#in fairness i have managed to fix most of the things that went wrong. but not all! my god

[fingertipsmp3]

This week has really been one of those that has me straight up not wanting to leave my house or contact anyone or do anything because something seems to go wrong with everything I do

[streaminn]

I'm reading back to old posts and I remember that Wednesday noticed that after winter break of junior year that Enid was quiet

So let's talk more about Enid x phoebe

We know that Enid has never felt enough, not to her mother and not to the wolves. But she got better after sophomore year, she stood up to her mom and she finally wolved out

She was getting better, all the more confident and happy with herself. After all, not everyone can say they came out a fight with a Hyde and won

Not to mention she got her bestie and others to lean back on! So overall, Enid's life was going great

Until winter break comes and she falls for a brunette with thrifty hands and a bark that grates on Enid's nerves in Jericho.

Phoebe, Enid doesn't know her last name and she doesn't ask. There's scuffs on the runaways clothes and a glint in her eyes everytime she mentions something that hints of what she went through

Enid knows when to talk, so she simply listens right next to her.

The werewolf didn't expect to at all love a normie, not with how different their lives are. It was a sign, truly, that this wasn't going to work out but enid has always been too bound to her emotions

So when phoebe brings her to an abrupt kiss after a fight in the snow midway through decemeber, Enid melts and fully allows herself to fall

Everything felt right after that. Like nothing could go wrong because Enid is cradling the world in her arms every night

But Enid's life has been going too good recently and really, she shouldn't have been surprised.

See, phoebe is a runaway. She isn't at all supposed to be in Jericho but she wasn't feeling the hospitality of being in another juvenile hall and ditched the car when she could

She could stay with Enid, truly she can. Except, she isn't an outcast. The only reason she manages to even live in Enid's room is because most of the staff weren't available, gone for their own breaks

Her time with the werewolf is a dream, wonderful and everything phoebe wanted but her funds are running dry and the thought of Enid seeing her get taken in because she's a missing person has her worried and afraid

So she ditches Enid when the clock strikes three, having stayed up with the blond for new years. Enid is sleeping soundly, little growls escaping her lips and phoebe is tempted to slip into the comforting embrace once more

But she can't and she leaves. After all, phoebe had to wake up eventually

Enid blinks awake slowly, mind a bit too cloudy as she shifts in bed. She cold, she notes and she wonders why as she pushes herself up

It isn't until a few hours later that Enid realizes that phoebe is gone. She didn't panic, why would she? her thief had the lovely habit of dissapearing once or twice for some me time and Enid understood.

The wolf would've appreciated a note but it's new years, what they did last night was certainly something and it's totally fair for phoebe to want some time for herself. So she does her daily routine of showering, eating food and going through the syllabus in autopilot

Then finally, as the sun sets and Enid returns to the room to fix her closet, she realizes that phoebe's things are gone.

It doesn't sink in fully until a week later - when the smell of the girl she loves fully dissapears from the room - that phoebe left

Enid did everything to reach out except, phoebe didn't have a phone. Enid doesn't know her last name so she couldn't exactly search her up in social media. So during that week before school, Enid walks. She walks and walks around Jericho, hoping for a glimpse of phoebe. She walks even when her pants are soaked from the snow, walks for so long that her fingers burned red.

She comes back empty handed everytime

Enid wonders what she did wrong. Did she pressure the girl without meaning too? Was she too much? Too loud?

Did what happen even happen?

No, there's no way Enid was imagining all of that. She remembers phoebe's smile, the dry sarcasm that comes when Enid asks an obvious question, the teasing glint as she pokes and prods.

Phoebe couldn't have been a dream.

Enid stays up looking at her phone, replaying old shaky videos where phoebe nearly topples over from laughing and the camera shakes because Enid is laughing too

What happened?

She's left with unanswered questions and even the arrival of her friends back to Nevermore is not enough to snap her out of her thoughts

Wednesday will barely graze her fingers along Enid's arm, her brows a touch furrowed in concern when Enid meets her by the gate

"are you well?" she wonders.

Enid genuinely thought she answered.

"Enid?" Wednesday repeats.

It's there that Enid blinks back to reality. "yeah, I'll be okay."

Enid wasn't lying, it takes months but she turns out okay. But sometimes, when the times are too late and the room is too dark, Enid still thinks it's December and that it isn't too late.

In her mind, she did everything right.

Sometimes as she folds her laundry, she remembers phoebe doing the same thing right next to her and she longs for the chance to do so again

[elsfairy]

YOUTH ⋯ ♡ᵎ (Remember, this is just my interpretation of Sevika as a teenager. Nothing here is 100% true. I'm just making this up, okay? bare with me as I have nothing to go on. The only part that is true, as I've heard is about her dad. Thank you to everyone who helped me and gave me ideas, i would have lost it tbh)

✯ She's definitely that teen who is causing trouble for the sake of making trouble. Who hasn't been a troublemaker in their life?

✯ From a young age, she's had the 'look at me the wrong way & I'll beat you' look. That stone, cold stare that makes anyone tremble.

✯ A very big child when it came to all her favorite snacks. Especially muffins. She's a gushy being when she's got her chocolate chip muffins. Don't steal them from her though, she's breaking a hand.

✯ Has a small social circle. Just because she was able to do shit herself, she's only allowed a few people to be around her.

✯ Acts like those friends are annoying and piss her off, but would do anything to make sure they are protected. She cared. Even if she showed nothing.

✯ Ran her mouth, constantly.

✯ "Shut the fuck up, I don't care if you're over 50 years old, shut the fuck up already"

✯ Her relationship with her father isn't the best. It's all over the place so she doesn't really comment on it when someone asks. Not that they would dare. Whereas, her mother was completely different. She actually took time to be with her.

✯ Has been smoking for most of her teenage life. Mainly as a stress reliever. If she's not, then she's getting caught up in mischief to take her mind off what was called home.

✯ She's had her fair share of girlfriends. Some don't exactly stay longer than intended but she's had them nonetheless.

✯ "Sevika, this has been the 5th girl to leave your room in the past week"

✯ "What can I say? I'm irresistible"

✯ Her humor has always been so dry. For a long time, she doesn't really find anything amusing or funny. She was like a blank canvas. Not sure what she was doing.

✯ The Brothel was a place she always found herself whenever she was either angry or just flat-out bored. We don't question her life choices.

✯ "Going to the Brothel isn't going to fix what happened⎯"

✯ "We don't talk about her alright? You never bring her up. I for sure didn't give you the right to"

✯ If Sevika hated one thing, it would be the mere mention of her ex. She did not like thinking about it, let alone talking about it. It was her business and hers only.

✯ Growing up with brothers, gave her the advantage. She was able to work out with them whenever they would have the time. Just to have something she could protect herself with.

✯ Was always, somehow the class pet. That was when she attended, of course, half the time she was skipping whatever class she has. Still managed to keep up with her school work, not sure how.

✯ "Gonna get yourself into more shit if you keep it up, Sev"

✯ "Don't fuckin call me that. You left, you don't get to call me that anymore. You stopped being my sister years ago"

✯ She has always been let down by people who were supposed to care about her. Her first real love broke her heart for still unknown reasons. Her own father didn't really specify why he was always angry at her. Her own sister ran out on her. How was she supposed to trust anyone?

✯ Sevika was always sneaking around, leaving her home at weird times of the night. Either to fuck around with her friends, or get into random fights. Sadly, that was how she coped.

✯ But, if there was something she actually found comfort in, it would be to be on her own. Although she hated thinking about everything wrong in her life, she felt at ease when she was alone. She always felt alone as it was anyway.

✯ "You look really funny when your hair sticks out like that"

✯ "Ha ha, shut the fuck up. Leave my hair alone"

✯ She loved her.

✯ She would always wonder where her life went wrong when she was alone. Once, she felt happy. She actually felt like nothing could break her. Maybe she broke in the wrong ways. Sometimes, she just missed being able to tell the good from the bad.

✯ Getting into fights became a common thing for her. One day she would leave the house completely fine, then come home hours later covered in bruises and cuts. A part of her just did not care.

✯ Sad as it was, Sevika doesn't even remember the last time someone said they were proud of her. She got good grades... sometimes, but she would have wanted to hear it at least once again.

✯ She's definitely trying to start a fight with someone if they are getting too close to her or her friends. She didn't do well with new people, at all.

✯ A childish habit she had and still has, but she would always find herself randomly excited walking past the shops, especially the ones with the cakes in the window.

✯ Worked a shitty job at some crappy place just to be able to buy something she wanted. Or something she's had her eye on for a while. Money was alright, but it got her out the house.

✯ Would tense whenever someone would randomly walk behind her, or brush her shoulder as they tried to walk around her. She wasn't sure why she hated touch, she just did.

✯ Is constantly thinking of ways to leave or run away.

This is a mess... my fault guys <3. tbh, idk how to feel about this but if you like it, I can do another part. I missed a lot but, you would be here for hours reading.

[kitkatt0430]

So in deciding to bring over my fics from FFnet, I realized I finally had to face the problem (not really a problem, to be fair) of what to do about this other account I technically have on FFnet.

Why do I have a second account on FFnet? Well, originally it was not mine and I still don't really think of it as mine. Originally it belonged to a friend I had in late high school/most of college. She was my age? Maybe a year or so older, maybe a year or so younger, it was never clear. But we clicked online and wrote a fic together, attempted to write a few other fics together that did not get written, and I proofread a few things for her here and there. I think she did the same for me, but I dunno that I'd call any of it beta reading.

We had a lot of fun. I definitely don't regret co-writing the one fic we did manage to complete together and our writing styles were really similar so it all meshed really well, but all the things that went wrong behind the scenes - mostly coordination issues, though in retrospect she was clearly getting less and less interested in writing fic towards the end - made me realize I prefer writing fic solo. Thanks to how FFnet is set up, co-authors have to choose who publishes a fic and thus who gets the real ownership of the fic. And at the time, I let her have that control. I also contributed a few fics to her oneshot collection fics. But when she decided to leave writing fanfic behind...

Well, that could have turned out bad for me in that I could have lost control of my own writing entirely because she basically dropped off the face of the earth from my point of view. But she did something before that which I greatly appreciate - she handed off control of her account to me. Including the email account she'd created solely for fanfic purposes. Which... I had not realized was not her main email account so while on the one hand, I had access to all our shared writing (and a few stray emails from other people she'd bounced ideas off of)... it meant that I no longer had any way of contacting her because that email was how I contacted her.

But she wanted me to have control of our shared fics and while she requested I leave her fics alone beyond fixing any stray spelling errors... she also basically gave me cart blanche to take them down or move them should FFnet become inhospitable in the way we had seen other fanfic havens become.

Honestly, I got really lucky that she chose to do this. I'm really not sure how much was her looking ahead and how much was her just wanting to be done with fanfic writing. I'm just glad she did it.

But obviously with FFnet steadily declining and having decided to finally move all my old fics to Ao3/SquidgeWorld... that left me with the question of what to do with her account. I wanted to move over my fics that I either co-wrote with her or contributed to her collection fics, but I didn't want to leave her fics behind or lose that co-author credit for her.

I think I'd hoped at some point she'd reappear but... *shrug* she hasn't. Adding her works to my Ao3 account under a pseud didn't feel right since, ya know, she's not me and her works that I didn't cowrite aren't mine. So I've spun up an account to move her stuff to and moved almost all her solo written fics there already.

It's been bittersweet going through all her old fics because it brings back half-forgotten memories of messaging on gmail and remembering which of these fics I did spelling/grammar edits for her on and going back and forth on shared gdocs over the plot for our FF8 fic and the fun we had trying to put Nathan Stark back into Eureka after he was killed off. But it also brings back how sad I felt when our friendship ended - it felt very abrupt to me but in hindsight there was a lot going on for her that she just wasn't sharing with me. Which was fair, we never met in the real world or knew each others real names. I hope she's okay and happy. And i do wonder sometimes if she ever returned to writing fanfic under a different name. If she has, she hasn't reached out to me about it.

Overall I'm glad I can preserve her fics and the reminder they are of a friendship that was, at the time, very important to me. But it was definitely something I had to think long and hard about how to handle.

[pocketstoriesstore]

SOUNDS FAIR -Part II

Summary: You’re visiting your best friend for a while, when you get to know about someone’s existence. And everything start to change in you life.

Please +18!! (cigarettes, alcohol, wounds, suffering, bad memories.)

Hey there. Sorry for my choice of words, I’m from BR and I love to write, but I write in Portuguese 🤭 this time I decided to do different so here we are. I hope you like this piece of story. This is the part two of “Souds fair”. Hope y’all like it.

—————————————————————————

And that was everything you could remember clearly since the fall you suffered when you stepped behind twice just to squeeze your left foot on a puddle of something that looked like alcohol on the floor.

Embarrassed by the hot guy. Congratz.

And then, slapping your right hand on the whiskey bootle and sending it directly to the same piece of the floor which you decided to use the same hand to support your body weight on the fall, you got your hand skin hurt in so many large and deep wounds you couldn’t count.

Everything happened in less than three seconds and that was so incredibly painful that you… well, started to cry and curse so many things you didn’t remember knowing, letting every costumer curious and worried, some of them even disposing to help you out.

Leon was sharp cutting every chaos off while he shouted: “ All of you, chill out. Ill fix her hand NOW, dont worry.” While everyone stared, he proceeded: “About the bottle, it was my fault. ‘Think I scared her when I came in without a sound. Be righ back with her and ill fix that too, Sebastian. Now, yall just chill out, she’ll freak out like that! I actually am!”

He managed to put you up, tying your hand with the fabric of his sleeve to stank the waterfall of blood you were loosing in that moment, when you shouted out at his firm touch to hold the fabric without tying it on your wounded skin. he said in the most soft voice you’ve heard from him ‘til now, sounding like that one was just for you: “i know it hurts, but i need you to close your hand like this. It will help until we get you into the hospital. You think you can do this for me, hon?” You just agreed with your head while lost deep in his eyes, thinking about the possibility of one of those big pieces of glass had fucked up your artistic hands movings for good, but that wasn’t a good time to think of it.

He took you to his bike and helped you out to hang in it, making sure you were safe while he went to take his helmet in a few seconds and gave it to you.

You both got into the hospital very fast, even for yourself who was dying in pain. You tried your best to hold tight on his strong abs with barely one hand while he runned the fuck off on the highway as if his own mother were in danger.

When you got inside the hospital (finally), he sat you on any chair and then he showed to the nurses something in the interface of his wallet, making everyone move really fast to attend to you.

Was those rumors about him to be a cop or something true, then, huh?

Seconds later you got someone picking your wrist and hand with anesthesia and suturing your wounds, while you kept looking every single detail of glass being taken off of the wholes in your hand and blood pouring out frenetically.

L: You don’t feel even weird seeing those gore things, huh? You’re a brick.

Y: You didn’t expect me going through all the childish tears i let roll today, did you? Ive been worst

L: Worst than bleeding is bad.

Y: You wouldn’t believe. How did we get here so fast? You might be important. Thanks anyway.

L: Not that important, but if I have something on my favor against all the mess I’m in, then ill like to use it.

With a scoff you giggle and say:

Y: What could be wrong about you?

He stares at you when its too late to find out you SAID something. You feel your face burn and immediately try to fix things a little bit, but already afraid it’s REALLY too late.

Y: I mean, when i look at you it seems like you made yourself without loosing a step. It seems like you know exactly how or when to take a step, or to fix things, or how to make people to do whatever you say. It was kind of easy to obey you until now.

L: Are you supposing you’re going to be reckless now that you’re hand is almost in one piece?

You both laugh, you always with ghost of tears in your eyes, when one traitor tear find a way to scape from your eye and roll your face down. It was really weird and stressful to be there, to get a fucked up hand now, to be safe by a hot stranger who picked out your hidden conversation about him with your best friend, but something over all that seemed so right.

Finding real worry about you in his eyes made you feel so fulfilled, grateful and something else, and two seconds after you started to cry again, cleaning the tears from your face with your elbow, ashamed about not being even capable of holding it inside your eyes. Mess. Bricks don’t cry. Ever.

His smile despaired almost immediately, then he was on his knees beside you, confused about what made you cry this time but trying his best to not mess things even more: “Hey! Hey, its ok. Does it still hurt?” He reached out for your free hand, holded it with his soft but strong tate, caressing your knuckles while talking in almost a shushing: “We’re almost there, please, hold on.”

You couldn’t just tell him what was that, so you decided to agree with your head again, half laughing your best sympathetic smile, when he surprised you letting out of your hand softly to roll his thumbs across your cheeks. “Look, It’s all fine already. lets get you home and pretend this is a great day and we can try to buy you a new hand if you’re up to.”

You both laugh again, you take your ass out of the chair, say thanks to everyone who took care of you as you leave the hospital.

Fresh air in the face, hand almost fixed.

When you’re outside and your phone works again, turned out that Elizabeth tried to call you eleven times and left lots of messages saying you left your keys of her apartment on the bar, and it was too late to wake her parents up.  

Even in the rules of the building it was impossible trying to enter like a visitor at three A.m.

You were homeless, now.

L: What?

Y: Im homeless now. Do you want to spend four hours walking around? Because I don’t have a place to come back till seven o’clock. What do you say?

L: I say you may be homeless but I’m not. Its cold here and you’re already lucky enough for today. Lets go to my house.

You just nod. It was still easy to obey that cop.

You followed him inside his apartment. It was clean and half have anything hanging on the walls. Everything looked so cold and square, but in a good way. You stared him while he took his shoes off, you did the same when he says: “You can pretend this is your own house, don’t need to do exactly what i do. Only if you want to.”

Y: “Got it. Do you have coffee here? I can prepare, if you drink too.”

L: “Not about to try to rest even a little bit? You can use my bed, actually. Im not a bit tired.”

Y: “I guess sleeping now would make me a potential serial killer. How could I sleep? Not even if i was a chill person.”

L: “Let’s make coffee, then.”

Y: “Can you talk to me while I do it? It’ll feel more comfortable for me to be so used to your house as if it was mine if you talk.”

L: “What do you wanna hear about? My real name? My job which makes me an important person for the government security, my wife who doesn’t exists, or why I keep going to your friends bar alone late night almost everyday and talk to no one?”

Y: “How much did you hear? Are you spy? Because I would never know you’ve been there hiding if you didn’t tell me. I want to know all. And your “real” name too, please, weirdo.”

L: “My name is Leon S. Kennedy. Im on a short vacation, so I decided do stay here for a while to get away from the job. Which means we’re not up to talk about this, BUT you’re safe with me.”

Your heart pounds on your throat and your cheeks burns at this part. Is it ok to feel like this with an stranger? He could be really dangerous, cmon.

He goes on:”I don’t have a wife, or anything like that. I had some but this is it. Im here to try to clean my mind as much as i can, so i talk to important people to me just by the phone and I guess things works kinda good this way.”

You turn around: “…And?”

L:”Aaaand I just told you too much. I’m afraid to put you in danger if I keep talking and talking. I don’t think I have so much mo-

You cut him off: “ Are you running from something? Because it feels like you’re hiding from the ones you apparently like. What happened?”

He looks confused and admired while you make coffee with one hand, always watching out so you wouldn’t get burned with hot water. And you noticed that all along.

L: “I know I may look like this, but they know more than myself I need all this, most of the things I’ve been through, we were kinda together. Our job is really messy and sometimes we just need to disappear and pretend we’re another person with another life.”

You stare at him two seconds, offering him a cup of fresh and hot coffee: “Seems really messy, cop. I’m sorry for all that. Is it working? I mean, this time here, and all.”

L : “Well, more than I thought. I got myself owning a new hand to someone I just know, whose name I found out in the hospital because she didn’t tell me…“

Y: “OMG! I’m so sorry!”-He laughs loud and you keep talking, starting to laugh and pretending to feel hurt in your feelings “ I was bleeding, please be nice and forgive me. I think I was so worried about to discover your personal informations that I didn’t realize you would care if I do have a name too.”

L: Of corse I’d do. Nobody ever made me coffee with one hand before, I’d never felt this special. Why did you want to know all this? It was just to tell Elizabeth?

His voice fits his humor so well. But he seemed so triggered by the doubt.

Y: “I chased for a reason, at first, so I blamed her. But I don’t feel like telling her anything you told me. The informations are mine too, now. Im not the kind of sharing so many things.“

He laughed while stared for a moment deeply inside your eyes, again. You must be wrong, but you swear you could feel his eyes along all your existence while you were preparing coffee with your back turned to him. He offers you a cigarette, you take it and say: “Thank you so much for this day. If I knew a broken hand would make me know nice people like you I’d break a member a day at least.”

He just stared with a kind of a smile growing on his mouth when you said: “ Can I thank you properly?”

Suspicious and curious at the same time, he said: “Well, you don’t have to worry about i-“

You approached and hugged him softly. And he hugged you back, and the hug became tighter and warm.

There was something terribly uncontrollable growing inside of you and you both kept like that for a while.

[piedpiperslists]

KSJ: Multiple Members / Polyamory AU

List of all Seokjin fics under 'Multiple Members / Polyamory' AU:

* ¹ - one shot s - contains smut

* Last updated: 26/11/2023

D R A B B L E S

Crime & Punishment by bangtaninink s ft JJK, mafia au, PWP Summary: You’re supposed to kill five people per month, as per Seokjin and Jungkook’s request. You’ve only killed two. Somebody’s in trouble.

“Have I said something wrong?” by sugalaritae ft KTH, established relationship, polyamory au

* Keep It Down by minisugakoobies s ft JJK, boyfriend!Seokjin

O N E S H O T S

2D Reality by siderealmyg s wc~12.4k / ft JJK, fantasy au, idol au, PWP Summary: Jin likes his fair share of anime like everyone one else and knows not to question all the shit that goes on but when a big tiddie anime girl deadass pops out of a computer, he rightfully has a few concerns.

[...] 666 Birthday Candles by ddaenggtan s wc~4k / ft MYG, fae prince!Seokjin, werewolf!Yooongi, vampire!reader, PWP Summary: A few of your friends help make your birthday extra special.

All Wound Up (Harder) by minisugakoobies s wc~11k / ft PJM, rockstar au, PWP Summary: It's Jin and Jimin's turn for their body chain fittings. Will you finish the job and go home, or will this turn into another unforgettable night?

By the Pool by bluewhale52 s wc~2.9k / ft JJK, boyfriend!Seokjin, university au, PWP Summary: Jungkook has to stay back after practice, thanks to you. But perhaps, staying back isn’t so bad after all.

Double Dare by whatifyoulivelikethat s wc~3.8k / ft KNJ, friends au, PWP Summary: Kim Seokjin calls to issue a challenge. A (double) dare, if you will. He says you can't take two dicks at once. Kim Namjoon, his roommate, argues that you can. Well, you never back down from a dare, especially when it involves Seokjin and Namjoon.

Esurient by yminie s wc~6.1k / ft KNJ, established relationship, polyamory au, PWP Summary: The most difficult thing about waking up between two sexy, naked men with an incessant need between your thighs is choosing which of your boyfriends you’re going to rouse from sleep to help your needs.

Hit;Record by kithtaehyung s wc~13.1k / ft MYG, jock!Seokjin, fratboy!Yoongi, fuckgirl!reader, university au Summary: You’ve been losing every single bet your friends have thrown at you. Tired of striking the hell out, you’re determined to win the biggest one that everyone has a stake in. What you don’t quite expect, though, is that there’s more than one person willing to help you.

Honey Lemon by seokline s wc~2.8k / ft PJM, boyfriend!Seokjin, idol au, PWP

Potion 609 by jincherie wc~10.8k / ft PJM, friends to lovers, magic au, polyamory au Summary: A four day roadtrip into the depths of the mountains with the two best friends you’ve recently realised you have feelings for is probably the last thing you need. It becomes a reality, though, when Seokjin and Jimin bring home a cursed doll that reacts with the potion you were making and lands you all cursed yourselves; both forced to say whatever comes to mind and bound to each other. Now stuck in close quarters with your two idiot best friends who for the life of them can not shut up for the foreseeable future while you venture to fix this, you’re beginning to doubt whether you or your heart can survive this trip in one piece.

Say So by jincherie s wc~24.5k / ft KNJ, musician!Seokjin, musician!Namjoon, burlesque dancer!reader, childhood friends to lovers, 1950s au, polyamory au Summary: Returning to your hometown for a week is something you’ve managed to avoid for three years, but when you can finally put it off no longer you find upon arrival the very thing you were scared of encountering. When the two famous childhood friends you haven’t spoken to in years have returned at the same time as you, you can’t quite tell whether you’re going to be able to make it out in one piece or emerge with a heart more wounded than before. Especially since it turns out the feelings you thought you were over never quite went away.

Shush by mapofthesea s wc~3.5k / ft KTH, PWP

Swiss Miss by here4kpopfics s wc~8.9k / ft KNJ, boyfriend!Namjoon Summary: Your boyfriend, Namjoon, takes you on a Christmas vacation. Your present, however, is his best friend. The man you had a crush on for years before meeting Namjoon.

Three’s Perfect by ragingcravings s wc~4.4k / ft JHS, FWB, idol au, neighbors au, PWP Summary: All she has to do is give them a look and they know exactly what she needs.

Undercover by cinnaminsvga s wc~5k / ft JJK, vampire!Jungkook, siren!Seokjin, bodyguard au Summary: The company banquets that your family loves to host are often drearier than you would like them to be. Lucky for you, your bodyguards have the perfect solution: why don’t you play a little game with them?

T W O S H O T S / S E R I E S

Bed Bereft ¹ [epilogue] [drabbles] by randombtsprincessa s ft KTH, best friend!Taehyung, polyamory au Summary: You’ve loved your college best friend for ages, too bad he’s got a boyfriend. Twisted decisions lead to revelations about sexualities, secrets, feelings and confrontations.

Before Your Very Eyes by vyduan s ft MYG, friends to lovers, roommates au, polyamory au Summary: After decades of being friends, Y/N finally realizes just how attractive Yoongi and Seokjin are and wonders why she never noticed. Except, Seokjin might be getting back with an ex and Yoongi is a permanent fuckboy. Is Y/N just desperate to get laid or does she love them? (And if she loves them, is she too late?) Oh, and also, THEY WERE ROOMMATES (but there are three beds).

Double Team by hamsterclaw s ft JJK, polyamory au Summary: Seokjin and Jungkook are your business partners. You solve problems for the city's elite, albeit by unconventional means. Your professional and personal lives have always overlapped, but that's never worked against you before. At least, not until now...

[brxnzedragxn]

i don't think i've ever elaborated on that to anyone actually in the time between jey leaving and roman coming home, and its going to be hard to do at midnight with. i shant say his name lest he appear but believe me i am being haunted by his theme[s]. but i'll try

okay so. after the sami incident jey left the bloodline and left home [world is shaped a bit different but most of the family lived in the same neighborhoodish sized area] entirely. he went full no contact because everyone was like well you just have to get used to listening to roman, you have to accept that it's going to take time before he settles into his position, you don't have to agree with him but you hear to respect him, etc etc. and he was like, "no. it's been three years, i loved sami, i'm not doing this anymore and if you're not going to support that then i don't need your support."

he pretty much Only told comet he was leaving, and comet, only here in this mess bc he followed jey home twenty years ago, said, "okay. we're leaving. i have to tell solo goodbye." and jey told him "no, YOU are staying here to take care of everyone the way you always do when we're gone. you can do it. i believe in you. i will be back for you but i don't know when that is."

and so comet was left to watch roman continue to fuck it all up and eventually get his shit kicked in and retreat to god knows where to nurse his wounded ego. and solo, who had wanted it during court when the twins jokingly offered it to him, stepped up and into the role, and, well, comet and jimmy were never that close, but he and solo were both late to learn to communicate like the rest of the family. and solo wanted it, and comet was like, okay. he's going to do better. he's always been more gentle than roman. we can do this.

but by that point solo was convinced roman was only wrong for being too weak to keep a grip on everything. roman had filled his head with thoughts of what he should be to be the head of the table. and he was furious at his brothers for being failures too. and at paul, who was basically their uncle, for letting roman a) do all that b) do all that for nothing. unlike roman solo kept insisting it was just for the time being, that he was going to fix it and then things could go back to normal, but unfortunately that's not how things work and it took a fair amount of begging and pleading and getting his shit kicked in before he understood that.

and jey came home a little different, and roman finally came home too, very very different. and comet Did Not forgive roman right away. solo, that was easy, he and solo has been close their whole lives. but roman never saw comet as family, or a friend, or anything--he was some fucking thing jey brought home, some pet whose goal was to embarrass him by virtue of being a wild animal trying to talk to him at school and then in front of his shield brothers and then in front of his company.

except now comets the only one who has told him he was being a jackass the entire time, the only one who wouldn't take him back with open arms, who held it all against him. and that hurts because he loves everyone else so, so much, stuck around through it even though he had no obligation to just to clean up roman's messes. and comet cannot stand him for what he did to the family, to everyone he brought home that comet befriended, to himself, to him, to the world. he just hates roman.

except he doesn't, he's just mad and hurt and confused because why would you do that! but somehow roman manages to convince him that he's changed and they end up together and then officially on paper comet is in the family. the end.

[ayejayque]

Some mistakes that your CV can do without

Life offers you second chances to fix something. But the eye of the recruiter is not so forgiving. One glaring mistake and you are out of the race, sometimes for good. The main aim of a CV is to secure you an interview and nothing beyond that. This blog speaks about some of the avoidable mistakes which can be avoided in order to make a great resume. Some, but not all are as under: The CV is like a newspaper: Do not overcomplicate your CV. Make it simple. Make sure that you take care of the font, font size, formatting, punctuation, etc. It should be reader-friendly and should give a fair idea to the reader in one glance. Headings should be bold, spacing should be proper, the text should be justified, and sections should be clear and separate. Simplify the CV as much as can be done. Balance white space and text. This way all will be legible. Margins should not be too narrow. It should look like the part when you take a printout. Achievements are not stated: Take about your worthwhile achievements in your CV. Mention the roles and responsibilities that went with your achievements. Achievements and accolades will set you apart from the rest. They may also tickle the recruiter’s fancy. Experience not in sync: No matter what experience you may have had, do not mention irrelevant experience. Only mention it if it is in complete sync with the job that you have applied for. Irrelevant self-info: Too much irrelevant personal information will eat up valuable space on your CV. There is no need to mention things that do not pertain to the objective at hand. Father’s name and mother’s name are simply not required. It means very little to the recruiter. Me, Myself & I: The whole CV should be written in the first person. There is no room for any pronouns be it he or she instead of me, I, etc. Use present tense for the present role and past tense for the previous role. Do not do otherwise. An improper email address: Always make sure that you do not have an email id that is non-serious, to say the least. I have seen resumes with email addresses like superdude@yahoo.com, cutiepie@abc.com, and loveuforever@xyz.com. These are not for professional use. Create a new one that can be used professionally. The span of the CV: There is no hard and fast rule for the length of the CV. Make a 2-pager if it is required. Try and have all major info on the first page. I do not advocate the cramming of text on one page. If a second page is required, so be it. This way you will have adequate spacing which will make the CV even more readable and understandable. Lack of appropriate keywords: Modern recruiters do their searching through keywords. They use an applicant tracking system or run your CV against a database using keywords. The keywords are relevant to the vacant position in question. Make it a point to have those keywords on your CV. Keywords should be pertinent to your CV profile. Wrong keywords would be detrimental to your objective of getting hired where you want. Language mistakes vis-à-vis grammar & spelling: These might look negligible, but they have a deep impact on the impression your CV creates with the recruiters. Always run a spell checker before sending your CV anywhere. Do not rely on the auto spell check entirely. Sometimes, it doesn’t pinpoint the mistake. Proofread the CV and have it read again by someone else too. Typing errors do not go well with most recruiters / hiring managers. A second person always catches any mistake that you did not spot when reading your CV. Formatting mistakes: Once the main information has been laid out, the most important area is to make sure that the formatting is done properly too. This will make your CV reader-friendly. Don’t use a small font and also do not use a very big font. Spacing should be properly done between sections and lines. This will make your CV more legible. Use bullets instead of heavy paragraphs. A neat, unsoiled, and simple format is appreciated and sought after. Over-creativity: It is good to be creative but not be over-creative. Hiring managers like short, precise, neat, and simple layouts and formats. In industries involving design, advertising, and IT, it is good to be creative but not over-creative or otherwise. Provide legit information: One should always provide bonafide information and there should be no room for lying or bluffing. This does not get you anywhere and will someday be caught. Don’t get into tricky situations and eventual embarrassment because of lying. You will go through a background check before getting the job. Fake information simply does not take you anywhere. Sidestep abbreviations: Do not use any abbreviations in your CV. The recruiter might not be familiar with the terms or jargon. If it is necessary, use a bracket to elaborate it too. It will clear any ambiguity for the hiring manager when it comes to understanding it. Read the full article

[blooblooded]

Barb, Quentin, and West Make Mistakes

“I think I really like this girl,” said Rosie with all the earnesty a 17 year old could muster. “And we’ve been dating for like 3 months now. So I know Esther really likes me back too. Just once. What would be so bad about coming back after curfew just once? Or having a sleepover just once? It’s not like we’ll be doing anything that could get us into trouble, we’ll just be hanging out at a friend’s house. Will you please, please think about it?”

It always hurt to say no to her sincere, emotionally open face. Like kicking a puppy. Barbara Church shifted behind her computer. As Shelter Manager for one of the Weil Church’s group homes in Eden’s Lower Levels, Barb was responsible for the safety and well-being of 12 children who had been removed from their parents or guardians or had been surrendered willingly. The kids ranged from ages 5 to 17 and most of them were a handful. Not Rosaline, though. Rosie was so responsible, she always followed the rules. So it hurt worse to say no to her.

“If you get to stay out after curfew or sleepover, Twania and Eric will wonder why they don’t get to too.” Barb was sitting at her desk in the main office, trying to listen to her kid as she typed up a grant proposal begging the government for more money. “It’s not fair, do you think?”

“I think I’ve earned extra privileges. Twania and Eric don’t even help with chores. And it’s just a couple extra hours.” Rosie rolled her sweet brown eyes. Over the 10 years she had been under Barb’s care, she had grown from a nervous child into a friendly and confident young woman. It was mind boggling to think about how nobody had ever wanted her, but that was just the way of things, wasn’t it? “What’s so wrong about me hanging out with my girlfriend at a friend’s house?”

“There’s nothing wrong with it, I just need you back at shelter by 9:00.” Barb picked up a can of soda and took a sip. Staring at her screen for so long was starting to hurt her eyes. But she needed money to fix one one of the showers. Having only two working showers for 12 kids, some of them teenagers, was a no go.

The state wasn’t going to accept the grant. She already knew that. Any tax money for social services in Eden went straight to CPS. It was ridiculous. All they cared about was taking kids. None of them cared about what happened to the kids afterwards. Foster care was a joke, it was a well known secret that kids slipped through the cracks and went missing by the dozens each year. Adoption was almost nonexistent now that wealthy couples could simply genetically manufacture perfect children. And the Director of Social Services, a frigid sociopath named Blake Joyner, hated the idea of reunification of children with their birth parents more than anything else.

There was no money. There had never been any money. When Barb thought about that unfairness too much, it sent her into a dark mood that made her want to really hurt people.

In the past, she had listened to those urges.

Rosie’s broad shoulders drooped. One corner of her mouth quirked down and she sniffed. “Well it’s not like I’ll be here much longer. I age out in 6 months. I might as well get used to what it’s like not being here.”

Ouch. Barb remembered what it was like to age out of the system. You turn 18 and you were on your own. She did her best to make sure the kids at the group home had the skills to get by in the world– her foster parents sure as hell never had. It was hard to maintain a balance between bonding with the kids and lacking boundaries, letting them walk all over her. She never wanted to make them feel like they were unwanted, a nuisance, or worse, like they were locked up in some kind of facility.

But rules like curfew existed to keep them safe. Rosie didn’t understand that yet. She didn’t understand how young she was and how there were bad people out there who could take advantage of her kind and trusting nature.

Time to change the subject. Barb took another sip of her drink. “Which District is Esther from? Is she in this Residential square or the one across from us? If she’s close, you could probably get back home right at curfew and still spend all Friday evening with her.”

“No.” Rosie shrugged and looked down like she was a little embarrassed. “She lives up in the Surface Residential District. But we wouldn’t be going up there though. Kassidy’s apartment is on the Mids.”

Barb almost choked on her mouthful of soda. “You– what?”

“Yeah, her mom owns some company that makes Artificials. They live up on the surface. I don’t know, I’ve never been over at her house.”

And why was that so surprising? Barb did not know why she would assume that Rosaline could never be involved with someone from a different socio-economic class than her. Rosie was a great kid. She was smart, she was confident and self-assured, she was pretty. All her other little girlfriends thought the world of her. But she also lived in a group home in one of the worst neighborhoods in Eden. As smart as she was, it was unlikely that she would ever go to college, it was unlikely that she would ever get a job that made real money. And even if she did, even if she worked hard and scraped and saved and got an education, it was in her nature to want to help people instead of profit off of them. The cycle of poverty was not something that could break from hard work.

And those people…the people who lived on the surface? The people who got to see the sun and breathe clean air? Barb knew what they were like. She knew their cruelty, she knew how they used people. Something twisted in her stomach as she looked at the sweet girl in front of her, the girl who only saw the good in others.

“Is–” She didn’t know how to ask this. Rosaline already looked embarrassed, like she felt she was doing something wrong. “Is Esther an Artificial?”

“Yeah.” Rosaline pulled her cracked phone out of her pocket and scrolled through it to pull up a picture. She handed it to Barb. The photograph was of her and a girl who she assumed was Esther. They had their arms around each other. Esther appeared eerie and unnatural, tall and pale, with feline eyes and a face that was so smooth it seemed to lack pores. Her red hair had been professionally cut and the blouse she wore was designer. “She’s normal though. She hangs out with normal people, she’s not snotty or stuck up or anything. She’s nice.”

Barb looked closer at the picture of Esther. There were dark circles beneath her eyes and thick purple scars roping up her right arm. Even though she was smiling, there was a touch of misery to her face. “How’d you two meet?”

“Her friend Kip’s in my homeroom class and he introduced us. He said he thought we’d get along.” Rosie paused. “We do. I really like her. I just want to spend more time with her, that’s why I want to stay out after curfew Friday night. I don’t want to, you know. I don’t want to seem different.”

She handed her phone back. This was just like kicking a puppy. What was she supposed to tell her? Was she supposed to tell her that her rich new girlfriend was just going to drop her the moment the novelty of dating someone from the Lower Levels wore off? It was something that happened all the time. Barb wanted to protect her but she didn’t want to crush her spirit with the reality of how the world worked. Rosie would have to figure that out for herself. And it would hurt. Sooner or later, it would really hurt.

Maybe she already knew. She had already mentioned that she had not been invited to Esther’s house yet. Maybe she had already realized that that was never going to happen.

“You’re not different,” Barb told her, even though she was. It had been easier when she was younger. Rosie hadn’t known anything else. She had only been exposed to other foster kids, she hadn’t started to feel…unwanted…until she was at least 12. Now she was in high school. There was no way to protect her anymore.

“Yeah, but everyone’s going to start to think I’m different if I always have to leave early.” Rosaline was looking right at her. Her eyes were shiny. “You trust me, right? You trust that I’m not gonna like, drink or do drugs or get into trouble? Can I please just go over to Kassidy’s house with Esther on Friday? Just once? I want to be like a normal kid, I want to do normal stuff.”

“I just worry that–”

“It makes me feel left out sometimes.” Rosie sniffed and then shrugged, a nervous tick, puffing herself up so that she did not look so vulnerable. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and looked away. “I mean, all of my friends invite people over. Esther’s little siblings bring their friend Rome. Kip brings his friend Lee. Ayda even asks her friend Marty to hang out and he doesn’t even– I mean he doesn’t…” She trailed off.

Barb realized that she had no reason to say no to her. Policies were put in place in the group home to protect the kids, but what was so wrong with stretching them a bit so that one kid could be happy?

“Does Kassidy have parents I can talk to?” she asked after a beat. She watched Rosie’s face light up as she realized she had won. “I’ll need to call and make sure it’s OK for you to stay over there so late.”

“Aw, come on.” Rosie sounded mortified. “Nobody else has to—“

“I’m not gonna make it weird.”

“It’s totally safe, Kassidy’s mom is the Police Commissioner. You don’t have to worry about me at all if I’m over there, it’s probably safer than it is here!”

Another shock. Barb already knew Commissioner Nguyen. And she already knew Kassidy Nguyen, and her older brother Christopher. She didn’t think she would ever forget them.

Before she had gone into the Church’s nonprofit sector, she had worked for Eden’s Child Protective Services. This was years ago, before the realities of the field had burned her out. She had just been a caseworker. Someone had reported Dana Nguyen for child neglect and a case was opened. The kids had been coming to school dirty, both of them had behavioral issues, and the boy had told a teacher that his mom had left them at home unsupervised when she had to work overnight. They were too little for that, just 7 and 8. So Barb had shown up to investigate.

The case wasn’t open for long, maybe a month before Barb closed it. Her main concern at the time had been Christopher’s emotional well being, since he hadn’t seemed to have recovered from his birth mom’s suicide. The poor little guy would just scream his head off and throw tantrums at the drop of a hat. He had to meet with her supervisor as well because of the severity of his behavior. She did not find any evidence of child neglect and assumed that whoever made the initial report did so maliciously.

Curiously, the report on Dana Nguyen had been made anonymously, but was still filed with top priority.

Anyways, Dana Nguyen’s reaction to her sudden involvement in her family’s life had been…well, it had been terrifying. The rage that radiated off of her in their meetings was like nothing Barb had ever encountered. She refused every suggestion offered to her. The first time they met, Nguyen had asked her flat out if she was trying to take her children away. She had been sitting here all limp like she was dead, but with so much hate behind her eyes. Barb had explained that wasn’t what she was there for, she was just there to help and provide resources. Dana Nguyen just sat there like she wanted to kill her and said that taking children away was the only reason her job existed in the first place.

It was a small world. But it made sense that Rosie would be friends with kids like Kassidy and Christopher Nguyen. It made more sense than dating an Artificial.

It wouldn’t be appropriate for Barb to reach out to Dana Nguyen. All that would accomplish would be to terrify her and remind her of the time that CPS was involved in her life. If Barb called her and introduced herself, Nguyen might think that someone had opened another case on her kids. Nobody wanted to get a call from their old caseworker, even if it was personal instead of professional.

“Ok,” said Barb, turning back to her computer. “You can go. I’ll just give Kassidy’s mom a quick call to check and see if it’s OK.”

She would not call and check to see if it was OK for Rosie to stay over. Rosie didn’t have to know, but Barb trusted her. She believed that she was old enough to make her own decisions and was responsible enough to tell her if anything made her feel unsafe or uncomfortable. She believed with all of her heart that this girl had such a good head on her shoulders that she would use her voice the moment that she felt like something was wrong.

This was her first mistake.

QUENTIN BELLAMY

It was lucky that Quentin Bellamy could not remember the metro accident that left him with a traumatic brain injury. He knew what had happened, of course. He knew that a decade ago, an entire car had derailed between the Upper and Mid Levels and smashed into the tracks. He knew that 11 people had died in that accident and that 3 people had survived, including himself. He knew that he had spent 3 months in a coma, and another 6 months relearning how to walk and talk. Apparently it had changed everything about him. It had changed the way he moved and thought, it had changed his personality. It was lucky he could not remember any of this. It was lucky he could not remember the person he was before.

It was even luckier that his wife and children were not traveling with him that day.

Anyways, none of that mattered because Quentin could not remember any of it. He was happy in spite of what had happened to him. Although he struggled to do simple tasks most days, it did not stop him from being happy. Sometimes he slurred his speech, sometimes it was hard for him to walk and move his hands, and he often forgot things. His short term memory was shot. The one thing he had never forgotten after the accident was the four people he loved most in the world.

He didn’t even get afraid on the metro anymore, he thought, as he rode it down to the Mid Residential Levels. That was good. Since he was unable to work, the responsibility of taking care of the kids fell to him because Lily was always so busy. It wasn’t hard; they were all almost grown. And his friend Dana helped out a lot by letting the kids hang out at her apartment after school on the days he had physical therapy.

Quentin was on his way to pick up the twins from Dana’s place now. They were old enough to go back and forth by themselves, but he still felt like it was important for them to be around an adult when they were out in public. There were bad people in the world. He was a dad and his most important job was to make sure his kids were safe. Dana’s kids too. Kip and Kassidy were so attached to Esther that it was like they were his kids too. They all helped each other out.

The Mid Levels weren’t as bad as his wife made them out to be. Lily always said it was dirty down there and she refused to leave the surface. Quentin didn’t think it was dirty. There was no garbage on the streets, no dilapidated buildings. Maybe the air was a bit thicker because of the C02 buildup, but it didn’t hurt to breathe. He got off the metro and started walking down the street to Dana’s building. 

Luckily it wasn’t far, but he was happy to stretch his legs. He needed to move his body more often. Lily said that he was getting fat.

Dana’s place was one of the hundreds of public housing buildings in the Mid Levels. Most people there lived in apartments because they couldn’t afford houses. And there was not enough room in Eden for everyone to have a house. The building looked the same as all the others, big and square and gray. There was no warmth on the outside, only the inside. Dana lived on the 6th floor. There was an elevator but Quentin always took the stairs even though it wore him out. He did not like being confined to tight places.

Huffing and puffing because of the stairs, Quentin took his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a copy of Dana’s keycard. She had given it to him years ago and told him that he could come by any time. That meant a lot. Dana trusted him. Dana was his friend. She never talked down to him because he was slow or stared at him when his hands wouldn’t open the right way. Sometimes she got angry, sometimes she drank too much, but she was always very nice to him. She had a special place in his heart. Quentin would never do anything that hurt or betrayed her.

Dana had already messaged him and told him that she wouldn’t be home until 11, but Kip was watching the kids. Kip was such a good boy. Quentin fumbled to swipe the keycard, opened the door and walked into the apartment.

“Hey, Kip,” he said. “I’m–”

Quentin stopped dead in his tracks. The twins were sitting on the living room floor with their tablets doing their homework. That was normal. What was not normal was that Kip was sitting on the couch next to a strange man who had his hand on his thigh. That was not normal at all. 

The instant that the strange man saw Quentin, all the blood drained from his pale face and he jerked his hand back like he had been burned. He didn’t look much older than Kip, maybe in his early 20’s, and was dressed stylishly, with neatly groomed hair and a beard. His body language changed in an instant, from relaxed to stiff and terrified.

“Hey, Dad,” said Evangeline, not looking up from her tablet.

“Hi Mr. Bellamy,” said Kip, like nothing was wrong. 

Maybe nothing was wrong. There were times that Quentin overreacted because of his brain injury. He felt things too deeply and the signals between fear and panic were too intertwined. It was easy to forget that Kip wasn’t the little boy he had been when he had met him. He was 18 and could make his own choices, he could do what he wanted to do.

So maybe nothing was wrong here. Maybe Quentin was wrong. But he knew for a fact that he did not like seeing that his 14 year old children were in this apartment with a man he did not know.

“Who are you?” asked Quentin. Ever since the accident, he had a hard time pronouncing the letter ‘R’. It sounded like ‘who awe you?’ Putting the keycard back in his wallet was too much for him, the sudden stress made his fingers freeze up. He just stuck it into his back pocket.

The strange man sitting next to Kip was staring right at him. Sweat had broken out on his forehead and his mouth was slightly open. He looked very nervous

“Oh, that’s just Lee,” said Kip. “He’s my friend.”

Friends usually didn’t rest their hands on their friends’ thighs. At least Quentin’s friends didn’t. That was something only his wife did. He tried to think rationally. Every thought felt like it was covered in sticky syrup. He blinked. “Lee,” he repeated.

“Nice– nice to meet you,” said Lee in a strangled sort of way. He hopped up stiffly, stepped forward and extended his hand. Quentin looked down. He could not shake his hand because his finger’s were frozen. Lee put it away, but not after looking him up and down. 

Quentin was used to getting looks like that. Assessed. People could look at him and see that there was something wrong. They judged him in less than 5 seconds and saw that Something was off. 

Most people thought that they were better than him. He didn’t mind.

The twins started putting away their tablets. Kip scrolled through his phone, jiggling his leg up and down. None of them were acting scared or like anything was wrong. They weren’t worried at all. Quentin did not stop feeling worried. When he tried to swallow, his throat closed up. There was something he was supposed to be doing, wasn’t there? 

“Are you their Dad?” asked Lee. He cocked his head. He was the same height as Quentin, but he was slimmer and had broader shoulders. Normal looking, very normal looking. “I was expecting a redhead. I guess that doesn’t matter when you grow your kids in a vat of genetic goop.”

There was something mean in the way he said that, a hateful little twinge. Was Quentin the only one who noticed? He shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows. “Yes, I’m their father. What are you doing here? Does Dana know you’re here?”

“One of my professors canceled class. I just stopped by to pick up Kip to go to a meeting.” Lee’s smile was slightly crooked and he had crooked teeth.  “They’ve all known me for a while.”

What did that mean? This wasn’t the first time he had been around? It must be true because the twins seemed comfortable. Usually they were on guard around strangers. He would have thought that they would have told him about someone new, and if they didn’t, Esther certainly would have. She was protective. Quentin tried to swallow again. It was hard. “But does Dana know you’re here?”

“I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her yet.”

This seemed bad. Something bad was going on here. Lee was in college and looked like he was about 22 years old. There was no reason he should be there. Kip was 18 years old, but he had problems with his mental health that made him not think like everyone else. It probably wasn’t OK for Lee to be touching him like that even if he was technically of age. And it really wasn’t OK for him to be around the twins, it wasn’t OK at all. Quentin didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He had never been in a situation where he was worried like this before.

The right side of his head started to throb. It was a sharp, pulsating pain that took his breath away. Suddenly the lights in Dana’s dingy apartment seemed too bright. The pain made him wince.

“Can we get food on the way home?” asked Eddie, looking up. He frowned when he saw Quentin’s expression and elbowed his sister.

“I was just saying you guys are always ordering food out,” said Kip, who was not paying attention to anything but his phone. He kept jiggling his leg. “I was literally just saying it. Did you hear me when I was literally just saying that?”

“Shut up, stupid.” Evangeline was frowning now too.

“You OK, buddy?” Lee asked condescendingly. Lots of people spoke to Quentin like that because of the way he spoke and moved. Like he was a dog or a child instead of a man. He was a man. “Your head hurt? I heard you were in an accident.”

Quentin felt scared. He needed to call Dana. Dana needed to know about this. She would know what to do. She always did. Dana was smart. She was one of the smartest people he knew.

His head hurt so bad. 

“OK you guys, let’s go home,” he said. Obediently, his children gathered their things and got up, walked over to him. He was lucky that they were so good. They always listened. Quentin put his hands on their shoulders as they walked out of Dana’s apartment and felt how warm they both were.

“See you later.” Kip was still focused on his phone.

“Let me walk you out,” Lee said eagerly. He moved to follow them.

“You don’t have to do that.” Oh no, he did not want this man to follow him. It was strange for him to offer to walk them out of a home that did not belong to him. He didn’t seem like he was the type to hurt him, but it still made Quentin scared. He did not like Lee. He had already decided that he was a bad person.

He needed to call Dana. He really needed to call Dana.

“I want to.”

Quentin winced again as the pain in his head sharpened. It felt like someone was driving a spike into him and was completely unlike any headache he had ever experienced. The sensation was indescribable. He did not quite feel like himself.

There was nothing to say. He left with the kids. And Lee followed them.

They headed towards the stairs. The twins started to chat about something that happened at school that day. Quentin could not listen to them. The pain was too bad. He had to stop in the hallway so he could press a clenched hand to the side of his head.

You like me, he thought. No, he didn’t think it. Those weren’t his thoughts. The words did not belong to him. They formed seedless in his mind and sprouted, more feeling than consciousness. You like me, you like me. 

Wait, no. Why was he thinking that? Quentin started to panic. The only thing that made sense was that his brain was hemorrhaging again and making him hear things. The last time he had a hemorrhagic stroke, he had ended up in the hospital for a month. The doctors had told him that the next one might kill him. 

He didn’t want to die.

You like me.

The thought was invasive, pushing itself into his mind and curling itself there. And it wasn’t true, it wasn’t real. It wasn’t real at all. The thought did not belong to him. Quentin did not like this man he had just met, he–

Well, maybe he did like him.

The pain stopped in an instant. It was replaced by a tingling warmth that spread over Quentin’s body, a sort of comforting euphoria. It reminded him of how he felt when he drank a glass of champagne or stood up too fast from a hot bath: content, but a little dizzy. Everything inside of him was put at ease. Even his arms and legs felt light.

“I’m glad that we’re friends now,” said Lee, who had stopped when he stopped. He stuck his hands in his pockets. The look on his face was one of complete emotional honesty. 

Lee really was such a trustworthy person. He was just a good guy. It was nice of him to look out for Kip and the twins. Quentin knew that he would never do anything to hurt them. Why had he ever thought otherwise? He knew the truth. He knew that he had always liked Lee. Quentin smiled back at him. “It’s hard for me to make friends.”

“I have no idea why. You’re so easy to be friends with.” Lee’s gaze slid over to the twins, who were arguing over something and shoving each other a few feet away. Both of them had their phones out. He lowered his voice. “And look. You really shouldn’t tell anyone that I was over here today. Not your wife. Not Kip’s mom. Nobody. It might get me in trouble.”

Quentin told Lily everything. He blinked. The peaceful contentment inside of him pushed down any feelings of worry or suspicion. All negativity had dissolved into bliss. “Trouble?”

“Like people getting mad at me. You know what that’s like.”

Quentin did know what that was like. He would never do anything that would get Lee in trouble. Lee didn’t deserve that. He liked him. “Of course. There’s no reason for me to tell anyone about you. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

And although it wasn’t his fault, this was Quentin’s first mistake.

WEST AGAPAMA

Running for public office was not the smartest idea West Agapama had had in his life, but he was completely invested. It never occurred to him that he could fail, he had never failed before. It never occurred to him that the majority of people in Eden might not want to vote for him for Mayor. Why wouldn’t they want to vote for him? Jay Malena had been running the show for years and the man was an idiot. So far, West’s election bid was working. It was easy, it was so so easy. All he had to do was show up, be likable, and make promises to restructure Eden’s economy from a public market to a private one.

Polls projected that he would win 70% of the vote in the Spring election. Poor people liked him because he was personable and had promised to take power from the elite.The elite liked him because they wanted to make a profit off of privatized industry. It was win-win-win. The only way he could possibly lose to an idiot like Malena was if some kind of horrific tragedy occurred. For god’s sake, one of Malena’s kids had died months ago and that hadn’t even affected the projected outcome. It was inevitable that West would win the election.

Power over Eden was almost in his grasp. Once he had it, maybe West would finally be able to change things. Maybe he would finally be able to put an end to things.

The way he saw it, he would win no matter what happened. If he won the election and became Mayor of Eden, he got his way. If he lost the election, he would never stop talking about how the system was rigged, and he would still get his way.

West smiled to himself as he made his way home. It was late, almost 11:30, and he was tired from a long day of campaigning. Most of his little family had been out all night helping him. Despite his whining and protests, Percy had shown up to do some camera work during his speech. Yura and Emily handed out pamphlets. Even Vega had come. Only the younger two girls hadn’t come because Casey had told him they had to study for a test on Monday. 

It was a nice night. He looked up at the Dome as he walked. If he squinted, he could almost imagine that he could see stars above him instead of thick tinted glass.

When he reached the house, West put his hand on the doorknob and reached into his pocket for his keys. In doing so, he turned the handle and the door opened. He frowned. The girls knew that they were supposed to keep the door locked when there were no adults around. Maybe they had forgotten.

West walked inside. There was loud music playing, coming from the living room. West continued frowning. Casey and Ayda should be asleep. It wasn’t a school night, but they should already be asleep.

“Casey?” he said, taking off his turquoise blue overcoat. The music was really loud. He could hear somebody laughing over it and it was not the laughter of one of his girls. What were they doing? Had they invited friends over? He wasn’t scared, he didn’t have a reason to be, but touched the hammer he kept at his side anyways. “Ayda?”

It did not occur to him that they might be doing anything they shouldn’t. Not his girls. They could be a handful but they never actually got in trouble. The two of them hadn’t even gotten grades lower than a B in their lives.

The music got louder and louder as West walked down the front hallway to the living room. He could hear a lot of voices now. He could hear boys’ voices. Boys? He frowned harder and furrowed his brows. “Girls? What’s going–”

He entered the living room and froze. It was full of teenagers he didn’t recognize. Casey was in her pajama shorts and a tank top, braiding some girl’s hair as she sat in her lap. Ayda was laughing hysterically with a boy who was laughing even harder while they lay on the floor playing video games. There were two more girls who looked like they had passed out all tangled up together on the couch, and two even younger boys were giggling and arm wrestling each other while another girl watched. There were bags of chips everywhere and the air stank like alcohol.

None of them even noticed that he had walked in and he realized that they were all drunk. West’s blood started to boil. He didn’t even keep any alcohol in the house because he didn’t want the girls getting their hands on it and getting into trouble. He watched as the bug-eyed boy Ayda was playing video games with yelled, threw his controller on the ground, then rolled over laughing to give her a hug that lasted way too long. West’s own eyes bulged in his head. He looked back at the skinny blonde girl in Casey’s lap and when he realized that she had a hickey on her neck, his blood pressure skyrocketed. The girls who were sleeping on the couch both looked rumpled and closer than they needed to be. The three younger kids on the floor were so wasted that they could barely sit up and he saw the red haired boy pull out a vape and take a hit, still giggling.

Oh, he was going to kill them. He was going to kill all of them. 

West pressed a button on his communication device and cut off the loud music. “Cassiopeia,” he said pleasantly, and he was surprised that his voice did not betray how angry he was. He was so angry that he was almost shaking. “Ayda. What’s happening here?”

“Shit!” Casey yelped, shooting straight up from her chair. The girl in her lap gave a little scream as she tumbled onto the floor. Casey looked wildly around the room, then at her father, her eyes wide and unfocused. “Shit!”

“Dad, Daddy,” Ayda was already starting to whine. Sometimes that worked on him. Not tonight. She pushed the buggy-eyed boy away so that he was no longer touching her. “Wait, wait, just wait a second. We’re not– we just— we didn’t think you were coming home tonight!”

“You didn’t think I was coming home tonight?” West watched the other teenagers scramble around in a panic. The two girls snuggling together on the couch didn’t wake up. One of them looked like an Artificial. All three of the younger ones were certainly Artificials but he did not recognize them. He crossed his arms in a way he hoped was authoritative. “You didn’t think I was coming home? To my house where I sleep every night?”

“No, I mean– we just–”

“It was my idea!” said the buggy-eyed boy, as he pulled himself to his feet. He was scruffy looking and had a big mouth and a loud voice. There was something wrong with him, some kind of manic energy that kept him from staying still. “I just wanted to see your house, I wanted to see what it was like since Casey never shuts up about how big it is. We ordered some food and we just kinda lost track of time.”

West gave him a withering glare. It did not take him long to target the boy as the main instigator. He took a step further into the living room. “Yeah? Whose idea was it to bring the liquor? Yours too?”

“We haven’t been drinking!” Casey bent over to pull up the girl with the curly blonde hair. Something about her sweaty face and unpleasant expression was familiar but West couldn’t place it. The girl awkwardly covered the hickey on her neck with one hand. “I swear Dad, we haven’t been drinking, we just–”

“I’m not stupid, Cassiopeia.” He pointed at an almost empty bottle on the floor and the plastic cups scattered around the living room. For some reason, the red haired Artificial girl found this hilarious and started to laugh. “Please don’t lie to me.”

“I hope every single one of you gets your asses beat,” said a boy’s voice that West actually recognized. He looked around until he saw a square on the television screen with Ayda’s friend Marty’s face in it. Marty had been friends with his daughter’s for a couple years, ever since Percy opened communications so that West could speak to the Prime Minister of the Northern Territories. He was a mean little foreigner, but relatively harmless. Marty appeared smug and smiling, his big black eyes slitted. “You all deserve it for not listening to me. Now just think of how much trouble you would all be in if you had invited Lee like you–”

“Shut up, Marty!” shouted the buggy-eyed boy, whirling around to face him and almost falling down. “You’re so stupid!”

“Why don’t you shut up, Kip?! Cela vous apprendra peut-être–”

“He’s not gonna call our Ma, is he?” the girl with the curly hair asked Casey.

“I dunno.”

“You better speak English when you yell at me like that!”

“Ouais? I hope you go to juvie again and they keep you in there for good this time!”

One of the younger Artificial boys, a black kid with big yellow eyes, started to wheeze like he was about to start hyperventilating. On the couch, one of the sleeping girls groaned as she woke up and pulled a pillow over her face.

The buggy-eyed boy named Kip was getting really angry now. He clenched his fists, color rising to his face. “You are so fucking stupid, Marty, if you called Casey’s fucking Dad on us, I’m never forgiving you, you can go–”

“Everyone be quiet!” snapped West, raising his voice enough to sound threatening. Ayda cringed and started to cry, she always started crying when she wanted to get out of things. Not this time. West shook his head. “You’re all going home. Now. I want names and numbers right now. I’m calling all of your parents.”

For a moment all of them just stared at him. Kip puffed himself up like he was trying to posture at him– not a good idea, since West could probably throw the little bastard through the nearest window. Casey laughed nervously and started to shake the other sleeping girl on the couch awake.

This role didn’t suit him. He did not want to be an authoritative parent. West wanted to be a fun parent, he wanted to be friends with his children. For the last few years, he had started to wonder if that had been the wrong thing to do. Were his children spoiled? He had given them everything they had ever wanted and had never disciplined them. But they had never needed discipline before. He had never thought that they might invite a bunch of other kids over, trash the house, and get drunk while he wasn’t home. 

Was it his fault? He didn’t know where to start. How was he supposed to punish Casey and Ayda? They had betrayed his trust, that was for sure. But he didn’t know what he could take away from them. He didn’t want to punish them. Even thinking about grounding them for this made his heart hurt.

Was he a bad parent because of that? He didn’t know how to put his foot down with the people he loved most.  All he wanted to do was make sure that they were safe and happy. It was the same way his parents had raised him.

The kids weren’t listening to him and he wanted them all out of his house so that he could lay the law down on his daughters in privacy. He snapped his fingers and pointed at the red haired Artificial twins. At this point he had put together that they were probably related to the girl who was still asleep on the couch, they all looked similar enough and were wearing the same types of clothing. “You two. Names. Go.”

“Eddie Bellamy,” said the boy one, who was trying to sneakily conceal the vape in his pocket. “And Evangeline. And Esther. You’re not gonna call our mother though, right? We can just go home with Kip and Kassidy, that’s what we were gonna do anyways.”

Oh god, West knew Lily Bellamy and her husband Quentin. Dr. Bellamy’s company was responsible for creating Casey all those years ago. Her work on later-stage Artificials was unparalleled, but West found her frigid and unpleasant. He always saw her at fundraisers, her docile husband following close behind. Old money. Old, old money. Still, it made sense that his daughters would befriend these children. It made more sense at first glance than it did the other ones. At least they were in the same social class.

That was a terrible thing to think. What was wrong with him? He wanted to bring different types of people together, not push them apart.

“Yeah, I’m going to call your mother,” said West. “I know your mother. I bet she’s going to be real happy when I tell her about that vape you’ve got there. How’d you get your hands on that anyway? You sure don’t look 21.”

“Uhhh,” said Eddie Bellamy, flushing red from the neck up. 

“He got it from L–”

“Shut up, Marty!” yelled Kip, aiming a kick at the TV that missed, then almost fell over because he was so uncoordinated.

West snapped his fingers again and pointed at Kip. His behavior and lack of respect was starting to test his patience. If he found out that this boy was messing around with one of his daughters, especially Ayda, he would really start getting angry. “You. Be quiet.”

“Don’t tell him what to do, you’re not our Ma,” said the girl with curly hair, who was apparently Kip’s sister. That made Casey giggle even more nervously, and she draped one arm over her shoulders. West glared at her. It wasn’t helping his control over the situation.

“P-please don’t call my dad,” hiccupped the yellow eyed Artificial kid, who was wheezing like he couldn’t breathe. His panic did not interact well with how intoxicated he was.  “I’m– I’m going to get in so much trouble,I’m going to get in so much trouble,  please don’t call my dad, I was supposed to be–”

“What’s your name?” interrupted West, before the boy could work himself up anymore. Usually he was patient, but not now. He could hear his blood throbbing in his temples. “Name, now, so I can call your dad to get you home safe.”

“You can – you can call my babysitter–” The yellow-eyed kid started wheezing so hard that he gagged like he was going to throw up. Oh god, that was the last thing he needed, vomit on the floor of his living room. West grimaced.

“Why don’t you leave him alone?” said Kip, who was sounding more and more like he was grown enough for West to grab and shake. Everything about his body language was aggressive: squared shoulders, direct eye contact, clenched fists. “You’re not gonna call his dad anyways, I know all about you, you hate his dad, you have – you have, uh, what’s it called– competing interests.”

Why were his sweet daughters hanging out with a boy like this?

“OK,” West said as calmly and pleasantly as he could muster while being mouthed off to by an aggressive little highschooler. “OK. How about you tell me your mom’s name and number so I can tell her that you’ve been at my house drinking and trying to kick my things, Kip–”

“--Christopher Nguyen.”

Still, West did not put two and two together. His blood pressure was too high. “Fine. Christopher Nguyen. I’m calling your mom and getting you out of my house.”

“No. You’re not calling my Ma.” The boy was looking right at him and smiling with all his teeth like he knew something West did not. 

Who did he think he was? Who did he think West was? 

“Oh my god, you’re so fucking rude,” said Marty unhelpfully, since this only seemed to urge the horrible teenager on. 

“You’re not calling my Ma,” Kip continued, so full of himself and self-assured. Was that how West had come across at that age? No wonder everyone had hated him. “I know you’re not calling my Ma.”

Kip’s sister was staring at him like he had grown a second head. She stared at his huge, dilated eyes and manic smile. She watched the way that Kip could not stop moving, the way that he could not keep his mouth shut. For a moment she looked very young and small and very scared. Maybe West would have felt bad for her, seeing her brother so obviously mentally sick, if not for the fact that it was exceedingly clear that she had been fooling around with Casey. Casey could hardly keep her hands off of her. No, West didn’t feel bad at all. His beautiful, perfect daughter deserved to be with someone better than that.

It was late and he was very irritated and he wanted all these kids out of his house.

“Maybe I’ll just call the police,” said West, looking Kip dead in the eyes. 

“Daddy nooo,” whined Ayda, as she hid her face.

Kip just laughed. It was loud and grating. He was so drunk. Manic and drunk. West really wanted to grab him. His sister edged towards him as if she could pull him from the edge of some unseen precipice. “Go ahead and call the cops,” he said obnoxiously, swaying with his fists still clenched. “Our Ma is the fucking cops. Dana Nguyen, you wanna call her? Police Commissioner Dana Nguyen. Go ahead and call her. She doesn’t give a fuck about where we are right now or what we’re doing, why don’t you go ahead and call her!”

Now the low-class obnoxious aggression made sense. West knew Dana Nguyen. He knew her better than he would like to. The awful little woman had it out for him. She was always making calls to raid his warehouses, looking for something, anything to pin on him. There was never anything, no evidence of smuggling or violence. West was too smart for that. He had messed up once, only once, when Nguyen had gotten him for tax fraud due to Percy. She had taken great pleasure in tightening the handcuffs on his wrists herself.

A sense of dread filled him. This mouthy teenager was right. West could never call Dana Nguyen and tell her that her children were getting drunk at his house alone. She would assume the worst. She would tear him apart without even waiting for the proper legal proceedings to go through. 

This was fucked up. West’s mouth tightened as he stared at the boy in front of him, the boy who was basically laughing at him. His hands were tied unless he wanted to make a bigger mess than he was already in. And the kid knew it.

Well, he could physically grab him and throw him out of his house. But West still had his standards.

“Go ahead and call her,” mocked Kip. His eyes were so wide that the whites showed all around. He spread his arms out wide. His sister stumbled over to him and tugged at the hem of his jacket, trying to get his attention. “No, I want you to call her. You should call Rome’s dad too, see what happens. Rome Prospas, you know that’s Rome Prospas? You should go ahead and call them both and see who fucks you up first!”

Wonderful. Just wonderful. West’s blood went from boiling to thermonuclear. Now he felt like he couldn’t breathe. He didn’t know what was worse to have in his home: Dana Nguyen’s pack of untrained animals or that psychopath Richard Prospas’s shivering hellspawn.

“Kip, just shut up!” said his sister, who was surprisingly stable and not slurring her words. Maybe she hadn’t been drinking like the others. Not that it mattered. “We need to go home. You’re being crazy, you need to shut up now.”

“Yeah, shut up you stupid asshole,” said Marty, who had gone from smug to scared. 

West knew that his own face must have gone dark because all the teenagers except for Kip were looking at him like they didn’t know what he was about to do. That wasn’t good. He unclenched his teeth, tried to relax his posture. He didn’t want them to be scared. He wasn’t a scary person, he would never hurt anyone except for adults who deserved it. But he was angry and rightfully so.

The air itself felt damp and heavy. Probably Ayda, who was sniffling and embarrassed. He hated that for her. He didn’t know what to say and realized that he had clenched his own fists.

“Dad, Dad,” Casey said anxiously, waving her hands. She looked like she was about to fall over. “Don’t listen to him, he’s just an idiot, he’s like diagnosably insane.”

“I’m not an idiot, Cassiopeia, I know how things work!”

“Kip, you need to be quiet right now!” said the girl Bellamy twin shrilly. One of her skinny arms was tightly wrapped around the Prospas boy’s shoulders as he wheezed for air. “You’re making this worse!”

But Kip did not stop and he did not shut up. “Yeah, Mr. A, I see you on TV, talking all big about populism and equality as you run for Mayor. Where’s the equality, huh? You live in this big house, making money you didn’t work for off of the labor of the working class! I know how it is, I know what you think of people like me, what all of you think of people like me!” He had the audacity to point a finger directly at West. Like he was lecturing him. “It’s gonna change soon though, me and all my friends at the UPLF are gonna make things change!”

The United People’s Liberation Front was a radical offshoot of the Eden Workers Party. Last month, a couple of the delusional socialists had staged a riot at one of AGA’s warehouses. Surely Casey and Ayda weren’t involving themselves with those kinds of leftwing wackjobs.

He still did not say anything. If West said anything now, he might lose his temper. He wasn’t going to do that. He wasn’t going to scare his daughters and their friends, or worse, say something that would start something with his enemies.

Being a father had never been hard for him. He had never needed to worry about his daughters and their friends. So why were they making him worry now of all times? Now, when he was trying to run for public office?

Kip was still jabbering aggressive nonsense but West was not listening. He took a deep breath and looked at his daughters. Ayda still had her hands over her face, curled into herself, not wanting to be there. Casey was smiling but nervous, trying to talk to her friends and calm them all down. 

He was not going to make things harder for them. And deeper, more selfishly, he was not going to make things harder for himself. Not now. Not when he was so close to actually changing things in Eden. He couldn’t. If that meant letting all these little shitheads get away with something they should not have been doing, then so be it. These kids’ parents could and would try to ruin everything he had worked so hard for.

There were bigger things West needed to worry about. There were other children he needed to worry about, kids who did not have parents who could protect them.

“If you all go home right now, I won’t call any of your parents,” he said at last. All of them looked at him with wide eyes, except for the two girls who were so drunk they were passed out on the couch. West jerked his head towards the hallway that led to the door. “Go on, get out of here, go sleep it off. I don’t care where you all go, but you can’t stay here.”

There was a beat. 

“Holy shit,” said Marty, and there was a twinge of bitterness to his voice that West did not inspect further. Why should he? Why would he?

This was his first mistake.

[ducknotinarow]

[2k7 Don Mikey]

Time was going too quickly, and Don did not feel prepared whatsoever. Sure, there was a room set up, clothes ready, a name picked - everything a baby could need was there. Yet, Donatello did not feel ready for this. He was excited and nervous and scared and it was obvious. So obvious. It was clear by the way he mindlessly bounced his leg and bit his bottom lip,

"I can't believe how quick everything's going," Don breathes out a laugh, his nerves clear, "I feel like I barely have anything ready for her."

He had more than enough ready, it was just Donatello being, well, Donatello,

"I'm so excited to meet her Mikey," Don still manages a smile, "But...but I'm terrified," He's still getting better at talking about his worries, so, this was both a good and bad sign, "What if her being a mutant courses her problems? What if I can't give her what she'll need?" He rhetorically asks, "What if I'm a terrible dad and do everything wrong?"

| Muse interaction

Another box set down and Mikey's was already moaning and groaning about all the work he was being made to do. Didn't matter his age he still wasn't much a fan of things like chores and such or anything that wasn't a chance to just goof around and whatever else. In truth Leo and Raph had been the one's moving stuff the most. They had offered to help Don out with getting things ready for his Alien. They now knew she was going to be name Ariel because of course Don went and picked a name from his all time favorite movie, The Little Mermaid. And yes any chance they had they all did mock and tease Donnie for that. From quoting the movie at him, to using the songs or just out right joking about his obsession. Like Raph saying he went from a mermaid doll to a mermaid baby. Hey one that's what happens when you get brothers you just haze and tease the hell out of each other. And well the petty second reason? It was their revenge for being made to watch those movies so much. Well Leo and Raph mostly, they didn't hate the movie they just hated having to watch it every time Don got to pick it. Mikey? it wasn't his favorite but he liked the movie the whole getting to transform to human girl and back to mermaid had a hmm interest? to Mikey for different reasons.

"Dude! can't we take a break guys we've been at this all day!" Mikey started to whine Near laying over the box he had just set down looking as pathetic as he could make himself look, it never took much. "Ya know they got labor laws for a reason Don! for slave labors like you!" when whining wasn't working he jumped to the next option just being a damn pain. "Can't you see how wore out your brothers are, I bet all of New York can hear Raph's stomach growling! I mean ya have heard when he snores right?" Mikey has plenty of times from being made to share a room with them before.

He pointed out towards the other two Leo pausing in place well Raph was fixing a glare on Mikey on the comment. But they both did look a tad worn out themself. "I think it's only fair we get a break. A pizza break!" moving to stand up now "don't worry i'll go get it-" Before he could finish on weaseling his way out of more work Leo and Raph and jump in on his suggestion. Agreeing it was time for a break offering to go in Mikey's place. Everyone outside Mikey seemed fine with that as the two of them took off together.

"well how do ya like that, stealing a guys idea." Was kind of nice seeing them go off like that though. Attention soon shifted to Don he was a bit quite sure don wasn't the most talkative but still he was being pretty quite. Mikey looking over to them as they were mindlessly bouncing their leg and biting their lip.

"Ya know Dee I was just kidding when I called you a slave driver I just wanted an excuse for food." Mikey started to explain "besides i've only been moving this one box back and forth no ones even noticed." he laughs a bit actually proud as he opens it "see it's empty." Mikey knew how to pull off his acts by now. But Donatello wasn't paying attention to anything he was saying right now. Mikey scratched at rhw side of his head trying to figure it out but he couldn't. He ain't got the whole twin mind link Donnie and Raph had so he was gonna just have to ask. Great. Not that he didn't want to knkw he did but sometimes trying to get Don to talk wasn't a simple task. Stepping over to his brother careful as he set his hand to thier shoulder. "Hey uh earth to Donatello you here?"

"I can't believe how quick everything's going,"

"Oh ya bugging over your kid." Mikey mpre confirmed to himself than to Don as they laughed a bit there was exciemnt but mostly nerves in the chuckle.

"I feel like I barely have anything ready for her."

Mikey took a moment to look around the room, sure HE hadn't been moving stuff in but Leo and Raph sure had brought a lot things. She had a bed and such after all. Some toys even waiting for her? There's no way Don of all wouldn't be fully preped shell Mikey wouldn't be surprised if he had stuff up to her toddler years ready, too, maybe further even.

"I'm so excited to meet her Mikey,"

"Ain't gotta tell me that dude we all know how excited you are after all." A playful budge in the ribs given as he can near feel hiw Don's smile fade to allow his worries show across his face now.

"But...but I'm terrified,"

Mikey shouldn't be smiling but he was Don was getting better with opening up to them so he couldn't help but loke that he admited that and okay maybe he enjoyed that one of his Older brothers trusted him with this

"What if her being a mutant courses her problems? What if I can't give her what she'll need?"

"I am it likely will don't see mutants being accepted any time soon. But come one you and Von will find ways to provide whatever you can I mean you had for years for all of us." Mikey was quick to point out not all helpful sure but ture none the less.

"What if I'm a terrible dad and do everything wrong?"

Okay the worried section of the brain was clearly driving Donatello's right now. Mikey just set his hand to Donnie’s shoulder and turned them to look at him.

"Hey Don." Mikey says calmly and smiling a bit "you're not alone okay?" That seemed like the most important thing to tell them right now. Especially with all before. Mikey ignored that, it was a thought for later. "You got Yvonne for one and you two are the smartest beings ever? If you can't figure it out she will. And ya also got me, Leo and maybe Raph. Dunno why ya want him he's a pain." Always had to give Raoh flack for for. "I'm kidding you know Raphs the worse of us after all. And she'll Splinter raised four mutants all on his own with nothing! And he started off as a rat. So you definitely on a much better starting point. We all turned out just fine and he raised ya so you'll be fine too." Mikey went on to say Ariel would be fine, she was starting off with more than they did at least.

"And Don? The favt your so worried? Already shows how great a dad you are and she ain't even here yet. You already wanna keep her safe, want her to be happy and well. Want her to have all that is possible and more. Your going to be an amazing father Donnie. I always knew you'd make a great dad heck you got scolding practice cause of Raph and me. So your off to another good start see?" He just smile and pats thier shoulder. "Dee everything's going to be okay, if you spend to much time worrying about the future? Well the now is gonna pass you by and your gonna want to savor and enjoy every second she's here with you right?" They say kids grow up fast after all. "She has what she needs. She has Donatello for her dad and he's gonna love her, protect her and always try todo what's right by her first. If ya ask me Ariel is the luckiest little mutant. You got this Bro okay?"

[lgwebaltctrlcwj]

Evaluation

For this project, I only did the technical side of it and focused on the coding while someone else worked on the art for the game. I think that this helped me to achieve a more functional game as I was able to put more time into ironing out the problems that came up and also be able to add in additional things that would elevate the game. There were a few things that I had to look up in order to implement, such as a screen shake, the dialogue appearing letter by letter, and adding images to buttons in widgets. This, however, didn’t help much as none of the tutorials for any of these things worked for me and I had to ask for in person help for the majority of these things. The screen shake was soon a scrapped concept after a long time of revisiting it and trying to get it to work, thankfully it wasn’t amazingly important to the game as a whole and was only one part of a visual effect at a specific point in the game, so the whole thing doesn’t suffer without it but it is still annoying that it was unable to work as I had also tried this in a project last year and had no success either. I think that I met the expectation of figuring out how to code new things within the project, one such example is the selection screens which I had originally managed to get working with arrow keys and I was really proud that I was able to do that. Something that went better than I had expected was the phone, I went in with the expectation that we wouldn’t be able to figure out how it worked and use that, and instead have to use additional wires on the exterior in order to have something functional, the phone itself essentially being nothing more than a glorified box for stripped back buttons. We were able to figure out how the mechanism inside the phone worked, and use it to control a game which I think is something that I will be proud of for the rest of my life at this point.

Most of the ideas for the concept of the project were created verbally after college had finished before the half term and were written down as short notes by Josie. The initial idea discussion took about an hour and a lot of the decisions for the premise of the project were all run under the same question of ‘Would this be funny?’ with a few being run through the question of ‘Would this make things more difficult for the player?’. We had originally intended for the game to intentionally screw the player over, and a fair bit of that mentality still remains, but that is another one of those things that has to be done right otherwise it would be infuriating to experience. There is a fine line between being given too much information and not being given enough and I think we lean too much on one side despite it being intentional in some areas. The dialogue required a lengthy discussion nearer the beginning of the project with a lot of back and forth and alterations to the exchange before it was given the go ahead to be written out near the top of the script document. By the end of the project, the dialogue became less thought through and had less back and forth and was created more of a basis of writing something out, replacing parts to make them either better or funnier, and then agreeing to use it. I don’t know about others, but I personally find the least thought out parts of the dialogue to be funnier, the funniest being created when we weren’t actively making up the dialogue. Most of the problems I came across during the project were often silly mistakes that barely took a second to fix when found, the issue was with finding them. Sometimes it was branches being linked to other things wrong, the occasional tag not being typed in, the player falling into the void because of a missing floor, or remnants of older code affecting newer things by not being changed to align with new controls. It often took a bit of time to realise these issues, but that was the hardest part about solving them. Nothing was breaking the game consistently like what happened in previous projects, so it was pleasantly surprising to not have things break on me.

While I think that I met most of the requirements in the project to an okay standard at least, and there are individual parts of the project that I am really proud of like all the selection options and the code for the dialogue and the rotary phone, I am not happy with the project as a whole. Normally I tend to have a dislike of projects I work on towards the end of the time limit, this time is no different. Logically speaking I did a good job with the code and with the phone and I should be happy with the game as a whole, but I am not. I am, however,  proud of the controller and specific parts of the game or code, just not the thing as a whole. I understand that I think the dialogue could be better if there was more time, and the game would look more finished with more time, but I don’t think that warrants the overall dislike for the game. I can point out individual reasons on why I wouldn’t be too happy with the project, but I don’t entirely know why I wish to not work on it anymore. The dislike towards the game also seemed to come suddenly towards the end of the project and other times dies out altogether, which is probably making it both more frustrating and confusing, there was a possibility to finish and polish the game in the next project but I simply wish to not work on it anymore, and I think that is slightly selfish of me when working on a joint project. Logically speaking, I think that the outcome came out well on my end despite the missing components that weren’t able to be added in or were continuously pushed back in favour of adding other things. From an emotional standpoint, I am not overly happy with it but I wouldn’t be able to describe why.

Something that I had known prior to this project was that humour does not work in media if it is forced, and even if it isn’t it is still a risky thing to attempt as comedy is very much subjective, what is funny to us is potentially not funny to others. We still tried it anyways, but it was a good learning experience in terms of how comedy works in different settings, and how it should be done in different ways depending on how the things surrounding it are structured. I think the dialogue could have been improved if more people were involved in the process of making it in order to get a selection of dialogue options that are humorous at least a little bit to the majority. I don’t often follow the time plans closely because I am very easily sidetracked by other things within the project so I don’t always do what I set out to do, also it is almost impossible to predict how long things are going to take ahead of time. I think if I try a bit harder to plan things ahead of time then maybe the time issues I frequently run into could be solved, although saying that, I did make an effort to plan ahead this project and make lists at the start of the day of what I should do during that time, but some parts required collaboration which wasn’t possible in some cases. In terms of ideas we had to have it on hold for two weeks due to the America trip, so there were times in the project where I was a bit lost on what I should be doing because I didn’t want to make creative decisions by myself in case that contradicted anything Josie wanted to do as it wasn’t always possible to communicate. If we were to work together in the future we wouldn’t run into this problem, and that gap in idea making is our own fault as we were aware of that before we decided to collaborate. I think next time I will work by myself again and stick to the silly little characters I tend to make and make something leaning more towards a fantasy world with less real life situations.

[theechoofthepast]

"Eventually . . ." Chapter One - "Meeting The Villains"

Warnings for Ch. 1: Discussion of villainous acts, Mention of canibaliam, Mention of murder, Trauma, Not proof read

We start our story at the front door of one of the worlds most dangerous Villains, "Blood Riot". Most known for killing and eating people, she manages to keep herself well hidden. Goddess knows what might happen if she doesn't, with all the cops and Pro Heros.

Izuku Midoriya is a careful person. Phaser had finally tracked this specific Villain down for the upcoming mission. He had dug up their past. He was confident that they couldn't refuse his offer. "Hopefully this will be quick. I don't want to be away too long" Izuku thought to himself. As he approached the door, Putting one of his masks on. And knocked politely. He waited. After a while he heard footsteps he  prepared himself. He had dealt with other villains so he thought he knew what to expect. What he did NOT expect was a Girl around his age opening the door and looking at him suspiciously! I swear if phaser gave me the wrong address.  He recognized her from the photos he's been looking through as Miss Kirishima. One of my prime suspects for Blood riot's Identity. So I suppose I can interrogate her. 

Ejina slowly looks this . . . Broccoli Boy up and down, skeptical about what he may be there for. "Excuse me," the boy starts, his vice is anything but intimidating. "I happen to be looking for a 'Blood Riot', ring any bells?"

Ejina narrows her eyes slightly. Was he working for the heros? was it possible that- Hold on, Eji, don't think like that. lets see what he has to say.

" . . . Why would you be looking for her . . .?" she asks slowly.

Deku fixes his tie before saying in a calming tone voice “strictly business reasons. I wish to speak with them about a matter of great impotence. So I ask you if they might be located here?”

"So serious . . ." Ejina sighs, barely stopping herself from groaning like a school boy who just found out there's a suprise quiz on something he didn't study for. Ejina was Not, in any way, a serious person. But she could put on the mask, for now. ". . . . Do you really want to see her . . .?" even she's suprized about how dark her voice grows.

To her (not) suprise, his own voice gains a slight chill to it as he responds “If I didn't want to see her then I wouldn't have risked going out in public Would I?” Damn. Fair though, I suppose . . .

takes a deep breath before walking back into the house, leaving the door open, inside is dark, and he isn't able to see where she went, but her voice says “come in.”

As the door opens to reveal the darkness Deku fidgets with his bracelet under his suit sleeve. Even if this was a trap I could make it out ok. And had no idea of my arrival. So it should be safe for me. He glances at his watch then slowly walks through the door with his mask still on. After all, it was more threatening than his actual face.

Ejina closes the door behind him, before walking past him into the darkness, her wings closing tightly around herself. She pretends he's not there now, carefully going to her living room so she could chat with this fellow villain.

He follows closely behind her. Keeping pace with her. Well if things go south I still have all of that blackmail. She’ll have no choice but to help me. I’ve already won this battle. He smiles under his mask.

Eventually, Ejina turns on a set of lights, and a living room seems to suddenly appear from the darkness, she sits down in a Lazy Boy chair, looking at Deku. "Have a seat, if you wish" she gestures to a couch, she sits up straight. "You wanted to speak with me . . . on 'Business', correct?"

“Thank you but I would prefer to stand for now. Now just to be perfectly clear. You are Blood Riot, yes?” He tilts his head sideways as he asks the question.

“I am . . .” she leans forward onto her hand, not seeming concerned or worried. In fact, she looked rather calm, relaxed. Yeah, Don't let him see your nerves.

Deku starts to pace back and forth looking down in thought. “You know your not an easy person to find?" She smirks softly, That means I'm doing good on that front. "It took me a bit but I found you in the end. I require your. . . . set of skills." My set of skills? Killing and eating people? guitar? flying . . .? "For a mission I plan on doing.”

“Oh-?” she tilts her head, a ghost of a smile still on her face, her wings relax a bit. This guy seems so dull . . . . I wonder . . . “May I ask what this mission may be?”

Gotcha “I Need to procure an object of great importance. But the place its located is . . . extremely risky. To say the least.” Risky huh? how bad could it possibly be?

“I see . . .” she looks at her ceiling, sighing a bit. “What is this, ‘extremely risky’ place you speak of?” its very apparent she's tired of talking so formally. She's . . . . never liked it . . .

“To be precise. A Bank. So here’s the deal. You provide protection for one of my agents while they make sure nobody knows we were even there. And you can take whatever you want when were in the vault. It where A significant amount of “Pro heroes” Keep there mostly ill earned wealth. So there will be no shortage of money to composite you for your involvement. All I want is something stored there.” . . . well, I never signed up as a body guard. however. this boy intrigues me.

She looks at him, and her seriousness finally falls away. “Sure, man. Its been a while sense I worked with someone but it could get interesting.” she stands up, stretching herself and her wings, taking a deep breath.

“Well unfortunately for yo-” He freezes. “Wait, you agreed? Just like that?”

“Yeah . . .?” she tilts her head, “might as well, I don't talk to many people anymore anyway.” she pauses, Hold on- wait- “now- what’s unfortunate for me?”

He pauses to compose himself. “Nothing. I just didn't expect you to agree so . . . fast.”

“What do you mean, broccoli boy?” she raises an eyebrow, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“I Said I meant Nothing Riot. Do you have hearing problems?” He crosses his arms.

She huffs slightly, her tail flicking. “You seem so sure.” she sighs, “alright, whatever. Are we leaving now or was this a kinda- go early so you have more time thing . . .?” she tilts her head.

[erodasfishtacos]

can you write something about cheating harry and yn acting like a proper couple in front of anna, like harry with his arm around her and kissing her head and stuff, and anna is just standing there fuming and maybe tries to get physical with yn

Love Your Broken Pieces

-

warnings: cheating; mentions of trauma and domestic abuse

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(any donations over $15 get a guaranteed blurb written of their choosing!)

reblog, like, comment, & come chat!

-

YN really really didn’t want to go out.

She wasn’t going to tell Harry that because it was a celebratory dinner for him because he’d just won Entrperur of the yearand she wasn’t going to ruin it.

It’s not that she didn’t want to celebrate his achievement.

She was so so proud of him but her therapy session had got moved up a day because the therapist had to go out of town.

YN didn’t want to bother him so she had went herself without telling him.

It was trauma-focused therapy which meant it was intensive, draining, and overall triggering at time.

Today had sparked a new memory that she had suppressed and she was really struggling to get through the day without his support.

She shouldn’t need him for everything. It wasn’t fair to him.

So she’d sat on her bed for thirty minutes before she managed to pull on a nice dress before curling her hair - zoning out and accidentally burning herself lightly.

Harry had to pick up Anna, offered to pick up YN.

“Hey pup, y’want me t’pick you up on the way?” Harry had called while she was swiping on mascara.

“No, I’ll just Uber,” YN try to keep her tone light but couldn’t stomach sitting in the car with that disgusting woman right now.

“No, let me come get you,” He insists, always preferring to drive her around over some stranger.

“I really don’t want to be in the car with Anna, okay? Just drop it,” YN replies a bit too tersely.

There’s a pregnant pause.

“What’s wrong, puppy?” Harry knows her much to well.

She couldn’t help but bristle, “Nothing. I just have to get ready. Okay? I’ll see you there.”

YN shouldn’t have hung up like that but her hands were shaking and it was taking all of her might to pull herself together to go.

“It’s all your fuckin’ fault your mum hates me,” Her dad had spat at her, right in the kitchen after dinner.

“Fuck,” She mumbles to herself as she drops her lipstick and it rolls under the dresser.

—

She canceled two Ubers before she found a driver who didn’t seem intimidating.

It made her fashionably late, everyone already seated, and it doesn’t make it any better when Anna greets her.

“About time. Can’t even make it at a respectable time for your supposed best friend’s dinner.”

Anna and Gemma both make a grimacing face at the rude comment but Harry interrupts before they interject, “S’okay, Uber’s can be a pain in the arse.”

“Er, yeah. The Uber…” YN mumbles lowly, there was an empty seat across from Harry that had been saved for her.

She could feel Harry’s eyes following her, studying her as she kept her head down and looked on the verge of tears.

“You look too much like your goddamn mother.”

“What d’you want to drink?” Harry asks softly, tapping her foot under the table.

“God Harry, she’s not a child,” Anna rolls her eyes as she glances over her menu.

Harry glares over at her with a strict warning glance that she needs to change her attitude or there is gonna be an issue.

“Just water,” YN replies, swallowing hard.

He knows somethings wrong when she doesn’t bite back at her, instead looking down at the menu like it’s the most interesting thing ever.

Harry had already known by the phone call.

There were quite a few people at the dinner, constantly engaging him in conversation as YN kept to herself.

It’s after the appetizer’s arrive that he can’t stand her fake smiles and attempts to seem like she’s enjoying herself.

“Outside, now,” Harry says firmly, not a question but a statement.

“Harry, don’t,” Anna huffs, not liking the private attention her enemy is about to get.

“I don’t remember askin’ you,” He hisses under his breath before following YN’s retreating figure to the main entrance.

They end up in the small alleyway, “Tell me what’s going on.”

YN’s eyes are moody, putting back on a nonchalant expression that would work for anyone but him, “I’m fine, I don’t know why you’re making a big deal. Let’s go enjoy your dinner.”

Harry backs her up against the brick wall, hand over her shoulder, “We’re not goin’ anywhere until you tel me. M’not stupid.”

It triggers something because she starts sniffling, whispers, “You’re going to be mad at me.”

His hard facial features relax, pressing his forehead to hers, “Please pup, y’know I love you no matter what.”

“My therapist moved our session to today. I went and uh…” YN begins to full on cry, burying her face in her hands.

“C’mon, tell me,” He encourages softly.

“It triggered a repressed memory. I…I didn’t want to ruin tonight for you. I fuck up everything for you already,” She chokes out, letting him pry her hands away.

“Puppy,” He murmurs with a laugh of disbelief, “I fuckin’ wake up everyday because of you. You make my life worth livin’. I’m not happy unless y’are.”

“I just…didn’t want tonight to go like this,” YN sighs quietly, “One night without my trauma.”

“Hey, hey. We’re workin’ through it together, yeah? It takes time. Y’made the effort to come and that means more to me than anything else,” He says truthfully, tilting her chin up.

Harry melts a bit when she leans up to give him a lightening fast peck, “I am so proud of all your accomplishments.”

“Wouldn’t have done any of it without you, sweet girl,” He rubs a thumb under her eye to wipe off a streak of makeup.

They stand outside for a minute longer in a tight hug.

-

When they walk back into the restaurant, Harry quietly asks Gemma to switch YN seats which she graciously agrees without a fuss.

Anna is shooting daggers at YN while the change happens and Harry pushes in her seat for her.

The whole dinner consists of Anna fuming and hanging on every single movement between the two despite her hand on Harry’s thigh.

When he scoops up a bit of his mashed potatoes and feeds them to YN, laughs when she makes a face at the amount of chives mixed in.

It’s like he doesn’t even noticed the casual arm he occasionally throws around the back of YN’s seat as they chat.

“Harry,” YN scolds with a small smile when he steals a shrimp from her plate when she’s not looking.

Anna had shrimp too and he didn’t look once to do that to her.

“S’good, here, have a bite of m’steak. Know Y’don’t like it rare but s’good. I promise,” He encourages, cutting her a thick piece.

How the fuck did Harry know how YN liked her steak?

He didn’t even remember Anna’s favorite color.

“Y’gettin’ sleepy?” Harry whispers to YN towards the end of the meal, his lips are nearly brushing her ear and Anna pinches his thigh hard.

“Fuck,” Harry replies, flinching away from the pain as he turns to his girlfriend, “Wha’ did you do that for?”

“Can you pay at least a little bit of attention to me? I’m your girlfriend despite how much YN wants to pretend she is,” Anna says haughtily, loud enough for her to hear.

Harry is about to snap on her but instead YN speaks up first, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know jealously was on the menu. Eat up, Anna.”

Anna begins to sneer but Harry says, “Why don’t you go take a second in the bathroom? Then we can talk, okay?”

With a little stubbornness, she does - stomping away from the table without looking back at YN who had rolled her eyes.

“Y’on my menu tonight? A bath and cuddle sounds nice,” He offers to his love, thumbing her upper thigh.

“So nice,” YN agrees, “Can we use that sugar cookie bath bomb?”

“Of course, anythin’ you want, m’pup,” Harry hums sweetly, kissing the top of her head.

Anna is walking back when she sees it.

He’s cheating on me.

It flashes through her mind but she pushes it away because she reminds herself that YN is a pathetic little clingy girl who Harry wouldn’t ever like that way.

—

Later that night, Harry holds YN as she recount her memory.

Praises her for being so strong.

Kisses her because he loves her so much it hurts most days.

Assures her that he’ll love her even if she’s never ‘fixed’.

Promises that he’ll never let anyone hurt her again.

—

I’d love feedback 🥺

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[festiveferret]

Post-It (Tony/Bucky)

Read it on AO3

"Tony!" Bucky shouted, unable to keep his voice level anymore after ten minutes of pointless arguing around the point. "Just tell me what's wrong, god dammit!" 

"You're fired!" Tony yelped, then he went very, very still.

Bucky blinked at him. He knew what you're fired meant, objectively, but in this context, it made no sense. He'd been working at SI for fifteen years. Tony Stark might technically be his boss, but he was also one of his best friends. He wouldn't just do that out of nowhere, surely? "I'm what?"

"You're fired," Tony repeated, less confidently this time. "Or… promoted?" He swallowed hard.

"What?"

Tony deflated like an old balloon and sunk backwards onto his office couch. He pressed both hands over his face with a groan. "I don't know."

Bucky crouched down and gave Tony's knees a squeeze. "Tony, just tell me what's wrong. You've been weird all week."

Tony's face reappeared, a little splotchy, his eyes tight and unhappy. "I don't think I can work with you anymore, but Pepper won't let me quit."

"You tried to quit? It's your name on the sign out front. There's a three foot high portrait of your face in the lobby."

"Yeah." Tony sighed. "That's what Pepper said."

Bucky tried to push down the sudden ache in his chest. All these years he'd been slowly but surely developing feelings for the man in front of him. What started out nearly antagonistic had turned into begrudging respect, and then friendship, and then… well whatever it was now. Unrequited love, Bucky supposed. He hadn't thought the friendship was unrequited though, but Tony seemed to want to push him out of his life with no warning except a week of cold shoulders and darting out of rooms Bucky walked into. "So you want to fire me instead?"

"No," Tony insisted, but then his face twisted up. "Maybe. I don't know. Maybe you'd be happier somewhere else."

"Something makes me feel like this isn't about where I'd be most happy working. This is about us, isn't it? Do you not want to be friends anymore?"

Tony's deep, brown eyes stayed fixed on Bucky's as he nodded slowly. But it felt like a gunshot to Bucky's chest. He swallowed three times in rapid succession, as if he could push the pain down somewhere where it could be ignored. "Oh," he managed, voice shaky. "Okay."

"I think… I just think it's best if we don't work so closely together anymore. I - I saw the post-it you left for Steve, and friends just doesn't feel possible."

That one felt more like swallowing a brick. Suddenly, it all made sense. The post-it he'd stuck on Steve's keyboard a week ago after a particularly torturous meeting. He'd had to sit there, silent, while Tony showed off his brilliant brain, wowing everyone, in perfectly tailored pants. Bucky was hopeless; he barely made it to 5 o'clock that day without cornering Tony in the elevator. It had taken almost the entire weekend to cool down again. He'd gotten too laissez-faire with the post-its, never expecting anyone else to read one let alone understand, but Tony was a genius, and he knew Bucky almost as well as Steve did. 

| Sometimes the feelings are just so obvious I want to scream. Fuuck. How is this my life?? |

It was his outlet, usually. If the way he felt about Tony became too much, he'd scribble it down on a post-it note, as cryptic as was possible, then stick it to Steve's keyboard or monitor, or lunch bag, or, occasionally, his forehead. It kept things safe, secure, locked up inside him instead of spilling out all over Tony and ruining their friendship. Exactly like what was happening now.

Bucky slid back, releasing Tony's knees and sitting back hard on his heels. "Right. Okay. You don't have to fire me. I'll quit." He took a shaky breath. "I'm sorry."

Tony made a small, helpless noise like a mouse being stepped on and one hand jerked out towards Bucky then fell down again. "Please don't quit. I'm so sorry. Please don't quit. Don't - don't leave m- Just stay. I'll figure it out. I'll talk to my therapist. I'll get over you. I'll stop all the annoying fawning and flirting and stuff. I'll step back from R&D and make sure I don't have signing authority over any of your performance reviews. Please just -" Tony thumped down on the floor in front of Bucky, their knees nearly touching. "Don't leave."

Bucky slowly but carefully wound back everything Tony had said. Twice. "Huh?" was all he could manage.

"Buck -" Tony reached out and did touch this time. He let his fingers ghost lightly over Bucky's wrist. "I'm so sorry."

"Wait. What do you mean by 'get over you'?"

"I - I mean I'll deal with my feelings. However I have to. And make sure I process them or whatever so I stop, you know, bothering you. Upsetting you."

"Your feelings."

"Yes." Tony sounded exasperated now. "The ones that have you so upset you're writing notes in class and sticking them to Rogers' spider plant! The ones I thought I was doing a pretty fucking good job of hiding, but apparently not. The ones that are making this a shitty work environment for you."

They were silent for so long that Bucky wondered if people could just disconnect like video calls did. 404 - no Bucky found. The honking of a horn on the street outside broke him out of his daze. "What in the ever loving fuck are you talking about? The post-it wasn't about your feelings. Nothing you're feeling or not feeling is upsetting me. The post-it is about my feelings. The ones I'm crap at hiding. That's what I was complaining to Steve about!"

Tony's bottom lip slipped between his teeth, and he chewed it for a moment, pondering that. "Are we both huge idiots?"

"Kinda seems like it."

"I've been in love with you for like the past two years," Tony confessed, all pushed out in one breath. "I'll stop if you want me to, but I don't want you to leave."

"I've been in love with you for like the past four years, and a team of fucking wild horses couldn't stop me. And I'll never leave as long as you want me here."

Tony dove forward, and Bucky caught him in a tight hug, their faces pressed into each other's shoulders as years of tangled feelings bubbled up and burst out. After their breathing had settled a little, Tony twisted his face up, eyes bright and wondering, and Bucky cupped his cheeks and kissed him, pouring in every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year that he had wanted exactly this.

Then the door opened with a sudden creak and Steve stuck his head in. "Tony, do you think I could -" He froze.

Tony and Bucky froze. 

There was no way to cover up the fact that they were sitting on Tony's office floor, in the middle of the work day on a Thursday, making out like high schoolers who had just discovered sixteen more uses for tongues. Bucky had absolutely nothing to say.

Steve sighed. "Fucking, finally!" He threw one hand in the air in exasperation, then swung the door closed with the other, leaving them alone. 

There was an awkward uncertain moment, then Tony burst out laughing. "Well that takes care of that."

Bucky reached up and rummaged around on Tony's desk until he came up with a rainbow post-it pad and a pen. He scribbled on the top, blue post-it, peeled it off, and stuck it to the centre of Tony's chest. "And hopefully that takes care of this."

| I love you, you idiot. |

[simplyotometrash]

MC turns into MSheep!

Inspired by the lil anime announcement we got because I love MC still being represented by a lil sheepie~!

As usual, this is gender-neutral reader!MC

It was a total accident. You were just working on your potion project with Solomon. He was helping you with the math of it, mostly, since it was pretty complicated. You had no idea where things went wrong. There was a puff of pink smoke when you added the last ingredient and suddenly Solomon was a giant! Well, actually you were turned into a small pink sheep...

Lucifer:

He didn’t know what to say when Solomon brought you home.

You were a sheep. A tiny sheep. And very pink.

His beloved was a sheep.

Lucifer.exe has stopped responding.

Honestly, give this old man a few moments to take in the shock and let things settle.

Then he’s going to threaten Solomon because who else would have turned you into a fucking sheep?

A tiny voice sounded from the sheep. It sounded like you, only smaller.

“It was my fault. I think. Solomon didn’t even touch my potion ingredients.”

Well, that doesn’t change anything. Solomon had best change you back or else.

And those words shot pure ice through your veins. You knew when your Lucifer got pissed off, his threats were not to be taken lightly.

For the time being, however, you had to live as a sheep.

Lucifer didn’t hesitate to just carry you everywhere. What if you got lost? Or Beel tried to eat you? Or Belphie thought you were a pillow? Or Mammon tried to sell you?

There were too many variables and this old demon just wanted some peace of mind.

So you went literally everywhere with him. You two still talked as normal. You even slept in his room still. 

You promised yourself to help him relax once you were human again. You knew your situation caused a lot of unneeded stress on the poor man.

It took three whole days before Solomon was able to change you back.

But when you were human again you didn’t expect Lucifer to hug you so tightly or give you such a firm kiss. He had missed his human being, well, a human far more than he cared to admit.

But you better make good on helping him relax. I think there’s some grey in his hair now.

Mammon:

Haha, good joke, Solomon! Now, where was his human? Really, where were they hiding?

He was so sure it was a prank and you were taking pictures from the bushes or something.

When you voice sounded from the small sheep Mammon nearly fainted.

What the fuck did Solomon do to his human?! The Great Mammon’s human was a sheep!

You explained your situation and Mammon only grew more jittery.

He was grinding his teeth. He didn’t hesitate, though, to snatch you away from Solomon and hold you like you were the most sacred thing in the whole of Devildom.

“Ya better turn them back! I can make money at the casinos so name the price!”

Oh he was serious. Mammon was willing to pay good Grimm just to turn you back.

And Solomon, after cruel teasing with pricing your return to human at over a million Grimm, said he would do it for free. After all, there was no telling if this would wear off or if it needed to be reversed.

So he would do it. It was a good chance to study your potion recipe and figure out how you fucked up.

Mammon, like his older brother, took you literally everywhere with him. But by everywhere I do mean everywhere. Lucifer at least had the decency to leave you out when he went to the bathroom. Mammon did not.

He was also making sure to keep you away from Asmo, who had fallen for your pink and fluffy form on sight. 

Mammon talked to you like you were still human. He treated like his human.

But he also acted like you would break at any second. He had never been so careful in his life.

He honestly cried on the third day, worried you might be stuck as a sheep. He didn’t know what to do.

Of course, you were turned back by that evening. Solomon had dropped by to check in and the potion naturally wore off.

Mammon hugged you so tight you felt like you were being suffocated.

But he was back to normal the second Solomon joked that he wanted to get paid for his efforts.

Levi:

Once Solomon was able to get into his bedroom, Levi just about fainted at the sight of you.

He wasn’t even skeptical about this.

It was just like the anime “Help I’ve Accidentally Been Turned Into a Sheep and Now I’m Stuck!”. Literally, just like the anime! 

You needn’t worry about anyone trying anything with you while Solomon worked to turn you back, it wasn’t like you would be leaving Levi’s room very much.

You were in his lap almost 24/7 save for when you needed food or to go to the bathroom. Or he needed to do the same. 

His room was a fortress so you were pretty much safe. 

You couldn’t remember the last time you got to spend quite that much time with your otaku. He could be difficult at times, especially when he was playing a game.

You actually relished the time spent as a sheep because of it.

Levi was not-so-secretly getting more and more anxious though. 

He saw the anime! He made you watch it with him in one sitting, too! What if this turned out just like the anime and you never turned back into a human?

The main character in the anime was a sheep for an entire YEAR!

If he had a soul it would have left his body at the very thought.

By the end of the third day you could tell he was totally falling apart.

His partner was a sheep. Probably forever.

With a poof of pink smoke you were human again.

And Levi unconscious because, for some reason, you turned human and had no clothes on.

You just put on some of his clothes for the time being and called Solomon.

You caught a glimpse in the mirror as you were on the phone and told him to keep working on that reversal potion.

You still had sheep fluff for hair, horns, and sheep ears...

Satan:

If looks could kill then Solomon would have been dead where he stood.

The sin of wrath was so pissed off that there was an evil, menacing aura radiating from him.

And it was directed solely at Solomon.

“I don’t even want you working on a way to turn them back. You might be a great sorcerer but I’m going to do this myself.”

He snatched you away and slammed the door in the sorcerer’s face.

No one tried to bother him as he stormed back to his room. 

“I promise I’m going to turn you back, MC.”

He poured over his books and had you give him the potion you had been making. You had to tell every single detail you could remember of what happened leading up to your transformation.

But he didn’t only focus on turning you back.

He couldn’t neglect you being in the room with him. You still brought out the calm within him and made him feel at ease.

When you insisted he take breaks, he would make some tea and give you a straw so you didn’t get tea in your wool.

Like he usually did, he read to you when you wanted to go to sleep. It was even more relaxing holding a warm ball of fluff.

But he barely slept.

He had to figure out a way to turn his favorite person back to normal.

You were still you, no doubt about that, but he missed you being a person. Someone he could kiss and hold hands with. Someone he didn’t have to worry about accidentally crushing or losing because you were so small.

He finally figured it out. He studied your potion recipe for hours on end until he figured out what went wrong. You had been given a recipe that had been “mislabeled”.

Knowing that made it a cinch to turn you back within the hour.

Now to murder the dodgy sorcerer who gave you the recipe for class to begin with.

Asmo:

“Whaaaaaat? MC? A sheep? Oh, darling, you are so cute! And so soft!!”

He canonically loves cute things (did you read the Devilgram story about him taking care of bunnies?) so he was having the time of his life.

And then it hit him as soon as Solomon laughed.

He couldn’t go out on dates with you. He couldn’t kiss you. Or see your stunning face. Your voice wasn’t the same. 

Solomon promised to do what he could to fix this, but it could take a few days.

Did he spend the next hour crying and hugging your fluffy body? Yes, yes he did.

You got him calmed down, reassuring him that it was temporary and there were some perks. He would totally get lots of attention on Devilgram if he posted your pictures! You were pink, his favorite color! You had lots of soft wool he could brush and he could paint your tiny sheep hooves!

That perked him right up.

He spent the next several hours styling your wool, somehow managing to put braids in it. He gave you cute decorative pieces to wear in your wool, painted your hooves to match his nails, and even gave you a little bowtie!

And boy did his Devilgram blow up with attention at the sight of your pictures.

You even inspired his newest clothing designs! Clothing for pets! Devildom didn’t have a cute variety of pet clothes, and while you weren’t a pet, you were very inspiring to look at.

Even pets deserved to look beautiful!

You were so soft to snuggle with but nighttime really made him miss you. Even in an innocent way, he missed skin-to-skin cuddling. It was always so reassuring.

But he didn’t have that.

He managed to get through the days that went by before Solomon finally turned you back.

And he was beginning to wonder if Solomon had drawn out your time as a sheep on purpose.

That didn’t matter, though. Not when he had to take you out on a date!

Beel:

Solomon was holding something soft and fluffy. Was it food? Cotton candy? It looked really sweet and tasty.

“Beel, no, it’s me!”

“MC...?”

He wasn’t happy once the situation was explained. But he didn’t show it. To be fair, he wasn’t the most outwardly expressive of his emotions unless it was necessary.

With Solomon’s promise to return you to normal, he just carried you back to the kitchen with him.

But he wasn’t hungry anymore. Not when his dear human was in a new and unusual form.

It caused him to go into a bit of a crisis, though.

What did sheep eat? What could YOU eat? You were a human in a sheep’s body after all. Did you have to eat what sheep ate or could you still eat your favorite things?

He sat there, staring at the cupboards and fridge, with the most worried look on his face.

To be fair, you weren’t sure either.

And you two stayed liked that until Satan said you could still eat whatever you liked, though it would be best to avoid meat unless it was basically shredded. 

Then came Beel’s next huge crisis: he was terrified of crushing you!

You were so tiny and delicate now, even more fragile than when you were a human.

It took a little convincing but Beel took to carrying you literally everywhere you wanted to go. He loved how soft you were.

Though you didn’t like how often he drooled on you because your fluff looked too tasty. You promised to get him cotton candy once you were a human again, which kind of helped the situation.

Beel even made sure to make everything you ate easy on you! He didn’t want anything to be hurtful to your little sheep body or hard for you to eat!

He didn’t hesitate to help you drink the reversal potion once Solomon got it made, holding his breath until he saw you in your proper state again.

He could breathe easy again. 

Belphie:

What was Solomon carrying? A new pillow or something?

It looked so soft and like it would be a perfect napping pillow.

He wasn’t even listening to anything Solomon had to say, the explanation going in one ear and out the other.

He was focused on going inside to use the new pillow.

Until he heard you talking to him after Solomon had given up on explaining anything.

Now he was mildly concerned. You weren’t you anymore. You were a sheep. He actually listened as you told him your story, unlike with Solomon, and he merely shrugged.

“Well, what can you do? You’ll be normal again eventually.”

You knew your grumpy demon, though. He was worried about you. But Belphie was never good at showing his worry for others unless it was drastic.

True to form, he passed out once he laid down again. You were held against him as if you might disappear while he slept.

It was all the more proof he was worried about your situation.

He still slept most of the time, he was like a cat in that he slept for hours without moving. You had to wiggle free to do anything. No one wanted to wake up to a sheep smelling like piss and you didn’t want a bath.

Belphie whined that taking care of you as a sheep was too much work, but the moment anyone tried to take you from him he immediately got defensive. He even threatened to break Mammon’s hands.

The only one he trusted with you was Beel.

Always sleeping holding your little sheep self did make him realize he wanted a stuffed animal version of you just like that.

It was so nice to snuggle with.

But he missed the normal you. He wanted to have you to lay on or go “star” gazing with. He wanted to do things with you again that weren’t quite possible with you as a sheep.

So he may have gone to find Solomon and threaten him if he didn’t turn you back quicker.

It was all for naught, as he came home to find you curled up in his bed in your human form once again.

He’d wake you up later. For now, he wanted to take another nap with you.

[dreamwritesimagines]

Burn The Witch 24 - Post Break Up [Bucky Barnes x Reader]

A.N: Thank you so much for your wonderful support and feedback my loves ! ❤ Here’s the next chapter, I hope you like it as well and please let me know what you think! ❤ Thank you! ❤❤❤

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader

Warnings: Enemies to lovers, lovers to enemies, fake dating, mentions of blood, sex, violence, death, manipulation, language, guns, knives.

Summary: Break ups are never easy.

Series Masterlist

A real spy, a good spy didn’t get scared.

That was one of the most important things they had taught you back at the academy. Being scared got you killed, so you always had to look for weapons or something you could use to save yourself.

Save yourself, take the target down if you can, and if you can’t; get out of there as soon as possible.

For some reason, none of those options felt like they would work against the most feared assassin in the world. Bucky tilted his head, his gaze bored into yours and you stole a look at the counter from the corner of your eye to see what you could use against him.

“Oh come on, do we really have to do that?”

You grabbed the knife on the counter, flipping it in your hand.

“What kind of an assassin would I be if I didn’t fight back?”

He pulled his brows together.

“Fight back?” he asked but before he could say anything else, you had already lunged at him. He dodged the knife way too easily and grabbed to twist your arm, but you went under his arm and jumped to wrap your legs around his neck, using the momentum to make him lose his balance before you both fell to the ground.

“Brings back the memories,” you grunted and he got out of your tight grip quite easily to grab at you, but you had already jumped on your feet. You darted at him and he sent you back, your back hitting the wall hard. You fell on your knees and snatched the knife off the floor but as soon as you got on your feet again, he let out a breath.

“I’m not going to hurt you, okay?”

A hysterical laughter escaped from your lips, “You do realize that it’s not my first day, right?”

“Do you seriously think I’d hurt you?”

“I think if somebody crossed me the way I crossed you, I wouldn’t let them live.”

“Yeah well, good thing I’m not you.”

You frowned slightly, trying to catch your breath as you held the knife tighter.

“Then what the fuck is this?” you asked, “Closure?”

“Oh no I think we’ve had closure,” he said, anger dripping off his voice, “This is a transaction.”

You stared at him and he reached into his pocket to pull out a thumb drive.

Well.

Okay. It was clear that you had misread this situation.

You put the knife on the table and crossed your arms, leaning back, “What is that?”

“This is the information of everyone I hurt on my Winter Soldier days,” he said, “Dates, names, occupations…. Your father’s name isn’t on it.”

Your stomach did a painful flip, “I know,” you rasped out, “I… um- I found out after I left that night.”

“HYDRA doesn’t have anything on your father, as far as I’ve seen.”

You nodded slowly, “And you’re helping me why?”

“I’m not helping you,” he stated, “I just know how it feels to be manipulated into doing something. Everyone deserves answers, no matter how terrible people they are.”

Well, you deserved that and much more.

“I see,” you said, “Well, for what it’s worth, thank you.”

He eyed you up and down silently.

“Why did you try to get me out of the country?” he asked after a beat, “That night? Why did you try to help?”

You bit inside your cheek, commanding yourself to stay strong.

“Does it matter after this point?” you asked back and he let out a breath, shaking his head.

“I guess not,” he mumbled and walked to the window, making you take a step towards him.

“Can I—“ you spoke before he could jump out, making him turn around to look at you, “Can I ask you something?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Why would you not want revenge?” you asked, “It’s assassin 101. Why not come after me for all these months?”

Why didn’t you try to find me?

That was what you wanted to ask. As twisted as it was, you would’ve taken him coming after you over him forgetting about you.

Well, as it turned out, no one could say assassins were reasonable people when it came to romance.

“I’m not that person anymore,” he said, “And honestly? You’re not worth it.”

Ah. That.

You could swear your heart was cracking but you pursed your lips together, forcing yourself to look unaffected.

“Fair enough,” you rasped out and took a deep breath. “Goodbye Bucky.”

He swallowed thickly, his gaze fixed on you.

“Goodbye Shrike,” he murmured and jumped out of the window, leaving you all alone, standing there in the middle of your apartment. You blinked back the tears, then ran a hand over your face.

“Get your shit together,” you murmured to yourself, then grabbed the wine glass to down it.

                                             *

The next day you were so busy with the HYDRA files Bucky had given you that you barely noticed Keith pulling a seat to plop down beside you.

“Hi there.”

“Hey,” you said without pulling your gaze off the screen as Keith put a cup of coffee on the table. “Thanks man.”

“No problem. What’re you working on?”

“Oh just some old files.”

“Old files? Where did you get them?”

“Bucky gave them to me last night.”

Keith sputtered out his coffee, causing you to make a face and grab the napkins to wipe the screen.

“Is this your first time they let you out into the real world or something?” you asked him, “Like, what is this? Were you raised in a barn? I don’t want your fucking germs—“

“Screw you. You met Barnes last night?” he lowered his voice, looking around and you shrugged.

“Met is the wrong word.”

“Y/N, what the fuck?”

“It’s not like I texted him to meet!” you whispered, “He just showed up!”

“Okay, we need to give you some protection—“

“No, and you’re not telling anyone.”

“You’re not safe!” he whispered and you shook her head.

“He’s not gonna hurt me.”

“Y/N-“

“He’s not,” you cut him off, “If he wanted me dead, I’d be dead. I talk big talk, but trust me if he came after me, I wouldn’t stand a chance. I actually saw that last night.”

“Why was he there?”

“To give me this thumb drive,” you said, “I’m just going through this HYDRA stuff to see whether they had something on my father, whether— I don’t know, whether I missed something on our files.”

“We checked everything we had on HYDRA.”

“I’m just making sure.”

“What did he say?”

“Hm?”

“What did you talk about last night, when he showed up?”

“You know, typical break up stuff,” you murmured before peeling your eyes off the screen. “He broke into my apartment, gave me a thumb drive with top secret information and oh—before I forget, he said I wasn’t worth going after.”

He blinked a couple of times, staring at you.

“I’m sorry?”

“So much for civil exes huh?”

“More like evil exes,” he commented, “You know he’s being a jerk to you because you tore his heart out, right?”

“I can’t really blame him,” you muttered, “He’s right to be upset.”

“But are you okay?”

You scoffed a laugh, “I betrayed the one person who I could see a future with,” you admitted, “And six months apparently wasn’t enough to get over him. So no, Keith, I’m really not okay.”

He pressed his lips together.

“What if we got you out there? You know, maybe you can’t get over someone without getting under someone.”

“I’ve had sex in the last six months, that’s not working.”

“Barnes hasn’t.”

That was enough to make you turn your head, your whole attention on him.

“What?”

“We’ve um… we’ve kept an eye on Barnes and Wilson, you know, what they have been doing. Barnes isn’t even meeting people.”

“Maybe he is and you don’t know.”

“Nope,” he said, “He and Captain America have been going on their own missions, but since Accords 2.0 didn’t pass, we can’t touch them.”

You tilted your head, “Hold on, what missions?”

A big grin pulled at Keith’s lips.

“Y/N, are you asking me to share classified information with you?”

You arched a brow and eyed you up and down, then steered your office chair a little to the left.

“I’m glad you came back,” he said, dragging his fingers on the touchpad to find the files, “Things were getting a little boring here.”

                                                    *

As a spy, finding targets wasn’t something you were unfamiliar with. In fact, since coming back here you were beginning to feel less like a professional spy and more like a rookie in training. You were growing restless every minute you weren’t working, and maybe that was why you were dying to keep yourself busy with something.

Even if that something was completely forbidden by your agency and you would probably be sent to another country again if they ever found that out.

So searching for where Bucky and Sam were using the agency’s resources was probably a bad idea, yet there you were.

You took a deep breath, then approached their table and plopped down to the seat next to Bucky’s.

“You’re going after HYDRA’s leader?”

Bucky’s head whipped up and Sam gawked at you for a second before pulling his brows together.

“What the…”

“Who’s your source?”

“What are you doing here?” Bucky asked through his teeth and you crossed your arms.

“Paying back the favor.”

“Well don’t. I don’t want you here.”

“How did you even know-“

“I’m a spy, Sam,” you stated, “And the agency has been watching you, do you guys seriously think we've left you alone?”

“I was actually hoping you’d leave me alone, yeah.” Bucky growled through his teeth and your heart dropped to your stomach, but you managed to shake your head.

“I don’t—“

“Your agency has been keeping tracks on us?”

You nibbled on your lip, “Just because Accords 2.0 was a failure…” you trailed off and Bucky scoffed, drumming his metal fingers on the table.

“Why are you here?”

“Listen I get it, you hate me,” you said, “Fine. Not a big deal, I can live with that. But I just- I can help.”

Bucky stared at you as if he was waiting for you to say you were joking, but when you didn’t, he let out a bitter laugh.

“You’re not serious, right?”

“Bucky,” Sam said warningly and he threw his hands up.

“You can’t possibly be entertaining this.”

“I’m just asking what the agency knows, that’s all.”

You heaved a deep sigh, trying your hardest not to show your disappointment on your face. It wasn’t like you expected Bucky to welcome you, but you were at least hoping—

Well.

It didn’t matter what you were hoping, it was very obvious that Bucky would never forgive you.

“They’ve just been keeping tracks on you,” you said, “I don’t think any of them put the clues together, and they can’t touch you even if they did, you’d have to do something first. Especially after the last fail—“

“Oh you mean when they took me in after you lied to me about everything and leashed them on me?” Bucky asked you, “That fail?”

You clicked your tongue, “Yeah. That one.”

“Un-fucking-believable.”

“Bucky.”

“But I’ve been going after different HYDRA officials for the last couple of years, and I’ve spent the last 6 months going over everything we had on them, I know some of their locations. So going after HYDRA leader then? Or his super secret location? Why?”

Bucky narrowed his eyes, “Forgive me if I’m not in a sharing mood after learning about what a liar you are. As far as you’re concerned, we’re not doing anything.”

“But I’m trying to make amends—“

“Not interested.” Bucky cut you off and you swallowed thickly.

“You’ve seen me fight,” you insisted, “You’ve— you’ve seen how good I am at my job, okay? I just— I swear I won’t say anything to the agency, just let me help.”

Sam looked between you two and turned to Bucky.

“That’s not such a—“

“Don’t say it.”

“Even you have to admit, that’s not a terrible idea.”

“You’d have to be crazy to think you can trust her,” Bucky argued back, “I get that you always want to see the best in people, but you can’t, not with her.”

“I’m sitting right here,” you reminded him and Bucky shrugged his shoulders.

“I know, feel free to leave.”

“Don’t,” Sam told you and Bucky frowned.

“You’re joking.”

“Bucky, she could help.”

“And then turn us in.”

“The agency lied to me about my father, I’m not going to turn you in or do anything to have me manipulated by them again. Whatever the mission is, they won’t know about it, you have my word.”

“Because your word holds any value for me?” Bucky asked you, his voice way too calm and you clenched your jaw.

“The mission doesn’t require a honey trap,” he said when you didn’t answer his rhetorical question, “Thanks for the offer though, Y/N. Go to hell.”

With that, he walked out of the café and you just sat there completely frozen. You could swear your heart weighed a ton in your chest, and your eyes were burning but you quickly blinked the tears back, then shrugged your shoulders.

“That went well.”

“Do you really want to help?” Sam asked after a couple of seconds of silence and you nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

You scoffed a bitter laugh, “Other than apparently signing my own death warrant?” you asked, “I owe him. He doesn’t want to go after me for using him, fine. He still deserves justice. HYDRA destroyed his life, the least I can do is help him get back at them, make them pay.”

Sam raised his brows, “You feel that guilty huh?”

You didn’t have any answer to that, and he took a deep breath.

“Can I trust you?”

“You can,” you murmured, “I want you to, but… I wouldn’t.”

“Okay. Let me rephrase the question, will you betray his trust again?”

There was no hesitation in your voice when you spoke, “I’d rather die.”

Sam held your gaze as if trying to see whether you were sincere or not, then cleared his throat.

“Let me think about it,” he said, “I’m not saying no, okay? Let me think about it and talk with him.”

You nodded slowly, “Thank you.”

He shot you a small smile, then walked out of the café, leaving you alone there. You shut your eyes, leaning your head back and letting out a breath.

“Great,” you muttered, “This should be fun.”

Chapter 25