#if tumblr hides this from the tags like my last art post i am gonna run away from society and go live in a cave <3

[citrus-soda]

daily affirmations: smooch that frog

[stonedstargazer666]

Stoned Head cannon

So this is gonna be based kinda off of a couple of pictures I saved from twitter and here on good ole Tumblr, earlier this month. well my collection keeps getting larger...Anywho.. Yes, I am baked outta my gourd, this is just gonna be raw writing and I have sat long and hard about this. I'm sorry if I don't tag anything correctly. i'm zooted. Fem terms used. NSFW under photos. (DNI: If the thought of getting your BC messed with if your taking it orally messes with you. )

Ok so you're dating Vessel, right? You get along with the others really well. you bring out a side of them that Vessel rarely sees. Which is fine dandy and wonderful. If it weren't for the fact that the boys are seemingly testing the boundaries with you. Light touches that could easily be brushed off as accidental, brushing the hair out of your face with lingering touches.

Well Vessel sees you just brushing it off, you're confident enough to tell them to back off sure. Brushing their hand away, giving them a glare, or flipping them off with a laugh. You're absolutely loyal to Vessel, perfectly devoted the both of you would say. But gosh, if Vessel didn't want to absolutely claim you. Sure, you two have your fun regularly, but you were on the pill. He didn't know how to bring that up to you, on one hand he loved that you were stern about your health and just wasn't ready for kids.

BUT on the other hand, when you take your placebo week, you get emotional over videos of babies laughing and giggling till they can't breath. Vessel see's how you coo at your phone while laying in bed, earbud in or over ear headphones depending on the vibe you had. listening to the sweet shrieks of laughter, he listens to you talk to yourself how your friend's baby is so cute, when they post pictures. It was a monthly habit that drove him up the wall. Until he read about activated charcoal, and the dangers of it messing with oral birth control... Oh.. well this could be useful information. He better read up on that... ya know just in case....

(NSFW content ahead, continue if you dare)

Now that he has learned about the activated charcoal, he thought that would be perfect. He had been meaning to try out a different way of painting his body. You liked it when he wore the paint in the bedroom, who was he to deny his sweet little dove? On stage it was the normal body paint, but lately in the bedroom...the texture of the paint felt different on your tongue....or...or did it always feel that grainy? You vocalize your concern in a needy whimpering voice, feeling your own hot breath bounce off of his neck. Tongue halfway pressed against the pulse point of his throat.

Vessel rumbles a deep throaty laugh, assuring you that yes it has. for the last month It had. Vessel would hide and put the water activated charcoal on his throat, fingers, hands, chest. ALL of your favorite places to lick, suck on, worship. Mentally Vessel reveled in the fact that he was messing with your birth control. You would be a wonderful mum, and the boys...oh the boys would know who you belonged to. two birds one stone really. But you didn't know this, you didn't need to know that little fact. HE prayed and thanked God that nothing had changed over the past month, nothing that would arise suspicion of what he was doing... The sound of you greedily choking and trying to swallow around his fingers brings him out of his thoughts. He takes a moment to take in the pretty sight. you on the bed, ass up, face down cause you're a good girl yeah? Yeah ,you are, tilting your head to the side. your tongue lavishing his long fingers.

He coos at how pretty you are. A pure work of art, taking his fingers into your mouth so willingly, while also taking him so perfectly into your drooling sex. Vessels eyes zero in on your convulsing throat, moaning audibly feeling you successfully swallow around his fingers without choking or gagging. Oh such a good girl you are, He praises. As you swallow the charcoal, bringing you one step closer to being claimed and owned by him inside and out. With that thought in mind. Vessel pulls his fingers out of your throat. Reaching around to wipe them right over your womb, the striking black pops against your pink warm skin. Almost like a promise, Vessel flips you over onto your back. slowly...so deliciously slowly does he show you what his new healed piercing is capable of. Oh now you really feel it, and you clench hard. Vessel watches the moment you succumb to his slow deep ministrations. He takes a quick moment to make a mental note to thank IVy for the suggestion. Who knew that a Jacobs ladder would be just utter heaven. Vessels thrusts start getting sloppy, and rougher. his hands gripping the fat of hips with a bruising force. His hips stutter as you beg so prettily through tears and desperate moans for him to come inside.

Oh how you sang little dove, your voice cracking as you scream his name. BEgging him to come, your voice is delirious. It's pure unadulterated music to his ears, He slams into you one more time, rutting into your poor bullied cunny, grinding against your swollen nub just right. Your climax hits, your back arching off the bed as you hopelessly grind and roll your hips. Vessel soaks in the sight of the pure pleasure on your face, as he grinds deeper. Seeing a faint bump in your pretty tummy, just underneath the black streaks he left there earlier...

He cums hard, and so much. Poor man, must have been so pent up... but Gods does feel so fucking good to feel his release overflowing, and dripping. But you still whimpered softly about feeling so full Vessel stared at the marking he left, it looked ever so slightly rounder. He wonders if he could maybe talk you into getting it tattooed. Just for him. He slowly pulls out, whispering praises, telling you what a perfect girl you are, gently rubbing your sides. Waiting for you to come down from wherever you floated off too during your climax. Once your breathing evened out to his liking, he got up. Disappearing, just to come back with a soft warm wet wash cloth. Gently cleaning you up, taking a quick picture of the marks. For later reference of course. Then wiping them away, reverently. After cleaning you both, he throws on black sweat pants. Then lovingly wraps you in your favorite soft blanket. The soft sigh you let out lets him know your relaxing, and are comfortable. He picks you up, cradling you close to his warm chest. Walking out to the common area to sit with you in his lap. Showing the other three, that he was the only one that held your heart.

And wouldn't you know it? three weeks later, you tell Vessel that you've been feeling quite strange... Like a weird stomach bug, cause you've been so nauseous lately.... But don't worry, Vessel assures you, you'll start feeling better soon. Just let him take care of you...

[mxescargot]

some image IDs TBA, apologies!

re: the tags in my last reblog - have some old/abandoned art of my hornet gijinka + star wars au designs this is gonna be a long post oops first was before i figured out how i wanna dress my hk gijinkas (still kinda proud of it esp the facial expression even if i didnt wanna shade it properly lol) second is her pretty much figured out design in training clothes, plus drawings of her as a togruta jedi (i should really get back to that au i love it so much) third is an unfinished thing from like half a year ago (damn) and thats what she wears post sealing of the black egg temple generally although maybe i shouldve given her more visible bags and stuff idt she would leave Everything at her camps right

she has a rope dart because thats what her attacks remind me of most, not the proudest of how heavily i referenced the bottom pose from another artist and idt i would do that as heavily now? but something something growth

in the third design she has a magic spider silk tabard thing instead of armour (hence the silvery iridescence), i imagine it would help with the whole agility thing. capes r inconvenient but hehe Swoosh in case u couldnt tell my hk gijinkas r kinda chinese fantasy vibes??? maybe i should make her a proper like royal princess kinda design sometime ough (and redesign the tiara in the first one to be more chinese as well... hanfu hair stuff is always sick as all hell) ...also when i first posted the first one i wrote a little drabble. i was not and am still not a person who does writing ever but uh

Hornet was usually good at hiding her problems and keeping a calm demeanour. After all, she was the Daughter of Hallownest, destined to inherit an entire kingdom. Hornet knew things were getting worse for her beloved Hallownest, but she could never have imagined that her own father would destroy their home, locking himself in a dreamworld she could never access. Hornet realized she’d never see the palace again, and let her tears finally flow; there was no longer a kingdom for her to rule anyways. (Please excuse my inability to write LMAO) For clarification: the tiara on her head is imaginary and I imagine gijinka!Hornet impulsively shattering her actual tiara once she realizes Hallownest has gone past the point of no return. The phantom tiara + the Hallownest seal in the background indicates how she’ll always be royalty and cannot distance herself from her father’s legacy.

yeah

apologies for the massive wall of text but this is what tumblr is for right

[m0e-ru]

👀👀 also i just want to say thank you! i really got into P4 this year and finding your work only amplified my love for it. mim became like my 2nd favorite character all because of you also the stage play it really lives in my head rent free. i love your art and writings, your work has turned a special interest into an even more special one.

hi yeah I read this morning I was tearing up a bit sorrry for being an emotional baby I dont get love letters often maybe thats why im full of love . in exchange. thank yo thankyou for all the nice words it means a lot. here’s A LOT in return. with commentary because it um. was too much for the tags

okay this one was one of the drafts for my 3/20 art this year there was like. four drafts till i settled on this one then went SIKE 🏌️🏌️🏌️ you're doing the dual type ones ( the magazine ones i ended up posting )

MIDNIGHT TV STATION REAL !??? anyway here’s just shadow yukiko and iznmi interaction it’s not finished since there’s no backgrounds yet I swear there are. I did this alll the way back in feb I think and just kept polishing it bit by bit throuhgout the year and it’s STILL not done yet. the horrors came in I couldnt work on bigger pieces anymore since they wouldnt even get FINISHED anyway 💥💥💥 there’s also a s.kanji one but those are a bunch of blobs and text in shorthand mim is such a jokester asking questions n shit to twist people’s heads but yukiko’s just so sweet she really means what she says yknow like this is supposed to be the start of mim remembering what humanity is besides the mindless and selfish desires that technically gave birth to them after tearing them apart from the whole they once were. the LAST few TV stations these women were asking shit like ohhh can we hang a noose here ohhhhhhhh I want it to smell like liquor and rust and this girl was like can I have a castle !!!! can I wear a big pink frilly dress and hold a mic to push my human self’s buttons I think it could work

yeah these are my plans for the m.inaba arc for gsaslau and FUCK IM SO MAD I WAS WRITING ON THE TUMBLR EDITOR BUT IT FUCKED UP THE FORMATTING AND A WHOLE CHUNK OF TEXT IS GONE sorry this post is gonna be a lot longer than it should be okay ! gsaslau Magatsu Inaba arc. Adachi’s besties with the attendant but Mim decides they’re done with the attendant facade and erases everyone’s memories of the guy. They did a bad job at it though so Adachi’s stuck with the awareness that he has a hole in his life that could’ve been avoided if someone did a better job at cleaning up everything that reminds him of memories he’s going insane over thinking they exist when they DON’T to literally everyone else. He makes a deal with the fog to be god’s prohpet and usher in the New World as its Fool so it gives him the answer to whether or not his memories are real and worth bringing back a guy he thinks is dead. Souji tries to stop him and as much as Adachi’s trying to hide his true intentions under the guise he’s justifying himself as a bad guy this whole time, he kinda snaps under pressure that a bunch of kids are being able to stop him despite the help of a god and a world he can manipulate. Mim’s plan was to wait for his Shadow to take over so his body’s properties would be enough for him to become a vessel to manifest Ame-no-Sagiri. But THAT doesn’t happen so they did plan B: go force the power of Persona and wear it like a costume enough to hide their face to stop further awakening more memories that could throw the whole deal off. Souji recognizes that it isn’t the power of Persona so he demands god to stop using their powers through a human just to hide from something, it’s putting the guy in enough pain already. Mim agrees to leave and Adachi’s Shadow finally takes over anddd and yeah I could make a separate post about my writing I wish I had more time and energy for things

okay this one looks simple it’s likeee a manga that was supposed to be a companion piece to some writing that also didn’t get finished. so. I could share that but they’re non proofread discord messages but I promise the draft is there the context is that they’re in Okina and they try out the gacha machines. Mim’s genuinely having fun but they pull a teru teru bozu which um. remind them they’re supposed to dutiful god. like they look like a teru teru bozu. and that they’re supposed to treat this as an experiment to see humans’ true desires so they just shove it to Adachi who harmlessly relates it to them because it honestly looks stupid annd the whole tension dissipates.

here's also a bit of writing alll the way back in feb. i guess the context would be episode 13 and 14 where nanako leaves her loveline umbrella with the fox except this time she doesnt get wet since she had a pit stop at the gas station yaayy :mimyay:

The little girl left her umbrella by the torii with the fox as a gesture of her kind heart. Then she hugged the plastic bag in her arms and began to run straight home.

The rain was pouring hard! The summer wasn't as kind as her, nor would the crashing showers that would come after days of blazing heat.

Every step she took quickly became squickly and soggy as her shoes and socks were already soaked through. Her pigtails were getting heavy and her bangs almost covered her eyes. Just then, she heard a voice in the rain. But before she could look, she slipped forward.

"Ah!" Nanako gasped as she let go of the bag and braced for impact, but heard another "ah-h!" as she was quickly hoisted up with an arm wrapped around her chest, picking her up and felt another arm underneath support her. Her chin now on broad red shoulders that smelled faintly of car exhaust and gas amidst the rain.

The splashing of shoes on the wet pavement along with the crinkling sounds of a plastic bag was heard. Nanako was more worried of whose perfectly dry clothes she drenched with her sopping wet ones.

"You okay, little kiddo?" a familiar voice asked as she was gently set down on dry concrete away from the rain.

"I'm okay," she said, wiping her bangs and looking straight at the stranger in front of her.

It was Moel's gas station attendant, the one Souji works with. "Ah, you're big bro's big b--" she quickly shook her head, "I-I mean, big bro's senpai."

"Heh," the crouched man laughed weakly, it even seemed like he forced that smirk. "I work here too, y'know? Little customer."

"Oh, I'm sorry. And thank you, mister attendant."

"You're welcome, and don't worry about it. 'S not like I'm too mad about it."

An awkward air accompanied the scents of lingering exhaust from the last car and the petrichor from the rain. Although Nanako didn't feel any of this, just to say. It's always been like this with big bro’s senpai, at least how it's been with just Nanako herself. Like right now.

The man continued to crouch and adjust his hat. "Well, you're a silly girl. Why's someone with flowers all over her papers running around in the rain?"

Dunno how long, but I hope you haven't been running around like this for too long. I know you live nearby but your big bro's gonna have to take care of you if you get sick!--I mean, he'll always take care of you. He's a good kid.

If you were out long, I'm impressed how much of this you kept dry! …Just hoped you could've done the same for yourself, hehe.

Ah, but knowledge's different than wisdom, or whatever mister detective said. Hm, he even said I had neither! Maybe that's why I didn't know?

Uh…well….the fox by the shrine…. it was getting wet, so I…

Hm…

Heh, 'can see how you and that kiddo really are alike, little kiddo.

and SURPRISE !!! i found this lying around i thoughtt id add it here because youre so nice and it's so lovely to see you in my notifs all the time THIS IS A JUMPSCARE FOR EVERYONE ELSE sorrryyyy sorry

[hometownhorrors]

Someday I am going to look back on this post and mark it as a pretty major accomplishment. Let's see, disclosures up front. I have a lot of trauma, I often can't talk about stuff that has happened, especially if I feel I am "taking up space". It's like the dialogue options are grayed out.

It happened in childhood, got worse during a long bad relationship. I couldn't even explain my needs or wants, leading to just - not. I slaved away for other people, did nothing for myself, and burnt out on self neglect. There's a lot more to this, and I'll put it down on paper and share it as I go, but the important part for this project, is that I keep carrying it through.

I'm going to start creating art and work under my own identity today, instead of always using others to present it to the world. No more ghost writing, no more distancing my queer, trans, intersex, masc identity from my work, because more visible queer people is good.

I've tagged this with a few project names, and I am just gonna hold myself to weekly progress on all these little things I never worked on.. Including Hometown, which the blog was named after - a podcast about my old haunted home, which every queer person has.

I don't care if I get ANY listeners or viewers or attention at this point, I am unlikely to read TOO many comments, to avoid psyching myself out.

I'm autistic, I've got ADHD, I live knowing my expression difficulties may be more difficult than I think, as I go on through this-

But it was Chuck Tingle who made me think about it, his bag - well, this is my version of a bag, and a ski mask.

I had a tumblr, and it was associated with my OTHER WORK, which I do find *somewhat* dysphoric, to present very feminine and to do highly gendered creative work where there's constant reminders, kinda wasn't super healthy.

Burnt out, broke down, survived, and now I am going to get a youtube, and a twitch, and stream video games, and make silly video essays, and talk about being queer, and hunted, and from the worst place, and the darkest one too.

I am posting this, literally from hiding from my own family. Fortunately the people hunting me know nothing about me.

And they are hunting a girl. :P

ETA: And what I've learned from being allowed to exist as myself at last on the internet - at last - is that there are a lot more people who have been through things similar to me, than I thought. And I'd love if someone else thought that as I write some essays on hinterland capitalism, exploited populations (like the one I come from), and unhappiness within families. I'll try to warn for things, and I guess it's time to get some banners - and art- and colors. I am a BIT scared of being recognized, but I'm working on how - like, I don't owe anyone an extensive disclosure of all my creative work.

Hard to reinforce that.

[sunnysunoo]

Love Letters ; Sim Jake

Pairing: Jake X Reader

warnings: explicit language and cursing

word count: 3k words

genre: friends to lovers au! fluff with tiny pieces of crack lmao

Jake was always known for being this perfect guy in school. I mean, they're not wrong. They always described him as if he's this walking piece of art in the hallways. People would stop to just stare at him. You'd stare at him all day too, but you set priorities first: writing him love letters.

You're no Lara Jean, but I guess you can say that she's what inspired you to write Jake letters. Who needs Peter Kavinsky when Jake Shim exists anyways?

note: Not me completely disappearing off of tumblr for like months and then showing up again suddenly lol. I got really busy the past few months since I was completing requirements for school, and I really didn't have the motivation to do anything at the time so I took so time off to take care of myself first so I hope you understand :) But now since it's summer break, I am given at least 2 more months until I go back to school in August :)) Here's the long-awaited Jake imagine that I completely forgot about lmao hope you enjoy <3

P.S I finished writing this at 1:26 am so please excuse the really shitty plot and grammar ill rewrite it once i wake up

tag list: @cha-raena ( sorry for the rlly late post bestie )

Dear Jake, First of all, I will never call you Jaeyun because calling you by your English name makes me feel like I'm your friend. Calling you by your Korean name makes us feel like we're cold strangers to one another and I don't want that. I want us to be something more than that, but it's hard when you don't even know who I am. I'm surprised how you don't grow tired of me just dropping letters right into your locker every time you open it, and that's one of the things I love about you. You don't just throw away people's efforts and you treasure them with care. It makes my heart beat so fast as if I ran miles away from here.

We're already one year left until we graduate high school, and I don't want to end my high school years without you realizing my feelings for you. I know for sure that you would never reciprocate the feelings that I have towards you, so I want to treat this as closure in case we do forget about each other in the future. Yours truly,

Moon

__

"How is this person not over you? That's like the tenth one this month," Jay said, looking over Jake as he reads the letter from his secret admirer. Jake has always been receiving these letters from the same person everyday for the past four months. He's thankful for the letters because they definitely make his day better, knowing that there's someone out there who loves him as who he is regardless of looks. He's not gonna lie that these little notes and letters make his heart race too. "Do you have any plans with finding the person behind the letters?" Jay asked as he watches his best friend trying to hide the small smile that's been growing. No one really knows who this mysterious person is and why they decided to name themselves the moon, but we don't judge anyone in here. If they want to be the moon in their next life, then so be it. "I really want to find the person who's making these letters," Jake shoved the letter in his backpack, trying to not wrinkle it. "But I don't know where to start." "Who's finding who?" A voice popped suddenly beside the presence of the two boys. You leaned beside the locker beside Jake's, watching him as he grabs his books from his locker. "Did Moon drop your daily letter today again?" "They did as usual," Jake wasn't even surprised. He would expect the letters every time he enters the school in the morning. He would open his locker to see the usual small letter placed inside his locker. He usually arrives at seven or earlier, but he's surprised that he could never even catch a glance of this anonymous sender around the campus. "Should I go to school at five in the morning?" "Five in the morning? Isn't that a bit too early?" You questioned, followed by a shaky breath. "The school doesn't even open until six." "I could just walk to that nearby convenience store I always pass by to grab a coffee." He argues, closing his locker shut before walking towards his classroom.

You and Jay followed beside him, and you sneered under your breath, "You don't even wake up to your alarm clock."

"Why don't you even want me to go early anyway?" He glances as you try to give him an answer. But before you could say something, Jay replies first.

"You’re probably hiding something." He said. You rolled your eyes and narrowed your eyes at him. "You are so weird." You grunted, before walking ahead of them. You feel panicked because you were scared that you made yourself obvious to them.

__

You were inside your classroom sitting on your desk. There were only fifteen minutes left before lunch, but you had eaten your packed meal before instead of going to your school cafeteria. You were fidgeting in your place, conflicted about Jake finding his secret admirer, not knowing that it was you who's been sending him letters the past few months. You're not scared of him finding out that the letters were from you; that was the entire reason why you wrote him letters in the first place. You're scared of how he was gonna confront you about it. Would he like you back? Would he hate you? Would he avoid you?

Your mind was full of scenarios but you were suddenly brought back to reality when a hand planted itself on your desk. You look up and saw Jay standing in front of you, eating sushi with his other hand. His face kinda looks like he knows something, and it's freaking you out a bit.

"What?" You asked, suddenly flustered over how his eyes stared right into you. He took the seat in front of your desk and flipped it so it was facing you. He sat down and blurted the phrase that you were dreading to hear from anyone.

"So, you like Jake?"

You suddenly feel like punching him in the face with his sushi.

"What??" Your body felt like, and you were left a nervous mess. Your heart like it was going to pump right out of your chest any minute, and your hands started to sweat.

Jay's mouth formed into a smirk. He caught you. "Jake may be a bit oblivious, but I can totally see right through you."

“Haha...no you don’t,” You tried to deny, but it was all useless when his expression looked unconvinced.

“Oh yeah? Then why are you all red? You look like a bursting tomato.”

“You don’t know that," You leaned further into your seat, playing with the strings of your hoodie.

“C’mon Y/N, you’re not even trying. Just give up and admit it,” Jay was trying to help you confess your feelings for Jake. Frankly, he knew it was you sending him letters this whole time—how can Jake not see it?

With a heavy sigh, you slumped and laid your head on your desk, embarrassed. “Fine. I like him, okay? Are you happy now?”

The smirk on his face grew wider, feeling proud of himself. You are not dealing with his annoying crap this early in the morning. He grinned and munched on his half-eaten sushi. “I knew it.”

“Congratulations,” It was muffled because you hid your red face away from him. All that was on your mind now was how you could book yourself a flight all the way across the world.

“But seriously, since when did you have a crush on him?” You raised your head to face him, giving him a look that could kill, except Jay finds it entertaining rather than intimidating.

“I started having a crush on him when we were in fifth grade. It was at a friend's birthday party, and he saw me being all quiet and lonely. Honestly, I forgot who’s birthday that was.” You told him the very first time you had discovered feelings.

“He saw how sad I looked so he accompanied me the whole time. He was even trying to feel more included in the games and stuff.” You felt a smile ghosting on your lips as you can still vividly remember how you felt your heart tug the first time. “It was kinda like I fell in love at first sight.”

Jay faked a gag, so you lightly punched him in the shoulder. He may be a bit of an asshole, but he’s one the most caring and kind people you’ve ever met. It honestly felt good spilling out your feelings about Jake to him.

Speaking of, Jake was watching you two play around and laugh at Jay's little jokes from outside, and he felt something burning from inside him. Was it that he felt jealous of you and Jay?

No, he can’t be...right?

Maybe it was because of how he felt separated from you and Jay because of him being a separate class.

Yeah, maybe it's because of that.

__

Dear Jake,

I just had the most bizarre day today, and I felt like telling you about it.

It was chemistry period, and we had to be partnered with someone for a lab project. I ended up getting paired with Yeojin. We kinda created this unexpected friendship, which I love. We would crack jokes at each other, tell funny stories, it was so fun to be with her that we had completely forgotten about our project. So now, we both got a detention slip for making an accidental explosion.

How about you? How was your day? I hope it was just as fun as mine. If you feel like the day just wasn't as happy or you're feeling down, just now that it's okay to feel that way because days like these just lasts for 24 hours. It will be all over before you know it and you'll be greeted by another day. Maybe it will be different, and you would be all happy again just like how my day went. Maybe being with you would be my happiest day yet, and I couldn't wait for that day to come. See you soon :)

Love,

Moon

__

"Yeojin!" Jake called, seeing her walk down the opposite way. "Hey, mind if I ask you something?"

"Hey Jake," She greeted him with a smile. "Sure, go ahead."

"Could you perhaps give me any information about your partner in Chemistry?" He had hopes of getting any kind of description about his mysterious sender, but he was instead given a sad frown on Yeojin's face.

"Sorry Jake, but that person told me not to tell you about their information." She gave an apologetic smile. "I wish you all the best in finding them!"

Jake muttered a small "okay," and sighed before walking away, feeling defeated.

Yeojin knew that he was gonna ask about Moon the moment he called her from across the hall. She couldn't wait to tell you about this.

__

"Hey Y/N," A voice said from behind. You turned around to see Jake with his backup hung on his shoulder. He brought his hand up and raked his hair, and you felt your face grow red. Jake is like a gift from the gods. How can someone look so ethereal even if they're just standing there? You could stare at him all day. You couldn't even understand a thing he said until he started waving his hands in front of you.

"Hello?" You blinked multiple times as you were brought back out to reality. You saw Jake's face grow into concern. "Are you okay? spaced out."

"O-oh..No, I'm completely fine." You reassured him, feeling embarrassed. "What were you saying again?"

"I was asking you if you wanted to go to school with me early tomorrow."

Well, shit.

Your eyes started to go wide, and your hands started to go clammy.

"Tomorrow?" You repeated, voice trembling.

'Well, yeah." He pouted his lips, and you felt like melting into a small puddle in your place. Your heart started to pound heavily.

Oh my fucking god, he is so adorable.

"Okay, sure I can go with you tomorrow," You weakly smiled at him, slightly tense.

How we're you going to give him the letter now?

__

"Good Morning," Jake said as he watches you close the gates of your house. It was past five in the morning, and you were a mess.

"Morning," You replied back before running your fingers through your hair, getting rid of any flyaways.

As you started walking your way to the bus stop, Jake kept on glancing towards you from time to time. He knew you were pretty, but since when did you become really beautiful in his eyes?

The walk was pretty quiet, but it was a comfortable silence. For him, mostly.

Meanwhile, you couldn't stop freaking out. You had written a letter the night before, but you don't know how you were going to slip it into his locker without him taking notice. If he saw you, he would know.

"Are you sure you're okay? You've been like this since yesterday," Jake blurted. You looked at him before heaving a sigh.

"It's nothing," You mouthed, suddenly feeling anxious and gloomy.

"Something on your mind?"

"Something like that." It was hopeless. I guess he would have to miss this letter today. It was the first time you skipped a day, and you're feeling guilty that you would have to see Jake's face sadden that he wouldn't receive it today.

As you two stop at the bus stop, Jake looked slightly panicked as he was rummaging through the pockets of his blazer before looking through his bag. "Hey, do you have an extra pen? I left mine at home and I have a quiz today."

You snickered, "Out of all the days, Sim Jake. The same day you have a quiz is the same day you forget your pen."

"Very funny." He scoffed.

As you unzipped your bag to grab your pencil case, a folded piece of paper fell out without you realizing it. When Jake went to pick it up, he notices that it was folded the same way as the letters in his locker. It looked so identical.

Once you already got your pencil case out, you were about to hand it to him when you saw what he was holding that made your body freeze with your hand holding the case in the air.

"Why were one of my letters inside your bag?" He glanced at you, waiting for you to reply.

If you were freaking out before, this is a whole other thing. The thing that you were fearing the most is happening right before you.

"Maybe it fell into my bag yesterday..." You stammered, making up an excuse to look like it was an accident. You were tightly holding onto your pencil case, chanting many curse words in your head as you watch Jake unfold the letter.

"I don't think I've received this one yet," He said before he opened the letter and read it.

You watch as his expression formed into confusion as he reads through the paper. It only took a few moments before something in him clicked that it was you sending him the letters.

"Y/N," He began, and you started quivering in fear.

You should've known this would happen, but you didn't expect it to happen this sooner. In fact, you believed that this wouldn't happen at all. But it did.

"Let me explain," You eventually gave up and accepted fate and watch as your identity as "Moon" be revealed to your crush. You're now exposed so you didn't have any other choice but to explain everything. "Yes, I am Moon. I was the one writing you the letters that you've been getting in your locker."

Jake's face was unreadable. He looked bewildered and puzzled. He was trying to comprehend what was happening right now. All this time, it was you?

"I started crushing on you when we attended that birthday party before. I didn't want to confess my feelings for you because I was scared that you were going to harshly reject me, so I started writing down letters as a way to tell you how I feel about you without making you feel awkward around me." You continued, eyes suddenly taking an interest in your shoes. They were brand new too.

Jake was silent, and you felt your heart crack into pieces. You were mad at yourself for being so careless about it that he ended up finding out about you as his secret admirer. You wanted nothing else but to run back home, lock yourself in your room and cry with your sad playlist on loop.

You were expecting a harsh rejection coming from him, but what surprised was how he took dangerous steps towards you, minimizing the gap between you two. He placed his hand under your chin, forcing you to look up at him.

"I don't plan on rejecting you Y/N," You stare into his eyes as it reflects the sunlight of the early morning. "I'm actually happy that it was you."

You look at him, puzzled. He lowly chuckles under his breath before leaning over to place his lips against yours. It was a light, quick kiss, but it brought you feeling ecstatic. You've dreamed of this moment before, and now that it happened, you thanked your clumsiness.

As he pulled away, you were sure your face was a red mess.

"Thank you," His smile was as bright as the stars in the sky. It was the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. "Thank you for making me like I'm special to someone."

You felt flustered over his words. You were scared that he could hear the sound of your heart pounding loudly. The butterflies in your stomach were going wild, and you felt like this was all a dream.

"So, what am I to you now?" You broke into a smile as he grabs your hand, intertwining your fingers with his.

Jake acted as if he was thinking, "Hm..maybe my best friend still?"

He bursts into a fit of giggles as he sees your smile slowly disappear, replacing it with a look of disbelief. You removed your hand from his and walked at a faster pace away from him.

He ran to match your pace beside you before holding your hand again, "I'm sorry, I won't ever do that again. Is my girl mad at me?"

"Oh my god, it's only five-fifty, Jake." You too broke into laughter over his cheesiness, but your heart fluttered over the thought of Jake calling you his.

__

HERE’S A LITTLE BONUS! since I've made you guys wait for 4 months :(

"What the fuck?" Was the first thing You heard from Jay as you and Jake entered the classroom. All of your classmates were staring at your and his hands intertwined together.

Jay stood in front of you two, crossing his arms together. "Can one of you explain when this happened?" he motioned towards your linking hands. You and Jake smiled at each other before walking away, leaving Jay in a fit of joy, and confusion.

[lilypixels]

Izzy’s Dag-Dag The Artist… Tag

By @morgynemberisagenderfluiddaddy

~ Rules ~

Show us a rendition of yourself in your own art! Can be anything! Sims render? Random stick figure? Picrew? Go nuts! (Just be sure to tag the artist if you use someone else’s picrew!!!!) Tag the blogs you want to know, and don’t be a dick that’s it! Also, feel free to answer as vague or in-depth as you want. And if you don’t want to answer a question for any reason just don’t vibe with it! Skip it if you wanna! Also make sure you tag me and use #dagdagtheartisttag so I can see it!!!!!!!!

This is a bit long so i’m just gonna...

~Questions~

1.) Do you prefer to be referred to by your name or blog name? Both are fine! I don’t care much about what people refer to me as in general and have had someone on here call me lily once

2.) Where are you from? I won’t say exact, but I live in the middle of USA (I can’t wait to move-)

3.) Do you have pets? 👀 Yes! 3 dogs and 2 cats, tho only one cat is truly “mine”

4.) Tell us about your “dream”. uhh like where I want to be in life? what I want to do? um I’m still working on the exact job title, but I wish to do research at a natural history/science museum (sorta like archives or collections manager, but neither of those are quite right i think). Otherwise, I just hope to adopt and even foster kids cause my life would not be complete without little ones :3 (spouse/partner optional lol) 

5.) Aside from art, what are your hobbies? Randomly researching things that grasp my attention, games...lots of games, reading, watching tv, coloring (wait does that count as art-), uhhh spacing out

6. )Does anyone irl know about your blog? yeah, but mostly just know about, not like see my posts i guess

7.)Do you know anyone from your blog irl? not outside of just chatting on discord

8.) What are some fun facts about you? I’ve had some poems published before (it was with entering a poetry contest), I have surprisingly good balance, my brain is not properly awake/functioning until 10am which has led to me almost using soap as toothpaste a few times too many, I have a birthmark on my finger (bonus: it sorta changes color/how noticeable it is depending on how hot or cold I am lol, i call it a mini thermometer cause of this), apparently Lion King was my Disney movie obsession as a kid...oh and I have a certificate in cryptozoology lolz

9.) What’s your day job? i work as a private nanny/glorified babysitter (i don’t live with them or drive but work regular hours through week and as needed; even join the occasional vacation with them)

10.) Do you have a celebrity look alike? i don’t think so; a girl in high school once said I look like Cameron Diaz tho-

11.) What’s your aesthetic? for my blog I think it’s becoming like dark academia meets cottage core?? idk for myself...who knows

12.) What kind of artist are you? the tired kind lol

13.) How did you get into your form of art? if we’re looking at sims, uhhh well I just happened to learn about cc one day, then happened upon simblr, saw edits, and thought I’d give a try cause I can’t draw but I need a creative outlet so this worked for me

14.) What do you watch/listen/read/anything else while you create? if I do anything, its listen to music; music is generally random based on what I feel like but more recently its been 2d anime groups (idolish7, hypnosis mic, etc)

15.) What is your favorite of your own creations so far?  lets see...this, this, and this edit wise I think

16.) How would you describe your art style? idk chaos

17.) What is more satisfying to you coloring or outlining? coloring, I like coloring 

18.) What meme would you use to describe yourself?

19.) What character from any media form do you most identify with? oh gosh uhhhh there’s a few but I’ll say Iori and Sogo from Idolish7 since they come to mind first lol. Iori is a fellow aquarius who hides his interests and agonizes over past slipups even a year later, others have legit moved on but he’s still stuck on it (that was true moment I was like “omg you are aquarius” lol cause yeah meee). Sogo i heavily relate to as well cause he’s,,,very nice and hides his own feelings, putting others before himself (but when right buttons get pushed, he can be scary lol) so yeah, those two

20.) If you were on the run, what would you change your name to? I’ve never thought of this...no clue

21.) Have you ever or do you want to change blog names? I have changed names, yes; I used to be silverine-sims but after a time i didn’t ~vibe~ with it

22.) God forbid Tumblr decides to pull a MySpace and lets us have page songs, what song would you choose?  page songs like adding playlist to blog? i mean its possible already with bit of coding and I used to have one set up but uh one song huh? gosh um I guess Twisted Hearts by tasuku hatanaka; it was op for Moriarty the Patriot s2 and I’m pretty obsessed with it rn 

23.) Oh yeah, I’m still on the MySpace train and I’m starting discourse! Who’s your top 8? my brain refuses to think and rank; i have trouble with choices and that extends to favorites,,

24.) Did you understand those references or did you have to look them up? (I’m fully aware I’m ancient, but are you?) i know of myspace but otherwise i have no clue what all it entailed

25.) One last question; why are you like that? I grew up watching Secret Saturdays, He-Man, Teen Titans, Danny Phantom, and Spongebob idk what to tell ya ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Dag dag?

Now tag tag!!!

I know not all of you will do this or was tagged by izzy already but I’m tagging everyone I can think of anyway-

@cyansimblr @neriney @lunchsims @waysims @klayde @sinfulwunders @void-imp @ladykendalsims @lazysunjade @almost-spring @smolteabirb @lunaziie @clumsyghostie​ and uh uh anyone else cause its too early and my brain just quit

[rhosyn-du]

Never make a mess when a total catastrophe will do - Chapter Seven

Pairings: Jimon, past Clace, background Clizzy, a bunch of other minor background pairings Rating: Explicit Art: @cor321​ Beta: @all-thestories-aretrue​ Tags:  Alternate Universe - College/University, fake dating, oh my god they were roommates, friends with benefits, idiots to lovers, pining, miscommunication, holidays, drinking games, mistletoe, symbolically significant Oreos, domestic fluff, brief mention of past character death, Jace’s self-worth issues deserve their own tag Summary: What do you do when you find out your sister is not only dating your ex and love-of-your-high-school-life but is also bringing her home for Christmas? Bring your annoying, hot, annoyingly-hot roommate as your fake boyfriend to show them you're totally fine with it, obviously! There's no possible way this could backfire. Link: AO3 , Tumblr Master Post

Chapter Seven

Jace knew they were in trouble as soon as he saw Maia’s face. The Cheshire Cat had nothing on her grin as she sauntered into Java Jones Monday afternoon, the last of their group to arrive.

She pulled a chair up between Jace and Simon, spun it around with a flourish to sit on it backwards, and flung an arm around both their shoulders. “So, is this the part where I say mazel tov?”

“I am going to literally murder my sister,” Simon announced.

Lily perked up. “Wait, what happened?” She looked between Simon and Jace, then fixed an intense gaze on Maia. “Did one of them finally break down and call you? Why didn’t you assholes mention anything? Who won the bet?”

“Oh, I got a call,” Maia said. “Not from either of these fools, though.”

Jace drained his coffee cup, wishing it were vodka instead. There was clearly no stopping this, so he might as well just face the music now.

“According to Becky, she and her grandmother caught these two in a storage closet about to get down and dirty, and Jace tried to cover up what they were doing by pretending he was down on his knees to propose.”

“Oh no,” Maureen said through a fit of giggles. “That’s terrible.”

Jace flipped her off, which only made her giggle harder.

“Don’t worry,” Maia said, patting Simon’s shoulder, “Becky said she’s like ninety percent sure your grandma didn’t know what was really up.”

“I can hide two bodies,” Simon told her. “I have a van.”

“And my sister is studying forensics,” Jace added. “I bet she’d tell me how to cover up a crime scene if I asked.”

“Every time you bring up your family, I just have more questions,” Lily said.

“Wait,” Maureen said suddenly, holding up her hands. Everyone looked at her. “If you guys are giving each other clandestine blowjobs, does this mean everyone in our friend group has slept together now?”

“Nope,” Bat said, and Jace shook his head.

“Wait, really?” Simon sounded genuinely surprised.

“We thought for sure you two were hooking up back when Simon and I were dating,” Maureen added, looking at Bat. “Jace was over at your place pretty much all the time.”

Jace stared intently into his empty coffee cup. He wasn’t about to tell them he’d spent so much time at Bat’s because he couldn’t quite stomach spending time in his apartment when Simon and Maureen were there, together.

“Jace was over at my place sulking because he got his ass dumped.” Which was the excuse Jace had given him. “He swore me to secrecy because he didn’t want you guys giving him shit for getting his heart broken.”

“You seem to be a little confused about the whole concept of secrecy, though,” Jace said.

“You could’ve told us,” Maureen said, earnest and sympathetic. “We wouldn’t tease you about something if you were really hurting.”

“Well, I’d tease you a little,” Lily said.

“You had your heart broken?” Simon’s voice was soft, and when Jace met his eyes, he found a confused curiosity there. Which of course there would be, Jace realized, given the conversation they’d had on the drive home, where he’d admitted that he hadn’t been serious about anyone since Clary.

“I wasn’t heartbroken,” Jace said, putting as much disdain as he could manage into the word. “Sasha just had some very strong opinions when I told her I didn’t want to get serious, and I kind of wanted to lay low for a while after.” The part about Sasha wasn’t even a lie.

“Oh,” Lily said, dragging the word out with relish. “You were embarrassed because she told you off in public.”

Bat looked skeptical. “You really expect me to believe you spent three weeks curled up on my couch eating Double Stuf Oreos because your ego was bruised?”

“Of course not.” Jace grinned at him. “That was because you’re a sucker who kept buying me Double Stuf Oreos.”

Maia smacked his arm hard enough to sting. “No taking advantage of Bat’s kind and generous spirit.”

Bat looked unconvinced. “Well, next time you decide to hide out at my place because you definitely didn’t get your heart broken, you’re on your own for Oreos.”

Simon was still watching him. “I would’ve shared my Oreos if I knew you needed them.” His tone was far too serious for a conversation about Oreos. Like maybe he knew Jace was hiding something. Like maybe he suspected what Jace was hiding.

Jace flashed him a shit-eating grin. “I hope you know I’m taking that as an invitation to steal your Oreos whenever I want from now on.”

“Dude, you can’t just steal Oreos!” Maureen protested. “That’s like rule number two of the roommate code.”

“What’s rule number one?” Bat asked.

“Booze,” Maureen and Lily answered in unison.

“And for everyone who keeps asking how we managed to share a dorm and not murder each other freshman year,” Lily continued, “this is the answer.”

“Truth,” Maureen agreed.

This sparked a lively debate about what did and did not constitute violations of roommate code that lasted until Jace had to leave for his evening class.

Two days later, a package of Double Stuf Oreos appeared on Jace’s desk. He didn’t bring them up, and neither did Simon.

~~~

Jace wasn’t sure exactly how they started studying together on the couch instead of their separate rooms. It might have been that one group study session where everyone else had to bail early. But somewhere along the line, he’d started dragging his textbooks and laptop out to the living room any time he needed to get work done. Half the time, he found Simon already there, and the times he didn’t, Simon usually joined him pretty soon after.

And it was…nice. Comfortable in a way Jace tried not to think about. Just another item on his ever-growing list of things not to think about. Conveniently, his assigned paper on the Thirty Years’ War didn’t leave room for thinking about much of anything else.

Which was probably why it took him so long to notice on this particular evening that he and Simon had somehow migrated from their usual spots at either end of the couch to sharing its center. And once he did notice, all thoughts of the Second Defenestration of Prague went out the window, the warmth of Simon’s leg against his own and occasional bump of their shoulders as they worked driving him to distraction.

It was stupid, really. It wasn’t like they never touched. In fact, Jace would bet they’d spent more of their time together over the past few months touching than not, in increasingly creative ways.

But they didn’t touch like this, without teasing or seduction or intent. It made Jace feel twitchy. Restless. There was a part of him that wanted to sink into it, to let the warmth of Simon’s touch seep under his skin. But a far greater part was telling him to pull away, to retreat back to his end of the couch. Or maybe to turn and press Simon back into the couch cushions and turn this into something far more familiar. Something safer.

“Hey,” Simon said, making Jace flinch in surprise. If Simon noticed, he didn’t let on. “I was gonna make stroganoff for dinner tonight, and I’m pretty ready for a break. Any chance I could talk you into slicing mushrooms for me while I start on the beef?”

It took Jace several seconds to process the question, so far from what he’d been thinking. “Um. Yeah. Sure, sounds good.”

Once they made their way to the kitchen, Jace was grateful to be back on familiar ground. They didn’t cook together often—didn’t have much time for cooking at all, really—but they’d done it a handful of times, and they worked well together in a kitchen, which was not something Jace could say about most of his friends, or his family.

It was also, he realized as he stood next to Simon at the stove, boiling egg noodles while Simon stirred the roux, acutely domestic. It was another addition to the list of things he wasn’t going to think about.

When they returned to the living room, bowls of saucy noodles and beef in hand, Simon sat right back down in the middle of the couch, where he’d been before they got up to make dinner. Jace hesitated only an instant before reclaiming his spot next to him. Simon flashed him a quick smile before pulling his financial analytics textbook over to balance precariously on his knee so he could read while he ate. Jace tore his gaze away, turning his attention half-heartedly back to his notes.

By the time he finished eating, Jace had realized two very important things. First, he needed to make another trip to the library if he wanted to have enough sources to back up his thesis. Second, it would be far too easy to get used to nights like tonight, and that wasn’t something he could allow himself to do. Before he could make himself do something about it, though, Simon shifted, half-turning to pull his knees up onto the couch and letting his head rest back against Jace’s shoulder.

“This okay? The light’s better like this.”

Jace took maybe a second too long to answer. “It’s fine.”

He placed his empty bowl on the coffee table—gingerly, so as not to jostle Simon—and returned to his reading. When he shifted a few minutes later, tossing one arm over the back of the couch and letting Simon rest against his chest, it was just a matter of comfort, really. Letting his hand come to rest on Simon’s chest, fingers absently toying with the neckline of his shirt, was not, but Simon didn’t object.

When his fingers encountered skin-warm metal, it took Jace several seconds to realize it. By the time he did, his fingers had already followed the line of the chain down to the center of Simon’s chest, where the object that hung from it rested beneath his t-shirt. He recognized its shape at the same time he felt Simon go unnaturally still.

“I didn’t want to lose it,” Simon said in a rush.

Jace traced the shape of the ring through Simon’s shirt. His ring. “It’s a good place to keep it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Jace agreed, flattening his hand against Simon’s chest. The ring pressed into his palm, the telltale beat of Simon’s heart thrumming behind it. He wondered if his own were beating just as fast.

“You know,” he said slowly, “Alec is getting married next month.”

Simon relaxed against him with a soft huff of laughter. “Yeah, I think I heard something about that in the approximately five hundred phone calls you’ve had in the last couple weeks.”

“A best man’s work is never done, apparently.” He took a breath, let it out. “But, I was thinking, you should come with me.”

Simon craned his neck to look at him. “Like, to play your boyfriend again, or…?”

As my date. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t force the words past his lips. He wasn’t ready to risk that he might be reading this wrong. He’d done it before, and for reasons he couldn’t put his finger on, it felt so much more dangerous now.

“I mean, it would be weird if you didn’t, right?” he said instead. “Since my entire family thinks we’re together still.”

“Right.” Simon looked back at the book in his lap, but he didn’t make any move to pull away. Jace could almost imagine he sounded disappointed. “Totally weird. I think Clary’s expecting me to be there, anyway.”

“Cool. I’ll RSVP you as my plus-one.”

Simon made a soft noise of affirmation and returned to his reading. Jace tried to go back to his, but he found himself unable to concentrate. After reading the same paragraph five times and not retaining a single word of it, he gave up and let his head loll against the back of the couch, cheek resting lightly against the top of Simon’s head. He closed his eyes and let his mind drift.

Jace was pulled out of sleep sometime later by gentle fingers stroking through his hair. He scrunched up his face and made an unhappy noise; he wasn’t ready to be awake.

“If you’re going to sleep, you should go to bed.”

Jace cracked an eye open to find Simon watching him with a fond smile. Still half-asleep, it was easy to smile back, something warm and soft settling in his chest. Sometime while he slept, they’d shifted again so Simon was leaning back against the arm of the couch with Jace sprawled half on top of him. Simon’s books were stacked neatly on the coffee table. Jace wondered how long they’d been there.

“‘M comfy.”

Simon chuckled. “You won’t be if you stay here all night and wake up with a sore back.”

Jace thought that spending the night with Simon as his pillow might be worth waking up with a sore back, but the fog of sleep had lifted enough that the feeling of impending danger was returning. He pushed himself up to sitting and immediately missed Simon’s warmth.

“I think I’m a couple decades away from waking up with a sore back from one night spent on the couch.”

He reached for his dirty bowl, still sitting on the table, but Simon stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Leave it. You’re tired; I’ve got the dishes.”

Jace frowned at him.

“Go to bed,” Simon insisted with a laugh. “You’re obviously exhausted.”

It was the laugh that got him. The way Simon’s eyes crinkled at the corners. The way he always smiled wide enough to show teeth. The way it never failed to tug at something inside Jace, urging him to smile back no matter how much he might resist it. Except this time it was less of a tug than a wrench that threatened to break him wide open.

Jace remembered, with sudden, vivid clarity, that drunken conversation he’d had with Maia last year. The one he tried to forget ever happened.

They’d all be hanging out at Maia’s new apartment, a tiny studio that wasn’t really big enough to host a six-person housewarming party, but they’d made it work because she was so proud of finally making good enough tips she could afford to live in her own place off campus.

Everyone but Jace had early morning classes that semester, so he’d stayed behind to keep the party going with Maia while the others had headed home. Jace didn’t remember how many shots it had taken for him to start complaining about Simon’s propensity for wandering around the apartment in only a towel, but he absolutely remembered Maia’s knowing grin.

“Someone’s got a crush.”

“It’s not a crush,” Jace had insisted. “He’s just annoyingly hot.” If he’d been sober, he wouldn’t have spoken the next words. He wouldn’t have even let himself think them. “And I bet he’d be stupidly easy to fall in love with, too.”

And then Maia had laughed so hard she’d fallen over onto her cheap, beige carpet that still smelled faintly of new plastic while Jace was left to deal with the slowly dawning realization of what he’d just said.

“Before you fall asleep again,” Simon prompted, snapping Jace’s mind back to the present. Where Simon was smiling at him with an indisputable fondness that made Jace feel raw and exposed.

“Right,” Jace said, practically jumping up from the couch. “Bed. Thanks. For,” he waved his hand vaguely, “dishes and whatever.”

“No problem,” Simon said, bemused. “Sleep well.”

Jace understood what that feeling of danger was about now. It seemed there was some truth to that old adage about finding answers at the bottom of a bottle; it had been so easy, he wasn’t even sure when he’d fallen in love.

~~~

“You’re sure this is a classic?” Jace eyed the grainy opening shots of the movie playing on Simon’s laptop with some skepticism.

They normally did movie night out in the living room, on the flat-screen TV that had probably cost more than every other piece of furniture in their apartment combined, but Simon insisted a film this old would look ridiculous on a large HD screen. Considering how bad it looked even on Simon’s old laptop, it was probably the right call. And Jace wasn’t going to complain about having to squish together on Simon’s bed so they could both see the screen, even if that did make it feel perilously close to being a date.

“Cult classic,” Simon corrected. “Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama is, like, peak so-bad-it’s-good 80’s horror comedy. And they’re making a sequel with the original cast, so you have to watch the original.”

Jace grabbed a fistful of popcorn from the bowl in Simon’s lap. “You mean so you can drag me to the sequel when it comes out?”

“Exactly.” Simon grinned at him. “Thanks for offering to see it with me.”

“That’s not what just happened,” Jace said around a mouthful of popcorn.

“Agree to disagree.”

The movie turned out to be surprisingly entertaining, film quality and 80’s aesthetics notwithstanding. And the atrocious special effects. And, well, the entire plot, really.

“Do you think sororities were really like that back in the 80’s?” Simon wondered as the titular sorority babes outlined the hazing their pledges would undergo.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if some of them still are,” Jace said. “But Greek life isn’t really my thing, even if I have seen the inside of a few sorority houses in my time.”

“Was that supposed to be a flex?”

Jace ignored that comment and pulled out his phone. “Alec might know, though.”

Simon leaned in to watch Jace type, resting his chin on Jace’s shoulder. “I know I’ve only met your brother once, but I’m having trouble picturing him anywhere near a sorority.”

“Alec was in a fraternity in college,” Jace explained.

“Yeah, no, still not seeing it.” Even after Jace sent the text, he didn’t move away.

Alec’s response came only moments later.

why would I know that Phi Beta Kappa is an academic fraternity and sorority girls are well outside my areas of interest

“Okay, that makes sense.” Simon slid the bowl of popcorn off his lap so he could lean more fully into Jace’s side.

maybe ask Iz

Jace snorted and slipped his phone back into his pocket. He reached for the popcorn and gave an irritated huff when he found it just out of reach.

Without taking his eyes off the screen, Simon grabbed the bowl and moved it to Jace’s other side. On impulse, Jace caught his hand and laced their fingers together. They hadn’t talked about that night on the couch—not about the casual intimacy or Simon wearing Jace’s ring around his neck or Jace falling asleep on Simon or any of it—but there was no question things were different between them since. Or maybe it was just Jace that was different, knowing how deep he was in this just making him more reckless with his heart.

Simon’s fingers curled around his, his arm coming to rest draped over Jace’s hip as he let out a small, contented sigh.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t just Jace. But Jace wasn’t exactly sure what to do about it. He could probably have written an entire treatise on navigating hookups, but he had no idea how to navigate…whatever this was. The only experience he had with actual romantic relationships was with Clary, and despite how fucked up they’d both been back then—or maybe even because they’d both been so fucked up—there had never been any ambiguity about how they felt, no questions about what they were to each other. No wondering if she knew she could do so much better than him.

It was different with Simon. Simon, who never seemed fazed by the shit life threw at him. Simon, who actually dated, and always seemed to leave a breakup on good terms. Simon, who held him like he was afraid Jace might break, who fucked him like he wanted him to break.

Simon, who had to know he could do better than Jace.

“Let me guess,” Jace said as the two characters he’d mentally tagged as the protagonists ducked into a closet to escape a demonic minion, “the nerd and the hot bad girl are the only survivors, and they get together at the end.”

Simon gave him an unimpressed look. “You don’t get any points for guessing that. This is a comedy made in the 80’s that leans heavily into the tropes of the era.”

“Yeah, but that’s not why I guessed it. I just figured you’d be into the whole ‘nerd gets the bad girl’ thing.”

“That’s not why I like this movie,” Simon said. “But Spider might have been part of why 12-year-old me liked this movie,” he admitted.

“Thought so,” Jace said smugly.

“You’re the worst.” Simon’s arm tightened around Jace’s waist, belying his words. “I’m seriously questioning why I even like you right now.”

“Because I’m charming, witty, and great in bed.”

The smile Simon flashed him probably shouldn’t have made Jace’s stomach do a pleasant little flip, but it did. “Those are some pretty great selling points.”

“Watch your dumb movie,” Jace said, trying and failing to hide his own smile.

When Jace’s phone buzzed several minutes later during a particularly tense scene, they both jumped. Jace pulled it out to check his new messages, then chuckled and turned the screen so Simon could read Alec’s message.

Magnus says there was at least one sorority exactly like that five years ago also I’m now being subjected to this atrocious movie, so thanks for that

“I knew Magnus would have good taste in movies,” Simon commented.

“I’m disturbed you can even talk about this movie and good taste in the same sentence.”

“Oh, come on,” Simon said reproachfully. “Didn’t you once tell me that any movie with boobs and explosions was a good movie?”

“Yeah, but this movie doesn’t have any—” On screen, the nerd threw a Molotov cocktail at a possessed sorority babe. Jace sighed. “Objection withdrawn.”

Simon flashed him a smug grin. “Admit it, I’ve got fantastic taste.”

Jace smirked. “I do like the way you taste.”

“Not what I—” He cut off as Jace illustrated his point by licking a line up Simon’s throat.

Simon let out a hiss. “You’re going to miss the end of the movie.” He didn’t pull away.

“Told you,” Jace murmured, scraping teeth along his jaw, “I already know the nerd and biker girl are going to survive. I don’t need to see the end.”

Simon turned his head to catch Jace’s lips with his own in a surprisingly gentle kiss, his hand coming up to cup Jace’s cheek. They stayed like that for what felt to Jace like hours but couldn’t actually have been more than a minute or two judging by the tinny screams coming from the laptop speakers.

“What do you need?” Simon whispered when he finally broke the kiss. His tone was teasing, but the way his thumb caressed Jace’s cheekbone was all sincerity.

“Just this,” Jace whispered back, and it was the truest thing he’d ever said.

Then they were kissing again, slow and soft, and Jace thought he might drown in it, thought he might want to drown in it. He kissed Simon like he’d been wanting to for weeks, for months. Maybe longer. He put everything he felt into the kiss—his hope and his love and his fear—and prayed that Simon would understand, that he wouldn’t pull away.

He didn’t.

They kissed until they were breathless with it, until the last strains of the movie’s closing credits had long since faded away, until there was no room for anything in Jace’s thoughts and heart and dreams but Simon. He knew he was grinning like an idiot when they finally broke apart, and he couldn’t bring himself to care. Especially not with Simon grinning back at him.

“See?” Jace combed a hand through Simon’s curls. He couldn’t stop touching. “Way better than that movie.”

“You don’t know that,” Simon protested. “You didn’t even watch the end. It could have been twenty straight minutes of boobs and explosions, and you’d never even know.”

“Weirdly, I think I might like kissing you even more than I like boobs and explosions.”

“Wow, high praise.” Simon was still teasing, and Jace suddenly needed him to understand how much he wasn’t really joking.

“No, seriously.” He wrapped a hand around the back of Simon’s neck, drew him close enough to feel his breath. “I—” Words he meant far too much—that would be too much—stuck behind his teeth. “I’m not really here for the movie,” he said instead. “No matter how many boobs or explosions it has. You get that, right?”

“I—yeah.”

There was something subdued and almost vulnerable in Simon’s voice, something that didn’t quite track with the conversation they were having, but before Jace could even catch the thread of it, he was being pushed back into the bed and kissed breathless once again. By the time Simon was tugging his shirt over his head, brushing calloused fingertips over a peaked nipple and making him gasp, Jace thought he must have imagined it.

Simon took him apart slowly, deliberately, maintaining a calm focus even when Jace teased, never altering his pace even when Jace begged. And Jace did beg, edging on desperation before they even got all their clothes off. By the time Simon had him spread out on the bed, opening him up with slick fingers and teasing his dick with strokes far too light to even approach enough, Jace wasn’t sure he was capable of anything but begging.

“Simon, please.” He scrabbled ineffectually at Simon’s shoulders, trying ineffectually to drag him close. The angle was bad for it, but Simon was also strong, something that was easy to forget until they were like this. It was also seriously fucking hot. “Please. Fuck. Need you in me already, please.”

“You’re so beautiful.” There was an edge to Simon’s voice, but Jace still thought he sounded far too composed for what they were doing, for what he was doing to Jace. “God, do you even know?”

Jace couldn’t even begin to answer, because Simon chose that moment to press his fingers very deliberately against Jace’s prostate, and the only words Jace was capable of anymore were garbled curses and Simon’s name.

“You have to know.” Simon withdrew his fingers and all Jace could do was whine in protest. “I bet people tell you all the time.”

Jace shook his head, not sure if he was disagreeing or just objecting to the sudden tragic lack of Simon’s hands on him and in him. Simon pressed a soothing kiss to his knee before pulling away to roll a condom onto his own dick, which took way too long in Jace’s opinion, but it was enough time for Jace to find his voice again.

“Please, Simon.” His voice was half a sob, and he didn’t even care. “Need you.”

“You’ve got me,” Simon breathed, the faintest tremor in his voice as leaned in to line his cock up with Jace’s hole and brushed the lightest of kisses against his lips.

“Yes,” Jace whispered. “Yes, please.”

And then Simon was finally, finally pushing inside, and Jace was rocking down against him, desperate and greedy for everything Simon was willing to give him. It took exactly two thrusts for Simon’s composure to crack completely, and Jace swallowed down his moans as greedily as he took everything else, licking into Simon’s mouth to chase every sound.

Jace would have been embarrassed by how quickly he came after that, lasting maybe a full ten seconds after Simon wrapped a hand around his dick, except that Simon was right there with him, following him over the edge with a barely audible, “Fuck, fuck, Jace, oh god.”

After, they lay next to each other on the bed, catching their breaths. This would normally be when one of them left to go back to their own room, or went to take a shower, or make food, or anything, really, to keep this thing between them from seeming like more than it was. Except it was more for Jace. Maybe for both of them.

“You’ve got me.”

Jace wasn’t sure if Simon had meant the words the way Jace wanted him to, but he wasn’t ready to let go of the possibility that he did. Trying not to overthink it, he curled into Simon’s side, resting a hand on his chest.

For a few seconds, Simon went absolutely still, and Jace thought for sure he’d fucked everything up. But just as cold dread was beginning to claw its way up his throat, Simon let out a shaky breath and cuddled closer, pulling the blanket up to cover them both and covering Jace’s hand with his own. Jace smiled into Simon’s shoulder.

“You’ve got me.”

He would hold onto that for as long as Simon let him.

[bjy-on-ao3]

Fic Friday: Helping Hand

(As usual, you can find the AO3 version of all my uploads [and some things I don’t post here to tumblr] via my Masterlist blog page.)

This story feels like fan content-ception to me, as it spawned from some NSFW art I made featuring Izaya, which was made from doodles to start with. Still scheming, but a lot more simple than my other fics with Izaya. Leaving this one a little open-ended in case I came back to it for Izaya returning the favor as he suggested. Not currently decided for sure though. I recently got my first request for Izaya and am brewing that, though it could be some time before I can get something down. It should be pretty fun though and spicier than this. (Note: Apologies for no cut - I am not sure how I add a cut with the new editor :/) Summary Invited over to Izaya’s apartment, Reader arrives too early and interrupts the informant’s alone time. And unfortunately (or fortunately), Izaya has no qualms about asking for a little help. Tags/Warnings Blowjobs, Come Swallowing, Hand Jobs, Oral Sex, Reader-Insert, Shameless Smut

Helping Hand (F! Reader/Izaya Orihara)

Arriving at the non-descript door in the hall of the impressive-looking apartment building, you hesitated. A few quick glances confirmed the numbers by the door matched up with the information listed in your phone’s address book. A few times before you had been to the apartment, but you hadn’t memorized everything about the address. All things considered, it was surprising you weren’t late this time, as you had been each time in the past. Maybe you were improving a little.

You raised a fist and drummed it against the door, starting light and polite. Nothing. You rapped harder. Surely that was loud enough to be heard? Your assumption was disproved when all that met you was silence, leaving you alone still in the hallway. You frowned in frustration and impatience. You knocked a third time, waiting a minute, wondering if he was preoccupied or just enjoying making you wait. When all remained quiet again, your frown deepened.

You looked back down at your phone, silently navigating to the texting feature and typing you a message irritably.

(X:XX PM): I’m here. I knocked, but I guess you didn’t hear it.

You didn’t need to wait more than fifteen seconds before your phone buzzed in reply. Two words met your gaze, followed after a moment by a second slightly longer message.

Izaya (X:XX PM): You’re early.

Izaya (X:XX PM): I’m a little busy right now.

You paused, your scowl becoming confusion, and you scrolled back up through the conversation. The log confirmed the time you had been told and the one in the corner of your phone matched. ‘ Early? Right. Don’t tell me Izaya of all people forgot.’

(X:XX PM): I checked and either I’m on time or you screwed up and sent me the wrong time.

Arguing with him wouldn’t do you any good one way or another; Izaya wasn’t one to genuinely apologize for any inconveniences he caused others. But correcting him made you feel a little better and somewhat less cross at least.

Izaya (X:XX PM): Oh, did I?

Izaya (X:XX PM): Well, if you don’t like waiting, you can just come in. Door’s unlocked.

Your face twisted again, now into a skeptical surprise. Izaya just left his door unlocked? Izaya Orihara, the man who had probably as many enemies as he had clients, decided it was smart to let whoever wanted to waltz right in. Yeah, that made sense. You wondered if he enjoyed the excitement of the potential danger.

(X:XX PM): Hardly seems like a good idea for YOU to leave your door unlocked, but whatever.

With a dismissive shrug, you tucked your phone into your pocket and reached for the knob. Pushing it open, you stepped inside quickly and closed it gently behind you. You took a step away before pausing, turning back and locking the door as an afterthought. Izaya could endanger himself all he wanted, but you would rather there be at least some kind of barrier between whatever messy trouble came looking for him.

Walking past the foyer, you expected to see him perched on his chair, clacking noisily away at his keyboard, fixed on the screens of his computers and cellphones or something of the sort. The chair was empty though, turned away from the screens. You scanned the area for the ever-frustrating information broker. Quickly, you noticed him tucked away in the corner of the dark-colored leather section, his back facing you. His head rested against the couch, one long arm lying curled over its back. For someone supposedly busy, Izaya looked pretty relaxed from where you were standing.

“You don’t look real busy to me,” you accused once you spotted him.

Izaya shifted, tilting his head further back to glance over his outstretched arm at you. “Oh, I am, I assure you.” He looked and sounded as collected as ever, as if nothing could or should trouble him. Except… was it just you, or did his face seem a bit red? “But I’ll be just a few minutes. Feel free to wait for me there,” Izaya suggested. There was something off as well about the quality of his voice you couldn’t place.

“Uh huh,” you said, unsure if you felt unsettled or just irritated still. Maybe a little of both.

He had told you to wait, yet your curiosity nagged at you viciously, demanding to see what exactly preoccupied him. Or maybe it was indignation needing to see what was so pressing he couldn’t remember the time he had told you. You took a few steps, intending to round the recessed floor area and the sectional to see what he was doing.

“You really should wait over there,” he warned you casually, the strange tone of his voice sounding stronger, but still indecipherable.

You scoffed, ignoring the warning and carrying on. When you swept around the corner of the area though, what you saw stopped you dead in your tracks, poised on the lip of the steps down. At first the strangled squeak that burst from your mouth didn’t quite register, nor did the immediate hot flush that fell across your face.

Izaya looked very comfortable where he sat, leaning back into the plush cushions. From the top-down, at first he looked perfectly normal, if a little flushed, one of his usual ‘v’-neck shirts tantalizing displaying a bit of his delicate-looking collarbones. Though the picture grew more suspect the further you went. The hem of his shirt was lifted, askew and higher on one side than the other, exposing his lean torso. That wasn’t nearly so scandalous though, as even further down.

He sat nude from the waist down, his pants and belt pooled around his ankles. His cock stood prominently between his splayed legs, a flushed tone to match the rosy tint in cheeks and leaking pre-cum. As if walking on Izaya with his pants literally down wasn’t mortifying enough, one hand was wrapped leisurely around his cock. Obviously he had been in the process of jerking off, and still was, having not bothered to stop even once you had caught him in the act.

What you were looking at hit you all at once, and a stream of half-finished sentences exploded out. “I’I’m sorry, I-- But what are you--? Why would let me come in if that’s what you’re busy doing?! You began in an apologetic voice, though your apology quickly turned to indignation at the fact Izaya’d had plenty of time to put himself away before you came in. Before he invited you, for example, and then before he greeted you.

“Well, I did warn you.” Izaya’s speech held no hint of apology. The shameless, steady stroke of his hand up and down confirmed he was not bothered whatsoever. “Besides, you’re the one who wanted to show up early and be nosy, darling.”

At last you recognized the tone in his voice you hadn’t been able to place before. Something husky and thick, a silky accent to his already smooth voice. You felt stupid not being able to put two-and-two together from his voice and face.

“I’m not early! I-it’s not my fault you told me the wrong time,” you tried to hide the shakiness in your voice with anger, though you knew Izaya was a master at seeing through masks.

You wanted to turn, to look away, but you found yours glued to the sight of him, stunned like a deer in headlights. Maybe it was his audacity that was truly so stunning. I’m just gonna go and come back later,” you ground out through teeth after you tore your eyes away from the enticingly lewd scene.

“Oh? But like I said, I’ll only be a little bit.” You nearly choked again from Izaya’s boldness. He really expected you to just wait around while he jacked off like it was nothing? For someone who claimed to love humans and all their emotions and behaviors so much, you really wondered how much he really understood them sometimes. “You know, if you wanted to lend a hand, it might be even sooner.”

You made another embarrassing noise, your eyes snapping back around and fixing on his own. The expression in his sharp brown eyes told you he wasn’t just you or making some inappropriate joke, not completely. Izaya was dead serious suggesting you ‘lend him a hand’ with his current ‘business’. You should have been mad. You should have been uncomfortable. You should have walked away then. But something else was creeping up and up, suppressing what you should have done, leaving behind the sense that you didn’t quite hate the idea.

You weren’t ready to give in completely, though, not yet. “Was that your plan when you invited me over?” You tried to deflect once more, but your angry speech was half-hearted.

He gave a small shrug, still languorously pumping his hand up and down, smearing a new bead of pre-cum along the head of his dick. You licked your lips, and you weren’t sure whether it was from nerves or hunger. “Who knows? Maybe, maybe not.” Of course Izaya would give you a nonsense answered that told you nothing.

“Can you just put your pants on, please?” You tried weakly, a last ditch effort to squish down the hot feeling suffusing you and to call his bluff. But Izaya wouldn’t be moved.

“Weren’t you leaving though?” He questioned calmly. “So why should I? Then I can’t take care of this.” You groaned mentally at his ‘logic’ that amounted to his typical games. “So, what’s stopping you?”

You didn’t speak, listening only to the slick sound of Izaya stroking himself, as if trying to come up with an appropriate excuse. But there was none. You were still there because you wanted to be. You sputtered some nonsense at first, before sighing in defeat.

“I...I just… fine,” you mumbled, unable to meet his cutting gaze when you agreed.

He didn’t seem bothered or surprised by your admission, and when you looked back up, he was smirking widely, as if he had expected you to crumble and play right into his hands. “Well, what are you waiting for then?”

You nearly scowled at the impatience of the question, but shook your head. You approached quickly, stopping once you stood in front of him. You licked your lips again and swallowed thickly, kneeling between his legs. Up close and personal with his cock, it you for real the favor you had submitted yourself to. It made your stomach twist in a way that was pleasantly hot, but with a nervous flutter. But even if he would probably let you, there was no back down now. You had dug your hole and you intended to stay in it.

Feeling Izaya’s eyes burning down onto you, you lifted a hand tentatively, more intimidated than you would have admitted. You nearly jumped when the hand he had been pleasuring himself with seized yours. Your face was on fire as he guided your hand over his shaft, helping you wrap it around the heated skin. He made a small sound in the back of his throat at the contact, his palm lingering over your hand. Gingerly, you shifted your hand up and down, mimicking him, the skin hot and velvety under your fingers.

“There, just like that,” Izaya cooed, his hips rocking up into your touch. His hand left yours to bury itself in the cushion beside him.

You chanced a subtle glance up, past his exposed torso and up his chest. His head lolled back against the sofa back, and his chest rose and fell deeply in more noticeable, pleasured breaths as you stroked. He seemed more than willing to sit back and fully indulge in your touch, apparently a far more exhilarating experience than his own.

“What a good girl,” he praised as your grip tightened you pumped his cock more surely, enjoying the noises that vibrated up his chest. They were low and smooth, containing all the richness of his speaking voice, yet none of the frustrating teasing or condescension. “Mmph, a little hard, don’t be shy,” he coaxed, giving a particularly eager buck of his hips, a new drop of pre-cum beading on the head of his dick.

You did as instructed, and the sound of his breathing deepened more, the small, pleasant sounds morphing into longer, bawdy groans. “How’s that?” you prompted, the confidence from watching him come slowly undone steadying your voice, the sheer arousal in it surprising you.

“Mm, good, keep going.”

You stuck to the steady rhythm you had set, your tongue wetting suddenly dry lips again as you alternated between watching Izaya’s blissful form above you and his throbbing cock in front of you. You moved your idle hand up, cradling his balls in your palm and rubbing gently, rewarded with even more erotic noises. You weren’t sure whether you were more turned on by the eroticism of the sounds themselves, or the fact you were hardly ever heard Izaya sound so unrestrained.

Your gaze stopped, lingering on his cock, and you decided if you were going to help out, you may as well have a little more fun, as well as satisfy the hunger building in you. You bent forward, your breath fanning over the head hotly, and you barely caught a shiver roll through Izaya. You leaned closer, opening your mouth and licking coyly at the flushed head, the bitter taste of pre-cum flooding your senses.

“ Oh .” The word was surprised, excited almost, made even more so by the breathiness that carried it. “I didn’t even have to ask you to do that.” Your faced burned with embarrassment you fought to ignore, letting your lips wrap around the head, swirling your tongue along the underside. “More eager than you let on, I see. But I’m not complaining.”

Izaya relaxed more limply against the cushions, save for the rhythmic roll of his hips meeting the hot, wet touch of your mouth. You sank down on his cock more, slowly, trying to account for the motion of his hips to not choke yourself on his length. Fortunately, though it was steady, his pace was languid, letting you adjust easily. You took as much as you could without inciting your gag reflex, shifting between dancing your tongue along his skin or pressing flat against the underside or teasing the head where it connected to his shaft.

Above you, Izaya’s dulcet chorus of groans and mumbled words escalated and his fingers met the top of your head. They curled loosely, massaging methodically, neither forcing you down or adjust to a new pace.

“Hmm, and they say I’ve got a talented tongue,” Izaya hummed huskily and you couldn’t stifle a low moan in answer, the sound shooting through Izaya and making his hips stutter. “Sure seems like you know to use yours though,” he praised again, and you could make out the teasing tone you were so used to among his lusty, strained voice.

Izaya fell silent for a time, or at least he fell wordless, panting and groaning his pleasure, the sounds accentuated by the wet noises you made while you sucked him off. But Izaya’s was a mouth that couldn’t stand staying silent for long. “You can take a little more, can’t you?” He asked insistently, his fingers tightening their loose hold. He thrust his hips more roughly into your mouth as you sank down again, as if punctuating his question.

Tears stung at your eyes for an instant as the tip of his dick touched your throat and you inhaled deeply to relax it. You took in even more of his cock, noticing the roll of his hips slow, as if accommodating you to take his length more easily. When you pulled back, his hand only let you go so far, effectively keeping you from pulling away. You indulged him, satisfied with the even more ragged breaths replacing his words and more of the salty fluid leaking from him.

Your jaw was beginning to ache, but you ached elsewhere as well, and it urged you to continue. With your mouth wrapped around him so intimately, you could tell Izaya was getting very close to cumming, from the increasing cant of his hips to the harsh pitch of his breath to the way his cock twitched, even more hard.

“Mm, that’s it. Almost there.” Izaya confirmed your suspicions, the lustiness of his tone adding to the urgency. “If you don’t want a mouthful, you might want to stop,” he warned you, surprisingly considerate in the moment.

Your eyes flickered up, but you didn’t stop, trying to hum your acknowledgement around a mouthful of his dick, working him even more eagerly.

“Oh, shit, you’re more obscene than I thought. If that’s how you want it,” His excitement pierced his arousal again, as if he hadn’t expected you to be so wrapped up in servicing him.

Thrusting into your mouth more desperately, his hips finally stuttered as he finished, filling your mouth with hot ropes of thick that you swallowed as soon as the bitter taste swept over your tongue. Several especially long, feral moans drifted from Izaya’s lips as you drank him down, until at last he was spent and there was nothing left for you to swallow. You drew away, wiping a smear of drool and some stray cum from your mouth with the back of your hand and resting back on your knees.

“There, that’s taken care of,” you said, your attempt to sound level and collected ruined by your own arousal making your voice overly breathy. “Now did you actually have a reason for inviting me over?”

Izaya laughed breathlessly, as if amused by your change of pace, lying boneless against the sectional. “Of course, my dear,” he answered when his laughter died, tipping his head forward to look at you. “I wouldn’t lie to your like that. Though, if you’d like, I can return the favor. It sounds like you need it.”

[shnuggletea]

Alright Lovelies, here's something a little dark and spooky for your Halloween cravings! As part of the Darker Oneshots: Halloween Challenge 2020 (hosted by Seiay's Kiss and NekoPantera!), I wrote this fic! Inspired by the 3 am Game: 11 Miles, I took my rules from 6 Paranormal Games That Could Ruin Your Entire Life If You Dare To Play by Jessica Calder. 

Click here for the playlist!!!!

This is the fic I accidentally wrote in first (when the rules said no first person) so I have two fics. They're the same in content, just different POVs! So, you get to choose! This one is for the event! The other is for my personal enjoyment lol. You can find the first person through my Tumblr page!

This fic was lovingly and painstakingly BOOTAED (get it?) by the fabulous @fawneyedgirl, @lavendertwilight89, @eringobroke, and @egosolivagant! And the cover art by the super talented @sapphirestarxx!

This is a long one (that’s what she said) guys so you probably wanna head over to one of the sites below. The full fic is on this post but... it’s a lot! And I can’t promise I caught all the formatting Tumblr lost when I pasted it here. You have been warned!!!

For the Third Person version!

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For the First person!

AO3

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Eleven Miles (First Person)

Is there something you desire more than anything else in the world? To obtain it, you don’t have to travel across the globe but you will have to go farther than you may be prepared. Although the distance might not be great, it is a place not all can venture, as not all can meet the requirements. If your desire is great enough, perhaps you will succeed… if you dare.

At the moment, I was calm and quiet. Even with the girl in my arms that was shaking harder than a leaf in a storm. The others in the car couldn’t smell it; I was the only demon if just half. But I was sure: the air was thick with it. 

And you never forget the smell of death once you’ve experienced it. 

“Alright, someone wanna tell me what the fuck is going on??!!”

Six hours earlier

Walking into the tea shop, I quickly caught sight of Miroku’s black locks even amongst the many others. He stood out in his own way, ratty ponytail down the back of his finely pressed school blazer. It matched mine, save for the pressed part but I didn’t have any fucking butlers to do my laundry. 

Miroku held up a hand to wave me down as if I didn’t see him. My ears pressed down to my skull on instinct, the loud and crowded store quickly pushing me to my ‘friendly’ limit. Sango sat right next to Miroku, trying and failing to keep his hand off her thigh. I wasn’t sure what the big deal was; everyone knew the two were fucking. 

I liked Sango. She was one of the few in the school who didn’t act like they shit rainbows cause their daddy had money. Miroku was another tolerable person there which was why we were friends. My ‘Daddy’ had money and was why I was in the stupid, preppy, bullshit school. As much as I hated it, I had to be thankful. Otherwise, I never would have met the people in my life I considered dear. 

Plopping to my seat to show annoyance, I wondered if any of them bought it? Sure, the place was loud and crowded but I wanted to be here. Needed to be. And my reason would be showing up any moment now…

“Hello, all.” She fell gracefully to the seat across from mine and let her eyes wander. I watched her, waiting for more as there always was. “What are you guys doing tonight?”

We all groaned, me the loudest, which got her attention. “What the fuck are you gonna force us into this time, Kikyo?”

She pursed her pouty red lips at me and my eyes lingered a little longer than I liked. “I never forced you to do anything, Inuyasha.”

Flicking black locks over her shoulder sent a small, but powerful, wave of perfume in my direction. I nearly gagged on it and she caught on, smirking. She couldn’t wear that shit when we dated for this reason alone so now that we were broken up, she was flaunting. 

Springing to her feet, I held my breath. 

“Going to the loo.” Kikyo ‘shared’ and I released my breath in a groan once she was out of earshot. 

“Hey, you dated her.” Sango quibbled. 

“Yeah, and it’s been almost a fucking year since she dumped me. So why the hell is she still hangin’ out with us?”

Another body fell to a seat, setting down a tray of drinks before us. “Okay, I got thirty minutes.”

Opening her mouth, Sango held up a sandwich that I had no clue where it came from. But Kagome took a huge bite and moaned, making me laugh. Taking the rest of her dinner from her friend, Kagome sat back and continued to pig out. Not that we blamed her, she had very little time to spare. Ever. 

The rest of us grabbed the free drinks she had brought us, one of the few benefits afforded her working here, while Sango narrowed her eyes at the overworked tea girl. “Your cousin will be back any second now.”

Kagome just nodded, her mouth still too full to speak. 

“She wants us to do something with her tonight,” Miroku added, his tone clear; he didn’t want to go. 

Kagome swallowed and I swear I hadn’t taken my eyes off her since she sat down. “She won’t invite me so I have no worries!”

God, I was jealous. The way Kagome could just turn anything into a positive? Although, not being invited to one of Kikyo’s ‘outings’ could definitely be seen as a good thing in my book. 

Leaning on my elbows, I moved a little closer to Kagome. Careful not to be too obvious, I breathed in her scent. She always smelled like tea leaves. The light kind like white tea and peaches. I found it intoxicating, even now, after years of knowing her. 

She looked over at me and just when I thought I’d been caught, she smiled so brightly I needed sunglasses. “I’m sure it’ll be a good time though, right?”

Optimistic as always, it irked me, but only because Kagome didn’t deserve any of the shit she went through. 

“That’s my seat.”

I glanced, Kikyo returned and looming over Kagome. She only had a quarter left of her sandwich, which she shoved into her mouth whole and stood. Without a word, mostly due to her full mouth, Kagome gave us a quick wave and disappeared. But she didn’t go far, getting behind the register just in my sight. 

“If you want free drinks, then you can just ask me.”

At some point, Kikyo had sat down in Kagome’s seat. I had been staring, watching the practiced ease Kagome had making tea. It was fascinating, the gentle way she held the glass and strained the tea leaves? Flicking her wrist to get the last of the floating herbs and sometimes adding in chilled milk. I liked watching her make milk teas the most. 

But now I had steely gray eyes glaring at me. “I ain’t here for the free tea.”

A leg over her knee, Kikyo stared at her nails instead. “So tonight? You guys coming?”

“You haven’t even told us what we are coming to?” 

Miroku didn’t hide his annoyance, another thing I liked about the guy. Most were scared to death of Kikyo and her prowess within the school. Maybe that was why she hung around us so much? Either she liked that we didn’t shine her ass or she wanted us to start? 

“Onigumo is taking us for a ride.”

I huffed, “why the fuck would we want to go ride around with you and your boy toy?”

Her lips slid to the side and I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever came out of her mouth next. “Because he just got a brand new Escalade.”

Kikyo didn’t know a damn thing about cars and I didn’t give a shit about them. It was about status and (a big expensive car like the one her new boyfriend had) spoke volumes. Like I needed another hint, she dumped me for someone richer. She didn’t care who, and Onigumo was right there with his big wallet in his pants. Cause no way in hell was that supposed to be his dick bulging in the front of his jeans. 

“I couldn’t care less,” Sango said with a sigh. 

Kikyo was losing us fast and for once, she looked nervous about it. “There’ll be booze?” Miroku and Sango hesitated. “And we’re going to play Eleven Miles.”

“What the hell is that?”

Kikyo rolled her eyes at me, “look it up?!”

She knew I wouldn’t. Instead, I glanced back at the register for Kagome. Who was wiping down the counter with no one in line waiting. “We’ll go… if your cousin comes too.”

Her mouth dropped but she quickly picked it back up. “She’s working tonight…”

“And with one call, you can fix that.”

Sango and Miroku both smirked, knowing I had won. Because either Kikyo failed and we got out of what sounded like the worst night of my life, or she came through and at least I’d have a good time with Kagome there. 

Rolling her eyes, she pulled out her phone and I got to my feet, shuffling up to the counter. Pretty brown eyes landed on me and she smiled brightly yet again. “Can I get you something, Inuyasha?”

Smirking, I didn’t take the bait. It would be too easy to tell her ‘yeah, give me you’. Watching her blush would have been fun but I had a purpose. I pushed my palms into the counter before me and leaned into my shoulders while she watched me intently. “You’re coming out with us tonight.”

Her smile faded a little into a sad one. “I can’t, I’m working…”

“No, you’re not. I got mom to let you off.” 

Kikyo appeared behind me, talking way too loud at the girl before me. With as much sass as humanly possible, Kikyo turned on her heel and swayed so her pleated uniform skirt swished with her hips. That used to drive me wild; now it just gave me a headache. 

I was brought back to the present when a gentle hand landed and squeezed my clawed one. Whipping my head back, Kagome had her sweet smile on. The one that made my palms sweat. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Get me invited. I don’t like going out with Kikyo at all.”

“Neither do I.”

She squeezed my hand again before pulling away. I liked that. How she would touch me without fear or hesitation. Even with my claws accidentally cutting a few times in the past. Kagome mostly, since she touched me the most. Yet she still held my hand when I needed it or she did because she was a good friend and person. A god damn angel surrounded by demons. 

“You could always say ‘no’ to her. It wouldn’t kill you?”

Her back to me, I listened to her heart and breathing to figure out her real meaning. Not that it was hard, given what I knew about her and her family already. “I could. But I didn’t. Not this time.” When she still didn’t look at me, I sighed loudly to get her attention. “You’re not going out with her, you’re going out with me, alright? You never get a night off and this was my in so I took it and I regret nothing.”

When I looked back up, staring at the different bags of kettle popped popcorn instead of her while I ranted, she had a caramel color to her eyes as she grinned. “Okay. I guess I don’t regret it either then.”

A few hours later

Miroku was grinning while we waited, standing off to the side of my building to lean on the half wall around the playground behind us. With my hands shoved in my pockets, I kept myself from punching him in the face but when he started to chuckle, I couldn’t stop myself from shoving him hard with my shoulder. It didn’t stop him from laughing and it didn’t make me feel any better, stuck waiting for my ex to show up with her new bf in a monster truck to take us all out to drink. 

But I told Kagome I didn’t regret it and I didn’t want to lie to her. 

The large monstrosity pulled up, rumbling as the driver revved the engine while leaving the doors locked. Gaining as much attention as possible and rubbing it in my face. It was a good thing I didn’t give a shit; otherwise, it might have worked and pissed me off. As it were, it just annoyed. 

The tinted windows hid the inside but I knew what I’d find when the door finally opened. This was why I wasn’t shocked nor did I hesitate, heading straight for the tiny back seat Kagome was undoubtedly shoved into by her cousin. With Kikyo in the front seat, this was where I wanted to be regardless, as far back as I could get.

Miroku took the middle seats. He and Sango would occupy them once we picked her up. It’s not like I was gonna share the fucking middle with those two anyway. I’d probably get a high heel in my face while they made out viciously. A few drinks and it was inevitable with those two. 

So why Kikyo was giving me the stink eye in her little mirror, I didn’t pretend to know or care. I had invited Kagome in the first place; of course, I would spend time with her. 

Taking my attention off others, I gave all of it to Kagome, who smiled softly to me in the dark back seat. She rocked a long sweater with tights and a pair of small sneakers. Another thing I liked about Kagome, she never tried hard but still managed to look adorable every time. Even in her uniform that was a hand-me-down and a size too small. A long braid over and down her shoulder and she was easy on the heart and eyes. 

“You made it.”

I grinned wide. “So did you.”

“Auntie about had a heart attack, Kikyo vouching for me and tugging me out the door with her.” 

She giggled and my heart thumped hard, happily. It felt fucking amazing making Kagome happy. “That made it worth it, didn’t it?”

Kagome shrugged and blushed heavily, making me wish I could read minds. 

“Kagome is going to be the DD if we get too wasted,” Kikyo called loud and clear from her throne. 

Glaring back at her, Kikyo smirked before slowly turning back to her boyfriend. The heavy linebacker and team captain of the football team didn’t intimidate me in the least. But Kikyo wanted me to be and I was sure I would never understand why. 

Kagome was staring, silently, out the window when I returned to ‘us’. No matter how many times I saw it, it still made my blood boil. And everyone knew about it; Kikyo had no shame in showing her disdain for her own blood. 

At first, it was all smiles and words under the breath. The girl with no family and no money showing up at our school? Kagome was the talk of the ‘first years’. And Kikyo enjoyed it until it got out they were related. That was when the cruelty started. Or, at least, the public cruelty. 

Sango never let Kagome’s background bother her, befriending her quickly just as she had me, another weirdo. At least I had my rich daddy to fall back on as well as a strong last name everyone knew. 

Kagome had nothing. 

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the guilt of shunning Kagome because her cousin told me to and I was a fucking lap puppy for Kikyo. The guilt or embarrassment. And it was all too easy for Kagome to forgive and forget, never letting anything get her down. Or stop her from caring about a person. I didn’t deserve her friendship but I still took it greedily. 

“I never got to tell you…” my attention was already on her and my ears perked up, finding her eyes in the reflection of the window, “I’m sorry.”

Confused, I shook my head a little to clear it. “What are you sorry for?”

Now she faced me but had her eyes on her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry for… showing up? That day, you were supposed to meet with Kikyo…”

I laughed and it caused her to jump up and look at me. “You mean the day she dumped me?” Kagome nodded slowly as if scared. “The day she dumped me and stood me up? When you came so I wasn’t alone? Are fucking shitting me? Why are you apologizing?!”

“I think…” her eyes flicked to the front but I didn’t dare take my eyes off of her, “I think she might have… gotten back with you if I hadn’t gone… but I didn’t want you to be alone, I didn’t… it wasn’t fair to you how she treated you and you deserve better…”

My hand on hers in her lap got her to stop. “You’re right, I do deserve better. And if she had offered to take me back, I might have been stupid enough to accept. So I’m glad you came.”

The softness of her face and eyes, it was palpable. “You’re sure?”

Oh god, was I. Kikyo dumping me was the best thing that ever happened to me. It woke me up, taking a long-ass nap in bitch land. I think it was sex. She was my first and I’ll never forget that. But it had me clinging to her because of some kind of made up attachment. 

Kikyo felt nothing for me. 

It was my last name that had attracted her. And I was attracted to her for her looks. The prettiest girl in school. Until freshman year started that is. 

But none of that mattered anymore; Kagome relaxing and giggling happily. My palms were sweating again at the sound. Add in the twinkle in her eyes and my heart was fucking doing laps. Maybe sitting in the back with her bitch of a cousin at the front was a bad idea?

We came to a stop and Sango bounced in. “The party’s here!”

“Where’s the booze you promised?” Miroku asked. 

Onigumo glanced at us in his rearview. “We have it all set up a few miles out of town.”

Miles outside of town? Where the fuck were we going tonight?

“Did Kikyo tell you? She says we’re playing something called Eleven Miles. Know what it is?”

I forgot about that and Kagome was already looking nervous. “No clue but I’m sure it’s fucking stupid.”

Kagome didn’t have a smartphone, so to reassure her, I got mine out and started searching. But then decided not to say anything after I got a look at what Kikyo had planned. 

“Yeah. It’s stupid.”

Kagome had short nerves. Something we all learned during the senior prank last year. They thought it would be funny to turn the school into a haunted house. I thought Kagome was going to pass out. Sango got her out of there unscathed but I was close to killing Hojo with his ghost costume, chasing Kagome around for a thrill. 

So no way in hell I was telling her what Eleven Miles was. Nothing was going to happen anyway; it would only freak her out to know. I still shot a glare Kikyo’s way. And she felt it, finding it and looking surprised. 

Instead, I scooted a little closer to Kagome and she passed me a smile before returning to watch the world outside her window. Miroku was already squeezing Sango tight to him but he spared a moment to look back and then throw me a wink. I spared a moment to punch the shit out of his shoulder. Little brat wined all the way to the ‘set up’. 

It was dark; the late fall sun setting an hour before we arrived. There was a table with drinks and a few lanterns burning. It looked like a cult ritual waiting to happen. We piled out of the car, I let Kagome go first for… my reasons and stood around awkwardly. All of this felt like it was a setup. Like there was more to this night than our ‘hosts’ were telling us. 

Sango looked about as at ease as me so she didn’t shy away from the booze. Miroku either. Kagome and I hung back; neither of us were ever drinkers. The few times I did, it was by force thanks to Kikyo. Kagome never got to go out so I assumed she would drink if given the chance. This wasn’t it though, Kikyo watching her cousin like a hawk, daring her to try for a drink. 

Kikyo and her boyfriend drank heavily and showed their bodies ’ resistance. Anyone else that drank as much as they did, in the short period we all stood there, would have at least struggled to walk. Kikyo had a small slur to her words but was otherwise fine. Onigumo acted like it was water.

Sneaking glances at Kagome beside me, I only gave a portion of my attention to the shit show before us. Sango started to get sloppy and Miroku got even more handsy. “You gonna drink?”

Wide and confused, Kagome’s beautiful browns crashed to me quickly. Then a flush spread on her cheeks as they wandered over my face. “I don’t think so. You?”

I had been slowly inching closer so now, taking my last inch, my shoulder touched hers. “Nah. So you’re safe if you want to.”

“Safe?”

Shrugging rubbed our shoulders together. I liked it cause she didn’t pull away. “Yeah, I’ll keep watch, keep you safe from… others.”

“And who will keep you safe?”

Her eyes were full of honesty, genuinely worried. But her pink lips twisted to the side as if implying something. This time, I took the bait. “You gonna jump me, Kagome? Cause I think I’d like that.”

Watching the blood spread across her face? Priceless. There was something truly beautiful about it. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I loved it. Even if it caused her to point her face towards her shoes. 

A red cup, almost matching the color of Kagome’s cheeks, appeared before our faces. Kikyo had a wry look on her face. It was the one she made when she was faking a smile. “Drink up. Both of you.”

“I thought you said…”

Kikyo cut Kagome off by shoving the drink into her hand. “Oni would never let you drive his car, get your head out of your ass, Kagome.”

“Hey!” I shouted before I could think, but I would have said it anyway. “Kagome is my date so cut the shit!”

The corners of Kikyo’s mouth went down while Kagome’s went up. They were both fighting it but were failing. “I just gave her a drink, asshole…”

Gently taking Kagome’s arm, I led us away from the bitch and closer to Sango. Miroku was hanging on her so they were a packaged deal. The glare Sango was shooting Kikyo told me she heard what was said and was ready to pounce. “What is all this anyway? Why are we in the middle of nowhere drinking in the dark?!”

“We thought it would set the mood.” Onigumo sneered. 

“For what?” 

I caught the rolling Kikyo’s eyes did as she looked Miroku’s way. Damn bitch. “For the game.”

“About that, I don’t want any part of some stupid witch-hunting game,” Sango warned. 

“It’s not a witch hunt! It’s just a drive…”

“And you get your wish granted at the end.”

Onigumo and Kikyo looked like a couple of twelve-year-old boys getting promised to see tits for the first time. They weren’t seriously dumb enough to think this shit was real, did they? 

I groaned but said nothing more. If there was one thing I knew about Kikyo, it was that once her mind was set, there was no changing it. The worst part was that we were stuck in the middle of it, so to speak. It was getting harder and harder not to regret this. One glance at Kagome, a chill from her nerves going up her spine and making her dance for a second, and I was calming back down. 

Her fear was permeating the air and even though I was pissed she was dragged into this, by me and Kikyo, I was more worried about her losing it. 

The only good thing about it all was having an excuse for wrapping my arm around her. A hand on her hip and she was giving me a flushed and confused look. I squeezed her and chuckled at the little skip her heart did. This was far better than her fear and I felt no shame in doing it to her. 

“God. Can we just get this over with then? I’d rather be in bed than doing this stupid game.” Miroku bitched. 

I was inclined to agree. Except for the part where Sango was in bed with me as that was implied by Miroku’s hand on her ass as he pushed them back towards the car. I pulled Kagome as well, keeping an arm around her. Kikyo sneered at all of us as we passed. Why the hell did she want us around? She didn’t care what we wanted and didn’t seem to enjoy our company at all. 

None of this felt right but with us, already out in the middle of nowhere it was keep going… or a long walk home, even for a demon, in the dark. 

Mile One…

Don’t use a large car or an open one like a motorcycle. The cover of night is important, sticking out too much would be very bad….

Kagome was in the back with me again, watching out the window. I assumed it was her nerves. Either being so close to me or the weird-ass game we were about to play. Or possibly a combination of the two. I knew she was at least attracted to me but I wasn’t sure if she was into me as I was into her. My demon senses didn’t tell me the difference. I had always told myself I could work with attraction. But after months of flirting this was the first time we had gone on anything close to a date. How much of that was Kagome’s choice and how much of it was her Cousin and Aunt keeping her busy, I didn’t know. With her now close to me and still putting distance, it was hard to believe she felt anything more for me than friendly attraction. 

Turning my attention to the road before us, I caught Kikyo watching us. Her eyes flicked away as soon as I caught her, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Whatever thoughts I had on that were interrupted by Sango reaching across her seat and grabbing Kagome’s shoulder. 

“You alright?”

I didn’t hide my interest, watching as Kagome worked out her response. Her eyes darted between me and Sango but she offered a weak smile. “I’m a little freaked out but I’ll be alright.”

She wasn’t lying. Embarrassed but still telling the truth. And her eyes lingered on me longer and longer after her admission. The back and forth of Sango’s eyes were seen in my peripheral. Maybe she saw something? It would explain the grin that grew on her face but she did that every time Kagome and I had a moment that she was there to witness. 

“You don’t need to worry. Inuyasha will protect you.”

Sango winked at me before turning back to her seat with Miroku. I turned from the two of them when Miroku took Sango back greedily, whispering things I wished I didn’t hear. Thank you demon hearing for that one.

Kagome wasn’t returning to her window, smiling sweetly at me so my palms began to sweat. “Is that true, Inuyasha? Will you protect me?”

Jesus. When she said shit like that. I knew she was just kidding around but damn it was bad for my heart. “Feh. Of course. Not that there’s anything to protect you from.”

Her smile faded, looking back out the window and I thought I had lost her again until she started whispering. “There’s something not right about this road.”

“What do you mean?”

I leaned over, looking out with her. My eyes were far better than hers, what with her a pure human. As expected, she didn’t squirm or push me away. There was no discomfort. There was also nothing but trees outside as we sped down the street. Well, not sped, Onigumo had us at a solid thirty-five MPH for some ungodly reason. This night was already going to last long enough.

A hard shiver ran through Kagome and I didn’t kid myself that it was because of me. “Cold?” She nodded and I growled at the front seats. “Hey Onigumo, what kind of piece of shit car is this? You can’t even keep the back seats warm?!”

He caught my glare in his rearview and I caught his sneer just before he leaned over and turned up the heat. Kagome’s hand found mine and she was like ice. “Thank you, Yasha.”

Oh shit, I loved it when she called me that. “Anytime, Ka-go-me.”

She smirked and I hoped it was due to the reminder. The first time we met I consistently said her name wrong. In a brazen show, she told me, “It’s KAH-GO-MAY you asshat!” I couldn’t control my attachment to her after that, having absolutely no fear or revulsion of me in the slightest. Most people took whatever I gave them and were thankful I didn’t do worse. And that had nothing to do with me and my track record, they all assumed I would do more than name call because I was a half breed. 

“Alright everyone, this is it! This is the road!”

Sango shifted, sitting closer to Onigumo’s seat. “What do you mean this is the road? I thought we just drove for eleven miles or something?”

“It has to be a particular road and mileage,” Kikyo answered mockingly. 

Miroku huffed, “then how the hell do you know this is it?!”

“Just a… feeling.”

She answered softly but Kikyo’s eyes flicked back and not at me. I glanced at Kagome who was stiff and trembling slightly. I took my jacket off and wrapped it around her without hesitation. Kagome smiled but it wasn’t as strong as her usual one. Whatever was going on, it was affecting Kagome somehow. 

And Kikyo was exploiting whatever that was to the fullest. 

Mile Two

To find the road you need to go at night when it will be the least populated. And you must do this alone. It won’t be on the map. It must be surrounded by woods and if you look for it, it will appear, as there will be hints….

“Can’t we go any faster?!!”

Now that we were ‘on the road’ Onigumo has slowed to a crawl. We were going about twenty miles per hour now. Kagome had stopped shivering but refused to look out the window now. Her arms crossed over her chest, she stared at the seat in front of us while I rubbed her knee. The fact that she didn’t blush like crazy showed me that she was too upset or messed up to care. And I was taking advantage but I didn’t care either. 

“You should all be looking. That’s the point. If we don’t see anything then it didn’t work.” Onigumo yelled. 

“This is bullshit.” Miroku sighed. “Just go faster so we can be done with this.”

Mile Three

Don’t use your phone….

“Does anyone else have any service?” Sango suddenly asked. 

I pulled out my phone and had a few bars but not much. “Here.”

She took my phone without question but then didn’t make a call. I couldn’t tell what she was doing but she didn’t put it up to her ear or anything. “Ug, fucking data is being so god damn slow!!!”

“What the hell are you doing?”

I move to sit up and lean over but Kagome’s hand flew to mine.  Still on top of her knee, she squeezed it so hard, if I were human, it would have hurt. 

My mouth parted to speak but one look at her had me shutting my mouth tight. Her eyes were wide and still staring at the seat before us. And she was breathing hard, shuddering breaths that sounded painful, like her whole body was so tense it hurt to breathe. 

“Kagome? What’s wrong?”

She said nothing. She didn’t move. Kagome was thoroughly freaked out. 

Removing my hand from her clutch was no easy task. For a human, she was surprisingly strong when scared but I did it and her breathing only quickened until I wrapped an arm around her to pull her into me. Practically in my lap, I glared at the two asshats in the front seats. They were busy looking out the windows. Onigumo too and the car slowed even more from it. 

At the moment, I was calm and quiet. Even with the girl in my arms that was shaking harder than a leaf in a storm. The others in the car couldn’t smell it; I was the only demon if just half. But I was sure, the air was thick with it. 

And you never forget the smell of death once you’ve experienced it. 

There was movement outside. I don’t know how Kagome knew it because they were hard even for me to see. But she must have seen them or something and it was the cause of her petrified state.

And with the grins on Kikyo and Onigumo’s faces, glancing back at Kagome as some kind confirmation, I knew they were holding back on some important information. “Alright, someone wanna tell me what the fuck is going on??!!”

“SHHHHH!!” My glare went to Sango but then I saw the blood drain from her face. “Do you hear that?”

Everyone was silent. I flicked my ears around, trying to hear but I heard nothing. But Kagome. She began to claw at my shirt and dig into my arms. Now hiding, I covered her as much as possible with my arms and body. If hiding helped her then that’s what I would do. 

“Oh my god…”

I’d been focused on Kagome. Her heart at a dangerous speed. With Kikyo’s exclamation, all I wanted to do was throw my shoe at the back of her head. Because screaming out like that didn’t help at all. But pulling my focus caused me to notice what was around us. And what was around us, didn’t make sense. 

Because the woods were completely gone. 

Mile Five

Don’t turn open the windows or leave your car….

It was like we had missed the road and driven into the middle of a field, no trees around at all. Not even behind us. 

I was struggling to take a good look around while holding onto Kagome. She didn’t look; she was barely breathing. And then they stopped the goddamn car. 

“What the hell? Why are we stopping???!”

Onigumo already had his door open. “Gotta piss.”

The growl I released was ignored. But of course, Onigumo and Kikyo didn’t give a shit about how freaked Kagome was. Sango turned to help me with her while Miroku scooted to the door. “I gotta go too.”

Sango called after him but he ignored all her warnings. The call of nature was stronger than his fear. 

The three of us were quiet. So much, I forgot all about Kikyo until she spoke, remembering there were four in the car. “She’s just being overly dramatic as usual.”

The venom in Kikyo’s voice was more than enough to push me and Sango over the edge. And Sango beat me to a response. “The only one here that is overly anything is you, Kikyo, and you know it.”

It was so quiet, I could hear the roll of Kikyo’s eyes. Sango huffed but turned back to us, Kagome still in my hold. Her hot and slow breaths were fogging up my chest but I wasn’t bothered in the slightest. At least she was starting to calm, her heart at a much safer speed than before. 

Like a little bunny, Kagome slowly came out of hiding and stared out the window past Sango. “Kagome?”

The driver’s door opened and slammed shut, rocking the car. “Wooo it’s cold out there!”

At some point, Kikyo had turned on the radio, soft notes playing all around us. I wasn’t in the mood in the slightest. 

“Where’s Miroku?”

Sango turned and looked to Onigumo, who shrugged. “No clue. We didn’t cross streams!”

I looked out, searching. There were no trees. Not a fucking one. And the lake looked more like a mirror, reflecting the full moon and stars above. With plenty of light and nothing obscuring our sight, it should have been easy to spot anyone. Demon or not. 

But there was no one near or around the car at all.

I wasn’t paying attention to the radio but suddenly, it cut out and turned to static. Then increased in volume until deafening. The white noise was making my brain hurt, pressing my ears to my skull as hard as I could. When that didn’t work, I covered them, allowing myself to let go of Kagome to try and lessen the pain.

She held on tight to my shirt but didn’t seem to mind the overpowering sound. It had nothing to do with being a demon because everyone in the car was buckled over from the noise. But Kagome? She sat up straight and still… and listened.

“TURN IT OFF!!!”

I was too busy curling into a ball but Sango’s scream made it over the noise and Onigumo slapped his hand to the audio power button. The ringing in my ears was slow to diminish but once it did, I released my head and wrapped my arms around Kagome again. Her cheeks were red and chapped with tears and she was sobbing softly. It was hard to miss, the salt covering any other scent for me, even the smell of death that had yet to go away. 

Dragging her into me, I gave her a small shake to wake her out of the shocked mentality she was stuck in. “Kagome, what’s wrong?!”

A few pounding heartbeats and sobs later, her eyes finally met mine. I could see the fear within them, it was screaming back at me. “They took him…”

Sango was listening now, turning back to us again. “Who took who?!”

“They...they took Miroku.”

“Who the fuck is they?!” Sango screamed. She didn’t wait for an answer; her hand on the handle before I could clear my head of just what Kagome was saying. “Fuck this, I’m going to look for him.”

The sound of the locks clicking into place was deafening and we all looked to the front. Kikyo still had her hand on the control when she slowly turned to us. “No one is going anywhere. We need to finish this.”

“What? You want us to keep driving are you fucking mad??”

She turned her glare to me, looking at me like I was fucking stupid. “Miroku is fine. Once we finish, we’ll go back for him.”

It wasn’t up for debate as Onigumo began to pull away. Sango’s screams were ignored and with me in the back seat, there was little I could do as we got back up to speed. Other than keeping Kagome as close as possible to me. 

Her forehead touched my neck, skin on skin, and I would have been a fucking teenage virgin about it if she wasn’t ice cold. “Shit, Kagome, you’re freezing!!”

Wrapped up tight, my coat wasn’t doing a damn thing for her. My hot demon blood kept me toasty 24/7 but even pressed against my heat, she was still shivering. Sango leaned back over her seat to us, checking and feeling Kagome. It was a needed distraction; tears still rolling down her cheeks from losing Miroku. “This can’t be good for her. It’s the damn prank night all over again.”

“This is fucking worse than that!”

Sango looked over her shoulder to the front again. “We need to get Kagome to a hospital.”

“No, we need her to stay right here. She is our beacon.” Onigumo said in the creepiest voice I had ever heard come out of him.

“Your.. beacon? To what?”

Sango asked but none of us wanted the answer. We needed to know how deep this shit went but we didn’t want to know. Kikyo slapped Onigumo’s shoulder in reprimand but answered our question anyway. “Beacon to.. this! All of it! We would have had no clue what road to take if it wasn’t for her.”

“What the hell does that mean!!!” I growled. 

But then the light cut away casting us into complete darkness.

Mile Six

Don’t touch the radio….

The trees had returned but it took the moon and starlight with it. As soon as we entered it, I could feel it. My demon was draining away. 

We had entered a moonless night somehow and I was becoming human.  

Sango’s eyes were wide at the sight of it. I had told them all about my human nights but I had never told Kikyo or Onigumo. Kikyo’s gray eyes looked at me fiercely and a smile grew on her face, making my skin crawl. 

This night was darker than usual. No moon and no stars, it made it impossible to see around us with my weak human eyes. Onigumo had headlights but seeing past them was difficult at best. 

The goddamn radio turned back on and no one touched it this time. Kagome rocked against me until I rocked with her. With it at a lower level, I could focus on the sounds instead of the skull piercing noise.

“Give… sss…. tooo… her….” out of nowhere, the static cut out, and it was clear, “INUYASHA, GIVE HER TO US!!!!”

Kagome pushed against me hard, her palms against my ribs. If I hadn’t been holding her so tight, she might have actually gotten free. “What the fuck?!”

“This isn’t funny, guys. Cut it out!”

Onigumo and Kikyo ignored me and Sango, continuing slowly down the road. Kagome was still pushing against my hold but I refused to let her go. “Kagome stop, I’m not letting you go.”

“You need to stay away from me, Inuyasha.”

There was nothing but sadness in her tone and I really didn’t get it. She was sad and afraid; why would she want to push any friend away? Was it because I was a demon? Kagome had never said or done anything to make me think she felt that way, like so many others, did about me. 

Was it whatever was out there, messing with us? Did she think I had something to do with it? It was my name coming out of the radio, a trick that was easy to do with a Bluetooth connection and a recorder on your phone. I don’t know how they got the smell of death to fill the car but I guess they could have put a dead animal under the hood of the car. If Onigumo would allow it. With him flaunting his money all the time he probably just considered buying a new car after this trick. Especially if Kikyo talked him into all of this. 

And it wouldn’t be the first time she had talked me into something either, convincing me to be cruel to Kagome when we first met. 

I wasn’t sure I could blame her, thinking I was somehow involved. I did ask her here and Kikyo folded so easily. So I yanked her back the tiny distance she had gotten away from me while I considered her wishes. Her eyes went wide, a little bit of green in her honey irises that made my heart skip a beat. “Shut the fuck up. I’m exactly where I want to be. Where I need to be.”

Some of her color came back to her face for a moment, a few errant tears sliding slowly down her cheeks. “Yasha…. it’s… it’s not what you think. It’s not safe…”

I couldn’t stand it; she was terrified and yet speaking about my safety? Kissing the tip of her nose got her to shut up and a warm fever to take over my skin from it. 

Damn weak human emotions. 

This was all some stupid prank anyway and I was going to beat the shit out of those responsible once we got the hell out of this car. 

We were still rolling on, surrounded by black woods. I couldn’t explain the lack of moon and stars. That was the only thing I couldn’t understand, how the hell they pulled it off?! How the hell did they make me human??

I was still trying to look out and see something in the darkness and felt a small tugging on my hair. Searching out the source, I found Kagome, playing with a few of my black strands. She had never seen me like this. No one had. Then she pushed back my hair until she found my ear, now on the side of my head and human. Gripping it, she checked to see if it was real I guess, before looking up at me with a small smile. 

“I’m sorry, Yasha. I know you hate being like this.”

Like it was her fault? I pulled her into my side, wrapping an arm around her tight and turning us so we looked ahead. Because if she kept looking at me and speaking to me like that, I was liable to take advantage. Something told me, she wouldn’t push me away if I offered her comfort in the form of my tongue in her mouth. Even if she wasn’t that into me. 

Mile Seven

Ignore the figures you see outside your car….

It hadn’t been long, Kagome and I calm in the backseat together when it all went to hell. 

First, Kagome stiffened in my hold, her shoulders becoming ridged. I took my attention away from the road for a moment to calm her down and Sango screamed. Making us both jump. 

“Stop! Stop the car!!”

I didn’t let go of Kagome in the slightest but I still sat up and tried to pull Sango back down to her seat. “Are you crazy?! We need to get this over with!!”

“I saw him!” She cried. “I saw Miroku; stop the car!!”

Turning, I looked behind us, keeping my arm around Kagome so I was turned into her. No longer a demon, I couldn’t hear her heart. But with my face inches from hers, I could easily feel the shallow breaths she was taking. “Kagome?”

She shook her whole body but mostly her head, at me. “That’s not Miroku.” She whispered. 

A glance and I couldn’t see anything anyway. Cupping her cheek, I gently pulled Kagome’s face towards mine. “Who is it, Kagome?”

Her eyes danced around my face. The breaths that puffed across my cheeks were cold; it made my fear spike for the girl in my arms. “I don’t know. But it’s not Miroku.”

Something crawled up my back to my neck and whispered. “Let go…”

My neck popped I turned so hard and fast. But there was nothing. Kagome’s hand grabbed mine on her face and I turned back to her, already feeling her tears on my fingers. She said nothing though, silently crying. 

Sango was still fighting with Onigumo, trying to get him to stop. At least he wasn’t a complete idiot. Or so I thought, feeling the car being to slow. 

“What are you doing?! Don’t stop the car you fuckers!!”

Sango whipped around to glare at me and only softened a little at the sight of Kagome so broken. “We need to get Miroku…”

“That ain’t Miroku!!!!”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re stopping, like it or not.” Kikyo declared. 

I was ready to wail in both of them but Onigumo turned off the car. “It’s dead. The car is dead; we have no choice but to stop.”

Mile Eight

If the car stalls, just be patient and try again in a few minutes. Don’t leave the car and whatever you do, don’t listen to the voices you hear….

“This is bullshit. Start the damn car you assholes!”

Onigumo passed me a look, then showed me his hand as he tried to crank the car. It didn’t even turn over; not making a single sound as he twisted the key in the ignition. 

Sango went for her door again but Onigumo still had it locked. “Let me out; I’m going back for Miroku.”

I was shaking my head at her but soon heard the click of the locks. Kagome got up too, as soon as Sango opened her door. “We should go with her.”

My breath was caught somewhere between my chest and my throat. Kagome was a ball of anxiety but still wanted to face it all for the sake of her friends. I wanted to go look for Miroku too. And get out of this car as it slowly made its way to hell. 

Taking her hand firmly in mine, we crawled over the seat and out the door. I spared Kikyo a glance. Her lips set in a hard line, she was stoic and I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing considering. 

Sango had a head start on us and we had lost her to the darkness. Kagome’s hand was in the death grip of mine and that brought me some comfort. While my palm was sweating, hers was ice cold. Made worse by the strange fridge temperature outside the damn car. It was late, checking my watch to see we were in the early hours of the morning now. That wasn’t the cause of the lack of stars or moon; sunrise was still hours away. 

The white puffs of hot air as they expelled from our mouths nearly glowed even without light reflecting on it. It made me wonder if the moon and stars were still there but, for some reason, we couldn’t see them? 

Kagome shook so hard, my arm was going numb from her shiver crawling up my shoulder. She still stepped up beside me and called out as if not terrified and freezing. “Miroku!!”

“We’re gonna have to walk a ways back for him to be in earshot, I think.”

I knew we had traveled a distance down the road but I had no clue just how far we had left Miroku behind. It was at least a mile. 

“Miroku!!!” Kagome still yelled.

Sango was probably doing the same thing. Wait…. “Where’s Sango?” 

Sure it was dark but she would be screaming her lungs off, looking for Miroku right now. No way in hell we wouldn’t hear her; the forest was dark and silent like a grave. 

Just as I pulled Kagome into my side, a loud pop came from behind. I spun us both, putting Kagome behind me simultaneously in a manner I could only explain as instinct. My body was screaming to protect Kagome and get her the hell out of here. 

Without my claws, I was left with my fists, holding them up at the ready and in defense. Crawling out of the darkness, Kikyo peered at the two of us and frowned. “You need to get back to the car. Now.”

“The car is a piece of shit! And we want to find Miroku. You know? Our friend that you and Onigumo left behind!!”

She waved a hand at me as if to wipe my words from the air. “Miroku is fine…”

“You don’t know that,” Kagome whispered.

As much as I liked her standing up to her cousin, I didn’t like the darkness in her tone. Because it wasn’t about Kikyo; it was about Miroku and whatever the hell happened to him. It had me grabbing Kagome and pulling her with me. “Fine, we’ll go back to the car.”

Kikyo stopped us, putting a hand on my chest as I tried to pass. “Not Kagome. Just you.”

“Excuse me?” I glared down at Kikyo but she kept her eyes locked on Kagome. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“She is! I want her gone!”

Shoving Kagome behind me again, I squared up to the bitch. “She has done nothing to you. You need to stop this, Kikyo. It’s just pathetic now.”

Now she tore her gaze from Kagome, tears covering her cheeks as she grimaced up at me. “Everything is her fault. She’s the one going to college and using my funds to do it!”

“What are you talking about?” Kagome whispered.

“I didn’t get in. Anywhere. So now Mom is going to take my college fund and add it to yours. All so you can go to your damn fancy as fuck university. And I’ll stay here to rot.”

This was what it had always been about. Jealousy. So I gently grabbed Kagome again and pulled her away. “That’s your own fault. Too busy parties and being a bitch when you should have been studying your ass off like Kagome. Nothing was handed to her and you know it so shut your fucking mouth and get out of our way.”

Pushing her ahead of me, I just wanted to get Kagome far away from her fucked up family. But Kikyo grabbed me and I couldn’t let Kagome walk in this dark and fucked up forest alone. “I want you back, Inuyasha.”

Ripping from her claws, I snarled at her. “You just want me because I want someone else!”

“HER??!! Why her?!! She’s nothing! A piece of shit orphan with nothing better to do than leech off me and my family. Even my boyfriend!”

“Ex! Ex-boyfriend. You dumped me, remember?”

“Because of the way you looked at HER!” My eyes went from Kikyo to Kagome and then to the leaf-covered ground. “You can’t even deny it. You’ve been into her ever since you met her. Even while you were fucking me…”

“Shut up!” I couldn’t take any more of this and I really didn’t want Kagome hearing anymore. “You don’t know shit about me and you never did.”

Kikyo sneered, her eyes dancing from me to the one behind me, Kagome tugging on my hold to get away. But I refused to let her go. “Inuyasha… we should go…”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Spinning, I pushed Kagome along and held her elbow tight to keep her off the ground when she tripped. I couldn’t see shit but she was a walking shit storm when it came to NOT tripping on things. Kikyo released a strangled cry like she was shocked we were leaving and I had to force Kagome to keep moving forward. 

“Yash…”

Shit, I hated it when Kikyo called me that. It made me so pissed, I didn’t think, I just glared back. But something was wrong, the angled position of Kikyo’s head? It was as if she was being pulled back by her chin. Looking down, I saw her feet were barely touching the ground, on her tiptoes with the tips of her shoes grazing the leaves. 

Her eyes were wide and on me, her mouth struggling to open. “Give them… her… now.”

My brain spun, glancing back at Kagome to find her horrified and shaking. And then she took a step.

A hand on her chest, I didn’t give a shit about the proximity to her breasts. She wasn’t going anywhere near Kikyo no matter what the hell was going on. “Fuck off!”

“Give them… Kagome… please!!!” Kikyo whined.

I had to hold Kagome back again, this time wrapping her up in my arms as she fought against me. “Stop it! This is stupid!!”

It wasn’t a scream, it was a gurgle, looking back to Kikyo as a red line appeared. It drew across her neck just below her apple. And then it grew, blood spilling from it while Kikyo sputtered. 

Her body fell to the ground and she didn’t move. Kagome wanted to move, but I wouldn’t allow it. Either this was a fucked up prank or something else. Either way, Kagome didn’t need to be anywhere near it.

This time, I picked her up, lifting her into my arms kicking and screaming. At first, she screamed to go back then she just wept. God damn Kikyo was going to scar Kagome for life with this bull shit.

No one was in the car and I prayed the keys were in the ignition. With Onigumo gone, no sign of Sango, and Miroku still missing, I had to assume they were all in on it. I had Kagome tossed into the back seat when a body flew into my back. Fucking human senses, not only did I not hear Sango walk up behind but I actually jumped when she touched me. 

“Goddammit, Sango!!”

She was shaking, hard, and her hands were covered in blood. “I’m sorry, I… I… I saw… that is I found… Kikyo, it was Kikyo…”

I grabbed her. In part cause, she was about to pass out but also to shut her up before she freaked Kagome out even more. “We know, we saw.” Sango tried to climb in the car but I stopped her, pushing her back. “Tell me you had nothing to do with this?!”

Her mouth cracked in a sob. “How.. how could you think that?!”

Shoving on my hold, I felt more guilt than usual. Fucking human emotions! “Miroku is conveniently missing and Kikyo is off playing fucking ghosts. I don’t even know what the fuck Onigumo is doing right now and I don’t care.” Now the tears, Sango was pissed and crying. I sighed heavily and released my hold on her. “Just tell me you have nothing to do with this and I’ll believe you.”

She released a shuddering breath right into my face. “I have nothing to do with this.” I released her and she shuddered, “how could I be. Look at yourself? How could someone make you human?!”

I shrugged, “to be honest, there’s a lot about being a half-demon that even I don’t understand yet. And maybe tonight is a new moon and I forgot…”

“We already had a new moon. Two weeks ago…”

“I remember but maybe it’s like a blue moon or something?! I don’t know! All I know is Kikyo and Onigumo are fucking around and I’m pissed!”

Sango rolled her eyes at me but then hopped in the car, going straight to Kagome. I watched for a moment as Sango wrapped herself around Kagome. I wasn’t sure if she did it to comfort herself, Kagome, or both, but Kagome looked like she wanted nothing to do with it. That was odd in itself; Kagome was always open to affection from her friends. Even from me. 

Something to figure out later; Going to the driver seat so we could get the fuck out of here. “What are you doing?”

I glanced at Sango in the rearview, her eyes wild with fear. “Getting out of here.”

“We can’t leave Miroku and Onigumo.”

I could tell, even without my demon senses, Sango felt more worried about Miroku than Onigumo. And I had to agree, I really didn’t want to leave Miroku either. “Fine. Then let’s go back and look for Miroku.” My hand went to the ignition and found it empty. “Shit, fucking, asshole!!!”

“What?!!”

Now both Kagome and Sango were staring back at me in the reflection of the mirror, eyes impossibly wide with fear. “Nothing… the keys are missing.”

“Dammit, Onigumo must have them that prick.”

I started searching the darkness, looking for signs of the bastard. He was out there, I could see things moving. Looks like he brought some friends with him. Although who would be crazy enough to stand out in the cold dark woods for hours just to fuck with us, I didn’t know. Onigumo must have hired people or something. He was dumb enough to spend his money on something like that. 

Whoever it was, it was more than just Onigumo. He couldn’t move that fast or be in two places at once. And I was sure I was seeing more than one person as three figures moved simultaneously in different spots. 

Now, more than ever, I was sure this was a damn prank.

Which meant Miroku was being held by them somewhere. Against his will probably; Mirkou was stupid, but not crazy. He knew better than to mess with Kagome like this and he hated the woods at night. 

Something slammed into my door and the girls screamed. I jumped as well (fucking human body) and turned to find hands and a face pressed against the glass, covered in blood. 

“LET ME IN!!!”

It took me a second to clear my head and unlock the doors. Onigumo climbed in the back seat, panting and groaning. ���What the hell man?!”

Sango was weeping and Kagome pushed her back, climbing over the seat to sit near Onigumo. She was propping him up, trying to get a look at whatever wounds he had. While Onigumo looked around wildly. “We need to go.”

“Go?! We can’t just leave… what about Kikyo? Miroku?!” Sango screamed.

“She’s dead. Miroku is probably dead too.”

Turning I glared back at him, “that’s not fucking funny.”

“I’m not kidding!!” He shoved the keys into my face, “just fucking drive asshole!!”

Onigumo was still playing the game hard. If I wanted to get all of us out of this stupid night, I would have to drive. Miroku and Kikyo would be waiting at the end of this so the sooner I got us there, the better.

The car started without issue and I caught Sango’s stare in the rearview mirror again. Some of her fear depleted, starting to see the con that was going on. Kagome was still shaking. But then again, she was currently getting her hands covered in blood. 

“Just forget about him, Kagome.” I put the car in drive and hit the gas hard. “This is all bullshit anyway.”

Mile Ten

Don’t drive too fast, or you’ll miss all the fun...

I wasn’t sure but we had to be getting to the end of this soon. It was only supposed to be eleven miles! I was going fifty but we were still in the endless night of the forest. No stars, no moon, and no end.

“What the fuck, is this a loop or something?!”

We had been in a straight line the entire time, no turns at all, but it felt like we were going in circles. Kagome was still messing with Onigumo, pulling carefully at his coat and then going for his shirt, trying to find his wounds. 

“I told you not to worry about the fucker, Kagome.”

The jealousy I had was unjustified but as a human, I had little to no control over it. I was pretty sure it was clear on my face and tone but Kagome ignored it. “There’s… there’s a lot of… blood. We need to… stop it and get to a… hospital.”

Even terrified to the point of witless, Kagome thought of others first. It made my heart swell and hurt a lot. 

But also it had me not watching the road.

“INUYASHA WATCH OUT!!!!”

Sango was screaming from the back and I looked to the front; a person standing in the middle of the road. Braking was pointless but I tried, slamming hard into the body of the bystander. The sickening thud of them hitting the hood and then the roof as their body went over us made us all pale. It felt like a lifetime passed before the car finally stopped, not thinking about anything else as I ripped open the door and ran around the car. 

But I didn’t understand, staring at the now dirt road, and trying to get my mind wrapped around what it was seeing. Sango managed to join me while I tumbled my brain around. She gasped and looked really hard too.

The road was empty, no body or blood.

There was no doubt, we had hit someone. I felt the car jerk from the hit. But there was no body! Running around, I went to the front of the car. Sure enough, there was a dent in the front that was easily body size. Something moved to my left, hidden by darkness and trees. I was tired of all this shit so I went after it. “Alright assholes. Come out here and face me!”

The pussies remained hidden and silent but I knew they were there. 

“I know Onigumo put you up to this. If you come out now and cut the shit, I’ll go easy on you.”

Nothing.

That is until some screams came from behind. They were coming from where I left the car. “Kagome.”

I breathed out her name out of fear. Now I had it in spades. I had left her alone and I had promised to protect her in all of this. It might be a prank but these fuckers didn’t know when to quit. They were going to scar Kagome for life and mess her up good. 

God damn Onigumo and Kikyo. I was going to tear them both to PIECES for this!!!

The car was empty when I got back to it. I’d been gone maybe five minutes; they couldn’t have gotten far. But I had no clue which way to go!

There was movement on the ground, something in the tall grass of the abandoned road. The early morning dew was freezing, seeping through my jeans. But I still rushed to the movement, finding Sango rolling and coiling in pain. She let me help her to her feet, staggering and struggling on her feet while her face began to swell. I knew what happened without a word from her, standing her up as straight as I could to look her in the eyes.

“Which way did he take her?”

She pointed then sobbed. “She was checking him over and couldn’t find a wound. Then he said, it wasn’t his blood. Who’s blood is it, Inuyasha??!!”

I knew what she was thinking and I was thinking about it too. That it was Miroku’s and that he wasn’t with us because Onigumo and Kikyo had done something very bad to him. “It’s fake, Sango. None of this is real…”

“But you’re a human?!”

I didn’t have time for this; I had to get Kagome away from these freaks. “Get in the car and don’t move. Sango? Don’t fucking leave the car for anything, understand?”

“But…”

“Nothing! I will be back with Kagome and we’ll get out of here. Try calling the cops or something.”

She pulled out her phone as she ran. I did the same and had no signal. So instead, I used the flashlight and ran towards the blackness. It was where Kagome was so I had no choice.

Mile Eleven

Don’t leave your car!!!!

I was out of breath; my lungs screaming at me. If I wasn’t a fucking human… but I couldn’t stop, I still hadn’t caught so much as a glance of Kagome yet. The flashlight of my phone wasn’t helping either. I was far too used to my demon sight; this flashlight was bull shit.

But I had nothing else so I kept using it like a dick and searching the woods. They were endless. We had to be close to a house or a town. This place wasn’t that big or remote!!! 

Nearly tripping on a root, I growled and cursed as loudly as possible, “Onigumo, where are you, you fucker?! I’m going to rip you in half!!!”

“Inuy….”

I heard her. She was cut off and that made my blood boil but Kagome and called out to me. The amount of panic in her voice pained my heart. Kagome had been scared when we went through the Senior prank. Her face was ashen and she was close to tears. 

This was nothing like that.

It no longer mattered that I was tired or blind, I ran, pushing my legs so hard into the dirt, it flew up behind me. I could hear it falling back to the leaf-covered ground like ice from a tree, crashing over the sound of my hard breaths. Nothing was going to keep me from Kagome, not the endless night or the cramp in my side. 

I saw it just in time to know what it was, a fist aimed for my nose and hitting right on the mark. It had been a while since I’d been hit like this while human. It still stung when I was a demon but at least it didn’t break my fucking nose. 

I pinched my bridge and glared up at Onigumo, Kagome weeping in his hold. “Let her go, fuck face.”

“We need her.”

No longer caring about the blood dripping down my face, I dropped my hand and stepped closer to the hostage situation. “Wrong. I need her. And I will be leaving with her now.”

“Inuyasha…”

Kagome was trying to speak but the mother fucker cut her off, squeezing her neck a little tighter with the arm around his neck. “Let her go dammit! This isn’t funny!!”

“We were supposed… we were supposed to do this together,” Onigumo muttered.

“What the fuck are you talking about?! I never wanted to do shit with you!”

“Not you!” He roared, swinging Kagome around and making my knuckles pop with how hard I clenched them. “Kikyo. We were supposed to take Kagome out here together… but she’s dead.”

“Cut the shit!!”

“I’m not lying! She’s dead Inuyasha!!”

“Then you killed her! We didn’t do anything to any of you assholes!”

Onigumo’s face slowly went slack as the truth bled through his thick skull. “You’re right… I killed her… it’s my fault.”

His hold loosened on Kagome so I lurched for her, wrenching her free and shoving him back hard. He fell on his ass and did not attempt to get up. “Kikyo said, it would work if we brought her.”

“What the hell?!” I spat, rolling Kagome up in my hold. 

She grabbed onto me hard, shaking, and sobbing. I was trying to decide if I could manage to set her aside for a moment to stomp the shit out of Onigumo but I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen. Kagome was far too freaked. 

“Kagome… we needed her for this to work. Kikyo promised me it would work…”

Onigumo got to his feet and Kagome pushed on my hold. Hard. “Inuyasha, run.”

She was still pushing like she wanted me to let go and run without her. “What?!”

“Leave me and go. Now!!”

Kagome had stopped pushing and started hitting, going for my shoulders, arms, hands, sides, and then my face, smacking my nose gently but with the hit it took moments ago, she might as well have punched me. “FUCK!”

She choked on a sob and I managed to keep one hand on her. Even with her clawing at it. “Let go!!”

“Fuck that!!”

Suddenly, I was very aware of Onigumo, standing on his own two feet but just not quite right. “Please...please…”

We were silent, Onigumo begging us when we weren’t anywhere near him. “Dude.. what’s your problem?”

Kagome gripped my wrist with her nails and tried again to get free. I was too invested in Onigumo now, watching his every move. A tear fell down his cheek and my stomach dropped to my toes. I couldn’t smell, taste, or hear it but I knew there was someone else here. Something else. 

Stiffening, Onigumo got unnaturally straight, like he was trying not to be touched. “I gave you Miroku! And you took Kikyo!!”

“What the hell does that mean?” I growled. “You gave them Miroku?!”

He ignored me and continued to whimper to the air. “She’s… she’s right there, just take her.”

“Please, don’t hurt anyone else! I’ll go with you!!” Kagome shouted and tried to step closer to Onigumo.

I shut it down, yanking her kicking and screaming back into my arms. “Stop it!”

Focused on Kagome and lifting her to carry her away, I was confused by the whimper that came from Onigumo. I ignored it until I heard a strange gurgle come from him. It was stupid, blame the human half, but I turned back to look only slap a hand over Kagome’s eyes far too late. 

Just like Kikyo, a long red line was being drawn on Onigumo, starting at his belly button. I had Kagome’s sight covered tight but not my own; I was only able to sew my eyes shut just as Onigumo’s intestines hit the ground. 

I forced my eyes back open, needing to know just what the fuck we were up against, only to find Onigumo still standing with his guts on the dirt. Steam rose gently from them and blood dripped out of Onigumo’s lips but he remained standing like it was any other day. 

It had to be some kind of trick? Something I was less sure of when Onigumo bent over and started shoveling his inners back inside himself. His bones cracked and his muscles shook when he moved, looking forced. He got himself back together and closed up his jacket. 

Then smiled.

At some point, I had dropped the ball, no longer covering Kagome’s eyes. And now those eyes were staring straight into mine, blocking all of the world out with honey-colored irises. “Inuyasha… they want me, not you.”

“Wha… what are you talking about?”

“If you go now and leave me behind, they’ll let you live.”

Anger swelled in me so fast, it made my head spin. I grabbed her hard, harder than I should have but I was losing control. “Leave you behind? For who and what, Kagome?!”

A sad smile was on her face, a tear slipping silently down her cheek. “Demons. They’ve been after me for a while now. Ever since they killed my family. I ran then but I’m not going to run this time. It’s… it’s my fate, Inuyasha.”

Pulling from her magnet eyes, I glanced at the man formerly known as Onigumo. He was a suit now; something else wearing him and smiling back at us. Then I looked back at Kagome, who was calm and resigned. She was a girl I knew, one I liked. A lot. I liked Kagome a lot and the main reason for that was shit like this. She was sacrificing herself for me and Sango. Her friends, people she cared about. We were nothing, just two kids, the same age as Kagome, and yet here she was acting beyond her years.

Accepting death.

It was what she wanted. Kagome wanted me to leave and let her face her demons alone. That was the smart thing to do. The right thing in her mind. So I would do the right thing for her. “No.” She looked surprised and I tried not to be offended by that, “I’m not fucking going anywhere. Not without you.”

We were probably going to die so what difference would it make, grabbing her face and crushing her mouth to mine. It felt right, especially when she grabbed my elbow tight and didn’t push me away. If I was a demon, I could have kissed her for a lot longer. Forever maybe. But I needed air so I pulled back, resting my forehead against hers while we caught our breath. It was the clapping that had me returning to reality, spinning Kagome so she was behind me. 

The Onigumo suit was giving us a slow clap, his arms jerking apart only to slap his hands back together in a sickening show. “We are surprised by you, Inuyasha.”

“We?”

The thought that I was talking to a corpse flashed in my brain but seemed pointless to worry about now. “Yeeeessss, WE.” I was looking around and pulling Kagome closer, looking for the ‘we’ it was speaking of when it laughed. “We are right here, Inuyasha.”

The suit gestured to itself and I just had to ask. “Who the hell are you?!”

“We are many… we took this form just for her…” it pointed and Kagome whimpered, “we have many names as there are so many of us… but you may call us… Naraku.”

“Naraku? What the fuck kind of name is that?!” 

I was pissed. Pissed that I was still fucking human and that Kagome was seconds from giving herself over to this creature. She kept pulling on me and trying to go around me but I wasn’t having it. 

Naraku laughed, “It is just our name; take it or leave it. But you will be leaving Kagome with us.”

“Fuck off.”

“Onigumo and Kikyo thought they could control us, the fools,” it smirked and Kagome shivered hard, “even tainted, we ate them anyway just like Kagome’s mother, father, and little brother…”

“You’re a monster!” Kagome screamed.

Now I had her in my arms again, this time to keep her from… I’m not sure what she was going to do, run at the monster or fall to pieces. I never heard what happened to Kagome’s family, only that Kikyo and her mom took her in after they were gone. Shit, I didn’t even know she had a brother!

Naraku now looked pissed, Kagome in my arms instead of theirs. It only made me hold her tighter. “You can’t have her. She’s mine.”

Its head went back in a laugh, howling at the moonless sky above. “What can you do, Hanyou? You are nothing compared to us!!”

Roaring, Naraku rushed us. I spun, curling around Kagome to protect her. I felt the claws in my skin, digging in deep, and fuck did it hurt. This was by far the most damage my human body had ever received and I wasn’t used to the pain from it. I was close to passing out which wasn’t good, not at all. 

Blood was trickling down my sides and pain radiated all over to the point, I wasn’t sure if my back or my ribs were what was cut. Either way, life was draining from me and I struggled to breathe.

Kagome was sobbing, clutching my face in her hands. I had my eyes clenched shut against the pain but I could hear and feel her, shaking under me. She pulled me, pressing her forehead to mine like we had moments ago and whispered. “Please… don’t die for me. Inuyasha I couldn’t take losing you too.”

I was dying. The girl beneath would die right after me. And there was a demon fucking laughing behind us while we cowered in our mortality. 

Fucking pissed me the hell off.

I could feel it and I couldn’t stop it. It was for the best anyway. No part of me liked Kagome seeing this side of me but it was either this or death.

Grabbing her close, I yanked her off the ground and stood tall. I could feel my wounds slowly knitting together as my demon blood took over completely. My fangs grew, pushing against my lips and hanging out of my mouth and the tips of my fingers ached from the fast growth of my claws. 

“About time you showed up,” I told the damn demon.

“Of course, like I’d let us die.” He barked back in my head.

“Listen, we need to save Kagome. So no stupid shit, alright?”

He scoffed, “I’m not going to do anything but save both your asses.”

It was weird, the demon agreeing with me, but I would take what I could get. He must like Kagome too.

“Yes, I like her too, idiot. We’re one and the same; no matter how much you refuse to believe it.”

That was a topic for another day. A day I had been pushing off for years but it wasn’t important now. Trying to relax, I let the demon take over my body completely. He would save Kagome. There was still no moon that I could see so it was a trick of some kind created by this demon. I had never heard of that being possible but it wasn’t like I knew much about demons in general.

It laughed again, dark and sinister like the piece of shit it was. “You would hurt this body? Hurt your friend?”

Now I laughed cause all of me, demon, human, and hanyou, found that funny. Kagome clawed at me in fear and I didn’t know if it was the situation in general or she didn’t want me to hurt the sack of skin that was once Onigumo. “Even if Onigumo was ever my friend, you killed him already. I’m not a fucking idiot.”

“Could have fooled us. You brought her here like a gift and yet, you won’t even share?”

“He doesn’t know anything about you. He’s not a part of this at all.” Kagome screamed, pushing on my hold yet again.

Not only was I fighting a gaggle of demons, but I was also fighting Kagome as well. I couldn’t do both so one had to be stopped. And one was easy enough, grabbing Kagome by her shoulders and holding her off the ground so we were face to face. “Get this straight, Kagome, I’m not giving you up so this is my fight. I’m the demon and you’re the human. My human. So shut up and let me handle this!”

I kissed her again, not giving a shit because I wanted her and only her. My longer fangs pressed against her lips and I didn’t dare deepen it in this form. I agreed with the Hanyou, I really liked Kagome too, and I didn’t want to hurt her. Being gentle with her as I pulled her from my mouth and set her back on the ground. 

I didn’t grab her or wrap her up in my hold again. I didn’t need to; she came to me, willingly. That fight was over and so I faced the real one right before us. Naraku wasn’t happy and that made me crow, pissing him off. 

“We will give you one last chance, Hanyou. We don’t want to harm another of our kind…”

“Funny didn’t stop you a minute ago…”

Naraku grimaced, “GIVE HER TO US!”

“Go to hell!”

The suit rushed us again but this time I was ready, grabbing Kagome by the waist and jumping over the bag of bones. Or a bag of demons. 

I twisted in the air and ran my claws down the back of the body. It was already ripped open in the front and now I ripped open the back of what was once Onigumo’s body. Once on the ground, I shoved Kagome behind me and she grabbed tight to my shirt, ripping it more while it was already shredded and covered in blood. I ignored the small tugs to my hair she did as well, grabbing and pulling in her worry. But she no longer had anything to fear.

The body shifted, shaking and quaking in a sickening manner as the demons shed their skin. The real battle was about to begin. But there was nothing; Onigumo falling to the ground, empty, and nothing to show for it. They were still there, their stink permeating the forest air. I could smell it as they got closer, circling Kagome and me to taunt. 

“We have always had her, you know.” The voice echoed around us, all of them speaking as one as they surrounded us. “Even as a child. Even before this life, she has had now.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I screamed, feeling stupid talking to air.

The air chuckled and the trees shook with a breeze. Kagome grabbed onto my shoulders as if she could hold onto me tighter. “This life. Any life. We find her and we take her. This is the first time she has had another demon stand between us. It is annoying and only delaying the inevitable.”

I glanced back at Kagome and her eyes were wide with shock and terror. She had no clue what the bastards were talking about. “She is just smarter than before.”

Her eyes darted to mine and I turned away, focusing on the task at hand instead of what Naraku was hinting at. It didn’t matter if Kagome was using me. Not right now it didn’t. I wasn’t sure I cared at all, she could use me as much as she wanted and I would use her right back. 

“The fuck you will!” The Hanyou roared in my head. 

I shook him out and ignored anything and everything else. Naraku was what was important right now. Sight was useless, so I relied on my other senses. Like smell. The scent of rot was strongest behind us, edging closer to Kagome. I didn’t like that, not at all. 

Spinning us around, I kept Kagome behind me and faced the demon head-on. The air shifted in front of me, the shadows bending ever so slightly as the demon moved to stand right in front of me. Either Naraku was dumb, cocky, or didn’t think I could see it but I didn’t hesitate to slash him with my claws. 

Naraku reared back, squealing, but I was sure I hadn’t really hurt him. He was playing me, trying to get me to lower my guard. But Kagome’s grip still slipped from my shoulders and she whimpered loudly.

It was all just a distraction.

She was already in the air, flailing her legs while trying to rip an invisible hand from her mouth. I caught a foot and yanked on her. It probably hurt but it was the only choice I had; getting a hold of her calf after that. It released her mouth then to grab onto her shoulders instead. It didn’t have a good hold and I was far stronger than it. 

Claws ripped through my coat and to Kagome’s skin, deep scratches to her shoulders, but I got her free and back in my arms. Cradling her to my chest, I let my heart settle. That had been way too close. 

Fear had my chest in a vice. Because I wasn’t sure how to get us out of this. They were dead set on taking Kagome and not fighting me. It made it all so much harder than if they would just fight me for her. Then I could rip them to shreds and keep their hands off her. 

As it was now, she was just a distraction for me. 

I couldn’t tell her to run; they would follow and catch her. So as much as it pained me, I did the only thing I could, keeping Kagome in my arms and taking off back out of the woods. 

“GET BACK HERE!!!” The monster growled. 

Kagome folded her face into my chest as I ran far beyond human speed. It was hard on a human, going this fast, but I had no choice. Naraku was on our heels and the car was still a good distance away. Which wasn’t right; we hadn’t walked that far from it. Onigumo and I were both human when we left it behind. Even running, a demon could make up the distance in no time. And yet, the car still sat in the ever stretching distance.

It was a trap.

When I stopped, Naraku’s laughter filled the air again, bouncing off the tall dark trees that loomed like skinny giants. It sounded like a hundred demons all laughing at once. It made Kagome shiver in my arms, despair, horror, pain, and cold making her body dance. I could smell all of it off her skin even with the rot surrounding us and nearly choking me with it. 

Naraku was shifting around us in a circle and I was livid. “ENOUGH! Face me now, Naraku. Fight me like a demon instead of a scared little pup. Fight me and whoever wins gets Kagome!”

I set Kagome down but she grabbed onto me tight, pulling my attention from the swirling mass that surrounded us. “Don’t do this, Inuyasha. I’m not worth it.”

A grin pulled at the corner of my mouth and I carefully brushed her tears away with my claw. “Yes, you are.”

This time, she tipped up on her toes, grabbing my forelocks to pull me down and her up as she kissed me. A growl rumbled in my chest and I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her into me hard. The Hanyou wanted me to be gentle but when she kissed me instead of me kissed her? Yeah, fuck gentle, I squeezed her to me and pressed my tongue to her lips so she would open them. And she did, letting my tongue flick across hers a few times then she ran her tongue along my fangs. I was ready to throw her to the ground with that. But it would have to wait; pulling back to handle Naraku first. Then I would handle Kagome. 

The Hanyou was silent with that, telling me he agreed with me again.

My mouth still touched hers and I knew Naraku would hear me, but I didn’t have a choice. “As soon as he’s distracted, run.”

“I won’t…”

“You’re a problem for me here. With you gone, I’ll do better. So just run. I’ll be right behind you.”

I was cursing my claws, wanting to wrap my fingers in her hair. But I didn’t want to cut so I settled for cupping her cheek, the pads on my fingers dancing on her ear. I mean it, that I would be right behind her, but Kagome’s sobs told me she didn’t believe me. “He has taken… everyone I had ever cared about… I don’t want him to take you too.”

Pushing her back a small distance, I sneered down at her. “Have a little faith in me, would ya?!”

She choked on her laugh, sounding painful as it mixed with her tears. But she still smiled softly up at me. She trusted me and that was worth more than anything else in this world to me. Naraku was growling around us like a caged tiger but I felt no fear of him towards me. Just towards Kagome. Once she left, everything would be easier. 

“Your cousin was tasty. She had a little of you in her blood but not enough.”

Kagome tensed and I pushed her the rest of the way behind me. “What is it you want from Kagome anyway?”

That’s right, start monologuing. Then I can rip your throat out while you talk about yourself. 

“She is a rarity. Every time she is reborn, we search her out. We found her once already as a child but she got away. Her family didn’t; her mother sacrificing herself for Kagome.” Kagome cried loudly. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all. “But then her Cousin wanted something and came to us.”

I slowly moved towards the smell, gently leaving Kagome behind, but stopped at that. “Kikyo came to you? She’s not a demon worshipper!”

“No, she isn’t. Which made tricking her so much easier. So gullible. She even brought along others for us to snack on.” Miroku’s face flashed in my mind but pushed it back; the Hanyou wanted to ask but I knew better. “All she wanted was Kagome gone, to take her place in life. Kikyo wanted to become Kagome. Envy is such a nasty sin.”

“That’s not true! Kikyo would never want to be me!”

Kagome was a short distance from me now but I still didn’t like it. She was drawing attention away from me and I could get closer but I never wanted to use her as bait. 

“She did! Oh did she ever. With you going off to college and the Hanyou falling in love with you, she wanted to be you so bad she risked her soul for it, dragging you all out here to play a game.” Naraku laughed, “so many people fall for that stupid ritual. None of you followed the rules though, not even Kikyo. If she had, maybe she would still be alive. But she was far too eager and naïve.”

This was going to scar Kagome for life, I needed to hurry up and cut this bastard off. I was close, I could smell it, close to vomiting from the stench. The last foot, I jumped and glowing red eyes flashed to me, telling me instantly that I was right. And that I had the upper hand, the eyes wide with agitation and I overtook them. I wasted no time slashing what was otherwise air to most. It was the host, the main demon, and the one that the others were attached to. If I killed it, the others would die or return to hell with it. 

It looked like a shadow as if the tiny bits of light from an unknown source bent around the space out of coincidence. But my claws still caught on something, pulling against it as I dragged them down. It was a deep cut multiplied by four. If it was human, it would be dead in seconds. As a demon, I needed to do more. 

So I windmilled my other paw around, catching what I had to guess was Naraku’s shoulder. A matching mark to the two it put on Kagome. She would already struggle to forget this night without the physical scars she was going to have. 

This son of a bitch was going to fucking pay.

Naraku jumped back and I followed him, getting my claws around his neck and squeezing. “How..dare.. you...Mutt!”

I chuckled darkly in his ‘face’, imagining it turning red with anger then purple from my squeezing. “Breeding doesn’t matter in life or death. I will kill you for harming a hair on Kagome’s head.”

Just barely, I could make out his grin and craned my neck to look behind. Kagome had her hands out as if holding back someone, keeping them from getting close. She could see these fuckers better than I could somehow and, based on her body language, they had her surrounded. 

“Kagome?!” She took a step back, not looking at me, and spun, keeping her hands out and the invisible force at a distance. I glared back at the bastard in my hold. “This is between you and me, asshole.”

I could feel his throat jump under my palm as he laughed. “It never had anything to do with you.”

Kagome screamed and I dropped the demon I held, racing back to Kagome. Her arms collapsed as her hands met my chest, pulling her into my arms and swiping blindly at the air around us. “Back off!! You can’t have her!!!!”

“She belongs to us!!!” One of them hissed.

I swiped in the direction of the voice but came up empty. “The FUCK she does!!!”

“Is this what you want, Kagome? Trading one demon for another?” Another one spat and I swiped again.

“He’s not a demon! Not like you!! You’re a monster!!!” Kagome screamed.

“Inuyasha’s the monster. Half breed and disgusting monster.” The one I slashed seethed, struggling to speak from his wounds.

Kagome shook her head against my chest, still hiding. “You’re wrong!” I didn’t understand what was going on but clearly, Kagome was now fighting for me. There was no need, my ego was fine. But she persisted, pulling away to yell at them some more. “Inuyasha may only be half but that makes him a hundred times more than you’ll ever be!!!”

She was pissing them all off, getting closer until I could feel their touch stinging my skin. It was a horde of demons and something was off about them. Because their touch hurt. I had been touched by other demons before and it didn’t feel anything like this. Even my half brother, who was a dick, didn’t hurt when he just touched me. 

These guys were more than demons, they were cursed.

I contained my pain as much as possible, bending over Kagome to spare her from it and groaning when it became too much. Kagome wrapped her arms around me, her hands pressing into the back of my ribs. I pressed my face into her neck to fight the overwhelming agony that was filling my body. The pain went away suddenly so I pulled away from Kagome’s skin only to be blinded by light. Kagome’s eyes were scrunched shut in concentration but as the light dissipated, she dared to look flustered. The heat of her skin was on her cheeks and in my nose, smelling her embarrassment without really knowing why.

Something for later, looking around us now and sniffing the air. Only one remained, his stench the strongest because he was the one I slashed. Naraku had survived whatever the hell Kagome had done. The light had moved but hadn’t left, circling the edge of the trees and lighting up the middle where we stood. So now, Naraku stood out greatly in the now lit woods.

He was an ugly bastard; his body riddled with decay. It was why he hadn’t healed from the hits I gave him moments ago. Mine healed instantly with my demon form. He was weak and now it showed. This bastard, giving me shit about being weaker as a hanyou when he could barely keep his lungs inside his body.

“What have you done?!”

“Evened the odds.”

I was never more attracted to a person than I was Kagome right now. Her fear still scented the air, sweeter than the nasty demon before us, but she stood tall. Pushing away from me, she gave me silent permission to finish the fight. Smirking at Naraku caused him to shiver, a chuckled rumbling from my throat at his fear. 

But then he stepped back and glared right at Kagome. “This isn’t over.”

He was gone but Kagome still ran, trying to catch him. “NO!!!” She fell to the ground and dug with her hands like she could pull Naraku back up from hell. Her hands were muddy and bloody when I pulled her away, cradling her again in my arms. “It will never be over.” She whimpered.

I held her tight and walked us back to the car. Kagome had seen enough demons tonight so I released mine, returning to my usual form of half and half, hoping that was enough. Not once did Kagome pull away from me tonight in fear of me. For me, sure. But she had also kissed me in my full demon form. 

I would never forget that but now was not the time.

As it was, I didn’t know if there would ever be a time, Kagome wasn’t shaking and sobbing in my hold. I was in awe when she didn’t take the entire length it took to get to the car to calm down. I expected it to take months but she soon pulled her face from her hands and leaned against my chest. Where her head sat, I was sure she was listening to my heart. Whatever she was doing it helped, listening to her heart, as well, as it calmed down, finally.

“The first time I saw him… he was my grandfather.” It was slow but Kagome was going to tell me all and I needed to be patient. “None of us were prepared or understood when Grandpa slit my father’s throat in front of us. We were in shock and that’s how he got my baby brother Souta.” She stopped to sob a little at the memory and I held her a little tighter. “Mother grabbed me and we ran deeper into the house. She shoved me under a bed and told me to stay there no matter what. And I did until the cops pulled me out from under it. They told me my grandpa had lost his mind and killed everyone, himself last. No one believed me when I told them he wasn’t my Gramps.”

“Why would they? You were a scared kid and they had nothing more than a body for proof.”

“You believe me? Don’t you?”

She was watching me, looking up at me begging. “Of course I do. I just met the bastard myself!”

“Not just that,” she said, shaking her head, “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t call a demon looking for something…”

“No, that was your damn cousin.”

Kagome whimpered, “poor Kikyo.” I huffed but she didn’t say more. “Inuyasha… are you in love with me?”

I almost dropped her. Out of everything that happened tonight not only did she catch that but she wanted to talk about it so soon. “Um… yeah, I think I am.” The nod she gave me was far from satisfying. And I was ashamed. Not only was I outed by a damn demon, Kikyo had seen it as well. “This is… tonight was my fault.”

“Stop it.”

“If I hadn’t made you come…”

“You didn’t make me do anything!”

“Or if I wasn’t so fucking obvious…”

“It wasn’t obvious to me!”

“All this proves that you being with me is bad. It would only bring you pain.”

Kagome was silent with that because she knew I was right. It would never work with us. 

The car was now in her sight, close enough for human eyes to see. There was no scent of rot or death anymore and she was no longer shaking so I set her down on her feet to walk the rest of the way on her own. Setting boundaries right away was what I needed with the memory of her kissing me playing over and over in my head thanks to the demon jackass. 

Sango flung open the door and ran to us. She was searching us for wounds, Kagome’s shoulders still bleeding. But she was also searching us for answers, reminding me of the news we had to deliver. “Where’s Miroku? Is he not with you??”

Clearly, he wasn’t but her freaked out brain still needed answers. Kagome grabbed her tight and the words failed me. Sango sobbed and fell completely into Kagome’s hold. I broke the window to the trunk with my fist.

We were all shattered.

I had to hope we could get a signal now. What with the moon and stars back out from wherever they were hiding. It had a little, quickly putting in my address to get us the fuck out of there. The girls sat just behind me. Sango was still sobbing, laying in Kagome’s lap who looked back at me in the reflection. I offered her the best smile I could manage right now and started the car. 

Breathing a sigh of relief when it rumbled with life, I had just put it into drive and began to move when something hit the side hard. “Goddammit!!”

Kagome and Sango squealed in the back as blood was smeared across the window. I was fucking done with this night. Demons, dumbasses, and pranksters. I didn’t care which one was currently outside the car, cause I was going to tear them apart regardless. 

Slamming the car into park, I wrenched open the door, only to have my breath catch in my throat. “Miroku?!”

He had his hand cradled against his chest and was favoring his left side, but it was definitely Miroku, back from the dead. Sango nearly knocked him over, leaping on him and wrapping herself around him. Then she helped into the car, laying him out across the seat. Kagome had jumped up to the front to sit next to me. They barely had their door shut when I took off. I wanted no more surprises tonight. 

“What happened??” Sango wailed, still half in shock. 

Miroku moaned like a dying man from her lap. The smell of his blood was strong; he very well could be dying. “Onigumo. When we went to piss, he came up from behind, stabbed my right side below my ribs, and pinned my hand to a tree with the same fucking knife. He went on and on about a sacrifice, I figured he’d lost his damn mind!”

“He did,” I stated and everyone was quiet.

Kagome took my hand, the one I rested on the shifter. It was the same as any other day and she showed no fear of me as usual. It didn’t matter what I showed her, my inner demon, or my secret feelings. She didn’t fear me when she really should.

One Week Later...

We got our story straight before Miroku got all his stitches. Nothing important was hit but he would have limited feeling and use of his hand for a long time. Maybe forever. 

The story was, we went for a drive, Kikyo and Onigumo left for some alone time, and never came back. A week later and the cops still hadn’t found their bodies. I was pretty sure that was because we were never on the road we told them we were on. The one we traveled didn’t exist. Not in this dimension. 

The rumors were running wild around the school. Some said Kikyo ran away with Onigumo while others said they were murdered by a serial killer. A few said I killed Onigumo and Kikyo out of jealousy and a small handful thought Kagome did it. But they were small and quiet about it because it was the craziest of all the damn theories. 

Kagome would never hurt a fly.

Finally, it was fucking Friday. I was tired. Tired of all the bullshit and school. Mostly I was tired from avoiding Kagome all week long. Miroku was blowing up my phone, trying to get me to go out with him when my doorbell rang. I wouldn’t put it past Miroku to just show up and force me to hang out. He’d done it before. 

When I ignored the bell, they knocked. Miroku wasn’t going away. I made sure to stomp loud enough for him to hear as I went to the door and flung it open. “I’m not doing shit tonight…”

“If I’m being honest, I’m not in the mood to do anything either.”

It was Kagome, standing at my door like it was any other day. Still in her school uniform, she had a duffle in one arm and her backpack in the other. Without a thought, I grabbed them both from her. Manners aside, she hadn’t had a thing on her shoulders all week thanks to the gashes she received on them. “What are you doing here?”

She walked past me, no hesitation, entering my home. Kagome had never been to my place before, slowly taking it all in. I lived alone, wasn’t sure she knew that and had minimal furniture. A couch with a tv before it, a decently stocked kitchen, a tiny bathroom, and a bed that was all one large room. I didn’t even have a divider between my couch and my bed. So I could watch tv from it if I wanted to.

“You live alone?” I nodded. “What about your mother?”

Kagome knew about my father and that we were… estranged. I hadn’t told her about my mother and if others had, she still wanted to hear it from me. “Cancer. Five years ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

Somehow, Kagome managed to say it without it sounding like pity. Maybe that was in my head, knowing about her family as well? Knowing she could truly empathize and understand my pain as she had felt it herself. But she hadn’t answered my question and I had hers like a puppy. “Kagome, what are you doing here? And what’s with the bag??”

“I’m sorry, I would have called first but you wouldn’t have answered anyway….”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about….”

“You’ve been avoiding me all week.”

With no place better to sit, I flopped to the edge of my bed and grimaced back at her. “So? I have no reason to spend time with you. I thought I made that clear last week? Remember?! Demon summoned to take you all because of my feelings for you?!”

Hands on her lovely hips, she popped one out and smirked at me from my living room, “well aren’t we full of ourselves?!”

“Kikyo was jealous of you because I’m in love with you.”

Goddammit, I didn’t mean to just admit it like that. Or ever. But Kagome already knew. She still looked aghast, like I hadn’t said it to her before. I told her that night, that fucked up night that I was in love with her, why did she look so shocked?!

Shaking her head, my demon growled at me to make her submit. I let him out one time and he thought he owned the place. “No, because she kissed us.”

“Shut up,” I screamed in my head.

“I thought… I didn’t think you would just come out with it like that. Not now.” She responded, reading my mind.

“It’s not like you didn’t already know.”

“Yeah, but… I don’t know, it’s different this time.”

We got quiet and it got awkward. I watched as she looked at her fingers that she twisted at her belly. This was getting us nowhere and things were only getting worse between us. “I’m sorry I avoided you. It wasn’t… I’m not mad or anything. I just think it’s for the best.”

“Why?”

“I told you… I’m no good for you. Even as a friend. Bad things happened to you because of me….”

“Bad things happened to me regardless. They have nothing to do with you,” she spat, getting angry.

“I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“Safe than sorry?!” She shook her head at the floor but I could still smell the salt of her tears from my perch. “I am sorry for putting you out with my near-death experience!”

“That’s not what I…”

Wrapping her arms around herself as best she could, I watched her fidget all the more, wincing a little from her sore shoulders. “If you don’t want to be with me then just say so, Inuyasha. I wouldn’t blame you, it’s not like my life is anything great! It’s a mess, a dangerous, mess.”

I could feel the heat on my cheeks but I still couldn’t look away from her. “I do want to be with you….”

“But don’t spin some bullshit lie about it being better for me! I would have been dead if it wasn’t for you!” Her frustrated words brought her closer to me, pacing over to me on the bed. 

I shook my head but kept my eyes on her. “You also wouldn’t have been in the situation if it wasn’t for me….”

“I was in that situation because a crazy demon has a hard-on for me,” she countered.

I chuckled. “I’m a demon with a hard-on for you. What’s the difference?”

It was like she was in a trance, reaching over and picking up one of my hands. I wasn’t even sure she was aware she was doing it, playing with my fingers dangerously close to my claws and watching her work. “The difference is, I want you to have a hard-on for me.”

I was tugging her, using the hand she held to pull her closer until she stood between my knees. “I’m not the brightest guy, Kagome. You’re going to have to tell me what you mean by that.”

She was looking at me through her bangs, either trying to hide or be sneaky about it. “It means… the feelings are mutual. How could it not be?” When I cocked a brow up at her, she released a shuddering breath while her face began to glow. “I’m in love with you, Inuyasha.” She refused to look at me while I refused to look anywhere other than right at her. “What are we going to do about this?”

Her finger danced between us, showing me her ‘this’ was our relationship. “Nothing, right? We do nothing about it.”

The smile she wore was fake but she finally looked up at me to nod. “Nothing.”

She was still between my knees and yet, she was getting closer and I wasn’t sure if I was pulling or if she was leaning. “Yeah, nothing. Knowing how we feel... it’s enough, isn’t it?”

Slowly, she nodded her nose inches from mine. “Yeah, it’s enough.”

I tilted my head to the side just in time, Kagome barely missing my nose and forehead when her mouth met mine. Hard. A heartbeat later and she was on my lap, straddling me. My hands were on her bare thighs, moving upward across the soft, warm skin. It wasn’t long before I had her ass in my hands, kneading the flesh. She was still in her uniform but I wasn’t, opting for my usual ‘need to do laundry’ attire of ratty sweat pants and a stained t-shirt. I looked rough but it had her panties against my thin pants. Fuck, I didn’t even have on briefs, free-balling so I didn’t have to do laundry today.

She removed my shirt, getting her fingers around the hem at my back and pulling up hard. I didn’t stop her. I encouraged her, raising my hands towards the ceiling like a child that needed help. 

Shirt gone, she fell back to my mouth and we nipped and sucked at each other like there was no tomorrow. Her fingers threaded my hair and my fingers worked on her buttons, stopping halfway to run my hands across the flat plane of her belly. It caused her to giggle against my lips and I slipped my tongue inside her mouth. 

She helped me take her shirt off the rest of the way after I unbuttoned, all while keeping our mouths planted to one another. Just like when I was full demon, she ran her tongue along my fangs, daring to press it against the sharp tip of one of them. I didn’t move, afraid I’d pierce her tongue. As hot as that sounded, doing it now would definitely kill the mood and I was pretty sure Kagome didn’t want a tongue ring. 

But then again, there was still so much we didn’t know about each other.

With her tongue safe and playing with mine again, I left her mouth and trailed down her chin to her neck. The hand I had on her back, holding her steady on my lap, went to the clasp of her bra. It fell on our crotches, the two of them pressed together, as soon as I flicked it open. With her shoulder wounds, she was wearing something strapless. I found myself kissing along the bandages, wishing I could heal her like I could myself. 

Now I had her nipples before my eyes. No wonder she had to wear strapless; the weight of these puppies had to hurt on her sore shoulders. I had my hands wrapped around her shoulder blades, running a gentle thumb over her bandages, reminding myself to be gentle while my demon was screaming for me to take her hard and fast.

“Yeah like those delicious titties against our fangs.”

“Shut the fuck UP!” I yelled in my head.

Letting my demon out once had him all in a tizzy to get out again, but I was used to it and knew how to control him… mostly. Having Kagome naked on my lap so soon after releasing him probably wasn’t a good idea. But none of me wanted to turn back, touching my tongue to the bottom of her nipple and licking upwards. She moaned softly and I decided then and there that it wasn’t enough. I needed her to moan much louder until it hurt my sensitive hearing.

So I sucked her nipple in, shoving half of her heavy breast into my mouth and pressed my fangs gently into her flesh. 

“AH!!”

The lift of her moan made it sound as if she was confused or surprised. She didn’t understand the pull she had on me or the desire she had for me in return. And no one had made her feel like this before. 

And no one had made me feel like she did, little fingers stroking my ears while her hips twitched on mine. I was going to come in my pants at this rate, flicking her nipple inside my mouth with my tongue. She whined when I took her out of my mouth, but it was only so I could do the same to the other breast. That she appreciated greatly, rubbing my ears harder and fully thrusting on my lap.

We still had bottoms on when I flipped us, tossing us behind to the bed and placing Kagome under me. Her dark, beautiful browns eyes stared up at me with wide fascination. But not fear. Never fear. And we took a moment to appreciate the gravity of the situation. I was letting her catch her breath and her senses, allowing her a chance to tell me no or to stop. She was brushing her fingers through my hair, watching her fingers as they disappeared in the white.

Time was up and nothing was said. When I sat back and pulled down my sweats, she sat up and unzipped her skirt. Moving quickly, I stopped her from doing the rest. I wanted to be the one to remove her panties.

Her scent was all over them, smelling of hot spices from the tea on her skin and a sweetness that had been coming from her pussy since she straddled me. I had never smelled anyone like her; it was intoxicating, making me drunk as I licked up the inside of her thigh to the scent. Kagome made the cutest sound when I split her thighs and kept licking. Like a gasp mixed with a moan coming out like a hiccup. I looked up at her through my fringe while I lapped up her flavor, rolling my tongue around in her folds first. Her eyes were wide on me for a moment but when I found her clit, they closed and her mouth opened. She fell back to the bed when I stuck my tongue inside her, twisting it against her walls to taste her fully.

She tasted just as sweet as she smelled and fuck it tasted good. I did feel drunk, sucking and lapping at her without reserve until she came. Even then I didn’t stop, more of her sweet scent and flavor flowing out with her orgasm. Now she was being very loud and even though my ears pressed back from the sound, I loved it.

Releasing her from my tongue, I slowly crawled over her. Resting on top of her, in between her legs, I watched her return from her high. She was so fucking beautiful on a regular basis but when she was flush and panting from me making her feel good? It made her glow in a manner I wasn’t prepared for, my heart going fucking nuts in my chest. It had my ‘drunk’ ass saying things I probably should have kept to myself.

“Goddammit, I’m so in love with you.”

This time, she wasn’t shocked, her eyes and mouth didn’t widen. Instead, she fucking purred. “I love you too.”

I hoped she was ready because she was looking more beautiful than ever with the smile she wore, her eyes warm and deep. There was no stopping me now, I was going to make love to her. With my tip pressed to her entrance, she knew what was going to happen too and she showed no hesitation, leaning into me with her hips. 

Her arms went around my neck and I sunk into her. It was all I could do to not think about her hot sweetness coating my cock because if I did, I was sure to come right away. Kagome was panting beneath me and I could smell a little blood. I was hurting her. 

I tried to pull away but she held me tight, wrapping her legs around me to join her arms. “Please… don’t stop…”

It was all the encouragement I needed, sinking back in the rest of the way only to slowly pull out of her again. A few pulses at a quarter of my speed and Kagome had her arms wrapped around my back, her nails digging into my ass cheeks. 

“Faster…” She moaned and I obliged.

Up on my arms, I hovered over her and watched her bounce from my thrusts. As a much-needed distraction, I sniffed the air and concentrated. Because half of me expected Naraku to show up when I took Kagome’s virginity. I was hoping that was all he wanted her for, a pure and powerful girl? But as my tip pressed to her womb hard the room filled with her scent alone, I knew it was more than that, more than this. 

Kagome was something else, something more. But I already knew that.

When her walls began to quiver, pulsing around me, I fell back to her. My face in the crook of her neck, I smelled her, breathing her and her spicy scent in deeply. Her mouth was right next to my ears, her head pressed back into my pillows. She was loud and I didn’t care; Kagome was crying as she came again. I was busy enjoying the pooling of her sweetness around my shaft, throbbing and warming me down to my bones until I came so hard my head spun.

I rested, feeling more winded than when I was chasing after her and Onigumo. It had felt like my own life was at stake while she was in his clutches and I never wanted to feel like that again, feel that fear for her life. 

Pressing my lips hard and deep into the side of her neck, I pulled out of her and her sticky sweetness clung to me tightly. It felt so damn good, almost as good as mid-coital. Almost.

There wasn’t a thought in my head to wash her off of me; rolling onto my back, happily sticky from sweat too. Kagome didn’t mind, rolling into me and resting her head on my chest. I pulled the rest of her body flush to my side and kissed the top of her head, breathing in her hair as I rested. 

My hand found its way to her shoulder and grazed the bandage again, brushing it over and over in a circle of want. Because I wanted to make it go away. 

“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” Kagome whispered. 

But I had seen her strain from time to time with stiffness. “Doctor said it would scar.”

“My penance for all the people that lost their lives because of me.”

The injuries to her shoulders were more than that; they were a mark from another demon and as much as it pissed me off, it was far from being Kagome’s fault. “None of that was ever your fault and I will spend the rest of our lives reminding you of that if I have to.”

I could feel a smile on her lips as they pressed against my skin. “The rest of our lives?”

It was stupid of me, talking about forever when we hadn’t even gotten out of high school yet. But together or not, I would protect her and I would love her. 

“You don’t have to be with me, you know? You don’t have to feel obligated to protect me and stay by my side forever,” she said to my chest. 

I dug under her chin to push her head back; brown eyes that swirled with honey looked up at me. “Are you stupid?”

She was still frowning, tears at the edge of her eyes. “I’m not using you. Not for protection or comfort.”

“Oh, so I’m the one that’s stupid?”

“Are you going to twist everything I say?”

“Only when you say something stupid!”

She giggled at that and fell deeper into me. Holding her close, I listened to the gentle beating of her heart. “He’ll come back for me. Someday.”

“And I’ll stop him then too.” I’d been wanting to talk to her about something but didn’t know where to begin. Especially with avoiding her. “That thing you did in the woods?” She tensed at that. “It was… pretty amazing.”

“You’re not scared of me?”

I was a demon; so I probably should be. “No. Not even a little bit.”

“Good. I’m not scared of you either.”

“How often have you done that?”

I wasn’t sure what she had done but I was pretty sure, what with him a no-show and Kagome good and fucked by me now, that it was why Naraku wanted her so badly. “That was… a first. I’ve never… done something… that big before.”

“But you did it in the past? Against your Gramps?”

Her heart picked up at that and I knew I had hit the mark with that one. My mother had wasted away in front of my eyes. I had to tell them to pull the plug. Thirteen and as the only family she had that gave a shit, it was up to me. I still didn’t think that measured up to Kagome having to kill her possessed grandfather. Not even close.

She let me hold her tight for a few moments, then pushed off me and the bed, finding and digging into the duffle she had brought until she had a long nightshirt over her naked body. I propped myself up on an elbow and watched her. “Oh you were so cocky, you brought a change of clothes?”

“No. I was on my way to Sango’s.”

I looked closer at the bag, the size of it catching my attention now. “You staying the whole weekend or something? That’s more than any girl needs for one night.”

Kagome froze for a second, then turned away to mess with her bag again. “My aunt kicked me out.”

“What?!” I was off the bed and pulling my sweats back on. It didn’t feel right to be naked for this conversation. “She can’t do that!!”

“Why not? I’m eighteen and she never wanted me anyway.”

“She wanted you,” I spat without thinking as I paced, “wanted you as a slave.”

“That reminds me, I’m out of a job too.”

“This is bullshit!” I roared.

Kagome sat on the floor before her bag, as if beaten and I didn’t like it one bit. “When… I came home and Kikyo didn’t… Auntie never believed me either when I told her it was a demon that killed my family. I didn’t think Kikyo believed me either until we were in those woods. She took me because she thought she could make a deal with Naraku. And with Auntie promising me Kikyo’s college money…”

“You still have that, you still have college!”

I thought that would make her come around but it only made her droop more. “I have some money saved thanks to Sango getting me a bank account my aunt knew nothing about. And I have the money my family left me that she didn’t have access to. But… Auntie never intended to give me that money. She just said that to try and motivate Kikyo. Guess it worked in a way.”

I flopped to the floor next to her, looking at her face while she stared at her bag. “It’s not right, Kagome. You deserve more. You always have.”

She shrugged; “I’m the girl whose family died because of her. I don’t think I deserve anything less. And now I have Kikyo’s and Onigumo’s death on my track record…”

“That wasn’t you!! They gave themselves to Naraku!”

“Auntie blames me and is now using all of her money to find Kikyo. So even if she had planned to pay for my college, she isn’t now for sure. And she should look for Kikyo. I wish I could tell her the truth…”

I shook my head hard and it got her eyes to mine. “No. I don’t want anyone else looking at you like that, thinking you’re responsible in any way. Naraku isn’t your fault and they went into those woods on their own. Dragging us along under false pretenses. I looked up that stupid game, they didn’t even follow any of the rules! They were never going to get what they wanted, they just wanted to kill people!”

After a few heartbeats, Kagome nodded. “You’re right. If anyone believed us, it would only make the two of them look bad. I’ve caused Auntie enough pain.”

At that, I scooped her off the floor and back into my lap. Only this time, I was cradling her to me. It wasn’t sexual in the least. It was comforting. “Stay with me.”

She nodded again against my chest. “For tonight, sure…”

“No. Move in with me. Stay with me. I’ll take care of you..”

She pushed back, already a rebuttal on her lips. “I can’t do that…”

“Yes, you can!”

“We just started… whatever! I can’t move in with you!”

I pulled her back to me, kissing her as hard and as deep as I could for the short seconds she allowed me to. “I want you here. It’ll bring me peace, knowing you’re safe. And it’ll make it easier when we bang.”

She smiled through her blush and I kissed her again. Kagome pushed me back gently before I could get my tongue in her mouth but I was sure I was weakening her resolve. “Aren’t you worried? Scared that I might use you for protection? Or for a home in general?”

I was already scoffing at her hard before she finished. “You would never do that to anyone. And you sure as shit wouldn’t do it to me.”

“I feel like…” she tapered off and I thought for a moment, that she wouldn’t finish, “like you know me. Better than anyone. Is that possible?”

It had to be because I felt the same way. That I knew her and she knew me. “Yeah. But maybe it’s the sex talking.”

She slapped me playfully on the chest. “Would you stop that?!”

“Not until you agree to live with me!”

I had her, the flush of her cheeks and the smile on her face told me so. She was fighting it hard, her smile and giving me what I wanted, but I was going to win. “Oh...okay. BUT if Naraku shows up again I’m not getting you involved. You will stay out of it!”

She was dead serious and there was no way I was agreeing to that. If Naraku ever showed his ugly fucking face again I was going to rip his spine out. If he had one. 

Kagome was waiting for my answer. She would split out my door if I didn’t agree, that much was clear. So I would lie to her just this once. “Alright. I’ll stay out of it.”

With that, I lifted her and took us to the bed where we celebrated our new living arrangement and relationship late into the evening.

You have reached the end. Now think of your desire, the thing you want most in this world. See it in your mind. Taste it on your tongue. Now turn back and you will find your life changed. The love of your life has appeared or even your bank account is now flush with cash. What is the price? Is your car now haunted? No, you proved your worth. The Eleven Mile, however, will stay in your mind in the form of nightmares or pleasant dreams. But this is nothing to what you’ve gained, right?

[tangled-cl0wn-core]

Where, besides Tumblr, can people find you doing fannish things? (Obviously only mention sites and usernames you actually want to be found at. Don’t expose your secret identities on my account.)

What other names have you gone by on these platforms, including Tumblr, if any?

When did you join the IT fandom? And what got you into fandom, to begin with?

What are your favorite ships, or characters, if any, and why? What do they mean to you?

In what ways do you participate in fandom? (ex. Posting memes, reblogging/commenting on content, writing fanfic, making fanart, creating fanmixes, etc.)

Do you have any in-fandom inspirations? Other members of the community that drive you? (And if you have the time/energy, in what ways do they inspire you?)

Name and link some of your favorite works, please!

Do you have any works of your own that you feel particularly proud of, or wish more people would’ve consumed? Please provide links if possible.

Have you ever participated in a fannish event (ie. IT Week, a fic Big Bang) or applied to be a part of a fanzine? If so, which ones, and can you please link them?

Without any form of bashing or lashing out, what is something you feel this fandom is missing?

 HI!! since you asked before sending it, I knew this was coming but my First Cool Guy Tumblr Ask is so neat,, anyway!!

This is my only IT-specific account, but I post almost everything I draw on my instagram, https://www.instagram.com/fabricsofteners/ (I don't know how people make links cool on tumblr aaa) I also have an AO3, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tangledheadphonecord , where I might post this one really long fic I’m working on (maybe not, as it’s super lame but God am I putting in work)? But mostly it’s just really old stuff atm, and no IT content right now - just some random drabbles from past hyperfixations tbh.

I used to be ‘fabricsofteners’ everywhere besides here - tangledheadphonecord is a username I used for my tumblr because I want a change from the fabricsofteners brand, as I've had it for quite a few years and have just grown kind of bored - just waiting a bit to change my instagram user. I also used to be ‘unbrandedmarkers’ like, three years ago on instagram? but, that era ended fast. I think I might have an old Tumblr under some variation of ‘fabric softener’ but honestly even if anything is up on it I’d probably be embarassed to look at it now.

I watched IT for the first time in 2019, I believe, but wasn’t really in the fandom until actually like, April of this year. I entered the fandom and developed a hyperfixation (sobs) by complete mistake - I read all the fics for michael mell/rich goranski on ao3, and was on a camping trip and wanted to read some Homosexual Fanfiction and literally remembered IT on a whim (rich-to-richie association) and read a bunch of Reddie fics, and it was all down (up?) hill from there.

Unshockingly, I’m sure, Reddie is my number one favourite IT ship. I’m also an enjoyer of Benverly, as well as Stanley/Patty - IT is like, the only fandom where I actually like the canon ships. I do also think Streddie/Stozier is really cute and Bill/Mike (unsure of the shipname?) is nice when I see it!! I think Reddis is cute because I am a total sucker for best-friends-to-lovers, as well asthe  ‘I tease everyone but mostly you’ and the ‘I’m so tired of you bullying me but if you ever stop I’ll cry’ and... just, the entire dynamic that they have. Stanley/Patty - there is no reasoning, I just want Stanley to be happy. Benverly - the way they were each other’s first Meaningful Interactions in so like?? agony, they’re so cute. They both deserve to be happy, and I’m so happy they find that happiness in each other. 

As for characters - Richie is absolutely my favourite. I (unfortunately /hj) kin and relate to him on so many levels it hurts. Having a character that feels that fear of their sexuality because of a horrible environment is painfully real. covering up struggles with humour and all that?? yeah, mood (also, crushing on your best friend-). What he means to me, in a sense, isn’t really canon - I read strictly fix-it fics, because I want to feel that hope that like fanon Richie, I don’t have to hide forever. I can be myself and be happy. Obviously I can’t much look to the movies or anything for that but hey - what’re Andy or Stephen gonna do, tell me to stop reading fics? 

I also really like Stanley!! I don’t,, have a reason. I just think he’s adorable and I love his dynamic with the other Losers a lot. Stanley breathed like, once, and instantly became a comfort character and not even I know why at this point, he just is. Eddie & Bev are up there, too - honestly, Bill is the only Loser I don’t have a strong attachment too. And honestly, he’s growing on me rapidly.

I mostly draw whatever my goblin hyperfixated brain can think of, as well as rebloging just about every post that I see and like (art, jokes, edits, fics, etc.) - I start and stop a lot of fics, maybe one day I’ll finish one but as of yet I have not... Sigh.

I honestly don’t think I do have anyone to tag for inspiration? I follow IT blogs but none I would go to for inspiration (no offense to any mutuals-) inspiration for me is mostly just seeing a pose and going ‘okay’ and suddenly I have a drawing - I have no clue what happens in between.

So, my current all-time favourite IT fic atm is https://archiveofourown.org/works/18213215/chapters/43087232, though I will say it’s a really heavy fic and to read with caution. Going away from Angst, any ‘famous Reddie’ AUs are amazing, but I constantly reread the entire https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560019 series. It’s cute and funny and I THRIVE for domestic Reddie content. 

Actually not Reddie, I throughly enjoyed https://archiveofourown.org/works/23201011 for giving me the Mike content the movies have robbed me of for too long, as well as https://archiveofourown.org/works/25262698 which is pure stanlon greatness and made my heart flutter for the boys more than once.

I don’t really have any IT fics up of my own creation, and honestly my reception in way of Tumblr notes is far better than I expected so honestly, I have none to link lol. As long as I get minimun interaction I will thrive.

I wish I could say I’ve been in anything like a zine or anything, but I have not! I’m relatively new to the fandom (and having a social media dedicated to one thing) so I wouldn’t even know where to begin to join or be qualified for one, y’know? I’ve done art weeks in the past and found them incredibly fun but haven’t seen any for IT - but if anyone does happen to know of any... Feel free to send them my way-

As for the last question - other than like, hyping up Chosen and Jeremy just as much as we do the other IT kids (which, honestly I’m not even sure if is still a problem - I’ve just seen posts about it and it’s made me wary), I’m not sure? I’ve honestly not encountered anything in the fandom I find awful and honestly, for a fandom about a movie that is... Well, IT, I’ve really just kind of enjoyed my time in the fandom thus far?

(I will say we need 200% more attention being drawn to 1990s adult Eddie Kaspbrak, who is one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen - but I also feel that way about James Ransone, so I’m not mad.)

(Also, we should be calling out the 1990s IT more, I watched it recently and it’s so bad /lh)

Anyway!! I feel like this answer was incredibly long and I am so sorry!! But like, thank you so much for asking me anything at all fihabsfhbafb I thrive at any chance to talk about the dumb clown movie. (Also, i’m sorry I say ‘honestly’ so much-)

[steve0discusses]

The Full Metal Alchemist Live Action Movie Part 8: Watch This Episode Covered in Butts be the Only One Not Flagged by Tumblr

Gonna be risky business and not only upload all of these caps the way I screenshot them--which has just SO MANY poorly CGI’d butts but also gonna do it on the Tumblr Drafts folder, which I have been assured works now.

I’m so worried about so many things, but considering all the fears I have about like...everything else in the world right now...I guess I’ll take a risk on tumblr.

Edit: I cannot believe that I had 8ish episodes of Kaiba’s tall dueling tower get flagged but not this movie. I just....wow I cannot.

So anyway, last we left off, General Hakuro stepped in and was like “Hi guys, you like my wily plans that no one in their right mind would have ever guessed???”

Yo remember this part of the anime? Where the bodies drop from the ceiling and it’s a hunk out of the final arc--it’s here. In this movie. This movie that can’t possibly afford to do that. Lets get some CGI animated bodies in here ASAP.

(see some texture regrets under the cut)

It’s like a Monet, as the Mean Girls say, because far away and shrinked to 500 pixels this looks kinda neat. They sort of look more like those slime ball that grow in the back of your throat rather than human bodies, but they still look pretty gross hanging up there.

But then.....we zoom in. Remember again that this was full screen on my computer, and at one point was on a freakin movie screen. This level of 3d...was on a movie theater screen.

The mind boggles. The mind boggles!

Like as you know, I am an artist, and I’ve dabbled in...basically everything in my pursuit to make a dollar...and I have taken about 2 years of classes in 3D art with Maya and all those. I’m not thaaat great at it--I’m much more an illustrator/painter--but I feel like I have that reference point. Can I just say--the model is...fine...you can do a lot with layers of bump maps so you don’t need a truly detailed model (not like they did that, because they didn’t do that, but I can figure that maybe they had an intention to do that and forgot?)

But, there’s no connection of the wires to bodies. They just kinda float? The bodies are also all the same shiny-ness? To the point that it looks like a copy paste? (I don’t think it is, the wires are slightly different on a few of them) There’s just not much in the way of a texture map or a bump map. It just...there’s also something missing from the skin.

Skin is actually kind of rough to render, so when I did it back in the day, I followed like a checklist to make sure I had all the layers and steps to make someone look...clammy. Some things are kinda translucent, they reflect light a different way...especially white skin like this wouldn’t be just...white like putty. Dunno if you ever saw a white person, but we got so many veins...there was so much potential to make something really gross and fleshy.

Instead we got silly putty. It’s fine. I’m fine.

So General Hakuro decides to just...kill everyone right now.

This makes no sense to me.

That means that the whole thing of Lust killing Hughes was completely unrelated to General Hakuro. All Hakuro needed was Shou Tucker, who has been in prison for...I assume months since Ed shipped him off. And Shou was only released today? Just now? Just now when Hughes was shot?

So this all just happened at the same time by accident?

I mean the General sent us to the wrong lab initially, so he didn’t actually want us to be here, and now that we are here, he’s going to set off an entire army as a reaction to three people walking in and going “oops”?

So, lets get a look at our army.

Oh it was so disappointing, this reveal. Not just the eyeball that has a bounce light coming from below the top lip there (how did that even happen???) but also when it opened it’s mouth, it had a flat animation of skin breaking--it wasn’t actually rendered 3d skin, it was like a jpg wrapped around it or something (or at least that was the illusion I got. That is fine for a video game or a TV show, but this is a movie. This is shot so that it can be displayed in a size bigger than your own house.

What happened to the animation team on this one? Not saying I can do better, cuz no, I can’t, that 3d chapter in my life was a while back, but I’m just one guy. This was an entire animation studio and they just...didn’t render 3d face ripping (which is their entire job, to work in 3d) and then they kinda just turned on the stock physics dynamics and dropped em instead of animating them.

The way they fell was like fish from a bucket--the same amount of speed, too. they all ragdolled like a 3D shooter, their rigs just hanging on for dear life (and yes, you could see the deforming happen on the joints of these models.) I’m fine with having a computer program render something out with a physics engine...but there is a balance.

You do have to still go in there and finangle it back because...real life is hella stupid. Real physics? So stupid. It was hilarious how nonthreatening it was, too because they’re like...the size of shrimps in that zoom out image. The scale is just so wild!

It was like one bored guy in a sound booth and they multiplied his voice three times. Golden. Absolutely golden.

So these guys stride over, all of them with the same amount of speed (leading me to think it was probably a recorded walk cycle they all share with slight alterations between all of em) and they kinda just...pile on eachother in a weird way.

I will give them this: I was happy to see something that wasn’t physics or procedural. They mo-capped and animated that part for sure. It had the touch of an artist’s hand. It was also a very funny way for Hakuro to die because this guy was on screen for like 5 minutes, and maybe 7 minutes of this whole movie.

Youknow...I think it really says a lot about your nude 3d models if they’re not disturbingly human enough to trigger the tumblr filter, youknow?

Anyway, Envy looks on.

And then Gluttony saves the city.

Meanwhile, they decide to bust out the fire effects and Mustang becomes the most useful person in this entire movie. Like honestly this movie was poorly named, because it should have just been “Mustang saves the FullMetal Alchemist’s Entire Ass.”

The next part seems like I forgot a cap, or maybe missed something. I swear to you, I did not.

First off, Al becomes fullmetal and makes this happen without an alchemy circle. The show doesn’t really care to talk about that though, it’s just a thing he can do now, and you’d only notice it if you were writing a Tumblr post about it.

I swear to you, Winry is just inside of Al and there is no explanation.

There is no explanation for this.

She was on the couch...why is she not on the couch? What?

And then when you think they might have a moment, Ed’s like.

Damn.

For reals what the hell was that entire scene except for a way for Ed to get his arm stitched back on in like 2 minutes?

Outside, Envy and Lust are just strolling around the back-alley of this red brick building we have seen used for this entire movie.

And like...it’s so funny to me because they weren’t trying to run or hide. It makes complete sense why they got shot. This is what happens when you just...walk away when the whole military guard wants to kill you.

Now lets go see how Hawkeye is faring.

Luckily, all of the ambling bodies have decided to walk slowly through this one weird grass section between extremely long buildings.

And Hawkeye tells everyone “You have to shoot their heads off” and I want you to look at that scene and tell me how many of those bodies still have heads.

Oh, all of them. Don’t worry about it.

Kinda hard to see, but Ed shows up to give Mustang a hand, which was fully unnecessary but we’ll get to that in a bit.

This movie is such a gem.

Ed goes big brain and realizes that Envy is still burned up, and thus is about to pass on.

And whatever, I’ll take it. It’s not like the movie has told us that they are made out of 1000000 lives, for all we know, in the movie universe, they really are only 4 lives. Like half a cat. Maybe Father only killed half a cat instead of an entire city.

Yugi Muto would be so freakin proud of Envy for how often this guy gets hit square in the chest with fire balls. It’s basically every scene where Envy and Mustang share screen time.

And don’t worry, I don’t think Envy died? But they sure made it look like he did, which I’m sure everyone everywhere was really happy to see, since Envy’s death was one of the climaxes of the whole series. Like people used to make these lists of “top 10 saddest anime deaths” and how many people had Envy on there? Like everyone? People freakin love Envy and they did him so much dirty in this movie.

Again I have no explanation for Winry.

So Mustang is like, Ed, you make sure Winry doesn’t biff it in that corner, and I’ll do my actual job over here on this side. And yo, he did.

And so then that’s it, Lust is dead, and now we have a Sorcerer’s stone.

Man it looks delicious, right?

I’d eat the hell out of that.

Anyway, we only have one more update and we’re done with this movie!

I know!

I know! They only have 10-15 minutes to resolve pretty much everything, and that’s assuming that the credits don’t take up a heap of that. Hell, I might only have 3 caps next episode if that’s all credits. I honestly don’t remember.

Anyway, hope y’all take it easy this February, here is a link for people who just got here to read these FMA recaps in Chrono order.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/fma/chrono

[verai-marcel]

Dominion (RDO OC x F!Reader, 18+)

Summary: It's been a few weeks since your first meeting with Everett. You've been lying low, just getting by on chump change, but at this point you feel that it's safe to pull off a bigger heist. But destiny is a bitch and loves throwing wrenches into your plans. In this case, the wrench is named Everett.

Author’s Notes: I'll be honest, I was gonna write this anyway, even if no one liked the first part. Fortunately, many of you did. Thank you! Special thanks to @fangirl-ramblings for beta reading!

Tags: OC x F!Reader, rough sex, semi-public sex, clothed sex, shameless smut, doggy style, angry sex, sorta dubcon?

Tumblr exclusive fic! Also, if this fic gets 25 reblogs, I’ll post the next part of Neighbor AU a week early!

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

You had been canvassing the local art gallery for days. There had been news about a valuable item to be showcased there, and while most people had just waved it off as some art piece, you had a hunch it was more than that. 

You usually followed your gut when it came to leads like this, and it paid off; a few days ago, you overheard the security team discussing the plans for transporting and guarding the item before the opening night. You knew it was way too many guards for just a painting. 

It was a necklace, designed by some artist in France and being shown here as a way to increase culture in the city, or some such bullshit. To you, it was a ticket out of here. 

The building next door was tall and mostly empty, perfect for scoping out where your point of entry would be. You had planned to climb to the rooftop, sneak over to the adjoining building, shimmy down into the art gallery through the second floor window on the backside of the building. From there, you’d take the necklace and whatever else you could grab, and come out the service exit, through the alley, and maybe back up to the rooftops if you had to. 

You snuck into the top floor of the building next door and rested until nightfall, hiding amongst the crates. For the past few nights, you had been following the movements of the guards, taking notes of when they changed shifts and what their positions would be. It was a pretty tight operation, but they definitely didn’t guard the roof as well as they should have. Perhaps they thought they wouldn’t need to in a smaller city like this. Perhaps they thought they wouldn’t have to before news of the necklace became public knowledge.

Fools.

In the dark of 3AM, when most people were asleep, you were wide awake, making sure your knives were all sharp and in their proper place on your belt. You were planning to sneak in and sneak out, but if need be, you would fight your way out. You sat down and started reloading your guns, the empty floor echoing with the sound of you snapping each bullet into your revolver, then your pistol.

When you finished loading your guns, you stood up.

And immediately felt an arm around your waist and a hand clamp down on your mouth.

“Found you, puppy.”

You trembled. Everett Osborn, the bounty hunter who had fucked you so good that you had gone back to him for a second helping, held you tightly against his broad chest. His heart was a steady beat in contrast to your staccato breaths. With your arms trapped, you moved to step on his toes, but he lifted you up and bent you over a nearby crate, quickly grabbing your wrists with one hand and stepping forward to trap your legs between his. His hips pressed against your rear end, causing a flash of heat to shoot through your body at your vulnerable position. He stroked your back, shushing you quietly as you squirmed in his grip. When you finally laid still, he laughed smugly.

“Been a while, sweetheart. Missed you somethin’ fierce.” Everett bent over, pressing his chest against your back. He dug one hand into your hair and pulled, forcing your head to one side so he could kiss along the column of your neck. You bit your lip, trying not to react to his touch, but a small whimper escaped your lips when he rolled his hips slightly.

“Now, you wouldn’t be thinkin’ of stealing a certain necklace, would you?”

You froze.

“So you are.”

“What’s it matter to you?” you blurted out, finally finding your voice.

He pulled your hair harder. “Do you have any idea how many bounty hunters are after you?”

You shrugged, despite the tight hold he had on you. “I haven’t run into any until you.”

“That’s because I’ve been keepin’ them off your back,” he growled.

You turned your head just enough to look at him. You could barely see anything, but his eyes, so close to yours, reflected the dim light of the streetlights below. There was a dark hunger to his gaze, something both possessive and protective that made your heart skip a beat.

“I thought I told you to be a good girl,” he rumbled, letting go of your hair to trail his hand down to your neck, where he gripped it for a moment, shaking you slightly. “Do you need a reminder of who owns you?”

“No sir,” you said automatically. You inwardly winced at yourself, shamed that you had immediately responded in such a submissive manner.

“I think you do,” he purred as his hand traveled down your body to your pants, undoing the button fly with deft fingers, pulling them down around your thighs. His hand slipped past the open seam of your drawers, humming when felt nothing between you and his insistent touch.

“Already wet for me, hmm? Your body knows who you belong to,” he crooned as he slowly stroked your slit, your juices coating his fingers as he pressed two of them inside of you.

“Ev… Everett,” you moaned helplessly, unable to resist backing your hips towards him.

He chuckled, his tone deep and smug as he held you down and pressed his palm against your core while his fingers curled into you, hitting a spot that made lighting flash down your spine.

“Oh fuck,” you gasped as he took your earlobe between his lips and lovingly nibbled on you, his fingers forming a steady rhythm. You could feel his cock, hard against your body, and out of spite, you rubbed your ass against him.

“Want this, puppy?” he asked sweetly, pressing himself harder against you.

“Yes, please!”

“Lemme hear you whimper. Show me how much you want my cock.” He grabbed your neck again and held you close. “Beg me to fuck you.”

You let out all of the moans you had been holding back, mewling loudly as you moved your hips, trying desperately to get more pressure from his touch. “Please, please Everett, I… I need you to fuck me, use me, take me!”

He suddenly let go of you and stepped back, leaving you feeling completely abandoned, so much so that you choked back a sob as the cool air breezed past your bare skin. But the sound of buttons being undone and shifting fabric was quickly followed by his warm body against yours once more, his cock sliding along your wet folds, the tip of him teasing your opening. He bent over you and shoved his fingers into your mouth, making you taste your essence as he began to press inside of you.

“Lick me clean, just like a good girl,” he murmured, sinking fully inside of you with one swift roll of his hips. He stayed still for a few moments, holding you close and nuzzling your cheek, the stubble on his chin scratching against your skin.

Then he snapped his hips back and slammed into you, beginning his rough treatment of you, taking you hard as he grunted low in your ear, laughing darkly at your whimpers.

“That’s right, you’ve earned a good hard fuck, haven’t you? Begging me so sweetly.” Everett wrapped his arm around your shoulders, pulling you against his chest. “You wanna come, pet?”

At your vigorous nod, he snaked a hand down between your legs and rubbed your center. As your hips jerked forward, you could feel his grin against your temple as he smacked your ass a few times before returning to stroking you, heating you up, leading you towards a fiery explosion.

“You feel so perfect,” he grunted as he sped up, chasing his release as he furiously sent you to yours. A hot shock of pleasure spread through your body, your legs shaking, your arms trembling as you held onto the crate for dear life while Everett pounded into you, his hands moving to your hips to hold you up.

“Fuck….” he moaned as he pulled out. He grabbed you by the neck and pulled you off the crate, onto your knees. Turning your head, he pinched your nose, forcing your mouth open before he shoved his cock between your lips. Immediately you sucked on his thick shaft, looking up at him with half-shut eyes.

Everett gripped your hair with both hands as he came, spilling into your mouth with a deep groan. As you swallowed every last drop of his spend, he stepped away from you and kneeled with you, pulling you into his arms. He pet your head and nuzzled you, murmuring, “good girl,” over and over.

Surprised by his sudden act of tenderness, you tentatively put your arms around him and hugged him back.

“Please don’t rob the gallery.”

You pulled away. “I’ve been planning this for weeks,” you said, ready to tell him off, but seeing the pleading look in his eyes, you faltered, your rant dying on your lips.

“Don’t make it harder for me to keep you alive,” he whispered as he stroked your cheek with the back of his knuckles. “I ain’t perfect. One of these days, a hunter is going to get past me and get to you.”

He pulled you back into his arms. “Please. Stay low for a while. Don’t do anything dangerous.”

“How am I supposed to make money?”

“Work with me.”

You sighed and pulled away. He let you go as you slowly stood up and pulled your pants back up. “Bounty hunting is a far different job from what I do now.”

Everett put himself back together as he answered you. “Still some sneakin’ involved. Your stealth could be a great asset.”

You sighed. This was your life. But having Everett around all the time…

“You won’t be a thief with me?”

He shook his head. “Can’t do that, puppy. Goes against my code.”

“So why do you protect me?”

“I… I don’t know. I should turn you in.” He looked up at you, and in the dim ambient light, you thought you saw a helplessness in his eyes. “But I don’t want to. I’m selfish. I want you to myself.”

At a crossing roads, you didn’t know what to do. You knew that if you continued with your plan, Everett would stop you. You knew that if you went with him, your life would change forever.

“I need time to think about it.” You paused, looking out the window at the gallery below. “But I won’t rob the gallery tonight.” Watching Everett as he slowly got up and stood next to you, his hands wrapping around your waist, you wondered about a future with him. 

“I’ll wait for you,” he said softly.

Seeing a longing in his eyes as he gently gazed at you, your heart clenched and you wondered if this was what it was like to fall for someone you shouldn’t fall for.

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

End Notes: I think this might be it for Everett x Reader for a while, unless I come up with something else! Hope you enjoyed my self-indulgent story!

[erin-epica]

Woop-de-doo, it's Lord Scarlet stuff part 2

This was a post I planned on making WAY sooner, but I accidentally lost the original draft so I didn't even bother to try doing it gain until recently. And just now something happened that changed everything; and I mean what both DID and DIDN'T automatically give me the right to post this. I almost deleted my first post at that, and here's why:

In the first post, I mentioned that when I initially found out Vic was lying to me, I was quiet about it and just stopped talking to her out of fear, and then when I asked for help on what to do I was told to leave without a word. I don't think that was entirely the right thing to do in the long run, because it may have been the easiest way out but I'm better off with proper closure.

And the thoughts she left me scarred with never left my head. Time and time again, I'd find myself crying myself to sleep again at the thought of Brock forced to hide romantic feelings for Master Frown and not know who he was anymore while Frown was left unaware and in love with someone else, even if it wasn't Lord Scarlet.

And the pain sometimes came with a want to confront Vic one last time and open up to her about how I wasn't blind anymore, and how much she really hurt me. But I, again, wass scared she wouldn't care and would cut me off.

So when the pain got worse, I did what any coward would do: tell everyone else about my pain.

Now I DID tell friends of mine other than the Unikitty Amino staff about what happened, and they were all sympathetic and understanding about it. But then I told almost everyone, and then made my vent post on here (as well as Wattpad). As much as I wouldn't want to call them call out posts, they might as well have been. I didn't want people to harass Vic and make her mad...but at the same time I kinda did. I was too scared to face her that I was hoping that someone would do it for me. I even tagged accounts of Vic's. Not cool of me at all.

Now the Tumblr and Wattpad posts got me pretty much more of the same: sympathy, and acceptance that I had moved on. No one came after Vic but we could still agree that none of her actions were justified (I even got @careeningle's attention...sorry about the aneurysm)

Now comes the next important thing that happened, because I mentioned @friffinx kinda being responsible for me getting back to the Lord Scarlet Amino to write the message that I did. In it, I said that after I sent the message I did I would leave the Amino again & for good.

Well...I lied. I still checked in every day for the same reason I started venting: I kinda wanted Vic to see my message. Even if she'd ban me, I wanted to see if she'd ever notice my message. And that would've been the end of it if it wasn't for Brook.

I briefly mentioned Brook in the last post. She was another OC of Vic's, and was exactly to Brock what Lord Scarlet was to Master Frown; a carbon copy love interest. Except Lord Scarlet was far more developed and drawn & written about more. Brook didn't even really have a distinct personality, she was a girl Brock and that was it. But with reptilian overlord eyes. (To be fair, Vic drew Brock like that sometimes too)

(I didn't include Vic's art unless it was in chat bgs or whatever in the last post, but for the sake of referencing/proving a point, this is what Brook looks like)

No one really paid attention to her for the longest time. She was there in the fanfics because according to Vic, "Scarlet needed a friend." And like I said in the first post, Brook wasn't said to be canon so I never found a reason to really care for her. Plus I can only recall someone giving Vic fanart with her, and it was with Scarlet (@plastic-papercuts made it, go follow her she's gr8).

But then one day, for some reason, something in me clicked. I actually thought of a story idea for her. Somehow this bland cutout of a character had potential in my eyes, and I weirdly started liking her because of it. She suddenly felt...more real. I got pretty invested in my idea and newfound interpretation of Brook, and describing it would make this post way longer than it is so if anyone asks about it, I'll probably make a whole other post about it.

Anyway, I came up with a little plan: draw out this idea in the form of a comic and post it to the Lord Scarlet Amino. And see if Vic gets suspicious and checks out my profile and then maybe bans me. It felt a bit better than total silence and she'd probably see that someone gave a crap about Brook after all.

So I started a new chat called "It's Brook" to share my progress with the other members of the Amino, which there weren't too many of but we had fun in it. It was basically me, @friffinx , @soapycocacola, @plastic-papercuts, and a few others who aren't on Tumblr (or at least don't think are) chatting about how awful Vic was and calling out her lazy art tactics like tracing and using assets/clips right from the show. And of course me sharing the comic progress I was making. Again, this doesn't make anything we did right but it felt good getting everything off our chests. We were like a secret rebellion against an absentee dictator. One time Vic came online as we were chatting and even viewed my profile, but nothing happened. And it stayed that way until I opened Amino up one morning. For those of you who don't have it, the menu shows all the communities you're in when you open the app, and all of mine were there except for the Lord Scarlet Amino. I assumed I must've been banned overnight. But I wasn't banned from Vic's other Amino so I commented on her wall on that one. For Vic's sake, I won't show how the conversation went (and I'll explain why at the end) but here's how it went:

Me: Did you ban me from the LS Amino?

Her: There was drama in one of the chat rooms and I'm not having it. I didn't want to do it and it's not a big deal It's just an amino and you're still on this one AM I RIGHT?

Me: Yes, but I assume you read my updated bio. As I hoped you would.

Her: Nope.

Me: Oh. But you know what? Ban me from here too for all I care, I feel like you deserve to know why I left and came back: *insert me finally telling her how I know she lied, that she hurt me, and what I did was wrong here*

Her: Lol ok be that person but keep in mind that I'm one of those people that doesn't gibe a fuck lol

And then she banned me from that Amino too before I could type and submit a fitting farewell reply.

At least I finally got all the built-up emotional pain out of me, but it did help me realize something important: we never really were friends. I wanted more of her content despite all her red flags as a person so I tried enduring them, thinking it'd be worth it, and she only kinda cared about me when I was being a yes man. She never kept any promises and didn't respect me the same way I did her. So I could at least feel confident knowing she most likely didn't care at all when I first left.

@friffinx and the others didn't get banned, though, and Friff even started another chat on the LS Amino called "It's Brook 2" where they talked more about Vic being a terrible person. And it didn't take long for her to shut that chat down too and ban everyone from it that time. Friff sent me screenshots of what happened next (which again, I'm not gonna show), where Vic basically had a meltdown. She changed her username to "Little Miss Guillotine", and made a post about her being "finished with the bushit". In it, she announced that she didn't even like Unikitty! anymore but was still gonna keep/use Lord Scarlet because she wanted to. The part that made my blood almost boil wasn't her views on the show, she's free to have her opinion and I couldn't care less about it. What DID was that she acknowledged that she lied the whole time because "she didn't care anymore" and said that it was "our faults for believing it in the first place" and that "we needed to grow up"/"stop brining it up"

Ooooh boy, victim blaming, my favortie...

Since then she changed the Lord Scarlet Amino's theme to make it about The Penguins of Madagacar (again, fine with me). Either way she was still a narcissist and I thought she'd, sadly, likely never change. And my friends and I all thought that was the end of it.

Until a few hours ago...

I was browsing the Unikitty Amino and saw a new member named BlueCat. Didn't think anything else of it until the user PMed me. And this is what happened:

I didn't know what to think other than "I thought this day would never come", I was that shaken. This was so left field-ish that what else could I do but believe her? It didn't even seem suspicious or like she was trying to be a suck up, that wasn't Vic at all.

But the one thing I knew I had to do was ban her because even if she meant well and did it for the right(?) reasons, but I still asked if I should in the staff chat. @girly-glorious (also amazing so pls check her out :D) told me that yes, it was ban evasion so since I'm a leader too now I could to it on my own. But I knew I had to message Vic first and Girly told me to be careful, so this is what I sent:

And then I banned her, the end (not really)

Now I don't understand how or why this sudden behavior change happened but I don't know if I should question it in case it's personal. But again, I at least want to believe that she's really being genuine and had a change of heart because never in a million years could I imagine her being this mature. Again, she didn't demand that I forgive me or probably even expect me to. But the message still does leave me feeling sorry for her.

Now I thought that was the real end of it until I see the Penguins of Madagascar/old Lord Scarlet Amino on my sideboard.

She unbanned me.

Now I don't know where we'll go from here, if anywhere. I'm not too sure if I can really let my guard down around someone who hurt me so badly just in case she does it again. So I may not talk to her again, but if she really asks something from me, I might try and build up courage to ask her more about how she came to apologizing to me. Plus she followed me on Wattpad too.

But this is why I didn't show our conversation right before my ban or her "f.u." posts. Because I don't want people seeing more of Vic's past behavior and possibly embarrassing her about it if she ever sees this. But that's kinda why I felt like it was 100% necessary to finally make a sequel post in the end; I'm hoping people at least acknowledge Vic has changed and don't keep thinking about based on what I shared out of attempts to gain sympathy like a crybaby.

So before I go: PLEASE, DON'T GO AFTER OR HARASS VIC. I KNOW YOU PROBABLY WON'T, BUT THIS IS SERIOUS. ALL THE PROBLEMATIC LORD SCARLET DRAMA IS STUFF OF THE PAST AND NEITHER OF US WANT TO KEEP LOOKING BACK ON IT.

I hope this helps whoever's reading as much as it did me.

[simpsonssitcom]

Character Design (Pt. 1)

The Main Family

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

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

Marge

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

Homer

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

Maggie

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

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

Lisa

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

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

Bart

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

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

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

[kita-lavellan]

2019 Writer’s Round-Up

I was tagged by both @pikapeppa​ and @elveny​ so I figured I’d better put some effort in and try to figure this out. It’s not going to be easy since I have my writings scattered everywhere, including handwritten snippets, but I’ll give it my best shot!

Word Count

I can only really get an approximate number for this since, as I mentioned, my writing is scattered all over. Having said that, I’ve gone through my Googledocs going back to January, checked 4TheWords, double-checked what I’ve posted on AO3, and skimmed my last 3 months of Tumblr Posts, and totally ignored my handwritten stuff (I’m not word-counting that for you :p).

After dividing the word counts from my collaborative Original Fiction pieces by 2, and adding it all together with the help of a spreadsheet...

2019 Total Wordcount: 127,565

Number of Smut Scenes

Three.

A low number for me, but I’ve been writing a lot of original fiction that hasn’t centred around the topic.

New Things I’ve Tried This Year

Science Fiction!

I’m usually a strictly Fantasy writer in my original works, but @skekiss​ challenged me to try my hand at some Sci-Fi, and not only was it surprisingly fun, but it also didn’t turn out terribly, so I might do some more of that next year.

Favourite Thing I’ve Written This Year

My Favourite piece of Original Fiction was that Science Fiction piece my friend challenged me to do. It still doesn’t have a title, but here’s a snippet...

In the year 2421, the colonization of Mars finally became more than a simple societal need to expand, it also became a financially viable option for the over-crowded people of Earth.

The ship, destined to terraform Mars into a planet that humans could not only live on, but thrive upon, was named ‘The Scout’, and set out for the red planet in the year 2436, from a launchpad that had been constructed in international waters.

The Project was funded by nations from across Earth, and ‘The Scout’ was outfitted with the most advanced technology from all of the participating countries.

It was designed to be capable of terraforming Mars into a state that would allow for the development of permanent settlements in a sustainable manner, and construction was completed in under ten years.

The subsequent five years between it’s completed construction and the eventual launch date was spent finding and training a crew of over 3,000 officers, medical staff, scientists, and civilians from all walks of life so that they would be fully prepared for the challenges ahead.

It was a joyous and celebrated day when ‘The Scout’ launched from Earth, it’s state of the art quantum drive meant that travel to Mars would take the ship only sixty days.

Somewhere along their journey between the two planets, ‘The Scout’ encountered the sudden creation of a wormhole close enough to them to disrupt the ship’s controls and, unable to steer away from the pull of the forming singularity, the ship was pulled inside.

By chance, the addition of quantum energy from the ship’s drive core to the forming wormhole stabilised its throat long enough for ‘The Scout’ to emerge from the other side before it collapsed upon itself, stranding ‘The Scout’ and all three thousand souls in an unknown galaxy...

“Kelsey!”

The shout of her name drew her golden-brown eyes from the presentation, complete with an interactive holographic projection, to her employer.

He looked angry, she noticed, which wasn’t surprising really since he’d sent her to get fresh stock from the workshop an hour ago.

“Branner-”

“What do you think you’re doing, girl!?” he snapped as he used his broad shoulders and tall frame to force his way between crowds of early morning shoppers and over to where she was standing.

“Umm…” Kelsey turned her eyes back to the presentation for a moment, the display had continued to explain about ‘The Scout’s’ settlement on an uninhabited planet with permission from the other races of the odd galaxy they’d found themselves in.

The young children were chasing holographic stars and barely paying any attention to their own history, their supervising teacher looked ready to tear her own hair out, and Kelsey turned back to Branner guiltily.

“Nothing?”

He glared at her for a long moment, his own gaze flicking to the presentation and his eyes narrowing.

“Get those ship parts back to the stall, I’ll be along in a minute,” he growled, and Kelsey nodded, moving quickly past him and dodging the smack he aimed at the back of her head with practised ease.

As for fanfiction... I think my Favourite piece of 2019 is probably “Fascinating”. A little Solavellan one-shot I did about my favourite flirt with the bald elf. 

Fascinating can be found here

Favourite Fic I’ve Read This Year

Asking the tough questions now... hmm. I do even less reading than I do writing when my depression flares up, but I’m gonna scour my AO3 for my top 3 of the year...

In no particular order;

1) Begin Again by Anthropasaurus A recent find of mine. There are only two chapters, but AO3 says I’ve visited this fic 7 times, so that should tell you how invested I am already. It looks like it’s going to be interesting and clever, so I’m excited to see where this one goes. Rating: M Pairing: Solas/Lavellan Tropes or Tags: Time-travel, Self Harm/Suicide mention, Angst, Slowburn, Fixit-Fic. Summary: “There’s a small moment, as you’re harvesting a person when you feel their soul almost literally in your hands. All you would need to do is cast your spell right at that moment. We know where my body and Solas were at that time. It’s the only chance we have Dorian.” The years following the Exalted Council had not been kind to Raven or Dorian. Years of thwarting Solas at every turn took everything they and what few allies still survived had. They all knew the end was drawing near and if they didn’t act fast, southern Thedas would fall. But not even Solas could have foreseen what would happen when the Veil fell. Her memories of Redcliffe paled in comparison to the atrocities that now spread across the land. The Evanuris were free and roamed the lands like a plague. Whatever plans Solas had had failed. It had been weeks since she had seen him on the edges of her dreams. She feared the worst.

2) Spark of Hope Series by Elveny I don’t read series often, I like all the story in one place, but Elveny’s Lyssa/Solas story just sucks you in, and you’re clicking “Next Chapter/Next Story” without even realising it until you’ve read the whole thing in one night and are DESPERATELY left wanting for more. *coughs awkwardly* It’s not finished, but there are 147,000 words (approximately) over 5 stories, and a new one coming sometime in 2020, so it’s absolutely worth reading. Rating: E Pairing: Solas/Lavellan Tropes or Tags: Anxiety/Panic Attacks, Emotional Hurt, Break Up, Prequel Story Included. Summary: Everything has gone wrong. Corypheus has opened the orb and the magic did not return to Solas. A giant Breach is throbbing in the air, threatening the whole of Thedas before he is powerful enough to do what he set out to do. Instead of following his plans, he finds himself in Haven, caring for an unconscious elven woman whose palm sizzles with green magic... his magic. He needs to keep her alive if he wants any chance to get it back. But then... she wakes.

3) Elastic Heart by cedarmoons I’ve read this half a dozen times, and the end of the first chapter STILL makes my heart stop >.< This is the fic that convinced me there were actually good Solavellan Writers hiding out there.  I’ve found many since then, but this was my launchpad moment. Rating: E Pairing: Solas/Lavellan Tropes or Tags: None Summary: For the DA Kinkmeme. After making love to Lavellan, Solas accidentally tells her his identity.

Writing Goals for 2020

At least, an easy question! Write More. I’ve had a rough year for writing with many depression flare-ups. I’m hoping that 2020 I can get back to a more regular schedule, starting with a whole day of it on Jan 1st, I’ve cleared my schedule to get some writing time in and have my fingers crossed that it will be a good starting point for the rest of the year.

Thank you’s and Tagging...

Firstly, thank you PikkaPeppa and Elveny for tagging me! I’ve written more this year than I thought I had, and that’s been a lovely surprise, and a bit of a mood boost too. Thank you @skekiss​ for getting me into Tumblr. I’m not sure if I should thank you for this since it’s EATING my life, but regardless, I’ve met some fun people here in the last three months. Also, Thank You to @the-solavellan-archive​ for giving me a place to hang out, and share my Solavellan works, and for welcoming me with open arms ^_^

Now to tag people who may want to take part in this...

@rivainisomniari​, @lyrium-lavellan​, @solas-disapproves​, @cornfedcryptid​, @skekiss​, @faerieavalon​, @ranawaytothedas​

If you feel like doing this and I’ve not tagged you, feel free, and @ me so I can be nosey! :D