#when the space that i would normally put that stuff is completely unusable

[prettyboysmlm]

did that just fucking happen

[luke-o-lophus]

A Ship of Theseus

Summary: Half a year after Ammit, the Moon Boys have moved in with Layla again. One day, there's a special delivery. A blast from the past, in the most mundane way imaginable.

A/N: A character study of an adult survivor of childhood abuse. What is means for memories, belongings, and justice

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It's another of those days.

On most days recently, stuff around the house is just...stuff. Then every once in a while, they seem to stare back at him. Try to provoke him into a conversation, introspection, memories.

Until recently, there wasn't a lot of belongings Marc had held on to. When he'd left the house, he could take only as much as he could fit in two bags. And he definitely wasn't aiming to include keepsakes. In a way, that had been easier: living in a space that looked absolutely different. It was easier to pretend the child in his memories wasn't really him, or at best was just a version of him. It's been fifteen years since.

When Marc moved back in with Layla, half a year past the Ammit situation, things had become completely different. Steven was in the picture now, and he came with his massive stack of books and an aquarium Marc found unnecessarily huge for two fish. "It's bigger than my army room", Marc had grumbled to Layla one evening as he helped her carry her stuff into their new apartment.

Between her and Steven, it's easy to lose yourself in the warmth of home. At least that's what Marc had hoped to do. Until Elias called again. As he does. When Marc refused to speak to him, Steven suddenly found himself on call with a father he had no memory of having. But Elias called to talk business. He was selling some old furniture from the house; too much stuff for one person he said. Layla listened to it all with rapt attention as her husband curled up on her lap. It was the memories that were hanging too heavy on Elias, that much was obvious. But she wouldn't tell Marc that, she wouldn't set him on another path of feeling guilt for his choice of cutting contacts. Marc had already done enough, and Elias not nearly so.

Two months later, Packers and Movers delivered a mountain of packages from his once 'home'. Marc eyed the pile with obvious distress, second guessing his choice of accepting the unused furniture just sitting around the house. It'd saved them good bucks they could now use towards a proper honeymoon in the Maldives.

The biggest piece of furniture was a heavy desk, now dismantled into pieces and neatly packed. It had been a gift from his grandfather when he turned five. The man liked to spoil his grandkids. In the years since, the table became his sanctuary. He sketched and played on it, and hid under it when needed. The table had been his constant, his only witness. The only piece of wood in that house he found claim to.

But seeing it now, in this form, sent a chill down his spine. The power tools were ready, it'd take just hours to put it all together. Piece by piece, construct back the silent observer of all those childhood experiences: the ones he remembered, and the ones forever lost to memory. He'd have to bring them back, by his own hands.

Layla was only a little surprised when she came home that evening. Normally Marc hated having things lying around, leading to endless complaints of Steven's untidiness. But she'd guessed the table would be, quite literally, a lot to unpack.

"You don't have to", she told him over a cup of tea. "We can sell it, or put it in storage somewhere. Anything." Marc sighed deeply, shaking his head. "It's mine. But I...", he didn't really want it around. It wasn't comforting. His home with his wife and his alter was his safe haven.

But it's also sacred. Some planks of wood simply nailed together; the weight of which only his tiny young shoulders knew. In one teasing example of the ship of Theseus, Steven told him. If you take it apart piece by piece, and build it back together, is it the same anymore?

Marc doesn't know. He leaves the philosophical shit to him and Layla. But he does know what it makes him feel, unlike either of them. It's only him, and the voice inside of him, flaring up from all those scared memories of a bruised kid hidden beneath the wide tabletop. Teary eyes demanding justice...from himself if not from anyone else.

It's been almost thirty years, and Marc still doesn't know what justice looks like for them. How is he supposed to make the correct decision? From the opposite wall, the propped up packages seem to follow every movement...observing, judging, waiting.

"I was thinking...", Layla chimes in breaking his train of thought. "We should head to Maldives in October. Weather should clear up by then...and it won't be too hot." Marc purses his lips in thought, considering the idea, glancing between the cardboard and Layla's jade black eyes.

"That's two months, huh? Yeah...should be enough time to plan", he shrugs. "Tell Steven, he'll be thrilled." "We can finish setting up the flat when we're back", she starts washing the cups. Marc stares at her back, as she's seemingly lost in her world. Another deep sigh, his eyes closed, memories of the desk, memories of this kitchen countertop, Layla sitting on it...the day they made S'mores together. "Yeah...", he smiles, walking up to her and putting the cups away. "I'll....put these in the storeroom till then?"

"Yeah sure, we can deal with them once we're back." she flashes him a blinding grin. "So, honeymoon, huh?"

Marc chuckles, and wraps her in his warmest hug.

[all-about-seggs]

Sultry Blues-

Rating: ❌18+, Explicit❌

Pairing : Gojo Satoru x Insecure! Fem Reader

Word count: 2.5 k

Warnings: Trigger warning for insecurities (not specified), Body Worshipping, a bit of food play, cunnilingus, Semi-public sex.

The faint sounds of ringing bells from the shrine was still in the air as you made your way to the inner structure of the prestigious Jujutsu academy. The path to the meeting room was straight and lined with stone carvings which gave the entire place an ancient look. You had a lunchtime date with your boyfriend, who would, hopefully be on time so you could be on your way.

This place always made you uneasy, not because of the dangerous connotations it brought in everyone’s lives but it was the people who freaked you out the most. To you, each one of the teachers as well as the students looked like some characters straight from a book, elegant, strong and perfectly capable of doing things normal people like you could only read about. Not having enough confidence on yourself physically or mentally worsened every time it dawned on you that you were dating the most perfect being of them all.

Perplexing wouldn’t even began to describe your state of mind when Satoru first took interest in you, sure looks or status didn’t meant anything to him but even in terms of personality you never thought the two of you would get along, so much so that you would become such an irreplaceable part of each other. But you knew his feelings for you did nothing to stop the ache in your heart when you saw him getting ganged up on by a bunch of women. Women attractive than you, smarter than you and definitely stronger than you.

This was exactly the place where all those kind of women lived making you feel even more of an outsider in his world. Not wanting to cause Satoru any worries you tried to psyche yourself up by picking up your pace only to be met with a hard shoulder to your cheek.

“I’m sorry! I wasn’t looking”, you looked up at the stranger, she was tall, her sturdy figure seemed like she was also a sorcerer but her ID pass was tucked on the breast pocket of her coat along with her youthful face indicated she was a student, you squinted to see that her name was Lisa and as you were about to apologise when you saw her sneer at you.

“ Ugh… outsiders. Don’t you know how to walk properly? Or did you not learn that in your no name school?”, her condescending tone took you aback.

You knew you didn’t exactly belong here but she wasn’t cutting you any slack for being a civilian either. You wanted to ask her why was she being so rude but your queries were cut off as by the girl.

“ No need to explain yourself I already know who you are, I’ve seen you following Gojo- San like a lost puppy a lot of times, seriously it’s like you don’t even have a presence without him.”, with a pause you finally thought her pointless berating would come to a stop but she went on.

“ He has a reputation to uphold here so don’t go around embarrassing him with your airheaded and average looking face”, now with THAT she crossed the line but as much as you wanted to give her a comeback all you anger turned into self loathing in a matter of seconds and you stood there dumbly not being able to defend yourself from the onslaught of verbal attacks that even you partially agreed with.

Not even bothering to look at her when she passed you thought about her mean words that were half untrue. You knew dating a popular guy would include more that just a little bit harmless envy of girls. At this point you’d be lucky if you didn’t get attacked by one of your boyfriend’s fangirl. But, It wasn’t about Satoru anymore, you thought. It was about how you were letting the jealousy of his superficial admirers who didn’t even knew only knew his name and face. Before you could delve more into your darkening thoughts you heard a cheery voice call out to you.

Bag at hand, which probably contained some sort of dessert you saw Satoru gleefully making his way towards you. It took you a few seconds to plaster a believable smile to your face so you could greet him normally.

“ Wow I can’t believe IM the one who had to wait around this time”, placing a tiny kiss on your nose he pulled you in for a hug, his warmth seeping into you put your mind at ease and help you distract yourself from the horrible encounter before.

“ The meeting was pointless and even the snacks turned out to be lame”, whining a little he waved the bag in front of you. A convenient store vanilla sponge cake with a packet of strawberry sauce was right in front of you and honestly if it were you, you’d probably eat it without question but knowing his love for quality sweets it was understandable why he’d complain.

“ Well actually, with the right toppings and modifications even convenient store packed cakes can taste top class!”, thinking about all the ways you’ve experimented watching diy food videos you started thinking up of ways to serve it to him.

“I see, that’s a good idea and I think it’ll give us some headstart for our date wouldn’t it?”, saying that he gestured you towards one of the buildings that lead to the back exit.

Walking hand in hand Satoru came to a stop which seemed like a closed off gate that was not in use anymore.

“ Why are we here? I thought the back exit was the other way around?”, confusion painted over you face you turned to face your mischievous partner.

“ you said you’d help me eat them, and I think it’s a pretty good place, don’t you?”, stepping closer he urged you to take a look around. The area didn’t have any benches, buildings or even people around and the only sound you could hear was the birds and the small artificial streams of river that flowed a few steps away from the closed off exit.

If Satoru was insinuating something you started to get the hang of it and you soon felt you face get hotter. The afternoon sun did nothing to help you cool down as you struggled to make sense of the situation. His hands were all over your body, caressing, pinching and feeling you up.

“ What’s wrong? Not up for it in semi public style?”, his breathy voice got lost in the crook of you neck where he inhaled your scent, “ you know nobody’s gonna come” with a slight push, he pinned you againt the vine-covered gate, “Except for you”.

“what the- WAIT! It’s still so bright out here not to mention we’re in PUBLIC Satoru!”, wide eyed you try to grab at his hand that was halfway done unbuttoning the top of your blouse.

“Do you want me to blindfold you?”, throwing these words nonchalantly he started licking every bit of exposed skin he could find from your ears to chest.

His mouth made contact with your covered breasts and without bothering to remove the piece of clothing he latched his mouth onto your hardened nipple to give it a gentle bite. Holding back your own moans you placed you hands on his broad shoulders, a feeble attempt at stopping him.

“How would THAT resolve anything?!” already half naked, your retorts seemed like pathetic excuses even to your own ears. It wasn’t until you heard a sharp rip that you realised your underwear was no longer on your body anymore. With a horrified look you saw your unusable underwear in Satoru’s hand.

“ I don’t think you’ll be needing these anymore my sweetness because I want to see ALL of you”, dangling the fabric from his long fingers he made a show of tucking it in his pocket. Hiking your skirt up with one hand he caressed the soft flesh with his thumbs.

“I knew you had no sense of danger but this could even get us arrested”, your reasoning seemed to fell on deaf ears as your boyfriend, already half way down on the ground, pulled his blindfold down with ease. Looking at up at you with his ethereal turquoise eyes that lied beneath strips of heavy white eyelashes, this part of his face was something you couldn’t see all the time.

“You’re beautiful……”, the genuine nature of his words felt unreal when compared to his everyday frivolous self, “at least I’ve always thought so”.

All the voices in the place except for his, got drowned out by the throbbing of your heart in your chest when he kneeled right in front of your crotch. The warm smile on his lips contradicted with his tantalizing actions but he enjoyed it precisely because of that.

“Open your legs a bit more y/n, I need more space to eat”, with his haughty smirk back he exposed more of your pussy with his fingers and dribbled the strawberry sauce over it until it started trickling down to the ground underneath it.

“This looks like a good dessert, waaay better than the one I was offered before”, making one last smartass comment he threw the now empty packet away and your sugar coated pussy was soon met with Satoru’s soft, warm tongue as he buries his face in it. His tongue worked it’s way beneath the layer of your pussy hair and down to the soft flabby skin underneath. Your natural slick combined with the dressing sauce tasted even sweeter in his mouth, the pleasant hums falling uncontrollably from his mouth made you wetter.

All the blemishes, scars and your self imposed flaws started melting into something more complete and unbreakable in its nature when you felt Satoru touching you, feeling you and tasting you from the inside and out.

His warm hands firmly gripped your thighs to lap at the soft peak in between. All the sensations his tongue was providing you made your vision turn black and your body heated up to the point of burning. The broad daylight and your exposed form added to the fear of being found out but your trust in your boyfriend outweighed everything so you let him have his way.

“ Hmmm, yeah y/n…”, the exaggeratingly loud slurping of his mouth came to a stop as he looked up at you, his pink lips glistening even more when he spoke, “Even this cheap stuff tastes better when I eat it directly from you”.

You were a panting mess, already having lost the ability to make coherent words you kept you eyes on Satoru as rose to his feet.

“ Let’s move on to the next part shall we?”, after smoothening out your skirt of you he held out his hand and your need for release took over all rhyme and reason so you put one of your shaking hand in his. The next few moments were confusing as a white light enveloped both of your forms and by the time your vision returned you found yourself in an unknown room.

The place itself was nothing out of the ordinary, some books, a cupboard and a vanity. The single bed near the curtained window was properly made. It was clearly not Satoru’s room but the neatness of the place also suggested that it wasn’t an unused room either.

“ Hey we’re are we?”, you question the white haired male when he casually made his way to switch on the lights.

“Don’t worry we’re still in the academy premises, you wanted to finish this right? And I didn’t wanted to go another second with hearing your pretty voice, so you can scream now,” his voice dangerously low, he held your arms in both of his hands and guided you to the single bed in the corner.

“ and I didn’t meant that as a request”, flat on your back you had no time for further questioning as your exposed cunt got filled to the brim in a single thrust. The stretch made you cry out and remembering Satoru’s previous warning you didn’t bother covering your mouth. The light in the room was enough for him to see all of you, even if he had all of you memorized at the back of since the first time.

Your twisted face that you’d consider ugly was nothing if not arousing to him from the kneeling position of his at the edge of the bed, endearing even at how the side of your eyes well up everytime he fucked you so hard, the creaking of the bed acted as a proof of his brutal pace that threatened to break the furniture.

Each powerful thrust of his made your entire body lurch from its position, your juices flowed endlessly down your thighs, on Satoru’s cock and down to the sheets. Your voice ricocheted off the walls and gave life to the entire building.

Having your orgasm cut off before, the anticipation that had build up made your upcoming release feel even ore intense. Your walls started clenching around his shaft, already feeling waves of ecstasy you waited for it to reach its peak.

“ Y/n...Come for me”, in between his grunts he placed on of his hand on the side of your head, lowering himself till your noses touched. Breaths intermingling, you came with a loud cry of his name. Euphoria spreaded through both of your bodies making a gush of liquid come out of your pussy when Satoru pulled out, both of your mess soiled the sheet.

Few minutes of silence passed by as a fully clothed Satoru sat beside you, stroking your head until you calmed down.

“ Hey y/n?”, abruptly his cheeky tone filled the room and you looked up at him questioningly,

“ Wanna take a pic? ya'know, as a momento”, the odd question made you come to an obvious conclusion, which now seemed obvious considering your boyfriend’s not so secret rebellious nature and with how much of a brat he can be it was nothing short of hilarious.

“ It’s Lisa’s room isn’t it?”, barely controlling your laughter you tried to pry an answer out of him, the soothing motion of his hands never coming to a stop he took out his phone with another.

“ Yeah, it is, I’d say it’s an excellent way of showing her our ‘bond’ dontcha think?”, his cringey answer made you burst into laughter. The first real smile he’d seen on your face since you got here was something Satoru wanted to be a constant thing, always there when he wanted to see it just like a still photograph.

Bending his face down his lips softly met your forehead and before you could open your eyes back up you heard the click of the camera go off.

“ Heh, so how is it?”, propping yourself up on your elbows you tried to peak at the screen but it was pulled out of sight just as quickly.

“ It’s perfect”, with a warm smile that reached all the way to his eyes Satoru put his phone down before peering into your eyes, “and it’s mine”.

[mcfanely]

Ivory and Gold

With Ninjago finally falling into a state of calm again, the Ninja finally find a chance to take a well deserved break after the whole Prime Empire debacle. What better to have time off than to visit the Kingdom of Shintaro upon official invite of King Vangelis, for his daughters birthday celebration. Only, Cole can’t help but feel that he’d already been to the ivory city before. The name at least rung a deeply hidden bell in his mind, the only issue was that he couldn’t place the memory.  4518 words

It wasn't every day that being a ninja coincided with celebration and relaxation, but sometimes karmic justice did work in their favour. 

Though it did always seem that whenever they donned their gis, it was for anything but a normal day. That the action of pulling on their masks, making sure all their weapons and armour were in place, checking the fit of the clothes and the tightness of their belts to prevent any mishaps during possible battles. It inherently meant danger. It meant that something had gone wrong with the world again, that there was another big bad on the horizon and it was their job as protectors to prevent the world from plunging into the hands of whatever evil and dark force had decided to try and play their hand and take over. 

Yet this time, things had been a little different. Generally, the kingdoms within Ninjago kept to themselves, as much as everyone else did. They interacted, yes, traded goods and services, but that was as far as anything really went. It was a state of harmony, a working relationship. 

Cole had heard about the Ivory City of Shintaro a while back, he didn't specifically remember who had mentioned it initially but the information was stored somewhere in his mind. He'd seen it too, or at least he'd felt he had. Stood on the deck of the Bounty, staring in astonishment as they descended amidst the towering structures that made up the city. Turrets that reached high into the sky, made to look even more vast due to the peak of the mountain that the kingdom already resided upon. 

Their duties as ninja was to protect life, maintain a visage of hope. Be people to look up to, and to be relieved to see. 

Sometimes, it also included showing face. It included being given opportunities and experiences that Cole would never have expected to have should he have led a normal and mundane life like anybody else. Such as being invited to a generally fairly closed off kingdom to celebrate the birthday of one of the heirs to the throne. Princess Vania, it wasn't a name Cole was very familiar with. 

Honestly, he wasn't familiar with anything there. Even as they docked and promptly met with and escorted through the complex and winding hallways of the kingdom's palace by a guide with wings no less. Golden sheets that almost looked like silk flowing in an invisible wind, and it looked as though any form of flight with them seemed impossible. Yet still, the man floated gracefully above the ground.

Nothing about the kingdom was ringing any bells other than the distant inkling that this wasn't the first time he'd been there, or that he'd heard of it. Faces, names, they were all completely foreign, but the feeling the place provided… 

It was so familiar, right on the tip of his tongue. 

"Earth to Cole," came a voice, and Cole promptly snapped back to reality with Jay's face far too close to his own. "You're thinking pretty hard."

He took a short step back to place some distance between the two of them before answering. "Yeah, I guess." Cole took a brief second to actually take in where they had ended up in the castle. The floor they were walking on was polished to perfection that it almost felt like sacrilege to be walking across it. Patterned with gold lines that stretched as far as Cole could see, turning corners as the floor did, glinting and glimmering in the sun as it passed through the windowed walls. "Just, you know, taking everything in." And he was. He may have been distracted, but he was taking in the splendor of the kingdom. 

"Awesome, isn't it?" Jay said in a wistful tone, his pupils practically blown wide. They both slowed down in their pace just slightly. They were still following along behind their winged guide and their friends, just a little bit further back. "It's not every day that we get invited to anything to do with royalty--."

"Well, I mean, we have." Cole shrugged loosely, not going into much more detail on the subject. He didn't need to anyway, since Jay just gave a slow nod, his eyes briefly tracking over to Lloyd, who seemed to be sharing a conversation between Kai and their winged companion. 

"That was, you know, ninja stuff." The lightning ninja replied, in time that strongly implied the idiom of 'water under the bridge'. "We were there to do a job. But here, it's to have fun." He seemed fairly ecstatic about that fact. 

They'd all been told of the reason for the trip not long before they'd actually set off. No real precursor, more of a 'pack your bags, we're heading off the following morning'. The invitation had been carefully constructed, a cream envelope with gold embossing announcing that the contents were for all of them to read. 

You have been cordially invited to the Shintaro Kingdom to partake in the birthday celebrations of the crowned Princess Vania.

It had read funny, and Jay had mentioned that it sounded portentous. 

An engagement that included all the ninja. It wasn't a battle to fight, it was a party to attend. Down time that they all agreed they needed and deserved. 

"Finally, something that's not stressful." Sighed Jay as the group came to a flight of stairs, which led up briefly to a huge standing white door, arched with golden and near cerulean blue tones that made the white stand out even more, if that was even possible. At this point, their guide turned back with a bit more of a measured expression. It was calm, but also the face of a man doing his job. 

"You are about to be introduced to the King of the Kingdom of Shintaro. He's been looking forward to your arrival." the man said with a smile, "We've all heard of the great deeds you've done. It's a pleasure to have you here. Now, King Vangelis awaits."

The man turned back to the door, flying a little higher to its centre, "It is with great honour," He began, the booming voice resonating around the now open throne room. Cole's mouth dropped at the magnitude, and it's beauty. It seemed to be an expression shared by everyone as they stepped forwards. 

"That I present the famed Ninja!" 

__

To say the day was busy would be an understatement, but Cole knew that the following day, the day of the actual birthday celebration would be a whole lot more hectic and exciting. They'd been given a proper tour of the castle after they'd met with King Vangelis, followed promptly by a walk around the city with the same royal guard as before guiding them through streets that were all filled with people setting up for the following days celebrations. There was a sense of calm to the place, a nice warmth and camaraderie that was displayed by anyone they had met. Everyone worked together, shared tasks and helped out in order to have everything done before the sun had dropped behind the horizon. Between walking through thin streets, sidestepping people walking down the paths with arms full of colourful bunting, Cole had spent a good portion of the day lost in thought. 

It was always a problem when he noticed something he couldn't quite put his finger on; and this kingdom just made him feel weird. The foreign familiarity of everything, the cleanliness of the air he breathed in struck a chord in his lungs, the way the sun dipped down below the halo of clouds that circled the peak of the mountain, below the city limits. How the orange colour still glowed from underneath the blanket before it finally disappeared behind the horizon line for the day. It was incredible. 

Déjà vu inducing, but incredible. 

Eventually, they were all guided to their rooms for the night. Guest rooms in the Palace of all places, an entire hallway dedicated to bedrooms specifically for visitors to the kingdom. As rooms went, they were lavish. Four poster beds adorned each one, huge amounts of room space, closets and cabinets that would go unused in their brief stay in the sleeping quarters, but it was more than what Cole had anticipated. What with going from sharing a room both at the monastery and shared living spaces in the reduced size of the Bounty, to finally getting his own place to sleep when they'd remodeled and rebuilt the burnt down shell of their old training ground, it was nice to have that privacy maintained. Anyway, if Cole needed anyone then he could just head to the room to the left or right of him and find one of his friends to talk to. Privacy didn't mean constantly staying alone. 

Yet, Cole was alone with his thoughts. Laid out on top of the beds quilt, the light from the day now faded fully into the din of the night, it was a time when he was meant to be winding down, not letting his mind run wild.

He just couldn't stop thinking. 

It was one thing, to have a minor inkling at familiarity, but it was another thing to be so sure that he'd heard of a place before to such an extent that somewhere, deep down, he'd seen this place before. He'd seen the climbing walls of ivory white, the buildings topped with cladding of the best blue and the most perfect gold that gave such an ethereal quality to everything. It was such a unique place. Anyone who'd ever set eyes on a kingdom like Shintaro would forever have the place branded into their memories. There was nothing like it in the whole of Ninjago, yet there Cole was with one arm draped over his eyes in an effort to bring sleep to him even in his energised state, sifting through his memories for anything that would help him make sense of the feeling that had planted itself in his chest. 

It brought with it warmth, a softness, the sensation almost tinted with rose in the best way. 

There was something that Cole was missing. Forgetting. 

However the darkened room, the softness of the mattress beneath him, the calming silence that the night always brought about; even plagued with an active mind, sleep was never really far away.

Cole fell into it, the comforting and restful silence.

For what felt like a blink.

He felt his eyes crack open far too soon, though he must have been asleep. His legs were now tangled with the bed covers and he'd migrated over onto his chest, hair falling in his face and what looked like a less than glamorous drool spot just beside his pillow. He had been sleeping. 

The dim blue light of the early early morning fizzled through the windows, providing a bit of light into the previously darkened room. 

Cole could go back to sleep easily, all he had to do was let his eyes slip closed. 

Then a noise met his ears. It was faint, the sound of shuffling almost. Enough to make his brow furrow and get him to sit up in bed, though a short glance around his room didn't reveal anything to him other than that his vision was still blurry from sleep. 

Then the noise happened again. Much clearer this time. Distinct, even, enough that Cole's eyes were open and alert in an instant. 

He wasn't sure how he'd missed it, but Cole was sure that barely a second ago he had been alone in his room. 

Now… 

Well, now he was staring into the eyes of… Something. It was short, purple skinned and had a mouth of sharpened teeth. A hood was pulled low over its head but it seemed as equally shocked to see Cole awake as Cole was to see the nightly visitor. 

Everything happened so quickly after that. The intruder started to make their escape, but even in the dregs of sleep, the earth master was quicker. Barely two steps away from the bed and the creature was laid out on the floor with Cole standing above him. 

He was about to speak, to question the reason behind why this… thing was lurking in his room. Where he'd even come from?

Before a tiny glint of gold caught his eye. 

Cole's eyes flicked briefly down to the locket around the intruders neck, clicked open in their brief struggle. It held two pictures inside, and before he realised it, Cole was reaching for the small piece of metal. Tugging it from the other person's neck, the chain breaking at the clasp, the pictures that were held reverently inside froze him to the spot. Half stood up, clothes still crinkled from sleep, the creature on its back just at his feet going all but forgotten as he stared at the faces that looked back from the black and white images. 

On the left side, the unmistakable face of his father. A small smile on his face, as he was looking over the expanse between the open locket, over to the picture that was held in the opposing side. 

A face that Cole had feared would fade from his mind for years. Being left with nothing much other than fond memories, though they were few and far between. Context and details lost over time, fading as many old memories did. The visage of his mother looked back up at him, as beautiful as she'd been the last time he'd ever seen her. He couldn't have asked for anyone better to have helped raise him.

Then, puzzle pieces began to slowly slot together, and a memory that had never even crossed his mind for a second was now pushed to the forefront. 

It was clear, scarily so, for how buried it had been. 

"What do you mean you're leaving." Came a high voice, almost whiny and temperamental. Small hands reached up and grabbed onto the closest thing they could reach, that being the bottom of the woman's shirt. The material was soon balled up in the child's palms, fabric stretching as it was pulled down . 

There was a quiet sigh, and arms reached down beneath the young boy's arms, scooping him up as if he weighed absolutely nothing. Dark hair, in vast need of a haircut dangled in front of his eyes, it was fluffed up and looked like he'd been rolling around on the grass, or messing around in some undergrowth if the twigs and loose pieces of foliage tangled in the strands were anything to go by. 

Lilly looked down at her son with a soft smile, then leaned forwards, pressing a prolonged kiss to the cheek of the boy in her arms. 

Cole squealed in retaliation, voice high and arms flailing as he failed to free himself from his mother's unrelenting grip. Still, the kiss went on until eventually, finally, she pulled back. Only to dot smaller briefer ones over his cheeks and nose. 

"I already told you yesterday, sweetie." Her voice was soft, but measured, as though they'd had this conversation a few times before. She crouched down, placing Cole back onto solid ground, then ruffled his hair even with all the earthly mess accumulated in it. 

"But you're going to be gone for so long." Cole crossed his arms over his chest, his face dropping into a sulk. 

Lilly crouched down more to her son's height, even though her toddler was still quite on the shorter side than his peers. "Only four days, Cole. I'll be back before you know it. It's only a short trip to Shintaro, your grandfather needs a little bit of help with something and he needs me there."

Cole looked up, brow furrowed in far too much suspicion for someone so young. "Because you're strong?"

"Yes, honey, because I'm strong."

"And- and," He paused, his fingers looping into a couple of the torn holes in the hem of his shirt, picking at the loose threads there. "And, you'll be okay? You'll be back? Because, you know, you're--" The words were muffled as he brought his hands up to his mouth, the sleeves of his jumper blocking the words. 

Dutifully, Lilly leaned forwards further until Cole could move closer to her ear to spill his small secret.

"Because you're more fun than dad…" He whispered, and she pulled back with a wide smile and silently shaking shoulders. 

"We'll keep that between the two of us." The words sounded like she'd gained some type of achievement. "But I promise, I'll be back. And whilst I'm gone, you're in charge?" 

Cole's eyes only widened, "Really?" He grinned. 

"Really, sweetie. Really. I need to have my little man looking out for my other older man."

Cole slowly came back to reality, still stood stock still in the centre of his bedroom, the locket held reverently in his grip as the blurred sleepy feeling that had overtaken his vision was replaced with a slight sting which could only mean the onset of tears. 

He shook his head, drew one sleeve over his eyes to catch any stray droplets, before his attention shot immediately down to the floor. 

The empty floor. 

Cole cursed. 

He'd been so caught off guard, so caught up in memory he was surprised he even remembered that whoever the intruder was, they'd disappeared as promptly as they had so suddenly appeared. The floor was bare, no inch or indicator that there had even been anyone there in the first place, or if Cole had just been dreaming.

The locket in his hands stated otherwise. 

He stared down at it, his feet moving him back over to the edge of the bed in autopilot, where he slumped down and kept staring. 

He'd always been told he looked a lot like Lilly. By anyone that had known her, the comparison was always drawn. Or at least, they did draw it. They looked at him, old family friends, long time neighbours. They all reverently stated that he was just like his mother. 

Until any comment like that slowly came to a stop. 

Cole hadn't heard it much at all, following her passing at least. 

His fingers traced their way over the image, moving with the contours of her face, captured and frozen in an everlasting expression of peace and contentment. 

It was the exact way he remembered her, that small smile that was always there. The warmth in her expression, even towards the end. 

Cole hadn't been allowed to see her as she'd only gotten sicker and sicker, but he remembered her laid in bed at home. He'd spent most of his time there, sat quietly with a book or sharing headphones and music with her to keep her company. He could never have imagined that one day he'd leave that room and he'd never see her again. 

"That same song again?" 

The words came out of nowhere, an internal and forgotten dialogue that dragged sharply at Cole's heartstrings. 

"Well, if you want to change the song, you can be in charge of the music," He was sitting on the right side of her bed. His mother was laid just under the covers, her back propped up with a couple pillows and her hair was pulled back from her face with a hair-tie. Even around the usual expression on her face, she was clearly sickly. Her skin was paler, a grey tone permeating the darker tone. There were bags under her eyes, ones had just got deeper and deeper with each passing day. Cole was sat cross-legged on top of the covers, music player held in his hand and a single earphone hanging from one ear. His mother had the other one. 

She held up one hand to stop him, "No, no, the technology is far too complicated."

He closed his eyes, before holding the player up to her, "You literally just press this arrow button--" 

"As I said, sweetie, far too complicated."

"You grew up with this tech as much as I did, mom."

That seemed to catch her out for a second, but she just chuckled and shook her head. "No, no, I didn't. This is, why you're holding the music box--" 

"Player."

"And I'm just listening to it." Lilly said plainly, then rested one hand on her son's knee afterwards, squeezing lightly. "Though you don't need to be sitting there flicking through songs for me, don't you have homework? Or friends to write letters to."

At that point, Cole knew that she was just trying to make him laugh. Phones were a thing and she was fully aware of that factor, if the grin that split apart her previously stoney facade meant anything. 

Cole laughed, resting his head back against the headboard. "I'm spending today with you. I'll get my homework done tomorrow, I promise."

"You'd better." Lilly smiled, threading a hand through his hair. He just paused for a second, allowing his eyes to slip closed at the contact, "Otherwise we'll have to tell your dad that you did it and then rush to get it done last minute, all the while trying not to get caught in the lie."

Cole just grinned even more, "You're words, mom, not mine." He held up his hands in mock surrender. "I'll sit in here tomorrow and do my work. Deal?" 

"Or," She spread her hands, as if she was going to impart a revelation upon the world. "You could sit outside, because it's been sunny the past few days and you've been cooped up with me." Lilly pointed to the window of the room. The curtains were drawn, they always were. It kept the room dim, the light from getting too harsh, but there was a warm glow from the sun permeating the material. 

Cole sighed. He could sit outside, he could sit in the middle of the flower beds. Sure, it would frustrate his dad and track mud back into the house, but with the sun shining down on everything, the colours and the smell floating in the air around him; it would be worth it to get his school work done outside. Yet, there was also the fact that he wanted to sit and spend time with his mother. He wasn't a child, he wasn't sheltered from the world. His mom had been sick for a while and she only ever seemed to get worse and not better. 

He could see how it affected family life too. It was rare that Lilly got up out of bed anymore, and with his dad out working it left Cole with the lion's share of chores and jobs to get done. He didn't mind, how could he? It kept everything clean, his mom didn't get worried and his dad wasn't stressed over the unfinished tasks when he came back home from a performance or rehearsal. But it was clear that what was happening to Lilly was affecting everyone. Smiling was hard to come by whenever he left her bedroom, he was always partially focused on a task along with wondering if his mom was okay. 

Which was why it made it easier sitting with her and getting stuff done. If he was worried, all he had to do was look to his left and see that she was fine. 

It made the day easier to handle. 

"Cole, you're going to sit outside tomorrow, right? Have a quiet day, leave chores alone for a while. Go on a walk or something." Lilly offered with a tilted head, "No rush to get things done."

"Other than homework." 

She nodded in agreement, "Other than homework. Which you will do--" 

"Outside." They said in unison. 

Cole smiled and leant over to press a kiss to his mom's forehead, "I'll have a quiet day tomorrow then, mom."

"You'd better."

That night, he'd walked out of her room like he did every other day. The following day he'd brought her breakfast, then walked out into the middle of the bed of chrysanthemums with a maths textbook slung under his arms. The day had been far too unassuming for it to be anything but normal. 

Cole hadn't thought that the final memory he shared with his mother would be something so mundane. She deteriorated rapidly afterwards. He was kept away from it, prevented from going into her room. He knew the reason behind it, the attempt to shield him from what must have been the last few days of his mother's life. 

But staring down at the picture in the locket, a face that he hadn't seen, hadn't thought about properly for years, it brought everything crashing back. Every birthday, every small conversation. Every night spent with his dad's old record player spinning in the corner of the room, his small hands in her sure grip, his feet - donned in fluffy socks - were stood on top of hers as she danced her way around the living room of his childhood home, guiding Cole's movements. 

She'd been to Shintaro, she may have even walked the same halls he'd walked that morning. He may have literally followed in her footsteps. 

Though that realisation fell into the background as the first of the tears dripped slowly down his cheek and landed as a dark mark on the bed covers. More only continued to follow as he looked at her picture in his hand. One of his dad, the other of his mom; their family back together again in a way that Cole had never imagined, or expected to happen. 

The tears wouldn't stop flowing, the hiccuped breathing that came with crying was silenced by his own hand clamped over his mouth. 

He'd just had someone in his room, but he didn't care about it during the moment. He'd found his mother's locket around said creature's neck, but that fact moved to the outer reaches of his awareness as Cole sat on the edge of his bed, head and shoulders slumped forwards as if acting as a barrier between the world around him and the precious memory held in his hands.

Even with his found family in rooms both to the left and right of his own, he stayed where he was. Tears falling slowly and silently, shoulders shaking minutely. The rising sun had begun to show itself now, a line of hazy orange flowing warmly into his room. Cole could get up, he honestly should go and get someone and tell them about what had taken place. 

He just found he couldn't move. He didn't want to move, he didn't want anyone to see him in the state he was in. 

Crying over memories that were so far in the past, long forgotten until that one moment. The warmth and happiness of his mother's smile, her soft voice yet foreboding and stoic demeanor. 

Cole could wait until everyone else was awake before he mentioned what had happened. 

For now, he was content to sit in the comfort of the memories of his mom, his palm closing as he clicked the locket shut. 

-

AO3

Thank you, @existentiallyrandom, you’re so galaxy brained!

[chubbyheroesworthyheroes]

Raphael + 🐮 please.

Training to become a knight was hard work, and working hard was something Raphael was used to -- and he enjoyed it more often than not! Working with his hands was something he found relaxing, and physical labor only helped him to put on more muscle, so he sure wasn’t going to complain. No, that part of the training was simple enough for him to get on with, it was all the books and strategies that stalled him and made everything difficult.

Raphael knew he wasn’t the smartest guy around, but what he lacked in book smarts, he did his best to make up for in determination.

He really did try to listen to lectures and all that stuff. He read what was marked down for the week. He’d even go over things several times just to try and get it to stick in his head, but when it came down to it, it almost felt like it went in one ear and out the other. It was a little disheartening, but whenever Raphael felt himself hitting a low with studies, that’s when he knew it was time to hit the markets and look for a little project to get his mind off it!

Whenever he had the spare time, Raphael would go down to the market just outside of Garreg Mach. It was always bustling and busy, full of merchants and trademasters hawking their wares or skills. He tended to go and look for anything that was busted up and discounted, or something that people just wanted to get rid of. Fixing things up was a joy to him, and the merchants usually cut him a deal when they came back and he presented them with a refurbished item.

This time around, Raphael was returning a fixed up chest to a man from the Holy Kingdom. It was in pretty bad shape when he found it the previous week, but a lot of hard work and elbow grease had it looking practically like new!

“Wow, you really have a talent for this!” the merchant praised, inspecting the chest for any glaring flaws. He’d been hauling that damn thing around for a while and hadn’t managed to unload it on anyone, but this knight-in-training had fixed it up in a week’s time and had it looking mighty fine indeed!

Raphael laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Aw, it was nothing! It was a real pleasure to work on.”

The merchant smiled, but there was a deviousness to it that the large blond completely missed as he blabbered on about how he’d worked on the chest. Really, if the young man was this happy to do work for very little return, then there was another item that the merchant would be happy to dump on him.

“Well, I really appreciate your hard work, my boy! I’m afraid I can’t give you much, but I do have a rather unique item I could give you for your troubles,” the man waxed on, standing up from where he’d been looking over the chest to go root around in his stall. It was an incredibly plain item -- an old nose ring for cattle -- but the blasted thing was cursed. Every person that had been its owner had either mysteriously disappeared, leaving only the ring behind, or they were some poor fool who couldn’t get rid of it no matter how little they asked for it. The merchant fell into the latter category, as he’d happened to win it off some near-broke drunk in a game of cards. But, he’d been stuck with it for years without being able to find a buyer, so he wasn’t going to let this chance slip by without trying to dump it off on this sucker.

Finding the small pouch he’d kept it in for years, the man returned to Raphael, leaning in conspiratorially. “You’re training to become a knight, right? Well, this little thing might not look like anything special, but it’ll make you strong as a bull! Could really help with your trainin’, yeah?” he trots out his impromptu spiel, pushing the leather pouch into the blond’s big hands.

Raphael beams at the gift, accepting the pouch gladly -- and passing off the item’s dubious energy onto himself by doing so.

“Wow, really?! Thanks! I can’t wait to get to trying this thing out!”

It wasn’t until he’d gotten back to his room that Raphael even bothered to take a look at what he’d been given for his work, and as confused as he was when the cattle ring plopped out of the pouch into his hand when he opened it up, he wasn’t the sort to look a gift horse in the mouth. If all he had to do was clip the ring on when he was training to get the benefits of it, then he’d do it -- after all, being as strong as a bull sounded exactly like something he wanted!

It didn’t even hurt when he put it on, as he sort of thought it would, but it almost felt like there wasn’t anything there.  Now, all he had to do was try it out and see how much stronger he was going to get! As he was leaving his room for the training grounds, Raphael was stopped in his tracks by his stomach cramping up with intense hunger, like he hadn’t eaten in a week.

“Ugh, guess the tank needs some proper fuel before I go buildin’ up more muscles with any training…,” Raphael groaned to himself, a hand on his growling middle, as he made a beeline for the dining hall. It wasn’t unusual for him to eat before a training session -- and then after, as well -- he had eaten not too long ago, so it was a little out of the ordinary. But, brushing it off as nothing more than his abundant appetite wanting to fuel up for a good round of training, Raphael didn’t concern himself any further with it besides thinking of what he’d order.

The hunger only seemed to get worse, so by the time it was his turn in line, he was so desperate for food that Raphael simply asked for one of everything that the kitchens had available that day. The staff gave him an irritated look at his extensive order, but they knew him quite well since he’d started at the academy, so they just got on with it in order to move the line along as smoothly as possible. It takes far too many of the kitchen workers to bring all of his dishes out, even with Raphael taking on a good amount of them, but it was all worth the hassle when he finally got to chow down.

Plates and bowls of food were demolished in record time. Raphael was all about getting as much food in his mouth as fast as possible, so table manners didn’t slow him down any. He scarfed every morsel down rather messily, but nothing went to waste as he even licked the plates clean in his feeding frenzy.

If he weren’t so distracted with satisfying the burning hunger in his middle, he might have noticed that his tongue seemed broader as it lapped up sauces and crumbs from dishes. A slight irritation at his temples and tailbone was likewise ignored in favor of filling up his stomach, the small areas affected itching like mad all of a sudden. Faint but slowly growing more prominent were splotches of black and white on his skin, becoming visible almost like freckles popping up from being out in the sun.

With a hearty sigh, Raphael slapped a meaty hand against the bloated curve of his middle; hunger finally satisfied from the veritable feast he’d just ingested. With an eagerness that most didn’t usually have after eating so much, he cleared all of his dishes from the spot he’d claimed at one of the tables and dashed right off to the training grounds. He was just too excited to wait any longer to see how this thing was going to boost his training!

He idly scratched at his head as he made his way over, oblivious to the bony protrusions that looked an awful lot like nubby horns that seemed to be growing at his temples. The splotchy spots on his body were only growing darker, while the other areas of his skin seemed to be going in the opposite direction and turning completely white.

Raphael went about his usual routine; even with an overfull stomach, he felt energized, and so went through his paces harder than normal once he got through everything so easily the first time around.

“Man, this thing really does work!” Raphael beamed to himself, grunting as he brought his hammer down with all his strength on one of the dummies set up in the yard. It collapsed under the heavy pressure like it had nothing but hope and a prayer holding it up, the head of the hammer sinking into the packed dirt several inches. As he goes to pull the weapon out of the ground, he grunts when the already strained buttons of his shirt suddenly seem to give up completely, bursting off his shirt in a succession of dull pings. Now, being such a large guy, Raphael wasn’t entirely unused to this sort of thing happening, but it was strange for it to be coupled with the uncomfortable sensation of his pants being entirely too tight on him at the same time.

“Huh...Th-That’s weird…,” he mumbled in confusion, a hand coming up to inspect the loose threads now left dangling from his open shirt. He’d popped one or two off before at the same time, but all of them?

His eyes are drawn down, however, when the fabric of his shirt rubs up against his nipples, and the feeling makes him groan in the most embarrassing of ways. Raphael brings a hand up to his chest, calloused fingers hesitantly running over the area -- surprised to find his pecs were...squishy, and not firm with bulging muscle as they had been just earlier that day. As he’s squeezing his budding moobs, which he can feel filling up more and more of his hand as he does so, warm liquid suddenly squirts onto his palm. He pulls his hand back to look at the small puddle wetting his palm, and quickly realizes that it was milk.

But...he couldn’t…

A sharp, sudden tearing sound distracts Raphael, hands flying to the seat of his trousers to feel the large rip in the material. Cheeks blazing red, he tries to find a good place to hide, but it’s suddenly become incredibly difficult to move around with his pants so damn tight. His ass just seems to get bigger the more he struggles; the two, fat orbs fighting for space until they tear through what was left of the material trying to keep them in check -- a growing, black and white cow’s tail swinging lazily above the flabby globes. His thighs are also ballooning up, destroying the sad remains of his trousers as they grow fatter. It’s a weird relief and rush of further embarrassment, but everything feels like it’s getting slower as weight keeps piling onto his frame.

His moobs never stopped in their growth despite Raphael’s attention shifting elsewhere, squishy titflesh blowing up and out, getting heavier and heavier as they filled up with creamy milk. It was getting so heavy and distracting that Raphael groaned in desperation -- really, it sounded more like a moo -- at the immensely building pressure in his chest, plopping down on his fat ass as he mindlessly gropes at the overflowing boobs that his bulky pecs have transformed into. Thick, creamy milk sprays out from his teats, coating his black and white stomach in the warm liquid as he lows deeply, eyes almost rolling back in his head at the pleasure it brings.

While it hadn’t kept up with the same growth of his chest or ass, Raphael’s stomach has still lost any hints of its once muscular form. It’s bloated up, round and firm, but tucked neatly underneath his quite astounding man jugs.

It doesn’t take long for someone else to hear his raucous mooing and discover his bloated, bovine self stuck in the training area. Well, he wouldn’t be training to be a knight anymore, but the academy would happily pay for the high quality milk Raphael produced...

[the-fiction-witch]

Better

REAL LIFE COUPLE TBS X READER (teenagers) RATING SMUTT

(teenage plot, seriously none of this makes any sense unless there teenagers so kinda have to remember that else the plot makes no sense)

I smiled as I hoped along the sweet London streets, in my little blue summer dress and little socks coming up to my knees, humming my little tune as I arrived at the house I was looking for opening the little gate even if it whined as I did, shutting it behind me and going up to the black front door knocking on the silver handle a couple of times,

Not a second later the door opened to the tall dark haired man I know very well

"Ooh Hiya y/n" he smiled

"Hi Mr Sangster," I smiled

"Hey call me mark Hun you've been around enough" he laughs letting me in "Thomas knows your coming?"

"I did message him but, you know what he's like with his phone" I laughed

"True, True, well he's up in his room I'm off out I'll lock you two In as you'll be in your own" he says

"Thanks" I smiled running up the staircase noticing Ava's room was empty two probably at her boyfriends or something so I went to Thomas' door knocking gently

"Go away!" He yelled from inside

"Tommy it's me" I laughed

"Fine come in" he sighed so I opened the door sneaking in and shutting it again to be met with an odd sight.

His floor was littered with food wrappers, tissues and socks.

His bed seemed made and almost unused.

His curtains pulled leaving the room in darkness.

All but his pc monitor that cascaded abusively bright light across his room.

He sat at his pc on his little chair his desk covered in various things that I didn't want to inquire about

"Hi y/n" he sighed

"Hi, you've been... Busy"

"Ummm... I have," he answered

"Are you okay?"

"Fine, fine,"

"Okay, why is your room such a tip?"

"Been busy"

"Busy? Yeah I can tell busy doing what?"

"You don't wanna know"

"Don't I?"

"You really don't"

"Whatever Thomas, you can continue your business while I'm here I don't care"

"You really won't care?"

"No, your room do whatever you want" I laughed "I'm just here for your brain" I smiled sitting in his bed with my college coursework I sat working for a while as he did stuff on his computer not sure what till I noticed his hand... In his lap moving and the little noise, I was confused before I noticed his screen

"Aaaaahhh Thomas what the fuck!" I yelled

"What! You said I could!"

"Yeah I meant do whatever random shit you where doing"

"Well I've been doing this so? You said do what I normally do?"

"I didn't mean jerk off your perv!"

"You said you didn't care!"

"I care if I'm in the room and your jacking yourself Thomas!"

"Uhhh just let me finish y/n" he groans

"How much have you been doing this? Is that why you've been snuggled up in your room the last month? This is what you've been doing?"

"Yeah? I'm not hurting anybody"

"You can't stay locked in your room masturbating for a month Thomas" I tell him "how are you not dead?"

"Eating alot of cereal"

"Hu?"

"Cereal, dairy increases stamina and load content as do most cereals that aren't just sugar" he explained

"So breakfast cereal is like a jizz making meal?"

"Indeed it is"

"Hu... Then why did Mr Kellogg think it would make guys not wanna masturbate? Seems like he was inventing it Purley for masturbating"

"Yeah..."

"Are you still?"

"Yes! And I'd appreciate not trying to hold a conversation when I'm this close to - c-cumming" he groans

"Thomas... I think you may have a chronic masterbation problem" I tell him he ignored me so I sighed going out his room not exactly like I wanna watch him but then I had an idea I snuck down the stairs into the den and found the WiFi found the socket it plugged into and switched it off I could hear him complaining as I went back upstairs seeing him sat on his bed bundled up in the dark sucking his thumb "Thomas it's okay" I told him careful

"No it's not okay! I was so close!!" He complained "I hate this, I want my porn back" he whines

"Why don't you try something better then porn?" I suggest

"What do you mean? Nothings better then that?"

"Well there are other ways Thomas" I laughed

"Ooh you mean like the magazine's, oh no I stole those from my dad, they don't do much for me I guess the internet has kinda spoilt me I just don't find them interesting" he explained

"Your a werid little guy Thomas" I laughed

"What, I thought when everyone started developing it was just kinda werid... Then it Uhhh hit like a ton of bricks when I found the porn"

"Well there is other options" I laughed

"What options? My porn is gone and magazines don't do anything, what my imagination? Kinda hard to imagine when your here"

"That's not what I meant Thomas" I laughed

"Then what?"

"I thought maybe... As you where so desperate and the wifis out and your room is so cosy and dark maybe two childhood freinds might... Experiment?" I suggested getting up from his bed looking though the small box of vinyl his dad let him have in his room, as all of it was his dad's as was the record player but Thomas had managed to sneak it away to his room

"Experiment? With- with you!"

"I'd you liked" I smiled picking one out carefully setting it all up letting the sweet music play

"How's that gonna help? How is us doing science gonna help my problem?"

"No Thomas... I mean we could do something even better then porn" I laughed sitting back beside him on his bed

"Better the porn?" He asks "nothing is better then porn"

"Ooh you stupid boy" I sighed grabbing his neck and kissing him he was in shock a moment but kissed me back gently kissing our kisses very slow and hardly any moment at all till he gently moved away to speak between kisses

"It's uhh it's nice but when does it start getting better then porn?" He muttered unable to completely stop kissing me so I pulled him closer moving his hands to the small of my back kissing him much deeper and more passionate "oohhh..." He muttered a little surprised I smirked a little and slipped my tounge in his mouth he kept up with me a little lost but not wanting to stop as our little kisses turned into being sat on his bed making out for what felt like forever till I pulled away "whoa..."

"Nice?"

"Really nice" he blushed "really really good actually... But honestly? Not better then porn. It's you know not gonna make me finish or anything" he explained

"Wanna try something else?" I suggest

"Does that mean we have to stop making out?" He asks in panic holding my arms

"Aww not if you want to keep going" I smirked "so something else or make out again?"

"Again!" He says excitedly so I smiled and pulled him back to kissing me our making out lasting ages this time and he often pulled me closer to him so hardly an inch was between us Thomas even lead a little in this kiss but I noticed his hand was gone I looked down seeing him they and slip it down his jeans so I grabbed his hand and pulled away

"I can think of something better then your videos" I smiled laying back in his bed and pulling my dress down enough to flash him my purple lace bra his eyes went wide as he was almost drooling over me I smiled sitting up on my elbows looking at him "you can touch if you want Thomas?" I encouraged

"Touch? What do you mean?" He asked a little lost "I can touch whatever I want? If I want to?" He asks and I nodded I was excited but to my dismay his hand simply slipped in his jeans clearly jerking off

"Thomas what are you doing?" I laughed making him stop

"Jerking off... Looking at you? What that not right?" He asks

"No Thomas" I laughed giving him a kiss and putting his hands on my boobs

"Oohh my god."

"Better then porn?" I smirked

"Porn is worthless to me now" he answered "I have boobs now.... There like porn you can squish"

"Thomas enough" I laughed pushing him away he looked upset but I gave him a kiss and got out his bed going over and flipping the record as this side had finished and as soon as I did I undid my dress letting it drop turning and playing with my hair as I let Thomas see all of me in my little matching lace lingure he was in shock I think his hand uncontrollably going to touch himself "Tommy stop it" I told him slapping his hands away from himself

"I'm sorry y/n I just don't know what else to do, your so beautiful and you make me feel good so... Jerk off looking at you I don't have any other presets in my head" he explained

"Humm let's fix that then" I smiled wrapping his arms around me as he was sat on his bed and sitting in his thighs wrapping my arms around his neck rubbing my nose and body on him

"What do I do now?" He asks

"Whatever your Dick's telling you too Thomas" I whispered kissing down his neck

"It's telling me to jerk off"

"Other then that" I laughed

"It wants to fuck you"

"Well listen to your dick Thomas" I giggled laying on his bed it took maybe a millisecond before Thomas was ontop of me his arms around me so tightly his hands both crossed over my back to hold the opposite waist his knee on my thigh keeping my legs open so he could gently grind his crotch against my own he kissed me like crazy almost like a vampire was trying to eat me as he kissed up and down my neck every inch of us pushed up against each other as he forced my back to arch giving him even more space to rub up against me

"Uuummmmm I need you so bad, princess" he groans between kisses

"Hehe Thomas stop it" i giggled pushing him away a little

"What? What's wrong? I thought I was doing as my dick told me to?"

"Well yeah but don't you think you should... Lock your door?" I suggest

"Ooh right yeah" he blushed getting up and locking his door I smiled invitingly as I laid in the bed he blushed harder slipping his shirt off and getting into bed with me returning to our passionate lusty snuggle and make out we where holding each other so tightly lost in everything that we even rolled around his bed sometimes is be ontop of him others he'd be on me sometimes neither of we ended up on our sides his hands going all over me and I couldn't deny mine did on him too till I was nuzzled against his pillow as he kissed my neck working on undoing his jeans his hand left a moment and I was instantly suspicious I looked and he was digging around in his draw till I saw him grab a condom putting it on the corner of his bedside table I smiled pulling him back to kissing my lips till I pulled away

"Better then porn?" I asked

"A billion times better princess" he blushed "so..." He says getting the condom in his hand as he sat over me "your sure you want to do this?" He asks

"I'm sure... You sure you want to?"

"I don't think I've ever been more sure of anything in my life" he answered giving my lips a kiss "I think I love you y/n"

"You don't love me Thomas, that's just your hormones, you don't love me your just listening to your dick again" I laughed

"Y/n I do, I know I do, I have for as long as I can remember, since you use to come play sand pit and you used to force me to play tea with you and ava, I've had a crush on you for as long as I can remember... I know I went a little crazy with jerking off but it's only because I couldn't have the girl I really wanted"

"And now?"

"And now I finally get to lose my virginity to my princess" he blushed

"Awww Thomas" I smiled hugging him tightly "I love you too"

"Did you wanna be my girlfriend?"

"I'd love to" I smiled "now... You still want to?" I asked taking the condom wrapper out his hand and he blushed and nodded pulling me back to kissing him.

[garden-ghoul]

spooky shit in convoy game

jsyk the space whalers were emilie’s fault, I was JUST talking about star wars

Augmented Reality: This is the Beam Saber equivalent of ghosts from BitD. The internet, but you can see it all around you! Holograms and stuff, smells and tastes if you’re rich. Sentient programs that can Go Wrong, et c. People who program in AR are called augmentors. We also know that if the interface is altered in certain ways--for some reason mold and fungi alter digital AR interfaces without rendering them unusable--it can make AR really fucking weird.

Wild AR: When humans invented AR and the interfaces to view and program it, they found that there something their interfaces could pick up and interact with that they didn’t put there. And in remote places, you may not even need an interface to experience wild AR. Wild AR isn’t directly programmable, except in certain locations on the planet Tir (’AR temples’), which aren’t working very well any more for the most part. Nevertheless the Aurish and Sagittan armies are racing to find complete information on how these temples work, because whoever can make a mobile version can manipulate reality itself any time and anywhere.

The Aurish squad dedicated to researching AR temples is the Archaeological Expeditionary Force. Sagitta doesn’t have one yet, because you can just as easily send a normal combat squad to guard some augmentors, but I kind of assume it’s eventually going to be the player squad, Rickshaw Convoy.

Blackwhales: A couple decades ago it became apparent that blackwhales (’whales’ that traverse the Black) can travel interstellar distances in practical amounts of time. The immediate question was: how can we get this ability from them? They didn’t prove amenable to towing spaceships around, so Sagittan scientists created the next best thing: the bone doors. Bone doors are structures made from blackwhale bone and skin, with blackwhale blood pumping through. Nobody really has confirmed theories about WHY bone doors work, only empirical evidence for HOW they work: you point them in a direction and they shoot whatever goes through into the nearest solar system the path intersects with. This has obvious potential for all kinds of nasty accidents; you can't use a bone door to retrieve a ship if you misaimed and sent it 1000 light years away. Sagitta has settled on making a larger number of bone doors that all point to different places so they don't have to be readjusted, but it does take more raw material (dead blackwhales) to maintain them. Each system generally only has one Aurish-held bone door, which is reprogrammed for each jump. This does unfortunately mean they have about a 1.5% chance of sending you somewhere they didn't intend, to starve slowly in the Black, but hey! It saves on whales.

The Sagittan whaling fleet call themselves the Bonesmen and are very grim and salty about it all. Aurum actually has no dedicated whaling fleet; instead they have a privateer company called the Blackwhales Brigade who occasionally bring down a blackwhale but prefer to just rob the Bonesmen’s transports when practical.

Empaths: What is an empath? The White Group would LOVE to know. Their chosen research subjects are people with essentially an extra sense, which variously manifests as precognition, clairvoyance, or reading thoughts and emotions. This last is the most common in the wild, as it were, which is why they’re called empaths, but it’s not clear how they do what they do or why others can’t. They are often gifted pilots, but Dr. White and zir researchers are divided on whether that has anything to do with the empathy.

Sagitta and Aurum for the most part keep known empaths out of battle, but the fact that Sovereignty has no formal research or much infrastructure at all means they have an entire squad of empaths: Tremor, a seven-person unit that has never lost a member yet.

[blkmxrvel]

Hotel Mishaps

Pairing: brie larson x fem!reader

Words: 3k [ 3,014 ]

Request:  There’s only one bed! Ft Brie Larson and a Press Tour!

Summary: press tour has got you losing your mind, patience and self control. you blame your best friend, brie, for it all. 

Warnings: sexual themes! gets hot and steamy but no full fledged smut.

A/N: i tried my best, i really did. i hope you guys like it!! i needed something to get me back into the grove and take a hit at my requests so, here we go! look how fucking beautiful she is literally the love of my damn life. 

You sighed as you fell back onto the hotel bed, your body relaxing as you hit the soft mattress. You closed your eyes for a moment, allowing yourself to de-stress a little bit. And by deep stress, I clearly mean nap. You threw your forearm over your head to block out the sun, and slightly turned so that you were laying on your side. You continued to let your breathing slow, and your muscles relax. You were so close to sleeping when your best friend came barging into the room. 

“Oh, my God!” Brie groaned as she trudged through the hotel room, immediately flinging her jacket on a nearby chair. “Today was absolutely impossible! I’m just so glad that it’s over,”

You let out a sigh, knowing that you weren’t going to get any sleep anytime soon. Sitting up with your eyes still closed, you rolled your shoulders back, hopefully alleviating some of the tension building in them. 

“Yeah, then we gotta do it all over again tomorrow, and then the days after that for the next 3 months.” You rubbed your hands over your facing, holding them there as you willed yourself to try and not fall asleep. 

You and Brie were best friends, as well as co-stars on this huge blockbuster movie. Of course, with every high anticipated movie, comes week after week of grueling press tours trying to promote it. 

Answering the same exact questions everyday, and having to have the same fake smile  plastered on your face was getting old really quickly. You weren’t really sure why you had to do the Press anyways. It wasn’t like the movie was struggling to pick up interest, and a large crowd wasn’t promising. It was quite the opposite actually. From the day the movie was announced there has been nonstop talk; it was almost positive that each box office would be bustling on premiere night, press tour or not. 

Either way, it’s not like you have much choice in the matter. A contract is a contract. And it wasn’t that you weren’t stoked. You were having an absolute blast traveling the world and getting to brag about your work, with your best friend at that. It was more so of how taxing it was, physically, mentally, and sexually. 

But things had to get done the way they have to get done. 

Opening your eyes, your jaw nearly fell to the floor. Brie was standing in front of you, back towards you. And that’s all it was. She was completely naked as she was trying to find her pajamas. 

“Can you pass me my towel? It should be on the bed.” You snapped out of your trance, muttering a ‘yeah sure’ and tossing the towel at your best friend. You tried your hardest not to steal another glance at your naked best friend. For some reason that you didn’t dare try to understand, Brie has just been making your body ignite in just the smallest of ways. Whether it was her hand on your waist when you were hugging, the way her jaw clenched when an interviewer asked her a particularly dumb question, or the way her voice rasped when she told you to go fuck yourself when you wake her up. 

Either way, for the past week, there has been a  dam growing at your core waiting to blow. You had blamed it on the Press Tour, saying that stress filled work hours as well as being with someone your comfortable with literally all day everyday was the reason for your constant arousal. But even after the 3 day break you had, the next time you saw Brie, clad her in muscle tank and sweatpants, you were ready to risk it all for the simple feeling of her lips on your neck. It had to stop, you knew it did. You have 3 more weeks of Press, and  you couldn’t spend them thirsting over your best friend.

You prayed to whatever, whoever out there that you would be able to make it through these next few weeks cool, calm and composed. 

It looks like you didn’t pray hard enough, because when you and Brie arrived at your next hotel, you were in for a loop. For some reason, there weren’t separate rooms booked for you and Brie, meaning that you needed to share one for the next few days. 

There wasn’t anything too bad about that. You and Brie do live together back in Los Angeles. So you knew how to get through your night in the same room. You also knew how to release the building pressure inside of you with anyone noticing, so you weren’t worrying about that either. 

That day though, Brie had just been turning you on to no end. She didn’t know it of course, but the way she smiled at you and the way her dress hugged her body in all the right places had you screaming for mercy. Internally of course. But that was all minor stuff, you could handle those turn ons. 

What you couldn’t handle however was the way veins popped out of Brie’s neck when some random idiot tried to grab your ass. The way her eyebrows rose and the vice grip she had on the man’s hand.

Can she put a baby in me?

How her jawline became more defined than it already is, and the way her eyes instantly darkened. You….You couldn’t handle that. 

Yes, Brie. Let everyone know that only you are able to smack my ass. Let everyone know that actually. Please and thank you. 

Okay, maybe your hormones were getting the best of you. But it did kinda suck that you had to platonically share a room with Brie when all you wanted to do was sleep with Brie ...if you know what I mean. 

But that’s okay, space was good. You needed as much space as possible to keep your arousal at bay, and make it through these next few days. Space was going to be a life saver. 

Until…..there wasn’t any more space. 

“So….” Brie uttered when she met you at the elevator. “It seems like the hotel messed up again, because there’s only one bed. So we’re going to have to share one.” What?

On the outside, you kept your cool, calm and relaxed composure, telling Brie that it was no big deal. You two had shared plenty of beds when  you were younger, and sometimes had to, like now. But back then, you weren’t itching to climb Brie like a tree. 

On the inside, you were a wreck, because how the fuck were you going to make it through your horny nights with Brie right next to you? What were  you supposed to do? You couldn’t silently rub one out with your best friend in the same bed as you, whether she’s the cause or not. And you couldn’t tell Brie how you were feeling, that would make things too weird. You definitely did not want to spend another night tense and orgasmless, but it looks like you were going to have to. 

You couldn’t wait for this Press Tour to be over. 

--

You thought that maybe after a few hours, your feelings would subside and you would be able to function like a normal human being. But you were wrong. Laying in the bed in the pitch black room, Brie right next to you with her heavy breaths hitting your ear, you were more on edge than before. 

Her warm body was only inches from yours in the king size bed. You could feel the warmth radiating from her body, going straight down and warming your core even more. You were aware of every single, grumbled, whine, and shift she made. It was driving you crazy.

You were shifting every five minutes, 10 at most, clenching your legs together in hopes that the rampant throbbing in your clit would just stop. But to no avail. You shifted one last time, letting out a frustrated groan, heart stopping when you heard moving from beside you. 

“Y/N/N? You alright?” 

Fuck. All you heard was rasp in Brie’s unused voice, and all you felt was a pool of wetness brewing in between your thighs. 

You inhaled a deep, shaky breath, willing yourself to sound normal. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Thank God you were facing away from her, bo way were you going to let her see your face. No way could you handle seeing her face without thinking about how much you wanted to ride it. 

“You sure?” You felt her place her hand on your hip. Her cold (yet oddly warm) hand on your bare, exposed hip. You couldn’t help but let out a moan at that. You tensed up and moved as far away from Brie as possible without falling off the bed. We needed as little embarrassment in one night as possible. 

Brie sat up over you and leaned on her hand, staring down at you curiously. 

“Did you…..” She hesitated. “Y/N did you have a wet dream?” Of course Brie would ask a question like that, she was your best friend. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for you two to share stories of your erotic dreams. Best friend do that kind of stuff, that’s why she asked, It wasn’t because Brie secretly hope that dream wet was about her. Most definitely wasn’t because she had wet dreams about you, often.

You decided to ride this one out, Brie had given you a good way out and like hell  you weren’t going to take it and run with it.

“Mhm.” You cleared your voice a bit as it went too high pitched, and Brie just looked at you. 

Something wasn’t right. Brie squinted her eyes. She knew your well enough to know that your voice gets high pitched when you were lying. She just couldn’t believe that you, of all people would hide something from her. But she wasn’t about to let it go either. 

Brie gripped your hips and flipped you on you back, the spontaneity taking you by surprise. The sheer force and speed of your best friends actions caused you to moan, albeit softly. 

“That’s a lie.” Brie sat up fully now, her eyes examining youts. “You don’t look like you just woke up, you like wide awake actually. And alert.” She observed you, your mind going blank and the way her eyes raked down your body. 

“And your chest is moving fast. Your hands are clammy and your forehead is sweating. Did you just masturbate?” Brie’s stomach flipped and a jolt went to her core at the thought. 

Your eyes went wide as you covered your face and let out a giggle. “Of course I didn’t masturbate, especially not with you in the same bed.” Brie let out a breath. Whether that was a breath of relief or disappointment, she wasn’t sure. 

“Then what’s wrong?” She moved to straddle your hips, something she always did when she was figuring you out. Best friend style...maybe. 

But with her over top of you, warm center placed directly on your stomach, you tensed. “There was a stutter in Brie’s movements; and if you weren’t mistaken you felt her hips move the slightest, right before she let out in suspicious, absolutely fake cough.

Did she ...? Does she…..?

“Because you literally moaned twice when all I did was do what I always do. What’s up?” She whined. “We’re supposed to tell each other everything.”

“It’s nothing, Brie. Just let’s go back to sleep.”  You tried to slow your breathing with your hands covering your face, waiting for Brie to get off of you.

Brie just stayed where she was, staring at you and analyzing this past week’s events. Your actions throughout the entire tour. You were jumpy around her, stuttering and flustered way more than usual. You didn’t cuddle her or hug her like you usually did.  You barely looked her in the eye, and when you did your eyes would widen and you’d duck away. 

Brie figured that this Press tour was just getting to you. That since it was your first for a really big movie, you were just slowly succumbing to all the pressure. But maybe...maybe she was wrong. 

“Y/N.” Brie’s voice made your body tense up and you hated how Brie probably felt it. Your cover was up, you were sure of it. 

“... Y/N …” She sighed more softly when you didn’t answer. She pried your hands from your face, pinning them next to your head. Her face was inches from yours. Your eyes gazed into Brie’s, moving frantically around them. 

“Brie? What are you doing?” 

“Can I kiss you?” Her eyebrow raised up, and as you looked into her eyes you saw a flash of regret and guilt in them. What was she doing? What was happening. And this was not a joke, you knew that. Brie’s eyes kept flickering from yours to your lips, and she bit her lips as she did so. She was serious. This was not a joke and you were losing your mind. 

“You want to kiss me?” 

Brie chuckled, her smiling eyes grinning at yours. “Of course, I do. Can I?” You searched Brie’s entire face for anything that would indicate this is a joke, that she was going to regret this in the morning. When you saw nothing of the sort, only your hopeful best friend biting her lip nervously, you nodded your head. 

You had countless visions about what it would be like if you ever got the chance to kiss Brie. You had dreams, both day and night about how her lips would feel against yours, how the breath expelled from your nose would hit your cheek just right. You figured you had prepared yourself for all of that, but clearly you didn’t prepare yourself for the moaned that slipped out of her throat when she finally kissed you. 

Your eyes fluttered shut and you let out a sigh, Brie’s moans going right to your core. She let your hands go, instead placing her own on your sides, gripping lightly as she swiped her tongue over your lip. Of course you opened your mouth. 

You didn’t mean for the moan to slip when her tongue swirled over yours. And you most definitely didn’t mean for it to be that loud. Brie broke apart from you, panting heavy with glistening lips. You thought that was it, that your lack of control of your hormones had ruined it all. 

Brie’s breath was shaky as she stared down at you.  She didn’t say anything, do anything, just stared at you with an indecipherable look on her face. 

“Brie?” 

She still didn’t say anything. She do something this time though, smashing her lips back on yours in a kiss that was sure to bruise. Her hands slipped under the loose fabric of your shirt, running up along your sides and across your stomach. You let out another moan at the feeling of her calloused hands on your soft skin. You let out another when you felt Brie grind her pussy just right on the lower half of your stomach, just inches away from where you wanted her most. 

“What has been bothering you all week, Y/N?” She disconnected your lips again to trail sloppy, wet kisses down your face and to your neck, where her lips made themselves home, sucking and biting bruises. 

“Don’t act like you don’t know, Brie.” You sighed out as her teeth clamped down particularly harsh on your pulse point. Your hips jolted up,some of the pressure relieving against Brie, but it wasn’t enough. 

“And what if I don’t?” You could feel her smile against your chest, the cool air abusing the bruises on your chest making you shiver. 

“Then I guess you just won’t ever know.” She chuckled, tugging on your shirt and looking up at you, asking for permission. You nodded as fast as you could, arching your body so she could take it off. 

Once she did, she got back to work again, her hands gripping over your breast and she placed delicate kisses along your chest. Her hands occupied themselves well, massaging and gripping them before her fingers decided you twist and pull your nipples. 

Burst after burst of energy was being sent straight to your core, the wetness in between your legs extremely uncomfortable. Your clit throbbed with no restraint as Brie took of those nipples into her mouth, her fingernails scratching over the other. 

“God.” You threw your head back and tangled your own fingers in Brie’s hair. “That feels good.” 

“Mhm?” Brie hummed, her mouth now around your other nipple. “How good?” She let it go with a pop, kissing her way back up to your lips. 

“Super good.” You moaned again when she pressed her lips against yours. You gripped her sides this time, pulling her impossibly closer to you, your lips moving with hers. 

“Do you want me to fuck you?” Brie mumbled against your lips, hands still playing with your breasts. “Is that what’s been bothering you all this time?” 

You nodded, helplessly. You pushed up against her, not wanting to speak with words, only with your body. You wanted her to fuck you, and you wanted her to do it now. 

Thankfully, Brie got the message. Because she broke away from your lips again, kissing right down your body. She didn’t failed to leave a trail of bruises that would take a little bit of time covering up. 

She tugged down your shorts and panties in one fell swoop, kissing along your inner sides, and blowing cool air on your pussy when she reached the top. You threw your head back again, moaning in relief as your felt her lips wrap around your clit. You threaded your fingers in her hair as she licked stripes through your folds. And you tugged her hair when you felt her tongue swirl over your clit before sucking again. 

You were thankful for press tours, and even more thankful for hotel mishaps.

[treya-barton]

souyo for 57. “There is enough room for both of us.” :33333

Yosuke and Yu had been officially dating for a few weeks.  It felt great being closer to his partner, and Yu had never been happier. However, there was one little change since they started dating that he was struggling with, and he didn’t quite know how to address it.  “Sempai, what are you doing?” Rise whispered as Yosuke squeezed in next to Yu on the train seat.  She had a free afternoon for a change so they were both accompanying her on a shopping trip.

“There is room enough for both of us,” Yosuke said, although he was pressed against Yu and squeezed next to the railing to the seat.  There had been a spot across from them, but Yu was starting to catch on to the fact that Yosuke always preferred to stick close by.  He had always entered Yu’s personal space back when they were just friends, but since they had started dating it had gotten a lot worse.  Yosuke always sat next to him when they went out to eat, no matter how small the booth was.  He would insist on cuddling together on the couch and sitting or standing close to him on the train.  Yu wouldn’t be surprised if Yosuke sat on his lap one day at this point.  While Yu had never minded Yosuke hanging on his shoulder or being in his personal space in high school, he wasn’t used to the level of closeness they had now; however, he was afraid of screwing something up if he said anything.

Rise raised an eyebrow at him before teasing, “Where you jealous of me getting to sit next to Yu-sempai?”

“You bet I was,” Yosuke replied with a huff, causing Yu to blush in surprise and Rise to giggle at him.

“It’s nice seeing you so honest these days, sempai,” she replied.  “I think by now it’s pretty obvious I never stood a chance though.” Rise didn’t look upset at the thought and had honestly accepted the reality last year when she realized between travelling to the city and Inaba that they both had feelings for each other that went past just being best friends.  She was also the one to encourage them to come clean about those feelings.

“I still prefer sitting next to Yu,” Yosuke said seriously.

“Even if it’s digging into my leg,” Yu muttered under his breath.

Both Rise and Yosuke looked at him, obviously hearing him but not understanding what it was he had said. “What were you saying, sempai?” Rise asked, and Yu shook his head.

“I was just asking how long until we get to our stop.”  He was unused to this part of Tokyo since he had grown up in a different ward.

“Only about 20 minutes,” Rise replied.  “It’s not too bad!”  20 minutes of being squeezed between his boyfriend and one of their best friends…Yu held back a sigh.  There were much worse things out there than this.  He would just have to endure.

After a long day of shopping, Rise headed off on her own since she had a modeling job to do that evening, while Yosuke and Yu stopped at a restaurant to grab a bite to eat.  Yu was exhausted since it had been awhile since he had to deal with both Rise and Yosuke’s excited energy at the same time on top of the stress of picking out and trying on clothes.  He normally had unlimited patience when it came to his friends and enjoyed spending time with them, but after a long week of classes and tutoring jobs he was worn out.  He also needed some space to recharge.  So, when Yosuke tried to slide in the booth next to him, he stopped him.  “Actually, can you sit across from me this time?” he asked.  “I need a little space today.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Yosuke said, quickly standing back up and moving across from him.  He slid into the booth, and Yu noticed he had an odd expression on his face.

“Everything ok?” Yu asked, and Yosuke let out a small laugh.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?” he asked, picking up the menu and perusing the options.  Dinner ended up being quieter than normal, but Yu was so tired he appreciated the silence.  On the train ride back home, it was much busier due to most people heading out for dinner or nighttime activities, so they both had to stand while crushed between the crowd of people.  Yu’s stop was before Yosuke’s, and when he adjusted his bags and readied himself to head out, he was surprised when Yosuke merely waved instead of giving him a hug like he usually did.  He just figured Yosuke was probably tired too, and he gave him a small wave before stepping out with his bags and heading to his apartment.

It was a few days before he and Yosuke had time to hang out again, since they both went to different schools and had completely different schedules.  They always ate lunch together on Wednesdays, however, since it was a day their schedules had a break around the same time, and this day they planned on meeting up at their favorite family restaurant.  Yu was looking forward to it, since he always missed Yosuke when they weren’t together.  He arrived first since the restaurant was a little closer to his campus and got their regular booth, sliding in and leaving some space for Yosuke to sit since he always sat next to him.  To his surprise, however, when Yosuke finally did arrive he took the spot across from him instead.  “Sorry I’m a little late!  I missed the usual train and had to wait for the next one,” Yosuke explained.  He didn’t even bother looking at the menu; they both ate there so often that they always knew what they wanted.

“It’s quite alright,” Yu smiled at him, content to finally be in Yosuke’s presence again.  Just seeing his smiling face had a way of putting him at ease.  “Oh, did you figure out your schedule on Friday?”

“Yeah, I’ll be able to join you and Kanji for dinner,” Yosuke replied.  Kanji was now in his third year and he was traveling up on Friday so he could visit a few college campuses over the weekend; he wanted to go to school for elementary education and was looking into a few different programs.  Yu had offered to allow him to stay at his place so he wouldn’t have to pay for a hotel; he had a larger apartment than Yosuke did since his parents helped pay for it.

“Good, I know Kanji will be happy to see you,” Yu replied.  They ended up having a lovely lunch together, although Yu couldn’t help but feel like something was a little off.  He figured he just wasn’t used to Yosuke sitting across from him and wondered why he had chosen to sit there instead of in his normal seat.  Once they were both finished, Yosuke leaned forward to press a kiss to Yu’s cheek.

“I’ll cover lunch today,” he said with a wink, heading to the front counter before Yu had a chance to protest.  He then waved before heading out the door since he had to be back in time for his afternoon class.  Yu’s heart had skipped a beat at the display of affection, but he still couldn’t quite escape the unsettled feeling he had in his heart.

The next two days went by quickly and soon it was time for Kanji to arrive.  Yu had tidied up his apartment and made sure he had snacks that he knew Kanji liked stocked for his visit.  Yosuke came up to his apartment to meet up so they could go to the train platform to meet him together.  “Hey partner,” Yosuke greeted when Yu opened the door, waiting for him to step out and join him.  Yu quickly switched over to his shoes from his house slippers and made sure he had his keys before closing the door behind him.

“How was class?” Yu asked.

“It wasn’t too bad. Had a quiz which kind of sucked but I think I did alright,” Yosuke replied. He turned to head back down the hall, and Yu grabbed his arm to stop him.

Yosuke turned to look at him, and Yu leaned forward to press a quick kiss against Yosuke’s lips. Usually, that was Yosuke’s normal greeting when it was just the two of them, and he had been surprised when Yosuke had skipped it this time.  “Now we can go,” Yu said with a small smile, and Yosuke smiled back, appearing almost relieved.  He walked ahead of Yu, chatting about his day and his part time work at a record store near his school’s campus, while asking Yu questions about his tutoring sessions. Normally Yosuke would walk next to Yu while holding his hand or with his arm around his shoulder, so Yu couldn’t help but find it a bit odd.  He didn’t question it, however, and after a short walk they arrived at the train platform to wait for Kanji.  His train arrived right on time, and soon he was stepping off the train and making a beeline over to wrap them both in a bear hug.

“Sempais!” he said excitedly, and Yu had to again get used to the “new” Kanji.  He still looked odd with his black hair, although today he had on jeans and one of his old skull shirts instead of his new, nerdier style. Yosuke, who had gotten used to it his third year, didn’t seem bothered by it.

“How’s Inaba been?” Yosuke asked, and as they headed to Yu’s place to drop off his stuff before dinner, they took the time to catch up.  They walked on either side of Kanji, which Yu again felt was a little strange, but he figured Yosuke just wanted to make it easy for them both to conversate with their friend.  It wasn’t until they finally got to the restaurant that Yu finally had to face the fact that Yosuke’s actions were definitely bizarre.

Once they were led to their table, Yu had sat down first, and Yosuke had quickly taken the spot across from him, leaving Kanji to stand awkwardly for a moment in surprise.  He eventually sat down next to Yosuke, and while Yosuke acted like everything was normal, Yu could tell Kanji seemed just as bewildered as he did.  Yu didn’t want to say anything in front of Kanji, however, but he was definitely getting the feeling that something was wrong and had been wrong all week.  It wasn’t like Yosuke to give him so much space, and he felt worry gnaw at his heart.  Despite that initial awkwardness, they ended up having an enjoyable dinner. Kanji’s perspective was always refreshing, and it was nice hearing how everyone was doing back in Inaba.  Yu couldn’t wait to visit again over the holidays; it had been too long since he had seen his friends and family there.

Once they were done with dinner, Yosuke reluctantly excused himself since he had the opening shift at work the next day.  “Let me know if you have plans once I get off though,” he said, heading out with a wave. He didn’t give Yu his customary kiss on the cheek, although that could have just been because Kanji was also there.

Once Yu and Kanji got back to his apartment, Kanji bluntly addressed Yosuke’s weird behavior as was his nature.  “Did you and sempai get into a fight or somethin’?” he asked, surprising Yu.

“No, why do you ask?” he replied, heart hammering in his chest.

“He was actin’ weird,” Kanji replied.  “He’s usually all over you.  And sits next to you.  So…I thought maybe you had gotten into a fight since he wasn’t.”

Yu sat down with a sigh. “He’s been doing it all week.  I don’t know why,” he admitted.

“Hmmm…when did it start?” Kanji asked.  Yu described the outing with Rise and how he had asked Yosuke to sit across from him, and Kanji tilted his head.

“Are you sure that’s all?” he asked, and Yu gave him a puzzled look.  “Y’know, Yosuke-sempai is really good at reading you.  It sounded to me like maybe you didn’t want sempai hanging on you, and he probably caught onto it.”

“I don’t mind Yosuke hanging on me,” Yu replied.  “I’m just not used to it because he started doing it even more once we started dating. I’m trying to adjust since I’m not used to that kind of affection from my parents,” he admitted.

“Hmmm, but does sempai know that?” Kanji asked.  “You know, last year I went to his house a few times to study.  And I couldn’t help but notice his parents,” he admitted.  “At my place it’s just me and ma, so I can’t help but kind of notice how they act around each other.  Yosuke’s dad is kind of more reserved with us, but his mom is really affectionate and one thing I’ve always noticed is when it comes to her, his dad always acts different.”

Yu nodded his head. Yosuke’s dad was nice, but he definitely wasn’t as affectionate with his son or with Teddie as his mom was. However, he had noticed that whenever she went in for a hug or needed attention, he was always more than willing to give it to her, even though with his son he could be kind of awkward.  “I think Yosuke’s like his mom,” Kanji pointed out, and Yu suddenly realized what the younger man was trying to tell him. Yosuke had grown up in a household where his parents were affectionate with one another – for him, it was something natural.  In fact, it was something he needed.  And Kanji was right, he had probably caught onto the fact that Yu had felt a little uncomfortable by it.  So, when Yu had asked him to move…  Yu’s heart sank.

“God, I’m such a shitty boyfriend,” he suddenly said, hanging his head.  He remembered the odd look on Yosuke’s face and how he had hidden it with a smile and a laugh, and realized that he had probably hurt his feelings.  He had just been too relieved and tired to acknowledge it.  How selfish of him.

“No, you just show your affection differently,” Kanji pointed out.  “You always do things for sempai, right?”  Yu nodded.  He liked to cook for Yosuke or go over and tidy up his apartment when he knew he was having a rough week.  He also would help him study or go visit him at work when he had free time to keep him company.  Yosuke knew that and did little things for him too, but Yu hadn’t thought about the fact that Yosuke needed a different kind of validation from him.

“You know, tomorrow I’m going to be out late visiting the different campuses,” Kanji commented.  “Why not invite sempai over after he gets off work? If you cook him somethin’ nice, then I get to eat somethin’ good when I get back later.”

Yu nodded to himself. He knew exactly what to make to cheer Yosuke up, and knew Kanji would appreciate it too.  “I’ll make my curry,” he said, and Kanji looked excited.  

“Hell yeah!” he said, causing Yu to smile at him.

“Thanks, Kanji.  I really appreciate your advice,” he said, feeling relieved.  Now that he knew what the problem was, he knew just how to take care of it.

“I mean, you helped me out a lot second year.  I wouldn’t be where I am today without your advice,” Kanji replied.  “So it’s nothin’.”

Kanji left early the next morning after a simple, homemade breakfast from Yu, letting him know he probably wouldn’t be back until around 7-8pm.  Yu messaged Yosuke, asking him over for dinner around 5pm, and then headed out to pick up the ingredients for curry.  He was going to make it from scratch, the way Yosuke really liked it. Once he had everything together, he ran some other errands before returning home and getting to work.  He ran through his plan for the evening and how he would address the small rift that had formed between the two of them as he chopped up the ingredients and created the roux.  Finally, he had everything simmering in the pot as he got the rice going in the rice cooker.  Not too long afterward, Yosuke arrived a little early, although Yu wasn’t that surprised; he normally arrived early when they had plans to hang out with one another.

“Do I smell your curry?” Yosuke asked as he stepped into the apartment and slid off his shoes.  He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply before sliding on the house slippers Yu had bought specifically for him.  “What’s the occasion?”

“Come and sit with me,” Yu said, heading to the living room and sitting on the couch.  His heart clenched when instead of moving to sit next to him, Yosuke moved toward his armchair instead.  Yu cleared his throat, catching Yosuke’s attention, and shook his head before motioning him over next to him.  Yosuke looked nervous as he came around, sitting at a respectable distance from Yu, and looking surprised when Yu moved closer to him in order to bridge the gap.

“Should I be worried?” Yosuke asked, and Yu shook his head.  He placed his arm around Yosuke’s shoulders, and felt how tense they were. He tugged until Yosuke was pressed against him, and gently squeezed until he felt the tension begin to ease out of his boyfriend.

“I wanted to apologize,” he said, and Yosuke gave him a confused look.

“About…?” he asked.

“Being a complete idiot,” Yu replied, and Yosuke looked amused at the idea.

“Isn’t that normally my line?” he asked, and Yu shook his head.

“No, this time it’s most definitely mine,” he replied.  “I hurt you, and instead of owning up to it, I turned a blind eye.  I’m really a shitty boyfriend.  You deserve better…”

Yosuke’s brows furrowed, and Yu spotted tears welling up in his eyes although he held them back.  “I don’t want another boyfriend,” he replied, and Yu shook his head.

“I don’t either.  It’s why I need to make things right,” he said seriously.  “I love you Yosuke.  And I should respect and understand your needs and feelings.  And I’ve been doing a poor job of that.”

Yosuke finally dove into Yu’s arms, wrapping his arms around his waist while burying his head into his shoulder.  Yu breathed a sigh of relief, relishing in his partner’s embrace as he held him tightly in his arms. It had been too long since they had last held each other like this. “I just don’t want you to be uncomfortable,” Yosuke replied, voice a bit muffled, and Yu gently rubbed his back.

“I wasn’t uncomfortable because of you,” he said.  “I’m just not used to it yet.  And this whole week…I’ve missed it. Please don’t pull away from me like that again.”

“Unless you ask me to,” Yosuke said seriously, and Yu nodded.  

“On the rare occasion yes. Sometimes I need to recharge,” he replied. “But while that may happen, it doesn’t mean I don’t want it at other times.”  He then pulled away and lifted up Yosuke’s chin so he could look him in the eyes.  “And I realize that it’s something you want and need, so I want you to let me know when you do need it.”

“Ok,” Yosuke replied. He looked drained, and Yu realized how hard it must have been on him keeping his distance from Yu this week. Yu’s chest tightened as he thought about how rough it must have been on Yosuke and how much he had probably been hurting while hiding his pain.  

“And when I’ve hurt you, don’t hide it anymore.  I can’t fix it then.”

Yosuke nodded, and some of his tears finally spilled over at those words.  Yu sucked in his breath before using his thumbs to gently wipe away the tears.  He then pulled Yosuke onto his lap so he could hold him even tighter for a few moments until his boyfriend began to calm down and relax.  He pressed a kiss to the top of Yosuke’s head before saying, “The curry should be about done.  Make sure you save some for Kanji, ok?”

“If I have to,” Yosuke said with a dramatic sigh as he climbed off Yu’s lap.  He then scratched his head a little.  “Did…Kanji talk to you about it?”

“Yeah.  He helped me realize what was going on,” Yu said honestly.

“Let’s leave him lots of curry,” Yosuke said resolutely, and Yu let out a laugh.  They had a pleasant evening together, eating Yu’s delicious curry and cuddling on the couch while they waited for Kanji to come home.  Just as promised, he had a hearty helping of curry to look forward to when he returned as a thanks from his very grateful sempais.

[justaghostingon]

Merfolk are Overrated

Chapter 4: To The Shore

Kodya’s class takes a fieldtrip, and it goes about as well as can be expected when you let three curious mermaids loose in a general store.

Read on ao3 here https://archiveofourown.org/works/25041904/chapters/62957779

Or below the cut

As the weeks rolled by, a pattern began to emerge. Kodya would wake up early and go out fishing, just like before. Only now three bright-colored heads would rise from the water to greet him as soon as he cut the engine, the Kid at the forefront with some small gift to appease Kodya. He would still set out the nets, like always. But now a mermaid or two would be there to try and help. Occasionally one, usually Red, would get stuck and need to be cut out. Kodya would still eat his lunches out on the water like always, but now those lunches would be shared by three mermaids chattering and snacking themselves. Even Fluffy would mime out an opinion or two. Then after lunch, Kodya would start teaching.

Gyrus was, by far, the best student Kodya had ever seen. It took him almost no time to learn basic math, and soon he was calculating faster and with greater accuracy than Kodya himself could. Kodya had once tried to explain how budgeting worked to illustrate why his nets were so important, and by that evening Gyrus had completely reorganized his budget to the point where he was saving more money than he’d thought was possible. In all honesty, Kodya was pretty sure Gyrus was some kind of super genius, and found he was rapidly running out of things to teach him.

If he’d only known the Kid, Kodya is pretty sure that he would have chalked up Gyrus’ super-intelligence to just a siren thing. But alas, it appeared that great age did not translate to skill with numbers, as both Fluffy and Red were leagues behind. Not that they were terrible, Kodya begrudgingly noted that if they had been to elementary school together they both have had higher grades than he did. But they needed a slower pace, and often Kodya found he had to slow down the lesson to accommodate them.

If teaching them all math had been their only goal, Kodya would have tried giving Fluffy and Red more class hours while sending the Kid off to do homework or something. But neither Fluffy or Red showed any particular interest in putting extra work into improving their own skills. They’d put up a show to support Gyrus of course, but Fluffy’s constant fidgeting and Red’s frustrated growls made it very clear they did not really want to be there. This in turn made Gyrus get distracted trying to explain and keep them interested, meaning he didn’t advance either. Eventually Kodya just got tired of it and told them to go out and help fish every other afternoon, while he focused on more advanced material with Gyrus.

This they happily accepted, only attending class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and leaving  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to the Kid and Kodya. Kodya would never admit it, but these days were his favorite. He’d stay out way longer than he usually did, just to keep whatever conversation the Kid inevitably dragged him into going. He hadn’t enjoyed another person’s company this much since he’d met Nephthys.

Nephthys noticed the change in behavior, commenting about how mopey he got while away from the sea, and giggling that he might have gotten a boyfriend he didn’t tell her about. Kodya was quick to deny this, but more than willing to talk about whatever trouble Red, Fluffy, and the Kid got into, under the pretense of being pesky dolphins of course. Such stories would appease her curiosity, and she rarely went beyond light teasing as she watched Kodya inevitably perk up as the weekend drew to a close and Monday neared.

It was on one such Monday that Kodya finally worked up the courage to ask Gyrus a question that had been weighing on him for a while.

“So how old are you anyways?” Kodya said, eyes on the white board as he wrote out a few problems he’d created based off of his and Nephthys’s shopping lists and an old book about store finance.

“Probably around your age,” Gyrus shrugged, to absorbed in his work on the problems to notice the way Kodya had shut the book to look at him sharply.

“And how old do you think I am?” Kodya pressed.

“I don’t know, 200s right?” Gyrus glanced up at him, and finally seemed to realize something was wrong. “Are you older?” He offered, looking embarrassed, and not at all like a being who was most certainly not a kid.

“I’m 24,” Kodya stated, voice flat. Now what am I going to call you? He mentally despaired.

“24?” Gyrus’ mouth fell open. “But you can’t be! You’re clearly an adult!”

“Of course I’m an adult!” Kodya crossed his arms, “I’ve been an adult for six years!”

“18?” Gyrus’ tail twitched in agitation. “Humans reach maturity so young? How long do you live?”

Kodya shifted uncomfortably at his tone, feeling slightly offended. He wasn’t the weird one here. “We live to be around 80? Some a bit less and some a bit longer, you know, a normal amount.”

“That’s so short,” Gyrus shook his head. “I can’t even…how can you stand it?”

“Hey!” Kodya scowled down at Gyrus, “Most creatures live way shorter life spans, so I’d say you living so long is the weird one here. We do just fine with 80 years thanks.”

Gyrus placed his head in his hands. “Every time I think I’m beginning to understand humans, I find out there’s so much more I don’t know.” He looked very small then, and forlorn. Kodya felt his anger dissipate.

“Look, Kid,” he said, drawing the last word on his tongue to see if Gyrus would notice and protest. He didn’t, and so Kodya plowed on. “You’re doing fine. You’ve learned everything I taught you way quicker than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

“Not everything,” Gyrus sighed as he picked up his whiteboard. “I can do the calculations, sure, but I don’t really get all the words. Like this one,” he pointed to a problem, “35 cents for bananas. What are bananas? I know they must be food from how you talk about them, but I have no idea what they look like. And this!” He jabbed a finger at one of the words, “Bug spray! How do you get something as small as a bug to spray anything?”

“Slow down Kid,” Kodya interrupted and Gyrus deflated at the sound of his voice. “I can bring you a banana and bug spray if you want.”

“But even if you did, there would inevitably be something else I can’t picture or misunderstand. I just wish,” he sighed again, pulling his emerald tail close around his body. “I just wish I could see it all for myself.”

His lower lip started to tremble, and Kodya felt his heart clench at the sight. “Maybe you could,” he said, and then instantly wanted to hit himself for promising something so impossible. But Gyrus was looking at him with wide, watery eyes like Kodya just promised him the moon, and Kodya couldn’t bring himself to deny him anything.

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

The old shed opened with the loud grating noise of rusted hinges. Kodya winced slightly at the sound, before pushing forward into the crowded space before him. Nephthys had said the inflatable kiddie pool was just in here the last time she’d seen it. But that had been nearly seven years ago, back when she’d tried to teach him how to swim in exchange for teaching her written English. Those lessons had not lasted very long, in part because Kodya was much less gracious as a student than as a teacher, and in part because the drowning incident had still been fresh in his mind.

He shoved aside The fishing rod he’d gotten for his Mom at fifteen, still as clean and unused as the day he’d bought it, and some of her old Navy Seal camping gear. Where was it? It should be with the practical stuff…

Something bright and pink caught his eye, the faded plastic tucked quietly in a corner behind some old storage bins. Kodya waded over towards it and gave it a gentle tug, pulling out of another box labeled POOL in his mother’s loopy handwriting. He pulled the cumbersome plastic out, and stopped.

There was something else in the bin, soft against his hands. Weird. He couldn’t think of anything pool related that was soft, and his mother was usually so organized. He looked down to see a strange fur wrap below. It was plain brown, with faded spots making a star pattern along it. One edge was jagged and sharp, with bits of leather skin poking out below it. Kodya ran a finger down the edge, and wondered if someone had taken a blunt knife to it.

The plastic of the pool rustled against the boxes as Kodya shifted, drawing his attention back towards it. He shut the pool box with a snap. Whatever it was, it didn’t concern him. His mother could sort it out on her own time. He had a mermaid’s day to make.

---------

“I’m back!” Kodya called as two brightly colored heads appeared in the water. “And you’ll never believe what I brought for you today!”

Gyrus beamed at him, and Kodya took a minute to examine that lovely smile and enjoy how it was all for him. “We’ve got something to show you too!” the Kid exclaimed, “Do you want to see it?”

“Sure Kid,” Kodya allowed himself a slight twitch of his lips, wondering what seaglass or shells Gyrus had brought for him today. “But I’ll bet mine’s better.”

Red and the Kid exchanged glances, before Red sighed. “Just so we are clear,” she said, “I do not fully approve of this idea.” So saying, she dove into the water, and in her place rose a single white corner, then another and another, until there was a great white box with a handle sticking out the side.

Kodya blinked. “What is that supposed to be?” He asked, squinting at the sides. Something about the faded pink stickers looked familiar. Was that ice cream?

“It’s a box with wheels!” Gyrus proclaimed, gesturing to the suspiciously familiar object. Kodya raised an eyebrow, and the Kid blushed. “Lift it higher!” Gyrus hissed, and the white box raised above the water, allowing for both the wheels and Fluffy’s head to come into view.

“See?” Gyrus’ purple orbs practically glowed. Beside him Fluffy beamed and even Red looked a bit smug.

“I see,” said Kodya, feeling somewhat baffled. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“That’s the best part!” the Kid’s green tail surfaced to slash the top of the water excitedly. It went straight into Tori’s face and she sputtered, causing one end to dip back into the water. “This box holds water! Without it coming out! If you put me in this I could come with you to shore!”

Well that diminished Kodya’s surprise a bit. He felt a bit hurt. He’d put a lot of thought into his kiddie pool. But he shook it off in favor of squinting at the white cart. It was looking more and more familiar the more he stared.

“Is that,-” he frowned, “- Oli’s ice cream cart?!” Oli’s ice cream was a staple on the beach in the summer months, and he’d recently upgraded to owning a portable cart that he employed Anan to push around and increase business. But Anan had lost it under what he claimed was a sudden storm. Kodya narrowed his eyes. “Did you hypnotize Anan into giving that up?”

“We didn’t hypnotize anyone,” Red sniffed. “This was a gift.”

“We just asked, and he handed it right over!” Gyrus added. “He didn’t even stop to question why we were all in the water!”

Fluffy batted her eyelashes and then threw Kodya a wink, and Kodya had the sneaking suspicion that they had used a different method of coercion instead. But hey, he shrugged. Oli hadn’t held that much of a grudge, and it was high time Anan learned a lesson about not giving in to the whims of every pretty girl that smiled at him.

“So what was it you brought for us?” Gyrus asked innocently, and all three mermaids' attention snapped to him.

“Oh,” Kodya rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I kinda brought something similar, only bigger, and with no wheels.”

“Really?” Gyrus beamed. “That’s great! Now we can all go on land!” All? Kodya opened his mouth to protest. He could hide maybe one mermaid, but three?

“That would set some of my fears to rest,” Red said, sounding appeased. “I did not want to leave Gyrus to wander this strange world without protection.”

Fluffy began bobbing up and down in the water, splashing wildly with the ice cream cart to show her enthusiasm.

I’m not getting out of this, Kodya realized with a sinking dread as all three mermaids celebrated around him. I need a plan.

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

The plan was simple. Really. Early in the morning, Kodya would meet the three mermaids at the docks. There was a rainstorm scheduled for Thursday, perfect for both providing cover and keeping the mermaids wet. Kodya would load the three of them into the back of his truck, where they would climb into the kiddy pool. Then Kodya would drive really slowly into town, pull out the white cart, now covered in a blanket to pass as a wheelchair, and wheel each mermaid through the store. Simple.

The first part went off without a hitch. It was indeed raining on Thursday morning, the icky, thick, constant rain that made it very uncomfortable to be outside for long periods of time. When Kodya arrived on the dock, he found it deserted. Perfect.

“Guys?” he hissed as he scanned the dark waves. “It’s time.” Three multicolored heads rose from below the dock to greet him.

“That took too long,” Red grumbled. “I had half thought ye’d grown cold feet.”

“It took longer to fill the pool than I expected,” Kodya sighed. “Now come on.” He extended his arms towards Fluffy, who was closest.

Red batted his hand away. “I’ll go first,” she snapped. “It is my duty as champion of the queen to ensure the safety of the rest of the pod.” Kodya rolled his eyes, but complied, hauling her surprisingly light body up into the air. Sylvia went next, eagerly wrapping strong arms around his neck as he lifted her up into the truck too.

And then at last, it was Gyrus’ turn. Kodya reached down for him, determined not to react. It was just a simple assist after all. Kodya could feel both warm skin and slick scales as he carefully lifted him into the air. Gyrus’ arms wrapped around Kodya’s neck, pulling close to Kodya’s chest and soaking his already wet shirt further.

Gyrus ran a curious hand through his hair, playing with the hair tie in the back. “You’re hair feels so strange dry,” He murmured, lavender orbs hypnotic. Their faces were inches apart, and Kodya froze. They hadn’t been this close since the day they met, when Gyrus had called him perfect, and the mere memory sent Kodya’s whole face alight. Gyrus gave the slightest of frowns as he ran gentle fingers through Kodya’s hair. “What’s wrong?”

“If ye are quite finished,” Tori’s loud voice broke through Kodya’s haze, “the sooner we start this, the sooner we can get back to the sea.”

Kodya yelped, placing Gyrus hastily in the back of the truck and ducking his head as he hurried to the front. Still bright red, he gripped the back of the wheel and took several deep breaths. He needed to focus damn it. Or this whole trip would end in disaster.

Disaster…the various, horrible ends of this hair brained scheme were enough to bring him back to reality. If he messed up here, the mermaids could end up in an aquarium, or worse, dissected. He took a deep breath and put the truck in drive. By the time he’d reached the store, the image of Gyrus’ face so close to his own was properly suppressed in the back of his mind.

---------

Step two turned out to have its own set of problems. Namely that as soon as he put the truck in park, he found the mermaids arguing in the back about who would go in first.

“It will be I,” Red’s arms were crossed. “It’s my job to keep you safe, there’s no point in arguing.”

“You don’t even want to see the store!” Gyrus scowled. “Nor do you know as much about humans as I do! And besides,” he crossed his arms, “I’ll be with Kodya so there’s no need to protect me!” He glanced to the side. “Right Sylvia?”

Fluffy threw up her hands in a clear signal of, keep me out of this!

“What’s the problem now?” Kodya massaged the space between his brow. Both Red and the Kid turned on him.

“I am going first, and that is final,” Red snapped at the same time Gyrus said,

“It isn’t fair!”

Kodya sighed, considering. On the one hand, letting Red go first would strengthen the fragile trust they had formed. On the other hand, the Kid was far, far too old to be babied like Red wanted, and going first with Red meant introducing her to Alistair. Kodya squared his shoulders. He’d rather avoid whatever fight she’d pick for as long as possible.

“It’s the Kid’s trip, he gets to go first,” he said, and Red scowled while Gyrus lit up.

“Alright!” Gyrus pulled himself to the edge of the truck to avoid the angry Red. “Help me down and let’s get going!”

“Not so fast kid!” Kodya scolded. “I’ve got to get the wheelchair ready first.” He pulled out the ice cream cart and opened the lid, revealing the cold water he’d taken from his hose the night before.

Carefully, he picked Gyrus up again, this time avoiding eye contact, and plopped him inside. Access water flooded over the edge and distracted the Kid while Kodya tried to hide his blush. To distract himself, he fiddled with the lid, wondering how it would close without bothering the top sticking out.

“This is so exciting!” Gyrus turned to Kodya, eyes shining. Kodya’s hands tightened on the lid at the sight, and a crack came from underneath them. Both Gyrus and Kodya looked down at the now unattached lid. Well, Kodya thought. There goes that problem.

The blanket was thrown over the top to hide the water and the faded ice cream stickers, and the makeshift wheelchair was ready to go. There was just one thing missing. “Here.” Kodya pulled out an old shirt and handed it to Gyrus. “Humans can’t go in stores without full clothing,” he explained, trying to make it seem normal and not like he’d spent hours agonizing over which one of his old shirts to give to Gyrus.

“Thank you,” Gyrus murmured, pulling the bright yellow shirt, specifically chosen to match the yellow tips of his tail, over his head. “Yellow is my favorite color.” Kodya shrugged as casually as he could, but tucked that little piece of information away in his brain.

“Time to go,” he said, stepping behind the cart pushing it towards the door.

---------

As Kodya predicted, Gyrus loved the store. He found everything about it fascinating. From the food to the overpriced towels and swimwear for tourists. Kodya thought he would explode when he found the nets Kodya usually bought and recognized them. He wanted to know how everything worked, what it all did, and why Kodya would or wouldn’t buy it. The towels in particular fascinated him, as he had known humans hated to be too wet, but he’d never realized what a big deal it was until he saw all the different patterns and colors. He was quite disappointed when Kodya broke it to him that the colors and patterns were purely decorative, and didn’t hold any significance at all.

Eventually they got down to business. Kodya walked Gyrus through his grocery list, explaining what each item looked like and what it did. Gyrus seemed to have memorized the prices, and was more than eager to read off the numbers and comment on cheaper options available. Kodya would then have to justify his choice, usually because of quality, and explain it to an attentive Gyrus. It was a long process, but Kodya didn’t think he’d ever had this much fun shopping for groceries before.

But as Kodya finished explaining about bananas and how they worked, he noticed Gyrus’ mood had taken a turn for the morose.

“What’s wrong?” Kodya asked, as Gyrus stared glumly down at the bunch of bananas in his hands. “Am I going too fast?”

“No, no,” Gyrus sighed. “It’s stupid.” Kodya crossed his arms, waiting, and Gyrus shifted the bananas into one hand to run the free one through his hair. “It’s not that I’m not grateful you brought me here so I could see everything, it’s just,” he peaked up at Kodya through his starshaped bangs, “there’s so much of it. I’ll never learn it all today, even if we didn’t have to hurry up and give Tori and Sylvia their turn.”

“Who said you had to learn it all today?” Kodya pointed out. “We’ve got the pool and the wheelchair now. We can definitely come back here again.”

“But it won’t always be raining,” Gyrus pointed out. “You might get seen helping us out of the water.”

Kodya waved a hand as he began to push Gyrus forward. “We’ll just have to figure out another way then. You’re smart. You know what the hurdles are, you come up with something.”

Gyrus shot Kodya a small smile. “Thank you Kodya,” he said. “You really are the best person to teach me.” Kodya ducked his head and pushed harder, trying to hide his blush.

“Kodya? Is that you? I thought I recognized you wandering about my store!” Kodya’s head snapped up to see Alistair waving from the counter. Oh no. “But who is this handsome stranger you’ve brought with you?” Alistair practically jumped over the counter to see better. It took all of Kodya’s strength not to grab the cart's controls and wheel them both out the door.

“Careful Alistair!” Kodya shouted as the man stepped closer and began shamelessly feeling up Gyrus’ muscles. “He’s in a wheelchair!” He pushed Alistair away as Gyrus starred with a look of absolute puzzlement on his face.

“Of course, of course!” Alistair said as he stepped back to lean on his counter. “What’s your name, handsome?”

“I’m Gyrus,” Gyrus said, sounding faintly amused. “Nice to meet you.”

“A pleasure! An absolute pleasure! I am Alistair, and this is my humble store!” Alistair gave a sweeping gesture to encompass the whole building. Kodya rolled his eyes at his theatrics.

“Are you really?” Gyrus asked, sounding intrigued. “Where do you get all the items for sale?”

“Trying to find my sources? How shameless,” Alistair raised an eyebrow and Gyrus blushed, sensing he’d done something wrong. Kodya scowled. “But don’t worry!” Alistair laughed. “My sources are all local, like our charming mutual friend, Kodya here!” He pointed to Kodya who crossed his arms.

“I don’t supply you that often,” Kodya grumbled.

“Oh come now Kodya, don’t be modest.” Alistair winked, he leaned over to Gyrus and whispered, “He caught me a great white shark, I still have the teeth if you want to buy them!”

“I know,” Gyrus smiled. “But I don’t need another shark’s tooth.”

“Another?” Alistair drew back in shock, mouth hanging open. He glanced wildly between Gyrus and Kodya. “You don’t mean to tell me our grumpy Kodya snagged a stud like you?”

“We aren’t dating Alistair,” Kodya stepped in before Gyrus had a chance to misunderstand. “I’m just showing him around while he’s in the states.”

“So he’s single?” Alistair said, and Kodya felt his heart stop.

“Kodya’s been really kind to me!” Gyrus piped up, clearly hoping to back up the illusion of being new to the area. “He’s taught me so much about these states!”

“Oh really? And what has he taught you?” Alistair leaned forward into Gyrus’ personal space.

“Lots! I’ve learned about money, and the presidents on the bills, and dinosaurs…” Gyrus began to rattle off all the things he’d recently learned while Alistair took the opportunity to stare shamelessly at his lips.

Kodya rolled his eyes, disgusted, then froze. Out of the corner of his eye he could have sworn he’d seen a blue tail.

-----------

Kodya stalked through the store, following the telltale trail of water down the aisles. He hated to leave the Kid alone with Alistair, but he trusted him to be able to handle himself and keep Alistair distracted while Kodya hunted down their real problem.

Speaking of which, he turned a corner to find one half of the dynamic duo munching happily away on the fish in the deli. “Fluffy!” Kodya hissed, as the pink-haired mermaid turned her wide eyes on him. “What are you doing here? And where’s Red?” He’d seen a blue tail, and unless Fluffy had changed her forest green scales blue and back in the last minute, there was no way she was alone.

Fluffy shrugged, gesturing to the fish in front of her to say, I don’t know, I got distracted by the food.

Kodya cursed, striding forward to grab Fluffy bodily and drag her away with a cry of, “you aren’t supposed to be here!” His motion startled Fluffy, whose tail whipped around and knocked the whole deli over, sending the whole display of fish directly on top of her.

Kodya and Fluffy froze. Panicked blue meeting panicked brown. For a second all was still, until in the silence the clunking sound of heavy boots began to fill the air. Fluffy sprang into action, covering herself with the fish in an attempt to blend in. Kodya helped, figuring that if whoever was coming mistook her tail for another fish they might just by themselves some time.

They had just finished when Knox, an employee of Alistair’s store, rounded the corner. “I heard a loud noise, and have been instructed to look for damages,” he said in that monotone voice of his.

Kodya could have cried with relief. If there was one word that summed Knox up, it was gullible. “Don’t just stand there!” He snapped, putting on his most thunderous expression. “Get the first aid kit!” Knox paused, eyes traveling from Kodya’s face to Sylvia’s fish covered tail, to her big puppy dog eyes about to overflow with tears.

“I will retrieve it,” he said, voice still montone, but there was a quickness in his step that betrayed his concern. As soon he turned the corner Kodya let out a relieved sigh.

Fluffy beamed up at Kodya, clearly ecstatic that it had worked. Kodya frowned back at her. “We still need to get out of here before he gets back,” he pointed out.

Fluffy rolled her eyes with the clear message of, you worry too much. And no Kodya wasn’t having that. He grabbed her arm and tugged it upwards.

“Come on,” he said as Fluffy obligingly circled her arms around his neck so he could lift her up. “We’ve got to find Red and get out of here before he comes back.”

“Before who comes back?” Kodya and Fluffy’s heads snapped to the right to see Tori emerging from the towel section. “And what was that noise?”

“What were you thinking!” Kodya felt his fury return in full force. “You knew you had to wait in the truck!” Fluffy looked down guiltily, but Red crossed her arms.

“I am the Champion of the Queen.” She scowled. “It is my duty to keep Gyrus safe. You were taking too long.”

“Gyrus is perfectly fine!” Kodya hissed, taking a step forward. “But now thanks to you two, I had to leave him alone, and now I have to get you out of here before anyone sees your tails and calls the press!”

Red drew herself up to her full height, which given half of her was a floppy fishtail, wasn’t that impressive. “I am perfectly capable of…” But Fluffy held up a hand to stop her, cocking her ear as if listening. Kodya and Tori followed her example, and Kodya’s heart stopped once again.

Footsteps.

Red dove towards the racks of towels as Kodya looked around wildly for a place to stash Fluffy. Could he throw her back into the fish?

Too soon the footsteps came to a halt. Kodya froze as a very familiar voice said, “Kody?”

Slowly Kodya turned around to see Nephthys standing in the aisle, eyes wide as she took in Red half hidden behind the towels and Fluffy still in Kodya’s arms. “Neph, I can explain,” he started, but she shook her head.

“Alistair is coming!” She said as she pulled out her purse. “Distract him while I fix this!” Kodya wanted to argue he’d be better able to carry both mermaids, wanted to ask why she wasn’t reacting, but the look in her eyes told him not to argue. He wordlessly handed off Fluffy and hurried back to where Alistair and Gyrus were waiting.

“Kodya!” Alistair called out. “What was that all about?”

“You just left,” Gyrus added, a bit reproachfully. “Then we heard a huge crash.”

Kodya waved a hand. “An accident. But don’t worry, Nephthys is taking care of it.” He shot Gyrus a look that he hoped communicated, help me distract him.

Alistair was still frowning, concern clear on his face. “I should still check it out, someone could have been hurt.”

“You really don’t have to,” Kodya said, and Gyrus added,

“Didn’t you say you can’t leave the counter to avoid losing a sale?”

Alistair stroked his beard, looking torn. “This is true, but I really can’t ignore people hurt in my store…” his face split into a sly grin that made Kodya’s stomach drop. “So Gyrus, you’re hired!”

“I’m what?” Gyrus stared in confusion.

“Wait a minute!” Kodya protested. “You can’t just hire Gyrus!” He was a mermaid for one, with a tail and no social security!

“Why not?” Alistair beamed. “He’s got all the qualifications: He has an understanding of basic math, thinks Andrew Jackson isn’t worthy of his position on the twenty dollar bill, and best of all, he’s really cute!” Alistair winked at Kodya and turned to Gyrus, “So what do you say? I’ll pay you an entry level salary, but with your brain and looks you’re likely to get promoted no problem!”

“You’ll pay me?” Gyrus blinked. “In money?”

Alistair opened his mouth to reply, an amused smile on his lips, just as Nephthys rounded the corner with Fluffy on her shoulder and another woman with red hair helping Nephthys support her. “Time to go Kody!”

Kodya wasted no time, grabbing Gyrus’s wheelchair’s handles as Gyrus scrambled for the grocery bags and began wheeling him out after the three women.

“Wait a minute,” Alistair started, “What happened?” But Nephthys waved her free hand behind her.

“Got it handled, take care of the mess and bill me!” She cried as she pushed through the door, a towel wrapped over Fluffy’s tail as she and the familiar looking stranger carried her out. Kodya and Gyrus followed, leaving a confused Alistair behind as they stepped into the open air.

“Where’s Red?” Kodya asked as soon as they got to the safety of the truck. He and the blue-tailed mermaid never saw eye to eye, but he didn’t want to leave her stuck in there.

“I’m right here,” snapped the woman with the red hair, “or have you gone blind?” Kodya blinked, and blinked again, his brain not catching up with his eyes. His gaze traveled down, from her distinctive red hair, to her odd plated shirt, to the towel tied around her waist, and her….

“You have legs!” Gyrus screamed, finger pointing in shock. Kodya blinked again, and yes. That was what his brain was struggling to comprehend. Before them both stood Red, on two legs and looking utterly human.

Tori placed a hand on her hip. “Yes, thanks to the potion the witch gave me.” She gestured to Nephthys with her other hand.

Kodya’s eyes flicked to Nephthys, and she gave him jazz hands with an awkward smile. “Surprise?”

[colbybrocksmolder]

Blue - Colby Brock x Reader - Part 3/3

Part 1

Part 2

*** end of last chapter ***

“Hey Ivy, if you go put on your jacket, we can go see mommy and Mike.” Colby stood up, following Brennen to the door.

Ivy ran to her room squealing about getting to play with more dogs.

“Brennen.” Colby said, pulling him into their usual bro hug when he turned around. When Brennen went to pull away, Colby held him tight for a second. “Thanks, man.”

Brennen clapped him on the back, “Anytime, brother.”

*** new chapter ***

When Colby went to find Ivy, she wasn’t in her room. “Iiivyyyy”, he called out.

“Ready!” she cheered, walking out of Colby’s room, absolutely swimming in one of his hoodies.

He couldn’t help but laugh. She could barely walk it was so long. “Not exactly what I said, but I approve of the look, kid.” Colby grabbed her bag, his keys, and picked Ivy up. Putting her in the car-seat, he pulled her hands through the arms of the hoodie to make sure she was sitting comfortably.

“Yo!” Colby called out, climbing the stairs in the Slap House. “I brought food, but someone has to go get it out of the car.

“Keys me, brother”, Aryia called out, catching them when Colby threw them to him. He laughed, seeing Ivy bundled up in the hoodie. “We’ll turn you emo before you know it.” He said, kissing Ivy on the cheek.

She giggled, squirming for Colby to put her down when she saw her mom. “Mommy mommy” She yelled, trying to hold up the bottom of the hoodie so she could run to her.

“What do we have here?” Y/n laughed, scooping up her daughter.

“Hey, she picked it. Not me.” Colby held his hands up.

“It was an inevitability” she laughed.

“Aryia is bringing food up. It’s just a bunch of burgers and stuff. Everyone can take what they want.” Colby said, walking towards Mike’s room.

“Thank you!” Y/n called out after him.

“Hey!” Mike greeted him with a huge grin.

“You seem happy”, Colby laughed, closing Mike’s door behind him.

“Dude, we did bits this morning. She’s a fucking poet.” Mike answered, handing a notebook over to Colby who laid back on Mike’s bed.

After reading through a few pages of partially finished songs, he had to agree. “I’ve always loved her original music.” Colby said softly, going back a page to re-read the previous song.

Mike stared at him for a moment. “You okay?” Colby shrugged. “Real talk. Just between us.” Mike pushed a bit.

“I’m fucked, dude.” Colby sighed.

“Why?” Mike said a little too loud.

“Shhh.” Colby stared at him with his eyes dramatically wide.

“Sorry. Why.” Mike whispered, being a smartass.

“I’m in love with her.” Colby said, gently dragging his fingers over a certain section of lyrics on the page.

Mike looked to be thinking something over for a second. “Okay.”

“Okay? Really? That’s what you have to say?” Colby humorously laughed.

“I don’t quite understand the ‘fucked’ part, I guess.” Mike said, jumping on the bed next to Colby and laying down.

“They’re going to leave, Mike. She leaves in like 2 weeks.” Colby said, closing the notebook and laying it on Mike’s stomach.

“First, that’s a tentative plan. Plans change all the time. Second, have you even tried to talk to her about it?” He asked.

“What am I supposed to say? ‘Oh hi, I know you just met me but please change your life and the life of your daughter to move across the country and love me’? Yeah, that would go over great.” Colby sat up, headed for the door.

“Colby!” Mike stopped him before he reached the handle. “Don’t be stupid, dude.”

“Not helping.” Colby sighed.

“Hear me out.” Mike said, getting up to grab another notebook. “The lyrics you just read are for my songs. They’re dark and sad and you can tell we’re both writing from real experience. Personally, I want to murder whoever made her feel the things she’s writing about.”

“Don’t even get me started on that”, Colby agreed.

Mike chucked Colby another notebook. “But these? These are the songs that are going on her channel. This is what she’s writing about for her.”

Colby opened the notebook, sitting on the foot of Mike’s bed. He sat there for a few minutes, taking in the lyrics. “She sounds so happy.” Colby said.

“They’re all love songs, dude. And the only person she talks about to me is you.” Mike put his hand on Colby’s shoulder. “So like I said, don’t be stupid.”

When Colby walked back out to the living room, he saw Aryia using eyeliner to draw a little heart on Ivy’s cheek. “Looking good, my emo princess.” Colby laughed. Ivy was wearing some of Mike’s black bracelets and one of Kevin’s beanies. “Can I take a picture with you?” he asked, sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Ivy waddled over to Colby, trying to keep the bracelets from falling off of her arms and sat in Colby’s lap. “Do it like I showed you” Aryia said, holding up peace signs.

Ivy held up her peace signs next to her cheeks and stuck out her tongue. “Omg, what are we doing to you” Colby laughed, posing for about a hundred pictures with Ivy. “Hey Y/n, I’m gonna move her car-seat to the SUV. I have to go film with Sam and we aren’t going to be back until super late.”

“Of course! I’ll go down with you. I’m kind of picky about how it’s installed.” She answered, grabbing her keys. Aryia throwing Colby’s back to him.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ivy” Colby said, giving her a hug and kissing her on the top of her head.

They got the car-seat switched over and Colby started talking. “I read some of what you guys are working on. This may be the fanboy in me, but I can’t wait to hear the songs”, He laughed.

“Thank you. You’re always too sweet to me.” She pulled him into a hug.

“Hey, that’s not true. You deserve every good thing you get.” He answered, hugging her back.

The hug seemed to linger, no one pulling away. “Do you promise to be safe tonight?”

“What?” Colby asked, thrown off by her question.

“You’re filming with Sam. You guys do dangerous stuff all the time.” She answered.

He laughed, “You don’t need to worry about me.”

She shrugged looked up at him and half smiled. “Yet, I do.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek, walking back to the house.

“Y/n!” Colby called after her. She turned and looked at him. “I promise.”

Colby didn’t get back to the apartment until almost 2am. Him, Sam, Corey and Jake had gone to a weird park to record a spooky video. He walked in, being as quiet as he could. He hopped in the shower and got ready for bed, double checking that the door was locked. He heard what sounded like crying coming from y/n’s room. He didn’t want to knock and risk waking Ivy up, so he quietly cracked the door.

“Hello?” Y/n called out, her voice raspy like she had been crying.

“Y/n? What’s wrong?” Colby whispered, walking towards the bed. He could see Ivy’s playpen where she slept with the light that flooded in from the living room.

“Bad dreams. I’m fine.” She sniffed.

“I’m going to move Ivy to my room so we can talk, okay?” Colby said, leaning down to pick the sleeping girl up. He laid her down in his bed, making sure to put a pillow between her and the edge. He put the koala next to her, tucked her in, and closed his door so they wouldn’t wake her up.

“I’m sorry”, Y/n said when Colby walked back in the room.

“Y/n, I already told you you don’t need to apologize.” He laid down on the unused side of the bed, leaving some space between them. “What happened in your dream?”

“I, uh…I should probably explain some stuff first.” She said, taking a deep breath. “My ex, Ivy’s dad…He really showed his true colors once she was born. We had only been dating for like a year when I got pregnant and he acted so happy about it. When I had Ivy, he completely changed. He held it over me, like I needed to give him access to all of my money and stuff because we were ‘linked’ as he put it.”

Colby could hear her breath catch in her chest like she was fighting back more tears. “Here”, he reached out holding her hand.

She squeezed his hand, continuing on. “I broke up with him, but he didn’t really leave. He would come over yelling, telling me he deserves to see his kid but yelling at her when she’d try to sit with him or ‘annoy’ him as he put it. He’d scream at me and break stuff in my apartment. I don’t even have any pictures of the two of them together after she was like 3 months old.”

Colby was furious. “Did he ever…” he started to ask.

“He never hurt her. About 4 months ago he shoved me into a wall before storming out of my apartment. I called the police and got a restraining order.” She said, full on crying again. “I couldn’t risk him ever hurting her.”

Colby reached out and pulled y/n against his chest, wrapping his arms tight around her. “Y/n, you did the right thing. And you’ve done such a good job raising her on your own. You didn’t deserve anything he did to you.”

“I’m normally not like this, I promise.” She said, embarrassed that she had broken down in front of him.

“Y/n, you’re allowed to be human. It’s not weak to vent or to cry.” Colby reminded her.

“I think writing with Mike kind of brought some stuff back up in my mind.” She explained. “When you write about the dark stuff in your life, you kind of feel it all over again. It’s therapeutic, but it’s not easy.”

“I can’t imagine.” Colby said, thinking about the lyrics he had read in Mike’s notebook. “I don’t know if he was supposed to or not, but Mike let me read some of the stuff going on your channel too.”

“I may or may not find a way to get back at him for doing that.” y/n said, hiding her face in Colby’s chest.

“Don’t be embarrassed. Those lyrics are beautiful.” Colby tried to think of the best way to say what he was thinking. “Those songs…they, uh. They make it seem like maybe you’ve got someone better in your life now.”

“Thank you, but those songs are full of hopes and dreams, Colby.” She said bluntly. “The person they’re about doesn’t even know I care about them.”

“Y/n”, Colby played with a bit of her hair, trying to muster up the courage to say what was in his head. “I mean this with every ounce of honesty in my body…any guy that doesn’t see how wonderful and beautiful and perfect you and Ivy are, doesn’t deserve you. He doesn’t deserve such beautiful songs to be written about him. He doesn’t deserve your love. He doesn’t deserve to be around your amazing daughter. He doesn’t deserve…”

Y/n interrupted him by pressing her lips against his. “I’m sorry”, she said, pulling back.

“I’m not.” He said, holding her tight against him. “Do it again.”

“Colby”, she exhaled. She slipped her hands up to gently cradle his face. “Those songs are about you”, she said, leaning back down to capture his lips in another kiss.

Colby rolled them over, holding himself above her body. “I swear I don’t cuss in front of Ivy, but thank fucking god.” He said, dipping back down to continue the kiss.

She laughed, smiling against his lips. Her hands roamed down the skin of his back, giving him goosebumps. “Is now a bad time to ask what this all means?”  

“It’s never a bad time to ask that.” He said, pressing gentle kisses to her neck. “I know what I feel. I know what I want. So, the ball is in your court.” He said, kissing her lips one more time.

“What do you want?” Y/n asked.

“You. And everything that comes along with you. I want to help take care of Ivy, I want to be laying next to you every time you have a bad dream, I want to be there cheering you on wherever your music takes you, I want to do dumb shit like hold your hand at chipotle and argue about how much ice cream I should actually let Ivy eat…” Colby blurted out, leaning down to kiss y/n between sentiments. “I want you to move here.” He said, sliding down to rest his head against her chest. He felt a little nervous after opening the vulnerability flood gates.

Y/n let his words wash over her, her hands going to play with Colby’s hair. “I’m going to ask you something and I don’t want you to be mad.” She said with tears in her eyes.

He held his weight up on one of his elbows, wiping her tears away with the other hand. “Babe, why are you crying? I’m not going to be mad.”

She couldn’t help but smile when he called her babe. “Well, BABE”, she laughed. “I’m kind of in love with you. That’s why I’m crying.”

Colby leaned down to press another kiss to her lips. “Y/n, I’m more than kind of in love with you. That shouldn’t make you cry, though.” He kissed her again. “What’s your question?”

“You know that I come with baggage. I’ve got a daughter. I couldn’t be with someone I didn’t think could love her as much as I do.” She explained.

“Ivy isn’t baggage and I’m 104% sure I already do.” He interrupted.

“I know, Colby.” She put her hand against his cheek. “I wouldn’t have fallen for you if I didn’t think you’d love her. I just need to make sure you understand what having a kid would mean. I got pregnant so young and it changed my life overnight.”

“Y/n, to put this quite simply…I have been dreading you two leaving. You can ask any of my friends. I feel whole now. Like we were meant to be a family. I dreaded you guys leaving and just feeling empty without you. I mean BRENNEN even told me to man up and talk to you.”

Y/n laughed, leaning up to connect their lips. “I’m in.”

“You’re in?” Colby asked, deepening the kiss.

“I don’t want to leave.” She answered.

Colby rolled them over, so Y/n was laying on top of him. “We’ll figure out all of the details later.” He said, his hands sliding up under the sides of her pajama shirt. “Right now, I just want to show you everything I’ve been holding back.”

Colby sat up, causing y/n to straddle his lap. He broke their kiss just long enough to slide her baggy sleep shirt off. “Colby.” Y/n breathlessly said, grabbing his hands before they could wander more of her body.

“Are you okay? Am I going too fast?” He worried, searching her face in the dark for some sort of sign.

“I had to have a c-section with Ivy so I have a really big scar across the bottom of my stomach. I just don’t want you to be surprised.” She said, letting him rest his hands back on her sides.

“Baby, all that means is that you and Ivy are both here safe and sound and THAT is a beautiful thing.” Colby said, laying her back on the bed. He took his shirt off and leaned down over her. He kissed down her neck, across her collarbone and down her chest. He pulled down the top of her shorts far enough to run his finger along the scar that connected her hipbones and then traced the same line with his lips. “I don’t want to do anything you aren’t ready for.”

“Colby, I want this.” She assured him.

“I’ll be right back.” Colby rolled off the bed and ran to grab a condom. When he came back in the room, he had a funny look on his face.

“You okay?” Y/n laughed, grabbing the condom from him and pulling him back towards the bed.

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “I just had to tiptoe by the other love of my life to grab that condom and it took me a minute to process that whole thing in my head.”

“Brennen is here?” She teased.

“Oh, ha ha. Very funny.” He said, catching her off guard by pulling her legs out from under her, her back hitting the mattress. “I mean our little one sleeping in my bed.”

Y/n’s heart fluttered hearing him say ‘our’. She wrapped her legs around Colby, pulling him against her and kissing him.

“That one felt different.” Colby said, biting her bottom lip.

“You called her ours.” Y/n said, her tongue asking for entrance against his bottom lip.

Colby broke the kiss, pulling back far enough to discard the rest of his clothing. “She is ours. And one day we’ll have more.” He slid his fingers into the waistband of her shorts, removing the rest of her clothes.

“Sounds perfect.” She said, opening the condom and sliding it on him.

Colby kneeled down between her legs, his hands caressing her thighs. He left a trail of wet kisses from her inner knee all the way to her most sensitive area. Looking up at her, her body sprawled out on the bed in front of him, He asked, “are you ready, baby?” Y/n nodded, Colby dipping his tongue between her folds. He teased her for a second with soft licks before pursing his lips and lightly sucking on her clit.

Y/n’s hands went to Colby’s hair, “Colby”, she moaned, throwing her head back against the bed.

“God, you are so sexy.” He said, sliding a finger, and then two, into her heat as he took her little bundle of nerves back into his mouth. He licked and sucked, pushing her to the edge of her pleasure.

“Fuck, Colby.” Y/n said, pulling Colby’s hair a bit.

Colby groaned, even more turned on watching Y/n fall apart. The added vibrations of his voice against her pushed her over the edge and she threw her hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t cry out. Colby crawled up her body, replacing her hand with his lips. “I love you, Y/n”, he said, wrapping one of her legs around his hip and slowly entering her.  

“I love you, too” Y/n panted, feeling Colby slowly increase his speed.

Their bodies moved together like they were dancing. Meant to be. Colby felt like he was riding some sort of high, pouring every bit of emotion he’s felt over the last few weeks into showing Y/n how much he loved her. Colby’s hand dipped down between them, pleasuring Y/n until she was over the edge of her second climax. Following her, he hid his face against her neck to muffle the noise. “Y/n” he moaned, filling the condom. His thrusts slowing until all you could hear were their labored breaths.

Y/n pulled Colby down to rest his weight against her. “Thank you.” She whispered, pressing a kiss to Colby’s messy hair.

“What for?” he asked, lifting his head to look up at her.

“Everything”, she answered.

The two of them laid there for a while, just enjoying the connection of skin on skin. They talked a bit here and there, but mostly they just listened to each other breathe.

“We need to get dressed.” Colby chuckled, lifting his head from where it had been snuggled in Y/n chest.

“You’re probably right.” She agreed, reaching for her clothes.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Colby said, throwing on his pants. “Make sure you’re decent when I get back.” He laughed.

Colby went to his room and grabbed another pair of boxers and sweatpants before hopping back in the shower. When he got out, he picked Ivy up and walked her back to her playpen. “I didn’t want her to wake up alone.” He explained, making sure she was all tucked in with his stuffed koala.

“You’re incredibly sweet.” Y/n said, pulling back the blanket to invite Colby to join her.

“Well, you’re incredibly incredible.” Colby laughed, knowing how cheesy he sounded. “Come here”, he said, pulling Y/n to lay across his chest.

When he woke up a few hours later, it was to the sound of y/n’s blow-dryer turning off. Looking down, he saw that Ivy had taken Y/n’s place. “Good morning, beautiful”, Colby said.

“G’morning, blue”, Ivy replied.

“I love when you call me that.” Colby smiled down at the little girl. “Can I ask you a question?” He said, sitting up.

Crawling to sit on Colby’s lap, she nodded ‘yes’.

“Is it okay if I love your mom?”, he asked after taking a deep breath.

She looked up at him with a curious look on her face. When she crawled out of his lap, his face dropped. She stood on the bed staring at Colby, her hands coming to rest on his cheeks. “Gon be nice to mom?”

Colby felt his heart break, a few tears silently making their way down his face to her hands. He wrapped his arms around her and replied, “sweetheart, you shouldn’t even have to know what that means.” He kissed her forehead and continued. “I promise I will NEVER hurt you or your mom. I love you both so much.”

“Love you too, blue.” Ivy said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Colby scooped her up and walked to the bathroom to find Y/n. “we’re coming with you, today.” He said, leaning over to pull her into a quick kiss.

“I’d love to have you guys with me.” She replied, looking up at Colby. “Were you crying?” she ran her thumb under his eye.

“We just had a little talk.” He smiled, “Right Ivy?” He set her down so she was standing on the bathroom counter with one of his arms around her just in case.

Ivy looked at Colby and then at her mom before hiding her face back in Colby’s neck.

“What are you being shy for?” Y/n asked, grabbing her off of the counter. Ivy whispered something in her mom’s ear. “yeah?” Y/n said, Ivy whispering something else. “I think so, too”. Ivy peeked back at Colby for a second before whispering one final thing to her mom. “Did you ask him that?” Y/n asked.

“Not yet.” Ivy answered, squirming so Y/n would put her down. She ran out of the bathroom.

“Hey, Ivy? You need to get dressed so we don’t make your mom late.” Colby called out, closing the space between him and Y/n. “What was that about?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her again.

“Oh, she’s got something she wants to ask you.” Y/n smiled fondly up at the amazing man in front of her.

“Am I allowed to know?” He chuckled.

“She’ll ask you when she’s ready.” Y/n answered. “I love you”

“I love you too, y/n”, Colby pulled her tight to him before leaving the bathroom to get ready.

When they got to the Slap House, the only one awake was Mike. “Ooo, we have a full house today.” He said, reaching his arms out for Ivy, sitting her on his hip. “Good morning, cutie.”

Both Colby and Ivy said good morning back at the same time. Ivy burst out in giggles and Y/n turned to playfully slap his arm, smiling at him.

Colby chuckled, pulling Y/n into his side. “You know I’m cute.”

“This is a fact.” Y/n leaned up to quickly kiss his lips.

When they looked back at Mike, his mouth was hanging open with a grin that looked like a kid on Christmas morning. “What is this?”

Colby’s face went red, Y/n slipping his hand into hers. Ivy whispered a little “pssst” so that Mike would lean his head down to her. After she whispered something in his ear, he chuckled. “I think that’s very true.” She waved him back down and whispered something else. Mike’s face softened and he looked over at Colby before looking back at Ivy. “Sweetie, I think he already is.”

“Why does everyone get secrets but me?” Colby asked with a pouty face.

“Don’t worry, you’re really going to like this one when it makes its way around to you.” Mike said, setting Ivy on the ground to play with the dogs. “Come here, you two.” Mike pulled them each into a hug. “Congrats.”

“Thanks, brother.” Colby said, going to make sure Ivy was okay.

They ended up waiting over a month before going back to Y/n’s apartment to pack up her stuff. Once there wasn’t a time crunch to get the music done, everyone kind of relaxed, making the whole process even better. Sam and Kat volunteered to watch Ivy while Colby and Y/n packed up what she wanted to keep from her old life. It took them almost a week, total. The two of them flew there, packed up a small U-Haul truck full of mostly sentimental things and recording equipment, and drove home. They ended up getting home super late and working into the morning. They unpacked the truck, turning the spare bedroom into Ivy’s room before walking over to Sam’s to wake her up.

“Sweetheart.” Colby said, laying down next to a sleeping Ivy.

“Wake up, Ivy”, Y/n said, rubbing her back.

“This will wake her up”, Colby said, taking his stuffed koala out of her arms. Ivy sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Told you.”

She looked around for a second before realizing what was going on. “Blue!” she yelled, turning over and climbing on his chest, throwing her arms around his neck.

“Hi, baby girl”, Colby hugged her tight against him, sitting up. “Did you miss us?”

Ivy nodded her head, crying into Colby’s neck.

“Aww, come here.” Y/n said, picking up Ivy. “Let’s head home.”

Y/n Thanked Sam and Kat for watching her before walking with Ivy back to their new home.

“She hasn’t cried once until you guys got here.” Sam laughed.

“Y/n said she might cry when we picked her up”, Colby answered, smiling at his best friend.

“I’m pretty sure they’re happy tears.” Kat added.

Sam pulled Colby into a hug. “You look happy. It looks good on you, dude”, he said.

“It feels good, brother”, Colby answered, unable to keep a smile from his face. “Alright. I haven’t slept in like 30 hours, so I’m gonna head over there. Thank you both, again, for taking care of her”, Colby pulled Kat into a hug.

“Anytime”, she answered.

After catching up on some much needed sleep and enjoying a Pizza Night back over at Sam’s, the three of them were home for the night. Ivy ran over to her mom, lifting her arms so she would be picked up. Ivy leaned up, whispering into Y/n’s ear.

“Am I ever going to get my secret?” Colby asked, watching them from the couch.

She whispered again into Y/n’s ear. “I think now is a good time” her mom answered, setting her back down on the floor. Y/n sneakily reached over and turned the camera that was always sitting on the tripod on to capture the moment for Colby.

Ivy walked over to Colby looking a little shy. “Do I finally get my secret?” He asked, pulling her up to lay on his chest.

She took a minute before saying “I love you, blue.”

Colby never got sick of hearing that. “I love you more, sweetheart”, he replied, kissing the top of her head. “That’s not a secret, though.”

Ivy laid there a few more seconds before crawling up to try and whisper something to him. “I want you to be my dad”, she cried, unable to keep it a whisper.

Colby’s eyes shot to Y/n, quickly brimming with unshed tears. He was frozen for a full 2 seconds before he sat up and squeezed Ivy to his chest. “Baby girl, that’s the best secret I’ve ever heard in my whole life.” He rocked her back and forth, waiting for her tears to quiet. “Can I tell you my secret?” Colby asked. He sat her on the coffee table facing him so he could see her face.

She nodded ‘yes’ as Colby wiped her tears away with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. Ivy reached up trying to wipe away Colby’s tears.

“I would love to be your dad”, Colby said, catching Ivy as she leapt back into his arms. He felt Y/n join them on the couch and when he looked over, he could see her tear stained, but joyful smile. Her eyes staring back into his. “I love you two so much”, he said, leaning over to kiss her.

“We love you too, blue.” Y/n replied.

[nobody-knose--archive]

well i got home a lot earlier than i thought i would today, which i’m happy for seeing as the place was filled to the brim with people not wearing masks. like this place is normally decently busy this time of year but it was packed to the goddam brim today for some reason. anyway! i took pictures of the place for reference, and whenever i get around to carving the pumpkins we picked out i’ll share pics of that as well. this is lowkey going to be an advertisement for the place because if you ever visit the central valley you really should come around here, especially if you are/have kids it’s amazing. starting from the top.

[image description: a picture of a creek bluff. in the foreground are some ground brush cast in shadow. in the middle ground is some long yellow grasses in patchy sunlight taking up the space where a creek would run if there was rain around here (california). slightly up the hill is a small footbrigde connecting a path that goes from left to right along the side of the bluff. just behind it in the background is the side of a small hill that’s covered in the same long yellow grass from before, and the sky is clear and blue where at the top of the bluff. scattered throughout are oak trees, some small and young, and a few that are old, tall, & mighty. end image description.]

y’all are so lucky i managed to get pictures without people there were so damn many. my older brother was freaking out the entire time about catching corona (he’s nd but he’s in denial about it) and ive decided that for the sake of this post & onwards i’ll be referring to my older brother as Idon & my younger brother as Dr. Lion given that those are dumb unused nicknames we have for each other and it’s easier than referring to them as my older & younger brother all the time. anyway the whole area is set up in this lil creekbed area and normally when it’s winter & it’s not hot n stuff (twas decently hot today, tshirt shorts & no jacket weather in the sun) there’s a bit of water that runs through it. the rest of the time it’s dry and people will walk straight to it to get to the bluffside trail that features a handful of small attractions like a tiny castle, tunnel, metal slide, & other things that appeal to all the children that can fit in them. this place is basically the hotspot for any and all children in this county youve just gotta come here some time it’s so damn fun. there’s even a swinging rope bridge over the creek that leads to the bluffside trail that’s raised way up in the air and is an honestly harrowing experience for every kid who goes across it i could talk about this place for hours. i havent even brought up the train line that goes around the tree farm & things at the top of the bluff. anyway

[image description: a picture of a pumpkin patch, taken from behind a few stalks of corn. the field is full of pumpkin plants with their large, green leaves extended into the air, though there’s no pumpkins visible. there are various flowers i believe to be carnations dotted throughout the patch, in shades of  light pink, magenta, orange, and red, and a few stalks of corn also grow in the patch. in the distance a field of corn that doubles as a small maze grows off to the right, and lining the background is a row of large trees that grow along the creekbed behind them. the sky is bright blue & clear from the upper left part of the picture it can be seen in. end image description]

so one attraction of this place (one thing that gives it such an appeal to people who want aesthetic pictures for instagram & whatnot) is that they always set up little pumpkin people all over the place, taking various poses. when i say pumpkin people i mean basically scarecrows, clothing stuffed with straw & posed doing things, but with pumpkins for heads. most of them are out of the way enough that people cant mess with them but can take pictures like i did here. oh can you not see it? well let me just zoom in for you-

[image description: a zoomed in picture of the scene described above. clearly shown is a scarecrow-type figure with a pumpkin for a head standing up in the field. it’s wearing a rather nondescript grey shirt, blue jeans, and a floppy brown farmer’s hat. it’s surrounded by pumpkin plants, carnations, & corn stalks, with a corn field to the back & more large trees casting shadows to the back, as indicated above. there are also some large leaves from corn plants directly in front of the camera where it’s taking the picture, taking up a large chunk of the picture. end image description]

here it is! this is the only one i took a picture of because it was the only one i could possibly find the time to capture without it being swarmed by other people. i was really lucky to take these pictures without anyone in the background here it’s honestly hard to tell from what i’m showing but there was an obscene amount of people there, hence why we barely spent 1.5 hours there. i suspect idon’s unending stream of complaints and fretting and honest request to tell every member of our extended family that we’d have to quarantine for the next 2 weeks got us out a bit faster than we wouldve otherwise done but eh. that stuff’s especially ironic considering dr lion’s going back to physical school starting this week but hey what can ya do. we wore our masks. homemade by my mother because she had nothing better to do the first few weeks of quarantine and now i’m just rambling about my home life. moving on

[image description: a picture of a string of lightbulbs, focused on one in particular that’s completely shattered. behind, various trees, oaks being the only ones i can name, fill up almost the entire background. blue sky can be seen through the branches of a tree to the upper right portion of the picture. for the most part only the lightbubs & the tree closest to it, taking up the rightmost portion of the photo, are illuminated by the sun. end image description]

this is making me realize i didnt take many good pictures. i only took this one because ive got a story behind it but hey i’ll be coming back this winter to pick out a pine tree probably bc they double as a pine tree farm as well as a pumpkin patch and general creekbluff attraction so i can get some better pictures of the area when there’s less people. hopefully. anyway you see how that lightbulb’s broken? well i being the lil aspiring biologist i am saw a bone lying in the dirt next to our car when we were leaving and immediately picked it up. it was picked clean, almost certainly by ants or something, and i was kinda hoping it was the product of some owl because there are a lot of those in the area around the creek, but my family decided twas but the product of some other family’s picnic there. what it was doing in the parking lot i’d love to know, but i couldnt bring it with me (”that’s disgusting” it’s picked clean dirty & dusty lying in the dirt i guarantee it’s not got anyone’s dna on it any more but that of the chicken it came from) so i take a step closer to the treeline to throw it away. and then of course where does it go after i release it from my hand but directly into one of the lightbulbs hanging up by a string all along the outside of the parking lot. whoopsy. so of course i take a picture as soon as i’m done explaining it to my family & freaking out about doing actual damage to this beloved creek pumpkin patch/pine tree farm. then we have a brief argument on whether to tell the staff about it (there’s actual broken glass what else can we do) and so we drive up to the guy sitting there watching people leave, giving directions, our mom rolls down the window, and i, on the opposite side of the car from him, barely get out a proclamation along the lines of “there’s a broken lightbulb down in the parking lot with glass on the ground” he says “ok sure” and we leave. it takes me like 5 minutes to calm down from that which i dont get because we do a whole expedition up to the top of the bluff to see the construction theyre doing to the train line that theyve been working on for years & we dont even get out of the car to walk around because a. social distancing we already took off our masks & they have to be tied on it’s too much work to put it back on and b. the sheer number of cars there was menacing so we just sorta drove around and glanced down the side of the bluff to the best of our abilities. god that’s a damn paragraph. it’s been an hour. <3 i guess

[tsunnychan]

stains

i said sylvgrid was living in my brain space without paying rent. now they’re charging me money in the form of attention and time. 

ao3

Summary: The war is over and the Blue lions have stayed in Garreg Mach to help with some preliminary rebuilding before heading off to their respective territories.

Over breakfast, Felix notices something on Sylvain that is decidedly out of place.

Dorothea might be laughing in the distance.

-

Felix is suspicious. Incredibly suspicious.

His eyes narrow as Sylvain unceremoniously plops down next to him in the dining hall with pink stain on the collar of his shirt.

Felix squints a little more.

And the corner of his mouth.

He sets his fork down with more force than necessary, appetite gone. He knew this behavior wasn’t anything out of the ordinary… if they were still teenagers at Garreg Mach, attending lectures without having buried former classmates.

But once the war started, Sylvain hadn’t looked twice at girls, too busy throwing himself in front of blows meant for his friends. If anything, Felix could’ve sworn his idiot friend’s eyes strayed after Ingrid more often than not.

And that brings him to the worst part of all of this.

Ingrid.

Had it really been five years prior, Ingrid would’ve gladly joined him in scolding Sylvain for his sloppy shirt and stained face. Truthfully, she would’ve noticed far earlier and beaten him to the punchline.

Now?

She enters the dining hall and sits across from them, feigning disinterest as she eats her breakfast with her usual enthusiasm. Occasionally, she’ll lift her eyes to meet Sylvain’s and raise an eyebrow, before continuing to inhale her food at record pace. Instead of making his usual jabs about her love for food, a blush burns from the back of Sylvain’s neck all the way to his ears and Felix is seething.

What the hell is going on?

Before he can make his mind up about confronting his best friends, Ingrid is done with her food and stands from her seat. She nods politely to Felix and her gaze drifts lazily over to the tense redhead next to him. Her eyes sweep him up and down, zeroing in on his collar and the corner of his mouth. Felix sees the familiar set of her jaw and watches her eyes narrow.

He holds his breath.

“More stains, Sylvain? You should really be more careful. Girls might start to think you like getting marked up like that.”

Felix hears Sylvain’s fork clatter to the table and his mind screeches to a halt as Ingrid turns on her heel and leaves them without another word. For a few moments, the two of them don’t move a single muscle. Then, Felix whirls around on his best friend, hand slamming down on the table. “What the fuck was that?”

Instead of seeing his best friend, he sees a crumpled mess covering his face, skin as red as his hair and uncharacteristically silent. The longer he stares, the more pieces click into place.

Standing abruptly with unfinished breakfast in his hands, Felix scoffs, “You’re both disgusting.”

--

15 minutes ago in the hallway…

 “So, this unused lipstick… it’s for me?”

Sylvain rubs the back of his neck, blush bright on his cheeks. “Um, yeah. It is. For you that is. S-since you’ve been practicing make-up and all, I thought maybe you’d want more to experiment with—”

“And you bought me lipstick?” Ingrid watches the flush on his cheeks spread to his ears and bites back a smile.

“W-well, I figured you already had the stuff for your eyes because that’s what you’ve been using, but not really anything for your lips a-and then I saw it in the marketplace and I thought the color would look good on you—”

“Have you been looking at my face often, then?”

“W-what? No! I mean, yes, I have—but not in a creepy way! I just, you said you were experimenting, and I thought I should let you know how you’re doing, which, you’re doing great by the way—”

Sylvain’s voice dies in his throat as Ingrid uncaps the tube of lipstick and turns to catch her reflection in a suit of armor, applying it carefully. His eyes are glued to the path the lipstick traces and his mouth dries when Ingrid flattens her mouth to spread the pink pigment. She turns to face him again and his palms are sweaty. “How does it look?”

He hastily clears his throat and finds his voice again. “I-I think it looks good. Really good. Beautiful even.”

She takes a step closer and he takes one back, heart stuttering in his chest. Ingrid keeps advancing toward him and he keeps retreating, his instincts telling him to run, like last time. He exhales sharply when his back hits the cold stone of the monastery wall and he realizes Ingrid is intent on cornering him like this without giving him a way out. He gulps at the thought. He presses himself further against the wall, to put some space between them, but she’s completely in his face and Sylvain isn’t sure if he’s even breathing properly anymore. His voice cracks as she advances closer, “Ing?”

She hums thoughtfully and tilts her head. “Beautiful, huh?”

Sylvain’s breath hitches as she lifts onto her toes and softly presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth, lingering there as his arms remain rigid and useless at his sides. Just as she leans away, the heat that blossoms in his chest from her touch forces his arms to move. One wraps around her waist, bringing her back to him. The other flies to the nape of her neck, as his lips seek out hers.

She folds into him easily, and Ingrid is so, so soft against him, her grip on his shoulders grounding him, that she was really here, in his arms. Her mouth moves with his, slow and sweet, warmth shooting down his spine when her hands cup his face, thumbs brushing his cheeks.  Blood pounds in his ears when she pulls back, eyes bright and mouth still parted. His hands tighten on her unconsciously when she licks her lips, desire prickling his skin as her chest heaves against his.

Before he can react, she presses a brief kiss to his neck, and then the collar of his shirt. His legs are trembling as she studies the stain silently, and he doesn’t dare breathe when her gaze moves to his face. His lips.

After a moment, she nods to herself and untangles herself from his arms, rearranging her skirt. “I do like the color, Sylvain. Thank you for the gift, it’s very sweet of you.”

Sylvain had felt a rush of cold air with her withdrawal, but his entire body warms again when her fingers touch her lips absently. “I think I smeared the lipstick though." Her eyes dart to his face and she smiles. "I need to go wash my face, but I’ll meet you in the dining hall in a bit, okay?”

He feels himself nod idly. Before she leaves, Ingrid reaches up and presses another kiss behind his ear and whispers, “it’s a good color on you too.”

Sylvain’s jaw drops and he freezes in place as he watches Ingrid hurry away back to her room. He doesn’t know how long he stays stunned in the hallway, but his feet eventually carry him to the dining hall, and he drops into a seat next to Felix. He barely registers the suspicious glare from his best friend as his mind tries to catch up to his body.

Ingrid kissed him.

She kissed him.

He blinks rapidly and picks up his fork, staring down at his plate. All too soon (and not soon enough), Ingrid enters the dining hall and sits across from him, and starts to inhale her food, like she didn’t just back him into a wall and accost him.

Then, she levels him with a look that sets his entire body on fire, and Sylvain suddenly has a hard time swallowing his food. In a matter of minutes, as he tries to remember how to function normally, Ingrid is already done with her breakfast and stands from her seat. His gaze snaps to hers and finds she’s already looking at him, particularly at the stains she left on him moments ago. He can feel Felix’s eyes boring holes into the side of his skull, but he can’t concentrate on that, what with the way his heart is beating out of his chest—

“More stains, Sylvain? You should really be more careful. Girls might start to think you like getting marked up like that.”

Sylvain’s fork falls out of his slackened grip and Ingrid is already walking away with his heart in her pocket.

  Fuck.

 He’s in love.

 …and he guiltily wonders if she’ll do it again.

[san--shine]

Good Morning Coffee

A/n: This is a story I wrote with @jonghostation for @shikyus because she got accepted in her first choice university. I’m so proud of her, I started this idea a few weeks ago. But without Adelle it still wouldn’t be done and probable only half as good as it is now ~

Warnings: none really, maybe some slight angst?, hate to love, 3196 words

Short summary: College starts. But what happens, if you have to share an apartment with someone, you have never meet before, but who seems to hate you for some reason?

- It’s one week before college starts

- You are sitting in the assembly hall to listen to some professors greeting the new students

- After some very boring speeches everyone goes to the front to get their keys if they stay at the college dorms and good luck wishes

- Of course this gets messy, so you stand around in the back, waiting for most of the students to go their own way

- While waiting you meet sees 2 cute guys

- They introduce each other as Seonghwa and Yeosang. You thought they were cute and since they were holding hands you came to the conclusion in your mind tho, that they are probably dating. You make a mental note to ask them some other time

- A few minutes later another boy joins you.

- He seems annoyed but friendly enough as he introduces himself as Hongjoong

- Upon hearing your name his eyes get cold, almost empty

- You take a step back, asking yourself if you said anything wrong

- Before you can overthink tho Seonghwa pulls you into a conversation about what you are studying and why you decide on it

- Soon enough you two switch numbers and you decide to open a chat room together with Yeosang who Seonghwa says will be glad to join before just adding him since he went to the front already to get his keys.

- Hongjoong was nowhere to be seen and you were kinda relieved of it

- You part ways as Yeosang comes back with two keys hanging on his fingers and giving one to Seonghwa while giving him a kiss on his cheek before blushing

- After you get your keys you walk around the campus, searching for your room which didn’t take you too long since you informed yourself in beforehand

- You only look at the number of the doors so when you finally arrive in front of your room you literally ran into someone who came from the other side of the hallway

- It was Hongjoong

- You both roll your eyes as you insert your keys, telling him he shouldn't worry and that he probably got the wrong key

- What you couldn’t see was his glare at you, some kind of knowledge in them

- As you step in the room you spot a greeting card and some fruits on the table

- It’s signed to the both of you, apologizing for the inconvenience of you two having to share a room with the reason of “to many students”, “not enough rooms”

- You both look around the room until your eyes land on one big problem

- There is only ONE BED

- No way

- As if they could see feel your frustration building up you get a message in the "we are cuties" groupchat you have with Seonghwa and Yeosang, asking you if you want to go out and explore the campus

- "I will go out.", is the only thing you say before turning around and leaving the apartment

- He just rolls his eyes and sticks out his tongue out after you

- You actually have a nice evening out with the boys and rant to them about your roommate - - They tell you that they don't know why their friend acts that way towards you, but they promise if they get any information about the topic they will let you know

- Also they tell you, that you could sleep in their room if needed

- When you came home to your new Apartment Hongjoong is sitting on the bed with his laptop, a row of pillows in the middle of the bed, dividing it perfectly in two

- You sigh defeated 

- He looks up, half surprised, half annoyed, pulling one eyebrow up in question, what you don’t see since you were searching for your bath stuff to get ready for bed

- You and Hongjoong deathstare at each other when you lie down on the other half, putting earphones in and turning your volume up

~~~

- Next day you wake up to the smell of coffee along with complete silence

- Coming into the kitchen, you see 2 cups on the table. One empty one full with milk and sugar next to it

- You almost let out a sound of awe at the thoughtful gesture but resisted against it, as you decided to try and thank him later

- Since the apartment is empty you decide to unpack in peace, listening to music, dancing and singing along

- Time seemed to fly fast, because before you knew it, the morning had passed and the clock had struck into early evening hours. Unbeknownst to you, Hongjoong arrived home, only to witness the glorious sight of you dancing like an idiot around the apartment. 

- It was an absolute miracle that you didn’t even notice his presence at all, which to be honest, Hongjoong was grateful for. 

- Why? Because then he wouldn’t have time to realise that he had been staring at you dancing with, dare I say, affection? 

- When you finally turn around to his direction he quickly looked away, barely saving face as he made an excuse to take some iced Americano in the fridge.

- Even though you caught him awkwardly looking away, you knit your brows together, confused about his attitude 

- Hongjoong suddenly spoke, “I’m going out again. Unless you’re dying, don’t bother contacting me.” 

- He didn’t even give you a chance to reply as he dashed out the door. 

- You pouted, “Wasn’t going to, but okay dude.” You said to no one but yourself as you shrugged and continued dancing until your knees gave in.

- As you put away the final box, you looked at the clock. It was getting late, but there were yet to be signs of Hongjoong coming back to the apartment. 

- At first, you thought that you couldn’t care less of where he is, but you somehow felt this pit in your stomach when you think about what he could be doing at that moment. 

- To clear your conscience (and maybe do something nice for once) you made some tea and put it at his bedside table before going to sleep, carefully putting all available pillows in the middle of the bed again

- When Hongjoong finally came home, he was greeted with your soft snores. 

- “Typical” He scoffed, taking off his jacket and prepared himself to go to sleep as well. 

- Going to his side of the bed, he tilted his head. A mug full of tea, albeit cold, stood on the side table like it was smiling kindly towards the boy. 

- Hongjoong stole a glance at your peacefully sleeping figure. Did you do this? 

- All of a sudden, he felt a pang in his chest. 

- He furrowed his eyebrows together from the abrupt pain. Wait, why am I feeling this? Shit.

- Panicking from such a rush of guilt, he spontaneously took the mug and chugged the entirety of it within seconds. 

- After he coughed a couple of times, he tucked himself in, stealing one last look of you before serenely looking up at the ceiling.

- Conflicted with overwhelming emotion, he wrapped his hands around his head.

- Adamant about his “hatred” for you, he decided to fix the room without even telling you.

- And after many failed attempts, he managed to find a music studio which rented unused studios out to students, and it couldn’t have been a more perfect escape.

~~~

- The next day you wake up to the smell of coffee again, this time with a note next to it

- "don't wait up, have a nice day"

- you decided to go out and message Seonghwa and Yeosang if they want to join you

- They decline since they were unpacking but asked if you would want to come over instead

- You arrive at their little apartment, which was actually bigger than yours and had two bedrooms, even though they were only using one

- They didn’t let you help so you sit on Seonghwas bed and try to talk to him about Hongjoong

- But he just shrugged and said that he doesn’t know what was going on inside his head

- Yeosang said though, that it still sounds just like their friend, since even in highschool he was always busy and sleeping only a few hours at ungodly times of the day

- When you came home from your day at the lovebirds apartment, you are surprised to hear loud music before you even open the door

- There he was, blasting some seemingly random beats over his speakers, sitting on the floor surrounded by sheets of paper

- You look at him in awe and before you could stop yourself you say: “I didn’t know you work on music”

- Your voice startles him, he lets out a loud huff and stars to gather his stuff

- ”yeah I do. Until you came along.”

- Hongjoong tries to walk past you and out the door when you snap:

- “What is your problem with me? You know normal roommates can usually communicate! If you need some space I get that, I can be quiet and just do my stuff over there and put headphones in. HOW ABOUT JUST SPEAKING TO ME FOR ONCE?!”

- He just looks at you with big eyes, mouth slightly agape

- ”You know what? forget it.”

- With that you take your bag which hangs by the door. “I will be in the library for the rest of the day.”

- The apartment loomed in darkness when you arrived there, which is weird because you see Hongjoong’s shoes in the hallway. 

- Hongjoong sits on the bed, headphones in his laptop, seemingly working

- But as soon a you put your bag down he looks up and you mentally prepare for some harsh words as reaction to your own ones earlier

- “I’m sorry.”

- “pardon?”

- “I’m not used to living with someone. I usually like to be on my own and requested that at the college. So I was pissed when I found out that I will have a roommate when they gave me my key. So I asked for a name to find them and talk to them. It wasn’t your fault. I should have talked to you.”

- You just nod

- After this you just talked everything out, sitting on the bed.  

- "So..is that it? Are we cool?" 

- You hummed, "No"

- "What?!"

- "Not until we set down some ground rules."

- Hongjoong retorted," I thought we did that when we first moved in."

- You gave him a deadpan look, "Bordering the two sides of the bed with a wall of pillows is not setting down ground rules, Hongjoong."

- “It kinda is, thou-” You gave him another look that made him backtrack, “ Ah, okay, I see your point.” 

- Seeing him hurrying to agree with you after you intimidated him amused you, because you didn’t even mean it that much. A smile tugged on your lips as you suggested a few starter rules. 

- Before long, the both of you agreed on a comprehensive set of regulations written on a piece of paper, albeit stained with coffee and in Hongjoong’s questionable writing, to which he claimed is due to your impatient dictation.

- “You try writing stuff when the person dictating it to you doesn’t want to spare 2 seconds in slowing down.” 

- ”Dude, we’re in college. That’s practically our lives.” 

- ”Shut up.” 

- “Then keep writing!”

- When you look at the final result, you smiled, “ This should do it. I especially like this extra detail you put in the corners.”

- “ I am an artiste, ladybug, let my creativity fly.”

- You sniggered, “God, the moment we’re not at each other’s throats, you turn even more annoying, how is that even possible?” 

- “And you’re still sweet as ever, aren’t you?”

- The both of you chuckled as you subtly changed the subject.

- You tell him how cool you think it is that he does music as a hobby, but that you don’t like him to overwork himself after he told you how his friends found him passed out on his laptop once. 

- When you grow tired you two build the pillows in the middle of the bed together. Just to be sure you know

~~~

- After that you kind of become friends, he still gets annoyed if you are home too much while hes working and you sometimes snap at him when you realize he hasn’t eaten anything in 30 hours but it’s nice

- It feels kinda special

- One day when you come home early because the lecture was boring and you couldn’t be bothered to just sit there and act like you care what your professor was talking about you catch Hongjoong having a phone call

- He seems a bit frustrated with something, saying stuff like “No, I don’t want it.” “No, it’s fine.”

- So you go and start preparing some tea, what you know by now calms his nerves a bit

- When he finishes the call he flinches when he sees you standing there, luckily with your back turned to him

- You don’t hear him talking anymore so you felt free to ask: “What was the call about?”

- “Nothing.”, he answers too quickly, watching your back intensely 

- “Okay then.”, you knew better than to start discussing with him. He would come to you if he wants to talk about it. 

- “I made you some tea.”

- You turn around and you swear you could see something like softness in his eyes before he casts them down at the cup of tea that you reach out to him

- What you didn’t know was that the call Hongjoong got was from the College telling him that he could have his own apartment now

- But he declined

- Because you are good for his health and he knows he would feel lonely now alone in a big apartment. Even though he would never admit that out loud.

~~~

- It’s a Sunday when you wake up because you feel too warm

- You try to stretch to wake up fully, but there are arms holding you close and your legs are entangled

- You let out a small screech and try to get up, which wakes up Hongjoong who falls out of the bed with a small yelp as he lets you go

- “I’m sorry!” “Sorry..”, you both apologize in an instant

- The breakfast afterwards was awkward to say the least, since no one wants to talk about the way they woke up

- Saying you need some fresh air you go out, leaving him alone in the apartment, overthinking on his own

- He tries to put what he feels into a song, it’s the only way he feels confident enough to speak about himself

- You try to reach Seonghwa and Yeosang to talk to them, but your texts don’t seem to get through and when you try to call only the voicemail answers

- Luckily it’s good weather so you search for a nice place to sit down and just think

- Some hours went by and you seem to have fallen asleep

- Because the next thing you know is opening your eyes to Seonghwas worried face while he softly shakes your shoulders

- Apparently Yeosang and he had been searching everywhere for you after they looked at their phones and then you were the one who they didn’t seem to be able to reach

- While Seonghwa sits next to you and text his lover that he found you, you try to summarize what happened the last days especially this morning

- Seonghwa listens patiently and asks you if you want to spend the night at their place since they have an unused bed

- So it happens to be the first night you decide to sleep at the, how you sweetly call it, lovebirds place, giving hongjoong a quick heads up over text

- Hongjoong doesn’t like the knot he feels settling in his stomach, but he accepts

- What else should he do anyway

- He uses the extra time to perfect the lyrics to his song 

~~~

- It takes him several days in and out of the studio to finish the song

- In that time you two don’t see each other often

- Most of the time one leaves while the other comes back to the apartment

- It starts to get on your nerves

- And you start to worry a bit because Hongjoong seems to sleep at the studio, at least you fall asleep alone and wake up alone

- Even though you don’t want to admit it, you miss him

- A lot

~~~

- One day you come home from studying, you hear a soft melody playing in the apartment when you open the door

- you come in slowly, not wanting to scare Hongjoong out of the apartment

- Because actually you want to talk to him about what happened a few days ago 

- And maybe tell him that you kinda miss him?! 

- When you step into the room there is food on the table, he even found an old candle somewhere and lit up in the middle of it

- “Joong?”, you call him questioning, his nickname rolling off your tongue like butter

- You hear him hum from the kitchen. “Sit down, I'll be right there.”

- So you do just that, waiting.

- The air feels kinda thick, filled with anticipation, and curiosity about what is happening right now

- With nothing else to calm yourself down, you took it upon yourself to focus on the song that had been playing.

- It was as soft as when the melody started, the lyrics just as enchanting and beautiful.

- However, after a while, you stopped yourself to further analyse; The lyrics, it tells a story. A story all too familiar. 

- And that was when you knew. This song, this ethereal piece, is about you.

- Blood rushed towards your cheeks as the realisation hits you. 

- Joong stands in the door, watching you and your reactions closely

- “Now that you know how I feel about you, lets eat.”

- You wish you could knock that smirk out of his face but you are speechless, overwhelmed by emotions

- You eat quietly, only glancing at him every now and then, same goes for him.

- “Joongie?” 

- “Hmm?”, he raises one of his eyebrows

- “I missed you.”

~~~

- A few days later you wake up to a kiss on your cheek

- “what the fuck was that?”

[morethanithoughtofficialblog]

Chapter 13: I'm sad because I'm depressed and I'm depressed because I'm sad.

In which Sans remembers why he doesn’t talk about his feelings anymore.

*Sans's POV*

"Do you, by any instance, have suicidal thoughts?"

"i... not that often"

"But you have?"

"i would be lying if i say no"

Papyrus asked (Y/N) yesterday God-knows-what and he ended up knowing what a psychiatrist and a psychologist are, and here I am, talking with a psychiatrist. My brother said that it would be better if I had a new treatment started by a professional on the topic and not by a random monster that calls itself a doctor. Considering that in the Underground we only had general doctors, it was difficult to talk about these matters and get the help needed. Therefore, this seemed like a better option.

Papy spent the night (and this morning) looking for the best option to me, considering that discrimination it's still present. And so he went, asking multiple people if they were open to listen a depressing skeleton being depressed (he obviously didn't say it that way... I think). And so he finally found someone willing to help me, and we head off as soon as possible (hell, we didn't even eat... should I say I'm hungry?)

"Do you have a specific plan to commit suicide, Sans?"

"uh... no?"

"YOU DON'T SOUND SO SURE, BROTHER"

"it's just... i haven't thought about it that deeply. i just sometimes think that i want to disappear and that's it. no idea how, no idea when. just disappear.

"I see..."

The old man went over his little notebook and wrote something down. He was bald and had a white beard almost as pale as my skull, and had a sternum and serious look behind his rectangular glasses. He would be intimidating... if he wasn't a psychiatrist willing to help a monster. How bad could this man possibly be?

"Sans, do you sleep well? And I mean at nights"

"no, sir. i haven't been sleeping well since last year. i mean, i can easily fall asleep, but it's difficult to me to stay that way."

"I see, do you nap at day?"

"heh, a lot if you ask my brother"

"Ok..."

I freaked out for a moment, returning to an odd silence only filled by the sound of his pen writing down my weirdness. I became nervous, not knowing what he was going to ask next. But, honestly, I've been kind of unused to these unpredictable events the Surface has to bring. I was used to hearing the same dialogues and to say the same jokes, but know... everything it's fresh and new. It's scary, but quite a reliever.

"Ok Sans, do you by any chance have any specific dreams or nightmares?"

I froze and cough out the water I was drinking in shock. A quick flashback of the "Genocide Run" went all over my mind, the part of my brother dying repeating itself horribly. The empty look of that kid, the Judgement Hall being my new space... the kid giving up and resetting in front of my eyes, not before giving me a vengeful look.

"Sans? It's okay if you don't want to talk about it yet, but I need to know..."

I sighed, knowing that it was for the best. If I want to enjoy the future, I have to get rid of this fucking trauma.

"i... i do have specific dreams, sir. nightmares, actually. i... i don't want to mention them right now"

Papyrus let out a sigh in disappointment and I gave him a weak smile. I know he always wanted to know what's on my mind... but I just couldn't tell him at that moment. He smiled back to me, making me feel less pressured.

"Don't worry, Sans. We'll go step by step, no need to run all over the details. Still, the fact that you've been having constant nightmares of the same topic it's quite alarming, that's why I needed to know"

He then picked a piece of paper and scribbled some things down.

"This is for the drug store..."

He picked another one, not before drawing a small asterisk on the top.

"And this one is for you"

He then gave me the two pieces of paper and I glanced over them with Papyrus, curious about the medicines.

"In order to deal with your depression, Sans, you'll take a pill of Prozac (or fluoxetine) every morning, okay? I'll determine later for how much time"

We nodded, then glanced again at the paper, reading the next medicament.

"For your insomnia, Sans, you'll take a pill Restoril (or temazepam) every night before going to sleep. This is one of the best pills to not only falling asleep but also keeping you that way"

Before I could even nod, I noticed an uneasy look in the doc's face. I raised an... eyebrow, startling him for a second.

"I'm sorry" he stated, then sighed.

"IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG, DOCTOR?"

"Nothing it's just... the fact that Sans is having constant nightmares worries me. Do you also have constant flashbacks of said events?"

I slowly nodded, and his face got worst.

"DOCTOR? IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?"

"No, it's just... it breaks my heart to know that the Underground may not have been a better place than the Surface"

A better place?

"what do you mean, sir?"

"..."

He just sighed and gave me an apologetic smile, trying his best not to break down. I noticed he was on the edge of tears, and I felt panic running all over my body.

"Sans, there's a high chance you have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or for short, PTSD"

"PTSD?"

"Yes, it's kind of a serious condition to deal with. It shows that Sans had a really traumatic event in his life, and it may seem impossible for him to have a normal life with all the fear he gained from that moment. Or am I wrong, Sans?"

I shook my head, and he gave me a sad smile. Just as he said, just as it is. I never thought it would be that serious, though.

"You'll take Zoloft (or sertraline) for that, Sans... but I also recommend you to go to a psychologist. I can directly put you an appointment with a friend of mine if that's what you want. What do you say? He'll be more than open to hearing your case"

Papyrus nodded excitedly, while I was not too sure. I felt like my normal balance would break down if I started to go to therapy... but then I looked to Papyrus again. I don't want him all worried about me, I want him to have a normal life. And for that, I also need to form a normal life myself.

"sure, may we have the address?"

"Sure, I'll give you an e-mail with it"

We gave the doctor a quick goodbye and a thank you, then head off to our home. I insisted to Papyrus that we could eat something first and relax, then go to the drug store. He groaned slightly and muttered a "lazybones" but took my offer.

When we arrived, though...

"Hello, my children! Where were you?"

Oh fuck.

I glanced over the living room and saw our small group of friends gathered cozily, including an almost smashed (Y/N), an annoying flower screaming, a suspiciously staring father, and more!

...I gulped, knowing I could never say the truth. (Y/N) is a new person in my life, the flower is a bitch, my father is another bitch, Undyne doesn't take anything seriously, Alphys takes everything seriously, Frisk is a dirty betrayer, Toriel worries too much, Asgore would go and make everyone check themselves with the therapist, Mettaton would go and check himself with a therapist, Napstablook would feel all sorry, and Arial would be highly disappointed.

...

Saying the truth sounds pretty awful at this point.

"OH, WE WERE AT THE DOCTOR, MOTHER!"

Oh crap

Papyrus seemed to notice my signal of begging help and came to the rescue immediately, never mentioning anything about a psychiatrist.

"SANS, BEING ALL STUPID, GOT SOMETHING STUCK IN HIS CHEST AGAIN!"

Ouch.

"yep. guess i need some spare ribs at this point, huh?"

Everyone groaned and so I successfully got away from the problem. I tried my best to keep my cool, but I easily spaced out a couple of times and ended up startling myself. They were doing rounds in Super Mario Bros., and (Y/N) seemed to be an expert on it, considering she was on World 6.

"Oh c' mon, when are you going to die?!" Flowey annoyingly exclaimed, foreshadowing a bit. I almost smacked him over before I saw Toriel's face, then I lost myself again on the videogame.

(Y/N) continued playing until arriving at the final castle. Surprising, to say the least. Everyone else was getting enthusiastic about her defeat, but it never happened. Instead, (Y/N) went to play all over again, making everyone groan.

"Oh my God, let us play as well!" Undyne roared, giving a death glare to the older human.

"You said you wanted me to prove how good I am..." She innocently answered, putting the controller aside.

"Ok, you've already proven yourself. Now, please, give us a chance this time" Frisk sighed in defeat, feeling vulnerable and probably fooled.

"Ok!" (Y/N) cheerily got up from the couch, then waved at Papyrus and me "Hi guys! Anything serious happened?"

Shit.

"IT'S NOTHING THAT CAN'T BE HANDLED, HUMAN!"

"I'm glad, how do you feel Sans?" She looked at me worried and made me feel like the worst person on Earth.

A huge part of me wanted to say the truth and confess my problems at that moment, but that was me feeling horrible. I always hated lying, but that's what my life has come to. At this point, I can barely feel sorry for lying...

Except on this topic.

I've always been sensitive with this stuff, and that's how Papyrus ended up knowing. It has become something really messed up that I want to let all the people I care about that I'm not okay. I want them to help me feel complete again. To feel safe. To have hope.

"Sans?"

"HUMAN... SANS... IS IT OKAY FOR YOU IF I TELL HER WHAT'S GOING ON? I TOLD HER SOME THINGS YESTERDAY AND SHE WAS REALLY COMPREHENSIBLE. BESIDES, MAYBE SHE CAN HELP US MORE WITH THE SUBJECT!"

I glanced over her, and she gave me a small and recomforting smile. Out of all the people, I never knew she would be one of those who know what's going on.

"If you don't want me to, Sans, I understand. Just know I'm here to support all of you, ok? And don't take that as an associate... but as a friend. I'm more than willing to help you out in any way I can... but that depends on you"

A deep pain went all over my soul, but then I nodded. If she was so understanding as Papyrus said she was when she heard what problem I have... maybe telling her a bit of detail won't hurt.

"we'll tell ya later, ok? now it's a little bit crowded"

"I understand, thanks for trusting me"

"thanks to you, kiddo"

Thanks to you...

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

*Your POV*

It was a while after the small gathering ended, everyone having to go earlier than expected. I already attended my work-hunting business and find a convincing and small company. I sent them an e-mail, and so I'm waiting for them to text me back. But for now, more important things were on my head.

I feel really sorry about Sans's case, and how desperate Papyrus seemed yesterday when he told all about it. I suffer from some things as well, and I know it isn't easy. It's never easy to deal with yourself...

"HUMAN, SANS, SHALL WE DISCUSS NOW OUR LITTLE SECRET?"

Sans chuckled a bit and I nodded, preparing myself from what I was about to hear.

"OK, SO... YOU REMEMBER THE TALK WE HAD YESTERDAY, RIGHT HUMAN?!"

I nodded again, and he smiled and reassured his brother that he was in good hands. I giggled softly, and the short skeleton just scratched the back of his head out in embarrassment.

"I FOLLOWED YOUR ADVICE, AND I TOOK SANS TO THE MOST ACCESSIBLE PSYCHIATRIST I COULD!"

I smiled, glad that Sans accepted any help.

"What did the doctor diagnosed you, Sans?" I asked, hoping he would be the one answering me this time. After all, this is Sans's main problem, not Papyrus's. He tensed up a little but quickly relaxed as he remembered the presence of his brother there. He took enough courage silently, then spoke with that characteristic deep voice of his.

"depression, insomnia, and... well, something called ptsd, which is-"

"PTSD?!" I interrupted abruptly, not believing what my ears just heard. Sans having depression is hard to admit, but PTSD? Oh lord, what has this poor guy endured in his young life?

"uh... yeah, i... eh..."

Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap.

"Nonono, don't think that way, Sans. It's just... a bit surprising, coming for you. I never expected you to have such a problem, but I guess appearance is quite a bi... beach."

"BEACH?"

"Uh, yeah..." Please come with a good excuse, (Y/N) "You know, beaches may be all pretty on the photos, but the dangerous creatures and natural phenomenons they bring show that they are not that perfect. I guess that's the same for Sans. He easily can go on and hide perfectly with jokes and laughs, but that doesn't mean he's that careless nor happy on the inside... sorry for putting you that way, Sans"

"it's okay kid, i think i get it" he jokingly winked at me, noticing what I was going to say at first. I sighed, feeling pretty stupid at this point.

"Anyways... what has the doctor prescribed you, Sans?"

"this thing called 'prozac', another one called 'restoril' and the last one being 'zoloft'..."

Huh, I have all of those at home.

Maybe I can give him some, considering I have a ton of them...

"HUMAN! SANS MAY BE ON TREATMENT AND ALL, BUT I DON'T WANT YOU TO THINK LESS OF HIM! HE'S AN EXCELLENT MONSTER, EVEN IF HE'S WAY TOO LAZY, BUT HE'S A GOOD BROTHER!"

I saw a slight hint of blue hue spread all over Sans's cheekbones, and I assumed it was blush. I smiled softly, knowing that would be the kind of brothership I would want. Instead, I had the goddamn curse to have no brothers or sisters, and here I am. Alone.

"I would never think less of anyone by this reason, Papyrus" Then I came up with a wild idea, but that mind instantly approved. My smile grew bigger, and I continued "Actually, now that you're confessing me something quite touchy... I guess I should do the same. It may help you to feel a bit more comfortable, Sans"

He raised an eyebrow and I returned to my soft and small smile, preparing myself...

Now that I was thinking about it, it was a bad idea. It was a bad idea to show my weak points, to show my problems, and to show how vulnerable I actually am. But that didn't stop me. And it will never do.

"I... besides from dealing with, well, anxiety, I also suffer from depression..." His eyes widened and tensed up, staring at me with the same shock I felt when he mentioned PTSD. I continued "I have insomnia as well, and... a psychiatrist said I probably had PTSD, considering some constant dreams I have..."

"i... how?"

What?

"i mean, how can you have all those things and still want to help others instead of yourself?"

I stared at him, dumbfounded. Then I sighed with a smile on my face, trying to feel as confident as I could.

"Making others happy is what makes me happy, Sans. And that's what I need the most..."

"To be happy"

[dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt]

Prompt Writing Challenge

Entry: 6

Prompt: 44. distant traffic

Character(s): Taco, June, Dante

Notes: So this is about when Taco eventually does The Evolve and becomes a sapient demon instead of just a pupper. I’m getting sort of emotional because of a relationship between a fictional pug and an emotionally constipated demon I’ve put through hell. what is my life at this point honestly. X’D

His head hurt.

There was something droning nearby, a dull, constant noise that grated in his ears. Cars?

He could smell something sour.

The darkness behind his closed eyes (his eyes were closed? was he sleeping? no he felt awake, but he must have been dreaming) was not complete, it kept shifting and changing shade, grey and black, black and grey, and... yellow. Ow, bright light.

Colours. Sounds weren’t just sounds with meanings anymore. They were... words. He could match scents to words now, not just an image and an understand. This dream was weird.

His head really, really hurt.

He opened his eyes to find his face pressed into dark carpet that still smelled vaguely of whatever wine was spilled on it last. Other discomforts registered themselves immediately: the curved edge of his bed was digging into his side, the sharp coffee table leg was pressed against his shoulder, and his hair was tickling his cheek. Strong midday sunlight slanted through the open curtains and fell directly across his eyes like it was trying to blind him.

Wait.

His hair?

He scrambled upright, barely avoiding splitting his skull open on the table, and gripped the top of his head. A soft mass, springy with loose curls, met his touch. He pulled one curl in front of his eyes, mystified, and watched it bounce back into place when he let it go. With his hands. His hands.

He flexed his new set of fingers. He had a lot of them. They were very wriggly. With some further experimentation, he realized he could: lift up his dog bed (had it always been that small?), climb up onto the couch (easily!), put on one of the shirts he found on his master’s bed (buttons were hard), and spill his water bowl on the carpet when he tried to pick it up (oh no.)

His master wasn’t home, that was for sure. He knew the minute they didn’t instantly swoop down on him for spilling the water. He didn’t know what to do. Did he go and find them? He was pretty certain he could open the door with his new hands. Did he wait? They would want him to wait. And he didn’t have pants. He should find pants. Then think more.

He found pants.

Where was his master anyway? He perched on the arm of the couch like they sometimes did when they wanted to think (this was really uncomfortable) and tried to remember when they had left, if they had said where they were going, if Dante had been here. He could remember eating kibble... and his master saying something... but it was hard to translate now. He hadn’t recognized the sounds back then, and he hadn’t thought it would be important, so he hadn’t concentrated.

His head still hurt. Was this what being ‘bored’ felt like?

He wondered what he looked like, so he checked in the mirror. He could feel the hackles he didn’t have anymore bristling as he approached it; he had always hated it... before, until his master had made him realize it wasn’t a window and there wasn’t a very angry dog on the other side barking at him! He still didn’t like it. Now, it contained a young looking human with wild black hair and black eyes and a crooked nose. He poked it, until he got bored again. He decided he didn’t like being bored.

He barked at some pigeons and hurt his throat because it wasn’t made for barking anymore. He bit a pillow but he couldn’t rip the white stuff out of it so it wasn’t as fun. He eyed his leash hanging by the door. He could reach it now, if he wanted. But without his master, it wouldn’t be the same.

By the time his master and Dante got back, he was sitting upside down on the couch and looking at the ceiling. There was a bit of broken glass wedged right by the light that looked like it had been there for a while, but he hadn’t noticed it before. He was just starting to think about if he could jump on the couch enough to reach it when the door opened and he flipped upright so fast he felt dizzy.

“And the winged prick just- what the fuck!”

Dante grabbed his master by the shoulders before they could do anything but swear. He was looking at Taco with a strange expression on his face. Was he scared? His master definitely didn’t look scared. They looked angry. And surprised?

He held up his paws - hands, hands now - like he always did when they were angry with him. He wasn’t worried, they wouldn’t hurt him. He was pretty sure. He was also pretty sure there was a word somebody said, to greet another person, but he couldn’t think of it with two pairs of black eyes boring into him, so he just flapped his hands and said the only word he really knew, because it was his. Him.

“Taco,” he said.

June made a strangled noise. Dante raised his eyebrows.

He quickly added, “Hello!” since it popped into his head finally.

“Hello,” Dante replied, which was nice. He crossed the space and took Taco’s chin in one of his hands, which was less nice. “How do you feel?”

“Um.” Taco looked past him, at June, who was still staring at him. He smiled at them, hoping it still got across the same feeling even if he couldn’t furiously wag his tail anymore. “My head hurts,” he admitted.

“Nothing can help that,” Dante said, not unsympathetically. “You should get some sleep. It’ll be less... overwhelming when you wake up.”

Taco didn’t know what overwhelming meant, and he definitely didn’t want to sleep. He took his chin out of Dante’s hand and pushed by him without looking back.

“Master!” he exclaimed, and flung himself at them. He didn’t realize they were this small, had they always been this small? He was bigger than them!

“Fuck, don’t call me that,” they grumbled. Their claws sank into his shoulders just enough to be a warning as they pushed him back. He didn’t mind; it was kind of a relief, this was normal. “I didn’t think you would be this... annoying.”

“Don’t listen to that,” Dante said with a smile. He walked past on the way to the kitchen and ruffled his master’s hair as he did so, snatching his hand back quick so it didn’t get bitten off. “They think you’re cute.”

June hissed at him, sharp teeth bared, but Taco’s face had fallen.

“Not master?”

June sighed, frustrated. “No. My name’s June, call me that.”

“June?”

“Yeah. June.”

“Okay,” he said. Okay.

June growled in the back of their throat and shook their head, following Dante into the kitchen, but Taco didn’t think he imagined the quick squeeze they’d given to his arm. “Let’s talk over lunch.”

Taco brightened. “Kibble?”

Dante laughed, and he took that as a bad sign. “No, kid. You better get used to eating people food.”

“Like eggs?”

“You feed him eggs?” Dante demanded to June.

June shrugged with a noncommittal grunt. “What? They’re not poisonous.”

“Did you check?”

June turned slowly to glare at him, red showing in their cheeks.

“Aw. You do care,” Dante said, teasing, and turned back to Taco, which Taco thought with alarm was a big mistake, given the way his master was still glaring at the back of his head like black death. “Sure, eggs. You can help me make them.”

That got Taco hurrying into the kitchen. He smiled at his master as he dragged an almost unused ‘fry pan’ out of a cupboard, and this time he knew he was not imagining the tiny smile he got in return.