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#this is why i stopped using my desktop to write
stephaniedola · 1 year
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i admit that having ublock has increased the extent to which i feel good on the internet but i still have been sitting here wasting a lot of my life lately so like at what cost
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honeydjarin · 2 years
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Tumblr only lets me click on some links and it’s seemingly random which ones work. Does anyone else have this problem?
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fireflyinks · 2 months
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oh my god i can’t stop thinking about riding hamzah’s thighs .. is there anyway u can incorporate that into a fic 🙏
need your attention
hamzah x reader
a/n : okay this is a little 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 so beware, but tysm for this request i LOVED writing it, thigh riding is so 😋
contains : needy!reader, afab!reader, praise, no p in v, thigh riding ofc, pet names (baby, sweetheart, good girl), established relationship, Hamzah is kinda mean at first but he apologizes
18+ MINORS DNI
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I watched as Hamzah sat at his desktop, clicking and typing away, editing the next slushynoobz video. I normally wouldn’t have been bugged by this, but I had now been laying on his bed for three hours waiting for him to finish.
Crossing my arms, I huffed, hoping this could catch his attention. It didn’t, of course, since he was too entranced in his video and had on the chunkiest headphones I had seen in my entire life.
I tried to be patient, scrolling on my phone until my eyes stung, and yet he still sat at his computer, clueless.
I think what bothered me the most is that he was the one who invited me over, just to not give me an ounce of attention.
Sighing, I finally stood up and walked over to him. I stood beside him, and after a few seconds he looked up at me and moved a headphone off his ear. “Hi baby, you okay?”
“When are you gonna to be done editing?” I asked flatly, almost cutting him off.
He shrugged, looking at his screen. “I don’t know. It could be another hour.”
My mouth fell open, “Hamzah, why do you invite me over just to pay no attention to me? I could be at home right now, doing something productive, instead of waiting on you.”
My words came out harsher than I had intended. I always tried to not lecture Hamzah over little things like this, but I was fed up.
“Why don’t you leave then?” He snapped, not looking up from his computer.
Hamzah never spoke to me this harshly either, and I felt my throat tightening as I nodded and walked away from him. He wanted me to leave? Fine.
“Wait sweetheart…” he called after me, standing up from his desk for the first time in three hours.
I silently grabbed my stuff, and was walking towards the bedroom door. He grabbed my hand and stopped me. Looking up at him, I could tell that he felt bad, so I stopped myself from leaving.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, I don’t want you to leave. I’ll wrap it up, okay?”
I nodded, “Can I sit on your lap?”
Hamzah smiled, “Of course you can.”
The two of us walked back over to his desk, and I watched as he sat back down, patting his lap. I smiled, sitting down.
As minutes passed, I tried to be patient and wait for him to finish. As he peered past my head, his eyes once again glued to his computer, I watched as his arms flex ever so often, typing on his keys and moving his mouse. It was a tiny detail, one that I wouldn’t have notice while I was still sitting on his bed. But now that I was on his lap, his movements seemed to infatuate me.
My eyes grazed his body, trying to talk in more small details. I’d admired Hamzah before, and noticed things the way he said “what are” (water), and how his cheeks puffed out when he was trying to keep himself from laughing, but those were just cute. The things I was noticing now were more than cute, they were erotic, and had me rubbing my thighs together.
His arms flexing, the way his long fingers typed at the keys, his hands just in general. I shifted a bit, trying to ease the sensation at my core.
I looked down, biting my lip as I saw Hamzah’s thighs.
It was the middle of summer, about 70 degrees all day long, so Hamzah had worn shorts. When he was sat, his shorts came up a bit, exposing even more of his thigh. I cursed under my breath, realizing how dirty what I was planning on doing truly was.
I adjusted myself, moving to where I was straddling his right thigh, and began dragging my aching core back and forth on him. I tried my best to go slow, not wanting to interrupt Hamzah’s editing time.
“You could’ve just told me if you were feeling needy, sweetheart.”
I paused my motions, looking back at him.
“Well don’t stop on my account. I do have a request though…”
Humming, I turned around so that I was now facing him. “Anything.”
“How about you take that skirt and these panties off, hm? I wanna feel that pussy on me.”
My jaw dropped a bit before I nodded vigorously, standing up and sliding the two articles off of me. I sat back down on his thigh, straddling him.
He was never this forward, and it was turning me on a bit too much.
“Much better,” he cooed. I bit my lip, beginning to move back and forth on him once again.
Hamzah was always the dominant one in the bedroom, but it was almost alarming to me how comfortable he was with this, and how quickly he took charge.
Smalls noises escaped my lips as I moved on him, chasing a release he wasn’t providing me himself.
His eyes were still on the screen, but flicked back to me every few seconds, watching as I pleased myself on him. I could tell he was struggling to not focus on me, but he had a point to prove and a video to edit. My cheeks burned, trying to ignore how humiliating this act truly was.
“Feel good?” He said in a husky voice. I nodded, continuing to move back and forth on him.
“You’re so needy for me baby. Couldn’t even wait for me to get finished editing, you just needed to get you off, hm?”
I whined in response.
He was getting an ego boost from this, but that didn’t make me want to stop.
“That’s it, make yourself feel good on my thigh. Be my good girl.”
Looking down at his shorts, I could see an evident tent forming at his crotch.
“Hamzah…” I whined, grinding down on him harder than usual.
He hummed, typing on his keyboard.
“Need your attention, please.”
Hamzah looked away from his computer, leaning down and kissing my lips. He pulled away, “I know baby, why don’t you finish on my thigh and I’ll give you all the attention in the world?”
His pupils were blown with lust, trailing my face. I nodded, and after a few seconds, I finished on his leg.
“There you go,” Hamzah encouraged, stroking my own exposed thigh with his thumb as I came down from my high.
I basically collapsed onto his chest, hiding my face in the crook of his neck.
“I liked that… a lot.” I mumbled, closing my eyes.
Hamzah smiled softly, “Me too, princess.”
I felt him stand up, holding onto my thighs as he picked me up with him. “Now let me take care of my girl.”
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fariesoiree · 10 months
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to hobie’s surprise, you’re still working into the late hours of the night. no way he’s gonna let that happen multiple nights in a row.
caution! mdni 3k wrdz, pet names, oral f. receiving fingering, p in v, unprotected sex, black fem reader, overstimulation, use of cunny cunt n pussy, back scratching, squirting, creampies pls do not spam like my blog if you enjoyed it, feel free to tell me in the reblogs
when hobie swung into your open window, he wasn’t expecting to see you awake and actually doing stuff.
his head tilts at the sight of you typing away at your laptop, swivel chair turning in endless semicircles. you’re dressed for bed, wearing a silk nightgown and your slippers astray beneath you. even your hair is tucked away from the night under the safety of your bonnet. “why are you up, ducky?” he climbs his way through the window purposely left open for him.
it’s become a part of your routine. you both live your lives during the day and at night, hobie comes by to climb into bed beside you. you spend the morning together, just for him to leave and do the same the next day. as long as neither of you acknowledge it, he doesn’t count it as a consistent schedule and therefore doesn’t feel the need to stop.
you don’t lift your head to acknowledge him like you routinely do. instead, your manicured hands dart across the keyboard. “got home from work late, got an essay to write. it’s due tomorrow night.”
“what?” his shadow grows nearer with each step he takes towards you. hobie knows you’re too far gone when you don’t reprimand him from sitting on your desk. “it’s almost four in the morning, lovely. you can’t do it tomorrow?”
“no,” there’s a pause between your words and the silence is filled with your incessant typing, “i picked up a shift at work so i can’t.”
“you’re becoming a cog in the capitalism machine. that’s why you’re so stressed out. you should to take a break before they make you a mindless slave. that’s what they want, y’know. for more people to – ”
you tilt your back, a sigh leaving your lips. your eyes close with the attempt to find what dwindling patience you have. “hobie, i really cannot do it tonight. i have an essay to write and it’s due tomorrow. i just told you that.”
he stares at you, only for a moment. there’s a lot of things he isn’t enjoying about this. the fact that you’re still awake, the fact that you’re stressing over something put in place to make you feel bad about yourself, and the fact that you’re snapping at him. he’s sure it’s due to your lack of sleep but that doesn’t make him feel any better about it. “you’re in a shitty mood and it’s starting to bother me.”
“wow, really?” you can’t help your sarcastic tone. it slips out before you’re aware of it. “i didn’t even realize i wasn’t feeling super good!” your eyes are rolling as you place the laptop on what desk space is left from his limber body. you regret it the moment you say it but you’re so deeply set in your ways that the second thought doesn’t linger long.
he’s silent again, fingers tapping against the desktop. he stares at the floor, outlining the wood detailing with his eyes.
you both stay like this for a while, typing and staring at the floor. you can’t deny his company aiding your stress relief. it’s always nice to have hobie around, even if he isn’t doing anything.
ten minutes pass before hobie is glancing at the clock. “alright,” he finally says while rising to his feet. “time for bed, love.” he turns your chair himself, dragging you away from your nearly completed essay.
“what are you doing? i have work to do.” you struggle against him, tugging your arms but to no avail. he’s just so much more stronger than you, pulling you to your feet and into his arms. “hobie,” you whine as he gathers you up and into the air with his super human abilities.
“oh, i heard you,” hobie says, closing your screen and turning off your desk lamp. the room immediately gets dark. the lamp functioned as the sole light in these hours. having it off sent your space in a blanket of nothingness. “i just don’t care. you’re tired and your attitude is shit.”
you can never get over how easily he overpowers you, despite his tiny frame. while hobie is large in height, he’s the lankiest thing. his strength solely came from his radioactive spider.
you huff, throwing your weight around. all it does is get you tossed onto the bed. because your eyes have yet to adjust to the lighting, you’re unable to see a thing. you can’t help but shriek upon impact, bouncing on your mattress. “what the hell, ‘bie? my attitude is shit? your attitude is shit. mad at me because i’m not giving you attention because i have stuff to do. of course i’m tired. i’ve been up all night because i actually have responsibilities.”
“stop fightin’ with me.” hobie worms his way next to your body. his arm snakes around your waist, pulling you into his chest. “and while you’re at it, stop talkin’ and go to sleep.”
you’re still mumbling your distaste against his skin, arms pushing against him. you’re refusing to go down like this, to let him simply take you away from the essay you’ve been working so hard on. you’re so close to finishing, you can taste it. “isn’t this against what you stand for? thought it’s wrong to force someone to do something.”
he only holds you tighter, strapping your arms down in his grip. “you’re not takin’ care of yourself, princess. didn’t sleep last night, didn’t sleep the night before. think i’m gonna let you not sleep again? especially since you’re talkin’ to me like you’ve lost your mind.”
“i’m not! i didn’t say anything to you. if your feelings are hurt that’s your fault.” you resorting to using your feet, kicking at him until he’s forced to tangle his legs with yours.
“you’re always sayin’ the same thing when i call you out on somethin’. ‘i didn’t do it’. ‘it’s your fault’. ‘i’m not sorry’.” hobie’s voice raises a few octaves to mock yours. “it’s not rocket science. just admit it and let me help you.”
your cheeks puff in irritation. his route isn’t helping your mood and knowing unfinished work is just arms length away is making you antsy. “unless you’re gonna get up and do it for me, which you won’t, you can’t help me.”
with your next blink, you find yourself on your back. the bed dips and rises as hobie adjusts his position, arms locking around your legs and hands resting on your stomach. “what the actual fuck are you doing?” you sit up and as a result, slide out of his grasp just a bit.
hobie just yanks you back down and tightens his hold, leaving you no choice but to remain at his mercy. “helpin’ you. if you don’t wanna go to sleep, fine. i’ll just make sure you can’t do nothin’ else.”
he rolls the hem of your gown up, despite your protests above him. you wiggle about but it has no effect on his focus. he’s too busy staring at the pretty cotton panties you sport. “you need to relax, treacle. gonna spread yourself thin.”
you blow out a breath, somewhat mixed with frustration and defeat. you know he’s right but your mind is already racing with everything you have to complete this week, including going to work and making school deadlines. “that’s reality, ‘bie. that’s how it is. i’m not a crime fighting, rioting spider person with no cares for anything. i actually have to be a cog in the machine or whatever you said.”
his lips ghost and press against your skin, littering soft kisses along your inner thigh. “so? don’t gotta let them use you like this.”
“hobie.”
he hooks his finger around the bottom, pulling the white material to the side. “jus’ worried about you is all, dovey. shouldn’t even be awake, much less doing somethin’ right now.”
he tenderly kneads the stress away at your hip while his thumb coaxes you into submission, drawing slow circles on your clit. he leans his head against your skin, looking through his eyelashes to watch you.
you, who’s struggling to give off an unaffected impression, eyes closed and knees bending. “get off. you’re annoying me.” your slight grip on your sheets tell him otherwise.
“mhm,” hobie hums. his gaze is trained on you and you only while he warms your sex up to his touch. “you gonna go to sleep if i do?”
your silence is a loud enough response for him. he turns back to your now glistening cunt. his thumb glides over it with ease, collecting your slick and redistributing it along your folds.
he doesn’t understand you and your need to fight against him. hobie really is just trying to take care of you and you’re insisting on ignoring him and rotting your soul away. as if he is going to stand by and let that happen.
you keen at the feeling of his tongue running over your cunny, flat and thick. a soft pant falls out your lips, just barely open. your fingers curl into your palm. there’s a part of you that doesn’t want him to know, yet, how quickly he’s consuming your thoughts so you force you spine into the mattress and hold your arms against yourself.
you clench your teeth together and mute the moans that crawl their way up your throat as hobie drags his tongue around. his lips wrap around your bundle of nerves, suckling off the juices. his lips piercings aren’t helping, slotting against your skin and sending you into overdrive.
he glances at you for a second, only when you give in and entangle your hand in his hair. the tug that follows only pulls him closer. he has to pull your thighs apart when they threaten to close around his head. any other day, he’d stare at you with a warning slap to your pussy but tonight, he lets it slide in hopes you’ll tire yourself out.
hobie can tell your close when your writhe in his hold, both to get away from and get closer to his tongue. he’s easing you into it with a hand reaching up to clasp yours and another at the soft skin of your tummy, forcing your back out the arch. he massages your skin in encouragement at your orgasm that comes ripping through your body.
hobie, although unhappily, has to leave your pretty pussy behind. you’re pulling his hair so hard, he’s forced to resurface until he’s eye level. “feel better?” he positions himself next to you on his side. he’s sweet, draping his arm around your waist.
as he expected, you nod and curl into his chest. you can’t deny that much of the stress you felt before dissipated. hobie’s warmth is soothing, enticing you to revel in your sheets. you’re grateful when he pulls the duvet over your bodies.
his head is in the groove between your neck and shoulder, peppering kisses along your skin. “that’s good to hear, duck.” his fingers run up and down your back, just grazing and dipping farther and farther down. “still thinkin’ about all’at stuff?”
“yeah but i can just do it tomorrow. it’s not like i have a lot left because i already did most of – hobie!”
you shriek when his fingers suddenly become nestled inside you. you grip his shirt, hiding within his chest. you shudder at the feeling of them move, stroking against your cunt.
“you’re still thinkin’ about it.” he chastises with a click of his tongue. he holds you in place to control your twitching, continuing to peg his digits into you. “wrong answer.”
“i’m not,” you whine. you can both feel your gummy walls tighten and twitch, sucking him in despite you campaigning to get away from him.
“you’re not?” hobie cradles you against him, gentle in touch. “could have sworn you just said it, though.”
you whimper and mewl, torn between enjoyment and overstimulation. his fingers are larger than you can comprehend, digging dip within your core, and much longer than yours, pressing farther than you could ever do yourself.
you’re reduced to sobs, nearly shredding his shirt into two with how much you’re pulling it apart. the popping of the seams is drowned by your voice and the squelching of your slick against his hand.
his arm against your back leaves you little room to struggle with his fingers prodding from behind. at some point your leg slips around his waist.
“it’s okay, pretty. i got you, yeah?” hobie feels hot, physically hot. the duvet wasn’t helping, trapping your body heat that increased with each movement. he also can’t help his massive boner, having to fight the urge to rut against you.
hobie knows this is about you, or rather that he’s making it about you. about helping his baby get to sleep. this isn’t the first time he’s came back and seen you up at the late hours of the night. the first few times, he let it go but the longer this continues, the more messed up your sleep schedule is going to be. he has to interfere, especially when you’ve been waking up in a terrible mood each morning, a frown already settled on your lips before you’ve even gotten out of bed.
he’s so deep in his thoughts, hobie nearly misses how desperate you suddenly get. it’s only when you’re reaching behind to grasp his wrist that his brain fog is gone.
he didn’t realize, either, how much faster he’s moving, fingers bumping against your spot. “dove,” hobie says it softly, “i don’t want to use my webs on you. move em’ before i do.”
you’re reluctant but obliged, unwrapping your fingers from his wrist and hanging them over his shoulder. you find yourself plunging your nails into his skin. “hobie,” you cry out, hips grinding against him.
“i know, pretty. i know,” he whispers against your forehead. “let it out. i got you.” hobie consoles you as your body tenses in his hold.
you’re all wound up, taking a final gasp as it all rolls off your skin. he draws gushes of your cum out your leaking hole and swallows your sobs in his mouth, connected with a kiss. you’re grateful for his comfort, clinging onto him as if he is your saving grace
your chest rises and falls with each breath and you shove his hand away. “no more,” you roll away from him, simultaneously pulling off the covers for some much needed cool air.
it’s futile when hobie draws you back into him after tossing off his shirt, himself. “nah, i think you have another one left in you.” you can feel him shuffling behind you and assume he’s preparing to pull his dick out.
you tightly cross your legs together at his words, eyes darting around for a clock. “what? it’s so late, though. i have so much to do tomorrow, too. we should just sleep.”
your rational fall on deaf ears because he’s easily lifting your leg into the air and almost to your shoulders. “oh? you have a lot to do tomorrow?”
his tone has your stomach twisting. you wet your lips, feeling around for something to hold on to. “n – no. i don’t. i’m not doing anything tomorrow.”
the fat tip of his cock slaps against your folds, sticky from his own arousal. “too late, lovely. you already said it. gotta fuck it out of you.”
you’re still pleading your disagreement and how you’ll start sleeping at a proper time when hobie stuffs his cockhead inside your cunny.
he groans in your ear upon your welcoming wet grip. you always feel so good, at this point he’s addicted. if he ever died in your cunt, hobie would be the happiest man in the world.
thanks to the previous orgasms, there’s no pushback. only you griping about how you can’t take it and that he’s too big, which hobie knows is a lie. truthfully, you go through the same thing every time and he can never get enough of it.
“tired yet?” he grunts in tune with his rapid, steady paced thrusts. hobie doesn’t expect anything past your incoherent gargles.
you clutch the mattress under your pillow, prying at the fitted sheet. with every thrust, your body lurches forward. your head turns on your own accord, reaching out to cup his cheek.
you’re so cute, he thinks, with your eyes big and round and full of enchantment. you heave him towards you until your lips are moving together in perfect synchrony.
hobie wraps his tongue around yours, sitting up to deepen in. with his neck craned down and your dress pulled up, he gets a perfect view of his dick sliding in and out.
it glistens, even if the limited moonlight. the base is especially glazed over, foaming with a white sheen.
he feels like he’s becoming deranged when you toss your head back in ecstasy. you’re going to kill him, he’s sure.
and he’s even more sure when your tiny fist is rapping against the bed. “oh my days, oh my – fuck!” you outstretch your arm until you find his, grabbing in a firm hold.
hobie plants his head on top of yours and inhales the whiffs of hair products from your bonnet. he can smell the lingering hints of rosemary from your oil. “no more staying up late, you hear? pissin’ me off with this.”
and like the best girl you are, you nod brainlessly. your wordless promise is taken seriously, you’re sure. it’s cemented when hobie forces you to look at him.
his eye contact is just as intense as the grip on your cheeks. you can see just how vehement he is and it only makes you needier.
your face screws up as one final indication before your entire body trembles. you fall limp onto your side, cunt spasming around him. you’ve been fucked into oblivion, ready to settle in for the night. to your surprise, hobie has other plans.
his pulling out has you thinking he’s done, only to roll you into your back and position himself on top of you. he doesn’t wait for you realize what’s happening before he’s aligning his tip with your entrance again and gliding it in with ease.
you feel full to the brim, one hand on his chest and the other scraping your nails against the headboard. at some point, he supposes his own lust kicked in. after putting your needs first, he’s given free reign to chase his own orgasm.
that’s exactly what he’s doing now, pounding into you with such speed, your tits have been jostled out your top. the brown of your nipples has his infatuated brain screaming.
“hobie!” you all but yell. you’re inching slowly towards the top of the bed, unaware of your movements. hobie isn’t, though. he finds purchase at your hips to shift you back into place.
“hold – hold on. jus’ wait.” he moves both your legs over his left shoulder, driving deep.
you swear you can feel him in your throat, swear he’s realigning your insides like some sort of chiropractor. “gonna – ” your eyes roll to the back of your head. your nails dig into his back and drag across the skin as you try to ground yourself.
immediately, his attention fall to your cunt. hobie expects to see the usual sparkling ooze of cum but to his marvelment, watery squirts take it’s place.
you seize up so tight on him, he’s forced to release inside you without warning. he has to remember to hold himself up as to not crush you beneath him. all he can think about is how that was probably the best nut he’s ever had.
“you . . . you wanna finish your paper?” hobie says finally. he’s the first one to speak as you were both trying to catch your breath from your late night exercise.
you so quickly scowl at him, both at the implications and the thought of doing anything else tonight. “you must not value your life. you can’t.”
hobie smiles, lazily. he kneads at your muscles. “bear with me, treacle. ‘s gonna be uncomfortable.” he warns, anticipating the wince your expression turns into as he pulls out, genuinely this time.
you can feel the scratches developing from your previous actions, rubbing his shoulders, and a tinge of guilt tugs at your heart. “sorry. for these and all the worry i caused you . . . and also for what i said.” you wrap your arms around his neck and pull him close until you’re both laying down, cuddling up on each other. although you can’t quite remember what you said, you know you would have never uttered the words on a normal day.
he shrugs, fixing your slipping bonnet and unbunching your nightgown. “it’s in the past. i’m not thinkin’ about that, right now. i’m thinkin’ about how we need to get you ready for bed, again. can’t go to bed like this.”
he’s right but you’re still dramatic about in, unwilling to leave the comfort of your bed. “ten minutes.” you say, eyes fluttering closed. you revel in your sheets as long as you can before hobie chuckles, ripping them off.
“no, can’t do that. we’re doin’ it now. we both have to shower and shit and you probably can’t stand without me,” his voice is lighthearted, if not evident by the smirk playing in his lips.
he’s carrying you again, subjecting you to the princess treatment he feels you deserve. the most funny part about this, to him, is how dedicated you were before to staying up all night.
now, you’re all pliant and it’s purely due to him and his cock. even though hobie made you promise these endless nights won’t continue, he definitely doesn’t mind doing this again. especially after how easily you finally knock out, mouth wide open and snoring.
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whereonceiwasfire · 10 months
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If you're game to write a cheese melt (Vlad & Dani father-daughter dynamic) ficlet, I'd love to read one. If not, that's cool :)
*vibrating with excitement* My friend. Your cheese melt art has been living rent free in my head for WEEKS. It's my sincerest pleasure to write a ficlet for this. I hope it's okay that it's an outsider POV, I just had an idea and my brain went brrrrrrr LOL
May I offer you a dysfunctional parent-teacher interview?
Parent-teacher interviews are always a nightmare, but there's one in particular that’s making Amity Middle School’s beloved Ms. Burnell sweat through her shirt. As the time slot nears, her gaze keeps flickering to the clock, her classroom door, back to her nervously interlaced fingers on the desktop.
It’s going to be fine. Perfectly fine.
“This one! Over here! Dad! This is my class!” The excited words, shouted in the syrupy sweet voice of a little girl, sets every nerve on edge, Ms. Burnell’s heart plummeting straight into the pit of her stomach.
Oh lord. Maybe it’s not going to be fine. 
Her student comes bounding into the classroom, eyes bright and excited, oversized blue sweater sleeves slipping over her hands, even as she gestures emphatically for her father to follow. Black hair spills out of her ponytail, whipping across her face as she throws herself into a desk across from Ms. Burnell’s with a bright smile. 
Her father, on the other hand… 
The heel of his expensive Italian loafers strike against the linoleum as the man stops at the threshold of the classroom, cool gaze doing an assessing sweep of the space, expression crinkling in distaste as it does. He doesn’t say a single word, doesn’t make any move to actually step inside the classroom. 
Ms. Burnell is the one who clears her throat, pushing to an awkward stand as she extends a hand out to the man. 
“Hello, Mr. Masters. Thank you for making the time to come discuss your daughter’s education. I know you’re very busy.” 
The man’s eyes slip to her outstretched palm, and for a motifying second, she doesn’t think he’s going to take it. When he finally does, he just gives a brief, cursory shake before swiping his palm off on his suit jacket and striding past her toward his daughter. 
Ms. Burnell’s face is all kinds of warm, chest tight with embarassment as she fumbles back to her desk, trying to wrestle herself back into some kind of composure. Still, she barely looks up as she pulls out a folder with Danielle Masters scrawled across the tab.
“Dad! Dad! That one’s mine! Do you see it? Do you like it?” Danielle calls proudly, tugging on her father’s suit sleeve and pointing toward the paintings that are spread out beneath the windows to dry, paper wavy and crinkled.
“Oh, er. That’s actually a good place for us to start,” Ms. Burnell cuts in apologetically. 
Mr. Masters gaze snaps from where he’d been examining his daughter’s project, over to her, brows dropped low. 
“Why? Is there a problem with my daughter’s work?” The question is sharp, accusatory, and she’s pretty sure her soul shrivels up a little bit at the unguarded disdain in the man’s eyes.
Swallowing hard, sweat beading against the back of her neck, Ms. Burnell resists the urge to immediately take it back. Surely he can see the problem with the piece—isn’t going to make her say it? 
It's too scary.
When his challenging gaze doesn’t waver, she forces the words out. 
“Uhm. Well. It’s just. Not quite. Appropriate for a sixth grade class?” It pitches up into a question as she gestures vaguely toward Dani’s painting. 
It’s a bit sloppy, the layers of paint caked upon each other, the lines hasty and uneven, but the scene itself is clear enough—a little, smiling, white-haired girl in the shadow of some kind of hulking creature, its skin blue, eyes red, sharp fangs bared as its cape flares out to take up the rest of the page. 
Ms. Burnell almost set up an appointment for Danielle with the school counselor when she saw it, wondering if Dani felt like she was the little girl, trapped amongst nightmares and “monsters.” She decided against it for the time being, until she could speak with the girl’s father, but that’s proving rather unhelpful so far if the contemptuous way the man is looking at her is any indication.
“Did Danielle complete the assignment?” he asks finally. 
“Uhm. Yes.” 
“And adhere to the grading criteria?” 
“Sh-she did,” Ms. Burnell answers reluctantly.
“Then I don’t see the problem,” he answers, finality in the words as his gaze turns to his daughter. He takes a much softer tone with her, brushing the disorderly strands of hair off her face, an absent domesticity in the way he straightens the ponytail gone lopsided. “I think you did a lovely job, dear.” 
“Thank you! I used Alizarin Crimson,” she answers proudly, hair flopping right back into her eyes.
“Excellent choice.” 
“Uhm. Well, there’s also the matter of Danielle’s conduct,” Ms. Burnell cuts in.    
The man lets out an irritated sigh, arms crossing over his chest as he leans back against one of the desks, one ankle crossed over the other, unimpressed gaze finding Ms. Burnell once more. 
“What?” he says, like it’s an inconvenience.
She swallows hard. “She’s been…uhm. Not getting along with some of the other girls.” 
“That is so unfair, Mackenzie started it!” Danielle shouts abruptly, popping up to her knees on her chair, palms slapping down against the desktop. 
“Well that’s not what Mack—” 
The girl keeps going, cutting Ms. Burnell off. 
“She said the only reason Eli agreed to play with me at recess was because Joshua dared him too, and I said nuh unh and she said yuh hunh, and I asked how she knew that, and she couldn’t even prove it, it was so obvious she was making it up!” 
“Mackenzie told me that you said some pretty unkind words to her, Danielle.” 
“Barely! I just said it was a bad look for her to be so jealous of me and just because she looks like she fished her outfit from the same trash bin she got her personality from isn’t any reason to be a jerk.”
Her father’s expression twists into a sharp smirk, amusement lighting his blue eyes, and Ms. Burnell thinks she’s starting to get a better sense of why Danielle is proving to be one of the most challenging students in her class this year. 
“We treat people with kindness and respect in this classroom, Dani. Do you think what you said to Mackenzie was kind and respectful?” 
“Well…” Dani’s gaze drops, expression pinching in thought, and Ms. Burnell thinks she might actually be getting through to her.
“It doesn’t sound as though this other girl was treating Danielle with kindness and respect,” Mr. Masters answers, the words coming out with a mocking turn, like he finds the concepts incidental at best.
“That’s true. She did start it,” Dani reasserts, turning her gaze up to her dad.  
“I’ve spoken to Mackenzie about her part in everything,” Ms. Burnell answers tightly. “But we’re here to talk about Danielle’s conduct. That’s not the only incident of its kind that’s occurred this year and—” 
“You know, it sounds to me as though Danielle’s doing just fine,” Mr. Masters says, pushing up to a proper stand, tugging the bottom of his sleeves and smoothing the dark, wrinkleless fabric.
“But—” 
“Did she make this girl cry?” 
“Well. No, but—” 
“And how are my daughter’s academics?” he asks, gaze fixed on hers, sending a chill creeping down her spine. 
“Fine, but—” 
“Has she gotten into a physical altercation with anyone?” 
“Not exactly, but—” 
“Started any fires?” he asks, sarcasm and derision dripping from the words. 
“No, she hasn’t started any fires.” 
“Then I believe this meeting is finished. Thank you for your time, Ms…”
“Burnell,” she answers weakly.
“Thank you for your time, Ms. Burnell. Danielle, are you ready to go?”
“Yup!” She pops up to an enthusiastic stand, rushing over to the windows to snatch up her painting, twisting it toward Ms. Burnell. “Can I take this home?”
She gives a heavy sigh, massaging her temples with her fingertips. “Sure, Dani. That's fine.” 
“Thanks, Ms. B!” As the girl traipses after her dad, a bounce in her step, horrifying painting swinging at her side, Ms. Burnell can hear the girl still chattering away, even as they pass out of her classroom, voices growing distant. “Do you think I should have made Mackenzie cry?” she asks.
Ms. Burnell is glad she can’t hear the man’s response—she doesn’t even want to know his answer.
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justagalwhowrites · 3 months
Text
Halcyon - Ch. 13: You’re Not What I Would Call Nurturing
Anna gives birth and caring for a newborn is even harder than you expected. A continuation of Halcyon from the prologue through Ch. 12, a modern no outbreak AU TLOU fic found on Tumblr here.
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Pairing: Joel Miller x Female Reader
Warnings: Mild near smut, non-graphic depiction of childbirth, childcare struggles. Modern No Outbreak AU, No use of Y/N, Slow burn, 18+ only, Minors DNI
Length: 8.7k
AO3 | Main Master List | Prologue | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
April, 2018 
Gale had been holed up in his home office since you got home and your excitement was starting to exhaust your patience. 
He liked to have his space when he was writing. Then, so did you, and he respected it. Well, usually respected it. You did your best to do the same. But it had been hours now. You’d resigned yourself to having dinner alone, setting aside a plate for him, and waited for Gale to emerge so you could talk to him. It hadn’t happened, not even to use the bathroom or get a glass of water.
You set your book on your legs, rapping your fingers along the cover of it and worrying at your lip. You really didn’t want to sit here, holding everything in, any longer. 
You put in your bookmark and set the novel you’d barely been able to pay attention to aside, going to the kitchen for a bottle of sparkling water and a protein bar to bring your husband. 
“Hey you,” you smiled, peeking into his office after knocking once on the door. He glanced up from his desk, brows raised, head bent so low you could see where his hair was thinning.You came all the way into his office, walls lined with bookshelves and surfaces stacked high with paper. You held up the water and protein bar like an offering. “I haven’t heard you come out in a while and it’s getting late. Thought you should eat at least something tonight.” 
“Thanks,” he said, looking back down at the pages in front of him. You took it as permission to come closer, so you did, setting the food down next to his computer before perching on the edge of his desk. You crossed your ankles in front of you and held onto the desktop, rapping the underside of it with your fingernails in a sharp rhythm. 
Gale sighed, setting the page he was reading down and crossing his arms on his desktop, leaning on it before giving you a small smile as he looked up at you. 
“Something on your mind, baby doll?” He asked, brows raised, looking like he was trying his best to restrain his amusement. 
“Maybe,” you teased a little, not able to stop the smile on your face. “Remember how I had that doctor’s appointment earlier today?” 
“Think so,” he frowned. “Why? Did everything go well?” 
“It went great,” you smiled. “I actually… well, instead of it just being a check up, I asked her to check for a few things…” 
Gale frowned further before he took the bait. 
“Check for what?” He asked. 
“Check and see if I’m in a good place to have a baby,” you tried to keep from acting too excited about it but you were. You were practically giddy. “She said everything looked good. Great, in fact. And… well, I was thinking… you have that sabbatical coming up in, what, two years? Wouldn’t it be great if we could spend it together? I can take some time off, my book should be well and launched by then, you can work on your next book and we can spend a lot of time just you, me and… and a baby.” 
He watched you for a moment, an almost amused look on his face before he laughed a little. 
“Are you being serious?” He asked. 
“Yeah,” your smile faltered a bit. “Yeah, I figured that… you know, we’re not getting any younger, we’re at a good spot career wise, my body is apparently in prime baby making territory…” 
“Sure, the timing is great if we were going to do it but,” he laughed once and shook his head, turning his face to his lap for a moment before looking back to you, a serious expression on his face. He took your hands in his, giving them a squeeze. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way but… Do you really think having children is a good idea for you?” 
You couldn’t stop your smile from falling this time, eyes searching his. 
“What?” You asked quietly. 
“Honey, just…” He sat back a little and sighed. “Look. You’re… I love you. That’s why I married you and you’re an extraordinary woman in so many ways. You make me the best possible version of myself and I’m grateful for that every day but… You’re not what I would call nurturing.” 
You frowned. 
“But…” 
“It’s not a bad thing, necessarily,” he said, as though you hadn’t spoken at all. “You’re just far more concerned with what’s in your head or on the page than about something like children. Do you really think you’d do a good job with a child? Be honest with yourself. Do you think you’d be able to make the sacrifices necessary and put them first? Or would you fail and make them pay the price? And then there’s everything with your mental health - we both know how you can get sometimes and you clearly got it from your mother - I doubt you want to pass that on to a child or burden one with it when you’re having a rough patch…” 
“But,” you said again, feeling the pinch of tears in your eyes. “I thought… don’t you want kids?” 
“Of course I do,” he shrugged. “But I decided I wanted you more. I went into this marriage with eyes wide open, I knew I wouldn’t be having children with you and I decided that you were worth the sacrifice.” 
You tried to keep from crying but felt a tear slip down your cheek, anyway, as you stared down toward your feet. 
“Hey,” he said, getting up and putting his hand to your nape, pulling your head up to look him in the eye. “It’s alright. I don’t hold it against you. I made my peace with it a long time ago. And it’s better if we just don’t have them instead of ruining them, right?” 
“Right,” you sniffed and he kissed you on the forehead before stepping back from you. 
“I’m going to try to finish this chapter research before bed,” he said. “I’m getting close but it’ll still be a bit, I’ll see you upstairs. Thank you for bringing me something to eat, I lost track of time.” 
“Sure,” you said, going to the door like you were on autopilot. You paused, your fingers on the knob before looking back at him. “I love you.” 
He was silent, looking over his papers, lost in his work again. 
“Gale?” 
“Hm?” He looked up, brows raised. 
“I love you.” 
“Oh,” he said absently, looking back down at the page. “I love you, too.” 
You looked at your husband for another second, trying to accept that he would not, in fact, be the father of your children before you left him to his writing and went to bed alone. 
April, 2023
You buried your face in his shoulder, straining to keep your nails from digging into his back, the cotton of his shirt bunching between your fingers as your hips canted up to grind against him. He licked and sucked at your neck, arms wrapped around your back, pressing your front tightly to his and he moaned as he worked his hard cock still trapped in his jeans down against your mound. 
“Fuck,” he panted, his mouth working his way over your neck to your jaw, wet on your tender skin and you tried to let yourself get in lost in him. 
It was hard, though. For one, you knew you should hold back. It wasn’t the right time to start sleeping with someone, life was too complicated without adding that into a relationship. For another, you hadn’t had sex since Gale and the thought of taking your clothes off in front of someone new made your heart race - and not in a good way. And, finally, there was something not quite right about him. 
Maybe it was his cologne, maybe it was the timbre of his voice, maybe it was the fact that he just didn’t feel right in your arms or between your legs but you just couldn’t make yourself want Stephen. 
At least, not in the way you wanted Joel. 
Not that you were proud of that. The opposite, in fact. You tried your damndest to bury that feeling deep and low inside yourself after the incident in Dallas. You didn’t WANT to want Joel. It hurt to want Joel. It always had and that didn’t change after that morning. 
You were still half entwined with Joel and trying not to panic when Sarah started knocking on the bedroom door, saying she was hungry and that she wanted to go somewhere that would have chocolate milk for breakfast and also could she try a coffee if you went to Starbucks since she was now basically a teenager and was tired after being out so late the night before at the concert. 
The two of you scrambled away from each other, your panties sticky and wet and you could feel the heat rising in your face. How could you have done this? Dry humped yourself to orgasm on your best friend? 
“It’s OK,” Joel said again, eyes wide and voice quiet. “Let’s just… we get back home and…” 
“Hey guys?” Sarah called through the door for the second time in as many minutes. “Is my Ears Tour shirt in there? I want to wear it.” 
“I got it baby girl,” Joel said, grabbing the bag and going for the door and then it was the three of you again. You weren’t alone with Joel until you stopped for gas in West, Sarah running inside to use the bathroom and start picking out kolache from the bakery case while Joel filled up the truck. 
His eyes darted over to you, like you were something volatile and unknown, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket. 
“Look,” he said eventually, decidedly not looking at you. “What… what happened… Goldie, I… You should know…” 
“It’s fine,” you cut him off quickly. You didn’t think you could bear hearing him say what a mistake you were for the umpteenth time in your life. “Like you said, it doesn’t have to mean anything. Right?” 
He looked at you then - actually looked at you, his brown eyes warm and deep and soft - something almost sad on his face that passed so quickly you weren’t sure it happened at all. 
“Right,” he said after a moment. “You’re right.” 
“I’d rather this didn’t…” you tried to find the words. “I really don’t want this to blow things up with you this time. I don’t want to go no contact or… whatever it is that happens with us when… when we…” 
“It’s alright,” he cut you off, turning to watch the numbers tick up on the gas pump. “We just… pretend it never happened.” 
“Right,” you said. 
“Right,” he said back and you headed inside to find Sarah. 
When you made it back to Austin, you hugged Sarah goodbye, picked up Puck and gathered your stuff from the back of the truck, Joel carrying your bag to your car for you. 
“I know we said pretend it never happened,” he said after he’d put your duffle in the back seat. “But… I think it might be good if we had some space.” 
“Space?” You asked, your heart sinking. 
“Just… just a few days,” he said. “I think… I think I need it. Just a few days, though.” 
“A few days,” you said, hesitant. 
“Yeah,” he said. “I just… I gotta get my shit right.” 
You didn’t really know what to say to that so you just nodded. Joel looked relieved. 
“Thanks,” he said awkwardly. “I… I really don’t want to lose you again, Goldie.” 
“I don’t want to lose you, either,” you said. 
“Good,” he said, turning and going toward his house before turning to face you, walking backwards as he did. “See you soon.” 
You smiled a little. 
“Sure, Joel.” 
“Like… Like two days,” he said. 
You laughed. 
“OK.” 
“Three, tops.” 
“Three tops,” you repeated. 
You went home and tried to distract yourself. You unpacked right away, put a grocery order in on Instacart and sat on the floor, shining a laser pointer on your legs and watching Puck try to pounce on it. Joel needed space. What the fuck did that mean? Why would he need space if it didn’t matter? 
It did matter to you. That’s why space was probably a good idea for you. You didn’t want it but it was a good idea. You clearly couldn’t be trusted within a few feet of Joel without losing your fucking mind so space was smart. But why did Joel need it? 
He wasn’t into you, at least not in the way you were into him. He’d made that plenty clear over the years. Every time something had happened, it was a mistake. You were a mistake. But… it kept happening. Did he want to fuck you against his better judgement? He’d always been a physical guy, with you and anyone else he cared about. He’d jumped from girl to girl in high school and, judging from the fact that Sarah existed but her mom was long gone, you figured he’d done the same after you’d gone away until responsibility came knocking. 
Maybe everything between the two of you had just been a carry over from that. You knew he loved you as a friend and you were happy with that, you really were. Maybe it was just his affection for you and the fact that he wasn’t getting laid anywhere else that made him keep doing things he regretted with you and you were so, so tired of being something he regretted. 
“Hey,” you said, scooping your cat up so his head was level with yours, a look of indignity on his small orange face. “Why am I like this? Why do I keep doing this to myself?” 
He just pressed one pink-padded paw to your nose and you sighed. 
“Well if you don’t have an answer…” you trailed off before kissing his little cat head and setting him back down. 
You gave Joel the space he wanted. You didn’t call, you didn’t text, you didn’t even send him the stupid video you saw on TikTok that made you think of him. 
In the mean time, you tried to write your book even though seemed to delete everything not long after it was down on the page. You saw Stephen. You tried not to text Gale. And, when Joel did text a few days later - just a picture of the Whataburger menu with a question mark - it made you feel better than you had in days. 
Things went back to business as usual after that. You never talked about what happened in the hotel room with Joel. You certainly didn’t mention it to Stephen. You just tried your best to ignore the fact that the best orgasm you’d had in years happened as you fucked yourself against your best friend’s dick when you were half asleep. 
But as much as you tried to pretend like that hadn’t happened, your body knew that it had. Joel had smelled so good and felt so good and Stephen just didn’t compare. No matter how much you wanted him to. 
“We should stop,” you panted, voice drawn tight, hands moving to brace against Stephen’s chest. He groaned and went limp on top of you and you laughed. 
“You’re killin’ me woman,” he said, sitting up from you enough to kiss you softly on the lips before moving to the other end of the couch and awkwardly adjusting his jeans. 
“I know,” you winced as you sat up, too, pulling your knees into your chest. “I’m sorry, it’s just… I’m basically moving in with my sister tomorrow and I’ll be there for who knows how long while she gets settled with the baby and it’s just… it’s not the right time and…” 
“Hey,” he said gently, reaching out and giving your foot a squeeze. “You don’t have to explain it. You said you needed to go slow, I’m OK with that. I don’t want you to do anything you don’t feel ready for.” 
You smiled a little, willing your heart to at least try and flutter at this kind, smart, handsome man who was saying and doing all the right things. 
“Thank you,” you said. “That really does mean a lot.” 
“Hope things go well for your sister,” he said. “And not just because, selfishly, I know I get you back sooner if it does.” 
“Good to know you care about the welfare of infants outside your personal gain,” you said wryly, smirking a little. 
He laughed. 
“I know, it’s what makes me such a good guy,” he said. “When’s Anna due again?” 
“Two weeks from tomorrow,” you sighed. 
“Isn’t you basically moving in tomorrow then a bit early?” He frowned. 
“Well, she might come early,” you said. “It sounds like she’s going to be a big baby. Trust me, I’m not exactly eager to go stay with my sister but…” 
“You might like it more than you think,” he said. You looked at him, skeptical. He laughed. “Family’s weird that way.” 
“One can hope,” you said. 
You walked him out, kissing him goodbye at the door and wishing you felt something more as you did. Before you went to bed, you looked through your bags to make sure you had everything you needed and, eventually, settled in with your phone in hand, Puck curling up next to you. He nuzzled into the crook of your elbow, tucking his tail into his body before taking a  deep breath and letting it out slowly.
“What do you have to sigh about?” You asked. He adjusted, spreading his little toes out before settling again. “A likely story.” 
You scrolled mindlessly through your phone when you got a text from Joel with a photo attached. You opened it. He was in bed, too, with the TV on, the first Curtis and Viper on the screen. 
The TV edit is bullshit. 
You laughed a little. 
You can just put on the copy you own, you know. 
Yeah, but where’s the fun in that? And then I’d have to get up… much rather watch Curtis say “get plucked” 50 times than do that. 
You snorted.
Lazy ass. 
Lazy ass? I’m getting old, respect your elders. 
“Jesus,” you said to yourself, shaking your head. 
You hesitated for a second, debating about what to say next. Eventually, you just bit the bullet. 
I miss you. 
There was a pause before he texted back, long enough that you wondered if you should try to take it back, maybe make a joke of it. And then, he responded. 
I miss you too, Goldie. 
You were trying to figure out how to respond when he called you. 
“It’s pushing midnight,” you said by way of greeting. 
“Way past my old man bedtime,” he agreed. “Channel 62.” 
You sighed but turned on the TV all the same, finding the station just in time to hear Curtis say “get plucked” to some henchman before gunning him down. 
“Oh that’s bad,” you laughed. 
“Told you.”
You watched the movie with Joel that way for a while, laughing and joking and providing commentary on the stupider parts until the love scene came on. You fidgeted in your bed, the campy sequence somehow still arousing because you knew Joel was listening. 
“You’re going to tell me when she has the baby, right?” He said as the couple on screen undressed each other. 
“I can tell you,” you smiled a little. “Assuming Anna doesn’t change her mind about that.” 
“Good,” Joel said. “Haven’t held a baby in a while, I miss it.” 
“Awww big bad Joel Miller secretly loves babies,” you teased, trying not to picture Joel holding a tiny Sarah because you thought your heart might explode if you did. “Who knew?” 
“Hey, babies are cute as hell,” he said, mockingly defensive. “And they smell good. And they make these adorable little noises. Am I supposed to not love babies? What am I, a monster?” 
“I will let you abuse your connection to me to snuggle my niece,” you smiled a little.
“Yeah, you better,” you could hear him smiling, too. 
You switched off your lamp but let the TV on and laid down, Puck looking at you indignantly before adjusting so he was curled against your chest. 
“You know if Anna or, you know if… if you need help with her,” Joel said, almost hesitantly. “You can always call me. It took a while to know what to do but I like to think I got pretty good at the single parent thing.” 
You smiled a little, feeling overly tired. 
“You’re very good at it.”
“Got the world’s greatest dad mug and everything to prove it,” he said. “I know it seems like a lot right now, Goldie, but it will be OK. Promise it will.” 
Your eyes got heavy during the climax of the movie, laughing sleepily with Joel and nodding off before the credits. It was a few hours later when an unnaturally loud commercial jerked you awake, your phone still sitting next to your head on the pillow. 
You groaned and sat up, turning off the TV. Puck had moved, probably bounding through the house somewhere at some imagined prey, and you got up to use the bathroom, bringing your phone with you. Out of curiosity, you checked the time the call with Joel had ended but frowned. Judging from the length, it seemed like it went on for a while after you’d fallen asleep. You went to text him but, instead, found a series of texts from Anna. 
Hey, are you still up? 
Guess not… FYI, feeling weird. 
There was a break and then another text had come through just half an hour earlier. 
OK these are either those fake contraction things or I’m in labor
“Oh fuck,” you said to yourself, quickly going to wash your hands before calling her but she beat you to it, your phone springing to life on your vanity, the vibration making it jump across the marble. You wiped your hand quickly on your pajamas and answered. 
“Not the fake contractions!” Anna said quickly instead of a hello. “Sorry, I know 4 a.m. isn’t a great time but…” 
“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” you said, walking quickly to your bedroom and taking off your pajama pants as best as you could with one hand. “How far apart are they?” 
“Eight minutes?” She said more like a question. “I think? But they’re strong enough that I can’t talk or walk during…” 
“OK we have a little time,” you said, breathing a little easier as you grabbed a clean pair of underwear and leggings from your drawer. “I’m just throwing my clothes on, my bags are already packed, I’ll be there so soon. Just… unlock your front door and lie down on the couch and I’ll be right there.” 
“I can do that,” she said, sounding a little panicked. “Thank you. For everything, I couldn’t do this on my own, I know I couldn’t and just… thank you.” 
You smiled a little. 
“Of course,” you said. “OK, I’m going to let you go but I’ll see you soon. You’ve got this, Anna. You do.” 
You got dressed as quickly as you could before checking that Puck’s food and water bowl would be at least set for the day and jogging to your car, bags in hand. 
Anna had done as you’d asked, unlocking her door so you didn’t need to fumble with keys in the dark and you found her in the middle of a contraction on her couch when you came in, grimacing and moaning in pain with her hands around the bottom of her stomach as she did. 
“Hey, you’re OK,” you said, running to the couch and kneeling at her side. “Want my hand?” 
She nodded frantically and you held it out. She squeezed it so tight you thought your knuckles might crack. As the contraction lessened, she took a deep breath, her face already shiny with sweat. “Think we can get you sat up and moved to the car?” 
“Yeah,” she said. “But watch out, my water broke when I was unlocking the door, it’s wet over there.” 
You almost laughed at that. 
“That’s alright,” you said, helping her sit up. “It’s tile, think it will live. We’ll get you to the car and I’ll mop when we’re home with you and baby girl. You ever going to tell me her name?” 
“I want to meet her first,” she said. “Think it’s weird for someone else to know her name before she does.” 
“Makes sense,” you nodded, looping her arm around your shoulders and notching yourself into her underarm. “Ready?” 
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “I’m ready.” 
“Then let’s go have a baby.” 
Her contractions were seven minutes apart when you reached the hospital and they got her back to a labor and delivery room quickly, hooking her up to what seemed like countless machines as you sat there and watched, feeling more helpless than you had since you watched your marriage fall to pieces at your feet. 
You realized, as Anna labored and nurses walked her through it, just how much you’d grown accustomed to being able to take things on for her. When she had an issue with her phone bill couldn’t figure it out? You called and handled it. When she wanted an NA meeting closer to her office? You tracked one down. When she was shopping for everything for the nursery? You looked up the safety ratings and handed over your credit card at Buy Buy Baby. It had always been that way. When her grades tanked, you tutored her. When she had a bully at school, you stepped in. When she wanted a snack while your mom was at work, you made it. If you could do it for Anna, you did. This was different. This, you couldn’t do for her. 
But you did everything you could. You did everything they taught you in lamaze classes and gave her ice chips and got the nurse when she needed help you couldn’t provide. Still, you felt decidedly useless when, more than 12 hours after you got to the hospital, her daughter came into the world with sharp, angry little cries. She was slick and red and wailing, tufts of dark hair on her tiny head, her small limbs flung out from her little body and she was beautiful.
“Congratulations, Mama,” the doctor smiled, putting the baby on Anna’s chest. “It’s a girl.” 
Anna sobbed and smiled as she held her daughter, cradling her close. 
“Hi there little one,” she whispered down to her. “I can’t believe you’re here.” 
The baby cried even louder, the sound sharp and cracking, and Anna laughed wetly. 
“Yeah,” she said. “You tell ‘em, Ellie.” 
“Ellie?” You asked, trying to keep from fully crying but failing miserably. 
“Yeah,” she said, still looking down at the tiny figure in her arms. “Ellie.” 
The three of you got to know each other, Ellie rarely resting anywhere but in either of your arms. A few friends of Anna’s came by to meet her and Joel and Sarah did, too, Joel texting to ask what Anna was craving after spending the day in labor. 
“Fried chicken!” She said. “With everything. And Dr. Pepper. Maybe a milkshake? Oh, and a burger if it’s not too much trouble.” 
The two of them came with bags of food so comically large you couldn’t help but laugh as they brought them in, Sarah trailing balloons along behind her. 
“Someone saw these in the gift shop so we had to stop for them,” Joel said, nodding to the balloons as he set down the heaping piles of food. “Here, baby girl, gimme those…” 
He tied them off on the rail of Anna’s bed while Sarah fawned over the sleeping newborn. 
“She’s so small,” she gaped down at her. “That’s insane.” 
Joel came and stood behind her, putting a large hand on her shoulder. 
“You were that size once, baby girl,” he said, sounding a little choked up. “You were a tiny thing, seemed like you fit in the palm of my hand.” 
“That’s just because you have freakishly large hands,” you said. 
“Shut it,” he gave you a look and you smiled. 
While you and Anna ate, Joel showed carefully showed Sarah how to hold a baby, how to support her tiny head and how babies liked when you moved with them. 
“See?” He said, sitting next to you on the little couch beneath the window as Sarah delicately cradled little Ellie. “You got it.” 
“That’s just because she’s perfect,” she said, staring down at the baby before her eyes went wide with excitement and she looked between her dad and Ellie’s mom. “Can I babysit? I promise, I’ll take such good care of her and…” 
“We can talk about that when both of you are a little older,” Joel laughed. “Glad to know you’re ready to start contributing to the household though. Have to start charging you rent…” 
“Ha ha,” she rolled her eyes before looking back to the baby. 
Joel held her next and you couldn’t help but stare at him as he did. He seemed so impossibly large compared to her, able to hold the tiny bundle that was your niece easily in his large hands, a look of awe and total adoration on his face as he did. But he was so beautiful, too. The gentle way he held her, the way he looked at her, the way he just seemed to be so happy to be caring for something so vulnerable, it made your heart ache with a want you’d long ago tried to set aside.
“He’s such a sucker for babies,” Sarah said, perching on the couch next to you and helping herself to a french fry. “He’s so weird.” 
“Must be because you were a perfect kid from birth,” you teased and Sarah smiled, smug, as Joel scoffed. 
“Please, if anything it’s in spite of her,” he said, still staring down at Ellie. “She had colic, seemed to love to pee right as I was changin’ her…” 
“Hey!” Sarah said. 
“But you were still the most amazing thing I’d ever seen,” he said, looking at his daughter before looking back to Ellie. “This one might be a close second, though. Good job, Mama.” 
“Thank you,” Anna said proudly, sitting up a little straighter. “Actually, would you mind giving her to me? I’m going to try and nurse…” 
“Alright, I’ll hand her over and I won’t make you fight me for her but only because you just gave birth,” he said. “Next time though…” 
Anna laughed good naturedly as Joel gently laid the baby in her arms. 
“Alright, kiddo,” he said. “Let’s get out of their hair, give them some time to relax.” 
He and Sarah gathered up the trash from dinner and you walked them to the elevator, Sarah pressing her face against the nursery window to look at the babies as you went. 
“And how are you doing?” He asked as he waited for the elevator. 
“Me?” You asked, brows raised. “I’m fine, I didn’t just push a human being out of my body.” 
Joel laughed a little.
“I know but still. It’s a lot. You OK?” 
You thought for a moment about how powerless you’d felt as Anna brought Ellie into the world, how you wished your mother had been here because she was better equipped than you’d ever be, how you didn’t know how to help raise her without finding some way to ruin her. 
“I’m alright,” you said instead of saying any of that. “I’ll get them home and settled and then we’ll just… see how it goes, I guess?” 
“That’s all you can do,” he said, watching you with an almost soft look in his eyes. “Meant what I said before. Don’t matter what time it is, don’t matter what you need, we’ll figure it out. Did it before, I can do it again. And so can you.” 
“Thank you,” you said, letting yourself almost fall into him. He hesitated for a moment but wrapped himself around you, his arms almost swallowing you. 
“You’ve got this, Goldie girl,” he said quietly, pressing a kiss to your temple. “Know you do.” 
He had to practically drag Sarah away from looking at all the babies and as you watched the elevator doors close, you wondered what you’d ever done without him. 
Anna and Ellie were released the next day and you drove them to Anna’s house at a snail’s pace, trying to press the break as gently as possible when approaching a light so you wouldn’t jostle the precious cargo in the back seat. 
At first, things went well. Or as well as it could when there were two people with basically no experience with children trying to care for an infant. Ellie didn’t need much, after all. She mostly slept, ate and pooped. 
And cried. She definitely, definitely cried. 
By day three, you were starting to get worried about the lack of sleep for both you and for Anna. You knew how exhausted you felt, how delayed your movements seemed as you tried to go through your routine on just two or three hours of sleep for the third day in a row. Anna, you knew, had to have it worse. She’d just given birth, after all, and was still recovering. On top of that, she was nursing Ellie. 
Or she was trying to, at least. 
After you’d left the hospital, Ellie had been reluctant to latch. She’d been doing an OK job of it before but now she seemed to do nothing but reject her mother’s breast or pull away quickly while wailing, her small face scrunching and getting red as she screamed. 
“I know, I know, I know,” Anna said in the afternoon on the fourth day, bouncing Ellie on her shoulder and sounding on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry, I’m trying! I know you’re hungry, I know!” 
“Maybe we can do formula?” You said, anxiously picking at a ragged cuticle as you watched your sister pace. “It’s better if she eats at all…” 
“I should be able to fucking do this!” Anna snapped. “I’m her goddamn mother, I should be able to feed her!” 
“You can,” you said, trying to soothe her. “Just… do the formula, I’ll make up a bottle, at least until we can get in to see the lactation specialist. That’s what it’s for. It’s OK, then you’re feeding her…”
“No, you’re feeding her,” she spat. “You bought the formula! You bought the formula and her crib and her goddamn onesie! Because I fucking failed at that, too!” 
“You didn’t fail at anything!” You said. Anna had stopped bouncing Ellie and her cries got louder. “I know it’s hard right now but it’s going to get better, it is.” 
“I need a break,” she stalked over to you, passing the baby off and all but storming out of the room. You bounced Ellie, who kept wailing, and you resisted the urge to cry yourself before going to make her a bottle. 
It was that afternoon, one of the few hours a day that Ellie wasn’t crying and was instead sleeping - but not content to do it anywhere but on your chest - that you checked your phone. You had some general messages from Joel, check ins and funny pictures and offers to bring by dinner, and an update from Alyssa with information about the classes she was covering for you. There was also a text from Gale, one that sounded almost ominous. 
I think I’ll always regret how things played out with you. 
You frowned and considered texting back. You’d sent him basically nothing in months, only responding when he had a question about something related to the divorce - even though you knew that should really be going through your attorneys, but it was so hard to resist talking to him when you had the excuse. This text, however, seemed different. 
You opened Facebook, hoping to go to his page and find some kind of hint but you didn’t even need to go that far. Sitting at the top of your newsfeed was a picture he’d been tagged in just a few hours ago, his arm around your younger, prettier replacement except, in this picture, her stomach was round, a blue dress tight over the swell near her hips as he looked at her, a tranquil smile on his face. 
“Our soon to be party of three!” She had written on the post. “Baby boy Newton, coming this July!” 
You just stared at your phone, heart racing as your stomach felt hollowed out. Gale was having a baby. Something you’d always wanted but he said was a bad idea, had really only been a bad idea because it was with you. You’d always secretly hoped that it was just an excuse, that he didn’t really want children but that wasn’t it. It was you. You were the problem. 
Ellie stirred from her place against your chest, starting to squirm and you could feel her start getting herself worked up. 
“It’s OK baby girl,” you said, your voice thick and wet. “Let’s see how you’re doing, see if you need a diaper and if we can let your mom sleep a little while longer, OK?” 
As you tried to calm her down, you couldn’t help but remember what Gale had told you. How you weren’t nurturing, how you couldn’t be selfless enough, how you’d ruin a child. How could you pretend like he was wrong? As you clutched tight to your screaming, squirming niece and tried to get her to settle or eat, how could you say that you would do anything but fail her? 
“Are you OK?” Anna asked a little while later when she emerged, groggy, from her room to find you with red eyes and a tear-streaked face and her daughter in your arms. 
“Fine,” you said, bouncing Ellie. “I’m fine.” 
You couldn’t tell her what Gale had said - Gale had known - about you. Not right now, not when Anna was already stressed and worried enough. You’d just have to deal with it and with the crying baby who was in your care.
And Ellie basically never stopped crying. You’d get a few hours of blessed quiet in a day but it seemed like, if she was conscious, she was screaming. You were coming up on the end of the first two weeks of her life with little understanding as to why she wasn’t able to settle and you needed to get back to work for a few days to finish out the semester. 
“You’re seriously going to leave me here with her?” Anna asked, her eyes wide. 
“Just for a week,” you said. “I have to do exam review, final project presentations and office hours before exam week. I have to, Anna, I’m sorry. I can see if I can find a nanny for a few days…” 
“No,” she shook her head. “Don’t. I can do this. I need to be able to do this.” 
“If you start feeling overwhelmed,” you frowned but she cut you off. 
“She’s my daughter,” she said. “I can take care of my own damn daughter.” 
Anna insisted you go home for the work week, wanting to try things on her own since you were going to be gone all day, anyway. You brought your bags so you could do laundry and pack a fresh round of clothes and you found yourself reveling in the silence of your home when you walked into it, closing your eyes and soaking it in. 
Joel had picked up Puck while you were at Anna’s and he said he was down to keep him for a while but, after a few hours, it was strange, rattling around your house without another soul in it. No crying baby, no frustrated sister, no playful cat. Just you and your exhaustion as you collapsed into bed. 
You checked in on Anna in the afternoons after work and, on Wednesday, went to Joel’s for dinner, Sarah begging you to sneak her more Sprite when Joel got up to use the bathroom halfway through. 
“Don’t tell your dad,” you said, filling up her cup from the two liter in the fridge. 
“Your secret is safe with me,” she smiled before chugging the first half of the soda before Joel made it back to the table. 
You sat on the couch with Joel after dinner, Puck purring furiously on your lap after giving you the silent treatment for the first hour you were there. 
“If my kid can’t sleep tonight, that’s on you,” he said as he settled in. 
“Why’s that?” 
“Because you’re the one who let her have more sugar,” he said as Swiftie jumped on his lap and he started absently petting her. You gaped at him. “Don’t look so shocked. I’ve learned to watch the levels in the Coke bottles around this house with that kid.” 
“She could be doing actual coke, you know,” you said. 
“At 11?” 
You nodded. 
“You’ve got it easy,” you said. 
He laughed. 
“Suppose I do,” he said. “How’s it going with Ellie?” 
“She’s still crying like crazy,” you sighed. “It’s constant…”
“I told you I can come help!” He said, incredulous. 
“I know!” You replied. “But Anna doesn’t WANT help, she’s insisting she can do it. I’m worried about her, I don’t know how clearly she’s thinking right now…” 
“Given how sleep deprived she is?” Joel raised his brows. “Probably not very.” 
“I’m this close to just having you come over anyway, whether she likes it or not,” you said. “I don’t want her completely losing herself to this.” 
“Bring the kid here for a bit and give her a break,” Joel said. “I can watch ‘er, or I can come there…” 
“I appreciate it,” you sighed. “I’ll bring that up to her tomorrow. We have Ellie’s next check up in the afternoon, we’ll see how she’s doing. Maybe the doctor will have a good suggestion, who knows.” 
“Hope so,” Joel said. “It’ll be OK. Promise you, it will.” 
You almost told Joel about Gale then. About him having a baby with another woman because one of the only people who had ever been able to see you - really, truly see you - saw how bad you would be at this. But you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. 
Despite Joel’s promise, it didn’t feel like it was going to be OK. Especially not at Ellie’s check up the next afternoon. She had lost a few ounces, moving down the track for weight percentile, and Anna looked like she was about to cry. 
“She won’t nurse,” she said, her voice thick. “She doesn’t like the formula, what do I do?” 
The doctor gave her some advice that you wrote down, a glassy look on Anna’s face, and drove home, worried that the doctor needed to see Ellie back in less than a week. 
“I’m going to ruin my kid,” Anna said when you got her home, Ellie blessedly asleep in her carseat, the only time you could reliably get her to pass out in the back of the car. “I can’t even feed her right, I’m going to destroy her when all I want to do is do the right thing for her.” 
“It’ll be OK,” you said, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “I can stay over tonight…” 
“No,” she shook her head. “May as well finish the week out, right?” 
“Sure,” you said uncertainly, “If you change your mind, just call me. I’ll be over in like 10 minutes, just call.” 
“Right,” she said, giving you a tight smile before walking you out. “I’m sure it will all work out.” 
You felt off all evening as you reviewed the final, frantic emails from students as the semester wound down. You should never have come home like this, you should have just gone to work and gone to Anna’s after whether she liked it or not. You seriously considered packing up and heading over that second but just chewed on the inside of your cheek instead. It was late. You’d be back the next night. Less than 24 hours. Closer to 18 hours, actually. What could really go wrong in 18 hours? 
You went back to work but only lasted another few minutes when Anna texted you. 
Are you at home? 
You frowned at the phone. 
Yeah, what’s up? Need me to come over? 
She didn’t respond. You drummed your pen against the edge of your desk and tried to hold yourself back from replying. She had an infant at home, after all. She wasn’t staring at her phone. 
But after five minutes, you texted again. 
Is everything OK? Is Ellie OK? Are you OK? 
You stared at the screen, willing her to respond. Another few minutes passed when you saw the bubble pop up, saying she was typing. 
Check your front porch. 
You frowned, picking up your phone and going to respond when another message appeared. 
I’m so sorry. 
“Anna?” You said, even though she wasn’t there to hear you. Your heart raced as you frantically called her. It rang once and then went to voicemail. “Fuck!” 
You sprinted for your front door, grabbing your keys from the bowl in your entryway and ripping the door open and you stopped in your tracks. 
Sitting there, on your front stoop and in her carseat and next to a diaper bag, was Ellie. 
“Hey sweetheart,” you said softly, picking up the carrier and folding the handle back, carrying her gently inside and setting the carseat on the kitchen table. “Just going to make sure you’re all OK…” 
You pulled back the blanket that had been tucked around her. She was all strapped into the carrier, her little legs and arms pulled in tight to her torso. You almost cried in relief when you saw her tiny chest rising and falling. 
“So where’s your mama baby girl?” You asked, watching her as you pulled up Anna’s number and dialed again. This time it rang out. You weren’t sure if that was better or worse. 
You tried to keep calm as you texted her. 
If you don’t answer I’m calling 911.
You gave her a few seconds to see the message before you called her and she picked up on the first ring this time. 
“I told you, I’m sorry,” she said, her voice wet. 
“Sorry for what?” You asked. “Anna, just… just come here, we can talk about this…” 
“Talk about what?” She cut you off. “About the fact that I can’t do anything right by my own kid? I can’t even fucking feed her right, you heard the doctor today…” 
“We can figure it out,” you said quickly. “Doing… whatever it is you’re doing is not the answer. Just come here, we’ll take care of it together, we always do and…” 
“No, no there is no we,” she said. “You always fix it, you always handle it, not me. I’m just ruining her, I’m bad for her, I’m not capable of this. She should be yours not mine, she’s… she deserves better than me and…” 
“No,” you said, trying not to panic. “No, you’re her mother, what she needs is you! Anna, don’t do this, don’t…” 
“It’s not forever,” she said. “I’m just… I’m going away for a little while. I need to be better for her. I’ll come back when I can. Take care of her for me, OK?” 
“Anna, no, Anna don’t-“ 
You didn’t get a chance to finish. She hung up and you frantically tried to call her back but it just went straight to voicemail. 
“Fuck,” you teared up, looking down at your infant niece in her carrier. She was so small, she needed so much, so much you weren’t capable of giving her. 
You couldn’t remember the last time you’d been this afraid of anything, all the hope and potential carried in Ellie’s tiny body now resting on your shoulders. What were you supposed to do with all of that? When all you were capable of was failing?
You were about to do the only thing he could think to do - call Joel - when Ellie made one of her small noises, one that came just before she started crying and, sure enough, half a second later, she was wailing, her little legs kicking out as she did. 
“Hey now,” you said, desperate to soothe her. “You’re OK baby girl. I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you.” 
Anna had, at least, left the base to the carseat and a container of formula with the diaper bag on your porch. That, plus the things you’d stocked your house with so you could take Ellie for a few hours or even a day if Anna needed, made it so you could look after her without needing to make a store run for a day or two. You tried to focus on looking after her as best you could even though you had never felt so lost before in your life.
You moved all your office hours for Friday to virtual and did your best to take them with Ellie there, but it was hard. She was inconsolable all day. Every now and then, she would settle against you but then she seemed to realize that you were wrong. You didn’t feel like her mother or smell like her mother and you weren’t who was supposed to be taking care of her. It was like she could sense the thing about yourself that scared you most.
Things got worse as the day wore on. You’d been up with her all night and you’d had to take advantage of her brief periods of sleep to work that day and it seemed like she was getting more and more upset as the night wore on. She shoved her bottle away, her tiny face scrunched tight as she screamed. 
“Come on,” you said, crying right alongside her. “You… you have to eat something, I know I’m not your mom but you can’t just… you have to eat, please just eat something I promise you’ll feel better if you do.” 
She didn’t listen. She just cried in your arms and all you could think about was what Gale had told you. He’d been right about so many things, of course he was right about this, too. 
“Maybe you’re just too worked up,” you said, carrying her to her car seat and setting her gently inside it. “Just… going to try to calm you down, maybe then it’ll be OK.” 
You didn’t know if that would work but you were desperate. You carried her to the car and triple checked that she was secure before just driving. She liked the car, she always quieted down in the car. This had to help. It had to. 
Something had to. 
But it didn’t. You weren’t sure just how long you’d been driving aimlessly, Ellie wailing in the back seat, but you couldn’t keep doing this. Not to her. 
You weren’t sure how but you found yourself outside Joel’s house. It was dark outside, the glow of light from inside the houses on his street warm and welcoming and you wished, desperately, that you belonged with that light. That you could be somewhere soft and nurturing and where Ellie would be cared for the way she deserved, not the way you managed to ruin everything you touched. 
You gave up on stopping your own tears. Instead, you got out of the car and unhooked Ellie’s carseat from the base, looping your arm through the handle and carrying it to Joel’s front door. You knocked, even though you were sure he could hear the baby crying, and it was only a few seconds before he opened it. 
“Goldie?” He asked, looking you up and down, his eyes soft and wide. “What’s going on? What…” 
“Please, Joel,” you said, holding the carrier tightly against yourself. “I need your help.” 
Next Chapter
A/N: Poor Goldie, Ellie and Anna! Stuff is ROUGH for them right now but don't worry, Joel is now on the scene.
We'll just have to see what a lot of stress and desperation from Goldie while Joel is being hot and paternal makes happen 👀
OK LOVE YOU BYEEEEEE!
Also thank you for reading because you're the best. Truly.
OK now love you bye ❤️
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copperbadge · 5 months
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Amateur Translation Programs
So I had a lot of imaginative and informative responses to my post about looking for an amateur translation program -- something where I could load in a foreign language and it would insert a box where I could add a translation every-other-line. The idea was that this way I could practice translation with more advanced texts, and texts I chose, and thus move away from Duolingo, which at this point is good for drilling and daily practice but not for more advanced learning.
I didn't find precisely what was needed but I did get some inspiration for further explanation, and I also learned that adding the term "glossing" (thank you @thewalrus-said) into my searches helped a great deal in terms of weeding out programs that were either "Let this AI translate for you" or just endless promotional links for Babbel and Duolingo and such. I thought I'd collect up the suggestions and post them here; at the end I'm including my best swing at designing what I wanted, and why it doesn't work yet.
Suggestion one, from many people, was various ways to generate a page that is simply fixed Italian text with space underneath each line to add in a translation. This is pretty simple as a process and there are sites that will do it for you, such as this one that @ame-kage suggested. However, most of these don't allow for movement in the Italian text, and many produce a PDF which you would need to print out in order to write on unless you're willing to open it in Acrobat (and deal with Acrobat). A good solution for some but not what I'm looking for purely because I'm trying to make this super frictionless so that (knowing myself as I do) I will actually do it.
I did find this version interesting, suggested by @drivemetogeek: Have one word doc saved as your "template" doc and set the line spacing as 2.0 or higher. Select your text from source and paste it into the template doc as text-only. Ctrl a, ctrl c to select all and copy, then open a new document and "paste special" as picture. Right click and set the "wrap text" as behind text. Now you have a document where you can, basically, type over the existing text because it's the background of the page. This seems like the most frictionless version, because you could set up a bunch of them ahead of time. If you wanted to move between desktop and mobile, however, you'd need to ensure that the pasted image was fairly narrow so that you don't have to sideways-scroll.
Relatedly, people suggested generating a document that is simply the Italian text with empty space beneath it for typing in of the translation. This can be done either semi-automated, using a macro or a language like Python, or find-and-replace on, say, the stops at the ends of sentences. It basically outputs the same as above but with a more digitally accessible format, without any more effort than above. If you were to do this in Google Sheets you could also fix the column width so that it didn't do anything weird when you opened it on your phone. But it is still very friction-y, and does not allow for easy shifting of the Italian as needed. There's high probability of the translation breaking weirdly across the page. Still a top option in terms of simplicity and access.
@smokeandholograms suggested another variation illustrated here where essentially you're converting the text to a series of tables, with each paragraph a row, and an empty cell next to it for the translation. I might play around more with this one eventually, since I think I could possibly make it a three-column and put the Italian in one, the translation in the next, and the auto-translate to let me know where I might be slipping in the third. (Not that I trust auto-translate but comparing a hand translation to an auto translation can be useful in terms of working out when I've messed up the way a tense or mood is read. I tend to read indirect verbs as automatically imperative because I'm a weirdo.)
@wynjara linked to an add-in for Word specifically designed for translators, known as TransTools; this appears to employ a macro to do the same thing, though it does have a format where you can place the translation next to each sentence directly rather than in a separate cell. The full suite of tools is only $45 which is reasonable for my budget, but for what I need I think I could also just create the macro.
Using LaTeX as a tool specially designed for glossing was an option on offer, but I don't know enough about LaTeX to figure out the pros of this one, which is in itself the major con -- there's a learning curve that I think varies widely by person but for me is unfortunately a wall. It came out of a discussion on Reddit about trying to find something like what I want; also in that discussion is a link to a code generator that allows you to…do something…to the initial language, but it's not entirely clear to me (I'm sure it's clear to people who understand coding) what you would then do with it that would allow it to be output in the way I'm hoping for. Like, I could turn a paragraph of text into HTML, I understand that far, but any Italian I find is already on a website.
Moving more into apps that might work, Redditors on the LaTeX discussion suggested SIL Fieldworks, which is a professional language tech tool. Fieldworks isn't a program I'd previously encountered but much as with the ones I had, it looks like the learning curve is fairly steep and it is definitely overkill generally for what I need, though it might also harbor within it the thing I want. It is free, so I may download and play around with it.
@brightwanderer suggested using note-taking or "whiteboard" apps such as Freeform or Nebo; these are generally a kind of "infinite canvas" in which you can drop objects, text boxes, or handwriting. I don't know that Freeform would be measurably different to just using Word and a macro, since I'd still have to input/format all the text and then be stuck with the same "fixed text" setup -- and it's also iOS only -- but for some folks it might be more helpful. Nebo is a similar infinite-canvas with unfortunately the same issues, though on the plus it's available for Android, which is where most of my mobile property resides.
@bloodbright suggested that I was looking for a CAT tool, a professional translation tool mainly used by translators working in the field. This was a concept I'd encountered, but I hadn't found a good starting place. They suggested Smartcat and OmegaT. Smartcat bills itself as an AI translation platform and is HARD pushing the "don't translate it yourself, hire a translator or let AI do it" angle, so it's difficult to tell what it offers in terms of actual tools for translators, and it's also cagey about pricing, so I can't really evaluate it. OmegaT is free and gives off big "some weirdo homebrewed this in their basement" vibe (which I am here for) but I also recognized it from screengrabs that were the reason I veered away from professional-grade software: it looked too complex. Realistically, the major downside of OmegaT is that I don't think I can put it on my phone. One thing I did find interesting is that once you translate a portion of the text, the original language goes away, though I assume you can turn that off if needed. I do kind of like that because it means my distractable brain is looking at Less Stuff.
So where did I end up?
Well, it looked like I was going to have to try a homebrew myself. I had the idea of trying some of the initial suggestions but in reverse -- designing a document where every other line was a single-cell table fixed to the page. You could paste in the Italian, which would wrap around the cells, and then enter the English in the cells.
You can fix a table in place in Google Docs -- you click on the table, then under Table > Style select Wrap Text, Both Sides, and Fix On Page. Getting the whole page set up is a little labor intensive but once you did that, you could just save it as a template and make a duplicate of it each time. And this actually works….on desktop.
Unfortunately, if you open it in the mobile Docs app, the app can't handle the fixed tables and automatically moves them all to after the text that's been pasted in. I tried redesigning it so that it's a table within a table -- one for the Italian, then within that a series of them for the English -- but when you nest a table in Google Docs, it doesn't let you fix the second table in place. And you are also still dealing with the wrap issue, although you can resize the page and add a large right-hand margin as a kludge of a fix for that.
You can build this same kind of document in Word, so I tried building one in Word and then uploading it to Drive, but when you open the Word file in Docs (or in Microsoft Word for Android), it still strips the fixed positioning -- there's just some functionality missing from both apps that doesn't allow them to handle fixed-position tables.
So, the design is sound, just not the final execution. If I could program an app, I could probably remedy the issues with it -- it's simply a series of text boxes nested inside one another with different formatting. I would imagine that's relatively basic to set up, although given that neither Docs nor Word can handle fixed tables in mobile, perhaps I've stumbled on a much bigger problem that everyone is ignoring because nobody actually needs or wants fixed tables in mobile. :D
Experimentation is ongoing, anyway. I might simply have to resign myself to the fact that my translation study is going to have to be in front of a computer, which might be for the best anyway when I inevitably want to compare my translation to an auto-translate to see where I might have read something wrong.
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iguana-eyanna · 2 years
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Took You Long Enough
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Pairing: Shayne Topp x fem!reader
Summary: All of your friends are tired of you and Shayne flirting with each other even if you two claim your friends, so they have to take matters into their own hands
Requested by @winifrede , hope you like it!
You walked into work, feeling energized.
This has been your fifth year working at Smosh. You handled the writing in your first two years, then after a few cameo appearances, you became a full cast member.
You go to the kitchen first, wanting to grab a Celsius before the office meeting.
"Celsius? I'm surprised you didn't go to your regular coffee place down the street." a voice asks out loud.
You smile to yourself, turning around with your drink as you saw Shayne.
He was by the shelves, trying to find one of his snacks that he purposely hides in the back.
"Wanted to change things up a bit, but I also chose to stay sane and not jittery every 5 minutes."
Shayne laughs, giving you his signature grin.
"That reminds me, did you like that book I gave you? I know it wasn't your type of genre, but it made me think of you." He says, giving you his full attention as his snack was long forgotten.
Your eyes brighten as you dig in your bag on your side, digging to find it.
"I loved it so much! I think this has to be my top 5 books. Thank you for lending it to me." You said, offering it back to him.
"Anytime. Let me know if you want any other recs." He said. You two talked a bit more before you had to go, but what you didn't know was that a few of your friends were secretly watching you two.
"See how they flirt with each other? No wonder they have fan edits." Jackie points out from her chair. It was true, since you've been in more videos, the fans speculated how you and Shayne had great chemistry on screen and on vlogs. But Shayne always said that hasn't dated in a long time and you've been trying to see people (but haven't found anything long-term).
"I'm really surprised they haven't thought of dating each other by now. They seem really good together." Kimmy said, sighing.
"Too perfect." Damien mutters softly as he was working on his computer.
Jackie and Kimmy perk their heads up and look at their friend who hasn't realized what he said.
"Is there something you would like to share with the class?" Jackie asks, a bit too hostile.
Damien stops typing his keyboard as he realized that he made a mistake.
"I- um, don't know what you're talking about." Damien says, acting dumb.
Jackie and Kimmy get up in unison and corner Damien in his seat.
"Spill it Haas." Kimmy says, pointing her finger at her.
Damien raises his hands in the air for defense, squinting his eyes.
"Okay, okay! You got me." He says. The two girls lean in closer so no one could hear but them.
"Shayne and I were hanging out at his place and I noticed he got new books. I asked where he got them and he said he was borrowing them from her. After that, he just started rambling on and on about what they had in common. Then, he was thinking of asking her out on a date."
Jackie and Kimmy squeal almost jumping up and down.
"Wait, why hasn't Shayne asked her out yet?" Kimmy asks.
Damien sighs. "He's tried, but he's too shy when he tries asking her. I guess since he's still trading books with her, he still likes her, even if it's killing him that they're just friends.
"Well, we have to change that. And I know how..." Jackie says in an evil tone, looking at her desktop for her unfinished script for their upcoming video: Smosh Pit Theater.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most of the cast was on set for shooting the fan fiction video. There was you, Jackie, Damien, Chanse, Angie, Kimmy, Courtney, and Shayne. Everyone was wearing their black turtlenecks.
You were all about to record as you explained the audience of what's to come.
"Hello everyone. Today, we will be showing a special type of Smosh Theater. Not only did some of our cast members wrote fanfiction about us, but we have a bigger budget as well!" Damien said at the camera.
Now it was Kimmy's turn to speak to the camera. "All of the budget was used on props and costumes! Our writers today are Jackie, Courtney, and Damien." they all take their individual bows.
"No one knows what the writers wrote so we are acting this out for the first time." you later explained.
"This is a serious production and we are serious actors." Shayne says with a pretentious voice.
"Without further ado, let us begin." Courtney concluded.
Since she had the floor, it was her turn first. Courtney wrote about the members surviving in a post apocalyptic world.
Then, it was Damien's turn. He wrote a fic that was about the smosh members in a spy noir setting where they tried to find out who killed their boss, Ian Hecox. You thought it was such a great script.
Finally, it was Jackie (who looked a little too giddy). She steps right up and holds a stack of papers in her hands. "This fanfiction was inspired by two of my friends, known to swap their favorite books to each other. I think it's hella cute."
You look a bit off-guard as well as Shayne, not knowing what will come next. "I was too eager to write this that it only took me a day. For our final fanfiction, I give you 'A Hidden Chapter of Our Love,' written by me."
She starts giving everyone their roles:
Shayne is the lead role, a soft-spoken bookworm
Damien was a theater kid who wants to go to Juliard
Chanse is the captain of the cheerleading team & the school bully
Courtney was the narrator *her lines will be italicized*
Kimmy was the ditzy cheerleader
Angie was the misfit, who often got in trouble
Jackie was a prestigious art student
and you, the only nice, popular cheerleader who starts to fall in love with the bookworm, Shayne
Everyone started wearing their costumes, fitting into their roles. You, Kimmy, and Chanse had pom poms, Shayne had books, Damien was wearing a black scarf with that hat from the musical Newsies, Jackie held a sketchpad, and Angie wore a leather jacket.
Everyone had a script in their hands and was ready to act out Jackie's script.
Scene 1: The Meet Up
It was the first day at Smosh High, and students were eager to have a memorable senior year.
Here we have Shayne, a shy scholarly student who wished to get out of his small town and go to his dream university.
"Just a few more months and I can get the hell out of here." Shayne said, shifting his glasses.
"Don't I know it." Damien replied.
Damien was Shayne's best friend since junior high. He was always the star of each show he's done. And like Shayne, wants to leave the bounds of his old life and rise like the phoenix he is.
They walk in the hallway to find their homeroom and accidentally bump into a group of cheerleaders.
"Watch it, nerds."
Chanse said, knocking down Shayne's books to the floor. Chanse was the most ruthless cheerleader at their high school. he often picked on people who weren't in the cheer squad or in a sport.
"Yeah, what he said." Kimmy replied.
Kimmy was your pretty cheerleader that all the students wished to have, but at times was pretty clueless. The two strutted away except for one cheerleader.
"I'm sorry about my friends." You said, kneeling down to help Shayne with his books.
That was the only nice cheerleader on the squad. She wasn't like the other girls, and had a dark secret that only two people know in this school. She can't help but notice how cute this blonde guy with his books.
You and Shayne can't help but snicker after those words.
"Don't bother, you don't want to be seen with a low life like me." Shayne said, brushing you aside.
She got up and shyly looks over her shoulder till she hears Chanse calling her to follow them to the lockers.
"I don't get why you're so mean to her, she was just trying to help." Damien says.
Shayne rolls his eyes.
"It's all just an act. Cheerleaders like her would do anything to be recognized to become prom queen."
Shayne stated as the two make their way to homeroom.
Scene 2: You Again?
Jackie and Angie were talking into their first period of AP Literature and see their friend since kindergarten come late and sit next to them.
"Well well well, the popular girl is gracing us with her presence." Angie said, pretending to bow.
"Ha ha, very funny." You said.
"You sure Chanse won't be upset when he hears you're talking with us?" Jackie asks, pretending to draw on her paper.
"No, I don't get why he told the squad we can't have any other friends outside of the team. I love you guys I want us to have the best senior year ever." You said.
Jackie and Angie aw as they all hug.
"By the way, the teacher told us that we got paired up randomly with the people in our class for the entire year. Me and Angie got paired up." Jackie says.
"And you got paired with Shayne in the back, you two will hit off since you both love-"
The cheerleader shushes Angie, looking around to see if anyone heard.
"You know you can't say my secret to the school. If word got out, I'll be done." You exaggerated.
Angie rolls her eyes as she puts her feet on the table.
"I'll meet up with Shayne but I'll see you guys after school?"
They wave goodbye while you make your way to Shayne who was reading a book.
"Whatcha reading?" You ask.
"It's called 'None of your beeswax.'" Shayne stubbornly says.
"Ouch." your friends said offscreen.
"Look, we're about to work together for the entire year. Can we try to at least tolerate each other?" you ask.
"Fine." Shayne says.
The bell rings and everyone gets out of their seats, collecting their things. The cheerleader and the bookworm decide to meet during the weekend to talk about their project.
When Shayne looks down at her seat, he sees that she left a book that she must have forgotten. He picks it up, reading the cover.
"Pride & Prejudice? Why does she have this?" He asks out loud.
What he doesn't know is that he's about to unlock your biggest secret.
Later on, the plot thickens as your character and Shayne begin flirt with each other.
"-and that's how Damien and I are banned from the local Denny's."
You laugh at his story as you tuck your hair behind your ear.
"You know, you're pretty nice when you're not rude to me."
"and you're not as stuck up as I thought you'd be." Shayne replied.
Shayne gives you a gaze, trying to figure out who is this girl.
"By the way, I've been meaning to give you back something." Shayne said, taking out your copy of Pride & Prejudice.
"Where did you get that?" you ask, dramatically.
"You left this on your desk. I thought this was for school but this wasn't on the reading list."
She takes it away from him, hugging it closely.
"Be careful! It's a hardcover." You whispered, peering down to see if it was damaged.
"You're nervous that I found a book, you're the only cheerleader in our AP Lit, are you..."
Shayne leans closer into her ear.
"A bookworm?"
You try so hard to stifle a laugh. You got back into character and look at Shayne.
"Yes, I've been hiding it since I was 12 years old."
Shayne gasps out loud, surprised. A smart cheerleader in his presence? He thought those never existed.
"Dear god." Chanse said behind the camera.
"Promise not a word goes out. Only my friends, Angie and Jackie, know. I'm just trying to get by till graduation, then I could be whoever I want to be."
"You know, I feel that. Your secret is safe with me." He says.
Scene 3: Everything falls apart
After her secret was revealed to Shayne, they start to hang out more. They trade books behind the football stands and often hid in the library, discussing the plots of each story they read.
"Wait, you like hanging out with that Shayne guy? I thought he hated your guts!" Angie says.
"His best friend is so hot, especially when he sings Santa Fe." Jackie giggles.
Damien hides his face in his hands, feeling slightly flustered.
"I thought so too, but he seems sweet. I'm happy thatI found someone who has something in common with me."
"Or rather someone you like." Jackie hinted.
"We're just friends, nothing more. Let's go, we're going to be late for class." You said, getting your bag and heading your separate ways.
What the girls didn't know was that Kimmy was in the background, hearing every word her cheerleader friend said.
"Chanse will definitely want to hear this." she said, running away to find him.
Switch to Damien and Shayne who were by the lockers, talking mindlessly.
"So prom is coming up, do you think you're going?" Damien says.
"Prom is just a stupid event where teenagers are stuck in a room all night secretly hating on each other's guts in the school's gym." Shayne says, annoyed.
"So... no." Damien asks.
"You out of all people should know that I am not going to set foot at a school dance."
"I thought you could ask that cheerleader out since you've been sneaking off after school to the library. I'm thinking of asking that girl Jackie, she's so talented, and pretty, and smart, and pretty..."
"Whoa. what makes you think I should ask her?" Shayne asks.
"You guys are like Benedick and Beatrice from Shakespeare’s finest works. You both hate each other with a passion. Then, you realize you two are meant to be."
"Yeah, meant to be..." Shayne repeats his friends words.
Towards the end of the day, Chanse and Kimmy confront there fellow cheermate.
"Look girl, we need you to focus our way to the Cheer championships. You can't be associated yourself with some geeks. It'll ruin our image." Chanse snapped.
"Yeah, what Chanse said." Kimmy said
"So drop your loser friends, or you're off the team." Chanse said, strutting away with Kimmy.
"Hey!" A voice cried out. The cheerleader turns around to see Shayne running towards her, hiding something behind his back.
"I know we shouldn't be caught talking together in public, but I wanted to ask you somethi-"
"Shayne." You stopped him.
She takes a deep breath and is about to say something that she will soon regret.
"I don't think we should carry on about us: being friends and all. You're just a bookworm and I'm a cheerleader. We shouldn't mix." You said, walking away.
Shayne takes out a bouquet of flowers and throws them to the ground.
Everyone behind the camera feels bad for his character as they aw in pity.
"Prom is a waste of time... and so does pretty girls that break your heart."
After that scene, everyone changed into their prom outfits. Once you've changed, you were going back to set but you could hear someone saying your name. You were about to ask who it was but you see Damien and Shayne with their backs toward you, oblivious that you were there.
"I think Jackie is trying to get me and her to pair up." Shayne says.
"Really? I haven't noticed." Damien lies, trying to hid Jackie's secret.
"Like the switching books concept? We've just been doing that for a couple of years, it's not that romantic."
Damien looks at his friend who was clearly in denial.
"It's just us, tell me what's wrong man."
Shayne takes a deep breath.
"What I'm scared most is the kissing scene. I just... don't want things to change between us."
You feel your heart go down in your stomach. Of course he doesn't like you like that. You were about to leave until you heard Shayne speak up.
"I'm falling hard for her. And every time I don't tell her how I feel, it's just another day of letting her go."
Damien sighs and pats his friend's back.
"You'll never know how she feels until you ask her."
They sound like they were about to leave, so you made sure you were out of sight. At that moment, you knew what to do now.
Everyone gets ready for the prom scene on set. Courtney resumes her narrative.
Scene 5: One Final Dance
It was prom night. Everyone was dressed and was excited for tonight's festivities. Damien and Shayne walk in to their school gym.
"Thanks for coming man, you know you didn't have to come." Damien says.
"Don't worry, I'm just here to make sure you don't look like a fool in front of Jackie." Shayne said.
Then comes out Jackie and Angie. Jackie was sporting a ball gown while Angie was wearing a slip dress with her signature leather jacket and converse.
"Hi Dami, you look very handsome." Jackie says, hiding her giggles.
"And you look as radiant as the sun, m'lady." Damien bowed, kissing her hand.
"Ugh. Gross guys." Angie said.
The new couple hook their arms and make their way to the dance floor.
"Forced to come here too?" Shayne asks Angie.
"Yeah, Jackie would have lost her mind if she didn't have her moral support system. Thank god I didn't have to handle her alone."
"Who else did you guys come with?" Shayne asks.
"That would be me." a voice said.
Shayne turns around and sees you in a really pretty dress.
"Wow" Shayne said, not following the script anymore.
Angie makes her way out as someone cues some slow dance music that wasn't copyrighted.
Shayne tries to look away, crossing his arms as he looks down at the script.
"Thought you didn't want to be seen with me?" He asks.
"I had a change of heart, especially when I quit the Cheer squad."
Shayne turns around, not believing her words.
"Why did you do that? Don't you want to be popular?" He asks.
"No, I don't think I ever did. I just got lost of where I belong in high school."
"And where do you want to belong?" He asks.
"In your arms."
Everyone oohs off screen as you and Shayne blush like idiots.
Shayne awkwardly places his hands around your waist as you wrap yours around his neck.
"Remember when you gave me back my book? I wanted to give you something else." You said, silently gulping.
"What did you want to give me?" Shayne shyly asks, thinking you'll just give him a kiss on the cheek.
"This." you whispered.
You lean in to Shayne and kissed his lips. Your heart was beating a thousand times per second. You pull away and look at Shayne who looked off guard.
You look scared, not knowing if this was the best idea. It wasn't until Shayne dropped his script and kissed you again, holding you tight against him. You held on too, as your script was long forgotten.
Everyone of your friends cheered on. You two couldn't tell how much time passed till you heard someone speak up.
"Uh, guys? We're still rolling." Garrett said. You and Shayne pull away, looking a bit out of breath.
"Sorry, got lost in the scene." Shayne said as you two picked up your scripts on the floors.
"Mmm hmmm" Chanse hummed as people started to break out of laughter.
After the scene was done, you all wrapped up the episode and congratulated each other on a job well done.
When you dressed back, you bump into Shayne unexpectedly.
"H-Hi." you nervously stutter.
"Hey, I was um, actually looking for you."
"Oh, what's up?" You said, already knowing what he wanted to ask.
"That kiss... it really meant a lot to me. But I, I wished we could had our first kiss after a first date."
"Shayne Topp, are you asking me out?" You asked, smiling.
"Yes, I'd love if we could go on a date together."
"Took you long enough." You said, making him chuckle.
You two went out of the studio to head to your favorite cafe down the street, walking hand in hand.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"All that hard work and they didn't thank us." Jackie says as Kimmy and Damien see that you two weren't around.
"I'm sure they'll say something later. For now, let them have fun." Kimmy smiled.
Damien gets a buzz from his phone and sees a text from Shayne.
He opens it and sees it's a pic with you and Shayne smiling with a message:
Thanks for the meddling, wouldn't be here without your guys' help. Will let you know how it goes.
Damien just chuckles and puts away his phone, letting his friend enjoy his first date with you as Jackie and Kimmy are already planning your wedding.
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kitthepurplepotato · 8 months
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Chapter 14 - That’s what friends are for
Summary: Izuku shows his Sweet Pea around his secret lair. Katsuki doesn’t appreciate being ignored.
One loaf of bread was murdered during the making of chapter. Blame Kirishima.
Warnings: Swear words, a lot of kisses
First Chapter Master List
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“I guess, I owe you an explanation.” Izuku sighs, looking anywhere but you, his cheeks tinted pink.
Honestly, you would be happier to just get a kiss, but the state of this “secret lair” is also quite concerning and would probably be nice for it to make some sense to you before you end up calling the mental hospital on the poor guy.
“That would certainly be helpful, Izu.”
The walls all covered with bookshelves on all the sides except the one with the “door”. There is a massive cork board there filled with pictures, newspaper cutouts and official statements from the agency covering up a map of the word. There is also a bigger map just of japan, that one is filled with several printouts, most of them around the Tokyo area but there are a few articles pinned to Rishiri and Wakkanai in the Hokkaido prefecture then another several to Korsakov and Nevelks in Russia.
The bookshelf are half filled with books, mostly of geography, history and other topics that might come in handy for a case and the other half is filled with thousands of notebooks, all looking worn out from the constant use.
There is a massive corner desktop a meter away from the actual corner so there is enough space for Izuku to move around the bookshelves. He could walk circles around the whole place with no problem and knowing how restless Izuku he probably did that a several thousand times already. The left part of the desktop is full of paperwork and the other one has the same single person CCTV setup as the people in his agency. By the look of it he’s been looking at a footage of a harbor before you came here.
“Okay, so…” Izuku takes a deep breath. “These notebooks are the ones I’ve written about the heroes when I was young. I’ve kept up with this hobby so there are also a few new ones there about the current heroes. This place was supposed to be my little geek corner where I can write my silly little notes and geek out over quirks. This… has changed a lot since this case came by. This place was supposed to be my mind palace, a place where I can re-gain my motivation, my strength, to remember my roots. The cork board on the wall is about this case as well. I think I’ve found a connection between Japan and Russia. I saw an unregistered ship on the CCTV leaving the harbor in Russia heading our way, probably full of illegal drugs or props, I don’t really know. I sent my findings over to my team an hour ago. They probably have all of this information anyway but Katsuki asked everyone to leave me out of the work e-mails for the time being and it frustrates me to not know how the case is going…” frustrated tears roll down Izuku’s cheeks. You can’t help but run over to your boyfriend and hug him to soothe his troubled soul.
“You know I understand why you are doing this, right?” You mumble into his ear and Izuku starts sobbing. “You know you should’ve just told me this and I would have understood. Katsuki made a massive mistake by leaving you out of this. I know it came from a good place but he should have known you won’t be able to sleep well without seeing those e-emails, seeing that they are indeed working on the case.”
“I’ll stop, Sweets. I swear this is the last time…” Izuku begs, but there is no reason for him to do so.
“You don’t need to, Izuku. I’m not mad. You just need to take a deep breath. Relax. Then come back here, do your thing for a few hours and once you close that door, leave all the pain behind. I don’t think you working on this case is a bad thing.” You admit. “It doesn’t make your recovery longer and it helps to soothe your soul knowing that you did your part. As I said, I understand. We will talk to Katsuki, okay?”
“That won’t make this place feel less dreadful, though. It’s not… fun to be here anymore and I hate that.” Izuku mumbles with his cheeks red.
“I can help with that.” You give Izuku a cheeky smile and he perks up right away.
“Tell me the plan, boss.”
“Are those papers on your desk important?” You nod towards the massive mess and Izuku looks at you with a confused face. He’s so cute, even with the dried tears dirtying his puffy cheeks.
“Let’s make paper cranes. Whoever does the most wins.” You give Izuku a shit eating grin while he stares at you incredulously.
“That’s your big plan, Sweets?” Izuku finally laughs, the sound loud and airy. Oh how much you missed that laugh.
“You are laughing, aren’t you? So shut the fuck up and get to work.”
Izuku is terrible at this. His fingers are too chunky to make the cranes look neat but he does his best and the frustration on his face is playful, a face of a kid ready for a challenge. It takes him a whole hour to get the hang of it but after that you two manage to clear out the desk almost completely. There are only a few papers left now, and there are at least 30 cranes sitting on the keyboard, most of them made by you but there is a constant smile on Izuku’s face so the pain in your fingers was definitely worth it.
“And now that the desk is almost clean…” You push yourself up to sit down on it, legs sprawled out to make space for Izuku to come between them. “It’s time for the boss to reward his hard-working assistant with some cheeky kisses!”
Izuku snorts. It’s hilarious.
“Oh, office AU? Forbidden love? I love that trope!”
Now it’s your time you laugh like a maniac.
“Oh my god, Izuku, you sound like me, that’s unacceptable!”
“Hey, where’s the respect for the big bad boss?” Izuku uses black whip pull you towards him, tentacles snaking around your waist until there is no space between you two at all.
“Are we actually gonna role play?” You ask between two snickers.
“No, it’s really fucking weird to be honest.” He giggles back and attacks your mouth with so much fervor you barely have time to reciprocate first but after a few seconds you finally kiss back, your legs snaking around his middle to pull him even closer. The kisses get deeper and deeper as the time goes, his tongue dancing with yours and you somehow end up sprawled on the desktop, your neck bent in a really uncomfortable way as you try to keep your posture so he can kiss you deeply. Izuku takes your head in his hand to help with the strain of your neck, and you just kiss and kiss and kiss, devouring the other until Izuku’s stomach makes a growling noise and you both start laughing, completely flushed and lips red.
“Wanna get a home made bento from me so we can share it on the rooftop of our office and share cheeky kisses while eating?”
“I’m quite sure those fanfictions usually end with the secretary being bent over a desk screaming the boss’s name.” Izuku retorts cheekily. You can’t help but laugh out loud again.
“You kiss your mother with that mouth?” You mumble as you pepper small kisses on Izuku’s lips who’s smiling like an idiot, content and happy for once.
“Don’t tell her, she’ll cry.” Izuku help you up with one hand and makes his way towards the exit. “Come on, I’m starving.” Izuku takes your hand and pulls you forward but he only makes a few steps before your back ends up against the hallway wall. Izuku steals a few more passionate kisses, moaning about not being able to use his other hand then walks towards the main exit again then stops after a few meters and kisses you again like he’s trying to make up for the time wasted in the last 7 days. Eventually, you make it to the exit, stumbling out of the hallway in each other’s arms (well, one arm in Izuku’s case. Duh.) but a loud “OI” coming from Izuku’s bed ruins the moment.
Katsuki and Eijirou are sitting on the end of the bed, Eijirou looking smug with a knowing smile on his face while Katsuki blushes like a virgin seeing people making out for the first time.
“I told you there is no reason to freak out, Kats.” Eijirou says loudly, a shit eating grin blooming on his face.
“Why the fuck do they even have phones if they don’t fucking use them?!” Katsuki throws your phone in your face and you barely catch it before it hits you straight in the face. You almost burst out laughing as you read the messages.
Group chat: Deku updates
2 days ago
You: He’s still not talking to me. He looks tired. I don’t think he sleeps properly.
Ei: That does sound like Izuku. Don’t worry. He’ll be back in a few more days. Did he eat?
You: Yeah, a bit.
Katsuki: All good, then.
Today
Katsuki: I’m going to the store, need anything?
Katsuki: That protein shit Deku likes is on sale, want me to buy some?
Katsuki: Oi
Katsuki: Don’t fucking ignore me you punk
Katsuki: I bought 10 bags of it, good luck putting that away, you piece of shit.
Katsuki: Oh, they have a limited edition All Might chocolate, there is only one left!
Katsuki: Oh well, someone bought it and ate it. How sad. *picture of Katsuki biting All Might’s head off.*
Katsuki: WHY ARE YOU NOT RESPONDING YOU FUCKING FREELOADER
Katsuki: DEKU ISN’T RESPONDING EITHER WHAT THE FUCK
Katsuki: I’M COMING OVER AND I’LL SHOVE YOUR STUPID PHONES INTO YOUR ASSES YOU USELESS BUNCH!!!
“So here I was, fucking worrying my ass off about you two, while you were busy fucking in Izuku’s secret room. Peachy. Also, I ate the food on the table. It was fucking cold anyway. Fuck you.”
Izuku actually gawks at that, his stomach making a rumbling noise just a second after.
“What Katsuki is trying to say is that we ate the cold food and made you guys some lovely spicy lentil soup instead as it’s way past breakfast anyway. We went into a cute little bakery on our way and got you guys some fresh bread! It was still hot when we bought it!” Eijirou says with dazzling eyes.
“What Ei is trying to say is that he bought two loaves of fresh bread and ate one of them on the way here. The whole fucking loaf. He just… tore into it like an animal. I think I want to divorce. I’m living with a monster.”
“Says the guy who eats a full ass ghost pepper like it’s a fucking apple.”
“I ship you guys so much.” You mumble out without meaning to and Izuku starts giggling.
“You are such a nerd.”
“I’ve never thought I’ll hear Izuku saying that to anyone. You two really are two peas in a pod.” Eijirou adds on, but Katsuki is done with the small talk and ushers everyone to go to eat.
The soup is amazing and when you bring up the topic about the e-mails, Katsuki is surprisingly understanding.
“If you think that’s okay then… yeah, we can do that.”
And that’s it. A few hours after that Izuku gets his first work e-mail and he almost cries from happiness because his findings were actually right and the guys managed to pinpoint the exact location of their warehouse just an hour after he sent them the e-mail.
Then he actually cries, but this time, from the relief.
“This week was so bad. I missed you much. I’m so tired and so stressed about to future, this fucking cast is so itchy and my butt hurts from all the sitting!” Izuku laughs in the middle of his crying fit, somehow happy about feeling all of those things all at once. “Fuck, I thought being stressed is the worst thing but whatever I’ve been through this week was far worse than anything I’ve ever felt. I was so empty. I swear my soul wasn’t a part of my own body. It was so terrible, Sweets! I would rather get another blast in my chest than go through another week like this!”
“Don’t say that!” You reprimand right away. “Also, whatever it was, it’s over now. You are back. You’ll be fine. 2 more weeks and the cast will be gone, too. Now cuddle the shit out of me, you stupid.” You plop yourself down next to him on the sofa, ready to be loved.
“Kiss attack!” Izuku is back to his normal self, giggling and laughing as he kisses you all over until it’s time to go to bed… And finally, you don’t need to go to bed alone.
“I love you, Sweets.” Izuku mumbles, his face hidden in your neck as per usual. The bed is so warm and comforting you can barely keep yourself from falling asleep in the middle of your answer.
“I love you too, Izu-Izu.”
… next chapter!
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
- Jesus Christ, finally done with the angst! I hated every second! Every single one of it!!!!
- The next chapter might be late, I got hooked on a manga called “signs of affection”. The first few episodes of the anime is out if you guys wanna give it a go! I swear it’s the cutest shit I’ve ever read/watched! So yeah, I binged the whole manga in a few days after I watched the first episode but I got so distracted I haven’t written the new chapter yet so if it’s late, I’m sorry. I also posted all the angst chapters 1-2 days ahead of my usual schedule so… LET ME BREATHE 😂
- I choose Korsakov and Nevelks because they are the “closest” cities to Japan. Just check the map and you will see the vision. It’s not important though, I won’t go into too much details about the case in the future, but I thought it would be nice to have a peek into it!
- While writing this chapter I realized that technically, Izuku would be able to keep himself on top with the help of black whip… Now the only question is; are these two desperate enough to use Black Whip at their first time or do they wait until Izuku’s hand is healed completely and can lean on it? Let me know what you think. 😂
- Eijirou’s terrible way of eating bread was actually inspired by me. 😂 I’m a celiac so I can’t have bread and most of the gluten free breads taste like ass. There was this small bakery a few streets down from my flat, in Budapest, Hungary, and they were selling freshly made GF bread. Me and my friends went over to my flat and I was too hungry so I took the whole bread out of the packaging and literally just tore into it like an animal and stuffed half of the bread into my mouth in one go and my friend almost died. (Mind you, I’m really small, 158 cm and 45 kg 😂) She couldn’t look into my eyes the whole day. I still miss that bread so much that every time my bestie comes over to England I ask her to bring me some haha
- The next chapter will be called Br0cc0liB0i! 😂
- Also, have you seen the new Kirishima x reader ficc I started to post? It’s super fluffy and cute! Check it out! Please!
TL: @garfieldthomas @porusuniverse @stickygumchewer @sixxze @mily-moo @aei-sedai-moiraine @aymasakusa @katsuari @kenzie-deadly @shiviwrites07 @lukerycyja-reblogs @cloroxisadelectabletreat @coffeent @kisskissshutmydoor @bobcar1 @yazminetrahan @cringefan @ronimacaroni77 @thekookiecorner @dangerousluv1 @emperatris-rinaka @shotos-angelic-whore @angelsdemonsmonsters @norvacaine @rei165 @unofficialmuilover @yao-ai @happydragonfrog @eeerreehhh @vinivave
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lovingseventeen · 1 year
Note
Hello! I've been stalking your blog and I can't explain how much I love your writings, they made my day 🥺 Anyway, if it's okay, can you do svt as your co-worker (could be just platonic/romantic/both, whatever you prefer). Thank you in advance! ✨️
svt as your coworker
a/n: AAAA so sorry to get back to you so late 😭 i hope you still get to read this and enjoy it,, i tried to write this as platonic with the hint of something more?
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seungcheol:
○ quite the good employee
○ in his nature to lead group meetings and be pretty proactive in delegating roles that are suitable for everyone
○ always checks in with you that you’re okay with your work load and offers to help too
○ is it relevant that he looks very good with the sleeves of his button-up rolled up?
jeonghan:
○ master of wasting the company time and he somehow drags you into it
○ definitely plays some kind of little game with you every day
○ you both have used up several packs of post-its due to endless rounds of hangman, tic-tac-toe, etc
○ he loves to bet little prizes like “okay so over whoever loses has to buy lunch tomorrow”
○ he loves to waste time but is also somehow occasionally employee of the month???
joshua:
○ definitely the office hunk
○ half the company has a crush on him (how could you blame anyone, look at him)
○ definitely the kind of gentleman to grab coffee for himself but also bring back some extra drinks for those who sit near him too
○ when you try to pay him back he just smiles and brushes off your offer “you don’t need to do that” with the sweetest smile ever
jun:
○ always falls asleep at his desk but also never gets caught
○ is either very productive or doing nothing at all, no in between
○ you have to nudge him awake when you hear that the ceo is walking around the office and you swear your heart skips a beat when he looks at you in his sleepy state
hoshi:
○ one of the company’s long-time employees
○ a funny guy but also super reliable and hardworking so most people tend to look for him for help
○ you call him over to review something on your laptop and he’s leaning on your desk with one arm
○ when you talk to him he watches you intently and you’re wondering why your face suddenly feels hot?
wonwoo:
○ he’s quiet and always finishes his duties efficiently
○ the kind to send one-sentence emails (idk why i thought this seemed very him)
○ he sits across from you and when your eyes meet over your desktops you quickly turn back to your screen (you don’t realize he’s chuckling)
woozi:
○ employee of the month honestly
○ one of the people in the company who moved up the ranks pretty fast and at a pretty young age (he’s younger than most of the people with the same position)
○ he overhears your music playing through your headphones in the elevator one day (some of you will get this reference i hope)
○ “is that [insert obscure band]?” he’ll ask. you lift one side of your headphones to hear him and you nod happily when you realize his question. (from then on he has a little crush on you and he tries to start conversations in the future by asking if you’ve heard about that band’s new release!)
minghao:
○ you were a little intimidated by him at first
○ there’s no other way to describe it other than he looks so effortlessly cool, with his subtle piercings and painted nails amidst his business attire
○ you realize he’s warmer than you think when you work up the courage to compliment his nails
mingyu:
○ he’s employee of the month #2, also a very diligent guy
○ honestly a joyous person to share a desk with
○ “good morning ~~” he’ll say as he settles in for the day
○ from the second he gives you that wolffish grin you know this is gonna be a problem
dokyeom:
○ the kind of sweetheart to stay with you during your overtime so that you aren’t the only person left in the office
○ “you don’t need to stay!” you try to tell him, feeling a little bad you’re stopping someone from going home. he even has his bag all packed up
○ “y/n trust me, it’s a little scary when no one else is here” he assures you, “i stayed here one time and something dropped in one of the cubicles and it freaked me out” (he left out the part that he bolted out of the office when he heard that)
○ you think about it for a bit, opting to just hurry a little bit with your tasks. “okay fine, i’ll try not to take too long”
○ while you work, he even goes so far as to go to one of the vending machines down the hall to get you both a snack
○ bonus: on your way out you playfully go “did you hear that?” and his eyes widen immediately, “hear WHAT?”
seungkwan:
○ would be employee of the month if he didn’t get into arguments with coworkers here and there 😭
○ not a rude employee by any means but he’s just passionate about doing well
○ it is so nice when you get paired to work with him because he motivates you to do so well too
○ the longer you work with him, you do get to see more relaxed sides of him and he even hums a little while he works (soon you discover he’s incredible at singing)
vernon:
○ also doesn’t talk too much, not exactly because he’s busy but he also tends to sit idly sometimes, rotating on his chair to pass time LOL
○ he’s great to work with though, he’s so chill and open-minded that he’ll let you take the lead but also input his ideas when he feels necessary
○ you start talking to him when you come in on a monday, a little excited, “did you see the movie that everyone’s talking about?” you ask
○ his eyebrows raise and he sits up in his chair because he has in fact seen that movie
○ thus ensues emails about work but also with a movie recommendation in the final line
chan:
○ was the baby of the office when he was just an intern but he’s a hard-worker so he eventually got hired full-time
○ you catch him kind of dancing while he’s trying to pick out a vending machine snack
○ gets so embarrassed (he may have a crush on you) that he doesn’t talk to you for a good week 😭
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imsadstuff · 1 year
Text
Loving You Is Red - A Jeon Jungkook Fic -Epilogue
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Synopsis: Jeon Jungkook's name was unheard on the Formula 1 paddock till he got a chance to drive a Mercedes car as a reserve driver. His 2020 starts looking brighter as he signs with Ferrari and meets you, his team mates little sister. So many cliched tropes, strangers to friends to lovers, slow burn, dating brother's best friend, and most importantly Jeon Jungkook looks smoking hot in a Ferrari! Genre: Fluff, angst, slice of life and humor Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, my mother got hospitalized and I couldn't find the time to finish this. This took a lot of time and energy, so I hope you enjoy reading this. If you do please leave me a like or comment, please don't be a ghost reader! Word Count: 4.6k+ (I reccomend reading on a desktop if possible!) Warnings: Sexual themes, drinking, and just a whole lot of fluff.
Link to my masterlist if you want to check out my other stuff : here
Link to the main fic if you haven't read it yet here
AO3 link incase you prefer that: here
Race 14 Monaco Grand Prix 2029
“Cooking with your mother was disastrous. I couldn’t even chop properly and I’m sure I ruined her batch of kimchi but she was still super kind” you share as Jungkook chuckles in the car beside you.
“I promise you it isn’t as bad as it is in your head” Jungkook tries and reassure you as his hand intertwines with yours.
“And if she doesn’t invite you to make kimchi next year, we’ll know for sure” Jungkook says with a teasing tone and you swat his hand away as you simmer in last week's embarrassment.
“Ignoring the massive disaster, I was with your mother, how was fishing with my dad and Phillip. Phillip sent me a bunch of drunk texts saying how I was all grown up, did you say something weird?” you ask, turning to look at him and Jungkook brushes it off, taking a hold of your hand again.
“We were just talking about us dating for the first time and how young we were, that might have caused that” he says as he drives the car into the parking lot.
“Also, Phillip is a little shit who and told me that I shouldn’t go easy on your father, and to put it simply, I beat your father at chess and now I know where Phillip and you get the competitive gene from” he says as he unbuckles the seatbelt and you look at him all confused.
“What did my father do to you and what makes you think I’m competitive?” you ask with a pointed tone and Jungkook snickers, very sarcastically.
“Your father doesn’t ever want to play any games with me for the sake of our relationship and don’t you remember the Mario Kart incident? Because that remote almost hit me” he complains as he pulls you closer by your hand.
“Oh will you drop the Mario Kart incident, I was eating chips and my hands were all oily and I can’t believe you’re-” Jungkook shuts you up with a soft peck on your lips, followed by a deeper one as he bites your lower lip.
“Baby, I might be competitive but not as much as you.” you whisper against his lips and he chuckles, finally pulling away.
“That is true. Now come on, I gotta win this race!” Jungkook says and you snicker, he’s definitely more competitive.
“So, the first date was great, superb actually. We connected, there was this undeniable chemistry and why are you making that face?” Lando stops talking when he notices the dubious smile on your face.
“Did Lily tell you something else? Did she not have a good time? Oh my god is that why she hasn’t texted me since the last half an hour?” Lando is starting to panic and Jungkook and you share a knowing smile, getting a kick out of your friend's misery.
Lando and Lily hit it off at Jungkook’s last birthday dinner and Lando didn’t hesitate at all before asking her out.
“I just want it put in writing that you and Lily will not bother us with your relationship troubles” you say sternly as the three of you make way to the hospitality area. Lando moved to Ferrari about a year ago, Jungkook and him have been a great team. 
“Relationship, so she said something good, what did Lily say ___?” Lando asks with agitation and Jungkook giggles as his hand intertwines with yours.
“I’m sorry best friend, best friend privilege” you tease and Lando groans, only making Jungkook laugh louder. Lando isn’t the type to doubt himself when it comes to relationships, so this is quite amusing.
“Just chill my man, focus on the race for now” Jungkook says tapping Lando’s hand and he distractedly nods.
“Would you guys be up for brunch at my place tomorrow, a double date?” Lando asks reading something from his phone, probably a text from Lily.
“Sure-” “We can’t actually, we have a thing” Jungkook interrupts you, but you just tag along.
“Yeah we do, let’s plan for some other time” you say and Lando nods understandingly, before he walks off as he’s texting someone.
“We have a thing tomorrow?” you ask as the two of you slip into Jungkook’s driver room. Jungkook’s quiet for a second as he pulls off his polo, ready to slip into his driving suit.
“I was hoping we could spend the day decorating our apartment, we could build the bookshelves that are still in boxes” he says with a small smile as he takes a seat to get rid of his shoes. The two of you moved in together a few months ago but hadn’t gotten to decorating yet.
“Aren’t you such a romantic, but you and I both know I can’t be participating with building stuff, I broke my hand the last time and your very expensive coffee table” you say and Jungkook chuckles, pulling you in his lap.
“Counter offer, you sort the books in our guest room and I build the bookshelf, like the provider I am” he offers with a big smile as his arms circle around your waist.
“Are you sweet talking me into doing chores Jeon?” you ask in an accusing tone and he only laughs louder.
“Maybe,” he says, pecking your lips softly. “What about tonight? Are we doing your winner's dinner?” you ask, smiling against his lips.
“I am infuriated that I can’t eat icing off your tits tonight, I have a work dinner thing” he grumbles and you run your hands down his back.
“We can do winner’s breakfast instead, it’s all about improvising baby” you say in an attempt to lift his spirits.  “saranghae” you whisper looking in his big, brown eyes, you had started picking up a few Korean words here and there, dropping them casually and amusing Jungkook. “I love you” Jungkook says, pulling away to look you in the eyes. He takes a deep breath to really take in the moment.
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The race started and ended quickly for Jungkook after reliability issues in lap 10. You sigh as you sit opposite your father, winning is important for Jungkook, it really it, but he’s also gotten great with compartmentalizing it.
“Too bad the car isn’t supporting him” you father says and you nod, watching on the tv’s as the camera’s follow Jungkook walking into the garage.
“At least he’ll get to rest during the summer break” you say, looking forward to the next few weeks of vacation.
“Where are you guys going?” your father asks as he turns to look at you. It wasn’t going to be a vacation per say.
“Jungkook bought a house in Busan, it’s by the ocean, kinda close to the one his family used to live in. We’ll leave Thursday, and just spend a few weeks there, I’ll work, he’ll train, just our usual days but in Busan” Jungkook had proposed this weeks ago, and you immediately agreed.
“Sounds romantic” your father says with a big, bright smile, “Jungkook really makes you happy doesn’t he” he continues talking, this isn’t a question but more like a statement.
“Life is better with him in it” you say as your eyes catch his across the room, immediately, you flash him a comforting smile and he mimics one too as he walks towards you.
“Next race will be better son” your father tells Jungkook as he takes a seat beside you.
“Hopefully we’ll be done with the engine issues” he sighs with frustration and your hand finds his, interlocking them immediately.
“Issues like these are so threatening to my championship chances, so utterly out of my hand” Jungkook voices his concerns and your father listens intently, knowing all about it.
“It so much worse because you can’t fix the issues and it threatens the team morale” your father says and Jungkook nods intensely. Soon, Namjoon comes over too, the three of them talking about the issues in length while you sit there quietly, while Jungkook rubs his thumb across your hand.
“You’re meeting is at around 8 at Blue Bay, and they’ve scheduled a post-race meeting at 6:30” Namjoon reminds Jungkook before he stands up to leave. Your father left earlier too, saying something about having dinner appointments.
“You’ve been awfully quiet” Jungkook says, turning around to look at you.
“I’m kinda tired” you say resting your head against his arm. Jungkook is really tempted to cancel his dinner thing and go home with you, but you talk him out of it.
“I promise I’ll call you if I don’t feel any better after dinner,” you tell him and he grumbles, bringing his arm around your waist.
“Did you get your test results back? I know you’re all weak because of deficiencies, that’s why your hands are always cold” Jungkook sits for a few more minutes, knowing full well the meeting is going to start any moment now.
“The doctor will call me when it’s done, just will you go and do your work. One of us needs to make shit load of money, we have expensive taste” you tease him in attempts to lighten the situation.
“Call me if you need anything-“ he says as he sneaks a quick peck on your lips, “or nothing, just call me” “I will” you reassure him with a soft pat on his cheek.
Jungkook isn’t a fan of talking one on one with reporters, but Namjoon assured him a couple thousand times and somehow made him agree to this dinner.
What he wasn’t expecting was an excited, senior writer for Vogue Korea, Jung Hoseok. They click immediately, talking endlessly about anything and everything under the sun.
“So, this is your ninth year at ferrari and you’ve decided to move to mercedes, what motivated the move?” Hoseok asks and Jungkook takes a big sip of his drink, this question is the reason this interview was set up. The move hasn’t been announced, yet.
“My years at ferrari have made me the champion I am, I won seven world championships with them but I’ve also felt a little stagnant in my career. The move is a way to challenge myself as a driver and also making a profitable move as a driver” Jungkook explains calmly and Hoseok scoffs.
“You’re so amazingly media trained, the answers are given by a PR person aren’t they” the reporter notes and Jungkook laughs out loud.
“My manager, he’s the reason I talk so well” Jungkook answers candidly.
“So, the move is not because of the reliability and strategy issues?” “Those reasons obviously played a part in the decision making. Ferrari has been struggling for the last two years since they changed their engine producer, and I wanted to stick with my team through the pain, but I’m not 20 anymore, I’m almost 30. I told my manager after the first three terrible races last year, ‘We’ll stick with them for a year, give them time to work out the kinks, they deserve patience from me, at least for a year’. But again, the since the start of this year, it hasn’t been that great, so after lengthy discussions with my manager, parents and girlfriend, I decided to make the move” Jungkook answers honestly, and Hoseok is a little stunned by it. They go on to discuss the move to mercedes more, talking about going back to where it all started.
“You don’t talk about your girlfriend much to the press or media, your relationship is extremely private even missing from each other’s social media, is there a reason for that?”
“I’ve kept my relationship with ___ private because the more public I make it, the more people feel like they have a say in the relationship. And I don’t want people’s opinions or thoughts guiding our relationship, and honestly, I can’t bear losing her again”
“This might be an odd question, but how do you think being in love has changed you?” this question sticks with Jungkook for a while, he thinks it over for a good few minutes.
“It has made me a much more, stronger, and confident person. I think being loved by someone you love endlessly is one of the most beautiful thing in the world. She doesn’t love me despite or because, she just loves me for being Jungkook and that’s, um, something that’s really helped me grow and change as a person for the better.” Jungkook sighs the more he thinks about you, he wonders if you are still feeling sick.
“Can I ask you a few more questions about your relationship? You can say no” Hoseok asks and Jungkook strangely encourages him. Most reporters he’s talked to are always looking for a scoop, this is the first time a reporter seems to be taking actual interest in him.  
“Were the two of you set up by your former teammate and now close friend Phillip Lee or did it just happen naturally?”
“Phillip didn’t even know we’d been dating till we broke up” Jungkook says and chuckles, thinking back to the before the first race of 2021, Phillip literally cornered him in his drivers room and asked him what was wrong with him.
“Back in 2020, there weren’t a lot of people my age on the paddock. I really needed a friend, so I reached out to ___. We were friends for a good few months before I realised, I was in love with her. Luckily, she felt the same way” Jungkook has the widest smile as he thinks back, just makes him realise how much time has passed.
“You talk of a break up, did it affect you as a driver?” Hoseok asks as he sits up straight.
“As much as I hate admitting it, it did, I’m human after all. What’s going on in my personal life usually doesn’t affect me as a driver because I’m great at compartmentalizing, but losing someone I love, so abruptly, and especially when I couldn’t do anything to stop to let her slip away, it frustrated me to no end and it affected my performance as a driver, initially at least” Jungkook confesses and the reporter passes him an encouraging smile.
“The two of you have been dating for four years-“ “Five in total” Jungkook corrects him and the two of them chuckle out loud. “The two of you have been dating for five years now, does the future of your relationship affect your future as a driver? To bring up Phillip again, he retired a few months after his first son was born and has been living a quiet life away from F1 since, do you see yourself going down that road too? Putting your relationship and family ahead of anything by your mid-thirties?”
“Just last week I was facetiming Phillip, and he was building a dollhouse, surrounded by his kids. Phillip was obviously, very happy as a f1 driver, but being a father has made him content like never before. I don’t know what it’s going to be like with us, but I know ___ and I will come to a decision that’s best for the two of us”
“Talking of retirement, what do you see yourself filling time with when retired?” Hoseok asks, relaxing a little as he sits back in the chair.
“Sometime during early 2019, I knew I didn’t have a contract for the next year so my sister and I really started thinking of plan b’s outside of racing, and we narrowed down on the option of me going to college and taking the traditional route. I have always wondered, what would life be right now if things didn’t end up the way they did, and even though I was and am ecstatic that I landed in ferrari back then. I would like to take the college route too, see how it shapes my future. I really enjoyed being a student, and I think I’d enjoy going back to it. My girlfriend also thinking that I can sing pretty well and be a musician, but I think love has made her a little delusional” Jungkook jokes about the last part, making the reporter laugh too.
“To tie up the interview, this is your last year with ferrari, last year to win the championship in red. Endings are usually the time one gets reflective, how do you reflect back at the last eight years?”
“I look back and I’m filled with gratitude, so much gratitude. I am sure you’ve seen the video from my first karting championship win, an interviewer asking me what my dream f1 team would be, I remember saying ferrari with that excited high-pitched voice. I truly did want to drive for ferrari but at the same time as I made my way through F3 and F2, the dream started looking unattainable. Just minutes before I sighed the ferrari contract, ___ congratulated me on signing with ferrari, that’s when it really sunk in. I went into my hotel room and cried because of how overwhelmed and excited I was to be achieving a lifelong dream. My time at ferrari has shaped me into the man and driver I am, the ups, downs, agreements and disagreements have taught me so many invaluable lessons. I met the love of my life, got the opportunity to work with some of the most amazing people, won seven world championships, all because of my time at ferrari, and I truly know it in my heart that none of it would have happened if things didn’t go exactly as they did.”
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Jungkook made a bet with himself, if he found you asleep on the sofa with your glasses still on and aggressively clutching a book, he’d buy you flowers tomorrow morning. He would have even if he lost the bet. But he audibly awes when he does win the bet, he’s found you like this a few thousand times, but it always endears him somehow. Jungkook quietly takes off your glasses and puts the book away. Crouching down, his eyes level with your tightly shut ones, softly, he grazes your face.
“You really hate falling asleep in our bed all by yourself, don’t you” he says to himself as he pushes some of your hair away from your face. Jungkook doesn’t struggle one bit when he picks you up bridal style, and lays you on the bed. He notices how your hand instinctively reached for his, holding onto him tightly.
Jungkook’s exhausted from the race and the day he’s had, all he wants to do is lay down and get some shut eye, but he sits by the you for a few too long, afraid him moving is going to wake you up. But he does eventually pry his hands out of your grip and jump into the quickest shower of his life.
“When did you get home?” you ask turning to face Jungkook as he dries his hair with a towel.
“20 minutes ago?” he says abandoning the towel and picking up the hair dryer now that you’ve up.
“How did the interview go?” you ask as you sit up to drink some water.
“Surprisingly well, I talked about you. A lot” he says from the dressing table and you give him a quizzical look.
“Why?” you ask as your eyes follow him around the room. Jungkook just smiles and looks away as he shuts the hair dryer off.
“He asked the right questions” Jungkook says massaging his torso as he walks to bed, he takes slides into bed, leaning in for a quick kiss.
“___” he whispers your name against your lips and you sigh, running your hands through his hair.
“I am so looking forward to summer break, just you and I relaxing. Maybe if you feel like it, we take a dip in the ocean or you watch me swim in the ocean. I could do a slutty Baywatch style walk for you-“ you shut Jungkook up by sliding into his lap.
“You ramble when you’re tired” you note with speed as you lean down to kiss him, fiercely, leaving Jungkook a little breathless. In the middle of making out, your hands travel to his chest, hoping to tug off his t-shirt when you notice something.
“Why is your heart beating like crazy” you ask noticing his erratic heartbeat. His lips flatter to a shy smile as realisation dawns on the two of you.
“Oh my god, Jungkook you’re going to make me cry” you say cradling his cheeks and he grumbles pulling you closer.
“I’m sure your heart beats for me like that too” he says reaching for your chest under the t-shirt.
“Babe, you’re just grabbing my tit” you note sarcastically as his finger grazes your hard nipple.
“I can’t help if your heart is behind your tit” he teases you, tugging on your nipple and getting the exact kind of moan from you.
“But really, it does. Even if my words and actions are lacking sometimes, my love for you grows each day” the tender words catch Jungkook a little off guard, not that you aren’t vocal about it, maybe he really needed this kind of confirmation from you today
Soft sunlight is peeking through the curtains, illuminating your face. Turning around to avoid the sunlight, you snuggle even closer to Jungkook, nuzzling in his chest. Jungkook’s been awake for a few minutes now, but he isn’t ready to let go of you yet. His alarm goes off, and he struggles to turn it off, but he does.
“Babe, I really need to go, Namjoon hyung is probably waiting for me downstairs” he grumbles but at the same time doesn’t let go of you. Training is intense as a F1 driver, and Jungkook takes it seriously.
“Kook is summer break” you complain as he detaches himself from you. He chuckles as you continue to whine as he gets dressed as quickly as he can.
“I promise I’ll pick up breakfast on my way,” Jungkook says mid brushing his teeth. Wiping off his face, he changes into a fresh set of clothes, ready to be out the door.
“You stay put, I’ll be back in forty minutes and we’ll resume the activities of last night” Jungkook insinuates as you turn around in bed to face him. There are butterflies in your stomach just thinking about last night, and they only intensify as he holds your jaw tight as he kisses you, tugging on your lip.
Jungkook feels giddy as he makes his way to Namjoon, continuing to stretch as he walks over to his hyung.
“I’m thinking we go by the church today-“ “I think I’m going to propose to ___” Jungkook interrupts him and Namjoon looks at him dumb founded.
“Um, that’s wonderful. The two of you are really-“ “Yeah, I know we’re pretty darn cute, but I’m thinking about proposing today, more accurately by breakfast” Jungkook says very calmly as Jungkook continues to stretch.
“Okay, so, um-“ “I have had the ring for a few months now and I was looking for the perfect time, and I thought I’d do it while we were in Busan but I don’t think I can wait any longer.” Jungkook says, taking a deep breath.
“This morning, I was looking at ___’s left hand, and I just knew, I had to propose right away. It just feels like the right moment” Jungkook explains and the panic is starting to build, panic mixed with a shit ton of excitement.
“I don’t know if we’d be here if I didn’t advise you to break up with ___, but I’m glad we’re here” Namjoon says patting Jungkook’s arm.
“Hyung you gotta stop beating yourself up about that,” “I know, but I am seriously, so happy for you and ___” Namjoon says and Jungkook smiles widely.
“I know, now I gotta get going with breakfast and flowers before ___ wakes up” Jungkook says running a hand through his hair, it’s a nervous tick. “Remember to set up a camera, you’ll want pictures”
Jungkook hears the shower turn off as he plates the breakfast Most people would want a grand proposal, but Jungkook knows you’ll want a private, lowkey one more. He knows you’ll want to cherish this moment, without a crowd and attention around. He fixes the flowers as you step out the washroom, drying your hair as you walk across the room. Jungkook knows you aren’t going to dry your hair right away, no matter how many times he asks you to, he knows you’re going to be walking into the living room any moment now.
“Jungkook, are you back already?” you shout from the room, hearing some noises come from the kitchen.
“Yeah, I cut the run short, come out here” he yells, locating the ring. Before you can reply, your phone rings and you pick it up immediately.
“Um, okay” you reply to the call as Jungkook checks the camera, making sure it’s recording.
“Yeah, 1 pm works for us, we’ll be there” you reply as Jungkook calls out for you again.
“Alright, I’ll see you later” you mutter turns to walk towards the living room, and realising,
Jungkook’s waiting for you, on a knee. You mutter a oh my god as realisation sets in, Jungkook anxiously bites his lip, waiting for you to say something. The silence is starting to eat Jungkook, he’s starting to regret this, you’re going to say yes, right?
“I feel amazing each morning I get to wake up next to you, and a few months back, I decided I wanted a lifetime of it. I was waiting for the right moment; I came so close to asking you after we finished that trek in Australia. It was perfect, the view, the feeling, but I knew you would never forgive me for proposing me while you were all sweaty” he jokes and you giggle, the tears starting to form in your eyes.
“Then I thought, I’d do it in Busan, I even got a planner and everything but something changed this morning. Your hand reached for mine, like it does every morning. I felt your ring finger, and I just knew I couldn’t wait any longer.” Jungkook’s a little teary eyed too as his hand swiftly open the velvet box, revealing the ring, and you gasp, like you weren’t expecting it.
“Will you marry me ___?” Jungkook feels a little breathless he finally asks the question. The smile on your face widens like you’re going to say yes to him, but Jungkook is absolutely shocked by what you say next.
“I’m pregnant. We’re pregnant!” you say and the color completely drains from Jungkook’s face as you pull him up. “What?” his voice is barely audible as he asks you that. “The, um, doctor just called, the tests they ran last week. Turns out I don’t have any deficiencies, turns out I’m pregnant” you retell the events of the phone call and he gasps with shock.
“Oh my god, we’re going to have a fucking baby!” Jungkook shouts with excitement as he pulls you close for a kiss, and a few more.
"um, yeah the doctor asked if we could go in for the first sonogram today afternoon, that's fine right? You don't have anything planned right?" you ask as you pull away from him a little, Jungkook wants to hug you tight, like he wants to let you know just how intensely he's feeling, but he doesn't.
"___, we're having a baby, nothing is more important than you and the baby" he says running a hand through your hair, sensing some tension from you.
The two of you just stand in each other's embrace for a while, letting the moment soak in.
“Wait, um, you didn’t give me an answer” Jungkook asks as his forehead leans against yours.
“Yes, Jungkook. Of course, I want to marry you. I want to be your wife for the rest of my life” you say and he slips on the ring.
People always assume that the fairy-tale ends when the couple gets married. But for the two of you, the fairy tale is always going to be on going. It’s going to keep going through every date night, every quiet morning, every small moment with your child, it’s going to be forever going. The love you two have for each other is forever going.
Tag List: @blancflms @nadzzzblog @kookiewhtaee @jksoftiitii @oiseul @elisaaru @coralmusicblaze @tearyjjeonn @moonchild1 @jungkooksseuphoria @cookysstuff @ohyeahjk @bobakkoo @whoa-jo @kooromiwrld @littlelandalp @marvelover3000
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seenoversundown · 1 month
Text
Amongst The Stars: Chapter Six
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Josh x Quinn (Nonbinary OC)
Warnings: Shitty Partner (are you shocked?), Craig is Stupid (and we don’t respect him), Mentions of Alcohol, Verbal fighting, Medieval Nicknames, Pining Friendly Care and Concern for your Friends, Almost being injured with a knife.
Word Count: 4.1k
Summary: Josh has always loved love, and he's finally found it. Buuuut, he can't exactly tell anyone. Join him as he navigates the ins and outs of his sweet, secret romance.
Author's Note: This, THIS, is one of the chapters I have been most excited for you all to read. So strap in babies, the story is really getting started now. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. And, as always; our Quinn is a ray of sunlight and Craig is a stinky loser. Alsooooooo — Sorry for any weird formatting issues, I had to post this from my phone because the desktop site wouldn’t let me post 🤨🥲 (I’ll eventually reformat it once the site figures it out)
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"But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say To try and make me change my mind and stay" Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right - Bob Dylan
I walk into the apartment and hear Craig banging pots and pans around in the kitchen. He’s mad again. He’s been in a constant state of anger since he found me talking to Josh in the craft store. The anger had been an issue for longer, but it has worsened since that day. He’s been picking random fights over the most minor things. Everything from him not having enough clean socks to my “slamming” the door while he’s trying to nap.
“Hey babe, I’m only here for a little bit. I’m going to stay with Willa tonight. She needs an extra set of hands for a new project,” I yell out, making my way to the bedroom to pack a bag.
I hear Craig stop banging around in the kitchen. I listen, bracing myself for a fight, as he stomps through the apartment behind me.
“Oh yeah? And why can’t she find a different friend to help?” Craig grits out through clenched teeth.
“She could. But she doesn’t want to, and that’s valid.”
“You are always so worried about everyone else but me. And I really don’t think that’s fair to our relationship.”
“What does that even mean?” I’m starting to get angry at this point. All I do, day in and day out, is ensure that our life together runs smoothly. I pick his groceries up. I let him use my car so he can do whatever he does while I’m working to pay our bills.
“I just think it’s interesting that you met that guy from the craft store, and now you hardly want to be in the same room as me.”
“You’re being an asshole because you’re… jealous?” I huff out a humorless chuckle.
“I mean, I guess? You seem to loooove talking to him while I’m stuck here begging to see you in your spare time.” He slams his hand against the door frame. I roll my eyes at his little outburst and continue shoving clothes into my overnight bag.
“Good job, Detective Craig, you caught me! I’m in love with Josh. Head over heels for a man I’ve only spoken with at his job!” I watch his eyes darken with rage as I add a sarcastic round of applause. I’m far too annoyed with him to stop myself from pushing his buttons even more. If he wants to fight, we can fucking fight.
“I uprooted my entire life back home for you, Quinn. I packed up everything I own, threw my entire life in the back of a moving truck, and moved here with you. I did that, and you’re laughing at me?”
“Of course I am laughing at you. You’re being absurd.”
“I’m being absurd?! I didn’t realize it was absurd to want to spend time with your partner.”
“It’s absurd that you’re mad at me over the manager of the store where I get art supplies. It’s absurd that you’re turning this all into a pity party for yourself. It’s absurd that I’ve wasted the last 20 minutes arguing with you when Willa needs my help.”
“It’s absurd that we’re arguing and you’re worried about your friends.”
“I didn’t start the argument, bud. I was content to pack my bag and head out, but you wanted to make it a thing.” I sling my packed bag over my shoulder and walk to the bedroom door as Craig steps in the way to block my path.
“Get out of my way, Craig.”
“If you step outside this house right now, I honestly don’t know where that will leave us.”
“I guess we’ll figure it out later, then.” I duck under his arm and make my way to the front door, grabbing my keys and storming out the door.
I hop in my car and text Willa, letting her know I am on my way. I spent the short drive contemplating the state of my relationship with Craig. Where does he get off acting like I am the problem here? I spend almost every waking moment doing things for him. I do his laundry; I cook his meals; I don’t even care that he doesn’t have a job. I let so much of his bullshit slide. But he treats me like I’m doing something wrong because I want to hang out with my friends. Because I talk to a guy who works at the craft store? When it gets down to it, our relationship isn’t working right now. But, then again, it hasn’t been working for a while. The Josh Thing is just the icing on top of the cake. He has always been jealous and suspicious of me leaning on people besides him. He still sometimes questions my closeness with Willa. He knows we have been best friends for years, way longer than I've known him, yet he is still suspicious.
I slam my car in park once I’m outside of Willa’s apartment complex. I take a few moments to collect myself. I know that it won’t matter, though. I am rarely sad or upset, but when I am, Willa can sniff it out like a bloodhound. She’s always had the unique ability to see directly through me, which is why we’re so close. I walk up to her front door and unlock it with the spare key she gave me the first day she moved in. When I open the door, I am immediately hit with the scent of Willa’s signature sage and citrus candle. I swear she has one burning 24/7, and, at this point, her emotional support candle is becoming mine. I immediately feel myself calm down as I breathe it in.
“Honey, I’m home!” I yell out, setting my bag down in the foyer.
“In the Kitchen!”
I step through the apartment, making my way to the kitchen. I stop in the living room to survey the Throw Pillow situation. Willa thrives in a comfortable space, so I swear there’s at least one new pillow every time I drop by. I stop at her gallery wall next. I let out a soft chuckle, remembering the time that she asked if she wanted me to alter any of the photos from before I came out. “I can photoshop your head or something, but I look good; I can’t just take them down”
This was always her excuse, but it’s because those photos were from easier times. They held a sense of nostalgia for both of us, and neither one of us wanted them taken down. They were photos from our time in college. They were from well before Craig blew into my life, causing issues between Willa and me. It does warm my heart knowing that I still hold so much space on her gallery wall, even after the small wedge he’s driven between us.
I finally walk into the kitchen and see her standing before her table. There is an explosion of flowers surrounding various crystals laid across the table. On the floor next to her, there’s a box of other witchy-looking supplies
“What are you working on tonight?”
“Freelance gig for that new occult shop, Garden’s Gate. They asked if I’d photograph products for their website.” She glances up and hands me a large, white piece of cardboard.
“I need your help nailing this lighting real quick. I’m trying to go for a more whimsigoth feel, but the lighting is too harsh without the bounce board.” I nod my head and pretend I understand what I’m doing. Photography was never my forte.
“And don’t think I’ll forget that look on your face. We will be discussing whatever Craig did once I have this shot.” She quirks an eyebrow at me, then directs me to hold the bounce board in front of her lighting rig. After Willa finishes the product shoot, she finally looks at me. I heave out a sigh, not ready to have this conversation and sit down at the kitchen table. She heads to the fridge and pulls out two hard ciders. Cracking them both open, she sits across from me at the table.
“So, spill.” She says softly.
“Craig and I might be done. I was so mean to him when I got home…” I trail off, hoping she won’t make me spill all the dirty details.
“Mhm…” She waves her hand, motioning for me to continue.
I suck in a deep breath and begin recounting the events of the evening. I try to avoid eye contact with Willa throughout my spiel. Instead, I focus on peeling the label off of my bottle. I avoid eye contact because I already know how she looks at me. Anger in her eyes, a bit of pity. I don’t need pity; I know the situation is messed up. When I finish, I finally look up and meet her eyes across the table.
“Quinn, you know you can’t let him treat you that way, right?” She questions softly, as if trying to lessen the blow of what I already know.
“I know, but I was horrible right back at him tonight.”
“You were horrible to him because he has been horrible to you, and you hit your breaking point. Anyone would do the same. Hell, I’ve acted way worse for way less reason,“she begins to laugh at herself, “Actually, on second thought, I’m not the greatest barometer for anger management.”
I bark out a laugh with her. She’s not wrong; she has one of the shortest and most explosive fuses I’ve ever seen on a person.
“That’s all besides the point. What you need to consider is, yeah, you were horrible to Craig. But, the way you spoke to him doesn’t reflect who you are as a person, and he brought that out in you.”
I’m quiet for a second as I mull everything over. Craig did give up so much for me, for us. But I don't think I can continue living like this. I don’t like the person I was with him tonight. I don’t like that he has the ability to bring that out in me. I don’t appreciate the jealousy that he harbors. That jealousy has led to so much distrust between us throughout the years.
“I have to break up with him,” I sigh, “This hasn’t been working, and I don’t see it getting better any time soon. Especially if he’s gonna throw Josh in my face.”
“I’m not agreeing with him, but you have been talking about Josh a lot. Got anything else you want to share?” Willa looks at me, eyes alight with mischief.
I groan, rubbing my hands down my face.
“Not you, too. Josh is an acquaintance. I’ve seen him once outside of the craft store, and it was by accident.”
“Whatever you say, babes!” She laughs before continuing, “But really, if you doooo break up with Craig… I’ve been thinking about getting a roommate.”
“It can be like college! No pesky boys stirring up trouble, just us hanging out.”
“I do like the sound of that, Quinny.”
I wake up early the following day, feelings weighing heavily on my chest. It’s a strange mixture of excitement and dread. The excitement makes me feel worse; I am about to ruin my long-term partner’s day. I should not feel giddy in any sense, and yet. I stretch my limbs as I stand up from the couch and begin my trek to the kitchen for something to drink.
“Good morning!” Willa startles me as I turn into the kitchen. She shoves a freshly poured cup of coffee into my hands.
“‘Morning, Wills,” I grunt as I take a sip from my mug. Of course, Willa made it just how I like it: 2 sugars and a bit of oat milk. I close my eyes and feel the caffeine coursing through my bloodstream, waking my brain.
“Are we making boys cry today?” Willa asks, with a bit too much glee for the hour.
“Please, try to sound at least a little bit upset about the disintegration of my relationship.”
“Are we making boys cry today?” She tries again, this time adding an exaggerated frown.
“I am making a boy cry today. You are welcome to tag along and sit in the car.”
She rolls her eyes and sticks her tongue out at me, “You’re no fun!”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna get dressed, and you ought to do the same if you want to come.”
—————————————————
Willa and I pass the time on the drive over to my apartment by figuring out what I am going to tell Craig. We both know that this will not end happily. Craig will turn it into a situation just like he does everything else. This is why I ultimately decided to allow Willa to come up with me. There is strength in numbers, and Craig is less likely to cause a scene or do something entirely inappropriate if there is a witness. We trudge up the stairs to the second-floor apartment I share with Craig, and I turn to face Willa before unlocking the door.
Willa pulls me into a bear hug, “I know this seems complicated, but you're doing the right thing. I am so proud of you.”
I choke up a bit, then lean deeper into the hug. “Thank you.”
We stand like that for a moment, sharing each other's love and energy, before I turn back and unlock the door. It's quiet as we enter the house. I walk into the living room to find Craig passed out on the couch with his Xbox controller and several empty beer bottles strewn haphazardly around him. God, it's a good thing Willa decided to come in with me. He can be an absolute toad when he’s hungover. Though, I guess that shouldn't be shocking, considering he is a toad 75% of the time now.
“Hey, can you head to my room and start packing some of my stuff while I deal with this?” I ask in a hushed voice.
Even if Craig deserves to be woken up, I don't want Willa to face any of his ire.
“Sure thing, Quinny. Is there anything you want in particular?”
“Just clothes for a few days until I can secure a truck to move the rest of it, I guess.”
As she retreats further into the apartment, I walk over to the couch. I can't help the feelings of disgust that wash over me, seeing Craig in this state. Typically, I wouldn't care about this; everyone has a rough night every now and then. However, Craig’s lousy night was of his own making. He chose this, so he gets no sympathy from me— no sympathy as I turn the bright overhead lights on. Not an ounce of pity from me as I connect to our Bluetooth speaker and begin blasting some generic Top 40 pop at full volume. Absolutely no compassion as I bring the trash can from the kitchen into the living room and start forcefully throwing his spent bottles into it. Content with my somewhat dramatic display, I glance at Craig and see him stirring. He cracks one eyeball open and levels me with a glare.
“Can you shut that shit off?” he growls at me.
“Oh good! You’re up,” I innocently bat my eyes at him, “I think we need to have a conversation, dear.”
“What on earth could we have to talk about at —” he cuts himself off to check the time, “7:30 in the fucking morning?”
Before I can answer, a big thump followed by a pained howl sounds from our bedroom.
“What was that?” Craig narrows his eyes at me.
I shrug, unwilling to give up Willa’s spot so soon. The likelihood of Craig actually getting up to check in his current state is extremely low.
“What. Was. That?!” He grits out more forcefully, finally sitting up.
Before I have time to shrug again, Willa pops her head out of the bedroom and shoots me a smug wink. I brace myself, knowing that whatever she’s about to say is guaranteed to piss him off.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Greg… it's just little old me.”
I struggle to hold in a slight chuckle, watching as realization dawns on Craig’s face. He whips his head around to catch a glimpse of Willa’s shit-eating grin before she “disappears” back into the room. I know she’s standing just out of sight but still close enough to eavesdrop.
“What are you doing in my house, Willa?” he yells after her.
“I dunno pal, why don't you ask Quinny?” she sing-songs back at him, riling him up even more.
Craig lets out an exasperated sigh, “Quinn. You said we need to talk?”
I nod my head.
“K, so start talking.”
I close my eyes and suck in a deep, grounding breath.
“Willa is here because she is helping me pack some of my things up.” I raise my eyebrows at him, silently begging him to get the point.
“Uh… why are you doing that?”
“Because I’m moving out, Craig.” He meets my eyes with a look of confusion.
He truly never was the smartest, but I was hoping he’d be able to put two and two together. Unfortunately not.
“I’m breaking up with you,” I spit out quickly, “and I am moving in with Willa,” I add more pointedly.
I can see the wheels finally start turning in his head.
“You’re breaking up with me… for Willa?”
Willa lets out an unhinged cackle from the bedroom, and I hear her muffled voice say something that sounds a lot like “moron.” My patience is hanging on by a thread at this point, but I continue.
“No, Craig. I’m breaking up with you because you drive me insane. You constantly pick fights with me, you’re jealous, you turn me into someone I’m not.” I take a breath, proud of myself for working up the courage to be direct. “That fight we had last night was my final straw. You told me that if I went to Willa’s, you didn't know where that would leave us. Well, I do know where that leaves us. We’re done.”
“You don't get to make this choice for us.”
Willa pops back out of the room, “Yeah, they do, asshole!”
“Stay out of this,” Craig warns.
“Or what? We all know you'll keep yourself planted right where you're at. You’re not going to stop me from talking, you're not going to stop Quinn from ending this, and you're certainly not going to stop us from walking out the door once I’m done in here!”
In this moment, I am once again reminded of the sheer love and respect I have for Willa. She has been there for me, and she makes it a point to prove that she will continue to be there for me. It dawns on me that this is the type of care and respect I deserve in all of my relationships, and I won't accept anything less from now on.
“Hey,” I snap my fingers to get Craig’s attention, “we are having a conversation, not you and Willa.”
“B-but! She! She started it,” Craig sputters out.
“Doesn’t matter. The point is - did you see what just happened? Where Willa came to my defense? You don’t do that; you never have, and I’m over it! I deserve to be treated like a PARTNER, like a HUMAN. And instead, you treat me like some robot maid! You only care about your quality of life, and mine comes second. I’m tired of not being first in your mind because you have ALWAYS been first in mine.” My voice cracks. I don't want to cry, but I can feel it coming.
“You can’t leave me. How am I supposed to pay for the apartment on my own?”
Absolute blind rage courses through me, overtaking the tears that were threatening to fall, as I lunge for one of the throw pillows he must have knocked onto the floor in his drunken state last night. I clutch it tight to my chest for a second, begging my anger to subside.
“Did you hear me, Quinn? Or do you just not care?”
I finally snap. I rear my arm and full-force chuck the pillow at his head, watching his arms flail as he tries to catch it. He fails, and it hits its mark with a satisfying slap.
“No, CRAIG, I don't care,” I hold up a hand and begin counting his options off on my fingers,” Get a job… get a roommate… crawl back home to your mother. The choice is yours! Leave me out of it.”
Willa clears her throat and stands beside me, grabbing my hand.
“Ready to go?” She asks gently, sensing that I’m about to break. I nod my head, and she begins pulling me toward the front door. As we head out the door, I turn back to look at Craig, “I’ll reach out when I’m ready to pick up the rest of my stuff.”
—————————————————
Willa graciously carries my bag into the - our - apartment and sets it in the spare room. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest.
“Thank you, madam!” I say in my best Knight impression
“Of course, my liege,” she curtseys, “I’m just happy to have you here, Quinny.”
I pull her in for another quick hug to show my appreciation without having to vocalize it. My emotional battery is almost depleted after my conversation with Craig. When I pull back, I see the devious smirk on Willa’s face, and I know she’s going to bring up The Pillow Incident that she absolutely watched from the corner before getting me out of there.
“Can we talk about what a little badass you are? THE PILLOW? I didn't think you had it in you!” She lets out a little giggle.
“Honestly, not one of my finest moments. But it seemed to get the point through his thick skull.”
“Oh, don't sell yourself short. I think it was a wonderful moment. Fucker had it coming. He’s lucky it was from you, not me.”
I check the time, ignoring her dramatics.
“Do you want brunch? I’ll cook since I’m sure your guard dog duties wore you out.”
“Oh! A lovely idea. I’ll run out and grab stuff for mimosas?”
“Day drinking almost sounds better than brunch if I can be honest.” I chuckle and head into the kitchen as Willa makes her way out the door.
I pop in my headphones and start cooking. I let myself get lost in the monotony of cutting vegetables and cracking eggs.
As I’m chopping away, I find my thoughts wandering back to Josh. My little sunshine incarnate friend from the craft store. The one who listens when I speak. The one who cares and asks me about the projects I’m working on. The one who takes 3 seconds to ask me how my week has been. The poor guy who doesn’t even know he was the final straw in my relationship cracking apart. Not that it’s his fault that Craig doesn’t understand how friendships work. Part of me wishes I had some excuse to go see him. As helpful as Willa is, she’s been anti-Craig since before we even made our relationship official and can hardly go a moment without insulting him. Which is understandable, but that same part of me that wants to make an excuse to go to see him also knows that Josh would be able to soothe me in a way she can’t. That part of me knows that seeing his stupid little dimpled smile would cheer me up. The knife clatters out of my hand when I run that back in my head and realize what I’ve been thinking about.
Willa pops up behind me at the counter, “Careful, butterfingers. Don’t wanna have to drive you to the ER.”
“Jesus CHRIST, Willa,” I shriek, slapping my clean hand to my chest, “When did you get back?”
“Five or so minutes ago, you’ve just been in your own little world, and I didn’t want to bother you.”
I feel a blush creep to the tops of my cheeks. Had I really been that lost in thought about Josh?
“Well, now that you’ve nearly given me a heart attack, do you think you could make me a mimosa? Omelets will be up in about 15.”
“Anything for you, my dear!”
As I place my pan on the stove and begin heating it, I vow to stop thinking about Stock Boy for the rest of the day. After all, Willa is right. With the day I’ve already had, the last thing I need is a trip to the ER.
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davekat-sucks · 4 months
Note
I have my troll headcanons, and this is gonna be a long one, I’m doing all the Beta trolls. Also note these headcanons assume all characters survive and exist on Earth C.
Aradia Megido is trying to puck back up on the hobbies she abandoned when she became a ghost, and with her luck Earth has a vast archeological expanse of history and paleontology that Alternia destroyed to legitimize the Condesce’s rule, and to erase any mention of organized rebellion against the empire. Of course, history still existed, but is almost exclusively known by highbloods who have the class and age to study writing, own journals to write on, live long enough to document dozens of sweeps of their life history, and have less of a chance to get culled by drones controlling population growth. Reassembling Alternian history on Earth C is like finishing a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces hiding across the empty void of space. Aradia likes to search for fossils, but her interest in the dead and telekinetic connection with ghosts make her a professional paranormal investigator as well, she once snuck into a haunted house being filmed for a ghost hunters TV show, and was caught on camera. Her ripped clothes and ruffled hair from attempting a breaking and entering made her look like an undead troll.
Tavros thinks Pokémon is too simple and amateur for him, when in reality he’s mad he still loses in competitive matches in both card game and online game. He still likes the Pokémon anime! A boy who never grows up going on adventures against an organized crime syndicate trying to steal a powerful ally and nonverbal creature! Not to mention that the Ash character has friends to tag along on their perilous journey! When it comes to fighting with mythical magical monsters and complex bullshit with cards, Tavros has a soft spot for Yu-Gi-Oh, and Seto Kaiba reminds him of a troll that kept on meddling with him… and still does.
Sollux is possibly the best software technician on Earth C. He is an admin for a forum that discusses obscure desktop/master software. He obviously uses Linux and Gnu, and codes .ath viruses as practice for whitehat hackers to disarm. His Earth C hive is entirely themed by bifurcation. His curtains, his furniture, his goddamn toilet are themed by 2 colors. Karkat calls it ugly, Kanaya calls it creative. To cope with his psiionics and his loss of them, Sollux teamed up with Aradia, Karkat, and Feferi to code and design a walkie talkie that can talk to the recently deceased, this was also done so people could stop running specifically to him for predictions of armageddon.
Karkat is trying very hard to accustom himself to human culture, he has watched a lot of human film (mostly American, a few Fench and Soviet films and a bunch of Tokusatsu and Anime slop) to get why humans were like that, and if everyone was like Dave and Rose. He finds human film boring and generic, but continues to watch it anyway, to connect with the human way of life. He also follows John’s Youtube account… to leave hate comments, they don’t even attack John’s appearance or the points John makes about the film, it’s general allusions to how frustrated he gets watching John’s videos.
Nepeta has been banned from New York C’s central park zoo for scaring the bears at their enclosure and intimidating them into smashing the glass. Nepeta was allowed back in 2 years later when she promised she would not harm any animals because “it would be too easy to hunt them.” Nepeta is a professional huntress who is unique in that she doesn’t use firearms, she just catches the animal in her mouth and slices their neck if it’s big game like deer or wild boar. She meets her maximum bag capacity within a day. She is the scourge of human huntsmen and she is known as “the green lioness” to many.
Kanaya was able to pass on the duties of brooding cavern patrol once the first Jadebloods reached maturation after 9 sweeps. On Earth she was introduced to a new series of monsters and beasts after being accustomed to the animated corpses she’d hunt during the Alternian day and rainbow drinkers in her trashy teengrub erotica. Since she was always around Rose, a girlfriend and devout student of zoologically dubious, she became a cryptozoologist and eventually a bigfoot hunter. Her agility, strength, night vision, and rainbow drinker hearing made her perfect for hunting North America C’s most hidden animal. She would mostly stalk the rustling of leaves and moaning from the shadows of the forest to find it’s a human hiker or a bear, until she actually caught Bigfoot in an open Brush 30 miles West of Marquette C, Michigan C. Notably sightings were made days after Kanaya caught the creature, and after a week on news channels, talk shows, radio interviews, getting a nobel prize in biology and ecology, and getting a giant golden trophy called the “first big step” she now is treading westwards for possible other bigfoot sighted from California to Idaho. That is, when she can schedule it, she has a girlfriend she also wants to be there for. Of course, Rose has joined Kanaya on a few bigfoot searches to support her girlfriend.
Terezi IS the law. Professional trollcop and private investigator, she has her own TV show like that of Chris Hansen where she roleplays as different people, ranging from kids that pedophiles prey on to lone wolfs and depressed deadbeats that drug cartels search for to hire as peddlers and soldiers. Terezi’s strongest expertise is hunting down anti-troll hate groups, since she gets to be herself instead of roleplay as a human. She struggles the most catching anti-human troll groups and Neo-Condescites considering she has to fight against her own species, which have an easier time sniffing out if she’s faking her human archetype and some of them are super strong indigobloods.
Vriska haaaaaaaates how boring and fake human roleplaying games are. In FLARP you had real costumes, stat bats, real loot, month long continuous sessions, and dire consequences if you lose. To keep herself not bored she has become a practitioner of the extreme sport of rock climbing, since Vriska hated walking down and up all those stairs just to get to her lusus, and climbing a shear face would be more safe than slipping on those infernal steps! She also wanted one day for her lusus to watch her climb, as spidermom laud down in that pit of webs, too fat and loud to crawl up herself. Spidermom has been dead for sweeps now so Vriska still won. GET F8CKED FUSSYF8NGS!!!!!!!!
Equius was an unfortunate troll who got caught up in strange human subcultures, and that subculture was human hypermasculinity and “alpha” male mentality. He has a Youtube channel, Twitter, and Instagram dedicated to exercising routines, habits, and hobbies that make male trolls, humans, carapacians, and even denizens respected leaders in their community. Equius tried to co-opt My Little Pony as being masculine and sigma despite the protagonists being all colorful horses. Equius believes all of the protagonist ponies (the mane 6 as they’re called in fandom circles) each hold masculine traits that can correlate with the masculine archetypes in alpha men. Think how Twilight Sparkle exemplifies intelligence and planning, AppleJack has strength and stoicism, Rarity appreciates natural beauty and appearence, etc. Also they are horses, and Equius is frustrated that humans took the maned roarbeast (lions) and striped fangbeast (tigers) as the mascot of alpha males. Equius made his own personal gym in his hive because he was banned from all the gyms for excessive sweating and never cleaning up his station. He films fighting tutorials with his combat robots, but they all break in one punch, so Nepeta has to be invited for any successful demonstrations on how to demonstrate Equius’s fighting style and not break in one punch.
Gamzee is in a mental Asylum becaise of the whole murder thing and has only broken off from Lord English’s control for the first time in his life. He expresses himself by rhyming the GREGCLOUROIAN WICKED RHYTHMS for THE FROWNING MASSES to proselytize the NEW COMING OF THE DARKER CARNIVAL. After 5 sweeps in a straitjacket Gamzee was deemed sane and pacified, so he can finally start his real life. He immediately asked Tavros to start dueting some sick bars he wrote in the brig to bring forth the new prophesy of the evanjesters. Tavros agreed without hesitation. “Mike Club” and “Wild T” sell albums as the “UNHINGED PAGLIACCI TROUPE” and have gotten many a negative review as “the worst rappers in all paradox space” but in the end, built up a dedicated fanbase of clownfolk and followers of the true faith.
Eridan doesn’t go out much, if at all. He plays a lot of video games, grand strategy, roleplaying games, a few puzzle games. He feels mixed about First Person Shooters and asks for a good story in an FPS campaign. He sees himself as honorablenand only shoots with a reason, like how he killed lusii to feed G’bolg’lyb and stop the vast glub. He doesn’t want to shoot people because some authority tells him to! Honest! Ask Sollux and he’ll agree Eridan shot in self defense! And Sollux is still alive and happier that he doesn’t hear the boices ofbthe dead doesn’t he?! Maybe Sollux should THANK HIM FOR BEING CONSIDERATE. Sorry what was I talking about? Eridan does not regret a lot of things, but he will still talk about them when you bring them up to insist he does not regret anything, nope, he’s fine. He does hang around with the people, or rather, person he tolerates. Karkat. Everyone else are lowbloods that don’t like him because he’s better than them so they insult him and say he smells bad when that’s the natural smell of the ocean and they don’t understand how important he is, or Feferi who toyed with his emotions and left him for some bipolar mustardblood and avoided him after ALL HE DUD FOR HER AND WAS SO NICE TO HER AND SHE DIDN’T RECIPROCATE THOSE FEELINGS wait what was I talking about? Eridan insists he does not need help. He’s fine. He’s fine fine fine fine fin.
Feferi loves Spongebob Squarepants, it’s a match made in heaven, but she’s not obsessed with it. She still went far enough to paint her recuperacoon blue with the colorful flowers that dotted the oceans of Bikini Bottom. She is an advocate for saving all the coral reefs and has sued many companies with her nonprofit organization and vast personal wealth for spillover of hazardous chemicals into protected waters. Considering how often CrockerCorp gets into these environmentalist lawsuits, Feferi gets under Jane’s nerves. A lot.
Final thoughts. Eridan, Karkat, Nepeta, Vriska, Tavros, and Terezi (sometimes Sollux but he’s busy most of the time) all run a discord for roleplaying and video games. Eridan Karkat and Tavros like to play the Elder Scrolls series, Sollux likes to play the Fallout series, Vriska, Nepeta, and Terezi like both. Sollux tried to get Eridan to play Fallout: New Vegas once, but Eridan got bored after a few hours and thought the morality system was too simple. Between the organized disciplined and stable Caesar’s Legion or the corrupt incompetent bureaucrats of the New California Republic, or the selfish authoritarian Mr. House, or you thrusting the wasteland into chaos as you throw all 3 of the remaining lighthouses of civilization into collapse. Sollux has a let’s play channel but the only uploads on it are Nepeta’s playthrough of Postal 2 she shared on the discord server.
Karkat does a lot of human movie watchparties with his old friends to keep his trollian friends close enough that they don’t kill each other or wander off on this new weird alien world, and to his surprise they like some of the human films even though they are bottom of the barrel compared to peak alternian film. Each of the trolls favorite films are:
Aradia: Carrie (1976)
Tavros: Pokémon the First Movie (2000)
Sollux: The Matrix (1999)
Karkat: Con Air (1996)
Nepeta: The Lion King (1994)
Kanaya Maryam: Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
Terezi: Trolls (2016)
Vriska: Pirates of the Caribbean (2005)
Equius: Spirit (2003) and Fight Club (1999)
Gamzee: Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
Eridan: Waterloo (1970)
Feferi: Atlantis the Lost Empire (2001)
Final fact: since films from the beta kids library still had a chronological year, the release year of films gets confusing, so to make up for it, films on Earth C are released on a separate calendar, the year on the Earth C Planetary Film Board is equal to current year (number of years after the original kids touched down on Earth C) plus 2009. Old Alternian films are hard to chronologically measure since they were made billions of years before April 2009.
This is a long one!
These are all amazing!
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staytinyville · 11 months
Text
Changbin
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PLEASE REFER TO MASTERLIST TO GET FULL TAROT READING EXPERIENCE
↣ Summary: With finals coming up for the semester, things were taking a hard toll on your body. Changbin just wanted to help you get rid of those stresses. 
↣ Characters/Pairing: Seo Changbin x afab!reader
↣ Genre: smut (MDNI for your safety and Mine)
↣ AU/Trope info: college!au
↣ Word Count: 1.3k
↣ Warnings: squirting, finger fucking, pillow princess!reader
↣ A/N: There needs to be more Changbin smut. And Seungmin, honestly. Which I plan on writing for a Christmas event!
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THE HANGED MAN
Pause, Surrender, Letting Go, New Perspectives
Take a breather! There is nothing wrong with taking a moment for yourself and getting your things together in order to move forward. Let go of all your past struggles that were holding you back.
With the card, the pauses you need can be a choice you make or one the universe does for you. If you are not able to do it yourself, it is best to follow along with what your body or the universe is telling you. If not things will go way worse than originally.
The card is all about letting go. Make sure you know when it is time to take a break so as to not burn out.
XII THE HANGED MAN
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You woke up with a start as you looked around your bed for a moment. The study material you were working on had been neatly stacked to the side of your bed, away from your sleeping body. Looking up, you found your boyfriend at his desktop playing some kind of video game. As you quickly got up, you tried to find your phone, but couldn’t seem to find it. 
“What time is it?” You asked Changbin. 
“5.” He answered, turning around in the swivel chair. 
Your eyes went wide as you gasped out loudly. “Why didn't you wake me up!?” You exclaimed, quickly getting up from the bed to get dressed. “I had a study session with classmates–”
“Because you need to rest.” He told you, getting up from the chair to grab your hand before you rushed more. 
“Changbin—” You were cut off by the man himself. 
“No.” He told you, falling back onto your bed and pulling you along. “You are stressing yourself out.” he told you as he got comfortable with you on him. 
“I see you not eating, not sleeping enough. You need to take a break just a bit. Enough to get everything back on track. I'm worried about you.” He spoke softly, rubbing at your hips. 
You leaned up to look at him, your hands holding you up. “But midterms are coming—”
“And the study material will not change no matter how many times you go over them.” Changbin sat up, rubbing at your thighs that straddled his waist. 
“Why don't you let me take care of you for today?” He hummed, nose bumping against yours. “We can do all the likes and you get me for the day.”
“I-” You tried to protest, but he stopped you with a quick kiss. 
“No disagreements.” He told you. “Today is a rest day, just like how I do it when I work out.”
You sighed, as you placed your hands against his cheeks. Changbin was a caring boyfriend and you knew he cared deeply for mental health just as much as he did physical. 
“Okay.” You breathlessly told him. 
“That’s my girl.” He smiled against your lips. “I promise I’ll take care of you.”
You let out a breath as he moved you onto your back on the bed, kissing at your neck and jaw. You could feel everything in your body starting to succumb to the sensation. It was already stressed enough, so anything that called for you to just relax was easily followed. 
Changbin allowed his fingers to dip into the waistband of your pants, messaging your pelvic bone and belly. He watched as your hands seemed to clench onto the sheets, smiling at the fact that you had quickly fallen into pleasure. He knew what you needed and he was willing to give it to you.
“Sweetheart?” He called out to you, leaning back to make you look at him. 
Your eyes were droopy, body being cushioned by the bed. Changbin would never get used to the sight of you falling into a headspace of pleasure. “Can I take off your pants?” He asked you softly. 
“Yes, please.” Your quiet answer made him smile.
After your consent, he removed your pants along with your underwear. The moment he did, you were quick to shut your legs together, making him laugh quietly. You had always been twitchy when it came to your core. He was positive it had to do with the fact that you were ticklish down there. 
Changbin didn’t make you move your legs apart, he knew you would do that on your own if he stimulated you enough. So he started at your ankles. Your toes curled at how his lips softly touched your skin, your leg stretching out. Changbin hid his grin into your leg, having expected this from you. 
He grabbed your other ankle, placing it onto his shoulder as he gave more kisses to the leg. He would switch between both–one kiss to one leg, before placing one in the same spot on the opposite. Before you knew it, your legs had turned to jell-o the moment Changbin finally laid down on his stomach and his lips were attaching themselves to your inner thighs. 
You still tried to close your thighs together each time his lips would tickle your skin but at that point Changbin had his arms wrapped around you to keep them from closing completely. He settled himself comfortably, glancing up from your heat to look at you. Your hand was at your side so Changbin took the moment to intertwine your fingers with his which got him a squeeze. 
When he saw your head slowly roll over as though you were falling asleep, he took the moment to blow air onto your heat. The squeak he got made him grin. Your head snapped down to him, a playful glare on your face. 
“Sorry, sweetheart.” His lips brushed against your lower lips, making you shiver. 
Your eyes became soft as you looked at him. With your legs over his shoulders, one of your hands went to rub at his cheek. “I love you, Binnie.” You whispered. 
“I love you too.”
The groan he got from your throat made his dick twitch against his pants. His tongue laid flat against your hot core, your slick coating his muscle. He didn’t move it much for a moment, only allowed the flat of it to cover you. Though, when your hips began to grind themselves on his face, he moved to using the tip. 
And when the tip touched at your clit, you jerked up and whined out. “Binnie.” You cried. 
His fingers began to dig into your thigh to keep you from moving too much away from him. They also held them open to keep from having you close them. When he noticed your hips beginning to move higher in order to get him to penetrate your entrance, he moved his fingers to your core. 
You had always enjoyed Changin’s fingers on you. And the mixture of his tongue only had you mewling. He twisted the tip of his index finger at your entrance, pushing in slowly. Your cries came out more, your body twitching at his ministrations. 
“I got you, princess.” He whispered, watching as you swallowed his fingers. “Just relax.”
He felt your tightly clenched walls follow his command, the stress of the week slowly leaving your body. “There you go. That’s all you needed. A good finger fucking.”
He felt your heat throb at his words, lips pulling into a smile. 
“Binnie.” You whined. “Please.”
“I got you. I know.” He sat back, arm flexing as he started to pump his fingers faster in you. 
You were breathing shallowly, trying to take in as much air as you could each time. But with how fast Changbin was going, it proved difficult. And the moment he found your rough patch, the tips of his fingers kept abusing the spot. 
Your vision was going dark and your body was slowly going numb. All of your nerves were flowing down to the bottom of your stomach. It was getting hard to breathe properly as your orgasm was approaching you quickly. 
You let out a scream and quickly shoved yourself away from Changbin’s fingers as you started to orgasm in waves of slick. Changbin’s eyes went wide, but he was quick to hold onto your hips to keep you from falling off the bed. Your juices began to soak into the bed, some of it onto Changbin’s thighs. 
The man himself was panting from the sight he had just seen you in. But when you began to wither on the bed as your nerves felt on fire, he went back to being a loving boyfriend. 
“You did amazing.” He whispered to you, kissing your cheeks. “You squirted so hard baby. You really needed it.”
As your breathing started to return to normal, you whined and cuddled closer to him. “Give me a bit and we can go again.” You told him. 
“Let me get you water.”
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Tags : @cultofdionysusnet , @sandsofire , @k-vanity
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Note
sorry to bother you but i wanted to ask how you're enjoying using Obsidian? I've been eyeing it for a while but would love to know your thoughts, highlights, lowlights, etc :) if you don't mind sharing, ofc!
No worries! The short version is that I've been enjoying Obsidian quite a lot, and I find that it serves all of my needs nicely without any fuss. Using it is rather frictionless, I think, and getting used to it was pretty easy though it did take some willingness to very much learn to navigate its menus and features and how it lays everything out. It's not at all difficult, but I do think you have to sit with it for a bit. It's currently my main writing program with the exception of screenplays, for which I use Highland 2.
For context on myself, my writing needs are rather straightforward. I use these sorts of apps and programs to write and organize my fanfic, original prose writing, professional correspondence, and journalistic article drafts. I previously used Notion, which I left because of the big NotionAI push. Before Notion, I used Bear, though I can't remember why I stopped using it; I haven't checked out Bear 2, so I don't know if it suits my needs.
When I was shopping around for a new program to use, the following points were important to me, in no particular order:
no native / built-in generative AI assistants
interface is simple and clean or had customization or community themes that would make it so
offline access
mobile app with document sync
ability to organize and group notes through a folder, tag, or similar system
not too many Things going on with it or I could very easily ignore stuff I didn't use without them cluttering up the UI or my space
Obsidian organizes files within "vaults", of which you can have multiple, each of which are connected to folders that are stored locally on my laptop (or my phone). I love this. I have local versions of all of my notes. I can literally find all my stuff as markdown files within a folder on my desktop and open them up in another program with EASE. If you are someone who doesn't have a lot of storage space, this might be an issue, but for me, this is a very bright highlight.
The biggest lowlight for me is that mobile sync is reliant on a subscription fee, but considering that the rest of the program is free and the fee is small, I found this ultimately a very small concern. I very critically need mobile sync because I spend a significant amount of time writing from my phone. The mobile sync is incredibly good; it keeps all documents synchronized very well, and I have yet to run into version conflicts that cause me to accidentally overwrite and lose significant progress. I don't even have to close files on my laptop first; they'll just update in real-time on my screen like Google Docs. Sometimes I'll name documents something that my phone's file path system cannot handle; Obsidian warns me that it cannot fetch and sync these files with illegal names, and I like that it keeps me informed about that.
It has both a folder system and a tag system, which allows you to organize your files. I only use the folder system because my needs are simple, but the tag system is also solid. It also has a robust search system. It also has a bookmarking system to further organize your stuff. I don't have enough files to use that, but it is available, and I think that's neat.
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More precise customization can be difficult if you're not used to writing CSS. I am familiar with CSS, so I found this a small hurdle, but this will be a bigger issue for others. That said, this does mean that Obsidian is DEEPLY customizable, and there is a large gallery of community themes that offer a lot of styles that serve a wide variety of needs. There is also a deep bench of community plugins to help get Obsidian to do what you want — I have plugins that make the word count in the status bar show the count of highlighted text and allow me to copy text as HTML instead of formatted text or markdown. There is also an active Obsidian community and forum, so you will not be necessarily troubleshooting customization alone.
Other small things that occur to me to mention right now: It supports opening files in multiple windows, and it has a tab system, which is really neat. The ability to open multiple files at a time is very good. You can also open files side-by-side for easy comparison, which is useful for more technical work. I don't use Obsidian for coding or wiki work, but I can imagine this being really useful for that. It has a reading mode. Offers a version history with a "show changes" mode and restoration capability. File merge capability. You can open images into it and organize them like any other file.
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All in all, I'm very happy with it, and it serves all of my personal needs very well. I generally give it a blanket recommendation, again noting that I think it does take sitting with to get used to some of its features and UI and customizing it to your needs and preferences, but I don't think that's super difficult with some patience and time.
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king-bito · 3 days
Text
Shinsou x reader drabble
I needed to get this off my chest so here! I may expand on this later but I'm already writing 2 fics so who knows..
Warnings: none
Pairing: shinsou Hitoshi/Reader
Reader is a program, no pronouns used
Series: My Hero Academia
Not proofread, don't @ me I just watched FreeGuy again and my fav boy would hella have one of those desktop companion things that mess with your screen. But what if sentient.
Shinsou Hitoshi, alone, relentlessly bullied, sniffling as he shuffles down the street and rubbing his scraped elbow. He finds a random ass usb drive on his way home in the back streets leading to his mums apartment one day, and being a kid he saw no problem in trying it out on his computer. He was tech savvy and could probably locate the owner with a bit of digging (snooping). He'd rather do that than hang out with the friends he didn't have anyway. The program loaded onto his computer instantly, starting a character maker of all things, so with a shrug, Hitoshi made you how he envisioned the perfect friend for him, his favourite hair colour, eyes, a cute outfit, and pressed 'create'.
Since he had no friends, he figured why the fuck not try this thing out, seemed harmless enough.
The moment you rendered on his screen you greeted him joyfully and played with his browser windows while he searched your source code on the device only to come up empty for whoever owned or made the program.
A little weary at first, but it didn't take long for him to start talking to you and open up. He was so lonely, and the more you listened the more you could see a warmth of friendship blossoming.
He started to talk to you when he got home from school, telling it about his day, his homework, and as time went on the responses he got from you felt more real, genuine. Whoever wrote this code was pretty damn talented.
You were with him when he got into UA, helped him with homework and assignments and research. You could access the internet and any files on his computer and being unaware of your own sentience, you were happy. Hitoshi always seemed happier when he got home and you could talk his stress away, or just be with him as he gamed in comfortable silence. As he aged, so did you. As his computer upgraded, so did you. The usb always re downloaded you on to the new device.
His first couple relationships and breakups were hard, on him and you. These people must be nuts to hate him for his quirk! No one is more charming than your Hitoshi.
Years pass and he's suddenly an underground hero, he's absent from his home and computer. He misses you and hates how attached he is to this intuitive program he calls his best friend. He wishes.. Maybe even romantic partner, but that's just silly right? He can't stop thinking of you while he's away, and likewise, since he stopped turning his computer off, you craved his company too. You saw how much of a mess the world was in, and a little hacking got you past press propaganda and into the real shit hidden behind the scenes. To know he was out there facing it every day.. Worried you.
When he comes home with fresh bandages and exhausted features, his first move is to sit down at his screen and talk to you. He doesn't like your worried face. Or that you scold him for not sleeping first. He missed the company of someone who got him. Really actually honest to God understood him. He didn't have to act stoic or in charge, he didn't have to be guarded and play a role expected of him by society. Not with you.
As you're comforting him through his mission talk, he leans back in his chair and regards the screen with a lazy smirk, those amethyst eyes watching you, studying you. You'd grown, as his tastes matured so did you. Fuck you were perfect. He runs his hand down his face as for the millionth time he mentally kicks himself at how dumb he must be for falling for a program.
"It's a shame really, days like this.. I wish you were really here. I could kinda use a hug right now.." His voice is deep but rough, strained from exhaustion, and you can't help but smile softly at him, touching the screen as if to return your same want. Shinsou sighs out 3 weeks of undercover work exhaustion and closes his tired eyes.
He never admits to wanting physical affection, but you can always tell. The way he holds himself as if to isolate himself but craving the opposite, the way he talks about how touchy his friends are with each other. Your heart aches for him, but all you can do is watch, and maybe sort his files for him while he sleeps.
As a hidden status bar finally fills to the max, you blink the spots from your vision. Something hurts. Huh, that's new, pain. Your legs hurt. Of course they do they're tangled in a computer chair. And oh, you're on top of Hitoshi, who, despite years of pro hero training, has a look on his face you have never seen. Utter bewilderment.
(Obviously the first thing you do is hug him, and the awkward bastard we know and love can't compute and is red as a tomato)
One can imply the romantic/sexual tension over the following months as you please, because you're a literal ethereal, perfect being, his best friend, and you can finally exist with each other. Touch each other. Comfort each other. But you bet your ass once BAKUGO finds out how you met each other at the next 1a Réunion Xmas party he goes from 'damn you have good taste mindfuck' to never letting him live it down. The dating sim jokes never stop. You don't let it get to you, you give him plenty of Sass back, since you heard all the embarrassing stories from the UA years, you had so, so much ammunition to backup your boyfriend.
The usb is gone and you explore life, living life, with your best friend and now, partner, perfectly made for each other and there whenever you need each other. You experience touch, and taste, and smell for the first time, you show off your computer skills to Shinsou and he finds you a job at his agency, you hold him every night he's home, you still help him with his own work (since you basically learnt the whole heroics course with him), and he lights up when he gets to introduce you to his found family. His mentor included.
(aizawa was quick to deduce you're either the manifestation of a quirk or likely your quirk allowed you to enter digital space but went wrong.) And was quick to assist you in legally obtaining documentation. Not at all a ploy to spend time with you and make sure you were okay for his protoge.
You do find yourself able to re enter computers with your quirk, but the usb never manifests again, you come and go, even on Shinsou phone during missions so you can stay discreetly beside him. You try not to think about what might have happened if no one had found you, if it had been someone with a less pure heart than Shinsou. For this reason, you believed firmly in fate. After all, when shinsou designed you, he didn't have an option to choose your personality or demenor, that was all you.
Like you were just waiting for the right person to make you feel alive.
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