#so uh this is a lot bigger than I thought it’d be

[tj-crochets]

So it turns out a 4” tall stack of triangles is enough for a quilt top that will end up being about 50” by about 70”

[talktonytome]

Buck’s nervously bouncing his leg on the barstool, hands a little sweaty, as he waits for Hen and Karen to show up. They had invited him to a gay western club, after he came out and he’s excited to finally be here. He’s craning his neck to see if he catches a glimpse of them, when a beast of a man walks up to him.

Wow, Buck knows he’s a big guy himself but this dude is even bigger than him. He’s got insanely broad shoulders, big arms, thick thighs and an ass that had to be sculpted by the gods-

Suddenly, the man is clearing his throat to get his attention. “Excuse me, but I think you took my chair,” he says matter-of-factly, like Buck should have known. And it’s maybe a little infuriating because who does this guy think he is?

“Oh I’m sorry, I must have missed your name on it,” Buck retorts, eyes narrowed at the stranger. The chair was open when he got there and really, it’s a little childish to be calling dibs.

Hot jerk holds his hands up placatingly, attempting to deescalate the situation. “Sorry, sorry”, he says genuinely enough. There’s something about his eyes that comforts Buck. “It’s just, I only ran out to take what I thought was a work call, and I was hoping my spot would still be free. It’s been a long week,” he sighs.

Buck can understand that. It’d been a long week of hectic calls for the 118 and he’s been looking forward to tonight. “Hey, uh, I get it. It’s been a week for me too,” he offers a rueful smile. “I’m meeting some friends so I’ll give you your chair back soon, don’t worry.” If he didn’t know any better, he could swear the man’s face falls a little.

As if by stroke of luck, the stool next to his opens up and hot guy immediately sits down. “It’s my fault really, I know this place is packed Friday nights. It’s worth it for the live bands, though,” he says. “I’m Tommy, by the way. Fighting the great chair war merits name privileges, right?” He winks.

Buck blushes, suddenly feeling a little breathless. “Oh definitely,” he manages not to stutter. “I’m Bu- um- Evan Buckley.” Wow he almost had it.

“Evan,” Tommy tries out and it sounds like the name was made to be uttered by him and him only. Buck gulps.

“Well, since we’re both here, how about I buy you a drink? I owe you that much for being rude earlier.”

Buck can’t help but smile. “Sure, why not?” He nods, “my friends aren’t here yet, anyway.”

“Great,” Tommy grins. “Craft beer okay? Or I can get you something else?”

“Beer’s fine, I’m not picky,” Buck shrugs.

“I am, at least when it comes to beer,” Tommy chuckles, signaling the bartender for two beers.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Buck teases. Why does this feel so easy?

“Hmm, I think there’s a lot about me that’ll surprise you,” Tommy smirks.

Buck may be inexperienced with the same sex, but he damn well knows how to flirt. He tilts his head a little, knows his eyes are twinkling. “Is that right?”

“Oh absolutely,” Tommy declares. He’s so confident in a way that radiates coolness. “For example, I’m a pretty great dancer.”

Buck thinks back to the times he’s tried to dance and winces. “I’m definitely not.”

“I could teach you,” Tommy says as Buck finishes his sentence.

“Really? Is that gonna be right after our beers?”

“I mean I don’t think we can drink and dance at the same time,” Tommy laughs, “at least not effectively.

“Yeah okay, teach me, Tommy.” Buck says dropping his voice, looking right into his eyes.

Tommy’s eyes grow wide and Buck immediately notices the blush on those gorgeous cheekbones. He preens a little because he did that.

“Ok,” Tommy swallows, holding out his hand. “Let’s do it.”

“What about our beers?”

“I’ll buy you another one.”

Buck laughs incredulously, but gives Tommy his hand and lets him lead them onto the dance floor. The band’s playing something sweet and slow, for lovers. Tommy uses the grip on his hand to pull them close together, until they’re chest to chest. He guides both of Buck’s arms around his neck and he circles Buck’s waist with those big hands, finally turning them into a gentle sway.

You got me out there, honey

We danced until I let go

Never been lost in a moment

But there's hours I can't recall

Buck looks down at his feet trying desperately not to mangle Tommy’s. He feels two fingers under his chin, as Tommy tilts his face up. “Eyes on me,” he says softly. “I got you.” Buck obeys and gets lost in Tommy’s eyes- gosh they’re so blue-as they sway and spin so smoothly he forgets about his feet altogether.

Maybe tonight

You'll let me run

Into your arms

And we'll conquer the heart

Tommy’s guiding them into another spin, when Buck can’t hold back from wanting to kiss him any longer. If Tommy’s eyes constantly flicking down to Buck’s lips are anything to go by, he’s on the same page. Buck tests the waters by leaning in, enough that Tommy’s breath ghosts across his lips.

You came in like a fire

Burned all I ever knew

I've been weighed and found wanting

And all that I want is you

Tommy gently grips his chin again, one big thumb slots right in the middle, and brings him in for the gentlest, most tender kiss Buck’s ever gotten. Tommy’s lips are warm and soft as they slide against his. It’s not long, by any means, but when they part, it leaves him breathless, all the same.

Tommy rests their foreheads together. “Was that okay?” He whispers, a little awestruck.

“More than,” Buck grins, playing with the hair on the nape of Tommy’s neck.

“Good,” Tommy replies, pressing a kiss to Buck’s bicep. “I do have a confession to make.”

Tommy tangles their hands and pulls Buck away from the dance floor. The song is over by now, so they make their way to the edge, where they can lean against a railing.

Bucks stomach drops. Did he get it wrong? Was Tommy not interested? Was he about to let him down gently?

“Hey, hey, look at me,” Tommy cuts into his spiraling. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.”

“I’m a little embarrassed to say it now,” Tommy breathes, “but.. that wasn’t my chair.”

Buck finally lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Huh?”

“Erm, where you were sitting? It wasn’t actually my chair. I just… I saw the most beautiful man I’d ever seen all alone and I knew I had to talk to him,” Tommy rushes out. “Upon reflection, my approach could have been better,” he mutters.

Bucks laughs, but makes sure to squeeze Tommy’s hand in reassurance. “It was… not good,” he laughs again.

“Come on, hey!” Tommy exclaims in mock offense.

“But- you did it anyway. You came up to me all cocky and hot, not knowing the outcome, and it worked out so,” Buck shrugs.

“You think I’m hot?” Tommy smirks, playfully bumping his shoulder.

“Oh like you don’t know?”

“Did I mention you’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen?” Tommy looks at him in a way that’s too fond for having just met.

“Maybe, but doesn’t hurt to hear again,” Buck grins. “Thanks for the dance, by the way,” he adds shyly. “It was pretty great.”

“I had the best partner,” Tommy says.

They look at each other for several beats.

“So, you wanna get out of here?” Tommy jerks his head toward the exit.

Buck doesn’t know if he’s ready for what that sentence entails, but he really likes Tommy.

Just like before, Tommy notices his apprehension; he’s so goddamn considerate like that, apparently. “Not like that,” he clarifies. “I’m having such a great time with you and I’m not ready for the night to end. I know this place with the best tacos,” he gives Buck his best puppy eyes.

Buck breathes a sigh of relief. He’s not ready to part ways either. “You had me at tacos! Lead the way.”

Tommy wraps an arm around his waist as they start walking toward the exit, when Buck remembers, “oh wait, my friends!”

“You sure they’re coming?” Tommy raises a doubtful eyebrow.

“I dunno, they said they would. Let me-“ Buck pulls out his phone and opens his messages. Sure enough there’s a couple from Hen.

Sorry buckaroo, Denny has a stomach bug and we’re pretty sure we all have it now :(

We’ll make it up to you, we swear!

Buck can’t feel too disappointed, when he got Tommy out of it. He texts back a quick ok feel better! and slides his phone back into his pocket, then reaches out to take Tommy’s hand again.

“Their kid has a bug and infected them so they are, in fact, not coming,” he explains.

“Kids and their germs,” Tommy laughs. “So you’re free to go?”

“Yes, I- I am free.”

- inspired by the chair (george strait) and conquer the heart (orville peck)

[ironbabey]

July

Peter Parker x Reader

angst, maybe fluff?

Word Count: 1k

Inspired by the song July by Noah Cyrus

~~~~~~~~

I've been holding my breath, I've been counting to ten, over something you said

“So uh, what do ya say? Wanna give it a shot?” Please say yes please say yes please say yes-

“I’m sorry, I really am, but I’m gonna have to say no.”

No. He said no.

It took you months to work up the courage to finally tell him how you felt, ironically you told yourself the worst he could say was no. Fuck, it hurt.

You were crushed. “Oh uh, that's okay. We can just stay friends.” It’s not okay, you don’t want to be friends. Well, you do. You also wanted-no, hoped- for something more.

He smiled, god you loved that smile. It never failed to make your heart skip a beat, even breaking it at the same time.  “Glad this won’t change our friendship. I care about you a lot.” He says, you can hear the pity in his voice.

He cared, just not in the way you wanted.

I've been holding back tears, while you're throwing back beers, I'm alone in bed

You were always told rejection hurt but you didn’t think it’d be this painful. Peter went out while you were sulking in your bed. There’s more fish in the sea, right? You shouldn’t have fallen for him, everyone told you not to, and yet here you are.

How could you be so stupid?

Of course he didn’t like you.

You were nothing compared to her.

You didn't have the perfect teeth, the perfect hair, the perfect skin, the perfect...anything. You were just you.

You stupidly thought that it would be enough for him, she didn't even remember him, but you made new memories with him.

You know I, I'm afraid of change. Guess that's why we stay the same

You two were fighting now. It's your fault anyways. You lashed out on him just because he hadn’t reached out to you since that day. He's ignored your texts, calls, hell you even tried an email for the fun of it. He stilled ignored you.

The day you confessed really fucked things up.

You decided to be the bigger person and show up at his door. He would've known you were going over if he read your messages.

“I thought we agreed that wouldn’t change us. You said you wanted to be friends so why are you being such a dick?”

 “I’m being a dick? Oh, that’s real funny coming from you. I have a life full of other people, not just you. I don’t see why I have to be the one to do everything.”

You bit your lip and looked at the ground, embarrassed that you were acting childish, “No, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

So, tell me to leave, I'll pack my bags, get on the road

Peter let out a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through his hair, the soft hair you used to play with during the times you'd study together. “I think you should go. I can’t handle this—you—right now.”

You refused to cry in front of him. “Yeah, okay.” You grabbed your bag and slammed the door shut on your way out. You fucked everything up, didn’t you?

Find someone that loves you better than I do, darling, I know

A week went by, and he finally texted you, asking you to go over and talk it out. In the end you were still his best friend, and he didn't want to lose you.

You picked up a photo that was in a beautiful golden frame on the coffee table, you knew who the woman was, Peter talked about her all the time, and it killed you. You thought he was over her.

 “What are you doing with that?” He grabbed the framed photo from your hands as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

You blinked back the tears that were threatening to come out, “It was just sitting here, she’s pretty. Really pretty.”

Peter smiled, “Yeah, she was. The greatest too.”

‘Cause you remind me everyday, I’m not enough but I still stay

You two sat in uncomfortable silence. He wanted to make up, wanted things to be normal again, but you had other plans. You wanted answers. “What does she have that I don’t? What’s so different?”

He groaned. “Please, don’t start this right now.”

You stood up from the couch, “No! I want to know why you’re after someone who moved on. Someone who doesn't even rem-“

“She was the only one there for me through all of it! She helped me from beginning to end! I ruined everything just to make sure she got into the school she worked so hard for!" His voice went soft, he couldn't hold back the tears that went streaming down his face. His brown eyes were hardly visible through them, "She was all I had. She was the only girl that ever looked my way and actually liked me.”

Then what am I?

I've done a lot of things wrong, Loving you being one. But I can't move on

“What?”

“Then what am I?”, you repeated deep down you knew you were being a little selfish, but he had no right to say you didn't care, “I’ve been there for you. I’ve laughed with you, cried with you, I even fought with you and you’re still tossing me aside?”

“Listen-“

“No! You listen to me! I’ve done nothing but love and care about you but clearly that’s not enough! Nothing is ever enough for you! I-I’m not enough.”

Peter stood to hug you. To tell you that you was more than enough. To tell you he was just afraid of being more than what you were now.

If you want me to leave, then tell me to leave, and baby, I'll go

You moved away from his attempted hug. How dare he cry when it was him who was hurting you? “N-No, you don’t get-get to cry.” you choked out through your own tears.

“I’m sorry please just understand.” He begged.

“Tell me to leave. Tell me you don't want to see me again and I’ll stop. I’ll leave you alone just like you want.” That’s not what he wanted, not at all. He wouldn't know what to do with himself if you left him too.

“That’s not-I want you to stay.”

You remind me every day, I'm not enough, but I still stay

“Okay. I’ll stay.”

[the-princess-of-loki]

Riding Mission

Pairing: Avengers!Loki x Avengers!Reader

Warnings: smut, graphic description of smut, that means graphic sexual content, if you don't like it, don't read it. This isn't proof-read. Enjoy!

I let out a heavy sigh of frustration as I looked through the tainted window of the black, sporty car I was sitting on. I was on a mission and I was proud to be one of the best agents the Avengers have ever seen. However, my teammate wasn’t. What were the chances that out of all the Avengers I was assigned next to the most egotistical, egocentric, smarty-pants of them all? And no, I’m not talking about Tony. Iron Man would be a blessing right now.

Your teammate is also the hottest, reminded me my conscience, completely uninvited to my thoughts. It was true: he was the sexiest of them all and he was so fucking aware of it. It was infuriating. He always knew how hot he looked and he made sure that everybody around him knew it too. Hell, he probably made sure the whole fucking universe knew it.

I was suddenly pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of the car’s radio playing some hard rock music. I turned my head to the side to look at Loki, surprised. Was he out of his mind!? What am I thinking? Of course, he was.

“We’re supposed to be undercover! You’re going to get us caught!” I said almost losing it as I reached the radio and turned it off. Loki looked at me with that characteristic smirk of his.

“Oh, come on, darling. Who stays inside of a car without some music? If you ask me, that’s even weirder than anything else,” he answered, turning the radio back on. I immediately turned it off again.

“Well, no one really asked you,” I spatted with a side glance to the God of Mischief. He lifted one hand to his chest, mocking he was hurt by my comment.

“Oh, my darling, why so harsh? You break my heart,” he snarls with a smirk. “Don’t you think that two people sitting in a car without talking is suspicious, dear?” his green eyes shone with mischief, and I could see it even in the darkness of our surveillance spot. “But if we make out, then it’d be quite normal, don’t you agree?” He kept smirking and I rolled my eyes at him.

“And how, pray tell, will we keep on our spying mission if we’re doing that?” I asked turning my gaze away from him so he wouldn’t notice just how much I wanted to do what he proposed. Loki chuckled.

“I am a god, darling. I can do a lot of things at the same time. You’d be surprised. So, shall we?” Loki smirked again. I rolled my eyes at him one more time.

“That’s because you’ve never made out with me, mischief,” I didn’t know where that cockiness came from. Maybe I was spending too much time with Loki and his ego. Anyway, I couldn’t help a proud smile spread on my lips as I saw how much he liked my answer.

“Now you’re challenging me, little dove. And I’ve never been known for turning down a challenge,” his smirk grew wider.

“Uh-huh. That’s why you ended up pregnant of a horse, isn’t it?” My proud smile got bigger. His pale cheeks turned a little rosy.

“T-that’s…” he cleared his throat. “That’s not what happened and it’s not even relevant right now. Are you so afraid of a little kiss with me? Do I have that much influence on your heart, darling?”

You’ve got no fucking idea.

“Who even told you I want to kiss you, anyway?” I huffed, crossing my arms on my chest and looking through the window again. Loki chuckled.

“I believe you want it so much that it scares you,” he whispered in my ear.

I jumped in surprise because of his proximity. Of course, I was sitting in a car, so I really wasn’t able to get away from him too much. Loki smirked at my reaction and brought his face even closer to mine. He moved one of his big hands to my neck, where he caressed my jawline with his thumb, looking deep into my eyes with his bright green ones. My breath came out short as I was unable to move or say anything. Loki kept looking at me, waiting. He could’ve easily kissed me but I could see that he was waiting for me to give him my consent. That made my heart beat even faster.

I realised then that I was wrong about Loki this whole time. His cockiness and selfishness were just a facade. He didn’t truly believe he was the best; he thought he was the worst. But he couldn’t let anybody see his weak spot, not even his brother, so he kept everybody at bay by being an insufferable pain in the ass. However, for some mysterious reason I still had to discover, he let his guard down with me. It probably wasn’t intentional: he wasn’t able to control what his green eyes showed me by being this close to me. Of course, he knew about this power of mine, so maybe he was indeed doing it on purpose. Maybe he was tired of not being seen, of being thought of as a shallow and superficial god who only thinks about himself. One could never know with him.

My senses left me defenceless right at that moment. I wasn’t able to think as all these new revelations about Loki took away every rational part of me. I moved my face, closing the short distance between us, and kissing his lips passionately and hungrily. Loki grunted against my lips as he kissed me back with the same intensity. I moved my hand to his nape as he kept caressing my jaw with his thumb. Though there was nothing sweet about our kiss, it wasn’t purely sexual either. There was something more, something that went deeper. We should probably analyse it and give it some thought, but that wasn’t the place or the time.

I opened my mouth almost at the same time Loki did. His tongue stroked mine slowly, lazily, sensually. My breathing got heavier as our kiss deepened. I grabbed a bunch of his long, wavy, black hair in between my fingers, pulling it a little and Loki grunted again. He caressed the side of my body through my leather bodysuit, appreciating my curves. The more he caressed me, the more I craved his touch. It felt as if we were two magnets, attracting each other more and more. The gearshift in between us, as small as it was, was bothering me more than I would’ve ever imagined. I wanted, no, I needed to be closer to him, even when his tongue was inside my mouth.

It seemed that Loki felt the same way -or he was reading my mind, pretty probably knowing him. He took off my seatbelt and his before he lifted me a little to bring me on top of him in his seat. I didn’t mind it one bit, though. In this new position, I could explore his torso more thoroughly and I didn’t waste a second to do it. Loki smirked against my mouth and I bit down his lower lip just for him to stop his arrogant attitude -even when it was part of his charm. I got rewarded with a low, guttural moan coming from his chest which had me smirking instead.

Loki looked into my eyes while he moved both of his big hands down the sides of my body and down to my hips. I stared back at him as I rolled my hips on top of his. I felt his arousal through his leather trousers -there was no way he could hide something so big and hard. I moaned softly and he bit down his lower lip, clearly trying to repress his moan. I smirked again as I kept rolling my hips on top of his, our lips still glued together as we started to breathe heavily. Loki moved one of his hands up my body until he reached my cheek. His big hand cupped my cheek completely while his green eyes locked deeply into mine.

Just that stare left me completely breathless.

“Darling, I want to-”

“Yes,” I interrupted him with a breathy voice.

I kissed him again passionately, exploring his mouth with my tongue at the same time I unzipped the leather black top of his suit, exploring his broad chest with my fingers. I felt him shiver in delight under my touch and I broke our kiss to smile. As I enjoyed the softness of his scarce chest hair, my lips went down his perfect and clean jawline. I left an open-mouthed kiss right in that spot where his neck meet his ear and Loki let out a soft moan of appreciation. While I kissed and nibbled my way down his neck, his hands expertly caressed every part of my body that would turn me on even more. He definitely knew what he was doing, but I tried not to think much about that and kept enjoying his ministrations and my exploration of his pale skin. Loki pulled down my leather bodysuit’s zipper, letting my breasts free. He cupped both of them in his big hands, squeezing them softly with the perfect amount of pressure to make me gasp and feel a little pleasure, but never pain. He then pinched my nipples a little, teasing me and sending a wave of pleasure directly to my core. I moaned when Loki surrounded one of my nipples with his warm mouth, teasing it with his expert tongue.

Loki helped me to pull down his trousers, freeing his throbbing hard cock from its prison. He was the biggest I’ve ever seen without a doubt and I felt myself getting wetter at the sight. How I wished I could drop to my knees and take him in my mouth, savouring his salty pre-cum. Sadly, I was barely able to straddle him on his seat in the car.

Another time…

I grabbed his cockhead in my hand, squeezing it just a little and caressing his slit with my thumb before I went all the way down his base and up again. Loki grunted against my breast where his mouth still was and soon enough he was thrusting his hips to meet the movements of my hand on his cock.

“You’re driving me insane, darling…” He moaned as our movements didn’t cease, tilting his head back to his seat. I smirked and put my lips next to his ear.

“I want you inside me, Loki, please…” I begged in a whisper, feeling he’d like that.

Loki groaned and his green eyes shone even more in the night. Suddenly, my whole body leather suit was missing my bottom part. He grabbed my underwear and tore it into pieces, making me gasp. Loki guided my hips down his bing length as a moan escaped us both. He bottomed up inside me and stood still, letting me adjust to his big cock inside me completely. I didn’t want to wait, though. Who the fuck cared if I wasn’t able to walk straight for a few days? I wanted Loki to fuck me with all his might. So I started to ride him as fast as I could in the limited space we had. Loki grabbed my hips as he thrust into me hard; his fingers leaving marks on my hips. I moaned and looked into his eyes as he looked back into mine. We were connecting on a much deeper level than just a quick fuck in the car we were supposed to be on a spying mission in. It scared me a little but at the same time, I didn’t have much time to think about anything else than the wild pleasure of Loki thrusting his big cock inside me. I completely lost it when he moved one of his hands towards my core and rubbed my clit in circular, rapid motions with his thumb. He was still thrusting into me and I could feel my climax getting closer at the overstimulation.

“Cum for me, darling,” Loki commanded me through gritted teeth.

My walls started to close more and more around his shaft as I moaned his name higher and higher. Some more thrusts and I came undone on top of him, moaning his name until I was physically unable to utter any more sounds. Loki followed me a few seconds later, digging his fingers into my hip and letting out a guttural, sultry moan. We both trembled with the aftershocks of our orgasms as we tried to recover the normal pace of our breathing.

“Hey, guys,” Tony’s voice in our ear startled us both, as we both looked at each other with surprise written all over our features. “In my name and the name of the whole team, next time you decide to fuck, turn off your intercoms. And you can keep the car, by the way.”

[newbornwhumperfly]

believing, if only for its sake...

so sad that this event is coming to an end but so eager to share this installment 😍👀🥰 this @whumpmasinjuly prompt - day 27: delirium - was a tricky one for me but i cracked it with a desire to introduce y'all to a new cast member...💖💖💖

title insp. by the song "comes and goes (in waves)" by greg laswell - "this one's for believing, if only for its sake"

~

So...sparring on hard-mode with Morja might have been…a mistake. 

Listen, Cobi knows the guy’s as stiff as a starched shirt most days but he’s not a mean or aggressive dude. Just…very quiet. Cobi’s met a lot of muscley dudes whose frowny-cross-armed-silence covers a lotta I’m better than you and my dick is bigger than yours and what are you looking at cockiness, crowding personal space and slammed doors. Dollars to donuts, Cobi bets Morja’s just shy - he doesn’t even close the fridge loudly. 

So all-in-all it’s kinda surprising when Cobi finds himself ass over teakettle on the gym mat.

And he thought it’d been going so well too, Cobi thinks to the ceiling spinning over him, cupping a hand over his eye. Ow. That’s gonna fuckin’ bruise. Just cause Morja’s on the short side doesn’t mean shit (when Claudia’s your bestie, you learn not to underestimate) and Morja spars like it’s for money, grim and silent and fast and precise in that very nice black tank top (very sporty, nice muscles, what?). Cobi hadn’t gone easy on him or anything but he’d been flipped twice (double this guy’s weight and height at least, holy shit) cause the guy doesn’t dodge for shit but he doesn’t fall either and Cobi was getting a sneaking suspicion that this friendly workout wasn’t exactly loosening Morja up. 

It’s just that Cobi didn’t take Morja to spring his opponents, c’mon, they were taking a break, that’s dirty fuckin’ pool. 

Hey Morja, wanna go a few rounds of sparring in the gym? Hey Morja, you can go harder, not gonna break! Hey Morja, that dodge was pretty good! Hey Morja, how about a water break? Oh no, a kick in the head in exchange for a tossed water bottle, ouch.

It’s fine, Cobi can take a hit and it was but a glancing blow, really. A grunted damn, dude, warn a guy first and he’s on his feet again, still clutching his face, cause he’s fine, it’s all good, just ow. But really quick, Cobi’s got a whole different problem because Morja is swaying. Or maybe the room is swaying? 

Nope. It’s Morja who’s pitching and looks like he’s seen a fucking ghost. Eyes bugging out to the whites, mouth slack (is it trembling?), staggering back a step. 

“Buddy?” Cobi reaches out, worried, and there’s a horrible sound, a scream that can’t get any volume, falling from Morja’s mouth as his whole body jerks like he was struck. 

“Please-”

And he faints. 

“Shit!” Cobi lunges and barely gets his arms under Morja before his eyes roll back, slumping limp in Cobi’s catch. “Oh, shit- uh…” 

Morja’s solid and stocky and thickly-built and he’s way too fucking light when Cobi scoops him, arm under knees, that detail spinning in Cobi’s mind when he carries Morja over to the little sitting place leading to the showers, towels, water bottles, right. 

Morja’s head sags onto Cobi’s shoulder and, damn, he looks so small laid down on the little sitting bench. The lights are softer in here - yellow and fancy outside the bathrooms, not the white-brightness of the workout room. He tucks a rolled-up towel under Morja’s neck, so gentle, slow, carefully pulls back his eyelid to check - okay, pupils fine, good, concussion-less, he doesn’t have to run for Sarai. 

Maybe he got overheated? They had been going for a while and Cobi thinks, with a pang of guilt, how he didn’t see Morja drink much water - did he drink at all? Shit.  

“Ah, be right back, man, don’t go anywhere, shhhhh…”

Cobi ducks into the bathroom with big steps, grabbing some cold water from the dispenser, dampening a towel from the sink, kneeling back in moments at Morja’s side. Llays a hand against the back of Morja’s head, stroking his dark, sweaty hair back. His hand shadows the guy’s whole face and something sinks a little in his stomach. 

Yeah, this is one of those time’s Cobi doesn’t like being big. Fuck, Morja’s face has a lot of scars - Cobi’d never stare, like, other than checking him out. It’s hard not to notice how many there are when his skin is clammy and ashen, raccoon circles under his eyes, lids fluttering (gosh, he’s got long lashes up close, huh?)

“Heyyyy, buddy, ‘s okay…you’re okay…gonna be okay, man…” 

Cobi says brightly, softly, stroking his hair. Kinda petting his head like a puppy or something but oh well. He hopes it’s not creepy. Cobi just wants to put him at ease, so small and still laying there, dabbing the damp towel over his head as he says nonsense words. His talking, or maybe his petting, seems to be working, and Morja’s eyelids flutter, blinking awake, stirring with a shudder, looking up. 

“Heyyyy, shhh, don’t move, buddy, just lay back, okay?” Cobi soothes, stroking the guy’s hair back with the towel now, a gentle hand on his shoulder so he doesn’t try to spring up. 

Well, oops, that was a mistake, cause the guy looks like he’s about to cry and his face crumples up into the smallest, saddest, most scared face ever and he fucking whimpers.

“Sorry, ‘msorryano-, sirsirdon’pleasedon’t, amsosorry- ‘m sorry-”

Shit. 

Oh, shit. Right, refugee, political asylum, the whole shebang, got it, right. Cobi curses his own fucking insensitivity. New Athens probably isn’t super nice to their whatchamacalits and yeah, oops, Morja probably thinks he’s in trouble or something fucked-up like that. The juddering, dry sob and the way Morja seems to be trying to melt back into the fucking bench-plastic doesn’t do anything to disprove Cobi’s theory. 

“Morja,” Cobi says, clearly and softly as possible, like Morja is a hysterical toddler who skinned his knee. “Not in trouble, okay, you passed out? Just gotta lay still for me, don’t want you to fall again, okay?”

He strokes his palm over Morja’s head again and the guy chokes on what sounds like a retch and turns his face to look at the wall. He’s fucking shaking. His knees seem drawn up close to his belly like he’s trying to curl up and, oops, Cobi doesn’t like that. 

“Ngh- I- yessir-” Morja flinches violently at another stroke of his hair, his breath coming out way too fast, hard, hiccuping. “Sorrysorrysorry…”

“Didn’t do anything wrong, hon, you’re maybe dehydrated? Gonna be all okay, I promise, there we go…breathe deep, yeah?”

Drags air in deep through his nose and out again. 

“Can you do what I’m doing, Morja? I’ve gotcha, just gotta breathe with me, doin’ so good?”

That seems to be a right thing to do, hashem, and Cobi breathes a little thanks out as Morja copies him. Certain people are comforted by being told to stop panicking and Morja definitely seems like the type, following oh-so-well, whimpering a little but not being attacked by panics anymore. 

“Doing so awesome, Morja, that was a lot, huh? You’re crushing this breathing-thing…”

Dark, watery eyes blink up at Cobi and fuck, it’s hard to see such a miserable expression in his direction. His mouth is a solid line, curling at the edges, and Cobi can see his jaw ticcing, clenched, under his skin. He gulps and shudders under Cobi’s hand and he doesn’t know if this petting thing is helping or not but Morja looks for all the world like a kicked dog (or a dog that’s about to be kicked). 

“‘m…’m sorry for fainting.” 

The whisper is so quiet, so shaky and choked, and it kinda breaks his heart hearing that tone from this guy. Cobi shakes his head, smiling softly, and thinks back. It wasn’t just the lack of water. If he remembers hard, Cobi can recall a weird look shuttering over Morja’s face, kinda blank and frantic, when Cobi threw the water bottle Morja’s direction, right before he got round-housed. 

“Aw, man, that’s gonna happen when you don’t got enough water in you.” Cobi answers brightly, patting softly, softly, at the crown of Morja’s head and tries to ignore the little flinch that happens when he does that, oops. Okay, not patting then. That feels suspiciously close to nothing that feels like a slap and wow, ouch, huh. “I’m sorry if I startled you? Kinda…threw that bottle at you, huh? Probably your body thought we were still in spar-mode?”

Morja nods so hard, tight and small and desperate, eyes wide and brown and there’s that please don’t kick me look again under all that frowniness. 

“Yes, yessir, yes sir, I- I don’t know w-why, I- I apologize for getting it wrong, wasn’t an attack, sir?-”

“No, no, honey, I know,” Cobi rushes to reassure cause he can see the gears ticking up to panic attack time in the hitch of Morja’s chest. “I know you weren’t attacking me, Morja, you’re just very well trained! Probably got really strong fighty-instincts and that water bottle really came flying in hard, huh?” 

Right thing to say again, yay, cause Morja does that tight, sharp nod again and there’s a little tiny bit of hopefulness in the way he looks up at Cobi and, fuck, that shouldn’t be so sad.

“Yessir.” He sniffs when he inhales deeply, swallows, his eyes flickering to the side of Cobi’s face that’s currently throbbing, shudders, closes his eyes. “I’m very sorry.”

“You’re all good, buddy, was a total accident, okay? Like, really obviously an accident, nothing to be sorry for.”

Morja’s lids squeeze shut, his fists at his side following suit, and Cobi sees his mouth shape around accident very quietly. He looks like he’s trying not to cry again. Cobi can’t help but still do his hair-petting thing cause he’s worried if he stops it’ll make Morja think he’s mad or something. 

“Are…are you going to correct me now, sir?”

Cobi frowns to himself and then laughs a little cause geez this guy is little-a-lot too self-disciplined to want form-adjustments right in the wake of fainting and oops, that was the wrong thing to do cause Morja’s stiff mouth tries to crack its hard line again in a tremor, oops. 

“Nope, nope, absolutely not, man!” Cobi assures brightly, patting Morja’s shoulder gently before he can panic again. “Hey, I think passing out is, like, enough of a gut-check, don’t you?” 

There’s a long of silence broken by a choked whimper, a frown deepening on that serious, clammy face. 

“You’re not in trouble, buddy, you know how many times Claud’s almost cold-cocked me? Not even almost, the little gremlin. How’s about, uhhhh, you don’t tell anyone I fell on my ass and I won’t tell anyone you don’t hydrate enough, yeah?”

“I don’t…sorry. You don’t want me to do anything, sir?” 

The poor guy’s still shaking. Maybe he never stopped. Whatever the hell that means, Cobi doesn’t get a good feeling in his stomach again, so he just shakes his head hard and urgent. 

“You’ve been punished enough, buddy.” Cobi murmurs teasingly, softly, just his thumb stroking awkwardly at that soft dark hair. 

“I haven’t been punished at all.” 

Well, that’s awful! That’s not great. Oof. 

“Can you sit up a little, man? Wanna get some water into ya, there we go…” Cobi encourages by way of answering, cause how do you answer that, and uses one hand to leave Morja’s head, finally, and gently sit him up by holding his upper arms. Offering the cold cup of water, watching him sip it, offering another. The guy’s shoulders are hunched all the way in, a schoolboy outside of the principle’s office, and that won’t do at all. 

“You like Dumas bars?”

The look of confusion that greets him is a no and that absolutely won’t do either, hello. Cobi excitedly digs into his pocket because, thank you, he will take a victory lap on carrying candy everywhere, Claud. Triumphantly pulls out his prize, an only slightly smooshed chocolate bar. Milk chocolate is better than any other chocolate, so there, and Morja stands a ninety-percent chance of agreeing. 

“Oh, man, you’re gonna not want any other kind when you try this one, hand on my heart, it’s like biting a pillow.”

The look on Morja’s face is almost skeptical and considering how scared he looked a few minutes ago, Cobi will take that suspicion as a win. He waves the shiny silver wrapping in Morja’s direction, grinning, as the guy stares blankly. 

“I didn’t sit on it, don’t worry.”

Morja does accept it, as if he’s taking a knife blade-first from Cobi’s fingertips. After glancing up at Cobi with another swallow, he seems to make up his mind at the smile he gets. Ripping the scalloped edge of the wrapper right at the seam, peeling it slowly, neatly. When the silver-red-blue shell is shucked off, he kinda stares it down, weighing it in his palm - probably could guess how much nougat per square centimeter there is. 

It’s not great to be watched while eating so Cobi tries not to but it’s hard not to take note of how hard Morja’s hand shakes, how small his bite is, barely a nibble. He chews, bites again, swallows. There’s that weighing look on his face again as…he unstiffens a little tiny bit, tilting his head, bird-like, staring at the fluffy inside as he chews. It’s like he’s really tasting it, not just eating it. 

 “…What is this?”

There’s that laser focus flickering in Morja’s dark-brown eyes again, bright and assessing in that way of his, no flat distance in the little crease between his eyebrows. Cobi breathes a little secret sigh of relief, beaming, leaning a little sideways on the bench so he can be more open in Morja’s direction. Doesn’t push the distance between them - Morja’s still shaken - but stretches out a little, warm and languid. 

“Good, huh? It’s nougat, some…fluff with eggs and honey, I think? They whip it up and cover it in chocolate - saw a video about it in school.”

Morja swallows a mouthful of candy, another mouthful of water, and his trembling slows, slows, calming. 

“Oh. It…It is. Good, sir.”

Morja’s fingers fold the wrapper, halves, fourths, smaller and smaller. Frowns. Tongue moving against his cheek inside, collecting taste, chocolate, spare sugar. Cobi isn’t sure he’s ever seen the guy savor before and that’s a thought to have. 

“…I’ve…never had that before.”

“Glad this could be your first introduction! I mean, Dumas is the best bar out there, duh, but that’s my bias. I’m sure you’ve got your own favorite?”

The wrapper is a tiny teeny silver square gleaming in Morja’s hand, the foil pressed as flat and compact as it will go. The crease deepens between his eyes. He shakes his head, almost ducking, the strands of sweaty hair tumbling down to half-hide his expression. 

“I’ve, um, I n-never had.”

“A favorite?”

“…A chocolate bar.”

Oh. Damn, now Cobi wants to cry, a little, cause what the hell, man? He doesn’t know why he just…assumed? He kinda wants to send a strongly worded letter to anyone who was responsible for that absence, actually, cause Morja deserves candy bars. So fucking there. 

“Hey Morja?” He offers softly. “I’m glad you liked that and…I’m sure there’s a whole lot of flavors you’d find delicious. Now you’re not gonna stand up yet cause dehydration isn’t a joke but when you’re better, we’re gonna go find some at the vending machine. Okay?”

The silence behind the curtain of hair is long and heavy, like Morja is weighing that in his hand too, and Cobi waits. 

“…Does it- will it be now, sir?”

“Cobi. And nah, Morja, when you’re up to it.”

“Sorry. Um. Yes. Okay.”

“Okay, man?”

“…Okay.”

Hidden in clasped hands, the tiny foil square digs into Morja’s thumb, a streak of chocolate still stuck there, and a groove pulses, red and angry, in the callus as his only anchor, however small, of pain. 

~

so, so excited for y'all to finally meet my sweetheart, goldeen retriever, tank-sized boy, cobi!!! 💖💖💖🥰🥰🥰

(also, yes, in case anyone wondered - in this future, the three musketeers chocolate bar has been renamed the dumas in honor of the book's author, alexandre dumas. and yes, i am that pedantic and silly, thank you 😇😇😇)

taglist: @much-ado-about-whumping @haro-whumps @whump-tr0pes @whumpzone @i-eat-worlds

@whatgoeswhumpinthenight @thingsthatgo-whump-inthenight @redwingedwhump @straight-to-the-pain @whumpthisway

@kixngiggles @scoundrelwithboba @wolfeyedwitch @whump-me-all-night-long @stoic-whumpee

@suspicious-whumping-egg @tears-and-lilies @liliability @whumpster-draganies

have a very merry @whumpmasinjuly everyone! 💖💖💖

@whumpmasinjuly-archive

[trensu]

okay, so it turns out that the hawkins halfway house fic is going to have six chapters, actually. i'm not gonna post anything on ao3 until i have the final chapter done. i'm currently working on that sixth chapter, but here's the rest of chapter five in the meantime.

Continued from here

-

The man chuckled goodnaturedly. “Didn’t say you were. What’s your name, son?”

“Steve,” he replied. The man chuckled again.

“Thought so,” the man said. At Steve’s questioning gaze, he shrugged nonchalantly. “You look like a Steve. I’m Wayne. Why don’t you come inside? The kids made a batch of lemonade earlier today and there’s a phone you can use to call a tow.”

Which was how Steve found himself seated at a dining table that seemed too large to fit in the room even though he and Wayne were clearly able to move around the place without crowding one another. Maybe the table looked bigger than it was because of the multiple frosty pitchers of various sizes haphazardly lined up on it. Each one seemed almost dangerously full. Steve was sure one unexpected bump would turn them into a river of lemonade.

“That’s…a lot of lemonade,” Steve commented.

“A couple of the kids’ friends are visiting,” Wayne said. “We don’t see them very often. One of them learned a new trick to keep things cold. He was only going to do one pitcher, of course, but you know how kids are. Everyone wanted to make their own lemonade and told Will he had to do it again for each one.”

Wayne used a potholder to grab the handle of the nearest pitcher of lemonade. If Steve didn’t know any better, he’d say the pitcher was coated by ice half an inch thick. Obviously the pitcher had to be made of fancy decorative glass like the kind his mother would’ve bought. Wayne poured two glasses of lemonade, handing one to Steve which he took gratefully. Wayne eased himself into one of the chairs. Steve joined him. He drank half the glass before asking.

“So where are the grandkids you’ve been chasing? The house seems pretty quiet for that many children,” Steve nodded at the series of pitchers.

“They’re not my grandkids. I’m not as lucky as all that,” Wayne said. “I’m just here to lend a hand where I can.”

“A volunteer? Is this like a daycare?” Steve asked, trying not to seem too eager. This could be something. It wouldn’t be parenthood, but maybe he could volunteer to help kids in some small way. He’ll have to look into that later. Robin would help him find something, he’s positive.

“...you could say that, I suppose. As for your other question, they’re all out back, probably in the woods burning off energy with some of the grown-ups supervising.”

“Well, I’ll try to be out of your hair before they come back,” Steve stood, taking both of their glasses to the sink and rinsing them out. He waved Wayne away when he protested about guests doing chores. “If you could tell me where your phone is to call a tow truck, you don’t have to get up.” 

“Son, I don’t need no mollycoddling,” Wayne said gruffly. Steve flushed.

“No, that’s not–I didn’t mean–” Except he did. Wayne had been out in the heat and sun with him for who knows how long, risking heat exhaustion for a total stranger. It was also evident in the way he moved that he had some joint pain, particularly in the knees. Steve sighed. “Heat exhaustion is no joke. I used to be a lifeguard, it can get pretty bad for, uh, people of your age group.”

“You’re as bad as my boy, I can already tell,” Wayne said. “Thank god Eddie’s out there with the kids or he’d give me a talking to, as if he had a leg to stand on. I’m able to get around just fine without anyone’s hovering.”

“Uncle Wayne,” a soft solemn voice interrupted. Steve jumped when he saw a kid at the dining room entrance. He hadn’t heard anyone approaching.

“Jesus,” Steve muttered to himself. “Pay attention, Steve.”

The kid had shorn dark hair and big eyes. They wore a dress that looked like it’d been owned by at least two kids previously, and a pair of old light-up sneakers. They held a cane in their hands.

“Well, hey there, little miss,” Wayne greeted jovially. “Do you need anything, El?”

“You forgot your cane,” El said each word carefully. She walked up to Wayne, leaned the cane against the dining table, and held his large hand in her two small ones, as if to reassure him. “Let Steve help. He is nice. Dustin said so.”

El must have him confused with some other Steve she knew, but damn if that wasn’t the cutest thing he’d ever seen. By the way Wayne smiled at her, he seemed to agree. He heaved a big sigh, as if relenting was a big favor he was granting her, and accepted the cane.

“Fine, fine, but only because a sweet young lady asked me, too,” he said. El grinned which lit up her previously somber face. “Why aren’t you outside with the others?”

“Too much sun,” she said. “Hurts.”

Steve could sympathize. Too much sunlight sometimes triggered migraines that would knock him down for an entire day, or more if he was unlucky. El looked a bit putout she wasn’t outside with the others.

"Sometimes, it’s better to stay inside when it’s like this. There’s always something fun to do indoors, too," Steve said.

“There sure is,” Wayne agreed. “Weren’t you practicing your braiding? Why don’t you bring your doll over, and you can show us how to do it.”

While El went to find her toy, Wayne showed Steve where they kept the phone. However, they were having some difficulty getting a call to actually connect. Steve tried the number for the towing company, the bookstore he and Robin worked at, and his own home phone to no avail. After the third attempted call ended with Steve nearly slamming the phone into its base, Wayne picked up the phone and listened to it for a moment before dialing a number. After a bit, he hung up the phone much more gently than Steve had.

“House is acting strange. I’ll ask Eddie to look into that. Or maybe Jeff. I think it likes him better, but don’t tell Eddie that,” Wayne said. “I can give you a ride home if you need it, once everyone’s back.”

“Thanks, Wayne,” Steve said with a rundown sigh. “I might have to take you up on that.”

By then, El had returned with a couple of long haired dolls. Once the three of them had settled in the spacious living room, El handed Steve one of the dolls.

“Uncle Wayne knows how, but it hurts his hands,” El explained why she only brought two instead of three dolls. Wayne grumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘didn’t raise no narc.’ Steve suppressed a smile and tried to match El’s seriousness. “It is important to know how. I can show you.”

When Steve Harrington was in high school, he not only had the title of king, but had also gotten dubbed ‘The Hair.’ Steve earned that nickname for a reason. He had hair care down to an art. One of his favorite things to do with his various ex-girlfriends was helping them with their hair. All that to say, Steve knew how to braid hair. Steve knew how to braid hair in multiple different ways. 

There was not enough money in the world to get him to tell that to the little girl very patiently instructing him at that very moment. In fact, he made sure to fumble a couple of times so that El had the opportunity to correct him. She patiently did, each time, until Steve finished a braid to her satisfaction.

“You did it,” she beamed at him when they had accomplished a single braid.

“I had a fantastic teacher,” Steve nudged her, making her giggle. “Are you going to grow out your hair so you can have braids, too?”

“I do not know. Can hair do other things?” El asked. 

Steve reminded himself he was speaking to a child and should not go on with his detailed hair care lecture that Robin constantly made fun of him for; though, Steve liked to point out, it never stopped Robin from following his instructions. Steve claimed all the credit for her excellent hair, regardless of Robin’s indignant protests.

“Well, it depends on what kind of hair you have. Do you have straight hair or curly hair?” Steve asked.

“I have not decided yet.”

“I’m not sure that’s something you can decide, honey,” Steve said gently. 

“I can,” El replied simply. “Which is better?”

“Both kinds are good in their own way,” Steve said. “But I like curly hair. Curls are cool.”

“Curls are…cool?” El paused in thought and nodded to herself. “Yes. Dustin and Eddie have curly hair. I think they are cool.”

“I don’t think I’ve met them, but yeah, their curls are probably very cool.” 

El’s brows furrowed in concentration for a moment. Her short hair started to grow, as quick as a videotape on fast-foward, into dark ringlets. They continued to grow until they reached past her chin. She pulled one of them in front of her face, studying it, and letting it spring back in place. She looked up at Steve with a shy but proud smile.

“Curls are cool,” she said.

“Um.” Steve’s brain stuttered. He looked over to Wayne, who sat there watching them placidly as if nothing had happened. “Y-Yeah. Like that. Cool, very cool.”

“Did I do it wrong?” El said, curling in on herself as she took in Steve’s no doubt panicked expression. “Human hair is supposed to grow. Jeff told me.”

“That’s right,” Wayne said gently. “It grows like that but a lot slower. I’m sure Steve can explain. How often do you get your hair cut?”

“Uh,” Steve swallowed, trying to ignore his jangling nerves in the face of Wayne’s calm demeanor. “Um. Every–every few weeks. But, uh, R-Robin, my friend, likes hers longer and goes once a year, I-I think.”

“A year is a very long time,” El said quietly. She had shrunken her posture even smaller, eyeing Steve apologetically. “I am sorry I scared you. I did not mean to.”

She sounded so guilty and nervous, it sent a pang through Steve’s heart. She was a little girl who had been nothing but sweet the entire visit and Steve was freaking out over…what? Fast growing hair? Ridiculous.

“It’s alright,” Steve said, forcing more confidence into his voice than he felt. “I’m the one that reacted badly, so I’m sorry. I’ll try to be better.”

Out of the corner of his eye, a tension he hadn’t even noticed loosened from Wayne’s shoulders. Wayne’s grip on his cane relaxed, too. It struck Steve that if he had reacted aggressively, he had no doubt that Wayne would’ve put a stop to it one way or another.

“It’s okay. I understand,” El said, patting his arm as if she’d seen someone do it once but hadn’t had the chance to try it herself. Delicately but with intent. “Mike says humans are…scaredy-cats. That means you get scared easy.” She paused and her brow furrowed. “I do not know why there are cats. You do not look like a cat.”

At El’s earnest confusion, all of Steve’s pent up nerves and fear popped like a balloon into a fit of giggles that were only slightly off kilter. El let out a few shy giggles, too, and the last of the tension left Wayne as he relaxed back into his armchair completely.

“I really don’t,” Steve agreed. “But I like cats a lot.”

El lit up.

“Dustin is sometimes a cat!” she told him excitedly. She cupped her hands as if holding something little. “He is a very small cat.”

Yeah, Steve thought, sure. Why not have a boy turn into a cat with a girl who could fast-forward hair growth? Steve planned to get himself a drink later tonight. He thought he handled this pretty well, all things considered. He deserved a reward.

–

The three of them were playing the tamest game of Uno Steve had ever played in his life when he heard shouting. Wayne sighed a long-suffering sigh that was belied by a fond grin.

"Here comes trouble," Wayne said. El giggled in response. Steve took the opportunity to put down a draw four card for Wayne. Wayne took notice and scowled at Steve. Steve gave him his best innocent look but the effect was ruined by the sound of the front door slamming open.

"HOUSE!" a man shouted. "What the hell? Are you proud of yourself? Are you pleased? You made small children walk for an extra hour out in the blazing sun!"

The shouting was accompanied by stomping footsteps and exaggerated huffing and puffing. Laughter rang all the way through to the living room as children reacted to the dramatics. El brightened at the sound and quickly abandoned the card game to run to the foyer. The loud man seemed to take the kids’ laughter as encouragement. 

"More importantly, you made me walk an extra hour, House! These boots were not made for walking. Hey, El! Do these boots look like they’re for walking?"

“No,” El laughed.

"Maybe you should've worn tennis shoes instead, like I told you," a woman's voice pitched in.

"Don't know what you’re whining about," another man added. "I'm the one who had to carry Erica for, like, ten blocks."

"Hey, this is not my fault! None of this would've happened if House hadn't decided to move somewhere else without bringing us along!" the first man protested.

“I’m telling Nancy you got us lost,” a boy said petulantly.

“Not if you ever want to hang out with us again you won’t,” grumbled the first man in response. Then he called out, “Uncle Wayne, you in here?”

“Living room,” Wayne called back as he drew four cards to continue their game of Uno, despite the disappearance of their third player.

“Uncle Wayne!” a chorus of children’s voices rang. Soon, a horde of kids tumbled into the room.

A white boy with curly hair and a black boy both cried out excitedly when they saw who was in the living room. “Steve!”

Steve blinked in surprise. How did these kids recognize him? Had they seen him working in the bookstore? Steve was pretty sure he hadn’t seen either of them in the store before. 

The two other boys with them didn’t recognize him. They were both frighteningly pale, though in slightly different ways. The kid with the bowl-cut carried a blue tint in the skin around his lips, eyes, and fingertips in a way that made Steve shiver with a sudden chill. The other boy’s skin held a gray pallor that reminded Steve uncomfortably of corpses.

“This is Steve?” the boy with the blue-tinted skin asked curiously.

“This is Steve?” the gray boy echoed in a much more unimpressed tone.

“Steve?” Steve heard coming from the hallway. It sounded like the shouting man.

“Shit,” the curly haired boy said. The other boy shoved him.

“Way to go, doofus,” he said with a scowl.

“Hey! You said his name, too!”

“Yeah, said. Not shouted.”

“We said it at the same volume!”

“No we didn’t!”

“Have we met?” Steve tried to interrupt the bickering. His question went unheard under the boys’ loud voices. 

Before he could ask again, a man entered the living room and Steve’s mouth went dry at the sight of him. He was gorgeous. Rangy but firm, with a headful of dark curls that made Steve think of swirling schools of fish. His eyes were big and dark like seabeds. He wore a black sleeveless shirt with some sort of band logo on it. It was worn thin, and damp with sweat. The man glared at him like he wanted to flay him alive.

“You,” the man hissed. 

“Eddie,” Wayne said. Eddie whipped his gaze to where Wayne sat, unconcerned, in the armchair.

“Is that his car outside?” Eddie asked shortly. “How is he here?”

“Ed, calm down,” Wayne said.

“He shouldn’t be here,” Eddie growled. 

“I think he should,” Wayne said with a calm shrug. 

“Me, too!” the curly haired boy piped up.

“Children’s opinions do not count in this conversation,” Eddie snapped. “All of you, get to your rooms. Chrissy–”

“She took the girls upstairs the second you started your hissy fit,” a handsome man interrupted as he joined them in the living room. Steve vaguely recognized him from the bar he and Robin stumbled across months ago. Jeff, maybe? The word Jeffathan popped up in his mind, which was absurd. 

“Take that back, Jeffiam. I do not throw hissy fits,” Eddie said in a tone that Steve personally thought verged hissy fit territory. He chose not to offer up that particular thought to the conversation happening around him. Also, Jeffiam? What on earth? Jeff rolled his eyes.

“Sure,” Jeff said in a way that clearly stated disagreement. “C’mon, boys. We’ll let Eddy and Uncle Wayne figure things out with Steve.”

A series of loud complaints rose up. It almost distracted Steve from how odd Eddie’s name sounded when Jeff said it.

“You guys can stay up an extra hour past bedtime if you come along without fighting,” Jeff said.

The gray boy whooped and ran off the moment the words left Jeff’s lips, with the blue boy close at his heels. The two boys that recognized Steve shot him apologetic looks but chased after their friends with no other complaints. Jeff gave Eddie a stern look. 

“Think this through before doing anything, Eddy,” Jeff said, before turning on his heel and leaving.

That left only Steve, Eddie, and Wayne in the living room that was almost painfully quiet now that El and the other children were gone. Wayne looked as peaceable as ever, but Eddie more than made up for it with the glare that had not let up since he saw Steve. 

Steve had questions. A lot of questions. He couldn’t even begin to articulate his questions. His car broke down though there wasn’t anything wrong with it; the phone in the house wouldn’t connect his calls; a little girl grew her hair at will; there was possibly a child who could transform into a small cat; an entire building seemingly relocated without anyone noticing; and somehow, despite the impossibility of those things, all of it felt almost familiar.

“What is going on?”

“Why are you here?”

Steve and Eddie spoke simultaneously, though Steve’s words came out incredulous and Eddie’s were angry as hell. Wayne watched them both warily. He didn’t interject.

“I didn't come here on purpose,” Steve said defensively. He didn’t owe this man any explanation, he thought irritably, but Wayne had been so kind to him the whole time. Steve didn’t want to pick a fight with his nephew. “I was going grocery shopping and my car broke down. Your uncle was nice enough to let me use the phone but it didn’t work, otherwise I would’ve been long gone.”

“The phone works fine,” Eddie sniffed. “House just doesn’t like you.”

Wayne snorted.

“The problem is the other way around and you’re being too stubborn to see it, Ed. His car worked fine when I was behind the wheel.”

“You got into the car with him?” Eddie asked, aghast. “Uncle Wayne, stranger danger!”

“I am not a child, Eddie.” Wayne rolled his eyes, which seemed to happen a lot around Eddie. Steve thought about how Wayne had gripped his cane in that tense moment after El’s hair trick, and the way he had eyed him during it.

“I’m pretty sure he can take care of himself,” Steve muttered. Eddie puffed up like an angry cat, indignant at the comment.

“Nobody asked you,” Eddie snapped.

“Alright, what the f–” Steve paused, remembering there were children in the house, and course-corrected. “What the heck is your problem with me, man? You’re acting like I insulted your mother or something, but I’d remember you if we’d met before and we haven’t.”

Even as he said that, Steve couldn’t be sure that was true. A sense of familiarity lingered doggedly at the edges of his mind. Eddie’s beauty was breathtaking but it didn’t feel new. 

“Don’t take it personally, Steve,” Eddie sneered. “I don’t like any humans.”

Wayne coughed.

“You don’t count, Uncle Wayne, you’re a god amongst men,” Eddie said without missing a beat. For a brief moment, Wayne smiled crookedly at his nephew.

“You’re not human?” Steve asked, looking Eddie over more closely. He didn’t look inhuman. Then again, neither did El and she proved she wasn’t human pretty easily.

“Nope!” Eddie said with a mean sort of cheeriness. “But it doesn’t matter because you won’t remember any of this.”

Eddie started to hum a tune that muffled Steve’s mind. It was a beautiful song coming from the beautiful man, and Steve wanted to give him anything, everything, he wanted.

“Steve,” Eddie said his name like a song. “I want you to for–”

“Eddie Munson, that’s enough,” Wayne’s sharp tone cut through the hum in Eddie’s words.

The enchanting tune stopped abruptly. The absence left Steve reeling, like his mind was not fully connected to his body. He didn’t like it. Steve couldn’t tell if he wanted the song back or to never hear it again.

“This man has done nothing but be sweet to the kids,” Wayne said. “How many times has he shown up now?”

“It doesn’t mat–”

“Yes it does and you know it,” Wayne interrupted. “Twice with Jeff’s card and this is the second time House moved to find him.”

“But–”

“Dustin went missing for days looking for him, Eddie. You’re being stubborn and that put Dustin in more danger than Steve has so far.”

Eddie’s mouth audibly snapped shut at that declaration.  Eddie jerked back as if struck. A broken musical sound escaped his throat unthinkingly, and it sent a lance of pain through Steve’s heart. Steve wanted to do something to erase that pain from Eddie’s face, but his mind still hadn’t quite gathered itself. His tongue felt heavy and clumsy in his mouth.

“I understand why, Eddie. You’re not wrong to be cautious,” Wayne said. “But what was the point of getting House if you’re not going to trust it?”

Eddie blinked rapidly, eyes red-rimmed. He didn’t look at Wayne. Eddie’s fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. Then his shamed expression shifted into one of steely resolution. He stalked towards Steve. It would’ve been frightening if Steve had had his wits about him. Cool hands cupped Steve’s face and all he could see was deep, dark eyes he wanted to drown in.

“I don’t know how long it’ll take House to find you again,” Eddie said, and the music in his words was gentler than before. It kept Steve’s mind calm. “But I need you to leave.”

“Eddie,” Wayne said. 

The song strengthened to override the interruption. Steve wanted to kiss Eddie. He’d do anything Eddie asked for a kiss.

“Steve, will you be a good boy for me?” Eddie asked.

“Yes,” Steve gasped. He wanted to be so good for Eddie.

“Today is going to feel like a dream,” Eddie said.

“Nice dream,” Steve murmured hazily. A flicker of a smile from Eddie made his stomach swoop pleasantly.

“Yeah, a nice dream,” Eddie said. “You have to leave me now, but I’m going to miss you so much, Steve.”

Steve whimpered. He didn’t want to leave if it would hurt Eddie. He tried to lean forward, to press his forehead against Eddie’s and promise him his life if it would make that smile come back. Eddie's cool hands held him firmly in place.

“Listen to me. I’ll be so sad with you gone, so you’ll come back to me, won’t you? Come back to me in two days, Stevie. Promise me?”

“Promise,” Steve mumbled. “Two days. I’ll come back. I will.”

“I know you will. Now, go and I’ll be ready when you come back to me.”

–

The next thing Steve knew, he was in the parking lot of the grocery store and it was much later in the day than Steve had originally planned. As frustrating as the car trouble had been, Steve couldn’t regret the loss of time. Wayne was such a nice guy to have helped him fix his car and his nephew was gorgeous. His good old Harrington charm still worked like a dream because he got an invitation to visit again in a couple of days. He could scope out the nephew and see if there was maybe a chance for some romance in his future. 

He might as well try, since he had no luck in the adoption front yet. Though, he thought they mentioned something about running a daycare? There may have been some kids running around at some point during the car repairs. Maybe he could volunteer to help out Wayne with the kids. It wouldn’t be the same as fatherhood, but it would be something. 

Steve grinned as he got out of his car and headed into the grocery store. He couldn’t wait to tell Robin. Things were starting to look up!

I do not do those reader tag list things. If you’d like to keep up with my stuff please follow my writing tag: trensu tells stories

[galacticnova3]

Remember when I made that poll where we collaboratively made a fakemon? Well folks, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible by the end!

And you know what that means! Here’s what a maximum of 41 of you people have been waiting for, our friend….. IHaven’tThoughtOfANameYet

You wanted floaty bits? It’s ALL floaty bits! You wanted it to be like 40% wings and 40% tail and maybe just a little bit of arms and head? And you wanted that to be covered in eyes? I… did my best! And the cheese slice IS there, it’s just uh. A little old. Finely aged. And also inedible.

Info on the creacher under the cut!

Their category would be either the Curator Pokémon or the Macabre Pokémon. It’s a genderless Rock/Ghost type because, c’mon, it’s the obvious choice, and what are old bones if not just rocks in progress? In battle, their signature ability would be Coalesce, which restores 30% of damage dealt by rock type moves, and also raises its more proficient defensive stat by one stage. I imagine it’d be a halfway decent counter to everyone’s favorite salt staller, what with the immunity to Salt Cure. Alternatively, it can get Levitate as a hidden ability.

These guys are made up of multiple individuals(like Stakataka, Falinks, Maushold, etc) that live in a group; when encountering another group, they’ll usually just combine rather than fighting over their bones because Bigger Skeleton Nice. They don’t know exactly how most bones are supposed to fit together, and they also don’t care. They are similarly unconcerned with not mixing different remains, so they’re usually just a mishmash of various deceased things, using bones from multiple sources as desired.

As for why exactly they do this, nobody really knows for sure. It was once theorized that they do it because they couldn’t see the other parts of living things(like permanent X-Ray vision) and thought they would fit in better by doing this… But of course that was disproven when someone pointed out they can see and interact with invertebrate/Boneless™️ Pokémon just fine. Now it’s most commonly thought they are made up of departed spirits that couldn’t pass on, and seek to make themselves a body so they don’t disappear. Still others think they are kinda just freaks, going around possessing bones and putting them together because there’s nothing really telling them not to. Speaking of which, the bones they’ve possessed/inspirited do not break or wear down the same way normal ones do. If they are somehow damaged, they can use other bones to repair them.

They’re more curious about living things than wary of them, and are overall pretty docile despite their frightening appearance. It’s unheard of for one to attack unprovoked.

That said, their curiosity and lack of fear makes them quite a nuisance to paleontologists— they will shamelessly steal excavated bones and fossils AND put them back together wrong, which just adds insult to injury. They’re also rather obnoxious to Palossand, intentionally harassing them because they learned the spooky sandcastles will give them free bones if annoyed enough. It should also be noted that they do NOT get along with Cubone, Marowak, or Mandibuzz, but seem to mingle just fine with Pokémon revived from fossils. None of their pestering behavior is from a place of malice, though— they just don’t have much of a concept that not all currently unused bones are free real estate.

Lastly, it’s likely that they are responsible for a lot of tales of fossils that mysteriously disappeared once excavated or moved to storage— it’s next to impossible to tell them apart from regular bones when they’re not active, beyond their unusual durability and shape. However, the presence of bones in various conditions and stages of decomposition or fossilization should be enough to give it away to any non-amateur paleontologist what they’re dealing with, even if it’s not immediately clear that the “skeleton” is a hodgepodge. If you aren’t sure, you can always try to wake the dead and see if it actually works or not!

Some design notes: the “wings” were actually based on the bones in human arms, hands, and fingers, just shuffled around a lot. The head was very loosely inspired by half of a pelvis, with the shape of the part under the eye actually being a reference to when it was just a straight up broken pelvis. The tail tip is actually a bony talon, while the main body is mostly vertebrae from a tail. The normal form’s coloration is just meant to look like bones from three skeletons in different stages of desiccation, with the eyes meant to have a glazed over look to them. As for the markings, I originally planned to have them match the translucent areas/ectoplasm, but then I realized using something similar to the eye color would make them look more like the eye spots they were meant to be while also looking like they could have been more vibrant but got sunbleached. The shiny’s colors, in turn, are simpler: the palette is just meant to evoke zombie or bog body vibes.

Making this lad was fun! I’ll think of a name eventually, unless anyone wants to make suggestions. Maybe I’ll even go back and clean up the coloring to not just be 90% fill tool. And if you’d be interested in using this design in a fangame or as inspiration/to do a redesign, feel free to do so with credit, and send me whatever thing it is that it’s used for! :>

[crabonfire]

Hey, I can I please request for something tf2 Engie related, more specifically, with an gn s/o reader who has… An almost obsessive hoard of stuffed animals decorating their room??? I just think it’d be silly lmao, have a lovely day/night!!

Engie with a plushie obsessed gn! reader :)

character: engineer

note: mental health has dropped to the lowest point this year and I realized writing has actually helped my mind process and get through everything so...I'm back for now. I'm sorry for uh, lack of posts even after I said I'd post start of the new month, shit hasn't been good. I hope you enjoy this babe! I love my plushies, s/o just like me fr.

This is more of a drabble I guess. The reader has a lot of traits like I do with my own personal plushies so, I'm sorry if it's not accurate, it's just how I personally treat my plushies :)

Warnings: none

♡Engie♡

• When the text is in italic, engie is speaking as a plushie!!!

• He was surprised to find your room adorned with plushies first time you offered him in. There were small ones, ones that rest atop your dresser, your table. Some were bigger, all collected over your bed as you slept. You had huge ones too, those stereotypical big Teddy bears kids usually get, you had one that you'd lie on when days were rough.

• He didn't find it weird or anything, in fact he understood where it came from. Tons of people find comfort in plushies, especially cute ones with adorable features.

• He didn't comment on it at first, just thought it was cute.

But as you two grew closer and he spent more time in your room, he grew to truly understand your love for these plushies.

You'd name them and hug them on bad days, sometimes just because you felt like it. When he'd sleep in your room, you'd give every one of those plushies a kiss, and him one too, and he always finds that trait of yours melts him every time.

There had been moments where he wakes up in the morning before you do to the sight of you cuddling them, and it makes him feel a tiny bit jealous, but he finds it endearing nonetheless.

• If you talk to your plushies, honestly, he finds it funny. Often times he does it too.

"How come you hug those plushies more than you hug me?"

"You can't blame me. They're super soft, isn't that right Baymax?"

He turns his head to your plushie, shaking his head and taking it in his hands, facing it towards you over his face and making a silly voice to try and speak for it.

"I know I'm soft, but you shouldn't neglect your boyfriend like that!"

"Exactly. Thank you Baymax."

You simply snicker, rolling your eyes.

• He buys you cute little key chained plushies usually, but on the rare occasion he comes by a cute one you could hold in your hands, he'd present it to you after work and have such a cute smile on his face. Excited to see you giggle and beam at him with those sparkling eyes.

And he loves it when you grin as he explains what the plushie's name is.

"This is Cory. He's a little bear I found on the street, I'd take care of him on my own but...you know me, I'm always workin'."

"Oh Engie...he's so cute."

"Well, thank you kindly! You're cute, too."

• He loves how soft you get over your plushies, he also loves how dramatic you are with them sometimes. Giving them insane backstories or making them "fight", honestly he finds it pretty funny and a nice distraction.

• And sometimes when he misses you or you two get in a fight, he finds himself holding one of your plushies and melting in their plush. He gets why you have em honestly.

[yorshie]

Omg so I saw your headcanons on the heights and weights of the turtles and yes yes let's talk body-building and math.

They are big muscle boys with big ass shells. They gon be heavy. Also in the first movie we see Raphael (720lb/326kg) throw a fucking shipping container at The Foot which, when EMPTY, can weigh between 7,700-8775lb (3.4 - 4 tonnes). Weightlifters know that mass moves mass so the bigger you are the easier it is to move stuff.

And when Eddie Hall achieved the world record of deadlifting 500kg, he weighed 200kg (so about 2.5x his bodyweight).

Now it wasn't a controlled deadlift but rather a bodyslam/toss. But for Raph to move a 3400kg container, he would need to weigh alot. 3400÷2.5 would be 1360kg but I doubt he would be that heavy. Still, the turtles are insanely strong from the effects of their mutation (which is also shown in other universes e.g. the og cartoon when Donatello rips a steel truck apart with his bare hands like it's bark off a tree) so I would agree he could be 300-400kg to do stuff like that easy.

Aha! God yes I saw that container toss in the first movie and I was like oooooooooooo

I fidget with their weight every now and again because I get a new thought but they actually spawned from the elevator scene and wondering about weight limits. And. Maybe. I might have been struck a little bit with the irate reading something (it was rise mind you but still) that put grown up Leo at 150lbs (which was my weight in college when I was still lifting and yes I had thighs for days but damn I’m only 5ft3inches). I kinda feel like not a lot of people actually get what men, especially muscley men, actually weigh. So I might have been like “if no one else will do it by god it’ll be me!”

Also…… not admitting anything…… not admitting anything at all…… but ya know. Ya know-

Big heavy man go brrrrrrrrrrrr

I’m sorry did you say something? I uh. I blanked there for a minute.

But Eddie offers great visual aide. Eddie here probably weighs. Eeehhhh. In the lower 300s lbs. he’s younger here. That’s likely years ago. 2017? Yup 2017 on the banner.

Eddie here. Yes. 400lbs plus some. Is that healthy? Weeeeelllll….. are you gonna tell him that? But you can see the difference.

I have seen video of him on YouTube now that he’s “retired” and he’s slimmed down some. Probably back in the upper two hundred range. Still though. He’s only two inches “shorter” than Raph. It’d stand to reason without the shell Raph would probably weight about the same... though his shoulders are still. Somehow. Wider. All I’m saying is there’s a reason I put “don’t get in my way” as Raph’s theme song.

Here’s Eddie’s world breaking record deadlift of 1102lbs/500kg. And to anyone that says Eddie only got the record because so and so retired, we all retire. But none of us could do what Eddie Hall does

[nevergonnasimpyoumikey]

Happy new year, everyone! Spontaneosly wrote a little fic. :D

***

“Mikey!”

For the first time in his life, Trevor was spending New Year’s Eve in a bigger city, and for the first time in years and years and years, he was spending it with a friend. Or at least he assumed it was okay to call Michael that by now since usually getting rid of a body together was quite an excellent way to bind people together.

The friend in question turned around, and the girl he had been trying to pull immediately took her chance to escape. “The fuck, man?” Michael drunkenly groaned. “I was gonna…”

“She already told you she had a boyfriend, you douche,” Trevor huffed, handing Michael his coat. “Come on, I wanna go out and watch the fireworks.”

“What are we, twelve?” Michael complained but didn’t resist Trevor grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the bar and into the park outside. It was cold, and Michael huddled against himself, hands tightly tucked under his arms and shifting on his feet — Trevor, thanks to the winter equipment so graciously donated by the air force, wasn’t as affected. “We’ll freeze our balls off before midnight. Besides, who the fuck am I gonna kiss out here?”

“I don’t know, maybe your right hand?” Trevor growled.

“That’s more your thing,” Michael sneered back, and Trevor didn’t grace him with an answer, just pulled an ugly face at him; Michael seemed to take it as a victory, looking beautifully smug for a while. “No, but seriously, it’s bad luck for the whole year if I don’t.”

Trevor rolled his eyes, biting his tongue to not say what he first thought. Well, I’m here. “It’s just a couple of more minutes. Unless you can conjure some hot blonde out of thin air, better get used to bad luck.”

Michael sighed. “Whatever. I’ll be bringing someone back to the motel, anyway. So what if the kiss comes a couple of hours late?”

“Exactly,” Trevor snorted, then watched Michael trying to keep himself warm. If only he could help, but their friendship definitely wasn’t at that level yet.

“Fuck, it’s so cold… Who the fuck thought it’d be a good idea to live this north, seriously? Couldn’t our ancestors gone somewhere where it’s fucking warm!” he shouted in frustration.

“Stop complaining,” Trevor huffed, taking off his beanie. “Jesus. How about you make a new year’s resolution to not be a miserable piece of shit for once?”

“Fuck you, I’m not—” But he shut his mouth when Trevor put the beanie on his head, pulling it over his ears. His drunken gaze flickered upwards, then back to Trevor.

“Better?” he huffed out a small laugh, then put some distance between them. He’d manage for a bit, it wasn’t that cold, and the look on Michael’s face made cold ears worth it.

“Uh, yeah. Thanks…" And maybe the small act of kindness made Michael consider his next words because, after a moment of silence, he sounded a lot softer when asking, “Any plans for ’86, then?”

“Stealing shit with you.” The answer came a bit too fast, so he saved the situation with a wide grin.

“Mh, same,” Michael huffed, smiling a bit, and it made Trevor feel warmer than any winter gear ever could.

He was well and truly fucked, wasn’t he?

“You know, it’s probably been the best year of my life,” he blurted out, unable to censor himself anymore.

“What? Didn’t you get kicked out of the air force and became homeless and actually killed someone?” Michael spoke quietly but with humor. “How the fuck does that qualify as a good year?”

Trevor never answered the question because at that moment the sky was filled with reds and greens and yellows and blues, lights and hope for the new year.

[broken-clover]

15- Prizes

Trying my hand at writing Bugsnax again. This one has more of a plot but it was still fun to muck about with, having everyone playing games together.

Takes place after the second celebration event with the ghost stories, and after chandlo and snorpy return to Snaxburg. It's mostly Filbo-centric, but it has a little bit of everyone who's currently in town

-

The trouble had all begun when Filbo dragged out the plywood.

After the last attempt at a party devolved into ghost stories and paranoia, he’d apparently decided he had to make up for it somehow with another little shindig. The others had amused him, partly out of pity and partly out of curiosity. Filbo might have been a lousy mayor, but he was at least creative when he wanted to be. Got the paint out and everything.

Still, nobody was quite prepared for whatever had been brewing in his brain until they were summoned to the nightly campfire.

“Um…”

“What the grump did you do, Fil-Bro?”

Cyan paws awkwardly wound around each other. “I made some games for us to play!” He announced. “Uh, there’s cornhole, there’s horseshoes, and I found enough magnets to make a little fishing game!”

Everyone looked on in grotesque curiosity, like the way one would look at a small, ugly animal. The stalls were visibly handmade and crude, but had enough effort put in to hold together. Filbo had slapped together a tiny carnival, and nobody was quite sure what to do with that fact.

Beffica pointed to a nearby table, stacked high with, to an outsider’s eye, miscellaneous junk of no purpose. “What’s with the table?”

“That? Oh! That’s, uh-” Filbo turned sheepish. “I thought it’d be a little more motivating if I made prizes. A-a lot of it’s just some things I had in storage, but Buddy helped me get some supplies to make stuff!”

“Huh, was wonderin’ what you’d asked me about knitting for…” Gramble said, eyeing a slightly misshapen, knitted approximation of a bunger by the edge of the pile.

Despite his efforts, and enthusiastic grin, nobody seemed particularly enthused themselves. Tiffany, ever the polite one, stepped forward.

“Suppose we can play a coupla rounds, yah?” She glanced at her neighbors. “We’ve all been workin’ real hard lately, a lil’ game might be good fer us!”

“Dibs on the horseshoes!” Chandlo scrambled to the pile. “Tossing metal’s gotta be some great exercise, bro!” He picked up a horseshoe and spun it around on one finger. “C’mon, Snorp-dawg! Let’s work on those arms!”

“Wasting time on frivolities when the Grumpinati are on the move…I’d much rather spend the time with my diagrams, but if you so insist, Chandlo…” Snorpy trailed off after him, far less hesitant than his voice suggested.

“Th- that’s great, you guys!” Filbo perked up. “Beffica, you wanna play a game?”

“Eh.”

“O-oh…” He moved on to the next. “Wiggle, how about you?”

She thought it over for a moment. “Hmm…while not very glamorous, I’ve heard inspiration can come from odd places. As long as it doesn’t get my fur wet, fishing might be fun!”

Filbo handed her a homemade fishing rod. She felt the weight in her paws, and looked over at the prize table. “And besides, I could do with a new accessory. It’s hard to find anything fashionable here, but those hairclips might just give my look a new bit of flair!”

Beffica immediately snapped to attention. “Hey, hold on there, those clips are mine!”

“Oh, pssh! I can hear them caaaalling out to me, darling! It’s only natural.”

“You are on, Wigglebottom!” Beffica looked over to their host. “How do I win those things, squeeb?”

“Well, uh, I was gonna have whoever won pick whatever prize they wanted from the table, nothing really planned out. All the fish have numbers on the bottom, whichever of you catches the bigger number wins!”

“Wait a sec, it’s that easy?” Cromdo butted in.

“Uhh, yeah, why?”

He grinned, showing off his fangs. “Simple economics, Fiddlepie. If I win that little trinket, then I can make those two fight each other for the highest bid! It’s supply and demand! I supply, then demand a big payload for it!”

“I dunno if that’s-”

“Outta the way, ladies! Lemme show you how an expert fishes!” Cromdo rushed by, nearly butting the two head-on to make space for himself.

Despite that, Filbo had cheered up considerably. “They’re actually playing the games! Gramble, what about-

“Oh, blast it!”

Everyone ducked as a horseshoe narrowly sailed over their heads. Snorpy crossed his arms and scowled. “This accursed thing is clearly defective, most likely a grumpinati creation designed solely to deceive me! I cannot get it anywhere near the pegs!”

“Chill, Snorp-dawg, deep breaths. You’re letting go of ‘em too late.” Picking up another shoe, Chandlo stood behind the other grumpus and directed his arm. “You gotta focus on where it’s going. C’mon. Feel the horseshoe, be the horseshoe.”

“Maybe bein’ near those two ain’t a good idea…” Gramble doddered off towards the cornhole board. This looks simple enough, ah guess.” He picked up a homemade beanbag from the top of the pile.

“You get three beanbags! Just toss ‘em at the board, and wherever they land, that’s your score!” Said Filbo.

“Uh-huh. Jus’ toss ‘em,” after a few test swings, he tossed one gently at the board, as though he could injure it. The bag limply slid along the surface, stopping around halfway up. “Five points! Nicely done, if I do say so!”

Tiffany clapped her paws together. “Good job! Mind if I give it a go?”

Filbo winced at the sound of someone growling. Beffica waggled the fishing rod over the little pool of fake fish, but was struggling to catch any.

“Don’t look at me like that, squeeb! Your game’s broken!”

“Sheesh, Beff, c’mon. That’s not how ya hold a fishing rod!” Before he could attempt a reply, Cromdo stepped in, doing a quick flick of the wrist on both hands to toss the fishing line down. “Like that, see? Gotta use your wrists more.”

“...Wrists, huh?” She tried an experimental swing, copying the salesman.

Another beanbag thumped against the board. “Wa-ha! I got four points! But I’ll get better aim next time, Gramble, so don’t you go thinkin’ you’ve got this in the bag, yah?”

She gestured for her husband to join. “C’mon, Wamby, it’ll be fun!”

“No.”

“But look at that lil’ organizer right there! Weren’tcha sayin’ you wanted something like that for yer gardening supplies?”

His expression didn’t change, but there was a twinkle in his eyes. “Fine. If that’s what I gotta do to get it…”

Still, he stood back, unengaged. The two players gave another toss, with Triffany scoring a six, and Gramble’s bag skidding along until it settled right by the open hole by the top, scoring nine.

“Ha! Already gettin’ it right by the hole! I must be some kinda cornhole expert!”

A scoff came from behind them.

“Feh. Y’all ain’t foolin’ anyone, you wanna see a real cornhole expert do his thing?”

Triffany lit up with a pleased grin, tossing Wambus a bag. “Wanna put yer snaks where yer mouth is, eh?”

“With pleasure.” Without any warmup, without any practice swing, Wambus snapped his wrist and sent the bag soaring. It slid up the slick surface of the board, butting into Gramble’s last bag and falling neatly into the hole with a hollow thud.

“W-wha-” Gramble’s mouth dropped open.

“Wamby, I-” Tiffany was equally shocked, eyes wide. “I didn’t know ya had that kinda aim!”

Wambus blew on his knuckles and buffed them against his vest. “Cornhole. Showed up at every county fair I ever went to. Won my first trowel as a young’un beating the town record.”

“Gosh, whenever I think I’ve learned everything there is to know about ya, there’s still surprises!”

Filbo looked on in pride. Next door, Snorpy had finally gotten the hang of horseshoe-throwing thanks to Chandlo’s guidance, and the two were playfully bantering as they tried to outdo one another. Meanwhile, both Wiggle and Beffica were still attempting to copy Cromdo’s skilled line-casting, and Cromdo, who looked far cheerier than Filbo had seen him, probably ever, was soaking up the attention of playing teacher. Outside of friendly teasing, everyone was getting along. After last time, he hadn’t been expecting much success, but this was more a success than he could have imagined.

[corishadowfang]

Dandelion Seeds Fic Notes

So Dandelion Seeds!  It’s definitely been a journey.  Dandelion Seeds is an incredibly long fic, but one that also ended up being very fun to write and very close to my heart.  It ended up catapulting me back into fic writing after like...four years, haha, and was an amazing experience overall.

But now that the fic’s over, I have kind of some behind-the-scenes notes/thoughts, in case any of you are interested in that.  Threw everything under the cut to save people’s dashes.

First up—the playlist!  It’s, uh…a bit more haphazard than what I had for On the Edge of Daybreak, haha.  A lot of it was just random stuff I listened to that reminded me of the story (which was then thrown very haphazardly into an actual playlist for this…).  It’s kind of a mix of character songs and things that felt like they fit the overall themes; I tried to organize it into some sort of order, but uh…it’s still pretty loose. (The acoustic version of Wolves by Aviators is an honorable mention, and wasn’t added because it more fits my thoughts about Missing-Link Brain and/or Luxu than anything in Dandelion Seeds.)

The original idea for Dandelion Seeds came about in like…2019, I think? I say ‘idea’ like it was an actual original thing, haha, but it was more of, “Man, I wish we got to see more of the Union Leaders being friends and stuff.”  Days was pretty heavily on my mind, too, because it’s one of my favorite Kingdom Hearts games, so I ended up taking a lot of inspiration from that.

I mentioned this in the author’s notes of the first chapter, but Dandelion Seeds was basically meant to be something that was very easy and fun for me to write, compared to the relatively boring stuff I write for work and the much heavier stuff I write for my original stories.  That’s kind of why I went with a very episodic structure with no ‘official’ update schedule; that way, even though there was technically an overarching plot, I could keep it pretty loose and write whatever I felt like at the time, and I didn’t technically have to update at any point. It’s also why chapters had very little editing; if I was going to edit something, it was usually the bigger chapters (backstory and finale chapters) or because I just really didn’t like a certain character interaction or plot point, and even then, I mostly just focused on fixing character/story issues rather than prose problems.

I still ended up having a ‘pseudo update schedule’ because that’s apparently been ingrained into me.

Originally, Dandelion Seeds was going to be written in non-chronological order. I’d wanted to do it this way largely because then I could write whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted—and it was literally planned this way right up until I wrote the first chapter and decided, “No, I think it’d be easier for everyone to follow if I just did it chronologically.”  In some ways, the non-chronological version would’ve made things easier—since, again, I could just do stuff whenever—but I think doing things in chronological order was probably better in the end, since otherwise I would’ve had to keep a lot more careful track of character development and plot changes over a non-linear narrative. This…required less outlining and editing.

The first thing I ever wrote for Dandelion Seeds was the beginning portion of chapter 13!  It was written…a little over a year before I actually committed to writing Dandelion Seeds, I think?  Anyway, even though I played around with ideas for the story for a while, it took until the UX finale to give me that final push to actually write a full chapter, haha.

Speaking of ideas for the story—some character arcs and backstories changed a lot between my initial ideas and first contact with the story! Like—I’ve mentioned before that falling in love with Skuld and Brain’s friendship was unexpected, which is still true, but it’s not the only thing that surprised me.  For example: Skuld’s entire character arc changed upon writing the first chapter. Originally, she was outwardly not super affected by the Keyblade War, and internally she was kind of bothered by the fact that she wasn’t more distressed.  And then I wrote her line about the Foretellers in chapter one and went, “Oh, no—she’s angry.” And her character kind of developed from there.  Brain had a bit of a different backstory, too; originally, while he still had a strained relationship with his mom, it was less because she was a bad parent and more because the two of them had trouble connecting with each other as he got older.  He also had a stepmother and step siblings that he had similar trouble connecting with—though in this case, it was because he was already in Daybreak Town when his mom remarried—and ended up viewing Ava as somewhat of a surrogate sibling.

Because a lot of Dandelion Seeds was only very loosely planned, there were a lot of ideas that ended up on the cutting room floor.  For example: there was originally going to be a chapter where Skuld and Lauriam’s very different styles of interacting with siblings clashed with each other in regards to Ven.

For the finale chapters, I originally started writing out transcripts of some of the canon scenes (using Everglow’s videos as reference) to try and make adapting them easier.  I got through the stuff in Ven’s chapter, did a little for Lauriam’s chapter, and then just…kind of stopped and ended up rewatching the cutscenes a lot to grab the info I needed, haha.  The few transcripts I wrote are here in case anyone ever wants to use them.  I don’t actually know how useful they are—and it’s entirely possible actually transcripts exist somewhere and I just…made a lot of extra work for myself—but you know.  They’re here.

The title Dandelion Seeds is…well, probably pretty self-explanatory, but it kind of came about because I wanted something that both referenced the Union Leaders/Dandelions/UX in general and referenced the fact that it was basically a collection of inter-connected one-shots. And since one-shots are technically supposed to be small…like seeds…I don’t know, I also just thought it was a cute title.

This is officially the longest story I’ve ever written.  It also has the longest chapter I’ve ever written.  While I’m proud of just how much I managed to write—and had a lot of fun writing it!—I also hope I never write something this long ever again.

(Please refer back to this in x amount of years when I inevitably write something else stupidly long.)

Some people have said that Dandelion Seeds has made them love the UX cast more (which makes me so stupidly happy), but the secret is, it kind of did the same for me.  I was already attached to the UX cast, but something about living with these kids in my head for over a year made it like...ten times worse, haha.  

Writing the story also gave me a whole new appreciation for the story of UX in general—especially the finale chapters.  (Though if I ever have to write the confrontation with Darkness again, I will probably cry.)

Thank you to everyone who followed along with the story!  It’s been an amazing journey, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

[queenofbaws]

Pretty please May I have some “…please stay” prompt for Nick/Abi 🥹

definitely more than six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

Nurse Kelly had promised her it wasn’t broken. She didn’t know how she could’ve known that without taking an x-ray or anything, but she’d seemed really, really confident when she’d said it, so…it must’ve been true. It felt broken, though. Shattered, even. Totally and completely demolished, and…

Just like that, she was crying again. Great.

It’d been a dumb slip, that was the real kicker. It wasn’t like she’d been trying to do backflips off a picnic table just to prove she could, or turning one-handed cartwheels to try and impress the campers, or juggling ugly old boulders or anything…and hey, even if she had been doing those things, Jacob had done all of them too, and he hadn’t gotten hurt once! No, what she’d done was worse: She hadn’t been paying attention when she’d been walking down the cabin stairs. She’d missed a step – one stupid, measly step! – and wham!

“Oh, honey,” Nurse Kelly had said when she’d finally gotten back up and hobbled her way over to the lodge to get checked out, “It could’ve been so much worse! You’re lucky you caught yourself like that, you could’ve split your chin. Here, let me get you some ice.”

Only she wasn’t lucky that she’d caught herself. It couldn’t have been worse. She was the one in charge of art lessons, after all, and catching herself might’ve meant she hadn’t hit her face, but she had royally ruined her wrist.

She was going to get fired for sure.

Abi sniffled and drew her legs up closer to herself as she sat on the cot, using her left arm to wipe away some of her stupid tears before readjusting the ice pack wrapped around her right hand. The chatter from the lodge had already died down – dinner would’ve been over by then, she knew, and so the kids were probably being shepherded off to the firepit for songs and s’mores. Emma had promised to keep an eye on her campers, waving off her worries with her trademark brand of nonchalance, but that was just something else for her to dwell on…to feel guilty about. Now Emma had to deal with twice as many kids as before, and if there were s’mores involved they’d be getting sticky and they’d be fighting over whose piece of chocolate was bigger and they’d be crying if their graham cracker broke, and –

“Abi? You in here?”

Crap! Crapcrapcrap! Ugh, she couldn’t even hide in an empty office and cry right, could she?! She’d been so sniffly she hadn’t even heard the door open, and the door to the nurse’s office had a heck of a squeak on it, so that was saying something.

She wiped her eyes again, sucking in a hard breath when she accidentally lifted her injured hand. “I’m, uh…” The creak in her voice was worse than the door’s, oh my God. “Yeah, yeah I’m…I’m here.”

A couple footsteps, and then who should come around the folding privacy screen but Nick, his hair tousled and a kitchen towel slung over his shoulder, one of the chipped plastic serving plates balanced on his palm. “You weren’t at dinner, and Kaitlyn said she thought you fell or something, and I – ” When he got a look at her, a really good look, the expression on his face changed so abruptly that she almost started crying again just like that. Maybe she was closer than ‘almost,’ even, because the moment she felt that first prickle, Nick set the plate down at the foot of the cot and slid into the nurse’s chair instead. “Oh man, are you all right?”

It occurred to her then, sitting alone with Nick of all people, that she must’ve looked like death warmed over. It was the kind of situation she’d been daydreaming about ever since the first week of camp, just the two of them, talking, spending time together…and this was how it happened?! She’d been crying a lot. Her eyeliner, her mascara…all of that was probably running like no tomorrow, making her look like some crazed crybaby from a cheesy drive-in horror flick. It was the exact opposite of what a meetcute was supposed to be, and that was just…well, it was the final straw. Her lower lip quivered.

“No,” she got out before the tears started falling again, huge and hot and feeling like lava as they ran down her cheeks. She’d thought about lying, but what was the point? It was obvious she wasn’t okay, he never would’ve bought it if she’d said it, so why even bother?

“Aw man, I…what happened?” he asked, leaning in towards her in much the same way Nurse Kelly had earlier, his forehead creased with concern as he peered around the ice pack for, what, blood? Stitches? Staples? The world’s biggest splinter? She didn’t know. “Should I go find someone? I can—”

“No,” Abi said, and it must’ve come out louder than she’d meant, because he looked away from her wrist and back up to her very, very quickly. “No, I…I mean…” She sniffed hard, bringing her arm up to wipe at her cheeks. “It’s fine. It’s…I fell, and I feel so…dumb. Now my wrist is all messed up and Mr. H is going to send me home for sure, and it’s just…” Her shoulders rose and fell in a hopeless shrug, and as ridiculous as she felt crying like a baby there in front of him, she just couldn’t help it. The dam had been broken, and it was all coming out in one big, awful gush. “Nurse Kelly says it’s not broken, but what if it is? What if it is, and what if it totally ruins the rest of my summer? Or the rest of my life? I…this is my drawing hand, and if it…I mean…I’m going to school for art! I can’t just learn to use my left hand overnight! It’s not that easy! And when people ask me why I have to go home, or drop out, or why a million other things, I’m gonna have to say ‘Uhhh, well actually it’s because I’m a clumsy idiot who missed a step and just totally screwed up my whole life!” She pulled in a huge breath to make up for what she’d lost, and it came back out in an exhausted, shaky laugh. “This ice pack isn’t even cold. It melted like. An hour ago. Now I’m just…sitting here. Being a baby. While everyone else is out having fun and eating s’mores.”

She couldn’t bring herself to look at him as she came to the grand finale of her little pity party, instead focusing her eyes down at her wrist. Now that all that junk was out of her, she did feel a tiny bit better, but mostly purging her worry had just made more room for embarrassment; her cheeks started to burn about as badly as her eyes. This wasn’t how you were supposed to act in front of the cute guy you had a not-so-subtle crush on – this wasn’t how you were supposed to act in front of anybody, really, but especially not the cute guy you had a not-so-subtle crush on!

For an eternity, Nick was quiet beside her. Then, without warning, he stood up, holding a finger out towards her. “Hang on a sec,” he said, and then he was gone, the door to the nurse’s office swinging shut and clicking behind him.

Abi hung her head. What else could she do? The universe had given her her chance and she’d blown it like she’d blown walking down the stairs. Spectacularly.

Maybe she should’ve pretended like she was fine. Guys liked that, didn’t they? When you showed them you were capable, and tough, and didn’t turn into a whiny little crybaby the first time something didn’t go your way? Ugh…if only Emma was there to tell her what to do…but of course Emma couldn’t be there, because she was too busy being outside, taking care of Abi’s campers, and –

No! She had to stop making herself cry like that!

With an angry sound aimed at herself, she leaned forward to get a peek at the plate Nick had left her with. She picked a tater tot from the pile and nibbled at it, wondering whether eating would end up making her feel better or worse. Honestly? At that point? She thought it could’ve gone either way.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when the door opened again, the squeak very audible that time.

“Uh…here,” Nick said, offering something out to her before seemingly realizing his mistake, slowly reaching for the ice pack instead. “Or, uh…can I…?”

At first it didn’t make sense, what he was asking her. But then her brain started working at putting the puzzle pieces together, and she registered that the thing he was holding was a bag of frozen corn. “Oh, I…yeah?” she managed, her surprise doing a heck of a job overriding her sadness.

“Cool! Let me just…oh, uh, that wasn’t a joke. The ‘cool’ thing. I…here.” Gently, much more gently than she might’ve imagined, Nick unwound the melted ice pack from her wrist and replaced it with the bag of corn, sheepishly smiling when he noticed her looking at it. “I looked for something a little less…well, corny, but that was the best we had back in the kitchen, sorry.” He set the ice pack down on a nearby table and slowly sat back in Nurse Kelly’s chair. “And that one was a joke. The…”

“Corny,” Abi nodded, unable to keep from smiling.

“Yeah,” Nick laughed. “Pretty rough, right?”

“Pretty corny.” It felt good to smile, despite herself. It sort of flipped a hidden switch inside of her, that one little laugh, bringing her out of her spiral of panic and into a different place. There was still worry, sure, but it didn’t feel quiiite as life-or-death as it had before. Also, that embarrassment was making a doozy of an encore performance. “I…wow. Okay, um…sorry. About all that. That I just made you listen to. Um…you didn’t ask for any of that, wow.”

“No, it’s fine—”

“It’s not. I…ugh.”

“Abi, look…I won’t pretend that I understand art or drawing or any of that, but the future’s scary enough on its own without having to worry that like…you have to start from square one. I do get that.” He leaned forward to sit with his elbows on his knees, shrugging as they talked. Whether it was because of her runny eye makeup or something else, he wasn’t making a whole lot of eye contact, and for that she was glad. It took away a teeny tiny piece of that humiliation, at least. “But I don’t think Mr. H would fire you for getting hurt. He’d have to be a real asshole to do something like that, don’t you think?”

She took another tater tot, using it as an excuse to not have to talk. Instead she returned his shrug, chewing away. It was a good point. That didn’t really sound like the Mr. H she’d seen…not so far, anyway. He seemed more like the kind of guy who’d make her a care package and have Nurse Kelly check her temperature every fifteen minutes until she felt better.

“And for what it’s worth? I don’t know about you, but I’ve brought a lot of kids down here since camp started, for a lot of weird stuff, and…I don’t know, I think Nurse Kelly’s been around the block a few times. If she looked at it and figured it’s not broken, then…” He brought his shoulders up again, only that time he looked up too, squinching his face up in sympathy. “It’s probably not.”

In went another tater tot. Abi nodded slowly, giving the fingers of her right hand a tentative wiggle. All five moved when she asked them to, which she figured was a good sign, but the ache in her wrist still went deep enough that she didn’t want to try and keep it up. “Yeah,” she said quietly, after swallowing, obviously. “You’re probably right.”

He smiled, and though she was only seeing it from the corner of her eye, she found herself returning it; it was too contagious to fight. Plus, she’d been dreaming of being on the receiving end of a smile like that since the first time she’d seen him from across the camp.

“Know what I think?” he asked, giving her knee a light nudge with the side of his hand. “I think if you take it easy for a couple days, have the kids just…I don’t know, do hand-turkeys or something, you’ll be back in action before you know it!”

Her smile persisted, even as she double- and triple-checked that her cheeks were dry. “Oh yeah? I hope you’re right…I’m supposed to do caricatures at the sleepover party near the end of the month, and Dylan’s already been telling me how important it is that I ‘get his best angles.’” The smile became a laugh, and her cheeks prickled again when Nick joined in. “I’m not sure he knows what a caricature is, if he’s worried about angles, but…”

“Ah, he’s just goofing with you, don’t worry about it.”

Abi ran her finger along the edge of the dinner plate he’d brought for her, chancing a small, sheepish smile in his direction. “Thanks, Nick.”

“Hey, don’t even mention it. I’m sure before the summer’s out, I’ll get hurt in a way that’s so stupid it’ll end up in the morning announcements. Then you’ll have to be the one to check in on me.”

“I mean, I will,” she reassured him, her laughter getting a bit stronger that time around. “I’ll even cover dinner duty. If you need me to, that is. I don’t know how you’re planning on getting injured, is all.”

He stood, offering her an exceptionally lame (but extremely endearing) pair of finger-guns before chuckling, “I’ll definitely keep you posted on that one. But y’know…I’m pretty sure everyone’s at the firepit right about now…wanna head over? I just have a couple more dishes to put away, and then we could—”

“Um.” It was out of her mouth before she could stop herself, and though she knew she’d be kicking herself later, there just wasn’t any holding it back. “I don’t actually think I’m…up for it,” she said, painfully aware of how awful she must’ve looked, how pathetic. “I think I’m just gonna…sit here until the corn…melts? Does corn melt?”

“I think it thaws?”

“Oh. Yeah. I’m gonna wait for that. Just to, y’know, get the maximum healing juice out of it.” She winced as she heard that combination of words out loud, quickly scrambling to cover them up. “B-but you go ahead! Thanks for the offer, really. One of us should get a s’more before the night’s out, anyway.”

Nick looked like he was going to say something. He did, really. His mouth opened a little, then it closed, then it almost opened again but didn’t exactly make it. For a second he was quiet, kind of looking at her in a strange way. Then he pointed to her mostly full dinner plate. “Are you still eating?” he asked. “Or do you want me to take that to the kitchen?”

“Uh.” Her eyes flicked to the plate and back, and she took it with her left hand, holding it out to him. “You can…thanks. I promise it’s not that the food was bad or anything, it’s just…it’s been a long night.”

“No, I totally get it, it’s fine.” Then he flashed her another one of those smiles, the kind that had her tummy doing flips, and then…then he was gone. The door to the nurse’s office clicked shut behind him again.

And Abi deflated.

“Way to go, Abs,” she muttered to herself, bringing her left hand up to rub at her forehead. What she should’ve said, she realized now that she was alone, was that she wanted him to stay. That she didn’t want to be alone. That having him there was making her feel so much better than any stupid bag of ice or painkiller had managed. How hard would that have been?! It was two words: Please stay. It could’ve been one! She’d barfed all her stupid feelings up in front of him before, why couldn’t she have gotten those words out? Would it have really been so hard? Would—

The door swung open for a third time.

“Now, I’ll warn you,” Nick said, unloading his armful of stuff onto the foot of the cot amid a whole lot of plastic-crinkling and box-rattling, “I…don’t really have a good way of heating stuff up in here, so unless we move this party to the kitchen, things won’t be especially melty, but…”

It took Abi a moment to realize what she was looking at. There, at the edge of the cot, just past her sneakers, were a couple sleeves of graham crackers, a bag of marshmallows, and a small box of chocolate squares. She turned away from them to look up at Nick instead, wide-eyed and smiling in earnest.

“We don’t really need to go to the firepit to have some s’mores,” he said, busying himself with opening the packages up. “And…sorry if this is weird to say or whatever, but…I’d feel better staying here with you. Until you’re feeling better, I mean.”

“I’d like that,” Abi said, giving the fingers of her right hand another tentative wiggle. “I’d like that a lot.”

[hauntedlibrarian2222]

Part 1.A

October 6th, ####

I work in a haunted library.

Take it as silly as you want to, but I’m telling you it’s haunted. Or, at the very least, extremely paranormal. I don’t even really think ‘haunted’ is a good word to describe it. I don’t know, and I don’t really care either. But it’s a running theme, here, with ‘running’ being a big part of it at the end of the day. It’s like Scooby Doo, but a lot more HD and a lot less pulling off masks to see they, too, are human at the end of the day. I don’t believe anything that walks through these doors is human, anymore.

I live up North, vaguely, in a tiny, crummy town, and in this town is my library. Keeping it vague, since, y’know,.. privacy, or something. When it comes to the library, through, I’m just about the only person who really runs it. It’s decently sized, but still kinda small— or maybe I’m just not used to libraries. Dunno. I’ve lived in this crummy town for the majority of my life, so maybe I’ve just got a bad scope. At the end of the day, it’s just a large space, and although it has a second floor— that’s cut off from the rest of the library due to some accident I don’t know about. Well, more so just taped off. Nothing really stops anyone, just.. no one wants to go up there. I ask them, sometimes, because even some rowdy kids will come in, and a lot have said it makes them feel cold? I dunno. I don’t feel that, maybe my nerves are finally dying off.

Not many people visit, leaving just me and the books for a majority of the day. Save for when someone, or something, does come in. Usually, stuff coming in sucks, but sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve grown very accustomed to most things that walk through the door, whether it be a group of kids from the school a few blocks away (they come on ‘field trips’ sometimes); just a person looking for a quiet space; or something on all fours with eyes bigger than they should be with an oddly humanoid shape; I’ve grown used to it. It freaked me out at first, don’t get me wrong— I’m sure most people would at least pause if they saw a person with a deer head walk in and, formally, request a book on a bear hibernation’s cycles— but I’m just not affected by it anymore. At some point, weird stuff blends in with the normal and just becomes a different genre of normal if you see it enough. Most things that walk through the doors aren’t hostile, anyways, so I just help them find what they want and help them leave. Or, I help them find a nice spot in the library, which actually feels.. kinda nice, sometimes. Most of them don’t care to try and hurt or intimidate me, surprisingly enough— going solely off of appearances and how most people would call them ‘monsterly’. But maybe that’s just because there isn’t much valuable here other than the books— nothing to rob, so why put in the effort? It makes me feel kinda nice, though, like if someone were to come after me— I’d at least have the back of a handful of odd creatures who really like their books. Like, really— really like their books.

With all of this, though, I’ve got a good few stories crammed up in my head— and I thought it’d be interesting to share them. Whether you believe they’re true or not, it’s still a story, it’s still entertainment at the end of the day, right? That’s the whole point of reading. Plus, it finally gives me a place to, uh,.. write it down. Journal it, store it, whatever. Who needs a therapist when you have a Tumblr blog, huh?

So, I work in a ‘haunted library’, and it’s given me more tales than the books on the shelves (that sounds insanely cheesy but my friend really wanted me to write it down, sorry). I hope you enjoy your read.

Previous | Next

[nrrrdgrrrl2002]

Alright!

Here’s the continuation of this short

“Audrey had just returned to the real world after a trip to the ink realm. She fell onto her bed and put her hands in her face.

“Ugh. If I have to stop anymore lost ones from killing each other I swear to goddd” she said as she rubbed her face.

She felt horribly tired. She couldn’t even remember the last time she slept. She checked the time and saw it was 7:45. She could probably go to bed now. It’d be fine.

She layed her head on a pillow and was about to go to sleep. Until she heard

“Audrey?” She opened her eyes to see bendy at the doorway.

Dammit Audrey.

She thought to herself as she sat up. “Audrey!” Bendy yelled as he ran and jumped up to her. “Hey lil budd- oof!” She yelped as the little 5 year old jumped into her arms and nearly knocked her over.

Kid must’ve gotten stronger since she’s been gone.

“I’m glad sthee you! How wasth your trip? Did you take anything with you? What happened? Were there monsthtersth? Did you fight anybody? Why do you look stho tired?” He bombarded her with questions.

She was about to attempt to answer, but looked down at bendy and noticed something odd about his appearance.

“What’s this?” She asked as she gently grabbed a little curled up tuft of black fur on the side of his head.

He had them on both sides of his round head. Along with a bit that look like curled up hair on the left side of his face.

“What’sth what?” He asked as he gave her a puzzled look. “When did you get fur?” She clarified.

Bendy felt the tuft of fur Audrey just let go as he thought about the question. “Idk” he muttered as he shrugged.

She scratched her head in confusion as bendy stared at her. His horns looked a bit longer too now that she thought about it. And he seemed a bit bigger than she remembered…

“Hey bud. You wanna go see how tall you are?” She asked him, curious if her suspicions were correct. “Sure!” Bendy said as he jumped off the bed.

She got up and went to get a marker from her desk before leaving her room, bendy following her. They went into the living room and she went to the wall the other markings were on.

“Alright bud. You know what to do” she said as she gestured to the wall. Bendy stood there, confused.

“Is something wrong?” She asked him. “What am I sthupposthed to do?” He asked.

“Don’t you remember how you’d stand against the wall and I marked how tall you are?” She asked. It hasn’t been THAT long since they did that… has it.

“Isth that what thosthe are?” He pointed to the old markings as he asked.

“Yeah! These mark how tall you are” she said. She then noticed that, even only being a little close to the wall, that bendy was clearly a head taller than both marks. “Were…” she corrected herself in a confused and slightly concerned tone.

Bendy gave a worried look, picking up on something being wrong with Audrey’s reaction. Audrey tried to backtrack.

“Alright. So what you do is stand against the wall as straight as you can” she said as she took his arm and gently guided him. “ and you hold still until I make a mark on the wall on top of your head” she finished.

“Ok!” Bendy said as he smiled. Audrey marked his head and he moved back to look. Just as she thought, it was a decent foot above the older markings.

“ woahhh. I got a lot taller” bendy said as he looked. “You’re… growing up?” She muttered to herself.

“Isth that a bad thing?” Bendy asked, hearing her. She gave a surprised look as she panicked slightly. “U-uh. No no! I-it’s just….”

Audrey what the hell are you thinking?

Bendys not going to become like him.

But then why is he becoming off model?

Could it mean-

“Justht what?” Bendy asked, having a concerned face. Audrey didn’t know how to answer.

“I-it’s nothing, bud. Just silly adult thoughts. You don’t have to worry about it” she responded as she rubbed his head and got up.

But his expression only became more concerned as he said in an apprehensive tone “ ok…”

The two stood in awkward silence as Audrey tried to think of anything to change the subject.

“Whatsth that?” Bendy asked as he pointed at marking higher up than all the others.

“Oh! That’s my height” she responded. “You’re pretty tall” bendy said.

“Yeah. Just a little bit” she said. She didn’t really see herself as tall. She wasn’t really short either. She was probably the perfect height for a woman of her age to be.

“But I bet I’ll be taller than you when I’m all grown up!” He said confidently. She gave a little chuckle.

“Sureee you will, lil bud” she said as she kneeled down to pinch his cheek. Bendy got annoyed as he picked up on her sarcastic tone and tapped her hand away.

“I will!” He said in a mad tone. She kept laughing at his insistence. “Oh really? You think you’ll be tall enough to pick me up like this?” She said as she picked him up and held him like a baby, even if he was too big for that.

“Yesth!” He yelled as he laughed. “Hmm. Doubtful. You’re always gonna be my tiny little bendy. And there’s nothing you can do about it!” She said in a joking tone as she tickled him.

“Ahh! I will! I’m gonna be sthoooo tall I’ll be able to beat you up like it’sth nothin!” He yelled as he tried to get him off of her.

“Huh! You wanna beat up your own sister?! And after all I’ve done for you? Im hurt!” She said in fake sad tone.

“You taped the kitchen sthink nozzle stho it’d sthpray me when I turned on the sthink a few weeksth back” he responded.

A few weeks ago?

She could’ve sworn that wasn’t THAT long ago

“Hmm. True. Tell you what. IF you somehow grow up to be taller than me, you’re allowed to try to fight me. Deal?” She said with a mischievous smile.

“Hmph! Ok” bendy agreed in an annoyed tone as Audrey put him down.

“Will you read me a sthtory now that you’re home?” He asked. “aren’t you able to read on your own now?” She asked.

“Yeahhh. But I like having you read them to me” he said, playing up the cuteness. She rolled her eyes while smiling.

“Ok bud. But only one” she said. “Ok” bendy said as the two walked off to his room.

-

Audrey walked through the door, soaking wet as it had been pouring outside. She rubbed her eyes as she sighed.

She was pretty sure she’d have to go back to work early tomorrow. Going immediately back to work after spending days in the ink realm trying to wrangle cultists probably didn’t lead to the best storyboards.

She went to walk into her room to get to bed early when she got knocked onto her butt after running into something. Or rather, someone.

“Ouch!” Bendy yelped as he he also fell, a book falling next to him. He looked to see who knocked him over as he rubbed his head.

“Oh hey, auds!” He said. Audrey noticed that while he still had a child’s voice, it had deepened slightly.

Bendy got up first. He helped Audrey up before giving her a hug. “Hey bud! Feel like I haven’t seen you in forever!” She said as she rubbed his head.

She was starting to get used to the idea of him growing up. But as she got a good look at him as he let go, she noticed just how…. Different he looked from the bendy she Drew constantly.

The fur on the sides of his head had grown longer and the tips split into two on both sides. The bit of fur on his face had curled up more and was much more noticeable. He also now had a chunk of black fur sticking out the top of his head, between his now longer horns and covered a bit of his white face.

His face was also longer and more triangular than the circular face he used to have, his cheeks being more prominent.

He was also a lot taller. Despite only being 8, he looked like he was only a few inches away from being as tall as her.

“How was your trip?” He asked. She snapped back into reality as she heard the question.

“Very long. Very glad to be home now” she answered. “I’d love to talk more with ya bud, but I’m horribly drained. I gotta get some rest so I won’t be all tired and cranky for your birthday in a week. Excited to be 9 years old soon?” She said as she walked past him to get to her room.

Bendy gave her a confused look. Audrey noticed as she turned to say goodnight. “Is something wrong?” She asked.

“Auds. I turned nine like two weeks ago” he responded. She gave a shocked expression. “What?? That can’t be right!” She ran to the kitchen to look at the calendar.

Oh my god it was

“Oh my god I missed it! Oh! Bendy I’m so sorry!” She yelled. “It’s fine sis. No biggie” bendy responded in a chill voice.

“No it’s not! I promised I’d be here before your birthday and I wasn’t!” She exclaimed, feeling very guilty.

“Eh. I’m used to you making promises you can’t follow through on. I kinda figured you’d miss it anyway” he responded calmly.

He heart sank to her stomach at that response.

Was she really that bad at upholding promises??

“Ohh I’m so sorry bud. I’ll make it up to you, I swear! Once I finish up work this week we’ll have a proper celebration, ok?” She said.

“Sure” bendy said in a fake nice tone as he shrugged his shoulders. She didn’t notice the fakeness in his tone as she noticed something else.

“Wait. What happened to your lisp?” She asked. “My what?” He asked, confused.

“Your lisp. You haven’t been able to pronounce your s’s without a “th” to it. But you’ve been talking just fine this whole time” she said.

Bendy gave her a look that was a mix of confusion and annoyance. “Dude. I haven’t had that for months” he said in a slightly baffled tone.

“Did you seriously not notice?” He continued. Audrey felt surprised at his aggressive tone.

Bendys eyes widened as he realized how rude he came across. “It’s fine. You’ve been busy” he backtracked.

“A-are you sure?” She asked. She wanted to move on but felt like she shouldn’t. Bendy panicked slightly as he looked around for a distraction.

He noticed those old markings on the wall in the living room. “Hey! Why don’t we do another height check. Bet I’m taller than you now!” He said in a fake excited tone.

Audrey wasn’t sure how to respond. She knew she should figure out what’s going on with bendy but-

“Come on!” He said as he nabbed a marker from a kitchen drawer and tugged her over there.

“O-ok” she responded. Bendy stood against the wall after handing her the marker.

She pushed down the fur on top of his head as he marked the top of his head.

He moved next to her to take a look. “Hm. Not quite to your height yet. But I’m gettin there, huh?” He said to Audrey.

Audrey became lost in her own thoughts. Simply responding with a quiet “yeah… getting there…”

They stood there as bendy tried to think up a way to leave the awkward situation.

“Imma go read in my room before bed. Night sis” he said awkwardly as he walked off.

Audrey snapped back into reality as she realized what bendy said. “Oh! Umm. Goodnight!” She yelled, but bendy was already gone.

She hugged herself as she felt a pit in her stomach.

How much had she missed?

-

Audrey felt loopy from fatigue as she got out a ladder. She wanted to just lie in bed for the day. But she said she’d replace the air filter, so she’s replacing the air filter.

Her balance was a bit off as she climbed up the ladder, feeling a pang of lightheadedness with each movement of her head as she opened the vent.

She must’ve been real loopy. Cause she could’ve sworn the filter already in there looked clean.

She took another step up, only to lose her footing and fall back. “Woahwoahwoah!” She yelped as she braced herself to hit the floor hard.

“Oh shit!” She heard a male voice yell as she felt someone catch her before she hit the floor.

She looked up to see that the person who caught her and was now holding her bridal style was her little brother.

“Hey sis what’s up?” He asked in a nearly adult voice. She blinked in confusion at not only the situation, but also at her brothers voice.

Even for a 13 year old, it was oddly deep.

As he put her down, she asked “when did your voice get deeper?” Without thinking.

“Well when a boy grows into a young man, his body goes through special changes-“ he said in a sarcastic tone.

“Ha ha. Very funny” she said in an annoyed tone. As she stood straight, she noticed something else.

Bendys fur on the sides of his head had grown even more to now split into three parts on each side. And the tuft of fur on top of his head between his even longer horns had split into two parts and covered more of his face.

His face had also sharpened quite a bit. It was still soft, but it was far more triangular. And he was also..

“Did.. did you get taller than me?” She said as she realized SHE needed to look up at HIM.

Bendy chuckled as the two walked into the living room. “Sis I’ve BEEN taller than you for a little while now” he said as he leaned against the wall.

Tha sane wall with the markings. That even leaning, bendy was taller than all of them.

A pang of anxiety started to build inside.

“I-I guess it’s just… it feels like only yesterday I was able to pick you up and swing you around as you’d laugh and smile. And.. now…” she was struggling to find the words.

“Well now I can return the favor” he said as he went up to her. With a mischievous smile, he grabbed the sides of her shoulders and picked her up above his head.

“See?” He said with a smile. Audrey felt panic pour over as her mind flashed to something.

Him

The demon who towered over her

Picked her up like she was weightless

Opening his mouth to-

“AHHHH!” She screamed in fear. Bendy dropped her in surprise as his eyes widened.

“Woah woah! What’s wrong?!” He said. Audrey gasped for air as she tried to calm down.

She looked up at bendy as he gave her an incredibly worried expression. She tried her best to regain her composure.

He’s not him he’s not him he’s not him

“It’s… it’s nothing… I just… don’t like heights that’s all” she responded. Bendy didn’t buy it for a second.

“…ok” he said reluctantly as he helped her get up. “Sorry about that” she said. “It’s fine” he said in a bored tone.

She looked down in thought. “Imma go hang in my room if you need me” he said as he tried to walk off.

“Wait!” She said as she grabbed his arm. “A-are… are you really fine” she asked.

“Yeah. I already said I was. Can I go now?” He said, trying to tug his arm away from her grip.

“You know you can talk to me if something’s wrong-“ she started before being interrupted. “Yeah sure I could. Now fuck off” he said as he continued to try to tug himself away from her.

“Hey language! We don’t talk to each other like that!” She yelled in a stern tone before bendy managed to pull himself away.

“Ugh! Maybe I’d know how we should talk to each other if you were around to talk to more” he let slip.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” She responded angrily. They both knew they should stop here, but they were both too heated to back out now.

“What do ya think it means?!” Bendy yelled in her face. He was about to let his anger out fully when he suddenly clutched his head in pain.

No… stay out of this

Bendy thought as he looked back at Audrey. He had to stop it here, whether he wanted to or not.

“Listen. I said fuck off, now fuck off!” He said angrily, making his headache worse.

“Go to your room!” Audrey shouted as she pointed to the hallway. “Already planned to!” Bendy shouted back as he walked off.

“And don’t come out until you learn how to be respectful!” She shouted again. “Not like you’ll be around to see when that happens!” Bendy shouted back before slamming his door.

“Ugh!” Audrey groaned loudly as she leaned on the nearest wall and slumped down.

She took a deep breath as she calmed down.

God she handled that horribly

She looked at the markings on the wall next to her.

He used to be so small. So harmless. Unable to hurt even a fly.

She didn’t have to feel worried about him like she did with him.

She didn’t have to even think about being afraid of-

Audrey buried her face in her knees.

Why’d you have to get taller?”

[dudemanauthor]

Team JNPR: Sumo Stars [Part 1]

Author's Note: Before you go getting invested in this one, this story petered out at part 3. People didn't seem super into it. Maybe, if a lot of people here are into it, I might write more for this, but I'm considering just starting again with a new sumo AU. Also, this story is kinda sorta in the same AU as the sumo bees story.

One day, at the Sunny Glow Orphanage, long-time friends, and recent lovers, Ren and Nora were in Ren’s little room, trying to figure out what to do with their futures. They were doing alright in their schooling at the orphanage, but they only had another year left before they became adults, then they had to go out into the world and do something. Further education was a possibility, but it would be difficult without more money. That was when Nora came up with a series of ideas to help them earn some money. Ren had concerns about some of these ideas, and Nora could understand those concerns, but as the ideas came forward, one made Ren pause for a moment.

“Okay, so hear me out. We could become professional sumo wrestlers, use that to pay for whatever,” Nora enthusiastically suggested. The room went quiet for a moment as Ren thought.

“Aren’t we too small for that?” Ren mentioned.

“That’s easy to fix, and probably something we should fix. I mean, look at this,” Nora asserted as she lifted her top enough to show her scrawny body, especially her visible ribcage and chest that barely needed a bra. She dropped her shirt before Ren could go too red and went back to explaining. “And I’ve seen you without a shirt on, you could do with some extra weight too. Also, it’d help us get all strong and tough, we could travel the world competing, and we’re already not too bad at fights, but we’re not gonna tell the people who owns this place that.” Nora leaned back in her seat, folding her arms behind her head. “So, what do you think?” Ren thought through Nora’s idea and the ways it could help. Ren had to admit, the idea wasn’t too bad, and if it fell through they were still in a better position than before.

“We could try it. Maybe the bakery down the road will hire me and we can get extra food from them,” Ren suggested.

“Ooh, clever. That’s why you’re the smart one in the relationship,” Nora cheered as she placed a quick kiss on Ren’s cheek.

---

Meanwhile, at Beacon High School, Jaune Arc was trying his best to pay attention to Mr. Oobleck as he introduced a new student.

“This is Pyrrha Nikos. She will be joining us for this last year we have together, so do your best to welcome her,” the green haired teacher announced quickly. The student waved shyly as Jaune got a good look at her. She was on the taller side, maybe just shy of Jaune’s six feet tall, with her long red ponytail helping emphasise her height. Her size was also emphasised by the extra weight she carried, especially on her legs, arms and chest. She was a bit on the bigger side all over, even if ‘fat’ seemed like a strong word to describe her. “I believe the desk next to Mr. Arc is free,” Oobleck added. Pyrrha carefully moved to the spare desk near the back of the classroom and sat down.

“Hello,” Pyrrha said to Jaune quietly.

“Hey, I’m Jaune. It’s nice to meet you,” Jaune replied.

Over the next few weeks, as Jaune and Pyrrha shared their homeroom class, Jaune couldn’t help but notice that Pyrrha was getting a little bulkier, mainly shown by her clothes getting tighter until she switched it out for something bigger. Having seven sisters meant that Jaune knew not to mention it to Pyrrha, but one day, Pyrrha did the hard work for her as she sat down and a button on her flannel shirt popped open.

“Oh darn, I thought this shirt would last me a bit longer,” Pyrrha thought out loud.

“Oh, uh, did it shrink in the wash?” Jaune nervously said, hoping to distract Pyrrha.

“I doubt it. It’s probably because of the weight I’m putting on. I guess I put it on faster than I planned,” Pyrrha replied. Jaune took a moment to process what Pyrrha said.

“Wait, you’re doing it on purpose?” Pyrrha nodded.

“I hope to become a sumo wrestler when I am older, and I can’t do it when the other competitors are double my weight, if not more,” Pyrrha explained.

“Really? Well, maybe I can help. Not with training, I’m too weak and stuff to do that. I’m trying to learn how to cook, and I could use someone honest and nice to tell me what it’s like, and you could get some free food,” Jaune offered.

“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” Pyrrha happily agreed. “If you want, I can use my sumo training to help you get stronger too.”

“That might not be a bad idea. Alright then, deal?” Jaune offered his hand. Pyrrha took it and shook it.

“Deal.”

---

Ren and Nora’s weight gain left the pair realising one downside that they hadn’t considered. Their increased weights came with increased measurements, meaning that the money Ren was making at the bakery and Nora was making helping at the orphanage had to be split to allow for larger clothes. Of course, this negative did come with a positive, as their clothes growing snugger was a sign of them growing into fuller figures. Ren appreciated the thick thighs and plump rear that Nora was squeezing into tightening workout shorts and the fuller, plumper breasts that she made sure to flaunt when the two were alone. Nora enjoyed Ren’s big, strong arms and legs that she always tried to get wrapped up in, as well the pudgy little gut he was starting to grow.

This gut was starting to get noticeable for Ren at work, as he waited for closing time so he could bag up the left-over baking and bring them back for him and Nora to share. He was eagerly waiting to fill his belly, even if he wasn’t too excited about how tight the waistband of his pants was around his belly, mostly because he got them back when he was beyond thin. As the last few minutes were ticking by, a pair jogged up to the store. The red-haired girl was the larger of the two by a fair margin, with a thick layer of fat all over her body. This was accentuated by her top, which seemed to be stretching to contain the girl’s busty body, and her shorts that were basically skin tight around a rear and thighs that had Nora’s well and truly beat, but despite all of this she seemed to be barely breaking a sweat. Meanwhile the blond boy seemed to be pretty tired and quite a bit smaller, with most of his weight focused at her small potbelly, that seemed to be a touch bigger than Ren’s, and a fair bit of muscle on his arms, legs and broad chest. Seeing the couple gave Ren a slight twang of disappointment, but he did his best to look stoic.

“Hello!” the redhead said cheerily. “We aren’t too late, are we?”

“No, no, I was just about to start putting everything away, but if you plan on buying it, that can wait,” Ren reassured.

“Oh, thank goodness. We need to keep our calories up, and this looks perfect,” the redhead said as she eyed up the sweet cabinet.

“I would have thought you were running to lose weight?” Ren asked. The pair looked at each other before the blond boy spoke.

“Oh, right, yeah, we’re hoping to become sumo wrestlers, so we gotta get big, but without ending up too unfit.” Ren perked up as he heard the blond boy’s explanation.

“Really? So am I,” Ren replied. “My girlfriend suggested it, and we’re trying it out. At least we aren’t as skinny as we used to be.” Right on cue, Nora came bounding into the store and, seeing the two customers, suddenly became conflicted about her decision to wear her tightest pink shorts.

“Hey Ren,” Nora said loudly.

“Nora, these two were just telling me that they want to be sumo wrestlers like us,” Ren explained.

“Oh, that’s so cool! Do you guys wanna train with us? The more the merrier, right?” Nora enthused.

“That sounds wonderful,” the redhead agreed. “Oh, I suppose we should introduce ourselves. I’m Pyrrha, and this is my… friend, Jaune.”

“Not gonna lie, I thought you were gonna say boyfriend,” Nora said quickly. “Also, hi Pyrrha, hi Jaune, nice to meet you guys,” she added, waving to the other two. Pyrrha let out a nervous chuckle.

“I don’t think we’re a thing, unless one of us asked the other out while we were in a food coma and then we forgot,” Jaune said, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck.

“Aw, that’s a shame. You guys are cute, and you’d make a cute couple,” Nora said cheerily. A beeping sound came from Ren’s pocket.

“Oh, it’s closing time. Can we start with our group training once I close up and grab the unbought food for us to eat later?” Ren asked.

---

Over the next few months, the four new friends gathered daily after Ren finished at the bakery to share in the left-over bakery food and Jaune’s cooking and train, and also for a rest day once a week that was spent stuffing themselves silly, to the point where they could barely move afterwards. With their efforts combined, it didn’t take long for the effects to show.

Nora showed the most gains in that time, due to being shorter, growing a stout and stocky build with big, strong thighs and a nice, plump rear for her and Ren to enjoy in private.

Ren, being the next shortest, followed closely behind Nora. He had filled out all over with a solid layer of fat, but despite outweighing Nora, it looked like she was bigger than him, at least weight wise. Still, his gains were nothing to scoff at, compared to how thin he was before.

Pyrrha’s weight gain had slowed somewhat, sharing Jaune’s cooking with more people and training longer and harder. While she wasn’t putting on as much fat, her muscles grew as she became stronger and tougher. Either way, with her head start on everyone else, she was still a fair bit ahead of everyone.

Jaune had had the most noticeable gains, on account of almost all his extra fat focusing on his belly, which was growing into a weighty potbelly. While the rest of his body did gain some fat, most of the growth there was muscle, especially his broad chest and strong arms.

At one of the weekly absolute stuffing sessions, Nora was lazing on a couch when she found something on her scroll.

“Ooh, guys, there’s a junior tournament on next month! We should totally enter, see how we’re doing against people that actually compete and stuff,” Nora excitedly suggested.

“Are you sure we’re ready?” Ren said groggily, laying at the other end of the couch nursing a very bloated belly.

“I mean, it’s not like it’s high stakes. If we lose, it just means we know we need to get better,” Jaune suggested with a lazy shrug. Pyrrha took a break from eating to sit up and speak.

“An excellent point. We’ve only been training amongst ourselves, there’s a lot to learn from others.” The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

“Sweet! Our first competition! We’re gonna kick some butt!” Nora cheered, punching the air in excitement. “Oh, not literally though, I don’t think we’re allowed to do that,” she quickly added.

“I… I’m not sure,” Pyrrha thought out loud. “Kicks to the chest and waist are fouls, so I would assume kicking there would be a foul too, in the unlikely case that your opponent turns around and leaves themselves very vulnerable.”

“Whoa, you know a lot about sumo,” Jaune admired, making Pyrrha blush slightly.

“Oh, um, thank you Jaune,” Pyrrha said with a big, nervous smile. “I mean, it’s just the basic fouls, most sumo wrestlers should know it, it’s nothing special…”

“Just take the compliment you adorable smartypants!” Nora shouted out. That only made Pyrrha blush harder.

“Y-you think I’m adorable?”

“I mean, have you looked in a mirror lately?” Nora said, sounding like she was pointing out the obvious on purpose. If it was possible for Pyrrha to go any redder, she definitely would have, since she’d turned into a blushy mushy mess in her seat. “But anyway, we got a tournament to prepare for.” Nora tried to sit up, but her full, heavy belly ached when she tried to move. “Okay, maybe another day, but tournament, woo!”