#x change project

[jjaelly]

X-Change Project

Episode Watch Time: ~10 minutes

Watch Now?

Content Warning: Alcohol, Mention of Food

NOTE: THE ALCOHOL LAW USED IN THIS STORY IS THAT OF AUSTRALIA: ‘CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES IS LEGAL AS OF THE AGE OF 18’

I apologise for the lateness on the episode, I was almost kidnapped, enjoy!

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Previously on X-Change Project:

“He really said ‘ring ding don’t’.”

***

“Your first activity will be to play games together while drunk.”

***

“Park Jin-young!”

***

Now:

“I definitely heard ‘Mic Drop’, ‘Future Perfect’, and ‘Thanxx’, but there are 4?” Heeseungs questions. Bang Chan nods simply.

“Wait, can we know the artist of the last song?” V questions.

“No, that defeats the purpose. If you give up, just drink.” Bang Chan reminds.

The group of idols sigh as a few of them take sips of their drinks.

“Can I listen again?” Seonghwa asks, picking up his glass from the coffee table, ready to give up, but wanting another try first.

Bang Chan plays the recording of the 4 songs overlapping each other. “It’s your own fault for picking the hard version,” he smiles at the idols.

Seonghwa finally takes a sip of his drink, being the final idol to give up on the question.

“You almost had it. ‘Mic Drop’, ‘Future Perfect’, ‘Thanxx’, and ‘Super Tuna’,” Bang Chan retakes his place on the couch, after standing for the round, and Y/n takes his place.

“Okay, let's go for an easy round this time,” they say as they grab a small card from the pile of cards labeled ‘easy’.

The card reads: “Butterfly - The Boyz, Nabi - Nymph, Dancing Like Butterfly Wings - ATEEZ, Butterfly - BTS. Context clue: All songs have similar titles. Play mp ‘E.32’.”

“Oh this is so easy. Okay, there are 4 songs and the context clue is that once you know know one of the titles, you’ll be very close to the rest of them,” Y/n presses the file named ‘E.32’ on the laptop connected to the speakers and the 4 songs overlap each other, playing loudly.

“Oh okay! Dancing like butterfly wings!” Jongho says as he recognises his voice playing in one of the songs.

“I heard Nabi as well,” Soobin says.

“Okay, there’s 2, there are 2 more, and you still have 5 minutes left,” Y/n says to the idols, who ask for another listen.

The idols strain their ears as they listen to the chaotic noise coming from the speakers.

“I heard butterfly,” Jimin says, hearing the quieter vocals in the background of the noise.

“I’m going to take a guess, based off the context clues going on that there is ‘Dancing like butterfly wings’, ‘Nabi’, ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Butterfly’?” Juyeon takes a guess at the last song from the noise.

“Tell me the artists and I’ll give it to you,” Y/n laughs as he gets the songs right.

“ATEEZ, Nymph, BTS and The Boyz,” Younghoon speaks up confidently.

Y/n grabs her drink, sipping it in defeat, and the boys cheer in victory.

***

“What is the most random talent you have?” Taemin reads from the paper he picked from the jar. Suddenly, he pulls his hand to his face, covering one of his nostrils with his thumb, and a whistling noise is heard from him.

“You can whistle with your nose?” Jelly asks incredulously, raising her voice in disbelief.

Taemin just laughs in his spot on the couch, nodding his head.

“Don’t do that at night. It’s bad to whistle at night,” Jelly mutters to him.

He looks confused, but understands the different beliefs she has, and quickly apologises.

Jelly takes the jar from the coffee table, picking a piece of paper out of it before returning it to the table.

“What is the weirdest memory you had as a child,” she reads.

She ponders for a moment before asking “Does it count as weird if I say my brother cooked a goldfish’?”

“That depends, is there more to the story?” San asks from his seat on the carpet beside the coffee table.

Jelly lets out a light chuckle, taking a sip of her drink before beginning the story.

“So when I was younger, I lived with my mum, I was about 3 or 4 years old. We had just moved houses and there were boxes of random stuff everywhere. My mum used to have 2 goldfish as pets, and she had put the fish tank in the lounge room. My brother always woke up really early for some reason, and I’m talking 4am sort of wake up time, everyone was convinced he was a crazy child. Because of this, he wasn’t allowed out of his room in the morning time, so mum tied his door handle to mine, which was always closed when I was asleep.

So one morning, my brother woke up around his usual time, looked around his room for something to do because he was bored and he couldn’t get back to sleep, and he found a small barbecue. Like I said, we had just moved and everything was everywhere.

My brother, being him, saw the barbecue and thought in his tiny little brain, ‘I’m going to make mum breakfast in bed.’ So, He jumped out of his bedroom window, went through the front door—after having his own snack of ants from the driveway, because he was one of those children that ate ants and drank his own blood when he was bleeding—and he saw the fish tank with the 2 fat goldfish in it, swimming around. He had obviously heard that you can eat fish, so he went to the fish tank after taking the rope tie off his bedroom door, and caught both of the goldfish. After he caught them, he took them back to his room and turned on the barbecue, and both of the goldfish were still alive, just flopping around on the plate he had put them on. Once the barbecue was heated up a little bit, he put the fish—who were just flopping around in their own puddles of water on the plate—onto the barbecue and literally cooked the goldfish alive. End of story, right? Wrong. He burnt them. He burnt the fish that he cooked alive and threw them out the window before mum woke up to the smell of burning and the fire alarm going off. That was the last time I remember my mother owning goldfish,” Jelly finishes her story with a light chuckle as she drinks the rest of her drink. The other idols stare in disbelief and shock at the story, a few letting out light laughs.

“Okay, I’m bored of questions, let’s do the listening music game that they made,” Seungmin says, standing from his position on the couch.

“Wait- Let me put on my Dorito socks first,” Jelly rushes past the kitchen and back to her room. The other idols look at each other quizzically, chickling at the girl.

On her way back to the living room, Jelly spots Kyungjun in the kitchen with a tray of snacks in front of him. She makes her way towards him, looking over his shoulder, and seeing the sprinkles on the bread in front of him, she squeals, yelling for the third Australian on the team.

“There's fairy bread? Jake, look there’s fairy bread!”

She reaches over Kyungjuns arm, leaning on the bench, grabbing a perfectly cut triangle piece of bread, putting it in her mouth, holding it with her teeth as she goes to the fridge behind them, looking for another drink.

Suga comes up behind her, grabbing the soft drink from the door of the fridge, taking it to the bench. “What do you want to drink? I can probably make it for you,” he says.

“Raspberry vodka please,” she says, finishing the slice of fairy bread.

“I was thinking of more cocktails or something, but that will do,” he laughs at her.

He grabs the cordial from the pantry in the corner of the kitchen, pouring a shot of raspberry cordial into her cup and a shot of vodka, before going to the freezer and putting 3 cubes of ice into her cup and filling it with soft drink.

She thanks him, before walking back to the living room.

A sudden crashing sound makes a few of the idols jump in fear.

“Was that the neighbours taking the bins out or is it going to storm?” Jake jokes, making the idols roll their eyes, chuckling.

***

Fawn’s laughter pierces the air as she looks at her phone, 3 messages from Jelly sent to their band group chat.

“Is it another cat or is it actually something funny?” Sunoo asks the very tipsy girl, hoping to know what she was laughing at.

“It's funny! Look,” She shows Sunoo her phone.

‘Jelly sent a photo’, ‘Jelly: mans needs to calm down before i lose my mind’, ‘Jelly: why did my autocomplete suggest ‘virginity’ instead of mind?’.

“It’s not that funny. Can I reply though?” He asks.

Fawn shrugs and nods her head.

‘Fawn: foreshadowing, probably’

“It’s about to rain, should we play dance charades in the rain?” Wooyoung suggests.

A chorus of ‘yes’es are heard from the idols and Jin and Key put a hand over their eyes, rubbing the bridge of their noses, muttering to themselves.

Taehyun and Fawn walk back to the kitchen to grab another bottle of alcohol each. Fawn grabs a bottle of strawberry soju and a straw, shaking the bottle as she walks back to her room.

She soon returns to the living room without her phone, sipping on her bottle of soju that is already half empty as the first few drops of rain are heard on the roof.

Felix is quick to turn the outside light on as the idols make their way out the front door, onto the empty street, with their alcohol in hands.

“Don’t get sick, I won’t look after you,” Key calls to the idols as he walks through the door.

“No, I’ll have to,” Jin sighs, chucking at the idols dancing in the pouring rain without any music.

After a few minutes, everyone is drenched from head to toe, and they are finally ready to play the game.

Jin is assigned to be the cards, telling the idols the song they have to dance the choreography to for everyone else to guess, and the line of 13 idols stands across the street facing the driveway, where Jin and Yunho are standing.

Jin whispers something to Yunho and he nods, getting into position.

Yunho suddenly does the ‘Stay pose’—both of his arms straight, pointing to the ground, his legs a metre apart with his knees bent.

“Thunderous, Thunderous!” Changbin repeats excitedly, pointing at Yunho.

Yunho points back at him and walks to the end of the line of idols, the idol in front of everyone else, Q, taking Yunho’s previous place.

Jin whispers to Q the name of a song, and Q takes his position and begins the choreography from the very beginning of the song Jin chose, making Jin laugh.

Slowly, Q moves his hands around his body, interlacing them in front of him, before quickly lifting his head from facing the ground and turning to face the house. He then moves his body to face the left, snapping his fingers, and lifting his heel as he snaps.

“Sherlock!” Key and Hyunsoo shout in unison.

Q walks to the back of the line and Fawn replaces his spot on the driveway.

“Everyone looks like Pedro Pascal,” she giggles as she whispers to Jin, who stares at her in a jokingly judgemental way, but still whispers a song to her.

She nods her head as she hears the song, putting a hand to her eyebrow in salute, “Got it, Pedro.”

Taking her position in the driveway, she begins humming quietly to herself the melody of the song.

Coming to the chorus melody, she begins dancing, putting out her right hand in front of her in a zombie-like manner, moving her right leg as she moves her hand, mirroring the action a second later with the right side of her body. She then jumps, her hands reaching for her feet as they bend behind her body, making a few of the idols yell out “drunk-dazed” in recognition of the choreography. As she lands the jump, the water on the driveway takes the friction from her shoes, making her slip and fall to the ground. She begins laughing uncontrollably, laying her back onto the ground closing her eyes as to not get any rain in them.

“I guess there goes my idol image. Selling feet pics, here I come,” She giggles.

“Okay, that’s enough dance charades, inside, out of the rain, shower, get changed, we’ll play Guess Who after,” Jin says, walking towards Fawn who had now stopped laughing.

Her hair stuck to her face and her clothes stuck to her body as Jin helped her inside.

“I’m going to get another drink, okay, Pedro?” She says to Jin as they walk through the front door of the house.

***

“Ni-Ki, you’re up first,” Sky says to the boy, who is holding his glass of soft drink in his hand.

He puts his glass onto the coffee table, and steps to the open area between the kitchen and the living room. As the sound of the rain pellets onto the roof, Mingi flips the paper of song titles to the next one.

Ni-Ki reads the song title, and immediately begins dancing.

He turns to the kitchen, rolling his right arm in a circle twice, holding his left in an angle facing the ground. He then spins clockwise, facing the living room again, then back to face the kitchen in an anticlockwise spin.

“Hype boy!” Kevin's voice is heard loudly over the other idols shouting the same answer.

Ni-Ki takes his place on the couch again, and I.N takes his place, standing between the kitchen and the living room.

Mingi flips the page again and I.N gets into his position to begin dancing.

He holds his left hand out behind him, with his fingers spread as he pushes his left foot along the floor away from his body, repeating with his right foot and repeating the move again. He then holds his right hand in the air in front of him, in the same shape as his other hand.

“Roar!” Kevin and Eric yell at the same time, before Kevin begins singing the melody of the song.

***

“Okay, I think it’s bedtime for you,” RM says to Jelly after she falls onto the floor, breaking the bottle of soju that was in her hand.

“No, I’ve got to clean this up,” she slurs.

“I’ve got it, you just go to sleep, okay?” Taemin says to the girl, who is crawling on the floor picking up pieces of the green glass.

“No, no, I can clean it.”

Lee Know walks towards the girl, being careful not to have glass pierce his feet, and grabs her arm, gently pulling her up.

Seungmin brings a plastic bag from the kitchen to put the broken glass into and holds it open for Jelly.

As she puts the broken glass into the bag, RM repeats that she should go to bed.

“I don’t want to go to bed yet, let's play the whisper game,” the girl giggles as she gets back to the floor to help Taemin clean the rest of the glass.

“What is she talking about?” New asks Yeosang.

“‘Whisper game’? Do you think she means Shouting in Silence or Telephone?” Yeosang replies. New just shrugs in response.

“What whisper game? We can play one more game but you can’t drink anymore and you go straight to bed after, okay?” Taemin asks the girl, slightly scolding her for how drunk she is.

“The shouting whisper game. And okay, I’ll stop drinking and I’ll go straight to bed after I brush my teeth after the game,” she smiles as Taemin finishes cleaning up the small pieces of glass with the dustpan and brush.

A few moments later, Beomgyu is standing in front of the stairs, with Jungwon sitting in front of him and Sunwoo sitting opposite him, both with headphones on, everyone else sitting on the couch. Beomgyu holds a large book, similar to the Dance Charades book, and flips the first page, showing Sunwoo the word.

“The capital of South Korea!” Sunwoo shouts.

“The chapter of Judge Judy?” Jungwon shouts back in question.

“The capital of South Korea!” Sunwoo shouts again, quickly.

“Slowly! Slowly!” Jungwon shouts.

“The capital…”

“The Captain,” Jungwon guesses.

“Of South…”

“Of South.”

“Korea!”

“Caution.”

“The capital of South Korea!” Sunwoo shouts the full sentence.

Jungwon just stares in confusion, shaking his head slowly.

“The capital of South Korea!”

“The capital of South Korea?” Jungwon guesses.

Sunwoo nods quickly seeing Jungwon’s mouth move in the shape of the words.

“Seoul!”

Beomgyu flips the page again to show the next word.

“The CEO of Hybe!” Sunwoo yells to Jungwon, as time starts running low.

“The seal of lime?”

“The CEO… Of Hybe!”

“The CEO of Hybe? Bang Si-Hyuk!”

“Time,” San yells.

Beomgyu shows Sunwoo a motion of taking off headphones to indicate that time is up and Sunwoo removes his headphones. Jungwon, who is looking at Sunwoo, copies the movement.

***

Jin holds Fawn up as he helps her to her bedroom, walking her to the ensuite to brush her teeth.

She holds out a bottle to him.

“What are you doing?” He asks, confused.

“I’m going to brush my teeth. Just put it on my hands and I’ll rub it in,” she says, holding her hands in front of her.

“No, you need to brush your teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste. This is moisturiser.”

“Oh.”

Jin sighs as he grabs the toothpaste from the bench and Fawns toothbrush from the cup in the corner of the bench, putting a small amount of toothpaste on the toothbrush, before handing it to her.

She takes it from him and begins brushing her teeth.

After brushing her teeth, Jin leads her back to her bed, turning the light off in the bathroom.

“I’ll get you some painkillers in the morning, go to sleep,” he says as he walks towards the door. He puts his hand on the light switch as he walks, when Fawn’s voice makes him freeze.

“No, don’t turn off the light,” she slurs from the bed.

Jin nods lightly, leaving the light on, but closing her door on his way out.

***

Next time on X-Change Project:

“Why did we all get cards?”

***

“I didn’t fall. I decided that the ground is a fan, so I hugged it. It just happened to be aggressive.”

***

“Oh hell no.”

***

“You’re crying?!”

***

“Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you- AHHH!”

***

Stay tuned!

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Next episode ->

Series Masterlist

Credits:

Created, Written and Produced by: jjaelly of jjaellynet

Edited by: “Big Daddy” (That’s what she wanted to be called)

Taglist: @layzfeelit

(Feel free to send a dm or ask to be added)

[tamelee]

Happy 3/7day 🥰~! 'One day we'll look back on all these memories and smile about it'

Process + detail:

[stevebabey]

Steve hates to ask this of Eddie.

Really, it’s a last resort sort of thing. Robin’s gone for the week, some trip upstate with her family. And it’s fine, they’re close but Steve’s a big boy. He can handle a week without his best friend.

But, well, it’s just unfortunate for it to creep up on Steve when Robin’s gone. It being… shit, how did Robin explain it? She was so much better at keeping track of all those things than he was, all the terms filed away nicely in her head to be recalled as needed. Steve’s much messier— in his head, in his life.

Touch aversion, that’s what she called it. A by-product of the severe lack of touch in his childhood she had said; not enough hugs, hand holding, the works and now Steve’s grown to find it too strange. Something prickles under his skin, pulls in his gut all the wrong way, when someone’s too touchy-feely with him. Robin’s said it’s normal, and he believes her.

It just makes it harder when this comes by. That completely strange backward want that carves into his chest, creating a chasm that just aches. Suddenly, Steve wants to be touched, needs to be touched — like something behind his ribs is just begging for comfort in the form of touch, any way he can have it. Like some young part of him can still remember the hunger he had for it and it comes back in full force, a tender wound between his lungs.

It doesn’t happen that often — though, it’s more frequent than ever recently — but usually, Robin’s here. She can almost always tell before Steve works up the courage to ask. Twitchy fingers give him away. He hovers closer than normal, shoulders brushing more often.

She always gives him a smile, softer than her usual snark and says, “C’mere, dingus.” and stands on her tip-toes to envelope him in a hug. Steve can’t help but sink into it, gripping her close around the waist for as long as he needs until the hole in his chest feels a step closer to patching up.

Robin also tells him he can have as many hugs as he’d like but Steve is firm with himself; he only needs one, then he’ll be back to fine.

It what’s he needs now. One really fucking good hug. Still, he hates to ask, least of all from Eddie, because, well— okay, Steve has no reason to assume Eddie wouldn’t give him a hug.

He’s seen Eddie’s hugs before. Like everything he does, Eddie puts his everything into it- he hugs Robin til she wheezes, loves to lift Nancy off the ground, and the hug he gives Dustin is sweetest of all, a hand on the back of the littler’s head while he does some strange little sway. Dustin always laughs, playfully shoving him away by the end but Steve knows he loves them, that it helps in more than one way.

Steve is glad that Dustin has someone, besides his Mom of course, who can hug him, because Steve can’t give that to him. Maybe one day, but for now, hugs from Steve are a rarity — few and far in between. Maybe, he thinks, he doesn’t want to ask Eddie specifically because of that niggling feeling that comes up around Eddie, all gooey and soft. A feeling the swings too close to a crush that Steve has no fucking clue what to do about.

So, he hates to ask. Really. On the drive over to Eddie’s, a hangout organised before Steve started to feel the lack of touch creep in, he runs through any other options. Wait til Robin gets back? Steve’s not sure he’ll make it another 4 days. When left alone, it seems to consume him and make everything harder, everything heavier to deal with.

He’s still tossing it when he climbs the steps to Eddie’s trailer. Steve decides that he’ll see how it goes, see if there’s an opening to ask��semi-naturally or something. He’s not gonna spring it on the guy.

Eddie is wonderful company as always, devilish grins and god-awful comments about the film he picked. Steve feeds off it, drinking in the infectious energy. He tries to let it be enough; their shoulders pressed together, Eddie’s knee knocking his when he laughs, the way Eddie leans into his space to whisper even though it’s just them here tonight. Steve wants it to be enough. But even then, he can see the way his hands twitch in his lap, desperate for more.

Steve closes his eyes. Curls his hands up so tightly his nails bite into the skin. He tries to use it to wane off the feeling, the ache that sings out for Eddie beside him and it nearly works. Until—

“Steve? Y’okay?” Eddie’s voice pipes up, making Steve open his eyes in an instant.

“Hm?” Steve hums, hoping that his casualness will be enough for Eddie to skip over his peculiar behaviour. He blinks, tilting his head just a bit to show he was confused why Eddie was asking.

Eddie chuckles lightly, gesturing towards Steve’s lap, where his hands sit still clenched, white knuckled with his self-restraint. “You seem a bit stiff, that’s all.” Eddie rechecks. “You good?”

Steve opens his mouth and then closes it, forcing his hands to unclench in his lap. “I-“ he begins, then stops, unsure of what he was going to say. He did say he would look for an opening tonight. The way Eddie’s regarding him, open faced with his concern, is as good as he might get.

“This might sound a bit weird,” Steve starts, defensiveness already tingeing the words, his shoulders curling in just a bit. Eddie could say no. He’s allowed to say no. Steve really doesn’t want him to. “Like, if you think it’s weird, that’s totally fine and we can just, like, forget I said anything and—”

“Steve.” Eddie cuts him off, a linger of an amused smile on his lips. “I don’t think I’m going to find anything you say weird, sweetheart. Shoot. What’s on your mind? What troubles the great mind of Steve Harrington?”

God, it’s like a whole bunch of words designed to set Steve’s head spinning. ‘The great mind of Steve Harrington’ makes him want to scoff. ‘Sweetheart’ makes him want to swoon. He can’t decide which one he wants to do more.

“Can I-” Steve stammers, the words halting automatically. It’s too much of a habit to swallow them down. Coercing them out takes more work. He stares up at the ceiling as he grits his teeth, releases a harsh sigh, pulling himself together. “Can I… have a hug?”

There a moment of silence and Steve holds his breath.

“Oh,” Eddie breathes, and Steve takes his eyes off the ceiling to see just what that Oh means. Eddie’s smiling, a soft one gracing his pretty mouth, and Steve thinks, maybe, one day he’ll have the courage to ask for a kiss as well. Relief moves sluggishly through his veins— Eddie’s smiling, this is good.

“Well, of course,” Eddie grins widely and opens his arms, inviting Steve in. Steve hesitates for only a moment before he leans in gratefully, his arms tucking around Eddie’s midriff tightly. Eddie’s arms curl around Steve’s neck, pulling him in close. It’s the easiest thing in the world, sinking into it, so much that Steve tries his best not to immediately slump against Eddie. It feels a bit too pathetic, so Steve reels himself in. He can’t make his arms relax, trying too hard to take only what he needs and not a moment more.

“C’mon, Stevie.” Eddie’s voice teases beside his ear, his breath warm. “You call that a hug?”

He squeezes Steve a little tighter, pulling him even closer and Steve can’t help the way he melts into it— he slumps, leaning against Eddie properly and burying his quiet whine of relief into the juncture between Eddie's neck and shoulder.

“There we go,” Eddie murmurs comfortingly.

Eddie takes him wholly, gives a damn good Munson hug, all warmth and comfort. He smells like, well, Eddie — a lingering scent of weed, something musky, something Eddie. His arms around Steve’s neck shuffle and Steve worries he’s trying to pull away so soon, only for one of his hands to tangle in the hair at the nape of Steve’s neck. He combs through, light fingernails scratching at Steve’s scalp and shit, Steve really can’t control the noise of contentment that slips out his throat.

“Can’t believe you got so worked up just to ask for a hug,” Eddie tsks, tone coloured in disbelief. Steve makes a noise of protest, trying for a moment to wind it all back in but, like Eddie can sense it, he’s squeezing him tighter again. He begins to rock them, a soft sway side to side that lets Steve lean on him even more. He hums a tune Steve doesn’t know, low and soft.

“M’sorry,” Steve mumbles in reply, though he’s not entirely sure what he’s apologising for. For having to ask, for taking so much, for enjoying Eddie’s arms around him just a little too much.

“What the fuck for?” Eddie laughs lightly, one of his hands beginning to drum against the divots of Steve’s spin. It feels like he’s tapping pure delirium with each fingertip, shivers that make Steve’s chest glow terribly warm. It feels good, so good to be held and honestly, Steve could stay here all night if Eddie let him. Knowing Eddie, he would, because he’s that fucking nice.

That knowledge alone forces Steve to sit himself up, extracting him limbs even though so much of him mourns the warmth, the touch, that goes with it. He wants the touch but he’s had enough. Some scorned part of him burns bitterly to think Eddie would give him more just to be nice. Steve doesn’t want that— Steve wants Eddie to touch him because he wants to.

“Sorry, man, I just, uh, get like that sometimes.” Steve feels the need to explain, bringing a hand up to rub at one of his eyes. He does it half so can hide his embarrassed expression from Eddie— who’s looking at him so gently and still so so close.

“Just, aha—“ Christ, it wasn’t this awkward telling Robin. Steve’s hand moves to rub the back of his neck. “Sometimes I realise it’s been awhile since,” He gnaws on his bottom lip, something alike to humiliation curling in his gut. “Since I’ve had some touch. Usually, Robin’s around but y’know.”

He waves a hand, huffing another awkward laugh. Eddie hasn’t moved much, just listening intently, his brows ever so slightly inching closer together. He looks outright concerned at Steve’s next words.

“It’s okay, I’ve— I’ll be good now.” Steve nods along, like the motion will help him convince himself as well as Eddie. He’ll be okay now. Usually, one hug is all it takes. He ignores the surging tidal-wave want that is still going, still aching to be held by Eddie again. It would be selfish to ask for more. Eddie didn’t invite him around to hug— it’s weird, and Steve shouldn’t- can’t ask for more.

“Sooooo,” Eddie draws out the word, an impish smile beginning to play at the corners of his lips. He opens his arms wide again. “You don’t want another hug?”

In his lap, Steve’s fingers twitch. Eddie’s eyes dart to them for a second, before fixing back on Steve. He does, he really fucking does want another hug. He can’t. He’s had enough, really, it would greedy to have more.

Steve shakes his head, forces himself to huff another laugh that accidentally comes out as a strained sigh. He smiles weakly, “No, no, I’m good, dude. It’s… I’m okay, swear.”

For a moment, Steve thinks he’s convinced him. Eddie studies his face, his mischief slipping away as he deliberates Steve’s words. His eyes narrow, arms dropping just an inch before he smiles brightly and says, “Okay, can I have a hug then?”

Which, okay, right, Steve didn’t think of that. People don’t ask him for hugs. He blinks, a bit dumbly. Eddie is waiting, face eager and for a second there’s an expression of almost smugness on his face — like he’s about to get exactly what he wants. Because he knows Steve would never be rude and say no.

“I mean,” Steve breathes, voice a bit tighter than he’s expecting. He clears his throat. “Yeah, yeah, you can have a hug.”

“Great!” Eddie replies and he wastes no time. He’s all up in Steve’s space, arms around Steve’s waist this time. The motion takes Steve by surprise, enough that because he’s not expecting it Eddie’s weight pushes him back so he’s lying on the couch.

If Eddie cares, he pays no mind, his head curling up into the crook of Steve’s neck as he hugs him closer. His hair gets in Steve’s mouth, making him splutter for a second, but Eddie just grins, wriggling closer until they’re pressed firmly against each other. Steve would go as far as to say this is closer to cuddling than a hug, with Eddie squishing him from above, his arms around Steve’s middle.

“Just so you know,” Eddie’s voice rumbles from where their chests are touching, his breath sweeping across Steve’s neck. Steve shivers without meaning to, feels Eddie’s responding grin even as he continues. “All hugs requested by me are automatically 10 minutes long. Hope you’re okay with that, sweetheart.”

Steve isn’t stupid — he knows Eddie is doing it for him, doing it because he could see right through Steve’s stupid facade, had peered his yawning hunger for touch right in the face and hadn’t blanched. Instead of feeling tricked or fooled, Steve just feels…warm. Comfortable. He works his arms around Eddie’s neck til their more comfortable and find the courage in him scrape his fingers through Eddie’s hair— like he had done to Steve. Eddie’s sighs sweetly and Steve thinks he could listen to that noise forever.

“I’m… I’m okay with that.” Steve murmurs lowly, yet he knows Eddie can hear him. Eddie noses closer, a borderline nuzzle against his neck, and further down, one his hands starts to stroke softly up and down Steve’s ribs.

Steve can’t help the way it makes him freeze, the breath in his lungs holding tight as he tries to relax, tries to ignore the prickly feeling under his skin. It’s a lot. A lot of touch that Steve just isn’t used to just yet, even if he desperately craves it.

“Relax,” Eddie whispers into his skin, a soft instruction paired with the motion, one soothing stroke up and down his ribs. Steve pushes the breath in his lungs out, forces the tension out of his body, trusts that Eddie wouldn’t be offering— wouldn’t tell him to relax if he wasn’t allowed to.

“That’s it.” Eddie praises, feeling the body beneath him settle and sink a little lower into the couch. “Now, watch the movie.” Eddie instructs, jutting at the still playing screen with his chin. Steve laughs a bit, but obeys, turning his head to see what part they’d gotten up to. They’d missed a big chunk in their hug. Steve nearly apologises for it, the words on the tip of his tongue, before he decides Eddie might smack him for it.

So, he doesn’t. He watches the film, let’s the gentle touch of Eddie on his skin relax him til sleepiness starts to fill each of his limbs, heavy like lead. Eddie’s hand stops moving eventually, when his breath gets heavier, lulled by Steve’s scratch in his hair. A snore starts up, loud and quite frankly, annoying, and yet, Steve finds that with Eddie’s arms around him, he has no trouble finding sleep.

It’s the first time in years Steve’s fallen asleep in someone else’s arms. And even if he doesn't know it yet, it’s certainly not the last.

now with a part two!

[jadedloverart]

El Mayarah :')

[operationcaked]

twitter really liked this, so i’ll post it here too :))

[dilutedbeanibeans]

saw x doodles!!!! also a peter :]

[addsalwayssick]

james potter’s internal thoughts as soon as he wakes up:

‘Is Remus still sleeping? Good, he’s not been sleeping well lately. i wonder if i gave him a sleeping draught or some muggle melatonin if he would take it. i doubt it. is sirius sleeping too? i hope so. he’s been up a few nights in a row with a nasty stomach ache. i wonder if i can give him some food or drinks or some potions that might help. after transfigurations i’ll go and ask madame pomfrey. It looks like pete is off exercising. i wish he would stop worrying about his body. i wonder what i can say to help him. did marlene get back to her dorm last night after i left her in the common room? i should go check on her. is regulus eating today? i haven’t see him eat in a day or two. i should check on him. i have a headache. mary has been having headaches lately. i should ask madame pomfrey for something about that too. Is snape still bothering lily? she looked uncomfortable in the halls after he tried to talk to her. i’ll ask her about it.’

[amanitacurses]

[starry-bi-sky]

I'm having incoherent thoughts about clone danny again from the clone/clone^2 au (when am I not?) but more specifically I'm thinking about his reaction to finding out he's a clone. The standalone clone au digs into that a little more than clone^2, which is more focused on Danny and Damian's relationship. But neither (so far) really get into Danny's issues about finding out he's a clone after 15 years of thinking he wasn't.

Because he resents his parents for not telling him for so long. He resents the way he found out; through a trivial school project rather than a sit-down talk. He resents the fact that, apparently, they had meant to tell him sooner. But forgot. He resents the fact that they never told him because finding out feels like something was stolen from him when it had the chance to not be.

Danny Fenton, just fifteen, cloned not even half a year ago, knows what that personal violation of autonomy feels like. He knows what it's like to be cloned and while he loves Ellie, he does, she's his sister, and in this au his twin. But he is still left with that feeling of unsafety after realizing he'd been cloned. Being cloned is violating. The onset realization that it's so easy to get DNA without the other party noticing, and that what was stopping someone from trying to clone him again?

Followed only after with the rest of the inexplainable mix of feelings of being cloned, the rest of that inner conflict and panic that's an ugly mocktail of emotions that range from horror to fear. Trying to imagine what it's like to be cloned from the cloned party, and I imagine that it leaves you with the feeling of needing to crawl out of your own skin with discomfort.

And then he gets put on the other side of it. Danny Fenton, only fifteen, was cloned not even half a year ago, finding out he is a clone. And reactions, I imagine, can vary from person to person. But to him, it feels like something got stolen from him, like someone took a hole puncher and stuck it right into his chest and stole a chunk of himself from him.

It changes nothing about him and yet it changes everything. It's a betrayal on it's own to just find out he was a clone and they didn't tell him for fifteen years -- it shouldn't mean anything, because he's still Danny, and yet it means everything. It's him, it's him, it's about him. It's his personhood. It's about the fact that a load-bearing rock in his identity just crumbled beneath his feet and now there's a rockslide.

Because then he finds out that they used the wrong DNA. Its like pouring salt in an open wound. He's not even related to his parents or his sister, when for years he thought he was. It's the fact that pieces of his identity that he's been so secure in for so long just got ripped away from him in an instant. Then they tell him -- only through his own horrified prompting -- that the person whose DNA they used -- Bruce Wayne -- didn't even know he existed. That they accidentally used the wrong DNA, then didn't tell the person whose DNA they used.

The betrayal of being lied to for years turns really quickly into horror at his own existence. Something very similar to the horror he felt at being cloned and the skin-crawling discomfort that made him feel like his own skin wasn't really his. And then its not. It's actually not. Nothing but his own name feels like it belongs to him anymore -- not his hair, not his eyes, not his heart or his lungs, nothing feels like his anymore and he didn't know what that felt like until it was gone.

It's a question of Nature Vs. Nurture -- where does the line of "nature" begin and where does the line of "nurture" end? What of him is actually his? What of him is Bruce Wayne's? It's not logical, it's not supposed to be. It's a load-bearing wall on the house of his identity being destroyed and now everything else is caving down in on him. What belongs to Danny, what belongs to Bruce Wayne?

[dantoru]

i think this is going to take awhile…

[chiricat]

happy cat day🎉

[hitwiththetmnt]

“An Enigma at Best” P1

TW! Blood/Injury/Swearing/Stalker-ish activities/Distress

This is a comic based off of @desceros ‘s villain RISE Donnie blerb. I was lucky enough for them to let me illustrate the story and insert my own OC and dialogue

Thank you again Des and I hope your enjoy!

(P2 here)

[sporkkles-irl]

coping via drawing the cutest possible rui

[bloomingnewwrld]

meltdown akikoha :)

[krasytoonz]

smooches from the other side

[amanitacurses]