#if he won like that I would’ve died of excitement

[teddy-bear-d]

How in the world did Etho live that long??? He managed to stay at an hour twenty the whole session!

[inamoment]

I met this gentleman in the Britton Plaza parking lot last night. I had just let him cross the street in front of me before parking. Once I parked - he waved at me through the window, which I then cracked so we could speak.

His first words to me were:

“Hello. My name is John. I’m 39 and I’m gay. I won’t hurt you, I don’t do bad things. You’re safe. I’ve been homeless for a very long time but this week I got keys to an apartment with help from a group. I don’t do drugs. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I’m trying to get $9 to buy eggs, milk, bread and hot dogs at Dollar Tree. Do you have anything to help?”

I gave him $10 and he was filled with so much gratitude and asked if I would pray for him. I said yes and he walked away after thanking me again.

I collected my things and by the time I had gotten out of my car, John was already two parking lanes away. Without even knowing what I was doing, I shouted, “John?” he turned around and I yelled “can I take you grocery shopping?”

His voice cracked and he said “that would be nice.” By the time he got back over to me, he was crying.

He told me he was scared to go into Publix looking “so disheveled” and I assured him it was okay.

We started talking and walking around the store grabbing the items he mentioned. He didn’t ask for anything else besides those 4 items above. I asked if he had a freezer in his apartment and he said yes. I told him to grab two of certain items bc he could freeze things like the bread and hot dogs.

He told me about growing up in Key West, how his mom was sick with MS and he helped take care of her. She died when he was young and he’s been on his own ever since. He explained how he’s been looking for a job but he has a criminal record for selling drugs - he didn’t do them but he wanted to make money to get off the streets and thought that was the way. Every fiber in my body told me this man was good and just needed help. I had him grab a few extra things (he was VERY excited to get cereal, face wash and “something to drink besides water”). I put a couple of canvas totes in the cart so he wouldn’t have to carry plastic bags.

I spent 20 minutes and $46 and you would’ve thought John won the lottery. He was overwhelmed with gratitude and kept saying how blessed he was.

We parted ways after check out as I needed to start my own grocery shopping and he went to wait for the bus.

I share this bc sometimes it’s the little things that can make a BIG impact. Sometimes it means stepping a little outside your comfort zone to help someone in need. Sometimes it means extending a handout to help someone get a hand up. We’ve all had ups and downs and highs and lows and the unexpected blessings and kindness that come out of those moments are what makes the world go round, especially in times like these.

via Toni Mari Wofford .

Credit: Life's Simple Truths - Facebook

[roonilwazlibimagines]

the bet ch.6 - r.b x female reader

Blurb: regulus might actually have a conscious but it is still a grey area. everyone is excited for the upcoming christmas party.

Word Count: 5.7k

A/N: if my group decides to do the fucking group work due tomorrow then i plan to upload a big majority of this fic tonight :) Warnings - regulus and evan are a little misogynistic and by a little i mean a lot, sex is heavily referenced

Masterlist | ch.1 | ch.2 | ch.3 | ch.4 | ch.5 | ch.7 | ch.8 | ch.9 | ch.10 | FINISHED

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On Monday morning Regulus thought he was being spoiled. First the tight dress on Friday night and now today she was wearing that tight skirt again. Evan kicked the back of his chair when she walked in and Evan followed her movements, asking “Did you watch the game?” As she sat down, no doubt a ploy to be able to stare at her a little longer. 

“I did,” she said, a big smile on her face, “we won.” 

They began talking about the match until Louie came in and the conversation died down. 

Last Friday they had figured out a method for their unlucky potion, but they still didn’t have an incantation to try to make it unlucky. 

So they worked on the forms together at their own desks, until she got to the last page where she had to name any spells they would be using. 

“Should I just leave it?” She had asked as she leant over her desk to show Regulus. Regulus mourned the loose shirt she had worn last time, except the tight fitted one she currently had on was good enough for him. 

“Leave it for now, if we don’t think of anything by Thursday we’ll just test the potion to make sure it actually makes something and doesn’t blow up in our faces.”

She nodded and put the paperwork aside to get a charms textbook to hopefully find an incantation to use. 

When she got up, she felt Regulus’ eyes on her and when she turned around quickly, Regulus wasn’t fast enough to turn away without her seeing. She smirked to herself.

So maybe this weekend she had done some reflection. Regulus Black was attractive. It had been hidden by his arrogant and foolish demeanour, but now it was coming to the surface and she would feel confident saying that he was seeing her in a different light as well. 

Sure, she had made friends with the safety manager, and even Louie and the boss, and maybe even Evan, but she was much closer to Regulus and Regulus was much closer to her. Besides Evan, of course.

So maybe today she purposefully wore that skirt because she knew she looked good in it, and maybe when she got back to her desk, she accidentally dropped her quill and didn’t necessarily rush to pick it back up. 

When she finally sat down Regulus had his eyes trained on the parchment in front of him, but the tips of his ears were red and she couldn’t help but smile to herself. 

She wasn’t sure what was happening between them, but something had to be happening. Surely. And this was exciting for her because she’d never really had a crush. Not that this was a crush. She felt too old to call it a crush. But she was excited to see where this would take her and she hoped it would actually take her somewhere. 

It was the beginning of December and Regulus was getting angsty. He blamed it on the fact that he hadn’t done anything in over a month. He hadn’t been seeing other girls and then she shows up looking like a vision out of one of his many fantasies. He was losing his grip and Evan seemed to notice because when she went to the bathroom Evan turned around. 

“Mate, I don’t know what you’re waiting for, if I was you I’d have made my five hundred already.”

Regulus didn’t say anything, but Evan took this as an opportunity to continue. “Honestly, that skirt makes me lose all rational thought, if I didn’t actually like you Reggie I would’ve taken my chance with her and-”

“Shut up,” Regulus said, making Louie drop his quill and look over at the two boys. Of course, he loses his cool the one day Louie is in the office. Shit, he thought, did Louie hear what Evan had said? Surely Louie wouldn’t be able to figure out their bet just from one conversation, but Regulus’ stomach was suddenly tied in a knot. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, looking over at Louie who continued with his work. 

“Mate, are you okay?” Evan asked, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. 

“I’m fine, I just,” Regulus didn’t really know what was wrong and even if he wanted to try to figure it out, he didn’t want to try to figure it out with Evan and Louie present so he shook his head. “I’ve barely got two months left and I haven’t done anything, it’s getting to me.” 

That was something Evan seemed to understand. 

“Don’t stress, mate,” he said, patting his friend's shoulder, “your Regulus Black, remember?” Just as he said those words she walked out from the breakroom and gave him a funny look. Evan turned to her and then turned to Regulus and then back to her before he finally turned around and went back to his work. 

On Tuesday Louie came back in with a big folder for her and Regulus. 

“It worked,” he said and they both smiled at him.

“The healing potion?” She asked and he nodded. 

Reglus put his palm out in front of her and they high fived. 

“Good job,” he said. 

“But the hair removal potion hasn’t been a great success.” 

“Oh,” she said, visibly deflating. That was her first potion, she wanted it to succeed. Regulus wanted to tell her it was okay, they’d fix it, but Louie continued before he could say anything. 

“When the hair is removed it grows back, they want it gone forever.” “We’ll work on it,” Regulus said and Louie went back to his desk. 

Regulus thought that this was the most he had ever seen Louie in the office and he made a mental note to think before he spoke his usual rubbish to Evan. 

“What about caterpillar?” She said immediately and Regulus gave her a confused look. “It’s got shrinking properties, so once they do the spell for the target area, it should technically shrink the hair follicle and then hair won’t be able to grow.”

Regulus was once again impressed. He thought it would take them the whole week to figure it out, but it barely took her a minute. 

“Yeah, we could try that. But I think we should add some cowbane as well so the caterpillar doesn’t impact the boomslang skin.”

“Oh, good idea,” she exclaimed, getting her quill out and writing it down on a piece of parchment. She was excited and Regulus thought it was fun having someone who was just as excited as him about potions. 

Evan always lent an ear to listen to him ramble on about his potions, but she actually understood what he meant and got excited with him and he found himself smiling as he started filling out the paperwork for the potion. 

On Wednesday before the meeting, more unicorn hair arrived and Evan started putting it away. 

“I got it just for you,” he said to her as he came back from the brewing room.

“You’re so kind,” she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at him and walking past him into the breakout room for their meeting. 

“Regulus,” he whispered into his friend's ear, “promise me you’ll get that stick out of her ass.” Regulus laughed. He had become accustomed to getting to know her without anything up her ass, but he understood that for whatever reason, she was still tightly wound up when it came to Evan. 

“I can’t perform miracles, mate.” She was sitting at the front next to the safety manager, and while they were whispering, they knew she wouldn’t hear them. 

“It’ll be a miracle if you get her to bed,” he said, “hence the five hundred galleons.” Regulus didn’t say anything, but when he looked around the room, he realised Louie was sitting behind them and he mentally cursed himself. And Evan. 

They were still whispering, so surely Louie hadn’t heard them. Regardless, that was twice this week where he may have heard, they needed to be more careful. 

After the meeting, Regulus couldn’t help but watch the way Louie came up to her and started speaking to her. 

It was lunch time, by the time the meeting finished so Regulus and Evan went out to get their lunch, only to come straight back in and go straight to the microwave. She was walking out with Louie and she gave him a small smile as she walked past. 

Regulus watched through the windows as she got her lunch, still talking to Louie as he got his from the other side of the room. 

“Are you jealous or something, mate relax.” 

“Shut up, Evan,” he scoffed, “just making sure there’s no competition.” But really, he was scared that Louie was telling her what he had overheard this week.

They both came into the breakroom which Regulus thought was weird considering Louie had never eaten lunch with them, but she sat down next to him forcing Regulus to sit across from her instead. 

She still smiled at him and she still engaged with his small talk that now ended with looks that lasted a little too long and a hint of playfulness that peaked through everytime one of them made a joke. 

When lunch was finished, they went back to work on the method for the hair potion and find an incantation for their unlucky potion. 

“You were always better at charms than me, so maybe you can continue and I’ll fill in the paper work for the hair potion trial?”

She laughed, she wanted to tell him that she was better than him at every subject, but she didn’t know how to make it sound nice and so she didn’t. 

“Sure,” she said, now sitting back at her desk, “but I can’t promise I’ll find anything.”

The paperwork took Regulus the rest of the day, but she still hadn’t had any luck finding an incantation until Thursday afternoon when she exclaimed, “I’ve got it!”

Regulus was already excited. 

“Well I don’t have it, but I have an idea.” She pushed the book to the middle where the desks touched and told him about this old charm that was said to cause the person to make the wrong decisions and resulted in unlucky outcomes. They had never heard of it, but it would be worth a shot. 

She finished filling out the paperwork and handed it to her boss. 

“I feel like we haven’t brewed a potion in so long,” she complained when she came back to her office. 

“I know,” Regulus said, “I’m looking forward to it.” 

“Me too,” she said because she was looking forward to it, especially considering their unlucky potion required an hour wait time and she was looking forward to the conversation they would have during that time. 

Regulus was also looking forward to spending more time with her. Whenever they spent time alone it always ends up working in his favour and the quicker he got this over and done with the better for him. Firstly, because he’d be five hundred galleons richer, but because he also felt like Louie somehow knew what he was doing and that didn’t make Regulus feel good. 

He was okay being a dick around Evan, but he didn’t want anyone else thinking he was a dick because he wasn’t. Evan just brought out the worst in him. 

On Friday they were finally in the brewing room, getting the ingredients ready for the potion. They were starting with the hair removal potion because they were confident with the method and it only had a half hour waiting time, so it would give them an opportunity to prepare for the next potion. 

This time, the potion finished with a dark pink appearance and they started putting it into vials. 

“I hope this one works,” she said. 

“Me too,” he replied, “but if it doesn’t, we’ll just do it again.”

“I like doing things once and getting it right.” She said and Regulus found it humorous that barely two months ago he would’ve rolled his eyes at that and said something stupid back, but this time he smiled at her. 

“Okay, little miss perfectionist.” His tone was teasing and she was suddenly quiet at his words. A funny feeling began forming in her stomach and she did the cleaning spell, mainly to give her time to think of what to say. 

It didn’t work, she still didn’t know what to say. Instead she said, “I’ll get the cauldron for the next potion.” 

Regulus had found his new favourite thing. Making her flustered. He was so used to her always having something witty and smart to say back to him, but he liked leaving her speechless, he liked having that effect on her. 

The ingredients were already prepared so they just had to put them in. Regulus was putting away the vials so she started putting the ingredients into the cauldron. She had put in the flobberworm mucus and valerian in and she was just about to put in the herbaria when a hand closed around her wrist. 

“What are you doing?” There was genuine curiosity behind his voice, but for some reason she still froze as if she had done something wrong. 

“Putting the herbaria in.”

“That’s not herbaria.” She went to argue with him but she turned the glass tube in her hand to see that it was actually mallowsweet.

“Oh,” she said, turning to look up at Regulus who still had her wrist in his hand. “Thanks, that would have blown up in my face. Again.” 

He nodded before he said, “Yes, and you would have found some way to put the blame on me, so I can’t have that happening.” 

“And then the whole office would think you have it out for me because two accidents are believable, but a third one? Forget about it.” He laughed before he noticed that he was still holding her wrist in his hand. 

“Sorry,” he said, finally letting go.

Merlin, he thought, why was that so awkward? She told him it was okay, but really, it wasn’t because the skin on her wrist was still tingling and she had to ball her hand up in a fist to stop it from shaking. 

She got the right ingredients and Regulus stood beside her and watched her. She double checked every ingredient until it was time to actually add in the mallowsweet. Regulus had the stirrer in his hand so she stepped away and he stirred it counterclockwise thirteen times. 

When he finished, they were in their usual position. Regulus leaning against the bench with his hands folded over his chest, and her standing in front of him. 

Regulus once more, began to admire her beauty. He hadn’t really thought about it until Evan had brought it up, but he thought that maybe she had always been beautiful, it was just a shame that it was hidden by her arrogance and pride. 

But Regulus always knew how to spot a pretty girl and he couldn’t help but be surprised that he hadn’t noticed this earlier. 

“Do you have any plans for this weekend?” She asked, bringing him out of his thoughts. 

“Might get started on some Christmas shopping,” he said, knowing that the only Christmas present he was buying was for his mother. And maybe something stupid for Evan 

“Oh that’s smart,” she replied, “I always leave mine to the last minute, I should really start thinking about it.” There was a pause. “Is your family big on Christmas?” 

“Yeah,” he said, “kinda.” She didn’t say anything so he continued. “My mother likes it because it’s a family thing so she always goes over the top for it and we usually go to my aunts, but it almost always ends with my brother storming out.”

She gave him a sympathetic look. 

“I’m sorry,” she said because she wasn’t sure what else to say. Regulus was cursing himself. He was only playing into his own theory. He was only making them closer by talking about his bad relationship with his family. 

It was fine for her to do it, because then Regulus knew she was interested in at least being friends, but him doing it was only going to lead her on and that was not part of the plan. 

“What about your family?” He said, trying to redirect the conversation. 

“Well it’s just me,” she shrugged, “I don’t have any cousins, so it’s just my parents and me.” Regulus could sympathise with that. He had his brother, but Sirius left when he was young and Regulus felt like the only child for a long time and he knew how isolating that was. “But we have an image to uphold so we still have our Christmas party, but on Christmas we just open our presents, eat lunch and then it’s just like a regular day.” 

He almost felt bad for her. Even if his Christmas always ended with his mother crying to him, the day began with high spirits as almost everyone was surrounded by people they loved. Or at least people they called family. 

“Ah,” he said, once more trying to redirect the conversation. “I’ve heard about your family's infamous Christmas party.” She rolled her eyes. 

“And how would you know about it?”

“What?” Regulus scoffed, a smile already on his lips. “Am I so beneath your family that you’re surprised I know about your Christmas party?”

She laughed, a cheeky grin on her face that Regulus was trying hard to memorise. 

“Yes,” she said, giving him a pointed look, “it is only for the most elite and noblest.”

“Wow,” he said, his head falling back ever so slightly, “well then,” he said sarcastically, “I’ve only ever heard bad things about it.” She rolled her eyes at him again. 

“I wish I could tell you good things,” she sighed once their laughter died down. 

“Not a fan of the Christmas party?”

“Not really.” For a second, she wanted to tell him how she hated having to talk to the most elite and noblest because they were always judging her and her choices. Of course, the daughter of two of the most respected people in the wizarding world was under constant scrutiny and she hated being thrown into the centre of it at these things. Instead she went with, “I don’t know, it’s a lot of pressure.”

“The party?” Regulus asked, sitting up slightly as she turned away to look at him. She’d never told anyone this so she wasn’t sure why Regulus Black was the first to hear this. 

“Yes,” she said, “it has to be perfect otherwise people will talk, but people also talk about me regardless." She said it so softly Regulus struggled to hear her, especially as she turned to look away from him. 

He knew that people spoke about her, Merlin, for most of his life he was talking about her and judging everything she did, even if it was completely normal. But she was so uptight and high maintenance that he never really considered how she felt. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure she had feelings until this year. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, repeating the sentiment she had given him when he shared his familial woes. 

“So,” she dragged out the last syllable, “what Christmas presents are you getting?”

“Probably just something for my mother, there was a new book she wanted so maybe that.” Regulus was downplaying it. He knew what he was getting his mother. There were a few new books she wanted and Regulus had been annotating a book that made him think of her for the past month. Then, there were the usual gifts. The massage voucher and the perfume that she loves as well as those chocolates that she never buys for herself even though they were her favourite. 

“That’s cute,” she said.  “I know what I want for Christmas, but I have no idea what I’m getting everyone else.” Regulus laughed. Of course she knew what she wanted for Christmas. 

They had 47 minutes left until they were ready to continue the potion and so Regulus told her to humour him and tell him what was on her Christmas wish list. 

And when they finished talking about Christmas the conversation naturally followed to New Years. She told Regulus how her family never really did anything for New Years and sometimes, they didn’t even stay up to midnight on New Years Eve and Regulus told her how Evan usually had New Years Eve parties at his house.

Regulus knew what this was leading up to. He didn't even have a second to consider it because he knew if he hesitated, it would make the invitation insincere. 

“You should come to Evan’s,” he said and he could see her blinking fast through her glasses. 

“Oh, that’s okay,” she said, “I don’t think Evan would want me there.” She felt weird accepting an invitation to Evan’s party from Regulus because even if she was friendly with Regulus and therefore friendly by association with Evan, she didn’t think Evan had warmed up to her the way Regulus had. 

“Who cares what Evan wants?” Regulus said. “He’ll be too drunk to notice if you’re there or not.”

“I feel bad,” she admitted. 

“Why?” She shrugged. She couldn’t explain it. She felt like she was pushing herself into their life when they had spent the last almost ten years pushing her out. “I’m inviting you, I probably spend more time at the house than Evan, it’s fine.” 

If she learnt one thing from her St Mungo’s visit with Regulus, it was that she liked it when people stood up for her. She had been doing it her whole life so it was nice to see someone else cared enough to do it for her. So when Regulus said, “and he won’t say anything if I invited you, trust me,” how could she say no?

“Okay,” she said. She was going to say that she’d have to ask her parents but she caught herself before she did so. “Okay,” she repeated more confidently. 

Regulus smiled at her. 

Good. 

There weren’t many situations Regulus could think of where they would be alone together for anything to happen between them from now until Christmas. Sure, there was the office Christmas party, but Regulus wasn’t sure if she’d be ready to get in his bed by then. Then, they had two weeks off over the holidays so there was nothing going on then and so Regulus would only have two weeks to get five hundred galleons richer. 

New Years Eve was a backup, that was all. It would be more relaxed, and if anything did happen at the office Christmas party, he could always tell her that Evan was sick and the party was called off. It would be fine. 

“What is the party like?” She asked, and Regulus explained how it was exactly how she’d imagine a party hosted by Evan Rosier to be. People blackout drunk and still drinking more.

He started talking about the past New Years Eve parties and when she started laughing about the time Evan somehow woke up with the inability to speak, the timer went off and they continued their potion. 

It was a dark shade of black which they took as a good sign as she cast the incantation and Regulus bottled it up. 

It had only taken two weeks and she was feeling good about it as Regulus cast the cleaning spell and they walked back out to the office. 

It was lunch time, so they made their way to the breakroom and met Evan who was already heating up his lunch. 

Regulus was used to chatting away his Friday afternoon. He and Evan usually talked about the game on the weekend or their plans to go out and meet up with various girls they’d met throughout their years. But today, he talked his friday afternoon off with her. 

Both of them had a textbook in front of them, trying to get inspiration for their own potion, until Regulus leant over and asked, “What do you know about lobalug venom?” To which she told him about this study she had read that said it might have aphrodisiac properties. 

Regulus, of course, already knew this, but he wanted to plant something in her mind and when she whispered aphrodisiac properties to him, he knew he had planted the seed. But then Regulus asked what the difference between that and moonstone would be. They talked about it and brainstormed, but then the conversation changed when they heard Evan’s heavy breaths and realised he had fallen asleep and then it changed again when she admitted that she struggles to stay up late and Regulus called her a grandmother for going to bed at ten. But she wasn’t going to stand for that and in the end Regulus admitted that his grandfather tendency was that he hates loud places because he can’t hear people speak. 

And the conversation flowed and ebbed from there until the clock struck three and Evan magically woke up, said goodbye, and apparated away. 

They laughed at that while they packed their things away and Regulus said goodbye as if he wasn’t going straight to Evan’s.

When he untucked his shirt, got a snack out of the fridge and sat at the dining table Regulus said, “I invited her to New Years Eve.” 

“Ugh,” Evan moaned, “is she going to ruin everything by telling us that it isn’t appropriate.” He said in a mocking tone. Regulus rolled his eyes. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep her away from your fun.”

“Ah, I see,” Evan said, taking a seat across from Regulus, “you’ll be keeping her busy.” He winked at Regulus and for some reason, something tightened in his chest. 

“That’s the plan,” he mumbled, looking down at the table. 

“That’s a great plan, actually,” Evan said, “start the new year with a nice five hundred galleon paycheck and then you won’t have to see her for another week. Although, it will probably be awkward when you get back, but I know you-”

Evan kept rambling but Regulus wasn’t listening. When he agreed to this bet he hadn’t considered that he’d still have to see her after they fucked. 

He’d have to go to work and see her in her pretty little outfits and he’d have to share his ideas with her and watch her chop up the ingredients and stand with her for however long it took for their potion to rest. 

For the first time, Regulus wished he had never listened to Evan.

He spent the rest of the weekend thinking about it. Merlin, he was such an idiot. He almost felt guilty on Monday morning when she came in wearing a tight fitted dress, saying good morning to Regulus as she took her coat off and put it on the back of her chair. 

“Good morning,” he said, not looking up from his book. 

“Are you okay?” She asked instinctively at the tone of his voice. 

“I’m okay, sorry, just a bit tired,” he said quickly, finally looking up from the textbook. He took in the dress she was wearing. 

Fuck, he thought, she has to know what she’s doing. 

She did know what she was doing. Her and Regulus had been sharing things she’d never shared with anyone and she was getting angsty with the Christmas break coming up. She was hoping something would happen before then and she was so anxious about it and Regulus’ words about doing his Christmas shopping that weekend were stuck in her head so she had gone therapy shopping on the weekend. 

When she saw this dress, she had one person in mind and she knew she had to have it. 

“Nice dress,” were the first words Evan said as he walked in, she was still standing, but at his words she sat down. She frowned slightly, this dress was not for Evan. 

“Thanks,” she said, “it’s new.” Evan nodded, but he wasn’t looking at her as he went to sit at his desk. 

Regulus saw the little frown form on her face from his friend's words and he wished Evan knew how to shut his mouth. 

But Regulus had to agree, it was a nice dress. Because when she lent over her desk to ask Regulus about nux mysteria, a new potion ingredient that had just been discovered, he could look down and see more than the piece of parchment he was meant to be looking at. 

He had been thinking about this view since the last time she wore a loose top and suddenly, he didn’t feel so bad about the bet. 

He had to keep reminding himself. It was just a quick fuck. That was all. He’d get it over and done with, get his money and move on with his life. And if she ever brought it up, Regulus would just tell her the truth. He wasn’t looking for anything serious right now. 

He kept convincing himself this, but ultimately, he was trying to push it out of his mind because he was finding it hard to have a conversation with her without feeling like the five hundred galleons were literally on his shoulders. 

She wished she could make a potion that could help you read someone’s thoughts. She knew exactly who she’d use it on and she thought that every time she looked up to find Regulus already looking at her. 

She thought she was going to lose her mind, especially now that they were back to working independently and there weren’t a lot of times for her and Regulus to be alone. 

But there was still the office Christmas party that they were reminded about on Wednesday during their meeting. 

“I promise you, it will be amazing.” Were the last words the boss said to them before they left for lunch. 

It was being held at a nicer restaurant in Diagon Alley and she was already mentally going through her wardrobe, trying to figure out which dress to wear, but her thoughts were interrupted by Louie coming up to her. 

“Good news,” he said, and when his eyes flickered behind her, she saw that he was also talking to Regulus, “your hair removal potion was a success.” She beamed at Regulus. “But unfortunately, your unlucky potion isn’t working. It makes them unlucky for half an hour, but then they fall asleep.” It was probably because they had started with ingredients in the sleeping draught, but she only frowned at Louie while Regulus promised they’d work on it. 

“That’s a shame,” she sighed. 

“It’s a difficult potion,” he said, “it’s bound to take us some time.”

“Maybe for you, Regulus,” she said, “but I’m usually good at hard things.” 

Regulus thought he was the strongest man alive. If that was anyone else he’d never let them live it down. If this was any other hot girl he was trying to get into his bed he’d smirk at her and probably ask her to show him just how good she was with hard things. But she didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with what she had said. 

Regulus wondered if she really was clueless or if she was just trying to brush it off. “You’re usually good at hard things?” He questioned, a slight tease in his tone. She gave him a confused look that made Regulus realise that she was actually clueless. 

“Yeah, you know what I’m like.” And like most times, she was right. Regulus did know what she was like. 

But now he was starting to question it. Was she just that innocent or had she really never done anything?

If she was still a virgin this complicated things. It was one thing to sleep with someone for a bet, but it was a whole other thing to take someone’s virginity for a bet. Sure, it didn’t make a frequent appearance, but Regulus did have a conscience. 

He wanted to bring it up to Evan. If she was a virgin then unfortunately, the bet was off. But he had a feeling that Evan wouldn’t understand. 

“Mate,” he’d say, “why are you complaining? Virgins are hot, fuck, I’ll even do it with her and then you can complete the bet without a guilty conscience.” 

Yeah, he would not be telling Evan this. But how could he find out if she was a virgin, that wasn’t something he could come out and ask.

He figured he’d put it to the back of his mind and cross that road when it appeared, even if he could see the road coming up in the distance. 

They spent the rest of the day trying to swap out some of their ingredients, but it was difficult considering they were working from nothing. 

“We could try fanged geranium?” She had asked when they had been staring at a blank parchment for well over an hour. 

“They just did a study on it and it’s meant to have poisonous properties.” 

“Oh,” she frowned, flicking back through the textbook before she put a sticky note with that new information on it. 

“I think we should try niffler’s fancy because theoretically it should prevent the flobberworm from having sleeping properties, but should still slow down their brain which will help the potion act.” She didn’t want to admit it, but she thought this unlucky potion was making her unlucky because she was having no luck trying to figure out any good ideas for it. This was all Regulus’ doing.  

“That sounds good,” she said, not looking up from her textbook. Regulus wrote it down on their blank parchment, but that was all they had on it for the day. 

Nothing else came to them on Thursday either so there was no potion making on Friday so they instead, tried to think of more methods and by the end of Friday, their page was half full. 

“At least we have something,” Regulus said to her when they had packed up and were ready to go home. 

“Better than nothing,” she agreed. 

“So I’ll see you tomorrow night?” He asked, standing in front of her. 

“I’ll see you then,” she whispered before they said their goodbyes and apparated away. 

[nerdyenby]

Lime time :D I’m watching Sniff

Their setup is suffering lmao

The extended discussion of if this team is family friendly or not and then Ollie’s “Okay FUCK” 😂😂😂

“Sometimes it’s hard for me to shoot people because I’m bad at the game” Sniff my beloved!!

Guqqie’s excitement over there not being fall damage is so real

Sniff kinda popping off!!!!

This team is so silly goofy, this is gonna be such a fun time :))

Sniff muting to gush about how nice their team is <333

“I’m gonna run to the bathroom real fast” “Go piss, girl” SNIFF /pos

She said that to Purpled lmao 😂😂😂

Ollie being offended at the implication that he doesn’t sound Spanish enough

“I will be deafening during ace race to sing the I’m Just Ken song” “That’s fine” “Yeah, for sure” “That’s so fair, that’s just morally correct” Guqqie BASED

Rocket Spleef

THEYRE SO PREPARED!!!!!

Purpled is such a tryhard, I love him

“Not the puzzle pieces […] If I do bad in this game, I’m calling up Autism Speaks and I’m having a word with them, I’m just saying” that’s my audhd icon!!

“I’ve never been drunk before” and I believe him because Purpled Bedwars would never lie

Ableist map!!!! /j

“I love how we all look like little flies hanging out” Sniff Snifferish is only correct all the time

On the fence, what a legend!!!!!!

Purpled is too powerful you guys

Hole in the Wall

This isn’t a great game for them rip, at least it’s out of the way tho

Sniff and Guqqie <333

Everyone getting their chance to pop off my beloved

Sniff’s Purpled appreciation speech :(( them <3

Skybattle

“We don’t want people, we don’t like people” so true Purpled

SNIFF SNIFFERISHHHHHHH!!!!!! my streamer won skybattle

*Ollie instantly dies, is still screaming* “It’s okay, we move on” this team is everything to me, their energy is so

Ok but Guqqie managing a team kill in skybattle is so iconic of them

Yellow is a strong team, Ollie is one of the only players expressing a healthy fear of their raw power and I love him for that

Meltdown

Purpled and Guqqie being so excited about the new routes my beloved <333

They’re killing it!!!!

Purpled is such a good igl I will not shut up about it

#1 pink supporters fr :))

That fight against red was so uncomfortably close quarters lol, they did great tho

Sniff sacrificing herself to save Purpled, team player of all time <33

Guqqie and Sniff digging into Purpled for calling them “chat” my beloved

Battle Box

They did that!!!!

They popped off!!!! Absolutely destroyed!!!!!

Ace Race

The mega chicken’s betrayal was brutal

“I’m just Ken” 😭😭😭

NOOOOOOOOOOO SNIFFFFFFFF ;-;

Xeir recovery though!!!!! He’s making back that time!!

Grid Runners

“I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m barking orders” “You can bark, you can bark” “Yeah, you can meow if you’re up for it” this team 😂

Purpled losing his mind at that one pig is so valid but it’s also very funny to me

They’re on a roll!!!! Golf and dunk tank were clean

Purpled is confident with redstone, didn’t know that lol

Sands of Time

Excited about this strat :))

Guqqie do not apologize omg /aff

They’re so low on time, it’s stressing me out

Love them appreciating how much yellow popped off, they did incredible and it might be the biggest lead in season 3 (am definitely going to look into that now whoops)

Dodgebolt

“I love my girlfriend!!” “Really? No way, I never would’ve guessed” sapphic on sapphic violence lmao

Purpled asking if Walli can join the call lmao

You could tell me Purpled and Walli were boyfriends and I would believe you tbh, only inkling of hesitation is Purpled’s intentional token straight energy

Sniff popping off!!!! You owe corporations nothing and transphobes can fuck off

Purpled’s sympathy for Fruit’s plight my beloved

Them manually translating, language barriers lose!!!!

“I have adhd, I’m off my meds, please forgive me” SAME, WHERES MY FREAKING ADDERALL REFILL @mypsychiatrist

Great team, great times, great vibes :))

[oraclememehacker]

Game and Date Night

“Come on, come on…!” Futaba and Ren were during an exciting co-op playthrough of Pocky and Rocky on the super famicom. This game had been the bane of their existence ever since she had found it for relatively cheap. She had heard good things about it, and every time they played, they would get far it before the game really started to kick their ass. This time, however, they were on the top of their game. Enemies were going down like they were nothing, and soon they were at the 5th stage, the forbidden castle.

There were lots of cages strewn about, lots of enemies and barrels to destroy. At this point they were both down to their last lives but had full health and such. Neither of them was really saying much to each other, other than watching out for enemies and to avoid obstacles. Their full attention was on the game that was in front of them. And they were determined to beat it. Unfortunately, right before the boss, they died, and it was game over. What a frustrating way to end things, since Futaba had looked up that the next thing was the final boss.

A frustrated groan escaped Futaba as she laid down the controller and turned to Ren, who shared her frustrations by letting out a sigh, and was clearly gripping the controller a little more tightly than he perhaps should have been. “Don’t worry Ren, we’ll get it next time. At this rate I think we’ve seen most of the game. We would’ve won too if we hadn’t gotten sloppy during the 4th stage boss.” There wasn’t much that could be done now, and they were too deflated to want to retry.

She reached over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek to cheer him up. “Wehehehe, I think we did pretty well tonight don’t you say?” She grabbed one of her half full energy drinks and downed the rest of it. “Yeah, we did Futaba. Still just upset that we didn’t beat it tonight. Damn, I thought for sure we had it.” As he looked around, he realized they should probably clean up a bit. There were energy drink cans, soda cans and various bags of chips and stuff assorted around them. “…We should probably clean up a bit.”

That was when she realized just how messy they were. “Oh. Yeah, we probably should.” Futaba admitted with a sheepish chuckle as she watched Ren make his way downstairs to grab a trash bag. Then the two would get to work cleaning things up, putting everything in the bag to take out to the garbage later. As they were, Futaba couldn’t help but notice a slight upset look on Ren’s face. It was just a momentary thing that she would’ve missed normally, but Ren meant a lot to her. She loved him, so she was paying attention more to how he was feeling.

“Hey um, Ren? Is everything alright?” Futaba asked, putting the last of the trash into bags. He meant a lot to her after all and seeing him upset didn’t make her feel good at all. Maybe she was overthinking it but still. “Huh? U-Uh, of course I’m fine Futaba. Why do you ask.” He seemed confused, as everything was fine, at least, he thought so anyways. “I just saw that look on your face. It was like you turned from a smiley face emoticon to a frowny face one. Wanted to make sure you’re alright, is all!”

Oh. Normally he didn’t allow that to be seen, but Futaba was asking about it now, and he knew she wasn’t just going to Alet it be. “Just some thoughts, is all. It’s not a big deal really.” Hopefully that would be good enough for her. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. “You don’t have to lie to me Ren. We’re in a relationship. Just because I have trouble picking up on social cues doesn’t mean you can lie to my face like that! Please, you can tell me if something’s upsetting you.”

He sweat dropped hard at that. But she was right, he didn’t have any good reason to lie to her. It was just a reflexive thing from the days of his parents always bugging him, and then when he would tell them what was going on, just telling him to suck it up, or that he was overreacting, or that he was being a drama queen. Plus, with him being seen as a delinquent and a troublemaker, he really learned to keep his head low and to lie to avoid any issues.

“Okay okay, sorry Futaba. I’m not intentionally trying to hide things I swear. I just didn’t think it was a big deal, that was all.” There was an intense aura coming off Futaba still that just made him close his eyes. “It’s just, and it’s not really something I’ve told anyone but, I’m still dealing with the aftereffects of that interrogation.” Hearing that made the intensity fade away quickly, having a more concerned look. “What sort of effects are we talking about? Like a permanent status effect?”

That elicited a small chuckle from Ren. “Something like that. I’ve been dealing with migraines since then. I’m thankful to not deal with any today but they’ve been prevalent. Plus, there’s this spot in my chest that’s always been hurting. I think it’s from where they kicked me. There’s a large chunk of my memory that’s lost from then as well. Just a lot to deal with is all.” Immediately he was hugged softly, avoiding the spot the best she could.

“I’m so sorry Ren…we all knew that it was going to be risky. We just never expected them to drug you.” Hearing what he was dealing with deeply upset her, making her feel responsible for what he had gone through she was instrumental in saving him with the app activator. He returned the hug, giving her a few head pats of appreciation. “I didn’t expect it either, to be fair, heh. But don’t blame yourself. You saved me after all. If you hadn’t made that app activator, I’d be…I don’t want to think about it.”

Plus, there was a few visions that he was having where he saw himself laying on the table in a pool of blood. It must have been from his cognitive self. That was terrifying to say the least, but he wasn’t ready to confront that sort of thing just yet. So, for the time being he would keep that in his back pocket and just continue to give Futaba some head pats as she was sniffling into him, clearly still upset, and blaming herself for him being so hurt constantly.

“Just remember Futaba, I went along with the plan. We all did. We knew the risk.” He lifted her head up by moving his hand down to her chin, making her look at him. He then would lean down and softly kiss her lips, enjoying the softness of them as he held the kiss for a bit. He loved this adorkable nerd so much. She made his life worth living despite everything that he went through, and he wanted to make sure she knew of that.

There was bit of delay on Futaba’s end as she had been taken by surprise by this, but she returned the kiss in kind and the two were in a nice little embrace as they kissed for a bit, before he pulled his lips away. “So don’t blame yourself anymore, alright?” Futaba was incapable of saying anything and merely just nodded. He then wiped the tears that were in the corners of her eyes and gave her a few more headpats.

Then he realized: they had never taken the trash out. “Oh yeah, before we cuddle, I’ll take the trash out.” Pulling himself away from her, he took the trash down and quickly disposed of it in the dumpster in the alley way before heading back to his room. Futaba was in a much better mood now that she had been persuaded not to take his problems as her fault. He merely motioned for her to follow him to the bed and she would happily do so, after taking her glasses and headphones off.

The two would lay down on his milk carton bed and wrap their arms around each other, Futaba situated where she could nuzzle into his chest. Ren could feel his heartbeat just a little bit faster, because whenever they cuddled and enjoyed time with each other in this manner, it made a swelling of emotions come up to the back of his throat. He could only imagine how she must have felt in this situation, since she was a massive cuddler.

Futaba just found herself being comfortable and love stricken. To her, Ren was the most important person in her life. He was her key item, and she wasn’t going to lose him no matter what. That’s how she felt, and she nuzzled into his chest some more, thoroughly enjoying herself. “Mmm…you’re soft tonight, Ren. And smell good as well, surprisingly. Oh right, you went to the hot springs before this, you told me that.”

He thought maybe the intense gaming session would make him stink a little bit, but that didn’t seem to be the case. She patted her head some more, whilst rubbing her back, fingers swirling around in a soft circle to make her feel more relaxed. His chest softly rose and fell with each breath, and there was a healthy silence, the only sounds being from the two of them talking to each other, and the outdoor noises making their way in through the small opening in the window.

She would move her hands up and down the curvature of his spine, making sure he was nice and relaxed as well. The two were happy and in love, and there wasn’t much more that needed to be said. “Um…Ren? Thanks for everything…I-I love you…more than anything. You’re my key item. I never want to lose you.” As corny as it was, he really appreciated hearing that. “I love you too Futaba. Don’t worry, I’m not planning on going anywhere…well, until my probation is over.”

Oh right, that was the fly in the ointment. She didn’t want him to go, but his parents were probably going to want him back once that was over with, which was coming closer and closer every day. “Don’t worry though Futaba. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I’m going to see if I can’t strike a deal with my parents to stay here, because frankly I don’t really have anything to go home to. My parents don’t really care about me, and cared even less when I was charged with a crime.”

Hopefully that was the case, because him not being here was going to devastate her. “I hope so…I don’t want you gone. Not yet.” Futaba kept rubbing his back, sounding a little upset and frustrated at that. “I’ll fight with all my might. Just like fighting a major boss in an rpg.” Now he was talking her language. For now, the two would just continue to cuddle up against each other, but he would find that Futaba ended up falling asleep. Woops. Well, she wasn’t going anywhere tonight.

And neither was he. It was a great Game and Date night, and he managed to get some stuff off his chest that had been bothering him since the Interrogation room incident. Though, he still had more stuff to deal with. That was going to be a whole can of worms, something that he was probably going to need a therapist for. He gave her a few more headpats before just falling asleep alongside her. Sojiro was going to have a lot of questions in the morning, and same with Morgana. Oh well…

[condorclaw]

Jimmy's Mario Party stream where all the participants are totally there (ft. Grian, "Lizzie", and "Joel")

- Jimmy believes he might win this time and has to insist to his audience that he REALLY feels it this stream.

- “I hope Grian’s around and not doing anything silly like he normally is. I really, really, really hope he is. Guys. Hands together, pray right now, that Grian will pick up.”

- Turns out Grian’s on his phone because he’s taking Maui for a walk, and he says he’ll be back in 5 minutes. Lizzie thinks about going for a walk too. (“I’m going to walk Joel after the stream.” “What.” “Joel has a little harness.”)

- “Who’s Jimmy?” “Me, your best bud! And don’t say you only know Tim-“ “I only know Tim.”

- “I’m leaving, I’m going to do something weird, like count the hair on my arm.”

- Grian leaves at one point without warning, and he returns without explanation.

- They have a LOT of trouble setting the game up. (“This might be the streamer in me, but I reckon we should have tested this.” “Mm, maybe, but every time I message you, Grian, you say “who are you”, so I don’t think that would’ve worked.” “New phone, who dis?”)

- “This is my last resort. Cut my life into pieces.”

- “Nintendo, if you’re listening, turn away for a second- Nintendo are so behind on their internet capabilities.”

- After over 30 minutes, they finally get into the game. (“Six thousand people just cheered because we finally figured it out.”)

- The connection turns out to be so bad, they literally can’t play, but it’s suggested that Jimmy just makes a game and refers to the CPU players as them. (“I would like you to make a CPU, put it on extra difficult, and call it Lizzie.”)

- Jimmy ropes Grian into playing Mario Party with only him, they’re both not happy about it. (“I came to play with Joel and Lizzie.” “I did too!”)

- “Would you respect me a little more if I won today?” “No.” “Okay.”

- Jimmy wins the first two minigames, much to Grian’s dismay. (“I can’t believe Tim just beat me at counting.”)

- Grian and Jimmy gaslight the new viewers into believing Joel and Lizzie are playing the game too.

“People are saying “why can’t I hear Lizzie and Joel?”” “They’re here, everyone, they’re just muted. See, Lizzie’s rolling an eight.”)

“Guys in the chat, if you’re just coming in, I’m just going to be clear with you: basically, Joel and Lizzie-“ “Joel and Lizzie are here, they’re just muted, and playing as Peach and Luigi.” “100% that.” “So there’s nothing wrong with the title of this video.” “Nothing wrong with anything going on here, I promise.”

“Mic is broken and I play like a bot.” – Lizzie in chat

- “Grian, how does it feel being last?” “…I’m used to it.” “No, wait, don’t make me feel bad for you.” “Mario Party never treats me right.”

- “Grian, people are surprised that you have a sister. You have lore now. You have real-life lore.” “I think people forget that I’m a human being.”

- Jimmy got so excited, he pulled back, disconnecting cables, and shorting out the stream audio. It all goes downhill from there. Jimmy manages to get his and Grian’s audio back, but the game audio is completely gone.

- “…I wish I was as skinny as Waluigi. He’s got that hourglass figure.” “He does have an hourglass figure.” “No, he’s got more like a triangle.” “He looks good.”

- There might possibly be another go at doing Mario Party for a stream. (“Is there going to be a rematch of Mario Party when we get things working?” “There’s got to be, there’s got to be.” “Well then I’m going to have to come up with another excuse to be late.”)

- “I love this. I loved every second of that. That was my favourite part of this stream, and too be fair, there has not been many.”

- Jimmy’s in dead last when the board game ends. (“The moment going into the bonus stars, Joel Luigi is winning, and he would be very happy with that.” “And I don’t think he’s won a single minigame.”)

- As expected, "Joel" wins, yet Grian comes in last once the bonus stars are handed out. ("I think you came in 4th." "Yep, yep. It's how this game works.")

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (May 5/2021) -              He’s Back

Now that Wilbur’s returned, it’s about time he got a look around the server to see what he’s missed since he’s been gone. Tommy gives him a tour.

---

VOD LINKS:

Ponk

Foolish

Philza

Tommyinnit

Wilbur Soot

Skeppy

Captain Puffy

Foolish

---

- Ponk continues work on the supreme fridge in the desert

- Sam logs on to call Ponk handsome. Ponk replies that Punz isn’t online.

- Foolish logs on. 

Sam: Don’t ignore my messages ponk

Ponk: Hey, Foolish qt pie

Foolish: Oohhh ponk :)

Sam: He isn’t as cute as me :)

- Sam lands in front of Ponk as he’s watering the concrete. 

Ponk: “Oh, he’s gonna take my other arm!”

- Sam calls Ponk handsome again and hands him steak. Ponk tosses Sam the picture of Coraline’s mother

- Sam tells Ponk that he’s been doing squats and starts twerking to demonstrate

- Ponk shoves Sam off the fridge. When Sam survives, Ponk figures his booty helped save him from the fall, as Sam comments that the weight sent him falling too fast for him to MLG

- Ponk compliments Sam, saying his eyes are glowing like the stars in the ocean

Sam: It’s because I looked at you

Sam: :)

- Ponk and Sam watch the sunrise together. 

- They talk about Coraline’s mother. Ponk says that she is attractive...but not as attractive as Foolish. Sam immediately jumps off the fridge and runs away

Sam: you don’t got me atm. So it does matter.

Sam: I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

- Sam logs off

- Ranboo hires a mercenary Enderman to kill KSI

- Tommy meets with Wilbur at L’manhole

- Wilbur tells Tommy that all his memories are coming back. He remembers that Friend isn’t Tommy’s sheep but his own. 

- Wilbur wants Tommy to show him around to see what he’s missed. He takes Friend along despite Tommy worrying that Friend could die (”Who cares about a sheep, man? It’s just a sheep.”)

- Wilbur’s made some plans, debated with himself what to do now, and tells Tommy that he’s sorry. It may be hard to believe, but Wilbur’s turned over a new leaf! He feels great now and wants to apologize to people.

- Wilbur is in his forties now and asks how old Tommy is -- twenties, thirties? 

- First off, Tommy shows Wilbur Schlatt’s grave. Wilbur asks to see his own grave to see what people said about him. Tommy shows him L’manhole. Wilbur didn’t get a grave, only what he left behind.

- Wilbur sees Karl’s house (which he remembers), the Big Innit Hotel (which he doesn’t) and says he does remember a bit about the prison from Ghostbur’s memories of it.

- Skeppy comes walking past and they speak with him. Wilbur apologizes to Skeppy for not appreciating his trolling. Skeppy kills Friend by accident. He skepped all over Friend. 

- Skeppy runs away and asks Bad if tridents are like swords in terms of damage. Bad asks what he killed and learns that it was a blue sheep. Skeppy puts the trident in an Ender Chest. Bad warns Skeppy that he may have inadvertently started the next war, and Skeppy ends stream

- Wilbur comes across the invisible staircase and Tommy shows him the McPuffy’s. He asks about Karl. Last Wilbur remembered, Karl was an enemy of his, but has he changed? Tommy says he hasn’t seen Karl around much.

- They reach the hotel and Jack Manifold is standing at the desk. He and Tommy get into a shouting match but Wilbur is excited to see Jack. Jack welcomes him inside and Wilbur waits in one of the suites as Tommy and Jack argue in another room, listening in.

- Tommy takes him up to the roof. There, Tommy tells him about coming up with the plan there to murder Dream in the prison. 

Wilbur: “I’ve seen it all, you’ve had your little strifes -- this isn’t the first, right, Tommy. Tommy, do you remember when you got sent into exile? Yeah, I remember. I was there, Tommy. I was there. I was there -- I was in the cage of that little ghost’s fucking head. Every single step you and me took -- look at me, Tommy, look me in the eyes -- every single step me and you took, I was there -- I was there! I had no control of what was happening, I’ve no idea what was being said, but Tommy -- I’ll tell you what -- if I was there, and it wasn’t that stupid shell of a ghost instead of me...I would’ve struck down Dream right where he stood. We would’ve disemboweled him. We would’ve disemboweled him together.”

“Tommy, I’m not -- I wasn’t blind, I saw what he was doing to you, Tommy. I saw. I saw what he was doing to Tubbo -- I saw what he was doing to me. But you know what, Tommy? I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there, was I. We had Ghostbur. Ghostbur was there instead, right. And you know what the issue is, you know what the issue is? After seeing Ghostbur interact with Dream, I realized that no, Dream is not the enemy -- Dream is not the enemy!”

“This world was not supposed to be inhabited by a people of this caliber -- Dream is the hero! Dream needs to be let out of here! Dream’s not in prison for being a horrible person, Dream’s in prison because he dared to try and stop you all. He dared to try and stop you all from gaining all this power, because the minute I was gone, there was a vacuum, there was opening, and everyone just seeked to get in there! And Dream was the only one who stood up to them and told them not to, Dream was the only one who held my seat for me. He held my -- he kept it warm! He kept my throne warm, and you guys didn’t like that, so you threw him in prison! And if Dream died instead of me, I would be in there right now.”

“So Tommy, you should thank that I wasn’t alive to attack Dream when we got exiled! You should be glad we had little, passive Ghostbur, because now Dream’s in there, and I’m out here, baby.”

- Wilbur heads back down to speak with Jack Manifold. He tells Jack that he’s sorry that he didn’t grant freedom to Manifoldland, sorry that he led Jack into war, sorry that he denied Jack access to the election, sorry that he left Jack behind. Jack is a little surprised, but he thanks him and Wilbur and Tommy leave the hotel. 

Tommy: “Wil, just look at me for a second. The reason we started L’manburg, and everything here, was because we knew -- together, me and you, the duo -- together we knew that Dream was the villain. He was the one holding this server down. He was the dictator! ‘Cause you’re telling me even then, you think...you think Dream was the hero?”

Wilbur: “Tommy, I’ve made an oath of not lying now that I’m alive again. So I’m gonna come clean to you with the truth. Uh...one thing, I didn’t actually care about L’manburg, I just cared about -- you know, sticking it to the man. Actually, I cared about L’manburg for the sole reason that I could use it to stick it to the man. You ever sticked it to the man, Tommy?”

“L’manburg was a tool. It was a great tool, it worked, you know. It divided so many people, man. Listen, Tommy, and in my oath of not lying I’m gonna tell you know -- Tommy, I’m sorry for a couple things, to each of these people on the server. I’m sorry to a lot of them -- except for Phil, I’ve nothing to apologize to Phil for. Phil’s done nothing wrong. But to the rest of them, I’m sorry for a lot of things -- but Tommy, that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try again.”

- Tommy is confused. L’manburg was Wilbur’s unfinished symphony, how could he not care about it? Wilbur says maybe it wasn’t the right wording, he did care about L’manburg, but for the “wrong reasons.” 

- Wilbur asks to see the museum (though Tommy was going to take him to the Egg). They make it to the museum and Wilbur is excited to see the hto dog van as Tommy continues to protest.

Tommy: “It was like we were a family! You can’t just say that!”

Wilbur: “We were family, Tommy! ...We were. But you know what? You just -- you just didn’t -- I guess you didn’t have the balls to follow along with me. When I pressed the button, you were always against -- we’re leaving it behind, Tommy. It’s in the past--”

Tommy: “You blew up our fucking home!”

Wilbur: “We’re friends now. We’re friends.”

Tommy: “I don’t want to be your friend! You’re annoying and I hate you and you’re ugly and you have a gray hair and I bet you twirl it round and use the dog filter--”

Wilbur: “You’re following me an awful lot for someone who doesn’t care.”

- Wilbur notices the Ranboo My Beloved poster on the wall. He remembers Ranboo as a good man. Tommy says he is, and that he sees potential in him.

- They call Ranboo so that Wilbur can properly meet him. Wilbur says he’s sorry to him. He wanted to get to know Ranboo better, ‘pick his brain.’ Ranboo never met Wilbur in person.

- What nation is Ranboo a part of, who does he align himself with? Ranboo says all of them -- he chooses people, not nations.

Wilbur: “Okay, so -- let’s go an say, so there must be someone bad on the server right, there’s gotta be a bad guy on the server and who --”

Ranboo: “Yeah. Dream, yeah.”

- Wilbur goes quiet for a moment. He then asks what Ranboo stands for. Ranboo says people.

Wilbur: “What ‘people?’ What people? You can’t just stand for people! People are good and bad!”

- Ranboo lists the people he sides with. There are quite a few.

Wilbur: “Everyone? Everyone but Dream, everyone but the one bad guy everyone’s supposed to hate.”

- Wilbur accuses Ranboo of being a “schmoozer.” Ranboo's philosophy is, if someone hasn’t wronged him or the people he cares about, he has no quarrel with them.

- Wilbur says that’s fine in a perfect world, but there are wars that get fought. Ranboo says the server’s been quiet ever since Dream was put in prison and there have been fewer wars since Wilbur died -- to which Wilbur asks if Ranboo is against him in the same way he’s against Dream.

- Wilbur says goodbye to Ranboo, saying that they might get to know each other better in time. Wilbur leaves with Tommy to continue the tour, telling him that Ranboo’s just a follower. 

- Tommy gets angry and tells Wilbur off for being a nuisance, for making him feel like a ghost when Wilbur should be the ghost. They decide to fight, with weapons but no armor. 

- They fight in the Holy Land and Tommy defeats him. Wilbur says, though, that he’s already won no matter what. No matter what happens next, he won when he pressed the button.

- He asks to see Phil. Phil sent him a whole backlog of letters, including ones about things Tommy can’t know about. 

- They arrive at the Arctic and Wilbur remembers this place, remembers finding Friend here. Wilbur reunites with Phil and Wilbur is thrilled by the cottages.

- Wilbur thanks Phil for killing him and tells him the whole bit of what would’ve happened if he’d been there instead of Ghostbur.

- Tommy tells Wilbur that what led to him getting exiled was griefing George’s house with Ranboo. Ranboo didn’t get exiled because Tommy stood up for him -- to which Wilbur asks if Ranboo didn’t stand up for Tommy, letting Tommy get thrown under the bus.

- Phil asks about the lies in the letters. Wilbur tells him that he’s not lying anymore, and he lied in the letters because it’s like writing back from a summer camp -- he didn’t want to tell Phil that everything was going horribly. 

- Wilbur’s made plans, and when they’re ready, Phil will be the first to know. He also asks Phil if he can stay with him for a bit, as he has no house. He also needs a shower.

- Phil agrees to let Wilbur stay despite Tommy protesting, and Wilbur and Tommy leave.

- Ranboo comes over to ask Phil how it went. Phil was skeptical, but it seems like Wilbur’s changed for the better, and that Wilbur spoke highly of Ranboo. As for Ranboo, he says it seems like Wilbur isn’t as bad as people said he was. 

- Phil talks about killing Wilbur and what Wilbur said about it.

- For Wilbur’s plan, he needs lots of stone. Wilbur leaves Tommy at the Nether Portal to go get stone and speak with Phil.

- Phil gives Tommy several stacks of stone. 

- Wilbur says he’ll be “back in the saddle” soon, that he can rebuild. He still doesn’t know how he was revived, but the first thing he saw when he got back was a chest.

- At the shrine, Wilbur opens the chest and reads the “PROJECT NEVADAS” book Quackity left for him. His old rival, his kinsman. 

Wilbur: “Chat, power isn’t won through diplomacy. Power isn’t won through waiting, patiently, floating courthouses in the sky, blah blah blah...it’s won through blades. Swords. Iron...”

“And I was right all along.”

- Tommy leaves Phil and Ranboo for a bit and they continue to talk about Wilbur, whether he’s changed, whether he’s even telling the truth about the afterlife and if even Dream can change.

- When Ranboo mentions that he may have to keep some secrets, Phil asks about the experiments. Ranboo reiterates that they’re just to build resistance, like when a wound heals over stronger. He assures Phil that he’ll be careful.

- Ranboo then leaves to go stand in a corner somewhere for a bit. He doesn’t sleep much, and if Phil ever sees him walking around staring at random things, it’s nothing to worry about

- Tommy goes mining for stone with Mediashare

- Captain Puffy works on the graveyard. She reads the Wiki page for Sally the Salmon and makes some horrible discoveries. She later finds out the Samsung Refrigerator has its own page as well and spends some time learning about the canon family tree.

- She then makes the gravestones and fills out the history books for each of the dead members, including a spot for Ghostbur behind Wilbur’s headstone with his final words.

---

Upcoming events remain the same.

[asteriasdaydream]

Tease

Summary: After teasing Eren all day on a date, he decides to teach you a lesson.

Warnings: public sex, unprotected sex, language

Pairings: Eren x reader

Gazing up at Eren, a slight grin on your face, his green eyes boring into your own. The lights from the cinema screen reflecting on his face. You were just able to make out the slight redness on his cheeks.

To be fair, you didn’t do much to make him react this way. He was so easy to work up. Yet, so were you. Especially around when Eren was around.

It was a hot day, and you didn’t miss the way Eren bit his lip and allowed his gaze to rove down your body when he picked you up from your home for your date and caught sight of you wearing his favourite summer dress.

Of course you planned this ahead. The dress, the lingering touches on his thigh, leaning your body against his own and pushing your breasts against his back all resulted in slight gasps gracing your ears.

If you were completely honest, you weren’t entirely sure if Eren was even aware of the effect he had on you sometimes. The simplest of things had your heart racing and your cheeks flushed. But his actions a few days ago were... unforgivable at best.

He teased you until you were putty in his hands, waiting for him to continue to his next move. You were a mess underneath him. Impatient. Yet patiently waiting for his next move. Until his phone rang. And he was off you in a second.

Armin had car troubles and needed Eren to fetch him from his part-time job. It was late. You didn’t blame Eren for leaving to help out his friend. But he never came back afterwards like he promised he would, and left you to take care of yourself.

That was the last time you saw your boyfriend - until now.

You remembered his voice over the phone. You could hear him pouting. How sorry he was that he didn’t come back for you. How Armin asked for more help with other things and later, he was so exhausted that he crashed on Armin’s couch. How he promised he would make it up to you this weekend.

It was safe to say that deep down, you already forgave him the second he called you. But you couldn’t resist teasing him now. Especially now in the darkness of the cinema.

You didn’t miss the way his voice turned husky and his grip tighten on the armrest when you leaned up to whisper a question about the movie in his ear. Your lips dragging gently across the warm skin and your breath fanning down his neck. Pushing your chest out just a little so he could see the faint outline of the swell of your breasts sticking out from the top of your dress.

It was when you finally rested your hand on his upper thigh, fingers grazing along the in-seam of his jeans that had Eren gripping your wrist.

“Baby.” His voice still husky in your ear. You smirked to yourself.

Bingo.

“What are you doing?” He asks. His thumb stroking the skin of your wrist. He doesn’t dislike what you’re doing. But why here? Why now?

You played innocent. Pretending to be completely unaware of the results of your actions.

It wasn’t rare that your hand would rest on Eren’s thigh while he was driving, or any other time he sat next to you so he let it slide for now. Putting his attention back to the screen in front after giving you another look.

He knew you were up to something.

After the movie ended, you stood up and stretched your arms and back. Letting out a little moan of satisfaction while keeping your eyes on Eren as you did so.

You didn’t miss the way he watched as the bottom of your dress lifted up around your thighs as you stretched, or his gaze drift up your chest as you pushed it out to stretch your back. A tiny smirk flitted across your face.

Inhaling deeply, Eren willed his eyes away from you. Determined not to fall for whatever tricks you were trying to pull on him. Yet.

At this point Eren was pissed. Not at you, though. Well maybe a little bit. He was pissed at how you weren’t even trying to hide the fact that you were teasing him anymore.

He instantly regretted his suggestion of taking you for ice cream after the movie ended.

The heat was near scorching and it didn’t help that it was midday. Even sitting under the umbrella shaded benches did little to soothe the heat; yet the weather was the last thing that bothered Eren.

It was the way you had your lips wrapped around his long pointer finger that had Eren’s head spinning a mile a minute. Gently sucking the melted ice cream off his finger as you kept you gazed heatedly up at him.

Eren’s other hand had such a tight grip on his ice cream cone that it cracked, allowing the ice cream inside it to seep out slowly and drip down his hand onto the wooden table in front of him.

Another suckle and your tongue running on the underside of his finger had Eren gasp and his groin twitch at the sensation.

It was a golden opportunity and you leapt at it with open arms. You saw the ice cream from his cone melting onto his fingers and didn’t hesitate for a second to take his hand in yours and suck his finger into your mouth.

The act was far from innocent and had Eren glancing to the side with a hot flush covering his cheeks, hoping nobody was watching your clearly suggestive actions.

You knew you almost won him over.

Eren was about to scold you lightly for acting out in public this way, but the words died on his tongue when you whispered out his name. Your voice slightly raspy, sending tingles down his back. His finger still on your lips and your breath heavy. You whispering out his name was the last push Eren needed to finally snap.

“Fuck.” Your eyes widened slightly at the near growl that left his throat. His hand, still sticky with ice cream and your saliva grabbed at yours and pulled you to your feet, almost dragging you to the nearest section of public toilets.

You paid no mind to Eren taking your own ice cream out of your hand and chucking it in the bin along with his own on the way. Your mind reeling with part excitement and part shock.

You were shocked because you and Eren had never done more than kissing in a public place before and you didn’t think that your playful ministrations all day would lead to this. However, you were quite smug at the outcome and your excitement at the current turn of events had your heart racing.

Before you knew it, you found yourself led into the women’s toilets.

Any protests you might have had about Eren just waltzing into the ladies without checking if it was safe first quickly disappeared as you watched him in front of you. You found his impatience of getting you into a cubicle quite exhilarating that had your arousal seeping onto your panties and your heat clench around nothing - luckily, all the other cubicles were empty anyway.

Once you were finally inside the cubicle, Eren shut the door loudly, locking it behind you as he pressed you against the door; his arousal pressing against your stomach as he met your lips in a searing kiss.

Eren groaned as you immediately reciprocated, not wasting a second.

“So you thought it was fun to tease me the whole fucking day, didn’t you?” He rasps in your ear after pulling away from the kiss; lips grazing against your skin and his hot breath ghosting down the side of your neck leaving goosebumps in its wake.

“Eren.” you whimpered and he tutted in response.

“Where’s the confidence from earlier gone to, baby? I haven’t even touched you yet and you’re already whimpering for me.” His voice nearing that of a growl; his fingers finding the hem of your dress, quickly pulling it over your head leaving you breathing heavily in your panties, nipples hardening as the cool air hit them.

You hissed as Eren immediately dived down to your breasts and sucking a nipple into his hot mouth, green eyes holding an intense gaze into your own as he did so.

You could feel Eren smirking against your breast when he slipped his hand that was still sticky from the ice-cream down your abdomen and into your panties, gathering your arousal on his fingers.

If your mind wasn’t this clouded by lust, maybe you would’ve felt a little embarrassed by how wet you were already. After all, you were waiting for this all day.

Eren let go of your nipple with a small audible pop and brought his now wet fingers up to his mouth. Your face growing increasingly hot and inner walls clenching around nothing as his intense gaze pierced into you as he sucked your juices into his mouth.

Your legs wobbled slightly as Eren let out a growl at the back of his throat. The taste of you paired with the aftertaste of ice-cream on his fingers made his head spin. Ice-cream was ruined for him now. He’ll never look at it the same anymore.

Having it this way better.

“Eren,” you whined, growing increasingly impatient, “please.”

A string of whispered curses left Eren as he fumbled with the belt of his jeans, breathing a sigh of relief as he finally pushed his jeans down to his ankles along with his briefs. Your panties followed suit and you quickly stepped out of them and pushed them to the side with your foot.

“I need you baby, so bad” Eren mumbles desperately against your lips. Slipping your hand down the front of his abdomen, feeling the muscles in his stomach contract at your touch.

He hissed when you wrapped your hand around his rock hard length and stroked him slightly before bringing his dick to your wet centre. Foreplay wasn’t even necessary at this point as you were already dripping for him and Eren was near losing his mind.

You bit down in Eren’s bottom lip as he entered you slowly, giving you a few moments to adjust to his girth before he started moving at a slow, yet steady pace, fingers now gripping harshly on his shoulders while your other hand rested in his hair which was becoming more and more untidy by the second as some strands started falling loose from its bun.

You clapped your hand down on your mouth when you let out a loud moan when Eren lifted your left leg up to penetrate you deeper. Your head lolling back against the cubicle door behind you.

“You always take me so well, baby, fuck” he rasped in your ear, moving faster now and his breath coming out in harsh pants, tickling the skin of your neck.

Unable to keep your eyes open at the onslaught of pleasure you allowed yourself to be overcome by the pure pleasure that only Eren could give to you.

You were getting closer and closer to your orgasm. Your walls clenching harshly around Eren and you knew he was close too when he let out a whine at the feeling of your pussy clenching around him causing him to thrust more erratically inside of you.

Just before the pleasure could rapture you completely, both of you stilled completely when you heard the door to the women’s bathroom open followed by the sound of footsteps getting closer until a cubicle near you opened and closed with a slight bang.

Eren’s dick was pulsing in you, so ready for his release that was quickly ebbing away. Your pussy still clenching around him causing him to mesh your lips together in order to silence his moans that were threatening to escape.

“Stop that” he whispered desperately, trying to keep his breathing as quiet as possible.

“I can’t help it,” you whispered back. The feeling of his pulsing dick inside you wasn’t helping either and you involuntarily rolled your hips forward only to be slammed back against the door firmly by Eren to stop your movements.

Eren brought one of his fingers down to your front and rolled little circles over your clit, smirking a little at the thought of getting back at you. But his smirk was quickly wiped from his face when your walls clenched even tighter around him and you moved bite into his neck to stifle your moans.

It was growing hotter in the little cubicle as you and Eren gazed at each other in pure desperation. Wanting nothing more to finish what you started. Listening intently as you heard the toilet nearby flush and the cubicle open followed by the sound of water running out of a tap.

“Jesus fuck, hurry up,” Eren groaned softly, his fingers gripping so hard on your thighs it was sure to leave bruises.

Once the footsteps started moving further away, Eren started moving his hips slowly, increasing his speed with each passing second.

At first you tried to grab onto Eren’s hips to stop his movements as whoever walked into the toilets hadn’t even left yet and he was already pounding into you.

As soon as the door to the toilets closed shut again, Eren let out a guttural moan that vibrated through his chest. Once you knew it was safe to do so, you didn’t hold back your noises.

This time around, Eren’s thrusts were even more erratic causing the door to bang consistently and the sound to echo throughout the room.

It didn’t take long for you to near your climax and as soon as Eren felt you were close, his finger returned to your clit and continued stroking it until your body seized, gripping his hair so tightly with one hand you wouldn’t be surprised if you pulled out some of his hair while the other clung to him, pulling him as close as you could.

Eren followed soon after you, riding out both of your highs and you moaned as you felt Eren spill his warmth in you as his dick continued to pulse with his orgasm.

After a few minutes of catching your breath, Eren slowly pulled out of you and carefully lowered your leg to the ground.

You were unable to gain balance as your legs were shaking too much and clung onto him so you wouldn’t fall.

If you weren’t so fucked out you would’ve sent Eren a glare at his breathy laugh.

“Need me to carry you to the car?” He asked smugly and you smacked your first weakly against his chest as he laughed again.

“That’s what you get for teasing me all fucking day, baby.”

[glitxhwayventeen]

The Lost One

Junhui

Characters: Junhui x female reader

Warnings: Name-calling, self doubt, low self esteem, anxiety, homesickness, mentions of wounds, mentions of fighting, implement of wanted violence, a kissing seen, I dont know anymore off the top of my head but if you think of any let me know!

Author’s Note: Sorry it’s so late guys I started a new medication and I’ve honestly just been going through the motions. This hasn’t been proof read but I’ll look over it soon and fix spelling mistakes, dialogue, and the ending scene a bit more.

Please remember that all of these chapters and the content within them are a work of fiction! They’re just for fun/entertainment!

☁️ and 🥀

Paved With Good Intentions Masterlist

The Lost One: Part 1

Bold- Korean Dialogue Italics- Thoughts Red- Mandarin

Tag List- @babyminghao

“Way to go dumbass! You ran like a little bitch before you even told her your name and now she thinks you hate her!” Jee scolded Junhui as he sat at his desk chair and groaned into his palms, already very over the entire situation and the sheer embarrassment that he called his life.

“It’s not like I planned it to go down like that Jee!” Jun quipped with a bit of annoyance lacing his tone. He REALLY didn’t need her to lecture him on how much he had just fucked things up in that moment.

But he wasn’t lying to her. He hadn’t planned on leaving you there hanging out high and dry. In fact, he had planned and thought out a whole scenario of what he’d do when he’d met you for real.

He was gonna go up to you, shake your hand, and make some cheesy joke about how you’d both just found your soul mate to break the ice. Then when he’d later reveal the werewolf bomb to you, you’d realize he was being literally and you’d both have a laugh about it.

Clearly that didn’t happen as he was now at home internally, and partially externally to be honest, freaking out because he ran away from you before he had even introduced himself. But he just wasn’t sure what else to do at the time.

When he had finally saw you standing there for the first time, he couldn’t help but run away in fear. He looked up and met your gaze and knew immediately: you were his soulmate.

You were the one he was supposed to spend the rest of his forever with. You were the one who he would love unconditionally till the day he died because his instincts and the universe decided so long ago.

And you were the most beautiful thing he had seen in his entire life. If he wasn’t drawn in by your silky hair or your petite frame, he would’ve been drawn to you by the lull of your soothing voice.

A voice so enchanting and haunting it would make the god’s cry. But if that wouldn’t have been enough, you accidentally getting vocally excitement at having found a word you understood in the conversation would’ve set him over the edge.

He was just too stunned stunned to say it all when it all went down.

He found his mate after he had to play guard dog for his sister. He had originally won Rock Paper Scissors with Jihoon and he still somehow got talked into going in the younger boy’s stead.

That’s the only reason he met you. Not that he was complaining now, but at the time, he was definitely less than enthused. Which was something he now also felt guilty about. How could he have ever been so unhappy about going when he got to meet the one person on the entire planet who could always make him happy?

But he was usually just the weird funny brother. He had never been taken seriously by his pack before.

He didnt have a romantic bone in his body, unlike Seokmin who would no doubt make every date magical for his mate.

He definitely wasn’t charming like Joshua could be around people. He surely didn’t have a cool and maintained outward appearance like Hansol or Hao had. Nor did he have a mysterious element to him like Jihoon or Wonwoo did to keep people guessing.

He couldn’t be a monster in bed like Soonyoung. He wasn’t nearly as desirable as Mingyu was. Or as strong as Seungcheol proved to be or as creative as everyone could see Channie visibly was.

He didn’t have drive and passions that Seungkwan had that drew people to him. And he for fucking sure didn’t have the brain of someone as smart as Jeonghan.

He was just Jun. The guy everyone always seemed to forget about. The one people said didn’t know when to pick and choose his moments. The boy who made inappropriate and confusing jokes that made others around him’s heads hurt. People never wanted to get to know him or his inner most thoughts and feelings.

Hell, in his mind, in Korea the only interesting thing that people cared about him about for was that he was Chinese. But you were Chinese too, so you wouldn’t have cared about that.

When he ever imagined meeting you previously, he pictured you loving him for him. He thought you’d already know when he was wanting to joke around and when he was wanting to be serious. He’d hoped you’d ask him his opinions when you’d spout yours and that you’d always look for him in crowds instead of losing him. He wanted you to see him as something he had never seen himself as.

But in the context he had met you in, he figured once you saw his goofy self or heard him awkwardly speak just once because of how flustered he was at your presence, you’d laugh at him.

Just like Cherry did during his first meeting with his alpha’s mate. He accidentally smacked Joshua in the face with his spatula when he tried to make himself an egg and got scared and she had walked in during the aftermath. Since then, Cherry must’ve only ever saw him as a clumsy oaf who couldn’t do anything right.

Or when Ani did whenever he first walked into the room when he met her. He fell down because the rug had been sticking up a little too high. She still seemed to expect him to make her laugh whenever he walked into a room because he was nothing but a joke.

And there was also the time when Omi and San laughed at him for almost an hour straight when he had once managed to get his head stuck between the bannister slats when he had his proper first encounter with them. Jun always thought that Omi treated him like the idiot kid he always prayed he wouldn’t be.

He wanted you to see him as someone worthy of being loved, not someone only worthy of laughs.

So he got scared. Could anyone really blame him? He was painfully shy naturally, but when you threw in the fact that his entire life was basically a sitcom where his character wasn’t even the lead role, his brain knew that it was only a matter of time before you thought the same way.

He was just too frazzled and too scared to greet you well. He wished he had been different for you. But the truth was, he had always tried to be different. And look where it got him.

He was still nothing. He was still no one. He never would be and never could be. He was just himself and there wasn’t a damn thing he could seem to do about it, even for you.

“So what are you gonna do to fix it?? She’s gonna be my roommate now and even if you don’t want a mate at the moment, she’ll still be around!” Jee huffed as she sat herself on Jun’s unmade bed, “I don’t plan on giving up my apartment anytime soon because I’m not living in a house with 13 boys and a bunch of girls. That’s basically a frat and i didn’t sign on for that! I need her and her money to keep it so you gotta get over yourself.”

And almost as if on cue, Jeonghan popped his head through the door and situated himself against the doorframe, “Hey frat houses can be fun too you know.” He chuckled.

“For YOU maybe. But IIIIII like my space. And now I’m gonna be sharing that space with a very confused and emotional Chinese girl who has no idea why one of my ‘friends’ hates her.” Jee declared with an emphasis as she rolled her eyes at both the males.

Jeonghan crossed his arms with a chuckle and set his attention to Jun, “So what ARE you gonna do knucklehead?”

At the moment, the wolf who newly imprinted could only give one answer, one he knew that they wouldn’t like, “I-I’m honestly not sure Hyung.”

-

You managed to sneak your way out of your newly shared apartment before the Korean girl you had been paired with woke up.

She was kind to you when she brought you through the door and gave you a grand tour. She even let you pet her cat that she seemed to be incredibly protective of, which you were grateful for as petting the small animal seemed to put your mind at ease a bit.

But you got a sense of guilt that was just radiating off her in waves over the incident that happened with her friend.

The whole thing was a complete shit show and, even though you found the boy a bit weird in his mannerisms and thought he was a bit goofy acting/looking, you had actually thought he was kinda cute before he ran out on you without saying a word.

You didn’t understand why he did it. You didn’t think you were the prettiest girl in the world sure, but you definitely didn’t think you were worth hiding from. It hurt your pride a bit, something that didn’t happen too often because you refused to let yourself feel too much.

It was also something that the two others around you at the time managed to catch on to as they began shifting in place rather uncomfortably. Jee tried to act as if everything was normal, but it was clearly not.

After, you really just prayed that you didn’t have any classes with the boy who pushed past you and ran for the hills.

That’s how you now found yourself walking to school with a deep dread creeping in your stomach, worried that you would somehow see Junhui during your time on campus.

Almost as if the world liked seeing you swallowed whole, you heard a familiar male voice in the coming distance.

“_____! Hey! Wait up!” Called the voice.

Shit.

You scurried your little feet as fast as they could carry you towards the main library entrance and partially up it’s stairs in the hopes of avoiding an awkward confrontation.

But alas, it seemed fate decided to be a bitch to you for no reason other than to humiliate you further today as the chinese boy behind you managed to get himself within grabbing distance of you.

“Hey _____!” He exclaimed as he took your rather small wrist in his large hands causing you to turn around to face him fully with a glare.

He quickly retracted his hand back to his own body before scratching the back of his head uncomfortably, “Sorry! I tried to get your attention first. I- I was calling for you, but I guess I must not have been loud enough to get your attention.” Jun gingerly explained with sorrowed eyes.

God you hated how pretty he looked. And you hated even more that he seemed to act like yesterday didn’t happen and that you had actually had a real introduction with him.

“No, I heard you.” You told him flatly and coldly, “I just didn’t care to stop.”

You could see the sadness in his eyes gain in size while he took a discomforted gulp that must have been visible even to passerbyers.

“O- Okay… I… probably deserved that…” He admitted with a sheepish grin, trying to hide how much your harsh tone truly dug into his fragile heart, “I was- well I was actually wanting to speak with you about… what happened.”

“What do you mean?” You figured playing dumb gave you your best chances to get him to leave you alone faster. Or at very least make him feel as bad as he had made you feel.

“You mean you… don’t remember what happened yesterday?” He asked slowly, a slight glint of what you could only call hope appearing behind his eyes.

“You mean you when you completely blew me off and walked away rudely when your friends tried to politely introduce us? No, I still remember it. I just don’t care.” You snapped at him in Mandarin, causing him to semi-shrink back into his giant shoes.

Jun cleared his throat quietly, “I- I know you must be upset with me over it but I wanted to-” He tried before you swiftly cut him off.

“Look, you seem like an asshole. Or maybe just an idiot. I’m not sure which and I don’t care enough to find out.” You declared with sass, preparing to completely make him wish he had never stopped to speak to you, “I don’t have to. I’m just rooming with your friend for the semester. It’s not like we have to be best friends just because we’re one of the handful of Chinese students in a Korean college.”

Sure you wished you’d make friends you could fully understand without fail, but some guy who literally ran away from you at first glance didn’t have to be one of them. You could make friends that weren’t Chinese. You just had to work on your Korean some more.

“But fact of the matter is we really only have two options here. Option one is where we both try to get along and put on smiling faces for your friend Jee’s sake. Option two is where you stay out of my way and I stay out of your way so we see each other as little as possible. I’m leaning towards option two.” You finished confidently, leaving the tall boy in front of you dumbfounded while standing a few steps below you.

“B-But that’s what I’m talking about. We’re gonna end up having to see each other quite a lot since you live with Jee and she’s my s-” He stuttered for a moment, you figured it was because you had taken him off guard by being so blunt and emotionless about the whole situation, “She’s my friend, one of my very best friends. And I’ll probably be around a lot because of it and you’ll have no way of avoiding me because you live with her. So we should probably just-” You stopped him him dead in his tracks once again.

“Then I’ll find somewhere else to stay. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lot of homework to catch up on.” You rolled your eyes, gripping the books in your hand a bit tighter, and starting to turn yourself around before he caught your elbow in his grasp.

“But I-” He attempted to talk with what little voice he had left, but you were really over him and the whole conversation in itself.

You had classes to start preparing for and he clearly was not someone you wanted to actually be around if you could help it. You didn’t deal with people like him back home, so you sure as hell weren’t going to start dealing with them now.

“But I- nothing!” You all but growled at him as you ripped your arm away from him in defiance, “Maybe I wasn’t clear enough for you so let me spell it out. You’re here because Jee sent you to apologize, to make nice, or because you like creating drama. No matter the case, you aren’t my problem. I won’t put up with it. So you need to just leave me alone!” You shouted at him, causing your fellow students to turn around and gawk at you both.

Great. Just what you needed: to be even more of an outcast then you undoubtedly already were as a foreigner struggling with their native language.

You hurriedly moved away from Jun and finished your way up to the library building’s stairs without sparing him a second glance.

Though, you could’ve sworn you saw his eyes begin to water in the reflection of the glass doors in front of you as you pushed open the entrance to the building.

And, even though you hated to even think it a possibility, it felt like part of you died inside a little when you realize just how much you could’ve hurt his feelings.

-

You had been at the library for so long that the sun had completely gone down and the full moon was now shining brightly in the dead center of the sky.

All the main lights that were once annoyingly buzzing while on, were now off and all the other students that had once been packed into all the chairs like sardines had gone home.

The librarian, a nice woman who had quickly recognized that your abysmal Korean had a Mandarin based accent behind it, had also gone home.

But she was kind enough to lock all the outside doors so no one else could get in with you still knowingly inside. Which made it to where only people who were already inside the building could open the doors without a key.

She told you that she didn’t mind you staying behind to catch up on your work as she knew the struggles of being new in a foreign land. She turned out to be from Jilian.

You actually found a bit of a friend in her as, knowing full well your Korean wasn’t up to par enough to read such complex vocabulary just yet, she brought you out some of your student textbooks that were printed in Mandarin rather than standard Hangul you would’ve struggled to read.

You were a bit sad that she had to leave as she did manage to bring a warming comfort to your now aching heart.

As hard as it was for you in Shenzhen, it was still your home and being so far away from people who could understand you with ease made you quite homesick. It made you feel lonely already, even though you hadn’t been in Korea for more than two days.

She did promise you that you could come by to see her when she was working any time and that, with a little luck, she might also be able to get you a part time job as her assistance to earn some money on the side, something that would very much help you out if you actually had to move out of your current place due to the issues you were having.

Now, it was so quiet you thought you might actually be able to hear a pin drop on the floor. You didn’t like being alone all that much to begin with, but the library at your new university was huge and everything seemed to echo and make noise.

Which of course gave you various jump scares that made your pulse race out of your chest. Still, you decided to stay as long as you could to catch up on some much needed studying.

Though it seemed that you just found yourself reading the same book’s page over and over again in the hopes of actually retaining the information printed. You had a stack of books sat up on the table nearly as tall as yourself that you needed to get somewhat through before you started your classes tomorrow.

But you couldn’t even get past the first one. You just couldn’t get Jun out of your head.

You couldn’t get his sad expressions and worried tones of voice out of your train of thoughts. And everytime you closed your eyes to blind, you could see his face still looking at you through the glass of the library doors.

You felt bad. You didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Even if you did think he was kind of a dickhead. You weren’t someone that could ever make others sad on purpose and still be able to sleep soundly at night. And based on how your meeting with him went, you definitely upset Jun.

Damn it. Why did you always have to be the bigger (theoretically of course) and kinder person?

You smacked the book you were attempting to read closed and started putting the scattered notes you had scribbled down into your shoulder bag, swinging it back on so you could leave.

Figuring, since you didn’t have his address or phone number, you could arrange something with Jee. You were going to just go back home and explain to her what happened in the hopes that she’d be able to at least express to the lanky boy that you didn’t mean to snap at him, even if he was a jackass.

In your mind at the time, he deserved it. But No one deserves to get yelled at and be humiliated like that in public.

As you made your way out the front door and tugged the handle once more for good measure to be sure that it was in fact locked, you heard a low growl of an animal behind you.

You turned and found yourself face to face with a giant doglike creature with brown fur streaked in a deep auburn shade. It had it’s razor sharp teeth bared to you and it’s near pitch black eyes were looking at you menacingly while it emitted a loud snarling sound from it’s chest.

At first, you wanted to run as fast and as far away as you possibly could to get away. But you figured with how big the thing was, there was no way you could outrun it. It could catch you instantly.

Then your natural instinct was to want to scream. But when you attempted to, no sound would come out of your throat. Almost as if your body knew it would only cause it to get angrier with you.

And you definitely knew you couldn’t fight the thing. It was too big and broad for you to be able to even give it a scratch without it tearing you to pieces the second you moved a muscle. Your body seemed to just freeze it place, having accepted it’s terrible fate without actually talking to your brain first.

The wolf began slowly pacing towards you in a ready to pounce stance, causing you to back up on reflex and hit your back against the glass doors you had recently just locked. It had managed to get so close to you, you could feel the moist exhale from its nose hit your face.

It’s dark as night eyes seemed to shift to a deep crimson color and you just knew: you were done for.

You were going to die and there wasn’t a single thing you could do about it. You couldn’t help but close your eyes in what you thought were your final moments, too scared to even face the voracious creature as it ended you.

Though just as the growl seemed to get it’s most menacing, you heard another distant snarl that made your eyes pop back open to find the origin of the sound. Your gaze landed on a very angry, very standoffish looking Jun.

At first, you thought that he was just fucking with you or that maybe he had been trying to distract the giant dog like thing away from you.

But as he started getting closer to you, you could tell his fists were clasped shut tightly and that his jaw was clenched so hard you thought his teeth would break.

He didn’t look worried for you, he looked… pissed off. His nostrils were flaring, his muscles were tensed, and you could’ve sworn that his eyes were almost the same scarlet color as the beast’s…

The animal that had once been facing and turning its fury at you had now turned its attention towards Jun, almost as if it refused to keep it’s back to him.

As the taller boy got closer, the giant mutt started to take steps back and it’s once terrifying tone began to change to one that reminded you of a wounded animal. Yet it kept its tough poker face and it seemed to be standing it’s ground in wanting to attack you at the same time, which just confused you even more.

It wasn’t until Jun managed to place himself between you and the wild animal that you realized he was showing his teeth and lowly growling at it in return.

“Get away from her.” Jun seethed as he extended his fingers to reveal some very long, very sharp claw-like appendages you had never seen outside of horror or sci-fi movies.

This caused the wilderbeast in front of you to snap and charge at him, making you wince in anticipation of the horrible event you figured was going to take place once it’s mighty jaws clamped onto his very thin and lanky body.

But it never came. Instead, you witnessed the boy who you had basically told to fuck off earlier jump midair, morphing into a similar beast to the one that had previously threatened to attack you.

The newly primal Jun landed his paws on top of the other animal, causing both of them to tumble down the stairs in one giant furry jumble.

“_____!” Another familiar male voice called, forcing you to look away from the fight in front of you to find its source.

You were met with a very frantic Minghao carrying a very worried Jee on the back of a fairly decent looking motorcycle.

The bike sped up from the street and stopped on the sidewalk next to the school library’s staircase, “_____! Hop on, we have to go!” Jee spoke in a hurry while Minghao pushed himself off the two wheeled vehicle and handed her the helmet he had been wearing.

Her voice seemed to shake you out of your state of shock just enough for you to regain some semblance of sense, “B-but what about Jun he-” You started in broken Korean before you saw Minghao change into the same animal that the tall boy had only moments before and watched as he joined his friend in the fight.

From the corner of your eye, you saw what you could make out as two more beasts start to rush to his aide as well, one with gold like fur, the other with patches of black adorned on it’s reddish brown colored body.

“He’ll be fine, the boys have his back trust me!” Jee practically screamed at you as she got up from her stationed seat and ushered your statued body onto the bike, “But we might not be if we stay here so we have to go now!” She continued, strapping Minghao’s helmet onto your head and connecting your hands in front of her stomach as she started to rev the motorcycle and drove off, leaving the giant dogs fighting behind in the distance.

You should’ve been scared for yourself. And maybe even a small part of you was.

Though as Jee started to drive the both of you away from the battle that was no doubt taking place back at the library staircase from the sound of the snapping and growling you heard, you couldn’t help but care more about Jun’s safety than your own.

The rational part of you couldn’t quite grasp why you seemed to worry more about a boy you only hours ago hated more than yourself. But that rational part of you wasn’t nearly as strong as whatever strange worrying and concerning ache you felt in your heart.

-

“Jee!” Jeonghan exclaimed as he passed his younger brothers while making his way back through the front door with Minghao, Chan, and Jun and ran to his mate, “Fuck, thank god you’re okay. You know that I hate it when you’re involved with wolf stuff.” Jun could semi-hear him say through his dulled senses as he watched his brother give his newest sister a bone crushing hug.

“Yeah I know, but she probably wouldn’t have trusted anyone but me or Minghao and we figured he had to fight. So that left me. I’m fine…” She shushed him and kissed his cheek to calm him down.

Jun could sense something was… off with you the second you left him standing there after you went to the library. When he called and told his alpha, Cheol told him that it was probably just nothing and he convinced him to go back to the house.

And for a little while, the feeling subsided. But about an hour or two after the library closed, his heart started to pump fast and hard like nobody’s business and he got a gut wrenching feeling.

He told his pack what was happening and that he didn’t care if anyone of them followed him or not, but that he had to find you because he felt like you were in danger.

And then he rushed out of the house and followed the imprinting pull back to the library where he found you face to face with the most gigantic werewolf he had ever seen looking absolutely petrified.

He knew he hadn’t seen that particular wolf form before immediately. His pack was friends with the few other packs that were close to them and not one of them looked like the wolf in front of you when they phased. He thought maybe for a split second it’s smell might have been familiar, but he didn’t have much time to register it as it started to bare its pointed fangs at you.

The moment he saw the wolf, he figured based on the aura he gave off to be an alpha, in hunting mode, he went into protective mode and jumped in to save you. Whether you liked him or not, you were still his mate. And he’d do anything to keep you safe.

Junhui was never really a fighter. He figured the chances of him winning against such an aggressive alpha when he wasn’t skilled in combat was slim to none.

But he sure as hell had a better chance at taking him on than you did. He was really just lucky his brothers showed up when they did or he probably wouldn’t have made it out of the fight in one piece.

Jeonghan and Chan followed the Chinese boy because they knew what it was like to be worried about your mate and wanted to help. Minghao went because he already considered you a fast friend and a dear sister and couldn’t stand the thought of something bad happening to you. And Jee went to be sure you’d trust the boys enough to leave whatever situation you’d end up being in.

When the few from his pack joined in, it made the fight much more fair. Sure the boys were all banged up with some bumps and bruises because the unknown large wolf put up one hell of a fight, but they all made it out alive. Sadly, the foreign wolf did too.

He was a skilled fighter and was able to take on the four of them with total ease. He seemed to almost know every move they would make before they made it, something that frightened Junhui to his core. In the aftermath and once the scrapping ceased, the only thing he cared about was getting back to the house and making sure you were okay. They’d have to deal with the stranger another day. But for now, you were his top priority.

“So how is she?” Chan asked as he wiped some dried blood off his lip and went to hug his own little family that had stayed up late impatiently sitting on the couch waiting for him to get back from the fight.

Jun could blurrily see Jee pull away from his older brother and look around at them all with a concerned look.

He didn’t really understand why everything sounded so different now. He recalled a time when Seungcheol talked about how when he imprinted, it felt like the world had almost shifted so that Cherry was the only thing keeping him on Earth and that everything else came second. He had said that if he wasn’t around her it almost felt like he was just wandering around lost no matter what he was doing. Jun figured that was just Cheol over exaggerating or maybe even rubbing everyone’s nose in the fact that he had a mate at the time and no one else did.

But it made Jun wonder if the feeling of motionlessness was what his alpha was talking about. Without you around, he just felt so… empty.

“Well… _____… She…. Umm-” Jee drug on and tried her best to show a confident smile, though it looked more like she was in some serious pain or discomfort.

“She’s locked herself in the bathroom and has been refusing to come out.” Omi interrupted with a shake of her head as she bounced over to the Pup of the pack’s lap and snuggled herself into his neck, “We think she’s in shock.”

“You might want to talk to her hyung. She hasn’t said much that’s made sense that we could hear well through the sobs. And you know my Chinese isn’t all that great, but I think _____ keeps asking if you’re okay?” Soonyoung said with a questioning tone while playing blocks with a jittery San on the floor so Chan and Omi could have their little reunion in peace.

Soonyoung’s words and mention of your name and of your current state seemed to break Jun out of his daze just in time for everyone in the living room to give him an expectant look.

With a small confirming nod, he made his way down the hall to one of their smaller downstairs bathrooms. As he got closer, he recognized the sound of your sniffles, something that made his inner wolf want to whine loudly at. But he couldn’t focus on him and what he wanted right now. He had to focus on you.

So he gave three small knocks with the back of his knuckles to the back of the door before he spoke, “_____? It’s Junhui.” He whispered softly in your native Mandarin.

He heard some tiny movement along with a few small clicks that made him move back so the door could open. When you unlocked the knob and cracked the door, Jun saw your puffy mascara stained face as you stared up at him with widened watery eyes.

Seeing you so upset hurt him more than he could ever express in words, but he couldn’t just pull you in for a hug and kiss you all better. Not after everything that’s happened. You two weren’t mated or even dating yet.

As much as it killed his primal instincts, he had to take things slowly to not scare you away. He just hoped you weren’t already too freaked out to even talk to him.

“Can-” He cleared his throat slightly to regain some of his composure, “Can I come in?”

You gave him a tiny nod before you moved yourself away from the door, allowing him room to sneak by the wood and through to the bathroom to face you. You quickly flew back to the door and hurriedly shut it while locking it with a loud clicking sound.

To say you were in shock was a bit of an understatement. You couldn’t wrap your brain around what had happened only a little bit ago. Truthfully, you had been trying to convince yourself it was all a dream. But the second you saw Jun’s scratched and scathed face, that hope of it being a dream became dust.

You rested the palms of your hands and the top of your forehead against the door in an attempt to wind yourself down from the utter panic that was still coursing through your veins.

“_____?” You heard Jun ask from behind you, causing you to flinch. You heard a small whimper that made you finally fully face him.

You took in his beaten up appearance. His cheekbone has a long scratch going from the start to the tip of it’s apple. The skin on the eye on the other side was black and blue whereas the whites of the eye itself were blood red.

His bottom lip was split in two right down the middle and his forehead had a gash the side of your relatively small fist. And as if all that wasn’t enough to just break your heart, the expression on his face was that of a kicked puppy.

“Are- Are you alright Junhui?” You prayed.

“Me?” He retorted in an almost surprised tone, “Yeah I’m- I’m okay. Are YOU okay?” He implored as he grabbed your shaky hands with his red ones and began examining you as thoroughly as he could in the limited amount of time before you answered him.

“I’m- I’m not hurt. Not like you.” You decided, hands still snug in his like they were a warm blanket causing him to give you a sweet smile, “But I’m… very confused…”

He sighed a bit louder than he probably should’ve before he pulled the toilet lid down and took a seat, “Yeah if I were you well I’d- I’d probably be pretty confused too.” He declared with a short chuckle, “I take it you don’t really understand what happened back there right?”

You nodded at him as you brought your hands in front of your stomach and began picking at the nail beds out of nervousness.

“Well that wolf that you saw-” Wolf? Was that what that thing was? “-Was really a person wanting to attack you. Are you following me? Does that make sense?” He asked, already unsure if he was explaining anything in a way that made sense to you.

You nodded once again. You weren’t really following too well. And it didn’t make any sense to you.

But you had so many questions and concerns running through your head that you wouldn’t even know where to start even if you had the courage to stop him and let him know.

“Good. That’s good.” He paused and ran a shaky hand through his untamed hair, “Well I had a feeling that you might’ve been in danger, so I went out looking for you.” He explained as simply as he could.

It wasn’t like it was a total lie anyways. He really did have a feeling you were in danger. And he really did go out looking for you. He just had a more pinpointed way of knowing what something was wrong and he had an instinctual gps that let him find you than he said out loud.

“And when I got there and I saw him ready to charge at you, my instincts kind of took over and well I-” He gulped, trying his best to bring up the subject of him being a wolf without freaking you out too much.

You must’ve seen him shift back at the school when he jumped at the other wolf, so it couldn’t shock you all that much. Right…?

“I shifted out of instinct when I thought he was going to hurt you to protect you. Because I well- I just couldn’t let anything bad happen to you.” He finished shyly.

“Shifted?” You questioned aloud, oddly keeping your cool in front of him despite the given circumstances with a tilt of your head, “What does that mean?”

Jun couldn’t help but to swallow harshly again, “Shifting is what happens when a person changes from a person…” He slowed his words to match your train of thought, “Into a- well well you know… into a werewolf.” He reiterated, keeping true to his original thought in wanting to keep things as simple as possible while also not necessarily hiding the truth from you.

You chuckled while you asked him in disbelief, “A what now?”

Surely he was just fucking with you. Werewolves were just a fairytale or scary stories parents told their kids to make them think scary things like that actually existed so they’d stay in line and out of trouble. They weren’t real.

“A werewolf,” He attempted again, “That animal that was trying to attack you, that’s what he was. He was a werewolf.” He took a deep breath in, “And I- well I guess I should say WE are werewolves too.” Jun began scratching the back of his neck as a sign to show he was a bit at a loss himself.

He had never told anyone what he was before. All his past relationships usually ended before things got serious because he lost interest in them and the only real friends he ever had were from his pack or from neighboring ones.

In fact, knowing how awkward and shy Junhui could be, if his parents weren’t already familiar with werewolves because his dad was one, chances are he wouldn’t have even told them.

It was all very new to him and he didn’t really like the idea of speaking on the subject, but he knew you deserved an explanation as to what happened to you. And he knew you’d eventually find out anyways because you were his mate and he’d eventually have to explain to you what that meant.

He just sort of wished it could’ve been at a later time when the two of you were more comfortable with each other.

“Wait- Hold on a second. Back up, WE?” You quizzed at the boy in front of you in an astonishing tone and with wide saucer eyes, “What do you mean by WE?”

“I mean me and my pack. You know, The others that live here. Well… the guys at least.” You waited for him to let out some sort of laugh to put you at ease and to tell you that he was cruelly joking with a smile on his face.

He wasn’t laughing. And he wasn’t smiling. He had a face as serious as a heart attack etched on to his perfect bone structure.

Truthfully, he semi-expected you to run out of the house screaming once he told you he was a wolf. But as he listened for your erratic heartbreak and watched your body language for any signs of distress, he realized something: your usually fast paced heart wasn’t speeding up more, it was actually beginning to slow down and revert back to its normal rhythm. It definitely threw him for a loop.

It was something that seemed to even be confusing you yourself as your eyes began to wander around him and your lips pursed inward. Then, You gave him a look he couldn’t quite place. It didn’t seem malicious or enraged necessarily. If anything, it seemed more concerned, which again was NOT what he was expecting you to do when he told you he was a giant fluffy four legged monster with a tail.

You had just nearly been mauled to death by a huge wolf creature. Your life had just been saved by the boy who you all but hated earlier in the day. And now you were being given the world’s most shocking information that big bad werewolves from tv and stories actually existed. Yet you weren’t afraid. Why was that? Why weren’t you afraid?

“Oh… okay.” Was all that came out of your lip glossed mouth while you leaned against the bathroom wall for some support in an attempt to ground yourself.

But truthfully, you weren’t sure even a brick wall could ground you at that point. You felt like you were flying away and falling down all at once.

“We aren’t bad though I swear!” He defended his and his friends brand to you with his hands up, “We’d NEVER do what that guy did. We only do that sort of stuff in self defense. Or if we’re playing around with each other and goofing off,” He began to ramble information that he soon realized you probably didn’t need to know, “But we’d NEVER do that to an innocent person!” He emphasized nervously, “We’d never do that to you- I’D never do that to you! So please just… don’t freak out, okay?” He practically begged you as he didn’t want you to deny him already. But you once again surprised him.

“I’m not freaking out.” You informed him calmly, much to his surprise.

“You’re- You’re not?” He questioned as he bit his now busted lip in a rather pathetic attempt to hide his excitement that you were taking the news well.

He was incredibly worried he’d already fucked the whole “I’m a wolf” conversation up. He was mentally preparing himself to have to watch as you bolted out the front door.

Yet here you were practically telling him you believed and were okay with him. He was over the moon thrilled. He just couldn’t help it.

“No. You’d think that I- I would be. Hell, I’D think I-I normally would be. But I-I’m not afraid.”

Junhui wanted to get up and dance around the small restroom from how happy he was that you not only weren’t scared of him, but that you were even willingly admitting it to his face. But through the elated buzzing in his ears, he heard you ask a question that quickly changed his new grooving mood to sheer panic.

“Jun… w-why aren’t I afraid?”

And just like that, his own heart began to race and he was the one doing exactly what he had only moments ago asked you not to do: freaking out.

The hesitation in your voice when you asked your question worried him more than he cared to admit. But he knew at the end of the day he had to try and tell you what was going on, even if it made him uncomfortable and unnerved him.

“Well I- um… it’s a bit- that’s a bit complicated because…” He was searching for something, ANYTHING to say other than what he knew he’d inevitably have to tell you, but began failing miserably.

“Because why?” You innocently batted your clumped eyelashes at him.

“Because being well- what I am- means certain things happen. Certain things that I can’t control mind you and um-” Jun tried to stall you, but you weren’t having any of it.

“Just spit it out Jun,” You stated, wanting to get this whole weird night over with and behind you as soon as possible so you could take a much needed nap.

But you just knew you couldn’t do that without knowing what was going on fully first.

“We… we do this- this thing,” He started, causing you to give him an agitated look to prod him to hurry and get on with it.

Jun gave you a small sigh and beckoned you to come closer, something that you did without a second thought for some reason, and took you by your delicate hands, “Werewolves do this thing called imprinting _____. Imprinting is a lot like what humans would think of as love. It’s just like… a hundred times stronger.” He smiled goofily while looking at your tiny fingers and drawing small shapes on them with his thumbs.

You found yourself actually really liking the way he was touching you and even began to wonder what it might be like for him to do it everyday. His hands were so warm and his lingering touches felt so inviting and tender that you never wanted the close proximity you found yourself in with him to end.

“We do this when we find our mate. A mate is- well it’s sort of like a soulmate. It’s an immediate connection. We feel this with only one person in the whole world and, like I said earlier, it’s not something we can control…” He licked his soft yet intimidating looking pink lips before he continued.

The action started making you think about whether his lips would feel just as pillowy as they looked. In different circumstances, you might've been so bold as to initiate such an intimate moment with the tall boy in front of you. But as you wanted to know what was really going on, you did your best to ignore the burning feeling resonating in your cheeks and focus on his words.

“It happens as soon as we meet them. It’s like a lightening strike in your heart that just allows you to know, they’re the one. And, while the feeling isn’t nearly as strong for them as it is for us, they do still feel feelings back to match ours.”

It was at this point that he began actually looking you in the eyes with his amber orbs. And you thought that if he hadn’t been holding you in place with your hands that you might have quite literally melted right then and there from the sheer intensity you felt radiating through the air.

“We’d do anything for them. We’d be anything for them. We know when they’re in danger and if they need us. They’re like a breath of fresh air after having nearly drowned out at sea.” He poetically spoke.

You wanted to look away. You wanted to push back and slap his face for getting so close to you without your given permission. But you just couldn’t pull away from his loving gaze.

“We can’t live without them and, even if we could, we’d never want to because to us, they’re the only thing in this world that matters. From the second we meet them till our very last breath, the only thing that matters to us is their safety and happiness.”

You finally managed to snap yourself out of the trance he had placed you in in order to speak, “But Jun, why are you telling me this stuff?” You all but whimpered as his gentle grip on your hands stalled and he brought his hands to cup your face.

“Because for me… you’re that person. You’re my mate _____. That’s the reason you’re not scared of me. Because deep down, your heart knows I could never hurt you.” He finished with a twinkle in his eye and with his thumbs rubbing the contours of your cheeks.

“I- I didn’t want you to find out like this, and I never meant to leave you high and dry like that when we met. I was just too shocked and couldn’t explain it all to you then without making things worse. But the cat’s-or i guess the wolf’s- kind of out of the bag now.” He attempted to joke before you found yourself leaning in and pulling his lips to yours, an action that shocked him.

Hell, it shocked you. You weren’t sure why you wanted to kiss him. It just made sense in your head. You felt like kissing him. You wanted to kiss him. It felt like you’d die if you didn’t. What he told you made sense in theory and therefore you brain ran with it and already seemed to believe it with it’s whole being. It felt like it just all connected.

That’s why he ran away from you, he was too shy and freaked out. That’s why he saved you, he couldn’t let anything happen to you. And that’s why you cared so much about him even though his actions upset you, part of you already had strong feelings for him.

Had Junhui been expecting you to kiss him? No. Was he complaining? Hell No. But as much as he wanted to kiss you long enough to lose his breath, he wanted to be sure you knew that you didn’t have to be with him if you didn’t want to be. That it was your choice in his mind, not fate’s. So even though he felt like his lips could just stay on your perfect one’s forever, he had to explain further.

He reluctantly pulled away from your loving grasp and softly leaned his forehead on yours, “Just- just because I imprinted on you doesn’t mean you have to be with me you know. You can always deny it. It wouldn’t hurt you and-”

“Why on earth would i do that?” You smirked at him as you played with the hair on the back of his head while simultaneously bringing a delicate hand around to the front of his face to examine his war wounds.

His skin seemed to shimmer at the oddly coupley small behavior you were showing him, “I-I just figured you’d need some time to sort everything out and decide is s’all…” Jun explained did his best to focus his words so that you could take him seriously.

You bit your lip before answering, “You know what? I’d normally think that would be true, but seeing as you literally risked your life for me earlier to save me, I don’t think I’d mind being stuck with you forever. But it has been a weird few days and i may still be in shock a little, so bare with me for a while alright?” You mewled to him with a sweet smile, something that made his heart swoon.

You saw him happily grinned from ear to ear right before he closed the space in between you both while getting up from his seat and spinning you around.

It was then that you started to squeal with glee and put your hands on either side of his jaw to connect your lips with a sealing embrace.

As much as Junhui loved your newly found affection for him, he couldn’t help but wince at the sudden impact of your perfectly cherry lips meeting his bitterly cracked ones. You quickly took notice of his behavior change and pecked his nose once and tapping his shoulder signaling him to put you back down on the ground.

“Alright now that that’s all settled,” you windily let out with your fists on your hips, “Where the hell do you guys keep your first aid kit? You’ve got some injuries that need attended to!”

(Updated 11/29/2022)

[illegal-spiegel]

smoky ink

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou x gn!reader Genre: fluff, crack?, vague smut Warnings: drunken tattoos w Denki, groping Summary: Playing truth or dare with Denki while you were drunk ends up being a huge mistake when you get a tattoo of something from one of your favorite heroes on your ass.  Word Count: 4k words A/N: Happy birthday, boom boom boy!!🥳❤️

1k Followers Event prompt #34 “Do I have to pull down my pants to show you?”

In hindsight, you should’ve known better than to play truth or dare with Denki while you were both drunk. Honestly, it’s your fault for giving in and playing the dumb game with him, again, while you’re drunk. 

“Truth or dare?” he asks, a sly smirk on his face. You’ve been picking truth this whole time, but you can only do truths five times before you’re out of truths. 

Deciding to just go ahead and get it over with, you sigh and give him a bored look as you say in the blandest voice possible, “Dare.”

He pretends to think about it as if he didn’t already know what he was going to dare you to do since he first asked you to play. “Tell Bakugou that you like him or get a tattoo with me. A tattoo of my choosing,” he offers, the smirk getting worse the more he speaks. 

You should’ve known. You honestly would’ve texted him, told him, and then lied, and said Denki did it, but you didn’t like the idea of him even wondering if you actually liked him, that there was a possibility of it. What if he reacted badly before you could even explain what had happened? 

Yeah, no thanks. 

“Let’s go get a tattoo then,” you state boldly as you stand up off your bed, already slipping on your shoes, albeit very slowly thanks to the alcohol in your system. He pouts at you as he lets out a long groan, his body flopping back onto your bed. 

“You’re so boring!” he whines, slowly bringing himself up to glare at you. 

“Oh, so should I dare you to tell a certain someone that you like them?” you challenge, a smirk of your own coming to your face. His face goes pink at your words, his head shaking left and right rapidly after a moment. 

“No,” he mumbles, getting off your bed and putting on his own shoes. Once you two are ready to go, you open up your door and step out into the hallway. Just as you’re shutting your door behind you both, Bakugou emerges from the door down the hall that leads to the stairwell. You make eye contact with him before his eyes shift to Denki who is standing behind you. 

Just as your door clicks shut, Denki wraps his arm around your shoulders and starts leading you down the hall towards him. Bakugou doesn’t wait a moment longer before walking down the opposite hall towards his bedroom. You let out a soft sigh as you reach the top of the stairs, slowly starting to climb down them. 

“Don’t look so down! Midoriya probably just pissed him off again or something,” he reassures, bumping his shoulder into yours. You force a smile to your face and direct it at him, bumping him back. 

“Race ya!” you shout before taking off down the steps, almost tripping several times. 

“Hey! That’s cheating!” Denki roars, swiftly following after you. You laugh loudly as you take two steps at a time, trying to beat him to the bottom. You both jump at the end, landing on the floor almost at the same time. 

You’re not sure who won though. 

“Ha! I won!” Denki boasts loudly, throwing his arms into the air. This makes you scoff, your hands finding their way to your hips while you try to regain some of the air you lost into your lungs. 

“As if! I clearly won that!” you claim, unsure if you’re even right or not. You both go back and forth the entire way out of the building, only waving to people you pass as a greeting since you’re so involved in your argument. 

Once you’re outside, you wrap your arm around Denki’s neck and tug him down to give him a noogie. He shouts and tries to pull away, but you keep a strong hold on him. “I yield! I yield!” he shouts, finally making you let him go with a satisfied grin on your face. 

“That’s what I thought.”

You two walk to the closest tattoo and piercing parlor, both of you bubbling with nerves and excitement. As you walk in, you take in the place with innocent, round eyes. 

“Alright! I’ll pick out your tattoo and you can pick out mine!” Denki informs before taking off to the opposite end of the shop. You chuckle softly as you watch him go, starting to walk around to look for available tattoos.

You end up choosing a Pikachu one for him, feeling satisfied with your choice. You just hope he is serious about this and doesn’t choose something completely ridiculous. 

Once you both have your tattoos, you each hide the tattoo you picked out from the other as you meet back in the middle. “I found the perfect one,” you say confidently. He chuckles as he secretly looks down at his phone. 

“Oh, I think mine is much better,” he chirps. You squint your eyes at him in suspicion but ultimately let it go, walking over to the artist that will be tattooing you both. 

“You’re first,” you tell him, wanting to make sure that he’s going to actually go through with this instead of just making you get one on your own. After arguing back and forth a couple of minutes, he eventually gives in. 

“Fine, coward,” he jabs, slowly taking his seat. You decide to let him pick where he wants it, knowing that if you don’t, he’ll choose a terrible spot for you in return. He ends up getting it on his chest, deciding to put it right on his right pec. 

“No peeking,” you declare as you show the artist what he’s getting. Denki huffs as he peels his shirt off, laying back in the chair and tilting his head back to make sure he doesn’t peek. 

To your surprise, Denki doesn’t nearly complain as much as you thought he would. Sure, he grunts and flinches every once in a while but all in all, he just quietly sits there, quietly looking up at the ceiling as the mechanical sound of the needle thrumming fills the room. Well, that is until the tattoo is completed. “Jesus! That hurt more than a buttcheek on a stick!” he exhales dramatically, quoting a video that he saw forever and a half ago. 

“Alright, no peeking until mine is done,” you remind, laughing lightly at his words while you take your seat. Denki playfully salutes you before pulling out his phone to show the artist what you’re getting as they clean up the equipment, and you can’t help the nerves that start spiking out of nowhere. 

“Where do you want it?” 

“Um, how big is it?” you tentatively ask, hoping Denki wouldn’t do something extreme. The artist looks over to Denki, silently asking him how big he wanted the piece to be. Denki furrowed his eyebrows as he thought over it for a moment, before lifting his hand and making a circle with his thumb and index finger. 

“About this big, I’d say,” he ultimately says. The circle is about as big around as the diameter of his wrist. You let out an audible sigh as you try to figure out what the tattoo he planned for you was going to be. You wanted to have a little more faith in your friend, you really did, but it was hard when that friend was a total jokester like Denki.

“Can I just get it on my ass?” you ask softly, letting out an awkward laugh to mask just how nervous you truly felt, but it doesn’t quite give the effect you hoped it would. The artist simply nods as Denki starts cackling in response. 

“Seriously, (Y/n)? Have some faith in me!” he teases between chuckles, knowing you only wanted it there to hide it. You glare over at him, slowly taking off your pants before folding them up and placing them off to the side to be out of the way. You turn to lay on your stomach, trying to ignore how warm your cheeks were getting out of the embarrassment of the situation.

“Damn, (Y/n)! What you doin’ out here with all that ass?” Denki jokes, making your blush worsen as you quickly whip your head around to shoot him a hard stare.

“Stop being such a pig and come hold my hand!” you hiss, the look you’re give him turning to one of pure ice when he just laughs and rounds the table to come sit in front of you. He finally takes your hand with a smirk, kissing the back of it. 

You scoff, rolling your eyes at him as you try to mentally prepare yourself for the pain that you were about to endure. When the needle first makes contact with your skin, you jump a bit and tighten your grip on Denki’s hand. You fight villains almost every day of your life and have almost died on numerous occasions, and yet, this seemed to hurt worse in comparison. Though, this definitely helps you sober up somewhat. After a while, you start to get used to the pain of the needle making passes over your skin and start to feel your muscles relax a bit, Denki further helping you relax as he distracts you by talking away. 

Once your tattoo is finally done, you slowly stand up and waddle over to the mirror with Denki. “On three. One, two, three!” You count down before turning to look over your shoulder at the tattoo. 

“Woah! It looks so good! Thanks, (Y/n)!” Denki cheers. You can’t bring your eyes away from your left ass cheek though, your mouth not cooperating with your brain. 

Sitting there, on your skin forever, might you add, is a tattoo of Bakugou’s green gauntlets surrounded by tiny explosions and smoke. You’re not sure how to react at first but it comes to you quickly. 

“I’m going to kill you!” you shout, noticing that he is already running away. You chase after him, without pants, by the way, for a moment before the tattoo artist asks you both to calm down. You clench your jaw together while walking back over to the artist, letting them properly wrap up both your and Denki’s tattoos. The entire time you were glaring at Denki though, swearing to yourself that you’ll really kill him this time. 

“You must be a big fan of Dynamight’s,” the artist comments as he finishes wrapping up your tattoo, your face heating further at his comment while Denki does his best to hide his laughter, and failing miserably.

Once you both pay and are good to go, Denki rushes out of the shop with you trailing not too far behind as you start to chase after him again, both of you having a lot of pent-up energy from sitting down for so long. Once you finally catch up to him, you grab him by the collar of his shirt so he can’t escape while you prepare yourself to clobber him. But before you can get a good swing in, he lifts his hands up in surrender, offering to take you out for food in exchange for not hurting his precious face. You shove him with a scoff, his hand coming up to rub the spot where you grabbed his collar from. 

“Fine. You’re paying for everything though.” 

Humming contently as you lead the way to find a good place to eat nearby.

After getting a fill of some food, the both of you start walking back to the dorms, before realizing that it’s been long enough for you to take off the plastic wrap covering your tattoo. You’ll ignore it for now though, deciding that you’ll do it once you get back into your room. You’ll probably cover it up again after getting a picture of it just to make sure it doesn’t get infected though.

“I can’t wait for Bakubro to see your tattoo. He’ll finally know how much of a fan you are,” Denki teases you as you two near the dorms. Your face warms as you raise your hand to hit him with a shout, making him yelp and take off again. 

“Come back here, you gremlin!”

You chase him all the way back, cursing and shouting at him the entire time as you try to catch him. You’re panting for air by the time you come inside, trying to ignore the stares everyone is giving you. Denki is breathless from running but somehow still manages to laugh at your angry face. He crashes down into a seat beside Kirishima and leans against him for support. You glare daggers at him while you stomp on over, ready to throw hands with him. 

“What’s going on with you two?” Jiro asks with a raised brow, looking between you and the electric blonde.  

“Nothing!” You answer quickly, your face flaming with heat. No one can find out about your new tattoo. No one. 

“Awe come on, don’t be shy, (Y/n)!” Denki teases, wiping tears of joy away from his eyes. 

“Shut it, Denki!” you shout back, hitting his shoulder with as much force as you can muster. 

“Ow! Hey! Quit it!” he shouts before flicking your forehead. 

“No, you quit it!” you retort, flicking him right back. 

You two go back and forth until Bakugou, who you failed to notice until now, directs a glare at you both with a shout.

“Will the two of you extras shut up? Why are you even arguing in the first place?” he roars, making you both fall quiet. You, obviously, didn’t plan on answering that but you should’ve known that Denki would. 

“(Y/n) got a tattoo!” Denki screeches out before you can stop him, gathering everyone’s attention. 

“Did not! He did!” You shout right back, hoping no one can tell how flustered you are. 

“What? No way! You got a tattoo? Let me see it!” Mina gasps before clambering up to tug at your shirt collar and sleeves to try and find where it’s at. 

“I can’t!” 

“Yes, you can!” 

“I can’t, Mina!”

“Why not?” she whines, tugging on your shirt like a toddler now. You go quiet at that, trying to think of a good lie to tell her. 

“Because she got it on her ass!” Denki declares, making you whip around to glare at him. 

“Why you—” you start as you jump for him, his eyes widening as he quickly hops up to run away again. You can’t even chase after him either thanks to Mina grabbing your arm and dragging you towards your room with a few of the others you’re close with in tow. 

“I want to see it right now!” she shouts, almost making you trip from how fast she’s walking. Once in the safety of your room, you tug your pants down enough to show them your new tattoo. 

“Oh my god…”

“(Y/n)!”

“I can’t believe it!”

“I know. It’s terrib—” you start to say before someone else cuts you off.

“It’s so good!” 

“Yeah, it looks great!”

“What?” you ask in shock, feeling your jaw drop in surprise. Are they serious right now? It’s embarrassing! 

“It looks so good! I want to get one now!”

“Where did you go?” You can’t even take any of them seriously right now. 

“Guys, it’s a disaster!” Mina rolls her eyes at you, moving to sit on your bed as she looks at your tattoo again. 

“It is not. Stop being so dramatic.”

“I’m not! What if Bakugou finds out? He might kill me!” 

“If, (Y/n), if he finds out,” she replies with a smirk, leaning back on her hands. You stare at her for a long moment before slowly nodding your head back at her, your shoulders starting to relax. 

“Right, yeah, if he finds out,” you reply with a sigh, pulling your pants back up and laying down onto your bed with a sigh. 

What you all forgot about was a crucial detail though. That detail is a loudmouth blond who is one for drama and pranks. 

You don’t even realize you fell asleep until you hear swift knocking at your door. You groggily sit up and rub at your eyes, finding everyone is already gone. You must’ve fallen asleep sometime after laying down and they let themselves out. 

You bring yourself out of your short daze when the knocking swiftly returns much louder this time. “Yeah, I heard you the first time!” you quip as you climb out of bed, mad that you’ve been woken up from such a nice sleep. 

When you open the door, Bakugou is the last one you would’ve thought to be on the other side. You silently gape at him for a second, having trouble finding what to say. A simple ‘hello’ would’ve been fine, but you couldn’t even muster that up. 

Your eyes widen further when he pushes past you into your room, your eyes finally blinking. “Sure, come on in,” you mumble sarcastically and close the door, turning to face him only to find him already staring at you. 

“Is it true?” he asks vaguely, your half-asleep brain still trying to fully wake up and process what’s going on. 

“What?” is all you can find to say in response. 

“Is it true you got a tattoo of me?” he further asks, his eyes staring deeply into yours to gouge your reaction. All at once, you become a blushing and stuttering mess. 

“What? No! Of course not! Who gave you that crazy idea?” you sputter, pressing yourself back against the door. 

“Denki did. He told me that you two went to go get them earlier,” Bakugou further explains, taking a step closer to you. The room suddenly feels too warm for your liking, the air becoming dry in your lungs. 

“Well, Denki is a liar…” you mumble, looking away from him. You make a mental note to literally kill Denki later. 

“Show me.”

“What?” you ask, your eyes snapping back to his face to find that he is quite serious. 

“Show me the tattoo,” he demands, his voice becoming a tad bit softer than before. You gulp at his commanding voice, starting to shake your head and press yourself further into the door. 

“No.”

“Why not?” he asks, his brows knitting together. Why does he seem surprised?

“Because I can’t,” you explain, watching his brows now furrow downward. 

“Yes, you can.”

“No, Bakugou, I can’t. Just let it go,” you reply with a sigh, looking away from his eyes once more to look down at his shoes. 

“No, I’m not letting it go. It’s of me anyway, isn’t it? You’re required to show me,” he pushes, taking another step towards you and getting into your personal bubble. 

You place your hands onto your hips with a huff and shift your gaze to his, glaring up at him. “Do I have to pull down my pants to show you to get you to shut up?” you hiss, feeling your face become as hot as an inferno. 

He crosses his arms over his chest and glares down at you. “I guess you have to,” he sasses, making you angrily frown at him. 

“Fine!” you snap before turning around and tugging your pants just far enough to reveal your tattoo. You don’t hear him say anything or even gasp, your heartbeat in your ears the only sound that you can hear. You wearily look over your shoulder to look at him, your breath catching in your throat when you see the look on his face.

His eyes have drooped and become half-lidded as he stares down at it, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. You don’t dare speak, afraid that if he turns that look onto you, you won’t be able to control yourself. 

You don’t have to speak though since he can feel your heavy gaze on him. When his eyes shift up to meet yours, you wonder if he actually stopped breathing or if your mind is playing tricks on you. His eyes go back down though and a gasp rips out of you when his warm fingers gently graze over the tattoo. 

“Why?” he suddenly asks, your frazzled mind barely catching what he said. Your brain is deciding to focus more on how his fingers don’t seem to be leaving your ass anytime soon. 

“Why what?” you stutter out, followed by a gulp when his other hand moves to gently clasp your hip. 

“Why do you have a tattoo of me on your ass?” he whispers into your ear, his body heat radiating through you to your very core. You shiver and turn your head forward again, pressing your forehead to the wall to help ground yourself. 

“Denki picked it out,” you explain, sucking your lip into your mouth. He grunts at your answer and pulls away from you, making you turn around to face him in search of his touch again. 

“Denki? That’s it? No other reason?” he asks, his eyes not meeting yours. Your brows knit together at his question, your mind racing at what he could have possibly wanted to hear. It couldn’t be-

“Well, he’s technically not the only reason,” you mumble, distracting yourself by looking off to the side where a picture of the gang rests on your bedside table. You remember that day like it was yesterday. You all had decided to go to the beach and the picture was taken right as the sun hit the water on the horizon. You got a stranger to take the photo for you and Denki had shoved you and Bakugou together. By looking at the picture, you can just remember how warm your face had gotten being pressed against his side like that. It only got hotter when he had wrapped his arm around your shoulder. 

“So what’s the other reason then?” he asks, stepping to the side to block your vision from whatever you were staring at. 

“Why do you think?” you quip. 

“I’m guessing it’s because you have a fat crush on Dynamight,” he teases, his usual smirk finding its way onto his lips. 

“Maybe I do, what about it?” you sass, giving him your own smirk, even though you’re secretly dying on the inside from embarrassment.

“Well, it’s a good thing he likes you back, seeing as how you got a tattoo of him on your ass,” he bluntly replies, forcing his way into your personal space once more, but this time he presses his front against yours. 

You both stare into the other’s eyes, trying to decipher what the other’s next move is going to be. Almost at the same time, you both surge forward and smash your mouths together. The kiss unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before, a new fire igniting in both of you. It’s quite sloppy, your teeth gnashing together and angrily biting the other’s bottom lip. 

His rough hands squeeze your hips as he pulls you closer to his body, grinding himself into you. One hand wanders and immediately heads for the tattoo that you hid from him after he first touched it. He aggressively kneads the cheek without the tattoo, tracing over the image under your jeans with his other hand. 

“Mind if I get a better look at it?” he breathlessly inquires, his hooded eyes meeting yours. Instead of verbally responding, you connect your lips together once more, urging his hands to the front of your jeans to tug them back down your legs again. He does so with ease, only pulling away from your hips to peel them down your legs. He cups you through your underwear, giving a low chuckle when you let out a whimper.

“More,” you beg, impatiently tugging your underwear down just enough for him to see how ready you are for him. He lets out a satisfied hum and brings his hands down to your bare ass to give each cheek a firm squeeze, being mindful of the tattoo that’s towards the top. A loud whine escapes you before you can trap it, his lips finding their way to your neck. 

“Why don’t you lie down on the bed on your hands and knees to give me a better view of that tattoo?” he mumbles against your skin, his ears being met by a complying moan in response.

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MASTERLISTS

More with Bakugou

Tag List: @nojammsss03​, @katsuhera​, @katsulovee​, & @cyberbunny33​ ✦ if you would like to be added or removed, comment or send an ask. Also, remember to tell me if you ever change your username so I can continue to tag you :)

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[codenamesazanka]

!!!༶･･Merry Christmas･･༶!!!

Have a incredibly indulgent, too-sweet WIP from my ‘League-takes-in-Eri’ fic that also has slight Spinaraki and I’m posting it because it’s a scene that vaguely takes place christmas night/post-christmas, the boys playing with their new toys.

*｡⋆ 🎁 ⋆｡*

When Spinner dies, Shigaraki laughs at him.

“Idiot,” he says. “That’s why I said not to use Nylethe—“

“It was a 78% chance of a hit! How could I’ve missed with near 80%?” Spinner growls. The real Spinner, sitting beside Eri, gesturing violently at the TV with his game console. “That was bullshit!”

“Your move was bullshit. You’re relying too much on luck.”

“It was a calculated risk, you would’ve done the same—“

“I literally told you Feliks should attack the mage instead—“

Eri sips at her milk tea, half listening to Shigaraki and Spinner, half listening to the music the game is playing.

None of this makes much sense to her. Not why a game has math, which she thinks would turn anything into the opposite of fun; not the characters who are all quirkless because they have magic instead, but so far magic looks the same as quirks, and it gives people more than one quirk, and they’re all the same quirks; and not why Shigaraki and Spinner can’t stop arguing except they seem to like the arguing, sounding angry and excited and happy and serious all at the same time. It doesn’t make sense, it’s just weird, and Eri is starting to think this is probably what the other League members mean when they call Spinner and Shigaraki ‘nerds’.

But that’s okay. Eri doesn’t mind. She likes that she’s allowed to be here with Spinner and Shigaraki, watching them play Insignia of the Inferno; just the three of them, huddled in front of a giant TV, the only light in this dark room like a strange colorful campfire at night. There are snacks and drinks: candy and bento boxes and chips and soda and tea, and Eri can eat whatever she likes as long as she doesn’t get herself sick again. Throw up and I’m kicking you out, Shigaraki said, so she’s not gonna fail.

When Spinner huffs and finally gives the controller to Shigaraki, Eri tugs at his sleeve. “Sorry you lost,” she says.

[...]

Her body feels heavy and her eyes feel a bit dry. Eri puts down her drink. But she wants to stay.

I’ll just listen instead, Eri thinks. She closes her eyes.

For some reason, though, the music changes from classical to something pop and fast, with shouts and punching sounds. When Eri opens her eyes just a crack, gone is the castle or glowing grids and tiny fighters. On the TV instead are two characters jumping all around the screen, trying to punch and kick each other, although one is getting their hits in more than the other.

How long had she been asleep? How much has she missed? Eri turns her head a little, feeling cloth against her cheek, feeling Spinner’s arm twitch and then suddenly he’s shouting and there’s cheering from the TV and Shigaraki’s character has won.

“Ugh! Again!” Spinner shifts and Eri quickly closes her eyes again. “She’s been sleeping and drooling in me, she’s screwing up my concentration.”

“Sure,” Shigaraki says.

“Hey, you try playing with just one good arm and numb fingers.”

There’s a short pause. Then Shigaraki says, “I’m down three fingers, does that count,” and Spinner grumbles, “You know what I mean.”

“If you want we can even it out.” Shigaraki says, each word sprinkled with quiet laughter. “Shove the brat off and then give me your hand.”

Spinner groaned. “Shut up. I’m gonna take her to bed, then I want a rematch when I come back.”

As she pretends she’s like a doll, trying to be as still as possible, letting Spinner lift her up, Eri opens one eye to sneak one last look around.

Shigaraki stares at her straight on. The shock makes Eri open both eyes, before she immediately shuts them again, trying to be asleep again.

She hears Shigaraki snort.

“What?” Spinner asks. Eri holds her breath and hopes her face doesn’t look embarrassed. They’ll make her walk back to her room alone, and she just wanted Spinner to carry her... as long as Shigaraki doesn’t expose her.

When Shigaraki talks again, he only says, “Nothing. Just hurry up.”

Eri lets out her breath slowly. Her heart feels like it wants to burst from her chest.

[…]

The walk is steady, and she’s a slow, soft float. She’s a princess doll, held close and tight. Sneaking a peek at Spinner, Eri finds that he doesn’t look as annoyed as she thought he would.

Dreams cloud her head, coming back for her. Eri lets them carry her off into the night.

*｡⋆ 🎁 ⋆｡*

[queeenpersephone]

''thought i told you to leave.'' ''you did.'' ''you're still here.'' ''i didn't really know where else to go.'' for ironwidow please <3

hi love, thank you so much!! so excited for this little drabble. bet you thought it was gonna be civil war. that would be the logical choice, right?

also note, there’s some heavy loss being dealt with here. Self-flagellation and blame that’s not the true opinion of this author, just some angsty reactions, so please don’t come for me!

warning: a character has a brief moment where they think that it would have been better to have died fighting, so slight suicide warning. it doesn’t rise anywhere near the level of action, but if that’s a trigger for you, better to skip this one!

-

‘’Thought I told you to leave.''

She always calls him her sun, a bright spot in a life of darkness, but right now she is the sun. She is blinding, burning him to his core, every word choking in his swollen and dry throat at the unimaginable thought of being unwelcome in her presence.

“You did,” he admits, every other clever retort gone, his arsenal empty in more ways than one. He’s not above selfish desire. One touch from her and maybe he could forget the past hundred hours. Tragedy upon tragedy, strangers and friends and allies falling and leaving him alone.

He nearly died on that spaceship, his only motivation light years away on his home planet, her status unknown. They’ve gone days without check ins before, but nothing like this. Nothing like the certainty that half of Earth's population is dust, and beyond that, she is most definitely in the small fraction that fought that outcome.

Now she won’t look at him, and he wonders for a brief, horrible moment if he shouldn’t have died up there. If it would’ve been better to imagine she was alive and safe than to deal with the sheer pain emanating from her every pore. He thinks she could be moments away from lashing out like a wild animal, and he hasn't even heard the death toll. He doesn't know yet what he's come home to, what she's had to deal with. He found her before anyone else.

He wonders what it would've been like drifting off, dreaming about the last time they woke up together, the last time she kissed him, the last time she smiled so wide her cheeks turned red.

No. No. He can fix this. He can stride up to her and wrap her in his arms or shake her or scream or demand she forgive him or kiss her drunk until she forgets -

“You're still here,” she bites out, cold and even and almost polite, and he has flashbacks to watching her interrogate Loki all those years ago. Like he’s no better.

He could be mean, call her out on her part in this. Sure, he decided to go chasing a wizard through outer space, it was his and Steve’s ego that caused the Avengers to shatter irrevocably, it was him who promised her that he’d make her happy in that dive bar in the depths of Harlem, urging her to come out of hiding and take his side as they remade the Accords together… but surely, she… she…

She only promised never to double cross him again. To trust his decisions in and out of the field, to be upfront about where she disagreed. And she has kept every promise.

So he tries for honesty.

“I didn't really know where else to go,” he says, simple and heavy, letting go of his father’s influence and allowing tears to stream down his cheeks. She turns and he closes his eyes against her heat, fighting the urge to collapse in the doorway of her safe house and make his home here, as long as he can remain mere feet away from her. “Nat," he begs, her name on his lips echoing with so much reverence that it feels blasphemous to an atheist, "please don’t make me go, please honey, please.”

He loses the battle with his knees, but seconds later, she shatters too. He hears her painful sobs that he knows she's been withholding for days like him, feels her hands on his cheeks and her forehead against his and knows, somehow, after days of losing, there’s something bittersweet and aching that he’s finally won.

[the-redeemed-anon]

Quick thoughts on last night’s stream because oh boi

As the title says, it’s quick thoughts, it may not be everything of importance, or hell, just things I noticed, but that stream proves what I like to keep saying: Wilbur is one hell of a complex character, god damn.

1. Wilbur being as confusing as possible

Like, that happened, and it left a lot of people very confused, including Tommy at some points. This is a good time to remember that my guy was stuck in Limbo for 13 years with little to no stimuli and he seems to think a lot of time passed in the overworld too. He has to play catch-up and if Tommy’s ressurection is any hint, getting revived kinda leaves you with a bit of a scrambled mind, and add to that the fact that Wilbur was mentally ill when he died. I honestly don’t think Wilbur has made his mind up on some things, and he’s letting that slip up to the surface.

2. Wilbur and his vow of not lying

It may just be me, but when someone tells me they took a vow of not lying, I don’t believe them. Especially a character like Wilbur, man. And even if he say he’s not lying, that doesn’t mean what he is saying is the truthTM, as in, the objective truth, or that he doesn’t have mixed opinions. It’s literally what he thinks is true at that point, and opinions can change. And if he’s conflicted, he could say what he would want himself to fully believe, you know, in a case of “if I say it outloud maybe I’ll start fully believing it”. Basically, take what he says with a grain of salt, like anything any other character says.

3. Wilbur and his opinion on Dream

So, we know that Wilbur would have killed Dream for what he did to Tommy in Exile, yet Wilbur considers him a hero. That confused me too, until I remembered something very specific about Wilbur: Wilbur self-antagonises and he has a very meta way of looking at his existence.

So, he just told Tommy that his urge would’ve been to kill Dream slowly and painfully because of Exile. Considering what we know of Wilbur from his previous shot at life and how he was never someone who liked direct violence, being a long range weapon guy, saying that is huge and shows just how much he disagrees with what Dream did. Then he calls him a hero. In my mind, this rung some familiar bells: “Am I a villain, in this story?“And it echoed when he mentioned how Dream kept his throne warm.

Wilbur had a very meta way of looking at his own reality, which doesn’t seem weird at first, because we ourselves use words like “villain“, “hero“ and literary devices to talk about these characters... but that’s the thing. We use these words because they are characters. Very few people, in the real world, would use reasons such as Chekhov’s Gun to justify something they did, which is why it’s weird that Wilbur had a tendency to talk about literary devices and how he is a villain. It almost breaches the 4th wall, and it’s something that you can’t ignore once you’ve noticed this.

What does that make of Dream being the hero? Well, if someone wants to harm the hero, traditionally, they are the villain, aren’t they? So, indirectly, Wilbur seems to call himself a villain, which would go hand in hand with previous thoughts where he implied he knows he’s evil. It’s such a subtle way for him to cloak his self-loathing and self-hatred.

Also, Exile yet again is shown as something vile that happened to Tommy, and the severity of it is apparent by Wilbur’s decision that he would have killed Dream on the spot for it.

4. Wilbur and L’Manberg

Wilbur claiming he didn’t care about L’Manberg (the physicality of it) has be in doubt because right after, when he and Tommy talk about rebuilding the CH, Wilbur quietly says [“Oh, if only they could have done that for L'Manberg, ay?” - (Wilbur’s resurrected gentleman of L'manburg: 40:45, 5th May)]

During the Season 2 Finale, he said something that has rubbed me as peculiar since I heard it: [”Oh! Let’s start L’Manberg, oh! How is L’Manberg, how is L’Manberg by the way?” - (Tubbo’s Getting The Disks Back: 1:40:30, 20th Jan)] It’s as if... As if he always expected L’Manberg to be rebuilt, no matter what he did. He seems to be conflicted in the present that L’Manberg is truly gone, or, at least for me it seems like that. Here he is, 13 years later, and yeah, it’s gone. A big part of his previous identity, left to die and rot. Wilbur had a habit of masking his true feelings and vulnerabilities, and I think L’Manberg is one of them. It’s an interesting discrepancy.

Also, there is this quote: [“Holy shit. Phil, this is amazing- Did you build this, Phil? … Phil, what the hell, why didn’t we have you during L'Manberg time?! This is brilliant!” - (Wilbur’s resurrected gentleman of L'manburg: 46:12, 5th May)] which just shows that he did care about the physical place, at least from an aesthetic angle.

5. Wilbur and Friend

Let’s look at these quotes, this is from when Friend was still alive: [“Why? He’s gonna come with us. And? It’s a sheep, Tommy. Who cares about- No, I’m just saying who cares about a sheep, man, it’s just a sheep. Just, come. What, it’s just a sheep, my man. Just walk with the sheep.” - (Wilbur’s resurrected gentleman of L'manburg: 7:00, 5th May)] But then later, when going to Techno’s and Phil’s, he says this: [“Oh my god, I remember this! I remember this place, I have memories here! This where the sheep- Friend- This is where they found- where Ghostbur found Friend! I, I remember him finding him here!” - (Wilbur’s resurrected gentleman of L'manburg: 45:44, 5th May)] and when Tommy tells him Friend’s dead, he says: [“I thought he had infinite canon lives.” - (Wilbur’s resurrected gentleman of L'manburg: 46:00, 5th May)]

You can’t tell me he didn’t care at least a bit about Friend. Why would he get excited over the memory where Ghostbur found Friend if he didn’t really care about him and he was just a sheep. As for him not caring about the possibility of Friend dying? Remember, he went to hell for 13 years, so that must have changed his perspective on the act of dying or even pain. Plus, my guy just admitted he thought Friend could respawn forever. I don’t think he took Tommy’s warnings as a “hey, Friend can die for good if you’re not careful“, and more like “Friend can get hurt and respawn if you’re not careful“.

6. Wilbur saying he won

[“Look at me. No matter what happens, no matter what goes down, today, tomorrow, next week, the week after, the week after next, the fact that I’m alive means that anything that happens along this line, I’ve won. I’ve already won. I won when I pressed that button. You could spar me as many times as you want for your own personal victories, but in the grand scheme of things I’ve already won. And I think, from your silence, you already know that.” - (Wilbur’s resurrected gentleman of L'manburg: 41:59, 5th May)]

All I am gonna say is that if you have to say you won something, chances are, you need to hear yourself to hear that. Also, it’s so interesting that we have a contrasting quote for this one:

[“History is written by the winners.” (Ghostbur)

“Yeah, and he, he technically won. I mean, he did what he wanted to.” (Ranboo)

“But then he lost and everyone hates him.” (Ghostbur) - (Ranboo’s Preparation: 13:55, 14th Mar)]

7. Misc., aka a quickie on Phil and Ranboo

Feels good to have confirmation about the letters having lies so Wilbur wouldn’t worry/disappoint Phil. No purposeful history revisionism or malicious lying in this house.

Ranboo and Wilbur, ah, I can already feel a good dynamic forming, because they are, right now, polar opposites. Ranboo is, in a way, what Wilbur thinks right now, to be weak. Yet Ranboo is thriving and he has a lot of allies. I really want to see them clash and challenge each other idiologically. That would be so interesting to see.

I think that’s about it, on what I could figure out from that stream. I’d like to hear other opinions or things anyone else noticed. (Also thanks to @kateis-cakeis for compiling all those quotes from last night. Check out his quote masterlist guys. It’s a goldmine for analysing Wilbur)

[shiftynightshade]

Cody shifted as General Kenobi gestured to the holo-map, a frown accompanying the crease in-between his eyebrows. The general was discussing tactics and strategies with the dreadful Wilffur Tarkin, and the two were debating over the better battle plan.

(It was arguing really, one-sided as it was.)

‘Well’ Cody mused. ‘Which strategy will allow more Vod’e to walk away alive.’

Tarkin was infamous in the GAR, ruthless in all his plans, and he certainly didn’t care about how many brothers died, and if all of them died but the battle was won, all those deaths were overlooked by everyone.

Except the Jedi.

The Jedi treated them like people, sentient beings with thoughts and feeling, not flesh droids. Called them by their names rather than their numbers, mourned them and loved them.

And Cody’s general, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Negotiator, was the best of them all.

Tarkins’ oily voice was cold and snide as he leered at Kenobi through the hologram.

“Well, General Kenobi” He spat out their Jedi’s title, which evidently didn’t go unnoticed, if nearly every brother on the bridge bristling in offense was any indication. “It seems that we are yet to meet at a compromise, I shall call at a later date to discuss this again.” With a harsh flick the call was cut.

Under his bucket Cody frowned. He hated the way Tarkin talked or looked at his Jedi. Obi-wan had turned around, a scowl in place of his normal charming smile, and Cody longed to run his thumb over those soft pink lips and kiss them sweetly.

The sudden beeping of the comms nearly made Cody jump. Nearly. Though judging by Waxer and Boils snickering, his brothers still noticed. Fuck.

“Kenobi?” Helixes’ drawl trickled through. “The Jedi healers arrived sir.”

Obi-wan nodded, even if Helix couldn’t see it. “Bring them to the bridge, thank you Helix.” Cody sighed internally, whether it was from relief or anticipation, he wasn’t sure yet. The senate had finally caved and ordered for a Jedi healer to be stationed with major and heavy-hitting battalions to assist and to make sure that those Jedi didn’t get themselves killed or captured as more and more cases of force exhaustion and force coma’s quickly rose among the Jedi.

Cody could still remember Pond’s terrified voice trickling through their comms, his breathing laboured and speech borderline hysterical. Sobbing about how during one of Windu’s worse bouts of force exhaustion and headaches, caused by there being too many shatterpoints had left them vulnerable.

Ponds was clutching his generals lightsaber in both fists, hands trembling and obviously trying to not think about what Dooku and Ventress could’ve been doing to his riduur, and he had refused to let go of the lightsaber until they had finally located and retrieved Windu two months later, the master of the order in a force induced coma and still temple bound.

Cody repressed a shudder. The sheer brokenness in Ponds eyes as he stared at the Korrun’s battered body floating lifelessly in the bacta tank, then later spending every day religiously by his side while holding his hand gently, not caring of the days going by as he sat his protective vigil by the comatose Jedi’s side.

Cody pursed his lips. It’s probably for the better.

Obi-wan’s expression morphed into slight confusion, even if it’ was only a slight narrowing of the eyes.

Cody removed his bucket to rest it on his hip and opened his mouth. “Sir?” He was going to say more, but he was cut off by the door to the bridge opening and a scream of “OBI!” echoing in the room. A blur of cream and blue robes and pinkish red skin rushing past him which quickly turned into a hug like tackle, the blur turning out to be a red-pink Calamari woman in a combined set of cream and blue robes, her shout having quickly drawn the attention of everyone on the bridge.

Obi-wan had looked up at the shout, surprise then joy spreading across is face as the calamari latched onto him like a barnacle from Kamino’s oceans.

Cody felt his eyebrows rise, in curiosity, and when Obi-wan hugged the vibrating stranger back just as tightly, he was pretty sure they were going to fly off his head.

Obi-wan smiled warmly, and for one in a long time, it met his eyes.

“Bant! I didn’t expect you to be assigned to u!”

Head against Obi-wan’s chest, the side of the temple where ears on a human would be rested right over his hears. Crys cleared his throat.

“I’m going to guess that you two know each other?”

Obi-wan gave a rare, but blindingly radiant smile. The two shifted so his and Bant’s arms were wrapped around each other’s shoulders a position Cody was familiar with. It was one of kinship and a way to acknowledge siblings.

Bant giggled. “Obi’s my Clanmate and brother in everything but blood.” Cody blinked.

“Clanmate..?” He ventured. “Is that like the vode’s batchmates?”

For a ridiculous moment Cody thought that would’ve been confused about the concept of batchmates, but her large eyes sparkled and she smiled.

“Exactly! There’s a few differences obviously, but the concept is same!”

Cody gave a small smile at the praise, ignoring Cry’s imploring look.

Suddenly Obi-wan straightened. “Everyone, this is Bant Eerin, she’ll be serving alongside our medics for an unprecedented amount of time.” A shiny whose name Cody has yet to learn raised their hand.

Obi-wan nodded at the shiny. “Yes..?” the prompt for their name went unsaid. They shifted on the spot. “Ace sir.” He tapped his fingers against his yet to be painted armour. “If you don’t mind me asking, but what’s different about clanmates?”

Bant smiled. “Great question Ace! Clanmates are like a Jedi initiates family until they are picked by a master, and then they join that lineage’s family.”

She bumped her shoulder against Obi-wan’s with a small grin. “It’s up to an individual whether or not they still consider their clanmates family or not.”

She fiddled with a necklace, the rope and pendant barely noticeable under her robes. “Sometimes a Jedi will switch masters, whether because they requested a change or something happens to the master, then you will be considered apart of two different lineages.”

Obi-wan grinned and nodded. “Does that answer your questions Ace?”

The clone nodded bashfully, a small smile and a soft blush making its way onto his face.

Crys leaned against a console with his arms crossed, but swiftly raised a hand. Obi-wan nodded over at him. “Yes Crys?”

Crys stared at the two Jedi with thinly veiled curiosity, and on the excited shifting from the rest of the Vod’e, they were just as excited to learn.

“What did General Eerin mean by if a Jetti shiny requests a new master?” They all knew what ‘if something happened to the master’ meant. Too incapacitated to teach and raise, or dead.

Bant’s eyes grew sad, while Obi-wan closed his eyes. “If,” Bant began, a mix of grief and anger swirling in her eyes. “-A padawan requests a new master, an investigation is launched immediately for why they want a change.”

Obi-wan took over. “There has been only a few cases of abuse, but they still exist, some instances a master had declining physical or mental health. And both have agreed that it would be safer and more beneficial for both to part ways.”

Obi-wan grew quiet. “And there has only been a handful of time where the master has fallen to the darkside.”

The bridge grew quiet at that. Cody hadn’t seen a Jedi that had fallen outside of Dooku, but he’s heard stories, tales of how they became a shell of their former selves. He shuddered at the idea of an ad’ika happened to be with them…

And Cody dreaded the idea of his general falling. Pale skin splashed with the blood of innocents, Jedi and Vod’e alike, warm blue-green eyes taken over by a cold, molten gold that boiled with rage and hate. His blue lightsaber, usually a blazing symbol of hope and safety, instead replaced with red, a symbol of fear and darkness.

Cody let out a breath. He and the rest f his brothers would rather be cut down or eat their own blasters than fight against their general.

“-Ways Bant, do you need any directions or do you want to go straight to the med-bay?”

Cody jerked out of his head, eternally grateful that he had put his bucket back on.

Bant and Obi-Wan had turned to face each other. Bant smirked. “Are you saying you’re willing to go to med-bay with me?” The bridges occupants collectively held their breaths.

Bant hummed. “Sixty-six seconds Obi, better start running.” Cody watched in amusement as a few clones cheered or yelled out “go general!” as he dashed down the hall, and Cody managed to catch a glimpse of Obi-Wan kicking a vent covering open and leaping into the vents just as the covering fell back into place.

Sixty-six seconds later and Bant stood from where she was sitting and cleared her throat. “Alright, boys!”

She grinned. “Who wants to help me hunt down a rogue patient?”

Cody grinned as Crossbones cheered from his spot next to Crys.

[everlarkficexchange]

Magic as Always

Written by: @alliswell21

Prompt 71: Magic of Ordinary Days AU: 1940s, Katniss is a single pregnant girl. Desperate for her daughter not to have a child out of wedlock, Mrs Everdeen contacts a priest who in turn knows a young man who just may be willing to help. Sweet, kind and shy Peeta stayed home to take care of the family farm when his beloved brother went to war to never come back. He’s always wanted a family but rural small town life gives little chance to court. He hears of Katniss’ plight and graciously offers to marry her and raise the child as his own. He does everything he can think of to make a home for Katniss and the baby. How does Katniss take it? How does their relationship develop? Will they fall in love? [submitted by anonymous]

Rating: this chapter is rated Teens and Up  

Tags: Historical!AU; WWII; 1940’s Era views on marriage, sexism, pregnancy, etc; Katniss/Marvel relationship; Non-graphic Unprotected Sex; Unplanned Pregnancy; Arrange Marriage; Miscellaneous Religious views; Grief/Mourning; Canon Characters Death; OOC!Mrs.Everdeen; Somewhat OOC!Katniss; Everlark is Endgame; Other tags to be added.

Notes: Thank you Anon for this prompt. I must confess, I’ve never seen the movie ‘The Magic of Ordinary Days’ or read the book the movie is based on. I did a quick skimming on the plot of the movie and then dug up all kinds of reviews on the book, most of my plot points come from a combination of movie and book (which apparently differ only in a few parts), besides what the prompter asked for. I just really loved this prompt, and see the potential of this story, which will be a few chapters long, cross posted to AO3 and I already have a good chunk written ;) The rating will be adjusted too, because there will be explicit Everlark smut in the following chapters. Anon, I hope I don’t disappoint you, this story will be only loosely based on the source material, and adapted to fit THG characters in the narrative, I will try to stick to the main plot points as much as I can, but I’m also taking several liberties with the story. I hope you still like it though. 

KPKPKPKPKPKPKPKP

Prim died on a Tuesday, after a very long, strenuous battle with poliomyelitis. My sweet little sister’s face looked as fresh as a dew drop even in death. 

  “Come now, Katniss,” my mother calls from the open door of the mortuary hall, where visitation took place an hour ago. 

  The mortician has arranged for the coffin to be taken to the cemetery and put in the ground this afternoon. There will be no graveside mourning. It’s all we could pay for, but then again the war has left everyone penniless nowadays.

  A big, rotund man comes to close the coffin, and offers a curt nod. 

  That’s it then. The very last time I’ll ever set eyes on Primrose’s sweet face. 

  “Katniss,” Mother whispers, insistently. It’s probably all she can muster before breaking down in tears.

  I look on at the box my sister’s body lies in, numb and heartsick. I bring my 3 middle fingers to my lips and then rise them in the air. My last salute to my beloved Little Duck. I step away from the coffin and shuffle towards mother. 

  Up close, I can see the deep, dark bruises under my mother’s eyes. She used to be beautiful in her youth— according to friends and old photographs— but now she just looks tired and defeated. I guess having to bury first her husband and then her 15 year old daughter, in less than a year, would have that effect on anyone.

  Prim would’ve looked like our mother, with their soft blonde locks, almond shaped blue eyes and alabaster skin. She had a softer spirit though, she enjoyed music and loved animals. She always said that if she was older, she would’ve joined the Red Cross and signed up to serve as a nurse to our boys in the Pacific, like Father did… Father wasn’t a nurse though, he was a chaplain. 

  It’s funny to think that I inherited so much of my father, like my dark hair, gray eyes and olive skin. We both also share the same aversion to human pain and blood that moves my mother and Prim to action; but unlike Prim, my father’s calling to help the soldiers in their worst situations, passed me and went directly to my baby sister. 

  I sigh… Prim would’ve made a terrific army nurse, if only she hadn’t wasted in bed with that odious disease! If she had been given the chance to live, I’m sure Prim would’ve had so many boys trailing after her. She would marry at some point and have a beautiful full life. 

  I don’t plan on marrying and having a family. If the acute pain in my own chest wasn’t enough warning,  watching my mother walk silently from the funeral home to our apartment, with her head bowed and listening to her quiet sobs at night would be enough evidence that there’s too much sorrow in losing one’s husband and children. 

  I think my efforts will be better spent in cultivating my mind, and getting my degree in botany, like my father always dreamed, anyway… plus, I’m not much of a looker… not like Prim at any rate. 

  We finally arrived at our modest home. Mother drifts ghost-like into the door, and then we both shuffle quietly into our separate bedrooms. There won’t be a meal at the table tonight, but I make sure Prim’s old tomcat gets fed and watered, and after he meows in distress at my sister’s door, I open mine, and let him strut inside my bedroom and hop into my bed. The hideous fur ball and I distrust each other, but he understands his mistress is never coming back, and he’s the last thing I have from her… so he lets me pet him and he cuddles close to my chest as I fall asleep, crying. 

——————————-

Mother and I walk slowly through the busy streets of town, mostly ignoring the bustle and disarray around us. People shout, cars honk horns, a baby cries in the distance, and the few young men rush back and forth in the busy sidewalks, like they’re being lashed by invisible whips.

  “We should stop by the grocer and see if we can pick up some eggs.” Says my mother, pulling her “Sugar Book” out of her handbag. 

  Because of the war, everything is being rationed, from sugar to shoes.

  I could care less about food and clothing, though. But I still go into the shop, dutifully. 

  I’m so immersed in my own thoughts, I don’t see the lanky man walking towards me with his arms full of vittles. 

  We collide. The man’s groceries fly up in every direction, raining over me, as I sit on my rump on the floor. 

  My mother is nowhere to be seen. Typical.

  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there!” Says the man, pulling a packet of oatmeal from the floor, while extending his other hand to help me up. 

  “No… it’s alright, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

  “Well, let’s agree that we’re both klutzes, and leave it at that?” The man offers.

  I’m on my feet, dusting my skirt off and righting my blouse, “Sure, let’s do that.” I scowl at the skew state of my clothes and finally look up at the man. 

  He’s smiling down at me, and I must admit, his smile is dazzling. He’s got short brown hair, greenish-brown eyes, and a smattering of freckles over his nose. He also towers above me. 

  “My stars! If it isn’t Katniss Everdeen!” The young man says, unexpectedly excited.

  I blink owlishly at him, and try to place his face, but I’m horrible at remembering people. Or their names. 

  “Marvel Quaid,” he offers genially, unfazed by my lack of response, “we went to grade school together?” He prompts, “My pa used to sell luxury goods in District One?”

  “Oh, I think it’s coming back now,” I say smiling for the first time in what feels like months. “You used to throw sticks, pretending they were spears or something,” I tell him, showing that indeed, I do remember him.

  Marvel scrunches his nose, “Javelins, actually. I was pretending I threw javelins. I saw a fellow doing it for the Olympics in a film, and then he won a medal for it. I thought to myself that making a victory lap with the good old American flag flapping after oneself looked like fun; well, I wanted to be a victor too!” He chuckles, then deflates. “But as everything, those dreams are gone now, crushed to dust under the weight of the war.”

  As is the norm, once the war gets brought up, gloominess settles on, dampening the cheeriest of spirits.

  “I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m all too familiar with the sentiment.”

  Marvel nods, grimly. 

  “We lost Father in France.” I’m not sure why I said it. “We put my sister in the ground last week, too.” I avert my eyes. 

  “Aww, geez, Kit… that’s truly awful. I’m so sorry for your loss,”

  I’m mildly surprised I don’t immediately recoil at his little pet name. I guess the fact that he doesn’t sound condescending while delivering his condolences, helps. 

  “Oh, well, as my father would’ve said, at least their toils in this world are over. They can finally rest in peace.”

  After a moment of heavy silence, Marvel shares, “I’m being shipped out tomorrow morning.”

  I scowl, “Oh,” I bite the inside of my cheek, wondering how he’d manage to evade the draft for this long? Marvel is my age, 19 going on 20… boys get sent to the front lines at 18. “I… I could write to you… if you wanted?” I offer shyly. 

  Isn’t that what young women are being told to do, in order to keep our boys’ morale from plummeting?  

  Marvel grins, showing slightly crooked teeth, “That would be swell, Kit!” He stares at me for a long moment, then sighs, “I should go back to my shopping, before they miss me at home. Lord knows when will I have the chance of doing something as mundane as picking up my mother’s weekly grocery allowance.”

  These days it is not only uncommon seeing men doing grocery runs, but simply seeing young, able-body men around, period. All of our boys are either in Europe or the Pacific, fighting to keep the devastation of the World war from reaching our shores.

  “Well, for what is worth, I hope you get to return home safely… you know, so you can do all the boring tasks your mother tells you to do. And when I say safe, I mean, I hope you don’t run anymore into spaced out girls, like me,” I smirk. 

  “Oh, Kit, if only you knew how much I’ve enjoyed our accidental skirmish. It’s like a gift from above, seeing you after all these years. Your smile and the color of your eyes will forever be branded in my mind, to give me a reason to fight. To have a dream,”

  I’m momentarily floored by Marvel’s florid little speech. Nobody has ever said anything nearly as sweet and gallant as that to me, and for a moment, I forget all about my dead sister and father, the war, and my own sorrow. 

  I avert my eyes, bashfully, as he finishes picking up his vittles off the floor.

  “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” I lean over to pick up a can of milk, and put it on top of his pile. 

  “I only speak the truth,” he smiles brightly. 

  My mother chooses to interrupt at the exact moment I bat my lashes at him, “Katniss, there you are! I’ve been waiting for you by the counter.” She shakes her head. 

  Marvel wobbles on his feet, rearranging his load, and then greets my mother, warmly, “Mrs. Everdeen, how nice to see you again,” 

  My mother eyes him, unimpressed. “Good afternoon, young man,” she answers. 

  “Ma’am… pardon my forwardness, but, would it be too troublesome to ask Miss Katniss to accompany a soldier about to be shipped out, to supper in the town?” 

  My mother narrows her eyes, distrust dripping from her voice as she speaks, “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. My daughter and I are in mourning, you see,”

  “Oh, this won’t be an untoward celebration of any kind, ma’am. With the war raging on, we’re all in mourning. All I ask for is one last night of normalcy, a chance to reconnect with an old grade-school mate,” he smiles, hopefully, “For old times sake?” 

  I’m watching my mother’s face closely, with bated breath.

  “Very well,” Mother sighs, “You may ask Katniss out to dinner. But have her home by 9 sharp!”  

  I don’t hesitate to step up and give him directions to my apartment building in District 12. 

  I spend the rest of my day giddy and nervous, pressing my best Sunday suit, the gray one with the matching jacket, and polishing my only pair of leather shoes. There isn’t much I can do about my hair… the thing can’t be fashioned into the favored waves, not even putting it in curlers overnight, so I let it be. 

  I briefly wonder if this was all Prim’s doing? Meeting Marvel and mother’s somewhat easy aquiciscent. Prim hated seeing me sad, and constantly talked about how she’d love to help me get ready for dates with a beau. She couldn’t wait to be of courting age and date a strapping, young man herself… but of course, that would never happen for her, but she would probably still want to see me have those things. 

  Maybe Marvel is right, and our serendipitous encounter is a gift from above, to heal our wounds… at least for the night. 

  ————————-

  Marvel arrives at my house in his father’s car at 5:45. Riding is now such a luxury, with gasoline being rationed and all. He takes me to a quaint little dinner in the middle of town. We share malts, a greasy burger, and a small portion of fries and onion rings. 

  We talk about baseball:

  “You’d look good in a baseball uniform, Kit! Can you still run as fast as you did in school?” 

  I laugh. “I’m not much for sports,” I demure, “but I’ve heard playing in one of the new teams pays alright. Anyway, I’m gonna be starting my second year of college soon. I put my studies on hold while Prim was at her worst, but now that it’s only just me and mother… I’m anxious to go back to study.”

  “Wow, beautiful and smart!”

  We talk about cars:

  “I loved driving… but Mother sold our car when my sister took a turn for the worse. She didn’t want to at first, saying that Father saved up to buy it, and it held sentimental value to her, but I had to push to sell it. We needed the money and gas was a nightmare to come by, anyway,”

  “The only reason we still have ours,” says Marvel, “is because Pa is too stubborn to let go of the things that still made him feel wealthy.” He scowls, “He’s trying to get into the ice business now, since it’s pretty much the only thing one where the raw material is plenty and relatively cheap, and there’s guarantee that people will buy the product… everyone still needs ice for their ice boxes, right?” 

  No one can afford luxuries anymore with every penny going out to support our boys in the battlefields.

  We talk about many other subjects: his sister’s wedding; my father’s unit getting pinned and killed by Germans… We didn’t get a body to bury, but I got a medal on his behalf as his eldest child. 

  Marvel lets me sniffle against his chest, and then kisses my lips slowly. 

  I’ve never been kissed on the lips, and I feel my face heat up. 

  “Would you… like to take a drive with me, Kit?”

  We drive all the way to the city limit. It’s exhilarating to be in a car again, and sitting at the overlook, at twilight,  alone with a handsome boy, feels positively forbidden! 

  I’ve never done anything remotely injudicious all my life, and this whole moment feels… magical… exciting! 

  Tentatively, I initiated our next kiss, but he takes over in a rush of caresses and flitting touches. 

  “Beautiful, graceful, Kit. You have no match!”

  “Marvel…” I kiss him again, not knowing how to answer his sentiments with words.

  His hands are restless, groping my shoulders and elbows. “I wished he had more time! I would’ve loved to marry you before departing. I would’ve show you so much passion and love!”

  “You still can show me, Marvel… you absolutely can!” 

  It’s all the permission he needs to dive into a frenzy. He doesn’t stop until the deed is done, and we’re a sweaty, tangled mess of limbs in the back seat of the car, only partially clothed. 

  A deep feeling of lethargy pours over me. My muscles are sore and heavy, and wished I could fall asleep in here. 

  “I intend on coming back to marry you, Katniss,” Marvel says, stretching his lanky, long legs to zip up his pants. 

  I sit up and start finger-combing my ruined hair, hoping my mother won’t notice the strands are extra frizzy. “Um… I guess we should after this,” I say shyly, gesturing between us. 

  “You could still go to college while I’m away,” he offers with magnanimity.

  “You… wouldn’t mind that?” I ask incredulous, college women are so rare, unless they’re trying to become nurses or teachers. Most girls start courting right after high school and get married in the span of one to two years, and their husbands don’t normally encourage an education beyond what their wives came into the marriage with; so to hear Marvel say that wouldn’t mi d me stay in college is just about the greatest thing possible!

  “My darling, Kit, I don’t want you to be one of those girls pining and wasting away for her beau. I’ll be busy at war, it’ll be unfair to keep you from occupying your own time while you wait fir my return. Go to college, my clever girl!”

  I smile indulgently at him, leaning closer to slip his necktie around the collar of his shirt, “You are truly a generous, loving man,” I say.

  Marvel beams, circling my waist with his arms pulling me against his body. “It’s all inspired by you, sugar plum!”

  I giggle, kissing his cheek, “I’ll write to you every day!” I promise. 

  “That’s nice… but just so you know, I might not be able to write back right away. It’ll be a while before I get settled enough to write. But you’ll be in my thoughts every minute of every day, and that’s the honest truth! I’m serious about marrying you when I return, Kit,” he kisses me again. And then, he looks at his watch, sighing. “It’s 8:32. We should get on going, gotta keep in my future mother-in-law’s good graces!” 

  We share a carefree laugh, and finish tidying ourselves up to drive back to my house. 

  He walks me to the door, takes me in his arms, and kisses me passionately before promising he’d be back to officially ask for my hand in marriage, and for my part, I swear I’ll write to him every day until he returns home safe and sound. 

  But neither of us keeps our promises in the end, although I tried. 

  ————————-

  Three weeks go by and I keep my word of writing daily letters. I receive no word in return from Marvel, but think nothing of it… Europe is far and traveling by sea is tedious and time consuming; Marvel will get in touch once he’s settled down. 

  Another week goes by, still without news from my would-be fiancé. I still don’t worry. I’ve been busy with university, and the few other girls attending school with me keep me busy, but my heavier workload is starting to get to me.

  I’m usually so tired and moody after school that socializing with my classmates becomes a chore. I barely eat supper before I’m passing out in bed, and my letters to Marvel start to get shorter and simpler with every passing day.

  I skip writing one afternoon altogether, and take a long nap. Buttercup— Prim’s ugly cat— perches on my bed like a sentinel to watch me sleep. I believe he’s worried about me… stupid, clingy cat thinks I’m sick.

  But the feline’s intuition proves right, because just two days later, I shoot out of bed and run into the washroom to spill every last ounce of last night supper into the toilet. I must’ve caught a bug or something! 

  I feel queasy and lightheaded every morning after. My appetite wanes and it seems my delicate stomach can only tolerate pears, and broth. 

  I visit the post office to place out my letters to Marvel almost everyday; Every time I come, the nice old mailman comments on how sweet it is to see all the young-uns holding romance strong. Marvel has yet to respond to one of my letters, so I just smile tightly and demure. 

  I’ve been thinking though; the longer I go without news of my supposed future husband, and despite the whirlwind night of romance with him, I start questioning my actions, my promises. I never wanted to marry before, and suddenly I was okay getting a hasty, unofficial engagement with a virtual stranger, I barely remember from grade school… maybe it’s better if Marvel never writes. 

  My plans on earning a college degree and finding a well paying job will go unencumbered— I’m aware women in prominent working professions are as rare as snow in July, but women’s presence in the working forces keep growing as industries need laborers to keep up producing while the men fight in the war. Educated women are almost becoming less rare. 

  At the two month mark since I last saw Marvel, I become weepier than usual… is to be expected in my opinion; Prim’s been gone for a little over two months and she was the only person I knew I loved. But now I’m worrying about my health on top of everything.

  One morning, while I’m kneeling on the cold, hard floor in front of the toilet, feeling miserable and tired, my mother calls my name from the open door.

  “Katniss, I think it’s time to get a test.” She states evenly, and then enters the room to fetch a damp washcloth to wipe my face clean. “I hope I’m wrong, but I’m afraid you may be with child,” she sighs. 

  I squirm. “No,” I gasp. “I— I can’t be with child. I just can’t!” But the thought has crossed my mind a few times already. “It’s not supposed to be this way!”

  “I know, child,” My mother pats my head, “there’s only one way to know. Get dressed for the day, I will call the most discreet physician I know, and have him pay us a visit.” 

  ————————-

  Doctor Aurelius— a physician my mother has helped deliver babies and treat maladies with— confirms the pregnancy with a grim face. 

  I sit at my kitchen table numb and despondent. My mother writes a check to the doctor for his services, while talking in no so hush tones in the other room. I listen to their whole conversation, as if submerged in water.

  “I blame myself for this, doctor. I should have kept a closer eye on her,” 

  “Don’t blame yourself Ms. Everdeen, it’s that war business bringing out all sorts of evil into the world! It’s unfortunate the rise of these cases in our community. Young ladies— from good families!— engaging in acts ought to be saved for marriage. Youth do things without thinking, guided by fear. Our boys fear they may not return from that senseless, awful war, and settle down properly, and I don’t blame them one little bit.”

  “The only solace I have right now, is that my poor husband is not here to see the shame that’s fallen over our family,”

  “I understand the sentiment, ma’am. There’s no telling how Preacher Everdeen would’ve taken this blow. But I’m sure things will work out as soon as young Katniss hears from the father…” 

  I dissolve into silent tears then. My mother escorts the doctor to the door and then there’s silence. 

  My pinky finger curls into the soft fabric of the table cloth, and I try to ignore the urge to vomit boiling in my stomach. There’s one thought circling mi mind: my college days are over.

  ——————————-

“Ah! Miss Everdeen, I have something for you.” Says the mailman as soon as I reach the desk. He smiles, but rather sadly, like he’s about to give me bad news. 

  I’ve come to the post office with urgent letters every day for 6 days, and he’s never looked at me this way. 

  The old man digs around for a moment and almost reluctantly, passes a parcel tied up in twine. An envelope is attached to the top of the parcel, and with a sinking feeling, I realized it’s a stack of my own letters. 

  “It came in today, miss.” Says the man, voice laced with pity. “Sorry for your loss.” He says. 

  At first I don’t understand what he could possibly mean by that; he’s offered his sympathies fir my dead father and sister already; it makes absolutely no sense to repeat himself randomly after so long. 

  Then it hits me like a ton of bricks. 

  I gasp, and press the parcel to my chest. “Oh no! Marvel!” I whisper. I give the man a hasty wave, thanking him, and rush out of the post office like mad. 

  Tears run down my cheeks, while I dash home, imagining the worst. “Poor, Marvel!” Is all I can think.

  “Katniss, what’s wrong?” My mother calls, alarmed, when I rush to my bedroom, sobbing. She follows me in, and watches me tear into the envelope at the top of the stack. 

  I frown in confusion when I’m met with handwritten, chicken-scratch scrawl, instead of a formal missive typed in official US military stationary. 

  My scowl deepens as my eyes rove over the flowery vocabulary, and then I screech, “What?!” 

  “Katniss, what’s going on?” 

  I ignore my mother when she approaches to read over my shoulder; I step around her, shaking the piece of paper in my hands and stand by the window, as if sunlight will make the words change their meaning.

  I smooth the creases and folds on the page over, and read out loud, “Dearest Kit, sorry it took so long to write, it’s been a wild time since we arrived and finding time to correspond with everyone back home it’s been hard.

  “At times, your letters have been the sole source of light and hope in the darkness of this conflict. Is for that reason, and with a heavy heart, that I must come clean to you now. I truly meant it when I swore to come back and make you my wife, but as the Good Book says, the Lord works in mysterious ways, and love has sprouted out the most unlikely place! Kit, I’ve fallen in love and married a lovely gal here in England…”

  I stop reading. He goes on talking about the why and how, but I sincerely don’t care. 

  “That good for nothing, virtue dasher, future crushing… liar!” My mother bleats to the ceiling, raising her palms over her head, dramatically. 

  I’m angry too, of course. I feel used and disposed of like a dirty rag, but my mother’s reaction is borderline hilarious. Except, it isn’t. 

  I’m pregnant, unmarried, and soon— once my still flat stomach starts rounding— I’ll be socially ostracized for my condition. My only saving grace was the promise of marriage that bastard Marvel had given me. But that’s gone now. 

  “I knew that boy was bad news the second I laid eyes on him! He never even introduced himself to me, the little weasel! This is my fault. My fault! I should’ve never allowed you to run amok with the likes of him…”

  “Mother, will you please?” I nearly growl, gesturing at the open bedroom door.

  She stares at me uncomprehendingly for a moment, before pursing her lips in disapproval, and stalking out of the room muttering her aggravation under her breath. 

  I sink into my bed with Marvel’s stupid letter crumpling in my fist. A single, hot, angry tear rolls down my face, and for the first time since finding out of its existence, I hug my midsection and address my child, “I’m so sorry for dragging you into this mess. I know you didn’t ask for a mother like me, but I’m all you got now, little one. I promise we will be alright… I’ll try not to let you down.”

  ———————-

  My mother has been unbearable for the last two days. She cries in her room worse than when Prim died, and when she sees me, she starts lamenting my poor choice, like I’m not even standing there… as if I don’t feel discouraged enough. 

  I keep myself busy with my education. I will need to earn this diploma now more than ever before, and I need to do as much as I can before the baby arrives and my studies get put on hold. 

  In the meantime, I scout the newspapers for possible work options to sustain me and my mother. Our savings keep diminishing and the small stipend my mother got from the Army since my father passed away is becoming more insufficient by the day. 

  There’s a knock on the front door, and I push out my chair unhappy by the interruption. 

  “Afternoon Miss Katniss! Would you let your mother know she’s got a telephone call down in the lobby?” Says the building’s doorkeeper. 

  “Of course, thank you. She’ll be right down!”

  Telephones are yet another luxury we had to give up when moved to this small place after losing my father. 

  I go back to my job hunt, and my mother descends to the lobby, quickly. 

  She returns after only 10 minutes, almost running through the door, excitedly calling my name. Tears wet her face, but her smile is so blinding, even without knowing what sort of news she’s heard to cause her such joy, I stand from the table with nervous anticipation. 

  “Oh, Katniss! Katniss my dear daughter, you’re saved!” She exclaims, hugging me tightly. 

  I’m confused. I step away from her embrace, “What do you mean?” 

  “It’s the best thing possible ever, I tell you! The Lord has answered all of my prayers!”

  “This is all so exciting and all, mother, but… could you please share this great news already?” 

  My mother cups my face in her hands, and beams at me, “You need to pack your things, darling! Your father’s good friend, Reverend Undersee, has found a husband, and you are to wed, in three days time!”

  —————————

Reverend Undersee and his daughter, Madge, meet me and my mother at the rinky dink bus station, in the equally tiny town my mother has banished me to.

  “Katniss! How long has it been?” Says Madge, hugging me enthusiastically.

  I bite my tongue to keep the acidic retort of “not long enough!” to leave my mouth. 

  “Welcome to Panem,” says the reverend, soberly, shaking my mother’s hand in greeting.

  “Thank you, revered. We appreciate your hospitality and your understanding,” my mother responds, then gives me a pointed look and a wordless command. 

  I nod and mutter, “Thank you, sir. Madge,” 

  I scowl at a crack in the pavement, not feeling an iota of gratefulness for this charade! 

  Any man agreeing to this questionable union has to either be desperate, or be hiding terrible, ulterior motives to go along with all of this. Nobody in their right mind would willingly marry a girl pregnant with another man’s baby, and be happy about it… unless that’s the reason! 

  I shudder at the thought. 

  But it is a very real possibility that my intended is a simpleton, who can’t find a wife otherwise… or worse! It could be a man very advanced in age, looking for a supple, young body to leech off. Gross!

  My mother had been too excited about the news that a man offered to marry me (as if I asked for, or even wanted a husband!) to bother to ask his name. 

  Reverend Undersee coughs daintily, clears his throat, and starts, like he’s giving a lecture at the university. “It is our Christian duty to lend a helping hand to widows and orphans in their time of needs. Same way it’s our duty to keep the memory and honor of an old friend from being dragged into the mud.”

  I wince at the harsh words, and let my face fall lower, if that’s even possible. 

  “Well, it’s a good thing that we are all recipients of the abundant grace of the Lord, which covers multitude of faults, and it’s never hard to reach,” a deep, velvety, masculine voice cuts into my embarrassment. 

  I lift my eyes from the ground, to find a man striding confidently in our direction. He smiles kindly at me, his eyes fixed on my own, like I’m the only person still standing in the station.

  He finally cedes our staring contest, to take in the rest of the group.

  A knot forms in the pit of my stomach, because I recognize him from years past when my family used to visit this town, and I’m afraid I know exactly why he’s here. 

  “Good afternoon, all. I apologize for my tardiness, I had a last second detail to take care of before leaving the house,” he nods in our general direction, taking his hat off; a riot of ashy blonde curls falls onto his forehead, before bending forward to shake my mother’s hand, “I’m Peeta Mellark, at your service, ma’am. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” 

  “Likewise, mister Mellark,” says my mother, her lips twitch tersely, “Widow Everdeen, and this here is my daughter Katniss… your bride.” 

  Peeta Mellark’s baby blue eyes slip back to mine, and the left side corner of lips curls into a shy, earnest smile. “Welcome to Panem, Katniss, I’ll sure do my best, so you’d like it here.”

[campyvillain]

ok i mentioned earlier that i wanted to make a fnaf au that sort of does it’s own thing and is it’s own beast entirely so I spent a few hours writing a few things down and here are the basic plot elements nd stuff!! fair warning tho it is REALLY long so that’s why the readmore is there

you play as a 2nd year college student whose on vacation with 6-7 of your friends who all go to different schools. ur all on vacation in ur small hometown around the midwest region of the us, none of the friends except for one is rlly worth noting (bc i’ve yet to rlly flesh them out)

it takes place in the modern era, around summertime, and right near the end of everyones vacation.

the one friend of note I mentioned is a guy called Lester Smith! He’s really into electronics and his dream job is to become something akin to an imagineer . you and him go way back but not in the good way. You used to bully him a lot in middle-high school for being the “weird kid” and ultimately fucked up his dreams. This is because at the end of senior year, there was a robotics competition you both partook in, both in different teams, and the reward for the winning team was a fully paid scholarship for the most prestigious stem school in the state. Lester would’ve won, but the only reason he didn’t is because YOU broke into his garage late at night and tampered w his robot so that it would fail and make him seem like he was inept at programming. That’s what happened, and YOU won the scholarship instead. This was a massive blow to Lesters hopes as his parents weren’t able to pay for a proper college for him and his grades in other areas weren’t that good so he just goes to a community college now. since then you and him have became friends as he mostly seems to be on good terms w it and doesn’t SEEM to be onto you for what you did to him. you two like to talk about animatronics a lot and it’s apparent that he’s probably way smarter than you and that he probably deserved that scholarship way more than you do.

also none of your friends are accquantinced with Lester, you only just introduced them to him over break, and they seem to be getting along well. For now

thankfully for Lester his luck has turned around, he’s been showcasing these new entertainment animatronics he’s worked years on to multiple restaurant chains but they’ve all wanted nothing to do with his project because of Lester’s lack of any sort of resume etc. it all seemed doomed to fail until this local restaurant called Freddy’s (which genuinely is not affiliated with the Freddy Fazbear company because....the Fazbear company does not exist in this universe!!! it ditches the canon ALTOGETHER. the place the plot takes place in is just called Freddy’s for continuity purposes and to keep the name of the franchise) humored his offer and took him up on it. probably because the company is losing money each day and is likely only doing this so it can bring customers in and not be bankrupt

OH YEAH ALSO Freddy’s is given the funding to go thru with the animatronics initiative from an anonymous angel investor which has also allowed them to expand it and be relatively financially well off and has allowed Lester to make more animatronics and expand the place! so that’s fun

the hypothetical game takes place thruout the week-long testing period for the animatronic prototypes and the restaurants renovations are nearly done and they also need extra night guards to make sure everything goes smoothly. so you and your friends all decide to pool in and help Lester with the testing week by all becoming night guards and working together at the same time since it’s your last week together and you have nothing else to really do plus you could use the extra money but YAY!!!! FRIEND MOMENCE

Throughout the hypothetical game Lester who is also a nightguard serves as your phone guy stand-in. He calls every night to chat with you and the others, telling you about tips and tricks to make sure the animatronics work as intended, goofing off with you, infodumping about his cool robots, being a pretty neat dude and having fun. it’s so cool.

as mentioned before it ditches the series standard 5 canonical night format and goes with a full week of 7 canonical nights instead. the first night is relatively tame but as it goes on the other nightguards (who are your friends) start disappearing one by one....aka they’re being KILLED by the animatronics. you can’t really know this is happening at first because all your friends have made it clear they have to go back home on different days, and your friends disappear on the days they’re set to leave home so nothing seems amiss at first because you, and everyone else who’s still left, just thinks they headed back home like they said they would, which Lester assures you is what’s going on. but eventually in the last 2 nights you and Lester are the only ones left and it becomes apparent that your friends, or rather what remains of them, never got out at all.

remember how i said that Lester serves as the phone guy stand in and how he helped you with the animatronics? turns out a lot of the advice he fed you through calls actually ended up aiding him in killing all your friends, and technically you’re sort of to blame for why they’re not around. 50% of the advice he’s given you ends up hurting your friends and making the animatronics go after them.

plot twist! Lester is fully aware that you ruined his life at that robotics competition and as soon as he got home from it he could tell that someone, specifically you, tampered with his robot, and has been planning to brutally get back at you for years and is incredibly jealous and spiteful toward you for obvious and... pretty justifiable reasons, all things considered

on the 7th night Lester locks both you and himself in Freddy’s with no way for either of you to escape. he’s then killed by one of the animatronics and that animatronic, now possessed with his soul and with his consciousness stored inside, chases after you and tries to kill you. this is along with the other animatronics, who are now all haunted by your dead besties who died on the previous nights, partially controlled by Lester and enraged that you let them die. you spend the rest of the night evading them, but in the last few hours they all combine together into a single animatronic who is entirely controlled by Lester and goes after you even MORE and the difficulty ofc ramps up to 100.

the only way to beat the night is by going into the secret storage room and grabbing all the fireworks that you and your friends were going to set off on your last night together as a group on break - which is like, a lot of fireworks - but had to cancel due to bad weather (which was the 2nd night of the game, right around when ppl were disappearing) and luring the Mega monster animatronic to it and setting it off, destroying Freddy’s and everything in it. wether ur player character also dies in this explosion is up to ur interpretation and their fate is left ambiguous as the Newspaper Article(tm) published after night 7 states that you simply “disappeared” and doesn’t elaborate on if ur alive or not.

so yeah!!! that’s the basic plot and backstory of my fnaf au. i’ve always thought it would be really cool if there was a fnaf game based off the slasher genre (w Lester being the slasher-type villain here), that concept has always worked rlly well in my mind nd i gotta say i’m having SO much fun workshopping it. i’ll get to designing the characters and the animatronics REAL soon and i’m definitely gonna have a ball w those aspects. i’ll also probably find a name for it other than “MY FUNNY FNAF AU” so that’s cool. ok i’m done rambling im so excited to flesh this out byeeee ^^