#it started off as a joke but now its a proper term of endearment between them

[sphylor]

Aether calling Dew "Pancake". thats his nickname for him. Pancake. thats it. thats the post.

[tomtenadia]

Blind mistake

Rowaelin month - day 8

So, this fic was fighting me at the beginning. as I started, deleted and restarted a million times.

Then slowly the idea came and here it is. What I was not expecting was to write a A Little Braver AU.

Aelin and Rowan meet under different circumstances and are two different people from thee actual story. Aelin is still the captain at east station and Rowan still the airforce captain.

Yes, this is a happier fic but as Aelin said in KoA... she loved Rowan because it was him, the man who had known pain as deep as hers.

IN order to enjoy this fic you do not need to have read ALB. A part from Pete popping up for a brief second at the end, this is a complete stand alone story and no knowledge of ALB is needed.

Rowan sighed. His love life sucked so much that he ended up using a dating app. Since Lyria dumped him a year before he had been struggling to go back in the game. He had been on a few dates but so far none of the women he met had sparked his curiosity. Far too bland and with almost no personality or far too bothered by looks. Some of them had been downright stupid and he had been a gentleman and played along when all he wanted to do was run away screaming. The last nightmare had been a woman called Remelle who Lorcan had recommended to him. He had to feign food poisoning and pay the chef to let him escape from the back of the restaurant to flee the monster. He had paid the bill sneakily, and once home he had insulted Lorcan and his poor taste in women.

Now he was again in a restaurant, ready for probably another fiasco. He and the woman had chatted a bit and she had seemed interesting so he had dared to ask her out and she had accepted. On the paper it was all good. In reality he was getting ready for another crazy escape. Maybe he should just give up and live alone and become a grumpy old man.

He had a kingsflame on the table near him, their code to recognise each other at the restaurant. The fact that they knew very little about each other made him nervous. It was a recipe for disaster. He knew she was a personal shopper and that she liked movies and music. He was really dreading the encounter now, and started to realise that perhaps it had been a mistake. She could have lied.

Until he raised his head and he noticed the woman who had just entered the restaurant. He then spotted the flower pinned on her green dress as they had agreed. Gods, the woman was way too hot for him. There was a catch somewhere. His heart raced when realisation dawned on her face and she waved and started to walk to him. The smile. Damn, the smile could stop a man’s heart. The woman walking toward him was a goddess. He was expecting her to turn away for another table until she sat down in front of him at his table. Rowan was speechless.

“Sorry, I am late. Accident on the ring road. I stopped to give a hand to west station.” She used her hand to brush off the smudge of grease he had only just noticed she had.

“You stopped?”

“Yes,” she looked at him with a strange light in her eyes “I am a firefighter. I am the captain at east station.”

Rowan blinked twice. Shit. She was the wrong woman. She was not here for him. Of course. It was too good to be true. She had sat at the wrong table and a part of him was sad.

“I am Aelin.” she said and he knew that it had dawned on her as well that he was not her date “You are not Chaol.”

Rowan shook his head “I am Rowan.”

“Holy shit. I saw the kingsflame. The restaurant. And you smiled at me when I came in. I just assumed...” He did not want her to go. 

“Ach, I was having second thoughts anyway.” He shrugged.

In that moment the waiter came and they were hesitant for a moment then Aelin grabbed the menu and started ordering, surprising him. Rowan got some wine for both and they placed as well their order.

“Our dates are late anyway. Maybe stuck in the horrendous traffic out there.”

“You will not hear me complain.” Said Rowan with a smile “so, you stopped and helped?”

Aelin nodded, sipping a bit of her wine “I couldn’t resist it. West station was there but there were so many cars involved that I had to something. The traffic wasn’t moving anyway.”

Rowan could not believe the woman in front of him. Not only she was a goddess. She had even stopped to help her colleagues save people from a car crash on her way to a date. Where had she been all his life?

The waiter came with their order and smiled at the expression of joy when Aelin looked at the amount of food in front of her. Another point for her. She had an appetite. He had no need of another date ordering a boring salad. He was a healthy eater but loved a woman with an appetite, especially because he loved cooking.

“So Rowan, what do you do?” She asked him while tackling the gigantic prawn on her seafood tagliatelle.

“I am an airforce pilot. I am a captain.”

Her face lit up “as in the uniform and all? And the awesome planes?”

Rowan nodded.

Aelin was about to take another sip of her wine when two figures stopped at their table. A brown-haired man and a blonde woman. Both had a kingsflames pinned on their dresses.

“Excuse me but you are with my date.” Said the stranger.

Rowan looked up from his risotto “finders keepers.”

“And he is my date.” Said the woman in a shrill voice.

“What he said.” Added Aelin while eating another prawn.

“We got stuck in traffic. There is a massive road accident on the ring road.” Chaol complained, not letting it go.

“Yeah I know. I stopped to help and I still made it here before you.”

“So what does this mean?” Asked Chaol.

Aelin stared at Rowan. It was a no brainer. Chaol was cute but Rowan was sex on two legs. Between the silver hair and the green eyes he ticked all of the boxes. And he was a pilot. Chaol was an accountant.

“You two can go on a date together.” She suggested and hoped they took the hint.

“That is rude.”

“Oh shoot,” said Aelin covering her mouth in fake surprise “I must have left the fucks I have to give in my bunker gear.”

Chaol looked at her aghast. The blonde woman turned on her heels and left.

“You missed an opportunity.” He added before he left as well.

As soon as he left Rowan burst into laughter and she joined him “no fucks to give…” he said trying to catch his breath “I have to steal this when my CO drives me nuts.”

“Ansel, one of my firefighters, she taught me that.”

“It’s fucking perfect.” 

And both resumed their dinner without the awkwardness of a blind date. No stupid questions like how many siblings do you have or what is your favourite colour. No, with Rowan there had been a connection from the start and the joke had been the final proof.

“Most guys would have left running at my joke. I have a big and foul mouth. Not very lady-like.” She apologised. “I work in a male dominated place. Apart from Ansel and my two paramedics, I am surrounded by guys and well, they are not easily scared.”

Rowan chuckled “I am in the military. My CO uses fuck you as a term of endearment and one of my lieutenants has the record for the most innuendos in a sentence.”

“How many?” Asked Aelin curios.

“Ten.”

“No friggin’ way.”

Rowan nodded solemnly. Then looked at her and he was glad she sat at his table mistaking him for another man. They had known each other only for twenty minutes but he was dumbstruck by the woman.

She was fierce, intelligent and with a wicked sense of humour.

The meal had been perfect. Aelin had polished every single plate in front of her and also ordered dessert. And when she offered to pay for half the bill he had smiled. He had plenty of dates where the woman didn’t even offer. She took it for granted that he, being the man, was the one paying. He had no issues with that, he was happy to pay, but the fact that Aelin offered made him realise that she was different.

They left the restaurant and he gasped when he saw a red pickup reading Terrasen fire department on its livery, parked just outside the restaurant.

“Way to scare the patrons away.” He joked.

“Sorry. Yesterday I took a lift to work from a colleague and I forgot for a moment that I had a set the date for tonight after my shift. So I grabbed my work pickup to get here. I need to go back to the firehouse and return it.”

“I’ll follow, you drop off the pickup and then I drive you home.”

“I can take a cab, you don’t have to come all the way to the station and back.”

“Humour me,” he said giving her a beautiful smile and she accepted.

Ten minutes later they were at east station and she parked the pickup in its corner at the side and out of the way.

She saw Rowan getting off the car.

“Welcome to east station.” She said extending her arms. She pushed a button and the rolling doors slid up and two big trucks appeared in front of him. He had always wanted to see one up close.

“Cap,” said a man at her back “what are you doing here? I thought you were on a date?” He smiled “that bad? I told you accountants were a bad idea.”

Aelin laughed “looks like I got myself an airforce pilot instead.” She winked at him and Rowan’s heart skipped a beat.

“I’ll tell you next shift, Pete. I just brought back the pickup before Dorian kills me.”

She waved at her relief captain and followed Rowan in his car and told him her address.

While he drove she studied him. He was wearing a nice pair of jeans, a shirt and a black leather jacket. She should have guessed he was military. Aedion had the same posture and he was ex-army.

“Which house?” Asked Rowan, waking her up from her thoughts.

“The one with the blue door.”

He parked and walked with her up to the door “I had so much fun tonight,” she said to him, not wanting him to leave her.

“I am so glad that you sat at the wrong table. This was the best blind date ever.” He looked at her and wanted to kiss her so badly but they had just met and he did not want to pass a a pig.

She moved a step toward him “I am glad too.” And her lips brushed his cheek in a kiss “perhaps we could go on a proper date. One where we are actually meant to meet each other.”

Rowan sighed relieved “It would make me very happy.”

Aelin rummaged in her bag until she found a pen then grabbed his wrist and pulled up his cuff a bit and wrote down two numbers.

“The first one is my personal mobile number. The second one is the direct number to my office. I am known to leave my mobile in my bunker gear.”

“Thank you.”

“Let me know a date and if I am not free we can find a better one. Us firefighters have crazy long shifts so I need to be off.”

He took her pen and her wrist and wrote his number “then you text me. A day that you are off shift. I work regular hours. This makes more sense.”

He took a step down from the few step and she hated the idea of him leaving.

“Goodnight, Rowan.” She opened the door and looked at him one last time.

Rowan waited for her to disappear behind the door and then went back to his car and was grateful for the best blind mistake of his life.

[starshine583]

could you do A for the soul mate thing with felinette?

(Sorry it took me so long to reply! I’m still trying to keep up with my schedule for the “New Girl on the Block” fic, but rest assured that I’m totally writing all of the requests for this when I can! The next one I’m going to be working on is V for Daminette. I hope you enjoy the snippet and thank you for the ask!!)

If someone had the choice between technical immortality and certain death, it should be safe to assume that that person would accept the former. Technical immortal was the only logical option, after all. No one wanted to die. And yet, people chose death everyday. In fact, they were obsessed with it, because certain death guaranteed one thing that immortality couldn’t: a soulmate. 

When a person turns eighteen, their aging process freezes due to some strange magic that scientists still can’t explain. From then on, that person will remain eighteen until they find their soulmate, specifically until they touch their soulmate directly with bare skin. Once their soulmate is found, they will begin aging as usual, as if they’d never become temporarily immortal in the first place. Some people speculate that this gives the two soulmates a chance to grow old together.

Felix, personally, believed that it gave him a chance to harbor an unlimited life span free of charge. Who needs a soulmate when you can explore all of the things in the world that are normally hindered by the aging process? There were too many things that he wanted to accomplish for him to worry about something as fickle as love or relationships. 

One of those things happened to be building up the fashion empire that he had inherited.

It was hard to gain the respect that he deserved at first considering his physical appearance made him seem like a child, but once people found out that he was in his late twenties, it made things much easier. Now, three years has passed since his accepting the role of acting CEO, and the company’s success rate has been steadily rising until their profits were through the roof. He’s quite proud of it, if he’s being honest.

Felix straightened the papers on his desk and set them to the side, catching the glimpse of his golden wrist watch as he did so. The little hand pointed towards one in the morning, telling him that he’d spent another late night at the office. He didn’t mind, though. These were the things that needed to be done for his company to excel.

However, he also needed sleep for the company to excel, and this seemed like a good stopping point if ever he saw one, so Felix stood from his rolling chair to begin gathering his things to leave. 

“Hey, Sir, are you up there?” A voice crackled across the intercom. Felix paused his preparations to smile at it. It was the unmistakable voice of Marinette Dupain-Cheng, his personal secretary for the last two years (and his close friend for the last year and a half). They always happened to work late on the same nights, didn’t they?

He pressed the glowing red button on the intercom. “You know I am. What do you need?”

“I’m working on another piece for a fashion show. I want your input.”

Felix chuckled. How many of her pieces had he given his input on now?

“I’ll be down there in a second.”

“You’re the best!”

Felix set his stuff back on the desk and moved towards the door to his office. He hesitated briefly when he spotted his black, leather gloves on the edge of his desk- he made a point to wear them constantly, along with a number of other pieces of clothing, so he could avoid direct skin contact with others. No sense in taking any chances -but decided to leave them alone for once. Marinette should be the only other person in the office, anyway. It wouldn’t make a difference.

He took an elevator down to the second floor, where most of his top designers worked, and walked over to the desk that had its lamp turned on. He’d know which desk was hers either way- could probably find it in his sleep at this point -but it was a nice give away.

Marinette was crouched on the floor when he got there, stabbing a needle into some material that was draped across a mannequin. Her eyes were narrowed with concentration, and her tongue was poking out of her lips as it always did when she was working hard. Felix held back a snort at the endearing sight and glanced around her desk while he waited for her to notice his presence. 

When she first joined his company, she was a budding fashion designer, someone who had been gaining a bit of fame for working with Gabriel Agreste, Jagged Stone, Aubrey Bourgeois, and many other note-worthy people. Apparently, she thought it was time to build a business of her own, and therefore, applied for the job as his personal secretary in an effort to gain experience on how a business should be run before actually starting anything. 

The notion admittedly impressed Felix. People rarely thought to find personal experience in running a business before actually starting one. They normally just took a class and hoped that it paid off. Someone with that kind of rational thinking was someone he knew he wanted in his company, though, so he agreed to hire her, even if she would still be working independently on personal commissions.

Now that two years had passed, she would probably be leaving any minute now to become her own boss. It might be in a week, or in a few months, perhaps even a year, but he found himself dreading it no matter how long she continued to work for him. He’d grown quite accustomed to having her in his life, be it getting lunch together or going over the morning schedule or giving each other advice on their work. The quiet moments they shared made work life a little more enjoyable and made those rare nights of loneliness from refusing a soulmate a little more tolerable too. 

“Oh, Felix!” 

Felix’s eyes dragged back down to Marinette, who was staring up at him with wide eyes.

“When did you get down here?”

A small smile crossed his lips. “You know how it used to be one in the morning?”

Marinette tisked, picking up on his light-hearted tone. “Oh, whatever. If you don’t want to get stuck waiting then tell me when you get here. Now, come look at this and tell me what you think.”

She stood up and moved away from the mannequin, then gestured for Felix to step closer, which he gladly obliged to do. The outfit hanging on the mannequin was a dress that appeared to have several layers and a few frills. It seemed to be made out of silk on the inside, and on the inside was another material that had an antique, flower pattern. The way the materials were sown together, though, and the things she must have added to the flower pattern, didn’t  give off the impression of it being old or outdated. It was a mix between old and new that created a unique combination.

“I think it looks fine.” He said after studying it.

Marinette groaned. “Fine doesn’t help me, Felix. What does it strike you as? Stunning? Charming? Old-Fashioned? I know you have more descriptive terms than ‘fine’ in that word bank brain of yours.”

Felix laughed. “Work bank brain?”

“You know what I mean.”

He does.

“Alright, Alright.” He knelt down next to the outfit again. “Might I inquire about your purpose for this garment?”

“See, there are fancy words you use all the time.” She remarked teasingly, even though she often used the same words herself. “I’m trying to create a modern Victorian type of style for my next show.”

Felix hummed. “Can I see the sketches?”

“Oh, yeah, they’re right over here.”

The pair moved back to Marinette’s desk, and she sat down in her rolling chair to slide a paper towards him. Felix leaned towards Marinette, placing his palms on the desk for balance.

“So, if you look at- oh!” Marinette had just started explaining her original thoughts for the design, when their hands brushed against each other. She drew her hand back immediately, surprise reflecting in her bluebell eyes.

“You’re not wearing any gloves.”

“Ah.” Felix drew his hands back as well. “No, I’m not. I figured they were a waste of time tonight, since it’s only us here.”

“Oh..” Marinette said. “I don’t think I’ve ever touched your bare skin before.. N-not that I’m keeping track or anything! Wow, that sounded so weird-”

Felix, being used to her ramblings by now, only chuckled. “It’s alright. I don’t think we’ve ever touched like that either.”

In fact, he knew they hadn’t, because he does keep track of who he does and doesn’t touch with his bare skin. So far, he’s managed to maintain a low count of five or so, but he supposed adding one more to the list didn’t hurt.

“Anyway, I like the way it looks. The colors combine nicely, and I can certainly see where you’re coming from with the modern, yet old-fashioned design. I’m sure people will enjoy them, especially for costume parties.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Marinette smiled. “Thanks for your help.”

“Of course. I’m actually on my way out the door, but don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything else.”

“You know I won’t.”

Felix laughed and pushed himself off of the desk to begin making his way back to the elevator. “Make sure you leave soon too.”

“Yeah, yeah, I will.. Eventually.”

Felix threw her a playful glare over his shoulder. “I’m not kidding, Dupain-Cheng. If I see bags under those eyes tomorrow, you’re going to be fired until you get a proper night’s sleep.”

“Thank goodness for make-up then.” She joked back.

Felix rolled his eyes and bid her farewell as he entered the elevator, and her soft call of “Goodnight, Boss” managed to reach him right before the doors slid closed.

-

The next morning began as any other morning. Felix woke up to his blaring alarm clock, forced himself out of bed, and started the brew for his morning coffee. He then dragged himself over to the bathroom to get ready for the day, starting with his hair.

The mirror provided a picture of his sluggish figure as he combed his platinum blond locks to the side. His hair didn’t seem to care to cooperate that morning though, because his cowlick was refusing to lay aside as they were told. No matter how many times he combed over it, the chaotic locks refused to budge.

Felix huffed and leaned closer to the mirror, but before he could continue furiously coming his hair, something caught his attention.

At the front of his bangs, dangling loosely to the side of his face, was a single, grey hair.

Felix frowned, moving even closer to the mirror to get a better. It was definitely a grey hair, but why on earth would he have one? People at the age of eighteen didn’t get grey hairs, and he’d never gotten one before. The only reason he could possibly get a grey hair out of the blue like this was if-

Felix froze, his eyes blowing wide. No.. no, it couldn’t be. There’s no way he found his soulmate. It was impossible. The aging process only started when he touched them directly, skin to skin, and he’d been horribly precise not to do so with anyone under any circumstances. 

Well.. anyone except..

A knock came from the front door.

Although his mind was racing for answers, Felix pulled himself together enough to throw on a robe and go answer the door. 

Imagine his surprise when he found none other than Marinette standing right outside.

She looked up at him, her figure tense, and a certain anxiety painted her features. He wanted to ask what she was doing there, or why she hadn’t called to tell him that she was coming, but all he could do was stare. Perhaps it was because a part of him already knew why she’d come to visit him. She was the only person he’s touched directly in the last year, the only person who could have caused his hair to change.

Slowly, Marinette held up a strand of her hair. It was hard to make out, being a single strand, but Felix didn’t need to see it know it was grey too.

They stared at each other, both floored by the discovery, but then Felix almost had to laugh. Because of course it was her. Of course the person who he had come to know and adore and yearn to be around daily would be his soulmate. He should have known that soulmates would find each other eventually, whether they had “Soulmate Magic” to guide them or not.

Before he could say anything, Marinette let out a grieved sigh and buried her face in her hands.

“Oh, Felix, I.. I’m so sorry!”

For a moment, Felix stalled, and worry started to set in. She’s sorry? Why would she be sorry?

“What do you mean?”

Marinette looked up from her hands. “I know you didn’t want to find your soulmate and start aging. I should have noticed your ungloved and been more careful, but I just wasn’t thinking, and-”

Felix blinked as she continued rambling. This girl was apologizing to him because she accidentally found out that they were soulmates. She wasn’t thinking about how much she’d wanted to find her soulmate- because he knew that she did -or that she would have gone without a soulmate for the rest of her life had she not made the discovery. No, she was thinking about him and what he had wanted, just as she always did.

“Marinette.” He said, taking her by the shoulders. “Marinette, stop.”

The ravenette paused, glancing up at him with her beautiful, concerned eyes, and he felt himself smile. 

“If anyone had to be stuck as my soulmate.. I can’t express how delighted I am that it’s you.”

A wonderful blush tinted her cheeks. “R-Really? But I thought- what about being immortal?”

Felix chuckled, and he reached out to cup her cheek. “Immortality’s a small price to pay to have you.. if you’ll have me too, that is.”

Marinette exhaled, looking completely baffled, but that didn’t stop her from grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him into a kiss.

“Yes.” She breathed, a shining smile coming to her features. “Yes, of course I’ll have you.”

Felix couldn’t help grinning as well, and as he pressed another kiss to her lips, he wondered how it could have taken him so long to realize what the soulmate magic was really all about. It wasn’t a choice between immortality or death, but rather a choice between immortality and life. All of the things he’d been searching for- fame, fortune, glory -and the experiences he’d been chasing meant nothing without Marinette by his side. She was the one who made him feel truly alive, and he never wanted to live without her again.

(Send me a letter and I’ll write a thing!)

[spartanguard]

babyfaced

Summary: A bet gone awry forces Killian to get rid of his beard for a month. going beardless makes him look significantly younger; but the clock turns back on more than just his face. | rated T; 2.2k words

dedicated to @xpumpkindumplingx​ who told me to “do the thing” and @thesschesthair​ because this is either up her alley or the exact opposite of it.

A/N: just a bit of a crack fic inspired by this post (and the fact that Colin O’Donoghue is a freaking baby face when he shaves), but plus magic—because it’s Storybrooke and we can. header image taken by @lillpon.

Killian sighed heavily and stared at himself in the mirror, committing his face to memory. He ran a hand over his well-maintained scruff, relishing the feel of it against his palm for the last time for the foreseeable future.

“C’mon, Killian—it’s just a shave,” David shouted from outside the restroom at Granny’s.

It was a stupid bet, which of course Killian, in all his cocky arrogance, had taken Dave up on. And it was just his dumb luck that David would have the best darts game of his life and Killian his worst.

So now Killian had to shave off his beard and remain bare-faced for a month. (A month that was typically biting cold and he was always grateful for the bit of a barrier his beard provided.) He hadn’t gone without a beard since...well, not since he was capable of growing one. And there was a reason for that.

But he was nothing if not a man of his word, so with one last caress of his beloved stubble, he picked up the shaving implements he’d been provided with and set to work.

Although he had to send a disparaging glare at the can of shaving foam, labeled as Baby Face Shaving Cream. It was already mocking him. But at least Granny kept straight blades on hand, so he was able to complete the task at hand with some familiarity—even if it meant the result staring back at him was anything but.

Head hung down, he finally emerged from the lavatory to his waiting father-in-law. He could already hear David snickering.

“What, trying to hide? Come on—give me the full view.”

Killian gripped the can of shaving cream so hard he thought it might burst as he huffed and shifted his weight between his feet. “Must I?”

“Unless you plan on looking at the ground for the next month, then yeah.”

Best just get it over with. “Fine.” And he lifted his head to look David straight in the eyes.

It was simultaneously amusing and embarrassing the way Dave’s eyes grew wide at the sight. “Wow, you weren’t kidding—you really do look 10 years younger. Or a hundred and ten, or whatever.”

“No, I wasn’t. So please get all your infant jokes out now.”

David gave all he could in that department on the short walk back to the dining area, and had wrapped them up by the time Killian slumped into the booth next to Emma. He was back to trying to hide his chin and keenly felt the sensation of all eyes being on him, which just made him want to melt into the vinyl cushions even more.

As much as could be said for his leather jackets and kohl, that beard was part of the armor he used against the world, in addition to helping give him a commanding appearance. Without it, he felt much like a lost youth again, and oddly naked.

But then Emma’s hand was on his (very smooth) cheek, turning his face towards her. He heard her hitch her breath and that drew his attention, finally forcing him to look back up. She was studying him intently, and brushing the back of her fingers across his bare skin. Her brow was furrowed and to his surprise, he couldn’t tell why.

“Is it alright, love?” he asked quietly; if she hated it, then the deal with Dave was off.

But then a smirk took over her features. “It’s adorable,” she gushed, much to his consternation; he hung his head yet again. “No, Killian—come on,” she protested, and pulled his chin back up. “It’s different, but a good kind—it’s like seeing you in high school or something.”

“See? I look like a teenager. This is ridiculous.”

“I think you look very sweet, Killian,” Snow said from the other side of the booth, but that didn’t help much.

“Exactly,” Emma agreed. “You are a softie, Killian Jones, and for once, you look like it.”

He did have to admit: the way Emma couldn’t keep her hands off his face did have a perk, and she seemed to enjoy peppering his smooth cheeks with kisses (he also conceded that it felt nice to have her lips right against his skin). But the stares and smirks from everyone else meant it was going to be a long, long month.

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

With the way his facial hair grew, he had to shave at least twice a week to maintain a satisfactory level of clean shaven-ness. Granny had let him keep the shaving cream they’d found at the bed & breakfast, even though she herself wasn’t sure how long it’d been there. At least it had a nice, clean scent, and seemed to take decent care of his skin, if the way Emma continued to caress his face each morning was anything to go by.

Although one day, a week or so later, she did narrow her gaze on him. “Have you been using my eye cream?” she asked.

“No; just the normal facial moisturizer,” he answered.

“Huh; must be something in that shaving cream, then, because your crows’ feet aren’t as deep.”

He shrugged; he knew there were plenty of ways of reducing the appearance of age in this realm with proper skin care, so it was to be assumed that once he started doing the same, it might have some affect. “I’m sure it’s only temporary, then, as you give me abundant reasons to smile every day.”

She just grinned and kissed him.

He did notice, though, that as time went on, his beard didn’t seem to fill in as much as it used to. It was mildly concerning, but he figured it just had to do with the fact that he was starting over from square one every time it began to regrow; once the month was up, it would return to its normal level of thickness.

A couple weeks in, he wondered if he might even be shaving too often, when red bumps began to appear on his chin; it reminded him of the zits he would get in his adolescence. God, he would probably blend in with the high schoolers, between the lack of beard and appearance of acne. At least he had his chest hair to rely on.

But—was it just him, or was that looking a little thin, too?

Perhaps he was just seeing things. Perhaps he was just tired, too—he found himself feeling rather...vigorous lately, which had led to some late nights with Emma. (Several.) Usually, she was the insatiable one, calling him “old man” and other teasing endearments, but for once, he had more stamina than her. 

“You’re not taking Viagra or anything, are you?” she asked, breathless, one night.

“Taking what?”

“Never mind.” (Even if she didn’t have another round in her, she still couldn’t keep her hands from his chin. Maybe this wasn’t so bad.)

With the extra energy in his system, he started to spend more time on his ship, and even took up running. It was giving him a leanness he hadn’t had since he was a lanky lad, and did lead to some oddly timed naps, but mostly just left him hungry.

“Are you sure everything’s okay?” Emma asked after he polished off far more of a pizza than he normally did.

“Aye, love—perfectly fine,” he assured her, though her worry was causing the same in him. “Why?”

“I don’t know; it’s like...with your face looking so much younger, all of you seems to be a little younger.”

His brow furrowed at that—but at the same time, he knew it was fairly impossible. 

Still, the idea lingered, as well as the sense that he’d somehow disappointed Emma. He found his mood changing on a dime during the last week of the terms of the bet, at times feeling depressed and lonely, and daring and joyous at others. It nearly gave him whiplash.

He sought once to calm his nerves in a glass of rum but, oddly, couldn’t stomach it like he used to.

It was while having a conversation with Emma and David at the station and his voice cracked that he finally realized something was amiss.

“God, you even sound like a pubescent teenager,” Dave teased, but Emma immediately became concerned.

“Okay, something weird is definitely going on,” she said, then came over to assess him. “Do you feel different anywhere? Did someone hit you with a spell or something?”

Suddenly feeling annoyed, he shrugged her off and stepped away. “Bloody hell, no! I don’t know what’s happening. I just know I’m emotional and have too much energy and it feels like everyone hates me and—”

He was cut off when Emma pulled him into a hug—quite possibly one of the best feeling hugs he’d ever had, and he immediately sank into it. “That better?”

“Aye,” he said into her shoulder.

“Sometimes, you just need a hug. It helps Henry.”

He rolled his eyes, but was glad she couldn’t see it. “Yeah, but you’re not my mum.”

“No; it still helps though.” She pulled away. “Can you stay here while I go check something? Make yourself a cocoa, okay?”

“Okay,” he muttered. She placed a peck on his cheek, gave her father an oddly angry look, then headed out.

“What was that about?” Dave wondered aloud.

Killian just shrugged. “I dunno. Want cocoa?”

“Sure.”

They shared a mug (Killian may have doubled up on cocoa packets in his) and were chilling on the couch when Emma returned, holding a vial. “What’s that?” he asked, standing, as she came in.

“Stand right there and don’t move,” she commanded. “Dad, come over by me.”

Both guys did as asked, and Emma popped the cork on the vial. Carefully, she put a tiny amount of the powder inside in her palm.

“Okay, brace yourself, Killian.”

“For what?” he complained, but it was too late: she’d blown the powder his way.

He winced when it hit him, then a tingling sensation took over his body, leaving him a bit sore—but somehow also feeling more normal than he had in weeks.

He blinked when the prickling feeling dissipated and looked back at his companions; Emma was smiling and David, for some reason, looked upset. 

“Hey, it hasn’t been a full month yet!” he protested. Killian reached up to brush his hand along his jaw; his beard was back.

“What did you do, love?” he had to ask; he thought she liked him cleanshaven?

“I was right; you were literally aging backwards,” she said. “That shaving cream? Turns out it had some magic in it that turned back the clock. If you’d used it any more, you probably would have started to get shorter.” 

“Bloody hell,” he cursed. “So I really was a teenager?”

“Yeah.”

“Damn.”

David was looking very sheepish off to the side, especially when Emma leveled her gaze at him. “So thanks for putting my husband in high school, Dad.”

“Sorry!” he said quickly. “I had no idea; I just wanted to see what he’d look like.”

“Well, maybe next time, don’t put such a ridiculous time limit on your bets, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he agreed, though the way he was curling in on himself let them know he was genuinely sorry.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go have my way with the MAN I married—not the BOY,” she said pointedly, grabbing Killian’s hand and leading him from the station. They didn’t pause to see David’s reaction, but it was easy to imagine.

“I’d say that was fair punishment, Swan,” Killian quipped as Emma led them down the street toward their house. 

“Oh, definitely,” she giggled. “But I wasn’t kidding. I need to have you when we’re both on the same level.”

“I think I can handle that.”

(He couldn’t. Apparently, aging nearly 20 years in one day was draining.)

The next morning, he shuffled down to the kitchen to the smell of pancakes and bacon, and the sight of Emma cooking. He sidled up behind her, like he usually did, and buried his scruffy chin in the crook of her shoulder, tickling her and making her laugh.

“Still feeling okay?” she asked as she flipped the pancakes on the griddle.

“Aye; back to my old self. A fact that I don’t think I’ll ever take for granted.”

“Good.” She moved the pancakes off the pan and onto the plate, then turned off the stove. She turned in his embrace and quickly placed her hands on his cheeks, scratching through his scruff. “Mm, I missed that,” she hummed.

“Yeah? You seemed to have a thing for a clean face, too,” he replied.

She shrugged. “It had its novelty, definitely, and it was kind of nice to see what you looked like before life happened.” He swallowed; he hadn’t thought of that. He’d definitely seen pictures of Emma as a youth, but obviously, there weren’t any of him. “But now you look like the man I fell in love with again, so please don’t let any stupid bet or spell change that, okay?”

“I’ll do my best, love, as long as you do the same.”

“It’s a deal.”

“Actually, might I propose something else?” he added.

“What’s that?”

“I’d quite like to see what it’s like to grow old with you.”

Emma grinned, crinkling the skin by her eyes and around her mouth. “I would love that.” 

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

thanks for reading! tagging some friends: @kat2609​ @optomisticgirl​ @shipsxahoy​ @amortentia-on-the-rocks​ @mryddinwilt​ @cocohook38​ @annytecture​ @wingedlioness​ @word-bug​ @distant-rose​ @wellhellotragic​ @welllpthisishappening​ @let-it-raines​ @pirateherokillian​ @its-imperator-furiosa​ @fergus80​ @killianmesmalls​ @sherlockianwhovian​ @effulgentcolors​ @laschatzi​ @ive-always-been-a-pirate​ @nfbagelperson​ @stubble-sandwich​​ @killian-whump​​ @lenfaz​ @phiralovesloki​ @athenascarlet​ @kmomof4​ @ilovemesomekillianjones​ @whimsicallyenchantedrose​ @snowbellewells​ @idristardis​ @scientificapricot​

[franklyshipping]

The Best Betrayal ~ A Markiplier and Crankgameplays Ego Fanfic

THIS IS BASED OFF OF A WONDERFUL ANONYMOUS PROMPT WHICH I AM EXTREMELY EXCITED TO WRITE! THIS IS GONNA BE PRETTY DANG CUUUUTE SO LET'S DO IT!

TAGGING: @goog-ler-iplier and @googlee-oliver

What an unusual array of sounds....what interesting, uncommon audio to be heard in the ego household....Google Blue couldn't help but get up and go to investigate. Google reasoned that it was somebody making these noises, since they seemed to sound like stuttered sentences....and were those squeaks too? Intriguing. The head android paced through room after room in search of the sounds' source...and as he got closer, he identified more and more. It was his youngest brother Oliver who was making the noises, Google Blue managed to identify his vocal pattern....but Oliver's voice was not the only voice present. Somebody was CAUSING his brother to stammer, and it was only when Google reached the doorway to the main living room did he then see the truth in its entirety.

Oliver's best friend Blankgameplays, Blank for short, was grinning widely at Oliver and had his hands outstretched towards the yellow android....whilst his fingers wiggled. Google Blue repressed a soft chuckle at the sight of Oliver so flustered at the sight of wiggling fingers, it didn't take much to fluster Oliver, particularly if it was tickling related.

'Y-Y-You d-don't need to do this!'

Oliver squeaked nervously, shuffling away from Blank inch by inch as the lean emo inched closer and closer with a sly grin in place; he was soft spoken, but his words sent the most evil chills into Oliver's system.

'You seriously expect me to never try to tickle you? That's cute Oli....reeeal cute....'

Ahhh, Oliver's ticklishness. Google Blue smiled fondly as he watched his little brother blush more, he was always so cute when he was flustered about his sensitivity; honestly, Google thought it was Oliver's most endearing quality.

'Y-You'll n-never get me! Y-You know I'm faster than you!'

Google cocked his head to the side as he observed blank purse his lips a little with annoyance, since evidently Oliver was being truthful. All the androids had enhanced speed and strength, so Google knew that Oliver could easily escape any of his best friend's ticklish advances....but....as Google thought about it more, the less fair it seemed. I mean, Google knew for a fact that Oliver made a habit of tickling Blank to pieces, so surely it would be logical for Blank to be allowed to have his revenge? Google smirked as he locked his gaze onto his brother....he wouldn't never pass up an opportunity when applying knowledge was involved.

'Well now Oliver....that doesn't seem fair. You have tickled Blank before, so it is surely only right if he is able to reciprocate on some occasions?'

Google mused as he paced into the room properly, making his presence known. He smirked when Blank and Oliver looked to him, and he was rather amused at how Oliver's flustered, nervous expression contrasted so cutely against Blank's expression of wide-eyed glee. Oliver's mouth opened and closed with shock....surely....he-....no....his brother would never-?

'Blank, would you care for some assistance in restoring the balance of justice here?'

Oliver squeaked with wide eyes and mouth agape, especially when Blank giggled darkly, replying excitedly.

'Y'know, I'd appreciate that.'

Google hummed with satisfaction at the hooded youth's reply, and approached the pair in a slow, steady manner. Internally though, he was incredibly excited; he hadn't tickled Oliver in a little while, so this was going to be very enjoyable for Google.

'Excellent. Now, try not to struggle Oliver, you know that it's always pointless.'

Blank's lips were parted as he watched Google Blue approach his little brother in a, frankly, predatory fashion. Blank had tried SO many times to poke, scratch, and even just try and nudge a part of Oliver to get a ticklish reaction...but Oliver had expected it, or reacted fast...every time. Until now. Blank's eyes widened as he watched Google effortlessly wrestle a squeaking Oliver to the ground, and ending up bringing Oliver's arms above his head and sitting on them. Oliver was on his back, on the floor....trapped.

'N-No c-c'mon you don't have to d-do this! Y-You're meant to be o-on my siiiide!'

Oliver was beyond cute amidst his attempts to fight back, but of course his brother's superior strength and motives meant that he failed. Google Blue was of course INCREDIBLY sympathetic towards his little brother's predicament.

'Apologies Oliver but it ah, sucks for you, as they say. Blank, would you care to have a seat?'

Blank snickered when Google casually gestured to Oliver's legs, inferring that they were the ''seat'' being offered. Blank of course immediately set about comfortably straddling them whilst expressing a cordial reply.

'Thanks Google, don't mind if I do.'

Meanwhile....Oliver was just flustered beyond belief. His eldest brother AND his best friend of all time were ganging up on him to tickle him and there was literally nothing he could do to stop it! With Google's knowledge and Blank's thirst for tickle revenge combined, Oliver was screwed. The younger droid was especially flustered by how excited Blank was, the subtle excited hints of colour in Blank's face suggested it well enough.

I mean though, of COURSE Blank was excited! Any time that he got to spend with his best friend was always fun, but time spent flustering him was always the best because it was just so fun! Blank looked to Google, especially excited for his input as he heard the droid softly clear his throat.

'Now, when it comes to tickling Oliver there are a few things you should remember: stronger tickling techniques do not always lead to stronger reactions, and focusing on a select number of sensitive spots rather than attempting to find every sensitive spot he has is much more effective in terms of breaking him down.'

Blank was enraptured, and Oliver looked like a proper little lemon.

'Huh....so less is more basically? Cool, so uh, what spots do you recommend?'

Blank asked, his dark eyes brighter, his posture somehow better, and with even more colour in his cheeks. Also, Blank's smirk was somehow wider and looked more teasing....mostly due to Oliver's embarrassed outburst.

'D-Don't you D-DARE!'

Oliver couldn't believe that his brother was going to betray him like this! No wait....no, yeah actually he COULD believe it. That's what made it all the more flustery when Google Blue just chuckled, cracked his knuckles....and carried on like Oliver hadn't even spoken.

'Well, his armpits are always an excellent place to start. They are not a ''death spot'', but they are a place where giggles can be coaxed and where we can start to break Oliver down into the image of the ticklish little baby that he truly is on the inside. Observe.'

So many teasing words, not enough time to process them. All Oliver could do was try to struggle as he shook his head, letting out pleading whines as he looked between two of his loved ones....his very unsympathetic loved ones. Soon, he erupted into giddy giggles as Google started to spider tickle his exposed underarms. The reaction, of course, made Blank gasp; it was almost too cute to handle!

'Awwww you DO sound like a ticklish little baby! I can't believe you tried to hide this side of you from me, I thought we were best friends!'

Oliver was already wriggling and embarrassed as hell from this treatment, but one thing he was NOT going to tolerate was his best friend being teasy and mean! It was absolutely NOT fair on top of the tickling!

'Ihihihif yohou wehehere my behehestihie thehen yohou wouhouldn't behe dohoing thihis to meheheeee!'

Oliver tried to sound indignant, but in reality it ended up only sounding like a desperate, ticklish little android who couldn't handle having his nerves played with. Of course, at hearing such a reply with so much attitude lacing it, Blank felt rather offended. He let his jaw drop as he narrowed his eyes at Oliver, exclaiming.

'Uh, I haven't even touched you!'

.....he wasn't lying. Blank then proceeded to give Google Blue an exaggerated look of disbelief. This then spurred Google, who still coaxed out squeaky giggles from Oliver with the scratchy armpit tickling, to play along with Blank's demeanour.

'Ah yes, his perception of reality does tend to become skewed when he is being tickled. I find it both baffling and endearing.'

Google did an excellent job of sighing in an emotional manner as he grinned down at Oliver, who could only giggle and squeak and giggle and squeak at his brother's blunt, tickly nails. What on earth did he do to deserve this meanness?!

'Thihihis ihis SOHO frihihickihing uhunfair!'

Oliver's outburst merely made Blank snort and Google roll his eyes, before clearing his throat and returning his attention to Blank. He did still have a tickling tutorial to provide after all.

'As you can see, this relatively simple ''spider-tickling'' produces a clear ticklish reaction, but you must note that any reaction will always be amplified if applied to Oliver's bare synthetic skin, like so.'

Oliver nearly forgot to take in oxygen, not that he needed it but it had become a habit; either way though, when Google's fingertips slipped underneath Oliver's t-shirt sleeves....he knew he really had no hope. The scratching at his bare hollows made him arch his back and tug desperately at his arms, his face screwing up adorably as squeals flew from his lips.

'Bare skin equals more ticklish, noted.'

Blank commented with a snicker, eyes gleaming as he took in all of Oliver's ticklish reactions. They were utterly stunning. I mean, Blank had seen Oliver scrunch his face up with mirth after hearing a joke, but this was off the scale! Off the scale of cuteness, flusteredness, and mirth in general. Blank was simply overjoyed.

'GEHEHET OHOUT OHOF MY HOHOLLOHOWS!'

Blank's joy grew even more and Oliver's exclamation....or rather, his particularly rude exclamation. Blank's eyes flicked to Google as the young man smirked, and addressed the sadistic android.

'Would it also be fair to say that he kinda loses all comprehension of basic, appropriate manners?'

....I should probably amend my description of Blank as a ''young man'' and change it to ''sadistic young man'', I know Oliver would be eager to support that description of Blank. Oliver desperately hid his face in his arm, trying anything and everything possible to block out the tickle teasing. Meanwhile, Google Blue bore a warmer smile....he was impressed with Blank's astute and relevant query.

'That would indeed be a fair observation, I can see now why Oliver has chosen you to be his best friend....you are.....very acute....'

Google looked Blank up and down for a few moments, wearing a light smile as Blank froze a little at hearing all the complimentary words. It was sweet, subtle flirtation on Google's part....but Oliver had something to say about all of that.

'OHOKAHAY EHEEEW! YOHOU AHARE NOT AHALLOWED TO FLIHIRT WITH MY BEHESTIE!'

Oliver exclaimed amidst his frantic giggles, looking at his older brother with mouth agape. Google of course did not address this outlandish accusation of flirting and simply elected to engage in the method of deflection, wherein he ceased the tickling to allow his younger brother to breathe. His then proceeded to swiftly clear his throat and address the, now amusedly smirking, Blankgameplays.

'I ah.....think it is time for you to try your hand at the tickling. Now Oliver is warmed up, so to speak, I would suggest going for his stomach.'

Blank grinned excitedly at that, he'd been itching to actually get in on the tickling action. Oliver however was....yeah no, definitely not eager to be tickled by the person who could LITERALLY spend an hour detailing the amount of revenge he had ready to dish out. 

'NO D-DON'T DO IT Y-YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!'

Oliver exclaimed, his struggles immediately becoming more intense...and that just excited Blank even more. Oliver's demeanour just made the whole thing even MORE satisfying. Blank giggled lowly, pushing up Oliver's t-shirt to expose his tender, quivering tummy.

'Oh I know I don't have to....but I really, REALLY want to!'

Blank's fingertips were a flurry as they scratched over Oliver's soft belly like there was no tomorrow, thus making Oliver throw his head back and squeakily cackle in a VERY cute manner. As Blank snickered, Google smirked as he observed the scene....this was such a wonderful utilisation of time and attention.

'Excellent technique....I think this is very tickly for Oliver indeed....'

Google purred, knowing how well this particular toning of his voice flustered his little brother to no end. Of course, Oliver's desperate, mirth-filled whines perfectly reflected his embarrassed, flustered feelings.

'PLEHEHEASE NAHAHAT MY TUHUHUMMY PLEHEHEASE!!'

Early begging, a classic sign of flusteredness. Blank of course, like Google, was incredibly unsympathetic. He could only think about how cute Oliver was in this moment, and the last thing Blank could fathom right now was having mercy on him.

'Oh so NOW you're gonna be polite? It's a little late for that....you're all ours to tickle for as long as we want....and all you can do is lie there and laugh your tender little core out...'

Blank had his head cocked down at Oliver as he grinned toothily amidst his teasing growls, and Google almost found himself feeling second-hand emotions from the height of Oliver's own embarrassment. Seeing Blank now mercilessly tickling over Oliver's smooth waist as he chuckled in the wake of his ruthless tease, just made Google more eager to tickle his little brother than ever!

'Blank is right you know....it's just us and you here. No-one else. Nothing else. Just us....tickling you....for as long as we want.'

Google smiled and whispered as Oliver bucked and wailed, every part of his body was thrashing in some way from the diabolical treatment at one of his most delicate tickle spots. Oliver's mind-space was swimming with all the teasy words being thrown at him, and the desperation was starting to kick in.

'STAHAHAP TEHEHEASIHING! Y-Y-YOHOHOU CAHAN'T KEHEEP MEHE HEHERE YOHOU CAHAN'T!!'

The notion of them both just....keeping him....tickling him....Oliver didn't even want to try and imagine it, since he knew he'd only fluster himself even more. Both Blank and Google chuckled at Oliver's sweet denial, I mean of course they would never keep and tickle him for an extended period of time....but that didn't mean they weren't going to tease about it.

'Ahahaaaww, your naivety is the cutest thing in the whole world....'

Blank cooed down at Oliver, which spurred the cackling, yipping android to muster up the most tender puppy eyes that he could as he cried out.

'P-P-PLEHEHEHEASE BEHEHESTIIIIIE!!'

Blank ended up pursing his lips....damn those puppy eyes. Blank's dark eyes flicked to Google, and they shared a look, a look which brought them to the unanimous decision that their sweet Oliver at the very least deserved a small break amidst their onslaught. Google still was sat on Oliver's arms, but Blank ceased the tickling.

'You are lucky that we love you so strongly....'

Google remarked in a soft murmur as Oliver gasped with cute relief, before developing a wobbly smile as he looked up at his brother. Google Blue was always the supposed stoic professional of the bunch, but Oliver knew better.

'Aww....love you too Blueberry...'

Google's lips parted, and then closed as a turquoise hue appeared on the apples of his cheeks. Of course, multiple things about this caught Blank's personal interest. First of all the nickname, he was sure as hell going to use that in the future; second of all...the blush. Blank knew one thing right now, no matter which one it was, Blank adored a blushy Google.

'Blueberry huh? I like that....'

Blank mused as he sent Google a grin, who to Blank's amusement then hurried to avert his gaze as he engaged in embarrassment recovery. Embarrassment however, did NOT derail Google so easily; soon, his hard gaze was directed back to his smiling little brother.

'I-If you think averting the situation of your demise by introducing the information of the nickname you have for me will work, then you are incorrect. Blank, would you like to make Oliver hysterical with laughter and a lacking manners?'

The determination, the precision of thought, the execution of the wording....somehow Blank's excitement increased even more. Oliver could merely squeak and splutter incoherently, looking wide eyed between Google and Blank as embarrassment made him too incoherent to interject as Blank smirked and replied.

'Sounds fun Blueberry, I'll follow your lead.'

Blank giggled softly when Google hurriedly cleared his throat.

'Well ah, ahem, first we must flip him.'

Thus, Oliver was flipped. That was not all though. Now Oliver was on his front, a vantage point that really hindered him in terms of keeping his mischievous brother and best friend in his sights. In addition...he felt weights start to move on and around him....until two weight settled at his legs, and things started to touch....his feet.

'Wh-what a-are you guys d-doing-AH! IF YOU TAKE OFF MY SOCKS I SWEAR I'LL T-TAKE EACH OF YOUR F-FAVOURITE ITEMS OF CLOTHING A-A-AND HIDE THEM FOR ETERNITY!'

Google and Blank were not messing about or wasting time, and merely chuckled at Oliver's little threats (which he never in a million years would carry out by the way) as they stripped Oliver of his bumblebee themed socks. Oliver was frantic on the outside and the inside, squirming, tugging at his legs, letting out whines and grunts in the hopes that any of it would dissuade them. None of it did though.

'So his feet are a death spot?'

Blank mused to Google, who chuckled.

'Indeed.'

Oliver was trembling, his voice reduced to whimpers and stammers....they were going to get them. They were going to get his poor feet and there was nothing he could do.

'G-G-Guys c-c'mon not this not-EEEE NOHOHOHHAHAHAHAAAHHH!!!'

Honestly, you could have mistaken Blank for an android himself with how perfectly synchronised his actions were with Google's. They used one hand each to each grip a foot, and their respective other hands to scratch and scratch the sole of that foot like their very lives depended on the tickle torture that they administered.

'Awwww someone's got a pair of tickly footsies!'

Blank crooned as he smiled evilly, which not only contributed to Oliver's mirth....but also the joy of someone else. Google. He couldn't help but smile fondly at Blank as their equally blunt nails worked to scratch deep into the wrinkles that Oliver's scrunched soles were making. Google was amused to see the designated ''emo'' man coo like that. Google's fond look soon of course went to his brother though....he was just laughing and laughing and laughing like he was made of joy. Today was a good day.

'That is an interesting way to comment on my brother's sensitivity....but I rather like that.'

Google mused, sharing a grin with Blank as their scratches moved the balls of Oliver's feet; they both ended up snickering when Oliver let out a shrill yell.

'IHIHIHIHI DOHOHOHON'T!!'

Oliver did NOT take kindly to being described as having ''tickly footsies''! It was needlessly teasy, incredibly flustering....oh, and did I mention teasy? Of course, Oliver's little disagreement didn't especially effect his tormentors' view, especially when it came to Blank who only continued to amusedly coo.

'Awwww sorry Oli, but I think you're outvoted. OLIVER HAS TICKLY FOOTSIES CONFIRMED! I think I'll tweet it later....'

Oliver squealed, wailing and writhing in defeat as he tried to see how hard he could press his face into the carpet. Oliver knew that Blank most likely WOULD tweet such a thing, and that only cemented how Oliver's face was now in fact a lemon. Google Blue of course was only even more amused, finding Blank's inputs very enjoyable indeed. As he and Blank scribbled the balls of Oliver's feet, Google mused.

'Is there no limit to your subtle, and yet ruthless, sadism?'

Blank couldn't help but grin at that, and took the opportunity to wink at Google playfully as he replied.

'Hell no baby-'

'YOHOHOU'RE JEHEHEHERKS! BIHIG POHOOPY JEHEHERKS!!'

......rude much?! It looked like Oliver had really found some work arounds when it came to his no hard swearing language feature. Both Blank and Google let out gasps at Oliver' words, granted Google's was a little less dramatized than Blank's, but he was still pretty shooketh by the audio he had just heard.

'....I don't think I've ever felt so insulted!'

....Oliver was starting to regret his interruption, gulping as his brother joined in with Blank's verbal stance.

'Indeed. Brotherly banter is certainly acceptable, but to address your best friend in such a crude manner? Blank deserves your apology Oliver.'

Google's voice got colder and colder and harder and harder as he continued to speak....before he and Blank shared another one of their looks....before truly digging into the task at hand. They were now wildly scratching at the undersides of Oliver's little toes. Poor Oliver was wide eyed with mouth agape as he screeched into the carpet that he was also banging with his clenched fists.

'AAAAHAHAHA OHOHOHAHAHAHA!!!'

Oliver's hysteria was of no consequence....Google and Blank just kept going and going and going.

'I'm not hearing an apologyyy!'

Blank cooed, relishing in Oliver's loud, high-pitched scream-like laughter that just filled the room in the most wonderful manner.

'IHIHIHIHI CAHAHAHAAAA!!!'

Oliver wailed, making Google smirk as he tickled every little ticklish crevice he could find under his little brother's toes.

'I think you can...you have to....or we simply will not stop.'

Google's eyes gleamed as he growled out his words, making Oliver's mind race and race. Oliver knew he needed to collect himself, I mean, he had to! Granted, it did take Oliver a good thirty seconds to regain full autonomy of his vocal chords....but he did soon manage to scream out the key to the mercy that he so desperately needed.

'AHAHAHA SAHAHAHARRY BLAHAHANKY!!!'

Another shared looked....another agreement made. Blank was a fair person, and Google knew Oliver well enough to know that this was as far as he could go and manage. Oliver now, instead of being filled with hysteria, was now shivering with whimpers leaving his lips as that sweet mercy was dished out.

'Apology accepted lemon drop.'

Blank grinned fondly....feeling so unbelievably lucky that he literally had the cutest, most precious being in existence as his best friend. He helped Google sit Oliver up carefully as the traditionally serene, unemotional android had a voice filled with tenderness as he murmured to Oliver.

'Are your systems still at capacity, our treatment of you did not affect them detrimentally did it?'

Oliver was hugged softly from both sides, and found himself smiling as he looked up at Google. Of course, hearing his brother be so concerned with him spurred Oliver to do one thing and one thing only to reassure Google that he was doing okay....he booped him on his inhumanly perfect nose, in true Oliver style.

'I am okay blueberry....despite being tortured by two meanies....'

Oliver pouted, sending a light glare in Blank's direction which only made the young, pale man grin and nuzzle his best friend's cheek. Google's azure eyes glowed with fondness as his looping arms wrapped around both Oliver and Blank as the latter playfully crooned.

'You know you looove us!'

Of course, such a statement had no counter-statement or argument put against it....because it just wasn't needed. Oliver's smile was the answer....and then there was Blank's smile....and then there was Google's. And all of them were smiles that did not go away.

WOOOO HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE THIS FIC LEMME KNOW IF YA DO WOOOO LUV YOUS XX

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Liked About Red vs Blue: Season 2

(Top 5 Dislikes)

One post down, one more to go… and then twenty-six more to go for the rest of this series. Why did I decide to do this again? Meh, whatever. Let’s just get on with it as we resume looking over Season 2.

#5. Machinima

Okay, this might sound weird, but hear me out. The machinima last season was… basic. Not bad mind you, there is only so much that you can do without a lot of creativity and resources. Resources that RT didn’t have at this point in time. But mostly, they just went through the default motions. Nothing really stood out. It had some cool stuff, like them somehow managing to blow the Warthog on top of Red Base. I think they even said in the commentary that trying to replicate it for the remaster was a pain in the ass. Still, it just didn’t stand out, though the humor made you not notice.

Clearly, the RT guys wanted to push themselves a little more now that they knew how Halo operated and they could machinimate better. Which they did. I noticed a lot of little things when watching the season. Like having Caboose jumping up and down during the opening gunfight while behind a rock, or even Doc just pretending to fire his blaster. Or having Simmons more or less trembling in the finale when his… ugh… fax parts act up and you can tell what Grif is staring at when he questions it. Or adding in things like Lopez’ note in the finale, and even having it written in binary. Heck, we even have smoke come out of Grif’s helmet when Simmons catches him in the act.

These are small things, but it helps make the world and characters feel a little more alive. Clearly, machinima has its limitations, and we’re a long way away from them adding in animation. But creative people will find a way to work within their limitations, and even use those limitations to their advantage. Considering how long this show has been going, I’d say that they succeeded.

#4. Caboose’s Mind

One of the most memorable parts, and one with some actual effects on the characters, is when Church and Tex go into Caboose’s mind to kill O’Malley. It’s one of the weirdest, yet funniest parts of the season. We get to see how Caboose views everyone, with Tucker being stupid and Church being obsessed with being Caboose’s best friend. He gets them wrong, but it makes sense because it’s how /Caboose/ interprets these individuals. They aren’t supposed to be accurate. It’s especially funny when we see the Reds and only Simmons is close to right Grif is Yellow (which they outright did to prove that he was Orange to viewers), Donut is a girl since that’s what Caboose thought at the time, and Sarge has a pirate accent instead of a Southern one. 

It’s just funny to see Caboose, who at this point had been portrayed as the most dim-witted, and how he views these people. It kinda reflects what he wants with Church being his best friend and the Reds fearing him and his greatness. His ideal version of himself is pretty much a cool version of himself, though otherwise not too different. Church’s reaction and frustration at all fo this, especially Caboose!Church, only makes it funnier as is Tex being unfazed by all of it. It did kinda throw me off when I watched it the first time, but God it’s funnier on rewatch now that I know what’s going on. It’s a nice look into Caboose’s mind, and we got to see glimpses of the others int he S14 episode Head Cannon.

I think the biggest things though were for one, we got a location that wasn’t Blood Gulch finally. Sure it’s pretty much a standard video game map with a bunch of cubes, but after having the only setting be a canyon, it was refreshing. We also have some major impact with this since due to all the chaos, Caboose’s character becomes what it is now. We can debate all day how we should view Caboose and his intellectual level, but I do think that this helped endear the character to people and allowed him to stand out much, much more. Even now I know very few people, if anyone, who dislikes Caboose so while maybe they should acknowledge that he was more or less brain-damaged, the character himself has become better due to this. Which is nice~

#3. O’Malley Subplot

Speaking of Caboose’s mind, the O’Malley plot was by far the standout in this season. At first, it wasn’t too much since only Tucker cared about Caboose’s sudden murderous behavior. But once Tex came back, things picked up. While the backstory wasn’t totally accurate, it would certainly lead to more ahead. The fight in Caboose’s mind was fun. Tucker got to show some genuine competence when he came up with the plan to make the Reds turn their comms off and even using Lopez as a backup plan. With how much more competent Tucker grows later once circumstances pretty much force him to, this was an early sign showing that he is capable. He just needs to be pushed into doing it.

O’Malley himself didn’t stand out too much, just being kinda murderous. Then he escaped into Doc. I’ll go more into this next season, but this was the best decision ever. Doc is a whiny goody-two-shoes while O’Malley is gleefully, over-the-top evil. The contrast of the two personalities works super well and is just really funny to watch, though again it applies more for the next season. By the end, O’Malley makes his move and firmly sets himself up as the first proper Big Bad of the series, and he’s the perfect villain for the Blood Gulch Chronicles.

Overall, the whole subplot was really fun even though it did kind of have a slow start. It brought back Tex, had some really funny moments like the Reds' reactions to Lopez’s horrible love song. At least Donut liked it, haha~ It gave us our first proper villain, which led to one Hell of an insane finale. Even everything in between with Donut getting captured by the Blues and them trying to use this to make Sarge build them new bodies was fun to watch. The first half of S2 s super fun, but the second half is, without doubt, the best part for me. O’Malley was the catalyst, and to this day is one of my favorite villains. Love it~

#2. Improved Production Standards

Season 1 was good but flawed. It was clear that the RT guys weren’t really sure what they were doing. Audio quality was meh, jokes could drag, and the pacing was rather slow. It makes sense though when you read about what the original plans were. RvB was meant to be a miniseries, and nothing more. But pretty much a combination of them not getting to what they planned as soon as they thought (Donut was supposed to be in pink armor much sooner for example, and they realized how long it was taking to get there) as well as just coming up with more ideas extended things to a nineteen episode run. So there was no long term plan and things like writing and machinima were done in mere days in between releases. Plus there were only two main machinimators, Burnie and Geoff, and if you listen to the original S1 commentary they are both clearly exhausted. Burnie even said on a one-on-one podcast with Geoff on how they had pretty much had every conversation ever and they’d be like some old married couple just staring at each other. You can find it here if you’re interested, it’s a fun one~

So yeah… when you look back you can kinda tell that S1 was a bit of a rush job, and a tiring one at that. It’s still very good and like I said, they found ways to use so much you barely notice things were made up on the fly. But clearly, they needed a better system. Enter Matt Hullum. He had already been voicing Sarge, but he ended up stepping in to play a larger behind the scenes role. He joined Burnie on writing and directing, and thus they started planning things much farther ahead. As such, they knew the general plot and thus things could be tightened. The pacing is much better with episodes feeling faster, but having plenty of things happening. I already talked about the machinima improvements, which having Matt as well as Gus coming back from Puerto Rico also helped there. The voice acting, while still amateur, improved as well as the audio mixing. The filter is still a little distracting, but it and the general audio mixing is greatly improved. Pretty much every aspect of S1 was improved big time. It wasn’t perfect, but still, they clearly put a lot in creating a more quality product.

Season 2 had a hard job. Season One had to prove that this was a show worth watching. Season 2 had to prove that it could keep going and wasn’t just a one-hit-wonder. And ho boy did they. It’s funnier, it’s more ambitious, and even starts adding in some story. This season got the viewers from last time to come back, and probably brought in some new ones. It proved that this was a show that was sticking around and that RT had staying power. If this season failed, RvB would probably just be remembered as this funny Halo show. But it succeeded because they wanted the show to keep succeeding and be good, and that effort shows.

#1. Improved Characterizations

The thing that I enjoyed most about Season 1 was the character interactions. They just had natural chemistry and their interactions were funny. The characters themselves though were a little one-note. They had personality, but they didn’t really stand out when you compare them to other comedies like The Simpsons or South Park. I guess that RT realized this as well because this is where the characters really begin to become the same ones that we know now. Not all of them mind you like Simmons and Tucker are the least fleshed out here, but even then the signs of who they would become are there with things like Simmons clinginess to Sarge and the joke about Tucker’s rock, as well as the previously mentioned show of competence when pushed.

Donut and Grif show more of their personality, with Donut expressing his hobbies like home decor and growing to like his lightish-red armor. Grif shows his more lazy slacker attributes, like sleeping during meetings and forgetting the ammo, and his unhealthy habits like smoking and his constant eating. Which he’s pretty much doing intentionally to annoy Simmons and mess up the parts that he got from him. Lopez also got a lot of personalities now that he can talk. Namely, after the Reds nearly kill him and the Blues use him for their own means, he hates them all and his apathetic personality has stuck ever since. Poor guy has had such a hard time, haha. And I already went into Caboose, so there's no need to repeat myself. Even Shelia got sassier this season~

The one I think got the most improvement though is Sarge. In S1, he was just kind of a standard sergeant character you could find in just about any military movie, and the voice reflected it. Here? Matt just goes off the wall. He said in the S2 commentary that Sarge is pretty much the combination of various 50’s character tropes, like the grumpy old guy and the mad scientist. It shows. Sarge’s hatred of Blues and love of warfare are much more evident, especially in the finale. His hatred of Grif is also much more played up. We see that he is absolutely insane with his conspiracy theories about Lopez being brainwashed by the Blues instead of reprogrammed and turning Simmons into a cyborg instead of just getting a new robot. Sarge is the opposite of sensible, and having this guy be the leader and forcing everyone to follow his plans due to it is freakin’ hilarious. Matt exaggerating the accent from this point on only adds to this characterization and is much, much more fitting.

The characters, in my opinion, are the best part of Red vs Blue. This season demonstrates that very well. Unlike S1 where there were only shades of their later portrayal, this one uses broad strokes. I think some of the better voice acting can also be due to this since the cast now has more of a character to fool around with instead of just having to more or less act like their everyday selves. The characters were stronger, and as such the interaction and humor were even better. As such, it is my favorite part of Red vs Blue Season 2. Can they keep it up in Season 3? Well… we’ll find out soon~

[namjuicyy]

A Father’s Love - Chapter Four

Masterlist | Requests are open.

Genre: Angst, fluff, smut.

Genre of this part: Fluff, smut.

Word Count: 3.5k.

Summary: Single father, Namjoon, struggles to keep his idol life and his private life separate. When he meets you, everything changes.

Warnings: semi-public sex, fingering, unprotected sex, studio sex, fluffy sex on his sofa.

Namjoon's life, as you'd come to figure out, was dictated by a small digital screen that would send alerts to him telling him what his plans were for the day. His calendar app, along with his favourite music app, were the only two squares on his phone that hadn't been put into a folder for the neat aesthetic. And the chance for him to put a selca of himself and his son as a wallpaper and be able to see it whenever he unlocked his phone, of course. But, Tuesdays and Fridays were your nights. Nights where, regardless of distance or business, time was set aside for the both of you to hang out. Three of the four days dedicated solely to you, you also shared Namjoon with Haneul. Not that you minded, given that, even when he threw tantrums, he was the sweetest boy alive. A trait he must have inherited from his father.

This Friday, however, it seemed to just be you and Namjoon, favouring a date at the cinema for... a date in his studio.

"___, I'm so sorry." He said frantically over the phone. "I didn't want to cancel on you, I really didn't. It's just we're planning a comeback in the spring and a comeback requires an album and an album needs writing and I'm already so behind as it is."

"Lack of inspiration or lack of time?" You'd asked trying to cheer him up.

"It's certainly not lack of inspiration," he told you, "I seem to have found myself a new muse."

"Oh smooth, Joonie. Smooth." You giggled.

"Yeah, next door's cat is really soft and squishy. I think I'm in love, ___. That calico... man. It really gets me, you know?"

"Sure it does. Just... out of curiosity... what kind of takeout do you prefer? Italian, Indian or Chinese?"

Namjoon chuckled. "Curiosity killed the cat you know."

"If that thing dies, you can't hold me responsible for it! I won't be blamed for the fall of Bangtan Sonyeon-whatever it is you youngsters call yourselves these days."

You'd come to learn, in the past week or so, that Namjoon's band was a lot more successful than you thought it was. Turns out you had seen Namjoon's face around before, and you did know who he was. But for some reason your brain didn't twig that your Namjoon was international pop/rap sensation... Rap Monster... of BTS. You'd even listened to some of his music before, and enjoyed it a lot. Not that you'd be able to call yourself part of Army or anything. When you learnt about this, you simply shrugged your shoulders and just let it skate over your head, something that surprised Namjoon. No one had ever been this indifferent to his career before, yet there you were, snuggling up to him on the couch, playing with his son's hair absent-mindedly as the Korean dubbed version of Disney Pixar's Cars played on the television. Namjoon really tried not to get attached to you. He honestly tried his hardest. He'd seen all the problems his dongsaengs had gone through whenever they'd even breathed in the same direction as a woman, and knew that if the press ever got wind of you, things would change for the worse. Thankfully, his previous relationship and his son were able to remain in the dark. For five years he'd managed to separate his family and his work, and he was proud of himself for that. But times were changing. He wasn't as in the spotlight then as he was now. But despite knowing all of this, he still found his heart swelling every time he looked at you and Haneul playing, or laughing, or just getting along perfectly. It seemed almost too good to be true.

"As long as there's lots and lots of meat, jagi, I'm fine with anything."

Jagi. The Korean term for sweetheart. A term you never thought you'd hear in regards to you, but there it was. The first time he'd called you that and you loved it instantly. You smiled to yourself brightly, thankful that your pathetic appearance wasn't caught by God's best creation so he could tease you about it later on.

You followed his sister's directions to the Big Hit building, where Namjoon's studio was, holding the bags of takeout in your hands. South Korea, Seoul especially, was known for its amazing takeout delivery service, and how, even if you were sat on the banks of the Han River, their drivers would find you and deliver your favourite meal. But there was something about carrying your food back to wherever it was you were eating that reminded you of your childhood, and you'd always prefer suffering the cold noodles, or fries, for the feeling of charging in from the harsh weather and declaring that your bollocks had frozen off from the storm. Which is what you did as soon as you burst through the door of MonStudio and shook the cold off your body, plopping the copious amounts of food down on the tiny, black sofa at the back of the room. Or was it the front? You couldn't tell really.

Namjoon turned around and his expression changed from downright annoyance to shock. Clearly you were the last person he expected to see, despite the fact that you'd flat out asked him what his favourite takeout was. For someone who's IQ was so high, he was so slow in social situations. A trait you found more endearing than annoying. At least for the time being.

"You didn't tell me what you preferred, so I just brought everything." You announced proudly, removing your outerwear and staring at the bags of food. "The light pink bag is Indian, the paper bag is pizza and a bit of pasta, the white bag is our favourites from that BBQ we went to a couple of weeks ago and this," you held up an even larger paper bag with an instantly recognisable, bright yellow logo in the shape of a curvy M, "is filled with nothing but saturated fats and heart disease in a bag but if I'm gonna go, it'll be at the hands of a Big Mac and fries larger than my head."

Namjoon laughed, stood and walked behind you so he could wrap his long arms around your waist. "You are too good to be true." He rested his chin on your shoulder and swayed the both of you gently.

"Wait until you get to know me." You joked. He kissed your shoulder. "Now," you tapped his hands that were linked and resting on your tummy, "are you going to eat this food? Or are you just going to let it sit there and grease your sofa as it gets colder and colder?"

He grabbed hold of some bags. "Come with me, we'll eat in the kitchen."

You watched Namjoon walk out of his studio and down the little corridor. "There's a kitchen?" You asked, following him.

There was, in fact, a kitchen. A big one. Overwhelmingly grey and a mixture of homey and canteen-y. The kitchen units weren't too dissimilar to yours, save for the fact that they were newer and didn't have a weird brown stain on them that was there when you moved in and was stubborn enough to not move. Three of the four walls were basically glass, looking out onto the hustle and bustle of Gangnam's nightlife, and in front of each table was a row of grey, smooth tables that resembled modern picnic benches.

You heard the familiar buzz of a microwave whirring to life and your heart sang. You set the bagged food on one of the counters and stared at Namjoon with a soft look in your eyes. "You have a microwave. You're so domestic."

Namjoon laughed. "Please, using a microwave and a kettle is about the only thing I can do in the kitchen."

"Oh. Well, there goes all my hopes and dreams of marrying you then."

"We've found your deal breaker."

"We have indeed. Enjoy your food, I'm off to marry a chef."

"Who's going to break this news to Haneul?"

You came storming back into the kitchen after your dramatic exit. "No! We're only two weeks into this. You can't start emotionally manipulating me using your child!"

When the food had all been warmed, you chose one of the tables in the middle of the largest window and set up camp there, laying all the food out neatly with the proper utensils so you could grab and munch. The conversation never died. It always seemed to flow so easily with Namjoon. When you weren't joking, you were having serious conversations with each other and just generally enjoying each other's company.

While Namjoon threw away the now, completely empty, takeout packets, you took it upon yourself to wash up the plates and the cutlery you all use. You didn't hear Namjoon return, all you felt was his arms snake and lock around your waist again, this time a little tighter than before. His lips immediately went to your shoulder, peppering light kisses on it before leading up to your ear. You could feel the atmosphere had changed from before. There was something heavy hanging over you, and it wasn't Namjoon.

"Someone's affectionate." You commented.

He just hummed in response to you, continuing to kiss your hair and hold you from behind. As you turned to look at him over your shoulder, his lips caught yours in a gentle kiss that soon turned into more. His tongue was in your mouth, his hands turning you so you were facing him and your arse pressed up against the counter, pinned there by his body. You could feel his cock growing the more heated the kiss got, the tighter his grip on you became. You couldn't catch your breath. You felt like you'd been running a marathon in the hottest of weathers. Every touch of his skin on yours burned into you and melted straight into your soul. Every lick of his tongue sent electricity into your veins, resurrecting anything dead within you and bringing it to the youth of life.

He pushed you further into the counter, forcing you to sit yourself up onto it and spread your legs, allowing him to slot in between them like a puzzle piece. Your clothed centre was now level with his, and it rubbed deliciously against yours until.

BANG.

"Fuck!"

Namjoon doubled over in pain.

"What happened!?"

"Ah shit, I came in too quickly and whacked my knee on the cupboard."

You laughed. "Namjoon!"

"Don't laugh at me. I'm in pain." He came back in closer to you, much slower this time, and started kissing you again. His lips were attached to your neck this time, though.

"Shame you didn't hit your dick. I would have kissed it better for you."

Namjoon stopped kissing you, and lifted his head so he could look into your eyes. His brown ones, hooded and full of lust, were hiding the cogs turning in his brain. He put his hand over his crotch. "Ow! I hit my dick too! Ow it hurts!"

"Well, I'm certainly not doing it now that you're faking it."

Namjoon smirked. "Fine. I had other plans for you, anyway."

You wanted to ask him what those plans were, but his lips stopped you from speaking. His hands travelled up your jeans and made quick work at pulling them halfway down your thighs. He kissed your neck, tongue licking at your skin. You almost forgot where his hands were until you felt them dip into your panties and start rubbing your clit with his thumb, causing you to moan out loud. Much louder than you anticipated, actually, shocking the both of you as your noise bounced off the walls. He added pressure, rubbing a little faster and watching your face as he did, a shit-eating grin on his lips and his pupils blown out. This was the first time you were seeing him like this, this whole other side of him that you didn't even imagine was there. He'd always seemed so soft before. And you certainly didn't expect –

"Fuck! Namjoon." You couldn't control the noises coming out of your mouth as he slipped two of his longest fingers into you're your incredibly wet hole. He tapped up straight away, and began a relentless pace making you squelch beneath him, his palm grazing your clit in a repeated manner, adding that extra layer of euphoria. You watched his face as he continued to pleasure you, you saw how he was almost mimicking your expressions, but in a taunting way. As if he was telling you that it was him making you feel this good. This sudden cockiness was so alluring, and despite how awkward you would have felt with any other man, you couldn't tear your eyes away.

He could feel you getting tighter around his fingers, he could hear how laboured your breathing had become. He knew you were close. "You gonna cum for me, angel?" He asked. You nodded, completely helpless beneath him.

"Namjoon-ah?"

Your head immediately snapped to the wall a few feet away, where, behind it, was the door to the kitchen that you'd forgotten to close when you entered. That voice that shouted Namjoon's name was deep, and certainly wasn't yours. You thought you were alone in the building but apparently not.

"Suga-hyung?" Namjoon replied, completely unphased and unrelenting. You covered your mouth in an attempt to stop your whimpers, but all it did was soften them. You were too close to remain completely quiet, and Namjoon was determined to get you there.

"Where are you?" The voice asked.

"In the kitchen." You could hear the footsteps coming towards you. Your eyes widened. "Cum, angel." Namjoon ordered. You felt his fingers move faster. It was only a matter of time. 'Suga' was only a few meters away at this point and your orgasm was on the brink of tearing you in two.

Coming.

Coming....

Your hands gripped into Namjoon's shoulders as you came, holding your breath and shutting your eyes tightly. You could feel him everywhere, inside you, around you. All you could smell was him, hear was his breathing. Your brain was complete mush, not processing what needed to be done as you were coming back to reality. With his one, dry hand, he was tugging your jeans back up your leg, begging you silently to come to your senses, which you did when you heard Suga's whistling. While Namjoon washed his hands frantically in the sink, you hopped off the counter and pulled your jeans back up, only finishing zipping them as the man walked in the room.

He was short, and stopped moving as soon as he saw you. He was confused. "Hyung, this is ___. ___, this is Min Yoongi, a housemate and member of my band."

"Oh." You replied. "It's nice to meet you!"

"You too." Yoongi answered. "So you're the infamous ___. It's bad enough that Haneul bangs on about you but Namjoon literally doesn't stop talking about you. You seem to have infiltrated the hearts of the Ilsan Kim's." He started to pour himself a coffee.

"I hope he hasn't been getting on your nerves too much." You joked.

"He always does. You'll get used to it." He smiled, flashing you both an adorable gummy smile. His eyes never left Namjoon though, and sparkled with a glint of mischief. "Oh, and uh, next time you two want to fuck, please make sure you don't do it where we all eat. It stinks of sex in here. Have a nice night."

As he left, you could hear him chuckling to himself. Namjoon's face had turned bright red, and when you both locked eyes with one another you burst out into laughter. You were so embarrassed but at the same time you still felt this pull to Namjoon, despite the interruptions. So, you wrapped your arms around his waist, pulled him towards you, and whispered, "maybe we should finish this in the studio?"

"You read my mind."

You could barely keep your hands off one another on your way back to Namjoon's studio, your lips meeting every so often and your back pressed up against the wall as his tongue slipped down your throat. By the time you were in his studio, both your shirts were off, and were thrown to one side the minute you stepped inside, and your jeans had been unbuttoned and unzipped and were being tugged off your legs by you as Namjoon shut the door. You both fell on his sofa, his crotch rubbing against your soaked underwear as he kissed you again for the millionth time that night. His hands roamed the entire length of your body, only to pull your panties off you. He stopped and rolled his eyes. "Shit!"

"What?"

"I don't have any condoms in my studio."

"Are you clean?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Me too."

"Are you suggesting...?"

"Just get inside me, Joon." You demanded. Your ankles were pushing into his clothed ass, pulling him closer to you. You needed him inside you just as much as he needed to be inside you. He undone his jeans and pulled his cock out. He was too wound up to pull the rest of his clothes off properly, he just wanted to feel you.

"Tell me if you ever feel uncomfortable."

You nodded and waited for that sweet burn. You knew he would stretch you out so good, and you were right. Eye contact remained as he started to push into you, stretching your walls as he intruded, not fast enough to really hurt you, but fast enough for his impatience to be kept at bay. Within seconds, he'd bottomed out, his eyes had rolled back into his head and he'd groaned so loudly, you were grateful for the soundproof room. His voice wasn't the only one filling the room, as you whimpered at the feel of his length really hitting all the best places, despite the fact he'd not even begun to fuck you yet.

He'd wanted this since he met you. Maybe not quite as rushed as this, and way more romantic. In his bed, candles everywhere, R&B in the background as he literally made love to you. But on his sofa in his studio was good enough at the time. His head fell to your chest, still caged in your bra.

"You can move, Joon."

"I can't. I'll cum if I move."

You giggled, scratching at his scalp. He pulled out, then pushed back in gently making you both groan. "Fuck." He cursed. He did it again, his head still buried in his chest. This time, his thrust back inside you was harder, and they kept getting harder until you were practically tearing the couch with your nails trying to grip hold of something, anything, to tether you to reality.

His speed picked up, his moans got louder. He was, somehow, much louder than you, a feat you never thought anyone could achieve but there he was, pounding into you at a merciless rate and letting the whole world know what he was doing. Even when he kissed you, he was still groaning.

"You feel too damn good, f-fuck."

Your nails dug into his back as he made the sofa rock against the carpet. He sat back onto his knees so he could move into you faster. He gripped your waist and watched your hand snake down to your clit. He bit his lip at the sight in front of him, you, sprawled out in his studio, your hand on your pussy and his cock slamming into you. It was almost too much to bear. "That's it, angel." He praised. "Touch yourself for me. Fuck. You look so good right now."

A thin sheen of sweat coated his entire body. His brows furrowed. He looked like a living piece of art. Overwhelmed, you began to shake, tightening around him accidentally, making him lose his mind.

"You... have to cum... first." He said.

It didn't take you long to do as he said, your second orgasm hitting you like a double decker bus. You screamed as your fingers moved faster against your clit in an attempt to keep up with both Namjoon's cock and your own orgasm. And, as you were finishing, Namjoon pulled out, shooting his release all over your tummy with his lip in between his teeth and an animalistic growl erupting from his throat.

Breathing. That was all you could hear in the studio as the two of you recovered. Namjoon collapsed at the opposite end of the sofa, his hands running through his hair and his lips bitten red raw. You felt cold, empty, but so incredibly satisfied.

When his legs had regained at least half of their strength, he walked over to the tissue box on his desk and wiped his cum off your skin. You didn't realise just how much there was of it until you actually sat up to watch him move. "I think you're even further behind with your work now." You commented.

Namjoon chuckled. "Worth every second."

He was so cheesy, even after almost destroying you. You could tell that this was going to be one hell of a relationship.

[helsaguy]

Best Disney Live Action to date.

This is my opinion and mine alone. You have your own. Watch out for spoilers if you haven't seen the movie yet.

What a ride. What a surprise. What a delight this movie actually is. The first promotional content did nothing, or very little to excite me about this movie. I was really gonna watch it just to see Will Smith’s work. Then good reviews started to pop out and those truly gave me hope. I still kept my expectations relatively low. But now I was excited to watch it. The idea was to watch the movie on Saturday, but stuff came up and couldn't be. Anyways, two great things happened about watching it on Sunday: First I got to watch it with more family members. I’m so happy they didn't miss this movie, you just can’t miss it. And second, I got to watch it in its original language! I'm sure the dub would have been good, but I really needed to hear the actors’ voices, the dialogues and more than anything the songs in their original language. It’s important to me.

I had my doubts about almost everyone in the cast. But in the end, if anyone made a mistake (which mistakes can totally happen and maybe they happened) I think they were so minor that I didn’t care if there was something off. The whole movie is just so good. I couldn’t care less about any mistake or off thing that could have been going on.

What I’m about to write may be weird. I felt that every character was very different to its animated counterpart. The story was pretty much the same, and of course the characters are the same (except for a couple of funny and good additions) yet they felt different to me. They felt very down-to-earth, very grounded, very fleshed out, very real. Which I think that's the whole point of these live action movies; or at least I think it should be that way. 

So far I enjoyed and liked all the live actions I've seen (Maleficent, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book). But so far only Aladdin although being fair, Maleficent has it's own category has added content that served perfectly to enrich the movie and its characters. I see it that way anyway. It left me wanting to see more of them. I wanna see this gang again. Heck, I wanna watch the movie again. I really think it should have a sequel. More than anything I think this live action has established enough content to continue with another movie.

On a side note. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite animated Disney movie and if the live action doesn't make a sequel, I'm honestly not complaining. Here I am, perfectly well without a live action Beauty and the Beast sequel. And about Maleficent. I never thought it would have a sequel, and when I heard there would be one I was like: Ok. Maleficent is a whole other take on the Sleeping Beauty movie. A pretty interesting take if you ask me. And I’m curious to see how the sequel turns out. I loved Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent and I don’t mind seeing more of that. I think it'll be worth it.

About how I felt these characters were different to their animated counterparts. I think the most obvious is the Sultan. But man what a great change. I think every character was very likeable. Every good character that is. And the Sultan is so likable as a ruler and as a father. Of course he is a little flawed in those regards, but he grows and learns accordingly. I think everyone can or should understand where he’s coming from. It isn’t hard to understand his position. I'm not very comfortable comparing the live action to the animation. And I hope I won't do it (or do it much) writing further. But I think I dare say I liked this version of the Sultan better than the animated one. I just really cared more about him as a character and as a person. He even got a little action in the confrontation with Jafar and the dancing at the end of the movie. Way to go Sultan! He is a caring and loving father to Jasmine and father-daughter relationships are kind of my Achilles heel on Disney movies (Belle and Maurice, Ariel and Triton). Quite frankly, I never really cared for this father-daughter relationship with the animated movie, I'm guilty of that. But the live action version of these characters are a whole other story. The Sultan was overall a far more competent character and I loved it.

Oh boy I had so many doubts with Naomi Scott as Jasmine. But seeing her first interactions with Aladdin at the market place and at Aladdin’s street rat home, I was so charmed by her acting and charisma. Not to mention her beautiful hair and those beautiful, beatiful brown eyes of hers. Jasmine got quite the changes too, and I think most were very well done. This Jasmine is truly a ruler and leader in the making. Ready to be the first Sultana (that’s the proper term) of the land. She lacks some experience, of course, but she has all the tools she needs. I was impressed with all the knowledge this girl has at her disposal. Although, she's a Princess, of course she knows her studies. While the animated Jasmine feels rebellious “not wanting to be a Princess” and seems to ponder too much on the freedom she’s missing; live action Jasmine shows great conviction on wanting to help and better her people, her country and kingdom. She doesn't know much of Agrabah's outsides but once she gets out there and sees the market place full of people working and coexisting, she sees the community that lives under the Sultan's care and understands that those people are what make Agrabah so precious. Even from her balcony Jasmine gets to see her people's lives and how much they deserve to live happily and without fear of wars and losing loved ones (like she and the Sultan lost Jasmine's mother). Agrabah was done so lively that it’s easy to see why Jasmine wants so badly to be the next one on taking care of the kingdom and its people. She wants to make them happy and prosperous. Again, she is very likable. And most importantly, if some think these changes are to push some agenda (I thought that at first), well, if they are at least they don't feel forced. I think all these changes added a lot of depth and character to the character. To me they made Jasmine richer and a better role model.

Again someone that surprised me. Mena Massoud’s Aladdin turned out to be quite refreshing to me. In all honesty I wish I could explain better why I think this Aladdin differs from the animated one, but I lack the words. What I value the most of this interpretation is the simplicity and humility in character. He is more aware of himself. And while he does say the line “When you don’t have anything, you have to act as if you own everything.”, this guy doesn't feel pretentious at all. He is still very much down-to-earth and it shows greatly when he becomes Prince Ali. At least for the first part. I loved how awkward and/or insecure he is as Prince Ali during the Prince Ali musical number and when meeting the Sultan and Princess Jasmine. That scene is truly hilarious, with all the right jokes and all the right faux pas. Then there's the moment when the Prince gig gets to his head and is so believable how he gets lost in that lie and that facade, that it made me feel bad for him. In a pitiful way. Whereas in the animated movie I felt Aladdin was being a jerk to Genie and it made me think he deserved to be left alone. I definitely sympathize better with this Aladdin. Great chemistry between him and Jasmine from start to finish. Also I think it was very adorable to have Jasmine pretend to be the Princess' servant when she meets Aladdin for the first time. It made the blooming relationship more endearing and natural. Very appreciated. The animated movie honestly only makes me care about the Genie, but this live action truly made me care about every character. The good ones that is.

I still think Marwan Kenzari’s voice doesn’t fit Jafar at all. But this Jafar is still a good villain. I think he felt more cold blooded to me. He had a little background that benefited the character, not like they tried to do with Gaston on the Beauty and the Beast live action. And this depth not only made Jafar a little more interesting, it helped Aladdin's character as well. Jafar's past as a thief not only gives reason for his ambitions and goals, it’s also a good example of what our hero Aladdin could have become if he kept on the abusive/ambitious path of power. I think that provided quite the scare in thinking that if Jafar went through this manipulative, power hungry way; that could very well happen to Aladdin. This Jafar lacks the animated one’s theatrics but I still consider him a descent villain.

Very much like Robin Williams’ Genie is the heart and soul of the animated classic. Will Smith’s Genie is the heart and soul of this live action. Hands down my favorite character in the whole movie. Robin (R.I.P.) must be very proud with everything Will did. He was so charismatic, sympathetic, funny, charming, such a lovable character I swear to God. No one will ever convince me that this Genie wasn't perfect in every way, shape, or form. I loved how at the party in the palace he kept telling Ali to not ruin it for him. He's been trapped inside a lamp for thousands of years and he really wanted to enjoy a good party. The character with the most heart in the film and with powerful lessons to teach. Two of those will stay with me forever. The first, and I believe the intentional one, is that no matter how much riches you possess; no money, or jewels, or power will ever satisfy you nor make you happy. I wish more people in the world would see and understand that... And second, and this is I think more my interpretation than the movie's intention, to be human is what makes someone truly free. Although "being human" is such a vast term. I hope you understand what I mean. Anyways, what a freaking powerful message. This Genie wishes freedom. But that freedom isn't just to not be his master's slave or the lamp's slave. This Genie wishes to be human; he doesn't want to be an all powerful being for all eternity. And something happened in this movie that helped in a very sweet way to make this Genie even more human.

And that is Dalia. What a revelation this character is. Best addition to a live action adaptation ever. To be honest when I first heard of the character I really thought this live action would be ruined from the start. Who was this Dalia? Why Jasmine needed a handmaiden? Why was she white? Truth is Dalia is a much needed character. Also Nasim Pedrad who portrays Dalia was born on Iran to Iranian parents, and that made me more comfortable about her as a character in this movie. Dalia is a much welcomed addition to the colorful cast. Her character feels organic in this well known tale. She's not only Jasmine’s handmaiden but is also a true friend and her loyal confidant. And not to offend my favorite tiger, but the Princess really needed some human friend to talk to. Sure Dalia is a servant, but never once she complains about her place; even if it shows that on the inside she would like to enjoy more of the outside world as well as the Princess and have a life of her own. Dalia is quite insightful, she knows the Princess very well, she's very funny, and charming. We get to see how much and how well she cares for Jasmine and quickly becomes an endearing character. That scene where she pretends to be the Princess in favor of Jasmine being able to play the handmaiden character with Aladdin a little longer was incredibly funny. Not just she makes Jasmine a more well round character, she helps the Genie as well with their little romance. Such good content with these two. One of my favorite scenes was when the Genie wanted to ask Dalia out on an evening stroll and he, much like Prince Ali meeting the Princess, got all awkward and even mentions that Aladdin's behavior is contagious. Obviously he knows how to treat women right, with delicacy and respect. But also he's been imprisoned for so long that it isn't hard to see how he would be a bit clumsy when trying to court a girl he really felt infatuated with. Their interactions are just really sweet and charming.

The best part happens when Aladdin wishes for Genie's freedom and he does become human. And it is because of the lamp's very specific instructions that I believe a message for this movie is how being human makes us free beings. When making a wish Genie can't stress enough to Aladdin that he has to be very specific with his words, there's a lot of grey areas in wishes and he must wish carefully. Aladdin's third wish is of course to set Genie free, but he mentions nothing about making the Genie human. Still, the moment Aladdin wishes for Genie to be free he is turned human. And that's a very powerful message, even more so these days. It is the lessons this movie shows through Genie that truly capture the heart of the movie. Another example is when human Genie at the end of the movie asks for another chance to court Dalia. The affection is very much returned by the handmaiden and while she says that she is new at this dating stuff, she says that she accepts and that she wants to get married, have kids, and a boat. And all of that actually happens. And this is one more powerful message that I chose to interprete this movie tried to tell: even without being an all powerful being, humans are able to make their dreams/wishes come true. Genie and Dalia do get married, they have two kids a boy and a girl like she wanted, and they get a small boat like he wanted. Humans can make their wishes come true even without some magical help and that's Disney at it's best.

Let’s talk a little about the “sidekicks”. I enjoyed Abu being less caricaturistic. I know people adore Abu’s personality in the animation. But I think since this Aladdin was more serene in attitude, this Abu accompanied him very well. I adored Rajah. I'm very happy he showed up as much as he did. I honestly thought he wouldn't have as much screen time. I love his protectiveness over Jasmine most of all, but I also appreciate his good judge of character. Carpet was perfect. I think he suffered no change at all from the animated movie. So full of personality. I liked very much how during conversations the Genie would include Carpet and Abu into the chat. It made the monkey and carpet feel all the more real. Also, it hurt to see Carpet all torn when he was trying to escape giant Iago. And speaking of Iago. One of my favorite villainous sidekicks in Disney movies. This Iago is so not like the animated one. But that isn’t a bad thing. This bird looked creepy, and while it lacked all of Gilbert Gottfried’s personality, it made up in competence. This Iago is as cold blooded as his master, quite the spy, and a very effective giant boss fight. Thank you so much for keeping him a talking parrot. Very pleased with Alan Tudyk‘s work. And even if Iago's role is minor in the live action, he still serves very well his purpose.

Let's wrap this up with the music! Overall I loved it. Sure there are weak moments, but I think that didn't damage the movie at all. The film was just oh so entertaining on its own. Jasmine's new song Speechless is quite good. But the reprise was a little poorly executed visually-wise. I also think it sounds too pop-ish for it's own good. One Jump Ahead was weak in comparison to the original. The singing was pretty good, the music well "updated", but Aladdin was too relaxed walking here and there instead of running for his life. I liked a lot that Jasmine was part of the scene though. And congratulations to the woman with the "Still I think he's rather tasty" line, what a voice, and she was gorgeous. A Whole New World is very much the same and that's good. Both actors did great singing, Naomi's voice is incredible and Mena really surprised me as a good singer. That song doesn't need to be touched and they didn't touch it. Some may complain that Carpet didn't take Aladdin and Jasmine around the world, but I don't think it was needed. This Jasmine cared too much for her land that it was very sweet of Aladdin and Carpet to take Jasmine around Agrabah. She even admitted that Prince Ali knows more of Agrabah in the "few days" he's been to the kingdom than she has known all her life. It was fitting in my opinion to keep the ride to Agrabah. What was leaked of the Prince Ali performance doesn't make the whole thing justice. Sure it isn't as big scaled as the animated one, but is still a good show. And Oh My God WILL SMITH DID THE IN DRAG GAG!!!!!! I completely thought they wouldn't do it and Jesus Christ I laughed so hard, and was so happy they did it!!! He looked great, it was so funny. That alone made the song a success to me I swear. I couldn't ask for more. A Friend Like Me is another hit. A lot of detail, energy, I think the special effects were great. My favorite song from the animated movie and one of my top favorites in this live action. I think the new adaptation that takes the cake is Arabian Nights. Loved the longer lyrics, the visuals, and Will Smith being the one to sing it. We have Will Smith portraying a fisherman at the start of the movie. Then two adorable children ask their father to tell a story, and they prefer he sings the story. At first the fisherman says no singing since it's been a long day, but he soon indulge his kids and begins singing the opening number. The camera goes over Agrabah, we get glimpses of the characters in the tale. The Sultan in the palace, the Princess by he fountain with her tiger, a somber figure before the Cave of Wonders. We hear of the diamond in the rough requirement and go back to Agrabah. The way everything is presented feels so fairy tale like. And the opening number gets even better when right at the end we get the hint and confirmation that the fisherman and the kids are actually Genie and his and Dalia's kids. In all honesty I thought Will Smith was playing a whole different character with he fisherman. And even though we see the fisherman's wife from he back on the boat nd we hear her voice, I couldn't guess it was them till the end of the movie. Needless to say that revelation was fantastic.

I apologize for any typos. I know there's stuff I didn't write about like the couple of dance numbers going on, but they were great. I loved how gorgeous Jasmine looked at the palace's party. Her dancing was mesmerizing too. Hooray for the Jasmine and Aladdin wedding at the end! I made this long enough and whatever topic you wanna talk about, hit my ask box anytime.

Best Disney live action to date everyone. Highly recommend.

[snapshotxdelrusso]

Breaking Boundaries

Who: @puckingup @snapshotxdelrusso

When: 20th February

Where: New York

Notes: A big change in Andy and Franco’s relationship. Sex.... And damn they nasty and need Jesus in their lives.... Also not completely finished but will add to it when finishing.

Wordcount: 6711

Franco was exhausted. He'd had to go over the events of what had happened, for the whole time he was with Jake so many times that day and by the recess, it was looking like Jake could walk free. It was during the recess that Andy had convinced him to tell them about the email and he gave in. When the courts heard that, you could see the sway in the jury and murmurs as he once again had to relive his past. As the trial came to a close, Jake was found guilty of Domestic Abuse and false imprisonment and was sentenced to serve a minimum of 7 years. As Jake was taken away, he shouted across the court room about how Franco was a liar and he loved him and how could he do this to him.... Franco was relieved but having to do the trial had taken its toll and once outside the court room he collapsed on the floor, sobbing hard as pulled his legs to his chest not sure who was there for him

Andy honestly had no idea what it was that she was doing in new York,she didn't know why she found it necessary to follow Franco there. It was almost like she had a soft spot for him or something. She couldn't really explain any of it. She did know however that he didn't deserve an of this bullshit. No one did. In the end she was pleased with the verdict and would have raised he'll if she didn't. Not that it'd matter. Now watching him her heart broke and before she knew what she was doing she was on the floor with him. She took his face in her hands so he could look at her if he wanted it needed to. "It's okay. It's over now. I've got you "

Franco looked up at the person holding him and saw Andy's eyes, "He's going to prison" said, his voice full of emotions, "I did that Andy, I did it. I made him go to prison" he sobbed as he looked to her for help, he didn't know what to do now.

Andy nodded her head at him with a faint smile. "You did and now he'll get was coming to him baby,"she without notice of the term of endearment and now you can do whatever you want and get back to work. Back to your friends,"she said not really knowing what she meant by that completely."it's okay. I promise,"she said before moving a hand to wipe a few stray tears. Before leaning in to press a soft kiss on his forehead.

Franco nodded, "But he's gunna suffer in prison and I'm to blame and he's..." He stopped as he took deep breaths, his sobs making it hard to breathe, "I can't be normal, I've ruined his life and I feel bad after everything he did to me"

Any shook her head no. "No. Fuck that and fuck him. He deserves it because if his actions not yours. You did nothing wrong you just think you did because he's a piece of trash for making you feel like this,"she said honestly as she raked a hand through his hair trying her best to make him feel better. "You know what'll really help? New York city pizza."

Franco pulled Andy into him so he could hold her properly. He knew this isn't what they did, knew this isn't how they were but he needed someone right now, "I just ruined his life and you suggest pizza" he said with a small scoff

Andy found herself leaning her head against him and letting of a content sigh. It had been forever since she was even like this around anyone.it was kind of nice,not that she'd admit that."he ruined his life the second he put his hand on you," she corrected ," yes pizza solves everything. When I got my heart broken I went to Chicago just for pizza pot pie."

Franco nodded into Andy's shoulder and he sniffed a little as his lawyer approached. He managed to push himself upwards and he shook his head, "Well we did it Franco" he said with a nod, "I hope you can get your life back on track now" he spoke honestly as he walked away. Franco had pulled Andy up with him and was still clutching her close, "Let's get pizza" he said sadly.

Andy listened as the lawyer spoke but couldn't help but roll her eyes as they seemed like a massive asshole but that was whatever. She got up carefully not wanting to fall or anything embarrassing. She just nodded her head at him. "Do you want me to hold your hand?"

Franco took her hand, not even thinking. They didn't do this, they weren't that your of 'couple'. They had sex and left straight after. He still had tears in his eyes and he felt terrible but he knew it was over now, "Thank you Andy" he whispered to the girl

With her free hand she wiped his tears yet again. "Its okay like unsaid I've got you,"she said with a shrug. "I'm a good friend. Always have been,"she said truthfully as they started walking out of the building.

As they headed down the streets he couldn't help but look at news stands. It would be big new come morning at Jake Weiss has been sentenced and he didn't wanna be around to hear it, "Can we leave tonight or early tomorrow?"

Andy let out a soft sigh before running her free hand through her hair. "We can leave when ever you want,"she comment ed ,"and we can do whatever you want'"she said before spotting a pizza place and crossing the street with him.

He sighed as he nodded, "I'm just worried about it all hitting the press tomorrow" he spoke with a sigh, "I don't wanna be here in New York when it does". They sat down and ordered and he looked up and across to her, "You've been great today Andy"

She looked across the table at him after taking her hand back. "We can just catch a red eye flight and get out of here and get you home and you can just take a day all to yourself."she shrugged her shoulders as if it was nothing. "It's whatever like I said I'm a good friend."

"Yeah maybe we get a different hotel closer to the airport and get the earliest flight?" He asked as the Waite brought the food, "You've been a proper good friend to me today. Sorry if it's weird or whatever"

Andy shrugged again before pulling out her phone and quickly booking two rooms at said airport hotel. "Done,"she said as she screenshots the confirmation number. "No biggie,"she said leaning back in her seat.

Franco nodded and smiled at her, "Cheers, how much do I owe you?" He asked as he took a bite of his pizza. People were staring at him but then, why wouldn't they, he was pretty big news in New York

She shrugged her shoulders "nothing. Pizza I guess. You can make me hit some high notes later whatever,"she said before picking up her own slice and taking a bite out of it.

Franco nodded, "I erm, don't know if I'm much up for sex tonight" he admitted, cheeks flushing red

"Understandable," she said daily. "I'll take a rain check for whenever don't even worry about it I was joking. Mostly,"she said with a smirk in between bites

"Yeah when we get back, I'll make sure I make it up to you" he offered, "This pizza is good... Did I make a mistake telling them about the email"

She shrugged her shoulders before rolling her eyes at his question. Like she got it but it slightly annoyed but more because of his ex. "No I don't. Its solid evidence and proved almost everything."

Franco sighed, "Yeah but, would he have gotten off if I didn't? You heard him, he kept shouting at me across the court room" he said toying with his pizza

"I don't think so. Dudes a physco," she said finishing her slice and going for a new one. "I mean the yelling wasn't helping his case . I think that you need to stop with the whatever's and what ifs and go with the now."

Franco nodded, "Sorry. I just... Its taken it out of me and that email, he seriously made me think I'd imagined it Andy"

Andy shook her head as she got a serious look on her face. "  That's just what shitty guys do. Make you seem like the crazy one when they're the one who hurt you," she said with a frown forming on her face.

"Yeah but I just... I know I shouldn't let him get into my head but all I could think was what if I did make it all up or something. I know I didn't but.... sorry Andy. I'll stop thinking about it now" he said with a nod, finally eating another bite

Andy nodded her head as she went for her 3rd slice and covering it in Parmesan cheese. "It's okay. Its a shitty situation. So I get it." She shrugged her shoulders again. "Are you done?with the pizza I mean."

Franco had only managed one slice of pizza but he really didn't wanna eat, "Yeah I'm done, I don't have much of an appetite right now"

"Again...understandable,"she said with a nod a flashed him a smile. "You wanna get out of here?"

Franco nodded and went to pay before coming back, "Should we go back to the hotel? I kinda wanna hide away a bit"

"Yeah,"she said easily," lets pick up our stuff and go to the new hotel maybe get a nap in so he can get out of here asap," she questioned figuring that'd be the idea for him since he wanted to just be pow key.

Franco nodded and moved towards the door, "The hotel isn't far so we'll be back to the new one in like half hour"

Andy followed behind him and hesitantly reached out to lace their fingers together again some what scared the moment had passed or maybe he didn't want that at all. But she she did want to hold his stupid hand for whatever reason. "That works."

Franco was a little shocked when Andy took his hand again but he didn't even try and push it away, he actually relaxed his fingers as they walked to the hotel. He knew the moment he was in his room later he'd crack at the seams but this was nice

Andy took a deep breath as he took her hand. It was odd her feeling..well anything. "Do you want me to get an uber or just walk?totally up to you." She stated as they walked together in the street . "I mean walking sucks so."

Franco nodded, "An uber is fine, I don't really feel like I can walk far right now anyway and my things are all packed already so we won't keep them waiting long".

Andy simply nodded her head before whipping out her phone with her free and and quickly ordering a car. "It'll be here in five minutes."

Franco nodded and just held her hand whilst they waited. When the Uber got there, he jumped in the back, explained what they needed and they were off

Andy followed his lead and relaxed against the leather seats with his hand still in hers. "Do you want me to run in and just grab everything?"

Franco nodded, grabbing the key card from his wallet, "Yeah please, I just wanna get to my room now"

"Understandable,"she said with with a tiny smile before taking the key card from him and hopping out. It didn't take very long for her to grab both of there things and check out. She got back in the car. "You ready to go?"

Franco waited patiently, his hands shaking a little as he was left alone with the driver. When Andy came back, his face showed clear signs of distress and he'd scratched a red mark into the back of his hand, "Yeah ready"

"Hey your okay,"she said instantly noticing his face. She closed her door before they started to move again. "It's all gonna be okay,"she repeated.

Franco nodded as he clutched her hand, his hand shaking in her grip, "Yeah sure it's OK... He's gone now"

"It's okay you've got me,"she said not really knowing what she meant by that. "She then took her free hand to cup his cheek."And not many people can say that."

Franco gulped and leaned into her hold, "I just feel like I'm gunna break you know? I don't feel strong enough to do this" he whispered.

"It's over,"She whispered back. " you can move on with everything. Get back to work maybe find a new gal or guy. Which obviously won't s love everything but I'm sure it'll help."

Franco nodded, "Yeah I know. I know it's over and he's gone and I'm safe now" he said as he rubbed his hand over  hers, "New person... No one will want someone like me now"

Andy bit her lower lip as she listened to him and questioned what she should even do to respond to that. "Franco I...,"she started but couldn't figure out the words to say or what she even wanted to say. So she closed her eyes,leaned in and kissed him.

Franco watched as words failed the other and her lips were on his, "You what Andy?" He asked, there faces so close.

She let out a soft sigh uncertain of what he wanted her to say. "I don't know,"she said honestly. "I don't know."

Franco nodded as they pulled up at the new hotel, "I erm.... We'd err.... Thanks man" he said, paying the driver and climbing out

She quickly pulled away face red of embarrassment. She grabbed her things as she walked in to check in. She then handed him his key card. "I'll see you in the morning."

Franco watched as she gave him his card and he pulled her back, "Andy talk to me. Tell me what's going through your mind, please don't hide things from me"

Andy was almost to the elevator when he stopped her. "Nothing is going on. I shouldn't have come here with you. It was stupid."

Franco felt liked he'd been punched at the words, "OK" he said, turning away "I shouldn't have asked you to come" he spoke as he picked his things up and headed for the stairs

"Damnit,"she said with a dramatic sigh. "I'm into you okay,"she called from across the way. "So like don't think like that or whatever,"she said before running a hand through her hair and looking in his general direction.

Franco froze as he heard the words and he turned, "You're into me? You like me?" He asked moving towards her and dropping his bags on the floor. He took a breath and before he knew it, his lips were in hers, hands cupping her cheeks.

All she could do was nod her head not wanting to say it allowed again. It was true she'd been very into him the moment they met but masked it all by saying she just wanted to sleep with him. She kissed him back eagerly but with a certain sweetness to it.

Franco felt his breathing catch as he felt her kiss back and he gulped as he pulled away, "Fuck the rules, stay with me tonight?"

As much as she wanted to give him a hard no she shook her head yes. "Yeah okay,"she said before swallowing hard and just looking at him.

Franco nodded as he took her hand, picking his bag up and biting his lip, "Maybe we should talk? About whatever this is when we get to the room?"

She took a deep breath "Do we have to do that? Are you gonna like lose sleep over it? I I'm not good at conversions deeper than Harry Potter couples and supreme vines,"she said shaking her head " Which is stupid I know."

Franco closed his eyes, "Yeah, we have to Andy. You saw what my last relationship was. You saw what happened. I have to know what's happening"

Andy let out another dramatic sigh. "Fine but I'm going to complain the whole time." She understood why he wanted to talk she was just a little closed off. "Fine,"she repeated.

Franco nodded, "You can complain I don't care if you complain I just have to know, I hope you understand that" he said as he led her towards the elevator

She took a deep breath as she followed closely behind him. "Yeah I get it. I'm just not good at it."

Franco led Andy to his room and opened the door, pulling her inside and leading her over to the bed, "What do you want from this?" He asked her, scared for the answer

"Wow right to it,"she said with a sigh as she put her bag down on the floor. Her heart was racing. "I don't know...,"she said honestly. "I've only been in one relationship and it didn't go well even though 20 year old me thought it was going to be forever but I'm not so naive anymore,"she said shaking her head and looking away from him.

Franco scoffed, "One relationship that didn't go well... Yeah I think I'm kinda the captain of that ship Andy" he said with a gulp. He sighed as he looked downwards, "I'm scared OK. I know you would never hurt me but the only example of a relationship I have had, he just got sent down for 7 years"

She scoffed as well rolling her eyes at him. Which yeah was rude but. "I'm afraid of not being enough . I'm not the person people want to be serious about . so I just sleep with them to give myself the validation then move on. And at almost 25 that doesn't feel the same anymore."

Franco took her hand and turned so he was facing her properly, "You are more then enough for me Andy. You've supported me through all this when everyone else would have run a mile. If you wanna be serious, I'll be serious with you"

Andy shook her head. "How can I be enough for you when I wasn't enough for even my Dad," she said with her voice cracking

Franco watched and he heard the crack in her voice, "Don't do that" he whispered, "I could say the same. How can someone want me when all my ex did was kick the living shit out of me. You dad is an ass, you are wanted... so much"

She shook her head "if I can't say that ...you can't say that,"she said with a laugh although she was on the verge of tears. "I want you too...so much."

Franco didn't know what to say as he held her face in his hands, "Tell me Andy, what do you want? What do feel? What's going through your mind? No matter how scary it is you have to tell me"

She finally made eye contact with him. "I want you. But I don't know how to be the person you need. If you haven't noticed...I'm dramatic and sarcastic and not very nice."

Franco bit his lip, "I want you too Andy" he whispered, "We can work it out?"

All she could really do was nod her head then close her eyes. She half wondered if this was actually even happening. She hadn't even know him that long but it was something about him. "Okay,"she said softly.

Franco watched her closely, "Okay?" he said, "So what does this make us?"

She swallowed hard feeling ridiculously nervous. "Whatever YOU want to be." There that was safe even if it still terrified her.

Franco sighed and he looked up at her, "I wanna be with you, as a couple"

She looked at him nervously then nodded."as long as we don't wear matching outfits and send out cringey Christmas cards that's okay. And you have to let me win at Mario kart at least once."

Franco actually laughed a little and he nodded, "No matching outfits, no cringe Christmas cards and I'll always let you win at Mario Kart" he agreed

She smiled softly at him. "Good. Okay I'll be a part of a couple with you. Nothing sappy though,"she half joked before leaning in to kiss him.

Franco kissed her back and he took a deep breath as he pushed her gently down onto the bed, kissing her the whole time

She help but to let out a low chuckle as he pushed her down on the bed. She wasn't really expecting it but couldn't complain. She moved his hands up his back as she kissed him back.

Franco kissed her with passion and he ran his hand up her top, hands playing with her skin as he rolled onto his side and gently pulled her onto him

She let out a content sigh as he kissed her and he proceeded to roll her on top of him."Thought you didn't wanna mess around tonight,"she teased breaking the kiss only to start kissing at his neck.

Franco scoffed, "Someone put me in a slightly better mood" he whispered, "But I am a little sore so, you'll have to do the work tonight babe" he whispered into her ear

She smirked against his neck at the same time taking in his scent and how his skin felt against her lips. She let out a little laugh against it at his words. "You want it soft and slow? Or quickish and nasty,"she asked somewhat seriously . though she was down for whatever.

Franco shrugged his shoulders as he tilted his head back, "I want you, I don't care how babe"

"Helpful," she mumbled into his neck before sitting up so she was straddling his hips. She then moved to remove her shirt followed by hers. She'd picked a good day not to wear a bra.

Franco watched as she undressed and removed his shirt. He somehow felt self conscious even though she'd seen it before, scars littering his chest. He reached a hand up to pull her down and started to gently suck on her breast

She hummed a bit as her eyes closed at the contact from his Mouth. "Franco fuck."Her hands then wondered to feel whatever part of his skin she could.

Franco worked with her breasts and moved a free hand down to her jeans, "Fuck I want you so much right now" he whispered, his cock hard inside his jeans

She found herself smirking again. "Oh yeah? Lets see what u can do about that babe,"she whispered before standing up to get the last two articles of clothing off of her and then him. "Your clean I assume?"

Franco nodded, "Yeah they tested me after I was rescued to make sure" he said with a nod, "Fuck your body is amazing"

Andy nodded her head before smiling at him. "You know what a benefit of being half of a couple with me? You get to raw dog it whenever You want without having to worry about anything. And thank you,"she said with her smile turning into a smugness. She then moved t her had to pump his cock a few times before taking her own hand to guide him into her easily.

Franco rolled his eyes, "It's like you want to ruin the moment" he breathed as she started to pump his cock, "Fuck babe" he whispered and then she climbed on top and he let out an animalistic groan, "Fuck, ride me babe, fucking ride me"

She rolled her eyes. She thought it was romantic but whatever.she grunted as she sunk onto him then grunted again at his words. She then moved to slowly roll her hips against him then built up speed.

Franco let his eyes close as he enjoyed the feeling of Andy riding his dick and he moved his hands to her hips, "Babe, fuck... Feels so good" he moaned, "Please fuck me hard"

Not needing to be told twice she swiftly pulled her hair up into a ponytail. After easily doing so she picked up her speed with another a moan making sure her clit rubbed against his skin adding to her pleasure. "Fuck."

Franco moved his hands to play with her breasts and he used one hand to rub her clit as she rode him, "Fuck... You are perfect... So fucking perfect"

She was flattered that he would say that and it turned her on even more so. "Fucking shit,"she moaned as he started to touch her. All three sensations were almost to much for her. "I'm gonna fun,"she nearly wined.

Franco started to thrust upwards, "I'm so close too baby" he whispered, "So fucking close..." He spoke as he stared to pant, "Fuck... Baby, so perfect fuck!"

She snapped her eyes shut as she tired to really focus at the task at hand. Within a handful of movements she was damn near screaming and clinching around him. After her body went limp causing her to drop to her elbows then press her forehead to his panting heavily.

Franco found it was the scream that pushed him over the edge and he came hard with a deep thrust inside her. When she was coming down he kissed her cheeks, holding her on him so she would be safe, "Was that good for you" he whispered, knowing it only gets better, perks of being an Italian

Andy couldn't help but to scoff at him. "What do you think?" She asked sarcastically as he she caught her breath. After a few moments she rolled off of him only to lay beside him.

Franco rolled onto his side as Andy lay next to him and he rolled his eyes at her, "Yeah well I didn't wanna assume, perks of having an Italian boyfriend"

She raised her eyebrow at him "oh yeah? So being Italian instantly makes you a good fuck? Good to know,"she said. "God that word sounds werid."

Franco scoffed, "No but being Italian means I'm not having any problems in the dick area" he said with a shrug, "Yeah it sounds weird for me to have a girlfriend trust me"

"If you say so,"she said rolling her eyes playfully before sitting up and just looking down at him with a soft smile. "You wanna go take a shower with me?"

Franco laughed and he sat up, "Yeah I could shower with you babe" he said with a nod, moving to the edge of the bed

[LOADS OF SEX ASSUMED CAUSE THEY NEED JESUS IN THEIR LIFE] 

Franco woke up the next morning and he felt Andy against him and he pulled her close, "Morning babe"

Andy jumped slightly as he touched her first thing as she was waking up. That kind of thing was gonna take getting used to all things considered. "Morning,"she mumbled before rubbing her eyes. She'd never been a morning person. "I need coffee."

Franco laughed, "Yeah don't we all first thing, I'll get up and make you some" he said with a nod as he rolled out the bed, naked and went over to use the drink making facilities

She rolled her eyes before rolling over so she could admire his body again. "I didn't know there was a vending machine in here..cuz you lookin like a snack."

Franco laughed hard and he face palmed, "Must be broken cause we somehow got two snacks"

She shook her head at him. "Nope just the one snack."she said before sitting up in bed and wrapping the comforter around herself then proceeding to yawn.

Franco finished making the coffee and he brought it over to her, sitting on the bed with no hurry to get dressed, "Give us a kiss then" he smiled, leaning on his elbow

She moved her hands from under the covers to grin the cup. "Ah perfect some coffee to go with all that cake your packing,"she said with a smile before taking a sip and leaning in to kiss him on the lips.

Franco laughed and nodded his head, "See you kissed me" he spoke. Something so normal yet it felt so different that he was getting it from Andy, "Should we go somewhere?" He asked

She took a sip of her black coffee and sighed contently."Yeah you wanted to go back to L.A. right,"she asked curiously.

Franco nodded, "Yeah but why LA?" He asked, "Why don't we take a vacation? Jump on any plane, go to Italy?"

Andy narrowed her eyes to look at him blankly. " because that's what you said you wanted?" She paused as he spoke then nodded. " if you want yeah I've never been."

Franco smiled, "Leave America for a few days, get to Italy and you could meet the family" he said with a smile, "I mean that's where they live"

Andy's eyes widened as she looked at him with an odd look. "Dude its been like 12 hours..."

"Yeah I know but if we go to Italy, I can't not say hello to my family babe"

She looked at him. "Well I mean that's understandable but are you gonna pissy when I don't want to meet them?or want to be introduced as a friend,"she asked curiously. "Not that I don't think that going to Italy with you wouldn't be hella romantic...the food alone."

"No I won't get pissed babe" he said sipping his coffee, "Well we wouldn't be able to top it. You know going on holiday together after 12 hours"

She gripped her hand on her coffee mug before realising the other one and running a hand through her hair. "Thank fuck Because...I'm not ready for that. At all,"she said honestly. "You wouldn't half to top it? I like taco bell,makeup and Victoria's secret I'm easy to please."

Franco shrugged his shoulders, "I can go see my folks one day and you can relax by the pool or something" he said with a nod, "Or we could sack of Italy all together and go to Disney or something"

Andy shook her head. "No no you should be with your family all things considered,"she said honestly. "Although I've never been to Disney either. I'm glorified trailer trash."

"Yeah my family have very limited knowledge of what's happened" he admitted, "Pick babe, Disney or Italy?" He asked as he stood to get dressed

"I think you need to see your family,"she said not really knowing what or who his family was made of. I know my Ma would go nuts if she hasn't seen me in awhile. Her expression then turned to a point. "No no. Don't do that. "

"My family don't know cause it'll break their heart if they do" he said with a nod, "I've kinda been really alone with this". He furrowed his brow, "Don't go what? Ask you too pick or get dressed"

"Well I think you should tell them,"she said honestly. "They deserve to know and I mean my Ma and brother knows basically everything about me. But I understand if you don't want to break their hearts. I've broke my moms by getting a tattoo so I couldn't imagine." She looked as him with a grin. " Don't get dressed I didn't have any cake yet."

"Yeah they know the basic's. They know I was getting hurt but they didn't know to what extent and they thought at most he'd do a year" he whispered as he dropped his pants back to the floor, "Babe, you ca have your cake whenever you want it"

"Well I think you should go see them and I should stuff my face and not gain a pound,"she half joked and watched as he got naked. She let out a loud laugh. "How are you not completely exhausted. I am."

Franco raised an eyebrow, "I'm 24 years old, you are older then me" he said ignoring the first part of the conversation, "And you suggested eating your cake first.... I'm thinking you prefer meat though"

Andy rolled her eyes "only by like 8 months or something like that.  " i like both but I am biased towards tube steak I guess,"she said with a smirk before putting her coffee on the bedside table. "Come here."

Franco shrugged, "Still older then me so you know, of course you tire easy" he laughed. He moved back towards the bed and knelt next to her, "If your tired, maybe I should have some breakfast" he said with a wink.

Andy rolled her eyes and shook her head at him. "I don't think age has anything to do with it maybe it's because as usual I did a majority of the work,"she teased raising a brow. "Oh yeah what do you suggest?"

Franco shook his head, "I only make you do the work cause I have broken ribs" he teased and he looked her up and now, "I mean, I could totally eat you out right now" he whispered, close to her ear

"Hmmm I don't remember that being a problem the first time I let you fuck me,"she said in a smug yet teasing manner.she bit her lower lip at his words and looked at him. "By all means go for it."

"Well the first time I just wanted to fuck you. Now I kinda wanna keep you and I don't wanna be damaged" he laughed. He slid under the covers and kissed her gently, before he worked his way down her naked body and his lips found her clit.

She didn't really know how to respond to his sentiment except to smile. So she smiled. She gasped as he kissed down her body even more so once his mouth was on her mist sensitive areas

Franco heard the noises she made and he worked a little harder, making sure that she was wet before he came up, "Hmm might leave you like that all day" he whispered against her lips

She looked at him with a smirk and shook her head. "You could,but you won't."

Franco scoffed, "Yeah you wanna test that theory"

Andy rolled her eyes at him."not particularity but I can do without. Just remember it goes both ways."

Franco laughed, "Awww babes you know for a fact you can't refuse this" he spoke pointing to his dick, "Only question, are you gunna be antsy on the plane if I don't finish what I started?"

"I have a hand and an imagination,"she said smugly still smirking. "But if you really are dying to do me..as Usual then go ahead."

"Dying to do you, I'm dying to tease you and fuck you on a beach in Italy" he teased

"Whatever you say,"she said cocking her head to the side and just smiling down at him.

Franco laughed, "What do you want babe" be whispered as he pushed her back and hovered over her, one hand either side of her head

Andy smiled at him as she moved her arm so she could stroke his cheek with her thumb. "You. That's what I want."

Franco bit his lip, "Bad choice" he whispered cheekily, "Could do better. Ten out of ten wouldn't recommend"

She cocked her head to the side. "Well haven't you heard?I'm one in a million?"

"Yeah and I'm the one that always gets returned for a refund" he spoke directly in her ear

"Lucky for you I lost my receipt,"she said before leaning up to pepper kisses on his neck. "So your stuck with me,"she whispered between kisses.

Franco didn't know how to react to the kindness and he bit his lip, "Wow, that's actually really sweet"

Andy could feel herself roll her . "yeah yeah yeah I'm a real sweetheart," she said with a second roll of her eyes.

Franco smiled, "Hey, you got all sentimental first"

"No," she said dryly, " in was just going along with what you were saying. No big deal,"she scoffed.

Franco sighed and rolled onto his back, laying next to her, "I swear, one day we will have a full moment"

"Well stop ruining them by throwing out the S word. I'm a Puckerman. We are not sweet by any means,"she said with a sigh.

"Oh I ruined it did I?" he asked, moving to the edge of the bed, "You was being sweet Andy"

"I was mot,"she said defensively as if that was the worst thing she was ever called. "It's whatever."

"Fine fine, I won't say it again" he said as he shifted to get his pants once more

"Come on don't be like that,"she said pouting before propping herself. "I'm sorry okay? But I don't like the mushy stuff so if it come out of my stupid mouth you gotta either ignore it or just nod and smile. I can't control the shit I say around you."

Franco turned to look at her and he nodded, "And I can't help the shit I say around you either babe" he admitted, "I think your fucking incredible"

She bit her lower lip. "So will work on it then. Now get back over here."

"Yeah we will" he breathed as he moved back to her, dropping his pants back to the floor

"Good," she commented before running her hands up his body carefully. "Can we just stay in this bubble for a little bit?"

Franco nodded, "This little bubble, just me, you and the hotel walls?"

She nodded her head "just for another hour or so.I mean your a pretty famous celebrity so,"she said playfully. "So the second we get back to L.A. or even the airport it's gonna be...something."

Franco nodded, just laying next to her, "Yeah I'm known worldwide" he said with a nod, "I don't even know how to handle the attention it's going to get. How do you wanna deal with it? We can keep it a secret?"

"I don't know,"she said honestly and laying so that her head was on his shoulder. I've never been with anyone publicly at least not really. I said I had a boyfriend which I did,"she shrugged again."it's up to you."

Franco scoffed a little, putting is arm out so he could wrap it around her, "We are in the public eye. We can try and hide it but it'll get out eventually"

Andy shook her head and then thought for a minute or so. "I don't want to hide it...I just don't want people to think your into be because I look like a man,"she said with a sigh , " or that I'm gold digging since I'm on the c list at best."

"You don't look like a man you are beautiful and the most gorgeous woman I've ever met" he said with a nod, kissing her head, "And I know you aren't with me for my money even if I am gunna spoil you rotten"

"If you say so," she said off handily although it made her blush. Only a tiny bit though. "You don't even need to worry about spoiling me. I'm a simple girl. Food and sex are all I need."

"I know so Andy" he whispered, gently playing with her hair, "I don't need too no, I want to cause you are my girlfriend"

She smiled and felt herself snuggle into his neck which was rather odd and uncharted territory for her. "Well your not gonna because I said so."

Franco bit his lip as she snuggled into him, "It doesn't work like that" he whispered

"Well it's gonna,"she whispered back with a small laugh ," I have my own money and I have everything I need."

"Yeah and I have a girlfriend who I'm gunna wanna buy presents for"

[rk800downloading]

“Save me” Chapter 12 - Connor x reader

Disclaimer: Hi everyone!! Sorry for the slow updates! I just wanna make sure that it’s good stuff for you guys to read because I love you all so much! Thank you so much for your positive reviews on the last chapter ;) LONG CHAPTER AHEAD - I hope you enjoy!! <3 

Previous Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11

“So, when did the feeling first start?”

“That-” Connor mischievously grinned “that is a rather plain question. I could tell you the probability of alien life, the chemical compounds of anything you can imagine, or even a really good joke - but that is your question?”

“I only get one?” You teased, slapping a fraudulently offended hand against your chest.

Connor’s eyes narrowed “You could submit a request for additional questions if you’d like.”

“And who would I file my request to?”

“Cyberlife - would you like their contact information?”

You chuckled, swinging your legs as they dangled from the park bench. Although seconds, minutes, and hours continued to leave the past behind, you and Connor remained rooted in time. You sat close to him, basking in his warmth - you refused to bring up the idea of leaving this moment.

“I’m not changing my question,” you smiled “but tell me the joke first.”

Connor suddenly stood, hovering over you “I do know CPR, in case you start to die from laughter-”

“Oh, my god-”

“How come ants never get colds?” He crossed his arms, eagerly awaiting your response.

Your voice was facetious “Because the cold weather kills them before they can catch one.”

“Oh- I hadn’t considered that response a possibility…” Connor furrowed his brows “The answer was supposed to be ‘because they have little anty-bodies.’”

You could feel your lips grow thin and your eyes begin to crinkle as you attempted not to laugh “That’s terrible.”

“That joke is not to your preference? What did the buffalo say as he dropped his kid off at school?”

“No-”

“Bison.”

You sucked in a deep breath to keep the giggles from spilling out “Please stop- just answer my original question.”

Connor smirked. He fully knew his effects on you.

“Well, to answer your question, when I took the trace sample from you neck, I also detected abnormally high levels of dopamine and norepinephrine - indications that you thought I was attractive.”

You groaned in embarrassment, your ears beginning to feel hot.

“I noticed I had an unusual thought process in that moment; what about me did you find attractive? Cyberlife made my looks to help assist in seamless human integration - but Hank never misses the chance to tell me I look goofy.”

Connor gently pulled away the arms hiding your red-tinged face. He tilted his head at you, a playful expression across his features.

“You’re shy now?”

You groaned again.

“I began to watch you closer, certainly more than necessary for the case. I began to feel that your company was quite pleasurable, and then I realized I was holding your hand more for my sake than for yours. But when you kissed my cheek, I-” he sat back down, abruptly ending his thoughts “I’m talking a lot about myself. I wish to learn more about you.”

You huffed at his hasty change of subject “Connor, surely your social module told you that it’s mean to leave someone hanging like that?”

“Oh, well-” his words turned into a laugh, the corners of his mouth tugging into a smile “It did, but I’ve grown somewhat good at ignoring it.”

When did Connor’s laugh become so effortless? Each small shake of his shoulders seemed to bubble up from his chest, heartfelt - happy.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows against his knees “Since you seem to enjoy looking at me so much, perhaps you’d like to tell me exactly what you find so attractive?”

You crossed your arms “Were you always so sassy?”

“I think that being around Hank has had a positive influence on my sassiness.”

A scoff left your mouth “If you must know,” your hand reached towards his umber mane “I really like this hair.”

You traced down to his cheekbones.

“I like your eyes,”

Your finger worked its way to his lips.

“I like your smile,”

Connor frowned “You’re just listing everything.”

“I know.” You beamed, your hand finding its final destination on his chest “What I love the most is who you are - how you’re so caring and focused, how you’re sometimes horribly awkward,” you rolled your eyes “and I even love your terrible jokes.”

He grasped at your wrist, eyes wavering.

“I don't know much, or really anything about loving someone. When I look up ‘love’ I see images of families and marriages - people growing old together, raising kids together. I can't do that for you, but I want-” he paused, gaze searching “I want to be ‘selfish’ - can I be selfish about this?”

His hand wove into yours, the pale color of his skin dissipating into a mechanical white.

“Is it selfish to ask you to love an android?”

You placed his hand in your lap, running your fingers across the pearlescent plates of his knuckles. Connor was so-

“Beautiful.”

You thought aloud, Connor’s head snapping up in incredulity.

“Whether or not you are an android doesn’t change the fact that I love you - I have only ever thought of you as Connor, the person sitting next to me.”

“Am I really a person when I can easily be replaced?” His jaw was set, confliction evident in his red LED “There are more ‘Connors’ than just me - there is another RK800 model ready to download my memories and replace me at anytime.”

“Even if they can copy your memories, or look the same, they are not you.” You pointed to the serial number illuminated on his jacket “I don’t know much about androids, but I do know that this is your number - the only one in the world. I may not be numbered but you are just as much a person as me, you always have been. No one can replace you.”

“Is it okay for me to-” his voice cracked “can I believe that?”

Your voice was soft.

“That’s up to you to decide.”

You left behind your words of encouragement and walked toward the bridge. You felt yourself become hypnotized by the red glow of passing tail lights, entranced by the music and nightlife of the harbor. It wasn’t until the wind begun to bite at your cheeks that you became aware of the dress shoes echoing behind you.

“What will you do if I decide to be selfish?”

You spun around to see all of Connor’s uncertainty had been replaced with the same confidence he had when he kissed you. He stood tall, arms crossed over his broad chest. His eyes were full of fire, burning his gaze into you.

“You're saying that like it's a bad thing.” You gulped at his new-found resolve.

“When you kissed my cheek I felt your heat,” he walked towards you, tracing a finger under your jaw “I never understood what a craving was until then, I couldn’t understand the idea of my body acting on it’s own - it was like an unlisted process threatening to overtake my hands and have their way with you.”

Connor pressed against your mouth, taking your bottom lip in between his. You breathed into him, whimpering as he pulled away.

“I’m going start making my own decisions now.” He smiled at the dumbfounded look on your face. 

You were completely, and utterly under his spell.

“The time is currently 3:52 am, my love.” Connor fixed the wind-blown strands of your hair “I think it would be wise for us to return to Hank’s house.”

“My love?” You blinked hard, knees still weak.

“It is the term of endearment I’ve decided to use for you.”

“You’re taking this ‘deciding for yourself’ thing very seriously aren’t you?”

“I like it.”

He grabbed your hand, leading you out of the park.

“I feel free.”

---

Connor was animated on the walk home, a boyish enthusiasm clear in his excitement. He concocted a detailed list of three things he had decided to try. First, he decided to cook Hank a proper dinner - especially eager at the prospect of seeing how many vegetables he could hide throughout the meal. Second, he was going to put laxatives in the coffee of a man named ‘Gavin’ - he assured you that this ‘Gavin’ was fully deserving of this punishment as he was, as Connor put, a ‘shitty person’.

Lastly, he decided he would take you on a date. He insisted that he follow ‘human traditions’ and take you out for dinner.

“There is a five-star restaurant close to here, do you like Italian?”

“Is there by any chance, a restaurant that serves blue blood?” you laughed already knowing the result “I don’t want to eat alone.”

Connor’s LED spun rapidly, halting to a yellow “No, I don’t think there is.”

“We could go on a picnic? Some human food for me, some android food for you?”

“A picnic it is, my love.” his frown disappeared into a smile.

Connor let go of your hand, producing a key from his pocket. He placed a finger over his mouth, signalling silence as he slid the silver into the lock.

The door swung open - a grumpy old man stood in sweats and slippers, ‘tired’ written across his face.

“What in the hell are you kids doing?”

Connor quickly lowered his finger, standing upright. He cleared his throat “Thank you for opening the door, we just arrived back from a stroll.”

Hank’s eyebrow was raised “A four hour stroll, eh?”

The Lieutenant gestured you and Connor inside the house, sitting you down at the kitchen table.

“I have a certain place I like to go to when I can’t sleep,” Hank started, sipping a cup of coffee “Imagine my surprise when I get there, and I see two familiar looking kids holding each other and kissing like the goddamn sky is falling.”

Hank produced a large box from the counter behind him, sliding it across the table to Connor as he took another swig.

“I got this for you. What a crazy world we’re living in - malls are open 24/7, just crazy.”

Connor took the box into his hands, sliding his fingers across the elegant gold branding on its front. He looked up - lips parted, eyes wide “May I open it?”

Hank grumbled, lazily giving a thumbs up. He downed the rest of his caffeine, watching the android’s reaction from his peripherals.

Connor lifted the box’s lid, revealing a crisp leather jacket. He carefully released the material from its fold, letting the leather’s smoky smell fill the room. He attentively placed each arm in its respective hole, delicately adjusting the way the jacket fell from his shoulders.

It was a sleek black fitted racer jacket. It was simple, classy - appearing as if it had been made in Connor’s image. It fit perfectly.

“Fear, panic, happiness, love,” Hank’s grin was lopsided “those are all human emotions.”

The old man stood, grabbing Connor’s Cyberlife jacket.

“Don’t wear this anymore. You’re not some goddamn product, so don’t dress like one.”

Connor’s stare refused to the leave the gift that adorned him “When did you have time to buy this? Was it after you saw us at the park?”

“First of all, I didn’t mean to spy on you.” Hank sighed “ Second, just enjoy the damn present, ok?”

Connor smiled wide, dimples deepening at the corners of his lips “Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hank began walking back to his room, stopping to place a hand on your shoulder.

You looked up, catching a glimpse of blush behind the gruff of his beard.

He gave an affection squeeze.

“I’m glad it’s you.”

You had never thought a combination of those four words could make you feel the way that you did. You watched Hank’s back as he called Sumo for bed, retreating down the hall, disappearing with a slam. You were giddy, elated - unable to stop yourself from feeling a familial love towards the man.

“I think Hank thinks of you like a son.”

Connor finally looked up from the jacket, eyebrows raised in response to your statement “What makes you think that?”

“Just the way he treats you,” you walked closer admiring the look of leather against his lean frame “I can’t remember my own dad though, so it’s purely a hunch - I hope he was like Hank.”

Connor halted, his LED fading to red “There is something I’ve been meaning to apologize for,”

You watched as he clumsily shifted his weight, curling his hands into fists at his sides.

“I was curious about your past when you talked about your orphanage,” he started, avoiding your gaze “I am unsure if you didn’t wish to tell me, or if you were waiting until you felt comfortable, but I wanted to give my condolences. I didn’t intend to pry.”

You jerked your head, confusion knitting through your eyebrows “What are you talking about?”

Connor mirrored your reaction “I’m referring about what happened to Rosewater Orphanage.”

You suddenly felt numb.

“What?”

“You don’t know?” Connor’s voice was as perturbed as you felt “Police records confirm that a family liaison officer delivered the news to you.”

“What news was delivered to me?” Your question was a demand “Tell me what happened.”

“You really don’t know...?” his tone became concerned “The orphanage suffered a mass murder four years ago.”

You froze, muscles tensed under Connor’s unblinking stare - you felt like you had heard this before. 

“The bodies of three adults, presumably the staff, and multiple children, the orphans, were found disfigured beyond recognition.”

“Only three staff...? That doesn’t make sense.” Your mouth felt dry, brain unresponsive “Did they catch who did it?”

“A suspect was never found-”

“How many children did they find?”

“I don’t think-”

“How many children!” You shrieked, not meaning to take whatever was happening to you out on Connor. You couldn’t control yourself or the violent feeling stirring within you - a crimson-eyed monster threatened to crawl into your brain, to grope at your skull, to scratch at your nerves.

“I know we just had a real touching moment back there, but do you think you could keep it the fuck-” Hank’s voice echoed from behind you, breaking as your vision became blurry “What’s going on?” you felt him rush to your side, holding your shaking arms steady.

Connor spoke through clenched teeth. He began deciphering your questions - understanding your fear.

“19 children were found…”

The significance of his answer burrowed into your chest, broke the monster’s chains, unlocked his cage.

“Was his body found?”

The room grew still, silence taking the form of a pressure - it was heavy, crushing. You thought you might die if Connor didn’t respond.

“No, the body of an android- Tim was never mentioned in the official police report.”

The last piece of the puzzle clicked.

Connor knew,

You knew.

Your tears became chokes of repulsive realization. The bliss of your childhood had been shattered - it’s limbs ripped apart, it’s blood drained.

Your legs collapsed under you, falling into Hank.

The floor was cold and hard, but Hank didn’t move. You sat cradled in his arms, angrily sobbing into his shoulder. You could feel the deep rumble of his voice as he spoke.

“20 names on the lists, 20 possible victims.” 

“19 unidentified victims, 19 children found.” Connor continued.

“One missing android, one deviant killer on the loose.”

You straightened your back, indignantly wiping away your tears.

Your smile was bitter.

“Guess we just found out who GOR is.”

Next Chapter: CHAPTER 13

---

Shout outs to @autumn-become-human and @lionesshathor for giving me some great ideas to work with!! <3 Thank you!

[imagineclaireandjamie]

Through My Veins - Part 2.

@yasminl

More. , pretty please. How often are the new chapters going to be published? Looking forward to this story. 🙏🏼😍❤️❤️

A fair question, yasminl. The answer is: I just don’t know, but I’ll try for once a week. I usually start writing the next chapter once the first has gone out, but as I’m sure you all know - they then take a while to perfect. Hence why some haven’t updated in a few weeks. But I am working on them <3 Mod MBD.

Dinner had gone on well into the night, so shattered, her eyes barely open, Claire made her apologies and left Ellen, Brian and Lamb laughing and joking at the table. Dragging herself off to bed, she crawled under the covers leaving all of her clothes on. She had no energy to change into her pyjamas and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

As always, her dreams were sporadic - the heat of the Nile permeated her skin as she tossed and turned beneath the sheets. Instead of the soft cotton of her Lallybroch bed, she was now lying beneath the tarp of her thin tent, the sun glaring through the coarse fabric. Kicking her legs, Claire tried to rid herself of the taint of it, the sweat rolling down her spine as the eerie figure passed along the left side of her temporary abode.

She remembered it well. The scent of him as he crawled through the narrow entrance to her tent, his shirt abandoned in the midday heat as he crawled along her legs and curled himself around her.

Shocked awake by the force of the dream, Claire shot bolt upright, her chest heaving as she tried to regulate her heartbeat. With her hand resting over her left breast, she climbed out from the bed, undid her - no uncomfortable - jeans and shimmied into her flannel pyjamas. Rubbing her eyes she snuck, her feet narrowly avoiding the creaky old floorboards.

“Jesus...H,” she muttered, cupping her hand under the tap as she tried to tame the mass of curls that had somehow managed to migrate to the left hand side of her head during the night.

Abandoning her attempts to get it flat again, Claire peeled off her clothes and climbed into the shower - using whichever miscellaneous shampoo she picked up first. Massaging the foam through her hair, she rubbed her scalp in a bid to soothe the stress from her skull downwards. The water was nice and warm, not too hot but nice enough that she felt more relaxed than she had done in a while.

Not wanting to put her sleep-stained clothes back on, Claire grabbed a clean towel from the warmer and wrapped it around herself. She hadn’t even looked at the time when she’d woken so was caught off guard when she came back into the corridor to find Jamie awake - and shirtless - waiting outside the bathroom door.

“O-oh…” she stuttered, the breath catching in her throat as she took one cautionary step backwards. “I didn’t expect anyone else to be awake yet.” She whispered, glancing around, expecting to see Brian -at least- and feigning shock when he appeared to be alone.

“Ach, no, they are’na,” Jamie said, not hiding the amusement in his voice, “they had a late night. As ye ken. So I told da that I’d get up and do the milking - let him and yer uncle catch up.” Quirking a brow, Jamie ruffled his hand though his already mussed up hair and covered his mouth as he yawned. Scrunching his nose he smiled as he stepped closer to the bathroom. “Do ye want to come and help? Since yer up…”

Taken aback by his offer, Claire opened and closed her mouth as she held the towel tight across her chest.

“I don’t think I’m particularly well equipped for...milking, Jamie.” She replied. “I don’t even have wellies with me.”

“I dinna think that’ll be a problem, lass.” He said happily - his joyful demeanour infectious as he spoke. “We have plenty of supplies. I think mam is about the same size as ye, aye? You could wear her jacket and dungarees. Ye’ll be fine. If you want to, of course?”

“A-alright,” Claire stammered her eyes locked with Jamie’s as she walked backwards a little. She could see his shoulders roll, the top of his pectoral muscles tensing as he smiled widely. She couldn’t look downwards, even the suggestion of his bare chest made her mouth water. But his age -the reminder of it at least- made her hands tighten into fists. He was just trying to make her feel welcome and she was misconstruing his kindness for flirting. Though she swore she could see a slight glint in his eye as she nodded and turned slightly.

“Challenge accepted, then?” Jamie whispered, dipping his head and winking quickly.

“Oh,” Claire said - more confidently now, “it was a challenge was it, Fraser?”

“Aye, of course. Yer an archaeologist, are ye no’? I want to see how good you are at getting yer hands dirty. So, o’ course it’s a challenge.”

“Fine. I’ll get dressed. You just wait and see.” She said stubbornly, raising her chin in defiance. Shimmying backwards a touch, Claire felt the metal of the door divider against her bare feet and turned to hide herself safely in her room. Her head spun. Had she just agreed to milk cows with Jamie Fraser? Shaking her wet hair, she glanced over at the clock which read 4:30am. The bright red digits of the old analogue clock flickered as the dim glow of dawn began to illuminate the fields beyond her windows.

With dawn fast approaching Claire quickly dried her hair and pulled on some leggings and a thick jumper. She could have just put her pyjamas back on and fallen asleep again, forgetting Jamie’s offer completely. But that felt cowardly and really, if she could help him out and learn something new at the same time, then she was up for it. Realising she was mostly excited more than nervous about going out milking, she plucked her waterproof coat from the chair where she’d dumped it last night and - as quietly as she was able - crept downstairs.

Jamie was already waiting, a spare pair of wellington boots and some thick looking industrial dungarees in his hands.

“For a moment I thought ye’d chickened out and gone back to bed, sassenach.” He said, the Scots colloquial term for an Englishman sounding more pleasant on his tongue than the last time she’d heard someone say it. It felt more like a term of endearment than a shady term used against her fellow countrymen.

“I’m studying for my doctorate, Fraser,” she returned playfully, “I’ve slept in my own sweat out in the desert for weeks, peed in a bottle because there were no flushing toilets. Getting up early, walking through mud and assisting you out there doesn’t make scare me, buddy. I’m immune to your teasing. So,” she said with some finality, “are we ready?”

“Ye need to put these on.” He replied, holding out the waterproof equipment to her with a friendly grin on his face.

“Excellent.” Claire said. Taking the large-ish trousers and sliding them on over her leggings.

“Much better, lass. Ye actually look like yer ready for the heavy duties of a Scottish farmer now, aye? No’ just a bystander.”

“Bystander!” Claire scoffed. “My arse.”

--

By the time Claire had hooked the last cows up to the milking machine the sun had completely risen and the barn they were currently in was lit from the inside out, the wooden beams lighting up bright red as if they were on fire and Claire couldn’t help but think of Cairo.

Before she’d travelled to Baltim on the coast, Cairo had been her home for a month whilst they researched their dig sites around Burullus Lake. It was always bright, the sun seemingly redder and hotter than anywhere she’d ever been before. Probably because it was further inland than any of the other campsites on the continent, but something about the place told her its position on the earth brought it closer to the sun by some ecological or geographical madness.

“Claire,” Jamie said, patting her on the shoulder and bringing her out of her daydream in an instant, “I brought the flask wi’ us, we canna do anything more now, the machine does the rest. Would ye like a cup of tea while we wait?”

“Yes, that would be wonderful, thanks Jamie.”

Sitting on the ancient small milking stools that Brian had stored in the corner of the barn, Claire and Jamie shared the hot beverage using the one small cup from the top of the Thermos. Passing it back and forth between them they sat in an amicable silence, the sound of the pulsating pressure canisters funneling milk from the cows into the vat that sat on the outside of the building the only noise. It was loud enough now that neither of them felt the need to compete with it and it was nice to just sit and take in the heat of the morning before the clouds rolled in.

“So, did ye always want to travel the world, Claire?” Jamie asked as they packed away the equipment, freeing the fresians from their morning duties. A chorus of moos went up as they stomped, shook and settled themselves so Claire waited until they were quiet again before she answered.

“I really don’t know,” she said honestly, “I think I just saw uncle Lamb as some sort of God when I was little. I always wanted to follow in his footsteps. And when I got to eighteen, my A-Levels over, and I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life -truly- I just went for it. I did my BA. I didn’t hate it and I knew that if I actually wanted a proper career I’d eventually have to do my Masters and then my PhD. The travelling part just sort of...came with the territory.”

“And now?” He pressed, his fingers rising to brush a stray piece of straw from her shoulder as he tipped his head to the left, allowing his hand to linger for just a moment too long. “Yer no’ too far off finishing your doctorate are you?”

“I don’t know about now, Jamie,” she whispered, ignoring his last question completely.

All the air had left her lungs and she felt unable to string together anymore words without collapsing under the pressure.

Jamie’s touch had unleashed something inside of her that she couldn’t quite explain. She was a scientist. A logical creature who saw the world for what it truly was. She loved unearthing the past, describing in monumental detail the marks and patterns that released previously unknown secrets about people who walked the earth all those years ago. Frank had been of similar ilk. She had pursued him, thinking his continued support and affection was an accurate portrayal of a healthy and stable relationship - especially in her line of work where they were never in one place for too long.

But even he had proven that stability was a myth. Though maybe he was just a product of his career and once Claire had returned home he hadn’t deemed it logical to assume she’d be back any time soon, out of sight out of mind.

So, although her head rebelled against the idea that one touch could spark a romantic involvement, her heart was quite keen on the idea ...and as his mouth touched hers, all rational discussion in her mind - about Jamie’s age, about her studies, about the fact that they were stood in a barn surrounded by cattle. Instead she focused on the soft taste of tea that lingered on his lips as he pressed himself closer to her, pushing her up and against the panels of wood on the only freely exposed part of the barn.

He was gentle, incredibly sensitive as he placed one hand by the side of her head whilst using the other to run along the underside of her jaw. She almost forgot that he was nearly a decade younger than her. Almost.

“Jamie,” she whispered against him, sighing gently as he used the opportunity to lap his tongue languorously against the inside of her bottom lip, “you’re--”

“If ye dinna want me to kiss you anymore, Claire,” Jamie interjected, punctuating his words with small, sweet kisses, “then I’ll stop and I willna mention it again. But otherwise, please dinna tell me it’s because I’m too young, aye? It isna illegal.”

“No,” Claire said softly, “it isn’t. But what you’re doing with your tongue should be.”

[aeondeug]

So @thedrunkenminstrel​ did this so I might as well too. Let’s get an Aon’s Top Ten Ships list running! I will say right now that this list is honestly a very shaky thing. A lot of is something that is subject to heavy shifting around, and some of the things that are on it currently probably wouldn’t be if you asked me another day. The top three I can more genuinely state are like Actual Factual Top Three Material and wouldn’t shift much at all. But the rest are up to heavy degrees of change.

10. Naruto/Hinata from Naruto We’ve got to start this list off right and to do that let’s put one of my weirdly enduring baby ships in the ten spot. This was honestly kind of tied with three other ships that I’ll mention later as honorable mentions, but Naruhina gets to win out its spot for its bizarre personal significance to me. Namely the ship is weirdly instrumental in my realizing I was trans, by way of an AU I worked on where Hinata was a transman. And the entire thing was very heavily focused on that woe and also romance with Naruto who tried to teach Hinata the ropes of being a dude. Which sounds like a beautifully terrible trainwreck now, honestly, given that it’d probably involve him showing Hinata the local pornshop and being like YES. THE HEIGHT OF MANHOOD. titty mags. Stepping away from that weird personal significance that no one else save me holds for it though...Naruhina is one of those early ships I clung to really, really hard because I heavily related to one half of the ship and saw, in the other person, traits I found admirable. Like, yes, Naruto’s an irritating jackass who fails all his classes but he’s loud and out there and keeps trying even though he basically always fails up until the point when the plot deems him Ninja Jesus. All traits a nervous kid desperately wished he had and ones that I found endearing or attractive. Even if so much of the rest of him is so grating. Also this sets up the major theme of this list, namely that if you’re earning my undying shipper love chances are I relate to one half and have a crush on the other half. 9. Saria/Malon from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time This is really low on the list, but it’s here for one very important reason. And that reason is is that it is the crackship that will not die. Years have past since a little kid went ‘but what if the cute farm girl and the fairy girl were a couple!’ and the ship’s stuck. It’s also evolved over the years. Evolved into something that by its very nature is doomed to tragedy. Because really if you think about it there’s no real way it could be anything but. Saria dies in the end and is also a weird eternal child type deal. Malon’s going to grow up and move on from her first dumb little kid crush. It’s not really a ship I like am actively, emotionally obsessed with but it is one that I repeatedly go back to and just toy with the idea of every so often. Like it’s just an idea I find compelling to toy with. Early childhood love that by its very nature must die between a human and what amounts to a fairy. 8. Satoko/Rika from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Alright now we’re back to something I am like deeply and emotionally invested in. As someone with an abusive family seeing Satoko’s story in Higurashi was a harrowing experience as a kid. Especially as a kid who has outright lied to CPS before to avoid further abuse. It was also a comforting one in a fashion. Since even before saving Satoko, Rika and her friends are always there to at least try and save her. Satoko’s a horrible brat and a horrible brat that I relate to. Rika’s...weird meanwhile. She’s someone who’s technically a child but due to magical fuckery is actually mentally matured past that. She’s also been pretty scarred by the trauma of what she’s gone through and it’s left her not entirely ‘human’. So much so she needs to eventually go through an arc just to realize that, no, it’s time to give up being a witch and to just...try and find what’s normal. Even though everything about that sounds wrong or even impossible. And that in itself is also relatable. But even then she’s still Satoko’s best friend and Satoko is her best friend. They stick by each other and I’d imagine they would later on in life. But even later on in life there’d still likely be mental disconnect there for a good chunk of time. And one also has to keep in mind that while Rika’s mentally lived for at least one hundred years she’s still not an adult. She’s just a child that was forced to grow up too fast and that’s eventually going to bite her I think, when she realizes that in itself isn’t adulthood. That’s an interesting thing to think of an toy with, I think. 7. Porrim/Aranea from Homestuck An entirely unsurprising pick from me if you know anything about me from my Homestuck days. Which are like my normal days, honestly, but the fervor’s kind of died down. Give it a bit though and we’ll get right back to Hamsteaking. Porrim is just...a very one-note little joke. In all honesty. But she’s one that provides like a vast sea of unexplored potential. Porrim is, like so much of Homestuck, a perfect Barbie doll to play makebelieve with. She is also a vampire. This nets her like 50,000 bonus points immediately. Then there’s Aranea. Aranea is a bad person. Let’s make no bones about that. She is a bad person. But she’s cute in a way, when she’s not being awful. She’s also someone that reminds me somewhat of the person my current boyfriend used to be, while also having troubles that I myself find relatable. And the most important part of the ship is that they canonically broke up. Which sounds like a weird ass reason to ship a thing I suppose, but the breaking up is what makes the ship interesting to me. It’s basically a tragedy in action. It can’t work out in the main timelines, though it might in alternates. And I like exploring what led up to it not working out. 6. Chise/Elias from The Ancient Magus Bride This is sadly not in the top ten yet as I don’t quite feel comfortable putting it there when I’m not caught up. But given where I currently am in the manga I have to say that this is one of the most disgustingly me romances I’ve seen in a bit. We’ve got a spooky monster man, an awkward abused girl...He calls her puppy and gives her head pats and they nuzzle each other like dogs. He kind of wants to eat her and he’s kind of a creepy weirdo to her at times, but she’s also not seeming like someone that is just going to bow down and eternally accept that and... And they’re both learning how to people. They both are. Neither of them really knows how to do this whole human thing that well. They’re both emotionally fucked and dysfunctional in their own ways. And they’re learning from each other. In such a fashion that I legitimately cried while reading my comics. Which is a bit hard to manage. Given proper time and catching up they may well travel up this list. 5. Malus/Carrie from Castlevania 64/Legacy of Darkness Alright. Back to childhood ships. Also more monsters. Also these were kind of awful ass games and neither Carrie nor Malus really have much personality at all. Carrie’s personality is mostly relegated to material in the manual, which paints her as an incredibly angry and distrusting child that hates adults and also God for failing her repeatedly. But that’s all just stuff in like a summary. And Malus’ personality is NYEHEHEHE I WAS EVIL THIS WHOLE TIME. So what, pray tell, is the appeal of this besides my obvious vampire fetish. The answer is that like...the bad end of the game has Carrie promising to marry Malus. Malus asking her to marry him presumably so he can like make use of the Belnades bloodline’s magic. Also Malus is Dracula. Dracula and human women do not have a good track record. Both in terms of him being able to resist the rare strong willed woman willing to put him in his place and in terms of keeping those women not murdered for witchcraft. Malus and Carrie is a ship of potential. Potential that plays into one of the central themes of Castlevania’s storyline which is that Drac really just wishes people would stop killing his girlfriends. I may or may not have also had an OC who was their kid who is also kind of basically another character on this list. 4. Glinda/Elphaba from Wicked Listen to What is this Feeling. Now listen to it again. Listen to Popular. Now listen to it again. NOW LISTEN TO DEFYING GRAVITY. NOW LISTEN TO IT AGAIN. We’ve got a green woman who is kind of hideous and who thinks she’s ugly! She’s also angry at the world and wants to change shit! She’s also tragically fucked! In the book at least. How is that not a me character? And Glinda. Gods. Glinda. She’s not stupid. She seems it in the book a lot of the time and Elphaba assumes she is right away but...Glinda’s not stupid. She’s actually very smart and putting on a front. Also she basically annoys Elphaba’s tsundere ass into being her bff. And if there is anything I love in my ships it is one half having to be annoyed into friendship by another happier character who is weirdly trusting and accepting of this horrible monster. Why? Who cares! But they are! Now listen to What is this Feeling. Please. 3. Zero/Fiethsing from Force of Will And now we are finally in the top three. We have also reached the part of the list where we have a character with alarming similarities to my weird kidfic OC from Castlevania. So Zero. She’s cranky and serious. Kind of nervous. Really nervous honestly. She’s also pretty cynical and at her worst points actively gives up on trying to save the world and attempts to destroy it or is like on the brink of giving up again. She’s also got abandonment issues, self hate problems, and uncompromising sense of justice that can be reasonably connected to the self hate problems and shit’s just not a good time for Zero. Also she’s a vampire. And then there’s Fieth. Her Most Important Partner. Lovely, stupid, irritating Fieth. Fieth who adores freedom above all else and who is seemingly full of endless optimism and hope and who is a cocky bitch and who lies and sleeps and is basically a cat become an elf. More importantly though there’s what they are. We don’t get to see Zero and Fieth becoming friends. We meet them when they’re friends already and have years of established history with one another. And shortly after we meet them they adopt a child. Or, rather, Fieth declares she’s going to raise the baby into her apprentice and Zero declares that she refuses to let Fieth raise a baby on her own. And then...they become a family. Just. A family. A pretty happy one at that. It’s eventually torn asunder by death and war but before that they’re just two mothers and their daughter. They are in a sort of quantum gay state like poor Nanofate despite their whole deal, but to me they do unquestionably read as a couple. One with problems. A laundry list of them. But a couple with a kid and, in a weird sort of way, a future. 2. Jame/Tori from The Chronicles of the Kencyrath I adore this ship. It is hard to quantify how much I adore it. But it’s quite a lot. It’s dysfunctional. It’s got issues. It’s incest and that shockingly isn’t one of the issues. And that’s why I love it. Because Hodgell has managed to take fantasy characters and mythic archetypes and humanize them with some of the most starkly real depictions of mental illness I’ve ever seen. Hands down. Tori’s a nervous wreck. He’s an asshole with problems from trauma and Jame doesn’t just take his shit. She actually does the exact opposite and tells him to fuck off. That’s important. Tori not just getting the girl despite being a human disaster is very important. The fact that his very behavior is why the girl does not want to get with him even though she really, truly wants to deep down is very, very important. Jame/Tori is the awkward and rough tale of two people having to recover from frankly atrocious abuse. Two people who are deeply drawn to one another but who also fear and kind of hate the other. Two people who can barely stand being in the same room as one another currently. It’s a bumpy road. It’s a road we’re not even sure they can make it down. But that’s why it means things to me as someone whose undiagnosed BPD almost destroyed his relationship. 1. Sakuya/Remilia from Touhou This just barely beat out Jame/Tori and the sole reason it beats out Jame/Tori is I have shipped this fucking shit for literally almost half my life. And I’m still not through with it or tired of it. It’s been years and years and it is still one of my most favoritest ships ever. So I feel pretty confident saying it is my One True Pairing. It’s also got a vampire. Wow. It’s got a human partner who is bad at humaning too! Double wow! And what it’s got in particular is exceptional flexibility. Like all the Touhous Remilia and Sakuya are kind of just left up to the mercy of the fandom. There’s canonical traits they have and we have seen them interact together and with others, but in a far more limited degree than what is seen in a lot of other works. And the fandom is what basically runs Touhou. It is a self perpetuating machine and Sakuremi is still chugging along years later and with a bunch of variety in it, even if it’s got some tropes I am really tired of seeing at this point. But why is this the Touhou ship to end all Touhou ships? Besides the obvious answer of ‘Duh, it’s a vampire and her maid. What the fuck else do you NEED?’ we have the ever important identification and wish fulfillment aspects. Which breaks into my own personal conception of the characters and their relationship with one another. So Remilia’s like...a kid. Forever. She was turned very young so even after five hundred years she still looks like she’s ten at best. She’s also kind of a brat and at times fairly naive in the way a kid might be. But we do see that she puts on airs. She’s TRYING to be this intimidating, sophisticated vampire lady and she takes pride in the fact that people ‘respect’ her. But that respect is more fear of the fact that she’s a vampire and vampires are stupidly powerful in her world. And as someone who had an extended childhood forced on him by his family and who is trying to learn what it is to be an adult and never being treated like an adult or not being able to handle it when he is...That’s just. Something very ripe for playing with. Especially when you mix it with Sakuya. Who’s an outcast among her own kind and who gave up on bothering with them for it. She’s someone who might have been a vampire hunter than failed to kill Remilia. She takes care of her and chides her like a child, but she also is most definitely subservient to her. And she’s said that she’ll always be together with her as long as she lives. Always. Sakuya’s like this weird mix of a sweet, caring goofball of a woman and a hate filled, mopey edgelord that really only could get along with monsters. So like, I like to think, that they’ve basically ended up finding what exactly the other needs. Remilia gets someone who sincerely respects her authority and takes her seriously, but who also will not entirely put up with her bullshit. Sakuya gets someone who...cares. At all. Someone to give her a name and talk to her and not chase her away for being monstrous. And perhaps more than any of these ships freedom to fuck around is there. It’s what I want to make it. Honorable Mentions We have three of these. Nanoha/Fate from the Nanoha franchise, Usagi/Ami from Sailor Moon and Shimako/Sei from Maria-sama ga Miteru. They were all just barely beaten out by Naruhina, hence their inclusion here.

[ericleo108]

Reconstructing Racism

The following is how we have to reconstruct racism to be mutually beneficial in the new millennium. It’s important to know sociologically that race doesn’t exist, it’s socially constructed. The difference in the skin comes because black people have more melanin. Hating someone for black skin is just as arbitrary as hating someone for their eye color. A good example of this is Jane Elliot’s Color Blind Experiment. If you hate another “race” you just show your ignorance.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink,” he takes the test about black and white faces and he tests positive for bias against blacks, but he’s not white, Malcolm is Hawaiian. The experiment in the book “Blink” shows everyone is inherently a little racist against black people. The question is, what are we to do about it?

Institutionalized Racism

Black people do have it worse off. The cards are not stacked in their favor. There is the percentage of black people in the population, 11%, and the disproportionate population in prison 50%. Black people have to deal with DWB, driving while black. Then we have the real problem of institutionalized racism where blacks are less likely to get a loan. They are likely to experience job discrimination, housing discrimination, or racial profiling in their lifetime. Everyone knows about the Black Lives Matter movement against police violence against blacks. Due to America never giving proper reparations and institutionalized racism, blacks are still disproportionately poor. Affirmative action helps to correct this but it’s still not good enough.

The statistics to make it to adulthood are so bad that a high percentage of blacks don’t make it past 25. 25 is a magic number in criminal justice. If you don’t have a criminal record by 25 you’re likely never to have one. Same goes with surviving. This has everything to do with the Kanye West’s lyric “We wasn’t supposed to make it past 25, jokes on you we still alive.”

Institutionalized Racism

I can understand why black people get so offended by the word nigga if it was used against them negatively as a derogatory slur especially due to modern socio economic conditions. What I don’t get is why they perpetuate a self-detrimental economic ideology when economics is the real problem with racism. If you have a million dollars as a black man and I call you nigger it’s way less effective than if your impoverished.

Kanye West talks about how “four hundred years later, we buying our own chains” in Saint Pablo. I often wonder what he means by this because it seems like behavioral poverty.  Ask anybody who is rich and most will say its due to financial discipline.  Meanwhile all these black rappers wear chains and flash cash when they should be emulating the opposite to their community. Read The “Love Myself” Treatise to see how Kanye also mess up with “Black Skinhead.”

🍇

Whose fault is that? And is this a self inflicted, self deprecating affliction of control? Basically, is the the double meaning of of the word “nigga” black people thinking they control so little in a white man's world that what they can control is how white people address them or rather how they can't address them? I just wanna know if the black community honestly thinks it's worth it because that's what you're clinging to. I honestly don't think the word nigga is about race but (rather understandably) control or power in an otherwise white centric world.

In this respect, racism is a mental cage with an ingroup morality where whites are not invited into black people’s world. This creates contempt and resentment that results in different “races” like whites and blacks fighting amongst each other. This harboring of discontent is deliberate and purposeful by wealthier interests in America to keep us from focusing on classism which is the real problem in America and why institutionalized racism exists.

Are You In The Ingroup?

If black people could they should just stop saying nigga all together, but that's never gonna happen. The NCAA buried it a long time ago. The good part is that the meaning of words change. Like many other words nigga no longer has the same meaning. Punk used to mean burnt corn and linked is a list of words that changed from positive to negative and vice versa.

I think the fact that white people can’t or shouldn’t say the word nigga is more racist then the use of the word now. It creates an ingroup morality that excludes people based on “race.” The word nigga is positive for blacks but negative to whites. Only white people can't say nigga but it’s also nationalistic because white looking rapper Fat Joe can say it.

Black people are highly intelligent, just watch “Hidden Figures.” But my favorite is when black people don't think they can't be racist. There just like everyone else that makes arbitrary distinctions and “black people” not only differentiate skin tone but also a difference between nigga and nigger. Nigga is more friendly where nigger is more vindictive. The historical relevance to nigger is prominent in black people's minds as a racial slur where nigga is traditionally used for endearment.

The Solution

The solution I have found to fixing the ingroup/outgroup morality of the word nigga is for white people to say it to each other as a term of endearment. White people need to say nigga among their white ingroup/white friends as if the word meant “friend.” Just imagine, I started referring to all my white friends as “my nigga” to the point my black friends want me to call the “my nigga” but I won’t because their black. That’s what I’m talking about, then black people would see how white people feel and if they were truly friends everyone would start calling everyone nigga to be inclusive.

To put it another way, this could be done by white people relentlessly calling their white friends nigga. This achieves two things.  It avoids or rejects referring to black people (solely) as niggas so they won't be offended if they're sensitive to the word.  Second, it can be used as a tool for empathy,  forcing black people to feel excluded from a word that is essentially theirs and makes them desire to involve white people so they don't feel excluded like white people do. This would dissolve the in group morality and make the word inclusionary instead of being exclusionary.

Acceptance

If you like how the word nigga divides black and white people by all means hate me for what I'm trying to do here.  But if you wanna help bridge the divide understand what I'm saying and help to transform how everybody sees this word then I would seriously consider a societal effort to change the meaning of the word nigga.

This could be encouraged by black people calling white friends nigga and white people accepting it as a term of endearment. This would also dissolve or disembody the word nigga as a negative racial slur if it came to be known as friend. Black and white people would no longer use it in a derogatory sense because it would counteract the intent if it was used pejoratively. I think white people are just too afraid to do it.  Good white people wouldn't want to offend their black brothers and sisters and look racist while black people are still too proud, stubborn, and attached to the control that word brings to encourage the change.

The Native Americans

With all that said, the most marginalized group in America has got to be the native Americans.  We took their land, genocided their people, and took their culture and unlike African Americans they “can't go back home” to their continent.  And I never heard any black person talk about how bad the Native Americans have it.

To be clear and fair, many black people are into self-preservation not racism and don't care about the marginalized, outcast, disenfranchised, or even minorities. This is why Martin Luther King was so influential and focused on civil rights for all based on the individuals content of their character. Pretty soon everyone alive will not have lived through the civil rights era.

Dark Racism

Dark Racism is essentially treating others with respect and dignity using traditional racial slurs with an ultimate goal of repurposing the word from a negative to a positive connotation. It’d be like having your black friend over for his birthday, you got him an awesome gift, so you tell him “happy birthday nigger” when he goes to thank you. It’d be like your black friend got out of debt so you said “congratulation nigga.” It flips the meaning on its head.

It’d be like your friend winning the strategy game and saying “You won because you’re a nigger,” meaning smart. It’d be like giving a black person the best interest rate you’ve ever given anybody as a salesman and saying “that’s because your a nigger.” Again, giving a positive connotation and, I know, we have a long way to go to fix institutional racism before we could say things like that as a culture. Again black people use the word nigga as a term of endearment while white people automatically say it negatively. We need to correct the linguistics so it’s always positive and it doesn’t even have a negative connotation.

[sketchiedetails]

Iconoclasts was on sale a while back so I picked it up. I’ve been eying the game for a while because of the gorgeous sprite work.

I’m still not sure if I like Iconoclasts. I find it an interesting game, yet I’ve got mixed feelings about its story and gameplay elements.

I remember way back when that this game was reformed from another idea by Joakim Sandberg. I heard that it took about a decade to finish, and the work definitely shows. Iconoclasts has some of the best game art I’ve ever seen. Every screen in the early game is lush with background animations, and the character art has a lot of personality. The game’s sprites remind me of a mix between Metal Slug and Final Fantasy 6.

In terms of gameplay, it’s a 2-D action adventure game. I don’t wanna call it a full Metroidvania, because the game is very linear and doesn’t really leave you guessing where you need to go between story beats. The last game I’ve played that felt more like a proper Metroidvania would be Hollow Knight and even though that game also had a set path you needed to follow in order to progress the story, there were plenty of moments where you could branch off and approach the game in any order you wished.

Iconoclasts isn’t as open-ended; it’s very story-focused, and the pacing feels like it’s hitting the ground running at the beginning but then slows down by the second and third act in order to elaborate on plot points that were only hinted at in the beginning. There are hidden areas and boss fights, but they’re really obtuse and sparse compared to the ones you’ll encounter as you follow the critical path.

You play as Robin, a mechanic who speaks softly but carries a big wrench. All your actions as Robin are tied to either your stun gun, which can have up to 3 different settings, or your wrench, which you can upgrade to gain new abilities like charging electricity and traveling on ziplines. Each type of shot has a normal shot and a special charged shot that can affect its properties. It’s impressive how creative Sandberg got when it came to designing puzzles around Robin’s moveset. They start off quite simple, but their difficulty ratchets up fairly high as puzzles require you to perform more of Robin’s abilities in quick succession in order to solve them. Some later areas tend to have a hard time signposting to the player what or where to go next (I’m thinking of the One Concern bases in the second act of the game).

At certain points in the game, you’ll take control of other characters and they can play very differently from Robin. One can only make use of their shotgun, and another can only use their sword (and not very well considering their physical state at that time).

One of the big draws to Iconoclasts is the boss fights. They’re all very creative and have different gimmicks - some are just standard duels and others may require the help of another character. The downside to them is that having gimmicks can cause trial-and-error gameplay since you’ll have to lose a couple of times in order to understand how to fight each boss.

The only word I can use to describe Iconoclasts’ plot is ... frustrating. It frustrates me the way Binary Domain’s plot did, in that both games have very interesting world building but they don’t really do anything with that setting. Binary Domain’s saving grace was that it had a great cast of endearing characters. Every member of the Rust Crew had some charm to them and you’d warm up to them by the end of the game.

Unfortunately, Iconoclasts’ cast isn’t as appealing: to a man, every one of them besides Robin is an asshole, and that’s only really because Robin is a silent protagonist.

I’m not exaggerating. None of the people you meet as Robin are likeable, and that includes her brother Elro. They’re all broken individuals, and while that makes them interesting, there’s no chemistry in their interactions. Most conversations end up as shouting matches, and you can’t help but feel as awkward as Robin when it comes to being a bystander in these exchanges.

The plot itself feels like one long Shaggy Dog joke. It’s an action adventure game, and the basic setup is the typical small town character who’s swept up in the intrigue concerning multiple factions. While that can be a very trite conceit, there are inspired moments in the plot concerning the setting’s infrastructure and the magical forces that make the world turn. The endgame gets almost JRPG-like in terms of enemy scale, but the twist turns the concept on its head and makes it almost feel like a parody of those stories.

The thing about all this is that I can’t tell if that’s the point of the game. It’s called Iconoclasts, and the title does live up to that name because the main antagonistic force is a theocracy that’s full of nutjobs who are abusing the religion in order to keep the people down either because they’re following orders like cogs in the machine, or they’re religious fanatics who’ve bought their own hype and are incredibly smug. The save points are all religious statues and they change based on where you find them, as if to say that it doesn’t matter who’s on the statue since they all serve the same purpose. One of the more prominent characters is supposed to be an aspiring messianic figure, but he’s a perennial fuckup throughout the entire game.

The game seems to nudge at the fourth wall every now and then when certain characters talk to Robin. Everyone seems to talk Robin up as this amazing hero, but really all she’s done is get caught up in other people’s business because she’s too nice. By the endgame, you’ve been instrumental in overthrowing the One Concern and even taking on Him and people just take it in stride as if that’s just a thing that commonly happens. It almost makes me feel like the term Iconoclasts doesn’t just refer to the fact that Robin is instrumental in taking down the One Concern, but also as a statement against these boilerplate adventure stories.

The punchline to the joke has to be at the very end of the game has Robin, having fought Him and saved the world after returning from space, return to her bed where the game started and her brother - the man who lost his family and some of his body parts to the One Concern - considers that maybe Robin can take care of herself and doesn’t need to be as overprotective of her as he’s been throughout the entire game.

Iconoclasts is an impressive title for a one-man team and worth a playthrough just to appreciate the pixel art and tight gameplay. The story’s well-told and has a lot more depth than I was expecting from this kind of game, but take note that its tone tends to whip back and forth between twee to macabre.

[commonwealthbankofmaccready]

Wasted in the Wasteland

First fallout fic whut uuup. Also on my ao3 under penname PoisonJack here. Chapter 2&3 can be found there :) (leave me a comment too babes! :D)

My fanfic archive masterlist post found here.

--

There hadn't been any actual discussion of what was happening between the three of them.

Nora knew that the path they were headed down would eventually meet at a crossroads they'd eventually have to properly acknowledge. Or maybe not, if things went where she assumed. The playful flirting; the casual, affectionate touches reciprocated by all parties. Lingering, less-than-innocent touches and knowing-looks. They were all going to end up in bed together at some point.

She just didn't expect that it would be after a firefight.

Nora rolled over to Deacon’s side of a crumbling wall, Mac on the opposite as they were on the second floor of a dilapidated apartment building. She ducked before lining up her shot and taking it, blowing a raider’s head clean off. She ducked down low again next to Deacon, and they shared an energetic grin.

She liked battle. She liked the power of a good, battle-hardened sniper rifle in her arms. The knowledge that the raiders attacking her settlements wouldn't harm peaceful folks trying to make a decent damn living in this messed up world. She liked the way her heart raced and adrenaline surged through her body. Knowing she was here and alive and not taking things lying down even if her world had been turned on its head. That she wasn’t alone. She liked it all.

But what she liked most was having the both of them with her at once. The safety in numbers, the banter as they walked the Commonwealth, the jokes and shared stories, and the warped sense of humor that battle seemed to bring out of her.

Deacon had taken an especial liking to this side of her that opened up during firefights. He had his secrets, and she had hers, but they kept it light during the darker times.

“What a headache” as a raider’s brains were blown out. “He sounds just like my ex did in bed” as a mutant’s enraged scream echoed off high rise buildings. The jokes made life-threatening situations damn near worth looking forward to.

It was important to enjoy your job, after all, and Nora had descended on the filth of the Commonwealth like it had less to do with her title as General and more a personal vendetta.

Maybe it was.

Mac had been with her for some time before she took up with Deacon, and despite everything, they worked really well together. Really, really well together. The mercenary knew his way around a gun and his guileless attitude plain-spoken ways made him an interesting character to be around.

Deacon wasn't surprised Nora was sleeping with the sniper-- the open road was a lonely place, after all- but the frequent times she'd made passes at him, especially when Mac was traveling with them, he was sure he was mistaking the teasing for more than it was.

Oh how wrong he was.

His confusion about her advances wasn't so far fetched. She didn't flirt with Garvey this way. Didn't tease Cait with a deeper look of want in her eyes and long-lingering touches. Maybe she was this familiar with Hancock, but the ghoul mayor always laughed things off with her right there with him, everything kept overtly friendly even when over the top. None of her flirting took quite the same form as it did with Deacon, and it mirrored exactly she treated Mac.

She and MacCready were an Item with a capital ‘I’ as far as he'd observed. A proper couple; probably a far cry from what she was used to in terms of pre-war life, but Deacon understood it. He kept the flirty teasing light, ignoring sexual overtones even if she watched him almost hopefully; as if she could see his eyes right through his sunglasses.

It was during one of their little post-battle exchanges that Mac rolled his eyes and asked Deacon if he thought he was too good for Nora. That he saw the way the other man looked at her-- that he'd seen feral hounds drool over fresh meat less than Deacon did Nora- so what gives?

That had been a shock, but one he’d needed.

Deacon had had the decency to actually blush-- couldn't remember the last time he genuinely had- and was grateful Mac had said something after Nora had stalked off to roll corpses for loot. The spy was certain he must have heard Mac wrong, but no. The mercenary thought it was mean that Deacon was stringing her along but not following through. He was hurting her feelings playing with her.

Mac, bless his heart, had been offended on her behalf. And it was as wholeheartedly confusing as it was endearing.

The younger man had elaborated in annoyed, low tones that the spy needed to nut up or shut up where she was concerned. It was Deacon’s business about who he slept with blah blah blah, yeah, Mac got that-- and if Deacon didn't like her and wasn't actually interested, that would be one thing. Mac could respect that. They all could.

But for being a spy, Deacon was pretty transparent when it came to the vaultie, and the sniper made his opinions on the matter clear: don't tease Nora like that if he wasn't going to follow through when she was obviously interested. Tone it back if he didn’t want her. She didn't deserve that, and if Mac had to reassure her that it wasn't her one more time, that she wasn’t imagining his obvious interest, he was going to punch Deacon square in the nose.

It was as if the weeks on end of sudden hostility from the mercenary suddenly made sense.

Mac wasn't jealous. He didn't own her any more than she owned him. And right now Deacon was on his shit list for being an obstacle to that end instead of a participant.

After their little talk, Deacon got bolder under this new information, testing the waters. Post-battle kisses to the cheek became kisses to the lips. Hugs suddenly involved a lot more of the body. For the little he put in, he was getting a lot back. Mac was right.

If Nora had a spring in her step, they all knew where it had come from. Mac’s ‘special mercenary-frowns’, as Nora called them, lessened for the spy. The tension between them went back to an easy rapport. Jokes and playful shoves and affectionate prodding returned full force to their little group and barriers were broken down again.

Deacon’s post-battle ass-slaps to the pair of them had resulted in outraged squawks and snickers, followed by a month-long game of grab-ass on the road until distraction nearly caused one of them to eat a bullet to the face.

Life was good. Snuffing out raider life together was better.

Nore felt alive again, and it bled out into even firefights. A playful look would alight on her face, and she'd tell Deacon private things-- about herself or Mac- but only mid-battle as their down time was kept casual. He caught on fast to these shifts in mood, didn't bring things up on the road, but the sly little look on her face told him all he needed to know about this little game.

Like right now, she told him how Mac liked being bit just below his left nipple, or how his O-face was the same one he made after getting a good head-shot. It annoyed the shit out of her because she'd get turned on in the middle of a gunfight and that only upped her desire to kill. It made Deacon cackle as he watched the sniper shoot a raider right in the face.

That self-satisfied, pleased little smirk wasn't hard to imagine under different context.

“You better not be telling him about the mutfruit,” MacCready called over as they returned fire over the crumbling building wall, his own little library of Deacon facts-- small though it was- a great source of entertainment.

“Oh, I gotta hear about that,” Deacon laughed out as he gave Nora’s ass a playful pat before moving past her for a better vantage point.

Mac took advantage of the lull in the shooting to scramble to Nora’s recently vacated side, out of breath and a judgmental smile on his face. “...Does he know about the mutfruit?”

“He knows about your secret sea captain’s hat fetish,” Deacon's voice teased as he lobbed a grenade over the broken roof from just a bit above them.

“Don't even start, Deeks, Mac knows about your little tongue trick, and I’ll have you know he's improved on it.” The grenade exploded as raider screams filled the immediate aftermath. The barrage of bullets paused in the dust and pained cries.

Mac grinned at the praise and kissed her in the momentary lull of the volley, nipping and sucking at her lips; flicking his tongue to drive home the point.

They didn't have time for this-- needed to pick off the remaining raiders- and the promise of his mouth was going to have her on edge until she could get him alone some place safe and hopefully soundproofed. But it was good just the same.

She sighed into Mac’s mouth while she could hear Deacon’s appreciative laugh from above.

“That trick is legend, I feel honored! It's the only thing that can stop the chattering!”

“So damn smug…” she muttered to herself as Mac took his position back up to scope out the remaining maimed raiders. An amused grin was on the sniper’s face as Nora yelled back at Deacon. “Don't test me Deacon. I'll tell him just how cute you think his butt is in those old army fatigues!”

Mac snorted as he took out one of the jet heads trying to get to his gun with clearly crippled legs. The chem-head probably didn’t even know he was messed up. Dam- darned raiders. “The army fatigues, Deacon?” Mac called up with a teasing laugh as he reloaded. “I'd have thought it was the leather pants with the way you< stare.”

“You wish I spent that much time looking at your ass,” he called back in amusement. “You would know I'm simply working out how much longer leather takes to peel off than army fatigues. It's tactical observation. Leather is a bad choice.”

Nora snorted and cursed as a grenade shook the building from the outside. Some of their remaining targets were more lively than the others. She peered out with her scope. “Geez guys get a room why don't you?”

“We can't, you lost all our caps to Hancock’s poker night!” Deacon groaned.

They made short work of the few remaining raiders, rolling the bodies for anything worth selling or keeping before heading off to Goodneighbor. They had to slaughter their way through a few super mutants to get there-- which would have been easy without their weighed-down packs- and it was a messier affair than Nora would have preferred. First puddle of water they encountered and she was cleaning herself up.

“I think I have guts in my hair.”

“If you went my route you would never have that problem again,” Deacon told her with a smirk from under his sunglasses. “Only thing to worry about is sunburn.”

“I think I'll risk it,” she laughed, giving him a playful shove.

“Shoulda worn a hat,” Mac told her with a smug look that she was ready to kiss or smack off his damn smiling face. She made a grab for his own hat that he easily dodged.

“A sea captain’s hat?” Deacon asked, leering at the young mercenary. “I do love a good hat.”

“Okay you guys can shut up,” Mac said with a light blush staining his cheeks.

There was a bit more teasing about what other kinks might be hidden behind those red cheeks, and chuckles and suggestions were put forth. Nora was superiorly telling them that she knew about things that frankly didn’t exist in the Commonwealth anymore, but would have made the pair of them blush redder than a tato. Life pre-war in the Commonwealth had been a true thing of leisure and experimentation.

“-and stuff would be delivered right to your front door in nice discreet packaging.”

“Maybe that’s your new calling in life! Revive the industry! We need to talk to Tinker Tom, he can build anything.”

“I’m not letting anything he makes anywhere near me or my… delicate areas after that little battery-acid injection,” Mac said sourly.

“Yeah, on second thought, maybe the Commonwealth doesn’t need to know about this stuff,” Nora said with a smirk. She gave Mac’s cheek a little pat. “Poor baby.”

“You guys have no sense of adventure.”

“The only adventure I want is finding out what’s at the bottom of a nice cold beer,” Nora told him with a snort.

“Yeah, I’d kill for a beer. Come to think of it, I have.”

“Wow, remind me to never hold out on you,” Deacon told him, adding a wink that made Mac shake his head and chuckle. “I’m selling those leather pants of his if we don’t have enough to go around, boss. I'm not getting shot over 200 year old fermented grain-water.”

Nora suggested he sell Mac’s spare army fatigues if things were that dire, but Deacon told her no situation would ever be dire enough to warrant such drastic measures. Their laughter echoed off the old concrete and bombed out rubble as they picked their way through the city.

Their banter had them all in a great mood by the time they reached the gates of Goodneighbor, very eager for that 200 year old fermented grain water Deacon loved to hate on.

They got cozy at the bar in the Third Rail after bartering away most of the goods they'd picked up with Daisy, pockets stuff with caps and packs much much lighter. With the haul from the trip, they were able to afford the good stuff Hancock kept behind the bar just for when Nora was in town, and loaded up with several beers apiece, they moved things to the VIP lounge to relax.

The three piled onto a couch next to one another, cracking open beers and drinking deeply; laughing over the simple pleasures of a day well spent and another survived. Mac had his feet up on the worn coffee table while Deacon sprawled out in the couch corner, Nora between the two of them looking wistfully at the bottle in her hands.

She told them about drinking games she used to play in college, and how there used to be more than one variation of Gwinnett brew to enjoy at the end of a hard day, and bemoaned the idea of what was left ever running out. Now there was a scary idea.

One beer turned to two, two turned to three, and they got a little more than handsy with one another as they sat and laughed and joked around prodding and hanging on each other playfully. It got to the point right between tired and drunk where everything was funny, and the fact that they were sitting in the VIP section sipping on warm, 200 year old beers amused Nora in ways the other two didn’t quite get, but chuckled along with anyways.

Mac pointed out how he'd still be in this exact spot if it wasn't for Nora walking into his life, and Deacon pointed out that they were still in the exact same spot regardless of that fact, and fixed Nora with an exaggerated accusatory look from over his sunglasses.

It had her in hysterics, and she said it was as good a reason to drink the good stuff as any. “I’m getting a bottle of bourbon from Charlie,” she told them as she peeled herself off the couch, wobbly on her feet. “I'll be right back. Be good.”

“Oh come on, when have you known me to cause trouble?” Deacon asked with a mischievous grin and a cock of his head.

Nora smirked right back. “I was talking to Mac.” She gave the younger man a wink and then waggled her brows at Deacon.

The sniper gave her a deceptively innocent look and busied himself with draining the rest of the bottle in his hands, though his cheeks were heated. She laughed and disappeared around the corner to pester Charlie for another round as Deacon gave him a wicked look, ready to start trouble.

“So…. sea captain’s hat, huh?”

Mac couldn't stop his crooked grin, though he still blushed hotly under the booze heating his face as Deacon smirked. “You're one to talk, army greens.”

“I appreciate a good uniform,” Deacon laughed, drinking his beer and scooting closer to the mercenary, speaking in exaggeratedly serious, confidential tones. “What would you do if I told you I had a sea captain’s hat in my bag right this very minute? That I could be wearing it as we speak? Hypothetically, of course.”

Mac’s face was still red, and he swallowed before answering the teasing with a smirk. “I’d say put it on and see what happens.”

Deacon chuckled, not about to surrender so easily. “Don't threaten me with a good time.”

Nora came back to Mac’s snorting laughter, a hand on his face and another on Deacon’s thigh to steady himself while Deacon asked if he had the army fatigues with him.

“Okay there lovebirds, make room. Move it. Move it move it,” she said as she tried to retake her place between them less than gracefully. She ended up sitting in Deacon’s lap with her legs in Mac’s, cradling a bottle of the good stuff in her arms. “...You guys make a crappy couch.”

“You're impatient,” Mac told her, though bothering to make room now was out of the question, and he grabbed her legs with one hand. She was already trying to recline, the grin she gave entirely unrepentant as she handed the bourbon bottle to Mac to open.

She smiled up into Deacon’s face as the bottle was opened with a pop, lips breaking into a grin on that flushed face. The invitation there was obvious, but she puckered up in supplication just in case. He grinned back before kissing her lips, and she chuckled against his mouth to tell him that Mac still had his little trick beat.

“If you’re really nice, maybe he’ll show you,” she said as she was passed the bourbon from the smirking mercenary, taking a sip and grimacing before holding it up under Deacon’s nose.

He smirked, giving Mac a wide grin, voice challenging, testing as he quirked his brow. “Yeah? Tricks of the trade need to be kept secret. Think the Rexford has a room right now?”

“If they don't, we can just stay here,” Mac told him, snatching the bottle back from Deacon to steal the man’s sip with a challenging look of his own. He nearly choked at Deacon’s next words, and Nora nearly fell off them laughing.

“Didn't know you liked an audience.” Mac’s face went beet red as he sputtered, and Deacon’s expression lit up like it was Christmas, crowding closer to the sniper to give him a bump of the head. “Oh I am filing that away for a rainy day.”

Nora squirmed in Deacon’s lap, making the older man suddenly gasp as she made contact with a most interested part of him indeed. She bit her lower lip and entwined the fingers on one hand with Mac, the other wrapped about the back of Deacon's neck. She squeezed them both with a slow, suggestive smile on her face as she looked between the two.

“...didn't it look like it might rain today?”

Mac snorted, though his grin was toothy as he squeezed her hand back. Deacon looked between the two of them with an equally calculating quirk of the lips. She bit her bottom lip with a hopeful smile, cheeks hot from the alcohol and her awareness of them both. She wasn’t the only one with blood rushing south.

Deacon swallowed and nodded in agreement. “Like it would pour, yup. Absolutely stormy.”

Mac chuckled and slowly extricated himself from Nora’s legs, getting to his feet only slightly off balance. He readjusted himself shamelessly and then offered her a hand as he stood there with a grin aimed at both of them. “Better check on getting some cover, then.”

He pulled Nora up onto wobbly legs, laughing as she realized how good-- how excited- she felt, and wrapped both arms around Mac’s middle to rub herself against the man with a dirty, happy grin.

The mercenary extended the same service to Deacon with what had to be the most obvious look of interest he'd ever seen, the spy's hand firm in his that he didn't relinquish even after he'd pulled him to unstable feet. Deacon's heart was pounding even harder, pants that much tighter as the sniper’s eyes seemed to pierce his sunglasses, pinning him in place.

Mac brought their grasped hands up to his lips, but only spoke against them with a crafty smirk like he was sure he'd gotten the high ground. Deacon wasn't sure he hadn't.

“Hope you're a quick learner.”

That got a bark of laughter from the spy, Deacon shaking his head and squeezing the sniper’s hand. “That's my trick in the first place, captain.”

The teasing only made Mac’s grin grow. “Yeah, but you have to test out with this,” Mac inclined his head at Nora, the vaultie rubbing her cheek against Mac’s shoulder as her hands had migrated to the mercenary’s ass.

“I resent being a ‘this’,” she said in shooting him a glare that lacked any heat. He laughed and let Deacon’s hand go to gather up their packs and the bottle of bourbon. She gave Mac’s ass a squeeze before latching on to Deacon instead and purring up at him. “He's good though Deeks he's sooo good.” She pressed against him with a promising smile, humming as his hands came to rest on her ass and give a squeeze.

“Hey lovebirds,” Mac chuckled, carrying their stuff with a rare good humor as he echoed Nora’s comments. “Get a room.”

Deacon swallowed as he looked between them; the more-than-tipsy grins on their faces that both wanted to eat him alive. He wet his lips with his tongue, nodding at the merc with an expectant smile. “Well lead the way then and we will.”

Nora’s snorting and snickering didn't cease as they left the VIP area, attached to Deacon’s hip for support and handsy to boot as they ascended the stairs of the Third Rail. Mac had retaken Deacon’s hand in his, placing a kiss on the knuckles before dragging them after him with an eager smirk and reassuring glances back. His impatience was commented upon with snickering and leers.

Mac only laughed, not denying it, and told them he hoped they could keep up.

He got a coordinated smack to his ass from both Deacon and Nora.

--

Chapter 2&3 (THE SMUTTENING) are on my ao3 here. Haha :)

[garden-ghoul]

fellowship of the bloggening, part 1

I’m reading it here. I look at the table of contents and go “oh for fuck’s sake” because the prologue is “concerning hobbits... concerning pipeweed.” I’m. not reading the prologue. No I’m reading “concerning hobbits” because I really want to know how and when they happened.

This is really cute, hobbits are basically like... brownies, according to Johnald. And some of them are only two feet tall??? LITTLE

The beginning of Hobbits lies far back in the Elder Days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves still preserve any records of that vanished time, and their traditions are concerned almost entirely with their own history, in which Men appear seldom and Hobbits are not mentioned at all. Yet it is clear that Hobbits had, in fact, lived quietly in Middle-earth for many long years before other folk became even aware of them.

nooooooo why must elves be so

like that

Anyway, we also learn that there are still Dunedain settlements in Eriador, including one notable one that’s actually at Bree! I love the. weird mismatch of naming seriousness here. You have your very olde Numenorean and elvish names like Eriador, and then most of the settlements in Eriador have names like Hobbiton and Bree and Brandywine. It’s very charming, like a hermit crab that has moved into an extremely fancy looking conch shell. An adorable transplant. It is here mentioned that the first hobbits appearing in historical record politely asked the high king of Arnor if they could move in, in exchange for road maintenance. Too cute!

To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of Men record it.

::3

And with that it’s time for

A LONG-EXPECTED PARTY

We begin with an accounting of what everyone thinks about Bilbo Baggins! Everyone is kind of dubious about him because of his eternal youth thing, but he’s very free with his riches and consequently the less well-off hobbits love him. It says he didn’t have many friends until some of his young cousins grew up. He and Frodo share a birthday, so on Frodo’s coming of age birthday Bilbo will be 111 and they’re having a huge party! 

Holy shit. Sam’s dad is named Ham Gamgee. I’m so tickled. This next bit is a bunch of gossip and baseless speculation on Frodo’s family history by Gaffer & co. They keep calling everything and everyone queer, which is great, because it confirms Frodo is 100% not straight. I think he might be a bit old for Sam but I suppose we shall see.

Dwarves and a fire wizard have showed up a bit early for the party, and Hobbiton is getting stoked. Bilbo mails out invitations to everybody individually instead of just saying “everyone can come to the party,” and with that plus their replies (also by post) the post office is completely swamped for a week. He’s having fun with everyone. I do have to wonder how he got word to the dwarves, though. What kind of mail is there between Eriador and Erebor?

Oh here’s a cute tidbit about hobbit culture: at a party, both the hosts and guests give gifts, and so:

Actually in Hobbiton and Bywater every day in the year it was somebody’s birthday, so that every hobbit in those parts had a fair chance of at least one present at least once a week. But they never got tired of them.

I also like to imagine that Gandalf had a lot of fun designing firecrackers. Like, he does have serious wizard business to do. But also he has the firegays from his ring, and so. Anyway there is a Special Dinner that only 144 people are invited to. Good grief, how can Bilbo possibly still be rich enough to put on a party for like 1000 people? Bilbo makes a speech, with which everyone quickly gets very bored because they are all drunk, but the real point was to be an asshole and vanish mysteriously to make a point (Gandalf adds some pyrotechnics for effect, bless him). Frodo appreciates his joke, but is sad that he’s going to be leaving, and just can’t party any more.

Bilbo and Gandalf argue over leaving the ring to Frodo, Bilbo runs off with some dwarves (we never find out who!) and then people show up at Bag End to get presents Bilbo has left them with passive-aggressive notes on. Then everyone thinks it’s just a free-for-all take-Bilbo’s-stuff party and they swarm the house and poor Frodo has to lie down, leaving Merry in charge. The Sackville-Bagginses come to insult him by saying he’s a Brandybuck, not a Baggins!!

‘Did you hear that, Merry? That was an insult, if you like,’ said Frodo as he shut the door on her.

‘It was a compliment,’ said Merry Brandybuck, ‘and so, of course, not true.’

Cute. I like Merry’s sass. Frodo kicks out a bunch of people who are trying to dig up his cellar and collapses, just in time for Gandalf to come and say he is fleeing like a 

SHADOW OF THE PAST

Do you like my transitions? I’m polishing them.

Frodo continues to throw Bilbo a birthday party every year, instead of mourning as would be proper. I think he’s too embarrassed to throw a birthday party for himself but still wants to have a party, bless his heart.

he was sometimes seen far from home walking in the hills and woods under the starlight. Merry and Pippin suspected that he visited the Elves at times, as Bilbo had done.

Where are these elves? There are elves in the Shire? What?

WELL. Around Frodo’s 50th birthday, a lot of elves start passing through on the way to the Gray Havens, as well as the usual dwarves going to and from the Blue Mountains. Elves are leaving Middle Earth in rapidly increasing numbers because of some very troubling rumors about Sauron. Gandalf turns up to discuss this with Frodo, and during an awkward silence they hear “the sound of Sam Gamgee cutting the lawn.” Sorry, what?? This poor boy is cutting Frodo’s lawn by hand?? With like, a scythe?? WHY? Does Frodo really seem like the type of person who cares how well-shorn his lawn is? I fucking hate lawn culture.

Leaving that aside there’s some ring history I guess. Here’s a very interesting thing, though: Gandalf says the inscription on the ring is in “the language of Mordor.” Why does Sauron have his own language? ...what language did they speak before, in Angband? I can’t believe Mr Jolkien has been SO REMISS as to let us stay ignorant of an entire language and its cultural origins!! Anyway if I had to guess I would say the old language of Morgoth’s holdings would end up being some kind of odd Sindarin-Beorian-Quenya creole, given who lived and worked (in slavery) there. But the higher-ups would surely speak whatever language they were already speaking... Quenya? Is Quenya a language invented by the Ainur and then handed down to the Eldar? No it’s not, it has common roots with Sindarin. I have to assume there’s an Ainur language that Morgoth and Sauron knew, but they probably wouldn’t use it with their orc lieutenants and such... and thus I feel better saying that Angband Creole is the historical basis for the language of Mordor, although obviously it will have evolved a lot and mixed with the languages of goblins and such that Sauron ended up recruiting.

Listen. If there’s not an actual note in the appendix about this I’m going to be pisséd. Oh, I’m sure someone’s written a paper on it, though.

Oh! We also get to know about the seven rings--he managed to recover three of them, but the other four were eaten by dragons. Just the way they would have wanted to go. Gandalf also gives a... troublingly detailed account of how Smeagol came to possess the one ring? He adds that Smeagol’s friend came up from the river with weeds and mud in his hair. Which like, I guess you can extrapolate that from him being in a river but why add it?? He even comes up with specific terms of endearment... Smeagol calls Deagol ‘my love,’ which I can ONLY take to mean they were dating. This makes Smeagol’s imminent murder of Deagol all the more tragic.

Also we learn that Gandalf hunted down Smeagol and questioned him to find a lot of this out! Smeagol had been sneaking around basically everywhere, eating people’s children and the like (!!), and only failed to actually get into the shire because wood-elves were protecting the borders. Eventually years later when Aragon helped find him again, they realized he had been to Mordor and been tortured for information there.

Frodo is very frightened at this point, and almost makes himself try to destroy the ring, but instead realizes he has put it back in his pocket. This is terrifying!! Holy shit I would lose my mind with fear if this happened to me. Also I enjoy the ridiculously high specific heat of magic rings. So Frodo decides to keep the ring safe for now, and to go away from the Shire:

‘I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.’

It’s That Feel, back once again. This was something I was thinking a lot about wrt to the Lay of Leithian and Children of Hurin; how different Beren and Luthien’s outlooks are based on “feeling that you have a homeland” or not; how profoundly affected Turin is by feeling he has no place to go back to. I wonder if this is something Johnald thought a lot about during the war. It’s terrible here, so terrible, but there is somewhere peaceful to come home to. I haven’t felt that in so long, and I very much wish to again some day.