#like i told people 'i hate the bus' but i didn't have the words to communicate what the deal was at all

[confinesofmy]

fun fact: i sat backwards on the school bus with my feet braced on my seat, knees against my chin, and my back wedged up against the back of the seat in front of mine every school day for over a year

[alexanderwales]

The high-level prophecy interpreters all worked for the government or major corporations. They were the ones with the money, and the ones most likely to be the subject of a prophecy. Sometimes you'd have a multi-billionaire hire on a prophecy interpreter, but usually they just had one on retainer. The same went for celebrities who were famous enough to attract significant prophecies.

But at the lower level, there were prophecy interpreters who opened up their own firms, usually just one or two if they weren't in a major city. That was me: I had gotten in prophecy interpretation in college and ended up majoring in it after the Kepler Incident. I had my name on bus stops and billboards, and a single secretary in my employ who thankfully handled most of the phone calls.

In the field we sometimes divide the business up into three sectors based on timing. There's "prophecy impact", which is when we do a consultation right after the prophecy has been made, or at least sometime before it rears its head. Some prophecies are decades in the making, but people want to be told what to do about them. I hate that part of the job, personally, because there's not a whole lot to do, depending on the language. Plus the conversations are pretty repetitive: a guy hears a pretty clear-cut prophecy that he's going to die falling out of a plane, and he's begging for some way out, as though there's something I can do about it, as though I can tell him that prophecies are lairs sometimes. Prophecies are liars, but they're clever liars, hiding meanings inside words, only clear after they've passed. You can't escape prophecy, and at least half of "prophecy impact" clients explaining that fact to them.

The second sector is "prophetic immanence", when the client has a prophecy that they think is coming true. Sometimes this can be because there's a trigger phrase in the prophecy, a conditional that appears to have been met. One of the dirty secrets of the industry is that nine times out of the ten, people are mistaken: the nature of prophecy is such that you can't often pinpoint when the prophecy is nigh. In my opinion, you can judge a prophecy interpreter by how upfront they are about this. The weasels will milk their clients dry by pretending that every moment is a crisis moment.

It's the last sector that I find the most satisfaction from, which is why it's a disappointment that it's the least in demand. This is post facto prophecy interpretation. You're not trying to prevent anything, you're not formulating a reaction, you're just trying to figure out what happened and how it all fit together. These are clients that are in the aftermath of prophecy, or what they're pretty sure is the aftermath, and a lot of the time, they just want someone to talk to more than they want my specific expertise.

My client that day was an artist, a rising star who had a few very successful gallery showings. It had been prophesied that her older brother would accidentally kill her father, but it had been her instead. This wasn't a recent trauma, but the wound was clearly still there, so I tried to navigate it as carefully as I could.

"One of the things that makes prophecy tricky is ambiguity," I said gently. "There are some, outliers, that depend on pretty tortured readings. But in this case, I think it's just an alternate meaning. From what you gave me, the prophecy was specifically 'the child who first draws breath', and that's in reference to your career as an artist."

"That's stupid," she said. "He's two years older than me, would he really never have doodled a person drawing? Just a few lines indicating that something is coming out of their mouth?" Her hands were folded in her lap. They were curiously still, for someone who used her hands for a living, but maybe artists were like that, preserving the tools of their trade.

"It's stupid," I agreed. "But I do think it's entirely possible that his drawings didn't include anyone breathing, and that yours did."

"How can we know for sure?" she asked.

"We can't," I replied. "Though if we take for granted that the prophecy was fulfilled, and that you were the one to fulfill it, then we have to search for answers within the realm of what we know. And if you're not satisfied with that answer, then I need to spend some time searching for alternate meanings, to find some interpretation that lands better."

"I could understand it if I had some obsession with drawing breath," she said. "If I had done a series of paintings of visible breath escaping from a person's body, then that would make sense. But it's not that, it's the first to draw breath, and that's just ... I mean, doodles we did when we were children. It means nothing. We have no way to mark that. It wasn't pivotal."

I shrugged. "It is what it is." I use that phrase a lot. "There's a selection effect with prophecies. The ones we hear about are hugely ironic, they show the hand of fate, they warp and twist people. But many of them are just," I shrugged again. "Things that happened."

"My brother moved away," she said. "My father had kind of accepted it, probably from the moment we were born, or before that. He'd made peace with it, hadn't tried to fight it. But it was a hard thing to learn for my brother, and he'd just left to go to school a thousand miles away, and coming home was always stressful for him, because maybe this was when it was going to happen."

I nodded. "I can see where that would be difficult. How did he handle it?"

"Poorly," she sighed. "Dad was a good guy. My brother lost all that time, and it had always been a source of tension between them, not the death, but their perspective, you know? Dad preached acceptance, my brother wanted to avoid it, and so when my brother went out west, dad was disappointed. He said it was like losing his son, and that he'd have rather died than have that happen. So not only did my brother not have a close relationship with my dad because of the prophecy, it turns out that dad was right all along. It would have been better for everyone not to fight it."

"Maybe," I said. "In the business we don't counsel people not to fight prophecies. Sometimes it's the right thing to do."

"Well, sorry for wasting your time," she said. "Though I guess I'm paying by the hour, and I'm not going to apologize for something I paid for. So I'd like my apology back, please."

I smiled at her. "Certainly."

She stood up to go, and I marked the time so I could bill her later, but she paused for a moment. I put in the time all the same; so far as I was concerned, we were off the clock.

"Do you have any unresolved prophecies that you know of?" she asked.

"That's sort of a personal question," I said. "But I get it a lot, and if it might help you, I can share: I'm going to be eaten by an alligator."

"You're ... what?" she asked.

"An alligator?" I asked. "They live in swamps."

"And how are you going to be eaten by one?" she asked.

"Well, I don't know," I replied. "There's a chance I've dodged it already, or ... dodged it in the way that you can sometimes dodge an obvious reading." I held up my hand and showed her my pinky, or rather, my lack of pinky. "I went down to Florida, had my finger amputated, then fed it to three baby alligators under the supervision of a zoo keeper."

She stared at me. "And that works?" she finally asked.

"We'll see," I replied. "In general, yes, it's an approach with relatively good outcomes. A self-fulfilling prophecy. It's a peace of mind thing."

"But ... your finger?" she asked. She was looking at it. I sometimes thought that going with a toe would be better, or a chunk of flesh from somewhere else, but I had heard that losing a toe could interfere with balance. I had never regretted that it was a pinky finger.

"If I didn't avert the prophecy, I want to be the kind of guy who says 'oh, well that's funny'," I replied. "I think ... whatever helps you, you know? And now I don't need to stay up at night wondering how the hell it's going to happen. See, your father had it right, I think. You have to find a way to make peace with it. And this was what it took for me to make peace with mine. Though I have to admit that I'm not a fan of zoos, and I don't take vacations south of the Mason Dixon, so maybe I'm not as much at peace as I would like myself to believe."

"Huh," she said. She looked away from the missing finger and to my eyes. "Thank you for sharing that."

"It's okay if you think it's kooky," I replied.

"No," she said. "I was just ... thinking that if my brother had something like that, he might have had more time with dad before he passed."

I nodded. "You can share that story, if you think it will help. Sometimes it does."

When she left I went back to my computer, cruising the local news sites to see whether there had been any updates. I hadn't given her the best advice. My mind had been elsewhere.

A local guy had been busted for breeding reptiles without a license. I was sure it was nothing, but they hadn't said what specific reptiles it had been. It was probably nothing. I mean, a full-grown alligator escaping from custody, finding me, and managing to eat me was a little too much for me to believe.

But fate is a funny thing sometimes, and I was going to keep my eyes open.

[eggyrocks]

DRUNK WALK HOME

intermission: faces

masterlist

"so if you need to be mean / be mean to me" -i don't smoke by mitski

cw: bullying

Akaashi would know that face anywhere.

He could see it so clearly when he was ten, eyes squeezed shut, a small hand forcefully pushing his face into the mud, the metal temples of his glasses pressing harshly into his skin. Just as hard as her knee in his gut as she leaned her weight into him.

"Aww," she had cooed in faux concern, leaning down to taunt him, knee digging deeper into the soft skin of his side. "Are you gonna cry, Akaashi?"

He held his breath, and willed the moment to be over. He wanted to cry, but any show of weakness would make it worse. So he held his breath, and endured.

She would get bored soon enough, anyways.

And he could see her face as his mother bit down on her bottom lip, trying to hold back the watering in her eyes. Akaashi's eyesight kept involuntarily blurring, and his mother's features kept morphing into hers.

"I'm sorry," his mother had told him, as if it were her fault. "Some people have a lot of hate in their hearts, and they have to take it out on others. It doesn't mean you deserve it, Keiji. You don’t deserve it at all."

The last time he had seen her face was his middle school graduation. Akaashi kept looking at her. He didn't know why, she wasn't looking at him. She wasn't looking at anything but the ground.

But he kept looking. Akaashi was hoping she'd say something to him. He wasn't sure what. Maybe sorry. Maybe something nice. Maybe she would call him by his name and not make it sound so horrible, for once.

She didn't say anything, though. Not to anyone.

He thought about her all the time. Akaashi was never really sure why. It happened randomly, out of nowhere. He would be tossing up sets for Bokuto at practice and he would remember her face at graduation, cast down towards the ground. He would be falling asleep on the bus ride to a tournament, and the image of her face, contorted in hatred, would jolt him awake.

Sometimes, he would just think of her.

And he thought that would be it, forever. Just occasionally remembering the details of her face, the casual cruelty of her words, until the frequency of it slowed, and he forgot about her all together.

Until Bokuto wanted to introduce him to a friend. A new one. A pretty one. A girl.

It was at a house party. Kuroo's. A Friday, the twenty-second. Bokuto had grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him into the kitchen. "You're going to love her, man, she's so fun!"

Seeing her again was like getting pushed over a ledge. Akaashi recognized her at once, the second she turned on her heel at the calling of her name. Bokuto greeted her with a hug, lifting her feet off the ground and spinning her around three times before he placed her back down again.

He went through everything so quickly. The hurt and the anger and the indignation. It made him feel sick, how much she still looked the same. Older, but the same.

Akaashi couldn't say anything. He just looked at her, seeing that face for the first time in person since he was fifteen. He could tell she was drunk, from the slight heaviness in her eyes to the gentle sway of her movements.

She looked at him, and he thought that maybe, it shouldn't matter too much. That she should've had time to grow, by then. That maybe she wouldn't be the same.

She looked at him, and Akaashi felt nervous, and oddly hopeful. Would she say sorry? Would she say something nice? Would she say his name, and for the first time, not make it sound so awful?

She looked at him, and she blinked. "Wait, sorry, what's your name? I think I missed it."

Older, but still the same.

Akaashi, at the moment, didn't know what it was that came over him. Retrospectively, he recognizes it as hatred.

He didn't say anything. He couldn't. Akaashi just looked at Bokuto, and said, "I gotta go, sorry. "

His hands were shaking as he left, and he ignored the protests and the questionings at his sudden departure. His ears felt fuzzy, and he could taste bitterness on his tongue.

He hated her. Akaashi hated her. He would always, always hate her.

taglist: @wyrcan @thechaosoflonging @bedeater @deluluforcarlos55 @localgaytrainwreck @cherrypieyourface @eclecticeggknightpsychic @httpakkeiji @does-directions @needtoloveoutloud @causenessus @kawaii-angelanne @thatonecroc @v1oletfury @lonesomedrive @nnnyxie @crownj1min @frvppe @mollyrolls @karasyuu @ciderscape @phoenix-eclipses @s1ckntw1st3d @cnnmairoll @soobin1437 @worldgyu @snail-squasher @dragonictears @ferntv @reignsaway @Lisoozi @staygoldsquatchling02 @gsyche @yuminako @spicana @hermaeusmorax @shoyostar @whorefornoodles @hqsimprevival2024 @atsumuenthusiast @lemonocityyy @itsdragonius @robinphobia @aboveasphodel @savemebrazilhinata @lllaw @dreamingofyeo @milesmoralesluvs @miliondollagirl @kitnootkat @soulfullystarry @bows4life

[benedictscanvas]

stop looking at me like that - roy kent x reader

pairing: roy kent x reader

word count: 2.5k

warnings: a lot of language, of course, and some very slight allusions to smut

a/n: and we're right back with a roy version! i didn't intend to write both, but the lovely @ironmanmagnetfridge sent in an ask to try a roy version of 'saved you a seat' and i couldn't refuse. i loved writing this, so thank you endlessly for the request and my ask box is currently very open for more roy or jamie requests in particular! <3

---

“We saw a windmill!” Jamie announces loudly, to which the whole coach cheers, yourself included. It was nice to see him so happy as he bounded down the aisle high-fiving everyone in sight. Roy may have sounded as grumpy as ever when he’d boarded the coach moments beforehand, but when he sank into the seat next to you near the back, you could definitely see the hint of a smirk on his face that he’d never admit to.

“Good night?” you asked him teasingly, only to hear him growl as he turned to you.

“Thought I said not to fucking ask?”

“I’m not asking, I’m inferring,” you hummed, undeterred by the attitude you’d become so used to, “You don’t have to confirm or deny anything. I’m glad you had a good time.” “You’re very fucking presumptuous, has anyone ever told you that?”

“You have. Many times,” you supply, grinning up at him and grateful for the fondness in the eye roll that you just managed to catch, “You like windmills?”

He doesn’t speak for a moment, and when he does, his voice is even lower, gruffer than before somehow.

“Fucking love ‘em.”

You nod, satisfied, and settle back into your seat to watch the boys fool about. They manage to get a song going, and you join in quietly albeit happily. When the same song dissolves into a chant that Dani seems to be leading in Spanish, you bow out and instead pull out your laptop to catch up on the vital emails you knew you’d missed during your time abroad.

“Do you ever stop fucking working?”

“Hey, you chose this seat,” you reminded him, still unsure why he’d chosen to sit next to you when there were a few empty seats he’d passed on the way. The thought made you a little too nervous to dwell on it though, “You should have known better than to sit next to the workaholic.”

“If I hadn’t sat here, I couldn’t do this,” he said simply, gently taking your laptop from your lap despite your protests and attempts to snatch it back. He held it over his head to the seat behind him and Rebecca caught on quick, taking it from him without a word. You pouted at him, then turned to glare at her through the gap between your seats.

“Rebecca! You know preventing the director of your charity foundation from working is probably a pretty shit idea?”

“I literally brought you with us for you to take a mandatory break,” she said firmly, “So fucking take it!”

She muttered something about you being a nuisance then went back into the dreamy trance she’d been in since she entered the coach, your laptop safely tucked away behind her. You sat back in your seat with an exaggerated huff.

“Being childish won’t help anything,” Roy reminded you, although he was definitely teasing you now if the light in his eyes was any indicator. You turned your glare on him, but soon relented, sinking back into your seat.

“You’re a bastard,” you say instead of replying.

“Yes, and…?”

You hesitate. He’s so annoying when he’s right. You’ve always hated him for it, particularly how effortlessly attractive he looked when he was gloating.

“And thank you. Happy now, you prick?”

“Very happy. Now we can talk on a coach journey like civilised fucking people rather than you having your fucking head buried in work every second.”

That one hit more of a nerve. Funnily enough, Roy had also found the seat next to yours on the coach from Richmond to Amsterdam, but you really had been preoccupied by your laptop then. Possibly the only time you’d spoken to him was to ask to squeeze by to get to the shitty bus bathroom. You had the decency to look embarrassed.

“I wasn’t the best seatmate last time, was I?” you said, “I am sorry about that, actually. When I’m planning these school visits, they often get a little all-consuming.”

“Don’t fucking apologise for all the fucking good work you do. Christ, that would make me a proper bastard. I saw some of the stuff you were doing on our way out and it’s important. Doesn’t mean you can’t take a fucking break, you know?”

You so want to take his obvious compliment in a cool, effortless way but you can already feel yourself getting hot.

“You were spying on my work?”

“Course I was. It’s a boring fucking bus and my seatmate wasn’t fucking talking to me,” he said, although this time he nudged you gently to let you know he wasn’t really annoyed, “I meant to say, put me down for the next school visit, will you? I know you’ve probably got enough, but…”

He doesn’t finish his sentence. You’re always surprised by how often Roy wants to be involved in what you do, but you shouldn’t be. He’s such a thoroughly good man wrapped up an unsuspecting exterior. You hadn’t asked him because he’d done the last four visits, but maybe you should have.

“I would put your name down, but some prick stole my laptop,” you said, teasing him this time. You finally managed to get a smile out of him, however brief, as he shook his head at you, “I’m kidding. Thank you. I should have asked, but I didn’t want to bother you. I’ll make sure you know about them from now on.” “Good,” he confirmed, a single nod of his head, and then a few moments later - “You don’t fucking bother me by the way.”

“Not even when I’m trying to work on my mandatory holiday?” you joke, and he just grunts, so you’re forced to continue more sincerely even though it isn’t in your nature, “I’m guessing that might be why you chose to sit with me yet again even though I proved to be shit last time. Tell me if not, or I’ll end up being flattered.”

Yes, you loved bantering back and forth with Roy, but there was some hidden truth, some vulnerability behind your words. You were desperate to know why Roy had chosen to sit with you not once but twice, when he had plenty of people on this coach that he was close to. The two of you had become firm friends, you liked to think, over the past year or so, but there was a spot next to Isaac he could have taken, or with Ted, Beard and Rebecca at the very back. Part of you needed to hear what exactly had driven him to sit next to you, so you could eliminate the tiny hope at the back of your mind that maybe he thought about you as much as you thought about him.

“I don’t fucking know,” he started, but you knew him well enough to know that was his typical response when he was trying to work out what to say, “You’re…you know. We’re…fuck.”

And he stopped there. For some reason, you were speaking before you thought about it.

“We’re fucking, did you just say? Could’ve let me know.”

You didn’t know what made you say it, but the way Roy’s eyes almost bugged out of his head, you decided it was worth whatever awkwardness it might create in him. You burst out laughing at his expression, biting your lip to try to curtail it but not succeeding. At your reaction, he seemed to calm a little, and there was even a little huff that sounded almost like a laugh from him.

“You’re fucking awful, you are. I was trying to say something fucking nice about you and you fucking ruined it.”

He was kidding, but you could tell he also wasn’t. Matching his energy, you leaned in to him and gave him your best puppy dog eyes.

“No, don’t let me ruin it! Go on, say it anyway,” you almost begged, wondering if any of this was working or if he’d get up and walk away from you to another seat any minute. You vaguely realised how vigorously your heart was beating, “Say it!”

“Fucking hell, fine! Stop looking at me like that,” he insisted lowly, and you made a point of schooling your face into a serious expression, “Sometimes, you’re…fun to fucking be around, I guess. I like being wi- around you.”

You caught his slip. He liked being with you. If you ran away with what that one might mean, you might not recover. 

“High praise. I like being around you too. You know that’s a normal thing to say to your friends, right? It shouldn’t be quite that hard.” “Yeah, yeah, you’re fucking great at all this emotional stuff though aren’t you? You run a fucking charity, Y/N. Some of us have to…work at it.”

He was being serious, so you turned down the teasing. If he was willing to work on being a bit more emotional with you, you’d do anything to keep that going. He’d also just complimented you again and you hadn’t complimented him back once, which wouldn’t do at all.

“Yeah, I know. You’re actually fucking killing in that department recently, and you know it, so give yourself some credit,” you insist, watching a shadow of surprise cross his face. He nods, but you get the feeling he’s still trying to convince himself.

“Got you to fucking thank for that. You’re a good influence. On fucking all of us.”

“You keep saying all these nice things about me, Kent, and I’m going to be really fucking flattered,” you say, trying to downplay the impact you might have had on him, on the team, “You know it’s that cowboy back there doing the real heavy lifting.”

“Yeah, he’s fucking insufferable with it, isn’t he?” Roy agreed, “But me specifically then. The last year or so, I’ve been fucking better, and Ted’s been here three years.”

He wasn’t lying. He had been getting better and better with his emotions, with talking to people, with ensuring the people in his life that mattered knew just how much they mattered. This was about the third time in a month that Roy had suddenly gone a spree of complimenting you, and although it made you significantly uncomfortable, you couldn’t pretend you weren’t over the moon about it.

“You’ve made me more assertive, I think. So let’s call it even.”

“No.”

“No?” you questioned.

“No. You were fucking assertive before, you’re just trying to fucking deflect,” he said firmly, in the typical Roy Kent brand of caring in an angry tone, “I”m thanking you, so just fucking say you’re welcome and we can stop talking about this.”

You hesitated, but finally got up the courage to reach over and squeeze his hand as you replied.

“You’re welcome, then.”

You didn’t let your hand linger, no matter how much you wanted to, bringing it back into your lap and trying to ignore the sparks that slid across your fingers and flickered in the pit of your stomach. You watched Roy’s hand flex where you’d just held it, but he was staring straight ahead.

There were a few tension-filled moments of silence before he spoke up again, still staring at the seat in front of him like he was scared to look at you.

“Would you like to go to dinner when we get back?” he asked, in a voice that sounded like he had rehearsed the syllables. Your heart rate spiked, but you forced it to come back to earth again. He could just be anticipating how hungry he’ll be when you’re back, wanting some friendly company for the evening.

“Uh, sure, I love dinner,” you say, then want to smack yourself for how stupid that sounded, “What do you fancy?”

He growls, looking like he’s about to tear his hair out and you wonder what you’ve said wrong.

“You, alright? I fucking fancy you.”

You pause. Staring at him while he refuses to look at you. Your voice comes out breathy and disbelieving.

“For dinner?”

“No, I don’t want you for-” he growls and punches the seat in front of him, hard. Colin yelps but then starts a train of it, punching the seat in front of him with a laugh until it travels all the way down the bus. You would giggle if you weren’t worried about the man beside you. He takes a deep breath, then speaks:

“I’m inviting you to dinner because I like you. The dinner is the least fucking important thing in this scenario. I can’t have another fucking conversation with you where I’m fucking hinting every two seconds that I like you, and you’re sat there just looking at me like you do, fucking oblivious. It’s fine if you don’t want to, but I do. Want to. And want you.”

You stare at him in delighted shock. Yes, Rebecca had told you that the man wanted to ‘shag the bloody daylights out of you’ and that you should ‘just look at the way he looks at you, for fuck’s sake’, but you’d never believed her. And even if you could wrap your mind around Roy being attracted to you, you could never have predicted him actually wanting to take you for dinner. It made him infinitely more attractive as you stared up at him.

“I’m done now,” he said, voice a little strangled, “Your fucking turn. Please.”

“Yes,” you said, taking a leaf out of his book. You were elated when he finally looked at you, confused. He was breathing like he’d just run a marathon.

“Yes?”

“Yes to dinner. And to the rest of it,” you grin and have never appreciated one of his rare grins more when it’s fully focused on you. Still, there’s no way you can leave this as a serious moment alone, so you put on your best Roy Kent voice and narrow your eyes, “I fucking fancy you too.”

He actually laughs, a proper one, shaking his head as he chuckles. You join him in it, of course, ignoring the shocked look that Jamie was giving you from a few seats ahead at the sound of Roy’s laugh. When you’d finished laughing, not knowing what to do with yourself, you punch his arm lightly. It’s giddy and genuine.

You think he’ll punch you back, but instead he grabs your fist and maneuvres your hands until your fingers are intertwined and your hands rest on the seat between the two of you. It only makes your grin wider, and you know you’re staring at him again even though he’s back to refusing to look at you. You think it’s because he’s trying to hide his smile, but you can see it. It’s all you can see.

“Stop fucking looking at me like that,” he says gruffly and you laugh as you turn to stare out of the window instead, grinning out at the landscape whizzing by. 

Roy squeezes your hand. You squeeze back.

[woso-dreamzzz]

Creep

Arsenal Women x Teen!Reader

Summary: The man on your train is a creep

You hated taking the tube.

It was smelly and packed and made weird noises that freaked you out. You would get dirty looks all the time because you had to squeeze on with your kit bag and your schoolwork.

But, in particular, you hated this one specific man.

He looked to be more than twice your age, one of those middle-aged finance guys in a fancy suit and enough money to buy three houses but common sense enough to not drive through London during rush hour.

He got on at the stop after you in the mornings and the one just before you in the evenings.

With the strength of the crowd, he always ended up pressed against you during the morning rush, always a little too close for comfort.

The train car rocked violently as it moved out from the station and you immediately felt hands on your hips.

"Sorry 'bout that," He said, leaning down into your personal space," Just lost my balance there for a second."

But his hands stayed firm on your waist.

You tried to laugh it off. "Oh...er, yeah, no problem..." You were frozen in place, unable to really do anything in the packed train with this strange man pressed up against you.

You were lucky that your stop was next and you wiggled out of his grip to exit.

The feeling of his hands on your hips stayed with you as you walked from the station to the training ground. By the time training was over, you had forgotten all about it.

But, in the coming days, he clearly hadn't.

It was like the floodgates had opened. He always ended up pressed close against you, always touching you in some way and you could do nothing about it.

You thought about catching the bus to training but it would just take longer so you just stayed with the train. You thought about getting a later train but the last time you did that, you were a few minutes off being late and doing that more often just felt like tempting fate.

You could cope with it though. You only saw him twice a day (once if you missed the first train back home) and you could easily wedge yourself further away into other people if you really tried.

It was only when he started to show up to your matches that you got the feeling that something could go wrong.

"Fancy seeing you here." He leaned over the railing with one of those smirks that you think the girls with daddy issues at your school would be attracted to.

You didn't quite know how to respond to that so you just awkwardly laughed like you did the first day on the train. "Ha, yeah."

"Mind taking a picture with me? My mates didn't quite believe me when I told them that the fit girl from Arsenal gets my train."

His wording was strange and crept on the edges of creepy but it was an innocent enough request so you took his phone and leaned up against the railing, trying to get a good angle.

He leaned down, his chin resting on your shoulder and goose bumps of fear crept up your neck when you felt his breath there.

"Hey."

You jerked away instinctively as a familiar voice approached. Lia, usually smiling, held a slight grimace on her face as she walked closer. Her eyes flicked to the man then back to you, plucking the phone from your hand.

"Why don't we make it the three of us?"

She didn't let the man respond, easily slotting in next to you and resting her arm around your shoulders so he couldn't put his face so close.

It worked for the most part but, as you plastered a fake smile on your face, you caught him angling his face down to sniff at your hair.

Lia gave him his phone back, pulling you away with her.

"Did you know him?" Kim asked as she joined the two of you, having been only moments away from intervening herself.

You glanced back at him, yelping slightly when you noticed him still staring. "He gets on my train."

Kim looked back too, eyes narrowed. "Come on, I'll drop you home today. You need to be careful on public transport."

"I know."

True to her word, Kim dropped you home. In fact, she continued to drop you home every day after practice so you only had to deal with the man in the mornings.

But, it was on the one day that Kim was sick, that it all came to a head.

You pulled your hood over your head as you began your trek to the train station, huffing in frustration at every step due to the ache in your legs.

"Hey! Wait up!" Leah came barrelling over, swinging one arm over your shoulder and almost causing you to crash to the floor. "Where'd you think you're going?"

"Home?"

"Without me?"

You gave her a look. "Don't you own a car?"

"It's getting serviced. Thought that I would see how you do it."

You rolled your eyes, checking the time on your phone. "We're gonna miss the first train because of you," You told her," But if we get to the station in the next ten minutes, we'll be able to catch the next one."

"Excellent."

You were right, of course. You arrived at the station just as the second train (thankfully much less packed than the first) pulled up. You slipped through the doors, talking aimlessly with Leah as you sat in the first seat you could find.

"Fancy seeing you here."

A shiver ran up your spine.

You hadn't even realised that you sat next to him until he spoke.

Leah narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, er, yeah. Just heading home."

"I haven't seen you in the evenings for a while now."

"I've been getting a lift back."

He nodded along, seemingly uncaring towards the fact that you were clearly leaning away from him. If there hadn't been an armrest in the way, you were sure that you'd have already tumbled into Leah's lap.

"The Arsenal training grounds aren't too far from where I work. We could take a cab back together sometime."

You shivered again, body going rigid as he flashed his too-white smile at you and, almost in slow motion, moved to rest his hand on your thigh.

Leah snatched his wrist out of the air, squeezing tightly until her knuckles were white. "You need to leave her alone," She said in warning, her voice low and dangerous like it was on the pitch," I don't want to see you anywhere near her. In fact, you're never going to see her again."

The train pulled into a station that definitely wasn't yours but Leah still yanked you up and got off with you, snapping a picture of the man on her phone as she went.

"How long has that been going on?" She demanded, not even waiting to get off the platform. "He seemed pretty familiar with you."

Shame flooded your body and you couldn't meet her eyes. "A few months. He crashed into me during rush hour."

Leah sighed, long and drawn out like she was trying to control herself. "Why didn't you tell someone?"

"What use would that do? Men are creeps sometimes. There's nothing I can do about it."

In an instant, you were pulled into her, arms wrapped tight around your waist as you were pressed into her neck.

"I'm so sorry, kiddo," She said," I'm so, so sorry that you've had to put up with that for so long."

"It's fine," You replied dismissively," It hardly matters anyway."

"It does matter. Don't pretend that it doesn't. I heard from Lia that some other creep was at the game against Bristol. Is it the same guy?"

You nodded.

Leah sighed again, finally letting you pull away but still keeping your hand tight in hers. "I'm going to send that picture to the girls and Jonas, alright? We're gonna have him banned from our matches."

"Thank you," You whispered.

"And we'll work out a schedule on who will take you to and from practice, so he can't corner you on the train again."

"Thank you," You said again.

Leah grinned, bringing you even closer than before. "Now that that's sorted out...Do you know how to get home from here? I'm not too sure where we are."

[judasgot-it]

i’m new here in the bsd fandom and your s/o telling Tetchō that she likes someone and starts describing him make me falling in love goopd, I can’t get enough of your writing. So, this is my first request ^^ I was imagine, the first night they sleep together, like, there's a storm outside so s/o can't go back to her house and then tecchou offers her to stay at his house and he will sleep on the couch but she refuses because they're not strangers, right? So when the lights go out, she is very affectionate and he stays like this 🕴🏼then she apologizes in case it made him feel uncomfortable but he wasn't uncomfortable, just surprised

sorry if was a lot

I wrote this over a week while I've been on vacation, sorry that I took like. A year to write this lol

Scenario: sleeping in the same bed as your boyfriend for the first time (yes im doing the same trope three times in a row babyyy)

1.4 k words ~

The storm tonight had been brutal.

When the weather app had said "severe chance of rain in your area" You were expecting the usual - a bad downpour, but nothing that would cause you too much grief.

It was usually a disappointment, honestly. You loved the rain, but you found that since you moved here, there was nothing to be afraid of. It was a light drizzle in comparison to what you had seen before.

Until now. This rain was ridiculous.

You thought Tecchou was exaggerating - you didn't even pack an umbrella, because you were sure you could just run to the nearest bus stop like before. It was never really that serious.

No. No, you were so wrong.

You had denied almost every offer Tecchou had made to take you home - to drive you in his truck, to walk you to the bus stop, and even to have you sleepover.

This was just rain. You could handle yourself easily. But the moment you had opened the door, you felt like a stupid street cat, taking half a step and feeling your shirt stick your skin with the downpour.

Tecchou had pulled you back in by your arm, and you didn't even argue with him. His eyes told you everything - pleading with you to just follow him back inside.

It was impossible to not follow him when he gave you such a look with his big honey eyes.

Maybe you were stupid for rejecting his offer in the first place. He was just being a good boyfriend, and you were being too stubborn to accept it.

"Please stay?" His voice was soft, and the way his calloused hands held onto your cold skin made you step closer to him.

Tecchou was so kind it made you want to throw up.

"I don't really know how to repay you."

Tecchou waved his hand, ignoring the comment.

"It's okay. You're always welcome here."

He was already pulling out his own clothes from his closet, handing them to you as if they were yours. They smelt like him - like a flowery cologne, one you could never remember the name of. It might have been a gift - hopefully it was from one of his missions.

"I don't want to be a burden."

"Please don't think of yourself like that."

His voice was firm, loud over the sound of the rain battering against his windows. There was a strange feeling to the home - like a bubble of dry air the two of you were trapped in, as the rain tried it's best to make its way inside.

The clothes in your hands felt too foreign, compared to the wet ones that had molded to your body. Tecchou really didn't know how he made you feel with these gestures, and it was hard not to choke.

"I'm just being polite."

You stood there awkwardly as Tecchou struggled to form a response. You folded your arms around yourself, feeling cold in the room as he eventually settled on a nod.

"So. About sleeping-"

"Take my room." His answer was quick, as if he had rehearsed it in his mind. Maybe he had thought about this earlier.

Did he know you were this stubborn? Did he plan for it?

"No, no. That's too much. This is your house. We know each other. We can share a bed, right?"

The thought was embarrassing in itself. You hated to take up other people's time and space, and now you were taking someone else's bed.

Maybe it didn't count. Tecchou was your boyfriend - As of two days ago, but you knew him well enough, right?

"...I don't want to be creepy."

"Absolutely not. You're nothing like that."

Your boyfriend couldn't ever be creepy to you. If he was, you wouldn't be dating him.

If anything, he was perfect. You were taking his time and bed, and he was nothing but kind about it.

"It's ok. The couch is comfortable enough."

"You barely fit on it!"

The couch in question was an old hand-me-down from his grandmother. It was lumpy and could barely fit the both of you while sitting - it was barely comfortable for its intended purpose, let alone any...others. You both had tried, it was barely doable.

There was no way you could let him sleep on it.

"I can manage."

"No. I'm ok with sleeping with you."

Tecchou stared at you for a moment. You tried to keep eye contact with him, but it embarrassed you. His eyes practically stared through your soul, as if he saw right into your mind.

"Sleeping with me? You're okay with that?"

"Um...yes."

There was a pause for a small moment. The clothes on your body still felt cold, and you really wanted to change.

"In the same bed?"

Well, you weren't going to let him sleep on the couch, were you?

"Of course! We're close, aren't we?"

Tecchou folded his arms, his own attempt to hug himself. A sound came out of his throat, but you weren't sure what it meant. Maybe he was agreeing, but it almost sounded like a whine.

Maybe he was tired?

While Tecchou took the time to figure out his feelings, you took the time to change into his clothes. Your skin was so cold and clammy that it had turned into torture.

"...Thanks. That means a lot. No one else has ever said that to me."

"...oh. Well, I'd sleep with you every night Tecchou. I trust you a lot."

"I trust you too."

Maybe you'd do something more than sleep in the same bed with him if he kept talking like that.

"...maybe we should go to sleep. I'm wet and tired."

"Right. Sorry."

"If you're so sorry, can you get me a towel? I don't want to get your bed wet."

"Alright."

"Thanks, sweetheart."

If Tecchou stumbled a little on the way out, you didn't acknowledge it.

-

"Tecchou?"

His bed was weirdly exactly fit to his personality - the mattress was hard, and the blanket was a weird tacky design that you could get from a tourist shop. It was ridiculously soft, despite the funny photoshopped wolves on it.

"Yes?"

"You know you can take up more space, right?"

"This is fine."

The mattress was a queen, and you could feel how he was almost falling off of the edge.

"Are you scared of me?"

"No. You said you wanted to sleep, and I'm very warm. It might make you too hot to sleep."

You wanted to cry. Tecchou was too considerate.

"Well, I'm cold right now. Can you come closer?"

There was shuffling, and you could feel your side get warm. So warm. It was as if he was warming your skin with sunlight.

Despite this, you rolled over, laying your head against his shoulder. His breathing stuttered, and you tried not to laugh.

He was nervous. It was so different from how he was at work - stone-faced and serious. You would never guess he was this shy around a girl he liked.

"Do you always sleep with a shirt on? Or are you just being polite?"

The tiredness in your brain was making you feel more brave. You wanted to sleep so bad, but your brain kept your fingers picking at Tecchou's shirt - it was cotton, and so soft that you knew it was one of those expensive ones.

"I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable."

"I'm your girlfriend. How would I be uncomfortable?"

Tecchou's body rang with the noise he made. He always spoke with his chest, and you could feel how it sang through his ribs. His voice was deep, even more so now as the night called to him.

"...I thought you'd think it's weird."

"I like you. I don't care what you wear. I just want to be with you."

"Really?"

"God forbid a woman like her man's body."

"I'm your man?" His chin touched your forehead in his attempt to look at you, almost knocking you off your post along his shoulder.

"Better not be anyone else's. I'm your woman too. That's how dating works."

You readjusted yourself, moving to lay more of yourself on top of him. His breathing synced with yours, his big chest moving you alongside him with each breath.

"...I don't want to own you. Women have equal rights." His hands reached over to hold you, keeping you in place. His fingers danced against your waist, in a sort of anxiety.

"No not like that. Like, you know. I'm the only woman you're dating. I hope."

"Of course you are."

"Good. That's great." Your voice felt heavy and far away. Your eyes hurt, and you kept them closed to keep listening to the world around you.

There was the rain. There was Tecchou's breathing. Your heartbeat and the sound of a fan.

There was something that Tecchou said, but you weren't awake to hear it. All you really remembered was the feeling of his body underneath yours and the warmth from his skin.

[silvervioletvalentine]

❣️!Can’t shut my mouth about you girl!❣️

Pairing : Charles leclerc X Cherrie!

Word count : 7k

Summary: Charles has a big mouth and struggles to keep their relationship a secret.

Cherrie laughed underneath her breath as she walked out to the balcony where the team had decided to film the new video for the channel, spotting Charles stood randomly in the middle of the chaos that was surrounding him as people rushed around to get the cameras and lighting into place.

He looked completely lost as he looked around with a helpless look on his face, his hands pressed to his hips.

She was certain that if she looked close enough that she would have been able to spot a pout on his pretty face too.

Holding up the two milkshakes that she had gotten them, she started to weave her way through the crew setting up and head over to him. Feeling a little bad for him now.

"Oi! Oi!" She called over to him with a grin, laughing even harder at the way he immediately snapped his head over to her at the sound of her voice .

His whole face lighting up as he let out a loud sigh of relief , hurrying over to her .

"Where have you been?" He scolded her , annoyed thag she had taken so long when she had just told him that she was going to be there in a few minutes and that she was just stuck in traffic.

That was half an hour ago.

But she hadn’t completely lied. She had been stuck in traffic. Just the drive through type of traffic , having been craving a cold milkshake and decided to stop for one before their day got busy and she lost her chance .

"Drop the attitude otherwise I'm not gonna give you your milkshake." She threatened him. Waving them inticingly in front of his face. Knowing that just like her, he had a sweet tooth.

It wouldn’t be the first time that she had bribed him with candy or ice cream. Wouldn’t be the last either.

His scowl immediately dropped , eyebrows raising as he grinned. Accepting the milkshake from her with a happy little hum.

"Our trainers are going to hate us for this!” He mentioned amusedly as they both took a long sip from their drink that was most definitely not on their strict diet plan.

But Cherrie was a bad infulence and if she did something that wasn't alowed then most of the time he needed up doing it too.

He supposed it was the side effect of being in love.

If they jumped , you jumped . If they kept sneaking snacks in their purse that he wasn't  allowed to eat , his favourite ones too, well, he just had to eat them.

If anyone found out he would happily throw her under the bus anyways . Out of the two of them it was very obvious which one of them was the bad influence.

"Who gives a shit?" She just muttered uncaringly as they made their way over to the red couch that had been placed in the middle of the balcony for them to sit on.

Charles letting out a little Yelp when she playfully shoved him down onto it making him fall backwards , clutching onto his milkshake with a startled gasp as he nearly dropped it all over himself.

"Cherrie!" He slapped at her thigh scoldingly when she continued to stand in front of him, looking out at the view they had. Not at all bothered that he nearly turned the red couch pink with milkshake.

“I could have dropped the milkshake!" He put it down on the ground below him before she did something else that could end in disaster.

She just laughed , shrugging her shoulders carelessly . "Well you didn't ." Was all she said before pulling out her phone and replying to a text that her mother had sent her asking about when she was next going to be coming home. Telling her that she missed her.

Charles smiled a little to himself as he leant back against the couch with a content sigh , watching the way his girlfriend smiled down at her phone , her nose scrunching up a little as she concentrated on typing.

Feeling the familiar rush of love pour through him, so much so that he almost forgot where they were and that they weren't alone.

That there were rules that they had to follow.

"Cherrie.." he called over to her , smiling to himself when she gave him a quiet hum. Still focusing on texting on her phone.

"I love you." He said a little too loudly for a fact that was supposed to be a secret .

That got her attention quickly as she snapped her head up from her phone with wide eyes, gasping a little as she quickly looked around them to make sure that nobody had heard his heartfelt declaration of love.

"Charles! Not so loud!" She scolded him as she quickly made her way over to him so she could sit next to him instead. So they didn't have to speak so loud.

So that there was less chance of someone overhearing his very vocal love for her.

Charles just rolled his eyes with a small displeased frown, bothered by the way he couldn't just openly show his love for her in front of people.

Because they had both been advised by their managers not to publicly announce their relationship yet. Something that the both of them had understood the reasoning why.

Cherrie had only transferred to Ferrari a few months  ago after ending her contract with redbull , having decided that it was time to try something new after not being satisfied with her old team.

Charles had been more than excited after she had told him about the offer she had for ferrari, the thought of the love of his life also being his teammate and being able to race beside her on the track in the same car was like his dream come true.

The two of them had already been dating for a couple of months before that, even while she was a too driver for redbull. Something that they had to keep a secret then too , knowing that neither team would have been very happy with them cozying up to each other after competing against each other on the track.

They were supposed to be rivals. But they were lovers instead .

Charles couldn't find it in himself to care though because he had been in love with Cherrie since he was a teenager and she had beaten him at every kart race that they done.

After the third time of her winning against him, she had came up to him and simply asked him if he wanted her to show him how to win. Told him bluntly that it was embarrassing seeing him lose all the time.

Charles , who had already developed a crush on her from afar , had gone bright red and rapidly nodded his head as his answer .

Letting her gently take his hand and lead him over to somewhere private where she had then began to give him a bossy lesson where she bluntly told him everything that he was doing wrong and how he should fix it.

He had won the race after that. Beaming proudly over at her when she had stuck up her thumbs at him happily, shouting that she knew he could do it.

He had fell in love at the same time too.

He had followed her around like a lost puppy after that, even when she moaned and groaned that he was annoying her and how uncool it was for her to have a boy stuck to her side like this .

But he hadn’t given in, He had persisted. Determine that she was the one he was going to spend the rest of his life with. Even though he was so young , he knew it then too.

And honestly , it hurt his pride a little to admit that Cherrie hadn't been too fussed about him at first . Too set on becoming a world champion to even consider putting romance on her cards, she had merely went along with Charles increasing affections until she realised that perhaps she didn't hate it as much as she pretended .

He had been insanely proud when she had gotten a contract with redbull , a year after he had been signed with Ferrari. A part of him had been worried that their friendship would be forced to break apart and that rivalry would come between them.

So he had made it his mission to make sure that never happened .

He knew that while she was a driver for redbull that they couldn't publicly be together without their being a load of unessary drama. But there was no reason that they couldn't be together privately.

So after she had won her first championship , he had shown up at her door with a bottle of champagne and congratulated her with a kiss. Confessing his undying love for her and refusing to take any of her excuses to why they couldn't be together , he had rebutted every single one logically before kissing her again.

They had been together ever since.

And when she had finally been signed to Ferrari Charles had hoped that their secret relationship didn't have to be such a secret anymore.

Which he should have known was too hopeful for him to think so.

Because then their managers had told them that they needed to keep it under wraps for at least a couple of more months until the dust settled and any lingering controversies about cherries move to Ferrari had settled . Not wanting the public to think that she had just switched teams so that she could be with her boyfriend.

Cherrie had no problem with keeping her mouth shut , already used to it.

Charles however , wasn't so good at keeping his love for her very quiet.

Because whenever she was beside him he seemed to forget that anyone else existed and she would have been more flattered if she didn't know that their managers would be on their ass if he got them found out all because he couldn't keep his hands and lips to himself .

Giving him a pointed look as he leaned against her side and gave her shoulder a quick kiss, grinning up at her little a naughty kid when she pushed him away, spotting their interviewer coming their way.

"Behave." She hisssed at him underneath her breath when she felt his hand slide behind her back and then up her shirt. His fingers tracing shapes into her soft skin.

Writing out his name in big , cursive swooping letters till he felt goosebumps appear beneath his fingertips.

He smirked to himself lazily "I'm not doing anything. You behave." He muttered , winding her up.

She just rolled her eyes at him before plastering a smile on her face just as their interviewer , Amelia, greeted them both politely .

"Hi guys! Just to let you know that it's going to be a live video today. So the typical rules stand. I'm going to ask you a few questions and then we're going to play a quick game! Is that okay with you?" She filled them in with a friendly smile.

Charles and her nodded Their heads yes, exchanging a small look between them at being told that the video was live. They hadn’t been told that.

"If we do something embarrassing then there will be no way of editing it out." He stated the obvious , a little worried at the thought .

He did have a tendencies to accidentally say things that didn't make sense or would be took completely the wrong way, mostly when he suddenly forgot how to translate what he meant to English.

Cherrie just smirked , nudging his shoulder in amusement . Already knowing what he was thinking about.

"You'll Be fine . If you say something embarrassing then I'll just laugh super obnoxiously so that they think it's just a bad inside joke." She helpfully told him , fighting back a yawn as she leant back on the couch and got more comfortable. Exhausted from Charles keeping her up all night .

Unfortunately for her the way she wanted Charles to keep her up wasn't what she had gotten . Instead she had been woken up by her giddy boyfriend who had been holding up a customised Ferrari Lego set that he had bought the both of them .

They had spent a ridiculous amount of time putting them together till eventually she had slipped down onto his lap with the half built Ferrari hanging from her fingertips as she knocked out cold . Leaving Charles to finish up on his own instead.

She had woken up in the morning to find the two Lego Ferrari's with their numbers on placed proudly on the shelf in the front room , right by the photo of the two of them kissing in their matching racing suits that he had made them take once they had both gotten home after her official signing .

Charles gave her a look "I know that should be comforting but it isn't because your fake laugh is very obvious. It's very different to your real one mon amour." He told her , playing with a loose thread that was hanging off her denim shorts.

She just smiled fondly back at him "only you would recognise the difference bébé . You'd probably be able to tell if I was using a different mascara. You notice everything ." She muttered quietly , secretly impressed by how closely he paid attention to her.

He squinted his eyes at her , smirking to himself as he looked at her long lashes as she fluttered at him dramatically for affect .

"You are wearing a new one. They're a little longer than usual. Darker too." He mentioned before smugly titling his head at her . "I bet you can't even tell what's different about me today." He challenged her knowing how oblivious she was sometimes.

I mean this was the same girl that had thought he just wanted to be her friend until he literally had to bluntly spell it out for her to understand.

If he hadn’t had also shoved his tongue down her throat straight after telling her he loved her, he was sure that she could have just said ‘like a friend right?’

So he had made sure to leave absolutely no error for confusion then.

She eyed him for a long moment, checking over his hair first and seeing nothing but the same cute mop on his head. Then she kept scanning. Same Ferrari shirt , same watch. Same everything.

She frowned playfully "did you get more annoying today? Is that it?" She teased him. Laughing when he pinched her side in return.

Rolling his eyes at her with a smirk tugging at his lips, shaking his head .

"Nope. It's actually something you gave me.." he hinted , amused by the way she was blankly staring back at him.

She had no idea.

Shrugging her shoulders lazily as she saw the cameraman nod towards Amelia to signal that they were ready when she was.

Charles then casually tugged down the colour of his shirt for her to see and her eyes went wide as she saw a set of dark hickeys all over his neck.

Choking on a startled gasp as she slapped his hand away and quickly fixed his collar to cover them again, her cheeks flushing red in embarrassment.

Glaring at him once she noticed him giggling like a naughty kid at her reaction.

"Oh mon dieu! Behave!" She warned him again , unable to stop herself from grinning too. His laugh was far too infectious for her to be serious.

Luckily he managed to sort himself out by the time Amelia sat down and started asking them questions, the stream going live.

She looked between them with a friendly smile on her face. "So, how's it been being teammates? Cherrie , is it any different than your last? Did you feel like it took time for you to adjust to your new team?" She asked her pleasantly .

Cherrie grinned and peered over at Charles in amusement . Both of them sharing a look between them, thinking the same dirty thing.

If by adjustment she meant having sex all over Ferrari headquarters together then sure , she had adjusted well .

"It's going well , yes. Charles is an easy guy to get along with and I'd say that we've bonded really well." Charles nodded his head along with her in agreement .

She continued on, wanting to wind him up a little to get back at him for throwing her off guard like he had . "-although I do miss Max . We were a great team together and we had a lot of fun. That's definitely a downside." She said casually .

Struggling to Hold back a loud laugh at the way Charles’s smile immediately slid off his face, narrowing his eyes at her dangerously.

It was safe to say that Charles was a little bit jealous of her closeness to her last teammate . Having always hated the way he couldn't even hold her hand in public while max got to hug her and celebrate with her each night instead .

He had almost blown a fuse when he had watched Max kiss her cheek up on the podium one time .

Convinced that every guy that met her wanted her like he did , it had been a little tense between the two drivers when Charles had finally gotten onto a podium with max , feeling pissed off that he could publicly cuddle and kiss on his girlfriend, he had made sure to pettily spray the champagne directly into Max’s eyes in revenge .

Cherrie had never let it go since . Finding it hilarious how just the sound of Max's name made him glow green like the grinch.

She thought it was cute . Because truthfully Charles couldn’t even hurt a fly. And he was too cute and soft to come across as threatening or intimidating to anyone that pissed him off.

That was her job . She was definitely the scary one in their relationship.

"We have more fun together now that she did with max ." Charles couldn't help but mutter pettily , the Microphone clipped onto his shirt easily picking it up.

Cherrie laughed loudly at him while Amelia grinned between them in amusement

"You think that you're the better teammate for her?"

Charles rose his eyebrows up like it was an obvious answer . "Yes. One hundred percent." Duh.

"Cocky." Cherrie grinned , shaking her head at him in amusement .

Charles shot her a unimpressed look "honest." He shot back at her quickly .

"-did max ever make sure that you had your tea every morning before the race? Or import your favourite chocolate for you when we were out of the country?” He reminded her smugly. Already knowing the answer .

She didn't answer. His smile only grew.

“exactly. I win."

Amelia laughed before changing the subject. "Okay. You two have been friends for quite some time right?"

They both nodded.

"What we're your first impressions of each other?" She asked them next.

Cherrie didn't hesitate "I thought he was annoying. He wouldn't stop staring at me without saying anything. It weirded younger me out." She answered to her honestly .

Charles shot her a offended look. Blushing a little because she wasn't wrong. Not at all.

He had in fact stared at her a lot but in his defence he had just fallen in love without realising it.

And who didn't gaze in awe at the girl they were in love with? It really wasn’t his fault!

Who didn’t look at the Angel that shot them with Cupid’s arrow? That was just stupid!

"I just didn't know what to say or how to approach you! You were very intimidating to me then !" He defended himself weakly .

Cherrie just snorted "you could have just said hello weirdo."

He frowned back at her like what she said was crazy.

Because to him it was.

“No way. My first impression of you was that you really scared me. I couldn't even speak around you without panicking." He admitted embarrassingly.

"Me? Scary?" At his pointed look she relented a little "okay maybe a little bit . But I can assure you guys that I'm really not that bad." She looked over to the camera with a laugh.

"It's just the resting bitch face I have. It scares people off." She reassured them. Not wanting them to think that she was a complete bitch for no reason.

She was more of an accidental bitch than a purposeful one.

Charles looked at her face , smiling a little to himself as he watched her scrunch up her nose as she tried to explain herself.

"Its usually when she's bored or tired. She kind of just zones out and looks like she's going to kill someone if they dare to disturb her. She doesn't even realise she's doing it ." He added trying to help her out.

Chuckling a little to himself as he thought about the amount of times he had found her glaring at nothing at all , too busy in her own head to realise that she was scaring people off.

Cherrie nodded in agreement . Nudging him gently with her shoulder . "Yeah. We can't all have a cute puppy face like Charles. One of us has to be the scary one." She simply said.

Amelia asked them a few more questions as they grew more relaxed. Charles hooking his ankle around her own as he started to pull at the thread of her shorts even more, ignoring the looks she kept giving him to stop.

"What's your favourite thing about your teammate?"

Cherrie rose her brow curiously "like physically or their personality?"

Amelia just shrugged "let's go with both." She said.

They both nodded in understanding.

Charles went first this time. It was an easy question to answer for him. He could go on and on about all the things he loved about Cherrie but he knew he had to keep it simple so he didn't get in trouble or give his love for her away.

"I like how selfless and kind she is. How even if she's had a bad day she's willing to help someone else out. Like when lando lost control of his wheel at the corner and accidentally took them both off the track, she didn't get mad. She just calmly went over to him and showed him how to keep control of the wheel to prevent himself from crashing." He explained truthfully .

remembering how she had also let lando use her own simulator to teach him some more things that would help. Not caring that he was her rival on the track.

He was her friend firsthand. And friendship came first in her mind.

Cherrie just bashfully shrugged "his team didn't seem to be helping him out very much so I just offered some tips that had helped me out. No big deal." She mumbled , laughing a little. Hating talking about nice things she did.

Charles nudged her shoulder with a fond smile, seeing how shy she got whenever someone praised her. He loved it.

That was why he always gushed to people about how sweet she was below the tough girl act she had on. He felt lucky that he was one of the very few people that got to know the real her.

She was amazing . Fucking perfect in his eyes.

"It was very kind and not many of the other drivers would do that." He insisted before moving on, not wanting to make his girlfriend too uncomfortable.

She could only take one compliment at a time without turning the colour of their cars.

"And physically my favourite thing about you your eyes. It's hard to look away from them sometimes." He admitted to her shamelessly , leaning forward and admiring the way they sparkled and seemed impossibly lighter under the sun.

Cherrie blew out a flustered breath, laughing nervously . "Okay. Okay. My turn!" She quickly moved on before she became a tomato. Aware that there was thousands of people watching her reaction closely live on their screen.

"My favourite thing about Charles is how he never leaves anybody on their own when they're upset. He always finds a way to cheer you up when your Down." She told them honestly , admiring his kindness .

Charles just shrugged "I don't like seeing people upset." He simply muttered.

She ruffled his hair with a smile , laughing when he batted her hands away and quickly tried to fix it again.

"And my favourite thing about him is his smile. It's infectious and it's hard to stay mad at him for anything when he's got a smile like that. It's too pretty. It's not fair actually."  She huffed jokingly , reaching out to gently poke his dimple as he smiled boyishly at her.

Cheeks flushing a little at her answer.

"Mmm so when I piss her off I just have to flash the dimples and I'm safe!" He joked. Reaching for the water bottle on the table in front of them that they had been given.

Unscrewing the lid and taking a sip before offering it to Cherrie to drink as well , she glanced over to the camera pointedly making him quickly lift it up to his mouth instead.

Oh right. He almost facepalmed. He couldn't share a bottle of water with her so casually in front of everyone like that. They weren't supposed to be that close .

He almost snorted. If only they knew what other fluids that they shared.

Sharing a bottle of water wouldn't seem so scandalous then.

Amelia just smiled "how about the opposite . What is something that you don't like about your teammate?" She questioned them mischievously..

Charles winced. While Cherrie just laughed .

"Ooo that's a dangerous one. One wrong answer could break our entire friendship." He put empathise on friendship , wiggling his brow at Cherrie jokingly.

She pinched his knee in warning. Side eyeing him.

She went first , not even hesitating. "I don't like how he so easily puts himself down over every mistake , even when they're not his fault. I don't like how badly you let it affect your confidence. Makes me feel sad to see , especially when I know how amazing you are. And what a good driver you are." She told him, looking him in the eye so he knew that she meant it.

It was a conversation that they had many times before and although Charles was working on it and getting better at not letting a single mistake derail his entire progress , there were still times when it became to much for him to handle.

That was when Cherrie stepped in and give him some tough love.

Forcing him out of his sulking and pushing him back into the Simulator room where she would have him show her what he had done on the track and find out where he had gone wrong . Then she would spend hours upon hours of her own time making him fix his mistake until he got it right.

She had even managed to persuade their team into linking their radios together during racing so that she could speak to him occasionally to make sure that he was doing okay and to slip him tips that she found when she passed each lap, usually ahead of him, so she already knew what he had to face.

It was perfect teamwork and because of their weird little system he had improved greatly.

Charles smiled at her gently , humming. "You're right. It's a bad habit. But I'm working on it. We're working on it.” He corrected himself fondly “-She now just slaps me on my head if she hears me say a bad word about myself so.." he trailed off giggling , snapping off the thread to her shorts and starting to pick at another one absentmindedly.

Cherrie grinned , pleased with herself. "I do." She agreed unashamed "if that's what it takes to stop you from calling yourself stupid then I will keep slapping the back of your head until I knock the sense back into you." She stated bluntly.

They all laughed .

Charles hummed thoughtfully as he thought about his answer before letting out a 'oh!' When it finally came to him.

Giving Cherrie a look "I don't like how messy you can be. She just throws everything onto the floor. In the bedroom there's just clothes in every corner and-" he was about to say about how he had ended up putting on her jeans instead of his own because of the way she piled them all together when Cherrie cleared her throat pointedly and quickly cut him off.

Making him quickly shut up as he realised that he had just told everyone that he had been in her bedroom. Although they did live together , nobody knew that. So it just sounded like he hung out in her bedroom now.

She smiled a little too forcefully , hoping that they got away with it. Having cut him off at the right time.

"Mmm he's right. My bedroom is a mess. I'm just too lazily to clean up. I'm usually knackered by the time I get home." She simply muttered.

Amelia moved on clearly sensing the slither of tension Charles answer had brought. Shuffling some cards in her hands that the producer past to her  before smiling at them brightly .

"Okay finally we're going to play a game next. The first word game. I know you're both familiar with it. I give you a word and the both of you blurt out what comes to your mind first." She told them nicely .

Cherrie shuffled to the edge of her seat, clapping her hands excitedly .

“I love this game." She exclaimed happily .

Charles copied her movements ,  grinning over at her as he nudged her knee with his own.

"I wonder if we'll answer any of the same. Maybe we'll be on the same brain wave." He mused.

She giggled and leant her head against his own jokingly "here's some brain power!" Laughing even harder when he rubbed his head against hers in return .

Making her push his head away with a giggly grin before he made their hair static.

He patted the top of his hand , flattening his hair down again the best that he could .

“Ready. We've charged up our minds now!" He said cheekily giving Amelia a thumbs up.

She just laughed at their antics before starting the game.

"Ice cream!" She said to them.

"Strawberry!" They both blurted out at the same time.

Before gasping and turning to High five each-other with a proud laugh.

"It worked!" Charles joked patting the top of her head happily . Giggling between each other bedore Amelia cleared her throat and motioned for them to concentrate again.

"Okay. Go on!" Cherrie grinned. Pumped up.

Amelia said "holiday!"

"Spain!" Cherrie shouted out the holiday that she and Charles had just been on.

He shouted out "Hawaii!" The holiday where he had told her he loved her for the first time.

They both exchanged a knowing look, smiling at each other .

"Fire." Amelia Said.

"Kitchen!" Charles blurted out immediately.

"Ball!" Cherrie exclaimed . Bedore giving him a annoyed scowl as she realised why he had said that first .

"Charles!" She whined making him laugh.

Charles looked at Amelia and explained , giggling to himself as he did so. "I asked her to fry some tomatoes while I went out to get some bread and I came back to her screaming while the pan was on fire!" The memory made him grin so wide his cheeks hurt .

Remberinf how terrified she had been as she held out the pan that was on fire in front of her while yelling hysterically at him to help her. Apparently all her fire safety and common sense had left her at that exact moment .

Charles had never asked her to cook anything again after that .

"I was half asleep. It wasn't my fault." She muttered embarrassed. Rolling her eyes jokingly at them.

"okay let's move on!" She pleaded.

Amelia laughed but did as she said.

They did a few more simple ones before they started to get a little more daring. Clearly set up to get them to spill more details on their lives .

"Date!" She said.

"Dinner." Charles said . Saying what he planned to do when they got home. A cute little dinner date that he had planned .

"Wine." Cherrie said. Wondering what food Charles was going to cook her. She crossed her fingers and hoped for pasta.

"Bed." She said .

Cherrie blurted out a "blanket."

While Charles said "please!” Making both of them give him a confused look.

Cherrie laughed "why did you say please?" She asked him. Amused.

Charles flushed , scratching at the back of his neck sheepishly as he tried to shrug it off . Knowing exactly why he had blurted out please like that.

It was a phrase that Cherrie liked to mutter whenever they were making out in the front room, when things were heading down south and they had lost their clothes somewhere on the couch she would always mutter a "bed please." In his ear while kissing down his neck.

"I don't know." He lied .

They thankfully moved on before he could turn into a human tomato.

"Love." She said mischievously .

"You." They both exclaimed at the same time. Grinning at each other as Charles made a heart shape with his fingers and held it up to her head.

"Brain power!" He whisper shouted to her jokingly .

"Job!" Amelia read the next word off the card.

There was no hesitation when Cherrie shouted out "blow!" Making Charles choke on his breath.

Looking at her with wide eyes as he burst into naughty giggles, watching her go red as she realised what she had just said.

"Sorry." She muttered with a sheepish grin.

"Naughty." He mumbled to her smirking.

She just jabbed her elbow in his side making him snicker.

Amelia read out the next card "driver"

"Vettel." Cherrie said her favourite driver.

"Me." Charles answered.

"Fight."

"Flight." Charles said quickly .

"Fuck!" Cherrie immediately grimaced again as soon  as she blurted it out. Covering her face with her hands and groaning "sorry!"

Charles laughed , patting the top of her head sympathetically as he looked mockingly towards the camera.

"She's got a dirty mind. You see what I have to put up with?" He joked . Knowing he was just as bad.

Cherrie huffed and narrowed her eyes at him playfully . "Shut up!"

The game continued . "Crush." She said.

"Blush."

"Love."

"Shower."

"Sex!” They both said at the same time. Exchanging glances as they both burst into childish laughter again.

"See! I'm not the only one!" She exclaimed , grinning smugly at him. "We sound like deviants." She added amusedly .

Charles snorted "speak for yourself." He remarked.

Then Amelia pulled out a card and said "kiss."

Cherries mind automatically went to the band and she said "rock." Just as she heard Charles blurt out his answer without thinking. Again.

"Cherrie!” He exclaimed before freezing up as he realised what he had said. Looking over to the camera that was screening them live for everyone to see , then he peered over at Cherrie beside him with a wince .

She had face Palmed. Just deciding to laugh at off as he went bright red.

He let out a nervous giggle before looking over at Amelia who was grinning at him knowingly .

"Next one." He muttered .

"Ferrari."

"Car!" They both said.

"Hate."

"Max." Charles blurted out.

Cherrie smacked him upside the head. Looking over at the camera with a roll of her eyes.

“He’s joking!" She assured them knowing that his answer was going to cause unnecessary drama now.

Charles just chuckled and nodded his head in agreement. He was joking.

A little bit.

"Spoon."

Charles thought of their cuddling and said "little."

While Cherrie said "big." Both of them sharing a another look.

"Cow."

"Moo."

"Burger." Cherrie said making Charles giggle to himself .

"Ex."

"Cited."

"Boyfriend." Cherrie exclaimed.

Charles grinned "she didn't say the word asshole." He remarked . Making her laugh again .

Charles absolutely hated her ex boyfriend. Mostly because he had gotten to do everything with Cherrie that he wanted to do.

He had been forced to sit back and watch them make out at party's before he had enough and 'accidentally' pushed him into the pool.

It was safe to say that he was glad when she dumped him.

She thought that they had recovered nicely from his fuck up earlier on when they finally got to the last card .

Tensing as soon as she heard Amelia say the word, fighting back the urge to groan in defeat when Charles's face  lit up.

"Girlfriend." She said.

There was no hesitation when Charles blurted out "Cherrie!” Grinning over at her excitedly before releasing what he had done.

His eyes widening as he gasped out a "shit!"

"Idiot!" She laughed unable to help herself despite the deep shit they were going to be in. She fell back against the couch and covered her face with her hands , giggling to herself at how he just couldn't keep his mouth shut at all.

Honestly , she was surprised that their relationship had managed to stay secret for this long anyways.

There was a shocked pause before Amelia looked between them curiously. "Are you two dating?" She grinned . Having already suspected it from the way they behaved with each other. It was far too comfortable and cosy to just be friends.

Charles looked over at Cherrie for permission this time, beaming happily when she just nodded her head with a small sigh.

Already pulling out her phone to text out a warning and a small apology to their managers and PR team that were going to have to do some hard work now.

Charles couldn't care less. Instead he was just relieved to finally be able to say "yes."

"We live together too." He added as well. Might as well tell them why he had said what he said before.

"That's why I was saying about how messy she is. I've literally went out with her clothes on before because she doesn't put them in the right place. I've been trying to get her to use a system but she won't do it." He casually told Amelia and the cameras .

While his girlfriend was scrambling to apologise on both of their behalf's as she texted their teams , meanwhile Charles just continued to ramble on about their relationship without a care in the world.

"How long have you been together?"

He hooked his arm through cherries and peered at her phone screen to see a pissed off message from

Their managers telling them off.

He quickly looked away , unbothered . "Two years coming up. If you count it from the day we officially got together . But I've been in love with her since I was a teenager." He admitted shamelessly .

At that Cherrie grinned and looked up from her phone , chuckling . "He wouldn't leave me alone."

Charles just shrugged . "It worked though didn't it?"

"Yeah years later!"

Charles just pulled a face "still worked. It just took longer than I first anticipated." He muttered smugly , kissing her quickly because he could.

Giving up Cherrie told Amelia a funny memory "I tried to break up with him once ya know." She said amusedly . Making Charles groan at the reminder.

Ameilia laughed "really?"

She nodded with a smirk. "Yeah. As you can see it didn't work. I told him I was breaking up with him and he literally looked me in the eye and said "no." Bedore going back to bed ."She snorted loudly at the memory .

Charles chuckled sheepishly , blushing. "It worked though didn't it?  We're still tougher now."

Ameilia laughed at the way Cherrie rolled her eyes at him fondly . Muttering about how he gave her no choice in the matter. Clearly used to his behaviour .

"Well I'm glad that he did! You two make a lovely couple. Congrats!" She said to them kindly before finishing off the interview and saying her goodbyes.

Leaving Cherrie to pull Charles up off the couch like a annoyed parent , tutting at him as she dragged him towards the exit where she knew a group of angry pr teams would be waiting for them.

"You can explain this one babe. This is on you." She said to him firmly .

He just wrapped his arm around her neck , tucked her head into his elbow and kissed her again. Not giving a shit about the scolding of a lifetime that they were about to get for exposing their relationship to the world when they had specifically been told not to.

Who cares? He thought pleased with himself as he held her close and tucked his hands into the back pocket of her shorts , deepening the kiss. Not caring that there were lingering crew still hanging around filming them.

If he could finally kiss her like this in public then he would take the tongue lashing that they were about to get any day.

It was worth it.

[giamee]

CHAPTER XII! encore

<- prev masterlist next ->

GOING SHOPPING WAS A VERY WELCOME DISTRACTION from everything. leaving the guys after getting breakfast together, taking a bus into the busier marketplace, and perusing all the different items that mondstadt had to offer, you and layla were feeling properly satisfied.

in particular, the clothing stores had caught you and layla's eyes. the fashion was so different to sumeru's and you couldn't help but want to find some dresses and other clothes similar to what you saw the inhabitants of mondstadt wearing as they went about daily life.

layla knew a few specific brands- heard from a friend of a friend- that she dragged you along to, and you walked down the aisles together, scanning the racks of clothing. layla pauses to inspect a dress, a pretty blue one that would really complement her hair, before she turned to you conspiratorily.

"so, i knew that i said that we should ignore last night, but you and cyno, huh?"

you got flustered, gaze averting to another dress, a thick material that you thought would melt off of you during a sumeru summer.

"oh it's... yaknow."

"it didn't look like a yakno. looked a lot friendlier than that."

"you know how it is, layla. i mean, we broke up."

"and exes can't hook up?"

you looked up at her, shocked. she's smirking to herself, glancing at the dress' pricetag before grimacing and releasing it from her grip.

"i mean, hot girl summer, right?"

"and where was this energy when you were telling me to be careful, hm?" the girl simply shrugged, grinning at you elfishly.

"eh, fuck it. besides, i see the way you two look at each other. it's obvious that you two aren't over it."

"we are." your voice is quieter now, a fact that doesn't go unmissed by your friend.

"then maybe that's a conversation to have between you and him, yeah?" as if waiting for a cue, you and layla's phones both chimed, and you saw messages from the trip groupchat, as well as some unread ones from your inazuma friends. you'd fill them in later.

the place in question was a restaurant called the good hunter, one that albedo insisted was extremely popular with the locals. his recommendation proved to be right, too, judging by how busy it was around lunchtime. it was absolutely packed, the aroma of food making your mouth water as soon as you stepped in. you hadn't even realised just how hungry you were, but this was much appreciated.

albedo himself was nice enough, but there was something about him that reminded you a little too much of alhaitham for you liking. as for the man himself, he had arrived late, ending up wedged in one of the only seats left- right next to you.

the sheer volume of people talking in such a small place made this bustling restaurant... surprisingly private. albedo was seated at the other end of the table, telling your friends some story along with the help of kaveh's dramatic reenactment, and you could barely hear what the pair of them were saying.

and with everyone else's attention elsewhere, it was easy for alhaitham to scoot closer to you, leaning down so that his face is level with yours.

you don't pull away, but you eye the man warily. you never really knew what to expect with him, after all. his words and his actions told two different stories.

"so, you're getting back with cyno?"

you're glad that you weren't eating, otherwise you would have coughed everything out upon hearing that. you choke on your water, though, and you hate that alhaitham instinctively pats your back as you recover. his palms are warm against your bare skin, and you wish that you hadn't worn something that left you so exposed. you hated the fact that you found his touch soothing even more.

"who told you that?" you rasp out after finally catching your breath. his fingers linger against you a touch too long, and there's a flash of something akin to... remorse? in his eyes as he peels his hand away from your back. it feels cold without his touch.

"were you not... never mind then." you look at him, confused now. all of the mixed messages that he was throwing you in the past couple days was making your head spin.

"why the sudden interest? i thought you didn't like me." he looks confused now, more than anything, and in any other circumstance you would laugh at the way he gaped at you. it's a long few seconds before his head falls forward, his arms uncrossing to let his fingers pinch at the bridge of his nose oh-so delicately.

"i said to move on because i didn't want you or cyno to get hurt again."

"...oh."

"yes, oh."

"and not because you didn't like me?"

"...quite the opposite." alhaitham peeks up at you now, his expression uncertain, and you feel like you can finally read him. he sounded a lot softer now, the drone of everyone else in this restaurant fading away, and it felt like just the two of you again.

"then... why did you act like that yesterday?" his face scrunched up, a frown forming at your question.

"i don't know." disbelief was an emotion that you were beginning to strongly associate with alhaitham. "i thought that it wouldn't be right to tell you."

"but that didn't stop you from kissing me." he paused, looking away bashfully, before he meets your eyes again.

"that was an oversight on my part. it shouldn't have happened." the urge to rip your hair out was beginning to grow. instead, you laughed lowly, focusing your attention to the food on your plate. you really weren't hungry, but anything was better than looking at him right now.

"i'm sorry, y/n." you pick at the food on your plate with your fork, watching as it drops back down with a plop. "this won't end well, you'll both get your hearts broken again." you couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity of this entire situation.

"and what about yours, alhaitham? don't act like you're doing me such a favour by being a pussy." you spit out that last word with more venom than was probably necessary, if the way that alhaitham flinched away was any indicator. his mouth opened, and you watched him flounder for a little, but it was cut short by nilou calling your name from across the table.

you plaster what you hope is a convincing smile on your face, idly responding and ignoring the rising tide of emotions within you in favour of tuning in to the recollection of akademiya stories that your friends were relaying.

the rest of your time in the restaurant, greeting and saying goodbye to albedo, walking back to the hostel with your friends, felt like you were in some third person mode, the overbearing weight of alhaitham's inadverted confession leaving you well and truly stunned.

what now? he likes you but he's made it more than clear that he won't do anything about it. you're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

you find yourself staring down your reflection in the bathroom, once again having your inner thoughts consumed by the infuriating gray-haired man.

and like a severe case of deja vu, cyno slips into the bathroom the same time as you, his hip bumping against yours as he sidles up next to you.

"hey."

"hi." your voices sounds flat even to your ears, but cyno merely smiles at your greeting. he takes his precious moments to get his toothbrush, squeeze out some toothpaste onto it, before he turns to you- ever so casual, deliberately light tone.

"i don't have a movie to watch, but... would you want to sleep in my bed tonight?" you lock eyes with him through the mirror, those amber eyes boring into you, imploring you for an answer. cyno had always been good at that- wrangling some answer out of you that you didn't even know was there.

it's quiet, save for the water running from the tap as he wers his brush. it gives you time to think. temptation was not an ugly man- he had a sweet smile and a promise of familiarity, and you decided that that's what you needed right now.

"yeah, i'll get in after you." cyno beams, eyes crinkling with the intensity, and that's all that needs to be said for the rest of your time shared in the bathroom.

and then he's gone again, so quick that you have to reassure yourself that he was ever there at all, and you repeat the steps that he went through, washing your face, before turning to the door leading to all of the beds.

you really needed to update your friends about this. but it could wait.

✦ ⠂⠂୨୧ trivia :: despite majoring in chemistry and not architecture, albedo was able to increase kaveh's grades to solid a's while tutoring him

✦ ⠂⠂୨୧ gia's notes :: uhm. i don't have anything to yap about for once lol. my stomach hurts. ooh i know what to say cyno fuckers lovers yall are in for a TREAT next chapter 🙈 now give me one billion gajillion notes or i wont post it 🔫 also the haitham drama is over (?) now yay!!! he's emotionally constipated and rationalises his feelings away ok guys everybody makes mistakes 😞

✦ ⠂⠂୨୧ taglist :: @makimakimi @aeongiies @sukunasrealgf @ssoliva @sakiimeo @eggn0gcookie @yxcade @fiona782 @heartswonder @eunchaeluvr @clumsyphuq @pinksodacan @aelxr @themusingsofmany @obervation-subject-753 @kittycasie @aimno256 @maxineshearts @mafuyuslover @meigalaxy @mintydump @v4lerixxq @artwitchh @geo-hew-hew @imkaaayy @c4tsfr0mh3ll @kokoscutie @erzarq @eu-la @ddiluc @ichikaisflowers @rahhhmen @esmetrees @rain-and-a-nice-nap @g8mmaaa @wuthering-seas

[milaisreading]

Celebratory date

Pairing: Karasu Tabito x manager!(Y/n)

Warnings: none really. Reader uses she/her. Requests are open

⚽️Blue lock belongs to:Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura⚽️

"I like you! Let's go on a date!"

After that was uttered, there was a short silence between (Y/n) and Karasu. The girl's eyes widened at his confession,thinking that maybe adrenaline after the game made him say that, she tried to laugh it off.

"Funny! But don't joke about such things, Karasu-"

"I am not joking. I mean it. I wanted to say this long before this game against U-20 was announced. I just kept putting it off because... I was a coward." Karasu admitted nervously and looked back at (Y/n) with a red face. The girl took a moment for his words to sink and then thought over the whole idea. They will both be free for the next 2 weeks or so, and it's not like she had much to do during her stay home. Aside from helping her dad around and maybe meeting some old friends, that was it.

'Besides, he is cute...' Her eyes widened at her own thoughts and she nodded her head slowly.

"Sure...  sounds like a great idea!" (Y/n) answered, laughing a little as Karasu started cheering himself on.

Adjusting her scarf, (Y/n) made her way to the café Karasu said they would meet up. It was a rather cold day and there weren't many people outside, much to (Y/n)'s relief.

'I really hate crowds.' She thought with a frown. The grumpy expression soon after turned into a happy one as she noticed Karasu outside the café, playing something on his phone. Picking up her pace, she made her way towards the black-purplish haired boy.

"Karasu! Did you wait for too long?! Sorry, the bus was late!" The boy looked up from his phone and grinned as (Y/n) stopped in front of him, shaking his head in the process.

"No problem, I just arrived here too. You look pretty cute today~" Karasu smirked as he saw the girl become flustered as well as started stuttering a little.

"Th-thanks! You look great too." (Y/n) added in, a little embarrassed as Karasu raised his eyebrow.

"Did you grow taller? I know we didn't see each other in days, but..." Karasu said, as he patted the girl's head.

"No! I put on these heels I bought before leaving for Blue Lock. I never really wore them, so it's a little off for me to wear them." (Y/n) explained, pointing at the said items. Karasu nodded his head, giving a few compliments how cute they looked and how they fit her.

"I didn't know you liked romcoms, Karasu." (Y/n) commented as the boy handed her the tickets, shrugging his shoulders right after.

"They are not my piece of cake, but a romcom from time to time is a nice change. Besides, you told me about this movie weeks ago." Karasu said, eyeing the girl as they stood in line for the food. (Y/n) blinked a few times before looking at him in confusion.

"I did?"

"Yeah, when we were having lunch. You said how your favorite actress is the female lead and how you hope to see it without someone spoiling it." (Y/n) pouted as she tried to remember when she said it.

'It does sound like something I would say...' Karasu's face turned red at the sight, and he held back a squeal from how cute she looked.

'So adorable! I wish I could take a picture of her like this!'

"Oh!"

"What?" Karasu asked, worriedly looking at her as he brushed his previous thoughts off.

"I just remembered that day... you really thought of what I said for so long?" (Y/n) asked in surprise, growing a little shy at how attentive he was to that minor part of their conversation.

"Of course. I memorize things about the people I hold dear." Karasu said nonchalantly, causing (Y/n) to grow more and more flustered as his words hit her.

'Karasu...' (Y/n) thought as they went to order their snacks. Karasu kept his cool, but inside he was just a mess over his own words.

'Why did I say it like that?!'

Karasu had seen a few things in his life that made him stop in his tracks, weather they were good or bad was up for debate, but the sight he had in front of him right now takes the cake. He expected (Y/n) to be happy to see the movie, it was a generic one, but still something that made her happy. Karasu was holding back a few yawns, not wanting to get her attention like that, and then turned his attention to (Y/n). And the sight of her big smile and eyes excitedly glued on the big screen made him stop breathing for a moment.

'Adorable!' The blue-eyed boy thought as he blushed and kept his eyes glued on her. The movie was boring, but it made (Y/n) happy, so that alone made the trip worth it for him.

After the movie was over, the two decided to got to a local fast food restaurant and eat some lunch. (Y/n) decided to use this as an opportunity to talk about the movie as Karasu would nod along to what she said. He was either zoning out or sending (Y/n) looks while the movie played, so there wasn't much he could add.

"That was so adorable! Did you see how cute the reunion was?!" (Y/n) giggled as she ate her hamburger, Karasu nodding along as he sipped his drink.

"Yeah, their acting was pretty good. Made me believe their emotions were real for a moment." Karasu said, remembering the moment the male and female lead cried over something. (Y/n) nodded along with a big smile.

"The male lead kinda reminded me of Masaru." Karasu added in.

"Who is that?"

"Oh! It'd just a character from a manga I have been reading."

"What's it called? I want to see the character now that you mentioned the similarities." Karasu noted her genuine curiosity and he put his drink down, slowly starting to explain the manga and the character. Soon after he started speaking more and more, excited that someone was willing to listen to his interests, (Y/n)'s questions were just an added bonus to his excitement.

"Is everything alright?" Karasu stopped in his tracks and turned to look back at (Y/n), who was standing a few feet behind him, frowning as she looked at her feet. The duo were making their way to the mall, deciding a walk after all the food was good, but sadly had to stop rather abruptly.

"I am fine, I just need to stop for a moment..." (Y/n) explained sheepishly as Karasu raised his eyebrow.

"Huh? Are you alright?" He asked, walking closer to her.

"Yeah... it's just that I didn't wear heels for a while... and new ones are always pain." (Y/n) said, pointing at the items as Karasu looked down at them, slowly nodding his head when he realized what she meant.

"Alright then." Karasu said as he kneeled down on the ground, startling (Y/n).

"Get on. I will carry you there." He explained nonchalantly while pointing at his back.

"What?! I can't do that!" She said, flustered by the idea.

"Why not?" Karasu asked, causing (Y/n) to look at him in disbelief.

"People will stare and I might be heavy for you-"

"1) I don't care about the people, I care about your comfort. And 2) you won't be heavy. Now hop on~" Karasu said, leaving (Y/n) to think it over for the moment.

"Alright..." She slowly nodded her head and got onto his back.

"Let's go then." Karasu laughed as (Y/n) tightened her hold around his neck.

The days following after the date (Y/n) couldn't stop thinking about the day, her heart racing whenever she thought over everything Karasu did for her. So as a sign of her gratefulness, she searched for a present she could give him. And after days and days of searching, she found the perfect item, just in time before they had to leave for Blue Lock, too.

"What's that?" Otoya raised his eyebrow as him, Niko and Yukimiya watched the boy excitedly look at some package as he was opening it.

"Just a figurine from a manga I have been reading. (Y/n) got it for me."

"(Y/n)? How would she know what you read?" Niko asked skeptically, not believing the girl bought Karasu a present.

"I told her that when we're were on a date." Karasu shrugged his shoulders, smirking as the trio's faces turned red.

"You what?! That's not fair, Karasu!"

"Yeah man, you can't just betray me like that. You know I like (Y/n)."

"You snooz, you lose." Karasu stuck his tongue out and looked back at the figurine, over the moon that she took the time to look for it.

'My cute angel~'

[enkephallic]

My Thoughts (And Problems) About Canto 6

Now that I've finished my second read of Canto 6 and sorted out my thoughts, I think it's time I organize my thoughts about it.

I finished it with very mixed feelings - as someone who likes Heathcliff, both as a character and shipped with other people, I was left with a sense of frustration. At first I chalked it up to the feelings of "Great, how the hell do I ship Heathcliff with anyone without going through 4-D NTR?" and "My god, what did they do to Cathy?"

But after reading a second time, I realized my issue wasn't "defanged" Cathy or even what they did with their relationship.

It was the complete lack of comradeship and support the other Sinners gave him.

The Sinners are shown getting closer to each other, arguing and making up. Gregor and Rodya comforts a sobbing Sinclair, Donki pummels him to calm him down. Hong Lu casually points out that Yi Sang must have been "pleading for help all along". The whole thing with Ishmael and Heathcliff from Canto 5, as well as the other Sinners unlucky enough to stand in the path of her rage.

Canto 6 started out strong. Hong Lu and Rodya do Heathcliff's hair for him. They all chat in the bus and at the gates. We see the other Sinners reacting to new information about Heathcliff.

That all ends as soon as they enter the manor. The Sinner-Sinner interactions are thrown out, leaving Heathcliff to interact with his abusers and navigate his grief (which Only Meursault commented on) by himself. The argument of "Perhaps the other Sinners wanted to give him space" can be made, but there are other ways to show the Sinners' indignation and care for him. The likes of Rodya, who knows exactly how horrible rich people are, would have been a prime candidate to voice out her annoyances ("Gee, all those words just to say they hate poor people").

And honestly, I think Heathcliff needed the most verbal and emotional support out of everyone. He's been dehumanized and abused his whole childhood, internalizing what he's been told no matter how hard he fought against it. On several occasions he remarks about his own violent tendencies and "maybe I was born wrong after all" - and the Sinners say nothing to deny it.

The amount of times he put himself down, or others did it for him, was starkly visible in Canto 6. To the point where each time no one said anything to stand up for him, it felt like an injustice. By the time Dante denies the hurtful words and ideals thrust upon him, Heathcliff's already felt the Carmen touch.

That was another similar issue I bumped into - I couldn't find any fault in Heathcliff's words and actions, right up until he left Wuthering Heights. And the narrative towards the end didn't really seem to agree with that.

We're shown how horribly Heathcliff was treated for the whole canto. No one stood up for him. His sole reason for staying in a highly abusive environment was Cathy, and his hope for their relationship. Losing that, in a misunderstanding-but-not-really, gives him no reason to stay. (I still feel like "I could marry Linton to make Heathcliff a better person" is extremely misguided and detrimental to him.)

Cathy is shown on multiple occasions to be manipulative and a victim of well meaning naivety/stupidity, which seems to parallel Carmen. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, and I don't think the audience needs to be told in blaring letters that she's not a good person. But the final part of the Canto seemed to implicitly place responsibility on Heathcliff - the narrative focusing on "I should have stayed, I should have talked" while completely glossing over their unequal dynamics and abuse feels like undue blame.

And even if it's not the intention, it unfortunately comes off that way ("I've wrecked everything with my hesitation - It's time for me to fix what I've wrecked", "All I had to do was get over the embarrassment and talk to her"). What exactly did he ruin, which his abusers and external factors hadn't broken at least halfway? How do you show the full extent of his abuse and mistreatment, and still find a way to shift this much responsibility onto him?

I think the process of adapting Wuthering Heights, which is a tale about racism and classism driving a person to destructive rage, into the PJMverse where this racism cannot be replicated 1:1 partly caused this issue. Heathcliff suffers the same mistreatment and "born wrong" rhetoric that Novel Heathcliff did, but instead of race it's pinned onto his status as a homeless, poor child. Limbus adapts a very large chunk of his abuse - he's lashed, starved, locked out and more. But his story diverges from Novel Heathcliff (who is most definitely an inspiration for Erlcliff) - they have to somehow make things hopeful.

My issue is how Heathcliff was framed to be "fixing what he broke" rather than... any other way they could have framed it. It honestly felt almost whiplash-y, having him constantly berated, distorting, betrayed to just leave all that aside at the end. The last scenes focus so heavily on what Heathcliff could have done differently, while failing to acknowledge that he did what was most reasonable with the knowledge he had.

What the Canto did with Nelly was also... interesting. Her betrayal and abrupt twist wasn't bad on its own, but her actions feel like they were written in a rush. She places equal blame on Heathcliff and Cathy, despite claiming she felt pity for Heathcliff's abusive childhood. She claims they don't deserve happiness because they didn't communicate enough WHILE ACTIVELY BURNING HEATHCLIFF'S LETTERS. Despite having his only good adult destroyed, Heathcliff still extends forgiveness to her, saying she deserves to write her own story. And she spits in the face of his kindness, because "she wants to give the golden bough to the person who showed her the mirror." Right after Heathcliff proves he can change his fate. Her hate-ability wasn't fun in the way Ahab's was - she became another injustice in Heathcliff's life, which has far too many and is not acknowledged by the other Sinners enough.

In the end, my opinion remains unchanged that Heathcliff did absolutely nothing wrong, and he deserved better than every single person in the manor. I do love the Sinner interactions in Part one, and the numerous book references really made me enjoy my second viewing. If Heathcliff gets a follow-up anytime soon, I hope that someone will acknowledge how much of a saint he is, all things considered.

(Also - why in the world did they autotune his Pass On to hell and back? His voice actor has an amazing singing voice, and the tuning felt like it was taking out the rough edge that makes Heathcliff's charm.)

[tonberry-yoda]

A Hobie Thing To Do - Hobie Brown

notes - Here's the Hobie fic for that poll I did! Thank you everyone who voted and the Hobie lovers for asking for another fic! It feels a tad rushed story wise, but it's silly and I like the concept, so I hope you enjoy! Stay hydrated everyone! word count - 810

London was pretty boring. You were expecting more when you moved there, but honestly, it was a lot of rain and a lot of the people you were already used to. College was nice and everything and it wasn't like you were miserable, but you were definitely bored.

Until you met him. Hobie Brown. A punky, guitar playing, pierced up boy with a loud mouth and amazing hair.

You met him while goofing around with a band you played with occasionally. He kicked open the door with drinks in his hands and smiled when he saw you, setting down the drinks to shake your hand.

"You have amazing eyes." he told you with a wink.

You told him you liked his outfit and you hit it off from there, playing music together or eating junkfood in your dorm.

And not too long afterwards, the two of you started dating. He never called it dating, but never got mad when you did, so you definitely considered the two of you to be together in some romantic regard.

Plus, he would kiss you without hesitation and wrap his arm around you whenever someone seemed to be bothering you.

At the end of the day though, after weeks of dating, the two of you became inseparable and the only time you were really away from each other was when you were at school.

"Have you guys seen Hobie?" you asked the band as you walked in with sandwiches, handing one to everyone.

"No," said the drummer, Curtis, shoving the sandwich in his mouth. "I don't know if he's coming. He didn't say anything."

You just nodded and sat down, turning on the TV. Curtis' parents always had it on the news channel and it was playing something about Spiderman.

"Ugh, Spiderman," said the singer, Alley, rolling her eyes. "I hate that guy."

"Why?" you asked, turning to her. "He's a punk dude, I think he's so sick."

"Yeah, but he's just making excuses to break the law and claim he's saving the world. It's not very punk if you ask me,"

"That's so stupid, Alley."

"Maybe to you. I think it's pretty rational."

"I just think you don't know the guy," Hobie said, walking in and grabbing his own sandwich. "Though, maybe you're right."

"Hey, Hobie." you smiled, kissing him on the cheek. "Where were you?"

"Well, it's finally not gross out, so I figured I'd walk today. Sorry I'm a little late. Anyways, what's Spiderman up to?"

You watched the TV for a second and turned back to Hobie. "Apparently someone was trying to attack some bus downtown and he saved it."

Hobie just hummed in response and kept eating. He felt weird about not telling you that he was Spiderman, but at the same time, he thought it was obvious at this point and was trying to see how long it would take you.

"Who do you think's under that mask?" Curtis asked.

You just shrugged. "Probably some rockstar. Maybe someone we've seen live?"

You and the rest of the band became coming up with theories about Spiderman as Hobie kicked back his feet and watched himself save the bus in slow-mo for the fifteenth time with a stupid grin. You really weren't going to figure it out, were you?

Well, in that case, he thought it would be fun to tease you a bit.

You were on a walk in the rain, petting stray cats and shopping. Hobie had his Spiderman costume on and waited until you got into an alleyway before hanging upside down in front of you, shocking you a bit.

"Spiderman?" you said. "What's up?"

He smiled under the mask and stood in front of you before walking over to a wall, leaning against it. "What's up with you?" he asked.

"Just going home." you told him.

Hobie rolled his eyes under the mask. He didn't even change his voice, how did you not notice it was him yet?

"I heard you're in a band." he said.

You tilted your head. "How did you know that?"

"A friend of mine knows you."

"Really? Who?"

"His name's Hobie." He had to hold back laughter.

You thought for a minute and looked at him unamused. "Really, Hobie?"

He shot a web and hung back upside down in front of you before making sure no one was around to slide off his mask.

"How long have you been Spiderman?" you asked.

"How long has Spiderman been around?"

You rolled your eyes with a smile. "This is crazy."

"Unexpected?"

"No. This definitely feels like a Hobie thing to do."

"Why's that?" He smirked.

"Because of course, you of all people would be Spiderman somehow."

"I guess that is a Hobie thing to do, innit?"

You cupped his face and smiled before pressing your lips to his as he hung upside down.

~~~~~

into the spiderverse masterlist | pinned post 2023 @tonberry-yoda – do not repost or claim ANY of my work as your own! likes, reblogs, and comments are not only welcome, but appreciated

~~~~~

[ikamigami]

I believe what Dark Sun told Foxy is true.

Maybe it's because of what he said about our Sun not surviving..

This.. I think that this cements it for me that Dark Sun isn't actually that bad.

I mean I think that he's not telling the full truth when he says that he only cares about his own ass.

Cause I think that he cares about something here. In our dimension. Or maybe about someone?

It might be just my wishful thinking but what if Dark Sun feels some kind of sentiment towards our Sun?

Cause when he was watching a bits from the channel it seemed to me as if he saw there something that he maybe wanted to be with his Moon or maybe he just in our Sun something he lost after all these times Moon refused to cooperate..

We were wondering on Discord when I still was active there how Dark Sun would feel about our Sun if he met him.

We didn't have them meeting each other and while Dark Sun didn't state that he hates our Sun for being a punching bag or that he feels a bit sympathetic towards him or that he doesn't care about him at all.. I feel like those little bits show that Dark Sun might actually feel sorry for our Sun.

I mean cause look, he told Moon that he should be worried about Sun and let him know where Sun is.. even though he could just simply say for example "don't worry about your dear Sun, check the lighthouse".. but he didn't. He said "you should be worried about Sun.."

And when Dark Sun was counting people who could built Eclipse - people who knows how to copy paste a personality - and he made a weird pause when he said Sun's name.. people thought that Sun is actually the one who is working with Ruin and helped him bring Eclipse back. But I think that Dark Sun hesitated because of how much our Sun doesn't believe in his own smarts. Sun can copy paste a personality - he did that with Moon's computer.. but remember how he said that it was just dumb luck?

And Dark Sun also said that Sun won't survive the aftermath of Ruin's "thanos' snap thing"..

And him watching their channel - he only later went to the episode with Ruin's interrogation - he was watching one of the games at first..

Doesn't it all seems odd to you? Why Dark Sun would be like that towards our Sun who "failed" in every way Dark Sun didn't?

Shouldn't he be angry at our Sun for being a doormat to everyone? For not being able to stand up for himself? Not being able to speak his mind to Moon?

Does Dark Sun might actually feel sorry for our Sun?

Maybe, and it might be my wishful thinking once again, Dark Sun isn't angry at our Sun because he.. gaah I can't find the right word xp..

Maybe Dark Sun admires, is sentimental about Sun's kindness?

I can't word it out how I want for the love of all that exist QwQ

What I mean is that Sun has this kindness and lots of empathy which is what Dark Sun lost. And I think that maybe Dark Sun feels some sort of grief.. for lack of better word.. it's like he's grieving who he was.

Cause like many people speculated me included that Dark Sun just became so cold, distant and emotionally detached to be able to stay on his ground, to be able to cut off the toxic people from his life - Moon literally and creator and Stitchwraith got killed. He has his peace but at what cost?

I think that our Sun is for Dark Sun a bitter-sweet reminder of what he had to sacrifice in order to achieve his peaceful life. I think that our Sun reminds Dark Sun of how he used to be as if he was looking at his younger self.

You know what I mean? It's similar to when you see yourself in someone else and you see all those aspects of you that were sweet but they're gone and you're not like that anymore. And you can't help it but to feel sympathy towards that person.

I think that the same is with Dark Sun. I think that he feels a little bit of sympathy towards our Sun because of how Sun is still kind and compassionate and forgiving. And Dark Sun used to be like that as well. And now he looks at Sun and can't help but to feel sympathy towards him. And he can't help but to feel sorry for Sun because of how much Sun struggles all because of his kind heart.

And because Dark Sun has a star - and interdimensional star at that - he probably saw things from future and he saw that Sun will try to do something to himself. Or that's what I think is the case.

I might be wrong but for me it can't be a coincidence with the way Dark Sun is whenver he mentions our Sun.

And that's why I think that he might want to try to prevent this from happening. But will he be successfull? Will he be able to convince others to listen to him?

We shall see. I can't wait to see what showrunners have in store for us.

At the end I'll say that I'm really happy to see that Foxy tries to do better as a father of FC this time and that he took FC with him to try and if kid can help with anything awwwww 💗

Also I wonder what are they doing wrong with the way they're trying to bring Solar back.. maybe they need Eclipse's help? Hmmm..

Either way something interesting will happen on April 8th to say the least.. I can feel it.

[spaghettificationandpretzels]

Movie Night

This is part two of my childhood best friends-to-lover anthology. I utterly hate this installment, but once again, I have to get it out, or it will stay in my drafts forever. The first people to get the reference can drop a request into my inbox for any character in my pinned post.

Contains: Fluff.

2.2K words

Your movie night tradition leads to more than popcorn.

More terrifying than The Exorcist. The Curse of Blackstone Lab."  

Sean huffed and pulled your attention from the shop front toward the bus stop poster. "What do you think about that y/n?" 

You shrugged. "I don't know. I'm pretty sure I've heard that slogan a million times." The picture did its best to keep everything a mystery, containing only a photo of a long, dark, dirty hallway, the tagline, and a title in blocky white letters.

"I heard they needed doctors at the test screenings." He often revelled in his ability to be in the know, to know the right people to get whatever he wanted, and this time was no different. "I know the producer, I think I might be able to get us an advanced copy."

Being back at the top had its benefits; the last time, it was front row seats to the latest opera. "I thought we were going to watch Red Eye this weekend?"

He gave you a look, it was full of mischief and affection. "You're not scared are you?"

You rolled your eyes. "No, I'm not. I've haven't be scared of a horror movie in years. I just don't want you getting caught up when we have to go buy you new suits." You could tell it was already too late, the wheels in his head were well and truly turning. "Sean, you are shit with colour, and I have a date tonight; you're not about to make a phone call."

He looped his arm around yours and yanked you to him. "Alright then, I can't have you late for your Monday night date with Mr tall, dark and boring."

There was a hint of something to his voice that gave you pause, a mix of annoyance and snippiness that let you know he disapproved. "Not boring, he's nice."

He huffed, and his mouth opened and closed like he had stopped himself from saying something before he took a deep breath and shook the thought away. "Well, when he bores you half to death you know where I live."

You nodded. "Thank you, Sean, I'll remember that. Now we need to hurry up."

He grinned and pulled you towards the store. "Whatever you want, I would be lost without your stylistic talents."

****

You sat at the restaurant waiting for your date, but seven turned into eight and then into eight-thirty, and it was clear he wasn't coming. You thought about going home, but Sean would be calling anyway, and there was no way he was going to let you marinate in your embarrassment all by yourself, it would be quicker and easier just to head right to his place.

Billy opened the door when you got there and pointed you upstairs. "He's been expecting you." You sighed and began your walk of shame, but Billy stopped you. "Are you good?"

You nodded. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

He titled his head. "Because Sean wanted to take the car and make sure your date went alright."

You shrugged. "You know Sean, he's always been overprotective of me. I'll tell him off when I get up there."

Billy nodded. "Like that will change anything. You look lovely by the way."

You gave him a smile. "Thanks Bill."

The door was open when you walked by, and Sean beckoned in with a smile. "How did your date go? Not well, considering that you're here."

You sighed. "It didn't, I got stood up."

There was no "I told you so." No, knowing smile or smug arrogance, he looked angry. "What a fucking coward, bastard doesn't even have the decency to call you, and you look so nice in that dress."

You put a hand on his bicep in hopes of soothing him. "I know" You took a deep breath before continuing, half to plan what you would say next and half to steel yourself from the pushback you knew you would get. "And Billy told me that you wanted to go and keep an eye and I've told a million times before I can look after myself."

He crossed his hands over his head, there wasn't an ounce of shame on his face. "I know that, but you're my friend, and like I said to you before, I didn't really like him all that much."

You smiled as he pulled you into a hug, his warm hands clutching you close. "Don't rub it in Wallace."

He chuckled softly, it was filled with warmth and affection. "You're better off anyway." You felt the hug tighten as the air changed. "Nevertheless, it's a good thing you're here, I have good news."

He broke from the hug and all but skipped to his desk, pulling out a non-descript disk. "I made a call just after you left me this afternoon and it was here by courier an hour later."

Your failed date was forgotten in an instant. "You got it?"

He nodded. "I did, and the producer said it's the scariest movie he's ever seen. So this Sunday, you, me, and a bucket of popcorn with the world's best butter?"

He was always so eager to spend time with you; it was hard to say no, even if you wanted to watch the other movie more. "Of course, it's our tradition."

****

You decided to stop by the bakery and get some cupcakes for tonight, and you felt a tap on your shoulder and spun around to see Billy standing behind you. "Hello."

You gave him a wave. "Hi, you look well."

He smiled shyly. "Yeah, things are good. What are you doing here?"

You pointed to the cupcakes inside the long glass display case. "Cupcakes for tonight."

He pressed his lips together, clearly trying to figure out if he should share the thought swirling in his head. "You got time for a coffee?"

You nodded. "Sure, I've always got time for you Bill."

It didn't take long for the coffee to brew, and you took your boxed cupcakes over to the table with him and sat down. "Now, what's on your mind?"

"Sean's in love with you. I'm pretty sure he has been since you guys were sixteen." He sipped his coffee like he hadn't just dropped a bomb the size of London on your head and nibbled the dry skin on his lower lip. "And let's be honest with ourselves y/n, I think the feeling is mutual."

You blinked, unsure what to say and taken aback by how blunt he was. "Wow, what makes you say that?" You were met with a raised eyebrow and a pointed exhale. "Yeah, ok, so I've been doing a shit job at hiding my feelings since everything that happened with Elliot and the crown, but he's back at the top, and I'm not going to complicate his life anymore by spilling my guts."

He nodded, almost to himself, wrapped his hand around the top of his cup and stood up. "Good talk y/n."

He was walking away before you could respond, and you yelled after him. "Are you just going to leave me here to sit in it?"

He turned his head towards you, still moving away. "Yep."

"It doesn't matter anyway, I have a date next week and I'm going to it." If he heard you, he didn't let on.

****

You pulled the white bakery box from your bag and smiled. "Are you ready to be terrified?"

He grinned and took the box from your hand, placing it on his desk before opening and looking over the sweet treats. "They look delicious." He handed you the one with the most icing and lifted his own.

He leaned back in his chair, glanced from the iced cake to you and back again, then picked it up and held it aloft, "To friends in high places."

He removed the wrapping from your cupcake and placed it in the empty box along with his own, then threw the box in the trash. Sighing, he stood up and said, "Would you like to stay the night? Mum's making pancakes in the morning. You don't need to leave when the movie's done."

There was no reason to say no, one of the many guest rooms was basically yours, housing your clothes and toiletries, even monogrammed towels that you received as a birthday gift one year. "Sure."

****

The position you were in was a common one, next to Sean on the couch in the movie room with a blanket thrown over your laps as he set the movie up. "I have another date next week, not with the same guy, and this one has an interesting job."

He pressed his lips together and nodded. "Ah, well I hope this one goes better."

You shrugged. "Who knows, if this one doesn't the next one will."

The lights in the room dimmed as the movie started, and you leaned into him as you started in on the popcorn. It started slow, the steady building of dread and the total uncertainty of whether the villain was a person, a demon or all in someone's head. They were right, it was scary, and Sean seemed to enjoy the way you slowly pulled the blanket closer to your face as you squished yourself into him. 

The second you thought you could relax, the thing hiding in the shadows the whole time finally came out, and you jumped out of your skin to his amusement. "Are you scared?" 

You shook your head. "No, it was just a loud noise." 

He laughed and shot you a look that told you he didn't believe you one bit. "You sure?" 

"Positive." You took a deep breath and sat up a little straighter, turning back to the screen as his arm pulled you impossibly closer. You did your best to relax, but it was nothing short of impossible, if this thing didn't win Best Picture at the Oscars then horror didn't stand a chance because the moment you thought you were safe, it was right back to the terror. 

You managed one more scare before you flinched again, and Sean was pausing the movie with a sigh. "You are scared." 

You sighed and twisted in his arms to face him. "So maybe I am just a bit." 

He smiled softly. "Don't worry, I won't let the monster get you." 

You nodded. "I know, I know you'd never let anything happen to me." 

There was a shift in the air, like the first change in the wind before a storm, and he went to say something else, but something stopped him. Your hand was still curled in his shirt from when you grabbed him, and as he looked at you in the blue lighting from the film, a feeling grew inside him. "What?" You gave him a look and a light shove and repeated yourself. "What?" 

He wasn't sure what to say, he couldn't tell you how he was feeling, that the butterflies that seemed to live in his chest whenever you were around had suddenly started to flutter so violently that he was sure they were bruising the fascia of his ribs.

You shoved him again to no effect, and he laid his hands on top of yours, they were warmed and calloused, and he was looking at you strangely. "Don't go on that date." 

You tilted your head. "Why?" It was such a sudden change of tone, but before you could press for more, his expression set firm like he had finally made an important decision, and then his lips were on yours. 

Oh, that's why

The moment you got over the shock, you sunk into the kiss, his lips were plump and soft, and he kissed you the way a drowning man begged Thetis for air. You broke from the kiss, and his lips followed yours as you backed away until you placed a hand on his chest. "What are you doing?" 

He pecked you again, and you couldn't help but let him. "I love you y/n." You wondered if Billy had talked to him like he had spoken to you. "I love you, so you can't go on that date or a date with anyone else who isn't me ever again because I don't know if I can survive the thought of you with anyone else." 

You lifted your hand to his cheek and ran your thumb over his freckled cheekbone. "Ok, but only if you kiss me again." He was happy to oblige, and you found yourself slowly moving onto your back as the kiss deepened. 

He was smiling against you, and his teeth found your lower lip in a soft bite before he pulled back. "Does this mean you return my affection?" 

You laughed and kissed an apology on his cheek at your lack of reciprocation. "Yes, it is returned whole heartedly. I love you Sean." 

He sat up and took you with him, and you wrinkled your eyebrows, but before you could say anything, he turned the movie back on and yanked you back into your previous position against him. "I would like to finish the film." 

His eyes were glinting with mischief, and his hand was slowly making its way up your leg. "You're being a tease." 

He leaned in close, his eyes still on the screen as he whispered into your ear. "Consider it payback coming here on Monday in that dress." 

Fin

@daydreaming-belle @lovemissyhoneybee @darklydeliciousdesires

[lefaystrent]

Friendly Neighborhood Criminals Part 2

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Pairings: platonic Patton/Dark Sides

Summary: Patton spent most of his life praying. This is the first time anyone's answered.

In other words, the friendly neighborhood criminals are there to save the day once again.

Ao3 Link: click here

Part 1

A/N Notes: This part is entirely inspired by a comment left by DnDeceit (Hazgarn) from Ao3. Thank you for the awesome idea and hope you enjoy! If anyone else has ideas for this AU, hit me up and I may write them!

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

Patton sits at the bus stop waiting for a bus that is over forty minutes late.

Miraculously, he has not run into this scenario since he moved to the city. The busses have been fairly reliable until now. They're his main mode of transportation to get to and from work. It would take a couple hours to walk otherwise. While manageable, the problem is that...

It's pitch black outside.

Patton hugs himself on the rickety bench and tries not to peer too closely into any shadowed corners. He typically doesn't take the late shift for this reason; he hates the dark. Whenever his mom got mad at him or just didn't want to look at his face, she would lock him in a closet without light. She'd tell him to pray about what he had done, to ask for forgiveness. Patton never knew what he had done in those instances, but he prayed hard and apologized for hours and told God he would be better so he didn't bother his parents so much.

The night reminds him too much of that tight space, and buying a night light for the apartment is one of the few luxuries he afforded himself.

Thankfully, a streetlight buzzed above him. Things could be much worse! His manager even apologized to him for asking him to come in on his off day! If Patton hadn't, he would have left Joan to close the store all by themself, and that would have been rough. Besides, Patton can use the extra hours! And working with Joan is always fun. They made Patton laugh and sometimes bought him snacks! And when they had locked up and walked into the parking lot earlier, they had offered to give him a ride.

Patton refused, of course! That had been far too generous, and Patton didn't want to make Joan drive him around when they were clearly tired. Patton could catch the last bus and things would be okay.

But things are not so okay, and there are no more busses scheduled until morning. If Patton left now, he would have to make the trek home. In the dark.

Just thinking about it has his throat seizing up.

Patton wishes he could be like normal people and call his family up in this situation. That his dad could give him a ride, or that he had a sibling who would speed over in a heartbeat. Or even friends.

He does have friends though! Well, one friend mostly. Her name is Valerie and they went to high school together. She moved out of Florida after graduation, so they never really see each other in person anymore. But she's always a text away and she's been so supportive of Patton moving out and cutting off his folks and–

And Patton wishes she could be here, but she's not.

Patton sits on the bench as if waiting for something to magically happen. He groans to himself and pulls out his phone. It's refurbished and a way older model, but it gets the job done just fine. Maybe he can distract himself for a bit and text her. She's probably asleep by now, but he can send her a joke or a meme–

There are new contacts in his phone that were not there before.

Patton rechecks his phone several times because surely this is an error. But no, there are three new contacts where before there had only been his best friend, store manager, and landlord.

Janus

Thing 1

Thing 2

Beyond baffled, Patton racks his brain for when the contacts could have possibly been added. It wasn't him of course, so one of his new...acquaintances must have done it. Ever since they brought him furniture and groceries, they have visited Patton again a total of twice. Each time, they brought him things from shampoo to a microwave. And then they would shove take out into his arms and order him to eat it.

It's...the most aggressive kindness Patton has ever been subjected to. And quite frankly, he doesn't know how to respond to it other than submit. Remus told him it's easier that way anyway.

Patton doesn't know what to make of the well-to-do criminals. And they are criminals, there's no doubt about it. They don't try to censor themselves around Patton. Last time, Patton listened reservedly while Remus recounted a story of lighting a dumpster on fire in order to distract some cops on their tail.

And they laughed and it wasn't at Patton. Virgil would tell Remus off when he overwhelmed Patton with gross details, and Janus– good grief could he write a novel about that man. Well, about all three of then really, but Janus had been the most aggressively kind. Patton can hardly say two words to the man because he can't figure out if he's mad at Patton, the world, or just in general. And he'd do it all while calling Patton pet names, and Virgil would grin and say, "I'm so glad someone else is getting the Janus treatment."

They aren't bad people, not really.

But can Patton call them like this? What would he say? Worse, how on earth could he ask for more of them?

Then maybe just to talk? Not Janus, the man intimidates him too much. But which one is Thing 1 and 2? Was it Janus who snuck the contacts into his phone? Surely it incriminates him if he is the only one with a proper name.

Just then, the light above him flickers and goes out, bathing him in blindness.

Patton does not panic.

He skyrockets straight to losing his mind.

The phone light is not enough to stop his hyperventilating. He stands up, ready to flee, but to where? Into the same darkness enveloping him now? There are distant lights further up the street, more store outlets, but they are fuzzy and far away and Patton's legs quake where he stands. Tears sting his eyes, and his chest squeezes tight enough to make his shoulders hunch inward.

He can't do it, he's weak.

Fumbling, he pulls up the phone and presses one of the Thing contacts. He doesn't know which one, doesn't care. What he cares about is someone saving him right now. Please open the door, he wants out, please–

"City morgue, you kill 'em, we chill 'em," a nasally voice chatters in his ear. Patton doesn't even remember hearing the phone ring or pressing the dial button.

"Remus?!" Patton says, stricken.

Remus catches onto his tone immediately. From the handful of times he has been around the man, he had only ever presented himself with a dramatic, unhinged flair. He grinned without abandon, and he honestly made Patton giggle a time or two.

Now, the gravelly tone of a dangerous man takes over. "Pat?"

"Remus," Patton pleads. He doesn't know exactly what he's begging for. He just wants to be okay now. He wants it to stop.

"Where are you, Pat?"

"B-bus stop, corner of Cherry Ridge Avenue and– and– by, I don't know, I'm by the– the State Farm office? I think. I think–"

"That's okay, Pattycake, you stay right there. I'll find you, I'm coming."

Patton keens and nods his head, though Remus can't see him. He stays on the phone with Patton too, cursing occasionally at something on the other side and rushing to ease Patton with gentle assurances whenever he whimpers into the phone too loudly.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Remus tells him, and Patton believes him.

By the time a revving motor breaks the night, Patton has curled up against the side of the bus stop awning in a poor attempt to make himself as small as possible. He flinches when a singular headlamp spills over him, and he momentarily freaks out upon recognizing that someone is driving a motorcycle straight at him. But Remus's voice is in his ear, yelling over the roaring that it's him, that he sees him.

He's here.

Remus drives the bike right onto the sidewalk and doesn't bother pushing down the kickstand. He lets the bike list sideways to the ground as he scrambles off, one hand barely hanging onto his phone in his rush.

Seeing him is the biggest relief Patton's ever experienced. More than the day he signed the apartment lease. Because someone finally answered his prayers to save him.

Patton finds the strength to stand and barrels into Remus's chest. He meets him halfway, using the momentum to spin them and he clutches Patton against the front of his leather jacket.

"Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you? I'll fucking kill them!" Remus snarls.

Patton answers the only way he can, by breaking down into sobs. Remus can't get any details after that. He runs his hands up and down Patton's back and arms looking for injuries. When he doesn't find any, he just keeps on rubbing his back to soothe him.

"I got you, I got you. I'm not going anywhere, Pattycake."

It's rough. It's exhausting. It's tears and snot and frightened little hiccups.

It's everything to Patton that Remus holds him throughout.

When Patton is calm enough that he's only sniffling now, Remus pulls back and takes his face in his hands. Remus's hands are calloused and blisteringly warm. They contrast with the cool metal of the rings he wears.

"Want me to take you home?"

Patton can't speak, but he gives a tiny whine and nods his head, bleary-eyed and spent.

The ride back to his apartment is a blur. Remus pushes his only helmet over Patton's head and warns him multiple times not to let go of him. The leather of his jacket is a security blanket, and Patton does his best to snuggle into it. He's never rode on a motorcycle before, and he's doesn't know if it's a good or bad thing that he's not aware enough to process it. It's fast and loud, and the wind whips around them constantly. He barely keeps his eyes open and trusts Remus will get them home safe.

They pull up to his apartment quicker than he thinks possible. Remus slides off first, keeping hold of Patton's hands as he turns around in his arms. He tugs the helmet off, careful not to jostle him too badly.

"Gotta say, Pattycake, helmet hair's a good look on you." Remus is trying to make him laugh. Patton doesn't have the energy to make his facial muscles move or thank him for his kindness. The most he can do is make grabby hands at Remus.

"Oh, puffball..." Remus's expression softens. He bends down and sweeps Patton into his arms and full-on carries him to the door bridal-style. Patton knows that Remus is tall and strong, but distantly he's impressed with how easily he's lifted.

Remus nudges him and patiently waits for him to dig out his key and unlock the front door. Once inside, Remus doesn't stop in the living room. He strides to the bedroom and deposits his cargo on the mattress.

"Okay, Pat-tay. It's beddy-bye time." Remus crouches below him and tugs Patton's shoes off his feet one by one. Patton watches him silently in the glow of his nightlight plugged into the wall. After the shoes are off, he reaches up to pull Patton's glasses off. Strangely, he notes that Remus's hands are shaking. Just a little bit.

Remus covers it up with a smile and waggle of brows. "Clothes on or off?"

In response, Patton flops back on the bed. Remus chuckles and situates him more appropriately, manhandling him until he's under the sheets.

"You're gonna be okay, I swear," Remus tells him, fingers brushing the hair from his forehead. Patton sinks into the mattress, closes his eyes and drifts.

A ringing pulls him to the surface. Remus answers his phone and Patton is too content to open his eyes.

"Yeah?....Because I'm with Patton.... Because he called me.... No I will not tell you all the juicy details of our midnight tryst, what kind of gossip do you think I am?"

Patton wonders who he's talking to. Someone who knows Patton, one of the others?

"He's had a bad night," Remus says and Patton tunes back in. He missed some exchanges and Remus's tone has taken on a somber edge. "I've got him home. I'm gonna hang out with him for a while... Janny can suck it, he'd be worse than I am.... I don't know, but it was bad enough he called me. Not that I'm not an absolute gift, right?.... well you didn't have to answer that. Okay, Emotional Baggage, I'm hanging up now. Don't wait up for me."

The return to quiet pushes Patton farther under. His muscles grow lax, and Remus is doing that thing with his fingers in his hair again. Patton reaches out and pulls himself a little closer. He thinks he's holding onto a jacket sleeve. He tries to wrap himself around it.

He thinks he feels the tickle of breath at his ear, a hushed voice, "I have a feeling you're going to be the death of me. And I'm gonna like it."

Patton falls asleep.

The next morning, there's a box of donuts sitting in the middle of his bedroom floor. A notification on his phone shows he has a text.

Call me anytime ;)

–R

[stevesbipanic]

ok ok ok ive seen a lot of rockstar eddie and bodyguard steve (and dont get me wrong i LOVE that) BUT-hear me out- Rockstar Eddie Munson and his private jet pilot Steve Harrington 👀

Another awesome prompt from you ❤️

Steve had spent his whole life wanting to be free.

The life his parents had designed for him felt suffocating also too tight suits and stuff dinners and hopes for college just to work for his father, to be like his father.

The only thing Steve had liked about being a rich kid growing up was flying to new places. No, not going to new places, new places was just new people his parents wanted to meet. But flying, Steve felt no worries whenever he looked out the window at the clouds.

After his parents cut him off and put of their lives when he didn't get into college, no matter how much money they tried throwing at the problem, Steve had saved up working retail job after retail job with Robin until he had enough money for flight school.

He can remember clearly his first solo flight, he felt so free up in the air, nothing but him and the clouds.

Now 25, he flies private jets, or, more specifically, one private jet.

Eddie Munson had kept his promise of running out of Hawkins the moment that diploma touched his fingers. Him, Jeff and Freak got a dingy apartment in Indianapolis, working odd jobs for a year and playing in dingier bars on the weekend until Gareth joined them the following year. Then a few months after Gareth joined them full-time they got discovered at one of their gigs.

Soon they were signed, releasing their first album which blew up. After that it was a blur of concerts and touring and more albums. Now 26, Eddie Munson is a household name.

Eddie hated the tour bus lifestyle, always cramped and felt like his trailer but with Freak's snores and every pothole in the US to wake him up. Once the band was big enough, Eddie knew what he wanted, a jet.

The problem though was a lot of pilots were homophobic and Eddie had recently came out with support from the majority of his fans. The band went through many pilots before meeting Steve.

Eddie didn't recognise Steve at first, it had been a few years since he'd graduated and more since King Steve had been in his view. Steve recognised Eddie though, not often you forget the guy that made you learn the word bisexual.

Steve was kind now, softer, free. One drunken night Steve confessed how he hated being King Steve, how he wished he'd been better to Eddie. Eddie told him none of that mattered now, Steve was better now and that was what was important.

Steve and Eddie grew closer, sometimes Eddie would sit in the cockpit (a word he loved joking about) with Steve, telling him stories about their tours. Steve would share stories about working with Robin and the kids (who Eddie missed and was glad to hear were doing well) and flight school.

During the times between tours they'd talk on the phone, Steve bemoaning about annoying clients and Eddie telling him about the new songs he was writing.

"The woman kept trying to come into the cockpit,stop laughing you should be used to that word, E's, anyway I swear the husband was ready to kill me by the time we landed."

"The ladies just can't resist you, sweetheart."

"I just wish you were on tour all the time, I like flying with you."

"What if you just have me as a client?"

"You don't need to fly all the time, Eds."

"I want to fly with you all the time, Stevie."

Steve was 27 and he only flew Eddie Munson around. He didn't need to fly on tour all the time but after an incident with a client Eddie didn't want Steve flying anyone else and just paid him full-time, he could afford it.

"He's your flight sugar daddy."

"Never say that again, Robs."

Steve lived in an apartment near Eddie's now, not that he spent much time there, he mainly hung out at Eddie's. Movie nights, smoke sessions, Eddie showing Steve new songs, Eddie not admitting a lot of songs were about Steve.

It all came to a head one night. The two men were slightly tipsy, sitting on Eddie's balcony looking out at the city.

"I never thought I'd be here."

"If anyone deserves it it's you, Eds."

"I have a confession. 'Burning Skies' is about you."

Steve turned towards Eddie smiling softly.

"I know Eds, and I know 'Ticket to Ride' is too, and 'Death by Gravity', you're not subtle and unless you know any other people that fly around all day."

"But, but they're love songs, Stevie."

"I know Eds, I figured you'd tell me when you were ready."

Eddie was now smiling back at Steve, glancing down at his lips. Neither man knows who leant in first but finally, after three years of friendship, they kissed softly under the glow of the city lights.

"Does this mean I get to see your cockpit?"

"I will break up with you right now!"

They both laughed knowing Steve wouldn't, Steve may have felt free in the air, but he felt alive with Eddie by his side.

[natureismynature]

Gonna talk about Tina, Bad, and Foolish because they make me INSANE-

I'm not gonna expand on the general conversation that BBH and Tina had because I feel like people already put everything I think into amazingly thought out words, so I'll just focus on the part where they talked briefly about Foolish. (No one's surprised to know since it's coming from me lmao)

You see, the thing about BBH and Foolish is the fact that they DO know each other. They talk in metaphors only THEY could understand, they give each other hints but never the truth, they consider each other family but they would gladly throw each other under the bus, they would do ANYTHING for their families but they wouldn't mind hurting each other in the process. They trust each other, but they also decidedly DO NOT.

They have their own lives, they have their own secrets, and they have their own lies. But they've decided they didn't want to be each other's confidants (for some reason) and of course, anyone who keeps heavy secrets would eventually need to tell someone lest they break under the pressure.

For a while, Foolish had Jaiden. He told her EVERYTHING, he included her in everything he did and knew and planned. At the start, he was doing it just to have someone, he didn't care to throw them under the bus when push comes to shove, but in the process he actually grew to care about Jaiden. So now, he didn't want her involved. He didn't want to taint her image with his own dirt. He realized she was better than him, that he didn't want the others to hate her for something that HE did. So he's looking for a new confidant.

Now, I wouldn't say BBH doesn't have a confidant, he has MANY people who are willing to listen to him, to share his burdens. But similar to Foolish, I don't think he wants to burden them. He doesn't want to hurt them or get them caught in the crossfire. Baghera and Forever are too important to him. But, he's also a LOT more distrustful than Foolish. He knows that if he tells his secrets to people who care about him, they're gonna try to help him, which would include trying to stop him. Which he doesn't want. And he DID tell them, and they ARE trying to stop him now, and I don't think he will. I don't think he'll tell them more in the future too...

Then here comes Tina, the naive little new girl, desperate for friendship and trust. She just wants people to trust her, to confide in her, to believe in her. She just wants to help and be helped and not to be left alone in this cold, cruel world. She wants to be a part of something. She wants to be cared about.

These two, VERY secretive people, saw potential in her. They saw how desperate she was, how she was willing to do ANYTHING just for someone to tell her gheir secrets so she can keep it with them. But of course, Foolish and Bad were not that naive to just immediately tell her everything. They needed to test the waters first, to see if she was actually gonna keep their secrets. To she if she would be perfect for the role they want her to take.

And she did.

Unfortunately for Foolish, BBH (for the lack of better words) got to her first. And now he's trying to get her to squeeze out the truth from Foolish.

Because as much as Foolish and Bad trust each other, they also keep the most secrets from one another. They don't trust how much the other trusts them. And BBH is using Tina to get it out of Foolish.

And Tina... Tina is not as clueless as she seems to be. She KNOWS she's being used. She KNOWS this would be a bad idea, but she goes along with it anyway because she's desperate. In her own words, she knows they're shitty deals, but she'll keep making those shitty deals just to have someone stay. Stay by her side. Stay trusting her. Stay being her friend.

She just doesn't want to feel alone. And now she's stuck between a weird ass Tug o' War between two strange people who could probably burn down the whole Island and kill her in the process without batting an eye if they wanted to.