#they could have handled all of it so much better even with the various challenges

[ejzah]

More thoughts after watching “A Fait Accompli” last night:

Even if Hetty wanted to award Deeks his badge herself, she could have done it with the whole team present, at the very least. I know that this probably wasn’t done due to safety protocols (though I still think they could have managed it for a single scene). Deeks deserved to have his work, accomplishments, and years of service recognized by his peers, either at the academy or from the team. The fact that he instead was done only in Kensi’s presence, at the empty mission after everything Deeks went through to get his badge, is infuriating. And as mentioned before, then Hetty, who isn’t even present or in charge at that point, effectively takes away Kensi and Deeks’ vacation.

[jwirecs]

RECOMMENDED BTS FICS OF JULY 2023💖

hello, hello! here are my bts recs of july! hopefully these beautiful stories get more recognition as well as the writers 💝

** anything in parentheses and bolded are my thoughts that can be disregarded if needed **

🔞smut || 💔angst || 💕fluff || ✅completed || 🔄ongoing || 💯favorite

Alcohol Free || @blue-jisungs💕✅

↳ in which your best friend yoongi gets to know your secrets while you sip on various drinks. with each one, he’s more shocked… and amused.

Nothing’s Changed || @hoseokhasmyheartxx​​​​​🔞💕💔✅

↳ You and Yoongi have been best friends since college. The rest of your friend group wants to go on a couples’ trip, leaving you and Yoongi to share a room. But to your surprise, your room only has one bed… will the two of you be able to get through the week without letting the other know how you feel?

The Love Plaza || @mayolive-writes🔞💕✅💯💯

↳ Needing to take a break from the long trip to college, you and Jungkook are forced to stay at the only lodging available within 70 miles, a love motel. And much to Jungkook’s dismay, there’s only one bed.

Til You Make It || @jinkookspencil💕💔✅💯

↳ jungkook is startled when you call him in need of a favor... to play his dream role - your boyfriend - for a day...

Bet On It || @minisugakoobies🔞💕✅💯💯

↳ What's a little wager between enemies? How about if it's your body on the line?

Lovin' You Right || @kookslastbutton🔞💕💔✅

↳ Your new badass neighbor won't leave you alone. You know the type, the guy your mama wouldn't want you bringing home. He'd break your heart as quick as he'd take it.

5+1 || @joon4eva​​​​​​💕✅

↳ five times you wanted to tell Namjoon you loved him + the one time you finally did.

Baby Fever || @95rkives💕✅💯

↳ what was supposedly a peaceful morning stroll in the park, an unexpected encounter triggers namjoon’s intense desire for a baby, turning him into an adorable, baby fever-filled mess.

Cherry Flavored || @jjksblackgf🔞✅

↳ You bet with your boyfriend that he can't handle more than five minutes of your tongue, but Jungkook never turns away from a challenge. You'll make sure to keep him in his place.

Moving In || @dreamescapeswriting💕✅

↳ (this was an anon req to the writer, short summary: yoongi leaves his stuff at oc's apartment, slowly moving in. shts too cute man)

Panties Over Pastries || @genkima💕✅

↳ you and your lovely boyfriend, Jungkook, decided to have a baking date planned for today ! I wonder how it turns out..

Spicy 'N Sweet || @thvhoe​​​​​​🔞💕💔🔄💯💯💯

↳ Jeon Jungkook is the perfect guy… to piss off your parents. He’s buff, inked up and the definition of their worst nightmare but hey, when love comes knocking on your door there’s not much you can do. It’s not like you planned on falling for him… it just kind of happened, and honestly, you're not even mad about it. Not at all.

The Boxer's Girlfriend || @i-am-baechu🔞💕💔✅

↳ Jeon Jungkook is known throughout Korea as the top boxer. He’s swift in his attacks and calculated with everything. He’s dangerous in the ring but he was also dangerous to his girlfriend, Y/N L/N. 

Cat Got Your Tongue? || @jessikahathaway🔞💕💔✅

↳ You were exhausted from schoolwork and just needed a chance to unwind. Jungkook, campus fuckboy, offers his services to help alleviate the stress from studying but is he going to cause more stress than he relieves?

Cherry || @peachypinkygloss🔞💕✅

↳ Jungkook has a crush on you and he does everything to conquer your heart (like eating your pussy whenever and wherever he feels like it).

Bunny Buns || @kittyscupcakeandbunny🔞💕💔🔄

↳ Jungkook needed to hide. He was on the run. And what better place for a bunny hybrid to hide then a Bunny coffee shop? How could he resist? You smelled sweet and looked nice. All it took was one smile of yours and a bunny bread and he was on all fours for you.

Moon || @hobeemin🔞💕✅ Pt 2.

↳ (theres no summary, and i suck at summarizing, but im a sucker for hybrid fics so that says sometime.)

Break My Mind's Eye || @flowerwrites06🔞💕✅

↳ Jungkook thinks marriage is the only way to seal a deal. 

Diamond Trail || @flowerwrites06🔞💕✅

↳ The theft of his most elusive and mystery possession leads to a web of trickery that threatens every large syndicate in the country. (alternative: Yoongis’ prized possession is stolen but he’s not the only gang leader being betrayed)

Distraction || @melancholy-of-nadia🔞✅

↳ After a series of circumstances leads you to be the assistant/right-hand woman of Bangkok's local thief/gang leader Min Suga, you're diligent in fulfilling your role in helping him take down Detective (& Underground Mafia Boss) Agust D. What you didn't expect in this role, was to catch your own boss reading p*rngraphic material during his free time and finding out there are consequences to distracting him.

Wishes || @i-am-baechu🔞💕💔🔄💯💯

↳ After a long day of classes, Min Yoongi decides to take a break at the music hall that has become his second home. He walks in with his cigarette lit and his blank expression quickly changes when he sees a girl playing his piano. The moment their eyes meet, their lives become complicated and Yoongi blames himself for her future pain. Was the love we had honest? (i dont have a gang!au banner so its going in with the mafia!au. also yall already know im a huge sucker fore mafia/gang au's along with hybrids. its currently on going, but i know that i will be on a roller coaster while reading this series)

Devoted To Trouble || @jeonsweetpea🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ In which the whole world finds out Jungkook is Spider-Man, but he doesn’t care about anything but you. OR Can you survive seven days of Jungkook pining over you while his identity is exposed to the world? (i dont have a spider-man!au banner, but spider!kook????? when yoongi said that this man will annoy him even at the age of 100, lord where is the lie. but also, we love a persistent & annoyingly cute man.)

For Glory || @mono-moonchilds🔞💕💔✅💯💯

↳ A fight to the death. No rules, no refs, and nowhere to run.

Monachopsis || @personasintro🔞💕💔🔄💯💯

↳ after receiving unpleasant news that doesn’t allow you to grow your family, your husband comes up with an idea that unfortunately involves his brother whom he despises (wasnt too sure what au this fic would fall under but i say it goes under the parent au cause min yoongi gon be a father whether he likes it or not.)

Seven || @joonberriess🔞✅

↳ “You know night after night, I’ll be fuckin’ you right,” or: “Girl hold on my baby daddy calling again.”

Unconditionally || @rmsrkive💔🔄💯

↳ for the past three, almost four years, it has only been you and your twins after having been abandoned by your ex-boyfriend. you expected it to remain that way for the rest of your lives until one day you accidentally run into one of his bandmates at the park 

Way Back Home || @solemnreads🔞💕💔🔄💯💯

↳ "please tell me this isn't what i think it is" he asks you with tears in his eyes. you look down at the sight of your son with an oxygen mask on his face while your daughter is sleeping on the couch near the wall. you look into his eyes, broken and sad. you've dreamt of this day for years, wondering how he would react. but here you are, hoping he could've meet the twins under different circumstances. "yes...they're your children."

Wrong Time || @spideyjimin🔞💕💔✅💯💯

↳ meeting ten years later the girl he deeply fell in love with is something Jungkook never thought would happen. But here you are, standing before his eyes with a bright smile on your face as you walk through the massive lobby of his company. At that exact moment, he realizes that the two of you fell in love at the wrong time but is now the right time?  

Added Color || @bangtansmaus​💕💔✅💯

↳ Yumi was perfectly fine with not finding her soulmate yet. she never really cared about the idea of soulmates. she’s fine with just running her bakery and living with her brother Jimin and their two best friends Jungkook and Taehyung.

Do check out all of the other BTS Fics that i have reblogged as well!!

** if there is any fics that you guys would like to recommend, please do! i am slowly running out of fics to read **

[eddiemunsons80sbaby]

Never Say Never

Chapter 2

Pairing: SingleDad!StevexReader

Summary: You are a 32 year old single mother, raising your seven year old son on your own. After being widowed at 30 and going out on awful dates with disgusting men for the past month, you have decided that you're giving up. You already had your great love. One person can't possibly get lucky enough to have two in their lifetime. But then your son starts playing baseball and the coach might just change your mind about that.

No posting schedule.

18+ only for eventual smut

Word Count: 7.3K

1

“It seems to be just a case of the common cold,” you told the worried mother. “Dr. Wilson said she just needs rest and to make sure she drinks lots of fluids. She should be back to herself within a few days.”

“Thanks. I know I’m probably being silly rushing her in here but she kept waking up last night, crying, and I’m all alone. I’ve just been exhausted having to do everything on my own. It’s been so hard. And with her not feeling well, neither of us have gotten much sleep the last few days. My husband’s in the Air Force and he’s currently deployed and we don’t know when he’s going to get to come back home and my parents live three hundred miles away.”

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Let the feeling come. Acknowledge the feeling and then move forward. You closed your eyes for a moment, centering yourself, not letting this one burrow too far in before you forced it back. Maybe you weren't supposed to push them away but sometimes it was necessary. Like now. You couldn’t be the nurse who assured the nervous mother if you were busy trying to find three things to look at, smell, and move. It wasn’t reassuring to have your medical professional falling apart in front of you.

Pressing your index finger to your thumb, you allowed yourself to feel the sensation, to know you were here. You weren't back there. No one was waiting on the other side of the door to give you the news that would send a wrecking ball through the middle of your life, destroying and altering it forever. You were strong. You were handling it. You were moving forward. Opening your eyes, you put on your best smile. 

“Of course. I can’t imagine how challenging that must be for you.” Actually, you could, but this was not the time or place to share your own story. This was the time to be an empathetic ear, to listen to your patient. It was not the time to unpack your own trauma or make this about yourself. “Please, no need to apologize. You call us whenever you need to. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.”

The mother thanked you, lifting her three year old into her arms. You directed her which way to go. Parents often got a bit turned around in this place, the hallways like a maze to the various exam rooms, like a figure eight. This practice was a thriving one, one that kept you very busy, your days packed with back-to-back appointments. But you preferred it that way. It made your days go faster. 

After you finished college with your Bachelor’s of Science in nursing, you had immediately gotten a job at the local hospital. You'd loved it. The hours were long and you were exhausted all the time but it had been fast-paced and so rewarding. However, it had also been heartbreaking as some children who came into the hospital were there to stay and would never again leave. They would never get tucked into their own bed again, never run through their own backyard again, never sit on the floor of their living room on a Saturday morning eating cereal while watching cartoons again. The job had not just been physically exhausting but mentally and emotionally exhausting as well. 

After you'd found out you were expecting Eli, Justin had suggested that maybe you needed something a bit more predictable. It would be hard for you to work twelve hour shifts with a baby at home. It would be even harder to watch children suffer, watch parents in the darkest moments of their lives, when you had a little one at home. You weren't sure how you could face that kind of heartbreak and then go home to your own child, hoping it never happened to you.

Still, you wouldn’t have given it up if it weren’t for Justin being in the military. With his job, he would often be gone for months at a time, leaving you alone. It hadn’t been a problem before but with your parents living across the country and his parents more than three hours away, you were limited when it came to help. So, you'd applied to the new local pediatrician's office, delighted when you got a call that same week, inviting you in for an interview. 

You'd been there ever since, watching as Dr. Wilson’s practice grew. He was young, just a bit older than you, and new to the job but his warm demeanor and empathetic ear quickly had every mom in town bringing their child to him. It probably didn’t hurt that he was pretty damn good looking too. 

“Hey Rita, I’m going to take my lunch if I don’t have any more patients for a bit,” you told your receptionist as you placed the child’s file into the cabinet. 

“That’s fine. Your next appointment isn’t for an hour so you’re good. I’ll have Sarah handle anything that pops up while you’re out.”

“Thanks.”

You grabbed your lunch bag from the fridge and made your way out of the office, heading for the pond. When it was nice out, you always chose to eat your lunch out here, a little escape from the fluorescent lights and germs of the office. Finding a bench, you sat down, pulling out your bologna sandwich. It wasn’t your usual choice but it had simply felt easier to make two this morning instead of trying to come up with something else for yourself. 

You pulled out your phone, dialing the number of the one person you'd been desperate to talk to after the events of yesterday. Janice was a photographer. She did great business and had multiple clients who came back to her again and again for family portraits, baby pictures, and senior photos. She worked from home, which also meant her hours were flexible and she was almost always available to take your calls. Sure enough, your best friend picked up after two rings. 

“Are you sitting under your tree?”

You laughed, “How did you know?”

“Because it’s your lunchtime and that’s what you always do when the sun is shining. Are the geese around?”

“Yep. The five little babies are swimming with mom and dad. They’re so cute. Little brown fluffballs that look so soft and sweet. I just want to cuddle them.”

“I wouldn’t try it. Geese can be nasty.”

“You don’t have to tell me. Remember when Eli was two and he wanted to feed them and those two geese hissed and opened their wings wide when he got too close. We didn’t know they had a nest right there. I know they were just protecting their babies but that scared the shit out of me.”

“Well, Eli’s your baby. Of course you were scared,” Janice laughed. “Oh my god. That poor kid. He won’t go anywhere near them now. It cemented itself into his brain and gave him a complex. He’ll probably hate those feathered fiends for the rest of his life. So, how was his first baseball practice? Did he love it? Matt can’t wait to talk to him about it.”

“He did. He talked my ear off the whole way home. His best friend is on his team and his coach is the kid’s dad. He loves him and said he was so nice and fun. He’s really patient with the kids. When Eli missed the ball for the third time, he was so upset with himself. The coach was so sweet, giving him some pointers, and assuring him he could do it.”

“Oh…okay, hold on. Wait a minute. Why do you sound like that when you’re talking about his coach?”

“Like what?” you demanded. 

“Like you did in high school when you used to talk about Josh.”

“What? No I don’t.”

“Yeah you do! You’re all gushy. You sound like a Disney princess about to break into song among the forest animals who are going to help you clean your home about the guy you just met in the woods.”

You snorted, “Oh please. No I don’t. I’m just glad that his coach is so kind since Eli is new at this.”

“Uh-huh…so, this coach isn’t cute?”

“I mean, yeah, he is…objectively speaking, most women would say he was very attractive.”

“Most women, huh? And what about you?”

“Yes, okay? Yes, I think he’s very attractive. Anyone with eyes would see that he is good-looking. You should have heard the moms at practice going on about his ass. Married moms basically saying they would cheat on their husbands for this guy. I swear, the housewives club is scary. But it’s just…he’s just Eli’s coach. His son is coming over to our house later today to play with Eli.”

Steve was attractive. Hell, he was possibly the most attractive man you'd ever laid eyes on and that made the guilt just twist in your stomach even harder. Justin had been the love of your life. How could you be so turned around by some guy you barely even knew? You'd spoken for all of three minutes. You didn’t know anything about him besides the fact that he coached kids baseball. 

“Oh, is he now?”

“Janice, stop. Eli and Jeremiah have become best friends this year and Eli asked forever ago if he could come over and I completely forgot about it and it never happened. He asked again yesterday so I promised him I would set it up. That’s all it is.”

“And is his dad coming over to play too?”

You groaned, your hand coming to y our forehead, “Do you have to say it like that? And no he’s not. He has a work meeting. So, I’m kind of helping him out, I guess, but not really because I was going to invite the kid over anyway.”

“So, he’s just dropping him off and picking him up?”

“Well, he may have offered to grab a pizza on his way back to thank me for watching his kid. Which is completely unnecessary because I asked for him to come over before he ever told me about his meeting. I wouldn’t even have known I was babysitting for him if he wouldn’t have told me about it. I never would have expected him to hang around while our kids hung out.”

“Hmm, so you’re going to be having dinner with him, then?”

“And our kids,” you reminded her. 

Janice had this all wrong. Of course she did. He was just being friendly. Your kids were friends and they wanted to spend time together. He’d said it himself, you were helping him out of a bind with childcare issues. That was all. He was just being nice and buying everybody dinner. Your sons were going to be there. It wasn’t like it was a date. 

“Still. You know, I said maybe you could find a hot, single dad at practice and look at you, finding one on the first go! He is single, right?”

“I think so. He said his best friend was busy and he had no one else to watch Jeremiah. That would make me think the mom isn’t in the picture but I honestly have no idea. We barely talked because he had to start the practice.”

“Well, you should have plenty of time to talk tonight and get clarification on his status.”

“I don’t need clarification on his status. I told you, I’m done with all of that. I had Justin. There is no way I will ever find anything that can begin to compare with what we had.”

“You definitely won’t if you just throw in the towel. Come on, Aly. Would it really be so bad to just talk to him a bit? I’m not saying you have to jump his bones tonight. I mean, probably wouldn’t hurt. You haven’t been laid in two years, my friend. Your vagina could use some airing out. Clear all the cobwebs that have settled, you know?”

“Jesus, you are so foul,” you sighed, catching sight of a young family heading into the office. The dad had a little boy on his shoulders. He said something to the mom and she grinned, leaning up onto her toes to kiss him. The sight sent familiar pangs of the loss of what could have been, what should have been, through you. 

“Maybe but you know I’m right. Anyway, if you’re going to be such a prude, then just talk to him. Be his friend. If your kids like each other that much, chances are this won’t be the only time you’re around each other. And then who knows?”

“Yeah…who knows…” you sighed, thinking you did know. The universe was never going to let you get that lucky twice. Something had to be wrong with this guy.

___________________________________________________________

You folded the towel from the dryer as you watched Jeremiah and Eli race around the backyard, dressed up in Eli’s superhero costumes. Your son had an entire bin of them. He was obsessed. Comic books and action figures covered the shelves in his bedroom. Eli had always loved superheroes but Matt, who was a self-proclaimed, very proud nerd, had gotten him into comics. Most of the items Eli now had came from Matt himself, stuff he’d kept since he was a kid.

You'd survived the drop-off, being cordial and friendly without giving off any signals that you were interested in anything more. At least, you thought you were. It was hard to concentrate when that man looked so damn good, standing there in gray slacks and a yellow sweater. When his cologne hit your olfactory nerves, a woodsy scent of sandalwood and pine, you had gripped the door frame, fighting back the swoon that was quickly coming on. But no, you were sure you kept things professional, just two parents in the midst of an exchange for a playdate. 

Besides, you weren't even sure you were interested in anything more. You didn’t even know how to do more at this point. It had been so long since you'd spent real time with any man that wasn’t Justin or Matt. And even if Janice kept pushing you to move on, even if it had been two years, you weren't sure you were ready. 

And you weren't sure if Eli would be ready. His therapist said he was doing well. He had adjusted as best as you could expect a child who’d lost his father to adjust. But did that mean he was ready to see his mom with a new guy? Was it fair to bring someone new into his life that could just disappear? What if you started something with someone and it ended badly and he lost another male figure and his best friend at the same time? Would he be so well adjusted then? He had settled into their routine, him and you against the world. You weren't sure you could change that on him. 

He’d only been five when it happened but you had made sure that he’d never forgotten his daddy. A picture of him and Justin sat on his nightstand by his bed. It was one of your favorites, taken at the pumpkin farm when Eli was four. He held a giant pumpkin, looking so proud, when really Justin was holding the bottom of it for him, both of them beaming their matching smiles. 

The two of you talked about him often, you sharing stories with him of you and Justin and him and Justin. Reminded him how much his daddy had loved him. You couldn’t allow him to forget. You couldn’t do that to Justin whose smile could have lit up the entire planet the first time he laid eyes on his son. 

“Mommy! We’re hungry!” Eli yelled as he and Jeremiah came racing in the back door. 

You glanced over at the clock, “Well, Jeremiah’s dad is bringing pizza and he should be here any minute. Do you think Superman and Batman can wait just a few minutes to eat?”

Eli groaned, dramatically tumbling down to the floor, “But fighting crime and saving the world is hard work. It makes us so hungry, mommy.”

“Okay…how about you two have some strawberries?” you offered, thinking it wouldn’t be too filling and it would get something good in their system before they loaded up on carbs and cheese. 

“Strawberries!” Jeremiah’s eyes lit up. “They’re my favorite fruit. Daddy takes me strawberry picking every single year and we get a ton. My daddy makes strawberry jam and it’s so good on my toast.” His eyes went wide, shooting over to Eli. “Hey! I’ll ask my dad if you guys can come this year! It’s super fun. They have goats, cows, chickens, and ponies that you can ride!”

“Can we mommy?” Eli asked, turning those sweet blue eyes up at you. 

“I…uh…I mean, strawberry picking around here isn’t for another month or so. But, maybe, I guess? I mean, if Eli’s daddy wants to take you too, that would be fine.”

“You can come too!” Jeremiah told you. “They have other stuff there like fancy soaps and stuff that they make. My mommy used to like those.”

“Oh, well, maybe…” you muttered as you busied yourself with getting out the strawberries. You ran them under water before working at slicing them onto a plate for the boys to share. 

His mommy used to like those? So, she’d been around during his life, obviously. Enough for him to remember going strawberry picking with them. Unless, like Eli, he was repeating stories his dad had shared with him.  Where was she now? Had she left? Had she died? You couldn’t very well ask a little boy. What if she had passed? You couldn’t bring up that pain for him. 

“Did we ever go strawberry picking with daddy?” asked Eli as the boys sat down at the table, the plate of strawberries between them.

You swallowed, “No. We didn’t go strawberry picking but we used to go to the apple orchard every fall and daddy would put you up on his shoulders so you could get the apples. And we always went to the pumpkin farm too.”

“We still do that!”

“Yes we do,” you smiled as you washed your hands. You worked so hard to keep the traditions that you and Justin started alive. It was another way for you to remind your son how incredible the five short years he had with his dad was. You looked up when there was a knock at the door, drying your hands on a kitchen towel. “I bet that’s Jeremiah’s daddy with the pizza.”

Smoothing your hands over your hair, you inhaled deeply, reminding yourself that this was just two parents whose kids had become best friends getting to know each other. No pressure. No reason to be nervous. You were simply trying to be good parents. 

Grabbing onto the door, you swung it open, only to feel like the entire world had turned upside down at the sight of Steve. There he stood in those slacks and that yellow sweater that looked so damn good on him. Not many people could pull off yellow but boy, he could. His right arm was raised, two pizza boxes balancing on his hand and a smile that could have outshone the sun on his face. 

“Pizza, as promised,” he announced. 

Gathering yourself, you returned his smile, “The boys will be very relieved. Superman and Batman have been battling the forces of evil all afternoon and they are wasting away to nothing.”

Steve’s cheeks hollowed out as he released a long, audible breath, “Can’t have that. How will they ever keep the city safe if we don’t recharge them with greasy pizza? But seriously, I hope he was good for you.”

“He was great,” you assured him. “Seriously.”

“Good. Thanks again. You were a real lifesaver.”

“No problem. I…”

“Daddy! Where’s the pizza!?” came Jeremiah’s whine from the kitchen, loud and impatient. 

“Sorry. It’s right here.” Steve grinned, tossing you a wink that had you dazed, before making his way into the kitchen, plopping the boxes down in the middle of the table. “We can’t have Superman and Batman losing their strength. Have to keep them fed so they can keep the city safe. Are we currently in Gotham or Metropolis?”

“Daddy,” Jeremiah sighed, looking exasperated with his father. “Everyone knows both of those places are based on New York City. Then we can be there together.”

“Oh, sorry,” snorted Steve, sharing an amused look with you. “I am not as well versed in superhero lore as you.”

“I know. Uncle Dusty knows way more than you.”

“Of course he does because Uncle Dusty is so much cooler than your boring, old dad.” Steve rolled his eyes, pulling out the chair next to Jeremiah and having a seat. 

“You have a brother?” you asked as you stretched your arm up to retrieve the plastic paper plate holders from the top shelf. Turning, your breath caught in your throat. Steve’s eyes were watching you, focused on your midsection, right where your sweater had ridden up when you'd reached for the plates. He quickly looked down at his son as you cleared your throat and set the holders and plates on the table. 

“Uhh…no. I mean, not really,” he laughed. “Dustin isn’t actually my brother. I used to babysit him actually. I helped him out one day. There were some older kids picking on him and his friends at the park and I stepped in. Anyway, he went home and told his mom about this cool teenager and she tracked me down and asked if I’d be interested in babysitting. I think she really just wanted him to have a guy in his life. His dad died when he was young and he was an only child. Anyway, he was ten and I was sixteen and he just latched on like a leech and stuck. So…” He balanced his elbows on the table, hands facing up. “I guess he’s mine now. Him and Jere, here, are really close. Jere is into all the nerdy stuff that Dustin likes so Dustin is like his hero.”

“Uncle Dusty is amazing! He taught me how to make a homemade rocket,” Jeremiah told you, his smile so like his dad’s. 

But his eyes were different, a beautiful blue like the color of the ocean on a sunny day. And his nose was rounded, a cute little button, the complete opposite of Steve’s which was longer and pointed, almost Romanesque. He must have gotten those features from his mom, which left you wondering where she was again. 

“Yeah, and you almost burned the garage down. That thing singed the walls. I had to pull out the fire extinguisher,” Steve reminded his son, grabbing plates and placing them into the holders. 

Eli’s eyes went wide, “You almost started a fire?”

“Only a little one but you should have seen the rocket. It zoomed around the garage and then flew out and went bang! It was so cool.”

“Yeah, real cool,” Steve rolled his eyes. 

“Daddy, did you get just cheese?” asked Jeremiah as Steve moved to open one of the boxes.

“Of course, kid. Do you think I’m new here?” He reached over, ruffling his son’s hair, causing Jeremiah to giggle and that familiar pain, the pain that reminded you of everything your son was missing out on, tightened around you once again. Steve looked up at you. “I got one cheese and one pepperoni. I figured those were safe bets since I don’t know what either of you like. Hope that’s okay?”

“I love cheese too!” Eli told him eagerly, grinning over at Steve. “And mommy usually gets bacon and pineapple for herself but she likes all pizza. Pizza is our favorite food. We have it every Friday and watch a movie.”

“Pineapple on pizza?” Steve questioned skeptically, that beautiful nose crinkling. 

“Hey, don’t knock it until you try it,” you teased with a laugh, pouring milk for the kids. “My husb…” You paused, swallowing hard before taking the seat between Steve and Eli. But why shouldn’t you talk about Justin? Steve had to know Eli didn’t arrive by immaculate conception. “My husband thought I was crazy too. He was more of a pepperoni and green onions kind of guy. But my roommate in college is the one who got me into it. She ordered it one night and I was skeptical too but the combination of sweet and savory is delicious.”

“I think I’ll just have to take your word on that one,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “Fruit on pizza.” He looked over at the boys, one of those long, thick fingers swirling around by his ear. “Can you believe that? She’s nuts.”

Eli giggled as Steve plopped a piece of cheese on his plate, “My mommy can be crazy. Sometimes we do backward dinner.”

Steve’s lips pursed, head tilted, “Backward dinner? What’s that?”

“It’s where we have dessert first. So, we’ll have hot fudge sundaes and then we’ll have chicken nuggets and vegetables. It’s my favorite kind of dinner because I don’t have to eat all my vegetables before I get my dessert.”

“Oh, that does sound like a good deal because dessert is the best part of the meal,” Steve agreed with a nod. 

“I mean, it’s only done sometimes as a special treat.” You didn’t know why you felt the need to justify yourself but you did. “I do make sure he eats healthy.”

Steve laughed, “I’m sure you do. Sometimes Jere Bear and I like to have ice cream for dinner, don’t we?”

“Yeah! My daddy used to work at Scoops Ahoy and they have the best ice cream! I always get a banana split and daddy gets the U.S.S. Butterscotch.”

“Mmm, the U.S.S. Butterscotch is my favorite,” you grinned. “Eli always gets the hot fudge sundae.”

“With extra fudge!” he added. 

“Obviously,” Steve scoffed. “You can never have too much fudge.”

“So, how long ago was this when you worked at Scoops Ahoy?” you asked, picturing him in their little sailor outfit. You couldn’t deny that it gave you a little thrill of pleasure.

“Oh god, it’s been years now. I worked there right out of high school. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and when I couldn’t even get into community college, my father forced me to get a job. Said I needed to know what it was like to earn a working man’s wage.” He snorted harshly, leaving you with the impression that his relationship with his father wasn’t a particularly good one. “Anyway, I worked there for a couple years. That’s actually how I met my best friend, Robin.”

“And I assume you did figure out what you wanted to do with your life since you had a work meeting tonight?”

Steve took a large bite of his pizza, the slice folded up in his hand, “I’m a project manager for a construction company.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that job. What exactly do you do?”

“I oversee the building process, make sure everything is completed on time and within budget. I work with the architects and the engineers to develop plans, establish timelines for different phases to be complete, and calculate what labor and materials are going to cost. That’s what my meeting was about tonight actually. We just got a contract for a new subdivision they’re putting in off of Cherry. It’s a big job. We’re thinking it’s going to take about two years.”

“Wow, that’s a long time.”

“Not really when you consider we’re building around sixty new houses. It’s a good thing really, means my team will have plenty of work to do for a while. Steady income, you know? Nothing’s worse than having to lay someone off, knowing you’re possibly making their life impossible.”

“What’s laying off?” asked Eli. 

“Well, when we don’t have enough work to do, then we don’t have the money to pay people. So, I have to tell them that we’re letting them go for a while. It’s not really getting fired because you hope you can call them back when there’s more work. They can apply to get money from the government but it’s not nearly as much as they make when they’re working. That can make it hard for them to feed their families and pay their bills.”

“That seems mean,” Eli commented. “Why do you do it?”

“I don’t want to do it. But when the money’s not there, we have no way to pay them. It happens a lot in the wintertime because there’s not as much building when the weather’s bad. That’s why this job is such a good thing because it will be steady work for the next two winters. I won’t have to worry and neither will my guys.”

“Well, that’s good. Did you have to go to school for that or like a trade school?” you inquired. 

“No college. I don’t think I was ever made for college. I struggled through high school. Of course, that could have been because I was interested in everything else but high school. That’s why I’m so glad my kiddo here got his mom’s brains. She was an overachiever, still is. I actually started just like my guys, doing the construction part. I got interested in how the job runs and wound up getting my certification. And about four years ago, they promoted me to project manager.”

So Mom definitely wasn’t gone but then why did he need a babysitter? Maybe she was busy too? Or maybe she lived out of town and they shared custody? And this was none of your business. Why were you so interested in what the situation was with mom? 

“Wow, that’s amazing. You must have really impressed them then. Going to college isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, anyway. I’ve told Eli, it all depends on what you want to do with your life. Some jobs don’t require college and they’re just as important. I mean, you build homes. You provide a space for families to start their lives and make memories. I think that’s pretty important work.”

A flush rose up along his neck, bright red against the yellow of his sweater. A small smile curved his lips as he tapped the table before looking up at you. The boys had long given up on your conversation, deeply entrenched in one of their own about the latest episode of X-men: Evolution. 

“I mean, you work in a pediatrician’s office, right? You help sick kids. I think that might be just a bit more important than what I do. But thanks. What do you do in the office, anyway? Are you the doctor?”

You laughed, “No. That was far more schooling than I was interested in doing. I’m a nurse but honestly, we know just as much as they do. Experience is way more educational than sitting in some class, listening to someone talk about stuff. Sometimes, I think we might know more than the doctors do. But Dr. Wilson is great to work with. He’s not one of those guys that talks down to his nurses or acts like he’s superior because he’s got that M.D. after his name. I worked with plenty of misogynist ego-driven jerks when I worked at the hospital. They act like they’re royalty or something. Dr. Wilson actually trusts us and values our input. He makes us feel like a part of a team instead of a dictatorship.”

The conversation flowed easily, the boys jumping in here and there, all four of you laughing and smiling as you enjoyed your pizza. You could not deny the feeling of rightness in this moment, this moment that was everything you had ever wanted for your son. It was a picture perfect moment in time, this little dinner at your kitchen table full of warmth and laughter. 

And no, you weren't insane. It wasn’t that you were looking at this as a family or that you were jumping ten steps ahead of just this pleasant evening. It was just nice to have a full table, to have it not be just you and Eli, to watch your son enjoying himself. He loved when Matt and Janice came for dinner but this was different. He had his best friend with him, the two boys sending each other into hysterics every thirty seconds.

For just this moment, this little slice of time, the weight had been lifted from your shoulders. The constant guilt that you weren't enough, that you could never be enough for your son. You could never be all of the things that he needed you to be. For just this moment, you thought maybe you didn’t have to be if you could surround him with people who provided everything he needed. 

“Alright, kiddo, we should probably get heading home so you can take a shower before bed,” Steve announced around seven thirty, pushing back from the table and standing up. He gathered the paper plates, tossing them in the trash. “Did you want help cleaning up before we head out?”

You waved your hand dismissively, “Oh no. That’s not necessary. Just a quick wipe down of the holders and popping the cups in the dishwasher. It will only take a couple minutes.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, seriously. No big deal. Besides, you bought the dinner so the least I can do is the clean up.”

“Yes, but I brought the dinner to thank you for watching my kid.”

 “Please. I offered to take him and having Jeremiah here saved me from having to wear the Superman cape and run around with Eli all evening. It was nice to just be an average human instead of a superhero tonight.”

“You’re a nurse,” Steve said with a soft smile, leaning into you, causing your heart to skip a beat. “Pretty sure you’re a superhero all the time.”

“Daddy, can Eli come to our house this weekend? Please? He really wants to meet Miles.”

“Miles?” you asked.

“It’s his dog!” Eli told you excitedly. “He wears capes too! Jeremiah said he can be my sidekick, Robin.”

"Which is silly because that's my Aunt Robin's name," Jeremiah added, "but the cape doesn't fit her so good so she's usually Catwoman because it's a mask and a tail."

Steve laughed, “Sure kid. He can come over. If it’s okay with his mom.”

“Fine with me,” you shrugged. Seeing the joy on your son’s face to get to spend time with his friend was all the reason you needed to readily agree. It definitely did not have to do with having the chance to see his dad again. No. That didn’t factor in at all.

“Okay, well, how about this?” Steve knelt down to his son’s level. “We’ve got baseball practice on Saturday until two. Why don’t we all go get ice cream afterward and then Jeremiah and his mom can come meet Miles afterward?”

“All of us?” you questioned, wondering if you'd heard him correctly.

He rose, head tilting forward, those eyes as warm as a chocolate chip cookie coming right out of the oven, and just as delicious. “Why not? I mean, if you have something else to do…”

“No. No, I don’t. I mean, that would be nice. We haven’t gotten ice cream yet since they opened. And I love dogs. Who doesn’t love dogs? Crazy people, right? So obviously meeting your dog would be fun. I just…I mean…yeah, okay.”

He appeared amused with you once again and you wished you could just pull the foot out of your mouth. It appeared to be permanently wedged there whenever he was around. 

“Good. Maybe we can even have a sleepover.” Your breath caught as his mouth dropped open, eyes going wide, one of those hands running nervously through his hair, sweeping it to the side. “I mean the boys. The boys could have a sleepover. At my house. If you’re okay with that?”

Had he meant what you thought he meant? Had that just been an innocent mistake or was he as attracted to you as you were to him? Trying to let your son hang out with his friend was proving to be far more complicated than you thought it would be when you'd approached him on the baseball field. 

“Yeah.” You weren't sure why. You hadn’t even let Eli stay the night anywhere before but there was just something about Steve that you trusted. “Eli would love that, honestly.”

“You’re gonna sleep at my house!” Jeremiah yelled, grabbing Eli’s hands, the two boys jumping around the kitchen. 

“Obviously, they’re both okay with it,” Steve chuckled, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his trousers. “So, we’ll see you Saturday at practice?”

“Yeah. Saturday.”

You said your goodbyes, the boys both still screeching, talking about how it was only two more sleeps until their sleepover. Steve gave you one last smile and a little finger wave before turning and taking his son’s hand, leading him to his Ford Explorer that was parked just behind your Prius. 

“Mommy, are you and Jeremiah’s dad friends now too?”

“Kind of, I guess,” you shrugged.

“Cool because if you’re friends and want to play with each other all the time then me and Eli can play with each other all the time too!”

You gripped the door, closing it slowly behind you. Your son had no idea the implications of what he’d just said but you definitely did. Your entire body was vibrating with the implications of what he’d just said.

___________________________________________________________

“Daddy, when Eli spends the night can we make a fort like the one we made that one time where it was the whole living room? Remember? And we put up the Christmas lights inside and we put in our sleeping bags and pillows.”

Steve blinked, glancing up at his son in the rearview mirror. He’d completely missed everything that his kid had just said. The boy had been rambling from the moment they’d gotten in the car and he was having trouble focusing, his thoughts completely focused on the last hour of his day. 

You had been consuming all of his brain space since you'd approached him yesterday on the baseball field. Yeah, you were gorgeous. He’d noticed that instantly. Who wouldn’t? But there was something else about you, something that wouldn’t let his brain rest, something that kept poking at him, telling him to do something about these feelings you were stirring up inside him. 

And it had been so long since he’d had anything stirring inside of him. After him and Nancy had split four years ago, Steve had jumped right into another relationship. He struggled with being alone. According to Robin, it was his dysfunctional childhood. The little boy inside of him who never got the love he needed from his parents, constantly seeking it out in someone else. 

According to Robin, that was why he’d married Nancy even though the two of them had been all wrong for each other. He clung to the first solid thing that had come along and refused to see any of the millions of little signs that it wasn’t working. Of course, that was according to Robin, his best friend who thought she knew more about the internal workings of his mind than he did.

He’d dated Stacy for a year, convinced himself that she was the one, told Robin he was thinking of proposing and his obnoxious friend had slapped him upside the head. To be fair, he probably needed a good jarring, something to knock some sense into him. Marrying Stacy would have led to him being twice divorced. She had been even worse for him than Nancy. 

Not that there was anything wrong with Nance. No, she was amazing. She was smart, beautiful, kind, and an absolutely wonderful mother. Neither of them had ever cheated or hurt the other. They simply just weren’t a good fit. It seemed so obvious now when he could see how well her and Jonathan slid together, like two puzzle pieces locking into place perfectly. 

He’d dated a few other women after Stacy, most recently Janet, a single mother that he met at the park last summer. They’d made it about four months before he saw it was going nowhere. She was clingy, pushing for them to move in together, and it was in that moment that he realized he could not see a future with her. The idea of waking up next to her every day was exhausting. He’d ended it and she had not taken it well, calling him every name in the book, very loudly, in the middle of the restaurant he’d taken her to to try to soften the blow.

Steve didn’t lack for options. It felt like the moms of this town were throwing themselves at him constantly, some of them not even single. But none of them fit. None of them made him feel that thing, that thing that Robin said was like the Big Bang, everything exploding and then rearranging into this perfect arrangement. She kept telling him it was called falling in love, not forcing in love. He needed to stop trying to make it happen and just let it come to him. Yeah, well, that was easy for her to see, the girl who’d found the right person in high school.

Was that what he was doing right now? Was he just trying to force something to be what he wanted? Your kids were friends. You'd approached him because you wanted to set up a time for your sons to be able to play. It could be that simple. You might not even be interested in him or in anything. 

He knew your husband had died. Jere had told him that Eli’s dad was in heaven. But he didn’t know how and he didn’t know how long ago. Maybe you were still freshly grieving. You'd definitely struggled when you were talking about him tonight. If you were still in the midst of your grief, the last thing you needed was some guy trying to push you to go out with him sometime. 

No, he probably needed to just take a step back. Cool it off. Yeah, you were beautiful and you seemed far more real than most of the women in this town who were interested in him. But if he tried to force something that wasn’t there, he wouldn’t be the only one to suffer. Jere would too because he would inevitably lose his best friend when things went south. He couldn’t do that to him. 

“Daddy, are you even listening to me?” Jeremiah huffed from the backseat, breaking through Steve’s thoughts. 

“I’m sorry buddy. What did you say?”

“I said can we make a big fort when Eli comes with the lights and our sleeping bags and stuff?”

“Oh yeah. Of course, bud. We can definitely do that. You want to make some s’mores too?”

“Yeah! And can we have popcorn and watch the new Scooby Doo movie too?”

“Absolutely!” Steve replied, grinning in the mirror. “And I can grill some hamburgers and hot dogs. We’ll make it the best sleepover ever, kid.”

His son’s smile stretched from ear to ear, reminding Steve why he very much needed to focus on his son’s happiness instead of his loneliness. No, he didn’t need to jump into another relationship with some woman he’d just met. He was just seeing things he wanted to see, trying to rearrange the pieces into the image he was so desperate for.

“Is Eli's mommy gonna sleepover too? Our fort will be big enough.”

“Uh, no buddy,” Steve answered. “She’s gonna come over and see Miles but she’s not staying.”

“Why not? Don’t you want a friend, daddy?”

Yeah, he did. More than his son could possibly know.

Chapter 3

Taglist: @katethetank

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[soubi122]

hello! i’ve been reading your works for quite a while now and i can say you make me feel things i never knew i writer would. you’re doing such a great job so keep it up and know that we’ll be here to support you.

just wanted to check if you are down for a request too! would you do a reader x ran x love triangle where there’s an old and new flame? ran really loved his first love but had to let go due to gang activities. in the future with bonten, he met this girl and been with each other for a while now. you can decide who he ends up with.

thank you so much and take care always!

- Aya

Oh darling, I'm sorry it took forever - but I think I am gonna make this a two or three part series.

Warnings: light smut, language, mentions of murder, mentions of drugs, drama, angst, Ran is kind of an ass, pt is in the works.

Spider's Web - Pt.1

They called it puppy love when you first started dating. That puppy love turned into a serious relationship. Dating the king of Roppongi was quite the challenge and yet it was bliss. 

You've known Ran since he was 13 and dated him until he was 18. Seven years of your life was dedicated to this man. You gave him everything - your first kiss, your first love, your virginity, your first everything. You knew each other inside and out. Though dating him put a target on your back, you didn't care. You loved him and would follow him to the end of the earth if need be for him. Even when he got arrested twice, you stuck by him and waited patiently for him. Never letting another man touch you or even near you - you belonged to Ran. 

He however decided to burn paradise and cut your ties without a second thought. The separation was bitter and it left you with your heart in your hands. 

**12 years later**

A month into your new job and you had almost everything down. The man who you were working for was well known for his finance skills - a money making genius. To take up the role of his personal assistant was like striking gold. Kokonoi Hajime found you working for a partner and snatched you at the first first chance. Seeing first hand your organization and risk management skills, he knew he had to have you. Your old boss had no idea what he lost when he gave you up. Their success was due to 90% of your work. 

During a meeting, you attended in place of your boss due to some unsavory business. You handled it like the pro you are and did a better job than your actual boss when they held meetings. "Question for you…" You hear from across the table after the meeting is over. Looking up you see the silver fox eying you carefully. He was technically the guest of honor and boy was he handsome - beautiful actually. "Yes, what can I do for you?" You ask and finish collecting the signed contracts from the table. The smirk on his face alluded to him asking for a potential favor under the table. No, absolutely not - you weren’t going to blow him, regardless of how handsome he is. “How would you like to work with me? Your skills are wasted here…you could be doing so much more.” 

His words and further explanation led to you working for the worst criminal organization in Japan, Bonten. Under the guise of various businesses, they were raking in money, bodies and soon - expanding overseas. Nothing could have prepared you for the money you were earning, you were making pennies at your old job compared to here. Being Kokonoi’s personal assistant brought so many benefits that you thought he was a god. 

Though you’ve been here for about 2 months, you have yet to meet all of Bonten’s members - you’ve only met two more members. The man with the crystal eyes and scarred lips, Sanzu Haruchiyo, always teased you and tried to make you feel uncomfortable on purpose but you didn’t budge. He loved that about you. And of course, the head of Bonten - Sano Manjiro, gave a fair warning, well more of a threat. Understanding your position and your risks, you accepted them all and swore loyalty to them. 

Being so busy with work, you often stayed overnight in the office and left when things were done. You were essentially a female version of Kokonoi, only with better gambling skills - that is what risk management is in a nutshell. 

“Koko, your meeting starts in about 15 minutes, I already prepared the room, do you need anything from me before I go?” You ask as you are getting ready to leave. He looked at you and smiled, his signature cheshire cat grin always meant something sketchy. “You’re leading the meeting tonight.” He says while leaning against his palm. For a moment you thought you heard wrong. He was trusting you to lead the meeting even if you’re still new? You hadn’t even met the rest of Bonten, were they even going to take you seriously? “Besides, what better way for you to meet everyone?” When he said that you felt your heart in your throat. This was a big meeting then, there was no way you could fuck this up. You were actually excited about this. Without saying another word, you left the office and headed to the meeting room and placed a set of files for yourself. Kokonoi could see the fire in your eyes, you were going to take the first step into their world. 

Two minutes before the meeting started, the men were making their way into the room - as you were finalizing some last minute details, they only saw your back. The high waisted pencil skirt showed your curves and they were entranced by them. From behind you could hear low whistles and some throat clearing, they wanted you to turn around. Being used to cat calls and this type of behavior you knew best not to turn around at the first howl. “Who’s the girl?” You could hear from behind you. Kokonoi must have omitted your onboarding to the rest of the members. From what you heard, some were womanizers - perhaps it was for the best. 

Finally, Kokonoi walked in with Manjiro and were about to begin. “Everyone, she is our new employee and is my personal assistant. Treat her as you would treat an admin - she’s leading today’s meeting.” He said with a hint of authority. Turning around to face the men, you felt their eyes undress you and rake over your figure - it was nothing new. This organization was not only filled with criminals and murderers, but it was oh so filled with men that rivaled gods. 

Clearing your throat, you began without introducing yourself - Kokonoi labeled you as his personal assistant and that was all they needed to know for now. During the meeting you could feel their eyes follow you, they were curious about you - you looked so normal compared to them. There was one man whose eyes seemed to pull you in and make you look in his direction more often. Beautiful and handsome, tall and lean - he reminded you of someone. Though you couldn't put your finger on it, even the male sitting next to him looked familiar but from where? 

Everything proceeded without a hitch, you managed to impress them and also impress the head of the organization. Questions were asked and you answered accordingly. They sometimes just asked frivolous questions just to get you to speak. 

Once the meeting ended, you were approached by the rest of the admins and boy did they bombard you with other  questions. So, what’s your name? Do you have a boyfriend? How can I get you to be my assistant? Of course they were all flirting with you and you didn’t entertain it, politely declining their advances. When the tall male with lavender orbs approached you, you felt butterflies in your stomach - something you haven't felt in years. “Haitani, I need you to stay away from her.” Kokonoi jests and earns their glances followed by their laughs. But the moment Kokonoi looks at your face, he sees how it went from smiling to horror. The name he so casually dropped, there was no way  - it couldn’t be. Quickly regaining your composure, you excused yourself and headed towards the woman’s bathroom. 

The moment you walked in, you leaned against the sink and tried to steady yourself. The sound of your heart beating out of your chest was the only thing you could hear. Your breathing was shaky and your hands were beginning to tremble. You didn’t recognize him and it looks like he didn’t recognize you. “(Y/N)? What’s wrong?” The sound of your boss’s voice startled you, making you gasp and spin around quickly. You were a complete mess, sweating and had tears on the verge of spilling. You’ve seen Sanzu handle bodies before by accident and you didn’t even bat an eye. What the hell spooked you?

"Koko…nothing, it was just a little overwhelming back there. That's all." You lied and began to wash your hands. It wasn't like you to panic so fast. He walked closer to you and narrowed his eyes, he wasn't buying it. "You know you can't lie to me." He was almost inches from your face. You felt a little nauseous from all the emotions hitting you at once and your body was wavering. "Which Haitani is it?" Not wanting to risk your job, you told him it didn't matter - you just wanted to keep working for him. It wasn't the answer he wanted but he had a feeling he knew who it was. "It won't happen again." You say and bow. You weren't expecting to see him at all. Sighing, he backed off and warned you to be careful. The rest of the men you met today weren't as forgiving or as nice as he was. 

After pulling yourself together you stepped out of the bathroom and headed straight to your office. All contracts and needed documents were neatly piled on your desk. Someone did you a favor and moved them for you. Just when you thought you were going home, you ended up in a meeting with the higher ups and ended up seeing someone you wished you hadn't. Sitting at your desk, you began to work to try and clear your head. Before you knew it, it was already well into the night - almost 2am. You longed to lay in bed and rest. 

The sound of the office door opening startled you, making you snap up from your desk. It was Sanzu, you exhaled and sat back down, almost melting into your seat. "Jumpy?" He asks and smirks at you. Of course you were, your ex boyfriend was here and you almost quit your job. "Anyways, just letting you know that there is a car waiting for you downstairs. Go home." He snickers and pulls you out from your chair. Those crystal eyes had softened just a bit. These little random actions of his always make you wonder if there is a part of him that is actually sane.

Heading down to the lobby with Sanzu you pass by the others. The sensation of someone's eyes being laser focused on you made you shudder. Before Sanzu could close the car door he said, "Come to me if you need something to…relax your nerves." He smirked and walked away. You knew what he meant by that. Seeing him high or teetering on the edge wasn't anything new. He was opening the door to his playground. You never considered it but perhaps there was no harm in taking him up on that. 

When you arrived home, you kicked off your shoes and got ready for bed. You thanked your boss for allowing you to come in later since your day went well into overtime. Burying yourself in the sheets, you felt your eyelids getting heavier and heavier. Though you tried, you couldn’t help but fall asleep with Ran in your head.

**in your dreams**

“Ngh…Wait, I’m about to - OH!” You moan and throw your head back into the pillows as Ran gives you one quick thrust of his hips. He had you pressed against the mattress with his hand around your throat. Fucking into you was like heaven to him, those warm and tight walls, and your siren like voice made him fall in love with you even more. He couldn’t go more than 48 hours without being deep inside your pussy. You gave him something to look forward to in life outside of gang activities. 

“Tell me you love me, pretty girl…” His heavy tone made you clench around his length and you were beginning to see stars. He looked divine with his long hair when it was loose, you always found him so much more attractive with it like that. Babbling incoherently, you say you love him over and over again. You didn’t stop until he squeezed your throat a little tighter and he left you a drooling mess. He filled you to the brim and wouldn’t stop until he became a whimpering mess. Collapsing onto your chest, he panted and tried to regain his breath. Both of you were coming down from your daily highs. He was everything you needed and you were everything he needed. For a moment, you thought this was reality…then everything faded into black.

**end dream**

Waking up in a daze, you sat up and looked around the room only to realize you were home. Exhaling and throwing yourself back down on the mattress you cover your face with both hands. Those bittersweet memories only made you feel dead inside. Knowing that he's right there and you have to pretend that you don't know him - that you don't exist. He’s gonna find out soon and when he does…what will you do?

Torturing yourself with these thoughts you could only think about him. Who was keeping his bed warm? Who was he fucking and would he ever look you at you the same way again? No, it was done and over with, he made his choice. Though it wasn’t fair to you, there was nothing you could do at the time and you struggled to accept it for a long time. If only you knew how much I loved you… You think to yourself and close your eyes. It still hurts, even after 12 years - everything still burns. 

Getting ready and heading for the office, you braced yourself - there was a chance that you would cross paths again. Kokonoi did mention that the others were away on business at the time of your hiring. Walking into the lobby, you head for the elevators and make your way to the top floor. When the elevator doors opened, the office space looked much more lively than before. With all Bonten members here the hallways were now buzzing with underlings. Looking around you noticed that you were the only woman here. To be fair, it was hard to hire someone who is trustworthy and loyal. Anyone who had some sort of criminal past were usually denied employment so that they don’t attract attention or to avoid potential surveillance. 

With your heels clicking down the hall, you headed for your office and noticed that you had a visitor. Sitting on your chair was none other than Ran Haitani. You felt your stomach drop. He was oh so casually sitting on your chair as if it was his own desk. “Good morning, gorgeous.” He said in a coy tone, his eyes reflected mischief and desire. Hanging your sweater and purse, you address him while avoiding eye contact. “Mr. Haitani, what can I do for you?” His eyes trailed along your figure, something about you was reeling him in and he wanted to know why. Since yesterday’s meeting, you plagued his thoughts and he couldn’t get you out of his head. 

“So you’re Kokonoi’s little plaything, huh?” He teases and stands up, slowly making his way around your desk towards you. You bite the inside of your cheek and swallow the urge to scoff at him. “I’m his personal assistant, yes.” You say sharply. He could only smirk as he figured he struck a chord with you. He was inching closer and you felt your knees getting weak, those eyes that held the world were in front of you again. Though his hair was clean cut and he’s brandishing a new neck tattoo - he gave off the same sensations as before. It felt like he was backing you into a corner. He was towering over you, his figure dwarfed your own and you knew he was going to try something. The tips of your ears felt hot, his scent was just as intoxicating as ever and if it weren’t for your past - you would have gone in for the kill. 

Building up the courage to speak, you tried to keep yourself in check before even opening your mouth. “Please step out of my office if you have nothing better to do.” You say dryly and move away from him to sit at your desk. It’s the first time he’s had a woman ignore his advances…well kind of. There was one person who did manage to hold him off for so long before she caved. His snicker echoed in your ear, almost making you turn around to face him. “A little feisty, I like that. Don’t worry, I’ll break down those pretty little walls of yours soon enough.” If it’s one thing that always irked you about Ran, it was his damn conceited nature. The world revolves around him in his head. Your scent perforated his nostrils and he felt a shiver run down his spine. It was a familiar scent that was bringing back old memories. Looking down at your hands, he was searching for a possible wedding ring. He could care less if you were married but still wanted the satisfaction of taking another man’s woman. What caught his attention was your right hand’s ring finger - it was adorned by a black titanium ring with an orchid engraved around the band. It was beautiful, he didn’t notice it on you yesterday but why did it make a pang in his chest?

The knock on the door made you both look up and face the doorway, Kokonoi was standing there and the expression on his face was enough to make Ran back away. He was not amused to find Ran in your office. It was enough to confirm his suspicions about you. “Would you be so kind and fuck off Haitani?” Kokonoi says. The tone was playful but you knew better. Great, it hasn’t even been a full 24 hours and Ran was already finding ways to jeopardize your job. The shit eating grin on his face only made the vein on Kokonoi’s forehead almost burst. As your nightmare walked out the door and closed it behind him, you exhaled a sigh of relief and were met with another nightmare. 

“You could have told me the truth, (Y/N).” He says and takes a seat across from your desk. His feline-like eyes were analyzing your every move and were looking for signs of deception. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You scoff, as much as you get along with him - he is your boss, not a friend. “You two had history.” Hearing those words made you pinch the bridge of your nose, he dug deeper into your past. He questioned you, asking all sorts of things that were making your head spin. You explained to him that you only recognized Ran and Rindou, maybe even recognized Kakucho from his scar. Everyone else was a blur and it’s not like they recognized you either. “Had I known Ran was here, I would have never taken this job - we didn’t end on good terms.” You confess with venom on your tongue. It wasn’t like he gave you a full blown description of Bonten’s members when you joined the team. 

“So, what do you want me to do? Do I start packing my shit?” You retort when he scoffs at your confession. As much as Kokonoi knew this was going to be a bad idea, he had no choice - you were his golden goose. He needed you just as much as you needed this job. “No, you will keep doing your job and keep him at bay. Do not allow him to get any closer.” It was a warning that left you a little uneasy. Was there something else he wanted to say to you about Ran? As he began to stand, you interrupted his leave with a bow. “Hajime…thank you.” You say and wait for him to leave. He chuckles and mutters under his breath, “You’re not in the clear yet, (Y/N).” Things were going to get much more interesting in Bonten’s office. 

A few weeks went by in a flash, more than half the time you avoided Ran and kept your distance. Either spending time in Kokonoi’s office or Manjiro’s office so that he couldn’t strike a private conversation with you was going over smoothly. Though one day you were forced to visit his office as he forgot to sign a contract. Taking a deep breath you counted to 3 before knocking on his door and walking in. “Aw, did you miss me darling?” He says coly and flashes you a smirk. Ugh, you wanted to throw something at him. Putting the documents in front of him, you informed him that he needed to sign the contract before tomorrow’s deadline. “I attached tabs in all sections that require your signature. Please leave the completed contract on my desk before the end of the night.” Before walking away, he stopped you and asked you rather redundant questions. “Sorry darling, you see, I have terrible eyesight, can you come and show me?” Though he was partly bullshitting, he was also telling the truth - knowing this, you had no choice but to point out exactly where he needed to sign. 

Walking around his desk to be at his side, you carefully kept a gap between you so that he wouldn’t try to lean in. “Each page has these little purple tabs-” You began when he rolled his chair closer to you. He picked up on your scent. It made his mouth salivate, a natural reflex that he had when he was close to someone he wanted. Finishing your instructions, you turned on your heels and walked out of his office without looking at him. You set a fire in him - he was determined to have you.

Even an hour after you left, he could still smell your perfume and it made his mind linger. Brushing his lips with his fingers, he wondered what you tasted like and wondered how your pretty little face would look when contorted with pleasure. Feeling the blood rush south, he palms his member and smirks to himself. Gonna make her bend over soon… His depraved thoughts were beginning to cloud judgment. The pinging sound of a notification snapped him out of his delusion. Looking down at the screen he frowned when he read the name in the notice. His fiance texted him, asking him when she should expect him home as she has a surprise for him. 

From: (F/N)

Baby, what time will you be here? I have a surprise for you. ���️

End Message.

Smirking, he replied back with a ‘i don’t know but it better be that sweet pussy of yours.’ Oh, did we forget to mention that he’s engaged? It was a business engagement, he needed to marry a powerful businessman’s daughter to take control of their assets. Bonten didn’t care about playing dirty, using someone as collateral was child’s play and who better to send than Japan’s best womanizer? Though he was warming up to the idea of having a wife, he wasn’t too keen on opening his heart all the way. He was in this for the money, power and his own pleasure. Tossing his phone aside he began to work and pushed all thoughts out of his head. 

As the day was coming to an end he was getting ready to leave when Rindou walked into his office. “Aniki (兄貴). That new girl, I feel like we’ve seen her before.” He said. They had no idea they were right. You were indeed familiar to them both, however, with this much time between now and then - it was hard for them to even remember you. “You watch too much porn, little brother, all those girls' faces are starting to blend together. If I had known her, she’d be bent over my desk by now - they always cave when I come back.” Ran smirks and heads out. However, Rindou was right - something felt off and he couldn’t put his finger on it. You looked familiar, your scent also seemed familiar, for fuck sake - even your resistance felt familiar. Who are you, really?

When he gets home, he gets greeted with the loving arms of his fiance. Her embrace felt a little foreign as did her kiss. When he hesitated, she questioned him. “What’s wrong? Had a rough day at work?” She asks and begins to undress in front of him. She was planning on surprising him with a new lingerie set she bought, of course daddy’s money spares no expense. His eyes gloss over and he shrugs off the odd feeling that plagued the corners of his mind. Diving into the abyss, he couldn’t help but think about you. Your figure, your tone, your pouty lips… Ran was pretty much absent minded the entire time he was having sex with his fiance. Too drunk off his cock to even notice that her fiance’s mind was wandering and thinking of someone else, she had no idea that Ran was becoming infatuated with someone else. 

By the end of night, he layed wide awake in bed as his fiance snuggled against him and she slept without a care in the world. He looked over at the clock on the nightstand and saw that it was almost 3:00am. He was going to have a hard time waking up in the morning. Closing his eyes he tried his best to drift off.

In his dreams he saw a mirror, he could see himself and how tired he looked. Then the image changed, the mirror became a window into someone's room. The window had an overall view of what he figured was a girl’s room. The more he observed the space, the more the room looked familiar and he felt a warming sensation in his chest. A young girl appeared, he couldn’t see her face but the scenes began to unfold. She’d sleep, wake up, roll around in bed while talking on the phone and laughs. She looked like she’s in love. All movements quickened, it almost looked like he was peering through someone’s memory. Almost like a home movie that someone quickened the playback speed on. He saw this girl grow and change, yet he couldn’t see her face. 

The playback speed normalized itself when a youngman appeared. The girl and boy shared their first kiss. Through that window, he saw his younger self - he must have been about 13 years old. It made his heart race, who was that girl? The scenes sped up again. As the scenes progressed, her face was starting to become clear. He witnessed their growth and even saw her reaction when he showed up with a buzz cut. She cried and laughed, but most importantly she looked like she was glad that he was home. When he saw her smile, he felt tears streaming down his face. Just looking away for a second, he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked back at the window. He saw himself with her but they were a little older, he recognized himself as 18 year old Ran Haitani. His signature braids became undone when the girl removed his hair ties and ran her hand through his hair. 

A lump began to form in his throat… The scene unfolding in front of him was the moment he took her virginity. It was an intimate and sacred moment. He was calming her and soothing her pain with kisses and words. Soon he could see himself get lost in her. They were both in love. When the girl turned to face the window, she had tears in her eyes and the broken look on her face made his heart stop. It can't be… When he got a clear look at her face, she turned to look at him through that window and reached out for him while screaming his name. 

The scream jolted him awake. He was sweating and his heart was pounding, pounding as if he had a drum in his chest. Taking in his surroundings, he realized he was back home and quickly turned to see who was next to him. It was his fiance, she was sound asleep and he felt a knot in his stomach. These memories, why were they coming back now? His mind kept bouncing back and forth between the dream he had and now. Then it finally hit him - that girl in his dreams was you. The same woman that was running through his mind all day yesterday was the same person in his dreams. 

The memories came flooding back, his chest was beginning to hurt and the pain was becoming unbearable. Your resistance made sense now, but why didn’t you tell him who you are? How did you get wrapped up in Bonten? Does Kokonoi know the truth? Why did he have to hire you? The thing that threw him over the edge was the fact that you still carried that ring. It’s the ring he gave you when you turned 17. It was making him sick. He quietly got up and headed to the bathroom to expel last night’s dinner. There was a reason why he left you the way he did. Ran peaked out the door to see his fiance still sleeping in bed - she was a heavy sleeper like him so he could get away with making a little noise. She didn’t move an inch as Ran got dressed and headed out the door.

For once in his life, he was at the office early - it even caught the security guards in the lobby by surprise. The closer he got to the top floor, the more he dreaded seeing you - he didn’t want to relive the bitter separation again. He was going to make you quit today so that you could never come back to this fucked up world of his. As the elevator doors opened, he saw that not a lot of people were here. Good, I can get into her office without calling too much attention. He thinks to himself and makes a beeline towards your door. He was determined to make you quit Bonten.

He was caught off guard when his eyes landed on you, he wasn’t expecting you to be there so early. All the sentences he formed inside his head somehow became a blur. Ran froze in place as you were too busy to notice him, you were on your tippy toes trying to reach a binder from one of the higher shelves. It reminded him of when he would hang something over your head and you struggled to reach it. The memory of your soft laughs and pouty lips made his skin burn. 

Sighing in defeat, you turned around and were startled by Ran standing in the doorway. “Mr. Haitani, was there something you needed?” You ask as you pull the chair from your desk towards the bookshelf. It was as if you immediately shut down the classic ‘Need a hand?’ question that was cliche in the movies or dramas. What surprised him the most was the fact that you were still acting like a stranger.

Clearing his throat, he stepped inside your office and closed the door. He felt his knees get weaker as he walked closer to you. Remember your objective… The little voice inside his head said. Trying to keep it together, he approached you and cleared his throat once again. “Again, did you need something?” You say in annoyance at his pathetic attempt to keep your attention. Does she really not remember me? As you got what you needed from the shelf, you set the binders on your desk and began to move the chair back to its place but Ran was in your way. Without saying a word, he took the chair from you and pushed it aside. This was odd, why is he in your office and what the hell does he want? 

Taking a moment to pull himself together he finally spoke. “I need to ask you something.” He manages to say rather quickly. Raising your brow, you looked at him and were a little surprised. The look on his face signaled that he was uneasy. It was a first to see him like this - out of all the years you’ve known him, he was always so confident or at least pretended to be. Nodding, you prepared to be asked if you needed a good fuck or a one night stand. That’s just the person he was, it wouldn’t have surprised you one bit. “What the hell are you doing here?” Your eyes widened slightly as you were taken back by his abrasiveness. What the hell did he mean by…oh. Before you could even open your mouth, Ran continued. “Do you have any idea what you got yourself into? The type of people that run this organization? Are you that stupid or blind that you can’t see the bigger picture?” By the second question he was yelling at you and for a moment he made you feel so small as he inched closer to you. 

You squared up to him and yelled back at him. “Don’t you dare tell me how to live my life when you haven’t been part of it for over 12 fucking years.” You were biting back tears. Ran didn’t want anything to do with you when you broke up, so why was he acting like he cares now? There was so much acerbity behind those words that it felt like a punch to the gut. Truth be told, you weren’t a child anymore - you were a grown woman and were more than capable of making your own decisions. Scoffing, Ran pinched the bridge of his nose. He wanted to throw you out, he didn’t want you to be here - you could go anywhere else but here. “It’s a little too late for you to pretend to care, Ran.” You spat back at him. Ran could feel his blood boiling and seeing you like this was burning his threads of self control. He wanted to touch you, to kiss you, to tell you he’s sorry.

He furrowed his eyebrows and glared at you. “I left so that you wouldn’t have to deal with this part of my life!” His voice boomed in the room and made you flinch. As much as it pained him, he needed to break you first so that you could hate him and stay away. After Izana’s and Emma’s death, he realized that anyone could get caught in the crossfire. Emma was an innocent victim, the Kanto incident took 3, almost 4 lives. He fought with Rindou about it but ended up letting you go. His words almost made everything go silent, you could only hear the ticking of the clock on the wall and the pounding of your heart in your chest. “...get out.” Was all you could manage to say. You didn’t want to hear any excuses he had to offer, especially after what he put you through. You blinked and found yourself pinned against your desk with Ran towering over you. 

Caging you between him and the desk, he leaned down to be face to face with you as he spoke with a heavy tone. “Were their deaths not enough for you? Tenjiku lost their leader and friend, Sano Manjiro lost his sister and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you.” The realization that he was referring to the same Manjiro that is the head of Boten made your heart sink. “R-Ran-”  You stutter but he cuts you off. “We abandoned everything we loved and built an empire. We murder, extort, rape, sell women like you and destroy everything that gets in our way. Is that the world you really want to live in? Constantly watching your back in fear that someone will put a bullet in your head?” The obvious didn’t need to be stated, you knew what you were walking into the moment Kokonoi approached you. Your previous boss was partially involved in Bonten as a ‘business’ partner. You were warned well before you even took the job that Kokonoi offered. 

Before you knew it your anger reached a boiling point and you screamed at him. “IT IS NO DIFFERENT NOW THAN IT WAS BACK THEN!” You were right, it all came with dating a Haitani or anyone in Tenjiku. “I fought tooth and nail for you. Even after you destroyed me I still had to face people who were after you. It didn’t matter…” He was taken back by the raw emotions that were spilling out of you. The tears that streamed down the sides of your face only made his chest hurt even more. Seeing you in this state, seeing your lips quiver and seeing how you were panting - he felt warmth in the pit of his stomach. Were you always this beautiful when you were a fucking wreck? 

Just as he wanted to close the distance, someone bursted into the office to see what all the screaming was about. Kokonoi made a beeline towards you both. “You two, separate. Now!” He demanded and had a scowl on his face. Shoving Ran off of you, you straightened yourself up and Ran followed suit. “I told you to stay away from her and what do you do? You have her at an impasse!” Kokonoi chew’s Ran out for disobeying a direct order. “This doesn’t concern you.” Ran vituperates, he could only see red. “Permission to leave…” You ask Kokonoi and pray that he says yes. “Granted.” He says without missing a beat. As you walked away, Ran tried to stop you but Koko intervened. If looks could kill. 

END PT 1.

Exiting your office, you notice the multiple pairs of eyes that were fixed on you. They heard everything, the cat was out of the bag and you just wanted to hide. The other admins and executives were there too. Rindou felt bad for seeing you like this again. As much as he liked you at the time of your separation, he couldn’t bear to lose you or else Ran would end up losing himself. 

Sanzu approached you and offered to take you home. You declined, you wanted to be alone, he was bound to ask questions. The last thing you wanted was to remember more of your past. “At least let me walk you to the lobby.” He said softly and patted your head. As crazy as he was, there was still a little sweetness inside him and you found it rather endearing. As you stepped into the elevator, you could see Ran emerge from your office and search for you. He was determined to make you quit no matter what, even if Kokonoi refuses to let you go - he needed you to stay away. This wasn’t the life he wanted for you. Perhaps if he would have stayed with you, maybe - just maybe you would have been able to change his future.

Tags: @anxious-chick @reiners-milkbiddies

[sonicslushie]

Stars By The Pocketful~P.P.

A/N: Alrighttttt youins, anotha one. I caught up on my school work (summer classes so I don’t gotta cram 18 hours into my last semester of college lol) so here’s this. Starting part 2 od when the devil’s calling after I post this, so it’ll probs be uploaded sunday. Sorry for keeping yall waiting lol. Thinking about creating a playlist of the songs i use to write to, if youins want i’ll make it public and post it on here

Also pretend I mentioned the reader being homeschool bc I definitely didn’t. And it’s a fem reader btw.

playlist i write to, for u to read to

P.S. look up the meanings of the flowers mentioned in this i dare u

Summary: Man you really don’t like that Peter Parker kid. Or do you? 

Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader 

TW: underage drinking, crudeness, langauge.

Word Count: 4.8k

Peter Parker. 

Oh how you hated that guy. 

It was always Peter Parker this, Peter Parker that. Oh he’s such a sweet boy, really smart too. Did you know he was bit by a radioactive spider? Now he’s SPIDERMAN!!! Newest Avenger and don’t forget it- he’s also Tony Stark’s media proclaim prodigue! God it sucked. 

The media didn’t even know about you, Tony Stark’s only kid. Nobody talked about how you were so smart, with an IQ of 137. Nobody talked about how you have been the mastermind of most of Tony’s greatest ideas, like FRIDAY. FRIDAY was your creation, but did anyone remember that? Nope. And hell, you were sweet… Sometimes. When you wanted to be. But recently, that wasn’t often. Because most of your time was spent mentoring Tony’s “prodigue” and making sure he wasn’t doing anything stupid because Happy couldn’t take the constant texts and calls from him- not that you could handle it much better. 

Just yesterday Peter had called you to tell you he saved a cat from a tree. All you could say was “good for you” then you hung up on him and continued your Twilight marathon. 

Life was so much better when that kid wasn’t around. You had peace and quiet- well as much peace and quiet you could get in the Stark Tower. Sure there was the constant bustling around of various Avengers and SHIELD members, but they mostly let you do your own thing. You had to attend nightly dinners with your father and the rest of the Avengers that stayed in the tower and the weekly movie nights, other than that, you were free as a bird. But now you were picking Peter up from school, overseeing his patrols in case anything got out of hand, and of course you handled all correspondence between him and your father. ​​

The texts were the worst part. 

Sometimes it felt like Peter was just texting you to text you. Maybe he was bored and didn’t have any friends, you didn’t really know. Or care, for that matter. He would text you every morning with some variation of “good morning” with a BUNCH of emojis. Not even normal ones like the regular smiley or even the sun one, he typically used the jackolantern, the robot one, and the anatomical heart (yes the actual HEART not the little colored hearts). If he was feeling real weird that day he would use ALL of the star-like emojis, including the planet ones. All of which, you never responded to. Nor did you respond to the various questions he would send you, mind you they weren’t ever Avenger or Spiderman related. One time he asked you if you believed in people having auras, and if you did what color did you think his would be. (You didn’t answer him, but you did think about it. You decided his would be green.)

But the thing you hated most about Peter was that he wasn’t hate-able. He was genuinely kind, sweet, and really really smart. He made you laugh with those stupid questions he would send you and he challenged your thinking, and that’s what you hated most. Most people barely stimulated your brain, but Peter? He made you think. He made you think hard. He made you question everything you knew and felt, and it was weird. He was weird. You wanted so badly to hate him with all of your soul but you just couldn’t find it in you. Those good morning texts, the nightly calls to update you on patrol, the silence when you two are working in the lab together- it was all something you enjoyed. He didn’t annoy you- no you enjoyed his company the most. If you were being honest, all the “peace and quiet” you got before he was around was really just loneliness. He filled that loneliness simply by being Peter. 

The only thing you truly hated was all the attention he got from everyone, especially your dad. Tony Stark loves his daughter, there’s no lie in that, but sometimes it felt like he loved Peter more. For one he publicly shows his affection for Peter, but you understand why he can’t let the public know you’re his daughter. Stupid safety hazards and all with the copious amounts of super villains and bad guys that would want to use you to get to him. For two, he spends a lot of time with Peter, even if it’s not Avenger or superhero related. Just going out for burgers or hanging out in the lab building random stuff that you’ve always wanted to build with your dad. (There was this rocket that you had designed, and you dad promised to make it with you. He did it with Peter.) It just seemed like your dad preferred Peter. And that’s what hurt the most. So you deflected that anger onto Peter, unfortunately for him. 

Most days you would just be short with him, ignoring his texts, telling him to suck an egg or something. Sometimes you didn’t even speak to him at all, just some grunts in his general direction. If you had to make appearances, you would pretend to be an intern alongside Peter and spend your time sulking in a corner, maybe sneak a drink or two from the open bars and scarf down any dessert in sight.

But today you and the rest of the Avengers were informed that there was to be a gala. For what? You didn’t know, you tuned out after your dad said that everyone was to attend and look pretty. A gala? A night of dancing and eating and possibly drinking if the venue was big enough to hide from your dad. Seemed fun enough, until your dad said something directly to you. 

“Y/n, I would like you to be Peter’s date for the gala.” He said, very out of the blue to you. He had mentioned nothing about dates before, or at least you had thought so. (To be fair, you weren’t really listening, just imagining what food they would have.) 

“What- why?” You asked, perking up at the turn of conversation. 

“Because you two will be the youngest people there and I’m not trying to have a bunch of old men try to dance with my daughter. No arguments, I’ll even buy you drinks so you don’t have to sneak them.” He says, smirking at how the last part catches you off guard. You thought you had been being sneaky, but clearly drunk you got a little sloppy. 

“Why couldn’t I be Bucky’s date, I mean he’s got a vibranium arm for god's sake.” You say, sighing as you lean back on the couch. Fortunately for you, Peter wasn’t there to get all excited about the gala, he was at home with his aunt May, probably sleeping for school tomorrow. He would be almost jumping out of his seat at the thought of being invited to a gala. 

“I second that.” Bucky says, sipping from his drink, you wink at him but your dad snaps his fingers at the both of you. 

“No. I don’t have to worry about Spiderboy being a perv, old man. We go tomorrow at 6, be ready you hoodlums.” Tony says, going back to picking a movie. You zone back out, freaking out about being Peter’s date. Obviously you were gonna have to be the one to tell him, you handle giving Avenger information to him. And this just so happened to be Avenger info, even if it was just a glorified dance. 

You decided to go ahead and get it out of the way, you shot him a text, hoping he would be asleep.

Yo we’re going to a gala tomorrow. You’re my date. Avenger thing. 

Not even a minute later he responded. 

UR ASKING ME TO BE YOUR DATE?????

Fuck. 

No, dad demanded it. Literally demanded it. 

A minute goes by, you see the typing bubbles. You also feel bubbles in your stomach, as much as it pains you to admit. 

Oh, well I’m honored to be ur date either way<3

Okaaaay that was enough Peter for one night. Now if you could handle a few hours of him tomorrow night. 

Tomorrow came a little too quickly for your liking. You had to go shopping for a nice dress with Natasha during the day while Peter was at school. You found a beautiful lavender dress, it clung to your figure and showed off your back in a way that made you feel pretty delicious. Natasha was the one to pick it actually, she was pretty keen to fashion and what looked nice on you. Way to go, Nat. 

You were also in charge of getting Peter’s tux, luckily you had his measurements from his suit that your dad made him, so you were able to find something that would fit him nicely and kinda sorta match you to appease your father. If you were being completely honest, you were excited to see Peter in it. He typically wore jeans and a baggy t-shirt, those did nothing for his body- no like the Spiderman suit. For someone you pretended to dislike, you had to admit, he had a nice ass. The tux was definitely going to do wonders for him- not that you would tell him that. 

After everything was done in preparation for the gala, you picked Peter up from school, who practically JUMPED into the car. 

“Y/n you are never going to believe what happened today at school- oh my gosh and the gala ,what am I gonna wear- are you excited- you don’t look excited- oh is that a bagel-” 

You shoved the bagel into his mouth to get him to shut up. 

Luckily it didn’t choke him, though in that moment you would have been okay with that happening. 

“Dude chill, I got your tux. What happened at school today?” You asked, slowly pulling the bagel out of his mouth. Peter delves into his day at school, talking about how this guy Flash (a guy you truly hated for how rude he was to Peter) slipped on a banana peel like something out of a cartoon. You actually laughed at that, like a genuine laugh. 

It was the first time Peter had heard you actually laugh at something he said. He was mesmerized by the sound of it, a warm laugh from your chest. It was unlike anything he had ever heard before, especially since it came from you. Peter was aware of how you acted towards him, I mean how couldn’t he be? The other day you threw a fork at him for just entering the room while you were dancing (or just shaking ass) to Taylor Swift. He knew he was trying a little too hard to be your friend, but he wanted to be your friend. And he might have had a little crush on you. How could he not though? You were beautiful, brilliant, and you were kind. Not outright, but it was the little things you did, like bringing him a bagel everyday when you picked him up for school, playing a playlist he sent you when you thought nobody was around, hell even going and picking up a tux for him for this gala. He knew you were sweet, he just had to crack that wall you had up. 

And that laugh felt like a crack in the foundation of that wall, and he was going to bring it tumbling down tonight. 

After a 20 minute drive to the Stark Tower and hearing all about Peter’s day and how excited he was for the gala, you two parted ways to get ready for the gala. At least you were going to get ready for the gala, Peter was going to go bother Happy into helping him figure out what your favorite flowers were, unbeknownst to you. 

Time flew by and before you knew it FRIDAY was requesting that all the Avengers met in the lobby of the tower to be shuttled off to the gala. You were dressed up to the nines, praying you wouldn’t fall over in the heels Natasha lent you. Dear god, why were they so TALL?? If Nat wasn’t a world renowned assassin, you would wallop her in the head for making you wear these monstrosities she called “shoes”. There was no way you were going to make it through the night in these and having to keep up with Peter. 

Before you could make it to the door of your room due to constant tripping, there was a knock at your door. You grunted at whoever was behind it to come in, Peter came in with one of his hands behind his back. 

He watched you as you looked up from trying to get your heel unsnagged from the carpet, your hair falling into your face slightly. It was like a moment out of a movie; he was seeing you dressed up for the first time and he was dumbstruck. There could have been a musical number dedicated to this moment right here, the moment he knew he wasn’t going to last the night without making a fool of himself trying to get you to see him the way he sees you. 

The moment was somewhat ruined when you said, “You gonna stand there drooling or are you going to help me?” 

He scrambled over to you, bringing his arm out from behind him, displaying the bouquet he got you. He had gotten you your favorite flowers, a bouquet of tulips with baby’s breath surrounding them. For a moment you faltered, caught off guard by the act of sweetness. How did he know those were your favorite? He must have asked your dad or Happy, but either way it didn’t matter, the act melted your heart. It made those butterflies come back, especially as you took him in in all of his glory. His tux fit him perfectly and dear god, the bow tie you picked out for him. The lavender color complimented his skin and the brown in his eyes, which you never truly noticed before. Boy, you were in trouble. 

“Why don’t you wear some different shoes? I’d love for you to hang on my arm all night, but those look like torture devices,” Peter says, laying the flowers on your bed and literally pulling you out of the shoes. Maybe he was right, there was no way you could happily prance about a gala in those. But before you went to pick out a different pair, you picked up the flowers. 

“How did you know?” You asked, he got what you meant. 

“Happy helped.” He said nervously, he didn’t know why he was so nervous. He was used to you being somewhat cold to him, but the soft tone in your voice was what got to him. The warmness in it was something he had always longed to hear from you. 

“I love them, thank you,” you say, putting them on your desk as you go to your closet picking a slightly less tortuous pair of heels. As you were searching through your shoes, you tried to calm the blush you had growing on your cheeks. Who knew such a small act could mean so much to someone so lonely? Once again Peter had you rethinking everything, maybe you had been a little too mean to him. You could have responded to some of his texts. You could have not thrown that fork at him the other day. Hell you could invite him to movie night like you dad had been asking you to do ever since he joined the Avengers. Why couldn’t you just get past that stupid resentment you had towards him. It wasn’t even really towards him as much as it was everyone, he just so happened to be the one to get the brunt of the anger. He didn’t even have the short end of the stick; he had the whole ass shit stick. 

Maybe you should start being nicer to him? 

Maybe. 

You grab your new heels and slip them on, holding out your arm for Peter to take. 

“Let’s get this show on the road, Pete,” you say in a surprisingly unannoyed voice. Peter took notice and was fisting pumping the air in his head. Perfect, he knew he was going to get through to you one day. 

The two of you made your way to the lobby, everyone else already there. All the Avengers catcalled and woohoo-ed, your dad even looked impressed by how well you two cleaned up. 

“Nice tux, Under roos,” he said, winking at Peter. Mood immediately ruined for you, Tony simply gave you a smirk and a nod, and added a, “That color looks very nice on you, kid.” 

Right when you were this close to enjoying the night with Peter and trying to put your sadness and anger aside he went and blew it. Not even a ‘wow you’re stunning, hey look everyone, my beautiful daughter has arrived’ like he used to in the past before Peter showed up. I will say you did try and not let it get to you. You plastered a smile to your face and gripped Peter’s arm a little harder than you meant to, making him flinch a little. But the rest of the group just doted on Peter and how nice he looked. And you were almost 110% certain it took him less than 20 minutes to get ready. It took you 3 hours. Come on guys, appreciate the art here. 

But soon enough the limo was ready to take you all to the gala, you and Peter were last in line to hop in. Out of earshot of everyone else, Peter leaned in and whispered into your ear, sending chills down your spine, “I think you outshine all the stars.” 

A bit of that coldness in your heart melted just a little bit more as you muttered a ‘thank you’ and got into the limo. 

The gala wasn’t as eventful as you thought it would be. When you guys got there, there was a red carpet, photos were taken, interviews were given, and by the end of that you were sweating from all the lights and cameras. You had never been one for pictures, but you did as you were told. 

Inside there were a bunch of old people in various cliques across the ginormous ballroom, there wasn’t anyone dancing to the soft music playing. You had guessed because the itinerary said dinner was to be served first. This was until like any party you had ever attended, this was just a classy old person party. So you and Peter waited quietly, talking amongst yourselves about what the old people might possibly be talking about (some topics you two fools came up with were: the amount of young ladies one old man could fit into his infinity pool, anal, and various other crude topics that made the two of you giggle). 

Then, dinner was finally served. You were starving, you had been saving up for this meal because you thought it would be the fanciest, most tasty food you had ever had in your life. Unfortunately, it was mediocre shrimp carbonara with rolls that were probably bought in bulk from the nearest New York. And ghastly red wine, though that might have just been you, you’re more of a pinot grigio girlie. You trudged through, with a lot of salt, it wasn’t that bad. You hated that you didn’t like it, but you had high hopes for dessert. You had heard over the old person grapevine that there was to be some kind of cheesecake, and that just might save the night. 

It didn’t. Again it tasted just like some whole foods thing and you were thoroughly disappointed. For your first gala, you have to say, it was certainly not what you were expecting. Maybe you just didn’t have the same taste buds as the elderly people around you, but damn it. You wanted a good cheesecake, and honestly a really greasy pizza. You could live without the wine for now. But one bite into the cheesecake, you looked over at Peter and you could almost read his thoughts. He was thinking the exact same thing as you: dear god why are we here right now? 

Finally, it was time for the real socializing and dancing, the one thing that would truly save the night. 

The music was classical, which honestly you didn’t mind. It was nice and melodic and calming. Perfect for the chit chat that surrounded you and Peter as you made your way to the dance floor. You had mentioned one time that you liked dancing, plus he saw what you were doing to Taylor Swift, and the minute the tables were cleared for the dance you, he offered you his hand. 

Only you didn’t notice your father and all the other Avengers that truly knew you two were watching, all with knowing looks in their eyes. Lets just say some bets were placed after you had gone to bed the night before, and Steve was winning right now. What can I say, the man has an eye for seeing through facades. (For other people, not himself, poor Steve.) 

You two got close, a lot closer than you had ever been before. Arm in arm and chest to chest, you could feel his breath on you and his heart almost beating out of his chest. You looked up into those eyes you knew all too well and saw something in them you hadn’t really noticed before. 

Adoration. 

Hope.

Longing. 

It almost threw you off your game, but you had to break the silence that was now slowly building in tension. 

“What’s got your heart going, Parker?” You used to always call him by his last name before today, you were hoping to bring him back to reality a little bit with it. What his eyes were saying couldn’t possibly be true after being such an asshole to him. 

“Dancing and being really close to pretty girls tend to do that to a guy,” he chuckles out, his eyes still glittering with unspoken emotions. It gets to the point where you have to glance away. Was it getting hot in here? It was definitely getting hot in here. 

“It’s actually probably because of that terrible wine,” you say, swaying with him the calming music. Man you wish it were calming you now. 

“Yeah that was nasty as hell.” He says, he takes the moment of you looking away to lean his head against yours, making you lean yours against his chest. Better in a way, but also worse. You could smell his cologne and boy it made you see stars. Why did he have to have good hygiene? It would make it a lot easier not to feel any type of way if he smelt like a locker room. 

A silence fell over you two as you stayed like that for the remainder of the song, more comfortable now that you weren’t looking into those deep eyes. You could ignore the emotions you saw there when you had your head on his chest, just embracing the feeling of him wrapped around you and the music taking you away to some far off time. It was actually nice, just being there with him, nobody else who knew the two of you anywhere within earshot. It made you think about the possibility of being friends with Peter, maybe even letting yourself feel whatever was bubbling in your gut. 

The music slowly turned into a more melancholy song, a few people shifted off the dance floor around you, changing partners and whatnot. But you and Peter stayed right there, and danced and danced and danced until it was time to go home. 

The limo ride back was full of tales from the night, though you and Peter sat quietly, barely even listening to the talking going on around you two. As you all arrived home, Tony offered to let Peter spend the night, and he took your dad up on that. Tony had you lead him to the guest bedroom right across the hall from yours, and that was that it seemed. 

You two bid each other an awkward goodnight, and went to your respective rooms. 

Really? Was that how you were going to end the night? You had the chance to clear the air between you and Peter and yet you were only left with a lot of questions. 

No- no. You were going to get answers. You didn’t even change out of your dress before you walked to your door and opened it- 

Only to find Peter Parker already standing there, hand in the air about the knock. 

“Oh! Hey,” you say, genuinely surprised. Great minds, am I right? 

“Hey, I just wanted to- I don’t know. The food was shit, and I’m hungry, do you wanna go grab a pizza or something?” Peter says, scratching the back of his neck. If you were honest, that sounded way better than what you had in mind. 

“I’d love to. Come on, I know the best pizza place in town and we can eat on the roof.” You say, grabbing your car keys off the desk, noticing the flowers once again. Remembering how nice it was to be in Peter’s arms. A realization hits you in that moment and you know exactly what you’re going to do about it. 

About an hour later, bellies full and happily gazing up at the stars, you and Peter laughing to yourself about how ridiculously awful that gala was. 

“They clearly had the money to get the good cheesecake, dude, what was stopping them?” Peter said, you didn’t know if it was the late night giggles or if you were finally letting yourself laugh at how blunt and goofy Peter was, but you were actually really enjoying yourself with him. You make some comment back to him, something vague as you decide it’s time to get down to business. 

You sit up all of the sudden, catching Peter off guard.  You look over at him and pull him up into a sitting position next to you, keeping your hands in his. 

“I don’t want to bring the mood down or anything, but I wanted to say I’m sorry for how I’ve acted since I’ve met you. You’re actually a really amazing person, and you didn’t deserve any of it.” You say in a tone that felt a little too serious after the giggle fest you two just had. 

“Listen, it’s okay I know I kinda just swung in and stayed. And I might have tried a little too hard to get you to be my friend. I just didn’t want you to feel left out,” he says, matching your energy. He looked you in the eyes and you know that he meant it, but you had a feeling he wasn’t saying all of it just like you. If you wanted total honesty, you had to give it. So you did. 

You explained how you felt like he was your dad’s favorite, everyone’s favorite, and that’s why you were so volatile towards him. You explained that you didn’t hate him. You hated the attention he was given, and all you ever wanted was to not feel lonely. He lets you speak through all of it, listening and taking in every word. He felt bad, but he knew there was no way your dad liked him more. Tony doted on you every chance he got, so did all of the Avengers for that matter. They all adored you, just like he does. 

“You know, you truly mean everything to them. All of them, not just your dad. Sure it doesn’t feel like it at times, and I’m sorry for taking up so much time with Tony, but he spends all of it talking about you. About how he wished you were there with us, and telling me so much about you. Everything he’s told me is true: you’re loving, loyal to a fault, fierce in your beliefs and what matters to you. You’re beyond brilliant, and the most gorgeous person to grace this planet. He loves you, Y/n. And I think I’m falling for you.” He rambles out, the last bit just flowing from his heart, his mouth moving faster than his brain. 

The last bit stunned you into silence. It was exactly what his eyes were saying before, you just wanted to hear it out loud. For a moment, Peter thought he fucked up and was going to get drop kicked off of the roof. 

You look up at the stars once more, then you look at Peter. Slowly, but not unsurely, you lean in and press a soft, warm kiss to his lips. He melts into it, all feelings of unsureness or uneasiness floating off into the night sky. He could have lived in that moment forever, finally, finally feeling at peace. 

You pull away, squeezing his hands, “Peter, when I look at the stars, I see you.” 

And he knew at that moment, he was yours.

[milkywaybottles]

Hi! Could I request a swiss x gn!reader oneshot where he misses them when he is on tour and the reader surprises him at a show?

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Of course, love! Thank you sm for the Swiss request! I've been waiting for the chance to write for him <3

Enjoy xx

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Longing - Swiss x Reader Oneshot

Word count: 2.2k

Loving Swiss was like loving the moon, for all its beauty, knowing that by the time the sun comes up, he has to disappear. But he knew you and how you yearned to be held or laugh in his presence. For the latest Impera-tour, he had comprised a large kit consisting of many personal items.

The bag, which in itself was one of his duffel bags, consisted of two fluffy blankets that you used to cuddle with, three of his hoodies that had been covered in cologne, a handful of Polaroids, your favourite vinyls, emergency snacks and some beautiful handwritten letters, some of which had broken wax seals and others hadn’t.

You had also assembled a similar bag for him.

Nevertheless, he had ensured you were well prepared for the month period where you were very much on opposite sides of the Earth. Even the prospect caused you to ache.

Ever since Swiss bashfully asked you out at one of the rituals for the first time, you quickly learnt that touring would become the biggest challenge for any couple. As soon as you left that ritual with the biggest smile plastered on your face, the realisation hit you like a truck that he would not be joining you on the tiring flight home, nor would any of your companions.

The ritual cycle was gruelling, leaving you a dishevelled mess by the end.

So, this time around, when the ritual cycle arrived promptly on your doorstep, you knew exactly what to expect. Though, admittedly this could never take away from the raw and stinging pain you felt without him, especially when some Sister of Sin would go prodding with your heart to stir up drama. After supper, you would retreat to Swiss’ room and dive under the blanket of his four-poster bed, searching for relief.

This emotional toll was not only taken on you, but on Swiss as well.

He hadn’t recalled it as being torturous, but as he stood on stage, he decided promptly that it was inhumane to keep you from him. Every single night his eyes would sift through the crowd of faceless bodies, hoping and praying to make out yours amongst the sea. But he never did.

You always took your seat in the corner of the dining hall, preferring to keep your distance with the other Siblings of Sin. Eventually, while sitting in one of the various wooden rows for supper one stormy night, giggles had reached your ears about your dependency on Swiss. Your mouth soured, eyes set dead centre on your partially empty plate with a scroll across your lips.

“I heard they sleep in his room at night-” one Sister gossiped, holding her pale hands over her mouth as she spoke.

Another cackled, “Haven’t you seen them wear his clothes? Talk about desperate”

The words stuck to your mind, reverberating through your pounding skull. Between the booming thunder outside and the lowly chatter inside the hall, the warmth of your robe was all too comforting as you shrunk backwards into it. Their insults seemed to dissipate as you retreated into your mind, only to be broken with a startled jump.

“Ladies, don’t you have prayer duty to attend to?” Angie hissed, placing her dinner plate firmly down beside yours. At the familiar voice, your head snapped in her direction, a warm smile overtaking your mouth. “They’re just jealous” she assured, taking her seat beside you.

No matter how many times you saw her, you were constantly surprised by her beauty. Her eyes were the same colour as the bark of a tree, always sound and inviting. On occasion, a stray strand of ebony hair would fall out from underneath her coif, framing her round face.

But most importantly, Angie was your friend. She knew you better than anyone else.

“Thank you, Ange. I can normally handle one, but..” you trailed off, evidently throwing your arm up and gesturing to table that the Sisters were sitting at. Angie modestly shrugged, beginning to spoon the contents of her dinner into her mouth.

You both sat in comfortable silence for a moment, prompting you to play with the broken hem of your clothing. Angie was eager to break the silence, “Y’know, why don’t you just go surprise him? Like fly out to their venue and go from there?”. Your attention craned to her once again, your lips pressing together in thought. You shook your head twice,

"I dunno.."

But Angie's smile was wicked, and you knew you had lost.

-

The airport could best be described as an 'attack on the senses', leaving you baffled in its labyrinth of sounds and smells. The last thing you remembered was waving anxiously to your friend at the boarding gate as you disappeared down the hallway with a single luggage bag trailing behind you. The rest of the trip had merged into a fast-paced blur, a cloud of fuzzy disorientation that you found best not to dwell on.

With a single ticket in hand, you filed into the ritual venue with elated excitement, practically skipping your way to the barriers with urgency. The venue had yet to be filled to the brim with people, leaving vast gaps of empty space in the middle of the pit. If you had been to drop a coin, the sound would have bounced off the walls and returned back to you just as loudly. A draft swept through the venue. causing you to shiver.

When people began to fill the empty spaces, you looked down at your appearance and back up at them with a rosy face. You quickly realised that many people were dressed in a similar way to you, if not almost identical, meaning that it would make it almost impossible to spot you in a crowd of a few thousand. Feeling your face heat up in embarrassment, you turned back to the barrier and slicked your hair back, the nerves beginning to bubble in your stomach.

Before you knew it, a guitar solo from Imperium began to blare through the stadium as the lights dulled. You hummed with giddy excitement as the tune morphed into Kaisarion, and in a flash, a silhouette was projected onto the curtain. The stadium erupted in enthralled cheers and screams, practically begging to get the first sight of the ghoul.

As the curtain dropped, the crowd screamed again.

Finally, their eyes had been blessed with Aether, fire spewing behind him in a marvellous display. For the first time that evening, the stage had been lit in a milky yellow light, smoke bursting from the corner pillars. Despite the number of shows you had attended, you were always captivated by the sheer quality and creativity of it all.

Dew, Rain and Aether lined up at the front of the stage, their skills on display as they all played smoothly. You smiled at the friendly familiarity of it all. Aether and his little quirks when playing, such as the occasional extra flick of his wrist or the gesturing to the crowd. Dew and his aggressive head banging. Or Rain, rocking back and forth excessively like a rockstar.

Oh how you had missed them.

“Kaisarion!”

Your smile became even wider as you mouthed the lyrics, staring up at Papa with wonder-filled eyes. Marvelling at the brand new outfits, your eyes drifted to the back left of the stage, scanning for any sight of your ghoul.

Heart squeezing, your eyes were planted firmly on Swiss. You felt as though you were about to explode, cheeks red with excitement. His leg bounced at a quickening pace, hand secured on the microphone stand. Your ears perked at the sound of the backing vocals, and before long, it melded into a beautiful harmony of Swiss and the ghoulettes.

-

The show was pulling to a close and yet it hadn’t managed to slow at all. The crowd was still electrified and the performers just as lively as they continued with their final songs.

You had to admit that while you were completely understanding as to why, you couldn’t help but be disappointed that Swiss had yet to spot you. Being at the back, he was at a disadvantage. Rarely moving from his podium, you assured yourself that even if he didn’t spot you, you would see him later so it didn’t really matter.

With your eyes glued to your partner, you were hastily caught by surprise as you saw him leap off his podium and begin to approach the stage. Many hands were extended towards his shiny black boots as they neared the edge. Your heart must have skipped a beat when he was only a handful of metres away. You could almost feel his reassuring embrace, or his tender kisses.

Feeling the chance pass by you, you abrasively held out your arm towards him and screamed, “Swiss!”. The strumming of his guitar never halted, but he paused and his head was held high as if to smell a strong scent. Then, he spun around at the speed of light as his eyes landed squarely on you. His face was beaming with excitement as you waved furiously.

Although in an attempt not to distract from the show, he skipped over to Aether and they conversed for a moment. Despite the words not being audible over the music, you could assume what they were saying based on the fact that Aether also turned in your direction as Swiss pointed.

You were elated, truly.

Unable to wipe the content look off his face, Swiss focused back on the performance, knowing that if they just finished up, you both could be reunited once and for all.

And that’s what they did.

They carried on persistently until the curtain closed, and even that couldn't dull the roaring of the crowd. Soon, a burly security guard came to collect you and took you through the winding hallways of the venue. As you pushed through the door into the dressing room, you almost leapt towards the first ghoul you saw with desperation.

There was a certain homesickness you had been consumed by, not one which made you miss your physical home, but one which made you miss the people that made you think of home. And of course, your family made you think of home.

"(Y/N)!" a chorus of ghouls cheered. Before you could process what was happening, a pile of ghouls came tumbling towards you with speed. You winced as your body was overtaken by countless limbs, embracing you as tight as they could until your face turned purple. With one eye pried open, you could barely make out the bodies, Dew, Cirrus, Aether, Mountain, Cumulus, Rain and Sunshine.

"I'm happy to see you guys too!" you laughed.

But there was one ghoul that was missing.

Your eyes scanned over the room, the leather couch, the vanity, and even the cacti in the corner of the large room to no avail. Frowning, you turned back to the ghouls, doing your best to hide your disappointment with a content smile.

"(Y/N)...?"

Your mind snapped.

You knew that voice anywhere.

Your heart almost leapt from your throat as you spun to the voice, which had just emerged from the other door. You gave him no time to react as you jumped at him, hugging your ghoul in your arms. The scent of musk and bourbon lingered under your nose, prompting your hold to become stronger. You felt his hand press to your hair, pulse thumping under his chest as you were pushed towards it.

An 'aww' was shared between the ghoulettes.

At last, your head dragged away from the comforting fabric of Swiss's chest to meet his sparkling eyes, filled with the softness of love. "I saw you in the crowd" he mumbled against the crown of your head, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to surprise you"

He grinned, canines flashing, "Well this certainly is a surprise" and placed a quick kiss on your lips.

One of his many forms of affection, while mostly gentle with you, was to pull you towards him or to stroke his tail spade up and down your calves. And it was no different that time around. As if his tail had a mind of its own, it began to drift upwards.

You smirked and shuddered, leaning into his arms to savour the moment.

Everything felt right, like puzzle pieces finally fitting together. The way your body curved perfectly around his strong stature, or the way his hand fell into yours comfortably.

“Get a room, guys” Aether called, looking up from the couch with a playful dismay.

Swiss shot deadly daggers towards his brethren, breaking away from your gaze. Like that of a snake, his tongue flicked outwards from the underneath of his helmet. “Trust me, we would if we could”. Although fiery, his tone was dripping with a smugness

Face now flushed, you left your hand on his arm assertively. He leant forwards, eliminating the gap between your lips as he caught you in a passionate tangle.

“You should surprise me more often” he remarked.

“I’ll take notes” you replied wittily.

And of course you both weren’t going to miss out on the opportunity to make up for lost time.

The prospect of returning home was far from your mind. All that remained was a deep longing for your partner.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

[go-go-devil]

Dark Souls Advice for Beginners: A Mindful Approach to a Challenging Classic

Dark Souls is, without question, one of the best games I’ve ever played… Which is why it pains me to still see so much gameplay discussion regarding it being overshadowed by overblown exaggerations of its difficulty or judgemental opinions hurled at others over whatever they think the "correct" and "incorrect" ways to play the game are.

As someone who recently beat the game for the very first time, I want to dispel these unhelpful ideologies and offer some tips I’ve picked up on just from playing the game by myself in hopes that they can help out beginners who want to experience this wonderful game first-hand.

This will NOT be made up of objective gameplay tips that one can find in hundreds of guides at this point (ex: how to parry, best order of bosses to fight, where to get the grass crest shield, etc.). Instead, this guide aims to narrow down the most important mindsets one should adopt while playing to best ease themself into this game’s challenging-but-rewarding mechanics BEFORE they would need to ask for help.

Dying is a Lesson, not a Punishment

Most people who've heard of Dark Souls even in passing are aware of the penalty given to players every time they die: losing your souls and humanity, or basically the in-game currency and natural resistance bonus + bonfire kindler + icreaser of finding item drops, among other things.

And you will die in this game.

A LOT!

Although this game has become infamous for having a high difficulty, it actually handles its death penalties very fairly in my opinion.

Like its predecessor, Demon’s Souls, this game expects the player to die many times throughout the adventure, and the gameplay accommodates for this. While the cost of death is losing ALL of your on-hand souls and humanity, the game gives you a second chance to reclaim those lost souls by returning to the spot where you died and recollecting them on the ground. It is only if you die again before reaching your souls that they disappear forever.

If you find yourself dying over and over again without making any meaningful progress, it’s best to view this as the game not telling you “Oh wow you must be terrible at playing this game!” but instead as suggesting “Perhaps you are not fully prepared to venture through this area or kill this boss just yet.”

Dark Souls 1 offers a lot of open-endedness to its world-design. If you’re stuck in one area, then try exploring another one. You’ll always find something useful wherever you go, and you’ll keep on getting better at the game the more you practice with the freedom you’re given!

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment

Hopefully this one is obvious to you, but I know some people might be afraid they crafted their Chosen Undead “wrong” simply because of the very first choices they made. Like I said in the previous tip, exploration is the name of the game; not just in the world itself, but also for the gameplay and leveling system.

While indeed some weapons have better damage output than others, and starting characters’ stats often imply that you should go for a certain build (ex: Clerics = Faith Build), what’s wonderful about Dark Souls is that you don’t NEED to stick with one build throughout the entire journey. The early portion is meant to be a time to discover your personal best ways of getting through the game.

For a personal example, I started out as a Thief: a class with great dexterity, but with only decent points in faith and intelligence. While I was primarily building my character around dex and endurance, I did experiment with the various magic systems in the game and found I really loved using various sorcery spells, so I made sure to level up my intelligence & attunement whenever I felt it best just so I could use more. This strategy led to my character being a sort-of-mixed build of sorcery and dexterity, which ended up being a lot of fun for me!

Experimentation is not just limited to weapons and builds either! Dark Souls does an excellent job with placing items to find in areas where you may need to use them, so be sure to try them out whenever you find them. You won’t know how useful an item will be to you unless you give it a go, so save the hoarding for only after you’ve grown to covet them.

Use (but Don’t Abuse) Your Shields

For a newcomer to the game, the shield is a tool that is just as invaluable as any weapon you'll find. In a game so full of unpredictable hazards, the shield is both your lifeline and an important tool to learn the attack patterns of your enemies. 

I hid behind my shield constantly when traveling through the first few areas of Lordran, which certainly saved me a good few deaths I would’ve otherwise gotten from still getting a hang of the controls (and with my limited estus flasks). More importantly, however, having my shield up allowed me to study the speed and variety of my foes' strikes. Once I felt like I understood them well enough, I naturally began using my shield less and less when fighting them, eventually reaching the point where if I wasn't two-handing my weapon I was using my shield for parrying enemy attacks.

However, this is where the don’t abuse part comes in.

While it’s certainly a good idea to always have one at the ready at the start of a new area, it is also unwise to fully rely on the shield for protection against every foe you meet. Eventually you WILL find some enemies that won’t stumble back after you block their attacks, or even ones that won’t be bothered by your shield at all.

Really it all comes down to using common sense when up against your foes. Think of the shield just as you would a weapon; if it isn’t going to work, then don’t wear it down for nothing!

The World is Your Oyster, and Won't Bend To Your Every Whim

Possibly the most important tip I can provide to those just getting into the souls series, so take this one to heart!

One major feature of Dark Souls is the fact that it constantly autosaves EVERY action you make as you play through the game, which in turn means that it makes nearly every action you do permanent.

If you used a rare titanite material to upgrade a weapon you’re still not entirely sure about using or if you killed an npc for their armor/item drops but then felt bad about it, you CANNOT simply reload your save and reset everything. Your actions have consequences, and you need to learn to live with them.

Thinking out your every approach is vital to getting the most out of this game. When you're upgrading your stats, carefully consider what you feel would benefit you the most for the next area/boss you plant on going to. If you have limited resources, then spend some time planning out when and where it’s best to use them. If you have a weapon that requires a TON of souls and/or rare materials to upgrade, then perhaps contemplate on if it's even worth the effort or not.

Dark Souls has very strong opinions on players who are driven by greed, so smart thinking can help you avoid how the game expresses those opinions so to speak ;)

Hopefully these tips will help you out on your own first journey through this truly amazing video game. So have fun, and Prepare to Die!

[gear-project]

Annon-Guy: Batman Arkham Scenario

So, how would Sol, Ky, May, Millia, Zato, Chipp, Potemkin, Axl, Faust, Baiken and Testament do in Combat and Predator (Stealth) Challenges?

I do know that if Kliff and Justice were allowed, they'd curb stomp the Combat Challenges. Stealth Challenges might be tough for them.

Sol is not good at stealth, despite the fact he somehow managed to save President Vernon in the White House. Combat is something of a mild hobby in Sol's case. He's also used his fists to "communicate" to people when explaining things normally doesn't work.

Ky is actually pretty decent at stealth. Ky treats combat as an art form or as the tests of a Knight.

May is no good at it. May treats fighting like it's a party, so she's a bit of a wild child.

Millia's a former Assassin, so of course she'd be good at stealth. Millia actually hates fighting if she absolutely can't avoid it, but she is very lethal AS a fighter.

Zato, it goes without saying, Stealth is his primary function. Zato being an Assassin means killing is his second nature, so fighting is also very easy for him, though he's not all that interested in it for its own sake.

Chipp used to be bad at stealth but has gotten better after finishing his training his master Tsuyoshi gave him. Chipp used to pick fights a lot when he was younger, but has matured a lot. He won't fight unless it's necessary or to save people.

Potemkin is.... not good at stealth at all... much less the fact he stands out in a crowd. Potemkin got put under safety controls because of his raw and growing physical strength, so he fights on the side of caution if he absolutely must.

Axl can teleport, so Stealth isn't even needed. Axl hates to fight, but doesn't have much luck in avoiding fights.

Faust tried to sneak around various places but that often backfires on him. Faust hates fighting, being a natural pacifist (for the most part, unless his insanity gets triggered).

Baiken can detect ninjas like Answer, so she understands Stealth and could probably do it well if she wanted but doesn't bother. Baiken is used to fighting, and that's how she handles most situations, but Anji is trying to teach her how to be more civil.

Testament could be stealthy but doesn't care about that one bit. He likes to stand out, in fact. Fighting was second nature as a Gear to Testament starting out, but when the conflict with humans ended internally for him, being peaceful was more important, but he won't hesitate to draw his scythe in a sticky situation or to protect his family.

Kliff was actually very good at using Ki for most of his life, so Stealth and Combat were actually some of the best he was capable of, though we don't know how good his abilities in stealth actually were, but he was able to outsmart Justice' army on many occasions, tactically.

Justice didn't really care about stealth, was very blunt, violent, and egotistical... she wasn't picky about her brutal methods, either... needless to say though, people speak her name in hushed tones and reverence to this day as the Herald of Destruction.

[toxins-very-gay-thoughts]

Hi! I love your hcs and would like to make a request, I would like you to let your imagination flow with hcs of toh in modern life. I would especially like from eda/young eda, but it's not mandatory! Thanks!

Hello! Thank you so much <3 Here are some modern au hcs (in a non-magical world):

I think a lot of Eda and Raine's meeting would be the same. Eda would be forced to go to a competition because of her terrible behavior while Raine would for their scholarship. Raine would have a scholarship for their musical talent but also has an interest in chemistry. Instead of Raine using magic to change Eda's drink, they use a pinch of salt to make it sweeter.

While Eda loved learning, the school system was wrong for her. She could usually understand something but she could not sit still or be taught in a "normal" manner. In this way, she was very knowledgeable in many subject areas but failed on tests. She even enjoyed learning music but only really developed her craft after meeting Raine.

Eda has depression and anxiety. She uses her humor and false confidence to hide this. Instead of having a curse, she has narcolepsy. Which developed around fourteen. For some reason when I think about what she would have instead of her owl beast curse that's all I can think of. I am sure that there is probably a better alternative but I do not feel knowledgeable enough about those to label her as them. Her narcolepsy is what really fuels her depression and anxiety.

Gwendolyn became obsessed with curing Eda, but like in the show. Narcolepsy cannot be cured, only treated. This eventually drove her away. She made many running away attempts. Leaving her home for several days without any notice. Yet she always came back, until she remembered the old broken house that her father used to use. She did not ask for permission to use this, she just went in. Technically, the house is still in her father's name. But her would never say anything to her.

Instead of hurting Dell physically, she could see the stress that her disorder placed on him despite him trying to hide it. She couldn't handle her father, the one who kept everything light and happy, be upset. So she slowly pulled away. In this au though, she talks to her father occasionally instead of cutting off complete contact. Usually through text message.

Raine and Eda still break up temporarily. Their breakup is more so fueled by Eda's refusal to open up. Raine knows about Eda's narcolepsy but Eda is still very quiet about it.

Instead of teaching herself, since Eda hates studying, I think she would likely meet a more kinesthetic teacher (as an older teen/young adult) and they would be the one to lead her into being more knowledgeable on various subjects. They would see her as intelligent (while everyone else sees her as a troublemaker first and foremost) and challenge her intelligence. While Eda has been in misery for years, struggling to keep learning and even just attending school, this is the first time someone makes her want to learn again. This person would never push her on her disorder, if they ever mention it. Which makes Eda feel safe and even tempts her to talk about it. This would be the only person Eda really has until meeting King. Through them, she basically is taught higher level english/math/chemistry/etc courses. She would not see this as a romantic relationship. More friendship and possibly even a parental one. The teacher would be much older than her. I think she studies music on her own until the Raeda breakup. Then when she plays music it hurts too much for her to focus. (If you want to know more on this oc let me know ;D )

Eda does odd jobs around town. Almost everyone knows her, but they don't know her. She will be working at a grocery store one day, then is helping a fisherman for money the next. No one knows when she will appear or disappear, but they are usually somehow conned into letting her work.

As her side job, she has yard sales outside businesses. She has been chased off by the police several times.

Eda and Raine definitely protest. They go to lgbt protests / pride parades and support their local queers. Later they go with Amity and Luz.

Eda finds King when he is a homeless small child (almost toddler). He was bundled in several coats and looked after by a few of the homeless adults but really had no parent. She didn't take him in immediately, she first saw him but left. However, her mind wouldn't rest. She was constantly suffocated by guilt and eventually went back to get him. He was a tiny thing with tons of dirty hair. Which she would learn after he bathed was quite fluffy. Despite her hatred of paperwork, she formally adopted him. She is still haunted by the two weeks that he was left in the alleyway without her.

Eda's house is actually many miles away from Camila's house. On the edge of a small town. (While it is in Connecticut, it is far enough away from the city that it has a feeling of being in a different place. The weather is still the same though lol)

Instead of Luz finding the old shack, she finds Eda's house deep in the woods after getting lost. After a day of adventures, she takes a deep interest in the woods and the nature there. She enjoys the way Eda lives, teaching herself the things she loved in a way that wasn't constricting (Luz hadn't met the teacher oc yet), looking for herbs to cook from the woods, the little kid that had big eyes and that begged for stories from her, she random shiny objects she found scattered around the house, the way magic seemed to live there despite the constantly voice in her head telling her magic didn't exist. Her fingers typed out that she had arrived at camp, and that she loved it.

Luz doesn't really speak about her mom to Eda. Due to this, Eda assuming her mother isn't the best which is what pushes her to allow Luz to stay. Of course she does find out Camila is a lovely person eventually and feels shitty.

In the town, there are only a handful of prominent families - one being the Blights. There is also only one school; However, Luz never goes there due to it being summer time.

Luz meets Amity in the library as she is studying before school begins again.

Luz meets Willow in the woods. She has a journal and categorizes plants. While she takes all the normal classes at school, Willow's extracurricular class is botany.

Willow introduces Gus to Luz when she comes to see Luz the day after meeting her.

Instead of a Human Appreciation Club, Gus runs a very small club called Trinket Appreciation Club. He loves Eda's house and asks to bring things from her collection to show off.

Amity is an honor student and takes honor classes (ofc).

Much like the og, Amity would hate Luz at first. Instead of Luz challenging her to a duel, Amity challenges Luz to an intelligence test. However, school is out of course, so the tests have to be made by Willow and Gus. They create questions that are just not what Amity was expecting. What she wanted was math problems or how to structure a sentence, yet they ask about what they're interested in. Such as "what are the qualities that are used to scale trinkets", "what flower is poisonous that also can heal", etc. Amity can't pass because it's just based off Willow and Gus's random knowledge. However they do include one question that Luz would have to get right (as they are partial to her of course) which is - Who is Azura's greatest foe? Luz notices that Amity actually gets this question right and gets excited that she knows The Good Witch Azura. This is what sparks their friendship but it takes a bit longer since they aren't forced together by classes.

However, once they are solid friends Amity came over with Willow and Gus which was very often.

Amity and Willow still were ex friends after Amity was forced to cut off Willow for not doing well in school. However, Willow opened up and they became civil again. It took a long time for them to be real friends. Luz was the real one helping with this.

Instead of Vee shapeshifting into Luz. She was simply adopted. It was right before Manny became sick. She was not sent to "the camp" because she actually loved school and excelled. She was the one who tried to keep Luz out of trouble but ultimately couldn't keep her from bringing the snake for her project rip.

Overall, instead of being a show about Luz connecting with magic, it would be about Luz connecting with nature.

[aerodaltonimperial]

“ is… that my shirt you’re wearing? ” for the question meme please! if i could be so bold, do it in reverse, hook wearing danhausen's shirt???

(THIS WAS SO HARD. I CHALLENGED MYSELF TO WRITE THIS REQUEST FROM DANHAUSEN'S POV AND I WILL NEED WAY MORE PRACTICE WITH THIS LOL WOW)

Hotels are one of the less predictable parts of AEW. In some cities, everyone gets their own rooms spread across a number of nearby hotels, and that is quite nice, because then Danhausen gets space to work on vlogs for the fanhausens. But in other locations, they aren't so lucky, and people have to get doubled up. This is much less desirable; not all of the others on the roster are nice. In fact, some of them can be quite rude, even if they aren't placed together. Danhausen still remembers the time his room was next to the Ass Boys and they played loud music all night against the wall, just to annoy him. (If he could have reached them, he could have cursed them into stopping, but they refused to answer his knocks at the door. Sometimes this happens. Danhausen has learned it's best to try not to take it personally.)

He doesn't mind being placed with Orange Cassidy, and he doesn't think he would have issues with Chuck or Trent (but they are always together because, of course, they are best friends!), but he isn't consulted in the decisions. This feels like a significant oversight.

However, the hotel lobby he is standing inside now is even less organized than the previous ones. It appears that the staff wasn't aware of the room issues and needing to double-book their guests. Many of them are running around from computer to computer in various states of agitation. (One has already disappeared into the back room. Danhausen hears some sniffles through the door, and feels a bit bad, even though none of the accommodations are Danhausen’s fault.)

"We're very sorry," one of the clerks says. He has some very aesthetically-pleasing glasses. "We're trying to pair people as they come in, so if you wouldn't mind waiting..."

Oh, no. Danhausen doesn't like this plan. He's afraid that one of the Ass Boys will walk in next, or worse, a member of the Factory. Of course, he's strong enough to curse them if they try anything, but it's not very comfortable having to sit curled in the closet all night. (He really doesn't like to think about that time.)

He does not like to admit being nervous, because naturally, Danhausen is capable of handling any situation that comes his way, but his stomach has twisted into small knots, not much larger than molars, probably. The sensation gets worse when the door opens, but he is in luck, because it isn't QT Marshall, but Hook.

"Ah," Danhausen says, a quick exhale. "This will be fine! Danhausen can room with his good friend Hook."

The clerk's expression is dubious. He looks as though he is a little afraid to ask Hook to pair up with Danhausen. In fact, his face twists a lot like Danhausen’s stomach had been when he turns to Hook and asks, "Ah, sir, I'm very sorry to have to ask this..."

Hook doesn't wait for him to finish. He just nods and holds his hand out, palm up. Danhausen thinks the clerk might actually melt into a puddle of relief when he hands the keycards over. Perhaps he thought Danhausen was a much more evil demon, and was concerned about the safety of the other party. Silly, but understandable.

With both keys, Hook taps on Danhausen's shoulder, jerking his chin towards the elevator.

Danhausen hears a very audible sigh of relief behind him as they make their way out of the lobby. He hopes the unfortunate staff has a better night once everyone has arrived. Hook doesn't say anything when he hits the button, but Hook really doesn't say much most of the time anyway. Danhausen is fine with this. Hook communicates in a lot of different ways; humans are the ones obsessed with mouth words.

"Danhausen is very glad it was you," Danhausen admits, quietly, while they wait. Hook gives him half a smile. (In terms of Hook smiles, this is a very big smile, so Danhausen is happy.)

The room is normal, as far as hotels go, with one notable exception.

"Perhaps they have made a mistake," Danhausen says. "They are, after all, very stressed. There is only one bed here. Maybe Danhausen should call down."

Hook just shrugs. He doesn't seem very concerned. Then he snaps his fingers and points at the far side of the room. "Window side."

He sets about unpacking some of his duffel. If Hook is fine with things, then Danhausen does not wish to bother the staff with more problems. It's not a concern, since it's Hook. (The Ass Boys would be a different situation.)

Danhausen decides to order them room service, as it is already late, and flying in human airplanes makes him quite tired. He wishes they could figure out a faster method of transportation already. He asks Hook what he would like, and gets another shrug. He thinks this probably means chips. Those aren't on the menu, but they are in the vending machine, so he goes to get a few bags while they wait.

Hook seems pleased when he returns. Hook is a nice room partner. He doesn't care about Danhausen talking to his fanhausens through the camera, and he doesn't make a mess, save for the empty chip bags. He is even agreeable enough to wave at the camera from his slouched position on the bed, wearing his headphones, which Danhausen thinks the fanhausens will really like.

Danhausen's phone dings a few minutes after 10. "The cars are scheduled to pick us up at 8 tomorrow," he says, just in case Hook didn't get the same message. He probably did. Danhausen thinks he might get messages earlier because his father is a famous suplex machine.

Hook gives him a thumbs up.

Danhausen takes a shower, and then lets Hook do the same. It's pretty late by the time they end up shutting the lights off. Overall, the room assignment has been better than Danhausen could have hoped for. Maybe he could request that he and Hook always get put together. But then he gets worried. Maybe Hook does not wish to have to stay with Danhausen all the time. Human interactions can be very confusing, and Danhausen very much does not wish to mess things up with Hook, who is a very good friend. He never acts like Danhausen is a bother, or says rude things. In fact, he is probably one of Danhausen's very best friends.

(Here, Danhausen understands why Chuck and Trent always room together. It's very comfortable.)

He must go still for a long time, because Hook rolls over to look at him from the opposite pillow. "What's wrong?"

"Ah, well, Danhausen was just thinking it would be nice if this was always how the room assignments were. That maybe he could request it."

He thinks Hook will not like the idea. But Hook just nods, illuminated by the street light outside. "Okay."

"Okay?" Danhausen repeats. He is...surprised. Happy, but surprised.

Hook is smiling. It's almost a full smile, which in Hook smiles, is probably equivalent to a loud display of joy, maybe even with jumping up and down. "You're ridiculous," he says.

"Danhausen gets called many things, but not that, very often."

"Turn over." Hook pokes at his shoulder until Danhausen complies. Then he tugs his pillow closer, adjusting it with a complicated series of fluffs and pats, before slotting himself behind Danhausen’s body and slinging his arm across Danhausen’s stomach.

He settles in, mumbling a bit against Danhausen’s shoulder.

This...is much, much nicer than any of the other paired hotel stays have ever been. In fact, this is probably the most comfortable Danhausen has ever been. (Oh! Maybe this is why Chuck and Trent always stay together. Danhausen will have to ask them later.) He suspects he can fall asleep very quickly.

He's right, too. (Danhausen usually is.)

The next morning, he is a bit slow to get up and moving. Danhausen does not really enjoy mornings. Hook is better at getting ready at an appropriate pace. In fact, he is halfway out the door before Danhausen realizes he can't find his shirt.

"Has Hook seen..." Danhausen stops. Stares. "Is that...Danhausen's shirt? That you're wearing?"

It most certainly is. Hook just offers him the 3/4 smile, the very large one, and says, "See you tonight," before darting into the hallway and letting the door shut behind him.

Well.

It takes awhile for Danhausen to follow him out, only because he has a great, great many questions, all of which he is reasonably sure he knows the answer to.

[buddyaldridge]

Im obsessed with your greek au. Making pony darry and sodas half brother with his biodad being greek…your mind is enlightened and inspired. maximum family drama potential

How did this idea come about? Like why greek/house of atreus specifically? is it just the name Hippodamos? (Also absolutely love the idea that “ponyboy” being a translation of his real name)

hi anon! i'm supposed to be off touching grass this weekend but i am hungry for this yet to be delivered doordash meal + i love greekverse asks.

greekverse started bc @kalonkakons and i both cast timothy olyphant as our faves: theirs being menelaus, mine being ponyboy curtis. we'd already been friends for awhile and the illiad and the house of atreus itself is more their bag than mine and at some point we were going "you know. our blorbos should get along. they would have fun."

then we realized what we'd done casting wise and after awhile one of us said, late at night sleepover style, "...what if they were brothers."

there's been a trend of "the curtises had an affair child" in fandom i was never super fond of cause usually it meant an OFC coming attached with it and most were of varying quality at the time. however apparently, my brain lights the fuck up if you suggest that ponyboy was the affair child. partly because it slots in so neatly in canon. ponyboy already has various issues around his identity in canon from his shifting eye color to him despairing because he doesn't seem to fit in with his brothers. both of whom are some shade of blonde whereas in the book ponyboy is described as being auburn haired. sort of a literal red headed affair child. it also slots in well with how we see ponyboy at the end of the novel and all teh hints he could be a horror protagonist. he has such a final boy quality about him that sticking him in the house atreus is correct!

once that took off, we basically built it together — i picked john cassavetes for atreus and @kalonkakons went "GENA ROWLANDS FOR JENNIFER!!". hippodamus is roughly close to ponyboy and works since atreus' mother is named the girl equivalent of hippodamia — something @kalonkakons figured out and made us go insane about. there are lots of bits and bobs and i love the family drama particularly since menelaus is basically the opposite of darry in terms of how he treats ponyboy while also doing a lot more than soda for ponyboy as well. atreus is a Clusterfuck of a Human while sincerely loving ponyboy even if it can be detrimental at times (i've likened atreus being the vader to ponyboy's luke skywalker) and i love pelops and hippodamia and pony's Best Friend, 🩷 helen 🩷

more i also enjoy pushing against some of the fluff fandom puts out. so much of it is really conforming to certain things i don't care for or i find overly saccharine and being able to challenge some of it in a fun away is fun for me — maybe ponyboy can't actually handle what happened and maybe there's a family out there waiting for him that he could fit into better. or the idea that there's another form of brotherhood for him out there that he could access.

[deanmonlover]

Dares and Jumpscares

a/n: here's the third part to my corey x reader series. honestly I have a hc that Corey doesn't like dolls that much because his mom had porcelain figures and they remind him of his childhood. also this just has a lot of fluff in it so please enjoy! 🖤

"Two tickets for 'The Boy''" You leaned up to the ticket booth, peering up at the lit up signs that listed all the movies playing that night. It was around Halloween which meant every night they played a horror movie.

"Okay please tell me why dolls are so creepy." Corey couldn't tear his eyes away from the poster with the doll staring deep into his soul. "Oh come on, give them one kick and they're halfway across the room." You teased, not realizing truly how much Corey hated dolls and figurines.

He had always hated them because his mother had so many porcelain dolls lined up on shelves in her bedroom, living room, and dining room. Porcelain oddities with black eyes followed him around the room it always felt like. So when you had suggested 'The Boy' he had to muster up the courage to say yes to it. He honestly had much rather watched something like 'Hocus Pocus' or 'Beetlejuice' even though he had never seen those either but he didn't want to seem like he couldn't handle watching something that you seemed so excited about.

You rolled your eyes playfully, taking the tickets in your hand before reaching for Corey's arm, linking them together as you walked in the theater. It was an older movie theater, it looked like it was straight out of the eighties.

"C'mon, we have to get some popcorn and drinks, candy you name it." You led the way, shielding Corey from the strange looks he received from the box office employees. They knew who he was but you didn't want that to ruin your date. You were glad he didn't seem to notice and ordered your popcorn combo.

"I'm paying by the way." Corey interjected when the employee told you the total, hurriedly pulling out his weathered wallet from his back pocket.

"Um no, no you are not. I wanted this date–" You couldn't let him pay for it, yes you had wanted a date but honestly you felt horrible having him pay for everything. "I know but so did I. I'm just happy you asked so please, y/n let me pay." His dark brown puppy dog eyes got the better of you and you couldn't help but buckle under his stare.

You threw up your hands, feigning defeat. "Fine, fine! I give! But next time I am paying for our next date because there will be a next one." His heart skipped a beat whenever you said that, he still couldn't believe you both were here on an actual date. Even more so that you had been the one to ask, knowing who he was. If angels were real, you were one for certain.

As soon as you both sat down, the commercials for various movies started up on the large screen but you didn't pay them any mind and instead turned to your handsome date with a twizzler between your lips.

"First one to get to the middle wins." You challenged, a coy smile perched upon your pink lips. Corey sat eyes wide behind his glasses, staring at the twizzler a light shade of red creeping into his cheeks before obliging your silly antics. He leaned forward taking the piece of candy between his lips, inching toward the middle of the twizzler in the same fashion as you with your lips meeting in the center. You let out a little laugh as you reached up, placing your hand on his cheek before biting down on the center of the red rope.

"I win." You whispered, pressing your lips against his for a brief second before pulling away, smiling to yourself at the tease. "Okay that wasn't fair, I want a re-match." Two could play this game, Corey felt like he could be at ease with you. He reached for you hand, leaning forward with another twizzler with his big brown eyes begging for another chance.

The movie began in the background as the lights dimmed and the screen got larger. The moment the Brahms doll appears on screen, Corey squeezed your hand almost entranced by the thing. You peered over at him in the dark thinking it was just because he was getting ready for a jumpscare but when the first jumpscare does happen, he's practically squeezing your hand off not even realizing he's doing it subconsciously.

"Core, it's okay. The doll isn't real." You whispered, leaning over to whisper in his ear.

"Pfft yeah, yeah I knew that. I just wanted to make sure you were still paying attention. Plus I didn't want you getting scared." He teased, reaching over to grab a handful of popcorn. Just as he did, a loud boom came from the slamming of a door on screen. And up went the popcorn bucket along with his handful as you both screamed.

"Shit!" You squeaked, heart pounding from the sudden surprise. Corey felt like his soul had left his body from the scare and turned to you with a sheepish grin on his face. "Thought you had seen this before?" He teased, laughing quietly as he reached up to dig out pieces of popcorn out of your hair.

You both loved it here in the dark, just sitting together with your head slowly leaning over on his shoulder. It didn't matter that you both practically were jumping out of your seats every other scene all that mattered was the fact that you could both be yourselves. In the dark, no one cared who you were they were too intent on the movie along with the fact that there was maybe one other couple in the theater with the two of you.

Soon the credits were rolling and you were half asleep on Corey's chest. He was still reeling from the movie, heart beating fast but slowly yet surely slowing down. That was until he realized you were laying there on his chest with your hand in his lap right above his crotch. He gently reached down and moved your hand, not being that type of guy to just take advantage of that fact. Honestly, the curly haired male didn't even have the heart to wake you up either but the movie theater was closing soon so it was either wake you up or get locked in.

"Hey, y/n. Wake up, the movie is over." He gently brushed your cheek with his free hand, hoping that would be enough to wake you up. You stirred in your seat, looking around at the now completely empty theater. "You fell asleep near the end, don't worry you didn't miss anything really. Doll ends up being a grown man in a mask." He shrugged, playing it off that he was scared pretty much the whole time the film was playing. "Okay but he probably was attractive under that mask and was just hiding his beauty from the world." You teased, standing up to stretch with him before you both walked out of the theater to the motorcycle in the dark.

"I say we just order food back at my place. I'm still kinda tired." A yawn escaped your lips as you stretched your arms that had fallen asleep.

"That sounds like the best idea you've had all night." Corey reached for your arm, pulling you as close to him as you could possibly get as you walked over to his motorcycle. You both got on once again, your arms wrapping around his waist, leaning your head against him.

"I didn't mean to make you see that movie." It came out of nowhere, honestly you had felt horrible about it ever since he had been practically crawling into the bottom of his theater seat. He tried to play it off but you could tell he was scared.

"It's no big deal, really. I actually kind of liked the ending, the doll being a guy behind a mask. It made it a lot less scary." He tried to reassure you, it did make you feel slightly better but had you known you definitely would have picked a safer option for you first date and wouldn't have fallen asleep.

"Okay next time we're picking a Scooby-Doo movie, they're our safest option." That earned you a laugh from the curly headed boy as he nodded.

"Deal, Scooby doo from now on. I wanna really be scared." He started up the engine and started off towards your house, ready to get out of the public eye. Even though it was dark outside now, he was always alert of his surroundings. Though he wanted to try for you. He wanted so badly to do things that would make you happy, he would literally do anything just to see you smile. Anything.

[fang-and-feather]

A Sweet Moment

Fandom: Ikemen Prince

Rating: General

Categories: F/M

Pairing: Yves/OC

Words: 815

Prompt(s): "This gingerbread house just WON'T stay up!", from the "’tis the season for love" content creation challenge hosted by @xxsycamore and @voltage-vixen

Summary: Yves finishes work later, to find his girlfriend having trouble in the kitchen.

Fang and I planned for each to do a work for a new fandom and I'm glad I finished mine to close the year.

Yves got inquiet after not seeing his girlfriend all day. They had plans to spend Christmas together the next day, but, even so, he would have felt better if he’d at least seen Linet that morning.

At least now his work was done, and they could spend some time together before going to bed. If he could find her. Linet had called him fickle before, but she was the one who, without him or some task to keep her in check, became unpredictable. If she wasn’t in her room or the library reading, she could be anywhere.

But Yves knew his girlfriend enough to find her in the next place he searched after that. The kitchen was filled with the sweet scent of baked goods, but not with the usual sound of Linet either humming or singing. Instead, she stood rather silent, staring down at a quite crooked gingerbread house that finished tumbling down a second later.

Usually either optimistic and happy or at least composed, this time Linet was pouting. Yves found her cute, even like that.

He watched a little longer as she started rebuilding it, but when the house fell apart again and Linet started frowning, he approached, rubbing the wrinkle that formed between her eyebrows.

“What did I tell you about making such faces?” He asked in a gentle tone.

“Something about me getting a permanent wrinkle or something.” She laughed before giving him a kiss on the cheek and leaning against his chest. “I missed you.”

The gesture got him by surprise. She always changed emotions so fast that sometimes he had trouble keeping up.

So he kissed her on the lips, both because he really missed her, because she was looking so adorable, and a little to hide how embarrassed he was for being surprised like that.

“I missed you too.” For a moment, the two only shared a smile, before he looked around the kitchen, filled with various manners of cakes and other sweets. “What is all of this for?”

“Well, you’re usually the one making things for me, but since you were quite busy today, I wanted to make something for you instead, but I was a little restless and ended up making too much, so it can be our little early Christmas party!” Yves wondered if Linet had eaten some of it already, because her beaming smile looked a little more excited than usual and she was speaking a little faster and louder. “I don’t know if we can eat all of it but, if we don’t, we can share with the others later.” Linet looked down. “I just thought I would have finished it before you arrived but…” she cast a pouting glance at the remains of the candy house on the table, “this gingerbread house just WON’T stay up! The base is easy, but the top always falls apart.”

With a defeated sigh, she left his arms to try again.

Yves just couldn’t believe his girlfriend, doing so much to try making him happy. It wasn’t fair that her efforts were causing her distress instead, but he had watched her before and the problem was a little with her. Linet wasn’t as delicate as she looked and had a tendency to handle things more roughly than necessary.

“I told you, you need to relax and concentrate on not putting too much force into your work. It didn’t break, which means you’re improving, but you have to control yourself better. Here. Let me help you”

With a smile, Yves walked behind her and took her hands in his, feeling how tense Linet was and how she relaxed under his touch, allowing him to guide her in the first steps of rebuilding the house, then released her hands to watch her finish it herself with much more ease.

“Thank you, Yves.” Linet turned around and hugged him. “You’re always so good at everything that, sometimes, I get a little hasty in improving myself. But you’re right, I have a long way to go yet.”

“And I’ll be here to help if you need.” It made him feel good when she depended on him and when the things he did put a smile on her face. Linet was always beautiful, but she was at her prettiest with a smile on her face. “Do you want to eat now?”

“Just a few more minutes.” She hugged him tighter, nuzzling against his chest, and he held her.

A few minutes? Yves didn’t know if he could only hold her for that long, especially when her scent was so sweet and tempting. But it didn’t matter. No matter what they were doing, he knew these sweet moments would always be precious for both of them. And when she kissed him again, he knew they wouldn’t be eating much at that ‘party’ and probably celebrating their early Christmas in other ways.

I wanted to write for this fandom for a while but it is such a slow process to read through canon, so if there is some OOCness or other inconsistences I'm sorry.

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Okay we're stopping playing Sonic for now because it's nearly 1am, but some thoughts woo, completely unstructured because yeah. Important context but I'm not actually finished with all the stuff yet either soooo

I think this update is fucking awesome! Like so much so that I don't even know where to start. I guess the most obvious part is playable Tails, Knuckles and Amy - all of them are fucking fantastic. I'm not without my nitpicks for them - Tails not having a homing attack really sucks and Knuckles' gliding is clunky, Amy though actually perfect lol - but I think in terms of general feel as well as how multiple playable characters should be handled in 3D Sonic, they're great. Cause the thing is they're all fundamentally still Sonic, even down to having the boost and shit, so before you've even gotten the chance to play them you already know most of what to expect - the surprises just come in the form of their other mobility and combat options, but obviously everything controls the same and nobody's like ungodly slow or locked out of the spindash or anything like that, it's genuinely awesome. Honestly there's a degree to which they leave Sonic himself in the dust with their absolutely ridiculous aerial mobility, especially Tails who gets a certain upgrade that is like, actually fucking gamebreaking (and btw I'm completely about it lmao). But yeah no they're incredible, and it still feels downright unreal playing as them in a new 3D title. Would be more than happy for this to be the template going forward in terms of multiple characters.

That's very much the main new thing and core appeal of the update, so I'll have less to say going forward, but I'm still really enjoying everything else on the table. One of the main things is just that the story additions and various optional character conversations do a shockingly huge amount to flesh out the Ancients and the Starfall Islands - in a way that makes this entire aspect of what is now part of series lore and canon feel so much more rich and alive. All of a sudden we have some answers to "what's up with those ruins over there?", and it feels nice! Although one huge narrative L is that they clarify that Big's presence is an illusion crafted from Sonic's memories, which I think is significantly more boring than Big just comedically being here for whatever reason. That aside though I think the steps taken here to flesh out the world and these backstories and the Ancients themselves who play such a key role in the story anyway is a really good call.

Guardians and specifically island mystery whatever thing M120 aside as detailed in my last post, I also really enjoy the general difficulty increase within this update's content. The island puzzles are generally a lot more involved, and will take multiple steps to complete and/or operate on significantly stricter time limits - it's a nice level of challenge for the final major area of the game. Doubly so for the various platforming challenges - which are about on par with the "new koko" challenges from update 2, i.e. really quite long and involved and precarious and it's awesome and many of them make great use of Tails/Amy/Knuckles' different mobility from Sonic. On Sonic's platforming though, holy fuck am I glad they added more tower climbs. Not even kidding the Rhea Island tower climbing was one of my favourite things about base Frontiers, it's an extremely tense and enjoyable platforming challenge that takes full advantage of Sonic's capabilities and expects a lot out of you, the player, and your knowledge of how to use said capabilities to their fullest. And dog they added more of them? Shit got me hype as fuck dude, greatly enjoyed the challenge, and the feeling of getting better and better at specific sections over time as well as learning the layouts such that I knew where to aim for if I fell so I could lose the least progress and shit, they're just so kino man. I fucking adore them.

One thing I haven't really engaged with surprisingly, is the new Cyberspace levels - I've done 2 of them and I mainly went for just beating the levels as opposed to spending time working on the misc objectives, but the ones I did do were kinda sick as hell and the objectives are all new compared to just red rings and x amount of normal rings and clearing in x time, fuck some of them even have different goals amongst themselves. I think cyberspace levels really grew on me after a couple more stabs at each level so I'm excited to give more of these new ones a shot - I think I'm kinda just mentally prioritising them less than the story content and character upgrades lol. These do seem really awesome though, and again are a pretty great level of challenge, at the very least the two I did were like, Unleashed DLC level of challenge or something, albeit shorter obviously. The S-Rank times seem pretty damn tough this time around too, going through a cyberspace level once and having cleared all the missions without even trying this is not. And I'm super about that lmao.

Must say I find the tower trials I've done so far are, kinda bizarrely balanced. First one is defeat a few normal Soldier enemies in a more than generous time window, third one is defeat those circling dog things that you just parry in a very generous time window, fourth one was defeat a Ninja or Shinobi or Kunoichi or you know that family of enemy with ten entire minutes on the clock, and the second one is you've got 2 minutes to defeat 4 of the enemies that you need to cyloop their shell, which I beat with less than 5 seconds left because they set a certain stat level for Sonic so all I could do was cyloop, homing attack, stomp, repeat - with fairly little room for error else I'd run out of time. If I'm missing something obvious that makes that trial way easier then woe is me but I did find it very funny that it's the only one that took me more than one attempt.

I'm running out of things that come to mind immediately, so just gonna leave off by saying the new music fucks hard. Fun update, looking forward to completing it, and further ahead than that I'm looking forward to doing a playthrough of like, the complete Sonic Frontiers experience, updates 1 and 2 already did a lot of work to make the game just feel more like a complete product, so I'm excited to kind of holistically look at it now that it's done. Good stuff.

[laele25]

I had a dream...

It was a weird dream that didn’t make sense and that’s not the point. Right before I woke up, in this dream I was telling my ex (my son’s birth father) that he needed to love our son for who he is, not who he wanted him to be.

This stuck with me because in the dream (as in with real life) everyone else in the dream who met my son (who was at various ages in his life for no apparent reason but dream) adored him.  My son is completely nonverbal and has a lot of trouble expressing himself with his AAC.  But he is also extremely sweet and social.  He has always been popular with his classmates and teachers, and charmed so many nurses and doctors I’ve lost count. 

How strangers react to and treat him has never, ever been a problem in our lives.  Children on the playground immediately accepted he couldn’t talk and that was the end of it.  Most adults go out of their way to be patient with him when he tries to express himself, even if it’s just a random cashier at the supermarket.  His smile is infectious and he’s a show off so he does everything he does with glee. 

Our problem has always been with family, which has been painful.  His birth father was completely overwhelmed at first, then distant and argumentative.  He refused to give him allergy medicine because he wasn’t showing allergy symptoms.  He got my son walkie-talkie’s for his tenth birthday.  He always wanted to talk to him on the phone, but got upset because my son got bored of just listening and wandered off after a few minutes.  He has my son’s cellphone number so they can text, but as far as I know, he’s never contacted him. 

We tried living with my mother, who was the person who taught me to be the mother I am now.  She took everything he did personally, even though he was five.  Every tantrum was the end of the world and she lamented that “You’ll have him for the rest of your life.” as if it was some huge tragedy.  As much as I love her, we had to move out and get our distance, for both their sakes.  Their relationship is distant, because she gave up trying to interact with him at all.  He sits on her couch and pets her cat when we visit and she gets a hug and a kiss when we leave.  He likes going to Nana’s, but I don’t think he ever forgot how much she fussed at him and the things she said to me about him.

I moved here because this is where my family was.  The support network that made me the person who could handle all of my son’s challenges and needs absolutely failed me when I needed them.  When I had abdominal surgery and was supposed to be resting, I got a call from my nurse brother-in-law that I needed to come get him because he wouldn’t eat or sleep or let them tube feed him.  So the day after surgery, I had to take the bus across the city to get him. 

That was the last time I asked for any member of my family’s help.  Until he was thirteen years old and my now husband moved in with us, I did everything alone.  School was my respite and when I got things done.  I took him with me on every errand I couldn’t do when he was at school, including my own doctor’s appointments. 

But it still hurts.  The people who should love him and want to be part of his life chose to be petty about small mistakes he made as a child or upset about who he’ll never be.  My in-laws are better with him, but maybe because they came in with realistic expectations.  But my family has shown an appalling amount of ableism towards him his entire life that I just can’t condone. 

His birth father is useless and since my son turned 18, I haven’t spoken to him.  I have no reason to, my son is an adult and he chooses who he has contact with.  If they remain estranged, it in on my ex, because I told him when we split not to be my father, who was the absolute reason punitive dead beat dad laws exist.

I dredge up these old hurts for a reason. So that people with a disabled family member can see how much hurt indifference causes.  It is difficult enough to parent a child like mine in this world without having the support network you relied on your whole life fail you.  Learn from their mistakes. 

Listen to the parents, we want you to interact with our children and we will tell you how and then you’ll show us new things about them we didn’t know.  The world is a better place for people like my son and as my husband proved, if you meet them at their level and don’t try to change who they are, you will find out how wonderful they are to have in your life. 

So leave your expectations at the door, make yourself a safe person for that family member and learn something new about yourself in the process.  It doesn’t have to be big, even a simple interaction at a family event goes a long way to making life easier for the disabled person and their parents.

Okay, rambly emotional essay over.  This goes for everybody, but especially family members who are disabled (mentally, psychologically, physically), love people for who they are, not who you want them to be.

[sinistershepherd]

I FORGOR IT'S TUESDAY WHOOPSIES

A child that ofton has memory issues, So ofton it might be a bigger problem. How do the brothers handle and help with it? Would it be a challenge? What are the struggles?

ARARARAR HEY BESTIE I’M LATE TOO

Memory issues, huh? Actually not all that uncommon! Even though memory problems are rather rare in young children, it isn’t exactly unheard of, and can mean various things that the brothers tend to keep very close eyes on.

If a child struggles with basic comprehension, like where they left a toy or even how they got to the daycare in the first place, both Sun and Moon follow the same basic procedure of asking the parents if there is any family history of memory issues, dementia, cancer, exc.

After gathering this information, they make sure that these children remain within their sightline at all times. Sudden changes in behavior, emotions or anything else is noted and recited to the parents if deemed significant or concerning.

However, if the memory issues only start when it comes to educational comprehension, they aren’t as concerned. This is usually a sign of early learning disabilities! They treat these kids no different, other than pulling them aside and helping them with lessons and such, so that they may be able to remember it better or have it explained in a way they understand.

If these issues stray more towards other segments of the child’s life, then they start to consider alternative options that may be more serious. They worry CONSTANTLY about the well-being of the kids, and, since the brain is so important, they take memory issues very seriously. Depending on what parts of life the child may have trouble remembering could determine what the underlying cause is, but they hate to assume and sometimes call in one of the plex’s nurses for advice if the signs are sudden and progress quickly.

Though these children are not outwardly considered a challenge, sometimes the brothers overthink the situation and make it into a challenge due to them worrying so much.

One of the most common examples that they use to test memory/cognitive function is give each child a small notebook that they are told to write in at the end of every day. They are obviously taught how to write beforehand lol. If children are unable to remember key events of the day, either Sun or Moon will take note of it themselves within their own paperwork, so that they may have on-hand information if needed.

Some memory issues stem from stress or an overwhelming amount of one/multiple emotions at once, so, if the brothers notice this, they usually steer those kids towards calmer activities such as drawing or painting.

Sorry this one is shorter! I’m going through the whole shit-show right now, so updates may be a bit slower :,)