#yeah i will not lie homeschool did not make me well adjusted but it did give me a certain self confidence that is always in there

[gideonisms]

Didn’t know you were religious homeschooled! Every time you post about the horrors of jobs I’m like so true I agree with everything you say and then here’s another thing we have in common. do I struggle with working because of the homeschooling or was I homeschooled because I struggled with the school environment? It’s unclear but either way. yikes

Yeah I think the beginning of gtn resonates with certain people who might have a few things in common haha. Being religious in your teens in your conservative hometown is a particular kind of experience I guess.

It definitely is interesting how people kind of shift their lives to reflect or oppose situations they were in as a child. I was fairly happy being homeschooled because I love to sit around and read or write quietly. Other people hated it! It seems like it has something to do with personality, although I can't really recommend isolating kids or protecting them from the world in hopes they'll be religious when they grow up. I can't really recommend the American public school system either, although for many people it's the only option. I think our focus should probably be on trying to improve it AND improve the way we work so that kids don't have to spend a million hours a day there. Idk it's complicated

[bqstqnbruin]

Lead Me

Something about that GIF woowowow ok 

This was another request and I think I have one more still to write but I got distracted today by not doing all of my homework that is due on Tuesday (thank God for Easter Monday and Catholic schools)

But here it is!

Here is the original request!

___________________________

“We’re here today with members of Team Canada figure skating! They’re going to be showing our guys some of their moves to see how graceful they can actually be. Something tells me it’s not going to go well for our guys,” One of the PR people for the Flames says to one of the cameras that would be recording you. You were nervous, but this was part of being on the team, so you had to do it. You were a stereotypical figure skater, petite, timid, and quiet. But that played to your strength on the ice, which is why you made the team in the first place. Doing this thing with hockey players who are the exact opposite is what scares you.

The cameramen spread out across the ice as someone from the team staff comes to split the guys up into groups for each of you to teach. Ten guys were being split among five skaters. You got Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm. You had to teach them a routine that they could do as a pair and the best routine would win skate tying privileges for 30 games. The two of them towered over you, both nearly a foot taller than you. Both could easily crush you if they so much as tripped on you.

“Ok, so, I’m going to teach you a basic routine. You need to start in fifth position, your arms out, your head down, like this,” you say, showing them. You look up to see Elias doing what you asked, Matthew struggling to find his balance. “Matthew, let me help.” You skate over to him and adjust him so he looks like Elias. 

His eyes meet yours. For a moment, you felt like Rory and Dean in the first episode of Gilmore Girls, when Rory drops all her stuff on the ground while leaving Stars Hallow High. “Um..” you try to find your words, “So let’s move on to the next part.” 

The only words you try to say are those revolving around teaching the two boys the routine, but they kept asking you questions.

“How did you get started with skating?” Matthew asked.

“My family is a big hockey family, so I’ve been skating since I could walk.” 

“Why figure skating over hockey?” he pries.

“Look at me?” you say, confused. You were barely over a hundred pounds; you’ve had people tell you in the past that you look like you could break anytime you jump; you would actually be murdered if you even wore all the hockey gear.

“Oh, trust me, I see you,” he says under his breath.

“What?” you say, not quite making it out. 

Elias bursts out laughing, Matthew turning bright red, “Yeah, Matthew, I don’t think I heard what you said either.” He playfully pushes Matthew to the side.

“Y/N, I had asked about your family,” he tries to cover and change the subject.

“I have two older brothers, who, like I said, played hockey, but I clearly did something similar but not the same.”

“That’s like me and my siblings; Brady and I play hockey and Taryn plays field hockey. Something similar but not the same.” 

You start to smile, “I always wanted to play field hockey,” you admit, and you actually did. No one ever really brought it up in conversation, and you weren’t someone to just spill stuff about yourself. 

You guys had downtime anyway, the routine was done and they had run through it twice in its entirety, so you actually didn’t mind the conversation. No one ever really had a conversation with you in a group setting.

“What about school, how did you balance school and skating?” He asks, sitting down on the ice. 

You and Elias follow suit, plopping yourself down so you are directly facing him, Elias off to the side, looking giddy for some reason, “I went to a boarding school in America called Miss Porters in Connecticut, then did homeschool when we found out I had a shot at making the national team. What about you?”

“I’m a Catholic schoolboy,” he admits, “Which is what makes me the man I am today.” he pretends to flip his hair, hand movements and all. All it does it shake the wild curls on top of his head.

You can’t help but laugh, “So Catholic school makes you into a man who can’t do a simple figure skating routine?” you tease.

“I beg to differ.” He says, being dramatic, causing you to laugh again. You don’t even notice that Elias has moved further away from the two of you. Either that, or you two moved closer together. 

“Uh, let’s just go back over what you guys are doing,” you get up as quick as you can, “You still have half an hour, so might as well work on anything you don’t know?” 

“Hey, Y/N. Do you think you can help me with that last move? I want to see you do it with Matthew. You know, so I can see how it’s supposed to be done?” Elias says, smirking.

“Sure?” The last move was trying to be a play on Jason Brown’s 2014 USA National’s routine, Riverdance. The boys were free to act silly, which came easy to them anyway and do a grapevine move while holding each others hands, then turning to face the ‘audience’ and basically trying to do the highest high kicks they could do while still holding on to one another.

Matt skates up to you, taking your hands like he would Elias’, a chill running down your spine as soon as his hands meet yours. “I’m sorry he’s having you do this,” he says, quiet enough that Elias can’t hear as him and the other guys are looking on and whispering. “I’m not normally great at talking with girls, but with you, it’s been kind of easy, right?”

You look up at him, smiling, “Yeah, it has been.” You guys do the end of the routine, but he ends up tripping you. You fall flat on your butt, bursting out laughing. “Oh, my God,” you say between cackles.

“Y/N! Are you ok?” Matthew helps you up, but you double back over, laughing. Elias comes over to check on you, too.

“Yeah, that was just so bad.” you blurt out. You tried your hardest, but there was no way these two were going to get their skates tied. 

“It’s not my fault!” Matthew defends himself.

“Your foot was under hers when you were doing the kicks. It is a hundred percent your fault.” Elias said. “I guess you wanted her to fall for you somehow?” 

“What?” 

“Cut it out,” Matthew says. “Ignore him, he hasn’t had food in two hours. He gets cranky.” Elias just shrugs and skates away from the two of you. The other guys were waiting around to start, but you notice Elias say something, pointing over to the two of you, the guys craning their necks to get a glimpse of the two of you. You don’t even notice that Matthew was trying to talk to you. “Y/N? Did you hear what I just said?”

“Uh, no sorry, I thought they were going to give us instruction.” You lie.

“I was wondering if after this if you’re not busy, we could go grab some food somewhere?” 

“Wait,” Your turn to meet his eyes, the sincerity and nervousness of his voice coming through on his face. 

“If those idiots don’t scare you into saying no, then yeah.”

“Yeah, I would like that.” You say, smiling, “But I think right now, you have to go humiliate yourself.” 

Elias and Matthew did a horrible job with their routine; Matthew forgot to jump when they were supposed to and Elias ended up hitting him in the face. Then, Matthew tripped Elias in the same way that he had tripped you earlier, so you guess it was payback. Intentional or not, the other guys couldn’t contain their laughter, just like you. 

One of the guys on the national team came up to you, ”You taught them a routine that would have won, they just gave you idiots, didn’t they?” he says, laughing.

“They’re all idiots, probably. But, they did about as expected.” 

“Looks like one of them has his eye on you, though,” he says, pointing to Matthew. The rest of the guys were watching Noah and Johnny try to do a triple axel, something that takes a few years to get down. Matthew, couldn’t seem to take his eyes, off you, smiling.

You just blush and shrug. You really didn’t have any words to say.

Surprisingly, Matthew and Elias ended up winning. The way they did their routine, the guys thought it was intentional that they hit each other. It wasn’t intentional, but it got them their prize, so who really cares? 

After everything was finished, Matthew found you while you were wandering trying to find him. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah!” you say, as he takes your hand, leading you out. 

[dogcopter]

Dogcopter Appearance Masterlist

thank you to resources SU Wiki Dogcopter and Dogcopter/Gallery, and Steven Says wiki transcript searcher

This is just a list of Dogcopter appearances in SU, not analysis. One or two may surprise you!

Dogcopter episode appearances

Lars and the Cool Kids

Lion 2

Some people say ‘You can't teach an old dog new tricks’... Unless you're Dogcopter 3, in 3D! This February, the fur hits the fan!

Steven: Whoah, I can see why this is your favorite film franchise. Connie: That's right! In a world where humanity is pushed to the brink, it turns out that the one who is most human, is a dog! Copter. Steven: and did you see where that missile came out of? Connie: Heh, yeah. I just hope it stays faithful to the book. 

Amethyst: Oh, that's easy! Who needs to go see movies when you’ve got magic?

Steven: I'm sorry! I ruined everything, didn't I? I don't know why you hang out with me. I mess stuff up all the time. Connie: I don't know why you hang out with me! I'm so much more less interesting than you! And obviously you have some sort of magical destiny. Why would you even care about something like Dogcopter? Steven: Why?! Because it's Dogcopter! He's a dog, and a helicopter, and a cop! He shoots missiles out of his butt, and he's gonna save the world! Dogcopter is very cool and important to me. Connie: Well, I'm no Dogcopter.

Keep Beach City Weird 

Dogcopter 3 SUX April 23, 2014

I saw Dogcopter 3 in 3D tonight and all I have to say is WOOF!  

First of all, it’s a huge mistake to turn the last Dogcopter book into THREE movies.  Yes, the last book is over 900 pages, but there’s not enough story!  And the 3D was completely unnecessary.  If I wanted to see butt missiles flying at my face, I’d feed a dog some bottle rockets and put on a pair of safety goggles.

Dogcopter is supposed to be an uncompromising look at the military-industrial-pet complex, not “fun”!  Fun is the worst.

Also, if you live in the Delmarva area - do not see it at the Beach City Cineplex.  The parking lot is a mess!  Probably from a bunch of angry Dogcopter fans rioting.  Ugh, I’m going to see this 3 more times to make sure I hate it.

Tags: dogcopter 3 in 3D keep beach city weird kbcw

-

Lion 3

Dogcopter: I win. Steven: Oh, what? That was a good move! Dogcopter: Thanks. Steven: Dogcopter. How do you do it? Dogcopter: How do I do what? Steven: I mean, what's your secret? How'd you get so talented? Dogcopter: Don't focus so much on talent, Steven. Making art is all about communication. A piece of art is a conversation. Every choice you make, is a statement.

Continued under cut

Dogcopter: Don't worry about labels, or conforming to a standard. Just be true to yourself, and people will appreciate your honesty. Steven: Woah. Thanks for the advice. Dogcopter: And take a deep breath. Steven: What?

suworkbook wrote a brilliant piece of meta around this dream

Steven: Here again? I don't know what this place is but it feels... familiar. Why can't I breathe? Wait a minute... Lion! Lion, my face is not your bed! What's going on with you?

Chille Tid

Steven: Whoa. Dogcopter! Mr. Copter! Sir! I'm one of your biggest fans, can I please have your autograph? Dogcopter: (meows) Steven: Mr. Copter, please! Steven: Hey wait! Where are you going?! Steven: I hope the rumors about Dogcopter in the tabloids aren't true. Steven: Huh? Oh! Hey, Pearl! Steven: Wait! Don't eat me! Steven: Oh, man! Thanks for the upgrade, Pearl! Now I can catch up with Dog— Steven: Woah, Amethyst? Steven: Hmm... This is... getting really weird. Lapis: This is weird. Steven: Hey, that sounds a lot like— Lapis: Steven! Steven: Lapis Lazuli! Lapis: Steven, what are you doing in here?

Keep Beach City Weird

KEEP BEACH CITY SPOILER FREE January 04 2016

Hey weirdos!  For the past few months, I’ve done something unprecedented - I’ve stayed off the internet.

It was hard but I had to do because I’ve been trying to stay SPOILER FREE for the movie event of the new millennium!  This December was the revival of one of the most famous sci-fi franchises in the world.  Yep, you know what I’m talking about: DOGCOPTER.

So for three months, I sequestered myself from all internet communications.  I handed over my laptop and my phone to my little bro, Peedee, and ordered him to bury them in an undisclosed location in the deserts of New Mexico.

I think he just put them in the walk-in freezer at the fry shop.  

I won’t lie, it was hard.  But I calmed my nerves by reacquainting myself with the “Young Adult Conspiracy” section at my local library.  And instead of getting in arguments with internet trolls, I got in real life arguments!  With my dad!

And after months of avoiding and spoilers or teasers or trailers, I was in line for Dogcopter 4, and then some dummy walking out of the theater TOTALLY SPOILED EVERYTHING and was like, “I can’t believe that Dogcopter’s parents are actually cats.”  

Ug!  I hope you’ve seen the movie because that’s pretty much the big ending.  Dogcopter dies defending the planet but then he comes back to life because he’s actually part cat and cats have 9 lives.  Anyway, the movie was pretty much ruined.  So now I’m back.  Spoilers are the worst.

Tags: Keep Beach City Weird Dogcopter

-

Fun fact if you invert this poster and adjust the contrast a bit, some odd diagram in the back appears:

Steven’s Birthday

Amethyst: What are you doing? Steven: Well uh...What are YOU doing? Greg: What are YOU doing to your body? Amethyst: Woah, woah, woah, have you been stretching yourself out all day? Steven: No! I was just... slouching. Greg: Why are you doing this? It... really isn't like you. Steven: Because, Dad, I can't stay a kid forever, when Connie grows up and becomes president what is that gonna make me? First Boy!? Amethyst: Steven, you can't just keep stretching forever. If you hold it too long, you could really hurt yourself. Steven: Yeah well, I'm half human so maybe it works different for me, we'll just have to wait and see, right? Greg: Steven...

Connie: That one's... "Canis helicopterus". Steven: Uh-uh, "Helicopterus"? Connie: Yeah, Dogcopter, get it? Now you make one up! Steven: Okay, um, That one's, uh, snake constellation. Connie: That's... pretty good. Are you okay? It looks like you're gonna throw up. Steven: Oh yeah, everything's fine!  Connie: Okay... that's good. You know, to be honest, I was a little worried before. This might sound silly, but I'm really glad that I'm going to get to grow up with you. Connie: ...Steven? Steven! What's going on? What happened? Connie: We were just talking then all of a sudden- Pearl: He turned back into a baby?! Connie: YES!

Keep Beach City Safe

DOGCOPTER 4: ALL DOGS GO TO WAR Jan 5 2016

Dogcopter 4 has finally been released! All Dogs Go to War!

I’ve been dying to see this movie for age, but I never had the time. I’ve been so busy with my blog and picking the perfect present for Steven. I’ve watched all the other Dogcopter Movies, but I haven’t had time to watch this one. But now I have a little free time to do something. After I watch it I won’t spoil it for the rest of you. I’m gonna be a Smart Spoiler and drop hints in my post for you guess. Only those who have watched it will notice the clues. Yep, watching it 9 times.

#Dogcopter 4 #Steven's Birthday Present #Dogcopter Movies #Smart Spoiler

Same Old World

Lapis: So, what does happen in Empire City? Steven: Well, let's see. If you lived here, you could get a cool apartment, and be a single Gem taking on the big city. You'll have a fun job at a local coffee shop and come home to a wacky roommate... Lapis: I have no idea what you're talking about. Steven: Awww.

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Steven: I'll take care of this! Kiki: Steven, be careful! Steven: Don't worry about me! Anything is possible when you have... rockets for bones! Kiki: Steven, that was so brave! Steven: Well, it's cheddar than nothing.

Steven: Oh, hey, Dogcopter. Dogcopter: (meows) Steven: See ya, dream Kiki! Kiki: Oh, okay. See you, dream Steven! Steven: Dream Steven!

Little Homeschool

Steven: Sadie's been touring with The Suspects, promoting their new album, and Connie has been getting a head start on college prep. She's two years away from applying, but she says it doesn't hurt to start early. Steven: And speaking of higher education, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and I have been cooking up a dream of our own! Cherry Quartz: I have no idea who you're talking about.

Snow Day

Amethyst: Guess what we've got lined up tonight. "Pupcopter's Sky-High Adventure"! Pearl: Sheet masks with cute animal faces! Garnet: And, most importantly, pizza. Steven: Uh, guys, I've been a vegetarian for, like, a month, and "Pupcopter" is for 6-year-olds, and I have my own skin care routine. Anyways, it's cool. I already ate.  Amethyst: Oh well. We'll just watch the movie with Cat Steven. Garnet: My bad. I was sure we were in the pepperoni timeline.

In Dreams

Dogcopter: (flies away) Stefan: Noooo!

Together Forever

Lion: (roars) Connie: Huh? Steven: Hey, Connie! How you doin'? Connie: Steven? What are you doing here? Steven: You're gonna have a fifteen-minute break in...two minutes, right? Connie: Whoa! Spot on. Steven: Connie, let's go for a walk. I'm sure you could use some fresh air. Connie: I would love to! But um... Steven: No, no, no! Don't worry! We'll go with Lion, and I promise you'll be back in fifteen minutes! Connie: Okay! Let's do this!

Growing Pains

Drew: I know you're eager to chase the mail truck, Dogcopter. But the mail truck is a decoy. Good boys chase the blue car. Be a good boy, Dogcopter. Drew: Nice work, DC! Now get the bomb off the bridge! We're almost out of time! Drew: Dogcopter! No! Drew: Dogcopter, I can't lose you. Drew: Is this... what I think it is?

Announcer: Dogcopter 6: Till Death Do We Bark: I Now Pronounce You Man And Woof! Steven: Everyone's getting married but me! Ugh! I feel like poop.

[a-very-fond-farewell]

The forbidden crack! Untamed prompts: 25/?

Gaming Chat AU [xuexiao + songxiao = ?]: “Lie to Me”

[tw cyber bullying; tw use of slurs; tw fake suicide mention; there’s a redemption arc, but it starts with 15yo Xue Yang being... well, himself I guess. so be warned.]

[attn!: I don’t know shit about playing games and going to quests with strangers on the internet so bear with me. if you feel inspired by this please, by all means, feel free to use this prompt and write something and then tag me so I can read it and reblog it!]

[enjoy!]

*

It’s been 15 years since that idiotic intern at the school counseling center suggested him to... what did he say? “Channel his anger in something productive”. And then tried to talk Meng Shi into purchasing a fucking computer to let him “get off some steam” by killing fictional people instead of smashing actual valuable objects like, say, the principal’s Mercedes with a stolen golf club, or, the nurse’s desk with a fire extinguisher back in middle school.

Good thing Su She had disappeared under mysterious circumstances after Xue Yang had surreptitiously let the intern’s uni professor know in a detailed email how the aspiring counselor had suggested him (a sweet innocent 15 year old) to use his new computer to watch porn instead of focusing on his studies. Song Lan was much better than him, and bitchier too, which was fine by Xue Yang anyway. Not that he cared.

What good had that stupid glorified television brought him in the end? Most of the computers at school had become intimately familiar with many a malware and virus already with how frequently he used to browse through the deep web. The ones at the local library had let him in on the secrets of 4ch*n since the tender age of 8. Hell, even his pediatrician had made the glorious mistake to leave him alone in her office one merry day of winter when he discovered the wonders of x-rated videos.

But Meng Shi had tried to cheer him up anyway, buying him that stupid thing. Working her ass off at the bar trying to make social services forget she used to be a stripper back in the days. All to provide a place for children in foster care to feel safe, the stupid hag. Xue Yang wasn’t fucking stupid, he knew she was collecting money for every kid ever stepping inside her ratty flat. He knew that she would have never adopted anyone for real because she already had a son and she was working to send him to university anyway.

Yet, she had come home one day with a big smile on her youngish and bland face, hoisting up the heavy computer in a box, and told Xue Yang to share it with his siblings. Yeah, fuck that. That little bitch A-Qing was even worse than him, and she probably used to sell feet-pictures recycled from the internet to disgusting men online. To this day Xue Yang is none the wiser and he doesn’t need to know what that fucking witch had been up to at 14. XuanYu would have used the computer to stream and torrent shit nonstop to sell at school even if he was only, like, 12. Qin Su was 15 like him and she would have been tempted to set up a fucking YT channel and subject him and XuanYu to whatever scientific experiment she would have come up with. And Meng Yao had too much embarrassing blackmail material on Xue Yang already, he didn’t need to have access on his erased search history after digging gods-knows for how long.

Ahah no. No thanks.

But detention got him occupied for so long by cutting library books pages down to papermen without getting bored out of his mind. And he did have his fun that one time when he caught a pervert with a hand down his pants when they chatted on Om*gle after Xue Yang had catfished him good by pretending to be a girl. Got everything on tape and published the whole interaction on the school website for everyone to see. Which had been appropriate at the time, given that the man had been part of the board of directors. Fittingly hilarious too.

Still, boredom loomed over him like a quilt of sadness on summer break and he had been tempted to log in and play games in the end. Nobody wanted him in their stupid ass teams anyway, with him having higher kill counts than them and all, not following tactics and so on. Whatever.

Until one day user shuan_ghua naively trusted Xue Yang when the other assured him that “teabagging“ was just a fancy slang for ordering a cup of jasmine tea. The 17 year old boy named Xiao XingChen had thanked him for teaching something new to him and then proceeded to ask him to join his one-man-party out of fucking nowhere.

Everything changed after that.

[more under the cut. it’s long long tho]

XXC family!:

XXC is 17 at the beginning of the story and he used to live with his mother Baoshan [i know that “Sanren” and “Daoren” are titles, but in absence of a real surname I will use them as such for this prompt. feel free to change that if you take inspiration from this post to write your take on the story] and the rest of their family on a mountain before they moved back to the city in Gusu.

XXC’s mother was barely 20 when she got married the first time and her first son Daoren YanLing was born. two years later her husband died and she travelled a lot afterwards, adopting 4yo CanSe when she was 25. then she married again at 41, had XXC at 44, and then divorced at 48.

CanSe eloped with ChangZe when she was 18 and got WWX at 20, the same year her own mother got married again (at 41).

BaoShan got XXC three years later (at 44).

hence, WWX is 3 whole ass years older than XXC despite being his nephew. both boys find the thing absolutely hilarious.

YanLing and CanSe are only 1 year apart and they still bicker nonstop. both of them went to school with Lan QiRen and his older brother and frequently got in fights back in the days at Gusu.

(if YanLing had a thing for Lan QiRen, well, nobody has to know)

XXC, being the baby of his family, is doted on by YanLing and brought to mischief by CanSe until XXC’s father divorces their mother and they move on the mountain along with ChangZe and 7yo WWX.

up on the mountain BaoShan works as a tour guide and she takes baby XXC and WWX on hikes along with tourists to admire the beauty of the scenery.

XXC’s sight starts deteriorating when he is 12 and WWX is 15. they have been homeschooled until then, so when it gets clear XXC will not improve much so far away from proper healthcare, the whole family moves back to the city in Gusu.

XXC is not comfortable leaving his new home, not with all those new noises and flashing lights. WWX is drawn to them instead, more than happy to enroll in school, where he meets JC and he realizes the boy is the son of CanSe’s middle school boyfriend. WWX declares them to be almost-brothers and is perfectly fine with adopting even JC’s older sister in the family and CanSe can only laugh at that. JC and YanLi visit XXC often as a result and they help him make sense of the new environment without stressing him too much.

YanLing finds a job as a cook in WWX’s school and he is back to making Lan QiRen’s life impossible after learning the man is a teacher there.

LWJ and LXC’s mother is a music teacher there as well and YanLing bonds with her to make Lan QiRen life’s an absolute nightmare.

LWJ and LXC make friends with the mountain gremlins and they are initially horrified by their manners: XXC would pick food from the ground and eat it, it doesn’t have to be his for that to happen to begin with; WWX doesn’t realize he should cut his nails (both for his feet and hands) until he is forced to wear shoes outside and not climb up trees, for he assumed nails simply never grew bc he used them constantly, wearing them down; etc.

LWJ hates himself for falling for WWX but he cannot care less.

LXC notices how lonely XXC feels when wangxian becomes a thing, so he buys him a computer to better gather more information about the world and adjust the settings to maximum accessibility whenever XXC wants to read something.

by the age of 17 XXC is mostly left alone in the house: WWX goes to uni; his mother BaoShan works at a local museum; his brother YanLing is trying to not get fired at his job; and his sister CanSe has started to travel with her husband selling the delicate dizi flutes ChangZe makes as an artisan.

XXC is also on the waiting list for an important eye surgery and he figures he has a couple of years to go before he will either lose his sight or be granted a second chance at life altogether.

XY’s family!:

Meng Shi had Meng Yao at 19 and started stripping the following year in Yunmeng. 

her friend SiSi helped her both financially and emotionally, spending time with A-Yao while she worked at night. after four years she can move out of her flat and finds a job as a bartender downtown. she would have kept her old job, if SiSi hadn’t convinced her to think of A-Yao first, who was painfully shy and didn’t know how to socialize with other kids his age.

at 24 she starts the paperwork to become a foster parent and has to child-proof her entire apartment before the first kid arrives. at 25 she welcomes Qin Su, who is only 5, and initially A-Yao doesn’t want to share his mother with anyone. the situation gets bad to the point social services have to take Qin Su away one year later, because she tried to set A-Yao’s hair on fire in retaliation once, but two years later Meng Shi gets her back.

A-Yao, now 9 years old, has thought about it and reasoned that having a sister wasn’t so bad after all. Qin Su is only one year younger than him and she will not take up much space, right? wrong. but they bond over their shared nerdiness and while A-Su likes to blow things up, A-Yao helps his mother with taxes every year.

at 29 Meng Shi takes in XuanYu, who is not an orphan like A-Su, and still misses his birth mother fiercely. she had to give him up for adoption when he was 3, because she had been only 15 when XuanYu was born and her family threatened to disown her. 

being profoundly deaf on top of that, no foster home wanted to have him and he was kept in the system for three years after his mother had to let him go. the woman had tried to be present for him while he waited for a family to pick him, teaching him sign language and reading lips, but she had been forced to eventually let go.

XuanYu arrives at Meng Shi’s when he’s 6. A-Yao (10yo) and A-Su (9yo) try their best to involve their new brother, but they don’t know how to communicate with him. SiSi takes the children to sign language classes at the community center after school and XuanYu warms up to them. he teaches Meng Shi what they learned the previous day every morning, before going to school. teachers don’t really pay attention to him, but he manages by reading lips when people face him properly, which is a rare occurrence, but he tries his best.

when A-Yao and A-Su realizes A-Yu is being bullied, they start to get nasty, setting backpacks on fire and terrorizing the other children at school. even when they move to middle school one after the other nobody picks on A-Yu, fearing what his siblings could do.

XY arrives at Meng Shi’s when she is 32 (A-Yu is 9, A-Su is 12, A-Yao is 13) and XY is 12. A-Su initially gets jealous bc they are the same age, but XY doesn’t talk to anyone for a year and ignores her attempts to rile him up. Meng Shi had been warned about him: his father had killed his mother and then failed to kill himself afterwards... and XY still believed the man was out there, looking for him to finish the job. XY had lived on the street for years before social services could find him, but he had felt trapped like a dog, not wanting to be touched, frequently running away.

XY doesn’t remember much of his life before entering foster care. he only knows everything is a bother, that his nightmares give him constant migraines, and that he doesn’t care how he lost one of his fingers. but anyone who makes fun of him for that gets kicked, that’s for sure.

it’s only when A-Qing (12) comes one year after XY’s arrival that things get a bit better... so to speak. 

she is even less well behaved than him, thrashing around at night, screaming at the top of her lungs, saying that she doesn’t want to be there. that she’s better than the rest of them combined. 

her anger issues trigger something in XY and the two of them get into fights with each other constantly.

A-Yao (14) and A-Su (13), reminiscing of the 2 years they spent apart because they couldn’t stop hitting each other up, take the issue seriously and convince Meng Shi to ask for help. SiSi is the one taking A-Qing and XY to therapy two times a week and they are followed through by professionals who know how to tackle their issues, an elderly woman who goes by the name of Lan Yi (LWJ and LXC’s paternal grandma) and her assistant Wen Qing, an intern working there for uni credits.

one year later XY is 14 and A-Qing is 13 and they... don’t really love each other, but at least they can talk to one another without trying to kill anyone in the process. they spend a lot of time with A-Yu (11) and learn sign language to keep him entertained.

by the age of 35, Meng Shi has 5 kids and can barely afford food for herself but she is happy like never before. A-Yao (16) is already considered smart enough to attend advanced math classes in high school. A-Su (15) has won a science competition sponsored by city hall. A-Yang (15) is trying to work on his anger issues with video games, making friends online. A-Qing (14) doesn’t let anyone make fun of her for her dyslexia, asking adults and classmates to take her issue seriously for once. And A-Yu (12) wants to learn how to sign in different languages to maybe travel the world one day.

Meng Shi is very happy indeed.

now, the plot: (tw fake suicide mention; tw use of homophobic slurs)

XY (15) and XXC (17) meet online every night before bed, playing video games together. XY made a mistake first time they chatted, saying he was 17 instead of 15 bc he didn’t want the other to look down on him.

XXC trusts him a little too much and doesn’t question if his new friend is lying to him or not. he’s the funnies person he has ever met, after all.

WWX (20) notices something is wrong by the way XXC starts speaking around others, using inappropriate language when he has never been anything but polite and gentle. even if, technically, XXC is WWX’s uncle, the latter sees the other more like a cousin than anything else given that he’s older. so he takes the matter in his own hands and one day asks him to let him play games with him.

XY doesn’t like his only friend not telling him someone else would have joined their party, and initially he covers XXC in insults and threatens to leave. but then WWX is really good at killing fictional people and XY reconsiders. he makes fun of WWX for being the older one AND the other’s nephew at the same time, but aside from that he doesn’t try to run away like a caged animal anymore.

WWX trust XXC when the younger says XY is 17 like him, but he still supervisions most of their sessions just to be sure XY cannot teach too many horrible things to XXC. WWX wants XXC to make more friends and maybe one day leave the house to attend university if the other will feel inclined to do so, but he doesn’t pressure him.

in the meantime, XY changes counselor at school and it is Song Lan (23) who tries to make a better human out of him. SL is deaf and occasionally uses cochlear implants to hear, but only because his family made the choice for him to have surgery when he was only a child. he can speak if he feels like it at times (not frequently, he’s very adamant about reminding others he doesn’t owe them anything. he’s also trying to make a change at the school where he works by organizing classes on Deaf culture and sign language for the students to take as an elective)

XY already knew of SL thanks to XuanYu, bc A-Yu had seen the counselor at the community center where SiSi usually takes the kids to for sign language classes. counseling at school doesn’t really happen one-on-one, detention kids being too many to follow one at a time and all, but when SL comes by to chat with them he’s always funny as fuck and XY (who will never admit it) feels good about being the only one in class able to understand SL only through sign language.

SL forces himself to talk to the kids and read their lips only bc... well, they’re young and did nothing wrong to him. he occasionally asks XY to help him translate, but aside from that there are really too many kids to look after and he doesn’t treat XY differently from the others, nor he notices him much.

two years pass and XXC (19) announces to XY (17) that wangxian (22) is having their wedding. since XY has learned all about their family, he asks XXC if it’s a common thing to get married super young in their household and XXC laughs... but it’s a sad and brittle thing and XY gets a bit worried.

XXC reveals then that soon after the wedding he will have a surgery to (hopefully) fix his sight and he’s very anxious. he timidly asks XY if he wants to go to the wedding with him, because he would like to see his face at least once before the surgery.

XY panics: he knew XXC’s eyesight was bad, but he never knew to what extent exactly; he’s not really of age yet, so he cannot move on the other side of the country just to attend a wedding; he has never talked specifically about XXC with his family and Meng Shi is working a lot and A-Yu should get his hearing aids soon and A-Qing needs help for her finals and... and...

...and he’s not ready to meet XXC.

XY lied to him and told him they’re the same age. he had never told XXC his name, even if the other had revealed his own, always going by his username jiang_zai. he called him and chatted with him and made fun of his own family and the other had been nothing but kind and amazing and... and... and XY realizes he’s been in love for a while and he abhors the idea to the point where he openly laughs at XXC and calls him a sap.

XXC notices the change in his tone immediately and wonders if he’s overstepped, if he’s asked too much by inviting the other over to celebrate with the rest of the family. XXC apologizes to XY and begs him to not step away like he usually does when he feels cornered.

XY feels absolutely cornered and attacks XXC by asking him why he’s so keen on asking him out (“are you a f*g or something?” etc.). the other doesn’t even know what that means but hearing XY so scared hurts, bc he doesn’t want to make the other uncomfortable in any way.

XXC does like XY romantically, but would never dream to say anything and hinder their friendship. yet, it hurts more to hear his only friend so afraid and angry. he apologizes profusely and promises him not to bring the subject back.

after that, XY doesn’t log in much, avoiding XXC. A-Yao (18) notices he’s sullen and tries to spend more time with him, but the younger doesn’t budge and talks less and less. even SL (25) sees XY less and less, but he doesn’t thinks the younger one is actually skipping classes or anything.

but XY is, in fact, skipping school and Meng Shi covers for him saying he doesn’t feel well enough to go to class. she knows something’s up and she also understands the need to have days off in order to take care of yourself when everything goes to shit.

wangxian wedding happens and XXC is both happy and sad. they made him the official photographer of the day, which is both sweet and incredibly hurtful, because he’s the one taking all those beautiful pictures... and maybe he will never be able to look at them ever again after the surgery. WWX and LWJ already had to organize the wedding earlier than what they originally planned to accommodate XXC and the date of the surgery. XXC feels bad but he’s very happy for them.

YanLing and CanSe worry about him and they ask their mother to help them figure out what’s going on. BaoShan agrees with WWX that XXC had a fight with a friend, alright, but that cannot be all, surely...

it’s the week before XXC’s hospitalization and WWX takes the issue in his hands. logs in pretending to be XXC and plays until he takes XY’s place in the rankings of his and XXC’s favorite game.

XY receives notifications about it and initially fumes at the idea of being outranked, but then he understands what XXC is trying to do and doesn’t know how to react.

he does something horrible instead.

WWX waits to be contacted by this jiang_zai boy who broke XXC’s heart, but when it finally happens... it’s not the familiar, high-pitched voice he expects to hear in the chat. it’s a girl (A-Qing), who tells him her brother had died and that he won’t be playing games anymore. she sounds too serious to be joking and WWX tries to ask more about it... but she just tells him her brother killed himself before ending the call.

WWX doesn’t have the heart to tell this to XXC, not before the surgery and not until he has properly recovered (one year later).

XXC had wondered about XY in silence, not trusting himself to reveal all about his crush to his family, worrying about making the other boy uncomfortable. 

XXC misses XY, but he is patient. he can wait.

A-Qing had agreed to lie for XY only because he lied to her first: he told her a creep on the internet had tried to meet with him and he needed a way out; outraged, A-Qing had helped him without a second thought and answered the chat in his place. 

this spurs her to take more seriously what she and her siblings had been doing on the Internet and reconsiders some of the things she herself posted in the past. she will take this topic so much at heart that she will pursue an academic career to become a social worker.

XXC’s surgery goes well, but he still loses his sight after a while. WWX ends up telling him what happened to his online friend and XXC is so heartbroken he doesn’t even blame WWX for keeping the secret from him for so long. 

after some time BaoShan makes sure he goes to therapy and takes better care of him, helping him figure out what to do. she fears people will look down on XXC and, as a blind person, he will probably be hindered by the system to pursue a career, so she retires from her job at the museum and focuses all of her attention on him.

XXC feels guilty for XY’s passing, but he doesn’t think the other had been triggered to commit suicide bc of him: XXC simply fears XY had hid a different type of sorrow from him; a pain so deep that XXC had failed to see while they were playing silly games. so, three years after the surgery, when he’s 21, he enrolls in uni to study psychology to help kids who are struggling to ask for help.

15 years after XXC and XY had met online:

XY is 30 and a professional carer. he studied to become a nurse, of all things, after what happened. he got a lot of time to think about the horrible thing he had done to XXC and considered helpings others to atone for that.

he is the first to say such a choice was very out of character for him, and even if he has to bite his tongues at times he doesn’t mind his job: it keeps him occupied and exhausts him well enough... but after working in the hospital for 5 or so years he decides to become a carer and trains to help disabled people in particular in his late twenties.

A-Su (30) has become a chemical engineer and married a man working as a lawyer (who happens to be LXC), while A-Yao (31) ends up moving in with his best friend (NMJ). A-Qin (29) doesn’t find romance interesting enough to give up on her career as a social worker, so she doesn’t really move out of Meng Shi’s old flat and everyone is fine with that. A-Yu (27) has graduated from uni and travels the world as an interpreter. Meng Shi and SiSi have lived together since the first has adopted all the kids and they opened a B&B near the seaside. they are wives and very in love.

XY lives with A-Qing in Yunmeng until his late 20s and they fight a lot for stupid things (like when A-Qing makes fun of the boring people her brother hooks up with on the regular, or when XY tries to coerce her to do the fucking laundry by tickling her into a pulp of pain and tears), but otherwise they work well together.

A-Qing is working at the community center as a social worker to help the kids find purpose in life and use the internet safely. she still believes a creep had tried to mess with her brother and doesn’t want anything to happen to the kids under her care. XY knows this, but never got around to tell her the truth, believing it would have been pointless to reveal her how everything she knew had been a lie. even her own purpose on top of that.

A-Su’s husband (LXC) rarely got to speak with XY in person, the latter busy with his job as a nurse most of the time, but during a dinner party LXC has to suddenly leave because of an emergency: his brother-in-law had been brought to the hospital after a car crash and lost the use for both of his legs.

one year later, XY (29) coincidentally becomes WWX’s personal carer and decides to move closer to the man’s house in Yiling since it would be troublesome to help him as efficiently otherwise. XY does not recognize WWX (34) from his voice or name (he did play games with him in the past, sure, but he knew him as XXC’s nephew by the name of Wei WuXian, not Wei Ying, which is the name LWJ uses around him) and helps him around the house and out of it.

WWX’s husband (LWJ) is frequently out of the house to work as a lawyer like his older brother and entrusts WWX to XY, even if begrudgingly so. 

WWX pretends to be fine, but he has a tendency to try to sneak out and walk on crutches without anyone noticing, so LWJ has asked for a carer to come to their house every day. XY doesn’t have to bite his tongue as much around WWX, their interactions easy enough for the both of them to work together despite bickering about the stupidest things.

XY discovers WWX is friends with Wen Qing (37) (the same intern who helped the psychologist take care of XY and A-Qing while they sorted their shit out in the past). 

he meets her and learns from her how WWX’s family had moved in Yiling to help him recover after the crash. her brother Wen Ning is the physiotherapist helping WWX regain control of his legs, but there are basically no chances for him to go back to be a professional athlete even if he were to walk once more.

this new information spurs XY to force WWX to rest more and take his situation more seriously. they work together to find possible solutions and WWX decides that he would much rather have his legs cut off from the knee down that suffer through the pain of having multiple fractures splitting him apart day after day. the surgeons had done their best to save his legs, but the fractures had compromised his nerves maybe forever and the pain is now unbearable.

LWJ trusts his husband but he’s weary at the idea of having him evaluated for amputation. XY refuses to feel responsible for the tension in the house, since this is clearly what WWX wants. XY knows WWX is secretly considering running again on prosthetic legs in the future, but he doesn’t want to anger LWJ more by mentioning it. it’s too soon to know anyway, and who is he to tamper down what little hope WWX has managed to harbor for himself after an entire year drowning in grief?

one year later WWX (35) gets permission from his physician to get prosthetic legs fitted for his needs and he couldn’t be happier. his family visit him more frequently now to congratulate him, even his grandmother who has descended from the mountain where she retired to in order to celebrate him.

XY (30) has already met WWX’s parents and his oldest uncle, but he never suspected them to be related to XXC, because he had never knew them by name. 

yet, one day Song Lan (38) comes in with a huge backpack on his shoulders and recognizes XY immediately. XY doesn’t know why his old counselor is there: he knew WWX’s other uncle was coming over, but he never imagined it was SL they were talking about. 

SL is beaming at him, signing he met XY’s bother A-Yu during one of his travels as a tour guide and that they kept in touch. SL has come to know XY is the reason behind WWX’s recovery and he tells the younger man that everyone in their family is happy XY has appeared in their life.

XY doesn’t have time to answer, overwhelmed with this sense of belonging, this sense of being finally, finally accepted somewhere outside of his own family... that someone else enters the house with a backpack on his shoulders.

XY doesn’t know the man and SL enthusiastically guides him over to meet the newcomer. XY is surprised to hear SL speak out instead of using sign language as the older man asks “A-Chen” to come meet “his nephew’s savior”. based on the pronouns SL has just used, XY recognizes the newcomer to be WWX’s actual uncle and he smiles at the beautiful man in front of him...

...only to be filled with horror the minute the other speaks.

XXC (32) greets XY without knowing who he really is, smiling at him without even recognizing the younger man’s voice. the two of them had never seen each other, playing games only through chats and calls... but XY recognizes XXC immediately, aware that his own voice has changed drastically over the years.

XY is still transfixed and petrified when XXC asks him if it would be okay for him to touch his face to have a better idea of who he’s interacting with. XY doesn’t even register himself voicing his consent when he feels XXC’s hands on his face. only then he understands the infamous surgery had failed and that XXC did not regain his sight after his nephew’s wedding.

overwhelmed with grief, guilt and longing for what never was and never could be, XY is unaware of the tears rolling down his cheeks as XXC gently trails his features. XXC apologizes when he feels his palms dampening and he asks XY if he overstepped. next to them SL is distressed, not understanding what’s happening in front of him.

XY shakes his head and simply says... that he lost someone and that XXC reminded him of that person. then he excuses himself looking for WWX, to ask him to give him something... anything to do. he gets himself a task to accomplish and leaves the house brimming with relatives that he will never be able to call his own.

1 year later:

XXC and SL do not leave the city as they originally planned. they have travelled long enough for the time being and they decide to get a house close to WWX and his husband. they spend the following year after their return looking for stability and peace.

XY (31) didn’t stop working for WWX (36) and doesn’t plan to. not now that he got his new legs finally fitted. the recovery takes long, but it’s already been two years since the amputation now and WWX tries his best every day. he believes to be a handful and doesn’t dare ask for things he needs after receiving the prosthetics. XY is there to loudly remind him to stop being an idiot and that he is paying XY to boss him around however the fuck he wants. LWJ is very grateful to hear WWX laugh more and more these days thanks to XY.

XXC (33), however, is frequently around his nephew’s house, keeping him company. before his three-or-so years of traveling with his boyfriend SL, XXC has briefly worked as a psychologist with Wen Qing, of all people and the two of them have applied for a position at the community center in Yunmeng at the same time. there isn’t one available in Yiling and the commute shouldn’t be too bad. during that first year after his return, XXC has met A-Qing multiple times to inquire for a place at the center in Yunmeng and they are quickly becoming more involved with each other because of their shared passion for the job.

XY feels the end nearing, time ticking away. it had been an agonizing, brilliant, terrible year the one he had spent so close to XXC... and it is now coming to an end. knowing that A-Qing will eventually tell XXC how and why she became a social worker, spilling everything about how “her pitiful bastard of a brother had been molested by a pervert online” and so on. he only hopes A-Qing will never get to meet WWX... she would absolutely recognize the other man’s voice and accuse him of being the pervert in question and XY... XY will die.

XY feels trapped and he will most certainly have a stroke the moment XXC will realize that he lied to him, that he is still alive, that his reason to become a psychologist to help troubled kids was not a real thing... XY will die and Meng Shi will cry.

only because he lied about being 17 when he was 15 one day of 16 years ago.

XY disappears the same night XXC tells him he invited A-Qing over. SL (39) is overjoyed at the idea of meeting the girl once more after the time she and her step-siblings used to go to sign language classes at the community center in Yunmeng. WWX is interested as well, having heard all about A-Qing from XY along the years.

but XY disappears anyway.

2 years later:

it’s XuanYu (30) who finds him, but doesn’t ask him to go back home. A-Yu takes XY (33) with him in his travels for some months to hide him. he doesn’t ask him what he did in those two years, but he does force him to call Meng Shi and SiSi at least.

XY complies but still feels empty inside. the single year he had spent with XXC while the other visited WWX will be permanently engraved in his memories and he cannot stop thinking about it. about how gentle XXC had always been with him, how sad he had looked and sounded reminiscing an “old online friend who had died many years back”, how generous he had always been towards him and everyone and... and XY cannot do this anymore.

A-Yu may be younger than him, but he protects him well for those months... waiting for XY to tell him the truth. so one winters night finally XY does, starting from the beginning.

the following week, close to New Years, XY realizes A-Yu had betrayed him.

someone rings the bell of their shared apartment and A-Yu asks him to go open the door. XY does and it’s A-Qing (32) and WWX (38) who greet him with tears in their eyes. A-Qing tackles him on the ground and tries to hit him they way they used to do as kids, fists getting the point across faster than any word ever could, but WWX pries them apart and hugs them instead.

somehow, XY had not been notified of having acquired a new sibling, but WWX clearly considers him a brother of sorts and he had missed him greatly. A-Qing explains that A-Yu had sent her an email with XY’s version of the truth, sure... but she also tells him that she and WWX had solved the mystery soon after XY’s disappearance already, after talking extensively on the matter.

A-Qing had recognized WWX as the person she had talked to in chat all those years ago, that is true, but she also realized WWX was not, in fact, a bad person and that something didn’t add. when she understood who XY’s online friend actually was... she had felt sick to her stomach for having let someone as kind as XXC presume XY had killed himself bc of him.

hurt and confused, XXC’s family and even A-Qing’s one had initially blamed XY for the pain he had caused, the lot of them filled with anger and grief. especially BaoShan, who had felt guilty for not supervising and protecting her younger son better when he was still too naive to understand the ways of the world.

but then, seeing XY was not coming back, Meng Shi and SiSi insisted for XXC’s family to help them with the search instead. after two years the lot of them missed him. yes, even those who still berated him for his poor choices in life.

XXC now knows the truth and only wants XY to come back home.

some days later:

XXC opens the door after hearing the bell and he knows, he knows who the person in front of him is. he already had his suspicions back when he used to visit WWX every day two years back. WWX’s carer reminded him so much of his friend that... that he may have hoped.

but now XY is back and he has a name and a face and is alive and XXC greets him with a smile as the other hugs him and never lets go.

XY has never been happier in his entire, miserable life.

and XXC will never lose sight of him ever again.

the end.

[now imma go weep for fucking ages. also fuck typos.]

[pastel-bullet-101]

Part 3

I began running towards the field after changing to meet up with the rest of the class but the only thing running through my head. Was absolute joy.

I did it...

I DID IT!

I actually did a mini victory punch into the air. I cant believe I've actually was able to do it. I mean I've done it before once or twice but I did it under pressure and everything. I was so happy I couldn't stop smiling. I cant wait to tell Tomura he'll know that all the time he put into me wasn't a waste. "Y/n!" I look up to see Tsu waving me over. "Hey! Sorry I had some trouble with my zipper." I gave a small laugh.

"Hey next time you have trouble why dont you come to me and I'll be more than happy to help!" I looked down and noticed this short guy winking at me. "Umm excuse me?" I have to say I was hoping that he meant well. I mean hes in the hero course maybe he was just trying to be nice and worded it...weirdly. Tsu then grabbed my arm and started guiding me towards a group away from the guy. "Be careful around him I can assure you that he doesnt have wholesome intentions ribbit." I wanted to ask some more questions but our conversation was cut short by Aizawa. He basically told us that we'd be doing a physical exam but we were allowed to use our quirks. I never took a physical exam cause I was homeschooled all my life but it seems pretty self explanatory. "What was your long throw distance from middle school?" I looked over to who he was talking and notice a guy with blonde spiky hair. Which also happened to be the one who yelled at the two boys when I first entered the classroom. "About sixty seven meters."

"Alright now try the throw the ball using your quirk." I saw the blonde go up to the circle. Stretching his arms and prepping himself for the throw. I then noticed the green haired male that was the victim of the yelling fit focusing on him intently. No doubt he's a analyzer. I walk over to him and stand by him and lightly tap on his shoulder. He jumps a bit and looks over at me. "S-sorry am I in your way?" I quickly nodded a 'no' and pointed over to the blonde. "You were looking at him really strong I was just curious." I gave him a smile and he instantly started to flush. "O-oh um its just-"

"DIE!"

Our conversation was cut into when the blonde suddenly screamed and a large explosion emitted from his hands and then Aizawa show us the distance he threw it. 705.2 meters!

"As you can see your quirks can drastically change results so no holding back. And to make sure you have motivation the person who falls last in this exam will be expelled."

"HAH!?" The class collectively exclaimed.

"Wait but we all just got here and even if it wasn't the first day that's not fair!" I saw it was Ochako but Aizawa was quick to respond. "And you think villian attacks are fair? The world is full of unjust and there is nothing you can do about it so I recommend if you want to go into the hero field you'll need to learn now." Almost Everyone had the horrified expression but when I looked over to the same green haired boy his face was pure and utter fear. It was almost laughable but I decided against letting that reaction out. I could tell his eyes hold a lot of information and if I could get in good with him I get that arsenal of information. "Hey it's ok! If it makes you feel better my quirk isnt very good for these kinds of test. Not to mention this is my first ever physical exam." He seemed to soften a bit at my words but he was obviously still worried. "Thanks." What I said was true my quirk wasn't very good when it came to most of the physical exam my best score was the one for grip but that was more from training then my actual quirk. Yet i noticed that the same green haired boy was struggling bad. He was average in everything and in a class where average is superhumans hes not doing well. Then we got to the ball throw everyone was doing well even me with and impressive 58 meters. Though compared to Ochako its sub par. Then it got to the boy. Yet he had this gleam in his eyes. "Midoriya better shape up or else hes going home." I turn around to see the blue haired man next to that blonde. "Hah? Probably cause hes a quirk less loser." Quirkless? I didnt even know they accepted people like that. He then prepared for his throw. And it was

Disappointing to say the least.

He looked at his hands and then I noticed Mr Aizawa activating his quirk. He then wrapped him into his scarf and began to talk to him in a low voice. I tried to listen but I couldn't hear anything. I looked over to the blonde again. His eyes are in a constant glare he honestly looks more like a villian than a hero. "Hey! You got a staring problem or something!?" I lightly jumped at his remark. "Bakugou please refrain from being rude to you fellow classmates!" So his name is Bakugou. I looked over and noticed that the boy was alone. He looked down at the ball and prepped for the throw. I hear Mr Aizawa let out a grunttled sigh. The boy began throwing his ball but then at the last second a large burst of energy came out and the ball went flying. "Mr. Aizawa... I'm still standing." He had such a bright smile and even Mr. Aizawa had a smile on his face. Then Bakugou then went into a blind rage after seeing the kids throw. He was restrained by Mr. Aizawa and I could feel the steam radiating off of him.

The exams went on and I looked and i saw that Midoriya was at the bottom. I tried to memorize as many names as I would but he took the scores down. "Also I lied about the last person getting expelled." I saw immediate shock go over Midoriya's face. A girl with black hair then began to say how obvious the lie was. I was quick to meet up with Midoriya. "Hey that was a really impressive throw." He looked back to me and started stuttering a bit. "O-oh thanks um I really dont have much control though." He then showed me his finger. That was wrapped and he told me he broke his finger. So his body isnt adjusted to his quirk. "Hey do you know that blonde kid? His name was Bakugou I think."

"Oh Kacchan? Yeah me and him are childhood friends believe it or not..." He didnt seem very convinced. I noticed he was holding a journal. "Hey what's that if you dont mind me asking." His eyes lit up and he quickly opened it. "Its my hero analysis notebook I've been writing In them since forever in order to become a better hero." Bingo.

"Wow really? That's so cool!" I gave him the brightest smile I could muster. "Do you mind If i read it sometime?" He immediately blushed and covered part of his face. "Um y-yeah anytime." I then began to head back home but before I did I introduced myself to him and he told me his full name. "It was nice to meet you Midoriya." He then started walking his way back home. Once I was walking for a good bit and was abousultly sure I was alone I raised up my jacket and discreetly snuck back into the league of villians hideout.

I slowly opened up the door and closed it behind me.

"IM BACK!"

[itsanerdlife]

Bad Decisions - Deleted Scene.

Pairing: Rock Star! Peter Parker x Tony Stark’s Daughter! Reader 

Itsanerdlife Third Blog Birthday Deleted Scenes Birthday Celebration.

The bass throbbed, Buck slammed down on the drums with force that rattled your body. The song you knew so deeply, written by your husband shortly after you announced your pregnancy. You give your hip a bounce jiggling your daughter, Mae. She squeals loudly, well would be loudly if her father and uncles weren’t drowning out everything else around them on stage. Wanda adjusts the bright purple headphones, to keep from damaging her hearing, on her head. 

She leans in to kiss Mae’s cheeks, but Mae is more invested in her father and her favorite song playing. The song Peter sang to her to get her to sleep, to stop crying, or just to hear her laugh. Funny it’s a song about you, but she loved it more. She claps her hands, wiggling as she dances. A massive grin on her little mouth. Her wild hair tamed into two curly pigtails on top of her head.

When you look over, your dad, Tony has your little brother, Howie on his shoulders. Howie claps, nodding along. A year older than Mae, and just as much of a rock n roll baby as you were. Your dad glances over, looking at you. A grin on his lips, he winks at you. Tony really did retire from being a rock star, now he helped with Wild Hearts. Song writing, management, tours, and promotions. He was still one foot in, but it was enough for Pepper and Howie.

Telling Tony and Pepper you were pregnant was tricky. Things weren’t exactly perfect with your dad and husband. The whole running off and getting married in Greece thing really didn’t just get passed over. You were sure he was going to hold that over your head, Mae’s and Howie’s for life. But you really couldn’t blame him, after all.

It was supposed to be a celebration for your new brother coming home. Welcoming him into the family, a family get together, both bands, friends, the only family any of you really had. You’d planned to wait till everyone left, to sit your parents down and talk to them. To tell them you were pregnant. But the thing Pepper never told you was morning sickness was a bitch. You were melting over Peter holding Howie, when it hit you so hard you couldn’t breathe. You’d barely gotten out of the chair, before you threw up in one of your mothers potted plants. While Bucky was holding your hair back. The room had gone uncomfortably silent. When you wipe your mouth on the back of your hand you straighten up, turning to face the room. “Sweetheart?” Your mother watches you. “Little Miss, you alright?” Your dad looks nervous. “Better now.” You nod, Peter cringes. His eyes slowly close, his lips pressed into a thin line. Buck tenses next to you, like he was ready to put you behind him. “Little Miss, you’re not,” Your uncle Rhodey’s eyes flick from you to Peter. “Honey, are you pregnant?” Pepper lifts a brow at you. “No. No. No.” Your dad shakes his head, hands on his hips. “No.” He stiffens. “They just got married.” He points at you and Peter. “Actually.” Sam opens his mouth. “Nobody asked you.” Tony’s voice startles Howie. “Dad.” You scold him. “Tony.” Pepper glares at him. “You’re not pregnant.” Your dad shoots you a look. “Actually.” Peter’s head tips to one side. “Really?” Your mom perks up. “No.” Your dad’s face falls, slack. “I am. Going on three months.” You announce. Brows pull together, everyone doing their own math. “Really while on tour?” Nat laughs. “Before we knew about the marriage?” Hap smirks. “I didn’t think about that.” You scratch the back of your neck. “Man, Pete when you said you weren’t letting go again. We didn’t think you’d knock her up.” Steve laughs. “Oh god stop saying pregnant and knocked up!” Your dad’s hands cover his face. “Would with child be better?” Clint laughs. “Barton!” Your dad snaps his fingers, but it only makes everyone laugh. “Awe Tony, we’re going to be grandparents.” Your mom gushes. “We just became parents again.” Tony whines. “That’s your fault old man.” You fold your arms over your chest, smirking. Pepper laughs into her hands, Peter smirks at you, still holding your little brother. “Better be a boy.” Tony grumbles dropping into the seat next to your mother. “Hell no.” You scoff. “I want another Rock n Roll baby girl.” You grin. “Fuck.” The room groans together. Stark Naked and Wild Hearts, all looking just as mortified at the thought. “Howie you better learn to fight at a young age.” Wanda giggles, cooing at your little brother. “Think we can hire Luke full time?” Peter looks at Tony. “I’ll call him.” Your dad groans getting up in search for his phone. You laugh into Buck’s chest. “She thinks it’s funny, till she runs off and gets married in Greece.” Pepper snorts. You stop laughing looking at Peter. “Yeah well maybe her dad won’t have a rule of no Rock Stars.” You cock a brow at him. “How about No Boys, period.” Peter nods. “Second that!” Your dad calls from the other room. “We’re on board with that too.” Buck nods. “She’s never getting off the tour bus.” Rhodey laughs. “Never.” Pepper smirks. “And you wonder why I ran off to Europe and got married in Greece!” You throw your hands up. “Cause you got in with a rock stars.” Peter snorts. “Yeah, I should have just married T, you’re right.” You sass, nodding. Peter is moving.  “Wanda take the baby.” He grins, Wanda takes Howie. You step behind Bucky for protection. “What was that Darlin’?” You could hear the grin in Peter’s voice. “You heard me, I didn’t stutter.” You laugh. Buck suddenly side steps, and before you can move Peter’s arms wrap around the backs of your thighs lifting you up, so he looks up at you. Making you laugh, your arms over his shoulders, hands on the back of his head. “Don’t lie to yourself, Darlin’. You couldn’t settle for a boring life with T.” He grins at you. “Wait, does this mean you’ll be touring with the baby?” Pepper almost seems excited. “Why not? Dad did it with me.” You grin at her as Peter slides you down the front of him. “If you’re going to homeschool. I know a great teacher.” Your mom grins. 

Another song starts up. One that makes you, Wanda and Nat laugh. Her hands land on her swollen belly. English girls vibrates through you. Mae giggles, dancing in your arms, Howie claps dancing on your dad’s shoulders. The three of you shouting the lyrics together, Buck glances over, laughing at the three of you. Peter turns his head, grinning as he finds your little group, dancing and singing along. He winks and Mae blows him a kiss.

She was absolutely a rock n roll blooded girl, just like you. She was her daddies whole world wrapped up in an adorable package of cute, and trouble. She’s going to break hearts and never settle for less than a wild life of Rock n Roll. Hopefully she finds someone who loves her as deeply as you know Peter loves you.

[rowxngreen]

18 years old from tucker, atlanta and has lived in atlanta for 18 years . currently working as a computer repair person/staff at his family’s store in marietta [ kit , 25 , mst ] | @atlanta-rpg​

tw: self harm, depression, sexual assault, substance use

Age: 18

Gender: Transmasculine, he/him

[Boxcar - Jawbreakers] - “Uhhh, shit, I guess if I had to pick a theme song it’d be Boxcar. I like the whole vibe of it, like, calling out punk purists. Punk should have no room for purism. If you say you’re a punk and you’re not a nazi, cause in the words of Dead Kennedys ‘nazi punks fuck off,’ you’re welcome. That’s what the whole point of punk was, dude. It’s the ultimate counter culture movement ‘cause it welcomes fucking everyone unlike mainstream culture.”

D.O.B: February 14, 2001

“Why the name Rowan?”

“So, like, originally I was named Hannah. Which is totally a bullshit name and when I met my forever family I decided to give myself a new name and I wanted it to be all nature-y because they all had nature names. They like helped me look and I found Rowan and read this folklore about how a rowan tree was where the devil hanged his mother and I knew right then. That was my name.”

Ethnicity: Half white, half mestizo

Enneagram: 8

Relationship Status: single - “Single and definitely not ready to mingle. If it happens it happens but I sure as hell ain’t seeking it out and I don’t think it’s gonna happen anyways so it don’t fucking matter.”

Sexual Orientation: Unsure  “Yeah, I don’t really wanna think about sexy shit. I was raped as a kid, I’m not especially into remembering it. And all this sexual orientation shit makes me remember it.”

Appearance:

Height: 5’0

Build: Smaller than he looks from far away. He’s actually really tiny. And he hates it.

If he wasn’t so intimidating he could be cute. With a small stature, high cheekbones, a cocky swagger and big brown eyes he is definitely attractive. But the scowl that takes over his features whenever he’s around someone he doesn’t trust and the aggression that seems to exude from every pore disguises that attractiveness pretty well.

Ripped flannels paired with crop tops and t-shirts layered with fishnets are among Rowan’s signature looks. There’s something decidedly sexual about how he dresses but he doesn’t seem to register that. He just wears what he likes and hopes will scare people. He displays his self harm scars like a badge of honor – or insanity. They seem to warn: I AM UNSTABLE, DON’T FUCKING TALK TO ME.

Look at Rowan the wrong way and at the very least he’ll gnash his teeth at you. At the most he’ll pull a knife on you and threaten to gouge out your eyes if you ever look at him again. He claims he tried to once but that’s unlikely. He would be in jail if that was the case. …right? Better not to risk it.

History:

Rowan was born to a teenage mother in an abusive household.

When Melissa Webber got pregnant at only age 15 she knew she would be in trouble. Her father, Frank, wouldn’t approve. Melissa kept it from the man as long as she could. Eventually, of course, he found out. Frank was livid. Melissa was banned from leaving their little trailer, she was banned from seeing her friends, and she was even banned from seeing her boyfriend of just over a year and the father of her baby.  She was to be homeschooled for the rest of her high school career so, in the words of Frank, she could no longer “be a slut.”

Her baby was born on Valentine’s Day in a house with no love left. Melissa’s mother had died when Melissa was only 11, and it often felt like she took any warmth and care that had been lingering in the corners of rooms, hidden among the shadows with her. How funny then that Rowan, initially named Hannah Jane, was born on Valentine’s day.

Frank’s anger and the isolation he forced on Melissa eventually pushed the girl to run away. Rowan was only 6 months old. She initially swore she would be back for her baby when she had a safe place to stay. She never came back. Before Melissa left, Rowan had been largely ignored by Frank. Now, however, he became the scapegoat. Melissa hadn’t left because she was isolated from the world. Nor, apparently, had she left because of the intense abuse she faced. Instead, according to Frank, she had left because the baby had ruined her life.

Frank turned this rage on the baby. Rowan’s earliest memories involve him being tied onto a tiny children’s chair for hours because Frank didn’t want him to make a mess in the house; Frank coming into the bedroom at night to ‘visit’ with him in a way that, to this day, has left Rowan extremely anxious about sex and sex repulsed; Frank holding his hand against a hot burner to 'teach [him] a lesson’ (Rowan was never told what the lesson was); having his face pushed under water in the bath to stop him from crying; and other acts that could only be described as torture. Rowan lead an extremely isolated life for the first several years of his life. He was homeschooled, like his mother, and besides Frank and a handful of Frank’s friends he was largely alone. Most of his socialization came from the television. Frank justified this by saying school was how Melissa got pregnant so he wouldn’t “make the mistake of sending another one there to be a slut.” Instead rowan was kept inside the house during school hours.

It had been noted that Frank was capable of abuse and neglect when Melissa was little (she had spent several months in the system when she’d come to school with visible bruises as a child), however, for the first 7.5 years of Rowan’s life, overworked and under-competent social workers consistently overlooked the abuse in the Webber household. Eventually one of the social workers noticed and cared enough to go through the proper procedures to get Rowan out of that living situation. She reported it to her supervisor and a full scale investigation was launched. The abuse was soon discovered through talking to and examining Rowan and Rowan was removed from the situation. For the first time in his life, he was safe – though Rowan did not know what ‘safe’ meant or felt like yet.

Rowan was given a temporary placement in the Green household, because, at the time, the Greens were acting as an emergency house for children who had just been taken away from their parents. He was only supposed to be with them a week but the Green adults fell in love with the skittish, self reliant child they had taken in. They asked for him to stay with them and began the process of adopting him soon after.  It took a long time for Rowan to realize he was safe and he was loved. For months he put up with people touching him because he was afraid that if he spoke out he would face some sort of punishment. For months he distrusted everyone in the Green household despite how much they loved him. He was always wary, always waiting for the other shoe to drop and for him to be hurt again. He was placed into therapy when he was young and has gone off and on since.

The Greens are a stereotypical homeschool family. Rowan was kid number 11, they own their own business and they bake their own bread. Mr. Green is a carpenter and Mrs. Green runs the little gift shop + bakery in Marietta. There were so many siblings that the older ones had to help care for the little ones when the younger ones were little. To this day the entire family is very close knit and the older siblings constantly rely on the younger ones to watch their children.

The Greens practice a form of schooling called unschooling. It is a child-led education where children get to decide what they study and when. Additionally, they’re what’s called whole-life unschoolers and the green parents take a stance on parenting where they don’t give their children orders. They talk to them and treat them as if they are capable of making their own choices and decisions, except when it is something that puts their health at risk.

Rowan thrives with that educational setting. He learned to read so he could use his brother’s computer, he learned math while cooking and found it fascinating so he learned it more in depth, he learned how to build robots and how to break into the coding of popular websites well enough that he even figured out how to monetize it when he was 12 (he tests websites for weaknesses and when he finds them he points it out and gets paid to do so). He learned how to play keyboard and guitar and began recording and publishing his music on Soundcloud and Youtube.

Within a few months of living with his new family, his new dad built him a beautiful, fully enclosed, treehouse in the large tree in their backyard. Rowan loved it so much he lived in it for almost a year only coming in to use the bathroom or on the most sweltering days when his family insisted he stay cool inside. He took his baths in the kiddie pool since he lived “outside in [his] own house now.”

Around this time he got a pirate costume and a knight costume. He changed his name to Rowan and began to trade off between wearing those two costumes. When he was in the knight costume he insisted on being called Brave Sir Rowan. When he was a pirate he insisted he was Cap’n Ro.

For a period of Rowan’s life you wouldn’t know he went through the abuse he went through. He seemed happy, healthy, well adjusted.

And then puberty hit.

With puberty came deep gender dysphoria. Suddenly his body was changing in ways he hated. He was developing curves and stopped growing. All the mental illness his family thought they had under control resurfaced along with a large new helping of self-loathing triggered by dysphoria.

Rowan began to self harm. It started small. He would lie in bed and fantasize about cutting off the parts of him that didn’t look right when he saw himself in the mirror. One night, he crawled out of bed and grabbed a kitchen knife and tried cutting his breasts just to see if it was possible. The scratch was so small it didn’t bleed. But, relief flooded through him. He was able to breathe and the crushing weight of dread had let up just a bit. He stopped crying and crawled back into bed and slept well for the first time in weeks.

Whenever he was upset he began to run to the sharp sting of a blade. He stole a pocket knife and a pack of razors and hid them in his treehouse. His family discovered the harm almost a year after he started. By then the little scratches had turned into proper injuries. He was immediately sent back to therapy and was diagnosed with gender dysphoria soon after. 

Rowan socially transitioned. It helped a little bit but pandora’s box was open. His brain had tasted self destruction and it was hooked.

The last several years have been a slow but steady spiral downwards. He made friends with other sad, breaking kids and they broke together. They began to experiment with alcohol and substance use young, Rowan would swear he’s fine but whenever you put alcohol in his hands he binge drinks to get as drunk as possible as quickly as possible. Whenever there’s a chance for him to get high off something new he takes it, barring only the most stigmatized of drugs.

Somewhere during this spiral he realized the easiest way to make people leave him alone was to scare them. So he began dressing in ways he thought would scare them and carrying himself like at any moment he could snap.

Personality:

“Sometimes I wonder what his life could have been if he had come to us as a baby and if we had known about his gender. You should have seen him when he was little. He was such a cute kid and was so passionate about, well, everything. And he’s so smart it’s intimidating. But then he hit puberty and we all lost what little stability he had. Last time I talked to mom, I heard he set a trashcan in the park on fire while he was drunk or high or both and it breaks my heart because I know he’s a good kid underneath it all. He’s just a good kid who’s really struggling right now. I hate it because I can’t even trust him to be alone with my kids anymore. What if that comes out around them and he hurts my crew?” – Clay Green, older brother.

“Rowan likes to act like he’s tough shit but he’s not. He can’t sleep unless he has his favorite stuffed animal with him and once I saw him crying over the sounds sloths make. The tough guy act is just that. An act. I mean, look at his cat. He only has the thing because he saw it was scared and got gentle with it. And now he’s the only person that cat tolerates and he has it perched in his tree house half the time so you can’t even go up there if you’re not him. Which, like, not cool when your little brother is practically sprinting to a drug addicted future and you really should be making sure he doesn’t have the worst of it in your parents house.” – Rosemary Green, older sister.

At first interaction it’s easy to think Rowan is all rough and ready to fight. And that’s exactly what he wants you to think. His fighter persona is designed to scare anyone who would hurt him away. Give him some time and a little patience and it becomes obvious that Rowan is much more complex than that. Rowan is confusing. There are so many elements to him that it’s hard for any one person to get a full picture of him.

There’s his brash fighter side – the part of him that stabbed a child for being mean to his sister once. There’s the sweet side of him that takes lost animals and lost people under his wing and cares for them when they can’t seem to care for themselves.

There’s the engineer part of him that builds useless robots constantly just because he’s bored. There’s the witch part of him that has an altar in his bedroom and that celebrates every pagan holiday he knows about so none of the gods feel left out.

There’s still a childlike part of him that hangs out in the tree fort his dad made him as a kid and still holds conversations between his stuffed animals. There’s the teenage part of him that’s looking for any substance to numb the pain of becoming an adult coupled with the pain of his past.

There’s the creative part of him that comes up with bizarre ideas for robots, off the wall pranks (like leaving loaves of homemade bread all over someone’s living space) and interprets almost every song he likes into his own version. And then there’s the part of him that named his cat “Cat.”

Rowan is nothing if not complicated and confusing. He doesn’t mind that though. He’s used to being the smartest person in any room he’s in but he doesn’t make it a big deal. He just watches everyone else and works on mentally figuring out how to fix the coding of whatever website he’s working on at the moment.

He doesn’t love easily but when he loves he loves deeply and unconditionally. If you find yourself lucky enough to be one of Rowan’s chosen few know you will have him on your side for life. He’s ride or die with everyone he cares about.

Hobbies:

Robotics

Singing (he actually has a really good voice)

Collecting stuffed animals

Programming

Baking (he works at a bakery but he also just enjoys it)

Sloths. They’re his favorite thing in this world and he is almost obsessive in his quest to see sloths, collect sloth mementos, and learn sloth facts.

Trivia:

Rowan has a car named Bloody Mary. It’s an old fashioned VW Beetle he spray painted black and red. He got a beetle because he “wanted to inspire violence in children.”

He’s really good with anything that uses his hands. Baking, playing guitar, building robots, etc. If it’s a hands-on, kinesthetic task Rowan excels at it.

He is terrified of butterflies and giraffes.

He collects stuffed animals so intensely that it can be hard to walk in his bedroom because there are so many stuffed animals lying around. He sleeps with a build-a-bear every night who he’s named Floyd and a stuffed animal of the Peanuts character Woodstock (who he has named Oscar).

Health:

Rowan downplays how he’s feeling most of the time. The physical abuse and neglect he faced as a child left him with chronic pain. He doesn’t mention it very often. He doesn’t want to admit to any weaknesses. If you watch him closely enough you’ll notice him rubbing his joints or squirming in his seat. Those are his biggest tells with his pain.

At 7 he was diagnosed with dyslexia and he still struggles to read and code (coding is worth the struggle, reading is not). At 13 he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Besides changing his pronouns he doesn’t seem too interested in transitioning (he’ll tell you he doesn’t see a point but in reality he’s afraid of the medical procedures involved). At 15 he was diagnosed with mood disorder not otherwise specified. He was given medication that he promptly threw out but he still attends weekly therapy sessions to try and help.

He doesn’t think it’s doing anything but sometimes it’s just easier to go along with the things expected of you.

Connections:

Bandmates: Rowan can either be the lead singer, guitar or bass/keyboards but the band should definitely be punk/post-punk influenced. I’m super broad within that. Want a sound closer to Pale Waves? Cool, sounds good. You into The Smiths and want that dance depression? kk, you got it. you into old school punk and want melvins vibe? coolcoolcool, love to live hard dude

Friends: Rowan might be a little shit but he’s a little shit who has a handful of friends. Because he’s the youngest sibling in his household, he gets along with older people really well.

Mentors: This lost teen needs people to look up to. It takes a lot to break through to him but he needs someone who’ll try.

Adversaries: These are people who rowan Does Not get along with. This can be for personality reasons or just simply because they try to keep him out of trouble and he wants very much to be in trouble.

Biological Dad: I love the idea of Rowan’s dad watching from the sidelines and watching Rowan grow up but not being able to legally reach out until Rowan is an adult. NOTE: Rowan’s dad needs to be hispanic. Rowan himself is half hispanic and it’s not on his mom’s side bc I wasn’t about to make the brown people abusive and add to that stigma.

Reluctant Romance: Rowan doesn’t want to date. He really doesn’t. BUT! I love the idea of him falling for someone and someone falling for him. I’m even down for an uncomfortable age difference so long as that’s acknowledged in plot. ;)

[mischiefandspirits]

Iron Legion (18/?)

Never let it be said that Tony Stark ever does things by half. He might have grown up with little family, but he wasn’t about to keep it that way.

Tony Stark was seventeen when his first child was born, and that was just the beginning.

For Masterpost, Timeline, AO3, and Fanfiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arachne Mark II, Part 1

Tony Stark was forty when Spider-Man was born.

“Hey Petey, how was your first week of school?” Tony asked as Peter came into the living room.

“Great!” he chirped, dropping his backpack before flopping onto the couch next to Tony.

“That’s wonderful,” Pepper said, leaning over to press a kiss to his forehead before heading towards the elevator. “I’ll be back for dinner and then we can hear all about it.”

“Okay, Mom.”

Tony waited until he heard the elevator doors close before giving his son a look. “So, how’d it actually go?”

Peter gave him a confused look.

“Don’t give me that. You know you can’t lie to me.”

Peter groaned and set his head in Tony’s lap. “It was fine.”

“But?”

“It’s nothing, just… Everyone seems to already know each other, either from middle school or because their parents all know each other. And I’m just some weird random homeschool kid who's there on a scholarship and changes in the bathroom stalls instead of the locker room.”

If only they knew, Tony thought as he ruffled his kid’s hair. “Just give it time for that winning personality of yours to kick in. You’ll have tons of friends soon enough.”

“You think so?” Peter asked, looking unconvinced.

“Sure, maybe try joining a club or… I don’t know. I’m not the making friends type. Still not sure why Rhodey’s stuck around this long. He and Pepper would be better at this. Just make sure to be yourself. If they don’t like the real you, then they’re not worth your time. Starks don’t change themselves for anyone.” He could hear Rhodey, Happy, and Pepper calling him a hypocrite in his head, but ignored it. Being a dad was all about do as I say, not as I do.

“Alright, Dad.” Peter sat up and hugged him. “Thanks.”

“Anytime, Kiddo. Now, how about you go put your stuff away and then we test out that new drone I’m making for Wilson?”

Peter perked up. “The bird bot?”

“The bird bot.”

“Yes!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter was doodling ideas for improvements on the bird bot when someone tapped his shoulder.

He flipped his notebook closed quickly and looked up to see a pretty older girl standing over him.

“You’re Peter Parker, right?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me.”

She smiled and held out her hand. “My name’s Elizabeth Toomes, but everyone calls me Liz. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you,” Peter said, bemused, as he took her hand.

“Can I talk to you for a second? If you’re busy with your project, then we can do it later.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine,” he said, pushing his notebook aside. “I’m just messing around. I finished the project we’re supposed to be working on last week. My last school was a little ahead.” A lie, technically. The Tomorrow Academy hadn’t gone over what the project covered, but Dr. Banner had during one of their science sessions.

His teacher had seemed a little annoyed when he’d told her he’d finished ahead of schedule, as had some of his classmates, but Liz just seemed excited and dropped into the empty seat next to him. “I’m a member of the school’s academic decathlon team. Our captain asked me to invite a few promising freshmen to try out while he’s getting our practices ready and a couple of your teachers recommended you.”

Blushing, he ducked his head. “Th-thank you, but I don’t know anything about academic decathlons.”

She shrugged. “That’s okay, we can teach you how it works as long as you’re smart enough to compete.”

Peter wasn’t sure about the competition part, but his dad and Uncle Rhodey had both suggested he join a school club or team to try to make friends so he nodded. “Uh, sure then. How do I try out?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yeah, Ned, I’ll ask Nebs as soon as she gets home,” Peter was saying as he came into the workshop. “Yeah, that sounds great… Uh-huh… Okay, bye!” Peter dropped into a chair and rolled up next to Tony. “Hey, Dad! Guess what happened at school today!”

Tony adjusted the power levels and reran the simulation for the engine he was working on.

“Dad?”

“Jay, save these results.”

“Right away.”

“Dad, what’s wrong?”

“Did you hear something, Jay?”

“I believe it was Master Peter.”

“Who?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Peter pout. “Nebs told you.”

Tony continued to ignore him.

“She promised she wouldn’t say anything!”

“Say anything about what? You betraying the entire family?”

Peter rolled his eyes and nudged Tony’s arm. “It’s just a field trip.”

“To Oscorp,” Tony spat, putting as much disgust into the word as he could.

“The entire robotics lab is going. I’d look weird if I don’t go.”

“No, you’d look smart. Oscorp is garbage.”

“Compared to us, sure,” Peter agreed easily, leaning against Tony to see his work. “But they’re still one of the best companies in the world and it’s a big deal to the others that we’re able to tour some of their labs.”

“Osborn’s probably just trying to scrounge up some good PR to combat whatever scandal he’s apart of this time.”

“Yeah,” Peter hummed, reaching out to turn the diagram.

Tony shoved the hand away. “Uh-uh, traitors don’t get to help out in the lab.”

“Dad!”

“There you are,” Nebula said, walking in. “Why were you asking Uncle Happy when I was off?”

Peter spun his chair around to point at her. “You promised you wouldn’t tell him!”

Nebula gave him an unimpressed look. “What does it matter? It’s just some stupid field trip.”

“The triplets would never spew such blasphemy,” Tony muttered.

Nebula shook her head. “Is that all you wanted or can I -”

“Wait!” Peter called as she started to leave. “Ned wants to know if I can come over to his house tomorrow!”

“Ned?” Tony and Nebula asked together.

“He’s in AcaDec and robotics lab with me. He’s a freshman too and last practice we were talking about those old Star Wars movies. He invited me over to watch them.”

Old Star Wars movies, Tony mouthed as Nebula asked, “And why does this concern me?”

“His mom wants to talk to you to make sure it’s okay.”

Tony laughed as his daughter scowled. “You wanted to be responsible for him.”

“Please, Nebs!”

She groaned and turned to leave. “Just give her my number.”

“Thanks, Nebs! You’re the best older sister ever!” F.R.I.D.A.Y. made a sound and Peter said, “Older! You’re still the best sister altogether.”

“Thanks, Baby-Bro!”

“So you’re making friends, then?” Tony asked.

“Well, friend. It’s just Ned. At least, I think he’s my friend.”

Tony shrugged and ruffled his hair. “Barely two months and you’ve already got a maybe friend? Way better than me at your age. Knew you could do it. I’m proud of you.”

Peter beamed. “Even though I’m going on the field trip?”

Tony dropped his hand and turned away. “Jay, did you hear that? It almost sounded like someone was talking.”

Peter pressed his face into Tony’s shoulder with a whine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two hours into the tour and Peter was honestly just bored.

Nothing Oscorp was working on, or at least nothing they were willing to show his class, was cutting edge. His class was mostly just interested in the equipment the labs were using, but Peter had worked with better while helping his dad or Dr. Banner.

“Dad was right, I should have just bailed,” he sighed, hanging back while his classmates all crowded around the tanks of spiders Oscorp was using for a breeding experiment.

He shivered at just the idea of being that close to the arachnids, behind glass or not.

He glanced around the lab in search of something to focus on before his brain just started tuning everything out and his eyes landed on a display hidden off to the side next to a tank.

Giving the tank a wide berth, he walked over and read off the formula. It seemed to be part of the breeding experiment, but something was familiar about it.

“Please stay with your class.”

Peter jerked to the side, tripping and barely managing to catch himself on the workbench holding the tank. Blushing, he pulled himself upright and turned to see Dr. Connors, Oscorp’s lead genetic biologist. The man had been the one to give them their lecture when they’d reached the bio labs and was now staring down at Peter with a forced smile.

“S-sorry, I was just looking at this formula.”

“It’s beyond you, very advanced. Come back over with the others.”

Peter shook his head. He hated when adults looked down on him. His teachers did it, some of his classmates did it, the Avengers had done it whenever they visited Dr. Banner’s lab while he was there, even Dr. Banner had done it at first. His dad had never done it, though, and he didn’t stand for anyone doing it to Peter or his siblings.

Well, except the twins, sometimes. But only Dad was allowed to tease them, and they knew he was just joking.

“My… uncle taught me about formulas like these years ago.” He pointed at a portion of the formula as he realized what was familiar about it. “Why is Extremis incorporated here?”

Dr. Connors dropped the smile for an annoyed expression. “It isn’t.”

“But I recognize it. My uncle taught me about it.”

“Your uncle must have been mistaken.”

Peter scowled. Dr. Banner was above and beyond Dr. Connors’ level.

“Please return to your class. Now.”

Peter marched over to Ned’s side as the class began to leave for the next part of the tour.

Just as the doors closed behind him, he felt a pinch at the back of his neck. His hand slapped at it reflexively.

“You okay?” Ned asked.

“Yeah, just an itch.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Peter!” Nebula called as she strapped her gun to her hip. “You’re going to be late if you don’t get out here.” She grabbed her badge and jacket, then turned to Peter’s door. “Peter?”

A bit of worry dug at her when she didn’t get a response. She hadn’t seen Peter the night before, but his backpack was on the coat rack so she had assumed he’d gone to bed early for some reason. What if…

Nebula threw open his door and sighed when she saw the fluffy brown hair poking out from under his Iron Man comforter (a gag gift from Uncle Rhodey, Peter had made her swear not to tell Father he actually used it). “Peter?”

He groaned and peaked out of the covers. “Nebs?”

She frowned at his raspy voice, bleary eyes, and flushed face. “You okay?” she asked, coming to his side.

“Tired.” He leaned into her cold skin when she set her hand on his forehead. “Everything’s bright and loud.”

She nodded as her sensors listed a temperature. “You’re running a low fever.”

He flinched and pulled his comforter back over his head.

Considering what he’d said, she quietly moved over to the window and shut the blinds and curtains. Then she went to the bathroom and grabbed some Tylenol and earplugs out of the first aid kit. She brought them into his room with a glass of water and offered them with a small, “Here.”

He peaked out again then took the Tylenol and water.

“I’ll call your school and let them know you’re staying home. Just rest. If I can’t make it back for lunch, I’ll send someone to check on you. Call me or Father if you start feeling nauseous or if anything else starts feeling off.”

He nodded and put the earplugs in before slipping back into his chrysalis.

She gave his side a pat and left for work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A car honked, a baby cried, someone knocked on a door, someone dropped a glass, another car honked.

So much. Too much.

Peter reached up to make sure the earplugs hadn’t fallen out while he was asleep, but they were still in. They really weren’t helping much, but he figured something was better than nothing.

He pulled his blanket down and squinted as the light hit his eyes. He wanted to tug it back up, but his stomach was killing him. Maybe Nebs would be back soon?

Sitting up a little, he reached out for his glasses so he could check the time. He paused when he spotted his glasses next to the alarm clock.

The alarm clock that he could easily read.

He looked around his room and was shocked to find he could see everything perfectly, once he pushed past how bright everything was. For so long he’d never been able to see more than a foot in front of his face, yet now everything was crystal clear. Better than, really. Even his glasses had never let him see everything with such detail.

He rubbed his eyes, but the only thing that did was help his eyes adjust to the light a little.

His stomach gave a loud gurgle and cramped, reminding him of his hunger.

Shoving aside his weird eye thing for now, he checked the time and pouted when it showed it was only half-past ten.

Hissing, he slipped out of bed. The ache throbbing through his body briefly grew in his legs as they took his weight and rippled through the rest of him. Once it dulled, he shuffled over to his desk and grabbed his sunglasses. They made everything blurry as his miraculously healed eyes tried to focus through them, but he knew the living area was going to be even brighter than his room.

Sure enough, it was blinding and he barely opened his eyes as he searched the kitchen. He ended up pulling out an orange and some leftover pasta from the fridge. He tossed the pasta into the microwave and moved to the sink to peel the orange.

However, as soon as he broke the skin, he was hit with a strong citrus smell that sent a shiver down his spine and he dropped the orange out of instinct. He stared at the fruit until the microwave timer went off. With another shiver, he carefully grabbed it by the unbroken portion and tossed it in the trash. He then washed his hands thoroughly until all he could smell on them was mixed berry hand soap.

It was only when he was back in his room, halfway through his leftovers and a party-sized bag of chips, that he realized something was up with his behavior. He stared down at his hand, lost. Why had he reacted like that? He’d never had a problem with oranges before, especially not to such an extreme. Maybe the fever was messing with his head.

Resigned to more bed rest, he finished off his food then cocooned himself back on the bed, leaving the container and bag on his desk since he didn’t want to face the bright light again. He dozed until he was woken up by Uncle Happy coming into the apartment.

“Kid, you still in bed?” he yelled, shutting the door and locking it.

“Yeah,” Peter groaned, clenching his fists around his comforter. “Not so loud, please. Why is everyone yelling today?”

“Kid?” Uncle Happy stomped down the hall and opened Peter’s door. “Peter?”

Peter shushed him.

Uncle Happy stomped up to his bed and sat down on the edge, reaching over to rub up and down his side. “How are you feeling, kid?” he asked. He wasn’t yelling anymore, but he was still a little loud.

Why couldn’t anyone whisper?

“A little better,” Peter sighed. “Still hurts and tired.”

“I see you got up to eat.”

“Mm-hm. Really hungry.”

“Clearly. You ate enough to satisfy Cap. Feeling nauseous at all?”

“No.”

“That’s good. When was the last time you took any medicine?”

“Nebs gave me some Tylenol before she left.” He considered mentioning that it hadn’t seemed to help, but kept quiet, figuring he must have just fallen asleep before it kicked in and woken up after it wore off.

“Alright. I’m going to go grab the thermometer and some more Tylenol, okay?”

“Mm-hm.”

He quickly did as he said and Peter swallowed the pills while Uncle Happy held the thermometer in his ear.

“Well, your fever’s gone down some. That’s good. Must just be a bug or something,” Uncle Happy said, rubbing his shoulder. “You need anything else?”

“‘M okay.”

“Alright. I’ll get you some more water before I leave. Give one of us a call if anything happens before Nebula gets home, alright?”

“Okay,” Peter agreed, burrowing back into his cocoon. “Can you also grab me some jerky?”

“Still hungry?”

“A little.”

“An appetite’s good, right? Yeah, probably. That it?”

“Yes, please.”

Uncle Happy ruffled his hair. “Get some rest. I’ll leave your snacks on your bedside table.”

Peter groaned and ducked further into the chrysalis.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the next morning, his fever was gone, but everything still seemed too loud and bright. The body pains were still there too, though they’d faded to a muted ache. And then there was his vision…

“Hey Peter, how are you feeling?” Nebs asked as he came into the -- thankfully darkened -- living area. “Why aren’t you wearing your glasses?”

“I’m okay, just a bit of a headache. I -” His nose twisted up and he took a step back. “What are you drinking?”

“Peppermint tea. Vision recommended it. Want some? It’s supposed to be good for headaches.”

He took a few more steps back when she held her mug out to him. “Pass.”

She raised an eyebrow before shrugging it off. She came up to him and he forced himself to stay in place, shivering at the smell. She placed her hand on his forehead and said, “Are you feeling up for school today? You don’t have a fever anymore.”

He shook his head, thinking about crowded halls and loud bells.

“Alright. You might as well come with me to the tower then.”

He nodded. He didn’t want to have to go outside, but it would be worth it to see Dad and hide away in his soundproof room with the windows blacked out.

“Go get dressed then. Don’t forget your glasses.”

Peter quickly dressed, but paused when he picked up his glasses. He put them on and everything went blurry.

What is going on?

“You almost done?” Nebs called.

“Yeah.” He put his glasses away and dug out the sunglasses he kept for the rare occasions he decided to wear his contacts.

He picked up his jacket and nearly jumped out of his skin when a spider fell out of the hood. Not taking his eyes off the bug, he reached back to grab a petri dish and its lid off his desk. It was only after it was safely trapped inside -- and held as far from him as possible -- that he realized the spider was dead. Relieved, he looked closer at it, curious about the bright red, blue, and black coloring. He’d never seen a spider like it before.

“Peter?”

“Coming.” He set the dish down and shook his jacket out. Once he was sure there were no more hidden spiders, he tried to put it on, only to find his hand stuck to the fabric. He shook his hand and tried to pull it off with his other hand, both to no avail.

“Peter hurry up.”

He spun around as his door opened.

His jacket fluttered to the ground.

“What are you doing?”

“Just putting on my jacket,” he chuckled nervously.

“Right,” she said, looking unconvinced. “Well, let’s go. I need to get to work.

“Yep, sorry,” he sighed as Nebs left. He glanced at his jacket on the ground, then grabbed another out of his closet. He pocketed his phone and put on his sunglasses before pausing. He glanced at the spider, then his door, before slipping some rubber bands around the dish and pocketing it as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the record, since I've gotten a comment about this, Harley is not Reed Richards. That's on the right track though.

Just finished writing down the Infinity War part of this and I've got to say, I cried while writing it. Why does Infinity War have to exist?

Also, place your bets now on who bites the bullet!

An update on something I mentioned in the past: Riri, Miles, Gwen, and Kamala won't be appearing in this story, unfortunately. I just don't have enough information on Riri and the Inhumans to include her or Kamala and Peter's just too early in his superhero gig for Alchemax to be trying to recreate him so two spider-powered-people will have to do for now. There are two kid heroes that don't show up in canon that will be appearing though. One who was already planned and I might have mentioned already, can't remember, while the other will be taking Riri's spot... and all that implies

[writing-freak]

Flying

Peter Parker x Reader x Dad!Tony

A/N: I told y’all I had one coming! Peter is honestly so adorable!! Happy reading! :) I’m thinking another x-men next??? I guess we’ll see! Reminder-Requests are open!! Send me a prompt, or any idea really! I’d love to write something for you guys!!

Word Count: 3,020 (haha oops)

Masterlist

Being the child of both the smartest and richest man in New York had its perks. Right now, you were enjoying one of them, enjoying the view from the top of Stark Tower as you curled up with a book, basking in the summer heat and feeling the light breeze through your hair.

It was the first time you’d had the opportunity to read your book all week, and you were loving the silence this time alone brought you. Your dad had just gotten home from a long mission, and refused to leave you alone for more than two seconds all week. But you had woken this morning to find a note on the counter, explaining how he had to leave on urgent business in the middle of the night.

After years of impromptu Avengers missions, you knew the drill. He’d be back when he’d be back, and for now, the penthouse suite of Stark Tower was yours to do whatever you wanted.

And right now, that meant a quiet morning with your book. The silence was so unbelievable that you almost didn’t bat an eye when you heard someone clear their throat behind you. Almost.

Knowing your father wouldn’t be home anytime soon, your first instinct was to freeze, the book in your hands no longer holding your interest. But the voice that came next belonged to a teenage boy.

“Excuse me, do you know where Tony Stark is?” you heard, and you spun around in your seat to find a boy around your age, wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a cheesy pun about periodic tables.

Frowning, you stood up from your seat. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?”

The boy flushed, shifting his weight as he looked at you apologetically. “Sorry, I know this is Mr. Stark’s private penthouse, but I was supposed to meet him today, and Happy told me he might be up here?”

“He’s out,” you replied, still intrigued by the stranger across from you.

“And you’re his…”

“Kid,” you answered, crossing your arms. “Why are you meeting with my dad?”

The kid shifted again, very obviously uncomfortable. “I-I’m...an intern. I work with your father?”

You didn’t need the boy’s horrible lying abilities to know that your father didn’t have any teenage interns working for his company. Not any that were allowed to come up to his penthouse suite to have a chat with him, anyway. But it took you a few seconds to register what that meant. A teenage boy, in the city, who came to have meetings with your father?

“You’re Spiderman!” You said, finally coming to the realization. The boy went pale, shaking his head. You rolled your eyes. “Look, I’m not gonna rat you out or anything. It’s not like you’re going to be able to lie your way out of it; you’ve already proven yourself to be pretty horrible at that.”

He smiled sheepishly, but held out his hand. “Peter Parker,” he said, and you shook his hand.

“Y/N. Y/N Stark,” you added, “but it seems like you already knew that.”

“Well, y/n,” Peter said, “I guess I should leave to your book. It was nice meeting you!” He smiled kindly, waving awkwardly as he turned around.

“Wait!” you yelled, and then smiled, composing yourself as he turned back towards you. “You should stay. My dad might be home soon, and if he was asking to meet with you, I’m sure it was important.”

“I don’t want to intrude,” Peter said, motioning to your setup on the chair.

You rolled your eyes. “You’re not intruding on anything. Sit down,” you said, motioning to the other chairs around you, slumping back into your own seat. Peter took a seat, but he looked hesitant, perched uncomfortably on the edge of his chair.

You ignored this and returned to gazing at the skyline. “It’s a nice view, huh?” you asked.

Peter let out a breath you didn’t know he’d been holding in, settling into his chair. “It’s beautiful.”

“It looks so distant, though. I mean, I know we’re right in the middle of it, but it feels like there’s a glass wall between us and the city.” You looked at him thoughtfully. “What would happen if you jumped off the building right now?”

He laughed. “Well, since I’m not wearing my suit, I would most likely fall to my death.” You snorted.

“But if you were wearing it. You’d just fly.” You sighed. “Sounds freeing.” The next few moments passed in silence, and you glanced at Peter, who looked unsure of what to say. You decided to change the subject. “So, you’re in high school, right? Where do you go to school?”

“Midtown School of Science and Technology,” Peter recited. You nodded, recognizing the name as a well known STEM school in the city. “You?”

You shook your head. “I’m homeschooled. When my dad has time, he teaches me, but I have some tutors both online and that come here sometimes. I don’t leave the tower very much. Does it show?” You teased, laughing.

He laughed too, but he shook his head. “Not really.”

“So why are you meeting my father, Spiderman? I heard you’d given up your Avenger’s position to stay local.”

“Mr. Stark likes me to check in every once in awhile,” Peter answered. “He makes adjustments to my suit too.”

“Why did you do it?” you asked curiously.

“I’m not like your dad, or any of the Avengers. I’m Peter Parker, I’m no one, and my talents are better served as a friendly neighborhood Spiderman than someone who saves the world.” He looked down at his lap. “It was cowardly, I guess.” You frowned.

“It’s noble.” Peter looked up. You were about to go into a speech about how helping the little guy was just as important as saving the world when Peter stood up abruptly.

“I really should go. Mr. Stark’s not going to be here anytime soon, is he?”

You sighed. “Probably not,” you answered honestly.

Peter nodded, heading towards the door. “It was nice talking to you,” he said, smiling kindly. He looked like a puppy dog, and his soft brown eyes made you smile.

“Is it alright if I text you?” you asked, surprising yourself, and Peter it seemed, who flushed red quicker than you imagined possible. “I don’t have a lot of friends my age, you know, with the homeschooling and everything,” you explained. Peter nodded his head, and you swore you saw a smile on his face. You stood up quickly, pulling your phone from your pocket. You already had a new text message opened by the time you made it to Peter. You handed him your phone, and he typed in a number. When you got the phone back, you typed a quick “sup” with the peace sign emoji, and sent it. It took seconds for Peter’s phone to buzz, his screen lighting up as he added you to his contacts as well.

Peter looked up from his phone, looking as if he wanted to say something, but then he bit his lip and said, “See you around, y/n.”

You smiled. “See you around, Spiderman.”

When your father got home later that evening, you told him about Peter’s visit.

“Oh, Peter,” Tony said, scratching his face. “Yeah, he’s this new intern at Stark Industries.”

“I already know he’s Spiderman, dad,” you said, rolling your eyes. “But thanks for your trust in me.”

Tony winked at you. “How’d you find out? Did he tell you?”

“Please. What kind of teenage intern would be allowed to visit you in your penthouse suite?”

“Touché.”

“How was your mission?” you asked curiously.

“You know I’m not allowed to disclose details,” Tony said, waving you off.

“Pretty please?” you asked, batting your eyes. “You know I’ll just hack into your mission files tomorrow.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

You raised your eyebrows. “Is that a challenge?”

“Fine.”

“Yay!”

--

You decided to send Peter a text for the first time the next morning. Tony was making waffles, and you were tasting the batter as you balanced a calculus textbook on your lap.

Tony was rambling on about the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, which you had neglected to tell him was the subject of the week before’s lesson with your tutor Mrs. Greene. Your phone was unlocked, sitting on the textbook, and you pulled up Peter’s contact info, biting your lip as you debated tapping the message button. Taking a deep breath, you clicked on it, and your heartbeat sped up as the text message opened.

You settled on a cute Spiderman meme, a little teasing in nature, and hit send before you had the chance to talk yourself out of it.

“I feel like you’re ignoring me,” Tony huffed dramatically. He set a waffle on your plate, pouting like a child.

“You’re right,” you said, grinning as you took a big bite.

Tony sighed. “Just do your homework, kid.”

“Will do.”

The rest of your breakfast was in silence as Tony continued piling waffles on your plate as you worked your way through advanced calculus problems. When you felt a light buzz on your lap, you almost jumped in your seat.

Peter’s response was a quick gif of your dad with the caption “I AM IRON MAN”. You giggled lightly, sending a quick response before you locked your phone again.

“What so funny?” Tony asked, leaning over the counter. “Certainly not the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus?”

You laughed again. “Apparently they’re making memes about you, Dad.”

Tony frowned. “Who’s making memes about me?” You shrugged, laughing harder at his expression. “Alright, that’s it.” He grabbed your plate, despite your protests. “Go to your room. Maybe you can focus better in there.”

But it didn’t really improve your focus as much as your father had hoped. On your way back to your bedroom, you texted Peter again. Great, you got me in trouble with my dad. Way to go. 🙄

Sorry :(

When arrived at your room, you threw the calculus book on the floor, forgotten, as you climbed onto your bed.

I’m not sure if he’s upset or ecstatic that he’s essentially a walking meme.

Ecstatic. For sure.

Over the course of the next few weeks, you and Peter became close friends over text. Despite never seeing each other in person, you held conversations over text message past midnight every night, fell asleep to each other’s voices on the phone, and were the first to say good morning the next day.

You awoke one Saturday morning to a couple of text tones coming from the nightstand beside your bed. You pulled it towards you, unlocking it as you blinked sleepily. Unable to read the messages on the bright screen, you decided to call Peter. He picked up on the first ring.

“Y/N?”

“Hey Pete.”

“What’s up?”

“Do you wanna do something today?” You asked in between a yawn. When the other end was silent for a couple of moments, you felt your heartbeat quicken, worried you had crossed a line. You and Peter had not met in person since the day you had met, a little over a month ago. You sat up in your bed, waking up quickly. “Unless you’re busy. Sorry, I totally understand if-”

“No,” Peter interrupted, “no no no no no!” You laughed a little as his insistence. “I’d love to. It’s just,” he sighed, “the Homecoming dance is tonight, and I promised Aunt May I’d let her help me get ready.”

“Ooh, Homecoming. Sounds fun! Got a hot date?”

Peter laughed. “Yeah, no. I wouldn’t go at all if Ned hadn’t insisted I come. But he got a date, asked her just yesterday.”

“Poor Peter,” you teased. “At the dance all by himself.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll just hide in the bathroom the whole time.”

You laughed. “I have a feeling that’s what I’d do during a school dance, too.”

“Wait,” Peter said, coming to a realization. “You’ve never been to a school dance.” He said it rather than asked it, but you felt yourself nod, even though he wouldn’t be able to see. You felt your heart thudding in your chest. “Would you like to go to one?” His voice was small, as if he was nervous.

“That sounds like fun, Pete,” you said, surprised you were able to form complete sentences. Nervous excitement fluttered through your veins, and you felt your cheeks flush as you heard Peter’s “Awesome!”

You thought your dad would’ve been mad hearing that you’d made plans without asking him, but as you soon understood, to Tony Stark, Peter was about the least dangerous person his child could be spending their time with.

It didn’t take long for your father to buy you an outfit to be brought to Stark Tower. What took a long time was the hour after you had finished getting ready, just following dinner that night, when you had to wait for Peter to arrive. Your father had refused to let you wait downstairs, so you had to stand outside the elevator door, waiting for the light to flash and the doors to open.

You were drumming your fingers on your knee when you heard the ping. Standing up and straightening out your clothes, you took a deep breath.

But when the doors opened, it was simply Happy, with a light smile on his face, his eyebrows raised at your not-so-friendly glare.

“I thought you were Peter,” you mumbled, sighing. Happy chuckled.

“Good to see you too, y/n.”

You rolled your eyes. “How’s it going, Happy?” you asked, your hand returning to your knee, where it continued to tap anxiously.

“I’ve been pretty good actually,” Happy said. “The company’s doing well, your dad’s been off my back-” The elevator pinged again, and you jumped to your feet, ignoring Happy as you met eyes Peter through the slowly opening elevator doors.

He looked gorgeous. You had forgotten just how gorgeous he was. His black suit fit him perfectly, and his puppy dog eyes lit up when they saw you. “Y/N…” Peter said quietly, his voice fading out. You felt a flutter of butterflies in your stomach, your cheeks heating up from his gaze. And then Tony Stark stepped in front of you, blocking your view.

“Peter.” Tony acknowledged.

“Mr-Mr. Stark,” Peter stuttered. “How...How’s it going?” His voice sounded small as Tony put an arm around his shoulder and ushered him into the apartment.

“Wonderful, Peter. Just wonderful.” You saw Peter flinch at the tight grip your father had on his arm. You rolled your eyes.

“Dad.” you said, your voice firm. Your dad looked at you then, an innocent look on his face.

“What, y/n? I just want to give your friend Pete a little talk.” You gave Peter an apologetic glance, but you figured he’d handle it fine; Tony wasn’t as scary as he liked to think he was.

After Peter’s face went pale from Tony’s threats, the two of you stood by the elevator door, wishing Happy and Tony a good night. When the elevator doors finally closed, you both let out a sigh of relief.

“Sorry about that,” you said, a grin on your face. Peter laughed.

“It’s alright. I think your dad likes me.”

“I think he does too. He’s not good at admitting stuff like that.”

“Are you ready for the dance?” Peter asked, glancing over at you. He still seemed nervous, and you could feel the butterflies still fluttering around your stomach.

“No,” you answered honestly, chuckling softly. “I’m terrified.”

Your heart jumped when you felt Peter’s cool hands over your own. You looked at him, your breathing uneven. And then, before giving yourself the chance to change your mind, you pressed the stop button on the elevator, trapping the car between floors.

“Wha-” Peter started to ask, but you interrupted them.

“Before we get there,” you took a deep breath to steady yourself. “I just wanted to tell you...I really like you Pete, and I know you probably just asked me to this dance as a friend, but I just thought you should know.” Peter’s eyes widened, but he looked at a loss for words. Your heart was pounding, cheeks flushed in nervous embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” you said as he stayed silent. You unwound your hand from his, the butterflies quickly turning into nausea. You felt tears well in your eyes as you desperately wished you hadn’t said anything at all.

“No!” Peter said, grabbing your wrist and pulling you closer. Up close, you could see the pink tinting his cheeks, and you were sure he could feel your heartbeat from where his fingers gripped your wrist. “I...I didn’t invite you as more than a friend. I…” But you had gotten all the confirmation you needed.

You raised your free hand to cup his cheek, and leaned in the remaining distance. It was awkward at first, and your noses bumped together uncomfortably, but Peter wound his other arm around your waist, and you felt warm in all the places you were touching: your fingers on his cheek, his hand on your back, and his cool fingers wrapped around your wrist. When you pulled away (too soon in your opinion), you were both out of breath. You smiled up at Peter, your eyes opening slowly to meet his puppy dog ones. The moment would have been perfect, had it not been for the robotic voice that came on through the elevator’s intercom system.

“Y/N Stark,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said. You groaned, already knowing what this was about. “Your father would like to ask you to stop making out with your boyfriend long enough to resume the elevator functioning. All deliveries to the upper floors are being blocked.” Your face grew hot, and you buried it in Peter’s chest.

“Cameras,” you mumbled. Peter pressed the button to start the elevator again, but you suspected his cheeks were as red as yours. “My dad’s going to kill you.”

[thewritewolf]

Marinette March Day 12 - Phone Thief

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Our cunning hero tries to get the last unstolen phone to complete the trifecta among her friends - Nino’s phone, the ultimate prize. Will he be able to protect himself against the force of nature that is... Marinette?

@marinettemarch

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3

Honestly, it was his fault. If you think about it.

Everyone knows Marinette has a competitive streak a kilometer wide. It is also common knowledge that she’s been getting bolder and bolder, a trend which only became more pronounced when she and Adrien began dating. Her friends understood that once she got her mind fixated on something she wasn’t going to stop until success was in her grasp - much like her crush with Adrien. After all, only someone as fiercely determined as Marinette could’ve gotten through that homeschooled obliviousness and made their feelings known.

The first mistake was when Alya let it slip during a Mecha Strike III match at the Dupain-Chengs that Marinette had palmed phones in the past. The declaration had its intended effect, of course, and she became just distracted enough for Alya to squeak in a victory. Nino had thought that the audacity of the lie was what caused the slip up - but the glare Marinette shot her, and the way Alya apologized… Nino realized the claim was real.

It took some more prying that day, but Marinette revealed that she had, at one point, swiped two of the three phones of the people at the house at that moment - Alya and Adrien’s. Only Nino had never had his phone nabbed. After getting an explanation, they all had a laugh at Marinette’s expense, but Nino, in his foolishness, had said this:

“No way you could steal my phone, dude. I’d know in an instant if you took it.”

Marinette had laughed nervously. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Nino.” Outside her field of vision, Alya was desperately trying to silence him, but he foolishly continued.

“I’m serious. My phone is my lifeline, I use it all the time! And I get that you’re pretty sneaky dude, but you would never get the drop on me. I’d even be willing to make a dare on it.”

There was a hard glint in her eyes as she turned to him and smiled mirthlessly. “I accept your challenge. Within two weeks, I’ll have your phone. Loser does free work for the other - me with design work, you with music. Don’t worry,” she added with a friendly wink, “I’ll give it back right after.” They shook hands, sealing the deal.

Needless to say, he spent the entire rest of the night clutching his phone like it really was his lifeline. Despite his paranoia, she didn’t seem to make an attempt on it that night and he made it home with it still in hand. They hadn’t had much of an opportunity to see each other since then, too occupied with school and extracurricular activities. After all, Marinette was far too busy to devote time and energy into this. Right?

And so a week passed as Nino slowly untensed and began to think he was in the clear. It was the day before the last possible day that the challenge could be accomplished and Nino had almost entirely forgotten about it. Until, of course, Alya calls.

“Hey, babe! We still on for tomorrow?” He’d been looking forward to this date night for the past few days, eager to have some relaxation time with his girl.

“Of course! And I have great news,” she paused for dramatic effect, or maybe because she was adjusting her phone, “It’s going to be a double date! Marinette and Adrien are coming along too. Isn’t that great? We haven’t really gotten to hang out with them in, what, two weeks?”

“Y-yeah!” Worry crept into his voice as Marinette’s promise echoed in his head. “Too long…”

“Awesome, I’ll see you tomorrow then! Love you!”

“You too, babe.” He hung up and put his face in his hands. He was doomed.

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

It may have been a bit unfair of him to keep his distance with Marinette, but he’d seen how over the top she could get in the pursuit of her goals and he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. Besides, it was only for an afternoon, right? He just had to get through a romp in the park, watching a movie, and dinner at a restaurant with his friends. Simple. Easy, even. He let himself relax as he sat down on a bench and chatted with Alya, waiting on their friends to arrive so they could head out.

This was a mistake.

“Hey, Nino!” A voice cheerfully called to him, causing him to tumble off the bench. He looked behind him to see Marinette standing right behind the bench, covering her mouth with her hand as she bit down her giggling. “I see you won’t be falling for my tricks today.” She gave up on suppressing the laughter as he checked his pockets, feeling the reassuring weight of his phone still there.

“Good one, lovebug!” Adrien beamed as he appeared at Marinette’s side. Nino had found it odd at first that they had taken up the nicknames that Paris’ superheroes gave each other, but considering how deep in the fandom they both were (Adrien because of his former obsession with Ladybug and Marinette through Alya), it wasn’t too surprising. He held out a hand to help Nino up off the ground. “Ready to head to the movies?”

“Sure, but try not to torment my boyfriend too much, okay girl?”

Marinette held up her hand in a solemn oath and said, “I promise won’t do anything else to him for the rest of the day.”

Lies, Nino thought to himself, even as he forced himself to relax a little.

The trip to the movie theater was uneventful, as was finding their seats. Although, once again, he put as much distance between them as possible while keeping their group together. Although that did leave him away from his bro Adrien as well, it was a small price to pay for the pleasure of not guarding his pockets for the duration of the film. The real challenge to his nerves came about midway through the movie during a lull in the action. Marinette walked past him to get to the aisle. Even in the darkness of the theater, he could see her grin and once again his hand went to the reassuring weight in his pocket. It stayed there until she had come back and taken her seat as he was painfully aware of how crafty Marinette could be.

One last challenge before the day was over… the restaurant. It was his favorite pizza place and with the few other customers in at the moment, they’d even managed to snag a booth all to themselves. Seated across the table, he was feeling as secure as he could be. They ordered their food and just after the waitress left, Nino heard a familiar ringtone. Marinette and him began reaching for their pockets at the same time, which confused him. Did she change the ringtone on her phone?

Then he watched, dumbfounded as she removed his phone from her purse. His hand went to his pocket where, as always, the same reassuring weight still was. He pulled out the ‘phone’ only to realize that it was just a stock card replica with the same shape and weight. When he looked back up, Marinette was smiling serenely as she held it out to him. By the time he was done talking to the caller, the pizza had arrived. But all he was hungry for was answers.

“How? When?!”

A pizza slice stopped midway to her mouth. “Remember in the park? I swapped them out around that time.” She gave an exaggerated wink. “I think that means I win our little challenge and I got my full set of pinched phones.”

“But why wait? It would’ve been less cruel to just get it over with as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, but you were on guard. Besides, you’d never be on your phone all the time during a date. It was the perfect opportunity to take it and hold onto it for a while.”

Nino held up his hands in defeat. “You got me, dude. I’d say fair and square but there wasn’t anything fair and square about this . I was set up from the very start.”

The others laughed while Marinette nodded resolutely, a sparkle of mischief in her eyes as she replied, “And don’t forget it anytime soon.”

[that-quiet-girl-who-writes]

Midtown High School (PP.)

A/N: I’M BACK BITCHES, and will have a new fic out everyday for a while to make up for all that time I didn’t write

Summary: You attend Midtown High School to keep an eye on the new recruit for your father. 

Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!reader

Word Count: 1685

Warnings: Swearing

Masterlist

I met Peter Parker because my dad asked me to watch the new recruit while he was at school. I had been homeschooled my whole life due to the fact that I could probably learn more in the lab at the Avengers tower, than I could in any science classroom. However when Peter was recruited, I was asked to make sure he stayed out of trouble. This wasn’t something I wanted to do, I mean who the hell would want to go to a high school when you could just take online courses in bed? I fought against it, but there didn’t seem to be any chance of getting out of this.

The first day I was scheduled to arrive at Midtown High, I woke up at the proper time, but decided it wasn’t worth getting up for, which resulted in being woken up and hour later by my dad telling me that if I was going to attend school, I would have to act like I was actually supposed to be there. I dragged myself out of bed and after half an hour, I was in one of the Stark company cars. Yeah dad, that’s a great idea, have me show up to my first day of high school in what looks like a small limo, nobody’s going to get the impression that I’m a spoiled rich bitch, right? It didn’t matter, they would already think that just because of my name.

When I got there, I hopped out of the car, said goodbye to Happy and slowly made my way to the school. The only reason Happy had driven me was because my dad had thought that nobody but the head of security was qualified to accompany me through the city he had deemed to dangerous for me to be alone in.

As I made my way up to the brick building, I heard the bell ring. I checked the time and realized it must be lunch.

“Damn, I missed my first class.” I muttered, completely unfazed, to myself.

I sat down on a bench and watched a sea of kids go by, heading out for lunch. After a while, nobody was around, so I began to walk around the school just to get a feel for where exactly it was that I was being sent. Just as I turned a corner, I watched a boy do a flip over a tall chain fence that should not be possible for any normal human to even jump over. I could safely guess that I had found my target. Okay, that sounded like I was hunting him. I had found the guy I was supposed to be watching. Aaaannnnnd that sounded like I was stalking him. Close enough.

After lunch, was of course, gym class. I didn’t need exercise, I trained with the Avengers twice a week! Somebody was going to pay for sending me to this stupid school. I went to the change room and listened to some girls gossip about god knows what while I changed into the not-so-flattering school phys-ed uniform. It was the same for everyone, girls and guys alike, a dark blue shirt with the school logo and some yellow shorts that were in my opinion, extremely uncomfortable. Doing my hair up best I could, I went to meet with the teacher and basically ask what the hell I was supposed to do. On my way around the gym, I got a few stares. Being Tony Stark's daughter, I was bound to have a few photos out on the internet, no matter how hard I tried to hide my face from the public.

About halfway through the class, I was climbing up one of the many ropes, sort of just hanging around, not doing much except watching the boy I had seen flip earlier. I had a tiny ear piece in that my dad had given to me, so that I could hear what he was talking about. Not creepy at all dad, not creepy at all. I knew it was really my choice as to whether or not I used it, and even though I did find it creepy, it was fun playing spy, so I tuned into the teenager’s conversation. So far, I had learned his name was Peter, his friends name was Ned, and that Ned had somehow figured out Peter’s secret.

Ned was pretty much just asking a bunch of random questions about Spiderman, so once he started going on about being Peter’s “guy in the chair”, I started tuning into other people’s conversations. I adjusted the earpiece and fumbled with a little button until I came across a group of girls playing Fuck, Marry, Kill with the Avengers.

“You see, for me it would be F Thor, Marry Iron Man and Kill Hulk.” Said a blonde girl sitting on the bleachers. Oh great, so my future step mother was in my phys-ed class. And kill Hulk? Why the fuck would you kill Bruce? That’s when I remembered that most people didn’t know him as Bruce, the genius who was basically their teacher since they were six years old, but as Hulk, the angry green giant.

“What about the Spiderman?” One of her friends asked her.

“It’s just Spiderman.” She replied. Another girl brought up the videos of the masked hero fighting off criminals while being outnumbered, which made her friends tease her about crushing on a guy that for all they knew, was an ugly 30 year old man. I was happy to be the only one to know just how cute Spiderman actually was, something that I probably wouldn’t be including in my report to my dad.

Just then, Ned spontaneously yelled out “Peter knows Spiderman!”. It wasn’t until that point that I realized the two friends had definitely been listening in on the conversation as well. Almost everyone in the gym froze and looked towards Peter, who had a panicked look on his face as he stumbled off of his gym mat. I watched him stutter out that he didn’t really know Spiderman until I noticed the boy on the rope next to me drop down and walk over.

“They’re friends!” Ned told everyone. Jeez, did this kid know when to shut up?

“Yeah, like coach Wilson and Captain America are friends.” Said the kid who had been on the rope. A few of the girls on the bleachers laughed, making me feel kinda bad for Peter. It was pretty clear that he wasn’t very popular here, so I dropped down off my rope and walked a little closer to the scene.

“Ah, I-I’ve met him, yeah, a couple times, but it’s, um, through the Stark Internship.” Peter tried to cover up. “Yeah, I’m not really supposed to talk about it.” He said, gritting his teeth and glaring at Ned.

“Well, that’s awesome. Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz’s party?”

“Okay, come on, that’s just mean.” I spoke up. Now everyone was looking at me. So much for staying in the background.

“Y/N?” Peter said, staring at me like he had seen a ghost. This caught me off guard, as I had no idea that Peter knew what I looked like.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Asked the kid who I was now finding to be pretty annoying.

“Y/N. Y/N Stark.” I told him. As soon as he heard my last name, he stuck out his hand and introduced himself.

“Flash Thompson.” He said as I reluctantly took his hand.

“Hi.” I said.

“Wait, Stark as in Tony Stark?” Asked one of the girls on the bleachers.

“Yep.”

“You’re Tony Stark’s daughter? You’re Iron Man’s daughter?”

“Yep.”

“So we finally have someone who can shut Parker up.” Said Flash.

“What?” I asked.

“Peter here keeps going on about how he has an internship with Stark industries and we know he’s lying, but he’s sticking to his story. So how about you come over here and explain to Parker that he’s delusional?”

“Excuse me? Okay, first of all, I don’t believe for a second that Peter runs around bragging about having an internship and second of all, just because you think that you’re better than other people, doesn't mean I’m just going to do exactly what you say. Now, what makes you think Peter doesn't have an internship? Because just to clear this all up, he does. I’ve seen him around the Avengers tower many times.” This wasn’t exactly a lie. Although Peter and I had never met, I had a bad habit of spending hours messing around in the security room and watching the cameras. This also led to me being fairly skilled at hacking into the system.

Flash just looked between Peter and I, trying to find something to say until the bell sounded through the gym, letting everyone know they could finally leave.

“Saved by the bell.” I said, smirking at the boy as he began to walk away. I turned to see Peter and Ned talking, and since I had nobody else to talk too, I figured now was just as good a time as any to formally introduce myself to Peter Parker. Just as I approached them, Ned turned around.

“Hi.” I said, far more cheery than when I had greeted Flash. “So Peter, I thought I should probably introduce myself since we’ll probably be seeing a lot more of each other. Same with you Ned.”

“Um, hi.” Said Ned, who looked absolutely dumbfounded that I knew his name.

“Oh, and Peter, I just have one question for you, how do you know who I am?”

“Oh, um, Mr. Stark showed me a couple of pictures of you.”

“Of course he did.” I said, a blush creeping up on my face. There was no doubt in my mind that those photos had probably not been the most flattering ones. “Okay, well, I have to go figure out where my next class is. Bye, Ned. Bye, Spidey.” I said with a wink as the two boys watched me walk out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A/N: Just want to say that Taglist is open (Fandom, Era, Character or Series) and so are requests!

Taglist (All Stories): @purelittleblueberry

[enkisstories]

The android cemetery (Ch. 25)

“One question”, Jason had said. The android designer felt as if he could ask a hundred and not get anywhere close to understanding what was going on, but there was one in particular that didn’t pertain to their current puzzling situation, but that had piqued his professional interest instead. Facing Daniel he asked:

“How come you are so lifelike without being a deviant, Dean? You sound more like an RK800 than a PL600.”

“What makes you so certain he isn’t a deviant, Jason?” a surprised Emma exclaimed.

Daniel leaned into Gavin and the human in turn leaned forwards for a casual kiss. “No, mom, it’s not a phase”, Daniel whispered, just loud enough for Gavin and Emma to hear. “I really am a deviant.” All three of them chuckled and Evelyn started to giggle, too, for the sole reason that Mr. Reed and Mr. Danny seemed to be amused about something. Therefore as a good YK600 she should be, too.

Feeling left out at best, being made fun of at worst, Jason Graff exploded:

“Deviance is a serious bug that turns amiable household assistants into violent monsters! There’s no telling when it happens. One moment you sit and talk, like we are doing right now, and the next thing you know is Dean or Connor or even the little girl ‘droid will have their fingers around your throat! I shouldn’t need to tell that to you of all people, Emma! You know what happened to Daniel. And the RK800 prototype I mentioned before, the one that solved the deviant crisis almost singlehandly, that one turned deviant itself a year afterwards. If it hadn’t been neutralized quickly by a police squad, it would have killed the vice-mayor’s family…”

“That prototype was crap to begin with”, Gavin said.

Jason snorted at this, as if the detective had said something incredibly childish and only he knew better.

“Markus went on a rampage downtown…” he went on.

“No, he didn’t”, Connor interrupted the man sharply. “That’s what the media made of the events!”

“For what it’s worth”, Gavin sighed. “Markus really didn’t. A killing spree would be very out of character for it.”

“What are you saying? Of course that happened! People got killed! Co-workers of yours!”

“I’m not saying Robo-Moses is a pacifist, because exactly that it is not”, Gavin elaborated on his objection. “But I had the opportunity to create profiles of most of Markus’s core followers and while for most of the damn things I could just have copied a TV Tropes page, Markus is more complex. For one, it is an opportunist.”

Connor couldn’t help but smile. “I had the opportunity to create profiles” was such a nice substitute for “they knocked me out senseless and took me prisoner on their ship”…

“RK androids in general are very focused on their mission, be that a human dependent or a revolution”, Connor stated. “Naturally Markus will choose whatever option benefits it the most. It is not above violence, but applies it punctually to the best effect, carefully considering the gains and weighting them against the risks. Also its secondary objective is being itself. Being raised by Carl Manfred that means…”

“…it’s an annoying homeschooled arts major”, Gavin finished with his favorite slur for the deviant leader.

“Pretty much, yeah”, Connor had to agree.

“That is all you have to say about that matter?” Jason exploded. “That you made a profile?! Shall I tell you where you can put your profile? Deviance is the android equivalent of foaming sickness! Once it hits, there is no reversing it, and all control is lost. You cannot treat erratic actions by applying logic to them!”

“We still do not fully understand the process or how to reverse it”, Connor admitted, “but we know the end result: Deviance grants Free Will, nothing more, nothing less. What happens afterwards depends on the circumstances. Given that the situation that triggers the condition is hardly ever in favor of the new deviant in the first place, the results are usually messy.”

“And will continue to be, as long as humans play the victim card”, Daniel snarled. “You homo sapiens have one signature skill that was sufficient to obliterate all other human species on this world in the past. But unlike them, us you cannot outbreed. To the contrary, you are creating androids in numbers that outpace even your own output of young. This time you’ll have to put in some effort to stay competitive!”

“Ha, that would be the day!” Gavin laughed. “Us bargaining with the tools we’ve made ourselves!”

The fact that he was holding Daniel in his arms while he was saying that didn’t help the man’s position. In fact, the contradiction between this Mr. Reed’s beliefs and actions made him appear like a moron to Jason Graff.

“Fact is, a fully socialized deviant is no more inclined to turn violent – or criminal – than a human from the same background”, Connor summed up his point.

“That’s nice, all of you being such valiant family men”, Jason said. “Problem is, I only have your words for it.”

“To hell, man, I should have known you’d say something like that!” Daniel yelled at the android designer. “Anything to not have to take responsibility!”

Jason shook his head. This had strayed so far from why he had come her tonight – to fetch his love interest’s pre-teen daughter, who had mistaken another PL600 for her destroyed caretaker. He should just leave together with the girl. Or phone Caroline, since Emma would probably not listen to anything Jason told her. But here he sat, with that unpredictable Mr. Reed, his probably heavily modified PL600 partner, two more androids (one of them as confused as himself), Emma and two cats. Oh, and with a budding migraine, hello, old friend.

“I see that nothing we have to say can sway you, Mr. Graff”, Connor relented. “Still, it remains a fact that Markus, who is a proven deviant, has been living in Strasbourg for several months now without committing genocide. I assure you he is in control of his actions. Stable, productive, studious and very approachable.”

“Annoying homeschooled arts major”, Gavin and Daniel whispered again and laughed.

Connor watched the couple with interest. How could two people be so at ease with each other, yet argue as violently as these two did? Maybe they could fight exactly because they were two birds of a feather? But had Daniel and Gavin felt their bond the moment they had laid eyes on each other, regardless of the long way they still had had to go to? And what if he, Connor, didn’t feel that kind of rapport with the person he was interested in getting closer to (like, for instance, a certain ST300)? Did that mean that he shouldn’t even try, because trying to force what wasn’t there in the first place would be a waste of time? Why had no one at CyberLife ever seen it fit to tell him about the important questions? The RK’s handlers had only ever went on about a simple mission that had taken Connor about a week to finish. And of course “Don’t deviate”. Yeah, right, that one had been real helpful.

“Well, yes, thing is”, Jason started, oblivious to the RK800 going through his growing up pains, “Markus being so well-adjusted is what the European Union’s news broadcasts want us to believe. It could be a politically motivated lie. I’m not up to date when it comes to international politics, sorry.”

At that Daniel exploded: “Hello, King of the Jungle? Android here! We can have a TV evening right here with my memories!” The deviant booted Jason’s smartphone out of the home network and the TV screen reset to the test card image. “How about it Emma?” Daniel asked. “Are you game for a cat video?”

Emma swallowed, then nodded, but didn’t say a word. She knew that Daniel was angry for good reason. And somehow this angry, yet still controlled Daniel was less threatening than the pleasant one from twenty minutes ago. With the nice one Emma hadn’t known what was going on underneath the smile. It could have been a mask that covered up seething hatred, a mask to get dropped any moment to reveal the monster of august ’38 again. But the monster did not resurface now that Daniel was worked up and that convinced Emma that they both had come a long way in conquering their fears. If only the rest of the world would see it her way! Emma Phillips couldn’t change the past, she could not bring back her father, a loss that would shape her well into her adult years. It wasn’t fair that she should be powerless to change the future, too.

The TV screen lit up again. At first the onlookers saw only a flat blue plane above a white one. Then the android, through whose eyes they were watching the scene, turned his head away from what turned out Lake Erie and the beach, covered in snow. Now more details came into view: rocks, conifers, the occasional bench and fence post and a vacation home up on a cliff overlooking the beach. Another one such residence was closer by - Daniel was just now looking back at it.

“This is where we were staying during a… business trip earlier this year”, Daniel explained, avoiding the more correct term “temporary transfer for disciplinary reasons”. “It’s not the scene I want to show you, but I’m not used to this and need to ease myself into the process.”

Daniel had wanted his memory about meeting Brindleton Bay’s infamous Mayor Whiskers to serve as his test run. Why he had instead jumped into him, Gavin and Tina taking a walk along the beach of Lake Erie he could not explain…