One day Dustin walkie talkies Steve, asking to host DnD at his place, and Steve answers back that dude no, he's busy and hangs up the walkie.
Dustin responds in a huff, flipping off the walkie, before packing up his DnD stuff and angrily biking over to Steve's place anyway. He's got the biggest place, he loves him, and he's probably not even busy anyway. He goes on a million dates, he can cancel.
So Dustin arrives, throws his bike on the front lawn, and angrily knocks on the door. He can hear noise from inside - Steve isn't busy, the bastard - and frowns as the door opens to reveal Steve. Hes wearing a button down shirt and dress pants, an apron tied over top. Before he can say anything, Steve looks at him, and frowns.
"Dustin? What? Dude, I told you I was busy." Steve says, placing one hand on his hip and the other resting on the open door.
"Come on Steve," Dustin says, rolling his eyes. "It's one date with a girl you're never gonna see again. Just tell her you changed your mind. Hellfire is more important."
"Hellfire is more important?" Steve says, and before he can say anything else, a voice echoes out through the Harrington house.
"Steven?" A feminine voice calls. "Have my guests arrived yet?"
"No Ma," Steve calls back. "It's one of the kids I babysit."
Oh, Dustin thinks, he's busy at a party with his mom. And something in Dustin coils, frustrated. Why did he hang up the walkie then? And why did he say he's Dustin's babysitter? He's not a kid anymore, he's a teenager now. He can handle himself. He's way more mature than most adults out there.
Steve turns back to Dustin, hand still on hip, eyebrow raised.
"Well why didn't you say something Steve!" Dustin replies, gesturing exasperatedly with his hands.
"I did." Steve says firmly. "I told you I was busy. It's not my fault you didn't listen."
And Dustin flusters. "It wasn't- I just- I thought-"
"You thought?" Steve prompts, raising an eyebrow at him, and Dustin shrinks under his gaze. He's never felt so small.
"I thought you were lying to get out of it." He replies, basically a whisper. "Or just going on one of your dates."
"And what? You thought I didn't want to host badly enough that I'd lie about it, and showed up anyway? You thought I'd abandon a date last minute to host a game I don't even play?" Steve says, and Dustin can feel the pressure behind his words. "Or I'd let you host a game in my house without me there? Fat chance."
Dustin looks down at his feet and tries not to let his lip wobble. To repress the urge to stamp his feet and yell. Instead he clenches his fists, tight by his side, and feels his stomach churn. He just wants to play his game.
Steve sighs, runs a hand through his hair, and looks down at Dustin softer this time.
"Dust, you know I love you right?" He says, placing a hand on his shoulder. Thick, and warm, and comforting. "But you've got to learn some fucking boundaries, bud."
Dustin snorts, weak and watery. "Okay.
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sorry sometimes i think about mako and my heart hurts so much. this kid raised himself and his brother on the streets in homelessness and utter poverty from eight through fifteen, promptly after seeing the violent death of his mother and father. he turned to the triple threats because they couldn't survive as a pair of wretched kids without any adult support, and the environment forced him to turn into the exact character that killed his parents in a terrible twist of irony. and after sheer-fucking-luck hits and they aren't homeless anymore, their livelihood wavers on the outcome of what's a literally game to everyone but them; and after things are finally starting to look up and their team is going places and things just might be okay, his gradually stabilizing world unceremoniously expands and everything goes to shit.
and the city that chewed him up and spat him back out, ruined him as a child and took away his ability to stay afloat in a true sense of normalcy as an adult — when it's on the verge of destruction and falling to pieces before his eyes, he gives himself to save it with the full expectation to die. he went from the kid who didn't and couldn't care about anything outside of himself and his brother, to finding redemption for his younger self in his police work despite its injustice against him, to willingly sacrificing himself to a world that had never loved him.
he's a desperate people pleaser, socially and emotionally stunted for the adult he had to be as a kid, unable to navigate interpersonal relationships easily yet still trying his damned hardest. he's intensely and entirely devoted to the things that matter to him and for so long it was only him, bolin, and ensuring their survival — yet by the end, that devotion has expanded to protecting the rest of the world. he starts out entirely self-reliant and ends in trusting the people he cares about to know their own needs, to be able to take care of themselves, to be okay without him despite having spent so much of his life defined by his role in others' well-being.
just. what the fuck i'm such a big fan of this fictional guy and i'm unashamed about it at this point. also let him cry please (if you won't i'll do it i'll let him cry)
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God, John and Sherlock from Sherlock & Con. are such an old married couple. They know each other for at max a couple of months and they pull this off on ep 12
John: "You are so cleaver, honestly"
Sherlock, flustered: "Oh...Stop"
John: "No, seriously"
Sherlock: "Stop it now, Watson. You flatter me. What about you with that tackle? Positively brutish!"
John, flustered too: "Well I was just... right in my stride and bang! Really connected- down he went"
Sherlock: "It was spectacular!"
John: "Aw thanks mate, it hurt my shoulder tho"
Sherlock: "You should put ice on that"
John: " Nah nah, it's ok"
Sherlock: "You'll regret it if you don't~"
John: "nahnahnah I'm fine honestly"
Sherlock, not convinced: "hm sure"
Guy that John just tackled to the ground: "Would you two shut up?"
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