#then we went Christmas shopping until 3pm took some pictures so I have a Christmas present for my mum

[disneyprincessdxminatrix]

is 7pm too early for bedtime on saturday evening? time is a construct right it’s been darf for almost 2 hours so that’s definitely night and night is time for sleep

[mabel-but-slytherin]

Christmas Truce 2018

I know this is so very late, but like Danny I too can forget to prepare all of my Christmas gifts in time. I hope this is still on time for the Truce.

First a thank you to @monocheshaa for her wonderful gift for me, and a thank you/apology to @letswonderspirit for their patience! Based on the specific scene they asked for I think they were expecting art, but as I am a writer and cannot produce pictures with a fraction the beauty they can, you get this 3700 word fic instead. Enjoy!

Letswonderspirit asked for “Danny and Dani opening a present with Cujo inside. (If this is too specific than you can just do something with Cujo, I just really like dogs. thank you.)“

December 1st,

Danny Fenton walked through the Amity Park mall with a smile on his face for the first time in the month of December. He’d always hated the holiday spirit (spirits in general tended to haunt him or set his parents off, and Christmastime was no exception), but after being shown the Christmas Truce by Ghostwriter last year, Danny was determined to learn his lesson.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t come around to having a good holiday last year, but this time he was determined to get a head start on the season and do all the things he didn’t have the time and preparation to do. Namely, this year he wanted to be sure to get presents.

Being a first-time Christmas shopper, Danny was worried he’d have a hard time finding the time to sneak away from everyone and buy fitting gifts behind their backs. Yet it was not even 3pm on the first of the month and Danny already had half of his shopping done. New steel-toed black boots for Sam, a kit to build the first custom PDA-compatible laptop for Tucker, and most recently a memoir by the head of Harvard’s psychology department for Jazz. 

Even making time wasn’t so hard. All Danny had to do was tell his friends that he wanted to catch up on homework before the next ghost attack and they gave him pleased but dubious looks and sent him home. Once there, Danny had no problem: he was a pro at sneaking out of the house under his parents’ noses. Slip one small hint of a Santa sighting at the mall two towns over and Maddie was dashing to her bazooka awhile Jack ran for his Fenton™ Wish List.

Speaking of lists, Danny pulled out his list of people left to shop for and crossed Jazz’s name off. Looking down he knocked off Mom and Dad while he was at it. Mom did most of the family shopping and would definitely prefer something home-made and deadlier than what he could buy at 16 years old, so he’d just spend some time in the lab putting together some gadget throughout the month. Dad was probably the easiest of all: he’d pulled his mom aside last week while he helped serve Thanksgiving dinner and asked if they could work together to make double fudge this year. The squeal and hug his mom gave was almost another gift itself.

That just left some of his other classmates, and honestly, although Danny was trying to make up for years of missing the Christmas spirit even he admitted they were probably optional. Dash definitely wasn’t getting anything from Fenton, as the only thing Danny could think he’d like is 20 minutes to wail on Fenturd with no chance of Lancer catching him (and telling him to save his arm strength for the big game Friday).

Sam told Danny that under no circumstances should he buy a present for Paulina, but Danny couldn’t help himself, and felt pretty proud to have found a Danny Phantom compact mirror in the makeup section of the mall and then transformed briefly in the changing room to autograph it in green sharpie. (He later told Sam he found the present while looking in the make-up section for an eyeliner for Sam’s Goth look. He still doesn’t understand why Sam tested her new steel toes on his shins when he told her his first thought was that Paulina would love it.)

And of course getting a gift for Paulina meant he had to pull something together for at least a couple other people or else risk coming across as creepy. Star just needed something fashionable and shiny, and given that Danny knew nothing about fashion he just went for shiny earrings and hoped she wouldn’t hit him. He probably didn’t need to get anything for Wes, but let’s just say a whole day walking through Amity Park mall revealed so many potential gag t-shirts that Danny couldn’t resist.

Valerie would be both the easiest and hardest to shop for. She was extremely practical ever since her dad lost her job, and would happily accept any homecooked treat or mall store gift card, but Danny also wanted to give her something more meaningful without being frivolous. Danny wanted to give her a box of tree-shaped sugar cookies and a matching Christmas tree sweater, but when the ecto-oven brought the cookies to life and Danny took them out with the closed Fenton™ pistol, the teen settled for giving her the sweater and the pistol instead.

A bead of sweat ran down Danny’s face as he imagined what her reaction would be to that…

With all the humans crossed off his list, Danny was ready to call it a day. Over a year of being a halfa had taught him better than to guess at ghost traditions, so his plan was to fly over to Ghostwriter’s next week to ask for advice on presents for the Truce before the scribe was too deep into the holiday rush. There were a bunch of things Danny wanted to ask, from prospective gifts to whether he should be getting something for just his allies or his nemeses, and how a good hit or faux pas might impact his survival in the coming year. No matter what, Danny had already swore he would take a hard pass on getting a gift for Vlad. Half-ghost he may be, that man was a full-blooded fruitloop and would inevitably read way into anything from Danny.

The young hero already started to fold the list to put in his pocket when his eyes froze on one last name scrawled at the bottom of his list with a question mark. It was no question that Danny cared about the last name and wanted to give her a nice Christmas, the only question was whether she would be there to receive it.

After all, Dani had stopped by every couple of months ever since she was stabilized and free to travel the world, but it was purposefully near-impossible to contact the young girl on the run, and Danny had no clue if she even knew of the holiday. Even if she did, there was the question of whether she would come visit him or celebrate abroad.

Either way, it was Dani’s first Christmas and she was Danny’s clone, which meant it was Danny’s responsibility to find her the perfect present just in case she stopped by, right? Well, ghost etiquette was one thing, but Danny had no idea who to ask on clone etiquette so as the older clone/brother in this situation he was going to call himself the expert and go with that. 

That just left one major problem: what could a sixteen-year-old teenager from the Midwest who already burned half his allowance on other presents get for a half-ghost pickpocket whose already flown halfway around the world?

Two laps around the mall later and Danny was still stumped. Flashy clothes from most of the girly stores were flimsy and would only make her stand out. Anything bigger than a bag was too bulky to carry, any electronic device Danny would have to make sure she could use and charge it, and also pray there was no tracking to put her on someone’s radar. Money or gift cards was impractical and would probably look to her like a moral lecture, and while Danny briefly considered a souvenir from Amity Park as a good gag, the teen was embarrassed by how they probably paled in comparison to all the ones she’s probably seen.

Danny sighed and just decided to make his way home. The homework/mall Santa distractions would only buy him so much time and he still had a few weeks to finalize ideas, so there was no need to rush.

A piercing scream burst out throughout the mall and the cry of “GHOST!” made Danny groan and wonder where he could possibly stash his latest purchases before the next fight, as he highly doubted the Truce extended all the way to early bird shopping. Then a bark followed and Danny gave a sigh of relief. “Cujo! Get out of there!”

Maybe there wouldn’t be a fight after all.

December 24th,

Danny had been wondering how far the Christmas Truce stretched. Apparently, the answer was not until the stroke of midnight Christmas Day.

Or at least that’s what Skulker thought, coming after Danny shouting that his pelt would make such a nice gift to Ember that she’d have to accept his proposal. Danny wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, and was currently trying to either wrestle him into the Thermos or run out the clock.

Of course, Danny also didn’t want to risk getting on the bad side of the entire Ghost Zone by violating the Truce and continuing to fight on Christmas morning. Skulker had the advantage of a mechanical exoskeleton featuring a timepiece, but Danny had to try to keep him somewhere that he had a view of the Amity Times clocktower.

That and the desire to minimize property damage on Christmas Eve left Danny stuck in the wide open space of the park. Which makes hiding and dodging Skulker’s myriad of bombs and nets a challenge.

“Seriously Skulker, you haven’t been able to catch me in over two years! Did you really think you would be able to capture me in under an hour?” Danny taunted as he evaded yet another cannon blast that expanded into a taser net shortly after passing over his shoulder.

“Quiet, welp! The best hunter knows how to claim victory under pressure!”

Danny paused before firing an ectoblast at Skulkers torso. “I thought the saying was ‘a great hunter knows how to bide his time…’”

“…And seize an opportunity.” Skulker finished as he took advantage of Danny’s distraction to pull out a small pistol and shoot the Fenton thermos out of his left hand. Danny cursed and rubbed his burnt hand as he watched the thermos fly halfway across the park.

“Yes, I quite like the saying.” Skulker continued. “Speaking of like, I also must admit I am enjoying this new pistol! You see, Ember and I have started this family tradition where we open one small present each on Christmas Eve, and I just happened to get this little thing. I can’t wait until tomorrow to open the other present under the tree, it’s shaped like a blaster and bigger than the tree itself!”

Danny shivered. “Okay, first off, I guess that explains the sudden Christmas Eve manhunt. Second, please never talk to me about you and Ember’s ‘family traditions’ ever again. Already imagined one messed up ghost couple future, don’t need another one.

“Third,” Danny said as he glanced between where his thermos went flying and Skulker preparing another round from the net launcher, “I don’t really want to be Christmas dinner. Let’s go back to the original plan of Christmas duck-duck-goose!”

Danny made a break in the direction of the thermos, then banked into a sharp curve as Skulker fired the net right behind him. The net again sailed past him as Skulker fell for the feint and carried on in the direction of the open field near the thermos.

Until a small green blur dashed across the grass towards where the thermos was lying.

Recognizing the ghostly green glow but too far to see the shape, Danny could only wonder either who would show up in the human world this close to Christmas Day or when Skulker got a hunting partner.

The figure’s identity was made apparent when it finished trotting over to the thermos, picked it up in its mouth, and let out a happy bark.

“Cujo!” Danny called. The small ghost dog wagged his tail and looked over in Danny’s direction.

“Oh wow, you must want to play fetch. Good boy, Cujo, bring the thermos over here!” Danny turned his spectral tail back into human (ghostly?) legs and patted them to further call Cujo over. The dog started trotting happily until it yelped as a third net flew by and tangled it in the grass.

“Phantom has a puppy?” Skulker wondered aloud. “And one that is fearless in the face of battle? You will make the finest gift to Ember this holiday! She will cement you as one of her cutest fans and I will train you into the Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunting Dog! Skulker shouted as he flew over towards Cujo.

Cujo just ignored Skulker and started trying to drag the net towards where Danny was running to him. Skulker shook his head at the sight and reached towards his controls for the taser net. “First, to teach you some obedience.”

As soon as he turned the dial to its lowest setting, the net turned on and started to zap Cujo lightly. This caused the dog to yelp, and then grow angry.

And then to just grow.

Within seconds, Cujo stood tall in his full, monstrous height. The net snapped off of the dog now twice its size, and the freed prey turned his eyes directly onto Skulker.

“Oh no.” The hunter muttered.

Cujo charged towards Skulker as the mechanical ghost tried to fly away, and managed to close the distance in time to grab on to one of Skulker’s jet boots and pull it off like a 20-foot puppy stealing a stranger’s shoe. The ghost dog had just finished shaking the lone boot and turned to the sky to growl and the figure trying to balance with one-sided rocket propulsion when the clocktower struck midnight.

In a flash, Cujo shrunk back down to his puppy size and panted up at Skulker, tossing the boot around for a second before lying down and gnawing it like the advanced ghostly technology was his latest chew toy.

Skulker, realizing it was safe to land, crashed back down to the grass and tried to approach Cujo to retrieve his boot. Cujo remained in puppy form, but instantly grabbed the shoe and backed away, growling menacingly that the shoe was his.

“Oh, come now!” Skulker shouted. “It’s Christmas.”

“And that is his toy your trying to take, Grinch.” Danny smiled as he walked over and scratched Cujo behind the ears. Seeing Skulker’s frown, Danny sighed and slowly pulled the metal boot out of Cujo’s mouth before throwing the thermos to distract him. The dog happily ran after the thermos, leaving Danny to shake the pool of saliva off the boot before handing it back to Skulker.

“Just this once, because it’s Christmas.” Danny said.

Skulker grabbed the boot and shoved it on his foot before grimacing and the squelching sound it made. “Ugh. Fine, I accept your gift and will be prepared to make an honorable exchange for this gift at the Truce this evening. Merry Christmas, Whel- I mean, Danny.”

Danny smiled. “You’re welcome Skulker.” The teen nodded before grimacing himself. “Wait… gift exchange… Danny… I totally forgot to get a present for Dani!”

Skulker tilted his head. “You exchange presents between your two halves? That is… an odd halfa tradition I was not aware of.”

“No!” Danny shouted. “Not for me, other Dani! Man, I was planning on getting her something all month, but time totally flies.”

Danny turned around to see that Skulker had already flew back towards FentonWorks and the Ghost Portal while his back was turned. “Guess that’s not the only thing that flew by. And I gotta fly home myself.”

“Woof!” Danny looked down to see Cujo triumphantly wagging his tail over the Fenton Thermos lying at Danny’s feet. Looking around and seeing no other ghosts to take him back to the Ghost Zone, Danny scooped the little dog into his arms and start flying back towards home.

“You travel all over the place, Cujo, maybe you can help me? What present can I get for my clone/cousin who’s been all around the world and just grabs whatever she wants?”

December 25th,

Danny woke up the next morning to see a pair of nearly identical blue eyes perched over him, shining with a burst of holiday joy that Danny himself had never felt until this month.

“Good morning, Danny!” Dani cried out, “Guess what day it is?!”

“I don’t know,” Danny bit out teasingly as he laughed at her excitement, “Christmas?”

“Yeah!” Dani shouted, causing her original to just laugh at her even more. “Hey, I have a right to be excited, this is my first one!”

Danny just smiled. “In a way, this is my first one too.

“I’m glad you’re here and all, but what are you doing in my room?” Danny asked his clone.

Dani shrugged. “Well, everywhere I’ve been people are saying Christmas is time to spend with your family. And given that the rest of my family doesn’t know I exist, I can’t really go downstairs.”

Danny frowned at that, before seeing the matching expression on his younger clone’s face and realizing that his job for today is to make her smile. “I guess that just means we have to do the present exchange up here then before Mom and Dad wake up, and you can hang around the rest of the day invisibly. Let me go get Jazz so she can join us.”

That worked, and Dani’s face stretched into a grin for a moment before she paused. “Wait,” Dani said, “present exchange?”

At Danny’s nod she groaned. “Oh no! I forgot to get you guys anything!”

To her surprise, Danny just laughed. “Don’t sweat it!” He consoled her, “this is actually the first year I’ve been able to get everyone a present. We’ll just have you open your presents, and then you can tell Jazz and I all the cool stories about places you’ve been!”

Dani smiled again at this, missing Danny reaching under his bed to grab her present box before he slipped out the door to wake Jazz. He had just a couple finishing touches to put on her gift before he returned.

The three teens sat tightly together on Danny’s bed as both Fentons passed their wrapped presents over to Dani.

“Oooh, ooh, open mine first!” Jazz exclaimed, still able to get childishly excited about every holiday.

Dani obliged and started ripping the tape off of the elaborately wrapped package, before watching Jazz wince at the destruction of her wrapping perfection and attempting to pry to tape open without damaging the paper. A second later had the young clone groaning in frustration before slapping her head and phasing the paper right off.

Once the paper was gone, Dani awed over the beautiful ribbon in her hand. It perfectly matched the one Jazz wore in her hair with the exception of its dark red color that was the exact shade of Dani’s sweatshirt. Dani held it up to her hair and giggled and Jazz leaned across her lap to tie it, the young clone’s arms reaching out to pull Jazz into a hug when the older girl was done.

“Thank you so much Jazz! I love it!” Dani squealed as she squeezed tighter.

“You’re welcome!” Jazz replied. “I’m so glad you love it! I figured it would fit under your hood when you wanted to hide away somewhere, and that no matter where you are in this world or the Ghost Zone, we’ll match!”

Dani reached up to feel the ribbon and her grin stretched even wider. “I’ll just have to figure out a way to get it to stay on in my ghost form.”

Jazz smiled, and then let her expression shift into a smirk. “Or… you could just wear this one.” She said coyly, reaching into her pajama pocket to pull out another ribbon, this one ghostly green.

The two girls squealed and hugged yet again, and Danny hoped his gift would be just as well received. “Well Dani,” he said, passing over a wrapped box. 

“Here’s your gift from me. I would just untie the bow and open the box rather than phase it out.”

Dani took that as permission to rip right into it and within seconds was raising the lid and getting ready to look inside. She was interrupted by a small yip.

“Danny!” Jazz shouted, aghast. “There were no air holes on there!”

Danny smirked, “Her gift doesn’t need it.”

Dani froze as she looked down into the box, further deepening Jazz’s puzzled expression. A second later Dani reached both hands into the box and pulled out a playfully panting Cujo.

“Oh my god Danny, this is amazing!”

“His name’s Cujo,” Danny told his clone as she cuddled Cujo up to her face and laughed when Cujo licked her. “He’s run through Amity Park a couple of times looking to play, but is always just going from place to place. I figured with each other you both might be less lonely.”

Cujo seemed to take that cue to look up and down Danielle, see the big red bow tied in her hair, and happily bark like he had just received his own half-human for Christmas.

Dani smiled so wide she nearly cried and had to place Cujo on the floor in order to make room for the giant hug she gave her clone/cousin. Cujo of course objected to the sudden lack of warmth and made it known by growing to his full size, prompting Dani to shout “Awesome!” and hug Danny even harder.

Danny just grinned and basked in Dani’s happiness. Yeah, sometimes the only thing to give someone who has the world is someone to share it with, and he was so glad that the two looked like they would be happy together.

They were so happy, that that very afternoon the Red Huntress came out chasing complaints of a giant green ghost dog roaming Amity Park, hoping to finally get revenge on the ghost boy for ruining her life. She was stunned to instead find Danielle riding in the ghost dog’s fur, laughing and hollering and shouting that this was the best Christmas ever. 

For once in her career Valerie decided to let a ghost go, figuring that out of everyone, the ghost girl deserved to be happy on Christmas day. She was sure Mayor Masters would forgive her for taking a day off to spend with the her family. Even if the ghost dog pooped on his front lawn.

That was the moment Dani swore she and Cujo would be friends for life. The had a whole world to travel together, and a whole afterlifetime of Christmases to do it.

[fairstarlights]

Peanut-butter

Summary: Based off of this OTP Prompt

Pairings: Analogical (Peanut-butter/Jelly)

Chapter Word Count: Enough.

Genre: Romance/Fluff

General Story Warning: None! Unless you count a really minor flip out and kissing?

Notes: Romance. Just. Yeah. All my fics are sad. I need a happy one.

Dating sites weren't Virgil's thing but Roman had hounded him for months about Valentines Day and how he needed a date. It was still a month away and not nearly enough time to find someone. Finally, Virgil caved and with some online searching he found a free dating site and signed up. Without telling Roman. If that guy ever found out he had one, he'd never hear the end of it and would probably be subjected to a Roman-ized version of twenty questions. 

Which would be twenty billion questions until he temporarily blocked him on his phone. Some how Roman always found a way around that and it was infuriating. Virgil dipped his spoon into the peanut butter, swished it around then stuck it into his mouth.

Virgil stared at his profile for few minutes and seriously considered deleting it. One thing, he would be interacting with total strangers. Stranger danger. He didn't know any of these people. They could be serial killers or rapists or- something. Virgil didn't really want to think too much about it. Two, there was the 'About me' profile. He had done his best to fill it out, without giving too much away. Both for conversation purposes and for not wanting people to know how weird he was before they even started talking. Three, he probably wasn't going to message anyone, ever. How do you even start a conversation of a dating site? It was all just ridiculous and a waste of time.

 Virgil furiously stabbed at the peanut-butter with his spoon, scooping out a spoonful and shoving it into his mouth. He then grabbed his phone off his desk, opened up the tumblr app and mindless began scrolling.

It day two when a 'pop' sound was heard from Virgil's laptop. Said boy was sitting on the couch and reading one of his poetry books when he heard it. It wasn't a familiar sound so, as curious as he was, he  stood up, grabbed his peanut-butter jar, and walked over. He ran a finger over the track pad and the screen came to life. He pulled up the minimized Chrome browser. The dating site was still open and noticed a (1) over the envelope at the top of the screen. Virgil's heart sped up a bit as he scrolled up and clicked it, as he waited for it to load he scooped up some peanut-butter, but this time keeping a hold on the spoon.

The message appeared and displayed the username the message.

[IntellectuallySuperior] at 2:03pm 6/21/18

Salutations,

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Logan. I have read over your profile and it strikes me as peculiar but also quite interesting. I see that we both have the same love for poetry. Although, yours seem to be more on the morose side, I think we could both find a neutral ground in the poetry department. I know some of our interests conflict, but upon further reading we also have a multitude that we share. If you would like to discuss, feel free to message me back at your convenience.

- Logan

Virgil stared at the message in disbelief. Was this for real? This guy talked like he was emailing a college professor. Virgil scrolled up and clicked on the guy's name. His profile appeared and Virgil let out a snort. This guy looked like he screamed, 'Oh, you want the manager? Sure, I'll go get him.' He would do a turn around and say 'Hello, how may I be of service?' In all of his pictures he was his dark brown hair was nearly completely slicked back, he wore black thick rimmed glasses, with a black or blue polo and a different assortment of ties. His facial expressions seemed strained, like he didn't know to smile for a picture. It looked painful.

Virgil scrolled through the rest of Logan's profile and learned he was in grad school earning his doctorate in medicine. He liked poetry. Virgil hmm'd. He wondered if he wondered liked Slam Poetry.  More things included, writing, reading, cooking, puzzles,and several other things that Virgil didn't know what they were without googling it. Under his 'Profession' he had written 'Tutor'. Huh, interesting. Virgil licked his lips and tasted peanut-butter, he took another bite as he read his 'About me'. It was arrogant and he seemed quite full of himself, he chose his username quite well.

Virgil clicked back the messages and clicked reply. They didn't seem very likely to date or anything but if anything, they could humor each other for a while. Virgil moved the spoon around in his mouth and it make clanking sounds as it hit his teeth. What was he even going to say?  

[OrchestratorofHumanSuffering]

replying to

[IntellectuallySuperior] at 2:26pm 6/21/18

Sup, Logan. I'm Virgil. Sorry you didn't like my type of poetry, maybe you could share some of yours and I could share some of mine, the less 'morose' ones. Do you like to listen to Slam Poetry? I could give you a couple YouTube links to a few of my favorites. If I know what kind of poetry you prefer I could find some slams that might be more your style. Anyway, let me know or whatever.

- I guess.

The sent button was clicked and Virgil leaned back in his chair, pulling the now clean spoon out of his mouth with a 'pop'. This probably wouldn't last long.

It was a week before Valentines Day and Logan had asked Virgil out on a coffee date over the phone. The conversations on the site escalated so quickly it made Virgil nervous but an excited kind of nervous. Of course there was those nagging thoughts and feelings that told him to run away cause this was all just a set up. Why would Logan, an insanely attractive, and intelligent grad student want to be with him of all people? 

Virgil wasn't always the most pleasant to be around. He snarked, was rude and snappy, had so many walls built up that not even the bravest or talented of devolishish people would attempt to break down. Virgil wasn't that attractive, he wasn't too cheerful or bright. He tended to look on the negative a lot. His posture was bad and rarely looked at people in the eyes because he was shy.

Logan must have seen something in him that Virgil didn't. Or, his glasses were expired and they needed updated immediately. Though, he wouldn't mind if either of those things. Logan could be quite difficult to talk to but he acted like he really cared. He hadn't seen Virgil go through any anxiety or panic attacks yet, he hoped he never would, but if that day did come...he hoped Logan would still stick around anyway.

Virgil was already in the coffee shop, seated. He hadn't ordered yet, figuring it would be polite to wait. He did go up and ask for a plastic spoon and a small plastic cup of peanut-butter. He nibbled on that as he waited, watching the clock. Logan said to meet at 3pm. Three more minutes. The door chime rang and Virgil turned his head and then immediately turned back around. It as Logan and he looked more gorgeous in person. Virgil swallowed the last bit of peanut-butter in his throat but it felt like glue and, oh god, why did it have to turn to glue.

“Virgil?” Logan said, his voice right next to him. Said boy accidentally knocked his plastic cup to the floor with his elbow and stood up fast. Logan blinked in surprise and Virgil immediately felt like an idiot. He swallowed and coughed a few times.

“Uh...” Nice. “Hey, Logan.”

“Hello, Virgil. I didn't expect you to be here so soon. Have you been waiting long?”

“No, not really. I probably came about ten minutes ago.” Logan raised an eyebrow but didn't anything. Oh my god. You're meeting the most gorgeous man in the world and you look like some desperate idiot. Virgil stuck his thumb in the direction of the register. “Lets order us some coffee?” Logan nodded and motioned for Virgil to lead.

Once up to the register Virgil desperately wished he had a spoonful of peanut-butter to help him relax. “You seem a bit tense. Are you nervous?” Logan, who was standing beside of him, asked with a concerned look. Fuck yeah he was always nervous. Every god damn day, and right now he needed a heaping spoonful of peanut-butter stat.

“A bit. I'll be fine though.” He gave Logan a small reassuring smile and Logan's face looked like it went on a 404 screen. Virgil's smile faded and the line moved, it was their turn. “Logan.” He touched the others arm and shook it. Logan blinked and his face turned red as he seemed to have realized he was staring. He cleared his throat and moved up.

“You can order first.” He prompted. Virgil shrugged and ordered a plain black coffee. He went to reach for his wallet but Logan stopped him. “No, I invited you. I will be the one paying.” Logan ordered a decaff coffee with double cream. Logan paid, their drinks were handed to them and they went back to the table Virgil had been sitting at earlier.

The conversation went better than expected. Logan talked about the many Slam Poets he found on YouTube and had memorized quite a few. Logan eventually pulled out a poetry book, just one of their shared favorites, “Pictures of the gone world” by Ferlinghetti. They took turns reading and Virgil all but long forgot about his peanut-butter. It turned into chit chat, then into more of their daily lives and expanding on their interest. Soon it was nearing six and Logan had to leave to leave to study for a test he had on Monday.

They exited the coffee shop and they both looked at each other. Virgil's eyes glanced shyly away and he shoved his hands into his jean pockets, “I had fun, today. Thanks, Logan. And thanks for the coffee.”

“I had fun as well. I expected nothing less, honestly.” Virgil looked over at Logan, who had a small smile on his lips. It quickly fade and his face flushed a bit. “I do, however, do not know how dates end. In movies I have watched, they normally kiss.” Virgil's eyebrows shot up and he could feel his face turning redder than Roman’s Christmas sweaters. Logan looked at him, “Do you mind? I don't want to be presumptuous and make you uncomfortable. I wouldn't do anything without your clear consent.”

Virgil licked his lips and could still taste the peanut-butter, that was somewhat comforting. Though if he could reach inside and scoop some out with his hands and shoved it into his mouth, he would. That would be embarrassing though and he would have to kill himself after pulling a stunt in front of Logan like that.

“Is that a no?” Virgil's heart pounded in his chest.

“No- I mean- yes- no! I mean-ugh! Yes, you can kiss me.” He whispered the last half. Logan looked amused and took a few steps forward. He leaned down and was inches away from Virgil's lips but stopped and pulled back. Virgil blinked,  “What? Change your mind?”

“No. No, I do want to kiss you.” Logan looked confused, and was staring at Virgil like he was some sort of puzzle.

“Then why didn't you?”

“Why do you smell like peanut-butter? I don't recall you eating peanut-butter.” Virgil rubbed under his nose nervously and looked away.

“I had some before you showed up?”

“I see. Well, I know you didn't know, but I am severely allergic to peanuts.” Virgil's eye's widened as he looked at Logan in shock and he put his hands over his mouth.

“I'm so sorry! I-”

“It's fine, Virgil. I didn't tell you so you couldn't have known. That was...” Logan paused, adjusting his glasses, “...an error on my part.”

Virgil uncovered his mouth and bit his lip nervously. “Okay. Well, next time, I'll be prepared.” Virgil quickly backtracked, “If you want there to be a next time.” Logan let out a small laugh though his nose.

“Yes. I do.” Perfect. Opportunity opened. Time to strike.

“I do have a...” Virgil tried for a better word. “...proposition.” Logan looked curious. That might not have been the right word to use. Best to use your own vocabulary. Now he had to make sure that the word he used made sense. Virgil stared at Logan for a few beats before Logan's face went from curious to concerned.

“Is everything alright?”

“Ah, okay, I used the wrong word! I messed up!” Virgil looked away in embarrassment and it took Logan a second before giving Virgil an highly amused look.

“That is fine, Virgil. Express whatever you say in your own words.”

Virgil sighed and looked back at Logan, who still looked amused. “My friends are having this party on Valentines Day and I was wondering if you wanted to, ya know, go with me.” Virgil shrugged and looked down as he fiddled with the strings of his hoodie.

“I think that would be a great idea, I would love to meet your friends. I also never have celebrated Valentines Day. I see it as some unneeded marketing tool and some pointless 'holiday' to celebrate the people that you love, when you should be doing that every day anyway.” Logan blinked, realizing he was rambling and looked at Virgil, who was grinning.

“I like you.”

It was the day of the Valentines Day party and Virgil had invited Logan over to his apartment to stay for a few hours till it was time to leave. Of course, Virgil was nervous and had cleaned the apartment so well that he didn't think it had been even been this clean when he first moved in. He should take pictures and show his landlord and have HER pay HIM for once. There was a knock on the door and Virgil looked at the clock, the party started at six and he told Logan to be by at four. It was exactly four. What a nerd. Virgil couldn't help the grin that spread over his face as he rushed over to the door, he tried to compose his face into at least a regular smile.

“Good afternoon, Virgil.”

“Logan.” Logan walked in and looked around, but staying in once spot.

“It quite pleasant.” Virgil rolled his eyes and shut the door.

“Yeah. It's nice. Hopefully, one day I'll be able to own a house.”

“That would be ideal.” Virgil hmm'd in response and grabbed a bag of chocolates off the coffee table in the living room.

“Hey, Specs, catch.”

“Specs-?” Logan barely had time to respond as a piece of chocolate candy was coming towards his face. He ducked and hit the wall behind him. Virgil laughed and popped one his mouth.

“Nice.”  Logan looked up at Virgil with a frown.

“A warning would be 'nice'.”

“I did. I told you to catch.”

“A better warning next time. Also, why did you call me 'specs'?”

Virgil tapped his temple and with his free hand, “Glasses.” Logan looked unamused. “Lets try again. Do I need to count to three this time?” Virgil tried to bite back a smile as Logan gave him a 'are you serious' look. Virgil shrugged and threw the candy. Logan caught it and looked down at it. It was a Hershey kiss. Logan raised an eyebrow and walked towards Virgil as he fiddled with it.

“I have an idea.” Virgil made a questioning noise in response but wasn't paying attention to Logan. He turned back to Logan who was almost completely up in his space. Virgil nearly jumped out of his skin and his heart began to race. No, no, not now. He willed himself to calm down and surely enough, he did. Logan looked serious, he usually did but there was something in his eyes. Something playful? Mischievous?

“How about we...retry our parting attempt from last time?” Virgil licked his lips and nodded. Logan looked mildly nervous for a second before he unwrapped the kiss and stuck it between his lips. Virgil looked confused and Logan waved a hand in front of his face, as if telling him to go just go with it. Logan took a deep breath, cupped Virgil's face with both of his hands and pressed their lips together.

The kiss was now shared between them and it was sweet and Logan tasted a bit like cinnamon tea. The kiss was melting the longer their lips stayed together. Virgil licked the inside involuntarily, also brushing Logan's and making the man shiver and pull away, a small thin string of saliva following then breaking apart.

“Gross.” Logan deadpanned.

“The kiss or the kiss saliva?” Virgil laughed. Logan rolled his eyes and licked his lips then opened his mouth to say something then froze.

“You had peanut-butter.”

“What?”

“I can taste it.” There was a bit of panic rising in Logan's voice.

“Logan, calm down it's not-”

“I need to get to the hospital. Of all day's I didn't bring my pen!” Logan looked as frantic as he sounded as he tore out his cell from his pocket. Virgil reached over and took it from his hands. Logan looked dumbfounded then furious, “What do you think you are doing?!”

“Trying to explain to you that you aren't dying!” Virgil said in a frustrated tone. Logan opened his mouth but Virgil held up a hand. He walked into the kitchen, opened up a cabinet, walked back into the room and shoved the jar into Logan's hands. Logan looked down at it and then tilted it so he could read the label.

“SunButter...?”

“Yeah...” Virgil traced the outside of Logan's phone with fingers, “its a peanut-butter alternative. Its organic or some shit. It's nut free and healthy is what I'm saying.” Virgil looked up. “So, are you done freaking out?” Logan stared at Virgil blankly. Virgil curled in on himself reflexively, “What?”

“You gave up eating regular peanut-butter for me?”

Virgil averted his eyes then they went back to Logan, he shrugged, “I need to eat something healthier anyway. I tastes better too, honestly.” 

Logan put the jar down, walked over to Virgil and pushed their lips together and wrapped his arms wrapped around Virgil's waist. Virgil melted into it and the phone dropped onto carpet as he slowly and carefully, put his arms around the back of Logan's neck. Who knew peanut-butter could taste this good.

[grgop]

Budapest: The grand tour (part 2)

After having a lunch break at Baotiful it was time to visit the Parliament. It was now already 3pm and the problem was that it was darkening slowly, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to use my analog camera.

The Parliament of Budapest

On our way to the jewel of Hungary we stopped shortly at the circular Szabadzag Square to take  a few shots since it had nice architecture. And there you could see the biggest building in the Budapest and Hungary at all through Vecszey Street. On our way to the Lajos Kossuth Square where the Parliament is situated we passed by the small bridge in the street, again something popular for the tourists. And there we are! Lajos Kossuth Square is really huge, spacious, somewhat "clean" and hmm how could I describe it. So the first thing you see and that attracts your eyes is of course the Parliament which looks marvelous. It has this Neo-Gothic and a Renaissance style with the pikes and tall windows with a dome in the center. The colors of the roof is brownish-blood-like (or of some berries) which makes it look like a cake when looking from far away (as the locals joke). The Parliament was built right on the banks of the Danube with only one car road and the promenade built between the river and the building. And on the other side of the river is the Buda castle.

Apparently the square was renovated since the blocks looked new and I've just seen on Google Maps that it was turned into a construction place before so that must be it. There is also lots of space, maybe 100m between the Parliament and the other buildings so it's in the center of attention. Around the square there is a tram rail along with the pedestrian and bike tracks so it must be very nice for the people who use the transport to go by the Parliament house. At least we don't have it in Croatia since our Parliament is on the hill and far from the tram. And a lot smaller, you wouldn't even notice it.

And of course, there are two soldiers standing firmly in front of the entrance, similar like the British ones at the Buckgingham palace. They don't move nor pay attention to you. Behind them was apparently some pool but without water this time.

Culinaris Shop with International food

After the Parliament my friend told me there was a cool store with food; sweets and drinks from all around the world and that it might be interesting to visit it. Why not? This shop is in the Marko street 5 minutes away from the entrance of the Parliament.

Once you enter it you will probably first notice huge amounts of chocolates everywhere with the nice packagings. I haven't seen much of it before as again compared to for example Croatia you cannot expect experiments with designs of the packagings. Here on the contrary it was. And as expected - the prices were much higher. I was tempted to buy some because of the visuals but ended up buying Cola can with taste of Vanila. Smells good. And it's not only about the chocolates and candies, there are drinks, vegetables, pasta, milk products and everything else you can find in other markets, just here in small amounts and much more expensive of course. After happy shopping we decided to go back home but visit some other places on our way there.

Christmas atmosphere in the evening and the Tiger shop

Now comes a bit blurry part for me and unfortunately forgot some of the names of the items (chocolates :D ) we bought but there are few interesting things to mention. So we headed in the direction of south 3 kilometers until we took the tram in front of the Market Hall and the Liberty bridge (hm, there's "liberty" something on every corner there!). I don't remember much except for drinking this Cola until we came to the park with the Big Ferris Wheel. Which meant we were also at the Deak Square with the St Stephen's Basilica. We passed by the giant wheel and left the Elizabeth Square to Vörösmarty Square with another huge pile of the markets selling drinks, food, clothes and other souvenirs. This was a cheerful place, not to big but enough for hundreds of people. From there our next destination (and recommendation) was the Danish Tiger Shop.

It's in Vaci street and look like a small IKEA. It's the store with simple design and with affordable prices. It's on the two floors where you can buy stuff for the garden, tools, something for the kitchen, deductive toys for children and my favorite part - equipment for artists, designers, illustrators...for 2-5 euros you could get fine sketchbooks, watercolors, markers and tons of other stuff I never mention in my regular life. I bought there some watercolors for 3 yours and looks very sophisticated. If you want to buy some presents for the children and you also want them to experiment with that and learn something - I highly recommend you going there! Everyone can find something inside. After the shop we still were walking down the street and saw some souvenir shops. Now my heart couldn't ignore them any more so we stopped by to buy a few magnets. :D

Leves bar and the soups

My friend then recommended going to this Leves Bar, a take-out restaurant, where we could get some warm delicious soups. Let's go! We came to the avenue with the LIberty Bridge, City Market Hall and the Corvinus Uni, there was the tram station. It took us only one stop, actually could have walked 5 more minutes but who cares. (I don't have a photo of Leves Bar so I'm going to use theirs from the website.)

There we took for a normal price two soups each. It smelled really good but we made a deal to wait until we get home. And on my surprise, one was pink and tasted a bit sweet. I was not used to this kind of soup but it was nice, more like some strange juicy joghurt?! You can find more info about the restaurant on their Facebook page.

Now after few tram stops we came back home and made a 2 hours long break since my colleague had something to finish, we had dinner, played a bit PS4 and then ready for more. After all, we've been walking around for almost 7 hours and did almost 12 km.

Szimpla kert and langos

The last things to visit in the evening were this nice bar and some place to eat again and maybe try Langos. Szimpla kert is a cool bar and also a clubhouse in Kazinczy street 14 (and in this street you can find lots of other bars and fast food places). Apparently the street is one of the popular places in Budapest, according to my friend, and this bar was also full of people. There are also lots of foreigners who discovered the place. We were one of them. It is also on two floors in an abandoned old building but from the inside was made alive with the retro stuff. Bikes and colorful lights on the ceiling. There are lots of rooms with the walls without the doors, just go through the hall. If it gets too crowded so you don't find a seat you can find the place at the bar. (Unfortunately, don't have an picture of interior I took so here is one from Alraune Reruhcs)

After a drink we wanted to find a place to eat and ended up in the nearby space in the same street with several tents or markets which served fast food. There I ordered my first Langos which tasted really good. Miss it.

Since it was already midnight we headed home. My last night in Budapest was over.

The last bar and back home

My bus was leaving around 11.30am from Nepliget so we had a time to go to one more bar. Since it was Sunday lots of them were simply closed. But then we went to Corvin Mozior Cinema and found one bar to be open. And after an hour or less we used the metro to go the bus station. Again the scenery of many homeless people lying on the floor. My yellow RegJet bus was waiting there. Time to say 'until next time' came and after showing the ID card I got into the bus. Changed again in Bratislava to another one. There was the same girl/student serving the passengers so I ordered again hot chocolate (and she remembered it from 2 days ago) so I enjoy an hour back home while listening to the radio.

Back in Vienna at Stadion Bus Terminal. It was now sunset approaching. I stepped into the Ubahn and soon was home. I'd thanks firstly my friend for the big tour and being a great host as well as to her friend at home. And the guys I met on Friday. I really enjoyed me stay in Budapest and it's totally worth of visiting. Thanks for reading.

[lucyslittleatlas-blog]

Hanoi aka Home

Getting stuck in Hanoi was definitely one of the best things to happen on my trip so far. A couple of days turned into three weeks of exploring and totally falling in love with the city. My little tribe dispersed after a few days so I went solo and decided to volunteer at a local language school, which was a mixed experience for me. The reason I chose this place was because I was under the impression it was close to where I was staying - turns out Hanoi is massive and the part I fell in love with was around half and hour's drive away from the school. No matter, they offered me accommodation and food in exchange for teaching, so I hopped in a cab. It soon became apparent that I was in the middle of industrial-nowhere. Lots of buildings, heaps of mopeds, no tourists. I arrived a business centre, high-rise block surrounded by locals who stared, clearly I was one of the few who ventured that way from the Old Town area so favoured by Westeners... Long story short - it was a little disorganised (picture being given a random address and driving forty minutes on the back of a crazy moped to find you're teaching and have no idea what on!), the accommodation was a one-inch thick mattress in a tiny room with two other volunteers, ten people's backpacks and school supplies. Fair enough, you don't always stay in glorious $2/ night hostels, but I decided to commute from a hostel I found back in the centre after one night's 'sleep' there. I did that for a few days - heading back and forth from the centre for classes before deciding that it wasn't working out, however sweet the students and organisers were. Christmas Day started slow with Gossip Girl in bed and family Skype sessions, interrupted with a topless guy emerging from the shower to introduce himself to my parents halfway through. I treated myself to a foot massage at a fancy place which employed visually impaired locals. All was going well, I pointed out the painful parts of my feet and legs and she avoided them for the most part. We moved to the scrub session - incredible, months of barefoot interjected with cheap flip flops was disappearing, literally. Then came the 'paraffin mask'. Should have realised what this entitled but it didn't really click. My foot was suddenly plunged ankle-deep into a tub of red liquid. It took a few moments to realise that I was in immense pain and on the verge of throwing up - liquid paraffin is really, really not. Obviously the lovely woman couldn't see my tears and held onto my foot like a life raft. Reinforcements were called when my crying became vocal and I was allowed with some dignity, a burnt foot and a limp. I headed to the roof of my hostel to relax after my stressful spa experience and met a Brazilian chick all travelling solo and two who'd met a while ago and were biking through Vietnam. We ended up in a local park with incredible pizza, cheap beer and nonsense conversations for the evening. We ended up sat outside the hostel until 5, playing drinking game and inviting everyone who walked past to join in. Glorious Christmas. I met the trio the next day for a trip to West Lake, which involved tacos, sunset and a rooftop cocktail bar. I spent NYE in Hanoi, too, with a beer over another lake, underwhelming fireworks and great company. Two weeks or so of great food, a lovely guy and the discovery of an awesome little cocktail bar, speakeasy-style. I decided to head out of Hanoi, deciding one day that I'd had enough. Of course, that was the day I met a British chick and showed her around my favourite places. Naturally, I fell back in love and decided to stay just a few more days... We explored the city yet again, revisiting some of my places as well as doing all the things I meant to do but never quite got round to. The Women's Museum, the Museum of Literature, a different coffee shop to the ones I'd been living in! I got a message from the Brazilian girl saying she was heading to Thailand, as she knew it was next on my list she invited me along. Perfect - time to get the fuck outta dodge, finally! I flew to Thailand after a slightly emotional goodbye to Hanoi and all the great memories I'd made there. I met a lovely British guy within the first five minutes of being in my hostel and we spent the evening wandering, eating delicious Thai street food and getting a Thai foot massage. The plan was to meet the Brazilian chick the next day around 3pm when she arrived from Cambodia and catch the 7pm bus. Sure, great plan. Of course, she was delayed, we missed our bus (kinda worked out for the best as it would have been a 12 hour trip before a boat ride to Koh Phangan) and got lost trying to meet each other on Koh San Road, possible the most famous road in Bangkok if you're a backpacker. We decided to head to the train station instead, and waited in a nearby cafe/ bar until our 10pm train. Just as we got comfy on the train, we were told it had been cancelled due to insane weather. Back to the cafe/ bar, which was now closed. The owner, a hilariously camp Thai guy with a great singing voice, let us stay to use the wifi and share a beer, with a great soundtrack, of course. We decided to change plans completely after seeing that Koh Phangan was flooded. We'd planned to head there for Full Moon and had booked hostels and paid for the now-missed bus. We decided to grab a cab to the airport and figure it out on the way. Arriving at the airport, we found a cheap flight to Krabi in 6 hours. Sleeping in an airport to save money on a hostel was 100% the best option at this point, even if insanely uncomfortable and cold. Why are airports always freezing? We arrived in Krabi and got a cab to a hostel we'd seen online, and took two American brothers we'd met with us. Hostel fully booked, we wandered the streets to find a tourist to ask and ended up at a great hostel they had recommended. All thoughts of sleep after the stress and sleeplessness of the trip so far were abandoned as we hopped in a tuk tuk to a nearby beach. From there, we got a boat to Railay, a beautiful beach, and watched sunset from the boat on the way home. A dinner of delicious street food topped off the day perfectly. From there, we decided to go to Koh Lanta...