steve’s (Eddie’s? Their wardrobes are starting to combine.) shirt, and Steve hums.

“Alright?” Eddie asks softly. Steve nods, his eyes closing.

“Your hands feel…”

Eddie hums questioningly, squeezing gently as Steve puts his hand back on his throat, his other hand holding the side of his neck lightly, his fingertips in Eddie’s hair.

“Good.”

He squeezes, and Eddie’s breath catches in his throat. He closes his eyes.

He can hear his own heart pounding, can hear Steve’s soft breaths. Steve is heavy on his lap, his weight almost grounding as Eddie’s head fills with clouds. A soft noise escapes Eddie, a weak choked off moan, and Steve giggles again.

And then he’s kissing him, and Eddie thinks he might die.

He doesn’t even open his eyes, just exhales and reaches up to push his fingers into Steve’s soft hair. His head tilts, and his other hand tightens on Steve’s waist, but just as his lips begin to part, Steve pulls away sharply.

Eddie’s eyes flutter open, and he looks up at him to find him wide-eyed and red-faced.

“‘S wrong?” Eddie asks softly, his hand shifting to Steve’s cheek.

“I’m sorry,” Steve says, his voice heavy. “I didn’t ask, I—“

“It’s okay,” Eddie says, shaking his head. “You don’t have to ask, it’s okay.”

Steve blinks at him, looking like he might cry, and Eddie’s chest tightens.

“You can kiss me,” he breathes. “If you want.”

“I can?” Steve asks in a small voice. Eddie nods, smiling.

Steve stares, his eyes flicking back and forth between Eddie’s, and Eddie exhales, leaning up and lifting his chin to kiss him softly. Steve’s breath stutters in his chest, and Eddie holds his face, pulling him closer.

Steve’s arms wrap around Eddie’s neck, and he raises up on his knees as he kisses back desperately, and Eddie’s whole body aches. Eddie’s lips part as he grins, and Steve’s tongue slides between them, tracing his teeth. Eddie clutches at him, his hands gripping his t-shirt and his hips before they find his thighs, squeezing and slipping under the hem of his shorts.

Steve pulls away for a gasp of air, tilting his head and kissing him again so hard their teeth clash. Eddie’s brows furrow, and he sits up straight, his head falling back.

Steve lowers back down to Eddie’s lap, and one of Eddie’s hands slides to the small of his back, tugging him closer as Steve’s teeth catch Eddie’s lip. A whimper escapes Eddie, and his face burns.

One of Steve’s hands slides into Eddie’s hair, gripping it like he’s holding Eddie in place, and Eddie exhales sharply, his jaw dropping enough for Steve to lick into his mouth.

“Oh, shit,” Eddie gasps. His voice is embarrassingly high, breathy and soft, and Steve pulls away. His eyes are shining, his lips red.

“What?”

“I, uhm.” Eddie closes his eyes, breathing hard. “I forgot about your piercing.”

“Oh.” Steve pauses, holding Eddie’s head in his hands. “Should I take it out?”

“No,” Eddie says quickly. “No, don’t, it’s… It’s nice.”

“Oh,” Steve says again. “Okay.”

“Come here.”

Steve kisses him again, catching Eddie’s lip between his own for a moment before he pulls away and looks at him. Eddie encourages him with a gentle tug at his back, and Steve leans back down again.

Eddie relaxes against the sofa when Steve’s hand finds his neck again. He isn’t squeezing, isn’t choking, just holding him almost mindlessly, like it’s where his hand belongs.

Eddie’s brows furrow again, listening to the soft sounds of Steve sucking on his lip, the soft sounds that escape Steve’s throat. He’s almost shivering, chills hovering over his skin like there’s static in the air, and he’s breathing so hard he might start hyperventilating.

“Stevie,” he chokes when Steve releases his lip. (It’s sore. Eddie loves it.) Steve just whines in response, squeezing his neck gently. “I…” He stares, his eyes burning as he looks at Steve’s flushed cheeks, his shiny lips.

“Eddie, please,” Steve chokes, taking short, stuttering breathes. His eyes are glistening with unshed tears.

“‘S okay,” Eddie breathes, lifting a hand to Steve’s head, pushing his fingers into his hair. “I got you.”

“Please,” Steve whimpers. “Please, please, Eddie, please, I—“

“C’mere,” Eddie mutters, pulling him down and kissing him desperately, biting his lip. “It’s okay, baby, I got you.”

“Please—“ Steve whimpers, his fingers tightening on Eddie’s neck, and Eddie gasps. “Please, I need—“

“Take it,” Eddie says breathlessly, squeezing his leg and letting his head fall back as Steve leans close enough that Eddie is swallowing his breath. “Take what you need, baby, it’s okay.”

He expects Steve to start rolling his hips, or to tear his or Eddie’s shirt off, or to lean in and slide his tongue back into Eddie’s shirt, but Steve just squeezes his neck, leaning down to press their foreheads together.

“Deep breath, sweetheart.”

Steve inhales deeply, his other hand holding the back of Eddie’s head gently, his fingers wound in his curls.

“I got you,” Eddie murmurs. “It’s okay.”

“My parents—“ Steve starts, taking a short breath. Eddie rubs his leg gently, his other hand pressed firmly against his back. “My parents always talked about— about queers.”

Eddie looks into his eyes. They’re swimming with tears.

“About how—“ He cuts off to swallow. “How disgusting they are, and how— how sinful they are, and—“

“Steve,” Eddie whispers. He’s heard the same things. Of course he has. He’s never understood it.

How somehow could hate something as beautiful as love.

“But this…” Steve holds Eddie’s face between his hands. He wipes a tear that Eddie didn’t notice falling from his eye. “I’ve never felt like— like there’s anything wrong with this.”

“There isn’t,” Eddie chokes. “There’s nothing wrong with this, baby.” Steve exhales, his thumbs brushing over Eddie’s cheeks. “Come here.”

Steve leans in and kisses him softly before he pulls away just enough that their lips brush when he whispers.

“I love you.”

Eddie’s eyes open slowly, and pulls away to look at him, his hands holding him.

“…Really?”

Steve swallows, his hands falling to hold the collar of Eddie’s shirt, resting on his shoulders, and he nods. Eddie blinks tears back, letting out a soft laugh.

“Oh.”

Steve hesitates, holding onto Eddie’s shirt, looking across his face.

“Is that okay?”

Eddie laughs again, a tear falling from his eye, and he nods.

“Yeah,” he says weakly. “Yeah, it’s okay, Stevie, oh my god.”

“Oh,” Steve says, relaxing, smiling. “Okay.”

“I love you too,” Eddie says, his chest tight, sliding a hand up to hold the side of Steve’s neck, his thumb resting on his jaw.

“Oh,” Steve says lightly. “That’s…”

Eddie laughs softly, leaning in and letting his head fall against Steve’s chest.

“Eddie,” Steve whispers, tugging his hair gently. Eddie hums softly, pressing his hand against the small of his back. “Wanna kiss.”

Eddie squeezes his eyes shut, holding his tighter, and he lifts his head, pressing kisses to Steve’s neck. He can hear his heartbeat, can smell his blood beneath his skin, can almost taste it as he drags his tongue over his pulse.

Steve whimpers, his hand tightening his Eddie’s hair, and then he tugs sharply, pulling Eddie away and leaning down to kiss him so hard it almost hurts.

Eddie groans quietly, slipping his hand under Steve’s shirt to the warmth of his skin, and Steve licks Eddie’s mouth open, breathing hard. Eddie shivers when their tongues slide together, and Steve grins, sliding a hand to Eddie’s throat.

He squeezes gently when he sucks on Eddie’s tongue, and Eddie thinks he might die, letting out a strangled whimper at the pressure, at the smooth slide of the metal stud of Steve’s piercing against the underside of his tongue. There’s a string of spit connecting them when he pulls away, and Eddie is panting, and Steve is grinning.

“Christ, Steve.”

Steve giggles softly, tears still in his eyes, and his fingers tighten gently. Eddie takes a breath, his head falling back.

“Okay?” Steve asks softly.

“Harder.”

Steve squeezes harder, his head tilting curiously as Eddie’s breath catches and he whimpers, letting his eyes close. Steve’s hand is warm, but Eddie shivers anyway. He taps Steve’s back gently after a few moments, and Steve releases him.

“God.”

Steve smiles, his finger brushing up and down his neck so gently it almost tickles.

“You’re beautiful,” he murmurs.

Eddie is breathing hard, his eyes still closed, and Steve leans down to kiss him, licking into his mouth and sucking on his lip even though Eddie can’t kiss back.

Steve drags his lips across Eddie’s cheek, trailing wet kisses over his skin, until he’s kissing his jaw and just under his ear.

“Fuck,” Eddie breathes, tilting his head, listening to the wet sounds of Steve’s lips on his skin. He rubs his hand across the small of Steve’s back. Steve hums softly, his lips finding Eddie’s earlobe.

“Should get your ears pierced,” Steve whispers, his breath against Eddie’s skin, and Eddie shivers again, chills running down his spine.

“Yeah?”

“Mhmm.” He sucks on his earlobe softly, his piercing running across it, and Eddie bites his lip, furrowing his brows. “Would sound so pretty, don’t you think?”

Eddie agrees, tensing as he imagines the soft clicking of Steve’s tongue stud against his earring.

“Shit.” He can feel Steve smile against his skin. “How do you know me so well?” he wonders out loud, his head tilting so Steve can kiss down his neck sloppily, leaving spit and bruises in his path. “Like you know every fuckin’ button I have.”

“Because I’m in love with you.”

Eddie squeezes his eyes shut as they burn, and Steve’s teeth close on his skin gently, nibbling between puffs of hot breath. Eddie slides a hand into Steve’s hair, holding the back of his head gently.

“‘M in love with you too,” Eddie murmurs.

“Fuck.”

Steve licks across his neck, dragging his piercing over his skin, sucking a bruise into his skin before he pulls away and tilts his head to switch sides.

“Sweetheart,” Eddie sighs, his hand slipping to Steve’s hip and pulling him closer. Steve hums softly, his teeth digging into Eddie’s skin.

When he’s satisfied, he pulls away, admiring his work, tracing the bruises with a light finger before he falls forward and his forehead presses to Eddie’s.

Eddie closes his eyes, holding him close, breathing him in. He smells masculine and warm, like something Eddie would like to eat. Like home.

“Who would’ve thought?” Eddie murmurs when Steve nudges their faces together. Steve pulls away to look at him, and Eddie gazes at him, admiring the flush of his cheeks, his kissed-red lips. “Ste-e-eve Harrington.”

“Surprised?” Steve whispers, holding Eddie’s face.

“Hm.” Eddie takes a deep breath, gazing up at him. “Honestly, not really.”

“No?”

Eddie reaches up, touching Steve’s face, holding his chin.

“We cuddle almost every night, sweetheart.”

“‘S true.”

Steve holds his hand to his face.

“So you’re my boyfriend?” he asks almost shyly. Eddie smiles, pausing to swallow before he speaks.

“If you want me to be.”

“Yes, please.”

Eddie leans up and kisses him softly.

“You already act like my boyfriend,” Steve says quietly when they part.

“How so?”

Steve leans back, looking at him, his cheeks pink.

“You take care of me,” he says softly, averting his gaze, down to where his legs rest on either side of Eddie’s hips. “Make me feel safe. Make me feel beautiful,” he adds, his voice almost just a breath.

“Come here.”

Eddie kisses him chastely before he wraps his arms around his waist, sighing as Steve hugs him, relaxing against him. Steve tucks his face back into his neck, his breath warm against Eddie’s skin.

They fall asleep on the sofa, after moving to lay down, wrapped completely around each other, with Eddie’s pulse against Steve’s fingertips.

It’s bright when Eddie wakes up, his face covered by Steve’s hair. He squeezes his eyes shut, sighing heavily, moving his hands. They’re resting on Steve’s back as Steve lays on top on his, between his legs.

There’s noise in the kitchen.

Clatter of dishes and soft voices and the scrape of a chair over the tile floor, and Eddie blinks his eyes open, looking up at the ceiling.

Steve makes a quiet noise under him, a sleepy noise that’s rough in his throat, and Eddie runs his hand through his hair. He sits up heavily, pushing himself up over Eddie and looking down at him. His hair falls around their face like a a curtain, blocking the sunlight out, and Eddie wants to kiss him.

“Is that Robin?” Steve grumbles. Eddie pauses, listening, and he hears Robin’s voice, speaking indistinctly, and a soft laugh from Nancy.

“Sounds like it,” he says quietly.

“What are they doing in my house?” Steve mumbles, leaning down to kiss Eddie’s forehead before he gets up, groaning as he stretches.

Eddie follows him to the kitchen, rubbing his face and squinting as sunlight reflects off the white walls. Robin is sitting on a counter, talking as Nancy makes coffee. Argyle is sitting on the dining table, following a joint while Jonathan watches. Nancy sees them first, looking over as they walk in.

“Morning, sleepyheads— Holy shit.”

Robin looks around her and bursts into laughter as Eddie raises an eyebrow in confusion. Jonathon looks up at them, his eyes scanning both of them vaguely, unimpressed, and Argyle grins at them.

“Jesus, Steve,” Robin says. “I thought Eddie was the vampire.”

Oh.

Eddie’s face burns as he looks at Steve, whose face is red.

“Shut up,” Steve snaps at Robin, who cackles, and he goes over to smack the back of her head as he reaches into the cabinet behind her to get his medication.

Eddie hesitates in the doorway, watching Steve pop the pills into his mouth and sip from the faucet while trying to avoid Robin’s kicking feet. He pushes his hair back, stepping to Nancy and asking quietly for a hair tie. She’s grinning as she stirs her coffee and she just holds her wrist up for him to take it. He kisses her hand when he does.

After tying his hair up, he goes to sit on the table behind where Jonathan is sitting backwards on a chair, using Jonathan’s head to hoist itself up, and Jonathan laughs lightly.

“Morning, fellas.”

“It’s past noon,” Jonathan says dryly.

“Oh, perfect, ‘s not too early to smoke.”

“It’s never too early, my friend,” Argyle says, handing a joint out to Eddie, who takes it with a smile.

Eddie watches while Steve pours coffee into two mugs, while he scoops the perfect amount of sugar and pours the perfect amount of cream into one of them. He watches while Steve banters with Robin, his cheeks still red, while he dodges her hand that’s reaching out to ruffle his hair.

Steve brings the coffee over to him, greeting Jonathan and standing next to Eddie as he sets the coffee down. Eddie lifts his chin, pulling the joint away from his lips as Steve leans down, and Steve smiles, leaning in until his lips brush Eddie’s.

Eddie blows smoke into his mouth slowly, smiling, and he kisses him before he pulls away. Steve blows the smoke into his face.

Eddie turns to find Argyle gazing at them as he lifts his mug to sip his coffee.

“Dude.”

“I love love,” Argyle says simply, and Jonathan snorts.

“Yeah, me too, man,” Eddie says, lifting his mug.

Steve cooks while Robin and Nancy drink their coffee, and Eddie follows him, sitting on the counter. He watches Robin mindlessly play with the ends of Nancy’s hair while Nancy takes a drag from Argyle’s joint.

Eddie cleans the dishes after they eat, and Steve takes his place on the counter, and Eddie leans against it, between his legs. Steve sets his arms over Eddie’s shoulders while Eddie watches the others laugh and talk across the table. Argyle is telling some story, and Jonathan is hiding his face behind his shirt as he laughs.

“Alright?” Steve asks quietly, leaning down so his mouth is right by his ear. Eddie tilts his head, relaxing against his chest.

“Mhmm.”

Steve is quiet for a moment, his hand moving to trace soft lines over Eddie’s neck for a moment before it stops and presses into a spot that’s no doubt bruised red or purple. Eddie bites his lip, his cheeks flushing as it hurts, and he wants to let Steve do it harder, but he smacks his hand away, and Steve giggles.

“Sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m not.”

Eddie shakes his head fondly, looking back at him as Steve leans forward and rests his head on Eddie’s shoulder.

“I love you,” Eddie says softly. Steve’s fingers run over the back of his exposed neck before he hugs him.

“I love you too.”

Steve buries his face in Eddie’s neck, kissing him gently, and Eddie’s hands find Steve’s forearms, holding him and smiling, his eyes fluttering shut before Robin’s voice says loudly, “Oh my god.”

Steve laughs without lifting his head, his breath hot against Eddie’s skin, and Eddie opens his eyes, laughing when he finds her staring at them.

“You guys were already insufferable with the PDA.”

Steve laughs again, looking up and setting his chin on Eddie’s shoulder.

“You’re gonna have to deal with it, Buckley,” Eddie says dryly. “I’ve got a hot boyfriend, I’m not gonna keep my hands off him.”

She just gives him an immense eye-roll, and Nancy grins, her eyes sparkling as Steve hides his face back in Eddie’s neck.

“I think it’s beautiful,” Argyle says, giving them a nod of approval.

“Thanks, Argyle.”

“Wait, does this mean your guest room is up for grabs now?” Robin asks, leaning so she can see them both around Nancy.

“Uh.” Steve hums a soft mhmm into his neck, and Eddie grins. “Let me take my posters and shit and yeah.”

“Nice.”

She moves in the next week. She often joins Steve in napping on Eddie.

tagging: @allbimyself26 @th3-r4t-k1ng @marvelmwah @papermachedragons @symbioticsimplicity @hereissananxiousmess @telidina @due-to-the-fact-that-im-a-slut @messrs-weasley @suikatto @fandemonium-takes-its-toll thank you all sm <3

and just bc i thought everyone might wanna know, the person that tweeted the post that inspired this also wrote something based on it too!! you can find it here :)