#or goes the gecko thing

[lovelywingsart]

I got another new bab from NaldThal on toyhouse and I love him SO MUCH

His name is Flick

He's my cracked out little gremlin child with rabid chihuahua energy and I absolutely adore him uwu

//Thal makes amazing designs and usually I try not to horde them all (also partially due to money-), but I genuinely could not go without him.

He's so dumb.

I don't think he'll be fully be one of my Resident Evil OCs, but you can bet your ass I'm eventually drawing him with Emelia and Karl.

I can tell you right now that he freaks Karl out and it's great.//

[sidetongue]

wow so edgy Hen 

[broflovski-brah]

My brothers called me Chameleon in public :,)

[chireikiden]

I think about Sukimamori a lot.

Sukimamori (sukima = gap, yamori = gecko, mamori/mori = guardian) is a youkai created by Japan Railways West, Osaka Municipal College of Design and Osaka Metropolitan University for an awareness campaign to warn small kids (and their parents) to "mind the gap" and not fall between the train and the platform.

It dwells in the gap between train and platform (appearing when the gap is created) and is 14 meters long. It likes people who board carefully, eclairs (it kind of looks like one), and gaps, and dislikes people who board carelessly or run on the platform. Despite being a little scary, it's actually helpful and wants to stop kids from falling in. Most of all, the campaign itself - titled the mouthful yet delightfully vague Children Falling Into Gaps Prevention Project - is supposed to be attention-grabbing in order to remind people that this is a thing that can happen.

Yeah, well. Mission successful.

"Don't show any gaps in your defense", the slogan goes.

One or two of these traits could be a coincidence, but I want to believe that the specific combination of a 1.) purple youkai that 2.) lives in the gaps at 3.) train stations with 4.) prominent hand and eye imagery couldn't have been designed in a complete vacuum from Touhou. Certainly that's a pretty harmless thing to believe in. And not a hard connection to make.

https://seiga.nicovideo.jp/seiga/im11192689 (fanart, obviously)

In the end, though, Sukimamori just stands out to me because I really like this creature in its own right.

OMCD Sukimamori site Sukimamori Twitter

[indieyuugure]

The 2012 Hamato Clan in their 20s

I got this idea from someone on discord. I thought it was so cool I had to give it a try!

Now that his brothers are less likely to accidentally kill themselves and Earth is at peace, Leo’s enjoying not being the parent for once, though he often still slips into his role as head of the family and mediator of chaos. He’s kinda given up on love and as accepted is role as “Cool, but also very dorky uncle.” I imagine he’s a lot like Iroh.

Raph has gone full Dad. Mona help’s him raise Chompy and I’d imagine that they adopted more weird alien/mutant kids as time goes on. Him and Leo still spar all the time to stay fit and go on crime busting adventures together with Casey. Raph travels back and forth between Earth and Salamandria every year so Mona can visit her family, and so Mona can show him her home.

Donnie has leaned into his “mad scientist” persona and has used the internet to release he’s discoveries about mutagen, the Kraang, the Triceratons, and everything else. He teaches science online for extra cash and builds his wildest dreams into existence. He too has kind of given up on love, being burned out by his self inflicted drama with April. Though little does he know one of his female students has a crush on him (even though she’s never seen his face) and is attempting to track him down.

Mikey hasn’t grown up, and never will. He still skateboards in the lair, and plays Mazes and Mutants with Ice Cream Kitty. Donnie introduced him to online gaming and he loves it. He’s got a team of other gamer friends (including Mondo Gecko) who he talks/plays with almost every night. He’s still to this day trying to convince everyone that Pizza Milkshake isn’t that bad even though Murakami-San told him that “some things are just not meant to be.”

April has gone to college to be a bioengineer as a pursuit of her passions in science. Casey plays for the professional hockey team that plays at April’s college. He was offered more money on a different team, but he would’ve had to move out of New York, so he stayed and after a few months, proposed to April. She said yes.

Karai is still the leader of the Foot Clan alongside her best friend Shinnigami. She hangs out with the Hamato clan all the time, usually coming over for dinner. Every six months, however she has to go back to Tokyo to manage the Foot Clan in Japan. Everyone is always happy when she finally comes back and they throw a party.

Splinter is smiling upon them.

[malsdia]

merlin rewrite where gwen finds out about merlins magic in s1. so gwen is always there with him whenever something magical happens. also merlin finally has good advice from gwen instead of just gauis and the gecko. gwen also just does things for him no questions asked.

like merlin shows up at her doorstep dripping wet talking about a serial killing merman, and she just goes and brings out a sword and says ok lets go. merlin wasn't even there to ask her to fight but at this point he'll get all the assistance he can get.

everyone in the castle thinks they're dating cause they're always together. and they both go along with it cause it gives them an excuse to wander the town or castle alone whenever theres a magical threat.

arthur finds them in an abandoned room making a salt circle and burning herbs in a bowl and they just go "we're on a date" and "this is how commoners have a romantic date arthur, you wouldn't understand".

[specialagentartemis]

Citizen Science and Contributing To Scientific Endeavor When You're Not "A Scientist"

Comments on some of my posts about science and misinformation express frustration with scientific establishments, and want to see more accessibility and attention given to amateurs participating in the scientific process and having their scientific voices heard.

If being involved in the creation of knowledge and discovery is something important to you, that's something I strongly encourage! It's absolutely possible. Amateur researchers with a passion and an eye for detail have made some fantastic discoveries - but what is often glossed over in stories like these are the years of work, the patient dedication, and the collaboration with university researchers that often underlie such discoveries.

The search for truth and information and the passion for science is present in a lot of people who aren't official "scientists" - curiosity is natural! And if participation in scientific observation, hypothesizing, experimentation, and discovering new things about the world is important to you, there are lots of ways to go about contributing - and the new year is a great time to start.

What are you interested in?

Ecology

Observing the world around you is for everybody. Getting invested in the environment of your hometown is for everybody. And, as the Mythbusters famously said,

Some ideas for a local ecology project:

Record the temperature outside every day at the same time - at sunrise, or noon, or sunset, or midnight. Depending on where you are, the local weather recording station may be miles away or on top of a mountain - measure the temperature yourself and compare it each day to what your app says. When is it accurate? When isn't it?

Record the weather every day. How much precipitation? What time of day? What kind?

Record what animals you see every day, where, when, and how many. Or choose a specific animal, like birds, or bees on flowers, or turtles or frogs in a local pond, or whiptail lizards vs. invasive house geckos, and record the numbers you see each day.

Record when in the year you see the first, or last, of a plant or animal. When the crocuses sprout, when the buds appear on the maple trees, when you see the first clover flowers or prickly pear flowers, when the first robin comes out or the first lizards come out of hibernation.

If you have an outdoor cat or a free-roaming dog, attach a GoPro or similar small camera to its collar to see where it goes and what it does.

Identify the plants growing in your neighborhood, and check in on it regularly to keep track of how each one fares in different weather conditions, or if any animals particularly like or don't like to eat it.

Bulk order some test strips, then take a small sample of soil from a local park or water from a local waterway each weekend and test them for PH, lead, chemicals, or whatever. See if it changes over the year, or after a heavy rainfall, or during drought.

Take a photo of the same spot every day for a year.

Linguistics

The study of how people use language! Everybody uses language in some capacity.

Do you have any small children near you? Talk to them! Record how they pronounce things and what they call new (or even familiar) concepts. Look for patterns.

Ask people you know if "dog" and "blog" rhyme, or if "Alohop" is a good pun for a pineapple beer. My family gets ENDLESS amounts of mileage out of this one with each other. Ask people you know questions about how they pronounce things, or what they call things. Make maps of dialectical differences between generations, neighborhoods, etc. Track linguistic shifts in the modern world.

History

Everyone and everywhere has a history, and accurate history is pressingly relevant always.

See if you have a local historical society, library archive, or history museum that is looking for volunteers to transcribe or translate collections.

Get elbow-deep in local archives. You likely have some sort of local archive near you that has not been fully digitized. Go in with a topic you want to learn about - Black families, Jewish communities, how your hometown transferred from Indigenous hands to settler ones, women who owned their own businesses, immigration, inter-racial relationships, sports, ice harvesting, farming practices, contemporary opinions on a major world history event that now seems so inevitable, sports and people's reactions to sports - and read everything in newspapers, wills, deeds, photographs, or other available records about your topic of choice. See if you can find connections that you haven't seen anyone else talking about.

These are just some things that occur to me immediately as something that anyone can do, if you're sufficiently interested in a question and want to discover more about it. The more local your topic, the less likely anyone has a solid answer to whatever you're wondering - and the more immediately relevant to the people around you your discoveries may be!

Combining it with a New Year's Resolution can also get you more motivated to do the things you want to do. Is your resolution to get more exercise? Take a brisk walk each morning and take a picture of the same area every day for a year. Take a walk every weekend down to the lake and count the turtles and frogs you see. Is your resolution to keep a daily diary For Real This Time? If nothing else, resolve to write down the weather and precipitation each day! Do you want to volunteer more or meet new people? Look for citizen science or local history groups! Feeling like you're working toward something Real is a great motivator.

Henry David Thoreau's detailed descriptions of the nature each day around Walden Pond in the 1840s provides a valuable benchmark for modern ecologists to compare environmental and climatic changes since then on a granular level. Silly rhyming poems and idiosyncratic spellings in letters and diaries help linguists track dialectical and pronunciation changes across time. Amateur science is great and valuable! We all can have a part in understanding and paying deeper attention to the world around us, if we want to.

[teawitchy]

An Introduction :)

I'm hoping, maybe, this gets me somewhere on my writing progress, so here goes nothing.

Hi! I'm Hanna (she/her)

I'm on the verge of twenty-seven

Demi and hella bi

Give me all of the tea

New Hampshire born Canadian

I am an avid fan of whatever piques my interest (livin that ADHD life)

Crochet, video games and reading mostly in my down time

Love writing in the realm of science fiction and fantasy--seldom horror which is funny because I am a HUGE Stephen King fan

Grew up writing fanfiction, floated back and forth over the years

I live in BC with my fiance, our shepherd, and two lil leopard geckos

I currently have...oh god, too many stories on the go

I finished NANOWRIMO in 2022, and that is my primary work at the moment

Likely going to post a little bit of everything, really hope to one day get something published!

WIPs (at least the ones w/ decent progress)

Dead Embers

Scifi/fantasy/military-ish

Futuristic post apocalyptic

Powered superhumans and aliens

Variety of queer folk

Going for a Destiny meets FFVII type thing

Themes: Alienation and belonging, Love (romantic and familial)

Hiraeth

Contemporary romance

Three musketeers friendship

Childhood friends to strangers to lovers

Small town romance

Themes: friendship, forgiveness, love

Music inspired

[seoafin]

pairing: vash the stampede x fem!reader warnings/tags: jealous insecure vash, you get hit on twice, vash's pov gets kinda depressing, takes place before and after and I know it’s hard enough to love me, stampede coded vash word count: ~4.3k

Vash the Stampede is a complete enigma to you.

In the span of the four hours you’ve been following after the blonde, you’ve witnessed him get bullied and dragged around by a group of children who had unanimously decided to tie him up for fun, help a distressed woman find her poisonous pet gecko, and frantically try to explain his startling similarities to the humanoid typhoon to a threatening group of individuals who had cornered him on the street, loaded guns in their possession. 

You watched him nervously laugh off their claims until they had left, one by one. Then he breathed a large sigh of relief, before meeting your eyes with a grin and two thumbs up.

He just can’t say no.

You’re still thinking about this troubling tendency of his when you slide off the rooftop, and twist through the alleys to the bar you had seen when you and Vash had first entered the town yesterday.

This time, he’s following you. He must have run out of people to help. All the way to the bar. And when you enter through the swinging entrance, you don’t need to turn around to hear the doors swing open again, not even seconds later.

Shouts ring throughout the bar, as several patrons happily greet him with a raised mug of beer and smiles. Already, he’s grown on people.

You slide onto a barstool. “I’ll have a drink,” you say, giving the idling bartender your order. The aged man proceeds to pull several bottles from the rack hanging behind him. You look over your shoulder to see Vash sitting down at a round table behind you. When he catches your gaze, he smiles, hand already lifting in an eager half wave as his fingers curl into air. 

You don’t understand how he can look so happy to see you, as if you're an old friend he’s seeing for the first time in years, every time you meet his eyes. As if you haven’t been traveling together for the last few months. You've never stayed with an individual for longer than a week or two, other than your mother, but you know for sure Vash is strange. An outlier. You don’t understand how he constantly stays happy, upbeat and optimistic. No man is that happy, upbeat and optimistic. It’s suspicious.

The acrid scent of smoke and alcohol enters your nose before anything else, and then a hulking man with a bulbous nose is sidling up close to your side, despite the empty seats next to you. You ignore him as he gives you a long look up and down. The man in front of you mixing your drink gives him a distasteful glance. 

A wide, crass grin stretches his face as he licks his lips. 

“Yer a pretty thing, ain’t ya?”

You stare ahead. He’s not even worth brandishing your gun for.

He frowns when you don’t respond, trying again. “Whatcha doin’ in here, in this part of town? A lil’ lady like you is going to get eaten by the wolves.” He leans in close, and his breath fans against your cheek. You don’t bother to hide your distaste when he indiscreetly adjusts his pants. “I’ve got a place downtown…”

You’re going to shoot him, you decide.

Your hand goes to your side, but before you can remove your revolver, a blur of red rushes into the sliver of space between the two of you, forcibly separating the man from you. With his back to you, Vash lifts his hands in an act of surrender. The man tries to no avail to move towards you in either direction, but Vash swiftly meets him every time before he can step towards you.

“We—”

“What’s yer deal!?” The man asks angrily, drawing Vash close, hands fisted into his shirt, teeth gritted. Vash is taller than the man, so to see him tuck his knees inwards to be level with the man would be almost comical if you weren’t so annoyed.

A high pitched laugh escapes through his teeth. “Ahaha! About that—”

“She yours or somethin’!?”

Your already short patience stretches thin.

Panic floods his face as he glances at you from the corner of his eye. “Of course n—”

“Then it’s none of yer business anyhow,” he grouses, leaning in close. “Why dontcha butt out, and that way nobody gets hurt.”

“No,” Vash says firmly, unusually solemn, all pretenses of distress fading in a blink. He grabs the man’s arm with a steady hand of his own. “I can’t.”

You step to the side, and point your gun right at the man’s temple, already cocked. The bar quiets, eyes on your standoff. In your peripheral you can see multiple hands on belts, ready for a shootout. Vash’s eyes go wide, mouth agape as he looks at you. Then your gun. Then at you. 

“Put him down,” you say plainly. “I’m not going to ask again.”

“Yeah, put him down Eli!” A voice exclaims. 

Others voice their agreement. 

The man blinks. Then he throws his head back and uproariously laughs, fist loosening on Vash’s shirt, letting him down with a slump. “Playing with guns, little girl? Why don’t you come on over, I’ll teach you the right way—”

You aim down, and pull the trigger.

A single shot rings through the bar. The man shrieks in agony as the bullet goes through his foot, clean. You watch him jump around on one foot, holding his other foot in his hands, crying out for help as blood gets everywhere. What a mess. The bartender only shakes his head as people begin to surround the hollering man. You think he might as well kill himself now. Not a single survival instinct. The last thing he should be doing after a bullet wound is moving around like a headless lizard.

You throw a sack of coins on the bar. The drink you hadn’t even gotten and damages to the floor. You grab Vash by the hood of his red coat and drag him out the bar as he gawks at you. You drop him outside and start towards the town’s caravan stop. In a few seconds, Vash has caught up with you, side by side.

He looks troubled. Lost in thought. 

“I didn’t kill him,” you say. Although you probably would have not even three months ago. That would have ensured you wouldn’t be bothered in the town again by a handsy drunk.

You don’t know why you feel the need to explain yourself. You figure you can’t keep silent when he’s looking at you like that , waiting for some kind of explanation that you would usually never entertain.

“Should I have let him all over me?” You ask tonelessly.

The snaps him back to attention. “No! It’s just…” he sounds unsure, almost uneasy. “You were just…protecting yourself.”

You wonder what kind of life he’s led. To be able to be the way he is. A pacifist, in this world. Someone who refuses to pull the trigger on his .45 long colt unless absolutely necessary.

“Not everybody gets to choose to not kill,” you reply, not as curt as you could be. “Some people don’t have a choice.” Not everybody has the strength to protect themselves without violence. Sometimes, it’s just survival. The choice between you or them. Sometimes, it wasn’t anything more than that. No hard feelings. The second your hands had touched your revolver, you had gained your footing in the world. The gun, the great equalizer. And in your hands, death. 

You never had a choice. And then you did.

Vash’s face falls. “I…I see.”

You find yourself searching for words, anything at all to wipe the miserable expression on his face away. “I didn’t kill him,” you say slowly. “But I could have.”

He lifts his head, blinking. “You… could have,” he repeats.

You don’t say that had the man come any closer, if he had touched you, you would’ve put a bullet in his head, right through his brain. And then you would’ve let the animals have him.

Vash slowly regains his smile, eyes crinkling at the corners. “But you didn’t.”

Although the smile on his lips often seems more trained than instinctual, a defense tactic, you can’t deny that in the end, a smile suits his face much more. 

“I can take care of myself,” you say, fixing your gaze straight ahead.

He hums. “I know.”

You sigh.

-

-

-

“Over here!” Tony exclaims, wildly waving at Vash for a pass.

Vash kicks the ball over, watching as the other children surround the freckled short boy, eager to steal the ball back to their side. They had divided the teams seven to three, the children citing that the team with Vash on their side had the upper hand, therefore it was only fair for the teams to be unevenly divided. Vash had no qualms with it, neither did Tony or Sonya, who had grabbed Vash by the arm (shorter frame pulling him down to her level) and declared that the next victory would be theirs.

He can’t help himself. He looks towards where you’ve been sitting by the benches in front of the town square’s fountain, watching him kick around a ball for the better half of the hour with the town kids, unmoving, except for the small curve of your lips. Vash can tell when your gaze is on him. Some eighth sense that also has him gravitating towards your orbit, unconsciously and consciously. His feet take him to you, wherever you are. Lucky for him, nowadays, he doesn’t need to walk more than a couple steps to reach you.

Usually you’d be gone, taking care of your own business while he explored the town or city, and its inhabitants, before the inevitable bounty hunter or criminal looked a bit too closely to his face, his red jacket, and made the connection. Maybe you’d stop by the sheriff’s office, flashing your identification badge, and then flip through recent wanted posters. Maybe you’d get a bite to eat. Then you’d just follow the bullets and the trail of destruction to easily meet up with him.

He never knew definitively. You had never really answered his curiosity with more than a noncommittal comment or two. It doesn’t matter now though, because now you stay with him.

The sun looks good on you. He doesn’t realize he’s staring at you until a ball hits him smack in the face and drops to the ground, leaving him with a sore, red face and a bruised nose. The kids startle to a stop, gawking at him with wide mouths. There’s silence, and then raucous laughter.

“Vash!”

“Is he okay?”

“C’mon Vash, you lost the ball!”

“It hit him in the face, did you see that?”

“That’s a foul! You did that on purpose Lock!”

“Nu-uh!”

He sees you shake your head, amused, and knows that the warmth he feels isn’t entirely from the sun.

Tony runs towards him, ball held against his chest, breathless. The blue cap he wears is askew. Vash fixes it for straight. “You alright, Vash?”

Vash runs a hand through his hair and laughs. “No harm done,” he says cheerfully. “Guess I wasn’t paying attention, sorry about that!”

Sonya looks concerned. “Don’t worry about that! It’s all Lock’s fault anyway!” She turns around, sticks a finger under her eye, pulling it down, and blows a raspberry. “You’re horrible Lock!”

The older boy returns it with a raspberry of his own, and then crosses his arms. “He should’ve been looking in the first place, instead of at his girlllllfriend!”

Sonya’s eyes are wide as he feels his face go red. He nervously tugs at the collar of his shirt. The kids gathered around him erupt into laughter again. A quick glance in your direction, and he sees the raise of your eyebrow, lips tight in suppressed laughter he wishes he was there to hear.

“Is it true?” She asks him, brown doe eyes wide. “Is she your—” her voice drops conspiratorially “— girlfriend?”

He sticks a hand in the girl’s hair and gives her a good natured ruffle as she giggles. “Something like that,” he says, despite the elation that fills his stomach, to avoid fully answering the question, as if speaking whatever fragile thing the two of you have into existence might permanently alter it. 

Girlfriend.

What a mundane word for something as all consuming as the love he feels for you. He feels as if his chest might just burst with it all. But he can say that now, call you his in some way that makes him both terrified of overstepping his bounds and even more terrified of you leaving.  

“Hey Vash,” Tony says, insistently tugging on the sleeve of his coat. “There’s a guy chattin’ up your girl!”

You aren’t happy. That he can see clearly. Your expression has shuttered as a man closes into you with a wide smirk, overtaking his view of you. The last thing Vash can see is your thoroughly unamused expression.

He’s not aware of his feet taking him towards you. He doesn’t think. All he sees is how the man rests a hand on the holster of the gun attached to his hip, as if flourishing it, and he’s moving.

“A good ole’ romp in the bed is what you need,” he hears the man remark vulgarly. “Promise, it’ll fix you right up.”

“No,” you reply bluntly.

His cocksure grin fades with a scowl. “Now, don’t be like that. Nobody likes stubborn broads. I’ll be sure to show you a good time.”

An arm reaches out to roughly grab you, but Vash reaches him first, the metal of his left hand wrapping around the man’s wrist, tightening. The man yelps.

Vash blinks at the noise. You stare, looking at him with your head slightly tilted to the side.

He tears his arm back so quickly it gives him whiplash. His hands are automatically raised in a show of harmlessness as he nervously laughs.  

He hadn’t meant to grip him that tightly .

Unless… he had.

The man’s face is bright red in anger, looking at his left arm as if it’s the devil. “Who do you think you are!?”

Vash shifts ever so slightly to keep his arm out of view. It’s been a while since he’s been so self conscious. People asked questions, and sometimes they looked at him funny. It used to hurt his feelings, the way he was looked at as an outsider, even though he was. The rest of No Man’s Land wasn’t like the inhabitants of ship No. 3, who knew his origins. His identity as a plant.

Now it’s a constant reminder of it. Of Nai. Of their first of many confrontations a hundred years ago.

He’s not human, not like the man in front of him. Not like you. 

You stand, asserting yourself into the space between him and the man. You give him a dismissive look, before grabbing him by the left hand, and turning on your heels, pulling him along. Your fingers squeeze his metallic fingers in a way that shoots sparks up his arm, right to his heart. As you drag him along the kids holler their goodbyes, and all he can do is smile, wave back, and follow. He’d follow you anywhere, he thinks, easily keeping up with your pace. To the ends of No Man’s Lands to space and back.

He wonders if you’re angry. If you’re annoyed at his intervention. He hadn’t meant to be so…forward. His body had moved before he could think. 

But…you’re…you’re his now, aren’t you? You kissed him, held his face between your hands, and smiled. You don’t smile a lot, but you smile for him. He thinks that if anything, that means the most. When he told you he wasn’t human you readily accepted it, as if you had been expecting it. Then you asked him if it hurt when Nai had cut off his arm, and when he told you he hadn’t felt much of anything, really, from the shock, because he was a plant, you had frowned and told him to stop lying. 

Now, the two of you sleep together. You let Vash hold you in his arms, and he tucks you into the crook of his neck, and you don’t even complain when he locks you in his embrace, even though you could. Even if you could leave. And on nights he can’t fall asleep, terrified that in the morning you’ll have been nothing but a fantasy, he counts your soft slow breaths in his neck until the sun rises, the seconds until you wake up and give him that sleepy smile he likes to think is reserved just for him. 

So now Vash stands closer to you than he had ever previously dared. In larger cities with crowds, he’s right at your side in the bustle taking the brunt of the jostling as you lead the way. And when there are no locals to make conversation with, no children to entertain, he trails after you, wherever your whims take you. You like heights. Rooftops. High vantage points from where you can look down. He thinks it makes you feel safer. You’ve always been aware of his presence, even though you never used to acknowledge him. Now you do. Now you let him hold your hand, and he doesn’t feel like Vash the Stampede, whose sins stare back at him every time he catches his face in a reflection, but a man hopelessly in love.

You push him up against a wall in an abandoned alley, and he relishes in the close proximity, smiling dumbly when you lean into him. He’s not expecting you to kiss him, but it sure would be nice—

Until he remembers that you might be mad. That he had accidentally hurt that man. The yelp that had been twisted out of him. The smile promptly falls from his face.

“I—uh—”

“Are you okay?” You ask.

“Of course I am,” he says cheerily, but all he can think about is that man reaching for you, the gleam of desire in his eyes (directed towards you ), and his two whole arms (one more arm to hold you with), and there’s a sinking feeling in his stomach, a wretched miserable thing that hovers a bit too close to the surface of his face. “Just fine!”

Your eyes narrow, just imperceptibly, while you scrutinize him in silence. His gaze momentarily darts away, fleeing, and then back, to see that you’re still staring at him, eyebrows furrowed as if you’re trying your best to think of something to say. Words don’t really come easy to you. Vash thinks it’s cute, that thinking silence of yours, where he can almost see the gears in your head turning as you struggle for an empathetic response after years of curt silences and dry one worded responses.

You purse your lips, bottom lip jutting out ever slightly.

Cute.

“Liar.” You glance down at his left arm, and Vash resists the urge to hide the prosthesis behind him.

A shadow falls on your face as you look down. “Is it me?”

“No!” He blurts out. Guilt churns in his gut, and he’s not sure if it’s because he hurt that man or because he isn’t sorry. He wants to say that he didn’t mean to, but that would be another lie. He hadn’t wanted to hurt him badly. Just… enough that he’d leave you alone. That he’d stop looking at you like that as if he wasn’t there. There was already someone by your side.

“I shouldn’t have hurt him,” he says finally. He can’t help himself when he adds, a touch defensively, “But he shouldn’t have been…” Vash feels a rush of heat reach his ears from your discerning gaze. “He…” almost touched you. He would’ve yanked you up, been rough with you, and just because you’re used to it doesn’t mean that it’s okay. Sometimes, he thinks you’re too used to it. Every night he counts the scars on your body with the same tenderness you’ve afforded him, that he doesn’t deserve, and he feels his heart weigh heavier.

Vash would never forgive himself if you got harmed on his watch. 

You look up at him. “He…?”

He isn’t…getting ahead of himself is he?

He loves you, and not a night goes by where he doesn’t think it. He’s loved you since the night you pulled him close and kissed him. He’s loved you since the moment he realized that the silence wasn’t so bad, so lonely, when he had someone to share it with.

He had assumed he meant as much to you as you do to him—

Your lips twitch into a small smile, and the sight stops his thoughts. You step closer and bury your face into his neck. His arms automatically wrap around you as he relaxes into your body, smiling at the ground.

“I love you,” you murmur, so soft that even his ears strain to hear it. He doesn’t even have the time to feel giddy before you pull back, reach for his neck, and bring his lips to yours.

He’s eager to reciprocate. The worry that maybe he’s holding you tightly around the waist doesn’t even strike him until a second later, but by then you’re happily exhaling into his mouth, and raking your fingernails down the back of his neck until he’s shuddering into you. 

You back him against the wall without a missed beat and he happily follows. One of your hands snakes down to his prosthetic, entwining your fingers together. He gives your hand a squeeze back and when you smile against his lips, he knows that it’s the most lovely sight he’s ever seen. The first time he had ever seen you smile, it had invoked the same amazement and wonder in him as seeing Rem’s red geraniums for the first time. 

But you aren’t a flower to be gazed at and plucked by curious onlookers. This smile is just for him. And Vash thinks, once again, for the fifth time in a day that hasn’t ended, that as much as he loves you, he also doesn’t deserve you.

He’ll tell you again tonight. This time, while you’re awake. Not…everything. Not enough that it could scare you away. Just enough, like how he likes gazing at you when the sun hits your bare frame in the scarce mornings the two of you have a bed, or the way your eyes light when they meet his, after a few hours apart. How it makes him feel…

Like a child again. Happy. The world at his fingertips. In the bed he and Nai would share, watching clips of some old earth movie underneath the covers. In Rem’s hugs, his arms wrapped around her neck, clinging to her tightly, as if she might disappear if he opened his eyes. The sound of her laughter in his ears. Lovely and fleeting.

Pressed against him, all the warmth of your body and lips, a breathy moan builds up in his throat as you have your way with him. As selfish as it seems, he wants more. As much as you’re willing to give. As much as he dares to take. He likes the way you say his name, especially when you’re in the throes of pleasure, when you’re looking down at him with so much love that he’s choking on his words, and his chest aches with it.

Someone giggles.

You separate, your lips enticingly spit slicked and swollen, your thumb tracing the underneath of his right eye. You like his beauty mark, have remarked on it more than once, the color of his eyes, and every other part of him that makes him flush from head to toe. He knows he’s not much to look at, but every part of him, except his burdens, belong to you. And if you can find something worthwhile to look at when you look at him other than disgust and horror, then that’s more than enough.

He lets his arms fall from your waist as you step away, and he already misses your closeness.

“Children shouldn’t be eavesdropping,” you say coolly, but not coldly. There’s a glint in your eyes as heads pop up from the crates towards the back of the alley. 

“We were just making sure everything was okay!” Tony exclaims, running up to you. He grins knowingly at Vash and attempts a wink.

You raise an eyebrow.

Sonya approaches, dragging Lock with her. “ And Lock wanted apologize for hittin’ Vash in the face!”

“Wha—!?” Lock sputters, looking at the girl in betrayal. “Sonya!” He squints at the ground. “...Sorry.”

Vash kneels down. “Apology accepted,” he says softly, a smile on his lips. He’s a good kid. So are all the kids in this town. Sonya with her ever present glowing smile. Tony and his mischievous wit. The blue cap he doesn’t go without. Lock and his grudges which hide a large, genuine heart. Billy and Mary and Kirk and everyone else.

Vash is almost tempted to stay a couple more nights, but he knows he can’t. Not with Nai having been spotted to the South. Another plant stolen, more fatal casualties. He has to leave before there are more. If he were a better person, he’d leave you behind. He stares at the ground.

He briefly feels the weight of your gaze. You gather the kids’ attention.

“You kids hungry?”

Tony and Sonya and Lock perk up.

“I am!” Tony says.

“You’re always hungry!” Sonya scowls.

“Are you the one with the money?” Lock asks. “Cuz’ Vash is broke.”

That draws a huff of laughter from you as Vash smiles sheepishly, pushing the worries plaguing his mind away for now. Until night falls upon No Man’s Land, and you’re peacefully sleeping in his arms. That’s when he’ll worry about whether or not he deserves to be happy with you.

Sonya reaches up to grab your hand with a big smile. You glance at him.

“Any good pizza places around here?”

[myths-tournaments]

Awful Characters Round 4 (2/4)

Propaganda under the cut!

BENNY

The first thing that happens in new vegas is that benny fucking shoots your character in the face, steals your shit and leaves you in an open grave. Benny is by all accounts a bastard. He kills you, steals from you, he killed his last boss, he is the single most duplicitous man around. His gang are all about honesty- except him. He's a lying, cheating bastard. The guys who helped him catch you? He skipped on paying them and left them to get shot to death. His new boss, mr.house? He stole his robot, broke it open, got someone to reprogram it and decided to use it to TAKE OVER THE WHOLE OF VEGAS. Benny literally kills people, lies to people, steals their shit and takes charge. That's all benny does. He gets fucking CRUCIFIED if you don't help him out just because so many people fucking hate him. And yet. And yet. Benny is the single most compelling character in the whole game to me. He's just a little guy! He's just there! You can get shot in the head and come back and he goes "what in the goddamn" and then if you try and flirt with him he's like "uhhh sure? Okay?" And leaves you a polite note in the morning. He's fancy. He wears a stupid suit. He has a tiny gun with shitty bullets. He's catholic. He talks like an old timey news presenter. Literally nobody else in the entire game does that. He's got an intelligence of 3. He's my funtime boy. My silly little man. He's so funny. The antagonist in this game is a guy dressed like a tablecloth who looks at all times like a confused dog who doesn't understand what a tv is. And like. He's compelling. He robs from you, shoots you, but…. he never seems to actually wish you harm. He kills and robs and lies but like. He apologises for doing it to you. When he sees you again he doesn't attack you, he's just… confused. He tries to defuse the situation. You can convince him to talk to you, alone, with no guards and it's not that hard. If you spare his life, he doesn't go after you, like. Even if you sleep with him he doesn't take advantage of that and kill you, even if you try to. He… he just leaves. He gives you an apology. If he gets kidnapped by Caesar He just… apologizes again. He tells you his whole plan to take over the city, too. He thinks he'll die, and he wants something of him to survive. He's happy that you made it. And if you let him free, he just… leaves. He knows he's beat, he doesn't want to cause any more trouble. He walks out and leaves. The NCR will kill you if you cross them. The legion will crucify you. House? He'll blow you the fuck up. But benny, the guy who lies and cheats and schemes, he's honest. He's polite. He's… harmless. You can kill him with a single shot if you want. And he can't kill you. He doesn't kill you the first time, and he'll never really hurt you again. Benny just wanted to win. When he knows he's beat he just leaves. No lingering, no harm, he's off, off into the desert heat, and never seen again. Isn't that just insane? like have you ever known an antagonist so polite? He just leaves!! He offers you a drink!! His plan is genuinely probably the best one for the people of new vegas!!! He's. Benny is Benny. Anyway if you want to see some REAL propaganda go to the blog letmebegaytodd and look in the #benny tag. You'll Understand < https://www.tumblr.com/letmebegaytodd/717051175751614464/in-another-life-i-wouldve-really-liked-just> <- look at this shit man

AZULA

Azula explicitly considers herself a monster. She says needlessly cruel things to her brother and friends. She kills the show's twelve-year-old protagonist and masterminds the idea of burning down the entire Earth Kingdom to force them to submit to Fire Nation rule. I have absolutely seen people get called abuse apologists for thinking she's a cool character. But she's also a (canonically) mentally ill fourteen-year-old who was raised by her father to see her ability to be weaponized as her only value. Her mother, arguably the only adult in her life who could have had a positive impact, had a strained relationship with her because she was more difficult than her brother, and then disappeared when she was nine. Her uncle, who was her brother's main healthy role model, took absolutely no interest in her. She watched her father belittle her brother for years and eventually throw him away when he failed to meet his expectations, so that was a threat she was always facing. She really had no chance. And she also has moments that suggest she wants some sort of meaningful connection with another person. She lets her brother take credit for killing the Avatar so he can come back from exile, even though it means she'll be bumped back in the order of succession and offers him advice that seems genuine. Her spiral into a mental breakdown starts when her friends betray her. She's just a much more interesting and multifaceted than a lot of the fandom gives her credit for.

[that-nerd-who-writes-fanfiction]

I need a fic where Merlin doesn’t know he’s Emrys and doesn’t know about his destiny, he’s just a good person who sees someone constantly almost dying and saves him because he can’t just sit and do nothing.

Kilgharrah doesn’t exist. Plot holes aside, the bitchy basement gecko can go to hell.

Anyway.

This all takes place during The Beginning of The End episode.

Mordred doesn’t call Merlin Emrys, he just cries out for help (and for his dad). Merlin steps in, the rest of the episode is the same but Merlin is determined to help the druid boy he found. Without crusty dinosaur harping on, he gets to choose the right thing for his own morals and critical thinking. Gaius is unsurprisingly resistant, so Merlin is being extremely careful, then Arthur finds him in Morgana’s chambers while he’s healing Mordred.

Let’s go with Morgana already knows about Merlin’s magic and he’s been helping her too against Gaius’ advice.

Arthur feels betrayed and is upset because Merlin can’t seem to give him a straight answer about anything. It’s all still new to him, but he’s learning that Merlin is good even if he doesn’t answer any of Arthur’s questions about magic or why he doesn’t use spells or anything like that. He’s angry but he can’t punish Merlin and free Mordred without being hypocritical, so he mostly sulks.

In all the perceived lies, Arthur snaps and instead of punishing him, he doesn’t let Merlin leave his side until he tells the truth.

So when Arthur takes Mordred back to the Druids, Merlin goes with him. Iseldir greets them as “Emrys and The Once and Future King” They’re both confused, but obviously Arthur is the future king so Arthur asks who Iseldir thought Merlin was.

Iseldir reveals their destiny that Merlin is the god of magic. Merlin is silent and Arthur is so confused and hurt about why Merlin didn’t trust him.

Iseldir answers all of Arthur’s questions about destiny and the prophecy while Merlin doesn’t say a word. He takes it to mean Merlin is ashamed or something similar about the truth coming out, meanwhile Merlin is grappling with the fact that he supposedly isn’t human. After days of Arthur picking on him for “lying” and all the unintentionally cruel jibes, when Iseldir tries to say Merlin was blessed with his power and that it was something he should be grateful for.

Merlin breaks down in a Percy Jackson style “I’m not a god! There’s something wrong with me! I get that whatever I am isn’t supposed to happen, I know I’m a monster, believe me. I never even learned magic and every time I’ve tried to get rid of it, it’s almost killed me! So don’t tell me that this is a blessing, that this curse is something I should be happy about because it’s the reason I’ve spent every single day of my entire life terrified!” Then he stops for a second and the tears roll down his cheeks, “I’m sorry, but I’m not what you think I am. You need to find someone else to believe in.”

(Skip to the end for a happy ending, this is angsty. Warning for dark!Arthur and major character death)

Arthur thinks Merlin is lying and banishes him on the spot. Iseldir warns against it, but Merlin is just so tired so he doesn’t fight it. He’s left broken and believing he’s a monster, so be leaves to protect his friends.

Until a month or so later Arthur is on a hunt when he gets separated and lost, then injured by bandits. Merlin finds him, (he’s been sent off by the druids for failing this destiny he knew nothing about, in search of a solution but they’re not very forthcoming with information) and Merlin heals him. Then they get all the diamond of the day moments while Merlin is nursing Arthur back to health until he succumbs to infection.

Merlin gives his life for Arthur, knowing that he’ll be a good king. This leads Arthur to become really dark, he kills his father and takes over Camelot, welcoming magic but killing anyone with a different opinion. No one is safe, war breaks out and Camelot falls. When Arthur dies, young and during an uprising, he meets Merlin again in Avalon. Merlin doesn’t recognise Arthur with all he’s become, and Arthur is punished to watch all his people suffer with his old mind while watching Merlin continuously pushing him away because “he’s waiting for Arthur, he shouldn’t be alone when he gets here. He would’ve been a good king, he needs someone to take care of him now.” And it breaks Arthur’s heart to hear it every time.

That’s all I got so far, it could be that they’re both driven mad waiting, Arthur by watching his people and Merlin by waiting for a man he’s doomed to never recognise again. I’m not sure, I haven’t gotten that far.

Or for less angst, hurt/comfort where Arthur has to realise that Merlin is just as in the dark as he is, he really doesn’t know any of the questions Arthur had and he’s probably been looking for answers a lot longer. They work together to fix everything and while it’s difficult, Merlin still has issues with lying to protect his friends (intent/outcome issues) Arthur is too trusting still and they have to deal with Morgause and all the other threats but they overcome it together. Albion is united and they live happily ever after.

[drconstellation]

Dr Constellation's Good Omens Master Post of Metas

(Updated 05 April 2024)

See my Google Doc for a full list of Tumblr posts of interest.

Future Echos of the Past

The story of the Great War in Heaven as it appears in the present

#1: The Great War of Tadfield Manor #2: The Newton/Crowley Mirror/Parallel in S1 #3: "Not Even At Gunpoint"

Archangel Gabriel

Supreme Archangel Gabriel often stands on the demonic left-hand side in scene blocking, rather than the angelic right. He’s also fond of taking center stage! Gabriel as a Shoulder Angel: S1 Study S2 Study Part 1: Ep.1 The Arrival and Ep. 2 The Clue S2 Study Part 2: Ep.3 I Know Where I'm Going and Ep. 5 The Ball S2 Study Part 3: Ep.6 Every Day First-Order Archangels Part 1: Maybe You'll See An Archangel

Gabriel and Crowley act as both parallels and foils to each other in S2. In Part 1 we look at some of the ways they are alike.

First-Order Archangels Part 2: Foils of War

Part 2 takes a look at where Gabriel and Crowley oppose one another, as well as highlighting some parallels between their respective partners, Beelzebub and Aziraphale.

First-Order Archangels Part 3: Seeing Eye To Eye

Gabriel and Crowley both have an interesting connection to time.

The Assistant Book Seller

Jim’s knitted vest holds a wealth of symbolic information - and a surprise nod that you didn’t expect.

Giles the Herald

An interesting parallel to Gabriel at the end of S1.

Aziraphale's Edinburgh Journey

Part 1: Detective Aziraphale

One of the reasons Aziraphale goes to Edinburgh is because it is a narrative parallel to Crowley’s trip to Heaven. There are also a couple of other things we need to consider, too.

Part 2: Aziraphale-Beelzebub Parallels

While Gabriel is Crowley’s mirror in S2, Beelzebub is Aziraphale’s. And there is a third character that makes an interesting mirror-triangle analysis that combines and reflects both major characters together as well.

Part 3: Stocktaking in the Basement

Part 4: Judgement Day - coming soon

Part 5: I Know Where I'm Going - coming soon

Archangel Rings

All the Archangels have golden rings, as well as Aziraphale. Find out what they reveal about each character.

The Golden Lions of Heaven (includes Aziraphale's Lion ring) Michael the Watchful Uriel's Star Ring The Brutal Truth about Sandalphon's Ring

A Companion to Owls minisode

Goats, Crows and The Flood

Crawley turns Job's goats into crows to save them. Why crows? And how does this link to the Flood?

Angelic Sheep and Demonic (Scape)Goats

Understanding the link between goats and demons gives you a deeper insight into Crowley's story - and also some of Aziraphale's.

Come Back When You Can Make A Whale

Take a deep dive into the Book of Job - and find out what it might be foreshadowing for S3

Aye, a Newt

Why Job’s children are turned into geckos, and a S1 connection.

Crossing the Threshold

Inside the Dirty Donkey

We’re going to the pub! What secrets does the Dirty Donkey hide behind its name?

Lifting the Veil on the Bentley

Peering behind the meaning of the Bentley’s number plate.

Memento mori

This is one of the major themes of the series - Remember that you die.

Obligatory Reminders and Crossing the Lines

Have you been wondering why Shax tries to do a mail delivery to Crowley as he escorts the shop keepers to safety from Aziraphale's Eldritch Ball? It seems a pretty random thing to do at that moment.

Stand-Alone Metas

The Ineffable Ducks

What are all those ducks doing? Ever got the feeling that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you…?

The Altar of Eccles Cakes

The Eccles cakes don’t look like they are doing much, but they are there for a reason - so is some of the other food you see.

The Cupperty Ceremony

Every bit of food and drink in both seasons has a metaphorical significance. Tea is no exception. It’s one of the few times an eastern philosophy creeps into Good Omens, but still meets with a western ideal.

When Crowley Met Jesus, and The Other Demon at Golgotha

Aziraphale suggests not one but two demon names to Crowley when they meet at Golgotha. Together they make a clever joke about the Third Temptation that most people miss.

Being Kind to One Another

Some clever and subtle word play on kind, linked between two scenes in the S1E3 Hard Times cold opening.

Once and Future Royalty

There’s a King Arthur and Camelot sub-theme running through parts of S1 And S2. Grab your coconuts and saddle up for a crazy ride through time and space!

Portable People

Crowley's yeeting them around while stress-cleaning the bookshop, Jimbriel is trying to sell them to the investigating archangels, and Muriel just wants to read them all. Should we give a second thought to any of these books?.

Bebop and the Book

Why can Anathema always put her hand on the right card at the right time?

Chiastic Structure of S1

Chiastic structure is a literary device where the story line is mirrored in reverse around a central point. S1 has an amazingly detailed chiastic structure, which actually reveals and confirms some meta speculations!

Chiastic Structure of S2

S1 was a fantastic example of a mirrored story line. S2 …isn’t. But there are still a substantial number of chiastic pairs to be found.

Liberty versus the Tree of Life

A philosophical look at the choices between coffee, freewill and death compared to access to the Trees of Knowledge and Life in the Garden of Eden.

Taking Things At Face Value

How our internalized values influence the way we judge people, often based on their outward appearance alone.

The Rules of Engagement

The Technicalities of Licenses, Permits and the Limits of Authority in Good Omens

If you are looking for more metas there is a group effort on this google doc here: Good Omens Crackpotting Theory Tracker This brings a lot of ops together in the one place.

[count-alucard-tepes]

Op hotties see that their child standing on the ceiling using their's power. (Maybe devil fruit, maybe another power)

In. The. Night.

(i just love this photo)

Kizaru ✨: “…if you fall…aim for the bed *rolls over and cuddles S/O*

Akainu🌋: *screams and almost has a heart attack before jumping out of bed to catch his baby*

Ryokugyu 🌱: “…of all the places…you had to do creepy shit in our bedroom”

Fujitora 🐅: *uses his gravity powers to keep his kid on the floor*

Sir Crocodile 🐊: *goes out to the balcony in the bedroom to have a smoke before glancing back and sees his child before screaming and accidentally burning himself with his cigar* “…I swear you’re going to be the death of me…” *as his clothes catch alight*

Doflamingo Donquixote 🦩: *smirks and blows his kid a kiss* “…go to sleep, little one…it’s past your bedtime”

Benn Beckman 🔫: *raises a brow* “…you’re one creepy kid”

Katakuri Charlotte 🍡: *uses mochi powers to bring kid to him and cuddles his baby as he sleeps*

Killer🔪:

Kaido🐉: *blinks and sighs before turning to his side and goes back to sleep*

King 👑: *smiles and gestures to his kid to come down* “…you’re going to scare your mother half to death”

Queen👑:

Izou🔫🔫:

Dragon D Monkey 🐉🐒: *wakes up and makes eye contact with kid before sighing and closing his eyes again*

Oven Charlotte 🍞: *sighs softly and tries to get his kid down, he’s used to having his siblings do weird things too* “…time for bed”

Buggy🤡:

Marco the Phoenix 🦅: *smiles and watches his kid* “…gonna have a stare off before bed, little one?”

Eustass Kidd🤘🎸: “Get your ass down right now and get to bed!”

Rosinantè Donquixote aka Cora-San💕: *screams and panics before trying to get his kid down but fails and falls down from the bed with a hard thud*

Who’s Who ❤️‍🔥👹: *uses his sword hilt to try and poke his kid, earning some giggles* “…oh it’s a little kitty…are you stuck there, kitty?”

Gecko Moria🦇: *doesn’t even notice because he has creatures all over his mansion and his kid blends in*

Iceburg💜: *hides under the covers thinking his kid is a monster*

Gild Tesoro⚜️🏅: *throws a pillow at the child* “…get down from there, you little shit…I have an early morning tomorrow!”

Rob Lucci🐆: *smiles as his eyes adjusts* “…stalking papa now, little one? You’re doing a good job”

[rhoorl]

Delta Landscaping | Chapter 8: Saturdays, Am I Right?

Series Summary: In this AU, the boys of Delta Force start a new business post-Colombia. 

Series Masterlist | Chapter 8 A03 Link

Rating: Explicit (18+) 

Word Count: 6.8k

Chapter Summary: A Saturday around Mule Fall Court. Plus we get two cameo appearances.

Chapter Warning: Swearing. Oral (m receiving). Reminder, I don’t have a beta for this, so any mistakes are all mine.

A/N: Thank you for all of the love for Frankie in the last chapter! Although this is another Will-heavy chapter I appreciate you sticking with me. I promise the other guys will get some of the spotlight too. More notes from me at the end.

Katie’s eyes flutter open, catching the light coming through the slight crack in her curtains. She hears soft snores behind her and turns to see Will fast asleep. He looked so peaceful, beautiful really.

He starts to stir a bit so she turns around and closes her eyes pretending to be asleep. The last thing she wanted was for him to wake up to her staring at him. She feels him get up and turn to check his phone on the nightstand. 

Katie could tell he was peering over to check if she was still asleep. She feels him nestle back under the covers and inch closer to her, wrapping an arm around her, making her smile. She leans back into his touch as he nuzzles his face into her neck.

"Are you awake?" He whispers.

"Mhmm," she manages, as he kisses her neck.

"How're you feelin'?" He brings his hand around to trace down her body from her waist to her hips and back.

"I have a headache, feel kinda weak…the usual," she laughs. 

"I'm sorry, we'll try and keep it down so you can rest."

"Oh don't be silly Will, I can still function. I've had to do a lot more, feeling a lot worse," she chuckles, looking back to see him biting his bottom lip nervously. "Hey, it's all good. It was a very sweet thought," she kisses him. "You're good at those," she kisses him again.

"Oh yeah?" He smiles into another kiss which he deepens as he moves on top of her.

"W-Will, we c-can't…it's gonna get messy," she manages to get out between shaky breaths. 

Will pulls back and looks at her, his hand tracing the side of her face. “I don’t mind. Just throw a towel down,” he smirks, before getting a bit more serious. “But if you really don’t want to, there’s still other ways we could have some fun,” he arches his eyebrows and bites his bottom lip. 

“What do you have in mind, soldier?” The corner of her mouth turns up at his playfulness. 

“Just lay back and relax,” he murmurs as he drops down to her waist.

He inches the bottom of her shirt up and starts leaving light kisses along her stomach, working up. Katie’s hips buck up, anticipating Will’s next move. She clenches her eyes closed, trying to breathe as he takes one of her nipples in his mouth, swirling his tongue around as his other hand lightly cups her other breast. A shudder comes over Katie as she savors the pleasure Will’s mouth is giving her. She throws her head back, whimpering as he continues.  

“Is this ok? You aren’t too sensitive or sore or anything,” he stops to ask, looking up at her.

“N-no, you’re doing great…I mean, ha, it’s…yea, it’s good Will.” She giggles as he goes back to work.

She sneaks a glance down to look at him but then something catches her eye. Seeing movement she lets out a yelp.

“Fuck, what happened? Are you ok?” Will’s head snaps up, searching her face.

“Ah, n-no, um…” she points a trembling finger to where the wall meets the ceiling. 

Will whips around to see what she’s pointing at. His shoulders relax when he sees what has her so scared – a small gecko perched on the wall. “You’ve never had a gecko in your house before?” 

“Once…scared the shit out of me. I had to call Meg to get Connor over here to grab it.”

“These are kind of a thing here in Florida,” he smirks, trying to give her a hard time before he realizes how scared she truly is. “Well, good thing I’m here. I’ll take care of it.” He winks and gives her a quick kiss before hopping out of bed and throwing his jeans on, leaving the top button unbuttoned.

Will makes quick work of capturing the little creature and takes it outside. He's washing his hands in the kitchen as Katie comes around the corner dressed in some comfy pants and an oversized t-shirt, her hair in a messy bun. 

“My hero! I’m so glad you were here” she smiles, skipping over to him and wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him. “Sorry we had to cut the fun short,” she pouts.

Will’s chest puffs out a little at her praise. “Ah, that’s okay.” He runs his hands down her sides.

“I…um…I’ll make it up to you later,” she winks.

“Oh really? Hmm…I wonder how you’re going to do that,” he smiles and kisses her before pushing her back towards the kitchen island, deepening the kiss. After a few minutes, he pulls back. “Shit, what time is it?” He looks at the clock above her oven. “Fuck, sorry. I need to go before Benny wakes up,” he laughs.

“Ok,” she sighs.

“I’ll be right back. Well, I’ll have two sidekicks with me, but I’ll be back."

Will runs back to her room to grab his shirt, making sure to give her a quick kiss before leaving and hopping into his Jeep for the short drive down to 319.

He’s thankful that it’s still early in the morning. It had been years since he’d done a walk of shame, and while there was no shame in this return, he still wasn’t too keen on running into any of his neighbors.

He just parked and got out of his Jeep when Olivia’s front door flew open. CJ and Max ran to the van as Olivia trailed balancing Diana on her hip along with various backpacks and bags. 

“Boys, hey! Hold on a sec lemme open the door,” she huffed out, fishing her keys from her crossbody and hitting the button for the automatic doors on her minivan to open.

“Hi, Mr. Will! You look nice!” CJ yelled over to Will, waving.

“Hi Mr. Will, we’re going to soccer practice. Mom says it’s good for us to get our energy out! Hey, your button isn’t buttoned,” Max pointed to Will’s jeans.

“Hey boys,” Will waved, looking sheepishly over to Olivia. “Hey, Liv! Mornin'."

Olivia was oblivious to the fact that Will was dressed in a wrinkled shirt and buttoning the top button of his jeans. “Hey, Will! Boys, get in, get your iPads. I’ll be right there. Hey!” She walks to the front of her driveway, nodding for Will to join her. “I’m glad I saw you! I was meaning to reach out to you guys. So, it’s the boys’ birthday next week. I know the idea of going to a party with a bunch of eight-year-olds probably doesn’t sound too appealing, but the whole Neighborhood Wa-...um…I mean, the whoel crew is invited. And you guys are part of that! Frankie and Santiago too!” She smiles.

“Aw, thanks Liv. That’s really nice. Yeah, I’m sure the guys are down. Just..um…text me the details.”

“Ok cool. Chris has a friend who owns a skating rink so we're gonna rent it out. Should be fun!”

“Well, awesome, I’m looking forward to it, haven't skated in years!”

“Nice. Well, um, see you later!”

And with that, she turned on her heels to head back to her van and buckle Diana into her car seat.

Will breathed a sigh of relief as he made his way up the driveway, unlocking the door. 

_____________________

Katie busied herself with making some coffee and picking up when she heard a knock at her door. She wasn’t expecting Will and company so soon, but she was giddy at the thought of seeing him again.

She opened the door without looking, “Back so soon, huh? Shit, you scared me!”

Megan was standing at her doorway with a basket of freshly baked muffins - double chocolate chip, Katie’s favorite. She also had a bottle of wine tucked under her arm. “I thought you could use some chocolate for now…and then some wine, for later,” she winked.

“Jesus Meg, I thought… never mind, come in. Thank you for these, I haven’t eaten yet.”

“Well, make me a cup of coffee, I need to hear about last night…and apparently this morning from the looks of you,” she snorted as Katie rolled her eyes.

_____________________

Frankie woke up, feeling a bit lighter after he shared some of his past with Lucille last night. A phone call to his sister made things even better. He booked an impromptu trip to see her in a couple of days. Although the boys did not flaunt their money, Frankie had to admit it was nice to be able to drop everything and just go and not have to worry.

He threw a shirt on and walked to the kitchen to see Santiago already busy making breakfast, listening to music, his hips swaying to the beat.

“Hey cabron, you hungry?” Santiago asks as he cracks some eggs into a bowl.

“Ah, sure, yeah. Thanks.” Frankie pours himself a cup of coffee from the pot Santiago brewed. “How was your night?”

“Good. It was nice.”

“Did you behave yourself?”

Santiago rolls his eyes, “Yes. The hell man? I was with David and Ty too, you know. We just went to a restaurant and then to a wine bar. It was actually a pretty nice place. I'd suggest you take a girl there if you ever decide to date again," Frankie rolls his eyes. "Anyway, the three of them went back together and I took an Uber home. I’m pretty sure I beat you back, actually.”

Frankie sets his coffee cup down and lifts both of his hands up, “Okay, hermano. Jeez, I didn’t mean to strike a nerve so early in the morning.”

“I just…ugh… never mind. How was your night?”

“Good. Great, actually. I uh…called Valeria. I’m going to go see her, Alyssa, and the kids this week.”

“You’re flying to Dallas? Just like that?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, why wait," Frankie scratches the back of his head, his curls wild from sleep. "And plus, it was like the only good time to go. Between both of their work schedules and stuff, I would have had to wait months.”

“Nice. Well, I’m happy for you. Shit how old is Leia now?”

“She just turned two. Damn, you reminded me that I need to go and get her a present today. Maybe after we get done at Melissa’s we can swing by someplace.”

“Yeah, sure. So when are you leaving?”

“I’m gonna leave Monday, after my meeting. Gotta see if I can move it up a bit earlier…but I’ll come back on Friday.”

“Ok cool, well I can drive you, we’ll figure it out.”

_____________________

Will walks into the house, surprised to hear SportsCenter on the TV.

Shit. He thought to himself, knowing his brother was awake and therefore going to give him a hard time. Walking further into the house, he sees Benny looking out their sliding door to the backyard eating cereal out of a large bowl. Hearing the front door close, Benny turns and lights up with the biggest smile.

“Oh shit! There he is! You like the little present I left you?” He winks, setting down his bowl and running over to his brother, slapping him on the chest. “Have a good night?”

Will just rolls his eyes and walks down the hallway to his room, pulling his shirt off. 

Benny trails after him, “Oh c’mon. I know you don’t really kiss and tell anymore, but you’re not gonna give me anything?”

“Ben. If I tell you anything, you’re going to make it super fucking awkward when we go over there in a bit. I don’t want her to be embarrassed.”

“Oh ok, so you guys haven’t fucked yet, cool cool.” Benny busts out laughing as Will chases him into the bedroom.

“You’re lucky you’re so fucking tall otherwise I’d beat your ass kid.”

“Ha ok, whatever.” Benny leans against the wall in Will’s room as his brother changes. “But seriously, did you have a good night?” 

Will sees the sincerity in his brother’s eyes. “Yeah, it was nice. She’s fucking awesome man. So funny and smart and creative…”

“And hot. Ow!” Will throws his jeans at Benny. “I’m just saying, for you. I mean, she’s pretty, don't get me wrong.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty fuckin’ hot,” Will smirks as Benny whoops and plops onto Will’s bed. “How was your night?”

“Good. You’ll be happy to know I executed another flawless mission. Your boy Jax really stepped up.”

“He’s a good guy.”

“Yea…Connor texted me this morning, well it was late last night but I didn’t see it til I woke up. He and Aria were up talking on the phone til real late. He’s probably gonna be a bit tired this mornin',” Benny laughs.

“Ha nice, well I’m glad it all worked out.”

Will changes into a pair of black basketball shorts and a cut-off concert tee. He grabs his socks and a pair of sneakers too. “You ready?”

“Yeah, I think Connor should be over any minute. Gotta just grab my hat and some tools and I’m all good to go.”

_____________________

Connor came over right on time, a little tired so Benny gave him a RedBull. The three of them decided to walk over to Katie’s house, the older guys lovingly teasing Connor who blushed every time he talked about Aria. Will casually used some old interrogation techniques to coax out of Connor the fact that they kissed. Connor confessed to heading to the exact place Benny told him about, the only spot in the whole park not visible from the vantage point Benny chose. 

They laughed as they reached Katie’s porch. “Damn, I didn’t realize how much water damage there was here,” Benny says, observing how the porch beams bow out. 

He reaches his hand out to touch one of them when Will slaps his hands away, “Don’t touch it, man. The whole fucking thing could cave in, s’far as we know. I’m gonna call Joel later when we take a break.”

“Isn’t he gonna be busy with Sarah?” Benny asked.

“Nah, he’s probably out at some job site this morning.”

“Oh on a weekend? So does Steph have Sarah then?”

“Yea. They do a bit longer of a switch during the summer, two weeks at a time. He takes advantage and runs himself ragged, pulling 12-hour days. I dunno why he does that shit to himself.”

“Who’s Joel? And Steph and Sarah?” Connor asks, looking between the two men.

“Oh, shit, sorry. Joel’s our cousin. Sarah’s his daughter. And Steph’s her mom,” Benny fills the boy in on their extended family as Will knocks on the door.

Megan answers the door, “Hey boys!”

“Mom?”

“Yeah, sorry to cramp your style C,” she winks. “Figured I’d give Katie some company, while you all worked. Nice to see you're back to no sleeves, Benny,” she laughs.

“I told ya, I don’t dress up for just anyone,” he smirks.

“Hey guys,” Katie comes from around the corner addressing all of them, but looking squarely at Will. Her eyes rake over his exposed arms, remembering how it felt when he held her this morning. “Come in, lemme show you where everything is.”

“Benny the builder reporting to duty,” he fake salutes, following Katie into the house. 

__________________

Katie and Megan catch up on a reality show as the guys make quick work of assembling a series of items. She honestly thought it was going to take them all day, but as it neared lunchtime, they had almost all of it done.

“Hey,” she walks into the spare room where they set up shop. “You boys hungry? We were thinking of ordering some pizza.”

“Hell yeah!” Connor pumps his fist before looking at Katie who squints at him. “I mean, awesome, Ms. Katie. That sounds great, thank you.”

“You’re too sweet C,” she laughs. “Any requests?”

“As long as there’s pepperoni on something I’m good. Will’s pretty easy, aren’t ya Will?” Benny snorts as Will rolls his eyes.

“I’m good with whatever, just not green peppers.”

“No green peppers, huh? Hmm…”

“Red flag?” Benny offers.

“I dunno…that’s borderline,” Katie shakes her head, smiling as she walks out.

Will slaps Benny and they both start to laugh.

The pizza arrives just as the guys reach a stopping point. They only have one dresser left, the biggest piece. As they all sit around, talking and eating, Will suddenly remembers that he needs to call Joel.

“Shit, you mind if I make a quick call? My cousin’s a contractor and I wanted to get his opinion on your porch.”

“Your porch? What’s wrong with the porch?” Megan asks with her mouth full, looking at Katie.

“It’s definitely got water damage,” Benny chimed in. “Shit’s probably gonna cave in any minute-”

“Jesus Benny!” Will smacks him on the arm. “It’s not going to cave in at any minute Kat, er Katie.” He shot daggers at his brother for not having more tact. “But, it’s probably not something you’re going to want to wait on, ‘specially since it’s the summer and we get a lot of rain. But anyway, lemme call him real quick.”

“Ok, thanks Will, I appreciate you guys looking into it,” Katie smiles, trying to avoid Megan’s knowing look. Her ex was never this invested in home projects or anything that interested Katie. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her, but she had to admit it felt nice to have someone care.

Will pulls the phone in front of him, waiting for Joel to answer. When he finally does, a big smile comes across Will’s face. “Hey J, you got a minute?”

“J Moneeeyyy!” Benny yells, throwing himself into frame so Joel can see him.

“Ah, shit, both of you? Hold on, I’m gonna need to go somewhere, gimme a minute. Hey Tommy! I’ll be right back ok?”

Katie and Megan both exchange quick glances after hearing the low, Southern drawl coming from Will’s phone. They were both curious what the owner of that voice looked like, sure that he had to have some of the Miller good looks. 

“Shit, Tommy’s there, tell ‘em we say hi!” Benny smiles. 

Joel huffs as he walks away from the job site to his truck. Closing the door, he wipes his face with his forearm. “Ok, this about your neighbor?”

“Um, ah, yeah.” Will tries to keep his cool. He and Joel had exchanged a few texts about Katie, mostly about the porch but Joel did ask about her as well, curious about who had piqued the interest of his favorite cousin. “She’s actually here, I’m at her house now.” Will motions to Katie to come say hi. 

Megan practically pushes her off the couch as Katie walks over behind the couch Will and Benny are sitting on. She sucks in a breath when she sees the man on the other side of the phone.

He looks to be a little bit older than Will, but not by much. Will mentioned he was in Texas, so Katie could only assume it was as hot there as it was in Florida. Joel looked a bit grimy, his hair matted to his forehead and his neck glistened with sweat. She caught a glimmer of what looked to be a silver chain underneath his greasy t-shirt. When Katie popped into frame, Joel immediately straightened up, running his fingers through his hair. 

They both smile at each other before Joel clears his throat, “Ah hi, you’re Katie?”

“Uh, y-yea, how’d you…” Katie looked at Will who was blushing a bit.

“Oh, Will’s had nothing but good things to say about you, darlin'. Sounds like you got a lil problem with the porch?”

“Uh, yeah, apparently so.” Katie bites her lip.

“I can, uh, I can show you, Joel. Does that work?”

“Yeah, helps to see how much it’s bowin' out.”

“Ok, lemme take you over there. One sec, I’ll be right back.”

And with that, Will takes the phone away and heads outside. 

“So, who’s your cousin?” Megan asks Benny.

“Oh, Joel? He’s our oldest cousin. Our dads are brothers.”

“Ah ok, and where does he live?” Katie was so thankful Megan was taking up asking the questions because she was still trying to find her words.

“Oh he and his daughter live in Austin,” Benny said between bites.

“So he’s married?”

“Why you lookin’?” Benny teases as Megan rolls her eyes. “Nah, he’s been divorced for a while. He and Steph make it work for Sarah. They aren’t like super close, but they’re not gonna slash each other’s tires either if that makes sense.”

Will walks back into the living room, “Thanks, man. Tell Sarah and Tommy we say hi.”

“When’re you gonna come visit us? I miss youuuuu!” Benny yells.

“Ha, miss you too, lil bean. I’ll try and figure somethin’ out. It’s been a while since I’ve gone on a vacation.”

“Nice! And hey we could probably use your help around the house too!”

“Ben, what the fuck? We aren’t gonna invite him out here just to work. The hell is wrong with you?” Will shakes his head.

“Nah, it’s all good. You boys know I can’t go a few days without gettin' my hands into somethin’. Let’s plan on it…gotta talk with Steph and sort it out, but we should. It’s been a while.”

“Woohoo! Hell yeah!” Benny runs over to his brother and smiles. “You’re gonna love it here J. We have a pool, we’re close to the beach. We could go to a baseball ga-”

“Ok, Ben. Calm down,” Will laughs. Benny loved Will, but he always had a soft spot for Joel.

“Hey, shit, sorry gotta go. The electrical guy just showed up and I’ve been tryna track his ass down for about a week. We’ll talk soon!” Joel nods as he disconnects the call.

“How bad’s the damage?” Katie winced, not sure she wanted to hear the bad news.

“Eh, it’s definitely something you have to get fixed, but we really can’t tell the extent of the damage until we start poking around more. Joel said it’s okay for now, but you shouldn’t let it go too much longer. So we’ll research it more and handle it, don’t worry,” Will smiles and rubs her knee before realizing there were three other sets of eyes on them. He clears his throat, “Guys, ready to get back to it? Only one more thing to go.”

“Yeah, let’s do it!” Connor gets up, collects all of their plates, and takes them to the kitchen. 

Once the three guys are down the hall to the spare room, Megan looks over to Katie. “So, was he as hot as he sounded?” 

“Fuck yeah, he was.” They bust out in giggles as they turn their show back on.

_____________________

“So what's she wants help with?” Frankie asks as he turns onto Mule Fall Court rolling past Benny and Will’s house and continuing down the street to Melissa’s.

“She was talking about how the backyard is so plain. She wanted to add in some stuff but wasn’t sure. Figured it would be easier if we could walk it with her and hear what she was thinking.”

“Hmm, ok.” Frankie cuts his eyes quickly over to Santiago as he parks his truck in the driveway. 

Melissa must have been waiting for them because she came out of her house as the men were getting out of Frankie’s truck. “Hey guys!” She waves and walks over, giving each a kiss on the cheek and a hug. Frankie notices that she gives him a side hug and uses both arms when hugging Santiago. They make some small talk when they see a black SUV pull up to the house next door. 

“Hey, isn’t that the house for sale?” Frankie asks.

“Yeah, it is. Lucille called me this morning actually to tell me that Ethan said the clients accepted the offer. They're meeting him this morning to do a walkthrough, so this must be them.”

The three of them look over as the doors to the SUV open up. The driver was a man, who looked to be in his 40’s. He was an attractive, pretty clean-cut-looking guy with a neatly trimmed beard and mustache. He wore jeans and a light blue V-neck T-shirt. His passenger was a beautiful woman, slightly younger than him, dressed in a yellow floral maxi dress. Melissa admired her gorgeous curls and the huge sparkly ring that caught the light beautifully. Tumbling out from the back door was a little boy, probably around the same age as Olivia’s boys. The woman opened the passenger door behind her and pulled out a little girl from the car seat.

“Hey there!” The man waves with a warm smile. 

Melissa, Santiago, and Frankie all wave back. “Hi, I’m Melissa! You all the new neighbors?”

“We hope so! As long as everything goes smoothly these next few weeks,” the woman smiles as the family walks over.

“Oh, nice! Well, I’m Melissa. I live here,” she points to her house.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Victoria and this is my husband Marcus and our kids, Nicholas and Mariella.”

“Nice to meet you all! This is Frankie and Santiago, their friends Benny and Will live down the street. They just moved in recently too.”

“Santiago?” Victoria furrows her brows. “Hablas español?”

“Si, por supresto, él también,” Santiago responds, nodding towards Frankie with his chin. 

“Que bueno. Fair warning, he understands more than he lets on," she winks, rubbing Marcus' back.

“Hey, after almost 10 years, what do you expect? Me and your abuela are practically holding full conversations at this point,” Marcus laughs, putting his arm around his wife and giving her a quick peck on the cheek, making her chuckle and their son groan. “So, uh, you like it here then, Melissa? It’s a good neighborhood?”

“Oh yeah. We have a lot of fun and always like an excuse to get together. Hey, maybe when you all get settled we can throw you a welcome party! There're some other kids here on the block too who you can play with,” she smiles, looking at Nicholas who was playing with some action figures.

“That’s awesome to hear. That’s what Ethan said too. Once we move in I’ll have to get some recommendations from you for stuff, like a landscaping company for starters because this,” she points to the front lawn of 306 Mule Fall Court, “this needs to get updated ASAP,” she laughs.

“Ha, I hear you. Well once you get settled in, I’ll be sure to give you a full rundown,” Melissa winks.

“When’re you all supposed to move in?” Frankie chimes in.

“Soon,” Marcus responds. “Trying to move in here before Nico here starts school,” he ruffles his son’s hair, getting a giggle from the boy.

"My sister is moving in with us too, so it's going to be a full house."

"She single?" Santiago asks, glancing quickly at Frankie, not seeing Melissa's scrunched-up face.

"Ha, she is," Victoria smirks. "She's act-" Victoria is cut off by the roar of Ethan's engine as he makes his way up the driveway. "Ah, well, looks like we gotta go. It was so nice to meet you all."

"Yeah, nice to know who's next door," Marcus smiles. “We’ll see you all around.”

_______________________

“Wow, I can’t thank you guys enough for this. It would have taken me several weekends to get all of this together,” Katie puts her hands on her hips, admiring the boys' work and how her house was starting to transform into the vision she had designed through her countless Pinterest boards. 

Megan tosses Connor and Benny some bottles of water as Will lifts up his shirt to wipe the sweat from his brow. She didn’t miss Katie swallowing hard at the sight of Will’s abs.

“Well, this was fun. Glad you all could finally get some of this furniture together,” Megan clasps her hands, grabbing her purse. “I’m gonna head out, probably going to go see Lulu. C wanna come with?”

“Ah, I could really use a shower Mom,” Connor winces as he smells under his arm.

“You know what, you’re right. Ok, let’s get you home,” she starts to walk out, looking at Benny who was sitting on the couch. 

He glances over at his brother who had a look in his eye he hadn’t seen in a while. Smirking to himself, Benny gets up and stretches, his shirt riding up a bit. “Hmm…I’m beat. Gonna go take a shower, myself. Hey, thanks for lunch, Katie. Will, I’ll uh, I’ll catch you later.”

And with that, Katie and Will found themselves alone. Will reaches his arm up, rubbing the back of his neck as his eyes graze over Katie.

“What’re you looking at,” she blushes, walking over to him.

“Hmm…nothing, just thinking.”

“About what?” She reaches up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

He returns her kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist. “How I couldn’t wait for them to leave,” he whispers into her ear as he trails kisses down her neck, sending a shiver down her spine.

“I…ah…I still owe you from this morning,” she manages to get out, despite her shaky breath. 

“You don’t owe me anything,” he smiles and nips at where her neck meets her shoulder before soothing it with his tongue.

Reluctantly, Katie pulls back, looking at Will squarely in the eyes. “I know, but I…I want to. I, uh, I have an idea,” she smirks, pulling him by the arm down toward her room. Will bites his lower lip, but a nervous chuckle still escapes. 

Once they get into Katie’s room, she grabs Will’s shoulders and leads him towards the end of her bed. “Ok, uh…sit down. Actually, uh…lie down. Uh, on your…stomach.”

Will furrows his brow, “Um…ok?”

“And, um, take your shirt off too,” she quickly added while she still had the nerve.

“You tryna take advantage of me, sweetheart?” Will purses his lips, before laughing.

“C’mon. Just do it.” Katie rolls her eyes.

Will grabs the bottom of his shirt with one hand and removes it in a smooth, swift move. He turns and moves up her bed, laying face down on her pillow. He hears Katie walk over to grab something off of her dresser and then feels the bed dip as she gets on, straddling his waist. 

She leans over his body, her chest at his back, “You must be so sore after all of that work you did today, huh?”

He turns his head slightly to the side, catching her eye as he nods.

“Well, then let me help you out with that.” She grabs the bottle of lotion she brought with her and rubs some in her hands to warm it up. Her mouth was salivating as she looked at the man sprawled out on her bed between her legs. 

She starts with his shoulders, moving down his back, feeling the cords of his muscles. He whimpers slightly as she works out some of the knots she comes across. It’s hard to know how much time passes, but once she feels Will’s muscles totally relax she swings her leg around, lying down next to him.

He looks so relaxed, cracking one eye open to look at her as he smiles. “That was fucking awesome. You have magic hands,” he laughs as he turns to his side, using one of his hands to trace down Katie’s body from her ribcage to her hip.

They stay like this for a few moments, enjoying the silence but both feel some tension building. Finally, it was Katie who broke, leaning over and pushing Will so he was lying on his back. She straddles him again, kissing and nipping, finding his sensitive spots as she works from his neck down his body. 

When she reaches his stomach, he stops her, grabbing both of her arms. “Hey, let me take care of you fir-”

“Nope,” she cuts him off, emphasizing the p. “You did all of this hard work for me today, I want to show you how…uh…thankful I am,” she smirks as she moves down to the waistband of his shorts. 

His breath gets shaky as she presses her mouth to the outside of his shorts, feeling a twitch as he gets harder. He takes a fistful of bedsheets in his grip as he feels her warm breath tease him.

She looks back up at him through her eyelashes and works his shorts down. Will lifts his hips up to help her as he springs free. She bites her lower lip, taking in this visual before moving her hands to lightly grip his thighs. He was trying so hard to stay still. She moves closer, down to the base, flattens her tongue against him, and works her way up, stopping to swirl her tongue around the head. Will throws his head back, bucking his hips up. Katie was caught by surprise and gagged slightly, not expecting that much so soon.

“Fuck, shit I’m sorry,” Will props himself up onto his elbows, before sitting up, reaching for the back of Katie’s head. “Are you ok?”

Katie coughs and composes herself, smiling “Y-yea, I’m fine. Just wasn’t expecting all of that,” she chuckles.

“Shit, neither was I.”

“It’s ok, you havin’ fun?” Her mouth quirks up as he nods. “Ok, good, just lay back and relax.”

She resumes, using her hand to help as she takes him in. Once she gets into a good rhythm, she relaxes her jaw, taking him all the way in until her nose is nestled into the curls at the base of his cock. His breath picks up and he whimpers as Katie takes a slow, methodical approach. It drives Will wild, in the best way, that she seems to almost be savoring this…savoring him. 

“I…ah…I’m really close…” he trails off, panting. “Wh-where?”

Katie doesn’t say anything, but makes eye contact with him, giving him a wink which sends him over the edge. Within seconds she feels his spend hit the back of her throat as she works him down. His chest quickly rises and falls and his vision goes blurry for a second. As quickly as he feels pleasure he starts to feel overstimulated, pushing Katie off of him gently.

“F-fuck, sorry about that,” he chuckles, bringing both of his hands to his face, and rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands as he catches his breath.

“Was it ok?” Katie sits up and looks at him, dragging her thumb on the outside of her mouth, catching the last bit of Will, and licking it. 

“Shit. Uh, y-yea. You’re…you’re fucking amazing,” he props himself up on his elbows. “C’mere,” he pulls Katie on top of him as she giggles.

____________________

"So, you guys could really do all of that?" Melissa looks between Frankie and Santiago, hopeful and giddy at the prospect of a full backyard renovation.

"Sure thing princ-, ah I mean, yea absolutely," Santiago manages a neutral smile while avoiding Frankie's eyes. "We'll definitely need Will and Benny's help, but yeah I don't see why we couldn't get this done in a few weeks."

"Eeek, that's so exciting. I gotta tell Danny. Can we wait til he gets back?"

"Absolutely," Santiago gives a tight-lipped smile.

"Awesome, thank you both. You guys hungry? D, Ty, and I were probably going to order in."

"We actually have a couple of errands to run," Frankie jumps in before Santiago can open his mouth. "Gotta get this guy here to help me get something for my niece."

"Aww, I didn't know you had a niece," Melissa smiles as she leads the guys back to the front of the house, while Frankie fills her in on his upcoming trip. "That's so nice Frankie, I'm happy for you. I'm sure this guy is gonna miss you while you're gone," she nods over to Santiago.

"Ha yea, well absence makes the heart grow fonder doesn't it Pope," he smiles and slaps Santiago on the shoulder.

"I know you're in love with me, just admit it, Fish," Santiago teases as they all start to laugh.

"Alright, well I won't keep you two. Thanks for coming over, I feel a lot better about the plan for the backyard now."

"Don't mention it," Pope leans over to give her a quick kiss on the cheek and a hug which Frankie also does.

_____________________

The Neighborhood Watch

David: Liv what's the deal with the boys' party? Food? Drinks? Decor? Theme? Trying to plan my outfit.

Megan: The kids are 8. Pretty sure it's pizza, juice boxes and a cake.

Ty: But like, no alcohol at all? C'mon…

Olivia: The theme is Star Wars. I have some stuff coming from Amazon this week. Food is pizza and wings. They're letting us bring in beer and wine, that's it.

David: Noooo

Olivia: Chris had to beg his friend to even let us do that so please don't bring your Stanley cup filled with your "juice"

David: I did that one time. I didn't realize Disney was so strict about that shit.

Olivia: You almost got us all banned for life!

David: Well, we didn't … all good! 🙃

Megan: Anyway. Are you gonna need help Liv? Let me know.

Lucille: Me too. Although I want babysitting duty with Diana.

Olivia: Oh Lulu, I would love that, yes please! And yeah I may need some help.

Melissa: Count me in too 😘

Ty: Katie? You coming?

David: Right now? Probably. Isn't Will over at her place?

Ty: LUCILLE IS ON THIS CHAT

Lucille: I'm not a nun, gordito. 

David: See! Lulu is down to clown with us!!

David: But seriously, Katie I hope you are having a gooooood time. 😉

Olivia: Speaking of Will, I invited him.

David: And the rest of the guys too? Frankie will be there right?! 😍

Ty sends a gif of a woman shaking her head.

Olivia: Yes lol … I told him he and the guys were invited. Shit, I need to send him the details but it sounded like they were in.

David: Well yay! I'm excited. And then we have to plan our Fourth of July BBQ!

Melissa: I can host again! Danny gets back this week.

Ty: Sure you want us all over at your place? We can host if you want some alone time with your man 😜

Melissa: All good, we love having you all over!

Melissa: Oh I totally forgot, I met the new neighbors today!

David: 👀 tell me everything

Melissa: It's a family, a man and his wife and two kids. The little boy looks like he's about the same age as Max and CJ and they have a little girl too.

Olivia: Aw yay! So exciting!! 

Melissa: yeah! They seem really nice too.

Ty: Does the guy actually look like Frankie because dear God I'm not going to be able to handle David if that happens.

David: 🥵

Melissa: He does kinda look like Frankie, but just with shorter hair. 

David: So we don't have competing curls to deal with?

Melissa: lol no

Melissa: He looks like the kind of guy who wears suits for his job

David: I'm listening….👀

Ty: Christ. Calm down

Megan: Did they say when they were moving in?

Melissa: I didn't get any specifics but it sounded like they are just waiting to close at this point. So hopefully soon!

Melissa: Oh and I forgot, she said that her sister is going to be moving in with them too.

Megan: Oh, you're gonna have a full house next door!

David: We should totally plan a block party to welcome them!

Melissa: I actually mentioned that and they seemed excited.

Ty: Oh jeez. He'll have a whole mood board created by tomorrow.

David: Hater!

Ty: Love you too babe!

Katie: Damn, I have a lot to catch up on.

David: THERE'S OUR GIRL

David: Is Will still there?

Katie: He left a little while ago

David: Aaaaand?

Katie: 🤦‍♀️

Ty: Please just throw him a bone otherwise he will not let it go!

Melissa: Oooo Katie, yes spill!

Katie: Let's just say Will left very relaxed 😏

David: 🎉🎉🎉

Megan: Katie also caught a glimpse of Will's cousin today on FaceTime 🥵

David: Is he hot too?

David: Of course he is. Everyone associated with that house is hot.

Katie: 😂

Katie: But yeah he was. Kinda gave me Frankie vibes a little

David: I am going to pass out

Megan: Well start bracing yourself because it sounds like he may visit sometime

David: Ok, but like I'm going to need a visual or something. To you know, prepare.

Megan: Lis we may need your detective skills on this one.

Katie: Yeah but we only know his name and where he lives.

Megan: And what he does for work and his ex-wife's name

Melissa: Oh come on, I thought you were gonna give me a hard one. That's easy. I'll get you a full breakdown by tonight 😉

A/N: Sooo…what do we think? We got a little Joel and a little Marcus. It was fun to write both of them. Don't worry, they'll be back! 

Let me know if you want to be on the tag list moving forward!! Apologies if I accidentally left you off, I added it all manually and may have missed someone … just let me know!

@goodwithcheese / @gemmahale / @trulybetty / @patti7dc / @periodtsparadox / @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin / @maggiemayhemnj / @mysterious-moonstruck-musings / @avastrasposts / @meveispunk / @chaoticfestninja / @beboldbebravethings / @casa-boiardi / @katw474 / @linzels-blog / @laughing-in-th3-purple-rain / @pimosworld / @lynnchun / @anoverwhelmingdin /@lilmizmoz / @pedrit0-pascalit0 / @titlee78 / @noisynightmarepoetry / @inept-the-magnificent / @perennialdoll247 / @for-a-longlongtime / @readingiskeepingmegoing / @harriedandharrassed / @musings-of-a-rose / @anavatazes / @sherala007 / @midnightraain / @partyofone3413 / @inthedarkestnight / @millennial-teenybopper / @csarab615 / @darkheartgatita / @southernbe

[joelletwo]

summary of natsuyuu chapter 128 - start of The Sealed-Off Storehouse arc

new arc (sort of) new post! my previous summaries for the preceding related arcs here. we continue increasing the cast of exorcist-related characters... and we see some familiar ones :)

Ms. Iwami comes to visit Takuma, saying her grandfather always told her if there was a problem she didn’t understand, she could rely on Takuma. She wants him to take a look at something, but he tells her he’s lost his youkai sight and wouldn’t be any help if there really was danger. He’s happy to hear her out, though, since her grandfather helped him as an young unknown exorcist. But she suddenly gets flustered over coming to him over something as silly as a joke her grandfather had played on her, saying she’ll enter her storehouse after all. She leaves, crossing paths with Natori and Natsume at the door.

(natsume: natori-san you can't just burst in 😰)

(natori: were you visiting? iwami: it's not important. pay no attention to the opening scene)

(takuma: what's all this about, shuuichi-kun? natori: *prompts his little buddy to take charge*)

Takuma asks why they’ve come, and Natsume explains that he wants help looking into the painting he found at the exorcist auction.

(takuma: why were you at an exorcist auction!!! natori, already been thru this: that's what i'm saying. natsume's actual next response: well... there were various circumstances...)

Natori thinks Takuma will know more than he does, although the auction was highly anonymous, since he has more industry connections. Takuma’s happy to since Natsume helped him with his shiki before. First, they ask who was visiting before their arrival, and Takuma explains she's the granddaughter of a close friend of his mentor’s, and he’s worried about not being able to help with her situation.

Natori and Natsume go to meet with her to put him at ease. Natori says Natsume didn’t have to come (which Nyanko agrees with), but Natsume wants to hear from as many people as possible while he’s looking into the painting. Natori asks him what kind of person Reiko was. From the yokai, you only hear that she was "violent," from humans, she was "weird," but in that painting Natsume saw a different Reiko he’s unfamiliar with. If he could hear about the Reiko that painter knew…

They’re interrupted by fangirls recognizing Natori, irritating Nyanko, who asks why they had to take the bus instead of Natori’s car. He laughs and says it’s a habit from his student days, daydreaming that if he went out to places with lots of people, someone would eventually recognize his gecko and call out to him.

(natori, about to say something really heartbreaking: it's because i'm a romantic ^_^)

(iwami: no one's gone in that storehouse for decades. natori: you're saying...? iwami: there's "something that will curse you if you look at it" in there.)

Ms. Iwami welcomes them as Takuma’s representatives and fusses over a “if you look at it, you’ll be cursed” story her grandfather always told her about something in the storehouse on the property, which might’ve just been a story to keep the kids out, and which she can’t decide if she believes or not while wanting to reorganize it after her father’s passing. Nyanko calls the Iwami house creepy, as it’s filled with lots of strange things, like a weird wall hanging Natsume is startled by.

Natori and Natsume go to check out the storehouse at her urging. Natori’s shiki go in to investigate first, but Natsume stops Hiiragi, checking if she’ll be okay in a place that might remind her of bad memories. She assures him she’s used to storehouses after helping with Natori’s work for so long, and that she doesn’t regret those memories anyways, as they led to her meeting Natsume and Natori.

Natori’s shiki report nothing strange. Natori goes in to make sure, and Natsume asks to come with, saying he doesn’t want to miss finding any more hidden connections to Reiko. Natori makes them both paper dolls that will absorb a single curse in their place as a precaution.

(natori telling natsume the same thing natsume's been telling tanuma when he tags along in recent arcs: and you prooooomise to leave if anything goes wrong, right? ^_^)

He lights incense that will be attracted to any curse if there’s one to be found, but it takes time to accumulate. In the meantime, they look around the place: Natori for clues, Nyanko for treasures, and Natsume for anything about Reiko. Natori finds the texts of a famous exorcist.

(natori: huh? natsume: ! don't tell me you found the curse... natori: no, it's a book of Mr. Shirakouji... it really is a treasure 0_0;;)

Nyanko spots a wall of photos, all featuring prominent exorcists (including a younger Takuma, and Takuma’s mentor) with the same man accompanying them. While they’re looking at him, Ms. Iwami calls them back for a break.

She says the man is probably her grandfather, who had connections to and sponsored all sorts of exorcists through her (non-Sighted) family’s commitment to the traditions, which meant she gets sent all sorts of thank-you gifts for him, including the wall hanging Natsume saw earlier. Natsume startles to look and see it’s moved, though Iwami denies that and says its just a picture of the great youkai protecting her house. She suddenly gets confused about who told her the “curse you if you look at it” story, remembering a ghostly figure, but shakes it off.

(iwami: don't worry about it! me: okay yay ^_^ 💕)

Natori asks about Takuma. She says he was a wonderfully skilled disciple her grandfather’s friend took under his wing who her grandfather sponsored after seeing his talent. Natori is happy to hear him praised.

They go back out to the storehouse, relieved nothing’s happened so far although Natori and Nyanko agree something feels strange, wondering if there’s a barrier. They notice Natori’s incense has gathered around a ceiling tile.

(natori: hey, watch it =_=;)

Natori pushes it up and finds a second floor to the storehouse with ofuda talismans on the rafters hiding it from being discovered, possibly what the incense reacted to, but Natori cautions them to stay guarded. He spots a mirror with ink writing on it - Natori tells them not to look at their reflections, as it’s enchanted, saying it’s probably the “something that curses you if you look at it.”

(chapter end)

[lovekz]

turn up friday

syn -> it’s rindou’s birthday, and you make sure he smiles at least twice today

warnings : slight angst to fluff, rindou is a birthday princess, ran is a travel model, a bit of dark humor, rindou and ran have a leopard gecko named freya, a bit suggestive

note : happy birthday to rindou! ts is so late and short tho i swear

-

the clock hit twelve, signaling the beginning of a new day.

a very special day.

it was now rindou’s birthday, and he was sitting at his kitchen counter.

in silence.

for the first time in years, rindou has gone into his birthday in an empty home.

no friends to come see him, no brother to smash five different cakes in his face.

nothing.

but him and his lizard.

freya, her name was.

it was a gift from him to ran for his birthday, but he gave it back when he would go overseas.

so freya was with him 90% of the time.

rindou sighed quietly in frustration, lifting himself to his feet and making his way to his room.

humming the tune to ‘happy birthday’ with freya’s fast little legs chasing behind.

before he could make it his doorbell rang about 5 times at once.

rindou pauses in his steps, before resting his hand on the floor.

freya climbs up his arm and rests on his shoulder.

he walks to the front door and opens it, eyes widening immediately.

“happy birthday!” you practically scream, holding dozens of bags.

and that was so you.

screaming when everyone was well into their beds asleep.

it only happened when you were really excited to see your boyfriend though.

rindou couldn’t even stop his smile.

“what are you doing out so late by yourself? come in.” rindou says, tugging you in.

not hard enough for freya to fly off his shoulder.

you place the bags down onto the counter, refusing to let rindou touch any of them.

it was his birthday, you didn’t mind doing the work for once.

“I can’t let you be by yourself in your birthday, honey. it’s bad enough you went into it by yourself.” you sighed, pressing a kiss to his jaw.

rindou’s heart swoons immediately at your words.

he knew you probably rushed over here to come greet him on his birthday.

“now let’s go to bed. we can open these tomorrow.” you insisted, taking freya from him and guiding him to his room.

he couldn’t wait to see what you had in store

-

and it was exactly how he wanted to spend it.

you make him breakfast first thing in the morning, pancakes and hashbrowns.

he wasn't a big breakfast person, but that was more than enough to give him a big smile for the day.

then the two of you sat on the couch, opening all of his gifts.

you got him new cologne, one of his favorite albums on a vinyl, a snack basket, and a new video game.

he also received other gifts from his friends and his brother in the form of text messages (and cashapp).

raaan sent $200 : srry i cant make it :( happy birthday you shit

shionneedsmoney sent $1.72 : treat urself 2 smth nice bday princess

izanakok sent $50 : ty for not kys, check ur emails (he pre-ordered the new spider-man 2 for him)

kakuchopp sent $2 : you can get the rest when i get paid, happy birthday rindou.

kakuchopp sent $98.23 : nvm js take my bank account i feel bad

rindou was happy from all the gifts he received from his friends, also receiving gifts in the mail and people dropping things off.

now the sun was getting ready to go down, and the two of you pushed the cushions together to create a big bed.

rindou was scrolling through netflix, trying to figure out what he wanted to watch while you ordered food.

you apologized for not being able to get him a cake, but he really didn't care.

you were right next to him in his arms, nothing else mattered.

unless you were offering yourself as the cake, in which he would never refuse that.

now the two of you were about ten minutes into peppermint, holding hands under the fluffy pink blanket you left here.

rindou goes to open his mouth to say something, but gets interrupted by a door being thrown open.

the front door.

"honey i'm home!" ran yelled, holding a pastel blue two tiered cake.

rindou shoots up out of his seat, eyes wide as he stares his brother down in shock.

freya gets scared from this, and ducks under your blanket and in between your hands.

rindou launches himself over the couch and ran immediately places the cake onto the table.

the brothers share a tight hug, rindou crying in his arms.

his big brother was here in the flesh, right in front of him, for his birthday.

kakucho and shion walk in, holding bags of food in their hands.

everyone frees their hands and gets up to hug him, even shion who was recording.

he truly felt blessed.

- bonus -

ran laid out the cakes that he bought with him, a cheeky grin on his face.

you giggled, standing next to him.

rindou was in the bathroom, getting ready for the photo shoot ran promised him.

“everybody grab one.” ran ordered quietly, grabbing the blue cake.

you grab the yellow one, kakucho grabs the green one, and shion grabs the red one.

rindou walks out of the bathroom, fixing the white shirt he had on with white suit pants.

rindou looks to his left, and ran is already smashing the blue cake into his face.

not hard enough to make it hurt though.

everyone follows behind, smashing cake into his face with big grins and cheeky giggles.

when you all finished, you screamed happy birthday at the top of your lungs.

rindou rolls his eyes, licking the icing off the corner of his lip. he should've anticipated this.

"okay lets do your photo shoot, and then clean up. drinks on me!" ran yells, holding a bottle of wrap & nephew and hennesy.

now that was rindou's type of party.

he can beat ran up later, right now it was his birthday and he was with his favorite people.

people who would do anything for him.

rindou's pics came out something like these -> link link link