#writing all nine of them cuddling...a challenge

[sparrow-in-the-field]

Cuddle pile

Just a little drabble that was low-key inspired by @seasidesandstarscapes 's piece for the "hug" prompt the other day. Basically, I wanna turn writing the boys being affectionate with each other :p

Gen/platonic affection or a giant polycule? You decide!

Bobby walked down the hallway of the crew house, stopping when he heard the soft murmur of idle chatter in the living room. He arched his brow, a smile itching at his lips at what he saw before him. "What're you guys doing?" His boys were all lying on the rug, in front of the fireplace. They had brought some pillows and a couple of blankets with them to the floor, and it seemed they were--well, essentially in a pile together. "Practice was freezing today," Jim said. He had his arm around Shorty on one side, Johnny on the other, both tucked to his chest. "And exhausting," Roger added. He was near the other three, his arms around Joe and his head using Chuck's thigh as a pillow, despite all the actual ones around them. Chuck had Don lying on his other side, and Gordy was against Don's back, spooning him. "We're having a hard-earned rest," Chuck confirmed. His free hand wandered among the boys he could reach, carding through hair or stroking a cheek softly. "Clearly," Bobby said, looking to Johnny, who appeared to have actually fallen asleep, his hand tangled with Shorty's giving an occasional twitch on Jim's chest. Bobby shifted on his feet, teasing, "And why wasn't I invited to this rest? Not enough hard earned work as a cox?" "You disappeared after practice," Don muttered an explanation, nuzzling his face deeper into Chuck's neck, probably not far from sleep himself. "Yeah, we've been wondering where you are," Jim said, his hand smoothing up to Shorty's nape, giving a soft squeeze that elicited a smile from the sleepy boy. "I had some studying to do," Bobby said, adding with a smirk, "Although maybe I would have skipped it if I knew what I was missing out on." "Not too late," Chuck said, extending his hand out in offer. "Can still join us." Bobby felt his cheeks warm, and his smirk faded into a gentler smile. The walk back from the library had been quite cold, and the crackle of the fireplace was comforting. "Alright." He had to be careful as he stepped around his boys, but he was light, and small, so he didn't feel like a nuisance as he took Chuck's hand, curling up to him on the side opposite to Don, trying to make sure not to kick Roger and Joe below him. "This okay?" he asked them. "Fine by me," Joe said, turning onto his other side to settle his head on Bobby's thigh, leaving Roger to spoon him. Bobby chuckled, dropping his hand to scrub at Joe's scalp, then Roger's, before lying back on Chuck's chest. Gordy's span was so long, he was able to reach across Don, his hand settling on Bobby's forearm. Similarly, Don's hand moved, taking Bobby's into his. Bobby caught Don's eye, and the two exchanged a smile. "You're so cute over there, Bobby," Shorty teased, his head just barely lifted up to look over to their side of the cuddle pile. "Yeah," Jim agreed, "if it wasn't for this one asleep on me, I'd be over there in an instant." "Gotta wait for your turn with our cox," Roger joked. "S'right," Bobby agreed, finding his own body warming, his muscles relaxing after a long day. He smiled. "Next time."

Idk. Idk!!

[ennkis]

hi, i love your writing can you do one where marc guiu is secretly dating lewandoski's daughter and he finds out?

MR LEWANDOWSKI (marc guiu x lewandowski!reader)

summary : in which the polish barcelona player finds out his daughter is dating his teammate

face claim : no-one exact

notes : ty for the request !! im gonna do some requests asap (theres like twenty so plsplspls be patient <3) also im gonna go on vacation soon so ill be less active.

pairings : marc guiu x fem!lewandowski!reader

BEING THE DAUGHTER of the Polish striker, Robert Lewandowski, came with its perks. Some of the benefits was the opportunity to meet your favorite players, attend exclusive events, and see important matches, such as the World Cup and UCL Finals. But managing the constant media attention and living up to the Lewandowski name were only two of the challenges that came with it. The hardest challenge of them all was keeping your relationship with the Barcelona striker, Marc Guiu, a secret.

You knew dating Marc was going to make you slightly insane. The constant hiding and sneaking around was annoying, tbh.. But if you managed to keep this a secret for over seven months, you sure weren't going to fuck it up now.

Hector quickly caught onto your little facade. All three of you were classmates, and it was clear by the looks you exchanged across the classroom, the way Marc spoke to Hector about you, and just the overall way he admired you. Hector was certain you were dating.

Him knowing would actually come in handy. It was a little easier to keep the secret when Hector was on your side. When needed, he helped cover for you by coming up with excuses in case your dad was on the edge of figuring things out.

One afternoon, while your father was out, Marc came over to your house. It was a unique chance for the two of you to have the house to yourselves, and you both wanted to make the most of it.

You were in your room, cuddling on your bed with Marc as a movie was playing on your laptop. It was relaxing, finally a moment of comfort without any worries or the anxiety of getting caught.

"This is nice," Marc murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. "I wish we could do this more often."

"Me too," you replied, pulling in closer to him. "But you're aware of my dad's history with my ex-boyfriends. If he found out, he would freak out."

Marc sighed as he played with the strings on your hoodie. "I know. Yet, sometimes I picture us going out on a typical date night. No concerns about your father catching us. You know maybe if he got used to our relationship, he could come along."

Playfully poking Marc with your shoulder, you mocked, "Are you using me to date my father?"

Marc gave you a gentle giggle and an amused look as his eyes met yours. "Maybe I am," he answered. "But in all honesty, I just want to go out with you—no sneaking around, just a regular 'I'll have her home by nine, sir' type date."

"Wow, real cute, Marc." Just as you were about to lean in for a kiss, you heard the front door open. Your heart stopped, as you and Marc exchanged panicked and confused looks.

"Oh fuck. He's not supposed to be back yet," you whispered urgently, scrambling off the bed. "You have to hide. Like now."

Marc quickly got up, looking around the room for a hiding spot. "WHAT?! Where should I go?!"

"Jesus Christ, Marc. I don't know just.. just get under the bed or something!" you whispered, trying to keep your voice down.

Just as your father yelled something from the living room, Marc dove under the bed. "Y/n? You home?"

You took a deep breath, trying to calm yourself before opening your bedroom door. "Yeah, What's up?"

He walked down the hallway, a frown on his face. "I thought I left my other keys here. Have you seen them?"

You shook your head, trying to look casual. "Nah, I haven't seen them. Maybe you left them in the locker room after training?"

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Maybe. I'll call someone to check if someone found them. Are you okay? You seem... off."

"I'm good, Dad," you said quickly, hoping he couldn't hear the nervousness in your voice. "Just tired, I guess.."

He looked at you for a moment longer before nodding. "Alright. Well, I'm going to head back out then. Let me know if you find the keys."

As he turned to leave, you heard a muffled cough from under the bed. Your eyes widened in horror as your father stopped in his tracks, his brow furrowing.

"What was that?" he asked, turning back to you.

"What do you mean" you said quickly, desperately trying to think of an excuse. "I didn't hear anything. Is your hearing alright?"

"Hey, I'm still only 35 years young. Anyways, I'll just head out, I guess. See you later, honey." He said as he walked out the front door.

As you walked down the hallway to reach your room, you exclaimed, "Marc, what the fuck was that? The one time you NEED to be quiet, you actually cough. How on earth is that possible?"

"Hey, I didn't put all that dust under your bed," he playfully said while hugging you. "Calm down, babe. He didn't even see me."

"Yeah, but he heard your silly ass. Anyways you should just go. He might come back soon."

At least three hours had passed before your dad returned, which was kind of annoying because you had the chance to finish the movie and still had two hours left to hang out without interruptions.

"Hey honey, I'm back home," your dad said as he walked into the house. You were sitting on the couch, watching Suits (a goated show btw).

Your dad's voice startled you, making you jump slightly. You quickly paused the show and turned to face him. "Hey Dad," you replied.

He looked around the living room with a curious expression. His eyes fell upon the hoodie that Marc gave to you. The hoodie that exclusively Barcelona players got. His brow furrowed slightly as he picked it up, examining it with a puzzled look.

"Whose hoodie is this?" he asked.

You swallowed nervously, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. "Oh, uh, that's Marc's," you said, mentally cursing yourself for not changing beforehand. "He gave it to me last week."

Robert's gaze shifted from the hoodie to you, his expression unreadable. "Marc's?"

"Yeah," you nodded, trying to keep your voice steady. "We… we've been hanging out a lot. Last week i was cold so he gave it to me."

He studied you for a moment, his eyes narrowing slightly as if trying to gauge your sincerity. "Hanging out," he echoed, more a statement than a question.

You nodded again, feeling the weight of his scrutiny. "Okay, yeah. So, Dad, we've been dating for.. a while now."

His eyes widened in surprise, shocked expression on his face. But he didn't look angry. Instead, he let out a slow breath and nodded.

As he stared at you for what felt like an eternity, processing the information, he finally spoke out, his voice calm yet tinged with disbelief, "You and Marc... have been dating?"

"I… I didn't know how you'd react," you admitted, feeling a pinch of guilt for keeping it from him. "And I didn't want you to worry."

Robert leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. "I see," he said. "And how long has this 'while' been?"

Marc cleared his throat, speaking up, "About seven months, Mr. Lewandowski."

Your dad looked at Marc with a mix of surprise and curiosity. "Marc? What are you doing here?" he asked, seeing him in the living room unexpectedly.

"I'm sorry, sir. Y/n messaged me to come over, so I did," Marc spoke out, trying to explain his sudden arrival.

"Sorry for not telling you sooner, Mr. Lewandowski," he said earnestly. "We didn't mean to keep it from you."

Robert eased his expression and laughed. "I understand," he softly said in response. "While I can't say I'm not surprised, I appreciate your honesty. Also, Marc, we've known each other for some time now. Just call me as usual." Your father joked with his teammate, your boyfriend.

You felt a wave of relief when you realized he wasn't upset. To be honest, he looked more interested than angry. "So, what do you think, Dad?" You questioned him.

Robert leaned forward, a small smile playing on his lips. "Well, if Marc here has managed to win your heart for seven months without my knowledge, he must be doing something right," he said, his tone teasing yet approving.

Marc and you exchanged a relieved smile as you felt the tension ease. Despite his reputation for being serious, Your dad has surprised you today by showing you compassion and comprehension.

You said, "Thank you, Dad," appreciating his understanding.

He chuckled loudly and replied. "Please just promise me that you will keep me updated. I'm happy for you both."

It was impossible not to feel an overwhelming feeling of relief. The secret was finally out.

[w2soneshots]

The best -W2S

words: 0.5k+

warnings: none just a load of fluff.

summary: headcanons of Harry being the best dad.

notes: hi my babies! I’m super busy at the moment so instead of a full fic I thought I’d just write some quick headcanons for you all🫶🏼. Enjoy!!🧸💘

Harry was a nervous wreck when you gave birth to your little girl. But as soon as he held her in his arms all of his worries disappeared, and all he could focus on was your baby.

The first week of being parents was… stressful. Nether you nor Harry knew what you were doing; you just kind of made it up as you went along (which is what most first time parents do).

Harry was a natural though. He took care of you postpartum while making sure the baby was fed, changed and peacefully asleep. Making you somehow love him even more than you already did.

Once you hit the one month mark everything seemed to fall into place. You now had a proper routine, you were fully recovered and the baby was perfectly happy and healthy.

One night after a sidemen shoot Harry returned home with a massive costco teddy bear in his arms. It was almost twice the size of you and could barely fit through the door. He’d taken it after they filmed a ‘mystery box challenge’ since he thought the baby would like it. You burst into tears at the sentiment (hormones). Immediately Harry began to stress. "I’m sorry babe, I can take it back! Don’t cry!" You replied quickly. "No, I love it Haz. That was really sweet.”

Faith made sure to keep in touch with you and she told you on multiple occasions that she was always there if you had a question (since she’s already done the whole newborn thing) or just needed to chat.

You and Harry would regularly sit on your couch and admire the bundle of joy that smiled her cute little gummy smile at you. Both of you completely content with the family you’d created.

Though at times it was difficult, like when the baby just wouldn’t stop crying or the both of you were exhausted and didn’t feel like holding a conversation, you had only gotten closer over the past few weeks. It was like you’d unlocked a new appreciation for each other.

Harry thought you were incredible. You’d gone through nine months of pregnancy, given birth and taken amazing care of a newborn baby all while not complaining once. Ethan had told him that women were literally superheroes but he’d never experienced it first hand until now.

At three months you went on your first family holiday. It felt incredible to lay in the warm sun since it’d been so miserable in London. Harry made sure that your baby was always in the shade and he loved getting her dressed in all the cute summery clothes.

You’d always laugh slightly at how excited he became when she finally woke up from her nap and he could cuddle her again.

When the boys and girls met your baby it was lovely. JJ held her so carefully; like she was a piece of glass that could shatter at any given moment.

Talia had spoken to you about wanting kids in the near future but seeing Simon with your daughter made her feel ready which you were very happy and excited about.

All in all Harry is the best dad, loves his girls very much and would do anything for them.

[veryace-ficrecs]

BatFam Fluff Fic Recs

This list will include all ratings and tags, so read at your own discretion! :)

Of A Genius' Legacy by sparkoflena - Not Rated

What is the point of being a child genius with an eidetic memory if that brain can't be used to catch up on a lacking education? OR Tim takes a couple of months off in order to catch up on two and a half years of school all in one go - and graduates high school. He knows he deserves a celebration. He just didn't expect his whole family to show.

Cat Dad by Nanimok - Rated G

How Tim went from being unattached to a cat dad of three and ends up solving the mystery of Gotham's missing vigilantes.

The Right Substitution is Key by AddictedApple - T

“The Red Hood has been good for Gotham,” Robin continued. “Crime in Park Row decreased by sixty one percent almost as soon as you showed up, and that’s even taking into account all the crime you commit. Drug overdoses have decreased by twenty two percent in adults and seventy nine percent in minors. Homeless minors are ninety two percent less likely to—” “Kid,” Jason interrupted. “Enough statistics. What the hell is this about?” Robin slowly lowered the tablet with his powerpoint presentation and looked up at Red Hood. “You care about Gotham,” Robin summarised. “Gotham needs Batman. Batman is missing and so is Nightwing. We need you to fill in for Batman.” “You want me to cover Batman’s patrols?” Jason clarified. “No,” Robin said. “I want you to be Batman.” Jason bluescreened. (Or: Batman and Nightwing mysteriously disappear before Red Hood has even started antagonising them, Robin is desperate, Gotham needs Batman, and Red Hood is Batman-Shaped.)

First Priority by avaya29 - Rated T

After Tim completely derails Jason’s beatdown attempt by asking him for a hug, Jason’s first priority is to get this touch-starved kid more cuddles. Tim’s first priority is to avoid Dick’s traps. Jason learns a lot about his brothers and what happened while he was away, and something about himself too.

Tag, You're It by K1tsun3_Kats (S13222) - Rated T

“Fine!” Jason raised his gun, growling, “If you don’t surrender, I’ll just shoot you myself.” Barbara paused then turned back around. “You wouldn’t.” “Why does everyone keep saying that!” “Because you never do it.” “I shot Dick!” She gave him a pointed look. “It’s Dick.” OR The Batfam play an unorthodox version of Tag involving lots of paint and lots of blood. Jason suffers.

Midnight by Cephalogod - Rated G

Drabble writing challenge, prompt word "Midnight" Featuring Steph, Damian, snacks and late-night TV watching.

Can you get the light? by ALzzza - Rated G

Dick doesn’t at all lose his pout, brow furrowing. Bruce reaches over to tug at his cape only for Dick’s hand to immediately dart out and bat him away. He shifts from Bruce’s side, nearly rolling away. Bruce twists as he loses sight of him. Dick’s escape ends in him collapsed into his pillows; cape pulled over his head. “Hmm.” Bruce looks to Alfred after a moment, to which Alfred sends him a dry look. “Couldn’t barter the cape?” Alfred’s eyes narrow as if this is entirely Bruce’s influence. Or I had a very abrupt thought of ‘omg do you think dick ever refused to take off his robin suit as a kid’ and here we are

I never knew I could want something so much, but it's true by BlueBedo - Rated G

Or, Bruce finally gets to hold a baby.

For decades now, that young boy has perplexed both Bruce and Batman alike. Whether it be inhuman acrobatics that Bruce hadn't thought possible, a pure love and compassion for the world that Batman had forgotten long ago, or the challenge of parenthood on someone long-believed to be a child himself - Dick was the cause of all Bruce's happiest moments, greatest heartbreaks, and strongest migraines.

This, however? This takes the cake

Wayne Publishing (Or, How to Make Bruce Cry) by Lumeleo - Rated T

Tim has a new project: Wayne Publishing. He drags everyone else into it.

to float around (and ghost my friends) by couldyoublameme - Rated G

Tim hiked a thumb over his shoulder, glancing warily behind him before lowering his voice. “Is Red Hood sitting at our dining table?” Duke nodded, firmer this time. “Uh, yeah. Think so.” “Right,” Tim stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrowed but also slightly glazed over, and then continued his well-worn path to the coffee machine. “Quick follow up question, then. Um, why is Red Hood sitting at our dining table?” Duke blinked. “Oh. Does that... Is that not normal?” -- 5 times Jason showed up randomly around his family, and the 1 time they came to him

[loveislandthegame]

thoughts on today's volume ! i cannot believe we're three volumes in and MC is still single 😭 i assume that this is FB's way of getting around having to write unique dialogue for coupled up LIs (or trying to conceal an upcoming personality merge) because there's no way they seriously thought players would enjoy being a side piece for nine whole episodes. but of course there's always the more simple answer of "they dgaf"

moving on, we have the funfair ! i really miss when challenges had a different outcome based on *free* decisions

it's so lazy to have the guys, that were just raving about their kiss with MC, suddenly give her two 7s just so there's a tie with sofia. plus it's straight up ridiculous for MC to beat rivals by cheating with extra diamond turns lol . at least i was able to kiss lisbeth and jesse

next up is the dunk tank ! i thought it was going to be like the dunk or save one in season 1, but it's just boring trivia 😭 drama kicks off when it's revealed that ethan said he'd steal the money "if the relationship wasn't working out" or whatever, & i wish we had more nuanced dialogue options (or a straight up "i don't care," he's not even my LI) i picked "it's never acceptable" just because i figured the islanders would be up in arms over the other options, but jesse ended up getting upset (is that a bad omen?) so i went with "i get it" 🤷🏽

then we have...wedding ring toss 🤨 considering that every single person in this villa arrived on day 1, and it's so early that we haven't even had an actual recoupling yet, i don't know why lisbeth exploring her connection with MC is "gasp" worthy 🫠 i hope she ends up being an early option, but i already know there's going to be something that leads us to only being able to choose between hayden/ethan/milo

once again there's another "important choice" with only the three guys. one thing i've forgotten to point out is that so far, i'm not seeing anything different about this season, besides the fact that they keep prefacing the same old LI lock-in choices with a "this action has consequences!" type of pop-up when...they don't

this conversation with sofia was sweet though, if only that was how she acted all the time

i was dreading being forced to spend time with hayden, but we can choose lisbeth instead !!🤸🏽🤸🏽

lisbeth pulls a hot tub date out of thin air, and it gets steamy 👀 afterwards we cuddle and fall asleep on the daybeds (i don't know how we didn't run into hayden, but alright)

i still have my clown costume on for this man, but after that scene of him making out with sofia in the dressing room, i've considered taking it off and throwing it in the bin. he's still cute though

we desperately need a recoupling in the next volume. not a "shake-up," a recoupling. our poor MC is probably the worst bombshell in LITG history, even the straight up irrelevant islanders like toby had someone that put them first. there are some points where this is just embarrassing to play through

[bapydemonprincess]

On account of the magical news we received today, I must request Sebwolf for the ship asks!

When I started shipping it if I did:

Like immediately while I was first getting into the arc the first time I read the volumes on my own gfrufykugl I WAS ALREADY SUCH A EVERYONE FUCKS THE BUTLER TRUTHER BY THEN

My thoughts:

What makes me happy about them:

As I've talked about with @cangrellesteponme in asks they themselves have sent me before... SEBWOLF IS SO FUCKING DOMESTIC!!!!! Like yes, obviously in canon it doesn't appear like it, but you get a prim, proper, old fashioned person like Seb and a fumbling bumbling toll does-his-best and wants to learn and do better, you literally get like, a QUEER VERSION OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE!!!!

What makes me sad about them:

I think the obvious sad thing is how under appreciated the ship IS considering the arc wasn't animated, and the arc wasn't talked about as much as say the Ripper arc, the Curry Arc, the Circus Arc, the Cruiseline Arc... But hopefully following the anime, it'll pick up some traction! 🤞

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Well, despite my own blatant horniness at times off and on and the occasional times I can manage to write a smidgen of smut.. like in general.. the most I have seen of this ship on ao3 following ofc right after the manga arcs came out and going forward.. was just hatefucking smut. Just tons of short porn without plot where it was just Wolf giving it to Seb violently and still angrily and yes, I get that sometimes its hot for rough times especially with characters like these, but as someone who has been around and around for years... I'm like... c'mon, guys.... really? You can't think of anything beside that??? 😒 Get some new material smh...

Things I look for in fanfic:

Tbh I haven't actually had time or patience to look for fics in general but what I do like to see, and would love to see more of for Sebwolf is a natural progression into their possible relationship.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

I have dabbled in imagining many a case where there is poly stuff going on, seeing as I hate sticking with ye olde love triangles of yester years... But if it was like, a challenge to attempt to make up a reason and plot as to them splitting or something, whether naturally or.. negatively (IT MAKES ME SAD JUST IMAGINING THAT WEH TwT) I would say Seb obviously has a few options.. like Grelle or Mey or Bard or Agni... And as for Wolf... it's hard to imagine him with anyone outside his interactions with Sebastian.. but I have seen a few takes of him finding companionship with Bard or Agni.. and Bard especially makes sense because they are both soldiers!

My happily ever after for them:

Again here and there I've explored headcanons with Sebwolf, especially involving future stuff like after the contract.. the what-ifs of Wolf finding out Seb is a demon at some point, accepting it and still staying with Seb because Seb loves him and cares about his precious daughter despite being a demon.. and maybe.. further into the future... they have a kid together too... 👀

Who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Nine times outta ten the obvious answer is WOLF IS THE BIG SPOON, SEBASTIAN THE LITTLE SPOON!!!!! Their canon heights say it all, after all! 😉 But getting creative with the possibilities, I can see some nights the poor big former secret soldier needing to be held and cuddles up close, as I wouldn't be surprised if he'd get nightmares of the events back in Germany... TwT

What is their favorite non-sexual activity:

I would say reading English literature would be high up there, as Sebastian wants his German beau to keep improving in his English! As well as them going out together on trips to shop and sight see, so Wolf can spend time during the day with Seb + also work on his social skills! 🖤💚

Thank you for the questions friend!!!! 🥰

Send me a ship or character!!!

[serena-hart-09]

Hii I saw your request and I was wondering if I could get a one shot for a Lucifer x mc fluff? Where they go ice skating in the human realm for a date, and end it cuddle by the fire...

Thank you so much!!! If you have any questions be free to ask I'm not picky!!

A/N: Hi I am sorry for reply to this late but I thought that this might be the right time to finally post it! ✨ Also thank you for requesting such a cute request! 🤗 It may be a bit small then the length I normally write but........ I hope you like it! (I really do since its been a while since I finally wrote the draft complete so it may not match my usual style-)[Plus this was meant to be posted on his birthday I am sorry-]

Anyways, I hope you like this!

TW: None. (Mistakes here and there.)

Extra: Fluff ; (Very Much) Unreliable Narrator ; Tsundere Lucifer (and I think he is-) ; Lucifer maybe OC in this ; Soft Lucifer ; Mostly Third-Person Narration ; Teasing ; GN!MC ; GN!Reader ; (No relation to Nightbringer).

Lucifer X MC (Reader)

Love On the Ice

[Ik it sappy but this the only thing that came to mind]

Lucifer, the Avatar of Pride was not someone who was easily attainable. He was not someone who was easily swooned for someone else. He always thought that no one could make him do anything that they want, let alone through their orders, or even their eyes….. no matter how shiny and hopeful….. and very beautiful they may seem…..

So when the local human of the House of Lamentation, became silent due to yearning for their old home….. Lucifer couldn’t stand their…… homesickness… sad eyes… Each and every day in RAD and even home felt empty without the usual chatter and chaos in the House. As much as the eldest loves silence…. He still was very much fond of having chaos in his life.

The eldest was very good at reading the atmosphere. The usual bickering and joking during dinner was suddenly replaced with an awkward silence. There were small tries to start a conversation among the residents but they were shut down as the human sat longing for something.

Lucifer wanted to comfort them and ask them what was wrong. He wanted help, as they had helped him so many times.

So, he did.

He went down the long hallways and entered their room, witnessing the same scene of longing and them being lost in their thoughts again.

He had asked them all the questions. At first came denial, the answers ranged from, “It’s alright!” ; “Everything is ok!”; “No! I love it here!”; to finally, “I miss the human world….. sometimes……”

To be honest, the eldest had seen this coming….

After all, who wouldn’t miss their home after being separated for so long? Even if he’d like to deny it, he would as well, miss the chaos, the food, everything else.

Even though his rational mind went against it, his emotions finally took over him, as he gazed upon the melancholy expression they had. He had asked, “Would you like to go back? For some time?”

It was as if fireworks lit up in their eyes, and their usual self, came back in an instant, “Oh? Would it be a date?” they asked.

Lucifer wasn’t someone to back off from the challenge, “maybe.” He smirked at them.

“Well, then I will be the one deciding the itinerary!”

Well, the eldest would have decided against it but…… how could he deny them for they had such a cute expression in that moment?

This was what led him to this situation…..

Lucifer was not someone to back away from a challenge. Yet now, he wished to be the one to plan the schedule instead…

“How in the nine hells do you stand in this…….thing?”

Note that, said “thing” being ice skates.

The beloved human and the grumbling demon were right now, at an ice- skating rink.

At first, when the human had presented the idea, Lucifer wasn’t sure but didn’t want to refuse them their happiness either, so he relented.

The original plan was to ice skate on a frozen pond, of course, Lucifer refused for safety reasons much to MC’s sulking (again) at his decision.

But now, Lucifer isn’t much sure about the whole idea at all.

This time it was nearly his 54th attempt at standing straight on the ice with the skating gear that the staff provided them.

MC looked at him with a fond smile and skated back to him, “Hey,” they reach out their hand to him, offering their hand to him, “Want some help?”

“……”

The demon tries yet again, only to fall once again. Heat rises on his cheeks and for a moment he looks away as he whispers a small, “yes”.

The human then holds Lucifer’s hand and helps him in standing straight on the ice first. Then, slowly, they help him glide without letting his hands go. As much they want to shout as the demon’s nails were painfully digging into their hands, MC could not help but smile fondly at the demon looking down at the ice under his feet, accusing it, probably.

“You look like a cat holding onto me for your dear life, like in the meme I saw-”

“No.”

The demon glares at them now, which makes MC laugh out at him, amused (and clearly enjoying the situation). The demon now red in the face tries to glide away from MC huffing…… but that made him trip and nearly fall again.

“Lucifer-”

“I am fine, I am alright. The damn ground did not hurt me.” He mutters angrily as he turns to them.

“…..”

“MC….? What happened?” the demon asks worriedly if had done something wrong as the human was now wearing a frown on their face.

“Ah….. maybe this was a bad decision.”

“…..What do you mean?”

“Lucifer…… It isn’t enjoyable if one of us was not having fun….”

“Just a minute ago you were having fun with my suffering….?”

A small smile blooms upon their face only for a moment, then, with an apologetic expression MC continues, “As much as I love to see that dorky, cute, and even the tsundere side of you…… I also want you to enjoy with me……” then they sigh, “Lucifer let’s get-”

“Ice skating seems to be something you dearly enjoy.”

“….”

“While coming down the road to the rink……. You were beaming excitedly….”

“Still-”

“We are here to lighten up, are we not? And-” still struggling the demon smiles at them, “even if I may find this…… difficult….. I would like you to take the lead and teach me.”

Now it was the human’s turn to blush whispering how ‘unfair of him to be so smooth’; Lucifer merely chuckles fondly at their reaction and (with some struggle) holds their hands and nods at them. They beam at him with a big fond smile that the demon loves to see so much.

After sometime, Lucifer sat down outside the ice quite tired, he grumbles under his breath a little until they hear the sound of skates crashing down. He gets up worried about MC (also due to the fact that luckily that day not many people were skating so most of the rink was a bit empty) only to see them attempting to jump a triple axel and then gaining speed for a quadruple Lutz. As they finally land the jumps successfully, they do a “YES” gesture excitedly.

The demon may not know the particulars, but looking at the MC and their child-like happy face, he too, smiles with pride. [Look, I had to- It was perfect here.]

After having a lot of fun and more jumps, MC comes back from the ice and kisses Lucifer's cheek conveying their thanks, he only looks away blushing and smiling.

******

The Avatar of Pride was always known to be ruthless and sadistic even by his brothers, the Royals, the whole Devildom, and even to himself…..

Yet, after the entrance of this human……. Things changed……

At first he…. Did not like these changes….. mostly due to the fact that he was doubtful of the human……. But now…..

“I don’t mind them, if anything I do enjoy it all myself.” He answers the question that MC had asked.

“Aww, I knew it! So, even though you act as if you hate the chaos of your brothers, you still love them and their shenanigans! You are such tsundere-” MC exclaims teasingly at Lucifer laughing at him. They are interrupted by the demon in question himself, “Those……. ‘shenanigans’ (?) that don’t make too much mess for me to handle…… Also isn’t being a ‘Tsundere’, Mammon’s job?” he brings them close to him as he looks the fireplace for a moment.

“Well, it is, but you…. Well…..you are like a ‘Tsundere that tries to be subtle but ends up failing to be so’ so there you go, and I find that incredibly cute and dorky. Also, you give some good cuddles but not as best as Belphie.”

 “….. My brothers would never call me cute-”

“Asmo did once-”

“Only once.”

“But you are cute. Especially when you are drunk-”

“I will not further argue since I know that you will not give up.”

“So that means I won? That means you agree with my statement-”

Letting out a “hmph” Lucifer just nuzzles MC’s neck hiding his face. Thinking about today and of all the days before……. He lets out a smile and closes his eyes….. feeling….. happy…..

“You are blushing, aren’t you?”

“No.”

End Notes: I hope you like this! 😊

Please do not repost without permission! (Reblogs are welcome!)

All the characters mentioned above belong to Shall We Date?: Obey Me!, NTT Solmare

[ghostofafruit]

Whats left for me to write in soft april? And how likely am I to actually finish them?

Day 5. Magic - The knights learning about Merlin's magic, and as such all being very protective of him - 2/10 too big of an idea for a daily challenge but might come back to it in the future Day 8. Cuddling - Twelve/Rose, Bill finds twelve and rose cuddled up napping on a sofa, after this instance she finds them cuddled up more often - 8/10 if I finish every other main post I'm coming back to this Day 10. Forest - Merlin/Arthur, Arthur admiring Merlin while they're out in the forest, ends with him kissing Merlin - 6/10 it's a good idea I just don't know if i'll do it justice Day 11. Sunset - Pandora/Dorcas/Marlene, Pandora, Dorcas, Marlene watch the sunset on the balcony of their new home the day they move in - 9/10 I adore this ship ok? I don't care if no one else loves them, I do! Day 13. "You're my safe place," - Susan/Jane, after Susan confesses to Jane about her home life, Jane asks if she has a safe place to get away from it all. - 4/10 if I finish everything else I'll come back to it Day 14. Baking - Medusa/Sally, Medusa and Sally teaching Percy to bake in the diner kitchen afterhours. - 10/10 currently writing this one Day 20. Storm - Thirteen/Jack, The landing isn't perfect, but Jack isn't going to complain, they're on the edge of a cliff, sheltered by the tardis, thirteen and jack watch the first storm on an alien planet - 9/10 meant to be posted on the 20th so Day 21. Waterfall - James/Evan, The pair go on a hike and have lunch beside the bottom of a waterfall they stumbled across. - 10/10 excited for it, meant to be posted on the 21st Day 26. Rain - Nine/Rose/Jack, Rose drags Jack and the Doctor out into the rain to dance. They were originally shopping but the rain had sent them into a cafe. - 8/10 it needs to be finished I'm just struggling a little Day 27. Fairies - Pandora/Marlene/Dorcas, Pandora is a fairy and she finally tells her girlfriends - 9/10 Not sure how good it'll be but I really like the idea I had and damn do I love pandorlene, wish I had given them a better ship name Day 28. Trust - Eleven/Jack/Rose, the three get reunited on an alien planet, and Amy and Rory push them to talk about all whatever problems happened in the past - 9/10 not sure how this'll go yet 3/10 could not figure out to write it in a way I liked so maybe I'll try again later This has been replaced with a second Alt 5

[natsglorifiedsimp]

Safety Blanket

This is a mama-up AU btw. If you wanna read it just check my masterlist.

A/n: Here is a new fic to feed your tummies. I'm sorry I haven't been writing fics. I'm trying. If you guys have any requests, my request is open though I might not write fast I'm still gonna try and make it for you guys. I'm sorry for those who are not liking that I'm not making any. I promise I will try and squeeze it into my schedule. Anyway, here it is. Hope you guys will like it.

Taglist: @diaryoflife @xxromanoffxx @lissaaaa145 @fxckmiup @mmmmokdok @sayah13 @karmasgxrl @meurgen @simp-erformarvelwomen @lilaswidowspark @snowdrop1026

"Oh, that?" Tony questioned and everyone nodded as a response. "She doesn't share it with anybody." he shrugged.

"But that's too big for her." Steve mused. "She might suffocate." he raised his eyebrows to prove that he has a point but everyone just glared at him.

You were in your makeshift fort, sleeping peacefully with your thin blanket. But that blanket was for two persons and Steve was right, it was too big for you.

When you were still a nine-month old baby, you had a cold and Tony couldn't see your baby blanket, so he gave up and tucked you in with a thin blanket that was good for two people. He had no idea you wouldn't let go of that thing, and now you can't sleep without it.

Now their argument is about how neither one of them could take the blanket or even share it with you. You were cuddling the blanket and draped it all over you. Your mouth was ajar and you were lying on your stomach.

"Whoever can take the blankie or whoever y/n shares it with gets 10 bucks" Tony challenged, waving over a ten that he mysteriously got somewhere in his body.

"A ten?" Sam deadpanned. "You're a billionaire and you could only bet 10 bucks?"

Tony shrugged, " 10 or nothing."

Sam sighed and went for the challenge first. He couldn't possibly bother you especially when you looked adorable sleeping. You were clearly in dreamland so he carefully lifted the blanket that was draped over you but you immediately tugged it back.

Everyone silently snickered at Sam. Sam rolled his eyes and went back to join them.

"Told you she wouldn't share" Tony knowingly said.

Everyone took turns and gave different strategies just to get the ten bucks but all of their efforts came back with you tugging the blanket back.

Steve tried to carefully lift you up and in the process, he draped the blanket to him and gently put you down. He smiled in victory when you didn't do anything but it faltered when you rolled away from him and tugged the blanket back.

Everyone was surprised you didn't wake up after all the shenanigans they did to you. All of them accepted their defeat and sighed exasperatedly.

Tony happily bounced up and down where he was standing, waving the ten bucks to their faces.

"How about you?" Steve questioned Tony.

"Oh, me? She doesn't share it with anybody not even with me" Tony shrugged and put the ten back in his pocket.

While they were chit-chatting about how you got the blanket Natasha walked past them.

"Hey, Nat!" Sam called out. "I bet you ten bucks y/n would not share her blanket with you" Sam taunted. "And get it too" he added.

Natasha raised her eyebrows, assessing if Sam had a prank going on. Now that she couldn't see anything she shrugged and went her way to you.

"Do you even have 10?" Tony mused.

"Psh, no," Sam said. "Y/n won't share it anyway" he shrugged confidently.

Meanwhile, Natasha carefully made her way to you and lay beside you. She draped her arms around your torso and hummed you her lullaby while tapping rhythmically.

In your sleepy state, you noticed the presence of the redhead and cuddled close to her. She was cold and so you draped your blankie over to her.

"You gonna get cold" you murmured while tucking the blanket securely into her.

Natasha smiled at your concern and slightly lifted her head to see the mouths of every Avenger open except for Tony who smirked knowingly.

"Better give me that 10 bucks" She mouthed.

"How did she do that?" Sam whispered shouted.

"Dude, you know she calls Nat "Mama" right?" Steve smirked. "You better give her the money" he chuckled.

"I know she calls her "mama" but she calls Tony Dada" he deadpan. "Why only Nat could share the blanket?" he looked at each one of them in question.

"I'm not even surprised" Tony said.

[floralbuckleyswrites]

More

♡ Pairing: Buck/Gender Neutral!Reader ♡ Genre: Fluff, Idiots to lovers, Mutual Pining, Fuckbuddies to Lovers ♡ Word Count: 988 ♡ Warnings: implications of sex? ig :’) ♡ Summary: A conversation about ending things turns into the beginning.  ♡ Note: Day 6 of my 30 Day Writing Challenge! I’m like a day behind, but oh well. my sleep schedule is utterly fucked and i srsly need to fix it :’) It’s definitely getting a bit easier to write tho with this challenge! i’m getting there mayhaps. thx for spriting w me boos!! @fireladybuckley​ / @lonely-writer​

It was a calm Saturday morning as you laid in bed, scrolling on your phone to see what the world had been up to while you slept. Sunlight streamed through the window blinds onto you and the sleeping Buck whose arm was currently wrapped firmly around your waist.

Since you and Buck had started fooling around a few months ago, you had learned a few things about him. He loved to cuddle and he never woke up first in the mornings. Not that you minded, especially because you wanted to make this moment last since it would be the last between the two of you.

A sigh left your lips as clicked your phone off, your thoughts drifting to your current situation.

You’re not sure exactly how you got in this situation with your fellow firefighter. It had started a few months ago, after a particularly hard shift. The two of you had been hanging out at the bar afterward and had been more than a few drinks. Maybe it was because no words could be said to comfort each other that you ended up tangled in his sheets, fucking the pain away for each other.

Once the two of you had a taste of each other, it had been all too easy to keep going back to the same fix, to the point you woke up in his bed more than yours. Neither of you minded it. It felt easy to be close, to be in each other's place, and to find comfort in each other. Until you realized you were growing genuine feelings for Buck.

You couldn’t keep being his fuck buddy, you needed more from him, you wanted more. Which was why you had decided to finally end things for good.

Before you could stew on your feelings any longer, Buck shifted from behind you, squeezing you gently and pressing a soft kiss to your shoulder to let you know he was waking up.

“Morning sweetheart,” he murmured sleepily, “what time is it?”

“Around nine, still pretty early,” you replied with a smile.

“Good, I’ve still got time before my shift at noon. Wanna have round three?” He whispered as he kissed your neck, his hand roaming up and down your silky skin, causing you to shiver.

You wished you could somehow imprint the way his kisses and touches made you feel in your mind because you would miss them dearly. The temptation to say yes was strong, but you knew that couldn’t happen. You had put this conversation off for long enough.

Untangling yourself from his arms, you sat yourself up in bed and took a deep breath before saying, “Actually, we need to talk.”

Buck frowned at that, his body tensing at the seriousness in your tone. “About?”

You struggled to find a word that fit and still didn’t feel right about your answer as you replied, “Our… relationship.”

He nodded slowly at that as he sat up beside you, motioning for you to go on.

“We’ve had a lot of fun Buck and having each other after a shift has been really nice, but we can’t keep doing this. Casual sex like this could ruin our friendship and honestly, it’s making me feel confusing feelings about you…”

“Confusing feelings, how?” Buck questioned after a beat of silence.

“Like I wanna be with you for real and I know that’s not fair to you, so we need to end this. Let’s go back to just being friends, okay?”

You looked anywhere but his face as you finished, your arms wrapping around yourself as you angle your body away from him. You knew this would be hard, but you hadn’t expected it to be this difficult. Why did he want to know how you felt? Why couldn’t he just leave it?

“___, would you please look at me?” Buck asked gently. “I have something I need to say now.”

“No, I know what you’re going to say and I don’t need to hear it,” you whispered, voice shaky, “I’m going to go now.”

You started to get up, but before you could Buck was grabbing you and pushing you down onto the bed. He now hovered above you, his sapphire eyes intent as he gazed down at you.

“Just listen to me okay? I like you, I have since before we started messing around. I mean how could I not? We spend all of our time together, you’re fucking beautiful, and when we’re between the sheets…” he paused, taking a deep breath, “but most importantly, you make me feel like everything is going to be okay. I need you.”

The world seemed to slow down as you processed Buck’s words. He liked you too and he wanted to be with you. He wanted more of you too. Happiness and love bloomed through you, heat gathering beneath your cheeks at his confession.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” you wondered aloud.

“I was scared and I didn’t know if you felt the same. I didn’t want things to end so… I just avoided it. Kinda sounds like you were in the same boat.”

Tears of relief pooled in the corner of your eyes as you reached up, wrapping your arms around him. “So, we’re idiots basically?”

Buck lighted lightly, his voice emotional too as he leaned down a pressed a sweet kiss to your lips. “Seems like it,” he murmured.

“I guess we’re together now then,” you said with a soft smile as he showered you with butterfly kisses all over your face.

“I guess so.”

“Buck?”

“Hm?” he asked, pausing to look up at you.

“Round three?”

“Fuck yes,” Buck said with a devilish grin, capturing your lips in a passionate kiss as his hands started trailing down your body once again.

He ended up almost being late to his shift, but neither of you cared because you were now officially each others.

My Masterlist || My AO3 || Please leave feedback, helps motivate! :) Thank you for reading~

[futurstic-divineawakened]

English is not my first language and I’m not great at making a long story.

So if you have nothing to write and interest in my story line you can fix ,re-write or add more because I really love your writing and still looking forward to your next work.

Have you ever thinking an Encanto AU Which Mirabel give up to proof herself to Madrigal and Community ?.

In this AU She start to focus on the other things that really important to her instead of her family like a…Her reason to live for?

I set it all in pre-canon

For Example

She have a pet that she can give all of her heart for them.

-In this AU Mirabel love her pet more than everything in the world .She treat it like her own kid. And she become so dramatic about her pet.She would be like Cap.Holt and Kevin in Brooklyn 99.(Inspired byCheddar is missing )

-Mirabel make her pet dish by her own and all of her dish are delicious and don’t even look like it for pet so Camilo steal it because he think his Tia made it .When she come back with her pet she scold him and it look more terrified and scarier than Abuela and Pepa when they angry

-Mirabel will ask Isabela to make her a catnip (if her pet is a cat) or any plants that she want for her pet accept flower and when she know Isabela can’t make it for her she will look at her sister with a disappointment and give her a look ‘I know you let me down’ or ‘You mean nothing to me (back turn)’ instead saying anything and just go back to playing with her pet while left Isabela who shock in silence behind. Isabela take that as a challenge . She give all of her time to make a catnip. She succeeds and know she can grow more than flower so she explores her gifts and become like herself in post-canon. She go see Mirabel in her new look and give her a catnip. Mirabel hug Isabela and say ‘Thanks! You are the best sister .I love you ,Isa.’ Isabela going to cry and apologize to her little sister but Mirabel left her to play with her pet again. Isabela swear to herself she going to kill that thing .It dare to take all of her little sister love from her.

-Mirabel pet only get along with Julieta Agustin Dolores Antonio and Bruno.

Julieta make a food that can heal it and her food always delicious and full of love

Agustin clumsy make himself look so pathetic. It feel sorry for him so it want to comfort him (cuddle and lick)

Dolores offer her room when thunderstorm come. Loud noise make animal panic and she so quiet so It peaceful around her.

Antonio is an animal guy and Mirabel roommate.

About Bruno…Mirabel pet Chasing Bruno rats and leading Mirabel to the wall so she can see her long lost uncle again in nine years. Mirabel won’t ask any questions with Bruno cause she understand him so she just visits him every time she can with food(she cook for him) and her pet. Bruno will show his telenovelas to Mirabel that make Mirabel become his 2nd Fan’s (Dolores is the first one). Mirabel and Dolores will become best friend who will talking a lot about their opinions and theories about Bruno telenovelas. Mirabel pet will get along with Bruno because his loneliness and it feel sorry for him.

-Mirabel pet don’t get along with Abuela Pepa Felix Camilo Isabela and Luisa

Abuela always be mean to Mirabel so her pet will take opportunities to take all of Mirabel attention to it and make Mirabel stay away from her Abuela so Mirabel and Abuela always see each other from distant or in the meal time and They don’t even have a talk because Mirabel pet always give Mirabel an excuse.

Pepa emotion and cloud make Mirabeal pet scare. Her dramatic looks make it scare to because it’s look like some mean human who alway put their anger and violent to strays.

Felix with Pepa all the time so…

Camilo stole Mirabel pet food.(It’s a heinous crime and greatest sin) He won’t get any forgiveness.

Isabela is the same condition as Abuela and also she smell too much of flower.

Luisa have a huge body deep voice and always carries heavy things that normal human can’t so it make Mirabel pet scare.

e.g. Camilo : Do you want to help me do my chores ?

Mirabel : Don’t be lazy Camilo .It’s your chores ,right? And if I help you Abuela will scold me .Why don’t you do it by yourself .I’m going to play with (her pet) Bye!

She become Matteo girlfriend and she love him so much like every teenage love.

-I have no idea . I’m not similar to this kind of stuff.

e.g. Madrigals : Hey ,Mira we are going to the town . Do you want to come with us ?’

Mirabel : Sorry…I’m going to see Matt but thanks for the invite. Oh! I will have lunch at his house so…see you at dinner !

She start to focus on her hobbies like drawing painting singing playing music and sewing .She don’t care about Magic and move her interest to science.She need her alone time to practice and do it so she can’t stay in the nursery with a baby and stay in a house that she can get scolded all the time because all of that things will interrupt and distract her. That why she asked her father to make her a studio far away from everyone like a tree house and spend all they all night to finish her project and follow her artistic heart.

-In this AU Mirabel will saying a lot of mean things with no regrets .She would be like Jake Rosa and Gena in B99 at the same time and sometimes she talk in lullaby or rapping as fast as The Family Madrigal because she drink too much coffee and sleep less.//

-She tells all of her family that they all suck and Boring//

-She alway say people suck everyone cheats and true-love is an illusion cause everyone are Homosapiean and Love is just a chemical reaction to compels animals to breed. But deep down she love her family and Encanto all of her heart. She just want to mess them with science.

-She will drown herself in her own thoughts and no one can’t come to her own world. She will make a line that no one can cross. And If someone dare…her family or not… she will give them the worst nightmare.

e.g. Mirabel : I’m sick of your stupid Madrigal things. All of you stay here and I will stay away. Are you happy now?

All of alternative things that could happen have the same thing that would happen.

Mirabel don’t care about having gift or proofing herself anymore so she step aside as everyone said and Madrigals start to notice they jealous and sad when knowing Mirabel have new interests and don’t have time to spend with them anymore.

Wow

Can-can you write more? This is amazing

I’m -

Furiously take notes and wait for the next post

[janumun]

A [Cat] Parent's Memoirs of Pregnancy ft. Spouse (Pregnancy Headcanons)

Game: Shall We Date: Obey Me! Rating: General Audience/SFW Tags: pregnancy sweetness (and shenanigans)

Summary: Satan's approach and reaction to having a baby with his S/O.

Author's Notes: YESSSS YOU CAN @niphredil-14. 💚💛 This is cute and very, very warm. I tossed in between giving him either fur babies or demon babies (he deserves both!), and chose this! I hope you enjoy your read. 💚

Requests for this event are now (long) closed, dear readers. Thank you to all those who participated!

Perhaps three or twelve feline babies later, the two of you might plan on making a hybrid child — with two hands and two legs, five fingers on each and absolutely no fur in sight.

Satan would prefer waiting until your youngest adopted foundling — a tiny, dark slip of a cat — is well into its second year in this world before he decides to try for a baby, of your own flesh and blood. A decision he hardly takes in frivolity. Every vulnerable life, be it cat or person, is important and requires adequate care; Satan is very well aware of the fact.

When the two of you discover you are with child, happiness trumps within alongside multiple plans he’s already running through his head for the arrival of your child. Unfortunately, his immediate task on the agenda is informing Lucifer about the upcoming arrival — fighting for board for his adopted cats’ was Hell enough, war waged with you by his side — lest Lucifer demand he find elsewhere for the two of you to care for your baby. He’s going to stomp out of the House of Lamentation if Lucifer so much as suggests displeasure at your child.

Begrudgingly — and as frightening as it is to witness this conversation in between the two brothers, you fear you might almost collapse at how tensed you are watching the two glare at each other — though your demon breaks the news, and perhaps almost surprising for Satan, Lucifer greets the news with good cheer.

Claret gaze warming in affection as it slides towards you before he congratulates the two of you on your pregnancy.

Suffice to say, once his other brothers are informed of the news, they’re gathering over to express surprise (you suspect it’s more about them wanting to fawn and coo over a human pregnant) and extend their well-wishes to the two of you. Gifts from every single brother — in good will, but largely injurious to your health and the baby’s — Satan has lined against your side of the bed. Lucifer’s he burns with his unearthly verdant fire the moment you’re presented with it and the elder brother’s out of sight.

Manuals are brought out, books are being purchased. Shipments from all four corners of Devildom, pricey tomes on human pregnancy from the Earth.

Satan’s here to provide you with all information necessary to nurturing a baby within your womb, random facts and tid-bits even you’re hearing for the first time. He stresses on keeping yourself healthy. He isn’t an over-bearing future father but does definitely encourage you to stick to the health schedule he draws up for you every week, making a point of, time and again, how important it is for you to follow a good lifestyle in order to see through a safe pregnancy and delivery.

Everyday walks, Kegels, healthy amounts of fruit and meat in your diet (let him know if anything — anything at all — upsets your appetite and he’s quick to swipe that item out of your plate, and your lives). None of which you’re doing alone because he’s more than happy to accompany you throughout your regime.

Don’t let him choose too many of the baby’s clothes however, he’s pulling the oddest combinations of clothes off the rack and it leaves you half-amused half-terrified for your future baby’s sense of fashion. [That is way too many cat onesies in bizarre shades, Satan!]

He would never force you to adhere to something he wasn’t capable of seeing through himself. And, first and foremost he wants to be there for and with you. If you’d let him, he’d be very hands-on in helping deliver your baby as well.

Every single time the two of you make progress through your health list, Satan’s got a pat on the head ready, stroking your hair, affectionate, praising you on how well you’d done that day and what good progression you’d been making lately. Parting stray locks to press a kiss against your forehead. One to your lips in a smile more than happy to, if you ask for more. He’s that perfect balance between strict and adoring.

Future Father™️ (not so) secretly loves to be wrapped up in surprise cuddles any day of the week. There is nothing more joyous than the thought of being needed by you.

Perhaps one of the more enjoyable parts of your pregnancy has been how much more physically affectionate your child has made you and he can hardly complain when you crawl across the covers to join him in bed as he reads. You settling soft against him, needy arms coming around. Swollen stomach, round and wonderfully full, pressed into his side, he almost thinks he feels the baby within, kick a foot in welcome against his side — Hello Dad, as if that’s what Baby’s saying, if they could speak. The rather ridiculously sweet thought’s enough to pull a soft bout of laughter from him and an arm he fits carefully against your shoulder to drag you in.

“Are you cold again, kitten? Come sit next to me. We don’t want you and the little one to get sick now, do we? Is that better? Do you need me to go fetch a blanket? Alright then, sweet dreams.”

He’s here to answer to your every need, so long as it’s within the bounds of reasonability and not injurious to you or the baby.

As much as Satan might seem in control of the entire situation; calm rationale persevering through your hurdles of new pregnancy and future parenthood. Despite how he is the one you seek comfort in and take pride in as the father of your child… Satan is not entirely without his own chips in a seemingly flawless armor.

His knowledge, no matter how vast and thorough, doesn’t replace the practicality of witnessing you nurture a child — your child — within your belly for nine long months. Less than even a speck within a demon’s eternity but so very long and at times… challenging, more than he’s ever encountered throughout his lifetime. Having been born of Lucifer’s rage and anguish, Satan has never known of a parent’s love, nor does he pretend to understand what it might entail. He’s never really felt the need to, past that hollow ache that surfaces at times, to know he was born of loathing and negativity, not nurtured from love.

Lucifer’s hatred of his Father, Levi’s brief mentions of his Mother… a bedtime story narrated of times within the Heavens past with their family, among the brothers, in Lucifer’s absence, is all he knows of the entities called ‘parents’. He does not know what he ‘feels’, if his emotions and reactions are appropriate for a life the two of you are responsible for, together. If his version of love would ever be adequate enough for your baby — the thought that they too might grow missing half the love of their parents, to have no outlet for restless agitation and hurt towards a father who’s never had one of his own… it terrifies him beyond belief.

Times like these are when you need to read him like the very books he’s so fond of picking apart. Seat him by your side and engage him in conversation of your future as a family of many, many children (demon/human and feline alike). Let Satan voice his thoughts, unformed or firm, however they might come across. Pity or sermons are not what he needs; rather quiet understanding and thinking space. To let him realize how he has no need for anxiety; his version of love is just as much valid and your absolute faith in Satan’s ability to love your child as much as he does you. Something you’re willing to learn, a new experience of loving your child, together, with him by your side.

And if the hand that reaches out to caress your distended abdomen, as if towards one very precious, the soft affection in that verdant gaze is indication enough, he’s already begun to learn.

Bonus: Baby Wrath™️ is studious and very interested in learning of the world around, from a tender age. Drinks milk regularly and lick-finishes their cup clean, like they are supposed to under the watchful eye of Dad Wrath™️.

Satan is strict only in terms of good manners and good education; he’s nurturing and encourages the child to enjoy whatever hobbies they develop over their years. (Reading is one and no one’s more proud than Satan that Baby’s often found burrowed within their father’s mountain of books). You do allow the child more leeway, in terms of candy consumption and staying up past bedtime, although that influence can be traced back to Uncles Mammon and Levi who are terrible role-models and have more than once caused Dad Wrath to explode on their sorry souls. Baby Wrath is — much to the chagrin and woe of his father — very fond of Uncle Lucifer and he is their (second) favorite in terms of gifting new and fascinating books to study, and teaching to write simple words, on occasion.

End Notes: Thank you for reading!

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For the ask game: button

[WIP ask game]

My "button" wip is so named because of the don’t press that button challenge last year and I never bothered to change the document name, even though the draft no longer contains that line or even the scene that the line was a part of. (Also in the drafts that I’ve recently put on google docs I’ve been calling the docs “touch” after this song which has been my soundtrack while writing the fic.)

Basically, I wanted to do something with the internment camp 371 for that challenge but it ended up being too much of an AU and I didn’t like it (AUs for bad episodes are so much easier to write than AUs for GOOD episodes, lol). So I recently cut all of the drastically AU scenes and made it more of a missing scene fic! :) It contains a Julian & Tain convo, Julian in solitary angst, unbearably sappy Garashir cuddles, and a post-escape Garashir first kiss. It’s 99% done (needs just a little bit more polishing, but the MAIN thing that’s missing is a title tbh... if anyone wants to read the draft and give me title suggestions, DM me! I’m serious, I literally cannot figure this out haha)

Here's a snippet in which Julian is in solitary, conversing with an imaginary Garak. <3

- I’m losing my mind, Garak, he said—though not aloud, because he had to assume he was being monitored.

- You’re just lonely, Garak replied.

- Talk to me. Distract me.

His imaginary Garak, whom he could see perfectly despite the poor lighting, rolled his eyes fondly.

- My dear Doctor, I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know. I’m not really Garak.

- I know. I just want to pretend for awhile.

- Well. If I were really Garak, and not just a figment of your own imagination, perhaps I would critique the unflattering design of your Starfleet uniform.

- That’s perfect, Julian smiled weakly. Go on then.

Garak gave him a once-over.

- Teal is very much your color, but I’m afraid that bloodstains and fraying fabric have been considered gauche for at least nine solar cycles. And those shoulder pads are ridiculous, my dear Doctor... You’d look so much better without them.

Julian shivered as he imagined Garak shifting closer to him, trailing his hands along his shoulders.

- And all of this excess fabric! Garak said, clicking his tongue judgmentally and frowning as his fingers caught the fabric at his sides. You’ve lost too much weight, my dear.

- I know.

- Whoever your mealtime companions are these days must be boring you with such dull conversation that you can’t even finish your food before leaving in search of worthy minds to spar with. When you get back to the station, I’ll make sure you never have this problem again.

Julian drew a shaky breath, unable to tell if he was sobbing or laughing. His deepest, darkest fantasy was a wish for Garak to talk his ears off while he wolfed down his lunch.

- Garak... “Elim...” This he said aloud, letting the forbidden name roll off his tongue like a prayer in the silence of his cell. Tell me that everything’s okay on the station. Tell me that you’re on your way to rescue us. Tell me how much you miss me. Tell me that you’ve noticed that I’m gone...

- Ah, now I see why you chose my image for your hallucination. You needed someone who is willing to lie to you.

[elliottspond]

Three In The Morning

Pairing: Dad!Ralvez x GN Child!Reader

Summary: Spencer helps Reader with insomnia, and Luke helps both of them bake cookies without destroying the kitchen.

Word Count: 2.0k

Warnings: Insomnia

A/N: This is for Pom’s (@imagining-in-the-margins​ ) Father’s Day Challenge! It’s different than what I usually write, but I thought it would be fun to write a Child!Reader with Dad!Ralvez so here we are (reader is still Gender Neutral, but please let me know if there’s anything that implies otherwise!). Pom hosted this challenge because some don’t have a father worth celebrating, and I think she’s an amazing human for doing this. So let’s all take a moment to appreciate her!!

This fic also deals with insomnia (found in the warnings), which I suffer from so this is written from what I’ve experienced. Keep in mind that people experience insomnia in different ways.

[Please do no steal my work. Reblogs are appreciated. Happy reading!]

“Alright, we need to go to bed.” Luke gets up from his spot on the couch next to you, pulling his blanket with him to fold it. You sigh, not wanting to move yet, but you know you have to. Arguing with him would get you nowhere when both of you know he’s right.

You follow his lead, folding your own blanket and putting it back in its place before turning off the TV. Roxy gets up from her spot on the couch, knowing it’s time to go to bed as Luke turns off all the lights and the both of you start walking down the hall.

“We have to leave by nine tomorrow, so set your alarm, or Dad or I can wake you up.” He whispers, reminding you of the family’s breakfast plans with Uncle Derek.

“I’ll just set my alarm. Night, Dad.” You keep your voice low as well, not wanting to wake Spencer who went to bed a while ago. When you reach your room, you turn on the light for Roxy, watching as she walks in and jumps on your bed.

“Goodnight.” He walks further down the hall to his bedroom as you walk the few steps across the hall to your bathroom to do your nightly routine. After you’re done, you walk back to your room and close the door behind you quietly.

You turn off the light and walk over to your bed, pulling the covers down so you can slide between the sheets. Roxy gets up from the foot of the bed where she was waiting for you and moves to lay up against you, wanting to cuddle.

You pet her a few times and remember to set your alarm, grabbing your phone and set it so you have enough time to get ready in the morning. The time in the corner catches your attention, seeing that it’s almost midnight. You put your phone back down, turning to pet Roxy while you close your eyes and wait for sleep to come.

After laying there for a while and switching positions multiple times with no success of falling asleep, you look at the time and see that an hour has passed. You let out a loud sigh at this, frustrated with yourself for not being able to sleep.

This isn’t the first time, you’ve had other nights where you weren’t able to fall asleep, but it’s still frustrating every time. You feel tired and you know you have to wake up in the morning, so you close your eyes again.

Laying there, knowing that trying to sleep is useless because it’s not going to happen, you become bored. You grab your phone, hoping that doing something instead of just laying there will help a little, but all it does is pass by another hour.

You set your phone back down on the nightstand and cover your face with your hands as you lay on your back, just wanting to go to sleep. You turn your head to look at Roxy, who is awake from all your rustling.

“Why can’t I go to sleep?” You ask her, and she lets out a little whine, snuggling closer to you. Her two front legs are sprawled over your chest, trying to comfort you as she senses your stress.

Roxy has always been good at sensing when someone is stressed, and she loves to cuddle so she’s been like your best friend. Always there when you need her. Luke was jealous at first since she liked you so much and started sleeping with you, but he has Spencer so you don’t feel too bad.

She lays her head down and you scratch her ears as you look up at the ceiling, your eyelids feeling heavy despite not being able to fall asleep. You pet her for a while before you start to feel restless, so you eventually push her off of your chest gently and get out of bed, going out into the living room where you were a couple of hours ago.

You hear Roxy following you as you grab a blanket and lay down on the couch. Desperate to fall asleep, you turn on the TV and lower the volume, hoping that your dads don’t hear you and the background noise from the TV will help you fall asleep.

But, of course, it doesn’t.

You keep moving around—laying on your left side, then your back, then your right, even your stomach. You only become more annoyed as time passes, letting out a loud sigh as you feel like crying.

“You okay?” You hear Spencer ask in a soft voice, but you still jump as you thought he was sound asleep in his room.

You sit up as you shake your head. He walks around the couch and you rest your back on the arm of it so he has room to sit. Once he’s settled, he looks at you with a soft look on his face, silently asking “what’s wrong”.

But you ignore it, not wanting to talk about it even though he might be confused as to why his child is almost in tears, on the couch, in the middle of the night. You’ve never been one to talk about your feelings, even to your dads.

“I thought you went to bed.” He leans back, now slouched against the couch.

“I did, but your dad’s snoring woke me up.” You both laugh at this, a small relief from the stressful few hours. “What about you?” He asks verbally this time, wanting you to answer him.

You wished he didn’t come out here so you didn’t have to talk, but you also know how annoying Luke’s snoring could be from when he naps on the couch. You just feel like suffering alone right now, but you force yourself to realize that’s not healthy and it could be good to talk. It might even make you tired, since nothing else has.

“Just… can’t fall asleep. Insomnia.” You say and he nods, probably knowing from your vague answer you aren’t that fond of talking about it. Yet, he still continues on as if he didn’t notice.

“How come?” The first thing that comes to your mind is what you just said—insomnia. But he’d ask you to elaborate anyways if you gave him that as an answer, so you try to think.

How come? You don’t know. It should be easy to answer, but it’s not. You furrow your eyebrows and look down at the blanket that your hands are fiddling with as if that’ll give you the answer, but nothing comes to mind.

“I don’t know, I’ve never thought about it.” Shrugging your shoulders, you look back up at him and see he’s looking at the TV.

“If you’ve never thought about it, that means you’ve had time to think about it. Which means this has happened before.” He analyzes, and you purse your lips. You don’t say anything, instead just choosing to sit there and that in itself gives Spencer an answer.

“Why haven’t you told me?” He doesn’t seem hurt that you didn’t tell him, but he could be and is just hiding it because he doesn’t want to make you feel guilty. Either way, you’re thankful he just sounded curious.

“It didn’t seem important. It’s only happened a few times.” You didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but Spencer and Luke are protective dads so everything is important to them. It can sometimes be annoying, but you know you’re overall lucky that they care so much.

“You’re losing sleep over something, though. I think that’s important. Don’t you?” You mumble a quiet agreement even though you don’t agree, but you’re not really in the mood to argue.

The two of you sit in silence for a few moments, the only noise coming from the TV that both of you are looking at, but neither of you are truly interested in it, before he talks again. “Do you know what helps me when I have insomnia?” 

You shake your head, looking over at him.

“Meditating.” You give him a look, as if to say that sounds awful. “Well what else do you wanna do?”

You give him multiple ideas, but he rejects them all using his logical brain to say what could go wrong, and how that isn’t something you should do in the middle of the night, and how that’s too loud and it’ll wake up Luke.

Somehow, you both end up in the kitchen baking cookies. Spencer has a sweet tooth so he agreed even though you both suck at baking. You know something is bound to go wrong because you’re just as clumsy as Spencer, but he’s too prideful to admit that he can’t bake.

You both decide to hide them from Luke, though, because he’s a child when it comes to sweets and if he finds out that you were making cookies without him, he’ll get upset and then he’ll eat them all.

When you get to the kitchen, you start getting out all of the ingredients and supplies. As you’re getting the eggs from the fridge, Spencer gets a bowl to mix everything in and you go to turn around, but Spencer is right there and you bump into him, sending the eggs in your hands and the bowl in his hands to the floor.

And that’s the something that was bound to go wrong.

The bowl is metal, so it makes a loud crashing sound as it hits the tile floor and the eggs crack. You instinctively step away quickly before anything can get on your feet and your hands go to cover your ears.

Looking up at Spencer, you see he’s cringing from the noise, both of you hoping that it didn’t wake Luke up. After what feels like an eternity of standing there silently and hearing nothing, you’re the first one to speak.

“Do you think he woke up?” You whisper, as if that’ll help after the bowl dropped.

“Probably, yeah. Why did you turn around?” He asks, trying to blame you. He gets like this sometimes, whenever he’s scared of getting in trouble by Luke. You usually find it funny, but right now you find it annoying because this was definitely not your fault and you don’t want Luke to eat all the cookies.

“Me?? Why were you standing behind me?” You whisper yell back at him and he starts to respond, but he’s interrupted.

“Because I-“

“-What the hell?” The two of you look over to see Luke standing at the entrance of the kitchen, hands on his hips and eyebrows furrowed.

“Oh, hey Dad.” You say casually, not knowing what else to do. Spencer just gives his awkward wave, choosing not to say anything.

“What are you guys doing?” You and Spencer look back at each other, each of you silently telling the other to speak first. You give in, groaning, as you look at Luke again.

“Making cookies.” He stares at you for a moment, then at Spencer, and finally down to the mess on the floor. You and Spencer wait for him to say something, wondering what he’s thinking.

“At three in the morning?”

“Uh, yeah.” Spencer finally speaks up and Luke throws his hands in the air, scoffing.

“Without me?” You knew it. You look at Spencer annoyed that you now have to share. “I love cookies.”

He walks further into the kitchen to where you and Spencer are standing, going to clean up the eggs on the floor and you move to help him, hoping you can use this later to convince him to not eat all the cookies.

“What are you guys doing up anyways?”

“Y/N has insomnia, and your snoring woke me up.”

“Okay, I do not snore.” Luke denies Spencer’s statement as if it were the most ridiculous thing ever, and Spencer is about to argue but Luke continues, giving Spencer a look. “But that’s not important right now.”

They talk with you about your insomnia while making the dough, and you eventually change the topic because you don’t want to talk about it anymore. You know they’ll bring it up another time, which you’re fine with because you know they just want to help.

[mageofseven]

Thank you both for requesting! I was originally gonna split this up into two posts, one for a good ending and one for a bad ending, but I think I found a way to keep both within this post with how I decided to format it. However, while I was writing Satan's section, I hit the word limit for a post. I didn't even realize that was a thing 😳

Basically, that's why this ask is still gonna be separated into multiple parts, likely 3 but we'll see. I honestly didn't think I'd write this much, but this ask got me so inspired, it's crazy.

So everyone! This is gonna continue off from the pregnancy discovered in this post. If you haven't seen it yet, it's worth a read.

Below is Lucifer, Mammon, and Levi's sections.

Part 2 | Part 3

~

Lucifer:

The man thought he was prepared. He thought.

Lucifer expected all different kinds of physical ailments that he would have to help MC cope through; he didn't expect the ailments to be mental.

He noticed it start around her fourth month. Before that point, the demon was surprised at how calm things were. His Love went through the usual struggles of human pregnancy, like the morning sickness in the first trimester, but that was all. Nothing odd had happened and though he was grateful, Lucifer was also suspicious.

The start was subtle. His Love's spirits had been seeming down, despite keeping a cheerful outlook for all the weeks before this. She was happy for this child and it was infectious, easing the Avatar of Pride's worry about fatherhood and making him look forward to this child as well.

That was shattered when the low spirit had suddenly progressed into a heavy depression. MC couldn't even leave their bed most days and getting her to eat had become a challenge for the first brother.

He simply couldn't understand the sudden nose dive in mood and any questioning came up empty. MC didn't know why she felt what she felt and that scared her.

It was the end of that month when the fear really set in though.

Lucifer had a meeting with Diavolo at the castle. He had laid in bed and cuddled his girlfriend close beforehand, giving her a kiss and promising he'd be back in a couple hours.

He had only been gone for 10 minutes when he got a call from Mammon, who was freaking out. The older brother couldn't fully make out what the second brother was saying, but he heard his Love's name in jumble that was his brother's words so he hung up and rushed back home.

Discovered all six of his brothers in his room, trying to calm a panicked MC, who was screaming and crying on the floor.

The demon rushed to her side, trying to calm her down and figure out just what was happening. His Love clung to him and he could feel the her heart beating as if it meant to break free from her chest and the man felt powerless.

Luckily, it only took about a minute of being in his arms for the woman to stop screaming. She cried in his arms for a while and slowly, her heart beat settled.

Lucifer was so confused. What happened and why? The man shooed his brothers out of the room before carrying his Love back to the bed.

Discovers that after he left, an uneasiness set in that quickly turned into blind panic. The woman didn't even notice the brothers or hear any of their attempts to calm her.

To say that the demon was concerned would be an understatement. He had to convene with Diavolo at once for a new reason.

The man laid with his girlfriend till she fell asleep, exhausted from her previous panic.

Lucifer called his friend and apologized for his absence before explaining the situation. Lord Diavolo, now concerned as well, decided to come to House of Lamentation instead.

The two discussed the issue in his study. The lord listened to his friend's predicament before explaining that this was likely a side affect of MC's angel heritage.

Right now, their baby was trying to form its soul along with its body and the demon child needs dark energies to do so. The woman's body is trying to absorb this dark energy for the child, but her repressed angel spirit is trying to repel it all, causing her own body and soul to fight. Her brain is the battle ground.

The reason it triggered in his absence is likely a psychological thing. Lucifer himself, as all demons do, radiate the very dark spiritual energy his child needs so, despite her soul's rejection, her great trust in her boyfriend gives her feelings of safety and has her mind lend support to her body to absorb the energy the baby needs.

To sum it up, his presence is the only thing keeping his girlfriend and child alive right now.

At this news, the man changes up everything about his schedule to stay near MC. He does all his paperwork at the desk in his room instead of in his study, he stops attending RAD the few days a week he still was at that time, made his meetings with Diavolo limited to only the most important work issues and always take place within his study at House of Lamentation. Sometimes he did have to leave her side, like for said meeting or simply because he had to grab food or use the restroom.

During those times, he'd call one of his brothers in to watch her. The demon had discovered that though her trust in them was not as great as it was in him, that trust still provided somewhat of a psychological cushion for her.

However, though their presence prevented full blown panic, it wasn't enough stop her from crying incessantly.

Most of his brothers could not handle her tears so it was usually Beel or Satan that accompanied her during these times.

It was hard for all of the men to watch, Lucifer included. He couldn't help blaming himself, knowing his carelessness had gotten her into this situation. Still, he had to keep it together for her sake.

The months went by and her belly grew. Lucifer missed that excitement he felt in the beginning of all of it when MC glowed with positivity. Now, unlike the times he was smiling and rubbing her belly as the two cuddled and discussed baby names, the emotionally exhausted demon saw it nothing more than a visual timer, reminding him that this will all be over soon.

Good Ending:

After a long nine months of his Love's mental and emotional suffering, the time finally came. It was late at night, around 3am when his Love awoke with labor pains. Lucifer was already awake and at his desk doing paperwork. He immediately called the doctor that Lord Diavolo had recommended for them before approaching his love and trying to calm her. This was it. It will all be over soon and his human will finally be happy once again.

Five and half hours later, the couple was greeted by a beautiful baby girl. The small baby had her mother's hair, her father's red eyes, and a bit surprisingly, her father's black wings. MC cried as she stared down at her daughter; her tears were accompanied by a smile though. A smile. That was enough for Lucifer, who started to tear up at the scene.

"You did so well, Love." He leaned down and kissed his girlfriend's head, staring down at the baby, now drinking from her mama's chest. "I'm so proud of you."

All the days before this were tortuous for the couple, as well as the rest of the House of Lamentation, but finally some happiness was lighting up the household.

The two end up naming their daughter Ksenia.

Bad End:

The demon sighed. He was at his desk, going through paperwork while his Love slept in bed behind him. It was 1am and though that never used to be such a late time for him, these last few months had him exhausted him. His worry and care for his girlfriend took up most of his energy these past few months. MC was already entering her eighth month of pregnancy. The two were just so close to putting this all behind them and being happy. So close.

Lucifer gave a huff and laid his pen down on the desk. His concentration was waning regardless of how much he fought it. He glanced over his shoulder at MC, watching her sleep peacefully. That's the only way she finds peace anymore, by shutting off her mind and losing consciousness. Every waking moment for her is a heavy one and moments she even perceives that she might be alone causes her heart to race in her chest... all she's knows anymore is that pain and sadness yet she pushes on for the sake of their child.

Lucifer stood up and approached the bed, staring down at his Love with a guilty heart. He leaned down and kissed her forehead as he laid his hand on her round belly. There were so many moments during all of this that... he cursed his child for doing this to her. Never aloud, just within the confines of his heart. It was always followed by a reminder that the fault is his own though, not his child's. Their child didn't make any decision nor was it actively trying to hurt their mother. No, this child exists because of him and MC, because of his choices and carelessness. None of the blame truly falls on his child; it falls on himself.

He gave her belly a gentle stroke, a silent apology to the child he felt that he had wronged. Already, he felt that he was making his previous words ring true; he's a terrible father to his child. The night that MC told him she was pregnant, he confessed this fear to her.

"I should have been better. Now what's stopping me from making the same mistakes with our child?"

"Me." She answered, without missing a beat. "Lucifer, you're not alone anymore. This... we can do this together."

He still remembers those words and they roll through his head every time the fear of fatherhood decides to rear its ugly head within his mind. No matter how scared he is on the inside, no matter what happens now, he cannot let himself be engulfed by it all. No. MC needs him now and he refuses to break for her sake.

The demon steps away from the bed and heads towards the door. He shouldn't leave her, he knew that, but sometimes he just had to. It was maddening, confining himself to his room for months on end. Occasionally, and only when his Love is asleep, he allows himself to step away from the room and head downstairs to his office.

Here he sat at his desk, pulling a bottle of demonus from his drawer. It would probably look bad to anyone finding him drinking alone in his office at a time like this, but the man was stressed and he only gave himself the luxury of doing so every two weeks or so.

The man lost track of time while he was down there and before he knew it, the sun was rising. Lucifer sighed before hiding the bottle back in his desk and went back upstairs to join his girlfriend in bed.

Instead, he found her lying on the wooden floor. He raced up, calling her name and pulling her into his arms to better check her.... she was cold. The demon's eyes widened as he checked for a pulse. None... no pulse, no breath...his Love was gone.

Later, he finds out what happened from Barbatos, who checked into the past for him. His Love awoke in a panic after a nightmare to find herself all alone. The usual panic from that compounded with the fear from the nightmare and it was too much for her heart, causing her to have a heart attack. No one heard her because her last moments were filled with her desperately trying to mute herself because she didn't want him or his brothers to hear and burden them with herself once more.

Lucifer was completely torn about this. In the space of a couple hours, he lost both his girlfriend and his daughter (Barbatos told him) because he left his room at the worst opportunity and because he didn't know she felt that way. The emotionally exhausted man never knew she saw herself as a burden. It never occurred to him that she could actually have believed such a ridiculous thing. But he should have. He should have spoke out more. As many times as he told he loved her, as many times as he told her everything would be okay, he never told her specifically that it was okay to lean on him because he didn't know that she needed to hear that.

And now they're gone. And now Lucifer has to live with feeling like he was both a bad father and a bad boyfriend.

Mammon:

It all started off pretty simple in theory: morning sickness

MC's morning sickness was strong and unfortunately, didn't just happen in the mornings.

The two had to skip a lot of school days at RAD. Lucifer allowed this, but had a hell of a time negotiating with their teachers, especially Mammon's, so they aren't penalized too much for this.

MC really couldn't eat breakfast. Or lunch for that matter. If she tried, she'd end up puking it up before even finishing the meal.

She could eat dinner, but it had to be something pretty light for her stomach.

It became so much more complicated as the pregnancy progressed.

Morning sickness usually ended during the first trimester, but it never actually stopped for MC. In fact, the farther she got into her pregnancy, the less her body could keep down.

This freaked Mammon out and he kept running to Lucifer, asking if there's something, anything he can do to help this.

For a while, all he could do was comfort his weakened human... but it was hard.

During her sixth month, it was hard to even look at MC some days because, despite being pregnant and her belly sticking out, the woman had actually lost weight since becoming pregnant; other than her growing belly, she was all skin and bones. Her legs, arms, even her face, all boney and sunken. She started to look as if the life was being sucked out her.

Somehow, the human stayed cheerful. Honestly, her boyfriend didn't understand it; their baby was practically starving her, but she still smiled.

The only time she showed any fear was when she'd tell Mammon how worried she was for their baby; she hadn't felt it kick yet and she was worried it was too weak to do it.

Everytime she spoke this worry, Mammon would hold her close and start rubbing her belly.

"Now, don't go talking like that." He leaned in and laid a kiss to her temple. "Baby is gonna fine."

"But they--"

"But nothin', babe. You know it's a bit on the early side for that anyhow."

"It's early for others to feel something, but I should have felt something before this, a flutter or something but they--"

Tears poured down her cheeks, breaking her man's heart. Mammon froze for a moment before leaning in with a kiss.

"A-Are you sure they'll be okay?" She sniffled, looking up into his eyes.

"Of course, you think I'd lie to you?" He asked before giving her belly a gentle rub. "Look how our kid has grown already! If something went wrong, they wouldn't still be growing, now would they?"

"I... I guess."

Despite everything he said, the Avatar of Greed was scared shitless. What if she was right and something already went wrong? What if he already failed her and his kid? Those thoughts were too much for him though so he did whatever he could to push them aside.

It was during her seventh month when Lucifer discovered a potion she could try, one that could help with the nausea and help her keep more food down.

Mammon had to give it to her every morning, but it helped her keep most of her meals down and regain her strength.

The first few days, they kept her on light meals just in case, but afterwards, she had free reign to eat whatever she craved.

This was when the late night food runs started happening. In all honesty, Mammon never thought he'd be so grateful to be woken up at 2am to get weird food combos like ice cream and beef jerky (MC seemed to have a thing for sweet 'n salty food combos).

Things were finally starting to seem okay; MC was eating, regaining her weight, and just seemed so happy. Not forced positivity, but some real happiness.

Then, around half way done with her 7th month, it happened. MC was sitting in the living room with Mammon and a couple of his brothers she suddenly gasped.

"M-Mammon!"

The man jumped up and rushed to her side. All of the brothers were now standing too, alarmed.

"Shit! What's wrong??"

She grabbed his hand his hand and laid it on her belly. He gave her a confused look for a moment till it happened. A kick! Their baby actually kicked!

MC cried, but also smiled as she saw his face light up.

"Holy-- see! I told you our kid was alright!" He grinned. "Just goes to show that you need to be trusting The Great Mammon more!"

The other brothers settled back down in their seats. Beel actually smiled at the happy couple, grateful that things seem to be turning around for them.

Good Ending:

The rest of the pregnancy went smoothly, thanks to the potion. The couple's worries seemed to disappear for the most part. MC was eating again and healthier; their baby was kicking and seemed pretty lively. There were even nights where the kid kept their mother up (and in turn, their father) with all their kicks and movements, but they were glad to trade sleepless nights for the confirmation that their child was healthy too.

It was her 39 week, just barely missing the nine month mark, when MC went into labor. Mammon panicked in the beginning, causing MC to have to calm him down through her labor pains. The demon eventually got a grip on himself and started helping his girlfriend. After six hours of labor, the couple was greeted with a baby girl, who had her daddy's white hair, her mama's eyes, and surprisingly, two little nubs on her head, which will likely grow into horns just like her dad's. The couple cried along side their bundle of joy. Mammon leaned down and kissed his Human.

"You did so good, Babe. Just look at our girl there."

Most of the pregnancy... it definitely wasn't easy, but when the couple stared down at their little girl, they knew it was all worth it.

The couple ended up naming their daughter Cassia.

Bad End:

It was during the beginning of MC's eighth month when she went into labor. Mammon still remembers her panicked tears as she kept saying over and over that it was too soon. The second born had Lucifer call the doctor as he just held her close and tried to calm her. He gave his all to stay calm himself, but his Human's fear and pain really broke him down inside to the point where he'd have to quickly wipe a tear of his own away before she saw it.

In the end, MC's body was just too weak. Even though she recently had been able to regain some of her strength, it didn't erase the months before that of her body being near starved. The doctor was barely able to save his daughter. Mammon can still remember the look on his girlfriend's face when their girl entered the world, a weak smile of relief. She went to say something, but suddenly exhaled her last breath, leaving her body permanently stilled.

And just like that, he lost the only person who he felt gave a damn about him. He remembers collapsing in on himself while his brothers only saw him stare far away into space. He remembered when his younger brothers started throwing insults and blame his way, saying his stupidity killed her. And he remembered throwing himself against the brother closest to him, later noticing it to be Belphie, just punching him and crying. This shocked them to the point that no one, not even Beel stepped up to stop him for the longest moment. This wasn't Mammon. Mammon never laid a hand on his brothers.

Lucifer was the one who snapped out of it first and pulled the second born off of Belphie. The room was silent as he cried, practically in unison with his daughter in the other room. That was the moment where each of his brothers started to realize just how much Mammon loved MC. All of the brothers cared about her and were hurting from her death, but this was first moment where they really took the Avatar of Greed seriously with his own feelings.

The Brother's were a lot softer with Mammon from then on. No matter what he stole from them, no matter how much debt he racked up, they kept a certain tenderness in their heart for the brother who lost it all with MC's death.

As a dad... Mammon tried his best. No one doubted that, even when the other brothers had to jump in to feed the girl or quiet her cries while her father either cried in bed or searched for some sort of distraction to calm his mind. Looking at Cassia... it was hard for the dad. He'd look down into her eyes, the same eyes she got from her mother, and could only think about how MC should be there with him now... but how she's not.

As a baby and toddler, Cassia was mostly raised by Asmo and Beel. As a child, she had gotten closer with her Uncle Lucifer. Mammon was a loving, but distant dad who constantly tore himself down even when his brothers no longer did.

Leviathan:

Levi and MC got a good five months before facing any major difficulties.

Outside of the morning sickness in the beginning, everything was pretty calm with the pregnancy till then

And what happened at this point in time... honestly, no one could have predicted this.

The two were sitting in his room, each reading their own chosen manga.

When the woman had risen from his side, the otaku didn't really give it any thought, just assumed that she needed to go pee or grab another pillow.

It wasn't till heard a splash to his left that he looked up from his book and saw his pregnant girlfriend at the bottom of his giant fish tank.

Panicking, the demon dropped his book his and rushed up to the top of fish tank. He didn't even notice that he transformed into his demon form before jumping in and swimming down to the human

He quickly swam up with her and carried her back out and onto his floor.

"Shit shit!" The man stared down at the unconscious human, brain being uncooperative as he realised they were not breathing. Then it clicked and Levi put both hands on his Human's chest and repeatedly pressed down, starting CPR.

When his girlfriend eventually coughed up the water in her lungs and came to, he nearly fainted in relief.

He scooped her into his arms and started crying.

"W-What were you thinking???"

The demon didn't understand what just happened. His Henry almost drowned. And she was the one threw herself in! Was she trying to kill herself? Was the whole pregnancy and parenthood stuff getting too scary for her? Was he not taking care of her good enough? Oh devil... what if she thinks he's gonna be a bad dad and just wants to end it all now??

As the Avatar of Envy always did, he thought of the worse outcomes that he could blame himself for.

"I... Levi, what happened?"

??!!

"What do you mean, what happened? You tried to drown yourself!"

The woman's eyes went wide and she frantically shook her head.

"I... no! I would never do that to our baby!"

Even now, she wasn't even thinking of her own life. Just their child's. Levi was scared for their kid's life too, but got so panicked over her's that he didn't mention it before.

As he looked down into her horrified expression, the demon knew she was telling the truth. Or, at least she believed she was.

For a second, the man doubted what he just saw, just experienced. Her drenched hair and clothes were the only things that cemented him in the knowledge that he was right.

But then why did she sincerely believe differently?

Levi texted Lucifer that there was an emergency and needed him in his room now before he helped MC get changed out of her wet clothes.

By the time Lucifer came to the room, MC was in Levi's pj pants and one of his tshirts with a blanket wrapped around her to keep her warm.

Lucifer could sense something different with MC the moment he entered the room. As a demon skilled with magic and curses, he could sense the energy shift within her

And once his younger brother explained what had happened, it had all clicked into place for the first brother. Granted, it was just a theory at this stage, but all signs still pointed to it.

The situation seemed to be a side affect of her pregnancy and a magical one at that. Her baby needed something that they weren't getting so they took the reigns and made their mother give it to them.

That something? Water. The baby seems to have inherited they're father's affinity for water.

Levi was frozen where he and MC sat on the couch.

Basically what the third brother was hearing was that this was his fault, that he almost lost his girlfriend and baby because he has a connection to water.

The demon was ready with a slew insults to express his self blame, but was stopped by MC's quick kiss.

"Hey... none of that." She said softly. "It's okay, it's not your fault. Besides, you saved me."

She knew her boyfriend well enough to know when he was gonna tear himself down but this... she couldn't let him blame himself for something this big.

As per Lucifer's advice, MC started lounging in the bath a couple times a day to see if that would curb her baby's need to be surrounded by water. And surprisingly, it worked.

But as her pregnancy progressed and her belly grew, so did her need to be in water. She'd be fine for a few weeks then suddenly there would be another fish tank incident (though luckily, Levi would stop her before she would even get her feet wet) and her boyfriend would rush her to the bathtub. Each time this happened, the amount of sessions and length of said sessions in the bath increased.

In all honesty, it probably wasn't good for her skin to lay in water so much, but considering this was a life or death situation for her and the baby, it was worth dealing with pruney skin.

It got to the point where it felt like most of her day was spent in the tub and the woman hated it.

Actually ended up convincing Levi to join her for some sessions and loved snuggling up to her boyfriend in the tub.

Honestly, it was something the human wanted to continue between them even after her pregnancy.

Levi had to keep a close eye on her for the remaining months, which was stressful for the otaku, who couldn't really indulge in his usual hobbies, knowing he'd get too absorbed and possibly miss it the moment she needs him.

Still, the demon took care of his Henry well.

Good End:

The woman so ready to birth this baby. MC was so tired of spending her days in the bath tub and being sore and pruney so when the day came, she was nervous, but relieved. She was about a week overdue when her water broke and she went into labor. Levi was a nervous wreck for a most of it, but MC was very patient with him, despite her pain.

After six and half hours of labor, MC held their baby boy in her arms. Levi just stared in wonder at his son. His son. Who would of thought this would ever happen? If you would have told him before he met MC that he'd be a dad someday, he would of said something was wrong with you. If you would of said it after they started dating, he would of told you there was no way MC would wanna give him such a gift.

But there he was, staring down at the son that MC spent hours pushing out and even almost drowned once, just to bring him into this world. This... MC really was amazing.

"Do you wanna hold him?" She smiled at her boyfriend, breaking his thoughts.

The man tensed up, but gave a shy nod.

His girlfriend explained how to hold the baby before setting their son in his arms and telling him to make small adjustments. Levi stared down at his child, who had his hair and MC's eyes. Heck, the little boy even had a tail just like his. The man started tearing up and the human laughed.

"Don't... I'm not crying, I swear..."

After reviewing some of the baby names they talked about, the couple decided on the name Kai.

Bad End:

MC was halfway through her seventh month when it happened. They had recently had another incident of the woman finding her way to the fish tank and had to adjust her bathing schedule again. Bad news: MC had to spend another two hours in the tub each day. Good news? The woman should be incident-free for another couple weeks.

This was why Levi felt it was okay to leave the house, something he rarely felt like doing. He used to never mind spending most of his time in his room. Before this pregnancy, it was his safe haven, where he retreated into in order to avoid all of his troubles and the judgement that he felt he got from the world. Since MC has been pregnant though, that has been the room she spent all her time in, especially since things got... complicated.

His room was no longer a safe place; on the contrary, it was where all of his stress and fears lied. He still powered through it most days for MC's sake, but on transition days where the pattern showed her to be safe, he'd leave the house to go to the comic book store (which also sold manga). He made sure his brothers would keep checking up on her while he was gone.

But they didn't. For a variety of reasons, none of this brothers checked in on her until it was too late. Lucifer was busy working in his study. Mammon left for his modeling gig. Satan was out plotting things with Mephisto. Asmo was in his room, talking on the phone with someone while he did his nails. Beel was in the kitchen, trying to cook dinner and fighting the urge to just eat the ingredients. Belphie was asleep.

Eventually, Beel made his way to Levi's room to check on MC and found her floating face-down in the fish tank. Levi didn't come home until an hour after she was found. He started heading to his room when Lucifer stopped him and called him into the living room. His heart sank when he entered and saw all his brothers sitting around the room. Asmo was crying. Mammon was pretending not to be. The rest of his brothers simply look depressed.

Apparently, MC skipped a bath time while he was gone. She was just so on edge and didn't want to force herself into the water yet. The baby did though. And now they are both gone.

And just like that, the third brother was alone again. Levi locked himself in his room for months after her death, not leaving for school or to even eat. His brothers brought his meals to his room, but he often needed encouragement to eat. The man just wanted to cave into himself and hide away from it all, but the one place he could hide was the same room the human he loved died in... because he wasn't there to comfort her and have her take her bath.

He was so utterly alone. No Henry. No baby. And he felt that he had no one to blame but himself.

~

Part 2 | Part 3

[bibliocratic]

I was going to write this for the Aspec Archives week, but I got overexcited, so here we are. 

AU: Mythical creatures. OG Archive team. 

Some CWs apply, see tags. 

The sea is more than water, her elder brethren taught her, warned her, chided her. It is home and harm and hungry, and you should not face it alone. Her siblings were older, ever knowing better, boisterous and boasting braver, but even they worried, scolded and fretted when she swam out too far alone into deep waters.

It will love you, but it will not always be kind, her eldest sibling bit out, snapped to mask their anxiety. There can be no bearings, in the deep-deep down, no anchors to denote where the sky lies.

When her people sleep, they rest wedged into some secure rock or crevice, tails looped around tails so no one is lost while dreaming.

You cannot be a shoal of one, my dearest, my youngest and bravest, the oldest of their shoal had said, when she told her she was planning on taking the rising when the waters warmed. Ascending landward on the tide swell, letting the shimmering scales of her tail split into skin.

She had not used the name Sasha at that time because that was a landward name she chose with care. Her folk gather names like a garland of pearls, to be constantly strung longer through life as age advances them; names for qualities, for momentous events, for hopes and desires. Her first name, gifted by her shoal, was guttural. It starts at the back of her throat, trails off into a susurration through gills. Mer is a difficult language to learn, though not impossible.

Tim tried. There is no one singular language of those who skirt the deepwaters, so he attempts to mimic her dialect. His pronunciation stumbling, he makes tentative sentences with the butchered grammar of fry. Martin’s grammar is even worse, though he picks up the eddies and waves of the sounds easier.

Jon, like most things in life, takes it as a challenge. One day, almost stubborn with nerves, to perform his task to perfection, he pushes out a juvenile approximation of her first name. Clipped and textbook and the stress in the wrong places, but Sasha smiles, showing her sharpest teeth in delight. Instructs him where to hold the hum at the back of his throat, how to roll the third phoneme upwards like an air bubble. Jon repeats it and repeats it, quietly smug and pleased at his achievement, and the sea in her soul rocks fondly at the sight.

She broached landward in the rising two moons after her age of maturation. She was one of a handful to come to shore. A sibling in Brighton who she phones every week, another two in Holyhead. Her first shoal traverses to warmer waters when the season shifts, and she would feel the rock-hollow absence of them if it was not for Tim, inviting her to participate in a hundred-and-one inane activities that keep her from feeling swept out; Jon, with his libraries of questions and intrigues, his quick-silver tongue; Martin, who sometimes swims a little further out from them but who finds her small knick-knacks in charity shops and craft markets and leaves them on her desk for no reason other than he has thought of her.

She makes three necklaces, plain with a strong chain, a single pearl attached. And on a day where her folk traditionally string garlands of seaweed and mangrove roots and colourful plants from coral reefs in a celebration of family –  there is no one word in her language for this idea; it poorly translates into hierarchies like sibling and brethren and elders, but these are not concepts that fit it exactly – she gifts them to the shoal that will anchor her in the depths of the sea, and bestows upon them names. Most Mer names are wishes for quick fins, calm waters, safe shores, and so she wishes these for them in a language they are not quite proficient in yet.

Her landward shoal is smaller than is traditional. But she loves them as treasures of her heart, and thinks she understands what her siblings told her, about anchors.

--

His parents, both harpies from local nests, are perplexed when his wings start coming in.

Must be a colouring from your mum’s side, his dad hums thoughtfully when Tim’s primaries grow in long and shining like struck bronze. He runs a careful finger down the central line of the rachis, and the wing shudders and jumps, the feathers still sensitive, and Tim complains that it’s ticklish. His wings are too small to fly away as his dad dives in, captures him in careful arms, corkscrewing upwards a little off the ground with Tim squirming and squealing and squawking in play, but they flutter and flap nonetheless.

The wing span’s from your dad’s side, no-one from my nest ever went more than five foot, his mother says, rubbing at the dark brown of his downy secondaries. Tim stretches them out wide, eager to boast at their length, the tips of his longest feathers reaching past his arms held out wide.

Danny’s wings are smaller. Magpie like, bold lines of white broken up by blue and black, the same as his parents. Tim’s wings, broader, a colour like beaten brass that tips into gold at the ends, draws attention, but he’s never been embarrassed. His family never treated him differently, so he didn’t dwell on it.

He can fly, though he doesn’t often. After his parents died, and after… after Danny, he moved to London, where there’s tighter airspace regulations and permits involved, so he mostly doesn’t bother. This doesn’t mean never, however. He has learned, while working in the Archives, that from the ground, his wings have enough lift to pick up both Jon and Sasha by at least a foot. He thinks he could probably manage Martin as well, if it wasn’t for the unfortunate fact that Martin is mildly allergic to a whole host of things, including feather dander, meaning he gets a bit watery eyed whenever he gets too close to Tim’s wings, and he’s a sniffing, red-eyed mess come  moulting season.

Anyway, he can always fly when he leaves the city. When it’s been too long since Sasha’s scales touched seawater, she invites him out to the coast. Jon apparently has had enough of the coast to last a lifetime, and Martin gets funny about large bodies of water, so it’s often the two of them. She swims out, the greenish scales of her tail catching the sun-struck water, and he, above, feeling the breeze brush through his cramped wings, follows her wake. When she breaches the surface in a playful arc, he swoops down, trying to catch her at the same time as she tries to splash him.

“You never thought to look into it?” Jon asks. Always brewing with questions. Tim is obligingly holding out one of his wings, and Jon, who takes everything like a project, has books out and webpages up but with no further clue as to why his colouration and span differ so from his parents.

Tim shrugs. “Doesn’t matter really, does it?”

Jon hums, clearly not agreeing, and Sasha rolls her eyes fondly,  and that is the end of that.

-

Marysia had hoped her child would not take after her husband. She’d lit candles and attended masses during her pregnancy, worn the beads of her rosary smooth. Her child had been born on land, miles from shore, and her husband had been a grounded man, who had folded up his pelt on their wedding night for her and swore to wear no other soul than his human one.

But then her husband leaves, the box where he kept his second soul empty, and Martin is eight years old, and he wakes up one morning glassy-eyed and complaining of nausea, his lip bleeding from where his sharpening teeth have ripped the skin, and she knows her prayers were not answered.

It is not unknown, for the second soul of some folk to flourish later. But it is a rough awakening, to have one’s body grow a new skin out of itself, and Martin is off school for over a week, riddled with fever and fervour, constantly parched, crying and sweating out salt-water.

She watches his skin prickle with grey and black fur, blotching with white over his stomach as he coils up under his covers, throws them off only for his limbs to reduce to shivering. His brown eyes have gone black-shot, his cries a mix of language and barks, and Marysia fears she will lose her only child to the sea.

It will be hard for him to fit in, she tells herself. It would be best to choose one, and he has his friends and family and her on land, and who knows where his father is now, and surely it would be cruel, an unnecessary agony for him to endure some other foreign pull away from all he knows.

She does what she thinks is a kindness, though that is neither excuse nor forgiveness. After nine days, his fur has come through, sleek and soft, his whiskers twitching, and she helps him peel it off as one would do clothes, revealing sweat-sheened limbs, his eyes slipped back into brown again. His gaze still distant and feverish, he tries to cuddle into her, and she soothes him while she finishes stripping off his pelt and folding it neatly.

While he sleeps, she burns it in a fire in the back yard.

When he comes back to himself, she lies and tells him that he’s been sick with a bad fever. And he trusts her, and never questions it. He doesn’t understand that she’s burnt a part of him up, scattered the ashes to the winds, but it was for the right reasons. To keep him safe, and happy, and with her.

He grows up human-limbed and cloven-souled, and she never tells him the truth.

--

Sasha floats in an ever-dark, stolen away and hidden. There is a knot, a cage-trap around her legs, which have fused into her tail although there is no water. The sea, far away, like the wail in a conch shell, throbs in her soul as she strains and shouts and snarls in the wrapping of spider’s webs.

The sea is the only thing with her in the dark.

Sound has a particular quality, underwater. She hears it first, an echo that shivers through her, like being thrummed on the backdraft of some shallow wave. And then it is a wash of insistence. A command.

The compulsion uses her names, landward and seaward and it pulls and demands her attention, and she shrieks and cries back, struggling in the depths. She is being called home, up up up to breach the surface, and she cannot help but answer.

There is a crack and the sea splits, and she is choking on cold and dusty air.

“Sasha!” someone is saying. “God, is she – she’s not – ?”

“Get that stuff off her, come on. Sasha. Sash, love, can you hear us?”

A series of thuds as she splutters. A twisting, gnarling screech, and several swear words.

“Jesus!”

“Shit – shit, get her out of the way.”

“Boss, move, give me the – ”

The screech degrades into a glitching, warping scream. There is the multi-layered sound of compressed air, and crackling fire,the woosh and stench of something burning.

In time, she cracks her eyes open to the punch of light. Her tail flaps weakly. Someone is pulling great strands of silk that has clumped like poorly soldered iron around her limbs, making visceral noises of disgust. She’s cold-stream shivering, surrounded by broken wood and chippings.

“Hey, hey, we got you. We got you. You with us, Sash?”

The faint scratch of feathers against her cheek. Furnace-warm arms are holding her.

Jon is kneeling down in front of her. Holding an axe and stinking of smoke, and she knows, she knows, that it was his voice she heard, although she doesn’t yet understand why.

Martin throws a blanket over her as she shivers, her tail shrivelling and bisecting into legs. He has silk in his hair, and his fingers are trembling, but his face is broken with a look of such relief.

“It’s you,” he says, and his hand touches at his throat, at the necklace she made for him. “It’s you. It’s really you.”

It’s Martin in the end that carries her out of the tunnels, tucking the blanket completely around her. He is talking in the scatter-gun way he does when he is anxious, babbling, and she can’t bring herself to listen. He smells of soot and saltwater, and she’s never noticed that before.

She falls asleep, curled up into his hold, drained and shaken, but feeling utterly safe.  

--

Jon is human. Completely, one hundred percent, although Sasha had joked once that way way back there must have been some Spinx in the family. Tim’s long suspected that Martin’s not quite human, no matter how he presents, but that’s Martin’s business, not his. Some folks have lineages that are rare, or mistrusted, or misunderstood, and Tim’s not one to pry.

Jon, though. Human through and through. Which is why he’s so worried.

“I shouldn’t have been able to do that,” Jon says. Martin’s with Sasha, making sure there’s no nasty side effects to her imprisonment in the table. Jon’s had a face on him for a while which means he’s Worrying with a capital W, and it’s taken hours for him to untangle himself into a blustered declaration to the rest of the class, spiked with nerves. “That place, it had her. It shouldn’t have… I don’t know what I did, but I told her to leave, a-and she could. And she shouldn’t have been able to.”

“And you think that you did that?”

“I – I know I did that, Tim, I felt it, o-or. I mean, I felt something!”

“Ok, alright. Alright. Let’s, let’s calm down and look at this logically.”

Jon goes over what he said while they struggled to rescue Sasha from the deep. It was something he said, he’s sure of it, which is why he is sitting cross-legged on the floor of the main archive office space with Tim, his trousers getting dusty and his temper scraping frayed, getting increasingly frustrated when he tries recreating exactly what he did with his voice, going through questions and commands and instructions and inquiries. And while Tim answers, it’s clearly not what Jon’s looking for, and he’s rubbing the hair at the back of his head in the way he does when he’s getting increasingly frustrated and is too bull-headed to walk away.

Then Jon, rolling his eyes and seething in annoyance, asks him a throwaway question, one of many he’s been trying – what’s your favourite colour? (seriously, Jon, that’s what you’re going with?!); What did you do at the weekend? (you know what I did, you and Martin were with me!).

“Why did you join the Magnus Institute?”

They both sit, frozen and horrified as Tim’s mouth opens and his words trip over his tongue in their eagerness to leave his mouth. As his eyes grow wide and water with tears as he cannot stop speaking about Danny, about the Covent Garden circus and Joseph Grimaldi. As Jon sits, ramrod-backed and cannot stop listening, a muscle jumping in his jaw.  His expression wars between frantic and panicking and hungry.

Tim feels wrung out and hollow once he’s finished. Jon’s manic with apologies. It takes both of them a long time to calm down.

“Maybe… maybe you’re a siren or something?” Tim suggests, but Jon is shaking his head.

“It’s this place, Tim. It’s those statements, when I read them. It’s … I – I think they’re doing something to me.”

Tim looks at Jon and the light strikes off his eyes in a way that it shouldn’t on a human.

He touches Jon’s arm.

“We’ll sort this,” he promises. “We got Sasha out, didn’t we? The four of us, we can get to the bottom of this, yeah?”

Jon nods, and gives a small fragile thanks, and that’s human enough for Tim.

--

Marysia told herself she was not a bad mother. That her son was simply a hard child to love, that he had all the worst trappings of his father, his brown eyes perpetually caught with a far-away look that doesn’t know where to place its longing. But even as she sickened, and he sloughed off every facet of himself in a pathetic attempt to please her, she couldn’t find anything but sorrow in her heart to look upon the man grown over familiar in face, a growth that grew deep-set and fungal into contempt.

She almost spat the truth out to him. Once or twice, with the thought that confessing might bring them closer. She wished he’d chosen the sea instead, so she wouldn’t have to look upon her amputated, half-formed child who would always be lost.

But she never did.

And Martin finds out alone, cornered in an unlocked office, his hands dropping the lighter as a thousand eyes open and watch satisfied as they pour his mother’s choices down his throat to choke him.

--

It starts when Martin starts sleeping in archive storage. When Tim watches worms burrow into Jon’s skin at the same time as they latch and gnaw and wriggle under his own. When they get Sasha back, and find Gertrude’s corpse and Jon leaves and gets hurt and hurt and hurt again, and the world around them gets smaller and meaner and there is nothing Tim can do.

He takes to storing food in their desk drawers. Nothing that will go off, or won’t keep. Tins and dried goods and non-perishables. He lines the walls of Martin’s storage room with fire extinguishers of different types, fire blankets, and spare first aid kits bulging with plasters and bandages and antiseptic wipes. He buys blankets and pillows and rope and penknives. He stress-moults constantly, and tucks his feathers out of sight, irritated and embarrassed at the sight of them,  and it occurs to him that nesting is not a healthy way to deal with this.

He wants his family safe. He used to think it was such a small thing to ask for.

He thinks about that when the bomb goes off.

He burns, and he is dying.

His rage and fear burn off into a different fury. That it has come to this, his family so threatened, that all he has to his name is his sorrow and trauma and frustration and vengeance.

Tim wants nothing more than to live. To see them safe. To rail and rage against what seeks to harm them. So he burns and he burns and burns, his wings aflame and his mouth twisted in a scream, and does not die.

They dig him out breathing from the rubble. His skin stained grey with ash and soot.

His new wings stretch out red as the sunset.