#starting with that third page felt weird

[canuckianhawkbi]

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – chapter 96

“Now that the attack’s begun, the mobile suit teams will be coming.”

[marypaol]

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

Harry James Potter x fem!reader

Summary: Slowly throughout your years of Hogwarts, and if the other person looks at the same time, you see your soulmate’s image in the mirror.

Warnings: Mention of Dementors? And kissing- that’s all??

Note: Wrote a soulmate one for Draco, now it’s Harry’s turn!

Masterlist

Request Requirements

[Story ends at Fifth Year]

First Year (Age: 11)

-

“This is stupid, Ron.” Harry found himself muttering, staring at his untidy hair in the mirror. His reflection seemed to be mocking the boy, each second making him want to look away.

“No it’s not.” Ron insisted, staring at his bright red hair, freckles and all. He looked just like the rest of his family: flame-like hair and freckles scattering his cheeks.

“It kinda is, especially since we’ve been looking at ourselves for 10 minutes. I think I look okay, but I swear I saw my nose change form and I don’t know what it actually looks like anymore.”

Ron finally tore his eyes off the mirror, turning towards Harry. He titled his head, scanning his friend for a split second. He shrugged. “Looks like your nose to me. Not that I stare at your nose when I talk to you.”

“You’re doing it right now.” Harry replied instantly, unable to stop the grin pulling at his lips.

“Shove off, will ya? You asked.” Ron answered. Harry laughed.

Ron ended the daily mirror session with crossed arms, a grumble forming on his mouth as he sat on his bed in a dramatic way. “Never gonna see her.” He muttered.

Harry shrugged, and, with one last hopeful look in the mirror, joined Ron on his bed, legs dangling off it.

“Sure it’s fine- we just have to look at the same time.”

Ron scoffed at Harry’s attempt at assurance. “Yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen. You’d really think girls stare at themselves in the mirror all day.”

Harry once again shrugged, not really educated on the behavior of girls. When he saw a pretty one he’d stare for a while and go pink in the ears, but look away before she could notice.

“I couldn’t know, Ron.”

“Whatever. Come on, we have to go see what Hermonie’s up to. Reading a a ten million paged book I ‘spect.”

Second Year (Age: 12)

-

“I think I look about normal now, how about you?”

Harry was looking at himself in the mirror, watching the last of the transformation from one of Draco’s disgusting friends back to his normal self. Ron’s ear was still a little big but they both watched it slowly shrink.

“‘Bout back to normal. That was weird.”

Harry couldn’t help but agree, but he also couldn’t help but look at his normal face for a bit longer than usual, trying to catch a glance at her.

“Lookin’ for her again?” Ron figured, raising a brow as he looked at Harry from the corner of his eye, now looking at the mirror too.

“Yeah… but it’s no use.” Harry decided, looking away. Ron went up to the stall Hermione was in, and let’s just say what was happening definitely distracted Harry from the mirror.

Third Year (Age: 13)

-

“We’ll bring you lots of sweets, Harry.” Hermione promised, looking pitiful at the boy while her and Ron got ready to head to Hogsmeade. Ron nodded, eager to leave but still look like he felt bad.

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Loads.”

Harry bid them goodbye and started to wander around the castle, the Marurders map in his hands as he looked at where everyone was. The dots moved frantically as people made their way about, each labeled with a name so Harry could see everyone on the grounds.

He went to his dormitory first, setting the map down temporarily before glancing at the mirror recklessly. He knew she was probably at Hogsmeade right now, giggling with friends as they shopped for candy after candy so looking at a mirror was the last thing on her mind. He wondered what she looked like, and the more he stared at himself instead of her the more he wanted to know.

“Come on,” he muttered, watching his lips move in the reflection. “Just look in the mirror.”

Oh but she was. Just never at the same time as he.

Forth Year (Age: 14)

-

“Harry Potter.”

Harry wanted the ground to swallow him. Every pair of eyes were on him, his cheeks turning a soft red. Hermione shoving him brought him out of his trance, encouraging him to go up to Dumbledore.

He stood up in wobbly legs, making his way to the Headmaster. The man handed him the piece of paper that had “Harry Potter” written on it, and gestured Harry to go to the back room with the rest of the champions.

The boy did so, meeting Cedric, Fleur, and Krum’s confused gazes, their eyebrows furrowed.

He stood there hopelessly, watching as people around him decided what they should do.

The dread news of having to compete was high, so high that he didn’t notice the mirror on the other side of the room. If he looked into it, for just a glance of time, he would’ve noticed sparkling eyes and bit lips, longing for a glimpse of him.

-

“Good luck, Harry.”

Harry turned around, the sweat on his hand almost causing his wand to slip out onto the ground. The girl stood in front of him, twiddling with her fingers but she still had a kind hopeful smile on her lips.

Harry couldn’t help but smile back even though he didn’t know her.

“I hope you do well.” She added. Harry’s smile stayed the same, constant and genuine. “Thanks,” he replied. “I’m gonna need all the luck I can get.”

She smiled a little wider, making straight eye contact for the first time in their conversation, since she was too nervous before so she avoided his gaze. His bright green eyes connected with her soft ones, and Harry didn’t fail to notice the gentle flush that spread on her cheeks. What he did fail to notice was that her eyes would be vaguely familiar if he just looked in the mirror .

Fifth Year (Age: 15)

-

“Okay, everybody. Today we’re gonna learn about the Patronus Charm, which fights off a Dementor. In order to cast it, you have to think of a happy memory. Very powerful and strong. Think of the happiest moment in your life, and keep it clear in your mind.” Harry instructed, watching everyone wave their wands, happy moments in time flooding their thoughts.

The girl, far in the back, thought back to when she met Harry’s eyes, longing for the reflection of herself in them, hoping they’d be meant to be. It was too bright outside that day to tell, but the moment burned in her mind every day since then, the beauty green in his eyes taking the time to look at her, the moment she felt special.

The picture of him alone and his bright eyes was pictured in her mind, just like every day, but clearer for this moment.

“Expecto Patronum!”

A mighty clever fox whispered out of her wand tip, legs taking a stretch as it ran around her, causing a soft giggle to escape her lips.

“Fantastic!”

His voice rang in her ears, and she looked at him, the blurry whip of the silver fox being ignored as she scanned the room for the acknowledgement. Her shoulders sank a little when she found out he was talking to Neville instead, eyes leaving him and landing back on her fox who was still running in circles around her.

-

“Thanks for helping me clean.” Hermione told Harry, some things around them knocked over after the practice of the Accio Charm, a charm casted to bring a desired object to the wand owners hand.

“Of course.” Harry responded, watching Hermione leave as she soon said she had to use the restroom.

“Have you seen her yet?”

Harry flinched at the second voice, turning to see the girl who wished him luck before the First Task, staring hopelessly in the mirror.

He walked over to her, watching her eyes scan the mirror, noticing how she was biting her lip. Her eyes were sparkling despite the emotion that seemed to be crowding them.

“Nope; been trying since First Year, in fact.”

Harry looked into the mirror at the exact moment she turned away and looked at him in disbelief. “Really? First Year? I thought I was the only one.”

Harry chuckled, glancing at her face.“Well I didn’t know about it until my friend Ron told me.”

It was then it was silent, Harry not seeming to be able to look away from her eyes. She then smiled tightly, looking back at the mirror. He followed suit, looking at the same reflective surface as her, behind her shoulder.

He then saw no one but himself despite her looking too, then her face clear next to him, every detail but she seemed clear as a ghost, present but not. The boy blinked, making sure he wasn’t just seeing things, and he wasn’t. She was there, and he was there too in her vision because they both gasped at the same time, soft and surprising.

She looked at him, and he at her.

“All this time…”

“We’ve already knew each other…” he finished.

“That’s crazy.” She muttered, this time looking at him instead of the mirror.

He cleared his throat but didn’t make an effort to look away nonetheless. “So, did you accomplish the Accio Charm?”

“Yeah…” she muttered, more like whispered, her eyes moving down to his lips but looked back up to his eyes, her own swirling with something but Harry couldn’t tell what it was.

“Good…” Harry whispered back, taking a step closer.

“Did the Patronus Charm as well.” She added for conversation, since in this moment she couldn’t stand the silence. Harry nodded in acknowledgment, a sign to let her know he heard her, but they both knew he was half listening, his gaze on her mouth as well.

“Why’d you ask?” She found herself asking, not having the courage to lean in first, though if she could make any wish in the world at the moment it would be for the courage to do so.

“Just wondering…..” Harry muttered, breaking the space between them, soft lips touching hers. Her eyes fluttered shut, the warmth of his lips and face against hers surrounding her being and thoughts. His lips were smooth and soft, like pillows that she was laying on.

He broke apart first though, but only to turn his head to get a better angle, leaning in again as they found a soft gentle rhythm.

She dropped her wand, the clatter startling neither of them as her hands went up to his neck, pulling him impossibly closer, fingers diving into his hair, a soft sigh escaping him at the sensation.

They came apart for air, their lips still brushing against each other as they longed for the long lasting contact. She licked her lips, her tongue accidentally touching his briefly, another soft sigh coming out of his mouth.

This moment didn’t feel real to her, someone so special didn’t deserve her, but he was there and that was his choice; she could hardly believe it.

“We should go to the Common Room…”

Harry muttered against her mouth.

“Yeah… we should…” she replied, but neither of them made an effort to move away from each other, in fact their lips connected again, moving in softer movements than before, but the strong feeling in her chest was all the same.

[chrollogy]

SIGNED: LOVESICK FOOL #01

iwaizumi hajime x f!reader

next | masterlist

synopsis: You decide to try out the university confessions page as an anonymous submitter to write a vague paragraph about your feelings for Iwaizumi—oddly enough, students following the page seems to be hooked in your confession.

chapter content warning: college au, fluff, oikawa appearance :3, reader is helplessly in love with mr iwaizumi hajime, not beta read.

word count: 2.3k

notes: divider: cafekitsune. sorry this came a bit late >< i fell asleep LMAOOOOOO

Falling in love has always been a weird concept. One day you wake up, and feel completely different towards a certain someone who you swear you only love platonically; your heart starts to race faster whenever you’re in their presence, mind formulating a million different thoughts on how to act normally until it loses its meaning, suddenly becoming overly self conscious of one’s appearance, and always wanting to look your very best whenever they’re around—the whole package.

Unfortunately, you were all too familiar with this.

As though in a romance movie, the whole world slowed down as your eyes landed on the person before you, anything, and everything faded into nothing—a mere whitenoise behind the rapid pounding of your heart.

Iwaizumi’s hair gleamed beneath the sun’s afternoon rays, long lashes ghosted over the apple of his cheeks, rosy lips slightly puckered in concentration. You remembered it like yesterday—the strong aroma of roasted coffee beans, the light chatter of other customers in the café, the warm blanket of sunshine, the heart-stopping eye contact.

Iwaizumi called your name a total of three times until you finally broke free from your trance; everything flooded back the moment your name slipped past his parted lips for the third time—as though suddenly reeled from a freeze frame.

You remembered blinking at him, letting a heartbeat or two pass before asking him what he needed, though, Iwaizumi’s words entered one ear, and left the other; you were more focused on the way his plush lips moved with every word spoken, mind wondering what it’d feel like against your own.

That night, you tossed, and turned beneath your ivory blanket; mind a complete mess, and heart an even bigger mess. You just didn’t get why you had to catch feelings for Iwaizumi out of all people.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, never but everything between the two of you has been strictly platonic ever since—hell, you both even had a fair share of past relationships; you felt indifferent when Iwaizumi introduced his first girlfriend to you but now, just the thought introducing another woman made your stomach churn uncomfortably.

Realising that bottling up these feelings was a foolish thing to do, you scoured your mind for anything, and everything just to find some kind of release from all these unsaid thoughts. You were close to giving up, and retire for the night until a random thought popped into your mind,

Seijoh University Anonymous Confessions.

The unofficial page was undoubtedly popular amongst the students of the university, it served as a freedom wall where one was given the ability to express anything, and everything to fellow students behind anonymity; ranging from harmless rants about the meal prices all the way to heartfelt messages, you name it.

Submitting a confession was easy, all one had to do was fill up an anonymous form linked on the page, and wait ‘til moderators post it for everyone else to see.

You’ve always just been an avid reader of the confessions, a mere pastime in between lectures, and study breaks. It was interesting to see other students’ perspective, and thoughts in the campus you all shared, serving you a reminder that despite being in the same environment, everyone experienced things very differently.

Though, the only constant factor in everyone’s university lives was the confession page, even yours.

Despite the page ensuring full anonymity, it was still nerve-wracking to turn your feelings into words, your thumbs shook as you typed each letter into the anonymous form. You knew Iwaizumi would eventually see this confession despite only reading from the page from time to time, you just hoped it was vague enough for him to not notice—he was smart, and usually pieced clues together like it was nothing.

Surely out of all these students submitting confessions to this page everyday, Iwaizumi wouldn’t know, right?

The next few days consisted of refreshing said page, and waiting for your confession to pop up. “You’ve picked up your phone at least ten times in the past two minutes, what’s so interesting?” Oikawa’s dulcet voice pulled you into reality, your torso unceremoniously jerked away to shield your phone as he attempted to take a peek at the device in your hand.

The former narrowed his eyes at you but before he could throw a sly remark your way, Iwaizumi let out an annoyed sigh which gained yours, and Oikawa’s attention.

“Oikawa, if you’re bored, go bother someone outside the study room.”

The brunette playfully rolled his eyes before standing up to stretch, a small yawn slipping past his rosy lips. “Alright, I’m going to get some snacks. Anyone want any?” He grabbed his phone off the table before shifting his gaze between you, and Iwaizumi who only shook his head in silence, completely preoccupied with an assignment.

“Can I come?” “No, go scroll on your phone.”

Oikawa stuck his tongue out, not letting you protest before leaving the study room. The sound of the door clicking echoed throughout the walls of the study room, a deafening silence engulfed you, and Iwaizumi; for you, the silence was awkward, for him, it was completely normal.

If your heart were to pound any louder against your chest, you were sure he would’ve heard.

You randomly flipped through the pages of your textbook, trying to make yourself look busy. God, you couldn’t get more awkward than this. A flurry of overly self-conscious thoughts flooded your mind—would he think I’m weird for flipping too many pages? Fuck, am I reading this paragaph too fast? Is my posture okay? Oh god, I haven’t looked at a mirror all day, do I look fine? Is my hair messy?

Small, sharp prickles kissed down your body as heat engulfed you out of nowhere, cheeks warmed, and palms sweaty. You let out a sigh, nails digging into the skin of your nape, attempting to relieve the annoying itch.

“You okay? You seem very stressed lately.” Iwaizumi pushed his laptop screen halfway down to get a better view of you, he was slouched far into his seat, arms propped on either side of his laptop. His gaze met your own, deep emerald eyes boring into your very core. With a racing heart, you turned your mind upside down for an answer,

“Yeah . . I’m fine. Just tired is all.” Mentally cursing yourself, your nails harshly dug into the hearts of your palm—your voice came out small, and airy, not really convincing but whatever. If Iwaizumi caught your little white lie, he didn’t press on, instead returning a subtle dip of his chin before shifting his gaze back onto the laptop before him.

Sounds of soft keyboard tapping, and the low hum of the wall clock accompanied the deafening silence, you sat there twiddling your thumbs like a dumbass as if you weren’t supposed to be studying.

Iwaizumi wasn’t even doing anything yet here you were, warm faced, and as stiff as a board, if only he knew the effect he had on you. It was beyond embarrassing, really, how he was able to have this effect on you with little to no effort but then again, this was the Iwaizumi Hajime, of course it made sense.

For the first time in forever, you silently wished Oikawa came back as soon as possible—each second passed without a word spoken between you, and Iwaizumi, and you could really use the brunette right now to diffuse the growing awkwardness on your side.

As if the heavens answered your prayer, Oikawa came striding past the door, a bunch of snacks tucked neatly beneath his arm, and torso; you’ve never felt happier seeing him but you weren’t about to let anyone know. The brunette held his phone with his other hand, brown eyes concentrated on the device,

“Have you guys read the new confession? The page just posted it a couple of minutes ago.” He set the snacks on the table, and slid one your way before sitting down.

That’s right, just like you, Oikawa was also an avid reader of the university confessions page as though it was the morning newspaper. You couldn’t really blame him, the whole concept of it was interesting, plus, some confessions were rather strange but fascinating, nonetheless.

Iwaizumi wordlessly shook his head, not sparing a glance at his friend, you, on the other hand, felt a sudden wave of panic wash over your body. Did they finally post your confession? You squirmed in your seat, trying to act nonchalant, and completely normal about the situation at hand, “Mmm, no, not yet. Is it that interesting?”

Oikawa let out a low hum, an amused smile plastered on his face, with the way his gaze shifted back, and forth across the screen of his phone, he seemed to be reading the newest confession. The expression on Oikawa’s face did nothing to relax your nerves, he looked like he was enjoying every bit of the post—surely, you didn’t put much detail into it for anyone to piece it together or did you?

You expected the brunette to answer a simple yes or no along with a little explanation like he always did whenever he brought up the confessions page but apparently, he decided he’d read it out loud without you or Iwaizumi even asking.

Oikawa cleared his throat, “Here, I’ll read it out loud,” 

“Oh god. Never in a million years did I think this would happen to me but lately I’ve noticed that every time I see him, my heart starts racing. I can’t act normally around him anymore and he just looks so handsome whenever I see him. It’s hopeless, I know but some part of me wishes that my feelings are reciprocated. I don’t blame myself for falling in love because he’s such an amazing guy. He’s my everything, he knows that but he doesn’t know I don’t mean platonically. Sigh.”

As your friend read deeper into the paragraph, you slouched further into your seat, cheeks burning like the sun, and embarrassment engulfing your whole body. That was your confession. Fuck, you just wanted the floor to swallow you whole right then, and there.

Your eyes darted between Oikawa, and Iwaizumi, scanning their expressions—the former obviously had a smug smile on his face while the latter looked indifferent; the same old deadpan expression he’d worn since the start of your study session.

As if to make things worse for you, the brunette spoke up again, “It’s gaining quite the attention only because it's such a juicy confession, and students are trying to find out who’s in love with their best friend.” Oikawa chuckled, turning off his phone, and resting his palms behind his head.

What the fuck. How was your confession gaining more attention than the others? Last time you checked, yours was just a typical love confession, something all students have seen hundreds of times on the page, nothing special.

“W-what? Why? Why is it gaining attention?” Your tone came out more panicked than intended. Upon realising this, you awkwardly cleared your throat, and took a sip from your water bottle to help your nerves calm a tad bit before speaking up once again, “What’s so interesting about it, anyway?”

Oikawa shrugged, “Just a typical love confession but I’m not going to lie, it’s always interesting whenever someone has feelings for their best friend.”

Grabbing the snack Oikawa gave you earlier, you hastily opened the bag, and popped a chip in your mouth. Yeah, maybe eating something will calm your nerves.

This time, it was Iwaizumi’s turn to speak up, “Mhm. I’m guessing everyone’s just curious about it, maybe many can relate. It’s not easy being in love with your best friend.” He finally looked up from his laptop, dark emerald eyes shifting from Oikawa to you.

His gaze lingered a little too long for your liking which caused your brain to short circuit. Before you knew it, all you could do was listen to the sound of your yearning heart, fingers curling around the chip packet as your grip tightened.

You sucked in a breath, and averted your gaze from Iwaizumi, staring at the contents of your chip packet, “True . . I feel sorry for OP, especially since it's a long term friendship.” At least your voice didn’t come out shaky this time. Iwaizumi only nodded, he seemed to be in deep thought, whatever the reason was, you absolutely didn’t want to know.

Back in your dorm, you couldn’t help but check the comments under your confession, and as Oikawa stated earlier, majority of it were students tagging their friends on the post, and trying to find out who’s in love with their best friend. Some also gave sound advice about the situation which you appreciated, though, you didn’t know if you were really ready for a face to face confession with Iwaizumi.

Weirdly enough, the unexpected attention gave you a bit of confidence now that you were looking at it from another perspective. Earlier, it felt like a complete nightmare with how much other students were invested in your sad lovelife but now that you’ve calmed down, it was reassuring to see others give blind support, and words of encouragement.

Safe to say, there was still a hint of community between students despite everyone fighting their way through the semesters.

Plus, everyone seemed to await your next confession post, so who were you to deny them that? After all, you couldn’t really talk about it with anyone else, why not share it with the student population behind anonymity?

As expected, not only did your confession gain more traction within the next few days, but friends from classes you’re taking have also been talking about it. Though you couldn’t really comprehend what was so special about your submission, your feelings felt nothing but valid. Suddenly, it didn’t really feel like much of a crime being in love with your best friend—running away from your feelings was never an option but you’d be lying if you said it didn’t once cross your mind.

A million thoughts from students floated throughout the campus regarding the confession; ‘I wonder what their best friend is like?—he must be a really amazing guy.’ ‘I’m kind of curious as to what the person behind the confession is going to do next.’ ‘Heh, what if this confession is actually meant for me?’ ‘When will it be my turn?’

You’ve heard it all.

Despite everyone’s attention on the post, you just really wished that in the back of Iwaizumi’s mind, there was a pressing thought telling him the confession might be for him.

—

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© chrollogy 2024 | don't plagiarise, repost or steal my header.

[supernovafics]

series masterlist | last part — next part

pairing: modern!college!steve harrington x fem!reader, bestfriend!eddie munson x fem!reader

word count: 3.1k words

warnings: explicit language, overall a very sweet and wholesome chapter 🫶🏾 (before things go slightly 📉 in the next one)

summary: you spend valentine’s day (well, night) with steve

CHAPTER TEN | ❝𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖❞

Spring Semester 2016

“You should still come. I want you to.” How genuine Eddie’s words sounded almost made you want to say yes, but you didn’t. You couldn’t.  

“No, I’d rather not be a third wheel with you and Chrissy for a week,” You said, keeping your voice playful even though your words were a thousand percent serious. You shifted a bit on your bed, crossing your legs under yourself.  

“That’s not gonna happen,” He responded and that was when you looked up from the book you had in your hand and over to where Eddie was sitting at your small desk— you’d been stuck reading and rereading the same page since he showed up to your dorm room five minutes ago. 

You knew that the plans for spring break had changed long before Eddie even realized that they did. There was no way that you’d be spending the week with him in his hometown— he had Chrissy now. What did surprise you was that he still wanted you to come, which was a nice thought but a horrible idea. And you couldn’t tell him exactly why you felt that way. 

Yes, your feelings for him were buried, but that didn’t mean that you wanted to have a front-row seat to his and Chrissy’s relationship for a week— the PDA, the cute stuff, everything. You’d immediately end up as a third wheel, and you didn’t believe Eddie’s words of “that not happening.”

“It’s inevitable,” You told him, and before he could potentially protest your words, you shifted the subject just slightly. “And besides, my roommate is already gone, so I’ll get to have the room to myself this entire week and that will be nice.”

Eddie considered your words for a second.  “You sure?”

You nodded. “Very.”

He was quiet for another moment and you wondered if he was going to ask you again if you were sure or if he was going to say something else to try and convince you to come, but instead, he said, “Okay, but call any night you hate the quiet and just want to talk about nothing.” 

Hearing him say that made you smile. “Got it. Thanks.” 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Spring Semester 2018

For the first time probably ever, it was quiet in your apartment.

Everyone had gone to some romcom movie marathon thing at the close by movie theater; it started at seven and was going until midnight. You, of course, wanted to go too, but you instead told everyone that you had something planned with Steve for the night. Since it was Valentine’s Day, you figured that it would’ve probably seemed weird if you and him didn’t have “something planned.”

Your actual plans for the night were still uncertain to you. You contemplated staying in your room or heading to the library to study so that you could just get out of the apartment for the time being. 

You were still in the middle of deciding what to do when your phone started ringing on your desk. The only name you expected to see was Steve’s, and you were right.

“Hi.”

“Hey,” He started. “Are you home right now?”

“Yeah,” You answered as you sat at the foot of your bed. “Oh, shit, is this the part where you murder me?”

Steve laughed a bit. “If the answer was yes, I wouldn’t tell you that.” 

“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a murdering right now. I’m really bored.” 

“Great, I’ll be there in ten minutes,” He responded and then added, “Not to murder you, by the way. I just need to give you something.” 

“And by something, you mean a knife to my heart. What a great Valentine’s day present.” 

Steve laughed again. “You’re being weirder than usual.” 

There was something about how amused he sounded that made you smile. “Thanks. See you in ten.”

He was knocking on your door fifteen minutes later, and you still hadn’t come to a decision about what you wanted to do for the rest of the night. 

“Hi, your elevator really sucks.” 

You almost laughed at that since you knew exactly how shitty the elevator in the building could be. “Yeah, you got lucky when you were here for game night.”

It was then that you noticed everything in his hands; the flowers and red gift bag that you could only assume had your favorite candy in it. 

“You really didn’t have to do this,” You told him as you opened the door further so that he could come in. 

“Of course, I had to. I already told you that I like being a good fake boyfriend,” He joked, smiling at you.  

“In that case, thank you,” You said as he handed everything over to you; and you couldn’t help but take note of how nice the daisies were. “And I don’t really care about being a good fake girlfriend, but I actually did get you something too.”

You started heading toward your room and gestured for him to follow you.  

You placed the flowers and gift bag on your desk and then grabbed the small stuffed brown bear that was wearing a red bowtie and handed it over to Steve. 

“Wow, great minds,” He said, and before you could ask him what he meant, he continued. “Look in the bag.”

You nodded as you looked in the red gift bag, seeing the sour gummy worms, which you expected, and then also a stuffed bear. It was brown too but it was holding a red heart in its hands. You smiled at it and then at Steve as you pulled it out.“Thank you, but Bowie’s better.”

“Bowie?”

“The name of your bear,” You said, gesturing to what he was still holding in his hand. “Because of the bow tie. Bowie.” 

“Shouldn’t I be the one who gets to name it?” 

“No,” You said simply.

“Okay, then,” Steve nodded, an amused smile on his face. 

Things became quiet for a second, comfortably so, until he was speaking again. “I’m just realizing that it’s actually quiet here for once. Where’s everyone?” 

“They went to this romcom movie marathon thing at the movie theater,” You answered as you put the bear back in the bag and pulled out the gummy worms. “I told them that I had plans with you since it would’ve been weird if I didn’t.”

“Makes sense,” Steve nodded. “What are your actual plans for the night?”

You shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe watch a movie here or go to the library to do some work. Or maybe try to be a normal person and attempt to get a decent number of hours of sleep for once.”

“We should do something.”

Just for a second, you considered saying no to his suggestion because maybe he was just saying it to be nice and he didn’t really mean it. The equivalence of someone asking “How are you?” and always answering them with “Good,” even if that wasn’t true, because it was just easier and they probably didn’t even mean the question in the first place. 

But, you and Steve were passed that kind of thing. If he asked you how you were doing, you knew that you’d be honest with him, and you believed that that feeling was mutual. You also believed that he wouldn’t say something to you if he didn’t mean it. 

And that realization was what made you ultimately nod at his words. “Okay. What do you wanna do?”

He smiled then. “I already have an idea, but I think it should be a surprise.”

You gave him a look. “I can’t tell if I should be scared of that smile or not.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna murder you.”

“I think that’s exactly what a murderer would say,” You told him, but still changed into something that would be better for the cool mid-February weather and followed him out of your apartment and to the shitty elevators and then to his car.

The streets he drove down were familiar until they weren’t, and it became hard to tell where you two were going, but you kind of liked that; the not knowing. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“What makes this even more embarrassing right now is that I know that you’re trying to let me win.”

“I’m not,” Steve responded as he shot another basket and missed again. “I just haven’t played in a long time so I’m a little rusty.”

You shook your head. “You’re a bad liar.”

It was a twenty minute drive to the arcade that you and Steve ended up at. You had never heard of Mac’s, but Steve claimed that it was great, and after just the first half an hour of being there you could admit that he was right. You wondered how often he’d bring girls here; this place was a solid date idea, so you imagined that it had to be a “go-to.” But you didn’t ask that— you didn't ask why he wanted to bring you here or why it had been the first place that had come to his mind. Instead, you continued playing games with him, deciding not to wonder about anything else. 

Playing against each other in basketball was your suggestion even though you knew that you’d probably lose since only one of you was good at the actual game. But, there were eighteen seconds left and Steve was only up by two points in what was probably the lowest-scoring game of arcade basketball ever— ten points for you to his twelve. 

You gave him a playful smile. “You’re allowed to bruise my ego a bit since I demolished you twice in skee-ball.”

“You only won by a hundred points the first time and fifty points the second, so I wouldn’t necessarily call those the “greatest wins of all time.””

“Shut up, they were fantastic wins,” You responded as you watched the timers above your and his baskets go down to eight seconds. 

You shot again and missed and expected that to be it; you didn’t want to shoot more and just embarrass yourself further. But, when the timer hit five seconds, Steve almost too easily shot two of his balls into your basket, which made you two end the game tied. 

You looked at him. “I can’t believe you just gave me pity points.” 

“No, I just missed my basket really badly and accidentally made it in yours,” Steve said and you laughed as you shook your head and then grabbed the five tickets that came out of your machine and his for playing the game. 

You stuffed them into your jacket pocket along with all of the others that you and he had gotten over the past hour and then looked up at him. “Now, I’m starting to question my tiebreaker air hockey win.” 

Steve smiled at you. “No, that was real. You’re actually good at that.”

“I feel kind of offended that you said “actually good,” but thank you anyway, I guess,” You laughed again as you pulled the final two tokens out of the back pocket of your jeans. “Should we use these last ones on the rigged claw machine?”

Steve nodded. “Great idea.” 

You two had tried it earlier— it was actually the first thing that you and he did when you got to the arcade, as per Steve’s suggestion. When you went, you actually managed to grab something but it slipped out of the dumb claw at the last second, and the same thing happened to Steve. The odds now didn’t feel better at all, but you figured it was the easiest way to use the last tokens you two had.

“Are we trying for the stuffed green frog again?” Steve asked when you handed the tokens over to him and he put them in the machine, starting the sixty-second timer for the game. 

You shook your head, eyes on the random toys that were in the machine. “I think we should play it safe and do that red ball in the middle. It’ll probably be easier to get.” 

“Okay,” He said, and started moving the claw and then lowered it in what looked like the right spot, but the hand couldn't get a good grip on the ball so it immediately slipped out of its loose grasp.

You sighed. “So rigged. And a very sad way to end our arcade run. But, at least, we’ll be able to get something good with our tickets.”

Steve shook his head. “The only bad part about this place is that the prizes are kinda shitty.” 

“So we won’t be able to get something equivalent to the green frog?”

“Probably not,” He answered and you sighed overdramatically again. “And we should stay away from the candy too. I’m pretty sure it’s been sitting behind the counter since this place opened.” 

You two headed over to the lackluster “prize counter” and ended up with two palm tree keychains because that was somehow the only thing that your and Steve’s collective ninety-eight tickets could get. 

“You wanna go to the pizza place down the street?” He asked as you two stepped out of the arcade and onto the sidewalk. He gestured his head in the direction of the pizza place and you noticed the red and white checkered awning and glowing sign at the end of the block. “They’re pretty good.” 

“Okay,” You nodded, stuffing your hands in the pockets of your jacket when a gust of wind hit you both. “But, I’m buying since you got everything here.” 

“I can’t let that happen,” Steve responded, but you simply shook your head at him.

“Stop being so chivalrous and let me do something nice for you for once.”  

He laughed at how serious you sounded. “Okay, fine.”

You two kept walking, and then you were thinking of something and saying it before you could really consider your words. “It honestly sucks that you don’t want anything serious with anyone because you really would be a good boyfriend.” You weren’t sure why you were telling him that right then, but it was the truth. You looked over at him for a quick second. “Y’know, you never explained why you don’t do relationships.”

You remembered that during the night of the power outage, you were going to ask him pretty much that exact thing. When he mentioned his camp girlfriend and their three-week-long relationship, you wanted to know what happened to him wanting things like that— crushes, relationships, actual feelings for someone— but you felt like you couldn’t ask that then. However, for some reason, in this moment, bringing up that subject didn’t feel like it would be too much anymore— it no longer felt too deep or too real. It surprisingly felt normal. 

Maybe that said a lot about this friendship you two had developed— which still hadn’t been outwardly stated was an actual friendship, but it so obviously felt like one.  

“I don’t know,” You noticed him shrug. “I just don’t want to, I guess.”

“Did you get your heart broken and still haven’t fully recovered from it?”

Steve got quiet then instead of laughing at your joking question, which made you realize that you were actually right. 

“Wait, shit, really?” You stopped walking for a second and looked at him. He gave you a quick nod and you immediately felt terrible. “Fuck, I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be. It was years ago at this point— it happened Senior year of high school— and it also doesn’t really matter,” Steve shrugged. “And I am over it, actually, I just don’t want something like that to happen again, so…” He shrugged for a third time, which didn’t do much to convince you that it “didn’t really matter.”

“I guess that makes sense, but that’s kinda sad, I think?” You two had started walking again and you took the briefest look over at him as you spoke. “Letting one person change the way you feel about love and relationships and stuff. That sucks.” 

“When you put it in simple terms like that it does sound sad, but I don’t know, I don’t really feel that way,” Steve said, and his words surprisingly sounded honest. “And I won’t be against it forever— you already know that my parents would kill me. But for right now, it’s just easier. A lot easier.” 

You found yourself agreeing with him. Your life would probably be a thousand times easier if you viewed things like he did. 

“Okay, yeah, I get that,” You ultimately nodded. You two made it to the pizza place and he opened the door for you and you smiled at him in thanks. “It still doesn’t change the fact that some lucky girl out there is sadly missing out on the Steve Harrington boyfriend experience, though.” 

“Eddie’s missing out too,” He said and then playfully smiled at you. “Even though I know you’ll never get me curtains, you’re still a good fake girlfriend.”

You laughed as you both stepped into place behind the other people in line. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to tell you. I finally think that this whole fake dating thing will actually end up working.”

“You didn’t think it was gonna work before?”

“I mean, before I thought maybe it could, but now I feel more sure about it,” You answered, and it kind of surprised you how okay it felt saying those words and admitting that to Steve. 

There was still the smallest part of you that felt like maybe you were wrong about this— like you’d been with other things regarding you and Eddie a bunch of times before. However, it was also easier to shut that side of your mind down and go with the side of you that both wanted this to happen and felt like it genuinely could. 

And you knew that all of this had to do with Steve. You didn’t think you’d feel this certain about things if it wasn’t for him. He was that someone to tell you that the situation wasn’t helpless and you weren’t overthinking things, and you believed him.

“You’re right,” You told him when you two were sitting in one of the booths, but you were referring to the slice of pizza in your hand. “This is really good.” 

“Told you,” Steve said and then smiled. “And if we ever come back here, I’m buying.” 

You playfully rolled your eyes at him. “I guess I’ll allow that.”

“Good,” He responded, and then it was quiet for a moment until it seemed as if he realized something. “Oh, and it’s Hartford, by the way.”

“What?”

“The name of the bear I got for you,” Steve explained. “Since you named the one you got for me, I get to name the one I got you.” 

“Okay. Hartford,” You nodded and gave him a small smile. “I like that.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

next part!

taglist (lmk if you want to be added or taken off<333); @eddiernunson , @loulouloueh , @the-aster , @blckburd , @totally-bogus-timelady , @yujyujj , @irhdifartzamfyaa , @mochminnie , @munsonssweets , @blckbrrybasket , @xprloki , @definitionwanderlust , @dwcode , @sun-fiower-seed , @keerysfolklore , @damon-loves-pie , @lodeddiperrodrick , @bisexual-and-intellectual , @munsonburn3r , @negomi123 , @khena , @facexthexsunshine

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

A Phil update! For those who were asking.

I mentioned before that Phil works for a call centre. I'm pretty sure I've also made it clear by now that Phil's spectacular weirdness, coupled with his hatred of capitalism, means he's been mentally checked out of that job for a while now. His main focus has been his degree for the past year anyway. The only reason he's stayed is because Phil has a history of destructive impulsivity that he's been actively working on, so he didn't want to just walk out.

So there we are, scene set. Last week, he phones my husband.

"A weird thing happened in work," he tells Steff. "My manager called me into the office for a chat, but... I think it was weird? I'm pretty sure it was weird."

"Tell me what happened, Phil," says Steff.

***

Here's the story:

Phil goes into the office, and the manager fixes him with a Kind Smile.

"Phil," the Manager says hesitantly. "Do you... like working here?"

"...um," says Phil, distantly aware after Many Conversations with Exasperated Friends that the correct answer to your boss is 'yes', but physically incapable of lying. "Well. I. Um."

"Because," the manager says awkwardly. "Look, you - it's okay."

"Is it?" Phil asks vaguely.

"It's okay," the manager repeats. "I know you don't like working here. This isn't what you want to do. You don't want to stay."

"No," Phil agrees, relieved they are on the same page.

"Listen," the manager says, in an agony of awkwardness. "Look, Phil... you're such a nice guy. Just... I'll write you the best reference. But you can just... go, if you want. You can... go back to your desk and log out and just... leave."

"...okay," says Phil. And he leaves.

***

So he tells this story to Steff, who is, obviously, BAFFLED.

"Okay," says Steff. "Right. Phil. Phil what the fuck did you do."

"Nothing!" Phil protests. "I didn't do anything!"

"Okay," Steff says again, changing tack. "Phil. What have you done recently that a capitalist would disapprove of?"

"Oh," says Phil. "It's probably because I gave that old woman £200 of company money."

"...go on," Steff says wearily.

***

Here's the story:

This sweet old woman rings and says her phone was down for a couple of days. She's calling to complain, because it meant she couldn't contact her relatives, and she felt lonely.

"I'm so sorry," says Phil. "Do you want some money?"

("First question," says Steff. "Were you supposed to give any money at all for that?"

"...no," says Phil.)

So this old woman is like "Uh... yes please? Okay?"

"Alright!" says Phil cheerfully. "Let's see how much I can give you."

("Second question," says Steff. "Were you allowed to give out £200 to anyone?"

"Oh, no," says Phil. "They made it really difficult, actually, it took ages.")

"Ah," Phil tells this old lady. "I can only give you £50. Let's try that."

"I... thank you," says this old lady, already in the grip of the Heady Bewilderment that descends on everyone who speaks to Phil for a bit. "That's very generous."

"It's gone through!" says Phil happily. "There we are. I wonder if it'll let me do it again?"

"Um," says the old lady, who is starting to sense that she's dealing with a maverick doing something he shouldn't.

("Third question," says Steff. "Did she ask for more at any point?"

"Um... no," says Phil.)

"It worked!" Phil says brightly. "Do you want me to do it again? I think it'll let me."

"...okay," this old lady says, strangled. "Thank you."

"No problem," says Phil helpfully. "It's done it, I think. Shall we do one more?"

"Yes please," says this old woman, who is now convinced she's either called the wrong number or is speaking to an amenable faerie one mustn't refuse.

Phil tries again. It goes through.

...

"Do you think," Steff asks, "that this might have been a fireable offence?"

"I suppose?" Phil says dubiously. "The company has loads of money though, I don't see why."

"...no, of course you don't," Steff agrees.

"Anyway," Phil says. "I think I left on a good note. But that might have been weird, too."

"What did you do," Steff sighs.

"Well, I packed up my desk," says Phil. "And then this guy turned up who was supposed to give me some training. And I told him that I was leaving so it wasn't necessary, and then he said that he had to give the training-"

"You did the training, didn't you," says Steff.

"I did the training," says Phil.

[acheronist]

to the ghost of henry peglar, congrats on writing your poem down 177 years ago!!!

to the actual academic scholars who have studied the pages before me....

so I took the royal museum greenwich's scan of the poem page (which is available online hereeee) and screwed around with its light levels in photoshop until henry's script was darkened enough to see more clearly. then I digitally traced over the darkened letters as best as I could, while also trying to discern his handwriting, and type up how I was reading it & this process took me about a week to get done between like... living my regular day to day life lmao.......

so when it WAS done, the final isabel acheronist peglar papers ["the open C"] transcript seemed a bit different than how I remembered the readily available russell potter transcript going ? (the poem is on the last two pages of that pdf for those of you who don't spend a billion hours a week looking at it btw)

it felt like I was getting more/different information out of it, compared to the potter transcript, which was kind of stressing me out honestly. so THEN I compared mine with barry cornwall's original poem and found more words that matched up? particularly in the second and third stanzas?

so!!!!! almost two hundred years later here's what I've landed on:

April 21 1847 the C the C the open ) ( it grew so fresh the Ever free the Ever free the Ever free without it without it covered it will Run to Earth above Re gions Round I love the C I love the C when I whare & I wish to be with and and silence whare Never go if a sailor should a Come and Make the meek What matter what matter Come Ride Or Sleep there was shores white and of red morn at the noisy hours knew I was ever near I was Born the [...] in felt Unto the Maid the wale the young dolphin ...... yet thes back of gold the Call of gods When I was on Old England Shore I like the young C more and more oftentimes time flew to a sweltering place like a bird thats seeks it mother Case and ware she was bird oft to me for have I loved a young and Hopen C

so then after going thru All Of That, I wanted to have a version of the original poem with parts that Henry did remember clearly highlighted for comparison purposes:

I know it's a popular theory that Henry was writing a dirty parody of the original poem? which if true, is funny as hell. me when i have to write cheeky victorian porn before i die.

But (serious voice) something about that hadn't ever seemed exactly right to me... IN MY HEART it seems more realistic that around 1847 he (and also by extension, the whole surviving expedition crew) were starting to experience confusion / brain fog symptoms from being ummmm quite physically unwell. the lead poisoning/scurvy combo would have severe effects on the brain's ability to function properly, and I started to wonder if Henry was trying to test his memory somehow? So he picked a widely known and popular Victorian era poem about being a sailor to see how much he could recall??? and he then got a little whimsical with it, and wrote in his own words to fill in the portions he couldn't fully recall, because it's his own diary and likely didn't expect anyone else to ever read it, much less have it turn into ONE of TWO surviving sources about the expedition?????

like... idk... this is probably the work of someone in the exact moment as they were starting to realize how bad things were, and then was trying to cope by using poetry. and That hurts my feelings enough as it is, but going through it was also just a very weird and haunting experience....... like, I can recognize all these tiny details in this dead guy's script and handwriting now. and to read his own account of his life in his own words, what stood out to him and what he recalled, what he wanted people in the future to know about him? insane. it literally felt like i was getting haunted by him for no reason. on top of knowing that Someone (#teamarmitage) loved this guy enough to keep his memory protected and safe, even though They Were So Totally Fucked And Going To Die There, unknowing if they'd ever be found again........

SIGHING + SIGHING + SIGHING + SIGHING + CRYING A BIT HONESTLY

anyways thanks for reading this all. I don't think that this is revolutionary franklin expedition news by any means, and idk if there's a better different transcript somewhere that i've not found that already covers all this? but it's consumed a lot of my life lately lol and i wanted to share. because its the anniversary of henry writing it, and it felt...... important....? 💌....????

[intothedysphoria]

Going from a social outcast to seemingly universally desired was a change that Billy found himself sorely lacking the capacity to deal with.

It felt like barely a year ago he was just the fat kid with the asshole dad. The kid who was more comfortable speaking Irish than English. The weird kid who couldn’t sit still in class and had “outbursts” that would leave a classroom completely overturned.

Now he’d lost weight (not by choice), had to speak English if he didn’t want to be uprooted for a third time and was supposedly taking his adderall post ADHD diagnosis. Neil was still an asshole but that would never change.

He was desirable now. A hot commodity. Had the approval of everyone apart from his own fucking dad.

In short, Billy was absolutely miserable.

He missed California a lot. He missed Belfast even more. He missed being fat. He missed his mam and grandad. He missed everything.

Showing any signs of weakness was how it started though. So Billy did what he always did. He adapted.

Harrington was weird. Taking the crown from him was almost too easy. For all the talk he’d been fed about King Steve, what Billy got was a teenager who couldn’t make eye contact, spent an hour reading two pages of a textbook and walked like a penguin when nobody was watching.

Good thing Billy didn’t mind weird.

The usual taunts didn’t really work. All it really achieved was getting Harrington flat on his back on the gym floor and that got Billy thinking about sex which wasn’t helpful.

Harrington just stared up at him with these big startled eyes. Like a damn deer. The pointed star he wore around his neck swayed as Billy let him up. Jewish maybe. Billy felt his hand unconsciously drift down towards his own pendant, the one his granny had given him.

The one that would help him find his way back home.

They fought within a week. Arsehole had Max holed up in a strangers house. It made Billy’s skin crawl just thinking about it. Especially after having to flirt with Karen Wheeler just to get any answers, All he could remember was that he was winning then the world started going black.

When he woke up there was a dead something in the fridge. He probably hadn’t woken up at all then. His body took that hint as a sign to collapse again.

He woke up again. A small woman with mousy brown hair and a nervous tic was cooking. Billy could hear The Clash drifting from another room. Christmas lights were scattered across the wall. It was the first place in Hawkins that had actually felt like home.

The woman’s name was Joyce. The house he’d found Harrington and Max and the nightmare in had been her house. She was dressed practically and smelled like paint and reminded him so much of his own mam that his heart hurt.

She was a good cook. The soup wasn’t like anything he’d ate before, probably Polish but it was fantastic. She asked if he wanted to stay the night. He said no.

Neil would be waiting. He always was.

Neil had burned the damn book. The one Billy had wrote when he was seven, colouring all the words in orange and white and green. It hurt more than any punch every could have.

He was under house arrest again. Only let out when Max needed a fucking taxi to a Christmas dance. Harrington was a couple of cars away, fussing over a boy of about thirteen who could have been his younger brother.

They weren’t biologically brothers. But Henderson was his cousin. So they were in spirit. Those were some of the things Billy learned from a few strained sentences of conversation.

He apologised in a way so Billy reluctantly returned one. Apparently he hadn’t realised how fucking dodgy he’d looked with Max.

Billy was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Neil kicked him out of the house on Christmas Day for hanging an Irish flag on his door. Billy went to the Byers. Joyce’s family didn’t exactly celebrate Christmas but she still gave him a present.

She gave him gorgeous Polish cakes which were fucking delicious and some of Jonathan’s old vinyls which he didn’t listen to anymore.

That day Billy discovered The Specials and tucked the vinyl under his weed stash in the Camaro boot. Somewhere Neil would never think to look.

Harrington was tolerable after Christmas break. Tolerable in an infuriating way because Billy still wanted to fuck him. The queerness wasn’t something he’d told anyone about though apart from Patrick McKinney so he kept those thoughts to himself.

He spent more time at the Byers, learned what Shabbat was, came out to Joyce in a flood of tears, kissed Harrington, wrote a letter back to Ireland for the first time in two years and made a plan to get the hell out of Hawkins Indiana.

Harrington managed to pass high school with a lot of bribery and tutoring and kissing at his place. Jesus but Harringtons house was a bloody mansion. Billy had spent his first eight years in a terraced shared accommodation where his entire extended family had lived. Harrington had five bathrooms and his own television. Not even in black and white.

Billy got his predicted mix of A’s and B’s so he was happy and spent most of the weekend post graduation floating on his back in the Harrington pool, beer in hand. He couldn’t afford to slack off completely though. So he got a summer job.

Working at the community pool was fine. As long as Billy didn’t think about the middle aged women staring at him like a piece of meat. Fucking perverts. Heather was fun though. Funny. The only lesbian he’d met in Hawkins apart from Buckley.

Neil had started acting even weirder than usual after a night Billy had slept over at his boyfriends. He’d taken to ice baths and Billy swore he’d seen the man drinking bleach. Ugh.

Max was pretty obviously freaked out though so Billy slowly phased her into spending most nights at the Byers or the Sinclairs or Steve’s. Susan wouldn’t budge. Something in Billy’s chest felt a bit sick about that.

The Fourth of July they were in the mall, the one Steve worked at. Something even more hellish than the thing in the fridge stood above them. And Neil just stood by with blank, hateful eyes and let it happen.

He died. Billy killed him. Stabbed him in the chest then the monster went away.

Steve was gripping his shoulders as he stood there, Neil’s blood on his jacket and he cried.

Susan left.

Social services took Max. Billy cried a lot that day. She was living with some family in Michigan. They promised to keep in touch.

Billy went to therapy twice a week. A guy from County Mayo who Billy trusted immediately.

There was no point really in Joyce adopting him as he was over eighteen. Besides she didn’t need to. Billy knew who his family were.

A letter came back from Belfast. Inviting both him and Steve back to his grandparents house. Steve had never left the US, had never really left the Midwest actually. Billy wanted to show him everything.

The years went by and Billy regained weight. He stopped speaking English as much and was determined to teach Steve Irish. He still sometimes forgot to take his adderall and had awful nightmares but Steve was there to make it better.

He was alive. And life was pretty ok.

[theemporium]

Hi!

🐈‍⬛ Reader hearing scary noises while being home alone on Halloween and calls Jack to come over and take care of her🥲

thank you for requesting!🫶🏽

.

You loved Halloween.

You loved the festivities in the month leading up to the holiday. You loved the spooky movies that made you laugh and the horror movies that made you jump. You loved the ghost stories and the old wives’ tales people whispered and shared during the month of October. There truly wasn’t an aspect you didn’t like.

But maybe your obsession meant you got in your own head a lot.

A coincidence was no longer just a coincidence. Things didn’t just happen by chance. And weird noises weren’t just random, one-time situations.

It sucked that you had gotten sick during one of your favourite holidays of the year. You hated the fact you had been confined to the couch, a blanket thrown over your lap and a marathon of movies playing on the tv since you had woken up this morning.

You had felt like shit. Your social media pages were flooded with everyone celebrating the holiday, dressing up and posting funny little stories and clips to their pages. It just made you resent the stuffy nose, sore throat and headache you had been sporting the last few days.

And Jack knew you were sick. He wanted to come over and spend the holiday with you. But you had been stubborn and firm that you didn’t want to get him sick, nor did you want him to miss out celebrating with his teammates.

You could survive a night alone.

However, thirty minutes into some creepy horror movie that left you more disturbed than scared, everything changed.

You didn’t hear the first noise, just passing it off as a noise in the movie. The second time, you became painfully aware that you were alone in an apartment that was in a building probably just as empty with everyone out and about. By the third noise, your chest was tightening with uneasiness and your finger was pressing Jack’s name before you could stop yourself.

“My favourite girl! How are you feeling, babe?”

You swallowed back the lump in your throat, feeling guilty at how excited and happy he sounded on the phone. You didn’t want to ruin his night.

“Babe, you there?”

“Jack—” you started but a small, choked out whimper cut you off.

“Hey, no, it’s okay. I’m on my way right now. Just stay on the line with me, baby? Tell me what’s happened.”

“It’s stupid,” you confessed to your boyfriend in a hushed whisper, glancing around the house like you expected someone to pop out.

“Nothing is stupid when it comes to you, sweetheart. I can promise you that.”

Just as he promised, Jack stayed on the phone with you until he made it to your apartment. After seeing how shaken up you were, he made a point of doing a full swoop of the apartment before he joined you in the living room.

“All clear, baby,” he murmured as he tucked himself under the blanket, pulling you until you were practically draped on his lap. He knew he was taking advantage of the fact you were scared to finally be able to hold you after a few days since you had banned him. Then again, he didn’t care what reason he had to hold you, he just loved doing it. “Not gonna let anything happen to my girl.”

“Can you stay here tonight?” You asked in whispered voice, nuzzling your face into his chest as you pressed your ear against his chest, against his beating heart.

“Of course, baby,” he murmured, leaning down to kiss the top of your head. “Gonna stay as long as you want me.”

“Good,” you said. “You can be the ones the ghosts attack first so I can escape.”

Jack snorted. “Oh wow.”

“I love you.”

“Yeah, I’m really feeling the love here.”

.

[hey-august]

A Line from Me to You - Chapter 4

Description: Buggy finds a peculiar book on his ship. Enticed by the words contained on each page, the pirate opens up. Anonymity leads to vulnerability. What else will come from this? (Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, check out the story tag)

Word count: 1.9k

Warnings: This chapter is SFW, but that changes next chapter!! Buggy x afab!reader.

A/N: Defnitely messed up posting this the first time around. 🤡Posting from my phone, so let me know if it looks weird!

Tag list: @lostfirefly @rorywritesjunk @theladyofmanyfandomsfanfiction

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

“Maybe you should pick the next book.”

Buggy would have considered writing those words as admitting defeat if it wasn’t for how shaky your last note was. He could see each jump and jolt your hand made while asking for something less intense than the books Buggy picked.

After you both filled the end pages of “Rocks on the River” with enough saltwater to rival the ocean, Buggy offered another story from his backlog. The third novel you read together was a horrifying tale that pushed the readers into a toxic miasma of fear, paranoia, and unease, which oozed into their real lives.

The whole ship rang with a piercing shriek from the captain when an unfortunate freak tapped his shoulder from behind. A usually common occurrence was tainted by an early scene from the book. Buggy knew the touch wasn’t from grotesquely plump spiders descending from the ceiling, even though he screamed something that sounded like, “Get it the fuck off of me.” 

After reading a chapter full of creepy-crawlies, every small sensation left his blue hair standing on end, which only created a nerve wracking loop. Every breeze and rustle of fabric teased his prickled skin, mimicking the feel of grubby little arachnid and insectoid legs scurrying across his body. The sensation only went away after a frantic midday wash with near-boiling water and the roughest washcloth Buggy could find. After sloughing off more than one layer of skin, the pirate felt confident that he was clean and not infested.

You, on the other hand, had boasted about not being scared of the terrors held within the book. Unlike the invasive imaginary critters Buggy was battling, you were as snug as a bug in a rug when you curled up in bed to read each night. The chilling entities weren’t real, and if they were, you felt safe on the ship.

“I’m just saying, if soul-sucking bats were attacking, I would trust C. Buggy to protect m us.” 

As much as you tried to turn the start of “me” into “us,” the letters didn’t flow right. Rather than drawing attention to the slip-up by completely blacking out the convex letter, you simply crossed it out and hoped the other reader wouldn’t notice.

“I dunno, what if he hid from those horrid fucking things? I wouldn’t blame him, honestly…”

“Maybe…but I trust him.”

“He’s the captain, you’re supposed to trust him.”

“That’s not the only reason.”

You didn’t realize what you wrote until you punctuated the sentence by stabbing the page. Your hand moved quickly and defensively, upset by the assumption that your feelings were obligatory. Your fingers twitched as you restrained the flow of words. Your trust wasn’t unearned, it had grown over time. The seed was planted when you were welcomed to the ship with open arms and watered by his laughter and jokes, the care he held for his eclectic freaks, the little questions he’d ask about their lives at sea, and the flashy stories he pushed them weave. The roots reached deep, following the curve of his smile and tracing the crinkles in the corner of his eyes. 

The trust might have been obligatory at the beginning, but it had since blossomed into more. You weren’t ready to acknowledge the blooms and definitely weren’t going to share the unnamed feelings with a stranger.

Thankfully, Buggy’s preference for avoiding uncomfortable discussions kept him from prying further. His nightly alcohol whispered in a heated voice. It said he should ask, that he deserves to know why you trusted him so much. The voice grew quieter the longer he let the amber liquid sit untouched. Sure, a part of him was interested, but you didn’t elaborate for a reason. Thinking back to “Rocks on the River,” you never pressured him to write more about his childhood friend. Curiosity peeked through some of your notes, but it never confronted him. And he couldn’t bring himself to do that to you, so he moved onto the next section of the story.

This time, you completed the book first. Usually, you refrained from reading while on duty, but finishing the horror novel under a full moon in the crow’s nest seemed like a fitting end. Settled under an inky expanse that spilled into the still sea, you read words illuminated by moonlight. It didn’t take long for the whispers of subtle waves to take on an ominous tone. The rattling of the gently swaying ship became inhuman guttural groans. 

Creaks from other crew members on duty became less frequent and far less comforting. Their footsteps and shadows were no longer welcoming - they were unsettling and teased your fraying hold on reality. Seated so high above the others, you had no way of knowing if the life on deck were familiar or fiendish freaks. Laughter carried on the wind wasn’t jovial, but sinister. You tried to close the book, to stop the words from pulling you deeper into their dark world, but it didn’t work. You were already lost in fear and needed to claw your way out.

---

Buggy figured you would spend the night reading and woke up early to see if the book would be ready for him. He slipped the third annotated book into an interior coat pocket and headed to breakfast. Only a few pirates filled the hall - a mix of those eating their first meal of the day and those filling their stomachs before sleep. Despite the differences, everyone embraced the quiet morning and only the sounds in the room came from cutlery against plates, mugs on the wooden tables, and open-mouthed chewing. It would be a normal scene, except for you. Unlike the others, who were stuck in the cozy twilight at either end of sleep, you sat wide-eyed and jittery in front of a sparse meal. The captain approached the corner you cowered in like a scared animal.

“You alright? Something happen last night?” His voice was pulled low with concern.

Your eyes darted around the room, afraid of missing some unknown monster during this conversation. “I’m fine. Just tired. It was a long night.” You shivered slightly, fear and anxiety still running their courses through your body.

“Hey,” Buggy whispered softly as he crouched low, his leather boots creaking with the movement. “You sure that’s all?” His hand rested on the bench next to you. He wanted to reach out and keep you from shaking, but a different fear kept him from moving.

“I’m fine,” you repeated, looking everywhere but at the man in front of you. 

A moment of silence let you know the answer wasn’t accepted. You glanced at him a few times before getting stuck in the deep pools within his eyes. It always happened to you so easily - his pupils were large and dark enough for you to fall in those ocean-colored eyes without a second thought. Buggy raised his eyebrows, the movement also tugging the tip of his round nose, and tilted his head to the side. He could see through the flimsy facade you were hiding behind, so you let it go and took a deep breath. 

“It was a really long night, Captain. I think I’ll feel better after sleeping. I’m okay, really.” You emphasized the last word by nudging his gloved hand with yours. Just the smallest amount of touch to let him know you were being honest.

Buggy nodded and left without another word. Any details you were reluctant to share were housed in the book sitting in his pocket. 

---

The rest of the story that was written in the novel and documented your night  was devoured in his quarters, while the plate of breakfast sitting a hands-reach away on the desk grew cold. It was a different experience to read a horror book during the day, when the bright sunlight eliminated any errant shadows and kept the unknowns that resided in the dark at bay. Still, the author was skilled enough for goosebumps to cover the pirate’s body. He ran his hands along his arms and legs to iron away the physical response. 

As Buggy soothed his own unsettled nerves, he thought about you. How scared you must have been, alone and in the dark. How the fear followed you through the morning and you couldn’t shake the feeling. Literally. For a brief moment, Buggy imagined holding your trembling body, just as he was holding his own. Would you trust your captain enough to let him protect you from a fear response?

Although the pirate couldn’t bring himself to comfort you physically, he had an idea that could work. Filling with bubbling excitement, he sprang out of the desk chair, nearly toppling it in the process, and sprinted out of the room. A moment later, a lone hand whizzed back to toss his reading glasses on the bed and close the door.

---

You woke up as the sun was turning in for the evening, surprised that you managed to fall asleep. Thinking back, you might have actually passed out from exhaustion and worry. The orange glow now painting the walls in your room was comforting. You stretched your limbs to bring them back to life and put your arms behind your head. 

Staring at nothing in particular gave your mind permission to pursue its own entertainment, so it drifted back to the paranoia and apprehension you thought had left. Threads of their presence remained and tugging at them brought pieces of the story. Examining those moments was easier in the golden light, but as the warmth receded and night returned, so did the unease. Rather than staying inside and alone, you hoped to find companionship and protection with the late night crewmates.

Waiting just outside your room was the smell of fried food and smoked meat to keep you company. As you wandered the belly of the ship, you passed your mates filling their own bellies with greasy food and alcohol. The ebb and flow of movement seemed to be going to and coming from the deck. Following the alluring scents of popcorn, cotton candy, and sweet dough, you stepped into the open air. 

String lights adorned the ship, traipsing from mast to mast, illuminating the sails, and snaking around the deck railing. Hundreds of lights bounced on the rippled sea, creating a bubble of light that was periodically outdone by the handmade fireworks launched into the sky. As sparks rained down in a beautiful rendition of a meteor shower, you caught the silhouette of the captain standing at the helm of the ship. If anyone knew what ignited tonight's floating festival, it would be the man in charge.

You weaved your way across the deck, grabbing two bottles of beer on the way. Having learned from earlier events and rumors among the crew, you stomped your feet a little louder than usual to let Buggy know you were approaching, so he wouldn’t be caught off guard and attempt to swat you away in surprise. When he turned to see who the visitor was, you offered him a drink.

“Are we celebrating something special?”

“There doesn’t have to be a reason to have a party,” Buggy said, as though you should know better. “Besides, my crew always deserves a night like this!” He spread his arms and gestured all around him.

Despite the bright lights, enough of the night hung around to hide the blush on your cheeks. Eager to hide the heat behind alcohol, you held out your bottle. “Then here’s to us!” 

Buggy tapped his bottle against yours harder than he expected, causing a fountain of bubbles to overflow from both containers. You both leaned in to stop the spills before taking a proper drink. 

Little did you know, this was his first drink of the evening. Buggy, who was known to spend nights with his sloshing spirit in hand, had planned when and how much alcohol would be available. He considered how to drag out the crowds and stagger the inevitable crash as people blacked out and passed out. The pirate captain wasn’t sure how successful he’d be against soul-sucking bats, but every detail that would chase away another dark and lonely night was taken into account.

[mqverick]

Walking On Air || chapter 9

Take me to bed or lose me forever, was what Carole said to Goose every time they were together, having fun. Maverick never really understood what she meant by it until he started having feelings for you. It was exactly how he felt about you; he needed to just fuck everything and everyone, every obstacle in the way, and take you with him before he could lose you to someone else — which ironically enough, had already happened.

Or so he thought, until the other night.

He had been so fixated on the fact that you were taken so deeply inside of him, that he believed he could never fully have you, that part of your mind would always stay true to Iceman, even if the miracle happened and you broke up with him.

Hearing the drunken words come out of your mouth, so rushed and so painfully angsty, got him hoping you might be getting lost in the same path he’d been since the day you spoke to him for the first time. Drunken words were — in fact — sober thoughts, after all. Not to mention that it was the — what, third? — time he almost got to kiss you. Maverick was not the one to pine after someone, he was used to the exact opposite effect, never having to chase anyone.

He liked having to chase after you, though. He liked to dream up flawless scenarios of you, desperately wanting them to come to life. He liked how much of a dopamine rush he got from those breathless conversations and moments with you. It was hard to resist the urge to keep his feelings buried, opting to play them off as a charismatic, casual flirt — because that was what he’d been used to. That was all he knew.

You liked the way he yearned for you as well. He just made you feel so irresistibly wanted and loved, even if his cockiness never really helped his pure feelings come to light. You were very aware of them though, you were in the same page as him, never mind the fact that for you, it happened as an accident. Sure, a little flirting never hurt anyone — but oh, he was holding your hand (and for some reason you found yourself struggling to breathe steadily.)

In the morning, you woke up wanting to beat yourself to death. You’d been mindless; consuming all that alcohol, getting yourself hammered and ignoring the consequences.

Goose’s words were bloody when he said that Maverick technically had every right to hit on others. Goose’s words teared your heartstrings in pieces and made you conscious of how you’d been accusing everyone else to be a jerk, when in reality, you’d been the only twat in the story.

Maverick probably hated you.

Tom would probably hate you, too.

You tried. Gave it your all — good point to chuckle — to make your relationship with him work, but every time you closed your eyes, your mind betrayed you, unable of getting a certain someone out of the picture. The worst thing was the fact that you didn’t even really care whether Tom would want to cut you off once he found out about the situation you’d been dealing with.

You were frightened of the scenario where Pete stopped caring about you, mostly because it was impossible to imagine. Therefore, you did your best to turn yourself invisible by making up a rushed excuse of being too hungover to properly function at Top Gun, opting to stay home.

Tom respected your decision, wishing you to get well soon as he gave you a sweet kiss goodbye.

“Fuck,” you muttered as you fell back on the couch with a plop. You felt as if hours had passed when a thud on the door startled you. You fumbled to get up, standing unblinking as you opened the door to see Maverick holding a paper bag with both of his hands as he fiddled the heel of his shoe around the floor while chewing on the inside of his cheek.

“Heard Ice say you felt poorly and got you something,” he spoke lowly, reaching his hand out for you to take the item he held. Your lips parted in silent surprise as you hesitantly invited him in. “Look, I know you don’t want to see me, but you might as well say a word, because it’s getting sort of weird.”

“Maverick, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Thought I’d bring you a little something to eat.”

You honestly despised the man. How did he still care about you after you you’d been unable to seal your mouth shut the night before, yammering about mistreating you (mind the irony), you didn’t know. Still, that did not constitute an obstacle for you to lunge forward and fling yourself into his arms, your head hitting against his chest as you encircled his waist tightly. You moved your head a little, stopping dead in your tracks as your ear picked up the sound of his heartbeat violently increasing.

He still had to reach for you, taken aback by your sudden affection and not being sure how to react. Maverick’s brain short-circuited, until everything finally clicked and he was holding you so close to his body, he thought he was squishing the life out of you — but he never heard you complain.

“I’m so sorry, Pete,” you whispered, muffled in the fabric of his shirt. You wanted to say more, apologize for being so ridiculously indecisive and not giving him the chance to move on, instead having him wait until you could grow a pair and end things with Tom, but the words died down in your throat when you felt his fingers tangle in your hair, his palm now cupping the back of your head. He knew you could hear his heartbeat and he also knew it was giving him away.

When you pulled away, your knees buckled and you almost melted into a puddle. His hands had somehow traveled down to your smaller ones, holding them delicately.

Take me to bed or lose me forever.

“It’s a grilled cheese, in case you were wondering, by the way,” Maverick blurted, looking over to the paper bag with the food you’d left on a counter.

“I love it.” I love you.

“I need to get going.”

“No,” you argued, grabbing his hand in yours the moment he reached for the door handle. “Stay here with me. I’m sure Viper’s more than happy that you’re not there to wreck the planes. Goose might be missing you, but he can cry about it to Carole when the day is over.”

Maverick let an amused chuckle escape from his lips as he wrapped his fingers around your wrists, gently rubbing on the skin with his thumbs.

“You want me to stay with you?” he asked in disbelief. It was adorable how flustered he was.

“I’m not repeating anything, Mitchell.”

With a little smirk and a smudge look on his face, he moved toward you, leaning in closer to your lips, which was a scenario you’d accepted, hadn’t he had a sudden change of heart and went for your forehead instead, pressing a long, warm kiss against it that made you shudder under his touch.

“You want me to stay with you,” he chimed, sounding more as if he was bragging to himself.

You tried to stifle a smile as you placed your ear over his drumming heartbeat, already forgetting you had the whole ‘sick from the booze’ act to keep up, but then again, when had you ever been able to hide what you really felt around Maverick?

“We can’t be here though,” you suddenly mouthed, the image of Tom unlocking the door to you and the man he hated snuggling comfortably up on the couch causing sweat to form on the back of your neck as you pushed Maverick away from you and fixed your fingers through your hair.

“Why not?” You gave him a knowing look that made him sigh. “We can’t hide forever, you know.”

Deciding to ignore his comment, you dragged him outside by the hand, nodding where he’d parked his motorcycle. “Cliff tops,” you silently explained and saw the corners of his lips turn upward as he helped you onto the seat.

It seemed to startle him when you wrapped your arms around his middle, laying your face against the fabric of the leather jacket that covered his back, turning his head ever so slightly to look at you with that charming Maverick smirk of his.

Your heart hammered against your chest as he began driving, hair flying carelessly through the wind, leaning further into him and clutching your intertwined hands firmly against his stomach.

Your brain felt as if it was fogged by the light fragrance he was wearing, head nuzzling on his shoulder now, lips moving dangerously close to his cheek. You let them carefully graze his skin, feeling him shudder — or was it just your mind playing tricks on you?

After having arrived at the tops, Maverick got off his motorcycle, lending you his hand to take as he helped you get off as well, shaky, nervous fingers testing the waters as he gently let them linger around yours, waiting for your hand to pull away. Instead, your knuckles tightened, grasp sinking into his, not daring to look up at him for capturing his reaction.

He sat next to you on the hill, so close that the warmth radiating from his outer thigh gave you goosebumps. You shifted just a little, so that your leg could be touching his, eyes darting down on your lap as you crossed your arms.

“It’s beautiful up here. I like how I can consider it our spot now,” you heard Maverick mutter.

“Our spot?”

His head turned to look at you. “Yeah. Ideally, the first time I would’ve liked to bring you here would be a date, but I can settle for the late sneak-out after your fight with Kazansky.”

Your heart clenched as you hesitantly met his cherishing gaze. You hadn’t wanted anyone like that in really long time and it felt like something was sucking the soul out of you. “Maverick?”

“Hm?”

“When you’re flying, you might lose power. It’s a fatal risk, but it doesn’t stop you from enlisting in the Navy. Flying at up to 700 mph, the smallest mistake can be deadly, your plane could plunge out of the sky, break apart on impact. The cockpit is too small, so you’ll feel like your losing your breath even though you might not have died just yet — and it’s all terrifying and out of control.”

Maverick stared blankly at you, waiting for you to make a point. “What are you trying to say?”

“This is exactly how I feel whenever you look at me,” you finally mustered the courage to confess, seeing your lip starting to quiver. Unsure of how to properly weave the complexity of your feelings, you opted to let your pinky softly wrap around his.

Maverick stared at you, jaw slightly hung, eyes gleaming. “You feel that way about me?”

His question came out so shaky and gentle that it worsened your situation of trying not to break down right there in front of him. “Of course I do. You’re so ridiculously insufferable, I hate you.”

He cocked his head to the side with the tiniest hint of a smirk. “But you love flying.”

“I love flying,” you confirmed, letting the rest of your fingers wrap around his hand as you brought it over to your lap, holding it firmly enough to believe that what was happening in that moment was not just a figment of your imagination.

“I love flying, too.”

With hope written all over your face, your mouth stretched into a grin, holding back a giggle. God, when had you turned fourteen all over again?

Right when you were about to say something, you felt his lips ghost above your forehead before he was leaning down just a bit and kissing the bridge of your nose as tenderly as he could, making you dizzy and unable to think straight. Kiss me, kiss me before I regret it, before I start thinking again. He stalled against you, foreheads now touching as he realized that you hadn’t moved away from him yet.

“Take me to bed or lose me forever.”

“What?”

“It’s what Carole says to Goose. Said. I don’t know if she still tells him that. I never got it, to be honest, but all I know is that I don’t want to lose you, Maverick. Never,” you explained breathily.

“You’re not losing me, not even if you want to,” Maverick chuckled, letting a warm puff hit your already very reddened cheeks. You smiled at him, head now moving forward, so that you could nudge the top of his nose with your own.

“Pete,” you whispered, the words coming out as a ghost tugging at his heart. His hands came up to cup your cheeks, bringing you oh so impossibly close to him that if you squinted hard enough, your lips would be touching. And there it was again; that look he’d been giving you ever since the day you met, lovestruck eyes melting into yours. “Drop looking at me like that, Pete.”

“I can’t,” he spoke, voice weary as if he was on the verge of tears. “You walked in the room the first time Viper came in and the breath was knocked out of my lungs the very same second. So, no, I don’t think I can look at you in a way that’s not giving away how deeply head over heels I—”

“Don’t,” you cut him off, stunned by his words. “Don’t continue the sentence, Mav. Don’t continue it, because if you do, I’m going to lose every last ounce of self control I have in my body right now and I should warn you, there’s not much remaining.”

Maverick nodded slowly in acceptance before pressing a quick kiss to your forehead, then deciding to be brave, ducking down just the right direction to kiss the corner of your lips. His palms were still holding onto your cheeks, applying more pressure now as he let his mouth linger, heads connecting. You were about to lose it; all the sanity in your system, all the thoughts of do’s and dont’s. With a slight angle twist, he could be kissing you properly, on the lips, but every cell in your body was sweating to prevent that from happening. It was killing you.

“I love flying so much, Roger. So much that I don’t care if it costs me my life, I’m going to keep pursuing breaking the typical rules and fly on my own. It makes me feel alive,” Maverick confessed.

“You should,” you replied breathlessly. “It’ll get you places, Pete. You can hold your own.”

“Take me to bed,” he whispered, loud enough so that you heard him, a small smirk creeping up against the — now flushed from the kiss — corners of your lips.

“Or lose me forever.”

tags:

@holishol

@honeymvnt

[kyojurismo]

cw // yandere midoriya izuku + fem!reader

strange. the vibes coming off midoriya. he joined your group of friends recently, invited by ochaco. she said he was a nice guy, well mannered and kind. what she didn’t know was that izuku had been stalking you for months. he befriended her first to make it look even more casual, but the night he offered to give you a ride back home and didn’t asked for the address raised some doubts.

“how do you know my apartment address?” you asked with a chuckle, trying to sound calm. izuku’s eyes widened for a second before he changed expression. “ochaco told me before we left,” he smiled at you before turning off the engine. “uh, alright. well, thank you for the ride,” you were quick to grab your bag and get out of the car. izuku followed your every movement with attention, noticing that you seemed a bit nervous. “is something wrong?” he asked, his tone gentle. “oh? not at all! drive safely, okay? goodnight.”

izuku just smiled before watching you enter the building. he clenched his jaw as his whole expression turned into that of a man close to lose his composure. “you almost fucked up. what if she didn’t believe uraraka-san told you the address? she has to trust you, izuku. you need her trust to get her.”

it seemed izuku enjoyed your company a bit too much since he was always inviting you somewhere. but nothing weird about it, right? wrong. he never asked you to meet up whenever you had a test or something important to do, it looked like he knew when you were really free and when you were busy. that seemed a coincidence in the beginning, but then you noticed how he started acting weirdly. “i swear we won’t be late, i know you have lessons in the morning! it’s one of those romcom, you know? i’m sure you will like it!” he sounded so enthusiastic while inviting you to the cinema to watch one of the latest film with your favourite actor. for the third time. the weird thing was that you never talked about it.

after some time of trying to convince yourself that it was just your mind trying to convince you that every man was some kind of psychopath, your fears became reality when you found one of his notebook. full of informations and pics of you. the more you turned page after page, your trembling hands holding it tightly, you realised izuku had been stalking you for months, way before joining your friends. you felt sick as you found every tiny detail about you listed there, details not even your closest friends knew about you.

“oh, there it was,” his voice startled you. you dropped the notebook as you jumped in place, not expecting him to appear out of nowhere. “i dropped it before my last lesson, how unfortunate huh?” he chuckled as he retrieved it and secured it into his backpack. “i didn’t really want you to know about that, your brain would never process it and make you realise that i’m in fact what you need. but that’s okay! we can sort it out, i just gotta work extra hard now so you won’t leave me!” his grin made you shiver, you stood there speechless as he spoke so nonchalantly even after you found out he was your stalker. what’s wrong with him?! “why don’t you come over at mine, hm? i know your brain is full of thoughts right now, i don’t want my darling to feel overwhelmed all by her own. what kind of partner would do that?”

“p-partner?” oh you were so ready to run away the moment he started walking towards you but when he grabbed your wrist and held it with such force you realised you couldn’t really escape him. you didn’t even realise you were crying now. “yeah. i mean, i prepared for this role for almost a year now,” his laugh was anything but comforting.

[rorykeanersactualgf]

request where Benny Weir helps the reader calm down from a nightmare or panic attack

A/N: i quite like this idea, decided to use both of them in a mix bcs why not??? :) again if anything is wrong with the post, please tell me so i can fix it, hope you like it lovelies :)) xx i was also a bit unsure on what the dream would be so i left that to your interpretation, i hope that was okay

CW: mentions of a panic attack, mention of Benny dying (IT DOESNT HAPPEN DW), comfort, cutesy fluff, all the good stuff.

Breathing Difficulties

It had been a weird day. Nothing inherently wrong or out of place, but just...off. It felt like something was going to happen, but nothing did. I thought it was just me being paranoid or disassociating from myself so I decided to tell my wonderful boyfriend, Benny, about it on the walk home.

"Hey Benny?" I said, looking up at him through my eyelashes.

"Yes my love?" Benny asked, looking down at me with his heart-warming, signature grin following.

"I've been feeling kind of off today, not too sure why though," and clung to his warm arm and rested my head on his shoulder as we walked.

"Oh, do you feel ill? Need anything to eat or drink?" he asked while simultaneously pulling his bag forward to grab food and/or drinks from it, "Is it a headache? I think I have a spell for that somewhere in this book." He enquired while giving me a bottle of water, an apple and flipping through his spell book, scanning over the pages quickly.

"Woah-kay, thanks for the food and drink, and no offence but I don't want to end up with a set of bat wings yet again when last time I came to you for a stomach-ache." I said with a small chuckle leaving me, making me feel a little bit better than I was before.

"Hey! That was one time! And even you admitted that the wings were kind of cool to have." He said with emphasis lacing every word that left him like he was a child.

"Well it was cool, I will admit to that but it was less cool when none of my clothes fitted me properly, and I felt more nauseous than I was before." I said with my arms crossed over my chest with a small smile itching at the corners of my mouth and fake seriousness in my tone, "I've just been feeling out of it today, almost constantly paranoid that something bad will happen. I might just be overthinking again, I don't know," I said looking at my feet, taking a bite out of the apple he gave me.

"Hm..." he stood still for a moment, placing his spell book in his bag again and thought about what to say," Do you need anything like a hug or a kiss, you know I have plenty of those to share for you, my love?" He said with a big smile gracing his face with a cheeky look in his eye as he walked back over to me and held the sides of my arms gently so I could push him off if I wanted to, but I didn't, I smiled and nodded to him and he leaned down into me so I could wrap my arms around his neck and he could wrap his around my waist while nestling his head into the side of my neck so he could leave a few innocent kisses to my cheek, jaw, and neck.

After a few minutes of holding each other, we let go to continue going home and I had basically forgotten about how I was feeling today...

That was until later that night when I had finally gotten to sleep after messaging Benny and my friends goodnight, I had woken up in a frenzy, beads of uncomfortably cold sweat tricking down my spine like a demon touching the very nerves of my spinal cord. I couldn't catch my breath, nothing was making sense in my brain because it was moving too fast for me and my still sleep addled brain to process. The dream wasn't real, it couldn't have been...Benny was still alive...right?

With trembling hands and wobbly vision from the tears brimming my eyes, I called Benny, not realising that it was around half 2 in the morning and he was most definitely asleep. The first ring..... nothing. The second ring..... nothing again. Panic started to rise high in my chest, and at the third ring Benny answered, his groggy and sleepy voice rung through my ears as a wave of relief flooded through me like a tsunami.

"Hello..?" he said again, unsure of who called him, only feeling his phone vibrate and lifting it to his ear without looking at the number, rubbing his eyes.

Short sniffles and hyperventilative breaths, almost too quiet for his similarly sleep addled brain to pick up on but he just managed to, and a quiet sob and a whisper of "hi" was picked up and Benny woke up a bit more, he looked at his phone to see that it was me that was calling and he shot up in bed, suddenly very awake and a bit dizzy from the sudden movement. "Baby? Are you okay? Talk to me, please."

I tried to speak, to formulate any sort of wording that could be considered anything but gibberish but only shaky breaths and stammers of what I wanted to tell him actually came out. I couldn't breathe, it felt like all the air was sucked out from around me and my lungs but I still felt its chilly hands trail down my spine and exposed arms.

It had taken Benny a moment to realise what was happening but when he realised what was happening, he started to guide me through it, virtually holding my hand while I felt I almost lost grip on reality.

"Okay, listen to me baby, I'm right here, listen to my voice, breathe with me." His soothing voice sounded through the speaker as I followed along with him, breathing in through my nose for 5 seconds, holding it for 7, breathing out my mouth for 8. When my breathing went back to semi-normal, he continued to guide me, even though I heard slight rustling in the other side of the phone.

"You're doing so good baby, okay, now can you tell me 5 things you can see?" I started looking around my room and named a few things I could see.

"Very good, now can you tell me 4 things you can touch?" He continued to praise me throughout the call, listening very intently.

"Uh, my blanket, my phone, my shirt and my pillow."

"Mhm, now can you name me 3 things you can hear?"

"Well now I can hear something being zipped up, a small bang and a pained grunt from you, are you okay? Benny? Benny, please say you're okay..." I continued to trail off and ramble because at the time I thought something bad was happening on his side.

"I'm okay baby, we're focusing on you right now. What are 2 things you can smell?" He said through gritted teeth, in hindsight it was probably from him stubbing his toe in the dark. (baby is okay don't worry haha.)

As he said this, I could hear wind on his side of the phone, and now that I was calmer I could tell he wasn't in danger and that he was probably doing something.

"Um, I don't know, my (fragrance of choice) and some laundry detergent from my bed." I said more as a question than a statement.

As I was saying this, I heard a small incantation be cast and a woosh of air not far from my house and a slight tap on my window and got up to see what it was. Peeking from behind my curtain, I saw Benny with a big and proud smile gracing his face as he gestured if I wanted a hug with a coy smile on his face. I leant into him as he pressed a small, sweet kiss on my lips as he finally asked,

"What's 1 thing you can taste?"

"You," was all that barely left me as I went back up onto my tiptoes to kiss him again... and again... and again... until we both eventually fell asleep in each others arms, now content and with a warm feeling in both of our chests and faces.

A/N: hope you like it at least a bit xx

[aghoststorycomic]

A GHOST STORY HAS (NOT) UPDATED!! THE AUTHOR IS DEAD....TIRED.

TODAY’S UPDATE: HERE START THIS CHAPTER: HERE START FROM THE TOP: HERE

first, because of how flighty i've been with updates, i would like to encourage you to use an RSS feed reader and add the "a ghost story" RSS feed to it by clicking "find feeds in page" or "add new feed" and entering www.aghoststorycomic.com/. or dragging and dropping it if you use a different RSS feed reader. rss feeds are how the ancients used to navigate the web and through it they knew when things updated immediately. using an RSS feed has 2 major benefits: 1. you can get updates without having to use any social media or following my social media. 2. you can keep up with the comic when updates get sporadic without having to hopefully remember to check it some day in the future.

second, i do not like to advertise the patreon when i am behind on rewards and have been unable to deliver anything of interest beyond comic pages for a while, but consider throwing a buck a month at me to see pages a month early. that's something.

i realize that webcomics really need reliability to survive, so i'm genuinely so annoyed and so unhappy that i'm in this situation. i toughed it out as long as i could, but this final leg has been the fucking pits. it sucks. effexor is a notorious nightmare of an antidepressant to get off of and boy were they not kidding. i'm down to a quarter pill doses, but my body is rampaging because i'm not dosing it with the norepinephrine treat its become accustomed to. its never so much that i'm like, in acute physical or mental distress, its just bad enough that it makes working consistently hard. i had a buffer up until this last month when it was completely used up because i was too busy thinking about how bad my entire face hurt. or how my eyes felt like they were vibrating out of my skull.

i started effexor two years ago and was on a pretty high dose. i got the most bizarre and unpleasant side effects on this drug and the reason i didn't do anything about it was because the drug's primary effect was to instill me with a sense of overwhelming apathy. this is a great effect (intentional? i'm not sure) to have when the symptom you were trying to treat was "unbearable anxiety". not joking, it worked incredibly well for at least getting me mentally back to a baseline level of sane. after that, though, with nothing irrational to be apathetic about, my brain decided that household chores, basic hygiene, and my job were pointless and stupid or unpleasant. food tasted bad. not bland, bad. showers felt annoying instead of relaxing. i would look at the dishes piling up in the sink, the barest minimum i should be doing around the house on a daily basis to maintain a comfortable living space and would think "well that is just impossible".

but i was also putting up with a lot of stupid shit from my body. it made my right hand fingers and lower back feel distractingly stiff. my lip was split for a year straight and would re-open every time i opened my mouth. my nose and gums had open sores. i got a rash on my face that lead me down a rabbit hole for months trying to figure out if i do or don't have lupus (i dont)(neat). i would get insomnia so bad i would be up for 36 hours regularly, but i was too tired to get anything done. and with the withdrawals i would get all of those and as an added bonus i got to enjoy body aches that felt like bruises all over my body. they hurt so bad that laying on the couch was uncomfortable as a consequence of newton's third law. and i'd have weird meltdowns about the cats hating me (?). i am only boring you with all of this whining to try to explain the amount of distractions i was fending off while still trying to be a productive member of a household, experiencing common adulthood problems galore (basement....), and trying to create comics for you and for me. i am telling you this because it sucked, and sucks, so bad.

on top of everything else, the impact the effexor has had on my creativity has been eye-opening. i realized there was a correlation between my dosages increasing and my ability to draw nosediving. the "impossible" feeling of the dishes carried over to my comic work which got lazier and worse and i knew it and it was frustrating. there is a special kind of shame and guilt you develop when you charge someone for something you know is not your best work, just the best you could do in the moment. or when you are just sitting in front of your computer staring at it blankly and thinking about how much you'd like to draw if only it wasn't the hardest thing in the world. you feel like a lazy sack of shit, knowing that there is nothing physically preventing you from working. your brain simply cannot make

i started the weaning process in i think november so am pretty much on track for this to actually be over soon. there's light at the end of the tunnel. its happening. and there are bright moments in between doses where i can actually do things. like right now! i drew this very easily instead of being in hell for hours. but these precious moments are short lived until the withdrawal symptoms start up and i have to take another pill that nerfs me.

anyway APRIL 6th! dont forget me or ill cry.

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Ezana Concept Art

Concept art and translations for Ezana! Translation notes and image id under the cut.

Translation notes:

On the first page when Ikushima is talking about how he feels pressure to make his drawings beautiful, he's actually saying something more like "Usually with sexy woman I go 'I'm obligated to/I must make them beautiful!'... " but no matter how I phrased it the wording felt awkward in English, so I changed the sentence to go without the quotes.

There's a note on the second page above the monochrome sketch that was pretty hard to read (the middle character in particular might have been scribbled out?), so I kind of guessed at the rough meaning from the surrounding characters. The first kanji seems to be 玄, which has the general meaning of "mysterious, occultness, black, deep, profound," and the third kanji seems to be 器, which has the general meaning of "utensil, vessel, receptacle, implement, instrument, ability, container, tool, set". I went with "mysterious staff" as the meaning of the kanji together, also working off of the fact that it's. um. pointing at a staff that seems vaguely mysterious.

"Call forth the rain" was more literally just "rain," but it uses a particle at the end that has a vaguely commanding/requesting vibe to it, so I added extra words to convey that.

There's a part on the second page where I write "SHAMAN" in all caps. On that particular line, "Shaman" was written out using English phonetics, whereas on the rest of the page when I use the word it's the Japanese word for an equivalent concept.

"Lines like a weather map" is literally "isobar pattern". I'm assuming that most people aren't familiar with the word "isobar" (including myself) but from a brief google search, isobars are the lines that show up on a map when weather forecasts are trying to show the range of a storm and the barometric pressure specifically. Since it's (probably) not a commonly-known word, I just wrote out the "weather map" stuff instead.

"Sexy as it sounds" is a weird one. I think it's a portion of this phrase, which is defined as, "not existing despite seeming like it should", but just uses some different particles at the end which I'm assuming make it non-negative (e.g., "as sexy as it should be"). But I couldn't find a ton of examples of how the phrase is used though or what the differences in particles would be, so I just kind of went with the auto-translation I got from Deepl.

Image id:

[id: Multiple images from the Triangle Strategy artbook surrounding Ezana Qlinka. There is a page with a large colored portrait of her, along with a smaller line drawing in the corner. There are two illustrator's notes at the bottom: the first is, "Ezana has a really lovely ethnic design. Actually, after the character's portrait was completed, Mr. Ikushima redid all the linework, which added a lot to the character's beauty! (Yoshiura Rina)" and the second is, "Ezana is primitive, spiritual, and also a mysterious kind of character. With sexy women I usually feel pressure to make them beautiful, but strangely she was very easy to draw. I like how the natural colors are interspersed with the lapis lazuli. (Ikushima Naoki)". On the second page, the top half has several drawings of Ezana in a design close to her canon one. It is titled, "Weather Manipulator (Shaman)". There is one drawing where Ezana is without her headdress, captioned, "If there are different ranks of shaman, I think it'd be fine to start out without the headdress." There is a note pointing to her headress labeled, "Sheep's skull with some parts cut off," and another that reads, "Horns. Red and blue cord is coiled." Another note points to a full sheep skull and reads, "Origin. It's been shaved away starting at about this area." It points to roughly the middle of it. Another note points to a feather ruff she wears, labeled, "Crow feathers". Her staff is labeled, "A staff with elements similar to a dreamcatcher". There is a portrait of her from the back, with a note reading, "Back of the dress is open." The second half of the page is titled, "Weather Manipulator (Shaman) Large Brainstorming WIP". There are 5 drawings, each of a different potential design. The first is similar to her canon design, but with darker skin and a black dress. The second is very colorful, and has the notes, "Hear the song from the wind and go into a trance" as well as "Lines like a weather map" and "I think it would look better if the saturation was lowered a little or the colors were narrowed down a bit." The third drawing has a purple cloak with eyes on it, and seems to be throwing seeds into the air, captioned, "Sowing seeds toward the sky." The fourth design uses more pastels/bright colors, and has a drum at her hip. She seems to be saying, "Thunder!" and there is a note that reads, "Beat the cover and let it resonate through the air." The fifth drawing is of a woman wearing a full mask and a heavy cloak made of grass fibers. It has several bullet points including, "Weather Manipulator (Shaman)," "Female SHAMAN", "Indigenous - Separate wind and lightning magic", and "As sexy as it sounds." She holds a staff which is labeled, "Mysterious Staff" and also has a note reading, "Indigenous". She seems to be saying, "Bring forth the rain..." There are two illustrator's notes on the bottom. The first reads, "Mr. Asano requested that I add in leopard print, and I thought about how I could make it unique. (Naoki Ikushima)" and the second reads, "Looking at it again, it's a really sexy outfit. And it's great in battle! (Tomoya Asano)" /end id]

[cutecherrygirl]

Ni-ki - first love

Warnings: Fluff ❤️

I had a dream last night and I decided to write it here because it melted my heart and I felt so happy after 🙈

Ni-Ki and his mini friend group were sitting on swings in mini part close to their houses. The park was silent and empty, the only sound coming from it were the sharp sounds of creaking sound of the rotten swings.

Ni-Ki 's friend group consists of Jungwon and Sunoo. Sunoo is the oldest of two, he is two years older than Ni-ki and one than Jungwon. They all hang out every day after, before and during school.

The sky was mix of grey and white, it looked disgusting but at least the weather was acceptable. They were all drinking canned soda's because Ni-ki was not old enough to drink beer yet si his friends would feel bad if they drink beer in front of him, they decided to wait for him.

Just as Ni-ki was about to take another sip of his cherry soda, he felt tap on his shoulder, it was Sunoo. Ni-ki turned to gim confused "look" Sunoo whisper while pointing at a group of three girls passing by. All three boys stared at them like three hungry lions spotting food after years of not eating.

The three girls were knows as the mean girls of their school. We have the blondie in the middle, her name is Shuhua, she is the leader of the squad, very beautiful girl but the attitude is speaking for itself, she is wearing skirt decorated with ribbons, a white croptop with cherry in the middle and some white sneakers. She is wearing minimum make up, only lipgloss and blush, her hair is in a high pony tail held with a ribbon hairband.

On her left we have Yuna, tall, red headed and gorgeous, she could easily be a model if she wanted to. She is wearing light blue shorts with boots and red tanktop, she was more of a tomboy of the group which was fine since they can't look the same all the time. Her hair was also in a high pony tail and she wasn't wearing any make up but had sunglasses on.

And now we move on to the third girl wich is Y/N, she is a mix of both but leading more to Shuhua's side. She was wearing white dress decorated with red belt and red and white sneakers. She had her nails done in light red and some ribbons on it. Her hair was down and she had lipgloss on her lips and mascara on her lashes.

They all walked hand in hand passing the park. Ni-ki, Jungwon and Sunoo couldn't take their eyes off of them.

The girls disappeared in the local convince store, Ni-ki quickly stood up and mentioned for boys to follow him. The three boys step in the convince store and spot the girls at snacks section. They didn't wanted to be obvious, but then again, who cares?

Ni-ki walked to the snack isle and stood next to Y/N, pretending to look at the snacks. Y/n didn't bother looking at him but he kept glancing at her the whole time. He could smell her scent, it was so addicting to him and so mesmerising, he couldn't get enough of her smell. She finally looked up at him and he kept looking at her as if he was in his own world or he zoomed out, either way, Y/N was weirded out "um.. excuse me?" He said softly which snapped Ni-ki back into reality "Oh Hi um, I was just" suddenly, Y/N is pulled away from him be her friends. Ni-ki watched them drag Y/N out of his sight with disappointment on his face.

Later that day, Ni-ki was in his room and on his phone. He couldn't stop thinking about Y/N and the way she spoke to him, it was the first time she ever said a word to him and he was in love. He'd been admiring her from afar since First grade and now he is finally making progress.

He went to her Instagram page and start to look through her photos like he does every night before sleep, to him, she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He was so in love that he planned a whole future with her.

There's a specific photo he admired the most of her. Its a photo where she is sitting on a picnic blanked under cherry blossom tree, she is wearing a white summer dress and her hair is braided in two braids, she is also wearing a hat with flowers on it. He couldn't help but imagine her and him on picnic date, he would hold her hand as the both look at the flowers around them and admire each others beauty. But then again, he was alway disappointed at the end since he knows life with her could be impossible since she would never want something like that with him. In his eyes, he was just admirer, somone who is too scared to approach, he was too shy and too nervous to talk to her. He couldn't help himself, she just makes him speechless. He was also at the age where all he can think of are girls, its normal. All the boys go through that.

The next day at school, he was sitting by his desk anf listening to conversation going on between Jungwon and Sunoo. He wasn't interested enough to say anything so he just stayed silent.

Suddenly, Shuhua comes up to their desk, All three of the look up at her woth wide eyes, because why would she talk to them?? "Look, I'll say this in nicest way possible okay?" She said to Ni-ki while giving him a fake smile. Ni-ki is confused "i know you like Y/N, but stay away from her. She is popular and you are loser, It will make her look bad if she tries something with you" Shuhua said while looking at Ni-ki with crossed arms, Ni-ki just watched her "stop looking at her, stop talking about her and stop liking her!!" Shuhua said a bit too loud, the whole class turned and looked at them weirdly. Ni-ki chuckled and looked away from her, Sunoo and Jungwon looked at Ni-ki and Shuhua was embarrassed since the whole class is listening.

"Look, I don't have bad intentions-" Ni-ki started but shuhua slammed her hands on his table "i dont care! Just do what I told you to!" She yelled before walking back to her seat.

Few minutes later, Y/N walks in the class and Shuhua immediately gives Ni-ki a death glare. Y/N sits by her table and greets her friends. Y/N glances at Ni-ki for a second but quicky looks away since he is already looking at her. Shuhua is boiling inside, she decided to sit next to Y/N to block her from Ni-ki's sight, he rolls his eyes and Y/N is confused.

After school, Y/N was walking home to her apartment complex. She had her headphones in and erased the rest of the world from her sight, she liked it that way, it was her escape from reality. She had no idea that somone was following her😱

Ni-ki decided to follow her home to see where she lives, he didn't give two fucks about what Shuhua said. When Y/N entered her apartment complex the door closed behind her and he couldn't get in. Luckily, an old lady walked out right after Y/N walked in and opened the door for Ni-ki. He rushed inside and heard Y/n going upstairs, he walked upstairs but made sure to be slow so she doesn't see him.

When Y/N came to her apartment door, she spotted trash bag outside, being a good daughter she is, she decided to take it outside and throw it away. Ni-ki didn't know that and was schocked when he saw her right in front of him. They both stoped walking and had wide eyes.

Ni-ki was sweating like a deer, what is he supposed to do now!? Y/N was just standing there. "You live here?" She asked him pointing at one of the apartment doors. Ni-ki was silent for a moment before speaking "uh..n-no I just saw something here so I-" Y/N cuts him off "so you broke into the building?" She chuckled at his silliness, Ni-ki looked down Embarrassed "yeah..." He said and Y/N begins to laugh, when Ni-ki saw he laughing, it instantly made him smile.

Shortly after, Ni-ki went home and couldn't stop smiling on his way there.

Next day, he met with his friends and went to the park to tell them what happened. In the corner of his eye he could see The means girls hanging out with some other guys knows as "wolf gang" consist of the leader, Bangchan and his two side kicks Han and Changbin. They were gang at the school and no one dared to talk to them. Y/N was sitting next to Han and looked extremely uncomfortable, Han had his arm around her shoulders and was telling her something. Ni-ki was jealous and angry but knew he can't do anything.

Later that day, he decided to follow Y/N home again, while she was crossing the road, he noticed Wof gang calling for her "Hey Y/N! Com'ere babygal!" Bangchan said with his thick Aussie accent, Y/N tried ignoring them and kept on walking, but then all three of them stood up and started following her. Ni-ki quickly rushed to Y/N and grabbed her hand then they both start running as fast as the can. The wolf gang looked confused and angry that Ni-ki took her! 😡 Then the heavy rain started pouring on All of them, the wold gang had no time to be wet so they entered a local cafe and ordered themselves some donuts.

Ni-ki and Y/N rushed in Her apartment complex soaked and out of breath. Y/N led him to her apartment and quickly unlocked the door, they both rush in and she shuts teh door behind them.her apartment was small but cozy with her dad on the couch watching sport channel, her little brother playing with his toys and her mom in the kitchen making tea. Y/N hold Ni-kis hand protectively since she knows her brother and father are very protective of her and her father doesn't allow boys in his apartment, her mom on the other hand doesn't mind it but she doesn't have any say in it yeah, it waz very old school family "Dad..." Y/N said softly her breathing going back to normal. Her dad didn't hear her so she called Louder this time, her dad titled his head to the side, signaling for her to speak "Can Ni-ki stay here for some time? It's raining and he can't go home" Y/N said and her dad is still silent, she looks over her shoulder at Ni-ki as if she was scared then looked back at her dead or well at the back of his head "please?" She said an her dad nodded.

She led Ni-ki to her room and closed the door behind them. She took off her wet jacket and place it on the heater in her room, she did the same with Ni-ki's jacket. She was left in tank top and skirt and Ni-ki was in black tee shirt and jeans.

"Wow..your hair is...ruined" Y/N suddenly said and Ni-ki laughed a bit and shook his head like a dog "omg stop!" Y/N laughed as he sprayed more water on her. Ni-ki then decided to explore her room. He noticed she has lots of baby photos all over her room and photos with her friends, there was nothing special about her room but it was special to him since he is finally getting closer to know her better.

"What did Shuhua told you?" Y/N asked softly as Ni-ki walked around her room, he Looked at her "To stay out of your way" he said quietly and Y/N Sighed "you know you don't have to do that, right? She's just, mad cuz her boyfriend left her for brunette and she doesn't want me to find anyone for myself" Y/N Laughed softly after saying that and Ni-ki was schocked "I thought, she wanted to protect you." He said and Y/N shook her head "nope, we may seem like the best best friends ever but reality is really crule...we baerly talk after school we hang out on weekends just to be seen and that's it." Ni-ki was even more schocked now but he didn't question it any further.

The rain stopped and Ni-ki's jacket was dry, He wore his jacket and Y/N took his hand then walked out of her room with him following close behind. "Dad" Y/N said "Can I, lead Ni-ki to the exit?" She asked and her dad approved so the walk out. They went down few stairs and stood in front of huge window but it was blurred so they couldn't see anything, they stood there facing each other while still holding hands. Ni-ki spotted something written on the wall, it said "Y/N is a bitch", she quickly stepped in front of it "its not true" she said softly while looking down, "I know" Ni-ki said back and stepped closer, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug, Y/N wrapped her arms around his waist and burry her face in his neck. The hugged each other strongly as if they waited for this moment forever! "Y/N!" Her mom called for her and she quickly said "im coming!"they can hear the door closing after she said that. She squeezed the fabric of Ni-ki's jacket with her and was taking every second of the hug like it was her last. She needed that hug more than anything, she haven't received a decent hug for so long.

After awhile, Ni-ki gently lifted her chin with the side of his finger and looked into her eyes. "Y/N! Come up, your dad is calling you!" Her moms voice was heard again, she sounded angrier now but Y/N didn't care. Ni-ki leaned down and connected their lips into a soft kiss. The both felt butterflies in their tummy's, both of their heart were beating rapidly at the same time as Their lips moved together in Sync. Ni-ki pressed Y/N againts the wall, not because he wanted to heat up things but simply because he was more comfortable this way. "Y/N!!!" Her mom screamed this time and they both jump away from the kiss "I have to go" she whispered terrified, she headed upstairs but Ni-ki took her hand and pulled her to him again and kissed her lips before letting her go home.

When he came home, he was so happy! He finally let his fantasy come to life! He wanted to jump off a tree from happiness!!

He decided to ask her out on a date and she said yes! 😱He put note in her locker and gave her his adress.

Few days later, Ni-ki was cleaning his room in panic, he slept in amd forgot she was coming so he had to quickly clean everything!!! His mom amd dad went put on a date and he had the whole apartment for himself, he bought some caramel cherries and cherry liqueur just for the occasion.

He vacuumed his room, put the laundry away, cleaned his desk and most importantly, made his bed.

After he was done, the bell of his apartment rang , he rushed to the door and opened it, letting Y/N walk in. She smelled like cherry blossom, she was wearing denim skirt, black tank top and white converse. Her hair was down and she had a denim hairband on her head. They walked in his room and Y/N did the same thing he did, explore the room for a bit, everything she stared a bit longer for he explained what it was and the whole backstory of it. Y/N thought Ni-ki was adorable but he was nervous as fuck lol.

They both sat down on the floor and Ni-Ki brought Caramel cherries and liqueur, Y/N was surprised at how romantic Ni-ki was "wow, fancy" she giggled and he felt proud "I bought it just for you" he said as he poured cherry liqueur in two mini glasses while Y/N was eating cherries.

Y/N spotted the old record player and smiled "do you have any records?" She asked Ni-ki and he nodded "yeah! Here" he put a record in the record player and it started playing slow romantic song. Y/N gently swayed at along the song as She drank the cherry liqueur and Ni-ki just started at her memorized.

He suddenly took her hand and stand on his feet, she stood up with him and he placed his one hand on her waist and the other one was holding her hand. They started slow dancing together while smiling at each other, The moonlight was shining through Ni-ki's window and made it look ever more romantic.

Ni-ki accidentally stepped on Y/N's foot but she laughed it off, they were having the time of their lives. They didn't need to talk, they stayed in comfortable silence the whole time while dancing and admiring each others beauty.

Ni-ki caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers and Y/N leaned in his touch while looking at him. He then lean down and kiss her cheek , then her forehead, the her nose, as he was going down from her nose to her chin, his lips brushed against hers which made both of the shiver. He looked into her eyes and moved some hair from her face, this time, she was the one to connect their lips together. The kiss was sweet and gentle, she placed her arms around his neck and he hugged her waist. The first kiss they shared was full if adrenaline and exitment, this one was more calm and romantic, He lead her to his bed and layed her down, they continued to kiss for long time then they both pull away catching their breaths while smiling.

Then they start cuddling until they fall asleep 😍🥰😱🤔👵🏻

[semper-legens]

74. The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley

Owned?: No, library Page count: 343 My summary: In the near future, the British government are experimenting with time travel. A select group of historical personages have been brought forward to the present, people snatched away at the moment of their historical deaths, and the Ministry is now attempting to resettle them in the 21st century. One of these people is First Lieutenant Graham Gore, lately of Franklin's Lost Expedition, now fish out of water over one hundred and fifty years in his future. A young woman has been assigned to him as a 'bridge', to live with him for a year and help him assimilate. But as time wears on, their relationship starts to get less and less professional…and that's not the worst of it. Not all is well at the Ministry. It seems our duo might soon be in for a nasty surprise… My rating: 4.5/5 My commentary:

Okay. So. Here's the thing. As longtime readers of this blog may know, I have something of a fascination with the history of survival cannibalism. (Bear with me!) As such, the lost Franklin Expedition is definitely on my radar, and as part of that I both read and watched The Terror not too long ago. And then I heard about this book through the grapevine. A book that is, essentially, rpf of Graham Gore, one of the Expedition who died before the survivors set off on their last, fatal journey overland. And, to quote my least favourite New Who Doctor, my whole brain just went 'what the hell'. I was expecting this to be a bit silly, a bit weird, and a bit gratuitous, but honestly I wound up genuinely liking it a whole lot more than I was expecting. Kudos to you, The Ministry of Time. You did good, kid.

Our unnamed protagonist is a woman who is the daughter of a Cambodian refugee, mixed-race, living in London, and working for the government as a translator. She gets involved in the time-travel project without knowing what it is, but seeks to do her best for Gore and the other time-travel refugees all the same. She's an interesting character - I am fascinated by the choice not to give her a name, as well as how slow the relationship between her and Gore was to build. There was obvious attraction between the two of them, but it's not until the final third that they consumate their relationship and lay out what is lying between them. Which I appreciated - it felt a lot more natural than if this man from the 1840s was immediately jumping into bed with the first woman he saw! And it would have been wholly unprofessional and unethical for the narrator to do so. As written, however, we get to see their relationship develop smoothly and naturally over the course of the book before they get together, which is neat. Another thing I really appreciated was the subtle hints of what, in-universe, this book is. I won't spoil the ending, but the narrator is writing this for a purpose, and there are bits of foreshadowing and subtle clues scattered throughout as to what will go down. I guessed a bit of it beforehand, and was very satisfied to see my suppositions ring true.

This book could have died so quickly if Gore was mischaracterised, so I am happy to report that he is utterly charming and very plausible. While not understanding the 21st century, particularly not initially, he isn't shown to be a lost little lamb, he was a middle-aged man with experience of sailing to unfamiliar places and surviving there. Thought we don't know much about Gore the real person, the author's afterword lays out why she characterised him the way that she did - the smoking habit comes from a description of him, there's evidence that he was a pretty good shot, that sort of thing. He's very real. While he displays era-appropriate bigotry, he learns and grows the more he is exposed to the modern world, though there are some sensibilities he never loses. He's got a sense of humour, he makes friends with other 'expats', he is self-depreciating and proper and exasperated and loyal. He's a very credible person, and the author shows him off so well that, like the narrator, you can't help but fall a little in love with him.

I also really liked the other 'expats' that we see - Arthur, a man brought forward from 1916 who is a flaming fruit, and Maggie, a woman from the 1600s who adapts to the future the best and also is a giant lesbian. See! Complicated portraits of people from the past! (It's also hinted that, while Gore claims no experience with women, he may have had some experience with men, being a Navy type.) The Ministry actually has some trouble with Maggie, because she's running riot, downloading Tinder and Lex and having a wild old time. I love her to pieces. (And I also liked that our protagonist displays some attraction to her, as well!) Arthur is also very adorable in that older gay man kind of way. Every character in this book felt like a full person, with thoughts and opinions and a life outside of the purview of the narrative, which is always good to see. They were very memorable, and very entertaining.

And all in all, this book just had so much charm. The premise itself is interesting in a soft sci-fi sort of way, very clearly skipping over the complicated physics of time travel in order to get to the sociological meat inherent there. Seeing these people adapt to modern society in their various different ways is interesting in the variety - some characters are more conservative in their outlook, others more open-minded, different people struggle with different things, that sort of thing. I liked that the emphasis was less on the romantic/sexual relationship between our protagonists (though, of course, that was there) and more just on the relationships that develop between bridges and expats, and between different eras of expat. And the larger plot with the Ministry and the protagonist's shady boss balanced out the more character-driven drama brilliantly. Again, I won't spoil the ending, but I liked that the book did not have a straightforward happy ending, though it was bittersweet and still somewhat hopeful. That felt more true than the alternative, and I really admire the choice that led to it.

Next up, back to Outlander, as Claire and Jamie make their way in an America teetering on the brink…