#the bottom line is I love Logan

[fucksatan]

We thank you for your service cause I would, in fact, very much like to know what is wrong with my meow meow so that I can fix him cause ofc I can

[makuyi13]

No because listen. This is what the characters of X-Men '97 would look like as an orchestra.

Charles Xavier/Professor X would be the conductor. No explanations necessary.

Scott Summers/Cyclops would be the concertmaster. He was in charge when the conductor (Charles) was away. He's always stressing, but for good reason.

Logan Howlett/Wolverine would be that one violinist who isn't the concertmaster but would kill to be. Always criticising the actual concertmaster (Scott) and endlessly jealous of him. Nevertheless, he does play a major role and serves his purpose loyally, perhaps even fiercely.

Jean Grey would be the right hand/top/treble line of the piano, and Madelyne Pryor would be the left hand/bottom/bass line of the piano. I mean, come on guys, they're such piano people. It just makes sense.

Ororo Munroe/Storm is a cellist. She has the classic elegance. She has the spotlight once in a while. She's great, but not in the mainstream way.

Nathan Summers/Cable is the harpsichord dude. Kind of weird, but in a cool way (in the harpsichord kind of way?) Classic, has been around for a while, and is related to the pianists (Madelyne specifically).

Jubilation Lee is the flute girl who has a vibe of her own and is known by everyone.

Roberto Da Costa/Sunspot is the clarinet guy who is like super shy for no reason but is friends with the principal flautist (Jubilee). Literally look at him. He looks like a clarinetist.

Morph is the second violinist who be super chill but also be making dumb jokes all rehearsal long and is fantastic friends with that one wannabe concertmaster violinist (Logan) and completely supports him. But also they're just fine with whatever they have, as long as they're having fun, which pretty much seems all the time.

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler is the viola man everybody loves because he's just so nice and funny and friendly. He's warm and he works well with others.

Of course Trish Tilby or Valerie Cooper is the lady who like is the business manager or some crap of the orchestra and you know talks to other people and yaps about stuff at the beginning of every concert and starts talking about sponsors and stuff. Literally why not

By the way this is a kind of habit I have, to watch movies/shows and then turn them characters into musicians. Sorry for the yapping haha. I know it's weird but it is what it is. Debate with me, I'd love to hear your opinions. Also help me out here, I can't figure out what to do for Rogue, Gambit, Beast or Magneto

Edit: Thanks to @that-cinnamon-kid, Magneto is now a flute player.

[oscarpiastriwdc]

albums i would play for each driver on the 2024 F1 grid to expand their music taste

Max Verstappen: Graceland by Paul Simon - As a fan of classic and folk rock, I'd imagine Max has been exposed to Simon and Garfunkel and I think he'd enjoy the sprawling, detailed, careful expanse of Simon's solo masterpiece. Angels in the architecture spinning in infinity, etc etc

Checo Perez: Ramomex by Rebel'd Punk - One of the Mexican bands who pioneered punk music in the country, but Checo probably missed this release because he was too busy karting and moving to europe as a teen. It's never too late to have a proper angry punk phase, though.

Charles Leclerc: Ten Love Songs by Susanne Sundfør - Groundbreaking, life-altering pop music that pushes every boundary. This hits the sad songs craving and I think would interest him as a musician and burgeoning songwriter.

Carlos Sainz: Ultraviolence by Lana Del Rey - daddy issues. I just know he'd vibe out to Brooklyn Baby.

Lando Norris: Destiny by DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - I dream of sitting him down and exposing him to actually good, interesting, fun contemporary dj music.

Oscar Piastri: Speaking in Tongues by Talking Heads - He has that certain David Byrne swag and demeanor of someone who'd love the Talking Heads if only given the chance.

Fernando Alonso: 10,000 gecs by 100 gecs - At first the old man would be extremely confused but once he was on board he would be blasting The Most Wanted Person In The United States all day every day.

Lance Stroll: Talon of the Hawk by The Front Bottoms - that post that's like the problem is men are making podcasts instead of forming midwest emo bands. but it's men are becoming f1 drivers instead of forming midwest emo bands. I think some TFB exposure could be the spark of inspiration for a great career pivot.

Lewis Hamilton: Maps by billy woods and Kenny Segal - I fear Lewis might have been too worried about Merc's performance last year to have checked out this fantastic collaboration that was one of 2023's best albums.

George Russell: Contra by Vampire Weekend - I just saw Vampire Weekend live following the release of the new album and at the show there was a guy a few feet ahead of me in the merch line who had the exact same energy as GR. The mix of prep vibes and world music would work into his taste while expanding his listening beyond coldplay.

Yuki Tsunoda: GLOW ON by Turnstile - 100% a selfish pick, I want to mosh with Yuki in the pit of a Turnstile pit.

Daniel Ricciardo: The Panhandlers by The Panhandlers - A country supergroup I return to time and again, wistful and nostalgic, making you yearn for West Texas no matter where in the world you are.

Alex Albon: Pelican West by Haircut 100 - Funky British jazz pop, perfect for dancing and vibing.

Logan Sargeant: Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling by Slaughter Beach, Dog - I fear Logie might be too young or too norm core to have had a proper Modern Baseball phase (it's never too late logie! listen to Intersection!) but Ewald's 2023 offering seems like something he missed last year that's perfectly up his alley.

Valtteri Bottas: Merriweather Post Pavillion by Animal Collective - Weird and complex, I think he should throw it on while on a long bike ride and let his mullet fly in the breeze.

Zhou Guanyu: God Save the Animals by Alex G - no you don't understand i need him to listen to Alex G he would love it

Kevin Magnussen: Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins - Ethereal music he can feel and let wash over him in a wave to relax and transcend the horrors of driving for Haas.

Nico Hulkenberg: Supernatural by Santana - dad music but make it funky and good

Pierre Gasly: Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans by Uffie - A perfect twist on early 2000s French electronic music, I think it'd remind him of the club while sounding entirely new and make him want to pick up a side dj gig of his own.

Esteban Ocon: Lescop by Lescop - French indie pop-rock! His most recent album is fantastic, but Este should check out Lescop's 2013 debut first.

following a conversation with @liamlawsonlesbian and her definitive book rec list i'm doing something similar for music (she bullied me into posting this sorry). large range in popularity/mainstream-ness of artists depending on the driver and what i think they're already listening to.

[kissingrhi]

half awake and thinking about making roman roy ride a pillow in front of you as punishment 😵‍💫

it was roughly 2 am when he’d waltzed into your suite, drunk and needy. he didn’t have to say a word. you could tell by the twinkle in his eye and the throbbing vein that was practically popping out of his forehead. shamelessly stealing a drink from your mini fridge, drinking it as if it would ease the heat pooling in his stomach.

you were already pissy at him (which he loved) due to some interesting words that he threw at you during a meeting, and an important one at that. something along the lines of, “yeah, no, let the fuckin’ she-demon take the reigns. see how far that takes you.” he was glaring eager daggers into you the entire time, scoffing when you merely swallowed the bitter urge to bite back at him. he definitely didn’t get turned on at the way your voice twinged and cracked with frustration each time he’d cut you off. or by how you blatantly ignored him. no way.

“what do you want, romulus?” you groaned, spitting out the name. you knew it would make him wince. “oh, i’m sorry. can i not visit daddy’s favorite assistant?” he drew out the words just to watch you clench your jaw. you hated when he called you that. you made it your number one priority to avoid logan as much as possible. “you weren’t complaining about my glorious surprises last week.” he added slyly, a saccharine grin gracing his mouth. “last week” referencing when he’d snuck into your room and sloppily lapped at your cunt until he was rutting into your silk sheets and you were sure your hands were soaked in his hair gel from tugging on his locks so much.

“dick.” you replied, half-joking, getting up to walk closer to him nonetheless. “oh yeah?” he responded, snarkily as ever, just to watch your nostrils flare. he peered up at you through his eyelashes, a desperate, tempting slime puppy seated in an odd position on your bed. his legs spread instinctually as he sat on the corner of the bedframe, leaning back onto his hands, smirking when you stood between his meaty thighs. so convinced he had you wrapped around his finger.

“we can’t do this anymore. i’m worried your father will find out.” you deadpanned, watching pure betrayal wash over his face. god, was he sulking? “are you fucking kidding me?” he whined, with zero regard to the time of night; throwing his head back grandiosely, practically pouting. wordlessly, you reached out to cup his jaw, the pad of your thumb running over his bottom lip. “maybe you’d like that, though.” your voice fell to a whisper that made him flinch, and suddenly he was holding his breath. “nasty fuck that you are.” the words fell in a righteous laugh, a laugh that screamed: “we both know i’m right.” you peeked down to the forming semi under his pajama pants, clicking your tongue in amusement.

“is that it?” you cooed. “want everyone to hear what disgusting shit you’re into?” you forced his chin up, the uncomfortable crane in his neck making him flush. he was exposed, unintentionally barring his neck to you. you took the opportunity to suck on the pale flesh above his collarbone, working your way up to his ear. “answer me.” you pressed a knee to his growing cock. his response was a pathetic “yeah” and a furrow in his brow, to which you scoffed and pulled away at.

“yeah?” you mocked, watching his eyes squeeze shut in embarrassment. he got harder. you grabbed a pillow from behind him, purposefully pressing it down to his lap. “why don’t you give me a show, rome?” you pulled away completely, grabbing a chair and sliding it up to the bed. his eyes widened once again as if he’d been betrayed, when in reality he was just a spoiled little thing.

when he hesitated to move, you groaned in annoyance: “i don’t have all night. are you that stupid already?” he rolled his eyes, situating the pillow between his clothed legs. you stopped him. “you know i want to see you.” you crooned, watching his face flush even darker. “let me see your pretty little cock.” the dirty praise made look down at his trembling hands, grumbling a “shut up.” still, he obeyed, freeing his dick from the confines of his luxurious pajama pants. you couldn’t help yourself, letting out an “aw” at how eager he was. he groaned in embarrassment once more.

“don’t be too loud. or do. i don’t really care.” you chuckled. when he looked at you with utter humiliation in his eyes, you signaled for him to hurry up with your finger. “what, you think i’m joking? you dumb boy.” you spat out the word like a curse, and his hips stuttered helplessly. “oh, that’s what gets you going, right? being told how worthless you are?” it was odd how naturally the words fell from your mouth, and sent electricity shooting through his body.

he shakily, messily pistoned his hips against the pillow, the flushed pink tip of his cock a beautiful contrast to the cool white pillow. “no wonder you don’t know how to fuck.” you muttered under your breath, watching him fall forward with an especially hard thrust at the claim. the prettiest whines and curses escaped his throat, messy agreements to your words littered throughout. the way his hips rolled and stuttered made you grin, and heat pooled in your stomach with each new level of depravity he reached.

“you’re just such a shameless bitch, aren’t you, roman?” you hummed, leaning in a little, admiring him. he could feel your eyes burning holes into his back. he gripped at the pillow beneath him. “fucking that thing like your life depends on it. it’s pathetic, you know?” he gasped, his eyes falling shut once more: “i know- i know.” his voice didn’t even sound like his own, all high-pitched and wanton. his cock twitched when he heard himself. his thrusts got even messier, forcing himself to keep going through the tingling stimulation on his drooling cock. he hissed, his head falling back to reveal his adam’s apple covered in your drying saliva. you bit the inside of your cheek at the sight, a predatory glimmer in your eyes.

“depraved little shit.” you practically laughed out, watching him so focused on reaching his orgasm. his eyes were glued to his cock, trying so desperately to get there by himself. “can’t make yourself finish?” you teased, watching his eyes prickle with tears in frustration. “that’s just too bad, huh? it’ll be nice to watch you actually work for something for a change.” he whined again at your words

it was going to be a long night.

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Change

Roman was acting like himself when Thomas was younger, yk overdramatic, prince aesthetic, love of theater etc etc but after a fight with Virgil he decides he wants to be respected and completely switches up reads body language, stays quiet and subdued, refuses to state any opinions the other sides wouldn't completely agree with – himguy

Read on Ao3

Warnings: bullying, more unsymp!sides than I normally go

Pairings: none

Word Count: 8613

Roman is over the top, bombastic, and enthusiastic. He is prone to fits of passion and emotional outbursts. Such is the nature of Creativity. But the others...don't like that. They aren't exactly ambiguous about it either. Or, Roman struggles to walk the line between being himself and being something the others can tolerate. It gets far worse before it gets any better.

“I mean—it’s outrageous! Despicable! Why, the very greats of theater performances past are affronted at the very notion!”

Virgil rolls his eyes, lounging against the bottom of the stairs. “Are you done?”

“Am I done? Am I done? How can you even ask such a question like that, when you have awakened in me passions the likes of which would make the Ancient Greeks rise from their slumber—“

“As if your tantrum hasn’t awoken them already,” Logan mutters under his breath and Janus muffles a snort.

“—to speak in verse so as to demand an answer to the question of why you have decided to make a mockery of their livelihoods! What—how can you ask me if I am done when it is you who started this in the first place!”

Virgil yawns.

”And now—how dare you?”

“Here’s a fun game, take a shot every time Princey says ‘how dare you.’ You’ll be dead in two minutes.”

“We only drink responsibly, Virgil,” Patton chides.

“Yeah, which means you agree that he’s saying it, like, every other sentence.”

“Exactly, so if we’re going to be playing a drinking game, then you should pick something that’s either happening less—“

“Roman being reasonable?”

”How dare—“

“Quick, everyone, take a shot, he said it again!”

Roman puffs his chest up, spluttering, and Virgil just snickers, mocking his half words until Roman’s face is as red as his sash, laughing the whole time. Even Logan has to try and hide his grin as Roman keeps trying and failing to articulate much of anything.

“Oh, give it up,” Virgil sighs after a while, “you’re not making sense, Princey, you haven’t been making sense for like, half an hour. You just keep saying ‘how dare you’ and going on these monologues that don’t mean anything.”

“What do you mean, ‘don’t mean anything?’ Have you not even been listening?”

“Nope.”

“Well, then, you should—what did you say?”

“I said no, Princey, I haven’t been listening. It’s not worth listening to you when you’re not really saying anything.” Virgil scrubs a hand through his hair. “You’re just…you know, talking. Making noise. That’s what you do.”

“What exactly is talking if not making noise, then?”

“Well, ‘talking’ typically refers to stringing words together in a way that actually communicates something worth saying, and ‘making noise’ is just that. Nonsense.”

“That’s not—“

“L? Back me up here.”

“He’s right,” Logan says, crossing his arms as Roman starts to puff up again, “you’ve been wasting our time with these dramatic fits and tantrums that are not and have never been productive. So unless you have something that’s actually worth saying, then I agree with Virgil that you’ve made enough noise for the evening.”

“Or ever.”

“Kiddo,” Patton scolds, “it’s not nice to say that Roman shouldn’t ever make noise again.”

“But you agree with me.”

“…I think that—“

“That’s a yes,” Janus says helpfully, smiling as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth when Roman glares at him.

”What is this, Pick On Roman Day? Did I miss a memo where you all decided it would be good funny to belittle me?”

“More like did you decide to wake up and abuse our eardrums for ages and ages.”

“How is this more productive than the things I was saying?” He flings his hand out at Virgil. “He’s just insulting me?”

“Yes, which is doing the productive task of making sure that you’re not monologuing anymore,” Logan sighs, rubbing his temples. “I believe I’m going to call it here. If there’s nothing else pertinent…?”

“No,” Janus says before he can say anything, “nothing.”

“I will see you all for dinner, then.”

”Wait, Logan, you can’t just—“ Logan sinks out before he can finish his sentence— “how come he gets to do that and when I do it you all yell at me?”

“Because he’s doing the healthy thing of respecting his own boundaries,” Patton says, “and not just deciding that he doesn’t want to be here anymore.”

“How is that different?” Patton just looks at him like he’s the most disappointed he’s ever been. “What? Don’t look at me like that!”

“I’m gonna go too. I’ll see you kiddos later.”

”Wait, Pat—“

“He’s gone, Princey,” Virgil declares, still lazing about like some great over stuffed cat, “he’s not coming back.”

“What, are you two going to sink out next?”

“Oh, no, please,” Janus drawls. “Don’t mind me, this is the most entertaining thing I’ve seen in weeks.”

”What is?”

“Watching you be a peacock getting your feathers plucked.”

Roman yelps, hands going automatically behind him, and both of them burst out into laughter. Embarrassment and humiliation burn his cheeks and they just keep laughing, calling him a tomato, a pincushion, a whoopee cushion, and—and—

“Aww,” he hears Virgil simper, “is Princey gonna cry?”

Something deep inside of Roman’s chest snaps.

The living room disappears. He’s standing in his bedroom. Did he sink out? He doesn’t remember. His hands burn. His chest is splitting in agony. He can still hear laughter ringing and ringing in his ears, louder and louder and louder and louder—

Distantly, he registers that he’s on his knees, somehow, hunched over until his forehead burns into the rough shag carpet. The balloon in his chest keeps snapping hardly against his ribs with every rough inhale, the ache in his hands giving way to the sharp bite of his own nails in his palm. He splutters again, gasping for breath. It doesn’t work. He does it again. His chest feels like it’s about to splinter into pieces. They just keep laughing. Why do they always laugh?

Peacock. Tomato. Pincushion. Whoopee Cushion. Spluttering, overblown, overdramatic, messy, nonsense Prince.

That wasn’t fair. It isn’t fair.

Life isn’t fair, Roman, he can hear Logan sighing, you can’t just complain about everything all the time. You have to work for things.

Fine. They want Roman to work for things? They want him to act like he’s someone worthy of respect? Fine. He’ll play their stupid game.

***

”Ah. Roman.” Logan adjusts his glasses. “You’re late.”

“Sorry, I know, I was caught up in—“

“It doesn’t matter,” he continues, turning back to Patton like Roman hadn’t been speaking, “at any rate, I find it highly unlikely that a video on the animal shelters nearby will be a successful venture for Thomas.”

“But it’s a good thing to do, Logan! Besides, they have a fundraiser thing going on right now, we could help raise awareness?”

“Yeah, but what if that’s not what they’re asking for?” Virgil shakes his head. “We might just end up making things worse.”

“Besides, Thomas’s content shares to far more than just a local audience. It would be in an effort to reach the wrong demographic.”

“Well, as Thomas’s Creativity, I think that we should—“

“Oh, good, here we go, Princey’s gonna lecture us again.

Roman frowns. “I’m…but I am Thomas’s Creativity. It’s my job to come up with ideas.”

“Come up with ideas and order everyone else around like we’re your personal servants are two very different things, Roman.”

“I didn’t say that, you slippery snake—“

“Name calling will not do you any favors.” Logan’s voice cracks across the room and Roman just manages to resist the urge to flinch. “You showed up late, Roman. You do not have the authority to override anyone else, as much as we all know you wish you could.”

“Only we can,” Virgil pipes up as Janus gives a little wave, “sorry, Princey.”

“You’re not sorry.”

“Neither are you, and you should be for being so rude.”

“I—“

“They’re right, Roman,” Patton says quietly, “go on.”

Roman looks around at all of them. They stare at him expectantly. A lump grows in his throat and he mutters an apology.

“That’s better.” Logan turns away from him again. “Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…”

The others respect Logan, at least, they think that he’s worth listening to. And he’s not scolded for interrupting anyone. Maybe he could be respected the way Logan is, if he shows them that he knows what he’s talking about.

***

Roman shows up to the next meeting with his arms full of binders and notebooks. Janus raises an eyebrow as he sets them all in a neat little row around himself, waiting for the meeting to start.

“Jeez, Princey, did you murder enough trees yet? You know we’re trying to save the planet, yeah, not just kill it faster?”

“It’s research.”

“Research,” Janus repeats dubiously, just as Logan shows up.

“Ah, good, nice to see we’re all on time this time.”

“Uh, Patton’s not here yet.”

Virgil scoffs. “Snitch.”

“How am I being a snitch? You can clearly see he’s not here.”

“There’s no need to be rude, Roman.” Logan eyes his pile suspiciously. “Despite how…overeager you might be.”

“But I just—“

“Sorry, sorry!” Patton rises up. “Sorry I’m late, I just lost track of time!”

“It’s alright, Patton—“ how come it’s alright when Patton’s late, but not me?— “we can get started now.”

Great. Roman picks up the binders and starts trying to hand them out, only for Virgil to raises his eyebrow and nudge it away like it’s radioactive.

“What the hell is that supposed to be?”

“It’s…it’s research. For the video idea. I was looking into media study theories about the subjects that we wanted to include—“

“‘We?’ There’s no ‘we’ in this, Princey, we haven’t even made a decision yet. I feel like we went over this.”

Roman chews on his lip. “I know, but I wanted to have evidence for my side, and—“

“There are no sides anymore, Roman,” Janus sighs, looking almost bored, “we’re working together on this, remember?”

“…okay, I wanted to have evidence to back up what I wanted to say, is that better?”

“Well, considering you’re trying to hand me a phone book, no, not really.”

Roman huffs, letting the binder fall to the floor. Patton tuts disapprovingly at the noise. “You guys like it when Logan brings in a bunch of evidence, why can’t I—“

“Excuse me?” Logan’s expression darkens. “Is that all you think I do, Roman?”

“Oh, shit, you’ve done it now,” Virgil mutters as Logan takes a step forward.

“I—I just—I wanted to—“

“I bring in evidence to support the things I say because that is the responsible this to do. I choose the sources that will most accurately and succinctly back up my claim because I respect the time of the people I am talking to.” Logan looms over him, even though they’re about the same height. “If you are so desperate as to try and steal what it is that I do because you don’t feel as though your ego has been properly sated—“

“Ooh, get him, L.”

“—then I highly suggest you do your research.”

Janus is openly grinning and Virgil is hiding snickers behind his hand. Logan stares at him for a moment longer before he drops the binder with a thud. Roman flinches. He barely hears anything else over the rush of shame in his ears as he gathers up all of his binders and clutches them to his chest.

If they’d even bothered to look inside, they would’ve seen his summary of the academic essays and papers he’d read where he put in only the relevant parts and annotated his ideas with them, but they didn’t. They didn’t look inside. Not one of them. That wasn’t fair either. What else is he supposed to do? How is he supposed to get them to listen?

Remus. They pay attention to Remus when he shows up. Maybe he should ask Remus what to do.

***

“Remus? I—whoa!” He dodges a flying piece of…something. “I had something I wanted to ask you!”

Remus looks up from his perch on top of a mountain of various animal parts and grins, sliding down what Roman hopes is a giant tongue and shaking himself off. “What’s cracking?”

“How do you get the others to listen to you?”

“Scream until their eardrums bleed, that’s a good way.”

Roman winces. “But then they’re not—then they can’t hear at all.”

”That’s not my problem.”

“No, I mean—when you show up, everyone pays attention to you. How…how do you do that? How do you get them to take you seriously?”

“I find holding a very sharp weapon does wonders for making sure you’re listened to. Especially if they know you’ll use it!”

“I don’t want to hurt them, Re.”

“You’re no fun.”

“I just—I’m struggling with getting them to take me seriously. They don’t want to listen to me, they don’t really respect me, I just—“

“Here, hold this.”

“—I want them to—ack!”

The ball of whatever-it-was Remus placed in his hands explodes into a noxious cloud of spores, making him crouch and flail as Remus cackles. The familiar burn forms the lump in his throat and he tries to take a deep breath to calm himself down—

—only to go into a massive coughing fit when he inhales the spores again.

“Sheesh, Ro, maybe you should’ve learned your lesson.” Remus pats him on the back with mock sympathy. “Did you want to say something?”

Roman opens his mouth and promptly swallows another round of the spores and has to double over, hacking them up. Remus just grins. He waves his arms frantically to get those stupid things out of the air and glares.

“Aw, lighten up, bro! You looked like you could use a laugh.”

“Re, I came to you for help.”

“Pfft. That’s your fault, not mine. What’s the matter, Ro? I’ve never had problems with getting them to take me seriously.”

“Well, yeah, because they’re scared of you.”

Remus freezes. The smile slides off his face. “Wh-what?”

“You threaten them with weapons, you scream at them until their ears bleed, wouldn’t you be scared?” Remus’s lower lip wobbles. “Wait, I didn’t mean—“

Remus sinks out before he can say anything else. He groans in frustration and scrubs his hands over his face, remembering too late that there are still spores there, and he sinks out to his bathroom to wash them all off. Scrubbing at the skin doesn’t really do anything to dull the frustration of Remus being so unhelpful and the guilt at…upsetting him.

No sooner has he dried off—actually, better make that started to dry off—does he feel the familiar yank of being summoned. He rises up in the middle of the Dark Side’s living room to see a teary Remus in Janus’s arms and an absolutely furious Virgil.

“What the actual fuck is wrong with you,” Virgil spits in his face before he can even say anything, “how the fuck can you be so cruel?”

“I didn’t—“

“You actually fucking told Remus that we’re all scared of him? What the fuck, Princey?”

“I didn’t mean to, I just—!”

“Please,” Janus hisses, voice laced with enough venom to make his throat tingle, “tell us what you did mean, since clearly we must be missing something.”

Virgil glowers and folds his arms. Remus sniffles, head still pillowed in the crook of Janus’s shoulder. One of his hands rubs soothing circles over Remus’s back and a jolt of longing makes Roman’s chest ache anew.

“Well?”

“…I just meant that he threatens you guys all the time, and he—“

“Wow.” Virgil scrubs a hand over his face and starts to pace in a circle. “Just fucking wow, Roman.”

“What? He does! He admitted it, that’s what he does whenever he shows up!”

“And of course he only shows up to be the bad guy, right? That’s what you’re gonna say next?”

“I never said that! I didn’t say that! I would be scared if someone showed up and threatened to hurt me with an extremely sharp weapon or scream until my ears bleed, wouldn’t you?”

“Well, jeez, Princey, seems like you got it all figured out. No use asking us how we feel, no, you already got everything all sorted. Just the way you like it, huh?”

“That’s not what I meant, I just—“

“What is all of this racket about?”

Roman’s heart sinks when he sees Patton and Logan come in from the hall. Patton, of course, catches sight of the still-sniffling Remus and rushes over, all soft care and concern that makes Roman burn with envy, and Virgil wastes no time telling Logan about all the horrible things he said and how he’s refusing to apologize for it. Sure enough, Logan’s disappointed look turns on him in less than one minute.

“Roman,” Patton says sternly, “how could you say something like that?”

“Is there something I’m missing here? Do other people not get scared when someone shows up and threatens to hurt them?”

Patton frowns. Logan and Virgil don’t bother to hide their disgusted expressions. Janus bends down to murmur something comforting in Remus’s ear. Roman throws his hands up.

“I don’t get it! What am I not getting? Please, someone tell me, tell me what I don’t get about—“

“That’s enough.”

Patton’s tone, cold enough to freeze even the brightest stars, stops him cold.

“You’re behaving horribly, Roman, and you know that. You’re reacting in a very immature way and I expected more from you. Now, do you have an apology to make to Remus, or are you going to keep throwing a tantrum about getting caught doing something bad?”

Roman swallows around the lump in his throat. He looks at Remus, who peers out from Janus’s protective hold to look at him. In truth, he never meant to hurt his brother. He does feel bad about it, and yes, he wants to apologize.

But he looks around at the sheer force with which the others have decided to support and care for Remus, and he just…

“I’m sorry I said everyone was scared of you, Remus.”

Janus bares his teeth and hisses and Patton’s face darkens.

“Out.”

“But I said I was—”

“Get out, Roman.”

Virgil steps forward as if he’s going to bodily shove Roman out of the room and Roman quickly sinks out, listening to the comforting words of the others as they start to gather around Remus and he—he—

You know what? Fine. Fucking fine.

They say he’s being immature and dramatic and stupid and disrespectful and cruel and mean and a peacock and a tomato and a pin cushion and selfish and egotistical and badly behaved and he’s throwing a tantrum then fine. Then fine,

He sinks into the Imagination atop a vast, barren wasteland of dry cracking stone and winds racing across miles and miles of absolutely nothing. Sand stings across his exposed skin and he pays it no mind. The ground begins to split and crack under him.

It’s not fair. It’s not fair. He’s not allowed to be passionate about anything or be hurt when people make fun of him. He’s not allowed to do research or do anything similar to what anyone else might be doing. He’s not allowed to go ask for help because he’ll say the wrong thing and everyone else will immediately take the side that isn’t his. He’s supposed to be this stupid dancing monkey that no one has to listen to and he never gets to actually say any of this out loud.

When was the last time someone asked him if he was okay? When was the last time someone actually listened to him? But no, Roman doesn’t get to be taken seriously. Roman doesn’t get to be hurt and upset and want things like everyone else. Roman doesn’t get to do any of that.

Roman gets to scream himself hoarse in a sandstorm until the sand scrapes his tears from his cheeks and the grind cracks under him, that’s what Roman gets to do. He gets to scream and rage and shout that it’s not fair, because it’s not fair, in a place where no one could or would care enough to hear him. He gets to scream and rage and be hurt all on his own where even the wind won’t give him the breath to speak and you know what? Maybe this is better.

Because when he looks around at the scar in the face of the earth he’s made with blood on his knuckles and an undying ache in his chest, maybe the others were right.

***

That was three months ago.

Roman wasn’t allowed to come to the meeting for a while. Remus went instead. Roman spent his time in the Imagination trying not to let the hurt in his chest turn him to stone. They dropped off a list of everything they needed him to do after the meetings were over and he did them.

Then he was allowed to come back on a sort of trial basis as long as he behaved himself. He didn’t know what that meant, but he knew they didn’t like it when he said things or acted like he knew what to do, so he didn’t say anything. Remus was still there and Remus interrupted and said things and the others laughed or listened or told him his ideas were good. They didn’t ask Roman if he had any ideas.

They still got mad if Roman was late, even if he wasn’t saying anything anyway. They still got mad if Roman wasn’t paying attention, even though they didn’t listen to any of his suggestions when he wanted to make them. They still expected him to do all of the things they wanted, even if that wasn’t something that he could do and he tried to tell them that and they told him to stop being lazy because Remus was doing all of this stuff too. It still wasn’t fair, but Roman knew better than to ask why now.

He still went to the Imagination. The Imagination didn’t judge him when he wanted to make his ideas, or when he wanted to just say something wasn’t fair out loud. He went there almost every night just to feel a little bit better, to go sit by the waterfalls and watch the rainbows form, or to go sit in the glowstone forest for a while and listen to the chirping of the tasselflies. Mostly he went to go take care of his dragon. She didn’t mind if his hands shook as he brushed her scales or if he needed to whisper-ramble to himself about how much it hurt to be in the meetings now. In the beginning he tried not to cry on her because he worried that it was rude but then she snuffled into his face with hers and wrapped her tail around him so he figured she didn’t mind too much. Sometimes he just went to her so he could lie against her scales; she was warm the way all dragons are and if he was very tired or very upset, it was almost like getting a hug. She couldn’t hug him, outside of wrapping her tail around him a few times, but she was warm and she was nice and she let him cuddle up to her, so it was okay.

Then he gets called to a meeting that isn’t the one they have planned and he only just gets there on time. He rises up into the living room and everyone else is already there, staring at him. He straightens his shirt a little self-consciously—he stopped wearing the prince costume when Janus told him he didn’t need to dress like he was always about to go to his own coronation—and waits for someone to explain what’s going on.

Logan eventually breaks the silence, sighing and straightening his glasses. “Roman, do you know why you’re here?”

He shakes his head.

“You’re because we think—well, we feel that this temper tantrum has gone on long enough.”

Temper tantrum? What temper tantrum? He’s doing what they want, isn’t he? He’s not being dramatic, he’s not doing anything wrong, he’s—he’s behaving. Just like they wanted.

“This moping, the silent treatment, the lack of initiative you’ve shown,” Logan continues, “whatever point you’re trying to make, it would be better if you just said it. Then we could come to a solution and move on.”

“I…I don’t understand.”

”He means,” Janus says, his voice way too condescending, “that this little poor-me-I’m-the-victim charade you’ve been putting on isn’t fooling anybody. So if you wouldn’t mind using your words?”

But he…they didn’t like it when he was being the way he was before. Why would they want him to go back to that? That was bad, they hated it, hated him, he—he doesn’t understand.

“Roman?” Patton prompts. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Told you,” Virgil mutters, “here we go.”

“I…you didn’t like it when I was being dramatic, or when I tried to give ideas or said I knew what I was doing—o-or when I tried to research what I wanted to do and show you, so I…I didn’t…I don’t—what am I doing wrong?”

“For fuck’s—you can stop it, Roman,” Virgil groans, “whatever act you’re doing, great, we bought it, show’s over, now tell us what’s going on.”

“Nothing’s going on! I’m not trying to trick you guys! I’m just trying to be what you want!”

Janus scoffs. “And you think what we want is a limp, wet blanket of a person that shows no initiative and barely bothers to put in the effort?”

Roman’s mouth just opens and closes a few times, staring at him, before his gaze desperately lands on Remus. Remus will understand, he has to, he has to know Roman’s not trying to play a trick on them or anything, he has to—

“Remus,” he starts, and has to swallow when Janus moves slightly in front of him as if to protect him, “Re, please, I didn’t—I’m not trying to do anything, I swear.”

“…why else would you be acting like this?”

Any hope he may have had that Remus would come to his defense drops like s stone to the bottom of the deepest ocean in the Imagination. The lump swells up in his throat and he has to look down.

”Oh, look, here it comes,” he hears Virgil mutter, “he’s gonna cry.”

“I’m not.”

Virgil huffs and now Roman has to do everything in his power not to cry in front of them. He won’t do it. It’s not fair. He’s not giving them the satisfaction of it.

There’s a long pause before Patton sighs.

“Do you have anything else you want to say for yourself?”

He shakes his head.

“Then perhaps it’s better if you don’t come to the meetings until you’ve sorted yourself out.”

He just nods. Patton must’ve expected him to say or do something else because there’s a sigh.

“Then you can go.”

Roman sinks out the second he’s given permission and hits the rocky cliffside on the way up to his dragon’s favorite perch. He’s already losing the battle; tears and sniffles leak out of him as he fumbles for his bag with her brush and her snacks in it, stumbling up the cliff as the clouds roll in. He manages to clear the threshold of her mountain-top cave before his knees give out and her brush clatters out of the bag.

In an instant, she raises her head and turns to look at him, letting out a concerned rumble and promptly scooping him up in one of her claws and taking flight. He clings to her talon as they fly down to one of the small coves on the edge of the Great Sea, settling in the soft, warm grass and letting go. With tail, wing, and snout, she maneuvers him into the lea of her, wing lowered protectively over him like a blanket with her head turned so her nose nuzzles into the soft part of his chest.

“They still think I’m—I’m being bad,” he hiccups as she purrs soothingly, “they think I’m faking all this, that I’m—that I’m trying to—to trick them or something, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, and it’s not fair because Remus gets to be as messy and over-dramatized as he wants and they like it, they’re not even—even mad about it, it’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not—not fair—“

He dissolves into stupid, blubbering sobs and his dragon just huffs, blowing warm air over him in some phantom embrace and he throws himself in a heap over her snout, trying in vain to hold her back. She purrs in contentment, though he has no idea why, and just lets him be a mess all over her. He’s just so tired of this; of not being right, of not knowing what they want, of not being able to just exist without being critiqued or criticized or mocked. At least he won’t have to attend the meetings for a while, but then that means he also won’t get to see the others for a while.

Maybe that’s for the best.

Distantly, he hears the sound of water sloshing. He peers out to see the arms of the Kraken rising up from the water, the very top of his head poking out. The dragon lets out a rumble of greeting as an arm reaches toward them. She opens her wing to allow it to rest on the grass and Roman reaches out a shaky hand. He’s still sniffling too much to say anything but he pats the arm and the Kraken trills. At the questioning burble, he shakes his head and curls up a little tighter. The water around the arms churns into a slight froth as the Kraken shifts. Another low trill rings out and the arm slips away, the shadow fading beneath the surface and moving away. Roman closes his eyes again, resting against the dragon’s scales, until he hears a faint voice coming from the water.

“—drag me off like that, you know better, what is it you want to show me so badly over here?”

Roman’s blood runs cold. Remus. Ollie went to go get Remus.

He curls up even tighter and the dragon snuffles, lowering her wing protectively.

“Roman’s dragon? Why’d you bring me here?” Footsteps on the grass as Remus gets closer and the dragon growls in warning. “What’s wrong? Are you—wait, Ro?”

No. I’m not here. He curls up as small as he can go but that damage is done.

“Ro, what’re you doing? Did you fall? Are you hurt or something?” The dragon’s growl turns to a snarl when Remus keeps getting closer. “Why’re you…are you just upset that we figured out your acting thing?”

There’s no way in hell he could ever hope to disguise his flinch. The dragon lifts her head and properly bares her teeth at Remus. Ollie rumbles in warning too.

“It’s—I don’t get it, Ro. You had to know—it wasn’t exactly a believable thing.”

“Remus? Are you over here?”

“Fuck, this place is pretty. Why do you think we’ve never seen it before?”

”Roman hoarding it to himself, most likely.”

No.

No.

No, no, no, why are they here?

The Imagination is his space. His place to be alone, to be messy, to be himself. They can’t—if they take this too, where else could he go?

“Yeah, I’m up here, so’s Ro, we just need to—whoa!”

Ollie had grabbed Remus bodily around the waist and thrown him far out into the water with a single arm. As the others come over the hill, more arms rise up and the Kraken takes a defensive stance, head raising with water pouring off the sides as it rumbles. The dragon growls too, her tail coming up to circle protectively around him.

”Roman,” he hears Patton call, his voice a little higher than normal, “Roman, come out and talk to us, please.”

Nope.

“Fuck, that thing’s huge,” he hears Virgil mutter and part of him wants to snap not to call Ollie a thing. “And the dragon too—how are we gonna—?”

“We won’t have to do anything, because Roman knows when enough is enough, and he’ll come out and talk like a mature person, won’t he?”

Nope. No, the fuck I won’t. The dragon growls too.

“Roman, be reasonable,” he hears Logan say, “you can’t expect us to take you seriously if this is how you want to have this conversation.”

On the contrary: this is the most seriously they’ve taken anything to do with Roman for a long time, and he has no intentions of having any sort of conversation right now.

“You’re not doing a very good job of demonstrating that you’ve learned from your mistakes,” he continues, “nor that we should be taking you seriously.”

“Or that we should continue being so patient,” he hears Janus mutter.

He knew it was coming, it’s been the only thing coming for months now, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. Ollie heard it too, though, and gasps and scuffles come as more of the arms reach and Roman feels a sudden stab of fear—

He throws his arm out and miraculously, Ollie notices. He pauses, a questioning burble, and reaches an arm to lie on the grass near Roman. Roman rests a hand on it again, trying to swallow around the lump in his throat.

“They’ll be mad at me,” he whispers, “please—please just—just let them. I can’t—I can’t anymore.”

The dragon rumbles and Ollie makes a discontented noise, but his arms lower back into the water with a splash. Just then, another splashing noise accompanied by Patton’s cry of relief signals Remus’s return to the cove. Roman closes his eyes and tries to forget that he’s here. Maybe if he stays still and quiet enough, they’ll leave.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Remus says, “he wasn’t trying to hurt me, just get me away. Why he didn’t say that when he was the one to bring me over here in the first place, I don’t know, but—“

He’s cut off when a furious set of burbles comes from Ollie.

”Slow down, I can���t understand you like that.”

“Uh, Remus, could you get some sort of translator so we can all understand?”

“Sure. One sec.” A brief whiz and a flash of light. “There. Now: from the beginning?”

Ollie burbles again, but this time a deep gravely voice comes from what Roman guesses is the translation device.

“Red Prince is upset.”

“Red Prince? Is that Roman?”

“Yeah, that’s what they call him. Why’s he upset?”

The Kraken shifts. “You have made him upset. Red Prince comes everyday to She-Who-Tends-The-Clouds and he cries. He is cold. He is scared.”

“Scared?” Remus asks as the others mutter. “Why is he scared?”

“He was scared when I brought you.”

Roman flinches. They’re all going to take that the wrong way.

“Why was he scared when you brought me?”

An arm lifts from the water and points. “Because you bring the others. The Untouched. Those-Who-Do-Not-Shape.”

“Those who do not shape? I shape very much, thank you.”

“He means you don’t control the Imagination, Janny. But why would Ro be scared of that? Of you guys?”

Now his dragon snarls, her voice coming from the translator. “Because you do not protect him. You protect Green Duke. You do not protect Red Prince, you are cruel to him. He is scared of being hurt when he comes here. He is scared now because you have come where you are not supposed to be.”

“Uh, Miss Dragon? We only followed Remus, Remus brought us in here to show us something. We watched him get taken by that monster—“

“Don’t call him a monster,” Remus says lowly as Ollie growls.

“—sorry, sorry, by, um…by him and we wanted to make sure he was okay.”

“Why’d you bring me, Ollie, if you knew Ro was scared?”

The Kraken shifts as the water froths. “I brought you because you are his brood mate. I thought you were going to help.”

The condemnation in Ollie’s voice is enough to make Roman wince, squeezing the arm still on the grass lightly. The Kraken stills ever so slightly, the arm pressing back against his hand. The dragon noses his hair, blowing warm breath over him.

“I am sorry, Red Prince. I did not mean to bring this here.”

He shakes his head. He could never be mad at Ollie.

”Perhaps we’ve not had the best of first impressions,” Logan says, “I’m not sure either of us has the full picture here, but Roman—Red Prince, if you prefer—has been…acting unfairly towards us in the past, and we are concerned about his behavior.”

“You are correct in stating you do not have the full picture,” Ollie says, rising to an even more terrifying height, “for you do not know how much hurt you have been causing Red Prince.”

“I’m not sure you understand—“

“We understand that Red Prince is provoked to defending himself while the One-Who-Speaks-In-Storms mocks him. We understand that the One-Who-Speaks-In-Lies ridicules and confuses him. We understand that the One-Who-Speaks-In-Absolutes sees him as a disobedient child who only acts to get attention and not with other cause. And we understand that you, One-Who-Speaks-In-Rules, do not see him.”

The dragon picks up where Ollie leaves off, lifting her head to glare at them over the wing covering Roman.

“You mock and belittle his interests and scold him for being hurt over it. You act proprietary over the things you deem yours and chastise him for doing the same. You hold him accountable for every word he speaks and do not think that your words could be wielded just as carelessly. And when one of you is hurt by him,” and here she snarls at Remus, “you are quick to turn on him like a limb caught in a trap to be torn off.”

Roman hears the tense silence after she finishes speaking and braces himself.

“…I don’t believe this,” Virgil grumbles, “is this what Princey does everyday? He comes here and what, makes them believe we’re bullying him? Abusing him?”

“Torturing,” Janus says lightly, “I believe torturing would be more apt.”

“I understand that you’ve heard Roman’s perspective,” Logan says, his voice a little harder now, “but surely you must understand that there are two sides to every story. Are you not at all interested to hear ours?”

“From how you have behaved since setting foot on these shores,” the dragon growls, “no, we are not.”

“Do you even know what he said about Remus?” Patton says. “What made him so upset and us all ‘turn on him?’”

“He said that Green Duke is scary, and that you are scared of him. Because he threatens you with weapons that are sharp and screams that make your ears bleed.”

“Don’t you see how that’s mean?”

“Mean or not, it is the truth. And it is what Green Duke has said of himself.”

“They’re right,” Remus says before anyone else can say anything, “I did say that.”

“What—why?”

“Because it’s true. He came and asked me why you guys listened to me and I said it was ‘cause I…well, yeah.”

“Oh, Remus,” and Janus’s voice immediately softening hits Roman like a lightning strike, “you don’t really believe that, do you?”

“I think that yeah, you guys are scared of me sometimes. I…got caught off guard when Ro said it because Ro’s never been scared of me. At least…not until now.”

Wait. That’s why Remus was so upset? Because he thought Roman was scared of him? No, that’s—that’s not—

“But what do you mean ‘being proprietary,’ Ollie? Over what, the Imagination?”

“It is Red Prince’s job to come up with ideas. He claimed ownership of the role and was scolded. And yet when he tried to work in the way that the One-Who-Speaks-In-Rules does, he was scolded once more.”

“Wait, wait, wait, is this about that research thing Princey did like four months ago?”

“You mean the ‘thing’ that Ro spent days on, researching and annotating his stuff so that you guys would understand how much goes into creating stuff for Thomas? That ‘thing?’”

There’s a pause.

”They did not even look at it,” the dragon says, “they tossed it away while the One-Who-Speaks-In-Rules took offense to Red Prince’s comparison to his diligence.”

There’s another pause.

“We’re not…we’re not seriously buying this, are we? That Roman’s—that Roman’s—“

“Currently got a very angry Kraken and dragon defending him and still so scared that he hasn’t said a fucking word to us the whole time we’ve been here,” Remus interrupts Virgil, “yeah, Virgil, I think we’re buying it. Why the fuck didn’t any of you guys tell me this shit?”

“We didn’t—“

“Didn’t what? Didn’t think I should know that Roman’s been hurting? Didn’t think that Roman was hurt?”

“Don’t act all high and mighty,” Janus warns, “you also thought he was putting on an act until a few minutes ago.”

“Yeah, and I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that that’s not true and I’ve been a real Class A Dickbag to my brother for like, three months.”

Logan’s scoff hurts. “Why would Roman act like that and believe it? In what set of circumstances would he ever behave that reasonably?”

Roman would not like to be here anymore. He shifts and taps the dragon’s side and she unfurls, humming soothingly as he climbs up into the dip on her back. Ignoring the shouts from the others. They take flight, climbing higher and higher into the sky, breaching the cloud layer and only then does Roman slump. Tears drying against the scales.

“Take me somewhere they won’t find me,” he begs, knowing she’ll hear it over the rush of the wind, “anywhere, please.”

***

“You guys,” Remus growls as the dragon flies away, “are dicks.”

”Again, Remus, you also believed—“

“Yeah, I did. But hey, guess what I don’t do: I don’t make fun of Roman for getting upset or excited about stuff, I don’t disregard his work or tell him he’s stealing my shit, and I don’t make fun of him for being scared. My whole fucking life, our whole fucking lives, Roman’s never been scared of me. Not once. And now? Guess what, now he’s scared of me. Because of this shit.”

“How could we have known this was how Roman was feeling? It’s not like he told us?”

“Yeah, I wonder the fuck why the person whose emotions you make fun of didn’t want to tell you his emotions. Oh, wow is, what a mystery this is.” Remus scrubs a hand over his face. “Fuck. Fuck.”

Ollie just watches them, arms idly toying with the water. He looks up at him, running a hand through his hair.

“You said every night?”

“Every night, Red Prince comes. Sometimes he is able to smile. Not often, not anymore. Mostly he cries, or is too quiet.” The arms shift again. “I have not heard Red Prince sing in a long time.”

That, more than anything else, sobers them. Roman sings. That’s what he does. The sky is blue, the grass is green, Roman sings. Remus takes a shaky breath and Logan adjusts his tie.

“Why is Roman crying?”

“He does not know what he is doing wrong. You did not like him as he was, you do not like him as he is now. You believe he is trying to trick you. What would he have to gain by tricking you?”

“Perhaps he thought that we would realize we treated him unfairly, and that we would apologize.”

“And did you?”

There’s another long pause.

“…oh, dear.”

***

Roman’s awoken in the night by his dragon snuffling at his shoulder. He blinks, sitting up from the bed of soft moss and flower-down to see a figure approaching the dragon’s cave. He blinks again and the silhouette of the wolf fades into view. The dragon hums a greeting and the wolf’s nose bows, before he steps aside and another figure appears.

Roman draws back and the dragon growls.

“It’s just me,” Remus says, hands raised, “I promise, I’m the only one here and I locked the Imagination behind me, no one else can come in. He can confirm.”

The wolf huffs. Roman eyes both of them warily. The dragon’s wing drapes around him.

“Please, Ro, please, I just wanna talk.”

The warring fear and hope make him stand on shaky legs, edging from the dragon’s protective embrace to where Remus can just about reach him. The wolf is a reassuring presence—he wouldn’t have brought Remus if he didn’t think he would be okay, he knows them both well enough.

The twins stand there, looking at each other in the thin shaft of moonlight.

“Are…are you scared of me, Ro?”

“No.”

“…really?”

“I’m scared of them. They all seem to think you need protection from me.”

“I don’t,” he says in a rush, “I never did. I should’ve told them, told you—“

“I said it wrong. It’s not your fault.”

“You said it fine, Roro, you said it fine. I—I miss you. The real you.”

A long pause. The dragon rumbles and the wolf blows out a long breath.

“…it’s not fair,” Roman whispers in the quiet of the night, “it’s not fair, Re.”

“I know, I know it’s not. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, I’m sorry I didn’t know—“

"They hurt me, Re, they hurt me and they didn’t care at all and then they made it seem like I was always doing the wrong thing I I never knew what I was supposed to do—“

“I know, I know—“

“I just wanted them to listen to me, I just wanted them to take me seriously and they never do, they never did, it’s not fair, it’s not fair—it’s not fair—“

Remus bundles his brother in a massive hug that sends both of them to the ground, Roman sobbing into Remus’s chest as someone hugs him for the first time in ages. He’s so cold, he’s so warm, everything hurts, everything is so scary, he has no idea what the hell’s going to happen next, but then he feels the soft brush of the wolf’s nose over his forehead and the gentle rumble of the dragon lowering her wing around the two of them and he thinks maybe…maybe he can just exist here for right now and that’ll be okay.

***

“Princey? Whoa, hey,” Virgil says, raising his hands and taking a few steps back when Roman startles terribly, “didn’t mean to scare you, sorry, sorry.”

Roman just eyes him warily.

“We, uh, we wanted to talk to you. In the, uh, in the living room. Are you…free right now?”

“…I guess.”

Virgil’s shoulders slump in relief. “Great. Great, uh, that’s good. Uh, Remus is there too, so…”

Oh, thank god.

He follows Virgil downstairs and still balks when he sees everyone. Thankfully, Remus is standing in his usual spot by the TV and he holds out his arm for Roman to come stand with him. He goes over and Remus immediately snuggles up to his side.

“Roman,” Logan says, and his voice is so soft that it takes him a moment to even realize he’s holding something, let alone that it’s one of the binders from forever ago, “thank you for joining us. We owe you quite the apology.”

“Wh-what?”

“I apologize for how I’ve treated you,” he continues, still in that soft, soft voice, “it was rude and cruel of me to dismiss and belittle you the way I did. Especially with this—“ and he lifts the binder— “this is fascinating, and I would love to discuss it with you. I…understand that I’ve caused you considerable distress recently and I want you to know that I…I’m sorry, Roman, I’m so sorry.”

“Me next,” Patton says, “I’m sorry too. I assumed you were being immature and rude to us and so I was immature and rude to you. But you were just trying to get us to understand how you felt and I didn’t let you. I’m sorry, Roman, really. You didn’t deserve any of that, kiddo.”

“Now me.” And fuck, Janus is speaking gently to him too and Roman can’t deal with this, he can’t—but Remus holds him firmly. “I’m sorry, sweetie. It seems I—I seem to have a horrible habit of being very, very mean and cruel to you and I’ve never been more determined to break a habit.”

“Guess that leaves me.” Virgil grins sheepishly from under his fringe as Roman turns to stare at him. “I’m…I’m a real piece of shit to you, Princey. And I’m gonna work on it. It’s—I’m the reason shit feels really unfair to you a lot of the time ‘cause I’m the one poking you until you snap back at me, and then only you get yelled at, which sucks. So I’m…I’m gonna work on that. But it still sucks, also I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to accept any of them,” Remus murmurs when Roman just stares bleakly at them, “you don’t have to decide anything right now either.”

Roman just blinks.

“Do you need to go be alone right now?” He nods. “Okay. You tell Ollie I say hi?”

He nods. Remus plants a big obnoxious kiss on his cheek and lets him go and he sinks straight into the Imagination, leaving the rest of them in the living room.

***

That was three months ago.

He did cry again that night, just because he was so overwhelmed. His dragon cuddled him and Ollie swam him around the pretty coral reefs to make him feel better. The wolf even gave him a ride over to Remus’s side to see the galaxy clouds from the tall tower.

He did accept their apologies after a few days, but he said he’d need time. They agreed and he felt…strange.

He went to the meetings, Remus by his side, and slowly he started to share his ideas again. It didn’t go very smoothly, not at first, but then bit by bit it got a little better. He still didn’t want to talk about anything that was actually important to him, because that was too scary.

Then he had a panic attack when Remus wasn’t there and Janus wrapped him up in all his arms, murmuring gentle reassurance in his ear while Logan carefully talked him through it. Patton made him hot chocolate and Virgil covered him in a weighted blanket so he could rest. He was so confused, so scared, so unable to relax until Janus helped him take another sip with a gentle kiss on his cheek and he broke.

It took Logan two seconds to figure out he was touch starved.

Tuesday nights became Cuddle-Roman nights, all of them swaddled in blankets and pillows while Roman cried a little—or a lot—just from how new this was. They got very sad when he said that and he didn’t sleep alone for about a week.

He still went to the Imagination. Sometimes he needed to be by himself and there was nothing wrong with that. His dragon took him flying and cuddle with him on mountaintops, Ollie went swimming with him and the wolf went on walks when he was upset and needed someone to just be there. And Remus would always come play with him whenever he wanted to.

And maybe…maybe things would be okay. Maybe things would get better now.

General Taglist: @frxgprince@potereregina@gattonero17@iamhereforthegayshit@thefingergunsgirl@awkwardandanxiousfander@creative-lampd-liberties@djpurple3@winterswrandomness@sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes@iminyourfandom@bullet-tothefeels@full-of-roman-angst-trash  @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind@demoniccheese83@pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious@firefinch-ember@fandomssaremysoul@im-an-anxious-wreck@crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch@enby-ralsei@unicornssunflowersandstuff@wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv  @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams@averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb @cricketanne @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws@cecil-but-gayer@i-am-overly-complicated@annytheseal@alias290@tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance@whyiask@crows-ace @emilythezeldafan@frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires@cyanide-violence@oonagh2@xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx@rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734@triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo@cerulean-watermelon@puffed-up-bees@meltheromanstan@joyrose-fandomer@insanitori@mavenmush@justablah65@10paradox10@uhhh-hi-there-i-am-nervous@cutebisexualmess@bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti@ultrageekygirl

[everythingne]

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ ➛ out of the woods - chapter eight (ls2)

Dhanishka makes a difficult decision, but after 76 days, finds its hard to stay away from both her boyfriend and the world that raised her. So, she decides to make the comeback no one was expecting--but hoping for.

tws/notes: like one breakdown but shes chill, logan and isa are my kids i stg

(series masterlist) (last chapter)

dhanishkadubey

liked by charlesleclerc, landonorris, logansargeant and 987k others...

dhanishkadubey: As of this morning, I have chosen to fully step away from Formula One. It has been a long and hard conversation with my friends and family for the past two weeks, but alas, this entire situation and investigation are too much for me to handle at the moment along with continuing to race with Ferrari. That, plus my worsening injuries, are the main reasons I have decided I will be retiring as of today.

Ferrari will forever hold a special place in my heart. They are the ones who have trusted me since back in F2 to represent them in their Junior Drivers Academy, and since that day they have always been my family.

To Charlie, or Chuck, thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing me in. Thank you for always supporting me. The amount of things you have done for me are immeasurable, I cannot thank you enough for everything. Aiya says that there's a seat for you at our table next time you're in Bahrain.

To Logan, it has been a wonderful experience to fall back in love with you. Funnily enough, you're sleeping on my shoulder as I write this. If I had to do it all again knowing what would happen, I would come back to F1 over and over if it meant every time I got to have you in my arms again.

To Olivia and Lando, thank you both for the support. From me crying on your shoulders at 3am over stupid boys (sorry logan), to both of you supporting me in this insane moment of my life. I owe you both a big bottle of wine and maybe a whole vacation after this.

And Thank you to all of the other people who spent their days with me uplifting me, working hard to support me, and being absolute angels. From fans to my own managers and trainers and PR, thank you, all of you.

Oh, and best of luck little bearman, you'll be amazing ! ❤️

Forza Ferrari, upward and onward from here.

comments have been disabled for this post!

My hands haven't stopped moving in hours. Each dish has been meticulously polished to perfection, my hands cramping from the force I apply.

"Babli." My mother comes up behind me, taking my hands in hers and squeezing them, "they're going to be packed away, [no need to wash them so hard.]"

"[Sorry, Mom.]" I huff, setting the sponge down and rolling out my wrists and stretching my hands, "I just... it's been..."

"A lot. [I know. You have been so strong, Babli.]" She smiles, kissing my forehead, and the use of my childhood nickname--something they had stopped calling me after Trident's incident, made my heart ache. She coaxes me to go sit back down at the table and I do, leaning my head into my hands as I open my laptop again. The notes Olivia had taken from my meeting with the FIA staring back at me.

'Purposefully loose bolts on DRS connectors. Break lines partially slashed. Paid around 10.000 Pounds per incident. Astrid Marina. Anthony Davis.'

I groan and begin typing back responses to her questions. This is being taken a bit further. Now William's is fully suing Anthony Davis for blackmailing, with me sort of 'curtopsey copied' on it. I was in a mess with Ferrari right now, so I didn't feel like dealing with another court case on top of that.

Or, moreso, the break I had after the Canadian GP was so bad I was forcibly sent home.

I can hear the Austrian GP playing on the TV. Anya cursing in a mish-mash of languages at Carlos for fucking up his drive or something, and I slam my laptop shut with more force than necessary.

"Dhanishka!" My mother goes to scold me until she sees I've stood, hand tight on the top of my laptop as I stare at the TV in a mix of anger and... regret?

"Danny?" Anya's muted the TV, turning to look at me and there's something in my chest that just snaps and I burst into tears. I hadn't cried once in the past few weeks of absolute hell, between everything with Ferrari, choosing to leave Formula One for the foreseeable future... it was a fucking mess.

And I'd done so well at holding everything together. I'd fooled everyone, even myself, into thinking I was fine.

My mother pauses washing the dishes as I scoop up my stuff and retreat to the safety and solitude of my childhood bedroom. Screaming in some sort of anguish as I drop my stuff on my desk and just drop to my knees.

My head had been a non-stop migraine for weeks, my ribs had been a constant ache, my shoulder only getting worse. I spent every day in long meetings that only made me more and more lost in my situation.

"Anya, [I told you not to do that and you did! Just watch it in your room!] You knew it would upset her!" My mother's voice rings from the hall until I hear my bedroom door creak open and then feel my mothers hands on my sides. She gently lifts me up and then sets me on the bed, leaning down to grab one of Logan's hoodies I'd stolen so I could throw it on.

She doesn't say anything, just kisses my hair and leaves me to sniffle it out as I wipe at my tears.

She comes back with some tomato rasam, urging me to eat it to calm my body down, and she soothes a hand through my hair and braids it while I shakily spoon the soup like dish to my lips. When I'm finished, my mother kisses my head and at my seemingly calm nature now, she leaves me be to the solitude of my room.

I don't know how long it's been until I hear shuffling in the hall again, but I've retreated to laying tucked as tight as I can be in my blankets.

"Babli..?" My fathers voice calls from the door and I huff, burying myself deeper in the blankets. he must've gotten home from work during my rush to my room to hide the tears that threatened to fall. He knocked once, then twice, then on the third he just chose to enter my room. It took him a moment to spot me amidst my blankets, but when he did he smiled and made his way over.

"Sorry I missed dinner, [I had to pick up a package on the way back from work.]" He smiles softly, sitting on the edge of the bed to pop down a little cardboard box, "[For you, babli.]

I sit up and wipe at my face, noticing how my father had used a marker to cover the shipping address. But I swore I could read a little bit of 'FL' on it. I gently open the box with the letter opener he hands me and find a little Williams logo looking right up at me on the back of an envelope. I laugh softly and take out the card, opening the envelope to find the card inside.

‘Isa,

I hope this reaches you before the end of Austria! If not, it’s still quite cute I think. Alex and Lily have these and I figured it’d be cute for us to get them too. Also, the Williams team has sent you a little blue care package to life up your spirits :)

see you in Austin baby, love you to the edge of the universe and back.

- Lo.’

I set the card aside with a wobbly smile and open the first layer of packaging to find a small black box. Slowly opening it, I’m met with two things, a red string bracelet and a small bracelet. I pull both items out and twist them in my hands before adding them to my right arm stack.

A logo on the bracelet, totwoo, catches my eye and I quickly Google it.

It’s a fucking touch band. A long distance bracelet you can press to send a signal to, and as I hear the announcer speaking to Logan I nearly throw myself out of bed trying to get to the TV.

And when the bracelet lights up on my wrist, it takes a second, before I see Logan pressing it on the tv. Three short taps. I love you.

Tears spill out of my eyes before I can explain to my family, but they see my wobbly smile and understand that for the first time in nearly three weeks, my tears are good. My father brings the box to the living room and hands me a second letter, explaining the two items and my heart swells again.

'and a red string! I've got one too. I think we were always destined to be together.'

The bracelets, plus the little dolphin plushie his niece said he had to buy me (with its fucking Miami Dolphins jersey because of course) makes my heart so full, I feel the ice that threatened to hide me melting.

dhanishkadubey

liked by williamsracing, logansargeant, oliviapiastri-norris, and 678k others...

dhanishkadubey: after six weeks i think i've started to heal. [i love you, bahrain <3]

tagged: anyadubey, totwoo, logansargeant

user1: LOGAN AND DHANISHKA HAVING LONG DISTANCE BRACELETS. SHOOT ME. OMG.

anyadubey: so glad to have u home habibti <3

totwoo: seeing love from austria to bahrain in real time!

user2: dhanishka leaving f1 makes me so sad but im glad shes glowing now <3

logansargeant: tbh i think this is the most i've ever missed you?

dhanishkadubey: stop ill start crying :( ft me

dhanishkadubey

liked by logansargeant, williamsracing, alexalbon, and 569k others..

dhanishkadubey: some all new bts from my shoot with @ vogueindia x @ sabyasachi !! such a blessing to get to work with the amazing @ opheliapiastry , sabyasachi team, and the vogue india team ! [much love 🩵🤍 can’t wait for you all to see the final product !]

tagged: opheliapiastri, vogueindia, sabyasachi

sabyasachi: [an honor to work with you!]

anyadubey: i was there for this and im still just. jaw dropped, on the floor. wow

logansargeant: anya how do you think i feel?

anyadubey: simp.

user2: i need to see dhanishka back in a race car or ill die

—

Oscar and Lando have done a pretty good job of hiding me while interviews are going on. Logan had done exceptionally well, placing top five, and I'm trying my hardest not to let my excitement get out of me early.

"Fucking Jenson-- hurry it up, man, we can only stand here for so long without looking weird." Lando complains and I stifle a laugh while Oscar whacks his chest. The sound draws Jenson and Logan to peek over, luckily I'm able to hide before they see us--or before Logan does. Because Jenson grins and nods to Oscar, who leans back partially.

"That might be your cue, Danny."

I poke my head out to see Logan has his back to me and smirk, running over as fast as I can without alerting him. Jenson, thankfully, keeps Logan distracted until I place my hands over his eyes.

"Yo, what?!" Logan laughs, grabbing my wrists and accidentally pressing the button on my bracelet, making his buzz. He pauses, presses it again while I hold in a laugh and the cameraman adjusts his angle to get Logan's reaction as he turns around.

"Isa!" he shouts, nearly knocking me off my feet with the force of his hug and I laugh now, wrapping my arms tightly around him as he hides his face in the crook of my neck.

"Hi, jaan." I whisper, feeling his arms tighten around me as I close my eyes and snuggle into his hold. One of my hands comes to take off his hat that's stabbing my shoulder so I can run my hand through his longer hair as I rest my cheek against his head.

Through a slightly teary strain he murmurs, "God, I fucking missed you so much."

"I missed you too." I whisper back, "and, I might've told James to go ahead and announce it."

"No." He leans back, holding my face and looking at me for any sign of a lie. When all he gets is a smile he starts to laugh and pulls me in for probably the softest kiss that we've shared.

"Yep." I say in response and he presses another kiss to my head, before turning back to Jenson who smiles like a proud father.

logansargeant

liked by jensonbutton, oscarpiastri, williamsracing, and 876k others...

logansargeant: a great surprise to end off a great weekend, i love you, i'm so proud of you, and thank you for everything, meri jaan 🩵

dhanishkadubey: MERI JAANNNNNNN <3

logansargeant: MERI JAANNN

user1: f1s number one power couple fr

dhanishkadubey: also this is YOUR WEEKEND MR P4???!!!!!!

user2: logan's face when he saw dhanishka im gonna cry

user3: get urself a girlfriend who leaves from her modeling gig to surprise you just because

williamsracing: it was lovely to have a bit of the future with us this weekend 💙 (iykyk)

user4: williams what does this MEAN???

-

f1

liked by dhanishkadubey, logansargeant, and jensonbutton, 998k others...

f1: 76 days after announcing her 'retirement' from F1, Williams has signed @ dhanishkadubey on to drive with them for the 2025 season.

user1: YESSSSSSS WILLIAMS WILL THRIVE!!!

user2: logan went 'nah y'all aren't gonna treat my gf like this' and got her ass in williams

taglist (thank you !)

@nichmeddar @shineforever19 @d3kstar @chasing-liberosis @justsomejess @struggling-with-delia @daemyratwst

[marleyybluu]

Kissin’ Santa Claus

dad!Fez x mom!reader

Summary: someone catches Santa and mommy doing naughty things

No warnings, just fluff and my obsession with writing these boys as fathers (I’m sorry)

A little something for the Fezco girls, I’m not abandoning y’all that’s my man too tf

The holidays weren’t really your thing. They were more enjoyable when you were a kid and the older you got the less interested you were in this stupid holiday. The same went for Fez, though he didn't enjoy it much as a kid, he barely got anything but even then family was the only thing he wanted.

It wasn't until you two collided that the Christmas spirit was restored, you guys found yourselves going to little Christmas parties, you'd invite him and Ash over to your family's house for the whole day just so they wouldn't feel left out.

But your family loved them just as much as you did.

After spending a few Christmases together, you went from two to three. You finally had someone else to spoil and put up a Christmas tree for. You guys gave your son the world every year, he always had a mountain of toys, a few books and some clothes.

Fez made sure you guys had traditions like decorating the tree together, and any school crafts your son brought home went up on the tree as well.

One of Fez's favourite traditions was dressing up like Santa Claus to drink the milk and eat the cookies that Logan would leave on the table on Christmas Eve. You asked why did he dress up if Logan was asleep by that time of night but his response was always just in case he came downstairs.

That made sense, but deep down you knew he did it for his own entertainment.

You had just put Logan to sleep and left the door cracked open because he didn't like it closed all the way. You tip-toed downstairs to see Fez in his costume placing some last-minute presents under the tree.

You fake gasp and dramatically put your hand on your chest. "Mr. Claus, what are you doing here?" Fez chuckled turning around to see you in a red robe that was hiding his favourite present. "You know me ma, just droppin' some joy for the kids."

You giggled. "Do you have any presents for mommy?" He bit his bottom lip feeling himself twitch under his belt, he made his way over to you with lust in his eyes. "Yeah, I got you a big ol' candy cane you could suck on."

Your giggle elevated to a full-blown holler, that line had the both of you in stitches. It was so perfectly corny. You reached out for his hand and he happily gave it to you, you pulled him over to the entrance of the kitchen, under a mistletoe she had hung up earlier that day.

Fez smiled. "Oh, you want some ho, ho, ho, huh?" You tugged him closer. "I do."

Little to your knowledge Logan wasn't really asleep, the mischievous boy had snuck his Nintendo Switch into his room and waited for you to leave so he could play his games, once you left he'd been up ever since.

He heard the laughter from downstairs and soon the sudden silence, he listened for any other noises and heard a thump against the wall. His little feet touched the floor as his curiosity led him to go investigate.

He stood at the top of the steps, peaked over the balcony of the second floor and almost fainted at the sight.

Mommy was kissing Santa Claus

He was shook to his little core.

The discovery haunted him until the next morning, he could barely look at his parents, he felt so awkward and guilty glancing at the gifts under the tree. His aunties, Rue and Jules, noticed his energy shift, he was usually a lot happier to open his gifts.

Jules asked. "What's wrong Logan?"

The little boy sighed, he looked over at his parents, you guys could tell he was nervous to spill. You sat up showing that you were listening and whatever it was they would try their best to understand.

All eyes were on him when he blurted. "I SAW MOMMY KISS SANTA LAST NIGHT."

There was a stunned silence and a little laugh from Ash who sat on the side. Rue's eyebrows were raised so high they almost touched her hairline, Jules covered her mouth to muffle her giggles.

"You saw what?" Fez spoke, his heart was racing, hoping the kid didn't see more than them just kissing. "I'm sorry daddy, I came out of my room because I heard something and then I saw mommy kissing Santa."

You couldn't say anything, you couldn't even move. The jig was up. How were you going to explain to your six year old child that you were only kissing his father without ruining the fact that Santa isn’t real?

Everyone looked over to the both of you while you looked at each other. “Oh… Logan… sweetie…” You tried your best to softball it in. “That wasn’t Santa.”

You could see his little heart shatter. “It wasn’t?”

Fez took over, he opened his arms and Logan stepped forward resting in his father's hold. “You see Santa was sooooo busy this year that he asked me to help him out, gave me the outfit and everything.”

“Really!?” Logan reacted excitedly. Fez nodded. “Of course, man, Santa picked me because he knew you been such a good boy this year.”

“So… it was just you and mommy kissing?”

“Yeah man, and that’s something that’s not new to you right?” Logan gagged and shook his head causing the room to chuckle. Fez gave him a reassuring kiss on the head. He whispered. “We’re supposed to keep it on the low so don’t say anything when you get back to school okay?”

“Okay,” Your son whispered back locking their pinkies in a promise. He slipped away from his father and back to his presents, eagerly unwrapping every single one with the assistance of his uncle. You looked over at Fez and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you.”

He shrugged. “Don’t wanna kill it so soon you know?”

She leaned into his ear. “I heard Mrs. Claus dropped off a few presents for you.” He groaned. “She bring me my favourite one?”

“Yeah but you gotta save it for tonight.”

For the holiday girlies since Christmas is tomorrow. I didn’t write any Christmas shit tbh this was just off the dome.

If you liked this fic feel free to the like this fic. Reblogs and comments are appreciated.

Peace and love 🤙🏾

[pupplaylogan]

Breedable Bitch (Intrulogical)

"I’d like to see you write Remus and Logan together with Remus calling Logan a Breedable bitch. If you’re alright with that. - 🌧️"

Ao3

Word/s: 528

Summary: top remus + bottom logan, scratching + slight blood, hair pulling, aggressive sex

Smut Drabbles masterlist | FANFICTION MASTERLIST

Remus pins Logan down by the shoulders, chest pressing uncomfortably into the couch. His ass is in the air and Remus is slamming into him— skin slapping with every thrust.

Logan's hands grip the couch cushion the best he can. Pressing his face down and panting hard, his chest heaves. His face is wet from sweat and his hair is plastered onto his skin.

Remus moves his hands away from Logan's shoulders and then he digs his nails into his upper back, slowly, tediously, dragging them down. Hard. Little beads of blood prickle up from the little lines.

Logan moans, muffled.

Remus grips his hips, continuing to fuck him as Logan's cock leaks and sways inbetween his legs. He bet he's bruising (and that thought has his cock twitching).

He's teetering on the edge.

Remus leans down over Logan, blowing hot breath against his ear. His mustache tickles his skin. He licks his ear before growling, "Aren't you my breedable, little bitch?"

Logan gasps.

He grips the cushion tighter in his fingers, eyes rolling into the back of his head. His mouth falls open in a silent moan, before they clank together, clenching. He groans. "Remus, oh fuck—."

He comes, legs shaking.

Remus laughs mockingly above him and his head spins.

"What? You like that? Do you like being my breedable bitch?" Remus asks, tone snide.

Logan doesn't respond. He's panting hard and drooling onto the couch. It pools beneath his mouth. His cock hits his stomach the harder Remus thrusts and he whines, overwhelmingly sensitive.

Fingers wind in his hair, pulling his head up with a sharp tug. Logan moans, wincing, both from the tug and awkward position. His mouth hangs open as drool runs down his chin.

"Answer me, bitch," Remus grunts. Logan moans again and nods the best he can.

"Yes, yes, yes," Logan chants.

"Yes, what?"

"I love being your bitch! Your breedable bitch!" Logan answers, squeezing his eyes shut.

Remus groans, dropping Logan's head and shoving his own into Logan's shoulder. A few more thrusts and he's coming in Logan. He shudders above him. Logan's cock weakly twitches and squirts out more cum.

(Remus spreads ointment across Logan's back, over the scratches— his scratches. His heart flutters in his chest, staring at the marks he put on Logan. He doesn't think he could stop the dopey smile on his face even if he tried.

Logan winces at the sting, but does his best to sit as still as possible.

Remus moves his fingers away, closing the jar, and wiping his hands on one of the random pillows. Logan turns around to face him, cupping his face and pressing a kiss to his mouth.

Much softer tham what they just finished doing.

Remus smiles at him, vibrating.

"Are you alright, love?" Logan asks, quietly.

Remus nods, running his hands up and down the sides of Logan's body. He starts rushing through questions. "Are you okay? Did I do too much? Did you like that? Was I too hard? Did I hurt you in a way you didn't like—"

Logan cuts him off with a shoosh and a finger to his lips.

"That was amazing, Remus.")

[bamboobrat]

succession s4 e5 recap: swedish elon and his logan roy tribute band

time is a flat circle and we are back to ken hyping himself listening to rap, driving to the office.

anyone feeling nostalgic yet?

he is immediately caught off guard by the fact that roman and shiv are already there.

also he seems like the worst boss ever.

i really don't like ken when he is not hitting rock bottom.

(there is a movie about a sleeping robot in a cave that takes up too much time in this episode. let's not get into all that)

the old guard checks up on the CE-bros before their trip to norway.

matchy matchy&lt;3

turns out mattson wants them all there (why wouldn't he?) so THE GANG IS GOING TO NORWAY! lets bleed the swede!*

*as a norwegian, i approve this message

mortality has set into team krank, as they put on compression socks before the flight.

krank is not here to have fun. krank has no young mistress to impress. krank is serious.

shiv has noticed ken's leaks to the media from last week because she is boss. it's the comeback we've been waiting for.

but most importantly, she is waging a very important war against tom and his stupid new sneakers:

the sibs say they can kill tom for her. that's brotherly love.

hugo is not having a good time.

i am tho.

gerri rallies the troops by shitting on europeans.

yes mommy tell me i'm weak because i have free healthcare! sit on my face

gerri for CEO. always.

they accurately depict what it is like driving in norway:

(this is why i don't have my licence)

the gang arrives in the motherland and it's beautiful, but rainy (so authentic) and are all like WHY THESE WOOD CABINS SO SMALL?!

ironic because jeremy lives in fucking denmark.

anyway, whatever this is:

I DO NOT APPROVE!

the trip up to mount olympus is interrupted by con saying he can send a picture of their dead dad to the group chat.

nobody wants to see it.

also, marcia is putting logan in a kilt like the fucking bay city rollers and con had to cancel a room full of working class whites in cleveland. the sacrifice.

they give con carte blanche for the whole funeral thing, which is probably a terrible decision.

the funeral is going to be one big campaign rally, i'm serious.

the others have to settle for a nice lil scandi brunch spread. what a hard life.

i don't say this often, but i would be hugo in this scenario, piling onto my plate like it's nobody's business.

karolina has a cute lesbian moment.

she says something in swedish at some point, but let me tell you, i understand swedish and i didn't even pick up on it. no shade to dag, but lol.

hugo doesn't understand how ski jumping works.

i thank the writers for putting this joke in there, even if literally no one other than random scandi people will get it.

it's like the opposite of danny boyle's the beach<3 give back to the community<3

roman enters negotiations and puts his fingers in the caviar.

you think i didn't notice? after all this time, you must know i notice everything.

the CE-bros make the village elders proud, as mattson offers 187 per share as long as he gets ATN.

also, gerri does a second take looking back at roman. these are the crumbs i am destined to live on, i guess. roman doesn't want to give up ATN tho, probably because 1) his dad wanted ATN 2) his dad told him he wouldn't make it at pierce and belongs at ATN 3) he is, somehow, the most rational of the siblings right now????

speaking of rational: how are we feeling about the shiv/mattson potential here? i honestly have zero objections.

shiv is like fuck yeah, sell ATN, that shit is toxic.

agreed, but who gave mencken an open line to ATN-meetings? sounds like something logan told cyd to do during one of those late night calls.

"even dad had a line" rings true zero percent. pass.

get rid of atn. word is, they don't even have tucker carlson anymore? just keep a sweater, much less racist.

we get some important leo dicap representation:

and greg is the bringer of all that is exposition, telling us there is a kill list with 8 to 9 names, ever evolving.

now, as most readers of these recaps would know, i would like to avoid spending any time on greg whatsoever (made even more poignant by the recent rumors about nick), however, this must be one of the best exchanges of dialogue ever made:

greg: da fam shiv: da fuck

that's all.

tom tells the swedes that americans don't care about the rest of the world and it's funny because it's true.

and alex being like "you're ALL related?!"

i see you, succession writers, i see you.

mattson calls waystar a parts shop and has a good take on right wing media:

"i dont think news for angry, old men works"

instead, he opts for bloomberg grey: simple, cheap, huge, ikea'd to fuck. i do love ikea.

he calls the sibs a tribute band which is harsh. even for a scandi, it's fucking harsh.

anyway, SAUNA! SAUNA! SAUNA!

GERRI. IN. SAUNA! (chant with me)

i will never forget what the succession writers took from me.

krank out here just chilling.

i've never shipped anyone more.

we are introduced to ebba. i can tell i'd have more to say on this in any other situation, but it just feels weird (all norwegian know each other, i guess).

anyone else here for the shiv/mattson dynamic?

i'm sorry, i kind of ship it????

ken wants to tank the deal and roman immediately calls him out on his destructive bullshit:

and then immediately caves.

"i think we are good at running the ship" they say after doing it for approximately 24 hours.

i wish i had their confidence.

also, pinky can't dance, according to ken, so they keep shiv out. meanwhile, she gets cozy with lukas, who asks her about her marriage (bad) and tells her he sends liters of blood to ebba (also bad).

shiv shows us why she is paid the big bucks for political advice:

we don't see the end of their night, so i'm just going to assume they fucked. because she's worth it.

also, talking up gerri and karolina? girlies stick together<3

big bi vibes here. huge. idc if she's pregnant and drinking.

meanwhile, the CE-bros use greg to leak that the negotiations are souring. why would you trust greg with anything?

in an attempt to fuck the deal, the CE-bros show a terrible film to the swedish team, as if being scandi doesn't mean you've sat through enough terrible cinema already....

we get the strangest fight in tv history:

lol @ us for thinking this was an important moment for the two of them and then it's a fight about white sneakers and fat earlobes.

i sure hope shiv fucked lukas.

roman receives a photo of his dead dad and it doesn't really put him in the right place to negotiate with mattson:

ouch.

leave it to kieran to make an emmy-worthy speech across from alex skarsgaard peeing.

the plan was: tank the deal, but in a subtle way. what they did: try and tank the deal, but in a not very subtle way. did the deal tank: no.

i hope you understand.

the question is, if a deal collapses in the woods and no one hears it, is it a SEC violation?

mattson ends up offering 192 per share. karl jizzes his pants.

shiv gives the little spelunker tom a lil treat, telling him to fire cyd.

then she asks him out?

and ignores him again because she is taking a call from mattson?

idk my dudes, but i'm into this shiv comeback.

mattson seems happy and flirty and i sure as shit hope this goes somewhere.

as long as it doesn't involve liters of frozen blood.

i have a feeling it will be all good vibes until he learns about her pregnancy. there's always something rotten in the state of denmark (or norway, or sweden, but it's all the same).

the waystar-team receives the kill list after the offer and it's very stressful for a few people who made themselves suffer through a session in the sauna:

not on the kill list: karolina gerri tom because shiv fucking did the thing!!

oh, and karl and frank are on the kill list, but i think they are just fine.

maybe the real treasure was the compression socks we made along the way.

[sluggerbot-2-5]

Spoilers for "Can plushies improve our health?" Sanders sides episode

Not Sanders trying to pull a fast one on me. Oh my gosh!! We got a glimpse of their bedrooms in a normal setting!

Okay so first up

A couple things to note:

He has Virgils Christmas card on the wall above his bed which melted me.

On his bedside there's a plate with two cookies on it. His "second cookie". For when he's feeling dangerous

Roman

I love the "adventure is out there" poster. I always thought he'd have something like that.

ALL THE DEPICTIONS OF HIMSELF IN HIS ROOM. Figurines, pictures, and now the fucking plushy. Oh my goodness/pos

Remus stealing one of his stars at the bottom

There's a quick little line of dust in the air, like a trail of Pixie dust. Maybe a fairy. I mean 💅 pop off.

Virgil

The "days since total disaster" sign. Love that

He's got what looks like his computer open to a music video with lyrics. Most likely MCR

He has a green day shirt. Oh my god

There's a spider plushie on his table🥺

And finally. Logan

This

I am going to fucking cry.

He put all of them together and it simultaneously melts me and hurts at the same time.

There's the other things like the doctor who figurine and his jam in the background

And if I'm not mistaken, that's Roman's screenplay with the stars on his desk

But yeah, those are the things I noticed and wanted to talk about.

[taylanaracie]

I just re watched gilmore girls and realised that even tho jess wasn't a very good boyfriend he is the only one who ever actually loved rory and wanted to change to be better for her, he supported her through everything, cared for her education and believed in her fully and never really expected anything back

Dean tho good on paper was too possessive and kept getting angry whenever Rory did something he didn't like and don't get me started on the whole donna reed episode that was some crazy shit

Logan was tolerable, he was good to rory but the bottom line is with him she turned to the worst, she became a thief, dropped out of yale and not to mention became the other woman ( she was the other woman with Dean too)

[gerec]

2023 Fic Year in Review

Total Number Of Works:

15 new + updates to 3 pre-2023 fics

Total Word Count:

59,680

Fandoms I’ve Written In:

X-Men

Looking Back, Did You Write More Fic Than You Thought You Would This Year, Less, Or About What You’d Expected?

I never really have any expectation for how much I'm going to write so I guess it's what I expected? Though I continued my streak from last year with writing way more rare pairings/bottom!erik fic than I have in the previous years combined.

What’s Your Own Favorite Story Of The Year?

I didn't quite get the last chapter done before the end of the year but this turned out to be my favorite for the year :D

My Home Is You

Charles and Erik have always been close, and despite assumptions to the contrary, they've only ever been friends.

It takes them a while to figure out what everyone else seems to have known all along.

Did You Take Any Writing Risks This Year?

Oh yeah definitely

Do You Have Any Fanfic Or Profic Goals For The New Year?

Same goal every year - finish some of my many WIPs.

Most Popular Story Of The Year?

AU-gust Challenge 2023

Story Of Mine Most Under-Appreciated By The Universe, In My Opinion:

This year - everything I wrote with Erik/not!Charles pairings

Most Fun Story To Write:

Happily Ever After...Maybe

(The latest chapter of my actor au; I just generally love this verse, and wish my Muse would write more for it already.)

Most Unintentionally Telling Story:

In The Dark

Late one night, someone visits Erik in his cell beneath the Pentagon.

(Apparently I only write canonverse anymore when it's dirtybad lol.)

Biggest Disappointment:

There were a couple of older fics I wanted to update that I didn't get around to doing this year.

Biggest Surprise:

Ummm....how much I enjoyed pairing Kurt Marko with Erik for some reason??????

The Innocence We Lose

Erik's mother gets a job as Mr. Xavier's live-in cook, and the two of them move from Brooklyn to Westchester to start a new life. Everything is going well for the Lehnsherrs in their new home, even with an absent employer who is currently finishing his PhD at Oxford.

That is...everything except for the presence of Mr. Xavier's stepfather Kurt Marko, who takes a vested interest in Erik and changes his life.

My Favorite Part Of Fandom This Year:

That everyone left/new to the fandom is super chill.

Full list of fics under the cut:

My Home Is You (Cherik)

Charles and Erik have always been close, and despite assumptions to the contrary, they've only ever been friends.

It takes them a while to figure out what everyone else seems to have known all along.

The Innocence We Lose (Erik/Kurt Marko)

Erik's mother gets a job as Mr. Xavier's live-in cook, and the two of them move from Brooklyn to Westchester to start a new life. Everything is going well for the Lehnsherrs in their new home, even with an absent employer who is currently finishing his PhD at Oxford.

That is...everything except for the presence of Mr. Xavier's stepfather Kurt Marko, who takes a vested interest in Erik and changes his life.

Birthright (Charles/Kurt, Charles/Cain)

At the tender age of thirteen, Prince Charles of Westchester is mated to his paternal uncle, Kurt Marko, the man who murdered his parents and usurped the throne. With no where to turn - and no one to help him - he is forced to become Marko's broodmare, and tasked to bear his children to continue the royal line.

Their eldest child, Crown Prince Cain is thirteen when he develops inappropriate feelings for his bearer.

AU-gust Challenge 2023

X-Men AUs with various pairings

Feels Like A Dream (Satisfaction Remix) (Charles/Shaw)

Charlie has a lot of first times with Sebastian Shaw. (A Dollhouse AU)

It's Complicated (Not My Baby Remix) (Cherik, Xavierine, Erik/Logan)

Seven months after the incident in Washington D.C., Charles contacts Logan with news that affects them both.

the hound's mate (prince of dogs remix) (Erik/Shaw)

The hound becomes Erik's constant companion. And Erik's pregnancy greatly affects both his mind and his body.

Heart's Desire (A Seduction Remix) (Cherik, Charpocalypse)

Ten years ago, Erik left Charles behind to chase after his maker, and to keep him from a life of darkness and death.

When they meet again in the bowels of an ancient ruin, he finds Charles irrevocably changed.

Sinful Days and Nights (Erik/Shaw, Charles/Shaw)

21. Sebastian is pleased with his new pleasure slave Erik and how well he's taking to his training. 22. *NEW* Charles agrees to a walk on the grounds with his stepfather's associate, Mr. Shaw, unaware of the alpha's nefarious intentions.

My Life To Duty Wed (Cherik, Charles/Jakob Lehnsherr)

Crown Prince Erik Lehnsherr receives word of his father's pending nuptials while he's away from the Capital, fighting in his first war campaign for Genosha. The news surprises him, though not nearly as much as finding out the identity of the soon-to-be Consort; Erik's childhood best friend Charles Xavier, omega heir of noble House Xavier.

My Future & Yours (Erik/Shaw, Erik/Alex Summers)

The island of Genosha offers sanctuary to mutants from all over the world; the chance to live amongst their own kind in a beautiful paradise. With no family left, Erik decides to travel half-way around the world to start a new life.

He does not expect to catch the eye of one Sebastian Shaw - handsome, charismatic, and leader of the mutant nation - and end up forcibly taken as his mate.

Can't Run From Yourself (Erik/Wanda, Erik/OMC)

Erik attracts the attention of three gorgeous alphas at his favorite club and throws himself wholeheartedly into a night of unbridled passion. He has no idea that the strangers aren't really strangers at all, and that the life he left behind has finally caught up with him.

Debts (Erik/Shaw)

Mr. Shaw comes to the store once a week, ostensibly to help Papa with the books. Wanda discovers the truth of it, when she spies them having sex through the vent between the office and the storeroom.

All In The Family (Charles/Kurt, Charles/Cain)

Kurt's unexpected passing leaves Cain and Charles alone and destitute, scrambling to find their own way in the world without money or the Xavier ancestral home.

He also left his step-son pregnant with his baby.

In The Dark (Erik/OMC)

Late one night, someone visits Erik in his cell beneath the Pentagon.

Patterns Repeating (Erik/OMC)

Sebastian has been dead now for almost three years, and Erik is finally settled - and happy - in his life with Shinobi and the rest of the children. But the growing bond between Erik and Jacob takes them down a painfully familiar path, and threatens to up-end the uneasy peace between the eldest Shaw siblings.

Happily Ever After...Maybe (Xavierine, Cherik)

Chpt 3. Logan misses Charles while he's away. And news of the sequel goes viral on social media.

[myplace2fangirl]

7 day countdown, brought to you by another fangirls theory/thoughts

He always loved her. Just didn’t know it until the time was right. ♥️

She always loved him. But her time had to be right just like his.

I always considered Quinn and Logan to be the real “early bloomers.” Logan was a special case. He was coating his feelings with his smugness, money and overly confident attitude. This all came to a breakdown with his anger problems. Maybe once he went to anger management (which did happen shortly before he got with Quinn) a piece of himself matured. He had it all along, but he had to go through all of this shit (that quite frankly made him look bad) before realizing his true self. Bottom line; he always loved Quinn but it didn’t show or reveal until he mellowed down.

Quinn on the other hand always seemed to be confident in what she had done in her passion with science! She was always excited, always eager and was almost never afraid to be her true unique self when it came to her passion. In other words, I think Quinn was mostly always accepting of herself. She was ready. She tried with Mark (who by the way was a decent character but terrible boyfriend to Quinn.) but that was not meant to be and dragged too long.

My point in this is: you can’t love someone like Quinn and Logan love each other, until you love and accept yourself. Hence, they are early bloomers. ❤️

Zoey was nowhere near that. Chase probably was or close to it, and possibly James. Lola maybe needed some time but was down for fun relationships like Vince. I’m sure Michael genuinely loved Lisa and Lisa probably loved Michael but I wouldn’t say they were “in love.” Still, I enjoyed watching Michael and Lola with their significant others. 😊

At the end of the day; they ain’t got NOTHIN on Logan and Quinn! They are what true high school love can look like in a positive way.

[wonderpommey]

Final stretch and you can truly feel it!

Ken has now reached the clarity that Logan was a brute but he made life, he made us, he was a magnificent awful force. The pain and the hurt are all worth it for the power, the money, the clout and the game. Without his disapproving glare on me, I’ve gotten to be just the same. Like him, I’ll make you my dog, my bodyguard and confidante, my puppet little brother, I’ll kill all the women because I can’t fit them whole in my head. The dehumanisation in real time of everyone around him for the sake of the prize that Logan made into Ken’s holy grail, his only worthy pursuit. The King is dead, long live the King.

Roman has to face that like him, Logan once was a scared little boy who couldn’t make a noise (look at him talking about fucking everyone and staring at Gerri silently). A young man who carried guilt for having killed someone he loved. He’s done that to Gerri this season (and maybe his mum and maybe Shiv before). He brought her the paternal poison chalice that killed her and that is killing him (see my post from the previous episode). he also believe he's done that to Logan...

That guilt was a notion that no one dispelled for Logan or is dispelling for Roman. Logan ‘stopped trying’ eventually and notice how Gerri is slowly fading, Roman doesn’t see her aching for him - We’re the only ones getting those glimpses. 

People unconsciously call out to Roman this season “you can’t confront things”, “Listen to her, she doesn’t think you’re a joke”, “He fed that dark mean  flame that keeps their hearts warm while another grows cold. Don’t stop trying”. The Antifa symbol as well, asking them for punishment, for fucking the deal and his relationship with Gerri but also to please kill the dark mean man in him. Refusing the helping hand; Barking at it, biting it. Fuck you for showing me a path to the light, as if I was allowed to want it. I can’t take it, yet I can’t live without it. To me, it is the most excruciating story of the show, the true heart of it. Everything he says up to that failed eulogy is pure self-loathing and self-destruction, pure projection of a facade of the kind of man he’s supposed to be and will never truly understand. A man like Mencken mocking his tears (could also be his little pink cards), like Kendall telling him he fucked it when he’s down.

Shiv had been kept out of the succession battle and developed her own motivation for wanting things because, as a woman, like Gerri, like the ex-wives pew, she could “never fit whole in Logan's head”. That kept her separate, that now gives her a chance. Chance of sisterhood? Of self-awareness? Of her own intrinsic motivation - one that is not purely Logan. 

The bottom line is Roman does not want to be at the helm, beyond of what it meant to his dad. He, at his core, if he could respect himself, wants to hold Gerri’s hand and have her at his side not in his shadow, he wants to hug his sister because he just found out she’s pregnant, he wants his mum to stroke his hair while he cries it out. 

I can’t express it any other way than : It’s women, not fascists, it’s the soft tender loving part of himself that he wants and has always wanted to protect. I just don’t know how/if he can get there? He’s still both terrified and in awe of the man who “made him breathe funny”.

[itsaash]

Hamptons cubs AU: Sugar Rush

Today is a sweet day for the cubs. @noots-fic-fests shoutout for the prompt and cover, and characters by @lumosinlove

The rest of the evening took them wandering, laughing through streets, stopping for some unknown reason for more candy. They threw skittles at each other from even expanding distances, trying to catch them in their mouths. They actually even succeeded, sometimes. They meandered under the moonlight, with Leo’s arm around Logan’s shoulder, and Finn tossing candies to himself to try to catch. They followed the streetlights until they led to a boardwalk by the ocean. You could hear the waves before you could see the water, in the near-dark. Finn took off at a run when they could see the water.

“Finn! You better not be swimming in the dark!” Leo called after him. “It’s not that dark! Come on,” Finn wheedled. He had already reached back between his shoulder blades and pulled off his shirt. And, despite the hour, the sun wasn’t completely down. And there were lights on at the boardwalk. And some people were having fires scattered along the beach. And Logan was tugging Leo’s hand. Leo dropped Logan’s hand with a laugh and tugged his own shift off from the bottom. Finn was in his boxers by then and was darting for the water, bag of candy still in his hand. “Catch the next one and I won’t dunk you!” he called to Logan as he pelted a candy at him. “As if I’d let you dunk me after a shit awful throw like that,” Logan scoffed, his feet just stepping into the cold water. “Tabarnak, c’est froid,” Logan yelped. “Wah wah wah, come on, quack quack,” Finn called. His shorts were wet, sticking to his thighs. He tossed another candy to Logan, and Logan caught it neatly. “Well well well, look at that,” Logan said smugly, “What’s my prize, Harzy?” Finn rolled his eyes. “Not getting dunked.” He tossed the whole bag to Logan. “Do me” They tossed candies and splashed, Leo joined them and Finn knew they were being silly, three grown men playing in the shallow water, yelling when a bigger wave splashed them, chilling their bellies. But under the quickly setting sun and rising moon, it felt perfect. It felt blessed. Logan tried to jump over a bigger wave, trying to avoid the cold, and nearly lost his balance. Leo caught him with a long arm around his waist and hauled him into his body. Leo dipped Logan back, kissing him, their bare chests pressed together. Finn stared. The sun was mostly set, but the last lingering pink tinted their bodies under the moonlight. Leo’s blond curls flopped into his eyes as he bent forwards, Logan’s back bowed backwards and his chin tilted up. They were beautiful. As beautiful as the ocean was, as perfectly aesthetic as anything in this perfectly aesthetic town. More, even. What landmark had pale skin that glistened like that under moonlight? What modern house could rival the lines of the waves of Logan’s hair? Finn took a deep shuddering breath as Leo came up from the kiss, breathless. “Careful there, sugar.” “Why be careful, when I know you’ll catch me, soleil?” Logan murmured back as Leo pulled him upright. Finn basked in the echoes of their love and it felt warm like sunshine. They shivered back into their clothes, shoes in hand, and Logan gave Finn a piggyback when he stepped on something halfway painful. Finn’s smile expanded across his face as he looped his arms loosely around Logan’s neck, and held on. Logan eventually put him down with a sincere, “you good, Harzy?” “Yeah,” Finn said, slipping his shoes back on. “I’m grand.” And he was.

[audioaujom]

11: To Love

LTWF Hub, <prev, next>

Hi everyone! I’m so sorry about the impromptu 7(?) month hiatus I ended up on, but I promise I’ve sorted everything out now! Part of the reason this fic took so long is that I was working on getting the next fic in the line of AUs ready to drop (link in next chapter) so I could switch out my update slots, but there was also some personal stuff going on behind the scenes. But I am back now! Getting back on schedule may be a little rocky, but here’s the last chapter (seven months and two days late)!! If you’re not here for the romance, feel free to skim the stuff that’s a little more explicit than I promised at the beginning. It just felt right, given the circumstances. If you are, though, enjoy! You’ve waited long enough.

Word Count: 1557

--

Patton didn’t really feel better, but at least he had stopped crying.

Janus had supported him the entire time he was sobbing, and at some point had moved them both to an empty classroom where they could sit down without being disturbed by the kids going about their day in the hallway.

“Are you feeling better now?” Janus asked softly, Patton’s heart aching. He suppressed another wave of tears, nodding slightly.

“Yeah, I… I think so.”

“That’s good to hear.” Even after moving to sit, Janus hadn't let Patton fully untangle from the hug. They did finally pull apart a little, Janus looking at Patton with hands on both of his shoulders. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Logan… didn't remember me.” Patton played with his hands in his lap, using the weight on his shoulders to ground himself. “It's like all that time we spent… means nothing to him.”

“How strange.” If Patton had looked up, he'd have seen the flash of satisfaction in Janus’ eyes. “He really seemed to care about you before.”

Patton’s bottom lip wobbled, his tears welling back up and spilling out down his face. “How could he just forget?”

“He must have not felt as strongly about you as you did for him.” Janus shrugged, before slowly pulling Patton back into his shoulder for another hug. “Perhaps it was all an act of his programming. To be so friendly.” 

“But he—!” 

“Shh, I know, dear.” Janus cut Patton off as he began to sob again. “It's awful to find out your feelings were one-sided.”

“I'm sorry, I don't mean to…” Patton sat up and untangled himself, wiping at his face and sniffing in one last desperate attempt to stop crying. Deep down he knew he shouldn't be crying on Janus, not after everything. “It's— this is weird, isn't it? I should just go deal with this on my own, or something.”

“There's no need for that. I know how much you need support.” Janus reached a hand out and caught Patton’s arm as he went to stand, pulling him back down to sit. “You process best with a shoulder to cry on. And I'm delighted to be that for you again.”

Patton nodded. Janus really did know him well. “I just… I can't believe it. I really can't believe it.”

“I know. And I understand.” Janus’ smile was a little too sweet as he inched their faces closer, Patton’s receding tears blurring the former's expression enough for it to look normal. “But don’t you see, love? There's no one else who will care about you like I do.” 

In the same instant Janus leaned forward further, the door to the classroom slammed open with nearly enough force to crack the window.

“Patton!”

Standing in the now open doorway, hair wild and panting—for some reason—was Logan, metal fingers splayed against the rattled door and glasses askew. He'd seen Patton and Janus through the window, a strange anger mixing in with his panic as he saw how close they were.

Patton immediately pulled away from Janus and got to his feet, eyes wide and teary. “Logan?” 

“What are you doing here?” Janus cut in from where he was seated, crossing his arms.

Logan glared in return, adjusting his glasses and tie and smoothing out some wrinkles in his shirt. “Your reset was not permanent. Virgil was able to restore my consciousness.” 

“Reset?” Something clicked in Patton’s mind but before he could think about it he caught up with the rest of Logan’s statement, blurting out, “Wait, you found Virgil?! Is he okay?!”

“He was alright enough to fix me, but you should send Roman to the lab.” Logan’s glare softened at Patton’s worry, the two meeting eyes for only a moment before Logan quickly averted his gaze. “I am… concerned about his current state.” The room lapsed into a moment of silence as Patton shot a text to Roman that he hoped was informative enough, looking back up to see Logan glaring at Janus again. “Am I correct in assuming you had something to do with that?”

Janus huffed. “How dare you assume.”

“...of course you did.” Patton cut in, his sadness swirling into an angry self-loathing as he realized he’d played right into a trap. “You set this whole thing up so I'd throw myself back into your arms.”

“Even if that's true, you did.” Slowly rising to his feet, Janus smirked. “Throw yourself into my arms.” 

“I'm sorry, Patton.” Cutting in, Logan carefully closed the distance between him and Patton, raising his hands up and waiting for an affirmative nod from the latter before gently reaching out. “There is no way I'd ever be able to willingly forget you, or all the time we've spent together.” Logan’s hands were unyieldingly cold as they cupped the sides of Patton’s face, but Patton only leaned into it as if it were the warmest touch he'd ever felt. “Not when we still haven't made it to Andromeda.”

“I knew something was wrong…” Tears choked back up into Patton’s throat, his hands wandering to Logan’s waist to pull the taller boy in closer. “I'm sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.” Logan said confidently, letting Patton get as close as he was comfortable. “I… am simply glad that I made it in time.”

Blue eyes stared into hazel until an understanding settled into both pairs, their faces hovering less than an inch from each other. Patton slammed his eyes closed and finally closed the gap before he could talk himself out of it, the chill distracting from how clumsy both of them were in the kiss before they pulled away. Logan’s eyes were wide in clear shock and Patton felt his face go scarlet.

“What a lovely little moment you two are having.” 

Both of them jumped as they turned to see Janus staring at them disapprovingly, arms still crossed.

“And here I thought all that crying you'd done into my welcoming shoulder meant something.”

“I only turned to you because you'd taken away everyone else.” Patton pulled himself all the way into Logan’s chest with one hand, feeling the arms around him tighten protectively. “Don't think for a second I'd have done it under any other circumstances.”

“Then perhaps I'll have to—!” Janus’ tone was menacing as he stepped forward, arms out as if to break them apart before he suddenly cut himself off in a full body-spasm, falling over backwards onto the carpet in the same instant one of his hands touched Patton.

Logan glanced down, seeing that Patton had pulled a small taser out of one of his back pockets, clutching the device and trigger tightly in one hand. “Did Virgil give you that?” 

“For self defense.” Patton nodded, sheepishly smiling as he put it away. “I've carried it around since high school.”

“Ah. Very nice.” Logan stared down at Janus’s twitching form on the floor, smiling pleasantly. He then turned back to Patton, face troubled. “Should we call campus police? He did… abduct Virgil, among other things.”

Patton blinked. “Oh! Yes, that's a good idea.” He reached for his phone but stopped, instead pulling himself back into a hug that Logan was more than happy to reciprocate. “...in a minute.”

——

Virgil was half-passed out on the floor of the engineering lab when Roman finally arrived, arms full of a first aid kid, various snacks, a water bottle, an extra set of clothes, and a baseball bat, all mixed in with roughly half of his dorm.

Patton’s text of ‘Virgil’s in his lab, okay but not great’ hadn't exactly instilled the brunet with any confidence, bringing everything he could think of before sprinting off for the Engineering Building at top speed.

“Virgil! There you are!” He called loudly as he set all of the things he'd carried onto the nearby desk and fell to his knees, looking over the boy on the floor worriedly.

“Oh, hey.” Virgil greeted casually, relief and anger flooding over Roman at the same time.

“‘Oh, hey’?” He fumed, throwing his arms out wide. “You go missing for nearly 6 full days and come back beat to hell and all you have to say for yourself is ‘Oh, hey’?!”

“Well, the next time Patton’s crazy ex leaves me taped up in the school’s basement so I can't fix Patton's new robot boyfriend, I'll be sure to have a better one liner after I'm not-quite-rescued.” Virgil snarked, wincing as he shifted to get more comfortable on the tile. “Is that what you want to hear?”

“Shut up and come here.” Roman scolded and reached forward for a hug, Virgil’s frown pulling up into a smile as Roman held him tightly. He then let go only to shift his grip to his shoulders, eyes earnest. “Okay. What do you need? What can I do to help? Are you okay? Tell what happened. I'll do anything I can for you.” All of his words rushed out and stumbled over each other, before the rambling cut off into a clear, “Before I go kill that slimy piece of shit, of course.”

“‘Shut up and come here’.” Virgil mocked, grabbing the front collar of Roman’s shirt with a smirk and yanking him in closer. “Patton and Logan are probably having some kind of moment right now, so let's give them some time.”