#she did awesome for what she ran and her thought process after

[petrichorpaws]

turbo beeb

[throneofsapphics]

Woah! You did amazing with help me keep her!! The angst in that fic GOT MY LITTLE HEART RACING 😭 and I love how level headed you wrote the reader. Like they're not gonna accept the mating bond just because it's there and figuring out all three of them is gonna take time (chefs kiss). Also the way you wrote Aelin's determination and stubbornness and Rowens ability to calm and support Aelin and the reader! I LOVE IT! I've re-read it like 4 times already it's SO GOOD❤️ anyway I hope you have an awesome day ❤️ thank you for the great fics

have your little girlfriend, part three

Rowaelin x f!Reader

Summary: Aelin wanted to be there in case he took it a step too far, and would push them further back in their progress. She had a feeling y/n was close, close to accepting the bond - and she didn’t want to wait any longer than they had to. 

Word Count: ~4.9k

Warnings: smut, light d/s, mentions of blood, flashbacks, possessiveness, minors dni! 

A/N: oh my gosh I’m so glad you liked it, I hope you have a fantastic day! here’s part three, I have a part four planned but I'm still deciding what direction I want it to go

series masterlist

The first morning she woke up with Aelin in her bed, y/n thought she looked like an angel. And was very glad she couldn’t read her thoughts, because she’d never let her live it down. 

Her golden hair fell across her face, her lips parted slightly, she tilted her head the tiniest bit to see her clearer. As her thumb ran across her cheeks, the velvety smooth skin, Aelin sighed and dug further into the pillows, tugging her closer in the process. Y/n shifted to try and disentangle herself, but she wrapped her arms tighter around her, tugging her in closer with a grumble. 

Y/n poked her cheek, and the turquoise eyes opened, still half-lidded with drowsiness. “Wake up.” 

“No.” A whine left her throat, “a few more minutes,” and she closed her eyes. 

Y/n wiggled, but couldn’t escape from her arms, and sighed. “Is the Queen of Terrasen begging?” 

That caught her attention, her eyes narrowed. “That’s your job.” Her cheeks flushed. Somehow Aelin always managed to turn things around on her. She couldn’t come up with a reply, and ducked her head to ignore the female's smirk. Aelin did have her begging last night. 

-

Every day the small thread inside of her, the one that wanted to reach out and bind her permanently to her mates, grew more insistent. But she wasn’t ready, not yet. Part of her needed them to prove things would change, to see, in action, that they could be different. Mostly that Aelin could. 

That following weekend, Aelin showed up with Rowan in tow, at an ungodly hour and claimed they were going on an adventure. 

Y/n rolled back over, throwing a pillow over her head with a groan, but Aelin ripped it right off. 

“How are you so chipper?” She grumbled. Throwing a pillow at her - one she dodged. 

“That’s what I’m wondering,” Rowan drawled, from where he stood near the doorway, eyes flickering with amusement. 

Aelin dragged her out of bed, towards her closet, and picked out clothes for her. 

Y/n was too tired to complain about it, and sat as Aelin dragged a brush through her hair, carefully braiding it. 

Her fingers tugged on a tangle, and she hissed. “Be gentle.” 

“Hush,” Aelin said, but pressed a soft kiss to the side of her neck. Basically a groveling apology coming from her. 

Her eyes scanned the room, before spotting the dagger on the window sill. “You need to sharpen this,” she frowned, examining the blade. Weapons seemed to be one of Aelin’s favorite gifts, and she had a small collection of very sharp blades now. After the third, she told her to stop, that she had plenty. Aelin had pouted but listened. This blade was one of her own, gifted to her shortly after magic returned. 

“I clean it.” Y/n protested. 

“That’s not the same.” Her eyebrows raised, but she tucked it into the small leather sheath she’d bought her, designed to wrap around her thigh. 

“I’ll teach you how.” Rowan said, y/n looked up to see his lips turning up at the sides, amused by Aelin’s fussing. 

-

Aelin dragged both of them out to the forest, intent on seeking out the little folk. Well, she couldn’t exactly drag them out of anywhere, but had hopes of introducing them to y/n. She had a sense they’d take well to her, and her gentle nature. Maybe it would be a re-introduction, she had lived in these forests - a small village now wiped off the map - before … before magic fell and Adarlan invaded. A thought that still flared some anger in her, but she learned to keep it tapped down, reminding her of how different Terrasen is now. 

The Little Folk, that’s who Aelin was taking me to see. I crouched on my knees - not caring of the dirt staining them, and spoke to them in their own language, murmuring quietly. Spindly green hands, wings, scales gleaming, and beautiful bright eyes.  

She had Aelin take her back to the forest as soon as she was able to, and she left some gifts out for the little folk. Trinkets, but smaller than the ones she usually made. Aelin watched as she carefully left them on the log, and that small act - small act of kindness - made her fall further in love with her. 

She asked her why, why she did it, and y/n told her it was a thank you - for everything they did for her all those years ago. Saved her, guided her away from danger. And for everything they did for Aelin too. 

“I didn’t ask but told me … more about your story,” y/n said softly, Aelin’s body stiffened slightly, knowing exactly what parts they’d told, and y/n kept running a gentle thumb across the top of her hand, where their fingers joined. She didn’t say much else about it, didn’t push or ask too many questions. If the Little Folk wants to tell you something, there’s usually a good reason for it. Aelin didn’t muse on it any longer, just focusing on the sensation of y/n’s skin against hers, keeping her grounded, and let her guide the way back home. 

-

Y/n knew Aelin was over-protective, in her own way, but Rowan was taking it to a point where she thought she might lose her gods-damned mind. 

She has a long temper, that’s for certain, but she’d been out in the forest on a day sacred to her, foraging for different herbs and berries, something she used to do with her parents, before … before everything happened. It was almost a sacred ritual to her, a time where she felt most connected to them. There happened to be a familiar white-tailed hawk following her. She supposes he thinks she’s being discreet, giving her space, but right now all it’s doing is frustrating her. Aelin taught her to protect herself, and the kings-flame was blooming in mass. She picked up a rock, pretending to inspect it, before launching it right for the bird. He squawked as he soared above it, she knew he wouldn’t hit him, but it landed right on the tree branch he was perched on. 

She stood, hands bracing her hips, glaring at him, daring him to come closer or shift back. He seemed to get the message, temporarily, because he remained out of sight. But, y/n could sense his presence there. 

-

“She threw a rock at me.” He told Aelin through gritted teeth. 

“Why were you following her? And where?” 

“Into the forest, and because she was going alone. At dawn.” 

Aelin groaned, her head leaning back against the couch, eyes trained on the ceiling. “I’ve taught her how to protect herself.” 

“I thought you would’ve followed her yourself.” 

“I tried one year,” she turned her head to look at him. 

“We go with her. Often.” He couldn’t figure out why this time was different, and why she hadn’t said anything. 

“Her parents were murdered there, trying to flee Adarlanian soldiers.” 

That … that explains why she wanted to be alone, but didn’t stop the other instinct from popping up. If someone related to her was killed there, would the danger be increased?

“Stop thinking so much.” Aelin chided, “if you’re this worried, train her yourself.” He could tell Aelin regretted the words as soon as they left her lips.

-

Why the hell did she mention that? Rowan training y/n was a bad idea for many reasons. The first being his style of training. She didn’t take well to yelling, or particularly harsh criticism. Encouragement was much better. She didn’t like blades, violence, or fighting. But, when Aelin had first approached her and offered, y/n was much better than she expected. 

“Where did you learn to fight?” They’d started seeing each other regularly six months ago, and things blossomed from there - to the point where Aelin’s worrying began. 

“With the Wolf tribe.” Y/n admitted, rolling her shoulders out. 

“I didn’t know you-” 

“Fought in the battle?” A sad smile crossed her lips. “You didn’t ask, but I don’t like to think of it.” 

Aelin nodded, and thanked her - something she completely shrugged off, telling her she’s the one who deserves the thanks, and cut her off before she could begin arguing about it - distracting her with another technique question. 

Aelin caught Rowan’s hand, pulling him down to sit next to her. “She’s very capable, already.” More than the average citizen or Fae. 

“There’s always more to learn.” 

“She has no interest in violence, or being a soldier.” Rowan’s lips pressed into a tight line. “I won’t stop you if you really want to, but you have to be gentle about it. When she confronts you about earlier - which she will, bring it up then."

-

Y/n was fuming. Absolutely fuming. She was cleaning her kitchen much more aggressively than usual. She hadn’t told him, for a reason, and Aelin knew why - and not to follow. But maybe she didn’t pass the message on to Rowan. She knew she can’t be that mad at him for something he wasn’t aware of, but it didn’t stop the bubbling fury inside her. Especially as she heard the door open, and scented him. 

A wooden spoon in hand, she whirled around, “You couldn’t just -” 

“I’m sorry.” He interrupted her, hands held up. “Aelin told me.” 

Better late than never. She huffed, turning back to whatever she was doing - what was it? She couldn’t remember, but ended up staring aimlessly at the stove. Her memories seemed to whirl through her. Her parents sacrifice, running in animal form, ten years - as a child - spent scavenging where she could, before the wolf tribe found her and knew what she was, who she was, and took her in. Magic returning, reunion with her family, the deaths of said family. 

A gentle arm, wrapped around her chest, tugging her backwards, and the spoon was plucked out her hand. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

Does she? Sifting through those memories, reliving them, the past few ones had been enough. Today was enough. “Not now.” 

He didn’t give a verbal reply, just led her over to the couch, shifting them so she was tucked into his chest, the silent tears leaving wet spots on his tunic, and ran a hand up and down her spine. 

-

“I didn’t realize you didn’t know.” Rowan figures that’s as close to an apology as he’ll get, and only tugged her into his chest further. 

“I know you can protect yourself,” he started, feeling her stiffen slightly against him. “But I want to see.” 

She pushed back slightly to look at his face, “Is Aelin’s word not good enough?” y/n teased, a small smile - one she definitely learned from Aelin - the exact one that would piss nearly any Fae male off. 

-

She saw ire flash through the green eyes, and mentally thanked Aelin for that little trick. Rowan wanted to see for himself that she was capable. Y/n didn’t blame him for it, even if it irked her a bit. “If you promise not to wear a shirt.” 

“If you want to see me shirtless, all you need to do is ask.” He replied smoothly, almost unphased, and her cheeks flushed. Especially when he ran a thumb over the side of her breast, down her rib cage, before resuming the same strokes running down her spine. She shuddered as one hand entangled itself in the back of her hair, and the other made that same stroke - right over the side of her breast. She focused her breaths to stay steady, even with her heart pounding. His hand carefully tilted her head back to arch her neck, to bare it to him. All of it. She felt his warm breath against her skin, the lips barely brushing. Then - his canines grazed over her pulse point, the pulse that quickened, and his tongue flicked over it. He could easily rip her throat out with one movement. She shuddered - unsure if it was arousal of fear running through her and her lips parted into a soft moan, as he leaned back to rest against the couch. Casual arrogance, that’s the best way she could describe it. “Aelin did say you were responsive,” he mused. 

That flared something in her. Made her want to prove some kind of point. Very intentionally, she shifted in his lap, to brush up against a certain part - one that was already hardening. “Did she know?” y/n said, her voice honeyed with false innocence. 

-

This, this is the part of her he’d seen a year ago. Right before he fucked it out of her. Gods, he loved it. Before she could move again, utter another word, he shifted them so she laid, stretched out on the couch, caged in by him - his forearms bracing the space next to her head. He loved the shock in her eyes, the surprise, and grinned as he leaned down to kiss the hollow over her throat, and pushed one knee in between her legs, brushing against her core. Her entire body arched, keening up against him. 

He took the next hour to tease her, testing her every reaction - how her body responded to each touch, to each movement, to each brush of his fingers, or press of his lips. 

-

She lost track of time as he teased her, she thought Aelin was bad - but Rowan was merciless. His fingers curled inside her, and she felt it, felt her walls clench around him, right on the edge and … he pulled out completely and she nearly sobbed. 

“You don’t cum unless I say so.” His fingers, still slick with her arousal, tilted her chin so she’d meet his gaze. He was dead serious. Meant every word he said. “Understood?”

“Yes,” she breathed, and something like approval flashed through his features. Part of her wanted to challenge him, but the other was so desperate for him to keep touching her, to finally let her finish. 

“Good girl.” 

Y/n whimpered, as he trailed his fingers back down her body, so damn slowly. Her dress had been thrown off long ago. “Please, please -” 

He interrupted her, “If I want you to beg, I’ll tell you.” Rutting Gods he would be the end of her. 

-

Rowan was pushing, to see how she’d take each command she threw at him. Only two, for now, and she took them beautifully. Someone who actually listened, that was a change for him. He pressed one of her knees up, pushing it towards her chest, and lowered his mouth, seeing the desperation in her eyes. He curled two fingers inside her, holding them for a second, before slowly pumping them, but harshly enough her body jolted with each movement, combinations of screams, moans, and his name rolling from her lips. 

“You can cum now, Angel.” Those words had her walls clenching around him, and before he could think twice about it, his canines dug into the soft skin of her inner thigh - and sent her tumbling right over the edge. He carefully licked the small droplets of blood, and gently pulled his fingers out from her, pressing them against her lips, watching her clean them with a dazed expression on her face

-

She was left reeling, her chest heaving, and her thighs shaking slightly. Rowan scooped her right up, and she couldn’t find the energy to protest as he started running a bath for her. 

“But … you -” She babbled, trying to convey the right words. 

“Not today,” he said quietly, eyes observing her. She felt like he could read every thought running through her mind, his mouth turned up at one side when she pouted, and he flicked her bottom lip. “Soon.” He promised. 

-

Rowan came back, and she could scent Y/n all over him. Her arousal, too. This was the first time they’d been … intimate, at least to that level, without her there. Instead of jealousy, happiness for them took over instead.

“I take it your apology was accepted?” 

“It took a bit of convincing.” He had a very satisfied look on his face, and she rolled her eyes. Typical of him. If words didn’t seem to be enough, he’d show with his actions. Very convincing actions.

It took a while for Aelin to become comfortable with the two of them spending time alone.  Rowan had put his foot down, told her that if this was going to work, she needed to trust the two of them together. 

“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” she argued. 

“She’s not just yours anymore,” he snarled, and Aelin’s eyes flared. “Trying means the two of us need time too.” 

A hurt look crossed her face. That they wanted to be without … Rowan crossed the room quickly, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Not in the way you’re thinking. You and I have a different relationship, don’t we?” 

She nodded, lips pressed into a tight line. “Y/n doesn’t know where she stands with me. You see how she hesitates. If you want to keep her, for her to accept both of us, you need to give her the chance to figure that out.” 

Everything about it made sense. It did. She wouldn’t tell him he was right, but he did have a good point. “You’ve made your case,” she huffed, turning her back so she wouldn’t see the satisfaction on his face. 

“First time you train her - or she shows you, whatever it is, I’m monitoring.” Aelin’s eyes narrowed, daring him to disagree, but he didn’t. Aelin wanted to be there in case he took it a step too far, and would push them further back in their progress. She had a feeling y/n was close, close to accepting the bond - and she didn’t want to wait any longer than they had to. It had been three months already. They knew after the bond it would become more and more difficult for her to be away from them for long periods of time, so they planned to invite her - convince her if necessary - to stay at the castle. 

They’d already started modifying rooms for her, similar to her own in the sense that they’d have space for her to experiment and make her crafts. A workshop, with a small library, but not a separate bed. Once the three of them were together, they fully planned on keeping her nights occupied. Both Aelin and Rowan played the long game. They’d do whatever it took to keep her. 

-

Aelin had the reasonable audacity to show up early in the morning, to make sure she would actually keep to her word and go train with Rowan, instead of coming up with an excuse. She promised to be there, that she wouldn’t let him go overboard. Y/n remembers the story of how they met, of his rather brutal training techniques, and although he said he wanted to ‘see for himself,’ y/n knew it was a thinly veiled excuse to rope her into training with him. With all honestly, she couldn’t trust herself completely to set boundaries with him. Maybe Aelin knew that too.

Rowan was a bit harsher than Aelin, but based on the glares the female kept sending him, she knew he was holding back, probably a lot. They’d secured a secluded courtyard in the castle - nobody else in sight, and he put her through her paces until her body was glistening with sweat, and she guzzled down some water. 

“There’s a few things we can work on,” she turned sharply to face him, but saw the gentle expression on his face. “If you’d like to.” 

Her mouth quirked into a half smile. “What are those things?” Then she frowned. “I thought you said you’d be shirtless.” 

Aelin’s laugh filled the courtyard. 

-

Four months after the conversation, she finally felt ready. But, she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, just wanted to let the part suppressing it loosen, and see what would happen. Aelin hadn’t left in the middle of the night - not without waking her to tell her, and she’d grown closer to Rowan, starting to figure out where she stood with them. They introduced her to a few people, and she introduced Aelin to some of her friends. Rowan said he wasn’t too interested, and Aelin said he would likely scare the hell out of them. And that meeting both the Queen and King of Terrasen all at once would be a bit much. Things changed enough she felt ready - that and the growing pressure in her chest was almost too much to handle, it nearly overwhelmed her at every turn, every time she saw them, and wanted to release it of her own control, before it would make the decision for her. 

They both were coming over for dinner later that night and she was jittery. On edge, jumping at every sound. A small knock sounded on the door, before it opened and both of them walked in, Rowan grabbing Aelin’s cloak to hang it on the rack. Fall was starting to set in in Terrasen, and with it came the chill slowly creeping in everywhere. 

They took a few steps in, and froze. That small thread in her chest reached out, splitting in two directions, and she felt it - the exact moment their souls connected. Everything around her slowed to a stop, and her vision tunneled, all she could see, all she could feel was them. Every part of her body and soul belonged to them - wanted them, yearned for them. It felt like the connection that was waiting for her, waiting for her to find and embrace. Ancient magic fluttered around the room as they took predatory steps towards them. The hunger in their eyes made her pause. But she felt it too, the draw to them, able to feel more of their emotions - sense them on a new level. 

As soon as they were in front of her, she cupped one hand on each of their cheeks, searching their eyes for any anger, resentment, anything. She had sprung it on them, and just realized maybe they’d be angry or upset. 

“About damn time,” Aelin growled, before gripping the back of my head, pulling me into a bruising kiss. Their lips moved together with a ferocious, almost frenzied passion. She felt rough hands grip her waist, and Rowan pressing behind her, pushing her further into Aelin. Caging her between them. His hand squeezed, before his lips met the spot between her neck and shoulder, sucking slightly. “You're ours now.” Aelin said as she pulled away for air. 

“Forever.” Rowan said behind her, and she shuddered, but didn’t let the words sink in, only turning to press her lips against Rowan’s, her neck perfectly exposed for Aelin, who took full advantage of the chance to leave marks and kisses all down it. 

With every touch, kiss, and caress she felt herself intertwining deeper with them, every part of her becoming theirs and every part of them becoming hers. 

-

They barely made it to her bedroom before her fingers were tugging at the end of Aelin’s tunic, the female didn’t waste any time, pulling it off herself - and flinging it somewhere across the room. 

Y/n reached to pull down the straps of her dress, but a large hand covered hers, “let me,” Rowan’s lips grazed across her ear. He slowly tugged down one strap, kissing the bare shoulder left behind, before gently nipping at it. She felt Aelin do the same, on her other shoulder. Their canines grazed against her, and she let out a small whimper. Even that small sensation felt let it was lighting her body on fire, like flames would be covering her at any minute. 

Then there were soft flames gently tickling at her skin - not burning, just caressing. 

“Aelin,” she heard Rowan’s growl, and a ice kissed wind brushed against her skin as well - but it didn’t extinguish it, instead they seemed to play together, brushing against her body, they both pressed closer, and she felt their canines graze either side of her neck, right at the spots where her neck met her shoulder. 

There was no warning as their teeth sunk in. Marking her. Claiming her. Y/n thought she might finish from that alone, but was reduced to moans and whimpers as they each licked up the small droplets of blood left behind. 

Their clothes were quickly forgotten after that, and Rowan tossed her onto her bed with a small squeal, tossing Aelin right after her, she laughed lightly, but that ended as Rowan tugged her back against his chest, using his knees to spread hers wide apart, and Aelin lowered herself, eyes on hers the entire time, and gave a gentle lick against her clit. Gods she was already so wet, her arousal practically dripping, and she felt Rowan’s hard length against her back. 

Rowan and Aelin exchanged a glance over her shoulder, and Aelin pulled back slightly, ignoring y/n’s whines of protest. 

She figured out quickly what was happening next, as Rowan’s hands gripped her hips, before lowering her onto him - inch by inch, stopping to let her body adjust, before finally pushing her all the way, leaving her feeling so damned full in this position. 

She twisted her hips slightly, and he groaned, but grabbed her - holding her still. Her eyes narrowed slightly in confusion, but before she could think further Aelin was back between her legs, sucking at her clit. 

She could feel Rowan trembling with restraint, but he held her there - not moving, as Aelin licked and sucked at her clit - finding a perfect rhythm, and one of Rowan’s hands pinched her pebbled nipple slightly, before pinching harsh enough she threw her head back against his shoulder, moaning loudly. She felt herself growing closer and closer. 

“Ask,” Rowan's teeth tugged at her earlobe. 

“Please,” she nearly sobbed, “please can I cum?” 

“Go ahead,” 

Y/n looked down at Aelin, just as the female sucked her clit particularly harshly, looking up at her through her lashes, and she went over the edge, her walls clenching, body starting to shake. Gods she felt like she might explode, burst up into flames. 

She heard Aelin’s laugh and felt her kissing her way up her body, leaving small bites and marks on her way, until their lips met. She sighed into the kiss, tasting her own arousal on her lips and tongue. 

They switched, Gods she could never figure out how they moved so fast, and she was on her back, legs thrown over Rowan’s shoulders, and Aelin slowly lowering herself over her face. 

She had no warning as Rowan began thrusting inside her, his pace punishing and nearly brutal. Aelin’s hands were braced against the headboard, and she moaned into her, alternating between licking and sucking her clit as her breaths became more ragged - harsher. 

She ran her hands up her ribcage, gently tracing a knuckle under one of her breasts, before gliding her thumb over her nipple. Aelin wasn’t having it, and covered y/n’s hand with her own, squeezing harshly. She got the message, repeating the motions, and it was so gods-damned hard to focus. With Rowan slamming into her, the incredible taste of Aelin on her tongue, the feeling of her soft skin under her hands. Aelin finished first, screaming her name, panting heavily, before climbing off, and Rowan’s body folded over her own, pressing her legs up to her chest. 

Aelins nails dragged down her arm, leaving small scratches in their wake, before she grabbed her hand, squeezing before laying a gentle kiss against her shoulder. 

“Who do you belong to?” His breath was warm against her neck, and she fought to regain her breath - her voice, apparently her answer didn’t come quick enough, because he grasped the base of her neck, he repeated himself, his voice lower, “who do you belong to?” emphasizing it with a light squeeze. 

“You,” she screamed, half sobbing, “I belong to both of you. Rowan and Aelin. Oh gods.” 

“Then cum for us love, again.” Rowan shifted his hips just enough to hit the perfect spot, and she did, screaming their names the entire time as his walls clenched around her. 

He finished shortly after, with a groan and his teeth in her neck. Her legs shook violently as he pulled himself out of her, and her eyes were glazed, heavy with lust. 

-

Rowan exchanged a satisfied smirk with Aelin at the sight of her, blissed out, but her hands still reaching for both of them. Theirs. She was, finally, completely theirs, and everyone would be able to tell - based on the two bite marks on either side of her neck. He rolled off, coming back with a glass of water and a washcloth, Aelin sat, propped against the pillows, running fingers through her hair as Y/n curled into her side. 

“We’re not done with you yet.” Aelin said, her voice soft and smooth but with a teasing edge to it. 

“I’m not done with you either.” A half grin formed on the female’s face, as she accepted the glass. 

They didn’t get much sleep that night. 

-

Aelin felt incredibly satisfied, y/n sleeping curled up between her and Rowan. She felt safe enough to finally accept it - surprising them with it or not. She was theirs. She always had been, but now in a way that went so deep, their souls could never be completely separated.   

[memyselfandmya]

JWCT PROMPT COUNTDOWN

Jwct countdown May 12-13 -> favorite friendship/duo:

I couldn't choose between Sammy & Kenji and Ben & Yaz so here's both of them in another excerpt from the fanfiction I'm in the process of writing. Again, this is mostly unedited. For context, they're at the water park in JW.

Sammy noticed Kenji standing off to the side with a disappointed look on his face. 

“Hey, Kenji! Did you wanna’ go–” 

He flipped his sunglasses to shade his eyes. “Sammy, let me stop you there. I know it’s hard to resist all this,” —he ran his hands across his shirtless chest, which Sammy hadn’t even been paying attention to— “but I’ve got a girl back home. And let me tell you, she is incredibly–”

She stared at him, head tilting a bit. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea after all. “Uh, Kenji. I don’t want to date you,” Sammy said. “Like, at all. I’m happy you have a girlfriend, though. I was just seeing if you wanted to hang out.” 

“Psh… Obviously. I was just kidding.” He cleared his throat. “About you asking me out. Not about my girlfriend... obviously,” he added on.

Sammy nodded her head slowly. “Right…well do you want to go on one of the rides?”

“Yes! Let’s go!”

“So tell me about this girlfriend of yours,” Sammy said as they began walking through the park.  

“Oh, uh–well you know. She’s really pretty. She’s got blonde hair…blue eyes? She’s, uh, really into art too.”

Sammy arched her eyebrow. It was obvious that Kenji was lying about his so-called girlfriend. Why he was, Sammy couldn’t be sure. Not that it really mattered to her. She wasn’t at all interested in Kenji—or boys for that matter. “She sure sounds like a great catch.”

Although to be honest, Kenji’s imaginary girlfriend didn’t seem like her type, at least not the blonde hair and blue eyes. Sounded more like her sister’s type in guys if anything.

Suddenly, her eyes caught on a huge slide with a line of people carrying bright yellow and green intertubes trailing from the base of its stairs all the way to the top which stood at about maybe 2 stories tall. 

“Last one to that slide has to carry the tube up!” Sammy shouted, pointing at said ride and dashing off before Kenji could get a word in. 

She could hear the sound of Kenji’s flip-flops smacking against the concrete as they ran for the line, ignoring the shrill whistle of a nearby lifeguard. 

—

Yasmina was still bristling from her encounter with Brooklyn. The nerve of that girl! Did she even understand personal boundaries? She just flitted around sticking her phone in everyone’s faces. It wasn’t fair that Brooklyn got to keep it just to be nosy. All Yasmina wanted was to plug her headphones in and listen to music.

It would’ve especially been helpful in that moment. Hundreds of kids were milling around screaming their fucking heads off and life guards blowing whistles at them and it was like shoving a bunch of forks in her ears. She just wished she could tune everything out. 

“Oh, look,” A familiar voice said. “There’s Yasmina!”

Kill me now, she thought, dread settling in her stomach. She sat up in her chair, to find Ben and Darius approaching her. Ben wasn’t so bad but Darius had just as much energy as Brooklynn or, dare she say it, Sammy. “What do you want?” She asked. 

Darius shrugged. “Nothing, really… Just chilling.”

Ben took a seat next to Yasmina, occupying not even an inch of the space and even that looked like it agonized him. 

“Have you done anything fun?” Darius asked, his eyes cutting to Ben.

Yasmina narrowed her eyes at him. What was he up to? “Nope. I’ve been here the entire time. Why?”

“Just asking,” he said. “Ben, I might go on the [Insert ride]. Are you good to stay here?”

So that's what he wanted. Not much of a surprise there.

She looked at Ben who shrugged. “Sure.” 

“Awesome! See you,” he said, not wasting a second to go run off towards the slide line. 

“Did he just dump you onto me?” She asked Ben. 

“Yeah, he did.” There was a hint of pain in his voice and Yasmina wondered how it must have felt to be abandoned like that. 

“Sorry.”

He shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

Well that’s depressing. Then Yasmina noticed how Ben hadn’t moved any and still balanced precariously on the edge of the bench like he didn’t want to touch it all. 

“Here,” she said, tossing him the towel she’d been using to shade her face. 

Ben fumbled but caught it in his hands before spreading it out over the chair. Finally, he sat his full body on it and curled into himself. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

“Don’t mention it.”

To be fair, out of all the campers, she was glad it was Ben and not one of the others. Ben was quiet and calm and he kept to himself instead of sticking his nose into her business. He was kind of like her, in a way. 

After a moment of silence between them, Yaz could hear sniffling. She sighed, wondering if this was something worth getting into. And then: “Are you okay?”

—

Ben hated it there. Nobody understood. He could tell he was upsetting Darius by not wanting to go on any of the attractions but Ben just couldn’t. The mere thought of touching the tubes or sliding down slides that so many others had gone down made his skin crawl. If he wasn’t wearing long sleeves he’d probably be scratching at his arms or lathering hand sanitizer on his skin. There wasn’t enough hand sanitizer in the world that could convince him to go on one of those rides, though. The only comforting thing about the wade pool or the lazy river was the heavy amount of chlorine in the water but Ben knew there was only so much he could handle that day. Ben hadn’t even noticed his nails digging into his skin or the salty tear leaking from his eye.

“Are you okay?” Yasmina’s question only seemed to draw more tears from him. 

“No,” he said, swiping at his face. “I want to go home.”

Yasmina was silent for a moment, and in that time he had begun to think that she too fell into the Ben hate club. Until, “Me too.” 

Ben and Yasmina's friendship is so precious to me, especially in s5 of CC and I really wanted to bring that up in the earlier parts of the fanfic I'm writing too.

[taldigi]

I'll be honest, I'm intrigued by the fact that you seem to like Sumi, considering the fact that I've always found her to be the pinnacle of a needless add-on character. A feeling only solidified by the fact that (like you said) she's only ever treated as Love InterestTM or third wheel to Akechi and Joker dynamic by the fans. I don't even hate her like you do Futaba. I've just felt that if I tapped her she would fall over like a cardboard cut out. So I'm interested to hear, is there anything in particular that you find interesting about her?

I think I dont hate futaba as much as I feel like she was pretty squandered and left fully subject to pandering/tropes. I realized this when- after removing her from my game as best I could, I liked her scenes a lot more since she was present in more digestible doses.

Which brings me to Sumi- and yeah, I think the more I puzzle over her: I like Sumi- I like that she has her little arc and I think that without her, the 3rd simester stuff wouldn't have the punch needed. What the villian did is bad, terrible even- but what he did to Sumi is perfectly laid out as why his line of thinking ultimately fails: He helped her, he made her happy, but he also made her unable to heal and unable to grow.

I agree- a lot of her stuff does fall flat and that does fall to the fact that we really don't get a lot of genuine time together and you do have to bullrush a lot of it in order to make it stick enough. It's also that incorperating her into the story seems to be too much (they didn't even really remix the dungeons that much, just added Will seed segments.. which sucks cause we could have had a lot more incredibly awesome grappling hook segments tbh).

She just ran a marathon trying to keep up with her sister and only now is she slowing down to rest afterwards, and- much like every other confdiant in the game, she only really tends to open up when Ren sticks his nose in their business. She's a girl desperately grieving for someone she loved, yet held a remarkibly complex relationship with it, and was forced by someone else to speedrun that grieving process.

Another aspect that's interesting about her is that dispite Ren's empathy and patience, he doesn't fix her. He can't fix her. She has to fix herself, but that journey is rigged from the beginning. He can help, though, he can be there for her... and this is a way more interesting tale to tell when it's not romantic & is treated as a tale of loyalty and friendship via the "I hope senpai notices me" trope cauase like, what if senpai did notice you and you came out a different person afterwards.

Sorry Im kinda rambly 'bout it since my train of thought is everywhere about her tbh. I think her "senpai notice me" plot scares off people from trying to explore her past that.

Also masking, personas, ect ect she's good at embodying that too.

[captainsophiestark]

The Dread Pirate Roberts

Westley x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for my Year of Olympians and part of a bigger challenge being run by @yearofcreation2023​ which features a ton of awesome creators and runs all year! Go check it out if you haven’t already!

Also, this fic wasn’t a request, but I’m dedicating it to @auroracalisto​ who is my fellow Princess Bride fangirl searching desperately for fic with me

Fandom: The Princess Bride

Prompt: Poseidon; Sea, Water, Storms

Summary: Prince Humperdinck has set his sights on Y/N to marry, but she can't simply forget the love of her life, Westley, and give that up for a life with the prince. So, she decides to run, taking a boat and setting sail for new horizons like her farm boy did so long ago.

Word Count: 3,192

Category: Angst and fluff

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I glanced back over my shoulder one last time as I undid the last of the lines holding my boat to the dock. In the dead of night, I couldn't see much, but in the far distance the lights of the capital city of Florin stared back at me. This would likely be the last time I saw this place.

A few weeks ago, I'd been in town to do some shopping for my family, taking a bit of a rare adventure away from our farm. While I'd been walking through the market, a procession had ridden through on horseback. Among the group of young soldiers and officials was none other than Prince Humperdinck, apparently in the city to visit his subjects before going back behind the walls of his massive palace. By some strange stroke of luck, he'd seen me, and apparently decided I was someone he wanted to get to know.

We'd spent the rest of the day walking around the market, surrounded by his guards, talking and taking in the day. At first, I hadn't minded. What other opportunity would I get to speak with a prince, after all? I told him of the troubles I faced in the countryside, and about things I thought might help or fix them. He listened closely, and I thought I might actually be making a difference. He even invited me to return to the capital city and the palace in a few days' time to continue our conversations. Of course I'd said yes, excited that the prince had listened to me and wanted to hear more of what I had to say.

And then, when I arrived at the castle, he proposed to me. To make matters worse, it was clear from the minute I set foot in that place his proposal came out of a place of attraction to me physically, and absolutely nothing else.

I immediately knew I wanted nothing to do with him, especially not in that way. I'd already met the love of my life, and although I'd lost him when he went off to sea and left my family farm, my love for him had never faded. Perhaps, someday, I'd be willing to love someone else, but that day was not today, and no matter what I knew it wouldn't be love for Prince Humperdinck. However, there was no saying no to the Crown Prince. So, to escape the fate of the loveless life I surely faced if I agreed to marry him, I'd decided to leave this land once and for all.

I'd had very little time to make plans or preparations, since my window to escape Humperdinck was incredibly small. I'd managed to pull together some provisions and to secure a small boat, that hopefully I'd be able to sail on my own. I was no expert sailor, but I could get by well enough to leave the country. I'd had no time to tell my family or anyone else I cared about, but eventually, I'd decided that might be for the best. This way, they'd have deniability when people eventually came asking about where I'd gone or why I'd left.

I took a deep breath, steadying myself, then chucked the final tether ashore and away from me. I ran around, adjusting the rigging and sails on my small boat as I drifted out of the harbor. There was a light wind tonight, perfect for helping me make my escape. The gods of the sea were watching out for me, or else my darling Westley, the love I'd lost to the sea, now acting as my guardian angel.

It was fitting, I supposed, that I'd eventually follow him out here. I hoped to find a new place to call home, somewhere no one knew me or my connections to the Prince of Florin, but nothing was guaranteed. This may well be the place I perished, to finally join Westley after he lost his life to the Dread Pirate Roberts.

I sat up all night, manning the lines and making sure my sails were always adjusted to catch the winds. I made good progress, leaving Florin in my wake, and eventually got comfortable enough that I could sleep for short periods of time in between making sure everything went smoothly. I'd actually managed to gather a decent amount of provisions, and I started to feel more hopeful about my prospects on this ship to find a new land.

At least, until a storm hit.

I woke up just after twilight on the third night since I'd left, being almost rocked out of my seat by the waves tossing my boat about. I shook my head, trying to clear it of the remaining sleep fog as the waves continued to grow around me. I swore as I looked to the horizon, only to find darker clouds and bigger waves. I was headed straight into the center of what appeared to be a very big storm.

I ran to the rigging, trying to change course. I wrestled the ship into a sharp right turn, thinking I could run along the edge of the storm until, hopefully, I past it. I'd never be able to outrun it by going back the way I came, and the odds of me finding the eye of the storm before I capsized were fairly low. I had no other way out.

I wrestled the rigging until my arms burned, and then found a way to keep going. Despite my best efforts, however, the storm only got worse around me. I clung to the ship, praying for a miracle or some way out of this, and then suddenly, I was underwater.

A massive wave must've finally managed to swamp my boat. I floated for a moment, letting my natural buoyancy show me which way was up so I didn't accidently swim further from the surface before I at last made my push upwards. I gasped once my head broke the surface, searching frantically for something to help keep me afloat.

I found a piece of my now-smashed ship not too far from me and swam towards it wildly, clinging onto it for dear life once I reached it. I frantically tried to come up with an idea to save myself, but I kept drawing a blank.

I was going to die here, tossed among the waves, resigned to a similar fate as my dear Westley. There was a certain poetry to that, I supposed, even as I fought back tears at the hopeless feeling now welling in my stomach.

Then, out of a break in the waves, I saw the mast of a ship coming closer to me. My heart leapt, and I started shouting and waving, doing my best to catch its attention. It was a far bigger ship than mine had been, meaning it hadn't lost its struggle with the massive waves around us. Maybe I had a hope of making it out of this after all.

That hope immediately died when I caught sight of the flag flying over the mast as the ship got closer to me and the wind changed. They were flying the Jolly Roger.

I stopped waving, debating mentally whether it was better to stay in the water or be caught by pirates, but apparently a decision had been made for me. They'd already seen me, and I could hear shouting and see people pointing to me as the ship came even closer. I braced myself, trying to be as ready as possible for whatever this new challenge brought. I had been the one who'd decided to run, after all, and I knew in my heart I didn't regret that decision one bit, no matter what this new hell might bring me.

Before I knew it, I'd been fished out of the water and hauled on deck. I quickly backed away from the men who'd gotten me on board, and although most of them didn't pay me any attention in the chaos of trying to keep the boat afloat, two followed me as my back came up against the main mast, halting me in my tracks.

The men stared at me as they stalked closer, and every muscle in my body went into fight or flight mode. The man a bit further back from me seemed to be taking cues from the other man, his eyes darting between me and who I assumed must be the leader. The leader, the one closest to me, was dressed in all black with a mask on his face, his ice blue eyes tracking my every movement. My heart stopped dead in my chest. I'd never seen him before, but I'd heard enough legends and stories to know beyond a shadow of a doubt who this man was.

Before me stood the Dread Pirate Roberts.

A fury like none I'd ever felt raged through me, replacing the panic and fear that came before. This man was responsible for the death of my Westley. I glared at him, putting the full force of my hate into the look, then glanced around for a sword or something else to attack him with. I'd most likely die on this ship anyway, so I might as well go out attempting to get some justice for my lost love.

"You! What were you doing out in this storm?" yelled the pirate over the waves. I glared back at him and ignored his question.

He waited a few long moments for my response, then huffed in irritation. He looked around at his crew and the storm still raging on all sides, then back at his first mate.

"Keep us from sinking! I'll be back!" he roared at the man behind him before turning back to me. The man rushed off to fulfill his orders, leaving me more or less alone with Westley's murderer.

Before I could even attempt to make a move for revenge, the pirate surged forward and grabbed me by the arm. His grip was like iron, and although I fought against him, I couldn't break away. He dragged me across the deck of the ship with surprising strength, up the stairs to the ship's wheel where a navigator wrestled against the wind and waves, and then through a door to what I assumed must be his private quarters. He shoved me into a chair as soon as we were through the door, slamming it behind us before turning back to me.

I moved to stand from the chair, but before I could, he had his sword at my throat. I glowered up at him as he spoke again, a deadly calm to his voice.

"Now, I'll ask you again–and I expect an answer this time. What were you doing out in that storm?"

I clenched and unclenched my fists, debating whether it would be worth it to answer or if I should just let him slit my throat. After a moment's hesitation, however, I decided I didn't really want to die if I could avoid it, especially not before I found some way to get even the slightest justice for Westley.

"I was escaping the hell of being married to a man I don't love, a monster second only to yourself," I hissed. The pirate stared back at me for a few moments, seemingly considering my words, then spoke.

"Explain."

I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, trying to get my temper under some kind of control.

"I caught the eye of Prince Humperdinck," I finally managed. "I had no desire to marry him, but he's not a prince who takes well to the word 'no'. Running was my only option, so I secured a boat and set sail as soon as possible."

"On your own?"

I nodded once, not bothering with a verbal answer.

"And being a princess was such a horrifying fate that you risked death in its stead?"

I sneered. "Being wed to someone I don't love after knowing what true love feels like is a fate worse than death, yes. And thanks to you I will never have my happy ending with my love, for he died at your sword while he was out attempting to gain enough fortunes for us to finally marry."

"...And what was this man's name?"

"Westley," I replied without hesitation. Up until now I'd been staring back at the Dread Pirate in rage, but my tone softened and my focus shifted to the distance as I got lost in memories of my beloved farm boy. "He was good and kind, something you'd know nothing about. He loved me, and despite the simple life we led together, we were happy. We could've lived long, wonderful lives together, but now that will never happen. So threaten me with your sword and whatever else you want. Nothing you say or do will ever match what I've already had to endure."

I faced the pirate again as I delivered the end of my speech, only to find him staring back at me with slightly wide eyes. When I'd finished speaking, he stared at me for a moment longer, before finally dropping his sword to his side. Another beat, and then he'd dropped to his knees before me, staring up at me like I was the sun. I leaned back a bit, confused, until he tore off the black mask covering so much of his face and looked up at me again.

Westley. Somehow, by some miracle, I was staring into the face of Westley, the love of my life.

"I... How... What kind of trick is this?" I demanded, trying to get my head straight. Had I been drugged somehow?

"No trick, my love," he replied, staring at me dreamily. He scooted a bit closer to me, but didn't touch me, instead letting me work through my thoughts.

"Tell me what's going on," I demanded, sounding a bit more desperate than I wanted to.

"As you wish."

He opened his mouth to continue speaking, but I didn't bother listening. That was enough to satisfy any lingering doubts I had. I didn't understand it, but I could also say with complete certainty that this was, in fact, my Westley.

I slid out of my seat, joining him on the floor on my knees. We were face to face, and he smiled softly at me, but I didn't give him a chance to do much more before I pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss.

After a few seconds of shock, he kissed me back, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me tighter to him. I ran my hands through his hair, over his arms, across his shoulders–anywhere I could reach. I'd gone years without Westley, my darling farm boy, the love of my life, and I needed every bit of confirmation I could get that he was here, and this was real.

We stayed like that for long minutes, only pausing our kiss once or twice to come up for air. When we finally broke apart, I laid my head on his shoulder, holding him tight to me as he likewise held onto me, a few tears finally starting to fall.

"Westley..." I breathed, relief flooding through my system as I felt his strong arms around me and heard the steady beat of his heart. "How is this possible?"

"When the Dread Pirate Roberts raided my ship, he didn't kill me," Westley breathed, speaking softly against my ear as he ran his hands up and down my back. "I begged him for my life, and I told him about you. My love, who I needed to return to. I told him I couldn't die because I couldn't leave you.

"He ended up sparing me that day. He kept me prisoner, and told me each day he'd most likely kill me in the morning. Over the course of time, he trained me, and I learned everything to do with being the Dread Pirate Roberts. Eventually, he told me his secret. He was not the Dread Pirate Roberts. He was a man called Ryan, who had inherited the position from someone else who was not the Dread Pirate Roberts. The title carries more weight than anything else, and so the name has been passed down every few years, the previous Dread Pirate Roberts retiring with their fortune after choosing and training their successor. He'd chosen me to be his, and a few days after he told me as much, we docked at a small island port. We hired a completely new crew, and then he left. I've been the Dread Pirate Roberts ever since."

"I... I can hardly believe it."

"Imagine how I felt when I found you bobbing in the water just as I was finally on my way back to you," he chuckled. I huffed a laugh with him, then at last pulled back to look him in the eyes again.

"So... what now? What do we do next?"

"Well, we can't stay on the ship. It's not the best place to start a life together, to say nothing of the questions it would raise that I left you alive."

"Of course."

"And you can't return to Florin or, truly, any country near it, lest the 'prince' find you and throw a wrench into our newfound happiness."

"Agreed."

"Then that really only leaves one option, doesn't it?"

"And what might that be?" I asked, smiling and leaning into Westley as he stared at me, a playful smile tugging at his lips.

"To find a completely new place and start over, of course. I've already picked my successor–I was planning to promote him once I reached the shores of Florin, but now I'll wait until we find our new home."

"My love, I can't think of a plan I'd more like to initiate," I said, beaming happily back at him. He leaned down and kissed me again, then pulled away to stare at me with love in his eyes.

"So, where shall we go?"

"I'd say you know the lands far from Florin's reach far better than I. You choose. But... pick someplace with green fields, and perhaps a gorgeous lake we can swim in on hot days. With land enough for us and any future children to roam and have adventures, and room for a home for us to curl up in on cold winter nights."

"Well, that's not much to ask for," he teased, leaning into me a bit. "Anything else you'd like to add to the list, my love?"

"Yes. I want our new home to be some place we can live happily together, without anything to ever separate us again so long as we both shall live. I want it to be a place where we can be by each other's sides for the rest of time, where we finally get our happy ever after."

He smiled at me warmly, leaning down to place a soft kiss on my lips before pulling back just enough to look me in the eyes.

"As you wish."

[cartoonscientist]

oh mannn so after I typed up that alternate timelines post I hammered this out in like a day because I was just POSSESSED

it's also on ao3 here if you prefer that

And They Lived Happily Ever After -or- Weird, Pretty, Pretty Weird

ships: Magic Woman/Ice King, Betty Grof/Simon Petrikov

summary: The Ice King reflects on how everything changed when a special lady mysteriously showed up in his life. Or, one love story recorded over another on an old VHS tape.

notes: contains colorful ableist language and references to sex and violence. and manga.

  Ice King didn’t really know where the weird pretty lady had come from. She just flew into his window one day and asked to go on a date, like an angel or a beautiful seagull. It reminded him of a comic he was pretty sure he’d read, about a sad lonely guy who wakes up to find a girl who, get this, is already his girlfriend in his apartment. He’d always thought that sounded like a pretty good deal, just a nice lady who would love you and be friends with you without you having to put in any of that pesky flirting legwork. What busy, high-powered wizard had time for things like that anyway?

  It wasn’t all perfect to begin with. She actually kind of stressed him out at first, always acting like she had important things to do that he couldn’t understand. She would startle and run off and start talking to herself when he just wanted her to stay and hang out. Worse, she even tried to get him to do boring complicated things that sucked and made him feel bad. The pretty weird lady was kind of a scary pretty weird lady sometimes, come to think of it.

  But it seemed like maybe she just needed to spend more time getting to know him to really relax and get out of her shell. There was a time he thought she wasn’t going to see him again. They had a fight, or at least they did according to her, and she said she needed time to process things. She was talking really fast, saying a lot of words that would get you a lot of points in Scrabble. It didn’t really register with him because he was too disappointed that he’d somehow managed to make her upset again . Women and their mysteries, right?

  Apparently she processed them really well! He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before she came back (it was hard to maintain a calendar when the pages would just end up scribbled on and scattered across the castle), but she was the happiest he’d ever seen her. She was darting and dancing around the way she did when she got excited, and as soon as she saw him she ran up to him and gave him a hug, bouncing with enthusiasm even as she held him.

  “Simon!” She squealed, nuzzling into the side of his beard. It didn’t really make sense because it wasn’t his name, but it was her special pet name for him and he thought it was kind of cute. Weird ladies with their weird nicknames.

  “Hey, you! You’re doin’ a lot better now!” He sniffed her hair, a privilege he got to enjoy as her Boyfriend. She pulled away and looked up at his face, still smiling.

  “What was I doing before?”

  “Oh, you know. You were all down in the dumps. It’s not real important. But now you’re good!”

  “I am so good, you wouldn’t believe.” She did a little spin and as she did, tossed a bolt of pink energy at a nearby boulder that left behind the smoldering engraving of two bees kissing, with the appropriate floating love hearts.

  He learned more about her on their dates, which were pretty crazy awesome to tell you the truth. It seemed like she knew all the best spots in Ooo to collect spell ingredients, or just have a seapolyp fight or snuggle under a crying willow. He was embarrassed to admit he didn’t travel much, mostly to places like the laundromat and the Magic General, but she just said he was adorable, which made him like her even more.

  He learned that she was a wizard too, but didn’t go to meetups, and she called herself Magic Woman.

  “Look!” She said, excited, holding aloft a section of warped branch. “I found this when I was stalking the forest for shrooms. It really looks like, like, a prehistoric fish? And I did some magic stuff to it too. To enhance the effect. I get immense vibes from it.”

  “Woah.” He traced the lines with a claw. “This is like, a super advanced artifact.” Magic Woman was so cool and good at being a wizard that it almost made him jealous sometimes, but then he would remember that she was his girlfriend and it would change to pride. Something about taking something from her and holding it, examining it, something important, that they found… Deja vu could be so weird.

  “So, um, I thought, if you like it, you can have it. As a romantic gift.”

  “Wow, that’s probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me!” He planted a messy kiss on the lens of her glasses and she giggled. “I’m gonna put it right on top of my microwave so I can look at it whenever I go in the kitchen. That’s a spot for special stuff!”

  This pleased her greatly, and she almost threw him off balance tackling him with a hug. “ Yes! That’s exactly what I wanted to happen! I’m a freakin’ genius!” She devolved into a bout of contagious laughter and they ended up cackling together on the icy floor.

 After they had regained their breath, Ice King thought of something that he was pretty sure he’d thought of before but forgotten before he could ask it. “You’re such an awesome, nice, pretty magic lady, and I was hecka lonely for like, ever before you showed up. Where did you even come from?”

  She stopped to think for a moment. “You know, I don’t know! Mars, maybe? Mars feels like the right answer.”

  “Heh! I don’t know where I’m from either! Crazy how we have so much in common, huh?” His left hand found a discarded fleece blanket that was only slightly dirty, and he clumsily started wrapping it around them before Magic Woman helpfully straightened it out. “But if you are from Mars, that’s cool! My girlfriend is from Mars.” He couldn’t help but beam saying it. His girlfriend. His. Girlfriend. Who slept over at his house all the time and really, really loved him.

  “My boyfriend is an ice wizard with a karaoke machine that has two microphone jacks!” She grinned and hugged him again. That was one of the great things about her, she was so energetic and full of affection. It seemed like her magic was electric and vibrating, and so she was too, unlike his cold, harsh elemental magic. Then her mood seemed to shift a little, to something more serious. “Look. You wanna talk realness, Simon? You wanna go into some serious, uncut Wiz Biz to get your fix, scratch your eldritch knowledge itch?” Her hair had begun to blow lightly in some unseen breeze, which meant she was feeling some intense stuff. Maybe ready to unleash all kinds of powers.

  “Yeah! I’m open to all the weird stuff!”

  “Okay. So like, inside my brain, I see the cosmos. That shit is always rotating, it’s gyrating, pulsating, complicating, undulating, aggregating, contemplating… It makes me crazy good at magic because I can see all the little guys holding hands that our reality is made of.” She waved her hands broadly for effect. “I think it pointed me to you, because all I can remember about coming here is wanting to see you. And now that we’re together I feel like… I found someone I was missing. Does that sound weird? I feel like I missed you for a long time even though I don’t think I ever knew you before. But it feels like I knew you, and we were friends. More.”

  “Honey, you’re gonna need to print me up a TV Guide if you want me to follow all that.” He paused. “But… you know what, I think I get it. I kinda feel like I know you too, but I didn’t wanna tell you because the ladies don’t always take that stuff so good.”

  “Then we’re cosmically fated to be soulmates!”

  “You really think so?”

  “Yeah! I really really think so.”

—

  “Boys! Your cool big brother has good news!”

  Finn looked up from his attempt to whittle a toy sword, which was admittedly turning out more like a bent popsicle stick. Ice King and Betty were walking- no, they were skipping? Something like skipping but less coordinated? Towards him, hand in hand. He jumped up straight into a standing position from his cross-legged pose on the grass and almost tossed his project aside before reconsidering and setting it gently on a nearby stump. Jake didn’t feel up to moving yet, so he simply rotated his head 360 degrees. “Hey, Simon! It looks like you and Betty worked things out, huh? That’s great!”

  Betty cocked her head to the side, amused. “Who’s Betty? Is that one of your little pengies, Simon?”

  “Nah, that one’s not in the rotation yet. It’s a cool name, though! Really pretty.” An idea came to him suddenly. “Hey, you know how you call me Simon as our special couple thing? Your girlfriend codename can be Betty if you want.” She seemed to like this idea.

  Finn looked out of the corner of his eye at Jake, who pulled his mouth tight and gave a tiny shrug. He felt kind of sick and cold, the way he did if he realized a monster had been stalking him for miles without his knowledge.

  “That’s actually what we came here to tell you about!” Betty crowed, sounding unusually melodic. “We’re going steady now and we’re gonna get officially soulbound in Wizard City this winter.” She looped her arms around Ice King’s shoulders and dropped into a dead weight, almost toppling him. “Two moonrises sealed inside a crystal coffin with fragrant herbs, our blood circulating into one another’s veins through the palms of our hands… It’s going to be so romantic!” A squeal that would have been girlish were it not so discordant.

  “And you’re invited!” Ice King added, handing Finn a crumpled napkin with some markings scrawled on it in ballpoint pen.

  “Don’t worry! I’ll make fancier invitations later and they’ll explode into birds and butterflies and stuff when you open them.” She wiggled her fingers. “They’ll be super cool, you’ll see!”

  “That’s awesome, dude.” Jake gave the couple a thumbs up. “I’m really happy you two found each other, you seem really good together. Happy.”

  “Jake, can I take you aside for a sec to talk about… chimichangas? Like the logistics of chimichangas?” Finn asked, somewhat nervously.

  “No problem, you know I’m up for an emergency fried burrito discussion any time of the day.” Jake replied. “Hey, can you lovebirds give us a second?”

  They walked some distance away, and Jake casually shaped himself into a small dome tent so they could have some privacy. Finn was wringing his hands, something he didn’t normally do. “I’m not alone in thinking this whole thing is super messed up, right? I was worried Betty would get all messed up from Magic Man’s nasty-ass body moisture, and she totally did! And now neither of them remember who they are and it’s so frikkin creepy! That’s worse, right? That’s twice the crazy wizards now.”

  “Finn. Finnland. Little Finn bro.” Jake stretched an arm down from the ceiling and gently patted the human’s shoulder. “Sure, stuff happens that isn’t ideal. People get messed up all kinds of ways as they walk the highway of life, man. I mean, now at least they’re both equally donked, right? Betty doesn’t miss her old boyfriend and now Simon has a mashed potato brain lady friend to keep him company.”

  “I guess.” He sighed. “It just seems wrong. She wanted to help Simon so bad and now she’s just… fine with everything.”

  “Maybe it was stressing her out, trying to help him. They both seem like they’re doing much better, right? Sometimes you try to build a go-cart and you end up just having a good time playin’ around with the fruit crates. I get that they’re weird and kinda scary, but they’re having a good time.”

  “Maybe.” Finn bedgrudged. “It just makes me really sad that Betty time traveled here and everything, and she just ended up turning into another magic person with Problems.”

  “It is sad.” Jake said. “But it’s less sad than if like, she fell into a volcano or got eaten by a giant bear or whatever. At least now they can be together.”

  “Yeah…”

  “Now let’s get back out there and ask those two nuts where they registered for freaky blood magic sex coffin gifts.”

  “...Sure, bro. Probably at the weird cursed stuff store, right?” He still couldn't really get on board with the whole thing, but if it was true that they were happy... He didn't feel comfortable even holding any of that information in his brain yet. But he would probably only make things worse if he got upset. Simon could be really sensitive, and Betty was already acting emotionally weird the last time he saw her...

  “Haha, probably! Wizards, man.”

  “Yeah. Wizards.”

[missvelvetsstuff]

Guarded Heart

Bucky Barnes x Reader

MobAu

Chapter 22

Notes: sorry this took so long. I've been home for a week but everyone keeps interrupting my creative process. Anyhow here it is and we're almost at the end, last chapter is already half written so hopefully won't take too long.

Warnings: lite angst, swearing, a hint of dirty talk. I think that's it.

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

"She's awake and asking for you"

Bucky felt his stomach drop at the thought of talking to Y/N right now. After the anger that washed over him as he found his room empty when she ran away to confront Zemo, then seeing her weak and barely coherent before she collapsed when Zemo was shot, Bucky wasn't sure he could keep himself from yelling or crying, either seemed likely but he-

He looked up as Y/N's mother interrupted his internal dialog, looked at him sternly. "Don't you go upsetting her, James. Stress will only extend her recovery time."

Bucky looked at the floor like a kid being chastised by their mother "Yes ma'am. I'll be good."

"You'd better. If you hurt her you'll see what a mobsters wife can do."

Bucky looked over at his own mother who was looking at him, arms crossed over her chest, nodding.

He headed up the stairs, anxiety racing through him.

When he arrived at his room he could hear singing, weak and off key but it was a song he recognized.

"Countryyyyy roooooads, taaake me hooooome, to the plaaaaace I belooohoong. West-"

She looked up at him, standing in the doorway with a goofy look on his face, and stopped singing.

Reaching her hand out for him she smiled, looking every bit as drugged up as she was "Jamie! Come sit with me."

How could he refuse an invitation like that. He sat on his bed, facing her and gently took her hand trying not to mess with her IV. "How are you feeling, doll?"

Her smile grew and she squeezed his hand "Awesome. Best I've been since the hospital."

Bucky smirked "Helen must have given you the good drugs."

Her eyes grew wide "Oh no, no, Jamie. I don't do drugs." She whispered loudly "Am I gonna get in trouble?"

He chuckled "Don't worry sweetheart, I'll keep your secret."

She looked at him shyly "Could you just hold me for a little bit?"

Bucky smiled "Of course, sweetheart." And pulled her into him.

"I'm gonna rest right now but we still need to talk" she slurred her words a bit as she curled into him and fell asleep. He relaxed and enjoyed her warmth next to him before dozing off himself.

Within a few days she no longer needed strong pain meds and was recovering well.

Bucky brought her some lunch "How are you feeling today? You look much better." He smiled warmly at her.

She shrugged "Improving, I guess. Getting bored of the same view. A little stir crazy."

They sat quietly for a moment before he spoke "You know, Y/N, you scared the Hell outta me. I wish you wouldn't rush into dangerous situations without thinking things thru."

She bristled "I wish you would listen to me and treat me as an equal. It wouldn't have been so dangerous if you hadn't blown me off."

Bucky felt his temper rising and tried to push it back down "You were in no condition to deal with Zemo. You had barely slept or eaten since your father died and you haven't taken proper care of your wounds since you lost your arm. What kind of fiance would I be if I just let you rush into a very dangerous situation like you did?"

She scoffed "Let me? If you let me? What are you my master? It's not your place to let me do anything, we're supposed to be partners and this won't work if you can't accept that. Besides, it wouldn't have been so dangerous if you had listened to me and backed me in the first place." She concentrated on her breathing to try and calm down.

Bucky sighed "Your father made me swear to protect you. I was trying to do the right thing, finally."

She shook her head "Is this some sort of sporadic protection based on your moods?"

Bucky shook his head "No, dammit Y/N I-" he took a deep breath and let it out slowly "I'm sorry. I don't know how to convince you of my sincerity. I'm trying to do better and I was worried about you. Which is why you will be under my personal care until Helen clears you."

She sat back and tried to relax again for a moment before her eyes filled with tears

"I'm sorry, Jamie. I know you didn't want me to go but I had to deal with Zemo myself. He's stalked me ever since I left him and I needed to see him go down." She looked around nervously

"He is gone, right? I don't really remember much after sneaking out."

Bucky considered telling her he was dead but there had been enough deceit since they agreed to marry so he stuck with the truth

"Zemo isn't dead but he was injured. Loki has him. He wants to make sure there aren't any other plots in the works. Zemo won't be getting anywhere near you again."

She nodded and visibly relaxed, then giggled "Good. Loki will take care of him." She squeezed his hand "Are we going to be ok? You sure you still want to marry me?" She paused "I mean knowing that I expect an equal partner?"

Bucky nodded and smiled softly at her "We're alright. I'd rather have a strong partner than some meek little wife. You scared the Hell outta me and I won't pretend I wasn't pissed but it's done now." He looked at her earnestly "Just please don't go off half cocked and throw yourself into trouble again."

She grinned at him "I can't promise I'll try but I'll try to try."

Bucky chuckled "Did you just quote Bart Simpson at me?"

She shrugged and smirked at him.

He ran a hand thru his hair "This is non negotiable. You're going to stay here and heal. Stop fighting me when I want to take care of you."

She huffed "Fine" leaned back and winced "Ugh, my whole body aches." then looked around "When can I get out of here?"

Bucky shook his head "Not any time soon. You're on bed rest until Helen says otherwise. I'll chain you to the bed this time if I have to, so be good."

She stuck her tongue out "I'm so much more fun when I'm bad."

He laughed again "I have no doubt, doll but being bad will have to wait until you are better."

"Do you think we should delay the wedding?" She looked around his room and smirked at him "I don't think we can fit everyone in here."

He shook his head at her, smiling "We'd better wait. I'm not marrying you until we can consummate the marriage." And winked at her.

She felt her face heat up and looked at her own hands, trying to ignore the heat in her core.

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

Over the next 3 months Y/N followed Helen Cho's instructions to the letter. Including physical therapy to adjust to life with only one arm.

She was able to spend some time with her horses and did some riding with her mother leading her around the arena on Daisy. She had some challenges getting her balance but they took their time, a couple of days a week, and slowly she regained her seat.

Y/N and Bucky went on a number of dates, getting to know each other. Mostly staying in at her parents house which had a gourmet kitchen, formal dining room, screening room, music room, library, pool and tennis court. Not to mention the backyard with its plush lawn, pond/waterfall and gazebo decorated with fairy lights.

She introduced him to her horses and promised to teach him how to ride after the wedding.

They both felt the same pull to the other but were hesitant after everything that they had been through.

After a number of their dates they were both feeling more relaxed together, sitting together on the swing next to the pond when Bucky turned to face Y/N and reached for her hand "Y/N, doll. I'm so glad that you gave me another chance. I've really enjoyed getting to know you and feel like I'm falling deeper in love with you every day." He looked in her eyes hopefully "Can I kiss you?"

Y/N felt her whole body heat up and nodded "Yes, please. I thought you'd never-"

Bucky leaned forward silencing her with his lips firmly on hers, his right hand gently cupping her cheek, his left hand around her back pulling her closer to him. She tried to hold back a moan but it came out and he used the opportunity to slip his tongue into her mouth. She opened up for him and felt his moan when their tongues met, fighting for dominance until she softened up for him. He pulled her into his lap where she could feel the beginning of his arousal and wiggled against him which caused Bucky to groan deep in his chest and pull away, hands gripping her hips to hold her still.

"Y/N honey you can't do that. Don't tease, I might burst. I want you so bad, doll." He leaned his forehead against hers, trying to catch his breath.

She smiled and tried to move again then whispered in his ear "You have me, Jamie."

His hands tightened on her hips "I thought we agreed to wait until the wedding. We can't-"

She kissed him again, more passionately, running her hand through his hair then pulling, hard, exposing his neck to her. She gave him a look and nipped at his neck before pulling back.

"We did and we will. I just don't want you to forget what you are waiting for. In case your mind wanders or someone else catches your eye. Can't have you straying."

Bucky looked at her in shock before kissing her again "Are you kidding? How could I forget?" His voice lowered "I still remember how sweet your pussy tastes, how tightly she gripped my fingers. I wouldn't dare risk losing you again and for so much more than your sweet, tight-"

She pushed him away after a chill ran through her "Ok I get it."

"Doll, no one could ever compare to you and you always keep me on my toes. I'm all yours until you get sick of me."

She smirked at him "I guess you need to learn how to keep me on my toes then, Jamie."

Not long after that nite, Helen and the physical therapist gave the ok to start working on her prosthetic. This involved time in Tony's lab which would have been more interesting if he didn't insist that she touch nothing.

After a few meetings Tony almost had it ready and Y/N was getting bored sitting in his lab. "Tones! What are you doing? I didn't know this was going to take all day."

Tony rolled his eyes "Well, it's not like a new pair of shoes, you know. A prosthetic has to be fitted and attached properly, especially one like this."

He walked over to her with her new arm. It was a soft ashy grey with threads of gold like Bucky's.

"It's physically almost identical to your arm. Obviously the color doesn't match but I thought the softer color would be nice. It was tough getting the fingers as slender as yours but I think we did a decent job." He fussed with the piece on her shoulder for a minute before attaching the prosthetic.

She smiled "It's beautiful." She paused, surprised "I can feel you touching it, not just the pressure but the warmth of your hand." Her smile grew as did her eyes, which were leaking a bit "Tony, how did you do that?"

Tony smirked at her "I'm a genius, that's how." Then he mumbled "And Princess Shuri of Wakanda helped."

"I'll have to send her a thank you card, or a diamond necklace or something." She was looking her new arm over when something glinted in the light

"What's this?" She muttered as she stared, then looked up at Tony questioningly.

Tony grinned "Barnes brought it over a few weeks ago. I think the diamond goes well with the vibranium, don't you?" He looked scared when she didn't respond right away "Shit. You did want it, right? I mean you are still marrying him right?"

"I love it, Tony. All of it." Y/N hugged him until he was rasping for her to stop. She pulled away, looked down at her new arm "Yeah, so I guess I need to learn my strength. Sorry Tones"

They spent the afternoon going over the arms features, attaching and detaching, learning all the details.

Tony sighed "You still need to have physical therapy to teach your brain how to regulate your touch, it'll take time but you'll get there."

She looked at him seriously "Will three months be good?"

He nodded "As long as you keep up with the physical therapist and work on it, that should be enough time but this will be a lifelong deal since there will be updates.

Why? What's in three months?"

"We haven't sent the invites out yet but the wedding is in three months. I need to ask a favor."

Tony looked shocked "Another favor? Do you know what went into creating this arm? How much time I-"

She giggled "Of course I know but this is very important and I don't think anyone else can help me."

Tony sighed "Alright, lay it on me."

Y/N looked at him earnestly and whispered "Would you give me away?" Her voice cracking on the words.

His eyes grew wide "Me? Are you sure? I'm just-."

"Just my godfather and one of the few people I know I can trust and depend on. Please Tony?"

He hugged her "Of course, sweetheart. You know I'm here for you, always."

After her talk with Tony, Y/N went to his penthouse to find Pepper and Morgan, they had plans for lunch and dress shopping.

Since she knew it would take time for Y/N to adjust to her new arm Pepper ordered in and had one of her favorite designers bring in their latest wedding fashion.

When they couldn't find anything Y/N liked they all sat down and tossed ideas around until the designer produced an old sketch of a dress that Y/N loved. They made a few changes until it was perfect, then took her measurements and left with an appointment for a fitting in 3 weeks.

Y/N sat back on the sofa and looked at Pepper "I guess we're off." She forced a small smile "I'm really doing this."

Pepper took her hands "Hey, if you need to take more time or just cancel the whole thing-"

Y/N shook her head "No. No, I'm alright. The last year has just been a lot." She smiled a real smile and told herself and Pepper "It's gonna be good. I'll be good."

@bigphattygyal @cjand10 @lokiandbuckysdoll

Chapter 23

@kimomoraba @avery199 @mishkatelwarriorgoddess @esposadomd

@sebsgirl71479 @calwitch @hhiggs

[baggebythesea]

Princess Glimmer and the Day of Many Choices: The Horde are pirates now (18/?)

"Yar, motherfuckers," Lonnie said and stomped off, towards the harbour.

"Growl," Rogelio said

"Yo-ho-ho," Kyle shily said and quickly ran after the other two.

"Motherfuckers, motherfuckers," Imp - wearing an eyepatch - happily cried and flew after the rest of the group.

The crowd looked after them in thoughtful silence.

"Dads..." Bow said with low voice.

"Yes Bow?" Lance asked.

"Historically speaking," Bow went on, still looking after the former horde soldiers. "If the largest army in the world suddenly become leaderless and turn to piracy, is that a problem...?"

"A bit of a problem, yes," Lance answered, voice strained.

"What will the princesses do to protect us from pirate raids?" The mayor of one of the costal towns cried.

"Sorry, we are busy dismantling our crystal palaces," Frosta said with snippy voice.

"Now, while a modernization of the political structure of Etheria is needed," the mayor said, swetting profusely, "we need to carefully consider the intricasies of..."

"You have convinced me," Glimmer quickly said. "Power to the people. We will set up a committé to outline the process that will be used to organize the power transition process."

"A comitée?!" George and Lance gasped, stars in their eyes.

"Class traitors," Swift Wind hissed. "Bourgeoisie scum. I will not let you bog down the glorious revolutionary movement. I'm starting a splinter group."

"DID SOMEONE SAY SWIFT WIND?" Sea Hawk and Bow yelled as Swift Wind flew off.

"Uuuuuuuuuuugh," Mermista said. "Fine, I'll sort it out."

"Of course the princess alliance will..." Glimmer begun.

"Not you," Mermista interrupted with an eyeroll. Me. They are all pirates now, right? That means they are citizens of Salineas."

"It does?" Perfuma asked in confusion.

"Well, duh," Mermista said with an eye-roll. "Salineas rules the sea and all that, but newsflash, blondie, we are ALL pirates,"

"Not all of you," Catra said voice full of self loathing.

"Obviously not all of us," Mermista sighed. "That's why we have the sea gate. The pirates all backstab each other, and everyone who don't want to play those games hide behind the sea gate. We 'tax' the coastal times to a reasonable amount and the princess" - she gestured to herself - "keeps everyone in line. So, there. the Horde is now integrated in the civic structure of the kingdom of Salineas. Everything's in order."

"But you can't keep control over all of the Horde-turned-pirates," George objected.

"Of course I can," Mermista shrugged. "I'm awesome. But anyway... I don't have to keep order..."

She held out her hand. A silver trident formed. She looked expectantly at Scorpia.

"Oh... sorry," Scorpia said and blushed. She held up a claw and a simply bitchin' electric guitar solo was heard.

"Thanks," Mermista said. Golden sparks formed all around her. She spun around three times and turned into...

"Sea-Ra, defender of the ocean," Sea Hawk gasped.

"....wow," Bow gasped, trying and failing not to stare at her boobs.

Glimmer watched Despara with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Despara said. "If I hadn't opened the Heart of Etheria for her, people would have asked me to sort it out."

"I'm so proud of you for not trying to do everything yourself," Glimmer said with heartfelt voice.

"All right, I'm off to save the day or whatever," Sea-Ra said with bored voice. "Get over here, idiot."

"I think this this occasion calls for a soooooong!" Sea Hawk begun.

"No, it doesn't," Sea-Ra interrupted. She looked at Bow.

"You're coming, or what? Wanna have some 'adventure' with me and the idiot here?"

Part 17 is here: https://www.tumblr.com/baggebythesea/712385152762953728/laughs-ill-be-honest-i-didnt-expect-this

Part 17 is here: https://www.tumblr.com/baggebythesea/712385152762953728/laughs-ill-be-honest-i-didnt-expect-this

[antvnger]

(( any headcanons about Cassie becoming part of the young avengers and Scott’s reactions/involvement/feelings about it? ))

((Interesting question, Anon. I'm sorry it took so long to answer because I know like 2 things about Young Avengers, so I didn't know how to initially answer. And I had to take a break or two on answering so I could think of other things to add.

Edit: I’m sorry! I definitely forgot this in my drafts. Okay okay here we go, sorry it took forever.))

I don't really remember how the Young Avengers came about in the comics, but I do remember that there was an attack on the...not Young Avengers, and I know Scott was killed in the process (*cries*)

So it's possible there were others who perished in the attack too. And the Young Avengers formed because the other Avengers were no longer a thing anymore...something like that.

And I hate that idea. So!...

Like Cassie, there were quite a few of the youngsters who have been watching their heroes/mentors do all the awesome things they do, and they want in.

So they form their own band of avenging vigilantes to handle things when the other Avengers are away.

Cassie hears about this group and seeks them out and joins after she gets her purple suit from good ol' Grandpa.

She really wants to tell her dad about it, especially since she thought she did so well in the Quantum Realm, but he's got the idea that since that was over, she should stay out of the fray until she got more training from him and Hope.

Hope figures out pretty quickly that Cassie is a part of the group, and she tells Cassie she supports her. But she needs to tell her dad the truth.

"I will...when I figure out how to."

Well, she keeps pushing that conversation to the side until it can't be pushed back anymore.

And it can't be pushed back anymore because the Young Avengers ran into an issue where they needed something big, and they had only one person to fit that bill.

And well, there happened to be a news crew nearby and well...

Scott about chokes on his cereal the next morning when the news is broadcasted everywhere.

"Young Avengers gain BIG help: Ant-Man's legacy continues as a giant woman in a purple suit reminiscent of the Ant-Man suit helps the Young Avengers save the day. It is believed Lang's daughter is the woman behind the mask, but that knowledge has yet to be confirmed."

But Scott knows.

"CASSIE!"

He's not mad she's helping the Young Avengers. Not really. He's a bit on edge and nervous by it because he's not sure she's ready. His fear masks itself as anger.

He's her dad and he'll always have a hard time letting her go. He will let her, but he'll struggle some.

But what does bother him so is that she didn't tell him about this, that she kept it from him for who knows how long.

What also bothers him is that Hope knew and didn't give him a heads up either.

"I wanted to tell you, Dad," Cassie admits, "but I know how you feel about all of this, so I didn't know how to tell you."

"So you let The Today Show fill me in instead. Cool."

"...the cameras weren't supposed to be there."

"That's beside the point, Cassie!"

"But nothing bad's happened so far, Dad. I'm okay, and I saved a lot of people last night."

"...behind my back. You didn't give me a chance to support you or anything."

“Would you have? Being so protective of me? Hadn’t I proven myself yet? I can do this, Dad. And I am doing it. I love helping people and doing what you do. It’s what I was born to do. Just like you.” She gives him a soft, pleading look. “Will you let me?”

But Scott’s trust and pride are wounded over being lied to. He never handled being lied to well at all, and this time is no exception.

He shrugs after a moment of silence. “You’ve already made your choice that you will no matter what, so it really doesn’t matter what I say right now, does it. You’re still training with me and Hope and your grades better not suffer. And…” he can’t help but still worry about her. “And you better come home. No matter what, you better come home.”

It’s awkward for a while after that. Scott’s not happy with Cassie or with Hope, and though they’re all willing to work on fixing the issues that have come up in their relationships recently, Scott’s got to work on his own feelings in order to get to that point. He has a hard time getting there sometimes.

But eventually they get past it, and Cassie had him meet the whole Young Avengers crew.

And it takes hardly any time at all before he becomes the crew’s dad. He just is. No one really questions it. It just happens, and they all like it.

Scott’s house becomes a common hangout place for the Young Avengers. They’re always coming in and out of there, and he likes it.

He cooks for them; he gives them advice; he has extra sleeping bags and pillows and stuff for if they ever sleep over. And they all have more than once.

Sometimes they ask him and Hope for help in whatever mission they’re on. They know they can count on Ant-Man and the Wasp.

They all get him Father’s Day gifts, even the Young Avengers who have fathers still.

He’s Ant-Dad in all their phones. Except for Cassie’s of course. He’s just Dad.

Cassie is not surprised that Scott adopted them all, but she’s a bit surprised they all adopted Scott. There are some in the group she never would have guessed would do that. But she loves how wrong she is and she loves how her dad’s accepted the whole team.

One day after a tough mission, they all end up at Scott’s house. He cooked for them, tended to wounds, and turned on a movie for them as they all passed out in his living room.

Except for Cassie. She seeks him out in the kitchen while he’s cleaning up, and she hugs him tightly, still shaky from the mission.

He of course hugs her back. “It’s okay, Peanut. I’ve got you. You’re safe now.”

“I’ve never been that scared before,” she admits quietly.

“I get it. I do. It’s okay to be scared and to still feel uneasy. But you’re safe now.”

“I’m tired, Daddy.”

“I know, Peanut. I know. You can rest now.” He kisses the top of her head. “I’m proud of you. You’re going to be okay.”

“Thanks, Dad. I love you.”

“I love you too,” he smiles softly as he rests his head against hers, still hugging her. “So much.”

[parachutingkitten]

A Totally and Completely Uneventful Night

A high school dewlet fic. This is part 2! Read part 1 here

“You sure this is right?” Dewey questioned, looking up towards the top of the mess of cardboard.

“It’ll all make sense in a second!” Violet assured him from the top of the ladder. “Just keep holding where I told you to!”

“I’m holding!” He answered back. 

Prom set up had taken significantly longer than Dewey had imagined, but things seemed to be coming together pretty well. To think that Violet had somehow planned this all out baffled him. 

“Okay, pull!” She called down.

Dewey did as he was told, tugging on his flap as, low and behold, the entire cardboard Eiffel Tower sprung into 3D in front of him. “Woah!” He marveled. 

“I told you it would make sense!” Violet chuckled, beginning to climb down. “I can’t tell you how long I spent looking for the best Eiffel Tower possible.”

“I’m still not sure I get how that worked.” Dewey mused, eyes still stuck on the twelve foot marvel in front of him. 

“That’s alright, as long as you think it looks okay,” She sighed, reaching the ground.

 “You kidding, it’s awesome!” Dewey raised his hand for a victory high five, But was met with a rather distracted and limp response from Violet.

“Yeah, now we just need to do the balloons, set up the photobooth and…” Her eyes wandered as she thought “Crap! The popcorn! We still need to pull out the popcorn machine!” 

Before Dewey could process what she had said, she had already started towards the exit, and he had to scramble to catch up with her. 

“I can go get it if you need Vi-” He offered. 

“No, I know where it is, it’ll be quicker if I go, you can-”

Before they could make it to the doors Webby came barreling in, followed shortly after by Huey. “We have a problem!” she announced.

Violet took a deep breath, closing her eyes. “What is it.”

They both hesitated a moment before Huey finally spoke up. “We… ran out of tape.”

“I told you this would happen!” Louie’s voice came from across the gym. He had been in charge of the table settings, one of the only tapeless jobs.

“How much more do you think you’ll need for the hallway?” Dewey asked.

“It doesn’t matter how much she needs, we don’t have any in here!” Louie pressed, his voice raspy in frustration.

“I mean, there’s got to be tape somewhere in the building,” Webby offered. 

“Well, I’m not looking for it!” Louie again chimed in. 

“We weren’t asking you to!” Violet snapped back. “Look, I’m headed to the storage closet with the popcorn machine. Webby, why don’t you come with me, there’s probably some tape in there too. And then you two can stay here and finish up the tables with Louie, yeah?” Her eye contact shifted across the group to attain an affirmative from everyone. 

“Should we start on the photo booth after we finish those?” Dewey asked. 

“That would be great, thanks!” Violet flashed him a smile as she started out the door with Webby in toe.

“Can I just say, I told you so,” Louie’s voice echoed from across the gym. 

“Yes, we know,” Huey called back, starting over for him.

“I’m sorry, it just seems like I’m getting zero credit for one hundred percent calling it!” Louie complained as Dewey too began making his way over to him. 

“Well, you’re very smart, and we’re all very impressed,” Huey rolled his eyes.

“Guys, Violet seems pretty stressed,” Dewey broke in. “Let’s just get this done as quickly as possible, we don’t need any more problems.”

“I don’t know,” Huey shrugged. “This seems like a pretty standard amount of hiccups for a set up this size.” He tossed Dewey one end of a tablecloth as they moved to set it over top of the many barren tables.

“Regardless, we should make sure everything is running smoothly so that Violet can actually enjoy the dance,” Dewey pressed.

“You mean everyone. So everyone can enjoy the dance, right?” Louie asked, bringing over a centerpiece as his brothers finished straightening the cloth. “You know, the whole student body that we’re doing this for, not to mention us?”

“Well, yeah,” Dewey agreed. “But also Violet. If anything goes wrong, she’s going to be the first one to have her night ruined, because she’s going to have to deal with it.”

“I guess…” Louie placed down the bedazzled bottle, eyeing the center of the table.

Dewey sighed. “It’s just, this is her last big project of high school, and I want everything to go well, because this is also our last chance to help her on one, you know?” Dewey thought he had reached the end of his argument, but words seemed to continue to make their way out of his mouth. “I mean, after this, we’re off to college, and if we let her down, that’s like, the last impression she has of us, and I don’t want her to think of a giant disaster ever time she thinks of me, I mean who knows if we’ll even get a chance to really have another big interaction before she’s gone forever, and I can’t let her leave thinking I’m some incompetent idiot, you know?”

Dewey had braced himself on the table, his brothers frozen in place. They exchanged a glance with each other, Huey being the first to speak up. 

“You nervous about Violet leaving early?”

“Well, obviously,” Dewey sighed. “I mean, I haven’t really hung out with her all year, and now here we are at the end of it, and it feels like I missed out on a bunch of stuff I wanted to do with her or talk to her about or-”

“Dewey,” Louie stopped him. “Do you like Violet?”

Dewey’s eyes widened, his reflexes immediately prompting him to laugh. “What? No! I don’t… I mean I never really-” His expression began to blank as he contemplated the question. “I don’t think so.”

Louie hung his head in defeat “Oh my gosh, he doesn’t even realize-”

“Dude, if you think you have feelings for her, you need to tell her,” Huey advised. “Like, tonight.”

Dewey’s face had reddened significantly over the past few seconds, his hands now held behind his head, his mind desperately rushing to try and process the influx of new information. “What do I do?”

“Well, first off, you calm down,” Louie hit him on the shoulder.

“You wait until the night’s in full swing, a slow song comes on, you ask her to dance,” Huey started. “You small talk her during the dance, if she sticks by you after the song ends, you know she at least wants to spend more time with you, and that’s your opening. Go off into some corner, grab some snacks on your way, and then have your big discussion on feelings and life, you drop the bomb, and there you go!”

Dewey blinked, taking in the plan. “That seems a bit calculated.”

“Forget most of what he just said,” Louie waved him off. “But definitely ask her to dance, I mean it’s a dance, you gotta at least clear that barrier.”

“Guys I don’t know, it feels too late to try and make this a whole thing.” Dewey sighed.

“It’s never too late for love!” Huey pressed.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Louie shook his head. “At the very least, you should let her know that you’re feeling weird about her leaving. She at least deserves to know that you want to keep in contact.”

“Yeah… okay. That’s fair,” Dewey sighed. His eyes suddenly snapped back to his brother. “Wait, does this mean you didn’t ask Goselyn to the dance?”

“What?!” Louie exclaimed.

“Nothing, it’s just-” Dewey waved it off. “It’s me. I’m the drama.”

---

“I can’t believe Louie was right about the tape,” Webby mused as the girls made their way down the hall.

“I can’t believe I brought extra and it still wasn’t enough,” Violet sighed. “There should be some extra in here though.” Violet pulled out a ring of keys, quickly filling through them in search for the correct one.

“So… you’ve been doing a lot of set up with Dewey, huh?” Webby prodded. 

“I guess,” Violet shrugged, unlocking the door. “There something wrong with that?” She entered the closet, flipping on the light switch.

Webby followed her in antsily. “No, it’s just, didn’t you used to have a crush on him?” she pressed.

Violet chuckled. “Yeah, when we were kids. That was like, over five years ago now.” Violet quickly found a cache of extra tape rolls and handed some to her companion. “What’s your point?”

“Nothing, it’s just, you know…” Webby shrugged.

“I’m sure I don’t.” Violet grabbed the handles of the popcorn machine, gently tilting it back to roll it out.

“Well, it seems like he might like you!” Webby finally blurted out. “And it’s never too late for romance-”

“Look, Dewey is great,” Violet cut her off as she wheeled the popcorn machine from its corner. “He’s sweet, and he’s exciting, but he’s just so much.”

Webby held the door wide for Violet as she maneuvered out the door, just barely big enough for the cart. “I think he’s just enough,” she countered.

“Well, that’s a matter of personal preference, isn’t it?” Violet waved her off, setting down the cart, and again reaching for her keys. “Besides, he’s such an unrealistic option to consider anyway.” Violet quickly locked up, turning to see Webby now playfully leaning against the side of the cart.

“So what, you think he’s out of your league or something?”

Violet narrowed her eyes, again taking hold of the metal handles. “Not by a long shot.” She tilted the cart up again, knocking Webby off. “You mind watching my front?”

“Sure,” Webby skipped forward, walking backwards in front of the cart as they started back towards the gym. “So what is it? He’s not good enough for you?”

“I just don’t think we’d mesh.”

Webby stared at her, fidgeting with the tape boxes in her hands. “I don’t get it. You’ve been meshing all day just fine.”

“Are you kidding? The nerdiest girl in school ends up with the endless ball of energy and confidence that’s headlined every performance based event at the school this past year?” Violet pressed. “You think that’s something other than an unrealistic pipe dream of a plot for a rom-com?”

“So you do think he’s out of your league,” Webby smiled.

“I just think we run in different circles,” Violet corrected. “Look, it’s not about him, or me, or us, it’s just not an option on the table, okay?!”

There was a loud thud as the cart hit the side of a doorway, the conversation and their movement both coming to abrupt halt.

“Sorry, that one’s on me,” Webby whispered.

Violet dropped the cart again, a weighty sigh leaving her lips. “I spent so long hung up on him,” she admitted. “I dropped so many hints, I tried so hard to get his attention… and I could never seem to grasp it. I don’t know if he was oblivious or trying to politely turn me down, but either way it’s pretty clear he didn’t have any feelings for me.”

“But what if that’s changed? Isn’t it worth-”

“I decided a long time ago that having a crush on Dewey Duck was far more work than it was ever going to be worth,” Violet cut her off. “I still like Dewey. I think there’s part of me that always will. But it’s not worth the time and the energy and the tedium of considering all of the maybes and could haves and what ifs. I’ve already done it for ages and it’s gotten me nowhere. I’m not willingly putting any more time into that system.”

Webby’s impulses wanted to counter her again, but the regret on her friend’s face stopped her.

“I just… I can’t handle getting my hopes up again.” Violet shook her head. “Not with him.”

[thepancakewitch]

venting n talkin

Eeughh career wise I'm still not sure what I wanna do. I think I'd be an excellent therapist but I really love creating.

The most logical but somehow most arduous process seems to be becoming an art teacher, then work on my masters during that time. I just cannot stand being at my work for another year, I absolutely resent my coworkers and I know I shouldn't but ugh.... they're awful. I get to see a therapist today so hopefully that's all good lol. I also get to ask about my DID and hypersexuality and see what we can do.

I also got to smooch and cuddle so many people at Orc Wars, it was awesome!!! I'm so like, crushing hard on this one guy... I only met him a few times but he's been so sweet and kind. His fiance and her girlfriend are absolute angels to me, I think they're a wonderful throuple. I would love to be apart of it eheehh..... but back to the guy, ugh ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; I haven't crushed on anybody in a bit so it's like really strong!!! He looked at me so tenderly and went, "You're so adorable" and I just melted into nothing then. My friend did my make up and he's like "oh you look amazing", with his big gorgeous smile and oh... gosh... He just held onto me and we hugged for so long, aaaahhh x333333333

I got to get closer to a friend, Blue, and we kissed, she was so sweet to me. She did my make up and it was like, I just felt so intimate with her all weekend. It's so deep and powerful being connected to a woman. Lesbian relationships are just so deeply connecting, I feel like ascends the physical realm and mostly becomes mentally stimulating. It kind of explains why I find it hard to be like my usual sort of aggressive sexiness, it's more like oh heeeyyyyyy how're youuu~~~ kind of a thing lol lol. I used to worry I didn't have a connection to women because I didn't feel the same as I do with men, but now I've learned it's different and I just enjoy the closeness so much. It's like the whispers of your hearts touch one another and become whole together... 🥲💖💕

I am so sosososo proud of my boyfriend for passing his blade master Apprentice trial, he was really mentally struggling but he did it. I was so happy I was able to like, bring him back to camp, nurse him up and basically give him all the support I could and he ran with it. It's so awesome watching him fight. I can't wait to fight alongside him.

also I'm gonna nest here, I told him like hey... I'm nesting here now, I decided after this event.... he's like, ohhh are we... are you saying we're more serious?? 🥺💖💕💕💕💖💖 and he got all excited and snuggled in on me, he's so sweet to me. I'm really fortunate and grateful for him.

....

BUT ALSO

I'M TOO MUCH OF A FEMININE BEAUTIFUL FAIRY TO BE IN A BACHELOR PAD. AAAAH.

NEVER AGAIN DUDE.

REFUSAL.

I SWEAR OFF LIVING WITH MEN, EXCEPT IF I HAVE ANOTHER WOMAN. Which would be p cool.

I have a feeling as well I'd love to be with Blue more, I'm gonna try to spend more time with her.

Man, I never thought in a million years I could be apart of such a deep community and feel so at home. I still will always feel a Lil out of place but that's my own issues I'm working on. I just wanna be the best me I can be and live my best life, and right now, all I know is I just wanna escape my job and be in a better environment. I absolutely love my other coworkers but my kitchen coworkers drive me fucking insane.

I'll see what my new therapist says and I'll go from there. It'll be good. :3

also eeeeee *hides face* eeeeeeeeeee

[messers-moony]

Divorce | J.P

Paring: James Potter X Slytherin!Reader

Summary: Reader goes through divorce with her arranged husband but sees her Hogwarts crush almost two years later at her Potions shop in Diagon Alley

Divorce sucks. There is no other way to say it. There is no amount of sugar to properly coat the words to make them seem better than they are. Instead, they’re pure salt– pure acidity. An arranged marriage for purebloods was typical. That doesn’t mean that everyone technically agrees they work. Some speculate that arranged marriages work more than chosen marriages. Y/n wouldn’t be one of those people.

Her family was a part of the sacred twenty-nine. The L/n’s, to be more specific. Y/n was a model child, an only child at that. She was sorted into Slytherin with not a consideration of any other house. Immediately at the age of sixteen, she was engaged to another man called Zenix Flores, another family of the sacred twenty-eight. Zenix was sweet, but he wasn’t her type.

Throughout her years at Hogwarts, Y/n stared at another. His name was James Potter. A star Quidditch player for the Gryffindor team. The best Chaser. Y/n’s lingering stares and dreamy look didn’t make it past Zenix. Fortunately, Zenix had eyes for another as well, Sirius Black, the best friend of James Potter. They bonded over that. They bonded over being in love with people they couldn’t have.

Everyone dies eventually. Immortality is not reality, and once Y/n’s parents died. Divorce was in order. However, they didn’t love each other like they should’ve it still sucked. They were close friends. But did close friends have a child together? Leo Flores, the product of Y/n Flores and Zenix Flores, was only eight years old when they went through the divorce. Leo was a token to show that Zenix and Y/n fell in love. An illusion.

It took months, but after the process was complete, Y/n left. Leo was to be in her care for the rest of his life. Zenix would send some of his profit to them to help, but he would never see his son again. Granted, he didn’t treat Leo well. Always so harsh, so strict on the little boy. The first words out of Leo’s mouth were ma’am and sir. Not momma or daddy. Instead, they were formalities.

They lived in an apartment in Diagon Alley. It wasn’t huge, but it was enough. Y/n changed her last name, and Leo’s back to L/n. Another long process but worth the wait. Y/n worked at a Potions shop in the Alley. Sometimes her old friend Severus would visit and buy some ingredients, but no one else she knew ever came into the shop. Not until he showed up at the door.

James Potter came waltzing into the Potions shop like it was nobody’s business. Unknown to the woman working the shop, he had been watching her work from afar. Just across the street was a bookstore where Remus would visit. During one of those visits, James caught sight of her. Granted, James didn’t think he’d find love after Lily ran away after his proposal claiming he wasn’t enough but that all changed when he saw her.

The feelings came back like it was yesterday she was gazing at him from the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. Y/n’s cheeks were set ablaze, and her stomach was placed into a frenzy of a million different feelings. Her heart made it seem like she ran around the Quidditch pitch one thousand times. Unbeknownst to her, he felt the same way.

Eventually, he made his way to the counter, “ Um- Good Afternoon. “

“ Good afternoon, sir. How may I assist you today? “ Y/n asked despite her racing heart, “ I need some help brewing a complex Potion. “ James confessed, fiddling with his hands.

“ What Potion, sir? “ Y/n inquired, “ Wolfsbane. “ James answered.

Her eyebrow quirked upward, “ That is a difficult Potion. It could have awful defects if made incorrectly. “ Y/n explained, looking at the ingredient list, “ How about this, I’ll make you the Potion instead of you possibly messing it up? “

“ How can I trust you won’t mess up? “ James questioned, smirking teasingly, “ Well. If it helps any, I received O’s on all of my Potion examinations, even in N.E.W.T level. “ Y/n quipped.

“ Well. I suppose you know your stuff. “ He replied as he crossed his arms, “ I suppose I do. “ Y/n retorted with a smile.

So James decided that she’d make the Potion. He would’ve paid her a million Galleons if he was just allowed to sit in the shop and stare at her. She was a beauty and moved so gorgeously. She moved with a purpose, with determination and ambition. Sirius and Remus had begun teasing him as James stared longingly at the Potions shop across the street.

“ Do you know her name? “ Remus asked, standing beside James now, “ No? “ James stated.

Remus chuckled; of course, he didn’t, “ Y/n L/n. She was a Slytherin in our year. Amazingly brilliant she is. Apparently, she was married to Zenix Flores but got divorced two years ago. “

James and Sirius stared gobsmacked, “ Did you stalk Prongs’ future wife? “ Sirius accused, and Remus shrugged, “ I was curious. Plus, I knew her at Hogwarts. She was a Prefect. We had a lot of rounds together. “

“ She was a Prefect? “ James queried, “ Mhm. You were too busy drooling at Lily to notice her. “ Remus nodded.

Now James felt incredibly stupid. All those pranks on the Slytherin house made him feel exceptionally stupid, knowing that she could’ve caught the backlash on some of them. Not only that, but she was a part of the sacred twenty-eight. James had never felt more idiotic, and he had gotten rejected after proposing to his girlfriend. That was saying something.

A month had passed, and the potion was ready. So once again, James walked into the Potions shop. This time she had a messy top knot present on top of her hair. Her eyes held extreme tiredness, and she moved almost sluggishly. James was worried. But Y/n saw him enter the shop and her cheerful smile glazed her face. Two bottles were now present on the counter for James to take.

He stood at the counter and pressed ten Galleons on the table, “ Sir, they’re only three Galleons. “ Y/n stated, “ Take the extra. You look exhausted. “ James replied.

“ Th- Thank you. “ Y/n smiled, “ Thank you, Y/n, for making these. “ James said gratefully.

Y/n blushed, “ I- Um- You were a Slytherin Prefect in my year at Hogwarts. “ James stammered, “ I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you before. “

“ It’s okay. Divorce can do that to you, Huh? “ Y/n laughed bitterly, “ Well, when I proposed to Lily, she straight up told me I wasn’t good enough so, that was almost like divorce minus the paperwork. “ James added.

“ I’m- I’m so sorry. “ Y/n apologized, “ No, no. I’m okay, trust me. It’s been about three years. “ James replied.

Before Y/n could speak again, steps were heard from the second story, “ Mom! Mom! “ Leo’s voice called as he rushed down the steps.

“ Mom! “ Leo appeared from behind the counter to see James and a blushing Y/n, “ Oops, uh, sorry, mom. “

“ No, it’s fine. Come here. “ James beckoned, and Leo hesitantly approached, “ What’s your name, little man? “

“ I’m ten! “ Leo announced proudly, and James chuckled, “ That’s awesome! “ James smiled.

Y/n turned to her son, “ What did you need, Leo? “ Despite being embarrassed, she was calm, “ You accidentally placed my quills on a high shelf. I can't reach them. “ Leo confessed, slightly embarrassed.

“ I’ll be up in just a second, but- “ Y/n began, but James stuck out his hand, “ I’m James. “

“ I’m Leo. “ Leo accepted the handshake and smiled at the adult man, “ If your mom doesn’t mind, maybe we could chat? “ James inquired, looking toward Y/n.

Leo looked hopeful at his mom, “ Please? “

“ Sure. You can go. “ Y/n allowed, and Leo hopped over the counter.

Before James could leave the proximity of the counter, Y/n grabbed his wrist, “ Please. Take care of him; I'm trusting you blindly here. “ She pleaded, and James smirked, “ Of course. “

The rest of the day went smoothly. Y/n had closed shop and began restocking items when they showed up. James' unkempt brown hair was more unorganized, but his hazel eyes glassed with mischief. Leo’s black hair was blown away from the rain, and his blue eyes sparkled with excitement. James beckoned the ten-year-old back upstairs while he approached Y/n.

“ So? Have a nice day with my kid? “ Y/n teased, and James chuckled, “ He’s fantastic. “

“ I know. “ She replied, “ I took him for ice cream, and we went shopping for a little. “ James informed.

Y/n melted at the adoration present on James' face, “ Do you need any money back? I can- “

“ No. Don’t worry about it, doll. I’ve got it covered. “ James interjected, “ I just saw him, and he had this look. He looked trapped. He needed to leave and just let loose for a couple of hours. “

“ I- I really love him. “ James confessed, and Y/n smirked, “ You’re in love with my son but not the woman who created him? “

“ If we're being honest. I’ve been watching you from the bookstore across the street. I thought you were gorgeous. Remus was the one who told me who you were. “ He admitted nervously, “ But being with your son today. If you’d like, could I take him out more often? “

She stepped down from the ladder and stood in front of him, “ How about you stay forever? “

“ I- I mean that is if you want. I know that I’m a pureblood, and- and my son- you probably don’t want to have a child right now. He’ll be going to Hogwarts soon, and quite frankly, I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle it. But- But his former father wasn’t amazing, and I’m not sure you want that responsibility- “

Y/n was cut off when James grabbed her by the waist and placed his lips on hers. His thumbs rubbed gentle circles on her skin through her shirt. Y/n’s hands went through his unkept brown tuffs and his glasses slightly fogged from the heat of the kiss. They pulled apart but rested their foreheads on each other. They were still somewhat breathless from the soft kiss.

He held her chin in his hand, “ I’d love nothing more than to stay forever. “

[helloalycia]

lose you [three] // leigh shaw

summary: just when you think Leigh is finally listening to you and giving you space, she happens to do the opposite

warning/s: mentions of loss and implications of death/grief

author's note: so this is the final part! this was fun to write ngl – i hope you like the conclusion! :)

part one | part two | masterlist | wattpad

"I think the colours look great like this, don't you?" I asked Jules, pointing to the screen of her laptop

She hummed in agreement as she sipped her smoothie.

"Or maybe this...," I said, preoccupied with trying out something different. "Okay, hold on, let me see."

We were both sat in this smoothie place a few stores  down from her workplace, working on some more promotional material for another set of classes she was setting up.

"You know, we could easily do this at the studio," Jules commented in a knowing tone. "Or even at my house."

I glanced at her before looking back to the screen. "It's better this way."

She knew what I meant, so I knew I didn't need to elaborate. Ever since Leigh had finally gotten the hint and left me alone for the week, I'd been keeping away from her as much as I could, still trying to figure out what I was feeling. This also meant not going to her workplace or her house in case I bumped into her.

"So, you're not gonna tell me what happened between you and my sister?" Jules asked curiously, for the millionth time, leaning forward.

I scrunched my nose as I shook my head. "Not this time, Jules, sorry."

An exasperated sigh escaped her lips. "Leigh won't say anything either, so that's no fun..."

Not knowing how to respond, I simply kept quiet and continued to play around with the colour palette of the designs I'd put together. Jules watched over me, inputting her ideas every now and then and explaining her 'vision', before our time was interrupted with her phone ringing.

"Hello," she answered it casually, before continuing to speak to whoever. "...No, I've got one... no need! I'll pick one up for you."

I gave her a sideways glance as she looked the other way quickly, as if hiding something.

Her voice lowered as she continued to speak to whoever. "Yes, we're here..." She sighed. "She's fine, Leigh."

I rolled my eyes as I looked back to the laptop, trying to distract myself.

"Okay, I'll see you soon, bye," Jules mumbled before hanging up and looking back to me.

It was quiet for a moment, neither of us speaking as I clicked away on her trackpad. Figuring she wouldn't speak, I chose to.

"Was that Leigh?"

Looking down at her smoothie awkwardly, Jules nodded. "Er, yeah."

I shot her a look. "You know you can have a normal conversation with her. She is your sister after all."

Jules ran a hand through her hair. "Yes, I know, I just... I don't want to make you feel awkward."

"It's fine," I reassured her with a small smile, before looking to the screen. Unable to stop myself, I asked, "How is she?"

A pause, then: "She's good."

I nodded nonchalantly, though I was glad to hear. I wasn't heartless – I still cared about her. But my stubbornness, as Taylor liked to constantly point out, was keeping me from hearing Leigh out. Her words still rang clear in my ears, the implication louder than the words themselves. And then that made me angry all over again and I found myself in a constant cycle of needing space from Leigh and wanting to hear her out.

Trying to ignore my conflicting thoughts for the girl who wasn't even present, I continued to work on Jules' designs before she had to get back to work and so did I.

"Are you okay to come over tonight to finish those off?" she asked as I packed away my things.

I hesitated, chewing on my lip. The whole point was to avoid going to her house.

"I'll make sure Leigh isn't there," Jules promised, noticing my silence, before adding with a playful smile, "Or is that new promotion of yours too time-consuming for you to spend time with me?"

"You know that's not true," I told her with a suppressed laugh, before relaxing my shoulders and nodding slowly. "I... I guess I can come around for a little while."

"Only a few hours," she promised me.

I nodded. "Okay, sure. I guess I'll see you tonight, Jules."

She grinned. "Awesome! See you tonight."

—

I probably should have figured out that Jules was lying to me. I'd known her long enough to tell when she was playing me, but I must have been so distracted by everything that I failed to realise what she was doing until it was too late.

When I got to the Shaw residence that evening after dinner, Jules answered and let me in, promising that her sister and mum were out on a girls night so wouldn't bother us. That was the first major hint – Leigh hated spending 'girls night' with her mum.

Then, when I set my bag down in the living room, waiting for Jules to join me, I heard the front door slam shut.

Spinning around and staring into that direction of the house, I called after her. "Jules? You still here?"

Instead of Jules, Leigh stepped in the doorway, dressed in a jumper and joggers, hair messy but small smile on her lips. That's when I realised I'd been tricked.

"I'm out of here," I said instantly, grabbing my bag to go.

"No, please stay," she said pleadingly, taking a step forward, but stopping when she saw how much I didn't want to be near her right now.

"I can't believe you'd resort to such childish methods of trickery," I admitted with disbelief. "And just when I thought you were finally listening to me and giving me space."

She pressed her lips together firmly as I spoke, before saying, "You wouldn't have come if I'd called, Y/N. It was the only way to get you here."

"Of course I wouldn't have!" I said with frustration, hand on my bag strap tightening. "I didn't want to see you!"

"I know you didn't, that's why I left you tons of messages!" she exclaimed, before rolling her eyes bitterly. "Your stupid, love-struck assistant is clearly terrible at delivering said messages."

"You mean the assistant with the boyfriend?" I retorted with a glare.

Her eyebrows creased together with confusion. "She has a boyfriend?"

I groaned loudly before moving forward to leave. "I'm going."

Leigh's bitchiness dispersed as she realised what was happening. "Wait, Y/N– just wait!"

Ignoring her, I continued my approach to the door and pushed past her without sparing her a glance. I was afraid that if I did, I would say something I'd regret.

"Please!" she called after me. And I was a mere few centimetres from the door before she shouted, "I love you!"

I widened my eyes with surprise, wondering if I'd heard that right. Stopping in place, I turned around slowly and saw Leigh standing in the living room doorway with teary eyes and a quivering lip.

"I'm in love with you," she repeated, confirming my hearing. Green eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she continued, "I was stupid how I acted and I– I've treated you so horribly and you always put up with it. But not this time."

She paused, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks as she raised a shaky hand to move her hair from her eyes.

Swallowing hard, she said, "I p–push people away and I've pushed so many friends away, but y-you never left. You stayed this whole time a–and I've already lost so much, but I can't take losing you. I c–can't lose you, Y/N."

Forgetting my anger for a moment, I felt my heart ache in my chest as Leigh broke down before me. I'd seen her at her worst before, but this was different. She was choosing to be vulnerable and that never came easy to her.

"Leigh, I'm not going anywhere," I said gently, frown on my lips. "We're in a fight right now and I'm angry, yeah, but I would never leave you. Not for good."

"You say that!" she snapped, clenching her fists as more tears streamed down her cheeks. "You say that, but then blocked calls and wanting space turns into leaving because you can't take it anymore. You can't take me anymore. And I can't take it, I can't take pushing you away. I can't lose you."

She clenched her jaw, eyes piercing through me with sadness and guilt and anger all at once.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," she said, her voice softer and very unlike herself. "The kiss it– it scared me because I wanted to do it for a long time, but you're my best friend and best friends don't do that. So, I tried to forget about it, but I ended up blaming you in the process and it's not you who's at fault here, it's me. And because of that, you're going to hate me and leave and I'm going to be a–alone again and I can't do that again, n–not again, n–not–"

I drew closer to her and pulled her in for a hug, unable to take her hysterics any longer. It hurt too much, seeing her pour her truth out in such a volatile way that had clearly been building up for a while.

She cried as I held her close, pressing a kiss to her hair and rubbing her back slowly. I never meant for it to get like this. I didn't know that she was going through all of this turmoil and now I felt bad, even if she'd hate that I did.

"I'm not going anywhere, Leigh," I promised her, my own tears burning the lids of my eyes. "I swear. you're not going to lose me and I could never hate you. Don't even think that for one minute..."

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I led her to the bench by the front door and held her close, not caring that her tears were soaking my shirt or that she was clinging so tightly that I would never be able to pry her off, not unless she let go by choice.

I wasn't sure how long we sat there, but her cries eventually turned into sniffles and her head found it's way onto my shoulder. My arms wrapped around her torso, still rubbing circles onto her back, and hers clung around my shoulders tightly.

"I'm so sorry," she muttered guiltily into my neck, her warm breath tickling the skin and sending shivers down my spine.

I swallowed hard. "I know you are. I forgive you, Leigh."

She didn't say anything and I wondered why she was unable to let go and meet my eyes. Maybe it was easier to talk when we weren't looking at each other.

"I would never leave you, you know," I told her quietly, letting her know again. I'd let her know forever if it meant she'd believe me. "You can be such a bitch sometimes, but I put up with it because I love you, too."

She sighed. "But not like I love you."

I tried not to smile. "You're kidding, right? Of course like you love me. Why do you think I got so upset at your stupid date the other week?"

Finally pulling away from my neck, she faced me with confused eyes. "You said it was because I didn't reply to your messages."

I rolled my eyes. "It was because I thought that you didn't care about kissing me. I was scared that you didn't like me like that. That you thought you'd made a mistake." 

Her eyes flickered between mine, as if trying to understand what I was saying. Realisation passed through them as she stroked my neck with her finger, arms still laced around my shoulders.

"So, the kiss. You didn't– you don't hate me?"

I shook my head, squeezing her waist gently. "I don't. And if you'd given me a chance, I would've kissed you back. Properly. Like–" I sucked up a nervous breath. "Like you deserve."

She didn't say anything for a moment, eyes merely reading mine intimidatingly. For once, a rare instance between us, I couldn't tell what she was thinking.

"Now's your chance," she finally spoke, before capturing my bottom lip between hers in an instant.

Unlike last time, I got over my surprise quite quickly and closed my eyes, pulling her closer by the waist and returning the kiss. Her lips were soft and salty and addictive, and when she rested her hand on my chest to gently push me away after a moment, I immediately chased her lips down again, refusing to let her go so quickly. Not when I'd waited so long for this moment.

She gasped as I swiped my tongue across her bottom lip, asking for entry. Using that as opportunity, I slipped my tongue between her lips and met hers in the middle, revelling in the taste that was Leigh Shaw. It didn't go beyond that and that was okay, as I was too busy focusing on how perfect she fit next to me, my one hand on her waist and the other on the back of her neck.

Finally pulling apart for air, she rested her forehead against mine and I opened my eyes to be submerged in pools of green. Licking her lips, she breathed out slowly.

"I don't want to lose you," she admitted in a whisper.

Pushing her hair behind her ear, I rested my hand on her jaw and caressed it. "You won't. I told you. I'm not leaving you. Not now. Not ever. I promise."

She closed her eyes, lips trembling ever so slightly. "You shouldn't make promises you can't keep."

I realised she was probably thinking back to her late husband and I didn't blame her. She'd suffered through so much and I couldn't imagine the fears she had.

"I'll keep it for as long as I can," I told her, kissing her  forehead. "But know for sure that you won't be getting rid of me that easily."

She cracked a small smile through her teary eyes, nodding slightly. "I'll try to be less of a bitch."

"Hey, be as bitchy as you want," I told her playfully. "I'm not going anywhere, remember?"

She let out a small snort through her nose, barely a laugh, but it was music to my ears and it brought a smile to my lips. Finally opening her eyes, she looked to me with adoration and it made my heart beat a little faster.

"I love you," she said with the utmost sincerity.

I wiped away a stray tear of hers with the pad of my thumb and met her gaze. "I love you, too, Leigh."

Glassy eyes watched mine, content for the first time in a long time, before she pulled me in for a hug, tucking her head into my neck like it was her favourite spot in the world. I knew the feeling of her there was definitely mine.

"What do you want to do now?" I asked quietly, not wanting to break the peace we'd created.

"I'm really tired," she admitted, lips brushing my neck as she spoke.

I pressed a kiss to the side of her head, mumbling into her hair, "Let's get you to sleep then."

She hummed in agreement and I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd closed her eyes already.

"I want you to stay," she added. "To sleep with me."

Pausing, I tried not to laugh, which she realised and nudged me in the gut lightly.

"Not like that, idiot," she said, definitely giving me an eye roll even though I couldn't see her. "I mean, yes, eventually like that. If you want. But not now. Now, I just want you next to me."

Smile of adoration on my lips, I squeezed her gently. "Hmm, I'm not sure. I've got work in the morning. Early start."

She pulled away from me suddenly, frown on her lips and eyes flickering between mine disappointedly. I sighed, raising my hand and stroking her cheek.

"I'm kidding," I told her with a knowing look. "I mean, I do have work, but I'll stay if you want me to."

"Jerk," she mumbled, before standing up and pulling me up with her. "You're staying."

I kept ahold of her hand and intertwined our fingers, tugging her closer to me. She still seemed disgruntled from my joke, so I kissed her cheek, lingering for a second longer than usual, before smiling.

"Come on, grumpy pants."

She narrowed her eyes at me childishly, but continued to lead me upstairs and to her bedroom. As we walked, I remembered something.

"So, does Jules know about us? Since she helped you to trick me tonight?"

Leigh didn't bother flicking on the lights to her room when we entered, instead closing the door behind us and letting the streetlights from outside her window guide us to her bed.

"She knows we argued," she answered delicately. "I didn't know how to tell her about how I felt when I–" She sighed. "When I didn't even know how to tell you."

I nodded, not bothering to ask her about if she wanted to tell her tomorrow, or tell her mum tomorrow. Or if she wanted to wait and tell them later when we were settled into our relationship. I trusted her to talk to me when she was ready and there was no rush anyway.

"Jules is out with a friend tonight and my mum is working late," she explained their absence. "And you've slept over before so this is no different."

"True," I agreed.

A yawn escaped Leigh's lips and I couldn't help but smile at how cute she looked when she stretched her arms and scrunched her face tiredly. When she finished, she opened her eyes and saw my expression.

"What's got you all smiley?" she asked with a quirked brow.

I shook my head dismissively as she grabbed some pyjama pants from her drawer. "You're too cute is all."

Groaning loudly, she said, "God, Y/N, don't do that. Don't be all couple-y already. Especially not when it's–"

"What?" I cut her off with amusement, as she threw the pants in my face. "Complimenting you?"

"Exactly," she said like it was obvious, before waving her hand with irritation. "Just take your pants off so we can go to sleep."

I chuckled. "Eager much?"

She groaned again, but I saw a ghost of a smile playing on her lips. As I changed out of my jeans, she got under the duvet and got comfortable. I joined her soon enough, just about pulling the duvet on top of me before she grabbed my arm and forced me to roll over and spoon her from behind.

I stifled a laugh as she entwined our hands, resting them on her waist, and sighed contently.

"So, guess I can't be little spoon tonight then?" I teased, making her kick me with her foot.

"My bed, my choice," she muttered, voice heavy with fatigue.

Settling in behind her, I put my leg between hers comfortably and pressed a kiss to the exposed skin of her neck where my head lay.

"I don't mind being the big spoon," I reassured her, though I knew it wouldn't make a difference. If Leigh wanted to be cuddled, that was the end of it.

It went quiet as I appreciated how pleasant it felt with her in my arms, her body pressed closely to mine and her self radiating a comforting warmth only she seemed to possess. I could definitely get used to this.

"Y/N?"

"Yeah?"

She stopped, breathing out slowly. "Thanks for staying."

"Well, you asked so nicely and–"

"No," she cut me off quietly. "Thanks."

It took me a second to realise that she wasn't talking about just now. I smiled to myself.

"Always, Leigh."

[ofstarsandvibranium]

Rectify: Part 5 (Final)

Fandom: Marvel

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x F!Reader

As requested by anonymous: It would be awesome if you could make a tfatws Bucky fic or series where the reader is on the list for his making amends because the winter soldier did something to her or someone she loves, and once he gets close to her in some way he ends up falling for her and it’s really angsty but a happy ending !!

A/N: FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

While Bucky only knew you a short time, you'd left a permanent mark on his heart. He missed your warmth, your kindness, your goofiness, your humor, your laugh. He missed having someone to confide in about his problems. But he also felt he had no right to miss you because of what he did to you.

Your absence took a noticeable toll on him and it was evidently clear to Dr. Raynor that something had occurred. So this time around, she pushed Bucky as much as she could.

"You need to tell me what happened, James."

"I told you," Bucky sneered at her, "Nothing happened."

The therapist narrowed her eyes at her patient, "Your sleep has gotten worse. The bags under your eyes have gotten darker, your eyes are red, you're more irritable-"

"Okay, I get it!"

"Do you?" she cocks her head to the side, "This is for your own good, part of your pardon. I'm here to help you, James, and I don't have to be. So unless you want to be locked up for your crimes, I think this back and forth we go through every week should stop and finally let me in."

Bucky let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his cropped hair, "Fine."

____________________________________

It took you a few days to full process what happened. James, Bucky, he was the one who killed your parents. You went to go on and do some research and to eventually find that James "Bucky" Barnes is the very same that you once learned about briefly in your history class. Former Howling Commando and best friend former Captain America, Steve Rogers. He went MIA during WWII. Due to Black Widow leaking important SHIELD and Hydra files, you came to learn that Bucky didn't die, but rather was captured and brainwashed under Hydra. For years they used him as their weapon.

While learning this information, it did provide some relief for you, but it didn't complete betrayal and hurt you felt.

After a few days after your research and coming to terms with everything you've learned, you felt a bit better, but equally lost as well.

You pulled up Bucky's number and again and again, finger hovering over the call button. You wanted to talk to him, but then you remember what he did, then you'd put down your phone.

You'd only known Bucky for a short time, but he left an impact on you. Despite his cold, apprehensive demeanor, he's actually kind, soft, and caring. He's funny when he can be, and you find his overall presence very calming.

You thought of how safe you felt around him, comfortable, vulnerable, just over all good.

You've seen first hand how people's past mistakes heavily effect them. You've seen many work hard to rewrite those wrongs, a sign of remorse, regret, grief. Were you a hypocrite for encouraging change and forgiveness, while also not practicing it yourself?

__________________________________

It was nearing midnight when Bucky's phone began to ring. Sleep evading him, he was quick to grab his phone and looking at who was calling him. His heart dropped when he saw it was you. For a moment, he wasn't going to answer. Maybe it was a butt dial or something. But then he also thought, what if you were in trouble?

Before he missed your call, he quickly answered, bringing the phone to his ear and letting out a soft, "Hello?"

"Hi," you murmured apprehensively, "Did-Did I wake you?"

"N-No," Bucky stuttered and then cleared his throat, sitting up in his chair, "No. I was already awake. I, um, I've been having trouble sleeping lately."

You hummed and muttered, "Same here." There was an awkward silence, a moment of uncertainty, until you spoke up, "Do you...wanna meet up? At the diner?"

"Are you okay?" Bucky asked, his voice laced with concern.

"Kinda. I just-I wanna talk. Is that okay?"

"Sure."

"Okay. I'll see you in ten minutes?"

"Okay."

Bucky hadn't changed into his pajamas, still in his shirt and jeans from earlier. So he slipped on his boots, gloves, and jacket and he was out the door.

He arrived just the same time as you did. He opened the diner door, allowing you to step in and you grabbed a booth in the back corner of the diner.

A young man, probably college age, approached you two asking what you'd like to drink and you both replied coffee. When the young man left, you spoke up.

"I looked you up. Learned who you are, who you really are. You were pardoned for your involvement with Hydra as well as with Steve Rogers going rogue. I saw that you...you've gone through a lot Bucky." you paused to see if he wanted to say anything, but he didn't. So you continued, "The last time we were here, you said something to me? That I'm part of your efforts to make amends? What did you mean by that?"

Bucky let out a shaky breath and began to explain, "Part of my pardon is that I go to therapy, to ensure I don't become...him again. So my therapist told me to make a list of amends, people I need to reach out to, to right my wrongs I did while I was the Winter Soldier."

"And I was one of those people?" he nods and you let out a deep breath, "Have you done this with other people? Befriend them to right your wrongs?"

"Only to one other person."

You shake your head and lean back in your seat, "You know this is fucked up, right? Messing with our feelings like this? Befriending us under false pretenses, finding solace in you, only for you to be the source of the most heartbreaking pain we've felt? I'm an orphan because of you, Bucky....but I understand that what you did wasn't your fault."

Bucky looked at you with furrowed brows, confusion in his eyes, "I-huh?"

"I'm upset with you, but not for you killing my parents. I'm upset that you lied to me for the months I've known you. Despite that, I still want to be around you and-and I kinda hate that. But....But I always preach about second chances."

"You're giving me a second chance?"

"Out of the goodness of my heart, yeah, Bucky, I am. You've-You've also become very special to me and I don't know if I could continue on without having you in my life. But if we're to do this, if we're to be friends, I have one condition: no more lies. You be 100% completely honest with me."

"I-I don't even know what to say. Y/N, you are so kind and compassionate. I," he pauses and sighs in disappointment, "I honestly don't think I deserve this chance."

"All of this stems from you wanting to do the right thing, Bucky, and that tells me that you're a good person. And I think you could use a friend." you reach out and place a hand on his gloved on.

He lets out a relieved sigh, "Thank you, Y/N. I don't-You're way too good for me."

You shrugged and held out your hand, "Let's start over. Hi, I'm Y/N L/N," you give him a soft smile.

Bucky gulps and then slowly pulls his glove off his metal hand and then places it in yours, "Hi, I'm James Bucky Barnes, but call me Bucky."

[bi-bard]

Please Say That You're Joking (Pt.1) - Chuck Shurley Imagine (Supernatural)

Title: Please Say You're Joking (Pt. 1) [You can read part 2 by clicking here!]

Pairing: Chuck Shurley X Winchester!Reader

Requested: Nope

Word Count: 2,930 words

Warning(s): mentions of sex, threats of violence

Summary: (Season 4; Season 11) (Y/n) had a single one-night stand while coping with loss in a not healthy way... if only they had a clue about the weight of their actions.

Author's Note: I was recently going back through some of the "lighter" episodes of Supernatural because I wanted to watch something I could chuckle at. That's where this came from.

This might be the most crackheaded thing I've written in a while.

Also, the amount of things I had to bullshit my way through this is actually ridiculous.

Hey! I did a rewrite of the ending of Supernatural. It took a really long time to complete, so it would mean a lot to me if you check it out. Here’s a link! (it’s on my personal account)

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

Sam, Dean, and I walked into the motel room. We were all confused and slightly scared.

We had gone to a comic book shop to do some work on a case. However, we were then called fans.

Fans of what?

Well, fans of a series of books about our lives.

I was the middle Winchester child. Two years younger than Dean, two years older than Sam. I was beyond confused when I saw some weird, romanticized version of me on the cover of a book.

"This is so weird," I mumbled, plopping onto one of the beds in the room.

Sam jumped onto his laptop and started researching. Dean was holding one of the books, reading through it. I didn't even want to touch it.

"I don't like how he describes (Y/n)," Dean commented. "It's weird. It's like he's in love. Listen to this..."

Dean dramatically clears his throat and starts to read in an even more dramatic voice, "'Even after a hard hunt, (Y/n) could easily be seen as the most beautiful of the siblings. They mimicked the beauty of their mother more than their brothers. There's no bruise or cut that could take the loveliness away from the natural curves of (Y/n)'s face. If only they could see how everyone else would stare-"

"Okay, ew," I muttered, walking to the table. "What'd you find?"

"Well, it seems like Carver Edlund is a pen name," Sam shrugged. "And the fans are intense."

"As in," Dean asked, closing the book and joining the two of us at the table.

"Well," Sam handed me the laptop so Dean and I could look at it, "there's fanfiction. About all of us."

"What's this, 'Sam/Dean'," I asked.

"It's... me and Dean... together."

"They just don't care that we're related," Dean asked. Sam nodded.

"God, this is so weird."

"So, how do we find this guy," I asked.

--time skip--

We managed to find the publisher of the novels and found her house.

"So, you published the 'Supernatural' books," I asked as we walked in.

"Yep," she nodded. "Yeah, gosh. These books... they never really got the attention that they deserved. All anybody wants to read anymore is that romance crap."

"Could not agree with you more," I said. "We're hoping that our article can shine a light on an underappreciated series."

"Yeah, because, you know, if we got a little bit of good press, then maybe we can start publishing again," she replied excitedly.

"No, no, no," Dean immediately shut her down. "I mean, why... why would you want to do that? It's such a complete series with Dean going to hell and all."

"Oh my god, that was one of my favorite ones," she rambled. "Dean was so strong and sad and brave. And Sam... I mean... the best ones are when they cry... like in 'Heart' when Sam had to kill Madison; the first woman since Jessica he'd really loved. When Dean had to call John in 'Home' and ask him for help. Or when (Y/n) went back to the motel room after getting kidnapped and just had to sit in their own head and had to truly process not only the death of their mother but now their father. The mixed feelings were amazing."

"You're a really big fan," I noted. She nodded.

"Gosh, if only real men were that open about their emotions."

"Real men," Dean asked.

"I mean, no offense," she replied. "How often do you cry like that?"

"Well, right now I'm crying on the inside," he muttered.

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"Lady, this whole thing is funny."

"How am I supposed to know this is legit?"

"Oh, trust me," Dean mumbled. "We're legit."

"Well, I don't want some smart-ass article making fun of my boys," she snapped as she sat in her chair.

"Oh, never," I replied quickly. "We actually are big fans."

"You read the books?"

"Cover to cover," I promised.

"What's the year and model of the car?"

"1967 Chevy Impala," Dean smiled proudly.

"What's May 2nd?"

"That's my- uh... Sam's birthday," Sam replied.

"Sam's score on the LSAT?"

"Umm... 174," Sam said nervously.

"(Y/n)'s first hunt?"

"Vampire in Washington," I answered. "Dean was at the motel sick and (Y/n) almost chopped John's head off when he scared them."

"(Y/n)'s favorite memory that's not related to hunting?"

I smiled, "Helping Sam get ready for a date when he was a teenager because Sam didn't trust what Dean had told him."

"Dean's favorite song?"

"It's a tie," Dean replied. "Between Zep's 'Ramble On' and 'Traveling Riverside Blues.'"

She finally laughed and smiled again, "Okay, okay. What do you wanna know?"

"What's Carver Edlund's real name," Sam asked.

"Oh, no. I can't," she shook her head.

"We just wanna talk to him," Sam continued. "You know, get the 'Supernatural' story in his own words."

"He's very private," she shrugged. "Like Salinger."

"Please," Sam tried again. "Like I said, we're um... big fans."

Sam unbuttoned his shirt enough to show his anti-possession tattoo. Dean pulled his shirt to the side to do the same. I rolled my eyes and yanked the arm of my jacket down and pulled up the sleeve of my t-shirt. I don't wear as many layers as them and I had opted to put the tattoo on my upper arm because I thought it looked nicer.

"Awesome," the lady mumbled before standing up. "Y'know what?"

I looked away as she pulled her pants down.

"I got one too."

"Wow, you are a fan," I slapped Dean's arm. The lady fixed her clothing before grabbing a pen and paper.

"Okay," she said. "His name's Chuck Shurley-"

And I stopped listening after that. I knew that name... why did I know that name... oh... oh no. I'm gonna kill him. We're going to meet this man and I am going to end up killing him.

I followed Sam and Dean as they started walking out of the woman's house.

"Excuse me," she called as we reached the door. We looked back at her. "I'm sorry, but you look exactly like how I picture (Y/n) when I read the books."

I chuckled, "Thanks."

"He describes (Y/n) with so much detail," she smiled. "You could play them in a movie."

"Thank you," I waved as we walked out.

"'You could play them in a movie,'" Dean teased.

"I know who Chuck is," I said, ignoring him.

"What," he asked. I nodded. "How?"

I pointed to get into the car. I got in the back seat and Sam and Dean sat upfront. Dean started driving to the address the lady gave us before I started speaking.

"Okay, when you went to hell, Sam's not the only one who ran off," I explained. "I wasn't gone for four months... just two weeks. In those two weeks, I got involved in a single one-night stand. The name he gave me was Chuck Shurley."

"You screwed the man who wrote books about us," Dean asked, sounding angry.

"Do you think I knew he was writing books based on our lives?"

"He had to have known who you are," Sam added. "This isn't an accident. He has to get visions or something."

"Yeah, I know," I nodded. "He made money off of my name and then screwed me."

"Damn," Dean mumbled. "I missed a hell of a lot."

I rolled my eyes.

--time skip--

I knocked on the door loudly. Sam grabbed my arm, shaking his head at me. The door was opened and I smiled obnoxiously as Chuck. He was in a robe, his boxers, and an old white shirt. He looked tired and like he hadn't had a goodnight's sleep in days.

"Chuck Shurley," Dean asked.

"Chuck Shurley that wrote the Supernatural books," Sam added.

"Nice to meet you," I said. "This is Sam... Dean... and I'm (Y/n)... the ones you've written books about."

Chuck sighed and went to shut the door. I stepped in, stopping it with my foot.

"Listen, I appreciate the enthusiasm, I really do and I remember you," he motioned at me, awkwardly grinning before seeming to shake the memories out of his head. I almost slapped him right then. "But please... go get a life."

"You see," Dean followed me, helping to force our way inside. Sam made sure the door shut behind us. "We have a life... and you're selling books about it."

"Okay, this isn't funny," Chuck mumbled.

"You're right," I said. "We just wanna know how you're doing it?"

"I'm just a writer, I'm not doing anything."

"Then why do you know so much about demons and tulpas and changelings?"

"Is this some kind of 'Misery' thing? Ah, it is, isn't it? It's a 'Misery' thing!"

"No, it's not," I shook my head. "Believe me, we're not fans."

"What do you want then," he asked.

"I'm Sam... and that's Dean and (Y/n)," Sam tried again.

"Those are fictional characters," Chuck yelled. "They aren't real!"

Dean grabbed him and pulled him outside.

"Wait, wait-"

"We aren't kidnapping you, calm down," I rolled my eyes. Dean opened the hidden compartment in the impala's trunk.

"Are those real guns?"

"Yes," I nodded. "And real rock salt, real fake IDs."

Chuck let out a laugh at it, "Well, I gotta hand it to you guys. You really are my number-one fans. That... That's awesome. So, I-I think I've got some poster in the house."

"Chuck, stop," I rolled my eyes, grabbing his arm as he went to walk away.

"Please don't hurt me," he begged.

"How much do you know," Sam asked. "Do you know about the angels? Or Lilith breaking the seals?"

"How do you know about that?"

"Have you not been listening," I asked. "The real question is how do you?"

"Because I wrote it," he explained.

"You kept writing?"

"The books never came out because the publisher went bankrupt," he furrowed his eyebrows.

I stepped back, letting go of his arms.

"Okay, wait a minute," Chuck crossed his arms. "This is some kind of joke, right? Did Phil put you up to this?"

"Oh my god," I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose. I grabbed his robe. "I'm sorry but I'm really tired. Nice to meet you. I'm (Y/n) Winchester, these are my brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester. You wrote and published books about us, probably knew who I was, and then you still slept with me."

He stared at me in shock.

"What," I asked.

"The last names were never in the books," he mumbled. "I never told anyone about that. I never even wrote that down."

"Then I guess we have a lot to talk about," I let go of his robe.

The three of us followed him inside.

--time skip--

"I got a visit from Cas," Dean explained as he walked in. "I've some important information."

After talking to Chuck and getting a draft of what was supposed to happen, we were all panicking. Dean told us to wait here. Lilith was going to come for Sam and we both thought it'd be harder if there was more than one of us here at all times.

Now, Dean was coming back from seeing Chuck.

"And that important information is...," Sam trailed off.

"He's a prophet of the lord," Dean said, smirking at me.

I shut my eyes, letting my head fall forward.

"Please say you're joking," I mumbled.

"Nope," Dean replied.

Sam looked over at me. He only started chuckling after his brother broke.

Dean was laughing his head off within seconds, "You screwed a prophet!"

"Shut up," I groaned. "I'm gonna kill him!"

"Archangel will kill you."

"I'll happily pay that price," I muttered. "I slept with a prophet."

"At least that means he didn't write himself to sleep with you," Sam tried to comfort me.

"Yeah, God just decided I was supposed to sleep with the guy publishing books about my life," I replied sarcastically. "That makes me feel so much better."

"Come on, it could be worst-"

"Sam, love you, but don't finish that sentence if you even kind of value your life," I muttered.

I was desperate for this conversation to just end.

--time skip--

After all was said and done, and Chuck accidentally helped us chase Lilith away for a while, we gave Chuck a lift back to his place.

I followed him up to his door, offering to look around and make sure that he's safe. He shook his head.

"I have an archangel protecting me," he reminded me. "Can't get any safer than that."

I nodded.

"I'm sorry, by the way," he said. "About us. I didn't recognize you until after... it all... and I didn't say anything because I didn't really know how to explain it. The whole event makes me feel all scummy."

"It's alright," I replied with a chuckle. "It's fine, I promise."

He offered me a nervous smile, "Y'know, in all of my visions, you're the most vivid thing."

With a grin, I leaned over and kissed his cheek gently. I stepped back and headed back toward the impala. I made sure to take note of his nervous and flustered face.

"See you around, Chuck!"

"You... You too," he called after me. I got in the backseat and got comfortable.

"So... screwing the prophet wasn't that bad," Dean asked.

I just rolled my eyes, waving through the window at Chuck as Dean pulled away from the curb. Leave it to a Winchester to end up in a situation like that.

--time skip (season 11)--

Sam and I followed Dean with our guns ready. Dean was following the amulet that he had owned for a long time without even knowing it could show us where God was.

Everyone had been infected by Amara only minutes ago but now it was okay and Dean's amulet was glowing.

"Holy shit," I mumbled, seeing who was walking over to us.

Chuck.

He was supposed to be dead. That's why Kevin's prophet powers had been activated.

"No way," Dean said.

"Hey," Chuck... or God said. "We need to talk."

Despite our understandable hesitation, Chuck reached forward, teleporting all of us back to the bunker. I stepped away from him, slightly overwhelmed.

"(Y/n)," Chuck walked over and tried to grab my arm. I instinctually slapped him. I was nothing but confusion and anger. "I deserved that. Just, please?"

I stepped away again.

From behind Chuck stepped Kevin's ghost. My breath caught in my throat. The poor boy had been through so much shit because of us.

Kevin told us about how we looked stressed and that we should listen to Chuck.

Then, Chuck waved his hand. Kevin turned into a ball of white and blue light before ascending beyond the bunker.

"Where'd he go," I asked.

"Heaven, where he deserves," Chuck promised. I nodded.

I listened to the rant about how Chuck had abandoned us all and how awful things were. Then, the conversation turned to the plan to stop Amara. The boys talked about needing Lucifer and Chuck got incredibly upset. In a fit, he went to leave. I stepped in front of him.

"No," I said bluntly. "Even if you want to avoid the subject of your estranged son, you can't just leave."

"(Y/n)-"

"Sam, Dean," I looked at them. "Give us a minute?"

They both nodded, glaring at Chuck on their way out. I tried to ignore the instincts that were telling me that Chuck was just selfish.

"(Y/n)," Chuck mumbled.

"Just answer my questions," I said. "Then we can discuss what to do with Amara without you storming away recklessly. Okay?"

He nodded.

"Have you been God the whole time," I asked.

He nodded.

"You wrote all of our stories?"

Another nod.

"Did you write that I was going to sleep with you?"

I felt manipulated and angry. I was desperate for an answer. I knew that this could've made me feel like dirt, but I needed to know.

"No," Chuck said. I clenched my jaw, ready to call him a liar. "I told you. I had been pretty much hands-off for a long time. Did I know who were? Absolutely. I'm sorry I lied to you about that. But I didn't plan anything between us. We weren't some divine plan."

I nodded, looking down.

"You know how Dean and Amara are connected," he asked. I nodded, looking back at him. "We're like them."

"And that's not a divine plan-"

"I'm not doing a good job explaining this," Chuck shook his head. "It feels like we're like them. Like there's this bond that just happened as soon as we met."

"You lied to me, for years," I said. "Saying we have some bond isn't gonna fix that."

"I know."

We both fell silent. Slowly, I started laughing. Chuck furrowed his eyebrows, "My only one-night stand... and it was God."

Chuck started laughing with me while I really processed what I had done.

I slowly stopped laughing.

I didn't notice until it was too late that Chuck had slowly gotten closer to me. As soon as his lips brushed mine, I pushed him back. Not hard, but enough to get him to step away.

"No," I mumbled. "Not that, no."

Chuck nodded, "Got it."

"Now," I sighed, "we need to actually plan to stop Amara, and if we need Luci-"

"We don't," he said bluntly. "We can do something else. We don't need him. Okay?"

I nodded. In my gut, I trusted him. Maybe that was me being an idiot but I did trust him. For now at least.

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

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[aitaikimochi]

The BNHA Season 4 BluRay/DVD Vol. 1-6 Box Set comes with a special bonus light novel called the "Cultural Festival Wrap-Up Party" about Class A's after-party they had the day after the Cultural Festival, written by Anri-sensei. Here's the summary! Enjoy~

Boku No Hero Academia Cultural Festival Wrap Up Party

The story starts off with All Might greeting Aizawa as he enters the faculty office, a day after the Cultural Festival. He says good work to Aizawa and asks how the clean-up went for the Cultural Festival. Aizawa says that everything has been put away properly and recalls how it was a bit of a risky Cultural Festival this year with the whole fiasco that almost caused them to stop the festival, referring to the incident with Gentle and La Brava.

Aizawa mentions that the students are now preparing for an after-party. He says, “too bad they can’t put this amount of effort that they did in the Cultural Festival towards their studies instead,” and All Might laughs and says, “Well, they’re still just kids after all.” He also tells All Might that a little while ago, Sero stopped by the office to ask him something. Aizawa says, “What?” and All Might explains, “Well…you see…”

Next scene is at a nearby discount variety store (**note: basically a Don Quihote department store in Japan that sells a variety of things including food at really cheap prices). The Class A band team, consisting of Jirou, Kaminari, Bakugou, Yaoyorozu, and Tokoyami, are buying snacks and drinks for the after-party. However, Jirou seems to be the only one who’s actually taking this seriously as she can’t find where everyone else ran off to. She bumps into Yaoyorozu, who excitedly says, “Jirou-san, look at these super cheap drinks! They’re only 10yen each! If we buy 20 of them that’s only 200yen!”

Jirou looks at the bottles and notices that they’re only on sale because the drinks had already expired. She tells Yaoyorozu to put away the items. She then continues to search for the other band members and finds Kaminari. He tells her that he wants to add these cool snacks into their pile of food, which come with bonus cards or toys. He says, “Look at these! Doesn’t it take you back? Man, when I was a kid I used to collect these all the time!”

Jirou looks at the items and says “put it back,” and Kaminari whines but does so anyway. Yaoyorozu keeps getting distracted by all the things in the store since she’s very rich, she seldom has the opportunity to visit these discount stores that people go to. Jirou finds Tokoyami, and Dark Shadow dumps a whole bunch of sweets into their shopping cart. Jirou says that they don’t need that many sweets and to put things back. Tokoyami then gives Jirou a snack with packaging that says “The Witch of Darkness’ Apple Pie.” Dark Shadow says, “Fumikage used to love these sweets when he was younger!” and Tokoyami gets flustered. Jirou then pats Dark Shadow on his head, and Bakugou comes up behind her.

He says, “What the hell are you guys even buying!?”

Kaminari cries out, “Whattya mean!?”

Bakugou says, “If we’re gonna eat this at the after-party, then we need several big bags of food! And why the hell am I even here shopping with you guys right now!? This is so annoying!”

As he says that, he fills the shopping cart with bags of potato chips, sweets, paper plates, and trash bags. Jirou sighs in relief and says, “Yeah! I was thinking of getting paper plates too so clean-up would be easier!” They then agree to buy some more bottles of juice and soda, and Bakugou says they only need a maximum 5 bottles to which Jirou agrees.

Bakugou then says, “Well then let’s just get the hell out of here!” and Kaminari regrettably puts all of the sweets that he added to the shopping cart back on the shelves. Jirou looks at Bakugou and says, “Bakugou, you’re…kinda like a very capable Mom.”

Bakugou gets mad and says, “WHAT!? Stop saying such stupid crap!”

While the Band members are buying stuff at the discount store, the Dance Team members and Stage members are back in the Class A dormitory preparing food and decorating the common room. The Dance Team is in charge of the food and the Stage team is in charge of decorations.

Satou is the one who is cooking most of the food, but the other Dance Team members are helping him with the food preparation. Iida is in charge of chopping the vegetables, and although he is known for his speed, he’s not used to handling knives, so he chops them at a slower pace. Hagakure is in charge of prepping the oil and oil absorbent sheets to fry the chicken and place it on the sheets. Ochako and Ashido are in charge of stirring the pot, which contains beschamel and bolognese sauces.

Ojiro checks up on the oven to make sure that it’s the right temperature. Satou tells Ochako and Ashido to add the sauce for the lasagna and to not forget to put olive oil on top. Shouji says that he’s done making the dressing for the salad, and Satou samples it. The kitchen is full of lively sounds, and everyone is excited for Ojiro’s delicious cooking.

Ochako, Ashido, and Hagakure then discuss how Christmas is around the corner too, so they should do this again and throw a Christmas party next time. While they think about having a potential Christmas party, Iida says, “Hey now! Christmas is a day that celebrates the Birth of Jesus Christ! You should be spending it with your families, so this Christmas we…”

Satou then says, “Iida, the knife, watch out the knife!” since Iida was talking while swinging the knife around in his hand. Iida apologizes. Ashido then says, “But wouldn’t a party be fun?” and Mineta appears in the kitchen holding some peaches while muttering, “Christmas…Christmas costumes…Santa Girl skirts…That’s awesome…”

However, they eventually convince Iida that Christmas is indeed a time to celebrate things together, and Iida gives in and says he will ask Aizawa for permission to throw a Christmas party much to everyone’s delight.

Mineta had been slacking off on his duties by looking at the peaches and stroking them gently, imagining something lewd, and Hagakure calls him out on his perverted thoughts and tells him to help out along with the others.

He is in charge of cutting the carrots, and while everyone is helping prepare the food, Ochako stares at the fried chicken that just came out of the fryer. She can’t help herself and pops one into her mouth only to find that it’s burning hot. Tsuyu says to be careful since they’re still hot, and Ochako apologizes as the fried chicken looked and smelled so delicious she moved without thinking.

Satou asks her how’s the flavor, and she says the fried chicken is really good while giving him a thumbs up.

Ojiro and Hagakure are washing the dishes, and Hagakure holds the plates, making them look like they’re floating in mid air. Ojiro then tells Hagakure that she should probably put some clothes on if she’s going to be in the kitchen where people use fire and knives, but she said she just wanted to see what people’s reactions were to her small pranks. Shouji then passes her an apron, and Mineta muses that it’s one of those tropes where girls wear aprons while naked, but Iida warns him to not go further.

Meanwhile, in the common room area, the Stage Team is preparing the decorations to be strung about the living room. Deku, Todoroki, and Koda are folding origami together to put on the walls as banners. Deku folds a cool All Might shaped origami, and Todoroki praises him, saying “Wow, All Might! That’s awesome!” Deku actually used to practice folding the All Might origami countless of times to perfect its shape, and he blushes a bit when he hears praise from someone.

He then sees that Todoroki folded a crane, and Todoroki says that his sister taught him how to fold the crane origami when he was a child.

Koda then says, “Oh um…I…made a camera origami!” and shows them a whimsical camera shaped origami that makes a shutter noise when pressed. Deku then notices that Koda actually had folded a ton of different origami flowers and animals, and Koda gets a bit embarrassed at the attention.

Koda says, “But the All Might origami is amazing…” and Todoroki agrees.

Todoroki then asks Deku to teach him how to fold the All Might origami. Deku is happy to oblige, and he says, “Okay first you fold a triangle and then…”

As he starts teaching Todoroki, Kirishima comes into the room and puts up his own dorm room’s fisherman banner on the wall of the common room. He says that this will make the place a bit flashier, and the others agree. Aoyama then comes in and also says that they need something sparkly and bright. Aoyama tells them that he’ll come back with something sparkly.

Kirishima then says, “Oh wait I’ll come help too!”

Todoroki then turns to Deku and says, “Midoriya, so how exactly do you fold the All Might origami?”

Deku realized that he was in the middle of teaching Todoroki before they got interrupted by the others, so he resumes his lesson by saying to first fold a triangle. Afterwards, he goes off on a tangent about how to perfect the folding process as well as making sure to accentuate the silhouette of All Might through the folds, and as he mumbles a bit, he accidentally folds the origami too quickly.

Todoroki is patient with him though and says again, “Um…can you please start from the beginning and teach me the steps a bit slower this time?”

Deku apologizes for folding the paper too fast and teaches Todoroki again, this time at a slower pace.

Kirishima then walks by and says, “Woah Todoroki, you also want to learn how to fold the All Might origami?” He leaves them to their folding and joins Aoyama and Koda in putting the finished origami and other decorations up on the walls.

After Todoroki successfully folds the All Might origami, Deku says, “You made your first All Might origami!” and Todoroki responds quietly, “I think this should be able to fit in the letter…”

Deku says, “Hmm?” and Todoroki says, “Ah, it’s nothing.”

Aoyama them brings a disco ball into the common room, and he, Kirishima, and Sero put up the other decorations.

Finally, the preparations are complete, and the Class A students gather in the common room surrounding a bunch of food that’s placed on the tables. Iida then makes a toast to a successful Cultural Festival, and everyone raises their glasses and says, “Cheers!”

Satou mentions that he also has prepared dessert, and they have two choices of either a chestnut and fig montblanc cake or an apple and peach jelly. Tsuyu chooses the jelly as jelly is apparently her favorite food. Tokoyami also chooses the jelly dessert while Ashido takes the montblanc.

Iida mentions that he and Mineta were in charge of chopping the cabbages and carrots for the cole slaw. Todoroki and Deku praise him and say that the coleslaw is delicious.

Bakugou watches irritably and decides to leave the party, but Kaminari says, “Hey hey hey, where do you think you’re going, Kacchan-kun!?” Bakugou says that seeing everyone making small talk is pissing him off, but Kaminari rebutts by saying, “But you looked excited when you were buying food!”

Kirishima then comes over and says, “Bakugou! I brought you some fried chicken! Let’s eat a ton!” and puts a bunch of fried chicken in front of Bakugou, to which he says he doesn’t want it. Kirishima doesn’t back down though and says, “Oh I got it! So you want lasagna instead!” and brings a slice of lasagna for him.

Satou noticed Kirishima carrying the food over and says, “Hey, you should put a bunch of tabasco on it before eating too!” and pours a bunch of tabasco onto the lasagna and force feeds Bakugou with it. Bakugou yells, “What the hell are you doing!?” but eventually pipes down after taking the lasagna from Kirishima as it seems like he does enjoy the food after all. Kirishima watches him and says, “See, I told you it’s good! I’ll bring you seconds!” and goes to bring Bakugou more food.

Sero then turns everyone’s attention towards the TV in the common room. He says, “Well then now that Bakugou’s calmed down, let’s watch the recap of our Cultural Festival performance!” He turns on the TV and everyone gathers around to watch the recorded performance.

Some of the members mention that Deku was late to the performance, and they thought that he might not even be able to perform. Deku apologizes for being late, but as the performance starts, they can hear the audience’s chatter as someone yells “YAOYOROZU!!!” Ashido and Kaminari tease her about having fans, and she gets flustered. Satou then whispers, “It’s starting…it’s starting…!” and the screen fills with the sound of Bakugou’s drums as well as a huge explosion.

The girls all fawn over how cool Jirou looks while singing, and this causes her to blush and say, “Please stop…” Koda also adds, “You were really cool, Jirou-san,” which makes her blush deepen.

Ashido exclaims, “Look look, the dance is all in line too!” and the class watches as Ojiro uses his tail to swing around. Everyone on the dance team mentions how it was thanks to Ashido being their teacher that they were able to have fun while dancing and making this possible. Next is Deku and Aoyama’s synchronized dance, and Shouji murmurs to Tsuyu, “Wow, they are so in sync!” to which she replies, “Midoriya-chan and Aoyama-chan practiced real hard, right?”

The students continue to watch as Aoyama becomes a disco ball and the stage team starts their part of the performance with Kirishima shaving the ice that Todoroki created while Sero uses his tape, and Kirishima says, “You guys’ timing was perfect, Seroroki!”

Sero mentions that they should try this move out while doing actual hero work next time, and Todoroki agrees. As Kaminari watches himself play the guitar, he says, “Woah there…I feel like I’m gonna be super popular after this with those slick guitar moves…!” and Mineta says, “But wait did you guys see my harem dance? That was the best…!”

Jirou says, “Tokoyami, you’ve gotten super good at guitar!” and Tokoyami mentions that it’s all thanks to her.

Kirishima and Bakugou are watching the performance from a spot a little away from the rest of the class, and Kirishima smiles at Bakugou, saying, “Man, you’re great at drumming after all!” and Bakugou replies casually, “it’s just average.”

Jirou overhears their conversation and says, “No way! Your drumming was phenomenal! Your rhythm is what allowed us all to stay in sync! Thank you for taking on this role!” and Bakugou scoffs and says, “Well, you’re the one who carried the whole performance though!”

Everyone is really impressed by Jirou’s bass skills as well as her singing, and they vote for her as the Class A Cultural Festival MVP. Everyone, aside from Bakugou, smiles at her, and she blushes, saying, “What…why…”

Yaoyorozu remarks, “Jirou-san, you were shining the brightest!” and Aoyama says, “Even more than me!?☆” But he agrees that Jirou indeed deserves the MVP title.

The class asks Jirou to make a small speech. She thanks everyone for making this performance a reality, and she’s really happy that they were able to perform together.

After everyone is done eating, Sero and Kaminari tells the class that they have some cool party games planned for everyone. Most of the class are excited for what they have in store, but Bakugou feels like it’s a waste of time and gets up to leave. Kirishima tries to stop him, but Sero taunts, “Oh, you’re leaving because you don’t think you can win, right? Well that’s fine, you can go back. Even though we have a quiz specifically tailored for you, but I guess you’d fail anyway.”

This gets Bakugou angry, and he agrees to participate in Sero’s dumb quiz challenge.

The games that Sero and Kaminari have planned are for one member of each Cultural Festival team to undergo a “Can you guess the __” type of challenge. Bakugou is first up, representing the Band Team. His challenge is to differentiate between three different types of pepper spice seasoning purely by taste (called 一味 ichimi).

Bakugou sits down in front of the table that has the seasonings, and Sero blindfolds him by putting on an eye mask that has a funny grinning face on it. Deku and the others snicker at how ridiculous Bakugou looks with that eye mask on, and Bakugou gets mad, yelling, “Damnit Deku, what the hell is so funny!?” Deku replies, “Well, anyone would laugh when they see…hahah!”

Bakugou roars, “You piece of shit!” but Todoroki says calmly, “Hey Bakugou, maybe you should consider wearing a hero suit that matches that mask.” Bakugou is furious and yells, “Shut the hell up, you half and half bastard!”

The challenge then begins, and Kaminari spoon feeds Bakugou the three different spices. He surprises everyone by correctly guessing each type of spice and goes even as far to explain which company manufactures them. Kaminari and Sero are speechless, but Deku says, “I thought that Kacchan would know the difference. He’s always had a very particular sense of taste. He could even tell when sweets expired and would never eat the expired food.”

Bakugou gets mad and says, “Don’t put on that stupid face as if you know it all!” and throws the eye mask at Deku.

The next challenge is Todoroki’s turn, representing the Stage Team. His task is to figure out among three cups of brown liquid which one is soba noodle soup. The cups contain either coffee, soba noodle soup, or throat medicine, and Todoroki cannot smell or taste them before picking his answer.

Iida mentions that Todoroki often eats soba during lunch, so there’s no way he would guess incorrectly for a food that he loves. Deku says, “Good luck, Todoroki!” as everyone watches him study the cups closely. The catch is that he also has to drink from whichever cup he chooses. Todoroki decides on a cup and drinks from it, only to spit it out and say, “That…wasn’t soba noodle soup…”

Kaminari chimes in by explaining that the cup he chose was actually throat medicine. Todoroki apologizes for spitting out the throat medicine, which splurted all over Iida and Deku. They tell him not to worry as more importantly, they need to get tissues to clean up the mess. Todoroki mutters, “I don’t think I want to eat soba anymore after this…”

The next challenge is for Tsuyu, where she has to differentiate from three different types of fluffy things: Koda’s bunny, Ojiro’s tail, and Deku’s hair by touch only. As she puts on the eye mask, Koda, Ojirou, and Deku stand in front of her. When Koda offers the bunny, Tsuyu says, “it’s fluffy.” When Ojiro offers his tail, she also says, “it’s fluffy.” When Deku offers his hair, Tsuyu says, “it’s…fuzzy?” She then correctly guesses which fluffiness was which.

Kaminari and Sero then round up the results of the various challenges, and the winner ends up being Bakugou!

Bakugou says, “Obviously I would win!” but the party’s not over yet! Next up is the Personality Quiz! Sero explains that since the class is with each other practically 24/7, they should all have picked up on small details of each other. This quiz will test how well they actually know each other after all.

The first question they ask is, “What did Iida answer on his Hero Test the other day to name the three most beautiful Heroes of the past?”

The class guesses incorrectly, and the answer was that he wrote on his test “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone has their own different types of beauty.”

Baffled, Iida asks Sero and Kaminari how they even knew what he wrote on a test paper, and they explained that their accomplice, Hagakure, has been doing a bit of spying on everyone in order for them to make this quiz a reality. Hagakure apologizes for doing so, but she says that she saw it as an opportunity to also test out her hero skills too.

The next question is “What has Yaoyorozu been obsessed about lately?” Jirou answers first, saying “Oh, is it furikake (rice seasoning)?” The answer turns out to be correct, and recently, Yaoyorozu has taken a strong liking to furikake to season her rice, which makes her blush a bit.

Sero then says, “All right Kaminari, what’s the next question?”

Kaminari answers, “Okay! For the next question, what made Ojirou disappointed recently!?”

Satou guesses, “Cementoss said his effort was average?”

Shouji says, “Tetsutetsu told him his strength was average?”

Aoyama ponders, “Recovery Girl said his health was average?☆”

The correct answer is actually Ojiro changed the conditioner for his tail recently, but no one noticed. However, Hagakure sidles up to him and says, “I actually saw you looking around near the bathroom area to see if anyone noticed, haha!” and Ojiro gets red, saying, “Well if you were watching me, why didn’t you say anything…!?”

The next question was, “What was hidden in Kirishima’s elementary school yearbook!?” Kirishima panics and says, “Huh!? How did you…!” but Sero grins and says, “That’s only for me to know. But I totally could not believe what was hidden there!”

Ashido guesses, “Maybe a love letter!?”

Mineta exclaims, ��A porn magazine!!”

Todoroki says, “Failed test scores?”

All three of them were incorrect. The correct answer is “a photo of him dressed up as a girl!”

Bakugou says to him, “You’re actually into that kinda stuff?”

Kirishima gets flustered and says, “Wait, you’ve got it all wrong! It was during my elementary school’s festival stage play of Cinderella where I played the Stepmother! When I left the picture at home, my mommy kept showing it to other people, so I tried to hide it!!”

Kaminari then continues with the next question, saying “Okay, so next question. Before the Cultural Festival performance, what did Uraraka mess up on!?”

Deku says, “She accidentally made herself float!?”

Iida offers, “She was too nervous she threw up!?”

Tokoyami asks, “She ate too much mochi and threw up!?”

Kaminari says they all guessed wrong and the correct answer is “she was looking for Midoriya but tripped and accidentally went into a room where Class B’s Monoma was in the middle of changing clothes!”

Ochako gets red in the face and says, “I didn’t do it on purpose!!”

Mineta comments something lewd, but Tsuyu shuts him down.

The next question is “What was the reason why Jirou and Hagakure were arguing!?”

Koda says, “Because Hagakure-san was messing with Jirou-san’s earphone jack…?”

Yaoyorozu offers, “Jirou-san accidentally stepped on Hagakure-san’s naked body?”

Mineta exclaims, “Fighting over a guy!”

The correct answer is because Hagakure tried scaring Jirou after they watched a horror film together. Ashido asked whether they actually argued, and Jirou said she got mad because when she takes a shower alone, she’s usually scared of the bathroom area anyway. So when Hagakure messed with her by causing the lights to flicker on and off and the faucet to suddenly turn on by itself, she absoutely freaked out and felt like she almost had a heart attack. Naturally, she was livid, and Hagakure says, “Sorry Jirou, your reactions were just too good!”

The next question is about Deku, and Kaminari asks, “Recently, Deku has been leaving the dorm early to meet with someone. Who is that secret someone!?” (**Note: The word they use is ‘aibiki,” which means secret date/meeting).

Deku is surprised and says, “Wait, how do you know that…?”

Mineta and Satou ask if he was secretly meeting up with a girl, and Iida says, “Midoriya-kun! Are you actually in a relationship with a girl!? You should prioritize studies first!”

Ochako is confused as she says to herself, “Aibiki? Like the type of meat?” (**Note: Ochako isn’t familiar with the word, so she thinks it’s referring to ‘aibikiniku,’ which is a combination of different types of ground meat)

Deku gets nervous and says, “No, it’s not like that…” He thinks of ways to deflect the situation without making it known that he’s actually meeting up with All Might in the morning to train his quirk, but the other classmates continue to guess.

Kirishima says, “He’s meeting with someone from the General Class!?”

Ashido says, “No way…maybe he’s meeting with someone older, like Midnight…!?”

Mineta suggests, “Maybe he’s meeting with a living thing other than a girl…!!”

All three of their guesses were incorrect, and the correct answer was that he was meeting with the Support Department’s Hatsume Mei!

Deku is relieved to know that the others have not found out about his secret rendezvous with All Might early in the morning to do training.

Bakugou snorts and says, “There’s no way that dumb nerd would ever be popular!” but Sero says, “No, Midoriya is quite popular among the ladies. Like during the Provisional License Exam when that naked upper classman got all over him.”

Deku rebutts by saying, “But that was because she was attacking me!?”

Iida then recalls how Hatsume helped Deku out when they went to the department together earlier, and after an explosion, she was also all over him. Mineta then gets lewd thoughts again, but the conversation switches to Mineta using his mogimogi hair balls and puts it on Deku’s head. Iida notes that it looks like Deku’s wearing those infamous mouse ears from “Zoo Dreamland” (aka Disneyland). Ashido mentions that she used to go to Disneyla—…Zoo Dreamland all the time when she was younger. The class chatter switches to discussing their favorite rides, attractions, and food.

The class then asks Mineta to put mogimogi balls on their heads too so they can look like they’re wearing those infamous mouse ears as well. Mineta enjoys the attention and says, “All right I guess…”

Before the party wraps up, Sero mentions that there’s one more video that they want to show to everyone. As they gather around the TV to watch, they see Aizawa on screen with a cat. As the video starts, Aizawa suddenly appears in the common room and reprimands them, asking what are they doing up so late? The video pauses on the screen.

Aizawa stops the party and tells everyone to clean up and go to their rooms. Since the party’s over, he tells Sero, Kaminari, and Hagakure to stay behind. The three students prepare themselves for a scolding, but instead, Aizawa asks them where they got this footage.

It turns out that Present Mic gave it to them after he recorded it while hiding in sight. The footage was of Aizawa trying to befriend a cat, but the cat ignores him and goes to All Might instead. Sero actually came to the faculty department before the after-party to ask for permission to show the footage, and since Aizawa wasn’t there at the time, All Might said it was okay.

However, Aizawa says he will be collecting the footage and tells the three to never discuss the contents of the video to anyone. They agree, and he sends them off on their way.

It’s been a long day, and Aizawa sighs and wonders just when he got caught up in all of this student stuff. However, although adolescence is short, that never stops them from chasing their dreams forever. Happily, while young, without sadness, sweetly, harshly…youth is a precious thing.

The light novel ends with Aizawa saying, “Good luck, everyone” with the words “the festival had ended, but even so, their bright days continue onward.”

THE END