#third girl was just weird. she'd call me and.

[todayisafridaynight]

my coworkers called me a "crazy lightning-rod" because everyone whos into me is batshit insane, also "insane asylum poster boy". do i share genes with daigo and yayoi??? that would make me feel so much better about being an insane person magnet

i think if we look deep inside ourselves we're all a lil daigo and yayoi in our hearts

[r3starttt]

PUT AWAY THE PRIDE

Summary: fucking ur bff who's in a relationship with a man, ew!

cw: hate sex. comphet abby. homophobic bf ew!!!!. dom!abby sub!reader. fingering. sissoring. pet names. (baby, pretty girl) finger sucking. prasing kink(?

an: creds to @atyourmerci for the Abby pic!!!

If you want it, you can have it. If you need it, we can make it

"Are you fucking- god abby" he'd crossed the line. That line that was invisible to you but still the thiniest for abby, until now, or so you wished because she'd go back to him once you've made your 'shoulder to cry on' function.

Abby was mad, even behind a phone you could feel how she couldn't bare him for now. You had no clue what happened just knew Abby's boyfriend had fucked it all again and she needed you, again.

The usual routine you forced yourself to not get used to but somehow became it, a routine. "Yeah, you know you can always.... just hurry" you ended the call abruptly. Otherwise, abby would not only be mad at that man, and nor you or her could take that kind of encounter currently.

You knew she was on her way already. So once more, with legs crossed on top of your coffee table, you did nothing but wait for her to arrive at your appartment. It always made you feel pathetic.

Her boyfriend despised you to say the least, from the moment you first met. And honestly you never knew why, even though you begged abby at one point to ask him herself just to not cause any trouble yourself. It didn't work.

You've had some alone encounters with him whenever Abby took you out and he had to be there. Nicely asking how his week or day had been, trying to make a small conversation with the typical 'long time no see, huh' or directly asking him - at one point, what the fuck was his problem with you. He was so stupidly manlish with his demeanor towards you it made you think if maybe abby wasn't using the proper words to describe you. Like he wasn't the problem.

On the other hand, your relationship with abby became confusing as her relationship with him grew bigger. Like it's toxicity was slowly getting to her, to you.

And not the type to ruin the friendship forever but just ruin the platonic. The one where sometimes spending time alone ends up in you drunk not moving your eyes away from her lips as she speak, or the one that makes her rest her hands somewhere on your body whenever you go out with friends. The one that ends in a weird exchange of words whenever you try to talk about it.

It was still unbearable tho. Always third-wheeling, then fighting with eyes only every time you made accidental eye contact with him, and eye fucking abby whenever he didn't pay attention to her, or you. Or feeling abby eating you alive with the eyes, just for denying it all later but not completely because you two had always been in the type of friendship where you're close with your friend to a point there's no shame about anything and you can make those type of jokes.

Jokes that somehow turned passive aggressive, not only between you two but also between abby and that men you equally despise.

"The fuck did he do now, mhm?" You sighed, resting your face on top of your shoulder, letting all your weight press over the shared couch. Drunk eyes paying detailed attention to Abby as she spoke. "I'm a fucking mess, that's all" she seemed off, something that genuinely troubled you considering how stubborn she was. "You're not, well, a... decent, nice mess" her laugh was gorgeous, it made you smile the moment you hear it. Her eyes met yours, as if you could talk with just that, a look. "Thanks"

"He's the problem. Even with that personality of yours, you've done no wrong" she pouted, it could only mean this was getting awkward for her. You couldn't care any less. "You're fucking charming abby, and it kills me youre with such person. Also, a man? Be for real" it was a joke, but that look on her face, it wasn't such simple for her. "I'm just saying, you're hot and so young and you have so much shit to live, he's holding you from that"

Abby turned around, her usual braided hair danced along her back, resting near her face. A sudden smile elicted on her face, she was about to bother you. "You think so?" You furrowed your brows, confused at what she meant "I'm hot?" She cleared herself. You just laughed, nodding while desperately trying to readjust yourself in a less compromised position, so near to her. "I know so"

"Yeah?" She left the glass with alcohol in it resting somewhere beside her. You smiled back at her, feeling her weight get overwhelming over you every second. You had to stop it. "Want more?" You didn't know bit alcohol would eventually become your one salvation from sin and fall into temptation.

Abby went home that night, just to hear him talking shit about you, and it clicked. She tried hard to give him a chance, because that meant she could have a chance as well. A chance for what? To prove she wasn't fantasizing about you in a way more than a friendship, to give all but you a taste and make her mind on what she liked and how she liked it. It failed, abruptly.

Because she lost time and wasted her persona in such men like him. And after running to you every time she couldn't bare it anymore, looking at your hands, neck, lips, eyes whenever she got drunk, after having so many late night talks with you whenever the awkwardness she felt wasn't rough enough to not keep her sober, she realized she could not run away from you, in fact, she needed you and needed to run in your direction every time. She had to give you a chance now.

That's the reason behind his hate towards you. No matter what, you'd always be her biggest priority. And god, she changed so much when she was with you, she'd transform into the girl he fell in love with, the one he lost once they actually started dating.

You had such a delightful effect on her, and he hated the idea of not being able to be the one for her.

Yet whenever he'd ask about you, abby would only say how close you two were since forever and how you wouldn't be a bother in the relationship. All of that was pure lies to keep it calm.

And those replies eventually got to you, like a day after that night you swore she wanted to kiss you. "I was drunk, doesn't mean anything" "what? You think I'll kiss you?" You wanted to dragg her back home with that man she'd found and make it clear you wouldn't let her be such an asshole. You didn't of course, both just laughed it off.

Until now, you couldn't wait for her to come and make it all clear, she was mad and it might not be the greatest idea but why should you care if she's not in the mood? You weren't the one behind that mood, not guilty of any of her shit.

Or that was the plan, because seeing the tears contained on the corner of her eyes, right about to fall and make a mess on her face. You simply couldn't.

"What did he do?" It wasn't the typical scenario. This was an unexplored rage, as if there was some sort of attraction that grew stronger as every second passed by. Maybe this was it, you thought.

Abby's red eyes met yours in such a relieved way, like she'd found something she felt eager to find. It was just you.

It caught you out of guard the way her hands travelled to the sides of your arms. " I realized I needed you"

The only thing you could come up with was a stupid 'huh'. Wandering your eyes all over her face and body. Abby had her own locked on you, probably as confused as you.

She had to. Her salty lips pressed on you, followed by the palms of her hands. You reciprocated, standing still but trusting your lips to do all the work necessary.

It's sloppy and messed, a silent fight between the silence that fills the ignored pain you're feeling and the anger she's been carrying all the way here.

It was miserable, her palms on your body, trying to find a way to bring you closer as you tried- not to step back but to prevent yourself from getting into it. Abby was only yours for a couple of hours and it was painful to have her so close to you but not having the actual chance to claim her yours.

"Fucking hate you for this" you murmured. Her eyebrows scrunched, there was such an euphoric feeling inside her, a mix of fear, confusion and anger. All for you

"Yeah?" She mocked you, resting her hands on the inside of your clothed stomach. "It could've been different"

"It will be" her lips smacked aggressively over yours again, trailing a path down your jawline.

Her fingers moved up your back, getting rid of your bra in such a pathetic way. You took her shirt off, trying to take the closest and clearest look of what you would never be able to have you you craved so much.

She laughed at it, doing the same for you. Her hands swayed all the way down your ass, gripping it with such force it burned. You let out a chocked breath, feeling her lips move on their own way down your body.

Her knee stepped in between your legs, so easily you could feel the vibration from her chuckle right in the middle your breasts. Fucking torture you've got yourself into.

She couldn't get enough but had to, running her fingers along your waist, down your cunt. Her fingers slide in between your slicked folds, slowly outside your cloathed arousal, begging for her.

Her palms slapped over it severely times, eliciting open mouth whimpers out of you, deliciously filled with her tongue against yours to shut you.

You tried to get her to stop, only receiving groans as a response. Until she got tired of it "fucking shut up and take it, be good, can't you?"

There wasn't a specific idea on her mind but take as much as possible out of you, to make a memory in honor to that gross man she ever felt the slightest of attraction to. Mocking you and him for her own pleasure, once in her whole life she thought.

Her fingers finally touched your clit, ager for it. The circles over it were so slow, you kept bucking your hips on her hands, attempting to get more friction. "Fucking stay still" abby groaned, thrusting her fingers inside you. God it felt glorious.

You voiced the most perfect whimpers for her, the way her name came out of your mouth, followed by the most prettiest pleads. It was driving her insane.

The sounds coming out of you were so obscene. Abby couldn't be in such good paradise

She made sure to curl her fingers at every thrust, speeding enough to make it painfully confusing for you.

Her lips kept busy shushing you, taking a taste of your nipples, your clavicle, every inch of your body.

"Shit- c'here" you demanded, dragging her by the jawline as the knot on your stomach grew overwhelmingly fast. She tastes better than anything you've ever had in your life, something worth the pain it'll cause you later when she's gone.

You let out a loud cry at the abruptly of her actions, leaving you empty. "Open" her middle and index finger fully covered in your wetness. You obeyed, feeling the palms of her fingers rest in your tongue, forcing you to take a taste. "Doing so good f' me, such a pretty girl"

She dragged you to the couch, the one that brought you closer that day she'd first approach to you in this way, whatever this was. The one that brought you closer when she left that day, and whe she laughed this off. Such an ironic situation.

It all brought a series of conflicting thoughts to your mind. Distracting you from such pleasure you should be enjoying.

Her hands grabbed the hooks of your jeans, dragging them down your legs. She made sure to get in charge of all the hard work, you should've notice-

Her weight was already on top of you. The way her eyes wandered all over you face, it was different. Your hands got locked by hers, breathing heavily at the sudden sight and feeling that ran through your body, that made you forget whatever was keeping your mind busy some seconds ago.

"Spread 'em open, be a good girl f'me" Abby groaned the moment she could finally get to be so close to you. Letting all of her weight rest over your body, aggressively humping in between your legs, rubbing her clit against yours.

Your ears were filled by her whimpers, groans whenever she got too overwhelmed. There was nothing you could to but let her use you for her own pleasure, not that you weren't use to it.

"Fuck baby... so good f'me, so so good" she whined, speeding her moves in between your legs. There could never be a better sight than this.

Some locks of her hair starting to stick on her forehead, the sweat covering her abs, her arms flexing to support her own way and oh, all this just for you to see. Sure he'd never seen such scenario.

She sounded so fucking pretty, on top of you, crying at how deliciously your clits rubbed together. You, on the other hand, felt like just cumming by the sight, by the idea of her body displayed like this.

Your thighs were ridiculously covered in both your and her slick, it increased at her every move, sloppy and messy, such a desperate disaster.

Your pleads and whines were completely ignored, she'd already given you what you needed and ni longer cared about whatever you felt you needed or deserved. This was about her.

Still you managed to wrap around her, feeling her drench your thighs even more as a breathless 'fuck' came out of her lips, letting go of your hands, already getting numb at her grip.

"See? Promised you it'll get better"

[shayyprasad]

weighing scale

tw: eating disorder (purging, not eating), bodyshaming, ed shaming

btw, if it's requested, i can turn drabbles into full oneshots!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you guys are beautiful the way you are, and nothing anybody ever says or does will ever change that. remember that gaining weight is totally normal, and you can always lose weight, too, but please, do it in a healthy way. if you ever need anyone to talk to, and this isn't just for eds, i'm here, and you can reach out. if not, there are people who care about you and love you.

you're amazing you beautiful mfs

(also i'm sorry if this might not be correct for you, everyone has different experiences with eds)

(also, also, i did 1st person ... and this is just the way i thought when i was going thru this so i kinda made it relate w/ me??)

100.

98.

96.

she watched as the numbers went down, satisfied despite the fact that it was only one pound less yesterday.

90.

88.

even if it meant that she'd always be cold, or that her hair would fall out. it was a small price to pay to be beautiful. to be skinny. to be like all the other girls that peter liked.

y/n kept telling herself that. and it was enough to keep her going.

{four weeks prior}

(first person)

they had little packets for us to take home, like forms. something along the lines of "annual health check-up." the form was just... well, it wasn't a form, really, but more of an opt-out. the paper said they'd just check weight, height, and some other things, like make sure you didn't have scoliosis.

honestly?

i was just happy to be missing a good chunk of math.

everyone got called down to the gym by period, and mine was 5th period, right before lunch.

our class was waiting for them to call us down, so mr. callen just let us do whatever until then. i glanced over to see liz, kayla, and chloe in the corner of the classroom, giggling and pointing towards some of the boys, and eventually, mr. callen.

he was one of the youngest members on faculty, fresh out of college. and i'll admit, he's not bad looking. in fact, he's hotter than most of the guys. and if it wasn't peter that had my heart, maybe i'd think about someone else.

not that the whole peter thing was going great anyways, he seemed interested in liz. so maybe that was my hint to move on. but i don't know. i've just liked him forever, it'd feel wrong to stop now.

i'm just really loyal, i guess.

or maybe this is some weird first love/crush thing, because no matter what, i keep finding myself coming back to him.

it took me second to realize that i'd been staring at the same spot for a while now, so i probably looked funny. i re-adjusted my position and looked at the clock, noting there there was just a few minutes until we'd have to go down.

i looked by at the girls, then at the teacher. did they not realize that he had an engagement ring on? or where they just dense?

because honestly, i'm having a hard time figuring out which one it is.

liz pushed chloe over to the desk, giggling like a manic.

chloe bit her lip, trying to hold in laughter. "hiiii, cal. you know, like, cupid's day is coming?"

me, personally, i didn't really believe in the whole dumb blonde thing, but chloe was changing my aspect on this.

cupid's day was on valentine's day, and you could pay a dollar to have a rose delivered to someone. normally, the freshmen girls did most of the planning. freshmen girls were annoying. they were always together, and i didn't remember a time i'd seen one alone.

i didn't get any on my first year here. last year i got three. but it didn't really count, because mj got me one and betty did. i was hoping that i'd figure out who the third person was, but three weeks into that investigation, i kinda gave up. if they hadn't revealed themselves to me at that point, i'd figured that they probably wouldn't.

maybe junior year will go better.

if you were popular popular, you got at least seven, so it was kind of embarrasing to only get one. and it was probably even more embarrasing to only have, like, one friend. which was betty. but she hadn't hung around me that often since she started dating ned.

mj was an observer, and i knew that much. it was probably the only reason she got me a rose, because she felt bad. but then again, anyone could see how pathetic it was.

peter and i used to be pretty close, but then he met ned, so the attention he gave me got halved.

i would have tried to be friends with ned, because i know he's really nice, but i stressed out too much about it for some reason and gave up. social anxiety, perhaps? it didn't matter, it was too late to do anything about it now.

after that, peter started hanging around liz and some of the other popular kids, and entirely forgot about me.

did forget about ned, though. maybe beacuse i was a girl, and so peter got called "gay" a lot for that. i didn't have much of a chance compared to liz, so i just admired him from afar. it's not that we didn't talk, because we did sometimes, but... actually, i don't know what.

if peter wanted to, he would have.

and it's fairly obvious, but i'm delusional and chose to ignore that.

the intercom snapped me out of whatever zoning out i'd gone back to, "block d, block d. i-is this on? oh, it is? i- yes, block d down to the gym."

everyone got up and pushed their way out the door, i didn't have that type of energy, so i just waited for everyone to get their butts outta the way and then went myself. i followed them down to the hall, staying behind a little. when i finally got over there, i ended up last, right behind chloe, kayla, then liz.

for the most part, it only took a minute or two for each person, so the line didn't take that long.

well, i suppose that's subjective.

it took 15 minutes, but whatever.

when liz was inside, she didn't take care to close the door all the way, leaving it a couple inches open. that's on her.

that's on her for being irresponsible, so it's not really my fault if i accidently hear. i leaned in a little, suddenly very interested in the wall, with all it's cracks... and... paint, and...

"and step on the scale, please... that is," she paused, and you could hear scribbling of a pen.

"121.3 pounds. perfectly healthy. that's actually the average weight for girls your age," another pause, "make sure to give this form to your parents. have a nice day."

liz said something in return and i stepped back, done admiring the wall. "next!" the lady called in.

i stepped inside the room, and it smelt strongly of hand-sanitizer. "okay, honey, step up against the wall... height is... alrightly. now the scale, please."

i did as she asked, keeping my eyes trained on the numbers.

149.7 pounds. basically 150. that was more than liz's, right?

"149, okay, you're good to go-"

"is that around average weight?" i asked, and it was impulsive, i didn't even think.

"well, it's somewhere around that. you're perfectly healthy."

the intercom came on again, signaling my time was over, and the lady thought the same thing, because she ushered me out.

as i walked back to the classroom, i couldn't help but think;

149? no, 150? around average? so basically, i was above average. 30 pounds heavier than liz? no wonder peter likes liz better.

god, that's disgusting. i'm disgusting.

i trudged back to class, unable to stop thinking about it. and suddenly, an idea popped into my mind; why not lose weight? if i lost a little, maybe peter would care about me again.

that's genius. god, i'm a genius.

yeah. i lose a little weight.

when i got back, he'd already started the lesson, not that i cared. i spent the rest of that class figuring out the kinks, like how many calories i'm allowed to eat per day.

i settled on 800.

it seemed like a decent number if i wanted to actually make an impact with weight loss.

stupid kale smoothies weren't gonna get me anywhere, nor idiotic influencer workout routines.

before i knew it, the bell rung and kids were hustling through the hallways. i was kind of on autopilot as i walked to lunch, not really watching where i was going. i'd by mistake shouldered some people, and they gave me dirty looks. i shot them right back.

i couldn't help but silently, in my mind, judge everyone's body that i saw. and not just their body, but other physical features, too. it was automatic, i didn't even mean to. but i couldn't help it.

she's really fat. the gym exists for a reason.

how is she so skinny? i know she's anorexic.

and it just went on and on.

i didn't know what was going on. why this mattered to me all of a sudden.

it was like i didn't notice these things before, i wasn't looking for them, but now that i knew they were there, i couldn't help it.

i couldn't help a lot of things.

when i walked into the lunchroom, i saw peter sitting by himself, writing on some piece of paper, and if i knew him, he wasn't doing the homework due tomorrow.

he was doing yesterday's.

it didn't seem like i'd be bothering him if i went to go talk to him, so that's what i did. i figured since we hadn't talked in while, it would be great to now.

and it'd be a great distraction, too.

i sat down across from him, "hi, peter."

he looked up slowly, a smile rising on his face. "uh, hey, y/n/n," peter paused, "what, um, what did you need?"

"huh? oh, i didn't need anything. just thought i'd come by and annoy the hell out of you."

"just like old times," peter snorted.

"math homework?"

"yep. i have math-"

"-next period," i realized my mistake after i made it. "um, 'cause i see you when i'm walking to class."

in repsonse, he nodded like he was considering it.

i didn't notice i was hungry until my stomach growled, but something inside of me made the thought of getting food and eating it repulsive. i hesitated before grabbing on of peter's fries and popping it in my mouth. he didn't say anything, or really even care, and i didn't know if i liked that or not.

"okay. you have chem next, yeah?"

i blushed at the fact he knew.

"uh, yep," i snagged some more fries, feeling myself loosen up.

and then i realized, that's what this was; i was just in need of some time with actual people who weren't my parents.

i liked this. i liked talking to peter. it was easy. this was easy.

we laughed about some other things, like flash's new donkey haircut.

and i stole more fries. ned, betty, and mj (who normally sat two seats away) came over. the topic of cupid's day came up.

"how many do you think you'll get?" betty asked.

i looked up, "roses?"

"uh-huh."

ned spoke up, "you won't need to worry, bet, i'll get you a whole bouquet." he looked proud of himself.

"i'm not worried," she giggled, like the lovesick fool she was. it was gross. and yes i admit, it was slightly because i was jealous, but whatever. betty didn't have to act so idiotic and desperate.

betty's skinny, too.

"what about you, y/n?" peter said, locking eyes with me.

"i dunno. i never really get any."

something changed in peter's expression, but as soon as it was there, it was gone.

i took another fry. they were really good, for some reason.

"fattie," peter laughed, pulling his lunch tray back, "and then you complain about not getting roses!"

that caused a round of laughs in the small group, but my heart dropped to my feet.

i was right. i was overweight. even peter noticed.

freaking peter noticed.

god, i was ugly and fat, and even peter saw that.

of course he liked liz. he'd be crazy not to. she was curvy and skinny and petite and pretty and skinny.

she was skinny.

i didn't have her hourglass figure.

never did i ever want out of my own skin more.

"y/n?" pete frowned. "i-i'm sorry, it was a joke, i didn't-"

"no, no, not that. i, uh, i... forgot i was supposed to meet with a teacher. sorry. i have to go."

i didn't go to any teachers.

i did go to the bathroom.

and i hid in the handicapped stall. i didn't cry, or sob, or weep or whatever it was stupid girls did in hallmark movies or stuff.

i stood in front of the mirror and picked out everything i hated, making a mental list in my head.

i didn't finish that list, not even after 30 minutes when the bell rung.

-

the rest of the day flew by rather quickly, it seemed. i felt like i was trapped in a warm haze, but not the fuzzy, happy warmth. i didn't like the way i was thinking. it's like i wanted my brain to turn off, these intruding, ugly thoughts were taking up too much room.

i felt icky.

when i got home, i didn't have my normal after-school snack like i usually did. i went straight upstairs and did homework.

i finished two essays (one that wasn't due until two weeks, and one that was due two days from now), my math homework and studied for my math test, started my science project, and did my french flashcards (and studied them a bit).

i must have been locked in my room for hours, because by the time i got up, it was dark outside.

i wasn't a studious person, and the only reason i did any of this was to forget for a little while. to snap out of it. and for a while, it worked.

"y/n, honey!" my mom screamed from downstairs, and as i glanced at the clock, i realized it was time to have dinner.

but i wasn't hungry.

well, i was.

let me rephrase that; i didn't want to eat.

however, i didn't want my mother yelling at me, so i went down anyways. not that i was planning to eat.

"mom?"

"oh, hey. i already set the table, you seemed like you were working hard and i didn't wanna bother you. dad's working late. go sit down-"

"not hungry."

she frowned. "well, you have to eat something."

"but i'm not hungry," i said, hating how sharply it came out.

my mom gave me warning look. "look, i've had a long day, so don't start with me."

"mommmm," i whined.

"sit."

so i did. i felt bad about bothering her.

i ate. small, tentative bites, forcing it all down. we didn't talk.

silently, i put my dish in the sink, before heading upstairs. the food sat at the bottom of my stomach, like a pile of heavy rocks. i wanted them out.

so i turned on the shower and locked the bathroom door, kneeling in front of the toilet. i pressed my fingers to the back of my throat and kept them there for a second. at first, all i got was bile.

but then i threw up.

-

peter and i started talking more again. i think he got in a fight with liz.

i asked him if they were dating, and he said no.

i think he started hanging out with me again because i got skinny. i know for a fact that i'm skinnier than liz. i weigh less then her now.

the numbers told me that.

but i didn't listen.

i didn't stop, and how could i? when i'd gotten this far?

-

we got in a fight. not the yelling kind, though. well, kind of. i yelled a bit.

i thought he was complimenting me. he said i looked skinny, so i thanked him.

"no... i-" he paused, trying to get his thoughts together, "you look skinny, yes, but not in a good way."

"what? what do you mean? like, there's only a good way," i laughed, slightly nervous.

peter ingnored that. "have you been eating enough, angel?" his voice was soft, but there was worry in it. why was he worried? this is the best i've ever been.

"do you ask liz that, too?"

"i- what?"

"liz is skinny. you don't ask her that."

"that- that is different. y-you haven't been eating, have you? is-"

"god, parker! stop! it's none of your business!" maybe if i hadn't been so flustered, i'd have come up with a better comeback.

-

i was hunched over the toilet, but nothing was coming out. everything hurt.

my head. my stomach.

my throat was scratchy and raw.

i didn't hear the knocking on the door.

i don't really remember peter coming in. i thought i locked it. what was he doing at my house? i couldn't remember.

i wanted to sleep.

i think i was crying. i don't know. i only vaguely remember the hot tears.

i slightly remember him pulling me away from the toilet and into his arms. there were lots of holes in my memory for that day.

he stayed with me, though. one thing i'm sure about is that peter never left my side. i can recall bright lights. tubes. i was laying on something. white walls. white sheets.

what was engraved into my head was peter whispering "i love you" over and over again. in the bathroom. in the car. was it a car? as they hooked me up to cables.

all that mattered, though, was that i was skinny now. just the thought made me feel light and airy.

to think that all it took was a little motivation and a weighing scale.

[bbrissonn]

𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐮 - 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐫 𝐳𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐬 (𝟏)

╰┈➤kinda nervous lol, making this on sept 22 at 11:51 pm. i came up with this idea for an au after seeing this post from @edwardslvrr like 2 hours ago

╰┈➤ october 8th bri bri here, decided to post this cause why not, it's all i've been thinking about since i started this au in my draft and i really want to make it public so yeah :))) hope you enjoy !!

╰┈➤ pairing: trevor zegras x ex!singer!reader

╰┈➤ masterlist

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-SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2023-

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alannaoregon

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alannaoregon so excited to announce that my sophomore album Tired of U comes out on October 13th !! this has been a work for almost 6 months and i cant wait for all of you to hear it. starting off with “i regret you everyday” coming out September 22th

much love, lana 🩵

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becky.rivera GO BEST FRIEND

alannaoregon @/becky.rivera I LOVE YOU BEST FRIEND

user83 NEW MUSIC NEW MUSIC

jamie.drysdale so proud

alannaoregon @/jamie.drysdale love you little one

user920 soooo we all agree on who all of these are gonna be about right…?

user726 trevor went from having 12 love songs written about him, to 14 breakup song 🫢

user02 @/user726 from obsessed with you to tired of u..

sabrinacarpenter so happy to be by ur side and see u grow, cant wait for everyone these masterpieces 🩷

alannaoregon @/sabrinacarpenter love you so much 🩷

user53 the way lana always uses a blue or white heart, but always a pink one for sabrina 🥹

user836 @/user53 glad im not the only one who noticed

user637 BAHAHAHA LIKE 10 OF TREVORS FRIEND LIKED THIS

load more…

༊*·˚

: ̗̀➛ alanna oregon posted a new youtube video

“Becky bring your butt over here.” Alanna called out, placing her camera on the counter of her bathroom. Her skincare products in front of her as Becca made her way into the room, waving at the camera once she was in frame.

"I'm here, I'm here." The Rivera girl said as Alanna grabbed her first product and started applying it to her face.

"Hi cuties, it's me, Lana." The singer said in a weird voice, one she used in every intro. Becca snorted a bit, making her best friend giggle a bit. "I am back with my girl Becky."

"That's me."

"And today, we're gonna take for a lake day with us. And through out the day, I am gonna explaining every single song from my next album, Tired of u, that comes out on October 14th." Alanna explained as she moved onto her second product. Next to her, Becca was nodding along to what she way saying, a proud smile on her face.

"Go pre-save it, guys!"

"And we're gonna be starting with a single, I regret you everyday, coming out on September 20th."

"Not gonna lie, I think that's one of my fav." Becky said as Alanna moved onto her third product. The singer had already made her best friend listen to the whole album, but the girl was there for the writing and producing process so she already had a good idea of what the song were like.

"So, I regret you everyday is a pretty self explanatory title for the song. It's pretty much about regretting ever getting into a relationship with someone, let alone even meeting them even if it's something you can't control." The girl started as she applied her sunscreen gently to her skin. "I think it was the second song I finished writing, maybe like a week after my break-up."

"Wasn't it two weeks?"

"I dunno know, doesn't matter. I was just crying on Becky's couch one day and just came up with it, she helped me write some of the lines."

"You can call me Shakespeare now." The Rivera girl joked, causing her best friend to giggle once again.

"Any who, I picked that song to be a single because I think it really gives off the vibe of what the album is gonna be. Also, because Becky said she'd hit me if I didn't put-"

"Lies!"

"If I didn't put out as a single. So, yeah, now you know!" Alanna continued, ignoring the look her best friend was giving her. She quickly cut the camera after that, laughing at Becca's expression that still hadn't changed.

༊*·˚

The next clip was of the two girls in the kitchen, preparing their breakfast for the day.

"I don't know if we said it before, but we're at Becky's family cottage for the weekend, so we're gonna go swimming this afternoon." Was the first thing said in the clip, Becky in the frame as she broke the eggs. Alanna was in the back, doors of the fridge opened as the looked for the milk.

"Then I am taking her out a date to the porch for dinner with the sunset."

"Fun fact for y'all, the photo on the back of the album was taken by the neighbors of me and Becky. So, thanks to them for their contribution to the album."

"And to my dock for being the front of it." Becca added as she now left the frame and Alanna was now the main focus.

"The next song we're gonna talk about is sunset chasing. Now that song was... very emotional to make, because as some of you might know, I am a whore for sunsets, and sunset chasing was something I did a lot with my ex." The girl started explaining.

"Big big whore for them!"

"In the song, the sunset represents like my relationship with said ex, and how I was like chasing after him and his attention even though we were together for years already. And I guess you could say there's like a double meaning I think, like how sunset chasing turned into me chasing him." She added, smiling slightly had Becca's words.

"I was once again present for the writing of this song and contributed." Becca said, walking back into the frame for a slight second, a proud smile on her face.

༊*·˚

"The birds are trying to eat my food!" Becca yelled out, a loud laughing coming from Alanna as she filmed her best friend shoo away the birds. The two girls were now outside, their breakfast in front of them as they sat on the porch, from which they had a nice view of the lake.

"Becca, don't hurt them!" Alanna said from being the camera, making the girl in question look at her like she was crazy.

"They're going for my food, Lana." There was a cut after that, and then the two girls were sitting around a round table as they slowly ate their food.

"Can I introduce this song?"

"Even if I say no, you'll do it anyways, Becky."

"Damn right I will. Anyways, guys, the next song is called 11 feet behind!" Becca announced to the camera giggling a bit after saying the title of the song. "What's that song about, Lana?" She asked with wiggling eyebrows.

"That song is about always feeling like you're always behind in your relationship. Like people know more what's going on in your relationship than you do, which, fucked up for one, and two really sucks, because it makes you feel like you mean nothing to your partner."

"Guys, let me tell, my girl did not hold back with this one." Becca giggled while talking to the camera. When Alanna had told her best friend she'd be using Trevor's number in one of her song titles, the girl gasped, calling her crazy because of it.

"I am speaking the truth."

"I'm so proud of you, lanny." Becca said randomly, looking over at her best friend. Alanna laughed a bit before giving the girl a big hug, laughing a little.

༊*·˚

"We're getting Starbucks!" Becca yelled out as the next clip started, Alanna's laugh being heard once again. The two of them were now in the car, Becca driving as the other girl sat in the passenger seat, holding the camera so they were both in frame.

"Which is like totally crazy 'cause the next song was written in a Starbucks."

"What a coincidence."

"Right!" The two girl joked, their chuckles echoing in the car before Alanna focused back on the task at hand. "Anyways, it's called Friend Stealer. Long story short, it's about getting dumped by a guy so he can go date one of your friend, that he met through you."

"Snakes." Becky could be heard whispering in the back.

"And the reason why it was written in a Starbucks is because I just wanted to leave my house, get some caffein, and as I was just sitting there thinking about the whole thing, the lyrics just came to me. So, I wrote them down in my notes, typing like a crazy lady on my phone."

"She was gone for like three hours, I was so worried!" Becca said, making Alanna roll her eyes slightly.

"Okay, that's a bit dramatic, I was gone for like, forty-five minutes maybe."

"Still scared me."

"Moving on, that song was probably what helped me really get over my break-up, well more like started the whole moving on process. I was really just writing what I was feeling and yeah, that song was born. It was the first one that I found the melody for, but I think it was like, the forth I wrote, and that's when I decided I was making an album." The singer explained with a shy smile, recalling the happiness she had felt after finally writing out all her anger.

༊*·˚

"We're back in the car! Becky, what'd you get, girl?"

"I got a grande iced coffee with a splash of cream, two pumps of vanilla and two pumps of hazelnut." The girl explained her order, shaking her drinks around. "How about you, m'lady?"

"I got the same as always, my sir. A venti brown sugar oatmilk shaken expresso, only three pumps of brown sugar, three pumps of white mocha and no cinnamon."

"For all of you who didn't know, Lana's my sugar mommy, and she paid for my drink." Becca spoke, grabbing the camera for it was focusing on her. Her best friend scoffed a bit before bringing back to camera on her as Becky started to drive.

"Killing us softly is the name of the next song we're gonna be talking about. The title pretty much says it all, it just talks about how someone in a relationship just doesn't care enough and it's slowly killing their relationship." The clip cut right after the girl was done talking, and the next clip was of her sitting in her bed, filming on her phone with her headphones on.

"Guys, my camera died, oops. And at first Becky and I were gonna go to Target, well we still did, and film the next song in the car. Obviously, we couldn't do that, and my dumb ass forgot to like, go to the song we were gonna do in the car. So, here it is!

It's called mascara stained cheeks, once again, title says it all. But, it goes more into details about how toxic my relationship with my ex got, and how much he made me cry. Small reminder, that crying often in a relationship because of your partner, is not a healthy relationship, never has been and never will be. With that being said, next clip! Wait no, disclaimer, I got a little lazy with these, oops again, so the clips are pretty short. Okay, now, next clip!"

༊*·˚

The two girls were now laying on their chests on sun bathing chairs. The camera was set up on a small table in front of them as they both pushed themselves up on their chairs.

"30 seconds. Wanna do the honor's of explaining this one, Becky?"

"Yes please. This song is about how much of an asshole mister tiny dick was."

"Becca!"

"What? He was. Mister tiny dick broke up with my goddess of a best friend over a phone call, that lasted a solid 30 seconds." The Rivera girl explained, as Alanna gave her stern look.

"Becky, I'm gonna get demonetized because of you."

"Not my fault he had a tiny dick."

"Becca!"

༊*·˚

"Guys, it's editing Lana here again." The girl said, once again sitting in her bed. " So, apparently, none of my footage for the next three songs saved, yay. So, I am gonna have to do this little explanation segment again.

Okay, crushed mind. My baby, the second song I wrote, uhm, I pretty much got emotionally cheated on, so, my mind crushed. Oh my, God, I suck at explaining when I am alone. I feel so awkward just talking to my phone. Ugh, anyways, yeah, I don't know what else to say for that one.

Moving on, i miss u, this one I'm gonna explain so good, just watch, well listen... and watch. It's about missing the person your partner used to be, feeling like they've just become this whole new different person than the one you feel in love with. Which hurts, a lot. But, you know, people change, you can't get mad at people because of that... but you can write songs about it." The girl said, giggling slightly at the end.

"Last song that vanished, spinning circle, talks about conversations with my ex, would just be a spinning circle, I know the saying is like cycle or whatever, but the circle part is explained in the song. I can't tell you right now though, 'cause then I'm... I'm spoiling the like plot twist in the lyrics. Anyways, my camera figured itself out after that clip, so yeah. Back to Lanny and Becky from a week ago."

༊*·˚

The two young adults were sitting on the paddle board, which was tied to the dock so they didn't float away. The sun was beaming on them as their wet skin reflected the light slightly.

"I felt a fish touch me!" Becca gasped just as Alanna was about to speak.

"It's a fish, it's not gonna kill you."

"No, but you know what will, forgiving." Becca said, winking at the girl, clearly proud of herself for the word play. "Get it? 'Cause the next song is... forgive."

"Go you, girly. Forgive, is about forgiving myself for the pain I caused myself during the end of my relationship. Like, I knew it wasn't healthy and all, I knew I should've broken up with him, but I didn't. And it ended up hurting me a lot, and I wrote that song last, kinda like a letter to my past self, forgiving her for making me hurt."

"If any of you though it was about her forgiving mister tiny dick, you weren't alone. I though so too, and I almost wacked her when she told me." Becca said, using the nickname she had for Trevor once again. "Don't look at me like that, you're not gonna get demonetized!"

༊*·˚

"Okay, friends, it's now bedtime for us. We decided not to film after dinner, because we ended having a little heart to heart in the car after, and we just didn't really feel like it. So, we're gonna speed run the last three."

"Heist!" Becca called out. The two best friends were once again in the bathroom, now doing their nightly skincare.

"Going on a heist to get the smallest bit of attention from your partner." Alanna answered.

"heart n soul."

"How hurt my heart and soul were after my break up."

"Last one, tired of u!"

"Tired of... them. Yeah! No, uhm, I am gonna take a little more time on this one since it's also the name of the album. Tired of u, is just about how tired I was of how my old boyfriend was treating me and acting around me. And the reason I picked that name for the album, is because it really describes how I feel towards him still, and our relationship, even now. Overall, just tired of everything related to my old relationship, the media, the comments, just all of it."

"I got tired of him, too, Lanny." Becky said right before the clip cut, making the singer chuckle slightly.

༊*·˚

"Okay friends, we're now in our matching pjs, and we're gonna go to sleep now. So, thanks for hanging with us today."

"Don't forget to go pre-save the album!"

"And yeah, I'll see you guys soon. Bye bye!" Alanna said before leaning in and pressing a kiss to the lens, which Becca than repeated.

: ̗̀➛ comments

user80 the way every time she vlogs she always struggles with the camera- she's so me

user001 so excited to hear these songs, all of them sound so interesting !!!

user719 guys i think she's gonna release sunset chasing as a single before the album drops cause she did the whole album in order, expect for i regret you everyday and sunset chasing

user412 @/user719 OMG YOU'RE SO SMART alannaoregon @/user719 shhh bestie you're gonna ruin the surprise user719 @/alannaoregon OH MY GOD OH MY GOD HIIIII

[iknowshocker]

What do you think would’ve happened to Kai if he never got captured by the mfg, sent to the armory, and sent to a prison world after escaping hell in season 8? As if his story was just left off at the karaoke scene

Side note: I always found it so interesting that the first time he has no agenda or threats and can do whatever he wants, he just goes to a small town karaoke bar and pretty much just keeps to himself (and Yelp) until Stefan shows up lol

no this is what i'm saying, anon, everyone acts like he's this evil genius mad man (and like he is but he's also relatively harmless when you don't get on his nerves) that needs to be stopped at all cost and 9/10 times he's just minding his own business bopping around. post-merge he literally spends a handful of days just dealing with his new weird emotions, writing a letter to jo, finding a place to live, and shopping 🙈 oooh so scary, he bought new jeans! look out - now he's eating fries at the grill!

so i think if the mfg left him alone and didnt kidnap him he would have probably just taken some time to mess around and day drink, and then after the novelty of being out of hell wore off he'd start deciding what he wants to do next. if we don't change anything from s6, then he's got no living family, the coven is gone, and he's basically on his own. he has to start over. there's some fun in that, he can do anything he wants and now he's immortal and stronger and faster and he's got these cool fangs - but also i imagine it would be really lonely. sure, he's used to being alone, but i think the part of him that wants connection would start to be hard to ignore after a little while.

i desperately wanted him to get to be a coven leader so i like the idea of him collecting witches, i would accept him going off and coming back with like 2-3 new people and being like "loooook guys i built a coven!! picked this guy up doing tricks in vegas, this girl here was kicked out of the house so obviously we brought her home with us, and this one was actually killing people but don't worry we spoke about it and agreed murder is only allowed in certain situations-,"

s8 kai is still fixated on bonnie, so i'd assume he would either start texting/calling her or risk it and go to town to see (bug) her. maybe he wants her to join the coven, maybe he went to her first and she said no because they can't be a coven of two so he went and recruited more to be like "oookay bonster now it's a coven of 5 what do you say??"

i would hope that something could come of their relationship and even if it's not expressly romantic they could get to a point where he would help her with the hellfire arc. i mentioned in another post that if they had two witches, someone could handle the hellfire in the armory while someone else held katherine in place inside the tunnel with a spell.

i would write it so that bonnie is afraid to leave him with the boys, and he has to assure her he's strong enough to handle them and it would be this tense moment of goodbye:

"go-"

"i don't want to leave you!"

"bon come on i'll be fine, just go we don't have time for this. worry about me later tho it's kind of cute-,"

"okay okay, shut up, i'm going-"

(alternatively i would accept "hey ... be safe" "i will" and then the boys picking on him lmao)

and then instead of passing out she'd race back down the tunnels to check on him. she would get there and see the boys first and have a moment of thinking they turned on him so she thinks kai was sucked into the fire and he gets to watch her freak out about him being gone for good and then he could pop out and be like "don't worry bb not even hellfire could keep me from you 😉" and she'd yell at him for letting her think he was hurt but then they'd hug and he'd be like "...worth it" lmao

i just !! want my boy to be happy. we get such a brief window of time where he's himself, with magic, free. so he could honestly do literally anything other than get trapped in a third freaking prison world and end up having a relationship with a vampire teenager and i would enjoy the hell out of it 😂

[maxislvt]

Having A Wonderful Christmas Time

Request: emo Wanda's first christmas in the us with (avenger!)reader. Reader taking her to do all christmas related stuff such as baking, presents, xmas movies, skiing etc.

Warnings: None, surprisingly

A/N: I have developed a new addiction and it's called making emo Wanda as adorable as I possibly can

Event Masterlist

❆❆❆❆❆❆❆❆

Wanda, underneath all her edgy but glorious youth, was a child. A broken child at that. One that desperately needed someone to put her back together and protect her from any more danger. She was tired of being hurt. Displaced from her home country and suddenly thrust into the big, uncaring world of heroism was draining in its own right, but having to adapt to an entirely new culture on short notice just added weight to her stress.

For some reason, you found yourself wanting to mend the inner child within Wanda. Every fiber in your body depended on the knowledge that Wanda was okay — or at least was going to be at some point in her life. It didn't matter how many times she tried to act tough and pretend she didn't care for you or the other avengers, you were always there for her. After enough time spent chipping away at the thick walls Wanda put around her heart, the girl began to trust you.

Wanda started to realize you did want the best for her. You weren't concerned for her because she was a powerful ally, you were concerned because you were a genuinely kind person. Slowly, the two of you became inseparable. It was almost impossible to talk to one of you without talking to the other. Which meant having Wanda tag along with you even when you were doing things she thought were absolutely childish.

"Is there a need to put up these little snowflakes?" Wanda grumbled watching as you excitedly hung up the paper snowflakes to the wall. She had watched you spend hours the previous night snipping away at folded paper and doodling on them. Of course, you looked too cute to be deterred so she merely watched as you had fun. "You already put those weird sticky gel ones all over the compound windows, I think that's enough."

You shook your head at Wanda. "There's no need to be such a Grinch," You teased but continued to hang up the paper creations. The team agreed you were best fit to decorate the compound for any reason, but decorating for winter was always your favorite. Upstate New York looked beautiful that time of year. It was an absolute joy to replace old decorations and have free reign over the beautiful canvas that was the Avengers compound, especially if you could convince a few teammates to let the festive aesthetic into their rooms.

Wanda pouted. "I'm not a Grinch, I'm a Sokovian!"

At first, you laughed. Wanda had always had an odd sense of humor and never failed to make you laugh. Then you realized she was very serious. "Wanda…do you not know who the Grinch is?" Your eyebrows shot to your hairline when Wanda slowly shook her head no. "Have you ever watched The Nightmare Before Christmas?" A no. "The Polar Express?" Another no. "What about Home Alone?" A third, and what you decided would be final, no. "Wanda, have you ever done anything for Christmas?"

Suddenly the girl felt shy. Imprisonment meant no time for personal enjoyment and her parents couldn't exactly afford much either. "Um, not really," She whispered. Embarrassment quickly settled into her chest and Wanda didn't know how to handle that. "It does not matter! All of it is for children!"

Anyone else would've simply dropped the conversation the second Wanda had a little outburst, but you could see right through her. "Would you like to experience Christmas with me?" Soft and sweet, that's all it took to get Wanda to open up. She was never difficult with you. Even if she'd tense up or turn sour, it wouldn't be long before she let her defenses down.

"Just the two of us," Wanda asked softly.

"Well, Tony is a party animal, but I'll keep our mini celebrations between us." You extend your pinkie finger towards her. A big smile spread across your face when Wanda wrapped her around yours. "Here, let's start small. Hang this last one up for me." You handed Wanda a string of paper snowflakes. "Put this one in the middle." You took a cautious step off the stool and let Wanda take your place. "And no magic! It'll ruin the joy!"

Wanda stretched out her arms in an attempt to stick the decoration to the ceiling. Even at her longest stretch, she couldn't reach it. An adorable huff escaped her lips. "I can't reach it," She grumbled. Just before she gave up, you stepped up behind her. One of your feet is carefully put between both of hers and the other is firmly planted on the lower step. You towered over her and seemingly wrapped Wanda in neverending warmth. In a matter of seconds, Wanda was lost in comfort.

❆❆❆❆❆❆❆❆

After a brief conversation and a very detailed list later, you had officially written down the list for Wanda's glorious Christmas experience. Decorating a tree, wrapping presents, baking cookies, watching movies, and ice skating.

Wanda had a keen eye for aesthetics, but couldn't seem to wrap her head around the process of putting lights around the tree or hanging the ornaments. The poor girl aimlessly followed you around the tree in loops, watching as you elegantly wrapped them. The way you had no plan with where you put the ornaments but still managed to make the tree look symmetrical and cute was amazing. "Who made this one?"

You looked up from the box of decorations. "Oh, I remember this one!" Carefully, you took the ornament from Wanda's hand and placed it in the tree. "Nat made this one," You said without looking back. "After she first defected, she didn't know a thing about the holidays. I got to show her the true meaning of Christmas and took her to make tree ornaments and this is me and her."

Wanda felt jealous for the first time forever but didn't know why. Was she jealous of an ornament? You looked at that thing like it was priceless. She wanted you to look at her that way. Wanda sucked up the pout on her face and continued decorating. "Can you take me to make one?"

"Nope," You said plainly. "You deserve your own special first Christmas." A giggle escaped your lips as you turned Wanda towards the kitchen. "Preheat the oven, I'll put up these extra decorations." With a firm pat on the back, you sent her off.

Wanda mindlessly walked to the kitchen and did as you asked. She was too lost in her thoughts to do anything else. Why was she suddenly jealous? It was just some stupid Christmas tree decoration. One with a lot of sentimental value, but it was just an object.

"Nat told me you weren't all that good in the kitchen, so I'll be a little more hands-on if that's okay with you," You said once you stepped into the kitchen. Quickly, you began getting out the ingredients and utensils. "We're just making regular sugar cookies, I don't wanna give you anything too complicated on your first go."

Okay, no Wanda was jealous of Natasha. That realization didn't make much sense either though. Nat had done so much to help her get accustomed to their line of work and America as a whole, what was there to be jealous about? "Oh, um, that's fine. I would hate to ruin this expensive…the…what's the word again?"

"Kitchen, and don't worry if you do. Tony has more than enough money to replace anything you break." You positioned Wanda in front of the bowls you had lined up. "Anyways, baking is a very exact science, there are a billion little things that go into it that you never really think about."

Wanda let you guide her hands and explain every step as carefully as possible, but she was hopeless. She had always been a menace in the kitchen, but having you so close to her seemed to melt her brain into nothing. Focusing was near impossible and her body simply refused to move if it meant not being right up against you. "Fuck, my bad!"

The wet feeling of partially wet cookie dough on your wasn't the most comfortable thing. All you could do was laugh at it. You bumped your hand against Wanda's nose. "There now we're even." A giggle escaped your throat.

Your laugh seemed to fill Wanda's ears and swell her heart. She'd spend hours "Yeah…even." She turned back to the bowl of cookie dough and continued to stir as you asked her to. "Is this good?"

"That's perfect! I'll wrap it up and let it rest so we can start a movie! I stacked up some classics on the couch in my room, just pick the one you like."

❆❆❆❆❆❆❆❆

Christmas with you was the best thing Wanda could've asked for. Being around you was enjoyable already, but engaging in something new every day was a type of stimulation Wanda never knew she needed. Be it making a new dessert or watching another holiday movie. You made her feel a way that no one else in the world could.

"Hey, hey, wake up!" You said, gently shaking Wanda awake. "There's one more thing I wanna show you before tomorrow!" The excited grin on your face wasn't cute enough to cover up the fact you'd abruptly woke up your best friend.

Wanda groaned and turned to look at her alarm clock. "Y/N, it's 9:30 pm…can it wait?" Despite her disgruntled state, she still sat up and got out of bed.

"No, I wanna show you the light downtown!"

Wanda pouted. "But we already did that?"

"Yeah, but it was early, everyone was already there, and it hadn't snowed!" Before Wanda continued her protests, you began going through her closet to find seasonally appropriate clothes. "I'll help you get dressed, come on!"

Wanda blushed at the idea, but let you do so anyway. She raised her arms when you asked, let you put a beanie on her head, and carefully zip up her coat. "Is all this necessary? Sokovia was much colder and I never wore this much." Of course, she never stopped you when you were tying up her boats or giving her mittens.

"Yes, there's a lot more ice and wind over here. I can't have you being blown away!" You held Wanda's hand and took her down to the first floor. "We're taking the train, it'll be easier for us to sneak around that way." The grip you had on her hand never faltered.

The train ride wasn't anything like the horror stories Wanda had heard on the internet, but she was thankful for that. A ride holding onto you was much better than encountering her first cat-sized rat. By the time you two reached your destination, snowfall had already started. "Wow," Wanda breathed out into the cold air. "This is.. amazing."

You could only smile and follow behind Wanda as she explored the city of New York without a care in the world. Occasionally, Wanda would stumble and slide around on the icy terrain, but even that was adorable. The two of you had nearly walked all of downtown before needing to take a break.

Though the silence was comforting, something was clearly taking it over.

"I need to tell you something-"

"Wait, you go first."

"No, you go first!"

Wanda puffed out her cheeks in embarrassment. "I think…I think I have a, fuck, what's that word?" The skin between her brows furrowed and she bit her lip. Her hand raised to stop you from helping her. "No, I know what it is." A few seconds passed before the word finally popped up in Wanda's brain. "A crush! I think I have a. crush on you!

Another giggle escaped your lips. "Well, I guess that makes my confession a little bit easier." You scooted closer to Wanda on the bench and held both of her mitten-covered hands. "I think I have a crush on you too." You planted a gentle kiss on Wanda's lips then rested your forehead against hers. "It's really hard not to kiss you when you're being so cute all the time."

"Well, you can kiss me again."

[mermaidsirennikita]

Any recs with reallly great dirty talk? Like pearl clutching water gushing dirty talk?

Yesss I love a dirty talking book.

Sierra Simone is, as with most things in erotic romance, one of the best in the business. The Thornchapel serise has some reeeeeally filthy dirty talk, especially from God's favorite idiot, Auden Guest. There's one scene in the third book where he's like... talking his partner through it... And another scene where there's a "hey let's talk through a ritualistic sacrifice but instead of killing we fuck and I talk you through what we'd do" scene, though this time someone's talking to Auden. The series is MMF and FF, and must be read in order.

Obviously, I'll always recommend New Camelot (MMF), which has excellent dirty talk. There's Ash's weird mindfuckery approach to domination, Embry's rough "MINE MINE MINE" shit. WHY NOT BOTH?

And then that'll lead you into Lyonesse, with Salt in the Wound and Salt Kiss. All around excellent dirty talk in those. (I've talked about this before, and I'll talk about it again lol--there's an extra Salt Kiss scene where Mark casually calls Tristan "puppy" and it is one of my favorite dialogue choices EVER.) Mark is like... really good at it. I just opened Salt in the Wound to refresh my memory, and he really went off towards the end there.

….. yeah.

(FWIW, Tristan also dirty talks great. He calls Isolde “honey” a lot, which shouldn’t work for me but occurs in such dirty contexts that I’m like oh right yeah I get it now.)

Priest, naturally, has a lot of sacrilegious dirty talk which is excellent. With holy oil and everything. Sinner and Saint have it too, Sinner of the corruption variety and Saint of the "I'm a monk and you're making me break my vows" variety".

So yes. Sierra Simone. Do it.

I actually just read Kristen Callihan's The Friend Zone, which is a football college romance (well, college is really like over at that point) and the rare friends to lovers that works for me. In part because they have spontaneous phone sex while she's really horny and talking about what she'd want someone to do to her (at his encouragement). It's SO GOOD. (This is also one we can add to the "heroine fingers his ass" list, and he LOOOOOVES it.) Managed, her "uptight rock band manager meets wild girl" book has some good dirty talk too, from what I remember. Perhaps in the scene where he pushes his cum back in her after he comes inside? Always a lovely moment.

Act Your Age by Eve Dangerfield has EXCELLENT DD/lg role play dirty talk, if you are... into that. The heroine likes to call the hero daddy, and he likes to pretend (with her consent, it's all very discussed and planned) that he's a dirty stepfather type who's Corrupting Her. It's filthy but also a surprisingly emotional book with realistic issues to confront?

Kresley Cole's dirty talk is OTT for me but I LOOOOVE it. The heroes are always like "YOU'RE STEALING MY CUM!!!!" which again, not for everyone, but I DON'T GIVE A FUCK. They narrate everything that's happening. I really like the werewolf IAD books for this because the werewolves are always like, beasting out but also like "YOU ARE A GODDESS DIVINE, CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME, WILL NEVER TAKE LIFE 4 GRANTED".

In regards to her Russian mafia books, I think The Master has some really good dirty talk. Like, deranged, but really good.

Kings of Italy has some of my favorite dirty talk ever, lol. There is some Italian, which Mila did use a translator for. There is always some stuff that's not going to translate perfectly, but (and take this with a grain of salt as I'm not a native speaker and am extremely rusty) but I enjoy it lol. But yeah, dude, those heroes are always talking super dirty throughout a sex scene. And tbh? The heroines often do too, especially Gia and Emma. We love reciprocation!

Sara Cate writes really good dirty talk. The hero in Eyes On Me is a voyeur, which means he talks the heroine through it a loooot. Give Me More has a lot of dirty talk, as again it's super focused on the watching element, which I think almost always contributes to a great dirty talk moment.

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean is super famous for its dirty talk scene, where the hero talks the heroine through touching herself for the first time. It's great.

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe has his amazing moment where Nellie is like "you're so proper that you don't even use dirty words" and Lockwood is like so do you want me to touch your pussy, your quim, your cunt, whatever I can go on. And she's like *GASP*.

Grace Callaway writes a really good dirty talker in a historical romance. Olivia and The Masked Duke and Pippa and The Prince of Secrets are great choices on this front.

I love the way Mac talks to Isabella in Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage because it's both deeply dirty and deeply fond, because like. They're married lol. He knows her.

Any Duchess Will Do is good for this, particularly because of the "recite my courtesy titles while I fuck you" scene lol. When a Scot Ties the Knot has some hot dirty talk too.

I remember Joss and The Countess by S.M. LaVolette having some very intense "THAT'S HOW YOU LIKE IT HUH?" Dirty talk.

Oooh American Royalty by Tracey Livesay has some good dirty talk, annnnnd it's of the "British prince talking filth" variety.

Kennedy Ryan's The Kingmaker has some good dirty talk, AAAND one of my favorite romance scenes in which Maxim puts his head under Lennix's sweatshirt to suck on her nipples while all their friends and coworkers are on the other side of the door.

Deep by Kylie Scott has some good dirty talk, of the "I'm going to take care of this pussy and nobody else is allowed to do it" variety. Which is something I love lol. For context, the heroine is the hero's bandmate's sister in law, and the hero broke the bro code by fucking her in a one night stand, and then they sort of fall apart immediately after. But actions! Have consequences! And she ends up pregnant. And horny. And nobody can take care of it but him!!!!

Bound to the Battle God by Ruby Dixon has a great fantasy romance dirty talk scene, in which the hero is like, spanking her pussy and is all "WHOSE IS THIS?" (her: FOR SURE YOURS) before they actually make it Official, and immediately after she realizes that everyone in their little band of miscreants heard them talking. And also heard the smacks.

Ooooh Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre has some amazing femdom dirty talk. The hero is a billionaire who asks the heroine to become his domme, and she certainly does make him crawl.

Minx by Sophie Lark has some dirty talk by way of pet play--the heroine is an escort hired by the hero, and he enjoys some pet play. And by some, I mean her wearing a catsuit and ears and gloves with claws and a collar and him being all "good girl, Minx" lmao.

[chibifox2002]

Third Time's the Charm

The two instances where Connie calls Dedede dad and the one time where he notices.

Also this might end up being written weird, but just bear with me as Tuesday took a lot outta me.

------

First Time:

It was half a month since Connie was moved into the castle, and she was still nervous about almost everything. Practically by the King's side 24/7 when she wasn't in her room.

It was night time as Connie was walking down the halls in the oversized hand-me-downs from the king as pajamas, with a flashlight in one hand and her old sheep plushie in the other, trying to find the kitchen to get herself a snack due to her forgetting to eat dinner and not wanting to bother anyone by asking for a proper meal.

However, she was starting to consider going back to her room and just sleeping the hunger off as she was struggling to figure out which way the kitchen was. She still hasn't figured out the layout of the castle and its many halls.

As she walked past a big double-door, the bottom of her pants got caught under her foot causing her to trip and fall over. The flashlight clattering on the floor.

Instantly wanted to hide, she scrambled to grab her flashlight and whipped around to run and find her way back to her room. When she awkwardly bumped into a big figure.

"Oi, you alright Connie?!"

Connie adjusted her glasses and looked up to see who she bumped into, and there stood King Dedede in his pajamas with the light from his room making him more visible.

Upon realizing that she'd woken him up she immediately wished to bury her under her blankets and disintegrate.

"Whatcha doin' outta yer room dis late kiddo?" The King asked as he helped the doll girl to her feet.

Connie stuttered back, "I uh... I was h-hungry. But I was just about to go back to my room since I couldn't find the kitchen."

"Oh, well I can show you where it is!" Dedede exclaimed. "I woke up hungry anyways!"

"Oh!" Connie paused. "O-Okay!"

Once the king showed her where the kitchen was, and had helped her stock up on snacks with him, he led her back to her room, not wanting her to get lost again.

"Alrighty then! Now go enjoy yer snacks and get some shuteye ya hear! Goodnight Connie!"

Connie yawned, "Goodnight dad..."

...

Connie froze from what she said and whipped her head around so fast that her glasses nearly flew off her head. While holding her breath, and seeing that her doors were shut, she quietly opened one just enough to peek out to see if the king heard her. She let out the breath in relief when seeing that he was already halfway down the hall, and closed the door for the night.

Second Time:

Six months passed.

Connie was running and crying.

A group of kids from out of town were at Cappy Town and for some reason decided to take some rather aggressive energy out on her. They were throwing both insults and water balloons filled with some sort of sludge at her. And while it was rather creative to Connie, she really didn't want to be covered in that stuff anymore than she was.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Connie yelled back towards the bullies, but they only laughed in response.

"Aw c'mon bug eyes! We jus' wanna play with ya!"

"Yeah! C'mon! Don't be a party pooper curly fries!"

One of the bullies laughed before yelling out. "Yeah, you're a toy! Toys are supposed to love playing, so try and catch this!" And before Connie could process what they said, a sludge balloon had nailed her right on the dead center of the back of her head with a sickening smack. The force of the impact made her lose her footing as she fell down.

Connie was about to brace herself for the barrage of balloons that was sure to come, when she heard a familiar voice boom out with anger.

"HEY!!! JUS' WHAT DO Y'ALL PUNKS THINK YER DOING?!"

In a few moments, Dedede was in between Connie and the bullies, face flushed with anger.

"W-We were just playing around! She started it!"

"I did not!" Connie interjected as she stood up, tears going down her face as she hung onto the king's robe to steady herself. "I was minding my own business playing at the park, when you guys showed up and started throwing those sludge filled balloons at me!"

The bullies started calling Connie a liar as a last ditch attempt to save themselves, they were quickly silenced by King Dedede.

"Listen here ya brats, my Connie ain't nowhere close to a liar, and I jus' saw one o' y'all nail her in da back of da head with those balloons of yers..."

The bullies began backing up as the King took a step forward.

"NOW GET OUTTA HERE BEFORE I DRAG YA BY YER ANKLES BACK TO YER DISAPPOINTED PARENTS!!!"

Dedede was still yelling at the bullies as they ran off. So he couldn't hear the tiny, tired voice of Connie as she whispered.

"...Thank you dad..."

Third Time:

....

Dedede was shaking, with Connie in his arms.

She was just possessed by Dark Matter a few moments ago...

Kirby had just gotten the possession loving freak out of her and was now chasing him off into the stars. Dedede was looking at Connie's unconscious face, emotions mixing into a feeling of numbness as he continued to stare at her, watching her breathing.

Her hair was completely ruined too, her once fluffy and soft hair is now oily and slimy. Her adorable curls were completely flattened out which broke his heart.

He then noticed her face began to twitch slightly. Taking this as a sign of her waking up, he started to shake her a little bit.

"C-Connie...? H-Hun...?"

Connie's face continued to stir before she opened her eyes slightly.

"Connie, you okay sweetie pie...?" Dedede asked, tears streaming down his face.

Connie shifted in his arms, a quiet, pained groan leaving her mouth before speaking in a tired voice.

"...Dad...? Are you okay...? Where's Kirby...?"

Dedede froze at what she called him, but decided to not focus on that, since that didn't matter right now.

"I'm-" His voice cracked. "I'm fine, 'n' Kirby will be right back soon... He's busy wit' something."

Connie hummed, "Okay... I'm cold..."

"I'll bring ya to yer room and getcha into bed, alright?"

"... Okay..."

....

Later, in Connie's room, Connie was wrapped up in her multiple blankets, laying against her many plushies that surrounded her pillow, with Dedede sitting on a stool right next to her bed as his hand was placed on Connie's head, thumb stroking her forehead.

The room was silent.

Connie then spoke up. "King Dedede?"

"Yeah hun?"

"I didn't make you uncomfortable by calling you "Dad", did I?"

He thought about it before responding.

"No... Ya didn't sweetheart, don't worry 'bout it."

"...Okay..."

More silence...

"Dedede?"

"Yeah Connie?"

"Can I keep calling you dad?"

Dedede paused for a moment before responding.

"Only if you really want to..."

"I do..."

Dedede sniffed, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Well then I'm okay with that..."

.....

"I love you dad."

"I love you too kiddo."

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Can't understand how chengcheng fans has always been the first who started to disgust people and start a war in the fandom.

Let me tell you a story. In China itself, modao once was a peaceful fandom on Lofter or Weibo during 2016-18, because the fans are all coming from reading the novel. At most they like the friendship of young Shuangjie but not UwU-ing so bad while scolding WangXian.

It was Not until late 2018-19 when donghua and CQL came out. A lot of JC stans spread like moss, either baby-ing JC or breaking WangXian by saying ChengXian originally is the official pair but because LWJ got popular mxtx give it to him (simply daydreaming😒 Even before writing, mxtx has said she first constructed what kind of protagonist she'd write and what kind of Husband he'd get thus WangXian are canon even before the making of MDZS).

At first the pairing of JC with LXC originally came due to the coincidence of Shuangjie and Shuangbi, but afterward, they literally recruit almost every character in MDZS to love their chengcheng. Such as ChengNing, ChengQing, ChengJingyi, RuohanCheng, ChengYao, SangCheng, even incest ChengYanli! etc, because chengcheng is pitiful being alone and he needs much love, lol. And finally, they simply insult both WangXian for betraying JC for love, or wen sibling for whatever sin they said to be guilty of, insulting Jin Guangyao for the third party between XiCheng (almost every XiCheng fanfic must hate and step on JGY to dregs to make JC look so much better, which is funny because XiYao is kinda popular in China much earlier, so this is a tense war, poor Xichen though🤣).

The even funnier thing is that they started to protest "why can't official pairing be broken?". In China, fans are pretty strict to official pairing (even the role of top/bottom, so this is really getting on a lot of people's nerves). If previously they robbed WWX and hate LWJ, now they started to rob LWJ and hate WWX. Yes. They think why did WWX get all the best thing? Why can't LWJ love and pamper their chengcheng? (Oh they already forgot about pairing LXC with JC in order to pamper him in the early days, can't get enough and want more).

There is even a party of DuWei or HeiMXTX(smth like antiwwx and antimxtx here), distorting canon facts (practically the so called canon they say is by ignoring 80℅ of facts itself), distorting every good intention of WWX into sinful and wrong things, even stepping on mxtx and slander her for neglecting her character just to make way for wangxian. The funny thing is that not even JGY Stan are as hardworking as them in slandering WWX and mxtx, when JGY literally got butchered in the end compared to the alive and kicking JC.

Naturally, WangXian fans get disgusted so bad they retaliated hard😂 around 2019 and intensified around 2020-21 (now the fandom has cooled down a bit). All kinds of meta and fanfic to slap awake those daydreaming ChengDu (literally mean Poisonous Cheng) are made. We can find tens of thousands articles (there are different tags, so rounding them up, it is more than 100k articles) has been written to refute the weird logic-brainwashing from JC stans on Lofter or Weibo.

This. At this point, came another problem.

Some of them simply hated JC but think that JFM and JYL are good people (which I also think so, they are just simply normal people who treat WWX just like how normal people in their shoes would be, without particular malice or hidden conspiracy). Some of them got angry for ChengDu remarks who said WWX owe YMJ for life, so they feel disdain even to JFM and JYL because those 2's kindness arent so great, if they were replaced by someone else WWX could even be treated better, yet why did it got said WWX owe them so much? Small portion of them even turn to dislike JYL so bad for being an ignorant and almost love brain Mary Sue girl, in retaliation of ChengDu who practically insult all kind of shits about WWX and Wen Qing while putting the saint family YunmengJiang onto the pedestal (including JYL), lol.

Anyway, there are all kind of different sides even for those who hated JC and his poisonous fanatic. But each one of them came due to JC Stan brainless remarks in the first place, lmao.

But what I want to say is, no matter what country, no matter what fandom, whether local or international, why is it always those JC stan who started to first disgust people and provoking a fight? Like, is this really hereditary? Those who worshipped JC are destined to distort the canon facts, refuse to accept reality, must insult and slander other characters to whitewash their own idol?

That has always been a mystery to me🙃

I think my largest frustration with the English side of the base is, that I never had to defend the fact that the Ancestral Hall fight, was never in the wrong for Wangxian and Wen Ning when it came to Chinese fans. This is completely on the side of mostly American fans.

I remember the mess of Jiang Cheng fans while the novel was being written only to have been replaced by nastier Xue Yang fans that were the ones to chase MXTX finally off of weibo, which is honestly as notoriously gross to creators as twitter is on the western side of things. It stopped once they didn't get what they wanted, and at least JC stans there stay in their corner because they know they will be mocked to hell and back for claiming distorted canon is actually true (trust me bro).

I can very much deal with Chinese mainland and Taiwan fans as they are well aware what fanon and canon separation is. What I am shocked about is how heavily I still get insulting anons and slurs from his base specifically that do only speak English and use some distorted meta that argues about "cultural sensitivity" yet they don't have anything other than some weak argument about their own personal life as proof of it all to try to shut me down when I speak about the abuse Wei Wuxian did face from Jiang Cheng's actions.

I don't mind fanon, I ship Xicheng as I have said multiple times. I can deal with a softer Jiang Cheng as long as there is acknowledgment of his past actions being shit and him having to work damn hard to be a better person for the people he supposedly loves so much. Yet I am still being told "personal experience is always different so that means this behavior from him is actually okay", when no, because the author of the work makes it textually aware that it is not at all ever meant to be a reason to take Jiang Cheng's side. Just because you, personally, relate to a character does not mean the text of them being meant as an antagonist changes suddenly. Your unhappiness of that does not change the story that is shown and what we are meant to generally pull from each of his interactions with Wei Wuxian.

I am tired of being told to accept that people want to make a hateful homophobic, selfish rich man, as something else and demanded to accept that people want to project that instead of what he is. I don't need to accept that because my rejection of that "hurt feelings." I am not here to say all interpretations are valid, because it is not truthful to the story text or the author's further clarifications of how she meant for him to be perceived.

[roseverdict]

Lost and Found

April O'Neil was not lost.

She was not!

She was exploring the playground and the surrounding area, that was all!

…but was she supposed to take a right turn at Albearto's or a left?

Maybe she was a teensy bit lost after all.

(Or, apparently there are some tweets about how April presumably met the guys a good few years before the events of the series, but they didn't get the chance to elaborate on it since network mismanagement shot the show in the foot. However, the idea of teensy April with tiny tortles has been bouncing around my brain like a Windows screensaver ever since I saw those tweets.)

(Or, "piece of evidence #254 that i cannot for the LIFE of me control the hyperfixate")

〜

i know there's a line in "repairin' the baron" that implies that splinter and the turtles have yet to meet april's mom but shshshshsh i do what i want. also i think the idea of mrs. o'neil knowing about them from the get-go is neat :>

tw/sidenote but both april and her mom are aware (to varying degrees) of the danger to a lost kid in a big city with plenty of melanin in their skin. the white guy who harasses april for a bit knows it too. things get stopped before any lasting injuries can be gotten and nothing explicitly racist is said, but still. i'm trying to be accurate as i can be to these situations and the characters but i'm so pasty you could colorpick from most of my skin and just get #FFFFFF so. no firsthand experience.

also there are brief mentions of potential amputation, though nothing actually gets amputated.

stay safe all.

(you can tell i'm not a new yorker by the way i make up place names and intersections xD)

〜

April O'Neil was not lost.

She was not!

She was exploring the playground and the surrounding area, that was all!

And maaaybe she had lost track of her directions somewhere a few blocks ago, but she still recognized the buildings around her, so she was fine!

Really, she was!

…but was she supposed to take a right turn at Albearto's or a left?

April shivered and tugged her orange hoodie tighter around her body. "Hoboy."

Maybe she was a teensy bit lost after all.

Well, sitting around all alone in Manhattan when you were the cutest, most charming little girl in town was a surefire way to get yoinked into some alleyway by shady gross people. If she was gonna be lost, she sure as heck wasn't gonna look like it!

April started walking as confidently as she could down streets she knew but couldn't quite piece together. Hopefully, she'd stumble across the entrance to the playground and be able to get back before Momma and Daddy started worrying about her.

While her confident swagger prevented people from giving her any weird looks, it did not prevent her from hearing a weird, quiet chirp-y noise.

April slowed, then wormed her way through the throng of adults until she popped out the side and could come to a stop. "Wha…?"

The chirp-y noise came back, this time easier to hear now that she wasn't in the middle of all those people, and April cautiously followed it back to the open end of an alleyway.

The chirping persisted.

It didn't sound human, per se, but at the same time it had a lack of…something…that made April think it wasn't just some freaky bird.

It kinda reminded her of…

…crying.

"H-hello?" called April shakily. "Is anyone there?"

The chirping came to a stop with a squeak, and April frowned, taking a step forward. "I don't wanna hurt you, okay? Are you alright?"

There came no response, but April took another step, then a third, scanning the alley for any shady gross people.

After a few more steps, April froze.

So did the big turtle shell thingy jammed between bags of garbage opposite some old graffiti- though, on second thought, maybe she just thought it was big because she'd only ever seen turtles in the zoo that were small enough for Momma to pick up in her hands. Apparently some turtles got to be way bigger than grown-ups, but this turtle shell was only a little bigger than the turtles at the zoo.

"…hi, there," said April quietly.

A turtle face peeked out at her from inside the shell, wide-eyed.

After a moment, April lowered herself to the ground and crossed her legs. "Why're you crying?"

Now, she hadn't really been expecting an answer- she'd just figured that talking calmly like Daddy did whenever she scraped her knee might help calm the turtle down.

That said, she figured she did a great job at not startling when the turtle spoke, and with a voice like a little kid, to boot. "…I, I think I'm l-lost."

"You're lost?" asked April. "Me, too. Do you have any friends that should be with you?"

The turtle's head slowly came out from his shell, and he nodded. "M-me and my brothers were explorin', but I got distracted by the pretty wall art and when I looked around they were, they were gone!"

"Pretty wall art? Y'mean the graffiti?" April asked, twisting her head to look back at the graffiti in question- a vivid neon version of the sunrise over Manhattan. She turned back and grinned. "You got good taste, turtle boy!"

That got Turtle Boy to giggle, and he carefully pulled himself from his shell and his hiding place to sit in front of her. "You think so?"

"I know so." April held out a hand for him to shake. "My name's April."

"Hi, April," giggled Turtle Boy as he shook her hand. "I'm Mikey."

Huh. He only had three fingers instead of five. Then again, he wasn't a human kid, so it made sense.

April beamed at Mikey. "Well, then, whaddya say we try and find our families? At least we won't be alone and lost."

Mikey nodded, but then he glanced out at the hustle and bustle of the adults just past the mouth of the alley. "But what if the human grown-ups see me?"

April frowned in thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. "They can't see you if you're wearing something big and baggy! Hang on-!"

She took her hand back from Mikey and yanked off her hoodie, then held it out to him. "Try this on!"

Mikey's eyes widened, and April almost could have sworn he got stars in them. "A-are you sure?"

"Positive," April said, winking at him. "Besides, ain't turtles cold-blooded? It's getting kinda chilly out these days anyway."

Mikey took the hoodie like it was some kind of sacred artifact in a movie, then slipped it on over his shell. The sleeves were long enough to hide his turtle-hands, and when they both stood up, it went down far enough that what little April could still see of his legs could easily pass as weird pants and shoes.

"Now you're lookin' cozy," April proclaimed, reaching over and flipping the hood over his head.

Mikey giggled, then grabbed her hand and grinned up at her. "Okay, let's go."

April gave his hand a squeeze, and the two of them struck out into the wilderness of rush hour.

"So, Mikey, do you recognize anything around here?" asked she after a few moments of walking.

Mikey's head turned from left to right and back again as he looked around, then he pointed with his free hand at Metro Tower, his sleeve flopping slightly at the end. "I think we were trying to go, uh, over there when we got separated."

"Right!" April nodded and led the way. "To the tower!"

For the most part, they managed to get through the crowds without too much trouble.

When they were just a few blocks away, though-

"Hey, there, kiddo. You're looking kinda green, heheh."

April tensed at the voice from one of the alleys. That was definitely somebody trying to be shady and gross.

She glanced at Mikey worriedly, but when he didn't seem to have any ideas for what to do beyond freezing up in fear, she swallowed down her nerves, squeezed his hand again, and shot a fake smile into the alleyway. "Thanks for your concern, mister, but my bro here just really likes dressing up as animals."

"Is that so?" asked the voice. The owner stepped into view, a very tall, very grown-up, very big white guy with an extremely icky grin on his face. "Would either of you be willing to show me the full costume?"

April gulped.

In the distance, she heard a few new voices yelling for Mikey, and from the tiny gasp that came out of him, April made an educated guess and said, "Sorry, mister, but our other brothers are prob'ly looking for us. Gotta go!"

Mikey nodded quickly. "Eheheh, yep! Bye!"

The two of them tried to bolt, but the man shot forward and yanked Mikey's hood down, gripping it hard enough that Mikey made a choked noise and skidded to a stop, clawing helplessly at his throat.

"HEY!" April snapped, whirling back around.

"A costume, eh?" snickered the gross guy. "Looks to me like you're a grade-A freak!"

April grit her teeth. "Let him go. Now."

"No, no, I don't think I will," said Gross Guy, scowling. "A scientific weirdo like this thing is gonna make me the big bucks!"

"Oh, I'll show you a scientific weirdo," hissed April right before charging the man and punching him right in the groin.

The sound Gross Guy made sounded a lot like the squeak Mikey had made when she first saw him, except better because Gross Guy's hand flew from Mikey's hood to grab at where April had punched.

Mikey gasped for breath, but April just grabbed him by the sleeve and started running. "C'mon, we gotta book it before he recovers!"

The two of them stumbled for a moment as Mikey got his feet back under him, but then they were sprinting down the sidewalk as fast as Mikey's little legs would let them. After a few moments of this, though, April shifted her grip on Mikey and just hefted him up into her arms, shell and all. "Hang on!"

"GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE-!"

Mikey glanced behind her, then shrank into his shell a bit. "He's gaining on us!"

April poured on the speed, but at the same moment as she saw another turtle boy about a street away and happened to catch his eye, a massive hand grabbed her by the hair and yanked her to a stop.

She let her grip on Mikey loosen so he would be able to go flying a few feet forward and yelled, "MIKEY, RUN!"

"Wha-? But April-!"

"I SAID RUN!"

She flailed in Gross Guy's grip in an effort to become as slippery, un-grabbable, and distraction-like as possible, but all she managed to do was get turned around so she couldn't see if Mikey got away.

Instead, all she got to see was Gross Guy glaring at her bad enough she almost wanted to cry.

Figured.

〜

Raphie's eyes flew wide as the human girl screamed, "MIKEY, RUN!"

From where he'd landed on the ground, Mikey scrambled to his feet, but instead of running- "Wha-? But April-!"

"I SAID RUN!"

Raphie chirped loudly, alerting Donnie and Leo to where he was without saying anything the human man might pick up on, then darted through the shadows to where Mikey lay, yanking him out of sight and into a nearby alley.

Mikey shook for a second, but once he saw Raphie's face, he launched himself up and grabbed Raphie in a tight hug. Before Raphie could hug him back, though, Mikey quickly pulled back and pointed tearfully at where the two humans were fighting.

Well, it was more of the man managing to drag the girl into another alley as she wiggled and yelled, but still.

For a moment, Dad's instructions to never, ever be seen by humans rang in Raphie's ears.

Then he reminded himself that the girl seemed to be trying to help Mikey, and it'd be rude to not help her back.

Raphie nodded to Mikey, then gave him a pat on the shoulder and slunk into the alley after the two humans.

"You idiot!" hissed the man, finally managing to grab the girl by the shoulders and slam her back against the wall, her feet dangling. "You just let the jackpot of a lifetime run free!"

The girl leaned away from the man's face, then spat right into his eyes.

Something in the man's face twisted. "Why, you-!"

Yeah, okay, Raphie wasn't watching any more of this.

He jumped up onto the man's back and clawed at him, a growl rising up in his chest.

The man squawked in surprise, though he didn't let go of the girl until Raphie bit him in the shoulder. He didn't bite at full strength- Donnie'd made sure he knew the kind of power a normal alligator snapping turtle had, and he didn't want to amputate anything (or, well, half-amputate with his tiny mouth)- but it was still more than enough to get the man to drop the girl to the ground.

As soon as the girl was free, Raphie stopped biting in favor of shoving himself off the man in such a way that the guy went tumbling into the wall.

The girl gawked at him, but shook herself out of it pretty quick once he grabbed her hand and ran back to where Mikey was, leaving the man to lick his wounds. "Thanks for the save, big guy! Guessing you're one of Mikey's brothers?"

Raphie nodded. "I'm Raphie."

"Good to meetcha, weird alley man aside," the girl laughed awkwardly, then leaned heavily on the nearby wall. "I'm April."

Raphie shot her a grin and a nod-

-and then Mikey cannonballed into her. "APRIL! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, Mikey, I promise," April told him, taking the cannonball-hug in stride and patting his shell through the hoodie he'd found. "Dude screwed up my locs, though. Booooo."

There came a groan from the other alley, and April's head whipped around to look before whipping back to meet Raphie's eyes. "We gotta move."

Raphie nodded. "If we can get down to the sewers, me and my bros know those like the backs of our hands."

"Then what're we waiting for?" asked Donnie, poking his head up from a manhole deeper in their alley.

"Let's go!" called Leo, popping up next to him.

The guy Raphie'd bitten made a weak-but-furious growling noise, and April nodded quickly. "Sounds good to me!"

Raphie watched carefully as she turned Mikey to the manhole and walked him over. She seemed to have Mikey's best interests at heart, and she didn't seem freaked out by the fact that they were all a bunch of talking turtles, but…

April glanced back at him. "Raphie, you coming?"

"I'm the oldest, so I gotta make sure everybody else is safe, first," Raphie told her firmly.

"Really? How old are you?"

"Ten. That's a whole two digits."

April snickered. "I'm eleven, which means I outrank you! Into the sewer with you, Turtle Boy!"

Raphie spluttered indignantly, but Mikey just giggled as he clambered down. "Yeah, into the sewer!"

Because she got Mikey to giggle, and only for that reason, Raphie relented and went next. April gestured grandly at the manhole as he passed, and then as soon as Raphie climbed low enough, she followed suit.

"Don't forget the manhole cover," called Donnie from below.

April nodded. "Gotcha."

The fading daylight cut out as April hefted the cover and pulled it back over the hole, and then they were lit only by the service lights of the sewer itself as they descended.

"So, I already met Mikey and Raphie," April said, glancing down at something past Raphie, "but I don't think I caught your names."

"My name is Donatello-"

"-but we just call him Donnie! I'm Leo!" declared he cheerfully.

"Ugh."

April chuckled. "Nice to meetcha. I'm April."

"Well, April, the sewers make for a quick getaway, but I doubt you want to stay down here forever," Donnie remarked as they started reaching the bottom. "Was there anywhere you needed to go?"

Once Raphie touched down, April hopped the last few feet to the ground and turned to them. "Yeah, actually. You know how to get to Carney Park?"

"Of course I do! I know everything," bragged Donnie, adjusting his glasses haughtily. "This way- wait."

Raphie watched as Donnie tensed. "…Donnie…?"

"The only efficient way to get from here to there is to take April through…" Donnie breathed, glancing at Raphie worriedly, "…the lair."

"Ah, crud," moaned Leo.

"Wha-? What's 'ah, crud?' What's 'the lair?'" April asked, fiddling with her hair. Then, after glancing around, in a whisper, "Is there a sewer gator?"

"No, no sewer gators!" Mikey assured quickly. "It's just…the lair is what we call our home, and we…may or may not have snuck out while Dad was napping."

"He has a very strict 'no human interaction' rule, for reasons you've just experienced," Donnie added.

Leo buried his head in his hands. "He probably won't even be mad. He'll just be…"

Raphie shuddered. "…disappointed."

April grimaced. "Oof, I know what that's like. Are we positive there's no other way?"

Donnie shrugged helplessly. "It's either the lair or a detour."

"How long a detour are we talking?" asked April, perking up some.

"On foot? Something like…" Donnie swallowed. "…an extra hour."

It was April's turn to groan and drop her face into her hands. "Awww, nooo, I'm gonna get so grounded!"

Even though April was (allegedly) older than Raphie, in that moment, all he saw was a girl like Leo or Donnie or Mikey- in need of Big Bro Raphie.

Raphie set his jaw, then turned to the others. "We go through the lair. Hopefully Pops is still sleeping, and if he's not…we sneak her through."

"You sure, Raphie?" asked Leo.

Raphie nodded firmly. "I'm sure."

"Then we'd best get a move on," Donnie said. "We've been gone…how long, exactly?"

April checked her wrist. "Well, it's almost 6 PM now. I dunno when you left, though."

Donnie still nodded, taking in the info. "Then Dad should hopefully still be asleep by the time we reach the lair, but only if we move fast."

"So let's hoof it!" declared Leo, breaking into a jog.

Mikey grabbed April's hand and dragged her after Leo. "Onwards!"

Raphie waited to make sure Donnie got back to the front of the group, then set off after them, keeping an eye out for anything else that might throw a wrench in their plans for the day.

"So, you're eleven?" asked Mikey after a few minutes.

April managed a laugh between breaths. "Sure am!"

Mikey beamed at her. "Cool! I'm eight!"

"Me and the nerd here are nine!" added Leo, pointing a thumb at Donnie.

"It's 'the nerd here and I,' Nardo," corrected Donnie.

Leo snorted. "See what I mean?"

April chuckled weakly, and Raphie glanced over at her just in time to see her foot come down and twist-

"Aaand scoop!" Raphie decided, doing exactly that to April before she had a chance to drop.

"Nice catch, Raphie!" Mikey cheered.

April blinked in surprise, then grinned sheepishly. "Thanks. Apparently I gotta work on my endurance."

"We're almost to the lair," murmured Donnie, slowing down.

"Right." Raphie shot Leo a look. "Leo, check if Pops is awake."

Leo nodded. "On it."

As Leo darted off, Raphie looked down at April. "I saw your ankle twist. Can you walk?"

"Only one way to find out," April declared.

Raphie set her on her feet, and while he held his hands nearby to catch her in case she fell, she didn't seem to need it. A little wobbling as she caught her balance, and April was fine.

Phew.

"Oh, haha, hiii, Dad!" called Leo's voice loudly. "You're up, I see!"

Raphie, April, Mikey, and Donnie all froze.

"He should've been out for another half-hour!" hissed Donnie.

"What do we-?" whispered Mikey.

"Stick close, April," Raphie decided. "I'm biggest, so if Pops gets close, hide behind me and we'll pretend you ain't there. Donnie, Mikey, act natural."

〜

"I certainly am," chuckled Splinter, scritching Leonardo's head. "How are you and your brothers doing, Blue?"

"Doing great!" Leonardo said with a grin, the response coming suspiciously fast and the smile growing suspiciously wide.

Well, so long as he and his brothers weren't actively being harmed, he supposed he could let it go just this once. Perhaps they were just trying to sneak in something cool they found while playing.

Splinter nodded and turned to head back to the TV room. "Wonderful."

He pretended not to notice as Donatello and Michelangelo entered with exaggerated sneaking motions, and he pretended not to notice as Raphael followed with a fake casualness.

He pretended not to notice as Leonardo joined the other three, and he pretended not to notice as the four of them tried to abscond to elsewhere in the lair.

When an unfamiliar voice gasped in time with a human girl stumbling into view, clearly hiding from him behind Raphael until whatever made her wince in pain, however, Splinter knew he had to confront his sons.

"Boys-!"

"Don't get mad at April!" Michelangelo burst, darting between the two of them with his arms held out protectively. "She helped me get unlost and saved me from a meanie human grown-up!"

"She told Mikey to get to safety when the bad guy grabbed her," Raphael added, mirroring the position. "And I thought the ankle she twisted was fine."

"It was!" protested the girl- April- as she leaned heavily on one leg. "At least, until just now. I think I double-twisted it."

"She's been remarkably calm about this whole situation, as well," Donatello chimed in, gesturing to himself in regards to the 'situation.'

Leonardo stepped between Donatello and Michelangelo, finishing the formation of a protective line between Splinter and April. "Dad, please don't be mad-"

"You snuck out?" Splinter started with. Then, before they could respond, he held up a hand. "This may be surprising, but I suppose I was already well-aware of that. I will be back to that subject later, but first- you all know how dangerous humans can be! And you brought one here?"

Then the other implications of his sons' words hit him like a yawning chasm splitting open in his chest.

"Wait, wait, wait- you needed saving?!"

Michelangelo nodded emphatically. "So I got distracted and lost track of the others and there was this guy, right? And April let me borrow her hoodie so people wouldn't see me and freak out but this guy saw me anyway, and he had the hood so I couldn't get away and April punched him between the legs so we could run! She picked me up so we could go faster, but then the guy grabbed her by the hair so she tossed me and Raphie was there and-"

"Woah, woah, Orange, slow down. I only caught the first part of that," Splinter said, holding his hands up placatingly.

Michelangelo took a deep breath, but Raphael dropped a hand on his shoulder and spoke instead. "Pops, this guy was going after Mikey, and April put herself in harm's way to get him to safety. Once we got away, she mentioned she needed to get to Carney Park, but the quickest way there meant we would need to come through the lair. I-I know you don't trust humans, but April is trustworthy, I swear."

Splinter looked between his sons, then searched April's gaze for…something.

The girl's hair was a mess. He'd done film work with all kinds of folks, way back in the day, and he knew that the amount of care that went into certain hairstyles- such as, for instance, April's- meant that for each grouping of hair to be frayed and off-kilter the way it was…well, that certainly proved the 'grabbed by the hair' part of the story.

She wasn't breathing too heavily, but it was still clear that she'd been doing a lot of physical exertion recently, and she certainly favored one leg over the other.

He looked into the girl's eyes- she couldn't possibly have been much older than Raphael!- and saw tempered steel underneath a laid-back exterior.

He looked into the girl's eyes and saw himself, and he saw her find herself in his in turn.

(He had a feeling that if he forbade his sons from becoming her friend, she was going to worm her way in anyway.)

"April, correct?" asked Splinter.

"Yes, sir," said she.

Splinter gently parted Leonardo and Michelangelo, then stepped forward. After a moment more, he held out a hand to shake. "You may call me Splinter. Thank you for keeping my boys safe."

Instantly, his boys relaxed, and April cracked a grin as she took his hand. "What can I say? They grew on me quick."

"Red, you mentioned getting April here to Carney Park?" Splinter asked, turning to Raphael.

Raphael nodded.

"Then you'd best get moving so she can get there before sundown."

"…can we play with April after this?" asked Michelangelo. "Like, playdates and stuff?"

"I'd be down for that," April answered, as if silently daring Splinter to contradict her.

Splinter sighed. "Perhaps it would be good to have some form of interaction outside of each other and this old rat."

He tried, but…just because he somewhat knew he was a less-than-stellar parent, that didn't automatically give him the ability to change that fact at will. Maybe a bit of outside interaction might help…well, everything.

A resounding cheer rose up from his sons, and Splinter smiled.

〜

Carol O'Neil was not panicking.

She was not!

She was searching every inch of the streets around Carney Park after exhausting her search of the playground inside, that was all!

And maaaybe she was calling her husband more often than strictly necessary, such as whenever she came to a new intersection without seeing her daughter, but it was perfectly normal to want to stay connected during such a time of crisis!

A crisis that, it bore repeating, was not making her panic.

…oh, who was she kidding?

April had disappeared forty-seven minutes and sixteen seconds ago exactly, and Carol had desperately tried to keep the numbers and statistics from overwhelming her ever since. She and her husband had scoured the playground, then set off to methodically search the surrounding streets, even calling in some of their friends and coworkers to help look, but to no avail.

It was like her daughter had vanished into thin air.

Her phone buzzed- another text from one of her coworkers.

nothing on 25th and Broadway :(

Carol stifled a sob with her free hand, but slid her phone back into her jacket pocket and turned to head back to the park. Maybe…maybe April had just found some sort of hiding place to take a nap?

(Carol ignored how flimsy the idea was in favor of something, anything that could give her a way to find her daughter. She knew the numbers. An unattended black girl lost in the big city could very well never get home again.)

She was so focused on keeping her breathing steady that she almost missed the voice at the edge of her hearing.

Almost.

The words were too quiet to discern, but the voice was calm, and Carol slowed to a stop. "April…?"

There were other voices, unfamiliar but just as young.

Then a manhole cover shifted in a nearby alleyway, and Carol pressed herself against a nearby wall.

"Looks liiike…the coast is clear," said a young boy. "And, just as I calculated, Carney Park is just a few blocks due south of our location!"

"Thanks, Donnie," said April's voice. "Y'all are lifesavers, you don't even know."

Carol was halfway through rounding on the alleyway in all her worried glory when-

"What? No, you're the lifesaver, April," said another boy's voice. "Like, literally. If you hadn't been there and helped me get back to my bros, I-I might'a been-!"

"Oh, don't get all mushy on me now, Mikey," April snorted.

Carol finished her motion, but stayed deathly silent as she took in the scene before her.

There were anthropomorphic turtles in the alley.

April was in the alley, her locs askew and one of her ankles slightly swollen…

…and a warm smile on her face.

None of them seemed to have seen her, and as she watched, April pulled the smallest of the turtles into a tight hug as if he was just another neighborhood kid.

The smallest turtle was wearing April's hoodie.

How had one of these turtles gotten April's hoodie?!

"Promise I'll try to hang out a bunch, okay?" April continued. "You guys are cool, and don't think I didn't see that skateboard ramp in there. I'm gonna pull off so many sick tricks you'll be begging me to teach y'all."

"Do I smell someone attempting to claim my throne as the sickest skater in the sewers?" asked yet another boy's voice, and this time Carol could see that it belonged to one of the turtles.

April smirked. "Maybe you do! Never underestimate April O'Neil!"

"See you soon?" asked the biggest of the turtles in yet another little boy's voice.

"Better believe it, Raphie!" April declared, patting the smallest of the turtles before letting go. "And, hey, Mikey, if you wanna hold onto that, you can. I'm the warm-blooded one here, and fall gets chilly."

The small one- Mikey, apparently- nodded. "Okay!"

April stood up straight, but just as quickly slumped back down sheepishly. "Uhhh…which way is due south, again?"

The turtle boy in glasses spoke up, his voice matching "Donnie's." "Well, given the time and the length and direction of the shadows cast by the sun rather than artificial light sources, it should be just that waaaoooeugh, boy…"

Carol blinked as the turtle boy locked eyes with her, then froze up in terror.

Donnie's reaction caused the rest of the group to turn her way, worry on their faces.

April swallowed, then smiled nervously, ducking her head into her shoulders like she was trying to turn into Mikey, who was legitimately drawing his head into both the hoodie and his shell. "…hiii, Momma."

There were many things Carol wanted to do in that moment.

She wanted to grab her daughter and spirit her home and never let her leave her sight again.

She wanted to break down crying from relief.

She wanted to demand to know what had happened and refuse to leave until she was told every single detail.

She wanted to demand to know why there were turtle boys living in the sewers.

She wanted to wring the reasons behind the 'lifesaver' comments out of them.

She wanted to wipe the fear from the children's faces.

In the end, she took a few steps into the alley, dropped to one knee, and held out her arms, hot tears bubbling up and dripping down her cheeks. "Oh, baby, I'm so glad you're okay."

April sniffled, then barreled into her and clung tight.

Carol quickly held April to her chest and peppered the top of her head with quick kisses, and as April started sobbing into her shirt, Carol turned her attention back to the boys.

Clearly, the fact that Carol had not started screaming at or about them had thrown them off a bit.

"I believe I have you all to thank for getting my daughter back somewhere we could find her?" Carol asked knowingly.

"Y-yes, ma'am," squeaked "Raphie," standing ramrod-straight as his brothers withdrew behind him, all four of them watching her warily.

Carol smiled warmly. "Thank you."

Yet again, the boys seemed taken aback, but Mikey quickly recovered and beamed at her from behind his brother's shell. "You're welcome! April's nice!"

…did these boys have parents? Follow-up question, would they like some?

April sniffled a bit as her sobbing slowed, then shifted to rest the side of her head on Carol's chest and look back at the boys. "Got any hangout plans that don't involve getting lost and running into your dad?"

Oh, right, Carol had to be a Stern Mother and make sure April knew not to run off like that again. Darn it all!

"Now, let's not make any plans just yet," Carol interjected, and almost immediately she got distressed protests from all five kids, but she pressed on- "April, you can't just run off and get lost like that on us. We were so worried-!"

"I'm, I'm sorry, Momma-!"

"-so I'm gonna have to make an executive decision, one I'm sure your daddy will agree with," Carol continued, raising her voice just enough to be heard. "You will not be doing anything with these boys-"

"Ms. O'Neil, you can't-!"

"-for the next two weeks!"

Dead.

Silence.

Almost as if afraid to speak, the boy whose name Carol still had yet to hear breathed, "…not for forever?"

"Leo!" hissed Donnie, elbowing him sharply without taking his wide eyes off of Carol.

Carol shook her head. "No, not for forever. This is a punishment for my daughter for wandering off into the city without somebody with her, not for you boys for bringing her back. Telling April she can't be friends with someone ain't my parenting style, anyway."

Oh, no.

They all looked like they were going to cry now.

Carol shifted her grip on April slightly and held out her now-free arm in invitation.

The four boys stumbled over their own feet as they rushed over, and then Carol found herself patting shells and getting nuzzled by little heads and struggling to stay more or less upright under roughly 240 pounds of sobbing, chirping turtle.

Wait, no- 180 pounds of turtle. Donnie hadn't thrown his entire weight at her like the other three, but even he had reached around and grabbed onto Carol's arm from the side, clinging tightly to her jacket sleeve and sniffling.

Not how she'd expected the evening to play out when she'd taken April out to the park, frankly.

Still, Carol murmured reassurances as she let them cry themselves out, and even April joined in after laughing wetly. On instinct, she found herself scritching Raphie's shell, then pressing a kiss to Mikey's forehead, then letting Leo bury his face in her shoulder. She even caught Donnie's watery eyes and tried to convey as much warmth as she could with a small smile.

Donnie gave her a wobbly smile in return before ducking his face into her sleeve, kneading it between his fingers.

After a good few moments, the boys started pulling themselves back together, and Carol made sure to stay put as they stepped back.

"Heh," managed Leo. "Sorry 'bout crying on you, Ms. O'Neil."

His brothers nodded in agreement.

"You're just fine, sweethearts," Carol told them truthfully. "Do you boys have a place to stay?"

"Mm-hmm." Raphie nodded. Then, with a shrug, "We live with our Pop in the…well, in the sewers."

"We keep our part of it very clean," added Donnie quickly. "We have our own rooms, and even several amenities we've found and taken home, such as furniture, a projector, and even Jupiter Jim movies!"

Leo flexed and grinned at Carol as if he hadn't just been bawling his eyes out into her jacket. "And nothing ever gets in without our say-so!"

"S-so it's okay if April wants to come visit sometimes!" Mikey finished, eyes wide and pleading.

"As long as you aren't running around on your own without even a place to sleep," Carol conceded. She…really wasn't sure she liked the idea of these bright boys living in the sewers with only humankind's refuse to claim as their own-

-oh, who was she kidding? She hated it.

Still, they seemed content enough with their lot at the moment, they didn't seem to be in any imminent danger, and Carol was, quite frankly, exhausted from the events of the past few hours, so instead of pressing the issue right then, she said, "April and I should be getting back home, and so should you."

"See you soon?" asked Mikey, giving Carol some of the biggest puppy-dog eyes she'd ever seen.

"Of course!" declared April.

"Not too soon, though," Carol reminded, pushing herself to her feet. "Remember, two weeks. You'll be lucky if we even let you out of our sight, little missy!"

April grinned nervously. "Because I'm your favorite daughter and you love me very much?"

"That, too, but mostly because you are so grounded!" Carol said, leveling a stern look at her.

April sighed. "Figured."

And as April took Carol's hand, and as the children waved their goodbyes, and as the two humans started walking/limping to the park, and as the turtles retreated through the manhole, and as Carol fished out her phone to message the rest of the search party, Carol smirked at April. "You can tell both me and your daddy about everything that happened today once we get home."

April grimaced. "Awww, what?"

"I'll help convince him those boys aren't some kind of imaginary friends, but other than that, you're on your own."

Carol chuckled as April groaned and buried her head in her free hand.

…and maaaybe she squeezed her daughter's hand as her adrenaline rush faded.

She was just glad April was there with her and okay enough to squeeze back.

〜

April O'Neil was not lost.

She pumped her fists excitedly as Momma made her way to an out-of-the-way picnic table, nearly buzzing right out of her skin as she waited.

Momma chuckled and took her sweet time sitting down, then grinned at April. "And that's two weeks. Have fun, and stay close to the park this time, okay, hon?"

"Okay, Momma!"

And April was off like a bullet, tackling a flash of green in the bushes and sending them all to the ground in a tangle of laughing limbs.

[dnangelic]

"BREAKING NEWS! PHANTOM THIEF DARK KIDNAPS SPECIAL COMMANDER!" Saehara is having fun with this latest edition of the school paper and it was selling like HOTCAKES.

"I've also got high res photos of the two of them in case anyone wants to purchase--" He was quickly mobbed by a throng of girls-- all eagerly debating the romance between the commander and the master thief.

"Star-crossed lovers!" One called out, staring at the picture she'd purchased.

"I bet they have a secret romance." Said another, placing the picture in one of her folders to smuggle home later.

"Seeing pretty men together is so wonderful." Mused a third fan. Saehara quickly sold out of his stock-- he'd need to print more.

ah . uuuh ?

this was --- this was really bad , right ?!

' SAEHARA ?! w-what the heck are you doing --- ?! what is all this ?! ' w-wah , look at all of the people ! and all of the girls ! and all the papers and pictures of --- of him ! ... well , technically , it was dark and hiwatari , but what in the world were all these rumors flying around ?!

this was crazy !!

if daisuke had at all been able to endure dark's name forever flying through the air around him in squeals in the past , then it was only because he practically never had any involvements , and nobody would have ever known that dark was him ! but now the phantom thief's spotlight was being shared , and the rumors of romance were cropping up --- w-what would risa think ?! what about riku ?!

( so that pervert's finally started kidnapping men , too ?! )

no , no ! noooo !! he was trapped at school and he couldn't even scream ! there was no way he could go against saehara without looking completely suspicious , either ! ' you're ... you're kidding me ! '

sure , to dark's myriad fans , if not the entire azumano prefecture , this was just another juicy incident and gossip-worthy happenstance , but what was he going to do about the exaggerated papers and pictures about to line the inside of every locker ?! was this really even supposed to be okay for hiwatari-kun , too ?! with his delicate constitution , or maybe just his weird way of talking sometimes ...

' AUUUGH !! ' HE MESSED UP ! HE REALLY MESSED UP ! HIS LIFE WAS SERIOUSLY OVER !! MAYBE IF HE ASKED HIS MOM , THEY COULD PACK UP AND MOVE TO A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT COUNTRY AFTER THIS !

[kotlc-deleted-scenes]

Keeper Summer Week #12

Deleted Scene from Flashback 

I cut this scene because the Healing Center sequence was such a huge chunk of the book that I needed to limit it to the most essential moments. I had to cut anything where Sophie wasn't learning something significant or making progress on her recovery. And since this was neither of those, it had to go.

—Shannon

“Okay—enough chitchat,” Ro said, marching over to Elwin's office. "I was promised ooze!" 

"Yeah, let the Great Fitzphie Ooze Fest begin!" Keefe commanded, pumping his fist. 

"It's going to be a few more minutes," Elwin warned them. "I'm still finishing up one of the poultices." 

"Is there gross stuff in it?" Ro asked hopefully. 

"Some of the worst I've ever seen," Elwin agreed. 

Keefe smirked at Fitz and Sophie. "Excellent." 

"But hurry it up!" Ro added as she paced around the room. 

The third time she passed Sophie's cot, she paused to ask, "Are you aware of your hair situation?" 

"Situation?" Sophie repeated. 

"Disaster zone' might be more appropriate," Ro warned as she pulled a compact from the back of her breastplate and held the mirror up to show Sophie. 

Sophie blinked. "Oh wow." 

She wasn't sure how hair could stick out in so many different directions and also be plastered to her head. And the more she tried to pull it into a ponytail, the more it rebelled. 

"Okay, now it's getting pathetic," Ro said, smacking Sophie's hand away and taking over. "You can all thank me later." 

"Uh, what is happening right now?" Keefe asked. 

"I'm helping your girl look less like a newborn yeti." She used her claws like a comb, trailing them gently across Sophie's skull. "Worried I'm going to shred the skin off your scalp?" she asked when Sophie flinched. "I could, you know." 

"I'm sure you could," Sophie agreed. 

Just like she was sure that Ro could crush her head like a grape. "It's weird, isn't it?" Ro asked, separating Sophie's hair into sections. 

"This truce between our species? I mean, if someone had told me last year that I'd get this close to an elf and not want to rip out their throat—especially one of the little brats who attacked our capital city- I'd have broken every bone in their body. But here I am: styling elf-y hair in Sparkle Town. And the weirdest thing is—I don't totally hate it. I mean, I could do without all the glitter—and the perfumy smell. But the drama and obliviousness make it pretty entertaining." 

"Obliviousness?" Sophie asked. 

"The fact that you need me to spell it out for you kinda proves my point. But don't worry: Someday you'll figure it out—and then things will get very interesting. In the meantime—behold!"

She held up the mirror again, revealing the two messy buns she'd twisted Sophie's hair into—which was a little Princess Leia meets Minnie Mouse, if Sophie was honest. 

Ro sighed. "Clearly you need to start seeing yourself the way others do. Check out the staring boys if you don't believe me." 

She pointed to Fitz and Keefe, who were indeed staring. 

"What?" Sophie asked, heat creeping up her neck. 

Fitz blinked. "You look… different in a good way." 

"Dude, is that the best you can do?" Keefe asked. 

"I don't see you doing any better," Fitz argued. 

"Oh, I could. But I'm trying not to make you look bad. And can we be done with the makeovers? I came here for ooze! Come on, Elwin—you're killing me!" 

"One more minute," Elwin called back. "Still finishing up the new poultice."

[weird-kid-maxx]

I'm Not Him (And Never Will Be) (My Babysitter's A Vampire Benny Weir X Fem! OC)

Forewarning: I am putting Jesse as a good guy in all of these (except, MAYBE, a few) because I genuinely like Jesse and felt he could've had a redemption arc after the season 2 finale.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Prompt: The reader (OC) breaking down at an inconvenient moment after something seemingly harmless evokes a horrific memory.

Summary: The OC, Athena, has an abusive ex that used to hit her for every little thing. Fast-forward three years, and she's with Benny Weir. When two jocks get in a fight at school and accidentally injure her, she freaks, and the truth comes out.

Genre: Hurt/Comfort.

Warnings: Abuse; First Fight; Relationship Trauma; Abusive Ex; PTSD; Sweet Benny; Hurt Benny Weir; Hurt OC.

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Third Person POV

Athena has been with Benny for four months, and yet all they did to this day was hold hands, share kisses, and cuddle. Now, Benny wasn't a pushy guy. She didn't want to get intimate or whatever, that was fine! He wasn't needy like that. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable, so he went at her pace. It's just...sometimes, he was confused. She seemed so fine one second, and then someone would snap, or yell or say something, and she'd go all tense and quiet, and he would wonder, not for the first time, if she was possibly hiding some dark secret. He wanted her to trust him. And she did, but...not with whatever was hurting her. He understood, but...it hurt.

Lately, he's been asking the vampires about Athena. Had they noticed anything different? Was she acting weird, or was it just him? "Don't push her," Jesse told Benny one day at lunch as Athena stood in line with Ethan and Sarah. "She'll tell you when she's ready. One of my biggest mistakes was pushing Sarah." He added. "That's why I lost her." "Oh. Okay." Benny said as the other three approached.

He spent the next few days sort of...analyzing Athena. If someone yelled, he watched her body language. He didn't mean to treat her like a science experiment, she was just worrying him.

One day, two jocks got in a fight. They were arguing pretty loudly when Jesse, Erica, Benny, and Athena left Math, right there in the hall, and were throwing insults back and forth. Now, usually, nobody would bother, but everyone in the hall felt that it would get violent in under ten seconds, so a girl ran to get the staff, and the taller one suddenly shoved the shorter one into the locker, and he tripped into the metal, slamming into Athena, knocking her to the ground with a slam that echoed painfully in Benny's ears.

At that point, Jesse snarled, shoving the two struggling humans apart as Athena scrambled to her feet and bolted, shoving past the crowd and nearly knocking another girl into the lockers. Benny, though he wanted to go after her, knew he had to let her breathe, and started helping Jesse separate the jocks, still shouting at one another, until teachers swarmed the hallway, pulling them apart. "Where's Athena?" Sarah gasped, eyes wide. "This way!" Erica called, running down the hall at human speed. The others shared glances and followed her into the closest closet.

She was in the corner, knees to her face, crying. "Athena!" Benny pushed past a startled Erica. No one had seen her cry, not like this. "Hey, hey, what--" He flinched as her hands flew up, pushing at him, and she whimpered, "Don't--don't touch me."

"Hey, it's me!" Benny blinked, hurt. She glanced up, and Benny's heart twisted. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she had claw marks on her cheeks, flushed pink, from her nails. "What happened?" Sarah asked. Jesse grabbed Sarah's arm. "Let's give them a minute, okay?" He asked, eyes checking Athena over. As the girls left the closet, he asked, "You okay, Thena?" She nodded. "Thank you," She whispered. Jesse smiled softly and told Benny, "We'll be right outside." He left, shutting the door carefully so it didn't slam.

"I'm sorry." Athena whispered, rubbing her sweaty hands on her jeans. "It's okay. What...what happened, why'd you freak so bad?" He asked. "Does it scare you when that happens?" He wondered. "Sort of?" She hedged. At his curious look, she sighed. "I had an ex. Remember me telling you about Jay?" She wondered, and he nodded. "Yeah, you said you broke up with him because it didn't work out." He recalled. "It didn't, because...he used to hurt me. He would...hit me a lot, and he'd call me names. He was really abusive and controlling, and now, because of him, if something happens--a fight too close, too much yelling, something resembling anger--I freak and have a panic attack." She said softly. Benny's eyes widened. "What?" He asked in a voice that made Athena wish she'd never opened her mouth. "Who...who'd hurt you, you're an awesome person!" He nearly yelled. She flinched. "I'm sorry, please..." She whispered.

"No, no, no, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He whispered, reaching forwards, and stopped. "Can I hug you?" "Of course!" She said, wrapping her arms around Benny. She sunk into his arms. For every time she remembered Jay's harsh words or fists, Benny was there to chase it all away.

Outside the closet, Erica's eyes watered. "I never knew." She whispered, leaning against the wall. Sarah blinked, and a tear traced her cheek. "I don't think any of us did." She whispered, eyes flicking to Jesse's. The older vampire was glaring down the hall. "I'm gonna kill him." "No." The voice said, and the door opened. "Please, don't." Athena whispered, rubbing her still-pink cheeks dry of tears. "He hurt you, so let me kill him." Erica promised. "Guys, no. Just...stay with me. I need you guys here with me." Athena whispered, eyes watering again. "Okay. We can stay." Jesse sighed. Athena smiled. "Thank you." She turned to Benny, hiding her face in his striped hoodie. For a moment, Benny looked a little scary. His face was cold and flat, and his eyes were almost black. "You, uh...look a little...different," Sarah hedged. He glanced at her. "I...I'm taking her home." He grabbed Athena's hand and led her down the hall. Once they were gone, Sarah smiled. "I know where he lives." Erica and Jesse looked at her. "We're going hunting. Tonight." She snarled, stalking down the hall. Erica grinned, and Jesse laughed.

[philtstone]

Ok but I’d die for 37 Bucky and Sam. Platonic or otherwise I’m die

#37 -- you know you're still holding hands, right?

this prompt is so old and this prompt fill is so unhinged i have to genuinely apologize. @firstelevens the worm paper is dedicated to you but more importantly @foolgobi65 the rest of the fic is dedicated to you. the KD featured in is hot cheetos flavoured just so everyone knows. inspired by life events. love yall

1.

They cross paths at like two a.m. when Sam has long since stopped being able to read the words on the university website in front of him. He's reading through legal jargon and policy that no one wants him or any other student to understand, so he can bring that exact fact up with devastating accuracy at the next interdepartmental mental health policy seminar. He's interrupted when the alarm goes off from bedroom number two and Bucky shuffles out of its depths with an awful wrenching noise. His door sticks, because their building is old and decrepit. Sam watches as his roommate walks wordlessly into the kitchen, digs out an ancient pack of kraft dinner and mangles the plastic covering the top before he sticks it in the microwave. Bucky's pulled the hood of his sweater up to cover his hair and has wrapped their rattiest grey bath towel around his shoulders like he's an ailing king in one of those sci fi fantasy novels he keeps on the shelf. It flaps lopsidedly on the side where he's not wearing his prosthetic, because it's two a-fucking-m.

He notices Sam while taking the KD out of the microwave, and stands there in silence to stare at him in faint but not quite concerned bafflement for a good minute in the half dark, like he forgot something important.

"Sup," says Sam.

Bucky blinks. A tuft of dark hair pokes out of his hoodie, flattened downwards to point towards his nose.

"Worm paper," Bucky says, sounding like he hasn't slept in twelve years.

"Ah," says Sam.

Bucky nods, and disappears whence he came.

"Take the garbage out tomorrow!" Sam calls after him.

He's rewarded by a loud knocking noise from upstairs, as if those fuckers aren't already wake too, trying to tell them to be quiet.

2.

The third year sitting with her arms crossed in front of him looks as overtly suspicious as it is possible for one person to look. Her eyes, which are narrowed, keep pinging between the people in the room. Sam sighs. He hates wrangling undergrads, sometimes.

"Kate, put your notebook away, you're weirding her out."

Kate does, looking sheepish. She volunteered with them so she could learn more about trauma-informed organizing, and Sam's not sure if he's doing much of a good job teaching her anything, but Clint recommended her and even baby steps are good. Parker, who is their other undergraduate member, the only one of them who's a real live actual science student, is at the end of the table working on the graphics for Sam's upcoming presentation to the faculty board, which Sam is not dreading at all. It didn't help that when he told Sharon about it last week, she laughed in his face. Then again, Sharon is getting a business degree; Sam's not sure what he should've expected.

"My aunt passed," says the third year. "Student services fucked me over for a final because they didn't process my accommodation. I had to have pictures proving she'd died."

Bastards, thinks Sam.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Sam says. "We're here to help. When did she die?"

Her eyes narrow another four degrees. It would be kind of intimidating if she wasn't like, eighteen, with the worlds biggest bush of red hair and freckles literally up to her ears. She's trying to hide it all under a ratty hoodie but it's mostly unsuccessful.

"Look, kid," says Sam. "This is a safe space. I wanna help you, but you gotta help me out first, okay? Everything you say stays in this room."

Beside Sam, Kate nods enthusiastically.

"What about him?" asks the girl.

They all look over at the lanky figure sitting on the couch. Bucky is deeply embedded; he's almost horizontal and his legs are extended all the way to the table, which wouldn't be so bad only it puts the giant hole in the toe of one of his socks on display. The Social Work department's cat is sitting on his head. Sam thinks she's fully betrayed them for Geological Sciences at this point. Or whateverthefuck department Bucky's with -- none of them quite know. Bucky's wearing the same hoodie from the other night, which is still in hood-up mode. He's been staring so intently at his laptop without writing anything for the last ten minutes that Sam is impressed the poor electronic hasn't combusted.

"That's just his process," Sam says.

Bucky reaches a hand out and types one single letter. Then very slowly he reaches out again and deletes it.

"You said I'd get to talk to you alone," the girl grumbles.

"Is this the worm paper?" asks Kate tentatively, from Sam's other side.

Sam thinks of the many paragraphs of his thesis he's been neglecting. He rubs at the bridge of his nose and sighs.

3.

"No, you are absolutely not moving in with us next term," Sam says into his phone. He writes down another note for Chapter 1b, Theoretical Underpinnings and then writes himself a reminder to email Todd from the ombudsperson's office. And also that lady with the student mental health alliance. And -- fuck, Professor Bradley too, probably. Sam was supposed to answer that email like a week ago.

"Why the hell not?" says Sarah. "It's economical. It's close to campus. Undergrad dorms are disgusting, it's safe, Mr. Big Brother who was worried some chad white boy would get me last year, and I know for a fact y'all need a roommate."

Okay. So maybe Steve fucked off to finish his degree in Boston so he could be with his perfectly wonderful girlfriend, whom they all love, but that's not really the point and they still haven't found a third roommate who can. Like. Put up with them. Bucky glares at the empty room whenever he passes it. It's really not that dramatic. But also,

"And even with all of that, you ain't moving in here. There are -- principles."

"For the twelve hundredth time Sam, your sad roommate is not gonna secretly seduce me."

Sam wouldn't put money on that.

"You could definitely seduce him, though."

"Oh my God! Forreal, Sam --"

"We just got a lot going on!" His frustrated attempts at organizing the mental health policy council under the umbrella of the social work department, for example. Bucky's term paper on prehistoric worms.

"Is Bucky there?" Sarah demands.

"He's in the middle of something."

Bucky is talking at the voice to type software on his laptop in the next room and sounds like he is five minutes away from flinging said laptop out of the window. Still, Sam feels fondness in his chest; Bucky used to put towels under the door to stop the noise from travelling before. There's no embarrassment involved anymore. Not for disability accommodating paper writing practices or for playing Taylor Swift songs out loud on a fucking vintage record player, which was bequeathed to them by the great betrayer himself.

Steve left a really nice note with it and everything.

"Tell B to force feed you a granola bar," Sarah says. Then, "I could always get myself a sexy boyfriend and move in with him."

She hangs up to the sound of Sam spluttering loudly. To calm himself, he checks off talk to Sarah from his notes app to do list anyway, then sends Bucky a text.

We got any granola bars left?

The door to the second bedroom opens -- it sticks, because their building is old and decrepit -- and a box of granola bars is flung out with shockingly precise aim to land skidding on the kitchen table in front of Sam.

"Thanks, man!" Sam calls.

"FUCK!" Bucky yells at top volume, and slams the door shut again.

The phone rings a second time; Sam has to pick up, legally, because it's his mom. She wants to know if he talked to Sarah, and also how things are.

"You know how grad school is," Sam says. He opens a granola bar. It is extremely stale. "Yeah. Uh huh. No. Just my presentation next week. Well, we'll see if it'll actually make any difference ... No, mama, I have not been forgetting to shower. Whatever Sarah tells you, don't listen to her. I'm a grown assed man, okay?"

4.

Sam sits in the industrial flickering lights of the MHPC's reserved library room and lets a modicum of peace soak in while the undergrads chatter.

"Well, at least the board presentation went well. It was like, fruitful discussion, right?"

"It was pretty badass. I liked the bit where Sam lost his shit and yelled at the dean."

"He didn't yell at the dean ..."

"You know you guys are still holding hands, right? It's been like, an hour."

Sam doesn't respond right away, because he's trying to figure out why the hell the sentence in front of him doesn't read like a sentence.

"They're exchanging long protein strands," says Parker. "Like in the Simpsons."

"No one watches Simpsons anymore," says Kate's girlfriend, who seems to be eating a pack of lunchables with a pocket knife.

"Well --"

"I'm holding his elbow," Bucky mumbles, which might be the longest string of words he's spoken for two weeks. He's swapped his hoodie out for a clean one, at least.

"Emotional support," Sam agrees, still with his eyes narrowed at the screen. They are actually holding hands, but semantics become irrelevant after the month they've had. "Man, what the fuck is this supposed to say?"

"You're the editor," says Bucky.

"You're the writer! It's due in two minutes!"

"It's about the genealogy," Bucky says, levelling his free, prosthetic hand in front of him for emphasis.

"Of the worm?" Parker asks, in a whisper.

"Just let me submit the fucking paper, Sam!"

"No! This is degree defining!"

"Says the guy who's neglected his thesis for three weeks -- gimme the laptop --"

"No -- ow!"

"I don't think I ever wanna do grad school," Kate says solemnly, to the room at large, while somehow, despite the tangled heap they make on the couch, Sam and Bucky are still holding elbows. But then, who else would they hold elbows with, in such a moment?

Sam gently raises this topic with the next struggling undergrad who comes to them for accommodation help; in many ways, that's really all you need to make it through college.

[lietpolski]

i'd love to hear more about your yugotalia ocs, especially the ones you haven't talked about before! ps: i looove your characterisations of serbia and slovenia, i haven't seen anyone in the fandom capture our ✨Vibe ✨ so well :) sending love from slovenia!!

aaaa first of all thank you soso much!!! it makes me so happy to see someone from slovenia liking how i portray him!! :DD he's my favourite

and i super agree with u on serbia!!! i think he can be grumpy but even then he's the kinda guy to joke about it :,) i see him more as the opposite, struggling to be serious or genuine with his thoughts & emotions!! we have p much the same view of serbs here in greece, the loud & fun little brothers up north and all that, so i wanted to give him that sort of feel :)

i should add that!! ok so i came up with serbia, slovenia & montenegro before having seen any yugotalia content (which is wild because serbia + slovenia are quite similar to the popular fanon!!) but the rest i made after becoming more familiar with yugotalia, so my other ocs are mostly revised versions of those!! a few thoughts on the lot of them:

macedonia - i see her as a sweet person who's also a bit stubborn and clumsy. like, a plain sort of girl (in a good, cozy way if that makes sense!) who likes to just chill in nature! i also see her as the sort of mediator, "can't we all just get along?" pacifist type. she'd rather bake bread for church or go on a walk by the lake than sit there and argue (a rare trait among the rest of these guys haha) she's closest to serbia and has a kinda complicated relationship with bulgaria who i see as a brother to her (in the weird hetalia way which doesn't really reflect healthy human family dynamics)

croatia - a new fave of mine, although i find him THE hardest to portray :,) i think the heavy austrohungarian influence for the grand majority of his life is so interesting!! it might have made him a biiiit... not stuck-up, in the way slovenia can seem at first, but if he doesn't know you well he might default to being polite and impersonal. but once he's comfortable with you i think he's a really fun guy! sporty, loves swimming and good food, he's hard-working but not serious! i think his relationship with slovenia would be really interesting too, because there have been a lot of recent arguments between the two, but slovenians online always seem to call croatians their best friends. he's a bit hard to get close to unless you've known him for a long time too

bosnia & herzegovina - to be honest i still don't know what to do with bosnia :,) not even sure if i think of them as having two representatives for each half (third?) haha, i think it's a cool idea but tbh i don't know as much about bosnia! i think them being the one dude in the balkans who doesn't think sadık is that bad, actually, is fun! and i think of them as a bit less outgoing than serbia & croatia but other than that i just default to the yugotalia versions for now! although for some reason smth about bosnia is giving woman swag to me i could see them as a girl

kosovo - not too many hcs here that arent obvious, but i think it's fun if kosovo is physically the same age as irl kosovo, so 15. does it make sense with the hetalia canon.... no. is it fun to have this irritable balkan teen boy character? yes and i love him :)

thanks for letting me ramble for so long, my hair is almost done bleaching by now :ρ

[fandomsaligninstories]

Year One: Day Three

Chapter List WC: 1,811

3rd September, 1991, Late Afternoon

"You have got to be kidding me!" Violet grumbled to her friends Hannah and Aimee. 

They were entering their second to last class of the day, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Violet had been excited for it, having started her readings for the upcoming lesson during her free period that morning, but the second she stepped into the room and saw students in the familiar green-and-silver colours, she wanted to ditch. D.A.D.A would make the third class they shared together, including History of Magic and Astronomy.

"It'll be fine," Hannah tried to reassure, "We'll just avoid them, right? Can't cause trouble if they don't exist to us."

"Right!" Aimee agreed, pulling Violet by her arm to the only empty desk in the middle of the room. They pointedly ignored the white-blonde boy a few tables away, who was staring at Violet. He'd been doing that ever since she'd apologised. In the Great Hall, in passing in hallways, anytime they pass each other, he'll be staring at her.

It was uncomfortable at first, because she wasn't sure if it meant he was going to try something to hurt her, or if he was just that awkward. Having spoken to some of the older Hogwarts students, Violet had learned that the Malfoy's weren't the type of people you treat kindly. You stay away from them, and if you interact, you keep your mouth shut. So, Violet decided, Draco must not be used to being treated kindly, which meant she would need to be nothing but nice to him in any future interactions. 

D.A.D.A was taught by Professor Quirrell. The position had been cursed, according to a fourth-year Ravenclaw, so every year there was a new D.A.D.A professor. The curse caused the professor to either die or leave at the end of each year, which made it hard for Dumbledore to keep the position filled. 

As expected, the first lesson was just an introductory one, and started in on their first topic: werewolves. Though Herbology would remain her favourite subject, D.A.D.A would definitely be a close second. 

Most of the other students had already left by the time Violet and her two friends packed away their belongings. As expected, Draco and his friends were standing at the door, harassing the kids leaving. Unexpectedly, however, when he looked up and saw Violet coming towards him, he tilted his head down slightly and let the girls leave unscathed. 

On the way to dinner, she couldn't help but wonder what that was about. Evidently, her friends felt the same way.

"What did you do to him?" Hannah asked, glancing behind them towards the boys. 

Violet shrugged, "Nothing! I just apologised. Weird, right?" 

"Very odd." Aimee agreed, "Maybe you're just the first person to ever show him kindness. I hear his family is awful. Full of You-Know-Whos most loyal subjects."

There was that name again, You-Know-Who. The man who had tried to kill baby Harry, and had killed his parents. After her first night at Hogwarts, Violet got tired of hearing people talk about Harry and not understanding what the big deal was, so she asked. And she'd gotten the full, terrible story. She finally understood why they called him "The Boy Who Lived", and how he got the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

"Scary, that lot. Malfoy is bound to follow in their footsteps. There's rumours, you know. That he's back..." Hannah whispered conspiratorially.

Aimee huffed at her friend, "Don't start with that again! He's dead. People are just saying that to scare you."

"Well, it's working!" Hannah urged. Violet nodded. In her little bit of free time over the past few days, she'd done plenty of reading on the Wizarding War. What it was, why it happened, and how many people died. It was awful, and she pitied the students she'd met that had lost family members in the war. She couldn't imagine ever being able to survive such a thing. 

By the time dinner was finished, Violet was exhausted again. A nightly occurrence, she noticed, with all of her lessons and coursework she'd been given in just those first days. But she had one more class to attend, Charms with the Ravenclaws. Not the most riveting subject, but not as dreadful as History of Magic. 

As she was entering the classroom, she noticed a boy a ways down the hallway waving. She paused a moment, looking around her to see if he was waving at someone else, but no one else was paying attention. When she looked back at him, he was moving towards her. She realised it was the second-year that had stopped her from attacking Draco the other day, Eddie something-or-other.

"Hi, Violet!" He smiled, leaning on his shoulder against the wall, "Alright? How's Hogwarts treating you?"

She smiled back, "Hi Eddie. Yeah, alright. Been busy, but it's been exciting! This is a whole new world for me, you know." 

"Ah, muggle born, were you? My father's a muggle, but my mother's a witch, so I knew what to expect. I couldn't imagine coming into this without any clue what to expect!" He laughed warmly, his eyes focused only on her. 

"Yeah, it's been something." She turned as the bell started to chime, alerting her to the start of class, "I've gotta go, see you later!" She waved as she rushed into the room, finding the empty seat beside Aimee. 

━━━━━━⊱༻ ༺⊰━━━━━━

By Friday evening, Violet was ready to drop. The most frustrating thing about the entire school, aside from the sheer size of it, was that her schedule wasn't consistent. Every day was different, with different classes at different times. The only thing that kept her relatively sane was that it would always remain the same week to week, and that she had her friends with her. She'd be carrying around a copy of her timetable for at least a few weeks before she would be able to memorise it.

Luckily she had three free periods on Fridays, with her last class ending by 4pm, leaving her with plenty of time to get started on the piles of homework she'd already been given. 

She arrived to dinner late, having been caught up in the potions paper she was working on. Most students had already finished the meal and left for the evening, turning in to work on their own homework or hang out with friends. She was disappointed to see none of her friends remained, the tables clear except for a few students at each. 

Most of the plates and platters had already been cleared away by whatever magic the house-elves used. She made a mental note to look into that later, she was rather curious how the food knew where to appear. Actually, she decided, she'd ask Hermione. That girl seemed to know everything. 

She was picking at her meal when a shadow moved to loom over her. She turned her head slightly to see who it was. She nearly choked on the food she was chewing.

"M- Malfoy?" She coughed, clearing her throat with some water, "What do you want?"

"Why'd you do it?" He asked roughly.

She turned to face him fully, looking at him confused, "Do what?"

"Apologise!" He hissed, eyes darting around the room before repeating, "Why'd you do it?"

"It was the right thing to do?" She hadn't meant for it to sound like a question, but she was thoroughly confused. This wasn't the boy so many people had warned her about; he was being strangely open and vulnerable. She continued, "It's not right to hurt other people just because you're hurting. I was hurting, because you hurt my friend, but I shouldn't have retaliated. It wasn't right. You might be a prat, Draco, but you deserve some human decency." 

His eyes widened before he scowled at her, "Well, don't do it again. Just stay away from me, freak!"

He rushed off before she could form a reply. 'You came to me,' she wanted to shout. Instead she silently turned and finished her dinner, dragging herself back to her dorm for the night. 

It was nearing 8pm when she entered the common room, but being as there weren't any classes the next day, many students were hanging out. 

She dropped down onto a couch beside Cedric, who was listening to Tamsin tell a dramatic story about a previous quidditch game the Hufflepuffs had competed in. Anthony and Cedric were shaking their heads at her obviously overdramatized story, but Aimee, Hannah, Caroline, and Susan were all listening attentively. 

"Hey," Cedric whispered, looking at Violet with concern, "You okay?"

"Yeah, just had a run in with Malfoy." She whispered back, rushing on at his even more concerned expression, "Oh no, it wasn't anything bad, he was just being a drama queen." 

"Okay. Let me know if he gives you any more trouble, I'll have a talk with him." He nudged her with his elbow, smirking. She held back her laughter, knowing full well there wasn't a single thing Cedric could say to stop Draco. 

"Thanks." She curled up on the couch, turning her attention back to Tamsin, who was still going on about quidditch. Violet didn't understand the love of the game, in fact she found it a bit boring. She soon started to doze off, so she bid her friends a good night before heading to bed. 

Despite her exhaustion, she found herself unable to sleep, tossing and turning under the covers for what felt like hours, but was only a matter of minutes. Finally she sat up and pulled her knees to her chest, looking down at the purple quilt spread out on the bed. She blinked back the sudden rush of tears, the homesickness she'd been feeling the last few days overwhelming. 

She missed her parents. She missed her room, with its lilac purple walls and pink rugs. She missed her friends from down the street, her teachers at school. She even missed the neighbours dogs that she'd often go over and play with. 

She knew she would miss them when she left, but she had expected to be able to talk to them whenever she felt like it. So call her mother when she was sad, or to tell her father a funny story that had happened that day. But, as she had learned, there was no electricity or technology at Hogwarts. Someone had tried to explain it to her when she asked where a telephone was, but the only thing she got out of it was that the magic surrounding Hogwarts was so great that any technology went haywire if it got too close. She'd been told she could write letters home, but she had yet to find the owlery to send one. 

Tomorrow, she told herself, reaching out for that small teddy and clutching it to her chest, crawling back under the covers. Tomorrow she'd write her parents a letter, and she'd find the owlery to send it.