#probably like in a week or two when tangos sure he worked out all the kinks

[hybbat]

Tango's already gonna use a world backup to let Skizz play, Grian should just host the backup on the life server and whitelist all the empires folks who wanna play

[theminecraftbee]

After forty-five minutes of no word, the three of them finally decide that someone should go check on Tango. Normally, Xisuma would have reluctantly advocated for just starting without him—it’s Tango, he’d probably gotten caught up in Decked Out work, he’d apologize and laugh it off later and wouldn’t change—but he’d seemed so genuinely excited this time. He’d rambled back at them the moment Etho had invited him to join in on the wither-mining. He’d promised he’d try to show up. He’d checked the time more than once.

It’s been a while since most of the hermits had seen Tango outside of his fortress. Or spoken to him for more than about twenty minutes if their name wasn’t “Zedaph”. Or—it’s been a while. That man is working himself to death, Xisuma swears.

(It’s… not Tango’s fault, Xisuma tells himself. He’d meant to have more done by now. The whole Empires fiasco had put a damper on that. Tango’s always been the sort to fixate a little on his latest project. Besides, all of the Hermits get caught up. It’s normal to occasionally go a week or two without talking to anyone else. It’s just that it’s starting to hurt a little, to reach out and get...)

(Xisuma will make up a better excuse. It’s why he volunteered to go check on him. Save Tango and Etho a little heartache.)

(Tango had been really excited—but so had Etho.)

It’s a short enough elytra flight to the Deep Frost Citadel. Xisuma takes a deep breath. He’ll probably have to locate Tango and convince him to come up from the outside. That place is a death trap already to half the server, and Tango’s normally in the maintenance tunnels instead of the main body of the cave, which are a death trap in a unique “largely unfit for habitation by anything breathing” way that Tango seems to be the only one who knows how to navigate. He’ll make sure he’s okay, and then…

Xisuma‘a thoughts come to a pause as he approaches. There’s someone else at the Citadel, standing near the base of the hill, just past where the borders of Tango’s snowy base fade into the grassland.

A few minutes of approach later, and it becomes clear it’s Tango. He’s standing oddly, his feet braced and arms unsteadily placed forward like he’s worried he might fall. When Xisuma lights another rocket, he looks up in Xisuma’s direction, but before really catching sight of Xisuma, he turns around and winces, rubbing his eyes repeatedly.

“Hello,” Xisuma says as he lands. Tango turns to—not quite look at him? Tango is looking in the direction of Xisuma, certainly, but isn’t quite looking at Xisuma’s face. Maybe there’s too much glare in Xisuma’s visor today?

“Oh, hey X! How’s it hangin’?” Tango says.

“Oh, you know, I was just here to check on you. You’re a bit late to our demonstration.”

“What?” Tango says. “It’s—of course it has.”

“Did you get caught up?” Xisuma asks. He tries very hard not to sound disappointed.

“I—yeah,” Tango says. “Sorry, I swear I set an alarm, but if you’re here I must be later than I thought.”

“Probably nearly an hour by now.”

“I’ve been—a whole hour? Feels like longer,” mumbles Tango.

“The others agreed to wait if you’re coming, and you’re already outside,” Xisuma says. “We can get over there in a few minutes. It’s not too late. Put on your elytra and—“

“No!” yelps Tango, stepping back, stumbling, and then, eyes wide, looking around like he’s trying to find something. “I mean, uh. Not used to open-air flying right now. I was planning on taking the nether but I ran out of fireproof potions and don’t have the blaze rods to make more, so here I am. I promise I didn’t mean to be late, I just…”

Xisuma has no idea where to start. But. “Tango, you built the nether hub? You know you don’t need fireproof potions to get to the Ancient City we’re using.”

“Haha, yeah,” Tango says, and doesn’t elaborate.

“So I guess you were going to the shopping district, to get more blaze rods and their portal?” Xisuma says.

“Yeah, uh, then I realized I, uh, don’t. Remember how to get there,” Tango says. “And, well, you know how it is. Even when you have permission to leave it’s still kind of daunting!”

His voice goes high and a little squeaky. His eyes, Xisuma realizes, have had a sort of wild fear to them since Xisuma first suggested stepping further than where he’s standing. If Tango had pupils, Xisuma imagines they’d probably be darting. The rest of his facial expression does the work well enough.

Xisuma really doesn’t know where to start.

“And you’ve been stuck here for… nearly an hour?” Xisuma says.

“Yeah. Man, I got permission to leave and everything,” Tango says again, which, okay, very concerning phrasing, Xisuma’s just going to put that away for the time being though, because there are a lot of other things to unpack here. “And like, I wanted to see the Withers and a Warden fight! Who would win, right?”

He still hasn’t moved. As Xisuma’s talked, he’s gotten closer to looking Xisuma in the eyes, but it’s more like he’s very confidently looking at Xisuma’s chin. He keeps squinting and blinking when his eyes aren’t wide with a wild, lost sort of panic.

He’s also still rambling.

“Probably for the best I don’t leave, though. I mean, I held you all up, I’d hate to hold it up further because I got caught up. I can just go back; best to keep doing my duty after all. Sorry about that!”

Tango turns back towards his base, as though making that excuse was the excuse he needed to go back towards safer ground. Maybe another time, Xisuma would have let that be, but the thing is, Tango and Etho had both been so excited, and Xisuma can hear the disappointment in Tango’s voice. He doesn’t want to be making this excuse either. Xisuma has no idea what, but something’s wrong.

(Well, Xisuma has some idea, but while he may be a derp, he’s pretty sure it’s rude to ask someone whether they’ve gone blind, developed agoraphobia, gotten possessed, or multiple of those things at the same time. If someone doesn’t bring it up it’s not Xisuma’s business, right? Right.)

(He’ll just…)

“…no, we want to do this with you,” Xisuma says. “Do you need help getting to the cave we’re doing it in?”

Xisuma can see Tango warring between the pride that stops him from asking for help and whatever it is that had paralyzed him the moment he’d tried to step past his base’s borders. He can see Tango war between how easy it would be to claim he didn’t have time and how much he’d wanted to see the wither mining.

“It’s all going to be underground?” he says.

Weird question. File that away. “Yep! Inside an ancient city!”

“And I got permission to leave,” mutters Tango. “So it’s going to be fine once I actually get there.”

“I can even grab some fireproof potions from Cub’s shop when we’re done,” wheedles Xisuma.

“…fine. Lead the way. Uh, and, if you could hold my hand. It’s… very hard to know where I am outside of my base when it’s so bright,” Tango says, voice a little small, and okay, so a mix of all three. Xisuma really should pry, but he’s got what he came here for, and it’s not really his business, is it? He’s sure Tango’ll work it out in the end. He’s a smart guy.

“Gladly, my friend. Let’s go die to withers sixty times.”

Tango laughs shakily. “Yes, let’s!”

Xisuma laces his fingers around Tango’s hand and, suddenly aware of just how many things there are to trip on, starts walking towards the Ancient City.

Gosh, but this is going to take an hour, isn’t it? He sighs and pulls out his messenger to tell the other two. A thought strikes him.

“You know, next time you have this problem, you should text ahead. You can use text-to-speech, you know.”

Tango barks a laugh, louder this time. “Yeah, sure, that’s going to be on my mind. Yeah. I’ll do that.”

Well, good enough for Xisuma!

They make their way to the Ancient City together.

[shewritesallnight]

Cell Block Tango [BSD]

YN is sick of listening to Dazai’s and Fyodor’s prison mind games. Locked away underground, she yearns for a distraction and decides that it’s time for a special game of her own. But can she keep control while playing against not one but two demons…

Rating: 18+, NSFW

3.5K words

a/n: Spoiler alert for anime fans but if you are up to date with manga translations then it’s nothing new. For the sake of this fic we are gonna pretend that the prison suits are two pieces rather than the jumpsuit. We are also sticking to the manga version of the prison, not the hamster balls :p

There was a dull throb at the back of her skull and she was pretty sure she was about to have an aneurysm. That or she was finally going insane. It had been bad enough that she was stuck in Meursault; but being trapped in a box between two maniacs made her mind spin.

How she got in this mess, YN wasn’t entirely sure, but she was willing to bet Chuuya’s entire wine collection that it had to do with one of Dazai’s little schemes. She had hoped to never find herself again playing pawn to the former Executive once he disappeared from the Port Mafia.

Apparently, that was just wishful thinking.

The Demon Prodigy of the Port Mafia and the Demon Fyodor faced off in front of her. Sitting in ridiculous plexiglass cells like Hannibal Lector; and she had been graced with the misfortune of being stuck next to both, completing their little block in the shape of a U.

She had tried, when she first arrived, to question the males; an attempt at getting some idea why she had to be thrown in here. To no avail.

At some point, boredom pushed her to start a guessing game between the two of them to see who could recognize songs as she hummed the tune.

Dazai was up to date with the most current pop songs and seemingly a fan of country music. Fyodor was calling out titles before she even got to the second note of anything remotely classical or rap related.

She wasn’t sure if he called out the latter so quickly because he enjoyed the songs or he just didn’t want to hear them.

Once the conversations evolved to apparent mind reading, she left them to their devices. For all she knew they were absolutely bullshitting and toying with her mind as a form of entertainment.

She wouldn’t put it past them.

How long had they been going at it? Was it days? Weeks? It was so hard to tell in this place, though she had no doubt her two prison mates would know.

She craved stimulation, a new book, real music, or a conversation with a normal person. Hell, she was ready to attack a guard for a change of pace. Though they rarely came around save to drop off food and when they did, they remained silent and out of reach.

No doubt a stipulation to prevent any secretive communication to the outside world.

"97,462."

"4,475."

YN groaned, slamming her pillow over her face to drown out the ceaseless stream of numbers. It would put her out of her misery, if she suffocated herself with the pillow. Better yet, would be to suffocate the two of them.

She giggled into the fluff, building the scenario in her mind but frowned when her imagination came to Dazai.

The suicidal maniac would probably enjoy it.

"Uhg," with a huff, she dragged the pillow down from her face and onto her chest.

Her breath stuttered. A delicious jolt shot down her spine at the feel of the pillow brushing over her clothed nipples.

Were the prison uniforms that thin?

She tugged the pillow down another inch and her toes curled at the friction. She chanced a glance towards her cell block mates, still locked in their staring death match and spouting off numbers at a rapid pace.

Maybe they wouldn't notice. Or maybe she wanted them to, her face flushed at the thought.

Maybe she really was going insane.

Either way, it would be a much needed distraction and if it threw those two off their game while working off some frustration, even better.

Decision made, she returned her pillow behind her head and settled against the sheets. As a test she brushed her thumbnail over a nipple and keened.

Fuck, that felt good.

She slipped a hand under her top to cup her breast, gently squeezing, and groaned. Her other hand traveled down to rub over the clothed apex of her thighs.

Once. 

Twice.

Three times, just to feel the delicious friction.

She moved to tug on the band of her pants.

"What do we have here?" "What do you think you're doing?"

Her body froze at the overlapping voices. Caught, like a deer facing off with two wolves. 

She flicked her eyes first to Dazai then across to Fyodor. The duo had their gaze burning into her. She could only imagine her appearance to them. One hand hidden beneath her shirt with the other poised to slip beneath the fabric of her pants.

"I-i,” she paused. 

Honesty was out of the question, there was no way she was going to tell them that she was so bored that she accidentally made herself horny with the idea of them watching her masturbate.

A half-truth then, just enough to placate them.

She cleared her throat before speaking again, “While your little numbers game has been stimulating. I crave a more carnal distraction.”

Not breaking eye contact with the Russian, she slid her hand into her bottoms. YN bit her lip to keep from moaning when her fingertips brushed against her clit.

Was the base of his neck turning red or was that a trick of the prison lights?

"Tell me, Bella," her eyes darted to Dazai, "who brought about these carnal desires?"

Neither of them.

She hadn't been thinking of anything but the sweetness of release.

Lies.

Both men were at the forefront of her mind. It was no secret that the two of them were quite handsome in their own aggravating way. It wouldn’t be the first time she had thought about-

Annoyed, she huffed out a quick, "The both of you seem to be skilled at guessing games, why don’t you figure it out?”

She knew she made a mistake when his eyes darkened.

Holding her gaze, Dazai spoke to his rival. "Shall we find out which one of us makes her pant like a common whore?"

Heat rushed to her face.

"Seems a pointless competition when we already know who it is."

Dazai’s eyes cut to Fyodor and she felt the tension settle around the three of them. 

Taking advantage of their distraction, she took the time to take in the two figures. Dazai had a prominent tent in his pants. While Fyodor sported a large bulge; his very real flush had darkened at his neck, she wondered how far down his chest the color spread. 

It was intoxicating.

The idea of these two men arguing and turned on because of her. She felt a rush of wetness at her entrance, slipped a finger in, and moaned.

She didn't notice when she became the focus of their attention again or that Dazai had pulled his cock from his pants. Nor did she notice how Fyodor tugged his bottoms down mid-thigh and started rubbing at his own.

She was lost to the brush of her finger against her inner walls until Fyodor cut through the haze with his words.

"Myshka, look at me."

She looked up to Fyodor and sucked in a breath. He leaned back on his bed with one hand, the other working around his cock. From what she could see, the tip was the same pretty red color and smeared in precum. 

Dazai had stood, now leaning against the corner of his cell, fully facing her. She had a clearer view of his cock and could see his fingers run across the prominent vein underneath.

He looked delicious and she clenched at the view. She wanted to wrap her lips around the head and swallow him down till she felt him at the back of her throat. 

As if reading her mind, Dazai smirked. He picked up the pace of his hand when a small sigh fell from her lips.

"Do you imagine my fingers replacing yours? Reaching places you can only dream of?" She whined, eyes closing to get lost in the scene.

Yes, she wanted it.

"She would prefer my tongue working her open, tasting her until she screams." 

"F-fuck," she stuttered at Fyodor's words, curling her finger and imagining his tongue in her. 

She couldn't decide which scenario she liked better, riding his face until her body gave out or seeing Fyodor below her, worshiping her cunt from his knees. 

Dazai clicked his tongue, “It would take more than your slimy appendage to ready her for me. Don’t you think Bella?”

He tapped his tip against the plexiglass. “Let’s see how well you prepare for me. Add another finger.”

Shimming off her bottoms, she kicked them to the floor of her cell. Following his instructions, she slipped in a second finger. It was tight and she knew it wouldn’t be enough to let him in. 

Breathlessly, she began scissoring her fingers, stretching herself.

The feeling was glorious.

She wondered how he would feel, hot and heavy inside her. She’d be lying if she said she never thought of it, of him taking her against the wall at headquarters. It made her whimper, adding in a third finger.

The action wasn’t lost on her audience.

“So desperate for my cock that you can’t even wait for directions. How impatient of you.”

Muffled profanity slipped from Fyodor’s lips as she raised her shirt to her collar, exposing her breasts, to pull at her nipple.

She couldn’t hear their harsh breaths, but she could see them falling apart. Dazai’s forehead fell against the wall, his hips thrusting forward to fuck into his hand. 

Fyodor had leaned forward over his legs, one hand still working his cock while the other fondled his balls.

They continued talking, feeding off each other and the display of her body before them. Speaking into existence all the sordid little fantasies she kept tucked away in the back of her mind.

She would have thought they really did have the ability to read minds if they hadn’t spoken of other darker desires. Words that sat heavy in her core and pushed her that much closer to the edge.

She had never seen either man look so disheveled; and she had never wanted anything more than to be in the same cell as them. To hear and feel their words across her skin as they pounded into her.

“N-nhg” Her teeth clamped down on her lip to prevent the syllables from escaping, a name hanging on the tip of her tongue.

She hissed at the pain but was thankful for it.

When did she start to lose control?

There was no way she was going to give into their twisted antics. She would not say either of their names. No matter how badly she wanted to give in.

She struggled to muffle another moan, pleasure building at her center. A thought drifted across her mind, maybe she could tip things back into her favor.

If they wanted her to call out a name, she would.

It would have to be someone they both knew. Someone who would affect both men.

Someone like- oh.

Like him.

She teetered on the edge, palm grinding against her clit-

“Come for me,” they uttered at the same time.

-and she free fell into oblivion.

“Ah-h-Ango!” she cried out, eyes rolling back as her back arched off the mattress. 

Her thighs trapped her wrist while her walls fluttered around her fingers; barely registering the sputtered choke and subsequent snarl in the background.

She collapsed to her mattress, liquid and loose, and took several deep calming breaths then turned towards her audience. 

Dazai’s cum dripped down from where it splattered against the plexiglass, he looked pained. His hand next to his head in a fist.

A quick glance to Fyodor revealed his hands were covered in his release, a displeased look on his face as he watched her.

Pulling her fingers from her core, she made a dramatic show of slurping and sucking the digits clean, tugged her shirt down, and turned her back on the two.

With a flip of her middle finger towards the demonic duo, she pulled the blanket over her body and settled in to sleep.  

BONUS:

There is a saying, that if looks could kill...

Ango had never understood those words more than in that moment. 

He felt the crushing glare from the two demons on the monitors as if they were in the same room as him. Suddenly, he was very glad to have them locked away.

All the wall monitors of the intelligence room were focused on the three cells, as they had been, since the moment the prisoners had taken their first steps into Meursault.

Sure, he had expected to witness some private moments but to witness that and for YN to call out his name at the end.

There were alarm bells going off in the back of his mind but it didn’t matter. He never dared to dream that she could- that she would- 

His pants felt tight, uncomfortably tight.

Ango could feel the burn of all the eyes in the room, pointedly not looking in his direction.

The triple agent’s face was in flames, a hand covered the bottom half of his face. Trying and failing to maintain a sense of normalcy after the show.

And what a show it was.

The servers would have to be wiped. It could complicate things if he was implicated in whatever Dazai had planned.

Yes, they would have to be wiped. 

But Ango wouldn’t put it past his former friend to have a secret message slipped in. Dazai’s heart rate would need to be compared to the video and decoded. Just in case.

Ango would have to take a copy of the video home to thoroughly examine it.

Fun Fact: Ango was the one to arrest YN. Babygirl knew what she was doing when she fed him to the wolves 💅

❥• ➥ I do not give permission to repost or claim any of my work. Reblogs are much appreciated!

[oceanlue]

hey! if it's alright, could i get the yv boys with a s/o who's obsessed with their hands

Sure also ⚠️ lime

💗Alphonse🧁🍭

He loves that you are obsessed with his hands I mean every time when you guys chill out together basically all the time you just play with his hands whether it be in your hair on your back rubbing it up back and forth to soothe you into a nice sleep or just have your hands in his

He loves the fact that you can't get enough of his hands especially when he just boops you on the nose

But when you guys are alone in the bedroom he loves to use his hands

"Damn boo if you really loved my hands that much then could have done this a lot more sooner if you would just say you like my hands"

Whether that be slowly sliding down your sides for mainly going to town on your lower region and not stopping

He loves the fact that you love his hands so give him extra love and he'll do a little bit more than what he's doing right now

🧡Seth🏕🍂

Seth doesn't mind if you love his hands or not His Hands went through a lot of things in life like beating up people chopping up wood building campfires in the woods and a whole lot of other stuff

If you love his hands he'll just let you hold them and as you keep on feeling up his hands his palms and his fingers maybe give him a little pedicure too if you're feeling it

You also like it when you guys are doing that Devil's Tango that he likes to smack that cake of yours until it's red velvet and maybe after that he'll spread some icing on it~

"Now now sugar if you behave like this then ima take my hands away....no....you really like my hands that much~, well then I won't stop until you tell me"

Even though after a fight with someone you'll always kiss his knuckles so he knows that he's been taking care of.

💚Finn🪴🌻

He knows you love his hands and he's shy about it

He won't say it but i think he likes how you love his hands, like he get all flustered and immediately start to mumble phrases that he will probably say

Only on days where are he is feeling bold enough he will grab your rest with his hands and pin you to the table and as he reaches down to make a mess of you he'll start to swirl the batter and make sure everything is in the right place

"Orchid everything that led up to this. I knew you loved my hands but this is a bit too much for you don't worry my beloved I'll go easy on you"

But he loves to hold your face with his hands so he can look at you

He loves how you love his hands

❤Auron☕⌚

On that night when he took you out to that VIP place to escape he knew right there and then that you loved his hands especially when they were bruised and you can start loving on him because of it give him all the attention he deserves people

Every time when he has a chance between you or when you two are alone either when it's at work lunch time in his office or at home you will play with his hands whether it be just drawing circle patterns or holding his hands no matter where you two are his hands are going to be on you

And he is very smooth when it comes to his hands since his hands have done a lot of work about the Blood Sweat and Tears on all the pleasure that was on there he's going to give you a little taste of it too

"Well rookie if I didn't know any better I would say that you love the way my hands work you know if you keep on begging for me like this I might give you more but you're going to have to convince me my little pet~"

I think you're going to lose your walking privileges for a week good luck with that

_____________

Hope you like it

Peace out

💙💙💙

[tiny-minecraft-rabbit]

Read on AO3 here: The Gold in the Coal Mine

Tango works in a coal mine as the resident explosives expert and as the self-proclaimed caretaker of the canary. He does his best, but some how the little guy keeps escaping his cage.

Warning: Near Death Experiences (via carbon monoxide) (also there are probably a lot of scientific inaccuracies)

His speciality on this mining expedition was the explosives: a half ton of TNT, piled high in crates and a spool of fuse. There was no need for matches when he could snap his fingers and a flame will dance across it. Some people thought he was a bit insane for handling explosives when one slip of the fingers or uncontrolled emotion could send the whole place alight, but he just loved the kaboom. Besides they trusted him just enough to let him keep lining the tunnels with it so who really cared if someone thought he was a bit insane. And if his giggling and sharp-toothed grins and constant jokes about going up in the flames he created only encouraged that thought, well who cared about that either.

The second job he had, unassigned and self proclaimed, was the caretaking of the canary. The little songbird he had affectionately named Tweeters was a brilliantly bright yellow, it shined in the sun and glistened like gold in fire light, almost like it was coated in magic. It was smart too. It managed to unclip the lock on its cage twice now and each time they found it just a couple days later, dehydrated and screeching up a storm. He kept the cage tied shut now, but he didn’t think Tweeters had made another ture escape attempt since then either.

The canary had been caught half a continent away just in the edge of the mangrove swamps (which were said to be invested with witches, so why anyone would risk going in there for a bird, he had no clue, but he was glad for it). They said it was singing up a storm and hopping right up to people. It must have been a pet that got released, though with it being an escape artist it was more likely it had released itself.

He did try to keep the bird entertained. He was sure it couldn’t be fun just staying in a wire cage all day- and then the oxygen box when traveling through the tunnels had to be even less fun. So he’d catch little bugs and stick them on the bottom, a little something for it to watch and pick at. He peppered the bird seeds with a bit of his red pepper flakes he brought along for his own meals, a little flavor that it seemed to enjoy. He talked to it a lot too, and to Tweeters’ credit it did seem like it listened and talked back a lot of the time.

Over the last few weeks he and the canary had gotten pretty close, he thought. It no longer screeched bloody murder when being moved to the oxygen box at least.

It was a cool day in the tunnels. The oxygen box sat off to the side, Tweeters chirping periodically. No one paid much attention to it as they continued with their work, it was just a nice tune to hum to as mine carts were filled with coal. He was loading crates of TNT onto a cart, ready to push it further into the mines.

There was a clatter of wire and just as Tango turned he got a face full of feathers. As he sputtered and swiped at them, and just as soon as they were there they were gone and the chirping was echoing off the tunnel walls. The oxygen box wire door had been picked open.

"Shoot! Tweeters!" He cursed and scrambled to race after the canary.

He didn't get a step before his friend and expedition leader, Impulse, grabbed his arm and pulled him back in place. "It flew further in, Tango, not out. We'll catch it later. I'd rather not have you leave a precarious stack of TNT out here."

Tango hesitated, glancing down the tunnel and Impulse's large hand on his arm. He knew he could probably out run him if he needed; could honestly probably talk him into letting him go, however he could also still hear Tweeter even as it was flying down the tunnel. He could track the bird down in an hour or two when the work was done.

"Alright, Impy," He agreed. Impulse nodded and let him go. He went back to measuring out the TNT.

It was twenty minutes later when he started to realize something was seriously wrong. The song that was almost constant had slowly petered off to nothing. He placed the TNT he had in hand down and held still, hoping to make out the tiniest tweet. When still nothing he stood and started quieting the others, the laughter and picks and general commotion slowly coming to a halt as each man strained to hear the canary. Still nothing.

“Which tunnel did it go down?” He asked, pushing down the growing panic.

Impulse set his pick down, his big hand setting on Tango’s shoulder with the weight of brick, “‘Down in the south tunnel. We’ll go seal it off so no one else gets hurt, why don’t you go back out and-”

“You’re not going to get it?” Tango interrupted, hands curling tightly, nails digging into his palms, “We can’t just leave it, it’s-”

“Oh bud,” Impulse sighed, sounding like he’s comforting a child about a broken toy and not telling his best friend that their beloved little bird was being left for dead, “I know you two were close but I’m not sending you down a tunnel with potential carbon monoxide. That’s why we had Tweeters in the first place, I’m sorry but we’re not going down where it went all by itself. Let’s get you out of here, okay?”

Tango stared up at Impulse, looking for the joke, for the “Got, you! Let’s go get your friend back before he dies”. There was no break in the sympathetic eyes and tight lips, the butthead was being serious. They weren’t going back for Tweeters.

A flame flicked across his knuckles. He let out the breath of anger and dropped his head, “Right. Great. Let’s.”

The hand left his shoulder, “Come on, we’ll-”

He turned on his heel, ducked under Impulse's arm, and sprinted down to the south tunnel.

He could just hear Impulse curse behind him before shouting down the tunnel for someone to grab him. It was easy to duck out of the way of swinging arms. He was one of the smallest ones in the mining group and it made him slippery in instances like this. One person did get a hold on his arm, though they pulled back in an instance, and Tango barely registered it was because yellow flames were dancing up his arms. Perhaps he should take a moment to calm down before something that's not supposed to catch on fire does, but that involves holding still and he’d be grabbed and dragged out in a second.

He could hear pounding steps coming after him and he made a really bad decision and grabbed up small piece of coal off the ground, flaming it, and tossing it into one of the mine carts. Immediately there was popping and several people stopped to put it out. Though that did not stop them from cursing and shouting at him, (a water elemental was already attempting to drench them with their canteen). Impulse was still following after him, but the man was big and broad and it took one swift turn to get him at least out of sight for another minute.

As he came closer to the south tunnel he took a deep breath and held his breath. Immediately his flames went out, even as his face turned red quickly. He struggled with pulling his respirator over his face, stumbling as the tunnel got rockier and smaller as it was newer. There was supposedly a natural opening back here, they had said they had sealed it off but apparently not well enough. This was way too close to where everyone was working, they’d have to completely close off this section of the mines. He held his breath and pushed down his flames as much as could, not wanting the tunnel to blow. He may want to save Tweeters but it'd do no good if he killed everyone doing so.

“Tweeters, buddy! Come on, sing me a little tune, buddy, let me find you,” He called, letting out the rest of his air and taking a big gulp through his mask. A spark traveled down his back as he started having to crouch through the tunnels and he winced and hoped his next breath didn't light the air on fire. He didn't expect to hear his bird, not really, the poor little guy had stopped singing for a few minutes now. He would be lucky if he found him still breathing.

It surprisingly didn't take long to find Tweeters once he reached the end of the cart track. A mine cart that rested on the track stop, the tunnel went on for another few hundred feet, getting smaller and smaller. He was supposed to blow this section wide open a few days from now, though that was definitely not happening anymore.

Under the cart wheel was a golden glow. He immediately reached under and cupped the little bird in his hands. He was pretty certain that normal birds did not glow in the dark, nor that Tweeters had ever glowed this way before, but it wasn't the time to question it.

He pulled the mask off his face as he started racing out the tunnel, tucking the entirety of his bird inside of it. He didn't think too hard about how still Tweeters was.

He met Impulse coming his way and the larger man immediately grabbed his arm and started pulling towards the exit. He was yelling at Tango, lecturing him and reprimanding him- Tango didn't hear a single word, letting himself be pulled out as fast as possible. The others followed them as they passed, a group accumulating after them. Impulse started relaying information about what had happened and that the south tunnels, and likely this whole mine, was compromised.

They all made it out and Impulse immediately pushed Tango down to sit on a closed crate. He was being lectured some more, but all he could think now was the bird in his hand. He ran a finger down his back, the usual sunshine feathers were still giving off the golden color, even while covered in dirt and dust. He couldn't feel the rise of breath or the tiny pitter of a heartbeat, and the more he stared the more the color was fading, even the yellow was dulling around the tail feathers and climbing up his body.

"Tweeters, buddy, please," Tango choked out, continuing to pet down his back.

Impulse went quiet then, finally looking down at Tango's itty-bitty friend, "Tango, I-" he sighed "-I'll give you a minute." He patted his shoulder and stepped away.

Tango didn't acknowledge him. Instead he felt a sob crawling up his throat and then tears dripping down his chin. He whined as he felt his chest seize up, "Please. Please don't go, little guy." His head dropped, his forehead touching the top of Tweeters' head.

The glow around him completely went out and Tango couldn't hold back his sobs anymore. Whatever the glow was, he knew it going out had to be the end. He gasped on his breath as he lifted his head just enough to press his lips to the top of his head. Then he pulled him to his chest and leaned over his little body, head on his own knees and soaking them in seconds, letting himself break down.

He missed the glow returning. Didn't see a thing, but he did hear the sudden stop in chatter around him; the gasps and then growing whispers. It took a second to get the energy to lift his head again and was immediately met with the glow- the light, bright has his own flames. It encompassed Tweeters, bright and pulsing.

There was a twitch. The wings shuffled. Then the light grew brighter, until he couldn't see any of his little friend at all. It grew larger and larger, and the weight on his lap grew heavier and heavier. It eventually slipped off of him, standing on the ground and growing taller from there, until the light was the size of a person and behind them a wingspan to match.

As the light faded features came more prominent. A hooked nose, a light speckling of freckles, bright yellow feathers clumped around where ears should be, and big brown eyes crinkled at the corners from his smile. Giant canary wings fluttered and settled behind the new man. He took a deep breath, locked eyes with Tango and immediately launched himself forward to tackle pull him up and into a hug (and gosh he was a good few inches taller).

"TANGO! You did it! I- Oh thank you. Thank you!"

"I-" Tango gasped, hands curling into the back of the new man's shirt, processing the warm body around him, "Tweeters?"

The man laughed, pulling away to grin in Tango's face, "Jimmy, actually. Oh, it's good to finally talk to you. You're a godsend, Tango. An absolute gem."

Tango's cheeks turned red and flames flickered through his fair, "I- thank you? I don't know what I did."

"You just saved my life, for one," Jimmy chirped, hands resting on Tango's arms and giving them a light squeeze, "Several times actually. I was a bit dumb flying about in the desert like I would get anywhere."

"You- You were a bird. You are a bird? What is going on?" Tango asked, looking around like anybody else would be able to explain it to him.

To his credit, everyone else seemed to be just as confused and completely speechless to what they were witnessing; at least he could ask the questions. Jimmy only laughed more, "A curse! I was cursed. I can bore you with all the details later. The important part is that I'm standing on two feet with two arms and I can hug you," he exclaimed and ended the sentence by pulling him right back into a hug.

Tango stared over his shoulder a moment. He felt over the fabric of his clothes and the thick muscles of the giant wings and focused on the feathers tickling his cheeks and the smell of gunpowder and sweat was heavy in his nose. He took in the mere presence of this person in his arms; the person who he had talked to for hours at a time and shared his favorite food and ran into a tunnel of poisonous gas for, and he closed his eyes and sobbed into his shoulder.

[clover1412]

Closer

got to be the most romantic thing i've written so far

~ ♡ ~

It hadn't been long since he last saw Isuka; it was just last week they had fought at a summer island, the heat deadly in more than one way. This time they had stopped at what was supposed to be a rainy island, but there had only been clear skies and a cool breeze so far. Which was good because something told him he was going to be running a lot and very soon.

'Fire fist!'

'Oh Isuka,' he waved in her direction, 'fancy seeing you here,' the comment earned him glares from some of his crew; Isuka wasn't there for pleasantries, which was obvious by the fact she was sprinting towards Ace. 

'We'll meet you back here Cap!' Skull shouted after him as he began to run away from her. Ace simply nodded before focusing on trying to get away from the very hotheaded marine currently chasing him.

He managed to run past the small village he had seen before they encountered Isuka and into the surrounding forest. He reached a small clearing before stopping and turning around to face her. Here they could fight with no distractions, no obstacles, just the two of them.

'Fire Fist!' as he'd predicted, she was still right behind him. Her stamina was no joke; by now, Deuce would have collapsed. She was breathing hard, and his eyes dropped to her legs; those shorts were made to kill him.

'Hey, let's get this over with, no hard feelings,' he grinned at her annoyance, 'right?'

'Sure, the faster this is over the faster I can get you in handcuffs,' she drew her rapier, ready to attack.

Ace stepped back into a defensive stance, 'ooh, slow down there, Ensign; I didn't figure you were such a freak.'

The annoyed look on her face briefly turned into a flustered one before she quickly masked it by lunging forward to attack him, 'you will regret that Fire Fist!'

And so their usual tango began, Isuka pressing forward with her attacks and Ace dodging and countering with one of his own. They were unusually matched, Isuka's attacks would be deadly to someone without Logia powers, and no average person would be able to dodge Ace's attacks so easily. So all their fights ended the same way, with Ace managing to get away. Isuka knew she was strong, she wouldn't Ensign otherwise, but it was infuriating that she wasn't strong enough to be a proper opponent for Ace; he seemed to fight her for the sake of it. Even if his flirty comments always said otherwise.

~ ♡ ~

She had no idea how long it had been since they'd begun fighting, her arms were burning from attacking, and she could've sworn she felt rain at some point. They had moved from where they started the fight, leaving evidence of their encounter on the surrounding trees. She said a small apology in her head for all the burn marks and slashes; the trees did not deserve that.

Over the time she'd spent fighting Ace, she'd slowly begun paying less attention to her surroundings when she was with him; he kept the fight between them and only them. Which was probably why neither of them realised they were heading for a cliff. Isuka had taken a step back to avoid one of Ace's attacks when the ground below her gave out. Usually, she could've easily avoided this, but a combination of fatigue and a  very slippery floor meant she was going to fall.

But before she could react or even shout, Ace grabbed her hand, yanking her towards him. They fell back together on sturdier ground. Ace had reacted fast, way faster than she could've, and a small part of her wondered why he bothered saving her, but that didn't matter right now. She took a deep breath in; she could've died; she could've fallen and died a painful death. She scrunched his shirt in her hands, trying to calm herself down, and he let her, quietly stroking her back as she tried not to cry. They stayed like that for a while before Ace spoke up.

'Hey, you good?' Isuka looked up at him. He had propped himself up on his elbows and looked at her with concern. She sat up in his lap, glancing away, head in her hands, suddenly aware of the position they'd ended up in. He began to sit up, 'hey? You sure you're okay?'

'I'm perfectly fine, Fire Fist,' she mumbled from behind her hands, attempting to wiggle away from him, but an arm kept her pressed against him. She knew his body was toned, but she really did not need to be up against it or have an arm gripping her waist.

'No, let me see you first. You could've gotten hurt,' she shook her head. If her face were as red as it felt hot, it would be plain embarrassing, and she wasn't in the mood for his teasing. The blush wasn't going to be disappearing anytime soon, not with the way she could feel his muscles shift when he moved.

'Fire Fist, I am perfectly fine,' she repeated, determined not to let him see her face, 'I would appreciate it if you let me go.'

'Hey, come on,' he was struggling to grab her arms and keep her close, 'if I let you go, you're just going to run away. Do you even know where we are?'

'Huh?' the question confused her enough to lower her hands, 'I'm not directionally challenged Fire Fist.'

'Finally,' he grabbed her hands with one of his, pulling them away from her face, 'see, it wasn't that hard.' He scrutinised her face, there were a few scratches, as usual, but nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. 

'See, I'm perfectly fine,' finally satisfied with what he'd seen, he loosened his grip on her waist to allow her to climb off him.

'You're really red though, you sure you aren't sick?'

If it was possible, her cheeks burnt a bit brighter or at least that is what it felt like, 'no, perfectly fine.'

'You've been saying that a lot,' he chuckled, dusting himself off as he got up. 'Let's call it a draw, I don't feel like fighting anymore,' he looked over at Isuka, who simply nodded in return.

She was relieved; her heart rate hadn't gone back to normal just yet after that near-death experience or the very sudden exposure to his body, 'yeah, we should head back.'

'Well, miss not-directionally-challenged, where are we headed?' He smirked at her, ''cause I sure as hell don't know.'

'Well, if I remember correctly, the woods are to the north of the village I was planning on staying in tonight with the rest of my crew,' she pulled out a necklace with a small compass as a pendant. 'So, I'm heading this way. Are you joining me Fire Fist? Do you even know where the rest of your crew are?'

'Not exactly, they're probably where I left them, but I'll stick with you for now,' he threw an arm around her, earning a small squeak of annoyance, 'wouldn't want to get hopelessly lost now, would I?'

She shook off his arm before bending to pick up her rapier, 'suit yourself.'

~ ♡ ~

They spent some time walking in silence. Usually, Ace would've tried to make conversation, but she seemed shaken up and frustrated. He wouldn't be able to make it back by himself; well, not quickly, he'd make it back eventually, but his stomach would not be pleased with him. Just as things were looking up, the rain Isuka had hoped wouldn't bother them began pouring. She cursed as she picked up the pace, finding a tree large enough to give them both shelter.

'I was hoping the rain wouldn't be a problem,' she tugged at her shirt, which had been soaked through her jacket; it was sticking to her uncomfortably.

'This is a rainy island,' he offered, trying not to look further down than her collar bones, which were quite defined, 'eyes up Ace, this is no time to be staring at her body', he reprimanded himself. He knew she was well-built; well, how could he not? Her uniform wasn't the most covering, and with the way she constantly pounced on him, it was hard not to notice.

'I guess,' she sighed, 'this is going to make it a lot harder to return back to the village.'

'We should probably find someplace to stay for the night, it's getting darker,' he had an arm on the tree, leaning over her to try and cover her from the rain.

'Yeah that would be best,' she stopped tugging at her shirt, 'I think there was an inn to the north of the village, we should stumble upon it soon enough.'

'Yeah, or we might be stuck out here all night,' he knocked off his hat and ran a hand through his hair which was falling over his eyes, 'not that I'd mind sleeping next to you.' 

Isuka choked on nothing in particular, 'now why would I sleep next to you?'

'Body heat,' he grinned like he had cleared it all up.

Isuka shook her head; she didn't have the energy to even bother coming up with a witty response. 'In your dreams Fire Fist, let's just try finding that inn.' After rechecking her compass, she set off towards what was hopefully the inn. 

'Why wouldn't I dream of you,' and Isuka tripped in shock. When she turned to face him, a scandalised expression on her face, he simply smiled that flirty smile at her. Now she was really mad; there was no reason for him to tease her as he did.

And so their usual bickering began, a flirty comment from Ace and a shocked response from Isuka. He loved teasing her; her reactions always made it worth it, the way her ears became red, and her expression turned from flustered to angry. He loved riling her up, especially if it meant she tried storming off. She was way too nice to actually leave him, so she'd stop a couple of metres away and tell him to hurry up. To which he'd laugh and jog to catch up with her.

'I'm starting to think we are hopelessly lost Fire Fist,' Isuka complained. They'd been walking for what felt like hours, and yet there was no inn in sight.

'Don't give up too soon,' he decided against placing a hand on her back, 'we'll stumble across it soon enough.'

'I sure hope so,' she shivered, the cold wind worsening the conditions. Isuka wasn't unfamiliar with horrible situations; as a marine, she'd come across many of them, and her training made sure she knew how to survive. However, for some reason, she wanted to throw a tantrum; she shouldn't be lost right now; she should be tucked in bed, pissed off at Fire Fist for escaping.

Ace watched as she shivered, desperately wanting to wrap his arms around her; the cold didn't mean much to him, and the rain barely affected him, but he kept that distance between them. He may be comfortable stepping over lines; that's what he did, break the rules, but Isuka wasn't that type of person; she stayed within the boxes, to a certain degree.

'Let's keep moving,' he gently nudged her shoulder; he lit a small fire in his palm, visibility had reduced, and it was no use trying to walk around the dark, 'sooner we get there the sooner you can dry off.'

'Yeah, I guess,' she started walking again, her arms wrapped around herself, rubbing her arms in an effort to warm up.

It had been about 30 minutes of walking before Ace spotted the inn. They had stopped by another tree, Isuka, wanting to double-check if they were headed in the right direction. Ace smiled fondly at her deeply focused expression, but as he looked up, he spotted a roof, which could only mean one thing: they had made it.

'Hey, we made it!' Ace pointed in the direction of the building.

'We did?' Isuka turned around so fast she nearly fell, arms coming around her to steady her, 'we did!' 

She threw her arms around him, on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck. Her body was cold against his, 'wow, you're so warm,' she chuckled as she pulled back from the hug, not quite realising what she'd done.

Ace grinned nervously at her. She still had her arms on his shoulders and was making it very hard not to look at her and her very soaked shirt, 'why don't we head inside,' he gently turned her around and pushed her towards the building before she could notice the rising blush on his face.

~ ♡ ~

They headed to the inn; it looked empty, and there were no lights on, which was not a good sign. As they knocked on the door, no one answered. Instead, the door swung open eerily. 

'That doesn't look good,' Ace stated, leaning on the doorway as Isuka stepped in.

'No, it does not,' she sighed, 'but at least it's shelter, let's see what we can find.'

'Sounds good,' they split up, Isuka taking the downstairs and Ace the upstairs. There weren't many rooms in the inn. It seemed pretty small; Ace walked from room to room, a small fire in his palm. It didn't look abandoned, just empty for the night, the beds were made, and nothing seemed out of place. They could easily stay for the night; if there was running water and food, they had nothing to worry about. 

As he made his way back down to share the good news, he heard laughter, laughter that probably should not exist, considering the fact that it was just him and Isuka in this place.

'Hey, Isuka?' He called tentatively from the stairs. He carefully stepped down, unsure what he'd find, 'hey is everything good?' He could fight a person, but ghosts were a very different story; his fire would just go through them.

He turned a corner only to bump into Isuka and let out an embarrassing scream, Isuka, who had been just as startled, jumped back, clutching her chest.

'Fire Fist? Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again,' she glared at him, her heart racing, 'I was just coming to get you.'

Just as he managed to calm down, a lady walked into view, a very pale lady, an almost ghost-like lady.

'It's a ghost!' he shoved Isuka behind him, holding an arm out, 'stay away from us!'

'No Fire Fist,' she stepped out, pushing his arm down, 'this is Miss Lisa. She owns the inn.'

Ace looked at her confused, then at the ghost-like woman, and back to Isuka, 'she's the owner?'

The said Miss Lisa stepped closer and into the light of Ace's fire, no longer looking like an apparition. She wasn't very old, maybe early thirties, about his height; she had a kind face now that he could see her features.

'Yes, and, luckily for you, I came back to get some wood,' she smiled warmly, 'you kids must be freezing.'

'Why is no one here?'

'As I was telling your little girlfriend here,' Isuka was violently shaking her head, no, and Ace rubbed the back of his neck. Still, she paid no notice to them, 'when the rain gets too heavy the roads become flooded, meaning you end up stranded; we were running low on supplies here, so we moved everyone into town this afternoon.'

'How did you get here then? Isn't a long walk from the town?'

'The both of you are really quite similar, your girlfriend asked the same questions.'

Isuka interrupted before she could carry on, 'Miss Lisa, like I said we're not together in any sense of the word.'

'People don't often get lost in the woods with people they don't know,' she asked, a bit confused.

'Well we know each other,' she began, 'but we're not exactly close,' the owner still looked lost, 'occupational complications,' she added. In the light, it was probably difficult to make out the insignia of the Marines on Isuka's jacket and the colours of his very telling hat.

'I see,' she seemed unconvinced, 'as I was saying, I live nearby with my husband, and I came back to get some more wood. And as I asked your friend over here, would the both of you like to stay at our house? Just for the night.'

'That's why I was coming to get you, this seems like our best option,' Isuka turned towards him.

Ace took in her appearance. Isuka seemed way more exhausted and cold than him. It might do her good to have help, 'if you want to.'

'Perfect, we'll come with you Miss Lisa, thank you.'

'It's no problem at all, you can help me get more wood too,' Isuka smiled gratefully before following the lady to the back entrance. The wood was stacked by the door, Isuka made a move to grab some, but Ace stopped her. He grabbed a big chunk of them, telling her to relax.

~ ♡ ~

As they made their way down the small road to the house, Isuka made small chat with the lady, who was telling her about the area, about how the inhabitants were quite used to the rain and that no one accesses the inn without going through the town first, if they had they would have known it was closed.

'Well, we're here,' she inserted her key and pushed the door open, 'you can place the wood in that corner,' she gestured to a corner with wood already stacked. The three of them removed their shoes, and Lisa placed slippers in front of them, which they happily slipped their feet into.

'Follow me. We only have one other room apart from mine and my husbands,' she led them upstairs and to a sizeable guest room, 'I hope that's okay with the both of you.' Ace nodded, and so did Isuka. There was an en suite and a large bed. She turned to Isuka, 'if you hop in the bath, I can wash and dry your clothes. I'll try and find you something warmer for the night too.'

'Oh, thank you, that would be nice,' she followed her into the bathroom. Lisa turned the water on, she grabbed a bottle from the self and added it, creating bubbles. It had been ages since Isuka had had a luxury such as this. Isuka took off her jacket, shirt and shorts and folded them neatly but left her gloves on; she took off her sunglasses and placed them on the cabinet.

'Allow me to take your undergarments as well, I'll make sure they're dry before giving them back,' she adjusted the temperature of the water. Isuka blushed, 'sweetheart if you want I can wait outside and you can simply slide them into the rest of your clothes and hand them over, but I can't let you wear wet clothing. Now come here and check the temperature.'

Isuka nodded before taking off one of her gloves to test the water, 'that seems fine, thank you Miss Lisa, if it's possible could I have a small plaster.' her hand traced the one currently on her cheek.

'Now you can just call me Lisa, of course I can. I'll wait outside the door,' she stepped outside, shutting the door behind her. Ace was sitting on the chair in the corner. He was fiddling with the hem of his shirt. 'Would you like anything washed or dried?'

'Nope, I'm basically dry,' the upside to having devil fruit powers.

'Yes quite convenient powers you have there, but you'd benefit from taking a shower, there's one in our room.'

Before he could answer, Isuka cracked the door open slightly to place her clothes on the floor, folded neatly with her gloves placed on top, 'Mi-, Lisa, if it's okay, could you bring back my gloves with the clothing?'

'Of course darling,' she bent down to pick up the clothes, 'now you,' she pointed at Ace, 'come on, I'm sure you got plenty dirty in the woods.' She wasn't wrong. His legs were quite muddy, and so were his shorts. He doubted Isuka would let him sleep like that. He got up to follow her.

Isuka sighed happily; the water was so lovely. Lisa had suggested she add lavender-scented salts to the bath, which released a relaxing smell. She dipped her head below the water, letting the warmth engulf her. She lay in the tub until Lisa returned. She opened the door and placed some clothes and a towel on the cabinet.

'You can drain the water and quickly rinse off the soap before getting out. I've placed everything I could find here,' Isuka nodded, and she left the room.

Isuka did as she was told, almost reluctant to leave the tub, but her skin was turning prune-like. She dried herself with the towel, which was warm and soft; she was being spoilt. She slipped her undergarments back on, now warm and dry, and put on the clothes she was given: a pair of black shorts that were slightly longer than the ones she usually wore and a faded yellow jumper long enough to reach below the shorts. It slipped off one of her shoulders no matter how many times she adjusted it. She replaced the plaster on her cheek and put her gloves back on. She stepped out of the bathroom, holding her sunglasses in one hand and drying her hair with the other.

Lisa was waiting outside, 'oh sweetheart, it's too big for you.'

'It's perfectly fine, M-, Lisa,' but she was a bit distracted by Ace standing behind her; he'd been wrangled into a different pair of shorts and an orange jumper. His hair was messy like Lisa had aggressively dried it. He looked surprisingly good when they weren't fighting, huggable and warm.

'I'll make a start on dinner, make yourselves comfortable,' she smiled before closing the door behind her.

'Never thought I'd see the day when you'd look so small Ensign,' he teased, the massive jumper making her look more petite. Not that she usually seemed small, her massive personality and strength normally made up for it.

'Oh and you love the jumper you're in right now,' she playfully poked his chest.

'She wouldn't take 'I'm made of fire' as an excuse,' he frowned halfheartedly, 'she did give me some wood to start a fire, you know, if you're cold.'

'That would be nice,' the fireplace was a reasonable distance away from the bed, which she sat on. She didn't have to go too close to it.

Ace placed some wood in the fireplace and eventually got a fire going. He leaned back to appreciate his handiwork. He turned to see Isuka, whose expression had become nervous, 'hey you good?'

Isuka had thought she would be okay with the fire, but it was making her uncomfortable, the scar on her hand itching as she watched it burn. She was shaken out of her thoughts by Ace, 'oh, I'm fine,' she smiled, but it was unconvincing.

'It doesn't look that way, is it because of the fire?' her slight flinch gave it away. 'If it helps I can always control it, see,' he held out his hand and absorbed some of the fire. It died down a little, reducing the intensity of the flames.

'Thank you Fire Fist, but really, I'm okay,' her smile was slightly pained, and she was rubbing the back of her hand.

Ace remained unconvinced but decided to let it go. He got up and walked over to the chair before sitting down. 'I can sleep on the floor tonight, you can take the bed.'

'Huh,' she locked eyes with him, 'oh no I can't let you do that, I can take the floor, I'll ask Lisa for some extra bedding.'

'Nah, you deserve the bed,' he chuckled, 'plus I'm used to sleeping on the floor, so don't worry about me.'

She hesitated before speaking again, 'how about we share?' Isuka suggested, unsure what she was saying, 'I mean, the bed's quite big and we're both tired, and it's not like I mind. I mean it's okay, if you're okay with it of course, I'm not saying you have to sleep with me, wait I don't mean it like that,' she buried her face in her hands again.

Ace got up; her rambling was adorable, 'hey,' he moved her hands from her face, 'we can share if you want to.'

'I do,' she replied, before adding, 'I mean I don't mind if we do, don't take it the wrong way.'

'Whatever you say, birdie,' he sat down and lay back.

'Birdie?' 

'Yeah, your name is a bird name, right?'

'And?'

'It's a nickname, like how you always call me Fire Fist,. It's getting kinda boring calling you Ensign.'

'What's wrong with my name?'

'Nothing, it's cute,' Isuka turned bright red, but thankfully Ace had his eyes closed. Was this man clueless? One does not call his enemy cute. Well, technically, he had said her name was cute, but still, it simply wasn't done. Before she could say anything to retaliate, she heard a snore. He had fallen asleep, she carefully got off the bed, not wanting to disturb him. She knew Lisa hadn't wanted her to help, but she wanted to contribute to dinner in some way; after all, she was letting them stay there for free.

~ ♡ ~

It was less than an hour later, and Isuka was shaking Ace awake. He was a heavy sleeper, and it took all of Iuska's shaking power to wake him up.

'Hm,' his sleepy expression made her giggle, 'is something wrong?'

'No, dinner's ready,' she tugged at his arm, 'let's eat.' Ace put out the fire before following her out the door and down the stairs.

Lisa had prepared what she had bought earlier, but it was not enough for all the inn's guests. It was, however, enough for four people or six, considering Ace could probably eat enough to feed a small army. They met her husband; he, too, seemed like a good-natured person. He was taller than Lisa and was in no way bad looking; he introduced himself as Walker.

'So, my wife tells me you're a pirate,' he laughed heartily.

'She would be correct,' he bowed, 'Portgas D. Ace, it's nice to meet you.'

'Oh ho ho,' he patted Ace on the back, 'you seem like a good man.' Ace rubbed the back of his neck, a little bashful because of the praise.

'I'm Ensign 'Nailing' Isuka of the marines,' she held out her hand to shake his, but he pulled her into a hug instead. She patted his back awkwardly as she stood there, not used to displays of affection.

'A marine and a pirate, what an odd pair you've found, darling,' he called out to his wife.

'Aren't they? I was sure they were dating. You know kids these days always breaking the rules,' she laughed with her husband, but Isuka could only chuckle nervously. 

'They aren't?'

'They were pretty insistent that they weren't,' his wife shrugged.

'Shame, they look adorable together,' it was Ace's turn to chuckle nervously as a blush crept up his neck; Isuka was less lucky, her whole face felt hot.

'We really aren't. I'm just the officer that chases after him. We've taken a short break because of the weather.' 

'A break, eh,' he gave them a knowing smile. There was, however, nothing to know, 'well I won't keep us longer, let's eat.'

Dinner was a peaceful affair, well as peaceful as it could be around Ace; they all told stories and laughed until all the food had been cleared. 

When Lisa made a move to clear the dishes, Isuka stopped her, 'you've done a lot for us. Let us clean up,' she nudged Ace, who then nodded along with what she was saying.

'Oh I couldn't let you, you're guests.'

'Please, I feel bad that you've done enough for us already,' she must've been convincing because Lisa eventually gave up and let them clean up.

'We'll be upstairs, if there are any problems let us know,' she wrapped an arm around her husband before disappearing up the stairs.

Isuka and Ace began clearing up, and washing the dishes came first. She tied her hair back in a small ponytail, which Ace had flicked and burst out laughing like a child. She also rolled up her sleeves and replaced her usual leather gloves with rubber ones she found under the sink.  

'You're pretty good at that,' Ace pointed out. He had been assigned to dry the dishes just in case he broke some washing them. He'd been told off by his crew before and didn't want an earful from Isuka too.

'Fire Fist, this is a very basic life skill, plus I was chore girl at a marine base pretty young.'

'Oh, you grew up in the marines?'

'Sort of,' she didn't give anything else, so Ace didn't press her.

'Makes sense; you're pretty young for an Ensign, right?' He figured they were about the same age.

'I guess you don't usually get promoted to a ranked officer without earning it. It's easier when being a marine is all you know.'

'Would you ever give it up?'

'Huh?' Isuka nearly dropped the plate she was holding.

'Forget I asked,' he shook his hands in front of him, embarrassed he'd even considered the thought. Fighting by her side was just a dream.

Isuka stayed silent in contemplation. She'd never considered leaving the marines, and she'd given so much to them. They were her home, in a way, and she wouldn't abandon them.

'What about you? Would you ever consider stopping being a pirate?'

'Nope, wouldn't be anything else. I've got something to achieve.'

'Well, you have my answer as well. We're all doing what we do because we want to,' she turned to face him, but he was already looking at her. 

'Yeah,' he was smiling, and Isuka had to admit he was gorgeous when he beamed like that, carefree and happy. 'You've got a little something there,' he pointed at his own cheek, and Isuka tried wiping the soap off her face, failing miserably because her gloves were all soapy. He laughed at her before leaning down to wipe the suds from her face. 

'Thanks…' her voice became smaller as Ace didn't remove his hand; instead, he stepped closer, thumb resting on the corner of her mouth. Her voice cracked, 'Fire Fist I-'

He was pressing a small kiss on her lips, pulling away before she could even register it. She stood there starstruck, but Ace was stepping away faster, 'I'm so sorry, I don't know why I did that,' he groaned into his hands. He ran his hands through his hair before looking at her again, but she stayed glued to the spot, unsure of what happened.

'Can we please forget that ever happened?' He looked at her, almost ashamed that he'd let himself act on his thoughts. Her lips looked soft and so inviting, and before he knew it, he was leaning down to kiss them.

She finally found her voice again, 'I don't think that's possible, Fire Fist,' she took off the gloves, abandoning the dishes. She turned to face him, leaning against the cabinet, trying to maintain an unbothered expression when in reality, she was screaming internally. At least he had the decency to look mildly terrified.

'I really don't know what came over me. I really am sorry,' he sounded sincere, and she found herself sighing in defeat. She couldn't stay mad at him, at least not when they weren't fighting and especially not when he looked like a sad puppy.

She walked over to him, 'don't look at me like that! And it's fine I guess I didn't really stop you either.'

'Really? You liked it?' He teased, apparently feeling much more confident.

And there he went, hearing only what he wanted to hear, 'huh? I never said that,' she felt the blush staining her cheeks again. She stumbled back as he leant towards her again, cursing his ability to suddenly flip the situation. She felt her back hit the cabinet, cursing the small kitchen too. He leant in, a hand cupping her cheek, and she shut her eyes, waiting, but he pressed a kiss on her forehead. So she opened her eyes; he had pulled back, rubbing small lines on her cheek. She felt disappointed; wait, disappointed? Since when was she disappointed when a pirate didn't kiss her? She should be relieved, but some part of her enjoyed the kiss, enjoyed the warmth he bought her when he was around. 

So she took matters into her own hands, cupping his face with both her hands and dragging his face down to her height, 'wait-' but she was kissing him. She felt him tense, then place his arms around her waist and pull her closer to him, and then melt against her. She felt him smile against her lips, and she knew he was thinking something dumb. She let her hands fall to his chest. The sharp intake of breath made her happy; she still had some power over him. 

She pulled back after what felt like the longest minute of her life, 'you really shouldn't tease a girl like that Fire Fist.'

He was gaping at her, 'I wasn't trying to tease you, but if it made you do that, maybe I should tease you more often.' He was hugging her now, gently squeezing her. Usually, Isuka would've pushed the person away, but it was relaxing being in his arms. It was something she could get used to.

'We should really get back to cleaning,' he shook his head and buried it in her hair, lips ghosting her neck. 'Come on Fire Fist we really have to, I kind of insisted.'

He stood up, a resolute look on his face, and suddenly, she regretted trusting him at all, 'call me Ace, and maybe I will.'

'What?'

'You heard me, call me Ace, you never call me by name, it's always Fire Fist.'

'I don't think so. Fire Fist,' she stuck her tongue out.

He laughed exasperatedly, 'come one Birdie, it's not like I'm asking for much.'

Instead, she gently pushed him back to put the gloves back on; she had almost forgotten about the burn on her hand, surprised Ace hadn’t brought it up. He watched as she continued to wash the dishes, 'do you plan on helping,' she paused, 'Ace?'

'What?' He hugged her from the back; she knew he heard the first time.

'I said do you plan on helping, Fire Fist Ace?' 

He hugged her tighter, 'I could get used to hearing that everyday.'

'Don't get too used to it, and pick up that cloth and dry some dishes.'

'Yes ma'am,' he saluted her before going back to his spot.

The rest of the cleanup was a lot more peaceful; they worked fast, putting away the leftovers and tidying up the room. When it was over, Ace put out the fire in the room and followed Isuka up the stairs. She said something about asking for toothbrushes, but when he entered the bathroom, they had been placed in a cup already. He laughed at Isuka's little speech about the importance of brushing and ended up cleaning a bit of toothpaste off her face, not without stealing a kiss. 

'What side do you sleep on?' He asked, pulling the duvet off the bed.

'Why do you have a side you prefer?'

'Not really, I was just wondering if you do,' he smiled as she threw herself on the bed.

'I don't, I could honestly sleep anywhere.'

'That's something we have in common,' he got in next to her, pulling the covers over the both of them.

'I don't doubt that,' she settled closer to him, closing her eyes, 'I've seen you fall asleep mid-battle before.'

He let her lay her head on his chest, her leg thrown on top of his, a hand clutching his shirt. She was adorable, he thought to himself as he watched her chest rising and falling evenly. She must've been exhausted to have fallen asleep almost immediately. He pressed a small kiss to her forehead and shut his eyes.

~ ♡ ~

The Spades weren't worried about their captain, they rarely were, but Kotatsu was a whole different story. The loyal lynx was pacing back and forth worriedly as his master had not returned all night. The others had assured him that Ace was probably staying somewhere for the night since the rain was heavy. He may be reckless, but he is not an idiot. Furthermore, he was with Isuka, who was level-headed and reasonable.

As soon as Deuce had woken up, Kotatsu had been bothering him, concerned for Ace. Deuce and Skull had barely had breakfast when the lynx was dragging them out.

'Calm down boy,' Deuce rubbed his head, 'Ace isn't that easy to get rid of.'

'Master Ace is strong, he'll be fine boy.'

They spent the morning walking inn to inn to see whether a cowboy hat-wearing pirate had stayed the night. They bumped into Isuka's crew at one of the inns, but they seemed too worried about the disappearance of their Ensign to notice Deuce, Skull and Kotatsu. Which just solidified the theory that the both of them were together and, therefore, most likely safe.

Just as they planned to give up and wait it out on the ship, a woman approached them, 'by any chance are the names of the people you are looking for Ace and Isuka?'

'Yes, Ace is our captain, he must've stayed with Isuka.'

'The both of them are currently at my house, they were stuck outside in the rain so I let them stay the night,' she pointed in the direction of her house. 'I hope you haven't been too worried about them.'

'Oh no, they're both strong, we had no worries.'

'Well, they seemed exhausted, so they are probably still asleep. I slipped out to buy some groceries. If you'd follow me, I could take you there.'

They accepted her offer and followed her back to the house. She gave them slippers and led them into the living room, 'they're upstairs. I can see if they are awake.'

Kotatsu had heard they were upstairs and immediately pounced up the stairs, following his nose to find his master, 'no need, Kotatsu will probably wake up Ace,' Deuce thanked her and followed the lynx up the stairs.

Kotatsu had correctly identified the room Ace was in, but what was throwing him off was the proximity of Isuka's smell, not that he didn't like the marine. It was just odd that they were that close together.

'What's wrong boy?' Deuce asked, pushing the door open for him. He, like Kotatsu and Skull, stood in shock for a second as they entered the room, the image of Isuka and Ace cuddling forever in their minds.

Deuce was the first to burst out laughing, nearly keeling over in laughter, 'oh my god, he's never going to live this down.'

Skull gently shook Ace awake. He woke up, his voice groggy, 'what time is it?'

'Almost ten Master Ace,' Skull replied helpfully.

Ace's sleepiness disappeared almost instantly; he was very aware of the situation. Sometime in the night, he'd kicked off the duvet and wrapped his arms around Isuka under the warmth of her jumper; her slender waist fit perfectly in the crook of his arm. This was definitely not a position he wanted to get caught in; his favourite marine asleep on his shoulder. He could almost feel the teasing energy radiating off Deuce and Kotatsu, who were ready to ridicule him for the rest of his life.

'Fire Fist is something wrong?' Isuka muttered, still half asleep; she could barely register the characters in the room. However, when she did, she sprung away from Ace and dived under the covers hoping it would hide her shame. Deuce was cackling out loud now, not just in his head. Kotatsu was also wheezing; at least, that's what it looked like.

'We'll let you get ready,' Skull said sympathetically, pushing the other two out of the room.

Ace sat up, rubbing his face, 'they're gone now.'

'Doesn't make it any less humiliating,' Isuka complained as she sat up.

'I don't think we can hide this, not from my crew at least.'

'Yeah, mine on the other hand never have to know,' the both of them got up. Lisa had left their clothes on the table, so they got changed and went downstairs, ready to face the obvious questions. Ace squeezed her hand reassuringly before leading her into the room.

They ate breakfast, joined by Deuce and Skull with a bowl of milk for Kotatsu. Surprisingly Deuce kept quiet about the situation, most likely for Isuka's sake.

When they got ready to leave, they thanked Lisa and Walker again; the couple simply waved them off, wishing them the best on their journeys. Lisa winked at Isuka and told her that Ace was quite the catch and to not let him go.   They walked together to the edge of the town, where Isuka stopped them, 'well, we should probably separate here. I should really get back to my crew.'

Ace nodded, saddened to see her go, but he understood she had responsibilities to return to. She stunned him by placing a kiss on his cheek before running away. The move earned more teasing from his crew mates. Which was made worse when they returned to the ship and Deuce announced to the whole crew what they'd seen. It was never ending; every time he did something, it was suddenly related to Isuka. He couldn't sleep - it was cause he missed sleeping next to her - they weren't wrong, but they didn't have to put it like that. In the end, he did miss her and her soft lips and the way she muttered in her sleep.

There was more to their relationship now, and Ace knew things couldn't go back to the way they were, but that was a risk he was willing to take. By her side, he felt like anything was possible. First, he had to get her closer to him, which could throw up problems considering she was a dedicated marine, but it didn't worry him. She would always be his, and he hers.

~ ♡ ~

[prismadog]

I decided to finish the Making a Nest a Home fic all in one go [not like it was very hard considering it's not that great, but oh well, it wasn't meant to be a masterpiece to begin with]

There's technically speaking, two chapters - one an actual chapter and the other more of an extra scene. I'll put them both here in one post.

ao3 link -> Making a Nest a Home chapter 4 [the extra scene is uploaded as a chapter 5]

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

Gifts Given

They stood side by side in front of the nest, blocking it from view as best as they could, and they waited for their friend to show up. It took him a few minutes, he was underground afterall, but he finally stepped through the doors of the Barrel Beast.

The Tegg, his most prized possession, was in an egg sling. 

“All right, what’s going on, guys?” he asks, looking at them with slightly narrowed eyes. He still looks tired, maybe more so than a week ago when they swore to make him a nest that wouldn’t fall apart.

“Well, we made you a promise, didn’t we?” Pearl asks.

“Did you?”

“Yeah, mate, remember last week?” Mumbo asks, fidgeting where he stands. Impulse places a hand on his elbow to keep him steady and from wandering too far and giving away their gift.

Grian just looks confused. “No?”

“Oh sure you do, Grian!” Scar exclaims. “You were all moody and broody and sad over not being able to make a proper nest -” the avian frowns at the unintended slight “- and we took that as a challenge to make one that wouldn’t fall apart.”

“And we did it, Grian!” Impulse says. “We made you a nest!”

They all move aside to reveal the nest they made - Pearl and Scar both stretch out their hands in a dramatic reveal kind of way.

Grian’s dark eyes glance over the thing in the center of the room - they had to mess up the floor a bit in order to put a raised platform there for the nest to sit on - then he walks over. He moves around it, reaches out a hand to touch a couple of the items.

He’s very quiet as he examines their work.

“The base is made of obsidian,” Pearl says.

“And Mumbo and I made a machine that’ll regulate the temperature for you -” Impulse starts.

“Or you could adjust it yourself,” Mumbo finishes the sentence.

“And Jellie and I worked hard to make you the finest bedding that our famous Swaggon technology could create!” Scar says.

Impulse notices Grian picking up one of his i-shirts. “We also lined it with some of our own belongings to make it more comfy.”

“And we asked the other hermits to lend you something too,” Pearl tells him. “There’s a birch deer carving from Gem, a pink sweater from Stress, a pair of goggles from Stress and some feathers from her eagle, then Jevin gave you a bouquet of orchids, and then there’s a headband from Etho and Iskall gave you one of his green shirts.”

“TFC gave me an option of carvings he made and I thought you’d like the deepslate parrot and the diamond ore dragon the most,” Impulse says. “The old labcoat there is from Cub, the stuffed lizard toy is from Beef, the stuffed chicken with the cool sunglasses is from Ren, then Doc literally gave up the lab coat off his back, and Wels gave you his cloak.”

All while they talk, Grian is quietly looking at each item they point out. He could probably figure out what item belongs to what hermit on his own, but they tell him anyway to fill the silence. He runs a hand over a moss cloak.

That’s Scar’s cue to start talking. “I visited the boys at Big Eye Bay and the X brothers,” he says. “Bdubs was kind enough to give you one of his comfiest moss cloaks, then bush-boy gave you one of his favorite azalea bushes, Tango gave me a whole pile of Big Eye sunglasses and Fifi - lemme tell ya, not as mean as he looks - gave you what I hope is an animal bone from his collection - it’s the thought that counts, right? Then the X boys both gave up one of their helmets.

“By the way, I’m not supposed to tell you this,” Scar lowers his voice, “but Evil X was very touched that we’d want something from him too. He got all emotional behind his helmet and it was very cute.”

“I uh, I visited a few hermits too,” Mumbo says, playing with his sleeves. “I went to Joe and Cleo first and they both gave you books, uh, Joe gave you one of his favorite poetry books and Cleo the uh, the armor stand statues book thing. Then I went to Horse Head farms and Hypno gave you one of his bandanas - he had so many in his pockets - and XB gave you a horse head - uh, stuffed horse head, I mean. I went to Zedaph last and uh, he gave you a stuffed sheep toy.”

Silence fills the room again and it stretches on for a long, long time, as Grian looks over and carefully touches each item.

“So…” Pearl says slowly after several minutes. 

But before she can say anything more, their friend looks up at the four of them. His wings start shaking and tears fill his eyes. “G-uuuys…” that single word is wobbly and his voice cracks. 

The tears fall.

“Oh, Grian!” Pearl rushes to his side.

“It’s okay, buddy,” Impulse is on his other side, a large hand on his shoulder.

“Oh, oh, is it that bad?” Mumbo asks as him and Scar crowd the avian as well.

“Grian, it’s okay,” Scar says.

“Guuuys,” Grian sniffles as more tears fall. He tries to wipe them away with the ends of his sleeves but his efforts are in vain. “Guuuys, this is t-too much.”

They look at each other briefly then Impulse wraps an arm around the short hermit. Pearl does too, then Scar and Mumbo join in. They might even shed a few tears of their own.

The Boatem Crew stands there huddled together for quite some time, just cuddling. Later on, they’ll go back to their own bases and let Grian settle in his nest at his own pace, but right now, they just want to cuddle.

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

Grian's Nest

As the sun inches closer to the horizon, most of Boatem leaves the Barrel Beast to return to their own bases. Pearl and Impulse offer to restock the G-Train for him and they refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer - he gives them the shulkers and watches them leave.

Then he’s all alone. Just him and his dragon egg. Standing in front of the nest that his friends worked so hard to make for him.

“They’re so amazing,” he says quietly, hand running over the covered edge. “To think they went through all this trouble for me,” he glances down at the Tegg, “For us.”

He can feel the love radiating off the nest, from the obsidian base to the temperature device to the bedding, and to each and every special item from every hermit on the server. 

He’s drowning in their love and affection but he doesn’t think he minds too much.

“Well, Teggy, shall we test it out?” he wonders aloud.

The Tegg stays silent.

Grian carefully removes the Tegg from the sling and places it on several shirts, then stashes the sling in his inventory, and he carefully climbs in too after toeing off his shoes. He lays down beside his egg and gets comfy, his wings shiver and feathers ruffle as he does so.

It’s a lot roomier than he first thought, despite all the different items in the nest, but it’s cozy, very cozy.

He pulls an armful of items close and rests his head on the yellow sheep from Zedaph that’s tucked under Doc’s lab coat.

Different scents fill his nose and it’s like he has the entire server at his side. He relaxes more, wrapping his arms around the dragon egg, and pulls a few items over his shoulder to cover him.

For the first time in what feels like forever, Grian falls asleep quickly and without trouble. And when he does, he dreams of his friends and family.

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

[absolutepokemontrash]

ayo!! congrats on 666 <33 I'm not sure if its much of a request but I love how you wrote the demon kids personalities! I was wondering what kids of personalities you would see the other brothers kids having? Hypothetically of course (unless 👀)

BRO- I’ve actually been thinking about this for a while! Fan kids are fun to think about, what can I say? Now, these kids aren’t canon to the Awfully Familiar series, the HOL is crowded enough as is… but I hope you enjoy anyways!

(I’m giving all the kids names just so no one gets confused with which kid is whose)

Levi’s Kid

Uh let’s use probability to figure out how rare children of our snek boy are. The Otaku left the house (unlikely), spoke to a human being (very unlikely), did the devil’s tango with them (impossible)

I’m kidding, but seriously what the fuck why did this human exchange student look so much like Levi? Was that a tail? Hehehe… what a weird practical joke…

(I’m calling this MC Percy. Three guesses as to why)

Okay, onto the kiddo’s personality. I’m picturing them being REALLY hyped and REALLY enthusiastic about their hobbies and isn’t afraid to yammer about them. They’re good at what they do and they’re damn proud of it! They turn their envy into *~inspiration~* and get better at the things they enjoy doing!

In all fairness to Levi, it’s a bit easier for his kid because Percy isn’t literally being eaten alive and consumed by this sin every waking moment of his life… perks of being half human! :D

Percy loves swimming, and the ocean, and fish, and they brought a shark back from the beach- wait hang on a second-

It’s not uncommon for Levi to be hardcore gaming while Percy swims around in the fish tank.

The pair of them have a very good relationship, Percy is kind of Levi’s hero with how eager they are to get better at the things they love doing and how they almost never self pity spiral. The one issue is… ugh… Percy is a 🤢…. Sorry. Percy’s a 🤢 🤢-

They’re A FUCKING NORMIE. THEY DON’T LIKE ANIME!

Other than that, the two get along swimmingly. (Ba dum tisssss)

Percy’s reaction to Levi’s cool military titles is basically “WOAH! YOU HAVE BOATS?! CAN I GO ON ONE?!” And Levi would be a monster to decline.

Percy wore a pirate hat despite Levi telling them numerous times that they were a part of the navy, they CATCH pirates. Which are apparently still a big problem in the Devildom…

Also, Percy and Lotan absolutely adore each other. It makes Levi very happy

Satan’s Kid

Satan’s a pretty charming guy, and it’s canon that he’s amazing at seductive speech craft so it’s no surprise that he was able to seduce a human.

You know what is a surprise? The fact that Satan, the smart one, didn’t think to use protection! Like- DUDE I EXPECTED BETTER FROM YOU.

Whatever, anyway, when this kid slammed onto the floor of the assembly hall no one had time to react when the kid suddenly grew horns… and fangs… and a tail… OH FUCK THE KID WAS GOING THROUGH THEIR FIRST TRANSFORMATION WHAT THE FUCK-

(For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to call this kid Lyssa, mainly because of the meaning of the name)

The first thing Lyssa did was launch themselves straight at the first person they saw, and I ask you to guess exactly who sits in the middle seat of the assembly hall. That’s right… Satan… yay…

This kid nearly clawed his face off in the span of two seconds and it took Lucifer and Beel working together to drag them off of him and then Asmo had to step in to use his powers to calm them down. Well. That was eventful.

So Lyssa has a volcanic temper and they’re honestly really bitter and upset at everything, which is something that’s supposed to come in adult life, not so early. So what’s up with this kid? Well, when you’re born with a burning rage deep inside you that can be set off at even the slightest inconvenience and because of that everyone around you immediately assumes you’re dangerous or crazy can really do some damage to a kid.

So who oh who is Lyssa going to blame for this…? Hmmm… who is responsible for the anger? *Side eyes Satan*

“Wow, this kid is blaming me for passing down my wrath even though I couldn’t control giving it to them and if I had the choice I would have made sure they wouldn’t have to live with it and they’re mad at me for subjecting them to existence itself… wow this feels so bad :( who would treat someone like this..?” “*Dad sigh*”

The two of them do eventually get along. It’s actually Satan who extends the olive branch and offers to help them control their anger. As the two spend time together, Lyssa’s intense hatred slowly subsides.

So… what’s Lyssa going to do now? They’ve spent so much of their life being defined by their anger… who the fuck are they????? U-uh… cats! Cats! Lyssa likes cats! Is liking cats a personality? No? Okay… um… Music! Music is relaxing! Lyssa likes music! Um… um… ooo- look at that! They like space! And stars!

You knew what they don’t like? School. Lyssa doesn’t like learning in a controlled environment where they’re being told what to learn. Leave them alone so they can go read about space.

Beelzebub’s kid(s)

*munch* *munch* *chew* *chomp* huh, *chomp* why does the takeout- I mean the human look so much like him…? They’re his kid..? *choke* *cough* *cough* …Huh. Want some chips?

Surprisingly chill first meeting. Well, Beel and the kid were chill, everyone else was freaking the fuck out.

I’m calling this kid Pepper. Why? Fucking guess.

Pepper themselves is just… chill. They’re sort of like a capybara, their vibes are just so immaculate that everyone wants to hang out around them.

Unlike Beel, Pepper’s penchant for food mainly comes from “food is good.” instead of “my body is literally eating itself alive every second of the day and I need to be eating something at almost all times in order to stave off a rampage.” Beel is very happy that his kid doesn’t have to live with food constantly on the brain.

All was well until three days into the exchange program when Pepper asked at the dinner table “so when are we bringing my twin down here?”

…twin genes man… twin genes…

Second kid, I’m calling them Cane. (CANE PEPPER, GET IT?! GET IT?!) this kid is less like a capybara and more like a honey badger. They don’t give a shit.

Here’s the thing though… they’re identical twins.

Cane is basically Beel but smaller. They follow Beel to the gym and usually get stopped at the door. “Kids aren’t allowed in the gym.” Ha, the rules don’t apply to Cane, they just cross their arms and raise their eyebrows and whoever is stopping them just steps aside. Don’t fuck with the honey badger kid.

Pepper and Cane are super close though, but don’t ask if they have a telepathic link or something, Cane will fuck you up and Pepper won’t be able to stop them. (I know a pair of identical twins, and the amount of times they’ve been asked if they can read each other’s minds is enough to make anyone homicidal)

Belphegor’s kid

*squints* how’d this happen..?

Whatever. When Belphie’s kid woke up on the floor of the assembly hall everyone took one look at this kid and collectively went “shitballs”

Belphie was in the attic and his kid was wandering around the house like they ran the place! What the fuuuuuuuuck was Lucifer supposed to do with this????

Anyway, meet Arien.

Arien, how does one describe this little hellspawn? Well, one would call them the brood of Lucifer or the spawn of Satan but that would be false because this manipulative evil devil-child that crawled straight out of a teacher’s nightmares is BELPHIE’S kid. And it fucking SHOWS.

This kid won the demon/human genetic lottery and they’re going to make it everyone’s problem. Basically, they’re sin is sloth, but unlike Belphie, Arien’s is more voluntary, if that makes sense. They sleep and slack off because they like not doing work, not because they’re always tired. They have this sort of lazy relaxed facade that vanishes the second it’s not needed, it’s honestly kind of terrifying.

They quickly learn that if they just pretend to be having troubles with being constantly tired, the rest of the house will go easy on them if they miss their chores and schoolwork.

Jeez Louise when this kid met Belphie…

They both just stared at each other for a solid five minutes before anyone said anything. Belphie somewhat nervously started up his “oh woe is me get me out of here :(“ charade, and the kid played along for a few weeks, until of course, they got suspicious.

You remember how Belphie guilt spiralled with L!MC? Yeah imagine that but 40 times worse, and he hadn’t even done anything yet.

But yeah, blah blah blah Arien breaks Belphie out, they don’t die, family’s back together, happily ever after. But not quite. Arien’s “oh no I’m sorry I’m sleepy…” charade was found out and boy howdy was everyone pissed.

Surprisingly, it was Belphie who gave Arien the wake up thwack, but Arien called Belphie out on his laziness so Belphie was forced to become a better example.

The way they fixed Ari’s behaviour? Extra chores, extra schoolwork, extra everything, and the boys did nothing to help. Basically, “this is how we felt! Deal with it!”

It worked… thankfully.

[medusasstory]

3rd Life Quotes Week 5: The Week Of Retribution

Grian: Are you siding with them now?

Etho: I kinda go wherever the chaos is.

InTheLittleWood: We can make some chaos. 

__

Bdubs: I hate that this has to happen. I hate it. But unfortunately, justice must be served. 

__

Etho: Tango, this isn’t punishment, it’s a mini-game.

__

Grian: Just give him the banner, it’s not worth it. We have banner at home. 

__

Tangotek: Explain to me how I survive this. I’d like to know. Is this a firing squad?

__

Tangotek: Didn’t expect to die today, did you?

Etho: I was really enjoying it when you were dying, but then it turned to me. 

TangoTek: He didn’t tell you he was gonna do that, he just surprised you, didn’t he.

Etho: Noooo.

TangoTek: That was great, that was great.

Etho: I probably could have gotten out of it, but I succumbed to the peer pressure. 

TangoTek: The law is the law, you know. 

__

TangoTek: I love your—all your PvP tactics, it never comes down to just swords with you. You always have a trick. You always have a trick up the sleeve. And that’s what makes you dangerous. 

Etho: You gotta make it fun, you know. 

__

TangoTek: I’ve seen this clock before, what’s it called?”

Etho: It’s a hopper clock.

__

Bdubs: What I need is two good friends and a really good shot. Would you be willing to come and lay down this justice over at the crastle?

__

Impulse: Whoops

Skizzleman: You know what that means? I can go ahead and attack you! And die two minutes later. 

Impulse: Yeah I’m pretty stacked right now. 

__

Etho: I’ve been meaning to talk to you actually.

Skizzleman: What’s up, Buddy?

Etho: Do you need a legal representative? Cause you might need a will.

__

Skizzleman: *throws a flower* Is that valuable to you?

Impulse: It is now, I can go pay respects to Bdubs. 

__

Grian: So i just want to remind you that we’re not the most popular kids in town. Cause we got a triple kill last session. 

__

Grian: I’m not sure if that plan is going to work any more?

GoodTimesWithScar: We go all out and just straight to murder.

Grian: Okay, you’re the boss.

__

GoodTimesWithScar: *seeing a house fire* I’ve got water, guys! I’ve got water, and if anyone needs to die, I’m open.

__

GoodTimesWithScar: Just think about this. Your loved ones will be able to come and see you in dignity, instead of just lying on the ground like this. Ehhhhhhhhhhhh.

ZombieCleo: I don’t really have a lot of dignity, it’s not really my watchword. 

__

Bdubs: Take the diamond. Take it. Cleo, they’re too kind. 

ZombieCleo: They are too kind.

Bdubs: Free bubble elevator?

GoodTimesWithScar: Remember us in your time of need.

__

GoodTimesWithScar: Are you building ancient ruins?

Etho: I’m just building—I’m gonna show them a wall. It’s a double-wide wall. These are very special to me. 

GoodTimesWithScar: Everybody, come gather up here.

Etho: Get some light. And then you get some water. This is to make it difficult to pass by the wall. 

Bdubs: This is a TNT cannon. 

GoodTimesWithScar: This is a water slide!

Etho: No no no. 

ZombieCleo: That’s exactly what this is. 

Bdubs: This is the start of a TNT cannon, I’m a red stone genius. 

Etho: It’s a wall. 

GoodTimesWithScar: You guys have no imagination, I’ll tell you that. 

Etho: It’s a redstone-controlled wall. 

Bdubs: THIS IS A TNT CANNON. 

__

Etho: Woah, okay, you got fireworks. 

ZombieCleo: Yeah, we got fireworks. 

Etho: Ahhh. Okay, I’m gonna—

ZombieCleo: Do you want to take your “wall” with you?

Etho: Do you not like my wall?

ZombieCleo: No, well, it’s a lovely wall. I’d just prefer it was built in front of wherever Scar’s base is. 

__

Bdubs: No matter what happens, I’m not moving. 

Etho: If this was a TnT cannon, you’d gets some slabs or something,  maybe a ladder over here—

Bdubs: You watched my tutorial, I see. 

Etho: And then like this—

Creeper: *explodes directly behind Bdubs*

Bdubs: AUgh!

Etho: Something like that, y’know?

Bdubs: Was that it—was that the cannon?

ZombieCleo: *laughing* No.

Bdubs: Dude, that is amazing. You need to do a tutorial on that.

__

GoodTimesWithScar: I don’t know how it happened, but I think I burnt the flint and steel but not the banner.

Grian: Okay, good job I carry a stack.

__

SmallishBeans: Welcome back to 3rd Life, where we have been to the hairdressers, and we now have a yellow streak through our hair. Which has been pointed out to me, kinda looks like someone has peed in my hair. So hopefully we’ll move on to red soon, as I think that’ll look a lot more menacing. 

__

SmallishBeans: Alright, I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of death, and I love death. So let’s head back to the surface. 

__

SmallishBeans: I feel like I might be pledging allegiance to too many people at this point, but I don’t care. I’m just not gonna tell any of them. I’m kinda on good terms with Scar, and Ren. So I can just choose who I’m gonna betray. It’s awesome. Who should I betray? Them all! *laughs*

__

Skizzleman: I almost did it cause I love to take risks like that. I’m an idiot. 

__

InTheLittleWood: The crastle hermits attacked one of our own by burning Joel’s roof and in turn his body. 

__

Grian: Skizzleman, you don’t want your series to end early. We’ve got netherite swords. 

__

Grian: Dude. Scar does not listen to me. 

Skizzleman: Try. Try it one time. 

__

RenDog: That is a declaration of war. So. I hope you’re happy with yourselves. We will be seeing you very soon. And you better be ready to fight, cause it’s going down. Mmmkay?

__

Grian: <Scar come home>

Skizzleman: <We’ll bring him home in a box>

__

RenDog: Unfortunately, that is a declaration of war. We’re locked in, dudes. 

InTheLittleWood: We’ve fought together, we’ll thrive together. 

__

Skizzleman: ‘You hit pizza’ says Grian. What do you think we’re aiming for, homie?!

__

RenDog: The banner is up and flying. Red Winter is here my friends, and we are going till the end. 

__

SolidarityGaming: Does this mean all the red names are gonna come together? And we’re all gonna be chill? Y’know? All gonna be good? Gonna go on a killing spree?

__

Smajor: You’re scary now that you’re red. 

RenDog: I am red indeed. 

Smajor: I have my own red! No Jimmy, don’t go near him, don’t go near him. 

SolidarityGaming: I’m stickin’ up for you!

InTheLittleWood: My red could beat up your red any day. 

SolidarityGaming: No, but, but. 

Smajor: My red could beat up your red? You probably can. But my red’s—here. 

SolidarityGaming: Say something good about me!

__

Smajor: Is he a pirate?

InTheLittleWood: Don’t even worry about it. Little bit of pirate, game of thrones, Scottish...

RenDog: We’re having a little bit of trouble with the accent. 

InTheLittleWood: We?! Oui? Apparently I’m stuck in French. 

Rendog: Well, me. Me in particular. Anyways. 

__

RenDog: Okay guys, I came in a bit hot. I’m a bit flustered. I’m sorry. That felt a bit aggressive?

__

SolidarityGaming: I know whats gonna happen here, alright? We’re gonna end up partnering up with them, you’re gonna end up on the alter, I’m gonna be looking you in the eyes, and they’re gonna sacrifice you. And I don’t want that, alright?

__

SolidarityGaming: I’m gonna make a book, and you’re going in that book, alright? We’re gonna have our own altar, and Martyn, you’re going on it. 

Smajor: Jimmy can’t write. Jimmy can’t spell, don’t worry. 

InTheLittleWood: If Jimmy did make a book, it would be labeled ‘people can beat Jimmy at PVP’

SolidarityGaming: Scott’s gonna make a book, and he’s gonna write you in it. 

__

SolidarityGaming: He was basically talking about you being a sacrifice. One of us being a sacrifice. 

Smajor: Yeah but Jimmy, I have prot. v, prot. iv, prot. iv. 

SolidarityGaming: It doesn’t matter! He was gonna put you on an altar! I guarantee, someone is gonna die on an altar. I guarantee it. 

Smajor. Okay. It’s not going to be me. 

SolidarityGaming: Sorry, I’m stressed. I’m flustered. 

__

Grian: But they have an Etho. 

GoodTimesWithScar: Remember, we just flash some TNT and Etho will follow us. 

__

GoodTimesWithScar: And we’re just here to chit-chat. And provide gifts. Didn’t expect the gift part, now did you. 

SolidarityGaming: *delighted* No I didn’t. I didn’t actually. 

__

Grian: Scar, I’m surprised you’ve made any friends on this server, to be honest.

GoodTimesWithScar: I have a lot of friends. I know Etho in the end, he’s gonna support us. 

Grian: Scar, remember, the second I lose this life, I’m out. You know that, right?

__ 

Smajor: You’re both still our allies, even if you’re not together. It can be an amicable breakup. 

__ 

Smajor: I feel like yes, he’s betrayed everyone else he’s been friends with, but at the same time, we’ve actually given him useful things. 

__

InTheLittleWood: How are you feeling? Do you feel refreshed after the smitherines that was you last week?

RenDog: Let me tell you something Martyn. I got revenge in my veins today. I’ve been thinking about it all week. 

__ 

RenDog: Essentially, don’t be too nervous, it’s basically just a causal test of loyalty, that’s it. 

InTheLittleWood: Sure. 

__

InTheLittleWood: What’s death like? I never asked, the first time. 

RenDog: It’s a little bit moist, to be honest. 

__ 

InTheLittleWood: You’re a cruel one, my lord. Funny but cruel. 

__

InTheLittleWood: I won’t do it! You took me in when I was a lowly traveller, goin’ across the lands, searchin’ the four corners of this world. I learned that there was nothing in this world for me. Nothing but walls, corners, edges. And you know what? You showed me life. As much as I’ve taken it from you, you gave it back to me in bucket fulls. and I just- I’m with you. This is us now. This is us.

RenDog: It’s ye and me till the end, Hand. 

__

InTheLittleWood: I’ve gotta come clean now, because you’ve basically laid yourself out, and been so vulnerable, and trusted in me.

RenDog: I stood naked before you, dude! You saw all me bits!

InTheLittleWood: I did! They were grey and long and I’ll be honest, they look strong! I’m only saying that cause it rhymed. 

Rendog: Well thank you. Ladies, gentlemen, everybody in between, get in line, do you know what I’m sayin. 

__

Skizzleman: Martyn I’m sorry, I just, I got alarmed there. 

InTheLittleWood: You judged me before you even knew me. 

Skizzleman: Well, you murdered somebody. And you set me on fire, don’t forget. 

__

InTheLittleWood: You mind how you speak to my liege!

SmallishBeans: Oh you shut up. 

InTheLittleWood: Okay. 

__

InTheLittleWood: Is someone shooting fireworks?

RenDog: It’s Cleo. Cleo’s got some sort of crazy crossbow of doom

__

InTheLittleWood: That’s one person from the list who’s managed to die now. What happens with the list, boss? Is it a case of, when somebody dies they come off the list, and then they go back on with y’know, good reason? Or what?

RenDog: The Black Book. If you’re in the Black Book it means it’s the end of 3rd Life for you. 

InTheLittleWood: Oh wow, this is all the way. Also, it looks like someone is sneaking into Renchanting. 

__

GoodTimesWithScar: Etho, Etho, this is a betrayal, by the way. 

Etho: Yeah, I know. You should give the banner back. 

__

Etho: Don’t water board him!

InTheLittleWood: If he doesn’t give back the banner, that’s gotta be the way it goes. 

__

Grian: Things could start to get a little bit dangerous, I think Scar needs to put his clothes back on again. How—this series is 50% people dying by accident, and 50% ‘Scar put your clothes back on’. 

__

GoodTimesWithScar: Do you want me to try to get them out?

Grian: Yes. Use Etho. 

__

Bdubs: Wait a second. Water elevator? Pufferfish? 

Grian: Yeah look, it didn’t go to plan. 

Bdubs: I’m starting to put the pieces together.

ZombieCleo: Are you really just starting to put the pieces together, Bdubs?

Bdubs: I finally figured it out!

__

Bdubs: Cleo, he’s trying to take our diamonds! Scar, try out this elevator. 

ZombieCleo: Oh no, not our diamond, that is so rare.

GoodTimesWithScar: I’ll meet you up, Bdubs. I’ll race you to the top.

Bdubs: There’s lava here!

__

Grian: Success. Absolute success. Well, kind of. It was messy, it didn’t work the first time around. Like I said, all my traps work the second time round. 

__

Grian: Look, okay, hear me out. This is how it breaks down with you. I’m Grian, you’re Etho. I’m trying to convince you to join me. You have to choose the one that you think Etho would choose. Hey Etho! Do you hate me, Etho?

GoodTimesWithScar: *Nods*

Grian: You do Etho? 

GoodTimesWithScar: *places TNT*

Grian: No! No Etho! Bad! 

GoodTimesWithScar: Okay, is that Etho?

Grian: I got a proposition for you Etho, right? I will give you a piece of paper, and a horse armour, huh? And in exchange you do what I want. That’s option one. 

GoodTimesWithScar: Welch, I apologize to say this, but no. That was my Canadian accent. Okay, for realisies? TNT again. *places TNT*

Grian: No, no. Number two, option number two—why don’t you help me blow something up?

GoodTimesWithScar: *gasps* I’m so down. 

Grian: You see? That���s how it works. That’s how it works with Etho. He doesn’t like horse armour. 

__

Grian: *in a whisper* Don’t trust him. He has betrayed everyone we’ve been friends with. Just, be careful. 

Smajor: We will.

SolidarityGaming: But he said we warmed his heart. 

__

Grian: Scar, why have you done this!?

__

GoodTimesWithScar: Grian? I think I need to go kill one of them. They’re not good people. They killed Pizza. I’m actually slightly in shock right now, that they killed Pizza. 

Grian: *stammering*

GoodTimesWithScar: I don’t even know what to think.

Grian: I told you, they were aiming for Pizza. 

GoodTimesWithScar: They could have aimed at me all they wanted, but Pizza was an innocent animal—I wanna go out. I wanna kill them. 

Grian: Scar, no. Next session, they’re leaving. Scar, you can’t win 4v1, and I can’t help you in a PvP fight. *pause* We could set Etho’s castle on fire. GoodTimesWithScar: There we go. 

__

Smajor: Where there’s a me there’s a way.

__

Smajor: Wait, Tango was shot by Impulse? What? I don’t know what happened there, but that seems spicy. 

__

Smajor: Etho was shot by Tango? I don’t know if I want to go over here. Seems like some cult stuff.

__

Smajor: I was wondering, seeing as you decided to spit in the face of Dogwarts, if we wanted to get an alliance with different folk. 

__

Smajor: Well that was another episode of 3rd life. We got ourselves some really good armour, which is useful, because we also got ourselves some enemies.

__

Etho: You’re gonna turn on one of your Crastle people, just like that?

Bdubs: Hey! Hey. This is justice. This is justice. I still love him. But doesn’t mean I can’t punish him. 

ZombieCleo: This is all Bdubs, at this point.

Etho: You’re Lawful Bad?

Bdubs: Is that what it is? Okay. 

Impulse: Tough love is what it is, that’s all.

__

TangoTek: I can wear my armour?

Bdubs: You can wear one piece of armour, and it has to be the filthy helmet that you wore last episode.

__

Bdubs: The whole thing was a plan to get Etho. We had to get Tango first. 

ZombieCleo: Did Tango know about the plan?

Bdubs: He knows—He didn’t know. But he’ll know—

ZombieCleo: He knows now.

Bdubs: He knows now, yeah. 

__

ZombieCleo: I still need to burn down Joel’s house. 

Bdubs: Right. Of course. That should be on the list. But why, though?

__

GoodTimesWithScar: Someday, death will come. And do you want to be one of these fools, just dead on the ground, just lying on the ground looking straight up like a fool—or do you want to go to the afterlife in Style?

Bdubs: I mean, style. Style is nice. *pause* Is this a threat? The whole thing feels like a threat. 

GoodTimesWithScar: Noooo, this is a happy thing. Look at this, look at this. Bdubs, this is the executive model of the coffins.

ZombieCleo: Bdubs, he’s putting you in a coffin right now. 

Bdubs: It’s fine, it’s fine, he can’t touch me. 

ZombieCleo: You say that, he’s red, he absolutely can touch you. 

__

ZombieCleo: *facing the fact that their base is on fire* It’s not worth your life, darlin’

Bdubs: *on four hearts, running into fire* But it has to be dark oak to match the rest of the floor, and we don’t have any more saplings. 

__

Bdubs: The second those fools came over here I was thinking to myself ‘just do it’. The bumblin’ fools were putzing around trying to kill me, and sure enough finally they did. But it wasn’t without a little help from me. I wanted it. I WANTED it! Finally I’m red! As a yellow, on my second life, I can’t do anything. But on my third life, now—I’m a weapon.

__

Etho: You executed him just so he would be a threat? 

RenDog: That’s right. 

InTheLittleWood: Literally, yeah. 

RenDog: So that one of us could be red, so that we could uh—

Etho: Wow.

InTheLittleWood: He created a weird altar and everything, it was a whole situation. 

Etho: That is a boss move, I’ve gotta say, Ren. 

[respectable-username]

I've been back in the office these last couple of weeks after working from home for almost exactly a year, so of course that means it's time for:

Hermitcraft Corporate AU 👩‍💼🧑‍💼👨‍💼

All the Hermits work in the same office for the one company.

The company, or at least the division they work for, is a tech company, partly because a lot of the Hermits are already technical and partly because that's something I know enough about to riff on 😛

Zed, Impulse, and Tango (Team ZIT): Backend engineering team. Tango and Zed are both developers and Impulse is their project manager. All three of them code though, because of understaffing due to budget cuts. Impulse keeps trying to get Skizz hired as an additional developer, but no success yet.

Grian and Scar: UX and UI designer respectively. If you get the two of them in a design meeting together, be prepared to spend 20 mins listening to them argue over the colour of a button. What they come up with in the end though is always brilliant.

Mumbo and Iskall: Frontend engineering team. The interfaces they create based on Grian and Scar's designs are amazing and super functional and I didn't even know you could do that with JavaScript! The only teeny tiny issue is that they're always suuuper sloooow. But, I mean, surely customers are happy to wait 10s for a page to load? 2s after a button push for an action to happen? That's normal, right? Right?!

Doc: Database engineer. Whatever is making the website slow, it's not Doc's DB. That thing has been optimised to the extreme, regularly tuned based on real usage information. It's also super durable, sitting on a custom RAID array that nobody's previously implemented outside research papers published within the last year. That thing isn't going down. That thing isn't going to slow. The GOAT will make sure of that!

Etho: IT support and general hardware guy. Whether it's a broken keyboard or a new physical server that needs installing, Etho's your guy. Can do anything you need in the hardware space. Honestly, it's kinda weird how broad and yet how deep is knowledge is. Even the esoteric things he usually has an answer for. How does this guy know everything?!

Joe: Security red team. His job is to break and break into the company a hundred different ways, then write a report about exactly how he did it. You can generally tell Joe's level of boredom by the level of absurdity in his attacks. Honestly, how does he think of these things?! Joe knows that the company knows that he knows they can't fire him or else he could bring them down for real within a week, so they let him do basically whatever he wants. Luckily, Joe doesn't abuse that power too much, mainly just holding back certain more useful exploits for his own personal use, such as certain ways into the building out of hours...

False: Security blue team. Her job is to enforce good security practices and to defend the company against malicious actors and Joe. Mostly against Joe, though. The actual attackers are usually just script kiddies with their first metasploit installation and phishers trying to steal passwords via emails (which isn't a big issue for the company given their two-factor auth setup). Joe, on the other hand...

Cleo: Chief Banter Officer (at least, according to her Slack profile). Nobody knows exactly what Cleo's job is. All they know is, whenever somethings popping off on the company Slack, Cleo is right there in the middle of it. Whether that's planning a coffee run or complaining about how the company's refusal to implement pay band transparency is harmful to minorities, you know Cleo has an opinion and will share it. Joe will usually join in, if only to wind up Cleo even more. Cleo's actual job is in accounting, but that's boring.

Stress: HR. HR typically has a bad wrap in industry, but Stress works hard to make sure that doesn't apply to her! She takes all complaints seriously and provides comfort and assistance to those who need help when she can. However, when it comes to hiring and pay, her hands are still tied by the higher-ups. No matter how many times Impulse begs her to hire Skizz, there's just no budget for it!

Cub: Upper management. He has a finger in all the pies. He knows what's going on. And most importantly, he has the power to make some decisions. If you really want something done, if you can convince Cub it's worth doing, you know he can pull some strings to probably make it happen.

Ren and Keralis: Marketing and PR. These boys know how to make an impact, going big or going home. Whether it's hyping the company to investors or to potential customers, they will drag you in and make you want to be a part of it. Also, the two most likely to be dragged into Stress' office for certain comments they keep making.

Bdubs: Receptionist. You'd think being a receptionist would be easy, just sitting behind a fancy desk all day, but no. There's phone calls to forward, packages to collect, temporary passes to find for guests and those who forgot their own (looking at you, Scar), people to greet, questions to answer, announcements to send, and building managers to placate. Stop smirking, it's a very important job!

Xisuma: Customer support. If any of their customers need a hand, X is there to give it to them. His ability to stay calm no matter how annoyed the customer is proves to be a great asset, and almost everybody leaves satisfied that their complaint has been heard, even in the cases when it isn't yet solved.

TFC: Retired (officially), contractor (temporarily). TFC worked at the company for many decades and officially retired three years ago. However, his institutional knowledge and history working with the oddities of their system mean that he keeps being called back in as a contractor to fix odd problems. He doesn't mind though, helping the next generation move forwards. The extra cash doesn't hurt either!

Skizz: While not part of the company (despite applying five times. Five!), he still will accidentally-on-purpose bump into the Hermits on coffee runs and will never not join them for Friday night drinks.

The remaining Hermits I don't know enough about to give them roles myself. Leave some suggestions for them in the comments or reblog to add your thoughts!

[ipuckwithhockey]

Just Ask- N. Patrick

a/n: More Nolan stuff? Yup. I should preface this with the fact that we should all be considerate of all hockeys and their personal lives. They have lives that do not include us and we should respect that. This includes their online accounts whether they are private or public. I say that because this does slightly touch on Nolan’s music taste/interest in music, but there’s nothing specific. Also, lets remember that this is all fiction! We’re just here to have some fun. Anyway, this is a short one, nothing too crazy. Let me know what y’all think!

warnings: drinking, swearing

------

Meeting the Flyers was a byproduct of your friendship with Carly. The two of you have been friends for ages and she introduced you to the boys early into her relationship with Travis. You were able to avoid being the consistent third wheel by finding a comfortable place within Travis’ group of friends. Although Carly and Travis have insisted that they try to set you up with someone on the team, you continually refused, saying that it would be awkward if it didn’t work out. Not to mention the fact that you didn’t think any of the guys were interested.

The lovesick couple bothered you about it for ages, trying to push Beezer and Frosty on you, and then saying that you and Nolan would be “so cute” together. Joel and Morgan were great, you loved them both dearly, but there was no way you were dating either one of them. They were more compatible with each other than with you.

However, the last one you didn’t disagree with. You agreed, and thought that you and Nolan would make an exceptionally cute couple. It takes two to tango though, and Nolan definitely isn’t interested. Nolan has always been friendly and your personalities mesh well enough that you would consider him a good friend. The two of you even hang out by yourselves when TK and Carly cancel on you to do god knows what. You’ll grab food or watch a movie, but he has never made any inclination that he feels anything more than platonic towards you.

Nolan is shy, and dry, yet incredibly funny. He’s blunt and has a few sharp edges to him, but he’s not the fiery time bomb that TK resembles. He’s more reserved, laid back, and you can feel at ease with him because of it. You loved Travis to bits, and he was the perfect match for Carly’s outgoing personality, but you can only handle so much of him.

Take right now for example. You’re standing in the kitchen of a post-win house party, and Travis is incessantly nagging you to go talk to Nolan. The house you’re in is full to the brim with people you’re sure they don’t know and you and Travis are in the kitchen fixing yourselves another round of drinks. From where you’re standing you can see Nolan in the family room towering over a few doe eyed girls who hang on his every word. They are fixated on him, and you think that he could tell them to get on their knees right then and there and they would do it gladly. (You’re not sure you would say no either, so no judgement there.) 

You’ve seen him take girls home from parties and bars, and he’s seen you with your fair share of conquests as well. It doesn’t bother you, and you figure it doesn’t bother Nolan either. Would you mind being the girl he took home? No, not at all, but unfortunately that was a role you would probably never be cast in. Even if you were you wouldn’t want to be one of those other girls anyway. You wanted to be the girl. You wanted to be the girl who made him forget about all the girls before you.

Your silent pining was becoming a little sad, and as much as you hated it, you couldn’t do anything to change how you felt about him. When you first met Nolan, you figured your little crush would soon dissipate, but the opposite ended up occurring. Now you were the sad, lonely, pining girl. You hated being her, but you couldn’t help it. You were totally gone for him.

“Come on, he’s not even listening to whatever those girls are saying to him. And you know he’s been checking you out since you got here.” Travis lays it out simply for you but you’re quick to refute, “Trav, he’s only looking over here because you haven’t stopped staring at him all night. If any two people at this party are into each other it’s you and Nolan, not me and Nolan.”

“What are you guys getting so heated about over here? And why do you keep looking at Nolan like that, Trav?” Carly comes over to tuck herself into Travis’ side as he puts his arm around her. You make a face at Travis as to say, “I told you.”

“He won’t leave me alone about Nolan, thinks I should go over there and interrupt the fan club.” You motion in the direction of where Nolan is still standing in front of his little doe eyed fans.

Carly’s eyes light up, “Oh, he totally checked you out earlier! You should go over there. Scare all those little girls away. They never had a chance anyway,” she explains matter-of-factly.

“Carly! You’re supposed to me on my side, remember?” You look between your friend and her boyfriend, who’s grin is getting bigger and bigger as spreads across his face.

“Look, you can deny it for as long as you like, but he’s totally into you, and you’re totally into him. Travis and I both know it.” Carly and Travis look so satisfied with themselves, that they think they’ve played matchmaker between the two of you, but you’re still not convinced.

“Ok, give me 5 reasons you think he could possibly like me, or that we are somehow compatible, and then maybe I’ll go over there.” You motion back in Nolan’s direction.

Travis is quick to the pitch, “You’re both oddly quiet. Like it kind of freaks me out when I come into the room and it’s just the two of you sitting there on the couch, and you’re not even talking! Sometimes the TV isn’t even on. It’s just silent. Like who even does that?”

This elicits an eye roll from you as you remember the many times Travis has walked in on you and Nolan sitting in a quiet room together, neither of you feeling the need to constantly fill the air with pointless conversation. Travis has never understood it.

“What about how Nolan always gets you drinks when we’re out?” Carly chimes in.  “He doesn’t do that for everyone. Hell, I don’t think he’s ever asked me if I needed another when he’s headed up to the bar.”

You’ve never noticed that he doesn’t ask anyone else when he goes up to the bar. Thinking about it now, it does seem kind of odd. But the two of you will often find yourselves next to each other while you’re stuffed inside a packed bar on any given weekend, and you figure he’s just being nice since you’re usually one of the only single ones there.

“That’s only two, and your reasoning is horrible. He’s just being nice and being introverted is not a crime.” You lean back onto the counter behind you as you cross your arms in front of your chest.  Now you’re facing toward the open room where one of the girls has inched her way closer to Nolan.

“He’s been a lot more excited to go out lately. He always asks if you’re coming. The last time we all went out I gave him a hard time about it. I don’t think his face has ever been that red.” Travis explains. “That’s another one! Whenever you show up or you do that thing that girls do when they’re flirting, you know the one where they touch a guy’s arm when they’re talking, he gets so red. Like tomato red.” Travis isn’t very eloquent in delivery, but you understand what he’s saying. “That’s four, baby.” He reminds you.

“He gets red when anyone talks to him and whenever anyone is brave enough to touch him. And I do not do that flirting thing.”  You look to Carly for reassurance, “Do I?” you ask.  She doesn’t offer the reassurance you were looking for, instead stating, “Oh, you totally do that. Sorry, you’re just not that subtle.”

“Oh my god.” You let your head hang back as you look up to the ceiling, “He probably thinks I’m an idiot or just creepy.” You really didn’t think you were that obvious, but clearly you were wrong. He probably feels bad for you because he knows you’re totally into him. “Well, if that wasn’t enough to deter me from ever speaking to him again, that’s still only four, so I think I’m going to call it a night and head home and then never show my face near Nolan again.” You try to exit the kitchen with the last bit of dignity you have left but Travis is quick to jump in front of you.

“Nope. I have a fifth one.” He’s standing there with is hands on his hips and you’re sure he thinks it makes him look more commanding. You just roll your eyes for what feels like the millionth time tonight.

“Really? You think it’s good enough to get me over there?” You quip back at him as you nod back towards Nolan.

“Oh yeah.” He nods back, “And if it makes you feel better Nolan is super obvious too. Like I said, tomato red.”

“So, are you going to tell me the fifth reason or are you just going to keep me hostage here all night?” Now you’re mimicking his stance with your hands placed firmly on your hips.

“It pains me to admit this one because he doesn’t even let me do this,” Travis sighs. “He lets you have the aux every time you’re in his car. No questions asked, he just lets you play whatever you want. Doesn’t even complain about it!”

You’re processing what Travis is saying. Nolan did always let you choose the music in the car, but you didn’t think anything of it. You probably grabbed the aux without hesitation the first time you hopped in his car. That’s just what you always did with your friends. It never dawned on you that he might not let other people do that too.

It checks out though, Nolan loves his music. It’s important to him, and his perfectly curated playlists are like little works of art for him. You’ve watched him manicure his playlists for hours as he sits on the couch, and admittedly you have similar taste in music. Maybe that’s why he didn’t care? Maybe you just always chose songs that he would have also picked? Although there was that one week where you made him listen to the Frozen soundtrack on repeat. He probably wouldn’t have picked that one…

You don’t have time to decide on why you think Nolan would ever let you get away with something he holds so sacred because he has since left his group of girls and has found his way into the kitchen where you’re still squared off with Travis.

“You guys gonna pull your pistols out soon?” Nolan mumbles an announcement that he has entered the room, and you realize that you’re still stood in front of TK, both of you with your hands on your hips.

“Nope, we were actually just heading out to play pong, we’ll see you guys later!” Travis quickly ushers himself and Carly out of the room, and before you can protest, you’re left alone with Nolan. He’s leaning against the counter opposite to you, and when you move your eyes to rest on his figure you can’t help but do a quick intake of just how good he looks. He’s wearing the same basic outfit that just about every other guy in the house is sporting, and yet it looks so much better on him.

“What was that about? You guys okay?” Nolan asks.

“Uh- Yeah, Trav just being Trav, you know?” You attempt to brush off the topic of what you and Travis were discussing prior to Nolan’s arrival. Similar to those times that Travis was referencing, neither of you feel compelled to fill the air with unneeded dialogue, and you fall into a comfortable silence. Neither of you are saying anything now and Nolan takes the time to twist off the cap to another beer from the fridge.

“I was gonna go out back. It’s too hot in here, wanna come?” Nolan nods his head to the sliding glass door at the other end of the kitchen, and you respond by following him out to the deck. The quietness and crisp winter air that fills your lungs is refreshing. The two of you lean against the railing of the deck and enjoy the break from the chaos inside. You continue in your silence and you can’t help but watch as Nolan takes long drags of his beer, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows.

“Can I ask you a question?” You ask, and without speaking he nods, giving you the go ahead.

“Why don’t you let Travis have the aux?”

Nolan chuckles a bit, “Of all the things you could ask, that’s what you choose?” he retorts before answering, “If you must know, he has horrible taste in music. But also, I don’t let anyone have the aux. My car, my music. It’s the rules,” he states, taking another quick swig of his beer that’s almost empty now.

He confirmed what Travis had said to you, but you’re not convinced. There had to be a catch. He probably never realized that you did it. You’re sure of it.

“But you let me have the aux?” You form the sentence with a question mark on the end, and your eyes follow Nolan as he leans over the railing to look out into the backyard. He’s avoiding meeting your eye, and you can tell he’s thinking, deciding on what he’s about to say.

“Probably ‘cus I can’t say no to you,” the muttered words come out under his breath, like he doesn’t want you to hear it.

“What? What does that mean?” He lets out a huff of air as his hands push is his long hair back out of his face, something he only does when he’s stressed.

His body turns to face you now, “You could literally tell me to jump off a bridge or run through this house naked, and I would probably do it. No questions asked.”

The quizzical look that occupies your face prompts him to continue. He’s frustrated, you can tell, “I just don’t know how to say this without fucking us up as friends…” He starts to pivot away from you again, but you reach out for his arm, stopping him from leaving, “What if I don’t want to be friends?” You’ve chosen to be the bold one now, and if it bit you the ass you were just going to have to live with that, but you can’t help but feel like you’ve both been on the same page all along.

“You don’t want to be friends with me?” Hurt. Confusion. Annoyance. They all flash across Nolan’s face before you can interject again, “I don’t want to be just friends with you. I want to be more than that. I want to be the girl you take home when this party is over, and the girl who gets to wake up next to you every morning after, and even if you don’t want that, you need to know that’s how I feel about yo—“

He doesn’t say anything, he doesn’tt pull you into a heart wrenching kiss, there aren’t fireworks playing behind you. To your surprise, Nolan has chosen to haul you over his shoulder, your arms falling over his back as he walks swiftly back into the house.

“NOLAN! What the fuck!? Put me down!” You yell at him as he continues to carry through the house. The party is so wild by now that you’re sure no one even notices the 6’2 hockey player with a girl over his shoulder.

“Nolan! Seriously. Put me down!” You’re feel like a little toddler who has gotten herself in trouble, and when Nolan finally does place your feet back on the ground, you’re outside next to his car that is parked in front of the house. He sets you down, and you’re slightly dizzy from being swung around like a rag doll, but he steadies you in front of him with his hands on your waist.

“What the fuck was tha—”

He cuts you off again, but this time he isn’t hauling your body into the air. This time his hands are on either side of your face and his lips find yours and there are even metaphorical fireworks going off as you kiss him back. You stand there, pushed against the side of his car, with his hands tangled in your hair, and your tongues exploring each other mouths. When you finally come up for air he pushes back away from you so that he can meet your eye.

“If you wanted to be that girl all you had to do was ask.” A smirk is plastered across his face, and you lightly shove at his chest even though it does little to move his large figure.

You surrender, “Okay, but we have to get an Uber, we’ve both had too much to drive.” You can’t help but grin back at him as he reaches for his phone to order a car for the both of you. When the car arrives, you get in to head back to Nolan’s apartment with your hands wrapped together. “I can’t believe Travis was right,” you say as you let your head rest on Nolan’s shoulder and he turns his head to you with his eyebrow furrowed, “Right about what?”

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

i wrote a thing inspired by @galaxygermdraws headcanons and designs for team ZITS!!!

inspiration here

…

The portal has been in the middle of his world for as long as he can remember. But his mother has always told him to stay away from it. “It leads to the Overworld,” she would tell him. “Nothing good ever comes of the Enderfolk in the Overworld.”

So Impulse ignores it.

It’s a proud day when his wings grow in. He’s too young to understand that he wasn’t born with them, that his mother granted them to him. He doesn’t see himself as human and his mother as a dragon. To him, they are the same. He is her baby and she is his mother. No question.

She’s there when he flies for the first time. His tiny wings can only just support his tiny podgy body and he ends up falling after only a few seconds, but his mother is so proud of him that he forgets about that. To her, he just soared among the stars, and she could not be prouder of him.

But nothing lasts forever, no matter how good it is.

His mother disappears one day, leaving no trace. Impulse is terrified and grief-stricken at first, but after searching for her for weeks with no luck, he’s forced to move on with his life. So he befriends the endermen as best he can, though they’re not much for playing or even talking. Not like his mother was.

Years go by. Many years. Impulse gets used to the solitude.

And then… something appears in his world.

The thing is tall, about twice his size. It looks like him in some ways but so different in others, and yet it doesn’t appear to be particularly scary. In fact, when it seems Impulse, IT appears to be afraid of HIM.

He cocks his head to the side as the strange creature ducks behind one of the obsidian pillars. Frowning, he waits until it peeks its head out.

“Hi,” he says.

After a moment, the creature carefully approaches him, keeping a wary eye on the endermen, but they don’t seem to be interested in it.

“Hi,” Impulse repeats.

The strange creature opens its mouth and says something back . But Impulse doesn’t understand the words. It’s not Galactic, his language.

“I don’t understand,” he says.

The creature frowns. Clearly it can’t understand Impulse either. It points at itself and makes a noise that sounds like “Skizz”.

Frowning, Impulse mimics the noise. “Skizz.”

He gets an encouraging nod from the other person. “Skizz,” he says, again pointing to himself.

With a jerk, Impulse realises that must be this person’s name. He points at him. “Skizz.”

Another encouraging nod from Skizz, a bright smile on his face. He points at Impulse and makes another noise that sounds like a question.

“Impulse,” says Impulse, pointing at himself.

Skizz mimics what he says. “Im-pulse?”

His accent is weird, but Impulse doesn’t mind; after all, his own accent probably sounds weird to Skizz. He gives a nod, smiling widely. “Impulse.”

Skizz beams back. “Impulse!”

Impulse is happy. Despite not speaking the same language, he seems to have made a friend.

Suddenly, Skizz gets up and, beckoning, rushes off. Impulse quickly follows, wondering where his new friend is leading him.

His stomach drops when he sees Skizz standing on the edge of the Overworld portal.

“No, no, no,” he says, hurriedly shaking his head. “Not safe!”

Skizz takes both his hands in his own and smiles, a reassuring smile. Even though Impulse can’t understand Skizz’s words, he finds himself trusting his new friend’s smile.

Besides… maybe it’s time for something new.

So he nods, and he and Skizz jump into the portal.

Immediately, the atmosphere changes. This new world is hot and the air feels heavy and full, not at all like the emptiness of the End. And what’s worse, the strange bright orb in the sky hurts his eyes.

Letting out a cry, Impulse takes off running until he finds shelter under a tree. He only knows what it is because he remembers it from his mother teaching him the basics about the Overworld.

That means the orb in the sky must be the “sun”: the source of all life here in the Overworld.

Impulse hates it.

And where is Skizz? Why didn’t they appear in the same place? Where did Skizz go?

Starting to panic, Impulse dashes out from the safety of the tree canopy, noticing the sky darkening. He can see a cave in the hill a few hundred blocks away so he bolts for that, but before he can reach it, something starts falling from the sky. Something wet.

Something that burns his skin and his wings.

Screaming and crying in pain, Impulse keeps running, holding up his wings to protect his head from the horrible substance burning him. He makes it to the cave and scrambles inside, collapsing to the ground on his side.

It hurts. It hurts so much. Why did he ever come here? He’s alone and he’s in pain and he’s terrified. WHY did he EVER come here?!

Just let me die already… Please…

…

“Impulse!” Skizz yells, looking around wildly for his new friend. “IMPULSE! Where are you?!”

He curses himself for not considering that Impulse’s Overworld respawn place would be different to his. Impulse has never been to the Overworld before, and since the Overworld portal in the End puts you back at your respawn point, of course it would make sense that Skizz would appear back in his home but Impulse wouldn’t.

He’s gone back to his world’s spawn, where it’s now raining. The cave he took shelter in when he first spawned in this world is his destination. If Impulse appeared here, Skizz is sure he would seek shelter in that cave.

Sure enough, he can hear a noise as he gets closer, a noise that sounds like crying. His heart skips a beat as he scrambles up the side of the hill and hops up into the cave.

Impulse is lying curled up in a ball on his side, shaking and crying, clearly not fully conscious. Skizz gasps at the sight of red blotches all over Impulse’s arms, neck, and face.

“Impulse, are you okay?” he gasps, forgetting momentarily that Impulse can’t understand him. “Impulse?”

When he gets no response, Skizz stoops and picks Impulse up. Impulse is half his size, despite being podgier than him, so it’s an easy journey from the cave to his home. Luckily, the rain has stopped now.

Skizz carefully lies Impulse down in his bed and tucks him in. He has no idea what to do now. Clearly, the Overworld does not agree with Impulse. It might have been the rain that caused all those little red blotches on his skin.

In that case, it’s Skizz’s fault that Impulse is in this condition. He can’t go back to the End like this. Feeling guilty, Skizz heads down and gathers up as much food as he can. If it’s his fault that Impulse is stuck here then the least Skizz can do is take care of him.

And Skizz does. When Impulse wakes up, the two find ways to communicate through gestures and noises. And after Impulse recovers, he considers going back to the End. But curiosity and his budding new friendship keeps him here.

In the subsequent months, they start teaching each other their language. The process is slow, but rewarding. And soon, the two build a life together. They build a house for Impulse and make it as safe for him as possible. Impulse gets used to living in the Overworld; he starts to be able to tell when the rain is coming so he can go inside and avoid getting burnt, and the sun no longer hurts his eyes.

His life is good.

One day, almost a full three years after his first arrival in the Overworld, Skizz takes Impulse to the portal he used to go to the End all those months ago.

“This is where I came to your world,” Skizz explains.

Impulse stares down into the portal. The swirling blackness looks exactly the same as the inside of the portal in the End that they took to come to the Overworld.

“Do you wanna go back?” Skizz asks quietly, noticing how intently his friend is looking at the portal.

With almost no hesitation, Impulse shakes his head. “No, not really. I’m happy here with you.”

Skizz beams. “Aww! I’m happy here with you too. We don’t need anybody else, huh?”

“Nah, we got each other. Let’s go home and work on that stable you wanted to build.”

“Okay!”

But when the two get home, they find a weird portal set into the cliff near their home. The frame is upright and made of obsidian, and the portal inside is purple and swirly.

“What is this?” asks Impulse nervously. “A portal?”

Skizz shrugs. “I have no idea; I’ve never seen anything like this bef-.”

The two yelp as the portal suddenly makes a loud whooshing sound and a figure appears from inside it. The figure jumps out of the portal, dusting himself down, and spots Impulse and Skizz a little way off.

“Who the hell are you?” Skizz demands.

The blond figure crosses his arms, narrowing his eyes in a look of suspicion and distrust.

“I’m Tango. Who are you?”

[onyxoverride]

I know a lot of people see Zeke as the one to put a baby in you and be like, "That's not mine, Maury." and avoid the topic but I've kinda seen him as the dude that thinks he doesn't care but man cares. Dude probably freaks out, can't blame him due to his upbringing, but the dude probably tries to act like he doesn't care while doing things that only proves he cares a ton. You walk to and from work? You're going to get robbed doing that, I'll drive you. He's really worried about you tripping or hurting yourself and the kid. He drops you off and damn does he need to use the bathroom and instead of an in and out type of thing, he stays and tells you how small and tiny your place is, you really think you can raise a kid here? Tell you what, just pack your things and come live with him cause he pities you. He actually wants to watch your stomach grow and eventually his child. While he's at it, he might as well just propose to you, but it's to save your reputation, nothing more. Actually he had a dream the night you told him you were expecting of you walking down the aisle with a big bump and of him and you slow dancing while you're barefoot.

Man thinks he's slick but even Grisha can see through it all.

Oh I love this ;;;0;;;

no smut, just fluff and pregnancy and mentions of Grisha being a bad dad (child abuse but not really mentioned) I still block minors and blogs with no age indication though!

At first, it's definitely predictable how he acts. Pulling away and closing in on himself whenever he was simply too overwhelmed like when he was a kid. Putting up a front while pushing you away.

You'd agree he'd still be active in your life. He refuses to run, he doesn't want to hide anymore so still he helps out with medical bills and general life things. Takes two to tango after all.

Slowly, after a few weeks of finding out he's starting these weird behaviors. Demanding he drive you places instead of you driving yourself or walking, picking up groceries for you, making you come over often after work, being especially protective of you when you're in public. He even panicked a bit when you wore heels and you're not even showing yet.

Then all of a sudden your apartment is too small? "Obviously this isn't enough room to raise a kid," not enough for you, the baby, and him. (It would be enough but he's being especially picky.)

"Just move in with me, my place is bigger anyways," plus he can take care of you better there and keep a close eye and make sure you're safe.

But you're seeing the changes in him. How he sighs when you take off your shoes and see how swollen your ankles are and demands to massage them because "no way, that must be bad for the baby." Everything for the baby, even a pretty little ring he buys a month later. He's selfish how much he wants you all to himself, body and now mind and soul. He sees your belly starting to peek and he's infatuated. Can't even try to hide it anymore about how much he absolutely loves seeing you and seeing you pregnant with his baby.

Now he's going to the doctors appointments, introducing himself as the father with a slightly puffed chest and saves a picture of the ultrasound in his wallet. Totally shows his work friends but really slyly. Like whoops guys dropped my wallet AH look that's a picture of my baby and my soon-to-be future wife.

The thoughts of how he might end up like his dad consume him but that's where he falls in love with you again, even if you just squeeze his hand and look up at him with worried eyes and a hand on your belly.

[levi-ish]

Little Talks | 5

Pairing: Bartender!Levi X Reader

Genre: [+18] Slice of life, drama, romance, fluff, smut

Words: 3k

Warnings: Alcohol, cheating mentions, drugs, cussing

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Masterlist

“Your taste in tea is shit” Levi scanned through the old teabags you had lingering in your cabinets.

“Sorry if I don’t have enough money to buy those fancy blends you like” you rolled your eyes as you leaned further into the throw pillows you had on top of your old couch.

“Tch.”

You turned around and watched the man tumble around with your mugs and you knew that he hated your unmatching sets, always making small comments about them. He then set for the most common ones you had and brought them to you after quickly making your drinks.

It had been a few weeks since the night when Levi comforted you after your ex-beloved’s visit. You two held hands and pretended that it was nothing while watching random cooking shows, then after you fell asleep he left but not before making you another cup of tea that you woke up to find inside your microwave, sitting there waiting for you.

You thanked him in person two days after and exchanged numbers because he claimed that he didn’t ‘trust’ your building’s security. Even when you told him that Zeke only got up because your concierge knew him.

But now things were better than you could expect. Levi would drive you home almost every night and wait for your ‘ok’ text when you took the elevator, to be sure you were safe and sound. He mostly made you tea at 4AM when the bar was closing and you had no classes the day after, and you two hung around at your apartment quite a lot, watching shitty movies and listening to him complain about how you were doing your laundry all wrong.

Whoever saw you two together would think you were a couple of elderlies married.

“I can’t believe he didn’t like how she plated it” you pointed at the TV, quite angry at the cooking show passing on. “She even put those fancy herbs.”

“It’s shit”

“Everything is ‘shit’ to you” you rolled your eyes.

“Only the things that are shit” Levi replied as he sipped on his tea.

You rolled eyes once more as you felt the shift on the sofa, not noticing his movements if it weren’t for it. Levi held his phone to his eyes and a sheer of light illuminated his strong features, highlighting that glorious jawline and the thin lips you—

What?

Shaking your head, you quickly got rid of those thoughts, adjusting your own position and making your back fall more comfortably on the cushions. Levi let a small sigh and brought the teacup back to his mouth, drinking slowly.

“Hange again?” You asked, giving him the side of your eye as you stirred your own drink.

“Kirstein this time” Levi replied, letting out his signature ‘tch’. “I should’ve been there. Those idiots can’t do their jobs properly without supervision.”

“Hange forcing people to listen to their theories again?”

“No. Jean broke the sink and is trying to blame it on the weather somehow.”

“How…”

“No fucking idea.” Levi put his phone back inside his pocket and drank the last of his tea, sighing after. It was a heavenly vision to see, you weren’t gonna lie.

With a small yawn, you stretched your legs and downed the tea in one gulp, earning a side eye from the man who wasn’t pleased you were appreciating one of his fancy blends. The minty taste lingered on your tongue as you licked your lips, and you could smell the hint of cinnamon wandering in the room, mixing with Levi’s cologne that you so much adored.

“I’m bored” you let out, pouting as you rested your face on the pillow closer to his shoulder.

“You wouldn’t be if you stayed quiet and watched the show.”

“Do you hate me or what” you scoffed, pouting even more.

Levi turned to you, watching your expression and that’s when you noticed how close you were to him. His breath fanned over your face and you swore you could see his lips twitching and him inching closer, clearing your throat, you looked down, completely breaking eye contact.

“Do you really wanna know?” He replied and you pushed him. “At least clean your hands before touching me.”

“You wish I was touching you” you bit your lip and rose your brows teasingly.

He turned to your face once more, eyes dead serious focusing on you and he licked his lips slowly, posture completely changing.

“Maybe.”

He caught you off guard with that comment, making a small shiver go down your spine, but you decided that brushing it off would be better than acknowledging new reasons to make the relationship you two had more uncomfortable. You knew Levi wasn’t very pushy about things and probably would forget about it as soon as you would, without giving it another thought.

Oh well.

“Uh…” you tried to say, licking your lips again after your mouth went full dry “… are you hungry?”

“No” he said, eyes still on you as you tried to get his attention away from you.

“Uhm… then do you wanna do something else or…?”

Levi inched closer now, his nose brushing against yours and breath warming your chin as you rubbed skin together, feeling each other scents and every little movement was big enough to make both bodies swarm under the tension in the room.

“Levi… what…”

But before you could continue, he closed the distance, lips colliding as you felt the dry specs of his chapped skin brushing against yours. Is this really happening? What…? It was, and he was still going, hand now holding your nape to have your face closer to his than before, as if he never wanted to let go. You turned to the side to allow his tongue inside, feeling it dancing with yours in a difficult and shy but intense tango that seemed too familiar but strange at the same time.

It was a sensation you never wanted to end.

But as soon as it started, it stopped; his hand left your neck and went back to his side, and his usually unfazed look now seemed more panicked, as if he was already regretting it.

Please, god, don’t regret it. Please…

“I—”

You were abruptly cut off by him standing from the couch and grabbing his coat by the rack, quickly opening the door and leaving your apartment, leaving you by yourself and with empty lips but a full heart that felt too heavy for your shallow chest.

Things changed since that.

Levi completely disappeared. Hange and Jean would say that he would leave the key to them and only showed up in the mornings to rearrange things the way he liked them but left very quickly each time. He didn’t text and you didn’t try to, knowing it would be useless since we are talking about him, most emotionally unavailable person to exist. You still went to the bar every night, trying to catch him around and maybe clear things up, but failed miserably.

You didn’t regret it, not at all. In fact, you wished it would last longer, even though it was enough material for your mind to wander around the floor full of eggshells that were your memories from that night. You wanted more, you wanted him, and now you weren’t ashamed of admitting it to yourself.

And you were almost giving up seeing him again, if it weren’t for Sasha, who was livid over how he had reacted and insisted on dragging you back to the bar.

So there you were, Mikasa holding one of your arms and Sasha holding the other, both giving you pep talks on how you should go there and confront him. You knew he was working tonight for sure, that’s because Mikasa told you she’d texted him about it before and learned he was taking some weird shifts and closing on weirder times. Annie was busy with her two-year anniversary with Armin, so she couldn’t come, but she did text you to be brave. The way Annie would, I mean, sending a small “punch him” and a smiley face.

“C’mon (y/n), you look hot and he will regret leaving when you show up” Sasha’s grip on your arm tightened as she tried to drag you inside. “Tell her, Mikasa”

“You look hot” the other woman said, and you knew that she wasn’t putting much effort in because it made you uncomfortable, otherwise you’d have been inside already since Mikasa was stronger than you two combined. “Levi’s an idiot.”

“I don’t wanna go” you said, whining as they let go of you for a moment. “He did what he did and I was pretty much rejected. I don’t wanna push harder.”

“What’s even his problem?!” Sasha crossed her arms, her expression turning into a mad one. “Was he always an idiot, Mikasa?”

“He changed a lot since he was left at the altar.”

“What” you and Sasha said in unison, shocked by the new piece of information.

“Did I never mention it?”

“No?” You frowned, coming closer to her face. “What do you mean by ‘left at the altar’?”

“Exactly that.”

“Mikasa” Sasha pushed her lightly.

“I don’t know exactly, I was 15, but he was getting married to this girl and she left him the day of the wedding.” Mikasa said as if it was nothing. “Everyone was there to see, and he was devastated.”

That left you wondering… a lot. Why’d Levi never tell you about that? You two went into some deep discussions at times, talking about stuff that you never dared to share with others, and he did open up a little about some of his things, but this? You thought that would be something to tell someone you would think of kissing. Unless he wasn’t really thinking those things about you, then it would be a whole other topic that you were too much of a coward to consider.

Did anyone else know? You had so many questions and you really wish you had the answers because of the anxiety now growing in the pit of your stomach.

“You didn’t think that was important information to share?” You questioned and Mikasa shook her head.

“Not really.”

“Okay, we are getting in. You can deal with that later” Sasha pushed you through the door and now you couldn’t say anything else because your feet already touched the wooden floor.

It was a full house, everyone was dancing and singing along with the old jukebox and there were girls leaning on the counter flirting with Jean as your eyes wandered. Hange was mixing drinks and Levi was nowhere to see, what made you feel a lot more comfortable being there. Sasha and Mikasa pushed through the crowd and found you a place on the counter, sitting on stools and leaving you to sit in between them, so you did, and the blonde bartender was the first one to notice you there.

“Ah!” He chirped loudly, leaving the girls behind to come to you. “My favorite girl… and company, hi, hello.”

You noticed he was now flirting with Mikasa, but she just ignored his presence.

“Hot wings!” Sasha punched the counter and grabbed you by side shoulder, pointing at the shelves. “And shots, keep them coming, my friend here needs them.”

“I’m sure she does” Jean kept his gaze on Mikasa, trying to be subtle about it as you rolled your eyes at him. “Our short friend has been pretty hard to deal with lately, so without you around I already knew something went down.”

“They kissed” Mikasa let out.

“ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT LEVI?” Screamed Hange from where they were, coming right away and pushing Jean with their hip. “Also, hi, but answer me!”

“They kissed” Mikasa repeated, and you gave up on trying to stop them.

Hange’s hand fell on your shoulder as they approached the group further, inserting the ponytail-head in the middle and readjusting the glasses above their nose, “You and shorty? Are you kidding me?! Tell me everything!”

“I’ll leave you to deal with Hange now” Jean said as they leaned a little more into Mikasa’s side. “So… are you in college?”

She only gave him a side glance and ignored his question, making the man confused.

“Focus!” Hange slammed their fist, now sitting on your side. “You have to tell me about it!”

“Oh gosh, please let me breath!” You rose your hands and they all moved their attention to you, making you feel a little overwhelmed and guilty — they were simply curious creatures. A deep sigh left your mouth as you put your palms back on the wooden surface of the table, opening your eyes slowly. “We kissed… and he left.”

“Without saying anything?” Jean asked and you nodded. “Damn… he ghosted you.”

“He might just be too busy?” Hange suggested and you gave them the harsh glare. “Maybe not?”

“Can anyone bring me—us some wings?” Sasha pleaded, leaning onto the table.

“You two need to talk” Hange added, bumping onto you jokingly. “Kiss and make up.”

“That’s not happening.”

“C’mon, he’s in the back. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.”

You just lowered your head and that was enough for them to understand.

“Well, I’ll leave you be” they just gave you a slight nod and stood from the booth. “Good luck.”

You felt some warmth crawl into your belly and smiled at them, following by another glance onto the other two in front of you.

“Mikasa is such an exotic name, where did it come from?” Jean leaned further, trying his best to sound smooth but the girl’s reaction was too bothered to be working.

“We’ll leave you be” Hange said as they grabbed Jean by the nape and dragged him back to the bar.

[…]

Sasha was on her third plate of hot wings when caught the first glance of Levi.

He came from the back for a moment to grab the electric kettle from under the counter, turning around quickly as if he already knew you were around and was avoiding any type of contact. Being treated like a disease like that made you feel angry, it wasn’t like you’d done anything wrong, you just kissed him back — he was the one to initiate it! The nerve of him.

You gulped down the rest of your beer and threw yourself back on the cushions of the booth, earning a look from Mikasa, but she decided to ignore it knowing you were procrastinating the inevitable, now focusing on Sasha who was unbuttoning her pants to eat more.

“Hey, you’re (y/n), right?” Someone approached your table, hands filling the pockets of their letterman jacket and blonde hair neatly sitting on top of his head. A thin goatee painted his chin and a gentle look sat around his clear eyes.

“Yea” you shook your head, looking at his face, frowning slightly. “Sorry, I—”

“It’s fine, we have Latin together” you now recognized him as the boy who sat in front of you and occasionally borrowed a pen.

“Oh! Reiner, right? You want some hot wings?” Sasha was not pleased you offered, but you just ignored her growl.

“No, I’m fine, just came to say ‘hi’” he gave you a small smile. “See you around.”

You reciprocated the smile and watched as he left, and your eyes collided with cold, grey ones across the room, behind the wooden counter as you felt your heart rush again, as if it was the first time once more. Levi had his muscular arms crossed as he stared right into your soul, making cold chills run all over your spine, holding your body to make it stop.

He turned around to leave and as if a lightning had just struck in you, your body involuntarily stood from its place and rushed to the counter, running around it and pushing the backdoor open, revealing an annoyed short man holding a cup of tea.

“What the f—”

And before he could even complete his thoughts, you grabbed the cup and placed it on the table right next to you, all that before pining him roughly against the wall, staring quickly into his eyes, searching for the same flame you could see inside you now burning around grey specs. A small smile grew on your lips and you kissed him hard.

He hesitated though, leaning back quickly as if something had snapped in his mind, making him realize what was really happening there. But before you could react again, he turned you around, pining your hands above your head as he kissed you feverously, the other hand feeling the skin of your hips from under your shirt, making the chills go harder around your bloodstream.

Levi moved positions once more, taking the back of your thighs and sitting you on top of the same table, making the teacup fall to the floor, but he seemed unbothered by it. His tongue now made advances on your mouth, playing with yours in soft movements even when his own lips made harsh movements, combining everything like sugar and cinnamon, and the pine scent of his cologne invaded your clothes that were now too hot for your needy skin.

His hands clenched around the fat of your legs, holding it as if his life depended on it and he started to lower his lips to your neck, giving it open-mouthed kisses that made a small moan fall from your throat. Ashamed, you didn’t realize that your grip on his shoulders was a little too hard and he put a hand from under your chin, holding your face as he stared deeply into your soul. A satisfied scoff fell from his own plump lips and he came back to what he was doing.

That was somewhat a dream, something you had fantasized about too many times to count, and now that it was happening, you refused to pinch yourself in fear of waking up alone. But when his slim fingers rose your skirt to your hips, things felt too real for it to be just your mind playing tricks. Small whimpers escaped your mouth as Levi decided to explore around your navel, playing softly with the hem of the lacy panties you were wearing, and you thanked whatever god was up there for not wearing those comfortable ones you almost wore tonight.

He removed your panties and lowered himself now, a small breath fanned over your naked parts, making you shiver slightly, only to be held still by his own hands. He gave you a small glance before you nodded in consent, and it was all it took for him to devour you in the most amazing ways you had never experienced before.

Levi had experience — you could tell — and the passion he exhaled was enough for you to moan without caring about anything in the world. His fingers joined his tongue and played with your entrance, teasing slowly as his mouth did wonders around your sensitive bud, movements going from harsh hands to slow kisses that left you whimpering, needing everything, anything more from him, legs hooping around his shoulders while trying to make him come closer to your heat.

You whimpered, moaned, cried under his spell, and everything felt 1000x more sensitive against his touch. His fingers entered you and played around all the right places, hitting every beat to the song that played muffled inside the bar, making a small giggle fall from you and he noticed it, now fastening his pace as if he wanted to go back to shutting you up with his own mouth.

Repeatedly he hit your most sensitive spot, licking, and tasting all he could as he did his best to make you cum. It didn’t take long for you to feel the heat pooling around your stomach, throwing your head backwards and fisting his hair between your fingers as you felt his rush against your orgasm, taking everything from you simply with his mouth. You moaned loudly as you rode his face quickly, hips moving without your consent and he pulled your lips apart to clean the remnants of your pleasure, not leaving one spot untouched.

Your chest heaved from the rush as your eyes made contact with grey seas that now leveled with your height, watching you under spells of lust while he sucked slowly from his fingers, tasting every last bit of you, like you were mead for his tastebuds, and you could swear you saw his lips curl a little upwards.

“You surely know how to make a mess” he noted, a ‘tch’ leaving his mouth.

TAGLIST

@zeickv @thirstyforsometea​ @nalu-trashytrash​ @umheyasf​​

[kozzax]

so recently the folks over at @petrichormeraki have been working on a silent tommy au because of a few asks talking about mute!tommy. and one of the things that’s canon in that au is the fact that xisuma is the only mortal hermit. i took this as free reign to work out why each of the other hermits is immortal. some of them are gods, some of them are demigods, some of them are supernatural beings, but none of them (except xisuma) can be killed through feasible means.

because of the sheer amount of immortal hermits there just to live out immortality in peace, i like to think hermitcraft is sometimes referred to jokingly as ‘the retirement zone’ by other immortal beings. most mortals outside of hermitcraft wouldn’t know the hermits are all like... gods and shit.

hermits + their immortality under the cut because oh god this was supposed to be a fast post but i accidentally wrote... a lot. whoops!

Grian is a watcher. He was a watcher before he joined hermitcraft. That’s... just. Canon Grian Lore TM. Not much to explain with him.

Cleo and Joe are both immortal by virtue of no longer being capable of being mortal. As both of hem are undead beings (cleo a zombie and joe a ghost), killing them again isn’t... possible. In addition to this, at some point during their afterlife, they managed to gather enough power between the two of them to be labelled as the “Twin Gods of Life and Death”. Which one is life and which one is death? That depends on the day.

Cub and Scar are definitely not gods. But the deals the two made with the Vex are almost more of an insurance on their immortality. The Vex protect their ConVex as a dragon protects its hoard. Not only can the two of them hold their own in a fight, but their respawn is insured by the fact that even if they were to permadie, the Vex would bring them back anyways. 

False is the Queen of Hearts, Heads, and Body Parts. She’s also a vampire. In a similar vein, Ren is a werewolf. Both of them can only be killed through very specific means, and neither can die of old age. Throughout their many years in the worlds, they’ve gathered tons of skills and allies. Although now they’ve both stepped down, content to enjoy their peaceful lives and chill out in Hermitcraft, each of them was once a ruler of their respective factions. The ‘queen’ part of False’s title was never just a title.

Etho was granted immortality by a council of gods, after they took a liking to his interesting antics and kept an eye on his longstanding worlds.

Doc, BDubs, Beef, and Etho (again) were all brought to Hermitcraft as the last ‘mortal’ members to join. The general idea was that maybe they could give Xisuma some company and relief from the antics of his immortal and godly friends. This did not happen. Instead, the universe decided it was going to give all of them godly powers in their own right. Etho himself may have been immortal, but he and the rest of the NHO all grew infinitely more powerful after leaving the jungle of season 5.

Stress is a dryad. She can control and warp the nature around her in strange and beautiful ways. In addition to this, were her body to ever get fully destroyed in a way that would prevent her from respawning, a new body would instead form for her out of the nature wherever she died. This is how ice queen stress came about in season 6.

Impulse actually bullshitted his own way into immortality. Where most of the other hermits were either brought into it by someone else or born into it, Impulse actually discovered the secret of immortality while he was trying to figure out how totems of undying were made. He now knows how to create totems and how to become immortal, though he won’t tell anyone else if they ask. Part of the process of creating totems involved...

...Tango, who is a demon. As a demon, his powerset includes but is not limited to both pyrokinesis and an affinity for very very large and very very deadly animals. He doesn’t use those abilities on Hermitcraft often, but they’re in his skillset for sure.

As a byproduct of the immortality, Zedaph showed up in the current timeline. His immortality is... strange, because it’s not technically immortality. Zedaph, as a person, is mortal and can die. Zedaph, as a being, though, is one of billions of Zedaphs in the universe; each of whom is nearly identical to the others; and whenever one Zedaph dies, he is replaced instantly with a new Zedaph; a functionally identical Zedaph to the one who died. Nobody’s quite sure how this process works, but Zed claims it’s through “time travel”.

Jevin, as a slime, can actually inhabit any portion of his slime that he wants; no matter how small the amount. Even if he were limited to one singular molecule of slime, he could still exist around that molecule and regenerate slime until he was fully present again, though it might take a little while for him to complete that process. The only way to kill Jevin is by fundamentally altering the chemical makeup of every single molecule of slime he’s ever had anywhere. It simply won’t happen. He does use his abilities to get out of conversations, if he’s feeling particularly annoyed at the time.

TFC is potentially one of the most interesting hermits, in his prior responsibilities. It’s easy to forget that he’s not mortal, considering how frighteningly average he acts in his day to day life. One peek into any of his bunkers, though, and you’re hit right in the face with a bold reminder. TFC used to be one of the gods responsible for shaping the very worlds players would walk on; more specifically, he was in charge of cave systems and mineshafts for a long time. He’s retired from that life and is having a lovely time in Hermitcraft, just vibing.

Wels gained his immortality through a deal with the patron god of the kingdom he grew up serving. He made this deal as a young knight and watched for decades as the kingdom grew and prospered, Wels himself known far and wide as quite probably the best warrior of them all. After being dismissed honorably by the kingdom, as he’d been protecting them for many decades now and the rulers honestly felt he deserved a break, the god he’d made a deal with finalized this immortality. He joined Hermitcraft not long after, and has taken up a spot doing his part to protect the hermits.

Iskall was somewhat of an enforcer, for the gods. Were a god to be acting particularly out of line, Iskall would be called in to bring them to the council for trial. Sometimes his targets came peacefully, sometimes he’d have to use force to bring them in. No matter what he had to do, there wasn’t a single target he missed. He both can and will kill a god if he must. Technically, Iskall’s still on call, but generally councils don’t call on him unless absolutely necessary anymore.

Hypno made a deal with a god many years ago, trading his mortality for the ability to see hundreds of thousands of alternate paths for the future. He wanted to chronicle them, and he still spends one or two days a week writing out winding paths of the future. When he’s not working, he wears his bandana to cover up the third eye that allows him this insight. This helps him focus on the now, rather than the futures that may or may not be.

Xb is an eldritch being with reality warping abilities. He has them under fairly good control, most of the time. They really only become an issue when he gets too much pent-up magical energy at once; examples of this being things like season changes. His season 7 base is built around what happens when he needs to release. It’s a post apocalypse world, and the apocalypse was him.

Mumbo is definitely both magical and immortal, but the specifics of his powers are incredibly unclear. The hermits know it has something to do with redstone, maybe, and that the unpredictability of Hermit Challenges are a reflection of his strange and confusing powerset, but nobody’s really sure where his immortality stems from. Every time you ask him he gives you a different answer. The mumbonis are all different joking theories as to where his powers came from.

[loserchildhotpants]

Another destiel prompt from Twitter; say they’re dancing together, still trying to hide their feelings for each other, and because of that, avoiding eye-contract, the best the can, to ensure that the other character doesn’t notice how attracted they are to them (from this prompt list)

“Did you just turn her down?” Dean asks incredulously; Sam is busy sipping champagne next to him, but his eyebrows convey that he would also like clarification on whatever social interaction it is that Cas just had.

They’re all dressed to the nines, stuck at a posh wedding service until they solve this rogue Cupid case; it’s a low-risk case, but a case is a case, and they’ve got it well in hand.

Dean’s not been this dressed up since Bela stuffed him in a monkey suit, and he’d wager the same applies to Sam, but this is certainly the first either of them have ever seen Cas in anything other than his cubicle-life uniform.

Cas’ suit is sharp, pressed, striking, and he’s wearing a cerulean blue tie that has everyone meeting eyes with him coming up short. Predictably, he doesn’t know what to do with the attention, so he mostly apologizes awkwardly for those he seems to startle and thanks the handsy old ladies that liken him to long dead husbands.

With two flutes of bubbly meant for Dean and himself, Cas crossed the great hall, seemed to be stopped by a gorgeous young woman with dark hair, in a low-cut dress and a very promising smirk, but whatever exchange happened left her dejected.

“She asked me to dance,” Castiel tells Dean, passing him his flute, “I regretfully informed her that I don’t know how.”

“You can’t manage a simple little box-step for that hot piece? She was practically drooling, lookin’ at you!”

“We’re on a case,” he says, as though it’s a valid excuse.

“Nuh-unh,” Dean answers, shaking his head and putting his drink down on a nearby table, “That’s - that was a travesty, what I just witnessed. Babes are fuckin’ wasted on you, Cas.”

“She’s a fully grown woman, Dean,” Castiel corrects him, eyebrows scrunched in confusion as he brings his glass to his lips, “Besides, I’d only be wasting her time. I cannot dance, and I’d not be amenable to having relations with her, so it’s better I -”

“Not amenable?” Dean chokes out disbelievingly, “Who the fuck are you holdin’ out for?! Angelina Jolie?”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“It’s a shame you don’t know how to dance, though,” Sam interjects, seeing by the vein throbbing in his forehead that Dean is about to start shouting about beautiful women and Cas’ ineptitudes, “I could teach you, if you want.”

Castiel slants his mouth at Sam, and Sam smiles gently back at him, “I know it doesn’t sound like fun, but, honestly? It’s a good skill to have, and worst case scenario is that you brighten someone’s evening.”

Appealing to his kind nature is the right call; Cas can’t argue that point, so he puts his champagne down and walks up to Sam.

“Very well. Where do we begin?”

“Oh - we’ll probably wanna go somewhere more private, so we can move a little more freely.”

At Sam’s behest, Dean and Cas follow him across the great hall, out onto a spacious balcony, out of the way of most everyone. Double glass doors lead out to it, and flowers line stone railing; no moon is visible from where they are in the mansion, but the sky is bright with stars, and that’s light enough.

While Sam does a fine job of teaching Castiel, and Castiel is a very quick study, they struggle with their height difference while Dean tells them about their height difference, unhelpfully and repeatedly.

Eventually, Sam turns to Dean, and says, “you should step in, man.”

“What? I’m not short,” Dean pouts grumpily.

“No, but you’re at least shorter than me - it’ll make leading a little easier for him.”

Rolling his eyes as though he’s actually put out, Dean peels himself from the French window he’d been leaning on, and takes Sam’s place.

Even and paced, Castiel and Dean take a few turns around the balcony, and Sam is impressed, informing Castiel that it took him a full week of practice to stop tripping over his own feet.

“To be fair, you were still growing into them at the time” Dean jokes.

In a rare moment of familial levity between them, Sam laughs, and Dean smiles at him - all of that makes Cas smile too, and then Sam’s phone rings.

“Oh - it’s Natalie,” Sam lets them know, “She wants eyes on the dance floor for a minute - I’ll take care of it - Cas, you’re doing great, don’t stop practicing!”

To both Dean and Cas’ surprise and humor, Sam appears genuinely bereft to leave the lesson. They both seem inclined to respect Sam’s wishes, though, so they take another turn.

“You gotta stop glancing down,” Dean commands.

Flashing his eyes back up at Dean, Cas mutters, “it’s reflexive. I apologize.”

“Nah, it’s fine, man. You’ve got it,” Dean assures him, “Now that you know how to, you gonna ask that girl to dance?”

“Perhaps,” Cas tries to shrug, determinedly keeping his eyes up, “I feel certain she has moved on in her pursuits, but if I pass her again, I will offer a dance.”

“You know how?”

“Now, yes.”

“No, I mean do you know how to ask a girl to dance?”

“Is there a particular ritual involved?”

Exhaling a laugh, Dean brings them to a stop, and explains, “okay - I’m gonna show you how it’s done, alright? Then I’ll lead.”

“Understood,” Cas tells him with serious conviction, studious and militant.

Dean steps back and away, and they wait for the band’s dreamy rendition of The Way You Look Tonight to end before proceeding.

As The Book of Love begins, the live orchestra swells from inside the hall, Dean bows just a little at the waist, with his right arm crossing his chest, but his head up, and he inquires politely, “Castiel, may I have this dance?”

Tilting his head curiously, Castiel needlessly replies, “yes, Dean, of course.”

Smiling his most winning smile, Dean straightens up, offers his hand, and nods approvingly when Castiel all but glides into step with him.

He keeps the tempo slow, but incorporates making circles, turning them ‘round and ‘round the stone and marble balcony, up and down it’s length; Cas follows him easily, trusting Dean’s direction, and always operating on a similar wavelength - Dean thinks that maybe they dance together well because they fight together well.

“This is nice, Dean,” Castiel remarks softly.

A dusting of rosiness rises up in Dean’s face; he pulls Cas a little closer to better obscure his face from scrutiny, clears his throat and makes some noncommittal noise that could be agreement or indifference.

“You’re the one who taught Sam to waltz,” Castiel surmises conversationally.

“Yeah,” Dean answers.

“How is it that you came to learn it?”

“Eh, you’d be surprised what you learn on the job,” Dean replies easily, pulling away enough to spin Cas, and then move close in again.

“... you just spun me.”

“Yeah, I was there,” Dean jokes, smirking proudly down at Cas; “Don’t worry, when you get to be a seasoned pro like me, you can snazzy up your waltz too. Maybe next you can learn to salsa or tango.”

In a moment of silence between them, Dean follows Cas’ eyes to their clasped hands; Dean’s not sure what Cas is seeing, but whatever it is, it’s making Dean nervous.

“See now what that lovely lady wanted? Feel bad yet?” Dean prompts.

Castiel’s electric eyes refocus on him, startling him with their intensity just as they had the wedding guests that were strangers to Cas, “I do understand now. However, perhaps it’s the soldier in me, but I find I much prefer following than leading.”

“Ah, that’s just ‘cause I’m a great lead,” Dean teases playfully.

“Yes, you are,” Castiel reinforces, eyes flickering between Dean’s, “You do know I would follow your lead anywhere, don’t you?”

“Christ, Cas,” Dean swears, trying to politely move his too-warm face out of view.

“Really, Dean,” Castiel adds, squeezing Dean’s hand where they’re clasped; when that doesn’t work immediately, he takes advantage of a circling turn to near their faces - their noses almost bump, and Dean has no choice but to look into Castiel’s eyes, “I want you to know. You do know, don’t you?”

Swallowing roughly, feeling possibly feverish, Dean down, then away, “... you gotta stop saying shit like that, Cas.”

“Why?” he wonders, “It’s only the truth.”

Clearing his throat again - a nervous tic he didn’t realize he had until right then - he mumbles back, “yeah, well… I talk big, but I’m flyin’ blind, so maybe don’t follow me everywhere.”

“I’m a soldier, Dean. A Commander, actually. When I delivered you to the convent where Sam and Ruby were against the wishes of Heaven, I chose you. I pledged my allegiance to an Earthly King over an absent God, and I knew what I was doing when I did,” their steps slow down as Dean takes that in, “All I knew was that… I had faith in you.”

At that, Dean stops moving altogether, his hand slides down from Cas’ shoulder blade to the cinch of his waist, and he allows their joined hands to wilt a bit lower, but he doesn’t let go.

It seems then that Cas is the one having trouble keeping Dean’s gaze.

He looks to some faraway place over Dean’s shoulder, and rasps, “I still do. So, yes, Dean. I will follow you everywhere you lead, for however long you allow me to. I don’t mind flying blind if I’m flying with you.”

“Cas…”

With difficulty, Castiel looks back into Dean’s eyes, and Dean feels his heart thud in his ears. He wonders to himself if Cas can hear it, or feel it, but all Cas does is stare intently back at him, maybe waiting for Dean to confirm or deny something.

“Guys!”

Dean practically jumps away from Cas, frightened as if he’s been caught doing something untoward, but Cas is unbothered.

“I think I found our guy,” Sam announces, none the wiser, “And I think he brought a friend.”

“Yeah,” Dean affirms gruffly, “Got it.”

Sam turns back around first, through the glass doors, back into the busy hall, and Dean starts after him, a hand already twitching toward his holster, sparing Cas a look from over his shoulder.

The Angel is standing there alone, unmistakably ethereal with a backdrop of twinkling stars and lazy fireflies illuminating him; he’s examining his hand as though Dean may have left a mark or a message on him somehow.

“You comin’, Swayze?”

Cas’ eyes snap to attention again, and his forehead wrinkles, “... I don’t understand that reference,” but he follows after Dean anyway.

He doesn’t seem to notice how Dean clenches and unclenches his corresponding hand, but Dean wouldn’t be able to explain it if he did.