#with the giant pink Uno over top of it

[cementcornfield]

Ja'Marr's back in town one day and Joe's out here reposting edits

[simplee-dreaming]

The Party

A/N: I spent far too much time deciding how all of their outfits were gonna look so I hope it paid off. Also, I know some things I mention have different names in different countries but I've gone for what I only know as the British version. Hope you like it! (Totally didn't get inspiration for this idea from driving past a joke shop myself...)

Word count: 2951

Summary: The reader attends her first themed party hosted by RDJ, but her outfit lands her in trouble.

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Tonight was the night. The night you had been waiting for for weeks. A party at Robert Downey Jr’s house. But not just any old party, oh no, a party for the Avengers cast. Not even just a party - a themed party.

See, Robert is well known for his themed parties. Of course he’s done the classics such as the black and white theme, the 80s theme, even the “dress as your favourite superhero” theme - what could be more suited? But he’s also well known for his unique themes. For example: dress as what you wanted to be when you were a kid; dress as your favourite fruit or veg; dress as another member of the cast; dress as your favourite gay icon. The list goes on.

This was your very first party with the cast though. Being the newest member, you were super excited to have a great night with them all outside of work - plus little Tom couldn’t stop guessing what this theme could be. It was, of course:

“Dress as your favourite board game.”

Yep. Board games.

You spent ages trying to figure out what board game you were going to dress up as. The main rule of the themed parties was that you couldn’t tell other people what you were going as unless you deliberately needed someone else to complete your outfit.

You were desperate for ideas now that the party was only a week away. It wasn’t until you were walking down the highstreet, and something in the shop window caught your eye, that you finally had an idea. You were standing outside of a joke shop, and in the window stood a dress...designed like a Twister mat.

Perfect.

The day had finally arrived. No one was filming today so you had all day to get yourself ready. Hair and makeup done, Twister dress on, ready to rumble.

You made your way to RDJ’s house at half 8 - late enough to not be the first one there but early enough to enjoy everyone’s company for longer. You smiled with glee as you stepped into the house. You were tingling with excitement as you walked towards the room where the music played. The minute you walked into the room, everyone approached you. And one by one you scanned them all to see what they were dressed as.

The first person you saw was Anthony, he was dressed up as Cards Against Humanity. Not quite a board game but funny nonetheless. The front of his outfit was completely black and the back was completely white. The writing on his front read “I drink to forget _____”, and the writing on his back read “Tom Holland”. You giggled.

Next was Scarlett. She decided to come dressed as Pictionary. Part of her outfit was made with polyester and nylon, and she carried around a whiteboard marker so that anyone could draw a picture on her outfit and others had to guess what it was. This could also be wiped off easily, ready for the next person to draw.

Sebastian was next, you snorted when you saw him. He was dressed as Frustration. His outfit was divided into the four colours: his top right being yellow, top left being green, bottom right being blue and bottom left being red. He had placed a semisphere plastic hat over his head and inside lay a foam dice which jumped about whenever he shook his head.

After Seb came Liz. She was dressed up as Uno. Her front and back were two different colours of the uno reverse card - the front being red and the back being green. The point of this is that whenever someone asked her to do something she didn’t wanna do, she’d just point to her outfit and get out of doing it.

Next was Paul B. He came as Trivial Pursuit. Random questions and answers were plastered all over his suit, such as: “how many feet are there in a fathom? 6”; “What three-word slogan was named the most popular advertisement ever in a 2000 poll? Beanz Meanz Heinz”; and his own personal saying, “Where do snitches end up? In ditches”.

Following Paul was the unsurprising double act. Big Tom and Hemsy. They had come dressed as Snakes and Ladders. Tom had glued a giant toy python to his all-black outfit, and Chris had stuck a cardboard ladder to the front and back of his all-white outfit. Simple, yet effective.

Then came Evans who was dressed as Noughts and Crosses, despite numerous comments from RDJ about it not being a board game. His back was full of paper noughts and crosses stuck to his top but his front had a similar material to Scarlett’s where the cast could play their own game on his front and then wipe it off for the next players.

You scanned little Tom next. He had gone all out with his outfit, dressing up as Operation. He was wearing a light pink coloured top and matching trousers and had stapled all the pieces of operation to their correct areas, such as the butterfly, the spare rib and the wish bone. He’d also used face paint to paint his nose a dark shade of red. Adorably creepy in a way.

Last, but certainly not least, was the man himself. Robert Downey Jr. He came as the popular game Cluedo. And boy did he look fancy. He wore a top hat that had a giant question mark stuck to it, and a tuxedo with a long sweeping tail attached to the jacket. Neatly placed all over his black suit were the names of the suspects, the names of the rooms and the names of the weapons - all written in white. He looked splendid.

“Twister. How unusual. I love it,” Robert said, the others nodded in agreement.

“Thanks, you all look incredible,” you said.

Little Tom held out his arm and led you to the dance floor where you spent the next hour dancing the night away. Big Tom and Hemsy were owning the dance floor with their moves. Many party classics blared through the speakers, including 5,6,7,8...which you knew the dance off by heart but RDJ had to be taught the moves by you and little Tom.

Another hour passed and you were sat with Scarlett, Liz and Paul in the other room where the music wasn’t so loud. Seb was with you but he had asked Liz to get him a drink and she played the uno reversal so now he was on drinks duty.

“Paul, can I borrow your suit just so I can literally look smarter?” You asked, he chuckled.

“Maybe I can just follow you around and relay the facts for you,”

“You could be the Yoda to my Luke. Though I think you’re too big to sit on my back,” you said.

“Here’s your punch,” said Seb, returning with two cups for him and Liz.

“Finally, what took you so long?” she asked.

“I stopped in the party room, Anthony and little Tom are having a competition to see who can do the macarena better,” he said.

“But...the macarena is the macarena…” you said, confused.

“Try telling them that. Tom insisted that the Brits do it better apparently.”

“Well, we do have some absolute bangers,” you chuckled. Paul agreed.

“So where did you get that dress?” Scarlett asked you.

“The joke shop down the highstreet. I was walking past it last week and found it in the window. Thought it would be perfect,” you shrugged.

“Until Mackie gets over excited and plays Twister on you,” Seb said.

“I’d like to see him try,” you replied.

“Ah, here’s the gang. What are you all doing in here?” Robert said, entering the room with big Tom and Evans.

“We’re just sat chatting….wait, have you left Holland and Mackie alone?” Seb asked.

“They’re fine, Chris is with them,” Tom replied. You tilted your head at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe I should check on them…” Tom said, you nodded and he left the room.

“Soooo, how’s it going?” Evans asked everyone.

“We’re all fine but Y/N is a bit twisted,” Seb said. Everyone laughed but you bonked him on the head, making the dice jolt.

“Oi!”

You giggled and slapped the plastic hat again, the dice landed on a 6.

“Eyy I get another go!” You cheered before bonking him on the head again. He sighed but chuckled.

“Well it’s nice to see her dressed as an actual board game,” Robert said, turning to Evans.

“Hey, that’s not fair! Noughts and crosses is a board game!” Evans protested.

“I wanna play,” you said. Evans smiled at you.

You got Liz to play with you and you went first. You decided to play as noughts and took the bottom left corner. After a few rounds, you got a straight diagonal line. You cheered as Liz huffed, but she congratulated you nonetheless.

“I wanna play pictionary now,” you said, turning to Scarlett. She smiled and handed you a whiteboard pen. You thought for a moment then began drawing.

You pressed down on Scarlett’s outfit to make sure you could draw properly. You ran the pen down her stomach and she giggled.

“Hey, careful, that tickles,” she said. You blushed and apologised but continued. Everytime the pen went over a certain spot Scarlett would giggle but she never flinched.

“Okay, I’m done,” you announced. Everyone leaned forward and groaned once they saw it.

“Really? You know none of us can say that,” Seb said.

“First one to say it correctly wins,” you shrugged. You had drawn Mjolnir, something that everyone struggled to say.

“Midge-oh-lair,” said Liz.

“Mjohn-ler,” said Seb.

“Me-joln-ier,” said Evans.

“Hey! It’s Mjolnir!” came a voice from the door. Hemsy had just walked in with Mackie, little Tom and big Tom.

“We have a winner,” you grinned and everyone groaned again.

“Okay now I wanna play snakes and ladders,” you said. You scrambled to your feet and launched yourself at Hemsy, climbing up his tall body and clinging to him like a koala. He laughed.

“Okay, and what do we do now?” He chuckled. You shrugged and hugged him tighter, he returned the favour.

“As nice as this is, princess, I can’t carry you around the rest of the evening,” Hemsy said.

“Alright, hang on. Gotta complete the game,” you said. You motioned big Tom to come nearer and leaned over to hug him. Your legs followed and wrapped around his waist before you slid down his body and landed on the floor. Tom laughed.

“Impressive,” he said. You lay flat at the floor and looked at him, giggling.

“You’re very playful today,” big Tom said.

“I’m just happy to be here,” you giggled, he smiled at you.

“Alright my turn, I wanna play twister,” Mackie said, launching himself at you.

“WAIT!” You cried, panicked by his sudden movement. Mackie didn’t listen.

“I’m not doing anything! I need someone to give me an instruction,” he said.

“Right foot red,” Seb said. Mackie lifted his foot and put it on the first red spot he could see, directly on your tummy. You giggled as he adjusted his foot, rubbing it against your tummy.

“Noho Anthony!”

He looked and realised what he was doing, then smirked and vibrated his foot on your tummy again. You giggled louder.

“The twister mat is making noises, how do I turn it off?” He asked.

“Um, try putting your left hand on yellow,” little Tom piped up. Mackie grinned as he spotted a yellow spot on your ribs. He put his hand down and gave them an “accidental” squeeze.

“Hehey!” You shrieked.

“Didn’t work Holland, anyone else?” Mackie said.

“Try right hand green,” Scar said, smirking. Mackie placed his right hand on the green spot on your side and squeezed again.

“Stohop!” You cried.

“Right well that didn’t work, and I can’t put my left foot on it otherwise I would break it. Any other ideas?” he said.

“You may have to push a few buttons, try turning it off and on again,” Paul said. Mackie squeezed your ribs and sides again and shook his foot on your tummy. You screeched loudly.

“Nope, still making noises,”

“Let me have a look,” Liz said. Mackie had you pinned below his hands and foot. You started to giggle as you felt a single finger run up your neck.

“Nonono Lizzie!” You squeaked as she dragged a nail up the other side.

“There must be an off button around here,” she teased. She gently scribbled all her nails into your neck. You scrunched up your shoulders and shrieked.

“NOHOHOHO!”

“Definitely not here, you sure it’s not there Mackie?” Lizzie asked. Mackie squeezed your ribs and sides again and your giggles turned to laughter.

“Nope, no no, that’s made it worse,” he said. “Someone try a blue spot!”

Evans jumped up and ran over to help. He found a blue spot right on your hip, he placed his hand over it and started squeezing.

“NAHAHAHAHAHA!” You screamed. Trying to buck your body was impossible with Mackie still pinning you.

“Dammit Evans you turned the volume up!” Mackie yelled.

“Maybe the problem lies outside of the mat itself,” big Tom piped up.

“What you saying Hiddleston? That we’re the problem?” Mackie asked.

“Not at all, just that there appears to be parts connected to the mat, but not part of the mat itself,” Tom said, putting his hand on his chin. He slowly approached you and swiped a single finger under your knee. You kicked it away.

“Now it’s malfunctioning,” Mackie informed him. Tom hummed and swiped a finger under your other knee. You kicked again. He then spider tickled under both your knees and you shrieked loudly.

“PLEHEHEASE I’M NOHOT BROKEN!” You screamed.

“God DAMN you made it talk!” Mackie yelled.

“I know what the issue is,” Robert said, stepping forward.

“Do go on?” big Tom said.

“You need to hit all the pressure points at once. It’s like a giant reset button, wear it down till it reboots itself,” he said. Everyone looked at each other.

“Position yourselves,” Robert instructed.

Mackie stepped off of your stomach and knelt by your left side, Seb knelt by your right. Lizzie was still up by your neck and big Tom by your knees. Scarlett was by your right shoulder, Paul by your left. Evans positioned himself by your hips, little Tom the other side by your thighs. Hemsworth and Robert sat next to your feet.

“Nonononono please!” You cried.

“Rebooting systems in 3…” Robert began.

“No please!”

“2…”

“Wait!”

“1…”

“No wait I’m not brOHOHOHOKEN!” You cried as everyone attacked you at once. No one was pinning you down but you could hardly twist and turn with 10 people tickling all your spots at once. They were all ruthless and yet...you sort of loved it.

“PLEHEHEHASE NOHOHOHO!” You cried, flailing your arms around. Mackie and Seb were squeezing up and down your sides and across your tummy, Lizzie was tickling deep into your neck, Scar and Paul had just caught an arm each and pinned it upwards so they could tickle your underarms, big Tom was scratching under your knees and squeezing the tops, Evans was squeezing and scribbling into your hips, little Tom was scratching up and down your thighs and Hemsy and Robert had grabbed a foot each to tickle. It was pure torture.

“KEEP GOING, IT’LL WEAR DOWN EVENTUALLY!” Robert yelled over your screams of laughter. Everyone picked up the speed and you screamed louder than ever before.

You now had your arms and legs pinned by Scar, Paul, Robert and Hemsworth so you tried to buck your hips as much as possible and scrunch up your shoulders to protect your neck but it was no use.

“NOHOHOHO MOHOHORE!” You cried. You let out another loud scream and fell into a silent laughter. Tears filled your eyes to the point where you couldn’t even see Lizzie kneeling over you.

“Reboot complete,” Robert instructed. He stopped tickling your foot and one by one the rest of the cast followed and ceased their attack. You lay there, taking in deep breaths of air.

“You alright twisty?” Mackie asked, sliding up to your head. You nodded, letting out residue giggles. Evans gave you a hand up and propped you up against the sofa.

“You...are...all...evil…” you breathed out. Everyone chuckled.

“You were in a playful mood, we wanted to join,” Evans said, winking at you.

“I never knew you were so ticklish,” Hemsworth said.

“So would you be if 10 people ganged up on you,” you replied. He laughed and nodded in agreement. Little Tom sat down next to you.

“You okay?” He asked, pulling you in for a hug. You nodded.

“Yeah...that was fun,” you clamped your mouth shut after realising what you just said.

“Fun eh?” little Tom teased, quickly spidering your side to make you giggle again.

“We had fun too if that’s any consolation? Could go for round two if you want,” big Tom said. You looked at him and smiled.

“Not today I don’t think, you guys well and truly broke me,” you said, everyone laughed.

“I think I’ve already decided on the theme for next year,” Robert said. Everyone turned to him.

“Tickle Me Y/N,” he said, “where everyone has to bring a random object to tickle Y/N with. First to make her say stop wins.” He winked at you and you blushed and hid your head in little Tom’s shoulder. He chuckled and stroked your head.

“Now that will be a fun theme,” Mackie replied.

[flowerfan2]

A story about a reunion, and everything that happens afterwards.

Chapter 16/20 - Read on A03 here.

Patrick reads the email over again, just to make sure, then he runs out into the living room to tell David.

“I did it.”

David looks up from his spot on the couch, his black-framed glasses perched on his nose.  They’ve had a very sleepy Sunday morning, followed by a big breakfast of bacon and omelets, and David still hasn’t gotten around to putting in his contacts.  Patrick loves him like this.

“What did you do?”  David rises up from the couch, all grace and designer loungewear, and comes over to Patrick.

“I got a job.”  Patrick isn’t sure if what he is feeling is relief, excitement, or equal parts of both, but it feels amazing.

David smiles at him and pecks him on the cheek.  “Of course you did.”  He sits down on the couch and pats the cushion next to him.  “Sit down and tell me about it.”

“It’s just a consulting position, bookkeeping mostly, but for a company that works with start-ups and young entrepreneurs.  And it’s decent pay, more than I was expecting for this kind of thing.”

“That’s great,” David says.  “When do you start?”

“They want me right away.”  Patrick can feel his smile stretching his cheeks.  It’s the first time he’s felt anything but useless in so long, the way the people at this firm seemed to understand what he could bring to the table.  Patrick accepts another kiss from David, and then pops back up off the couch.  “I’m gonna call my parents.”

He goes into the bedroom and talks to his mom, then his dad, and then the conversation somehow gets derailed into a debate on whether buying new furniture for the lanai right now is a good idea or if they should stick with what they have for the time being.  Patrick kind of likes the idea of making David go shopping for patio furniture with him, so he’s voting for the former.  Finally they circle back to his job, his parents congratulate him again, and he gets off the phone.

He’s headed back to the living room, but pauses when he sees David in the guest room.  David has a black leather bag open on the bed and his sweaters folded in careful piles next to it.  Patrick’s stomach drops.

“David?  What – what are you doing?”  

David looks up.  He’s dressed in his favorite armor, glasses discarded in favor of contacts, a fuzzy black sweater over the black jeans with the rips in the knees.  “You said you were starting right away.  You didn’t say where, but I’m assuming Toronto-”

“Toronto?  Why would you assume Toronto?”

David’s face shutters further, and he turns back to his bag.  “I know I said I’d go anywhere with you, but I thought you might at least give me a heads up, discuss it a little bit, especially if it’s not Toronto.  I do have to deal with my apartment there at some point.”  David turns towards him, a hand on his hip.  “Do you even still want me to come with you?”

Patrick doesn’t know how this could have gone so horribly wrong, and he crosses to David, grabbing him by the shoulders.  “Stop packing.”

“You don’t want me to come with you?”  David’s voice is rising, and Patrick shakes his head.

“I’m not going anywhere.  We’re not going anywhere, not until we both decide we want to.”

“What on earth do you mean?”

“David, we’re not going anywhere.  I don’t have to <i>go</i> anywhere.  It’s a remote job.”

David stares at Patrick, and Patrick watches as he mentally replays the conversation they’ve had so far.  “You aren’t leaving?”

“No.”  Patrick sits down on the bed, David frowning at him as he knocks over a pile of sweaters, but sits down next to him anyway.  “It’s remote, part-time.  A consulting gig.  Varied schedule, but they think it’ll be about 20-25 hours a week, depending in part on how much their clients like me, and how well I can add value.  I may need to go to the Toronto office a few times a year, for meetings or something.  But I’m doing the job from home – from here, or wherever.”

David turns away, picking up his off-white hoodie and pretending to refold it, even though Patrick can tell he just needs something to do with his hands.  “You should have told me that,” David says, embarrassed.

“I know.  I’m sorry, I just got so excited.”  Patrick leans into David, rubbing a hand on his back.  “I’m sorry,” he says again, letting it sink in, letting David get his balance.  “I wouldn’t make any plans for us without talking it over with you.  I promise I wouldn’t.  My plans wouldn’t be any good without you.”

David’s eyes flicker to his and away, his hands still wrapped in the halfway folded sweater.  

“It’s true, David.”  Patrick puts his free hand on top of David’s, calming their restless movement.  “I don’t want any plans without you in them.  I haven’t even accepted the offer yet.”

“You haven’t?”  David turns back, searching his face.

“Nope.  I told them I had to talk it over with my boyfriend.”  Patrick’s taking a risk, throwing that word out there.  But David had done it first last time, and he doesn’t think there’s really any question that it applies.  He’s sort of glad that he hasn’t used it yet; there’s more of an impact now, when David clearly needs it.

David’s eyes go wide.  “You did?”

“I did.  So – what do you think?”

David shifts, and his demeanor softens, his walls coming back down.  “I think your <i>boyfriend</i> needs to know more.”  There’s a smile hidden in his cheek, an agreement.  Patrick wants to cheer.  David holds his gaze, and his smile escapes, mirroring Patrick’s own.  “And then you probably need to ask for more money.  There’s nothing wrong with asking for what you deserve.”

“You don’t even know what they offered me.”

“Whatever they offered, you’re worth more.”

******

Patrick gets up earlier than normal a few days later and shaves carefully, examining his face closely in the mirror.  He doesn’t look like someone who hasn’t worked in months.  He just looks like himself.  And when he presents himself to David for approval, David’s smile courses through his lips and into his cheeks, his hands dancing to Patrick’s shoulders, smoothing down the thin fabric of his favorite purple dress shirt.  He’s ready.

They set up an office of sorts for Patrick in the guest bedroom, shifting the bed to one side, moving a dresser out of the room and into the hallway, and arranging a table by the window.  Patrick decides that one of the dining table chairs will work for the time being, and David fusses with the curtains, concerned that the glare will make it hard to see his laptop screen.

Finally Patrick ushers David out of the guest room and logs in to a Zoom meeting for orientation.  It’s boring as hell, but he doesn’t complain.

It’s not as if he thought he was unemployable, it’s just that after his last job imploded so strangely, he wasn’t sure what it would be like to be an employee again.  And didn’t know if anyone would give him a chance to find out.  Turns out, Alexis was not only good at papering over his employment blips, she was awesome at pep talks and interview practice.  He makes a note to himself to call her soon and thank her.

That night they make sandwiches and eat them on the lanai.  It’s a little cool for it, but it still feels nice to be outside.  Patrick had his parents send him down some more clothes, but David scoffed at the idea of wearing a jacket.  Instead he’s got a throw blanket draped around his shoulders, a giant turquoise fleece wrap that clashes terribly with his otherwise neutral palette.

They get a series of texts from Stevie, photos of the house she’s buying in Schitt’s Creek.  It’s a three-bedroom ranch on a decent sized lot.  The interior looks like it hasn’t been updated in decades, with a pink bathroom and horrendous wallpaper in the bedrooms, but Stevie’s had plenty of experience updating décor at this point.

David teases her for a few minutes, riffing on how unbelievable it is that she’s adult enough to be a homeowner, but his heart doesn’t seem in it.  Patrick doesn’t tell him how Stevie has been saving for years, every bonus and raise going into an account for a down-payment.  

After their chat with Stevie, David seems out of sorts, and Patrick isn’t sure what to do about it.  After they’ve cleaned up from dinner, he suggests they play a game.

David gives him a frowny look, and Patrick immediately knows what he’s thinking.  Neither of them are in the mood for sex.  “Not that kind of game.  A card game, or a board game.”

David perks up at this, then deflates.  “We don’t have the right number of people for a board game.”

“I bet we can find something the two of us can play.  My parents have a pile of games in the hall closet.”

They pull down the basket of games from the shelf above the laundry machine, and David peers inside.  “Did they get these from a yard sale or something?”

There’s a worn box that contains a checkerboard, with both checkers and chess inside, a Connect Four game, a few decks of cards, and Uno.

“I think my aunt sent them down.”  Patrick takes out the Uno deck.  “How about this?”

David takes the whole basket into the living room and sets it on the coffee table.  He takes out the Connect Four game and pulls out the plastic frame, dropping a round tile into it.  “I had this game,” he says thoughtfully.

“I think everyone had that game.”

David dumps out the rest of the pieces, and a greeting card falls out.  It’s got a drawing of a bouquet of flowers on the front, with “Get Well Soon” in big letters.  “What’s this?”  David opens it and reads out loud.  “Marcy – hope this brings a little bit of fun to your day.  You’re in our prayers.  Love Susie and Pete.”

Patrick takes the card and reads it, his mind flashing back to last spring, flying down to see his parents.  His dad breaking down in tears on the car ride from the airport.  His mother telling him not to worry.

“Patrick?  Patrick, honey, what’s going on?”

David has his arm around him, and he’s pressed close to him on the couch.  Patrick brushes away the wetness on his cheeks, and David pulls him into a hug.  “Patrick, tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s nothing.”

David glares at him.

“I mean, it turned out to be nothing.”  Patrick shakes himself and clears his throat.  “My mom had a cancer scare last spring.  They found a tumor in her breast.  But it was benign.”

“<i>This</i> doesn’t sound like it was benign.”  David waves the card at him.  “People don’t say <i>you’re in our prayers</I> when it’s benign.”

“She had a bad reaction to one of the drugs, during the surgery, and took a little while to recover.  She was laid up for a while, and pretty miserable.  But it wasn’t cancer.”

David’s eyes are wet, and he looks like he’s going to cry, too.  “She’s okay now?”

“She’s okay.”  Patrick leans against David, snuggling into his arms, and they both breathe together for a long moment.  “Oh god, I think that’s why I freaked out in the doctor’s office.”

David shifts to look at him.  “What do you mean?”

“As soon as I heard, I flew down here.  I went with my mom and dad to the doctor’s visits before her surgery.  I couldn’t stay long afterwards, I had to get back to work, but…” Patrick’s throat gets tight, remembering.  “It was awful.  We were all so frightened.”

David presses Patrick’s head against his own, his large hand against Patrick’s scalp warm and comforting.  Patrick can feel David’s chest rising and falling.  David’s taking deep breaths, he can tell, trying to stay calm.

“You said this happened last spring?” David says quietly.

“Yeah.”

“When things started to go wrong for you at work.”

Patrick tenses.  “My mom was in the hospital.  I think it’s understandable that I was having trouble focusing.”

“No, honey, of course.  That’s not what I meant.  Of course it is.  It’s just – you didn’t mention that before.  That being worried about your mom is what started to get you down.”

Patrick feels like he’s a cartoon character with a light bulb flashing over his head.  Could it be that simple?  Was worrying about his mom’s health, on top of his general dissatisfaction with where he had ended up in life, what pushed him over the edge into depression?  

David tightens his arm around Patrick’s shoulder.  “I’m so sorry, Patrick.  That that happened to your family.  It must have been a very scary thing to deal with.”

“It really was.”

“I’m so glad she’s okay.”

Patrick turns and buries his face in David’s neck.  “Me too.”

That night, after David falls asleep, Patrick turns to the internet.  He hadn’t wanted to do this before.  He’s not sure why, although he thinks it has a lot to do with denial.  But he can’t stop thinking about his mom, and how hard it had hit him when she was sick.  Gritting his teeth, he starts googling causes of depression.  Upsetting or stressful life events.  Death or illness in the family.  Job-related worries.  Huh.  Maybe he had good reason to feel like things were falling apart.  Maybe that’s why he lost the ability to care about his job.  Maybe he’s not doomed to fail at his new one, too.

Patrick scrolls to the email from the therapist he’s been talking to.  So far, it’s just been a few emails and a brief phone call, an introduction, to see if she seemed like a good fit.  She’s based out of Toronto, but has many patients that she counsels remotely, on Facetime or Zoom, and comes highly recommended.  With shaking hands, he types out a message, suggesting that they schedule a session soon.  “I think it started last spring…”

[worstloki]

Part 3

Fury: I cannot believe the Avengers No. 1 unattainable criminal right now is a seventeen-year-old twink Clint: I can’t believe you’re calling Loki a twink Tony: I can’t believe he's been the legal godparent of kids his own age for months and I didn't realise Steve: You didn’t get him removed? I thought you made Rhodey their legal godparents instead?? Tony: nah I removed Thor Natasha: ?? why would anyone do that ?? Fury, having a breakdown: we nearly lost New York and the entire world to a 16-year-old twink with daddy issues Clint: yoU just did it aGAIN- Tony, the only actual Avenger who knows Loki isn’t actually evil™: heY! Daddy issues are a serious thing! Don’t make fun of the guy for having a crisis and finding out his life was a lie and he’d faced over a millennium of abusive environment for nothing!  Avengers: are you… defending Loki… the megalomaniac WAR CRIMINAL who turned every SHIELD facility into ice cream earlier today…? Tony, hands up in surrender: I’m saying maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge the guy. I wouldn't be able to guess what but maybe he had an ulterior reason for the New York fiasco? His normal stuff is usually harmless.  Avengers: ... Tony: What? It could’ve been much worse. Strange, rolling his eyes: Yes, at least it wasn’t Stark Raving Hazelnuts Loki, who has been standing at the back listening to the entire conversation: That flavour is way too chalky to suit SHIELD anyways [everyone turns to Loki with their weapons ready, except Tony of course] Loki, raising his hands in surrender: what? A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is way better, and its green, and for some reason they didn’t have a Loki flavour so that was the next best option-

---

Loki: hey Morgan what would you say if i offered you an officially evil part-time job with decent pay and extremely good evil workplace benefits? Morgan: do you offer evil dental? Loki: of course?? we also have A-Grade coffee 24/7 because top class extremely good evil deserves only the best Morgan: Excellent! I look forward to working with your evil team and being a part of your nefarious schemes and plots in future Loki: Thank you. Tomorrow we replace all Tony's vehicles with incredibly realistic wax models. Morgan: ...including the jets? Loki, scoffing: what kind of amateur villains would we be if we left his jets, boats, bikes and single vintage helicopter untouched Tony: its 4am can you maybe not have this conversation right next to me in my own workshop?!

---

Tony: I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WOULD REPLACE THEM WITH WAX MODELS Morgan: What kind of low-grade predictable villainous evil doers would we be if we did what we said we would Tony: oh $#!^ now you're speaking like him too Loki, cutting his shoulder to reveal cake: Just so you know, it wasn’t JUST the vehicles ;)

---

Peter: *following loki around with a notepad* Loki: Terribly sorry if you mind but he's MY intern now. Tony: You don’t think there’s anything wrong with what you’re doing, do you? Loki: I don’t think anything I’ve ever done is wrong Peter:  *avidly taking notes and nodding along*

---

T’challa: I cant believe you filed an application for ‘time off’ Shuri: I NEED at least 3 hours a week reserved specifically for training if I want to keep my part-time job T’challa: you don’t NEED a job! You make up 90% of Wakanda’s research and development departments! Your technology work IS a job! Shuri: yeah well my ACTUAL job is fun and has proper work benefits and I simply must empty the time blocks I specified for it! You wouldn’t stop me from meeting with Peter and Morgan would you? They ARE, legally and spiritually speaking, my siblings, brother :) T’challa: what job could you have that would need you reminding me that a mischief deity adopted you before telling me what the job actually is Shuri: The official position is called Secretary of Evil but that’s only for the probationary 2 week period and I’m allowed to request a name change if I think of anything better T’challa: T’challa: you are working as a SECRETARY?! Shuri: The job pays well, Brother, T'challa:  T'challa: mother will be so disappointed

---

Scott: I can’t believe you did that Maggie: I didn’t know he was a supervillain! OBVIOUSLY! Scott: how would you noT KNOW! He wears nothing buT LEATHER and BELTS and GREEN BOOTS AND- Maggie: I needed someone to watch her and she showed up in pink sweatpants and a black tank top and was charging a decent rate Scott: Scott: are you sure their name was loki

---

Clint: you told me it was a ‘family gathering’! Tony: yeah, it is, and the avengers are family Clint, pointing at Loki: so what’s the twink doing here and why are MY kids along with every other person here who is under drinking age clinging to him like a frickin’ koala bear Tony: morgan wanted to get her ‘the floor is lava’ badge and loki was the only one immune to the lava so they jumped him - and he enjoyed walking around covered in them way more than he should have -  and also loki is legally peter and morgan and harley and shuri’s godparent so he’s allowed to be here on more of a basis than anyone else here at this point Clint: There was LAVA near MY KIDS?! Tony: no of course not – it was FAKE lava that just looked and functioned like real lava Clint: im taking them all home Tony: good luck convincing them not to want another playdate Clint: this isn’t a joke Tony Tony: I’m serious. Good luck. The kids love him, and you’ll need all the luck you can get if you want them to ever root for the side of good instead of wherever-loki-is-at instead. 

---

Pepper: *watching the news* Pepper: oh hey the Avengers are on Peter, running into the room: woW NICE Pepper: wtf why is Hulk wearing giant boxing gloves Peter: Language! Pepper: is Steve's shield padded?! Peter: i don’t remember that being normal Pepper: did most of the Avengers just ditch Steve? Why’re they leaving Peter: I guess the danger must be over? Pepper: WHAT is going ON out there today Peter: I think Loki had planned an attack today so maybe he did it as a joke Pepper: oh they're facing Loki yeah okay that explains it Peter: Loki always does the funniest things of course he baby-proofed all the Avenger's gear! Classic Loki! :D

-meanwhile-

Captain America, tears streaming down his face: pl,,ease, loki,, stop,t his, I cant hit ,,a child Loki: Look at you, the American icon, unable to save all these innocent people from having their skin turn into primary colours, all because you are TOO AFRAID to fight me! Captain America: I’m a national icon, not a good soldier but a good man, I will do whatever it takes to keep innocents safe, but I can NOT beat up someone who isn’t even legal enough to vote Loki: I was around causing chaos before this ‘voting’ was even invented! And I’ll NEVER legally vote even if I could!! mwahahAHAHA- Falcon, to Bucky in the background: How did we not realise he was a teen, all his comebacks are ‘no u’ and ‘uno reverse card’ and ‘look over there!’ Bucky, to Falcon: I don’t know but I really really want to know where he gets his outfits from Falcon: if it means I’ll be seeing you geared up in leather again then I want to know where he gets his outfits from too ;‘) Thor: I think my brother makes his own outfits Loki, still tormenting Captain America: *SISTER Thor: ah, my bad Captain America, crying x2: wait does this mean I’ve been lobbing my shield at not just a child, but I’ve been misgendering them while doing it?! Loki: only occasionally and I don’t blame you that was on me for monologuing too long, really— Captain America, taking off the helmet: nope I’m done Loki: what are you doing Steve, handing Sam the shield: It’s yours. Enjoy. Sam: woah woah woah what’re you doing you cant retire just like that  Steve, unzipping his suit to reveal American flag boxers: watch me Bucky to Sam: hello new best friend Sam, realising that Cap and Bucky are a duo: oh no no no STEVE is your best friend Bucky: he hasn’t been my ‘best friend’ since I saw him with the American flag splayed over his butt Loki, holding his hand out for Sam to shake: Hello there new Captain America its nice to meet you formally, my name is Loki and yes I’m a child but I’m actually 1075 but that is irrelevant if I’m causing trouble and looking for a fight, I’m also genderfluid so yes sometimes my pronouns will be different but I’ll be sure to inform you if it happens Sam: what are you doing Loki: I’m… formally introducing myself Sam: Sam: why?? Loki, blinking to hide that he’s getting teary eyed: well, the last national icon I didn’t do this with ditched me because I didn’t Bucky, a trained assassin, who isn’t a fool: *hugs loki* that wasn’t your fault steve just likes to carry the stupid with him Loki: thanks Bucky: is this a bad time to ask where you get your clothes from…? Loki: I make them Bucky: oh. Well $#!^. Loki, sniffing: if you join the dark side I’ll make you some too Bucky, immediately: done. Sam: JAmES Bucky deadpan: Yes, Samuel, what is it that troubles you, my new arch nemesis? 

---

Sam: HE TOOK BUCKY Natasha: What do you mean ‘he took bucky’ he’s standing right next to you Sam: He’s “infiltrating the enemy” Natasha: *lifts an eyebrow and looks to Bucky* Bucky: It’s true. My loyalties lie elsewhere now. Natasha: ??? Bucky: note to self – unexpected outcomes confuse the black widow. Natasha: how did this happen?? Sam: he SOLD himself out to the ENEMY Natasha: well when you say it like THAT ;) — Bucky: I think friendship is a decent price to pay for decent clothing Natasha: ??? Sam: oh also I’m Captain America now because Steve broke down and quit Natasha: ?!?!?!

---

Peter, entering the room and high-fiving Loki: I heard you got Mr. Bucky to switch teams! Loki: well, my fashion skills ARE legendary Tony, under his breath: he’s not even trying and he’s gotten every kid and the freaking winter soldier on his side and I am so so grateful he isn’t actually TRYING to make everyone go bad

---

Bucky: we’ve been over this Steve, Loki is young but he’s also over a thousand years old Steve: I was beating up a KID, Bucky, a kid who was SMALLER and WEAKER than everyone else where he lived but wouldn’t EVER turn down a FIGHT for what he BELIEVES IN and he was probably BULLIED and I wanted the guy DEAD, Bucky– Bucky: don’t forget the genderfluidity thing Steve: he said it wasn’t my fault but I should’ve asked Thor after he referred to Loki as ‘she’ instead of thinking he’d made a mistake and I just can’t – he isn’t even old enough to DRIVE or VOTE or DRINK or BUY A KNIFE or -- Bucky, holding Steve and patting his back: hey now, there, there, it’ll be okay, Bucky: *gives Loki a thumbs up as he sits on the couch with popcorn and watches Steve be miserable*

---

Loki: We need to get through this locked door. Tony, quick, give me your card! Tony, handing the card over: Take it! Loki, pocketing it: Thanks! Morgan, fire at the door Morgan: *pulls out an iron man gauntlet painted green and gold* Tony: hOW COULD you deface YOUR BIRTHDAY PRESENT with GREEN Morgan: MINE is still being used as a paperweight. This is one of YOUR gauntlets.   Tony, under his breath: maybe it’s not too late to burn the physical evidence and hack Loki’s name off the digital copies of the adoption forms Loki, whispering back: oh its definitely too late. I’m already on your christmas card and everything.

[gigis-ff-blog]

Hey might as well.

A Little Slice Dreams: The Meta Knights Play a Fun Game of Uno

What could go wrong? Those poor knights asked themselves this question as if nothing could.

But Everything. Everything could, will, would, and did absoluteley go wrong.

They sat around a giant round table in the lounge of the Halberd, soaring at least 200 feet above sea level. The night was cold, crisp, and dark. Sword, Blade, Captain Vul, and Sailor Dee sat on one end of the table. Across from them were the four main Meta knights: Axe, Javelin, Mace, and Trident.

Sailor and Mace were determined in their craft. It was down to one of them in their anxious, sweat driving game. The winner would receive a delectable frozen trophy. The looser would have to watch in tears as the winner took the glory.

It was down to two cards for each player. But it was Sailor's turn. The fee slammed down a turn skip card And gave a sickening grin at Javelin.

"No...NO!" Mace shivered in his seat.

Sailor started cackling as they held up their last remaining card.

"I hope you have good cards looser!" Shouted Sword, while Blade babbled in an incomprehensible accent, basicly stating the same thing.

"This is too much! I think im gonna drop dead!" Axe flailed around the table.

"I think you and Mace gonna have simultaneous strokes after this." Javelin said in their robotic tone.

Yeah your screwed, signed Trident.

"I'll be right back I'm gonna go get the reward for Sailor." Vul stated in an almost certain tone.

Sailor ceased their cackling and drew a deadly glare at Mace. As if their eyes shot daggers through Mace's soul.

"Uno..."

Sailor slammed a draw four on the table, prompting Mace to dramaticly scream "no" and cry, slamming his fists on the table.

"I-I was so c-c-close...WAAHHHH!"

"You challenged Sailor in uno. You knew what grave you were digging yourself into," Axe said, "and speaking of digging into things!"

Vul brought out Sailor's reward. An ice cream parfait stacked a mile high, dripping with fudge and marshmallow coating. The frozen Vanilla custard sat delicately above the hot brownies under it, and under that, the crunchy crumbs of canoli crust. Chocolate decoration perched itself on top of the display like a fine peice of jewelry. The reward was perfect in every way. Fitting for a satisfyingly sweet victory in an uno game.

Mace continued to cry as Vul handed Sailor the ice cream. As the glass was handed to them, Sailor's eyes lit up.

"Thank ye Captain!" They elongated every vowel in appreciation for their edible trophy.

"I'd say you earned it, 'Sir Uno champion Sailor Waddle Dee.'" Vul spoke to Sailor but looked at Mace as he continued to weap at his loss.

Blade and Sword cheared on Sailor as they scarfed down the whole desert like Kirby inhales a whole feast, while Tident, and Axe sighed in second hand defeat and consulted Mace as he sobbed. Javelin cheared on Sailor as well.

"WOOO! GO SAILOR!"

"H-H-Hey! Y-Your supposed to be rooting for m-m-me. Sniff."

"You didn't win."

As Sailor finished the dish. They realized they left the chocolate decorations for last. They thought that this would be such a great time to rub it in Mace's face that he lost with the chocolate.

"Hey Mace."

"H-huh?"

"Look."

Mace thought he knew what was going on. "YOU WERE THE NICE ONE DON'T TOURTURE ME LIKE THIS!"

"Here." Sailor gave the knight a chocolate decoration. "For you, because ye played good."

Mace's eyes lit up. "R-really?" He stifled a sniff. "For me?"

"Yeah. For you."

"Oh your too kind. I..."

As Mace took the chocolate, a hint of fear went into his eyes. The symbol on it sent a chill down his spine.

"Vul..."

"Yes Mace?"

"Which freezer did you get this ice cream out of."

"Why the one in the lounge of course"

"The mini blue freezer or the big silver freezer?"

"The mini blue one with all of bosses ice creEAAM OH SWEET NECRODEUS WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

Blade turned sharp to Vul and panicked, falling backwards into an incomprehensible blabber.

Sword shook. "THATS BOSS'S ICE CREAM FRIDGE!"

"You stole Meta Knight's ice cream?" Cried Javelin.

Trident signed an oh no in shaking paws.

"We're all gonna be dead by dawn in our stone graves! And the writings gonna say we died cold and chocolatey!" Axe shouted.

"He's gonna kill me the most I ate the damn thing!" Sailor squealed and almost started to cry. They sweated up a storm in their anxiety.

Vul attempted to be reassuring. "He will not kill us for one mess up." The captain wasn't to sure of this. "I'm sure everything is going to be-"

A door slammed open to reveal an enraged pair of golden-red eyes and a maskless, meta knight wearing them, and pink bunny slippers and a fluffy robe.

"Who..."

"Oh no."

"WHO!"

The shout sent echoes through the room. Cracks formed on the floors, walls and cealing. Some of them went tumbling into the hallway, others flew out of their seats. The glass that contained the ice cream hit the floor and shattered into a million pieces like a golden glass mirror.

Sword, like everyone else, was horrified of consequence. He jumped up on the table, cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled "SCATTER!" As though it were some kind of party with alcohol and the police just got there.

Everyone ran in different directions. Sword and Blade searched for hiding places, Mace and Javelin jumped to the ceiling. Trident and Axe tried to break a window so that they could fall into the orange watters below. Vul and Sailor darted into the hallways, not looking back to the flapping sounds that echoed through the battleship.

Sailor took a sharp left and shakingly pulled out a phone from their hat. They searched through their contacts to find people that could save them from whatever punishment they would face.

Kirby was unavailable, probably sleeping. Bandee was also probably sleeping. Or training at three am like an insane person for that smash bros invitation. Dedede was the only person that picked up. In the background you could hear some trash comedy in the most of a clear crunching of popcorn.

"Yo."

Sailor spoke in a hushed yet anxious tone. "Sir, ye gotta get over here and help I think we're gonna die!"

"Did you steal his ice cream?" A crunch was heard clearly.

"It was an accident we were just-"

Vul's scream came blasting through the halls.

Sailor had a mild panic attack. "OH SHIT! CAPTAIN!"

The phone dropped to the floor and rattled. Dedede, on his end, looked at the phone with utter confusion and hung up.

Vul was backed into a corner by the furious borb, spoon in one paw.

"Do you know how long it took me to make that? THREE DAYS!"

Vul took hold of a nearby pipe and found to it for dear life. Eyes wide fearing death.

"I was saving that for today specificly! I was going to watch Mama Mia!

"Oh God sir I'm sorry!"

"Sorry doesn't give me back my ice cream Vul!"

"WAIT!"

Sailor came running out of the halls and in front of Vul to protect him.

"It was an accident sir. We were just playin a game and he grabbed the wrong ice cream. Don't hurt em!"

"Why... would I hurt anyone...I'm just angry."

"You look like you're gonna f%#king kill someone!"

Vul stepped out of his "gripping onto the pole for dear life" position just to scold Sailor for swearing. "Hey! What did we talk about?"

"Oops. Sorry." They turned back to Meta Knight.

"I... apologise if I seem a little harsh. It's wrong to terrify someone in the middle of the night over something so minuscule." Meta knight held his paw out for Vul to shake."Is all forgiven?"

Vul was more than relieved. "Absoluteley sir!"

Meta knight looked at the bird andd produced a laugh, but in the middle of it they stated most seriously that "You owe me another bowl." This didn't ease the captain's fear.

"We still have the ice cream we didn't eat in oyur fridge," Sailor stated, "you can have that."

Meta Knight turned. "What flavor is it?"

"Vanilla with chocolate and marshmallow swirl."

"I'll take it...but..."

Sailor was confused. "But what?"

"Due to my outburst I would find it fair that I would have to earn the desert, rather than just taking it. Besides, I'm DVRing the movie so I can watch it later."

"Wait wait wait. Earn it how?" The captain let go of Meta's hand and looked down at the small, Kirby esque orb.

"I'm thinking...Uno?"

Sailor's eyes sparkled. "Now that's a chalanged! You're on!"

[pastelrainbow1002]

Nanbaka: Upa x Nico’s Hyper Sister! Reader

Originally from my Nanbaka oneshots on Wattpad. If you would like to read them my Wattpad is in the links on my page

Ever since my brother Nico and I got separated into different prisons Ive been escaping every single one trying to find him. I mean we would escape together before that, but that's because the medication were needles. I don't do well with needles and my brother Nico doesn't like them because it hurts him. Over the years I've lived in random apartments from time to time until the police caught me again and usually the only way the catch me again is because I get caught stealing anime merch, or even killing people for rare merch that comes out. Especially if I don't take my meds soon enough. In a way i'm like my brother except i'm shorter and almost a year younger. 11 months to be exact.

ANYWAYS! Remember how I told you I killed people for anime merch. Yeah well that just happened and i'm currently being sent to Nanba prison that is located in the middle of an ocean. Yeah you heard me! It’s quite literally on a giant rock somewhere just off the coast of Japan. Everyone said that it's supposed to be a prison for boys, but they didn't really know what else to do with me. I've already escaped the top security prisons on land, so the police just ended up talking to the warden of Nanba prison. Obviously she decided to make an exception for me. I had to meet her about a week ago so that way she could approve of my prison sentence there. She told me that I had to go on birth control just in case, because most of the inmates are perverted. I was just told by the guards on the helicopter with me that my inmate number is 24 and i'll staying in block 5 cell 8. I wonder how big it is?

(Third p.o.v)

"Cell 5! You're getting a new cell mate!" Samon yelled as some of the other guards walked in with a prison bed and set it down for you. 

"Wait who?" Liang asked curiously.

"I don't know I just know that they are some kind of escape artist. Oh! and apparently they like anime a lot." Samon spoke closing the cell door once the guards were out so the three inmates inside wouldn't leave.

"Nico!?" Upa shouted shivering at the thought having to share a cell with him.

"No. you wouldn't know them. The inmate is coming here on a helicopter right now." Simon answered Upa's question. 

"So is the inmate nice?" Qi asked finally speaking. 

"I don't know." Simon spoke again. 

"Is he good with fighting skills?" Liang then asked. 

"I don't know." Samon said growing irritated by the questions at this point. 

"Is this inmate going to be annoying?" Upa asked making Samon officially explode in anger.

"I said I don't know! I already told you everything I was told!!!" Samon shouted at the boys before storming off.

“Damn. What crawled up his ass and died today?” Qi asked like he didn’t just annoy the hell out of the supervisor. 

(YOU POV)

Once I arrived I gasped in suprise at how amazing the prison looked. I suddenly noticed this monkey looking guard waiting for me to get off the Helicopter. He had a tail and everything!

"Hiya! OH MY GOSH! Are you actually part monkey!? Is your tail real!?! You're like a real life anime character huh!?" I shouted trying to grab his tail. surprisingly it swayed away from me before I could even touch it. 

“Hey! Don’t you know its rude to walk up to someone and touch them without permission!? Who even are you anyways!?" The money looking guard asked a bit rudely. I just ignored his irritation. 

"Oh, I'm (y/n)... The new inmate? Where you not informed of me?" I suddenly said confused. He looked at the men who brought me here to see if this was serious. They just nodded and he turned to me clearing his throat. He blushed in embarrassment. 

"Very well. Right this way... My name is Samon and i'm the supervisor for block 5. I’m also the assistant for the warden." Monkey man introduced himself and starting to escort me to my cell. or well I assumed.

"That's cool! So you'll be watching me, huh?" I asked not realizing how creepy that sounded. He just nodded before saying. 

"Sorry about how i reacted to meeting you. It's just this prison doesn’t have any girls and. i DO NOT! Like my tail being touched." I noticed we turned into a hall with a bunch of cells. 

"Oh its okay I totally understand!! It's not every day a girl is in this prison especially an inmate." I answered paying more attention to the decor of the prison than the actual conversation.

"So is there anything I should know that the warden might not have told me?" He asked. I thought for a few minutes. 

"Um.. I need to take meds every day or I go crazy and out of control. Also the warden said I need to take birth control just in case." I stated as we stopped walking infront of a cell. He just said a simple “Okay” before opening the door. 

"Well here's your new cell mate boys!" Samon shouted to the inmates that were already in the cell, gaining their attention. The three boys looked at me in complete shocked. They were all pretty cute, but there was one that stood out the most. His green hair and pale white skin made him look like a porcelain doll.

"Hey! And no funny business!!" Samon yelled as a reminder before closing the door and leaving. They were all staring at me still. I felt a bit embarrassed now so I decided to say something. 

"Hi! My names (Y/n)! What are yours!?" I asked enthusiastically. The older one in the room shook his head smirking while putting down whatever it was he was smoking and walked over to me. He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. 

"How rude of me to not introduce myself to such a lovely lady. My name i-." He got smacked upside the head by the Green haired boy. 

"Sorry about him. My names Upa. That's Liang. And this trash is, Qi." He said clearly annoyed by the other male. Did he just call him trash? I stiffled a laugh not trying to seem rude.

"I could have introduced myself!" The two other boys yelled glaring at the small male.

"It's nice to meet you all." I said with a sweet smile before going over to my side of the room. Once I finished putting up my stuff on my bed and night stand I stood on said bed in triumph. I was only allowed to have this stuff because I forced them to let me bring it. What really grabbed my attention was the fact that Upa was now floating. I gasped and jumped onto his bed that he was floating above.

"Can you teach me how to do that!!? I want to float too!" I shouted. He looked at me slightly annoyed.

“You can’t just randomly jump onto my bed!! It’s my personal space!! and its not floating its called Qigong!” He answered me. I ignored his statement about personal space and got super close to his face.

“Please, please, please teach me!” I begged him with puppy dog eyes. he sighed and looked away from me with a blush on his face. 

“I suppose I could try to teach you.. but that doesn't mean you'll be able to do it.” He said. 

"I can totally do it!" I shouted with determination. 

"You’re actually really cute when you're so devoted to something..." He mumbled. i don’t know if he meant for me to hear that, but I did. A small blush covered my face. 

“What?” I whispered just enough for him to hear me.

"I.. I mean! Its very nice to see you with determination!! I dont think you’re cute! no way! Its not like I like you! How could i? I don’t even know you!" He said a little too fast.

"Would you two stop flirting? I'm trying to concentrate on learning some new moves." Laing directed over to us. 

"We're not flirting!" we yelled back at him. Laughter was then heard from Qi as he said.

"Yeah sure." I was about to say something when I realized the moves Laing was trying to learn.

"Wait! I can do that!" 

"Really?" Laing asked suddenly interested in what I had to say.

"Yes I learned it from an anime!" I said totally serious. The boys just started laughing making me pout a bit. They thought i was joking. Suddenly there was a loud bang and four different inmates fell onto the floor of our cell. 

"See I told you I saw a girl inmate!" The boy with black and red hair yelled. 

"A girl!" Two of the four boys yelled together. 

"What are you doing in our cell!?" Upa shouted. 

"We came to see the girl inmate that Jyugo saw walking with the monkey." A boy said with blonde and pink braided hair. I wasn't really paying attention though because I noticed something. The boy with green hair was my big brother!

"Baby sis/Big brother!!!!" We screeched to each other. I jump in his arms and he spun me around. 

"I missed you!" We yelled in unison again. Everyone was staring at us in silence. Upa was the first to break it. 

"She's your sister!?” Nico and I just nodded while giggling. 

"We were separated into different prisons because they thought we would stop breaking out afterwards." Nico said happily clinging to me. 

"Yeah, but we obviously didn't. So the judge's plan didn't really work out." I explained some more. 

"So why are you in this one!?" The one with a pink and blonde braid asked getting way too close to me. 

"Um... Well I kind of stole and maybe killed a man for rare anime merch. I trespass a lot, but only because I like wandering. Plus if I don't have meds I go crazy like my brother here." I said getting out of my brother's hug and stepping back so the guy wasn't so close. 

"Except she is worse." Nico started. The three inmate's that came in with my brother shivered in fear. 

"So you’re saying she’ll bite us if she doesnt get her meds?" The black haired boy with red at the end of his hair said. 

"No I bite. She will probably try to rip your leg off." Nico said. Everyone looked terrified, but Nico and I acted like it was the most normal thing which for us it was. 

"Baby sis! Let me introduce my friends. The boy with black hair is named Jyugo, The one with the braid is Uno, and the purple haired one is Rock." Nico said smiling introducing everyone. I smiled at the boys.  

"Do you like food?" Rock suddenly asked.

"Of course!! Food is literally life. If I had an endless supply of food, anime, and drinks I would be good for the rest of my life!" I yelled energeticly and giving them my adorable smile. 

"Why did you never tell us you had a sister?" Upa asked. 

"A beautiful one at that." Laing add. Nico stared at Laing intensely. I could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t too happy Laing was flirting. He has always been overprotective. 

"Because it was a sensitive topic and.. she's my baby sister." He said the last part a deadly aura around. 

"I-I can tell." Laing said putting his hands up defensively. Upa was suddenly right by me and I jump a little not excepting him to be there so quickly. 

"How did you do that!?" I asked astonished because he was on the other side of the room only seconds ago. 

"I don't know what you're talking about." He stated with a small smirk. 

"Is it that Qigong thing you do?" I asked. My brother turned to Upa and picked him up. Pulling him in a tight hug him. 

"Master!" He shouted happily. 

"Put me down!" Upa yelled at my brother. 

"I wanna hold him now!" I said taking him away from my brother and snuggling him like he was a teddy bear. 

"Oi!! I didn't say you would pick me up either!" Upa yelled. I just snuggled into him more.

"Baby sis! Put him down." Nico tried to command me. 

"Aww. But I don't wanna. You get to hold him and I don't. Thats not fair!" I said pouting. 

"I'm not a damn baby!!" Upa yelled trying to get out of my arms. 

"That's because i'm older and I don't want my baby sis hugging boys, no matter how cute and innocent they look." Nico said trying to steal him away from me. Upa stopped squirming and glared at my brother. 

"I am not cute! And I am most definitely not innocent!" Upa shouted as everyone else was just laughing at the situation or being jealous that I wasn't snuggling them.

"See! Master isn't innocent more reason to put him down." Nico stated. I sighed in defeat and put him down. 

"You know i'm the only girl in this place besides for the warden right, big brother?" I asked. 

"The warden is a girl!?" Uno suddenly got heart eyes. I nodded before saying.

"She's the reason i'm here. Since I'm a super good escape artist and all. Honestly I think she has a thing for someone named Hajime because she was fantasizing about them when I met her." I stated only for Uno to fall flat on his face in disappointment. 

"OI! What are you four doing in here!?" I heard the guard Samon yell stomping over. "Doesn't the gorilla know how to keep you in your cell!?" 

"We came to see the girl inmate! Only to find out she is Nico's sister!! How crazy is that!?" Rock said obviously happy to meet me. In a shorter way to say they ended up having to leave with the help of Samon. I turned to Upa and smiled before picking him up again. 

"You are totally cute by the way." I said holding him to my chest again. Upa's face turned bright red and he pushed his face away from me before shouting. 

"Geez woman! You're going to suffocate me." 

"Put him down before I come over there!!" I heard my brother yell from down the hallway. 

"How did he know...?" I asked more so to myself before putting Upa down again.

[kittykat-creations]

Dream Camp

George sighed, looking around at the cabin they and the rest of the campers were in. Everyone else was happily doing arts and crafts but, despite his creativity, George was quickly growing bored.

“Arts and crafts are cool, but not as cool as any of the camp stuff from our dreams,” he said, standing up. They heard grunting from outside the open door and saw Melvin running in, surrounded by bugs and robotic arms.

“Oh no, Melvin!” Harold gasped. “You’re being attacked from a robo-land squid!”

“We’ll save you!” George cried as him as Harold ran towards the creature. They were both slapped backwards towards the craft tables.

“No, you slow leaks!” Melvin rolled his eyes. “This is the SwapHappy2000. It swaps bugs away.” Harold rubbed the back of his head, looking at Melvin in confusion. “That’s a combination of “swat” and “zap.”” He looked at a bug as one of the hands swapped it. “Swap! Copyright Sneedworks.”

“Why don’t you just use bug spray?” Harold asked.

“Because I’m not a caveman.” Melvin glared.

“Right. Well hey, it is kinda cool!” George smiled. 

Melvin’s cheeks tinted pink and he held out a (normal) hand to help George up. “Thanks.” He looked at George’s wrist- specifically, the pink, purple, and blue bracelet around it. “I like your bracelet.”

“Thanks!” George grinned. “I made you a matching one!” He grabbed an identical bracelet from the crafts table and tied it around Melvin’s wrist. He blushed, looking at it and then smiling at George.

“Oh, my glue gun is finally hot!” He went over to the table. “Now I can make arts and crafts worthwhile with my paper mâché particle accelerator.” A bug landed on top of the glue gun. “Oh no. A bug landed on the-”

The glue shot into Melvin’s face, making him scream “Hot glue!” and which led into a series of accidents that landed him in the lake covered in trash. “Ugh! Algae!”

“Woah, a Melvin sea monster?” Harold said from the shore, where him and George were sitting and eating popcorn. “That’s my worst nightmare.”

“Mine too. You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That we should sleep with our eyes open from now on?”

“Yes. And arts and crafts comic!” Him and Harold pulled out their comic supplies, before George smiled sheepishly and got up to help Melvin out of the lake. “You don’t mind if we still make you the villain sometimes, right Melvin? It’s all in good fun, I promise.”

Melvin sighed, pulling the algae off his body. “I guess not.” George giggled and picked some of the algae out of Melvin’s hair. “...can I help?”

“Sure!” Harold smiled.

-----

After being locked in the arts and crafts cabin, even with the threat of being inside forever, George was still becoming bored with the project. He especially didn’t want to be stuck inside making 2000 whatevers. The problem was, the other team was quickly winning! Melvin’s team or not, George was not letting them win.

“Can you go over these again?” George asked Dressy for what must have been the fifth time. They were doing a great job slowly her down and distracting her.

“And with more unnecessary words?” Harold added.

“Stop undermining my ringer, you extra toes.” Melvin glared, walking over to the table. “It’s not going to work. We’re getting out of this momento mill and leaving you in our DIY dust! Nothing personal, dearest. Now unhand that dream catcher!”

“Make us.” George held on tight to the dream catcher, and Harold grabbed on too.

“Fine,” Melvin said. “Prepare for maximum swap!”

He turned the HappySwap2000 all the way up and had all six hands grab onto the dream catcher. They waved around wildly until it ended up turning into a swirling vortex above them.

“Oh no. Too much swap.” Melvin gulped nervously.

“You lunatic!” Harold cried, clinging to the table. “You’ve swapped us all!”

The kids screamed as they were all pulled into the vortex, which quickly closed behind them.

They landed in a world colored with crayon. It looked similar to the camp they had left, only better.

“What just happened?” George asked. “Where are we?”

“What have we done?” Melvin yelped.

“You opened a portal to the dream dimension, and it pulled us in!” Dressy said as she started floating. “Puuulled!”

“It’s not real!” Melvin panicked. “Wake up, wake up!”

He began slapping his face until George grabbed his hands. “Melvin! You’re gonna hurt yourself.” He looked around, pulling Melvin along by the hand over to a sign that Harold was looking at. ““Welcome to the dream dimension, where dreams are reality”?”

Harold watched a small purple penguin walk past. “Pinches?”

“You know that guy?” George asked.

“Yeah, it’s Pinches the Purple Penguin!” Harold smiled as Pinches approached him. “He was my imaginary friend awhile back.”

“You got change for a ten?” Pinches asked gruffly.

“All I got is a twenty.” Harold held it up.

“Deal!” Pinches swiped the bill and hurried off.

“Same old Pinches.”

“Woah, it’s my dream hovercraft!” George exclaimed as it floated over.

“Everything here is from both of your dreams,” Dressy explained. “Because you were both holding the dream catcher that got swapped. Swa-ha-apped!”

“So it’s all good dream stuff?” Harold asked.

“So far, but nothing’s a lock here,” Dressy said. “Some things happen for a reason. Others just happen. Dreams have a lot of wiggle room. Wi-hi-hi-gle room!”

“How do you know all this?”

“I took a dream class.”

“So we can do whatever we want here!” George gasped excitedly and turned to the boy next to him. “Melvin, I have a great idea! We can do a bunch of stuff together, like little mini-dates! Honestly, I don’t really know what you like doing besides inventing.”

“That’s actually a good idea.” Melvin held his chin in thought. “I don’t know what you like doing, besides making comics.”

“Oh.” Harold frowned a bit, pressing his fingers together. “But I thought we were gonna hang out. It’s our dream camp, George!”

“Yeah, but we have plenty of time.” George shrugged. “You can do whatever you want, too! We’ll just be a little while, promise.”

“Ok…”

“And I have the perfect idea for what to do first!” Melvin grabbed George’s hand and they ran off.

“Mm…” Harold looked around, thinking of what he could do first without George.

-----

“Swimming?!” George grinned as they approached the lake. “Melvin, you’re awesome!” He dreamed up his swimsuit and was about to run into the water when Melvin grabbed his wrist.

“Not swimming!” He sighed. “With all the antics you and Harold get up to, I never get a chance to just relax. I just wanted to lay on the beach for awhile and have lunch, while it’s quiet?”

“Oh…” George frowned a bit. “Uh- sure, relaxing! I can do that! Here, I can get us some beach chairs too!”

Two beach chairs appeared in front of them, along with a cooler filled with sandwiches and soda. Melvin smiled.

“And maybe an umbrella too? For shade. And maybe a copy of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.””

“Isn’t the point of the beach to be in the sun?” George asked.

“I burn easily.” Mevin rubbed his arm. George shrugged and an umbrella appeared beside one of the chairs. A second later, Melvin was holding a copy of Macbeth. He grinned and hugged George. “Thank you, dearest!”

“Heh, yeah…” George smiled nervously before sitting down in the chair beside Melvin. 

Melvin opened his book and began to read, while George looked around. He tapped his hands on his legs, thinking of what he could do that was quiet. He wasn’t very good at quiet, or relaxing, both being things that made his ADHD want to scream and throw itself off a cliff. But Melvin wanted it quiet, and this was his date idea, so he’d have to be quiet.

He looked over at the other kids, all of whom were having fun, running around and yelling. He sighed internally, setting his chin on top of his knees. Boy, that looked like a lot of fun.

Ugh, how long did it take to read a book…?

-----

Harold nervously approached Erica and Gooch, who were playing cards on their cabin porch. “Hey guys. Whatcha doing?”

“Playing cards. Want me to deal you in?” Erica asked as she shuffled the deck.

“Sure, I guess.” Harold sat down with them, setting his head in his hands.

“Where’s George?” Erica asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Him and Melvin are doing stuff together,” Harold answered glumly.

“Aw, and you got stuck being third wheel.” Gooch put a hand on his head and looked at Harold sympathetically.

“Apparently.” Harold huffed. “Doing anything without George just feels so wrong.”

“Better get used to it,” Erica said. “Him and Melvin are going to do stuff by themselves. They’re dating now. Thank god, because it finally gets Melvin off my back. But that means that this,” she gestured at Harold, “is gonna be happening a lot more often.”

Harold looked kind of queasy. Doing more stuff without George? That just felt even more wrong. Aw, why did him and Melvin have to be together?

He looked down when a card landed in front of him.

“The game’s Uno,” Erica said as she dealt.

-----

“Alright! Finally, it’s my turn to pick the date!” George cheered. “Ultimate extreme skateboarding!!”

Him and Melvin were standing at the top of a giant skate ramp, and looking down at what must have been the most dangerous skatepark ever- if either of them could get hurt. Even still, Melvin was terrified. He whimpered, folding his arms together in front of his chest as he peered over the edge of the ramp. He was wearing a padded helmet, knee and elbow pads, and a crash pad over his torso.

“Skateboarding? Do I have to?” He asked nervously.

“Hey, I did your thing. I think it’s only fair that you try mine.” George gestured out at the park.

“I-I don’t even know how to skateboard!”

“It’s easy! Here, watch.” George stepped onto his skateboard and sped down the ramp, cheering as he rode. He flew up at the bottom and did a few extreme flips before landing on the platform at the bottom of the ramp. He grinned and looked up at Melvin, holding his arms out wide. “Now you try!”

Melvin moaned fearfully and put one foot on his skateboard, pushing it back and forth a little. He stood on it, then yelped and clung to it when it started moving towards the edge of the platform. “Oh no. No no no-!” He screamed as the skateboard dropped off onto the ramp and sped down.

“Melvin, you have to control it!” George yelled. Melvin ignored him, or couldn’t hear him over his own screaming, and the skateboard shot into the air when it reached the end of the ramp.

“Mommy!!” He sobbed, still clinging to the skateboard as it began to fall. He landed flat on his back at the bottom of the ramp, and his skateboard slowly rolled down and stopped next to him. George rode down and skidded to a halt on his own board kicked it up before holding a hand out for Melvin.

“I told you, I don’t know how to skateboard,” Melvin said.

“Alright, alright. I’ll show you the ropes, ok? But I don’t wanna let this place go to waste, I’ve never seen a skatepark this big!”

“You made it,” Melvin mumbled.

-----

Melvin sighed, pulling off the last piece of protective gear while he sat on the edge at the bottom of one of the ramps. For how much he had fallen, he was still unbruised- of course he was, it was a dream world- but still shaken, nonetheless. “Alright. Now that we’re not at risk of breaking our necks-”

“We never were-”

“-it’s my turn to pick the activity. And I pick the library!”

“The library?” George groaned. “Wasn’t your last thing “relaxing”?”

“This isn’t relaxing, you unscented candle.”

“Still doing the insults?” George raised an eyebrow and folded his arms.

“Yes, but lovingly.” Melvin patted George’s arm.

“Yeah, that one was pretty tame. Ok, if it’s not relaxing, what is it?”

“Reading!” Melvin grinned, holding George’s arm. “Doing something together that’s nice, and quiet, and doesn’t have a chance of getting us both killed.”

“Again, we weren’t actually in danger-”

“Oh, whatever! I still choose library.”

George sighed and dreamed up the Piqua library in front of them. Melvin grinned and happily pulled George inside behind him. Now don’t it wrong, George liked reading. But this was a dream world, where they could do anything imaginable, and Melvin was only picking normal things that they could do in the real world. Plus, if he sat and read for too long, his head started to hurt, and he usually liked listening to music while he did.

And while it was nice watching Melvin be cute and run around the library excitedly, going on and on about all the books he had to himself, George was itching to move the entire time, and do something exciting.

“Alright!” Melvin set a stack of thick books on the table George was sitting at. “I’ve narrowed it down to these ten. If I’m only reading one book, it’s one of these. Which one do you think I should read?”

“I dunno…” George tapped a book in the middle of the pile. “This one.”

“Ooh, good choice.” Melvin grabbed and opened it. “What are you going to read?”

“Ah, I… haven’t looked yet.” George blushed. “I got distracted watching you.” He smiled sheepishly. “You’re cute when you’re excited.”

Melvin turned red. “I am not cute.” He looked away as George laughed. “...you know, the library has a comic section.”

“They do?!” George exclaimed, and jumped out of his seat to go find it.

-----

Harold sighed as he wandered through the woods. George and Melvin were still busy, and Harold was running out of things to do. He flopped back on a rock in the middle of a clearing, and he didn’t even laugh when it deflated.

“I miss George,” he said to himself. “Nothing’s as fun without him! Stupid Melvin, hogging all his attention. I want my best friend back.”

“Hey!” He jumped when a voice answered him, and Pinches the Purple Penguin appeared beside him. “You wanna get your friend back?”

“Yeah? I just said that.” Harold frowned.

“I can get him back,” Pinches said. “But first, you got change for a ten?”

“I still only have a twenty,” Harold replied, pulling it out.

“Deal!” Pinches snatched it and started waddling away.

“Hey! What about getting George back!” Harold cried.

“Ah, it’s easy. Just break them up!”

“What! I can’t do that!”

“Then you gotta win him over! Make hanging out with you seem more exciting.”

“I paid twenty bucks for that?” Harold asked as Pinches left. He groaned and leaned back in the rock seat. What was something he could do that would make George want to join? He sat up with an idea and grinned.

-----

“Ugh, I have a headache,” George complained as they left the library and it disappeared behind them.

“We were only in there for two hours.” Melvin rolled his eyes.

“You try reading when everything gets scrambled.” George glared. Melvin blinked in surprise as George walked off away from camp.

“I didn’t know you were dyslexic,” Melvin said, hurrying after him. George held his chin in thought as he looked around the area. Melvin walked behind him, raising an eyebrow. “What are you looking for?”

“The right area. I have an idea for what I want to do, but I need an open space.” George hummed a bit, and grinned when they found what he was looking for. “Perfect! And now…”

Melvin’s jaw dropped when a giant playing board, filled with accessories and real pop-ups, appeared before them. A playing board he recognized. “You play Dolomites and Dingbats?”

“Yeah! Me and Harold love it!” George grinned and dreamed up the costume for his character. “I figured you’d like it too. And I’ve always wanted to play in real life!”

“In real life?” Melvin looked down at his clothes, which were transformed into another costume. “You mean actually fighting the mon-” He screamed as a monster roared loudly in front of them, and he quickly hid behind George.

“Yeah!” George cheered, pumping his fists in the air. “We’re our own CM! CHAAAARGE!”

“Oh no,” Melvin squeaked as George ran towards the monster, pulling Melvin behind him.

-----

Melvin panted when they finally finished the quest, and he doubled over as everything from the game disappeared. George cheered and jumped around.

“Alright! Wasn’t that awesome, Melvin?” He grinned.

“Ok, this isn’t working.” Melvin groaned. His entire body was burning from the exercise.

“Wh-what do you mean?” George frowned.

“I mean this!” Melvin gestured at where the board had been. “The way we’re doing this! I can’t handle all this over-the-top extraneous activity, and you clearly can’t stand doing anything that requires being quiet for a prolonged period of time.”

George fidgeted with his tie nervously. “This isn’t us breaking up, is it?”

“No, it’s not.” Melvin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I don’t want to break up because of this. I like you. But we need to figure out a date that we can do together. Something that is exciting enough for you and takes into consideration the fact that I’m a coward who doesn’t like to move. Basically, we need to find something that satisfies both your overactive ADHD, and my quiet introverted autism. ”

“Well, we can do that, right?” George asked hopefully.

“I’m sure we can; we’re Melvorge! Or Gelvin. You never picked.”

“Gelvin’s easier to say.”

“Gelvin it is then.” Melvin nodded and started to pace. “Now it might take some thinking, but-” They jumped as a loud roar came from the lake. Melvin hid behind George again. “I thought you got rid of all the monsters!”

“I did! That’s not me!” George frowned. They ran towards camp, where the Melviathan from George and Harold’s comic was rampaging.

“George!” Harold cried, running over.

“Harold? What happened!”

“I-I don’t know! I was thinking about our comics and suddenly he appeared!” Harold pointed at the monster.

“Sorry Melvin, date’s gonna have to wait! We gotta take care of this!”

-----

Soon Captain Underpants defeated Melviathan, and George and Harold cheered.

“We did it, we won!” George grinned.

“That’s why we have to go home,” Harold said.

“Wha-?!”

“We’ll always win here, ‘cause this is our dream world.” Harold pulled out a bow and started shooting bullseyes. “So the wins don’t matter. The problem with this place is it’s all good. And good without bad isn’t good.”

“Yeah,” George agreed. “Without rain, you wouldn’t appreciate sunshine. Or dry socks.”

“And like, how Sophie One is bettar because of Other Sophie,” Jessica said.

“And sometimes, bad even makes good,” Harold continued.

“Right. Without school, we wouldn’t have Captain Underpants.” George smiled.

“Exactly. And that’s a Fact Smack!” Harold smiled, then his face softened. “So… we’re going back to the real world?”

“Actually…” George looked over at Melvin. “I had one more thing planned.”

“Aw, but-!”

“I promise, buddy, it’s just this one last thing.” George held Harold’s shoulders. “And we can’t really do it in the real world. But once we’re done, we’ll go back to the real world, and we can make comics and hang out all night. I know I’ve kinda been busy today, so we can do whatever you want when we get home.”

“...you mean it?” Harold smiled.

“Promise.” George smiled back. They quickly hugged before George pulled Melvin off to their final activity.

-----

“Ok, and… open your eyes!”

Melvin, who had been covering his eyes, opened them and gasped. The two of them were back at the lake, only this time there were dolphins, and they were both in their swimming gear.

“Dolphins!” Melvin squealed and flapped his hands. “You dreamt up dolphins!”

“Yep! Swimming with dolphins!” George grinned. Melvin screamed excitedly and squeezed George in a hug before hurrying into the water. George laughed, following him as the dolphins squeaked and swam up to them. He smiled and watched as Melvin cooed at the animals and petted their beaks.

“I love you so much, even if you’re not as innocent as people believe you are,” Melvin cooed to them.

“What do you mean?” George asked, climbing onto one of the dolphins to ride it.

“You don’t want to know.” The dolphins playfully nudged Melvin and he laughed. He started bobbing around in the water as they pushed him, and George cheered as he rode around in the lake on his dolphin. After a few minutes, he swam over to Melvin and leaned forward on the dolphin, setting his head in his hands.

“So, was this perfect or what?” He asked.

“Absolutely.” Melvin was hugging one of the dolphins. “But… we can’t do this kind of thing all the time.”

“Mm, no.” George shrugged. “But it’s a good starting point to figuring out stuff we both like doing.” He grinned. “Plus you’re really cute.”

Melvin burned red. “I am not.”

“Agree to disagree.” George pulled Melvin up by the front of his vest to kiss him. “Now come on, let’s enjoy these dolphins and then give Harold a turn. He’s wanted to swim with dolphins since we met.”

[trickstersantana]

[Para] Vertedero de ilusiones

Who: Santana Location:  Santana’s mind, Sciron Square 207 Time: 24 October 2018 Summary: Santana sleeps next to Quinn and something UNEXPECTED happens no one knew this was going to happend guys no one. Triggers/Notes: Ok GUYS there are so parts in spanish so hover for the translation. Thanks to @gotmattitude​ for checking it’s proper mexican sounding spanish instead of spain sounding spanish bless u. TW: Violence, blood, dead, animal harm, dead animal

Santana has always been the Mistress of her own dreams. The Goddess of Lucid Dreams. She has her ways of knowing what’s a dream and what’s not. She just checked the time and battery of her phone and it’s not there. She illusions a book and checks the writing shifts around the page, blurry around the corners.

A dream she can’t control, shaped like a dream.

“Queenie, I’m trapped on a trickster deal. I can’t hear you or anything. Make me a favor and try to not let me go out of my room.” She says out loud, looking at a discolored door of an old red car in front of her. She assumed if she tried to open the door of the car, she would just get out of her room and do weird shit in front of people.  She looks where the car is headed upon, a huge downhill, like a huge ass slide for cars who finished on a sea of spikes. But above the sea of spikes there was a giant ring of blue fire, and then a huge open door written EXIT HERE above. So you are trying to tell me that for ‘exiting’ I have to get in the car, go super fast for the slide so it jumps through the circle of fire and gets in the door. God damn it that’s so fucking extra. Who designed this bullshit. Like, she loved it as much as she knew it was super over the top, but she wasn’t going to fall for that crap.

She looked around, searching for clues or the style of the illusion, to know who did this. At first glance it looked like a dump full of...things. But it wasn’t garbage. It was just disorganized illusions. An illusion dump. She could recognize most of those things where stuff she illusioned. There was a lot of blue fire around, spears and other weapons. The scene was a mix of her past illusions too, overlapping on each other, sky included, being day or night or completely white in some parts. There was no people, animals or monster around. Geez, I know deals can leave something to the imagination of the creator, but this is too much, too specifically me. I can see shit from before NYADA that anyone who wasn’t my ‘family’ won’t know, and shit from NYADA my ‘family’ couldn’t possibly know with so many detail. Maybe they reached High Level Trickster power. God I bet it’s Darling. Darling, also know as her ‘mom’, just got her fucking Hamlet book. She probably was mendling in her life over that. God, what if the Hamlet book had the keys to do this level on illusion but I didn’t read that part yet because I was reading the other parts? That book had a lot on info on it, but she wanted even more information on it before reading it all. And now, she didn’t have access to it. What if the exit is actually the exit but Darling knew I wouldn’t go for such an obvious exit? what if THAT’S WHAT SHE WANTS ME TO THINK? Oh, maybe it’s a Darling and Zombie collab. Then it should be a solvable puzzle.

“Nah, fuck it. I’m just going to lay in the floor and binge watch illusion Xena while waiting 24 hours until this pass.” She said out loud for Quinn to hear, and lied on the floor, carefully, and illusioned a TV floating in the air, for her to see.

Many episode later, Santana stands up. “What the fuck? Where am I? Why am I watching Xena?” She groans. She saw the clear exit trap and ignored it, trying to search in illusion world, walking far away from the car. “Geez there is so much garbage in here” She says, kicking some huge chainsaw (the part that doesn’t cut, obviously). She keeps on walking until she ends up seeing a wishing well. She doesn’t remember illusioning this particular wishing well, so she runs too look at it. She looks down the well, in search of clues in the bottom of it. There is something that looks like the corpse of a woman. “Ew.” Santana said. “What the fuck. Creepy.” She keep looking, though. There was what looked like if you skinned a human alive and left it there like a fucked up costume. When she tried to look what the other things in there were, the corpse started to move. Crawling through the well. As Santana stepped down searching for a weapon, the corpse was already out the well. Long black hair, a weird decorated knife stuck on a side of her abdomen, full of blood. “¡Hola, Capi Tana!The corpse says, cheerfully, taking the knife out and throwing it away. “Ya tiene mucho tiempo que ni me llamas ni nada.” She says, fake pouting. Santana recognized the woman in front of her. Someone she didn’t see on a long time. 

“Fuck. Elise.”

“But also fuck Elise ¿no?” Elise said, playfully winking. “Pero ya sabes, cogiendo. Sin stabity stab.”

Santana sighs. This wasn’t real, so whatever. “Geez, are you trying to teach me a lesson?”

“Why are you talking in english? El español se siente más personal.” Elise said, no blood on her anymore. “Oooh, es precisamente por eso.” Elise realizes. “¿Y cómo que Elise? ¿Qué pasa con tus millones de apodos?”        

Santana sits on the well, looking down again. Maybe if she threw more things on it, it would be full. Then her wish comes true, right? Was that how wishing wells worked? She keeps thinking, touching her hair, straight and long. Wait, shouldn’t be an afro? I don’t have my hair like this anymore. “Elise am I looking like I always look to you?”

“Igualita.” It shouldn’t be like this. She should look different to Elise, right? She just took that stupid human potion like last week. Last week? Or months ago? Santana walks away from the well, stepping over guns and big lamps and cars and catapults. Elise follows her.

“I wasn’t planning to kill you.” She said, while walking. Not even looking at Elise’s direction.

“No. Teníamos un plan buenísimo para tu quedarte con uno de mis riñones sin matarme. En plan, me apuñalas, lo tomas, haces tu ritual y ¡boom! Adiós problemas. Ya eres humana. ”

“Alright. It was a shit plan! It would had probably kill you. But I was hoping it didn’t!!” She admits. She didn’t like to even think about this. But it was time. “Like, I was hoping as you trusted me, and I kind-of-trusted you, that in the moment I tried to stab you it’s like, test passed!! A light will appear and I will become human, no actual stabbing necessary you know? A la binding of Isaac.” She didn’t like to think about this because she knew it was fucking ridiculous. “But then I was like...well. You know, I thought you were a slayer, you said some...really weird shit suddenly and…” She steps on a big box that she doesn’t recognize. She opens it to find some nice decorated knives. “Alright, to be honest, deep down, I was hoping me freaking out and blowing the whole thing was the tiny part of me who… didn’t want to hurt you, in case I wasn’t stopped by magic, I rather stop myself and lie to myself too saying it was because I got paranoid.” She looked at the knives in the box, some knives had so many decorations, even in the blade, it would be super hard to cut anything with them. Like they had pins, if knives could have pins. She will have to cut the decorations on it too and it didn’t seem easy. She picked the most decorated ones, one raspberry pink, gentleman-thief like knife,with handcuffs, letters, hearts, and a lot of more shit Santana didn’t stop to look, and another porpoise grey shadow push knife, with handshakes, socks, and more shit. She didn’t usually like grey, but she liked this specific grey. 

“But that’s not what really happened.” She left the decorated knives in the box, and picket other, merigold yellow handle, simple. No decorations, just a cat draw in the blade, but as soon as she picks it up, it turns into ashes. What a shame, it was a decent knife. It had to be sharpened more but it looked like it could be used. Gone. Unused. “I didn’t stop myself. Someone else stopped me. Someone called the Cardines. Someone… God. Someone made me...ugh” No. she wasn’t going to say it. She was just looking at knives now. She picks a dark plum purple with a gothic handle, and one light blue and taffy pink that opened like a lipstick, with a heel shoe in the blade. Both broken by the handle. Useless. But there is a simple one, with a little full moon carved on the blade, and a wolf on the end of the handle. Sharpened. Usable. She was going to carry this one. She sees there is a gap for a knife that isn’t there anymore. “Elise, was this your kni- oh FUCK!” She turns around but Elise isn’t there anymore. There is that old bastard man with his sunglasses on. “Ugh. ‘Dad’. Where is Elis-where is the… there was a girl here before.”

“Estamos aquí solos, Niebla, no tienes que hablar en inglés.” Her ‘dad’ says, with his annoying grin like he is planning something, and everything goes as he plans. She know it’s fake.

“Look, dad, I’m almost going to be an adult soon and I’m going to do whatever the fuck I wa- wait, no. I’m an adult.” She wasn’t 17. She was older. But she looks 17. “Fuck. I’m older than 17 and I’m still a fucking animal. I just have 3 years left. No, I have more years.” More years suffering. She stands up, confused at where the fuck she is. There is full of things that feels familiar but she just feels in the middle of nowhere. She runs. Somewhere.

“¿Dónde vas?” Her ‘dad’ asks, and she can hear him walking slowly behind her. She wasn’t going to wait for him.

“I’m fucking going backwards in the middle of nowhere. Fuck!”

“You never did a good thing in your life, and the world would be a better place without you.”

She steps on something and falls, she hears the sound of a recorded voice and tries to find where it comes from. She stands up and walk around, but she just hears more voices instead.

“You think everything is funny, and you answer me with irony just because you don't have anything real to say. I believed in you, I thought you were really trying to change things around.”

“Oh, shut up. Where does this come from?”  

“I wouldn't have to fight you. I already know that I've won the most important part of living. And if you don't know what it is, well -- it shows.” Another voice. “You created the situation that caused you to be the victim!” She knew all of these different voices. “Who is doing this? Ugh, it doesn’t matter, I don’t give a single shit of what anyone dares to say about me!”“Do you feel that way too? Do you think you are just some kind of animal?”

But the recorded voices continued. “If you are what you are, and you are a trickster spirit, why do you never present as an animal? You are one, aren’t you. An animal.”

“You’re lucky some even refer to you as people, instead of Lusus.” She was getting annoyed. “But one day you´re going to realize that you´ll need friends by your side to back you up, and it´ll be sad when you turn around and realize there´s no one there.” She hears slow footsteps behind, clashing with the sound of stepping over metal. “I know what your most afraid of is never getting to be a real life girl ain’t it? Spoiler alert: You won’t. Ever.”

His ‘father’ gets closer to her, laughing. “Ugh, you’re the worst!” Santana says, pointing at him with her knife.

“You're seriously the worst trickster ever. Any trickster who scorns their birth is owned by humans. Go away, nothing.”

“I can’t be the worst if you are.” Her ‘dad’ answers.

“Your life is a series of seemingly unconnected episodes of deception for deception’s sake. In the end, your existence will be of no consequence.” Santana keeps searching where the record comes from. “I’m done bothering to try explaining anything to you.”She localizes the place where she hears it best. “It is not my fault that you got caught by the Cardines, Santana. Maybe the fact that you got caught means that you aren't as good as you think you are and do need to be here.” It’s buried behind a lot of illusory crap. Mostly weapons. “I don’t call you by your animal species, do I?” She starts to unbury and search. “Humans are capable of remorse. Do you feel remorse, Santana?” Her dad keeps laughing. “Remorse, you?” Like it was the funniest joke. “Evil for the sake of being evil. That's how I see a real monster to be.” A monster isn’t so bad, then. “You can sit there, and talk a big game about how my relationship is fake and all my friends are gone, and my parents don’t love me, but at the end of the day, Santana, I have my fake girlfriend and my cryptic parents and my fake friends, and you have nothing, and no one. Because you can’t. Ever. Not really. Not like the rest of us.” She keeps caving. “You’re following illogical sense. A fire witch isn’t a chimney. Just like your human form isn’t really a human body.” She sees an old tape recorder. “You are so full of shit. I find it funny that you are trying to be sarcastic with me right now when I'm actually one of the few who actually is trying to understand you around here.” She picks it up. “We wouldn't have been faced with the obligation to kick someone out if you hadn't acted the way you did.” And throws it to the ground. She steps on it, again and again.

“I'm sorry, Santana, but either way, you are still you, that's not gonna chang-” It’s the last thing the tape recorder says before being completely broken. She is satisfied. “I’m not even going to think about this ever again.” She says, while burying the old broken tape recorder back, putting even more things she founds around on top of it. But as she tries to bury something, she is getting things that weren’t on surface before. She isn’t looking what she picks, and sees she has in hand a dead rabbit. She throws it to the ground. It looks like a car hit it. “Ew ew ew ew” She complains, trying to clean her hands on her ‘dad’ shirt. “¡Mira!” Her dad laughs ”El conejo muerto que nos encontramos un día en la carretera y te dije, te dijee... que así estaríamos cuando nos muramos. Un animal muerto más, la gente nos mirará un segundo con cara de pena y luego seguirán con sus vidas sin volver a pensar en nosotros.” He says, like remembering a fond ‘father-daughter’ moment.

“Yeah, one of your depressive days when you don’t stop saying sad bullshit.” Where he complains about everything that also affects them all. She picks some joke t-shirt she founds on and hides the death rabbit with it. She tried to hide it with more things, but she will just find more creepy shit she didn’t want to find. So she just left the place, walking away, not knowing where she is going. She hears the sound of recorded voices.

“-the mighty and proud Santana Lopez.”

“Ugh, again?” She gets close to where the sounds come from, to destroy it too.

“I talk to you about shit because I want to. You’re a good friend, y'know” A voice she knows says.

“However what I've learned from all of our adventures, discussions, and friendship together is that when it comes to something important and serious, we have each other's backs and each other's stories.” She is getting closer. “You’re nice too, hah. Very surprisingly. More than that I guess if I had to be forced to compliment you by some sort of curse, I like that you’re real.” This one is not in the surface either. “Suffice it to say I know you care more than you let on. About us, about me. Don't go.” She tries to unbury it. “I have time for the people that matter.” She hears footsteps behind, over the sound of the recorder. “Santana you are a cool friend.” She keeps unburying. “I thought that mirror monster was beautiful and honest.” It’s buried deeper down than the other. “You aren't a condition that needs fixing. You've already proven to be fiercely loyal and a keeper of secrets without the aura potion. You’re super sweet when you’re nice, anyway. And same on the mutual respect thing. You’re my trusted friend.” She notices those phrases weren’t said at the same time, even when it was by the same person. But the order didn’t matter. “What do I think you are? You are my friend, and I love you and I care about you. There are things I'm afraid of, there are things that affect me more than others, but that's not a judgment towards you. Those are things I have to work out myself.” She is getting closer. “You challenge me, which I appreciate.” She sees the recorder. “They care about you, too. We might not die, but we'll be sad. We'll miss you. More so if you go off and get yourself killed.” She keeps staring at it, in silence. “We can be so much more than that. We shouldn't have to be just ‘monsters’ or not even that just a label that they want to put on us.” She takes the recorder with her. “Thanks for this, inviting me over. Not being weird. I've missed you.” Still knife in hand. “She told me that she thought I was always thoughtful, even though I thought you were a monster. Santana, I don't believe that you are anymore. You've shown me there is more to you than tricks and illusions.” She gets out of the hole where the recorder was buried in. “However I don't want to leave you behind if that's what turning my back means.”

She throws it to the ground. And stabs it with the kife. “Shut up shut up shut up shut up!” She shouts, crying, still stabbing the recorder. “Shut up! This just makes me feel worse! Shut up! I would leave everyone of you behind. I’m just tricks and illusions. I was using you! Monster is the highest status I can fucking reach!” She keeps stabbing the recorder even when it stopped working already. “No one will miss me. Shut up! I thought I wanted this, but the more they care, the more far away I fucking feel. The closer they are, the easiest is to notice there is nothing here.” She grabs her own tshirt and keeps crying. “I fucking hate it... I can’t… I can’t pretend anymore to be a person. People are telling me they care about me? And I fucking feel so empty when they do.” Someone sits next to her.

“¿Que hay debajo de toda esta basura, niña?” Her mom asks.

“Nothing! There’s nothing!” She feels so little. She looks up to her mom and she is not even going to use the quotation marks.  “Mom, help me! When is this over? When do I start enjoying life?”

“¿Por qué estás aqui?”

“I don’t need a fucking reason to be here, in the world! What? I don’t have to contribute ANYTHING to a world that only give me pain! Fucking answer me! I’m just like 10 and I’m already so fucking tired of everything” No. She is not 10. She looks like a 10 year old but she is 24. “No, no, no, fuck. 14 years more of this? When am I going to become human, mom? Mom, please, I just want to enjoy life and I can’t as a trickster!”

“¿Tienes miedo? ¿De que tampoco podrás como humana?” Her mom asks. Santana blinks and she is alone again. She keeps crying. “It’s ok, it’s ok. Soon I will be human and happy.” She never was, but she could be. Right? “And I will connect with my friends for real, and I will care for real. I will be real.” She stands up, and walks alone, trying to remember the way back to where she was at the start. She is going back in age too. She is getting younger and younger. “Oh, no.” She will reach the moment when she couldn’t even turn into a human. She sees herself as the unglamoured kid, hidding her monstrous features under gloves, coats, hat and sunglasses. “No no no no.” She runs, she runs until she sees the red car. “I can’t end as I started! Without accomplishing anything!” She stops running when she reaches the car, she tries to open the door. It’s locked. “I don’t want to die as an animal! What was all the effort I did for? Nothing?” She keeps crying, desperately trying to open the door. If she was older, she could had open it. She knew how to unlock cars locks when she was older. She didn’t knew it now. “No! Help me!” The little girl  uses the knife in her hand to try to open the car, as if stabbing the lock would work.

“Someone! Anyone! Please!”

[hazzabeeforlou]

WIP snippet: H’s sweet 16

“I swear, this thing is a heart attack on a plate,” Gemma muttered, flinging the finishing touches of chopped chocolate onto the Bavarian Torte.

 By some miracle Gemma had agreed to come home for his birthday, and Harry would take her, sardonic comments and all. He smiled as he reached for the napkins.

“You do not have to partake, Gemma,” Anne huffed, raising one eyebrow

 “More for me,” Robin teased from over at the table, where he’d been attaching blue balloons to the backs of the dining room chairs.

  “If fact,” Anne said, turning to Harry, “Even without your sister’s help, the cake might disappear fast tonight. Louis has a large family.” Anne said it with a taunting twinkle in her eye.

 “I don’t mind.” Harry hid a sheepish smile behind the package of paper plates he’d  started unpacking.

As he and Louis were attached at the hip most days, no one had batted an eye when Harry asked if they could have the Tomlinson’s over to celebrate. Their parents got along splendidly and the girls absolutely worshiped Gemma, so it seemed only logical.

 The doorbell rang, and Harry raced to answer it, his socked feet skidding between the rugs.

 “THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!”

  As he swung the door open Louis blew a loud party kazoo right in his face, the shiny, curly end of it thwaking Harry’s nose.

 “Happy sweet sixteen, Harold!” Louis yelled, springing on him in a giant bear hug, his whole being luminous with excitement.

  “Thanks, Lou.” Harry smiled so big his dimples felt like trenches in his skin.

 “And look who I brought to celebrate! Thing one, thing two, thing three, AND thing four!” Louis ushered his sisters into the house, Lottie and Fizzy shooting him exasperated looks as they passed Harry.

 “Hello dear, happy birthday,” Jay said warmly, embracing Harry as her and Mark slipped their shoes off and put them by the door next to the girls’.

 As Louis made to follow Harry into the dining room, Jay caught his arm.

“Louis, your shoes,” she reminded, pointing to his sneakers.

 “Mom,” Louis moaned, returning grudgingly. Though it was the dead of winter he’d forgotten socks. Again.

 “S’okay Lou, I promise I won’t smell your feet,” Harry said helpfully, grinning at Jay as Louis mock fumed.

 “You’re both the worst, see if I come to any more birthdays, just see,” Louis mumbled, toeing off his shoes and walking gingerly towards the kitchen in his bare feet.

“This is from Mark and I, Harry. We hope you like it.”

Harry took the bag from them, nodding his thanks. “I’m sure I will, Mrs. Tomlinson.”

They gathered around the table for food and festivities. Gemma had prepared popcorn, chips and salsa, and a stellar platter of cheese and crackers to complement Anne’s taco dinner. Everyone soon became engrossed in board games, save the twins, who wandered in and out of the dining room, easily bored. They tried playing Pit first, but Fizzy found it difficult to reach the spoons, so they switched to Uno, and later to monopoly. 

Time flew by. Harry laughed until his stomach hurt when Jay snatched Park Place, thwarting Louis’ elaborate and well-voiced plans of real-estate domination. Louis proceeded to dramatically pout like the world had ended. Harry giggled secretly behind his hand when Louis’ pawn landed in jail for the hundredth time and instead of hollering complaints he stuck one of the discarded Pit spoons on his nose, balancing it there until the twins started squealing with glee and trying to jostle if off.

Sometime after dark Jay and Anne disappeared into the kitchen. Gemma stood and flipped off the lights, and soon only the incoming glow of candles illuminated the streamers twisting down from the dining room chandelier.

“Happy birthday to you…”

 Robin started off the singing as Anne rounded the corner carrying Harry’s cake, bedecked with sixteen striped candles. Harry had difficulty picking out individual voices due to the twins’ yowling, but Louis’ voice cut through. It floated to his ears silkily, like melted caramel, yet sharply distinct. It had a tone like the clear peal of a bell amidst a storm. He latched onto it and locked eyes with Louis, who smiled back as his cheekbones caught the candlelight.

 Harry should have been looking at the cake before him, not at his best friend. But he didn’t much care.

 “Make a wish, Harry!” Daisy called out as the chorus ended.

 “Okay.” Harry cracked his knuckles and closed his eyes, feeling the heat of the flickering wicks against his face. A wish came to him, half formed and inarticulate: he wanted this always. He wanted these people, these families, and Louis around him always. He wished that Louis would always be his best friend.

 The ache swelled against his ribcage.

 Quickly, he opened his eyes and blew out the candles, banishing the discomfort from his mind. Everyone clapped and cheered, but Harry looked only at Louis, meeting his eyes as Gemma flipped the lights back on, seeing in them blue, pupil-huge mirrors of his own.  

 Anne sliced the torte and gave Harry and Louis the biggest pieces, much to Robin’s protest. Everyone enthusiastically complemented Anne’s signature back, the twins liking it so much they fought over who had the biggest chunk of cream-cheese-and-chocolate-flake icing.

 Harry ate his cake slowly, savoring it. Louis had no experience with the word ‘savor.’ He devoured his quickly, enjoying it far too much, seeming to slip into a personal ecstasy. Harry watched as he forked bites to his pink lips and closed them over the creamy icing, the flakes of chocolate melting into the edges of his mouth, lining it like makeup. His jaw worked slowly, smoothly, making angles Harry imagined were sharp to the touch. When he’d finished, Louis ran his fingers over the remnants of icing on his plate, popping them in his mouth and pulling them back out clean and damp and slightly red.

 “Hairball, earth to hairball,” Gemma waved a hand in front of his face.

“W-what?” Harry stuttered, blinking at Gemma dazedly.

 “I said, want me to get the presents now?” 

“Oh. Oh sure,” Harry smiled at her, hoping Gemma couldn’t see how his cheeks had warmed.

His presents were small, nothing extravagant. Harry opened his parents’ first, a small package wrapped with shooting star paper. They’d gotten him a soft-knit shirt adorned with a penguin. Harry loved it.

Next he opened Gemma’s, an encyclopedia of C.S. Lewis quotes she’d found at the second-hand store on campus. The girls had also gotten Harry a gift. He unwrapped a shiny new board game to their excited shrieks.

 Harry opened Mr. and Mrs. Tomlinson’s next, a gift card to Barnes and Noble. He thanked them enthusiastically, realizing, with a clenching gut, that only Louis’ gift remained.

He opened the card first, smiling at the goofy picture of two dogs gobbling birthday cake. He read Louis’ small handwriting to himself.

Happy sweet sixteen to my very best friend!!!! Hope you had a wonderful day, Harold. You deserve it. My gift’s pretty lame, but I hope you like it. Open the bag but don’t open the thing on the bottom until we’re alone. The girls would tease me forever. –Lou

Harry bit his lip. He set the card down quickly and fished into the bag, pulling out a Packer’s jersey.

“No way,” he said, his mouth hanging open in shock. Harry had always wanted a Favre jersey, a no. 4, but they were too expensive back when Favre was quarterback.

 “Where on earth did you find this?” Harry asked, clutching the shirt to his chest.

“Oh, I got lucky at a thrift store,” Louis smiled brightly.

 “I should say so, let me see that,” Robin motioned for the jersey and Harry obliged. It got passed around the table to much fuss, Jay even asking when on earth Louis had the time to poke around in thrift stores.

Harry met Louis’ eyes as the shirt came back to him and nodded just slightly at the bag. Louis blinked twice.

 “Mommy can we play the new game?” Daisy asked, fidgeting around in her seat.

 “Maybe you kids can just play, honey, I think the adults are going to sit in comfy chairs in the living room,” Anne replied for Jay, getting up and clearing the dessert plates.

 Gemma broke away with the parents, though instead of joining in whatever adult conversation they started, she curled up in the armchair on her phone. Lottie and Fizzy were un-boxing the new game with Harry’s blessing, trying to explain the rules to the twins. Harry listened half-heartedly, curiosity gnawing away at his stomach. Louis caught his drift.

“Harry, think I could borrow some socks?”

Harry frowned at him. “Sure, Lou. Go ahead.”

 “Where are they, exactly?”

 “In my room,” Harry blinked at him. “Oh.” He stood up so abruptly his chair nearly toppled over. “I’ll get them for you, come on.”

 Louis smirked triumphantly, stealthily tucking the bag behind his back as they hurried from the dining room and up the stairs.

They tumbled into his bedroom and plopped down on the rug.

“Go ahead,” Louis said, eagerly presenting his gift yet again.

Harry felt around inside until he grasped a hunk of thick paper. He pulled it out and stared at the little booklet of construction paper, the spine held together with staples, the cover a pasted picture of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. In thick, markered letters across the top it read, “Best Friends Book.”

Harry dimpled terribly and side-eyed Louis in wonder. “Did you make me a book?”

Louis fiddled with his hands, nervously chewing his lip. “Maybe. Open it.”

Harry did. Inside were pages and pages of inside jokes and quotes, clipped magazine pictures movies they’d watched, and attempted illustrations of all the various activities they’d done together. It looked adorable overall, and spectacular in detail, every page inked over with Louis’ writing, which he’d been neater about than normal. Harry flipped through it, his grin growing with each new page.

 When he got three quarters of the way, he found blank pages. Louis coughed delicately into his hand.

“Er, that’s for, you know. More.”

Harry swallowed down whatever had lodged in his throat. He folded the book closed and pressed it to his chest.

“I love it, Lou. It’s the best present ever.”

“It’s so girly, isn’t it,” Louis muttered, a smile playing about his lips though he continued to stare at the carpet and fiddle his hands.

“I think it’s awesome,” Harry stated, scooting closer to Louis and throwing his arms around him, drawing him into a hug.

Harry tipped them slightly off balance with his gangly limbs, though, and instead they toppled over, their arms twined together messily.

“Oops,” Harry said apologetically.

“Hi.” Louis had landed on top, pinning Harry to the floor. “I’ve heard you’re ticklish. Some people outgrow such things, though, so we need to test you again, this being your birthday and all.”

Harry had only a moment to squawk out a protest and try to cover his belly before Louis attacked him, his lithe fingers hitting just the right places, making Harry squirm and yelp and twist and laugh under Louis until his sides hurt and his eyes were streaming.

 “Uncle unlce uncle!!” Harry screamed, trying desperately to get his legs up to Louis’ torso so he could push him away, but Louis knew that trick too well.

“What’s that you said? Buckle? Chuckle?”

Louis was merciless. Harry thought he might wet himself.

“Uncle!” Harry cried, his fingers trying to reciprocate the tickling, but to no effect.

“I think I’ve gone suddenly deaf, must be all the yelling in here,” Louis giggled, bearing down hard right above Harry’s tender hips.

“Louuuuuuu I’m gonna pee my pants stooooooop,” Harry moaned, his muscles jerking in twenty different directions.

The tickling ceased. Louis didn’t move, though, just hovered above him, his face flushed and close enough Harry could smell his cake-sweet breath.

“Alright, birthday boy, I’ll relent just this once. But only because it’s your birthday.”

Harry tried to recover some ounce of his stability, panting. “That’s noble, Lou. Gold star for you.”

“Eh, I try. I have a reputation to maintain and all.”

“I know.” Harry smiled up at him, his eyes maybe falling for too long on Louis’ thick eyelashes as they batted like sleepy caterpillars each time he blinked.

“Harry,” Louis started.

“Ya?”

 Louis looked down at him a moment, a strange light coming to his eyes.

Nevermind.” Louis pushed up from him and stood. “We’d better get back down, make sure the girls haven’t caused any disasters.”

Harry wanted to press, wanted to ask further, but Louis had already launched into the hallway, his smelly, bare feet trumping down the stairs.

Before he followed, Harry tucked the book under his pillow securely, replacing Azzy on top with the admonition, “Make sure you guard it, okay?”

The stuffed animal made no answer, but Harry smiled anyways. He grabbed a pair of sock on his way out.

[whattimeisitintokyo]

Somos Familia Ch 20

Chapter 20: My first Dia De Muertos! (Part 1)

               Remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves with a slotted spoon. Pour in the simmered onion mix. Stir well. Then finally add the chopped chocolate. Stir until perfectly melted. Perfecto!

               “I think it’s ready Mamá!” Coco said as she stood back from the simmering pot of homemade mole sauce that she had spent the last two hours on. She watched nervously as Imelda stirred the pot with a spoon before scooping a bit up for herself, blowing on it, and taking a small sip. Coco clasped her hands together as she watched for any facial clue to tell her if what she had made was either delicious or a complete failure. “Well?”

               Imelda swallowed and smiled. “It could use a little more salt.” She said as she reached for the salt shaker. Coco was quicker than her and snatched it away.

               “N-no! I’ll do it. It’s my mole sauce, so I have to be the one to make any adjustments to it. R-Rosita is counting on me. It has to be perfect!” Coco added a dash of salt and stirred the pot vigorously. “Now that the sauce is done I need to grill the chicken. Do you think marinating it for only one day was long enough?”

               “Coco, relax!” Imelda laughed. “The mole sauce is good, you marinated the chicken long enough, and everything will be delicious. I’m sure Rosita will love it.”

               “I hope so…” Coco said as she went to the small refrigerator to grab the plate of lime and chile chicken, looking at it critically. “Do you think it’s too late to bake a cake as well?”

               “Yes Coco, far too late.” Imelda said. “I need the stove to cook for tonight too, you know. And remember I want you back before sundown. It’s Dia de Muertos, and you know that it’s a special one this year.”

               Coco sighed sadly as she forked the chicken onto a hot oiled skillet. “Si Mamá, I know.” Then she perked up with a smile. “But that means Leti’s coming home tonight! Isn’t that a wonderful thing?”

               Imelda smiled wistfully. The last few months had been tough for the Rivera family. But as Santa Cecilia slowly rose up from the devastating earthquake, so did the family from their heartache. Music wove it’s way throughout the house again as inspiration had come back to Héctor, resulting in a new record being produced with Remember Me as the number one song all throughout Mexico. The shoe workshop was rebuilt and expanded upon, as well as the house itself. Several of their neighbors didn’t want to rebuild after the destruction, so the Riveras paid a generous sum of money for their properties and now their home was basically the whole block. Matty was doing much better as well at school, having made new friends and was even smiling and laughing again. And Coco was starting to become a beautiful young woman, taking a great interest in learning to cook with a few successes and a lot of burnt dinners. Things were starting to look up finally.

               Héctor walked into the kitchen a sniffed the air. “Ooh, are we having Pollo con Mole for lunch today?” He reached for a spoon of the sauce, but his hand was gently slapped away by his daughter.

               “No! This isn’t for you! It’s for Rosita!” Coco said with an edge to her voice. “It’s a very special meal just for her for Dia de Muertos.”

               “Rosita?” Héctor asked confused. “I thought she hated mole sauce though?”

               Coco’s face started to turn bright red and her eyes darted left and right. “N-n-no,” she stuttered. “She loves mole sauce…”

               “No, I distinctly remember,” Héctor said as he thought about it some more. “We had mole sauce one time when she, Facundo and Julio came over for dinner and she scraped it off of her meat. And I thought it was strange because usually she eats everything in front of her, but apparently we served her the one thing she didn’t like.”

               “Yes, that is strange,” Imelda said with a knowing smile as she stared at Coco. “But you know who loved our mole sauce so much that they asked for double servings of it?-“

               “Okay, you two need to leave, please!” Coco said frantically as she pushed her parents out of the kitchen. “You know the saying, too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the pot!” Once they were in the other room she slammed the door shut on their faces.

               Imelda tried to stifle her laughter behind her hand as she walked over to the basket of cempazuchitl flowers waiting to be plucked, but sighed in exasperation when she saw her husband’s clueless face. “Oh, come now, you must know who she’s really cooking for? Think about it, idiota!”

               Héctor placed his chin in his hand as he thought back to that dinner, the pieces slowly falling into place until with a gasp he turned disbelieving eyes towards Imelda. “No!”

               Imelda nodded. “Si!”

               “Really?!”

        ��      “Si.”

               “But… why?”

               Imelda shrugged and went back to plucking the petals off of the stems into a basket. “Love comes to us in mysterious ways, mi amor. And our dear Coco has had it bad for the boy for months now.”

               “But why him?” Héctor asked incredulously. “He’s so quiet, and fidgety, and short! And I’m sorry, but no sixteen year-old boy should have a mustache that thick!”

               Imelda smiled mischievously. “What can I say? Coco must have strange tastes in men. She gets it from me, I’m afraid.”

               Héctor nodded. “I guess you’re right…Hey!”

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

               A pale purple ribbon was carefully placed atop a section of thick black hair, and slowly but surely was woven along another section of plain hair. From the top to the bottom the hair was braided until it reached the very bottom and the end was tied up in a neat little bow. Then tiny white flowers were strung through the braid at each turn of the hair, the bangs brushed and picked to the right amount of fluffiness, and then spritzed with a sweet and fragrant perfume. When it was all done, she sat back and admired her work of art.

               “Perfecto! This is so much easier than when I was alive!” Leti said as she took her hair off of the mannequin head and placed it atop her skull. She skipped over to her bedroom mirror and made sure that it was in the right position. After a few adjustments she picked up a small toothbrush, squirted some Bone-Glo on it, and brushed at the several colorful marking on her face. She was very proud of her soul markings, the lilac circles on her top brow that shrunk to little pinprick dots under her eye sockets, the streaks of gold on her cheeks, even that weird green sprig-thingy that was in between her eyebrows. She scrubbed them until they had a glossy sheen and smiled at her reflection.

               “Muy guapa!” she said smugly, and turned around back towards her bed. “What do you think, Frangipani?”

               On her pillow sat a pink elephant that was no bigger than a cat, with green polka dots on her back and a multicolored checkerboard on her belly. She had golden tusks, green toes, purple eyes and the underside of her giant ears were the pattern of a Monarch butterfly’s. She looked at Leti and gave a small toot! of appraisal from her trunk.

               “Great, now I gotta decide what I’m going to wear.” Leti walked into her closet and rifled through her wardrobe. “Let’s see… That dress is too stuffy… Too casual… The dress I was buried in? Nah, too depressing. Aha!” Leti walked out with a shirt and two skirts in hand. “My embroidered blouse! This is nice, I’ll wear this!... Now what about shoes?”

               Suddenly a knock came at the door, startling both Leti and her alebrije. “Mija? Are you almost ready?”

               “Uno momento, Abuelita!” Leti said, before changing her mind. “Actually, can you come in here? I need your opinion on something.”

               The door opened and in walked a female skeleton, one who had died too young but had a sweet maturity in her eyes. Her hair was done up in an elegant bun, she wore a modest pink dress cinched tightly around her spinal column, and her soul markings were green and gold triangles above her eyes and gold leaves on her cheeks. “Leticia, you aren’t even dressed yet!”

               “That’s what I want your opinion on!” Leti said as she held up two skirts. “Which one do you think, the red one or the green one?”

               “Hmm…” The skeleton pondered thoughtfully. “The red one.”

               “That’s what I thought too!” Let said as she hiked the skirt over her hip bones. “And I need to pick the proper shoes as well. Shoes are very important in our family, you know. Saddle shoes are too common and offer no support, which I’ll need since I’ll be walking around a lot. And boots are too clunky, I want to look my best tonight!”

               “Mija…” Leti’s grandmother said softly. “You know they won’t be able to see you, right?”

               Leti deflated a little. “I know, but it’s my first Dia de Muertos from the other side. I just wanted to look my best for the occasion. Tio Nesto always says that your appearance matters more than what you say or do.”

               “You know some skeletons go to the Land of the Living with no shirt on at all. Just their ribs sticking out.” Her grandmother laughed.

               Leti grimaced in disgust. “En serio? Mamá wouldn’t like that all. She’d say they’d have no class.”

               “Leticia! Mirasol! Hurry up!” An irritated voice called from downstairs. “It’s half past six already! Vamanos!”

               “What?!” Leti cried out as she flung shoe after shoe out of her closet in a hurry. “I didn’t know it was that late! Mamá always has dinner for Dia de Muertos at seven o’clock sharp! We’re gonna miss it!” She hopped out of her closet, pulling on some woven leather huaraches over her skeletal feet. “These will have to do!”

               “Okay, let’s go!” Mirasol said and she ushered her granddaughter out the door and down the stairs. Waiting at the bottom was her husband Gaspar. He had also died quite young, his thick black hair oiled up and slicked back and dressed in a simple white shirt and tan slacks. His markings were purple and silver swirls, slanted downwards on his brow giving a permanent grumpy expression. Marisol smiled sweetly. “Mi amor, you know you must never rush a woman when she’s getting ready.”

               Gaspar pointed at his watch. “Well by the time we get there the food will all be cold. It’s going to take forever to get to the gate, let alone cross the bridge and reach the house!”

               Leti looked down guiltily, before a thought sprung in her mind and she grinned. “I got an idea, Abuelito!”

               Gaspar knew his granddaughter’s look and his eyes narrowed. “Oh no. No no no no-…”

               But it was too late and Leti was already running outside the house and giving a sharp whistle. “FRANGIPANI!” By the time Leti had made it out into the wide street Frangipani had zipped down the stairs, flew past an agitated Gaspar and an amused Mirasol, and plopped down in front of her owner. Leti grinned down at the little elephant alebrije. “Okay Frangipani. Grande grande!”

               Frangipani crouched down into herself, inhaling long and hard into her trunk, and she began to swell. Her soft plump figure grew into hard, scaly skin, the green polka dots shifting into vibrant tiger stripes. He tusks turned from little nubs into razor sharp instruments of death, and her ears grew larger and larger into a gigantic set of butterfly wings. Her cute little toots turned into powerful trumpets, and when she was finished she had grown into a fully sized elephant. She lowered her massive trunk down to Leti, and the little skeleton giggled as she lightly walked along it up to the massive knobby head.

               “Now we can get there in no time! C’mon Abuelita!” Leti said happily.

               “Muchas gracias, Frangipani.” Mirasol said pleasantly as she too walked up the trunk to sit behind Leti. She looked down at her husband and frowned when he looked away with his arms folded over his chest. “Gaspar…”

               “I am not getting on that thing ever again!” Gaspar growled as he pointed at the elephant with disdain. “Not since it thought it would be funny to fling me into the river. Mis amigos still laugh at me about it.”

               “Ay Dios mio,” Mirasol exclaimed. “Stop being un viejo gruñón.”

               “I’m not an old man! I’m only twenty-five years ooOOOH!” Gaspar was suddenly lifted off his feet by Frangipani’s massive trunk, swung over her head, and none too gently plopped onto her back behind his wife. His eyes rattled in his skull as his wife laughed at him, and he sighed in defeat. “Alright, fine. Let’s go.”

               “Fly Frangipani, fly!” Leti cried and let out a loud grito as Frangipani flapped her large ear wings and took off into the air.

               As they soared Leti relished in the feeling of cool crisp air against her bones and drunk in the beautiful view of the Land of the Dead. Before the most beautiful place she had ever seen was Mexico City. But when she first stepped out of the Department of Family Reunions with her grandparents and saw her surroundings she was amazed. High, winding structures of buildings on top of buildings, sky high trolleys connected on wires crisscrossed all over each other, sounds of music, laughter and cheer from every corner, and the colors! So many bright and vibrant colors, the most predominant being purples, pinks and golds. Mamá and Coco would love that whenever they finally got here. She herself would never get tired of this aerial view.

               Frangipani dove down towards the ground and landed gracefully outside of the Marigold Bridge terminals. She knelt down to let Leti and Mirasol slide off of her, while Gaspar tumbled down into a pile of bones, moaning weakly. “Feel… sick… I hate flying.”

               Mirasol chuckled as she picked up her husband’s skull. “Oh, so dramatic.” She held the skull up and out in front of her as the rest of Gaspar’s body magically rose up and reconnected itself back together, making their granddaughter giggle. “Alright, I’m going to stop by this stall first and rent some knapsacks and baskets. I have a feeling we’re going to have a good haul this year!”

               As Mirasol walked off, Gaspar checked his watch again. “Well, I hate to say it, but I think we’ve made good time. Good thing too, I can taste my little girl’s menudo already!” He rubbed his hands in anticipation of the feast, grinning until a large pink trunk plopped down heavily on his shoulder. “Ugh! Alright, alright, thank you for the ride, alebrije. You happy now? Now go on home, we can just take a trolley back later.” As Frangipani flew off with a powerful gust of wind, Gaspar called out, “And shrink back down before you get there! I don’t want to have to clean up your giant caquitas!” He turned his attention back to Leti and smiled down at her. “Are you excited to go home, mija?”

               While Gaspar had been dealing with her alebrije, Leti had been looking at the gate terminals separating the city and the Marigold Bridge, watching as skeletons were scanned and approved to cross the bridge per their ofrenda picture. But one skeleton’s scan ended in a loud buzzing sound and the dejected soul was left to simply limp back towards the Land of the Dead. “Abuelito, why did that skeleton not get to cross the bridge?”

               Gaspar looked to where Leti was pointing and winced at the skeleton’s yellowed, dusty bones and limp posture. “Ah, his foto wasn’t put up I’m afraid, and if your foto isn’t put up then you can’t cross over. By the looks of him no one has for a while. He’s being forgotten.”

               Leti watched the poor skeleton with wide eyes. Suddenly her excitement for the holiday turned to fear, and she looked up at her grandfather. “W-what if Mamá and Papá… didn’t put up my foto?”

               Gaspar’s brow furrowed and he knelt down to look Leti in the eye. “What makes you think they wouldn’t put your foto up? Your parents love you, mija. Heck, anyone with half a brain cell would love you as soon as they met you! You don’t have to worry about that.”

               Leti looked down at the ground. “It’s just that… When I got sick, everyone was so sad. Everyone cried, even Tio Nesto. What if they’re mad at me because I made them so sad? That they wish they could just… forget me?

               Gaspar sighed but smiled warmly as he traced a finger over her skull markings. “Leticia, you couldn’t help getting sick. Never blame yourself for that. Look at your Abuelita and me! We both got sick and died when Imelda was only five years old and our sons only a few months old.” His eyes turned sad and he paused as he let the old wounds of his past make themselves known. “For the longest time I hated myself for my own weakness, and I was sure that Imelda would try to forget us if only to ease her own suffering.”

               “But instead, she told everyone our stories, even though we spent such a short time together as a family. We meant that much to her! She told all of our stories to her friends, her husband, and even you kids as well.”

               Leti grinned. “Like the time you kicked a fútbol into a beehive and got stung so much that you looked like a prickly pear cactus?”

               Gaspar glowered. “The point is… Imelda knew we never meant to leave her, just like she and the rest of the family know that you didn’t mean to leave them. They aren’t angry at you, mija. Trust me.”

               Mirasol walked back over carrying three baskets and bags, noticing the pair’s solemn faces. “Is everything alright?”

               Gaspar stood up straight and placed his hand on Leti’s shoulder. “Si, just some ‘First Time Crossing the Bridge’ jitters. We’ve all been there! But everything’s okay now, right Leticia?”

               Leti nodded and smiled up at her grandfather. “Si, I’m ready now, let’s go!”

               The three of them walked up to the terminal, and when it was Leti’s turn she was given a first timer’s welcome by the crossing agent and a round of applause by the whole staff, making her giggle. She smiled widely for the camera, even though inside she was still a little anxious, before the reassuring ding sounded. “Your foto is on your parents’ ofrenda! Have a wonderful visit, Chiquita.”

               Leti sighed in relief. “Gracias, senor!” she exclaimed and walked a little ways past the gate to await her grandparents. She gazed in awe at the huge, glowing orange bridge before her, watching the footsteps of the skeletons walking on it light up and inhaling the sweet aromas that were beckoning her to come forward and join them. A few seconds later Mirasol and Gaspar came up next to her and took her by the hands. Her excitement had returned. “I’m going home!”

[lil-nct-scenarios-11]

Jaemin- Teddy Bear

Group: NCT- Jaemin

Theme: Valentine’s Day Special

Type: One shot- fluff

Plot: You visit Jaemin at the hospital and you two have a cute Valentine’s Day date that involves a certain teddy bear making things memorable.

You eagerly wave goodbye to your mom as she drops you off at the hospital where your boyfriend was admitted. Your arms were full with flowers, chocolates, and a huge oversized teddy bear so waving was a little difficult but the huge grin on your face definitely indicated that you were very happy to be here. Sure a hospital wasn’t on your list of places to have a Valentine’s Day date but if that’s where Jaemin would be spending his day, you didn’t mind being here.

You felt a little guilty since you haven’t visited him in a while but you intended to make it up to him by making this day super special and unforgettable. You made your way up to the third floor and walked down the familiar white corridors until you stopped at the reception/ check in area.

A friendly, elderly nurse recognized you and greeted you with a warm smile, “Ah Y/N! It’s so nice to see you again, you’re here to visit Jaemin again aren’t you? That boy has been just talking about you day in and day out and it’s really sweet haha. I see you came with lots of gifts for Valentine’s day huh? Haha come here and give me a hug first before you rush off to see him,” she says nimbly.

You walk over to her and she engulfs you tightly into her plump figure. You chuckle at her strength and pull away from her solid grip with a wide smile. “Pearl, I got you a little something too, how could I forget about my favorite nurse? Here you go, I hope you like it,” you say a little anxiously, handing her a small gift box with a bright pink bow adorning it and a bouquet of flowers.

“Oh Y/N you shouldn’t have dear. Oh my! This is beautiful, thank you dear,” Pearl exclaims happily, giving you another big hug.

“Haha you’re welcome, when I saw this pearl bracelet I just knew I had to get it! I'm glad you like it Pearl, but now I gotta go give Jaemin his gift and I don’t want to make him wait anymore so I’ll be on my way now. It’s nice seeing you again and I’ll be sure to come visit you guys more frequently!” you promise, giving Pearl one more hug.

“Aw Y/N, you’re so kind but I won’t be seeing you much anymore. It’s for a good reason but I will miss seeing your sweet face that’s for sure. Ok that’s too much rambling coming from this old woman haha, go now. Go to Jaemin, poor guy’s been waiting to see you for a long time, hurry now dear,” Pearl says a bit hurriedly with a sad smile, pushing you lightly to the set of corridors leading towards Jaemin’s room.

You turn away from Pearl and continue to walk towards his room. When you find his room number, you knock on the door lightly and poke your head in when you hear Jaemin’s familiar voice shout, “Come in!”

“Y/N?! Oh baby I missed you so much!” Jaemin squealed delightfully, getting up to embrace you into his famous bear hugs.

“Oh I missed you too boo-boo! I’m sorry I didn’t come to visit you that much but Happy Valentine’s Day babe!” you shout, still hugging him tightly.

“Oooh I got you something boo,” you begin cutely as Jaemin takes a seat on his bed. You thrust the giant teddy bear towards him and smile even wider than you did before. “Happy Valentine’s Day Jaemin!”

“Aww babe, you didn’t have to get me anything. I’m just happy to have you here with me but thank you,” he says with a fond smile, taking the huge teddy bear into his arms. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get you anything this year,” he says with a pout, resting his head on top on the teddy’s.

“That’s why I got chocolate for the both of us and by both I mean me. Hehe, all I want is for you to recover and get discharged soon,” you say, kissing his forehead and ruffling his fluffy brown hair.

“Oh, well in that case, I can proudly tell you that I’m getting discharged in two days! I can finally go home to some good food, friends, and most importantly, wifi!” Jaemin states happily.

“Wow that’s good to hear! Man, I donnu how you managed to live with laggy wifi for so long, if I were you, I’d get soo bored. That also explains why Pearl looked a little sad earlier,” you realize, talking to yourself.

“What?” Jaemin asks for clarification.

“Oh when I saw Pearl earlier she looked a lil sad but I understand now because even though you’re getting discharged, which is great news, it’s sad since we won't see her anymore,” you explain bitter-sweetly.

“Yea...I know. I’ll definitely miss her too but I won’t be missing the wifi aha,” Jaemin reminds.

“Haha yea boo I can tell,” you say laughingly.

“So what do you wanna do?” Jaemin asks.

“Hmm, I have an idea. Do you wanna go to the little bakery across the street?” you suggest.

“Sure that sounds nice,” he nods.

“Okie, are you ready to go?” you ask.

“Yea, I’m ready. Let’s go?” he asks, offering his hand to hold.

You slip your hand into his seemingly, larger one and lean in peck his lips lightly before heading off the petite bakery. Pearl gave you guys permission to leave the hospital but you had a time limit for an hour. You guys took your time to walk there but it only took a few minutes to arrive since it was literally right across the hospital. The bakery was surprising pretty empty considering that today was Valentine’s day. So you two ordered sandwiches and of course, some freshly made pastries and occupy a window booth.

You two enjoy your lunch and catch up on a bunch of stuff by going on a relaxing walk, almost forgetting the hour limit. But you two make it back on time and give the warm pastry you two grabbed for Pearl and in return, she gave you two a basket filled with little goodies and some cheesy rom-coms.

So you set up the movies and then joined Jaemin on his bed, that was definitely made for one, and nuzzle against his chest while clutching the teddy bear. Some point during the second movie, you two both dozed off for a bit and Jaemin woke you up to a tickle fight. You caught him trying to snap a picture of you sleeping but only caused your tickle fight to get more intense. After surrendering, you two start to exchange very cheesy pick up lines while playing uno and laugh it off by eating a bunch of Valentine’s day candy that Pearl gave in the basket.

Before you got picked up by your mom, you two told each other how much you two really cared about each other and that lead to a lots cute cuddling and a few sweet kisses. At last, when you really had to leave, Jaemin told you that he might leave you for the giant teddy bear you got him since it was super cuddly but then he reassured you that you were the best boy/girlfriend ever and that he would never leave you.

*ahh I'm sorry for the delay, I kept changing the plot but I like how it came out and u can tell that I was getting lazy more towards the end but like its pretty cute as a lil V-day date thing idk how dates work man ive never been on one TT 

*also side note, I know hes not in the hospital any more but this was just a lil idea I had abt him when he was ya know. I hope he recovers soon, I've been worried about him so I hope he’s doing gud and that he’s resting up well

**so like I wanted to use his nickname ‘na-na’ but in Hindi Nana means grandpa so like I wasn’t tryna make things weird ya know like no one calls their bf ‘grandpa’ so yea ur welcome *wink* hope u guys enjoyed this

[optometrist0]

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5 Summer Snacks to Enjoy by the Pool

If you’ve already brought out the swimsuits and pool floaties, you are ready for summer! And if you are already planning ahead for a day at the pool, here are 5 Summer Snacks to Enjoy by the Pool that your family will love.

Family Food Live can be seen every Wednesday and Friday at 12 Noon EST/11 am CST on Facebook!  Today I’ll be live on the Quirky Momma Facebook page. But make sure you like both the Burnt Macaroni Facebook page and the Quirky Momma Facebook page now so you never miss an episode!

If you missed the last show, here’s a look at some of it:

Are you getting hungry yet? Here are today’s recipes.

Salted Chocolate Mandarin Oranges

Shopping List:

Mandarin Oranges, peeled

1/2 cup Dark Chocolate Chips

Sea Salt

Coconut Oil

Instructions:

Peel Mandarin Oranges

In a mixing cup, melt the dark chocolate in the microwave for about a minute, then in 10-second intervals until melted

Add a tablespoon of Coconut oil into the chocolate to make it really smooth

Dip each of the mandarin oranges slices into chocolate and place on lined baking sheet

Sprinkle the chocolate with salt

Put in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to let the chocolate harden

Thanks to Deliciously Yum for this fun idea

Yogurt Banana Pops

This is a huge favorite in my home. These Yogurt Banana Pops are fun for the kids and give them something healthy to eat during a hot afternoon.

Chocolate Dipped Fruit Cones

Shopping List:

Waffle Cones

Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Shredded Coconut

Sprinkles

Strawberries

Blueberries

Grapes

Mango

Instructions:

In the microwave, melt the chocolate in a glass mixing cup for about 1 minute — then 10-second intervals until melted

Dip the top of the cone into the chocolate and sprinkle with shredded coconut or sprinkles and let cool

Fill the cones with fruit including strawberries, blueberries, grapes and mango

Homemade Blueberry Peach Roll Ups

Shopping List:

4 medium sized Peaches, chopped

1 container fresh Blueberries

2 teaspoons Honey

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 170°

Cut the peaches and put them into a food processor. Add 2 teaspoons honey and mix.

Pour the puree onto a lined baking sheet

In the same food processor, pulse the blueberries until smooth

Pour over the baking sheet, filling in the holes of the peach puree

Then using a rubber spatula, spread the two together and form a rectangle so you have even corners

Put in the oven for 5-6 hours until the roll up is dry (it may take longer depending on thickness of roll up)

Cool and peel from baking sheet

Cut into strips and enjoy

Strawberry Popsicles

Shopping List

2 cups Coconut Water

2 cups Pink Lemonade

Zest of 1 Lemon

Strawberries

Instructions:

Combine the coconut water and pink lemonade and set aside

Slice the strawberries and add to each popsicle mold

Zest about 1/4 teaspoon of lemon for each popsicle and put in mold

Pour the coconut water/lemonade mixture into the popsicle mold and put on the lid

Put in freezer for 5 hours or until solid

Join Family Food Live with Holly & Chris every Wednesday and Friday at Noon CST on either the Quirky Momma Facebook page or the Burnt Macaroni Facebook page! We are also so excited to share our first Family Food Live Apron with you.  Be the first to pick one up and start cooking with us! Just click buy now below!

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Family Food Live 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Here are a few of our favorite products from Family Food Live (affiliate links)

Fresh Baby Ice Cube Trays with lids

Cuisinart Food Processor

The I Heart Naptime Cookbook by Jamielyn Nye

Giant Popcorn bowl

Individual Popcorn bowls

VillaWare Uno Classic Waffle Maker

VillaWare Farmyard Waffle Maker

Taco Holder

Pyrex Baking Dishes

Hand Blender

Pizza Peel

Pizza Wheel (cutter)

Pizza Stone

Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Double Burner Reversible Grill/Griddle

Cuisinart Chef's Classic Stainless 5-1/2-Quart Saute Pan with Helper Handle and Cover

BPA free lunch containers

Egg Rite Egg Timer

Fit and Fresh container

One Touch Electric Bottle Opener

Half Pint Wide Mouth Mason Jars

Ninja Professional Blender

Zoku Quick Pop Maker

Williams-Sonoma Open Kitchen Half Apron in Red or Blue

Plano Half-Size Stowaway with Adjustable Dividers - for road trip snacks

Curious Chef 3-Piece Nylon Knife Set

Cuisinart 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker

Victorinox Fibrox Straight Edge Chef's Knife, 8-Inch

Lemon Squeezer

Mason Jars

Crockpot

Apple Corer

Popcorn Bowl

MaxiMatic double burner hot plate

Glass Egg carton

Black & Decker 4 slice toaster

Hamilton Beach Hand Mixer

Cuisinart 8-cup Food Processor

Meat Mallet

Ice Cream or Cookie Scooper

Norpro Butter Keeper

Norpro Butter Keeper

3-Piece Veggie Peeler

Garlic Press

The post 5 Summer Snacks to Enjoy by the Pool appeared first on Kids Activities Blog.

from Kids Activities Blog http://ift.tt/2rnxyxd

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5 Course Dinner for your Special Valentine

Are you planning a special Valentine’s Day dinner for your Valentine? Whether you are celebrating with your sweetie or your family, this 5 Course Dinner for your Special Valentine is the perfect way to show someone you care! I will share this menu on today’s Family Food Live!

 Family Food Live can be seen every Wednesday and Friday at 12 Noon EST/11 am CST on Facebook!  Today I’ll be live on the Burnt Macaroni Facebook page. But make sure you like both the Burnt Macaroni Facebook page and the Quirky Momma Facebook page now so you never miss an episode!

Here’s a look at the last Family Food Live:

Here’s a look at today’s recipes!

Candy Pecans

Shopping List:

2 tablespoons Butter

1 cup Pecan Halves

2 tablespoons Brown Sugar

Instructions:

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Once melted, add the pecans until all coated with the butter

Add the brown sugar and continue stirring

The sugar will start to caramelize in about 3-5 minutes

Remove and let cool on a lined cookie sheet

Spinach Salad with Fruit

Shopping List:

For the dressing:

2 cloves Garlic, minced

1/3 cup Olive Oil

1/3 cup White Wine Vinegar

1 tablespoon Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

Pepper to taste

For the salad:

Spinach

Pineapple, cut into chunks

Strawberries

Mandarin Oranges

Feta Cheese

Instructions:

In a mason jar, combine all of the dressing ingredients and shake, set aside

In a large bowl, add spinach, pineapple, strawberries, oranges and feta cheese

Sprinkle the pecans on top and serve with dressing

Grilled Jerk Shrimp and Pineapple Skewers

Shopping List:

Shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/2 cup Jerk Marinade

2 slices Fresh Pineapple

Skewers

Instructions:

Marinate the shrimp in the jerk marinade for at least 20 minutes

Skewer the shrimp and pineapple and grill over a medium-high heat until cooked (about 2-3 minutes per side)

Grilled Pineapple with Cinnamon Honey

Shopping List:

1/2 cup Honey

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Pineapple slices

Instructions:

Grill pineapple slices over medium heat for 5-10 minutes

Mix together the honey and cinnamon

Once the pineapple is done, drizzle the honey cinnamon mixture over the top and serve

Chocolate Cupcakes with Pink Frosting

Shopping List:

1 cup All-Purpose Flour

1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 stick Unsalted Butter, softened

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Sugar

2 large Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup Milk

1/4 cup Sour Cream

Buttercream Frosting

Red Food Coloring

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°

Line muffin tins with cupcake liners

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside

In a separate bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar and sugar with a hand mixer until fluffy

Mix in the eggs one at a time then add the vanilla extract

Add the milk and sour cream and continue to mix until fluffy

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix together

Scoop the batter into the cupcake liners about halfway full

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean

Allow to cool before adding the icing

In a bowl, add the icing and a few drops of food coloring, mix completely

Add to a Ziploc bag and snip the corner and decorate the cupcakes

Join Family Food Live with Holly & Chris every Wednesday and Friday at Noon CST on either the Quirky Momma Facebook page or the Burnt Macaroni Facebook page! We are also so excited to share our first Family Food Live Apron with you.  Be the first to pick one up and start cooking with us! Just click buy now below!

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Here are a few of our favorite products from Family Food Live (affiliate links)

Fresh Baby Ice Cube Trays with lids

Cuisinart Food Processor

The I Heart Naptime Cookbook by Jamielyn Nye

Giant Popcorn bowl

Individual Popcorn bowls

VillaWare Uno Classic Waffle Maker

VillaWare Farmyard Waffle Maker

Taco Holder

Pyrex Baking Dishes

Hand Blender

Pizza Peel

Pizza Wheel (cutter)

Pizza Stone

Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Double Burner Reversible Grill/Griddle

Cuisinart Chef's Classic Stainless 5-1/2-Quart Saute Pan with Helper Handle and Cover

BPA free lunch containers

Egg Rite Egg Timer

Fit and Fresh container

One Touch Electric Bottle Opener

Half Pint Wide Mouth Mason Jars

Ninja Professional Blender

Zoku Quick Pop Maker

Williams-Sonoma Open Kitchen Half Apron in Red or Blue

Plano Half-Size Stowaway with Adjustable Dividers - for road trip snacks

Curious Chef 3-Piece Nylon Knife Set

Cuisinart 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker

Victorinox Fibrox Straight Edge Chef's Knife, 8-Inch

Lemon Squeezer

Mason Jars

Crockpot

Apple Corer

Popcorn Bowl

MaxiMatic double burner hot plate

Glass Egg carton

Black & Decker 4 slice toaster

Hamilton Beach Hand Mixer

Cuisinart 8-cup Food Processor

Meat Mallet

Ice Cream or Cookie Scooper

Norpro Butter Keeper

Norpro Butter Keeper

3-Piece Veggie Peeler

Garlic Press

The post 5 Course Dinner for your Special Valentine appeared first on Kids Activities Blog.

from Kids Activities Blog http://ift.tt/2kPuMvJ