#on demand dating app like tinder

[smithjoe]

A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching Your Own Tinder Clone App

Are you looking to create your dating app? Look no further than this step-by-step guide to launching your Tinder clone app. With the increasing popularity of online dating, making your dating app can be a lucrative business idea. This guide will walk you through the entire process, from concept to launch, ensuring you have all the tools and knowledge necessary to create a successful app.

Understanding the Market Demand for Dating Apps

The first step in launching your Tinder clone app is understanding the market demand for dating apps. Dating apps have gained immense popularity in recent years, with millions of users worldwide searching for potential partners online. 

It presents a significant opportunity for entrepreneurs and developers to enter the market and create a successful app. Analyze the top-performing dating apps and study their features, user base, and revenue models. Look for gaps in the market that your app can fill or unique features that differentiate it from existing apps.

Researching Competitors and Identifying Unique Selling Points

Once you clearly understand the market demand and competition, it's time to research your competitors and identify unique selling points for your Tinder clone app. 

Start by creating a list of the top dating apps in the market and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. For example, you notice that most dating apps focus on casual relationships. In that case, you can differentiate your app by targeting users looking for long-term commitments or specific niche interests.

Consider implementing unique features or functionalities that will set your app apart. It could be anything from advanced matching algorithms based on interests or compatibility to unique communication features that enhance the user experience.

Identifying the Key Features of a Successful Tinder Clone App

Tinder is known for its simple yet effective features that have revolutionized the dating app industry. Understanding and incorporating these key features is important to create a successful Tinder clone app.

User Profiles

Allow users to create profiles with relevant information such as bio, photos, and interests. It helps users find potential matches based on shared interests.

Swipe Functionality

Implement the iconic swipe feature that allows users to swipe right to like someone or leave to pass. This intuitive gesture-based interaction is a core element of the Tinder experience.

Matching Algorithms

Develop algorithms that match users based on their preferences, location, and other relevant factors. It ensures that users are presented with potential matches that are most likely to be compatible.

Messaging System

Enable users to communicate with their matches through a messaging system. Implement text messaging, multimedia sharing, and real-time notifications to enhance the user experience.

Geolocation

Integrate geolocation technology to show users potential matches in their vicinity. This feature allows users to connect with people nearby, increasing the chances of real-life meetups. By incorporating these key features into your Tinder clone app, you'll be able to create a user-friendly and engaging experience for your users.

Choosing the Right Technology Stack for Your Tinder Clone App

The next step in launching your Tinder clone app is to choose the right technology stack. 

The technological stack is the set of programming languages, frameworks, and tools that you will use to develop your app.

Scalability, performance, security, and simplicity of development are all important elements to consider when choosing a technological stack.

Additionally, consider integrating third-party APIs and services that can enhance the functionality of your app. 

These can include location-based services, real-time messaging, and social media integration.

Developing the User Interface and Experience for Your App

The design of your Tinder clone app plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining users. A visually appealing and intuitive user interface (UI) and a seamless user experience (UX) will make your app stand out.

Begin with developing wireframes and prototypes to visualize the layout and flow of your app. Consider the user journey and ensure the app's intuitive and user-friendly navigation. Use high-quality graphics, icons, and colors that align with your brand and appeal to your target audience.

These small touches can greatly enhance the overall user experience and make your app more engaging. Test your app's design with real users to gather feedback and make necessary improvements before proceeding to the development stage.

Testing and Debugging Your App

Before launching your Tinder clone app, thorough testing and debugging are essential to ensure a smooth user experience. 

Test your app on different devices, operating systems, and network conditions to identify and fix any bugs or performance issues.

Conduct functional testing to confirm that all features perform as intended. Test the app's usability and navigation by conducting user testing sessions or gathering feedback from beta testers. 

Address any issues or concerns raised during the testing phase to ensure a seamless user experience.

Launching Your Tinder Clone App on App Stores

Once you have successfully tested and debugged your Tinder clone app, it's time to prepare for its launch on app stores. Start by creating compelling app store listings that highlight your app's unique features and benefits.

Submit your app for review and address any feedback or issues the app store review team raises. Once approved, set a launch date and promote the upcoming release to build anticipation among your target audience.

Marketing and Promoting Your Tinder Clone App for Maximum Downloads

Launching your Tinder clone app is just the beginning. It would help if you implemented effective marketing and promotion strategies to maximize downloads and user engagement and ensure its success.

App Store Optimization (ASO)

Optimize your app store listings with relevant keywords, appealing screenshots, and a compelling description to improve its visibility in search results.

Social media marketing

Leverage popular social media networks to attract consideration for your app. Engage with your target audience, share app updates, and run targeted ad campaigns to drive downloads.

Influencer partnerships

Collaborate with influencers or bloggers in the dating or lifestyle niche to promote your app to their followers. It can generate organic traffic and increase brand awareness.

Content marketing 

Create high-quality content, such as blog articles or videos, that provide value to your target audience. Share this content on your app's website, social media channels, and other relevant platforms to attract users and establish credibility.

Referral programs 

Implement a referral system that rewards users for inviting friends to join the app. It can incentivize users to spread the word about your app and drive user acquisition.

Conclusion

Launching your own Tinder clone app is an exciting endeavor but requires careful planning and execution. You can create a dating app that stands out by understanding the market, researching your target audience, planning the features, and designing a user-friendly interface. Stay up to date on the newest dating app trends and technology to ensure your app's long-term success. By following this step-by-step guide and leveraging a Tinder clone script, you can launch a successful white label dating app that meets the needs of your target audience and differentiates itself from competitors.

[ewanmitchelll]

Imagine Taylor Swift’s songs (XIV): State of Grace.

Imagine you find the love of your life on Tinder. But there’s a lot going on before you and him realize that.

Warnings 1: fluff, light reading, some drama, light smut.

***

• (I)

I'm walking fast through the traffic lights. Busy streets and busy lives and all we know is touch and go. We are alone with our changing minds. We fall in love 'til it hurts or bleeds, or fades in time…

You stare at the Tinder app you’ve just downloaded. Motivations cannot be concealed of why you are doing it. Loneliness is why it’s suddenly opened, leading you to interact with strangers under the pretense you are about to fall in love with the man of your life.

Ridiculous are such romantic notions, and you have no one to blame for nurturing them but yourself. That is why you open it and sliding these male pictures like they are part of an odd menu, you think you are very demanding when you see his picture on your screen.

His profile reads:

Aemond T, 28 years old. “Live fast. Die young. No idea what the fuck I’m doing here, but it is what it is.”

You think those lines are quite amusing and you press the “like” button, a part of you doubting he’s liking you back. Especially when your profile reads:

Y/N, 28 years old. “I talk a lot and make bad jokes. If you are here to be monosyllabic, please get out.”

To your disconcert, he likes you back.

“Well, let’s see how this one goes”, you tell yourself, somewhere between self pity and skepticism.

*

Aemond Targaryen has arrived home in the first rays of morning. Ran on the streets, crossing red lights, a color he dresses and lives for, hardly respecting it at times when he finds convenient.

Living at the upper east side of King’s Landing, he’s slightly drunk when he gets at the apartment he shares with the only tolerable member of his family: his sister, Laena, who’s sleeping by now.

Opening Tinder because, since he left Alys, he feels the need of one night stand, he finds himself quite impatient before such pursuit. When he sees Y/N on his screen, he knows this is not the kind of woman he usually hangs out with.

In fact, this bad boy hardly looks for good girls—Alys once accused him of mother issues for dating older women who somewhat resemble his mother and this kind of traumatized him. No one knows, but he’s doing therapy to fix this issue.

But you are not older, hardly look like his mother, Mrs Alicent Hightower, and… well, you look beautiful with vivid y/c eyes, smooth y/c skin and y/c hair tossed against the wind.

As soon as he sees he’s corresponded, he sends a message, almost falling asleep because it’s 5 am but he’s surprised when you promptly reply.

“What’s up?”, Aemond writes, half drunk, half asleep.

“All good. And you? Where do you speak from?”, you write back.

“Upper east side, you?”

“Not the richest part of the town for sure.”

When reading these acid lines, Aemond laughs, though something about them annoys him in the same measure.

“What do you know about that?”

“Enough to know this is not a place I frequent.”

“So where do you come from?”

“I recently left High Garden and am temporarily living at the capital. In that neighborhood called Y/C.”

“That’s a good neighborhood. Despite your prejudice, I actually go there at times.”

“My prejudice? Do you suppose I hate rich people now?”

Aemond is not sure how the hell this is going. Shouldn’t a one night stand be this difficult to find, for sure.

“Sorry. I’m drunk.”

He’s about to throw the phone away and touch himself instead. This appears to be a better option. Besides, calling Alys is not fucking considered.

“Apologies accepted. I admit I did not express myself well”, you write. “Should we start again?”

Aemond, between horny and impatient, finds himself compelled not to throw away his phone, after all.

“Sure, why not? What are you doing at 5 am? I mean… I have the excuse of being drunk after a fantastic party at the port, but you?”

“I couldn’t sleep. Too many thoughts over my head, I think, but this is not a conversation for Tinder.”

Now Aemond is wide awake. You don’t look like any superficial woman he’d been talking these days.

“Why, tell me about it. I am an expert when it’s about anxiety and other things. Besides, who do you take me for? I like deep conversations.”

“Send me a text message and we can keep this going.” And you write your number down.

The silver haired male raises an eyebrow. Despite the poor starter, you are more interesting than he’d formerly judged.

I wonder what lies behind these photographed vivid eyes, Y/N.

***

You exchange messages with Aemond for three days. A date is set, and before you know expectations rise. Then you start to sabotage yourself.

You begin to look for excuses when it comes to meet this strange, handsome rich man. Old traumas remind you of past failures, but your mind is briefly distracted when he sends you a message:

“Hey, Y/N. How’s it going? Didn’t hear from you today.”

It’s mid-week, and due to your work as y/c you occupied yourself enough to avoid his name or the fact that in three days you might meet him.

Part of you wonders what could possibly go wrong whilst another makes a power point presentation with lists of why it could go worse than expected.

“All good”, you eventually answer. “Sorry for not answering straight away. I’ve been working.”

To your surprise, he doesn’t take long to answer you back.

“How’s work so far?”

You know Aemond works as humanities professor at Westeros University, but that he’s also part of that (rather infamous) Targaryen family.

“Good so far. Just busy. How’s yours?”

“One needs patience to deal with young adults that still think they are teenagers. By the way, apologies for the swift change of subjects, but how’s our Saturday going? Still standing, I hope?”

You hesitate, panicking before the idea of seeing someone. Part of you tries to find motives to avoid him, but another, more reasonable, reminds you this is living: hurting, yes, but embracing the joys life may offer. Shielding oneself against disappointment will not stop them happening, so what is the point of hiding in shadows under the pretense of impeding suffering?

“Is 10 o’clock good?”

“It works fine for me. I’ll see you there!”

It’s set. Your first date in three years…

• (II)

You come around and the armor falls. Pierce the room like a cannonball. Now all we know is don't let go. We are alone, just you and me…

Aemond is not romantic, but practical like his ex used to mock. He is not the kind of man who opens easily, rather being a man of actions.

How unusual, or perhaps following an advice of his sister dear, that he opts as first date with a girl he’d never seen before a picnic at the Aegon’s Hill.

Dressed like someone who could easily be mistaken as a motorcycle rider man, he’s wearing a pair of sunglasses and threw over his shoulder a black jacket, wearing a simple white shirt and black pants.

He checks his phone once a while, but why is he feeling dizzy at this first encounter with a stranger?

It’s when he spots you dressed in a flower dress, medium y/c hair blowing against the wind, wearing a pair of blue sandals on your feet.

A funny contrast you two are, like sun and moon when they meet, resulting in an eclipse. But as Aemond watches you come, shy and insecure about him, he wonders where this will go.

Taking off his sunglasses, he stands and smiles:

“Y/N? It’s me, Aemond.”

“Oh”, you barely blink when spotting those purple eyes. “You are taller than I had assumed.”

He chuckles at your remark.

“In my family this is a remarkable trait, some would say.” Aemond offers you a seat and you soon take it.

You see the picnic is already set, the cloth already spread over the green grass on a spot that has some shadows thanks to a large tree that there stands.

There are fruits, cakes, cereals and breads, but also juice, water and coffee. You are positively impressed by the effort he paid to this. Aemond side smirks at your reaction.

“What? Did you like it?”

“I loved it”, you smile the brightest at him. “Thank you, Aemond. I’ve never done picnics before.”

“No?”, he inquires, watching you with interest. “How come? I thought this was a common thing at High Garden?”

You laugh heartily and Aemond decides that he likes the sound.

“I am not a noblewoman, my dear. It may be a tradition amidst the local elite. You must certainly have heard of a beauty named Margaery Tyrell. She does promote these events there, but like I said, I’ve moved to Kings Landing a few years ago.”

“The name may hint something, but I don’t care about elites and their gatherings”, says Aemond, serving himself some water whilst you opt for some juice. “My father loves throwing fanciful parties, but I don’t fit them, so I stopped going.”

As you study him, your gaze and his linger for one small, but significant moment before you say:

“So I get you are not very close to your family?”

“Not really, no. But you wouldn’t be if your father favored one child over the other and expected gratitude in return”, he smiles despite the poisonous words.

You raise your eyebrows.

“Is it that bad then?”

“You have no idea.”

You tilt your head.

“I cannot believe I relate to you, Aemond Targaryen.”

For some reason, this brings you both to delightful laughters in that first date…

***

• (III)

And I never saw you coming. And I'll never be the same…

It’s been two weeks. What was supposed to be a chasing after one night stand it has become new discoveries giving space to new sensations.

Aemond likes to kiss your lips in his car, to make you laugh at his bad jokes or listen when you tell about your day.

You like to listen to him too, not only about his days, but his past experiences, open wounds that mirror yours. And when he kisses you it is as if the world stops spinning and everything takes in a slower rhythm.

His kiss makes you feel unspeakable things, but that you never felt encouraged in doing them, transferring to reality what has only been a fantasy of your dreams.

Nonetheless, you are still reluctant in pushing affairs forward and Aemond respects you that. He reads you like an open book, always observant about your mannerisms.

This day, for example, you two are at a coffeehouse that is located within a bookshop. There, you read a book of poems all the whilst he drinks coffee. It’s a comfortable silence and it gives him such a peace, one of the kind he’s unused to it.

“What are you looking at?”, you ask upon sensing his stare, which makes you blush.

He chuckles, finding adorable how easily he makes you shy.

“You”, says he directly. “I’ve never seen anyone so beautiful like you, reading so concentrated.”

You giggle like a silly girl, finally putting the book aside to take his long hand in yours, enjoying how smooth it is when your fingers are locked with his.

“Stop it”, you shoot him an embarrassed look. “You know it’s untrue.”

Aemond laughs quietly. He then makes sure you are now sitting on his lap, disregarding the fact you two are at a public place.

“I mean every word I say”, he looks deep into your eyes, holding your hips as he rests his chin over your shoulder. “How come I feel more alive when I’m with you, dearest Y/Nickname? My heart races when you look at me like that.”

You lean closer to him, a smile spreading big on your lips before cupping his face with your hands.

In your mind you cry out a big “I love you”, but these words don’t reach your tongue yet. You thus kiss his lips instead and there you stay, at your private paradise.

*

Later, he drives you to his home. His sister isn’t there and Aemond wants to show you his place properly. This is the first time you are there since you and him started dating—though no label has come out of either mouths yet.

Once inside, you are given a tour at the apartment. It’s bigger than you’d expect, but cozy and nice to look at with a huge view at his living room to the sea.

“Look at this view!”, you exclaim in awe as you see green hills mixing with different modern buildings that are combined with the blue of the oceans, reflecting the same shade of the color that paints the skies. “I wish I was this privileged! But then I remember I already am.”

And saying so, you look at him, transmitting more than you’d expect. But even so… when Aemond meets your gaze, he sees it through you. What is curious is that, somewhere in his past, he’d flee, panic or fight it in his way by sabotaging the process.

He still has his scars, and these are eventually coming to surface, but this silver haired male has no space in his mind that is not you. Thus, he comes to stay behind you and says:

“You know what, Y/N? Be with me. Be my girlfriend.”

You turn your head at him. It is easy to be involved by sweet words and empty promises, but this is not what you feel when your wide-eyed gaze meets his intense one.

Souls speak in silence when desires, sentiments and thoughts are aligned in one purpose. Could it be any different? Perhaps yes, but neither you nor Aemond conceive otherwise.

"Yes, my dearest."

You turn and wrap your hands around his neck. Proximity is shortened as his long, callous hands tight the grip around your waist and his forehead once again rests against yours and a kiss comes as a result.

Though he is not yet ready to speak these three words that at times can be seen behind his dazzling purple eyes, Aemon is more than ready in building a new, more optimistic future with you by his side.

A sentiment and perception that you share as your togue snakes in his and together dance in one slow syncronized rhythm. Silence remains undefeated in the surroundings... but for how long?

His is the fireous pursuit and you, like a timber prompted to burn. Soon, you are pressed against the wall with his lips still locked with yours, but his hands move to your hips, there staying, there caressing your bum before rising to your waist and slowly transferring his gentle, warming touch to your back, underneath the blouse you wear.

It does not help that, after biting your bottom lip, he breaks the kiss so he gradually grows bold in his teasings. You like how your boyfriend--and the word brings a smile to your redish lips--takes his time to get to know you and your pace even if you suspect he's a dragon like the standard of the symbol of his famous family.

You play with his long locks, wrapping them around your fingers, sighing quietly as his tongue takes its time to get familiar with your neck. You giggle softly, however, when his hands rest subtly on your belly.

"Yes, babe?", he raises his eyes to meet yours and in them you see mischief. "Is it good for my lady?"

Your knees often weaken and your body gets instantly warm at whenever he is gallant with you. Aemond, a good observer, knows it well. No wonder why he smirks at you.

"It is more than good, I fear to say", you chuckle, struggling not to rub one leg to the other, especially when he looks at you like that. And you find yourself restless, prompted to let your fingertips vaguerously move from his arms to his chest, thus helping him remove his shirt.

"Is it so?", Aemond laughs quietly, letting you take the reins of the moment. "Your innocent gaze makes me no fool, young lady".

Saying so he presses you one more time against the wall, biting your neck all the whilst your hands eagerly move to his pants.

"You are my doom", you whimper impatiently.

The spark is about to explode...

***

(IV)

So you were never a saint and I've loved in shades of wrong We learn to live with the pain, Mosaic broken hearts. But this love is brave and wild

Even sun sets in paradise. In due time, his obscurity comes to surface as well as your vices. Jealousy is a trait you dislike in yourself, reflecting the insecurity within due to bad experiences in former relationships.

His self entitled taste for liberty awakes this beast, coming to test your relationship in the famous “three months crisis”.

“Don’t give me the silent treatment”, says Aemond, troubled by your silence as he drives you home.

The cause of disagreement rests in the unwelcoming presence of Alys Rivers. Two days after Aemond’s birthday party, she, who remained a close friend to his brother Aegon—even if his entire family hates her for reasons you have not yet figured out—paid him a visit and you were not told about this.

But he eventually tells you like it is not relevant for your relationship. You, proud where sentiments are concerned, think that if he cannot see how wrong this all is, certainly will not find out by you.

“I am not giving any silent treatment”, your words cry a wound open in your ego, your voice betrays your pride.

Aemond sighs and stops the car somewhere random.

“Come now, don’t be like this, Y/N”, he looks at you with confused eyes. “We have always talked about everything, haven’t we?”

Your therapist usually tells you that, regardless of how uncomfortable it is to speak out, you must not swallow your sentiments nor bury them by turning into a burden that should be forgotten. Or else your body would feel the results, which in turn were not nice.

Aemond can see you are struggling against yourself, aware that underneath you there lies old scars that still do you harm. He puts a hand around your shoulders, patient.

“Take your time”, he says with his usual soothing voice.

In other circumstances, he’d not be patient. But this is someone whom he cares deeply, having grown to love sincerely. Only another woman holds his patient affection and it’s his sister, Helaena.

Eventually you burst into tears, letting yourself exposed before this man you love. You’d think he is the kind of guy who likes strong women so you’d never let be seen so fragile, so open.

Aemond somehow comprehends it, then he lifts your face so you can meet his gaze and see there’s no judgement behind his eyes. Wiping away your tears, he suddenly realizes, after examining his conscience, the probable cause of your hurting.

“What did I do, lass? There is no need to push me away. We must speak. What is troubling you, my love?”

“I… I…” you take a deep breath, confident you can battle your demons. “You welcomed her, the woman who you told me you loved fiercely for many years. You welcomed her at your house and tell me as if this is no big deal? She may remain friends with your brother, but then what about us? What about me? Do you care so little about my feelings that you simply receive her, a woman I cannot equal in many ways?”

Oh, the thought comes too late. So this is what it’s about.

Aemond doesn’t know how to respond straight away. Sticking to his early encouragement, he is not running away from himself.

There is embarrassment, there is shame. His thoughts are a mess, but only after you stop sobbing that he turns at you.

“I’m sorry, Y/Nickname. That was imprudent of me.”

“I am not that kind of girl who is possessive of her boyfriend. Who you hang out with is your problem, we all have friends and it’s completely understandable to be friends with one’s ex but…”

“Wait”, he frowns. “Are you friends with your exes?”

You ignore his remark.

“…to welcome her like that without even telling me, and at your own house with no one else. How can I feel comfortable with that?”

“Aegon was there”, Aemond mumbles. “This doesn’t excuse, I know. I’m sorry, darling. And I had no idea you compared with her. For the love of God, I am your boyfriend, not hers. If I wanted to relive the past, I would be a historian or a museologist.”

Pleased to make you chuckle, Aemond smiles at you, pressing a soft kiss against your temple.

“Are we good?”

“Yes, my love, we are.”

And you two stay silent, appreciating each other’s company with only the stars and the poorly illuminated posts as witnesses.

*

A few months later, a graver disagreement comes like an earthquake to shake the stability between you two.

Aemond is a possessive man, so he is not exactly a man of sharing. This flaw comes particularly when he feels threatened by others. One of these is his nephew, Jacaerys Velaryon.

He thought this rascal man was being friendlier to you than you deserved. You two had a fervent argument after that.

Or when you accused him of running away of his commitment to you by not introducing you to his family.

As you can see, it’s been a hell of a ride.

But twelve months later and insecurities are overcome, with you finally settled with each other’s demons.

***

• (V)

This is a state of grace. This is the worthwhile fight. Love is a ruthless game unless you play it good and right. These are the hands of fate. You're my Achilles heel. This is the golden age of something good and right and real…

You mount on him, ready to another drive. It feels so damn good to have his cock twitching hard, thrusting inside you as you two move slowly.

“This is so damn good”, you moan, eyes closed.

“Do not be loud, my dear”, Aemond smirks, adjusting to you, taking a seat without letting you fall.

Curtain is open, giving path to moonlight spark in his bedroom. You are at his apartment, having recently moved together.

But dear Helaena’s birthday is coming soon and some of the family is spending time there.

“I am trying to, but you make it difficult”, you whimper when he takes your breast to his mouth all the while fingering you concomitantly to his moves.

And then he rolls you to his bed, fastening his pace and kissing you passionately.

Not too long after that and you both come together in the same climax. When cuddling you, Aemond says.

“I corrupted you, didn’t I?”

You cast him an amused glance.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ve become more naughty since we’ve met”, Aemond chuckles, kissing your neck. “Not that I am complaining.”

“What can I do if the makeup sex is really good?”, you laugh quietly.

Interlocking fingers, you two stay like this for a moment, staring into the nude dark sky able to spot from his bed.

“I was thinking…”

“Yes?”

You look at him, admiring his beauty, the paled, smooth skin, the well built muscles perfectly drawn in his shaped body, his long hands that mould so well with yours… Even his wrongs, his flaws, his vices… make you love him ardently.

Sensing your gaze, Aemond begins to flush.

“I am no romantic”, he whispers in his usual quiet tone. “But you know how I’ve grown to overcome my disability in expressing my thoughts and sentiments.”

“I’ve always judged you did this better than me”, you muse partially joking, pleased to make him smile.

“I…”

Now on your elbows, you take his face with your hands.

“What’s it my dear?”

Avoiding your inquisitive gaze, Aemond is silent before bursting it soon:

“Be my wife.”

You barely blink, a small, silly smile, coming to form on your lips.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You heard me”, he blushes.

You laugh at his lack of sensibility. Throwing yourself at him gives the peace his rioting heart requires.

“Is this a… yes?”, Aemond asks, unsure. “I should have done it better, I’m so…”

You shush him by kissing his lips, then saying:

“Of course this is a yes! You are my state of grace, Aemond Targaryen! I could have not asked for a better husband.”

When contemplating the genuine joy stamped in your features, he, stroking your cheek, then says:

“You are the love of my life, Y/N Y/LN.”

Without waiting for any response, he holds you against his chest, rocking you in his arms as you share a kiss.

It’s the first chapter of your happily ever after…

[sciderman]

I'm not caught up on Shiklah, how exactly did she and Wade meet? How did they fall in love? Why did she cheat? Ever since we saw that panel about Wade being overflowing I've always thought about the fact that she probably didn't cheat because she was a succubus right? Because if Wade was overflowing Shiklah wouldn't have needed to chest and find some other source of (nourishment?). So did she just did it because she didn't love him? Well it seems like she did because of those honeymoon photos. Why Shiklah why?! Explain yourself you cruel succubus!?!

in the comics it's a marriage of convenience - but they also liked each other a lot. they married to thwart dracula, sure, but they did also have the hots for each other. in 9319 i imagine it happens in a largely similar way - though, it doesn't really matter - heck, they could've met on tinder. that would be hilarious. after carm, wade's super lonely. he's on a dating app. finds a succubus looking for a feast. slides into her DMs, "i'm an all-you-can-eat-buffet, babey...." they meet. he thought she was just a weird cosplayer with like, a VERY elaborate scaly suit. turns out it's she's a real actual succubus.

score, wade says, pumping his fist.

they go on a lot of dates. like a lot. it's really cute. they don't have sex. wade insists on all the romantic tropey dates. ice skating. the opera. they cause disaster everywhere they go, but they don't care.

wade insists on saving himself until marriage. (he doesn't want another relationship where he feels like a slab of meat, and he's a little scared of that kind of vulnerability after nate and carm)

friendly reminder:

shiklah's not a patient woman. she's done playing with her food. she proposes. wade is giddy.

i think shiklah genuinely loved wade, but i mean, in her nature, wade is prey. i think she genuinely loves everyone she feasts on. but wade - wade was exceptionally ripe. wade's like the juiciest feast ever, but he's hard work. he's not easy. shiklah can have so many easier meals. but wade is demanding, and has so many conditions, and not only that, but he suppresses so much.

wade's still in love with nate, and vanessa, and shiklah can feast on that love (she's not picky - in fact, that's the juicy stuff that she's after) - but wade leaps through hoops to deny it and suppress it.

[x]

i think at some point it gets frustrating for shiklah. her trying to tap into wade's untapped reservoir of love and wade constantly trying to keep a lid on it. like, she's trying to break his dam and wade is constantly trying to build it back up again because he has a preconceived notion of what love should look like and NO. he's monogamous. he can only love one person. this is what the fairytale looks like and i am NOT going to fuck this up. play by the rules.

wade doesn't take his mask off with shiklah. he's so committed to putting on the show. and eventually, i guess, shiklah becomes exhausted enough of it to seek out an easier meal.

i think she wishes she could've held onto wade. he was such a good feast.

of course, there's someone else who's just as ripe.

[maaarine]

Dating apps and male beauty standards: Why are Tinder users so obsessed with height? (Ana Bulnes, El País, July 19 2022)

—

I'm fascinated by this line of reasoning

hugging a short man reminds her of hugging a child, and that's wrong and unappealing......

which means that the other way around is erotic to her, it turns her on to appear like a child-like figure to men?

she desperately needs to feel protected by the one man who's actually her #1 predator?

and god forbid he doesn't tower over her when she wears dumbass stilettos

at some point straight women need to get a fucking grip, no offense

—

Masculine Domination (Pierre Bourdieu, 1998)

“Surveys show, for example, that a large majority of French women say they want a husband who is older and also (quite coherently) taller than themselves; two-thirds of them even explicitly reject the idea of a husband shorter than themselves.

What is the meaning of this refusal to see the disappearance of the ordinary signs of the sexual ‘hierarchy’? (…)

Because these common principles tacitly and unarguably demand that, at least in appearances and seen from outside, the man should occupy the dominant position within the couple, it is for him, for the sake of the dignity that they recognize a priori in him, but also for themselves, that they can only want and love a man whose dignity is clearly affirmed and attested in and by the fact that he is visibly 'above’ them.

This takes place, of course, without any calculation, through the apparent arbitrariness of an inclination that is not amenable to discussion or reason but which, as is shown by observation of the desired, and also real, differences, can only arise and be fulfilled in the experience of the superiority of which age and height (justified as indices of maturity and guarantees of security) are the most indisputable and universally recognized signs.”

[blue-village]

The Greek government has long been accused of forced returns - pushing people back towards Turkey, where they have crossed from, which is illegal under international law.

But this is the first time the BBC has calculated the number of incidents which allege that fatalities occurred as a result of the Greek coastguard's actions. The 15 incidents we analysed - dated May 2020-23 - resulted in 43 deaths. The initial sources were primarily local media, NGOs and the Turkish coastguard.

-

In five of the incidents, migrants said they were thrown directly into the sea by the Greek authorities. In four of those cases they explained how they had landed on Greek islands but were hunted down. In several other incidents, migrants said they had been put onto inflatable rafts without motors which then deflated, or appeared to have been punctured.

One of the most chilling accounts was given by a Cameroonian man, who says he was hunted by Greek authorities after landing on the island of Samos in September 2021. Like all the people we interviewed, he said he was planning to register on Greek soil as an asylum seeker. "We had barely docked, and the police came from behind," he told us. "There were two policemen dressed in black, and three others in civilian clothes. They were masked, you could only see their eyes." He and two others - another from Cameroon and a man from Ivory Coast - were transferred to a Greek coastguard boat, he said, where events took a terrifying turn. “They started with the [other] Cameroonian. They threw him in the water. The Ivorian man said: ‘Save me, I don’t want to die… and then eventually only his hand was above water, and his body was below. "Slowly his hand slipped under, and the water engulfed him." Our interviewee says his abductors beat him. "Punches were raining down on my head. It was like they were punching an animal." And then he says they pushed him, too, into the water - without a life jacket. He was able to swim to shore, but the bodies of the other two - Sidy Keita and Didier Martial Kouamou Nana - were recovered on the Turkish coastline. The survivor’s lawyers are demanding the Greek authorities open a double murder case.

Another man, from Somalia, told the BBC how in March 2021 he had been caught by the Greek army on arrival on the island of Chios, who then handed him to the Greek coastguard. He said the coastguard had tied his hands behind his back, before dropping him into the water. "They threw me zip-tied in the middle of the sea. They wanted me to die," he said. He said he managed to survive by floating on his back, before one of his hands broke free from the ligature. But the sea was choppy, and three in his group died. Our interviewee made it to land where he was eventually spotted by the Turkish coastguard.

In the incident with the highest loss of life - in September 2022 - a boat carrying 85 migrants ran into trouble near the Greek island of Rhodes when its motor cut out. Mohamed, from Syria, told us they rang the Greek coastguard for help - who loaded them onto a boat, returned them to Turkish waters and put them in life rafts. Mohamed says the raft he and his family were given had not had its valve properly closed. "We immediately began to sink, they saw that… They heard us all screaming, and yet they still left us," he told the BBC. "The first child who died was my cousin's son… After that it was one by one. Another child, another child, then my cousin himself disappeared. By the morning seven or eight children had died. "My kids didn't die until the morning… right before the Turkish coastguard arrived."

-

An investigative journalist we spoke to based on the island of Samos says she began chatting with a member of the Greek special forces via the dating app Tinder. When he rang her from what he described as a "warship", Romy van Baarsen asked him more about his work - and what happened when his forces spotted a refugee boat. He replied that they "drive them back", and said such orders were "from the minister", adding they would be punished if they failed to stop a boat. Greece has always denied so-called “pushbacks” are taking place.

[alexblakeisgay]

Dating App Mishaps (Ch. 17)

Ship: Alex Blake/Reader

Summary: Alex didn't have Tinder by choice...but that doesn't mean it isn't going to come in handy.

Word Count: 1068

Alex emerged from the elevator and nearly collided with Garcia. Garcia let out a little squeak of surprise and narrowly avoided dropping the files in her arms. "Good morning!" she chirped, "You're here early – I didn't..."

Though she normally tried to be more patient with her, Alex interrupted rather abruptly, "Is Morgan here?"

"He's in his office," Garcia said, brow arching as she studied Alex. It wasn't that Alex and Derek weren't friendly, but they couldn't exactly be considered friends either. She opened her mouth to ask a question, but before she could speak, Alex was already departing.

"Thanks, Garcia," she added over her shoulder as she pushed through the glass doors into the bullpen.

There were few things Alex wanted to do less than talk to Derek Morgan about her situationship, given...well...everything, but she also really didn't want rumours about said situationship circulating the Bureau rumour mill. So, she would swallow her pride and subject herself to a little light-hearted ribbing in the name of keeping her private life private.

She knocked on his door, then poked her head inside and asked, "A word?"

He looked up from the paperwork in front of him with an all too smug grin, as if he'd been expecting this. "Well, well, well," he drawled, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms behind his head. "I've been waiting for you."

She rolled her eyes. "Then you know why I'm here..."

His grin became even wider. "I've gotta say, I'm surprised..."

Heaving a sigh, she resigned herself to the fact that she was going to have to endure at least a little teasing. "Surprised about what?"

"I wasn't expecting your taste to be so..." He trailed off, as if he had to think about it for a moment or two...and he seemed to revel in her impatience.

"So young?" she supplied.

"So similar to mine," he finished, his cocky grin almost daring her to say something to the contrary.

She groaned. "Okay, you've had your fun, now I need to know whether I can count on your discretion," she said. "I'm sure you're aware that I haven't exactly made it everyone's business that I'm separating from my husband, let alone everything else."

He nodded.

"Things with Y/N are still new and I really don't even know what to label it, I can't even begin to fathom how to explain it to anyone else," she explained.

"By anyone else, you mean Garcia, right?" he said with a raised brow.

"No," she was quick to insist. "Well, yes, but..." She trailed off, sighed, and shook her head. "She already knows some of the details, but I know she'd be so excited that I'm seeing someone and she'll make it her business to meddle and I just think that, for now, it's for the best that she...not."

He nodded solemnly. Much as he loved Garcia, he knew that Alex was right in her assessment. "My lips are sealed," he agreed. A beat. Then, something seemed to occur to him. "See if she's got a friend..." he said, waggling his brows suggestively in such a way that Alex wasn't entirely sure if he was kidding or not.

She rolled her eyes as she backed out of his office.

____________

"So, spill..."

You lifted your head from the massage bed's cradle so you could fix Lennox with a pointed look. "I don't know what you're talking about," you insisted. You should have known that her offer of a free massage was just a way to extract information from you...

She rolled her eyes. "Like hell you don't," she muttered. She then dug her thumb into one of your neck muscles, causing you to yelp. "See that?" she said, "That tightness is because you've been clenching your jaw, which you only do when you're trying to keep something a secret."

"God, everyone's a profiler..." you muttered, returning your face to the cradle so you wouldn't give anything away with your expression.

"Tell me," Lennox demanded, "Or you pay full price for this massage."

With a petulant little huff, you grumbled to yourself for a moment, then confessed, "Things are changing..."

Lennox rolled her eyes. "Could you be more vague?"

"With Alex," you added as if it should have been obvious.

With a faux-affronted gasp, Lennox said, "There was tea and you didn't immediately spill it!? I thought we were friends!"

You ignored her theatrics.

In spite of this, Lennox persisted in peppering you with questions. "But I thought you broke up? How did it happen? Are you like officially dating now? Isn't she like...technically still married? When can I meet her?"

"I'm not introducing you," you said flatly.

"What? Why?" she asked, whining rather childishly.

"Because I want her to continue to like me and you're annoying," you replied, though you both knew it was meant as playful teasing.

She scoffed. "Bitch." A few moments passed as she continued the massage. Then, an important thought seemed to occur to her because, without pausing to think about the words that she was about to blurt out, she said, "So, are you like in love?"

"What!? No!" you were quick to insist. Too quick...

"You're lying!" Lennox accused. "You are!" She proceeded to crow with laughter. "Only you could turn a fun sexy fling into a disaster..."

Your mouth hung open a moment or two, though she couldn't see it. "A disaster!?" you repeated incredulously. "I hardly think..."

"I agree," Lennox said, interrupting your speech.

You rolled your eyes once again. "Okay, whatever... I love her. But you have to swear you won't tell anyone!"

"By anyone, you mean Quinn, right?" she said.

"No shit, Sherlock," you replied. "Of course I mean Quinn. She'd make it her business to tell the entire fucking world. It's bad enough that basically everyone she works with knows – she's a very private person and..." She was still laughing (and therefore not listening to a word you said). Hard enough that she had to stop the massage to catch her breath. "Shut up," you grumbled. "It's not that funny..."

[writer-in-theory]

Swiping Right

Summary: When Steve helps set Robin up on a date from Tinder, he never expected to find a love of his own in her date's roommate. Prompt: “That’s how you do it, Hawkins, that’s how you do it!” // “You can stay at my place.” Pairing: Steve Harrington/Billy Hargrove, Robin Buckley/Heather Holloway Rating: Mature (for sexual humor) Word Count: 9.3k Content Warnings: Mild language, Mentions of Homophobia Read On AO3: HereA/N: This is my sixth fill for @harringroveson-bingo and my first fill for @billyhargrovebingo !! Huge thanks once again to @serenity-lattes and @lcvingprentjss for beta-ing and hyping me up the whole way.

When Steve got the SOS text from Robin, he was sure the worst had happened. Someone had broken into the apartment in the first year of it being theirs, an earthquake had somehow rocked the apartment but not the preschool building Steve worked at, Robin had somehow forgotten she was allergic to shellfish and indulged in some crab. 

Instead of finding any of that, Steve walked into their small apartment in San Diego to find Robin face down on the living room floor, arm outstretched above her head and phone resting in it, the screen on to show some app. Both relief and frustration bubbled up in him at the sight of his perfectly okay, if overly-dramatic, roommate. 

“Fallen and you can’t get up?” Steve recited dramatically, “You need LifeAlert!”

“You won’t be laughing when your best friend dies of literal embarrassment,” Robin groaned. “I can feel it coming, mortification, the likes of which my Sims have never even dreamed of.”

Steve gently nudged his friend’s side with his shoe, laughing when she let out a cracked groan and haphazardly tried to swat at his ankle. “You’re lucky I was already on my way home. What’s happening?” 

He walked the few steps into the connected kitchen, separated only by a little breakfast bar they used solely for coffee. He grabbed a water bottle from the fridge before flopping to the ground by Robin’s head, plucking the phone right out of her hand before she could stop him.

“Hey! No that’s—”

“Tinder? Robs, you did not call an SOS for a Tinder emergency,” Steve cackled, “I know we said we were hopeless, but this is a little much.”

If someone would have told high school Steve that by twenty-three he would be living in San Diego with Robin Buckley, he would have never believed them. Yet here he was, clicking through the multiple failed attempts at conversations with the women Robin had matched with. Most of them were only a few replies long, barely scraping past the awkward pickup lines and ‘how are you?’s to really get anywhere. 

“Robin,” Steve sighed, sending her a pointed look when she finally lifted her head off her crossed arms just enough to look at him. “This is tragic.”

“I know that, dingus! I wouldn’t have called an emergency if I didn’t!” Robin shouted, her body springing into action and scrambling to sit cross-legged beside Steve so she could look over his shoulder at her phone. “You have to help me.”

“Me?” Steve laughed, “I’ve struck out more time than I’ve succeeded lately.”

“Yeah, because you suck at second dates.”

“Hey!”

“It’s true and you know it,” Robin countered, and well, Steve couldn’t exactly deny it. He could get the first date with no problem and had plenty of experience doing so. But considering his only long-term relationship had been with Nancy Wheeler during his Senior year of high school, he didn’t have too much experience keeping someone around. “You’ve had more first dates here than I ever thought possible, you have to help me. It’s the Gay Code.”

“Gay Code,” Steve repeated, trying not to laugh but unable to stop a few noises from slipping out. “Sure, Robs, I’ll help. But you owe me, there’s a reason I deleted Tinder.”

And honestly, Steve thought Robin’s profile looked good. He recognized a few of the pictures he’d taken on one of their adventures when she’d unceremoniously tossed her phone at him and demanded a photo. He even made an appearance in one, necessitating a small aside in her bio that they were ‘platonic with a capital P.’ It was the conversations that fell hard, and Steve understood for the most part. Talking to random people on a dating app could get really awkward really quickly, even for someone who enjoyed flirting as much as he did. Then factor that into the fact that Robin was someone who needed to warm up to people—exemplified clearly in the way she had given him only one-word replies for the first two weeks of their ice cream shop job in high school—and it was clear why Robin struggled to find easy conversation with these women.

Steve also knew that, if one of them would just give her a chance, it’d be impossible not to fall for her immediately. It had happened to him directly: going from thinking of her only as his weird band geek coworker to one of the best friends he’d ever had in just a few short months. 

“Oooh, Heather Holloway just matched with you,” Steve spoke up in a sing-song voice once the alert flashed up on the screen. “Oh, she’s cute. Careful, Robs, I might steal her.”

“Hey, my Tinder profile is not a way for you to meet pretty bi women, hands off if you’re gonna do that,” Robin countered, leaning forward as Steve began scrolling through Heather’s page. It was clear why Robin had swiped right in the first place—Heather was stunning and carried herself with the kind of confidence that couldn’t be learned. Her bio says she’s a model and she spends her free time volunteering at a youth gym for victims of violence.

“Okay, Operation: Get Robin a Date is a go.”

“God, you’ve been talking to Dustin too much,” Robin groaned, flopping onto her back dramatically and covering her eyes with her arm. “Just tell me the damage when you’re done.”

“You don’t want to know what I’m saying to her?” Steve asked, poking his roommate’s arm when she didn’t budge. “What if it comes up later when you get a date?”

“What makes you think I’ll get a date? She’s a fucking model, Steve.”

“Yeah? And you’re a badass grad student who’s already working on movie sets. Not to mention you have a really, and I mean really, great-looking best friend, and that’s always important in a good relationship,” Steve teased, knowing a lot of this came from some deeper place Robin likely wouldn’t want to examine closely at the moment, not sitting over model Heather Holloway’s gorgeous profile. “I’ll get you a date, leave it all to Stevie.”

“Do me a favor and hit me over the head next time you plan on saying anything like that.”

“Ouch, Robs,” Steve laughed, moving his free hand to clutch his chest while the other hand typed away another message to Heather. “Careful how you talk to the person holding your phone.”

The floor wasn’t comfortable in the least, but Steve stayed there the entire time he spoke to Heather as Robin. He was already sore from spending so much time wrangling the kids at work and the additional floor time would do him no favors, but it was all worth it for his best friend. Robin had been there through everything—shitty mall jobs, even shittier strip mall jobs, bisexual awakenings, and subsequent bi crises, Robin Buckley was there for it all. There was no way he would have made it out of Hawkins without her, so the least he could do was prove that she would find the right person now that they’d both escaped.

“Aha!” Steve screamed the second the message came in, shoving the phone close enough to Robin’s face to make her go cross-eyed. “Give me a crown and call me King Steve, because I just got you a damn coffee date!”

“You didn’t,” Robin exclaimed, yanking the phone out of his hand so she could read it better herself. “Holy shit, Harrington, you got me a date!”

“I know, I know, I’m just that good.” 

“Wait, wait,” Robin began as another set of ‘pings’ came in, eyebrows drawing together as she read the new messages. “You got us a date.”

“Robs, what the hell are you talking about?”

“I mean, it’s Tinder. It makes sense, I wouldn’t want to meet up with an axe murderer either.” Robin laughed, typing something back to Heather Holloway from San Diego. “She wants it to be a double date with her roommate and mine. She says he’s cute, you’ll like him.”

“I’m not dating,” Steve said, already climbing to his feet. His bedroom wasn’t far, he could make it before Robin caught up if he sprinted. It had been years since he’d played sports at the level he did in high school, but some of that athleticism must have been preserved somewhere. After all, while he’d had plenty of first dates and flings in the months since they’d moved to San Diego, he hadn’t exactly had anything serious yet. Steve wasn’t sure he was ready, not when he was finally figuring out who he was outside of Hawkins, away from his parents’ influence. 

“Please, Steve? C’mon, you can’t drop the ball now. It’s one date, and hey! What if he’s the one and you’re just walking away from him right now?”

Steve sent her a deadpan look, rolling his eyes at the thought that some random roommate of the girl she’d met on Tinder could be his perfect match. “If he was the one, we’ll find each other again later.”

“Steve Harrington, you are not blowing this for me. Do you know the last time I’ve gotten any kind of action? What I would do to get my fingers in so—”

“Lalala nope no no!” Steve screeched, hands flying up to cover his ears in case Robin decided to continue speaking over his shouts, cheeks reddening at the image of his best friend and roommate getting any kind of ‘action’. “Keep it rated PG-13 before I have a heart attack.”

“The point is, I need this,” Robin pressed. “Please? It’s just coffee. What’s the worst that could happen?”

She had a point. Even then Steve knew he wouldn’t refuse her, not when she was making that pleading expression. “Fine. One date, but that’s it, no matter how hot this guy is.”

Steve was going to kill Robin. It would be easy to do considering how much she trusted him. He had no idea how poison worked but he could figure it out before the next time he made their morning coffees, or he could push her down the stairs like some jealous dance student in a dramatic teen movie. Either way, she was a goner because cute did not even begin to cover how attractive this guy was. 

Though she’d been a panicked mess the entire walk to the coffee shop, Robin had immediately walked up to Heather the second they got there, leaving Steve to practically gawk at the man standing next to them. He couldn’t be real, like he’d stepped off the cover of some magazine Steve would never have read two years ago because all the guys were too gorgeous to look at without blushing. His shorts were just short enough to make Steve take quick looks at the hem in hopes the guy wouldn’t notice, and the way he’d left the top several buttons of his shirt undone was absolutely sinful. His dark blond hair was styled with just the right amount of messiness, one curl laid perfectly over his forehead in a way that screamed Superman, blue eyes shining bright as he took notice of Steve.

“I guess you’re the roommate,” the man said once Steve dared get close enough. He reached out his hand to shake and Steve thought he might keel over from that singular touch alone, blushing like he was back in high school when his crush noticed him for the first time. “I’m Billy Hargrove, Heather’s friend.”

“Oh, yeah, I am. The roommate, that is. Also the best friend,” Steve managed to get out, tugging his hand through his hair the second the handshake was over. “Steve Harrington.”

Never before had Steve felt so nervous, but he told himself as they were ordering and finding a table nearby the two women that it was all for good reason. This was California, and Heather was a model, and it would only make sense that she would have attractive friends. This was just one date, set up simply to protect their two friends during a Tinder meetup. After coffee, Steve would never have to see this guy again so it really didn’t matter how big of a fool he made himself out to be. 

“I gotta say, I’m glad you’re real, man,” Billy let out once they were sitting down with their coffees in hand. Billy had gotten something iced that looked about as sweet as Robin usually ordered while Steve sat with his hands warming around a cup of hot coffee.

“What, you thought this was a catfish situation?” Steve teased, knowing the thought had crossed his mind more than once in the week since Robin and Heather first matched on Tinder. 

“Hell yeah I did,” Billy chuckled, fingers gripping a little tighter around his cup. “Robin seemed too good to be true. Fuck, if I didn’t like guys I’d have fought Heather for the date.”

Yeah, Robin was a goner the second they got back to the apartment. Steve nearly spluttered around his coffee at the words, knowing that it had been him behind the entire conversation that Heather had shown Billy. Steve forced out a laugh, hoping it didn’t sound too nervous as he answered, “Yep, yeah that’s Robin. Total catch.”

“Where are you and Total Catch from?”

“Why assume we’re not from around here?” Steve shot back instantly as if he had any sort of problem sharing about his life. He didn’t, not really, though the American Midwest wasn’t exactly the stunning or exciting answer Billy was likely looking for. 

“Because,” Billy began, leaning forward and smirking like he had some great secret to share. Steve found himself leaning in too, practically drawn to the other man. “I would’ve noticed a pretty boy like you years ago if you’d been here all along.”

Maybe Steve was the dead one. Maybe he’d keeled over the second he and Billy Hargrove made eye contact, and this was all some dream his mind was drawing up at the end. It was cheesy as hell and there had to have been something else that actually gave him away, and yet the statement was enough to nearly send Steve sprawling on the floor.

“Hawkins,” Steve blurted out before his mind completely blue screened and rebooted. “I’m from Hawkins. It’s this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. The most notable thing about it is the old mall that was built in the 80s. Its theme never changed so it’s like this relic from old times or whatever they’re calling it nowadays.”

“Hawkins,” Billy spoke like he was testing the word out in his mouth. “Well, welcome to California, Harrington.”

“What about you? Are you from here?”

“Born ‘n raised.” Billy flashed a bright smile, all white teeth and the hint of a dimple on one cheek. “I could take you sightseeing like a true welcome, show you everywhere we try to keep hidden from the tourists.”

“We’ve been in San Diego for nine months now,” Steve pointed out, though the image of him spending the day walking around with Billy under the summer sun wouldn’t leave his mind. “I think I know the city.”

“That’s your first mistake.” Billy reached out to rest his elbow on the table, pointing one finger in Steve’s direction. “You don’t know San Diego ‘til you have an expert to show you the real scene.”

“Yeah? You calling yourself an expert now?”

“I know a few things,” Billy returned with just enough mystery that Steve wondered if he wasn’t bullshitting the whole thing. 

“Well, then I might have to take you up on that tour.”

“We’ll call it our second date.”

Steve raised an eyebrow, finally beginning to relax into the conversation now that it was clear he could get along with Billy. “Who says you’re getting a second date, Malibu?”

“You do know Malibu isn’t anywhere near San Diego, right?”

He didn’t, but hotshot Billy Hargrove didn’t need to know that. “Maybe not, but I could mistake you for Malibu Barbie.”

“That so?” Billy leaned forward on his forearms then, tongue flashing through his lips for long enough that Steve had to avert his eyes lest his thoughts turn down a very different path.

Steve leaned forward to match him, close enough that with a little more effort he could find out how those lips tasted. “You bet, Malibu.”

Billy’s laugh was unlike anything else Steve had ever heard. It came out in a punch of sound, a little sharp around the edges like he wasn’t quite used to making the noise or like he tried to stop it in the first place. It was a deep rumble Steve was sure he’d feel in the man’s chest if he had the occasion to lay on it—not that he wanted to.

“You’re somethin’ else,” Billy laughed, and Steve couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. 

It was still early but Steve found himself wanting this to go somewhere, despite everything saying that this was too much, too soon. He wasn’t ready to date and yet he couldn’t imagine letting Billy slip away after the ease with which they talked over coffee. Steve hadn’t even noticed how much time had passed until Robin and Heather walked over to their table across the coffee shop, hand-in-hand. The sun was just beginning to dip beneath the horizon, painting the sky with brilliant golds and pinks that always made Steve wonder how the world could exist in such beauty every day. 

It only took one look from Robin to tell how well the women’s date went. She was practically beaming, eyes alight in a way Steve was sure he hadn’t seen before. She’d dated a couple of times since he’d met her—even daring a relationship with a girl from back home even when Steve feared even saying the word out loud. She hardly took her eyes off of Heather, only doing so long enough to send Steve a bright smile, the reassurance that she was okay. 

“Don’t wait up for me, asshole,” Heather told Billy, knocking his upper arm lightly with her knuckles. They seemed to have their own silent language, sharing expressions with one another that betrayed how long they’d known each other. 

“Speaking of,” Robin began, focusing her attention again on her roommate. “Do you have somewhere to stay for tonight?”

He didn’t, not really, but he would be damned if he took away this chance Robin had. Steve could see the look in Heather’s eyes, could see the pleading way Robin looked at him that told him exactly what their plan was for an empty apartment.

“Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ve got it figured out,” Steve told her, “Have fun tonight. But, hey, don’t have fun in the kitchen! I eat there.”

“Maybe I wanna eat there too, Stevie,” Robin shot back just as quickly, pulling an actual shriek out of Steve.

Billy cackled at the noise, tossing his head back and slapping his hand against his chest like that might force more breaths out of his lungs. “Oh, I like her,” he laughed, “see you later, Heather.”

Steve could feel his stomach swirling with butterflies, like he could feel Robin’s nervousness and joy for her. Maybe he could. Maybe that was the job of a best friend, to feel everything all at once so he’d know how to help her later. It certainly wasn’t because of the man sitting across from him who was now staring at his profile, Steve still turned in his chair to face where Robin had been standing. 

“Where are you gonna stay tonight?” Billy asked once Steve finally turned right in his chair, setting his empty cup at the edge of the table as a visual sign he was finished with his drink.

“I don’t know yet,” Steve admitted now that Robin wasn’t around to overhear, “but Robin was excited for today, I didn’t want her night to end yet.”

“You could stay at my place,” Billy offered, immediately causing Steve’s heart to start racing. If getting coffee was too soon, then staying the night certainly was crossing some kind of line Steve didn’t know existed. He’d been with guys before, he’d even had weekend-long escapades that kept him out of the apartment for days until Robin finally called and demanded his ass back home. But Steve didn’t want Billy to be a one-night stand, some fling that he’d reminisce about fondly but without any real follow-through in the end. He wanted more coffee, he wanted to find out more about Billy’s younger sister Max and what it was like growing up ten minutes from the beach, and how he and Heather had met in high school after she moved from the Midwest. 

“Not like that,” Billy quickly corrected, apparently able to see some sliver of Steve’s inward panic. “Heather won’t be there, we have a futon in the office if you really hate the idea of sharing a bed, and it wouldn’t be terrible if this date didn’t end.”

Steve scoffed out a laugh, shaking his head at the wording. “It wouldn’t be terrible, huh? That’s no way to win a second date.”

“I haven’t even started trying to win that second date. You’ll have no idea what hit you, Hawkins,” Billy returned, seemingly making the decision for Steve as he grabbed both cups to toss. “C’mon, I even have a bag of Doritos we can share if you’re hungry.”

Steve was helpless to resist, following Billy out of the coffee shop and down the street. The other man told him it wasn’t a far walk, which meant that they’d lived within walking distance of each other for months and had never met. Part of him found relief in that idea, knowing that Billy had never had the misfortune of meeting the nervous, awkward version of him that came straight from Hawkins, Indiana freshly out of the closet with no idea how to act once he could stop hiding.

Another, deeper, part of him ached at the idea that Billy would eventually see that version of him and would have no warning, no clue that it ever even existed. All he’d seen now was cool Steve, the guy who could walk into a coffee shop in muted green pants that Robin said screamed bisexual energy and immediately flirt with the hot guy he’d been set up to go on a date with. Would Billy be disappointed, once that other, far less sure Steve reared his head?

“This is us,” Billy spoke, thankfully stopping the spiral that Steve was nearly sent down. 

“You live above a boxing gym?” Steve asked curiously, taking note of the sign that had turned on in the dimming sunlight. ‘Safe Harbor’ was written in blue writing above the first floor of the building, where Steve could make out some boxing equipment just inside though it had clearly already closed for the day.

“I own a boxing gym, really,” Billy answered, hand rubbing the back of his neck like he was sheepish about it. “That one. I own that boxing gym.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Steve returned, dutifully following Billy around to the side alley where they climbed some stairs to the second-floor apartment. “What made you want to start a gym?”

“It’s a long story,” Billy began, fidgeting with his keys as he fought to find the right one, glancing up at Steve once before letting them both into the apartment. “But Heather came into extra money with her modeling thing, helped me get it started. It’s a place for victims of violence to go, somewhere they can train if they want, and learn some self-defense. Or just a place where they can be around people who give a shit, people who understand.”

The passion laced into every word made Steve think Billy understood those people, too, that maybe a ‘long story’ meant rather that it was a story too dark to tell someone he’d just met. Steve held onto that information, tucking it away to examine later when he could worry over the details on his own time. 

The apartment was nice, much nicer than the one he and Robin rented with their spare earnings saved from countless hours in the one movie rental store left open in Indiana. It was decorated cohesively, like the two people living there actually cared about the aesthetics of the place rather than the odd posters and various color themes that decorated Steve’s own place. 

“Want a drink?” Billy asked as he crossed to the kitchen, tossing his keys on the counter and immediately grabbing a beer for himself.

“Sure, why not?” Steve returned, taking the bottle Billy offered. They ended up on the couch, Steve sitting close enough to Billy that if he shifted just a little their thighs would press against each other. Already he could feel the heat radiating off of Billy’s leg, like the man himself was a furnace generating heat like that one guy who could catch himself on fire in Dustin’s old comics. 

“Did you and Robin meet in high school?” Billy asked when Steve checked his phone for any sign that Robin might not be as okay as she’d been when they left the coffee shop.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, kind of,” Steve laughed, tugging through the front portion of his hair at the memories beginning to resurface. “We knew each other, but I was kind of a dick back then.”

“Stop giving yourself such a hard time, ‘m sure you weren’t that bad.”

“Nah, I was a fucking prick,” Steve answered, “but I figured it out eventually. We had the same summer job once I graduated. We worked in the mall I told you about, scooping ice cream in these godawful sailor uniforms. You have to be best friends after that.”

“Now that I wanna see,” Billy laughed predictably, causing Steve’s cheeks to flush red at the image of standing in front of Billy in those shorts.

“I bet you do,” Steve returned, “lucky for me I burned that thing the second the mall closed for remodeling. Robin and I decided we wanted to keep working together after that, seeing as we were the only queer people we knew of in town.”

“That why you moved out here?”

“Kind of. It was a big part of it,” Steve tried to explain, focusing his eyes on the lip of the bottle in his hand rather than on the intense look from Billy. “I guess it’d be a little too cliche to admit I wanted to get away from my parents, start over out here.”

“It’s super fuckin’ cliche, but cliches exist for a reason.” 

“Yeah, I guess,” Steve shrugged, mind already beginning to think of new topics than that of his parents. They hadn’t exactly been proud of him there at the end, from admitting he wouldn’t be attending law school with intention of taking over his father’s business someday to screaming his coming out at a company holiday party when his mother was pissing him off. “What about you? Any cliches I should know about?”

“What, other than being the rugged bad boy with a shitty dad and a charming attitude?” Billy joked, flashing another toothy smile that made Steve feel like he might melt into the floorboards.

“Who said anything about charming?” Steve cackled at the little throw pillow that knocked into the side of his head, sending him careening over onto the rest of the couch. “Fine, fine! Might as well call you Flynn fucking Rider with all the charm you have.”

“That’s fucking right, pretty boy,” Billy laughed. 

It was easy to talk to Billy, the pair of them staying up late into the night talking about anything and everything. When it finally came time to go to bed, Steve found he had no trouble shedding his pants and climbing into the empty space Billy left for him in the bedroom. 

“I’m glad you made Heather and Robin set up a double date, even if it was to be a protection detail,” Steve admitted.

“I am too,” Billy returned. “I’m glad you’re not a catfish, Steve, and you really are just good.” Steve winced, thankful that his back was to Billy by that point. They weren’t technically catfishes, though the feeling that he’d messed up by agreeing to that point sunk deep in his chest.

“Would it really be so bad if we were?” Steve laughed lightly, as if maybe joking about it might make everything better.

“I can’t stand liars. It’s the worst thing someone could do. How could anyone expect a relationship to last when it’s started off with a lie?”

“Good thing we didn’t then,” Steve wheezed out, lips feeling numb even as he said the words. “I want this to last.”

“Does that mean I get that second date, Hawkins?”

“Hm,” Steve pretended to think about it, body feeling lighter as they strayed away from the previous topic. It would be okay because no one would ever have to know that he’d been Robin for a full week. It was fine, because Billy was everything Steve used to wish for in the middle of the night in a town he thought he’d wither away in, and that meant everything had to work out. “I think you’ve done more than winning a second date, Malibu. I want to keep you around.”

They didn’t say anything else, or dare cuddle, but Steve did find the bravery to press a sweet kiss to Billy’s cheek, falling asleep with the promise of something special growing between them.

“I’m not wearing that.” 

“Yes, you are, Steve! Get in it!” Robin shouted, tossing the piece of cloth that could hardly be counted as a shirt at him. “It’s Pride, the one day a year you get to wear whatever the fuck you want.”

“Technically, I could wear whatever I want anytime.”

“Fine, then wear that shirt out to our next double date,” Robin pushed, smirking as Steve’s face blushed pink at the thought of going to dinner in that thing. “C’mon, it’s so cute and I really think th—Billy! Tell Steve to put that shirt on!”

Steve groaned as Billy and Heather walked through the door of their apartment, both decked out to the nines for the parade they all were going to. Heather looked absolutely gorgeous dressed in varying shades of pink and orange, with makeup and a splash of face paint topping off the look in a way that screamed she was a model for a living. Billy looked good too, not even bothering with a shirt and instead rocking just a pair of shorts and rainbow streaks painted artfully over his tattooed skin. Even Robin looked good, dressing more loudly than he’d ever seen her. Steve was certain the little shirt she wore was Heather’s, though considering how close the four of them had been in the past month there really was no telling who actually owned what clothes anymore. 

“You should definitely wear the shirt, Stevie,” Billy answered, grabbing Steve’s shoulders and practically shoving him in the direction of his bedroom. “Get on it. You gotta go all out for your first Pride.”

Robin had tried to get him to go that last summer they spent in Hawkins. There was a parade in Indianapolis, and Robin nearly got him to go under the idea that no one from their little town would even be there to recognize him. Still, the morning of as he painted the blue, purple, and pink colors of the bi flag on his cheek he found himself calling Robin, telling her to go without him because he just couldn’t. That was then though, before California and before their own apartment away from all those things they’d left behind. It was before Billy, who pushed Steve in ways no one else had before and made him feel things he didn’t even know could be felt so intensely by one person. 

So Steve sighed and put the shirt on. It was tight and practically sheer, ending just under his chest and shining in the bi-flag colors when he moved under the light. It was loud, gorgeous, and perfect. Of course, it was, considering Heather had dragged him out shopping for the thing a few weeks before and didn’t stop until they’d found the perfect outfit for him. 

Billy clearly thought so too, blue eyes widening as Steve finally came out of his bedroom wearing his completed outfit. “Damn, pretty boy, you clean up nice.”

“You’re a bit biased, Bee,” Steve laughed, pressing a kiss to a spot on Billy’s cheek that wasn’t swathed in paint. 

“Just callin’ it like it is,” Billy called after him, leaving Steve able to perfectly imagine the look he was making behind him. All bright eyes and devilish smirks, maybe even that damn tongue hanging out of his mouth that made Steve way too bothered whenever he dared do it. 

“Are we ready then?” Heather asked, pulling her phone away from where she’d taken a picture of her and Robin kissing. She’d already told the group that there would be dozens of pictures taken that day, saying she’d find some people to take pictures of all four of them for their Instagram pages. At this point, Steve might as well hire her as his social media manager for all the work she contributed to his page.

“Let’s go!” Robin shrieked, grabbing Steve’s hand and taking off out of the apartment like they weren’t the ones who’d have to lock up behind the others. 

She didn’t let go of his hand for the entire walk downtown, as if she knew he’d take off running given the chance. It wasn’t that he wanted to go—on the contrary, Steve could feel the same excited buzzing in his chest that he’d felt when Robin had found them tickets to his favorite band’s concert last summer. No, he’d been picturing this day for years and now that it was here, today had to be perfect. 

Steve could still hear his dad if he focused hard enough like if he blinked he’d find himself back in his childhood living room listening while his dad laid into him about the disrespect and humiliation he’d brought to the family. He’d be sitting there with tears in his eyes, looking to his mother for the support she always gave him but instead only finding cool deference to his father, the same way she’d always done when it came to major decisions for their family. 

“Hey,” Robin spoke up, squeezing his hand once like she knew where his mind had wandered off to. “It’s gonna be a good day.”

“I know,” Steve returned, smiling so she wouldn’t worry so much about him, “I know that. I just...”

“They’re not here. Even if anyone from home does see this, we’ll still be okay because we’re having the time of our lives out here.” Sometimes Steve wondered how he ever came to deserve Robin. She was the best friend he could ever imagine, staying right by his side despite all the shit he’d done in the years they’d grown up together. She easily could have made that summer job hell, making fun of how far he’d fallen from the king he’d once been. Instead, she gripped his hand tight and promised everything was okay, that maybe the world did not begin and end with towns like Hawkins, Indiana.

“My turn,” Billy said as he caught up to Steve’s other side, wrapping an arm around Steve’s waist like he was guiding him down the sidewalk. Steve squeezed Robin’s hand one more time before she fell back to walk with her girlfriend, letting her know that he was okay. “You ready, Stevie?”

“Hell yeah I am,” Steve answered having begun to hear the pounding music of the party going on downtown.

Whatever Steve was expecting, the San Diego Pride event was twelve times bigger than that. There had to be hundreds upon hundreds of people in the streets, all dressed in rainbows and bright colors. Someone had handed Steve a flag that Billy tied around his neck like a cape and made Steve feel like some kind of fruity superhero that would make Captain America shake in his boots.

Never before had Steve seen so many happy people all gathered in one space before. Some were dancing, others were marching along in the street in time with the parade. Some were old with little kids running around them, and some looked like they were fresh out of high school and already more sure of themselves than the Steve of that age could ever have hoped to be. It felt a little like a dream, being there surrounded by people who understood, who belonged to each other for this one magical day.

Steve eventually had the courage to whoop and shout with the rest of them, raising his arms and cheering when the parade came by them. Someone waved him over, a drag queen who had one of the kindest faces Steve had ever seen. He barely glanced back at Billy before he was walking over to them, allowing himself to be pulled up onto one of the floats. He laughed and danced along, even tilting his head into the mic to scream out a song about living forever. At this moment, it felt a little like he could.

“That’s how you do it, Hawkins, that’s how you do it!” Billy whooped from the sides, beaming up at Steve like he were the stars blanketing the skies. 

“Is that one yours?” someone shouted about the music straight into his left ear. Steve could only grin and nod, captivated by the bright lights, the music, the crowd, Billy. 

Billy was in his element too, getting plenty of pictures from strangers who apparently recognized him. He’d explained once that his gym had a lot of queer youth come in, suffering from bad homes or violence from strangers who didn’t understand. He used to run a booth at Pride and had become some recognizable figure in San Diego which made Steve fall in love with him that much more. 

Because it was love, as it turned out. It was the kind of love that snuck up on Steve before jumping onto his back and latching on so tightly he had no hope of shaking it off. Billy wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met before. He was tough, full of sharp edges and sharp words, but he was also sweet, caring for people only in the way that hurt people could. Billy made Steve laugh and remembered the little things about him that other partners had never bothered to even ask about. He made Steve feel alive. 

He could feel it now, that same electric energy that had first shown in the coffee shop now raging between them. The second the last stranger walked away from Billy, he turned to look at Steve. A brilliant smile washed over him, his entire expression softening as he looked at Steve. It was this alone that made Steve close the distance between them, wrapping his arms around Billy and pressing a kiss to his lips. Billy returned in kind, melting into the embrace like there was nothing else in the world but him and Steve, standing there in the middle of the street while Pride continued on around them.

“That’s a good one, Babe,” Heather cooed over Robin’s shoulder, peering at her phone just a handful of steps away from him and Billy.

“Send that to me?” Billy asked, not daring to remove his large hands from Steve’s waist. 

“Of course,” Robin answered. “You both look so cute, you have to post that, Steve.”

“I will, I will,” Steve chuckled, ducking his head enough that some of his unruly hair fell into his eyes. He’d gotten better about accepting shows of affection in public, though the near-constant praise from the others sent him furiously blushing, hardly able to think through the waves pounding in his head. “Heather, do you and Billy want a picture?”

“Actually, I want a pic with you,” Heather answered instead, handing her phone off to Robin. “You are the one who got us all together.”

“I didn’t do anything, you two got together on your own,” Steve returned politely, pulling out of Billy’s grasp just so he could pose with Heather how she wanted.

“Cut it out, Steve, I already told her how you were the one talking to her for the first week because I was too chickenshit,” Robin laughed behind the camera. 

“What?” Billy was standing just behind Robin, but he wasn’t laughing like she was. In fact, Steve is sure he’d never seen the man more closed off in the entire month they’d been together. He could practically watch Billy shutter his expression, closing himself off from everyone around them.

And then it hit like a rogue baseball to the chest. He could feel the moment that everything began to crumble around him, helpless to do anything but stare in horror at Billy’s hurt expression. ‘I already told her how you were the one talking to her for the first week.’

“Billy, wait!” Steve called out as Billy began to walk away from him. It wasn’t hard to catch up to the man, weaving through the crowd well enough that he could grab onto his arm to stop him in his tracks.

“Let go of me, Steve.”

Billy didn’t turn around, didn’t face him. His words were harsh, practically gritted out from behind clenched teeth.

“Billy, please. I know it sounds bad but it really wasn’t anyt—”

“I need to be alone right now, Steve. Go back to Robin and Heather, have fun at Pride.”

“What? No, you can’t be alone, not today. Let me just explain and then you’ll understand everything,” Steve pushed, not letting go of Billy’s arm until the man yanked it harshly out of his grip. It was then Billy whirled around to face him, eyes nearly on fire with the rage carried within them.

“What part of leave me the fuck alone can’t you get through your thick fuckin’ skull?” Billy shouted, drawing the attention of a handful of people in the crowd. “I don’t want to see your face right now.”

“Billy, c’mon. It’s not that bad,” Steve groaned, his heart hammering away in his chest as Billy didn’t even dare to look at him. He was staring over Steve’s shoulder, finding some point in the distance to distract himself with.

“You fucking lied to me!” Billy shouted, cheeks turning red from the effort. “You know how I feel about catfishing, and you fucking hid that from me. You did it to my best friend and you hid it for a month because you knew it would hurt me. Did I get everything?”

“I didn’t! We weren’t catfishing, Billy, please!” Steve continued, not daring to walk away now. Something in Billy’s eyes told him that if he walked away now, he might never see Billy again. “Robin was scared, that’s it. She just needed help getting started, we weren’t going to keep doing it. And I didn’t even think it would matter at first! You weren’t supposed to be important.”

“So what, you thought because we had one date you could go lying about something like that? I told you, I told you how serious it was to me and you fucking—” Billy let out a frustrated shout, practically growling as he tugged at his hair. “Are you really stupid enough to think I wouldn’t figure it out?”

“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry, but you can’t stand here and act like I could’ve known then!” Steve shouted back, feeling his own anger bubbling up to the surface. There was no way for Billy to know how deeply those words cut into him, how badly they reworked old scars that Steve had tried to put past hime, marks from another life. ‘Stupid’ bounced around in Steve’s brain until he found his breath coming in shorter intervals, wondering how he’d fucked up so badly that Billy had figured it out so quickly. He felt bad, he did. He’d considered telling Billy about it for weeks but every time he tried, something in him stopped the words from coming out. He’d hoped the other man would never find out and they could go on like usual, but he should have seen this coming. He should have known. 

Of fucking course Steve would ruin the best thing to ever happen to him.

“I didn’t know I’d love you,” he admitted, feeling the words warm up the iciness freezing his chest. “I love you, Billy.”

“I can’t fucking look at you,” Billy muttered, turning away and walking off into the crowd. 

Steve vaguely noticed Heather running off in the same direction, and could distantly feel Robin’s hand on his shoulder. There were people giving him sympathetic looks, others coming up to them to ask Robin if he was okay, if he needed anything.

He couldn’t tell any of them that he needed Billy, that he needed to redo this entire day so none of it could go wrong again. 

He couldn’t tell them that, even standing amongst a crowd of happy people full of more love than he’d thought existed in the whole world, he felt endlessly, irreparably alone. 

It was a week before anything changed.

Steve found a rhythm in his new heartbreak: wake up, shower, go to work, and paint on a smile for the kids who were too innocent to be exposed to such negative emotions. He’d come home and have dinner with Robin and sometimes Heather, never daring to ask after her roommate despite how desperate he wanted to know how the other man was doing. He’d lay in bed for hours, not able to sleep alone after growing so used to having Billy’s strong arms around him. 

Then, one night after even the pure exhaustion taking over his body wasn’t enough to force him to sleep, Steve found himself wandering the city. Even at 2 am, the city was still decently alive with people wandering the streets between bars and restaurants open late. Sometimes Steve missed the quiet stillness of nights in Hawkins, where he could walk in the woods with only the stars for company. 

Before he even knew what was happening, Steve found himself standing outside of a familiar boxing gym. It should have been closed for the night, but there was a light on revealing a figure standing before one of the bags, light on his feet as he snapped out with punch after punch against the thing.

A little bell dinged as Steve opened the door, letting loud rock music blast against his ears from the stereo system in the building. 

“Hey, we’re closed h—” the sentence cut off abruptly as Billy noticed who had walked into the room. He sighed, dropping out of his practiced stance and wiping at the sweat gathered on his brow. “What?”

He didn’t know why he was here. There were a million places Steve could have gone tonight and he’d ended up here, standing in front of the man he loved, loves. There had to be a reason for it, some kind of hope left that the universe was reminding him of.

“I fucked up,” Steve admitted quickly before he could change his mind and run out the door again. “I know I did, and I’m sorry. I should’ve told you sooner.”

“You should’ve,” Billy snapped, busying himself with wiping off with a towel and taking a messy drink of water, some of it slipping down his chin and wetting his shirt. 

“I know,” Steve continued, wincing at the still-closed-off look Billy was giving him. The other man was hurting, he reminded himself. This was a man who had experienced the kind of horrors Steve could never imagine, had pulled himself up and out of literal Hell with nothing but his own hands and the distant promise of a better life. This was a man who had continuously been hurt throughout life and still chose to hand over his trust for Steve to watch over. 

He couldn’t mess this up now.

“I know I lied to you, but Billy, please, you have to believe me. I didn’t mean to hurt you, it was something silly between Robin and me. If I thought for a second that it would hurt you, I would have told you,” Steve began to explain, allowing the smallest roots of hope to dig deep in his chest when the words made Billy pause his motions. “I love you, Billy. I know I lied and that was really really shitty, but it won’t happen again. It can’t happen again, because knowing I hurt you is destroying me.”

“I just, I’m learning, okay?” Steve could barely breathe, panting a little around his words as he fought to get them out. “I have no idea what I’m doing or even who the hell I am sometimes and I think everything is gonna be a little messy for a while until I can figure that out. But I will, I will figure it out and I want you there with me when I do. You make me so happy, Billy, happier than I could ever imagine being before. I love you, I love you.”

The words seemed to echo around the gym, smacking against every corner and wall until they knocked right back against Steve’s head. Billy still wasn’t talking, wasn’t even moving from where he froze by his water bottle stool. It felt like hours that they stood there, neither saying anything but neither daring to walk away either. Steve wanted to give him time to process, time to think about what was said and what Steve was promising, but eventually, he found himself pleading, “Say something? Anything?”

Billy sighed, which wasn’t perfect but it was progress. He dropped the small hand towel back down on the stool with his water bottle and walked over to where Steve was still standing by the front door. He still wasn’t saying anything, but the moment those blue eyes met Steve’s he gasped, overcome with the relief that Billy could finally look at him again.

“I can’t handle lying,” Billy told him, giving no clues as to where this was going. Steve was along for the ride anyway, blindly running wherever Billy was intending to take him. “Too many people have done it, I can’t.”

Steve could only nod, watching as Billy’s expression morphed into something he couldn’t read. It was too much, too intense to be anything Steve had seen before. 

“When I say I need space, I mean it, Steve. There’s...I don’t want to hurt you. When I’m mad, I need to walk away and come here. It helps me clear my head when everything is too much.”

“Okay, yeah,” Steve agreed, feeling the hope beginning to plant itself deep and blossom as further boundaries were laid out. Boundaries wouldn’t be formed if Billy intended to tear the whole structure down, right? This meant they could stay, could work on everything together? “Space. I can do space.”

“Good,” Billy responded, finally a smile lighting up those features Steve found to be so captivating. “Because I really love you too, Stevie.”

It was like Billy had bottled up that feeling Steve felt at Pride and sprinkled it over them now. Every ounce of belonging, and comfort, of joy and love and pride filled him up now ten times stronger than it had then, threatening to swallow him up in the wave if he didn’t learn to float. He couldn’t help the bright smile that pulled on his lips as Billy asked him to stay. 

The kiss was messy, teeth clacking together awkwardly through their smiles but Steve didn’t care because he had Billy back, stronger than ever now that they’d worked through the worst of it. There would be more fights in the future but Steve was confident he’d know how to handle them now, that both of them would do better than they had before now that they knew they had each other through it all. 

“Come on, you ridiculous hoe!” Robin shouted, cackling at Steve’s shocked expression.

“You’re calling me a hoe now?” Steve laughed at his friend, setting down the next box by the front door. “That’s it, I’m not even gonna miss you.”

“Sure, you’ll be calling me from the car,” Robin returned, and sure, that was probably true. Stebe held out his arms, allowing Robin to cross the room and hug him tightly. “You better call from the car.”

“I will, you know I will,” Steve reassured his friend, blinking away the tears beginning to gather in his eyes. They’d only spent a year and a half in this apartment, but he would miss it dearly despite getting the occasion to visit whenever he wanted. He’d miss making coffee for Robin in the morning and yelling at her for hogging all the hot water in the shower. He’d miss her making dinner on rough work days and her banging her hand on the wall between their bedrooms when his personal dance parties became too loud in the middle of the night.

He’d miss living with his best friend, even though he couldn’t wait for what came next.

“You’re so dramatic,” Heather laughed from where she was packing up the few cups and utensils Steve had contributed. “You’ll see each other at dinner on Friday.”

“But that’s two whole days away!” Steve whined dramatically while Robin pretended to faint from the woe of it all. 

“You’ll be so busy unpacking you won’t even notice,” Billy answered when he came through the front door with another one of Heather’s boxes. “Damn, Heather, how’d you get so much shit?”

“Would it be cocky to say the fame and money?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then the fame. Oh, and the money,” Heather grinned, the two of them hugging each other in the process. “I guess I’ll miss you too. Be good, have fun.”

“Miss you too,” Billy told her, ruffling his friend’s hair just to make her screech. “Don’t have too much fun here, we can’t cook dinner here if you’ve torn the place up.”

“Gross,” Robin and Steve both groaned, the smiles never leaving their faces despite it.

“Are you ready?” Steve asked Billy once all of Heather’s things were brought in. It would be weird to come over on Friday and see Heather living in the space he had once occupied, but it was time. He’s sure the two women would have moved in with each other far sooner had they not been waiting for Steve and Billy to be ready too. At least now they could have as much time spent together as they wanted without having to text either Steve or Billy about a sleepover. 

“Ready as ever, Hawkins,” Billy answered, picking up one of Steve’s boxes to move it into his own apartment above the boxing gym—their apartment, Steve supposed. 

“Then let’s get moving, Malibu. I wanna hit the beach after,” Steve spoke up, pressing a kiss to Billy’s cheek as he passed.

And Billy followed to the tune of Robin and Heather cheering them on all the way out the door of the apartment. 

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[boringkate]

I really want to suck off a dickgirl off irl, but really don't know where to go for hookup personals. Advice?

I mean trans girls are on all the same dating and hookup apps that cis people use. OkCupid, Tinder, Grindr, etc.

But like... Use tryst or leolist or whatever instead! Hire an escort!

If you're a cis dude then your odds of getting a date with a local trans girl who's into getting head from dudes and is into you specifically are pretty slim. The supply and demand ratios are just out of wack. And if you're just looking to suck some girl dick (and not looking for a relationship) then there's no reason to even put in the time trying. You'll have way better luck finding a cutie that'll let you pay her to give her the sloppy toppy.

[cbk1000]

Posting another preview of the vet fic, because I have around 43,000 words written, but I think I’m going to wait till I’m finished to post anything because I want to see exactly how long it’s going to be (estimating in the 60,000 range...that’s a hopeful estimate lmao) so I can break it up appropriately. It wouldn’t be moral to post this one as a one-shot, I don’t think, so I’ll have to split it up into a few parts. lmao

Arthur snatched the phone back. There was a long silence whilst he scrolled, and Merlin packed up his ultrasound machine. “What about this one?” he asked at last, handing back the phone.

“Those are my nostrils. I was faffing about with my phone and accidentally took a picture up my nose and obviously didn’t realise or forgot to delete it. Why would I put that on a dating profile? You can’t even see my face.”

“Seems an obvious advantage over the other photos, then.”

Merlin flicked him in the head. 

“Do you really think women are going to look at these pictures and tinder with you, or whatever you do on these things?”

“That’s not even the right dating app. It’s right in the name, Arthur. But, yeah. Women. Or blokes.”

There was a laden pause. “What do you mean, ‘Or blokes?’” Arthur asked.

And Merlin, bending over the bag of equipment with his heart in his mouth, said, in a voice quite out of rhythm with his pulse, “I mean the literal words that came out of my mouth.”

There was another pause; no longer merely heavy, but corpulent. He went on packing up his kit, waiting as if for the executioner, to see whether the next moment would end or absolve him.

“Are you gay?” Arthur blurted out.

And Merlin looked up, no longer in anticipation, but with that need which is in the human animal, to gawp at what is terrible: though he was looking at stupidity, rather than a car accident. “No,” he said, enunciating very slowly. “I said ‘or’. Or is a conjunction; it’s used to link alternatives. ‘Tea or coffee.’ ‘I’ll cycle, or walk.’ Meaning both are acceptable, possible choices.” 

“Thank you,” Arthur said with such withering sarcasm he very nearly elevated the response to art. “I’m aware what words mean.”

“Then why did I have to explain it slowly and with very careful articulation?”

“Because you talk like you’ve a mouthful of gravel.”

“That’s from you colonising pricks standing your jackboot on my face and forcing it into the ground.”

“You grew up in England.” Arthur looked away, and scratched his nose. “So you’re--bisexual? Pansexual? I don’t know that many of the--of the sexuals.”

There was a weight coming off him. He realised Arthur was going to be stupid, not bigoted, and said, “I don’t really care that much about the label, but bisexual’s what I tell people.”

There was another pause whilst Arthur dithered about, trying to decide where it was appropriate to put one’s hands in front of men who liked men; and stuffing them in his pockets, asked, sounding extraordinarily casual about it, which tone he had achieved with stunning effort, “What kind of men do you like?”

“What?”

“Well, if you like my sister, I assume your taste in men is similarly atrocious. I was only curious.” He scratched at his nose again.

“Erm, well, I don’t have--a list or anything like that. Fit men, who aren’t total berks.”

“What does that mean?” Arthur demanded. “‘Fit men’ could mean anything. Especially coming from someone with no standards.”

“Fine. Percival. He’s an example of someone I’d climb like a tree.”

“Percival?” Arthur’s hands came out of his pockets, and grabbed the stall door between them, as if he would need it for support, in his time of need. “He’s too big.”

“All right, fine, you’re so good at being attracted to men, pick someone fitter. You think you can be a better gay than me?”

“Well, apparently, it’s not difficult.” Arthur leant his upper body on the stall door, whilst Merlin finished packing up the bag, holding out his hand for it to be passed over to him in the aisle.

“Ok, if you weren’t straight, what kind of guy would you find attractive, then?”

“Well, I haven’t really thought about it, of course, but I’d have to say, someone athletic, good with horses, roots for Manchester U, like a correct person, good-looking. Sophisticated.”

“Blonde? Blue-eyed?” Merlin asked, leaning on the door beside him, so that their elbows nearly touched.

“Can’t go wrong with that.”

“So you’re saying you’d be gay for yourself.”

“I’m only saying anyone with objectively good taste would be.” 

Merlin cupped his chin in his hand, and looked up from under his lashes, which he used as a signal to indicate he was about to flirt, and the other person had better be ready for it. Then, instead of flattery, he delivered a little fine ridicule: “Except you forgot the bit about being a knob. ‘Aryan ideal’ isn’t really much of a selling point.”

“I also said, ‘good with horses, roots for Manchester U, sophisticated, good-looking, athletic.’ Could add ‘funny’--”

“Looking,” Merlin interrupted.

“Funny, good taste in books--”

“That’s the only one I don’t take issue with.”

“Would you stop interrupting me whilst I explain why you’re wrong and should feel bad about it?”

Merlin held up his hands. “Sorry. Do go on. Why exactly am I being bisexual wrong? Could use the enlightenment. I’ve been doing it a while and never knew I was bollixing it.”

Arthur ticked off points on his fingers. “I can cook; I’m actually properly proportioned--”

“You are so jealous of Percival. He could put your head in the crook of his arm, flex, and stove in your fat head, and you hate it. Next to him, you look like you’re seven stone soaking wet.”

“Are you blind? I’m twice the size of you--”

“You’re shorter, and I wrestle cows for a living, office boy.”

“Add ‘delusional’ to your long list of faults. The only reason you’re bisexual, is because you had to expand your options beyond a single gender, or else you’d die alone. You had to add several more million fish to the sea in hopes of finding a single one deranged enough to not flee on sight.”

Merlin dangled his hands over the side of the stall door. “Sounds like projection.”

“What?”

“I said, ‘Sounds like projection!’” he shouted, as if Arthur were old. “I’ve never had any trouble getting anyone to climb on a dark-haired 6’ manual labourer whose job is to treat sick animals. If you’re having problems, maybe it’s your hair?”

“What’s wrong with my hair?” Arthur demanded.

“Nothing, really, just assume you get prickly when it’s mussed. Can’t imagine women like hearing, ‘For the sake of my hair, it’s missionary, or nothing, you will not touch my hair in the throes of passion, you will not, in the throes of passion, mar my delicate posh boy skin, which I bathe daily in La Mear and caviar--’”

“It’s La Mer.”

“I knew you’d know that.”

[i-used-to-wear-the-fedora]

Loss, Love, and Tinder (Renfield)

"So I can use this app to summon potential dates to me? Like that Uvre app with food?"

"First, it's Uber. And yeah, pretty much. You can browse all these profiles and click on people you might be interested in. Then you can message each other. "

"Fascinating." Renfield stared at the app before him, scrolling through the seemingly endless collage of photos. "And what's this called again?"

"Tinder. I used to use it all the time back in college." Rebecca admitted as she leaned over from her position on Renfield's couch and pointed at the red icon. "Never click on people who don't have profile pics. It's super sketchy."

Robert Montague Renfield was by no means tech illiterate. Quite the contrary, actually. He was very apt when it came to using Facebook groups or Craigslist ads to find people for his former master. But it was all for business related stuff....er, so to speak. Never anything personal like this. It had been years since he'd ever done something this traditionally romantic. There had been his wife, but that was arranged by their families. Her family wanted the Renfield family's money, and his family needed an heir. It was pleasant, but Renfield always knew that for as much as he liked his family, he very much did not like women. Then he met the count.

Dracula was everything he could've wanted from a man. Tall, dark, and so incredibly romantic. He took him out places. Introduced him to new people. Plus, the sex was absolutely mind-blowing. Feelings he never thought possible coursing through his body as the count took him by the throat and slammed him back into the wall while shoving his tongue down his throat-it almost made up for the fact that the man turned out to be a blood sucking fiend who he had to pledge his service to for the rest of eternity. Almost.

Of course, their relationship evolved over the years in a not so great way. The romantic gestures became few and far between. The sex was still there, but Renfield rarely found it as satisfying anymore. His master would come for a release. As soon as he got what he wanted, Renfield was left unfulfilled and wanting. He did everything to please the man he thought freed him. Instead, it seemed, he was bound into another form of servitude. Instead of being forced to meet society's expectations, he was forced to meet Dracula's. The romantic he was wooed by disappeared and was instead replaced by a cruel and demanding master. The person he'd been seduced by would still come through to reel Renfield back in. Over and over again, it was almost a never-ending cycle. Until recently.

It has been almost a month now since his ma-Dracula's passing. It was liberating to be free for the first time in just over a hundred years now. He was happy. But as it turned out, very, very lonely. That was how he found himself staring at the little red app on his phone curiously while Rebecca showed him how it worked. His profile picture left something to be desired. Rebecca hadn't been too far off in describing him as a pale, sad little wet cat.

"Don't worry about it too much." Rebecca waved his worry off. "Some guys really like that kind of thing."

The now ex-police woman seemed to be right as his phone dinged to signal that someone had just messaged him. Renfield eagerly took the phone from Rebecca's hands and clicked on the messages bar. The man paused when, instead of a text, he was greeted by the photo of a man's penis. Admittedly, it was well endowed, but still a random photo of a stranger's genitals.

"And of course, the first message you get from a guy is a dick pic." Rebecca said with a roll of her eyes.

"I take it this isn't a normal way to open conversations?"

"No." Rebecca snorted as she clicked on a button in the top corner of the screen to block the account. "You wouldn't believe how many times I got dick pics even though my bio says,"Hardcore Lesbian." It was either that or two straight people thing to spice up their love life. Maybe you'll have more luck on this app."

Renfield nodded as he glanced back at his phone. Despite everything, he was excited for the new beginnings this "Tinder" presented.

[sickness-stricken]

Ngl people boycotting Bumble for their anti-celebacy ads confuses me for the same reasons people started boycotting BetterHelp. Anti-celibacy/pro-sex before marriage and bad therapy talk have always been the core focuses of these businesses, you just couldn’t hear them whispering it under their breath until they spelled it out for you.

Any of those dating apps where you have to swipe through potential matches like you’re picking items at a grocery store are primarily geared towards hookups. Tinder might give you options to say that you want something long term but you aren’t their target consumer base. Risky hookups mean more potential babies, which means a growing population. This is also the reason why so many pop songs are about sex in case anyone was curious. And with Roe v. Wade getting overturned… yeah the demand for people with uteruses to keep making babies is growing more than ever.

[simplysnaps]

Tinder is a scam designed to capitalize on loneliness and never ever find you a partner. It started with an admirable enough business model, but over the years it has morphed into the most heinous, evil version of itself humanly possible. Not even a Saturday morning cartoon villain would be able to come up with such an intricate and immoral system.

First off, you know how Tinder works right? You swipe right if you wanna match with the person, and you swipe left if you don't. Seems simple enough, right? We live in a meritocracy where the quality of your pictures and the wittiness of your bio will determine whether or not you find a match? Surely we'll be on a date and out of here within a week, right?

You forget one thing. Tinder is a business. Its product is hope, not love. If you find a partner, you won't be a customer anymore. Because of this simple truth, it's in Tinder's best interest to keep you pining after love for as long as humanly possible before somehow finding a partner, or deleting the app in despair.

Well okay, Snappy, I get it. They run ads! That's not immoral! They have to do that! -An innocent soul.

Let me explain how Tinder makes money. I haven't used it in a few years, but I remember it well. First off, the app all about "swiping until you find true love" sure doesn't like you swiping that much. In fact, you only get to swipe about ten times a day.

But what if I wanna swipe more than ten times a day? You're totally allowed to! If you GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY! This is the first step into the hell that is Tinder. They hook you on seeing little cuties and hulking hunks and right when you're in a rhythm they cut you off and demand $10 for some bullshit "Tinder Premium."

Alright, I guess $10 a month isn't that bad if you're gonna find love in a week or two, right?

Well now you have unlimited swipes, but the pain doesn't end there. You see, you haven't actually gotten a single match yet. But Tinder will let you know with obnoxious push notifications on your phone's home screen and spammy numbers in the app that people ARE SWIPING RIGHT, you just can't see them.

Would you like to see them?

If you wanna see who likes you on Tinder, then Tinder Premium isn't enough. No, now you need to subscribe to Tinder Gold. While unlimited swipes was already close to a Netflix subscription's cost, Tinder Gold is going to run you a whopping $24.99 A MONTH!

$24.99 a month just to see who likes you! Sure, you don't have to buy it, but Tinder will NEVER stop sending you push notifications and shoving it in your face while you're using the app. That golden circle with the number of people who have swiped right on you keeps getting higher and higher... You haven't gotten a single match yet, and you're desperate. So you purchase Tinder Gold. $24.99 down the drain. But at least you're guaranteed some matches, right?

But wait a minute... You already swiped through everyone you could reasonably find in your area, right? With your trusty unlimited swipes, you spent a good three hours just grinding through the backlog and now it's empty. So who are these mystery people?

That's the next layer of deceit. Tinder will tell you that you've completely run out of people when that is just not true. Also, there are people you will never see because Tinder actually has a social rating system that determines your "desirability" and can permanently shunt you down into the dredges of virtual society, never to be shown to people ever again.

You heard that right. Tinder has a hidden ranking system. It has a secret ELO score for every single user, and if your score is beneath a certain threshold, you will never be shown to high ranking people ever again. But this is a double-edged sword, because it also shows you the highest ranking people in YOUR feed to coerce you into spending big on those love-finding subscriptions so you can actually talk to some of them.

I am not making this up. Source.

So your Tinder feed is completely empty. You've been reduced to the bottom of the social ladder, and you can't seem to get more than one or two swipes in every day before you see that tragic "You've Run out of People! Expand your search radius here!" text.

But at least you purchased Tinder Gold for $24.99, right? So you can finally check out that stockpile of people who swiped right on you!

Hey..... Wait a minute...

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE YOU'VE ALREADY SWIPED LEFT ON!

That's right. The final nail in the coffin is here. Those golden silhouettes Tinder kept harassing you with every single day, the number that just kept on getting higher? 6 people like you! 10 people like you! 15 cutiepies love you! It's too much to bear! So you do it! You spend $24.99, only to realize that the people who have been liking you are people you've already declined.

That's it, then. I guess there's nothing left to do but lick your wounds, feel a little ashamed, and delete the app. Maybe you'll make this mistake two or three more times before finally realizing it's a total sham, but the results are the same.

One thing someone might argue is "Tinder gold is only $24.99 a month if you go monthly! If you purchase it as an annual subscription, it's only $8.33 a month!"

To that, I have one simple question... Why the FUCK would someone be using Tinder for an entire year if it actually fucking worked? Especially if Tinder Gold worked as advertised! Infinite swipes, see everyone who liked you, five superlikes a day, (we didn't even have time to get into how fucked up super-likes are), etc.!

They kinda give the entire game away by even offering an annual subscription. If Tinder fucking works, why the hell would you need to use it for an entire year? Or two years? Or maybe three years!

Say it with me class: It's because Tinder is designed to keep you sad, lonely, and depressed for as long as humanly possible without ever delivering on the product it promised you, because Tinder does not sell love, it sells hope.

But hope is only good for so long, especially when it comes with an annual subscription.

[scifilovestory]

Post 3: Dating Apps

I figured for today’s post I would take a break from discussing esoteric technological romantic topics in favor of something with which I think we’re all at least passingly familiar - dating apps. 

From the more mainstream services such as Bumble or Tinder, to the most niche of sites like blackpeoplemeet.com and farmersonly.com, if you personally haven’t found yourself using one of these platforms, it’s almost certain you at least know somebody who has. Their ubiquity has very much been welcomed by our hook-up culture based society. 

Even then, many who find themselves on these sites often complain that their experience is less than desirable. Although these apps may advertise as being serious contenders for ways in which to meet a romantic partner, the reality more often than not is that people on these platforms are looking primarily for one-off sexual encounters rather than committed relationships. 

And honestly? I can’t say I entirely blame these people. 

For those unfamiliar, the premise behind many of these dating services (at least in the mobile sector) is that users are fed a seemingly infinite amount of individuals within their area. They’re then given the choice to either swipe right if they are interested in connecting with that person, or left to ignore them.

Let’s be honest, many of these apps are designed in such a way as to encourage people to make knee jerk reactions on who they want to interact with based primarily on their appearance. This much can be gleaned through their user interface design, which ensures the first thing you see of each new user in your queue is their picture. This goes doubly so for Bumble, as it demands users include a clear picture of their face as the first thing on their page in order to use the app. 

From there, there are subtler signs that give away the app’s true intentions. Although users can get a more detailed look into their potential partner’s personality by reading their bio, the bio section of a profile is entirely optional, leading some users to forgo it altogether, or use the space to advertise their external social media pages. Additionally, Tinder specifically is set up in such a way as to make moving onto the next profile easier than learning more about the one you’re currently viewing. 

Several studies have been conducted looking into the addictive nature of scrolling specifically. The satisfying gesture in combination with the constantly updating stream of stimulation is a lethal combination for many’s productivity. On Bumble, simply scrolling down on a user’s profile allows you to learn more about them. 

Conversely, Tinder requires users to stop scrolling to actively click a small, unassuming icon on a user’s page to read their bio. Although this may seem like a menial difference from Bumble’s formula, the additional barrier is still a deliberate part of the app’s design to make the prospect of learning more about a user marginally less appealing than simply moving on to the next. 

As for why these apps are set up in this manner? It’s to promote as much activity as possible. Both Tinder and Bumble (much like many social media platforms, especially recently) are free services with optional paid membership offerings. Those who don’t pay for these monthly subscriptions are subjected to advertisements intermixed with their stream of user profiles, and in order to maximize users exposure to these ads, it’s in these platforms’ best interest for users to spend as little time on each person as possible. 

So we’ve established these apps are set up in ways that encourage people to judge their potential partners mostly on physical appearance rather than personality, but another reason few find success on these platforms is the gender make up for a traditional dating app. Once again using Tinder and Bumble as examples, although concrete data is hard to ascertain due to the secrecy under which they operate, it’s estimated that the former’s user base consists of approximately 21.9% women to 78.1% men. Bumble fares a bit better in this category, with a male to female ratio of about 57% to 43%. Troublingly, this seems to be a self-perpetuating problem. With such a skewed gender ratio, in addition to their design methodology, more men on these platforms may feel the need to be more aggressive in their conversations in order to more assuredly secure a date, which would only drive more women away from these platforms, creating this vicious cycle.

This leads into a point I hope to touch on later about the rise in isolation shaping our behaviors, specifically in regards to romantic and sexual fulfillment.

[businessadvisorrobert]

Revenue Strategies for a Successful Tinder Clone App In the US

Many millennials didn't experience the ease of online dating in their youth, as the internet was not as widespread then as it is today.

If you’re a millennial entrepreneur reading this, you likely remember the days of stalking, writing letters, making personal sightings, and calling out names loudly as common dating practices.

If you want to recreate that nostalgic experience in the digital age, an app like Tinder is your best bet.

In this article, we'll explore key revenue factors for your business in the US using the Tinder clone app.

Let's start by examining its market value!

Market Value of a Tinder-Like App

The market value of an app similar to Tinder has reached $430 million and continues to grow daily. Over the past year, it has attracted 75 million monthly active users and 9.6 million subscribers. Tinder's revenue has hit $1.79 billion, marking a 9% increase from the previous year.

Let’s dive into the details in the blog! But we see the revenue, let's see why you need this potentially filled app. 

Why Does Your Business Need Tinder Clone App? 

When you have a business idea like connecting unfamiliar people and building a bond between two people, a robust platform is important. Let’s see how the Mobile dating app clone script fits your business idea. 

Save Time on Coding

Dating has traditionally been an in-person experience, but it gained popularity with the rise of digital platforms. As these platforms became popular, numerous imitations quickly appeared on the market.

By using pre-built software, you can save significant coding time. You can easily customize this software by modifying the existing code, or you can seek assistance from developers if needed. This approach helps ensure that your app is ready to launch on the promised date.

Labor Savings

Inspired apps can be cost-effective. With just one developer, you can bring your vision to life, instead of needing two. This makes it more affordable to turn your idea into reality.

Saving on labour is important. If you were to build an app from scratch, you’d typically need a large development team. However, you don’t need to invest in a big team. The key is to hire smartly and efficiently.

Easy Update 

With the capability provided by the creators, you can fully customize the Android dating app clone whenever you wish. Beyond just designing, you can also make updates to the application.

Having the ability to modify the source code allows you to set trends and keep the app current. Simply update the code to keep it aligned with modern developments.

Now, let’s jump to the pinpoint! 

Monetisation Streams Of the Tinder Clone App 

Revenue is a key for a business as it assists you get back the invested amount in the entrepreneurship. Let’s see the revenue factors! 

Subscription Model

The subscription model is common in on-demand online platforms, offering users exclusive features and higher visibility in search results. Users can opt for monthly, quarterly, or annual plans.

Subscribers benefit from unlimited swipes, advanced search filters, high visibility, and an ad-free experience. Free users face limits on swipes and profile views.

This model helps users find matches quickly and generates revenue for the platform. Advanced filters and an ad-free experience enhance user satisfaction, making subscriptions a key revenue stream for apps like Tinder. It is one of the best models of all. Build it optimally and have high-end revenue-generating entrepreneurship! 

Premium Features

The Premium feature offers users the flexibility to access specific enhancements without a subscription. For a one-time payment, users can unlock individual features as needed. 

For instance, the ability to undo swipes helps users correct accidental actions. Advanced messaging options, like virtual gifts and animated stickers, make conversations more engaging and strengthen connections, potentially boosting revenue.

Additionally, some platforms provide advanced search filters for a one-time fee, allowing users to maintain privacy or access other specialized features.

Choose premium options that best suit your needs.

Advertisements

Online platforms often use advertisements as a key monetization strategy because they are an effective way to earn revenue. By allowing third parties to place ads on your platform, ensure that the ads are relevant to your audience to maintain their interest.

How Do Platforms Advertise Their Products?

Banner Ads: Displayed as images, these ads are non-intrusive and blend into the user’s screen time.

Interstitial Ads: These appear as full-screen ads that interrupt the user’s experience briefly.

Beyond traditional formats, apps can also utilize:

Sponsored Profiles: These feature prominent placements within the app.

Native Advertising: This type of ad integrates smoothly with the app’s design and content, offering a cohesive user experience without disrupting the flow.

This advertising model benefits both platform operators and third-party advertisers. To leverage this model, build a platform that supports various advertising formats.

Virtual Gifting

Dating apps leverage virtual gifting as a key revenue stream. Users can purchase and personalize virtual gifts to send to their loved ones, enhancing their experience and boosting the app’s revenue.

As users engage more with the platform, they seek improved experiences, making virtual gifting a significant driver of income. Many dating apps have implemented this model after Tinder utilised it efficiently. Make sure that you include this model and get a potential business. 

Offline Promotion

Offline promotion is an emerging revenue stream popular in Tinder-like scripts. By enabling offline mode, your brand can reach a broader audience.

These features not only boost business growth but also help build a strong community. Enhancing the offline experience allows users to stay connected and engaged, fostering a dynamic and vibrant community.

Bottom Line, 

This blog highlights the unique revenue system of an On-demand dating app clone app and explains why creating a Tinder clone script is a great idea. As mentioned earlier, now is an excellent time to start developing a dating app like Tinder using a dating script. Build an app that generates profits and plays a crucial role in your business growth.

If you have any questions, consider reaching out to an online dating app development company that offers a fully customizable Tinder clone app.

[nishithakrish1]

Tinder Clone: The Perfect Solution for Your Dating App Startup

The world of online dating has grown in recent years, with millions of individuals using applications to interact. As an entrepreneur, you may be looking at the dating app industry as a profitable business opportunity. However, developing a successful dating app from scratch may be time-consuming and costly. Then Tinder Clone is the best choice for you. It is a ready-made software solution that simplifies the launching process for your dating app. In this article, we'll look at why a Tinder Clone is an excellent choice for your dating app company and how it can set you up for success.

Understanding Tinder's Clone Concept

A Tinder Clone Script is a pre-built software solution that mimics the basic features of Tinder, one of the most popular dating applications. It comes with each of the necessary features required to run an effective dating platform but provides customization options that adapt to your specific company model and brand.

Key Features of Tinder Clone:

Swipe functionality: The popular swipe right to like and left to skip the purpose.

User Profiles and Matching Algorithm: Users may establish profiles, and the application will recommend matches based on particular requirements.

Chat and Messaging: When two users mutually like each other, they can talk in-app simply by using these features.

Location Based Services: Users are matched based on proximity, which improves the experience's relevance and engagement.

Social Media Integration: Users may link their social network accounts, to make profile creation simple.

These capabilities provide you with a solid basis for you to create your dating app and launch it rapidly.

Why Choose a Tinder Clone for Your Startup?

Cost-Efficient Development

Developing a dating app from scratch takes a substantial amount of time and money. A Tinder Clone reduces the need for lengthy development, which greatly lowers expenses. Instead of building features from scratch, you get a ready-made framework that can be adjusted to your specifications.

Faster Time to Market

Time is critical in today's competitive technical sector. A Tinder Clone script allows you to launch your app faster than if you built it from scratch. Because the core components have already been built and tested, all you need to do now is personalize the app and test it for errors before launching.

Proven Model

Tinder has established a benchmark for how dating apps should work, and users have become familiar to its swiping and matching features. A Tinder Clone builds on this popular concept, offering you an advantage by employing a format that people are familiar with and like.

How to Get Started with a Tinder Clone

Choosing the Right Provider

Selecting the best Tinder Clone provider is essential for your startup's success. Choose a provider that offers numerous customization possibilities, outstanding customer service, and a solid track record.

Customization and Branding

Make sure to customize the Tinder Clone according to your specific brand. Customize the app's style, functionality, and user interface to meet the demands of your target audience.

Testing and launching

Before launching your dating app, just testing the entire function is important. Check for bugs, and user experience concerns, and ensure the app works smoothly on several devices. Once ready, prepare a smart launch that includes pre-launch marketing to acquire early traction.

Conclusion

Starting a dating app does not have to be a difficult, expensive, or time-consuming endeavour. Utilizing a Tinder Clone allows you to utilize a tried-and-true, scalable platform that can be tailored to your specific vision. You can go to market faster, save on development expenses, and have the freedom to innovate along the way.

Now is the moment to capitalize on the rising demand for online dating services. Choose a reputable Tinder Clone source and take the first step toward creating your own successful dating app now!

[weekenddating1]

Navigating the NYC Dating Scene: Tips and Trends for Modern Romantics

Dating in New York City is an experience like no other. With its diverse population, endless activities, and unique neighborhoods, the city offers a myriad of opportunities for singles looking to make meaningful connections. Whether you're new to the city or a seasoned New Yorker, understanding the dynamics of the local dating scene can help you navigate it with confidence and success.

The NYC Dating Landscape

New York City is home to over 8 million people, making it one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world. The dating scene here reflects that diversity, with people from all walks of life and from all corners of the globe. This richness offers a wide range of dating experiences, from casual encounters to serious relationships. However, the sheer size and pace of the city can also make dating feel overwhelming. Understanding the key aspects of dating in NYC is essential for success.

Key Trends in NYC Dating

Online Dating Dominance: Like in many urban areas, online dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge dominate the NYC dating scene. The fast-paced lifestyle of New Yorkers means that these apps are often the most convenient way to meet new people. Understanding how to create a compelling profile and how to navigate these platforms effectively is crucial.

Activity-Based Dates: In a city that never sleeps, traditional dinner dates are increasingly being replaced by activity-based outings. Whether it’s a visit to a contemporary art gallery in Chelsea, a food tour in the East Village, or a bike ride through Central Park, New Yorkers are choosing dates that allow them to experience the city together.

The Challenge of Scheduling: With demanding careers and busy social lives, scheduling dates can be tricky in NYC. Flexibility and understanding are key, as finding a mutually convenient time can often be a challenge.

Neighborhood Niches: The city’s diverse neighborhoods cater to different dating vibes. The trendy cafes of Williamsburg might appeal to the hipster crowd, while the upscale bars of the Upper East Side might attract those looking for a more traditional dating experience. Understanding these neighborhood dynamics can help you choose the best spots for your dates.

Tips for Successful Dating in NYC

Be Open-Minded: The city’s diversity is its strength. Embrace the opportunity to meet people from different backgrounds and cultures. Being open-minded can lead to unexpected and enriching connections.

Stay True to Yourself: With so many options, it’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the NYC dating scene. Remember to stay true to your values and what you’re looking for in a partner. Authenticity is key to building lasting connections.

Make Time for Dating: In a city that’s always on the go, it’s important to prioritize dating if you’re serious about finding a partner. Be intentional about setting aside time to meet new people, whether through apps, events, or mutual friends.

Embrace the Experience: Dating in NYC can be exhilarating, challenging, and sometimes frustrating. Embrace the highs and lows, and view each experience as a step closer to finding the right person.

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