#this picture made my week and I thank you for sharing these dolls with us :)

[little-diable]

For you, always - Aaron Hotchner (smut)

I am currently rewatching CM, and boy, my Aaron crush is fully back (as if it was ever gone). Please like and reblog if you enjoyed reading this, your comments keep us writers motivated. Enjoy my loves. xxx

Summary: The reader is best friends with Derek, a friendship Aaron can’t stop himself from being jealous of, unable to let go of the crush he has on the youngest team member.

Warnings: 18+, smut, piv, colleagues to lovers, age gap, mentions working out in a gym

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x fem!BAU!reader (2.4k words)

picture credit to the original owner

The weights room was crowded, sweaty bodies moving past one another, trying to find a spot where they could follow their workout routine. (Y/n)‘s eyes found Derek’s in the mirror, unable to bite down her laugh as he winked at her. He kept on doing bicep curls with his weights, huffing as he got to the end of his set. 

“Do you want me to spot you, doll?” His voice rang in her ears, forcing a groan out of her as she nodded. With a deep breath inhaled (y/n) picked up her weights, pushing them over her shoulders. Derek watched her with a proud smile, only stepping in as he watched her arms tremble, struggling to pull through her last rep. “C’mon, two more, you can do it.”

She hated Derek whenever he pushed her to her limits, and yet (y/n) kept on going, till he took the weights from her aching fingers. Before either one of them could speak a word, the sound of Derek’s phone going off echoed through the air, forcing both their eyes to snap to his screen. JJ - this could only mean one thing, a thought both shared as they gave into the groan ripping through them in unison.

……

“You okay?” Aaron Hotchner murmured his words as he watched (y/n) slowly walk back to her seat, placed right next to her boss. Her eyes snapped towards Derek who couldn’t stop his laugh from rumbling through him, very well knowing why her body ached with every step she took. 

“I am, Derek just put me through a lot this morning.” (Y/n) didn’t pick up on the way Aaron’s eyebrows began to furrow, didn’t pick up on the slight look of annoyance crossing his features. Even though the rest of the team was well aware of the workouts Derek pushed (y/n) through every week, Aaron couldn’t stop the waves of jealousy flushing through him.

(Y/n) had only joined the team a few weeks ago, pulled closer due to her friendship with Derek, and yet her and Aaron had instantly clicked. She had accepted her crush on him within the first days, unable to pull away from the man who was by far older than her, while Aaron still struggled with the way his heart skipped a few beats whenever she was close.

“Do you want some magnesium? I’ve got some on me.” A smile tugged on her lips at Aaron’s words, nodding her head. She watched him reach for his bag, gaze focused on the veins shining through his forearm skin, a sight that made her want to groan. (Y/n) was too focused on her boss to pick up on the smirk Emily and Derek shared, all aware of the woman’s crush on Aaron. It was pathetic really, and yet Aaron either didn’t seem to pick up on it, or he simply didn’t want to believe the feeling in his gut.

“Thank you, you’re my lifesaver.” Their hands brushed as Aaron pushed the magnesium pill into her direction, shooting heat through both their veins. (Y/n) had to redirect her attention, hoping that her boss wouldn’t pick up on the signals she couldn’t stop her body from sending out, caught on the ever growing feelings simmering deep inside of her. 

“For you, always.”

……

“C’mon, doll, you’re with me.” Derek pulled (y/n) with him before she could even try to protest, walking down the hallway to the room they’d share for the upcoming days. She didn’t dare turn around, didn’t dare look at Aaron, wondering if he was looking at her, if he would have tried to protest. But yet, even though she kept walking with her eyes set on the back of Derek’s head, she couldn’t help but ache to turn back towards Aaron, the one her heart was calling out to.

“You know,” Derek’s voice forced her back to reality, stepping into their room, “It’s cute how you and Hotch act like teenagers in love.”

Her eyes rolled the same time she slapped his side, forcing a breathy laugh out of him. (Y/n) kept her mouth quiet, well aware that protesting against her best friend’s teasing would get her nowhere, preferring to stay quiet instead of fully outing herself. 

“You may be able to hide it in front of him, but I’ve known you for too long, you know?” Derek plopped down on his bed, arms crossed behind his head as he watched (y/n) unpack her bag. Her teeth sank into her lower lip, trying to stay quiet, hoping that he wouldn’t pick up on the heat once again filling her system. 

“Just drop it, Derek, please.” His laugh forced her hands up to her face, momentarily covering her eyes as she finally gave in and started laughing herself. The sight only made Derek laugh even harder, awfully unaware of the annoyed groan leaving Aaron, who was sleeping in the room one down from (y/n) and Derek. Their boss picked up on the laughter, wondering what the two were laughing about, hating that he wasn’t the one to make (y/n) laugh like that. 

“It’s okay to like him, doll, I’d be happy for the both of you.” She sat down next to him with a sigh leaving her, trying to distract herself before her mind could pull her down the rabbit hole she had been trying to escape for weeks. 

“We both know this would be highly unprofessional. He and I could get into serious trouble for that. And I doubt he’d go for somebody with an age gap that big.” Derek’s hand found her chin, forcing his best friend to look at him. His thumb stroked her cheek, a motion so familiar (y/n) felt thrown back in time to her teenage years when she had first met him. 

“Stop talking like that, he’s clearly into you. He’d be a fool if he wasn’t.” With her head pressed against Derek’s chest, they both relished in the silence now engulfing them, a silence that was soon interrupted by the impatient knocking on their door, followed by Aaron’s call of “We’re leaving in five.”

……

“(Y/n)?” The whisper of her name ripped her out of her thoughts, eyes leaving the stars twinkling in the dark sky to look at Aaron. He was standing close to the bench she was sitting on, looking as sharp as he always did. 

“Hey, are you joining the others?” He sat down next to her with a small shake of his head. For a few seconds neither of them spoke up, looking at one another, picking up on the small details they wouldn’t ever comment on out loud. 

“No, thought I’d clear my head on a walk.” The others had found their way to a restaurant downtown, sharing a meal in hopes of distracting themselves from their current case for just an hour or two. “What about you? What are you doing out here?”

She tried to ignore the heat of his body, feeling him close to her. Goosebumps covered her body, forcing her eyes to focus back on the sky as she pressed her knees to her chest. Aaron kept watching her, smiling as he finally allowed himself to study her without needing to worry about what the others may think. 

“I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like socializing even more tonight.” She felt him freeze at her words, clearing his throat as he seemingly pondered over her words. 

“I am sorry if I -” her laugh interrupted him, hand finding Aaron’s before she could even think about the movement. But the second her hand met his, both their eyes shot down, watching as he slowly laced their fingers together.

“You could never, I like having you around.” Aaron squeezed her hand, pulling her even closer before another word could roll off her tongue. Both their eyes kept holding contact, breaths hitched in their chest as they felt the atmosphere around them begin to crackle, hoping to give them the push they needed. (Y/n) whispered his name, praying to whoever was listening that he’d cross the distance between them.

The first kiss was slow, light, barely there. A simple try, but with the fading by seconds, both their lips chased one another’s, needing more, set on satisfying the need they’d been clinging to for weeks. Her hands found the collar of his shirt, holding onto Aaron for dear life, scared that this would end with the snap of a finger. But neither the snap happened nor anything else to rip them apart, allowing them to adjust to one another.

It was clear to her that Aaron was trying to hold back, unsure if he could and should touch her. His hands didn’t dare move, not wanting to overstep a line neither of them could retreat from, one of many they were crossing just now. 

“Hotch, you’re allowed to touch me.” The breath of his name echoed through the night, leaving both to smile at one another.

“I want to take you back to my room more than anything right now, but I want to do this properly, let me take you on a date when we’re back home.” She pulled him in for another kiss with a smile tugging on her lips, hastily breaking apart the second the all too familiar mixture of laughter echoed through the air, warning the two of the approaching group of profilers. 

……

“A home cooked meal and even some dessert? Who are you, Agent Hotchner?” Her laughter echoed through Aaron’s kitchen, making him give in with his own laugh rumbling through him. He pulled her into his chest, lips meeting hers as he pressed (y/n) against the edge of the table. With her arms finding their way around his neck, she allowed him to pick her up, carrying her towards his bedroom.

Both were secretly grateful that Jack was with Jess, giving them the privacy they needed to explore their longing for one another. Both found comfort in the darkness filling Aaron’s bedroom, wrapping its arms around the two lovers that were finally finding their way together.

“Aaron,” he froze, wondering if she was asking him to stop, if she felt uncomfortable. But it was nothing more than a moan of his name, a sound clawing through her in a desperate need to pull the man even closer. “Fuck, I need you, don’t tease, don’t play around, just touch me. Please.”

“Of course, pretty girl, I’m right here.” The nickname made her swoon, heart swelling in her chest - something she’d have paid more attention to if the feeling of his lips wandering down her throat hadn’t distracted her. His slender fingers undid her blouse, not parting from her to push the fabric down her shoulders. (Y/n)’s fingers copied his actions, freeing his upper body from the black shirt he was wearing. 

Fuck, she had been aching for his body, had wanted to run her hands down his chest more times than she’d ever admit. And now he was right there, for her to hold, for her to love. Their lips connected once again before Aaron gave her a push back, helping her out of her trousers.

“Look at you, you’re so ready for me, what a pretty sight you are.” Her fingernails clawed at his shoulders, wordlessly begging Aaron to speed up his movements, watching him pull his trousers down his legs, boxers following moments later. She raised her hips for Aaron to rip her panties from her frame, unable to stop his eyes from ranking over her now naked form. 

“Aaron fuck me, please, just please.” His raspy chuckles made her whine, eyes fluttering close as she felt his cock brush through her folds, coating himself with her arousal. “I’m on the pill, let me feel all of you.” 

“I need you to be a hundred percent sure of this.” Their eyes met, her lips found his for a moment, murmuring a soft “I am” against them. With one hand finding her hip he pushed into her, making them both groan in unison. His cock twitched inside of her, trying to hold back as her walls clenched around him. “It’s okay, take your time, darling.”

Aaron kept his voice low, soft, like a breeze murmuring the morning's secrets to those allowing themselves to listen. Only as she choked on his name did Aaron begin to move, forcing his cock deeper and deeper inside of her with every thrust. 

“Feels so good, you’re so big.” Her groans made him pick up his pace, smirking down on her, watching the way her eyebrows twitched, how her eyes fluttered close, and how hands struggled to find something to hold onto. Neither of them seemed to care that her nails left marks down his shoulders and upper back, neither of them seemed to care that his lips working on her neck left hickies she’d struggle to hide. All they cared about was their fast approaching high, set on pulling them under. 

His thrusts were perfectly calculated, seemingly knowing how to touch (y/n) to make her moan and tremble like she currently was. It was a sight that left Aaron with pride simmering inside of him, a sight he’d forever cherish and remember, that much he was sure of.

“Aaron, ‘m so close.” (Y/n) arched her back, gasping his name as his thumb rubbed her clit, with a speed perfectly matching his thrusts. She came within a few moments, drawing blood from him with her nails clawed into his skin. He pushed his lips against hers as he chased his orgasm, pulling away seconds before he came. 

She watched him cum with a low groan leaving him, relieving himself on her lower stomach, painting her skin white. Both were heavily breathing, somewhat in shock that this had truly just happened, after all these weeks of imagining what being touched by the other must feel like. 

“How about a shower, huh?” With a small nod thrown his way, (y/n) allowed him to pull her to his feet, stealing a kiss from her before he guided her through the darkness. And with their hearts beating in sync, and their minds being unusually quiet, they cherished one another’s closeness for the rest of the night. 

[buckys-wintersoldier]

Roses | Bucky Barnes

Pairing -> 40’s!Husband!Bucky Barnes x 40’s!Wife!Female!Reader

Summary -> Your Husband comes back from his training at the army and brings you a surprise home. But he isn’t the only one who has a surprise, you have a wonderful surprise for him too.

Warnings -> (G) none, just fluff

Wordcount -> 1.1k

Prompt -> Fluffcember Day 19 | Family time au | AFG Fluff Bingo | N2 | buying flowers | @anyfandomfluffbingo

Request -> @sergeantbarnessdoll I have a Fluff BINGO request for you! Buying Flowers with 40s Bucky🥰 Take your time🩵

A/N -> Thank you for the request and I hope you like what I made with that. I also want to thank @buckyysdoll for your excitement and feedback. Divider made by @firefly-graphics.

Masterlist | Fluffcember | AFG Fluff Bingo Masterlist | Bucky Barnes Masterlist

You’re doing some laundry while you wait for your husband to come home. He was at the training for the army for a few weeks, and you can’t wait to have him in your arms again. The house is too quiet when he isn’t there, and you can’t cuddle with him at night.

Especially right now when you have the most wonderful surprise for him, you need him cuddling with you all the time. You could have told him already, but you didn’t want to write it in a letter. You wanted to tell him the surprise personally, and you know he will love it.

You two always wanted it, and to finally see the pictures of your little baby inside your body is the most wonderful thing for you right now. Maybe after having Bucky by your side in a few minutes.

When you are finished with the laundry, you hear the door swing open, and your husband walks into your shared house. “Doll? I’m home; where is my sweet girl?” He asks, and you blush immediately when you walk towards him.

Bucky always makes you blush. When you met him for the first time, his first sentence made you blush, even when it was just a flirty “such a gorgeous girl." The smirk on his lips makes you almost melt whenever you look at him, and everyone wants him. So many girls tried to get him, but he always said no. He just wants you, and he has you, his wife and perfect girl.

You look through the door, and when he sees you, his smile widens, and he hides something behind his back. “Hey, James,” you chuckle, knowing he loves it when you call him that. You walk closer, and when you’re just a few inches away from him, he leans closer to capture his lips softly with yours.

“I missed you so much, baby doll,” he whispers against your lips. “I missed you too, but I have a surprise for you,” you say, and his eyes brighten. Just the word surprise is enough for him to turn into a little boy, and he gets so excited that he could jump around.

“I love surprises, but not as much as I love you,” he says excitedly, taking a step back. “But I have a surprise for you too,” he says, showing you the roses he holds in his hand and which he has hidden behind his back.

Your favorite flowers were red roses, and he brought them. They look wonderful, and you can’t help but inhale their smell deeply. Then you look into your boyfriend's steel blue eyes, and you almost forget what you want to say; his eyes look like an ocean of feelings. The water is his love for you, and the waves are his fascination and adoration when he looks at you.

“Thank you,” you whisper, and you take the roses to place them in a vase with water. Bucky uses the time to take his jacket off and place his bag to the side. When he follows you into the kitchen, his excitement grows, and his hands find their way to your hips, pressing his body against your back and looking over your shoulder while you place the roses in the vase.

When you finish it, you turn his arms around and face him. His hands are still on your hips, and his lips are just inches away from yours. Your fingers were running softly through his hair; you missed touching it while he was in the army. “What’s the surprise? You can’t let me wait for so long,” he whispers impatiently, and you laugh.

“We have to go to the living room for that. I have something for you, but it’s there,” you say, and he picks you up to carry you into the living room. Your legs are immediately wrapped around his waist, and you lay your head on his shoulder, looking at his beautiful, formed jaw. “You’re beautiful,” you mumble, and you brush your fingers over the stubbles of his beard. It’s soft, but it tickles slightly, and you giggle a bit.

When you reach the living room, he lets you down and walks to the couch to let himself take a seat there. You walk to the shelf and take a few pictures before you walk towards him and sit on his lap, facing him with a wide smirk.

“Ready?” You ask nervously, and Bucky nods. You inhale deeply before you hold the ultrasound pictures in front of his face or more into his face. He chuckles and pulls your hand a few inches away so he can look at the pictures.

Then he is quiet, staring at the pictures, at you, and back at the pictures. You’re nervous, and with every second he just stares at the picture, it gets worse. You always wanted to have kids with the two of you, but what when he isn’t ready yet? Maybe he doesn’t want to have a kid yet. Your hands are sweaty, and you squirm softly in his lap.

“Bucky?” You ask softly, and he immediately looks at you. His lips form into a big smile, and he wraps his arms around you and presses you tight against him. Then he suddenly stands up and spins you two around. “That’s perfect; you’re pregnant; we are going to become parents,” he says excitedly, and when he stops spinning you around, he looks into your eyes.

He often does it, but this time it’s different; it's more intimate and filled with more adoration. “Can I touch it?“ He asks and points to your stomach. You giggle, nodding and following his hand when he reaches down to softly touch your stomach.

You smile when his hand slides over the fabric of his t-shirt, and you wear his clothes often. His smile grows when he feels the little bulge in your belly, and within a minute, he kneels in front of you, shoving the fabric of the shirt up to reveal your stomach.

“Hey, little one,” he says softly, kissing your skin. Your fingers are in his hair, and you look at him with nothing but love in your eyes. “I’m your daddy, and I can’t wait to hold you in my arms,” he adds, and you feel your tears burning in your eyes. He is the cutest man you know, and to see him talking to your little one in your stomach makes him even more adorable.

Bucky stands up and captures your face with his hands. “Thank you so much for everything. For being my beautiful wife and for making me a daddy of the most wonderful little one, this is definitely the best surprise. I love you so much, doll,” he whispers, wiping the tears of joy from your cheeks. “I love you too, Bucky,” you mumble and lean closer to press your lips on his.

Taglist: @nicoline1998enilocin @sergeantbarnessdoll @kandis-mom @km-ffluv @identity2212 @bucky-barnes-lover @felicitylemon @ergle-barnes @sweater-bee @cjand10 @bookishtheaterlover7 @harleycao

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

I love your animatronic toy OC guys so much, they have so much personality to them and their colours are really good (especially umbra)

Thank you! The funny thing about Umbra's design was that while I was developing it about two years ago and had some colors in mind, I described in text what I already came up with to an image generator for fun (shitty unconvincing old kind, vs now where it looks like shit but in a somewhat more convincing way) and it produced something so silly that I made her design better than what I would've settled with out of spite.

More details of my process and anti-AI ranting below the cut, so the examples given won't show up on search results. Google Images is getting polluted too much with slop to begin with.

Let's begin.

In 2022 I was drafting up Umbra's design with mostly concrete details. At this time image generators were newer and much less convincing, and I was a bit less aware of just how unethical they were, so I fed one a text description of what I had drafted for her design out of curiosity. Something along the lines of, "doll of an anthropomorphic owl librarian in glasses, blazer/suit jacket, skirt, corset, high heels, sitting on a bookshelf" and probably a few more terms. Really specific, lengthy prompt.

I try to be open-minded and give new things a shot, but the results were Not Great. Ideally, I'd want to not share the AI pictures at all on-principle, but I feel like it's useful, transparent, and necessary to show them. Both as a means of not hiding anything, but also just to appreciate where the design is at in spite of it.

Outside of this particular collage of Weird Owls, no other pictures on this blog are AI-generated. AI Image Generation is harmful, and I am against its usage.

But hey, two of the generated pictures look close, right? The top left is the closest, and bottom right is second.

That's because they started out worse, and I had to actually erase chunks of them and have the generator fill in the blanks to get anything remotely close to what I wanted. Misshapen limbs, unrecognizable anatomy, fever-dream clothing details, etc. They didn't even have a corset or proper legs until I slapped the generator in the face enough times to make it produce them. I was just using it to photobash, which was such an annoying process, I just went "this is dumb" and stopped. They're literally posed like that because I kept erasing and regnerating their limbs until they looked vaguely in-character. It literally only looks passable thanks to STRANGLING it with human input.

Before I used the image generator, I already drafted her to be night-themed with yellow eyes and something like purple, dark blue, or sky-blue as her main color; the generator making one owl yellow-eyed and purple was a happy coincidence, and the only thing the generative AI "came up with" that I didn't already have in mind or included in the prompt was the light blue shirt, which I did adapt into her cyan shirt and stockings/socks as well. That was a good call. You get One Point, Mr. AI.

...Which still meant that at its absolute best, it was a largely redundant step in the creative process if its contribution was worse than what a randomized palette generator or character creator could come up with.

That's already putting the ethics of it aside, like carbon emissions, data pollution, using artists' and photographers' work without credit or permission, the incentive to plagiarize, flooding sites like deviantart with slop, Willy Wonka Shit, etc etc etc. When people say "you can use AI as a tool though", this ordeal was enough to convince me that it's more trouble than its worth, even in its most ethical usage. I feel gross for having even tried. I wish I knew what sources went into the creation of those Weird Owls. It'd be better for research if the right people could be credited.

Nothing else on this blog is AI-generated or ever will be. The art below is purely my own (2022 vs a few weeks ago)):

Actually drawing Umbra and solidifying her design was far more rewarding than having an image generator vaguely approximate my own ideas. I wanted her to look really special, so I used a black cape and pants, gold highlights and buttons, and blue undertones to make something more distinct. Also, neck floof. Very important. I wanted the head in particular to look distinct and original, going with bold black streaks to really help her look distinguished.

I also have certain inevitable Hydroisms for Fancy characters like her; most apparent in these designs for Chasey and Kaita from even longer ago, which were more of an influence than anything else. (Old art of mine from like 2021, Kaita ref looks wonky but Chasey still holds up nicely):

Most of Umbra's other design elements were already commonly used with established ocs like Kaita, like her shape language, corset, skirt, heels, etc. It was my previous work with Chasey that inspired the use of gold buttons and highlights.

Umbra is also now a bluer shade of purple partly to distance the current design from that ordeal. All things considered, I'll probably make her more indigo next time. I already wanted her to have a wide color range from the get-go (Featured below is, again, purely my art from 2022:)

I may use a different colored shirt and stockings in the future. I like to think she has many different shirts and clothes based on the different stages of the night sky, from dusk to dawn, and the painting I made in the top right there was an exploration of her range in different lighting.

All in all, it's frustrating. I'm proud of her design, but explaining all of this is annoying, because it's technically all relevant to showing how her colors were picked and how the design was made. I still technically have AI to """Thank""", in the way you thank a bad experience for encouraging you to make things better out of spite.

[multi-fandomlovers-world]

Love Coming Home To You

Summary: Ghost had been away on a mission for a couple of weeks. Knowing that you are at home, he surprises you by coming home early. There, he knows he's at peace.

A/N: I genuinely hope you all like this and it's not dog shit

Category:Fluff, Established relationship,Kissing, Makeout, Soft

Simon had been away from home due to his line of work. It was hard when he had to leave and keep you at home. Simon got a dog and named it Riley so you wouldn't be completely alone while he was out on missions. He hated leaving you but you understood that it was his job. Simon having you in his life meant everything to him, even if he didn't say it out loud, he would show you through his actions.

One night, you were sitting out in the living room with Riley, going through a bunch of old photos and documents for a project you were working on. Soft music played lightly in the background as you were looking through pages and Riley was next to you, sleeping. You looked over at a picture frame that had a picture of you and Simon in the streets and Las Almas. He looked so happy, in love and at peace. You smiled at it and caressed your thumb across it. You petted Riley and you knew Simon would come home to you again and be right back in your arms.

You fed Riley and went to wash your hands before pulling out veggies and the chicken. You started marinating the chicken in teriyaki sauce and placed it over the flat pan, waiting for the oven to get done precooking. You let the rice cook in the rice cooking machine and got started up chopping up veggies. You were humming to the music that played in the background. You were so focused on getting everything together that you didn't see Riley leave.

Simon came in the door and started petting Riley, who was wagging his tail and jumped on Simon for a moment before calming down. He walked into the kitchen, finding you humming along to the music that played in the background. He walked up behind you and wrapped his large arms around you and said,"Hey love, I'm home". You gasp and turn towards him, with a smile. There he was, Your Simon. You jumped into his arms and he picked you up, placing you on the kitchen counter, holding you tightly and not letting go. You said,"Hi baby, wait when did you get here,how? I thought-". He looked into your eyes, tracing every move and the confusion in your eyes. " They let us go early and we finished the mission earlier than expected. I thought I'd come home and surprise my best girl", he said with smile and pushing a couple hairs behind your ear.

He took off his balaclava and you could see his face ( he didn't want to blow his cover as Ghost). You could see his dirty blonde hair was messy, the black makeup was still lightly on around his eyes.

"I missed you so much, Si"

"I missed you, love. Very much. I love coming home to you"

"I just wish we had more time to be together"

" We will have more time together, my love. I promise"

Simon lifts your chin and pulls you in for a kiss. His lips were soft and gentle against yours. Your hands cupped the side of his face. His hands travelled down to your waist and touching your thigh, making you wrap your legs around him. He smiled into the kiss, before making his way down to your neck. He hears you moan softly as he travels down your collarbone. You bite your lip and had pulled his face back up to meet yours. His eyes looked deep into your eyes. His eyes are mesmerizing, you could tell how much he loved you because his eyes are soft seeing you. You pulled him back in for a kiss as he holds your face, caressing your cheek. "Are you hungry, love? I made a bunch of food", you said, looking at him with a loving smile. "Yes, I'm starving. Thank you, doll", Simon said as he kissed you again before pulling away. You and Simon ended up eating dinner together, talking about what went on at his work and you talked about yours, shared a few laughs and then watched TV together. By the end of the night, you had fallen asleep on his chest and he smiled. He admired you in moments like this, seeing you sleepy and secured in his arms. He kissed your forehead lightly before carrying you to bed and cuddling with you.

[mistysblueboxstuff]

Hello, first of all, I’m really sorry for bothering you with this. I’m a person who other people consider an artist. I’ve made things all of my life with whatever tools I could get my hands on. My family was too poor to afford paper and pencils so I burned wood engravings with magnifying glasses. My handwriting is tiny and precise because I loved writing but had to squeeze every inch of space out of a page. Over the years I’ve done a lot of other things that caught my interest, including sculpture, 3D modeling, modding, making dolls, decoupage, graphic design, oils, watercolor, lots of stuff. I won awards, got into some magazines. People paid unreasonable amounts for my stuff. I even spent two years in college majoring in drawing and painting before admitting to myself that I hated the process and though I had some technical skill, I wasn’t a real artist and didn’t have the inspired creative spark real artists had. I was okay with that; I don’t want to express myself.  I’ve always made things because I wanted to learn things and see something I wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. 

I’ve always thought of myself as someone respectful of artists. I’ve spent so much on commissions that I don't have a savings account. I’ve always paid artists as well as I can afford and sometimes more if I thought their rates were low or if I knew they were putting extra work in on a piece. I’ve also bought a lot of fan made merch. Almost a thousand of that has been on prints you’ve made. I love your art.

I’ve been passionate about text and art AI for years. At first I was excited when the public became aware of my hobby and I thought that I’d finally be able to talk about it with people. Except, it turned out that everyone hates this thing I’m passionate about and would hate me if they knew I used it. I’ve had to hide it and keep it bottled up inside, away from the people I want to share it with. Everywhere I look, I see words like AI bro and AI clown and lazy and that people like me should just die.

I’ve heard all of the arguments for and against it. I do get why people are scared and discouraged and feel like they’ve had something taken from them. But I also know that I can't stop loving AI. I can't stop making things and learning new skills in things that interest me. That’s who I am. If I know anything about myself, it’s that.

I have one enormous print of yours of Aziraphale hanging over my bed. It has given me so much happiness for the past two years. I’ve felt love and beauty when I look at it. It’s been a source of comfort and joy. Having grown up lesbian in a religious household that thought I needed an exorcism, there’s something about seeing him turn his face away from God that resonates.

It’s been eating me up inside for weeks because every time I look at the picture above my bed, I don’t see Aziraphale any more. I don’t feel that love. I can only think about the person behind it that I respect and how they’ve said I should die, and the community behind them that I want to be part of but would hate me.

Am I the bad guy? The pain feels like a festering boil that needs to be lanced, so I guess I’d like to hear you say that what I’m doing is unforgivable so that I can take the picture down, grieve and move on. I know that's a lot for a stranger to ask of you. It's probably messed up that I'm even bringing this to you. I'm sorry.

Hiya. Thank you for messaging me. first I'd just like to say I don't think anyone should actually die. I know I say AI folks should die but it's something that I don't actually mean or want, I'm just angry. I don't like being told to "adapt or die". I don't appreciate AI folks saying I should "get on with the times and use the AI". I don't appreciate being told to "learn a new skill" by people who by all accounts have none themselves. I don't appreciate being told to "go work at McDonald's bozo". Being told to "get a real job". These are the things said to me personally, not just to artists in general.

Have you seen the vile things artists are being told by the AI tech bros? How we are being treated? They call us "drawslaves", "paint pigs", but at same time we're the "elite" keeping the poor masses away from their god given right to be able to make art without putting any effort into it.

We have every right to be angry and I'm really sorry me saying they should die has hurt you. I'm hurting too. I haven't been in the best place mentally and I won't go into details but this whole AI thing has only made it worse.

I don't think artists are just scared or discouraged, they're angry because their art is being stolen by this thing made to replace them. It really really hurts, I can't tell you how much. It's also infuriating. A lot of the time it makes me want to just stop making art because what's the point? It'll just get stolen and chopped up, bastardised into some AI monstrosity and soon I won't even be needed at all. I spent my whole life trying to figure out what to do with it, finding one thing i love and managing to make a living off it, only for it to be taken away from me by a machine. Might as well just stab me to death and get it over with. It would hurt less. One of the things that hurt me the most is when people question if my art is AI or not. I hate that I also question every piece of art I now encounter too.

Your story is inspiring and it sounds like you enjoyed making art, so what happened? I can't understand how any artist would actually feel accomplished by generating images via AI. I do understand it's fun and brings joy to people I guess. As for being a part of the art community I don't think most artists will ever accept AI folks as being a part of it. There is a huge AI community though, as I'm sure you know.

Personally I find it really difficult to look at AI images, for many reasons, seeing them treated as art pains me. It's why I left ArtStation and why I'm no longer active on DeviantArt either.

I don't think you specifically are the "bad guy". The bad guys are the people who are pushing for this thing to actually replace artists. The bad guys are the hedge fund billionaire man babies behind it. I do think people using AI are helping it get better at stealing though. The support the AI has been given by folks using it has made people behind it more aggressive as well.

But like I said many times before I don't hate AI specifically and if it stops stealing and starts being used more ethically then it's fine (sort of). But I think everyone knows the AI would be nothing without actual artists' work, that's why they're gonna fight for their "right" to keep stealing from us. Wonder who they gonna steal from when most of us abandon art because we'll have to do something else to survive and there won't be time for making art anymore.

I'm really sorry my stance on AI is making it difficult for you to enjoy my art though, I never really thought about that so thank you for making me consider your perspective on this. I'm happy my art has brought you joy. For what it's worth I don't hate you, I don't think using AI is unforgivable, I don't think you're a bad person for using AI and finding joy in it. But as an artist I will never support AI. AI stomps all over everything art stands for, to me at least. It's a travesty. It mocks everything I've been through as a person to get where i am now. There are so many artists i love and seeing their art stolen and used in this way makes me so mad. It's easy to make the issue sound simple by saying "artists are just scared because AI is better" but it's so much more than that.

I'm sorry you feel like you need to take my Aziraphale painting down. I can't help but feel the way i feel though. i hate AI as it is now but that doesn't mean i hate every single person who uses it. I'm sorry though. i wish i had something smarter to say and something to make you feel better :(

[the-sisters-madrigal]

Hi! Love your blog! My sister and I love love love Encanto (me more so) and it's my favourite ever Disney movie ever!

I have the headcanon set in modern times that after seeing the barbie movie, Luisa buys herself an emotional support barbie so she gives herself the childhood she didn't get. Also in relation to this, after the events of the movie, Pepa and Isabela bond over the trauma of having to suppress their gifts and being seen as perfect to keep up appearances. Isabela finds her old dolls from when she was a kid and seeing how she's not that girl anymore, she goes ham in destroying them and essentially pulls a Sid from Toy Story. Pepa helps in this therapy by using her lightning and its beautiful.

Other hcs include...

Mariano still being a himbo! One Christmas, Alma says they had an important visitor and Mariano deadass asks if it's Santa. It's padre fransico from a neighbouring church. This one is based off my sister at work, who, last Christmas, asked if the special visitor they were getting was Santa as 'christmas' and 'special visitor' usually means him. It was safeguarding people.

Behind the donkey shed is a popular place for couples to have alone time together. Both Pepa and Luisa can attest to this.

Dolores was adamant about wanting a baby sibling for Christmas, to the point where she held the baby who was the baby Jesus in the nativity hostage. Pepa and Félix did not think that negotiating with a three year old would be on their parenting duties and yet there they were.

Antonio is an oops baby. Very much welcomed, but an oops baby nonetheless. Pepa and Félix swore that after Camilo, there was to be no more. Cue Dolores' quinciñera where they had too much to drink and figured they were too old to need protection. The morning sickness five weeks later proved otherwise.

Thank you so, so much! I love me some Encanto, too 🥰 I took a little break for a while, but I'm back on it now 😂

And my goodness, these are some awesome headcanons!! I'll address each of these and number them so I can keep track 💗💗💗

I have honestly never much considered an modern AU for this group, but I have to admit, that's a really intriguing idea! And Pepa and Isabela bonding is pretty awesome, too, even if it's something I've never thought a lot about either (a lot of my thoughts belong to the three sisters 😅) However, I have to admit, the thought of Isabela destroying Barbie's in Sid-like fashion is the stuff that horror movies are made of 😂 However, I could very much picture it 🤣

I absolutely love Mariano being a himbo. He is literally the sweetest and he's got the spirit, but idk 😂

Now all I'm picturing is Luisa walking up after a hard day of gathering donkeys that she shouldn't have to gather in the first place and coming upon Pepa and Félix back there behind the donkey shed 🤣 Poor baby Luisa gonna be scarred for life

My goodness, I could definitely see Dolores wanting a baby sibling 🥺 And holding the nativity Jesus baby hostage is hilarious 😂💖 The question is did she want a boy or a girl or was she good with whichever? I kinda picture her being cool with either, but that might be based on my own experiences as a little kid wanting a sibling.

And my gosh, it's crazy you say this because I was literally telling my dad this the other day. I was forcing him to look at some of the Encanto characters (as you do) and I was looking at those kids thinking, "Dang, somebody done had an oopsie." 🤣

Thank you for sharing these delightful headcanons! 🥰💗💗💗

[droolysub]

1.25.24 - 🎥 soooooo i decided to get my ass all dolled up tonight bc i'm forcing myself to have some overdue FUN 🥁 *drumrolls* ... at a Barbie watch partyyyy! yayayay! *squeals*~

i don't rly know anybody going tbh but i'm there for ✨me✨ anyways. maybe the other girls will be nice(?) who knows!!!! i'm going in with an open heart and happy for multiple reasons: 1. this is a great reason to leave this house 2. i wanted to enjoy the movie and 3. i did things to take care of myself that i wouldn't otherwise do bc i wanted to have as good of a time as possible

i prepared this morning by doing a facial, a hask, enjoyed plenty of black tea (gotta have caffeine to keep me going) and made sure i had no school stuff to worry about 😎 responsible of me, right?

VENT: the people here at the home i share (not family, not friends, just people who don't particularly like me) are angry that i'm actually getting ready to do something(?) and bullying me from a few rooms over by shouting rude comments through the walls... i don't have agoraphobia. they don't know the reason i don't leave the house is bc i'm bedridden most days. they don't even know that i still go to school bc my attendance has dropped so low thanks to my declining health. makes me so angry that they use every opportunity they can to make the lump in me grow from stress hormones (one of them even has cancer herself and i think she just made it her whole personality... you'd think that kind of thing would make a person kinder towards others). they just call it "drama" when i grab my fucking chest and fall to the ground for long periods at a time... it hurts. it's real. if they were safe people, they'd know. but i'm afraid they'd just use that information to hurt me more the same way they have in the past. when i tried to kill myself just a week ago and police, fire and ambulances came - they just got annoyed that i destroyed their peace... my body was literally shutting down and i didn't even want help. it was a concerned classmate who was worried about me who called in a wellness check. i was lucky to be helped that day. the point is, no matter what- i will always be a burden to these people. they will always be racist and hate me for not all the reasons i'm not as white as them. i even bleached my pretty brown hair and stopped eating food that they said was "too stinky". i became their indentures servants and they just continued to patronize me as "the help". not even a housemate and i pay the most in rent! i don't even have a job! they raised it randomly before Christmas in hopes that it would get me moved out or homeless by 2024. they poke fun at me for skipping hospital visits and not being able to rly afford any leisure that costs $. it rly sucks being trapped here and beaten down every damn day

one time they put a picture of my rapist on the fridge and left it for many months to punish me for avoiding them and only leaving my room to eat at night when everybody was asleep. they wanted to set up little cruel pranks like the times they put glass bottles on top of the fridge door to fall and shatter onto my bare feet. i couldn't even eat and lost so much weight bc i couldn't get myself to open the fridge without going into some terrible PTSD attack. over summer they hosted a "Barbie watch party" where they invited all their friends over to literally fucking humiliate and bully me. they knew i loved barbie and couldn't afford to rent it or go see it. they didn't even end up renting the film and the film wasn't even for rent at the time they threw the party. it was just to be fucking cruel and trick me. sorry to vent about them. i just had to after hearing them be so cruel through the fucking walls again... i wish i had earbuds to drown this out but one housemate steal my charging case and now i HAVE to listen unless i want to give them a reason to yell at me by blasting music over their passive aggressive shouting... fuck that kind of hostility...

you have zero idea how happy i am to gooo! i am literally bouncing on my bed just waiting for my ride! is it bad that i kind of want to pregame before going? it would be fun to go a little

the first time i watched this movie, it was a rly bad experience that got completely stolen from me (by the same "nice guy" that chose to disrespect and violate me last night actually).... i kept telling him to keep his hands to himself in the theater and that there were kids around, but he didn't care or rly even listen... it ruined Barbie for me and i cried so much...

he baited me into watching the movie bc he knew it was what i wanted to do more than anything after stalking my blog. i was homeless over summer and that was a chance at a nice cool theater with snacks and Barbie! how could i say no? he said he wouldn't touch me. i trusted him.

fr i am not going to let ANYTHING dull my sparkle this time around, not even if there's no buttery popcorn 🍿✨ and definitely not bc of some fucked up scummy asshole whether it's a p3do creep who has been trying to hurt me since middle school or one of my housecellmates

tonight i am undoing that old, bad time and replacing it with this new, better memory 💓

[pipecleaneradventures]

thank you for such a in depth reply! this is my puppet, shes made out of wire and is needle felted. she has some problems like a poorly attached head and currently has no hands, but her body is decently poseable

im defaintly wondering what to use to make them stand up, I wasnt sure if most of your videos were top down or not. it looks like your using some sort of pipe cleaner arm attatched to the wall?

i also saw you had a video where one of the characters was blinking, ive always wondered how stuff like that was done. are the eyelids attatched or just sat ontop of the eyes? they dont look detatchable in the video

its rare i see any stop motion artists active online on sites i use, (though maybe i just dont know where to look) so its very nice to be able to talk to someone about it. im very new to it besides dabbling in it a bit as a kid so any advice or tips is helpful, so thanks so much for sharing your setup

sorry if this is incoherant, its kinda late here

Sorry  for the late response. I could have answered earlier, but my anxiety is always getting in the way of things.

That's so cool that you can needle felt and that you put wirres inside it. So it's the same as pipe cleaners material wise. :D Are you going to add hands to your puppet? You probably should do something to atttch the head better so itdoesn't fall off, but things can be fixed after a figure is made, though heads can be tricky to attatch better. I need to know how it's held together. The wires in my pipe cleaner heads go all through the body, I usually make the head first even if it doesn't have all the details at first.

I've made my videos with so many different camera setups and ways of holding my figures up. The first year of videos I made were "filmed" top down. (it's wierd to call it that because this is reeeeeeeaaaaaalllly slow filming:D) My figures were just lying on a fleece blanket with minimal backgrounds often consisting of another color blanket supposrting my figures because they wouldn't look natural lying flat, and the second material was also the ground.

For about the next year I had my figures on an easel instead because the wifi was bad in the new place I lived and as I discovered later, my tablet was just getting old, so I couldn't use two separate devices, one as a camera and one from which to edit. Besides the fact my figures were at a slant instead of top down, I made my animations in much the same way as before. (There were lots of other small changes and improvements amongst using these methods and before I did top down I expereimented with all sorts of different ways, some of them pretty silly and not used for long.)

Taking pictures with the easel was often a fight with gravity and I also wanted to start adding more background pieces, but I didn't want them to be bumped by my crittersmoving, so I had to change my method. So again I went through lots of trial and error like I did before I'd settled on doing the top down picture taking. I tried out all the different methods and ways of holding my critters and backgrounds in place I could think about. I experimented with usign materals that hadn't worked for earlier setups, but that I still had lying around so, why not try them?

Finally I landed upon the setup you saw in my recent video where there are magnets on my easel, I also have ground in my animations. (I didn't have that for most of my earlier animations so yay!) As of about a week I've been using a doll stand stuck to the magnets of the "background wall". (The magnets also help hold background pieces in place.) But the doll stand botem is stuck to the wall so the tall part is facing the back of the critter and I have a pipe cleaner attatched to the part that is supposed to be around the figure's waist. (In the video I replaced the wire part with a pipe cleaner, but the wirre is thicker so now the pipe cleaner is just there becaus it is thinner than the end of the holding thing and is the same color as the figure.)

So, now my figures can move freely in the air attatched by the waist to a stand attatched to the wall. The magnet background is covered with my fleece blanket, and the magnets are strong enough to be able to grab the pipe clenaers through the blanket fluff. The blanket hides them. I also hide the botem of the stand by either it going through a background piece like the leaves of a tree covering it, like in my Shadow and Flicky animation. Or the ground color is pulled up over the stand, like in the one with the little chicken, Cucky. Or it is hidden behind an energy aura like in the one with Shadow floating with the blue energy. I proably shouldn't have shared my secret of how I make these, now people will be looking for where the stand base must be hiding. :D I still have to try out my new idea of how to easily move the stans about with the critters on them. (When you pull the tall part they follow along with that so that has to be the  leading part when you move them because it is atatched to one side.)

(I think that description was longer than it needed to be. Oh well)

As for the eyelids. The figure in my animation yesterday has atatched eyelids that can pulled from above the eyes like real eyelids. That is difficult to work with and takes longer. I haven't even animated with the eyelids like that. My critters you see blinking have eyelids that I just set on top of the eyes. At first they were made out of felt, but the felt wasn't always the same color, so they are pipe clenaers, (thin pipe clenaers, not fluffy ones). I have separate pieces for the amount the eyesareopen. I alsohave simular ones for making the eyesopen wider or the pupils dialating. I'vealso used ones for the different mouth shapes, even though that gets trickier for animals who's mouths stick out from their faces. But yeah, it's a thing other stop motion animaters also use. At first the felt pieces I used were sticky, but they don't have to be sticky because the fuzzy felt and gravity hold them in place. It was so cool the first time I saw one of my characters blink in my animation. I first had them blinking too often actually.

When I started making these videos, (I wanted to animate them shortly after I started making things with pipe cleaners, but I had no idea how I'ddo it and itseemed like such a big, imposible progject.) When I finally got good at pipe cleaners and started experimenting with animating with them, it was amazing how many other stop motion animators I found out there. Like, this is an old way of animating, so it's interesting that people still use it. There are lots of Lego animaors, they call their animations Brick Films. After I'd started figuring things out on my own and with advice from others' videos I even discovered other pipe clenaer animators because pipe cleaner creators are also rare unless you are one, and then you start finding them all. :D I had to come up with my own techniques to animate with pipe cleaners because no onehad instructions about that. There are clay animations and lego ones, and I even found a page that's pretty big that does needle felted animations and even made a needle felted videogame.

Stop motion used to be used in movies all the time before computers took over. It's like I was born in the wrong time period. Anyway, there are occasionally Stop Motion movies still. It's nice to be able to talk to somebody about it. I wonder if people I know are starting to get dirven crazy by how I keep talking about a new way of animating my figures. This most recent one has a lot of promise I think. (Though I think that about all of them.:D) So teaching someone about how to make these videos is maybe not the best thing for me to do because I keep changing how I make them every day.

As for actually animating. I think it's just practice and observing what you see and usuaing that useful feature on youtube where you can see individual frames and stuff like that. But mainly it's practice. That's why you wnat to have your figures in a way that you can easily move them. Having a wire frame is great because then they stay where you moved them. That's why my figures also have pipe cleaner hair, so it stays in place. I've been posting videos consitently for over two years, so I've had lots of practice and I hope I'm improving.

Anyway, you can ask me any other questions you like, maybe you can even message me to ask them. I hope you are able tomake some animations and have fun making them. Initial setup is big and scary. I remember making much bigger backgrounds than I eeded to make when you just need what you see on screen. Anyway, so just make what you need for your first animation, maybe even jsut have a blank background for practince. Too many times I've made a big setup jsut to try out one little thing that doesn't work, so just have it so you can practice that one little thing. Even try to move your figures through the motions before taking the pictures to see if they will even move like you like.

Anyway, I hope that helps and makes maybe a little sense, I'm super scatter brained. I hope you will enjoy animating, but it's ok if you don't. The figure you made looks really cute. I'd lketo see other things you've made. Anyway, happy creating!

[fagexe]

I've been really behind on my tags....so i'm doing them all in one post;P (this way I'm not spam tagging the same people in seven different posts)

tagged by @slvrroses and @pastlives2022 ily last song: Doomed (for each other) by Salem last show: I don't really watch a lot of shows, but the last thing I saw a full episode of was Taskmaster, and the last thing I was watching in order would have been Legend of Korra currently watching: Logic Pro tutorials on yt. I'm taking a class right now that theoretically should be teaching me how to use the program, but the teacher moves really really fast and doesn't do demos with people, they just kind of show it to us once and expect us to understand everything. I'm so lost, just frantically trying to finish my final:/ currently reading: I'm not currently reading anything :/// being in school really takes it out of me. But! the last thing I read was Parable of the Sower, I definitely recommend it but I will say it deals with some heavy topics and was really hard to get through at certain points current obsession: The same thing it's been for a long time….the music those jersey kids make (all of them), but also Ragnar Kjartansson and video synthesizers;)

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tagged by @pastlives2022 to shuffle my "on repeat" playlist and give the first 10 songs! thanks for the tag:))

paralyzer - Finger Eleven (this is here exclusively because @meat-wentz made a post about it like 2 weeks ago that reminded me it existed and I haven't been able to stop listening to it since)

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding

Maya the psychic - Gerard Way

Brother - Gerard Way

Thank You for the Venom - My Chemical Romance

Brain Stew - Green Day

Millions - Gerard Way

Red Room - Hiatus kaiyote

Cool as a Ghule - The Voidz

Desole - Gorillaz

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time to share my receiptify for the last month, thanks for the tag @slvrroses <3

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Tagged by @tasteofyourblood :333333 Relationship status: in it Favorite color: #004225 Song stuck in my head: Out Of Touch - Hall & Oates Favorite food: pierogi! I love them so much Last thing I googled: a hex code color picker to give you the hex code<3 but before that i'm looking for a new apartment so zillow Dream trip: anywhere with good hiking I'm dying in Chicago (I know it exists here by don't have a car) I am planning on going to the driftless with my roommates soon tho so that’ll be really nice:)) Something I want right now: an ice cream sandwich also to not have to look for an apartment during finals

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tagged by @pastlives2022 to post my lockscreen, most recent saved photo, and most recent listened song!!

I recently changed my lock screen from frank to this bird wearing Bread on its head. but the picture of Frank is absolutely hilarious to me so I wanted to share

the most recent photo I saved is this handsome little lad<3

I am currently listening to lucretia my reflection by sisters of mercy

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I was tagged by @pastlives2022<3 and @tasteofyourblood<3 to post 10 songs I've been listening to lately! (these are just in the order I thought of them, and if a song is earlier in the post it's not included here)

House of Wolves - My Chemical Romance (my babygirl will always make the list)

Flu Game - Fall Out Boy

This Charming Man - Death Cab for Cutie

The Heretic - The Sound Of Animals Fighting

Trying To Live My Life Without You - Otis Clay

So in Love - Curtis Mayfield

Footsteps in the Dark - The Isley Brothers

Gallery Of Thrills - The Number Twelve Looks Like You

Afterlife - Avenged Sevenfold

Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie

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tagged by @happylittlemasksalesman<3333333 thanks :3

I really don't watch that much tv so this is just a list of shows I can think of and also like (i'm not including shows I already mentioned). SooooOoo eight shows to get to know me

Maniac

Russian Doll

Cowboy Bebop

Parasyte

ofmd

Pose

Derry girls

Kim's Convenience

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ily all very much thanks for the tags<3

I'm tagging @tasteofyourblood @pastlives2022 @happylittlemasksalesman @slvrroses @ratmanwalking @meat-wentz @bratmobiles @mourningrays, @salt-and-bramble and anyone else who wants to do one of these (consider yourself tagged)

do whichever one you want or idk combine them <3go off<3

[patamon]

Hikari Yagami week: [Day 3 Prompt: Career and/or Hobbies]

Admittedly, I am not familiar with Japanese schools and their structures, so I borrowed liberally from what I know of the Canadian education system.

Also, inspired by true events :) because I have a bone to pick with the education system

Title: Miss Yagami Characters: Hikari Yagami Word Count:  7824 (😦😦😦) Summary: They warned her the first year of teaching would not be easy, but they did not warn her about the politics and the paperwork of it all, that behavioural management and lesson planning would be the least of her problems, that every night before bed, she would lay awake wide-eyed, questioning if she, one small teacher, would be big enough to make a difference in the world

Cross-posted on AO3

Read below the cut 👇🏻

Miss Yagami

Tomorrow, my school is having a bake sale.

That’s what I learned today at show-and-tell. In my first-grade homeroom, we have show-and-tell every day after lunch. That’s when Miss Yagami picks a student, sometimes two or three students, to come up to the front of the classroom. Then, they share something cool they have, like a toy or a book, or they talk about something interesting, like their trip to Kyoto with their family during new year. 

I never have anything cool or interesting enough to share, but I like sitting and listening to my friends talk about their toys, because then I can close my eyes and imagine myself playing with Hiro’s Batman toys or Higashi’s Transformer robots after dinner, instead of my sister’s old dolls with the missing arms.

Today, Miss Yagami picked Mika and Sachie for show-and-tell. I was surprised because two people don’t usually show-and-tell together, but Mika and Sachie did. They walked up side-by-side holding a large picture they drew together.

“Tomorrow, the Gymnastics Club is holding a bake sale,” Mika proudly touted.

“Yes, so bring your money to buy lots of stuff,” Sachie declared.

They stood quietly for a moment, Mika twirling in her position, Sachie picking at the picture, while the rest of us watched and waited. Finally, Miss Yagami cleared her throat and stood up beside them.

“Thank you, Mika and Sachie. Can you tell us what we can buy tomorrow at the bake sale?”

Mika and Sachie looked up at Miss Yagami while she continued smiling her warm Miss Yagami smile. After a while, she pointed to the picture they held in their hand and asked.

“Perhaps it’s in the picture you drew.”

Mika and Sachie broke into matching grins. Mika spoke first, pointing to the brown circles in the picture.

“Cookies, you can buy cookies”

My stomach rumbled at the word, saliva poured into my mouth when I remembered the taste of the chocolate chip cookies Hiro shared with me last week.

“What else?” Miss Yagami asked. She kneeled down until she was on her knees, so that she didn’t look so tall.

“Umm…there’s cupcakes too,” Sachie commented, pointing to some fluffy, cloud-looking drawings on the paper.

Cup…cakes.

I have never heard of cupcakes. I have heard of cups, and cakes. Perhaps cupcakes were cakes made of cups, the idea doesn’t sound very delicious to me. I stuck my tongue out, thinking the class would comment on how strange it was. But instead, everyone around me clapped and smiled. Hiro’s hand shot up into the air, his fingers dancing and wavering to catch Miss Yagami’s attention.

“Oh oh oh, Miss Yagami, Miss Yagami,” he called out

Miss Yagami stood to face the class once again. He put her hands behind both Mika and Sachie’s back and motioned to Hiro’s seat.

“Mika and Sachie, I think someone has a question for you”

Mika made a face, while Sachie snickered. Our entire class knew of Mika’s disdain for Hiro. Nevertheless, she fixed her posture, standing up tall and pointing to him the way Miss Yagami would when she calls on one of us.

“Yes, Hiro?”

“Will there be chocolate cupcakes?”

Chocolate cupcakes?

How would that work? My mind went into overdrive, imagining cakes of cups with chocolates inside each cup, or perhaps the cups were coated in chocolate?

Mika turned to Sachie, who turned to Miss Yagami. Miss Yagami kept her smile on and waited, until Sachie turned back to the class and nodded

“Yes”

“What about peanut butter cupcakes?”

“Yes”

“And red velvet cupcakes?”

“Yes”

“And cupcakes with cream cheese frosting”

“Yes”

My head churned. I was getting dizzy, imagining how cakes of cups could have so many flavours. Perhaps Hiro likes collecting cups, that’s why he knew of so many types of cup cakes.

“Alright now,” Miss Yagami spoke over the delighted murmurs of the class, “Mika and Sachie, what will your friends need to buy the cookies and cupcakes at the bake sale tomorrow?”

Mika and Sachie turned to one another, then responded in unison.

“Money!”

The class laughed, even Miss Yagami held back a giggle before asking again.

“How much money?”

Mika and Sachie held up their index finger before responding together.

“100 yen. Only 100 yen.”

“Yes,” Mika nodded, “All you need is one 100 yen coin, or, like Miss Yagami taught us, two 50 yen coins, or ten 10 yen coins,” she glanced at Miss Yagami, waiting for her nod of approval before continuing, “or one hundred 1 yen coins.”

The class erupted in laughter. Beside me, Hiro slapped his table and rocked on his chair while he laughed. But I didn’t find anything funny. Instead, my stomach did a weird flip, the way it did when I’m hiding my lunchbox from my friends, so they don’t see the half-sandwich my dad packed for me before he goes to work every morning. I never want anyone to know about my lunch, because somehow, it felt little and sad next to Hiro’s bento box with the fresh-cooked rice, crispy radish, and deep fried tempura that still looked so crispy and delicious by lunch time.

“So, don’t forget to bring the 100 yen coin,” Mika proclaimed.

“Yes, your parents probably have hundreds of 100 yen coins in their purse. I know my mother has tons of 100 yen coins, and 500 yen coins, too,” Sachie commented

“Yes, remember what Miss Yagami said? One 500 yen coin is the same as five 100 yen coins, so that means you can buy 5 cookies, or 5 cupcakes if you bring a 500 yen coin.”

“My father has more 500 yen coins than everyone else,” Hiro called out.

“My mother has a big jar of yen coins,” Higashi responded.

Hiro snickered, “Yea, but they’re probably all small yen coins, like 1 yen and 5 yens.”

“That’s not true! They’re all 500 yen coins…”

Higashi might have said something else, but I didn’t hear it, because everyone began speaking over one another, some people were laughing and giggling. Here and there, I caught small bits of things people said, about where their parents kept their coins, and how many coins were in their house. But I kept silent, because I was busy imagining where my dad would keep his coins. I couldn’t remember the last time I found a yen coin in our small apartment.

From the front of the class, Miss Yagami stood up. I saw her face change suddenly, from happy to serious, the smile transformed to a stern frown. I gulped. I knew we were in trouble.

“Now class, please settle down” she commanded in her loud voice. 

Half the class became quiet, but there were some people, like Hiro and Higashi, who continued to talk and argue, despite Miss Yagami standing tall with her arms crossed. Finally, she picked up the special bell at her desk and rang it three times. Our hands shot up in front of us in response, fingers dancing and wiggling as we listened hard for the echo, like Miss Yagami taught us. In truth, I never know what it is we’re listening for, just that it’s fun to dance our fingers all together. Jazz hands, that’s what Miss Yagami called it. Sometimes while I’m waiting for dad to come home at night, I practice my jazz hands to forget the rumbling in my belly.

Miss Yagami waited until we stopped wiggling our fingers, then placed the special bell down and stepped back to her place between Mika and Sachie.

“Thank you for sharing with us today, Mika and Sachie.”

Mika and Sachie beamed, but while Sachie understood to return to her desk, Mika stayed beside Miss Yagami at the front of the class, the poster still in her hand.

“One more thing, Miss Yagami. Can I tell the class one more thing?”

Miss Yagami nodded with her Miss Yagami smile, her eyes softening once again as Mika turned her attention back to the rest of us.

“Please everyone, remember it’s very important you ask your parents before bringing the 100 yen coin.”

Miss Yagami nodded, “Yes Mika is right, we have to ask our parents for permission to bring 100 yen to school.”

Mika nodded, she seemed to grow taller the happier Miss Yagami became.

“It’s not hard to ask our parents, right?” Mika continued, “They have lots of yen coins, they can give us one.”

The class nodded and said yes and yeah and that’s right. But I remained quiet, because I remembered the last time I asked my dad for a yen coin to buy ice cream at the convenience store. And I remembered how quiet he got, and even though he didn’t say anything, I knew I was in trouble for asking. 

I sank down in my seat, my tummy turned again, and the urge I had to hide underneath my desk returned. I wished and wished with all my heart that I could disappear through a gate and go somewhere else, but instead, I stayed in the classroom with that horrible feeling in my stomach, remembering my dad shaking his head quietly after I asked him for a yen coin to buy ice cream.

I looked up to see Mika finally returning to her desk. All around me, the other kids were busy whispering to one another. At the front of the class, Miss Yagami stood with her eyes on us, scanning the class with her hands together. But then, her shiny eyes flicked at my face, and I saw something changed in the way she looked at me. I don’t know what it was. I only know it felt like magic, that maybe she could read my mind, that she could tell my stomach was flipping and turning, and that I wanted to disappear and never come back to school. I thought maybe, just maybe, she could hear my dad talking to me in my memory, when he finally answered my question about the 100 yen coin for convenience store ice cream. I thought for sure she could hear him say those words now echoing in my brain…

I’m sorry Kota, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

—

The school day was over.

One-by-one, my classmates tucked their chairs into their desk, placing books and pencil cases into their shiny backpacks. Miss Yagami is at the door, saying goodbyes and reminding people about their lunchboxes. I took my time like I always do, packing away my books into my sister’s old backpack, then rearranging it and rearranging it, waiting for everyone else to leave. I’m glad my backpack is old enough that my friends can’t tell it used to be pink, even the pictures of butterflies and kittens decorating the front were too faded to make out what it was. But still, it would be nice to have a shiny backpack like my friends, maybe one with Spiderman on it like Hiro’s.

Before I knew it, the classroom was empty, all except for Miss Yagami, of course. She stood by the door with her Miss Yagami smile, her brown hair tied into a ponytail. I say ponytail because that’s how Onee-chan calls it when people tie their hair back. But I think it’s kind of silly that it’s still called a ponytail when the hair is as short as Miss Yagami’s hair. I once tried calling it a rabbittail, because it was short like the tail on the school rabbit. But Onee-chan laughed and said they were all called ponytail regardless of how short Miss Yagami’s hair was.

Miss Yagami walked towards me until she was close enough that I could see the yellow flowers on her sweater, then she kneeled down like she always does, resting on one knee and leaning forward. I don’t know any other teachers or adults that do this, but I kind of like that Miss Yagami isn’t afraid to shrink herself so she’s as short as us. It doesn’t hurt my neck to look at her, and I can see the light in her eyes and study her Miss Yagami smile. It always made me feel warm, like everything was going to be okay. She reminded me of mom, back when mom was still home to cook me dinner.

“Hello Kota, how was your day?” she asked me.

“Good,” I responded.

“I’m glad to hear. Is your sister coming to walk you home today?”

I nodded. Onee-chan goes to the big kid school, and they finish later than our school. Even though I never told her, somehow, Miss Yagami knew I sat in the courtyard every day after everyone had left, waiting for Onee-chan to come by to walk me home. Sometimes I walk home on my own, but since Onee-chan was the one with the key, that would mean waiting in front of our small apartment for a long time for her to come home.

Miss Yagami had no more questions, but she stayed where she was and kept her gaze on me. I was worried she could see the rip on my shirt, or that I wore the same pants to school for three days now, so I pulled the zipper up on my jacket and shouldered my bag, then smiled at her.

“Thank you for the lessons today, Miss Yagami,” I bowed, the way Onee-chan taught me when we’re speaking to someone older, then made a move to leave. But just as I got to the door, I remembered one more question, and I knew Miss Yagami was nice enough to answer me without laughing or getting angry.

“Miss Yagami?” I called back.

Miss Yagami stood up and tilted her head, “What is it, Kota?”

“What’s a cake cup?”

Miss Yagami scrunched her eyebrows together, but then the light hit her face again, and her eyes opened wide.

“You mean a cupcake?”

I blushed, “Yes, sorry, cupcake. I wanted to know what cupcakes are. Is it like a cake made out of cups?”

Miss Yagami smiled. It was a nice and soft smile, one that made my inside calm

“No, Kota, a cupcake is a cake the size of a cup,” she put her hands side-by-side, and curved it up like she was holding something inside.

My mouth watered again, thinking of the cake Sachie brought in for everyone to celebrate her birthday last month. She said it was a strawberry cake, Hiro had made a face and said he’d rather have a chocolate cake, but I think it was the sweetest and most delicious thing I ever ate. It tasted better than all the convenience store ice creams put together.

“Wow,” I whispered, “That must taste good”

I sighed, wishing I had a 100 yen coin, because then I could buy a cupcake tomorrow, and I could taste for myself how good it must be.

Just then, my stomach grumbled, loud enough for both me and Miss Yagami to hear. My cheeks felt hot as I clutched my stomach, my eyes were now studying the stains on my shoes, not daring to look up at Miss Yagami.

“Sorry, Miss Yagami,” I mumbled, then turned to leave, but then I heard her voice calling me back.

“Wait, Kota.”

I wanted to pretend I didn’t hear her, but that might get me in trouble, so I stood still and waited for her with my head still bent low. I heard her steps click closer and closer, until I could see the clasps on her pink shoes. When I looked up, I was surprised to find her holding something round in her hand, angled in my direction as if she was offering it to me.

“This is for you, Kota.”

I looked closer, and saw the thing in Miss Yagami’s hand was a small orange. It was the smallest orange I have ever seen. I giggled.

“That’s a really small orange.”

“It’s a clementine,” Miss Yagami explained, “It’s not an orange, but it’s like an orange.”

I giggled again, but accepted the small-orange-clementine from her all the same.

“Thank you, Miss Yagami.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Goodbye, Miss Yagami, I’m leaving now.”

“Goodbye, Kota, have a good night.”

We waved at one another, then I turned to leave. But I couldn’t go very far, because right by the door, wearing her brown suits that always seem too tight, and holding a matching brown envelope in her hand, was Principal Ao.

She looked down at me through her thick glasses, a tight smile on her lip. I shivered without knowing why, and pulled my jacket tighter around me.

“Why, hello Kota,” she greeted me in her deep voice, “Did we have a good day today?”

I nodded quickly, then took one big step to the side, attempting to escape Principal Ao. But then, her cold bony hand hit my shoulder. I couldn’t help it, I cried out in surprise and clawed at her hand, but she kept her grip on my shoulder, digging her fingers in until it started to hurt.

“Kota, when an adult is speaking to you, it’s a sign of disrespect if you walk away from them.”

My stomach dropped at the word disrespect, and I hung my head low, avoiding her eyes as hard as I could.

“I think you owe me an apology,” Principal Ao declared.

“I’m sorry, Principal Ao,” I mumbled with my eyes still low

“I forgive you, but don’t do it again. Now what are you still doing here? The school day is over, Kota. Is Miss Yagami keeping you back for detention?”

I shook my head without responding, which earned a sharp click of the tongue from Principal Ao.

“It’s disrespectful to not answer with your words when you’ve been asked a question.”

“No, Principal Ao, I was just leaving.”

“Very good, and what do you have in your hand there?”

I looked at the small orange-clementine in my hand, the memory of Miss Yagami’s warm smile as she placed it on my palm was enough to lift my chin up again.

“It’s a clementine, it’s like a small orange, Miss Yagami gave it to me”

“Oh? Did she now?”

Even though the question was for me, Principal Ao had her eyes on Miss Yagami as she asked the words. I did not like the way she sounded. Her voice was low and dangerous, like I was in trouble. Like we were all in trouble.

“Very well, run along now, and don’t let me catch you at the courtyard again. Unless you have student clubs or classroom cleanup duties, once the bell has rang, you must leave at once.”

I nodded quickly, then remembered last minute to use my words.

“Yes, Principal Ao,” and without waiting for a response, I dashed out of the classroom and down the school stairs, running like I was in gym class.

Despite Principal Ao’s warning, I still sat in the courtyard to wait for Onee-chan. But I made sure to hide behind the large cherry trees so she wouldn’t catch me. While waiting, I peeled the clementine slowly and split each wedge. It was delicate and soft, the taste was sweet and comforting, enough to wash away the bitterness of Principal Ao’s words. 

It reminded me of Miss Yagami’s smile. 

—

Despite the dread brewing in the pit of her stomach, Hikari stood tall with her hands folded neatly before her, her racing mind keenly aware of every tiny detail on her person as Principal Ao’s eyes burned holes into her very existence.

After nearly six months teaching at this school, she can safely say no digital monsters or caped enemies were quite as imposing as Principal Ao. 

“Hikari,” she began, “We spoke about this” 

A sigh of frustration threatened to seep out of her, but fear and unease held it all back. Instead, Hikari widened her forced smile and evened her breathing. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Principal Ao pinched the top of the brown envelope in her hand. She recognized it as her proposal on how to spend the extra funding the school received last quarter. She had spent all weekend writing it up, running it by her helpful writer fiance again-and-again until it sounded justified.

“Um, we spoke about many things. Could you remind me what you’re referring to?” Hikari asked innocently, although she suspected she knew where the Principal was heading

Principal Ao rolled her eyes, “The clementine, Hikari. I have spoken to you numerous times about this: We are a school responsible for teaching children. We are not a charity”

Her neck felt oddly stiff, but somehow, she located the muscles to nod in response. She kept her lips sealed, because beneath the forced smile, she could sense her words spilling into one another, the resentment rising within her as she continued her staring match with Principal Ao.

“I know, Hikari. I know Kota’s home situation. I know his mother is back in rehab. I know his father is working two jobs and taking care of both kids on his own. It’s unfortunate, I know, but regardless, you must think about everyone. How is it fair to give gifts to only one student? What about the rest of the class? What about the rest of the school?”

Hikari knew the answers. She knew what to say because she spent many dinners ranting to her fiance as they ate, his blue eyes sparkled with mirth as he listened to her speech about the injustices of it all, about equity and not equality. But in front of Principal Ao, she was a new teacher at the district’s most highly accomplished school. So in front of Principal Ao, she kept silent through clenched teeth.

“I have no problems with you bringing in gifts and favours for your students, Hikari. But, like we discussed before, it has to be for everyone. It can’t be offered to one student, because that could show favouritism, and trust me Hikari, many parents are not happy about that f word”

“Yes, Principal Ao. I understand”

“Anyways, never mind that. I’m here because I wanted to discuss with you the proposal you submitted”

Hikari stiffened. Her attention honed in on the typed report Principal Ao was now retrieving from the envelope.

“I see you put in a suggestion for…a breakfast club?”

Hikari nodded fervently, “Yes, one of the schools I was placed in during college practicum had one. It was very helpful for our students.”

“I have no doubt it was helpful for that school, but a breakfast club wouldn’t be needed at our institution, Hikari. Our students don’t need free breakfast in the morning because unlike those parents, our parents can actually afford to feed their kids.”

Hikari’s mouth dried up. A chill gripped the base of her spine as she struggled to keep her breathing calm. Principal Ao folded up Hikari’s report, the one she spent hours typing and drafting, then dropped it into the garbage can with a shake of her head.

“I understand this is your first year as a teacher, so these are lessons I want to give you, Hikari. You have to understand the dynamic of the school you’re working at. Not all schools are the same, and it’s up to you as the teacher to learn about their priorities and goals. That’s part of fulfilling your duties to your students, too. Our goals here at this school are all about academic achievements, providing students with extracurricular opportunities so they may flourish in life. For the proposal, it would have been appropriate if you suggested something like a French club, or new technology for the library. But I’m afraid a breakfast club will be a waste of the extra funding. Do you understand, Hikari?”

For a split moment, Hikari thought she would nod in blind agreement, shrinking back to the obedient, dutiful girl she was raised to be. But then, her eyes strayed over to Kota’s desk, and something within her snapped. She found herself standing taller, her hands clenched into fists as she dropped them to her sides.

“With all due respect, Principal Ao, I don’t understand”

A gasp escaped Principal Ao’s wide mouth, she took a step back and clutched her pearl necklace, a look of horror on her face as she seized Hikari up

“I beg your pardon?”

“I see them, Principal Ao. I see the students that are being left out of the school curriculum. The ones that come in hungry every day and wear the same jacket from Fall to Spring because their parents can’t afford anything else. I see them, and they struggle to keep up in school because they can’t focus in class. I really mean every word on that proposal, we need a breakfast club. It would help everyone, not just the students that need it.”

In spite of Hikari’s passion, Principal Ao seemed unconvinced. She fixed her posture and squeezed her eyes shut, inhaling audibly before donning her strained smile.

“I suppose you are referring to Kota.”

“Yes, Kota, but not just Kota. There are other students, too. But it really shouldn’t matter, Principal Ao, because all it takes is one student. One student is enough reason for us to do something about it. And another thing, we need to reconsider holding school fundraisers, it’s unethical to assume that all families can afford…”

“Miss Yagami,” Principal Ao snapped.

The sharpness of her tone was enough to dampen Hikari’s spirit. She took a step backward in fear, waiting for the inevitable repercussion of her borrowed courage.

“I know they tend to romanticize things at teacher’s college. They preach the importance of making a difference and inspiring social change and all that stuff. But give it a few years, Miss Yagami, you’ll understand the reality of it all.”

Without another word, Principal Ao turned and marched down the linoleum hallway with purposeful steps, the clicks of her high heels diminishing off in the distance until eventually, Hikari could only hear her rapid pulse in her ears. 

By the time Hikari donned up her spring jacket, the sun had set low beyond her classroom window. She eyed the dying light of another weary day, mentally cataloguing her growing to-do list amidst daunting report cards and upcoming parent-teacher interviews.

They warned her the first year of teaching would not be easy, but they did not warn her about the politics and the paperwork of it all, that behavioural management and lesson planning would be the least of her problems, that every night before bed, she would lay awake wide-eyed, questioning if she, one small teacher, would be big enough to make a difference in the world.

—

Today was the day of the bake sale.

I could smell something delicious as soon as I entered the school courtyard. It made my mouth water, remembering Hiro’s cookie and Sachie’s strawberry cake. But I reminded myself that today, the cookies and the cupcakes had to be bought with a 100 yen coin. Today, I can’t wait and hope that someone would offer them to me if they were nice enough. So I stuffed my fist inside my empty pocket, and walked deeper into the school yard.

I tried to not wonder about what a cupcake looks like. But it was hard because I dreamt about it all last night: little cakes shaped in cups, the inside hollow so I can fill it with chocolate milk. Maybe that’s what a chocolate cupcake is, and if I fill it with strawberry milk, it would be a strawberry cupcake.

It became harder to not think about the cookies and the cupcakes when I neared the front of the school building. There was a pink banner hanging above the entrance, and three long tables set up with boxes and boxes of food. Principal Ao was there, talking to some adults I didn’t recognize, and behind the tables, I could see Sachie and Mika amongst some other girls.

Despite a little voice telling me I shouldn’t, I walked closer to the table. It was as if something or someone was pulling me closer. Maybe it was the delicious smell. Maybe it was the idea that I will finally know what cupcakes look like. 

In one box, I could see the cookies. Round and brown with little bits of chocolate on top. I imagined biting into one of the cookies and my inside squeezed tight. I shook my head hard, then looked to the other table, and at long last, I finally understood what cupcakes were.

Just like Miss Yagami said, they weren’t cakes of cups. They were cakes, they looked soft and spongy, the colour dark brown like chocolate, others were white like ice cream. But they weren’t shaped like cups with a hollow centre. They were whole and round, filled in like puffs of clouds in the sky. I imagined putting one in my mouth, maybe two, or three. The thought made me shiver with excitement.

Beside me, I heard a familiar laugh, and turned to see Hiro at the table counting out his yen coins.

“I have five 100 yen coins,” Hiro announced to the tall lady behind the table.

“Excellent, then you can pick five items from the table”

Hiro clapped his hands, and I retreated away, because my stomach was doing its weird flip again, and my body wanted to fall down a hole and disappear.

“Oy, Kota!”

I turned at the call of my name and saw Higashi coming at me with a bag of cookies, a half-eaten cupcake in his hand.

“Did you buy a cupcake?”

I froze on the spot, not knowing how to answer. I could lie and say I bought lots of cupcakes, and ate it all already before he came. Or I could tell the truth and say I haven’t bought any cupcakes. But would he laugh at me? Would he ask why I haven’t bought cupcakes? Would he find out my dad doesn’t have any spare yen coins for me to bring to school today?

“Kota! Higashi!”

Relieved, I turned to find Hiro walking towards us with his new purchases, five cupcakes balanced in both his hands.

“I had five 100 yen coins, so I bought five cupcakes,” Hiro announced, “One, two, three, four, and five”

“You only had five 100 yen coins? My dad gave me five coins, and my grandma gave me another five, so I bought five cupcakes and five cookies”

“Whatever, my mommy said she’ll come by at lunch and give me more coins if I need it”

Higashi stuck out his tongue, then turned to me again with the cookie bag still in his hand, “What about you, Kota?”

“Umm…”

“Oh don’t bother asking him,” Hiro laughed, “My daddy said his family is poor, that his mother had to be go to…to an in-tu-ti-tion because she’s a bad woman that drinks too much sake”

“Liar, women don’t drink sake,” Higashi piped up. He turned to look at me, expecting me to agree and declare Hiro a liar. But before I could respond, he spoke again.

“Well, his mother does, and his father doesn’t have enough money for him to buy even half a cupcake,” he pointed his cupcake-smeared fingers at me, and for some reason, that flick of his finger got me so mad. 

I started seeing red everywhere, all I could think about was how stupid Hiro was. Stupid Hiro. Stupid Hiro with his shiny Spiderman backpack. Stupid Hiro with his Batman toys. Stupid Hiro with his five cupcakes.

Next thing I knew, I was stomping hard on the ground. My breathing and my words began acting on their own, it felt too heavy and too quick. Then my body started running away from me, and before I could stop myself, I pushed stupid Hiro. Hard. So hard he fell to the ground and dropped all the cupcakes in his hands

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” I screamed, “I already bought 20 cupcakes and ate it all this morning so SHUT UP!”

“KOTA”

I gasped, turning in time to see Principal Ao coming our way, her movements oddly stiff in her too-tight brown suit. In a blink of an eye, she had her hand on my ears and was pinching it hard, so hard I yelped. Behind me, I could hear Hiro crying. But when I turned to look at him, I didn’t see tears, just him pressing his fingers against his eyes.

“My daddy was right. He told me not to play with you because your family is bad. I’m never talking to you or playing with you again”

“Kota, what do you have to say for yourself?” Principal Ao demanded

“But Principal Ao, Hiro said bad things about my mother and my family”

“Oh really? What did he say?”

My throat went dry all of a sudden, the words all lost on my tongue. Everyone, all the girls behind the table, all the adults I didn’t know, were now staring at me while Principal Ao twisted and twisted my ears.

“Did Hiro lie?” Principal Ao continued, “Because Hiro, you know that lying is a bad thing”

My heart plunged into my stomach. Even though I was angry, I knew in my soul that Hiro didn’t lie. I haven’t seen my mom in a long time, no one spoke of her in my family, and my dad didn’t have any spare yen coins, so that must mean we’re poor. And it must mean Hiro’s dad is right, that because my mom went away and my dad is poor, we must be a bad family.

“I did not lie,” Hiro declared. He stood up, his face remarkably dry for someone that had just cried his eyes out. But before more can be said, I heard the steady steps of someone else entering the scene.

“Principal Ao? Is everything okay?”

I looked up to see Miss Yagami walking in with a serious expression on her face. Miss Yagami always brought happiness and sunshine with her, but right now, with Principal Ao pinching my ears and Hiro’s cupcakes smashed on the ground, Miss Yagami’s warmth warped into hot spears slicing my inside, and I felt like I was bleeding lava all over the ground. I couldn’t look at Miss Yagami. Even after Principal Ao released my ear and pushed me towards her, I kept my face down and bit my lips.

“Ah, Miss Yagami, good that you came by just now. I just witnessed Kota pushing poor Hiro to the ground. I expect that he will be punished appropriately for his behaviour.”

With my head down, I couldn’t see Miss Yagami’s reaction, but it hurts my chest imagining what it could be. I counted ten seconds of silence in my head, then Miss Yagami cleared her throat and finally spoke.

“I’m sure there must be a misunderstanding.”

“Miss Yagami, I was there, and I can assure you there was no misunderstanding. As his teacher, I expect you to fulfil your duty and punish him as you see fit. I suggest a week’s worth of detention, perhaps a reflection essay on the impact of his bad behaviours.”

Principal Ao turned to leave, but not before bowing to the mystery adults standing by the table. I finally found courage to look up at Miss Yagami, and saw she had a sad look on her face, the same look I saw on my dad’s face last night when I asked him if he had a 100-yen coin for the bake sale today.

I don’t know why, but of all the expressions I could name on an adult’s face: happiness, anger, surprise, the one expression that always made me feel sick and scared was the one I seemed to see most on my family’s face, from my father to my auntie to my sister, that scrunch of the eyebrows and the shadow in their eyes, the lips weighed down by something too heavy for words.

It was sadness

—

Today was the first day of my week-long detention.

It wasn’t bad, I guess. At least now, I have an excuse to sit and wait for Onee-chan to come by after her school is done. And even though Miss Yagami didn’t mention it, I decided to listen to Principal Ao and write a reflection essay. But it was hard because I didn’t know all the kanjis yet to describe my feelings, so I drew a picture instead.

“Kota?”

I lifted my head to see Miss Yagami looking down at me with her soft Miss Yagami smile on her lips

“What are you doing?” Miss Yagami asked

“I’m drawing a picture about what happened this morning.”

Miss Yagami pulled out a chair, then sat beside me and looked at my drawing.

“What’s in the picture?”

I sighed, “This is Principal Ao, and this is me. On the ground is Hiro, and these are all the cupcakes that fell to the ground when I pushed him.”

“Oh, I see.”

Miss Yagami was quiet for a moment, while I continued colouring in the broken cupcakes on the ground.

“Kota, can you tell me what happened this morning?” Miss Yagami spoke again.

Miss Yagami’s question took me back to that morning, and I felt like I was there again, with Principal Ao pulling my ears and Hiro crying with his cupcakes on the ground. I felt itchy all over, like my skin was trying to run away from my body. I shook my head and shrugged, then realized I forgot to use my words to answer Miss Yagami.

“I’m sorry, Miss Yagami.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“I forgot to use my words. Principal Ao said it was disrespectful to not use my words to answer a question an adult asked me”

To my surprise, Miss Yagami chuckled. I looked at her and was shocked to see her still with her Miss Yagami smile, instead of a disapproving frown like I thought she would have.

“You know, Kota, there are times when everyone loses their words. Even me, I lose my words sometimes too.”

I scrunch my face in confusion, trying hard to imagine how words can be lost inside our body. Maybe because I was so hungry today, my stomach ate them out of desperation.

“Really?”

“Yes, and I think it’s a normal part of dealing with our emotions and feelings. Sometimes, we get so sad we lose our words. There are also times we get so angry, we not only lose our words, but we might lose control of our body as well.”

I immediately hung my head, remembering how angry I got this morning, how I lost control of my arms when I pushed Hiro to the ground.

“Do you get so angry that you do things you can’t control?” I asked Miss Yagami

“Oh of course, Kota, but it’s because I’m human. Living with our emotions and feelings is a part of being alive, but so is learning how to process them. As I grew older, I learned to recognize anger when it comes, and that has helped me control myself better so I’m not doing things I regret later. And one day, I think you’ll learn to get better at controlling yourself, too. Just like I did”

“Really?”

“Yes. But I’ll tell you a secret. Sometimes, I still get so angry that I might do or say things I feel I have no control over, usually at my fiance,” she giggled. The sound of her laugh was so infectious, I giggled with her, even though I didn’t fully understand what a fiance was.

“But I always apologize to him afterward,” she continued, “And I try my best to learn from what happened so I don’t hurt him again with my anger. But anger is normal, because anger is part of being human. So you see, Kota, even though what happened today was bad, it’s a perfectly normal part of growing up, because then you can learn from what happened and be a better person tomorrow. You’re allowed to be angry, Kota. Trust me, you are.”

I nodded. I still didn’t really understand, but somehow, I felt better knowing that Miss Yagami gets angry sometimes, too. But like Miss Yagami said, I had to be careful not to hurt people when I’m angry.

“Miss Yagami?” I called out

“Yes, Kota.”

“Am I…am I a bad person?”

Miss Yagami chuckled, “Of course not, why would you think you’re a bad person, Kota?”

“Hiro said today that I came from a bad family, because my mom is away and my dad is poor. Does that mean I am bad if I come from a bad family?”

“Oh…” Miss Yagami got quiet then. I could see her biting the corner of her lips, her fingers picking at the sleeve of her pink sweater as she looked out the window.

She wasn’t using her words to answer my question. Maybe that meant her stomach was turning and flipping like mine does when my words get lost, or that she wanted to disappear, too.

“It’s okay, Miss Yagami, you don’t have to answer. I understand”

Miss Yagami’s eyes widened. Then, she placed her warm hand on my shoulder and put on her Miss Yagami smile. All of a sudden, I wanted to cry.

“Kota, I don’t know much about your family, but from what I have seen, I can see that your father and your Onee-chan loves you so very much, and they try their best to give you a happy life, and that alone means they are a good family.”

I nodded and returned to my picture, blinking hard so my tears don’t fall in front of Miss Yagami,

“But Kota,” she continued, “I hope you understand too that there are things in your life that you have no control over, and I don’t want you to feel bad about these things, because they are not your fault.”

“What things?” I pressed

Miss Yagami sighed and shook her head, “You’ll know what they are one day, when you’re older.”

“Oh,” I uttered quietly. I don’t like it when adults say when I’m older. Sometimes, I want to hear things now, but because it’s Miss Yagami, I swallowed the disappointment and flashed a smile, which seemed to make Miss Yagami happy.

“Now, I have something for you,” Miss Yagami announced.

I sat up straight in my chair, the picture before me forgotten as Miss Yagami walked to her desk. She pulled something out of her drawer, then returned and placed the item before me. It was wrapped in tissue paper, so I couldn’t tell what it was.

“What is it?” I blurted out

“Why don’t you open it and see”

I followed Miss Yagami’s direction, pulling aside the tissue then…gasped in delight. Perched at the centre of the white tissue paper was a small round object, fluffy and spongy like clouds on a spring day, the colour chocolate brown, enough to coat my tongue in saliva. 

It was a cake…the size of a cup.

A cupcake, right before my eyes.

I didn’t understand how something as small as this cupcake could feel so big in my heart. But this moment with Miss Yagami before me, this moment meant everything to me, and I’ll remember it for as long as I live.

“Go on,” Miss Yagami prodded

I hurriedly wiped away tears in my eyes, then moved to pick it up. It felt so light and airy, nothing like how I imagined it to be.

“Now you’ll know what a cupcake tastes like,” Miss Yagami said with a twinkle to her eyes

My mouth watered, and I considered popping the entire cupcake in my mouth. But then I looked up at Miss Yagami, and I realized something didn’t feel right yet. 

I felt so…overwhelmed with good feelings, so full of warmth and joy, and I wished Miss Yagami could feel it too. Suddenly, I had an idea. I pinched the middle of the cupcake, splitting it in halves as best as I could before offering it to Miss Yagami.

“This is for you, Miss Yagami” I declared. Miss Yagami stared back at me in shock.

“Oh no, Kota, the entire cupcake is for you”

“No, Miss Yagami, you told us once that sharing shows how important someone is to us, so I want to share this cupcake with you”

Miss Yagami’s eyes became shiny, like she was about to cry. But then the smile on her face widened, and she accepted the half-cupcake in my hand. Together, we ate our share.

“Mmmm….” the sound escaped before I could stop it. It tasted like a chocolate explosion in my mouth. I chewed slowly, holding the taste on my tongue for as long as I could before swallowing it.

“I think I know what I want to be when I grow up now, Miss Yagami”

“Oh? What is it?”

“I want to be a cupcake maker. I’ll make as many cupcakes as I can, millions and billions and gazillions of cupcakes so I can give one to every kid on this planet, so that no one needs to spend 100 yen on a cupcake, so everyone will know how delicious it is and that it’s not a cake made of cups”

Miss Yagami laughed, “That sounds like a good plan”

“Is there a name for a cupcake maker?”

“Yes, they’re bakers. Although bakers bake all sorts of things, like cookies and birthday cakes and bread, but you can be a cupcake baker if that’s what you’d like to do”

“Okay, I’ll be a cupcake baker”

Miss Yagami beamed, her warm eyes shining down on me as I swung my legs happily on the chair. It was like magic, the way Miss Yagami made me feel like she could see me. Like really see me, not the way Principal Ao or Hiro or Higashi sees me. It made me feel whole, it made me feel complete.

It made me feel like I’m me.

“Thank you, Miss Yagami”

“You’re welcome, Kota.”

She returned to the front of the class, busying herself with tidying our classroom. I think maybe Miss Yagami thought I thanked her for giving me the cupcake, but that wasn’t the reason why I thanked her. Truth be told, I didn’t have the right words to explain why I wanted to thank her, I only know that school was the best part of my day, that Miss Yagami made me forget about my rumbling tummy and my dad’s sad faces when he comes home from work, that when I see Miss Yagami smiled, I know everything was going to be okay, and that I will see my mom again soon.

Even if I am one student, I hope one day, Miss Yagami knew the difference she made, and how important it was for me that Miss Yagami was my teacher.

[always-andromeda]

hi meda!

thank you so much for the lovely response to my last ask - I always look forward to hearing from you! 🥰

and your experience with the titanic exhibit is absolutely relatable and you really articulated that kind of very strange feeling that I've also gotten in historic places. like, sometimes when I'm in a museum or something and I see an everyday object like a bowl or a needle or even the remnants of a textile, I just get so emotional?? like someone made that? someone used that?? someone loved that??? 🥹🥹 idk it just makes me feel this odd mix of both joy and sadness that you described so perfectly. oh and omg when there's like toys or dolls or like things people made for their pets??????? I'm such a goner. just, as someone who gets very attached to inanimate objects like my plushies I just think about the people who might have held and played with and loved them and how we share this connection across time of like, loving this thing. idk if I'm explaining this well, but basically I'm trying to say that I totally agree with you!! 😅 Also, the pictures are so cool - those room recreations are amazing!!

oh okay and also because I apparently cannot shut up about this: I've started collecting old photos from antique shops for similar reasons. like ahhhh I just can't quite explain it, but like looking at these people from the past who I don't know and likely will never know, yet knowing that these photographs meant something to them???? idk it just feels like such an honor to be the caretaker of these memories (okay I'll be done talking about this now 😅)

but how have you been doing, lovely meda? I hope your summer is off to a wonderful start! ☺️

and, finally, for the soft asks: paper, october, sapphos, plush, poppy, and/or roses 💐 (of course, only if you want, and please only do the ones that you would like to ☺️)

sending so much love always,

charlotte 🎨

Hey, Charlotte!! This last week I was actually at my mother's house, which was pretty nice since it's been a while since I'd seen her. I managed to get a decent amount of writing done and every night we made dinner and got to watch some documentary together and look at old photos. Those bits were really fun and I really needed the decompression. How has your summer been going so far?? ☺️

And oh my gosh, I absolutely relate with your description of how you feel about old trinkets and photos!! I get the exact same way!! You talking about those photos reminds me of when I started to kind of collect old postcards for a while? Mostly because I found this little museum that was selling them. And because it's entirely illegal to sell mail like that, the owner had half heartedly scribbled out the words on the backs.

But you could absolutely still read them. And it was always people just talking about what they had been doing in whatever place they'd traveled to and hoping that folks at home were doing alright.

I'm a huge letter writer so it always fills me with a special kind of sentimentality seeing the words of these other people. Like these people have these rich and complex lives that I'll never get to know but in those moments, I get a glimpse of it.

Humans are just so sweet and so adorable. And maybe it's the neurodivergence in me and the fact that I've always felt a little disconnected from most people, but getting to see those little bits makes me feel part of a greater whole, ya know?

And lol, I answered all of your soft asks because I loved all of these questions!!

Paper ⭐︎ Favorite children's book?

Whoo boy, this sent me on a mini nostalgia trip. When my younger brother was little, I would read him bedtime stories almost every single night. And I think my favorite one to read to him was Knuffle Bunny. The story is about a toddler named Trixie who, while on a walk with her father, loses her precious stuffed bunny rabbit. The whole book is her struggle to communicate this tragedy to her parents and them rushing to search for her rabbit. It's part of this whole trilogy that follows Trixie as she gets older and I have such fondness for it. I genuinely recommend checking it out!!

October ⭐︎ What month were you born in?

July!! Specifically, my birthday is July 31st!!

Sapphos ⭐︎ Favorite poet?

I don't have an all time favorite poet exactly? Every few months, I'll just get super hyper fixated on a poet and want to learn everything I can about them? I've done this with Edgar Allan Poe, W.H. Auden, Walt Whitman, Louise Gluck, Ellen Bass, Wendy Cope, and so many more poets.

Plush ⭐︎ How many stuffed animals do you still own?

Too many to count!! On my bed right now...I'm pretty sure I have ten? Plus my army of eight Palm Pals? I just love all of them, especially since half of them are plushes that I've had since I was basically a baby? They're my favorite.

Poppy ⭐︎ Favorite pastel color?

I love a good mix of pastel pink and yellow together. It gives me strawberry lemonade vibes and I love it so much.

Roses ⭐︎ What flower do you find most beautiful?

Marigolds, all the way. My grandmother used to plant them in her garden every spring and being at her house for those plantings are kind of a core memory for me os I've always loved them.

[bookshelf-dust]

Congratulations for the 500 followers! 💕 Your content is so nice and beautiful and you deserve way more than that! Sending you lots of hugs and love 🥰

And of course I wanted to participate on your slumber party! 💕

📖 inquirers want to know

Do you have/had pets? Or do you want any pets? If you have/had pets, pictures and names! 😍 (no pressure, it's totally fine if you don't want to share them)

🧸 teen beat

I was very shy and introverted, easily overstimulated and emotional (later been diagnosed among other things with BPD and ADHD), total nerd (LOTR, HP, Star wars, etc), played bass, piano and was singer of our school and (I loved playing chop suey at one of our concerts). But with my friends I was very extroverted, silly, spoke first before I thought about anything (they always said I have verbal diarrhea), always been sarcastic as hell, grew up with the jackass guys as my role models, I think this says enough (we once taped myself on the top of a car of one of my friends and drove like lunatics across a cornfield, been bruised for a whole week)

slumber party shenanigans (ends 2/4)

thank you sweetheart!! i appreciate that so so much. sending you all of mine right back <33

📖 inquirers want to know—you can use this as a get-to-know-you kind of thing. ask anything you want to know about me! (given that it is not too nuts and you are considerate towards me, of course.)

i’ve had a variety of pets my whole life! currently though my family has four cats and a dog (who i don’t claim because she doesn’t like me—her name is lady). my best bud is named milo, and he’s an orange cat so that should tell you enough. he’s a little chubbo and he makes me sob. the other cats are named midnight (a void), maru (a rag doll), and marnie (another orange psycho).

🧸 teen beat—give me a little teeny description of yourself and i will tell you a character you remind me of from any universe i can think of or am particularly fond of

you’re reminding me of charlie weasley. which is a compliment because he’s my favorite weasley. just the whole being silent and into your own thing, but still vibrant on the inside.

also this might sound silly, but ladybug from bullet train?? the word vomit thing made me think of him and he’s very sarcastic.

maybe even a little tony stark. you sound like a party to me.

[purple-babygirl]

Oh oh what about Bucky's little staying over at Steve's for the weekend cause Bucky is busy. She's being a brat but whenever Steve calls Bucky to show him she's a Angel. So Bucky sneaks by unexpected & sees her being a brat

Word Count: 2,901 (i tried to cut it short, i tried, but i'm hopeless when it comes to soft stuff)

Warnings: ddlg dynamics, and angst i think? the rest is fluff

A/N: Nonnie, thank you so much for sending this and sharing your idea with me. i hope i didn't take too long and i hope i didn't disappoint?:" please enjoy xx.

Alternative ending

~

bratty angel

“Give her the phone, would you? I missed her,” Bucky requested, desperate to hear the little one's voice.

“Quick question while I still have you though,” Steve scratched the back of his head, not sure if he should tell Bucky.

“Yeah?”

“What do you usually do with her if she's being a little.. troublesome?” Steve didn't want to get her punished; he just wanted a way to deal with her behavior.

Steve obviously knew he could punish her the small punishments, like no screen time for a day or a timeout, but he didn't want to. She already seemed to dislike him enough, he wasn't about to make it worse. He didn't want to punish her but he also couldn't take all the brattiness and backtalk.

He was a kind uncle and he actually enjoyed being around her. But her behavior has been driving him crazy this time and it needed to stop. He knew she didn't want Bucky to leave this time and was most likely punishing Steve for telling him he could take care of her while he was gone. She probably thought Bucky would've stayed if there was no one to tend to her during his absence, and she had Steve to blame for it.

“Being what? What did she do?” Bucky's angry voice asked from the other side of the phone, and Steve could picture him narrowing his eyes.

“It's nothing major, Buck-”

“What did she do, Steve?”

“Well, uh, for starters she says no to almost everything even if she's eventually gonna do it anyway. She knocks stuff over when I don't do what she wants and pretends it was an accident,” Steve stopped and sighed, “she's giving me a hard time and it all goes away when you call!” Steve almost whined.

He sighed again when Bucky went silent, knowing she'd really get it now but she didn't exactly leave him much of a choice.

“I'm gonna handle it. I'm sorry, Steve,” Bucky said, sounding pissed.

“Hey, it's all good. Hold on, I'll give her the phone.”

“Yeah, please do.” Bucky wasn't as excited to talk to her anymore.

He could hear Steve softly calling out for her to come talk to Daddy and her feet hitting the wooden floor as she came to the phone. What he didn't hear though was a thank you to Steve.

“Dada!” Her happy voice spoke and Bucky couldn't help but smile a little.

“Hey, doll! How've you been?”

“Been good, dada. Missed you,” she sighed, pouting.

“I missed you too, baby. Are you behaving for Uncle Steve?”

“Yes, daddy,” she lied all too quickly and Bucky clenched his jaw.

“Good girl.”

~

“Sweetheart, please get in your skirt,” Steve sighed again, holding the item of clothing low for her to step into.

“No.” Her naked leg kicked the mini skirt from Steve's hands before she crossed her legs and leaned on her bed.

“Don't make this hard now!” Steve rubbed his face in frustration.

“I'll do what I want. You're not my daddy,” she said stubbornly before snatching the skirt off the floor and slipping it up her legs to her waist. If she looked messy, she didn't care.

When she turned around to leave the unorganized room, Bucky was standing there with the biggest scowl on his face. Her heart stopped and her world froze. How come they didn't know he was arriving today? How come they didn't hear him come in?

“Dada,” she whispered in mixed fear and shame, making Steve look up, a look of utter relief washing over him when he saw his best friend.

Everything was about to get better now that Bucky was here, including her temper.

“Is that what I taught you, little one?” Bucky's tone dripped of disappointment.

“Dada.” Tears quickly came to her eyes as she saw the letdown look in Bucky's.

“And here I was thinking you were my good girl, returning home early to see you.” Bucky shook his head at her.

“Dada, I am your good girl. I am,” she begged, walking closer to him, but Bucky didn't reciprocate.

“Dada, I missed you.” She went to hug Bucky but he stepped away. She tried to hold his hand and he slipped his fingers out of her grab.

“You don't get to welcome daddy home after you've disrespected Uncle Steve like that, little girl,” Bucky told her, his frown not disappearing, only deepening.

“Dada, I'm sorry.” Her lower lip trembled.

She’s missed Bucky so much. She was touch-starved because she hadn't given Steve a chance to come anywhere near her all weekend. She refused to let him hug her, kiss her, or carry her. She was distant and bratty and rude. She needed Bucky's warm touch but he was far too mad at her.

“I'm not the one you should be apologizing to.” Bucky crossed his arms, looking at Steve behind her.

“Uncle Steve, I'm s-sorry,” she mumbled quickly, without even looking at the blond man, moving to hug Bucky again but he still wouldn't let her.

“Dada,” she called, tears leaving her eyes.

“You have to mean it, little one.”

“Daddy, I mean it,” she whined. It frustrated her little heart that Bucky kept calling her little one. He only did that when he was mad at her; too angry to use a pet name.

“Enough lying already!” Bucky raised his voice and she flinched.

“I'm not going to talk to you or touch you until you've made it up to Uncle Steve. Until then I'm gonna pretend I haven't come home and saw what I just saw.” Bucky left her room, walking over to his and slamming the door behind him.

He didn't normally choose to be hard on her; she was his baby doll, but what she did with Steve was just unacceptable. Bucky couldn't let her get away with disrespecting anyone, especially Steve, not after witnessing it all himself.

He'd thought it over on his way home. If he spanked her or took her favourite things away, she'd dislike Steve even more, if not hate him. Bucky couldn't give her more things to blame Steve for or more reasons to refuse him.

~

“Sweetheart,” Steve called, feeling bad after Bucky left and she stood by the door frame and started crying.

He didn't really want Bucky to punish her; he just wanted to know how to deal with her bratty behavior. He just wanted a way to communicate better. Steve never intended on making her cry. Bucky surprised him with that punishment.

“'S all because of you. I hate you!” She cried harder, throwing herself on her bed to hide her face in the mattress as she sobbed.

Her words broke Steve's heart to tiny pieces and he felt even worse now that Bucky was here. His mouth opened but no words came to him so he closed it again. He gathered her clothes from the floor and hung them back in her closet before leaving her to cry it out, giving her some time.

~

“I'm so sorry, Steve.” Bucky shook his head, embarrassed by her behavior towards his best friend.

“Hey, it's alright. I know she's a good girl; she just missed you.”

“You know I missed her too but she can't just get away with such stuff,” Bucky sighed, taking another sip from his beer.

“I know.”

“Dada.” She entered the room after a good crying session, rubbing her puffy eyes.

True to his previous words, Bucky didn't answer her, swallowing the lump in his throat with his beer. He couldn't give in.

“What is it, sweetheart?” Steve responded instead, not wanting to leave her hanging, which made her pout in annoyance.

Like him and Bucky had agreed, if she wanted anything she'd have to go to Uncle Steve for it and relearn to use her manners.

“Dada,” she called again and got the same reaction. Bucky pretended he wasn't there.

Tears gathered in her eyes again and she hid her face in her hands and began crying. The sound shook Bucky's heart and he almost broke and forgave her.

“Hey, hey, no, it's alright,” Steve cooed, immediately coming to her side.

He hated this. Once he got her to stop crying he was going to talk to Bucky about calling it off. He didn't care if she was bratty or bad-mannered, he just wanted her happy again.

Steve led her back to her room and sat down on the bed beside her.

“Daddy's never gonna speak to me again!” She sobbed and Steve's heart ached for her.

“Sweetheart, please don't cry.” He gently patted her back.

“Can't you just tell him I said sorry and I mean it?” A pair of teary eyes implored Steve's blue ones.

“I will, but no more tears, okay?” Steve quickly agreed, wanting her to calm down.

“You will?” She wiped at her cheeks and Steve nodded with half a smile, his thumb catching her new tears.

“You'd lie to daddy for me?” Her red eyes widened.

“I'd do lots of stuff for you.” Steve chuckled.

“Like what?” She mumbled, sniffing and wiping her nose before Steve grabbed her a tissue off the bedside table.

“Like let you pour your milk on me and pretend it was an accident.” Steve smiled fondly, dabbing the tissue on her wet cheeks and under her nose.

In that moment as she looked up at the man with tear-filled eyes, her little mind seemed to recall all the ways she'd tortured him all week. She'd disobeyed nearly everything he'd told her and he still didn't hurt her or even raise his voice at her. She'd 'accidently' dumped all the salt in the salt shaker on his dinner. She'd dropped his phone on the kitchen counter multiple times after talking to Bucky, adding to the cracks on its screen. She'd wet him and got soap in his eyes during shower time. She'd constantly knocked stuff out of his hands whenever he held them out for her. She's been a real demon. If it was Bucky he would've punished her in every way in the book. But Steve didn't. He didn't make her pay for any of it and he was ready to lie to Bucky to save her bratty, ungrateful ass from having to endure his silent treatment.

“And then you leave?” She wondered.

She saw Steve's face fall at her question. She really did hate him, didn't she?

“And then I leave.” He still nodded with a kind smile.

“But could you not though?” She whispered, playing with the ends of her mini skirt.

“What?” Steve looked at her in surprise; he must've heard her wrong.

“Don't leave,” she told him, clearer this time, awkwardly extending her hand to touch his.

“Sweetheart-”

“I'm sorry, Uncle Steve,” she started tearing up again in regret, “I didn't mean to be so bad.” She shook her head and cried.

“Aw, sweetheart, it's okay.” Steve hugged her to his side, smoothing a hand on her head.

That was all he needed to hear.

“You know I like you, right?” She asked, sniffing in his shirt and Steve chuckled.

“Yeah?” He asked cheekily and she nodded, silently crying.

“Yeah, you make the best cookies, but don't tell daddy,” she said and Steve chuckled, “I'm sorry.” She cried more.

“I like you too, darling. Don't cry now, we're good.” He assured her, holding her closer to him and gently patting her back.

“So you’ll stay?”

“If that's what you want.” Steve's thumb wiped her tears away as she nodded again.

She wanted to make things up to Uncle Steve like Daddy wanted and Uncle Steve deserved. She wanted to show him she truly was a good girl.

“On one condition though,” Steve said playfully, slipping her hair behind her ear.

She looked up at him, waiting for his next words.

“You let me take care of you like I was supposed to.” Steve's face was serious. It was all he wanted all weekend.

“Okay.” She nodded, smiling tearfully.

How kind was Uncle Steve and how blind was she to not see it!

Steve kissed her forehead and smiled down at her, wiping the rest of her tears away. He adjusted her skirt before they walked back out hand in hand and he sat her down on the couch beside Bucky, who on his turn pretended she wasn't there.

Was Bucky curious about what happened in there? Yeah, he was. But he wasn't about to ask her. He was just glad Steve has got her to stop crying because nothing hurt more than seeing her pretty face all sad and teary.

Steve prepared her snack and came back. He lifted her on his lap and handed her the plate before grabbing the remote to turn on her favourite afternoon show.

“Thank you, Uncle Steve,” she whispered shyly, kissing the man's cheek.

Steve smiled and kissed her temple, rubbing her back as he encouraged her to eat, even feeding her a couple of times and she let him, thanking him every time.

Bucky raised an eyebrow at the scene unfolding beside him but still held back from interfering or interacting with her. He was still mad and she needed to prove herself good again. He bit back a smile, pressing the beer bottle to his lips instead.

~

As the day came to an end and Steve put her to bed, she was keeping her 'please' and 'thank you's up, using her manners just right and Bucky would secretly, proudly grin every time she did.

“Would you please tell daddy I said goodnight?” She asked Steve, trying not to cry again before bed. She'd wished he'd forgive her by bedtime but he clearly didn't.

“I will, sweetheart. And I'm sure he wishes you a good night too,” Steve pecked her forehead and she smiled.

“Goodnight, Uncle Steve.” She pecked his cheek before resting back, pulling the covers to her chin.

If Bucky was listening, he made no effort to let any of them know.

~

The next morning Bucky was the same, still giving her a taste of her own medicine. She wanted to cry again but didn't, focusing on fixing things with Uncle Steve, whom she'd been awful to.

“Uncle Steve, please come with me?” She held onto Steve's wrist while he stood with Bucky in the kitchen.

Steve mumbled a 'sure', tilting his head in confusion as he followed the shorter girl.

She sat him on her bed and stood on her tiptoes till she reached her pink piggy bank on the upper shelf on her wall.

She walked to Steve and put the small safe in his lap, “I thought all morning long,”

“What's this, sweetheart?” Steve eyed the object before looking at her.

She smiled sheepishly before shaking the safe left and right in his lap, “to fix Uncle Steve's phone.”

Steve's heart soared in his chest and he remained speechless. She waited for him to take the money but he didn't.

“'S a lot of money. Dada gave me some to keep with piggy every day,” she assured Steve, taking his big hands and wrapping them around the pink safe, wanting him to accept it.

“Sweetheart,” Steve mumbled, setting the piggy bank on the bed before holding her to his chest.

She let herself be squished in his embrace as she stood between his legs, not really understanding what was happening, but at least he wasn't mad at her.

“You don't have to do that.” Steve shook his head before kissing her head.

“But I wanna make it up to you, Uncle Steve. I can't take away the salt in your food or the soap in your eyes or the milk on your pants-” She stopped and pulled back and her smaller hand cupped Steve's cheek, “do you wamme to wash your pants?”

Oh, how precious! She spent her morning thinking about ways to fix what she'd done to him. And she wanted to give him all of her savings to fix his phone. She was even ready to try and clean his pants. She was such a kind little one.

He’d done it. She finally likes him. Steve was beside himself at the progress. This kind of connection with her was all he ever wanted and it made him forget about whatever evil things she'd done during that weekend.

And on the other side of the wall stood a very pleased Bucky.

~

When they walked back out to the living room, Steve was beaming as he helped her up on his lap. Her body was facing Bucky’s as she leaned onto Steve’s chest. She looked at Bucky and when he looked back she cast her eyes down in shame.

“Come here, doll.” Bucky beckoned, opening his arms for her.

She grinned happily, jumping into them as he lifted her to straddle him. She wrapped her arms around Bucky's neck, burying her face in his shoulders and smelling his scent. Steve smiled, satisfied with their reunion.

Bucky wrapped her up tightly in his arms, pressing a longing kiss to the side of her head, “I missed you too, doll. I missed you so bad.”

“I’m sorry, dada,” she sniffled, clutching Bucky’s shirt.

“I know, doll.” Bucky pressed his lips to her forehead and let the kiss linger there.

In each others' arms, now both, her and Bucky, were really home.

[idy-ll-ique]

His Lovely Girl.

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x F!Reader

Genre: Angst, Fluff

Requested: nope

Warnings: insecurity

Summary: Sebastian spoils her all the time. What has she ever done for him? When someone leaves a rude comment under her Instagram post, she can't help but rethink her entire relationship with the handsome actor.

Author's Note: Hiya peeps! We're back to Marvel lol, enjoy!

---

"I'll see you later, dove, have fun!" Y/N grinned when her boyfriend leaned over, pressing his lips to her forehead. "Bye, Seb, I'll miss you," she whispered and he looked down at her, his heart swelling in his chest, full of appreciation for her. He loved her so much. "I'll miss you too, Y/N, but I'll only be gone for around 6 hours." Y/N pouted and he couldn't help it.

He leaned over and pressed his lips to hers in a chaste kiss. "I know. Go now, I don't want to be the reason you're late." He laughed heartily when she pushed him away with a smile. "Oh, doll, everyone knows about us, they'll know anyway." With that, he waved at her and left the apartment they shared. Y/N had moved in with him 2 years into dating.

Sebastian Stan; let's just say, he was a busy man. Y/N sighed and got up from the bed, feeling hungry. They had started dating 4 years ago, and what years those were; the most blissful ones in both their lives. They loved each other to death, and they knew that. Y/N waddled into the kitchen and looked around the various cabinets, finding a box of Mac and Cheese.

It was a funny story, actually, how they met. Y/N, at the time, was working as a barista at Starbucks. One day, Sebastian had walked into the Starbucks where she worked, and she was the one who took his order. He was extremely polite, funny and a bit awkward and just like that, she fell in love with him all over again. Y/N was a Marvel geek and Sebastian had noticed.

"I really like your hoodie, doll, where'd you get it?" he had asked her after telling her his order. And she had looked down, seeing the custom-made hoodie she wore. It was black in colour, but one of the sleeves was silver and had a red star on the bicep, just like his arm from the movie Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Bucky's trigger words were printed on the front of the hoodie. She had blushed furiously, simultaneously cursing and thanking her fate and coincidence. "I had it custom made," she had told him at the time and he had grinned so wide he thought his mouth would tear open. That was the moment where he, too, realized that he was getting a crush on the pretty barista.

And he hadn't hesitated to ask her for her number. He had taken a tissue paper, scribbled his number down and had written what's yours? ;) underneath. When he went to pay for his coffee, he purposely made sure that he wasn't giving her any change. With his notes, he slid her the tissue and she took it, giving him a confused look.

When she read it, her breath hitched. While pulling out his change, she had discreetly written her number down on the tissue, saved his on her phone and had given the tissue back to him with the coins. Both of them had grinned widely at each other when he left. While walking home, he had taken out the tissue and had seen her number written neatly under his. And his heart raced, Y/N is worth it.

---

*@yn_yln posted a photo*

4,583 likes

yn_yln Mac and Cheese, anyone? :D

Y/N smiled and logged out of her Instagram account after posting the photo. She just couldn't resist; she looked good that day, one of those days where she felt confident enough to post a picture. She kept her phone away and sauntered into the sitting room to watch something on the television. An hour passed before she yawned, feeling tired.

2:05 pm, her watch displayed. Well, there's no harm in an afternoon nap, am I right? Sebastian wasn't home anyway, and it's not like she had anything to do. Grabbing her phone off the dining table, she walked into hers and Sebastian's shared bedroom, plopping down on the bed. She decided to check her Instagram before falling asleep and opened the said app.

She went through the page that displayed all the likes and comments, pausing at one comment. Her heart dropped as she clicked on the comment, her entire being filling with an uneasy feeling. You're only dating him for the money, admit it. Until then, she had never even thought… about that. Throwing her phone to the side she sat up, breathing heavily.

Y/N was currently jobless. After they started going out, she continued working at Starbucks until last year; Sebastian had suggested that she leave the job and work somewhere better, earn a higher salary. Y/N had discarded the idea at first, since the job paid enough for her to go about her daily things and where would she even find another job?

Starbucks was okay. But Sebastian wouldn't hear it. So she left the job, now jobless. She had applied to a few places but hadn't received any news as of yet. They're right. I'm living off of him. I don't even have a job. What does it look like? A broke woman dating a rich, handsome guy? Oh my God, am I leeching off his hard work? All those thoughts rushed through her head in a span of a few seconds.

The more she thought about it, the more she teared up. Blinking the tears away, she lay back down and curled up under the comfortable blankets. His blankets. She closed her eyes, trying her hardest to fall asleep but the tears were proving it to be difficult. Fortunately, she drifted off into an uneasy slumber 15 minutes later.

---

"Baby, I'm home!"

Silence. Sebastian frowned, carefully walking into the house. "Y/N?" he called out but there was no answer. Keeping the bag he was holding away, he walked further into the apartment, stopping at the doorway of their bedroom. "Aw," he whispered under his breath, smiling, stepping into the bedroom. He gently sat next to his sleeping girlfriend.

His knuckles traced her cheeks but he froze. Why is she so cold? His soft touch was enough to wake her up, because she stirred and blinked up at him. "Seb, hi, welcome back." Her voice was hoarse. "Y/N? Did you fall sick?" he asked worriedly as she sat up, distancing herself from him. "I'm not sick," she muttered but Sebastian wouldn't buy it.

He reached out to cup her cheek, feeling like he had been stabbed multiple times when she leaned away from his touch. "Y/N?" She shook her head and looked out of the window, bringing her knees to her chest. "Just wanna be alone right now." She didn't want to send him away. She wanted to sit in his lap, listen to him rambling about his day…

But she also didn't want to be near him. Do I even deserve him? "What happened?" he insisted, his eyes going wide when she glared at him. "Go. Away." He scrambled off the bed without another word, softly closing the door behind him as he walked into the sitting room, running a hand through his hair. He sat down on the couch and looked around.

What happened in those 6 hours that he was away? Sebastian knew she wasn't on her cycle, it still had another week to come. So it wasn't mood swings. His eyes landed on the empty bowl of Mac and Cheese sitting on the dining table but they skimmed right past it, not knowing that that bowl was the reason for Y/N's sadness. Then he stared at the designer handbag on the opposite couch.

Picking up the bag, he strode back to their room, knocking on the door. Maybe seeing a pretty purse would lighten her mood? "What?" Y/N called out from inside and he opened the door, holding the purse up. "I brought you a gift." Y/N's heart started thudding in her chest and tears glistened in her eyes anew as she stared at the bag with utmost resentment.

"I don't want it."

Sebastian went rigid. She never rejects my gifts. "Y/N—" She started shaking her head. "No. Return it. I'm not taking it. I don't want it," she repeated, her glare now directed at him. "But doll…" he tried, freezing when her jaw clenched. "Get out." Disheartened, he walked out once more, more confused than anything. Now I have to know what happened.

Inside the room, Y/N sobbed silently. The bag was so pretty, her favorite color, the sleek design… she wanted to keep it so bad, but she knew she wasn't worthy of it. Sebastian brought her gifts all the time. Most of them expensive as shit; he had the money to blow off. What had she done for him? Nothing, really. He spoiled her heartily, never once allowing her to do the same.

"You're mine, baby girl, mine to love, mine to cherish, mine to spoil."

She was definitely leeching off him. Outside the room, Sebastian took out his phone and texted Y/F/N, who was Y/N's closest friend. They rarely spoke, but Y/N told Y/F/N everything and he knew she'd have answers.

hey, do you know what's up with y/n

why what happened

she's in a really bad mood

she's angry at me and I brought her a gift but she won't take it

she usually loves them but today…

OH WAIT

I know what happened

she texted me in the afternoon

something about a comment on Instagram or something

ig that's why she's in a bad mood

oh

thanks

I'll check it out

He ended the conversation and opened Instagram, seeing a new post from his dear girlfriend. Sebastian couldn't help but smile as he liked the photo, commenting a heart emoji. There were only around 22 comments on the post, so he decided to go through them. Which comment had triggered her? He found it instantly and his nostrils flared.

Replying to the fairly rude comment, he typed, how about you fuck off and mind your own damn business? If you don't like her, unfollow and leave. There's literally nothing else you need to do. After hitting send, he kept his phone away and, determination shining in his eyes, ran back to the bedroom.

He threw open the door and a sob escaped the lips of the startled woman. He started taking off the annoying clothes he was wearing until he was just in his boxers, sliding into the bed next to her. She attempted to push him away but the strong man didn't budge, holding her on his lap as she thrashed. Soon, she gave up the fight and melted against him, crying her eyes out.

"I'm sorry," she apologized again and again, her breath hitching. "Hush, baby, it's okay, I'm not mad," he whispered, rubbing her back, helping her calm down. She rested her head on his shoulder, her arms tight around him. "Tell me the truth. What happened?" he asked even though he knew the answer. Tiredly, Y/N narrated everything; from the comment to all her insecurities.

Sebastian gently cupped her cheeks, wiping her tears off. "Y/N, you're mine. I love taking care of you, I love spoiling you, and I don't do it because I expect something in return, I do it because I love you. Don't listen to strangers on the internet, what better work do they have? Nothing but lowlifes. You don't have to do anything for me. I don't want you to do anything for me."

"But Seb…"

"No. No, you're my girlfriend and only the best for my girl. I love all the gifts you get me. I cherish them wholeheartedly. Just you being my girl is a gift better than anything else in the world, to be honest. But I'm going to continue looking after you whether you like it or not. You don't even have to go to work, I'm here for you. I love you." Y/N teared up again.

They were happy tears.

"I love you so much," she cried weakly and Sebastian pulled her to him, cradling her head, breathing her in. "I love you too, doll. Now will you take my gift, please?" She nodded against him and he gently lowered her on the bed, going outside to get the bag. Once back in their room he handed the bag to her, smiling at the way her eager hands reached up to accept the gift.

As he watched her admiring the bag, he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, till death do them part.

His girl, his lovely girl.

---

A/N: Leave a like if you enjoyed, thanks for reading!

[dreamkidddream]

I absolutely loved the doll! mc one with the brothers and diavolo. Could I ask for the same idea with the rest of the undateables and luke? If it isn't too much though. Thank you very much, don't forget to take care of yourself and stay hydrated!

I’m glad you enjoyed the first part!! I hope you’re staying safe through this pandemic and that you’re drinking plenty of water. I’m so happy that people liked the Doll!MC scenario so much (it even became one of my top posts and I was NEVER expecting that to happen 😳 click here to read it with the Bros and Diavolo). I got an UR card for Barbatos today and immediately thought back to this scenario cause I was just imagining the different situations with Doll!MC. Hope you enjoy!

Also, Luke’s part is strictly platonic, just FYI!

The Undateables (Minus Diavolo) with Doll!MC

Barbatos

Let me just say, you make this man’s day so much better

Your presence is just so calming for him. You could just be standing there (which is heavily enforced in the kitchen), not doing anything, and he would still be fully relaxed

Definitely loves you being in the kitchen with him, and will find ways to invite you so that you guys can spend time together

“MC, the young master has a tea party planned for this afternoon, and I’m afraid I may need your assistance to help prepare.”

“But Barb, I thought you didn’t want me touching anything-”

“I don’t want you touching anything that can cause you harm. I can easily handle the labor, but I do have a task for you...”

Cue to you sitting perfectly still and taste testing his sweets

“Barb, are you sure that I’m helping you like this? I don’t want to be useless to you!”

“Nonsense, MC. This is perfect. I needed someone with an exceptional palette, and you’re just the right person for me.”

Just you and him, and his sweet creations. What more could he ask for?

Maybe being in a relationship with you, but he is very sure that it’s going to be happening in the near future...and he didn’t even have to use his powers to know that

He stares at you a lot. He can’t help it, he loves to just admire you!

Barbatos is the type of guy where he doesn’t have to rely on words to express his love. His love language is acts of service: packing you lunch and extra sweets every week, giving you recipes that he wouldn’t even share with Luke, and gifting you mini accessories that you can wear with your outfits!

He gave you this adorable three-legged crow holding a cupcake hairpin and you’ve been wearing it ever since

He tries to hide his blush everytime he sees you and now he has to work even harder because of the pin lmao

HAVING YOUR OWN TEA PARTIES WEEKLY

You both have a designated day and time where you don’t plan anything in order to have your own tea parties

No Diavolo, no noisy demon brothers, no other exchange students (sorry Luke). Just you and him, enjoying each other’s company and him basking in your glow

If someone did try to harm you, he would already know of it and properly disposes of the problem. Lord Diavolo can’t afford to have any issues interfering with the exchange program, and he can’t afford to have anything happen to you so...no harm no foul, right?

Please continue to do what you’re doing MC. Stare at him with your bright, doe eyes and give him that lively smile everytime. It makes his day go by much easier, especially since he knows that you’ll still be there, waiting for him with your own desserts and that smile reserved just for him

Simeon

Was convinced that you were an angel

Lowkey still convinced that you’re an angel

Really, you just look so...angelic

Wasn’t upset when you revealed that you were in fact human; he was happy because this meant that he could show you around the Celestial Realm!

Speaking of Celestial Realm, be prepared for Simeon to be your very own personal tour guide everytime. This could be your 50th time up there and he’ll still try to point new things out

“And over here is-”

“Michael’s favorite resting place, since the lilies always seem to bloom whenever he’s around,” you giggled. “I remember Simeon, you tell me this everytime we visit!”

He’s a tad embarrassed

“Forgive me, MC. It seems that I get so elated over the fact that you’re here with me, I tend to repeat some things over.”

“That’s okay! I still have fun with you everytime!”

Oh MC, you’re too adorable!

Which causes him to worry over you. While he knows that the brothers and Diavolo (along with Barbatos) wouldn’t dare cause you any distress, the same couldn’t be said for the other demons lurking around, both in and out of RAD

But not to fear, Simeon your friendly guardian angel is here!

I am so sorry for the rhyme lmao

He may not have been personally assigned to you, but that doesn’t mean he can just let anything happen to you! He’s only doing his heavenly duties in protecting you! He’s also being a good friend by watching over you too, his little lamb

He wouldn’t attack anyone, but if he made a complaint or a very serious concern to the right person (Lucifer or Diavolo), consider the problem handled

You have your own tea time as well, and Luke would join you sometimes. But, every now and then, Luke would have to finish some homework or study, or Barbatos would miraculously call for him at the castle, or if it was just too late and Luke just had to go to sleep, then it would just be you two. Sitting by the fireplace, discussing matters ranging from RAD to your life in the human world, drinking tea that you would take turns preparing

Not to mention the downright dainty little cakes you would bring. One time you brought him angel cakes and he found so lighthearted and precious that he requested you bring them everytime, just for him

May or may not base a character in his new story around you

Simeon wants to shield you from the horrors that are surrounding you both. You’re so pure, he just wants you safe. From the way that you would dress to the way that your eyes would just look so amazed and innocent at him, he just knows that he needs to watch over you, always. The brothers do get a little wary when they see how much time you do spend at Purgatory Hall, but they know that Simeon couldn’t possibly have feelings for you, and you were always so giddy after leaving there, they couldn’t bring themselves to say anything

And Simeon knew that he was starting to feel more than he should. He couldn’t profess his love for you now in risk of falling, but he can wait until you get your wings. Just imagining you in your cute little Ceslestial Realm outfit (which he hopes still mimicked your current style) with your very own beaming halo was enough to keep him waiting and to make sure that you stayed on the right path

He deemed that you were worth the wait

Luke

BFFs! BFFs!

When he first saw you he could just cry

Someone innocent like you got sent down here with these monsters?! He had to keep you safe!!!

Simeon thought you were angel and then realized that you were not; Luke thought you were an angel and refused to believe that you weren’t

You didn’t have it in you to burst his bubble so soon, so you just let him run with it until Simon broke the news

It was like telling a kid that Santa Claus wasn’t real; you can only imagine how Luke took the revelation

Not well from what Solomon told you. Simeon kept saying he just needs some time to process things, and you just felt so awful about the whole thing

Which lead to you bringing him so much sweets that it made Beel jealous and very upset

But we all know how Beel can be around food, so it wasn’t a huge surprise. He chased you around all day and you had to use your pact to get him to stop!

And you promised to make him double the sweets in he forgave you so all is well

Luke was still obviously sad, but he wasn’t going to stay sad forever. Especially not after you brought this many sweets just for him!

Lucifer was not a happy demon when Simeon arrived at the HoL’s doorstep with you groaning and clutching your stomach. And Solomon took so many pictures of Luke while he passed out from his sugar high that he dedicated a whole album in his phone to it

Favorite activity to do together: Baking! (Obviously)

Trading recipes, shopping for ingredients together, baking things for each other to try (where really it was just to have double the desserts)

When you two are in the kitchen together, no one else is allowed (except for Simeon, but only if he’s looking and not touching). It’s now MC and Luke time, everybody else is gonna have to wait!

Luke only wants you to do the the activities that he sees as harmless: which is everything that doesn’t include sharp items and anything else that can hurt you

“MC get away from that! That can seriously hurt you! Let me get it for you instead!

“Luke, honey, it’s just an oven it’s not my first time using one-”

Too late, he already took it out of your hands into his own, mitts already on

Speaking of oven mitts

You guys have matching aprons and mitts!!

Barbatos may be a little bit jealous, but he likes the bond that you two have. And he knows that Luke won’t be a romantic rival so he’s alright lol

Luke is your deemed protector/bodyguard, and he proudly wears the title since no one bothers you because of him (or so he thinks). Everyone makes fun of him calling him a chihuahua, but jokes on him, when Luke complains, he complains

Won’t take long for Simeon or even one of the brothers to pick up on his whines complaints if he thinks someone is bothering you

Luke believes that while he’s small, he can protect you and try to keep you free from danger. He may be young, but he sees himself as the older brother out of you both (even though it’s really you being the older sibling and him being the baby). Always looking out for you especially since you’re too fragile to be left alone!

You’re one of the only people that genuinely likes him and don’t make fun of him. You’re dear to him MC, please don’t ever change!

Also, he definitely talks to Michael about you all the time so excitedly and sends him sweets that you both made together. Michael is a proud dad at this point

Solomon

Knew you wasn’t a doll but loved to tease you about being one anyway

Was there a spell that can really turn you into a doll? You wouldn’t mind if he tried it out on you, right MC?

Don’t tempt him please because he WILL do it

“Tell me, MC. Hypothetically speaking, if I were to purchase-”

“No Solomon, you can’t shrink me down to fit me into a dollhouse, no matter how nice it sounds. Besides, I can’t bake in a dollhouse, the oven wouldn’t work!”

“I can fix that.”

You’re very amusing to him for some reason. Was it because of how doll-like you are? The fairytale way that you dressed? How you were still human and was able to live with seven of the most powerful demons and not die? Maybe it’s the way that you still radiated such positivity despite being in literal Hell?

Honestly all of the above

TEACHING HIM HOW TO COOK/BAKE

Poor Solomon doesn’t realize that his cooking isn’t...the best

And you took the best approach in helping him atleast cook something that looks edible

You didn’t say his cooking was disgusting like some people (literally everyone else), so he took that you giving him lessons was a date of sorts

He wasn’t complaining. Your time spent in the kitchen was scenes straight of a romcom (no matter how cheesy it sounds); his arms wrapped around your waist and dotting icing on your pretty nose

May or may not have licked some icing off of you at one point, will definitely do it again

Solomon is a very confident man, borderline arrogant (Oh who am I kidding he IS arrogant). So yes, while people may see you as an easy target, he’s here to remind them that you’re not. And that if they want to try, chances are they won’t be walking away in one piece

He’s powerful, too powerful in fact. He may not be the strongest physically, but if even the entire student council recognizes his knowledge and what he’s capable of, no one should be dumb enough to test him (keyword: try)

But he wouldn’t mind showing off if it’s for you

You’re one of the only beings to ever peak Solomon’s interest genuinely. Yes, he loved to tease and bug you whenever he pleased, but you also made him want to come around you more and more. He was drawn to you, and that doesn’t happen a lot with him (at least without ulterior motives)

*coughcough* making pacts *coughcough*

You were the only thing that made Solomon feel weak, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Don’t get him wrong, he’s still The Greatest Sorcerer, but he couldn’t help but feel himself get weak in the knees when you gazed at him with so much sincerity. He loves it and loves you

Once your back in the human world, he’s going to be so selfish with you. I mean, he already kinda was now, but this time there won’t be any interruptions or distractions around to take your attention

Us humans have to stick together, and what better way to stick together than to be together, wouldn’t you say MC?

[its-deputy-caleb]

i love the sadie fic sm THANK YOU!!!!!!!! and a part two doesnt sound too bad 🧐🧐🧐 that is if you arent busy! <3

as promised anon! i bring you apart two for your sadie fic. For anyone that is new, part one is here and i suggest reading that first. this one is a little shorter but i wanted a sweet and simple date this time around. And yes i did my research the word klutz was used in the early 1900's 😌😌

-------------------------------------

“Get your ass up missy, the day’s gonna be over before you leave the bed.”

Sadie comes storming into your bedroom, a large grin on her face as she draws the curtains back with one hand. The other is holding her shotgun over her shoulder and her typical oversized brown coat and unkept shirt looks weirdly out of place in your polished bedroom that is littered with gold and white trim along the walls.

You covered the sun from your eyes, pulling the pillow over your face as you groaned from being woken up.

It had been a few months since you’d first met Sadie and she’s become something of a close friend. Okay you did occasionally sneak kisses and hold hands when no one was looking but to everyone else she was no more than a companion and bodyguard who’d been welcomed into your family estate.

She places the worn shotgun onto the wardrobe and comes to sit on the bed, prying the pillow from your fingers before smiling down at you. She leans down and gives you a soft kiss.

“Good morning.”

She pulls you up and shoves you into the bathroom, giggling and making fun of the amount of products you have for just your hair alone lying on the cabinet. You nearly trip on your night gown and tells you to get ready for the day while she waits in the garden for you.

You did your hair, waiting for one of the maids to help tie your corset and pull your petticoat over your head. Once you were fully dressed in a lighter, more casual summer dress you made your way to the garden. On the way you grabbed one of your hats, tying it under your chin as the door was opened for you.

The carriage was waiting for you with Sadie already waiting in the front seat beside the driver. She noticed you, smirking down before playfully addressing you.

“Where to Missy?”

“Why Blackwater of course— the tailor is finished with my new dress!”

Sadie hopped down, helping you get comfortable inside the carriage but as she went to leave again you grabbed her wrist.

“Sit in here with me, please?”

You gave her the biggest most innocent look you could muster, pouting as she laughed softly and shook her head.

“Now who’s gonna be guarding the carriage hmm? Wouldn’t want a doll like you getting damaged unlike last time.”

You gasped dramatically, holding your hands to your chest in mock offence.

“If I remember correctly the carriage tipped because of you Ms. Adler and it ended with mud all over my dress!”

You couldn’t stop the giggles that left you as Sadie rolled her eyes.

“All the more reason to be up the front and make sure nothing happens to that bodice of yours!”

Huffing, you slumped into the carriage chair as you called out to Sadie

“Fine. But you’re coming dress shopping with me.”

-

An hour later you were standing on the streets of Blackwater, your heels clanking along the pavement as the two of you scurried to see the tailor.

The bell rang as Sadie held the door for you and the tailor Mr. Kretzschmar perked up to greet you. He was a kind gentleman who always gave you extra discounts and added dresses as you were a regular customer to his service since you were young and considered you a dear friend. Often on your birthday an extravagant ball gown is delivered to your families estate.

“Hello Ma’am, it’s so lovely to see you back on such a fine day. Who is your companion?”

He gestured to Sadie who as staring at a teal blue dress hanging on a mannequin and grimaced at the thought of wearing such a thing.

“Oh this is Ms Sadie Adler, she’s a dear and close friend to me. She’s going to help me decided if the yellow or the lavender dress will suit next weeks dinner party.

Before Sadie could protest about having to watch you play dress up, you grabbed her arm and dragged her to one of the changing rooms which had been reserved for you.

“What’s wrong with the blue one you have at home?”

You rolled your eyes as you heard Sadie shuffle about and take a seat on the chair outside to the curtain. You fumbled for a minute, trying to pull your dress over your head but couldn’t manage to get the thing undone. You stumbled over your own feet for the second time today as you feel through the curtain and blushed as Sadie burst into laughter.

“For a lady you sure are a klutz sometimes— common I’ll help you with the yellow one first.”

Sadie lifted you from the floor, helping you untie the dress and putting the new yellow one over your fitted corset and petticoat. She fixed the ribbon in your hair and moved you to stand in front of the mirror as she stood behind you.

“There see? The yellow makes your eyes shine.”

She placed a soft kiss to your neck before you turned and shoved her out of the change room gently. Fussing over needing to see all your options, you were spoilt after all.

“Now get out! I want to try the lavender one.”

Sadie laughed, walking over to a wooden chair as she sat on it backwards with her hands holding her head. It was much more to her appeal than the plush ottoman in the room.

“Whatever you say Missy.”

Sadie’s playful tone died in her chest however when she saw you come out in the lavender dress. It looked beautiful on you and it took her breath away.

She stood from the chair, slowly inching towards you as she took in the sight of you. Eventually her hands landed on your waist, staring into your eyes as she pulled you close.

“Well I’ll be damned, never knew purple was your colour—“

“Its lavender—“

Sadie rolled her eyes again, laughing and bumping your noses together as her eyes trailed down to your lips. Your hands came to hold her jacket as she kissed you gently.

Your hand came to tangle in her hair and for a moment you were completely captured in her lips on yours and her hands protectively around your waist. That is until you heard someone cough awkwardly as if to get your attention.

Pulling away you tilt your head to see Mr.Kretzschmar holding the accessories that went along with the dress as well as a tape measure around his neck and a shoe box tucked under his arm.

“I hope I’m not interrupting something?”

Your dear friend gave you a soft but accepting smile as he placed the box down on onto the ottoman, nodding and turning to leave.

“I’ll leave you two alone for while, just call if you need anything.”

Before he could leave the both of you thanked him. Sadie gave him a silent nod which must have shown her appreciation while you on the other hand matched his generosity with words.

“Thank you Mr. Kretzschmar, I’ll have father invite you for dinner sometime.”

You watched as his face lit up, knowing that your father and him had been close friends. He was often eating dinner with your family, sometimes inviting his own and you certainly knew that your father supported his business. He left the room shortly after, leaving you and Sadie to giggle like you were children caught with too many lollies.

-

The two of you spent longer than you thought, trying on an array of different outfits and sharing kisses in between. You were however unsuccessful in getting Sadie to find a dress of her own but you always had more time to work her up to the thought of a corset and stockings.

Without wanting to ruin such a good day out with her, you left the tailor and visited the pictures. The movie was some silent film about long lost lovers but you weren’t really paying attention when your head was resting on Sadie’s shoulder and your hands were intertwined under the blanket of darkness in the room.

When you finally returned to your families estate, Sadie took your hand to help you down the stairs of the carriage, although this time she didn’t let your hand go.

“Stay for dinner?”

Sadie contemplated the thought for a moment before nodding softly and following you inside for a nice warm meal. She never thought she’d fall in love with a rich girl like you but once she met you she was smitten.

The whole night at dinner she held your hand under the table and looked to you for help at how to use the six different forks in front of her.