#the whole concept of ‘Guy who is closeted even from himself’ doesn’t work when a core part of his job is specifically being asked

[compacflt]

wow very cool. as a european i am learning a lot about the us navy and defense and everything from your blog haha! idk if you've answered this before but what made you wanna work in defense?

Russia invading ukraine on my birthday lol. though i was always interested in military history/military fiction even as a kid. that was just the watershed moment for me personally

i don’t want to work IN defense though. I want to write ABOUT defense. still not sure what that looks like exactly for me. move to DC definitely. maybe get a position at one of the twenty trillion trade publications there are around here. Or comms job, govt job, journalism job… not sure. hopefully i will figure it out ! would love to write fiction for a living but im realistic enough to know that’s an oxymoron

(Also, side note, i am very flattered, & i know i say this somewhat often but i feel the need to repeat it every once in a while… please don’t take anything i say on this blog / ESPECIALLY in my writing as fact. i misrepresent stuff and get stuff wrong all the time, sometimes on purpose for story reasons. I try my best but i simply lack experience & worldview and have spent functionally zero time being an Adult or having to deal with Adult topics [still do not know what a 401k is!]. for instance if you even mention the words “security clearance” or “congressional confirmation hearing” in the general vicinity of my fics, the plot, nay, the entire CONCEPT, goes up in flames, as i discuss in this post. i really appreciate this comment don’t get me wrong But there are definitely better/more accurate places to learn about these topics than a 20y.o. A&D intern who is only just beginning their career & is still confused about many of the basics of real life. I have a lot of growing up still left to do & you really don’t have to listen to me)

[randomidiocyncrazies]

finally sat down to watch He and I are Both Grooms, a 50 minute-film about LGBTQ issues set in Japan (specifically, about same-sex marriage and homophobia).

I think it was very earnest, and it feels like the people behind it have good intentions. I do appreciate the short film touching on the difficulties of coming out in a conservative society (and to homophobic parents), and the more emotional aspects were evocative even with a somewhat farcical premise—MC is getting married to his boyfriend BUT fails to tell literally anyone in his wedding party about the fact that he’s marrying a guy, and verything that can go wrong does go wrong (homophobic parents, jealous exes, miscommunication etc), but in the end it all turns out okay, etc etc.

But...

Even knowing the premise going in, there were still parts where I couldn’t suspend my disbelief, which i know is completely subjective. Coupled with a few key misses (again, entirely subjective), I feel like it’d be a much stronger narrative if it had been feature-length rather than just 50 minutes.

With the limited run-time, I thought they did a good job with establishing the couple’s relationship—we see how they meet, and we know their general dynamic and the important moments in their courtship. while a little more would be nice (like, in a feature film there’s probably going to be a flashback of them planning the wedding etc), the stuff we have paints a pretty clear picture. the point of the film isn’t really about their relationship anyway—it’s about MC’s struggles with coming out to friends and family in a conservative environment, and I’d argue that MC’s relationship with his homophobic dad takes center stage (...not that they actually have that many scenes together, but the whole thing is sparked off by MC being scared to come out to his parents, then having to prove to his dad that people will be happy for a gay couple like them, while the dad is afraid of what he doesn’t understand and thinks society will judge his kid etc etc.)

As the plot hinges on the concept of “closeted man having a gay wedding but literally nobody in his wedding party knows he’s gay until the ceremony”, i can accept that the MC—a meek people-pleaser—lost his nerve trying to clear up the issue when his homophobic parents assumed he was marrying a woman. I can accept that, instead of telling his enthusiastic boyfriend (the LI) about the misunderstanding (thus dampening his spirits), MC chose to tell LI that his parents are fine with them getting married, trapping himself on both fronts. I can accept that MC’s mom was so excited about her darling boy’s upcoming nuptials that she told everyone she knew about it, leading to childhood friends that the MC has fallen out of touch with to ask for invites (and MC is too scared to clear up the misunderstanding, probably in fear of it getting back to his parents).

Likewise, the MC’s profession as an elementary school teacher informs his fear of coming out, even though there was no explicit correlation within the film itself. It’s no secret that bigots love to target LGBTQ people whose job is working with kids—the whole “but think of the children!!!” crap is often deployed to stir up outrage against minorities. I also think MC is written as a closeted man both to create contrast with LI’s openness and supportive family, and to illustrate the pressures of coming out in a conservative society. While the fact that MC has no peers, aside from his boyfriend, who knows about his sexuality feels a little off to me, I concede that it works thematically as a representation of the intense isolation of feeling like you have to keep a core part of yourself secret. (...tho i don’t think this particular character detail is meant to be that Deep™️.)

But like. Why the heck did MC ask his work supervisor/employer, who thought he was marrying a woman, to give the wedding toast??? How did MC think that was going to go? Why not have someone in LI’s wedding party give the toast instead, back when they were still putting this thing together—like, MC knows that nobody on his side would know it’s a same-sex ceremony until they’re in the middle of it, so he could’ve just... made up an excuse and tried to get LI’s family/friends to handle that part too? If he couldn’t get out of it for whatever reason, it’d be nice to see how MC convinced himself that it’s all gonna go well (especially if it’s used to juxtapose how quickly it went off the rails during the actual toast).

Just... idk, the fact that MC had specifically asked for his supervisor at work to give the wedding toast, without giving the guy a heads up about the fact that he’s marrying a guy, which leads to the guy writing a speech that references MC’s “wife”, and this misconception isn’t cleared up until the wedding’s already started is... a little too absurd for me, BECAUSE I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY MC THOUGHT IT’D GO FINE WITHOUT A HITCH. I don’t know why this particular detail bothered me so much, but it does.

(I do really like the moment where the supervisor basically goes “i have no problem with your relationship”—which, y’know, is the bare minimum—after finding out the “bride” is a “groom” at the wedding, and MC’s face frickin’ lights up as he profusely thanks his supervisor for being sooooo kind and understanding (a.k.a doing the bare minimum)... that entire interaction tells us SO MUCH about MC. Like... MC grew up with that kind of dad, so he assumed everyone would have a negative reaction to his homosexuality, which contributes to why he’s so so so afraid to come out to people in his life.

I also thought having the supervisor still display some knee-jerk casual homophobia when he was actually giving the toast, despite saying he has no problem with the MC’s relationship, is interesting and could’ve been explored a bit more—homophobia isn’t just the openly belligerent comments that the MC’s dad makes, but also the casual assumptions and micro-aggressions that other characters make subconsciously.)

there’s also a minor complication when the MC’s female childhood friend confesses that she’s always had a crush on him, which he is completely oblivious to. She kinda accuses him for not telling her about his sexual orientation, and tells him that she’s been waiting for him to ask her out all this time. the MC isn’t demonized for it, but i do gotta say that nobody is entitled to someone else’s coming out, and I thought it’d be nice if the film could make that a bit clearer. (then again, the entire thing that drives the film’s central conflict is that the MC is too scared to come out, to the point where it’s his wedding day and he literally told none of his guests about who he’s actually marrying.) i guess it also bothered me a little that a version of the conflict with her would’ve still happened if MC was straight (she still “wasted” all this time waiting for him, only for him to fall in love with someone else), but because of the limited run-time it feels less like “this is a conflict that would’ve come up regardless of MC’s sexuality” and more like “we need more drama, so let’s have a straight woman crush on the MC and then be upset he didn’t tell her about his sexuality/his relationship”.

I also thought it’d be nice if we had more time to explore the dynamic between MC and his dad, as well as MC and his in-laws. this is mostly a time-constraint problem though, and the parent-child dynamics are already pretty clear between MC and his dad. Since we see MC in a photo with all of LI’s family, though, it’d be nice if we got a clearer picture of his relationship with his in-laws before the wedding—the brief comment MC makes about LI’s dad being a “great father�� really makes me want them to have an actual dynamic before the chaos of the wedding happened.

(also, MC’s family seems to... not care about meeting the in-laws, or even their son’s partner, before the wedding??? it’s kinda brushed off as “well you’ve finally shown us a picture of the person (girl) you wanna marry, so do as you like”—which i interpreted as an implication that MC gradually tells his parents less and less about his life after moving out/getting a job bc of the dad’s bigotry—but given how overbearing MC’s parents are, it seems a bit odd that they didn’t try to squeeze more information out of MC?) While there’s dialogue indicating LI (and his family?) had wanted to meet MC’s family beforehand, we don’t get that impression from MC’s family about wanting to meet the in-laws at all.)

speaking of the in-laws, there’s a part where LI asks his supportive dad to “accept MC’s homophobic dad as he is”, and there’s a segment where the supportive dad apologized to the homophobic dad for, essentially, not tolerating the latter’s homophobia. (I think the writers might have intended the scene as a more general “sorry for fighting with you and ruining our sons’ big day”, but the dialogue comes across as LI’s dad apologizing for not tolerating the homophobic bs that MC’s dad spouts at the wedding of his gay son.)

While the rest of the film is definitely pro-LGBTQ and MC’s dad is portrayed as a stubborn old man who is in the wrong (though with his own hangups and interior life that gives sympathy to him), this scene veers too close to “everyone hold hands and sing kumbaya” for my tastes. Bigots are not willing to tolerate the minorities they target, except as “second-class citizens who deserve to suffer” at best (most of the time they go straight to eradication/genocide), so being tolerant of the intolerant does not actually work.

These two dads are also on a completely different level: one of these dudes makes his son afraid to tell him anything of substance about his life, and takes every opportunity to put down his own son and his son’s fiance/the in-laws/the ceremony due to his homophobia (MC’s dad, the instigator of the feud between the two dads), while the other is nothing but supportive of his son and rightfully fought back against the other’s father's petty pot-shots (LI’s dad). IMO the only thing that’s salvageable in this exchange is the sentiment of “whether you personally accept homosexuality or not, you should support your son on his big day.”

The homophobic dad changes his mind in the last scene and give the couple his blessings—it’s a happy ending, but I personally think he changed his mind a bit too abruptly? I think it’d flow better if the emphasis is on him still coming to terms with his son’s homosexuality, but promising to learn more about LGBTQ issues so he could better support his son and new son-in-law; it’d be a more natural continuation of the “whether you personally accept homosexuality or not, you should be there for your son” conversation that happened between the fathers. So while they’ve nailed the broad strokes (i.e. homophobic dad accepts that his son is marrying a guy and gives them his blessing), the speech he gave about “diversity is beautiful” was not self-reflective enough imo. like, at least throw in an apology to the couple and a promise to do better in the future lol

Over all, it was a fun film that did its job within the 50-minute run, with moments of pathos here and there. While I probably won’t rewatch it, I think it’s an entertaining drama that highlights the difficulty of coming out, especially when one had grew up with authoritarian parents/a conservative society. However, the narrative would really benefit from a longer run-time to deal with all the subplots, and the “oh both sides are wrong” treatment in the reconciliation scene between the fathers was a low point in an otherwise pro-LGBTQ/same-sex marriage film.

[hermannsthumb]

Maria. *Grabs your face* MARIA. I would LOVE to see 15 bobbing for apples from the autumn fic meme written by you. Nothing would delight me more!

Anonymous asked: Halloween prompt #15 please!!... "Bobbing for apples but we meet accidentally underwater lady and the tramp style." OR "I thought we'd have fun bobbing for apples but you actually hate it and are really mad now"

15. Bobbing For Apples

from autumn fic prompts here

KATE ❤️__ ❤️for you id write anything... and anon the lady and the tramp scenario is so fucking funny/good

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

It’s a really good thing that Hermann has Newt, because if Newt’s being honest, he has no damn clue what the poor dude would do without him. Work himself to death, probably. Or spend every Saturday night alone in his bunk. So depressing. Newt considers it his big charitable act of—well, of all time—to force Hermann into social functions, whether it's fun nights out at the bar (with Newt!), or down the hall a few feet for awesome movie marathons in Newt’s quarters (with Newt!), or something like tonight, which is a super awesome and fun Halloween party that, like, everyone on the base was invited to (including Newt!).

Hermann was all set to spend another night alone (probably changing the batteries in all his calculators or rearranging the hangers in his closet) when Newt dragged him out, more or less by the collar of his argyle sweater, with multiple threats to make his life a living hell the following week in the lab if he didn't comply immediately. "Seriously, dude," Newt had said, ominously, while Hermann looked at him like a furious cat ready to take a swipe, "you're gonna put in those vampire fangs and get drunk with me, or you're gonna regret it. I mean it." Newt was not opposed to blasting the shittiest depths of his Spotify account over his bluetooth speakers or using Hermann's favorite coffee mug to hold his dissection tools. Luckily for both of them, Hermann decided the risk wasn't worth it.

Newt knows Hermann is bound to recognize how selfless Newt is being and thank him for it eventually. Probably. Maybe a few years from now. For now, Newt is enjoying the warm and fuzzy feeling of having done a good deed, and also of drinking a considerable amount of spiked punch.

Hermann is not enjoying either.

"I did, in fact, have plans for tonight," he tells Newt, sipping his ginger ale and observing Newt with a fierce scowl. He flat-out refused the booze Newt tried to push on him. It's fine, whatever—it's enough for Newt, right now anyway, that he actually came. They'll work up to bigger stuff like that later.

"Like what?" Newt says. "Doing a crossword puzzle and watching the second half of that boring-ass documentary you put on last weekend?"

Newt considers it an affront to the very concept of movie nights that Hermann used his pick on a documentary, and one about the jaeger program that didn't even bother interviewing him, no less. Newt loves a good documentary, don't get him wrong, but movie nights are for escapist shit. You don't see him switching on Godzilla. Plus, having to watch stock footage of Dr. Gottlieb Sr. blabbing his mouth about how smart he was while you were debating making a move on his son (who was currently in you bed, looking super cute in your sweatpants, because he'd forgotten to pack pj's) was kind of a mood-killer. "It wasn't boring," Hermann sniffs, which tells Newt that his guess was dead-on. "It was...interesting. And anyway, just because they aren't your idea of plans..."

"Okay, whatever," Newt says. "Let's just have fun. That's the point of a party."

He throws an arm around Hermann's shoulder and drags him closer, until their heads knock together painfully. He hears Hermann growl low in his throat. Newt doesn't say, soon, we won't have the time to do stupid shit like this anymore, so we should enjoy it while we can, even though he wants to. It's better to not make fun stuff depressing. Plus, Hermann might decide to take that as an invitation to bail and put on his documentary. Instead he reaches up across Hermann and flicks his chin. Hermann's whole body stiffens. "I can't believe I got you into this super awesome party and you're not even pretending to be thankful," Newt says.

With no great deal of difficulty, Hermann pushes Newt off of him. Newt lands heavily back in his chair, making the whole thing wobble, and he laughs as he just manages to catch himself from falling off the other side. "You got me in?" Hermann says. "Newton, I was invited three weeks ago."

Newt stops laughing. "You were?"

"Yes," Hermann says. The corner of his lip twitches up, with a smugness so powerful Newt can feel it radiating off of him in waves. Bastard. "I took it upon myself to ask if you might be permitted to come, too." He adds, sarcastically, "Out of the kindness of my heart. I know how terribly put out you get when you aren't included in these sorts of things."

Newt considers this new information, and then discards it, because it really doesn't fit the image of himself he's been cultivating as the cool, hip friend to Hermann's uncool, unhip nerd. Like, come on, between the two of them, Newt is obviously the one you'd want at your party. Hermann's gotta be kidding. Probably. Maybe. "It's a lame party anyway," Newt mumbles.

He tries to put his arm around Hermann's shoulder again, remembers that Hermann really didn't like that the first time, and then drops it back down at his side instead. "Totally lame," he continues. Newt recalls the Halloween parties of his youth with a warm, fond glow: elaborate costumes, tacky decorations, passing around bowls of peeled grapes in the dark, carving jack-o-lanterns while his dad hovered protectively over him to make sure he didn't take a finger off with the knife. This is none of that. Barely anyone even dressed up! The lack of Halloween spirit is tragic. "There aren't even any party games."

"Yes there are," Hermann says, mildly.

He points across the room at a large metal tub that Newt somehow missed before. It looks like it's filled with water, and...

"Dude," Newt says.

He doesn't wait to ask before he's hopping to his feet and dragging Hermann along after him by his blazer cuff. Hermann swats at his heels a few times with his cane, but eventually—like he does with most of Newt's ideas—gives in. "I'm a fuckin' champ at bobbing for apples," Newt boasts. "I used to—oops, excuse me," (he runs into two guys who are, like, twice his height, upsetting their drinks, and he hears Hermann groan as something purple spills on his sweater), "I used to always win it at the fall fest when my dad would take me." And then when he went back as an adult by himself, but it was less impressive a win when you were up against a bunch of ten-year-olds.

"You do have an exceptionally large mouth," Hermann says, rubbing at his stained shoulder. "I suppose that helps." As Newt bends to investigate the iron tub, he says, "Oh, Newton, don't, it's been out all night. Who knows what sorts of germs are in there?"

Newt gets to his knees and rolls up the sleeves of his PPDC-issued labcoat. He's a mad scientist to Hermann's vampire (vampire librarian?) tonight. Yeah, it's kind of a lazy costume, but it was free—he already had everything he needed in the lab. "I can get it in five seconds, max," he declares. His record is one second, but he's the first to admit he's a little rusty, and he'd rather impress Hermann by beating his estimate. "Will you hold my headlamp?"

Grumbling, Hermann takes it. Newt sets his glasses on the ground. "You're going to get yourself bloody soaking," Hermann says, and then he complains about something else, too, but Newt is screwing his eyes shut and ducking his head into the tub, which makes it difficult to hear him. One second—two seconds—two and a half—Newt emerges victorious from the tub, teeth clenched down firmly on an apple, and accidentally splatters a large amount of water on Hermann's shoes. He pulls the apple out of his mouth with a grin and waves it at Hermann. "See. I'm a fucking pro."

He tucks his glasses back on his face to discover that Hermann is staring at him with a very strange expression on his face. Newt can't decide if it's the blacklight bulbs overhead that are washing him out and making him look so flushed, or something else entirely. Then, in a second, he's grumpy and scowling and tsking over his wet shoes. "A pro," he echoes. "Hardly. It can't be that complicated."

Newt gestures grandly at the tub and takes a bite out of his apple. Hermann can always be relied upon to never turn down a challenge, especially when it means making Newt look—potentially—stupid. Newt uses it to his advantage often. Whatever it takes to help the guy have a good time. "It's all yours, dude."

Hermann grumbles something again about Newt being too arrogant for his own good, and something else about showing Newt how to do it without making a mess of everything, then gets down to his knees with a quiet hiss of discomfort. He shoves his cane, and Newt's headlamp, at Newt, though bewilderingly leaves his blazer on. "I'll be just a moment," he says, and dunks his head into the tub.

He splashes back up no more than five seconds later. Apple-less. "Bugger," he coughs, and then coughs some more. The entire front of his sweater is soaked. "I didn't—I didn't start out right. Let me—"

Newt watches Hermann try to drown himself a few more times in mild interest before he finally intercedes. "Need a hand?" he says, getting to his knees next to Hermann.

"No," Hermann splutters.

Newt takes his glasses off again. "Yeah, you do. Okay, now watch me—"

He emerges with another apple in seconds.

Hermann grits his teeth. "Newton—"

"One more?" Newt says, his grin widening.

Back under. Another apple. He winks at Hermann when he goes in for a fourth time, and this time, he feels the water of the tank being upset as Hermann (refusing to be outdone once again) splashes in alongside him. God, Newt loves riling Hermann up like this—he gets so funny, and kinda cute, when he's mad about something. Red in the face, and scowling, and sometimes (when he's real mad) speaking in a dangerously low and rough sort of voice with his r's rolling that makes Newt shiver, just a little. Like, Newton, you worthless, pathetic little man, cease this immediately, or else I'll... He actually said that to Newt once. It made Newt feel a little warm under his collar. Hermann's probably going to say something similar to him this time, and Newt can't wait.

Ten seconds in. Newt has been cutting Hermann a little slack at first, just to see if he can catch up, but finally decides to just go for the apple that's been bobbing steadily against his mouth this whole time. (He loves beating Hermann at stuff.)

And, well, apparently Hermann goes for it too.

They both miss the apple. Newt's mouth is up against Hermann's for another five seconds before he realizes what's happening (that that is definitely not an apple, that that is definitely a mouth, that that mouth is wide and weird another to belong to only one person Newt knows, that that mouth is parting in surprise, oh my God) and then he pulls away so quickly that he breathes in what feels like half the tub of water. He falls back on his ass, coughing furiously, and it's not until he shoves his glasses back on with a shaking hand that he realizes that Hermann has done the same. "I," Hermann says. His eyes are wide. "I'm sor—"

"It's fine," Newt squeaks.

"It was—"

"I know!"

Newt and Hermann's mouths were touching for five whole seconds. Underwater, while apples bobbed against their foreheads, but their mouths still touched. Oh my God. In elementary school, Newt thinks dizzily, that would be enough to catch cooties. This was so not how he wanted his awesome eventual seduction of Hermann to go down. For one thing, it wasn't even a seduction.

"I'm gonna get a towel," Newt says.

Hermann nods. He looks strangely adorable with water droplets on his nose and his hair plastered to his head like that. Newt has to get out of here before he does something stupid, like take Hermann's pointy cheeks between his hands and put their mouths together on purpose. He doesn't think Hermann would respond to that very well right now.

"I'll get you one too," Newt says, and it takes a lot of effort to force himself to his feet.

Hermann nods again.

"Okay," Newt says, and stumbles away. Out of the corner of his eye, he just catches Hermann raising a hand to his mouth.

[miekasa]

hey do you have a layout of the apartment that eren and reader share in "nice"? or maybe just random pictures that remind you of it? i really wanna see if i've been imagining it right

Here is my attempt at making a floorplan for their apartment and it was harder than I thought 😭😭 don’t ask me about dimensions or scale bc <2 just know that... it’s unreasonably big and the total cost of the whole thing is like $65 million which doesn’t even include the furniture or art they’ve put in since living there. Anyway, this is the general layout of the first floor, intended to look something like the Van der Woodsen’s apartment in Gossip Girl so you can also look at that! Might do the second floor later, but all that’s really up there is Eren and OC’s bedrooms (they’ll probably renovate Eren’s sooner or later) and ensuite, another balcony, and a smaller office. 

Basically, it’s very kinda open concept space design whatever you call it. Anyway, here are some fun facts about their apartment/living arrangement!

Eren designed the majority of the apartment. It came with a lot of furniture, but he switched them out and played a big part in the renovation.

Remember, the original plan was for Eren to live in his childhood apartment (now Carla’s apartment) when Carla moved to Paris full-time; he bought this one for the two of you to live in, and it was a surprise present. He doesn’t have the knack for making clothes like his mom, but he does have a knack for designing, and he’s pretty good at interior design. 

It’s mentioned in the fic, but the elevator opens up into their apartment because it’s the penthouse. No, not just anybody can come up, you have to scan a card or be on their list to get let up by the doorman. 

There is nothing in that storage closet but packages that they keep forgetting to open lmfaooo. Maybe a few extra winter coats and random shit. 

Those statues are actually relatively new. They were a gift from Mitchell (Carla’s husband) for their wedding; he had them commissioned from an artist friend he knew in Paris. They aren’t of you and Eren (that would be a little creepy), but they represent each other. 

Eren keeps buying art just because it matches the decor and he knows that art is like a status symbol or whatever. He doesn’t know what it means, but if he likes it (or if you mention you likes it), he buys it. 

That kitchen is a dream which is funny because Eren can barely cook. Mikasa can tho, so thank fuck for her. Eren can and has fit into that pantry. 

All the plants are fake because Eren has allergies. Also because he does not have a green thumb. You guys periodically change them out for the season, and the only time a real plant is in the apartment is during Christmas. 

Armin burned himself trying to use the fireplace once and hasn’t even stepped foot near it since; he doesn’t even sit on the twin chairs near it, only the sectional because he’s a big baby. 

Coffee table #1 is the more functional one; it’s where they sit and eat, lounge, drink wine, use their laptops, so there’s usually a bunch of stuff on it. Coffee table #2 is more for show; it’s made of glass has books on it, and a candle, too. 

Whenever you fall asleep on the daybed, Eren always carries you upstairs. Similarly, he knows you’re prone to napping on the daybed, so (before getting married), whenever he felt that you were working too hard/too long on schoolwork, he would tell you work there, just bc he knew you would fall asleep. 

There isn’t a symbol for it, but there is a big set of sliding doors that can close the dining room, but it’s always open (they usually eat at the bar anyway). They always host Thanksgiving dinner at their house, but they don’t throw a lot of formal parties otherwise. They do have their friends over a bit, and they randomly show up sometimes, so they keep the extra seating around. 

Eren loves the pool, and he loves dragging you into it. The outdoor grill legitimately only gets used by Connie whenever he has a grilling kick in the middle of the summer, what the fuck does Eren know about grilling other than it seems sick to have one. 

The outdoor “bar” doesn’t actually have alcohol stocked in it. The terrace is pretty secure, no drunk person could accidentally just fall off of it, but you still don’t like the idea of having drinks accessible out there. It’s mostly sodas and fruit juices. Occasionally you and Eren sit outside with a glass of champagne or two, but nothing more than that. 

The guest bedroom hardly gets used because your guests are obsessed with the sectional, so they usually fall asleep there. The only people who like the bed are Mikasa, Reiner, and Sasha. 

The atelier was, obviously, designed with Carla in mind. She does have her own apartment in the city, but Eren put this one in for her anyway (way before the events of NICE happened; which only goes to show that even though Eren is mad at his mom for her marriages, he never hated her and always sought to take care of her). It doubles as a fitting room and powder room of sorts. 

Eren has never used the first floor bathroom. 

The art at the end of the hallway was done by Jean, and was originally a gift for your birthday, but offered to pay him and value you it like real, expensive art. Eren claims that was a waste of money. You just have to point to any random object in the house to humble him about “wasting money.” 

[ihatebnha]

for the main 3 bnha boys (three musketeers headasses) who do you think would be most likely to have a 3some 😶

I LIKE HOW YOU THINK, ANON..... thank you so much for asking, i had a ton of fun with this!!!💚❤️🤍💚

(also hope you don’t mind but im doing this reader insert context😌)

As for who’s most likely.... 

-

Deku. 

Hands down Deku. 

This is another moment I feel like… he probably wouldn’t think of the idea himself, but if you suggested it AND he researched it AND he knew the other person (basically as long as it was planned really well), he’d probably be down to at least try it. 

I know we’ve already discussed how he really just wants to make you happy and learn all that he can about everything, so you know this is also why I see him as kind of a closeted freak... one who’s of course really sweet, but surprisingly willing to get all down and dirty with it if that’s what you wanted. 

That being said though, it may not be his favorite thing, and (the other day I was thinking about why we never see poly!bakudeku)… he actually probably wouldn’t want to have a 3some with Bakugo LMAO… (although I can actually see Bakugo being down lowkey, as he probs wouldn’t mind fucking Deku’s GF...)

In general though, I can also see Bakugo having one… but it would probably take a lot of convincing… especially if he’s in a relationship.

I feel like this is another scenario when he’d just be like… “Why would I do that when I’m perfectly fine with what we’ve got going on?” mostly because if he’s dating you, he’s not going to be interested in fucking someone else, NOR be trusting of someone else to fuck you… 

If you do manage to convince him, however, he definitely gets to choose the person (and honestly it’s probably just Kiri or something) AND makes a whole bunch of rules that you BOTH need to follow (no kissing, no cumming inside, etc)... 

Bakugo also makes me laugh bc I kinda get cuck vibes from him…. Like they’re obviously very… um…. Specific…. But I feel like with the right person (AKA someone he trusts), he’d be okay watching you get banged by them🥴(and I’ve been meaning to write something for this for a bit)

GOD THO…. Todoroki…………. 

I really gotta be honest and say that one head canon I really love about todoroki is the one where if he’s dating you… he just isn’t interested in or turned on by anything or anyone else… so out of all of them, if you were to suggest a threesome, he’d probably wrinkle his nose at the idea. 

Not because he hates the concept or anything, he just would NOT want somebody else there. He’s the guy who’s like “am I not enough??” And when you’re like, “no ofc not!” He’s like “K good goodnight,” and doesn’t wait for you to explain. 

I imagine that he doesn’t even want to THINK about fucking people other than you… and he definitely doesn’t want you to think about fucking other people, either…

So while maybe in might work in a different context…. As in, possibly, cucking someone else… He’s probably the least likely. If he ever were to share you… the whole thing would just spiral into some huge, intense competition and you’d be the one to end up the sore loser (as we see with todoroki + inasa, where he’s just too stubborn to give you up) (I forgot I wrote that until literally this second lmfao)

Honestly… the only person I can really see him sharing with is Deku, and even then I feel like he’d be all grouchy about it…. (Also at some point I can see him being like, “you’re not doing it right!!!” Lol king)… 

And if u were dating Deku and Deku offered to let him join, I feel like part of him would be like…. “Ummm… she’s yours?”

Anyway.. as you can see... I love that about Todo…🥺

[lizbotw]

Karasuno popsicle eating competition? 👀👀👀 (i saw you were bored so-)

Karasuno Popsicle Eating Competition

choco omg i loved this concept even though i was definitely not expecting it in the middle of fall, but also, i absolutely get. i spent all night thinking about this so thank you, you successfully cured my boredom, and now here it is, i finally wrote out all of my ideas. please enjoy because i had way too many thoughts about this ♡

Karasuno

100% Nishinoya’s idea.

What? He literally adores Garigari-kun popsicles. A proper popsicle enthusiast and therefore of course it would be none other than him that would come up with such a plan.

You would probably be walking home with the second-years after practice after a quick stop into Coach Ukai’s store to pick up snacks on the way.

Classic meat buns and crinkly packs of chips that always felt like they contained more air than well... chips—that’s what most of you had gotten. But Nishinoya? It was him and his trusty popsicle (soda flavored of course).

You had to stop too many times to keep track of because he kept devouring them before you could even blink and somehow the lucky bastard kept getting the ones with the sticks that qualify you to get another popsicle for free. You best believe he was cashing those in instantly.

You bumped Tanaka with your shoulder to get his attention, not taking your eyes off of the back of Noya as he disappeared up the hill and back to the store. “Why doesn’t he just buy a whole box of them at this point?”

“Mmm,” Tanaka hummed in agreement, hand deep in his bag of potato chips. He stuffed a few more in his mouth, crunching in thought. “Good point.”

Noya was never gone more than a few seconds and you didn’t even get the chance to reply before he came barreling down the hill, blue wrapper in his hand—prize secured it seemed.

The group didn’t resume walking just yet, waiting to see if finally Noya’s reign of exploiting Ukai’s store for free frozen treats would come to an end. (You were hoping the stick at the center of the popsicle would turn out to be blank, not have another cheesy message about how “You won an extra popsicle! Take this stick to any participating retailer to cash it in.”)

“Aren’t you tired of running back and forth?” That was Ennoshita, chewing on his meat bun and looking like he very much wanted to go home.

Noya pulled the popsicle out of his mouth to reply, tongue already stained blue. “Nope! It’s good cardio, plus I get a reward at the end!” As if to prove his point, Noya punctuated the end of his sentence by shoving the popsicle back into his mouth. It wouldn’t be long until he reached the stick and you guys would (potentially) have to wait another five minutes for him to repeat the process all over again.

“It makes sense to buy more than one though. We’re never going to get home at this rate,” Ennoshita grumbled. He was clearly too tired to be dealing with this or he would have dragged Noya away from the store by his ear a long time ago.

Before Noya could bring up the benefits of running up and down a hill in the middle of the night (on a school night nonetheless) again, Tanaka cut in. “Yeah, why don’t you buy an extra one for me, dude. Then we’ll match!”

It was like a switch was flipped and Noya’s eyes lit up, widening. “Dude, great idea!”

“Right? It was (Y/N)’s idea actually.”

“Tanaka, that was not what I said.” You were quick to defend yourself, casting a nervous side glance at Ennoshita who was already glaring daggers at you.

“Either way, I still think it’s a good idea. I’ll be right back-”

“Oh no you don’t.” Ennoshita grabbed a hold of the back of Noya’s shirt to prevent him from running off (he’d already gotten in position to run up the hill—getting two steps in before he’d been stopped—and if Ennoshita had been a second slower Noya would have gotten away completely).

“Even if you did get one for Ryuu, I don’t know if it’d be very fair,” Narita cut in. Clearly he was just being nice and thinking about everyone, but words had a tendency to get twisted when it came to matters like this, especially when the other second-years were involved.

“Yeah, what are the rest of us, Yuu? Chopped liver?” Kinnoshita finished off his meat bun and crumpled the empty napkin he’d been holding it with into a small ball in his hand to throw away later. He was smirking mischievously and you could tell he wasn’t exactly opposed to the idea of free popsicles.

“True. You really should be offering to get all of us one.” Of course Ennoshita was the one to deliver the final blow. The trio could be real menances when they wanted to be and judging by the look they all shared, they were clearly enjoying poking fun at Noya.

And of course Nishonya took their words seriously, a thoughtful expression taking over his features. Sarcasm? Not detachable when it came to popsicles. “You’re right.” Uh oh… Nishinoya having that faraway look in his eyes was never a good sign. “And if I get it for all of you then… I should just get for the entire team!” His voice increased in volume as he spoke until he had the sudden epiphany at the end that he shouted. Energized by the thought, he made to go run towards the store again but seemed to forget the vice grip Ennoshita still had on him.

Nishinoya struggling against the hold and Ennoshita trying to pull him back so you guys could finally go home and work on your excessive amount of homework quickly turned into a yelling match. You should have known it would turn out this way...

It looked like things were about to get messy, so you decided to intervene, speaking hurriedly before someone lost a limb in the scuffle. “I think it’s a good idea. Let’s just all go ask Ukai now if we can have popsicles tomorrow for practice and then we can go home.” You said the last part looking pointedly at Ennoshita—listen, you were also tired so you knew exactly how to get through to him. How Noya could keep going like this after a full day was beyond you.

There were a few more moments of grumbling and arguing but eventually everyone caved and agreed. And thus you six made the trek back up the small incline to the store perched off to the side. (“No, Nishinoya, we can’t ask him to bring only soda flavored ones. Where is the variety?”)

The jingle of the bell had Ukai looking up from the magazine he was reading and he fixed all of you with an exasperated stare. “You six again? Don’t you have homework or something?”

It didn’t take much convincing to get him on board and he waved a dismissive hand, leaning back in his chair, cigarette between his lips, and opening back up his magazine. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just get home already. I don’t want to be responsible for you getting back so late.”

He for sure delivered on his promise because the next day at practice you found a cooler hidden away in the storage closet in the gym. About an hour into a grueling practice session, he called for a break and revealed the surprise (thank god because Nishinoya had been buzzing with anticipation all day, almost spilling the secret several times, and you were sick and tired of it, please send help).

To say the team was excited was an understatement. The sweltering heat of the gym wasn’t exactly ideal and everyone was dying to go out into the summer sun—at least in the outdoors you had the chance of a light breeze whispering across your neck and relieving some of the suffocating tension of the weather.

Moving everything outside, you helped set up the cooler in the nearby school field.

Takeda was surprised that Ukai even considered doing something like this out of the blue and you overheard Ukai admit that he had been working the team pretty hard for the past few days and that they deserved a break.

The atmosphere was relaxed as some of the team members took up residence on the grassy field, sitting among the bright green and running their hands over the cushiony ground as they got situated.

Leave up to Nishoinya to completely ruin that.

Parking himself right in front of the cooler near the top of the hill and thus preventing anyone from gaining access to the mouthwatering treats inside, he declared, hands on his hips for emphasis, “We should make this a competition!”

Daichi was not having it. “Nishinoya, get down from there, we are not-”

“Challenge accepted!” Hinata and Kageyama were already glaring at each other, determination written all over their faces. (You’re pretty sure either Tanaka or Nishinoya told him some lie before about how eating an ungodly amount of popsicles would make him better at volleyball.) At this point, they were simply waiting for Nishinoya’s signal to begin.

“Now that’s the spirit! Let’s start!” And with that Noya stepped away from the cooler with a dramatic sweep of his arm, bowing low. That’s all the confirmation Hinata and Kageyama needed before they made a beeline for the cooler—you should make sure not to get in their way during this part because they are taking this very seriously.

Tsukishima would just scoff at their childishness, telling them to hurry up and move because they’re hogging all the space.

Tsukishima would not participate in “stupid competitions” of any kind, although he would take a popsicle (begruidngly so after Yamaguchi kept pestering him to do so; secretly he really wanted one though).

You could probably find Tsukishima sitting on the gym steps, rolling his eyes at Hinata and Kageyama. He was also the perfect distance away to throw snide comments at them without risking his safety. Just adding fuel to the flames from the sidelines—that was his role.

Yamaguchi would be perched faithfully next to him eating his own popsicle and Yachi would be leaning up against the side of the gym building since there was no more space left on the steps, talking with him. She kept getting over excited or focusing too much on the conversation though, so the sticky juice of her melting popsicle would be trickling down her arm before you could warn her.

She gets very embarrassed over the whole thing once you point it out and then when she’s busy flailing her arms in apology, that just gets the juice everywhere and then she feels even worse about it, and it’s a whole cycle from there.

If you wanted to join the trio, Tsukishima would not be willing to give up his spot on the steps, but if you kept bothering him about it, he’ll probably give in eventually to get you to shut up or you could take your chances trying to shove him over.

Yamaguchi would take pity on you and squeeze over a bit so you would have room, even though he barely had any space for himself.

Or honestly just go stand next to Yachi, she would be more than happy to have someone else to talk to. The only thing is you have to keep an eye on her melting popsicle or else the above scenario will probably happen except you’ll be right next to her when it does. I sure hope you didn’t wear your favorite shirt today.

Kiyoko is the unofficial referee for the competition.

She was appointed after a unanimous vote was taken between Tanaka and Nishinoya—yes, only those two got a say in it—and technically she would be the official referee if not for the fact that the official default for Karasuno is always pure chaos. Rules? There were no rules. Was this even a competition anymore? Why is everyone taking this so seriously? Does no one have any ideas for a prize for the winner? Why is Asahi on the floor?

Speaking of Asahi, he’s in charge of giving out the popsicles and supervising them in the cooler.

Noya tried to get him to join in on the real action of competing, but Suga and Daichi were absolutely against it because Asahi just looks like he would win. To them, that was automatically cheating (poor Ashai).

Kiyoko helps him out because she doesn’t have much of a job if the boys are doing whatever the hell they want anyway.

Please go hang out with those two at the cooler. You’ll have direct access to all of the popsicles (you now hold all the power) and you can actually relax and have a calm conversation—perfect for some lounging around in the sun. And if you did want to witness the chaos of the competition? Well you also have a front row seat to that. It’s a win-win situation honestly.

Nishinoya and Tanaka were, of course, a part of the competition with Hinata and Kagayama. Now the debate of whether the challenge was to eat as many popsicles as possible or to just eat a certain amount as fast as possible was up in the air because by God, they were doing both. That couldn’t be healthy.

Daichi originally started off just watching from the sides, shaking his head in disapproval and barking reminders at them to slow down lest they choke while on his watch.

Suga was next to him of course, eating his own popsicle and telling him not to be such a stick in the mud. He was enjoying this a little too much and honestly was already hatching a mischievous plan to join in on the chaos himself. Definitely cheers for everyone in order to rile up the situation further and then elbows Daichi in the gut when he tells him to stop encouraging them.

On one such occasion, as he rubbed at the sore spot on his side that Suga kept hitting, Daichi narrowed his eyes at the popsicle in his friend’s hand, taking special notice of it now. “Suga… what flavor is that?”

“Cherry. Why?” He continued eating innocently, although he had an inkling of where this was going to go.

“Didn’t you have two cherry ones already?”

“...maybe.”

There was a gasp of betrayal. “You know those are my favorite! You’re trying to eat all of them before me aren’t you!”

The bold accusation leads to them sharing a look and a tense beat of silence passing before they both sprint to the cooler, digging among the other flavors for the highly coveted cherry.

“It’s mine!”

“No, you have to learn to share!”

They inadvertently end up in the competition through this alone, grabbing as many cherry popsicles as they can and piling their arms high.

You have to remind them that the popsicles are going to melt if they keep that up and then there will really be none left, which then sends them into a new flurry of ripping open the packages and chomping down on the glistening red treat inside.

If you join in on the competition, I hope you have a big appetite because everyone involved is not slowing down anytime soon. They’ve doubled over due to brain freeze a few times already but that doesn’t seem to be stopping any of them. If you chicken out at some point, you will be socially outcasted. You have been warned.

Ennoshita, Kinoshita, and Narita are actually being normal and sitting a bit away on the grass, eating their popsicles at a normal rate (not scarfing them down like some people) and actually enjoying themselves.

Ideal group to join—lots of space to sit near them and stretch out on the field, good view of the uh… “competition” (can it really even be still considered that? what do you call the absolute chaos that’s going on there? honestly, why is no one stopping them? where are you, coach? isn’t this your job?) but still a safe distance away from the chaos, and lots of things to discuss. That’s right, these three know all the drama going on in school so sit back, eavesdrop on the gossip, and enjoy. You may or may not choke on your popsicles a few times because how do they even know these things.

Lean back on the grass and bask in the sunlight with these three—the good vibes are there. You’ll probably all end up laying down in the grass after you finish eating and just talking, poking fun at each other and rolling around in the grass in laughter at the latest antic or joke you’ve come up with.

Coach Ukai probably should have thought this over a bit more because it’s hard to get anyone back to practice after having this small taste of freedom (also tensions are still high after the competition so no one wants to work with each other anyway—let’s hope the grudges don’t last long), so he basically gives up for the day and dismisses “practice” early (it had already spiraled way past that at this point so the term was used loosely).

Everyone who was involved in the competition either never wants to hear the word popsicle ever again or they’re feral for more once the cooler is empty (Nishinoya).

Who would’ve thought a normal walk home would turn out like this?

[autisticandroids]

Okay let’s think about deans other special guy friends. Do you think any of them could have coaxed dean out of the closet at all, especially if situations were slightly different? Crowley could not have, I think Benny couldn’t have for similar reasons because the “this is wrong because this is a guy” is compounded (heh) by “this is wrong because this is a monster”. Idk how you feel about Lee but I think if they were a thing he probably had a similar disease to dean so they enabled each other. Tangential relatated maybe but I think belphagor could have gotten it if he used a non jack male body b cause dean was feeling so low and dean woulld know on some level that would hurt cas but like. That’s not gonna change how dean percieved himself.

I feel like if Victor lived and they had stayed associates and truly become friends maybe something could have happened there because Victor is like. The most normal guy deans ever had a homoerotic friendship with. All this is reliant on Victor being willing to like. Hold deans hand’s through his issues which is unlikely imo but if dean was ever going to like. Experiment. Pre-hell would probably be the time he’d do it and he definitely had some moments in season 3 where he was more open with people who Weren’t Sam. Idk. Thoughts?

if dean was going to have a normal gay relationship where he learned to be normal about being gay, it would be with benny, imo. like benny and dean don’t really have a work relationship they’re just. guys who know each other. like they started out as comrades in arms but now they’re just guys who know each other. and also dean was idealizing benny pretty hard in s8, if they’d managed to get into a relationship before dean snapped on him he would have followed benny’s lead. this is why deanbenny is both interesting (because it’s unique) and deeply boring (because it’s just a normie relationship). i’m interested in the character development dean could get from it but not the relationship itself.

i don’t think victor henriksen could have Been That for dean because they couldn’t have had like. a normal relationship. it would have been insane and secretive because victor would have basically been like. the winchesters’ mole, in the fbi. like they’re still wanted serial killers. and that’s a very interesting relationship dynamic that could end up with seasons of tension, but it’s not conducive to a healthy re-evaluation of self-concept. also i think victor is a mess too like, he has a string of angry ex-wives. like dean/victor is honestly more fun if victor is in himself kind of a fucked up guy. i think that’s something they relate to each other over: being a fucked up guy.

some day when i finish my secret good season seven post i’ll get you all in on my season seven dean/victor agenda and we can get victor and a post-lisa dean talking shit about “ex wives” together (even more fun because dean is a misogynist who WIPED LISA’S MEMORY so the whole conversation has a very unsettling undertone that victor doesn’t know about and would be horrified by if he knew. it may be kind of sexy that dean is definitely a serial killer (even if victor is convinced it’s in a good cause) but there’s some things that are just too fucked up).

like, i’m very into the idea that dean and victor have a relationship that is very much premised on being similar people. like, bonding over both being intensely lonely and emotionally repressed Married To The Job types. like they’re partners in work as well as play, you know? which is fun but i don’t think they’re going to applebees for date night i think they’re going ghost hunting for date night. which on the one hand is fun but on the other it means dean doesn’t have to reconcile himself with holding hands with a man in an applebees.

[avengerscompound]

It’s You and Me - Chapter 7

It’s You and Me: A Hawkeye Fanfic

Series Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Clint Barton x  F!Reader

Word Count:  1948

Rating:  E

Warnings:  Smut (MF, interrupted sex, pegging, vaginal sex, (Mentions of anal fisting i guess, but this warning is more graphic a mention of it than happens in the fic))

Synopsis: You and Clint Barton go way back.  Since you joined the circus as a child, he took it upon himself to keep you away from the people who really wanted to hurt you.  For years the two of you danced a line between dark and light.

When he chooses light the two of you go your separate ways.

Fifteen years later he tracks you down.  Those feelings the two of you shared never went away, but now he is not only an Avengers but a single father.  Can the two of you make it work after all this time when your lives have gone in such different directions?

A series told in flashbacks and current day.

Chapter 7: Now

Things between you and Clint had always been all or nothing.  Before you were a couple there was no pining and wishing that he’d notice you.  After you broke up, there wasn’t any holding on to the hope he’d come back.  It just was on and then it was off.  0 or 100.

You were all in now.  You’d gone back to his place with your cat and your things high on adrenaline that not even an afternoon hanging with his kids and going to see Aladdin on Broadway had been able to kill.  When he’d finally gotten the kids into bed and Jasper to stop bothering Lucky, you’d pushed him down onto his bed and ridden him through four orgasms.

All in meant all in.  It was that drunk on adrenaline passion that led people to get married to strangers in Vegas mixed with the undeniable real connection of close friends who can go forever without seeing each other just to pick up where they left off.  It has only been a handful of weeks but if he said, let's go get married right now, you'd do it without thinking twice.  Even if it didn't work out, it would work out because in the end you and Clint always would.

There were moments when you were out and he’d dragged you along to some Avengers thing because that idea that maybe you be a good guy for a change was one he wouldn't let go of, and you'd think - this was it.  Clint Barton was your person and fuck it, why not get married?  Maybe you’d ask him and the two of you could elope somewhere and spend your honeymoon fucking your way through every position you could find on the internet.  Then the whole domesticity of it would come crashing back and you'd chicken out.

Clint Barton might still be everything you remembered about him, all the things that had made the two of you work and made him love you so much, but he was also a dad - and that scared the shit out of you.

It was something you tried not to let bother you.  Or at least you tried not to show that it did.  It wasn’t a case of you regretting missing your chance of having that with him, or any jealousy that he got it without you.  The concept of family was as alien to you as the concept of living in an undersea biodome.  You had no frame of reference for it and felt awkward and out of place anytime you were included in that.

So you did your best to not draw attention to yourself and make the most of the time when it was just you and Clint and there was plenty of that.  Especially after the kids had gone to bed at night.

You turned to Clint, tightening the straps on your harness as you smirked down at him.  He lay naked on the bed, his arms tied to the bed head stretched out on either side of him.  Even with his seemingly permanent collection of cuts and bruises, the man looked good naked.

“I am going to ruin you for any and all future partners,” you teased as you climbed up on the bed.

“Bring it,” Clint said, grinning at you.

You crawled up over him and kissed him hungrily as you used the lube to slick the toy strapped into your harness.  Clint’s hands opened and closed and he flexed the muscles in his arms, making his biceps and the veins in his forearms pop.

The door opened a crack and a small voice broke the spell over the two of you.  “Daddy, I don’t feel well.”

If you had moved any faster you would have broken the speed of sound. You jumped off Clint pulling the blankets over the two of you as Clint flicked his wrists, quickly slipping the knots you’d tied and sitting up.  “Hey, buddy,” he said, way too calmly as he grabbed his boxers from the floor beside him.  “What’s wrong?”

“It’s my tummy,” Nate replied, rubbing his eyes.

Clint jumped out of bed and grabbed a robe that was hanging on the door handle of the closet and shucked it on.  He picked up Nate and cuddled the boy as he almost draped himself over Clint’s shoulder.  “It’s alright.  Let’s get you back to bed.”

He looked back at you and mouthed ‘sorry’ as he carried his son from the room.  You groaned, rubbing your eyes with the balls of your hands, and got up.  There were few bigger mood killers as effective as being walked in on by your lover’s toddler.  You got up and started packing up the toys.  First cleaning and packing away the strap on and then unfastening the hemp cords you’d used to bind Clint to the bed.

By the time Clint returned, you were in a sleep shirt and panties dozing under the covers.

“Aww, no,” he whined as he hung his robe back up.  “What happened?”

“Your kid walked in on us,” you snarked.  “You remember?  Talk about a boner killer.”

Clint climbed in bed beside you and spooned you from behind.  “I can get it back pretty quick,” he whispered, nipping at your earlobe.

“Clint,” you whined, pushing him back off you.  “What if he comes back and I’m elbow deep in your ass?  I’d traumatize him.”

“Well, a,” Clint said, stifling a laugh.  “I never agreed to doing that, and b, he’s not the first kid to ever walk in on his parents having sex.  Shit, he’s not even the first one of my kids ever to walk in on me.  He’s too young to know what’s going on, and the other two are old enough to know to knock.  Besides; he’s asleep now.  It’s gonna be fine.”

You grumbled and pulled the blanket up tighter around you.  Clint pushed himself up on his arms and looked down at you.  “This whole ‘me being a dad’ thing is really getting to you, huh?”

“Well, when you’re kids walk in on me while you’re tied to the bed and I’m wearing a strap-on, yes… yes it does.”

He caressed your jaw.  “I’m not expecting you to be their mom, you know?”

You rolled over and looked up at him.  “But if this works.  If we’re actually a couple again, that’s what I’m going to be.  I can hate it and rail against it, but I’ll be responsible for making sure their childhood isn’t shit.  Even if that is just by, not getting in your way while you take care of all that.  They’ll call me their step-mom and … they’ll know… they’ll know that I never wanted this for myself and they’ll hate me for it.  I can’t be the reason some kids’ lives get fucked up.”

“What are you saying?”  Clint asked.  “You want to break up?”

You shook your head.  “I don’t know.  But maybe I should move out until I know for sure what I want to do.  I feel … you know… about you, Clint and that’s never going to change, but I always said the last person in the world who should be a parent is the person who doesn’t want to be one.”

Clint frowned.  “I know.  And you’re right.  But where will you go?  Whoever is working with Zelda is still after you.  You won’t join the Avengers.  It’s not safe out there for you alone.”

You shook your head.  “I don’t know.”

“Then,” Clint said, leaning down and kissing your neck.  “How about we forgot this even happened for now, and we do something fun to take our mind off it.”

You looked over to the door and ran your hands down Clint’s neck.  “You’re sure he won’t come back in.”

“Almost 100% certain,” Clint said, grinning down at you.

“I’m not going to peg you,” you said.

“That’s okay,” he chuckled.  “We can do it vanilla style.”

You started laughing silently and nodded.  “Okay.  But I’m traumatized, just so you know.”

“Who here isn’t?”  Clint teased and brought his lips to yours.  You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and kissed him deeply.  He rolled on top of you and began to grind down against you.  You spread your legs, welcoming his weight between them, and moaned into his lips as you felt his cock begin to harden against you.

You hummed, letting yourself warm back up to him, and shake off the incident from earlier.  Slowly your cunt began to drip as your arousal grew.  You both rolled over, and you weren’t sure if he initiated the position change, or you did, or if it was some organic movement to share control.  He began to rub your clit in slow teasing circles as you rolled your hips, grinding down on his cock in a lazy figure-of-eight.

Clint kissed down your neck and sucked at the dip of your collarbone.  You arched your back, and let your head fall back, moaning as a warm buzz spread through you.  He moved lower and pulled your t-shirt up over your head.  You tensed for a moment, worried that you’d end up with some other visitor, but as soon as Clint began to suck on your breast, you moaned, and all thoughts of intruders were pushed aside.

Your cunt flooded, soaking through your panties and slicking Clint’s cock.  He began to buck up into you, making you bounce in his lap.  You pushed him down and rested your hand on his throat.  Raising yourself up, you pushed your panties to the side and lowered yourself down on Clint’s cock.

He groaned as his cock penetrated you and you hummed as you pulsed your walls around his shaft.  He looked up at you, taking slow, deep breaths and you began to slowly swirl your hips.

“Fuck, you’re sexy,” he hummed.

You smiled a little.  “You aren’t too bad either, Barton.”

He chuckled and rolled you both over, holding you down into the mattress as he began to fuck you.  He started slow and deep, rolling his hips in the same way you did when you were riding him.  The base of his shaft dragged over your clit with each roll of his hips and you arched your back and pulled his hair, wanting to increase that pleasant buzz that was rippling out from your cunt.

He curled down, keeping one hand on your throat as he pulled a nipple into his mouth.  You lifted your knees, resting your heels on his shoulders and angling your hips up so that with each thrust of his hips the head of his cock would hit your g-spot.  You moaned loudly and pulled the pillow down over your face to muffle the sound.

Clint began to rub your clit again so that every one of your pleasure centers was being hit at once.  It was too much and all at once your muscles clenched and your cunt spasmed as you came.  “Fuck!”  You screamed into the pillow as you bucked up hard under him.

Clint’s hips began to stutter and he gripped the bed head above your head.  You clenched your walls, squeezing his shaft, and grabbed his hair, pulling it.  He grunted and with a hard jerk, he emptied inside you.

You let your legs slip back down as he relaxed down on top of you, his body a comforting pressure against yours.  Slowly he slipped out of you and rolled on his back.  “Told you it’d be fine.”

“Yeah,” you said.  “But we need to put a bell on that kid.”

Clint started laughing.  “I’ll think about it.”

// NEXT

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

Why do you think Tomarry would work? I see a lot of people hating on it and the only response I ever see is that they come from similar backgrounds or people just like enemies to lovers. Also which horcrux do you think Harry would go best with (including Voldemort)

So, this is probably a more complicated question than you intended, but that’s because I live in bizarre head canon lands that few ever dare venture towards.

With that, let’s get started.

But What Do You Really Ship, Muffin?

First, it probably bears saying that I’m not really a Tomarry shipper. I know, I’ve written more than one Tomarry story, so if that’s not Tomarry what is? Well, remember that those Tomarry pairing tags are a filthy lie. October I committed the grievous sin of breaking up the Tomarry and throwing Tom at Harry’s mother. Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus is barely a Harry Potter fic in any capacity, and while the ship is the driving force of the fic, it’s also this nebulous, distant, thing that really shows up only in strange side stories where I try to make people laugh. When Harry Met Tom is probably the closest that I take seriously, but I also intentionally subvert all your typical Tomarry tropes for my own enjoyment. 

The only Tomarry story I’d say I’ve ever actually written is “The Burning Taste of Fire Whisky”. It’s a very popular story, sadly perhaps my most popular on Ao3, but I actually loathe it entirely. 

A lot of the time I feel like I just happen to have a Tomarry shirt on and then I suddenly became a subject matter expert. If you want the Tomarry opinions from real Tomarry people, I’m probably not the best person to ask. In fact, if you want really any standard answer about Harry Potter anything, I’m not the best person to ask.

Now, I’m not just saying this to be a hipster but to sort of give some background for why I’m going to give the answer I’m going to give and why it’s going to be 100% different from everyone else’s and yes, sometimes, I do think I came from Mars.

Will the Real Tomarry Please Stand Up?

So with that, the bottom line is: taking canon as JKR intended, completely at face value, Tomarry doesn’t work at all. This is because JKR fully intends a very flat, one-dimensional, and frankly quite boring Tom Riddle. Tom Riddle’s evil, Tom Riddle was born evil, Tom Riddle was evil in the womb because of rape. He is completely and utterly irredeemable and understands nothing of love.

Well, that sort of sinks the ship right out of the harbor, doesn’t it? A Tom Riddle incapable of love is one incapable of growth, especially in a romantic focused story. If you try to write it you just get weird sociopathic whump porn where Tom probably whips Harry in a closet somewhere.

Added onto this we get that, despite what she put down on paper, Harry is supposed to be a straight man. That aside, he’s also a righteous man whose understanding of things like love and friendship mean he’d never sully himself with gross Tom Riddle. Ew, what are you people thinking?

Well, what if we take canon just mostly as JKR intended? What if we just look at the characters the way she actually wrote them versus what she was trying to do? Still no dice.

Tom might now be capable of love, be a far more engaging character who can go somewhere, and be pulled out of a pit of rage and despair by someone but that someone ain’t Harry.

First, while I firmly believe Harry is gay (gay, not bisexual, compare his descriptions of Cho/Ginny to Tom Riddle/Sirius Balck/Cedric Diggory/Charlie Weasley, that boy pants after Tom Riddle and Cho’s kiss is “wet”) he’s also a much worse person and much dumber character than JKR intended. It’s really the first that damns the pairing.

I have a whole giant post on how Harry’s a little yikes but the long and short of it is that while Harry thinks he understands friendship and love he’s also someone who will cut out his friends at a moment’s notice if he feels remotely slighted, uses and sacrifices them for his own ends, gleefully uses unforgiveable curses when given the opportunity, and is the kind of guy who would cut someone up in the bathroom, leave them to bleed to death, and only really feel bad about it when it seems he might get in trouble for it.

This Harry ending up even with a Tom who could potentially be redeemed would more likely lead to, well, weird psychopathic whump porn where Harry tortures Tom in his basement to make him pay for all the horrible things he’s done while Harry claims he’s the most moral person ever because his mother loved him.

So, yeah, no Tomarry for you.

But Wait, Didn’t You Say You Believed in Tomarry?

What I believe in are archetypes.

Remove what Harry’s supposed to be, remove what I think he actually is (one maladjusted, violent, dude with a whole lot of anger issues), let’s make Harry what perhaps JKR didn’t even know she wanted: one of those rare fundamentally good heroes who warps an entire story with the strength of their inner nobility.

Harry Potter is meant to be a story about love and friendship. Now, it’s not actually, and we sort of end with Harry being Jesus and none of us are sure why. Except that he apparently forgives Dumbledore and Snape for brainwashing him to be a kamikaze agent. They’re the bravest men he knows. But let’s pretend it actually is a story about love and friendship.

To me, the strongest story of love we could possibly have had in this world is the redemption of Tom Riddle. Here is a man who was supposed to have been irredeemable since birth, he has done many horrific and unforgiveable things, grew up in extreme hardship in a society that spits on everything he ever was, and is mired in bitterness, despair, and rage. Beneath all that, Tom Riddle has given up hope in the world and is now content to burn it down himself.

Harry, through the nobility of his spirit and integrity of his character, somehow managing to redeem Tom Riddle is not only a fascinating story but a very good one at its core. The fact that they are tied together by destiny as well as tragedy, that Harry houses a shard of Tom’s soul (and I do so love horcruxes), only makes it more so.

This is the kind of story that carries epics, and that is why I gravitate towards it.

Now, do I change Harry up to do so? Good god, yes. I wouldn’t say any Harry Potter I have written is anything close to the Harry we know from canon. Some are closer than others, but they always in some way deviate. That said, from what I’ve seen almost nobody writes the actual Harry we remember from canon, so this is a very standard practice I can get away with, without too many people calling foul.

Ultimately ending in tragedy or in the full redemption of Tom: either works with these base characterizations and the world is your oyster.

What About All Those Other Arguments?

I’m not going to get into this too much except that I wouldn’t argue Tomarry works for the reasons you list. At all.

On the similar backgrounds, the fact is Harry and Tom don’t have similar backgrounds, JKR just says they do because she likes that trope (and so do many of the readers).

Harry and Tom have dark hair, they both came from abusive homes, but that’s where the similarities start and end. Upon entering the wizarding world Harry is treated very very very differently from Tom Riddle.

Harry, grows up in this weird sort of pseudo poverty where he dresses in rags because the Dursley’s hate him but he never actually has to worry about money. When he gets to the wizarding world he can afford everything he wants. He can buy a new wand, he can buy new supplies, he can buy all the candy off the trolly cart. Money’s not an object to Harry, is barely even a concept.

Tom Riddle is presumably on scholarship and money is everything to him. He buys a new wand but likely all his clothes and books are second hand. He can’t buy whatever candy he wants, probably can’t afford gifts for his peers, Tom is very aware of the haves and have nots.

Harry similarly never has to worry about a career. He never gets that far, fearing for his life so much, but the fact is that Harry has enough money that he doesn’t actually need to work. More, who would turn down the great Harry Potter? He wants to be an auror, is afraid he might not qualify, but it’s not really desperate.

Tom Riddle is to the world an impoverished muggle born. He tries for the Defense position and is turned down mostly because Dumbledore threw shade. Dumbledore tries to make it seem like Tom desperately wanted to work in this weird shop in London’s magical back alley, but probably that was the only position Tom could get (everything Dumbledore ever says, especially in those pensieve lessons, must be taken with a large grain of salt). Everything else goes to friends, family, and purebloods.

Adding to this, Harry has this glowing reputation. Now, Harry might not like it, he might want to be just Harry but the fact is that everyone has heard of him and most people worship the ground he walks on. Doors are open to him everywhere. His first introduction to the wizarding world is from a man who loves him and gushes about Harry as a baby.

Tom Riddle is someone with a muggle last name, who comes from a muggle orphanage, in other words he is nobody from nowhere. (For reasons I won’t get into here I find it very doubtful Tom ever revealed he was the heir of Slytherin until he became Voldemort and let Tom Riddle fade into obscurity). His first introduction to the wizarding world is some asshole lighting all his stuff on fire because the matron talked shit about him.

Harry wants to stay at Hogwarts because the Dursleys are abusive. Yes, this is terrible, but Tom wants to stay because Nazis are bombing London and Dippet says, “So sorry, Tom, no exceptions. Enjoy those luffas!” Harry’s concerns are never treated with the same disdain.

To make a long story short, they do not have similar backgrounds, at all. To say they do is utterly laughable and not much better than saying “they both have dark hair, they have so much in common!”

They both came from abusive homes, yes, but even the nature of those homes were very different and when they went to Hogwarts they were worlds apart.

... So much for not getting into it, eh?

As for Enemies to Lovers, well, it’s a trope and people enjoy it but it’s not my jam. I could go into why, but I think I’ve said enough.

Which Horcrux Do You Think Harry Would Go Best With?

We see so little of the individual horcruxes I’m not sure I can really take a stab at this. I sort of just make up their personalities as it suits me every time I write them.

With that I suppose I’m partial to the one in Harry’s head? Given that he has a front row seat to Harry, has seen Voldemort’s tragic demise, I think he’s in the best position to end up with Harry in a meaningful manner.

Especially as, if you think about it, he could represent the very last of Tom Riddle’s humanity. The single shard of humanity that remained in him until the bitter end.

[sideburndanny]

So, like, can we talk about the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode “Ball of Revenge” for a moment? Because holy FUCK it has problems.

I liked the episode when I first saw it, mostly because I’m a sucker for “all the villains team up to take on the hero” plots. Even today, I don’t absolutely despise the episode because I feel like there were some elements that were done quite well. That said, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how fucked the episode’s actual plot is in execution.

For those who haven’t seen the episode and just hear me speaking gibberish right now, I’ll sum up: Eustace throws a temper tantrum because he wanted a blanket that Muriel knitted for Courage, so he calls up six of the monsters and villains the dog had confronted throughout the series (Katz, Le Quack, the Black Puddle Queen, the Clutching Foot, the Weremole, and the Cajun Fox) to get together and kill him.

You might’ve noticed the first problem with this plot: Eustace being the one to bring the villains together. Why Eustace? He’s not a villain! Sure he’s an asshole, and there were some villains on the show that were direct counterparts to him (like Mr. Nasty in “Angry Nasty People” and The Whip in “Cowboy Courage”) but the man himself has only ever been a comical, bumbling oaf who caused problems with his clear anger issues, shortsighted greed, and general idiocy. He is the last person anyone would expect to pull off a scheme like this!

How about the fact that his descent into villainy was because of a fucking blanket? And I thought Killian’s motive for becoming a villain in Iron Man 3 was stupid!

Now, let’s take a look at the bad guys the episode brought back. Some of them kinda make sense, but on the whole, their presence becomes baffling just because Eustace was the one to call them together. Eustace didn’t know most of these people, those he did know hated him and tried to kill him, and there’s no way he should’ve been able to contact half of them. Yeah, he had an operator “make some calls” (remember when people did that?) but sorry. I don’t buy it.

Katz: He’s the most obvious villain to bring back, being the most reoccurring enemy faced on the show, and I have no problem with him being part of this team. My problem is: why are he and Eustace working together? Katz has tried to kill him and his wife on four separate occasions, and he committed the unforgivable mortal sin of sitting in Eustace’s chair. Not to mention Eustace has played a direct role in defeating Katz twice, so there should be no reason these characters would be willing to work together. I’m sure some take issue with Katz being alive at all due to his apparent demise being eaten by a shark in “Katz under the Sea,” but I’m willing to give it a pass because it was ambiguous enough that you could bullshit a reason to say he survived.

Le Quack: Again, not only has this character repeatedly menaced the Bagge household and not just Courage, but Eustace and Le Quack have never actually met one another. In all of Le Quack’s previous appearances, Eustace only interacted with the devious duck when he was masquerading as a trusted professional, and by the time the fiendish fowl doffed his dastardly disguise and went full speed ahead with his evil plan du jour, the old farmer was either locked in a closet, hypnotized, or without glasses. Le Quack had also met his apparent end in a previous episode when his hot air balloon got shot down by police cannons, but like Katz, it was ambiguous enough that they could’ve easily brought him back.

The Black Puddle Queen: You’d think Eustace would harbor at least a tiny grudge against the woman who tried to cannibalize him, but nope! He can forgive that, but not stealing a blanket that didn’t belong to him in the first place? The old man needs to get his priorities in order! Also, it’s a little weird that she could even join these villains at all, since Courage left her trapped by closing the portal to her underwater lair, but whatever. We have no idea how her magic works, so you could always say she found a way back. I mean, either she or someone of her species was back to her old tricks by the very end of her debut episode after her defeat, so who knows?

The Cajun Fox: Again, how does Eustace even know who this guy is? The old man was completely absent from “Cajun Granny Stew,” the Fox’s only prior appearance. Also, Eustace doesn’t seem the slightest bit bothered that the guy tried to eat Muriel. What is it about Eustace not caring if people get eaten? The Fox was also defeated when he fell into his own pot of boiling stew, but like with prior villains, you could very easily say he survived, so no complaints there.

The Clutching Foot: This is the character who makes the least amount of sense to be here. Leaving aside that I’d personally prefer it if he never showed up at all because of how stomach-churningly repulsive he is just to look at, he was only alive after having possessed Eustace’s body, so the two cannot exist in the same place at the same time. Also, unlike the other villains whose deaths were ambiguous, this guy explicitly got destroyed in his debut episode with no possible way of returning — and he even mentions how he died in this episode!

The Weremole: He has the second-least reason to be here, because he wasn’t really the same kind of villain that the others were. He was just a dumb animal acting on predatory instincts. And despite the villains in this episode being united by a desire for revenge, the Weremole has nothing to get revenge for since Courage didn’t actually “defeat” him. He just plucked a hair off of him (which he didn’t even notice) and cured Muriel of her curse before she could harm anyone else. Speaking of, he turned Eustace’s wife into a monster and almost got the old man killed, but I think it’s clear by this point that Eustace places absolutely no value on human life, his own or anyone else’s.

Again, this episode’s concept is fantastic, and there are many ways it could’ve been fixed. Here’s what I would’ve done differently. In my version of the episode, the ringleader of this band of monsters and freaks would not have been Eustace, but a different reoccurring foe: Benton Tarantella. His career’s been in a bit of a slump since his reality show got canned, so he decided to make a comeback by returning to his roots and making a snuff film with Courage as the “star.” He puts out a “casting call” to recruit anyone who’d have a bone to pick with the Cowardly canine, and Katz, Le Quack, the Black Puddle Queen, the Cajun Fox, Fusilli*, and Mad Dog enthusiastically sign on. From there, the episode plays out like normal: Eustace and Muriel get kidnapped, Courage has to save them, he falls into the villains’ trap, and they challenge him to a deadly game of dodgeball, which Tarantella will justify with “What? Sports movies are all the rage these days!” This version might have its problems, sure, but at least it’s more sensible than what we got.

* (And yes, I know Fusilli got turned into a puppet by the end of his debut episode, but hear me out: Eustace and Muriel also got turned into puppets in that episode, and we never saw them return to normal, but they fact that they’ve become human again by the next episode could be interpreted to mean that the puppet curse wears off if the puppets stay away from Fusilli’s stage for long enough. It’s not perfect, but any attempt at an explanation is good enough for me.)

[cvastals]

look i kno i said i wasnt gna bring a 6th until i was caught up w replies bt i kno gunner well n therefore felt like he deserved his time to shine in the rp so i beg of u pls plot w him looks at u all like :B

* axel auriant, cis man + he/him | you know gunner paxton, right? they’re twenty-two, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, four years? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to bizarre love triangle by new order like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole curling up for days in bed wearing a hello kitty comfort shirt, stuttering in the face of affection, and hand me downs two sizes too big thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is july 31st, so they’re a leo, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( bri, 23, est, they/them )

background.

middle child of the paxton family, cliff being the eldest and wyatt being the youngest :D

they lived at the top of a hill in a trailer in a trailer park neighbourhood in laramie, wyoming so to say the least that fucking sucked for everyone involved

the trailer was so small that all 3 boys ended up sharing a room, gunner and wyatt sharing a bunk bed bc they cldnt fit 3 beds into one room it really was every childs nightmare bt they quickly grew used to it tbh

gunner was always more of an artsy child than invested in sports - though he does enjoy baseball and continued even to this day after their dad made him join SOMETHING in middle school - so he never rly earned their father’s respect, but he was always close with his mom since they had the same calm temperament

(depression/anxiety tw) he also gained a list of mental health issues that their mom had as well, including social anxiety and major depressive disorder

(violence/abuse tw) their father always encouraged pretty volatile behaviour and it caused a lot of physical fights and arguments between the brothers when their dad told them the best way to get over it was to start hurting until someone tapped out, it was just a chaotic and pretty abusive household but no one knew and their mom definitely wasn’t going to say anything about it to their dad

(missing child/kidnapping/anxiety/depression tw)  wyatt went missing on a weekend that their parents were gone because of a trip they won, and things just got worse from there, high school was really rough for gunner, his anxiety grew worse as time went on that no one found wyatt, their dad grew more hostile towards them, cliff left home in the middle of the night never to be seen again (merely leaving a note so that the family didn’t think they had a case of two kidnapped children), and their mom just grew sicker, it was rare that she would ever leave her room and if she did it was in fits of random energy where she would do something spontaneous and completely unnecessary to their house as a way of coping

the two years that gunner was at home after cliff left were pretty brutal and as soon as he could, he was fleeing wyoming and going to school in irving

(internalized homophobia tw)  things are far better now that he’s out of his home situation, but ofc he still has a few personal things he’s working thru; the paxton’s were raised in an incredibly religious household, and he’s got some classic Catholic Guilt going on upon realizing that he’s not jst attracted to women n he avoided talking abt it forever/stayed in the closet fr far too long bt he’s sort of come out now in his own way even tho he does still get a bit nervous talking abt it rly

he’s also ‘dealing’ rn (just pharmaceuticals) which is frankly funny to think abt bc this man is abt as threatening as a care bear bt money is tight all things considering and a librarian job doesn’t rly cover it, and with the amount of meds he’s on, plus incredibly frequent doctor’s visits, needing to pay for extra epi-pens, inhalers, etcs. bills add up so he’s cutting back his meds n selling wht he can spare which is . so unhealthy bt thts life in corporate america baybee!

details.

is literally allergic to everything. grass, cats, most fruits, milk, most nuts, bees, latex, probably more i cnt even keep up w them its pathetic

u can catch him strutting around town w his blinged out epipen holder (aka blinged out w pins of his fav horrors movies) LKSHDGKLHSKLDG

if things cldnt get worse he also has quite intense asthma so he carries an inhaler with him at all times

n to make matters even WORSE he frequently has dizzy spells n bad memory problems bc of all the concussions he’s suffered from (about 8-9 at this point) as well as consistent migraines that can b literally debilitating sometimes

awkward n jst a bit of a Weirdo to b frank like he barely knows how to converse with ppl

didnt have any friends in high school so took the time to teach himself rly weird things, knows a fuck ton of magic tricks, can yodel, juggle, solve a rubix cube with his eyes closed in under 30 seconds, just extremely weird and specific things

can honestly b a bit mean/barbaric to ppl he’s not close w/doesn’t kno - has told ppl to their face before he doesn’t enjoy talking to them bc he has no concept of social constructs/norms

loves 2 film random things at parties, makes him feel more comfortable at them n he makes short films of them all after

going off that fact he did a film internship in nyc during the summer and is trying to find a job in that field

doesn’t realize demisexuality is a thing so he’s never been that fond of sex but has this stigma in his mind that that makes him Broken so he still Tries n it jst doesnt go well tugs my shirt collar

connections.

ppl who r more into under the counter meds than Hard Drugs n buy off him?? probs wld have to kno him some way hes too scared to sell to Random randoms

ppl he went to school w? :D

some friends………. hes awkward bt he means well…………

ppl he has a crush on/unrequited crushes either way wtvr floats ur boat he crushes quite easily but never does anything abt it fr the most part

a mans he wld Risk It All fr (aka a guy tht he actually has a crush on n is Extra Awkward probs a lil mean to bc hes still New to That)

some enemies tbh, he has a temper n he tends to blow up rarely bt it happens n when it does it actually can b quite scary JKSHDGLHSDG

a muse….. mayhaps?? someone he always wants in his film projects

awkward past hook ups/one night stands where one of them cut ties off cuz every time they got together gunner acted like he was embalming a body for a funeral

current hook ups/fwb’s w ppl he’s actually close w/is comfortable w so its nowhere near as bad SDKHSLDGHKLSDGH

Anything u Desire

[leggomylino]

Stray Kids Playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫

A/n: M.List linked down below! | My very first reaction!!! :D I hope you all enjoy <3

Tag List: @distrikt9​ @hanniiesuckle17 @smolboiseavey (Let me know if you’d like to be added!)

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫

✧ Bang Chan ⇢ STAY Island ✧

Passport Title ⇢ Crisp Ringleader

Okay family

As our ENFJ king Chan would totally have a island that revolved around the others 

Sure he’d have his own space too

But he’d def be one to put up lots of fun camping space and interactive inventions

A cute little barbecue grill on the beach with a wooden table and log benches 🥺🥺 and a picnic area too

I feel like he’d also go out of his way to breed black roses but that may just be me 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

Black and white flowers everywhere, and maybe some red roses too?

He’d also be a generous donator and frequently visit the others to see if anyone needed help with anything

Just stopping by to check in and drop off some hardwood, or iron, maybe even gold 

...That’s a big maybe on the gold cause we all know that stuff ain’t common and if you want Marshal on your island you better have some handy

In addition to this, I think that the generosity would only go so far and he’d be quite the tease too

Running around left and right ratting the others out during pranks and “borrowing” things from the others

“where’d my recipe for gold armor go???”

🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ “idk bro I think I saw Minho running off with it?”

For villagers, he’d have a plethora of the animal kingdom on his island

Anyone is welcome

You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit 🥴

He’d def have mentions of Stay on his island too

And the guys, his squad

A Stay flag and Stray Kids written in the sand somewhere

Maybe vice versa

His character would likely be of similar resemblance but I can totally see him playing with the fun hair colors and face paint 

His wardrobe would consist of similar attire too: black, white, caps, hoodies, and chains 

Y’all AC fans know that one punk outfit with the chains across the bodice? He’d own that

His home is a toss up: on one hand it could be very chill and cozy, but on another I’m seeing workout gear in one corner and iron tables and a TV and radio going, maybe (definitely) a music studio setup (similar to Weber’s home but more hardcore LMAO)

All in all, I think Chan would be a chill/causal player that would be happy to help his friends and community while also playing hard ball once in a while just to mess with everyone 😂♥️

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ 

✧ Lee Minho ⇢ Soodori Island ✧

Passport Title ⇢ Total Genius

Soodori is a combination of Minho’s cats

Your boy Minho couldn’t resist the ingenious idea

He’d pondered for the longest time which of his precious babies was going to be awarded the title of his island; an impossible decision

Then along comes our creative leader, “why don’t you just use all three?”

‼️‼️‼️

Genius!1!1!!1!1 😩✨

On Soodori, you bet all the villagers are cats; if you don’t have pointy ears and a swishing tail, Access Denied 🙅🏻‍♀️

This means you, Han 

Villagers included would consist of Raymond, who may or may not be an island celebrity

And let’s not forget Queen Ankha

But to Minho, all his cat citizens are equally loved and cherished as a valid part of the community

His whole aesthetic would be cats too

That includes a cat cafe

His flag would probably be a paw print 🐾 or his cat’s names, maybe a cute scribbling of their faces

And if you disrespected that, there’d be blood to pay

I can see his character closely resembling him as well, with a little paw print on his cheek? Maybe some whiskers? 

He’d thoroughly enjoy visiting the others islands “if he absolutely had to”

Swipe some goods

And bundle them up to go on the plane out ✈️

For the most part, I see him being more of a hermit on his island that only heads out On Demand

Even then, it’s kind of a toss up: good luck getting him to leave his children behind 

If you’re nice to him, he MIGHT let you come and view the splendor...m a y b e

But you better not touch or take anything 🗿🔥

Shoot, when it came to special visitors, like Redd or K.K., he’d probably try chasing them off

Put those tools to use

There’s more than one way to skin a cat

(Don’t tell him I said that tho 👀💧)

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ 

✧ Seo Changbin ⇢ DARK Island ✧

Passport Title ⇢ Music-Loving Loner

Dark, dark, dark

We all done knew, didn’t we?

Changbin is the KING of darkness

So it goes without saying that his whole island would radiate the stuff, too

It may seem depressing and a little emo at first, but eventually the concept comes off being pretty cool

...In an angsty, Evanescence sort of way

He’d probably be very lost on how to play at first...at first

He’s got Felix and Chan to help him tho, so he’d be breeding black flowers before you know it

Maybe a little gray and navy blue tones to break up the solidarity somewhere

I’m seeing a kind of night sky aesthetic, maybe some astrology furniture???

Look out, Celeste

She’s gonna be running to Big Brother Blathers saying some scary short guy is following her around the woods

Poor Binnie just wants a Starry Sky wall...until he sees how bright it actually is

Then it’s 💯 a fat pass

Binnie would kindly welcome all sorts of villagers while being minorly selective

After all, we can’t break the darkness with some cheery-idol-wannabe villager, or some Judy the anime bear

I can say with utmost certainty at 95% that his whole wardrobe would be black caps and hoodies

Maybe a plain black tee

Some black pants

And 

White or black sneakers 🥴✨

I think he would be pretty intent on building up his island...in particular, collecting all the artifacts and critters for the museum 

He’d work hard but not go crazy or stress about it and still take lots of time to just chill in his deep dark vibes

Maybe get out once in a while to visit Felix and learn a thing or two

Overall, we see through your front, Bin; you may have a dark vibe but you’re really just a small big softie ☺️

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ 

✧ Hwang Hyunjin ⇢ Kkami Island ✧

Passport Title ⇢ Soothing Season

Welcome to Kkami Island, which was almost named something else aesthetically cute like Honeycomb or Applepuff

However, like Minho, Hyun simply couldn’t resist a chance to use his precious baby’s name

On Kkami, life is pretty chill: EXCEPT WHEN ITS SERIOUS 🔥

That’s right folks

This boy may have some vibing days and go at his own pace

But don’t be fooled: he plays to win

Plant those money trees

Enter those QR codes

Carve out those pathways

Where is Blathers we have a donation 😤😤

Hyunjin would be a steady-paced worker bee 🐝 

He’d likely be selective of his villagers and go for cute ones

Possibly top to secondary tier

When it came to games and get togethers, you’d likely find him chasing another member with a net or an axe, in most cases Jisung

“qUiT LEaViNG TrASh oN mY iSLaNd!!1!1!1!” 💢

“DROP THAT DIY!1!1!1!!1”

Let’s see

His whole island aesthetic would be cute and peaceful:

Plants, terrariums, soft sunlight...

There’d be so many flowers!!! Hyunjin would have a whole colorful flower field 🥰🌸

White and wooden furniture in and around the home

An adorable tea and snack time plaza too! And a library!!! 📖✨

Very cozy and sweet ♥️

Though, shoot, if he had the energy, this guy may just build himself a palace... 🏰

Regardless, just look for the boy with the staple headband and likely some face paint to boot

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ 

✧ Han Jisung ⇢ Swag HOT Island ✧

Passport Title ⇢ Trendy Supreme Being 

(Edit: Minho convinced Felix to hack his account and changed this to Untossable Trash)

Ohhh boy

I bet y’all were waiting patiently for this one

Or maybe you jumped right to it

Either way here we go:

Han Jisung would be the king of the trash heap

And by that I mean this guy would save up all his bells and buy himself a crown 👑 where he’d sit atop a throne of garbage

BECAUSE THERE WOULD BE TRASH EVERYWHERE SIS 😩😩

This guy would be yeeting furniture and garbage all over the place

...Okay maybe that was a bit overdramatic 

Maybe not EVERYWHERE...

......

...It’d be pretty messy tho

He’d probs have traps set up too

You step off the plane and get catapulted into the ocean, if that were a thing

You’d have to navigate and hop around discarded junk for sure

He’d have clothes here, a fan there, a...urinal...on the beach???

.........o k a y ._.💧

Han Jisung wouldn’t be all that competitive when it came to gathering every fruit or collecting all the fish

He doesn’t have the patience for that

He needs to run around and be free, letting his mind wander while wrecking havoc for everyone else; which is also Minnie’s job but we’ll get to that later

For villagers, he’d have at least one squirrel or two (Marshal?! :D) but I’m not so sure it’d really matter...all that much?

I’m not sure he’d even want many villagers at all

He’d be spending most of his time crashing other member’s islands and leaving little surprises like a useless DIY they already have or a fake painting he got roped into buying bc he was too lazy to check if it was genuine =_=

Everyone got sick of it pretty quickly but no one like Minho or Hyunjin; he’s permanently banned from those two locations and Jeongin’s considering adding him to the list next

Despite there being so much junk, his house would have an almost decent vibe: lots of instruments and fun gear, along with some random clothes, a lava lamp, and...another urinal 🗿💧

Seriously, someone get this boy a closet and some coaching in organization

Chan and Changbin are working on hiring Minnie but it’s not going too well; for one he charges too much

Maybe you can talk some sense into him...

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ 

✧ Lee Felix ⇢ YEET Island ✧

Passport Title ⇢ Festive Chum

Okay y’all

Felix

Would be

THE KING

OF ANIMAL CROSSING

THIS BOY WOULD HAVE

ALL THE FRUITS!!! 🍎🍐🍊🍒🍑🥥

ALL THE FLOWERS!!!🌷🌹🌺🌸🌼🌻

I MEAN EVERY COLOR OF EVERY COMBINATION

A COMPLETED MUSEUM 🖼 🐜 🐠

I MEAN BEFORE ART WAS ADDED, HE HAD EVERYTHING RARING TO GO

NINTENDO WAS LIKE “wtf?!”

YEAH SIS, HE’S THAT GOOD

Boy would have a five star island all sorted into perfectly measured categories

An amusement park, a picnic area, a freaking ranch probably 🐮

Some awesome neighborhood for his tier one villagers with a YMCA down the street

A fancy one at that

I mean this boy would have it all

Expect a competitive softie that really just wants to have fun but like

He’s gonna win too lmao

He’s got his Nook Miles program all maxed out

When playing with the others, he comes up with really creative solutions when faced with a crisis

That’s because this smart cookie knows the ins and outs of the game

There was one time where he fenced Jisung in like the creepy Easter bunny and left him for ded oop

That was a bad day for Jisung and a hilarious day for everyone else

He felt bad about it but he also wanted that Subway gift card 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Each day is a new hair color for Felix

Sometimes every few days or a week

He sometimes likes to synchronize it with his current hair color but

Experimenting is also fun

Face paint too! 🌈 He chooses a warpaint print he found on Pinterest, for days when the gang gets together for a game of tag or bug catching contests

Even if he doesn’t win, Felix always makes it into the Top 3

And he has a lot of fun doing so! 😊

He’s just one heck of a gamer is all

And his whole aesthetic shines brighter than the sun T-T ☀️

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ 

✧ Kim Seungmin ⇢ Seungmin’s Island ✧

Passport Title ⇢ Radiant Boy

Like Felix, Seungmin would be an ace at AC

He wouldn’t get everything right off the bat

But he’d put in a logical tried-and-true effort, and once he got the ropes and found his groove, my oh my

This boy would have it all

Sophistication ✨

Class ✨✨

Flair ✨✨✨

He’s got a plethora of fruit and stylish attire too

And his aesthetic is so simple but chic

He’s got this whole clean and polished vibe

Lots of artwork and creativity

He’s even got traps that look like fancy furniture

Those are mainly for Han Jisung tho

That oughta teach him to quit nosing around and taking his DIYs <_<

One time he tried stealing a few apples for Swag HOT Island

Didn’t go well sis...

He made it to just outside the pier before getting lost in the hedge maze by Cafe Seungmin

After that Seungmin closed him into a corner as punishment and wouldn’t let him out until he dropped the Apple

But Jisung was feeling pretty prideful that day so he ate it instead 🗿💧

Anyway

This guy would def make a character that looks just like him!

Would he try new hair colors and face paint? ...Maybe

It seems like a sorta-Seungmin thing to do

Seungmin would wanna be the best of the best while still staying true to himself, so you’ll likely see tier one and two villagers that he particularly fancies

Fancy you, fancy me 🥳✨💃🏻🎶

He’d also be one to go around admiring the chaos from the background while occasionally becoming the chaos

Kinda like the Cheshire Cat 😅

When challenging the others to an art contest (who could buy the most expensive artifact from Redd without using the internet) he switched some of the other members paintings while they were distracted by a meteor shower

“Look, a shooting star! And another one!”

“Make a wish.”

“How do I do that?!”

“Tilt your camera towards the sky and press A.”

“I’ve got my camera app open and it’s just taking photos???”

“Not you CAMERA camera—“

“Hey! Chan hyung, Minho just stole my star!!!”

“I didn’t see your NAME on it...”

“Don’t fight, you can each have half!”

“That’s not how it works at all...”

...Anyway

It was pretty comical until Changbin had to say something, about the art that is

Then Minnie had to bounce before the angry shovels and nets caught up to him

“Hey!!! Why is my painting on Minho’s side???”

“Why is everyone attacking me???”

“Oh, Hyunjin has my painting...”

“I do not! ...Oh hey I do? Why’d you put it over here?”

“I DIDN’T!”

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

...

🛫 🏃🏻‍♀️💨

Poor Minnie just wanted to have some fun amongst the confusion 😔

But

When it gets right down to it, you better believe this boy would be an aesthetic and skillful player ✨

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ 

✧ Yang Jeongin ⇢ Go Away Island ✧

Passport Title ⇢ Mistakingly Caught Son

Go Away Island means just what the title intends: go away :)

Initially, Jeongin was prepared for what he senior members would do

He knew there would be much anticipation to visit the 막내’s island and drive him crazy

Sometimes, he doesn’t mind it

But others he just wants to be left alone and do his own thing

When he started the game, it was one of those days

So he wanted to make the message clear 😤😤

Also, Don’t Bother Me seemed to be too long 🤷🏻‍♀️

Go Away was straight to the point ;D

Anyhoo

On Go Away, you’ll encounter lots of cute characters 💓

Innie has a very cute and true-to-himself aesthetic

He doesn’t understand much of the mechanics but he’s working on it okay?

And he’s getting better every day!

Okay, so like, sometimes he’ll allow Chan to come over and help

Or Felix or maybe Seungmin if he promises to be genuine and behave

But like

The rest of the members are semi-banned

Hyunjin gets a pass if he whines enough

Or he’ll come up with a crafty excuse to come over

“Innie, look! I got peaches on my island! Don’t you want one? They’re cute like you! 😩❣️”

...He could do without that last embarrassing remark but okay sure

He really did want those peaches for his picnic garden 😔✊🏻

In terms of hair color? We’re on a rotation like Felix

We’re trying lots of hair colors

And a few aesthetic designs, too!

Jeongin is very resourceful when it comes to QR codes, something Felix and Seungmin taught him

He uses them to set flowers and stones pathways everywhere

And an especially prominent one leading to the door 👉🏻🚪 

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ 

↬ Which island will you be visiting? 🌴✨

♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫ -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ- ♪♫

ღ Stray Kids M.List | M.List ღ

[enviedear]

that damn american ᶠᵒᵘʳ

you seem different

DESCRIPTION ⌙ in which draco shows y/n the room of requirement, and she realizes she likes him more than she thought

PAIRING ⌙ draco x fem!reader

WORD COUNT ⌙ 1.6k

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

chapter one | chapter two | chapter three | chapter four

chapter four, i hope you all enjoy! let me know if you do :) also gonna rec some some songs from the playlist

f**kin’ love songs - awa and 505 - arctic monkeys

“i’m a slytherin prefect y/n, if we get caught, i know how to lie. but flitch is an idiot squib so don’t worry. now shut up and follow me.” draco grumbles.

your newest friend has proved to be surprisingly fun. in the last three weeks he’s taken you on countless adventures and tonight is no different. this evening, he’s showing you the room of requirement. 

for the whole day, he’s been impatient and ready to show you this room. you can’t blame him, you were practically bouncing off the walls all day too. it left april and sophie a little annoyed as you refused to take them along. but you’ve found it was best to hang out with draco alone, or else he gets moody.

“here we are. now, think about the room, envision it, be specific in what you want.” draco tells you.

you do as you’re told and after a minute you see a door form in the stone.

“this is amazing..” you mutter, tracing the handle.

draco grins, “well, go in.”

you open the door and step into the room, draco right behind you. you’re amazed, the room is exactly as you thought. exactly.

“is this your room? really? you could have made it anything and you make it your bedroom. i knew i should’ve picked.” draco chides.

“oh shut up. i thought you’d like it. you’ll probably never get to see the real one. and now we could do what all friends do, have a sleepover.” you say, hugging his arm.

“fine, but i expect to be shown around.” the boy retorts, stiffening a little at your touch.

you nod and let him go, making your way to the far left of the room.

“this is my desk, where i cry over summer work, mindlessly scroll through twitter, and read. i once snuck a boy over and he begged to fuck me on this desk. of course, i couldn’t do that to her, and i told him to leave.” you chuckle, stroking the wood.

“i didn’t need to know that.” draco grimaces.

you shove him, “next is my shelf of plants. these are my babies and i swear to god if they’re not being watered while i’m gone i will hex my mother. which reminds me, i should text her.”

“right beside it is my picture wall. it’s kind of embarrassing, i have super old pictures up there. i should warn you, april used to dress like a farmer.”

draco pauses at the pictures, looking at them all.

“who’s that?” draco asks, pointing to and old picture of your grandparents.

“my grandma and pa. i think they were seventeen in this picture.” you reply, looking at your grandparents smiling young faces.

“that’s cute that they were together even then. my mother thought that pansy and i would be like that, but pansy is too, well, pansy.” he mumbles.

you smile at him, “whatever you say draco.”

he sits on your bed, “i’m being serious, i have someone else in mind.”

your eyes bulge and you look at him with a smirk, “and who might that be?”

he rolls his eyes, “i would love to tell you, but i’m not ready the tell the loudmouth american.”

“i can keep a secret!”

“i’ll tell you when the time is right. for now, i want to learn how to google.”

it takes an hour. a full hour just to explain the concept of google to draco. throughout the process he keeps asking stupid questions.

‘you’re sure there’s no magic involved?’

‘you can learn anything from this?’

‘what do you mean i can’t search that?’

like you said, stupid questions.

but it didn’t really bother you. it was nice seeing the platinum haired boy learn about modern living. and it was even nicer to see him begin to enjoy yet another muggle invention.

you stare at him at he types in a search, his eyebrows furrowed and hair unkempt. he looks different than the boy you first met. almost happier and more carefree. his pale complexion has some sun from the countless hours the two of you have spent at black lake. his fingernails are also now coated in a layer of light green polish.

“stop staring at me.” he grins, turning his face toward you.

“i can’t help it.” you say, fighting back a smile.

his cheeks turn a light pink shade, “and why is that, l/n?”

“you seem different.”

“is that bad?” he asks.

“no, it’s actually really nice.”

draco bites his lip and looks back down to the computer, “i think we should head to bed, don’t you think?”

you nod your head and close the laptop, placing it on your nightstand.

“did you bring pjs?” you ask him, reaching under your bed for your own bag that holds your sleepwear.

“um, no. why would i have brought them? i didn’t know i was sleeping here, l/n.”

you stick your tongue out at him, “i think i have some of quinn’s old clothes in here. hold on.”

you rummage through your drawers, trying to find clothes to fit draco, until you finally come across an old wampus annual bake sale tee and some black and orange flannel bottoms.

you turn around, only to find your friend shirtless.

your mouth opens, ready to tease him.

“oh please, i can’t sleep in a shirt.” he groans.

and you can’t help but to look at his chest and torso. he’s so muscular and lean. but before you let yourself be sucked into fantasizing about your friend, you throw him the pj bottoms.

“i’m gonna change in the closet, you can stay out here. just let me know when you’re done.” you say, rushing into the closet.

you change quickly, but stay inside for a bit longer, thinking about draco. 

your sweet, sarcastic, quidditch loving, spontaneous dickhead of a friend. and it’s then you realize that draco is not just your friend. 

you actually like the guy. 

and you’re about to share a bed with him. 

this should be great, but you’re too scared to ruin the friendship between the two of you. the one you’ve worked so hard for. 

when draco shouts that he’s done changing you quickly compose yourself and slip into your bed, right beside him. he turns off the lights with a simple flick of his wand and eases next to you.

“you don’t snore, do you?” he asks.

you feel his legs, wrap between yours and for a second you forget to answer.

“oh um, shit, i don’t know.”

he huffs and pulls you into him, pulling your curls away from his face and onto the pillow.

“goodnight draco.” you whisper, suddenly deathly aware of the close proximity between the two of you.

he rubs your back, “goodnight l/n.”

__

when the you wake up, draco is still beside you, arms around you and face nuzzled into your neck.

it takes a few minutes but he finally wakes up, separating from you. 

you miss his flushed face as you go to the closet to change, and he doesn’t pay attention to your stuttering each time you look into his eyes.

“i have to study for charms today. i’ll see you after lunch though, i think blaise wants us all to head to hogsmeade.” draco says, as the two of you slip out of the room of requirement.

“alright, sounds good. i’ve been meaning to try butterbeer.” you smile, avoiding eye contact.

when the two of you enter the common room, you’re greeted by april and blaise, who are playing a game of wizard chess.

“hi y’all! did you have fun last night?” april asks, staring down blaise’s king.

“um, yeah. it was really cool. i’ll have to show you and soph sometime.” you say, taking a seat on the armchair.

“merlin april, hurry up, you play like my grandmother.” blaise chuckles.

the dirty blonde smirks at him before making a move, “checkmate, zabini.”

blaise gives her a smile.

“come on zabini, let’s head to the library. i have a bloody charms essay due.” draco tells him.

blaise rolls his eyes, “sure, but i don’t know why i need to come.”

draco scoffs, “if you want to do your essay with crabbe then be my guest, i was just trying to be nice.”

blaise looks over to the fire, where crabbe is burning the tip of his wand. the brown eyed boy scratches the back of his neck before getting up and following draco out of the common room.

“he’s so cute.” april breathes out, staring at the door the boys left out of.

“zabini?” you ask, confused.

“yes girl. and he’s so funny. and sweet. i told soph last night that i wanted to take him out on a date. and i think i’m gonna,” she looks at you, eyes begging. “will you pretty please double date with us this evening at hogsmeade. sophie said no.”

you furrow your eyebrows, “i’d love to but i don’t have anyone to take along.”

she gives you a deadpan look.

“what?” you question.

“you’d take draco. i know you’re just friends, but if you talk to him i’m sure he’d be fine with it.” she says.

you sigh, “i’ll ask, but no-”

she interrupts you, “oh thank you honey! i love you y/n.”

you don’t tell her about your crush on the grey eyed boy. even though you’re dying to get it off your chest. 

but it’s probably for the best. he said himself last night that he has someone in mind. and what good would it do telling him, it might ruin the friendship. even if he did like you, there’s only so much time in a year until you’re back in american. i just couldn’t work.

even if you really want it to.

‘fucking great.’

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

Some Goddamn Curtains

When I was in college, I kept getting the compliment, “Wow, your room is really nice for a guy.”  I never understood what that meant for the longest time.  Then I actually paid attention to how most guys kept their dorm room. I once waited for a guy to get ready to head down to an event. I realized that I had never actually stepped foot in his room, much less even glanced inside of it. So when he stepped out and said he was ready to go, I leaned to the side over his shoulder and oh my god it was like downtown Baghdad during the worst of the Iraq War. Damn bruh, you live like this? I liked all my college roommates but the most untidiest one was in sophomore year. He left his toothbrush lying around in the open in a sock drawer, and it would end up somewhere else each night. Maybe he liked to play scavenger hunts to keep himself on his toes? He never put the DVDs back in their respective cases. I once couldn’t wait to watch Iron Man with a friend at their dorm, only to open the case once I got there and realize that my roommate had replaced it with Season 1 of Martin. He would also do this thing where he would drink a can of Coke (that I bought), not finish it, put it back in the fridge, then later open a new can of Coke that he didn’t feel like finishing, and rinse and repeat. First year roommate wasn’t that bad. Third year roommate was nearly as tidy as I was. Then in my fourth and final year I lived alone,  so my sense of the idea that “guys were messy” didn’t really hit me because I’ve only had one bad experience and chalked it up to “It was just that one guy”. I’m 31, and by now I have noticed people saying things like, “Oh my God I was actually thinking about what curtains I liked and I’m such an adult. This is what adult thinking is like. I’m adulting now.”

I hate hearing shit like that. I grew up blithely admitting liking things that an adult would “normally like”, such as curtains. The curtains thing came up in high school when I hung out at the senior lounge. The senior lounge was this bare room that looked like it was meant for old people to sit and play bingo. It was boring and dull and I hated it. It felt more lke a prison cafeteria really, with some worn out couches. I would bring my video games to that lounge, namely GoldenEye 007, to play with friends during our free period.  The room didn’t have any curtains, so at a certain time in the afternoon, the sun would beat down directly onto the screen, making it difficult to see properly. A lot of us would squint and move closer or lean forward.  I then said, “This room needs some curtains.”

A pause, and then someone replied, “Did you just say this room needs curtains?” And I was like, “Yeah. Maybe something blue. Something dark.”

And he looked at me and scoffed, and all the other guys did the same - they gave me this funny sideways glance and scoffed. I asked what the problem was, but they mostly shook their heads in disbelief. I was frankly annoyed by their response. So I said, louder, “This room needs some goddamn curtains”, because I thought it was perfectly fucking reasonable that a person would logically do something about the fucking glare from the fucking sun. Maybe they liked blinds better. Who knows? But it took me ages to fully realize two things:  1. It’s not socially acceptable for boys to be interested in style - whether it be about living spaces or clothes. I was fiercely made fun of for the clothes I wore as a kid throughout young adult life. I hated all kinds of t-shirts. I think growing up thin and gangly made me too self-aware of my arms. But I never specifically wanted to wear anything that had a band name or a company logo or even my favorite video game or movie. I would feel like a walking advertisement, and that would piss me off. I often liked ties, long-sleeved shirts, and sweaters. I never left the house in sweatpants or pajamas. I always had to comb my hair and put on a good shirt. Sweatpants were when you worked out or worked around the house fixing things.  I grew up in Catholic school, so we had uniforms. On dress down days, my classmates would come up to me and say, “Eddie, you were supposed to dress DOWN, not up” or “I can’t believe you’re wearing that on a dress down day!”.  I didn’t have a problem with people dressing how they dressed. Sure I was never into the goth thing, but I didn’t want to judge. I just wanted to dress how I wanted to dress. And maybe I was influenced in some way by how my parents dressed me up, and maybe other times I did feel embarrassed, but I knew that at the end of the day I would wear what felt most comfortable to me. Sometimes my mom would give me a sweater that was a tad too bland, so I went to the bathroom once I got to school and took it off. I would like the polo but untucked it and unbuttoned the top buttons. Half-and-half. Right idea, but lemme wear it like this instead. College was really when I started to develop my everyday style, my “main outfit”, like a video game character. I always wore some untucked button-down shirt with a tie, jeans, and sneakers. I liked it. It was this weird blend of dressing up and dressing down. People my age thought I was overdressed but my parents and people over 50 complained that I was underdressed. It was great! It feels so special to piss off both sides! My parents still remember the time I got an award at college and I went up the stage wearing that getup. You look at the picture and see the students standing side-by-side in nice dresses and dockers, and then there’s me wearing jeans and sneakers with a shirt and tie.  There always seemed to be this false dichotomy for how men should look and be - either the dapper “metrosexual” man who was slightly effeminate or the rough-and-tumble strong man who didn’t need to use an umbrella when it rained and never cared to fix his hair because that’s some “gay shit” for silly city folk. That false dichotomy is always played out in media. There’s a million buddy cop movies about the book-smart guy who is suave and sophisticated teaming up with the street-smart guy who is all muscle and manly and goes for the more practical route. Yin and Yang. Hot and cold. Good cop and bad cop. Lucky and Wild. Tango and Cash. But growing up I thought, “Why not both?” I loved watching James Bond as much as I loved watching Indiana Jones. Why couldn’t I be both if I really wanted to? It fit me best to play both roles. I AM GOING TO MIX THESE TWO THINGS AND YOU CAN’T FUCKING STOP ME! I WILL BE BOTH BOOK-SMART AND STREET-SMART. I KNOW THE QUADRATIC EQUATION AND HOW TO CON SOMEONE. THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM.  The fucking worst though is being an adult now and hearing women wish they knew a guy who “dressed properly”, and men complimenting my clothes saying I look sharp.

Fuck all of you, honestly. 2. Young people are afraid to admit they like things that adults like. I grew up with extended family members living in cozy homes. I liked to admire their grandfather clocks, their decanters, their entertainment center, their offices and their chairs. I liked to wander around their houses during the holidays and poke my nose into their closets and admire old things. Maybe it’s something that an only-child might relate to the most. I wasn’t required or asked to be upstairs to attend a younger or older sibling. The adults just did their own thing and so I wandered off. Ikea always tickled my fancy as a kid. I would wander through the model rooms of offices and bedrooms and bathrooms, and I found whatever felt coziest to me and pretended that I was home. Better yet, I sometimes daydreamed that the entire Ikea facility was my home. How about that? Tired of sleeping on the bunk bed? Go to the next room to the big bed. I feel like cooking in that kitchen today, not this one. Some days I’ll feel more serious and work in the wooden office desk and other days I’ll feel silly and be in the kids room. I’ll take the whole building, please. This is where I live now. Swedish meatballs for dinner and creamy European chocolate bars for dessert every day. Young people fear being old and facing responsibilities. That doesn’t mean you liking these things makes you older. Taste and style is part of who you are, and there’s no shame if you have an interest in some bath mats or a nice decanter when you’re 20 or 17.

When I lived in my single dorm back in senior year of college, I realized that I was truly living alone for the first time. It brought some sanity to me that I didn’t know I needed. I was able to organize things how I saw fit, and hosted parties whenever I wanted. If I felt like something needed adjusting, I didn’t need to ask anybody’s permission. I really started exploring my sense of style and taste. As I grew up, I developed really specific tastes about where I would live: 1. Everything has to make sense. The placement of shelves, TVs, desks, dressers, paintings, pictures, all have to feel like they are easily viewed and accessible without needing to awkwardly turn to face them or reach them.  2. Symmetry is not always necessary but still good to fall back on when you don’t know what to do. 3. I never liked to sit with my back to the window(s) or the door. I always needed to see who or what was going to approach me or look at me.  4. TVs should never go on top of fireplaces.  5. Always have some kind of drawing room for guests to wait.  6. Never put your keys or sensitive documents in the foyer, drawing room, or wherever else strangers can easily find them the minute they walk into the house.  7. Open concept is pretentious.  8. It is far easier to cook if you have an island in the kitchen.  9. McMansions are the bane of style. Fake balconies, fake shutters, brick facades - everything about them is evil.  10. Get some goddamn curtains.

[lnarizakis]

critical thinking | a. keiji

masterlist | cards against humanity x haikyuu!!

pairing: akaashi keiji x gen!reader

foreword: this is around 2k words and honestly I’m kinda proud of myself like i think this is the longest fic I’ve written on here!! I hope you guys enjoy hehe

look out for: no warnings!

PREFACE. The setting: Akaashi Keiji and (L/N) (Y/N), with a painfully obvious crush on the former, are studying in the library. It’s one of the only days where the setter’s not practicing hard for nationals after school. They’re not really aware of the time, but it’s probably around 4:30. The sun’s shining brightly through the window, hitting all the right spots on Keiji’s face perfectly. He’s such a gentleman for choosing to sit facing the sun. It’s awfully quiet in the surrounding air, but between the two of them hushed whispers fill the atmosphere. From afar, it could be assumed that they’re having a heated discussion about the literature homework in front of them, debating the true meaning behind the significance of the light in the character’s eyes, but they’re discussing something a little unrelated. Well, perhaps the concept of “true love” could have been branched out from how (Y/N) suggested that the light in the character’s eyes could have been lit up because of the love he had for the deuteragonist, so in a way they’re still discussing the literature homework. But, no. Not really. I mean:

“Wait, so you don’t believe in true love? Like, the kind where you look into someone’s eyes for the first time and think— ‘Wow. I’m in love with them,” blurted out (Y/N) in a hushed whisper, absolutely exasperated with the fact that Keiji outrightedly stated that he does not believe in true love. Well, as far as (Y/N) interpreted the words “I really don’t think there’s such thing as love at first sight” goes, Keiji does not believe in true love.

“No, you’re getting the two mixed up. The kind you’re thinking of is love at first sight, as I’ve previously mentioned. True love is something else. True love is…” Keiji thought for a minute. He stayed silent, wondering what true love really is. He tapped his fingers on one hand, and played with his pen with the other. The notebook underneath both remained blank.

“True love is critical thinking.”

(Y/N) sputtered out, “You thought for a good one minute, and all you could think of what true love is is critical thinking?! You weren’t critically thinking there, Akaashi-san.” Keiji chuckled. That was funny. He smirked, as he let his eyes bring themselves down towards his still-blank notebook.

“We should get back to work, (L/N)-san. We’re here in the library for a reason,” Keiji stated, as a matter-of-fact. Dejectedly, (Y/N) muttered out that he’s right, and they get back to work. They agreed to disagree with their previous argument, about the significance of the light behind the main character’s eyes, and decide to write their own answer in their notebook.

After a good fifteen minutes, (Y/N) let out a sigh as they dropped their pen onto the table. They stretched out their arms, cramped from being used to write several paragraphs of pure BS-ing. Impulsively, they suggested, “You think true love is critical thinking, huh? Is there any way I can show you that it’s not all that?”

Keiji thought for a couple seconds, then pointed his pen towards (Y/N).

“See? I had to think for a minute if you were asking me out on a date. Critical thinking at its finest.” Oh, how he loved to tease (Y/N). They playfully rolled their eyes. “But alright. I’m game. Convince me, with everything you can, that true love isn’t all critical thinking.”

ONE. The setting: Akaashi was in his room, staring at his closet. It’s a neatly done closet, with all of his clothes sorted by color. He had just come out of his shower, and he had just finished drying off. His hair was still a little wet, but since it’s several hours before his first date with (Y/N), it’ll dry beforehand. He just needed to find an outfit. He had planned on doing so last night, but extended volleyball practice called and asked for all his energy to be spent. Bokuto just had to get those cross spikes in before nationals. He couldn’t forget, like last time. That was… a little embarrassing, to say the least.

He pulled out a pair of black skinny jeans along with a gray sweater that he hadn’t worn since his first year in high school, but it seemed to him that his shoulders have gotten a little too broad to fit loosely into that sweater. Looks like it won’t do; he might feel a little uncomfortable with the snug fit, and (Y/N) might feel a little odd with his constant shuffling, attempting to stay comfortable throughout the date. Back to the closet those two went.

Oh my. Black joggers and a hooded sweatshirt. Absolutely not. It was too casual. Keiji imagined himself wearing that while (Y/N) was wearing the nicest thing in their closet (well, perhaps not the nicest thing, but something still pretty first-date nice).

Keiji found a pair of looser jeans— but what to pair them with? He found a collared shirt and a lighter-colored sweater to go on top. In the depths of his closet he also found an overcoat, as well as an expensive belt the third-years of his volleyball team bought him for his birthday. He would definitely look nice with this. But wait— what were they going to do again? Just a simple outing at the cafe, right? This outfit was definitely too fancy for something like this. He couldn’t simply wear something like this at a cafe like that. Nope. Definitely not. Back to the closet the whole outfit went.

He gave up. He decided to go with the first outfit, the skinny jeans and the sweater. He was going to have a collared button-down underneath. He thought this would be best. Definitely. No doubt about it.

—

Walking towards the cafe, Keiji felt more uncomfortable by the minute. He felt his pants were too tight, or his collar kept unfolding itself every time he moved his shoulders. He felt like a clown in a circus; with everyone staring at him as he walked by different people on the sidewalk.

When he opened the door, he found (Y/N) sitting at a table by themself. They hadn’t ordered anything yet, but they were on their phone. Oh gosh, they’ve been waiting for him. It was all because he spent too long finding an outfit to wear. He really shouldn’t have put so much thought into that outfit. It was so unnecessary to think that much!

“Hey, you.” It was (Y/N). They stood up from where they were sitting, and beckoned Keiji to come closer, as he was currently blocking the entrance. He followed the little hand wave, and profusely apologized for being late, to which (Y/N) replied that it was completely fine; they actually had just arrived.

“You look nice.” (Y/N) broke the silence once more. They scanned Keiji up and down, smiling softly.

TWO. The setting: The sun’s setting and the sky’s a really pretty purple and pink. They’re walking home after what seemed like their fourth or fifth date. They weren’t really sure themselves, since (Y/N) keeps spontaneously asking them out on several dates. So maybe it was even the sixth. But who was he to judge, because right at this moment he stood underneath a street lamp that shone a bright yellow light with the love of his life. He was so proud to call them his. What he wasn’t so proud of, however, is how they haven’t had one, single kiss yet. That’s a little embarrassing. However, right here, seemed like the best opportunity to share his first kiss with (Y/N).

Uh-oh. How was he supposed to kiss them? Does he… place a hand on their shoulder? Or does it go on their waist, as he leans in and softly kisses them? No, that didn’t seem right. Maybe he places that hand behind the neck and brings them closer to him? No, that didn’t sound right either. Where does his other hand go? Does he keep it hidden in the pocket of his coat, or does he hold their hand? You know, for support? Or maybe he uses both hands to hold them by the waist. That seemed like the best option.

But wait— how does he… lean in and kiss them? Does he do it slowly? Just quickly give them a little peck on the lips and look away like a tsundere? Oh gosh, his lips were chapped; maybe he shouldn’t kiss them after all—

He’s given no time to think any more before (Y/N) leans towards him and places their lips against his. The kiss was a little forceful, and he felt their teeth, but it was still nonetheless wonderful. Once they pulled away, Keiji softly placed the tips of his fingers over his lips, ghosting the touch of what he had just felt.

“You just… kissed me,” he stated.

They smiled a toothy grin. “I did. You were taking too long; you were staring at me like a dead fish. Critical thinking, aren’tcha? It doesn’t get you anywhere,” (Y/N) taunted.

THREE. The setting: (Y/N) and Keiji stood outside the door to the gym, hand in hand. It was some time after practice had ended. The former felt Keiji’s hand getting clammy and sweaty, a result of keeping their relationship hidden for so long. Currently, they were about to announce to Bokuto Koutarou, proud captain and ace of their volleyball team, also being Keiji's best friend and closest confidant, that they were dating.

What was he to say? Akaashi was to word it in the most precise way, or else (Y/N) would get the wrong idea about what they meant to him, and their relationship might be extremely damaged. Or Bokuto might think that Akaashi’s setting volleyball secondary on his list of priorities, which is extremely worrying as part of the starting line-up for nationals.

Right on cue, the doors to the gym swung open. It was Bokuto. His skin glistened with sweat, a product of his hard work. He gave a long sigh, exclaiming his thanks for the cold air outside. His eyes were closed. Bokuto opened his eyes to see his junior and someone else that he had never seen before holding hands. Akaashi looked worried, to which Bokuto expressed his concern with an “Oya? Akaashi, what’s the matter?”

“Hi, Bokuto-san. My name is (L/N) (Y/N), and Akaashi and I are dating. We just wanted to tell you that.” (Y/N) blurted out, and Akaashi felt his cheeks grow slightly warm because of the sudden outburst of their confession. To Akaashi’s surprise, Bokuto laughed heartily. The ace clasped a sweaty hand on the setter’s shoulder.

“Oh! I’m proud of you, Akaashi. You managed to get ‘em! You’ve been crushing on them since forever.”

FOUR. The setting: It’s late at night. Akaashi’s older now; he’s a little more experienced with all of this “dating stuff.” He’s getting the hang of it— well, he should be, since there’s a little black velvet box sitting in the drawer of his nightstand in his bedroom. Akaashi has his own little apartment now, and (Y/N) has their own. They haven’t moved in together yet. Akaashi’s ready to propose to them. He’s got the best plan ever. He knows exactly what to do. There’s nothing that can disrupt the plan. First, he’s going to walk over to (Y/N)’s apartment, and they’re going to spend the whole day together, out and about. He’s then going to treat them to a nice dinner, which once they’re done, he’s going to present to them the ring. It’s going to be beautiful and meaningful. Memorable, even. Or, well, it was going to be beautiful and meaningful.

“You can’t sleep?”

“No… I had a nightmare that you left me.”

“Okay, come over and we can sleep together.”

Akaashi hung up the phone. Around ten minutes later, he heard a knock at his apartment door, and there he saw (Y/N), cold and out of breath. He let them in, and he led them into his bedroom.

—

And so we have it: Akaashi and (Y/N) were lying side-by-side on his bed, neither of them being able to go to sleep. The former setter turned to (Y/N) and they replicated his actions. He stared into their eyes.

“You know I love you, right? I could never leave you,” Ever the stoic boyfriend. (Y/N) still smiled softly, though, knowing he meant every word he said. Despite his cold exterior, his eyes radiate warmth.

“I know. I love you too,” they whispered.

“I want to marry you,” Akaashi accidentally blurted out. His eyes widened, and so did (Y/N)’s. Oh God, did he really just say that? Did he really mean it? Of course he meant it, what was he thinking?

Still in shock, (Y/N) asked, “Wait, do you really mean it?”

“I just… said that, right?” Akaashi let their question slip in and out of his ear.

“Yes. To both questions.”

Getting out of bed, Akaashi lowered his voice as he asked himself as well as (Y/N), “You’re serious, right? This is super spontaneous…” He reached for the closed drawer of his nightstand, and opened it up. He grabbed the black velvet box and opened it. Behind him, (Y/N) was sitting up in bed, wondering what he was doing.

And there he was, inching his way closer to (Y/N), holding out their engagement ring, to which they held out their ring finger. He slowly eased the ring onto their finger, face flushed with warmth and love while doing so. He looked up into their eyes.

“Looks like I wasn’t critically thinking there. Thank you for teaching me what it means to love from not just the mind, but also from the heart.” (Y/N) playfully slapped him on the arm.

“Keiji, you’re supposed to say that at our marriage, not right now!”

[bumblebeug]

A Presentation to the Matchmaker Pt: 5 Confession

Well, here it is - the final part of A Presentation to the Matchmaker. It’s been a whole bunch of fun to write and marks the first finished multi-chapter story I’ve ever written. So I’m pretty Happy. Congratulations to those that correctly guessed who Marinette was going to confess too. I hope that even though I went full sappy for the ending, that you guys enjoy it. 

Pt. 5: Confession

Monday

“You could send her dozens of flowers – she loves flowers. Has her own rooftop garden,” Alya suggested as she munched her way through a bag of chips.

“If she has a garden,” Felix began as he rolled an apple thoughtfully between his hands, “Then wouldn’t it be a better idea to give her a couple of potted plants?”

Alya gave him a flat look, “Are you seriously suggesting giving Marinette, the most accident-prone girl we know pottery?”

“Hmm.” Felix chewed thoughtfully, “What about seeds?”

“Too grandmotherly,” Alya sighed.

Tuesday

Alya crossed her arms over her chest, “Music? Are you serious?”

Felix patted down a couple of wild flyaway strands of hair and nodded earnestly, “Music is a way into a heart. You should know – your boyfriend is a DJ, right?”

“Yeah, but he didn’t ask me out through song. We were locked in a cage together by Ladybug and just… sorta hashed it out,” Alya pointed out.

Felix raised an eyebrow at her, “Are you suggesting I ask Ladybug to lock Marinette and I in a cage together to ‘hash it out’?”

Alya smiled in spite of herself, “Nah, too hard to track down a hero…I could lock you two in a closet together accidentally, if you know what I mean.”

The expression of open horror Felix gave her made her double over in laughter. After a minute, Alya straightened and wiped her eyes, “Haa, I’m sorry. I was joking!” She clapped her hand on his shoulder to prevent him from walking away. “Sorry,” she apologized again, “I mean it.”

Felix shook off her hand but made no move to leave, “Do you really think the music idea wouldn’t work?”

“No, no, it could work,” Alya said, “But music is tricky – it has to be from the heart or else it won’t be able to travel to another person’s got it?”

Felix nodded along as she spoke.

“I have no idea what that means,” he deadpanned.

Nino could have explained the concept better, she thought a little wistfully.

“You know what? It’s not important,” Alya hand-waved, “If you’re confident in this plan, then go for it.”

Friday

“Hey,” Alya greeted Felix at lunch as she passed by to go sit with Marinette, “Can’t stay and chat for long but, are you still feeling good about the plan?”

Felix picked at his scant lunch for a moment, “As ready as I think I can be. Is it still going to be in the music classroom?”

Alya nodded, “Yup. She doesn’t have a clue. Once the bell rings, I’ll make up some excuse and Marinette and I will walk there. You’ll be sitting quietly at the piano. I say I’ll be lookout. And then it’s confession time.”

“Got it.” Felix gave Alya a queasy smile and half-heartedly picked up a carrot stick, “Go sit with your group.”

~~

Felix drummed his fingers on his desk and glanced at the clock for the umpteenth time.

To him, it felt like the seconds were actively resisting the march of time and, judging by the restless fidgeting of his classmates – he wasn’t the only one.

He brought a hand down to check that the paper in his pocket – the paper that contained the contents of his heart – was still safely where it was supposed to be. He peeked back at the clock and held back a groan, hardly two minutes had passed. Felix resumed drumming on his desk and tried not to stare a hole through the back of Marinette’s head. But Marinette must have felt the weight of his stare because she turned around and smiled at him.

He smiled back, pretending like she hadn’t been the focus of his attention, and tried to exude a nonchalant-ness that he didn’t feel. Encouraged by his smile, Marinette rolled her eyes towards the clock and back to him with a look that said the final bell is taking forever. In response to her eye-rolling, Felix quirked a brow in agreement, puffed out his cheeks and blew out a long breath. Felix couldn’t help the real smile that overtook his strained one at the sight of her eyes crinkling in amusement.

He was beginning to feel confident about the plan when the final bell rang, prompting two dozen people to spring to their feet in a race to leave school for the day.

Leaving just four people lingering in the classroom.

Felix sat frozen at his desk as he watched Adrien help Marinette gather her spilled bookbag, ignoring Alya’s frantic shooing gestures. Was this the moment? Felix thought, stomach squelching in panic. Was he going to witness Marinette confess to Adrien right in front of him?

Marinette’s face flushed as she grabbed a folder from Adrien’s hands, opening her mouth.

“You ready to go?” Alya asked Marinette loudly, startling Marinette enough to make her forget what she was about to say.

“Oh!” She jumped, clutching the folder to her chest. “Umm, no?” Marinette answered once she took a breath.

“I, uhh, have to talk to Felix about something.” She gestured loosely with her folder. “Uh… band stuff.” She added on. “You two go ahead – I’ll catch up later.” Marinette gave Alya a significant look that Felix didn’t understand – surely talking about band stuff wouldn’t take long.

But if the widening of Alya’s eyes was anything to go by, she understood exactly what Marinette wanted.

“Oh, uh, ok, right,” Alya stammered, giving Felix a brief wide-eyed look before snapping back into character, “Adrien! Want to see some exclusive new features I’ve just added to the Ladyblog?”

Adrien’s delighted expression was pure sunshine. “Sure!” He said enthusiastically, waving a cheery goodbye to Marinette and Felix.

Suddenly, four became two.

Felix racked his brains on how to maneuver them to the music room and tried to not hyperventilate. None of this was part of the plan! The music sheet was burning a hole in his pocket. How was he supposed to confess without a piano? He thought as he walked down the aisle steps, coming to a stop in front of Marinette. The answer came a beat later. A poem! He thought. All he had to do was read his song as a poem. That would work right?

“Marinette –”

“Felix –”

They said simultaneously and tried again.

“Sorry –”

“Sorry –”

They stopped once again.

Marinette’s giggle did nothing to placate the butterflies that had hatched in his stomach. Marinette motioned at him, “You go first.”

“Right, ok.” Felix stuttered. Swallowing hard, Felix carefully unfolded the music had he had agonized over writing for days and cleared his throat.

“Marinette.” He began before breaking off, concentration scattered by the sight of her curious expression.

“Marinette, I –”

This isn’t working, he realized as he tried to ignore the melody he had written and find his place, a song won’t cut it. Felix crumpled the sheet into a tight ball.

“Marinette,” Felix solidified his resolve and began for the third time. “I wanted to write you the perfect song – one that would make you feel soft and warm and loved, but,” He let the crumpled paper fall to the floor, “I failed. I can’t even read it to you.”

He reached to hold one of Marinette’s hands but his hand fell back to his side when he realized neither were free. “I’m not even sure that there’s a song in existence that could perfectly encapsulate how I feel about you. And –,” He cleared his throat, more nervous habit than need, “And I’m sure that I’m messing this up too because I’m sure I’m not appropriately conveying, in words, what you mean to me. But I like you. A whole lot.”

“And I hope, I hope what I’m saying is enough. That I’m enough.” he inhaled through his nose sharply and stared at the ceiling, unable to look her in the eyes at the moment. In a fit of bravery, Felix brought his eyes down to meet Marinette’s, “So, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, will you please go on a date with me?”

A long silence stretched out between the two of them. He braced himself for rejection – ready to take whatever she said head-on. But instead of rejecting him, Marinette pressed her folder into his hands. Unsure what to expect, Felix gingerly opened it. Felix’s lips trembled before breaking into a wide smile because, inside, sitting on top of a couple of sheets of facts and figures was a simple, unlabeled Venn Diagram that read:

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

Well, that’s it guys.

 Hope the ending wasn’t too, too predictable. <3

Part 4

Taglist!

@call-me-nerdy​, @vivilakitty​, @a-6-yearold-inside, @the-real-gingakid, @redscarlet95, @ashes-wind, @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry, @kali-girlonfire,  @aegyobutpsycho2,  @gal-egg-xy,  @kris-pines04,  @bleeding-heart-romantic, @juhavs, @symwinter, @eva-emaria, @umiko9692, @7-sage-7, @northernbluetongue, @nightstarblue, @marinettepotterandplagg, @hauntedfreakdeputyhero, @greenishivy, @gal-egg-xy​, @goblinwhoships​, @risingmoonyue​, @ladybug-182​, @slyreader07, @bee-wrecker​