#this is not…… remarkable news to anyone who knows what a cartoon is

[rachelzeglertruther]

Why You're Wrong About Rachel Zegler

This is a long post, but there's a lot of context missing from the Rachel Zegler "discourse" that I thought I could add with my history of watching this unfold from the beginning.

The Snow White Thing

You probably know this part. There's a curated video of Rachel going viral, framed to make her seem like she's never seen Snow White, she hates the story, she hates the character, she's ungrateful, and single-handedly ruined Disney's brand. The clips from these videos are not new— they were released nearly a year ago in September 2022 and nobody cared about them at the time. Why? Because all the full interviews she did that day at the Disney Exo in 2022 showed a young, charming woman who was excited and proud to be cast in an iconic role. The interviews were very well received and it was a non story. Now that it's been edited down and cut together in a malicious way, and the people sharing them are purposefully misquoting her, they've twisted the context. Normally, this would be a non controversy. Even if that video wasn't taken out of context and spliced together to make her seem like she hates the film, most people wouldn't care. The issue is the response to the video.

Let's get this out of the way: Rachel Zegler doesn't hate Snow White. She relayed that she was afraid of the forest scene as a child and didn't revisit it again until after she was cast in the role. She has since then watched it several times and has expressed for YEARS before that interview came out that she was incredibly honored and grateful to be playing such an iconic Disney princess. If you watch the full videos that those clips came from, this comes across immediately to anyone with their own mind. If you hate someone for being scared of something as a child, I don't know what to tell you. If the role was being given to the biggest Snow White fan, you would be correct that she doesn't deserve it. Unfortunately for you, this role requires talent and Rachel has the Golden Globe and critical acclaim from people who matter within the industry (her peers and critics).

You know who does hate their beloved characters in beloved franchises but the general public still applauds them? Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Daniel Craig, and Robert Pattinson. They've all expressed outright contempt for the roles and the films they were part of, but nobody cared. People had fun with their quotes but they still respected them. Rachel said nothing even closely resembling their remarks, but she's being torn to shreds. Are we seeing a pattern here?

Rachel never said a single bad thing about the character or the animated film— she said that it was outdated and that set people over the edge, foaming at the mouth to have her burned at the stake. If you think it would be perfectly fine to have a movie about an abused 14 year old girl run away to play housemaid for a bunch of men, get kissed in her sleep/death by an adult man, and then wake up to fall into his arms in 2024, that's certainly a hot take. If you're against remakes, direct your ire at Disney. But if you truly think that plot would work with young girls today, you're the one who's out of touch. It would do far more harm than good to portray a young woman in that light.

She also never said that there was anything wrong with romance or love. She said that the new Snow White wasn't only dreaming of that. I can't stress enough that this wasn't her decision… she was describing the plot of the new film that was written by Greta Gerwig and approved by Disney. There's a prince in the film and he will also have a more developed personality and storyline. If you have a problem with the writing, wait until it comes out so you can write your strongly worded letter to Greta. If you have a problem with the concept in general, take it up with Disney. There's no need for you to be defensive over hurting the legacy of a multi-billion dollar company or a 87 year old cartoon written by a proud racist antisemite. This is the most confusing part of the hate campaign to me because it wasn't even her opinion— she was literally describing the plot of the film she had nothing to do with. It also isn't a new thing. Disney actors have been promoting their newer films this way for years.

It's perfectly okay to like things that are problematic. It's becoming an issue that we refuse to acknowledge that maybe some things we love are harmful. What we can't do is justify why it's not problematic, and in fact everyone who calls it out is the problem and NOT their precious cartoon. The 1937 Snow White was an amazing feat of animation. It's a classic for a reason. But it was also Hitler's favorite film and was directed by a white supremacist (the one who is "rolling in his grave" due to Rachel's existence, according to his son). Things don't exist in a vacuum and we can't ignore the bad parts.

How We Got Here:

The thing that everyone is missing is the source of this campaign. This started in September of 2020 when transphobic actor Gina Carano made fun of trans people by changing her pronouns to beep/bop.boop. Rachel indirectly called her out by coming to the defense of the trans community.

She never called out Gina by name (though she rightfully could have). Mind you, Rachel's first film hadn't come out yet. Nobody knew who she was outside of those of us who were anticipating West Side Story and were fans of her covers on YouTube. She was a "nobody" in the industry. Take this part with a grain of salt because I can't confirm it, but Gina and her fans directly blame Rachel for her being banned from Twitter. Again, I really don't think that matters as she's harmful to the trans community and shouldn't have a platform. What does matter is that fans of Gina (which, let's be real, are just fans of transphobia) have been stalking Rachel's every move since then. Unfortunately for them, there wasn't much they could use against her other than to call her woke and #snowbrown when she was cast a year later as the Disney princess. The noise has always been there, but unless you were a fan of hers, you probably didn't hear about it. It wasn't until two years after this that they had something else against her.

If you've recently seen a video of Rachel crying circulating that claims to be her reaction to the recent Snow White backlash, it's an old video. It's from a vlog from her youtube channel posted in June 2022. It was in response to these exact same transphobic anti-woke conservatives who thought that they had something when she did an interview on the red carpet of the Shazam premiere. When asked why she joined the DC universe, she responded "I needed a job." It was generally well received by most people who thought it was cute and funny, but those who were waiting in the shadows latched onto it as an excuse to send her death threats.

The video was also about a month after she was invited to present at the 2022 Oscars and was made to seem like she bullied the Academy (as a no name newcomer, mind you) into letting her attend. In reality, a fan left a comment on her Instagram asking what she was wearing to the event. She responded that she wasn't invited but would be rooting for everyone from her couch in her boyfriend's pajamas. It was the public who demanded she get an invite and the Oscar's must have agreed that it was very odd that the lead actress of a film that was nominated for Best Film wouldn't get an invite. Whether it was an oversight on their part or a scheduling issue with Rachel's filming, I truly think there was no malicious intent from either party. Keep in mind, she used to be very active with her fans (she's a huge fangirl of things herself and has always had a strong relationship with her fans) and she wasn't used to her comments becoming articles and national tv segments. This was the first time it happened to her. It appears she learned that she's not just a girl who posts on YouTube anymore and she's going to be put under a microscope for every move she makes. She has since shut down her Instagram comments and rarely interacts with fans outside of liking comments these days because of this.

I know this is long, but I need people to understand where this is all coming from. It didn't just happen out of nowhere. It's an orchestrated campaign built by violent conservatives, and thousands of women who saw Barbie this summer are hopping on the bandwagon to beat another woman into submission because they have a lot of internalized misogyny to deal with. She's not smug, you just hate women. It's okay to find people annoying, but it's valuable to look into why you think that. If you see a confident young woman expressing views that don't actually harm anyone and you think she needs to be "humbled" and "put in her place" by the entire internet dogpiling her, you've lost your mind. Using "body language experts" (fake job) to diagnose her as a psychopath is so vile. Everytime someone mentions her name online, the comments beneath it are full of the most violent, misogynistic, racist things I've ever seen. If you're contributing to that, you've chosen your side. Reevaluate or seek help.

I'm tired of seeing this happen to young women. We let this happen to Jennifer Lawrence, Brie Larson, Millie Bobby Brown, Halle Bailey, and Jenna Ortega. It's one thing to call out celebrities and hold them accountable when they're doing something actively harmful, but that's not what this is about. That's never been what this is about. We pick these girls to pieces and examine them and pull them apart to justify our hatred of young women who rise to success too quickly for our liking. We dogpile and try to stamp out the flame before they burn too bright. Barbie is still in theaters and you all loved it, yet you're demanding that a bright girl with a big future be small and submissive and humbled because you have issues. That's not feminism. You're just the girls who would have bullied Weird Barbie for using her hands too much when she talks.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

A Rift Forms

In this world, nanites exist inside every living thing, and can activate without warning, turning ordinary people into mutants and monsters. Danny is separated from his family during the chaos of the initial Nanite Event, after his sister is mutated. Before he can reunite with his family, Danny himself mutates as well, and the emergence of strange new powers transports him to a mysterious island.

This fic was written for Crossover Danuary Week 2024, Day 2: General Cartoons Generator Rex | Voyage Thanks @crossoverdanuary for running this event, and thanks @nefres for beta reading this for me 🧡

You can also read this fic on AO3, as well as Let Sleeping Dogs Rise, which this fic is a prequel to.

[Warnings for graphic body horror, violence, and manipulation]

The time immediately following the Nanite Event was pure chaos. It was days before anyone knew what happened, and all the while the nanites were spreading throughout the world, infecting everything—from plants and animals, to humans, to the very ground they walked on.

It was the most significant catastrophe in human history.

The Fenton family was on vacation.

Ten-year-old Danny, his twelve-year-old sister Jazz, and his mom and dad, who were both scientists, were all in Bulgaria for a big science symposium. They'd traveled all the way from the United States that summer for the event. 

Though only his parents would be attending the symposium, the whole family was brimming with excitement. It was Danny and his sister's first time out of the US. And while their parents were at the symposium, they got to explore the city, as long as they stayed together. 

Balchik was beautiful, if a bit crowded this time of year, and there was so much to see and do. Even if most of it involved frantically flipping through an English to Bulgarian phrasebook.

It was such a shame. Their timing couldn't have been worse.

It was a few days into their trip, and the family had just met up for a late lunch at a seaside restaurant when it happened.

A massive explosion, audible for miles.

No one knew what happened at first. But within the first hour, the changes began. In every country on the Black Sea, a mysterious dark cloud swept through in an ominous wave. It eclipsed the sun, and turned the sky a terrible red.

Then the monsters appeared.

What once had been a rat, a flower bush, a child—became something entirely else. Their bodies twisted, engorged, constricted, features vanishing, or multiplying. Their forms warped and mutated until they became unrecognizable as anything but abominations.

And these were not peaceful monsters.

They raged and rampaged. Attacked indiscriminately, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. They did not respond to pleas or screams of terror. And it didn't seem as though it was going to wear off any time soon.

Some people tried to fight back. Most recognized the hopelessness of such attempts, and chose to run instead. The Fentons were the latter. They slipped down side-streets where they were less likely to be seen and targeted by the monsters and kept moving.

"Stay calm, kids," Mom said. "We just have to stick together. Remember those camping trips we used to do for survival training. Everything will be alright."

Danny nodded and followed closely. The last thing he wanted was to be separated from them during a crisis of this magnitude.

"What's happening?!" Jazz shrieked over the sound of a building collapsing. 

"I don't know. But that sounded close," Dad observed, his huge shoulders tensing.

"We need to get out of the city," Mom said.

Even though the rest of them were barely holding it together, she was staying remarkably calm. It was like the air around her had changed. Her expression was severe, her shoulders squared, her gait confident. 

Danny didn't think his mother had ever experienced something like this before—heck, he didn't think anyone had ever experienced something like this before—but she suddenly carried herself like the knew exactly what she was doing.

His mom was always good in an emergency, but this was incredible, even for her.

"We have to see if this is happening other places, or just here," she continued. "Even if it's not just in the city, we'll be safer someplace there are fewer people. The last thing we need right now is to get caught in a huge crowd."

"The rental car is still parked near our hotel," Dad remembered. His voice was steady, but Danny could see his hands trembling, and knew he was just trying to stay strong for the rest of them. "If it hasn't been crushed, I mean." 

They'd already seen quite a few cars get crushed, so that was hardly a guarantee.

"That's a start," mom said. "It'll get us out of town, but it's low on gas right now, and I hardly think now's the time to stop and fill the tank."

"As long as it gets us out of town, we can wing it afterwards, right?" Danny said. "I just don't want to spend any more time around here if we can help it."

"Good enough for me!" Jazz agreed.

With that decided, they adjusted course toward their hotel, with their mother leading the way and father bringing up the rear. Mom held up a hand to stop them, looking around to ensure their surroundings were clear before they crossed through an open area.

When she was sure it was safe, she started moving again, and they cautiously started through square. There were still a few people running, trying to get to safety, but this area had been among the first to clear out, most people opting to hide in their homes or back-alleys. 

After seeing so much destruction already, though, Danny didn't think it was wise to entrust their safety to the structural integrity of these buildings. 

They were about halfway across the square.

It seemed like they were going to make it across safely.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Jazz stopped walking. She grunted and doubled over.

"Jazz?" Danny asked, stopping as well.

"Hold on!" Dad called forward to halt their progress so she wouldn't be left behind. "Jazz! Jazzy! What's wrong?"

Before their very eyes, she started to change. Her skin turned to gray, her hair dark blue, her eyes a glowing red. Sharp mandibles sprouted from her jaw, and hideous bulbous growths from her back, tearing her clothes. Her arms and legs grew longer, and spindly, fingers twisting together, joints inverting.

And all the while, she screamed. She screamed and screamed, the sound becoming steadily less human, until finally—agony gave way to rage.

"Jazz, no!" Danny shouted as the thing that had once been his sister attacked. "Stop, please!"

He dove out of the way of a spray of black acid that sizzled and ate a crater into the ground where he'd been standing an instant before. He shouldn't have looked back. Horror gripped him so he couldn't even move.

His parents rushed to his defense, but Jazz was strong, and wild, and they couldn't hold her down. She roared and screeched, and spat acid and spun webs. She moved at incredible speeds, and it was only thanks to his parents' strength and skill that Danny managed not to be killed in an instant.

"Danny, run!" his mother screamed. "Go north! Get as far away from here as possible! We'll find you!"

Danny hesitated. This didn't feel right. Rule number one was stick together. If they got separated they were done for. But... he couldn't fight this. He wasn't strong like his father, and he wasn't a karate master like his mom. He was good for a kid, but he was still just a kid. He was only ten, and he couldn't fight monsters.

"You heard your mother!" his dad yelled, keeping Jazz's attention firmly off of Danny. "Run!"

And so Danny did something he would always regret.

He ran.

He ran as fast and as far as his legs would carry him. And when his muscles burned and ached and he felt like he couldn't take another step, he kept running. 

He ran north, just like his mother had told him to, and didn't stop until his body collapsed from exhaustion. Then he dragged himself to the nearest shelter, an abandoned book shop with a shattered glass door, and tried to catch his breath. He'd run for miles by now, and had to be near the edge of town by now. The sun was still out, but steadily sinking in the west.

He was sheltered for now, but he wasn't safe just yet. There were still monsters around. As soon as he recovered, he had to find food and water, and then keep going. His parents would look for him outside of the city limits, since that's where they'd been planning to go.

Danny forced himself to take slow, deep breaths, even as his lungs screamed against them, and tried to come up with a plan. The electricity was still on, except in parts of the city where some creature had downed power lines, so it stood to reason that there would still be running water. 

Looking around, it seemed the book shop also sold things like book-bags and water-bottles. A backpack would be better, but a book bag would do. He knew stealing was wrong, but given the circumstances, he didn't think anyone would blame him. There wasn't any food here, but it was a bookstore, so maybe there would be a book about edible plants in this region.

It was twilight by the time Danny was back on his feet, bag packed. He'd picked out a dark green bag with black letters claiming Обичам да чета!, which, according to Danny's pocket phrasebook, meant 'I love to read!'. He'd found a book on regional plants, too, but it was also in Bulgarian. Luckily, he'd also found a Bulgarian to English dictionary, and had already memorized the words храна: 'food', and ядивен: 'edible'.

He'd been able to fill up two water bottles in the employee restroom, and had already drunk plenty enough to stay hydrated for a while, so he could preserve them. He'd also found some promotional matchbooks with the name of the bookstore on them, and stuffed a whole bunch in his bag. He knew how to start a fire without them, of course, but they still made things easier. He didn't know why a bookstore, of all places, would advertise with matches, but he wasn't complaining.

Since it was starting to get dark, Danny thought about hunkering down in the bookstore overnight, but changed his mind when all those building collapses he'd seen that day flashed through his mind. He had to stay alive until his parents found him again, and he couldn't do that if he was crushed under rubble while he slept. He had to get out of the city limits as soon as possible.

He couldn't run anymore, but he kept moving forward. His legs felt like jelly, and with each step, he worried they might give out on him, but he pressed onward. His stomach groaned, but he grit his teeth and ignored it. There was little chance of him being able to find something to eat before it was fully dark, and even less chance afterwards. He resolved himself to go to sleep hungry tonight.

It was well after sundown when he finally reached the city limits. Once he crossed an empty highway, he entered a forest. The stars were completely blotted out, and the light of the red-stained moon was not enough to build a proper shelter by. 

Searching mostly by feel, Danny found a nest of fallen trees that had naturally formed something like a lean-to. The boy was just small enough to crawl under it and be protected from predators and the elements. He wrapped his arms around himself and thanked whoever or whatever might be listening for the warm summer weather. Then he fell into a fitful sleep.

Over the next few days, Danny shifted into survival mode. He studied his book of plants religiously, and foraged like his life depended on it—because it did. Survival mode was exhausting. When his life hung in the balance, a day felt like a week, and when he slept, he had to sleep lightly.

There were still monsters in the forest. But the ones that had once been plants were easy to avoid because they stayed rooted in the soil, and couldn't reach him if he ran away. And the ones that had once been animals were easy to avoid because they weren't very smart, and couldn't usually find him if he hid. Some of them could find him by scent, but so far, none of them could climb trees, so he'd found a way to avoid them as well.

He'd never been more grateful in his life for all those survival training camping trips his parents have made him and his sister do. Without them, he knew he would have been dead already.

Each day he watched and waited for his family to come and find him. He listened for his parents' voices calling his name. For his sister's voice, too. Although he hadn't yet seen any of the monsters return to their original form, a small part of him hoped that Jazz would be the exception. As annoying as his older sister was, he still wanted her back.

It was on the third day that the infection came for him as well. One moment, he was flipping through his guidebook to figure out whether a certain type of mushroom was edible or not; the next, all his muscles seized up. 

He howled in agony as he felt his hand and arms warp, bones stretching, muscles engorging, skin bulging. A splitting pain ripped through his sides and he screeched. Behind his eyes, he felt a horrible pressure and his vision blurred and refocused over and over again in rapid succession. He didn't know or want to know what was happening there.

Desperately, grunting and panting, he stumbled to the nearby creek, finding it mostly by sound, hoping to find relief in the cool waters. 

Something was seriously wrong. 

No.

Everything was seriously wrong.

He tried to reach up to push a branch out of the way, but his arm was so heavy. His vision cleared up again just long enough for him to see something swollen and flesh-colored where his forearm had once been, but it hardly looked like a forearm. He felt like a gorilla, pushing himself along with both his hands and feet, just trying to move. The angle was wrong. Was he standing? Were his arms always this long?

He never made it to the creek.

His shouts had attracted a group of hungry monsters that probably used to be wolves. He could see them clearly now, but he almost wished he couldn't. He scrambled back, despite his body screaming at him to stop moving! It hurts, god, it hurts so much! 

The once-wolves surrounded him, were practically on top of him. 

One of them leaped.

Unthinkingly, he swiped at it with an absolutely massive hand, the force of the motion dragging him off balance so he fully collapsed onto the mossy ground. He didn't know what his goal was, to let it gnaw on his fingers, or bat it to the ground. 

What actually happened was a rip in space appearing between him and the once-wolf, bright green and pulsing with energy. When the creature ran into it, it fell right through and disappeared. Then the rip closed.

The rest of the once-wolves snarled, snapping at him with two sets of teeth in their wide maws, their eyes glowing red and fixed right on him. But they didn't seem too eager to get close.

They were afraid.

Danny was afraid too.

Now that he could see again he glanced down and saw that the pain in his sides was caused by two bony protrusions that had ripped right through the sides of his shirt, small now, but slowly growing. He tore his eyes away, first looking up into the dark branches above and taking a sharp breath in, then looking back at the creatures.

He just wanted to go home. He wanted to be with his family again. Really, he would take being anywhere but here, as long as he wasn't alone. He forced himself not to squeeze his eyes closed and wish everything away. Not now, not when he was surrounded and in pain. There was a more immediate problem to deal with.

Another once-wolf decided to take the leap, and Danny swiped a hand again, and again, a glowing green rip opened up. But this time, the creature dodged it. At a loss for anything else to do, and without enough time to think of a proper plan, Danny summoned all the strength he had left and jumped through it himself. Then it closed behind him. 

He had no idea where he would end up, or if he'd even survive, but he hadn't really been thinking. He'd just acted.

He landed prone on dark, damp soil and rolled onto his back with a groan. He could hear the sound of waves nearby, but he didn't have the energy to lift his head. The sky above him was red. The land around him was barren.

Either he hadn't gone very far, or the whole world was like this.

He didn't know how long he laid there, taking slow, deep breaths, and willing the pain to fade. He was pretty sure his transformation was over. His arms were almost as long as his body now, and grew inhumanly larger below the elbows. His forearms and hands had engorged to a terrible size. The things protruding from either side of his torso had grown into a fully formed and functional second set of arms—otherwise ordinary, save for the placement. 

His legs seemed to be the same as before. His head was still screwed on straight. Whatever had happened to his eyes, he still didn't know, but thankfully it was over now, and he could see clearly again.

His body had changed, but his mind was the same. Was it the same way for Jazz? Had she just been freaking out about being turned into a monster? Would she be the same annoying sister he'd always known once she calmed down again?

No... probably not.

Danny had seen a lot of those monsters in the last three days. 

Some of them had clearly been human before. And they clearly weren't anymore. None of them were calm or reasonable. They were animalistic, their actions primal, and instinctual. Now he'd been transformed just like they had, with no signs of being able to turn back. But somehow he wasn't like the rest of them.

Danny had spent enough time around his scientist parents to know what an outlier was, and in this instance, he was one.

His parents.... 

How would they ever find him now? Even he had no idea where he was anymore, so how could they know? He was pretty sure he wasn't in the woods north of Balchik anymore. Not even close.

How was he going to get back to them?

He didn't know.

Finally, when the pain had eased to a dull enough ache that he could ignore it, Danny got to his feet—wobbling from the unexpected weight of his arms before he found his balance—and properly examined his surroundings. 

In one direction was a beach. Dark sand and dark water reflecting the red light of the sun. In the other direction was a forest, though all the trees looked dead, charred and blackened with ash, their branches bare. Not like the woods he'd just come from, which were still green and full of life. 

It seemed like something very bad had happened in this place. 

Danny didn't really want to find out what.

He'd dropped his book bag at some point, in his panic. Losing the books wasn't so bad. He had no idea if he was even in Bulgaria anymore, and if he wasn't, those books wouldn't do him much good. Losing his water bottles and his matchbooks, on the other hand, made things difficult. Luckily, he still had his knife in the pocket of his jeans, and one matchbook with three matches left.

"I guess I might as well test the water," he said to himself. 

If it was freshwater, he might be okay. He didn't have anything to boil it in, but he could risk it in an emergency. If it was salty, then he'd have to head into the woods and look for another water source. 

He reached one massive hand into the water and tried to bring it to his nose to smell. The size of his hand made him cringe, and using it was awkward. Instead of gently holding it near his nose, he overshot and smacked himself in the face, splashing himself with the water and knocking him onto his butt.

"Eugh!" he yelped, in a mixture of shock and disgust. 

Now that it was all over his face, he knew right away that it was salt water. He tried to wipe away the water with the back of his forearm, but he wasn't adjusted to the size and nearly smothered himself. Bruised and damp, he realized that he was going to have to get used to this. It wasn't going away, so he would have to learn to live with it, one way or another.

Danny took another deep breath, his chest shaking, his hands trembling—all four of them. His eyes watered and he blinked back tears. He had enough salt water on his face between the seawater and the sweat, and crying wouldn't help him, it would just make him even more vulnerable to attack from predators.

Thinking that didn't really help either though. He was just a kid, and he was lost, afraid, alone, separated from his family, and as if that wasn't bad enough, now he was a monster.

"Why is this happening?" he asked himself, his voice small and broken.

He'd never been so stressed in his entire life, and it was hard to push that down to focus on staying alive like his parents had always taught him to. Everything was hard. He just wanted to bury himself in the sand and cry until he was too dehydrated to think.

But now was not the time to succumb to his childish urge to cry. Now was not the time to curl up in a ball and give in to his fear and loneliness. Now was not the time to give up. If he gave up, he might as well be dead already. He had to survive. He had to, or abandon all hope of seeing his family again.

"First, find a source of fresh water," Danny recited with a wavering, choked up voice, reminding himself of his wilderness survival training. "Then build a shelter nearby. Then search for familiar-looking plants to forage, and small animals to hunt only if you have the means to safely prepare them."

Each footstep felt monumental as he started into the woods. Each step was harder than the last. He clenched his fists, too many of them, sending weird signals that his brain didn't quite know how to translate, and he gritted his teeth, and he pressed onward, struggling to stay on his feet. 

He kept going, deeper and deeper into the woods. Watching and listening for any signs of a river, or creek. All he heard was the wind through the dead trees, and all he saw was dust and ash.

As time passed, he began to notice a new problem.

Green crept into the edges of his vision. Not a dark green like the leaves of trees—certainly not in these woods. No, it was a bright green, toxic-looking, the same color as those rips he had created before. When he looked down, he noticed that green pulsing under his skin, in his veins, glowing in the dim light of the forest.

It didn't hurt—not yet, at least—but it felt like pressure was building up inside him. 

Then those green openings started to appear again. Small tears at first, like the ones he'd opened before, except he wasn't opening them on purpose anymore. He waved a gigantic hand at one, hoping to make it go away, but it only grew larger. A wide, round portal, big enough for him to walk through upright when the ones he'd opened before had barely had room enough to dive through headlong.

He swallowed anxiously, but stepped through. 

Maybe, he thought, it would take him home, or to his family.

The portal only took him even deeper into this same forest. Frustrated, Danny opened another portal, thinking of his mother, of hugging her tightly.

More dead, empty woods.

The pressure kept building. It felt like it was starting to push against his bones, now, like if he kept going they would crack. He clenched his jaw and tried to slow his breathing and stay calm.

He tried again, thinking of his father, of sitting on the large man's shoulders, and looking down at everyone, and feeling like the king of the world.

Again, the portal only led him deeper into the woods. But now, he could see a hill, covered in more dead trees, with a crumbling castle on the hilltop. Was that where these portals were trying to take him? Maybe he could find help there.

The pressure was too strong now. Painful, and impossible to ignore. A throbbing, burning sensation boiling inside him. His breathing grew heaving. Sweat poured off him. That painful pressure kept building and building until he thought he might burst.

A sharp pain shot through Danny's bulging upper arms and he groaned through gritted teeth.

More portals opened. And more. And more. Around him and through him, green light tearing openings in the fabric of space right through him. 

He screamed. He screamed for what felt like hours as he fought to remain conscious.

It was useless, screaming.

No one was around to hear him.

Or so he thought.

Green turned black as he fell through yet another portal before finally passing out from the pain. The last thing he registered was landing on cold stone.

———

Danny could hear an electric humming sound. Before he even opened his eyes, he heard that sound, like an old refrigerator, or a space heater. Neither of those things belonged in the woods. That meant he couldn't be in the woods anymore. Cautiously, Danny opened his eyes.

Hanging directly above him was a big, round hunk of metal which appeared to be the source of the humming sound. It looked heavy, like it might crush him if it fell, and he decided he'd better get up before that happened.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a man's voice came from somewhere to Danny's left. "That magnet is the only thing keeping you alive right now."

"What?" Danny's voice was hoarse from screaming, and his throat was dry. He never had found a source of water. He swallowed.

Looking over, he saw a man sitting at a desk, tinkering with something. He wore a bulky gauntlet on one hand, made of bronze or brass, or one of those brownish metals. His long, gray hair was greasy, but pulled back into ponytail, neat on one side and messy on the other, like he'd been wearing his gauntlet when he put it up for some reason.

"Who are you?" Danny demanded, though he could barely raise his voice, so it didn't sound much like a demand. "What's going on?"

"I am Vlad Masters," the man said, turning in his chair to look at Danny for the first time. "Most people just call me by my surname, but you may call me what you please. I'm a scientist. You fell through some kind of portal into my lab, and were suffering from unstable activated nanites. To put it simply, you were dying. I saved you."

"But only as long as I stay under the magnet."

"For now," Vlad replied. "It was never going to be more than a temporary fix. I'm currently designing a device that will keep you alive long-term. Something much less crude and more effective than a simple electromagnet."

"And the magnet... attracts nanites away from me?" Danny asked, putting together the pieces of what this man had told him. Nanites were one of those sciencey things he'd heard his parents talking about back home. "Nanites like super tiny robots? Why are there nanites in me?"

"Well, that... is a longer story, but I suppose I can sum it up for you," Vlad said, frowning. "Not far from here, a group of scientists was experimenting with nanites, creating and programming them. But a few days ago there was... an accident. An explosion led to a massive containment breach. The nanites they had created were spread far and wide, but they were unfinished, and instead of helping people as they were intended to do...."

"They created monsters," Danny realized, anger rising hot in his chest. "The nanites did this! They made me like this! They mutated my sister!"

"I'm sorry," Vlad said. "I've faced off against a few mutated creatures and people in the past few days—around here, so close to ground zero, the only ones who survived were changed—you're the first person I've seen besides myself who didn't lose their mind. Is your sister like you?"

Danny looked down at his hands, but it wasn't long before he had to look away. They were wrong and disgusting, and he couldn't stand the sight of himself.

"No... she.... No."

"I'm sorry," Vlad said again. "What about the rest of your family?"

Danny didn't respond for a long moment, and when he finally spoke, his voice was even quieter than before.

"I don't know." It was the first time he had admitted that to himself, or at all. "My parents were still normal the last time I saw them, but that was days ago. We were supposed to meet up again north of Balchik in Bulgaria, but then... this happened to me, and I don't even know where I am anymore."

"You're on an island in the Black Sea," came the answer. "Officially, it's unnamed, but I call it Abysus."

Danny said nothing. Now that he'd said it, he couldn't stop thinking about the possibility that his parents had turned, like him... like Jazz. What if they weren't themselves anymore? What if he did manage to find them again, but they'd lost their minds and they tried to kill him?

"That's not your primary concern, is it?" Vlad surmised.

Danny inhaled sharply, shoulders tense, and shook his head.

"How old are you?"

"Ten," he answered.

"You need someone to look out for you then," said Vlad, thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what. I plan to turn Abysus into a safe haven for people like us. For those of us who were changed by the nanites, but still possess our reason and consciousness. If you stay here, and join me, I can take care of you. I can create a device that keeps your new powers from overwhelming or harming you like they were."

"What if I choose to leave and find my family?"

"Then I'm afraid I can't help you," came the response. Vlad's voice was gentle, but firm. "The device I'm designing to help you must be regularly drained of the excess nanites you attract, and I'm the only one who can do that. You see, when I changed, I gained the ability to manipulate nanites to an extent," he explained. "I am the only one who can help you."

"Can you help me find my family then?" Danny asked. Surely as long as the two of them stayed together they could still look.

"I'm afraid not," Vlad refused with a mournful shake of his head. "You see, I am dependent on the nanites here to survive. I was too near the explosion, I would have been vaporized. This nanite-rich environment is the only thing keeping me alive. If I leave this island... well, I don't know what could happen. I could very well crumble to dust.

"Perhaps... someday, once things have calmed down, I'll be able to invent something that allows me to leave, like I'm inventing something to help you."

Danny frowned, his brows furrowed. If that was the case, then he didn't have much of a choice, did he? He could either stay here with Vlad in the relative safety of Abysus, or he could leave and die. And if he died, then he would never see his family again. If he stayed, at least there would be a chance of reuniting with them, even if it was a long time before Vlad found a way to leave.

"Alright," he said. "I'll join you."

"Excellent," Vlad said. His smile was wide, but it still made Danny's stomach churn. "What's your name, son?"

"I'm not your son," Danny sneered. "My name is Danny."

"Oh, come now, we can do better than that," Vlad said dismissively. "You're a new man, you should have a name to reflect that." He thought about it only for a moment before saying, "How about Rift?"

"What's that mean?"

"A rift is a crack or opening in something," Vlad explained. "Like you create openings in space. What do you think?"

What Danny thought was that this man held his life in his hands, and arguing with him would be a really stupid thing to do.

"Alright," he agreed. "Rift is fine."

"I look forward to working with you, then, Rift."

"Sure," Danny—Rift agreed, though it wasn't true. Not in the slightest.

[jocelynships]

Sick Day

So. I came down with a little cold, and decided I needed a little comfort, which meant thinking about my F/Os taking care of me.

Now I was originally gonna write this with D.raxum but… I missed a certain fuzzy blue elf a little bit so… have this. It’s very short, not super detailed, and I still manage to slip in my TMNT fixation because I’m still very much obsessed.

Enjoy!!

~~~

Hey, Kitty, Bobby, Piotr and I are all going to the mall today to do some shopping and see a movie. I’d love for you to come!

Aw Kurt, you’re sweet! But I’m sick. I’ll have to join you guys another time.

The second Jocelyn had said she was sick, Kurt immediately dropped everything he was doing. The poor girl had no medicine, and he figured he could run to the store and pick up a few things to help her out.

Unfortunately that meant he also had to cancel on his friends.

“Aw man, that’s a real bummer Jocelyn’s sick. I would have loved for her to join us,” Bobby sighed, rather bummed out about the whole situation.

“Yeah, anything we can do to help?” Kitty asked, ready to drop everything.

Once Jocelyn had found out that Kurt and the others were the X-Men, her bond with everyone grew stronger. She hung around the mansion whenever possible, and it was clear the students even adored her. But the X-Men themselves were particularly fond of the human woman.

“It’s alright, I’m just going to run to the store and pick her up a few things like some medicine, then bring her some lunch. I know a family owned restaurant that makes some pretty great soup,” Kurt said, “I just wanna make sure she’s okay.”

“That’s sweet of you,” Piotr patted his friend’s shoulder, “Tell her we all hope she feels better soon.”

“And that we miss her!” Bobby added on.

“Thanks for understanding,” Kurt smiled.

“Of course, Jocelyn is our friend. And we know how much you like her, even if you deny it,” Kitty giggled, “But seriously, this is sweet. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”

Kurt almost wanted to reply with a smart remark at Kitty’s teasing, but she was right. Kurt did like Jocelyn. Quite a lot. But that wasn’t the main focus right now. Getting everything and then getting to Jocelyn was his priority.

“I’ll see you all later, and I’ll let Jocelyn know you all miss her,” Kurt smiled, waving his friends goodbye.

After he had stepped out of the room, Kitty giggled.

“How much you wanna bet they’re gonna start dating soon?” she asked Bobby, who had a devious smirk come across his face.

“I give it to the new year, they’re both kind of dumb and oblivious to each other’s feelings,” Bobby laughed.

“We are not betting on when Kurt and Jocelyn are getting together,” Piotr groaned.

“I don’t think it’s gonna take that long!” Kitty shook her head, “Maybe a few months!”

“You wanna actually bet on this? Loser takes on the other’s duty for a month!” Bobby held out his hand to Kitty, who eagerly took it.

“You’re so on!”

“Why are you two like this?” Piotr sighed into his hands.

Oh well, at least they kept things entertaining.

~~~

Jocelyn let out a groan to herself as a knock sounded on her door. Whoever it was, she didn’t really wanna deal with anyone. She just wanted to stay in bed, sleep, watch some old cartoons and movies, and try to recover from this nasty cold she came down with.

She slowly pulled herself out of bed and shuffled over to her door. It was times like these she was grateful her apartment was small so she didn’t have to walk too far.

However, when she opened up the door, she wasn’t expecting Kurt to be standing there with bags filled with supplies, a bag of take out, and a turtle plush in his arms.

“Kurt? What are you doing here?” she wasn’t upset in the slightest, actually happy to see him. But she didn’t want to get him sick!

“I came to check in on you. You said you didn’t have any medicine, right?” Kurt stepped into her apartment, setting the bags on the counter by her kitchen sink.

He took notice of her hoarse voice, her red nose, and the oversized sweater she was wearing. She looked like she didn’t feel well in the slightest.

“No… I was gonna ask Peter for some when he got home…” Jocelyn said, referring to her next door neighbor.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that, here you go,” Kurt handed her a bottle of cold medicine, “Take some now, please.”

“Thanks,” Jocelyn smiled at him, opening up the bottle.

She hated the taste of liquid cold medicine, but Kurt was quick to grab her a glass of water to drink afterwards once he saw her shudder after downing the medicine.

Jocelyn never had anyone do something like this for her before.

“Oh, this is also for you,” he handed her the turtle plush, “I remembered you said you liked turtles. I didn’t see any hedgehogs or ducks otherwise I would have gotten them for you too. I figured it would help cheer you up.”

“Ha, you remembered my silly little animal obsessions?” Jocelyn took the plush and gave it a squeeze.

“I remember small details,” Kurt smiled at her, unpacking the bags for her.

She was amazed. He grabbed her cough drops and multiple packs of tissues, along with tea and honey for her sore throat. He got a couple cans of soup, some microwavable containers of mashed potatoes, popsicles, and some yogurt for her as well.

“You really didn’t have to do all this,” she began, but Kurt stopped her.

“No, I didn’t. I wanted to though,” Kurt opened up the takeout bag and pulled out a container of soup with a warm mini loaf of bread, “I also got you some homemade chicken noodle soup.”

“You’re really way too sweet,” Jocelyn felt relieved at the warm sensation of the bowl in her hands. She had been running a low fever most of the day and was freezing, hence the sweater.

“Go sit down and eat, I’ll make you some tea?” Kurt nodded towards her bed.

“Thanks,” Jocelyn bashfully turned away, hoping that the redness in her face could be excused by being sick.

The soup was a relief, it soothed her throat and helped clear up her sinuses a bit. And when Kurt came over with the tea, it was happily accepted.

However, when he moved around the other side and sat down beside her, she raised an eyebrow at him.

“What are you doing?” She asked between bites of the bread.

“I’m not leaving,” Kurt stated, grabbing the remote and unpausing the movie she had put on. It seems like it had only started, “Can I rewind this? So I can watch it all the way through?”

“Uh… No offense, I love your company and all, but I don’t wanna get you sick-” Jocelyn set the mug of tea down, only for Kurt to lounge back on her bed and pull her into him.

“Don’t worry about getting me sick, I have a high immune system,” Kurt started the movie from the beginning, “Ah, so this is why you like turtles so much.”

Jocelyn blushed, wondering if it was due to the sudden contact, or him lightly teasing her for watching the old ninja turtle movie from the early 90s, but she didn’t have it in her to fight him on this. She gave in, resting her head against his chest and pulled the blanket around her.

God, he’s so warm.

“Yeah. It’s a favorite of mine,” Jocelyn yawned as Kurt rubbed her back, “Not just this movie, but all of it. The cartoons, the comics too.”

“Hm, you’ll have to show me sometime,” Kurt rested his head on top of hers as she snuggled in closer to him.

“Yeah…”

It didn’t take long for Jocelyn to fall asleep. Barely fifteen minutes into the movie, and she was out like a light. But Kurt didn’t mind, she needed the rest, and they could watch the movie another time. Right now, all that mattered was taking care of Jocelyn. And if that meant letting her sleep on him, he was happy to be her pillow.

And if he got sick? Eh, he wasn’t too worried about it.

She was worth it

[asgardianangel]

Pictures (One missing piece- chapter six)

Warnings: bad language and creepy behaviour

Calling and calling there was still no answer. 

 ‘Mark where the fuck are you?!’ your mind raced. Like a blank puzzle details of last night just didn’t show. You panicked. All in the time to hear two familiar voices expressing concern. “Are you okay querida?” Lalo asked beside his husband. Ignacio then walked over to you pulling you in a tight hug (you didn’t really accept).  

“What happened?” he questioned meeting your eye level hand on your chin. Shaking your head “It’s just my friend is missing, and nobody has seen anything” you explained failing to notice the change in Lalo’s demeaner as Ignacio held you against his chest. He looked over at his husband with stern and Lalo dropped his smirk. 

“I have to inform the cops” you whispered breaking out of Ignacio’s snake like hold trying to find your phone. “No no give him some time” Lalo advised. Him? You didn’t tell them about Mark did you? Just Leah. 

Before you could even question them yourself Leah’s caller ID flashed upon your phone, and you answered. “Any news?” you asked Leah just sighs “not yet I have nowhere to go I think I need to stay here in Alburquerque hopefully he would show up. His family keep blowing up my phone and I don’t know what to tell them" She replied. 

“Everything will be fine it’s barely been twenty-four hours. We can just ask around the area we were in someone has to know something” trying to keep things calm.  

Lalo raises a brow. 

“I think I remember where we were at, I’ll text you the street” she says. Then Lalo interrupts the conversation “I’m sorry to say this querida but we need you here today me and Nachito over there” Ignacio rolls his eyes at him “have got some important business to attend to” he explains. You nod with a sigh of course they need you at one of the worst times.  

“Okay” Lalo smiles at you placing a hand on your shoulder “good girl” he praises softly. Him and Ignacio left your bedroom leaving you and Leah to talk. 

“Ooooh ‘good girl’ huh?” she teased, and you stayed quiet wishing she never heard that interaction. “You know you suck at reading men sometimes” she sighs. 

“Really? Why’s that?” you question, and Leah responds with a giggle “One or both wanna fuck you sweetie” You scoff at her “no they do not! My relationship with them is strictly professional” you resorted back. 

“Keep telling yourself that. Listen I have nothing else to do I would go to the cops but it’s like you said ‘it’s barely been twenty-four hours’ and I really wanna talk to you in person” Leah whines a little.  

“I can’t meet you I have to be with little Marco” you respond Leah huffs down the phone at you “hang on hang on!” she expresses like she had an idea.  

“What is it?” you asked, and she giggles. “Why don’t I come over and help you babysit the kid” she suggests. You thought about but there was always that implication that Ignacio and Lalo didn’t like anyone but you around Marco. 

“Hm, I don’t know” You sigh, and Leah starts begging “Oh c’mon it will be fun we need to stay together and figure about what we are going to do about Mark. Just sneak me in they won’t know” Leah encourages you.  

It felt wrong to go against Lalo and Ignacio, but you were beyond worried about Mark. 

“Fine I’ll text you when they are gone” feeling no need to argue with her. 

- 

“Right bud you be good” Ignacio told his son and you smiled “Oh he always is” you say. Lalo and Ignacio didn’t leave until they gave a kiss on the cheek creating redness to them. Then you thought to Leah’s remarks, and it felt weird. 

When you got Marco settled with some cartoons and snacks you told Leah ‘The coast is clear’ and she arrived minutes later. “Fucking hell this is a nice place!” she exclaimed to which you shush her “watch your language” you scold. Checking on Marco who was occupied with the TV.  

Leah went off nosing around the home and you follow her “don’t mess with anything they could fire me” you warn her Leah just scoffs “they definitely won’t do that” she teases walking into the grand kitchen. 

“They seriously need to give the name of their interior designers like my god” she admires. Marco then calls your name and you back into the longue leaving Leah in the kitchen. “Y/n my tummy hurts” he tells you in which you awe “don’t worry I’ll go get you some medicine” you place a kiss to his head. 

You enter back into the kitchen to look for the medicine and find Leah holding up one of Lalo’s special bottles of decanter from the cellar. “Leah” you scolded in a whisper “put that back” you tell her. She giggles “c’mon I said we can have some fun. Let’s have and drink and discuss Mark” she tells you back. 

Is she fucking serious? You mentally question. 

You scowl “I have the feeling you don’t really care where the hell he is” you accuse. Leah glares at you “of course I fuckin do Y/n we have been friends with him since we were teenagers, in fact I have Sam working on tracking his phone” she almost yells. 

“At least that’s something” you mummer “but we can’t drink not right now and if Lalo and Ignacio find out-” Leah cuts you off “yeah yeah they will give you a big old spanking” she teases, and you huff at her. 

- 

Time went by and you tucked Marco into bed his tummy now at ease “Goodnight sweetheart” you wished him before closing the door and you headed back downstairs wondering what Leah was doing now. It was a bad idea to invite her over.  

“Sit with me” she tells you in a singsong pouring you a glass. Getting comfortable you refuse the glass “I can’t drink not after last night” she looks at you “do you remember any of it?” she asks. 

“Not really, I think I danced with Mark” you tell her, and she gasps in shock “Oh remember now I think Mark was pissed off at you” she informs. 

“What? What did I do?” you ask her, and she sighs “I can’t remember I shouldn’t have left you guys” Leah whines. You comfort her with a hug “I need use the bathroom” she says and gets up “do you want me to show you where it is?” you ask, and Leah just shakes her head “I’ll find it on my own don’t worry”  

You were left wondering. 

As Leah finally found the bathroom, she received a call from her friend “did you find anything?” she asks straight way. 

“Um yeah I have an exact location I’ll send it over right now- you so owe me a date for this one” he replies, and Leah rolls her eyes “yeah, I’ll go on a date with your nerdy ass. Just send me it” she ends the call. 

Leah decided to snoop around again since she was upstairs looking in every room. “They have everything” she gasped to herself. Then she found a second office (larger than the one downstairs). There were framed pictures of the family, so she decided to take a closer look. The man with the moustache and lively grin looked oddly familiar to her.  

It was Leah’s first time seeing a picture of the couple since you refused to any pictures of them. 

“Y/n you are one lucky girl” she whistled 

But then Leah froze upon opening the top drawer of the lavish oak desk... 

Pictures of you. 

On closer examination there were mostly pictures from her own Instagram she tagged you in. Including bikini ones posing playfully. Leah flipped through the pictures memories of where they were taken played in her mind. Some had her own face scratched out (like they despised her for just taking a picture with you) The ones at the bottom of the pile weirded her out to the extreme. They were of you out and about doing your usual routine of shopping or out on a run etc. Total stalker behaviour 

“What the fuck!” she exclaimed noticing the dates on the back of them. Some were taken when you first arrived in Alburquerque. Before working for them.  

“What the fuck indeed” A cold voice answered. 

[missjanjie]

8i please !!

this was self-indulgent bcs im weak for 1950s aus and the idea of beatnik rosé + cheerleader denali was too perfect to not do

8. Rosé/Denali + I. Different Decade

“Hey, do you have an extra one of those?” Denali asked, tentatively approaching Rosé, who was leaning against the wall in back of the school, taking a drag from a cigarette. 

Rosé arched her brow curiously, looking the other girl over. “Sure, didn’t think you touched ‘em, doesn’t strike me as the sort of activity the head cheerleader would partake in,” she remarked, taking another one from the pack and handing it to her before lighting it. “Something snakin’ ya?” 

Denali just sighed and tried to take a drag, only to cough, then manage to do it successfully. “Just stress, we can’t all go through life not giving a shit about anything. I almost envy that about you.”

“I’m sure you’ve got a lot on your plate,” she nodded, dropping the cigarette butt on the floor and putting it out by stepping on it and pressing it into the grass. “I know your secret, you know.”

Her eyes went wide and her mouth hung open, the cigarette falling from her lips. She felt her stomach tighten and now she was leaning against the wall just to keep herself steady. “Y-You do?”

“I know you’re not Italian, that your real last name isn’t Foxx,” she said, then furrowed her brows and added, “that’s not even an Italian last name, you’re lucky everyone here is fucking stupid. What are you, anyway?”

Denali’s entire body relaxed and she let out an audible sigh of relief, one that was perhaps too obvious. “Oh, that. My parents did that for my safety – My dad is Jewish and my mom is Mexican… I’m not sure where they got Foxx from either, I wanna say some cartoon character.” 

While Rosé’s initial question was answered, Denali’s reaction left her with a myriad of new ones, leading her to eye her suspiciously. “So you’ve got two secrets then, hm? Head cheerleader, homecoming queen, going steady with the captain of the football team, someone so perfect must have a dark secret to hide out with some beatnik.”

She untied her cardigan from around her shoulders, pulling it on as if it would hide her the way she desperately wanted. “I don’t… I mean… it’s not…” she shook her head and looked up at her. “You wouldn’t understand, I don’t think anyone would.”

“You’d be surprised, dolly,” the redhead replied, her expression softening when she managed to meet her eyes. “Tell me, when you’re neckin’ with your boyfriend, does it make your skin crawl? Does it feel wrong in a way you can’t explain why, so you just brush your teeth until you feel normal again?”

Denali’s face was deep red and she could hardly string a thought together. Finally, she timidly whispered, “I don’t understand how you could know all of that…”

“Because I’m a dyke, baby,” Rosé replied with a nonchalance that was jarring to Denali, who had only ever heard shouted at women who wore men’s trousers and had short hair. She was only loosely aware of what the word even meant, which must have read clearly because Rosé followed up with, “I don’t have a sweetie ‘cause girls aren’t an option around here, but that’s what I’m after.”

She was at a loss for words, she had no idea that was an option, always assuming that those thoughts and feelings meant something was wrong with her, that it was something she had to ignore. “Are there places where that is an option?” 

“Just a train ride away, downtown. Moving there as soon as school’s done,” Rosé put a hand on Denali’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You should let me take you sometime, help you realize you’re not alone.”

When Denali felt Rosé’s hand on her shoulder, she felt a spark shoot through her body that she’d never felt before, something lit up inside her. “I would like that.”

[resmarted]

we are in an endless coming of age story, except i never learn my lessons or grow up at the end, it’s just some sick cycle of the same harmonies that haunt me into my a belated adolescence. did i tell you i found some old love songs? i started writing them last year before my heart was ripped from my throat and i forgot how sweet i once was on you. they have new meaning now, it seems the subject often changes over the years but the sentiment stays the same. how do i keep accepting these people into my life who can’t bring themselves to reject the people who hold no real place in their own? i am so good at it that i can’t help but snub and scoff anyone who can’t see clearly and cut the fat where it needs to be snipped. i will not exhaust myself for anyone, especially one who keeps these demented vampires surrounding them like cartoon birds after a great blow to the head. i may be slow to grow up but have spent far too long outgrowing people i know serve no purpose but to fill space that i don’t necessarily have to offer and you can block your own aura, fine, but don’t expect me to meet you down there. elevating is a constant process and sure, i am more whimsical and free for it, but mostly i am too smart not to and if you really sit with yourself in honest integrity you can admit you are too.

protect me from the beggars and hounds scraping and clawing at the door for my energy, waking me from my sleep and invading my dreamspace when i do. they sneer and howl and get louder when i am in earshot because god forbid i dont hear them, how they bend over backwards and lift their voices as loudly as possible to ensure i will be made aware of their uber impressive remarks and less than subtle digs so that i may clap for them like dogs and say good job! i knew you could do it! have a treat. it's exhausting, but unfortunately very normal. it comes from every corner, the so-called allies are the worst of all, and the ones who feign offense need the most attention. but you know me by now, don't you? you know I protect my peace at all cost and am seldom concerned with the gadfly of the hour as there will be ten more in its place tomorrow. what I want to know is how you managed to see past all of them and were able to stare directly through my soul without so much as a pin drop? how were you the only one ever brave enough to ignore the fodder and look past the vigorous campaigns waved against me like a salem witch in spanish harlem? i am forever indebted, even if you never make it past that last step, i don't blame you for giving up and will always admire you for how far you got. it was a hell of a lot more than anyone else who dare to slay the dragon or tame the beast, most others just became them, another head added onto the hive mind, soaking in the relevance while it lasted like bored vultures hungry to pick at anything left before moving on with the same anger they carried in with them, if not worse than before. playing nice does nothing but make it worse, and yet being indifferent seems the greatest crime of all. I can't help it though, i've got a lot on my mind.

like how did you know all of my hiding spots and how to coax me out with those big bashful eyes? where did you learn how to do that and how many others did it work on before me? probably all of them. probably everyone falls smitten for those soft blushing cherub cheeks and curious eyed stare like a darling deer just searching for its mother. people line up to wash away in your silence and bathe in the warm glow of that sweet little laugh and precious pout. you know it and i know it and everyone else acts like they don't know it because they do a similar thing to you where they don't want to be caught caring so they act like they don't see all your good qualities or that they even see you at all. but everyone sees you. they find their positions before you approach so they can meticulously appear aloof when they're dying to look at you from the corners of their eyes and downplaying how happy they really are to see you. i don't have time like that to waste. i have too many dead friends and too many regrets for the things i never said or did while they were still around, and i'll sure as hell be damned if i let the confines of some obscure social realm dictate how I behave towards the ones i love and care about. i love and care about you probably more than i have for anyone in a very long time, maybe ever. i sit like a broken soldier outside your home guarding it as if it weren't already made from walls and walls of brick and steel, the highest of fences and the most complicated of labyrinths and riddles just to cross the threshold. i'll still defend your honor like everyone doesn't already love you to pieces, as if what i say could even make a lick of a difference, still a loyal sheepdog just the same. i miss you so much it kills me. i have since the day we met, and all the days that came before that. my entire fucking life before you is one big painful blur and if it stays that way after you, i'm fine with that. i remain sedated in even our smallest memories, so may i die knowing the sweetest relief. that's a little dramatic, okay sure, you got me. but something tells me you wouldn't have it any other way.

[thewritetofreespeech]

Hi could I have Buddhas reaction to a female reader who is basically a meme. I love your page, hope you are well. Thank you, take care.

Awww! Thank you so much! I appreciate the compliment ^_^

Heavily based on the American Gods concept of New Media; god/goddess of television, movies, and new social media.

He knew that the Older Gods didn’t like him, and he was ok with that.

To them, he wasn’t a ‘real’ God, since he was formerly human and in his infancy compared to the rest of them. He supposed it would be pretty annoying if some kid was constantly disrespecting, complaining, or thumbing his nose at him. Still, he didn’t care.

His faith in humanity, and the faith of his worshipers, was still strong. So he had just as much of a right to be here as anyone else. They could all just shove it.

The deity was walking down the hall of one of the vast public sanctuaries for the Gods with it’s newest addition, the Goddess of New Media. They just showed up one day, popped into existence like most of the Gods, wandering the halls on their phone. Being newer than him, they weren’t well liked either. But Buddha took a liking to that and they became fast friends.

Also their love of bunny shirts and lollipops helped a lot.

“Well, well. If it isn’t the happy couple.” Buddha looked up to see the hulking mass of Aphrodite’s golem chariot (and her hulking chest) approach. Her beautiful face quivering with a hint of distain. “Should you both even be here? This floor is restricted for superior gods like myself. Honestly. Human’s will worship anything.....” She bemoaned with a breathy sigh.

He was about to say something when, NM cut in and said, “I’m the goddess of the greatest invention known to man. And I take it you’re the goddess of big tits and loose women?” Both gods jaws dropped at the remark. Aphrodite in obvious shock. Buddha in amusement. NM put their phone down. “I exist because society worships at my ‘alter’ every second of every day. Nearly 8 billion people, regardless or race, creed, or religion, pay homage to me on their phones. Their laptops. Their TVs. And even when they’re not on their devices, they’re thinking about it. When was the last time anybody called your name, grandma? Unless they have some BS history assignment to do on your moldy old painting or a joke about how Phoebe Buffay voiced you in a 90′s cartoon almost no one remembers. Just like you!”

Flabbergasted, the Goddess didn’t even move when NM leaned in to snap a selfie and posted it, “#bossladies #respectyourelders. Ok bye!” Then literally skipped off.

Buddha waited a minute before he went after them. Eager to catch up and snicker about the look on her face. “Oh man! I can’t believe you said that!”

“Bitch had it coming....” NM replied. Sticking a new sucker in their mouth.

“They aren’t gonna like it....” Buddha sing-songed. Clearly looking for the fall out to come from her rocking the boat.

“Like I care. Who gives a shit what a bunch of old dusty book jackets think about me, or anything else? The world is changing. It doesn’t need Gods like that anymore.”

“My sentiments exactly.” He replied, popping his own new lollipop in his mouth.

The world was changing. They just didn’t know how much yet.

[hollyhomburg]

Color me pretty

(Bts Little space au)

Summary: When it came to the littles, the caregivers knew there was no better activity than coloring. 

Tags: SFW, implied bts x reader, pure fluff, little space, little! kookie, Little! m/c, Caregivers! bts, 

W/c: 1.5k

A/n: If you don’t like this kind of content please just skip over it and pay it no mind! this is very sweet and fluffy. this can be read alone, but i did use the characters from my other little space ask au titled ‘the peanut butter to my jelly’ it’s linked at the end of the fic!  i wrote this drabble in one sitting! 

- On the nights that Koo and the m/c are non-verbal but still feeling energetic enough to need stimulation the caregivers have a special little ritual that they like to do. 

- it’s something tucked away, always ready to have on hand when they need it, it never fails to calm an overly excited or sugar high little; the blanket made out of a special material that can be washed after it’s doodled on, painted, and made new. 

- On those special days, the caregivers bring around all their ‘messy blankets’ the fort making supplies that no one minds if they get ruined, if koo gets his apple sauce on it or if a sippie mistakenly gets it’s lid taken off. they make a nest in the living room with markers and crayons and they’re allowed to get the blanket as colorful as possible. 

- The blanket is magic in the littles eyes! filled with simple flowers that they can color in as many times as they want! All the laundry fairy (Taehyung) has to do is pop the blanket in the washer and voila! it’s all ready for more coloring! no more marker marks. 

- I just picture her and Koo stretched out on it with half of their stuffed animals for “moral support” while cartoons play in the background coloring to their hearts content. Koo gets a little younger in his headspace sometimes than the m/c though they’re pretty equal in general.

- Eventually koo just gets so small that he forgoes coloring all together, instead busying himself with sucking on the end of a marker. while the m/c just giggles with her tongue hanging out, swinging her feet, the picture of adorable concentration as she struggles to keep her pink marker inside the lines.

- Occasionally one of the caregivers will come in to check on them. And they’d come pet over their heads and koo and the m/c just excitedly gesture to the mess they’ve made! their brains too cottony to make many words other than “flower! made’ pink!!!” koo in his little sing song voice going “flower flower flower~” 

- And whichever caregiver who is on “baby duty” will praise them, today it’s yoongi who takes a second to sit, each of the littles tucked under an arm. yoongi leaning in close and tracing his finger along their pretty lines. “you guys got so far today! almost all of them are filled!” he loves how puffed up both of your chests get at the praise. 

- He can almost tell how far down they were when they first started coloring. on the outside border the flowers are carefully patterned, but the ones just under where you where sitting are full of wilds scribbles. Yoongi reminds himself to take a picture before they wash it, wanting to save a memory of today. 

- “Oh did you make this for us little ones? I bet Joonie’s going to love it you know how much he loves nature! and you even gave each of them little stems.”

- And of course, eventually they find the m/c and koo are asleep in their little puddle of markers. Maybe the m/c has a little bit of purple splotch on her cheek. After they wake them up to put them to bed she whines softly when they clean it off her cheek “oh you poor fussy baby, don’t worry it will only take a second” her cute pout demanding a kiss for every rub.

- Eventually she presses into bed and koo kisses the faintly red spot on her face. his kiss a little wet and open mouthed but so innocent it makes the caregivers bookending them on either side coo. it’s as much of a sorry as koo can articulate right now. his mind feels like marshmellows and stuffed animals, like a too squeezed juice pouch and an empty packet of fruit snacks. totally devoid of big scary thoughts. 

- The caregivers are glad they made the decision to throw out all and every permanent marker in the house after the last little incident when Koo decided that people were a viable canvas. I think their whole house would be full of little doodles from the two littles. When they get big they always blush and say that they don’t need to pin them to every available surface. But the caregivers just shush them because they honestly love their drawings. 

-To the caregivers, their collection of drawings is a representation of the love they have for their two youngest. A mark of a healthy relationship- that they can give love in a way that matters to the two of them. Maybe jimin gets a tattoo of one of their flowers, a little purple one for koo and a pink one for the m/c on his hip at once point. 

- Maybe one day the m/c has what they affectionately call a ‘tiny day’ where she’s small and can’t seem to snap out of it. she tries valiantly, but after that catch her pouting down at her coffee and staring wistfully at her stuffy on the bed they tell her it’s okay. she can be small today and they’ll handle all of the big thoughts. 

- Of course they can’t stay home because they have a track due soon, and alas they are adults, so certain things have to be accounted for. There have been many times that the m/c has had to pretend to be at least a little big in public, luckily for the caregivers their littles are always remarkably well behaved. 

- They treat it as a game, today, bunny is a secret agent and cannot be discovered by anyone, sent to protect the princess. Nothing can happen to her as long as bunny’s there. But no one can see bunny- or else his powers are nullified. It does the trick. They love to see her nodd seriously when Tae weaves the story for her. it makes their heart hurt when they catch her talking to the bunny. “i gots you.” it makes it so hard to seperate from her for the day. 

- Seokjin packs up a day bag and gets her in the comfiest clothes possible and she spends the whole day quietly coloring in the corner of Joonie’s studio with her favorite bunny stuffie in her lap. She’s always careful to tuck him under her blanket and hide him whenever someone comes knocking, pretending to tap away on Namjoon’s tablet, but luckily no one pays her much mind, used to her presence. 

- When the noise and the stimulation gets too much for her namjoon puts her in a pair of noise canceling headphones that play soft nature sounds and pretty soon when he turns around to check on her he finds she’s nodded off in his couch. And he gets up to fix the blanket around her before he goes back to work for a few more hours. 

- She’s still asleep when the others finish up and decide to pry joonie away from work (a feat in itself) and when the others softly knock at the door she gets up, all bleary-eyed and honestly half-asleep rubbing at her eyes with a closed fist. almost tripping in happiness when she sees jungkook. hitting into his chest with a little ooof, almost tripping to get out of her blanket. So excited to see him- her favorite playmate “Koo play now!? koo get tiny!!!??” 

- Already the stress is weighing on Jungkook’s shoulders, his eyes getting all misty when he sees her bunny and the blanket and just wants to regress so bad. He starts to help her clean up the day bag but seokjin and Namjoon ease him away from it.

-  “You’ve got to watch her for us Kookie, can you do that? can you be a good boy?” by now they know how to softly nudge Jungkook into his headspace and it does the trick, lets him have a task before he can truly let go. they end up giggling softly with their foreheads pressed up against each other, telling stupid little jokes that are no doubt from jin and playing with each others hands. 

- On the ride Home, they both hold onto one of bunnies ears in the backseat of their car. Their heads loling by the time they pull into their safe underground parking garage ready for some snuggles and probably a nice relaxing bath for kookie because he hates feeling sweaty from practice when he’s little. He Just wants to sit and play with some bubbles and bath toys while someone runs shampoo through his hair, the soft-smelling kind that's meant for babies.

- Inevitably Koo always looks up from his bubble bath and points at himself and says “baby?” Hobi nods sagely while smoothing his hair into a goofy mohawk, “baby” he agrees.  

- But that’s not exactly true- the better term would be ‘their babies’

~Fin~ 

Please reblog and comment! Likes are nice- but they do little to support content creators! 

(You can find more little space content here)

[pale-fairytales]

hi so i’m still new to transformers (I’ve been binge-watching several of the cartoons and only read part of the 2005 IDW comic—) but i have headcanons made of fresh brain juice and idk if anyone else shares them but they popped into my brain as I was working on my fanfic o3o

The Elite Trine, if they were to ever cook (hypothetically ofc, since they don’t really eat food??), are all terrible at it. Starscream’s the only one w/ potential bc his food is more edible/it can even taste good sometimes. Problem? he’s probably not gonna wanna cook and will probably order someone else to do so. Sometimes when he does cook it gets burned, or he seasons too much, but he’ll know a good brand of engex to pair with it. I feel like he might get upset if someone doesn’t want to eat it, depending on who’s not willing. Most people close to him know to just eat the food, or he’ll be really mad and probably yell at them. If it’s someone not as close to him, he probably wouldn’t cook for them at all imo, but hypothetically I feel he wouldn’t get as offended if he wasn’t close with them. 

Thundercracker’s a close second. Why? bc he gets an A for effort. His food, imo, is midwestern suburban Mormon housewife bland and drier than a desert. This goes for most foods he makes. Even soup. How does soup come out dry? No idea. Is it even possible for soup to taste dry? Maybe not. But Thundercracker seems to find a way, be it intentionally or not. He might be annoyed if someone doesn’t want to eat it but he doesn’t fly off the handle. I feel like he also wouldn’t really cook for anyone not close with him/outside the trine, so he wouldn’t be as upset, but he may be slightly passive-aggressive. 

Skywarp receives an F in all categories; his cooking is always either burned to the pits, undercooked, has chunks of weird things in it, and/or chances are he’s dumped too much of seasoning in it or something. He also more than likely has made a huge mess that Thundercracker will have to clean up. I’m on the fence about Skywarp; I feel like it could go one of two ways if someone doesn’t wanna eat his food. I can’t decide if he lets it go/doesn’t blame them (I lowkey feel like he’s purposely bad at cooking occasionally) or if he gets upset. I feel like he accepts he’s bad at cooking and it becomes a weapon in case anyone he doesn’t like comes to the home he shares with his trinemates. 

I imagine it goes like this; let’s say, idk, in a domestic AU where there wasn’t a war, Starscream has a few domestic hobbies. Like a bookclub or some shit. People decide to come to his place for the club meeting, which is fine, but Soundwave is also in the group and he had to bring Rumble and Frenzy. Skywarp volunteers to look after them while the group discusses the cybertronian equivalent of 50 Shades of Grey. He gives Rumble and Frenzy food. It looks like a soup. They try to eat. It tastes like soap. Skywarp grins. “What’s wrong?? Aren’t you hungry?” they make a rude remark but soundwave told them to behave. they try to eat again. There are legos in the “soup.” “What is this???” they ask. Skywarp grins evilly and does not answer. 

Starscream is forced to put Skywarp in gay baby jail and Soundwave is forced to leave Rumble and Frenzy at home from then on. 

don’t trust them in the kitchen, whatever you do

[wikiangela-fanfics]

I think he knows

Ao3 here

Summary: Eddie's crush is becoming really obvious, so he does something about it.

so, here's a 3k words buddie fic I wrote after trying to write anything about them for three months lol I missed them haha

It might not make much sense, and the pacing is so off (when is it not in my fics tbh) but honestly I love it lol and I had soo much fun writing it hah

Enjoy ❤️

***

 To no one’s surprise, it happened in the kitchen.

They’d just had dinner at Eddie’s place – he’d cooked once again, and was happy to see Buck and Chris actually enjoy the meal, and even compliment him on it. He was proud of himself. Who knew that practicing, putting some time and effort, and getting some good advice, would result in him being a good cook? He’d cooked for his boys a couple of times now, and each time Buck would get that surprised but proud look on his face. 

“Why do you look so shocked?” Eddie would ask each time, observing him with fondness and amusement.

“I honestly don’t know.” Buck would chuckle, taking another bite, then with his mouth full adding some version of: “I mean, figures that once you learn to cook, your food tastes better than anything I’ve ever tasted. You’re amazing at everything.” he’d shrug, as if it wasn’t a huge exaggeration. Then Eddie would blush and dismiss it, Buck would keep devouring his food and ask for seconds, while Chris would dig in some remark about how Eddie’s food is edible now, but certainly not the best ever, like Buck was making it seem to be.

Eddie loved those little family dinners, as he grew to call them in his head. It happened at least once a week, usually more now that they were both single and could spend all their free time together again. Not that Eddie was happy about Buck’s break-up, of course not, not at all. He was just happy that his best friend was at his place more often now, without anyone waiting for him at home. Which all sounded really bad, if he thought about it that way. He sounded jealous and he hated that, because he wasn’t. He was just glad to have Buck to himself again- to themselves, him and Chris, because Buck was their best friend, and- ah, fuck.

Anyway, at the moment they were just after dinner. Chris went to the living room to watch some cartoons, while Buck and Eddie started cleaning up. They took the dishes to the sink, and just as Eddie was about to start doing them, Buck lightly pushed him away, knocking his hip against Eddie’s. Buck turned the water on and started doing the dishes.

“What are you doing?” Eddie asked, as if it wasn’t obvious.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Buck chuckled. 

“I always do that.” he complained, with no idea why he’d even argue. It’s not like he liked doing the dishes. But his mama raised him right, and guests shouldn’t have to clean. Then again, was Buck really a guest? At that point, short of sleeping there every night and having his stuff there, Buck basically lived with them.

“Yeah, when I cook.” Buck looked at him with amusement. “You cooked, so I’m doing the dishes. Why do we always have the same conversation?” he added, shaking his head.

“Because you’re annoying.” Eddie grumbled, earning another chuckle. Buck had a really nice laugh, Eddie noticed. He had noticed. He kept noticing. He kept noticing all kinds of new stuff about Buck. Or maybe they weren’t new, maybe Eddie just hadn’t paid enough attention. Well, now, he was as attentive as he could be to every little thing Buck was doing. He wasn’t sure why. Or, he didn’t want to admit he knew why. Either way. Not like he’d need this figured out anytime soon.

“Sure, I’m the one who’s annoying.” Buck murmured, and Eddie elbowed him softly, which resulted in getting water sprinkled in his face. That ended in a minute more of laughing and shoving each other playfully, as if they were children. Then, finally, Eddie shook his head with exasperation, took a dish towel from where it was hanging on the oven handle, and decided to help Buck out by drying the dishes, at least. And if he couldn’t stop stealing glances at Buck while they were working, and smiling like an idiot, that’s his business. Buck didn’t seem to notice.

“You want another beer?” Eddie asked once they were done, already walking over to the fridge.

“Sure. If your couch is available.” he smiled.

“For you, always.” Eddie grinned, taking two bottles out and giving one to Buck. Then he leaned against the counter, opening his beer, while Buck sat at the edge of the table directly in front of Eddie. “Seriously?”

“What?”

“We do have chairs.” he rolled his eyes. Buck just gave him a charming smile, taking a sip of beer. Then he averted his gaze, when seemingly something to his left caught his attention.

“Why is this here?” he suddenly asked, pointing to Eddie’s fridge. His eyes snapped to where Buck was looking at the heart drawings he and Chris did a while back.

“Why not?”

“I mean, I get why Chris’ is up here. But why mine?” he sounded genuinely confused.

“Because I like it.” Eddie shrugged, not able to contain a smile. He loved those drawings. “It’s cute.” he paused, then added quietly, almost involuntarily: “Like you.” God, what possessed him to say shit like that. He took another huge gulp of beer.

“Uh-” Buck raised his eyebrows in surprise, but he was smiling. And blushing. He really was so cute. Why the hell was Eddie thinking about that?

“And did you see the drawing Chris drew at school yesterday?” Eddie said a little too loudly, just to change the subject. He needed to control what was coming out of his mouth, or he’d blurt out something more embarrassing. Or something he wouldn’t be able to take back. Like the thing he was afraid to admit to himself. He pointed to the drawing he was talking about, trying to pretend he wasn’t feeling his heart skip a beat each time he looked at it. Because the drawing presented the three of them. Chris’ assignment in his art class was to draw his family. And he drew himself, Eddie, and Buck in a park. That was so adorable, and it made Eddie feel things, at the mere thought of them being a family… like that. Which was super weird, considering he was having literal panic attacks at the thought of Ana being a part of their family.

“Oh. Is that… us?” Buck asked, a fond smile on his face.

“Yeah. He was supposed to draw his family, so.” Eddie shrugged once more, as if it wasn’t a big deal, as if his heart wasn’t trying to jump out of his chest in Buck’s direction right now.

“Why didn’t he draw Shannon?” he asked quietly. 

“Probably because she’s- uh, not here anymore.” he responded, trying to sound more or less nonchalant. He couldn’t hide that it still hurt, though. Certainly not from Buck. “And you are, you know, family.” he added, averting his eyes.

“Right. Um, kid has talent. It’s really good.” Buck changed the subject, still looking at the drawing with that smile that made it impossible not to smile back. Eddie just could not tear his eyes away from him. And Buck finally noticed, looking back at him. “What?”

“What? Nothing.” Eddie felt his face heat up, as he took another sip of his beer.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Buck’s piercing gaze was still on him, and Eddie felt as if he could read him so easily.

“Like what?” he decided to play dumb. Maybe he’d succeed.

“I don’t know.” Buck responded slowly. “You’re being weird tonight. Well, you’ve been acting weird for the past few weeks, actually.”

“Weird how?” Eddie frowned, his heart hammering loudly. He knew how. But was he really being that obvious? While he still couldn’t admit the other thing, he did realize that he might have developed a small crush on his best friend. Which was mind blowing on its own, without adding more. And he kept catching himself looking and smiling, letting some casual touches linger for a little too long (he was afraid they weren’t as platonic as he hoped anymore), and even once in a while making a weird comment like the one before. He just didn’t know that he was behaving very differently, or that the change was that noticeable. 

“I don’t know.” Buck repeated, shaking his head with a small chuckle. “Nevermind.”

“No, come on. Tell me.” he had no idea why he was insisting on that. He had an out, and he didn’t take it. He was dumb. Or, Buck’s mere presence was causing his brain to shut down. Lately all it took was Buck’s smile for Eddie to stumble over his words, so… He was so fucked, wasn’t he?

“I don’t know.” Buck said once more, now looking straight into Eddie’s eyes with an indecipherable expression. Eddie wanted to look away, but at the same time he never wanted to stop looking into those beautiful blue eyes. Fuck. “You’re just- There’s something different.”

“Okay.” Eddie laughed, taking another sip. “You wanna elaborate?”

“I think you know.” he responded, observing Eddie carefully. Buck was too good at reading him, Eddie had no chance to hide anything.

“Do you?” Eddie asked quietly. The way Buck was looking at him right now, his eyes bright and full of… wonder, hope, maybe? It was making Eddie feel at the same time unsure and confident. 

“I’m not sure. I think so.” he licked his lips and swallowed audibly. “I hope so.” he whispered.

“Uh-” Eddie took another few sips of his beer. “Okay.” he murmured, putting his almost empty beer bottle on the counter behind him. “So-” His heart was beating so fast and loud, he was sure Buck could probably hear it. 

He had no idea what he was doing, he moved away from the counter as if on autopilot. It only took him one step to be right in front of Buck, and in that short amount of time so many things went through his head. He thought about Buck and the way he was looking at Eddie right now, and how Buck just fit in their lives so perfectly. He thought about their friendship and how he didn’t want to ruin that, and about the stupid crush he developed recently, and all the things he discovered about himself in the past few months – including the fact that he was bisexual, apparently. And most of all, he thought about the thing he was afraid to admit to himself, because he was sure nothing could’ve ever come of it, and, again, he really didn’t want to ruin what they had. So in those few seconds he allowed himself to think about how much he cared for Buck, how they were already a family, and apparently Eddie was also stupidly attracted to him. He could finally admit that what he felt for Buck was much more than just friendship. 

He exhaled shakily as he approached Buck, who looked hopeful and surprised. And as Eddie looked into his eyes, he felt his own lips curl into a fond smile. He was so in love with this guy. Just thinking about it made him feel much lighter, as if carrying it for God knows how long was weighing on him. In that moment, without any verbal conversation, just looking at each other, Eddie knew that Buck felt the exact same way. He had no idea how he never noticed that before. They’d always been able to understand each other without words, after all.

“Evan.” Eddie whispered, slowly bringing his shaking hands up to cup Buck’s beautiful, though still surprised, face. He was towering over him for once, as Buck was still sitting on the table. “I’m going to kiss you now, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah.” Buck breathed. “Yeah, that’s-” he didn’t finish, as Eddie leaned in, and Buck met him halfway.

If Eddie thought that admitting his feelings to himself felt good, the kiss made him feel as if he could finally breathe, not having realized how hard it was until now. He felt lighter than air, especially when he felt Buck’s arms wrap around his waist. As soon as their lips touched, all the worry and nerves just disappeared, leaving space for only pure happiness and love. It was slow, soft and tentative at the beginning, just letting that moment last. Then, Buck brought Eddie closer, moving one hand to the back of his head, and opened his lips, deepening the kiss. It was still sweet and unhurried, they took their time to just learn and explore each other. 

He didn’t know how long they were just lazily making out, with Buck sitting on the table, Eddie basically between his legs, gently cradling Buck’s face. It was so surreal, and Eddie felt so genuinely happy, happier than he’d been in… a long fucking while. He couldn’t help a small giggle that escaped his mouth, and he felt Buck smile against his lips. That broke the kiss, but neither of them pulled away. They just stayed there, leaning their foreheads against each other’s, while Eddie’s heart was doing somersaults.

“How did we get here?” he asked, laughing lightly, a bit dazed. Both of Buck’s arms were around his waist again, and honestly, if he hadn’t been holding Eddie like that, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep upright. He was dizzy with all the emotions.

“You were acting weird.” Buck explained with a grin, pulling away a bit to look at Eddie, and, oh man, his expression made Eddie melt and his breath catch in his throat. Buck looked at him as if he was the only thing in the universe that mattered at the moment. It was overwhelming.

“Weird how?” Eddie asked again, smiling with amusement.

“I noticed the longing looks, and fond smiles, and all the touches that were more, uh, affectionate than normal.” he shrugged. “And then there was the very obvious flirting, too.”

“Was there?” Eddie frowned in confusion.

“Cute like you?” Buck raised his eyebrow. He had a point. And that’s just today’s example, Eddie knew for a fact there were more. He only spent hours overthinking all of it afterwards, and even bringing it up in therapy once. But then he hadn’t been ready to admit what it all meant. He was now, though.

“Okay, maybe.” Eddie rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t conscious, though. And hey, it’s effective.” he couldn’t help himself, he leaned in once again to quickly press his lips against Buck’s once more.

“Mhm.” Buck hummed into the kiss. “I can’t believe this is happening.” he whispered, looking into Eddie’s eyes again. 

“Me neither.” he ran his hands through Buck’s hair. “I just-” he sighed. “I love you.” it slipped out of his mouth almost involuntarily and quietly, but still confidently. He was worried only for a second that it’s too soon – they literally just had their first kiss, it would be too soon with anyone else. But it was Buck, and they’d known each other for years, they were best friends and a family, and he knew it wasn’t too soon, and he knew that Buck felt the same. He might have seen that Eddie felt this way for months, actually. Apparently he was even more observant than Eddie gave him credit for. Or maybe Eddie was just that obvious. Or both.

“I know.” Buck’s smile widened. Eddie rolled his eyes again, but he just could not stop smiling either. He was so enamored with this guy. “I love you too, Eds.” he added earnestly. Eddie’s heart fluttered at the words. 

He felt as if all the emotions, all that love, excitement, and pure joy, were just pouring out of him, after not being aware and repressing them for so long. He barely knew what to do with himself now. So, obviously, he went in for another kiss. He already felt addicted to kissing Buck. He’d never get tired of it. If he could, he’d stay in that moment forever. He completely lost himself in Buck, in this moment, and for once in his life didn’t worry about anything else.

“Hey, Eddie.” Buck broke the kiss this time, a playful smile on his lips. “As much as I’d like to stay here and keep doing that,” he leaned away to look at the clock. “It’s getting late. So we should probably go hang out with Chris before he goes to sleep, and then, after we tuck him in, we can stay up and talk. Or, you know.” he kissed Eddie once more. “Continue this. Or both.” That made sense. That was really great, actually. God, Eddie just loved how Buck always thought of Christopher first. He loved him so much he could cry. 

“Yeah. Okay.” he whispered, stealing one more kiss before moving away to let Buck stand up. They were both smiling from ear to ear, not able to hide their happiness. Eddie kind of still couldn’t believe this was happening. He and Buck were… what were they? They really did need to talk about this. But he knew now that whatever happened, now or in the future, they would always be them. Buck and Eddie. Best friends and partners, in more ways than one, apparently. He couldn’t wait for their future together.

As the kitchen door closed behind them, Eddie thought it was kind of funny. Of course they had this moment, their first kiss and feelings confession, here in the kitchen. It seemed like kitchens were a place of important conversations for them. Well, there was a reason people say that the kitchen is the heart of the home, right? 

They joined Christopher on the couch, and listened to him recap what happened in whatever cartoon he was watching up to this point. Eddie kept observing them both, Buck was asking follow-up questions, with Chris excitedly answering them, laughing while Buck made jokes. And he thought that he loved their little family so much. To think he had no idea how Buck felt, and denied how he himself felt, just mere half an hour ago. Well, he always knew that what he and Buck had was much greater and deeper than any friendship, but he never imagined, never dreamed, that he could have him this way. Sitting there with his boys, he felt happier than ever before.

[sarcastich]

read it on ao3!

Little Things

Peter woke up to the soft sound of the ocean coming from his alarm, at exactly 8 am, like any other morning. He got up and shuffled over to his ridiculously large closet in his even more ridiculously large bedroom suite -courtesy of Tony Stark to all the Avengers- with a yawn.

He picked his outfit for the day, an oversized pastel yellow sweatshirt with a cartoon bee on it, and baby blue scuffed jeans.

Peter walked over to his door and opened it, poking his head out to see if anyone else was around, but he was only greeted to an empty hallway. Leaving the door open, he headed back inside his room to finish getting ready.

He liked doing that; Having his door wide open. He knew that everyone there had gone through a hard time and well.. If anyone ever needed to talk, they’d all know his door is open to them. Literally.

He stepped out of his room ten minutes later, now with a pair of matching bee long-socks and headphones in.

Walking down the hallway, mouthing the words to his song and nodding along to the beat, he bumps into Tony, “Whoa there, kid”, he holds Peter by his shoulders, raising his eyebrows.

Peter pulls out an earbud, wincing. “Sorry Mr. Stark!”- An ad decides to blare out right that second, sounding a lot louder than his music.

Tony chuckles and crosses his arms across his chest. “C’mon, I told you to stop calling me that, Pete.”

“Right, right sorry, Tony”, He smiles and points his thumb down the hallway. “Breakfast?”

Tony shrugs and shakes his head, “Oh, I’ll just have Dum-E bring me some coffee or something.”

Peter pouts and crosses his arms like him, “You never have breakfast with the rest of us, c’mon grouchy pants, be a bit more passionate, spend some time with us-“, Peter kept going on about reasons why he should join the everyone for more meals, and Tony joined in, talking over him, “-what do you mean, be more passionate, you all live in my building, this is so insulting-“, rolling his eyes and following Peter -Not that he had much of a choice, since somewhere along his rant Peter had started tugging on Tony’s sleeve and pulling him down the hallway.

They walked into the kitchen, where Clint was leaning over the counter, checking his phone, a croissant and a mug of something hot in front of him. “Hey Clint!”, Peter chirped. The only acknowledgement he got from Barton was a single wave, and a mumble, his eyes never leaving his phone.

Steve was sitting next to Bucky on a wide couch in the open room on the other side of the kitchen counter –which was more than often used as a dining room-, a discarded newspaper beside them as Bucky pointed to something on an IPad Steve was holding, showing him how he could surf news websites instead of “-reading newspapers like a boring old man.” “Hey-!”

Bruce Banner and the Widow were nowhere to be seen.

Peter let go of Tony’s arm, his headphones forgotten around his neck, and started pulling out containers of pre-cut fruit as Tony poured out two mugs of coffee. He handed Peter one and they both sat at the other end of the counter, giving Clint some space.

Peter scrunched his nose up at his coffee and got back up, returning with a mug that was more milk and ice than coffee. Tony gave him a poker-faced look. “Oh I’m sorry, but some of us don’t like things that taste like drywall.” “Excuse me-” “You’ve been excused, now eat.”, he nudged a small bowl of berries towards Tony.

Tony looked at Peter, hand on his chest, “The audacity-”, he popped a blueberry into his mouth and his face morphed into something of happiness. “I’ve haven’t had these in so long-”, “Yeah I bet”, Peter snorted and took a sip of his coffee, (If you could call it that) and put one of his headphones back in.

An entire bowl of berries and four Spotify ads later, Tony left for the workshop, with a snarky remark and a genuine word of thanks from Peter.

Three hours later, in the middle of his workout session, a notification on Peter’s phone let him know the details about his new Spotify premium account. With a small smile and a roll of his eyes, he stepped off the treadmill that had slowed to walking speed, and patted his forehead with a soft towel.

Pulling a grey hoodie on, he fast-walked to the kitchen and pulled out a bowl of small, cut carrots from the fridge and made his way to Tony’s workshop, knowing he’d probably still be there. He and Dr. Banner were two of the very few people who had access to this room. “Knock knock”, he announced his presence in a singsong voice, thought he knew that F.R.I.D.A.Y had probably let Mr. Stark know that he’d be coming. “Hey kid”. Peter walked across the many parts and mechanical tidbits strewn across the floor and made his way to the table Tony was sitting behind.

“I come bearing gifts-”, he said as he set the carrots down on Tony’s table, -“And thanks. Seriously, I know we can’t stop you from spending money on us, but Spotify premium?” “What, the ads were annoying-” “You didn’t hear me talking, but you heard the ads-”, “Oh it’s just some silly little app anyway”, Tony replied, crunching down on a carrot piece. Peter sighed, walked around the table, and gave Tony a one-armed hug around the shoulders since he was still sitting down. “Thanks, Tony.” “Yeah yeah, get off me, kid.”, he grumbled and pat Peter’s arm, a smile growing on his face.

The rest of the day, every time Tony would finish his fruit, a new plate of snacks would show up less than fifteen minutes later, with no sign of the boy himself.

~

Six months later, just as Peter was dosing off in Tony’s their bed, in Tony’s their bedroom, he finally got to find out what his “super-secret project, no you cannot help me, and no one can know what it is”, project was.

Tony dramatically entered the room, startling Peter out of his half-asleep state, waving something around, “Oh my God, Peter, it’s finally over, Pete, old ladies do this as a hobby, a hobby, I tell you”,- rolling his eyes and dropping onto the bed. “Christ Tones, what’re you on about?”

Tony holds out what he was holding. Peter’s expression of confusion and slight annoyance instantly turns into one of adoration. “Tony-”, “No, okay I know it isn’t perfect, but you were really upset when I spoilt your bee sweater,” –He said with a smirk- “And I wanted to make you something anyway- hey hang on, why’re you crying, baby, oh n-”, Peter cut him off with a big kiss, and snatches the newly knit sweater from tony. It was a soft peach color, and had two little knit bees in front. It fit him perfectly, a little bigger than his own size, but that was Peter saw as his perfect size anyway.

He wore the sweater for four days straight before Tony made him take it off to shower.

[kevrocksicehouse]

The Worst Person in the World.

D: Joachim Trier. 

When we first see Renata Reinsve playing Julie, a medical student in Oslo who switches to studying psychology, then photography and is currently trying to become a writer, both character and actor alternate between ordinariness and luminescence. Julie is in her late twenties and her ambitious indecision is starting to resemble fecklessness. She will start a serious relationship with Aksel (Anders Danielson Lie) a comics creator fifteen years her senior and cheat on him with Eivind (Herbert Nordrum) a married barista closer to her age. She will come after some time to know herself better. It’s an ordinary story and Reinsve can look ordinary herself with a bland prettiness you might only half-notice in a crowd – until those moments when Trier points the camera in a certain way – and we really see her. 

When that happens nothing in the film is prosaic. Trier creates a romantic comedy where the restrictiveness of the genre is ignored, and the film can go anywhere. It’s like a more lyrical Annie Hall (told from Annie’s perspective). Just one example: When Julie realizes her time with Aksel is over (after a remark bemoaning a film’s adaptation of his cartoon character’s butthole) Trier stops time as she walks through a stop-motion Oslo to find Eivind. After what would ordinarily be a triumph-of-love climax, she has to break the news to Askel. He is devastated and in a long painful scene we feel his devastation through both his eyes and hers (Lie is quietly heart-rending in a poignantly generous performance). The title is almost a non-sequitur but not quite. In Triers vision anyone can be the worst or best person, the happiest or most tragic. But in this great movie’s best moments, Julie’s romantic dilemmas are the most interesting thing we could possibly be watching and Renata Rensve is the most talented actor on the planet.

In theaters now. Not streaming yet.

[maxwell-grant]

Jumping off from my previous question/suggestion, might I please ask if there are any superheroes you think would make fine Pulp Villains and any Supervillains you think would make convincing Pulp Heroes?

I'm gonna go ahead and remark that I'd personally suggest to anyone who's trying to create pulp characters inspired by superheroes (which would be probably about 90% of you who may want to do that sort of thing) to flip the script around a little. As in, don't try to create pulp analogues to the Justice League/Avengers upfront, but play around with some of the lesser-known icons and filter those through your idea of what “pulp” means (which is gonna be quite different than my own or anyone else’s). 

I’m not gonna really mention characters I’ve already talked about before like Vandal Savage or Namor, instead I’ll pick new ones and see what can be highlighted about them.

Regarding “Superheroes who could make fine/convincing Pulp Villains”, even though he’s a character I've read basically nothing on, Martian Manhunter definitely leaped out to me as an obvious option. He’s a Sci-Fi Superman who takes the first half of the name to an extreme that borders on comical, except he’s not a square-jawed white man, he’s a 1.000 year old green alien from Mars with shapeshifting powers who can look as monstrous as the artist desires. He’s the product of an advanced civilization and genetic modification, and on top of the Flying Brick powerset and shapeshifting, he also has incredibly powerful and extensive telepathic abilities, he can become invisible, phaze through matter, use telekinesis and other weird abilities. A lot of pulp stories closer to sci-fi were based around the idea of taking one of these abilities and extrapolating horrific consequences for them, and J’onn has those by the dozens. He also has an extremely mundane weakness that would allow him to be beaten by Macready with a blowtorch if that’s where the story ended.

He was also a law enforcement officer from Mars who became a police detective and it’s even right there in his name, and again, I have never read anything he’s in (I should probably pick the Orlando mini), I know he’s for all intents and purposes a generally nice man who tends to job a lot in crossovers and cartoons, but the idea of taking all those great vast and horrifying alien powers, combining all of them into a single character who also happens to be the last survivor of a doomed planet (and one who actually lived through it’s collapse), and then making that character a former cop trying to resume his work on Earth? 

That is a Pulp Supervillain begging to happen, and a particularly horrifying one at that. And hey, speaking of The Thing-

Now, Plastic Man’s potential for horror has already been explored quite a bit in some of the darker DC continuities like Injustice and DCeased, and it’s quite funny seeing a lot of these turn Plastic Man into The Thing because there were quite a handful of Wold Newton pages that ran with the idea that Macready from the original story was Doc Savage, and that the secret chemicals that Eel O’Brian was hit by that gave him his powers were actually samples of The Thing contained in one of Savage’s labs. Regardless, the idea of a former street crook suddenly gaining bizarre shapeshifting abilities that allow him to reign terror on his gangster associates could make for a great premise as a pulp crime story that veers into horror as the gangsters gradually figure out what is Eel O’Brian’s deal, and then the story can take a more tragic turn.

The thing about Jack Cole’s Plastic Man that modern takes on the character neglect is that, while Plas was a lively roguish anti-hero (arguably the first of it’s kind in comics), he’s still for intents and purposes “the straight man” (HA, right, Plastic Man being “straight”). He’s the relatively sane hero who plays off Woozy’s wackier misadventures and the imaginative madness that Jack Cole paints his adventures with, and it makes for an interesting contrast considering Plastic Man is already a weird character, having to ramp up the strangeness of the world around him so that he still remains the sane man. There are ways to twist this into something quite horrifying, even tragic for Plastic Man as he either struggles to maintain coherency, or embraces the shifting chaos the world’s spiraling into for better or worse (and definitely for the worse towards those on the receiving end of his vengeance, or even his humor).

Now, onto the flipside, regarding Supervillains that could become Pulp Heroes -

Normally I’d not mention the Batman villains here, because I already have a lot to talk about in regards to them as is, they comprise some of my favorite comic characters, but I pretty much have to make an exception for Two-Face in this topic, as not only a pretty obvious option but one with even case studies to prove it, as not only do we have The Black Bat, a 1930s costumed pulp hero with an identical origin story and several other conceptual overlaps with Batman, as well as The Whisperer, a young hotshot police commissioner who dresses up as a disfigured vigilante to kill criminals without consequence (and who’s somehow less of a maniacal asshole in his secret identity than in his regular one), but it turns out that there actually was a 1910s pulp hero called The Two-Faced Man:

Crewe was created by “Varick Vanardy,” the pseudonym of Frederic van Rensselaer Dey (Nick Carter, Doctor Quartz), and appeared in three short stories and two novels and short story collections from 1914 to 1919, beginning with “That Man Crew” (The Cavalier, Jan. 24, 1914). 

Crewe is “The Two-Faced Man.” 

He is in his forties and has gray hair and a “sharply cut and handsome profile—until one caught a view of the other side of his face and saw the almost hideous blemish that nearly covered it, and which graduated in corrugated irregularity from a delicate pink to repulsive purple.” 

Crewe is two-faced in another way. Crewe is a saloon owner in below Washington Square. But he has another identity: Birge Moreau, portraitist and socialite hanger-on. Crewe uses both his identities to solve crimes as an amateur detective.

The only person to know about both of Crewe’s identities is a police inspector who is also Crewe’s friend and who Crewe helps in pressing cases - The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heores by Jess Nevins

And speaking of obvious picks for Supervillains turned Pulp Heroes,

Assuming I even need to make a case for Kraven the Hunter other than just presenting this cropped panel from Squirrel Girl and in particular the art painted on the Kra-Van, or even just telling you to read Squirrel Girl and it’s take on “The Unhuntable Sergei” (I had no idea most of the people saying “Kraven’s arc in Squirrel Girl is as good if not better than Kraven’s Last Hunt” weren’t actually joking in the slightest and I speak as someone who has Kraven among their absolute favorite Marvel characters, it had no right being that good), I’m going to quote the brilliant Rogue’s Review from The Mindless Ones that lays down in painstaking detail why Kraven could make a killer protagonist in that horrifically over-the-top pulp fashion

One thing that strikes me writing this, is how well Kraven could hold his own comic. There’s always room for a book spotlighting a ruthless, hardcore, gentleman bastard, and Kraven’s raison d’etre makes him supremely versatile, so well suited to any genre, any environment. It’s odd that more writers haven’t jumped on the fact that in a universe where off-world travel is possible – indeed, common – a hunter like Kraven would have a field day. 

I can just imagine the opening scene – herds of weird cthuloid bat creatures grazing in the gloomy green nitrogen fields, bathed in lethal, bone splintering fog, when, suddenly, LIGHT! from above and an unholy bellowing: “CTHGRGN fthgrgnARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHGN!”

They look up in fear and then they start to run – ploughing into and over each other, tentacles flailing, as from the space-ship’s docking bay Kraven silently plummets, barely dressed for the cold, a glowing knife smothered in elder signs jammed between his teeth. 

You should have seen him one night previous, sipping alien tokay around the Captain’s table with the other guests, discussing the morning’s hunt; and the way he insulted the Skrull dignitary by forgetting himself and accidentally sporting his favourite piece of formal wear: his boiling unstable dinner-jacket of many colours, fashioned from the hide of one of the Ambassador’s super kinsmen.

Whoops!

Midway through Kraven explaining how the best way to irreparably damage a symbiote is to wait until its bonded with you and then seriously maim yourself, the Skrull decided it might be a good idea to simmer down, while his beautiful Inhuman lover hung on every word.

The deeper I get into this the more convinced I am that the MU’s hunter-killer extraordinaire wouldn’t limit himself to bloody planet Earth. And neither would he limit himself to this dimension, or universe or timeline. The guy’d be just as at home leaping, sword raised, onto the back of a T-Rex in the Savage Land, as he would be ploughing through werewolves in the graveyards of Arkham or tracking a howling Demon across Mephistopheles’ realm. 

He’d work perfectly in all these environments because he has a damn good reason to be casting a bloody swathe through them: wherever there’s big game, you’ll find Kraven.

The next choice I guess is an oddball, but not that much of an oddball if you know already what is my main frame of reference towards Marvel

I don’t think people appreciate enough that the main reason Shuma-Gorath has anything resembling a fanbase has nothing whatsoever to do with the comics he was in, but entirely because, when Capcom designers had a list of Marvel characters to pick from to work on Marvel Super Heroes, they took a look at the diet Cthulhu and went “gimme THAT one”, and then went all-in in giving the alien squid monster a funky personality along with a great stage and music and animations and all that great fighting game character stuff, and now he’s maybe the most popular Dr Strange villain along with Dormammu and Mordo, despite having ZERO film appearences or major showings in comic sagas.

Capcom's designers redefined Shuma-Gorath from a nebulous cosmic evil into a comically smug cartoon bastard who can rant about devouring all dimensions and souls horrifically while also cracking poses and zingers like “How do you expect to win a fight with only two arms?” and having dinners with Dhalsim or hosting Japanese game shows in his endings, and it kills me that none of this ever made it’s way into any depictions of the character outside of MvC. 

So that’s kinda what I’d go with. I’d take Capcom’s Shuma-Gorath, depower him a bit obviously from his canonical power, and run with the premise of his MvC3 ending where he decides that, well, if he's the unlikely savior of this pathetic planet and these wretched human dogs like him so much, and he’s clearly having a much better time here among them than he ever had drifting among the stars cealessly consuming life, then maybe he can take a break from all that eldritch business and keep up hosting the Super Monster Awesome Hour and maybe fight whatever PITIFUL villains think can take HIS planet. I mean, he’ll probably still end up destroying the planet by the end, but why not give this hero business a try?

Just until he gets his full powers back of course. 

I mean you can’t deny he DOES look pretty good in that bowtie, surely The Great Shuma-Gorath wouldn’t be so unmerciful as to deny these vile wastes of flesh something good to look at in their brief and miserable lives.

[chaoticpuff17]

Suga, We’re Going Down

part 15

masterlist

Hello, my darlings! Here’s an update for you! I’m off to work on the next part of WTCAD! and just a reminder that @chimchimsauce​ released her new book this week. Don’t forget to check it out, you can find the link in on her page. love you all!--- chaotic puff

If anyone at Jin hit Entertainment had been asked if Min Yoongi was a family man, they would have said no. Min Yoongi was a terror, a quiet one but a terror none-the-less. He was focused, driven, extremely talented, and a famous grouch. A family man was not a description anyone would have associated with him, and yet Kim Seokjin was looking at a nervous manager who was bringing forward some odd requests that the famous rapper had made. The requests included the acquisition of an apartment building and to bring him listings for modernized hanok houses in Seoul. To make this odd business even more strange, Yoongi had asked that they look into primary schools as well. Jin could understand why the poor man was confused and concerned. It was very unlike Yoongi, which was why the young CEO was on his way to talk to the artist 

The problem was to talk to the artist, he had to interrupt dance practice for the new mv, and something about interrupting Yoongi while he was holding a sword was extremely unappealing, but it had to be done. Someone had to ask about the odd requests. Jin was sure that there was some sort of perfectly reasonable explanation, and then they could all move on with their lives. 

“Hey, Yoongi!” Jin called walking into the practice room, only to be met with a dark glare from the man who was quite literally holding a sword. 

“What?” he growled incredibly displeased by the interruption. 

He was moving Y/N into her new apartment today, and Yoongi wanted to be there to help her get settled. She had insisted on doing all of the packing herself, and he knew she was back from classes already and probably hard at work packing up her small apartment. He trusted Jackson with her. He knew he would help her pack up, but that didn’t change the fact that he wanted to be the one to help her. He wanted to finish practice and get out of there as quickly as possible. If he couldn’t help her pack up the old apartment, he could still help her settle into the new one. And flowers, he was going to bring her flowers. She would enjoy that. But Jin wasn’t helping any of these plans come together any faster with his interruptions. 

“Can I talk to you for a sec?”

“No.” Yoongi grunted, brushing back his hair as he glared at his hyung. 

“It’ll just take a minute.” Jin continued on cheerily even though Yoongi was giving him a look that would have sent anyone else cowering. Yoongi sighed, setting the sword aside and going to get a drink of water as he waited for Jin to get to the point. “So one of the managers came to me saying you’d been making some odd requests.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Just wanted to make sure that everything was okay. It’s not like you to buy an apartment building, and you’re looking for a house, schools? What’s going on, Yoongi?” 

“She has a kid.” Yoongi grunted, flopping down onto the floor for a break while Jin stared at him as though he’d suddenly grown a second head. 

“Who has a what now?” 

“Y/N, she has a kid.” he repeated. “Toddler. Cute little bugger.” 

“She has… a child?” Jin repeated pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration as he tried to take in the new information. “Did you know about the kid?” 

“Found out on Saturday.” the other man shrugged, seeming remarkably unbothered especially considering the magnitude of what he’d just said. 

“And you’re buying a whole apartment building and a house because?” 

“Kid’s dad is harassing her.” 

“Okay?” Jin didn’t want to push too hard, but getting information out of the rapper could be like pulling teeth. 

“She needs a safe place to go, her and the kid.” 

“So you bought an apartment building?” Yoongi nodded. “Then what’s the house for?” 

“House is for her and the kid.”

“You said the apartment was for them.” 

“House is for all of us. Eventually.” 

Jin was dumbstruck as the implication of those words hit him with full force. Min Yoongi, the surliest son of a bitch he knew, had a family. He’d taken a sugar baby, and suddenly he had a whole family. He’d accepted another man’s child to the point he was planning a future around the kid and his mom. 

“That’s…” 

“It’s not hers.” Yoongi grunted seeing the older man’s head about to burst. “Not biologically. It’s her nephew, but he’s hers now.”

That made a little more sense to Jin. “And the birth dad is harassing them?” 

“Showed up at the park by her house without notice. Really freaked her out.” 

“She didn’t tell you about the kid?” Jin asked, sliding down next to Yoongi. He needed to sit if he was going to have this conversation. 

“She took the job to take care of him. Her family’s not in a good way.” Yoongi explained, taking another drink of water. “She was trying to protect the kid.” 

“And you’re okay with this?” 

Yoongi shrugged, thinking fondly on his angel and their kid. “She’s a good mom, and he’s a good kid.” 

Jin nodded along, still trying to wrap his mind around this. “And the kid actually likes you?” 

Yoongi scoffed, but a small smile tugged at his lips. As soon as the kid had decided that he was fine, the kid had been absolutely fascinated by him. It was painfully clear to both him and Y/N that the kid didn’t have a lot of men in his life. That was fine though. He had Yoongi now.

 “Why wouldn’t he like me?” 

“Cause you’re a grump?” Jin suggested, playfully bumping the other man’s shoulder. “Got a picture.” 

Yoongi looked at him in surprise, but he grabbed his phone pulling up a picture of Y/N and Eun Jae he had snapped on Sunday afternoon when the pair had fallen asleep on the couch for an afternoon nap after Eun Jae had run them both ragged around the penthouse playing princesses and dragons all afternoon. Eun Jae had been the brave night protecting the princess, and Yoongi had been made to be the dragon trying to steal Y/N away from her protector. Eventually the little guy had worn himself out, and the family had settled on the couch for a snack and an afternoon cartoon, before both mother and son had drifted off. Yoongi hadn’t been able to resist snapping a picture of his small family. 

“He’s a cute kid.” Jin smiled, handing the phone back to him. It was odd to see Yoongi with a family, but even if the indicators were subtle, Yoongi seemed happy. 

“Yeah.” Yoongi agreed. “He looks like his mom.” 

“So the house and looking at schools and everything, it’s all for them?”  Yoongi nodded. “Alright then.” Jin clapped, nodding resolutely. “That clears things up. When do they move into the apartment? And when do the guys and I get to meet the little guy?” 

“Y/N moves into the new apartment today. Eun Jae is going to be with her grandmother till Friday, and you idiots don’t get to meet him.” 

“What!” Jin squawked , highly offended. “Why not? We’d be awesome uncles!”

Yoongi growled under his breath. “She’s skittish about the kid, and I won’t have you idiots freaking her out.” 

“Freak her out! How could I freak her out? I’m world wide handsome, you know? And I’m great with kids!”

“Not the point, Jin.” 

“I wouldn’t freak her out!”

“She has every right to be skittish, and I get more time with my kid before you idiots start crowding in.” He huffed, bopping the other man over the head with the empty water bottle. 

“Alright, alright.” The CEO surrendered. “Congrats, man. You seem happy.” 

“I am.” 

“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off. Go help your girl get set up in that fancy building you bought for her.” 

Yoongi nodded gratefully as the older man got up from the floor complaining about old bones. He was more than ready to get out of JinHit and go see his angel. He had all sorts of surprises ready for her at the new place, some he could show her and some he couldn’t.

He had the apartment furnished for her, getting some better quality appliances and furnishings for her. His family could only have the best after all. He’d even had the kitchen stocked in preparation for the move. He’d gotten a bunch of new toys and things for the kid too.

 Those were all things that he was excited to show her, but he knew better than to tell her that he owned the building, or that he had her entire security team living in the building as well. He knew what she’d say about that. She’d argue that it was too much, that it was unneeded, but he didn’t want to take any chances with her safety or Eun Jae’s. He even had a guard keeping an eye on the kid while he was at the grandmother’s. She’d certainly have something to say about that, but she didn’t need to worry over that. Their safety was his concern now, and he’d do whatever it took to protect his angel and their kid. 

With Jin letting him leave early, Yoongi was more than ready to go see his angel. He needed a shower first, but then he was free to go help her settle in. A quick text from Jackson had told him that she was already at the new building. A text from one of the bodyguards he’d hired to look after her had told him that Kim Taehyung had also been trying to keep an eye on her- trying and failing. Yoongi wasn’t about to let him get close to his family, especially not when his relationship with his kid was still so fragile. He hadn’t even known there was a kid in the equation till a few days ago, and he didn’t need the sperm donor showing up and confusing Eun Jae on who his father was.  For now, the little boy was safe with his grandmother, who Yoongi had been reliably told was a battle axe of a woman who wouldn’t be letting any strangers or anyone from the Kim family anywhere near that little boy. 

Yoongi got to the apartment to find Y/N preoccupied stringing up a set of bumble bee lights around the living room. He’d ordered a ton of stuff for the apartment, all things that he thought would be warm and comforting for her and the kid. It was colorful and bright, and ten times better than her old apartment. It had enough space for Eun Jae to play and for Y/N to do her schoolwork all while being within the safety of a building that Yoongi owned and staffed. The front desk had been given Taehyung’s photo with strict instructions not to allow him into the building. He wasn’t getting near either of them so long as Yoongi had anything to say about it. 

“Miss, you should really let me.” Jackson fretted hovering around Y/N as she put the lights up, making sure she didn’t fall. 

“I’m fine, Jackson.” she rolled her eyes. “I am perfectly capable of  putting up some lights.” 

“You could fall!” Guessing from the harried voice of his employee, Yoongi could guess that this wasn’t the first time that Y/N had refused to let him help today. 

“I let you put up the paintings!” 

“The paintings were already here when you got here!” 

“Eh.” she shrugged. “Someone who wasn’t me put them up.” 

“Babe,” Yoongi called, startling both of them and accidentally causing her to lose her balance on the sofa as she spun around, but Jackson was quick to catch her and equally quick to set her down again and excuse himself. 

“I wasn’t expecting you.” she muttered, shuffling from foot to foot. 

“Wanted to help you move in.” he smiled, stepping forward to place a quick, soft kiss to her forehead. “How do you like the place?”

“It’s too much. We really didn’t need something this…” 

“You did.”  he cut her off, holding out the bouquet of hydrangeas. 

“They’re lovely.” she smiled, a little tiredly, but it had been a busy day for her. “Let me get these in some water. I assume that’s what the vases are for?” He smirked following after her as she moved around the apartment. “You didn’t have to furnish it. You’ve already done so much for us, more than what we agreed upon.” 

“I wanted to,” he shrugged. “Besides, we need to renegotiate the terms of the contract anyway.” 

She turned to him with wide eyes, clearly nervous by the thought of renegotiations. “Nothing bad. Eun Jae puts a new light on things. I want to make sure that you and he have everything you need, give you both some more security.” he assured her. 

“You’ve already…”

“It’s not up for discussion, angel.” her mouth clicked shut immediately as she nodded. “Don’t look so grim, babe.” he laughed, tipping her chin up. “It’s just a few little things to take Eun Jae into account.” 

“He likes you.” she sighed, letting her sling an arm over her shoulder and steer her back towards the sofa and the half hung string of lights. “There’s not a lot of people that run around with him like that.” 

A swell of pride rose up in his chest at that. “I like him. He’s a good kid.”

“It’s nothing major right? The changes to the contract?” 

“No.” he pressed a kiss to her messy hair. “Nothing major.” It was just a few things to ensure their future, nothing she needed to worry about right now.

“Thank you again, for everything.” she sighed, sinking into the sofa and curling slightly into his side. 

He hummed, tugging her in a little closer. It was cute how she thought that this was big. It was nothing in the grand scheme of things. This was just the beginning for them, and this little apartment was no place for them to raise a growing family. 

“Anything for you.” 

part 16

[jostepherjoestar]

👑Hewwu Queen 👑 is it alright if I request DIO in part 3 meeting his descendant?. Like he basically had a kid accidentally in part 1 and now he’s meeting their great grandkid who looks allot like him and seems to not be fully human. Maybe he meets them at night since their family was traveling around the world and stopped off in Egypt where he found them maybe listening to music?

Since you write for DIO, is it alright if I request that he somehow meets one of his kid after they get into some time travel shenanigans. Maybe his kid has a stand that is kinda similar to his but they aren’t confident in using it

DIO aiding his helpless descendant 

sfw / gn reader 

notes/warnings: implied assault (on your great-great grandmother)

Another case of two anons thinking alike!! It was really fun to think about this and sorry for taking so much time to get to it :o I hope you’ll still enjoy 💖✨also the pacing is strange/fast (to me), but i felt it fit with how frantic i imagine meeting Dio is

Somewhere between irking Jonathan and wishing to destroy any respectful sliver of the Joestar bloodline, Dio had his own way of indulging and spending his time. Men, women; any creature he could manipulate to his will and suck the life out of to join his dark army was welcome in his dimly lit hideout to meet their fate. The self proclaimed god that had surmounted humanity took pleasure in playing with his food; leaving them in complete darkness, literally. He’d let them suffer in silence, hearing them whimper and regret their choice to ever step foot inside the wicked monster’s palace. But it was always too late.

Except for the very night Jonathan had decided to come spoil the fun and ruin Dio’s playtime. The woman hadn’t meant anything to him, just a toy to play with and to later discard on the pile of other bodies strewn about. Was she glad to have been saved by the burly Joestar? At first yes; brought back to her senses, out of that monster’s grasp but left terribly violated. Left to carry and care for the offspring Dio would never know or care about, too busy being left to slumber in the ocean and gaining a new form from his hated ‘brother’.

Dio rose again, skulking in the shadows of dimly lit cities, looking for any and all petty humans and stand users to claim for his side. It took time and patience he didn’t know he possessed to get fully comfortable in his new body. There was always this inkling, a nagging sonar that kept getting louder and louder, not much unlike his connection to the new generation of Joestars. It grasped at his thoughts, kept him from any semblance of peace of mind -as much as he could acquire it- and there seemed to be no way of silencing it. He couldn’t see a clear picture; it was just nothing but an annoying sense of something being near.

He had searched for weeks like a bloodhound hot on a trail, irritated that he of all people, nay creations, was being made to follow and be obedient to the terrible nagging. It angered him greatly and only when he found a mere youngster sitting on a bench, you, a simple looking human, did it boil over. Sat with your walkman resting next to you on the wooden seating, head bopping along to your newest cassette in the middle of the night. Completely lost in the song you’d been drumming along to with your fingers. Dio was furious but knew better than to strike before investigating, he needed answers and he needed them now.

As he got closer to you, sneaking from behind, he noticed an immediate shift. You were no longer alone. An image, a blur that became clearer and steadier and more live-like as each second passed; posing defensively, staring down Dio with a fire in your eyes not much unlike the tall blonde’s. Not for a moment does he fear for his safety. Even though The World is a newly acquired power it could easily wipe out a scrawny kid without even hitching a breath. He smirks, eyes cast over in shadow by the dim street light as he hears you pause your cassette player.

“Oh? Was I disturbing you?’ he mocks in a smirk, catching the way your eyes glint and the vaguely familiar image you awaken in him. Just like before he’s left to figure out who this annoying hazy memory is. His voice shivers down your very being, goosebumps taking over your skin; not sure if you had already missed your chance to run. It was like his glare fixated you in place, finger still resting on the pause button of your player while the other reached up to remove the flimsy headphones.

“You…” you barely get out the word. The accusatory tone you had tried to convey had watered down to a whimper. You had felt the connection too, something nagging at your soul and stringing you along until you’d finally found the source. “Me? Hah! No, you.” Dio slid closer, his steps so quiet and calculated that even though you couldn’t take your eyes off of him you swore it seemed like he floated. You swallowed thickly, the huge figure that excluded an aura so menacing only a meter away from you.

“So. Who are you and why was it so disgustingly annoying to find you?” he joked impertinently, amused by the way you clenched your jaw at his remark. “I could ask you the same.” a brave little spark still smouldering inside. “DIO. Now don’t make me ask again, you’re making me dreadfully inpatient.” He hadn’t felt the need to kill you, at least not yet. Dio was truly curious about your answer but by the looks of it you really didn’t seem to know all that much.

You begrudgingly gave him your name, in need of some answers yourself. The sound of your name didn’t ring a single bell, not a tick, not a clank. Nothing. Not a single step further to knowing anything. “Well it seems like you do have a stand. Maybe you possess a great power that might be useful to me.” that wicked grin on his face told you a little too much of his motivations. He reminded you of those Saturday morning cartoon villains. But still you felt compelled to listen, ignoring every single red flag.  

Deciding to humour him you give out your stand’s name. “Trust me, we can’t really do much.” you huffed. You’ve only obtained your stand recently and honestly, it has been pretty shitty so far. You didn’t know exactly what it could do, it was just there. Any time you felt stressed or in danger it did come to your aid but it remained awfully docile. Their presence comforted you but you just knew it was capable of so much more.

“Are you a vampire?” The sudden question came out more surprised than Dio had hoped to let on. He regained his posture, opting to slide next to you on the bench with a swift move. There was something… off about the way you carried yourself that reminded him of himself and the other vampires he’d created. The question stunned you, your eyes that had already been widened in shock only growing more so. The way he had changed the entire conversation that had barely earned its start urged you to think quickly. “I don’t know.” you mumbled demurely. You really didn’t know. So many weird things had been happening to you lately that you being a vampire would explain a lot.

Your answer seemed to change the imposing man’s gaze and expression. It hardened a bit, his grin now slowly diminishing into a straighter line and his pointed brows resting down at a more natural angle. Even in this low light his image felt so familiar, like you were already supposed to know who he was but the memory remained hidden. Locked away for your safety. “You should feed. And don’t go out in daylight anymore.” Dio paused for a second. “Strange...” He pondered to himself out loud. He’s only seen a few cases like this, vampiric genes passed down through generations. For some reason he pitied you, as much as he could muster it. The unknown bond you shared felt too unusual to write off.

“What am I supposed to do?” you felt tears prick your eyes, trying your best to remain strong but you’ve been so tired. You couldn't confide in anyone, not about this. Tears started rolling, falling in thick streams down your cheeks and dropping onto your lap. Here you were, crying to a stranger named Dio about being a vampire and having weird powers. A bizarre twist of fate.

“First of all, stop crying. Then, widen your stance when you’re about to fight someone. I could have easily knocked you down with that flimsy imitation. Fix your posture while you’re at it. Call out your stand again.” He rattled off his demands quickly and flatly. Was he helping you? They were barbed complaints but it seemed like he actually wanted to aid you in whatever it was you were going through. You sniffled, wiping at your cheeks. You felt like a kid again; asking your parent for any reassurance when life knocked you down.

Dio actually offered a lot of viable advice, telling you about techniques to silence your steps, how to take someone down easily, to feed on humans within an inch of their life. You had asked him, just in case. You weren’t planning on killing anyone; a comment which made him scoff. That intimidating impression and overall feeling of having to bend to his will had lessened the more you talked to the blonde. He casually sat with you for what felt like hours. He hadn’t divulged into his own history, instead asking you about yours. He was still trying to figure out what this weird pull was.

“No one in your family has experienced anything like this before? Hmph. It seems to have skipped multiple generations then.” he was asking about your great grandmother and all the others that came before you. It could have occurred to them but you would have never known. “My family did come from England, though. My great-great grandmother fled in a hurry. We don’t really know why, Windknight’s Lot seems like an unusual place to frantically run from.” As soon as the small town’s name left your lips everything fell into place for Dio. His grin grew again, satisfied to finally know your connection to him.

Family.

One he made for himself, by accident, by a relation created on his own devious whim. Not that horrible Joestar bunch that kept ruining his fun or his horrible father that was but a faint minuscule memory. Something he did. It brought him even more satisfaction to know how perfectly in place it felt for you to be the one to develop these powers at the perfect time. His mind could have exploded with possibilities; a thousand ways to make you join his side. But it didn’t, he wasn’t sure that’s what he wanted yet. And he surely wasn’t going to tell you of your bond either, lest you get attached too quickly.

As you finished up and the early signs of a rising sun were starting to make itself known on the horizon, you were saying your goodbye’s. “Thank you for helping me. Truly, I- I don’t know how I-” you weren’t allowed to finish your earnest thanks. Dio knew you meant it, one of the only few truly grateful acknowledgements he’s ever received. “I’ll be taking over the world in a few months. If you feel so inclined to join, you know where to find me.” His lips curled into a smirk and he was making his move to leave you behind, alone on the bench again. Left to scramble for your stuff to try and stop him but he was already out of sight. “WAIT! I don’t know where to find you! You never told me!” you yelled into the empty streets, heart thumping out of your chest, hoping this wasn’t just a very elaborate dream you were caught in.

“Trust your instincts.” The voice felt incredibly close but so far away, like catching a falling snowflake; as soon as you grasped it, it just melted away.

[personasintro]

My Tiny Secret | 22; Look At Us Now (FINAL)

𝑴𝒚 𝑻𝒊𝒏𝒚 𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕 𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒃𝒍𝒆 | 22; Look At Us Now (FINAL)

⏤𝒔𝒚𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒔𝒊𝒔; Pretty face doesn’t make it up for an ugly personality. And Kim Seokjin is the perfect proof of that.

⏤𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈: seokjin x reader

⏤𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: angst, smut, fluff, mistress au, unexpected pregnancy au

⏤𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔: strong language

⏤> 𝒇𝒊𝒄 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒙

a/n: this was supposed to be posted on my birthday, as my gift for you but unfortunately I wasn't able to finish it in time. anyway, hope you'll enjoy this! all I wanted to say is written at the end of the chapter!

His back meets the backrest of the black leather chair as he stretches his arms above his head, a sigh of satisfaction fills the empty office from the feeling of his tensed muscles finally relaxing. When he opens his eyes, realizing he closed them in the first place, he's met with the frame picture decorating the glass desk. Just a few seconds staring at it, and his lips twitch into a small smile.

The sight of his son holding a football ball, enveloping it with his delicate arms, is enough to make his day and night lighter, no matter how many times he has found himself staring at it. It's been there for at least year, remembering that day clearly.

He took Yoojin and you to a huge football stadium, after finding out his son's interest in the typical boyish sport. It's quite funny because when Seokjin was little, he used to love football. Unfortunately, he had no one to take him to football stadium or even a single football pitch. At least not until he was old enough to go to the nearest football pitch where he found a few friends.

But even with those sad memories of his failed childhood, it makes him want to do all those things for his son. He doesn't want him to feel lonely, left out and unloved. It's something he felt ever since he has seen him through the hospital glass, wrapped in a white blanket, without properly realizing or acknowledging it.

His trail of thoughts is interrupted by his phone beeping with an incoming call, your name flashing on the screen. Not wasting a second, he reaches towards the device, swiping his thumb across the screen before he accepts the call.

“Hey,” he breathes out, making himself known as he hears Yoojin on the other line, telling you something as you shush him.

“Pumpkin, wait a minute, I need to speak to daddy,” you tell your son, while Seokjin's ears perk up in interest but he doesn't hear anything coming from Yoojin in response. “Sorry about that. He's being wild today.” you chuckle, a faint sound of television going on can be heard.

“Is he giving you a trouble?” he asks, chuckling at the idea of the three year old making your day adventurous.

“Nah, nothing I can't handle.” you grin, and it's not something Seokjin can see from the other line of the call, but he can hear it in your voice.

“I don't doubt it.” he jokes, grinning as he licks his lips.

“I've handled his father, I think I can handle him just fine.” you tease, earning another set of chuckles from Seokjin who finds your remark rather amusing.

He knows you're just teasing, he got used to it after such a long time of the two of you spending time together. He allows himself to laugh, finding your teasing and jokes funny, even though sometimes, it annoys him to the point his brows start to twitch. But it only makes you laugh even more and fuck, he never thought someone's laugh could be so pleasant to his ears.

“Hmm, I'm sure about it.” he hums, biting into his lower lip to hide the smile that's settled on his face.

If you were here and saw him, you'd tease him about it until the tip of his ears get red. It's one of your specialties to annoy him, often leading him to whine like a little boy.

A little cough coming from your mouth shakes off his thoughts, fully focusing on your voice.

The rustling sound is followed with your voice, as you speak once again. “Are you still coming tonight?”

“Yeah, of course. I told you I would, didn't I?” he says, checking the time on his silver watch. If he wants to be on time, he should head to your place any minute.

“You did,” He can hear the smile in your voice, “But if you're busy or tired, maybe I could call Hobi and ask him if he can babysit. I totally understand if you want your Friday evening free.”

“Y/N,” he sighs, shutting you up straight away. “I told you I don't have any issue with babysitting Yoojin. I'm heading now, be there in ten.” he says, dismissing your idea right away.

He is tired, of course he is. But he barely got to spend some time with Yoojin this week, he misses the little guy so much.

“Okay.” you murmur, responding before he clicks on the red button, canceling the call.

The ride to your apartment building is quiet and peaceful, escorted with the beautiful lights of numerous buildings. It's a random thought, but he finally gets the appreciation of Seoul's nighttime appearance. He remembers seeing you fascinated by it every time he drove you home, or maybe it was your need to stare out of the window rather than him seeing the side of your face. Whenever you were upset about something he did, you'd shut him off completely and ignored him.

He was pretty subtle with the observing, especially when it involved you.

However, as soon as he stands up in front of your front door – the key you gave him itching in his pocket but he decides not to use it – and knocks firmly enough for you to hear, he's not hiding his observing eyes. How can he, when you look completely dress up in burgundy thigh dress with an off-shoulder neckline, showing off your collarbones. Your hair is darker than it used to be when he met you, but he likes it. It brings out the color of your eyes just perfect. Your make-up is soft, nothing too fancy or too eye-catching, just enough to make your eyes pop better.

Grabbing the doorknob tightly, you set your lips into a tight smile, when you see him eyeing you. Is it too much?

He stares at the silver necklace with a 'Y' letter that lays between your collarbones, before he manages to breathe out a brief greeting. You greet him back, inviting him in as you make your way into the living room. He can't help but stare at you, even as he's taking off his shoes and suit jacket, hanging it on the rack.

All he can see is you, slowly following you into the warmth of your home, hearing a distant sounds of a cartoon that's playing on TV.

“Daddy!”

He whips his head to the sound of cheerful Yoojin that runs towards him, ready to jump into his father's arms. He manages to catch him just in time, met with the scent of fabric softener that you use. It sets a feeling of peace and relax inside of you, because it smells like home.

“Hey, pumpkin.” he greets him, meeting his son's cheerful eyes as his small arms are wrapped around Seokjin's neck, staring at him.

He giggles at the nickname, even more when Seokjin pokes his cheek.

From the corner of his eyes, he sees you pacing around the room, a purse clutched in your arms as you place your phone inside of it.

Looking around the room, you make sure you don't forget anything important, until you're met with Seokjin's dark brown eyes staring right back at you. Yoojin starts to blabber about his day, mentioning something about his new friend in the kindergarten and fuck, he feels like the worst father for not listening to him. All he can see is you, tucking a strand of hair that's styled in a huge wave behind your ear. He gulps, averting his sight on Yoojin instead, who just runs towards the couch and plops himself there.

“Do I look okay?” you ask sheepishly, staring down at yourself as if to check yourself, but the only reason behind that is, that you don't have to stare into Seokjin's eyes.

They're too intense to look at, especially when your heart hammers dangerously fast.

“You look good,” he coughs, “Any special occasion?” He can't help but ask, knowing what your answer might be.

He babysat Yoojin couple of times, it's nothing new. It was usually just you working later than usual, or you meeting some of your friends and colleagues in the evenings. It wasn't anything often, not that he minded babysitting his own son. Not at alone. He loves spending his free time with him, especially when he's not living with the two of you. It all makes it more precious, even though you've told him multiple times he can come around anytime he wants, or take Yoojin somewhere.

He has never said it out loud, but he's glad you're hanging out with your friends. Knowing how much of your time you had dedicated to raise Yoojin and fully dedicated yourself into the role of mother – to the point you barely hung out with anyone – he knows you deserve it.

“Just a date.” you respond, chuckling as he raises his brows in surprise.

The curiosity kicks right in, a fair amount of questions about your date invades his mind, but he swallows it down with a weird twitch of his lips. It's weird how awkward the atmosphere just got, even though there's nothing wrong with you going on a date.

There's nothing romantic going on between you two, since you and him have decided to focus on raising Yoojin together, even though there were a lot of times of intense staring or need to touch each other. No matter how this need is powerful and annoying, there's no love in that. Some part of you loves him, of course you do. He's your son's father but you're not sure whether you fell in love with him. You don't think so, you would know.

The same thing happens to him.

There will always be some part of him that wants you to himself, but he knows it's not healthy. It's just a greedy feeling caused by the connection he feels towards you. You're not his and he's not yours. Shockingly, he's not as surprised as someone would've guessed. He knew this would happen one day but still, he can't believe it's happening now.

“I should go,” you murmur, walking towards him as he still keeps hovering over you, even though you're wearing a pair of heels. “If anything happens, just text me. I've got my phone with me.” you inform him, like every time he's about to look after Yoojin.

You're aware that he'll manage, knowing he's reliable, but you still feel the need to tell him that.

He chuckles, thinking the same thing like you. “We'll be alright.” he assures you, causing you to nod but you don't walk away just yet.

Cocking his head at you in confusion, you nibble on your bottom lip.

“Why does this feel so weird?” you almost whisper, looking down to the floor, not having the courage to look him in the eyes.

Slowly, he cups your chin with his fingers before he tilts your head up, your eyes meeting right away. “What? Going on a date?” he chuckles again, although there's nothing amusing about it.

You hesitate before he gets a slow nod from you. Cupping your cheek, you lean into the warmth of his palm automatically, growing embarrassed but you don't move away.

“Just be yourself,” he decides to say, gently caressing your cheekbones. “Maybe don't have an attitude and sharp tongue on your first date.” he says, his tone light and teasing as you roll your eyes before you nudge his firm chest.

He refers to the first time he met you. It brings nostalgia almost right away but you still find his remark amusing as you laugh. His hand falls from your cheek, cold replacing the warmth he left there, while you try not to show your disappointment too much. He doesn't want to cross any lines, keeping his distance after the moment of weakness, and you respect that. That's what the two of you settled on.

Deciding it's time to go, you walk up to Yoojin who's completely unaware of situation, eyes staring at the cartoon he chose to watch.

“Pumpkin, give mummy a kiss. Daddy will put you to bed, okay?”

He only nods, eyes still boring into the huge screen, even as he messily kisses you into the corner of your mouth, causing you to snort.

The way to the front door, with Seokjin trailing behind you, while you tell him all the instructions about his bed time. You know no matter how many times you tell him he shouldn't be watching cartoons past his bedtime, you're aware of Seokjin letting him to do so anyway. He's just too soft whenever it comes to Yoojin. For the tenth time, he assures you that he knows and opens the door from you, as you wave at him for the last time.

When he sees your back, heels clicking against the marble floor in the hallway, he finally closes the door and goes back to Yoojin. Plopping onto the couch, he ruffles his hair but the kid barely reacts.

“Mummy looked pretty, didn't she?” he asks, not particularly waiting for any response.

“So pretty.” Yoojin says, looking at his father which manages to muster a gentle smile, wondering if the little boy can see right through him.

But he giggles before he pays attention to the television again, laughing at some funny scene. He keeps staring at him, seeing nothing but the resemblance between you and him. He has your smile and as he keeps looking at his son, he sees nothing but you. Shaking his head, he focuses his attention to Toy Story playing on the television, a cartoon Yoojin has seen hundred times.

But even then, his mind still drifts to you, no matter how loud Yoojin's laugh is.

It's weird.

Being out without Yoojin, not experiencing his wild giggles or tantrums. It feels weirdly calm, not having to check on him every few seconds but still, you miss him. But that's not the only thing that makes you feel out of place.

It's been a long time since you were on a date.

The only man you've spent your free time with was Seokjin, when the two of you were hooking up. Is that even the right term? Anyway, that can be hardly said as a date.

“Was the food good?” Your date asks, staring at you with big eyes.

It makes you smile at him, appreciating how thoughtful and caring he has been for the whole night, before you assure him the food was perfect. He carefully chose one of the best restaurants nearby, your eyes nearly popped out at the prices. No matter how many times you've assured him you're fine with whatever he plans, he still wanted to show you he doesn't care about money. It's cheesy, yet thoughtful of him.

“I didn't know where to take you. I remember you mentioning something about loving steaks, so I found this place on the internet. I don't usually go to fancy restaurants, but I like it here.” he explains, reaching for the glass of water.

He's the driver tonight, making sure he's the one taking you home instead of calling you a cab. You wish you could drink champagne together, maybe it'd help with his nervous fidgeting every now and then. It's cute. He's cute for acting so nervous, even though he knows you. You've never seen him being so shy, yet manly and attentive.

“I like it here. But you didn't have to spend so much money.” you tell him softly, seeing him already waving his hand at you.

“I know, but you deserve it.” he says, smirking when he sees you shyly reaching for the glass of champagne as you hide your grin.

“Thank you,” you smile, “I never thought you liked me. Well, at least not this way. I thought you were always just friendly.”

“I did and I was, but before I had the courage to ask you out, you were snatched by that rich man.” he fakes irritation, teasing tone in his voice as you laugh.

“Taehyung!” you scold him, laughing right after.

He joins you, grinning at you.

Your meeting was completely unplanned and funnily enough, it happened in the coffee shop you both worked at. You decided to grab a coffee when you took Yoojin to a nearby playground, knowing you'll need some caffeine. The shock when your name left Taehyung's mouth is still clear to this day. The first sight of him, after such a long time of not seeing him, you were left speechless. He has that effect on you right now.

His shoulders got broader and he looks more masculine, but he still remained that handsome and funny man you remember. You're not an idiot, you've noticed the stares of women he was receiving when you walked towards your table.

When you were getting a coffee, he noticed Yoojin straight away as he stood next to you. He talked to him and surprisingly, Yoojin was very talkative. He giggled, talked to Taehyung about the most random stuff and they instantly clicked off. Which again, is a surprise because Yoojin tends to be very cautious with strangers. A few innocent moments of getting a coffee and random hangouts at kids' playground, Taehyung had the guts to ask you out. And here you are.

It's different and weird, but nice.

When dessert time comes, your phone blinks with a notification and you apologize for the sudden interruption, even though you were just enjoying the dessert. Taehyung just waves you off with a soft smile, silently telling you it's absolutely okay. He knows the reason behind your phone placed on the table is purely because of Yoojin.

[9:41pm] hobi: how's the date??

You almost snort at the message, knowing Hoseok just can't wait to call you and make you spill all the details about your date. He even called you before Seokjin came to your place, making sure he FaceTimed you to check your outfit and make-up.

[9:42pm] great!

His message comes right away.

[9:42pm] hobi: that's it? care to elaborate??

[9:42pm] i'm on a date hobi, talk to you later

[9:43pm] hobi: fine, use protection this time

You almost choke, cheeks burning at his message before you lock your phone. Taehyung notices your flashed face, asking you if you're alright and you quickly assure him Hoseok is just being inappropriate. He laughs, not questioning his messages but from the little smirk, you can see he gets the picture.

When your phone beeps with another notification, you groan and pick up your phone again, ready to tell your best friend to kindly fuck off. But the message isn't from Hoseok, other than laughing emojis he sent you. It's Seokjin who sent you a picture and when you open it, you smile right away. It's photo of them, laying on the couch. Yoojin is showing his teeth, grinning at the camera while he holds his plushy of soccer ball that Seokjin got him. His father simply smiles at the camera, but you find yourself staring at his dark eyes longer than you should.

[9:46pm] miss you

You text him, a word 'read' on the screen pops right away. Bubbles appear, signaling he's texting you back.

[9:46pm] seokjin: both of us?

Your heart flatters as soon as you read his message, your toes curling with a weird feeling in your chest. Biting your lower lip, you glance at Taehyung who seems to be busy eating his dessert to notice your sudden change of expression.

Thank fuck.

Your fingers hover over the keyboard for a few seconds before you start typing.

[9:47pm] yes

It's a simple word, yet it leaves you excited and nervous at the same time. If you weren't in a restaurant, you'd probably squeal out loud.

[9:48 pm] seokjin: then come home

It leaves you guilty, torn between what you should do. If you leave right now, you'd feel bad for Taehyung because he doesn't deserve it and you're enjoying your date. At the same time, it doesn't feel fair towards him. You're on a date, texting with the father of your child that you miss him.

Locking the phone, you chat with Taehyung for a few minutes until you're both done eating.

“Wanna go home?” he asks, paying the bill before the two of you walk out of the restaurant.

“Yes, please.” you answer, probably too quickly for your liking but thankfully, Taehyung just chuckles and opens the car's door for you.

He doesn't kiss you when he drives you home, but he gives you a very warm hug and soft kiss into your hair. He smells nice and you enjoy his hug, feeling sad when he pulls away. After he makes sure you're inside of your apartment building, you watch him driving off through the glass door before you make your way home.

There's darkness, a muffled sound of television in the background which creates the only illumination in the living room. When you take off your heels you go there, following the sounds and lightening. Seokjin's laying on the couch, eyes staring at the screen but you notice him drifting off before he notices you.

“Hey,” he rasps out, looking at you as you greet him back.

“Hi,” you smile, “Where's Yoojin?”

“Sleepin'.” he responds, pointing towards the door of his bedroom.

He informs you he fell asleep quite early, they watched a few cartoons and played some games before he went to sleep.

Staring at Seokjin, your hands twitch at your sides as you nibble on your bottom lip. As if Seokjin could read your mind, he chuckles and makes some space for you.

“Come here.” he calls out to you, and you don't hesitate, laying next to him.

He pulls you closer, arm carefully placed above your head as he tries not to overstep any boundaries. This is not the first time the two of you are in this position. You're cuddling, barely touching each other with your hands, but just feeling his presence and warmth is enough for you.

“How was the date?” he asks silently as you plop your hands over your stomach.

“Good, he is very nice.” you murmur.

“That's... good,” you hear him swallow, “You deserve someone who's going to cherish you.”

It's almost funny how your heart skips a beat, although you've heard him being this direct and honest a few times. He opens up much more these days, saying stuff that makes your head spin and heart flutter with each word, even though he's not swooning all over you. Maybe that's what you want for him. Well, not to swoon over you but add a little bit more feelings to his words. He says it as a fact and a friend.

“Thanks.” That's all you can say. You fear he's going to hear the tremble in your voice.

“I know I wasn't treating you right, not the way you deserved. I was harsh all the time.”

You've had this conversation a couple of months ago. The night when Yoojin fell asleep after a long day and you opened a bottle of red wine. You didn't get drunk, not when there's your son sleeping in the next room. But the red liquid brought much more honest and intimate conversation than you've ever expected.

Because you can already hear the regret in his voice, you decide to stop him.

“Seokjin--”

“And I hope someone else can treat you better.”

“I wasn't innocent in that too, you know that,” You ignore his previous word, focusing on the topic that doesn't involve someone else in your life.

There are so many things, fucked up things, you both did. He needs to know that. And as many times as you told him that, he still blames himself for everything. He bursts sometimes, spitting remarks when he's frustrated but the difference this time is, that he apologizes right after. You can always see the regret in his eyes, voice filled with apology.

Before he can react, a soft whisper comes out of your mouth.

“I hope you'll find someone who's going to love you.”

You've no idea why it hurts when you say that. You want him to find someone, someone who will bring the light inside of him. It'd be interesting to see him being in love.

“Yeah,” he breathes out a chuckle, almost amused and sarcastic.

“Maybe you'll have another baby. It wouldn't be with your fling this time.” you try to joke, breathing in relief when he chuckles in a response.

“I don't think so. No more babies.”

“Why? You're amazing father to Yoojin.” you laugh, silencing yourself since you don't want to wake up your son.

“Maybe, if you'll be the one who carries them.” he teases, nudging you with his shoulder.

This time, you're glad for the lack of lightening in the room as you blush but giggle at his words. He's joking, you know that. He has mentioned not wanting to have more kids couple of times.

Yawning, Seokjin looks at you as you sheepishly grin at him.

“I'm gonna head to the bed. Argh, I'm too lazy to take a shower.” you groan, slowly sitting up. He sits up as well, rubbing his eyes as he yawns too.

“Are you staying?” you ask quietly, slowly poking your inner cheek with a tongue.

“I don't know.” he answers.

You can hear the uncertainty in his voice, like every night he's about to stay over. He has his huge condo he bought after he divorced his ex wife, yet he mostly spends his time here. Not that you mind it. You enjoy his presence, his stack of shirts and boxers in one of your drawers are the perfect proof of it.

“Come on, my bed is big enough for the both of us.”

It should be weird for the two of you sleeping in the same bed, but it's not. It's not unfamiliar, even though it doesn't happen that often.

“Are you sure?” He sounds unsure, cocking his head to the side.

The right side of his hair is rustled and you bite onto your lower lip to prevent a giggle escaping your lips.

“Or you can stay on the couch. But I know it's not as comfortable as my bed is. Your choice.” you tell him, turning around as you make your way towards the bathroom.

When you're done with taking a shower, you walk into your bedroom just to find him laying in your bad. On the same left side like he always does, causing you to smile.

You lay on the bed, wondering if he is asleep since there's barely any sound indicating that he might be awake. Your back is turned to him, pushing away the urge to cuddle up to him, even though you've never properly cuddled.

Just as your eyes are slowly closing, mind already drifting away before you hear his soft but raspy voice.

“Goodnight.”

You smile into your pillow, opening your mouth.

“Goodnight.”

With the peaceful silence and having that someone next to you, falling asleep is easier and quicker than ever before. Your mind and dreams are already filled with two men, with no idea how your heart truly feels about them.

No matter what, you need to figure it out.

author's note: Wow. Can you believe this? The end. The actual end of My Tiny Secret, a drabble series that were supposed to be a small drabble I randomly came up with. Then I wrote the second part which could've been read separately. But the reactions were so supportive and amazing, that I've decided to make it into a full drabble series. To be honest, I've never thought it'd have 22 chapters in total, I was thinking more of like maybe 10 chapters. But as I was writing it, a lot of ideas came up to my mind and all your amazing responses helped so much! I had to stop myself couple of times from creating another 'drama' or lead the storyline to a complete different level, because I had so much content to work with. I had to remind myself that this is supposed to be small/ less complicated than my other series. However, I love how we could see the characters' development and realistic scenarios. Reading all your theories, thoughts and reviews have brought so many smiles on my face and it's safe to say, that MTS became this big because of you! Your constant sweet messages motivated me so much that I never wanted it to end. But every story ends and I know so many of you wanted the ending to be them ending together or the complete opposite. I don't even know when I realized and knew what ending I want, but during writing their story it came to the point that I knew I wanted it to be them co-parenting. I knew it from the beginning that they won't stay together. There is a really thin line between love or simple attraction. No matter what the ending is, I hope you've enjoyed this journey with me. Thank you everyone for reading & being so supportive as always. I'm definitely going to miss my inbox being full of MTS asks, but I can't wait for you to read the rest of my stories I'm preparing for you! Again, thank you & I love you. Can't wait to read all your thoughts/asks about MTS for the last time!