#was living a normal life than bam cookie run

[nethertrolls]

I’m doing alright I say as I make this list

like I said at the top, I’m likely not to use ALL of them but they are designs of interest.

[after-witch]

Yandere Ransom Imagine

“That's some heavy-duty conjecture.”

Word Count: 2700ish

notes: unhealthy relationships, emotional and physical abuse, financial abuse, yandere

Imagine being a struggling adult working a full time job plus freelancing gigs just to get by in your one-bedroom apartment where the ceiling always leaks when it rains and you have to perform a complicated maneuver to make sure the door doesn’t jam up on you and you’re constantly worried about your landlord raising the rent.

Maybe a well-meaning friend gets you a gift card to an upscale bookstore because they know you haven’t had a new book on your shelves in years, or maybe you find $20 on the street like a veritable Charlie Bucket but instead of buying a Wonka Bar you head into a this fantastic artisan coffee shop on the rich side of town, a place that everyone always raves about on Instagram, just so you can try an expensive latte with hand-ground beans and flavors you’ve never heard of before--because don’t you deserve a treat, for once?

Whatever it is, wherever it is, Hugh Ransom Drysdale is waiting inside and sees you there.

And oh my God is it obvious that you’re out of place right off the bat. I mean, what the hell is someone like you doing in this part of town?

With your worn out clothes that are worn from necessity and not from being fashionably thrifted and your ratty purse stuffed with papers and candy wrappers that spill out when you dig in for your card or cash and your winter boots that you’ve probably worn 5 years in a row, ripped in the hell and patched with black tape that you hope people don’t notice.

It becomes even more obvious that you’re out of your element when something goes wrong. The gift card isn’t activated. The $20? A fake, probably a movie prop that blew in the wind. Whatever goes wrong, it means that you’re suddenly at the register, impatient people with real money tapping their expensive shoes behind you, unable to pay. You’re left standing there like a deer in headlights, unsure of what to do or say.

Normally he might just roll his eyes and remind himself that people like you ought to stick to your own shops, your own place. But something about the way your eyes go all downcast and you seem to shrink down in embarrassment makes him take pity on you. Like a stray cat in the alley hoping someone will toss it some scraps.

So he strides up and flicks out a card and hands it to the cashier, dropping a friendly greeting to them because he spends like crazy and they probably know him by name at this place, and he’s the one who hands you your coffee or your bag and your hands touch ever so briefly during the exchange.

He leads you away from the register--don’t want to piss off the spoiled debutantes and assistants on lunchtime coffee runs--and you stammer out a thank-you-thank-you and you promise you’ll pay him back as soon as you can and Jesus Christ, isn’t that just adorable? Someone like you, some lost kicked puppy who can’t even afford new boots, promising to pay him back?

He doesn’t care if you pay him back, but he finds that he would like something out of this exchange, so he says that instead of paying him back you can do him the honor of going to lunch with him. His treat. 

He insists. And you can’t really say no, can you? You are hungry and he did just pay for your things and it’s the least you can do to oblige his request.

He’s not stupid. He doesn’t take you to some razzle dazzle fancy restaurant where you’ll feel embarrassed and out of place. Instead he takes you to a quiet diner, classy not greasy, where you can have an easy conversation and tell him all about yourself.

It’s funny. Normally he brings up his family name, his grandfather’s books, to women he picks up, to get them impressed and hooked and pliable. Something about you, though. Something about you is making him want to turn this into more than a lunch date and pressure for a quickie in the car to repay him. 

So he holds back to see what he can do with you on his own. No quickie in the car, but instead before he drops you off--at a bus station, you insisted--he brushes his hand over yours. Can he get your number? He swears he can feel the heat coming off your cheeks as you fumble for your phone and let him put his number in your contacts.

He waits a day, then asks you out again. Dinner, this time. He asks you if you know any good places and you recommend a dive bar that you can go to after work (because 1) schedule and 2) cheap) and shit, he’s all for it. There will be time in the future to impress you with restaurants that have dress codes instead of sticky floors. You sit close on the stools and you buy him a drink (real cute, real real cute) and just for you he keeps the baggie in his pocket there all night instead of heading to the bathroom to liven things up.

Your relationship develops with an almost shocking speed. He knows just how to reel you in. I mean--look at you. Working your ass off at some dead end job, living in an apartment so shitty it takes you almost a month before you reluctantly agree to let him see it.

He can understand, though. Because you’re not that stupid and you know he’s wealthy, even before he casually brings up his family in a “it’s no big deal but I don’t want to keep things from you because we’re getting serious” sort of way. 

You pretend to be casual about it all, but he can tell you’re suddenly wondering: why the hell would someone from this wealthy family want anything to do with me?

It’s a question Ransom asks himself a lot. He asks himself this when he’s snorting coke off another woman’s stomach (hey, you’re dating, but he’s got needs and they aren’t met with hand-holding) or when he’s eating another greasy burger at a shitty bar because you refuse to let him buy you a nice dress to wear so he can take you out somewhere fancy.

You’re not the type of person he normally goes for, not at all. He has strings of girlfriends and flings, but they all tend to fit that same cookie cutter mold: wealthy do-nothings with their parent’s credit card who want someone else to spoil them for a while, without caring who it is or what they’re like. They’re easy pickings that Ransom can burn through and then toss aside when he’s bored of them. Some of them cry but a few days later he’ll see them on someone else’s arm, it’s the circle of life.

With you, though, there’s more. You don’t expect him to pay for dates or anything at all (even when he wants to spoil you a bit) and you have actual conversations and you seem to actually give a shit about what he says and does. You argue with him, too, when he wants you to do something (just let him take you shopping, for Christ’s sake!) or he asks you to move in (again) and you say no (again). I mean, you really fight with him, spitting words and all.

And unlike his previous girlfriends, you don’t come crawling back a few hours later because you want to buy a new purse with his shiny credit card. Instead, you make him apologize first. Fuck, that’s hot. It’s also something he tucks away in the back of his mind to work on later--but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t admit that he sometimes has the overwhelming urge to push you against the wall and fuck you for the first time right after a good argument. 

But he knows that would destroy your image of him entirely, so he holds back. He’s good at crafting a version of himself that appeals to others when he has to, and you’re maybe the first person that’s been worth all the effort he’s put into you so far.

But you need a push, a push that makes it so you can’t go running back to your shithole apartment when you fight or when you question whether or no you two have a future. You do, you’re just too naive--too inexperienced with money, to say it charitably--to realize it.

So he tips off the fire marshal about your apartment building’s shoddy fire escapes and well, damn, in the process of the investigation all the little corners that your landlord has cut come crashing down. At least they were discovered before it was the building that came crashing down.

But the evacuation of the building leaves you--and countless others--high and dry. You don’t have any family in the area, and your only half ass-decent friend in the city lives in the same building but her parent’s aren’t going to let a stranger move in.

When you finally realize you have no options and call him, voice tentative and embarrassed, he knows just what to say to get you to pack your meager belongings and wait for him to pick you up. He’s no-nonsense about it. 

He knows how to avoid deflating your pride, how to keep you from deciding you’d rather stay in a shelter than take his charity. You’ll pay him back, he says, you’ll figure out a rental plan or whatever. He even teases--he’s not the best landlord, but he won’t take 2 weeks to change the toilet if you submit a maintenance request. It makes you crack a smile and bam, just like that, he knows he’s gotten in.

That night, after takeout and wine and a Netflix movie neither of you paid attention to, you fuck for the first time on his expensive sheets on his expensive bed and afterwards, when you’re both sweating and cuddling and reveling in the afterglow, he makes a note to buy you some new lingerie. 

It’s all very homey, for a while. He could do without you leaving for work and working your ass off, with your freelance shit, sometimes staying on the computer until two, three in the morning. But it’s nice to have you close all the time, available to him whenever (almost whenever) he wants. He brings home takeout and you snuggle on the couch and he finally even convinces you to go out with him to a nice restaurant wearing something he’s bought and hot damn, do you look good, head-to-toe in the clothing he’s chosen for you. Especially, later that night, in private, in the lingerie. 

Does he love you? The word hasn’t left his lips yet, hasn’t crossed yours either, but he can feel it underneath the surface. No. It’s more than love. He wants you. He wants to have you. And not just for the afternoon or the summer, but forever. 

He spins daydreams about how he’ll clean you up nice and introduce you to the family. Probably to Harlan, first, because everyone knows that’s whose opinion really matters. Harlan will like you--he would probably like you without any primping or fixing, actually, which is more than he could say for his parents or anyone else in the family. Then once you’re in, you’re in--you’ll come to family dinners and vacation retreats where people always end up in ridiculous arguments, and you two can exchange snarky comments about the family on the ride home.

And yeah, sure. You fight sometimes.

He throws out your old clothes and buys you a wardrobe befitting someone he wants to integrate into his family. You fight about that.

He makes comments about you how you should quit your job or at least try to get a degree--he’ll pay, as long as you agree to go to a university within driving distance--to work somewhere more respectable than a chain restaurant. You fight about that.

He gets pissed when you want to meet some “friends” at a bar without him, because why would you need to go anywhere without your loving boyfriend in tow, unless you were trying to flirt with someone else? You definitely fight about that.

And, okay. Maybe he’s hypocritical.

Maybe he goes out late at night when you’re stuck doing your “freelancing work” and he’s in a rotten mood about it, and he ends up on the floor of a swanky club with drugs in his system and lipstick on his neck. He doesn’t come home until the next morning and you’re pissed and red-eyed and arguing with him, accusing him even, but you have no shitty apartment to stomp back to anymore so you’re stuck. 

Until you’re not stuck. Until he casually snoops through your phone and sees that you’re looking up cheap-ass apartments and hey, you’ve already booked a few interviews already. The thought of you slipping through his fingers makes him more sober than he’s been in a while. He’s got to do something. Not to himself, of course. But to you. To keep you with him.

It’s easy enough to get you fired. He’s a ‘Thrombey’ after all, and some nice crisp bills anonymously sent to the right hands is all it takes for you to come home one night, cheap mascara (he notes: buy you some better quality makeup soon) running down your cheeks. Your freelancing isn’t nearly enough to get you into an apartment.

He assumes that you’ll give up on the idea after losing your job, but you’re nothing if not stubborn (one of the reasons why he likes you) so you start the job hunt the next morning, fresh mascara in place. 

Damn, do you keep him busy. Anonymous calls. Cash in nice white envelopes. Rejection after rejection. You get so sad, so depressed. You don’t even want to go out to restaurants, so he orders in and you snuggle in his lap while he feeds you bites of orange chicken and rubs your back. It almost brings you two closer again, starts to mend the rifts that began when you refused to get over his occasional late night out.

But then you break the uneasy mending by snooping and woah, you don’t like what you find on his phone. 

You fight. 

Damn, do you fight. This time there’s no pretense of potential forgiveness as you begin wildly throwing your clothes into your ratty duffel bag from the back of the closet, telling him to fuck off fuck off fuck off, telling him he’s crazy, telling him that what he’s doing is fucking illegal and--

It’s the shock that hurts you the most.

The shock you feel when he grips your wrist hard and pushes back on your shoulder when you try to yank away, pushing you against the wall with a hard thud. It’s like having a rug pulled out from underneath your feet when you feel a slight ache in your back, on your shoulders, when you tell him to Let go, goddamn it and he only pushes back harder to keep you in place. It’s Ransom. It’s Ransom who’s doing this.

His voice feels unrecognizably cold when he leans in and hisses in your ear.

“You think you can just leave me? After all I’ve done for you? Let me tell you something--you won’t get another job within one hundred miles of here, within one thousand miles of here, unless I say you can. So just put your clothes back in the closet, chill the fuck out, and stop being such an ungrateful bitch.”

It’s the shock that makes you numbly hang your clothes back up in the closet, fold them again with shaking hands, and sit on the bed until the dam breaks and you cry.

And oh fuck, he’s sorry. Really. He wraps his arm around your shoulders and then he’s the one who’s crying and confessing that he didn’t want you leave him because yeah, he knows he’s a fuck up, he knows he’s got a drug problem, but he loves you. 

It’s the first time he’s ever said it out loud. He loves you. “I love you,” he says, again and again, half-laughing.  And he tells you you’re the only person he’s ever dated that made him want to be a better person but he doesn’t know how.

You don’t know what to say because maybe you do love him--but he hurt you and got you fired, but the tears on his face seem so genuine and he tells you he’ll never, ever hurt you like that again and fuck, he says, if you want to go get a job he’ll drive you to the interview right now just-let-him-blow-his-nose-first-please.

You make him sit down and then you’re the one apologizing and the rest of the afternoon is a shaky truce between you two as you drink hot chocolate and order in takeout and watch a movie together.

It’s not until you’re both under the sheets, satisfied and then showered, that you think about what he did to you in a clearer light. The thoughts weigh heavy on your mind, pulling and tugging. You think you might love him. He hurt you. He took care of you when no one else would. He cheated on you. 

I love you, he tells you, when your mind is starting to tug itself into sleep.

He hit you. He said he was sorry.

He hit you.

[selinakidreams]

Ship your moots!!!

👁y’all done it now, I was WAITING for this one OO I’m gonna spoil my moots SO bad ! I love you guys 👁

this is gonna be long I’m so sorry

@keishinslove - carter,,,, I love you and I love you w me mister keishin ukai- NOT just because that’s your ✨mans✨ but because I fuckin see it with my eyes. mister man is out here smoking a cig while he waits for you to get off of work. everyone is out here looking at him like “who dat b he’s sexy” and then you walk out and he drops the smoke on the floor, steps on it, and smiles as you make eye contact. You smile too, finally allowing exhaustion take over as you slump in the welcoming hug he pulls you into. He’s like, “I know baby, let’s go home and I can make us some ramen and tea.” The rest of the night is full of terribly sung songs, heavy MAKEOUT sessions (maybe more) and feathered touches along your skin. He’ll take good care of you (in every means) and that’s all I want for you <3

@alto-march-of-death al I ship you with tsukki- now let me tell you why. I see you with someone who’s very reserved with who they show their emotions to,, now because you deal with youngsters,,,,,,,,, that’s a lot of energy put towards you all at once. Tall blond dino dude will be there for you but in ways that make you feel special and the lack of energy he shows is almost calming to you. like like I just see on a day where zoom has been a bit too much and parents were DUMb- you slink over to your couch- after class is over- to find tsukki there, watching animal planet, and bam you plop down and curl up in his side- no words needed. His eyes don’t leave the screen but a long fingered hand lands on your thigh, his thumb doing that thing that makes butterflies flutter in your rib cage. It’s peaceful. Nice.

@kmorgzz ENERGY. POSITIVITY. COMPASSION. All things you and hinata share <3 OOOOOO KAR YOURE ALWAYS THE SWEETEST AND LET ME TELL YOU !!!! YOU DESERVE THAT SAME SWEETNESS. sorry I’m yelling but hear me out !!! You guys are always doing SOMETHING. he’s restless and you take on the energy he gives off. You guys tend to do stuff that you wanna do because whatever you want, he wants !! Normally, it’s outside (cause he’s the sun and he makes you feel like you’re on cloud nine !!) ; could be walks that lead into picnics or something super sweet!! Always wants to make sure you’re smiling !!!!!! ALWAYS. oh also he’s such a big himbo that he just—— yk what I’m gonna shut my trap just,, oh MAN he just loves you SO much and will never run out of ways to show you

@introloves Jax... FR fr I ship you and bokuto SO hard. like this man is and deserves sunshine— that is exactly what you are. TWO SUNSHINE BEINGS. I just SEE it. wholly. he’s just so open to everything and anything !!! Sometimes a bit.. daft... but you definitely talk him through things and he heavily appreciates that & everything you do for him. you know what,, y’all would soak in lavender baths together. Your back against his front, your eyes closed and body relaxed in the warm water; the sent of lavender following the steam that rises from the bath. He likes to play with your soft hair and whisper about how much he loves you and how you are one of the best people in his life. How did he ever get so lucky?

@novvabeam jackieeee,,, miss ma’am.. I ship you with daichi. lemme explain. This man is like a horse- not many can ride him but for those who do, it’s a lifelong partnership. Dude is so !! Into you it’s CRAZY. He is obsessed with how soft and kind you are one minute, and the next his head is spinning by how powerful and strong you can be. Mad respect™️. First date (idea suggested by you) was at this really cute local ice cream shop where you two bonded over how absolutely different your flavors were. I see it.

@pinkoushi ellen + Suga; clear as day. soft cuddles and every day fikas. very chaotic neutral energy but constant attention and praise is given. (Me trying not to make something based off my memories in Sweden but is gonna do it anyways) like I could see him being so excited to move to Sweden for the education system lowkey- but before he started the school year, you just wanted to take him around the country and visit all the “popular places” before settling down. Lots and lots of train rides. you would be sitting across from each other- you’re semi asleep, head pressed against the window and he’s just watching as the fleeting golden light hits you, making you all glowy. he feels so warm, so content.

@chaotickatts katts ;) I hear sakusa is calling your name. loud and clear. man puts up with NO bullshit and neither do you. Your communication skills are off the charts; calm cool, collected- that’s you two. But I also think that you add a lot more fun in his life- like he loves every second with you- he shows that he appreciates it in your guys’ shared love language, more often than not. And he adds this grounding element to your relationship that makes you feel capable of anything- and you make sure to tell him every day. I hc that people call you the parents of the group. Your guys’ bathroom is very clean, well organized, and used quite often. he loves seeing you in his jersey when you’re brushing your teeth, on your way to heading to bed, makes him feel all fuzzy,, a feeling that was quite foreign to him until you came along.

@spikesbimbo valentine... is that even a question- Aran. duh. Pretty lady, both of you are CRAZY for each other except he shows you in little ways (in public) that make your heart spin. You know those pictures of Vanessa hudgens and Austin butler?? the one where she’s twirling around and he’s just smiling? that’s the vibe I get in the relationship; you’re fun, loud, and outwardly fun while he’s just happy to be in your presence!! you make him laugh... a lot. It’s really refreshing to most of his friends. You and you’re cute goofy ass are just so important to him. I see it now- you guys are shopping at an outdoor mall, drinks in your hand and he’s carrying most of your guys’ purchases in one hand while the other is being swung by you. You’ve got big doe eyes as you look at every store, until you turn around, and flash him the biggest smile. “Want some? I’m almost out!” You’d say as you thrust him the drink. He’ll smile, a flash of pearly whites greeted you as he nodded and said a small “yeah,” before wrapping his lips around the straw.

@hajimeshon-ee menace, baby. it’s obviously gonna be iwa for you. big beefy to help you fight people who are being assholes. those same beefy arms that pull you in from behind- your back against his front. LOTS OF FUCKING FOREHEAD KISSES. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOURE POUTING TO HIM. sorry I don’t make the rules. He honestly thinks you’re the cutest thing, your fire matches his and sometimes actually stumps him to where he has no retorts. He likes to help you with your work sometimes, like when he sees it’s a bit too overwhelming for you, he’ll wordlessly sit down and take some of the papers that have been scattered across the table. Later you take the time to show him how grateful you are, wether it’s through a night where he gets to choose what both of you will watch or.. other things... he’ll appreciate every single second.

@kuroosusagichan meeeellll <3 business man kuroo is summoning you on his lap, he can’t focus unless you’re with him!! Oh GOD the dynamic Between you two makes me lightheaded!! Okay so idk is this is obvious but like dude has a size kink- not just sexually though. It’s like a cute AND sexy thing for him. Dude just loves how tiny and soft you are. But don’t get it twisted, he’s not completely fooled by your innocent act- you’re a clever little minx sometimes, but most of the time youre just the sweetest person. You’re like the angel that holds him back from being an asshole. He likes himself better when you’re around. Oh but he’ll also call you chibi-chan. Period. OH YEA! loves it when you show up to his place of work- no matter how swamped he is, he’ll always make time for his little sweetheart. You like to visit when you saw he was visibly stressed in the mornings, you bring him little things taht make him smile like his favorite iced tea or your a sweet lil cookie. He’ll make you stay with him for the rest of the day, doing your own separate things but also being in each other’s company relaxes the both of you.

@scorpiomoonslutt hey bitch, you needy lil whore <3 it’s gotta be Ushijima for me. Your size kink is just.................... thrown in his face and my god he’s living. You make him realize things he didn’t even think were possible- but anything is possible with you, apparently. The way his eyes go WIDE when he hears you SNAP at people. He had no idea that someone so small.. could shut someone up that fast... especially when it’s someone almost twice her size. He actually doesn’t even know how to react when the other person leaves, there’s wayyyy too many things going on in his head. He’s proud, impressed, turned on, curious, but most of all- speechless. He kinda... wants to see you do that again.

@dymphnasprose dymphna !! kyoutani!!! It just makes sense!! big angri boy needs parts on the head from a saint, such as yourself. He knows you’re not looking to fix him- which is why he allowed himself to open up to you. You love him just the way he is and it almost drove him a lil nuts. I could see the breaking point now- just before you two would get together. He would be yelling at you, screaming things like “how could you possibly like me ?” At first he wouldn’t let you get close to him but after several steps that never budged when he neared you, he gradually let you touch his heated skin. He was breathing heavy, trying to put together how someone so wonderful could be interested in someone who was so angry. I just feel that you would cup his face and whisper, “I like you because you’re you- it doesn’t matter who I am in comparison to you. I like you, taro.” There would be no need for gushy details, that alone opened a small part of his heart to love- throughout the years, the opening continued to grow and grow. He would be someone who just!! Loves you!!! And hates the rest of the world <3 idk I just love it jdbsjnd

[crystaljins]

Good riddance.

Characters: Jimin x Reader

Word count: 2k

Synopsis:   Is it too much to ask for a normal rooommate?

Jimin x reader. Roomates-to-lovers

Notes: The first of my requests to celebrate reaching 1000 followers! This is dedicated to my beloved queenie who always leaves the sweetest asks for me! She requested “Jimin +  moving in to an apartment/college!au style “ And this mess of a fic is what she got, unfortunately. I’m not too fond of it myself- I’m battling some mean writer’s block! But the concept is cute, at least.

Warnings: None

“Thank goodness.” Taehyung says warmly through a mouthful of freshly baked cookie. Jimin reaches for a cookie too, savouring the soft, dough-y texture and the richness of the slightly-melted chocolate chips. He closes his eyes in contentment for a long moment. “I’m so glad your crazy roommate finally moved out.”

“She wasn’t crazy.” He says with a sigh. The apartment is clean and smells of freshly baked cookies. He can hear his new roommate humming cheerfully in the next room. After baking some cookies, he had decided he’d do some cleaning. Because cleaning is apparently a hobby for Jimin’s new, eerily perfect roommate. Life is good. No, it’s great. He can’t remember the last time he had a peaceful afternoon like this. “She did move out really quickly, though.”

And he’s glad of it. Good riddance. It’s about time fate cut him some slack! He’s had a string of increasingly bad roommates over the past year and his most recent one was the worst of them. It all started a year ago, when he discovered his roommate of three years had been sleeping with his girlfriend for almost the entire time they had lived together. Needless to say, he had required a new roommate as soon as possible. He lived in a nice apartment but it definitely required a two-person income to meet the rent demands and he wasn’t going to live with that lying jerk a moment longer. Only, finding a new roommate was easier said than done.

The first of his bad string of roommates had been Toby. Toby had been nice enough at first. He never left dirty dishes in the sink and he always checked first with Jimin before using the washing machine to make sure Jimin didn’t need to use it too. He had paid his rent on time too, which had been the priority. Post-graduate students don’t make a lot of money and Jimin didn’t have any income to spare if his roommate was late on paying rent.

The problem with Toby was Toby’s girlfriend. She was a nice girl in small doses. She smiled a lot and always made small talk with Jimin on the awkward occasions he was alone in the living room with her. But she and Toby fought a lot. Which isn’t a huge problem- every relationship has their communication bumps and hardships. But their fights weren’t normal fights. They would scream at each other at weird hours of the night and one time Toby’s girlfriend had gotten so mad she had taken a plate and thrown it against the wall. It had shattered to the point that super glue could do nothing for the plate. And it was a nice plate too! It was part of the set Jimin’s mother bought for him when he first moved to the city for his studies. Needless to say, Jimin had requested that Toby find another place to stay the next morning.

Of course, Toby was sorely missed in comparison to his next roommate, Bertha. The problem with Bertha was that she had a cat. As a disclaimer, Jimin loves cats. He thinks they are sweet and he’s always wanted a cat of his own. But Bertha’s cat was no ordinary cat. No, it was a demon, summoned from hell with a fetish for human toes and a propensity for leaving poo nuggets in inconvenient areas. Cats are supposed to naturally use litter trays! Why the demonspawn, or Mittens, as Bertha fondly called him, reviled the litter tray so deeply is a mystery for the ages. Needless to say, Jimin had tolerated that for as long as he could. But then Mittens had decided he would take a nice bite of Jimin’s big toe while he was napping on the couch one day and Jimin had ended up in hospital. Who knew cat bites were so dangerous? Bertha had offered to move out straight away and had also paid for Jimin’s hospital bills as long as he didn’t make her put her beloved demonspawn to sleep. She hasn’t contacted him since. 

He wishes he could say that Bertha was the worst of his roommates but she wasn’t. There was Michael, who had a creepy taxidermy obsession. And Angela, who only washed her hair during the full moon. He doesn’t even want to say what Seungmin was like. There had been no end in sight to his string of bad roommates.

Then you came along. You actually hadn’t undergone Jimin’s usual selection process, which was his first mistake. He had developed pretty strict selection criteria after suffering through so many bad roommates. But you had managed to bypass all of that thanks to your older brother Yoongi. Yoongi is a nice, calm guy. He has helped Jimin a lot in the past, especially during the cheating-girlfriend fiasco. So when Yoongi had mentioned that his younger sister was moving to the city after changing degrees, Jimin had been quick to offer up the extra room in his apartment. By that stage, he had seen the worst of the worst when it came to crazy roommates- there was no way someone related to Yoongi could be any worse than the nutcases he had dealt with this far.

He should have been more careful. You really gave all the other roommate’s a run for their money. You would offer to make him dinner and then set the stove top on fire. His favourite shirt had been ruined in the evacuation. You were hopeless at doing the dishes- he’s had to buy at least three new sets of dinner plates since you moved in. You had broken the vacuum cleaner, clogged the shower drain, smashed a window… You were supposed to ease his financial burdens, not create them! And you just kept inserting yourself into his life- inviting yourself to movie nights, charming his friends so they invited you along to parties he attended. At least he could just go for a walk or meet up with friends when his other roommates grew to be too much- there was no escaping you, however.

Which is why he’s glad you moved out so suddenly! As far as roommates go, you were terrible, with all the annoying and frustrating habits to boot and since he didn’t have the heart to kick you out, it’s better that you left on your own. And without any warning so he didn’t have to stress about you moving out or anything horrible like that. Just… bam. He woke up and you were on the doorstep, bidding him an awkward farewell. He’s glad things ended up like this. His new roommate can cook, never sets the apartment on fire and offered to drive Jimin to work since his car broke down.

“I’m highkey glad she’s gone. She kept ruining our movie nights.” Taehyung continues. “If she made me watch Monster’s Inc. one more time…” Taehyung trails off and shudders at the recollection of your weird obsession with the movie.  Taehyung whirls on Jimin. “But I did always wonder. Why did you give in to her?”

“What do you mean?” Jimin asks, reaching for another cookie. He’s going to start putting on weight with the way his new roommate feels a compulsion to feed him but honestly it would be worth it. Taehyung frowns and tilts his head at Jimin. It reminds Jimin of the way Taehyung’s dog looks when it comes across something new and puzzling.

“Well, you could have said no to her at any point.” Taehyung points out. “When she asked to tag along to our movie nights or when she insisted on cooking dinner or even when Yoongi first suggested she move in with you. The whole time, you could have refused. But you let her do it. You knew what the outcome would be and yet every time… you kept saying yes.”

Jimin goes silent at Taehyung’s surprisingly astute observation. The warm chocolate chip cookie, previously delightfully warm and delicious, now tastes like ash in his mouth.

“Would you like to know what really happened?” Taehyung asks, leaning forward with a sharpness to his eyes that wasn’t there before. Jimin shrinks slightly beneath the gaze of his oldest friend.

“N-nothing happened. We just decided to go our separate ways.” Jimin points out, internally cursing himself for his stutter. “It’s just cause she’s Yoongi’s sister. I felt obligated to be nice to her.”

“Cute.” Taehyung answers with a smile. “But also a blatant lie. Jimin, I know what you look like when you have a crush.”

Jimin’s not sure why he feels like his heart suddenly freezes in his chest. A… crush? On you?

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Jimin answers with an uneasy laugh. “I don’t have a crush on her. Taehyung, she turned my uniform shirts pink a few weeks ago because she accidentally left her underwear in the wash.”

“Well, that’s a shame then.” Taehyung says with a dramatic sigh. “I guess her moving out because of her feelings for you was the right move then, huh?”

Jimin blinks a few times and it takes him a second to comprehend what Taehyung is saying.

“Feelings… for me? She moved out like that because… because she had feelings? For me?” Jimin questions and he wishes he didn’t sound so desperate and hopeful but he’s temporarily lost control over the emotions in his voice thanks to Taehyung’s shocking announcement. Taehyung grins widely.

“I thought you didn’t have a crush? Then you shouldn’t care about the real reason she moved out.” Taehyung says smugly and as much as Jimin loves Taehyung, he could honestly strangle him in that moment. 

“Taehyung.” Jimin calls warningly and Taehyung actually breaks out in laughter.

“The night before she moved out, she was actually planning to confess to you.” Taehyung explains. Jimin swallows past the dryness in his throat as remembers the night in question.

You had been acting strange all day, a bit antsy, and every time Jimin stepped into the kitchen to make sure you hadn’t set any accidental fires, you had shooed him out.

Of course, true to your nature, the familiar smell of smoke had filled the apartment while Jimin was distracted taking a phone call with his landlord. Jimin, fully prepared for your kitchen mishaps, had rushed in with the fire extinguisher at the ready. Of course, the food you had tried to make had been inedible before it caught fire, but it entered new levels of inedible when covered in flame retardant. You had stared at the food with a weird look in your eyes and Jimin had helpfully suggested you order takeout.

The night had gone smoothly from there and the two of you had watched a movie. You’d bid him goodnight with a smile on your face and the next morning you were packed and ready to move out. Just like that. No warning. You had been smiling and having fun with him with no indication of what you were planning and then suddenly his apartment was empty and dark. And he was forced to admit a horrible truth to himself:

You’re not the worst roommate he’s ever had. No, you’re probably the best one. Not because you’re perfect or because you have no bad habits. But because you’re you. Full of energy and sincerity and affection and the day you moved out you accidentally broke Jimin’s heart. As pathetic and stupid as it is, he had liked you. A lot. And it hurt when you suddenly moved out like that, despite his attempts to pretend otherwise.

“As silly as it is, I think she moved out because you inadvertently rejected her that night.” Taehyung admits, shaking his head. “That’s what Yoongi thinks, at least. It’s the most words I’ve ever heard from him and they were all to insult you.”

Jimin winces, but he has more pressing matter than Yoongi being mad: You have feelings for him. Feelings. For him.

“Did you really say that she’s the biggest pain you’ve ever come across? While she was making you a nice dinner to confess her feelings?” Taehyung asks curiously. Jimin winces when he recalls that yes. He had said something along those lines while in hysterics following yet another fire-related incident. He was going to lose his deposit on the apartment at this rate.

“I… might have… said something along those lines.” Jimin finally admits. His jaw drops as he puts two and two together. Taehyung smiles widely. “Is... is that why she moved out? Because of some stupid panicked words I said while our apartment was on fire?”

“What are you going to do about it if that’s the case?” Taehyung asks. But Jimin is already on his feet and grabbing his coat. He’s out the door before Taehyung even completes his question.

Jimin’s new roommate pokes his head out the door.

“Was Jimin going somewhere?” He asks, glancing around curiously. “Did he not like the cookies?”

Taehyung shrugs and turns to Seokjin.

“He’s just going to have an important talk. Now, about your roommate situation…” He trails away and stares at Seokjin curiously and then warmly at the cookies.

“I have a spare room if, for some mysterious reason, you find yourself homeless in the next few days. I have a feeling you’ll need it.”

[thecastcompany]

Been awhile since we shared some of our prompts, where was a writing prompt from last week! We had skipped a writing prompt and gave them two

1. What is your biggest regret? 2. What were you doing last scourge invasion?

Here are the answers from Jam, Rathfana, Cyliaa, Fyre, Lora, Sam and Vida

"Man I really wish I had some more cookies. They were super tasty. Oh the Scooge? Yah, last timeded I was attacked by one of those I'I'I'I'I was climbin' up a tree in Kill Tearass an'an'and I fell in a bee house an'and it was super sticky an BIG! And then i kept on fallin an' rollin and got lots of dirt and rocks and stuffs stuck to me so when I got home Roo attackeded me with a Scooge and said you needs a bath" @ciirianshandralin

Rathfana ponders it a moment. "Biggest regret? Probably being unable to save my adoptive mother from having to give her life so i could stay safe...which kinda leads us to the answer of your other question." she holds up one of his pistols. "Sending those hellspawn undead back to their graves in pieces."

There are two empty boxes of cake on the table in front of Cyliaa; along with various different papers, letters, bottles, and trinkets all scattered about. She thinks for a long moment, filling the silence with the scratching of a quill pen on paper before finally the cogs in her head start working. "Oh! I was in Darkshore when the whole ghoul thing happened. It was also the first time I met my master! I guess my mother knew her and they were the best of friends. Honestly I don't remember much about that whole thing! The sentinels protected us and that's why I want to be a sentinel too! So I can protect people again from all of this mess!" She smiles so brightly, but for a split moment her smile falters ever so slightly. "Biggest regret. . .mmm. . .too many to really list off! I guess I still feel bad about leaving home so suddenly. Oooh! I wonder if Miss Dyllie has any more cake left!" With a push away from the table, she walks out of the house. One last quick look at the table and one might notice how there was only one fork instead of two. . .

Fyre decided to show her face for the first time since the night of the scourge. She still didnt seem all there. "My biggest regret? The void. I followed a man in there thinking he loved me, and all I wanted was to be loved. He introduced me to the void, its powers and I became intoxicated. At one point, I was addicted. I can still till this day sense dark presences and void magic from a long ways away.... Im drawn to it and I hate it. Once I am there, in the void I lose all self control. I know what happens but I am not in charge of how it happens. Now, the ability to take a life and be able to have them experience pure bliss instead of regret and pain isnt so bad because it helps people... but when I see their lives flash before me, I repeat it in my head over and over... and it sucks sometimes because the people you thought were good...usually arent. The man I killed the night of the scourge? He was begging to die for more than once reason. And I get to relive that over and over until I take another life. As for where I was during the last invasion? Working, apparently death and violence makes people want sex and they are willing to pay well.

Lora tilts her head with a curious look. "The last scourge invasion? When was that? I...uh well I was alone up until a few months ago, in Vol'dun, I don't remember anything like this happening there..." She just gives a shrug at the other question. "Why do you ask hard questions? My biggest regret? The fact that I couldn't save my sister, I was too weak, I didn't understand how to heal with my Niki. The fact that I ran." She pauses briefly, her oversized hat falling to cover her face. "I know Nika told me to run, but I still regret it. That's why I'm training, so I don't regret losing another loved on." With a sigh, she hops down from the chair that was far too big for her. "Maybe get some Vulpera friendly chairs if you're gonna keep bringing up bad memories, huh?" With that she walks off.

Sam rotates his shoulder, which still stung from the frost wyrm attack. The scar over his left eye made him look even more menacing to the questioner than usual. The scars over his body, at least the ones that could be seen, made him look beastly. Sam growls, "My biggest regret is not stopping Azshara before the Legion came through the Well of Eternity. If I had perhaps we wouldn't be in our current predicament, though I suppose the silver lining is that without that happening I would have never met the people I have. The funny thing about regrets is that even though they are usually decisions you look back on negatively, they usually have a silver lining that would have never happened had you not made that decision. Though as you have just heard, we usually don't realize it until some self reflection. We tend to only see the bad results of our decisions and not the good, only the truly evil can view their decisions without seeing the bad, because they do not have the capacity for empathy. Normal people see the bad, because they empathize with those who were hurt by their decisions."

He sighs as he gets up, "As for the first Scourge invasion I was on the front lines fighting them back and then again on the front lines in Icecrown. Now if you will excuse me."

Coming from Vida:

Vida would sigh as she had a sad look on her face.  "Yeah....I got a regret...." she said as she sat up straight and cleared her throat.  "It was durin the scourge attack back then.  I was in a beauty pagent, the Miss Ashenvale pagent.  I remember it clearly....." she said as she smiled "My parents invited my whole family, I've been preparing a month in advance for this, I mean I was in my element!"  She said as was excited " I mean I was ready to kick some serious ass and take home a win!  I was the only goblin in it so I had a lot riding on me, plus all the other girls were so tall...." she said as she laughed a bit.

"So we were in the talent portion of it, my special skill was to take apart a motor cycle and re assemble in 10 minutes or less!  Trust me standard issue basic bikes are child play for a goblin like me.  The custom shit takes hours!"  She said with cocky ness in her voice.  "So when my turn came up, right before I could even grab my wrench, the scourge attacked!  I mean people were in danger, and the other contestants were in trouble!  So I picked up my tools and started attacking ghouls!"  She said proudly as she hopped on a table and started doing random fighting motions.  " I was like bam, and whack!  People were shocked that I could kick ass despite my short stature! "She laughed

"I saved all those contestants lives!  But there was one whom I saved personally; my wrench was stuck in the head of a ghoul so I ran up to save her by popping the ghoul in the head with my fist!" She said as she looked at her hand "Sadly i fractured my hand in the process but all in a days work for a hero like me !" [12:07 PM] She said as she was sad again "the next day the announced the show must go on, and with a busted hand, the disqualified me!!!" She shouted with anger " those tall bitches all shot glares at me and treated me like shit after saving thier ass's!  You wanna know what I regret?  I regret not letting those tree huggers die that day!" She shouted as she hopped off the table a flipped it out of rage before walking away.

Vida left put one important detail.  She was revered as a hero for saving the contestants during the pagent.  However prior to the scourge attack she had thrown a glass bottle of Kaja'cola at a contestant giving her a concussion.  Her reason?  In her words "She looked at me funny so I have her somethin to look at except I missed her eyes!"

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

I don't know if you've read/watched IT, but if you have, how might you think a crossover between IT and Animorphs would go? (Either IT characters in Animorphs or Animorphs characters in IT--I'd be equally interested in either)

Cassie’s hand has gone cold around the phone.  Distantly, she realizes that it’s still held to her ear.  That she has yet to move, even though the line is dead.

“Cass?” Ronnie says from the bedroom doorway.  “Honey, what’s wrong?”  He sounds scared.  More than just on her behalf.

Cassie gets calls when the truly bad things happen, before almost anyone else.  She was the first to hear about the Missouri tornado that left 143 dead.  About the domestic terrorist who blew up the Dominican-Catholic church in Arkansas.

In its own way, this is worse.  Or it has the potential to be.

“I have to get to Los Angeles,” she says, dropping the phone.  Her hands shake as she wrenches open the closet.  Drops a duffle on the bed.  Grabs clothes at random to stuff them inside.  “The town itself is an hour north, but if I fly into LAX then…”  She loses track of the sentence.  Gives up on it.

There aren’t words, she knows, to explain to Ronnie what’s happening right now.  Not her gentle Ronnie.  Ronnie has reported on active war zones.  But still he can’t know.  Not really.

“Cass, you’re meeting the president tomorrow,” he says.  “You can’t just go to California—”

“She’ll have to wait.”  Jerking the zipper shut, Cassie swings the bag onto her shoulder.  “I’ll explain when I get back,” she says.  “I love you.  More than you know.”

They send Menderash in, after an hour.  Technically it’s been an hour and a half since they patched in the civilian call to their commanding officer, but Captain Aximili was only audible on the phone for about twenty minutes.  Normally they wouldn’t intervene at all, but they’ve got a bomber exercise in less than an hour and the admiral’s on board right now.  In a way, Menderash is honored to be sent.  It’s the closest anyone has ever come — can ever come — to acknowledging him and Ax for what they are.  Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, but that doesn’t mean that U.S. Navy commanders can date their captains.  Regardless of gender.

“Sir?”  Menderash sounds tentative even to himself.

Ax is staring at the far wall, back turned to the door.  He stiffens, but still doesn’t turn.  “Did I ever tell you I had a brother?” Ax asks.

“No,” Menderash says, “I don’t think you ever mentioned that.”  Which is strange, and verges on hurtful — they’ve been together for over five years.

“It ate him.”

“What?” Menderash steps forward.

“The thing that killed him.”  Ax’s voice is robotic.  Out of place with the tears on his cheeks.  “It ate his body.  No.”  He swallows, throat working.  “Not his body.  He was still alive, when it started eating.  He fought it, my friends said.  To the last.  Did so to try and save them.  He was still fighting.  Still struggling.  When it.”  A wet breath.  “It.”

“Was this… recently?”

“What?”  Ax turns, seeming to see him for the first time.  “No, of course not.  It all happened twenty-seven years ago.”

“Is that why you’ve never mentioned him before?” Menedrash ventures.

“No.”  Ax swallows again.  “It’s just that I’ve been away from that place for too long.  I began to adjust to this version of reality.  I began to forget just how bad it became, that place where we came from.”

Menderash dares to put a hand on his arm now.  To pull him close enough to get him into the light, at the very least.  “Where is that?”

“I can’t tell you,” Ax says.  “It’s too dangerous.”

“Ax…”

“I’m scared,” Ax whispers.  The admission is almost as foreign as the tears.  “I must go back there, Menderash.  I must, if I want justice for my brother, and I…”  He closes his eyes, jaw clenched.  “I’m not sure that I’ve ever been more scared in my life.”

Marco is… Honestly, Collette’s not sure what Marco is right now, just that something is definitely happening to him.  He’s ping-ponging through his office with frantic aimlessness, muttering to himself, hair flying in all directions.

“Your plane’s all prepped and ready to go,” she says.

“Collette!”  He whirls around.  “As I live and breathe.  You ever have one of those moments, when, like, reality just—”  He snaps.  “Fuckin falls away.  No, not reality.  This is not reality.  Reality is the thing that comes out of nowhere and—”  He makes a motion like an airplane zooming through the air.  “Bam!  Takes you off your feet.  Everything you thought you knew, all gone in an instant.  Because it’s all illusion.  Reality is reasserting itself, that’s what it is.  Twenty-seven years, just gone!  Like it’s all been a daydream all along.  And guess what?  Big Jake’s calling to wake you up!”  He grins maniacally.  “Have you seen my glasses anywhere?”

Collette doesn’t say but you don’t wear glasses.  She’s been in Hollywood long enough to know that there are plenty of celebrities who never wear their glasses, or retainers, or leg braces anywhere they might be seen.  She’s a talent agent who uses a wheelchair.  She’s seen it all.  “Bend down,” she says instead.

Marco whips his head forward so that she can see the top of it.  In the process, his glasses go flying out of his hair and clatter on the floor.  She hadn’t meant for him to bend over quite that hard, but at least now he knows where they are.

“Ah yes, a million thank yous!”  Marco goes scrambling across the carpet after them.

“What did you take?” Collette asks him.  She didn’t think Marco was a cokehead, but then she didn’t think he needed glasses until ten seconds ago.

“Three Xanax, half a handle of vodka, and my entire stash of pot cookies,” he declares.  “And look at me.”  He spreads his arms.

She takes his point.  He’s speaking clearly, forming full sentences.  He looks… well, not sober, but also not as though he’s had anything relaxing in the last few hours.  “Fine,” she says.  “But I’m still driving you to the airfield.”

“Don’t go,” Melissa says.  Tobias stiffens where he stands, but he doesn’t put his suitcase down.

“I don’t have a choice,” he whispers, shame and smallness.

“Don’t be ridiculous—”  She blows out a breath.  “Be safe,” she says instead.  “Be here.  Forget the past.  Let somebody else…”

“Die in my place?” Tobias asks.  This is so unlike him, to be even this angry.

“If this Jake person thinks it’s so dangerous there, why doesn’t he just leave?” she asks quickly.

Now Tobias does look over his shoulder.  “The fact that you’re asking at all…”

He doesn’t finish the sentence.  He just pulls the door closed behind him, and clicks the latch into place with infinite care.

“Are you sure?” Rachel demands into the phone.

Jake doesn’t answer.  He wouldn’t be calling if he wasn’t sure.

“Fuck.”  She slams a hand against the drywall.  “Fuck.”

“You don’t have to come,” he says.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”  She hangs up.

“Rachel?” Jordan says, watching wide-eyed from across the room.

“It’s nothing.”  Rachel pulls her lips back into a not-smile.  “It’s fine.”

“The thing that took Saddler… that took Tom…  It’s back, isn’t it?” Jordan asks.

Rachel hadn’t thought she knew.  Had thought her sisters believed the story about Saddler’s car accident, about Tom’s running away.

“No,” Rachel says.  “Of course not.  That’d be impossible.”

Jake doesn’t know who told David, or how.  All he does know is that he couldn’t have timed the phone call worse if he’d tried.

David’s widow’s cell phone goes off smack in the middle of his eulogy.  Her ringtone, as it so happens, is the Bee Gees’ hit single “Stayin’ Alive.”

“So.”  Marco rubs his hands together, looking around the table.  “Let the thirty-somethingth non-annual meeting of the Losers’ Club… commence!”

“Are we?” Rachel asks.  She looks around at them as well.  “Losers, that is.”

“She’s right,” Tobias says.  “Marco’s on the Hollywood A-list.  Ax-Man has, like, a dozen military awards.  I’ve got three different pieces in MOMA, Rachel’s book about… what was it, Being a Badass Bitch Boss?  That was number-one in the country for over a month.  Cassie’s freakin’ Secretary of State.  And…”  He comes to Jake, and trails off.  There’s an awkward pause.

“The county library’s still open,” Jake offers.  “In spite of the mayor’s best efforts to the contrary.”

“No kids, though,” Cassie points out.  “For any of us.  Not even David.”

“Why would we ever bring children into this world, knowing what we do?” Ax says softly.  “Oooh.  D.  Do.”

There’s another silence.  No one disagrees.

“Anyway.”  Rachel pulls them back in.  “I’m just saying, we’ve come a long way from being the kids that only hung together because no one else would hang out with us.”

Cassie was the only black kid in town.  Rachel and Jake came from the only Jewish family.  Tobias had been the odd dreamy kid with his head in the clouds, Ax the one with a tendency to repeat sounds.  Marco had just never known when to keep his mouth shut, not even when doing so would have been a survival tactic.  Small towns could be brutal, even the ones that didn’t have sadistic gods at their hearts.

But they’d found each other, entirely by accident.  And together, they’d taken on that god.  Because back then, they were too young and stupid to know just how screwed they were.

Jake outlines the grim facts.  Fourteen disappearances, two known deaths in this last year.  No adults in town paying any attention.  The local youth organization might be actively recruiting sacrifices for this thing, or at the very least looking the other way.

“So what’s the plan?” Marco asks.  “Same as last time, we all cower behind Rachel as she takes this thing on with a slingshot and half a dozen ball bearings?”

“It worked, didn’t it?”  Rachel smirks.  “Kind of.”  The smile fades.  “For a while, anyway.”

“It takes power from fear.”  Cassie cups both hands around her mug, hunching close to the fading warmth of the coffee.  “We can’t let it force us to run or hide.  We have to face it.  We have to be brave.”

“Yep.”  Marco pushes away from the table.  “Tell that to David.  Or to any of the kids who got torn to shreds.  That’s fuckin peachy, ‘don’t be afraid.’”

“We have to do something,” Jake says.  “It killed Ax’s brother.”

Funny, Cassie thinks, how they always bring up Ax’s brother, but never Jake’s.  Maybe because Alan’s death was simple, in its own way, a clear self-sacrifice.  Tom didn’t get anything as glorious as death in battle.  It ate Tom from the inside.  Sucked at and corrupted his soul until he was unrecognizable.  Not even himself anymore.  Until Rachel’d had no choice but to put him out of all their misery.  Not a clean death.  Not the kind of thing you could sum up in a single sentence.

There are other slow deaths like Tom’s, even more than the fast ones like what Al got.  David was starting to go, Tobias thinks, even before he got out of town.  One too many times he turned and ran from the thing instead of facing it with the rest of them.  Once or twice he even tried to bargain with it.  Tobias didn’t blame him, not once it’d taken David’s parents and started parading them in front of his eyes.

In parallel with those thoughts, Tobias finds himself rubbing fingertips along the right side of his stomach.  The scars faded, and yet now they’re livid again.  One shaped like an A.  One like an N.  Andy Mitchell only got through carving the D in his name before Jake got there in time to save Tobias.

Not in time to save Andy, though.  He was gone by the end of the day.  Missing, with no one left to look.  No one even to comment on his being gone.

A-N-D, carved into Tobias’s skin.  A transition.  The middle of a thought.  The only sign he’d needed, if he’d ever thought to look for one, that this thing isn’t over.  That maybe it’ll never be.

“It’s a thought-form,” Jake says.  He sounds confident.  He almost feels it, too.  Looking around at these successful adults who grew from the hopelessly awkward kids he knew, he starts to think that maybe, just maybe, they can find a way to live through this.  “So we fight it like Cassie said, just by fighting back at all.”

“Thanks for the motivational speech.”  Marco is clutching the plastic gun in both hands.  It’s a toy — and yet, twenty-seven years ago, it fired real bullets at that freak clown.  “What a day, what a lovely day to die.”

They’re walking toward the sewer entrance, heads held high.  Palms damp with sweat.  Because they have no choice.  Because it’s what must be done.

“What are you even doing here?” Tobias asks.  He’s got a baseball bat dragging at his side.  It was his mother’s.  No one knows for sure what happened to her, but then that’s true of a lot of people in this town.  No one knows, and yet some of them can guess.

“He is here because he must be,” Ax says.  “And so must we all.  Aaah-wwlll.”  That’s new, the playing with sounds.  In the sense that it’s old.  Like so much of them, it faded and then returned.

Rachel is walking close, too close, to Tobias’s side.  They keep exchanging charged glances.  All of them are regressing to childhood all over.  Or maybe it’s just that they had to become their own adults, back when they first faced this monster, and it never really wore off.

“I’m here,” Marco says tightly, “because all my life, I’ve never had friends like I did when I was thirteen.”  He laughs.  “Jesus, does anyone?”

Rachel slips her hand into Tobias’s.  On her other side, she’s holding Cassie, who’s holding Ax.  That’s the weapon, Jake thinks.  The one they’ll swing and shoot and bash at this Joker-knockoff fucker until they put it into the ground.  For good this time.  Stomp it to so many pieces that it can never put itself back together.

Jake puts the flashlight back on his belt.  Takes Marco’s sweaty hand in his, waits for the inevitable bad one-liner about buying him dinner first.

It’s enough.  Enough to hold back the darkness.  Enough to keep them alive.  It’ll just have to be, because it’s all they have.

Together, a daisy chain of madness, they plunge into the tunnel ahead.

[business-as-usual-bats]

Tim's First Christmas as Robin

Tim walked through the hallways of his school with a smile because he officially had the best life ever.

Why? Because Tim Drake was Robin. He helped people. He saved lives. He worked with literal superheroes. It was hard work, exhausting in every way, it took up all his time, and he still had a lot to learn, but at the end of the day he made a difference in the world.

Batman had begun to warm up to him, too, trusting him more with patrolling certain areas alone and handling common thieves and muggers. Batman even complimented him yesterday!! After Tim solved a mystery about Penguin's disappearing shipments in Gotham Harbor, Bruce said, "Good job" and kinda gave a smile!! According to Dick, that's, like, practically the equivalent of a hug!

And since Dick is coming back to Wayne Manor for the holidays, Batman said Tim doesn't have to go patrolling on Christmas, so he can be with his family.

Tim's parents! That's the best part! His parents were finally coming home after being gone half the year. They were supposed to be home months ago... for the first day of the school year... Halloween... Thanksgiving... but they kept getting held up at their jobs. But this time they promised they'd be there on Christmas Eve! Tim went ahead and put up Christmas lights and a tree in preparation. He had it all planned out. He even got ingredients to make gingerbread cookies. Never before had Tim felt so... festive. A few times he caught himself humming along to the overplayed Christmas jingles on the radio.

So, now was the last day of school before winter break. His last class was Algebra and he took his usual seat by the windows. Everyone was goofing off, the teacher didn't even bother to try to actually teach anything by this point. The class comedian of his peers was talking to everyone,

"Nah, I'm just sayin' it's true! Whenever you're watching a movie and sex scene comes up then -BAM- your parents are right there outta nowhere."

Everyone is laughing, including Tim. God, that'd be embarrassing. Does this really happen that often to other people?

"Yeah, your mom be ignoring you all damn day and then she's suddenly all about your life when people start making out. Like how does she know? It's gotta be like the same magic Santa uses to sense who's naughty or who's nice."

"Shit, man. My dad could be gone for 8 years but as soon as that scene comes up he's right there behind me sayin, 'Hey, son. Watcha watchin'?'"

The jokes are silly and dumb and it makes time pass by quickly. Thr bell signaling the end of the day rings and Tim sets off for Wayne Manor.

Patrol goes well, too. It was all business as normal until the Dynamic Duo got back to the cave and who should be there but

"Dick!" Tim yelled, getting swept up in a classic Grayson hug. "Put me down!"

"Merry Christmas, Tiny Tim!"

"It's not Christmas yet."

"It's Christmas every day if you carry love in your heart." Dick grinned and plopped him on the floor. "I got you the coolest and totally-not-a-robin-motorcycle gift ever!"

"A what?" Tim squeaked. "Motorcycle?? But I don't have anything nearly as cool to give you-"

"Now, now, I specifically said it wasn't a motorcycle. But if it were, then I'd tell you it's fine and not to worry about it! It's Christmas!"

"Dick-"

"I'm gonna hug you again-"

"Don't you dare!"

"Pfft. Fine. But hey, I heard your parents are coming home?"

"YEAH!" And Tim didn't mean to shout but the words starting pouring, "They're gonna be home in time for Christmas and I put up the stockings I made, and I have a list of all of dad's favorite Christmas songs, and I'm gonna make gingerbread cookies cuz I found this awesome recipe online, and I got them the perfect gifts because you see last year my mom was complaining on how she didn't have any earrings that matched my dad's favorite tie that he wears all the time which I think was her way of telling him to get rid of the tie but instead I got him a new tie that's the same color and got matching earrings and-"

"Woah! But you'll still stop by the Manor to say hi, right?"

"Duh! I'm not about to miss out on Alfred's homemade Christmas cookies you guys brag about all the time."

"Good! How was patrol?" And they chatted away until Tim decided it was late and he should go home.

The days dragged on until finally finally it was the morning of December 24th. His parents would be home any second! He waited, looking out the window now and again, watching the clock tick by...

And he waited

And waited

They were late.

He called his mom twice, and she answered the second time.

"Yes? Tim, honey?"

"Mom? Um... are you guys almost here or...?"

"What? Oh no, I thought we told you. We aren't going to make it in time for Christmas. You see-" and she explained how an artifact they'd found was accused of being a fake and how much of a legal mess they were in... and... more excuses... "I'm sorry, honey. You know if we could we'd much rather spend Christmas with you. We sent your present in the mail."

"I... I know, Mom." Tim sighed, "I'm not mad. I understand."

"You're such a kind boy, Timothy. We love you so much. We never stop thinking of you."

"I love you, too." And she hung up.

Tim stared ahead blankly, the phone still in his hand. He wasn't sure how long he just stood there, but suddenly his phone rang again

"Hello?" Tim answered. His voice sounded distant to him, like he wasn't even the one talking.

"Tim!" It was Dick, "Hey, so I know we should probably know this but, um, are you allergic to any nuts or spices? Like, even just a small allergy to something?"

"No."

"Sweet! Thanks! Hey... are you alright?"

"Yeah."

"You seem... off."

"I'm fine. I'm just... distracted with my family. They... aren't as excited as I am to be home."

"Oh, that sucks. But they made it home, right? They're there with you now?"

"Yeah, no. They made it here okay." Tim didn't know why he was lying... Was he ashamed? And at who? His parents? Himself? "I should go."

"Well, alright. See you later!"

"Yeah." Tim sighed and threw the phone away from him in disgust.

His eyes stung, he quickly wiped away the beginnings of tears. This was stupid to cry about. Not worth it. Why cry? Just because his parents broke another promise? Because they say they love him but they keep leaving? Why don't they stay? Did he do something wrong? Is he that horrible that they don't want to be around him? Why isn't he good enough for them? Why don't they like him? What can he do better?

Tim started crying and immediately hated himself for it, but he couldn't stop. It all seemed so unfair. It hurt. And the hurt made him want to be comforted, and he wanted his mom here to comfort him. But she's not. She can't be. And somehow, Tim knew it was his fault.

He looked at the Christmas tree blurred through his tears and thought briefly about pushing it down. But that wouldn't fix anything, would it? No. It wouldn't bring his parents home. There was nothing to do about it.

He curled up on the couch facing the Christmas tree and let the tears fall until he could sleep.

The next day was Christmas. Yay.

Tim didn't feel like celebrating. Or moving in general. He managed to slink over to the living room and turn on the TV. Maybe he could watch something to distract him from Christmas.

Or every channel could be focused on the importance of family during Christmas time. Literally. Every. Channel. Christmas and love. Christmas and love. Fuck Christmas. It's was just a stupid commercialized waste of time! Why's he even doing this Christmas shit? He's pretty sure his mom is Jewish anyway! Ugh!

But then he clicked the channel and woah- that's more skin showing than he expected. Suddenly, he remembered:

"Whenever you're watching a movie and a sex scene comes up then -BAM- your parents are right there!"

What if...

He changed to one of the more "mature" channels debuting their Christmas specials. It was sappy romance stuff, which isn't the worst, but he was more of a scifi kind of guy.

It was a typical plotline. A lady is scheduled to marry a prince but she's in love with a commoner guy. Lazy writing. It's been done before. But maybe...

Is it too childish to hope for a miracle on Christmas?

He sat with rapt attention through the whole ordeal. At one point the lady runs away to meet her forbidden true love (even though it's totally going to get her caught and in trouble and might even get the lover killed). They start kissing and taking off their clothes, but Tim isn't paying much attention now because this is the moment! He listened for the doorbell, for a knock, for a car, for a voice... But no parents came running. No one was there at the door. Why did he even hope...

Tim glared angrily at the two naked people on screen, "Is it too much to wish for my family to be here on Christmas??"

Then a *ding dong* came from the front of the house. Tim paused the TV. Wait. Could it be?

One second he was in the living room, the next he was swinging the front door open without any hesitation,

"Mom?? Dad??" Tim called excitedly before realizing who was there, "Oh... Hey, Dick. Uh, come on in." He tried not to look disappointed.

"I thought you were going to visit the Manor?" Dick pouted, walking in. Only then did Tim notice Alfred was following him.

"I lost track of time." Tim said honestly, "I'm sorry." Oh God, what if Bruce was upset with him? What if Bruce hates him now?? What if he ends up leaving Tim for months at a time and lies about being home for Christmas??

"Where are your parents?" Dick asked, but it was more rhetorical than anything. He could no doubt see the puffy eyes of someone who spent the night crying. Tim answered anyway.

"Africa."

"Still, on Christmas?" Alfred raised both his eyebrows in disapproval.

"It's not their fault! It's... work stuff. They don't... they said they'd rather be here with me but... It's not a big deal."

"Well, as that may be, Master Timothy, I insist you join us today and tonight at Wayne Manor."

"Yeah!" Dick chirped. "Alfred made a ton of food, like, all of your favorites! Didn't you, Al?"

"Indeed, I did, sir."

"But, Bruce-"

"Is the one that asked us to come and make sure you're okay." Dick smiled, "He's waiting for us. Actually, I think he really missed you on patrol last night."

"Really?"

"If I may," Alfred whispered, "Master Bruce also specifically requested I hang up a stocking with your name on it."

No way. But... Alfred wouldn't lie about that would he... Bruce really... Wow

"...Right. I'll visit him as scheduled and then leave." By the glint in Dick's eye though, Tim had a feeling he'd be staying in the Manor longer than planned. And honestly? That sounded a lot better than staying in this house alone.

"Great! I'll get your coat." Dick walked around the corner to the living room. "It's this way, right? Oh. Huh. I remember this movie."

Oh.

"TURN IT OFF IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE-"

The end.

[connormurphyobsessed]

Dreams- Connor Murphy x Reader w/ smut

A/N: Hello everyone! This is a piece of writing I’m pretty proud of, but as always please give me feedback! I’m sorry I haven’t been posting as much, I’ve been going through some stuff but I feel a lot better. Love you all!-Ella Requested: Yes, or at least some Connor smut was Words: basically 4k Warnings: Suicide talk, swearing, mild smut Summary: Connor and reader meet at a treatment center and bond

Whatever the usual way of meeting somebody you love is, how you two met wasn’t it. Fluorescent lighting, and feet covered by thin socks is how you met with the tracking of every move. You ended up there in the usual way, and so did he, so maybe that’s the small bit of normal you two share. “Greenway’s Premier Adolescent Treatment Center.” That’s where you met him. You were both in for swallowing a deadly, but obviously not deadly enough amount of pills. This is the place where you go after your 72 hour hold is up and your doctors won’t send you home. Saying it was any better than those 72 hours would be a bold faced lie, or really just for the first few days. Everything you did was tracked, or at least in the unit you were in, “The Intensive Watch Unit”. The secluded residential treatment center housed and treated teens with a variety of problems, some even a year into their stay, while others left after a month. You were in the unit for those who weren’t trusted to be in the more stable units. Just like at the hospital your shoes were taken and replaced with rough socks, your body was scanned for any old or new marks, and you were asked any and every question imaginable.

Two weeks. That’s how long you’ve been on the now dubbed “suicide floor,” a floor for those who can’t go to the bathroom alone because you might kill yourself instead of peeing. The routine of it all slowly settled in for you. Wake up. Make bed. Eat. Meds. Shower. Group therapy. Art therapy and it goes on and on. You liked the routine that had come about for you; it was comforting to know that at 11am you would draw, and that the same nurses would help you with your worksheet from group. Your doctor even told you that he believed that in another week or two, if you kept on track you would move to the ‘not so suicidal floor’. Well, he called it the “The Learning Unit.” You wouldn’t admit it, but you were proud that soon you could move up a level after seeing people spend only two or three nights in the unit. On the other hand you didn’t admit much. You stuffed and stuffed everything you felt until, BAM, you were swallowing as many pills as you could find until you woke up in the hospital, sobbing how you were mad for not killing yourself better. Looking back you thought that sounded like an oxymoron. Perfectionist at its finest, or lowest depending on your point of view.

When somebody new enters the “death please come knocking unit,” you don’t meet them until lunch time. Everybody who arrives at the center is escorted by parents, or guardians, at 7am sharp. They are toured while everyone is in therapy and then meet one on one with a doctor while someone else talks to whoever brought them. Then at the end of lunch they are brought in and introduced with enough time to makes small talk before entering another group therapy session. New people usually arrived once a week and it usually excited people, but it didn’t for you. Why get excited that someone else is also kind of fucked up in some way?

The day he showed up was like every day you’d been at Greenway. Everyone sat at a round table together that was in the middle of the unit floor. Your whole unit was basically one giant room with doors to other rooms for therapy, staff, bunks, and some that were locked. You remembered from your tour that other floors had dining rooms, and was open, but where you were wasn’t that.

He was brought in by a nurse, and everyone turned to look. He was tall and sort of lanky, but seemed strong. His light brown hair was behind his ears, and the look on his face reminded you of a pug trying to seem like a wolf. He sat down a few seats away from you next to a boy, Shane, who had arrived two days earlier.

“So what’s your name?” girlssomeone asked taking a bite of a cookie.

“Connor,” he spoke. His voice was stronger than you imagined. The other person took a response to their question to allow them to go on and on about some TV show you had never watched.

After lunch came group therapy, again. Connor followed behind the ten people on the unit, including yourself, into a room with chairs in a circle and inspiring posters on the wall. “Welcome to group everyone. For those who can’t remember, my name is Ms. Lowe and I run group therapy for all of you during the afternoon.”  Ms. Lowe was nice, but tough when she needed to be. Everyone meets her since she conducts the interview you go through before entering the unit. “Y/n,” at the sound of your name your head snapped in the direction of Ms. Lowe, “Since you have been here longer than most, would you mind showing our new member, Connor, how we start every group?” “Okay, well I’m y/n and I’m here for trying to kill myself. I have been on this unit for two and a half weeks, and my goal for today is to talk more openly.” For the rest of the group you allowed yourself to zone into a place of dreams. You imagined everything that life would be if you weren’t the way you were, and everything life could offer for someone like you if you were happier. At school you weren’t the popular person, but you were nice and people liked you. You had boyfriends, and first times of everything you would expect for someone in high school, but somehow you felt like you were dying.

Quiet time was an hour a day where you could nap, talk to people, play games, but everybody napped. It seemed like an unwritten rule that everybody would climb into their bed that felt like a rock and try to sleep. You usually followed that, but sometimes you would sit on the seats in the common area and read. The variety of books was depressing, which was ironic for the unit, so you had your parents bring you books from home. When you brought yourself to the seats you were painfully aware that you weren’t alone. Connor, the new guy was sitting on the couch. New people on the unit usually annoyed you. They were so closed off, even more than you, or they were played into the depression like a lifetime movie. You like honesty, or being blunt about it all, what was the point of trying to hide any of it? “Hey,” the voice of Connor brought you from the rant that was playing in your mind. “Oh, hey,” you said sitting down on the opposite end of the couch and letting the variety of books fall into the space between you. His eyes grew wide looking at all the books. “I can move them if you want” “It’s fine. How did you get all these? The books here are all shit,” he said pointing to the bookshelf. The declaration from Connor made you laugh. The noise was a surprise to both of you. “What do you mean? You don’t like ‘How to stop sadness’? Come on, that’s a masterpiece.” “Totally. That’s on my top ten favorite books of all time.” This time Connor let out a small chuckle. “You can borrow one of my books. I have way too many. When I asked my parents to bring me enough books to last my time in ‘Suicide daycare’ I didn’t expect this many. I guess that shows how much they believe in me.” “Suicide daycare?” “You know, we’re on the unit where they make sure we don’t kill ourselves. Suicide daycare.” “Honest. I like that.” “Thanks, I’ll be here all week, or more, you never know.”

Connor wasn’t as bad as you thought, hell he was probably your favorite out of the other patients. He was actually nice and didn’t try to dig into you to find everything wrong with you. Instead you started reading next to each other and would partner up during projects. For Sunday’s group you all had to find a partner and talk about your hopes and dreams. Seems simple enough, right? You and Connor partnered and sat in the corner of the room on the floor facing each other. You had partially been checked out of groups for a while since tomorrow you got to move to the level up. Finally you would get to have some freedom and would get to shower in privacy. “So y/n what are your hopes and dreams,” Connor said smirking. Connor would also get to move up a level. He had actually been going along with the program well and had an undeniable strength. “Ha-ha Connor,” you spoke with sarcasm dripping from your voice, “You first if you want to know all my innermost hopes and dreams.” “Real talk, or not?” he said. This had become something between you. “Let’s go with real talk for once.” “I want to make it out of here soon and graduate. I have no fucking idea what I’ll do after that, but leaving here and making it through high school seems like a good place to start.” These words didn’t surprise you; Connor had something pushing him inside. In group once he said that he was going to try to live for his mom. She had sat by his hospital bed and begged him to try, saying if he died part of her would. Maybe she started him on this, but you thought somewhere inside he wanted to live, even if it was almost nothing, part of him did. “Your turn y/n,” Connor said. “I don’t know if I have any. I don’t mean that in the way of I can’t picture a future, because I can, but it doesn’t seem like something to dream of. Why jinx the fact that for the moment I can picture life. Now that’s a miracle, so I’ll just sit with the fact that I’m okay with living.” “How do you manage to even make that seem dark?” “I learned from the best. I mean you taught me so why not put it to use.” “Hey! I didn’t teach you that, if anything you just speak like Edgar fucking Allen Poe.” “I didn’t know fucking part of his name,” you said smiling.  A grin spread across Connor’s face, something that might have seemed unnatural at first, but now it fit perfectly.

Moving day. Well you were moving from ‘If you kill yourself here your parents will be so pissed’, to ‘Okay so they aren’t as depressed unit’. This unit wasn’t just one giant room with smaller rooms, but two floors, with 20 teens. There was a cafeteria, a school room, and all the nurses and doctors didn’t watch you as intensely. You would be on these floors for the rest of your stay, but you could move up levels, and earn rewards. When you arrived you were handed a schedule. Damn this place did know you. You only had two hours of school a day, then a bunch of therapy, and free time where you could join in on activities that were optional, or just hang out. Still you weren’t allowed to have shoes yet. You would have to move up a level. Connor on the other hand was allowed to have shoes. That made you annoyed and made Connor laugh.

With all of this new free time you and Connor got to hang out more. You spent your afternoons reading and talking. Sometimes he would read to you short stories that he wrote and you would draw for him. When there was group family therapy you heard stories about how he was horribly mean, but he seemed so different than that. Of course medicine and the right therapy will do that, but sometimes he would get mad. He would yell when he didn’t feel heard, but it didn’t freak you out. Better yelling than pushing it all down inside of you like you had done. The more time you spent with him the more you felt. He saw you and you saw him. Friday night is when the nurses would put on a movie in the large common room. Almost everyone would gather around and would eat popcorn. Sometimes they would play multiple movies and everyone would get candy. You and Connor had always enjoyed those nights, but that days therapy had been intense for him so he retreated to his room. There was a strict rule that you couldn’t enter someone else’s room, but Connor seemed to need somebody. The movie was playing and everyone was concentrated on that so you made your way to the boy’s wing. You knocked on the door quietly. “I told you I’m fine Nurse Roman. I just need some alone time. I promise I’ll come down for the second movie,” Connor said, exasperation coming through. “Actually it’s me, y/n,” there was silence and then the door opened. “What are you doing here? You aren’t allowed to be in this wing,” he said looking around the hallway. “It seemed like you needed someone, so I’m here. Besides, when have you ever been one to shy away from breaking the rules?” A slight smile broke through his furrowed brows. “What the hell, come in.” With that you walked into the room. The room held three beds and looked just like the girl's wing. “So are you doing okay?” “I don’t know how I’ll do when I’m out of here. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready. Maybe I should just make it very clear to them that I can’t go home anytime soon.” “Don’t say that. You’ll do amazing whenever they say you can go home.” “I know, but I don’t think I should go now.” “They haven’t offered it yet and at least you’ll get to chill with me for a while if you want to stay after they do,” you spoke nervously laughing. “You’ll go home soon.” “I don’t think so. I haven’t ever truly talked emotions with them. That’s step one.” “We’ll be depressed buddies,” he said. “Buddies?” “Or not,” he huffed he lips turning into a frown. “Don’t frown Connor, it makes you look emo.” This comment got a laugh from him. His eyes filled with something you could only call happiness as he let himself laugh. “I guess we aren’t really buddies,” he said, now causing a frown to form on your face. Seeing this he spoke up. “What I mean is we’re too close to be buddies. We’re not friends or some shit, we’re just more.” You watched him say this and he seemed to truly mean it. He looked like what he said was the truth, like he cared for you. You thought this while you both stood in the middle of the room. He was watching you, having no idea what was going on in your mind. You took a step closer to him. Confusion was now clearly evident on his face. “More,” you whispered. You were sure he didn’t mean it like that, but he was there, and he cared for you and you cared for him. He was better than he could realize and he felt like home when your hands accidently brushed against each other, so you brought your lips to his. It could either be a disaster or it could make something more than you could hope or dream for. Your hands reached for his neck as you let yourself feel his warmth. “More,” he whispered back breaking your lips apart. His eyes seemed to search for what brought this, but he didn’t care in the moment. Swiftly he pulled you close again. Your lips slowly melded together, your mouths open and burning, your bodies pressed against one another. Your hands found his hair and his arms firmly pulled your waist as close as possible. There was no space between you with your hips against him. Where you were and everything that had ever happened seemed irrelevant. All you knew is that you needed every part of him, and for him to know that every part of him was magnificent. The feeling overwhelmed you and the clothes that covered each of you felt to be keeping you apart. You tore at your shirt and Connor yanked his own off. His lips attached to your neck and down to your collarbone where he nipped at the skin. “More,” you managed to say as you pushed him onto his bed. Connor reached to unclasp your bra, but struggled against the clasps. “What the hell kind of bra is that?” you laughed heartily at his annoyance as you moved to unclasp it yourself. Connor immediately pulled you back to him as you stumbled over your feet and landed on the bed. Connor took this as an opportunity to climb over you. His lips once again went to your body. His lips traveled to your breasts and he placed wet sloppy kisses along the sides. You pulled him up to your face as you then started unbuttoning his pants. A groan escaped from Connor’s lips as you finally pulled them off of him along with his boxers. Your jeans and underwear were soon being pulled off of your body as Connor entered you. The feeling of his body on top of yours and him moving within you outweighed any fear of the future in the moment. In those moments you were one with every rushed movement of hips, whippers, and digging nails.

You stayed in each other’s arms, a layer of sweat on each of you, until you each got up, giggling trying to put your clothes back on. You walked to the common room together and sat on the couch next to one another, fingers intertwined in the dark as you watched the movie. Your fingers brushed over your lips where not long ago Connor was. You slept that night hoping for an ending with him that would make even a Disney princess blush.

The next morning you went on with class, which you and Connor didn’t have together, and individual therapy. You couldn’t help but let your mind wander to the night before, and when you did you felt your face flush thinking of the feeling of him. You brought your lunch to the small library where you and Connor ate. Of course you didn’t know how things would  be between you, but you had trust that it would be okay. “Hey,” Connor said as he entered the almost empty room. His face was bright and beaming, more than you had ever seen. You could feel your stomach turn. “Hey,” you said smiling. “I have the best fucking news,” he spoke quickly, sitting next to you. “You are going to meet the Rock? Because I could support that,” you teased. Connor rolled his eyes, but the smile didn’t falter. “No you dipshit! I get to go home!” the words that tumbled out of his mouth with that bright smile stopped you. The smile on your face frozen, your heart stopping. “What?” you said, the strain in your voice evident, but Connor was so excited he went right past it. “You know how I was all freaked out?” you nodded, your face going from strained smile to blank. “Well that’s because they told me I could go home in a few days and I was scared. They said I’m expressing myself, I’m not suicidal, I’ve been moving up on levels, I’m better with my family, and I think I agree now.” “Wait, you knew yesterday?” you interrupted. “Yes, but that’s not the point. After we-you know- I figured that if I can do that, or at least talk to you about my feelings and shit, I can make it out there.” “You knew yesterday?” “I already said that y/n. Isn’t this great?” Connor said smiling at you with those eyes that made you want him in the first place. “You knew, didn’t tell me and then slept with me,” you a little louder. “Come on y/n. It wasn’t like that-” “No, it’s exactly like that. Was it a joke to you?” “Now you’re being fucking stupid y/n” “Stupid!” you fumed. The look on Connor’s face went from happy to angry. Why weren’t you being supportive and happy for him? “Come on y/n! I didn’t mean it like that. Why aren’t you happy for me? Isn’t this what we talked about. This was one of my dreams! I’m doing it, my dream!” “Happy for you? I’m not happy, I’m angry! How could you fuck me knowing you were going to be leaving?” “Everyone leaves here y/n! This place isn’t a future, you know that!” “You could have told me last night before we slept together! You should have told me before I made you my dream!” You were crying now, but you were wiping the tears away as fast as they came. “Your dream? Now that’s fucking stupid. I won’t be your dream. We slept together. It was amazing, but we both know that we can’t build a future off of each other. We have to build a future off of ourselves.” Connor’s anger was apparent, but he looked at the tears on your face and all he wanted to do was hold you. Of course he wished that you could be something together, but you can’t when you need to take of yourself. “What if I can’t do it? What if I can’t make a future?” you said, almost to silent to hear. Of course you were mad, but not at him. You put all of your hopes and dreams on others, but all they could do was let you down even if they didn’t mean to. “You can do it,” he said softly, walking closer to you. “How do you know?” “If I tell you, you’ll never know that you can do it yourself.” You were now close enough to kiss him, but instead you just looked at him. “You’ll do great out there in the real world,” you said “I know.” “We shouldn’t talk once you and I get out.” “I know.” “It would be too tempting and then I wouldn’t be able to focus on me.” “I know.” “Wherever you are when you’re out of here, think of me sometimes.” “I will.”

That was the last conversation you had with him before he left. Of course you thought of him, and you were allowed to, but you didn’t let it consume you. You thought of him a lot at first, but then you spent your time thinking of how to get better.

You spent another two months at the center. It was hell there for a long time, but then it wasn’t. When you went home the house felt different, it was the home of a girl who viewed herself as already gone. When you entered you viewed yourself as a girl who had come back.

Now you were in your second year of college and were transferring. It didn’t feel scary, but felt amazing.

Three weeks into the new semester and you felt like you belonged. You sat in one of the courtyards eating lunch and reading a book when you were pulled from your thoughts by a voice from behind you.

“Y/n, looks like my dreams are coming true,” you could hear the smile in the voice you knew so well.

“Connor?”

[writtenproofer-blog]

Top 14 Gluten Free Valentine's Day Gifts and Ideas for Her

When I think of Valentine's Day I immediately think of candy, chocolate, cake... pretty much all things food. Add red and pink hearts and BAM, it's Valentine's Day. So, how in the world do you "do" Valentine's Day if you or someone you love follows a gluten free lifestyle? It's not as simple as giving them flowers and a box of assorted chocolates. Hello runs to the bathroom and feeling like you are dying. How thoughtful and loving. Don't worry, I have your gift list covered. The point of Valentine's Day is to show someone how much you love them and help them feel special. Here are some ideas and gift ideas that will leave your significant other feeling well taken care of! Make Her Dinner At Home Going out to dinner can come with a mixed bag of excitement and anxiety. Many local restaurants offer a special menu on Valentine's Day, which means they are preparing meals they may not normally offer. I love having food prepared for me, so why not make your significant other dinner? Gluten free pasta, spaghetti sauce, gluten free bread, a baked good from Third Coast Bakery (which is gluten free and dairy free) and a bottle of wine or cider (both or normally gluten free, but here are some guidelines to consider) and you can have a care free dinner that is safe and you will have leftovers! Give Her the Ultimate Relaxing Evening "Red Sea Road" by Ellie Holcomb was just released and I can't stop listening to it. It's a great CD to listen to while working, driving or going through the mundane moments of your day. Push play as she enters the house and starts her relaxing night. Run her a bath and pour in Dr. Teal's Epsom Salt Soaking Solution - Relax and Relief with Eucalyptus & Spearmint. She will appreciate the time to relax in a hot bath while de-stressing from her day at work, juggling the kids, and handling everything else your awesome significant other takes care of! Light candles or pop in wax melts from Stand Around Creations while her bath water is running. They are soy-based aromatherapy candles with essential oils that are perfect for a relaxing evening (or anytime when peace and quiet are a must - especially during a long day with the kids!). Try these delightful scents: Island Coconut Tin Candle, Chocolate Layer Cake Tin Candle, Warm Vanilla Sugar Tin Candle, Lavender Mint Wax Melts, Rain Water Wax Melts, Harvest Berry Wax Melts, and Rose Wax Melts. Burt's Bee Essential Everyday Beauty Gift Set or the Burt's Bees Tips and Toes Kit will leave her skin soft and silky from her head to her toes after her relaxing bath. I love Burt's Bee products and always get excited when I'm surprised with one (or two or three)! Buy her sock subscription from SockPanda.com and have the perfect pair of socks ready for her to slip on after her long bath. You can design a pair of socks or choose from fun prints. The best part is that they donate a pair of socks to someone in need for every pair of socks they sell! This is a really thoughtful gift that will make her smile while also helping someone else. Current promotion: Valentine’s Day Sale 10% off + Free pair of socks with any SockPanda sock subscription. Promo code: FREESOCKS10. (2/1-2/14 only). Start the Day with Sweet Touches Get her Lovepop card! Remember pop-up books when you were a kid? Well, these cards remind me of those fun books. The outside looks like a normal card, but the inside pops up with flowers, a toaster, a turtle, hearts and tons of other options. It's a great way to make her smile first thing in the morning! YORK Peppermint Patties in the shape of hearts. I'm so glad these are gluten free! Jolly Rancher Candy heart lollipops. I love Jolly Ranchers, but heart shaped candy around Valentine's Day is just fun. NECCO® Conversation Hearts. I don't recall a Valentine's Day that hasn't included candy hearts, so this is great news! Tape them to a cute handmade card to spell out a funny sentence for bonus points. Valentine Marshmallow Heart Peeps. I've finally become used to the idea of eating Peeps for other holidays and these hearts are so cute! Order gluten free treats from Katz Gluten Free! Colored Sprinkle Cookies-Gluten Free - $5.19 from: Katz Gluten Free, Chocolate Frosted Donuts with Colored Sprinkles - Gluten Free - $6.99 from: Katz Gluten Free, and Marble Cake-Gluten Free - $5.79 from: Katz Gluten Free are tasty options! Buy her candy from the Lovely Candy Company. It's gluten free, most of it is dairy free and she will love you because of the delicious taste! There is also something special about the packaging that makes you smile as you unwrap a fruit chew. Here are my favorites: Chewy Caramels, Fruit Chews Superfruit and Cashew Caramels. Jewelry for Her with a Huge Meaning Purchase a custom cuff from my friend Danielle at Create Hope Cuffs. Her work is beautiful and a portion of every purchase is donated to the community for Bheveni in Swaziland, Africa. You can even get 15% off by using the coupon code 2017ALIVE when checking out! Surprise her with fun earrings, cuffs or other jewelry from Glory Haus. The mission of Glory Haus is "Community transformation that glorifies the Lord and changes lives through our work, art and relationships" and they do this through the people and ministries they partner with to produce every product. These Cream & Turquoise Leather Earrings and this Be Free Leather Cuff Bracelet are beloved by Jen Hatmaker. This Grateful Necklace will remind her how grateful she's part of your life. Beyond what you do or buy for Valentine's Day, just share with her what's on your heart and how you feel about her. How she's a blessing each day and what you love about who she is and what she does easily that is unique and special. This will mean more than any gift or gesture could ever mean.     Click to Post