#just playing the story and actively trying to piece it all together is one of the most joyously fun experiences i've ever had with a game

[classicjdog]

13 sentinels is absolutely positively batshit fucking insane

just finished the game last night and WOW is it fucking good

[jessiethewitchzard]

Seeing @thydungeongal constantly wrestling with people interpreting her posts about D&D in ways that seem completely alien to me has convinced me that there are actually multiple completely distinct activities both being referred to as "playing D&D" Before we begin, I want to stress that I'm not saying one of these groups is Playing The Game Wrong or anything, but there seems to be a lot of confusion and conflict caused by people not being aware of the distinction. In fact, either one works just fine if everyone's on the same page. So far, I think I've identified at least two main groups. And nobody seems to realize the distinction between these groups even exists. The first group of people think of "Playing D&D" as, well, more or less like any other board game. Players read the whole rulebook all the way through, all the players follow the instructions, and the gameplay experience is determined by what the rules tell each player to do. This group thinks of the mechanics as, not exactly the *whole* game, but certainly the fundamental skeleton that everything else is built on top of. People in the second group think of "Playing D&D" as referring to, hanging out with their friends, collaboratively telling a story inspired by some of the elements in the rulebooks, maybe rolling some dice to see what happens when they can't decide. This group thinks of the mechanics of the game as, like... a spice to sprinkle on top of the story to mix things up. (if you belong to this second group, and think I'm explaining it poorly, please let me know, because I'm kind of piecing things together from other people saying things I don't understand and trying to reverse engineer how they seem to be approaching things.) I think this confusion is exacerbated by the fact that Wizards of the Coast markets D&D as if these are the same thing. They emphatically are not. the specific rules laid out of the D&D rulebooks actually direct players to tell a very specific kind of story. You can tell other stories if you ignore those rules (which still counts as "playing D&D" under the second definition, but doesn't under the first)And I think people in both groups are getting mad because they assume that everyone is also using their definition. For example, there's a common argument that I've seen play out many times that goes something like this:

A: "How do I mod D&D to do [insert theme here]?" B: "D&D is really not built for that, you should play [other TTRPG] that's designed for it instead" A: "But I don't want to learn a whole new game system!" B: "It will be easier to just learn a whole new system than mod D&D to do that." A: "whatever, I'll just mod D&D on my own" And I think where this argument comes from is the two groups described above completely talking past each other. No one understands what the other person is trying to say. From A's perspective, as a person in the second group, it sounds like A: "Anyone have some fun inspirations for telling stories about [insert theme here]?" B: "You can't sit around a table with your friends and tell a story about that theme! That's illegal." A: "But we want to tell a story about this theme!" B: "It's literally impossible to do that and you're a dumb idiot baby for even thinking about it." A: "whatever, jerk, I'll figure it out on my own."

--- Whereas, from B's perspective, the conversation sounds like A: "How do I change the rules of poker to be chess, and not be poker?" B: "uhhh, just play chess?" A: "But I already know how to player poker! I want to play poker, but also have it be chess!" B: "what the hell are you talking about? What does that even mean. They're completely different games." A: "I'm going to frankenstein these rules together into some kind of unplayably complex monster and you can't stop me!" ---

So both people end up coming away from the conversation thinking the other person is an idiot. And really, depending on how you concieve of what it means to "play D&D" what is being asked changes considerably. If you're only planning to look through the books for cool story inspiration, maybe borrow a cool little self contained sub-system here or there, then yeah, it's very possible to steal inspiration for your collaborative story from basically anywhere. Maybe some genres are kind of an awkward fit together, but you can make anything work with a little creativity.

If, however, you are thinking of the question in terms of frankensteining two entire board games together, then it becomes a massively difficult or even outright nonsensical idea. For example, for skill checks, the game Shadowrun has players roll a pool of several d6 at once, then count up how many rolled above a target value to see how well a character succeeded at a task. The whole game is full of specific rules about adding or removing dice from the pool, effects happening if you roll doubles, rerolling only some of the dice, and all sorts of other things that simply do not translate to rolling a single d20 for skill checks. On a basic level, the rules of the games work very differently. Trying to make them compatible would be much harder than just learning a new game from scratch. Now, neither of these approaches is exactly *wrong*, I guess, but personally, I find the rules of TTRPGs to be fascinating and worth taking the time to engage with all the weird little nuances and seeing what shakes out. Also, the first group, "TTRPG as fancy board game" is definitely the older and more widespread one. I kind of get the impression that the second group largely got into D&D through actual play podcasts, but I don't have any actual data to back that up. So, if you're in the second group, who thinks of D&D as basically a context for collaborative storytelling first and a game second, please let me know if I'm wildly misunderstanding how you approach D&D. Because I'm pretty sure it would save us a whole lot of stupid misunderstandings.

[iceunhie]

˗ˏˋ ꒰ ⊹ unexpected development ! ꒱ ˎˊ˗

summary ⁠☆ you get transported into your favorite otome game’s world as a shitty side character with a raging death flag. you try to prevent your inevitable destruction... but it doesn't go according to plan as much as you'd hope.

notes ☆ of course it's another scaramouche fic except this time it's plot is manhwa inspired

“This trashy game!” you curse, watching the pitch black GAME OVER screen linger in your phone. Happy music plays despite the current cg of your character at the hands of the tyrant character slash love interest Scaramouche. You sigh, tapping on the back button. “I was so close to completing his route… stupid, stupid game, ugh…”

Teyvat’s Seven Stars was a new otome game that you'd tried out for fun, bored out of your mind. The amazing art and soundtrack garnered your interest, not to mention the male leads were totally your type!

It had an array of tropes and spared no expense of flowery scenes and fanservicey excerpts that made you play despite its massive cashgrab feature. Heart fluttering near death scenes! Action packed romantic scenes with the main characters! It was consuming you and you loved it.

Even if the Scaramouche route was testing your patience.

You get that he was the most difficult to conquer out of all of them, but really, one! wrong! move! ….and an immediate gameover. Life sucks when he's your favorite character, and when your favorite character was notoriously known for having a horrid and difficult complete clear route that no one has completed yet, of course you needed to complete it, no matter what!

Damn it, now you've run out of love points to restart another run. Fuck you, system! Stupid trashy money grabbing game! You put down your phone, closing it. An immediate heavy weight settles on your shoulders, making you feel sleepy as you clutch your phone to bed.

Tomorrow… you'll complete his route for sure…

[ TEYVAT’S SEVEN STARS SYSTEM ACTIVATED! RUNNING GAME FILE NOW ]

Ah. You should've known what was coming.

—

[ CHARACTER FILE: [NAME] [LAST NAME] - CROWN PRINCE KUNIKUZUSHI’S BETROTHED! ]

What the fuck.

You think you've lost feeling in your jaw when the glare of the system shines bright, mocking you.

“[Name], you're awake!” You turn to the sound, and you face probably the most beautiful person you've ever seen. No, what the hell. You've seen him before.

Beautiful silky dark hair, glossy electric indigo eyes, a perpetual aura of ethereal lightness…. the game descriptions weren't lying after all. yes, you weren't dreaming. This was Scaramouche, or should you say at this point in time… Kunikuzushi?

He immediately clings to you. Oh. Oh. Well fuck. “I… uh.”

Scara- ahem, Kunikuzushi’s eyes are littered with tears and oh no you're a weak hearted person for your favorite character. “I'm so glad you're okay! I'm sorry, my mother- I mean, I'm so glad you're okay.”

The rest of the moments is a blur when your… fiance? betrothed? fills you in on what happened. Your mind is fuzzy and you can only piece together just a rough summary of what point in the game you're in.

So, you are currently three years early from the main story. Unfortunately, you are not either of the main protagonists Lumine or Aether. No, the system apparently hates you for being a hater and gave you the most egregious role.

A side character. A side character who barely even appears in the story, left to be trampled on by the story's plot. What's more, you're in the timeline wherein the current Kunikuzushi doesn't take the name Scaramouche because his Mother, the lone Queen Raiden Ei left him when he could not pass the Inazuma kingdom’s test to be worthy of the gnosis.

He took the name Scaramouche after being trained by the shady organization known as the Fatui, the main villainous force in the game and usurped his mother. In other words, a blackened tyrant character!

...And you were the betrothed his mother set for him - executed in the future because he didn't want any trace of Ei’s influence. Amazing.

The future Kunikuzushi would be an arrogant, tsundere and soft-for-only-one-person type of character, but now, he was like a gentle, tucked away from the world young prince.

Wait…. wasn’t he also gullible before?! Very cute, but it's no wonder he blackened so quickly with such a naive personality!

You, well, technically, the character [Name] [Last Name] ended up in this situation after they threatened to leave Kunikuzushi because he was far too fragile for their taste. A side character who’d contributed to Scaramouche’s blackening and paid for it with their life. That was who you were.

Okay, now you pity this boy a lot. He already had a traumatic childhood with Ei not giving him enough love and therefore a plethora of issues, and he'd even end up being a crazy tyrant who stopped at nothing to get the main protagonist in his grasp! For your death flag not to happen, you HAD to do something about that.

You had no choice.

To survive this horrendous fate, you came up with a plan. And that would be Plan give-kunikuzushi-all-the-love-in-the-word-before-he-meets-the-protagonist-and-turn-into-a-blackened-dark-tyrant!

Okay, lengthy plan, but to plan ahead is to be smart, so you can take care of the name later.

—

So far so good, this plan of yours. Plan get-kunikuzushi-to-turn-into-a-sparkly-prince character and not his blackened self was going well! (You gave up on thinking of a cool name) Thank god for cliche romance novels.

So far, you've increased your proximity to him, including him to spend time with you, showering him with bouts of affection and care. And so far, it's been paying off. The once secluded Prince has become so cute and so sweet!

You have to pat yourself on the back for this. You were doing the protagonist a huge favor that now they had a wonderful love interest in their sights for future reference.

Although, if there was one nitpick you had on your conduct, it would be the fact that Kunikuzushi didn't take kindly to others aside from you, and would even be panicked, utterly devastated if you even brought up the mere mention of leaving.

“Break… our engagement in the future?” if it weren't for him looking shell-shocked and deathly pale, the furrow on Kunikuzushi’s face would've been cute. “No! I don't want that! You aren't planning to leave me, are you?”

He gives you the most horrendous god kneeling look of a plea, and of course you drop the subject immediately.

“It was a joke, of course. I'd never want to break our engagement!” you hurriedly reassure, gently taking his hands in yours.

Kunikuzushi looks at you, all puppy eyes and pink cheeks. So cute. Who wouldn't want to stay by his side? You reassure him, “Whatever happens, I'll always stay by your side, okay?”

He looks at your intertwined hands with an unreadable expression on his face. “Do you promise?”

You nod. “I promise, Kuni.”

He nods, gripping your hands tighter, and his expression rivals a blazing sun, brimming with conviction as he pulls you in for a huge hug.

And of course, who wouldn't turn down an opportunity to hug their favorite character?

Surely this time, you’ll definitely escape the death flag and horrendous side character ending, right?!

You don't notice the shadow on Kuni’s face when the mere mention of being separated from you comes up.

In the back of your mind, you wonder what would happen if your Kunikuzushi met the protagonist. Would he immediately fall for them? you wonder, and an uncharacteristic pang of discomfort tugs at your chest. Ah, what would it matter.

You smile at the gentle, pristine and kind Kunikuzushi that's currently excitedly telling you about how Ei praised his sword skills after he beat his younger sister. Even if the main protagonist would come here, you could keep this adorable Kunikuzushi for yourself for just a little longer.

You kiss his cheek, and he heats up. Yes, the future can wait for now.

How the hell did it come to this?

“You told me you'd always stay by my side, right?” a hand slicked with blood is resting on the side of your face. Electric indigo eyes, these ones now having a ruthless glint to them, stare up at your own. “I've removed everything else that can take you away from me. Now, you have no reason to leave.”

By remove, he meant the man who'd decided to make a move on you after you went to the gardens for some fresh air. Hence the blood on his hands and sword, hence the reason why there's a dead body by your feet.

The once adorable and fair-faced Kunikuzushi still turned into Scaramouche after all, and you failed to prevent his blackening. He was truly, undoubtedly the same game Scaramouche.

But… Why was he acting like this? Wasn't this the exclusive feature only the protagonist should be experiencing?

He presses a kiss to your forehead, then the back of your palm. You blush.

Yes, he is now an extremely dangerous individual capable of executing anyone he deems appropriate to just for the sake of it, and yes, this same man is kneeling before you as you're just about to leave after the main storyline cg act just started. And yes, like the protagonist, you should stay far, far away from him.

But could you really? When he was pleading you with such an expression of longing and yearning? He takes your hand to caress it to the side of his face, eyes haughty and grin unsettling, gosh was he so… so attractive, like that.

“You won't leave, right?” Why was he so…. so sweet? Why was this scene structured as if you were the one he wanted to be with, not the protagonist? “You promised me, after all.”

….And why on earth did your heart leap out of your chest when he said he wanted you to stay?

(It was hard to pretend you didn't know why when the smile on your face said otherwise.)

1.5k words, only the real ones know that ive been planning a cliche otome game au since day 1 I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED TO ME WHEN I WAS WRITING THIS FIC 😭 might turn this into a series if people like this though <3

@ MHIIEEE : do not repost, copy or plagiarize or claim my content or work as your own.

[theotherpacman]

dunmeshi dnd campaign

thistle as the dm of course. they're a very exacting dm who actually makes them keep track of shit like how much their packs weigh and how much XP they get with each monster they kill and EXACTLY how much money they have down to the last copper piece, and they made up the resurrection curse situation bc they want to be able to kill the pcs but they don't want the players to have to write new ones every time

our party has been playing together for a while when suddenly falin is really busy with a work project so she can't play for a few weeks. thistle is like "no worries I'll just have you get eaten by a dragon <3"

marcille has a bunch of high-level spells that she got because she thought they would be cool but she never fucking gets the chance to use them. all she uses is level 3 fireball

some people say dnd is about writing a story together but chilchuck is in this to win. he's always calling the rest of them nerds for knowing all about this dnd stuff even though he's Also Here, Playing DnD

unbeknownst to the rest of them laios has been an active part of some avid online discussions lately about which dnd monsters would be the best to eat. and that's where he met senshi, they became friends online, and when they found out they lived near each other + falin had to take a break laios invited senshi to join the new campaign

senshi hasn't played dnd in years but he's really missed it!!! and he still has his character all ready to go

thistle runs a couple oneshots with kabru to try to help him level up and he keeps fucking dying because he put all his points into charisma

[heartss4val]

"here comes the sun."

synopsis: a son of poseidon and a child of apollo is quite an interesting combination. pairing: percy jackson x gn child of apollo reader headcanons. word count: 0.8k

• First of all, absolute power couple.

• Percy's expertise in water-based activities and your talents in archery and healing provides a unique balance and synergy in your relationship. Together, you're a powerhouse of skill and talent. You'd both be able to play off each other's strengths and cover each other's weaknesses very well, with your different skills being an advantage. (everybody knows this. you two aren't allowed to be on the same team of Capture the Flag anymore because in no world would that be a fair game.)

• Percy is absolutely in awe of you. He thinks you're the coolest person in the world and he's especially enamored with your musical talent. He feels a deep sense of pride whenever you perform because not only is he amazed by your abilities and dedication but also, you're this talented??? How??? Like, you're gorgeous, intelligent, skillful, AND you can shred on the guitar?? Leave some for the rest of us, damn.

• Painting dates!! Sort of. Most of the time they consist of Percy doodling on the side of your canvas while you actually paint, but neither of you mind. Percy's drawings are — in your opinion — the highlight of the entire date. Some of your favorite doodles of his include stick figure drawings of you and him, copies of whatever you're painting, and random water buffalos for literally no reason whatsoever… but they're kinda cute though.

• Jam sessions in music stores aren't uncommon when the two of you are on break. They usually consist of you trying out different instruments while Percy trails behind you, asking the most miscellaneous questions.

"What's this thing?" Percy asks, holding up a device that he found while you were browsing. "It's a capo," you respond, checking the price tag on a lyre you've had your eye on. "It's used to raise the pitch of the strings on a guitar by clamping onto the head." "Why's it look like a laundry clip?" "Some questions are better left unanswered, Percy."

• Percy is big on quality time and he loves partaking in your interests. He never really bothered to improve at archery, but if you're practicing it then he's going with you, even if he's not very good at it. He doesn't even particularly mind when you chide him for messing up because he can tell by your smile that you're not really mad at him and — okay, he's not exactly trusted around your guitar anymore either, but it's the thought that counts.

• Your boyfriend loves, loves, LOVES when you show off your artistic abilities. Just when he thought you couldn't get more talented, he sees you working on a painting and, gosh, it's like he fell in love all over again. He just finds it so impressive how you can tell so many stories through your art, and he most definitely has a few of your pieces framed. He lets you draw on his personal belongings all the time. His sneakers, skateboard, you get the point. And he always stares at them whenever he starts to miss you too. Hell, he'll even let you doodle on his arm if you want to. (he traces over your doodles when they start to fade.)

• One of Percy's love languages is definitely physical touch. Whether it's a hand around your waist or an arm slung around your shoulder, he's always touching you in one way or another. He also shows his physical affection with smaller gestures, such as linking pinkies, leaning his knee against yours, playing with your fingers, etc. Also, hand kisses. A lot of them. I'm talking Jane Austen style, warm kisses to each of your fingers before parting.

• Matching jewelry!! A while back, you gifted him a sun necklace, which he proudly wears around the camp. In return, he bought you an ocean charm for your charm bracelet.

"So we can match!" Explained Percy, clipping on the charm to your bracelet as you held out your hand for him. "And look," He said once it was secured. Percy flipped over the charm to reveal your initials and his, joined with a plus sign engraved on the back. The charm jingles around whenever you two hold hands, which causes both of you to smile. ( + percy runs his fingers over the necklace you gifted him whenever he starts to miss you :( )

• Percy often collects things that remind him of you. Lemon-flavored candy, sunflowers, heart-shaped rocks, you name it. He keeps them all arranged neatly on his desk, right next to the origami hippocampi you made for him.

• You two are so in sync with each other, it's crazy. If you're ever in a "don't laugh." situation, do NOT look over at Percy because the second you two make eye contact, you'll be laughing up a storm.

• Your personalities complement each other so well; your presence being a soothing balance to Percy's sometimes impulsive and unpredictable personality. You're the light of his life and he wouldn't have it any other way.

a/n

thank u for all the requests, but i decided to go with this one!! requests are still open tho cuz im in desperate need of inspo. (ik it says requests open for riodanverse but i mainly write for just percy now.)

okok see u next time!!

xx, val.

[haykawas]

what i think would be their go to halloween activities — ft. satoru, suguru, choso.

gojo satoru – trick-or treating & urbex.

trick-or-treating is satoru’s favorite, and it’s quickly become yours as well, though it hasn’t always been this way. of course, you love this holiday. however, you used to think adults should stick to parties at most, and never expected to indulge in such activities past your eighteenth birthday.

but it’s to be expected when you hang around the gojo satoru, because that man just doesn’t care. he’s never felt shame once in his life, does what he wants whenever he wants. he likes to show up in the most ridiculous costumes, too, and you often have to take a break to laugh it all out before you begin trick-or-treating. and he loves the sound of your laugh, he adores it – and some might say your smile is the only reason he tries so hard to come up with the most unhinged fits every year.

and it’s not surprising he loves this holiday so much. you know satoru has a sweet tooth, everyone does. and you do too. so, of course, once you’re done with your little escapades, you get back to his and immediately sit on his living room floor to sort out all the candy you’ve managed to gather, throwing out the bad ones and exchanging a few. 

one thing about satoru is that even though he doesn’t say it, one of his love languages is act of services. you’re not surprised when he tosses a candy to you, complaining about how he hates this one while you catch it with sparkling eyes, because of course, it’s your favorite –  and while he’ll never tell you, it’s his too.

another thing you love to do together is explore abandoned places. since you’re both a little crazy, you follow him in his antics quite easily, and it often seems like you two have one brain for two. before you go out, you both spend hours searching for the perfect spots, weighing the pros and cons of every location and going over the creepy stories of every one of them.

of course, you get to play cameraman, while satoru stands before the lens. you both love to pretend like you’re ghost slayers filming a documentary, and it’s sometimes hard to focus when he makes your sides hurt from the things he comes up with. you fool around and scare each other, and although he’ll never admit it, he’s almost shit himself more than once – because, to his dismay, you might be a little too good at scaring the shit out of him. yet he secretly loves it, the smirk you’re sporting when you manage to make him jump. and maybe it’s the quiet of the night, the soft glow of the moon that illuminates your features ô so beautifully, or even the curve of your lips that his eyes try to not focus on that prompts this sentiment, but he feels a bit funny looking at you that night.

geto suguru – making costumes.

making halloween costumes with suguru is always so much fun. you visit plenty of stores together, and you both have this little tradition that takes the form of a contest where you have to find the most hideous pieces of the store and put them together in order to create the worst fit ever. the downside? the loser has to walk around town wearing the winning costume. and one thing about suguru is he doesn’t play to lose, to your dismay. the bright side is that you always get to remind him of the one time he put together something so awful he managed to startle an old woman so badly she fell over, knocking down an entire aisle. he then spent the next thirty minutes apologizing profusely while you failed to hold back you giggles, his eyes sending daggers at you at the same time.

another thing about suguru is that he loves to help you get ready. yes, this man is an absolute gem. he knows how to do hair beautifully, as he’s used to taking care of his, so you let him handle yours very often. he’s very gentle with it, his slender fingers gliding through your locks as he thinks about the style that would fit you the most.

he helps with your makeup too, and takes it very seriously. he’s deeply focused as he doesn’t want to screw it up, his brows are furrowed in concentration and his lips twisted into a little pout as he applies your mascara. of course, you can’t help but avert your eyes. his gaze is always so intense, it just throws you off balance, but he doesn’t let you do so. instead, he takes your chin between two fingers, his tone firm as he tells you to ‘keep your eyes on him’ while he continues to work on your eyelids. oh, and next up are your lips.

kamo choso – pumpkin carving.

pumpkin carving with choso is so domestic. he invites you over because he knows you love manual crafts. you’re not good, granted, but you love it nonetheless. and it’s not just you two! yuuji’s there too, and the three of you first head out to visit the farmer’s market. there, choso tells you how to choose the perfect pumpkin, and you listen to him intently, your gaze soft as he loses himself in details – you don’t want to cut him off and tell him you’ve actually learned all about it before you came, the way he’s so passionate about the subject making your heart jump in your chest. 

he flushes red in embarrassment when he realizes he’s been rambling, asking why you haven’t interrupted his monologue as you shrug, feigning indifference. and yuuji smiles knowingly, snickering because his brother can be so oblivious sometimes.

and once you finally get to it, knives in hand, he can’t help but hover over you, worried that you’ll cut yourself — and he’s right to, really, with the careless way you hold the knife. so he stands behind you, his hand on yours as he guides you, showing you the safe way to proceed and giving you advice on the best way to shape your monster’s features. he chuckles with pride when you look up at him with a happy grin on your lips after you’ve managed to finish a pumpkin without losing a hand and praises you. he’s so supportive it hurts your cheeks from smiling too much, but you don’t tell him you know he’s just being nice, because you might’ve just carved the most horrendous pumpkin ever known to man. 

[purelyfiction]

━◦○◦ⓢⓞ◦○◦ⓘⓣ◦○◦ⓖⓞⓔⓢ◦○◦━ .t.w.o.

NFL QB Jake 'Hangman' Seresin AU x Popstar F!Reader

Summary: NFL Quarterback Jacob Seresin is in hot water from a streak of bad decisions, just as you go through the worst public breakup of your life. With people slandering both of your reputations, your publicists hatch a plan to bring both of you back into favor and keep the heat off until spring - that is if you can keep up the facade.

Word Count: 2,999 words

Author Note: :)) I know it's shorter than the first part but I am trying here y'all - I really am. but!!! more Celeste and Jake for your trying monday night xD ━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

There are only so many ways to avoid conversation, which is why Jake’s fiddling with the radio. It makes you nervous, seeing how he man-handles the wheel with one hand, the touch pad in the car with the other. Who was the genius to put touch screens in vehicles anyway? That seemed like a stupidly dangerous decision. But you weren’t an engineer so that meant it wasn’t for you to worry about. Or maybe it was since Jake was fucking around with it while operating a motor vehicle. 

“Shit, there is literally nothing good on.” His voice is low before he asks the AI assistant again to play a specific song. You turn your face to the glass of the passenger door, trying to hide the growing smile on your face as the country song plays. “What?” 

“I didn’t say anything!” You defend, looking at him while actively battling the grin. 

“The thing on your face - you’re smiling, why are you smiling-”

“I can’t just smile?” 

“Not out of the goddamn blue like Jeffery Dahmer, you can’t!” It’s now that you realize that there’s a subtle twinge in his voice. He’d relayed plenty of stories to you at the bar but not once did he mention where he was from. And the slight drawl on his lips helps you narrow it down slightly. Well that made sense now. The pop country track wasn’t out of the blue when you pieced it together. 

That isn’t why you’re giggling though. Instead of answering his question, you lean into the door, watching the landscape whizz by. 

“Gonna answer my question?” He prompts once more. 

“I’m just smiling!” You try, looking at him with a laugh. The look on his face is one that makes him look like he’s almost about to explode under the stress you’ve seemingly put him under. Finally, you relent. “I- well I wrote this. That’s all.” 

Brows furrow as he turns down a road. “I’m calling bullshit.” Now your lips part in amused shock. 

“Are you joking? I wrote this!” You give an astonished laugh as you slowly approach a modern looking gate overlooking the driveway to a residence. 

“No. Prove it.” Off the top of your head, you begin to list the chord progressions, C. F7. G7. F7. C. As he parks the car, he’s still being stubborn. “That proves nothing other than you can play the song.” Scoffing with a roll of your eyes as he pulls his phone out, tapping something on the screen. The large gate slowly begins to recede into the bushes next to it. 

“Here.” You hand him your own phone, Google provides not only the lyrics, but the song writing credits at the very bottom. Jake squints and points to the name, reading it out loud to you. “Yes!” 

“That doesn’t say ‘Celeste’.” Now he’s smirking, leaving your head falling forward. You quickly move to your purse, grabbing your wallet and then your ID, throwing it at him, causing both of you to laugh when it hits his face. He scrambles to pick it back up, looking at the plastic. Then, not unlike a bouncer at a bar, he cross references the name on the card to the one on the screen. Jake then has the audacity to bend it for authenticity. 

“Oh give me that.” You snatch both of your belongings out of his hands and he holds up his hands in defeat. 

“Fine, fine.” The gate is open now, a rolling road of pavement that opens up to a mammoth of a house. You pull into the garage, finally moving into the conversation again, somewhat bluntly. 

“Is it so hard to believe I wrote a song about sex?” Jake doesn’t answer. Instead, he gets out of the vehicle, shutting the door behind him. Before you can utter a word, he’s come to the other side and opened the door. 

“No. Though, you writing a country song is.” His head disappears from the door frame and he leads you into the house. “It’s not a bad song. You did the whole thing?” 

You are slowly following him in, your head craned as you take in the massive building. For its size, it’s very ordinarily decorated. There aren’t massive and astonishingly expensive art pieces on the walls or marble staircases - it was… dare you say: cozy? It was familiar and welcoming in the way a home should be, not sterile and rigid like most homes in the neighborhood were. Of course, you only knew this because of Restoration Hardware and the likes. 

Jake is easily leading you to the kitchen, which is less ‘normal’ than the rest of the house. Recent appliances and modern finishes adorn the kitchen, from intricate coffee machines and luxurious wine fridges. He’s stuck his nose into one as you gape at the rest of the house. 

It finally dawns on you that maybe you should answer his question. 

“I did. It was one of my favorites but.. The entire thing just felt too… out of place for my style- you own this place?” Jake nods. You’re not sure if it’s in response to your question or to your response. 

“Sounds about right. I can’t imagine you singing country music.” He’s moved around the kitchen toward the fridge. “And no, I don’t.” 

You freeze for a minute. If he didn’t own this place… 

“Then whose house-“ 

“It’s my mom’s.” Well that wasn’t listed in any of the answers you’d predicted he’d give you. Still, he’s pulling a bottle of wine from the wine fridge, reading the label and then sitting it on the counter. 

“Your mom owns a place… in LA?” He starts digging into drawers, looking for what you can only presume to be a wine bottle opener. You help him in his pursuits, pulling random drawers open. 

“Well… it’s- okay so I bought it for her. She really loves the drive to Big Sur on Highway 1 and so she’s got this place to stay at and then there’s my place in San Diego. My place isn’t big enough to house my whole family, so they crash here when they’re in town for football games, they just take a quick flight up to SD. Or make the drive if they have the time.” You’ve found the wine opener by now and are unintentionally holding it hostage. He’d bought his mom a house so she didn’t have to stay in a hotel in San Diego? And he just flew her home whenever she wanted? 

“So.. you crash here because no one can tell when it's your mom or you here?”

He shrugs. “Sort of. It’s as close to home as I can get without boarding a four hour flight.” Jake pushes the bottle in front of you, and you distract yourself by opening the bottle as he putzes around with his phone. It begins to ring as you screw metal into the cork. You preoccupy yourself with your task as he disappears to the other side of the room. The blonde paces the room as he settles on the phone. An unfortunate look crosses his features and it certainly doesn’t inspire anything confident in you. While he hangs up, you are still struggling with the damned cork in the bottle. “Well, that was my lead security guy.” Jake speaks, leaving your attention on him as you hopelessly tug on the bottle and the jammed instrument in the glass neck. 

“And what does Mr. Security have to say-” your question is punctured by the pop of the stubborn cork. As well as the splash of decade old fermented grape juice all over Jake’s mom’s nice granite counters. And your very new, very white tank top. Defeatedly, your hands let the bottle gently come to the surface, staring down at the mess. For some reason, you don’t immediately respond to the mess. You just… stare.

It isn’t until Jake comes along with paper towels, bumping your hip with his own to nudge you out of the way. “Don’t worry about it.” The wine is cleaned in no time, and you hazily fill two waiting glasses. 

“What a waste of good wine.” You complain, before nearly gulping your first sip down. Jake simply laughs. 

“Happens. Anyways, Wells, he said they can’t get to your room.” Setting your glass down you’re about to explain how reception desks work. The quarterback beats you to it. “Now listen, smartass. I know what you’re about to say, cause I would’ve said the same thing-” he laughs. You tandemly giggle along with him, “the hotel literally can’t get into your room. The key card reader is malfunctioning. The guy who fixes them won’t be in until tomorrow.” The groan off your lips is paired with your footsteps as you move to his living room.

“Great. Well,” you take another sip, pausing in the middle of the room, “guess you made a smart move of bringing me here then. We have an out if we get caught. ‘My room was malfunctioning so like the gracious gentleman you are, you let me stay at your place.” 

“My mom’s place.” He corrects, slowly following you into the room with massively vaulted ceilings. There are beams across it, dark in color. If the sun was still up, the entire thing would be flooded with daylight from the skylights in the ceiling.

“Right. Your moms.” You spend time staring up at them, admiring how he was a whole ass homeowner as you count his skylights. Eight skylights. When your attention comes back to the horizontal plane, Jake looks over at you as he tosses his phone to his couch. When he does, you realize your own voice is softly playing over the built in speakers. 

“Are you quizzing me? Is that what’s happening here?” You squint at him teasingly as he sets his glass down. “No, I’m putting it on so I can learn it. If I consistently listen to things on a loop my brain seems to soak it up - almost like a sponge.” The blonde disappears from behind the couch, down a hallway, leaving you to admire the stone fireplace that crawled to the ceiling, basking in the notes and chord progressions you’d strung together. 

“Oh, so I’m not studying, you are.” You call out to him, letting it echo down the hall. He mimics your call. 

“Yeah. My coach will have me benched if this doesn’t go well. So, I’m gonna be damn sure I know everything about my girl.” 

You know what he meant. The word wasn’t meant to be possessive, or affectionate. Except, coming off of his lips - so naturally like that… it was easy to mistake it for genuinity. 

“That tracks. What are you even doing over there?” As you call out, your feet are slowly making their practiced patterns from choreographed rehearsals timed with the song playing over you. 

The realization makes you giggle. You haven’t performed this in over four years. So it was silly you still knew it. But it also was just plain silly. Dancing around to your own music, tipsy in a multi-million dollar house in the Hollywood hills, with a stranger who let you spill wine on his quartz counters. The whole thing is something from a novel. 

“You ruined your shirt, and your stuff is locked in a hotel almost thirty minutes away, so-” Jake has looped around the couch by now, watching as you step in time with your music. One hand grips to a pile of clothing, his other hand pointing your direction. “If you plan on me learning this then you can forget it.” The clothes drop to the leather of the couch as you continue to step with the words, shimmying for emphasis. 

“Oh come on, it’s so easy.” Moving to the coffee table, you set your glass down, grabbing his now empty hands and pulling him further into the room. “Ready? Just follow my steps.” 

And he does, doing as best as he can as you emphasize the words, using them as the tempo with your steps. You know that’s not how your dancers did it, but that’s how you’d done it. Using the words were like landmarks, signifying when you needed to do specific motions. Jake seems to pick it up, somewhat effortlessly, with an uncanny ease. 

“Oh you totally dance.” 

“I don’t.” 

“You do. Don’t even try to deny it.” You tease him further as the song ends and transitions into the next one. This one has a heavier tone to it, but it doesn’t stop you from following the steps. Your mind floods with the dance moves and the arena tour. The catwalk into the crowd, the sultry steps you took alongside the music. The outfit you’d had on. God, you had felt so hot in that outfit. It was one of your favorite tour costumes. You’d wanted it back from wardrobe when the tour was over - but the Music Hall of Fame had wanted it for a display not even three months ago. Otherwise you would’ve worn it to New Years Eve. It was your favorite. 

It was Jonah’s favorite. 

Jake has stopped dancing at this point. His attention has moved to each of the coordinated moves you made until you got halfway through the song, grabbing your glass and sitting next to him where he was perched on the arm of the chair. 

“Your turn.” You tease, only to sip from your glass. Surprisingly, Jake downs his glass and stands up. 

His dance moves are horrible. Downright awful. But you laugh all the same as he tries to sing along, getting the words wrong.   You shake your head and continue to grin as you begin to sing along to the words. 

“I’d walk through the fire if you were the flame, couldn’t care less if they call me insane, I don’t need the fortune and I don’t need the fame, I just need for you..” The note drags out as the song picks up, your hand slapping against the couch with the drum as Jake continues his terrible rendition. Finally you finish the line, “to say my name. Say my name! I’d take it all on, face all of the pain, say my name!” 

The instrumental approaches the bridge, an overlapping conversation in the background of the audio, ‘Celeste’ over and over in low sounds. But Jake’s voice catches you off guard. He’s stopped dancing by now, but you look at him all the same. Your name falls off his lips again. When you look like you’re about to question him, he just laughs. 

“You said to say your name.” Rolling your eyes, you finish your wine, moving back to the kitchen to grab another glass. You wouldn’t tell him, but so few people called you by it anymore. It was refreshing. You retrieve the clothes he’d dropped to the couch, before giving him a pointed gleam of a smile. 

“I’m gonna go change- bathroom?” He points you in the direction of the room, and you quickly slide in. Once your shirt is off, you’re dropping it into the sink, the water running as you try to get out a stain that was on the verge of being fully dry. That was, admittedly, less than helpful. Still, your soggy shirt is the least of your problems when Jake comes knocking on the door. 

“You okay?” You open the door and show him the shirt in the sink. There’s a low laugh that comes from him. “I have a laundry room- here, give me that, I’ll go put a stain remover on it and let it sit for the night.” You don’t exactly know why, but you are kind of shocked that he offers. You had imagined he would just turn and leave you to your failed attempts, but instead he’s been rather compassionate to your cause. Though, it doesn’t take him long to mock you for your misfortune. You then remind him that this was his wine that was causing the problems after all.

Jake then proceeds to ask you about each song that comes up over the speakers for the remainder of the night. He surprises you with his questions on specific words, asking what they mean and making you laugh as you play dictionary for the man. When the bottle is finally empty, the two of you have sprawled out on the couch, the ceiling having transformed into some form of entertainment for the two of you. 

When you try to stifle a yawn, the blonde slowly pushes from the couch with a low grunt. It makes your stomach surge. Being in close quarters with a man like this was one thing: the sound he’d made was a completely other itinerary. One you never planned on following. The only plans you wanted to follow were the contractual ones you’d signed off on the other afternoon. The way that Jake was standing in front of you, holding out a hand to help you off the couch was making that more difficult. “C’mon, let’s get you to bed, popstar.” Drowsily, you take his assistance, but his strength pulls you up way harder than you were anticipating, leaving you flying into his chest and leaving him to subsequently catch you. When he does, you’re only in a fit of giggles as he holds on tight, feeling how his breath falters as he tries to return it to its regular rate. “You think that’s funny?” He smirks, moving the two of you now in some makeshift waddle, arms locked around you. His breath comes hot over your shoulder as you move through his house - his mom’s house - and toward a room. When the door creaks open, another damn near erotic sound leaves the athlete behind you. You know you didn’t cause that sound (even if you kind of wished you had). That was the work of one disassembled queen bed frame against the wall of the guest bedroom.

[bloomingdog]

Acolyte

word count: 2.7k a/n: hii i'm going through a depressive episode and this is my fic about soap with a depressed reader cos he's my babygirl. might expand on them idk i love soap i wanna keep writing for him

Johnny is a friend of Kyle’s, and Kyle is a friend of Farah, who is your friend. And Johnny, or Soap, is here because Kyle invited him since he had “nothing better to do”. And it’s alright, he’s fun and a little loud, he talks over people but always apologises. You were a little nervous to meet him, having been promised a get-together with people you were already well-acquaintances with, but the tears in your eyes, from laughing, that is, dismiss all previous nerves.

“And then he-” He’s cut off by his own wheeze, it’s been going for a couple of minutes; him and Kyle trying to retell a story about their captain, but they keep getting interrupted by their own laughter. You don’t think it’s that funny, if anything their reactions are the thing that make you all go into hysterics. It’s hard to feel sorry for all the other patrons. 

You feel drunker than you really are, save for Farah, you only had two to three beers each. It’s the kind of silly drunkenness induced by being with friends. The forgotten UNO cards on top of the table shake as Johnny’s fist hits the table trying to catch his breath.

And the pub’s playlist keeps playing every top #1 hit from the last 20 years. And at some point you’re all performing a rendition of smash hit “500 miles”. And you’re getting giggly with sleep. And Farah’s driving you home. And she’s asking you about Johnny, which makes you giggly all over. And she’s telling you he’s single. 

And then it’s morning. And there’s a message from an unknown phone number.

“Hey. This is Johnny. 

Just wanted to let you know I had a blast last night, loved meeting you :-)” 

It makes you smile trying to figure out what to write back. Why is it so hard to sound nonchalant while also a little interested in getting to know him? 

“So did I!

Haven’t laughed that hard in a while lol”

That’s cool, right? It’s half a good response at the very least, since you get a response back.

“Wanna meet sometime?”

Oh, that’s good. At best, you get a little attention and maybe a lay, at worst you get a new friend. You keep texting throughout the day, you two fit like a puzzle piece: talkative, extroverted and active. He sends you a picture of a squirrel he saw earlier on his morning run, you send him a picture of your cat back with the caption “my asshole son” to which he replies “don’t be mean to him”. Those little interactions keep getting exchanged. On Monday, you send him a fun fact about a shark that had a virgin birth. Tuesday, he’s telling you about his fear of dogs. Wednesday is the perfect occasion for a picture of your cat, Gus, sleeping in a funny position. Thursday, your phone pings with a string of texts ranting about Glasgow City. Friday you’re texting Johnny that you’re at the restaurant you’re meeting at, a hole-in-the-wall that mastered the art of oily food and crispy chips, he replies he’s running late.

“I’m so sorry for making you wait.” Is out of his mouth before any greeting. “Are ye hungry?” It’s more a conversation starter than an actual question.

“It’s okay! No worries.” You’re just happy to be hanging out, not bothered by his tardiness. 

The two of you sit and chat, you learn he has a tattoo of a revolver but won’t say where. He laughs at the face you make while imagining where it would be. “Don’t be dirty!” He chastises, it’s within the law that you steal one of his chips as payment for the teasing. You ask where does Soap come from.

“A’m good at cleaning.” It’s a short answer that explains enough, you’re not keen on pushing the topic any further. Luckily, he changes the topic rather quickly, it looks like he’s not a big fan of silences. “Tell me aboot Gus. How’d you get him?” 

“A colleague’s cat had kittens, she was trying to find them homes, Gus was the only one left, runt of the litter you know?” He nods, listening, interested in what you have to say. “Kept pushing and showing me pictures of the guy until I caved. When I took him home he wouldn’t stop screaming, I think he might be part siamese, they’re really vocal. So, he kept me up all night, I thought he was sick or something, I even took him to the emergency vet, turns out he’s just a dickhead.” He smiles at the insult. “A very cute one, though.” You add, it’s hard not to love him even if he wakes you up at 6 a.m. on the dot.

 “Can I meet him someday?” he might if you’re lucky enough.

You might as well thank every saint, divinity, and omnipotent being for your luck tonight. He accompanies you home, only because “he’s a gentleman”, according to him. The kind of gentleman that kisses you dizzy and gets invited into your flat.

You text Farah about the events of the evening before falling asleep, it’s not kiss and tell if she’s your best friend. And in the early morning you’re both woken up by an angry Gus, whose side of the bed has been stolen by a guy that almost doesn’t fit in it. You’re cuddled on his side, one leg over his.

“Gus-Gus….” It’s a groggy mumble of displeasure, you know he only wants to be beside you, but the hour doesn’t help your mood. Still, you move away from Johnny so he can jump onto your chest for cuddles.

“He does skirl alright.” That morning voice might actually be the death of you.

“Told you. He’s an asshole.” A breathy laugh makes his bare chest move as he turns to face you.

“He’s real cute though.”

“Are you not tired?” The early morning light peeks through your window, the sun isn’t even out yet and you can’t imagine anyone that is appreciative of being woken up so early.

“Naw, no’ really. ‘M used to it.” 

It feels weird, good weird, to have him in your bed like that. Barely a week since you met, and he feels so close, more like a friend than a one-night stand, more than a friends-with-benefits. He checks the time on his phone before speaking again.

“Ye want breakfast?” Your eyes are closed again, hugging Gus close to your chest, hand moving up and down his fur but not doing much to pet him. His call of your name is answered by a groan, it makes him chuckle. He scoots closer to you, you can feel his arm coming up for Gus to sniff and the cat readjusts himself so his head is closer to Johnny’s. “Hi”.

Oh but the warmth dissipating from his body is to much, that and the soft noise of Gus’ purr drives you to fall asleep again. You only half dream, a mixture of images that won’t make any sense once you’re awake again, which happens rather soon as the bed adjusts and you feel a hand run through your hair. 

“Can I make tea?” His voice sounds softer than earlier, you nod, opening your eyes just a smidge to look up at him.

“Biscuits in the cupboard…”That’s as much as you can muster now. “Wake me up when it's done?”

“Course.” 

He left with Gus following behind, but you can’t seem to fall asleep again. That was…rather intimate. Your stomach feels hot and your chest tighter. Shooting your eyes open you’re quick to grab your phone again, Farah replied an hour ago.

“Wooo! Good for you”

“You’re gonna have to tell me everything about it btw”

“Farah”

“How pathetic is it to have a crush on your one night stand?”

Oh you don’t like that, calling him a one night stand, feels too impersonal, rude almost.

You’re getting out of bed, into your restroom and to the kitchen. 

“Good morning” He leans against the kitchen counter where your meds are,he’s looking at his phone waiting for the kettle to boil, clad in his boxers from last night, hair a mess and body soft under the morning light. Even though it’s the same body it feels so different from last night, scars, bigger and small, litter his body, it’s muscular and soft at the same time, big pecs a tad too inviting and a tattoo on his forearm. Reaching for the pills would mean standing next to him, probably brushing against—no, touching him, and that makes you nervous. Oh. You’re embarrassingly down bad. 

He stayed the entire weekend, Friday through Sunday. Next week it was picnic and football. You’re convinced any major team would be jealous of your 1-person teams and 5 meter field. He’s good, but you’re full of fear as he chases you for the ball, it’s the predator-prey kinda adrenaline that makes you score. 

“Yes!” 

“Offside! Offside!”

“What do you mean offside? There’s no one I can pass the ball to!” In fact, there’s not even a goal. You grab the ball and go back to him, looking straight into his eyes in fake defiance. 

“Talking back to the referee? That’s a red card.” He looks so handsome like this, standing tall and unmovable, even if only joking, and you let him know via a quick kiss to his lips. He’s pulling you back to his lips not even half a second after, deep and slow, giggly. “Bribin’ me, huh?” You let out a soft, happy, sigh and kiss him again.

“Wanna go home?”

You tell Farah everything over a cup of tea and a piece of cake, of course. And she laughs at you, not in a mean way at all, only friendly and amused, still you hit her arm.

And the following week it’s film night. This one’s more spontaneous than the others, it’s been a tough week at work, you want a quiet evening and some company so you ask him if he wants to come hang out, he replies saying that he’ll be there in 30.

It’s the two of you, your favourite take out, Gus-Gus sitting on the back of the sofa and Fargo on the TV. He’s not paying as much attention to the film as he is to you.

“What?” You say, turning to look at him.

“Ye’r a beauty.” You smile shyly and kick him on the leg with your foot slightly. “A’m serious. I like you a lot.” A big smile grows on your face, and it’s enough confirmation for him to know you feel the same.

Or at least he thought so. There are no plans for this weekend, not for lack of trying, that is, Soap’s been trying to text you all week, it’s a big shift from your daily texting. He misses the little life updates you send him. Tuesday, he thought you might just be busy. Wednesday he stops trying to contact you, did he do something wrong? Went too fast? Are you ghosting him? What did he do that was worth the silent treatment? Thursday, he tries calling you, multiple times. Friday all rational thoughts have left his brain, did something happen to you? Are you okay? Christ, what if you’re dead? He texts Farah, swallowing his embarrassment.

“She’s okay, I think.”

“Going through a bit of a depression episode at the moment.”

“She’s going recluse, I know she wouldn’t mind a bit of help.”

“I have a spare key to her flat if you want to come get it.”

The string of texts floats around his mind, spare key in hand in front of your front door. He’s been inside before, but he was invited in, this feels invasive, but Farah trusted him, and she knew you best. He sent you a message before showing up, the last bit of chivalry he can offer before showing up in your home, it went through, and he hoped you read it even if you didn’t reply. 

He calls your name upon entering, no response. Gus comes running up to him to headbutt his legs and meow, a quick look lets him know his water bowl is clean and automatic feeder full, that’s a good sign. His voice trembles as he calls for you again. 

“You know where she is?” Great, now he’s speaking to the cat, and he meows in response, great, an actual conversation with a cat. Gus takes off and squeezes himself into a room with the door ajar, your bedroom. He knocks before entering, not expecting a response. The room is dark except for the light coming from your laptop, empty and half-full glasses taking up most of the space on your desk, chair full of unfolded clothes and a doughnut of blankets on the bed.

“Go away.” The doughnut speaks. His heart breaks at the sad, much softer than usual tone of your voice.

“Love.” The pet name slips from his lips, he notices but doesn’t attempt to correct himself. He walks closer until he’s sitting next to you. “Can I help you?” 

You shake your head no, or what’s visible of it. “Go away, I stink.” He chuckles.

“That’s fine, smell better than the lads in base.” It’s a pathetic attempt at humour, you still shake your head no.

“You don’t have to do anything.” You don’t sound sad or angry like he thought you might, it’s emotionless, almost like an automatic generated response.

“But I want to. Want tae tak’ care o ye” He wants to make everything better, wants to fix everything, wants you happy and energetic and smiling. It’s silly how much he cares for you after barely a month of knowing eachother, scary now that he’s admitting it out loud. He pulls down the blankets for a full view of your face, his hand goes to your hair, it’s tangled, he’s careful not to pull on it. “Am gunna run you a bath.” It’s not a question, you laugh slightly and he smiles, realising what he said. “Didny mean it like that, c’mon.” 

He helps you up from the bed and into the restroom. From your seat ion the toilet, you observe the way he turns on the tap and rummages through your cabinet, trying to find something to put in the water, you assume. “The orange bar in the back.” He halts, looks for a second and comes up with it, he leaves it on the sink while he turns off the water, you grab the bar and crumble a bit of it into the tub. He looks at you and gets up, you take it as your cue to undress and get in. Johnny comes back with a change of pyjamas and underwear and leaves again. You can hear him moving around and making noise, talking to the cat in occasion, while you clean yourself, when he comes back it’s to put your dirty laundry in the hamper. You don’t know why that’s the thing that makes you break and start crying. As soon as he notices, he’s on his knees next to you, softly caressing your cheeks and moving your damp hair away from your face.

“Whit’s wrong?” 

“I don’t want you to do this.” Is no reply to his question. “I don’t want you to have to do this.”

“M’eudail.” He starts. “It’s okay.”

“No it’s not!” You look up at him” I’m so sad all the fucking time and I don’t want you to have to deal with that, it’s not fair to you, you know? I don’t want you to have to take care of me or put up with me.”

“But what if I want to? Wanna take care of you, wanna put up with you.” You shake your head no, looking back down.

“Johnny, I’m so much. I get so clingy and stupid.” 

“That’s fine by me.” There’s no deterring him. He lifts your head up by your chin to kiss your forehead, bright blue eyes staring at you. 

And you realise how ridiculous this is. You’re crying in the bathtub, your friend-situationship is on his knees next to you, again, crying in the bathtub. You let out a sigh and nod.

“Okay.” 

[gilverrwrites]

Can you write some more Captain boomerang, fluff head cannons I loved your last one, and really would love some more 🥺🥺🥺

Abso-friggin-loutly! Fluffy/domestic HCs P2 [P1 Here]

CWs: Jealousy, guilt tripping. None graphic mentions of unrination. Rating: General

On days off from work (I use the term work, lightly) he is such a lazy git. He’s lounging on your couch in nothing but his undies and socks, both of which are ridden with holes and thoroughly stained ‘but they’re still good tho, here, have a whiff of that’ drinking beer and watching mindless action films or guilty pleasure sit-coms. 

If you join him, he will happily spend the whole day there, unmoving until one of you has to eat or pee. 

I hope you like physical touch because he will not keep his hand off you the whole time either. Playing with your hair, stroking your skin, sneakily trying to tickle you in order to force you into a more provocative position. 

He also loves to be touched in return. Likes it when you trace your fingers over his tattoos, play with his hair. Scratch his scalp and he’ll start twitching his leg like a dog when you hit just the right spot. 

Use a pen to play dot-to-dot with his freckles and he’ll get the result tattooed permanently.

Absolutely hates doing chores, and will try just about any underhanded tactic to get out of them. 

Oh sorry, love, I forgot. I know you did ‘em yesterday, and the day before that, but I swear if you do them tonight we can do that thing you like. But you’re just soooo much better at it than I am, I always do it wrong.

No weaponised incompetence, I swear down if he fucks it up, it's because he genuinely is that dumb/has never been shown how to do it. 

Claims to be outdoorsy, but if you ever take him camping or hiking he will complain the whole time that his feet hurt (because he’s wearing inappropriate footwear) and there’s dirt on his (already filthy) coat. 

He would never admit it but he’s more reliant on his creature comforts than he lets on. 

Does, however, genuinely enjoy playing sports together, mainly footie or frisbee boomerangs. 

Can say some pretty nasty stuff during an argument. He will almost instantly regret it but is too stubborn to be the first one to apologise. Instead, he’ll do everything but say sorry until you say it first or you come to an unspoken agreement that you’ve both moved past it. 

I did the dishes, an’ I went down to that food place you like and bought back dinner. Come on babe, don’t be like that, you can’t stay mad at this face, I know ya’ can’t.

Is very much the petty jealous type, doesn’t mind you having friends/being close with people, but takes it as a personal insult when you compliment them.

Funniest person you know, I thought I was the funniest bloke you know, remember that time I made you laugh so hard your drink came out of yer nose?

I’ve got a shirt like that, you never say I look good in it. Yes, I did, I said… Oh, well I don’t remember that.

But when the shoe is on the other foot, he’s such a hypocrite, he loves it when you get jealous. Especially if he’s still stinging from his own envy, he will actively try to make you jealous. 

Loves kissing you, all the time. Got his arms wrapped around you while you’re trying to get stuff done, planting kisses up and down your neck, on any piece of skin he can reach. 

You’re not allowed to go to a different room without giving him a quick kiss before you go. Even if he isn’t in either of the rooms. 

Oi, I’ve got a bone to pick with you, you left the bedroom to get a drink and you didn’t kiss me on your way. You weren’t in the bedroom or the kitchen. Yeah, and?

He’ll take whatever kisses he can get but his favourite are the sloppy ones, tongue halfway down your throat, saliva leaking, noisy kisses. 

Brags about you constantly. Every criminal, law enforcement officer, cashier, random lady at the bus stop way more about you than they ever should. Stories are often accompanied by many candid photos of you, photos you would cringe to see if he ever revealed them to you. Man wonders why he’s so easy to find by the law, when everyone from here to Sydney knows what you look like, what you do for a living, your favourite places to eat etc. 

He also keeps polaroid pictures of you, they’re always either loose in his pockets (cause he never carries a wallet) or pinned to the wall of whatever prison cell he’s locked up in. Many of which he’s drawn on. Some doodles are pornographic but most hearts, stars, halos, and speech bubbles with illegible writing that’s supposed to say things like ‘I love you Digger’ or ‘Miss you every day’.

He doesn’t really know how to convey it but he really does cherish you.  

[cocoa-rococo]

Koopaling Headcanons: Ludwig

Larry | Morton | Wendy | Iggy | Roy | Lemmy | Ludwig

The composer of chaos and everyone's favorite composer, Ludwig! What a guy. I had to remake this post because I accidentally deleted the last one just shhhshshshsh it's fine

Naturally left-handed, but trained himself to be ambidextrous

He's disturbingly good at discerning people's motives, personalities, and past. He claims it's simple logic, but no one really knows how he does it.

Whenever Bowser’s in a pissy mood or feels agitated, Ludwig sometimes gets called in to play something soft and relaxing to calm him down.

There's rumors floating around the army that he was originally a Paratroop General who sold his wings in exchange for arcane powers in a Faustian bargain with Kamek. He's yet to confirm or deny this. (It’s not true, but he likes to keep his recruits on their toes).

Partially deaf in his left ear, and uses a hearing aid to assist him. Fluent in sign language, as well.

Has a baritone voice, very rich and darkly colored. He can hit high notes with relative ease, but can't hold them as long as he can with his lower notes.

His singing is enchanted. It's something he was born with, and he's gotten very good at controlling it. He does forget sometimes, and before he knows it, his humming down the street has attracted a plethora of birds.

Also fairly decent at mimicking bird calls. Iggy is dying to learn his secret.

Likes reading mystery novels and detective stories, but spaces them out so he doesn’t read the chapters all at once. He also uses Morton as a soundboard for theories in each chapter, and relishes the feeling of being smart if he solves it before the end.

One of the most magically powerful out of his siblings. He’s fairly decent at a little bit of everything, but his siblings are stronger with their specialization. His best field is in Evocation.

While piano is his preferred instrument, he plays several: violin, cello, pump organ, pipe organ, guitar, flute, clarinet, harp, harpsichord, and ocarina.

He’s an ugly crier and hates it, which is why he tries not to do it often.

Fond of gardenias and wisteria flowers.

One of his favorite down-time, out-and-about activities is going antiquing. He’s found a nice gramophone, a few records, and some furniture pieces for his room by doing so.

Likes having a physical, paper to-do list. It makes him feel productive and organized as he checks things off.

He and Wendy have ‘Bitch Lunch' together, where they basically talk shit about their coworkers, spill tea about their friends, and gossip the whole time

You can actually tell how long he's been composing by how dark his hands are with ink smudges. You can also tell how bad of a mood he’s in.

Loves the smell of coffee and vanilla, but leans more towards being a tea person. He's got an excellent palate for both, however.

Larry is persistently trying to introduce him to the keytar. Ludwig is persistently refusing to go near it.

Very much a morning person. He wakes up earlier than most of his siblings and likes having his hot drink and reading alone to enjoy the quiet hours before the rest of his family wakes up.

Love language is quality time, and a master of time management. He gets kinda tetchy when others don’t respect deadlines or appointments dates, and heaven help you if you intrude on his scheduled self-care hours.

He snorts when he laughs really hard, and is terribly embarrassed by it, so he tries to reign it in when he can. Anyone who can do it who isn't a sibling is a special person, indeed.

He likes tall places, especially the views. Great for a bit of peace from his siblings and inspiration for his music.

When his siblings are annoying him, he likes bombarding them with music puns. He is well aware he's being an ass and does not care.

Leaned more towards science as a kid, but discovered the piano when he was twelve, and creating music felt right in a way that making little inventions never did. He never looked back, and he’s a lot happier for it, too

Keeps a little pocket notebook on him for writing things down, and he's pretty dutiful about marking things in. It's a common gift his sibling get him on the holidays.

He doesn't have as much of a sweet tooth, but toffee — especially with almonds or coffee in it — is his weakness. His siblings have learned he can be bribed to look the other way if they have enough.

Also a fan of very dark chocolate, and his favorite pastry is a freshly-warm coffee cake

He's pretty alright at art, especially with acrylic paint and sketchier mediums like charcoal and conté, he just doesn't like how dirty his hands get afterwards. He's got a side business doing murals.

Favorite fruits are cherries and plums, but he also won’t turn down anything this blackberry in it.

Likes watching regency romance dramas in his alone time, but loves dragging the shit out of reality TV shows with Wendy

He also loves watching those foreign films with subtitles, very artful with a lot of emotion in them, especially if he's feeling spiteful and his little siblings are annoying, because "No, Luds, I don't want to read a film after two hours of paperwork!"

Has a small collection of model ships in bottles. He keeps them on a high, high shelf in his room, given his work environment. Ship kits are another common gift to him.

Looks at memes like an old man; both hands, squinty eyes, mouth slightly open. The others think this is hilarious.

[sirenjose]

So I've been really into your analysis lately and I'm a huge fan now, wanted to ask some questions, feel free to not answer any

1- what was your favourite idv story/event to analyze?

2- your least fav of the latter?

3- are you into anything else besides idv?

4-how do you find the motivation to analyze stuff? I've tried before and it was very draining :')

Thanks for your time, hope you have a lovely day

I'm very happy to hear you're enjoying yourself despite my own low opinion about much of what I put out. I'll do my best to answer!

Hmm I always dislike picking favorites because I'm bad at picking eheh... But the ones I liked most... I honestly enjoy T&I and COA (1-5) even more than the main story. So I think I might pick... Atropos' Ropes for T&I and for COA, thats harder... 3-5 are my faves but I might pick 4 just because of how it felt it had the most story/details given than all the rest. Even the *SONG* had story. I loved it.

Least fave, eh... Orfeo and Zinaida immediately come to mind, though Orfeo I'd say was worse... COA 1 is another primarily because of how DIFFICULT it was for me to figure it out enough to put together an analysis. And I had to rewrite that thing at LEAST 3 times to the point I'm just hoping it's good enough and leaving it alone. Time of Reunion I think is another that comes to mind, mainly because I didn't appreciate how they treated Norton in there, especially in the videos (but at least those aren't canon like the in-game event was). So based on all that, I might say Orfeo if I really had to pick 1. Then rank ToR 2nd and Zinaida/COA1 3rd.

FF14 and Honkai Star Rail especially I'm playing actively these days, but I honestly like a lot of stuff. Like Persona (espeially 4), 999 aka Zero Escape, and Star Ocean Til the End of Time. Least in terms of games.

Hmm... Maybe because the 1st reason I play a game is because of the story, and gameplay is always 2nd to me. If the story and characters are good, that gets me interested. Issue with IDV is we only get bits and pieces. Really need to look deeper to really understand some of the characters. I actually only started analyzing because I challenged myself (partially out of curiosity for the answer) to see if I could prove if Norton wasn't as evil as people thought (based on all the comments I saw when I 1st joined the fandom a long while ago). From there, there was Jose who I wanted to analyze because he honestly had so many plot holes I couldn't (and still can't completely) solve. So I get the most enjoyment analyzing something that doesn't have a clear answer. Which is why I don't always post for every letter. A big part of it is I enjoy history and culture and such, so it's fun for me to learn about different foods, or time periods, or how bad the environment was for miners or sailors back in the day, etc... I dont think I have an easy answer (I can see I'm rambling). Norton I actually only began to like because I was spending so long working on my 1st analysis for him (and my perfectionism made me analyze all of Norton's essences before i could call it finished). Jose was because I love Captain Hook, and then after because of the plot holes that bothered me. Then for others, I think I enjoy making analyses to... try to sometimes change people's opinoions/beliefs. Like with Margaretha or Vera. With Edgar was because I was more interested in his story and him as a character only once I put together all his lore. Sort of goes on from there. I could ramble on but I'm going to get even more guilty. I hope this helps somewhat, but let me know if it doesn't and I'll keep going. Maybe the simple is A) I like history/culture/research, B) I like to convince people that certain characters arent as evil as they think or change beliefs I think aren't quite accurate, C) I like solving puzzles and I love story, D) I already think too hard about literally everything, and combined with my perfectionism, we get analysis

[literallyjustanerd]

Clone Wars Hospital AU Headcanons

Forgive me my shameless indulgence, but years of working in a hospital has given me Thoughts™ so just for some stupid fun: Welcome to the GHR: the Grand Hospital of the Republic! Where the Jedi are doctors, the clones are nurses, and the padawans are interns

501st battalion: Paediatrics

212th battalion: Maternity

104th battalion: Gen-Med

327th battalion: Orthopedics

Corrie Guard: Emergency Department

Headcanons below:

Paediatrics: Ward 501, Paediatrician Dr Anakin Skywalker

The ward is split on loving or hating Anakin, there's no in between

He's great with the kids though, the patients love him

Rex is the unit manager who has more experience than Anakin despite Anakin “outranking” him

Has to gently steer Anakin back on track and wearily remind him not to make orders just to spite other doctors

Constant happy music playing in the ward, everyone has fun accessories and brightly coloured scrubs

Fives and Echo are the most senior nurses and also the worst influences

Together they can cannulate a kid without them even noticing but also they're the ones shit-talking the annoying/unhelpful parents in the nurses' station five minutes later

If the kids are extra good, Jesse lets them colour in his tattoo

Dogma and Tup are the new grads - Tup is great with the kids, gentle and always gets them smiling, Dogma makes them cry no matter how hard he tries

Kix is NICU-trained and somehow still remembers every single piece of anatomy and physiology from training. Unparallelled medication knowledge. He’s the one all the student nurses want to be paired with

Ahsoka is on her paediatric rotation under Anakin's instruction

She's the intern the nurses give their feedback and requests to when they don't want to talk to Anakin, because they know Anakin will listen to Ahsoka over them

Maternity: Ward 212, Obstetrician Dr Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi-Wan works closely with Anakin, refers most of his clients there for their child’s care

Anakin did rotations with him in training, Obi-Wan sometimes forgets that he's now a fully registered doctor and will still try to instruct/encourage him

Obi-Wan has borrowed Ahsoka for days in clinic or in the birthing unit, during which time the nurses will spend their entire shift trying to convince her to come to their unit instead

Obi-Wan is beloved by the nurses because he actually asks them for their input, unlike SOME doctors who just give orders (Anakin)

Did you catch him talking to the unit manager after handover this morning?? Hardcore flirting at 7:05am?? Cody was definitely into it

Cody is one of the most involved unit managers - he’s on the floor with the other nurses most days, always staying overtime and pulling double shifts to help keep things running smoothly

Waxer and Boil are considered bad luck charms - whenever they’re rostered on the same shift, things will always go to shit

God forbid either of them mentions it being “nice” or “quiet” on any given day - that just guarantees that three minutes later they’ll have five labouring people come in actively pushing 

The two of them once delivered a baby in the parking lot outside because the mother didn’t make it in time - the parents still bring Numa in to visit sometimes

Their nurses have the best stories, sometimes even more gory than ED

General Medical: Ward 104, Physician Dr Plo Koon

Has Dr Plo been here forever?? Nobody at the hospital can remember a time he didn't work here

The best doctor, agreed by all nurses and patients

Keeps offering free check-ups to the nurses on the ward

Brings snacks for the nurses' station

Wolffe is the scariest unit manager there is - grads and students are terrified of him

The unit is the most efficient in the hospital because of it

God help the pathologist who loses a sample from them. He will not hesitate to riskman you

*Over the PA* “Visiting hours finish at 1900. It is now 1902. Get the fuck out.”

Emergency Department: Corrie Guard, lawless wasteland

Boost, Comet and Sinker knew him in training and are immune to his glare, they use this power to constantly fuck with him

Caffeinated to the point of medical concern

Lectures drunk uni students about the dangers of alcohol before finishing night shift at 0730 and going home to drink wine straight from the bottle

If Fox has to triage one more belligerent idiot demanding immediate attention for a stubbed toe he's going to come through the plastic window and throw hands

Take the turkey sandwich and shut the fuck up

Constant arguments with the ward over whether or not the patients are stable enough for ward transfer

Just take the fucking patient Wolffe, they've got enough to deal with down here, they're bed blocked and there's a line out the door

Orthopedics: Ward 327, Orthopedic surgeon Dr Aayla Secura

They all started in sports science

The most jacked nurses

Group gym sessions before or after shifts

I don't care if you're tired. You're getting out of that bed whether you want to or not. Use it or lose it. Mobilise, bitch.

They’re the ones who keep stealing the bladder scanner from gen med but won’t admit to it

If you witnessed the incident between Dr Secura and the unit manager Bly at the last Christmas party, no you didn't

Bonus:

The Bad Batch are agency nurses, they go where they're needed and everyone hates them because they make more on the hour for it

Weird mish-mash of different skills and background knowledge

Will go eat dinner in their car instead of in the break room with the other nurses

Tech will not stop correcting people on the wards he’s put on, he is not popular for this despite mostly being right

“You can’t nurse-initiate that drug.”

“That phone order is invalid. We need to call the doctor for another.”

“The patient’s blood pressure is 135/82. This is technically outside normal parameters.”

Crosshair openly shit talks the other nurses with his patients because he knows he won’t be there tomorrow to catch the fallout

[alwayschoppedtaco]

we will always have summer ll m.s.

pairing: mick schumcher x verstappen!reader, max verstappen x sister!reader

warnings: just childhood friends to lovers, lots of cute fluff

summary: summers in the lake house have always been your favorite. 

word count: 2.4k

my masterlist

a/n: i got this idea from a bunch of tiktoks about michael and jos being friends and teamates (x)(x)(x) 

Summer 2005

It all really happened before you could even remember. Alcohol fueled jokes between parents while the kids ran around outside the summer lake house the two families called home for a couple weeks a year.

You were the youngest of the five children that ran through the house, sticking close to your mother for the most part. Your older siblings running off with the Schumacher children, Max and Mick racing each other everywhere, while Victoria and Gina would play on the giant metal swing set that sat in the back yard.

You were fine with sitting out on the activities, not wanting to race your brother or fight your sister over the swings, but Mick, sweet Mick, didn’t want you to feel left out. Every time the group would head out the door, Mick would make his way to you first, inviting you to come out with them, to which you would smile bashfully and shake your head, burying your face into your mothers’ side.

“She’s just shy, go on and play sweetheart.” Sophie would say, brushing your hair out of your eyes and urging Mick to go play.

Instead of running around outside, you would sit at the table with the adults, juice box in hand, and color, listening to the parents talk for hours. You would help the mothers prepare dinner in the kitchen, or mess around on the grand piano that sat in the family room.

Sometimes Mick would take a break from running around and join you in the family room, pressing random keys on the piano with you, or sneaking a cookie before dinner with your help.

These actions certainly didn’t go unnoticed by the parents, both mothers having caught Mick trying to sneak cookies, but letting him because of how cute the pair of you were.

The parents secretly placed bets that summer, sure that you two would get together, it was just a matter of when.

 Summer 2010

Once again, the Verstappen and Schumacher families are in the lake house together. The house smells like sunscreen and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, with all the windows thrown open to let the lake breeze filter through the house.  

You are sat at the grand piano once again, this time actually knowing a few pieces and not just random keys pressed in no certain order. Everyone else is outside on the patio or splashing in the lake.

You like these times, just you in the house, calmly practicing piano and enjoying the summer. Before long you are joined by a damp Mick, coming in from the lake.

“Sorry, don’t mind me.” He apologizes when you stop playing. You just laugh and go back to practicing, scooting over on the piano bench to let him sit by you.

“Wow, you’ve gotten good.” He compliments once you are finished.

“Thank you.” You blush at the compliment, turning your face away from him. “I started lessons back home.”

“I came in to see if you wanted to come join us.” He says, standing up from the bench. “We are going to do a fire tonight!”

You make your way outside with him, sitting beside your mother around the fire, Mick taking a seat beside you.

The night is one you will always remember, roasting s’mores on the fire, your family surrounding you, telling funny stories and enjoying the summer night. Mick offering you the marshmallows that he toasts to a perfect brown, making fun of your brother when he gets too impatient and continues to burn his.

 Summer 2015

This summer is different in the lake house. The obvious lack of Schumacher presence weighing heavily on the house. The entire atmosphere has changed. The family has added two new people, your new baby sister and stepmother staying with you.

Your days are still spent pretty similar to the years in the past. You practice your piano in the morning while Max runs around the lake and Victoria lays on the lounger outside tanning. After the practice you make your way out to read by your sister. Max and your dad make their way to the lake later in the day, splashing you as they jump in.

Dinner is not as lively as it usually is, the usual conversations flowing around the table, the seat next to you where Mick would usually sit remains empty for the rest of the summer.

 Mexican Grand Prix 2021 Friday

The sun is warm against your skin as you walk the paddock, your bag slung over your shoulder and your air pods in your ears. You had decided to join your brother in Mexico for the Grand Prix, it happened to be over you fall break from university, and you hadn’t seen him in a while, you both being busy.

It was Sergio’s home race, so Max had a few more things to do along with his normal media activities to let Checo do some special media activities. That left you alone on the paddock on Friday after practice.

Walking out of the Red Bull hospitality, you bump into a familiar face. Looking up to find Micks smiling face looking back down at you.

You hadn’t seen him in person since that last year at the lake house, instead keeping up with each other over Instagram posts and race results. With everything that happened, it just became too much to keep in touch, you with university and him with racing.

A million memories flood into your mind as you look up at the youngest Schumacher. Memories of the lake house, and sitting in the family room together, sharing stories about school and racing.

You don’t know what to say to him, momentarily starstruck as you look into the clear blue eyes of your childhood friend.

“Y/N!” Mick is also clearly surprised to see you, although it doesn’t mean he isn’t happy to. He hasn’t seen you face to face in over five years, and seeing you again sparks something in him.

“Mick, hi, hey.” You stutter over what to say, the sound of his name rolling of your tongue causing Mick to blush a light shade of pink.

“What brings you to Mexico?” Mick cringes as he asks it, obviously you were here for the Grand Prix. “I mean, don’t you have university?”

“I’m on break.” You smile up at him. “Came to support Max.”

“Yeah, of course.” He doesn’t want the conversation to be over, he doesn’t want you to leave. “Want to walk with me?”

“Of course.” You answer, motioning for him to lead the way.

He leads you around to all of the garages, neither one of you really paying attention to where you are going, keeping up conversation over what had happened while you hadn’t seen each other.

Before the two of you know it, it is getting late, and everyone is leaving to get ready for qualifying the next day.

You bid Mick goodbye once he walks you back to the Red Bull garage, not wanting the walk or conversation to be over.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye.” You sigh, looking between Mick and where Checo and Max are standing just inside the garage.

Mick wants to kiss you right then and there, watching you frown at saying goodbye for the night. He instead settles for a quick hug, knowing that your brother is watching the pair of you.

You offer Mick a quick kiss on the cheek, turning to head towards the Red Bull drivers so you can get a ride back to the hotel from your brother.

Max is busy glaring at the young Schumacher as Mick watches you walk away, a dorky smile plastered on his face.

“Max?” You snap him out of his glaring match with Mick. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, just let me grab my stuff.”

 Mexican Grand Prix 2021 Sunday

Qualifying is average enough, Max starting from third. The race itself has you sitting on the edge of your seat.

You always got anxious when your brother was on the track, knowing how dangerous the sport was, but watching him and Lewis Hamilton battle for positions always made you anxiously chew on your lip.

Mick’s crash and subsequent DNF was also a disappointment to watch. His crash causing you to hold your breath as you waited to see him get out of the car, to know he was okay.

You wanted to go to the Haas garage to see him, but you decided to give him some space, and wait until your brother was safely back into the garage.

Once you see Max cross the finish line in first, you can finally let out a breath of relief, watching as Lewis crosses not to long after.

You are making your way out of the Red Bull hospitality before you can even congratulate Max, walking towards the Haas garage, hoping to find the young Schumacher.

Mick is standing just inside the garage, frustration evident on his face as he talks with who you assume is his race engineer. He spots you as you make your way into the garage, the orange baseball cap you have on sticking out in the sea of white, red, and blue.

A smile makes its way onto his face as he makes eye contact with you, his engineer seeing his change in expression and excusing himself.

You make your way toward the blonde driver, bright smile on your face as you offer him a hug. He accepts the hug, falling into your arms and sighing.

“I’m sorry about your DNF.” You comfort him. “I know it sucks.”

He just shakes his head, hugging you a little tighter. Everyone in the garage looks on with curious eyes, never really seeing Mick like this.

“Want to get out of here?” You ask, knowing that most of his post-race activities are already over with.

“Where do you have in mind?”

And with that you are leading him out of the paddock and towards the car you had driven there that morning.

The two of you end up further into the city, walking around with each other, never running out of things to talk about.

Conversation flows easily between you, Mick eventually taking ahold of your hand as the two of you walk the streets of Mexico City.

Its nearly 10 by the time you get back to the hotel, a smile plastered on both of your faces, neither on of you wanting the night to end.

“I have to tell you something.” Mick says, a nervous tone in his voice, as you make your way to the elevator.

“Go ahead.”

“I had the biggest crush on you as a kid.” He says, looking down at his feet. “That’s why I always would come and listen to you play piano. I thought that you were the prettiest girl in the whole world. I still do.”

You are left speechless at his confession. You are still processing his words when the elevator doors slide open on your floor. Neither one of you makes a move to get out.

“I always liked you too, Mick.” You finally snap out of your stunned silence. “Why do you think I helped you sneak so many cookies?”

He lets out a laugh at your words, taking a step closer to you in the small elevator.

“Can I kiss you.” He asks, brushing a fallen piece of your hair out of your eyes.

“Of course.”

As soon as the words are out of your mouth, his soft lips are on yours. His hands placed on the side of your neck, as your own make their way up to cradle his cheek.

You kiss until you physically have to pull away to get a breath. His cheeks are flushed a bright red, and you’re sure yours are as well.

“Do you wanna come in?” You ask, nodding down the hall to where your room is. “I don’t want this night to end.”

“Sure.” Mick smiles at you. “As long as you let me take you out on a date.”

“Of course, Mick.” Your smile somehow gets even bigger as the words leave his mouth.

 +little bonus ending

British Grand Prix 2022

The last eight months had been pure bliss for you and Mick, a honeymoon phase, one you kept just between yourselves. You never meant to keep your relationship a secret for as long as you have, but you never found the right time to tell everyone. Eventually you just decided to get it over with, wanting to share your very happy relationship with both of your families.

That’s how you found yourself walking hand in hand through the paddock with Mick, a blue Haas cap placed on your head. When you walk past the Red Bull garage Max does a double take looking up from where him and his engineer are going over race date.

His dropped jaw is what alerts Checo and everyone else in the garage of what is happening, everyone silently watching you and Mick walk past.

Max is tattling on you before you can even leave his sight, his phone in his hand as he texts your mother and sister about what he just saw, snapping a blurry picture to send as well.

By the time you make it to the Haas garage, your mother has passed along the photo Max took to Mick’s mom, both mothers over the moon that their kids had finally seen what they saw for the last two decades.

Corinna is up and greeting you both with a hug and many “I knew it” muttered.

“Oh, I just knew you two would get together!” She says as she pulls away from hugging you. “Your father owes me and your mom 50 bucks!”

“Wait you guys placed bets on when we would get together?” Mick’s eyebrows are furrowed as he looks at his mom who is gushing about how adorable you look together.

“Of course.” She says it as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. “We place those bets when you guys were still too young to even know what love is.”

By the end of the race weekend both of your mothers are 50 dollars richer, and Max has had a little too much fun giving Mick the “break her heart, I break your legs” speech.

All is good as you start the summer break with your boyfriend and your family, finally returning to the lake house where it all started with Mick.

~

[seobstarr]

ON THE COURT— 015: WOAH.

-

-

His body struggles to move through the crowd of bodies as he makes his way to her, constantly trying to squeeze between people. “Found you!” He chuckles, taking a deep breath from all of the pushing and shoving.

“And you wanted me to dance…” She scoffs playful as the red cup lifts to her lips, Theo’s body leans swiftly over the countertop they both rested against, his forearm grazing against hers.

After a couple of minutes of painful silence his eyes dart to the ping pong table, where their classmates were. “Do you wanna go play?” He nudges her slightly to catch her attention and her head whips to focus on the activity he pointed at.

“Beer pong?” Her voice questioned

“Yeah, it could be fun!” He hoped to god she didn’t reject him, considering how all she’s been doing was sitting and observing everyone at the party

“Hmm, sure why not” Theo sighs in relief when she agrees to the offer with a light shrug and smiles, his hand interlocking with hers (making sure he didn’t touch the still wrapped one from the coffee incident) and leading her through the crowd.

Her body tensed as he gently guides her through the crowded living space, his hand tightening when it was too hard to push through the bodies. The blood rushes to her cheeks and her smile starts to become more prominent.

“Hey, Theo! Was wondering where you were” Keeho, who had just got done missing his turn, swung his arm around Theo in a childish gesture.

“Had to do something first, my bad.”His eyes dart down to the locked fingers between the both of you then goes back up to link with Theo’s nervous eyes “Hm, I see now…:

“Manager” Keeho smiles

“Hey, Kyo!” Y/n fastly waves back with her free hand

“Are you guys here to play?”

“Yeah, thought we could give it a try” Y/n says again and Theo nods.

“Cool, we just finished this round so you guys get next. Y/n, you’re on Sumin’s team. Theo, you’re on mine,” Keeho explains and Y/n quickly unlocks her hand from Theo’s grasp to walk over to the right side of the table.

“Y/n, right?” Sumin points.

“Yeah! You must be Sumin?” She nods from the introduction.

“Yup, glad to meet you! I think we have a class together, no?”

Y/n’s brain racks at the thought of her, at any familiar feeling “Introduction to Philosophy?” She questions back, the lightbulb in her head brimming with inquiry

“Yes! You sit in front of me most of the time!”

“Right, it’s good to see you!” Y/n says back, giggling a little. “These are my friends! They’ll be on our team.” she nods in solidarity as Sumin hands her a ping pong ball.

prev | m.list | next

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tags🍰: @inthesunnn @captivq @nini-04 @hopeless-romantic-mentality @222brainrot @therealbobbyshloby @miyukisv @jilxe

(pink couldn’t be tagged)

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keb notes!: BYE IM SORRY FOR SLOW UPDATES LOLLL IM SORRY YOU GUYS HAVE TO WAIT SO LONG FOR CHAPTERS

:( but senior year is NO joke (i’ve been watching one piece instead of working, i made it to timeskip :p) but i promise things will pick up from here 🫡 alsoooo after this i think i wanna make a sequel with riize, smth ab sungchan since i made him bitchless in this smau😭 AND AND AND proud to say that riize and stayc WILL be main characters in this story starting from here on out !!!

[reviewdiaries]

Nancy x Ace and the conundrum of pain in 4x12

Alright kids, buckle up for one last time. Don’t worry I will absolutely be back next week for more, but this is the last one where we still have some story left to discover, and I am all up in my feels about this.

There are definitely storytelling choices that I feel are ahem, slightly misguided, but as ever I’m focusing on the Nace of it all, and despite another painful episode of heartbreak, angst, and shouting, I genuinely think we’re making progress. And gosh there’s a lot to unpack from this last episode - it gets long under the cut.

We finally know what the sin was, and we’ve seen them get their memories back. But I still think there’s something else at play here. Because we had heart eyes adoration. We had heartbreak and pain. We had breakups and desperate longing and despair. But then we suddenly shifted to indifference in the wake of that phone call and Nancy’s trip to the Yacht Club. Which either is terrible writing, or it’s some other puzzle piece at play here that we have yet to see. I’m still clinging to the latter. I think there are a few more revelations to come, and I don’t think Nancy and Ace are operating with their full range of memories and emotions yet - hence the anger, indifference, and general out of characterness we’ve been getting.

These last few episodes have served a really interesting purpose though, untethering Nancy and Ace and allowing them to stand on their own. It’s highlighted how much Nancy needs the support of those around her - forcing her to acknowledge her feelings and how important this found family of hers is. But it’s also given Ace the space to breathe, to try and work himself out, to learn to trust himself, to stand up for what he needs and wants, and how he functions as an individual instead of just constantly in service to others. That’s been hard to watch, but it’s been important.

The Nancy and Ace we saw at the start of this season were amazing, yes, look at the yearning! The pining! The heart eyes! But as a couple they were going to run into problems really quickly. They weren’t managing to communicate well - Nancy has slowly been learning not to close herself off since way back in season one where suddenly she wasn’t the only one invested in solving the Tiffany Hudson murder. And Ace has always been supportive of her, quietly there ready for when she finds the words. But they have always struggled to actually communicate effectively, particularly when things are going badly. Nancy takes everything as a rejection and abandonment, Ace actively puts his needs to the bottom of the pile in favour of protecting those he loves. This isn’t healthy, and it isn’t the foundation of a good relationship. And we want them to have a good relationship, we want them to last, because even now for me, they are still endgame. 

They have needed to have that time and space to work some of their own issues out so that they can come back to each other on a more equal footing. To be able to say absolutely I want this, I deserve this, and we can do this together. 

And it’s always been up to Ace to come back. He is the one who walked away, who committed the ultimate abandonment as far as Nancy is concerned. He’s the one that said stop, no, we’re not doing this. And partly as respect for his wishes, and partly because he’d basically just put a fist through her heart by saying that and then leaving, Nancy has stopped. She’s been devastated, broken, looking for something easy that doesn’t hurt as much, but she has respected his wishes. Which is why it’s up to Ace (hey Ace you’ve done some really excellent growth and learning to stand on your own and have your own boundaries and needs, time to put that into action) to come back. To admit he still loves her, he still wants her, he still wants to make this work.

Do I think the writers are waiting until the absolute eleventh hour and really making this pivot a hard one to pull off? Absolutely yes, dear god this feels a little unnecessary. But I do still think we’re getting this pivot. Nancy and Ace have needed to have that space and individual plot lines to come back together as a stronger whole.

Which is why this revelation about what actually happened the night of the boat trip hits that much harder. This is the very first time we’ve seen Ace beg Nancy to come, to be there. She’s the first person he calls. He just needs her there because something awful has happened and she is his safe space. 

GIF Credit @thatonekimgirl

This is huge, life altering vulnerability from Ace in a way we have never ever seen. In all the tragedy, she is his first thought. Not to fix anything, not to make it go away, just to be there with him, hold his hand and smooth his hair away from his cheek and hold him steady in a world that feels like it’s falling apart around him. 

GIF Credit @thatonekimgirl

And any other night, Nancy probably would have made a different decision. But she’s emotionally wrecked from her mum’s memorial. She is adrift in grief and fear because those first weeks after her mum died are a haze of darkness and pain, and on this anniversary night she feels the closest to that pit of grief than she’s felt in a long time, and it would be so easy to tip back into it. Shut her eyes and let it consume her.

And Ace is there and he’s panicked and desperate and she’s never seen him like this - never been allowed to see him like this. He is vulnerable and trusting in a way she has never witnessed. 

GIF Credit @thatonekimgirl

And she just wants him to be ok. She can’t bear the thought of him going through a fraction of the pain she experienced with the loss of her mum. The guilt, the despair, the anger. She wants to spare him as much pain as she can because she loves him. It’s never about thinking he isn’t strong enough to hold it, it’s not about selfishly trying to keep him as he is. She is, in that moment, so full of love and desperation that she would do anything. And she’s not thinking straight, she just wants him to be ok. Isn’t that all we want for the ones we love?

So she leaves him. Breaks every speed limit getting to the yacht club, just wants it done, wants to take the pain away, smooth the lines from Ace’s brow and wipe the tears from his face. Heal the pain bracketing his mouth as he bites his lip trying to keep the grief at bay. He knows he did the right thing, but it still hurts, still feels like it carved out a piece of him to leave someone to a death like that to save his father. And he’d do it again, even though it would kill him a little more, there’s no way he would change what he’d do, no way he wouldn’t save his father every time.

She isn’t thinking, not really. Panicked by the vulnerability, the fear, the pain, the tidal wave echo of her own grief. She can’t take that away, hasn’t even thought to, can’t imagine herself with the grief hollowed out of her bones. But she can do this for Ace, help him, save him. Doesn’t think through the consequences. Doesn’t think through what else might be taken. What this house of cards might look like when it begins to crumble down. This isn’t Nancy thinking clearly, this is Nancy acting purely on instinct - fear, grief, pain. Her own and Ace’s. And if she can’t be with him at the very least she can take away this burden, ease it for him, shoulder some piece of the load. 

But he’s right to be angry once he understands. He’s right to call her out on it. She had no right to do what she did, particularly without telling him what she was going to do. There’s no way he would have let her. And maybe that’s partly why she didn’t say anything to him before she left. Because she didn’t want him to talk her out of it, didn’t want him to have to understand what loss feels like. What regret eating you away from the inside can do to a person. 

This is where my comment from last week comes into play though. Ace has been so bad at standing up for himself, for calling Nancy out before this season. We’ve had odd moments - the Aglaeca and how angry and scared he was to be caught up in a death curse. But he’s always kept his feelings quiet and bottled until the odd moment where they explode out (see 4x02 and the passive aggressive snark and withdrawing we get from Ace). But last week we saw him standing up to Nancy, arguing, fighting, getting what he needed. And it’s left a muscle memory path for him to follow so we get not one but two fights this episode. And sure, I’d much rather there were heart eyes and curse breaking, but honestly? The fighting gives me hope. It tells me there’s still something there, there are still messy tangled feelings mixed up in all of this. And it starts to offer a more solid foundation, an equal footing for them to build off. 

To say the things they’ve kept bottled up inside, to actually call out what’s upsetting them. That it hurts that each of them seem to have moved on even though neither of them actually have. That it hurts to be around each other, to be so tied up in each other because they can’t bear to be apart. That they’re afraid, so so afraid of what might happen next - of losing each other, of trying and failing, of the possibility not living up to the reality.

GIF Credit @livelovecaliforniadreams

And the sucker punch of realisation that Ace has that Nancy isn’t moving on or as put together as she’s seemed. That they’re both still such a mess over each other and putting on a front that is far too effective because they’re both too blinded by the pain.

GIF Credit @livelovecaliforniadreams

But the real pain, because this episode is just a heaping plate of pain after pain, comes with that final confrontation at Icarus Hall where Ace finally calls Nancy out for what she did. Because it feeds into everything he already fears, that he isn’t enough as he is. That Nancy would do something to change him, to remove his pain, his grief, the painful experiences that ultimately are part of him.

GIF Credit @livelovecaliforniadreams

But with the darkest low points come a turning point, because Nancy needed to be called out. She needed to be told her actions weren’t acceptable, no matter that they came from a place of love, of trying to protect him. She has to have this moment of understanding, of Ace putting it in terms that she could understand so that she can see the damage that has been done. 

GIF Credit @livelovecaliforniadreams

They can’t start anything without getting this poison purged, without fighting their way to the truth, no matter how badly it hurts, to start from somewhere clean and whole.

Whilst I know most would rather pretend that kiss at the end didn’t happen, I would like to make one comment on how it evokes Ace even when he’s not there.

Tristan comes to Nancy filled with emptiness, not knowing who he is, something she can entirely relate to - she’s just been rightfully chewed out by Ace who has broken her heart into even smaller pieces than previously thought possible, and walked away again. And then Tristan tells her exactly what she has only ever wanted to hear from Ace - that he feels connected to her, and he kisses her. And she tries, gosh she tries to get into it. Her hands go into his hair and then jerk back out when it’s not the expected softness of Ace’s hair. She tries again and still can’t. You can see on her face that this isn’t the fireworks and mind melting best kiss of her life. This isn’t even close. But then he says “But I know I can’t walk away from you” and it immediately taps into that memory. The heartbreak is on her face and it’s not Tristan she’s thinking of then, it’s another kiss in this space, and another person’s hair, and someone she desperately wants to stay, to choose her, who has walked away from her and broken her heart so many times over these last few weeks. There’s a breath of relief when her phone rings and offers her a way out of this. Because she thought this would be easy, that this would be better, good for her. And all it’s done is serve to highlight that there’s no one but Ace for her.

So we leave them with one episode to go, broken but healing, finding parts of themselves they hadn’t realised existed, and slowly coming back to their love. Always their love, it’s tangled into everything, and we’re finally going to see that play out next week.

On a personal note, this season has been a curious one for me. I’ve overall really enjoyed it, and I think a lot of that is down to doing these analysis posts. It’s forced me to go back over the episodes in miniscule detail, and to really examine what’s happening and why. Believe me there were weeks where I finished my first watch and wanted to post this gif and be done with it.

GIF by lecoeurasesgifs

But doing these posts has pushed me to unpick what the writers have been trying to do in a way I wouldn’t normally have engaged with. So thank you for feeding the meta beast. 

I can really understand why people have found this season frustrating, there have been a lot of shall we say interesting choices, for lack of a better word. Part of that is down to the completely broken system we have where shows kinda have to act like they’re about to get cancelled at any moment, which inhibits really thoughtful, interwoven long form storytelling, or they do what Nancy Drew have done and desperately hoped they will get to keep telling these stories and then have to pivot if they’re given any sort of warning that it’s over. And in this case, means we’ve had to have a hard pivot which has shafted a lot of storylines and left a lot of fans (myself included at points) wondering what the hell is going on.

That said, I’ve still really enjoyed the journey. Not just of this season, but the whole show. It’s given me a found family to root for, supernatural shenanigans, thoughtful and well plotted storytelling, and a romance for the ages. Yes I still think we’re going to get that, despite all the roadblocks in these last few episodes. It’s been my spoopy little comfort show through some really difficult years, and I am going to miss it hugely. Thank you to anyone who has read and engaged with these posts, it’s been such a joy both writing them and then talking with people afterwards about them. We’ve got one more wild ride to see how Horseshoe Bay and the Drew Crew will be left, and I cannot wait.

[williaml0ver]

☆ <3 The way to a Forward's heart - a William Ellis story ☆ <3

[🖇️] word count: 4204 JESUS. That's a record, and i thought my Kevin fic was long...

[🖇️] warnings: g/n reader, William is sad 😔, but it's very fluffy, not proofread, not historically accurate ijbol, several cameos at the end

[🖇️] a/n: soo i have been recently experiencing a small burnout because real life has been a lot stressful lately BUT i really wanted to pull something out since it's been already a whole month since my first post ‼️ I swear it took me over a week to surpass the 1k words border, but i randomly felt inspired (possesed?) and pulled out 3K MORE on a single day... never doubt a delusional William Ellis lover. thank you guys so much for the support!! It really encourages me!!!! today i am delivering a William fic!!!!!!! It's so long hello??

☆ ☆ ☆

You weren't exactly sure how you ended up in this mess. But were you complaining?

"Hey... is it me or did the air get really, REALLY stinky right now?"

"OH MY GOD WILLIAM"

It all began when your boyfriend came back from a challenging match. Happens to the best of us. Constant body blocking, healing and of course rescuing his teammates, not to mention the desperate kiting til his final breath - he ended up chaired and no one came to the rescue! No matter how embarrassed the rugby star felt, it wasn't rare for survivor teams to go down like that. You've even heard that Eli, the seer, ended up under Emily's worried eyes, she apparently had to patch him up! You knew he was a very advanced player, so those news made you realize how serious that was. And your William?

You found yourself crotcheting a cute little scarf from scratch after discovering that this form of activity effectively made you relax. It was very helpful during those trying times. The piece of fabric you were using was very soft and had a beautiful salmon colour. With some schlagers playing in the background from the gramophone player Miss Nightingale gave you you've found yourself in your own small world. It was your way of escaping from reality, the strange place you've found yourself in.

Suddenly, loud steps could be heard from outside of your dorm. It was no one else than William Ellis himself! You felt thrilled to see him again. Truth is, the last time you've seen him was just a little over an hour ago, but you just can't help it. Being this giant man's lover meant receiving a lot of affection, you can't deny that you became a lot more clingier than you usually were after getting together. Due to regular training he was very buff, but you're sure his heart is even buffier. The needle in your palms was sloppily placed on top of the wooden desk as you quickly came to the doors. You couldn't contain your happiness and just tightly hugged him, but what you didn't see at first is how absolutely wasted he looked like. You thought to yourself how suspiciously silent your man is right now. That's unusual. Most of the times he would try to make you smile, tell you some goofy joke, slightly overdramatize his heroic attempts at rescuing. You then looked at his face and felt mortified. He had a big bruise on his right cheek and had several dirty stains on his face. Not to mention the small trail of blood coming out of his mouth....

It wasn't long until you started leading him to your shared bed and told him to sit. Yes, he was very sweaty, stinky and dirty, but that didn't matter currently, you would have to clean it sooner or later anyways. You weren't sure what to do at first, so you allowed him to decide what's next. All he did was request you to let him place his head on your lap, to which you happily obliged and began carefully petting him by his long hair. William then kept silent, as you didn't want to force him into speaking. After some time, you've got up and looked inside your small drawer. There were some emergency leftover bandages, plasters and a gauze. You got them, and with your boyfriend's permission you started cleaning his wounds and taking care of them, of course, all of them received William's favourite, most effective cure - a kiss. When you started disinfecting that nasty scar on William's cheek he started smiling a little. While you could tell he was drop dead exhausted, it made you relieved to see him calmer now. You placed a few plasters with Hello Kitty and Minions on his arms and nose, you've then felt his muscly arm pulling your head for a kiss. That's the good old William.

After a while passed, he started opening up to you, talking how terrible the match went, how he blames him for everything that went wrong. It made your heart ache hearing how he thinks he failed his teammates, how he failed Eli. Most of the times after a lost match you'd find him cheering and hyping up the others. Though, sometimes he could also have worse days, when he was feeling blue, thinking how they could win if he did a few things with a different approach which of course was normal and understandable - but you were having none of it. During moments like this, you would always try your best to cheer William up. He deserves so, considering how thoughtful he is to towards everyone. How thoughtful he is towards you.

"William, look at me, I know... it's okay..." you've put your hand on his healthy cheek. Each time he'd have you whispering comforting sentences into his ear, he felt like someone above sent him an angel to support him. Most of the time, the forward would quickly cheer up, but today was diffrent. Feeling your hand on him, feeling your kisses, hearing your words, following your eyes... he felt like something broke inside him. He started to tear up. Even for him, sometimes the matches in the manor could be overwhelming - having people trust you is both a blessing and a curse. You felt bad for him and a little ashamed yourself because you weren't exactly sure what to tell him. You ended up saying nothing, with William, words aren't needed. All you had to do was to be there for him. You stayed together cuddling in silence for over twenty minutes, yet to both of you it felt like a few seconds. You realized that William's clothing is dirty, usually, he wouldn't care, but you're sure he must be feeling nasty right now.

After undressing and freeing his from the heaviness of his clothes, your boyfriend felt much more comfortable. You then told him to lay on the bed, and after a few small kisses you began tucking him in like a child. You both have a huge collection of funky, extraordinary blankets, pillows and plushies - they all made your room much more comfortable and cute! Your eyes softened seeing him covered by all the duvets and comfortable fabrics. Not long after, you grabbed your favourite dinosaur plushie, mr. Rex, who was of HUGE size, almost as tall and big as William, you always took good care of it. The plushie meant a lot to you - since William once won it for you during a summer festival. You placed him on the right side of your bed. Quickly after turning off the gramophone and closing the blinds on the windows you went straight to lay with William. With you on his left and mr. Rex on his right he finally felt at peace for the first time this day. There was a small smile showing on his face. He felt grateful. After exchanging a few i love you's and cuddles he fell asleep. Usually he would pull some stunts to stay up longer with you by provoking tickle or pillow fights. He must have felt terribly tired.

You spent some of your time simply watching him and considered falling asleep as well, his arms were real free estate. Yet you couldn't help but think of how to cheer your dear boyfriend up. He'd definitely appreciate if he woke up to something nice. After a small brain storm, you decided to bake William his very favourite threat - a cherry pie. Your speciality. To be honest, you didn't know if it was your speciality because you were good at doing it, or because your boyfriend always devoured it as if it was final meal in this life ever. Either way, it did get Naib's and Mary's stamps of approval, so you were quite sure of your skill. Those two could be VERY picky on bad days, and they happened often.

It was finally time to get up. You had to be sneaky enough to leave your bed and avoid waking your boyfriend up. Thank God William fell asleep before you, otherwise he'd have a death grip on you. You waited a few more minutes to make sure he's in deep slumber and got out very slowly and carefully. You replaced yourself with some other plushie and wrapped the scarf you were previously working on around him. He looked absolutely cute. You were ready to get to work. You've went to your wardrobe and put on your favourite scarf on your head - so your hair won't make it's way into the food and put on a matching apron with some funky embroidment of it. If William was up he would probably be praising you for like five minutes. Truth is, he'd be all over you even if you wore a potato sack. Now, you could finally head to the manor kitchen.

The kitchen itself had a very relaxing feeling to it. It reminded you of your past life, no wonder you'd often find yourself helping all the servants making mealss. It radiated comfort among several soulless corridors out there. The kitchen's the heart of the whole house they say. Now, the cherry pie... you had to admit it was a fairly old fashioned recipe, a time consuming one on top of that - but it was worthy because your boyfriend love it. Well, he does like anything baked by you... or at least he tries. He even ate up your whole cake, which was entirely burnt at the bottom with a straight face. He may be an athlete, but one thing he can't deny is that he loves your cuisine. Quickly, you've began searching for needed indegredients: flour, cherries, sugar, butter... seems like everything was prepared! You were just about to do the first step and pull out the pits from the cherries when you heard footsteps that were approaching. Turns out it was Emma coming your way, asking for help. You weren't surprised though, all those huge sacks with garden soil could be very heavy, therefore you ended up offering the girl a helping hand. It can't take that long. The cherry pie can wait, right?

...Right??

Bump... bump... bump...

William has woken up due to weird noises coming from his neighbour's room. Seems like Ganji felt like relaxing and throwing his cricket ball onto the wall, the ball would jump back to him, creating a painful butterfly effect. Ganji was a good friend of William, but ugh! He will have to talk to him about it later, what's important right now is his precious love. He felt like he didn't express his gratitude to you when you took care of him after that terrible match. Facing mr. Rex, he turned the other way with closed eyes and gave you a gentle kiss. But hold on...

"Uhhhhhhh... what the heck?!"

The forward groaned, opened his eyes and saw a medium sized, green neon-like colored bear. You either left him while he was sleeping, or some evil witch turned you into a plush bear as revenge and now he had to take care of you, hopefully, it's the first option. William noticed he has a warm, pinkish scarf wrapped around his neck, hmm, wasn't it the one you were working on when he entered your shared dorm already one leg in his coffin? He smiled to himself. It was time for him to return the favor, but first of all, he had to find you.

William stormed out of his bed, quickly tucking mr. Rex and the green bear in. He put on some random clothes and his bunny slippers. After leaving his room, he started checking every possible place you could be in. Annoying him with Ganji? Nope. Playing with dolls with Memory? No. Thirdweeling Ada and Emil? No! Learning italian with Luchino? Neither... You've lately befriended Annie, maybe you're at her place? No, she told him she hasn't seen you. On a walk? He looked through the biggest windows in the manor, he couldn't see you admiring the greenary anywhere. So where could you be? At some point, he was just aimlessly walking around the corridors. He was supposed to give up already, but just when he was walking back to your shared, William felt a little hungry. He decided to sneak into the kitchen and grab some snacks from the refrigerator, he's lately thought about eating some of Naib's favourite gingerbread cookies, the mercenary won't notice if a few them will go missing, right?

Walking into the kitchen, William saw a few indegredients on the table, but there was no one else here. The servants have a day off, so who's taking care of this? Despite the products looking awfully familiar, he couldn't put his fingers on who exactly is behind this. Well, he wouldn't know if he didn't see a piece of material hanged on a wooden chair. It was a scarf, it was bright blue with some cute white embroidery on it.... that's your scarf! Suddenly, everything clicked. You were baking his favourite treat for him, or at least William hoped so. A light blush appeared on his cheeks. He felt very fuzzy inside.

You must have taken a break, the forward said to himself. He then felt like surprising you. Maybe he could help a little...? He's seen you baking a cherry pie a few times, the products are already there, he more or less remembers the procedure. It can't be that difficult! William wore an apron with some corny saying on it, it belonged to Luchino - he liked cooking fun lunches together with Robbie, but he was sure the lizard man won't mind it if he cleans it later. He was actually a very polite man against all odds. Truth is, even with an apron on, he still wasn't properly dressed, he's going to end up very dirty. But does it matter if he's about to spend some quality time with his dearest beloved? He took a deep breath. Alright. What was the first step...? Oh yes! It was the crust. William did all in his power to try to be as accurate as possible. It would be kind of embarrassing if he messed up his lover's hard work... he finally began mixing all the products. The crust ended up looking nice. The kitchen was much messier than when you were making one, but at least it didn't explode! What was next? He was pretty sure you usually would take the pits out of all cherries. Alright...

Helping the gardener took you a hot minute, but you managed to live through it. The clothing of yours was now a little dirty, and the exposure to sun made you sweat, but you were glad to help. You were coming back towards the kitchen, but something felt slightly off... you could literally bet you heard some annoyed grunts. Oh my, did the servants take over the kitchen? Weren't they supposed to have a day off?! Whether yes or no, you knew you had to step in before they did anything. Expecting the worst, you took a deep breath and went to the kitchen. To your surprise, there were no servants. It seemed like there was just you and your thoughts. At least you thought so. Something certainly happened here. First of all, there were many flour stains on the table, no, everywhere, besides, you've noticed an opened package of butter. Hey... how on earth was the pie crust already prepared? Did someo- WAAAH!!

You've suddenly felt a hand grabbing you from under the table and let out a diabolical scream. At some point, you were just about to call someone for help, this felt like a horror scene where some evil demon chases it's victim and later sacrifices their body to some ancient deity. Despite strange, scary stuff happening in the manor, you were still terrified, untill you noticed the hand looked strangely familiar... is that..? The arm was very bulky. Hold on, William?!

Seems like your bonding time with Emma took way longer than expected. Suddenly, all in his glory with a huge grin, William crawled out and stood up. He was wearing some loose clothes and a ridiculous, stained red apron with "KISS THE COOK" sewed onto it. He looked very amused knowing his trick worked out, meanwhile you were convinced he's going to tease you about it until the very end. First things first, you reached out and gave the cook himself a kiss on the mouth. You found it sweet how he wanted to help. William always wants to lend a hand, even if you're the one helping him at times. Not only that, looks like he also memorized the recipe?! You don't own a cookbook or anything, he must have learnt some things while watching you baking many times before. The crust was already finished and the pits were almost all freed from the cherries Sure, the flour maybe was all over the kitchen, the pits were pulled out a little messily, but did it matter? You were happy you could spend time together with your boyfriend. Give him a few chances and he'll be your best "little" helper in the kitchen. The entire process of baking your pie went swiftly. With William, everything is much more enjoyable. He would spin you around during random moments, smear a little flour on your face. give you pecks on your cheeks and sing out loud. Little did you know, the silly "flour attacks" from his side were the beggining of the end.

Everything was done. The pie just had to grow and warm up in the oven.

"Allow me, gorgeous."

William put on baking gloves on his hands and picked up the pie. He then put it inside. You loved how confident he attempted to look, despite this being his first time. Cutie. You gave him yet another kiss on the lips. He loved those little moments.

Now, it was time for the longest process - waiting for the pie to grow. William couldn't contain his excitement. You exclaimed that he can help you clean up the kitchen. Time will surely pass faster, but William had a different idea. A VERY mischevious one on top of that...

"William, love, i've brought two brooms. Here's one for y-"

You couldn't finish your sentence, since suddenly you were attacked with grains of flour. William burst out with laughter and exclaimed you not only have an expression as if you saw a ghost, but also look like if you were on. That guy... you took a sack of flour and counter attacked. You knew he could get very competitive during such play fights, even you don't get a "significant other treatment". He has no mercy, especially on you.

The fight lasted LONG. Even your scarf couldn't secure your hair from being filled with flour. Good luck with cleaning it later in the bathtub. Your face was entirely white, you were sure you looked whiter than Andrew himself right now. Your clothes, your everything was covered in flour, and so was William. He sat on the floor and let you sit on his lap. You though the war was over, until even more flour landed on both of you. It was Robbie! The fight resumed for yet another few minutes, until the three of you grew tired. You on William's lap, Robbie in yours, he was the first one to fall asleep. Not only the three of you were full in flour, so was the kitchen, you will surely get scolded. Honestly, you have no idea how no one has yet noticed the fight and put an end to it.

"I love you." Said William, holding your hand, he then began feeling a strange smell...

"Hey... is it me or did the air get really, REALLY stinky right now?"

"OH MY GOD WILLIAM"

It was the apple pie! William quickly wore the gloves and took it from the oven. It was black like charcoal, not to mention the smoke. The two of you were coughing like crazy, meanwhile Robbie was sleeping, unbothered by the event. William did feel somewhat responsible for what happened. He put one of his hands behind his hair and started rubbing it out of embarrassment. You both sat dawn on the floor again.

"Y/N, listen baby, i'm sorry... we just had so much fun together, i forgot about the pie. It's my fault, i shouldn't have helped you..." he looked like a sad puppy which has done something bad.

You reassured William that he shouldn't blame himself. It was an accident. They happen to everyone. Sure, the pie may be ruined, but we had a lot of fun while baking it. That's more important than some stupid cake. And while you DID worry about cleaning the kitchen, you didn't want to make William even more sad. Besides, you've heard that, apparently, Annie and Tracy created a weird machine that helps you clean - it sucks out all the dirt! Or at least they said so... wasn't that called... a vacuum? William eventually cheered up a little thanks to you.

"Sleep, i'll help you cleaning up after we wake up from a nap." He murmured, trapping you in his arms.

You weren't exactly sure how you ended up in this mess. But were you complaining?

The first person to notice the absolute mess in the manor kitchen was Helena. She was supposed to make some tea for herself, but she quickly forgot about that after seeing the three of you asleep together, tons of flour EVERYWHERE and a burnt pie on the table. Yuck. It wasn't long until she called for a few residents to help her. She's heard William had a difficult match today and thought you wanted to cheer him up. She didn't have the heart to wake you up. A few minutes later Martha, Tracy, Annie, Kurt, Xie and Fan appeared. Their reaction to seeing the kitchen wasn't much diffrent from Helena's. They all agreed to help you and cheer the both of you up. But first, they had to get rid of that mess.

While Annie brought with herself that strange thing named vacuum, Tracy proudly explained to the two brothers and the explorer how it operates. Helena on the other hands put earplugs into your ears.

"Are you sure that creation of yours isn't going to explode? This place already looks like a battlefield." stated Martha. One way or another, her question wasn't answered, as the invention began working. The rest grabbed grooms and proceeded to help, while Kurt went to the hunter part of the manor to notify that someone should pick little Robbie up. He eventually came back with Michiko. Not much later, the kitchen looked, well, not shiny clean, but clear enough. Kurt then suggested to make a cherry pie from scratch again. It was not an easy thing to do, but everyone agreed and did everything in their power. In the meantime, the Wu Chang brothers decided to take you somewhere comfortable. Your butts will hurt if you'll sleep on the floor too long. They weren't sure where your shared dorm is located, so they brought you to the living room and placed all of you on the sofa. Helena then covered you with a warm blanket.

After some time, the pie was finally ready, and the kitchen squeaky clean. They all sneaked into the living room and placed a cloth onto the table, and put a huge, fresh pie on it. Michiko made tea, even Naib helped and shared some of his snacks: cookies, leftover cakes... everything looked delicious. They all sat on their chairs, waiting for you to wake up.

After the three of you regained consciousness, you weren't sure what's going on. You were in a completely diffrent place, surrounded by so many people. Mmmm.... what?!

It appears they saw you laying on the floor and wanted to cheer you all up by making a new pie. This one was even bigger than yours! On top of that, there were also other sweets. The table looked quite rich. Sure, you probably still looked like clowns, with so much flour on you, but that won't stop you from having fun. Later on, even Eli, Emma, Norton and Emily joined the meeting. You appreciated the gesture from everyone else. Everyone had a friendly conversation with delicious food on their plates.

Suddenly, William sat up and took a cup of tea.

"I... i would like to make a toast!" everyone, including you, quickly stood up.

"A toast for my loveliest, prettiest, smartest honeybun, Y/N!!!" he cheered loudly.

You were stunned and quickly began to blush when William grabbed you by your waist. It felt so embarrassing, yet you felt flattered. So loved. Everyone took their teacups in their hands and celebrated. The atmosphere was lovely!

The party lasted for a few hours. You even managed to forgot about the mess in the kitchen, Tracy however explained how they cleaned it up, thank God. You were thankful to your William and your friends.

"Hey, Annie, mind explaining to me how that... vaccuoom works?" you asked...

☆ ☆ ☆

I can't believe i've wrote something so long help. Fun fact: I bake on like a weekly basis but i've actually never seen a cherry pie with my own eyes, i was just listening to Cherry pie by Sade and was like yeah it fits... anyways i had to watch some tutorials on how to make one so i can know what's going on 😭😭 By the way pookie if you are reading this I'VE SEEN YOUR GANJI REQUEST I WILL GET TO IT LATER... (the one i received two weeks ago, not the one i got today, but i'll get into that one as well dhdhdjej) anyways, thank you again for all the support. wishing all of you a good day or night☺️