#like the dude has let me stay with him for 4 nights and fed me I wanna do SOMETHING for him to return the favor and show my appreciation

[vmmisfit]

All I said was I’m gonna clean up a bit before I leave my boyfriend’s house and now my friend is insulting me for doing too much for someone I don’t live with and haven’t been dating for long and being a 50s housewife????

[a-random-weeb]

Vampire Chuuya x reader

I accidentally tapped 'vampire Chuuya' at one point, and it won. I must be magic, I kind of actually hoped dragon Chuuya won but whatever

Also if I get 4 more followers, I'll be at 100! It'd be pretty awesome if I could gain 5 followers by the end of the day, that would be awesome! And thank you to everyone following me, all of you are appreciated ♥️

⚝✮⚝+⊹⚝✮⚝+⊹⚝✮⚝+⊹⚝✮⚝+⊹⚝✮⚝+⊹⚝✮⚝+

Crunch! Crack! Snap! The sounds of sticks and twigs breaking is all that can be heard as you trudge through the deep forest, completely lost. You look for any shelter, it's already sundown and you fear wolves may come around. The fact it started raining a bit ago doesn't help anything either. You come across a huge mansion... In the middle of the woods? You think about it for a second, you've seen too many horror movies to know how this goes... But... Being eaten alive was the other option... You sprint to the door, knocking loudly. A sigh of relief escapes your mouth as a short, red head answered.

"Okok, so I know you probably moved to the middle of the woods as to not to be disturbed, but please can I stay here the night sir? There's wolves around here, and I'm completely lost!" You make a desperate plead to the man who's eyes widden slightly.

"You're not that far from a village that way." He points, "How would I live without humans near by? I need basic stuff like food. But come in." he says, almost ominously. He's sketchy, but he's your only hope, so you rush in his mansion.

You don't know how you got in this situation in the first place! Your dumbass was just trick or treating with some friends, saw a spooky woods and decided to reenact a horror movie seen, but you guess you ran too far because now you're relying on some sketchy ass dude for shelter and maybe a map.

"Please, take a seat." The red head holds a scowl on his face, you wonder if he plans to murder you at this point. You sit on the plush couch in his huge living room, taking a closer look at the man. He wears a fancy suit, along with a fedora. He has gorgeous blue eyes and flowing red hair, though, he is quite petite.

"Sooooo... what's your name?" You ask, attempting to break the silence.

"Chuuya Nakahara. You may call me Chuuya though." He replies in a calm manner. You nod

"I'm F/n (first name). How long can I stay here?"

"You can stay in the guest room for as long as you want." As long as you want...? Is he serious?!

"Um... so like a few days? Just so I can get the chance to contact home?" Chuuya nods,

"Sure." Chuuya leads you to the guest room. It's a beautiful room, a pretty queen sized bed along with an expensive looking chandelier hanging from the ceiling. You guess he really likes his guests.

For the next two days you are fed three meals a day and provided with everything you need. For some reason, he refuses to even point to the direction of the village. He won't let you go out by yourself, he always comes with you to make sure you don't get lost. He doesn't give you a map, or anything. Eventually, you snap,

"Just give me a fucking map! Please! I want to go home!" A look of slight guilt crosses Chuuyas face. He pins you to the wall of the kitchen, your eyes widden as you see his... Fangs? What? He growls

"You don't get to leave. You'll never find that village, you'll never leave me... I didn't want to do this but..." you freeze... everything seemed to happen in slow motion as you hiss in pain. He bit you! He bit your neck... your whole body goes numb, and you feel incredibly confused. That numbness quickly turns into pain as the world goes back to normal. You fall to the ground in pain. He picks you up bridal style "It'll be ok... It's only temporary... It's ok..." You hear him continue to mumble reasurement until you pass out.

5 hours later your eyes slowly flutter open. Your in his bed, you weren't allowed in his room until now. You try to sit up, but you feel a cold hand push you back down. You feel weak and vunrable.

"Are you feeling ok? Why don't I get some... food" he hands you what looks to be a glass of red wine. It tastes so... Good... You shut the whole thing, it's the best thing you've ever had!

"What is this stuff?"

"... Blood." He shows you his fangs. You panic and feel your teeth... You had fangs too..

[whatifwekilledgodandwebothgirls]

I survived triimeri!!!!

Final thoughts!!!

I am well rested , i am well fed , i am slowly starting to come to my senses , heres the final opinion .

It was fine . It was very very low key and very chill . The clubs were mostly empty besides us being there , and after i had my fill of dancing i went outside either way , so i has very relaxed through and through . They didnt let us have any alchohol in the club either which was godsent because i dont do well with too much alchohol and loud music. We didn't party to much at the resort either it was very relaxed and layed back . My friend groop was bitching and moaning and acting like bitches and fighting for some reason that i havent yet understood and i did not want to be around that drama so i ditched them and went with this girl i used to crush on , soft butch lesbian stoner ,and the guy i post about a lot saying im in love with him and such and such and went and found his friends and we mostly just drank a bit of wine the first nigh and talked a bit , most people were asleep by 4 .

I stayed with the guy and we talked , and he sayed he wants us to hook up again like we had last year but it was so unbelivably akward last year so i told him no . Anyway we talked some more and got cold a bit so he ended up going inside to his room , which had an empty double bed and a single bed with some dude sleeping in it . I asked its its ok that we sleep in the same bed and he said sure and we layed down laying still for about five muinyed before he asked me if i wanted to cuddle . I told him he is the most important person in my life , he told me he loves me , that he cant function without me , that he missed me so much and that he wants us to be friends again . He hald be very very tight and wouldn't let me go . I asked if i could move a bit because i was very hot and sweting and about to pass out from the heat and he have me a very sad " oh ok we can stop cuddling then " which lasted for about five muintes before he started shaking and whining and looking like he was about to cry and he griped my waisted pulled me close and begged me not to leave . Begged . He begged me not to leave . Killing myself over it. I also tryed to ignore his boner pressing against my leg the entire time . He said that we wants to be just friends and i agree but like . Your dick is stabinh my abdomen rn . Anyway i do really love him more than anything but i hate myself to much to be actually convi ced the really loves me back and he isnt just capping . I also didnt sleep a wink the entire night . I didnt sleep at all for 48 hours .

The second night people bought vodkas and got wasted by 8 pm and we did short of all go into panic mode trying to get them to pull it together but we gave them food and water and bathed them and they relaxed eventually . Me and the lesbian and the guy ditched the rest of his friends and they slept in my room . The guy collapsed into a single bed imidietly and wouldnt get up. I slept next to him in another single bed that was pressed right next to it and the lesbian slept in a double that was also pressed right nextto the two singles . Me and the guy cuddled a bit and then he pushed me away i think idk i was sleep deprived and i didnt really understand. There was a great deal o debate over who pushed who away but it was probably me because i cannot sleep cuddled up like that i need my space . Anyway i slept maybe a good 3 hours .

Also The resort was great. I almost felt as if i was camping . We stayed in little bungalows instead of a hotel which defenetly gave it more of a chill relaxed vibe because because we would be allowed to roam around ouside more unlike last year when we could only go out on tiny little balconies. It also ment that was just a bunch of little white and blue houses near the beach , very greek island but not so much so it was touristy . The place was amazing. So lovely . The beach was beutiful but small , perfect for a bit of a chat and a smoke with a small circle or friends . The view was even more amazing . Just endless horizon with mykonos right across from us. Our bungalow had a balcony that faced the sea , and i woke up at six once and stayed out smoking watching the sun rise through the waves while sitting . We also happened to share that balcony with a teacher and she sat next to me and smoked while we watched the sun rise

Over all i had a great time . It was fun but not too fun . Im lowley freaking out over the deal with the guy but im sure ill get over it . Great success!!!

[phebth]

hewwo :3

if you still take requests and are writing for the lost boys, how would they react to having an (AFAB or gender nuetral) s/o who is like.. 20x smarter than david, 40x more reckless than are and she or they are ABSOLUTE BADASS. They have a kickass attitude and fashion like Cruella de vil(not the disney one! If you know which im talking about, the one with emma stone it UGH she is amazing♡♡)

Maybe she also has a motorcycle? its lot faster than theirs and micheal combined.

(this can be headcanons if you want it to be! and sorry if you dont write for female readers, I apologize)

a/n: LET ME TELL U I SCREAMED READING THIS AND MY FRIENDS ON VC WE’RE LIKE: “🤨 this dude crazy” also yes i will be doing hc bc i SUCK also material girl energy💅✨ i added star as well bc my girl deserves some love <3 also sry for the end it’s kinda rushed since i stayed up until 4 am writing this 😭

The Lost Boys with a badass s/o

ok so the first time they notice you was when you had parked your motorcycle in ‘their’ spot and they were like “who tf does this person think they are?!?” but when they got a closer look at your motorcycle they noticed that it was a newer model that costed a pretty penny $ that and the fact that it was A LOT better than theirs, they were pissed to say the least… 👁👁

so when Paul FINALLY sniffed you out from the crowded boardwalk they were intrigued….I mean it’s not every day people that wear… a leather jacket in hot weather? That and the fact that you were practically running and screaming around the boardwalk dragging your friend.

so they just continued to watch over you guys until you and your friend parted ways. “So your the one who’s taken our spot” david responded aggressively as you climbed on your motorcycle. “i didn’t see your name on it jackass” and with that you started up your bike and WOOSH. AND THE FUNNIEST PART IS THAT THEY TRIED TO CATCH UP BUT THEY COULDN’T BECAUSE YOUR BIKE WAS TOO FAST “SEE YA SUCKAS’” if they weren’t pissed before they DEFINITELY were now

and now every time you go back there (listen that video store has some really good movies that not a lot of other shops have!) you always see them and talk to them, well mostly them hitting on you because they thought you were cute but they swear that’s not the reason why they keep hoping to see you down at the video store. And let me tell you, Max is FED UP with having to deal with them going in the store EVERY DAY and asking whether or not you visited.

but eventually they start growing on you and when you accepted their request to join them at the cave Marco had the biggest grin on the whole night! David was kinda pouty because every. single. time. you somehow knew the answers to EVERYTHING he would say! Ngl the guys were snickering the whole time bc you kept outsmarting him so eventually he shut up. Micheal would sit next to you and steal some glances at you and when you turned your head he would act as if he wasn’t looking! <3 Star would always ask about your outfits, always asking questions about where you got it and how you managed to style the clothes. Dwayne wouldn’t say much but he would keep staring at you but wouldn’t look away he’d just… 👁👁

so when you guys all start dating i have a feeling that Star would be the most clingy, like she would hold your arm, try to make you laugh or smile by making jokes, dead stare anyone who tries to hit on you OH AND whenever you go out and do some stupid shit she’ll give you that ‘mom stare’ with her arms crossed (please stop hurting yourself when you go out she always worries about you!)

Marco is your personal delivery guy, if you need anything just ask him and he’ll run to the store to get it for you, but in return he asks for a kiss or a hug ;)

Paul likes to ask you a bunch of question a on your music taste and force you to listen to his music also likes race you with your bike (even though he always loses)

for the 2 blondes they’ll always be by your side trying to encourage you to do smth stupid (ofc if you’re not comfortable they’ll stop immediately) most of the time it woks and you guys end up having to run away from the cops but it’s all in good fun! Plus what’s life without a little excitement?! Besides they’re vampires what’s the worst that can happen?

now… for Dwayne at the beginning he doesn’t really know how to show he loves you. Like yeah he’s been with the gang for a long time but they know him so it’s different. He would try to give you lots of gifts, especially shiny things like jewelry, rocks, books, clothes basically anything he’d think you’ll like.

Micheal likes to spend quality time with you so that means he loves to take you out on dates: walking around the boardwalk, watching the fireworks, going to concerts, takeout on the beach (beach date!) yeah stuff like that :)

David likes to try to outsmart you even thought the end result is always the same: he asks you a question then you reply coyly and he tries to counter you with an other question that you know the answer to. >:| it really gets him riled up so just go cuddle with him and he’ll let it go just because it’s you…

but all together y’all make a huge cuddle pile with a bunch of blankets and hang out in the cave while marco and paul bounce off the walls.

[lubdubsworld]

Insatiable ( Jungkook x Oc) Chapter 5

Pairing : Jeon Jungkook x OC

Rating 18+

Genre : Vampire Au!!!! , DILF! Jungkook ! Bodyguard AU! Babysitter OC!   Age difference!!!

Chapter 1   Chapter 2  Chapter 3    Chapter 4

Chapter 5 

“Well, this is confusing.” 

Namjoon was staring at him like he’d grown an extra head and Jungkook grunted from where he was trying to deadlift the 250lbs barbell, dropping it back down to stare at his friend. He’d never been able to deadlift this much. But then, today everything about him felt different. His senses heightened, vision sharper and just a lot  more energy than usual. 

“What?” He snapped, slightly annoyed because .... well, he had no idea why he was so annoyed. And that only added to his already foul mood.

“You look like you had a good night. A  really  good night but you’re also acting like you really need to get laid. So I’m trying to figure out which it is?” Namjoon frowned, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. 

Jungkook groaned , grabbing the small towel from the chair and soaking up the sweat dotting the back of his neck. He walked over to the water dispenser in the corner of the gym, pouring himself a glass, tipping it over his head and shaking out of his hair as the water dripped down his face and neck, drenching his sweat soaked tank top even more. . 

Somewhere to his right, one of the ladies on the treadmill, tripped, crashing in a heap on the machine and he couldn’t help but smirk. She had been staring at him the entire time. 

Jungkook was used to attention. He was used to the stares and the lust and the heightened heart rates he induced . It had been bad, even in his days as a human and now, five centuries later as a powerful vampire , it had only grown. 

He was handsome. He was fit and he was a good guy. It was only natural that women wanted him. And he was okay with that. It gave him the luxury of being able to pick and choose, who he wanted in his bed. And he did. 

Not that he did it often. With Joowon to care for, Jungkook often went months on end without sex and that was okay. Because the kind of sex he usually had, it was just ...a release. There was nothing intimate or personal about it. 

Even with Helena it had been the friendship that had appealed to him.

Helena was ...fun. She liked to sail through the world, doing as she pleased and taking lovers everywhere. No one could keep her in a place for long and no one could ground her. There had been a time when he had thought that he was in love with her but that was just Helena. She made you feel like you couldn’t live without her. Because of how much happiness she imbibed in the moments. Because of how non judgemental and kind she was. 

And he loved her. But now , centuries later it was the love of a dear friend. 

But with Sera..... it had been something else. 

He had a way he did things. 

A little kissing , a little foreplay and just a whole lot of fucking with multiple orgasms for everyone involved. He had a quick refractive period and supernatural stamina so of course he was going to take advantage of that. 

But none of that had happened last night. 

The actual sex had lasted a scant few minutes. He hadn’t even been inside her more than five minutes and yet the memory was seared into his head. The phantom warmth of her still around him and the scent of her still tugging on his senses. 

And the taste of her. 

Fucking hell. 

Jungkook had never fed from someone during sex. He just didn’t because drinking from someone , taking their life essence...it just...it was something incredibly intimate. It was important to him. Jungkook hardly ever fed from humans , opting to visit a blood cafe for a drink or a dispensary for a few blood bags when he needed to feed. 

But last night. 

“Earth to Jeon Jungkook.” Namjoon’s voice pulled him to the present. 

He stared at his oldest, dearest friend. 

“I slept with Sera.” His voice cracked on the syllables of her name, his tone dripping with regret and Namjoon stiffened. 

“You... what? “ He stared at him in disbelief. 

Jungkook groaned. 

“Fuck... I drank from her too. “ He buried his face into his hands. 

“Jungkook, that’s... “

“It was her first time. “ Jungkook looked up at him, eyes wide and helpless and Namjoon’s jaw came unhinged. 

“Are you going to tell me you’re the pope next? Because my heart can’t take it...” 

Jungkook groaned.

“I’m such a fucking idiot. It was supposed to be a no strings attached thing. “

Namjoon’s gaze softened. 

“Dude, a girl’s first time? Of course she’s going to get attached. Did she like confess?” 

Jungkook hesitated.

“No. Actually, she just got dressed and left.” He shrugged. 

Namjoon frowned. 

“Oh, then that’s good right?” 

Jungkook felt a little sick. He remembered how empty his bed had felt, after she’d kissed him and slipped back into her clothes and rushed back to sleep in her own bed. He hadn’t even helped clean her up because his limbs had felt a bit like jelly. He’d been punch drunk with the taste of her, his head swimming and his body thrumming and she had practically skipped out of his room, not a care in the world. 

Hadn’t even kissed him good bye. 

“Yeah. Good. “ He said hoarsely , head pounding . 

Namjoon was staring at him .

“What ?!” Jungkook snapped, foul mood returning with a vengeance. 

“Oh my God. “ Namjoon began laughing. 

Jungkook stared at him...What the fuck was wrong with Namjoon.

“You’re the one who got attached.” Namjoon’s eyes were wide as saucers, his fingers pointed right in Jungkook’s face. 

The younger yelped, stepping back. 

“No.. I.. what?!”

“You look so upset that she left you after sex... I’ve seen that kicked puppy look before. You wore that same face when Joowon didn’t cry on his first day at school!! ‘ Isn’t he gonna miss me hyung?” You whined... i remember that fucking face Jeon jungkook!!!” 

 Namjoon was on the floor now, guffawing and clutching his sides. 

Jungkook glared at his friend. 

“What the fuck...no i did not!!” He swore. 

Namjoon merely continued laughing.

“Oh, the sweet sweet taste of karma. Serves you right Jeon Jungkook, considering the hearts you’ve broken over  the years.” 

Jungkook glared at his friend. 

Namjoon had no fucking idea what he was on about. Him? Catch feelings ? 

Like hell. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He couldn’t find her . 

And when he realized why he couldn’t find her, he couldn’t believe it. 

“What the fuck do you mean she’s gone on a date?” He snapped at Jimin who gave him an unamused look.

“I’m your hyung, you bastard!” The shorter male yelled and next to him his wife rubbed a soothing hand on his shoulder.

“What Jimin means is that, Yugyeom came by earlier when she was getting changed for dinner...” 

“He came into the room when she was getting changed?” Jungkook stared in disbelief, “ What the actual fuck...”

Jimin choked and Somi let out a giggle.

“That’s not what I meant. Sera came back to the room after closing up the daycare and Yugyeom texted her.... that he wanted to pick her up for dinner. She agreed and told me to tell you that she’ll be back at around eleven...” 

“Where the hell did they go? I need an address.” Jungkook snapped. 

Jimin stared at him like he’d spouted latin. 

“what?” He gaped. 

Somi held a hand up.

“Yugyeom’s an old friend of ours. He took her out for dinner, that’s all. She’s been out with him before ...Don’t worry Jungkook ssi... She’s perfectly safe with him.” Somi said quickly.

Jungkook merely shook his head, glaring at the pair.

“You should know better than to do this. You know how fucking good she smells to vampires. How could you send her out of the estate without security....in the company of a Kim , no less?  I am right here... It’s literally my job to be with her at al times.. Its what I’m paid to do.... ..why didn’t you tell me...” He shook his head. 

Jimin and Somi exchanged looks. 

“You’re certainly very dedicated to ....your job.” Jimin frowned. Somi meanwhile was holding a hand up and giggling behind it. 

God, he couldn’t carry on a conversation with two people who acted like literal children. 

He had to go find the Chief. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jungkook blinked.

Once . Twice. 

“I’m sorry sir, could you repeat that?” He said sharply. 

Chief Hwang gave him a confused look. 

“I said , you can stay back today evening and help me with the accounts Jungkook-ah.I do know that Sera’s going for dinner with Yugyeom and well, I really need help with the balancing . I think the gardener has been playing fast and loose with buying germanium seeds and charging them as Lilies . Is he pocketing the difference or is there something else going on...” 

Jungkook, who really couldn’t give two fucks about germaniums or Lilies , merely stared at the patriarch of the clan, trying to decide if the older man was joking because how on earth was he supposed to just....

“Let her go on the date alone? Without me?” He asked, his tone screaming that he wasn’t okay with that.

 At all. 

Chief Hwang hummed.

“Yes of course... I’ve known the boy for two centuries. He’s a good man. “ 

“You’ve known me for five centuries.” Jungkook reminded him , instinctively.

 And then he blinked because why on earth had he said that? 

Chief Hwang had an amused look on his face. 

“Yes of course. And you’re a very fine young man as well, Jungkook. Too bad you think Sera is like a daughter to you....” 

Wait. 

What? 

Was the older man teasing him? Jungkook could’ve sworn he saw a hint of mischief in the vampire’s eyes. 

“Don’t you?” Chief Hwang asked. 

“Sir?” 

“Don’t you think of her as a daughter, Jungkook-ah.? Isn’t that what you told her?” 

Jungkook had the sudden terrible feeling that Sera told her father  everything. 

 “Uh..it was just an expression sir. She’s a good ... friend.” He finished. 

Chief Hwang hummed thoughtfully. 

“I see. Well, Yugyeom thinks she would make a wonderful mate. “ He shrugged.

Jungkook felt his fists clench. 

“I still think I should be there sir... Just to... make sure she’s safe. It’s kind of my job.” He said gruffly. 

“Are you sure? Germaniums and Lilies are vastly different and for the gardener to-”

“Sir to be very honest I don’t really care about the damn flowers. Sera needs to be safe and I’m not letting anyone hurt her on my watch. So I’d really appreciate if you tell me where she is....” Jungkook said sharply. His heart was pounding. 

Chief Hwang gave him a thoughtful glance, his lips quirking up in a smile. 

“ Looks like I’ll be planning a wedding after all.” He chuckled thoughtfully and Jungkook frowned, confused.

“Sir?” 

“Let me put you out of your misery, Jungkook ah... She’s having dinner at the Hyatt Resort.... The private conference room on the seventh floor. Yugyeom reserved it for her.” The older man glanced at his watch and smiled, “  There’s a fire work show in exactly half an hour. Sera loves those.... If you leave right now, you can interrupt them right on time. “ 

Jungkook blushed , blood rushing to his face. 

“Sir.. I’m not.. I don’t...want to interrupt.” God, he sounded fake to his own ears. 

Chief Hwang waved him off with a laugh. . 

“Go on go on..And maybe buy me some patbingsu on your way back..!! “

Jungkook stared. 

“Uh yes sir. “ 

“Good. Close the door on your way out, son.”  

Jungkook closed the door, trying to ignore the way warmth flooded his heart at the way the man had addressed him. 

 Son. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR’S nOTE : a short chapter because I wanted to write something from Jungkook’s point of you...also Chief Hwang playing cupid is my favorite thing ever...

@ladyartemesia        @veronawrites   @alpaca1612     @bonyg    @unseejuice21  @sppvjj     @ggukkieland     @tae-by-tae      @blr1004      @yoongichild    @stussyjeon  @jellybearo  @sumzysworld   @carolsummerlove

@bunniechoon

@preciouschimine

Please come scream with me... 

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

I'm back :D

Headcanons on sleepover (Boys and Girls)?

Girls First!

#1: Zee NEEDS to be Host if it's the whole group

Zee hosts as often as she can because she likes sleeping in her own bed and not having Babs' dad knocking on the door every 5 minutes.

It's also hard to coerce convince the girls into magical makeovers if she has to be alert about using her magic.

Also...she is positive that Commissioner Gordon suspects her of murder. (He doesn't, he just has the naturally narrow eyed thoughtful look)

Zee, in other words, prefers to host their sleepovers.

#2: Babs is a Wriggler, Kara is a Thrasher, Jess is a Talker

Diana, Zee and Karen are relatively quiet sleepers. Like sure Diana snores a bit and Karen might drool and Zee might shift in her sleep but they are NOTHING compared to Babs, Kara and Jess.

They are nightmares to sleep with. Babs wriggles in her sleep and babbles too. Especially if she's stressed. She'll be talking utter nonsense. Literally like 'waffles have feelings too' or 'butterfly fart machine'. No one shares a bed with Babs because she is known for stealing the covers and wrapping herself in them. Like a Babs Burrito. And if you try to take some back she will shove you off the bed. Still very much asleep.

Kara, she is a hazard to people everywhere. At least if you don't know how to control sleepy Kara. The girls know the control word 'go back to bed' but that only helps them when Kara tries to fly away. If she's kicking and or punching it's doom. Typically her erratic attacks are sparse and weak, so just like a pro-wrestler but badly aimed, but still...no one sleeps within 5 feet of Kara Danvers.

And lastly Jess. Jess is not much of a physical threat while asleep. She stays in the same position and doesn't even drool or snore or anything. But in the middle of the night you might hear a yelp, or a drawn out very loud groan. That's Jess, she groans a lot in her sleep, regularly. And if she's extremely stressed she'll even mantain conversation. Very poorly. Kara tried once. It went like this.

Jess: The moon, is just a ball of cheese.

Kara: Oh? Can your eat it?

Jess: Like a rock

Kara: What do you mean?

Jess: I'm nice, you're mean.

So yeah...they can share a bed with this chic and they have. That's why most if them sleep with headphones tucked into their ears.

#3 Movie Night

Karen hates horror movies. They creep her out and Kara is obsessed with them.

In fact while Karen and Kara argue about which genre to watch, romance or horror, the rest of the girls watch them fight.

Which is more amusing then it sounds.

#4 Diana can't cook

Diana is a girl of many talents but she can not cook. Not a bit. Not even instant mac and cheese.

Babs has tried to show her how to make a burrito- failed.

Jess a salad- failed.

Karen, some stir fry- failed.

Kara, warning up some pizza- failed.

She just can't cook. Moving on.

#5 Babs is generous with everything BUT her stuffed animals.

These are things she has said:

"Rest your feet somewhere else, Kara"

"Burrito Bat Butch hasn't cuddled with anyone but me, ever. Hands off!"

"Listen, if you wanted a pillow you can just ask- you don't have to treat General George Jennings like that!"

"Give me the bear, Karen. Give me the bear."

"EEY, NO TOUCHIE!"

#6 They can't do a proper Binge Watch with each other.

Babs drinks a lot of soda and munches on a lot of snacks so she has to constantly use the bathroom. Insisting they can keep watching but of course they pause anyway.

Zee cannot step away from her phone. It's always vibrating with emails and messages and she is too invested in her rep to put it down. She is the type of gal who likes texting while watching a show. This drives the other girls up a wall because then Zee insists they catch her up.

Kara cannot, for the life of her, sit still. Even though they are curled up on the couch, one of the girls leaning into Kara's side, or having their head on Kara's lap. Or anything, really. Kara breaks the comfort because she cannot sit still. She shifts too often, changes the legs she tucked under her, stretches her back. It is annoying because then the girls around her need to shift too.

Jess gets restless quickly. She predicts the ending or loses interest when the plot becomes to predictable. So then she starts, trying to be subtle, looking through her schedule and doing school work. Its more infuriating because when the girls ask pointed questions she almost always gets it right.

Diana is of course knew to the world of man and stills doesn't get everything that is happening. Sometimes she misunderstands the plot completely and they have to rewatch the episode, explaining everything that time. This makes the watching chunky and somewhat less enjoyable. Usually Zee is the one to do the explaining. No one blames Diana of course, but still.

And Karen? She just wants to see if her ship lives. She is a fangirl through and through and has to scream into a pillow every time they have to press pause. Which is three to five time throughout a single episode.

���✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Now for the boys,

✨✨✨✨

#1 Food Competition

Barry eats a lot. Barry is never sure how much is enough. Barry can eat a supermarket out of business if he was particularly hungry. Hal knows this. Still his pride won't accept it so every time Hal challenges Barry to eating some disgusting amount of sauce or drink.

Sometimes Hal wins.

Barry has a sensitive stomach.

But usually not.

#2 NO HOMO

Steve doesn't really care how close any if the dudes sleep to him.

Barry doesn't either. In fact its likely he'll fall asleep on someone else's sleeping bag with his feet propped on one of his teammates stomach.

Garth will probably end up trying to cuddle up to Hal or Barry or Steve or any of the boys.

Hal will most definitely fight him on that. What can you say? He's the Type A male. But he really won't bat an eye if Garth does it when Hal is already asleep.

Oliver will sing love songs to his bro's, flirting hard as hell...up untill Hal, Carter, or Steve smack him. Where he pouts and let's Garth and Barry soothe him.

Carter doesn't like being touched in general so like hell he's going to let any of the boys near him. Or hold a conversation with him. He will just sit in the corner of the room, quietly observing. (He is most definitely trapped in the home where they are hosting the sleepover).

#3 Make Him Laugh

Another challenge.

Whoever makes Carter smile or *le gasp* laugh is deemed royalty.

Usually it's Barry. Who didn't even try. He just tripped over something.

Barry wins a lot.

#4 They Order In

Hal refuses to cook on principle. Rather be fed.

Oliver doesn't like getting butter on him since it'll 'destroy' his complexion.

Garth can't cook.

Carter refuses to feed anyone. He'll cook for himself and no one else.

Barry always offers but he is a forgetful cook and they feel bad throwing out whatever abomination he makes so they force it down. Of course, they learned to order in before Barry offers.

Steve can cook but he is very precise about the recipe, double checking and stuff so being fed takes forever if they let him start.

They arm wrestle to decide who chooses what they eat so yea...Carter always picks. Steve usually pays. Barry too. Everyone else is broke as hell.

#6 They butt heads.

All the dam time.

Hal is stubborn and Oliver is prideful.

Carter refuses to cater to anyone.

Garth is immovable if he wants to be.

Steve is trying to compromise but no one listens to the voice of reason over their own shouts.

Barry eats ice cream. They'll tire themselves out eventually.

#7 They Reprimand Hal

These are things they have definitely said at least once during a sleepover.

"Goddammit Hal! She's my science partner! How am I supposed to look her in the eye now?"

"Do you value your life? Yes? Then please refrain from speaking."

"Shut! Up!"

"Who are you calling stupid, stupid!"

"I'll tell Carol."

"The hell, man? Were you born with the unexplicable urge to be an asshole?"

"Go to bed, perv!"

Ah well, imma close it off here. Very lovely prompt. Headcannons are always fun. 👍

[writethelifeyouwant]

Dive Bar, Ch. 4/?

Pairing: Dean x Sam,  Dean x OFC (Dany) x Sam (previous chapters)

Rating: 18+

Prompt/Summary: @spnkinkbingo square - Gay Panic (eventually, I don’t know how to write short things, so the gay panic comes later). Dany and Dean hit it off at a bar and Dean is confident it’s a sure thing. But Dean doesn’t know that Dany’s has a dare to complete, and he definitely didn’t imagine his night would end with his pull inviting his little brother to come home with them too.

WC: 2262

Warnings: angstttt, mentions of incest, brother/brother incest, mentions of blow jobs

Beta: my enabler - @negans-lucille-tblr​ 😘😘

Chapter 3

                                                            ***

At their next stop off, for a dinner that was slightly more substantial than their gas station lunch, they still weren’t talking. There was nothing to talk about besides what Dean resolutely refused to address, so Sam stuck to his silent treatment. 

Sam wasn’t sure why he wanted Dean to talk about the previous night so badly. If Dean turned around and asked him how he felt about what went down, he wouldn’t have a good answer. It was probably unfair of him to expect Dean, of all people, to be able to process it if not even Sam could. Okay, it was definitely unfair, Sam thought to himself. But in true little brother fashion, there was no way he was about to own up to that. 

Why did he have to make it such a big deal? Like Dean said, so they banged the same chick, so what? 

But that’s not all you did, that voice in Sam’s head pushed in again. You blew your big brother. Looked the man in the eye, the man who practically raised you, then sucked his cock down your throat. What the hell made you think that was a good play?

Dean had enjoyed it though, hadn’t he? It definitely sounded like he had. But how does that make it better, Sam, seriously? 

It does, he argued with himself. It does because if he enjoyed it too then it’s not just me that’s screwed to all hell. 

                                                              *

Dean could tell Sam was up in his head, obsessing over the night before. And the longer Sam stayed quiet, the more Dean worried about what he might be thinking about it. He wasn’t stupid, he knew what they’d done last night wasn’t normal. Wasn’t good. Except it was. It had been so fucking good he’d felt the ghost of Sam’s fingers and lips on his dick every time he had the misfortune to think about it again. And that had been a lot. That’s why you did the right thing shutting Sam up earlier, he reminded himself. Not the time to be popping random boners like a teenager. But the silence was making him self conscious as fuck. 

Once he’d made it through his burger, Dean pulled out his phone and started cold calling hunters, asking around for any leads in the midwest. They got a dime about a string of mysterious deaths about 100 miles south; violent and fairly improbable deaths. Very distracting. Thank god. 

The Impala was a little less tense now that they had a problem to solve. Their voices sounded a little less strained when they ran through the typical gamut of supernatural evil that could be causing all the mayhem they were driving for. 

When they made it into town, it was late enough that most reputable establishments would have been annoyed with them trying to get a room at that hour. Luckily, they didn’t stay in many reputable establishments, and the motel Dean pulled up next to didn’t bat an eyelid when two guys walked in with next to no luggage and wanted to pay in cash. They saw that a lot. 

Right now, Dean wasn’t wild about what they must have thought they were there for, and his insides were screaming out - Not here to fuck, I swear! Just your standard monster hunt. Nothing to see here. Not brothers sleeping with each other, that’s for sure. But as he couldn’t reasonably set the record straight, Dean left it, and strode back to the car to grab his duffle before cracking into their motel room. Sam followed close behind, slinging his own duffle onto his chosen bed. 

                                                            *

Exiting the bathroom after he’d gotten ready for bed, he was met with Dean holding a bottle of bourbon and wearing a conciliatory expression. Still silent, Sam nodded and accepted the glass Dean handed him a moment later. 

Sam settled onto his bed, already in just his t-shirt and boxers, and sipped quietly at his drink. Dean set his glass down on the table between them and took his own turn in the bathroom. He emerged in his typical sleep gear which, Sam all of a sudden remembered, was just his boxers. 

Jeez, put a shirt on. Sam tried to look anywhere other than at his very nearly naked brother, but it picked at him that if last night wasn’t a big deal, this shouldn’t bother him. It had never bothered him before. Although… Sam thought to himself. He had looked before, noticed the muscle definition, the odd freckle that hid behind the hair on Dean’s chest.  

Sam gulped down nearly half the bourbon in one go in an attempt to burn that thought out of his mind as quickly as possible. That is not how little brothers look at their big brothers. That is not how he looks at Dean. It’s just because he likes guys, at the very least he likes having sex with them. That much he’d come to terms with at college. And it’s not like there’s many dating opportunities in hunting, and Dean didn’t know anything about Sam’s broader sexuality so he wasn’t about to hook up with a guy at a bar when Dean was expecting him to take home a pair of boobs; or more typically, sulk off to the impala while Dean and his guest got their motel room for the evening. Dean was just the only guy around most of the time, that’s all. And since Jess, and then hunting, it had been years since he’d had the chance to to really look at another guy like that. So yeah, he looked, because Dean was not a bad thing to look at. 

But right now, Sam’s brain was at war with itself, one side wanting Dean to pull on a shirt and the sweats he’d wear when it got cold, and the other side wanting to peel off the last bit of fabric covering Dean’s skin so he could get a real look. And maybe another taste. And with that, Sam downed the rest of his drink, flicked off the table lamp, and quickly tucked himself under the covers with Dean at his back, who was left to stare blankly at a lump of blankets and messy hair, his full glass of whisky in his hand. 

                                                             *

Even though they’d driven a fair bit south of where they’d been yesterday, the grass still crunched under his boots when Sam trod across it the next morning. He’d already been out for a short run, and arrived back at the motel to find an empty room, with Dean presumably out looking for food. Sam settled himself with his laptop on a picnic table and rebooted the pages he’d had open the previous night at dinner when they started looking into this case. He brought up a new window to look into a thought he’d had on his run earlier. 

“This is a crappy park.” Dean arrived with their coffee and shoved a paper cup towards Sam, which he took gratefully.

Sam chuckled incredulously when he looked up to his brother, attention momentarily drawn away from his laptop screen. “The park is fine, Dean.”

“No swings. You gotta have swings in a park.” Dean shoved half his donut into his mouth.

Sam fixed him with an admonishing stare for a moment before letting out his amusement in a sharp exhale. “Okay, sure.”

“The swings were always your favourite. You don’t remember that?” Sam shook his head puzzledly. “Yeah,” Dean huffed in the way he does. “When you were a rugrat I couldn’t pull you off those things. Said it felt like flying.” 

Sam stared at him for a moment with something behind his eyes that Dean couldn't work out. He ran out of time to try; Sam’s hair fell back in front of his eyes when he looked down to his laptop again. 

“Hey, so, get this. I’ve been looking into the local lore and I think our victims -”

“How do you have wifi right now?” Dean asked through a mouthful of the other half of his donut.

“Phone hotspot. Want to focus for a second, Dean? People are, you know, dying here.”

“Yeah yeah,” Dean grumbled. And he tried to focus on what Sam was saying about the creature that might be hanging out in the woods that he ran by that morning, Dean swore he was trying. But deciding to focus on Sam’s lips as a means to concentrate on the words that were coming out of them proved to be a thoroughly misguided strategy. Because the second he looked at Sam’s lips all he could think about was what they had looked like wrapped around his cock. What they’d felt like dragging across his skin. When Sam’s tongue flicked out to catch a drop of coffee that had beaded on the rim of the cup, Dean’s own tongue went dry, his breath caught in his throat. 

What the fuck is wrong with you, asshole? Dean hoped his distress wasn’t showing on his face. It seemed like he was doing a decent job at convincing Sam he was listening, because Sam was still talking. This was really gonna bite him in the ass later if he had no clue what Sam was saying this whole time. 

Maybe you want Sam to bite you in the ass? Fuck, no, stop it. Dean was used to arguing back and forth with some semblance of a moral compass, though it usually lost, but this time he needed it to win. He had just been sitting there remembering how he used to push a little Sammy on the swings when he was squirt sized. Jumping from that, to wanting him to suck you off does not make you a good brother. Know what it makes you? An asshole. He was supposed to protect Sammy, take care of him, not take care of him. 

“Dean,” Sam’s voice saying his name cut through the noise in his head, and he looked up at his little brother. He hadn’t realised he’d been scrubbing his hands across his face, no wonder Sam was looking at him like a sad puppy right now. “You okay, dude?” There was a hint of annoyance but it was mostly concern.

“Yeah,” Dean blinked and ran his fingers up over his face to scrub through his hair. “Totally awesome.” 

“Okay, well,” Sam didn't seem convinced, but maybe he wasn’t in the mood to push it. “Let’s go get our fed suits on and head over there.”

“Yeah, sounds like a plan.” Dean swung off the picnic bench and crumpled his coffee in one hand, tossing it to the nearest trash can. Sam snickered when it bounced off the rim, and flung his own to the same can from further back, landing it dead centre. Smirking, he set off with his laptop under his arm and Dean pulling faces behind him the whole walk back to the motel. 

“Where we heading again?” 

The glare Sam gave him made it clear he wouldn’t be getting an answer. 

                                                             *

By the time they’d made it to the local bar and restaurant that evening to grab some food and scrutinise the local wildlife for signs of supernatural proclivities, Sam was seriously confused. Dean had been acting off the whole day. And not just in the typical evasive act he pulled when he didn’t want to talk about his feelings, he was spacing out of conversations about perfectly mundane things. Witnesses had started getting annoyed with him after the third time he asked the same question Sam had literally seconds beforehand. When they’d been let into the room of one of the victims, a girl about their age - just out of college, he hadn’t made any jokes about her extensive stuffed animal collection (those bears were freakin’ everywhere man), or the vibrator not so skilfully hidden down the side of her bed. When Sam had switched the music in the car, no warning and no asking for permission, Dean hadn’t batted an eyelid. And Sam had changed it to smooth jazz. 

Now Sam was standing, bewildered, by a barrel serving as a table that he’d been about to sit down at, because when he’d grab Dean’s shoulder to direct him towards the one empty table in the vicinity of the bar, Dean had broken his grip so fast you’d have thought Sam had insulted their mother. Dean came back from the bar with two beers and some menus, dropping all of them unceremoniously onto the barrel-top, and that’s when Sam noticed. 

This was the first time Dean had taken off his fed jacket all day and now he was rolling up his sleeves and loosening his tie, unwinding from the persona and his bracelets were gone. This was the weird thing to end all the weird things that Dean had done all day. Since Sam had given Dean those stupid bracelets nearly a decade ago, he couldn’t remember a single day when Dean wasn’t wearing them. 

It wasn’t like they were valuable or anything. It was wooden craft store beads and elephant-hair cord that Sam had strung together at a summer camp when he was twelve. And he’d been embarrassed to give them to Dean when he got home, wondered why he thought Dean would want some lame homemade souvenir, but Dean had coaxed the presents out of Sam, and insisted that he loved them. And that was that, they’d been on his wrists ever since. But not today. Sam’s lungs deflated. 

Fuck. 

***

Tags: @negans-lucille-tblr​ @hawkerz12​ @babybrotherandthedemon​ @dylansbabygirl24​ @mineshinamary​ @popsensationnicole23​ @spn-problems​ @donthateme454​ @doyouknowsamw​ @peridottea91​@delightfulbakeryaliendeputy @fictionallemons​ @petitgateau911​ @natastic​ @marvelfansworld​ @delightfullykrispypeach​ @akshi8278​ @crashlyrose​ @miufel​ @lyarr24​ @itsthedoctah10​ @kiss-my-peachy-arse​ @leftlokiofpuppy​ @tftumblin​ @devilsbby​ @alice101macwil​ @caitlinvd​ @j-ai-adore-dean​ @disneysloot​ @half-closeted-bi-girl​ @deandreamernp​

[angeltrapz]

heyyy dude🖤 i come bearing chainshipping Qs! (+ I’m still working on an answer 2 ur ask, today’s just been kinda a nightmare skfjdjdh— will finish + post it 2nite tho) BUT …. what kind of pets do u think they have? one of my fav hcs is that Adam had a just ratty orange street cat who was his Favorite of all the ones he fed, n that Lawrence adopts 4 him as a surprise. but do they have any other pets currently? dream pets that just aren’t realistic but Maybe Someday? pets Diana wants? — ALSO ways Adam helps Lawrence w his recovery? moments where it rly sinks in for Lawrence that like.. he’s not alone, they’re in this together?

Thank you I LOVE questions like this!!! (I'm sorry your day's been a nightmare,, mine's heading that way so it was nice to just see this in my inbox after being busy today <33 take your time though!!)

Pets:

I personally also love the idea of Adam getting attached to a specific cat he fed at his apartment, I think about that scene in the script all the time!! Honestly I've given a lot of thought to that and the way I see it playing out is that when he comes back to his apartment after the hospital (since he and Lawrence definitely don't live together right away), and the cat is still hanging around, almost like it was waiting for him to get back - and maybe it was - and he's just... he's lonely, he doesn't want to be alone anymore, not after what he went through, so he just kind of. Picks her up and is like "I don't know how I'm gonna do it but I'm gonna get you to a vet just to get you checked out and then you're staying with me." He brings her in that night and has a fairly easy time of it, considering she's grown to allow him quite close, letting him stroke her back or her head while she's eating; he smiles for the first time in what feels like forever when he brings a hand down to pet her again and she bumps it against his palm.

I like the idea of Lawrence coming over one night (maybe because Adam can't be alone, maybe because he himself can't be alone; regardless, he agrees to come see Adam) and noticing her (Adam names her Bug) when she jumps up onto Adam's ratty couch next to him after he sits down. I personally HC that Lawrence's family at least had a cat or two growing up, so it's not like he's never had one; it's just been a long time since he's socialized with one! But Bug is very friendly, and mostly she just kind of sniffs at him to check him out. She eventually settles herself in his lap after she seems to deem him safe, and when Adam comes back from the kitchen with two beers since that's all he has right now, his heart just kinda melts a little bit. He can't help it. Bug took a while to warm up to Adam, but it seems like maybe some attention was all she really needed.

After Lawrence asks about her and Adam tells him about her past, he asks if Adam's gotten her to the vet yet, just in case; upon getting a nervous little "No, I'm not sure how I'm gonna afford that yet" from Adam, Lawrence is the one to be like "Well, how about we bring her in, get her caught up on shots and such, and I'll cover it?" and of course Adam denies this vehemently at first, because he didn't say that to make Lawrence feel guilty, but Lawrence sees right through him + already knows this and so he argues right back that it's fine, it's no trouble, Bug clearly means a lot to him and he wants Adam to be happy, and well... that shuts Adam up, at least for a bit. Especially when he catches Lawrence scratching her around the ears a little, hears her purr.

He does try to pay Lawrence back later, though. It's just how he is.

Of course that means Bug goes with him when he eventually moves in with Lawrence, and she becomes their pet!! Diana LOVES her when she first gets to meet her, naturally, and Bug seems to love her too!! Honestly Bug is surprisingly patient, though Lawrence does make sure to kind of step in and tell her about what's okay and what might not be - especially because Diana is used to dogs, and there's a pretty big difference there. It's good though, and she plays with Bug as much as she can when she's over on the weekends! She's suuuper ecstatic about having a pet again.

As for pets Diana might want, honestly? She'd probably like another dog! In the first SAW there's a pic in Lawrence's wallet of Diana with a dog. My HC for that is that it was a sheltie Diana had named Lassie that they had to rehome due to Lawrence + Alison's work schedules at the time,, Diana has always wanted another pet after that so Bug is kind of like a godsend in that regard, but she's super fond of dogs. My heart is very drawn to the idea that Adam takes her to a shelter once (after an extensive talk with Lawrence beforehand, because again, Diana is only there every other weekend during the school year, so it'll be them taking care of the dog for the majority of the time; they both agree that it’d be good for her, though) and they look. They walk around for a bit before Diana darts over to a scruffy-looking mutt, a far cry from the pedigree dog she once had. The tag says his name is Benji (”Another ‘b’ name,” Diana tells him excitedly), he’s only a few years old, and he sniffs at her hand when she presents it. It takes Adam a moment to realize it, but when he does, he can hardly contain himself - Benji has three legs. You wouldn’t know it by the way he moves around, though! And Diana’s already made a connection with him...

And, well, they have the stuff necessary. That was something he and Lawrence had gone out and done prior to telling Diana they were getting a dog, just so they’d be prepared.

A quick call to Lawrence and it’s a done deal. Diana sits in the back with him, talking to him about how much he’s going to love it at their house, how he’ll get to meet Bug and Lawrence and how it’ll be so much fun, and Adam is up in the driver’s seat just like... wow. This is my little family. It’s something that felt so unattainable for Adam in the past, but like. A boyfriend, a kind-of-step-daughter, a cat and a dog. A house. He doesn’t cry or anything like that, but it’s just one of those things, y’know? It hits him a little. I know I talk about that a lot but for these two, it really is the little things like that.

Thankfully, he and Bug get along! That was something that both Lawrence and Adam were worried about, but it seems unfounded as the most they did was sniff at each other and then went back to what they were doing.

When Lawrence comes home, Benji is laying down on his new bed beside the couch, and so for a moment doesn’t realize there’s anything different about him - until the sound of the door opening + Diana’s excited greeting wake him up, and Lawrence is in the middle of saying “So this is the guy, huh?” when Benji kinda. Hops over to him in the way that he does, a way that Adam (and Diana!) are quickly growing fond of, and Lawrence pauses in the threshold. He doesn’t quite crouch down, because that can be a little hard for him, esp after he just got home from work, but he leans down as much as he can and just... has a moment? He pets Benji’s head for a good few minutes, earning a few kisses because that’s the kind of dog Benji is, and when he straightens up after hugging Diana, he just looks at Adam and smiles, and that’s all the confirmation he needs. The two of them end up being pretty close <3

Dream pets!! I agree with your tags on that one pic I reblogged that Adam would get one of those werewolf cats!! They're called Lykois and they're awesome!!! I don’t know when/if he would get one, but I love the idea of him having one!!! Esp bc they’re a breed that generally works well with others, so Bug and Benji would be fine! I feel like he’d let Lawrence or Diana name the cat if it didn’t already have one too. <33

You wouldn’t know it by looking at him, but Lawrence has always been fond of birds? He’s not sure he actively wants a pet bird, though, just that he likes them and thinks they’re neat. His grandma had one, a green ringneck parakeet, that he always thought was SO COOL growing up bc he talked and as a kid that’s so interesting!! He mostly appreciates them from afar, though; he’d hate to get a pet he couldn’t take care of.

-

Moments Lawrence realizes it’s not just him in this:

We’ve both touched on this before, I think, but Lawrence has a tendency to bottle things up, push them out of the forefront of his mind to deal with later, and I think this absolutely extends to asking for/receiving help for anything post-Bathroom. Part of it is that he feels he doesn’t deserve it (though Adam strongly disagrees), but another part of it is that he’s supposed to be better now, he got out, they won and Jigsaw lost, so why does he still find it hard to sleep at night? Why can’t he do the things he used to even with the prosthetic? And it takes a long time for him to realize that Adam isn’t just... there, he wants to help, even when things are ugly and gritty and not easy.

A big one is helping him care for the stump where they’d had to amputate a bit more up his leg. I think at first that’s something he carries a lot of shame over, not being able to move around as easily/without help, ESP for those first few months - and it’s not something that really goes away after he’s fitted with + given a proper prosthetic and received a cane. I think the first time Adam assists him in washing the stump is one of the first times it really hits him that he’s not alone in this; it’s something he typically does on his own, with the door shut so no one has to see, but his hands are shaking so badly and he’d had a long day and so after a good ten minutes Adam gently opens the door, because he knew that’s what Lawrence was in there for + it’d been a while, and he just sees him sitting on the edge of the tub, slacks in a heap off to the side because it’s easier than folding the pantleg up, hands folded in his lap and head bowed, whole body trembling and skin pale, and he just mumbles, “I can’t do it. I can’t.”

Adam doesn’t turn away. He doesn’t think it’s disgusting, doesn’t see it as something he should be afraid of or abhor; in fact, he sits down on the floor at Lawrence’s feet where he’s already got the basin with warm water ready, takes one of the special, soft washcloths that are only ever used for this purpose, and makes sure there’s enough soap on it before he sets to work. His touch is careful, gentle, and completely unhesitant, and Lawrence’s fingers go white-knuckled where they’re gripping the edge of the tub, and his shoulders are heaving because he is trying so hard not to cry but he can’t help it. If Adam notices, he doesn’t say anything, at least at first - but once he’s done + has patted it dry as carefully as he possibly can, he kisses the flesh there, just once, and Lawrence breaks down. He has to carefully help Lawrence move off of the edge of the tub so he won’t fall, and Lawrence’s head drops to his shoulder and he cries, harder than he has in a long time, unable to do anything other than feel. The fact that Adam holds him through it, tells him it’s okay, he loves him, it’s alright, is something that hits Lawrence all at once. Adam didn’t have to do that, but he did it anyway, he did it because he wanted to. That’s huge for Lawrence.

Another one I think about is the first time Lawrence gathers up the courage to wake Adam up after he’s had a horrible nightmare. As we’ve both mentioned before, he hates feeling like he’s burdening Adam with these things, knows he gets just as little sleep and hates to disrupt it when Adam actually gets some decent rest, but Adam has told him that he wants to be woken up, he wants to be there for him like Lawrence is when he needs it. This would probably happen after that first time he follows Lawrence into his office post-nightmare and consoles him, so it’s like... the next biggest step, in a way. It’s the first time he actively seeks out that sort of comfort, which is a good amount of progress made.

Lawrence doesn’t exactly wake up screaming but it’s a near thing, chest heaving and shoulders hunched up around his ears because jesus christ that was way too vivid, his heart is threatening to beat right out of his chest, and he absolutely cannot be awake on his own right now. Neither of them are deep sleepers anymore, so it’s fairly easy to wake Adam up, but as soon as he does Lawrence just kind of... freezes, because what does he say? He doesn’t really want to talk about what it is that he saw, but doesn’t Adam deserve a reason for being woken up like that? So he’s just sitting there as Adam sits himself up, mouth opening and closing because what does he say, but it’s okay that he can’t talk. Adam doesn’t mind. He just places his hands very gently on Lawrence’s cheeks (he’s crying, he realizes then), presses his forehead to Lawrence’s, and holds him there. He moves one of Lawrence’s hands to his chest so he can feel his heartbeat and every breath he takes, because he knows that’s what helps.

He doesn’t make Lawrence explain, doesn’t try to get him to stop crying, just holds him through it while he lets himself be upset in a way that he’d been suppressing for so long in the care of someone who loves him. Eventually, staying close like this, Lawrence slowly stops sobbing; his breaths even out, his eyes slip closed, he’s okay. For now, he’s okay. And Adam just kind of pulls him close, manages to lay them both down with Lawrence’s head on his chest just so he can still hear his heart, and for the first time, it kind of hits Lawrence that he feels like he can go back to sleep. He’s never felt like that post-nightmare, too worked up to get himself to relax enough to do so, and again, it hits him that he is not alone in this. Adam wants to be woken up, wants to hold him while he cries, wants to be there. After that, it’s easier for him to seek out comfort like that, to ask for help, because he’s kind of got undeniable proof now, doesn’t he?

There are smaller things too, like when they need to park somewhere and they just can’t find a spot, and there’s a parking garage nearby that’s sure to have a space open - but Lawrence can’t do that. He can’t. He doesn’t even do that at work anymore. And instead of being frustrated, Adam’s just like “It’s fine, we’ll find a spot eventually, don’t worry about it,” and Lar’s just like Huh. He’s Not Upset. He Could Be But He Isn’t. It’s still something that blows him away, sometimes. He ends up with a hand on Adam’s knee, a silent way to say thank you for understanding. Adam just smiles back, and Lawrence knows that he’s been heard.

Another one (+ one we’ve both touched on!) is during the times where Lawrence has holed up in his office after a rough day because he’s got paperwork to do and he needs some kind of distraction, but in doing that he’s thrown himself into a distressing loop of I’m keeping myself away from my partner, this is what I did before and look at how that affected Alison, what am I doing, while furiously trying to focus on the paperwork he wants so badly to take him away from confronting his emotions right that second - but then Adam pops in with a snack and a water bottle, just like “Hey, I know it’s been hard today, but I brought you some stuff. I’m gonna go chill over here but you can keep doing what you’re doing,” and it’s just like... that level of understanding. Knowing Adam is there, that he doesn’t resent Lawrence for doing this, making it known that he’s there when Lar’s ready to talk? Oof. He finds it a lot easier to work through it like that.

Eventually he’s even able to allow Adam to draw him away if he senses that Lawrence is frustrating himself too much, and it’s just like. That’s progress!! That’s good + healthy!! And it’s things like this that tell Lawrence he’s seen, he’s heard, he’s trying his best and it’s recognized. He’s not alone, just as Adam isn’t. They’re there for each other. It’s okay that he still struggles. They both do, even if it’s in different ways, and that’s okay. Just!!! I think abt this a lot!!!

[what-is-your-plan-today]

CSI Rogers and Barnes: The Serious Cereal Serial Killer Episode 16: Is This Thing Rolling...

Co-written with @icanfeelastormbrewing​

Part 1

Summary: Having figured out previously where Rumlow has taken Katie, it’s now a race against time for The 4 Avengers to reach her before it’s too late. Armed with…yeah…ok, actually, we’ll let you read that bit because frankly this entire chapter is ridiculously fun!!!

Warnings: Bad Language words.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N:  LONG update here guys so we split it into 2 for you to read as you wish. I know we said Episode 15 was the penultimate chapter but we had too much to cram in so…THIS is the Penultimate chapter! Episode 17 will be the last, followed by an Epilogue.

Anyway, enjoy!!!

Chapter Song: Everything by Michael Buble  

CSI R&B Masterlist  // Main Masterlist 

You’re a falling star, you’re the getaway car, you’re the line in the sand when I go too far. You’re the swimming pool on an August day and you’re the perfect thing to see.

Almost two and a half months after the unit cracked the case of the Serious Cereal Serial killer, as Thor had coined it one morning while watching Bucky scarf down a bowl of oatmeal at such a rate that he almost choked on it, everything seemed to be fitting into place. 

Rumlow and Wanda were rotting in jail. The former had been taken to a prison of maximum security in another county where he had been isolated while he waited for his trial to take place, whereas Wanda had been taken to the female wing, called Nidavellir, at the Nine Realms prison.

Katie had been back at the 99 for almost two months now and was working hand in hand with Peralta, which had given Santiago some relief as Katie was able to appease her husband’s excited and unorthodox methods. Gina had also been back at the 99 full time since another police technician, Scott Lang, previously in charge of the switchboard, had been appointed by Fury as the new Captain’s assistant at the 101st. To say he had been star-struck by the most famous police Captain in the NYPD would be an understatement, wringing Steve’s hand up and down for what felt like 5 minutes.

All in all Steve and Katie were doing well. They were in a happy domestic arrangement. She had moved in with Steve the moment Tony and Pepper had set a date for the wedding, even before she was taken by Rumlow after they had cracked the case and well before she decided to finish her secondment in DC and come back to Brooklyn permanently. And two months later she had given up pretending it was a temporary arrangement.

In fact, one Sunday morning while they were cuddling on the sofa, after an exhausting night and an invigorating breakfast, Katie had shyly asked Steve what he would think if she said she didn't want to find her own place but stay with him till they both found a place of their own. Steve had then flashed her a smile that would have lit up all of Brooklyn on a blackout night and had kissed the life out of her before commenting on how that would be everything a man could ask for. Earning another blinding smile from Katie and a groan from Bucky who, as usual, had shown up from nowhere when he was least expected and headed for the kitchen mumbling something about being fed up of mushy remarks and having to get better ear plugs to avoid having to go to therapy.

This particular Saturday morning, Katie was slumped over the breakfast bar in the kitchen, suffering from the mother of all hangovers after returning from Pepper’s bachelorette party in the small hours. And she was whimpering like a dog when Steve slid a plate of toast and an orange juice over to her.

"You need to eat something, doll."

"Trust me, I really don’t." she said, her voice muffled by the arm that was supporting her head.

Steve was trying to be sympathetic, he really was, but he was also having a hard time simply keeping himself from laughing. Frankly, the whole scene was hilarious. She had been in a right state when she had got home and he’d had to put her to bed once she had finished puking and he had arrested and cuffed her pumps for murdering her feet as per Katie’s request. So he let out a soft chuckle and she groaned as she squinted up at him.

"You know, it’s so not fair." she said blinking at the kitchen lights which felt like piercing her eyes.

"What isn’t?" Steve asked as he poured himself some coffee.

"I came home looking like a raccoon with my make-up smeared all over…and you…" she said as she waved her hand up and down his body "you still looked gorgeous even with that black eye."

"I’m surprised you can remember anything about what you or I looked like last night."

"When I go get my eyelashes done, remind me to take a photo of yours to show the beauty therapist what I want." she continued her ramblings ignoring his comment just before her head fell back on her arms.

Steve watched her and snorted.

"Don’t laugh at me." she whined, her voice once again muffled by her arms.

"I’m not. I’m trying to decide whether you’re still drunk or hungover." he said while he took a seat on the stool next to her.

"Trust me, this is 100% hangover…" she said peeking up at him. “How are you not even remotely ill?"

Steve rolled his eyes as if the answer couldn't have been any simpler. “I didn’t drink enough to be hungover. I know my limits."

"Hmmm yeah, not enough to avoid getting into a bar brawl." And just as she said it her eyes flicked to the bruise along his left cheekbone and eye socket. She sat up to trail her fingers gently over it. "You gonna tell me the full story about what happened?"

"I already told you before Doll, it was some drunken punk in a bar picking a fight. I had to put him in his place, that’s all." 

"Yeah, and he put your eye in a dark place from the looks of it." she jabbed at him.

"Trust me, he ended up far worse."

Steve saw her watching him and he tried to hold her gaze as best he could, working on keeping his face straight. But it was proving hard work seeing as he was the worst of liars, he always had been. For a moment he thought she was gonna argue but she didn’t, whether she believed him or was simply too hungover to bother pulling him up on it he had no idea. He was just grateful she didn't.

"Sure he did. Anyway, what are you and your black eye doing today?" she asked.

"I’m on groomsman duty, my suit was a little short last time I tried it on so Tony wants to make sure it fits.” He replied, thankful of the change of subject, trying to sound as casual as possible, when a sudden idea came to him. “Hey, how about we head to Ma’s for lunch? I can meet you there? That is if you feel better later. You got anything else planned, baby?"

Katie reached for the orange juice before answering "Yeah, lying on the couch waiting for death to come and take me."

Steve chuckled and leaned over to press a gentle kiss to her temple but he saw her flinch as Bucky made his accustomed loud entrance in the kitchen.

"Hey doll face..." he trailed off as he looked at her, taking in her appearance and then snorted."Yikes, not looking very doll face today."

"Die Barnes" she bit back at him.

"Gladly Stark, but before I leave this world remember you promised to help me find my suit for your brother’s wedding today." Bucky informed her, a side smile on his face and his arms crossed over his chest.

Katie then stilled "That was today?" she asked with a croaky voice.

"Yup." Bucky said and headed to the fridge to fetch some milk. "And seeing as his wedding is next week we are running out of time."

"Fuck my life." Katie groaned as Bucky poured some cereal into a bowl. "Can’t you ask anyone else? My head is killing me and I can’t feel my feet thanks to being in those ridiculous heels all night…"

"Not happening." Bucky shook his head. "Sam has some reports to finish today, but says he will join us later, and I need a woman’s advice."

"Well I don’t feel like being a woman today, Buck. Have some mercy." she said in a pleading tone, earning a chuckle from Steve who was amusingly watching the interaction while he munched his breakfast.

"Maybe I would if you hadn’t sent me the video of the stripper." Bucky took the big guns out.

Suddenly Steve spluttered on his coffee "What?"

"I thought you might enjoy it." she shrugged. "Anyway, I only did that because it was that Gemini Flannagan dude you told me about."

"Gemini Flannagan…huh, no shit?" Steve said as he dried a few coffee drops that had landed on the breakfast bar with a paper towel.

"Wanna see?" Bucky asked him with a grin. 

"No, why the fuck would I want to see that?" Steve frowned, visibly disgusted.

"Because in the background to all the thrusting and gyrating dearest Gemini is doing, there’s a very interesting conversation going on between your lovely girl here and Natasha where Stark is clearly saying, and I’m paraphrasing here, that his cock is nothing to write home about because yours is bigger."

At that point Katie could only groan and hide her head in her hands. 

But Bucky continued as he was having a ball "... and for the record, punk, if that’s true, I don’t know how you stand up straight." And just like that he took a spoonful of cereal and watched the pair of them. 

Steve was sure he was flushing, he could feel his ears and neck burning but he was also a bit smug, well ok, not a bit, he was full on smug. That most certainly was not a bad thing for his girl to be crowing about…

And then it suddenly hit him what Bucky had said.

"Hang on…he was naked? Like…did he strip?” Katie rolled her eyes and Bucky smiled at Steve's naivety "Clue's in the name…STRIPPER. Duh." she said.

“Like he was completely naked?”

“Well not completely, no.” Katie said, “He had this little leather thong pouch type thing covering his, crotch, but it was tight enough not to leave anything to the imagination.”

"You know, if you ever get tired of chasing bad guys there’s a gig there. You already have the uniform." Bucky told his friend as he munched his cereal.

Steve, who was now bright red, tilted his head at him. "Buck, just don’t."

Bucky smiled and decided to let it go but then he saw Katie looking at Steve and a wicked smile flicked across her face.

"Can you strip for me, Captain?" she asked suggestively.

Steve groaned and stood up, still flushing. "Just eat your toast and take a painkiller. I’m going for a shower."

"I love it when you put on your Captain's voice…" she purred, which did nothing to stop Steve’s blush, quite the contrary. And he rolled his eyes, trying to maintain a straight face as she continued "Are you stripping to get in the shower, Captain?"

Bucky laughed loudly as Steve sighed and looked him. "Keep her out of trouble, punk." He ordered.

"I’m not some mischief making teenager, Steve." she protested.

"Then stop acting like one." Steve said sternly, hands on his hips and it didn’t pass him by that he was really adopting his Captain stance.

"Says the man with the black eye." she glared at him and Bucky sniggered.

"I’m going for a shower now. Behave with uncle Bucky sweetheart." he said, winking an eye at her. And as he turned to leave Katie threw the toast from her plate at him but missed completely and it ended up on the kitchen's floor by the door.

"Fuck you, Rogers." she shouted in frustration.

They heard Steve's laughter die down as the bathroom door shut.

"We don’t play with food, little miss." Bucky mock scolded Katie as he picked the toast up off the floor.

"You can piss off too."

Bucky laughed, now she was being a brat. "Sorry, but you’re cute when you’re angry and hungover."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" she frowned at him.

"A James Buchanan Barnes original, yes."

"Well, given how I look and feel this morning, I’ll take it."  She breathed in and nodded behind him. "Pass me the Advil, will ya Buck?"

"Sure, doll face." he said as he reached into the cupboard over the sink and tossed the packet down on the breakfast bar. "Take a few, I need you at your best this morning."

"Just my luck." she said, taking the painkillers from the packet.

Bucky chuckled and poured himself a coffee. "Blame your brother, if he had chosen me as a groomsman, I’d have my suit sorted now."

Katie snorted and tossed the pills into her mouth, taking a gulp of orange juice and swallowing. 

"I mean, I get why Rhodes is his best man, like they’ve been friends forever but Rogers, Wilson and Banner as ushers, really? What about me?"

Katie looked at him "You really don’t want me to answer that, do you?"

"What you trying to say?" Bucky asked, not understanding why his question was so odd.

"Brucie and Sam are his closest friends at work and Steve’s…"

"The guy fucking his sister." he cut her off.

Katie narrowed her eyes "I was gonna say his Captain, ass hole."

Bucky simply grinned at her over his coffee mug. He loved their little bickering moments.

***** Steve pulled up outside Tony’s and headed up to the door of the large brownstone terraced house. He sighed as he rang the bell. He had been sure about this but now he didn't know if he was anymore. Anyways, he was already there and he'd better roll with it. 

"Oh hey Rogers, wasn’t expecting you." Tony greeted him as he opened the door.

"Hi Tony."

"Eurgh, that black eye looks worse now than it did last night. What did Katie say?" he said pointing at Steve's face

"Nothing much. I told her it was just some drunken ass hole causing a scene. She doesn’t need to know anything else." he shrugged.

Tony arched an eyebrow at him "Ooh, Captain straight lace telling lies."

"It’s not a lie, just not the whole truth." Steve explained with a smile. 

He had begun to take a liking at Tony's teasing, as long as it wasn't too personal that is. But he had to concede since they had rescued Katie from Rumlow the scientist had toned down his little jabs at the Captain. 

"Whatever, your funeral when she finds out."  Tony brushed Steve's explanations off with a wave of his hand. "And speaking of my sister, where is she?"

"Shopping with Bucky…complete with one hell of a hangover." 

"Yeah Pepper ain't much better. Made her one of my miracle beverages. Looked worse on the way back up, which is saying something…Come on in." 

Tony stepped back and let Steve into the tiled hallway, shutting the door behind him. He led the way, taking him through to the kitchen and Steve caught a glimpse of the living room when they stopped at the door.

"Pepper's on the sofa... dying. Probably best we leave her to it." Tony explained when he saw Steve was looking in her direction.

Steve smiled and nodded as Tony looked at him. "So Kiddo is shopping with a hangover? Bet she loved that." he scoffed.

"Well, you know her…never one to let someone down when she’s promised something. Bucky needs a suit for the wedding so…" 

"Oh, shit, yeah…er…let me warn you, I was in the middle of a thing with our wedding planner." 

Steve paused and turned to face him, raising an eyebrow "What do you mean?"

Tony had never been one for warnings, he just let people draw conclusions by allowing them to dive in head first. He just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

"You’ll see." Tony said before heading into the kitchen.

Steve frowned, there was not a spark of wickedness in Tony's brown eyes when he uttered those words as he would have expected. Instead Steve could feel the exasperation in his voice.

"Steve this is Grandmaster, our wedding planner. Grandmaster this is Steve Rogers, my sister’s boyfriend." 

Steve looked at Tony, mouthing Grandmaster?  What kind of fucking name was that? he thought. Tony didn't bother answering. Instead, he merely took out his glasses and rolled his eyes, a gesture Steve knew only too well to mean ‘don’t ask’ as it was identical to the one Katie made.

"Nice to meet you, Steve Rogers…you’re a lucky man." the man suddenly spoke.

"Sorry, I’m not…I don’t…what?" Steve was utterly confused and finished a little lamely. His brain was having a hard time registering the wedding planner's flamboyant appearance. He was wearing a sparkly golden jacket even Bucky would have sworn off in the 80s. But his greying spiky hair and blue eyeliner combination was what had Steve floundering for words. Then, what the man had said registered and he frowned. “Lucky man?”

"Your girlfriend, Tony’s sister, I met her at the dress fitting a few weeks ago. She’s an exquisite little thing." Grandmaster explained softly.

"Oh, err, yeah… yes she is. Thank you.”

Steve saw Grandmaster bat his eyelashes at him as if to acknowledge his words. He looked at Tony once more, utterly dumbfounded. Tony simply shook his head in a just roll with it gesture and Steve suddenly realised exactly why Tony had issued a warning.

He then looked at the large table which was adorned with bits of paper, one of which looked like a seating plan, and suddenly he felt like he was intruding. 

"Look, if this is a bad time I can come back…"

"Oh, no, Anthony and I were just discussing the brunch…" Grandmaster explained and grinned at Tony.

"For the last time, it’s a Reception, idiot." Tony hissed.

"No, can you…you know I don’t like that word." Grandmaster shook his head, cringing.

"What? Idiot."

"No, the…why would I not like the word idiot? I mean the R word."

Steve stood there, watching the exchange between the two men, his mouth hanging open in confusion. That Greatmaster was certainly a greater piece of work than Tony, which was saying something. Or was it Grandmaster? Whatever...

Tony let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It’s not a brunch, it's an afternoon... you know what? Fine. The post wedding meal."

"Ok, better." Grandmaster grinned again at him.

Steve now understood why Tony had done nothing but moan about this guy for the last few months. He was clearly a fucking sandwich short of a full picnic.

"As for the seating…just do whatever. I don’t much care." Tony conceded, visibly fed up. There's only so much a man can take after all.

"Alright, seeing as Miss Potter is not available, I’ll work on this later and email it over." the man agreed.

"It’s Miss Potts." Tony practically growled and Steve could see he was about to lose it.

"She’s more open to my ideas than you are Anthony." the wedding planner observed, not in the least fazed by his client's angry tone.

Tony stared at him, blinking. His mouth hanging slightly open in a look Steve had seen only a handful of times before, when something had rendered him speechless, which was no mean feat, before the scientist took a deep sigh. 

"Whatever."

And just like that Grandmaster moved graciously around the table. Steve watched him as he gathered his papers up and popped them into a leather briefcase. He then fastened it with a click and looked at Tony. 

"By the way, it smells in here…burnt toast I think.”

"Yeah, well I like my bread well done." Tony's voice was deadpan and Steve snorted as Grandmaster nodded with a smile. The guy had no idea Tony was literally making fun of him to his face.

"Alright, guess I’ll be leaving now. Bye, Anthony. Nice to meet you Mr Stevenson."

Steve's brain had not quite registered the man's name mixed-up when he heard Tony hiss through gritted teeth "It’s Rogers." He was literally lost for words. So when Grandmaster left the room Tony looked at him. 

"Don’t mind him, took him some time until he stopped calling me Mr Starch. That’s why I don’t rip his tongue out for calling me Anthony."

"Yeah erm…where on Earth did you find him?"

“I’m not actually sure he’s from Earth.” Tony mumbled before he shook his head. “He was some acquaintance of Banner. Thor knew him too. He runs a company called Sakaar. They deal with events planning. And orgies, apparently." Tony explained, rubbing his temples.

Steve thought Tony had aged a decade in the ten minutes he had been dealing with his wedding planner and gave them a sympathetic smile just before his brain registered the last part. "What?"

"Don’t ask." Tony said before clapping his hands together. "Anyway, what can I do for you, Cap? You want a coffee or…?

"No thanks, I’m good."  Steve cleared his throat. With all the Grandmaster dude shenanigans he had forgotten the real purpose of his visit and suddenly he could feel his palms were sweaty with nerves.  "I... err... wanted to talk to you alone. There’s this thing I’ve been meaning to ask you…"

Tony arched his eyebrow. "Me?"

"Yes." Steve replied way too fast. "I mean, I wanted to ask you before I ask her…"

"Her? Are you talking about Katie?"

Steve lowered his head and sighed "Yes."

"Oh, I see what’s going on." Tony said leaning against the counter, folding his arms.

"You do?" Steve asked, lifting his head up and looking at him shyly.

"No thanks to you, you’re a mess Rogers." Tony said, a gentle smile curling on his lips. "Come with me."

Steve frowned before following him "Tony, I…"

"Trust me, I have something to show you." Tony stopped and turned to look at him with a soft smile.

Steve took a breath and followed him. They headed down the hall then up the stairs and into Tony's study. Once there Steve saw Tony sit on his desk chair and begin tapping on the keyboard. Just as the screen sprang to life Tony explained.  "See dad had a thing for recording videos, kind of like pep talks for the future." He pressed a few buttons more and moved the mouse before continuing. "After the one he recorded for that old journalist Mr Lee, well it got me thinking there had to be more. So I started searching through his old archives and among other things, I found something I think you’ll find interesting."

Steve frowned "What do you mean?"

Tony looked at him for an instant before looking back at the screen and smiled as he selected a file. "Lets just say my dear old pop was a visionary…"

Steve looked at him, he had no idea what the fuck was going on. Tony stood up and motioned for Steve to take his place on the desk chair 

"Just watch this, then you can ask me what you wanted to ask me."

He leaned over Steve to click another button and the screen suddenly displayed Howard, perched on his desk, scotch in hand. Steve felt a shiver running down his spine.

"Is this thing rolling?" Howard asked the person behind the camera as he swirled his glass around. 

 "Yeah, it’s on…" a voice from off screen confirmed.

"Alright…" Howard took a swig of scotch and cleared his throat. "Tony…congratulations on being the only person I know who is nosey enough and clever enough to crack into my archives…anyway, if you’re watching this it means something has happened to me before I got the chance to tell you all this in person so…."

Steve watched as Tony pressed a key to fast forward the recording a bit, he was winding to find something, before he stopped and the screen showed Howard giving a chuckle and taking another mouth of scotch.

"So yeah, there’s always a secret door." he said before taking a deep breath. "Now I want you to show this next bit to Rogers."

Steve’s eyes widened and he felt his heart start beating fast.

"Steve, you’re like a second son to me, you know that. I hope you’re doing well. I have no doubt you’ve made Captain by now, possibly even Commissioner, depending on how old this recording is. Not too old I hope. Anyway, I digress. I’m willing to bet you’ve cracked a few big cases too."

Steve gulped as he watched his old mentor continue to talk to him through the screen. He couldn't even tear his eyes from the screen to see Tony's reaction.

"Good job son. Now, onto something far more important to me. I hope you and my princess have realised by now you’re made for each other, because I already know you are."

Steve’s breath caught in his throat, his heart was now pounding.

"So if you’re watching this, and you’ve finally figured that out, then I’m giving you my blessing son. If you haven’t figured it out, then you’re a pair of dumbasses." Howard groaned at the last part and Steve gave a soft snort of laughter, shaking his head. "I’d be over the moon knowing you two have finally realised what has been in front of you for the past god knows how long."

"10 fucking years…" Tony mumbled from where he was leaning against a bookcase behind Steve, arms crossed and his right hand covering his mouth and jaw.

Howard then swallowed a little and wiped at his eye as he looked down at his feet taking a deep breath, clearly emotional, before he looked back up.

"Just look after her, treat her well and make her happy. I’m trusting you with one of my most treasured accomplishments son. And I only wish I could be there to walk her down the aisle to hand her over to the person I’d trust her with over anyone." Howard smiled and then thought about something a moment before he continued. “Just don’t try to understand her.” Howard shrugged “Because the minute you think you know what’s going on inside a woman’s head is the moment you’re goose is cooked.”

At that he sat up straight, slipping back into the Howard Steve knew all too well and looked at the camera.

"Ok, you can stop that thing now…" Steve heard him say before the screen went blank.

The room fell silent and Steve swallowed, trying to digest what he had just seen. The lump in his throat felt like a damned golf ball. Seeing his old mentor, his girl’s dad like that, in such an unguarded way had really made him emotional. When he recovered a bit he turned to look at Tony, who was in turn looking at him, and saw his eyes were misting over slightly. "What was it you wanted to ask?"

Steve chuckled "You still gonna make me say it?"

"Humour me Rogers, I like to see you squirm." Tony teased him, regaining his composure.

Steve took a deep breath before speaking, hoping his voice would come out as steady as possible given the circumstances.

"Tony, I’m gonna ask Katie to marry me. And it would mean the world to me, if I had your blessing."

Tony smiled and looked at his feet before he glanced back up "Then you got it, Steve."

Steve felt a feeling of relief wash over him, the fact he had used his name, for the first time in years, and not some stupid nickname didn’t pass him by. He smiled widely as Tony extended his hand, before he pulled him into a brotherly hug. 

 “Scotch?” Tony asked him as he pulled back.

Steve nodded, smiling widely. "Absolutely."

CONTINUED IN PART 2

[jimimn]

HI ITS ME WHO'S NOT OVER JJK BLONDE SELFIE AND WILL NEVER BE -💫

HELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO <33333333

HONESTLY ITS THE WAY YOH SAY SUCH NICE THINGS AND I DISAPPEAR FOR DAYS ON END BECAUSE INCONSISTENCY BLEEDS INTO EVERY CORNER OF MY LIFE FNEKALKD BUT I'M GETTING DONE WITH MY FIRST LEG OF EXAMS ON MONDAY SO YAY TO THAT!! OKAY I THINK WE'LL MOVE SLOWLY WITH BABY STEPS JUNGKOOK DROPPED SOME SELCAS JIMIN DROPPED SOME SELCAS IN THE WORDS OF THE LEGENDARY JEON JUNGKOOK ALL WE NEED NOW IS "together..BAM!" (THAT'S LITERALLY ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOMENTS EVER THE WAY HE SAYS IT 🤧)

YES IN THIS HOUSE WE SCREAM OVER JIMIN'S DISRESPECT HE IS THE PARAGON OF A MULTI-FACETED MAN THAT HAS US WRAPPED AROUND HIS FINGER. THE AUDACITY 😤

CHANEL X JIMIN LETS MAKE IT HAPPEN AND OMG THAT SELFIE THAT DROPPED?? SIR???? WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?? I MEAN YES BH SAID LET'S DROP SELFIES IN BULK BUT THAT ONE PICTURE OF HIM IN BLACK(GREY? I DONT KNOW FHSKKAJF) WITH THE SHIRTS UNBUTTONED!!! THEM COLLARBONES ARE FREE AND THEY'RE THRIVING IN THE OPEN IN THAT ONE. ALSO HIS LIPS ARE SO PRETTY. OH GOD LITERALLY HE HAS THAT COCKY SMIRK ON HIS FACE WHEN HE KNOWS HE DOES HOT BOY SHIT LIKE SHUT UP OK YOU CANT DO THAT JAIL FOR U NDNSLSKAJJW

SUCH A FUCKING TEASE THATS RIGHT!! EVEN STRAIGHT MEN?? BRO LIKE HOW DO YOU HAVE ALL GENDERS JUST TRIPPING OVER THEMSELVES FOR YOU IT'S INSANE AND OMG MISS SHIVI HAVE YOU SEEN THAT ONE CLIP IN WHICH JIMIN HOLDS HIS GAZE WITH THESE MEN WHO LOOK AT HIM (i think it was bon voyage?) and when they cross each other he JUST SMIRKS AND RUNS HIS HAND THROUGH HIS HAIR LIKE YEAH OK ALEXA PLAY I'M SEXY AND I KNOW IT. AND YES I'LL LISTEN TO EVERYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY ANYTIME 💗💗

12PM KST IS THE HOLY HOUR I TELL YOU ALTHOUGH I REMEMBER WAITING THE NIGHT BEFORE BE CAME OUT WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO COME AND BH WAS JUST LIKE "yea...no" OMG THAT'S AWESOME YOUR COUSIN'S VISITING YOU

HHFJDOSO YEAH IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE THEY DID THE JUMP ALTHOUGHHHH I'M POSITIVE THEY'LL DO SMTH COOL LIKE THAT IN THEIR CONCERTS BECAUSE THEIR PERFORMANCE QUALITY IS JUST.. THROUGH THE ROOF IT'S CRAZY!! WHEN THE PERFORM WINGS?? LIKE HOLY SHIT NO CHOREO NO POSITIONS JUST BTS RUNNING AROUND THE STAGE MAKING THE CROWD GO FERAL I LOVE EVERY WINGS PERFORMANCE SO MUCH MY SEROTONIN LEVELS ARE ALWAYS AT A HIGH THEN. OOHH MY GODDD BS&T IS REALLY THAT BITCH!!!! WHO'S DOING IT LIKE HER TODAY NO ONE IS EXACTLY. AND NOOOO I TOTALLY GET IT WE THINK ON THE SAME WAVELENGTH THAT ACCIDENT HAS THE SAME EFFECT ON ME. IF ONLY YOU'D TOLD ME THEN IN 2016 THAT THAT ACCIDENT WAS THE START OF SO MANY I'D BE PREPARED FOR EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWED (see: him basically stripping himself that one serendipity performance. holy shit.)

FOR REAL THO CHRISTMAS LOVE DROPPED OUT OF NOWHERE AND DO YOU REMEMBER JIMIN SAYINF uUH iM nOt wORkInG oN a SoLo SoNg aT ThE mOmEnT heHe LIKE ALL MEN DO IS LIE OK AT THIS POINT. BYE. YES TAEHYUNG DID WARN US BUT ARMYS (LIKE MYSELF) PUT THEIR CLOWN WIGS ON AND THOUGHT IT WAS KTH1 LMAO. OMG I HOPE YOU DON'T SLEEP THROUGH ANY OF THEIR UPCOMING SONG RELEASES BUT I'M SURE IT'S THE BEST FEELING TO WAKE UP TO CHECK YOUR NOTIFS AND SEE "Big Hit Labels" BECAUSE THAT'S HOW YOU KNOW IT'S GOING TO BE FIREEE. DUDE SERIOUSLY I NEED JIMIN TO GO LIVE AGAIN (although we've been well fed by namjoon for now🤧��💗) LIKE THAT ONE YT LIVE WHERE HE SAID "O...M...G" SHUT UP STOP BEING SO CUTE I'M DHJSWLIFJWKALS

LMAO OKAY YEAH THAT'S VALID YOUR BLOG THEME IS BASICALLY ✨jimin✨ AND I LOVE THAT IT REALLY GRAVITATED ME AND YOUR URL OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDD YOUR BRAINNN 💆‍♀️💆‍♀️💆‍♀️💆‍♀️💆‍♀️

YES YES YES JIMIN IS SO PERFECT AND THE SOCK DOODLESSS 😭😭😭 oooo so when did you get into giffing? how did you start? BROOOOO YOUR URL'S ORIGIN STORY. I LOVE IT WOW YES IT'S DEFINITELY GOT THE REQUIRED ✨pazzaz✨

NOOO OMG THIS URL IS YOUR BRAND LIKE YOU'RE A LEGEND ON ARMYBLR I LOVE IT SO MUCH. BUT STILL!! IT'S YOUR CHOICE AT THE END 💖

OMG QUARANTINE DID IT'S ONE GOOD JOB AND GOT YOU INTO BANGTAN YAY. OMG YOU AND MISS LIFEGOESMON ARE FRIENDSS??? LEGENDS INTERACTING THIS IS SO COOL. LMAO THE PARADIGM SHIFT YOU MUST'VE FELT FROM LISTENING TO STAY GOLD (WHICH BTW THE MV...THE LITERAL CUTEST OH GOD THE LITTLE DOG AND JIMIN'S LITTLE SMILES DHSJAOWO) TO THEN GOING TO BST IN WHICH JIMIN IS BASICALLY STRIPPING AND JUNGKOOK IS UPSIDE DOWN LMAOOO. YES BS&T HAS EVERYONE HOOKED THE POWERRRR. YOU FALLING DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE WITH YOUR FRIEND'S ASSISTANCE OH GOD THIS IS SO CUTE 💓 EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM 🥺🥺🥺

AAAAH OKAY MY STORY ISN'T AS INTERESTING AS YOURS IS BUT IN 2016 BASICALLY ALL I KNEW OF KPOP WAS GANGNAM STYLE AND WASNT WILLING TO CUANGE THAT PERCEPTION (FOOL BEHAVIOUR I TELL YOU) AND WAS TOO BUSY OBSESSING OVER ONE DIRECTION'S REUNION AND SO ONE NIGHT (THE NIGHT BEFORE JIMIN'S BIRTHDAY 🤧🤧) I JUST STUMBLED UPON THEIR BS&T TEARS MV AND I HEARD IT AND I WAS LIKE OMG!! THIS IS THAT SUPER ADDICTIVE SONG THAT I'D HEARD SOMEWHERE AND IT JUST SPIRALLED FROM THERE I REMEMBER SEEING JIMIN AND BEING LIKE 👀👀👀👀 WHO IS HE I LIKE HIM AND JUST HIS AURA DREW ME IN SOOO MUCH AND WHEN I WAS GETTING INTO THEM I REMEMBER WRITING THEIR NAMES IN MY NOTES TO SEE IF I COULD REMEMBER 🤧 AND I STILL HAVE THAT NOTE FROM 4+ YEARS AGO 💓 AND YEAH BASICALLY SEEING THEM DO ALL THE MUSIC SHOWS AND STUFF AT THE TIME WAS SO COOOL AND MIND YOU BH DIDN'T HAVE SUBS FOR BANGTAN BOMBS THEN SO WENT ON THESE SKETCHY DAILYMOTION TYPE SITES LOOKING FOR ALL THE CONTENT I COULD CHURN OUT LMAO

AND YES!! COURTESY OF YOU I DID WATCH SOME RUN EPS!! I WATCHED THEIR CANADA ONES SPEAKING OF WHICH I LOOOVE THAT PART WHERE THEY'RE DOING THAT SONG GUESSING THING IN THE MORNING AND JIMIN SAYS "are you cold?" 🥺🥺 TO TAE AND HUGS HIM URRHRHEHSJSJSH AND I ALSO SAW THE ONES WITH THE PUPPIES GODDDDD I LOVE THE PUPPIES ONE SO MUCH LITERALLY JUNGKOOK AND HIS DOG (MIRI?) OH MY GOD THAT LIL FLUFFER AND ADAM IS MY ICON WITH HOW HE JUST DID HIS OWN THING LMAO.

BUT ANYWAY!! DO YOU HAVE A FAVE ERA?? LIKE DO YOU EVER LOOK AT THEM AND GO "Damn I wish I was a fan then" BECAUSE HONESTLY I WISH I HAD STANNED THEM IN THEIR DOPE ERA BUT I DON'T THINK I WOULD HAVE SURVIVED JIMIN THEN DHKSOWID-💫

FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME!!!!!!! ITS OKAY!!!!!!!! I TOTALLY TOTALLY UNDERSTAND!!!!! AND YAYYYYY CONGRATS I HOPE THE FIRST LEG OF EXAMS WENT WELL <333333 AND OH MY GOD you’re gonna make me cry with the together baam goddddddd same one of my fave moments and jimin’s giggles after that 😭😭😭😭 my babies <3 :((((

that..... black suit selca....... that opened button...... like open one more dear sir who’s stopping you... just do it <33333 YEAH he totally needs to shut up with his i know im hot side it just kills me every single time 😭😭😭😭😭

LISTEN THAT BV3 MOMENT  S H O O K  ME OKAY????? THOSE GUYS LOOKED AT HIM AND HE WAS SO FUCKING SMUG ABOUT IT (AND HE SHOULD BE) AND THE WAY HE LICKED HIS LIPS AND RAN HIS HANDS THROUGH HIS HAIR????? LIKE HE KNOWS HE HAS EVERY SINGLE PERSON; NO MATTER WHAT GENDER; WRAPPED AROUND HIS LIL PINKY LIKE THAT???????

OH MY GOD ME TOO I LOVEEEEEEEEEEE THE WINGS STAGE AND WATCHING THEM HAVE SO MUCH FUN IS JUST SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND I ALSO ABSOLUTELY LOVVVEEE THEIR ENERGY DURING THE SY TOUR MEDLEY WITH IDOL AND BAEPSAE AND FIRE AND DOPE ZSXDFGFCHGVJBHJN THEY JUST LOSE THEMSELVES IN THE CROWD AND THE MUSIC AND ITS JUST SO FUCKING SURREAL TO WATCH HOW MUCH THEY ENJOY DOING WHAT THEY DO!!!!! kinda makes me want to find that happiness and passion in whatever i do in my professional life <3 and LISTEN jimin said the break the soul commentary THAT HE COULD DO SERENDIPITY SHIRTLESS TOO. THE AUDACITY. HE SAID THAT WITH HIS WHOLE CHEST. 

YOU KNWO WHAT I THINK JIMIN WON’T GIVE US A HINT BEFORE DROPPING PJM1. HE’LL JUST DROP IT ONE FINE DAY OUT OF NOWHERE LIKE HE DROPPED PROMISE AND CHRISTMAS LOVE (i wasn’t here when he dropped promise but i read that on twitter sdfghjkl) AND NO PLS NO I DO N O T WANT TO SLEEP THROUGH JJK1 OR KTH1 OR PJM1 OR KSJ1 OR NAMGI MIXTAPE 3 OR HOBI MIXTAPE 2 OR ANYTHING BASICALLY YOU GET IT i had slept through dynamite cb because i had NO CLUE that they were gonna drop it at 1pm kst rather than 12 am kst. i was under the impression that since they dropped all the teaser pictures and the teaser itself as 12 am kst, the mv will drop at 12 am kst too. and I woke up like two hours after the mv dropped (which was almost noon my time) and i felt like A FUCKING FOOL AND I JUST 😭😭😭😭 NEVER WANT TO FEEL LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN 😭😭😭 

AND YES BABIE NEEDS TO COME LIVE SOON PLS I MISS HIM SO FUCKING MUCH :((((( AND HIS O...M.....G HAD MADE ME FUCKING SOBBBBBBBBBBB his yt live god he looked sooooooo fluffy with his hair and his tiny hands and his puppy eyes and soft voice im just so 😭😭😭😭😭😭

NO NONNONONONO PLEASE IM NO LEGEND DON’T SAY THAT IM EMBARRASSED im just a normal fangirl who makes okayish gifs 😭😭 and ok yes so i started giffing LONNNGGGGGG time back on a different public fan forum from my country but i never knew the right process and stuff so obviously the gifs were shitty lmao BUT ANYWAY i got into gifmaking PROPERLY this in july last year and obviously struggled a lot in the beginning because i didn’t know shit about colouring and stuff lmao but i kept practicing and even though im not perfect rn i do think that i got better. i love giffing tho. its such a nice creative outlet and whenever i gif the boys it brings me so much happiness :( <33

AND YES ASDFGHJKL ME AND HER ARE FRIENDS SINCE A VERY LONG TIME SDFGHJK LIKE LONG BEFORE BOTH OF US GOT INTO BTS SDFGHJ and ah yes the whiplash lmaooooooo and you’re right god the stay gold mv is SO FUCKING PRETTY THE COLOURS IN THAT ENTIRE MV HELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AND JIMIN AND TAE AND JOON WITH THE DOGGO JUST EVERYTHING SDFGHJK <3333333 AND BS&T DUDE I GIFFED THE MV YESTERDAY AND IM 💀💀💀💀💀 (like i just giffed jimin from the mv but i did watch the whole thing 5647589 times <333333) AND GUESS WHAT!!!!!! I WAS A LILLY SINGH FAN (IDK IF YOU KNOW HER SHE’S A YOUTUBER) BACK IN 2016 AND PEOPLE BACK THEN HAD REQUESTED HER TO REACT TO BS&T MV AND I HAD WATCHED HER REACTION VIDEO AND (although it didn’t stick with me back then because i was a fucking fool) I DID SOMEHOW REMEMBERED THE JIN AND STATUE KISSING MOMENT AND WHEN IN 2020 I SAW THE MV AND SAW THE KISSING MOMENT MY BRAIN JUST!!!!!!!!!!! I WAS LIKE HOLY SHIT I HAVE SEEN THIS BEFORE SOMEWHERE AND THEN I REMEMBERED I HAD SEEN THIS IN THE REACTION VIDEO LMAOOOOO i wish i hadn’t been a fool and gotten into them back then :((((

AH NO OMG YOUR STORY IS SOOOOOOO CUTEEEEEEEEEE ATLEAST YOU WEREN’T A FOOL LIKE ME TO NOT GET ATTRACTED TO BS&T THE FIRST TIME OF SEEING IT!!!! I WANNA HIT MY 2016 SELF LIKE DAMN YOU YOU FOOLISH ASSHOLE AND yes omg how did y’all do the subs thing damnnnnn i can’t imagine

AND YES THE CANADA RUN EPIS ARE LOOOVVVEEEE and that vmin moment plsssssss i cry everytime 😭😭😭😭😭 it is just so soft and innocent and tae’s little smile after jimin just turns around and hugs him 😔😔😔😔 i love soulmates 😔😔😔😔 AND MIRI YES OMG EVERYONE WAS SO IMPRESSED BY THE LITTLE CUTIE AND THE WAY JUNGKOOK JUST KEPT ADORING HER THROUGHOUT MADE ME SO SO SOFTTTT and bro adam is me. i am like that. lazy and un-motivated AF. although if i were a dog and jin were to be my owner i would listen to him so well and jump on him every chance i’d get 😌😌😌

GOD YES RED HAIR DOPE ERA JIMIN 💀 BABIE BUT MAKE IT SEXY 🥵🥵 AND OMG YESDGFHG MY FAVE ERA IS HYYH. ORANGE HAIRED JIMIN. PLS. HE’S EVERYTHING. I WISH I HAD GOTTEN INTO THEM DURING THAT. LIKE THAT ERA IS ..... SOMEHOW SO FUCKING WILD AND STILL SO ASSURING AND CALMING ????? KEEPS ME ROOTED LIKE IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN DFGHJKL AND WINGS TOO DAMN I WISH I WAS HERE TO LIVE ALL THOSE AMAZING ERAS. but even though i wish i had gotten into them earlier... i think i found them when i needed them the most. I was going through a very difficult time last year and they somehow they made me feel so fucking safe and at home that the connection was instant. honestly i’ve never stanned or felt a connection with any celebrity as strong as the one i feel with bangtan. its like... they don’t know i exist but they still know EXACTLY what im feeling and what to say or do at that time to make me feel comforted. Its weird god but its true :((( SORRY I GOT EMO I JUST LOVE THEM A LOT SDFGHJKL

[spooky-scary-imagines]

Hi sis! I would STAB for a Luigi largo fic. Maybe we could have a reader who is like a sidekick to Luigi and Luigi really digs her but she ain't getting the hints. Finally, he'd get fed up, stressed out, and a little turned on by their fear. One thing leads to another and things get a little spicy (I can't be the only one who has thought of getting freaky with Luigi, right?) lots of love babe ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

((Groovy! I know I would lol. I hope this works. Lots of love to you too. Also, sidenote: Can y’all please not call me sis? I’m not mad or anything, cause I know I don’t have my name or pronouns in my bio (I’ll change that soon), but it’s just a thing for me. Call me a dumb idiot bitch instead. Like I said in the Patrick Bateman fic, Never Date Your Boss irl! It creates an unhealthy power dynamic. Though I didn’t entirely go the way it sounded like your ask wanted. I just don’t think Luigi is that kinda dude. He’s an awkward, overly-theatric weirdo who has a bad temper and would be super-passive aggressive and never say his feelings.

“God Fucking DAMMIT!” Your boss was in one of his moods again. Great… This could be anything from the company losing some money, to Pavi just picking a fight for no reason, to someone giving him decaf. Not that anyone was asking you, but he might benefit from lessening his caffeine intake. Maybe he’d be less high-strung. But the last person who had suggested that had been gutted like a fish all over the carpet. You’d like to think he wouldn’t do something like that to you, you were his right-hand man after all. Still, you could never be sure with a man like that.

You peeked around the corner. You were right, he was currently ranting and raving about god knows what, while his office looked as if a tornado had gone through it. You lightly rap on the doorframe to his office. “What do you want?” He looks up to see you and pauses for a second before looking back down at the slowly bleeding out body of a Gentern, on the floor at his feet. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Good evening Mr. Largo. Would you like to go over your schedule for tomorrow now?” You’d been here long enough to tune out the horrors of the job and the Largos various violent tendencies. While they tended to act like spoiled brats, often the best approach for them was just to speak with a measure of confidence and be direct. Never let yourself become replaceable, but avoid conflicts. You often had to walk on eggshells, but you’d managed to keep yourself from ending up on the other end of the Repomen or their bosses.

“Sure, whatever, bring it in…” he scowls and sits back at his desk.

You internally rolled your eyes at his attitude and stepped around the body to sit across from him, clipboard in hand. “Well, at 10 o’clock there’s a board meeting regarding advertising-”

“That’s Amber’s job!” They had unofficially divided the company into their three specialties: Amber focused on Marketing and P.R; Pavi oversaw Design and Quality Control; and Luigi worked Production, Distribution, and Payroll. All major company decisions had to be approved by all three.

“I know that sir, but you are still required to attend.” You hear him huff but continue anyway. “After that you have lunch with an investor at 12. From roughly 2-4 you are free from appointments but you do need to review the reports from Distributors 156 to 294 by Friday so then would be a good time to do so. Also Emerson mentioned calling sometime today sometime within then. After that there is a meeting regarding expansion with our eastern competition and potential for a full corporate buyout or conglomeration.”

He let out a groan and rubbed his eyes, “I’m going to stab someone.”

“Me?” you smirked slightly.

He snorted slightly, “Not yet at least.”

“Thank you for your generosity.” You knew you were being a bit of a smartass, but sometimes it made him smirk. To grovel was to become just another piece of meat in the Geneco grinder. He stood up and crossed over to his miniature liquor cabinet he kept in the office. You’d think three liver replacements would teach him something but he showed no sign of not going for his fourth. He poured himself a small tumbler glass and downed it before facing you again. “Are you able to stay late tonight?”

“I suppose. Do you need something?” You raised an eyebrow. You weren’t aware of anything he needed you to do.

His lips pursed and he looks elsewhere. “Well, I was just wondering if…”

“If?”

“Nevermind…Just file these before you sign out.” He handed you a small pile of files. That was far from your job but you held your tongue. When Mr. Largo was in a mood it was best to just roll your eyes and take it. You turned to leave when you felt a hand on your arm. You turned back, confused. “Wait, er-” He let go and his brow furrowed as if he was having an internal argument.

“Mr. Larg-”

“Can you just-arggh!” he made a noise of frustration like he was trying to hold back a yell of rage.

“Mr. Largo!” He seemed to snap out of his own angry digressing to look back at you. ”If I made a mistake. Tell me. If there is something you need me to do. Tell me.” Your face softens a bit now that he was listening, “I’m here to help. I do my best as someone in my position can. Just talk to me?!”

He looked at you for a moment and his face scrunched up a bit like he was about to yell. Instead, he leaned forwards and before you could react caught your lips with his. It was far from the long-awaited passionate embrace you had imagined. He smelled like sweat and coffee mixed with an expensive, but shitty cologne. His lips were harsh and for a guy seemingly always flocked by Genterns, he didn’t kiss like a man with a lot of experience. Still, it was so…him. It was perfect. He pulled away too soon. His normal frown was back but it was much less threatening when his cheeks were steadily reddening and he looked almost worried about your reaction. You knew better than to laugh because he’d take it wrong and you’d be on the slab in a second, but the whole thing was so ridiculous! “Why did you- Why me- Why didn’t you say so sooner?”

He held his hands out as if in exasperation and confusion, “I tried. You just couldn’t tell.”

“Giving someone extra work so they have to stay late usually makes people think you don’t  like them Casanova.”

“You’re breakin’ my heart!” Jesus, that might be the first genuine smile you’d seen him crack in a long time.

“How about instead of paperwork, tomorrow night we do lunch? Can’t be too unprofessional right?”

He huffed and rolled his eyes but still smiling slightly, “I think we’re beyond that at this point.”

You chuckled and shook your head as he walked you towards the door, “Have a good night…” Right before you left you pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, “Luigi~”

[sxciallygray]

I’ll be here when you come back (Colby Brock)

A/N: Hello my dudes!!! How long it’s been? Like 4? Maybe even 5 since I posted the second part of Let Her Go.

I’ve had most of the last part written since last November, but I got busy and lost inspiration to write – which seemed to be back for now.

I hope you like this last part, I enjoyed writing the last bit because if I have to be honest I’m not sure if I like the rest of it – like I said I wrote almost 5 months ago and usually when I read things I wrote a long time ago I normally don’t like them.

But you are the important ones! If you like it then I’m happy.

I hope you are all safe and doing well in the crazy times we are living and I also hope this helps you to think about something else.

Love you!

Warnings: English is not my first language so I’m sorry in advance if I made some mistakes.

Part1: Let her go

Part2: All you had to do was stay

It had been a month since (Y/N) had come back to LA, which lead her to think one thing only, the call with the information about her new destination was closer than she liked.

She hadn’t realized how much she missed her life until she came back and could enjoy all her friends again, specially how much she had missed Colby. At that point it was hard for both of them to hide how much they wanted to spend time together, Colby would find the most random excuses to make plans with (Y/N) and she wouldn’t hesitate on saying yes to everything Colby came up with. Like that night for example, (Y/N) had suggested going to Rae’s to have dinner with the whole group, after dinner Sam suggested a chill game night at his and Kat’s place, but Colby excused himself saying he had to film a video for his channel and that he needed help. Of course (Y/N) was the first one to offer herself volunteer.

None of their friends at that diner booth were blind, they could see Colby and (Y/N)’s undeniable desire for some alone time with each other, so most of the time they would play along instead of teasing them in public and potentially make things awkward – something they both were thankful for since from the first second the fans saw (Y/N) was back ninety percent of comments were about if they were back together or not.

What they didn’t know, not even (Y/N), was that there was no video that needed to be finished. Colby’s intentions were to take (Y/N) to a place he had recently found, a quiet spot on the hills of LA where they watched the city from afar.

The later it got the better they could see the stars above them, which reminded (Y/N) of a recurrent thought she had at the beginning of their time apart. She liked to look at the sky and think that no matter what, no matter the time of the day, the weather or how far away they were from each other, both of them were looking at the same sky. For some reason thinking about that brought her peace and made her feel a little connected to Colby.

“What are you thinking about?” they’ve been quiet for a few minutes and Colby was only wondering why (Y/N) was so smiley.

“Nothing” her smile only grew wider, making Colby grin bigger.

“C’mon, tell me” he turned around so he laying on his stomach over the blanket they were sharing.

“I was thinking about that time you fell down the hill and made it to the bottom on your butt” she lied, while she laughed remembering that moment.

“My pants were so destroyed at the end” he chuckled shaking his head.

(Y/N) was about to make a comment on how his fat ass helped him to not get too hurt but their attentions were caught by the sound of movement on the bushes behind them.

“Did you hear that?” (Y/N) whispered, sitting up as fast as she could to look in the direction of the sound.

A low growl followed the noises and that was enough for Colby to get up and help (Y/N) get up too “get it the car, fast” he whispered grabbing the blanket and giving it to her while he opened the door for her.

The first thought that came into mind for Colby was that they could be attacked by an animal, so he had to put (Y/N) in a safe place, but before he could close the door they heard some high pitched whimpers coming from the same place.

That got (Y/N) out of the car and running to the bushes, followed by Colby telling her to stop.

“Oh my god”

“What? (Y/N) what is it? Be careful” when Colby approached her he could finally calm down, it was a dog and he was trapped on the bush.

“Hey buddy, I’m going to help you, okay?” (Y/N) was crazy about animals, if it was for her she would have so many, but sadly she was never in the same place for too long and having a pet wasn’t a good idea under those conditions.

When the dog kept whining and liked her hand, (Y/N) took it as a sign to proceed and help the young looking dog to get out of the mess he had got himself into.

“He has no collar and he’s so dirty it looks like he’s been around here for a while” she announced looking up at Colby as she kept caressing the dog to keep him calm.

Colby, who also happened to be an animal lover, saw his opportunity in the palm of his hand “why don’t we go back to my place and we get him clean and fed?” if there was a way to (Y/N)’s heart, it was definitely that one.

“I think that’s a great idea” she looked down at the scared dog again “we’re taking care of you my friend, don’t worry I won’t let Colby pick the food, he has no taste” she joked, picking up the dog and winking at a fake hurt looking Colby.

The car ride was smoother than expected, luckily it was the middle of the night, which meant no traffic at all. It was good thing too because Colby was paying more attention to the interactions (Y/N) was having with the dog than where he was going.

Something none of them had realized was how, as much as they have been hanging out, (Y/N) hadn’t put a foot on Colby’s apartment. Being in the outside world together gave them many private moments, but being alone in Colby’s home was different, that feeling of anything could happened was settled as soon as they both walked through the room.

“The bathroom is over there” Colby pointed to the only closed door in the open space.

(Y/N) made her way over while she looked around his apartment, taking in how empty it looked, there was no decorations at all and she was thankful for that, if she had seen any of their old decorations she would have died inside.

“I made you a sandwich” Colby announced, walking into the bathroom twenty minutes after (Y/N), who had already washed the dog and was drying him off with a towel.

“Did you make it or did you go to the store to buy it? Because it took you a while” she joked, wrapping her new little friend with the towel and snuggling him.

Truth was that Colby just needed some time by himself, gather his thoughts before walking into that bathroom. It was getting very difficult to be around (Y/N) while they were playing by the ‘only friends’ rules.

“Making sandwiches is an art, it takes time” he sat on the tiled floor, right in front of (Y/N), who was also sitting on the floor. They stayed in silent for a few minutes until Colby broke it “I always thought we would get a dog.”

Was he too tired to stop himself from saying things like those? He definitely was.

“But then I left” (Y/N) whispered, avoiding eye contact.

Was she too tired to follow that conversation? Oh you better believe she was.

“But then we broke up” he corrected her.

“Because I left” they hadn’t talked about their relationship, not even just once ever since they had started this new found friendship. So Colby couldn’t help but give (Y/N) a confused look, not understanding where she was coming from with that.

“Okay, if that is what you believe then you could say I didn’t do anything to try and stop you from leaving” he said once he understood she was, in some level, blaming herself for it “you followed your passion and there’s nothing wrong with that”

Colby’s soft tone and sweet words made (Y/N) finally look at him in the eyes, feeling less guilty. She wasn’t sorry for leaving and following her dreams, but was she coastally wondering what could’ve been if she had stayed with Colby? Of course.

“It doesn’t mean I didn’t wanna stay too” at the end of the day there was two things she was passionate about, trying to transform the world in a better place and her future with Colby Brock.

“I know, (Y/N)” he couldn’t lie, it felt good to hear that. He knew she was heartbroken for leaving and that gave away a hint of how bad she wanted to stay, but hearing it out loud felt so fucking good “but do you really think I would’ve let you give up on an opportunity like that?” she shook her head, earning a smile from Colby, who moved closer, until the only thing keeping them apart were their legs “That’s correct, I wouldn’t’ve had let you” he placed a hand on her knee “don’t ever think I blamed this on you leaving, not for a second. I’m so fucking proud of you for chasing after your dreams”

“Thank you, Colbster” she smiled, the use of the nickname she had given him shortly after meeting Colby made her slightly flush. The dog found that the perfect moment to lick her sad face away “okay, okay I’ll let you go” she chuckled letting the dog free to run around the bathroom before storming out of it to explore the rest of the apartment.

“I put some of the food we bought on a bowl in the kitchen, someone’s going to be surprised” although he was apparently focusing in something new (Y/N) couldn’t stop repeating his words in her head and how badly she wanted to kiss him right now, but she couldn’t.

Just like that she made her decision, the dog would be the sing she needed to see what the universe had to tell her.

The following morning, bright and early, Colby and (Y/N) went to the closest vet to find out if the dog had a microchip, which would lead to an owner and then to discover if the dog had run away or if it had been abandoned – a heartbreaking theory on (Y/N)’s eyes.

While the vet did her job It was visible how nervous (Y/N) was, Colby couldn’t figure out why and he was planning on asking, but the vet talked sooner, announcing the dog had a microchip and that she was going to call the number that appeared on the computer.

“You’re going to make a hole on the ground if you keep bouncing your leg like that” Colby joke, earning a smile from (Y/N).

She didn’t answer though; she was too deep in her thoughts. If that dog didn’t have an owner that wanted him that was it, she was staying in LA, she would find a place to live, a job, she would take care of her new little friend and she would work as hard as it needed to be worked to gain Colby back.

“Good news, the owner is on her way, she says she’s been looking for Oreo like crazy” Oreo, so that was the dog’s name, who the fuck names their dog after an Oreo? Okay probably (Y/N) would do it, it was a cute name and she was just too upset to recognize it.

“Great, that’s awesome to hear, right?” Colby had to take the lead and talk when there was no reaction from (Y/N), who only nodded when Colby tried to get her to respond in any way possible.

The thing is, Colby still knows (Y/N) like the palm of his hand, he can feel how upset she is when she gets slightly flushed as a reaction of how hard she is trying to hold back the tears, but what he can’t understand is the reason why she is so upset all of the sudden, was he missing something?

So the poor and confused boy does the only thing he can think of at the moment. He places his hand on her back, rubbing small circles at first and when (Y/N) doesn’t try to stop him from doing so he pulls her closer “What’s wrong?” the vet is too occupied with Oreo to hear what Colby has whispered to (Y/N), which (Y/N) is thankful for because the last thing she wants is for the vet to think she’s crazy.

“’m just tired” the lack of eye contact wasn’t helping her in the fail attempt of lying “and hungry”

“We can go to Rae’s for breakfast” although Colby knew that wasn’t the problem, he followed along “and then take a nap” and maybe too carried away, but the last thing he wanted to do was to finish their time together, even if he was just as tired as she was because they stayed up all night talking and playing with the dog they had just found in the middle of nowhere.

For some reason he felt like if he let go of her in that moment she would be gone again, just like if she had never been here in the first place. That’s why when (Y/N) nodded and leaned her head on his shoulder he felt the biggest relieved he’s felt in so long.

They were given the option of staying until Oreo’s owner came to pick him up and as much as (Y/N) would have loved to witness the encounter in other given circumstances now it wasn’t the best time for it, so they left to get Colby’s promised breakfast at Rae’s.

From the first second they put a foot outside the vet clinic Colby was dying to ask what was really the reason of (Y/N) mood swing, sadly he didn’t feel in the right position to push her that much in order to get an answer.

“Can you take me straight to Tara’s? I’m really tired, I just want to sleep” Colby felt like he had lost a battle, one that (Y/N) had no idea about, but somehow she had defeated Colby.

“Yeah, sure, I can take you there” (Y/N) hated to be the reason why things had got so awkward between them so fast. With Colby too afraid of making the wrong move and pushing her away forever and with (Y/N) too upset to even pretend she was fine.

_

Colby’s suspicions were correct, for the next three days he couldn’t get a hold of (Y/N), she wouldn’t answer his calls and the texts she did answer were very vague. The whole situation was equally confusing and frustrating for Colby. On one hand he was fine with giving (Y/N) her space, leaving him some time for himself too; on the other hand, he couldn’t point where did he go wrong, what did he do to make her so upset and disappear for three days, that was all he had in his mind most of the time, but it also didn’t stop him from keeping up with his busy schedule and daily life.

It wasn’t much different for (Y/N), she felt like the longer she tried to stay away from Colby the harder it would be to fall back into good terms, after all she would have to explain why she was acting so weird.

The lack of sleep and the realization of still being very much in love with Colby were the two main factors that got (Y/N) so upset. She wasn’t one to believe in signs from the universe, but in that moment at the vet she would have follow her plan of staying in LA if the universe had made that dog one without an owner, that would have been her sign. On the contrary, she took that sign as one of take your things and run before you make a mistake.

Hence why she is upset, she doesn’t believe in signs, but she made herself believe in that one, which was followed by the call she’s been afraid to receive the very next day.

“You look awfully quiet, my dear” of course the second (Y/N) got the news she went to the only place she could feel better again, Rae’s, where Carly made her the best strawberry milkshake, yet (Y/N) didn’t feel any better and Carly could see it.

“isn’t Colby joining you today?” Rog didn’t mean any harm, he was very happy when Carly told him about having the young couple reunited again after such a long time, but the reminder of Colby hurt.

“No… it’s just me today” (Y/N) couldn’t even look up to answer his question, she was too occupied moving the straw around the half full glass, as if the answer would pop out of it any second.

As Carly and Rog kept taking care of preparing meals and drinks (Y/N) watched them, this time paying more attention than ever before. How Rog would look at Carly from time to time and a smile would appear on his face, how Carly had an endless list of cute nicknames for Rog or simply the way they would crack jokes with the other every other minute.

“How did you and Carly meet?” (Y/N) asked Rog when he got closer whipping the other side of the counter.

“Way back in the day, we were neighbors” just talking about it put a smile on Rog’s face “I didn’t stop until she agreed to go on a date with me”

“Where did you take her?” (Y/N) was already hooked on the story, she loved old people and their life stories.

“To the movies, of course” Carly was a big fan of everything movie related and the decoration on the diner showed her passion, they had the walls covered with movie posters “I was scared to death of her father, but I managed to build the courage and ask for permission. Best decision I ever made”

“How did you know she was the one for you?” you could say she was trying to get advice without asking for it.

Rog stopped cleaning the glasses that had piled on the counter and looked at the lost girl sitting at the stool on the other side of the counter, he could read the look in her eyes.

“It took me some time, some mistakes were made, but without those mistakes we wouldn’t be here today” now (Y/N) was intrigued, but she felt that asking about those mistakes was way too invasive “I asked myself many times if Carly was the woman I would end up marrying, if there was someone else out there for me, because when we started dating it didn’t feel like I could have a connection with anyone else the way I had it with her” (Y/N) stayed quiet, wanting him to continue “but when she and her family moved here , the place she had always dreamt of, I had to let her go, still one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do to this day. I told myself it all happened because it was meant to be like that, I had to stay in New York and work in my father’s business and she was meant to move here” (Y/N) couldn’t help but compare their story with hers and Colby’s “It didn’t take me long to realize what really mattered to me and let me tell you it wasn’t working for my father” he laughed, probably at the memory of those golden years they lived together.

“Did Carly wait for you?” although (Y/N) loved seeing him so happy as he told his story, she couldn’t hold back the questions.

“Oh no, I would have never asked her that, we truly believed we wouldn’t see each other again, but the second I found her… things fell back into place” well, now that was true love “almost fifty years later here we are”

“It’s a beautiful story, Rog” (Y/N) smiled, already deep in thought, putting into perspective everything she knew or at least everything she thought she knew.

“You seem conflicted” Rog had caught on early when she asked the first question why did she wanted to now. After all he had witness the mess Colby had been for the first few weeks after (Y/N) left.

“I am conflicted” with a heavy sigh (Y/N) let her head fall on her crossed arms over the counter.

The action made Rog laugh, that kind of sympathetic laugh you can’t be mad at. He wasn’t stupid, in fact his age and his life experience made him a very wise human being.

“If you want my humble opinion” he started, stopping just to build some expectation, which made (Y/N) look up again “I think you already have the answer you need, you just haven’t accepted yet, so whatever it is you are conflicted about accept it already and put yourself to work”

It wasn’t admitting that Rog was right, (Y/N) already knew what she really wanted to do, but the thought of actually putting herself to work to get to her goal scared her too much.

Fuck that, it was about time she got up and made up for the time she was losing. Rog could see in her eyes how fast her demeanor was changing, leaving the old man with a proud smile on his lips.

“I’m going to do it” (Y/N) stood up from the bar stool, almost knocking it down with how fast she did it “thank you Rog” before running out of the diner, with an unfinished milkshake, she left a five-dollar bill for Rog not waiting for her change, the man deserved the big tip.

_

“Jake, what does it take so long to pack? Seriously dude”

Colby had been waiting for over an hour for Jake to give him a heads up whenever he had finished packing for their trip and he couldn’t stop texting Jake to hurry up. He wanted to leave as soon as possible, although it was going to be a ‘bussiness trip’ because they were visiting haunted places for the Sam and Colby channel, Colby really wanted to be a few days away from LA.

“Brother relax, don’t pay it with me if (Y/N) doesn’t answer your calls”

It wasn’t a secret for anyone how (Y/N) affected Colby even if he didn’t want it to be that way, none of them couldn’t help it. Jake didn’t mean harm with his comments, they were all in a joking tone, he felt like it was better to joke about it than to make it this taboo topic that made things weird.

“If you’re not ready in ten minutes I’m ditching your ass”

After sending that last text Colby let himself fall on the couch with a deep sigh, why couldn’t he stop thinking about her just for five minutes? A little break for his tired brain and aching heart.

Meanwhile, not so far from Colby’s complex apartment the running hadn’t stopped for (Y/N) when she left the diner, she kept running down the street, through the sea of people that couldn’t care less for the crazy looking girl trying not to trip and fall.

Two blocks into running she was feeling exhausted and the thought running through her mind was how the next thing she was doing was getting in shape.

---

The banging on his apartment door straddled Colby, he wished it was different, but it caught him off guard. Normally none of his friends even knock, they either walk in without knocking or they let him know they’re going up the stairs through a text, so it couldn’t be Jake, the only one Colby was waiting.

“(Y/N)?” it felt like he was in such an emotional rollercoaster in that moment that he couldn’t trust his eyes, but she was there, standing in front of him, breathless from all the running.

“I-“ so breathless she felt like it would take her a while to form a sentence “’m sorry” the frown in Colby’s face deepened.

“Sorry? For what?” (Y/N) quickly put a hand up to let him know she needed to talk and not be interrupted.

It was nice to know she cared enough to acknowledge the fact that she had been avoiding him and she needed to apologize for that, but it wasn’t necessary to run all the way there, she could’ve just called.

(Y/N) took a deep breath, enough to form a full sentence without being cut by her lungs’ terrible performance “I’m sorry for pushing you away when that’s not what I really want”

The possibilities were endless for Colby’s reaction, that was the most terrifying part for (Y/N), who felt her heart start beating again when a small grin appeared on Colby’s face.

He had to admit something, in all the years he had known the breathless girl in front of him, there wasn’t many times he could recall seeing her admit so clearly she was doing something wrong – which was the most beautiful form of art in his eyes.

“Okay… I forgive you” she could recognize the smug smile on his face, he was enjoying this moment in many ways and although in the past she would had told him to stop, now she just wanted to look at him smile in any way possible “Can I ask why you started acting so weird though? I think apologies usually come with explanations.”

It wasn’t a surprise for her, who in their right mind wouldn’t ask? So she invited herself into the living room, where Colby followed after closing the door.

“I… really wanted to keep the dog we found” she admitted turning around to meet his intrigued eyes, the same ones that asked her to keep going “I thought if he didn’t have an owner who wanted him it would be a signal that I should stay in LA, no more voluntary work around the world” Colby was feeling conflicted, he loved the idea of her staying in LA, having her back completely.

The constant movement in her hands was making both of them nervous, they didn’t even take a seat – Colby didn’t mainly because she seemed too anxious to keep herself in place.

“But the dog had an owner” Colby took a step closer, taking her hands in his so she would stop playing with them. It seemed like the physical contact made her focus better, nodding while she looked down at their hands before looking up at him again.

“And that meant I didn’t have a reason to stay here” the tone of her voice went down, now that he was so close to her it felt like the right choice “or so I wanted to make myself believe”

“Do you want to stay?” Colby was doing the best he could to keep himself together, it wasn’t too difficult most of the time, but (Y/N) had always been an exception to any existing rule.

She timidly nodded “I do wanna stay” if someone decided to check her heart rate in that moment she would have broken the machine, because her heart was beating so fast she could pass out at any second “but I realized that way before we found out about the dog’s owner” the confusion on Colby’s face made it clear to her that he had no idea what she meant “I knew I wanted to stay when I realized I’m still in love with you”

Exactly the words he had been dreaming to hear again, a moment he had been waiting and had made himself believe it wouldn’t happen ever again – oh how wrong he was.

If this was a dream he wasn’t risking waking up, so instead trying to learn how to breathe again he let go of her hands and moved them up to cup her face delicately before crashing his lips with hers.

That wasn’t exactly the reaction (Y/N) was expecting, but definitely the best outcome. Of course she kissed him back, this time with no doubts or regrets. It felt so new yet still like coming back home after a horrible day, so warm and welcoming.

Her hands quickly made their way to his waist, tugging on his shirt to keep him close, a small detail that made a spark run through Colby’s body, who was starting to feel breathless from the kiss and the adrenaline of his intense emotions taking over him.

Even when they pulled apart the electricity trying to keep them together was vibrant.

“That was… unexpected” she smiled, intuitively licking her lips that still tasted like him.

“I know; it was unexpected for me too” her sudden love confession was beyond anything he could’ve imagined.

They stayed in silent, looking at each other with silly smiles on their faces – those smiles you get in the so called honeymoon phase of your relationship. In this case Colby and (Y/N) had a long history behind them, but it had always been like the honeymoon phase for them no matter how long they had been together.

Her hands had made their way up to his jaw, letting her fingers dance along his soft skin “Can we get a dog?” she asked out of nowhere.

The look of adoration on Colby’s eyes only intensified after that question, how had he functioned all that time without her? Without feeling the way he was feeling in that very second?

“I thought you’d never ask” this time it was (Y/N) the one who pulled him down for another breathtaking kiss.

There was still a long road in front of them before getting a dog, of course, but the main point was that they were in the same page, the both wanted the same thing and it was as simple as having each other by their side.

Colby’s phone went off, interrupting the heated kiss. When he looked at his phone he saw the incoming called from Jake, just like that he was brought back to reality, he had to leave to the airport, he wasn’t going to be able to enjoy (Y/N) for at least a few more days.

“Fuck” he cursed under his breath, hanging up on Jake “I have a trip with the boys and I should be going to the airport by now”

“It’s okay” giving him a reassuring smile she pecked his lips one more time “have fun, find some ghosts and tell me all about it” her words made him feel automatically better about leaving “I’ll be here when you come back”

His arms wrapped around her tightly, bringing her into a warm hug, one that he needed more than any of them knew. He took in her sweet scent, while she kissed his shoulder and locked her arms behind his back to hug him tighter.

__

Just as she had promised when Colby came back she was there, not only in LA, but in his apartment. She had found a way to go inside, decorating the place with a bunch of lit candles and flowers she had got for him, because even if he couldn’t keep them alive Colby had always enjoyed getting flowers. She had also made a welcome back sign and since he was coming back late at night she had also made dinner for the two of them.

Colby didn’t know he needed that in his life as much as he did when he saw the whole thing, now remembering all the times he had come back to an empty apartment felt so sad.

“Oh my god” the mixture between his nervous laugh and big smile let her see how much he liked the surprise.

“Welcome home!” (Y/N) exclaimed, jumping from behind the couch – Colby’s smile only went bigger “I promise I wasn’t trying to make a séance with all these candles” she joked, making him laugh.

The shock and surprise was still very clear in his actions, his face, how he couldn’t stop looking around the place “how did you- when- ugh I have so many questions” his focus finally falling back on her.

“I told you I would be here when you came back and Sam has keys to get in here so I just had to nicely ask for them, get them from Kat and get everything inside” she explained “you like it?”

“Oh believe me, I’ve never been so happy to be back home” letting his backpack fall on the floor he shortened the distance between them and kissed her, not holding back for even a second, he was giving it all in that passionate kiss that took her breath away.

“don’t you want to have dinner?” she chuckled between kisses, for Colby there wasn’t time to waste, it was visible in how his hands traveled down her body, stopping one of his hands on her butt and giving it a squeeze while with the other he moved the hair away from her face to kiss her lips again.

“Dinner can wait, I have other priorities at the moment” he whispered, bringing his other hand to her butt too and picking her up, gaining a grin from her.

“mhmmm, I’ve always liked your way of thinking” she added leaning in to kiss down his jaw.

Just like that everything fell back in place, the same way their bodies feel in Colby’s bed. They had found their way back to each other, like (Y/N)’s lips found their way down Colby’s neck. Bodies fitting perfectly together after a long time trying to fill that space with the best new thing, not knowing there was nothing or no one who could compare to the way they worked together.

tagged:  @dolanshemm

[dreamsafterhours]

college boyfriend!markhyuk au series: III (donghyuk's pathway)

a universe in which roommates!markhyuk meet each other's s/o in class

markhyuk are roommates, my/n and dy/n are roommates, mark and dy/n take classes together and so do donghyuk and my/n — how will their fates intertwine?

genre: fluff pairings: mark+my/n (fem), donghyuk+dy/n (fem), platonic!mark+dy/n, platonic!donghyuk+my/n format: dotpoint AU universe: non idol, college bf warning: some swearing

masterlist

or click here to meet your soulmate, eng lit!mark!

II ⇤ | III | ⇥ IV

III: 별빛이 내린다 샤라랄라랄라라 (2+2=4)

the meeting of two souls: donghyuk & dy/n

welcome! back and to the next part

in which things actually happen! yay

so. up until this point

it’s been quite obvious i hope

that this is the one where The Soulmates Meet™

and this one right here is the one where donghyuk meets his future wifenew best (not) friend

dammit this is a set plot with SET relationships

yeah

major spoilers for future parts but hey :) y’all know it i know it let’s just.

let’s get to it!!

that day you accidentally sleep in after a late night and walk into your lecture looking pretty trashier than you would normally a few weeks into the first sem and you’re already tired it’s okay bby aww

and mark suggests skipping the next lecture and going for coffee instead

you’re like ok lmfao free coffee for me yay thanks marcus i owe you one

and to make up for the lecture he suggests he join you and your roommate with his own roommate in the library later that day to study the material you’d missed out on

so you’re like sweet study group hell yeah and apparently his roommate is also in biomed like your roommate? hey they might get along pretty well it’d be nice to have roommates in the same faculty hey

little do you know you little cutie you uwu

mark takes you to a cafe to buy you your favourite drink and a croissant bc you skipped breakfast again and he cares about his friends ok plus he was eyeing that donut next to the savoury menu in the glass cabinet and he would have felt bad if he got something to eat and you didn’t

you sit down, sipping your drink at the window seats and wishing your fatigue away

laughing with mark about what you slept so late for

my/n had been ranting about her love life again or perhaps lack thereof,,

don’t worry tho

after you’d gotten her to sleep, you’d gotten major feels for an essay question that you’d been tasked with due in a week but you hadn’t touched it until last night

staring at the prompt for at least half an hour trying to get your head around it and wondering what the hell you’d write about

but like they say

starting is half of it

so when you start spinning your words and getting into the writing mood

you accidentally wrote an entire draft without realising

albeit being full of loose ends and points you need to refine, etc., it was a decent body of work that you’d tackle for a few more nights before turning in

a skeleton, you’d called it

“a skeleton?”

“yeah. next thing i need to do is.. flesh it out”

“.. literally”

cue mark’s small pause

/inhale/

/MANIACAL LAUGHTER/

you know how mark’s laugh is very how do i put this into words hm dictated

you can HEAR each HA and they’re separate syllables yet sometimes they can vary in tone and length right it’s usually the more consistent HAs before he kinda loses it and starts throwing himself around

it was that laugh

honestly man finds everything funny his laughing threshold seems so low

and no matter how unfunny you are he WILL laugh at anything you say

and you’ve been doing it a lot lately

you could say literally any random thing and he’d already be ready to laugh (see Figure 1.1)

Figure 1.1

you: /snort/

mark, already giggling: “what”

you, still sniggering: /touches his elbow/ “arm knee”

mark: /inhale/ gotta live and breathe that oxygen

mark: HAHAHAHAhahAhaHAHAhahAhHa (decrescendo.. cRESCENDO)

^ that but looped, with intermittent slaps to your arm

anyways you never fail to make him fall out of his chair in laughter

but enough of that. dy/n is donghyuk’s y/n for a REASON ahEM

so after you finish up your breakfast at the cafe you go back to your dorm to take a power nap and recharge before your library session you were going to stay awake but mark forces you to take a nap and you’re like bro you just fed me caffeine now you want me to sleep??

then he tells you he ordered your drink decaf

you turn to him real slow

“.. you sick traitor. how dare you besmirch my name so. you scorn my forefathers and our dependence on the holy bean’s juices. betrayal runs rampant in your soul and mine stands at the mercy of your choices, them informed by the devil himself”

mark: /shrug/ “placebo effect yeet. hey, it worked for a bit. now you should really go home and get your sleep”

and he drags you back to your dorm and waves you off before going to his next class

you’re lowkey grateful for it tho when you take a shower and collapse onto your bed, falling asleep in what you think could be half the time you usually take

dreaming about losing your airpods and mark yelling at you to be more careful and then you two fighting bc you’d just lost your $300 bean sprouts but you could have sworn he took them

then police sirens went off out of nowhere and both of you were being arrested for assault and thievery

why you were the one being arrested, you had no idea but it’s a dream nothing follows the guidelines of hard reality anyway

just as you’re about to be handcuffed, you think to yourself, nope. i have a library session to attend. ain’t nobody got time for this shit

and you just

wake up

but the sirens are still continuing?? so you’re like ? is my building surrounded

they’ve come for me

even though you haven’t exactly broken any laws or have you

and you realise it was the alarm you’d set in time to get ready for your library session

so you grab your stuff and leave for the library, double checking with your roommate over text to make sure she was on her way

her lab class was taking longer than usual so she tells you she’ll be 10 or so minutes late

so you tell her you’ll be saving a seat for her and call mark to let him know you’re on your way to the library

“oh i’m already here lol. alright, i’m waiting for you outside”

and sure enough, you see him leaning on the wall of the entrance, eyes on his phone

you consider calling out to him but before you actually do, he glances up and spots you walking over tf do you have psychic spatial awareness mark

smiles and takes his corded earphones out

“you seriously need to upgrade those”

“they work fine”

“nop i’m getting you airpods for your birthday”

“dUdE thEy’RE tOo ExPEnSiVe. nO dUDE NoO”

“nOP. i’m GOING to buy you EXPENSIVE BEAN SPROUTS for your LIFE DEBUT ANNIVERSARY and you CAN’T STOP ME”

at this point i should just put /MANIACAL LAUGHTER/ and you should know what laugh i’m referring to

/MARK LEE’S MANIACAL LAUGHTER/

/MLML/ for short

nvm it’s fine it’s kinda fun to type /MANIACAL LAUGHTER/

literally mark laughs in bolded italics i’m just sad i can’t underline it on tumblr unless it’s a link lmfao

n e ways

i digress

you shush him because you’re about to walk into the library

“qUIET DOWN marcus” turn that sh down for quiet new dawn

the library is almost full for the day but after a minute or two scouring the building you find an empty four seater in the middle of nowhere it’s CRAZY you can NEVER find a MIRACLE like this life couldn’t get better

i’m sorry

you speed walk to claim it even though there was no one else in your vicinity to threaten your territory

mark laughs at you trying to get to the table as fast as you could without all out running

getting out your things, you send a photo of your seat to your roommate and tell mark to send it to his roommate as well so they know where to find you

you start watching the lecture online while taking notes and since you’re not in the lecture theatre you can talk more audibly with mark not that you don’t talk in the actual lecture too,,

maybe you do text a lot,,, during class

mark usually says things like “.. implications of what now?? interpretation of huh?” to which you reply “i want cheese when i get home”

and he has to stifle his laughter while you keep your straight face and continue writing your notes he admires this ability ngl

and so while you’re watching it on your computer

you can say things like “fuck. i want pickles”

and mark will /throw himself back/ and cackle and probably say some shit like “DIDN’T YOU HATE PICKLES??” between his giggles

and you’re like “yeah. fuck pickles but like. fuck. pickles”

he almost falls off his chair at this point

but when he balances himself again he spots someone down the corridor and wave them over

“oii! over here dude”

you turn to glance at them to expect his roommate, but you see your own roommate talking to someone and wave her over as well

“heYY my/n”

you see the other person turn to your roommate and tell her something, , then she says something back

which is apparently shocking to them, because he glances over at mark and then at you

and then he looks again when your roommate points straight at you

to which you’re like ?? hi? y u look me

and then they both start laughing

you wonder if they were laughing at you or smth until mark’s like “tf is that idiot doing”

and u look at him like ? what idiot

“that idiot. the idiot roommate i told u about. the one who called u a homewrecker”

and you’re like

wait

[info clog]

wait

[error]

“wait”

“what”

“that’s your roommate?” u point at the boy next to my/n, who r both still laughing at something going all “wOW r u KIDDING” he has a loud voice

and mark’s like “? yeah”

and you go

“.. the girl next to him is my roommate”

mark: “wait what”

that’s what she said

at that point they’ve made their way over to the table, still trying to hold in their laughter

you start to introduce your roommate to mark, who’s still confused by the situation

you: “mark, this is my/n, my/n this is mark”

my/n: “nice to see you again mark”

you: “wait. again?”

mark: “yeah we’ve met. hi my/n”

you: “what”

mark: “yeah”

my/n: “yeah”

his roommate: “yeah”

you:

you: “i feeling like i’m missing something here”

turns out

surprise surprise

that one friend that my/n had made in her biology class was mark’s roommate oh my god they were roommates

whose name, you are told, is lee donghyuk

magical moment

us watching: heh 🤤

u can’t help but do a lil body scan from head to toe bc he a fine piece of cake we all know that

honey skin, oversized white t shirt, black pants, sneakers and lighter brown hair that looks fluffy the type of fluffy that makes u wanna touch it

yes he’s good looking. yes

yaaaaas

then mark tells him your name

“she’s the one i said reminded me of you”

“r u talking abt me behind my back marcus??”

donghyuk laughs and holds out a hand for you to shake

“what kinda coincidence is this?? i adopt your roommate, you’re dealing with mine”

“oh you’re gonna have to get in line to adopt her, i’m her legal guardian, sorry donghyuk”

to which he goes

“lmfao then we’ll both be her parents”

“k but i’ll keep her on the weekends. you see her on the weekdays”

then he wipes his smile off his face and he’s like “who said we’re split”

mark and my/n are doing the /MANIACAL LAUGHTER/ at this point

mark: “so ,, seriously what are the chances”

you: “this quartet,, it’s fate guys it’s fate there’s no way about it”

yes it is. yes. it is

even that four seater table was free because of fate

donghyuk: “this calls for drinks later. we all free? no 9am classes tmr?”

my/n: “we have a physics prac at 8:30 dingus”

donghyuk: “ah shit”

you barely got any notes for that lecture for at least an hour because you end up talking altogether throughout the session but once you remember you’re in a library to study you request a ceasefire and agree to study for a bit which,, you gotta admit ,, isn’t really productive because you’re so excited to meet someone new

but the best part about the day was when you notice how many times mark is glancing at your roommate while she’s reviewing her notes, completely oblivious

donghyuk complains that he’s hungry after another hour or two and you suggest you all have dinner together

donghyuk leans back in his chair in a stretch, his jumper lifting up a little over his jeans and showing a bit of his belly “ah i’m craving chinese”

you perk up, “mE TOO”

so you all go to your favourite chinese place just outside campus where you find out that mark and my/n have the same taste and so do you and donghyuk

he points and u and goes “oH?”

“jjAMPPONG? U TOO?”

“the ONLY DISH EVER”

mark and my/n: jjajang is fine : )

you and donghyuk: “JJAMPPONG IS SUPERIOR”

give him a bro five with the shoulder bump and everything

the boys walk you and my/n back to your dorm afterwards

donghyuk and my/n end up walking in a pair and mark walks alongside you

mark mentions how it’d be fun if you made a group chat together

you: “do it”

“i don’t have your roommate’s number tho”

you’re smiling wickedly at his reaction “?? ASK HER FOR IT”

“dude what?? no u make one and i’ll add donghyuk to it”

“bRO JUST ASK”

“wHAT NO U DO IT THEN”

so u go

bet

and you call out the two biomed kids walking in front of you

“hey donghyuk! give me your number i’ll make a group chat”

“sure lol” and you open up a new contact to let him type his number into your phone

he saves his name as hot boi hyuk ✌🏻

which you just leave bc you’re busy making the group chat

mark is still astounded that you asked donghyuk for his number so easily

you: hi hello good day

my/n 🌸: yeetus meetus

hot boi hyuk ✌🏻: bow before me

you: here before me lie the beginnings of a new era

you: one born from blood and stone

my/n 🌸: tf is she saying

hot boi hyuk ✌🏻: idk but lets go with it

you: together we rise from the rubble and sort through the debris

hot boi hyuk ✌🏻: yas queen

my/n 🌸: i hate this gc already

you: and we WILL REBUILD THIS EMPIRE

read by marcus the fool 🤡 at 8:21 pm

safe to say you stay up for a good while talking on that group chat while mark just sits idle,,

you honestly don’t know if he’s consciously reading or not maybe he just left his phone on the chat

and thus our quartet is complete,,

and they all lived

happily ever after

but this isn’t the ending tho is it

wink wonk /waggles eyebrows/

this is but the epilogue to the prologue

that doesn’t make sense but n e ways

our quartet has not yet become two pairings

y’all just don’t know what the future has in store for you :)

click here to meet your soulmate, eng lit!mark!

II ⇤ | III | ⇥ IV

taglist: @lavellanfriendliness​ 

shoot me an ask if you’d like to be tagged in future parts!

[mysticm3ss]

let’s be forever [zen x fem!reader]

based on Normal Ending 2 of the April Fools DLC and also the reset theory. my interpretation of Zen’s POV during the final visual novel. enjoy~

Warnings: like one swear word. also angst but with a happy-ish ending.

Words: 1.5k

“I hope you’re not making a sad face. I’m smiling.”

It was only a half-lie, yet the words tasted bitter on Zen’s tongue. Though his lip was curled in a half-smile, the salty tears staining his cheeks and the sobs building in his throat far outweighed the acceptance he had so struggled to find.

He’d never see her.

Not her smile, her eyes, the blush in her cheeks...

The thought was more painful than a knife to the chest, but he kept a happy face. He couldn’t let her know that he was breaking apart, not now. He had to stay strong for her; had to be a rock for his princess to depend on. 

“At first, I couldn’t stand the fact that you’re in another dimension, but now I’m okay with it.”

His voice was thick with tears, and he hoped she wouldn’t notice. He would never be okay with this; never be okay knowing that he could never hold her in his arms, kiss away her tears, run his fingers along her skin.

Zen closed his eyes, hand clenching into a fist at his side. His nails dug into his palm, and the refreshing pain jerked him back to clarity. 

He could not accept this. He would not accept this.

“I know that the feelings we have towards each other can’t be trapped in any dimension. That lets me endure… all the waiting I have to do.”

Waiting.

Yes, there would be waiting; the plan slowly forming in the back of his mind could certainly never come to fruition overnight. 

But Zen would wait forever for her. Decades upon decades, centuries upon centuries, millennia upon millennia. 

He could wait. Yes, he could handle that. The only thing he could not handle was the mere notion of letting her go. Not now, not after she’d revealed that her feelings were as pure as his own, even if her answers had been predetermined. 

He would not give up.

“I love you, MC. Let’s be forever.”

He closed the app on his phone, and finally, Zen broke.

His chest heaved with painful sobs that burned his throat and stung behind his eyes. Tears marred the fair skin of his cheeks, and his hands fisted in his hair, knotting in the pale strands as he slid down the wall of his apartment. Knees to his chest, he pressed his face into his thighs, the fabric of his pants soaking up his sorrow and muffling the pitiful cries that fled his lips.

What would she say to me, right now? He half wondered. Would she hold me? Whisper comforting words? No, I should be the one comforting her… she must be hurting, too…

The very notion had another sob gasping from his throat.

“Jagiya…” he whispered, the words swallowed by his knees. “I’m coming for you. I promise.”

Zen didn’t move from his place on the floor until the clock struck midnight. Slowly, he raised his head, eyes red and puffy, cheeks tight with dried tears. 

Dammit, pull yourself together, his mind hissed. Hyun set his jaw, and sat up a little straighter, neck held high as he dared to look at his empty apartment. The empty space on the couch in which he’d longed to cuddle up with her, the empty kitchen he’d use to cook for her...

He swallowed, releasing a shaky sigh, and nodded once to himself as he tugged his phone from his pocket.

There was only one person who might believe him--one person who had dropped hint after hint in the chat room, hints that he had never quite grasped until now. One person who might actually be capable of helping.

He dialled. Held the phone up to his ear, listened as it rang. Once. Twice.

Hyun was bracing himself for the voicemail when finally-

“Zen, what the hell? It’s like, midnight.”

“Seven?” 

Zen winced at the croak of his voice and cleared his throat.

“...Zen? Are you… okay?”

Zen closed his eyes, cheeks flushing. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Listen… do you ever feel like… like something’s off? As though… maybe… we’ve done this before?”

Seven took a long moment before responding.

“What do you mean?” His tone was careful, and Zen licked his lips nervously.

“I mean… MC. Do you ever think that maybe… she’s… not exactly… here?”

A beat of silence.

“So you worked it out, huh?”

Zen’s stomach dropped. There was no pretending that this was a dream anymore, no locking away this torment in the back of his mind in the hopes that it was all just a painful misunderstanding, the ghost of a nightmare that haunted his quiet moments and taunted his sanity.

No, this was real.

“Y-yeah,” Zen managed. “How long have you known?”

“A while,” Seven murmured, and Zen’s insides twisted at the pain hidden in the redhead’s voice. Eventually, the agent forced a laugh that didn’t quite hit as genuine.

“So, at least now we can bond over our heartbreak, right?” he chuckled dryly. “And Yoosung thinks he has it bad in the love department… At least he doesn’t remember… none of them do…”

Zen had never heard humour drop from someone’s voice so quickly.

“Seven… I need your help.”

“What~? My help~?!” Seven gasped dramatically, upping his energy in typical 707-fashion; anything to repress the pain, to bury it beneath laughter and pretend that it wasn’t eating him up inside. Zen thought he understood Seven a little better, now.

He took a deep breath.

“I need you to help me… get to her. Get to her world. Or… or if that fails… see if we can bring her here. With her permission, obviously.” Zen held his breath, waiting for his friend to beat down his idea; to tell him that it was impossible, that he shouldn’t even entertain the insane notion.

“Even if it’s not forever,” Zen tacked on. “I just… I need to meet her. To… tell her thank you.”

Seven was still quiet, and Zen’s gut churned anxiously. His jaw began to ache, and he noticed he’d been clenching his teeth. He loosened, closing his eyes and focussing on his breathing--breathing that stopped at Seven’s next words.

“Okay. Okay. Let’s try.”

There it was--that flutter in his chest, the hint of brightness in his eyes, the bounce that slowly sprung back to his step:

Hope.

__________

It wasn’t until eight months later that he got the phone call.

Zen groaned, rolling over in his bed, hand fumbling for his cell as his bleary eyes barely registered the time stamped on his digital clock.

4:06am.

“Dude, what the fuck? Do you know what time it is?” he grumbled, voice thick with sleep as he pried his eyes open, stifling a yawn as he pressed himself upright. Zen stretched his neck, then his arms, holding his bicep over his face to muffle another yawn.

“I-I think I’m close, Zen.”

Seven’s voice was urgent, brimming with excitement, and Zen straightened immediately. Any lingering traces of sleep snapped away as Zen’s heart leapt to his throat.

“I’ll be right there.”

The night air whipped against Zen’s face, his hair flying out behind him as he broke god-knew how many traffic laws until he finally parked his motorcycle before Seven’s bunker. He’d spent night after tireless night here the past few months--at first, things seemed futile. But when they managed to hack into the other dimension’s version of the internet, Zen finally dared to hope that this could actually work.

He could see her--at least once.

Zen bypassed the Arabic security with relative ease; he’d come here often enough in the past few months to memorise the few phrases he’d needed to. He shoved open the door with his shoulder, hollow footsteps echoing on the floor as he barely kept himself from sprinting to the monitor room.

Seven’s amber eyes were bright, though they were weighed down by heavy bags and framed by sallow skin that hadn’t seen the sunlight (or sleep, for that matter) in at least a few days. Zen’s heart hammered frantically against his ribs, and he took a sharp breath.

Ordinarily, he was sure Seven would have given him shit--he was still in his pyjamas, for Christ’s sake--but at the moment, the two of them were too focussed on the monitors flashing with code, anticipation brewing in their shallow breaths and the hasty typing of Seven’s shaking fingers.

The two fell into a determined silence, broken only by the sharp orders the hacker fed to Zen, who followed them to the letter.

And then, Seven stopped typing, eyes wide in disbelief as they found Zen’s.

“It-it’s done. Any minute n-”

He was cut off by a flash of blue-green light bleeding from the monitor between them. Zen squinted, eyes closing against the harsh glare. As the brightness eased, he finally blinked, eyes adjusting to the newfound darkness. All he could hear was his heart thrumming in his ears, all he could feel was the burning of his lungs as he held his breath in anticipation.

His sight finally adjusted, and he felt all tension drain from his body, replaced by sweet, vitalising relief.

Hyun took a deep breath, and although his mouth was drier than cotton, the most beautiful word he knew found itself spilling from his lips;

“...MC?”

__________

hope u enjoyed, please reblog/comment if u did! xx let me know if u want a part 2, i have a few ideas!

[weakeninghope]

Dreamless nights (until I met you)

Pairing: Pannacotta Fugo / Narancia Ghirga

Rating: Teen

AO3 link here

Summary:  At school, people was always commenting what they have dreamed last night, telling crazy stories, laughing about it, or commenting the stupidest details.Fugo didn’t have what to tell. Hell, he didn’t even have someone to tell those stories to.

Notes:  Hello! It's me again. I was truly excited about the Fugonara week. To be honest, I spent the whole day writing this because I couldn't focus. Depression does that to me... but I hope you like this. I really poured my heart into this, and I hope to keep writing more for the week. Fugonara is a really cute ship, and I really love them.A few things I'd like to say:- I don't know if when Fugo joined the gang, Mista and Abbacchio were already there, so I kinda invented it hehe don't blame me for that. This was written for Fugonara week day 1: Dreams!

- Fugo's backstory is the PHF one (please read PHF) - I'm not a native (I'm from Spain) so please take this into account if you see any mistakesComments and kudos are much appreciated! <3Twitter: Shirotxpoison Tumblr: weakeninghopeThank you and see you soon <3

fic under the cut!

Fugo’s never been one to remember what he dreamt last night. His life had always been pretty monotonous as far as he remembers. Or at least it was before beating his professor up with a dictionary. Waking up, brushing his teeth. Having breakfast (compulsory breakfast, if he could have decided he would have skipped it, he used to wake up without wanting to eat anything, but his parents always told him that he had to start the day with enough energy to study throughout the day). Dressing up. Going to school. Studying until dinner. Dinner. And then off to sleep. Turns out that when he went to sleep he was mentally exhausted and his brain didn’t have the energy to design a dream-like universe.

In this aspect, he was envious.

At school, people was always commenting what they have dreamed last night, telling crazy stories, laughing about it, or commenting the stupidest details.

Fugo didn’t have what to tell. Hell, he didn’t even have someone to tell those stories to.

He wasn’t allowed to play videogames, he wasn’t allowed to have friends, he wasn’t allowed to do anything that didn’t imply studying or nurturing his brain, because he was “gifted”.

As time went by, he continued having dreamless nights, but when he started university at the age of thirteen, he started having really uncomfortable nights. He still had no dreams (nightmares either) but he used to wake up feeling really nauseous, which made breakfast really hard.

It really didn’t help that his siblings would burn his textbooks or draw on them which rendered the textbooks useless, and his parents blamed Fugo for not taking care of his stuff, which brought Fugo to having to stay until 2AM studying because he was grounded. And then he had to wake up at 6AM to go to university because his parents were busy working and he had to take the bus to go to university.

His life until that point had created a Fugo whose only way to feel something was through rage. He felt furious. Furious because his parents were too hard on him and always mad e him prioritize his privileged brain over absolutely everything. Furious because he only received attention because his parents wanted him to be perfect. Since the day that he noticed that his sibling s started trashing his belongings when he was younger, Fugo started committing small acts of rebellion. Not dressing up as he was supposed to. Not having breakfast. Little fits of rage that at least let him feel something. But of course, those attempts at having a personality outside of what he was supposed to be didn’t last that long, because soon after, his parents resorted to physical violence. When that happened, Fugo didn’t cry. He was just angry. Angry at having to go through this. Angry at himself. And when his parents stopped hitting him, he would often slam his head against the wall or punch it until his knuckles bled.

This got worse when he started university. And got even worse when his grandmother died. That night, he did have a dream. He dreamt about his family disowning him, he dreamt about him living in the streets, having nowhere to go, nowhere to have a life, being a nobody that never got the chance to have a normal life, that never got the chance to be himself. Because, if someone asked him what he thought of himself (not that it was gonna happen though, Fugo didn’t have people who’d be interested enough as of to ask him his opinion of himself) he’d say… not a lot. He was just what he had to be. Until he beat up his professor with a dictionary because he badmouthed his dead grandmother. That was Fugo’s biggest act of rebellion. Against the professor. Against his parents. Against himself, for always following the rules.

That was when Fugo’s life went downhill, and his dream about his family disowning him became his reality. He was sent to a cell, and his parents told him that they wouldn’t b e bailing him, because for them, Pannacotta Fugo was no more, he was just a worthless punk who, tired of being the uptight, flawless perfect model that they had instilled him, committed the despicable act of hitting a professor, someone superior and worth of admiration, with a fucking dictionary. Multiple times.

W ithin the loneliness of his cell, Fugo thought long and hard. He regretted a lot of his life choices (being born was the first one, even though that hadn’t been a choice) but not what he had done. Because even if it meant that he wouldn’t have a future anymore, he had decided something for himself, and he wasn’t going to tolerate some dude who didn’t know anything about his life badmouthing the only person who has ever cared for his wellbeing. Besides, as he had thought before throughout his life, he’d rather not have the desired future his parents were waiting for him to experience. He was better of like this. He knew that, after what he had done, he had no place among society, that he was a lowlife, scum, garbage, that no one would ever want him again. He could say farewell forever to having friends, to being important to someone. He’d think about saying goodbye to having a girlfriend, but he’s never been interested in girls. He’s never forged an emotional bond with anyone, let alone with a girl, and to be honest, if he thought about it, it was a big “no, thank you”.

He’d already made peace with the fact that he’d be alone forever until someone, this Bruno Buc ciarati , came to his cell and told him that he’d give him a path in life. A place to belong.

It sounded interesting, indeed; a place to belong. Fugo’s never had one in his life. He’s never even dreamed of living in a world of the books he read, particularly because he wasn’t interested in reading, he became a bookworm because he had to be one. But truth be told, he’d rather read that hear his parents argue or listen to his siblings badmouthing him and complaining about Fugo receiving all the attention. Unwanted attention. Fugo never asked for this “attention”. Because his parents never cared for him as of to give him a hug when he needed one, for example. But his siblings only saw what they wanted, and it was that their parents only cared about one person in their family.

Bucciarati looked like a gangster. He didn’t have it written all over his face, but his composure, his attitude, how he talked, how he moved, how he dressed. Fugo was pretty intuitive and could guess as much. Not that he had seen a lot of gangsters during his life but… Bucciarati looked like one. But not like a “bad” one. Fugo couldn’t imagine this guy harming someone. Fugo had known cruelty before, and this guy didn’t fit in his standards.

For a moment, Fugo pictured what it would be like, being in the mob. Putting his talent in use for other stuff besides studying and studying for earning himself a righteous future, a good job, money, and a family to be with. Fugo imagined that the mob was a cruel world, ruthless, cold. But he was honestly so fed up with being “good”, and he thought that if he was going to die, at least he’d die doing something he’d decided by himself. And Bucciarati was right.

He could no longer live in his parent’s world. In their world.

He wondered that if he joined Bucciarati, he would stop having those awful, dreamless nights.

So he said fuck it and accepted his offer.

After some time, Fugo passed the test and acquired his stand, Purple Haze. He learned from Bucciarati that stands are spiritual manifestations of your psyche, so he quickly associated Purple Haze with his repressed rage. His stand was quite deadly, to say the least. So he preferred not using it a lot, because he was still learning how to use it.

On the other side, the gang members were quite… odd, if he had to use a word to define them. Abbacchio had a very hard shell to break; he didn’t look like one to give up easily, or to open up to others. He only looked comfortable around Bucciarati, which was probably the reason why he was there, at the restaurant meetups. He always sat close to Bucciarati, as if to distance himself from Mista and Fugo himself. Mista was… Mista. He had a strange phobia regarding the number 4, and a very… cute? Emotional connection with his stand. Mista was very extroverted, always trying to talk with Fugo, and Fugo only knew how to answer… awkwardly, since he had never had any friends.

In the end, Fugo grew used to it. But one day, he found one boy rummaging through the trashcan near the restaurant. At first, he thought of helping him; because the hopelessness in his eyes had reminded him of himself when he had given up on life when he was in his cell, right before Bucciarati came to bail him. But then, the rational part of Fugo, how he grew up and became to be, took over him and decided to ignore him, so he returned to the restaurant.

If he felt a pang of pain and his stomach twisted when the boy looked at him, with his unbandaged eye, Fugo tried to ignore it.

That night, Fugo had a dream. He dreamt of that boy falling in an endless pit of despair, he dreamt of Fugo trying to extend his hand to him, but they couldn’t touch; they couldn’t reach. He dreamt of darkness consuming them both, and when he tried to scream, he woke up and realized he had been screaming for real. He was sweating hard, and he had yelled at such a volume that Bucciarati came to him room to ask what was wrong.

Fugo didn’t say a word and left the building. He had something to do.

He spent two hours running around the suburbs of Naples until he found the same boy rummaging through another trashcan.

“You’re coming with me.” He said, as he grabbed the boy’s hand. Then, he went to the restaurant where everyone was and said “I’d like to buy this man a plate of spaghetti.”

The same day, the boy, Narancia Ghirga, he learned afterwards, passed the test and joined the mob. Fugo didn’t know if this had been the right decision; but he couldn’t let this boy face the same fate he was going to face if Bucciarati hadn’t come to rescue him. He would have felt too responsible. He knew that nothing good came from mingling with others, but he wasn’t a jackass, and he felt the… need, to help this boy out.

When Narancia Ghirga joined the gang, he started to live with them, since there was an extra room in their appartment. Narancia’s room was right next to Fugo’s.

A few days passed, and even though Narancia and Fugo didn’t spend that much time together, Narancia sometimes spoke to Fugo about how he wanted to go to school, about how he admired Fugo for being smart, something that he was never going to achieve in his disastrous life. At those remarks, Fugo felt something strange in his stomach and his heart started speeding up his pace.

However, Narancia seemed to get along with Mista, often telling him how he felt or what he dreamed about. Narancia seemed to have a lot of interesting dreams, since Fugo often heard them chatting about that topic when he was having his teas or writing or reading a book.

The same day, at night, Fugo woke up hearing someone scream. Preoccupied with what had happened, Fugo went to Narancia’s room to check if something was wrong. The room was only illuminated by the dim lightning coming from the window, but he could clearly see Narancia squirming and panting in the bed.

He was having a nightmare.

That was when Fugo decided to act. Ever since he went to rescue him and had went through Naples tightly clasping his hand to bring him to the restaurant, Fugo has felt a strong emotional attachment with Narancia. So he decided to sit in his bed and calmly touch Narancia’s face to bring him to reality.

“Narancia” He whispered. He didn’t want to talk really loud since it could disturb Narancia, maybe. He didn’t know how to act when someone was having a nightmare, but he tried to be soft so he wouldn’t experience shock when he woke up.

Narancia kept squirming. Fugo decided to slide his palm a little bit through Narancia’s cheek, and he felt how soft and sticky it was, probably because he was sweating buckets. He must be terrified. Fugo definitely had to help him get through this.

“Narancia” He said, this time, a little bit louder. This seemed to startle Narancia, because, in one last dream-induced spasm, he moved from the bed until his face was inches apart from Fugo’s. When he opened his eyes, they stayed one good minute looking at each other. From this distance, Fugo could see drops of sweat falling from Narancia’s forehead, could see how his purple eyes shone under the moonlight. Could see his sleep mused hair. God, even in his disheveled state, Narancia looked beautiful. Fragile, but beatiful. Fugo wanted to protect him forever.

“F-Fugo?” He asked, his face still inches apart from Fugo’s. Fugo’s hand was still caressing Narancia’s cheek.

“Yes, it’s me, Narancia. You had a nightmare. You’re here again. With me. You’re not alone.” He whispered, hoping that would make Narancia feel better.

Narancia sighed, and Fugo could feel the warmth of his breath.

“So it was just a dream, huh? It sure felt real as hell.” Narancia let go, putting a little bit of distance between Fugo and himself. If Fugo felt a little bit disappointed, that’s not to be discussed.

“Nightmares tend to be like this.” Fugo claimed, even though he had like, two nightmares. He used to have dreamless nights, but he was sure that upon meeting Narancia, his dreams would start having a very different content.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Fugo continued, removing his hand from Narancia’s face. He didn’t want to be too invasive, but in a brave moment, he put his hand on top of Narancia’s that, lay on the cover of the bed.

“It was the same as always, Fugo. My friends leaving me behind. My mother dying from her infection. My father being shitty. At that time I really thought there was no future in store for me.” Narancia sighed. His eyes gleamed under the light, and Fugo could tell he was on the verge of tears, so he clasped Narancia’s hand tighter.

“I used to feel that about me, too.” Fugo confessed. If he felt an emotional connection with Narancia before, now it was just intensifying.

“You? How could you think you don’t have a future? You’re brilliant, Fugo!” Narancia exclaimed. At least, he looked more calm now.

“If I joined the gang and I’m here it means that my life wasn’t that good.” He reckoned, caressing Narancia’s palm. Narancia looked like he was more calm now, and instead of retrieving his hand, it looked like he was leaning to the touch, and Fugo was really glad.

“But you’re not alone anymore. You have the rest of the gang. And me. You have me.” Narancia reassured.

“You have me too, Narancia.” Fugo said. Inching closer to Narancia.

And then, he had an idea.

“Hmm… Do you… err… want me to stay the night with you? So you don’t have any nightmares? I can sleep on the floor if you want! I just don’t want you to be alone after what you’ve been through.” Fugo rambled more than he had initially wanted, but he didn’t want to make Narancia uncomfortable, so…

“No! I mean, yes! Yes, stay! But… stay on the bed with me. I can make room for you. I don’t want you to sleep on the floor, after how much you’ve helped me. So, please stay, Fugo. That would make me really happy.” Narancia exclaimed, with a little bit of emotion in his voice. Fugo was happy that it looked that fear had left Narancia’s voice and features. Sadness didn’t fit the boy’s expression. Narancia looked better when he was his usual jiggly, happy self. Fugo really did admire that of Narancia. He didn’t just like his looks, he liked his positive vibes, his crazy stunts, how bad he was at math but how he still tried to get better. There was a lot of Narancia he liked and respected.

And for the first time in his life he understood what it was like to have someone with whom he could form a future with. For the first time in his life, Fugo felt attached to someone. And he didn’t want to let go. Ever. He was sure that he would still suffer with coming to terms with himself, after all, he had hated himself throughout his whole life, but when he helped Narancia, he felt better, he felt at ease. And the thought of spending a night with Narancia, sleeping at his side… Made him feel really warm inside.

“Okay…” Fugo said.

Narancia proceeded to scoot close to the corner of the bed to make space for Fugo, and then Fugo got on the bed with Narancia. Narancia lay on his side and so did Fugo, both facing each other. And then, none of them said anything, but they, slowly, closed the space between each other and their lips touched for a second, before Fugo retreated because he was too flustered to keep going. They’d have chances to kiss in the future (he hoped). Now they just had to bask in each other’s company. Fugo then held Narancia’s hand and intertwined their hands together.

“Good night, Narancia.” He whispered.

“Good night, Fugo”. Narancia whispered back.

And that night, Fugo dreamt about a future.

[captainillogical]

Devil’s Ballroom Ch.7

A year after the events from the earth’s final attack, Little Homeworld is finally complete, and there’s a new jazz bar where gems and humans mingle and drink. - As you’re typing back a reply, someone pulls the stool out next to you and takes a seat. You see a sliver of pink out of the corner of your eye as you try not to actually Look. Oh god. It’s her. God can’t help us now.

Spinel/Reader

collab with my lovely wife @firstofficertightpants​

ya’ll im sorry lmao

You spend the rest of your evening doing exactly none of the errands that you needed to deal with today. Instead, you're laying on your couch and texting your friends.

         Y/N: I'm so tornnnn.

     Y/N: Do I say something about the cheek smooch?

     Y/N: Should I leave it be?

     Y/N: Because she's texting like nothing happened.

     Y/N: What if I'm reading too much into it??

     Y/N: What if that's just how she shows friendship affection???

     Y/N: I might make it so fucking awkward if I assume something!

     Y/N: This entire ordeal is mortifying!!!

     Y/N: I want nothing more than to dig a big hole and lie in it forever.

     Y/N: I might be low-key having a panic attack about this rn but what's new.

     Harper: Y/N. chill. you're way overreacting to this.

     Harper: even if it meant nothing, she still likes you as a friend right?

     Harper: i think it would take a lot for her to like.. not wanna stay friends lol.

     Alex: im just saying you could probably kiss her and she'd be ok with it

     Alex: cheek kisses are pretty forward

     Harper: don't listen to him. all of his relationships ended in failure.

     Alex: wow

     Alex: im seriously hurt

     Harper: am I wrong?

     Alex: no..

     Harper: my point exactly.

     Harper: i’m not saying you have nothing to lose or anything.

     Harper: because i myself had to tread very carefully with leah..

     Harper: but i think you should just see where it goes and not like

     Harper: put too much emphasis on this incase it was nothing.

     Y/N: Yeah see now you have me worried it WAS nothing!!

     Alex: oh my goooooooddddddddddddddd

     Alex: the both of you approach women so.. pathetically

     Alex: take a risk

     Alex: live a little

     Alex: what is seriously the worst that could happen

     Alex: she kills you??

     Alex: lmao

     Alex: its funny cuz of.. you know

     Harper: i can’t wait to be home and smothering him with a pillow instead of affection.

     Y/N: You and me both.

     Y/N: Try being the only one available to play games with him.

     Alex: both of you fucking love me okay

     Alex: alsooooooo i get to be home the day after tomorrow

     Alex: the alex is back, babieeeeee

     Y/N: Harper please come home I’m BEGGING you.

     Harper: sorry you gotta deal with him alone for another month lmao.

     Y/N: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

     Alex: can i get a fucking crumb of love here please

         You swipe over to the couple of messages Spinel has left you in the past couple of minutes while you were talking to your friends.

         Spinel: It’s another stupid ball, I just found out.

     Spinel: I told her that I’m sitting this one out this time.

     Spinel: She has so many others that would absolutely love to help her, and yet, still absolutely insists that I must be there.

     Spinel: I don’t want to go back to homeworld right now, and not for this.

     Y/N: And you put your foot down? Hell yeah, dude.

     Y/N: Planning a ball for a bunch of gems sounds like a chore anyway.

     Spinel: oh, it is, believe me.

     Spinel: And they need everything to be PERFECT.

     Spinel: Which isn’t realistic anymore now that they don’t expect any of the gems to stay in line with their gem class nowadays.

     Spinel: The last ball they threw almost 4 months ago was utterly chaotic.

     Y/N: For thousands of years y'all as a race never pushed to deviate from the norm, and now that you guys are allowed to? I’d go batshit with it too.

     Y/N: Being stifled in everyday life, and finally you’re free?

     Y/N: Fuck, I’d go around fusing with anyone!

     Spinel: That is precisely what too many of them did.

     Y/N: Lmao. I wish I could’ve seen that.

         You tab back over to your group chat for a moment to see what they’re talking about.

         Harper: see? they’re everywhere.

     Harper: i wasn’t expecting the campsite to have so many.

     Alex: you could have built an army and instead you took pictures

     Alex: do you know how easy it is to lure chipmunks?

     Alex: oh that lil guy on the bottom right is so fucking chunky i love him

     Harper: that’s the one that got the closest when i fed them. :3

     Alex: oh i fuckin BET

     Alex: you dont get that chubby in the wild without takin a few risks

     Alex: if u know what i mean ;)

     Harper: i hate whatever you just implied.

     Y/N: It’s not a conversation with Alex unless you roll your eyes at least 3 times.

     Alex: hey i thought it was 4 times

     Alex: dont insult me

     Alex: anyway, y/n

     Alex: are you workin the day i come back

     Y/N: Yeah I’m actually scheduled a double.

     Alex: scheduled

     Y/N: Yes.

     Alex: a double

     Y/N: Yes.

     Alex: he can’t SCHEDULE you a DOUBLE

     Y/N: He can if he asks me ahead of time as a favor.

     Alex: that fuckin bastard

     Alex: always ruining my plans

     Harper: you’re still mad at him for firing you last summer, huh.

     Alex: OF COURSE I AM

     Y/N: Bro you stole like $300 of cotton candy sugar that summer.

     Y/N: It’s only fair.

     Y/N: Besides, I’m only doing this because he said he’d give me a long weekend for it.

     Alex: kay well

     Alex: i guess i’ll just go bug you at work and wait for you to get off that day :'(

     Y/N: Get me written up again, I swear to god.

         Your phone chimes several times, and you swipe down to see messages from both Spinel and Steven. You check Spinel's first.

         Spinel: Do me a favor and ignore any messages Steven has sent you.

     Y/N: What are you, my boss?

     Spinel: I MEAN IT

         You quickly switch over to Steven's texts.

         Steven: I was going to ask you if your date with Spinel went okay, but I'm assuming it went fine considering she hasn't really stopped talking about you.

         Ohhhh my god, this is wild. You reply to him.

         Y/N: It wasn't a date as far as I know.

     Y/N: I had fun.

     Y/N: She's telling me to not read your messages, lmao.

     Y/N: Also what do you mean she hasn't stopped talking about me??

     Steven: She’s been lying on my floor for the last hour basically gushing about you.

     Steven: But you didn’t hear that from me!

     Steven: :D

     Y/N: Haha thanks, kid.

         You switch back over to text Spinel, and get up off the couch to make yourself some tea. Pulling out your kettle, you turn the stove on and grab some raspberry flavored abomination tea bag that your dad loves more than any of the other good tea flavors.

         Y/N: Sooooo.

     Spinel: You talked to him, didn’t you.

     Y/N: Hahaha noooo. :)

     Spinel: The fuck did he say?

     Y/N: Absolutely nothing.

     Spinel: Seriously? I was sure he’d reveal something embarrassing.

     Y/N: Nope! You should probably get off his floor eventually, though.

         Your kettle goes off and you grab a clean mug, and pour the boiling water into it along with the tea packet. You look down at your phone, and grin.

         Spinel: goddammit.

         You let the bag steep for a little bit, and add in a small amount of sugar. Walking up to your bedroom you take a snap of Jellybean half lounging, half falling off the stairs and send it to Spinel. She replies with a couple heart emojis, and you wonder if Steven was the one to show her the proper use of them. You set your cup of tea down on your desk, and turn your computer on. It’s evening now, and it’s much too late to do anything left with the rest of your day productivity-wise, so you settle in on playing more minecraft. Your thoughts wander quite a bit, and you find yourself stuck on thinking about Spinel. Naturally. You wonder about a lot of things she’s learned while staying on earth, from things like - does she pay rent? Does she have a job? Does she know what taxes are? Does she know what a relationship with a human looks like? She said she watched a movie, but didn’t exactly elaborate. You don’t know what human-norms she’s been exposed to. You can’t even concentrate enough to mine any of this redstone for Alex, and you nearly die in-game when the thought of ‘does she know what sex is?’ pops into your mind. You grab your phone and shoot Spinel another message.

         Y/N: Quick question.

     Y/N: If you don’t mind me asking.

         It takes her a few minutes to reply.

         Spinel: Sure?

     Y/N: Do you know how humans are made?

     Spinel: w

     Spinel: Yes?

     Spinel: Steven told me about it a few weeks ago actually.

     Spinel: Why are you asking?

     Y/N: No reason! Just curious is all.

     Spinel: Hm.

         Yeah you’re not too confident that she actually knows, and you’re too chickenshit to elaborate right now. You’ll enlighten her later. You spend the rest of the night browsing memes on your phone, and texting your friends and Spinel on occasion. Before you know it, your eyes drift close with your phone in hand.

     You wake up when your alarm goes off for your morning shift, and curse at yourself for not charging it last night. It’s at a solid 32%, which isn’t really enough to go about your day, but you’ll have to make do. You get ready for a hopefully not shitty day, lock up the house, and head in to work.

     It’s a complete shitshow when you come in, and you turn your phone off to save battery and concentrate on dealing with more than an average amount of tourists. You find Mr. Smiley sleeping in the breakroom/office/supply closet, and have half a mind to lock him in there from the outside for the rest of your shift. It’s pretty busy, and messy, and it isn’t until you’re there for several exhausting hours that you finally have enough time for a break. You turn your phone on, and instantly you’re flooded with messages from several different people. Ugh.

           A couple from your dad - just checking in, really. Group chat too as usual, but none of it seems overly important. One from Spinel, and several from Steven. You open up Spinel’s message first.

         Spinel: Do you think we could talk about a couple of things later?

         Vague, and a little concerning. You text back an apology for getting back to her so late, and open the messages from Steven.

         Steven: Hey are you busy?

     Steven: I’m dealing with a bit of a situation right now, and could use your help.

     Steven: Spinel locked herself in my bathroom, and she won’t come out.

     Steven: She refuses to answer to anyone, and several of us have tried.

     Steven: I’m just really worried about her, and you guys seemed to bond, so I was hoping..

     Steven: That maybe you could come over?

     Steven: Thanks regardless.

         You check the timestamp, and that was over an hour ago. Jesus christ.

         Y/N: Steven I’m so sorry, my phone was off and I’m at work, give me a few and I’ll be right over, okay?

     Y/N: I’ll be quick.

         He replies almost immediately with a “please” and you pocket your phone. You try not to worry too hard about Spinel as you rush over to grab your things, and knock on Mr. Smiley’s office/broom closet door. He opens it groggily, clearly just waking up.

     “Yeah?” he slowly blinks at you.

     “I gotta leave early. Emergency.” You stare at him, trying to not be pissed at his lack of work ethic.

     “Are you for real? You’ve got another 3 hours left.” He says and crosses his arms, and you glare at him.

     “I’ve been working my ass off while you’ve been sleeping this whole time, AND I’m covering your ass tomorrow so you can go meet your old friend! So the LEAST you can do is let me go early when I have an emergency!!!” You almost yell out at him, and he holds his hands up in defense.

     “Okay, okay! Fine. Only because you’re a good worker.” He says, and has the gall to look at least a little ashamed of himself.

     “Damn right I am.” You spin around and head out of the building, practically running.

     You almost trip and bite it several times on the way over to Steven’s place, but you’re more worried about Spinel. You’ve only been to his place twice, but once you’re there you run up the stairs and open the door without knocking. You’re greeted by the only two people in the living room, Pearl, and Steven.

         “Oh, she’s here!” Pearl says and nudges Steven, who looks up from typing on his phone.

     “Y/N! Thank god you’re here.” He says with furrowed eyebrows.

     “What happened?” You say and shut the door, and cross the room over to him.

     “I’m not sure! We were just working on something together for Amethyst, and she got a call from Blue and Yellow. She’s been ignoring them lately, and they’ve been bothering me in turn because of that, so I asked her to take the call just see what they want.” He runs his hand through his brown curls, and just for a moment, you see that 12 year old him in again. The obvious stress masks just how young he really is, and you feel bad that he can’t live life like a normal kid. “She went outside to take the call, and was out there for quite a while. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I did hear some yelling. And just when I was going over to make sure they were alright, she comes back in tears, eyes spiraling like months ago, and nearly knocks Pearl over rushing into the bathroom.”

     “And nothing since?” You inquire, fidgeting with your hands.

     “No,” He says, frustratedly. “I’ve been trying to reach the diamonds to see what this is all about, but I’ve only been getting the pearls. I don’t know what to do. She hasn’t been like this in months. What were they talking about to make her this upset?”

     “Maybe I can find out. You said she’s in your bathroom?” You raise an eyebrow at him.

     “Yeah, the one right over here.” He says and points to it.

     “Is it locked?” You ask.

     “No,” Pearl glances towards the bathroom door and crosses her arms. “The lock has been broken on it for a while, since Peridot joined us actually. Both Garnet and I tried opening it, but I think once Spinel hears someone trying to come in she blocks the door.”

     Hm.

     “I’m gonna try something, but you guys are gonna wanna stay away.” You say to the two of them. “I don’t want to overwhelm her with more than one person.”

     “Let us know if we can do anything?” Steven makes to pass by you and gives your arm a light squeeze. “And thanks for coming to help.”

     “Anytime, dude.” You give him a half smile, and walk over to his bathroom. You turn to take a look back at the other two, and they’re already in the kitchen discussing something in soft tones. You move to knock at the door, make two light taps against the frame, and wait for an answer.

     A couple seconds pass, and nothing. Not even any movement. Nervously, you knock again, a little louder this time, and wait for a good ten seconds.

     Still nothing.

     You take a deep breath, reach out to grab the door handle, and very slowly and quietly open the bathroom door. You see nothing but absolute darkness, and step in. You feel around the wall to your right and flip a switch just as you close the door behind you with an audible click. The room instantly floods with the dark red light of the heat lamp, and before you can even think about finding another light source, you find yourself slammed up against the wall and let out a surprised yelp. You open your eyes to see Spinel’s face inches from yours, pupils wild, her hands splayed against your shoulders.

     “U-um,” Your voice cracks a little. “Hey.”

     You watch her eyes take a second to find yours, and almost instantly, she lets you go, arms trembling.

     “W.. what are YOU DOING HERE!?” She cries, large tears pouring down her face, eyebrows raised in confusion, mouth trembling. Her hair is in loose pigtails, strands untamed around her face, cheeks stained with tear tracks. She looks like a mess, and your heart breaks, just a little. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt y-”

     “I’m fine.” You cut her off. “I should have said who it was outside the door, I’m sorry. And um.. Steven texted me while I was at work, and told me what was going on so I rushed over..” You trail off as you watch Spinel’s entire body shake, and she covers her face with both of her hands.

     “I can’t believe I just did that.” You hear her wavering voice, muffled behind her fists, and she lets out a choked sob. “Maybe they were right. M-maybe I’m not meant to-” She quickly moves her hands down to look at the floor with wide, vulnerable eyes, and struggles to form the rest of her words. You hear her breathing pick up pace, and you’re starting to realize she’s hyperventilating.

     “Spinel, look at me.” Her eyes shoot up to yours, lips trembling. “I need you to breathe.” You do what your friends have always done with you, and gently grab both of her hands and hold them with yours, thumbs stroking her palms in slow circles. She freezes up instantly, and you’re about to panic, because while a familiar touch helps ground you, you register that maybe it’ll make it worse for her. But before you can pull your hands away, her hands relax ever so slightly, and she lets out a shaky breath. “Good. Just like that.” You motion for her to follow your breathing inverals, and she copies you, hands still shaking in yours.

     It’s been a while since you’ve had to deal with something like this, but you’re thankful for having similar life experiences. After a solid minute or two of this her breathing is back to a normal pace, but she’s still crying, and now not meeting your eyes. Almost like she’s avoiding them.

     “Look, I.. I don’t know what happened with you and the diamonds, but you can talk to me about it if you’d like. No pressure, though.” You give her hands a small squeeze, and she whimpers, looking up to meet your gaze. Tears are still actively streaming down her face, and you have no idea how to make any of this better. It physically hurts you to see her like this.

     “C-can I not talk about it? I don’t think I’m ready..” She pulls a hand from yours, and wipes at her face. She just kind of smeared half of her face with wetness, and she looks miserable.

     “You don’t have to talk about anything, Spinel.” You look at her, making sure she sees it in your eyes. You slowly let go of her other hand, and hold your arms out in a silent question instead. Her mouth opens slightly, the red glow of the light around her making her look extremely vulnerable and soft, and she looks at your open arms with a blank face for a moment before understanding. Almost instantaneously, she throws herself against you and wraps her arms around your shoulders, shoving her face into the cradle of your neck. You envelop your arms around her tightly, giving her sides a squeeze, and you feel her start to shake again.

     She lets out an unsteady sigh, and hiccups out another small sob. You pull her to lean fully against you as you stand there, bracing your back against the bathroom door. She lets you maneuver her, and you rest the side of your face against her temple while she cries. You resign yourself to letting her cry on you until she’s done, if she needs to.

       You feel her sniffle against your neck, and try not to mind that she’s getting your shirt soaked. You give her back a few gentle rubs, feeling her body quiver against yours as she’s trying to control her choked breathing. You’re not really counting the minutes, as right now you’re currently having way too many rampant thoughts about what the fuck the diamonds could’ve said to her. You’re mad as hell, honestly, and if you could say shit to them, you would in a heartbeat. You don’t want to make anything worse for her though, as much as you want to steal her phone and video call them to curse them out. It takes a few more minutes, but eventually her crying dies down, and you feel her breathing even out. Slowly, she dislodges her arms from twisting around you two, and you feel a sigh, her breath hot against your neck. You do your best to school your facial expression as you’re realize just how close you are to her, and she pulls her face from its resting position to look at you. She looks awful.

       “U-um,” She lifts up her hand to attempt to wipe her face, failing to rub half the tears away. “I don’t really want to go out there yet..”

       “You don’t have to.” You say, quietly. “I can leave if you’d like some quiet to yourself.” Her face looks panicked for a second, and she grabs your wrist.

       “Please don’t leave me.” She says, voice wavering again. You try not to let your heart shatter at her tone.

     “I won’t if you want me here.” You say, and sigh softly. “Here, hold on a second.”

     She lets your wrist go as you move slightly over to the sink, turn the hot water on, and grab a clean hand towel from the counter. You soak it in water, and squeeze out all the excess. Towel in hand, you turn back to her, and she’s looking at you cautiously. You lift the towel slightly, motioning to her face.

     “May I?” You ask, and she nods slightly.

     Tenderly, you brush a couple strands of hair away from her face, grasp her chin with your left hand and pull her forward, gently pressing the towel to her cheek. She closes her eyes, and her shoulders sag a little as she lets you dab at her face, cleaning her of any tear stain marks. She sighs into your touch, and it strikes you that it would be so easy to just.. lean in and kiss her.

       Your brain almost short circuits and you snap your thoughts back to reality. There’s a time and place for everything. This is not the time, nor the place.

       Once you’re satisfied that she looks a lot better than before, you pull your hands away to toss the rag in the sink, and Spinel, for a brief moment, looks disappointed that you had stopped. Which.. kind of gives you an idea.

       “Can I try something? Harper used to do this thing with me when I.. had similar breakdowns.” You ask her. She raises her eyebrow in response, clearly exhausted from crying so much. “Here.” You say, and take her hand and lead her over to the rim of the bathtub. You sit down on the edge, and motion for her to sit in front of you on the floor. She takes a seat in front of you, still confused, but obeys nonetheless. “Can I touch you?” You ask her, watching her face to make sure she’s alright.

       She looks up at you, the red light in the room flooding the entirety of her face, making her hair darker, and the whites of her eyes a bit more dramatic.

     “Yeah.” She says in reply, voice tired.

     You reach out to her hair, and stop for a moment.

     “Can I have you face the other direction, actually? Come over here.” You move to open your knees, making enough room for Spinel to turn around and lean against the bathtub. She’s close to you again.

     “What are you..” She trails off as you start to take the hair ties out of her pigtails, one after the other. It takes a second, as it’s a bit tangled, but you manage to get both out, and let her hair fall down. You comb out her hair with your fingers, gently, and she sighs audibly while leaning into your touch. You run your short nails along her scalp, scratching and massaging as you smooth out her hair, attempting to pull all the tangles out.

     “Touch used to calm me down, and Harper was really good at it, honestly.” You say while pulling out a particularly difficult tangle without hurting her. Her hair is long like this, and you like it. You wish you could grow your hair this long, but it’s kind of a pain to deal with, and the longest you’ve ever had yours wasn’t even to your mid back, you think to yourself. “Sometimes she’d give me shoulder and neck massages, but I preferred that she’d just play with my hair. There’s just something different about another person touching your hair.”

     “I kind of get what you mean.” She says, tiredly.

     “Can I braid your hair?” You lean closer to look at her face.

     “Do what you want.” She says, looking fairly relaxed.

     “Cool. Anyway, while Harper was good at that, Alex, on the other hand, was just terrible at any kind of physical comfort. He’s genuine, and he tries, but he’s an idiot. He’s a lot better at distractions, for the most part.” You run your fingers through her hair one more time, before starting to separate her hair into three parts for a french braid. “He’s funny, and comes from a large family, so he always has stories and jokes. Whenever I’d have a panic attack, those two were always so good about being there for me. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

     You notice that Spinel‘s shoulders have lost most of the tension in them, and you’re secretly relieved. You keep talking to fill the quietness around you two, because you’ve always hated the quiet during moments like these. Your friends aren’t here, so it’s up to you to make up for it.

     “It was kind of hard, at first though,” You say, and start looping the chunks of hair around your fingers, starting at the top of her head. “Because for a while there, back when I was 16 and dealing with the worst of my abandonment issues, I clung onto Harper like a baby koala. I had this super weird crush on her even though we had been friends since we were practically babies. I think I idolized her because she was just.. good to me.” You accidentally tug a little too hard on a strand of hair, wince and utter an apology while massaging the spot on her scalp. “I’m glad that didn’t ruin our friendship, but for a while there I really pushed my feelings onto her, which was kinda fucked up on my part.”

     “Hm..” Spinel mumbles. “I kind of had a thing for Pink, I think. Which ended up screwing with me even more after what she did.” You stare at the back of her head and pause your hands for a second. Huh. Yeah, you had a hunch.

     “If she were still alive, I’d punch her in the face for you, I hope you know.” You state, in full seriousness. This gets the first chuckle that you’ve heard from her today, and you’re secretly overjoyed.

     “I’d pay to watch that.” She says, and you laugh out loud. You see her smile, just barely.

     “So,” You continue, with both your hands and conversation. “A week or so after my 17th birthday, right after Harper talked to me about this guy at school that she liked, I confess to her. And not like a, ‘oh hey, you’re my best friend and I really like you’ kind of way, either. It was more like a, ‘have a mental breakdown over your best friend liking someone else and make them feel like shit about it on your walk home from school’ kind of confession.” Your hands reach the nape of her neck now, braid mostly done on her head, but you’ve got around another 20 inches of length before being finished.

     “Harper avoided me for nearly a week after that. I was absolutely pathetic, and inconsolable. Alex was fed up with my shit after a few days, and nearly slapped me over it. He would’ve been in the right, doing so, honestly. I was a selfish asshole who only thought about her own feelings, and not about her best friends.” Your eyes drift to Spinel’s face, and her eyes are closed, eyebrows unfurrowed.

     “Anyway,” You’re nearly done with the entire braid now. “She did end up forgiving me. Thankfully. I don’t know what I’d do if it were my fault that I’d split up our friend group.” You pick up the discarded hair tie from earlier, and tie it around the end of the braid.

     “I’m all done, by the way.” You say to her. She opens her eyes tentatively, and she looks sleepy. You stand up, and stretch your back. She also gets up on wobbly legs, and turns to look at you.

     “Um.” She’s avoiding your eyes. “Thank you. For this.” She’s twisting her hands together, nervously. You lean your face closer to get at eye-level with her.

     “Anytime.. and for the record, you look really cute in a braid.” You say and smile, giving her a cheeky wink. You watch her entire face from the neck up turn bright red, and think that you could probably do this forever, and never get tired. She gives you a noncommittal grunt, halfheartedly smacks your arm and you grin at her.

     You hear a quiet knock at the door, and look over to Spinel. She shrugs, so I guess it’s okay now.

     “You can come in!” You say to the door. It opens slowly, and you see Steven peek his head in.

     “Um.. are we okay?” He asks, clearly very worried about her.

     “I’ll be okay.” She says, and you think that maybe she should lay down and sleep. You verbalize this immediately.

     “Spinel. I think you should go take a nap.” You look at her, and she blinks at you. “I’m serious.”

     “She’s kind of right.” Steven says in agreement with you. Spinel gives the both of you a shrug, and even that seems like it’s taking a lot out of her.

     “Okay.” She says, and turns to walk out of the bathroom. Steven opens the door wider, and you can see Pearl in the kitchen leaning against the counter, trying to not seem like she’s intently watching all of you.

     Spinel makes her way over to the couch and takes a seat, sitting up rigidly. You walk over to her to make sure she’s okay before you leave for home.

     “You know you can text me, right? And if you need me, I’ll be available. I’ll leave my volume turned on.” She gives you a nod. “Oh, and.. take this,” You say, and pull off the pullover hoodie you’re wearing right now, and hand it over to her. “Alex used to let me wear his oversized sweaters, and they used to help me sleep, so..”

     She tentatively reaches out, and takes it from your hands.

     “Thanks.” She says, and gives you a small smile. With her hair pulled back like this she almost looks human, for a fleeting moment. You sometimes forget she’s a gem. You return the smile back at her, and turn around to leave.

     After grabbing your bag that you set down earlier from beside the couch, you head over to the front door and open it. Shouldering the bag, you start to shut the door and see Steven behind you. He closes the door behind him, his face searching yours for something you don’t quite know.

     “I don’t know what you did, but thank you.” He says, completely genuine.

     “You don’t have to thank me. I’d do it for you, too, you know.” You say to him, and he smiles.

     “That’s why I like you, Y/N. You’re sweet.”

     “Yeahhhh, don’t tell anyone, though. You’ll ruin my reputation.” You smirk, giving him the side-eye. He laughs and pats your back.

     “Ohhhhhh no! Whatever will you do!?” He rolls his eyes in jest. “Get home safe, okay?”

     “No promises.” You reply, and jump down his steps, two at a time.  

     It doesn’t take you long to get home, and you’re pretty tired yourself. You make yourself busy by preparing dinner, cleaning the kitchen a little, and calling your dad for another check-in. Before you know it, it’s nearly 11, and you need to sleep for your double shift tomorrow that you almost forgot about. You’re laying in bed browsing social media before drifting off, and you receive a text from Spinel. You swipe down and open the message.

         Spinel: Thanks again for today.

     Spinel: I baked some new cookies with Steven, and would like to give you some tomorrow if that’s okay?

         You smile to yourself. Ughhhhhhhh, you’re catching the feelings disease, and you swat the air around you like it somehow physically manifested around you.

         Y/N: I work literally all day, but feel free to stop by and give them to me.

     Y/N: Then I get to see a pretty familiar face to break up all the lame tourists.

     Y/N: Cuz that sounds super nice. ;)

     Spinel: I’ll see you tomorrow, then.

         She didn’t react to your obvious teasing, but you won’t let that discourage you. You fall asleep thinking of the many different ways you can poke fun at her, and this time, you charge your phone.

     You wake up the next morning feeling well-rested for once, and get ready for work. Alex has sent you a couple texts about when his flight will arrive, and when he’ll roughly come to meet you. Sometime around 4pm, apparently. You shoot Spinel a good morning text, and she replies almost instantly with the same, which makes you smile.

     You head to work, texting your group chat about what happened yesterday with Spinel, and give them basically all the details. Alex makes fun of you for a bit, so you curse him out and pocket your phone as you clock in. Today’s going to suck, but you’ve got a few things to look forward to.

     You make it a couple hours into your shift before you finally get a break, and Spinel texts you that she’ll drop by sometime in the afternoon once she’s done helping Bismuth with something. God you hope it’s not when Alex gets here, because you are so not fucking ready for that interaction. You eat your lunch and pray to any god out there that you could have one more day of peace.

     You’re outside the main building repairing a couple parts on the carousel, ignoring the bulk of the tourists to focus on work. You don’t realize that quite a while has passed by, because someone walks up to you as you’ve got your head in a small door, and kicks you slightly on your ass. You jolt and bump your head against the opening, and you hear Alex burst out into laughter as you groan in pain.

     God fucking dammit, this guy. You pull your head out to glare at him, screwdriver pointing at him threateningly.

     “Do you want this up your ass? Because I can do that.” You say to him, and he laughs even harder. You roll your eyes at him.

     “Don’t promise me with a good time, Y/N.” He says, and you stand up to smack him.

     “I don’t think the pointy end would be a good time, idiot.” You deadpan stare at him. He grins.

     “You don’t know what I’m into.” He shrugs, and flips his hair dramatically. You hate that he’s stupid and charming, and you love him so much.

     “I know I haven’t seen you in 2 months, but like, I feel like you’ve grown taller?” You stare at him, a little mournfully. You’re the shortest one out of your friends, and you’re of average height. He also seems.. handsomer. You think he definitely got a lot more tan. He’s definitely grown into his looks, his dark curly hair and recently shaved face making him look older than you’re used to.

     “I don’t think I did, but I think you’ve grown shorter.” He laughs obnoxiously, and you smack his arm again, which makes him laugh harder.

     “You’re so mean to me, like all the time. Why do I love you?” You cross your arms and pout, because you know it gets a rise out of him.

     “Youuuuuuu knowww, because I’m just so loveable and gorgeous and the smartest one in the group??” He flutters his eyelashes at you like he thinks he’s cute.

     “Wow, you are none of these things.” You reply, smirking at him. He puts his hand over his heart in mock offense.

     “Y/N, I’m offended. I’ve been here for like, five minutes, and I’ve received absolutely no affection from you. If I don’t get love, I will wilt and die. Do you want to be responsible for my death?” He opens his arms wide, and you roll your eyes dramatically, and stand there.

     “We’re not doing this in public.” You say, standing your ground.

     “Ohhh, YES we are, Y/N.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “Prepare yourself for the onslaught.”

     You take a couple steps back, prepared to run. He grabs your arms, wraps his around your torso, and picks you up, swinging you around.

     “Nooooooooooooooooo!!” You cry. “Put me down you oaf!”

     “No! I want love!” He all but shouts, and spins you around. He grabs your cheek with one hand and starts giving you big ‘ol smooches all over your face, and you’re giggling and trying to push him away, when you hear something drop and spill on the pavement a good twenty feet from you. You look up.

     It’s Spinel.

       Her face is twisted with heartbreak, and before you can even speak up, she bolts.

       You look down, and see the cookies she made you scattered on the ground.