#this ship is probably going nowhere but i am living for them

[supercalime]

The amount of digging, stalking and over analyzing that required for yall to now say “it was obvious” and “we were right all along” is one of the reasons they never went public with their relationship before actual marriage, just like Joey Richter and Lauren Lopez getting engaged and Keith and Becky habersberger out of nowhere telling they had a baby.

I’ve been a fan of smosh for like 12 years and the shipping (yes, I know they said they don’t care, but even if they said to stop yall wouldn’t anyway) and nitpicking every single interaction between cast members (I’m not even gonna get into the fanfics and inappropriate comments) were why I kept my interaction with the fandom to a minimum.

Im happy they’re married, really. I’ve been happy for other influencers before. The issue was never denial. I did wish it was a prank because I knew this exact response was going to happen.

This feels like fans were trying to out them when they weren’t ready. If they truly felt safe making the relationship public, they wouldn’t have gone to lengths they did to hide it. Poor Courtney probably had an engagement ring that she couldn’t wear because of fan reaction. I mean, I remember seeing proof of them together through reflections on a glass! It isn’t normal.

A similar situation has happened in a fandom before. Remember when fans were speculating about a Malec wedding in the shadowhunter finale? Finding every single piece of evidence on social media, bts footage, etc? And in the ending the characters got married? But you know why that wasn’t weird? They were fictional characters, made to entertain us, with story arcs. No actual person was at stake.

And you know, I love smosh and obviously this rant isnt directed towards the fans who are just surprised and happy for them (which I am too, congrats to them), but it still bother me.

Publicly, they were coworkers in a comedy channel who made jokes, played characters, played games, etc. Smosh has never been about romantic relationships between cast members and it saddens me that the fans made most of it about shipping when they have so much more to offer.

The point is, we are not entitled to information about their lives and speculate about it. Too bad this can’t be a learning experience because congrats, yall were “right all along”.

[ominoose]

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭

Pairing: Android!Nathan Bateman x GN!Depressed!Reader Summary: Your therapist advises you buy an android as a companion. He's a pain. Warnings: None, just fluff. WC: 1.5k Thank you @jinjersnapz for beta reading :*

The moment he stepped out of the box you wanted a refund. Thinly veiled disappointed creased his eyebrow and tugged down his lips as the android, Nathan, took in the cabin. It wasn't much, that you'd concede, wooden floors, walls and roof with a bathroom, office, kitchenette, living room and bedroom. The basic rooms filled with what one needed to live, or as your therapist called it “bare essentials” and “not willing to take up your own space”. Bullshit, essentially.

And now the result of not listening to said bullshit was taking in your abode like it was a one star Air BnB that posted fake five star reviews. He probably wanted a refund as much as you. That was an accurate description of life since he was shipped into it, ‘I want a refund.’

“You're wasting time.” Said the most annoying alarm clock since the creation of alarm clocks.

You only responded by turning over and pulling the covers over your head before they were ripped off the bed and cold air attacked your now exposed and cold skin.

“Stop spending all your time in bed just to go bitch to your therapist about how you're worthless and your life has no meaning. Either get your ass up or I'll dismantle the bed and hide the screws.”

The petty, blunt asshole would. Last week he messed with the dryer's wiring, leaving your bed sheets wet until you finished your book (that he'd recommended, ordered on your Amazon and held you at laundry point to read), citing “intellectual enrichment” as the reason.

Getting out of bed was rewarded with him asking for a cup of coffee while he worked out (apparently the extra use of his metal tendons strengthened them over time), knowing full well he'd only complain about it being cheap. It was a hellish routine, but a routine nonetheless,  as your therapist annoyingly felt the need to point out every session. Begrudgingly, you'd also be forced to admit it was the truth. He got you out of bed, engaging with the house, energizing yourself and having some sort of start for the day. 

“Why don't we go out for a hike?” Nathan rounded you to grab the steaming cup of coffee, grimacing at the taste. 

Broad shoulders rolled openly, clad in simple grey tank top and black joggers. Despite knowing he had no skin, no actual flesh underneath the tanned synthetic layers stretched over his biceps looked soft enough to bite. Not that you'd let the android know.

“A hike? Outside? Today?” The spontaneous request caught you off guard, already openly reluctant. 

The deadpan stare he gave you behind the silver frames wasn't fond. 

“You live in Butt-Fuck Nowhere and want to just sit in this shitehole. Wasting your innate opportunity to explore nature's beauty.”

“Yeah, I do. Have a fun hike Nathan.” That statement was meant to be closed by you swiftly turning and walking back to your room, but a warm, calloused hand gripped your arm sternly and rooted you to the spot.

“How am I meant to have fun if you aren't there to bug? A walk in nature is an easy hack to ease your disease riddled brain and you don't take advantage of it. It's a wonder androids haven't taken over yet.” 

The way he refused to handle you and your depression like a porcelain doll was something you loathed to love about him. How odd that an arrogant android treated you with the most humanity.

“I'll upload a virus into your cloud if you don't let me go, see who has a ‘disease riddled organ then.”

“An STD threat, how cute. Try successfully updating your Sims mod folder and I'll personally walk you through the virus myself.” Logically, there shouldn’t be a lively spark in his eyes, but it was there all the same, goading you into spats with him, time and time again.

“I bought you, the least you could do is fix my Sims!” Another thing you hated needing from him was the way he fed and stoked your fire, turning you from dying embers to a roaring bonfire. It always happened before you were aware of it, always when he got that cocky smirk as if this was exactly what he wanted.

And following routine he simply walked away, rolling those ridiculously handsome shoulders to add salt to the wound and leaving you to seeth.

“Hurry up and get ready.”

When you finally crested the hill, sun shining down through dark pine trees, birds chirping around you, part of you conceded it was worth it. The other part was whining over the stitch aching at your side.

“God I feel like death.” The panting breaths came out as a fog in the cold forest, but Nathan paid no mind to the temperature or your whining. 

You never once questioned his ability to enjoy the cold whistle of the wind, whether or not he could feel the numbing chill in his finger tips. Why did it matter why his favourite spot was the waterfall, always cold no matter the season, a hint of a smile plucking at synthetic lips when the mist tickled his beard. It didn’t occur that it should matter, but it was noticed by him the way your mouse didn’t entertain the news articles discussing the ethics of how closely androids now resembled a human, drawing comparisons to fictional history of Dune.

Nathan knew more than anyone that you weren’t the academic, whizzkid genius he was. Your mind physically could not scramble through numbers and piece together advanced mathematic equations. You weren’t book smart, but it wasn’t something he considered lacking. 

You dismissed stupid opinions (like the aforementioned article) as if they didn’t exist to you as easily as you stood toe to toe with him to defend other stupid opinions (Aristotle was just some annoying old guy). You were acutely aware of your depression, the way your mind functioned against you and plodded on, taking it in your stride your own way.

As you keeled over, huffing out cold whisps, his dark brown eyes scanned every inch of you. There was no part of you he hadn’t cataloged and stored carefully in his memory banks, no quirk or habit was unfamiliar to him. Yet it always felt like a small surprise to see them unfold in the intimate privacy of the small bubble you both shared.

“Why’re you staring? You better not say I told you so, I’ll ship you back and enjoy going back to my solitude inside.” 

“You wouldn’t have to be alone. You’re pretty enough to coax someone into your little hovel.” Said like a passing comment on the gathering clouds.

“Pretty?” Said as a reaction, completely caught off guard.

“Yeah? How many times do we need to go over how your mind will distort how you perceive reality before you finally listen to me, sweetheart?” How was he managing to still be so condescending while arguing about how beautiful you were, how the softly filtered sunlight through the trees settled against your hair like the sun was made to do just that

No wonder humans had wasted so much time on artsy poetic bullshit since the BC’s, beauty really could be all you had the capacity to think about.

“Based on what? I thought you didn’t abide by societal constructs Mr Bateman?” It was a shoddy attempt at acting normal, but the supercomputer android would’ve already noticed the quiver in your voice and the red dusting your face. Maybe if you pretended you didn’t know he could do that, he just wouldn’t. 

“I’m abiding by my standards.” His eyes stared right into you. The words words hit you right in the stomach, no time to brace.

And he takes advantage of the hesitation.

“We both know I’m capable of noticing when you ogle me when I work out. We both know I'm equipt to sense when your heart rate picks up, which it does every time I lean over your shoulder to correct your shitty work. We both know I can literally measure the heat in your cheeks right now, want me to?” 

The speed at which your head shook had your hair lashing your face, something that only grew his smirk.

“You sure?”

“Fuck yo-” 

His lips were warm when they cut you off, subtly soft in contrast to the calloused hands cupping your face. Your mind instantly jumps to satisfaction that you’d been right in your assumption about the feel of his lips until the actual realisation that he was kissing you kicked in, and by that point he was already pulling away. You didnt even have time to savour how the cold metal of his glasses pressed against your nose.

“Lets go, it’s gonna start pissing down and I hate fogged up glasses.” 

Nathan was already walking back home, back turned until he realised you weren’t already trailing after him. He turned. You were still staring, lips slightly parted and wide eyed, not yet finished processing what had happened. His smirk turned soft.

“C’mon sweetheart, I need my shitty cup of coffee.”

[ch10srac00n]

While I am still working on the other critters designs, here’s an confort w a bit of angst story (or whatever you want to see this) about our very shy and depressed captain, Cloudy. This is just a small story that I invented out of nowhere, sorry if my orthography or English is not understandable in some point of the history, I am still learning english and it’s not my first language. Thank you for your understanding.

—————————

Dogpressed was bored, very bored, she has tried everything she has imagine for keeping herself entertained, finish her remain work, cook, clean and literally anything she could think of that unfortunately, it wasn’t much. She felt sad and bored, the need to cry was bigger than before as she couldn’t think about something she could do. Dogpressed wanted to cry very badly but she only does that when she’s alone and unfortunately, she wasn’t.

Dogpressed could hear the sounds of something being punched not to far from her room, that clearly was Groddy who was training in his aggressive way. Her, Groddy and Wipin where alone in the ship, each one minding their own business and the rest of the crew was either doing a mission or other thing that Dogpressed have no idea what could be. She could still hear the conversation of her crew talking about how she couldn’t be left alone in the ship for too long, that conversation was still fresh in her mind and could hear the worry in their words, that conversation was repeating over and over again and it was annoying, she needed to do something.

And that’s what she did. Dogpressed stand up from the chair she was seated in her room and walk out of there, she didn’t care where she was going, she just needed to move and find something to do. Her mind was pure static, not a single thought passed through her mind in that moment, it felt like she didn’t have the control of her limbs in that moment, the only thing that she could actually distinguish from all the static in her head was the feeling of being tired and sad. She didn’t realize how tired her limbs were until she was in the living room, the sofa was some steps away from her but it felt very far away and tired for walk directly to it, then she looked at the ground, there was a grey-ish carpet. It looked comfy.

Right now Dogpressed didn’t care if someone sees her sleeping on the ground, it’s not the first time that happens and it will not be the last time that happens, plus, she was too tired for care about it anymore. Dogpressed didn’t even care about grabbing a pillow or blanket, she just threw herself to the ground, her face hitting the ground and an annoying pain covered all her body but she didn’t care, maybe she got some bruises because of the fall but that’s a problem for her future self.

Dogpressed close her eyes in a try to fall asleep, that of course didn’t work but it was way better than being with her thoughts in her room.

She didn't know how many minutes passed until the static of her head became a simple background sound in her mind, she also didn't know when Wipin was with her until she felt her face being lifted from the ground. Dogpressed opening her eyes in the act, half asleep and all disoriented, the first thing that she saw was Wipin, white as a ghost most probably because she was in the floor with no blanket or pillow, sleeping.

“Captain! Oh god… you look terrible! What happened to you?! Are you hurt? Hungry? When was the last time you have eaten?! Oh god… oh god… my captain!” Wipin said while hugging her head, asking questions that Dogpressed was not listening, the touch of Wipin’s feathers was comfortable, she was clearly taken good care of them, the smell of sweet flowers was in her feathers, Dogpressed didn’t care what Wipin was saying in that moment, she didn’t the only thing she was putting attention was the confortable touch, Dogpressed just melted in her touch.

There was silence for a few minutes, Wipin stopped to ask questions when she realize that her captain was not listening to her, Wipin only felt cuteness for her captain, maybe it wasn’t the right moment, but she tried her best not to care.

“Seriously? Couldn’t you get into the damn sofa instead of fucking sleeping in the shitty floor?” Groddy speak, breaking the confortable silence that was between the captain and Wipin, his voice have a his classical anger with a bit of worry.

Groddy let out a sigh and grab the captain’s hip and throwing her in his shoulder like a bag of potatoes.

“What you were doing in the floor, boss? You didn’t grab a fucking pillow or blanket, have you have eaten already?” Groddy said, his voice filled with affection and worry, completely different from a moment ago.

“Well of course you fucking didn’t… let’s gonna feed you and later will see what we do with you boss”

“I..I’m going to prepare something for her to eat…” Wipin said while running to the kitchen

“Good idea, now… what I’m going to do with you, boss?”

—————

Probably half an hour has passed by, Dogpressed was obligated to eat a sandwich by both Groddy and Wipin, which was a success. Then they try different activities that consisted in various things like making new strategies for battle and other things, which resulted also in success in distracting Dogpressed from any thoughts or other things that were traveling in her mind minutes ago.

Now, the trio was in the sofa, covered in a big blanket that was supposed to be Floppy’s but forgot it in the living room and it was too late for gain it back, basically becoming everyone’s blanket, usually ending in a trap for Dogpressed when she overworking herself and now, Dogpressed looked like a fucking burrito as she was wrapped in the blanket, she couldn’t move and the fact that she had both Wipin and Groddy hugging her, both deeply asleep in a strange pose that remembered Dogpressed to a domino effect. But she wasn’t going to say anything or wake both of them for her to be able to move and go to her room to sleep.

Even if this was kinda strange, she felt comfortable with both of her crew mates by her side, even if she was like a living pillow that looked like a fucking burrito, she didn’t care, actually she was glad she could have this moment with both of them, Dogpressed trusted both and they where almost family for her. She was so glad that she wasn’t alone in the ship, she was glad to have this moment with them.

“Thank you… both, sleep well” she said, knowing well that either both of them heard her talk, this was maybe the first time she spoke in..months? Years?Her voice felt quite out of place, raspy but very quiet and sweet, she couldn’t remember the last time she even heard her own voice. Maybe she should speak more. Or at least not as a whisper. That maybe could help.

—————————

Hello all! Hope you enjoy this silly little story that I written, sorry if it’s not that understandable time to time, I imagine this in my native lenguaje and as I said in the start, I am still learning English. Anyway, hope you enjoy this an maybe I will make another story about the critters being chaotic.

Space riders AU belongs to @onyxonline and Dogpressed, Groddy and Wipin belongs to Eggritos in X.

[bestworstcase]

brief preliminary list of things i am going to be unhinged about for the indefinite future:

MYSTERY KINDRED LINK. WHO. WHO?!

"and when it turns out to be just another run-of-the-mill patrol..." HBHKSDFHG god. the fact that mysterious important top secret missions regularly turned out to be non-issues... salem was IGNORING HIM LMAO

implied time-skip but i think not a very long one; we have amity plonked onto a carrier ship and what's left of the atlesian air fleet, plus a handful of ships from other kingdoms, but no grimm. salem isn't here yet. tyrian and mercury probably are. loose estimate, probably a couple weeks? qrow et al being in solitas still at the end of v8 makes the quick turnaround logistically plausible

salem routed the fleet lmfao

"one brother [light] believed they had disrupted the balance, while the other [dark] refused to condemn their creations for their mistakes" hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

in the ever after's terms, dark's purpose is destruction for the sake of new life—i was dead to rights on him being a god of cyclical change—and the conflict with his brother began with dark defending the lives of their creations. light decided that they [the brothers] made a mistake and wanted to "fix" that mistake by getting rid of it, dark said no.

dark is unambiguously the good guy here.

the annihilation of humanity was essentially dark recanting his original stance and accepting his brother's position that their creations are "mistakes" that must be eradicated

except he didn't (or couldn't) eradicate salem, humanity rose again, and light is still on the "eradicate the mistake" train with dark nowhere to be found. either 1. dark completed his ascension by coming to understand his brother's perspective and became something new [the relics?], or 2. dark regretted this after the fact and directly had a hand in bringing humanity back, or 3. if he left salem alive on purpose the whole thing was a gambit to repeat the ever after's solution to their conflict, leaving remnant behind because remnant could not bear their experiments any longer.

dark + humanity vs light endgame real

unless dark ascended and light did not, in which case the ultimatum is probably coming from a place of grief—light doing the very thing he condemned salem for.

the immediate narrative rebuke for turning their backs on the cat:

in juxtaposition with ruby's overt sympathy and concern for neo, and the blacksmith's sympathy for both neo and the cat, and the implication that the cat can now ascend [note the hawker's statue too—neo's jabbers couldn't permadeath people]... juicy

raven and summer stayed in touch. raven was summer's confidante; she doesn't just know what happened to summer, she knew well in advance what summer had planned and was herself integral to that plan. and in the ten+ years since this night she hasn't said a word about it to anyone.

raven trusted her

raven was probably closer to summer than to her own brother

whatever raven learned, whatever horrors she brought back, she told summer. and summer believed her. and they kept it to themselves, and made this plan.

"if i do this right, there's nothing to worry about. trust me." you sound just like your mother (derogatory). oh raven absolutely got a team salem recruitment pitch from summer after this.

and she's keeping that secret too

this is how they're looping raven back into the story btw

ruby knows that raven knows but she doesn't know exactly what raven knows so she's going to need to find raven to ask

raven: summer is a better mom than i could ever be

also raven: [continually dragged kicking and screaming back into the story by inescapable motherhood]

"you're really leaving them?" "you're one to talk" oh that's JUICY

even taking into account raven's heels, summer is fucking tiny

[dystopyx-blog]

so i haven’t played twisted wonderland in ages and i recently deleted it and will likely never play it again but

Idk man here’s some twst oc rambles because

the urges.

so first of all I have an unhealthy familial attachment to Crowley. That man is my father. So instead of a yuusona like COOL NORMAL PEOPLE my twst sona is Rose Crowley, daughter of Dire Crowley

you’d think that means he’d pull some strings and let her go to nrc despite it being all boys, right?

lmao no

in fact

mans outright **forbade** her from going aaaaaanywhere near it/its students. iirc (which I very well might not) in the beginning of the game, Crowley basically says “the students here are freaks, and the need someone to put them in their place” (the someone ofc being Yuu and not the fuckin head mage lmao I love my dad)

but nrc is like… the best magic college?? And rose thinks it’s bullshit she can’t go, not because she’s a girl, but because her dad has opinions on his students. nah. Rose is in Ignihyde, because it’s a form of fuckin recluses and introverts. She snuck her way in technological style, just added her name to the roster, Ortho noticing and going “huh that’s strange”, until he meets her and stop caring because “he’s” so nice to him and his big brother, so really, what’s the harm?

also, ofc, Rose has to pretend to be a boy because… all boy’s school. Thing is she puts in like 0 effort besides wearing a boy uniform. When students are like “you look feminine” she points to Lilia, and when students say “okay, but you also sound feminine” she points to Epel, and everyone goes “okay”

she really half asses it, doesn’t even bind, just wears a uniform slightly too big for her. “You look like you have boobs” **points to leona**

currently the only art of her to exist:

who I ship her with depends on my mood, because really, I ship her with everyone.

here’s her relationship with every dorm. (Some spoilers, specifically for vil ig)

Heartslabyul:

somehow ace and deuce are probably the first to find out she’s a girl. After a massive series of misfortunate misadventures, she feels close enough to them that she doesn’t even care that they know. They act weird around her after they find out, which is incredibly funny to her. Sometimes a lil annoying tho. I like to imagine she was friends with Cater online before sneaking into the school, and it was his messages and posts that especially made her wanna attend. Not just for the academics, but for the funnies. She loves Trey, he’s a big brother figure she’s never had. Riddle is her lil guy (that she avoided for ages before finally befriending him)

Savanaclaw:

She’s close with Ruggie mostly because she feeds him. Leona can somehow smell the femme on her, but he doesn’t say anything cuz he doesn’t care. Her business is her business. Why am I imagining her playing with Jack 😭 like specifically tug of war, but will also run with him even though she is NOWHERE on his level, but she does it cuz she live laugh loves Jack and is happy to help him with his exercise, even if it’s killing her lmao

Octavinelle:

>:) I have this very specific scenario in mind where Azul figures out she’s a girl and blackmails her. Really being a girl isn’t even her biggest secret, but she’ll act like it is. the scenario gets especially self indulgent guilty pleasure cuz I like to imagine the deal is that she pretends to be like a girlfriend for him when he’s making deals with students regarding their love lives. Like a “you too can have a babe like mine.” Idk idk. the tweels ❤️❤️ okay who am I kidding, specifically FLOYD❤️❤️❤️❤️ (jade frightens me). Rose, being my insert, is touch starved and autistic, and Floyd’s physical “affection” actually scratches an itch. Y’know like weighted blankets n stuff?? Her weighted blanket is Floyd. He probably found out she’s a girl through one of the hugs but shhhhh don’t tell Rosie. Floyd calls her cuddlefish (like cuttlefish) because she’s so receptive to his squeezing. Or she’d personally insist on being a harlequin shrimpy or a clownfish because… she’s me.

Scarabia:

scarabia is fun because ofc she’s besties with Kalim. But Jamil does not fucking trust her, he can basically smell that this fucker is keeping secrets, and tries to keep her away from Kalim—there can be only ONE manipulative mother fucker with Kalim!! He has tried to “warn” Kalim away from her, but since he has zero solid dirt against her, Kalim continues to hang out with her.

Pomefiore:

she feels so bad using Epel as a scapegoat for her femininity, especially since she knows he is very unhappy with his femininity. Whenever she can, she tries to hang out with him as genuinely as possible. Ofc she wants him to understand that being feminine isn’t a bad thing, but she also doesn’t preach that to him. He’s unhappy with himself, she just wants him to be happy, whether it’s feminine or masculine. Rook definitely knows she’s a girl, are you kidding me??? He makes hints and plays coy and Rose has bonked him on the head with his own bow at least once. She also steals his hat whenever she can. It’s like a fun game. Also of fucking course she likes to make fun of him for being French, this is me we’re talking about. Because she is me, she empathizes hard with Vil. I really fucking relate to Vil’s backstory. I was the weird autistic kid all my life, and for most of it I was undiagnosed. Kids labeled me as weird and annoying, so to cope with that pain, I “embraced” it. Kids labeled me the villain, so I played that role. In playtime, and in theater. I am a theater kid who was typecast as a villain, then was forced to be so. So despite my twstsona being Crowley’s daughter and growing up in that world, I still have her share that with me, and therefore with Vil. Uh that being said, she’s still very much an autistic girl, specifically one based off of me, who wasn’t raised very well, and has a lot of slobbish tendencies. But Vil is also one who can recognize what styles of correction and teaching do or do not work, and I’m sure he’d understand that I do not do well with harsh criticism, but still need a firm hand. (I imagine Vil finds out she’s a girl one day because he offered a fuckin fashion session and Rose (again, being me) got so excited at the idea of trying new clothes that she agrees, and an outfit doesn’t properly hide the fact that she has boobs, and her Leona’s Tits excuse does not work)

Ignihyde:

I’ve already mentioned the basics, but I fuckin love Idia (character I relate to most after Vil) so here we go anyway. This is Rosie’s dorm. She relates to Idia and helps him with her introvertedness in her own way—a way that is subtle enough mans doesn’t even realize he’s getting help. Ortho loves her and she loves Ortho. Rose would insist on like holding and carrying Ortho, thinking “he’s just a lil guy”, but im sure somehow she’d still be too weak 😭 doesn’t matter tho cuz ortho will levitate enough that Rose can still think she’s supporting his weight. Of course, Rose being close to Ortho also gives her points with Idia. I sometimes view friendship in terms of video games, with friendship levels that go up and down, and certain actions and interactions increase or decrease friendship. Ergo Rose does too. And I imagine she shares this with Idia and that’s just a massive bonding moment for them.

Diasomnia:

okay I’m a fucking sucker for canon yuu and Malleus relationship/interaction. Rose’s room was literally in a tower, so close yet so far away from NRC. Yes she still studied history and stuff, but I still imagine she wouldn’t full understand Malleus or his importance. She’d probably see Malleus’ horns and call him “dragon boy” without even fully understanding the weight of her words. They’d get very close, of course, and Rose would say just the darndest things. Malleus always ends up laughing at least once whenever he hangs out with her, whether it was her intention or not. Sebek hates her, no surprise. She tries to avoid him, they’ll just fuckin fight n argue. I’m a chronically eepy being, so friendship with Silver is a must. Lilia scared her at first, purely because of his voice. But they eventually became buds ofc. She calls him batdad (god forbid her real father find out)

So that’s my self insert. Super fuckin self indulgent, but I am cringe and free.

[lightsoutletsgo]

Congrats on 500 followers! Such an exciting milestone! Can I ask for a celebration ship (ideally 2 lol)? I’d describe myself as introverted, intellectual, and a walking shitpost lol I love music (literally all kinds), books (I have a booktube channel), coffee, video games, and touching grass. I’m plus size and I go to the gym everyday and I’ve been doing archery for almost 25 years (I’m not as old as that makes me sound; I’ve been shooting for most of my life) and I am an Olympic-style competitor (I’m not good enough for the Olympics yet, but a girl can dream). I have a degree in English lit/creative writing and I work in the legal field. My friends would describe me as the dependable one, the one who always shows up, the one who gives the beat hugs, and the one most likely to go to war on their behalf. In a partner I look for someone I can laugh A LOT with, someone who can talk about literally anything and who is interested in lots of things, and someone who REALLY likes cuddling.

Thank you so much in advance! Your work is so good and I’m so excited to keep reading. Here’s to another 500!

🏹 anon

hello love! thank you so so much for sending in your request! omg you sound so interesting and cool 😭 I really had to do a little thinking about who I was gonna put you with 👀 but I think I got it? happy reading! mimi

LEWIS HAMILTON ᝰ.ᐟ₊ ⊹ - calls you darling and love - loves, loves, LOVES your thighs! they're so cosy and comfy. he's also obsessed with your hips - his love language is physical touch and acts of service - nothing he loves more than a cuddle session with you and he is a firm believer that there's nothing a cuddle can't fix

as an athlete himself, lewis knows how much time and dedication you have to put into becoming one of the best and so he loves supporting you on your journey for that. he comes to as many practices and competitions as he can and he loves to offer up his physiotherapist for you to use too! of course now and again he loves to try things out himself and rather annoyingly it doesn't take him long to get the hang of it! of course it's always nice seeing his arms and hands flex when he tries so do you actually mind?

the two of you spend plenty of evenings listening to music together whether it's new tunes on spotify or golden oldies on vinyl. lewis loves to gently tap out the rhythms on your hands and hips as he holds them and it's easily a soothing motion that helps if you ever get overwhelmed while out with him.

lewis understands that your job can be stressful and so he loves to help you unload as much as he can at the end of the day. if he's far away he's right there on facetime, smiling at you as you cuddle with roscoe on the couch and rant to him. or if he's in person, he's offering a back massage, shoulder massage, starting to make dinner and telling you to go an shower the day away while he puts your cosy clothes in the dryer.

"love?" lewis emerges from the garden where he's been doing a light workout, "where'd you go?" he's not concerned at the lack of response, he knows you've had a lot of work you've been focusing on lately and so he surmises you've probably fallen asleep somewhere. roscoe is nowhere to be found either, having grown bored of watching lewis' workout halfway through and plodding back into the house, so lewis knows he'll find the two of you curled up either on the couch or the bed.

walking through the living room, the couch is empty and so he heads straight for the bedroom. he quietly opens the door, smiling to himself at the sound of your heavy breathing and roscoe's snoring. he closes the door and showers as fast as he possibly can. his body craving yours and needing to be close to you. once he's showered, he emerges into your shared bedroom once more, pulling his sweatpants on and carefully sliding into bed behind you. wrapping an arm around you, you shift in your sleep, nose wrinkling slightly as you're disturbed. it doesn't take more than a soft 'shhh' and kiss to the head from lewis before you're settled once more, body naturally wriggling closer to him a little more as you seek his body heat. lewis closes his eyes with a happy hum. this is his favourite place.

࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

CHARLES LECLERC ᝰ.ᐟ₊ ⊹ - calls you mon amour or mon ange - charles loves your smile! whether it's your soft half-asleep smile first thing in the morning or a massive grin that greets him when he gets home after a long triple-header - his love language is quality time - he could spend hours praising you for the smallest things, just to watch the way you melt and flourish under his love and adoration. to him, you're a goddess!

charles loves that you're his shy little bookworm! he's that much in love with you that he's turned one of the big windows of his monaco apartment into your reading nook; complete with cosy chair, shelves, lighting and a small coffee table with a mug warmer to keep your coffee at the right temperature all the time! one of his favourite ways to pass the time when he's home is to sit and play piano while you read. he tells you it's a good exercise in practicing different styles and emotions of song. he'll ask you what mood the scene you're reading is and start playing accordingly.

he loves to watch you make videos for your youtube channel and often adds his opinion. your followers love it so much that it turns into a regular weekly segment on your channel! charles is in awe that your degree is in creative writing and is summoning up the courage to ask you to write a bedtime story he can gift and read to his niece for her birthday.

he knows you're the dependable friend, he sees it in the way you are with the people around you. but he also knows that that can sometimes be a little tiring and difficult when you yourself are struggling and so he becomes your dependable person. he loves being able to do the little things for you to make it easier.

the rain gently patters against the window of your apartment as grey clouds roll over the harbours of monaco. but here in your apartment with charles, it's warm and cosy and homely. it's a rare weekend that he's home and you've been spending time existing together. you've been reading while he plays piano, a new composition brewing in his head and now in his phone voice memos but now a sleepy atmosphere is settling over the apartment.

charles leans against the big L-shaped couch as you lay in-between his legs. his hands gently run up and down your sides as you lazily hum the tune he was playing barely five minutes earlier. he lets out a breath of laughter and smiles down at you, one hand coming up to stroke your head as you tilt your head up. he stares at you for a moment, just enjoying having you in his lap. his finger gently traces your face. across your cheeks, up your nose, across your bottom lip. he grins at you, completely lovesick as your eyelashes flutter shut and you sigh. leaning down he kisses you softly once, then again and once more.

[rlyehtaxidermist]

so I’ve seen some posting about oil fire going around and as one of the people sitting in the eye of that particular hurricane i have a couple thoughts. keep in mind that I obviously can’t speak for every single Poster etc etc, obviously this is just my view on things. in particular don’t quote Twitter at me because the only time I was ever active on there was back when “have a visible professional social media account” was considered important for the job hunt. I know nothing of Touhou Twitter or Touhou Reddit and I am content in my ignorance

Anyway there’s three major points of criticism I’ve seen, and one of them as basically “it’s just a nothingburger that came out of nowhere” and even ignoring the history of that in Touhou in general, I’m going to set it aside because I don’t think it needs a more specific rebuttal than the length of this post. so on to the two more substantial complaints I’ve seen:

“it’s just a sex ship”: look, I won’t deny that there’s been a lot of sexposting. i’ve probably posted more about cock in the last 48 hours than in the last five years combined. almost certainly more than i will in the next five too. but there’s a subtext to it that often gets missed (not just by critics but also by a lot of sexposters).

these are two characters who have had... a bit of a history with being sexualised by the fandom. i shouldn’t need to recite all the “slut sanae” memes, those who know know and honestly they were never funny, but they existed. tsukasa meanwhile was stuck with “sex fox” pretty much from the beginning due to some kuda-gitsune legends specifically involving their rapid reproduction.

obviously this is going to go more into the personal view and i reiterate that i’m not speaking for Everyone’s posts, but I’m asexual. the whole emphasis people put on sex as a cultural thing, not just in terms of Posting about it but also in terms of Not Posting about it is funny to me. people dance around it like they’re waltzing with the demon core but also are baffled when i say i’m just not into it.

the oil fire sexposting isn’t about “lol they’re fucking”. there was already plenty of that. the joke is that it’s not a big deal that they’re fucking - it’s not dramatic or cathartic or even erotic. they’re bad at it, they get distracted, they’re not really thinking things through; fail sex with her cringe wife. it’s sexual in the way that a Tom and Jerry sketch is violent - stepping back from the artifice around it to say “you know, whatever else this is, it’s pretty goofy”. to me at least, that’s more of a repudiation of horny character exaggeration than simply ignoring it is.

(there’s also a false equivalence to me in the general notion of “it’s just hornyposting”, between hornyposting by straight men and that of queer women and/or the gender blender, when the characters involved are both women - especially in light of the reasonably consistent depiction of one or both as transgender in oil fire posting. there’s better people than me and my none gender with leftist beef to effortpost on that side of things.)

“tsukasa is manipulating sanae” I’d add a single phrase here - she’s trying to. The big thing with a lot of how I look at Sanae and this is no exception is that while she can be naive, she’s not stupid. There’s a difference between being trusting and being easily deceived. She’s not a master manipulator, but she lives with Kanako, she knows a bit of how the game is played.

I think this kind of echoes the last bit of the last segment, in that how the characters are portrayed in the context matters a lot. Oil Fire Sanae is, at least within the spheres I see here, heavily coded as if not explicitly autistic. A lot of the content is being written by autistic people, myself included.

Autistic adults are, in my anecdotal experience, pretty conscious of being manipulative or manipulated, because we have to learn deliberately where that line is drawn and how to act around it.

To get into explicitly personal experiences, I often think of myself as being “manipulative” because I have to deliberately strategise a lot of social cues and how I present myself and information I know, and still haven’t really shook that perspective internally despite the intellectual knowledge of several therapists and psychiatrists that no, that’s just an autism thing, most people do all that stuff without thinking about it.

Now obviously simply Being Autistic is not an unassailable fortress against manipulation, nor does it prevent you from being actually manipulative in your own right, but it does tilt the pinball table a bit, again especially in terms of awareness. And that awareness helps control a response - again, even if you’re not always quite sure how to respond.

Sanae’s way of cutting that Gordian knot is what a friend of mine calls the Bishop Myriel Method: how can someone steal what is freely given? She has her lines, but the stuff Tsukasa is leaning on her to get - protection, shelter, and an in-group - are all things Sanae doesn’t see an issue with giving to her. Tsukasa for her part doesn’t really understand this, being more used to dealing with power-broker types where everything has a quid-pro-quo, and from a position of pretty notable inferiority (just look at how any of the stronger youkai talk to her in UDoALG) at that - so she looks at all the leverage that Sanae now has over her (leverage which Sanae doesn’t really understand she has), and doubles down on trying to be manipulative because she doesn’t understand that she doesn’t have to.

in conclusion obviously I’m not thinking about all this wall of text every time I post something, for the same reason that I’m not thinking about how my house’s foundations are designed every time I go up or down the stairs - the general idea is there in the background and actually needing to go check it out usually means that I won’t be doing whatever I was going up the stairs for in the first place. but these are The Thoughts, upon which the lower effort thoughts stand as they heckle each other. there are many like them but these are mine

[t0ast-ghost]

S2 Episode 8 (I, Mudd) Garfield guess who’s here? Please tell me it’s not Mudd. It’s Mudd.

Commence:

- Why are him and Spock just walking the halls together. If I was the crew I’d be going livid, like get this: there’s these two men who are head of the science and medical staff on the ship and they fucking hate each other, they fight all over the ship constantly and you’ve seen them at odds a gazillion times. One day you’re walking the halls to get to your station and you just see them walking together, talking normally, and one of them is even smiling in a sort of fond way. My jaw would drop honestly

- They’re already fighting.. it took less than 30 seconds

- This guy’s on a mission! I wonder who he could be?

- “Mr. Spock we seem to be taking an unscheduled ride” “Interesting.” Spock does not give a fuck about your dramatics, Kirk

- Spock looks at the guy who stops Kirk and just thinks “fuck, McCoy was right.”

- LMAO the electronics in him look like smt from doctor who

- I love Uhura and Chekov almost bumping into the android

- oh god this guy again (Mudd)

- “Jamie boy.” That- that barely even makes sense

- Kirk what is that stance

- “And you’re all going to be here, uh, quite probably for the rest of your lives. *evil laugh*”Spock and McCoy are unconcerned

- Okay I think McCoy is just lording it over Spock that he was right

- Okay there’s a certain joviality that I appreciate to the back and forth of Mudd explaining and Kirk, McCoy, and Spock all interrupting

- this is the greatest line in all of Star Trek

- Kirk: Well, opinions?

Chekov: I think we’re in a lot of trouble

Kirk: That’s a great help, Mr. Chekov. Bones?

McCoy: Well, I think Mr. Chekov’s right. We are in a lot of trouble

Kirk: Spock? And if you say we’re in a lot of trouble…

Spock: We are.

Kirk then gets the most defeated look on his face

- Scotty coming in hot and cursing out Mudd

- CHEKOV DONT FUCK THE ANDROIDS

- Kirk is like an angry small dog

- “No, lord Mudd.” “Wuuut??” Good line delivery

- “How do you know so much?” “I asked them.” “Oh.” Wait wait wait, this is simple deduction. Deduction? Sherlock. Holmes and Watso? MCCOY AND SPOCK AS HOLMES AND WATSON!!! Oh wait Data and Geordi did that..

- “Now listen, Spock, you may be a wonderful science officer, but believe me you couldn’t sell fake patents to your mother!” “I fail to understand why I should care to induce my mother to purchase falsified patents.” I love this man

- The name is doctor practice. Mal practice.

- uhura no! WAIT UHURA YES IM SO PROUD. I love how happy they all are

- hi hello what the fuck is happening. What are they celebrating. How did Kirk convince McCoy and Scotty to do that?

- The androids flirting with Spock. Kirk and the rest have to dance whereas Spock is just causing drama “I love you. But I hate you.” “But we’re identical.” *blows up*

- They’re gonna paradox Norman

- WJAT

- Them imitating phasers takes the cake. I think if I ever show anyone an example episode it would be this one

- “he’s dead.” Damn no Jim. Second time Scotty’s ‘died’ this season

- This is like watching Shakespeare

- I would not be surprised if this episode was inspired by children playing make believe (honestly really genius and fun writing)

- Oooh they’re paradoxing him

- “I aM nOt prOgrAmMeD to reSpoNd in thAt aRea.” The fucking sass. Kirk has been spending too much time with Spock and Bones

- “Which I find eminently satisfactory, Doctor, for nowhere, am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical humans.” Basically Spock loves them and there’s nowhere he’d rather be

- Kirk hates Mudd so much, it’s almost bitchy at this point

- Uhura’s wave to Mudd is so iconic and amazing

Okay one of my favourite episodes, if not my favourite actually. I loved more of the bridge crew interaction (no sulu☹️) especially getting to see Uhura, like I wanna talk more about her character but there’s so little that I’m just trying to pick up the crumbs.

Masterpost

Episode written by Stephen Kandel

[shimamitsu]

is there actually something wrong with the m/m ships in dungeon meshi or is it more a matter of taste? this is a genuine question I'm very sorry if it comes off as rude. i'm really new to this fandom i literally just got here yesterday idk, from what I've seen in the anime there isn't really any m/m pairs?? just farcille and whatever kiki and namari have going on

there isn't something necessarily* wrong with m/m ships in dunmeshi but it's not about taste either. it's a matter of misogyny in fandom. i think anyone that has read dunmeshi before the anime aired (i've been here since 2021) can confirm that m/m ships barely existed. farcille was the most popular ship in the fandom (and still is i think, but we're struggling). most popular m/m ship was mithrun/kabru and they were still nothing compared to farcille in terms of popularity. other m/m ships were niche. i saw kabru/laios content here and there and i seriously think that people came up with senshi/chilchuck like a month ago bc i didn't see ANY ship content of them in my 3 years being a dunmeshi fan. like literally not a single thing. laios/shuro as well. but when the anime came out alllllllll these m/m pairings started popping out of nowhere and they gained a lot of popularity. there was a screenshot going around of the ships in the dunmeshi tag in ao3 (sorry if these aren't the correct terms lol i don't use ao3) bc m/m pairings recently surpassed f/f ones in number. ppl might think we're exaggerating but this phenomenon is very noticeable to those of us who have been here for a while (a lot of ppl who are new to the fandom probably don't know). that's why so many of us are bewildered. this is ofc another case of people not caring about female characters. they'd rather go for lukewarm yaoi instead of the women whose bond is like. top 3 most important dunmeshi relationships. come on. and i'm not even into shipping, i only care about the guys you see in my handle so imagine how tired i am that i'm talking so much about this lol. but luckily a lot of people have been speaking up about this and we might get more yuri soldiers after tomorrow's ep! i'll become a hater for you farcille #DUNGEON MESHI ANTI-YAOI MOVEMENT. leaving here a few posts by user eastgaysian that i think explain the issue very well

* i say necessarily bc senshi/chilchuck is pretty weird to me given the fact that senshi still sees chilchuck as someone who's a lot younger than him even when chilchuck tells them his age, but if i bring this up ppl are gonna be like "but actually long lived races" yadda yadda yadda so whatever

[pippin-katz]

Merthur & Johnlock

You know what I just realized? I was (and still am) a big Johnlock shipper. I love Sherlock despite the many issues I have with it, and it was my primary mlm live action ship for a while.

Then Merlin came along.

I kid you not, I literally said out loud: “Why the fuck was I bothering with Sherlock?”

I didn’t mean it in a “show vs show” way, but more in a “vibe vs vibe” way. There was something about Merlin that made me happier and more excited than Sherlock ever did. Merlin and Arthur’s dynamic was some how so much more fun to me than John and Sherlock’s, which is interesting given the similarities.

Arthur’s a privileged royal who has Merlin take care of him. Sherlock is very capable consulting detective who has John take care of him.

Arthur and Merlin insult each other constantly without any real bite. John and Sherlock insult each other constantly without any real bite.

Both pairs pretend not to care as much as they do, and go full “kill” mode if the other is in danger.

Neither of them know what “communication” means.

Arthur and Sherlock are both self centered and arrogant. Merlin and John are both sick and tired of their bullshit.

While Arthur and Sherlock can operate without Merlin and John, they struggle significantly when they’re absent. Arthur is a helpless mess, and Sherlock can’t focus on his cases to the point of missing an incredibly obvious detail.

Merlin and John are perfectly able to exist without Arthur and Sherlock, but they are miserable or constantly thinking about them. John lives with thinking Sherlock is dead for two years, and he’s super fucking depressed, even with a girlfriend he intends to marry. Merlin can’t go anywhere or do anything without thinking about if Arthur will be safe, and talks about him constantly for no real reason.

Both pairs are willing to die to save the other.

They both get jealous/protective when someone they don’t approve of is making advances. With Merlin it’s the princesses and ladies that take advantage of him, like Sophia, Vivian and Elena (albeit unknowingly), and Mithian, even though there was nothing wrong with her. The only relationship he supports is with Gwen. John gets super aggressive and protective when Irene is messing with Sherlock. Sherlock goes out of his way to interfere and insult every woman John is involved with aside from Mary. While Arthur never sees or is confronted with the idea of Merlin actually in a relationship, I’d assume it would go pretty similarity. His response to being told that Merlin is even “seeing a girl” is disbelief and skepticism when he gets back.

They both make ridiculous amounts of direct eye contact that anyone with eyes notices as being a bit much for friends.

I could probably find even more if I continued to think about it, but my point is that they’re very similar dynamics. So why do I like Merthur so much more than Johnlock?

I finally figured it out!

It’s because in Sherlock, their relationship is constantly questioned and denied throughout the whole show. It’s both a joke, and not a joke. But because it takes place in modern times, we constantly get reminders of “he’s not my boyfriend” or “I’m not gay” and constant jabs from side characters.

Merlin doesn’t take place in an era where they would talk like that. You could come up with equivalent dialogue that fits the time period, but it would definitely feel out of place. So it just doesn’t happen. Nowhere in Merlin are Arthur and Merlin poked fun at/bugged about whether their relationship is platonic. Nowhere in Merlin does Arthur or Merlin say “I’m not gay” or “he’s not my boyfriend”.

I didn’t realize how exhausting that was until it wasn’t there.

While Arthur is definitely attracted to women, and in love with Gwen, there’s never a moment where he denies Merlin. It’s because he’s never asked, but that gives the viewer more room to interpret their feelings.

With John, he’s constantly shutting down any suggestion of being gay, or being in a relationship with Sherlock, despite all the evidence in front of his face that he feels differently about him than other people.

Now that I’ve realized it, I’m shocked at how much of a difference that made in my feelings toward the shows and ships.

EDIT AFTER SEEING SOME REPLIES/REBLOGS: This is not meant to be interpreted as a Merthur VS Johnlock post!! I am purely talking about the subconscious difference in feeling I felt but couldn’t figure out!! This is not a breakdown of all my thoughts and feelings about the two shows/ships! It’s not meant to be about one being superior than the other! That’s why the title is Merthur AND Johnlock! Just clearing that up!!

[timetorace]

𝐇𝐞'𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞?

I had to post this before my girls murdered me. @diorleclerc​ @libraryofloveletters​ @lickmeleclerc​ this is for u <3

ship: esteban ocon x fem!reader.

summary: Your friend, Esteban, agrees to be your date at your sister’s wedding... with your ex. Things can only get better from there, can’t they?

warnings: bad language probably. disfuntional family. Ben (my usual readers will get it). tequila mention. cheating mention. smut. unprotected sex. SO SORRY FOR THE GRAMMAR MISTAKES THAT YOU MIGHT FOUND. 

word count: +12.9K. 

                                                         PART ONE HERE

THURSDAY

The next morning when you woke up, Esteban was nowhere to be found. It was around 10 AM and you had the morning free from any wedding activity. Thanks to God cause with how things were between you two, you didn't think you could pull out a smile. That night you had your sister’s bachelorette party. It gave you a headache just thinking about having to attend.

Everything was a complete disaster. You didn’t even know if Esteban hadn’t already left after the fight you had last night. You lifted your head from the pillow. His backpack was still on the couch, so he wasn’t gone. Good. How did everything go down the drain so fast last night? After you believed everything was fine and you were questioning our relationship with him after that kiss. Maybe you shouldn't overthink anything and just leave everything like that. Last night, everything had been ruined in a matter of minutes.

When you went down to the pool in an attempt to relax and not go crazy in the room waiting to see what would happen with Esteban. Your sister and some of her friends, including the bridesmaids, were sitting in one corner of the pool. You were going to pretend dementia as if you hadn’t seen them, but your sister raised her hand. Damn, now you had to go say hi. Maybe you should have stayed in your room. Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed how there were a couple of people in the pool playing volleyball, among whom you found Phillip... and Esteban. There he was then. And yes, seeing him without a shirt caused things suddenly. You didn’t understand why, but the image of him without a shirt and only with his shorts was incredibly tempting. It wasn’t the first time you saw him like that since you used to go on vacation together with your friends, but it was the first time that seeing him like that caused something in you.

“Hi everyone,” you greeted them when you were by their side. You sat down in one of the empty chairs.

“Your boyfriend is fineeeee,” One of Chloé’s friends said, lowering her sunglasses to look at Esteban. Yesterday you met her at the party, was it Cindy? Sydney? Sandy! That was her name.

“Thank you?” You answered with a tone of doubt, not being sure what to say.

“True, I ran into him today at the gym and I think my ovaries exploded,” another of Chloé’s friends said.

“She liked him since they were kids,” Chloé finally said

“I didn't, Chloé.” you rolled your eyes and stretched out on the lounge.

“Please, you always liked a good charity case,” she pointed. That was it. You were going to send her to hell if she kept talking about Esteban like that.

“Charity?” Sandy asked

“He was poor,” Chloé explained, “And he lived in a caravan with his parents”

“Diuh,” Sandy said, wrinkling her nose as if that was gross.

“Chloé,” you warned her with a threatening tone. You were tired of the way she dismissed Esteban.

“Are you going to tell me it’s a lie?” Your sister said, raising her brows. You purse your lips. Chloé knew very well that you would not make a fuss in public, that just wasn’t your style.

“Some people have to work,” you signaled.

“Ugh, work.” Sandy wrinkled her nose again.

“He is still a commoner, a new rich, one of those who had a stroke of luck,” Chloé told you. She was going to find you if she kept picking on you like this.

“Now that he has some millions, things got interesting,” Chloé’s other friend said.

“Yes, they did,” your sister replied, and the look Chloé gave to him before looking at you again gave you a chill. What was she up to? Her look could not bode well. What did she have in mind? You weren’t sure you wanted to know.

After a while, Sandy and the other friend you had discovered her name was Tiffany, headed inside to go to a massage session they had booked at the hotel spa.

“Trouble in paradise?” Your sister suddenly asked as you opened your eyes to look at her.

“Not at all”

“You haven’t looked at him once since you sat here.” She pointed, and you rolled your eyes, trying to dismiss her theory.

“You’re seeing things, Chloé” You pointed out still without looking at him “I've him all for me in our room, no need to brag about it in public, right?“

“You know? It’s okay if you just admit that he came with you out of pity” He was your fake boyfriend, so technically it’s not like he was with you because he loved you. Despite that, it was bothering you that your sister wanted to make you feel bad because a boy like Esteban had paid attention to you. Yes, you had braces and glasses when you met him in high school, but for years now, you wore contact lenses and had your braces removed.

“Again with that? I know it’s hard for you to believe, but he is with me because he wants to”

“Bothering mon tresór again, Chloé?” Esteban’s voice interrupted them. You turned to look at him appear behind you and lean on the back of your lounger.

“Whatever” Your sister didn’t even bother to address Esteban. You knew it was partly because she didn’t consider him worthy enough to talk to her. He just ignored her and gave you a lopsided smile instead that made things to you. If he wasn’t mad at you and if you didn’t know your relationship wasn’t like that, you would say he was flirting with you “Hi babe” He said and you looked up at him before he leaned down to kiss you on the lips. His kiss was short but slow and so sensual that you could feel something stirring inside you. ‘It’s not like that’ you repeated to yourself internally. The way you looked at each other, touched and kissed, was too intimate to be ‘just friends', but you understood it could be your mind playing tricks on you. After all, you were pretending to be something else to everyone else.

“Ugh, find a room,” Chloé interrupted him and a couple of seconds later, you separated.

“Jealous?” You asked, trying to get some arrogance out. Maybe Esteban was right yesterday. It was time for you to give Chloé back some of her nastiness.

“You wished,” she huffed before getting up from her lounger and walking inside. When you raised your head to see him, Esteban had already left. You threw your head back on the lounger. Perfect. Just perfect. Despite the small moment you just shared, you were still at war.

When you got back to the room, he wasn’t there either and didn’t show until you were finishing putting on your earrings. You were ready to meet the rest of the bridesmaids and your sister in the hotel lobby. Esteban just stared at you. He was still dressed as he came from the beach, which didn’t surprise you.

“Are you staying?” You asked before taking your little bag.

“Yes,” The answer did not surprise you. He could barely tolerate Ben, so you didn’t see Esteban attending his bachelor party. From what you’ve heard about the bridesmaids, the bachelor party was going to have some strippers.

“Good,” you told him, walking towards the door

“Good,” He replied before you left.

You two had been friends for so long that you wanted to believe there was a solution, but at the moment, you were both stubborn. Esteban didn’t seem to give in and you weren’t going to either. You kept your position that you didn’t think you had done anything wrong to deserve such treatment from him. It wasn’t your fault that Ben approached you.

When you got to the lobby, your sister was already wearing a headband that said ‘I’m getting married’ and the bridesmaids had one that said ‘We’re her bridesmaids’. Your sister had arranged for your father to charter a yacht, so everything was up and running when you arrived at the port. How had she thrown a party like this when she was on the other side of the world? You’d rather not know. As soon as the group dispersed, you took off your headband and threw it around. You would not walk around with a bright pink sign, you preferred to go unnoticed.

You were sitting in one of the yacht’s dining room chairs drinking a margarita when someone slid in next to you. You looked up only to see your sister. Chloé was a pain in the ass. You rolled your eyes, determined to ignore her.

“You know (Y/N), there’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time and I didn’t quite know how to approach it”

You frowned. Your sister’s expression seemed conflicted. Well, that was something new “You will say”

“It’s about Ben”

“Then I don’t want to hear it” You shook your head “I’m not interested in anything that has to do with him”

“I think this is important for you to know” She bit her lower lip as if thinking what to say next “Even though Ben asked me not to tell you”

“Ok, I hear you” If that made Chloé leave faster than you were going to hear her digress.

“Our thing started earlier than everyone thinks”

You raised your brows “Meaning?”

“Ben and I were together while you and he were dating.”

“I’m sorry?” You asked, wanting to make sure you hadn’t misheard.

“I’m sorry” You knew she wasn’t sorry one bit. Knowing your sister, she had done the act of the sorry sister only for you to fall for her story. That little- “He kept promising me he was going to break up with you all that time until he finally did”

Break up with you? You had broken up with him. Ben wanted you to stay, almost begged you. “Chloé, he didn’t break up with me. I broke up with him.”

“You don’t have to lie to me, (Y/N), I know the truth” She clucked her tongue and the gesture Chloé made told you she knew nothing about that. Oh, God.

“It’s the truth. I broke up with him. He begged me not to leave him” ‘before he proposed to me so I wouldn’t leave' you wanted to add, but you didn't want to do that to her. As much as she was a bitch, you wanted to believe that you were better, you had to be better, right?

“We love each other so much,” she said in a sonorous voice that just made you roll your eyes.

“Good for you, but did you have to put me in the middle? Couldn’t you at least wait until we were over?” You asked before biting the inside of your cheek hard, trying to control your emotions.

“You know what they say, sis, love is love. We couldn’t help it.” Chloé shrugged.

You didn’t want to fall into her trap but you needed to know the truth. At least she seemed willing to give it up to hurt you “For how long?”

“For how long, what?” she asked.

“How long were you sleeping for?”

“Let me see” Your sister made a thoughtful expression. She enjoyed that. “For two years? Maybe more?”

“That’s more than half of our relationship,” you gasped. You thought maybe you had hooked up towards the end of your relationship when you and Ben weren’t that connected anymore, but it seems he had been lying right under your nose for pretty much your entire relationship.

“Sorry sis, it is what it is” Chloé shrugged before getting up and winking at you “Enjoy the party though”

And boy, you enjoyed the party. Before the night was over, you drank most of the alcohol in the bar. It felt like you were an idiot. You felt betrayed. You didn’t even care that much about Ben not being yours, but about the betrayal. He and your sister must have had the time of their lives laughing at you behind your back. During the day, he saw you and at night he slept with Chloé. It made you nauseous to think that he had been fucking both of them at the same time.

You were so drunk that one guest had to help you safely off the yacht and walk across the harbor to safety to the limo you had come in with your sister and her friends. The chauffeur agreed to take you to the hotel and return to the port later to look for your sister and her friends. You spent the travel dozing until they got to the hotel, and you thanked him before getting out of the car. You had taken off your heels, so you entered the hotel with your heels in hand and when you saw yourself in the elevator mirror. Your reflection was deplorable, your eyeliner and mascara were smudged, and your hair was all messed up.

You opened the door of the room trying to be as quiet as possible considering that the lights were off. However, in your eagerness not to turn on the lights, you hit your toe on the wall. You let out a moan loud enough to hear how Esteban moved in bed.

“(Y/N)?” he asked softly.

“I’m sorry,” you replied with a sob. The hit wasn’t even the problem, that was the straw that had filled a night full of emotions that made you feel stupid, angry, and sad at the same time.

“You’re crying?” He asked before turning on the light, “Oh god, are you ok?” Your appearance must have been worse than you thought, judging by the speed with which he jumped out of bed to walk beside you.

“He cheated on me” You sobbed now and cried.

“Who?” He asked, approaching you.

“Ben”

“What?”

“He cheated on me with Chloe,” you replied as he wrapped his arms around you. You rested your head on his chest.

“What? He told you that?”

“My sister did,” you explained to her in her raspy voice “He was sleeping with her for almost all our relation”

“With your sister?” He asked with a tone an octave higher than normal “Oh mon tresór, I’m so sorry” Esteban started stroking your hair. It was the first time he was calling you that when you weren’t in public, but you were going to let it slide. You were too tired to overthink.

“No, you don’t” He had told you many times that by the way Ben acted, he was hiding things from you. You believed Esteban was just being dramatic about it “This is a moment where you tell me you were right”

“But I don’t want to be right,” He let out a sigh “I’m sorry he did that to you”

“Yes, me too”

“Are you sure it’s true? Your sister is capable of making it up,” He suggested and you shook your head in response.

“No, she seemed very pleased to tell me” That didn’t assure you that Chloé wasn’t fabricating the story. It was difficult to express but her look, her expression, told you that your sister was not making anything up.

“I’m sorry,” He murmured, kissing you on the top of your head before you closed your eyes leaning against him. Esteban caressed your cheeks, trying to dry your tears.

“Sorry to wake you up”

“I wasn’t sleeping, I was waiting for you to come back” That statement, as simple as it sounded, suddenly seemed incredibly personal. Something so simple and so normal was suddenly so intimate.

“You were right yesterday, when you told me I always want to please everyone,” you admitted “I tried doing it with my parents and Ben and see where that got me”

“I was being an idiot,” He replied “You shouldn’t regret being a good person, I just want you to be happy too”

You were about to answer when you felt a wave of nausea wash over you. You ran to the bathroom before throwing up. God, the last round of tequila had been a bad idea. You threw up again. Maybe the last two rounds of tequila were unnecessary.

“Are you ok?” His voice asked before feeling how they caressed your back.

“No,” you moaned, leaning against the bathtub “I feel so stupid”

“Don’t do it. He’s an idiot, not you.” He helped you up before putting paste on your toothbrush so you could brush your teeth and mouthwash in a glass.

“I know, my rational part knows, but I still feel like an idiot,” you told her once you finished brushing your teeth.

“It’s not your fault,” He repeated before giving you your pajamas and some privacy so you could change. When you were ready, you just crawled into bed before he came back with a glass of water and a painkiller that he left on your nightstand.

“You can sleep under the sheets if you want?” you suggested as you slipped under the covers.

“Let’s just leave it at that,” He replied, and you moved against him to lay your head on your shoulder. Just like that, you two fell asleep.

————————————————————————————————

FRIDAY

The next morning, to say that you felt as if a truck had run over you was an understatement. You felt terrible. The hangover didn’t let you think straight. Those last two rounds of tequila were unnecessary. You let out a groan without being willing to open your eyes to face the day. Your moan was greeted by a giggle from Esteban.

“How do you feel?”

“Is it necessary to ask? Like shit,” You moaned.

“Take the painkiller,” He suggested, and you rolled over to get the pill and glass of water from your nightstand “That might help"

“I’m never going to drink again,” you said after taking the painkiller “Ever again“

“Sadly, I don’t believe a word of you”

“I’m serious,” you insisted, “I think I drank three bottles of tequila by myself”

“How do you feel?” He asked, and you knew Esteban wasn’t talking about your hangover.

“Fine” You shrugged. The news still felt strange to you, but there was nothing you could do about it. Although you were furious with them, you didn’t want to give your sister the satisfaction of seeing how she had affected you.

“Yesterday you were crying about him”

“Again with that?” you complained. What was his obsession with stirring up your past with Ben?

“Why would you cry if you don’t want to go back to him?”

“I don’t want to go back to Ben. I was crying because I felt like an idiot for trusting him.” You pointed. The broken trust hurt you the most, with your sister and with Ben. Both of them should have been honest or not bedded in the first place “How could you think I’d go back to Ben? After everything, he did to me?”

He stared at you as if he was processing your words, “You’re right, I’m sorry”

“Okay, but stop suggesting that.” You let out a sigh “I don’t think I can move. Bring me something to eat?” You asked and he let out a laugh.

“Yes, give me a minute,” Esteban replied before taking his clothes and disappearing into the bathroom.

Yes, everything seemed to be fine again between you. You two spent the rest of the day in the room. Nothing romantic at all. You had slept most of the morning and noon and he watched some TV show on Netflix. You liked the way he had gently stroked your hair until you fell asleep, but that was it. The seamstress brought your bridesmaid dress in the afternoon and she left it for you to try on.

“Look, I told you, I’m a shiny peach,” You told him and he let out a laugh “Thank you” you replied sarcastically

“You’re a cute shiny peach though”

“I don’t want to be a peach,” you complained with a groan.

“Don’t worry, you could wear a garbage bag, you’ll still be the most beautiful girl in the room” 

You stared at him “You don’t have to say things like that”

“I mean it”

“Thank you, I guess,” you replied, feeling how your face got a little hot and placing a lock of hair behind your ear. Why were you suddenly acting like a schoolgirl? He was just trying to be nice and make you feel better about the ugliest dress your sister could have picked out for you. That was what friends did, right? Make the other feel better when they were down. The dress was hideous and not even a catwalk beauty could make that dress look good. The satin fabric shone even brighter in the lights, so you weren’t sure you’d want to see the wedding photos again after that weekend.

An hour later, you were finishing your makeup in the bathroom, already dressed for the rehearsal dinner, when you saw him approach out of the corner of your eye.

“A little help?” Esteban asked with his tie undone around his neck.

“Don’t worry about it today, don’t even wear the suit jacket”

“No sparkly peach dress today?”

“Not today,” You let out a dramatic sigh “You’ll see it in all its splendor tomorrow”

“What if you tell your mother you don’t want to use it?” He asked.

“It would kill me,” you replied, causing him to laugh “My sister too but my mother above all, for breaking with the aesthetics of the wedding and my sister’s wishes”

“For what it’s worth, it doesn’t matter if you look like a shiny peach, you’ll still be the prettiest girl in the room.” You wanted to feel ok about it but you had the insecurity that you didn’t understand what it meant to feel that. Esteban was just being a good friend to you, wasn’t he? Not being sure of the answer to that question made you even more nervous about it.

“Thanks, keep it up and I’ll believe everything and I’ll have my self-esteem through the roof,” you replied, passing by him to get your bag.

“You should,” He shrugged “Ready?”

“Yeah,” You opened the door “Although the last thing I want is to have to see Chloe or Ben,” You added as you walked down the hall towards the elevator “The very idea makes me sick”

“Your sister just wants to be the center of attention. Don’t give her the pleasure,” Esteban told you, pressing the button to call the elevator.

“She’s the bride, she’s the center of attention indeed,” you pointed out.

“You know what I mean,” He told you as you entered the elevator “Don’t let her enjoy making you miserable”

“I’m not miserable,” You shrugged “I’m upset because I feel like that is a shitty thing to do to your sister”

“Chloé just wants the pleasure of making you feel bad about it”

“She thinks we’re in some kind of competition and that she won because she stayed with Ben.”

“Ignore them and show them you’re happy”

“My sister is going to love that I ignore her,” you let out a laugh “And I have to brag about how happy I am with my new boyfriend,” you added, giving him a wink and joking.

“I heard that your new boyfriend is a topic of conversation”

“Oh yes, he is a great catch, incredibly attentive and charming even though he snores a lot”

Esteban frowned before the elevator doors opened “I don’t snore”

You raised your brows “How do you know if you’re asleep?”

“No one ever complained,” He shrugged.

“Ok, too much information.” You raised your hand “I don’t wanna know how many girls you slept with”

He cleared his throat. “I was talking about my physical therapist.”

You raised your brows as you entered the hotel room “He watches you sleep?”

“Sometimes he is in the motorhome when I rest”

You were about to answer him, but your mother walked toward you. Esteban slipped his hand over yours. You liked the way in those days that gesture had become almost second nature between you. A way for him to let you know he was there for you as a support. You appreciated it. You didn’t know if you could have survived that weekend without Esteban.

“Sorry to interrupt,” your mother said before taking your arm in a firm grip “Honey, your sister wants to talk to you”

“I'll be back,” you said to Esteban before your mother dragged you away from him.

“Chloé prefers that Tiffany be the one to give the maid of honor speech along with Ben’s best man tomorrow.” Your mother said and you could tell she was nervous judging by how she looked around her.

“Oh, it’s fine”

“She’s going to say a few short words today, too.”

“It’s fine by me”

“What are people going to say? People are going to talk about (Y/N) not making a speech.” Your mother shrieked in a whisper.

You saw how your sister rolled her eyes “Nothing mom, people ain’t gonna say anything,” Chloé turned to look at you “Besides, (Y/N) doesn’t care, right sis?”

“Not at all” You shrugged, dismissing it as exactly what you knew was going to upset Chloé. You really couldn’t care less that she didn’t pick you to give a speech at the wedding reception. Did she think that would bother you? You had prepared nothing because, being honest, you had nothing nice to say about your sister other than a couple of childhood memories, so you thought to improvise and mostly lie to create a delightful story that wasn’t true about your sister.

“I just think it’s better that you don’t talk,” Chloé repeated as if wanting to make sure that you had understood the fact that she wanted to exclude you as much as possible.

“Okay,” you agreed with a shrug. In the end, Esteban was right, your sister didn’t deserve even a second of your time “If you’ll excuse me I’ll go back to Este” You added before turning around to walk towards the one who was sitting already talking to some guests. The seat next to him had a sign with your name on it, so you sat there before moving a little closer to him and burying your head on his shoulder.

“Are you angry?” He asked in a whisper so that only you would hear.

“I’m tired,” you replied, nuzzling his shoulder with your nose “I can’t wait for all this to end”

“There is only one day left” He comforted you and you felt how he kissed the top of your head. “Just one day”

“I’m so done with all the drama,” you complained before hiding your head.

“Well, if it makes you happy, it looks like she’s going to explode at any moment. If looks could kill, you’d already be underground.” You did your best not to look at Chloé and just giggled, looking up to see her.

“She thought I was going to be mad if she took my reception speech away,” you explained before rolling your eyes “Please, all I was going to say were lies, anyway”

“Anything about how good your sister is and how much she and Ben deserve each other?” He asked.

“Exactly” You nodded your head.

He leaned towards you and grabbed your chin so you would look at him “I’m gonna kiss you right now” Esteban murmured against your lips and you just nodded your head slightly in response. The closeness still made you feel dizzy. It was like you couldn’t deny him anything when he went into “fake boyfriend” mode. The way he looked at you as if you two had been together for a long time made you think that Esteban would have been an excellent actor if he hadn’t succeeded as a driver.

He caught your lower lip between his before wrapping your mouth around his. His kiss was slow and a little too short for your liking, but the way he left you was something else. Without a doubt, you could describe that kiss as the most sensual you had ever had. Unfamiliar sensations ran through your entire body at that moment.

“I bet my mother must be loving this PDA,” you whispered, hiding your face in his neck.

He giggled at the tickle. “Who cares about what she thinks?” Esteban asked before the clinking of a couple of glasses interrupted them. You rested your head on his shoulder to listen as Ben addressed a couple of words of thanks to everyone. Esteban made fun of him a little, which made you let out small giggles. They were almost like teenagers again, whispering in class. You took advantage while a couple of Chloé’s friends were making a fool of themselves at karaoke to go to the toilet. When you came out, you didn’t expect to find Ben leaning against the hallway wall. What was he doing there? You thought you had made things clear the other day on the terrace.

“I don’t want to talk to you” You rolled your eyes to walk past him.

“Come on, don’t be jealous,” He told you, taking your arm, you turned around and walked away from him.

“Jealous? Chloe told me everything. You disgust me more than anything else,” you snorted.

You saw how Ben opened his eyes a little and turned white. What? He thought your sister was not gonna tell you about their little affair? “She seduced me, I swear”

“Oh my God” Did he think you would not find out that he had been fucking your sister behind your back? “What a pathetic excuse for a human being you are, are you going to blame my sister?” You could feel the fair building slowly inside of you. The way he treated you like a fool was pissing you off.

“It’s the truth,” He told you taking a step towards you and you took one back “I swear, she jumped on me”

“And I suppose you were a poor, helpless victim?”

“You know how Chloé is” he suggested your sister was what? a whore? Annoying? Insistent? whimsical? She might be all that, but he still had some responsibility for that.

“You’re pathetic” You shook your head and crossed your arms before turning around to walk towards the living room again.

“We were going through a rough patch,” Ben yelled, standing in front of you so you couldn’t pass “You barely paid attention to me”

Was he blaming you for all of that? He couldn’t admit that he had been sleeping with Chloé and that he was wrong? After all, he still wanted to blame you as if you had failed at something? “And fucking my sister behind my back was going to fix it?”

“It was a moment of weakness!” He groaned before scratching the back of his neck.

“Weak moment? Ben! You’re going to marry her. That’s more than just a moment for me.” You crossed your arms.

“It’s not a marriage, marriage”

“Tell my sister that,” You rolled your eyes, “You told her you broke up with me for her” You raised your brows to let him know you caught him in her lie “You know that’s not true, I broke up with you”

“It was what she wanted to hear” He shrugged as if he had just told a white lie

“So you lied to him?” you mocked You already found it funny how pathetic he was “You could have at least had the decency to break up with me before her and not spend two years with her behind my back”

“That was a mistake, it was all a mistake”

“And you conveniently left out that you asked me to marry you with the same ring you gave her” You saw how Ben took a step back as if someone had slapped him. Did he think you wouldn't see the engagement ring? “Yes Ben, I saw the ring”

“It was what I had to do,” He moaned like a teenager “You didn’t want to marry me”

“The fact that you believe that my sister and I are interchangeable is disgusting” Not only were you two different people but Ben in his eagerness to belong to your family and connect with the family fortune and your father above all not even He had bothered to pretend that it wasn’t “You are unbelievable, the best thing that happened to me in my life was not marrying you” You added before walking around him and walking to the banquet hall. 

“I didn’t say you could leave,” Ben said behind your back.

“Bold of you to think that I have to ask your permission for anything,” you replied, looking him up and down.

“Mon tresór, everything is alright?” You heard Esteban’s voice behind you before you felt his hands on your shoulders.

“Yeah, I was taking out the trash,” you replied scathingly, staring at Ben. You had gone from being angry to being furious. The audacity of that guy.

“No one called you,” Ben added without taking his eyes off you “Stay out, commoner”

“Commoner? What century are you in? You stupid, arrogant pig” You insulted him stepping forward ready to punch him in the face. Ben took a step towards you, also apparently intending to do the same, but with a single movement, Esteban pulled you back and stood in front of you.

“If I were you I would think about my next move,” He warned Ben, “I’m tired of you and no patience left”

“Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?” Ben asked, looking offended and lifting his chin to look at Esteban, who was taller than him.

“Leave my girlfriend alone” The way he called you his girlfriend, even if it was all false, made your heart swell a little. The way he was incredibly patient but Esteban had had enough of Ben “She’s not interested in you as I think she already made it clear” He added sliding his hand to take yours “You’re getting married tomorrow dude, move on”

Ben let out a mocking laugh. “You come here, strutting around, but we all know that no matter how hard you try, you will always be that boy that used to live in a caravan.” You gasped. How dare you talk to him like that? You felt your blood boil, and you were ready to go over him but Esteban’s hand had you tightly trapped next to him “You can try to buy nice cars, get together with the right people but we all know the truth, you will never be one of us, you will never belong no matter how hard you try”

Esteban simply snorted in response “Who said I wanted to belong? And belong to what? To the rich kids’ club? If this is it, I don’t want to belong”

You raised your head to give him a proud smile. Clearly, he had much more patience than you and also seemed unmoved by Ben’s insult “I admire more a self-made man than a rich little brat” You added. He stopped looking at Ben to look at you and give you a small smile.

“Thank you, mon tresór” He gave you a smile after your little moment. “Why are you still here?” Esteban rolled his eyes which made you let out a giggle that you stifled against his shoulder “The fact that you think that’s an insult talks more about you than me, Ben”

“And show how pathetic you are, one more time” You finished before Esteban put his arm around your shoulders to walk towards the elevator. The night seemed like it was going to end early for you that night. The elevator doors closed, and you felt the urge to say something.

“I like that boy and I like this one” You started swallowing hard “Cause the essence is still the same” You could see flashes of teenage Esteban many times although he was now much more mature “You haven’t changed” You added “You grew up, you learned and you gave back to your parents everything they had to give up for you” His first goal when he had earned enough money had been to buy his parents a house so they could stop renting. You couldn’t do anything but respect “All the sacrifices they had to do” Esteban’s parents were two of the best people you had ever met, you had seen them many times in the paddock, and in part, you understood why Esteban was like that, his parents had raised him so that humility and hard work were big parts of his personality “You gave them back the house they sold for you, that speaks more about you than anything else” You shrugged. 

Esteban just stared at you for a few minutes until the elevator door opened again. He didn’t say a word, he just walked over to you and gave you a brief kiss on the lips before you guys got out of the elevator. What had that been? You weren’t in public. Then why did he kiss you? Had you misunderstood everything and something else was going on with you? Had you given Esteban the wrong signals? You were getting nervous thinking about all the probable reasons he could have kissed you like that out of the blue.

When you got into bed that night, you couldn’t stop thinking if things had changed between you without you realizing it.

————————————————————————————————

SATURDAY

Saturday had finally arrived. The wedding had arrived. After that day, everything would be over. Last night you hadn’t stopped thinking about the kiss that Esteban had given you in the elevator, wondering if there wasn’t something else you had missed and if that wasn’t a sign that something else was going on between you that you weren’t picking up. Until the night before, everything had been normal, or so you thought.

The wedding wasn’t until the afternoon, so a couple of hours before you took a shower and changed so you could go to your sister’s suite where the rest of the bridesmaids were going to finish getting ready.

“I’m proud of you,” Esteban told you when you took your dress so you could leave the room with it in your hand.

“For what?” you tilted your head

“For showing up anyway,” He explained “It requires a lot of courage”

“Thanks but it’s not that impressive” You shrugged and cleared your throat to change the subject “See you later?”

“I’ll see you later,” Esteban confirmed before you left.

Well, that had been awkward but you still couldn’t process the kiss from the night before and connect it with everything else like the gestures of intimacy, you were also realizing that you seemed to enjoy the moments of intimacy with him and that these moments they seemed almost natural and not at all forced. The way he held your hand almost instinctively, how it was always there, even when he hadn’t been out on Thursday night, but yet still he was waiting for you when you came back from the yacht.

Esteban had always been your friend. You had been one of the few people in school who hadn’t made fun of him when he first started there. At first, out of pity and because you always needed to defend what was right, but then because you had liked him and he had proven to be a good boy. On the first day of classes, everyone knew he had a scholarship, which in your school was synonymous with being poor, so your classmates, including Ben, had not hesitated to make fun of him for that. “I didn’t know you were such a snob and a bully,” you had told Ben and after that, your classmates had taken care of their business. Esteban had smiled at you in gratitude and you smiled back at him. That was the beginning of your friendship.

“Hey” you greeted Chloé walking into her suite. The seamstress was finishing fitting the dress “You look good” You added trying to reach an olive branch to keep the peace, at least for that day.

“Of course I do,” Chloé replied, and you rolled your eyes at her arrogance “How does it feel to know that I won in the end?”

You frowned and left the dress on her sofa before turning to see her. You couldn’t understand how Chloé could believe that she had won by marrying Ben, you didn’t know if she was in love or if she believed that what she and Ben had was love but you felt a little sorry for her “You think you won because you’re going to marry Ben? Chloé, there is no winning here”

“I ended up staying with him” Only because you had rejected him first but you weren't going to say that to her, as Ben had proposed to you as long as he didn’t leave and with the same engagement ring that she was now wearing.

“You know he is a person and not a thing, right?” You told him, raising your brows.

“Whatever,” she rolled the reds “I understand you are jealous but you can’t have everything I have”

“Me? You are the one dating my leftovers,” She thought you were jealous and that couldn’t be further from the truth, you felt sorry because their marriage was more like a business than anything else and you didn’t know if your sister was more excited about getting married or for believing that you felt bad because she was marrying Ben “Couldn’t you get another man for yourself?”

“It hurts, doesn’t it?” She asked, giving you a lopsided smile as if she had just been told that she had won an award.

“No, I’m just sorry for you,” You shrugged. She was attempting to hit you low. You took a deep breath. You didn’t want to have “You’re beautiful and you could get any man you wanted, but you went out with a man who was with your sister first?”

“One more time, I prove I am the best of the two. He stayed with me” Chloé was delusional. She thought it was better because she was getting married and she had ‘stolen’ Ben from you. Nothing further from reality. “If you’re not interested in Ben, then why are you here, after all?”

“Your wedding doesn’t interest me, Chloé” You replied at the same time that the door opened and your mother, the makeup artist, and the hairdresser walked in “I’m only here because I have to be, don’t get confused”

You got into the bridesmaid's dress before sitting down so the hairdresser could fix your hair. Your mom started babbling about Chloé and Ben and how perfectly they were together. She didn’t even bother you about that. You were feeling uncomfortable, and a little frustrated because your mother didn’t even consider it strange that your sister was about to marry your ex. Your mother hadn’t even mentioned the fact that Chloé had gone after Ben of all men on earth. You had always tried to be as indifferent as possible to the favor your parents had for your sister. You had tried not to take it too personally or let it get to you, but at some point you were human. At that moment, you were being human, and you wanted to get angry about how your mother favored Chloé and granted her every whim. The way Chloé behaved was largely the fault of how your parents had pampered her all her life and told her she was always right and that she did nothing wrong.

You bit the inside of your cheek to stay calm and not open your mouth and say something you might regret. It wasn’t worth it. In a few hours, it would all be over. You spent almost all that time debating internally between your desire to explode and your desire to go unnoticed to end all that once and for all. Finally, anger won.

“After many years of knowing each other, they finally realized that they were meant to be,” you heard your mom say to the makeup artist. Chloé was four years younger than Ben and you, so it wasn’t like they both walked through the same social circles and the same people. Ben’s friends were part of ‘your social circle’ because most of them had gone to school with you, even though you might not like most of them for being arrogant pigs.

“And you see nothing strange in all that?” you asked, raising your brows

Your mother frowned “They are in love” You hated the way she talked about Chloé and Ben as if they had been friends forever and one day she realized they were in love with each other. That led you to think about Esteban and you, and you didn’t like to associate the two of you with them. You weren’t sure what was going on with you, but there couldn’t be more than friendship going on, right?

“You forgot he was dating me for much of that time,” You asked “Or does that part not fit into the fairy tale you made up in your head?” Your family was trying to sell a perfect fairy tale between Chloé and Ben, trying to keep up the image and possibly quell any speculation because you knew most of the guests today were going to remember that Ben had been with you before.

“They couldn’t help each other, love is love, dear” If someone else told you that ‘love is love’ you were going to explode, first Chloé and then your mother, did they want to pass all that off as love?

“Are you listening to yourself right now? One of your daughters fucked with your other daughter’s boyfriend behind her back and you think that’s ok? You had already lost your composure and now you were standing looking at your mother. You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. You didn’t think your mother knew exactly how Chloe and Ben’s relationship had started, but if she didn’t, she gave you no sign of it.

“Language,” she challenged you before putting her lips in a fine line. You could tell that she must not be happy that the makeup artist and the hairdresser were witnessing the entire scene. You weren’t happy about making all that public either, but you had had enough.

“Did you hear me? She slept with him throughout our relationship and you are defending her?”

“They are gonna get married,” your mother frowned “They are meant to be, like soul mates”

“Wha-” It wasn’t worth it. Your mother was a basket case. She would not change her mind and you didn’t want to waste your time trying to make her think otherwise. If up to that moment she hadn’t seen Chloé’s fakes, it was very unlikely that she would see them because you were pointing them out “You know what? This whole wedding can go to hell for as long as I care. I’m out,” you said before turning around to walk towards the door.

“You cannot leave” Your mother warned you

“I can and I will,” you answered “Watch me”

“What happened sis, can’t you handle the pressure?” Your sister spoke behind your back.

You turned to see her. Anger was bubbling up inside of you “Me? You spent your entire wedding week wanting to make me suffer because you think I’m still in love with him.” You looked her up and down “You pity me more than anything else”

“If you’re not in love with him, then why the fuss, sis?” You hated the way Chloé called you ‘sis’ in a teasing way. She was not enough to be an idiot?

“I can not credit the hypocrisy of this family, that’s why” You answered.

“Girls, calm down,” your mother interrupted, but neither of you paid any attention. Emotions were high.

“I’ve had enough of you” Not just for the wedding but in every way. You didn’t know if you wanted to continue putting up with your family after that day “Of all of you,” you added, looking briefly at your mother “I’m out”

“Let her go, mom, she can’t bear to see him marry me,” Chloé said with a smirk and crossed her arms over her chest. You remembered Chloé was allowed to call them ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ but you had always had to use ‘mother’ and ‘father’.

“I can’t bear that you think that having slept with him when he was still with me is fine and that she,” You pointed at your mother with a nod of your head “Don’t let you know how messed up that is”

“As mom told you, we couldn’t help it. Love is love, yes” If someone else repeated that phrase, it would end badly. Why would someone believe that this was love? Because even your sister didn’t seem to believe it. At that point, you weren’t even sure about the romance story she had told you the other day on the yacht.

“Whatever,” You rolled your eyes “I’m not jealous of you, I already told you, I feel sorry for you, you’re a poor soul who spent the week of her wedding paying attention to her sister instead of being happy to be about to marry the supposed love of her life” You didn’t want to be cruel you had already told Chloé earlier that you thought she was beautiful and could get any man she wanted and instead she was stuck with Ben just on a whim.

“How dare you, loser” She pushed you by the shoulders and you staggered

You stepped back and glared at her “Don’t touch me”

“I’ll do what I want,” Chloé answered before pushing you again, this time a little harder, which made you wobble again and lose your balance, stepping on your dress. You weren’t as steady in those heels as you would like. You heard a cloth rip and your butt hit the ground. The hairdresser made a gesture to approach you but you raised your hand so that he wouldn’t come closer and you got up alone.

You had had enough. If Chloé wanted to play, then they were going to play. You hated having to pay her back in kind, but if your sister had gotten into that mess, then she had to know the whole truth.

“You know? I’ve always hated that ring” You told him standing up, and you brushed off your dress. You noticed it was torn from the fall. “Ben gave me the same one when he proposed” You added and saw how Chloé’s expression faltered. “He told you the story about how his grandmother had that ring until his grandfather died because she never stopped loving him, didn’t he?” You did not know if Ben had used the same story with her, but now Chloé had stopped smiling and looked somewhere between horrified and confused.

“How-“ Your sister began. There it was. He had told her the same story, which, to top it off, was a lie.

“And he told you he bought it, especially for you, right?” You ventured “He told me that too”

“Liar”

You rolled your eyes “He did, he beg me not to leave him after I told him we were done, and then he asked me to marry him so I wouldn’t leave” After breaking up with him, Ben had opened a drawer and pulled out the ring to ask you married couple talking nonstop about why you two supposedly belonged together “He even told me his grandmother’s story to change my mind” One thing he knew was that you had a sensitive side he had probably wanted to appeal to with that story “Funny thing is that a week after he proposed to me that same ring was in Cartier” You had entered Cartier to buy a Christmas present for your mother and it turns out that the same ring that Ben had was on the counter of the store “It wasn’t as old as I thought then” The clerk had told you that the ring was from the new collection so there was no way it could be as old as Ben told you it was. Dude didn’t even bother to fake it. 

Chloé stared at you. Not even a fly flew in the room “I don’t believe you,” she finally replied after a few seconds.

“Believe what you want is up to you,” you told her before turning around to leave the room. The truth was out. For you, Chloé was so desperate that she had taken your trash and recycled it. The only explanation was that Chloé was in love with Ben because otherwise, you didn’t understand why she was with him when she could have any man she wanted.

Your blood boiled. You had tried by all means not to explode, but you had had enough with your mother’s audacity. You couldn’t believe that she couldn’t even see how messed up I had been by what Chloé had done to you, not that you wanted Ben for yourself. It was that you couldn’t believe that no one would hold your sister accountable for the shitty move she had done on you.

You entered the room and slammed the door behind you. You could feel yourself trembling with fury. Esteban wasn’t there, but you could hear the shower running. You sat on the bed and examined the damage to the dress. The fabric of the skirt had ripped, and the damage was very clear. There was no way to hide it, it could be arranged, but there was a long time before the wedding. Maybe that was a sign that you guys really should go. It bothered you a little after putting up with it all week, but that was it.

Esteban’s voice interrupted your thoughts “Are you ok?” He asked you and you turned to see him. Bad idea. Especially since he was in a towel and fresh out of the shower. An image you didn’t need, especially after you didn’t know where you guys were standing after last night’s kiss. Maybe you were making a big deal on nothing.

“We should leave,” you replied, looking to your dress “This whole thing was a terrible idea from the beginning”

“What happened to the dress? Did you have a fit of rage or something?” He asked, and you heard his footsteps approaching you.

“Something like that” In theory, if you had had a fit of rage that had triggered the fight with your sister, but the dress had been Chloé’s fault. “I fought with Chloé”

“Tell me something new,” He replied, and you rolled your eyes “I’m going to get dressed now, don’t look”

“I didn’t mean to either.” You rolled your eyes and began to examine the fabric of the dress up close. It was nothing that could not be arranged if it were not because the wedding was hours away.

“Were you saying?” He told you and you heard the noise of clothes moving next to him. Maybe staying there while he did that wasn’t the best idea you’d ever had.

“I fought with Chloé. She pushed me and ripped her dress”

“Are you OK?”

“Yes” You nodded “But I think we should go”

“Hey if you wanna leave, I’m 100% on your side but-“

“But I made it this far and survived the entire week for nothing.” You finished it for him.

“Exactly,” He agreed as you listened as he zipped up his pants. Yes, staying there had not been a good idea because now your mind did not stop flying to places not so holy “But I understand if you want to leave,” He added.

“My mother just defended Chloé. She talks as if she hadn’t been under my nose with Ben all that time.” You sighed.

“Is that new? You already knew that your mother supports your sister” Esteban appeared in your range of vision and you turned to see him, he already had his suit pants on and was buttoning his shirt. ‘Keep your thoughts in line’, especially since a week ago your thoughts wouldn’t have strayed like this. Although a week ago, you would never have been in that situation with him.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think expectations were that low,” you added, throwing your head back. That whole week was a complete mess.

“We can go,” Esteban suggested “Or you can have fun at a wedding paid for by other people”

“I’m so done with all of them I swear” You ran your hands over your face before patting your legs and jumping out of bed “I’m going to have to change this dress”

“That’s my girl” He gave you a wink and you let out a slightly nervous laugh. Why did that statement suddenly seem so personal between you? “You came just in time,” He added “I’m going to need help with the tie knot”

“Of course, you will.” Before heading to the closet, you rolled your eyes. You were going to have to wear the same dress you had worn to the rehearsal dinner yesterday, but at least it would not be the dress that made you look like a peach. You had your hair done and your makeup half done thanks to the scene you had done before you left your sister’s suite, so when you were both ready you tied Esteban’s tie.

“You should learn how to do it, it’s not that hard,” you teased, finishing the knot and taking your clutch to leave the room.

“What would I do without you?” He asked, closing the door behind you.

“Nothing,” you replied, smiling at him, although something felt strange. It was like you were tickled because he admitted you were important in his life with something so small as helping him with his tie knot. 

The wedding was going to take place outdoors. The hotel garden had like a cliff with a beautiful view of the beach, so it was a beautiful place to carry out the ceremony and the weather was good, so the reception was also going to be outside. Since you no longer had the bridesmaid dress, you were going to sit next to your parents in the front row instead.

“Your sister is mad,” Your father told you as soon as you sat down next to him. ‘Hello to you too, dad’ he hadn’t even bothered to say hello before he started demanding things from you.

“When isn’t she?” You responded by rolling your eyes, and Esteban reached out to place his hand on yours. You were getting used to the way he subtly supported you.

“I don’t know what happened but fix it” Your father put his lips in a thin line letting you know he wasn’t happy “Your mother is giving me a headache”

“So it’s about you and not Chloé and her wedding day, right?” The issue was how much your mother was bothering him and not about your sister’s happiness on her wedding day. Your family worked in strange ways.

Your father gave you a warning look “Fix it,” He murmured to you before picking up the phone to take a call.

You massaged your temples. You guys should have left when you had the chance. Make some silly excuse and get out of there. Your family would never change and all that was a headache. You felt Esteban’s hand slide down your back to caress your shoulders.

“I’m so doing,” you moaned, resting your head on his shoulder.

“Couple more hours and then it’s all over,” He replied, stroking your hair gently. You found his caresses soothing.

“Keep it up and I’m going to fall in love with you,” you murmured.

“That wouldn’t be so bad after all,” He answered without even flinching. You didn’t want to look up to see him. Why did he have to say those things? You didn’t want to admit how you were reacting to his gestures, and you didn’t want to admit that when he said things like that, your heart seemed to fly.

The ceremony had been short, but it had been delayed because your sister wanted it to be right at sunset for the magazine photos. You two had been hand in hand throughout the ceremony until all the guests stood up to applaud the bride and groom.

Esteban’s breath tickled the back of your neck “Look at him, he seems constipated every time he kisses her” He whispered in your ear which made you let out a small laugh that earned you a disapproving look from your mother.

At least you had fun guaranteed with him. It was one thing that you had always had. You could laugh at the silliest things all the time. Your group of friends was relatively small. You two were friends from high school and then maybe a couple more friends who had joined, but your friendship went way back.

You had to admit that all the wedding decorations were incredibly beautiful. The wedding planner had strutted her stuff and your sister had always had an elegant taste, which made it feel like walking into your grandma’s house and afraid you’d break one of her expensive vases.

At least it was time you wanted to thank your sister for not having put you at the head table with your parents and Ben because that would have been uncomfortable. You had ended up at the table with a couple of Ben’s cousins ​​that you knew and luckily liked. Philipp was also at the same table, which was fun for sure. He didn’t have a date, so he had flirt mode on.

“Look at him, he’s going to scare them,” Esteban scoffed as you watched Phillip flirt with Sandy.

“He isn’t leaving by himself today.”

“He isn’t” He agreed and you both let out a laugh. Both were sitting after finishing dinner and the speeches of the bride and groom, the best man, and Tiffany. You had your back against him and Esteban had his arms around you, hugging you from behind.

“Let’s dance,” He suggested, standing up and holding out his hand.

You nodded “Let’s do it”

You were prepared to suffer a couple of stomps from Esteban, but you were surprised when he was more than able to keep up with the music. Having hit the growth spurt very early, when he was a teenager, he used to have coordination problems and you remembered your stomping feet at the prom.

“Ok, you took dance classes, don’t lie.” You raised your brows.

“I did,” He nodded as they swayed to the rhythm of the music “Mainly so I don’t have to make a fool of myself at gala dinners”

“I see, now you can coordinate the legs”

“I started taking salsa classes so I could coordinate the top with the bottom.” He rolled his eyes.

You giggled as you imagined Esteban in the shirt and fringes worn by salsa dancers “Salsa? Oh, my god.”

“I swear it was very useful”

“Yeah, I bet he was.” Now he had some pretty good dancing skills. You had taken classes when you were young, one of the few things you didn’t regret that your mother had forced you to go.

Esteban opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again when they called to toss the bouquet. He simply kissed you on the forehead before turning away to walk back to the table. You reached out and took his arm.

“Wait,” you said before adjusting the knot of his tie.

“Thanks” He gave you a nod in response before returning to his seat. You stayed looking at it. Why the lonely look? Was something going on that you didn’t know about?

You had never kissed each other and yet now it was almost normal for Esteban to kiss your forehead, intertwine his fingers with yours when holding your hand or give you those looks that couples give each other over two friends. Looks like a couple would give each other. After all, you were technically a couple, weren’t you? At least they were until the wedding was over. After that, you could organize your mind and get back to normal before that week started. Before that week, you would never have thought of having stolen glances or forehead kisses as intimacy with him.

You weren’t even paying full attention to your sister; the bridesmaids were clustered almost to the front, and you paid attention when one elbowed you and sent you reeling. There was no need to go wild over a bouquet. However, the look Chloé gave you when she turned around and she saw you were the one who had taken the bouquet made you think that perhaps it would have been better if you had not directly taken part in the activity. You weren’t planning on getting married soon, but you couldn’t say anything but smile when the guests started making jokes about your marriage to Esteban coming soon. You sat next to him, stretching your legs to rest a bit.

“I’m sorry about that” You made a face. He must not have felt very comfortable having the whole world poking at him about when the two of you were getting married.

“It’s okay” He shrugged and gave you a reassuring smile.

“We are not even together and they are already planning our fake wedding” You let out a nervous laugh. Still, the idea didn’t sound as alarming to you as it should. It was almost as if the idea was natural.

“We should be,” He replied, and you stared at him. Just said...? What was happening? Did you misunderstand or had I just suggested that you...?

“What?” you gasped. Maybe you had misunderstood, and he was playing with you.

“I love you, (Y/N)” He replied without taking his eyes off you. He wasn’t faking it. Esteban was not acting. He felt that way about you and you hadn’t caught the signs.

“That’s-" You swallowed hard. You closed your eyes briefly, you could feel your heart beating so hard that it was going to come out of your chest “That’s a strong statement”

“But it’s true”

You shook your head “We shouldn’t be doing this” Especially to preserve the friendship you had for so many years.

“I love you,” He repeated “I’ve loved you for a long time”

“No, you don’t” Was it easy to confuse love with friendship? You didn’t want to believe that he had loved you for so long and that you hadn’t realized it. You couldn’t understand if you were too distracted, or he had been very good at hiding it.

“I do, I’ve loved you for a long time”

You stared at him for a few seconds before speaking again. Esteban looked like he was talking dead serious and he wasn’t kidding at all. The party around you had faded. Now you could only think that your friendship would never be the same.

“Wait, is that why you say yes to this whole thing?” The only reason he had agreed to spend that week with you in Mexico was because Esteban expected something else to happen between you? You wanted to think better of him, but at that moment, everything was spinning.

“I said yes cause you are my friend first��

“Why didn’t you say anything?” You asked, frowning.

“I was hoping I could push my feelings deep enough to get through this week.” Oh, God. Things were getting more intense by the second.

“Because right now?” If I had loved you for so long, then I could have told you sooner.

“Before you were with Ben and then when you broke up with him I didn’t want to be your second course”

“And what about our friendship?”

“I don’t know” “but it's worth being brave if everything works out in the end”

“Is that why you told my mom we were dating?”

He shook his head. “I thought maybe you could use a hand.”

“Then I saw it as an opportunity for you to see me as something more” So he wasn’t faking any of that. The kisses, the gestures, the looks. He wasn’t just helping you, he was “Did it work?”

“It did” Did you feel something for him? Yes. Were you in love? You couldn’t tell. It was too soon to know what you felt for him. If it was part of your abandonment problems and always looking for the love that you never had with your family. That had been the reason you had broken up with Ben. When you were younger, you were so desperate for someone to love you, that you had broken up with the first boy who had promised you to love and given you a little cuddle.

“I don’t expect you to stop seeing me as your friend overnight, especially with me having hidden this for so long,” He clarified “But at least I want us to give each other a chance”

You gave him a lopsided smile and leaned into him. “I have a question though,” you murmured.

“You will say”

“What happens after tonight?” And if it didn’t work? What if you were not what he had idealized in his head? And if later he decided that in the end, he didn’t love you? What was going to happen to your friendship?

Esteban smiled at you slightly “We will see, for today we have tonight”

You smiled back at him before nodding “I like that.”

He joined his lips with yours and then you felt it. That feeling of accomplishment where you realized you were probably already more into him than you thought. It was a connection you couldn’t explain. At that moment, you knew nothing was ever going to be the same again. The way only Esteban’s confession had changed things. You smiled between the kiss. You also weren’t sure you wanted to go back to what you were before that.

“May I have this dance?”

You rolled your eyes in response to his formality before taking his hand, both of you moving towards the dance floor. There was a song too slow to dance to, so you just leaned your head against his shoulder and swayed to the beat of the music.

“I’m afraid I’m not the image you’ve made of me in your head,” you murmured after a couple of minutes.

He let out a laugh. “We’ve been friends long enough that I don’t have to picture myself in my head. I know exactly who you are.”

“Perhaps you idolized me and ended up disappointing yourself.” You bit your lower lip suddenly, not so sure that you were okay with trying.

“How can you even know what’s going through my head?” You looked up to see him and you saw that he had raised brows “Stop overthinking everything” He added with a soft look “Stop with the ‘what if’” He knew perfectly well that you needed to have everything clear and organized, you didn’t get along very well with the vertigo that improvisation generated in you.

“Sorry I just-“ It gave you a bit of vertigo, not knowing what could happen to everything you had been until now or rather everything you thought you were because Esteban had bottled up his feelings for a long time, and not I wanted to be just your friend “I don’t want to lose our friendship in case-“

He placed a finger on your lips and you stopped talking “Don’t jinx it” Esteban murmured before leaning down to kiss your forehead “We’re going to be fine”

You drank. You laughed. You had fun. After you decided that you had had enough, you called the night early. You had such a good time with the one that you hadn’t even paid attention to the rest. It was as if both of them had gone out partying alone. Sometimes your soulmate didn’t have to be your lover or your crush, sometimes it was your best friend.

The kisses, the caresses, the soft touches felt more exciting than ever. The sensations that you had had the previous days when he touched you or kissed you had multiplied by a thousand.

“You can sleep under the sheets today if you want to,” you told him when they both got off the elevator.

“Let’s just leave it like that,” Esteban let out a laugh “I don’t want to fall into any temptation”

“So what if I want you to do it?” You asked, and that made him stand in his place.

“I’d tell you’ve had too much to drink”

“You know I’m not even drunk” Although maybe you should be to have that conversation with the “I’m serious Este”

“We should take it slow,” He pointed out.

“I don’t want that,” you replied, pouting slightly with your lips. 

“Don’t look at me like that,” Esteban complained with a groan.

“Why?”

“It’s dangerous” It was dangerous to add sex to that cocktail of emotions that you guys were having. He was right, but you weren’t thinking rationally.

“You said we only had tonight,” You said turning to him and walking back “Let’s have tonight then” you lowered the strap of your dress slightly before winking at him. You saw a playful twinkle play in his eyes before he advanced on you.

You turned around and started running down the hall toward your room. He caught up with you halfway and grabbed you around the waist, pulling you towards him. You giggled as he scooped you up and carried you the remaining few feet to your door. You put your feet on the ground and pulled him towards you to kiss him. He lifted you back into the air and you didn’t know how he opened the door to push both of you into your room.

When Esteban separated from you to breathe, you saw he opened his mouth as if to say something and you interrupted him. “Shut up” You answered “Don’t jinx it” you added and they both let out a laugh before kissing again.

Did it feel like this to be with your best friend? So natural and so exciting at the same time. It was as if a train of emotions was going through you at that moment. You pulled him towards you by his tie and ran your hands over his shoulders to remove his suit jacket. He slid his hands down your back to unbutton your dress and, with a movement of your shoulders, you let it fall to the floor, leaving only your panties. You laughed between kisses, trying to breathe between them. You yanked his tie off and some buttons on his shirt popped off. He took you by the ass and lifted you to place you against the door. Your heart was beating at full speed. Esteban loved you. For the first time, the thought just made you smile and didn’t scare you. Your hands slid to unbutton his pants as he nibbled on your ear and his fingers slid inside your panties to play gently with your clit. You didn’t want foreplay and judging by the way he quickly got rid of your panties, neither did he.

When he spread your legs and held you against the doors before brushing the tip of his cock with your opening. The air in the room hit your pussy, feeling how your moisture wet the tip of his cock.

“What are you waiting for?” you gasped.

“I don’t know. I think I’m having fun like this,” Esteban replied, leaning over you to nibble your neck. Bastard. He was enjoying playing with you like that.

You let out an answering grunt that made him laugh before slowly penetrating you, almost making you despair at the pace he was having until he went all the way inside you and pulled out his cock, only to go deep again in just one move

“Fuck yes,” He moaned, and you responded with another moan, throwing your head back and hitting it with the door. You could feel how he would have passed inside you easily thanks to your moisture. They hadn’t even needed previous games.

After a couple of thrusts, he spread your legs wide open, holding you in that position and increasing the pace, making your walls stretch, feeling how deep he was going in that position. You didn’t know you loved him so much, but now it wasn’t a matter of wanting anymore. You needed him so badly.

You could feel how he controlled his onslaught to come with you, so when he noticed you were close to cumming, he increased the pace, causing you to let out a little yelp of surprise. He had a couple of moves up his sleeve that you hadn’t seen coming because of how tired you were. You felt your walls contract around him as a prelude to your orgasm, which made him come, and you followed him a few seconds later.

You both stayed in that position for a couple of minutes, trying to catch your breath. Esteban had his head resting on your shoulder when you spoke again.

“I don’t think I can come back to normal after this,” you gasped

“I don’t wanna come back to normal,” He replied

“Neither do I”

“Let’s make a new normal then,” He said, and you thought it was the best suggestion you had ever heard. You were going to figure it out.

[i-bring-crack]

What are your opinions on solo leveling ships?

I dont mind the ships that are weird or out of nowhere, honestly I like to ship it too, I have limits on what kinds of ships I like, yes, but I just dont interact with them instead of disliking it(worse things have appeared in larger fandoms so im just null to it and prefer leaving it alone) .

It's Solo Leveling and it's no1 pairing is literally a crossover ship so its not like anyone is inmune to crack ships or non canon realted ships :) /

So far these are all the ships I have in my backpack or weird mind, also yes im making up the shipnames as I go uwu/ :

CANON

Gamers/AhYoo (Sung Jin-Ah x Yoo Jin-Ho)

Cute

Absolutely out of nowhere. Like there wasnt even a sparing glance of this ship whatsoever and then BAM epilogue says the are dating. Confusing as hell in canon. In fandom its quite nice the ideas that pop up so— but at the same time SL is known for its out of nowhere things. (Kinda. I did think there would have been some points in Jin-Ahs life and Jin-Hos were thry could know about each other. Jin-Ho knew the phone number of the house, where he lived, Jin-Ah probably wasnt unaware completely anout Jin-Ho. Its obvious that Jin-Woo post rewind would have introduced him to the family.)

I love the idea that Jin Ah is a pro-gamer (she might have become one in the next life now that she isnt studying to be a doctor for her mom. It was always referenced just how much she loved games, and its also really cute knkwing that Jin-Ho created his own gaming company :3 so like

Headcanoning that she would always help him beta test the games and since she was well aware of what kind of games were popular, it would be cool to see her being a major help in Ahjin corp's success.

Maybe they met through games too, would be a cute AU

But yeah I dont think there is much to say with the ship mainly being wholesome and pure. I do like those kinds of sships when it comes to slice of life but in action i need more drama spiked up to an 11.

JinHae [the name was from @soulintheskies ](Cha Hae-In x Sung Jin-Woo)

Wholesome

Again its not that bad of a match, a lot of people say its forced and i do agree to some extent, but then again its not a bad match, at least not fanon-wise.

Canon just always tries to pair people up with what seems to be the mantra of "perfect couple that will never fight each other so you totally dont have to worry about them breaking up" or in the more special of canon cases its "pair the hottest girl to the main character and it works! she is just a trophy wife after all :D" and JinHae does fall under that I wont lie.

And honestly, Its fine.

From SL Ragnarok I canactually see more of that love put into work and since it gives Hae-In character I have started to genuenly love the ship.

And thats a big deal for me bc I was at first a huge anti to this ship (Not to the point of hating others but I did constantly hate Cha HaeIn, and the way people elogated her to be the absolute best thing ever and her being the main love interest. I m chill with it now but boi was 2018-21 ship wars the worst)

That is until I geniuely started looking up at the content for her and reading the novel, and all I can say is

Yeah the author is a simp.

But Hae-In's character, for me, had fallen too much due to the romance aspect. They focused on her acting as a plot device for Jin-Woo to always rescue her that theve forgotten she was a character with like feelings and stuff and not just love interest.

Like she legit had all the more power to be a far more complex character even if her character revolved around Jin-Woo.

Detective Hae-In as to why Jin-Woo smells good and suddenly uncovering the whole war between the monarchs and the Rulers before anyone else? or about the system? I tell you we were robbed.

At least she got to be there for him in rough times which im happy for Jin-Woo of all people he needs it. Just as I am happy there were also more people in Jin-Woos life apart from Hae In that knew and were there for him.

As much problems as I have with it, the AUs are still fine for me.

Bc Like, fanon gives her the ability to actually express her felings over the whole situation instead of just "welp she is the hot wife now :)"

Like Ive loved the fics that go into into her thoughts of living with such a powerful being in her house, ranging from thrill to full on slice of life.

I liked the fics were she gets to have her fights.

Ive liked the reading and writting more platonic scenes with them than i have enjoyed of quite literally every other m/f ship in other fandoms.

I love how sometimes Hae-In just accepts whetever the fuck Jin-Woo is, like she is so real for that.

The ship can also work well with a lot of different themes if the roles are just purely reversed or are kept. Like they both are also quite diverse in character and I love that about them. Heck my biggest fic brainrot IS them.

Yes I want them to keep being Malewife x Girlboss that will never change in my mind.

but then there is the height difference, the god and mortal trope, the cute x unhinge, princess x knight (Hae In is the knight do not take this from me), "will always find you", soulmates, chill x chaos, black and white, (and orange was also the contrast to purple which like ??? they fit that too??), confident x internal screams, moral support and love birds, and obviously

the uwu/\owo

and if you dont want to follow canon at all its even more fun for me!

Because we got Fem DOM-- *gets shot*

they are adorable i admit

(but chu gong for gods sake it should have been exploreddddddd. I have to stop ranting about them honestly. BUT WE WERE ROBBED)

gasp omg detective Hae-In and serial killer jinwoo

SunPark (Sung Il-Hwang x Park Kyung-Hye)

Oh they are great

10/10

No other comments they are perfect, they are my goals for real---

Im happy about them being just themselves

they show love bro, they show they care

I was fine with Ill Hwangs death and the park appeared and i broke

I was this close to calling it sleepyflame

NON CANON:

Igris x Sung jin-Woo:

Top Tier shit

Beru x Sung jin-Woo:

Till this day im still processing this:

ChulWoo (Woo Jin-Chul x Sung Jin-Woo)

Look look look I get I just said the powerbalance for JinHae might be bad, and this one would be definetly worse.

But at the same time Jin-Chul would have a chokehold on this man so I dont mind it. (dont tell me he wont when he was both a boss for JinWoo and still kept working as a chairman during the apocalypse. SLR also had a huge reason but i wont spoil it here)

Its my favorite too (altho not my top, just right with JinHae)

And because it feels right?

Like most of the complains that range in between the JinHae and Jinwoo x Johee ship wars are completely obliterated because this man fufills every card on the list.

"X isnt fit for jinwoo beuse it never met E rank JinWoo" sucks for you Jin-Chul was the first to notice him and go out of his way to keep him alive, this mans small actions that went unrecognized by I freaking know half the fandom and also the rest of the SL world literally saved the entire uiverse they are in.

"X character did nothing for JinWoo" My mans the sole reason the show even started, my mans tried to stop two S ranks from fighting, my mans did everything he could to understand JinWoo and the internal struggles he might be going through both as the chief of survaillance and then as a chair man (SL Ragnarok does not do him dirty in the list my mans FOUGHT for giving JinWoo a better life as well as the lives of everyone.)

"X is not powerful" Look the world if filled with too many S ranks, put those back, he is capable of dealing with S ranks, he is capable of defending himself, and there is literally nothing more dangerous than JinWoo so, even if its not romantic he does care about him so he will be fine :v.

"X is just there for his power " Brother he wishes S ranks didnt cause him 20x the paperwork.

Actually E rank Jin Woo taken care of by Jin-Chul is quite cute ngl. It gives me Scum villain Bingqiu vibes.

(Or maybe thats just me due to the Jinchul isekai fic on ao3 I wrote bro-)

Either way they also have a wholesome dynamic withing fandom, and with canon it was explored far better than any other relationship with Jin-Woo apart from that of his family.

its crazy how we also know SHIT about him, like JinHae again, but this one doesnt feel dependent of Jin-Woo whatsoever, hes got his life worked out before jin-Woo came into the picture, hes got his principles (somewhere more of a true neutral than morally good) and they both complement each other quite well.

I think I can also be more relaxed with this one bc its not a canon ship.

Also finding love in your 30s hits that kind of a soft spot for me, you know. And its not like it would have been an instant dating for them either, they would both seemed to be more focused on other things than themselves, like work and family. Which makes it feels so casual and calm, especially over the whole crisi that they have to face.

Coming back from a long day of work to a cup of coffee and a warm chair as you look out the window, thats the kinds of vibes i get from these two.

Then theres that other fanon idea of making Jin-Woo an all out Yandere for JinChul that im so here for.

LiuSung (Liu Zhigang x Sung Jin-Woo)

They are so insane for real.

They likely fuck all the time

Pretty hoes AND FOR WHAT

No really I do think I like this one from all the hotness that they pull.

Its literally the definition of " I Ship It because its hot men"

And I stand, good for that.

Good for them.

They embody every sexual energy in the room and I love that.

They are both such trophies

They are drama queens but they will do it just to be little shits.

FireTiguer (Choi Jong In x Baek Yoon Ho)

Tier shit again

Its canon

Its absolutely true

They are so real for existing

They are so real for Malewife Yoon Ho and Girlboss Jong In

They are so freaking perfect

Pass me the weddding documents im arranging their marriage

Girl I dont care if Yoon Ho is a daddy now he is still Jong In's boyfriend and ill stand by this until SL Ragnarok gives me an actual reason to care for the wife! (And I swear, gay or good character mother development im not taking anything else.)

But like they are so craxy for this for real

It works too freaking well

Wayyy to well (oh no wonder they gave Yoon Ho a wife! They knew! THEY KNEW —)

N1 (Thomas Andre x Sung Jin-Woo)

Oh I can smell the Himbo all the way from here.

trust me I get the vibes tho i dont usually browse it, I like another Thomas ship more, but this one still is in my mind

very wholesome too actually

that or I need to stop reading a lot of gen

Legit they will do crimes toguether and im happy for them

Legit they would fight and then go on with their day and thats probably their comunication now that I think about it.

Thomas i s just one big puppy for his black cat and im like, hell yeah that shits great.

LiuAndre/KamishBros (Thomas Andre x Liu Zhigang)

(They were in fact, gay)

JinLee (Sung Jin-Woo x Lee Ju-Hee)

Oh so calm.

But at the same time *slams table* NEED CHEMISTRY PLEASE

I love them. I used to watch amv vids of them, they were lifeline

It was actually my first ship because I thought it was going to be end game

It wasnt and I was pretty sad

But their platonic friendship was also something I would have loved to see

Healing toguether? yes please!

Overcoming their strenghts? Yes please!

A fairly good wholesome male and female friendship? Id give you my entire homelife please im starving for that content.

Juhee becoming the third memeber too would have been so much better, she didnt need to do anything but the friendship between Jin-Ho, Ju-Hee and Jin-Woo would have been so wholesome to see legit.

Infierno (Sung Jin-Woo x Esil Radir)

Putting that tag name because of the Infierno tiktok with jinwoo and Esil and since there its been stuck in my mind

Just... They are partners in crime, they will always be partners in crime fr.

These bitches kill like its second nature

Im honestly quite fascinated by this ship. It gives "i will betray everything for you" vibes.

"I will destroy the world for you" vibes too

Demon x human is a hohoho for me too

Deal with the devil, and its the cutest devil ever

It would have also been fun of JinWoo helping her integrate into society, even when he too is like, super bad at it. bro only knows dungeons.

Yoosung (Sung Jin-Woo x Yoo Jin-Ho)

I JUST WANT TO SAY. WHOEVER IS DOING THESE CHIBI FANARTS OF THEM ON TWITTER.

I FREAKING LOVE YOU.

THANK YOU.

And dude its so wholesome id be willing to give up my money for it being canon too. Again its just the cutest thing ever and I love that for them.

They are sugar and spice and everything nice

They are my cold water in the mornings.

Sugar, sugar for real.

Bad blood (Sung Jin-Woo x Goto Ryuji)

Cuz

Cuz

They got bad bloo—

No actually i dont know how to put it as a ship name, sounds way too corny for these mfs, even this one.

But anyways

HOT DAMN how did they get away with making it this hot

Its legit so good im dying about it. I need to call someone to stop me from being addicted to this ship.

The shits so good mostly for the middle aged freaking dilf.

Its like- its like really good.

Gourmet shit

The way I get whipped by these too.

Huh good for them. These bitches got it all:

Rivals, benefit partners, swicharo and it will still look good, their power dynamic is even jucier than anyone in this list.

Like you cant get better than this (you can)

They got a dilf bro. Look at this man! Look at freaking sugar baby-able Jin Woo is.

Look at how the enemies to lovers through sparring for reallllll

That aside, i do find it really fun just how versatile these two can be and since Goto is mainly an antagonist he does have quite a lot of room for development that can turn into good character growth if executed perfectly. Said arcs can also be good for Jin Woo since it lets him latch on to more of his kinder or humane side, as well as having a room to talk with, favorably more expirienced adults about things he doesnt know. Like legit Jin Woo could use a lot of guides through this sudden life changing shift, not just through new and more powerful fights but a drastic economic change to his daily life and how to balance it.

There are a lot of more expirienced and stronger people out there, yes, but Goto fits in there better than Liu, Christopher or Thomas who mainly look like they are ready to fight everytjing that comes their way rather than be some sort of mentor to anyone. Whereas others like Lennart dont have much interaction with him, and by the end of Jeju JinWoo has basically outcompeted the others in Korea so he might want to look for stronger international power level type partners.

it also adds a lot of flavor for me towards Jin Woos relationships with other people since we see that he will instantly kill anyone that wrongs him, and yet there would be Goto who he is dating while constantly being degrated by the man, not in a bad way really, just nagging him about doing things the wrong way in wife mode and him learning from that.

Dilf tsundere is also good 🤌

ChaLee (Cha Hae-In x Lee Ju-Hee)

wlw wins this one

Thay would make such a cute couple

For the sake of Hae In its really hard for her to pair her with someome else due to her smell, but the ship is still cute as heck, and it wouldnt be soo bad if maybe Ruler! Ju-Hee uwu just a thought uwu

Hae in could help Ju Hee also overcome her fears of the monsters. They both would like habe a safe place withing each other

Its so sugar i swear

Diabetes

Diabetes

MagicTank (Lennart Niermann x Thomas Andre)

OH HELL YEAH

Bro that looks so cool you so genius for this

Bro the height and body difference

Bro the everything difference

Bro the way Lennart saved Thomas from a freaking Monarch I lobe you my baby boy have the card for character with the biggest balls in this series muak

Bro the way it would also look so cute cuz i picture Lennart always having a soft german accent that still has its serious tone to it

And then there is thomas who is anything but serious

Bro it would be so cute thinking how soft Thomas would be for Lennart meanwhile lennart is 24/7 more confused than anything about how the n1 strongest hunter suddenly laid eyes upon him, like out of nowhere.

He wasnt even in the top ten and yet Thomas just choose him???

Oh thatd be cute af

Draw sword (Goto Ryuji x Reiji Sugimoto)

Honestly it's freaking good

Like I didn't expect to gravitate into it and then I did. It was stuck in my mind ever since and this might just be from the fanfics

It also somehow seems to be far more wholesome than Goto/Jin-Woo huh.

I guess I get that found family vibe with the both of them taking care of the draw sword guild S ranks.

And that's cool I like that :v

Found family but they all a bunch of rats >>>>

MinLee (Min Byung Gyu x Lee Ju-Hee)

Mn yesss doctor x nurse ship mhm bros perfect.

I think the healing together part will actually be the cutest thing here and honestly they deserve their healing arc

They deserved so much better with everything imo

Sung Jin-Woo/Antares

....Edit: I am so sorry I accidentally clicked the post button again dammit!

More platonic than romantic:

JinYi (Han Song Yi x Sung Jin-Ah)

Cute and lovely, honestly I think this might be the only one that isn't shipped as much, but I like to do it because childhood friends is my favorite trope

Aura (Thomas Andre x Laura)

THIS

IS

MY

FAVORITE

FREAKING

FRIENDSHIP

EVER

Hell yeah to Laura and Thomas being thre friking best of friends.

They are just the freaking best

They have taken me away

I love this, I love the story just for this, this is like the biggest glow up due to how starve I am for any kind of man and female platonic friendship and this one is just Hella good, Hella perfect. I'm in fuking love with their friendship.

Number 1

Antares/Ashborn

EVERYONE OUT

This is the best thing ever made alright

Best thing ever

Top tier shit

A+

Will not elaborate

They are fucking soulmates

No one can take this away from me.

I crown every one who makes more of this ship

I bless you

I thank you

Bow down to you bro

And seriously this is like 100× filled with more potential for everything

EVERYTHING

They will live in my heart bitches.

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

The Eclipses Show

Pairings: None

Word Count: 1,485 Words

Summary: The Backup wakes up a day after his death and Solar makes a deal with him.

Warnings: Injury, Eye Trauma, Limb Loss, Head Trauma, Cursing, Blood Loss (Oil), Surgery (kinda), Dead Bodies (mentioned only), let me know if I should add anything else.

Chapter 2: The Bitch Came Back

Eclipse gave a pained groan as he woke up, turning onto his side and his claws dug into the padded floor under them, eyes cracking open. Well, one of them opened. His right eye was there, the other was nowhere to be found and the wires were fizzling with sparks of violently disconnected machinery.

His left arm. He couldn’t feel it, but he could see it there. He tried to flex its fingers but, ultimately, it didn’t move. He looked at his body and found he was missing from his right thigh down and his back felt like a train had run him over.

“Oh Jesus fuck.” He heard a voice and looked up at a copy of himself. Wait…the other Eclipse? The nice one? He groaned and pressed his face into the padded floor to wince at the way his rays were bent at uneven angles and some broken off.

He tried to retract his rays to show he was in pain, that he wasn’t going to do anything. God, it was a migraine. Some were broken off and the warped metal slid into his faceplate with a high scratching sound like nails on a chalkboard. Others simply didn’t pull in at all, too warped to do so without breaking his faceplate off entirely.

“Okay. Alright. How the fuck did you survive even?” The other Eclipse asked.

“Dunno.” He answered honestly. “Put me down. Please.” Eclipse told him. He had made it easy, all the other had to do was yank out his wires from the back of his head, which was exposed to him. Maybe step on and crush his circuit board and take out and break his personality chip.

It would be so easy to just kill him and get it over with, but-

“No. Sit up.” The other demanded. Eclipse gave a look back at him and slowly sat up with his right arm as support, shaking with effort that just sitting up was for him right now.

His head pounded and his back throbbed with exposed internal workings, his right leg was stinging with pain and oil loss. He was woozy from the effects his body gave. Loosing oil was like losing blood and warnings were flashing in his eyes that he was within critical damage and his oil was at past critical low levels. He would die if he tried to move one more time probably.

“Look me in my eyes and tell me why I should let you live.” The other demanded of him.

“You shouldn’t.” He immediately told him. This seemed to take the other by surprise a bit.

“Alright. Then you sit still until I give you an oil transfusion.” The other knelt with him, moving his right stump, clamping the oil lines there with a piece of twine, probably what he had on him that would do the job. But it did stop the oil loss.

Eclipse did as the other asked, stayed where he was. Though he was questioning why he was being helped instead of killed and his dead body thrown into the portal to his old dimension for Moon to torment and destroy.

Solar came back with a machine full of a gallon of oil, which he put into an oil line in his right arm with tape over it so the needle wouldn’t simply fall out and leave an extra wound where he was leaking oil.

“Why are you helping me?” Eclipse asked.

“Look. I don’t give a fuck if you’re evil or whatever. I can’t kill you. I physically can’t. I’ll have a nervous breakdown over it and I know it. It would be like killing myself. I am not putting my mental state into that place. So you are gonna fuckin sit here, take your oil replacement, let me fix you, and you are going to be a good person after. Got that? I will fix you and you will behave. Or I will ship you to Moon otherwise. Then you get to beg for mercy he doesn’t have for you.” The other told him.

“Th-Thank you.” Eclipse sat letting the oil fix the detrimental levels in his systems. He simply let the other, maybe he could call him Solar?, look at his injuries and begin to get the parts together to go to Parts & Service.

By the time the oil was in his system, Eclipse felt less deathly sick, less trembly and dizzy with oil loss. Solar? had looked over his exposed internal machinery in his back and had thankfully not found anything damaged. Solar had also replaced his back casing already and calibrated it while the oil was transfusion was running into his system.

“Alright, up you go, hobbles.” Solar demanded him, unhooking the oil transfusion machine and took Eclipse’s right hand, hooking his other hand under Eclipse’s left ribs. Oh…his left arm was a goner of Solar wouldn’t even touch it to support him. So he was losing two limbs today.

“Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna drop ya.” Solar told him, putting Eclipse’s arm over his shoulders and letting himself be used as a can on Eclipse’s right side for his lost right leg. Eclipse winced with walking but Solar must be proving he could still use his left leg on the wait down to Parts & Service.

Eclipse gave a groan as Solar set him into the tube’s chair and put the new white and blue full right leg and a whole black and purple arm into the part machine. He also could see a new green and black faceplate and a pink left eye.

“This might be a little painful, it has to take off the remains of your right leg and left arm to attach the new ones and it’s going to take your rays out.” Solar told him.

“Solar?” Eclipse asked.

“Is that what you’re gonna call me?” Solar asked with a chuckle. “Yeah, what?” Solar asked.

“Can…Can you hold my hand?” Eclipse asked.

“Yeah, fine.” Solar stepped into the tube with him and shut the door, slipping his left hand to hold Eclipse’s right hand in his own. It made Eclipse relax to have someone with him when this process was absolutely terrifying.

He saw the machine begin to do its work, disconnecting his right leg at the hip joint and his left arm at his shoulder joint. He shut his eye tight and tried to focus on the feeling of Solar holding his hand, anything but the searing pain of disconnected limbs.

The tube connected the new limbs and started instantaneous calibration. Eclipse opened his right eye to see the machine descending an arm and taking off his remaining faceplate and rays and he squeezed Solar’s hand as it put his new left eye in and replaced faceplate.

“It’s over. Breathe.” Solar assured him and Eclipse nodded softly, taking a big breath to assure Solar.

“Alright. Let’s get back to the daycare and get you new clothes. You can’t go around with half your clothes basically.” Solar told him.

“Thank you.” Eclipse was a bit shaky on his new leg but he held to Solar’s hand still, letting Solar lead him to the daycare.

Once there, Solar threw a pair of black pants and a night cap with white constellations on them and a black shirt and new black and white ruffles. An entirely new outfit. It looked like it was a moon model’s kind of outfit.

“Yeah, we almost had a Star and Sky model here. Turns out Fazbear didn’t like their AIs and wanted to just scrap them. I kept their base models and outfits because I figured maybe I might need em. I’ll probably replace your casing for Star’s later so you match or whatever. Just so they don’t question why you’re here. I can say you just activated for some reason.” Eclipse looked at him with a cringe.

“You really kept two basically dead bodies?” Eclipse scrunched his nose at that.

“It’s not like we don’t already.” Solar gestured upstairs meaning his brothers.

“Oh…” Eclipse realized Solar must not have had an easy separation from that. He decided not to pick at it and simply went to get changed into the outfit.

When Eclipse came back, he saw Solar and his Moon. A temporary panic came over him as he saw Solar’s Moon.

“Eclipse, this is Crescent.” Solar introduced him.

“Hi, extra parasite.” Crescent greeted him.

“Be nice. Please.” Solar sighed.

“What? He is.” Crescent growled. Solar gave a bigger sigh and pinched his nose in annoyance.

There was suddenly a rustling in the ball pit and Solar and Eclipse looked up to see a third Eclipse in the ball pit looking panicked and confused as he looked at Solar and Eclipse.

“And now you have fucking two friends here! Worthless parasite, come get your little child!” Crescent announced angrily.

“Oh fuck.” Solar breathed out.

[josephsaturn]

Gonna post some SW AU ideas

(Fair warning: most of these are tcw/clones-adjacent because that’s where the brainrot is lmao

Also I am ONLY fully done watch the first 2 prequel movies and season 1 of tcw. I know what’s gonna happen after, but not every detail of it.)

Starting with:

Shmi the Nanny

Ok so.

A few months after Anakin is taken to become a Jedi, Jango goes to Watto’s for help on his ship, so Watto sends Shmi to go work on it while Jango watches. Idk, he’s probably got nothing better to do. While she’s working on fixing the problem, he decides to pass time by telling her about the kid he just got: how he’s the sweetest thing ever, how he looks like an angel, maybe he even stops Shmi’s work to show pictures or something. But, the important thing is this: he knows that Kamino’s no place to raise a child, and he trusts both the nanny-bot and the Kaminoans about as far as he can throw them.

Getting an idea, he then looks at Shmi and asks if she has any experience with kids.

She, obviously, answers yes.

Jango walks back in to Watto’s store, stays in there for a few minutes, and when he comes out, he tells her that she’s coming with him to be his kid’s nanny.

I wanna make it clear that Jango DID NOT free Shmi: she’s still got her chip, Jango’s just got her detonator. He’s simply her new owner, and, as Shmi’s gonna learn, a REAL piece of work.

So they go to Kamino, and meet up with whichever Kaminoan is there to greet Jango. He introduces Shmi as Boba’s live-in nanny for when Jango goes on bounties and such, and they take her to the Tipoca apartments to get settled in. While walking there, Shmi notices the tubes carrying the other clones on the weird merry-go-round thing in canon, and gets told that those are the Jedi’s clone army.

The Jedi.

The very same Jedi she allowed Ani to go live with.

Why did the Jedi need an army?

But they make it to the apartments, Shmi gets one right next to the Fetts, and Jango introduces her to little baby boba, only a few months old. She also gets introduced to the Cuy’val Dar, since she’ll be in close quarters with them.

For the first few days, Shmi just walks around, taking in all of the sights Kamino has to offer (like all the WATER, holy kriff), but gets rebuked by whoever’s nearby when she tries to go into the cloning facility.

Finally, Jango harshly wakes her up in the middle of the night and takes her to his apartment, telling her that if anything happens to boba, it’ll be on her. With that, he leaves, and shmi falls asleep on the couch, only to be woken up by boba’s crying.

She ends up taking care of him for a month and a half, Jango nowhere in sight for all of it, only for him to return in the middle of the day and coldly kick Shmi out of the apartment.

The pattern repeats: Jango leaves for at least a month, comes back for just a week or two, then it’s back out again.

Some highlights of this idea:

Shmi bonding with certain members of the Cuy’val dar, with one of them even giving her her own blaster

Shmi officially meets the rest of the clones when Boba turns four, having lost him after turning her back on him for only a minute. Alpha-17 finds him and gets him back to her

Boba gets to listen to some of her stories/eat food from tattooine

Boba in general growing up with a positive influence instead of being a super-duper isolated brat.

Shmi straight up killing Dred priest when news of his fighting ring reaches her

Shmi thinking about how the only people she likes on this miserable planet are just the kids (and yes the men bred to die are kids to her. Sue her she literally watched them grow up) cuz the adults are different shades of asshole

And other stuff

Lemme know what you think!

[yonpote]

i posted some clips on youtube (idk if i did on here) but it was essentially just dnp's actual statements on privacy which were "i want to keep some aspects of my life private so that i have room to fuck up without worrying about my public image" and "i dont want to open the door to my private life because it can be a hard one to close if i need to". i clipped them specifically in reference to people on tiktok who were phannies in 2015 and recently had begun to hear about them again (pre dapg return btw) and the only thing they would talk about was "well are they fucking or not lol they should just say so already."

my problem with that kind of behavior is that this was clearly coming from people who dont care about dnp and dont care about any of their recent content and only want the tea or want to feel like "they were right" or whatever. fans that have stuck around and have actually listened to what they have said already know that dnp will PROBABLY never make an explicit statement and that it's completely okay for them to not make an explicit statement because they already show in every other way imaginable just how much they care about each other without having to stamp it with an exact word.

i think unfortunately, the common thread under the comments of those clips is, "i am so ashamed for having been a cringey teenager who shipped them and wrote theories or fics about them, and other people who still do that or still speculate should also feel ashamed." that wasn't what i was trying to say and that wasn't what dnp were trying to say either. all they said was they're never going to make official statements about it because they want the room to be able to keep some of it to themselves. thats not the same as saying "fuck fic writers and fanartists you people ruined our lives" and nowhere did they even imply that. i just wanted people who clearly didn't care about what dnp were putting out now to shut up about how "well if they dont say that theyre fucking then theyre pushing back the lgbt movement" (PARAPHRASING BUT REAL SENTIMENT SOMEONE HAD ON TIKTOK LMAO)

[q-gorgeous]

Are You Still In There

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 2231

Danny is a half-ghost/half-human who’s been living in the Ghost Zone ever since he can remember. One day, while flying around the zone, he finds two humans! He's never seen real humans before! How did they get here? And who are they? @duchi-nesten

heres another

Danny flew through the ghost zone. He loved it here. There was always something interesting happening, something new to look at. 

It was also really nice today. The ghost zone sometimes had some really strange weather that would appear sporadically, but no random storms or quakes had happened today. It was very peaceful. Or at least as peaceful as the ghost zone could get. 

He heard something strange. It sounded like something propelling itself forward through the ghost zone. It was similar to Skulker’s jets in his suit. What could it be?

When he looked down he saw something flying through the zone below him. It didn’t look like anything he’s ever seen. He looked closer and saw two humans sitting in the seats in front of the large window. 

Humans! He’s never seen any real humans before. The other ghosts only ever told him stories. And very few at that. This was his chance to talk to some real humans!

He flew down toward them and was rehearsing what he was going to say. Were humans normally freaked out by ghosts? Could he just go up to them and say hi? Clearly if they were here he probably couldn’t freak them out too much. Not when they were also flying around in the ghost zone.

As he flew towards the ship, he watched as the girl that was inside it looked up at him. Her eyes widened and she shook her friend's shoulder, pointing up at where he was flying to them. She pressed a button and then he could hear her voice coming out of some speakers.

“Danny? Danny is that you?” The girl called. Her hands were pressed against the glass of their weird spaceship looking thing as she stared straight at him. 

“How do you know my name?” He cocked his head at her. 

“Tucker! I think that’s him!” She said excitedly, ignoring him.

“But he looks so different. His skin is a different color and his ears are pointed now. Sam, what if he’s…”

She bit her lip and looked away from the boy. Tucker. 

“Maybe… Maybe he’s not. Maybe we just have to get him back to the human realm.”

“How do you guys know me?” He flew up to their ship and stared at them through the window. 

They exchanged a concerned glance between the two of them and he was confused. 

“Do you not remember us, Danny?” Sam whispered.

“Nope. I’ve been here for as long as I can remember.” He frowned. “Am I supposed to remember you?”

“We are your best friends.” Sam pleaded. “We’ve spent so long looking for you. It had been so long, we were almost ready to give up. We thought maybe you died… We didn’t know what would happen if you died again, where you would go. We thought you might have just disappeared.”

Danny furrowed his brows. “How could I have died again if I was already dead when I knew the two of you? That doesn’t make sense.”

“You’re telling me.” Tucker said quietly. 

“Can you come back home with us, Danny?” Sam said. Her hands were still pressed against the glass. 

Danny smiled. “I don’t know if you’re telling the truth, but I’d be up for going to the human realm! I’ve never been there before. It could be fun.”

He flew through the door into the ship after Sam opened it for him. Once she had the door shut again, she scooped him up in a big hug.

“I’m so glad we found you.” She whispered. 

“So assuming you guys are telling the truth, what happened?” Danny asked. He awkwardly patted Sam’s back. 

“You were fighting some new ghost we’d never seen before.” Sam pulled back to look at him. “He must’ve been on the same level as Pariah Dark because your parents were evacuating people out of the city. We were leaving when a big explosion happened and then the fight was over. You defeated the ghost, but then you were nowhere to be found.”

“When you went missing after defeating that ghost, your parents thought Phantom had something to do with it since he went missing at the same time, obviously. We had to tell them everything. We needed their help to be able to find you since we didn’t know what happened to you.” Tucker said quietly. 

“Everyone’s been so worried but we finally found you. We’re going to fix this. Everything’s going to be okay now.” 

Danny looked at Sam and Tucker as they spoke. He didn’t remember anything about his human life. But these two people made him wish he did. Maybe he wasn’t dead after all. Maybe he had a chance to get his memories back.

-----

Danny jumped out of their ship and landed on the tiled floor of a cold basement. The swirling portal was behind them and he was still surprised about how he had never found it before. It wasn’t that far away from where he normally resided in the zone, how had he never seen it before?

He looked around at the basement. Supposedly this was his parents lab. This didn’t seem any more familiar to him than his two best friends that brought him here. 

“So what do my parents do again?” Danny asked. “I don’t think most normal people have labs in their basements.”

“Oh, uh, they’re ghost hunters.” Tucker smiled sheepishly.

“They’re not gonna kill me deader, are they?” Danny asked. Who knew if his parents even believed their story that he was one in the same as their son. 

“They shouldn’t. They better not.” Sam frowned as she started heading up the stairs on the other side of the room. “We explained everything to them and they seemed really remorseful about everything that’s happened. They shouldn’t change their minds now.”

“Come on, Danny. Let’s go upstairs.” Tucker smiled at him. “We can let everyone know the good news.”

They headed up the stairs together. Danny felt nervous for some reason. If everything they were saying was true, how would his parents really feel about him now? Being a ghost was all he’d ever known, were they going to try and take that away from him?

His hands felt jittery as he passed through the doorway leading into what looked like the kitchen. He could see three people sitting at the table in the center of the rooms and his anxious thoughts were dashed away when the smallest of the three stood up and ran towards him.

“Danny!” She threw her arms around his neck. “Danny, is that really you? What happened? Where have you been all this time?”

“Jazz, Danny doesn’t remember anything.” Tucker said softly. 

He felt as Jazz slowly pulled back from him. She studied his face, looking for any ounce of recognition in his eyes. She must not have found what she was looking for because tears welled up in her eyes and she pulled away. Seeing her cry hurt.

She took a deep breath. “Sorry, that must have been weird or overwhelming. I’m Jazz, your sister.”

Danny studied her face but then his gaze drifted behind her to where the two older people were still sitting at the table. They stared at him with wide eyes. 

“Are those our parents?”

Jazz nodded. “Yes.”

He watched as the woman, his mom, stood up from her chair. She walked towards him slowly. 

“Danny?”

She studied his face and tears filled her eyes. His dad walked up behind her, studying his face in the same way,

“How did we never see it before?” She whispered. “You look nearly identical to your human half.”

A sob pushed its way out of her throat. “I’m sorry for everything, Danny. I’m so sorry. Maybe if we had known, you wouldn’t have disappeared. We could’ve stayed to help.”

He didn’t remember anything she was talking about, so he couldn’t offer her any help. All he could do was watch. 

“Mom, do you know how to fix this?” Jazz asked.

His mom took a deep breath and steadied herself. “We’ll have to figure out what happened first. We need to do a bit of research before we can start making theories and plans on how to move forward.” She smiled at Danny.

“Glad to have you back.” His dad said. 

“Glad to be here.” Danny smiled at the strangers surrounding him. He couldn’t remember them yet, but they felt like home. 

-----

Danny floated above his bed in his room drinking from a slurpy Sam and Tucker had dropped off for him after school. He couldn’t resume his normal human activities yet since he still couldn’t remember anything, not even how to change back to his human form, but they were always offering to bring him things they said he liked before or stories to tell him. 

“Danny!” His mom called from downstairs.

He set the slurpy down on his bedside table and floated downstairs through the floor into the living room. His mom stood facing the stairs, expecting him to be walking down them.

“Hey, what’s up?” He said behind her. 

She jumped a little bit and turned around to face him.

“Oh, Danny!” Her hand was to her chest. “You startled me.”

“Sorry.” He said sheepishly. 

She waved it off and smiled at him. “Your dad and I have made progress.”

“Progress?” He asked. 

“We’ve been observing you since you came back home.” She started. “We think spending so much time in the ghost zone forced your ghost form to adapt. Without knowing you were also supposed to be human, it could be possible that your body let itself change to better suit your environment.”

She gestured at his face. “Your ghost form is already starting to go back to how it initially was before you came back.”

“It is?” Danny asked, shocked. He hadn’t noticed anything about his appearance changing.

His mom nodded. “Your ears are no longer so long and pointed and your skin is closer to a more human tone.”

“Huh.” How did he not notice that?

“We’ve also started developing a new invention that will let us see inside your core.”

Danny raised a hand up to his chest. “That won’t hurt, will it?”

She shook her head. “Not a bit. All it’ll do is scan your core. This way we can see exactly what’s happening inside it. We’re going to see if the part of your core that triggered your transformation is still there.”

“And if it’s not?” Danny asked.

She paused for a moment. “If it’s not still there then it’s likely you died in that last battle.”

Danny swallowed hard. “That’s some high stakes for a simple scan.”

She nodded. “We’ve got to keep hope though. You’ve proven that you’re extremely lucky, in one way or another. I’m sure we’ll be able to find it. If we do, we at least know where to start.”

He nodded back at her. “Are you working on it right now?”

“Yes, it’ll be our priority until it’s finished.”

“Can I come see it?”

She smiled. “Of course.”

-----

Danny sat in the living room with Sam and Tucker. It was Friday, the start of the weekend, so they came over right after school to hang out the whole weekend. His parents said that they were close to finishing their new invention that would be able to scan his core and they wanted to be here when it was done so they could all find out what it said together. 

For now, Sam and Tucker were regaling him with all sorts of stories about their classmates.

“Wait, wait.” Danny shook his hands in front of him. “You’re telling me the guy used to beat me up all the time? Why’s he so sad I’ve been missing then?”

Sam shrugged. “Tucker thinks that he lost his favorite punching bag. I think he’s got some deeply repressed feelings for you.”

Tucker rolled his eyes. “There’s never been any sort of evidence pointing towards Dash being interested in guys. What are you even basing your theory off of?”

“Maybe it’s a gut feeling.” 

“The Fenton’s would be offended by you making theories without anything to support them.”

“Yeah, well, they used to-”

Sam was interrupted when Jazz slammed the basement door open in the kitchen. She ran through the door into the living room, out of breath. She looked at the three of them and smiled. 

“Mom and dad finally finished the invention! We’re going to get to see if your human form is still in there somewhere.” Jazz said excitedly. 

Danny, Sam, and Tucker exchanged glances with one another. Sam and Tucker smiled at him but he could tell they were nervous. 

They stood up and Tucker extended a hand to him. Danny let him pull him up off the couch. Jazz ran back to the basement door. 

They followed after Jazz and walked down the stairs. When Danny passed the threshold of the lab, he could see the invention his parents had been working on ever since he came back sitting in the middle of the lab. He walked toward it.

Sam and Tucker walked with him, one on either side of him. He looked at them nervously.

“Are you ready to see if you’re still in there somewhere?” Sam asked with a small smile on her face. 

Danny nodded. “Definitely.”