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katzuk1s · 1 year

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18+ mdni

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thinking about giving inexperienced virgin! Bakugou head for the first time on his birthday

TW: oral (male receiving), swearing ofc, praise kink, fem!reader

3.0k words

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You and Katsuki had been in a relationship for a time now, about 2 months since his 'confession' (he shoved some flowers in your face and warned you to be his valentine or else) and yet you two had scarcely done anything together. Don't get me wrong, you spend every waking and sleeping minute with him; movie evenings, sleepovers, dates at anything challenge-based so he can show you how strong he is; but...you haven't done anything with him. Sexual, that is. Sure, you two have kissed, on the occasion his lips would move down to your neck, licking and marking a few small areas on your neck just to show you’re his in front of the class—but he's never gone further than that. You both haven’t, if we are being honest. You’ve both been too nervous, I guess? Or it's just never really been a priority on katsukis list—or that's what you thought.

You are both oblivious to what the other is thinking. Katsuki doesn’t notice how much you stare at him when he gets out of the shower, his towel hanging around his waist as your eyes drift down; and even if he does, he convinces himself that he’s getting ahead of himself—just seeing things. You don’t notice the constant glances katsuki sneaks at you when you are wearing his shirt, which is 10x bigger than you, hanging loosely down to your thighs which you wear as pajamas along with some shorts or just panties. He has to excuse himself to the bathroom to have his 3rd shower of the day after he looks down to see the bulge in his pants—which 9/10 times leads to him covering his mouth with one hand as the other strokes himself as the water drips down his bare body, trying his hardest to keep the noise down so you don't suspect anything.

As katsukis birthday comes along, you do everything you can possibly do to make it the best birthday hes ever had. It’s his first birthday with you as his girlfriend, so you feel its your responsibility to treat him—not that you mind. You get him the perfect gifts—a black tshirt with his favorite band on it, some of his favorite cologne that hes nearly out of, a limited edition all might figure which you had to hide from izuku up into the day, you know that fucker would try to steal it if you left it out, and finally a basket of his favorite foods, and of course 3 bottles of sirachi sauce.

You prepare a complete bacon and egg breakfast for him and serve it to him in his room when you go out into the dorm kitchen to prepare it. He'd rather stay in his dorm than deal with the rest of the class this early in the morning.

For lunch, you get Aizawa to excuse you two so you can go to your favourite restaurant, where you treat Katsuki to whatever he wants on the menu despite his protests, saying he can pay for it—you don't let him, of course.

And finally, the surprise party. Katsuki hates parties, it’s pretty obvious from how many times he’s stomped out at the sight of one balloon; but the whole class wanted to celebrate, so you just went along with it—how much harm could it do? You could always have a quiet night after.

“You think he knows?” Denki whispered in the dark. You were all hidden down in your specified spots as you waited for katsukis return into the dorm lounge where everyone had set up streamers, balloons along with his favourite foods and a special cake made by sato.

“Nah, I’ve been distracting him all day, he will have no idea” you reply.

“Perfect” denki whispers back, a shit eating grin on his face as he holds a party popper in his hand, which you can only guess he will pop right in katsukis face. Rest in peace denki.

You are cut off as the door opens.

“The fuck? Why’re all the goddamn lights off huh?” You hear a raspy voice mumble from down the stairs. You have to stop yourself from chuckling as you cover your mouth to not make a sound.

“Got a power outage or something? Maybe nezu forgot to pay the fuckin’ power bills again” the same voice mumbles as you hear footsteps heading up the stairs, slowly until you hear a loud crashing and cursing.

“GOD DAMMIT, DUNCE FACE DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS? YOU WANNA WATCH ME STRUGGLE YOU BASTARD?!” Katsuki yells as he starts to trample up the stairs faster, until he gets to the top to see some faint balloons in the darkness.

“The fu-“

“SURPRISE!!” The whole class yells as momo turns the lights on, revealing everyone and the decorations. Katsukis eyes widen and he grumbles, turning around straight away.

“Hell no, i ain’t doing this shit-“

“Wait!! Could you please stay for a few minutes, it took us a long time to set this up? Please? I promise we can have a nice night together afterwards" you glance up at katsuki with your most dolly eyes—katsuki grumbles again and looks down, shuffling his feet across to the party, unable to resist your sweet tone and precious gaze.

“Fine. But i ain’t staying f’ long, got it?"

“Kacchan! "How are you doing, my bestest bro in the entire world?" Denki says as he drapes an arm around Katsuki, which is quickly swatted away.

"The fuck does it mean to you?" He mumbles as he pushes away and makes his way to the food.

As the night goes on, katsuki begins to moan and groan more to you, saying he can't bear being around these fuckers any longer and that he simply wants to sleep. You sympathise with him, but you also want to enjoy the time you have with the entire class, which happens on a very rare occasion without a big fight breaking out or a villain attacking. After the cake has been served and eaten, you all find yourselves sitting or lounging on the couch, the floor, or even the tables, joking with one another. You sit on the couch next to katsuki, your head on his lap, looking up into his eyes and casually responding to whatever conversation is going on.

“We should totally play truth or dare!” Mina suggests, her tone deathly sweet.

“Hell yeah! Let’s get this party started!” Sero and the other classmates agreed, katsukis eyes rolling at the suggestions.

“Don’t have time for your shitty games”

“Come on ‘suki! It will be fun! It’s late start tomorrow, we have time” you say, reaching up to gently caress his cheek before standing up and heading over to where everyone is sitting in a circle on the floor, patting the spot next to you for katsuki to sit.

“You’re gonna be the death of me…” he mumbles under his breath before reluctantly sitting down next to you.

“You know, i'm still convinced you’ve put him under some sort of spell, I’ve never seen him so agreeable” izuku jokes, smiling widely as per usual.

“I'VE ALWAYS BEEN AGREEABLE YOU DAMN DEK- IZUKU” katsuki barks at izuku before huffing and leaning back.

“Yeah yeah, let’s get on with it, things are about to get in-ter-est-ing!” denki accentuates, smirking at katsuki. Has he planned something or..?

The game goes back and forth between truths and dares among everyone, until it finally lands on katsuki.

“Now, for the birthday boy! Truth or dare?” Denki asks, sneaking looks at the other classmates suggestively.

“Tch, dare obviously. I ain’t no pussy.” katsuki replies, sighing in boredom.

“I dare you…to show us your text messages between you and y/n!” Mina yells excitedly, leaning into katsuki.

“The fuck?! Why should I do that?!” He yells in surprise, backing away from Mina.

“Got something to hide? I thought you weren’t a pussy huh?” Denki says before snatching katsukis phone.

“GIVE THAT- I'M NOT NO PUSSY, GO AHEAD SHIT FACE”

The class crowds around denki as he scrolls through the messages, but to their dismay, all they saw was just messages asking about each other's day, good night messages, the occasional random photo, but.. that's it.

“Are you guys even together? Where’s the spicy stuff?” Sero whines, snatching the phone as he scrolls back further.

Before they can do any more, katsuki snatches his phone back and shoves it in his pocket.

“You ain’t gonna find any of that dumb shit, no point looking, idiots” he barks out before huffing and looking over at you, leaning in a little closer to calm himself down.

“So you’re telling me…there’s nothing. You guys are no fun!” Denki huffs before looking over at you.

“Mina, you wanna ask y/n now? I’ve had enough asking”

“Yeah! I have a few ideas…y/n, truth or dare?”

“Umm…truth!” You say enthusiastically, leaning over and resting your head on katsukis shoulder as you look over at Mina.

“Have you guys done it?” She says in a low tone, making sure any teachers crossing by wouldnt be able to hear her.

Both you and katsuki tense up before heat rises to both of your cheeks. A long line of silence comes before mineta pops out of nowhere and leans in close to you.

“Yeah! Have you guys done it yet? What was she like bakugou? Was she-“ mineta was cut off by katsuki picking him up and throwing him over to the other couch far away from them before he could say anymore.

“Well? Have you?” Sero pipes up and you look over at Katsuki before slowly shaking your head.

“O-of course we haven’t-! We have only been together for two months i-“

“YOU STILL HAVEN’T AFTER TWO MONTHS?” Denkis eyes look like they have popped out of his head as he switches his gaze between the two of you.

Katsuki stays quiet as he looks away, his face dusting a light shade of pink.

“ I have an even better question!!” hagakure pipes in.

“Do any of you want to? Like have you thought about it?”

“Ooo, good question! So, have you?” Mina asks, buzzing with excitement.

“W-well..i..i-i” you stutter, face flushing with heat as you look over at katsuki to see his face even more red, which makes you even more flustered.

“I-its only fuckin’ natural, what, do you expect us to not think of this k-kinda shit or something? Idiots..” katsuki mumbles under his breath, his voice quivering slightly. Your eyes widen in surprise at his confession. He’s thought about you like that? You would never have expected..unless you were just so oblivious you never noticed…

“So you have!! Ha! I knew it! You do have a heart down there kacchan!” Denki jokes, the rest of the class chuckling along with him, causing Bakugou to huff before standing up, grumbling as he walks away back to his dorm.

“Well.. I guess he’s a bit tired, i’m gonna head off to sleep too. Thanks for helping me set up the party guys! I'll see you in class tomorrow.” You say with a smile, your face still pink as you slink off to katsukis dorm, following him in.

You get dressed into one of his shirts along with your panties before heading into his bed, taking in his scent on his pillows. He comes out a little after you, dressed in a black tank top and some black sleeping pants before laying down in bed next to you.

“Well that was fuckin’ tiring. It’s already 12:38 in the morning..way past my bedtime.” He mumbles the last sentence under his breath, his voice trailing off.

You snuggle into him, your face nuzzled in the crook of his neck and your arm slinked across his waist, his toned abs prominent under the material.

You both lay there for a while in silence, enjoying each other's presence. But that one conversation between denki and katsuki is still on repeat in your mind. Does katsuki really think about you like that? Does he want more? Does he..like thinking about me like that?…

Your thoughts eventually become unbearable and before you can think it through, a question slips out.

“Is what you said to denki true?..do..you think about me like that?” You mumble under your breath, half hoping that katsuki was already asleep and not hearing you talk—but unknown to you, katsuki was going through the exact same conversation; the way your face turned a bright red as soon as denki brought it up, your cute little stuttering as you tried to find the right answer.

“…yeah…don’t…you?” He says quietly, avoiding your gaze.

You hesitate before answering.

“ yeah..I’ve..I’ve been thinking about it for a while..”

“You have?” Katsuki answers, his voice laced with surprise. Yeah, he can’t help feeling those emotions towards you, but the fact that you felt those too? Fuck, it was too much for him.

You simply nod, staying silent.

“What…what do you think about?” He asks, playing with your hair with his fingers trying anything to distract himself from the conversation.

Your face heats up and you nuzzle your face even more into his neck.

“W-well..i..i think about you..doing certain things with me..” you whisper timidly, looking down.

Katsukis breath hitches. Such a simple, innocent sentence can even knock him down just like that. He feels his pants tightening slightly and he huffs.

“I..think about..what i wanna do to you..” he says, his voice quivering slightly.

“Y-you ever..touch..yourself while you think about that?”

Katsuki can feel his bulge painfully tugging against the material of his pants at this point, his breath uneasy.

“Y-yeah..” he stutters. “You?”

You nod again in reply, your whole body quivering slightly from anticipation.

You reach over, taking your hand away from his waist when it brushes over his bulge and he gasps quietly.

“Are you..hard..’suki?”

You reach down again and brush your fingertips over his clothes bulge again and he bucks his hips up, desperate for your touch.

“D-don't..fuckin’ tease me..” he manages to stutter out, trying to calm himself.

You look into his eyes lovingly before leaning down and placing a soft kiss on the tip of his nose.

“Do..you want me to..um..suck you off?” You suggest, your voice trailing off as you look away, unable to meet katsukis piercing gaze.

Katsukis mind swirls as he hears you suggest that, and he nods quickly.

“If you are ready for that..then fuck yeah..”

You take no time to lean down and kiss him gently, but before long the kiss starts to heat up, katsukis tongue swirling around yours as you fiddle to lift off his singlet. Once it’s off you take a moment to take in the sight in front of you. Katsuki, there in front of you laying down, puffing as his bare chest rises and falls. You duck down and bring your tongue down to his neck, placing gentle kisses and marks here and there, before trailing your lips down to his nipples, swirling your tongue around them. As you do this, katsuki quickly brings his hand to your head, his hand gripping your hair firmly as he pants.

“Mmphh…fuck..”

He groans, tilting his head back on his pillow.

“Can i..?” You ask sweetly, tugging at the waistband of his pants. He quickly nods, bringing his head back up so he can see your every move, taking a point to remember this moment.

You tug down his pants, revealing the fact that he has no boxers or underwear underneath, his shaft springing free. Your breath hitches at the sight. How is that gonna fit in you one day? Sure you have tried your fingers but that? That’s like your whole hand!

Katsuki notices your wide eyes and hesitation and he smirks confidently.

“Something on your mind?” He says suggestively, looking down at you with half lidded eyes.

“You are so fucking hot..”

“I know, idio- h-hah!” Katsuki gets cut off by the feeling of your warm tongue on his tip, swirling around and licking off any extra pre-cum. He throws his head back, with one hand gripping your hair tightly and the other covering his mouth as he groans.

“can..can you take your hand away? I wanna hear you..” you ask timidly before starting to take his tip into your mouth.

“F-fuckin’ fine..if anyone hears us im blaming it on you- hnngh!” He groans as you start to take more of him into your mouth, struggling to fit it all in. As you stop halfway down on his shaft, katsuki starts to softly thrust his hips up into your mouth shallowly, making sure not to hurt you in any way, but at the same time get the pleasure he needs. You moan into his cock , sending vibrations down his length, causing him to audibly moan.

“S-so..warm..tight..so much better than my hand..” he pants, tilting his head down again so he can look at you, your pretty lips wrapped around his cock.

“You alright? Tap..my leg if you need a break..youre doing so..m-mmph! So good f’ me..” he praises, thrusting deeper and deeper down your throat each time. It’s uncomfortable, but not so bad you can’t bear it. Man, you are so turned on you can barely even notice any discomfort anymore.

Katsukis grip on your hair gets tighter and he starts to thrust quicker and more sloppily.

“‘M c-close..fuck im so close..you wanna..f-fuck! You wanna pull off?” He asks between pants, looking into your eyes reassuringly.

You keep going, this time bobbing your head up and down to indicate that he can cum inside. His breathing becomes faster and his moans become louder as he does one final thrust, shoving himself down your throat as warm liquid pours out.

You pull away and cough slightly before swallowing, taking every last drop of what he gave you. As you look up at him, you take a mental picture of what you see. There he is again, His head thrown back, hand covering his mouth as sweat soaks his toned bare torso and arms. This was something you could get used to.

He looks down at you after catching his breath, you pulling up his pants again and helping him get on his singlet before nuzzling up into him once again, feeling his chest rising and falling against your cheek.

“best fuckin’ birthday ever”

#bakugou fluff #bakugou x reader #bakugou smut #bakugou x y/n #bnha smut #katsuki bakugou #katsuki smut #mha smut #my hero academia smut #oneshot #bakugo smut

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sweetestbasil · 3 months

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RUBATOSIS || chapter one: self digestion

PAIRING : Dr.Gaul's Assistant!Coriolanus Snow x Experiment!Reader-Insert ( afab, they / them, sometimes it )

RATING : 18+ ( no smut in this chapter, but it's very unsettling )

WORD COUNT : 13, 776

WARNINGS : infidelity ( coryo's engaged to livia ), power imbalance, unreliable narrator ( it's 3rd POV but focuses on coryo's view ), unhealthy dynamics, dehumanizing language, medical experimentation, body examination that has... strange vibes, body horror-esque, coryo and gaul are messed up in this fic, he's more like his book version than movie

SUMMARY : 🙶 rubatosis - noun. the unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat 🙷

Fortune, marriage, and success - all within the hands of Coriolanus Snow, and it still isn’t enough to satisfy him. Tigris has grown distant and Livia is far more trouble than it's worth.

Dr. Gaul has just the solution for him.

A/N : This is my first time posting my fanfic work on tumblr, so I hope everyone has fun reading this. If there are any mistakes, lemme know. This is the first of five chapters!

[ If you want to read it on AO3 instead ]

self digestion || autolysis - stage one of decomposition

Oh, he hated this.

He absolutely despised this.

A click of the soles, stepping against the freshly clean sidewalk, rid of any possible careless litter and debris. Had it not been for others who, too, were using the same path, even if they were going in opposite directions, had he half a mind, Coriolanus would have taken the moment to prop himself against a wall and let out the loudest sound of frustration. It wouldn’t be unwarranted, it wouldn’t be uncalled for. Dare he say, he almost feels he should be entitled to it. It had only been four days, but four days should have been enough time for Tigris to get back to him already. The correspondence was not even something of dire content, at least, Coriolanus imagined so. Questions of Grandma’am, if her time with Mrs. Plinth ( he was not going to refer to her as ‘Ma Plinth’ ) had been going well, how was the solo business venture regarding Tigris’s fashion going, was there any renovations that the home needed, how were they — things that he assumed, wrongly he guessed, that would be so simple to answer.

God forbid that he still had the decency to still check in with his family even after he long moved out into his own place.

If Tigris thought she could play him for a fool, she was the one in the wrong; the signs were as clear as can be, that Tigris was trying to ice him out as much as she could. And after all he’s worked hard for? Fixing the home up, making sure the fridge never stays empty, stabilizing the family. He’s even gotten engaged before Grandma’am could even croak, and is letting Tigris design his fiancé’s wedding gown! What else was he supposed to do to try and gain back her warmth? Dance and clap like a District to make himself seem smaller, more dumb, to please her? There was a lock to his jaw, a small grit in Coriolanus’s teeth, as he sipped down the coffee in his hand, the other in his coat pocket.

He didn’t even wish to broach the idea of his fiancé on his walk to the Citadel. The heavy breath, a sigh, that breached itself out his lips. A hand raised to rub a gloved thumb briefly at the bridge of his nose.

Ugh, Livia… It was a pain to even internally taste the words of her name on his tongue.

It was an arranged marriage of convenience that he sought after, an extra piggy bank that he could expend on; and how quickly the elder Cardews lapped up at his palm when he planted the idea of marrying their daughter. A man who was of the old guard elite families, an assistant of Dr. Gaul’s, inheritor of the Plinth’s fortune, a gamemaker in training? They were downright salivating, that he almost felt embarrassed for Livia having to witness her parents’ stripped to their barest of greeds. The keyword being almost. Coriolanus needed to play his cards right to ensure his future, it was only fair game. If that meant taking his chance with the Cardews’ and their banks, he’d be just the fool that Tigris would want him to be if he turned them away. But, he could reluctantly suppose that the arrangement could be considered an equal drain on both parties. He seized their assets and their daughter seized up his free time. How could he forget the fundraiser dinner that Livia had invited them both to later on in the evening? She was delightful enough to remind him of it while they shared breakfast together, between his bites of quiche so that he couldn’t show a hint of a frown.

Coriolanus sucked in a careful breath between his teeth.

If she could only put herself to better use than just the one redeeming quality of a socialite. There was a slim chance he may have miscalculated. Perhaps it would have been an easier time, having something set up with Clemensia, or Lysistrata.

“Mr. Snow! Good morning and welcome back, Dr. Gaul is already waiting for you in—“

“In Lab H05, got it! And a good morning to you, too.” He smiled back effortlessly to the front desk worker, giving them a wave and just the right, charming amount of teeth with the upwards pull of his mouth.

Entering into the Citadel and seeing the hive of workers shift from one place to another in constant movement; they all tried to keep their voices at a low volume, but there was a constant buzz in the air, as they went from one hall to the other. Coriolanus maneuvered himself around them, slipping his deep mahogany overcoat seamlessly folded across his forearm. Full-Grain leather gloves that kept him warm from the cold, taken off his hands and instead placed neatly into the pocket of his overcoat. What a marvel it would have been for his young, naïve self to bear witness the luxury of a full wardrobe he now had. Never again did he have to spend long nights studying for the Academy besides an equally tired Tigris, who busied herself with trimming down the sizes of his father’s discarded shirts to fit him for school the next day.

It was a muscle memory at this point, the path to one of the many labs that Dr. Gaul had established her practice in. She had told Coriolanus that she had a lab for each different study and project she was passionate towards, ones that were more… presentable, to the average Capital citizen, and ones that were more uncensored. Having worked for over a year under Dr. Gaul’s tutelage, Coriolanus had seen a decent amount, the clean and the vile, but even then, he knew very well he had not seen all. He wasn’t even sure if he did want to see all. Especially regarding what happened last time he wandered around the Citadel during Academy days. The doors to Lab H05 were wide open, Coriolanus noted, seeing it in his line of sight, getting closer and closer. It was inviting, telling any worker to come in and step in at any time ( should Dr. Gaul be around ).

The air here was entirely different from what it was in the hallway. Where the air from when he first entered had been warm, inviting from the nipping cold outside. The vague smell of coffee, and an even fainter scent of something chemical, had mingled and intertwined to give the vaguest illusion that the Citadel could pass for a workplace like any other. However, the lab was as if entering an entirely different building. The lights that shone uncomfortably glaring, fluorescent lights that were hung overhead, on the ceiling. There were small lights, embedded into the floors and columns as well, guiding the path to any who walked in. It drowned the large room in an almost blue light. Lab H05 was one of the “clean” labs. A sterile scent in the air, the chemicals that were so faint in the halls were far more prominent, evident here. But, to the trained nose, there was something faint here too. The rusted scent of iron tickled under Coriolanus’s nose, but it barely registered to him anymore as anything concerning. Seeing the endless shelves of… odd specimens, the scent of blood was the last thing that should ever scare him away.

“Dr. Gaul, good morning,” He kept a steady tone, not one that sounded tired, nor too joyous. Being seen as her “favorite” didn’t mean he could speak to her as casually as he pleased. It just meant that he took her current attention. A fickle thing that could be stripped away at any moment if he showed any less than acceptable.

“Coryo,” He tensed his shoulders the same time she breathed it out in loving fashion. Her back once facing him, now turned as she walks towards him to cut the distance between the two. Since the gap started to form between Tigris and him, Dr. Gaul had taken to using that nickname on him. If it was to be used in terms of endearing him to her, or to mock him with the name that ghosts had called him, none could say for sure.

Coriolanus liked to believe it to be both, if he believed his assumptions of her character were right.

He never once let his eyes leave contact with her own, but he could hear the movement of her prominent, red latex gloves being peeled off her hands. She always thought it to be ironic, to wear such a color despite her profession. It matched the dye job that she had done on her surgical gown. He felt the weight of hands touching either side of his forearms, the smile on Dr. Gaul’s face caused a crinkle in her eyes as she bared all teeth in her smile. He wondered if she knew how threatening her grin looked.

“A morning to you as well. Has it been treating you good?”

It felt as if some sort of warm feeling was spreading out from Dr. Gaul’s hands, through his arms and into his body. What a disgusting sensation, it made goosebumps rise on his skin.

“As well as it could be.” Coriolanus’s voice spoke softly.

Livia drained his energy far more than he expected with her morning rambles and gossip.

Dr. Gaul’s hands smacked against his arms in a laugh, loud and knowing, she always knew, turning around to walk deeper in the lab. “Hah! By the sounds of it, it seems you’re not getting some peace of mind when you head home,” She turned back to look at him, giving him a glance, she was prying something out of him. “That’s no good, Coryo. You need to be in top shape to work, I can’t have my assistant become so… drained.”

The crease in her eyes showed again.

“If this is your preferred state, there is a new species of leeches I am working on. I assure you it is far more efficient than a Cardew of species.”

Well, now it was his turn to laugh.

A dry chuckle that slipped from Coriolanus’s lips, moving to follow Dr. Gaul. Placing his coat on a table made of rich wood, something less… aseptic looking. There were moments where he often froze under the woman’s gaze; a humiliating, bodily reaction that made him feel so small, so vulnerable as he used to be. Yet, it was in times like these, where he could understand how Dr. Gaul still managed to hold sway over people besides just exemplary displays of fear and power. There was a sense of humor to her, if he could call it that, where if a powerful woman like her involved yourself in - you felt so included, special.

“It was nothing like that. Livia just reminded me that after work today, she and I have to attend dinner later in the evening. It’s a fundraiser for the improvement and reconstruction of the Corso.” He turned his sight away from Dr. Gaul’s eyes, not being able to keep the contact any more. Flicking to the sight of the endless, bright shelves that lit up the tubes containing various specimens and experiments. Some failures, some on pauses, some successes, and some were just creative ‘what-ifs’; that would explain some of the seemingly useless fusions, like the jellyfish that had spider legs mixed in with some of its natural lappets, now encased in a resin tube. Coriolanus can’t recall if he was employed at the Citadel yet when this specimen was made. His fingers briefly touched upon the cool glass of it. What a disgusting idea. “I almost nearly forgot about it.” Dr. Gaul hummed at his response.

“Why, doesn’t that sound riveting! What a joy young life is, flitting from one function to the other, all the night-time glamor. You know, before I was transferred to work in the Citadel, I was the same. I thought of giving my children some of my old wardrobe from my youth, but it’s so out of the current trends, it just collects dust now.” What a blessing, for her kids. They could avoid the embarrassment of coming into the room looking as if they robbed the Pre-Dark Days exhibit at the Capital’s museum. The heels of Dr. Gaul’s heels clicked against the smooth, waxed floor. Coriolanus could feel the brief sliver of her heavy presence pass him by from behind, as she went to head over to another area in the room. It sounded vaguely close to the center of it.

“You must be excited, Coryo. Are you going to wear,” Her words paused. She was tasting the air for something. “Ah, what’s her name… That cousin of yours, the one who started her new business a while ago.”

What was the point of this conversation?

“Tigris.”

A brief flare tickled behind his ribs, reminding him of his thoughts earlier before. Standing up from his spot, fingers now leaving the glass of the odd ( sickening ) creature, his prints left slightly behind on the glass. Stretching his shoulders back with his arms, muscles pulled, away from their previously hunched position. Coriolanus walked over to where Dr. Gaul was, who stood nearby another table at the center of the lab. This time, this one was far cleaner, made of what seemed to be a material of stainless steel. In her hands she carried a manila folder, or two, in her hands; her painted nails sifted through the papers carefully. She was writing something quickly down inside of it. He wanted to know, but he held his tongue. Gaul would tell him if it was something he needed to be aware of.

“And I’m not sure. Livia is still picking out her dress and I want to match with her.” He smiled at her.

“Aren’t you a romantic,” She gives him a look out of the corner of her eye, the blue one that matched his. It made his skin crawl, he hated the feeling of it. “Is your heart melting, Snow?”

Coriolanus hopes she sticks to her career as a Gamemaker, being a comedian looks like a bleak future for her.

The smile on his lips grew wider, a small laugh at her words, his hand reaching to cover his mouth slightly to muffle the sound in the large room.

“I wouldn’t say that just yet.”

He wouldn’t say it at all. Livia? Melt his heart? Sure, she could melt his eardrums when she had that obnoxious snort to her loud laughs. It made her sound like a pig, shipped straight to the Capital from the farms of District 10. That would defeat the purpose of why he married her in the first place. It would be the utmost betrayal to himself, after he had promised to close himself after–

“Since you have a date tonight,” His ears perked up immediately. “I’ll reduce the amount of work you have for today, I’ll be merciful.” He wouldn’t argue if she decided to give him more. She pressed a manila folder into his open hands, her grip was tight on it. This was a folder that not many eyes needed to be on. Taking it carefully from her hands, he raised it to his eyesight curiously, catching the sight of the project name written on top of it.

PROJECT: CAPTIVE – A.01 PROMETHEUS

Coriolanus brought his gaze back towards Dr. Gaul. He assumed he slipped a confused gaze at her, because before he could even ask her, she’s already speaking up:

“This is a project I had started around the time you were exiled in District 12.”

His jaw slightly tightened. She didn’t have to use that exact word to describe it.

“It’s far more… unique,” Her eyes rolled around the room as she sought out the word, the moment it landed on her tongue, she locked her sight immediately onto him. Gaul’s smile pulled a bit more at her cheeks, a festering excitement that was slipping out from her internal confines. The threat of teeth in her smile was no longer an attempt of niceties, but far more sinister in its intentions. Coriolanus would argue on a good day that both were the same, that Dr. Gaul’s cruelty was her being kind. “Than my other projects. Far more different than any of my other muttations, this is a beast of a different breed, but one that you and I know intimately well.”

So this was a human experimentation, Coriolanus deduced.

Dr. Gaul would never dare to refer to those below Capital ranks as something human, there was always something else she had to refer to them by. Animal, beast, plague, insect, if it stripped them of their humanity, she was eager to take it. They shared similar sentiments, but sometimes, he had to give them some form of distinct name to separate them. “I’ve actually grown quite fond of it. Usually, I’d handle its tests and exams, but you seem like you need a pick-me-up.”

It should make him disgusted at how easily she could see through him.

The older woman stepped further away from him, into one of the dark recesses of the room. Lab H05 was one of the main center labs within the Citadel, meaning it earned itself the privilege to have its layout be connected to other rooms, outside areas, halls, and the like. It just happened to be, the darker areas that Gaul was heading in were towards the direction of one of the elevators connected to the room. Coriolanus watched her body retreat into the dimly lit area, not quite following after her. He didn’t know why. His hands felt stiff with the folder in his hands. The pounding beat of his heart in his ears matched in tempo with the steps of her heels against the floor. If he was going to move, she was going to need to ask him. She knew too, the doctor knew her own footsteps, and she was very aware when others’ joined in. Turning around to look at where he still was, standing, watching, she looked back at him. Coriolanus could make out her faint silhouette in the dark, but Dr. Gaul’s blue eyes shone brighter in the dark. As if she had tapetum lucidum, how it reflected so wildly. She was not helping the rumors made against her, that questioned if she ever used herself for a subject of fascination.

“Come now, Coryo. You don’t want to waste time.”

A silence fell upon them both.

“Understood, I’m right behind you.”

Walking after her, Coriolanus descended the small set of stairs that she had gone down from, he stepped into the dimly lit area. The manila folder was still grasped tightly in his one hand, at his side. He didn’t understand it, he didn’t understand her. Yes, she said that she wanted to cheer him up, but he’d be a fool if he was to believe that’d was to be the only reason why she was doing this. Volumnia Gaul, telling confidential secrets because she cared for his well being? No, there was always something else. An ulterior motive she wished to serve, or a lesson she wanted to teach. When he was brought back from his sentence of being a peacekeeper, it was not because her heart broke over him. She was not weeping at him having to tread his feet into the muck and grime of District 12. It was because she was holding him up to an ambition that both him and her both wished to see.

“This one,” Dr. Gaul started her words, occasionally turning her head to the side to make sure he was still following her ( he was ). “Started out as a simple curiosity. I had to sit with myself quite a bit to figure out a punishment that would actually serve some productivity.” Her hands reached behind her, flicking at the folder that Coriolanus was holding. He opened up the folder, finally, to look through the report. Whatever the Doctor was gesturing vaguely in conversation, it would be more explicit in her writings. “Displays of cadavers, desecration of the human silhouette, trauma to the cerebrum, these punishments can only go for so long before new ideas must be made. If the rebels expect the same disciplinary action, you can expect them to gain a tolerance to it.”

Squinting at the paper, he leaned his head slightly down to get a closer look of the subject. A small photo was attached to the report by a paperclip, it was a person who seemed to be in a similar age group to his. They looked clean, proper - they wore an ironed, white button up shirt under a dark vest, with unique, yet simple earrings they donned on. Pearls and tiny opals that dangled from a gold chain earring. A family heirloom, if Coriolanus had to guess. They smiled widely in the photo. Their teeth weren’t perfect, their upper cuspid was a bit more pointed in comparison to all others.

They had once been a capital citizen, turned rebel, to… this.

“I wanted to truly push my mind forward, and see if the impossible would truly be… well, possible.” Dr. Gaul grinned at the end of the sentence. Coriolanus lifted the photo up, after hooking his gaze unto the former for a moment. It’s a shame, he thought to himself. How pretty they are, had they not tainted their mind with childish ideas they would have continued to live in the comforts that they were so comfortably lavishing in before. He was curious as to whose family they once belonged to. A filthy curiosity enticed him, a want to digest more at the report at the risk of tuning out Gaul’s feverish ramblings.

“Personally, I outdid myself.”

There was a small desire to curse her under his breath, the writing for the subject’s name was far too rushed and messy to read properly. Did she want him to read the report, or play word scramble?

Dr. Gaul’s steps had stopped, the white noise of her chatter turned to silence was enough to bring his head back from the report. She stood between him and the elevator, holding her hands in front of her, folded. Peeking to the side, the button for the down level was lit up in a glow of red. Her smile widened.

“Curiosity eating away at you, Coryo?”

It still made his skin crawl, everytime she used that name. How frightening it was, that it also brought him a strange sense of the coldest warmth.

“You’ve talked so vividly about them,” Not clear enough. “I want to see what makes you so excited about them.” He wants to see if they could come close to bringing him out of his frustrations. Fingers that touched the edge of the subject’s photo twitched in tempo with the small ding of the elevator. Doors opening, Dr. Gaul stepped to the side. Hands gestured, letting him know to step in first which he obliged. Yet, no other steps than his own followed him in. Coriolanus turned around, a puzzled look on his face when he noticed how Dr. Gaul was standing in the middle of the elevator’s doors.

“Expected me to come join you? You can’t be so attached to my hip, Coryo.” She laughed, her hands reached in between her surgical gown and work attire. Pulling out a set of keys attached to her worker’s ID, she tugged a key off. Dr. Gaul dipped her body slightly in to twist at a lock that had revealed another panel of floor buttons aside from the usual floor ones. This must have been the key designated for the Citadel’s researchers and engineers. He had a private key of his own, but that was reserved for Game Makers. Still in training, but Dr. Gaul had persuaded the others to give him his own copy. “I have other things that need tending to, so you’ll have to have your fun without me.” Pushing a floor button that was labeled C09, glowing red under her touch, she gave him her key. She pressed into Coriolanus’s free palm, closing his fingers to clasp around it.

“You can keep this one. I’ll ask for another copy.”

Was it because this one almost seemed rusted over to hell and back? Coriolanus wasn’t an idiot. He could feel the textured sensation of something that, usually, was supposed to be smooth metal.

“Thank you, Dr. Gaul.” He spoke softly back to her.

Dr. Gaul sent him another smile towards his way, the abominable sight of her gradually leaving his sight as the doors closed. A divide now between the both of them.

Instantly, a breath of air was released from Coriolanus. His head reeled back, eyes closed, leaning against the wall of the elevator. He was now by himself. Free from that imposing woman, he finally could be released from her watchful gaze. Always gauging him, examining him as if he, too, was another subject on her surgical table. Perhaps, in a strange, distant sense, he was. Which is why he likes it far more when their interactions are limited. Even if it makes him feel guilty if he hasn’t spoken to her for any prolonged amount of time.

Another breath, he brought his head back down, eyes open. Opening his hand to where the key was held in his hand. It was frighteningly warm in his hand, most likely from when both Dr. Gaul and him held onto it. The material of the key was dark in color, rust having formed around some of the edges. Spots of dark stains marred its dull shine, it almost looks black in contrast to the key’s natural dark hue. This most definitely was blood, now dried. In his head, Coriolanus could see the vivid picture in his head: Dr. Gaul barely bothering to remove her gloves after leaving the examination room, holding the key between sticky gloves. A sneer pulled on Coriolanus’s face. He pocketed the key away.

He wanted to focus on something else.

The weight of the manila report at his side stuck out glaringly obvious, he still had yet to fully read through everything. His fingers were still thumbing between one of the pages, bookmarking a random place in the report. Should he wait to see the project on his own? Give himself something ‘fun’ to surprise himself with? A discomfort prickled at the hairs on his neck. No, he didn’t like surprises too much. Surprises meant no control, and no control meant chaos that wasn’t under his hand. And what more could be asked, when what he needed to know was right here. Hands flipped back open the manila folder while he waited for the elevator to finish its descent.

On the first page, there was only one photo of the subject, before the project had started. Dr. Gaul was always so thorough, so there must have been more to see. And how he loved to be right, when the sight of more clipped on photos peeked through in between pages. He stopped at the sight of them. These had been nude, taken in what was most definitely an examination room. They must’ve been in captivity for a few days for how haggard they looked. Gleam completely gone, with only a dark emptiness seen on their face. Signs of minimal swelling on their left cheek from when they were hit by a peacekeeper when resisting arrest. Bags under the optics, suggesting either sleep deprivation or developed insomnia. His eyes lingered on the photos that took in zoomed in shots of identifiable beauty marks that were scattered around their body. One around the back of their left acromial, around the sternocleidomastoid, one on the left mammary gland, and another on the right femoral muscle. Unconsciously, his fingers traced along the edges of each photo as he examined them until they traced after the words of ink.

The objective of the project: engaging and testing pain receptors on the subject. By use of non-licensed medication and surgical operations, the subject’s NTRK1 gene was mutated to a certain extent to gain the closest imitation to Congenital Analgesia ( while still keeping the subject alive ). If Coriolanus recalled, in his textbooks, Congenital Analgesia was a condition that always was given to a patient by a pass down from the parent. It was never really something ‘made’, or ‘given’. He could understand now why Dr. Gaul was so pleased with herself for accomplishing this feat. Curiosity was beckoning him, wanting to see more of what the report entailed.

Pages dedicated to each operation, each test done. There were pain charts made, scales from 1 to 10, to test out the nerve receptors. Each test, the numbers on the chart went lower and lower; 10s that went to 9s, to the current lowest being a 6 for the majority of the subject’s body. The more sensitive areas, such as the frontal or the palmar of the body, were around 7 to 8 on the chart. Flipping to the back of the contents, there was a small note in Dr. Gaul’s handwriting.

Today, please take care of Project Prometheus’s nerve exams. The last surgical operation was done last month and they have just now fully recovered. Update the report by the end of today, to measure if there are any fluctuations on their pain receptors.

Sounded simple enough. If this was all he had to do today, then there was a chance he could clock out from work even earlier to give himself space before tonight’s event. A ding finally was heard from the elevator, he was here at Lab C09. Folder closed in his hands, his foot stepped out of the elevator and onto the floor. What a drastic difference Lab C09 had been in comparison to Lab H05. If it hadn’t belonged to Dr. Gaul, Coriolanus may not have been able to believe that this was an actual functioning lab. It almost seemed forgotten by the Citadel, half of the fluorescent lights not working, or blinking at different intervals. It bathed the floor in a very gray, almost vile green hue. The scent of copper and rust was far more noticeable, and the smell of medicine felt almost nauseous here. There were no grand columns in sight, and no endless amount of shelves dedicated to new specimens and ideas of creation. The floors were unkempt, specks of dirt packed into the corners of where the wall and once sleek tiles met. Occasional cracks on the floor, parts of the design broken and shattered into bits of ceramic. The halls were long, with endless doors that ( thankfully ) all were open, empty, or both. With the exception of the large corridor doors at the other end. He could make out the sight of Peacekeepers that stood on guard, near the corridor door and by the elevator entrance.

This definitely was Dr. Gaul’s more… uncensored labs.

Coriolanus took a few more steps into the lab and noticed the large stain of dried blood that dragged from where his feet stood, past the corridor doors. Eyebrows raised at the sight, but his eyes did not widen. Marvelous, the subject might still be rebellious. If this was to be the case, he’d be severely unimpressed. All these exams to change the NTRK1 and nothing done to affect the amygdala.

Sloppy work here, Dr. Gaul.

Pushing through the corridor doors, after giving the briefest of nods and acknowledgement towards the Peacekeepers, he found himself exactly where he needed to be. Entering an area that was entirely void of light, except for one thing.

A large window glass on the other side, showing the examination room on the other side. It lit up this half of the hall, shelves of varying medicines and chemicals lined against the walls of the examination room. Surgical tools were lined up high on the wall, out of reach, not yet pulled out and placed on the side. Today there was no operation to be done. Examination lights shone overhead, and under it was the examination table where Project Prometheus sat.

They sat down so compactly, so politely, knees folded to their chest and arms wrapped around them, their face leaned against the crevice their legs gave. The subject definitely had changed, physically, since the projects had begun. Their skin barely had the warm glow it had in their photo, had it not been for the peeks of color on their joints, he’d assume that there was no more blood rushing through their body. Their hair that once looked so well maintained, luxurious, was cut at awkward angles. Yet, it still managed to frame their face well enough. Figures, that was former Capital genes at work. Their body has taken significant damage since then. Scars of various shapes were scattered all across, bandages wrapped in some areas, and stitches that dragged around entire limbs, like their arms, thighs, feet, even one on their face. As if they were some over-played ragdoll that was patched up far too many times. There was no fight he could see from their eyes, and no anger. Was the blood on the floor halls really theirs, or did that belong to someone else?

This could not even be called anything, but a shell of a husk.

Coriolanus stood there, watching, taking in the sight of them. It barely felt like he was breathing. And that alone irritated him. It’s like his body was trying to make itself seem smaller; as if he was somehow bothering them. He sighed out his frustration, pinching the bridge of his nose. They couldn’t even hear him from the thick glass, what would he be so concerned with? Bringing his hand back down, about to open the manila folder once again to compare their ID photo to their current state - he peeked at their form again.

He had been noticed by it.

His breath felt lodged in his throat, his original action now tossed to the side, as they and him both just… watched each other. Their eyes that had looked so sullen and distant before, were so focused and vigilant of him. But, they didn’t seem scared of him. Their body didn’t look tense, their expression didn’t twist into any wrinkles. What feeling was running through their body? Could they possibly feel anything? Coriolanus stepped away from the glass, slowly, and down further into the hall, to where the door of their examination room was. A peacekeeper stood guard near the heavy door, beside them a surgical gown, cap, goggles and gloves were on a hook. Excusing the other to the side, so he could reach and grab the attire to put on himself. Coriolanus questioned, as he tugged the latex rubber gloves on, if he still wanted to entertain the idea of holding their test today. Teeth grinded inside his jaw, he hated to admit weakness, but it was no lie that they unsettled him when they had stared back.

That probably contributed to why Dr. Gaul favored the project so much, both must take joy from bringing him such unease. A sigh hissed from his teeth, as he put the surgical mask on.

“I’ll be back out in just a moment. I’ll let you know if an emergency comes up.”

It’ll be easy work, and then he can leave.

Opening the door, the sterile smell of the room rushed past him as the metal door was moved from its tight seal and then closed heavily behind him. Their head had moved away from where the glass window was, turned to stare at where he stood near the door, their folder still in his hands. Thinly-veiled sweat was forming inside the gloves, with the silence that fell heavy in the room. He opened the folder.

“Good morning, Subject A01, I am–”

…?

Did they say something?

“...I’m sorry, did you say something?”

Another tense silence fell in the air.

“... That isn’t my name.” Its voice was quiet, slightly hoarse but not entirely. Unexpected, considering their length of stay here. His fingers pinched tightly at one of the pages.

“...What do you mean?” He was not going to call them by their Capital name. They had long since lost the right to use it, after rebelling against Panem.

“Dr. Gaul calls me something else.” Coriolanus was going to kill it if they did not clarify.

“And what does she call you?” This was the nicest tone he could muster.

They spoke it once into the air, still looking at him with those dead eyes of theirs. Had Dr. Gaul been so fond of it to have given it an entirely new name? And they accepted and went along with it? That didn’t feel right, from what he’s examined about them so far. They were a rebel, they had fought against a Peacekeeper, they were dragged around the halls bleeding.

And they gave up their old name?

It had shifted out of its cradled position, their legs dangled off the examination table and their arms were placed on their side. Coriolanus could see the patient gown they wore more clearly. It kicked its feet in the air idly, as it waited for his response.

… Do they even know the situation that they’re in?

“...Right. Well, do you know why I’m here?”

“Not really. I’ve never met you before.” Was context clues also something it gave up while in captivity? “I know the guards, and I know Dr. Gaul. I don’t think I know about you,” They’re a prisoner, it’d be counter-intuitive if people were giving them info about every single staff member here. His mask covered the lower half of his face, but he hoped the slight shift of facial muscle was enough to convey that was trying to smile towards them. He walked further into the examination room, closer to where it sat and where the shelves of drugs and medical equipment were lined up. Their stare was burrowing holes into his back, while he shifted around, opening and closing shelves and drawers to check inside for what he needed.

“Well, I am Dr. Gaul’s assistant. You can call me Snow,” He was not giving his first name to a former rebel. “I’m here today because Dr. Gaul is a bit busy today to handle your check-up, so I’ll be filling in her role.” Gloves shifted bottles around, turning them around to read the labels. The disinfectant, cotton swabs, tweezers, needles, rubbing alcohol, syringes, the bite-rag, marker, he had it all except the custom medicine that Dr. Gaul had made for it. In the instructions of how to construct their exam, Dr. Gaul had explicitly mentioned that they were to take specific medication, as they had helped keep it conscious at all times for operations and exams. It was needed so that they’d be able to relay the ratings, which is why Coriolanus was reading yet another prescription bottle in his hands, squinting in frustration.

“It’s this bottle over here.”

A delicate, scarred hand had pointed at another bottle that sat idly on the shelf. Coriolanus turned his head slightly, seeing the subject no longer on the examination table, standing behind him quietly. Not staring at him, they were entirely looking at where their hand pointed. They were only standing just a couple inches away from his body, careful not to touch him as they stood on the tips of their toes to point at the medicine. With this proximity, it was easier for him to get a closer look at them. The stitches on its body were done with thick, prominent threads; there were far more beauty marks he could pick out on their face that the photos didn’t display. The patient gown was made from a material far thinner than he expected, a visible silhouette could be seen from underneath the flimsy cloth. His mouth felt unusually dry.

A cold chill trickled down his spine. He barely noticed them. He doesn’t even think it made a sound when it moved.

“Careful, keep your space from me.” He spoke, a careful warning to their ears and a threatening promise on his. He didn’t want to risk being so close to them like this, he barely knew the extent of how violent the project could possibly be yet. Still, they listened, backing away from him and putting their hand back down to their side. Both it and him stared at each other again, the tense air dancing back inside the room. They looked as if they had wanted to say something, and Coriolanus, internally, felt almost violent for how demure they were being with him. It repulsed him, how it felt almost endearing if he looked at them for a second more.

“Is something wrong?” Eventually he bit the bullet, speaking first between the two of them. He can’t bear another moment of silence with it.

“... I don’t need a bite-rag. I don’t think I really scream much anymore.” They still had an issue with explaining context to him more, he’ll tell Dr. Gaul that needed some work lat– His jaw ticked… Why did he care about your abysmal social skills? It was a captive, it had no one to speak to other than their own captors. Pulling down their prescription from the shelf, a dark, thick liquid, he said in return: “It’s best to have it on hand, just in case you need it. Now, return back to the examination table.” For a split second, he thought he could see their gaze soften at him. Were they seriously entertaining the idea that he was being nice to them? Coriolanus just didn’t want to deal with their sounds while he worked. It’d be like trading one screaming fit for another, for when he had to go on his date with Livia later in the evening.

They nodded, and followed his command, walking back to sit on top of it. Their body was sitting in his direction though, observing, waiting for him. Coriolanus still felt unsure about them, but… it was strange, their obedience. It made him suspicious of its intent with all this. Trailing back to the center of the examination room, he placed all the tools on a metal tray. Pulling out an exam stool from under one of the tables, he set the syringe to the cap of its prescription. He pulled the plunger of the syringe up, watching as the barrel filled up with medicine, until it sat nicely. The needle left smoothly from the cap, and a drop of the liquid dangled at the edge of it. This form of silence he liked far more better.

“...Do you have family, Dr. Snow?”

So close. Coriolanus flicked the needle harshly, the drop hitting somewhere else. He placed the ready syringe down, and picked up the black marker. Turning back towards them, their head rested in their palms, watching him intensely.

“That’s none of your concern. Now please, remove your gown so we can get started on the examination.” Grabbing the stool to pull it underneath him, he got comfortable in the seat while it moved to get up. As their hands reached behind them to undo the tie around their waist first, it still spoke ( much to his chagrin ).

“I was just wondering since Dr. Gaul usually talks whenever she comes to visit.” That explained why their throat was not as hoarse as he was expecting. Dr. Gaul was treating her trials with them as a morning brunch. “She sometimes talks about her day, or talks about her family.” They loosened the tie around their waist, the fabric more flowy around their lower body. Coriolanus stared intently, taking in the first peek of skin. Looking past the scars, despite the stitches pulling at parts of their skin, and the dented scars, their skin looked soft, malleable. They must’ve been popular on weekend nights, back then. Their hands reached up to undo the tie around their collar. Rather than watching him while he worked, it was his turn to watch them. There was that beauty mark on their left acromial. Eyes leisurely trailed back up to their fingers, the smallest note with how it fumbled around behind them to untie the flimsy string. Their movements were clumsy, in his eyes, which almost surprised him. “She likes to talk about her three kids often.”

Coriolanus looked away from their stitched fingers, confusion on his face.

“Dr. Gaul only has two kids.” He’s seen the photos she has in her office. She has two sons, both who have gone on to have families of their own. Not once has she mentioned a third kid, Coriolanus isn’t even sure it was possible at her age. Didn’t menopause usually affect a person’s chances of getting pregnant? Maybe it was a secret child she had abandoned at the maternal ward while dropping off her resignation as an obstetrician.

“No, she has three. She told me their names: Caius, Martius, and Coriolanus.”

Oh.

Oh, now that’s…

“I see. You must be closer to Dr. Gaul than I am.”

He didn’t know what to really say to that. There was really nothing for him to go and argue about, especially with the patient. Coriolanus couldn’t quite outright say that the third child was him, especially when he specifically told them to refer to him by his last name. And if he revealed that this was an entire lie on Dr. Gaul’s end, he wasn’t quite sure how the woman would react for doing so. It wasn’t his place, when he had no idea what Gaul had wanted to achieve. He understood the physical punishment and hypothesis being put upon Project Prometheus, but he had yet to understand where the emotional, and the mental, aspect of this punishment was. Dr. Gaul will tell him if it was needed, or he’ll figure it out based on his own conclusions. That must be one of the purposes Dr. Gaul had assigned this task to him.

“Alright. I’m done.”

Coriolanus blinked. He didn’t even realize he lost focus on them, he let out a small exhale as he lifted himself from the exam stool, marker ready in hand.

“Right, for the next step of this exam, I need to…”

Words trailed off for him.

What an entirely different view it was, from before, looking at them only from the back. From behind, it was just read to him as a large canvas of skin that had already been stained and painted on. Nothing that gave way to what person under the flesh could be. Yet, the front… There was more to regard and take note of, a far more different feeling than just having viewed from the photos alone in the reports. If he were to ignore the marks left on their body, had they stayed perfect from before, he could’ve made the argument about their body being more alluring than the average Capital citizen. That familiar, dry feeling touched his throat again. What a waste, for genes like that to be wasted on a rebel. There were more beauty marks and moles in the front, along with more stitches and scars. Coriolanus could see the surgical scars that were healing between their pectoralis major area. A curiosity rose, questioning how scarred tissue would feel under his gloves. He raised an eyebrow, as his gaze dared to move to a lower section on their body. Must be for easier mapping, that Dr. Gaul decided it was best to have their pubic area shaved clean.

“...Dr. Snow, are you okay?”

His tongue darted out to lick his dry lips under the surgical mask.

“Fine, just thinking about Dr. Gaul’s instructions.” He was going to go insane before he could even head to the fundraiser tonight. Coriolanus reached his free hand out, hovering it over their shoulder area, guiding them to stand closer to the area between the exam table, and his stool. He took note, that despite the way their body has changed since their captivity, their body still held a warmth that radiated off from their skin. “Stand here, please. For this next step, I’ll be using this marker here to map out the different muscles and areas on your body. Are you familiar with this?”

The subject nodded, a yes from their lips.

Good.

The sound of the marker cap popping off filled in the lack of words on Coriolanus’s part, the black cap falling on the tiled floor and rolling off to a dark, distant corner of the room. “For today, we’ll only be focusing on the external pain chart. Meaning skin surface only,” He lifted the subject’s hair, pushing up against the subject’s head, strands that were long enough to block full access to the neck. Bringing the marker up, he pressed down the chiseled tip of alcoholic ink on the subject’s skin, making the first section of dotted lines. Writing on their skin in careful, small letters, the areas that compromised their neck; the semispinalis capitis, the levator scapulae, the rhomboid minor–

“How long have you worked for Dr. Gaul?”

Fingers nearly stumbled in drawing when the muscle stretched in movement, he lifted the marker carefully away from its skin. The idea of putting in Gaul’s suggestion box the order of a mouth gag was becoming all the more tempting to him.

“It doesn’t concern you.” Coriolanus responded, coolly.

He pressed the marker back down on its skin, moving himself to the anterior of its body. Between his gloved fingers, he held their chin. The muscle limp in his hands, letting him lift their chin up to show more, exposing the unfolded expanse of their skin. The project was an annoying one, but at the least,they were a pliant one. The black dotted lines drew itself across the subject’s body: the sternocleidomastoid, the sternohyoid–

“How has your day been so far, Dr. Snow?”

Would Dr. Gaul throw him to the curb if he strangled one of her projects?

Coriolanus lifted himself slightly from his leaned down angle, his fingers that once lifted its chin up, had pulled their chin back down to look at him eye to eye. Its gaze stared back at him with such emptiness, a lack of anything to be seen, no anger, no defiance, no discomfort, not even joy. His eyebrows narrowed down slightly as he took in the face that held no question to how, and what, manner he held their body in. Were they trying to please him? Make his guard drop down by asking questions, hoping that he’d become more sympathetic towards them?

“Dr. Gaul isn’t here. You are under no requirement to attempt conversations like you’ve done with her.” He spoke, trying his best attempt at sounding sympathetic to their ears. That would be the easiest explanation. The soul of them was sucked out by Dr. Gaul forcing them into an illusion of a grotesque socialite. That’d explain away the project’s incessant speaking.

Yet, the subject had tilted their head under his fingers. The slightest push against his grasp.

“... Do you not like talking, Dr. Snow? Dr. Gaul always looks so happy when she’s talking.”

So they were trying to suck up to him. He locked his teeth. And to think, he was giving them a chance of redemption, by assuming that they had been conditioned to engage in meaningless conversation. Maybe he was wrong about their obedience. There was still a spark of a rebel within them regardless of their time, their experiences, in captivity.

“I only ever see Dr. Gaul, so I got excited to see someone new. I’m sorry for upsetting you,”

They could’ve fooled him with that tone of voice. They sounded as dead as their eyes had looked. Yet, Coriolanus bit his bottom lip as the doubt touched his head; the subject’s stare, if he gazed deeply enough he felt as if he could almost make out a sullenness to them. Were they legitimately apologetic? He didn’t want to even know the answer, he just wanted to finish this job as quickly as possible. He let go of their chin, releasing it. Gloved fingers now traced the space between their shoulder and collarbone, the subject angling their neck to the other side to give him room. He brought the marker back down to their skin, more dotted lines appearing under his wake.

“... What exactly is your relationship to Dr. Gaul, if I may ask?” He hated them, he decided. He hated how quickly they managed to rope him into this dumb small talk. It was almost audible, the sound of the subject blinking, feeling their gaze boring under the layers of his clothes. Did he say the wrong thing? Did they not want conversation? He adjusted the weight of his stance, uncomfortable under the silence the subject had unwillingly placed him in. Was he not doing what they wanted, was that not enough for them?

“Dr. Gaul is…” Their words trailed off. They were trying to find the words, unsure of what to say to him. They most likely didn’t want to try and insult her, considering her assistant was in the room with them. They don’t want to risk possibly earning more punishment. Project Prometheus may have been smarter than what he initially assumed. Coriolanus moved back to the posterior, hands trailed themselves across the subject’s shoulders, feeling, to remind him of the muscle underneath before he marked it down. Trapezius.

“Dr. Gaul is my caretaker, I think.”

Well isn’t that something unique.

If the subject had decided to say captor, overseer, punisher, he wouldn’t have cared. It would’ve been honest. Caretaker? That was something different, that was something sympathetic. The thought of them turning this twisted dynamic into something heartfelt, fell sour on his tongue. It made him feel repulsion towards them. Why bother to lie? “Tell me about that.” His voice was soft, inviting the project to open themselves to him. As the marker continued to mark their skin, Coriolanus took one of its arms under his hand. The subject’s fingers twitched slightly, when he brought his hand under theirs. Their hand was not that big in comparison to his own, unable to fully fill out of his palm. The fingertips were usually the more sensitive parts, when it came to sensations. He hummed. Adductor pollicis.

“...I’m not sure how to describe it well.” They sounded unsure. Spending this extended amount of time with them, Coriolanus could make out the slight tonal differences they had in their voice. It was very small, though. The muscles in his hands seem to slightly tense.

“Do your best for me.”

Their fingertips, the slightly yellowed nails, tapped slightly at the latex material of his gloves. Almost as if fidgeting to gather the words, the right ones, to say to him.

“Dr. Gaul has always been… someone there, I suppose.” Because she has to. “The guards are there too, but they don’t really notice me in the way Dr. Gaul does.” He wrote down on another part of the subject’s arm, drawing another dotted line. Brachioradialis. “Even though the tests kind of hurt, but I’m getting used to it now, she’s been the only one so far to give me a name, a birthday, check up on me, tell me about her day,” He was almost impressed at how their were trying to upsell the ‘normalcy’ of their captivity. A new name and birthday? Maybe the secret third child of Dr. Gaul wasn’t him, but actually them instead. He almost laughed aloud at the prospect of it. Coriolanus turns to the other side of their body, taking the other arm of the subject to write on after finishing the other. Biceps brachii. “That’s like a caretaker, right?” And now it was asking for his confirmation? It truly does want to appease him. He let out another hum, as if he was thinking to himself when he was going to go along with their delusions. “It sounds like Dr. Gaul cares a great deal for you.” He lied to them.

Making his back to the anterior of the subject’s body, he stood in front of them, the subject tilting their head up to him. Project Prometheus was shorter, in comparison to him, standing at eye level against his chest. Latex touched the area of the linea alba, Coriolanus kept his gaze steady on them and they did the same. There was a silence that fell between them, but it felt so uninviting to him now that he finally had it. The subject still held their indifference, their apathy, and he wanted to know why it bothered him so much when he should like how easy of a prisoner they were being. No, there had to be something more. There was always something more. His fingers dragged down their skin, and his marker followed behind, writing down the names of the muscles he touched. The subject had moved their arms, and Coriolanus tensed for a second, thinking they were finally going to react, going to grab him, hit him, something – yet, their arms shifted away from the angle of his body, moving in to hold the muscles of the pectoralis major up in their hands, cupping them. They were making more room for him to write on their upper abdomen.

Coriolanus loathed them.

Had he had half the control, he would’ve smacked the stitched hands away. He liked it far more when they acted like a ragdoll, instead of this game of pacification it was trying to play. Writing down on the external oblique aponeurosis, he brought his hands back up their skin until it rested under their wrists. He held both their wrists on either hand. “Please, bring your hands down so I can continue mapping.” The words came out more as a whisper than he had intended. They instantly had listened to his command, letting their arms fall back on either side and their chest exposed to him. His eyes lingered briefly on the sight, taking in the small details that made the subject unique. The beauty mark on their left mammary gland, now in his line of sight. No longer blocked by the limit of only just a photo. There was that dry feeling in his mouth again.

Carefully, bringing a hand up, gauging their reaction, he held one of the mammary glands in his free hand and a marker up in the other. Judging their face, they seemed neutral, no frown or smile, no wrinkle, no squint. He could assume there must have been discomfort under those dark pits for eyes. He knew that’s what he felt, doing this right now. Coriolanus wondered if it would have been better or worse, if Project Prometheus were to be more… reactionary.

“Let me know if anything bothers you.” Dotted lines followed after his hand. He’d take it, the laborious small talk. It was much more preferred right now than this tortuous silence that had fallen between them. Thick and constricting, had it gone on any longer, Coriolanus knew he would drive himself internally insane if he was to be left alone to his own thoughts. If Project Prometheus had done nothing while he was holding onto their very own breasts in his hands. Had it been any other person, they would’ve squirmed under his touch. Possibly even a twitch to unconsciously move away, as the marker moved against the skin of the areola. The mapping of the right gland was dotted and marked completely.

“You don’t bother me.”

Now, that felt deliberate.

Ink halted, stopping after writing out the final letter of the pectoralis minor. The words were written next to the beauty mark he had noted before. Coriolanus was tempted to make dotted lines around the area, as a place of special interest, though marks like these were no major muscle or nerve. Blue eyes had looked up through thick lashes, he slightly lifted his craned head up to get a better look at the subject. Peering towards their face, he didn’t know why he expected anything different. It was the same look of disinterest, the broken lights hung above them casted a haunting shadow over their face. Did he also look similar, when they stared back at him? In certain angles, despite the unnerving look the room had given them, Coriolanus might’ve thought their eyes seemed naturally soft towards him. Innocent, maybe.

Did they see nothing wrong with what he was doing? … Or had all the tests and operations ruined not just their nerves, but fried them, that their sense of danger seemed near non-existent?

Was this another form of appeasement that it was trying to pull on him?

Unconsciously, his hands had released themselves, finally, from holding onto Project’s Prometheus’s breasts. Both now marked, his free hand slid down the expanse of their abdomen. The ridges and bumps of their scars and stitches were felt briefly, the full grasp of the sensation blocked by the barrier of latex rubber wrapped around his fingers. Not once did he look away from the subject as his hands made its way down, and neither did Project Prometheus. His hand stopped at the tensor fasciae latae. Something was wrapping itself around the cavity of his chest, making the activity of breathing a difficult feat for him to do. Coriolanus didn’t know what he was doing. Was he trying to garner a bigger reaction from it? An attempt of possibly stirring violence, even?

Maybe it was delaying his own discomfort, he realized. Looking down, he stared to see the spread of skin below that had no splotches of black ink. They were shorter than him, he’d have to get down on his knees if he wanted to have clear and easy access to mark its legs. How humiliating… Having risen up through the ranks and bringing the Snow family back to its rightful place of acclaim and fortune; only to fall back down on his knees to a prisoner, a former rebel. If the other families caught wind of this, he’d never hear the end of it.

Reluctantly, still holding onto their hip, his body moved itself to the floor. Knees touched against the uneven grout of the tiles, the position a bit awkward. He was thankful, for the surgical gown he wore, that the vile floor of the examination room wouldn’t stain against his clothes. Tracing his hand down to the stitch mark path of their leg, he rested it at the back of their thigh. Coriolanus tilted his head up, ready to command that Project Prometheus moved their leg more towards him. But, his words fell into a silent, held breath as he gazed up at them from his position. The shadow that had cascaded over their face briefly from before was now entirely enveloped around their body. Sickly green fluorescent lights shone above their head, akin to a haloing effect. Illuminated around the edges of their body, their hair, the subject still looking at him. Only him, and nothing else. A thrumming noise was loud in his ears; it felt dangerous. It felt like a warning that something was wrong here. He had felt it before.

Project Prometheus moved its leg forward, more into him, without a word ever spoken between the two of them. How pliant it was with him.

He pressed the marker against their skin as thank you, dipping his head back down to their thigh. It would be risky, if he lost focus. There was still so much he had yet to know of the subject, the layers that were contained behind the flimsy shield of flesh and tissue. He dotted the area of the vastus medialis, careful not to press the ink against the subject’s stitches so as not to irritate the healing skin there. Maybe its attempts of appeasement were working on him. Not once did he think he’d have a shred of enough care to think about the possibility of ink seeping into their wounds.

He marked down the region of the knee. Patella.

“...You’re a very gentle person, Dr. Snow.” The subject spoke quietly, in a whisper just loud for him to hear. “You treat me so carefully, I barely feel a thing when you hold me.”

It mistook his lightweight hands for kindness. Reality was that he was just wary about setting them off.

“Does Dr. Gaul not treat you in the same manner?” The words came out softly from him. Reaching now the ankle of the subject, gloved hands reached down underneath the sole of its foot, lifting it up for better writing access. Instinctively, Project Prometheus placed their hands on either side of his shoulders so as to not fall. Their body leaned itself more into him, using him as a steady weight of support. The proximity of their small body bent over his, the glare of the fluorescent lights was entirely swallowed up, casting a dark shadow over him, blocking the light from reaching him. Could they feel, under their ragged fingers, the tenseness in his body at their action? If the subject wanted to, they could easily go in to attack him in this vulnerable position. He’d do the same if he was in their position. He continued to write, marker steady in hand. There would be no satisfaction to be gained for the subject, in seeing him stumble and cower.

He wrote the words ‘abductor hallucis’ on their foot.

“She… does not treat me rough, no. If I had to describe it, I think the word for it is more… ‘inanimate’.” He doesn’t quite recall if a new law was passed that required captors to treat prisoners humanely. It sounded as if it was trying to recall certain words again. Should the exam go entirely smoothly with no problems, he might feel generous enough to convince Dr. Gaul to bring Project Prometheus a dictionary for them to study up on. Not like it would do much. It wasn’t like they had anyone to really practice their knowledge on.

Coriolanus wondered what the prisoner was exactly before all this, back when they were formerly Capital. They lacked the air of dignity and ignorance that most Capital elites donned well, but maybe that could be attributed to their decay while staying here. Or perhaps the prisoner had come from a small, simple family. The kind that handled all the manual labor that the Capital never liked to speak loud about. The workers who were hardly ever seen, or acknowledged. That could explain why he never heard any recent fuss over a family’s child being ‘sent away’. No one would ever care for a background prop.

It held onto his shoulders more tightly, as he adjusted the subject’s position. It didn’t want to topple over him.

Project Prometheus's right foot now marked accordingly, he placed its foot back down on the rotten floor. Ready to reach his hand to hold onto their left, the subject moved without the need for his touch. The left leg was gestured forward for him. How sweet of them to realize a pattern. “I don’t mind it, though. As long as she still talked to me.” How fascinating. The subject was pacified by the easy act of conversation. Such a simple thing to be pleased by, Coriolanus could think they were joking. Regardless of how things were going so far, he still didn’t forget it. The bloodstains on the halls was something he could not erase so easily. That suggested, no, it told him, that Project Prometheus had something up their sleeve still. Though, nothing had occurred. Nothing had happened because they were still speaking to each other. Coriolanus continued to write on its foot. Lumbrical.

“...Do you get upset if she doesn’t speak to you?”

He couldn’t help but ask.

He wanted to know. He needed to know.

“...I get lonely, and sad.” Was it trying to downplay its emotional reactions to him? “I wonder if it's because I did something wrong to upset her.” If a prisoner of his tried to fight back numerous times during their captivity, he’d get annoyed too. It was strange, though. Coriolanus knew that morals and values were of no concern for Dr. Gaul, especially against rebels. Any torture, punishment, placed on them was not seen as being done onto another person, but just another animal, a specimen in her collection. It would not be above Dr. Gaul to cut off a limb, or two, to get a prisoner to stop fighting. So… why not do the same here? Perhaps, this form of mental and emotional punishment was more lethal than he assumed. Another curious test from the mad woman, it was impossible to ever understand her whims.

“Sometimes, I think it might be one of her tests.”

Coriolanus didn’t say those words.

He didn’t like this. Such a statement, spoken so simply, brought him a sick swirl of unease.

The movement of ink had halted, yet his mind continued to race. The thin hairs at the back of his neck stood at its ends, and he held tightly onto the marker in his hand. Quietly, carefully, he placed the plantar surface of Project Prometheus’s foot back down on the uneven tiles below the both of them. Reaching his hands up to his shoulders, where the subject’s extensor retinaculum were, he held onto it firmly. The subject put up no sign of objection. Sweat was slowly building up under the tight material of the gloves he donned on, but it was not a sweltering warmth. It was a cold, clammy sensation.

“What do you mean by ‘one of her tests’?” Punctuating the words at the end, he kept his tone inquisitive, curious. Perhaps, a dabble of suspicion. Not towards the subject, but more towards the matter. What was needed in this situation was caution, and he’d be a gutted fool if he was to let the rebel become aware of how much the question startled him to his core. For right now, he’d play the gentle, confused assistant that it assumed of him before. He already told the lie of it knowing Dr. Gaul better than he did.

“Her tests,”

It spoke as if he knew! He knew very well what it was. What once was a flash of fear, had become a steady stream of anger. He knew because he is Dr. Gaul’s assistant. It was his job to follow in the steps she’s placed out for him, and more. Why would a prisoner, a subject, know about the ways Dr. Gaul operated? How much does Dr. Gaul tell it in these ‘conversations’?

It made him sick, that the lie he told before could actually become true.

“I never notice it until it’s done, until she tells me at the end. She never shares the results with me.” For once, he is tempted to strip his pride and beg for more details. “Most days, it’ll be physical tests, like today. Others, it’s more… talking, or writing.”

“Writing?”

It came out quickly before he could properly think his words over. He doesn’t recall seeing possible writing exams in Subject A01’s report. To be fair to himself, he did skim it briefly since he was only just now introduced to the project. There wasn’t much time for him to familiarize himself with all the tiny details written inside. At least, the things that were legible.

“Dr. Gaul hands me scraps of paper and just asks me to write what I think. Like uh, a journal…I guess.” Keeping a diary couldn’t be the only test Dr. Gaul was having it do. If writing random streams of thought was enough to be intellectually challenging, he wouldn’t be seeing students at the University fighting to win passing grades. “I don’t understand the reason why, and I never remember what I write. My memory is not the best.” It was giving him an excuse to try and shift the conversation. How funny it was, trying to take control of the situation. He’d never let such a thing happen. In this examination room, there was only one person and a subject, the dynamic that was at play was clear. The grip Coriolanus had on their extensor retinaculum tightened, an unconscious movement on his part. Project Prometheus had taken in a soft breath of air at the action, the sound loud enough between the both of them. Had it not come from a prisoner, what a sweet sound it could’ve been.

“Could you explain it to me,” His voice came out softly, despite the gnawing irritation that he held back. The tight grasp he had loosened, one hand stroking down a careful thumb down the stitched wrist of the subject in gentle circles. He shifted in his kneeled position, adjusting to a more comfortable weight as the layers he wore started to wear at him, an uncomfortable shift. Wearing the surgical uniform could be sweltering. Tilting his head up slightly to gaze up at the subject, praying that his eyes did not betray and reveal his inner thoughts. “Try to remember.”

Coriolanus could’ve sworn he saw a slight falter, a tremble, in the dark optics of Project Prometheus. Its supercilium furrowed just the slightest inch upwards; did it look apologetic? The first visible change of expression he’s witnessed in the time he’s spent here in this examination room, and it’s one of regret. The subject’s fingers twisted itself into the fabric of his surgical gown, opening its mouth partially as they sought the right sound, the right word. He could make out the faint peeks of its canines.

“... I’m sorry, Dr. Snow. I can’t remember at all,” They breathed out, in admission, surrendering. It treated it as a guilty confession.

“Not a thing?” He whispered softly to them, prompting them to speak more. Coriolanus applauded himself internally, for how sympathetic he sounded.

The subject shook its head.

“My memory is not good.” Again, it reaffirmed its previous statement.

Was his question that hard? Surely, specks of small details, flashes of imagery, that would be sufficient enough of an answer for him. He wasn’t asking for a full essay of their inner workings ( though, he wouldn’t mind it ). However, as both their eyes continued locked in a stare, his thumb slowed its movements. The leathered finger stopping at the center junction of its stitches, the feel of the raised, textured skin apparent under the feel of the material. Project Prometheus was being sincere. Its face hadn’t changed, its body had not moved away from him. Dare he say, the minimal space between them; something he did not mind earlier before, had become much more apparent in his feverish mind. The subject answered him so honestly, it made his suspicions of before seem so ridiculous now. One thing did nag at him though, the writing, the insistence of journaling, the memory.

…

“... Do you remember how long you’ve been here?” Two years ago, Coriolanus recalled. Two years ago, that was when he was abandoned in District 12. When Dr. Gaul had started the experiment on Subject A01, busying herself with curiosities while he was drowning himself in depravities and vices, waiting out like a dog for some form of mercy to reach him.

A new, tense silence consumed them both. He watched the subject carefully, taking note of the slightest movement that could give any indication of anything more. Tracing with his eyes, following how Project Prometheus’s cuspid snagged at their chapped bottom lip. A faint flush of red spread across the muscle, from the pressure exerted on it. Unconsciously, it reminded him of how dry his own mouth felt, the hoarse sensation in his throat. He darted out his own tongue for a brief moment to wet his own mouth, hidden underneath the surgical mask he wore. Nothing was being said between them, but yet there was so much being told. A fierce feeling was soaring, running through the veins of Coriolanus; he knew what it meant and he feared for it. Not for what the answer could be, but what it possibly could bring up.

“You don’t remember how you got it here at all, do you?” His voice was so hushed, spoken as if taboo. It gave him the same feeling of it, the rush as the blood was entering his head and his heartbeat loud in his ears.

A form of dissociative amnesia.

Project Prometheus had developed gaps in memory due to an extended amount of isolation and exposure to severe trauma. It all clicked in Coriolanus’s head. He understood now what Dr. Gaul was attempting to achieve in her games with the subject. The tests, the daily conversations, the journal writing – Dr. Gaul was examining the subject’s mental decay as part of the Project’s ongoing research. Not only has the woman deteriorated and changed the way the prisoner’s nerves had worked, but their mind as well. Is continuing the Project even viable to do anymore? It was a form of punishment. Would it be ethical to operate on a being of flesh, when the subject no longer knew what it was being punished for? The question would most likely give Dr. Gaul a kick of joy. She loved to ponder questions worthy of debate. Coriolanus wouldn’t put it past the woman if she already gave the inquiry out to one of her classes in a lecture hall.

“I vaguely do,”

His eyebrows rose in interest.

“But only in subtle feelings.”

Nevermind.

“I think I experienced some form of confusion. And bits of anger, too. Dr. Gaul… For a moment, I used to be so scared of her. Now, I can’t even remember the reason why.”

Project Prometheus’s indifference, Coriolanus realized, it was not just solely based on apathy. What had become of it was a blank state, unsure of how to process things so the mind refused to process it all. But, it was still something highly susceptible to influences, shown in how Project Prometheus had become conditioned like Pavolv Dog, to associate Dr. Gaul’s silence with anger and disappointment, and her socialness with satisfaction and joy. It all was dawning on him. He could see it now, why Dr. Gaul was so disturbingly fascinated by this project. Gloved hands moved away from the subject’s wrist, and reached out to lay in gentle manner against the side of their bare thighs. The subject allowed him to, never raising a sign of objection. Could he teach it to experience anger once more, when he treated their body like this? Maybe discomfort, disgust, despair - he wanted to show their blank canvas of a mind what it felt like to fully immerse themselves in these ugly emotions. He knew why they were like this, but there still was a lingering crumb of vexation directed at the subject. Somehow, in their newfound state, they still felt far more free than he ever did; how they almost felt nothing, and he had to feel everything.

And yet, there was another thought that touched him. He wondered, if he spent enough time with the subject, could he too, be able to condition them to other things. They thought of him as merciful, kind, in comparison to Dr. Gaul. Could he make Project Prometheus worship him, and in the same quiet breaths they were fond of, resent him? The thought of making them accustomed to anticipating his attendance, and lamenting his absence sounded tempting.

How nice it would be, to have someone other than a deranged crone enjoy his presence.

Tigris certainly didn’t anymore.

Coriolanus rose himself from the ground, gripping on the meat of Project’s Prometheus’s flesh to lift him. Under his touch, the pliant stretch of skin and tissue made the subject remove their hands from his shoulders. Another faint breath escaped their exhale. It was a sound he was slowly getting used to. Back to their original height difference, he no longer had to crane his head up to look at the subject. The subject had to lift their head up to look up at him, now. What did Project Prometheus see, in their gaze as they stared at him, Coriolanus thought. Was he too, consumed in shadow and bathed under the gritty lights of the examination room like they once had?

“We’re done with the mark-up.” It took him a moment to move away from the subject. “We’ll move to holding the nerve exam now, after I administer a low dosage of your medication.”

The uncapped, black marker was placed back down on the metal tray, aside from the examination table. Replacing its empty space was now the syringe he had filled out before, the dark color swishing as he picked it up. The needle gleamed under the fluorescent light. Turning his back around, Project Prometheus had already sat themselves up nicely on the edge of the examination table for him. Their legs dangled off, their hands held at the edges of the worn-out leather cushion, eyes fixated on his person. They were waiting for him. He’s almost bothered, how easily the subject could anticipate his next set of commands. He hoped that this was just due to routine, not because he had become easy to read. Coming up to meet them there, the only sound that filled the air was the sole of his shoes stepping against the tiles. Gloved fingers reached to grab at the jaw of Project Prometheus, the syringe held close to their face. It shone particularly brilliant, mere inches away from their face. The subject showed him no fear, no resistance, despite the way the skin of the cheeks had moved under his grasp.

Already, he wanted to break them.

“Show me where to inject you.”

He’d be sweet, Coriolanus would let them pick where it was most comfortable for him to inject the medication in. Project Prometheus complied immediately to him, holding on the hand that held their needle to adjust the position. They guided him to the back of their neck, moving their hair to make space. To reward their compliance, he pricked the syringe quickly under the skin, careful not to touch an artery or nerve. The dark liquid inside the barrel slowly filled out, emptying itself as he pushed the plunger down. The subject did not let out a sound, a favorable contrast to Livia, who waited for him outside these Citadel walls.

He was going to mold them into something useful.

#the ballad of songbirds and snakes #tbosas #tbosas fic #thg series #thg fic #coriolanus snow #coriolanus x reader #coriolanus snow x reader #volumnia gaul #tw medical #medical horror #fanfic #.// ♡ basil's archive #. // ♡ rubatosis series #its insane how much i wrote for this first chapter lmao #its like 30 pages on google docs #i am obsessed with this man #i really wanted this chapter to be a focus of snow & reader building their dynamic and bond before we jump off the deep end #i am really excited to write the coming chapters

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yikesmary · 1 year

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TWO: LIVE IN BOYFRIEND — choi seungcheol x reader

summary: when you have to get used to choi seungcheol as your roommate and fake boyfriend.

notes: thank you guys for all the love you guys gave the first (technically first even if it’s not labeled as the first?) part of what I guess is becoming a series? depending on if I get ideas or not, uploading parts to this series may or may not take long. ill also be accepting ideas for the stories if you guys have any ideas!

btw this chapter focuses more on the contrast of how you and Seungcheol started as people who agreed to fake date vs how you guys will act now. you guys are still fake dating but to people it's very real because you guys act the part.

i'm still accepting requests if you guys have them! it can be for this series or for a one shot, just send an ask.

join my taglist!

previous / next

"We need to discuss some ground rules," You said as you and Seungcheol walked around the mall, finding stores to browse through.

"What ground rules do we need? I live with you, and I pretend to be your boyfriend," he said.

"How did we meet? Who asked who out? Where was our first date? Do we let people know we're living together? How long do we say we're together?" You listed out, counting off with your fingers.

"Don't you have a class with Wonwoo?" Seungcheol suddenly asked.

"Jeon Wonwoo? Yeah, I do. Why do you know that?" you asked.

"We say that Wonwoo introduced us and we were friends for a while. I wanted to ask you out but you beat me to it. Our first date was me teaching you basketball, and it was not pretty." He teased.

"How'd you know I'm bad at basketball?" you questioned.

"I mean, when you nearly died after choking on noodles, I guessed you aren't the most graceful," he joked.

You rolled your eyes and hit him lightly on the shoulder. Spotting a store you wanted to go to, you grabbed Seungcheol's forearm and dragged him with you.

"Anyways, we should let people know we're living together. It tells people we're serious and your ex he's a jackass for breaking up with you the way he did," he said, grabbing a shirt and showing it to you to look at.

Nodding in approval, you grabbed the shirt and continued to look through the racks. "Besides creating a story of our relationship, we make other rules,"

"Like?"

You grabbed a few more items before going in line for the cashier. Counting how much money you had, you realized you had to return a few things. You tried walking out of a line but Seungcheol stopped you and shook his head.

"Like don't fall in love with each other," you said, and he scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"We're not gonna fall in love with each other," Seungcheol said.

Once you guys were the next people in line, the cashier started scanning all of the items. Moving to pay, you stopped once you realized that Seungcheol already had his card out and was on his way to pay.

"You didn't have to do that," you told him.

"Think of it as a present. From one roommate to the other," he said.

"Anyways, what were you saying about not falling in love with each other?"

"Have you seen every movie that involves fake dating? The two main protagonists always fall in love without knowing!"

"Those are movies, this is real life,"

When you exited the store, you turned to face him. "How about we just agree to stay friends?"

"Just friends,"

"I'm home!" You called out, putting your keys in the bowl that Seungcheol put after you lost your keys and had to use his for the 3rd time.

When you entered the living room, you saw that your living room was filled with both yours and Seungcheol's friends sitting at every possible chair. "Hello Cheol and everyone who doesn't live here," you greeted.

"How was your nail appointment?" Seungcheol asked and you smiled and walked towards him to hold up your nails to show him.

He took your hands and observed them, "you chose the color I suggested," he said.

You shrugged, "I didn't have any other color ideas and it looked pretty,"

"Now, tell me, why are there twelve of our friends in our apartment when they don't live here?" you questioned.

"We didn't have any food!" Jeonghan interjected.

As if practiced, the sound of Minghao drinking a cup of tea and Jun eating something crunchy filled the room. Jihoon then opened a bag of candy, which caught the attention of others and they grabbed handfuls from the bag.

"And you finish all of ours?!" You jokingly shouted.

"You guys are supposed to go grocery shopping anyways," Seungkwan pointed out.

"Can you guys get more chips? You guys ran out of the ones I like," Vernon said with a mouthful of the chips as mentioned earlier.

"And soda!" Chan exclaimed.

"You tell me the word and I'll kick all of them out," Seungcheol offered.

Ignoring all of the shouted protests from your friends, you shook your head, "It's fine as long as Mingyu's cooking,"

Everyone in the room turned to Mingyu, who sighed and stood up to go to the kitchen. "Don't make a mess of our kitchen or else!" You called out.

"How about you change into comfortable clothes and I'll make these idiots decide on a movie," Seungcheol said.

"Nothing that's too scary or else Seokmin and Soonyoung will have nightmares," you reminded him.

"I don't think they'll get nightmares—" Joshua started saying, but a stern look from you cut him off.

"They'll get nightmares, nevermind," he backtracked.

"You make us sound like kids!" Soonyoung said.

"It's cause you are," Wonwoo commented.

"This is like a daycare," you muttered.

"Go change. I managed to get your favorite snacks away from the guys," Seungcheol told you.

You smiled at him before going to your room to change like you originally planned to.

Maybe this fake dating thing was going better than you thought it was going to.

#seventeen fluff #seungcheol fluff #choi seungcheol fluff #seventeen imagines #seventeen x reader #scoups x reader #scoups fluff #choi seungcheol x reader #seventeen scenarios #svt x reader #scoups fic #seungcheol fic #scoups scenario #scoups imagines #seventeen scoups

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sheluvv-gambino · 9 months

Note

Can you do a 42 miles x reader. He has a crush on her and she’s really bold don’t give no fucks so, when they meet he’s rude and she gives back that same energy. 😂

Spitfire.

A/N: I hope i served your vision justice, anon!

pairings : e-42 miles morales x black fem!reader

summary : It dosen't matter who it is, you refuse for any man to put fear in your blood. Yes, that includes Miles Morales.

warnings : cursing I guess?

You had been at the school for maybe a month and yet you had still not bumped into the infamous Miles Morales. Until…

bang!

Your shoulder collided with something hard. Well someone with brick like muscles that was just standing in the middle of the hall staring at something you didn’t know and didn’t care about.

“What, you don’t know where your going or something…?” The figure spoke.

You looked up to see a tall brown skin with a screwed up face glaring down at you.

“Who the fuck are you talkin’ to right now?” You exclaimed. I mean the audacity of this guy right now. “Ion know about you but where i’m from we don’t stand in the middle of a crowded hall like you don’t got a clue where your supposed to go.”

You walked away in a prideful step.

Your mother raised you better then to take any form of disrespect.

But from that whole interaction with Miles you were oblivious to the fact that the reason Miles had stopped was because he was caught up texting Ganke about how he should approach you. You caught his eye the moment you stepped in with your Jordan’s that were identical to his. So when your shoulder collided with his he didn’t want to act like a total fool and stare at your astonishing eyes, instead he acted defensive as he does with everyone else. What he wasn’t expecting was you to rebuttal by cussing him out then walking away with not a single look back. Yeah, he was certain that he was going to fall in love with you somehow.

————————-

It was about about an hour after school on a Friday and your new found friend group had invited you out to a basketball court where the most social interaction happened between people your own age.

Obviously, there was a game going on the basketball court.

Miles seemed to be involved with it.

So whilst he was playing you got the chance to admire him.

As much of a dick you truly thought he was, you couldn’t help but stare at the way his two cornrows shaped his sharp features. He was quite attractive but you wouldn’t dare to admit it considering he clearly didn’t know how to move out of the way when in the hauls.

Miles was just about to shoot when he looked to his left and saw you staring at him. He couldn’t seem to break the eye contact that you both held. In result he missed the basket and got a chorus of…

“…Milesss!”

“C’mon man!”

“How’d you miss that, Miles?!”

He really didn’t care even that he may have jeopardised his teams end result of the game.

“Hol’ on i’ll be back later.” He muttered as he dropped the ball and drifted to where you and your friends were.

His teammates looked around to see where Miles lost his head because there was no way Miles would ever walk out of a game just like that.

Your friends were all looking around to see who Miles was headed too.

When Miles sat beside you on the bench your friends all decided to act like 3rd graders and start with the “Oooh!”.

You glared up at him before he decided to speak.

“Before you decide to cuss me out again, I just wanted to apologise for acting like a dumbass and talking to you crazy.” Miles said as he put his hands up in surrender.

A small grin graced your lips. A man that actually apologised like a gentlemen, something you hadn’t seen in a long time.

“We’ll i accept your apology. My names Y/N Y/L/N.”

“I know. I’m Miles Morales.”

“I know.”

6 months later…

You and Miles were cuddled up in your bed back at home as a your favourite movie played in the background.

“Y’know I had a crush on you before we actually met in the hall.” He whispered as his thumb stroked your skin on your shoulder.

You moved your head up against his chest and looked at him longingly as a signal to continue.

“That’s why I stopped in the middle of the hall…I was asking Ganke about how to approach you. And then you cussed me out for no reason!”

“Uh uh, I had to put you in your place for giving me attitude.”

“Mhm sure, guapa. OW!”

You looked down to see your cat (Simba) playing with Miles’ foot by biting and gnawing on it.

“Aww Simba is finally showing you love!” You giggled.

“Yeah, whatever.”

#across the spiderverse #earth 42 miles morales x black!reader #earth 42 miles morales x reader #miles g morales #earth 42 miles #prowler miles #spiderverse #earth 42 miles fluff #miles morales earth 42

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punksocks · 10 months

Text

Astrology Observations No.17

*just my opinions, only take what resonates

-Combine your Venus and rising for something you love to do and how you do it. I like to travel somewhere new (Sagittarius Venus) and start completely fresh (Scorpio rising)

A Leo Rising, Libra venus may like to be the center of attention in a new relationship and may be inspired to create with new love; a Cancer Venus, Virgo rising may really decompress by organizing their home; etc

-How come so many comedians have sun conjunct Mercury?? I’m guessing the charisma you gain when you speak from the placement and also being able to like cleverly convey what you mean. (Also heavy Sag placements bc ofc. But also a lot of Virgo/Gemini/Scorpio placements as well)

-Aquarius suns are more competitive than Leo suns imo. I think when Aqua suns compete they often ride on their intelligence so that ups the stakes for them.

-Leo suns have a very like specific approach you gotta take if you’re gonna critique them though. They’re sensitive and they are not going to take criticism from just anyone. They get sensitive about personal experiences over general competition compared to Aquarius suns imo.

-I think out of all the signs either Aquarius or Scorpio suns are the most proud of their sign. (My mom used to compete with me to name Aquarius characters and celebrities and throw Capricorns she didn’t like in my face. When I was like 8. It was too much lol)

-I think Leo suns pride typically themselves on pop culture knowledge to some degree (like keeping up with critically acclaimed films and shows)(I think this applies to Leo Asc and moon as well)

-Wherever Pisces is can highlight where you need to take care of your mental health.Pisces moon can indicate being very emotionally affected by your family and general environment. Pisces Venus can indicate being affected by your relationships and friendships. In general Pisces/Neptune means a detachment but also being vulnerable to illusions and energies other than your own.

-Capricorn can show where you need to find the strength to stand up for yourself. Capricorn moons have to defend their emotionality. Capricorn suns have to defend their sense of self. Capricorn Mercury may find themselves in several debates over things they believe in.

-Sagittarius can show where you are attractive to foreigners* (meaning people you travel to/that are outside of your culture) Sag Asc/Sun/Venus or Sun/Venus in the 9th house could point to being charismatic and attracting friends when you travel.

-Chiron hard aspects (conjunct, square, opposition) to moon can make you a very private person

-Saturn in Cancer could indicate trouble with an emotionally unstable father or father figure

-Virgo placements (Sun, Moon, Rising, Mercury, Venus, Mars) don’t just like to complain, they need to complain to blow off steam by highlighting all the little inefficiencies of life. Sometimes it’s worse to offer a solution to their complaints (I’ve definitely done this before lol)

-I think Aquarius suns like having unpopular opinions on popular things. Aquarius moons will go for more obscure/underground stuff. Gemini/3rd house moons or 3rd house Jupiter or like Gemini/Virgo mars can go super deep on those topics. (Ex. My Aquarius moon dad showed me indie movies when I was younger but when I showed him and my siblings Everything Everywhere All At Once and called it artsy and didn’t understand it lol, but like my ex was a Virgo mars and we would watch 10 movies from an obscure surrealist 60s Japanese director just for kicks.)

#astro observations #astro notes #astroblr #astro community #scorpio #aquarius #capricorn #pisces #gemini #astrology #cancer #Saturn #Leo #Sagittarius

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mio-actuallywrites · 7 months

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The World You Once Loved 2

Apparently being in your world is still surprising for you. PREVIOUS NEXT

2/?

//Reader lives in Japan. not proofread

Fyi through out all these parts NO book 7 spoilers. also I assure you next part I will try to make it longer!!

Apparently 8 months in Twisted Wonderland means 16 on Earth. And those 16 you have spent in a coma. Apparently your Roommate Oboko said you had got ran over by a car and have been in a coma ever since.

She had also told you the night before you woke up, items had appeared in your room, apparently in your suitcase. (Haha I wonder why)

After the doctor came in, checked on your vitals and health you were told you needed to stay a day or more in the hospital. So after getting to eat earth food again, thinking about what you missed in that last year, thinking about all those memories and how they are doing right now you were ready to go back.

After getting Oboko to drive you to your place, you finally entered the house you thought you would never return too.

After entering the front door, your eyes immediately trailed to all around the house, all the furniture was the same, but it was werid to see new and not old furniture, I guess living in Ramshackle caused you to get used to the sometimes uncomfortable and dusty furniture.

“All are you going to enter?” Obokos voice rang in your mind as she suddenly lightly pushed you in, bringing you out of your shock.

“Sorry Oboko-Chan I’m just still in… shock you know??” You replied hoping she would just shrug it off.

“It’s fine, however I have your phone with me if you wanted it, I was gonna give it to you in the car. But I wanted you to get adjusted.” She replies as she hands you the phone. “I’ll be in my room if you need me!” She yelled as she left.

You stood there for a second as you grabbed your phone and went to sit on the couch.

You put in the password you would never forget, no matter how many worlds you been in you will always remember. *insert password* seeing as you logged in, you had million of notifications, filled with texts, updates and snaps that were left unseen for the months you were gone.

You opened up Magi- no Instagram and viewed every news peice you missed. The new Taylor Swift album, the new update to Genshin, the upcoming movies, new trends etc. It seems like it will take AWHILE to catch up on all of those events.

After looking through the app you decided to go into your room, and see the place you thought you would never see again.

However right when you entered the first thing you noticed was the luggage you clearly packed a few days ago. You went over to the luggage and opened it, once you opened it the first thing you saw was the picture of you and the first years + Grim. You guys were all at Ramshackle probably at a sleepover.

Under the photo you found your diary you kept that you bought at Sam’s shop. It was filled to the brim with the 8 months you spent there, going from your first unbirthday party to (Something that happend in chapter 7)

After picking up the diary and putting it on your desk, you grabbed your school uniform, and hung it up. Once you hanged up your school uniform in your closet you then grabbed the photo and hung it up next to your desk.

Thinking about what to do with your life now that you finally returned after it being your goal for so long. But wasn’t completing a goal make you happy?

Today marks the 1st anniversary since you left. If you were right it had been six months since you left in Twisted Wonderland. Your friends were now 2nd years and some were about ready to graduate. And again, If you were right, they were in the middle of finals, since you left during that period.

Yes although you did have the period of tears, and overwhelming sadness of leaving all of those memories behind, right now you were living your BEST life right now.

While you were in your 3rd year of Highschool. Like Night Raven, you stayed at the High School with your Childhood friends, Oboko and Saki. Yes you did have your fun with them, but what about those past memories that you dearly loved and held at your heart?

“Reader? Are you there? We still have work to attend to and close shop, not zone out.” Your co-worker snapped at you.

“Sorry Keiko, I tend to a lot.” You responded, although it was a little bit of a lie, you would still cling onto those memories from time to time.

“Anyways, I’ll finish the dishes you start locking up.” She responded, completely ignoring your response.

You nodded in response and left the Cafe’s kitchen to go lock up all the windows, doors, blah blah whatever this job paid good that’s all you cared about.

After quickly finishing it up, you walked to the back door walking past Keiko who was still washing dishes, you were always fortunate when you didn’t have to. (Who even likes washing dishes???)

“Bye Keiko! See you tomorrow!”

She had mumbled a response as you left the door and entered your car.

While jamming out to the new album of your favorite artist, the drive home was relatively short. Basically 5 minutes.

You pulled into the driveway and couldn’t wait to get into your home. All that felt nice was a nice warm shower and watching your favorite episodes of your favorite show/anime. With a cup of hot chocolate on the side.

As soon as you entered the dorm avoice hit you.

“Hey, reader, just like 5 minutes ago there were some people saying they knew you and kept assisting them. I don’t know if you know them but the acted like they knew you for a while or so. They are in the kitchen currently because they acted like they haven’t eaten in awhile. Uh please be safe?”

/ENDING WAS RUSHED, once I have time I’ll go back and edit.

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romanreignseater · 1 year

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The Eater’s Masterlist

The Head of The Table, Roman Reigns

Signed Up.

“Marrying Roman came with a lot of benefits, but do you really know what you signed up for?!”

Signature Here Please. (Part Two to “Signed Up”)

“You’ve been waiting for your punishment, and after a tense collision at the Royal Rumble… it’s happening. NOW!”

Pottery & Berries.

“This is only your SECOND date with✨thee✨infamous Roman Reigns and boy… does he have you going crazy right now.”

Your Assistant?

“Being the assistant to a devilishly handsome man never work out well in the movies. Especially, for the wife. But, what happens when the wife wants you to get a little more closer to your boss?”

You’ve Made A Mess.

“Roman’s being a brat and you wanted to show him what happens to brats when they lip off too much.”

The Mouth & Finger Vigilante.

“Roman’s fingers and mouth are members of the self-appointed group that solve problems. The problem is being away from his wife without pleasuring her. So, here comes his mouth and fingers to save the day.”

He’s Gray. (Request)

“Roman’s beard has been getting more gray by the day, and you just had to tell your man how much you loved it.”

Game On. (Request)

“Roman has some time off after WrestleMania, so he plays some games with the boys. But, he’s a little too busy pleasuring his wife during the gameplay.”

Mr. WrestleMania.

“After a flawless victory at his 3rd Main Event at WrestleMania, your Tribal Chief deserved three special treats.”

Pregnancy Cravings.

“Not only did you crave the weirdest foods at the weirdest times, you always craved the man who put you in this state.”

“Press Play” (A Series) Pt. 1 Pt. 2 Pt. 3

“Being the girlfriend to a famous divorced father of 5 wasn’t your plan at 26 years old. You trusted him with your life, so you agreed to film a little something, but now you regret ever meeting him when your whole life is exposed.”

Psycho Bitch (Request).

“You and Roman have like a slightly ‘toxic’ relationship, where you guys just get jealous over simple things. One night you guys get into a big fight, and it leads to so pretty toxic behavior.”

That Slow Burn.

“Slow missionary with lots of nasty tongue kisses>>>>.”

Feet Kicker.

“Who knew such a big and grown ass man would moan and kick his feet in the air while eating his wife out?!”

——————————————————————————

Mr. Main Event Jey Uso

Time Alone.

“Time was something that didn’t even seem to exist to you. But, your husband Jey does sure know how to have a fun time.”

Diced Pineapples.

“The lyrics speak for itself, this is exactly how Jey Uso feels about his girl in the summertime 😋.”

Is It Me or Him?! (Request)

Jimmy Uso x Jey Uso x Reader

“Female reader is married to Jimmy but she finds out on social media he’s cheating she ends up falling for Jey who has always been in love with her.”

Just The Three of Us.

Jey Uso x Jimmy Uso x Reader

“You’ve caught the Usos eyes ever since you joined the main roster and boy… did you live their attention.”

Our Reflection.

“Being two beautiful people in a relationship causes us to look in the mirror quite often. So, why not take a chance and fuck in front of it?!”

How Many Licks?!

“How many licks doesn’t it take to make Jey come undone?! I guess the world may never know, but Tara does 😏.”

All The Way Back Down.

“I need you to turn that ass to the back and arch that back down. Whatever you say boy.”

more coming soon…

#eaters masterlist #roman reigns #jey uso #jimmy uso #the bloodline #wwe

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maleyhae · 7 months

Text

YOUR IN HER DMS I'M IN HER BED WE ARE NOT THE SAME b.k x fem!reader

2023! Bill x reader

summary- some desprate dude is in your dms and bill is make fun of it i guess irdk

warnings- jealousy! bill maybe cussing a weirdo that keeps trying with you, grammar issues, rushed like always, not proofread

yesterdays post

i don't consent to my work being copied, translated, or posted on any other website thank you <3

a/n- wasn't gonna make then i saw a moots (@toikohotelslut post about how she needed more 2023 bill fics :3

3RD POV:

___ phone keep going off as they were trying to watch a movie Bill was getting annoyed because his girlfriend's phone was blowing up. He knew since April of this year they gain some more fame from Tik Tok but holy hell. Both his band and the band she was in. Some people found her hot since she was gothic guitarist and he understood but holy hell. "My love can you check my phone I don't want to and because I don't won't you thinking I'm doing something wrong." she said. "What was the password again honey..?" "(the day y'all got together)" ___ said.

100 fucking Instagram messages, 200 mentions of this fucker calling her his girlfriend. Bill checked the messages.

"___ I'm a huge fan please respond.!!"

"I'd be a better boyfriend than him." how dare he bill though.

*image sent* just a edit and say how horny he got because of her.

"*dick pics*" God this man did not stop.

"Whatever you're not all that anymore god what I'd do to get in you back from the 2000s." perverted and a asshole.

BILLS POV:

"Hey dove want a take a picture together?" "Yeah babe I'd love to!" she said bubbly a whole different person she was form when she was only 15 in the same year that disgusting perverted pig wanted to fuck her in. Me and her style has changed from emo/ gothic to whatever people called our style now. We got done take a picture I sent it with a caption of "you're in her dms and I'm in her bed so clearly I'm better than you=)" petty? yes worth it? oh hell yes.

A/N: Hi again sorry this is short i didn't really have i deas for it this tbh but life update because why not! im reading agggtm talking to a new dude and if you have ideas please let me know you can dm me here or on discord my @ is @v4mpgirly !! i hope you enoyed

#tokio hotel #bill kaulitz #maleyhae fanfictions #maleyhae events!#maleyhae halloween event #bill kaulitz x reader #bill kaulitz imagines #2023!bill kaulitz #i 🫶 bill kaulitz

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moreausturtles · 2 years

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“𝙢𝙖 𝙟𝙤𝙞𝙚”

𝘢 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘰 𝘹 𝘧𝘦𝘮!𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘤

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: you and leo celebrate your friend anniversary, or “friendsary,” but both of you want to be more.

𝐚/𝐧: my gf told me to post this; first ever leo fic so go easy on me pls n thanks; 3rd pov; have fun????; could take place before or after the movie tbh /// THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LIKES AND COMMENTS YALL ARE SO SWEET!

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 6.3k

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: lots of fluff, slow burn-ish

(Y/N) moved down the ladder of the turtle sewer, going step by step to make sure she didn’t drop the brown paper bag with white tissue paper sticking out at the top in her hand. At the last rusty step, she hopped off and made her way towards the living room of the turtley home. Swinging the bag in her hand back and forth in her stride, she noticed three brothers were focused on each of their own things. Raph was exercising with a dumbbell in his hand, Mikey was painting something on his skateboard, and Donnie was typing away at his phone that was way too close to his face.

“Hey, guys.” (Y/N) called out to them, continuing her confident march towards a certain room.

“Hey, (Y/N).” All three brothers chimed without batting an eye. She’d been over thousands of times for the past two years that the chime was basically routine. Usually one or the other two would invite her to join them, but they knew that today was particularly a special day reserved for their other brother.

She smiled at the collective greeting before approaching the room of the blue turtle. It was hard to keep her excitement, knowing that whatever was in the paper bag was for sure to be the greatest gift she’s ever gotten for him.

From the slight sheer of the curtains hanging from the sewer door frame, (Y/N) could make out the turtle’s lean figure. He was sat propped up on his bed with a comic book in his hand, one leg crossed over the other, and his shell leaning against his wall.

(Y/N) took a deep breath, hiding the bag behind her back before cooing, “Yoo-hoo~”

Leo could recognize the sweet, vanilla voice of hers anywhere. He lowered the comic book in his hands to peek at the figure standing his doorway. He saw her small silhouette poking through the curtain fabric and couldn’t help but flash an excited grin.

(Y/N) pushed the curtain aside with one hand and poked her head through, a gesture he found adorable. “Leonardo~” she hummed with a smile, making eye contact with the red-eared slider. She heard him chuckle and watched as he put the book down on his bed before making his way towards her.

Leo’s lean figure grew as he came closer. “Hey, (Y/N)~” He imitated her hum, looking down at her with a smug grin while leaning on the doorframe with one arm and his other hand placed on his hip.

(Y/N) felt her heart jump as she craned her neck to look up at him. The way he was towering over her made her nervous. Her cheeks slightly flushed as he maintained eye contact with her. Confidence was a good look on Leo, she had to admit. But if he knew that she thought of him that way, she would never hear the end of it.

“Hey, blue.” she smiled, tightening her grip on the bag hiding behind her. He loved that nickname she used, much better than when Splinter uses it.

She guessed that the slight movement made a noise because Leo’s eyes flickered towards the suspiciously hidden hands of hers. He grew curious and raised his nonexistent brow.

“Whatcha got there, (Y/N)?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

Leo noticed her cute, but futile attempt at hiding her excited smile and rolled his eyes. “You do know how much of a bad liar you are, right (Y/N)?” he taunted as he leaned over her short height to grab the bag, only for her to stretch her arm out of his reach.

“Nuh-uh-uh.” She clicked her tongue.

“Is it for me?”

“Maybe.”

They stood there in that same position for a moment, faces so close to each other they could feel each other’s breaths on their skin. (Y/N) kept her mischievous smile on her face with Leo enjoying this childish side of hers. She swore she saw his eyes glance to her lips for a split second before she broke the comfortable silence by bringing the bag close to his face.

“Happy official 2-year “friendsary,” Leonardo Splinterson.”

Leo looked down at the gift and gave her an excited grin before grabbing it from her hands. He eagerly pulled out all the tissue paper inside it, throwing every sheet and minding no heed to the mess he was making on the floor. (Y/N) made her way to his bed, crossing her legs as she sat and watched as Leo finally reached into the contents of the bag.

“Oh my Jitsu,” Leo gasped dramatically, pulling out an oversized white shirt with the word “champion” printed in bold letters on the front. (Y/N) smiled at how bright his eyes were shining and how close his jaw was to the floor while he held the fabric in his hands.

“Hey,” she shrugged nonchalantly, “I figured after saving my ass all the time and considering how much you love to gloat about how heroic you are, what better way to do so than to tell everyone with a shirt ?”

Usually, Leo would’ve retorted and deny that fact, but he was too busy pulling the shirt over his head and began modeling in it with funny poses. “Do I look fat in this?” he teased. He felt his pride grow when he heard her snort at his joke.

“You’re perfect just the way you are, sweetie,” (Y/N) joked along with him.

God, they sounded like a married couple.

Both suddenly burst into a laughing fit. (Y/N) was holding her stomach, doubled over on his bed while Leo had tears prickling out of the corners of his eyes, one hand on his knee propping him up. Hearing her laugh was really something else. It wasn’t one of those dainty, girly laughs. It was loud and obnoxious, just the way Leo liked it. A couple more seconds elapsed before the laughter slowly died down.

“Oh, man,” Leo sighed, wiping the tears away from his eyes with a finger.

“Do you like it?” (Y/N) asked curiously.

“Like it? This is my absolute favorite thing in the world!” Leo exclaimed before adding, “third to my rugged good looks, of course.”

Ah, there it was. The classic pretentious Leo. (Y/N) pondered whether or not the shirt was a good idea, knowing Leo was going to boast about this nonstop to his brothers and April. She figured it was a problem they were gonna have to get over.

She rolled her eyes at his comment, “I’m guessing pizza is first.”

Leo opened his mouth to agree but a thought came across his mind and he hesitated. Gathering his thoughts, he said, “Yeah, it was a tough decision between that and you.” He paused for a second at the last two words, regretting how poorly he executed it. His hand flew to the back of his head and he rubbed it nervously.

“Me?” (Y/N) whispered with a shocked look on her face.

Flirting was a normal thing with Leo, and (Y/N) never complained. In fact, she enjoyed it and tried to flirt back every once in a while just to get to him. It never meant anything deeper than playful banter between best friends. At least, that’s what she understood until she saw the split-second flustered Leo standing in front of her. She found it adorable.

He noticed her change in tone and readjusted himself before he made things even more awkward. “Duh! You got me this cool shirt that makes me, like, ten times more awesome than Donnie.”

“Oh, please, it’s just a shirt,” (Y/N) scoffed, already forgetting the short intimate moment.

“Yeah! But...” Leo paused, “Do you really think I’m your champion?”

(Y/N) observed as the turtle shifted in place with his face flushed and brows furrowed with curiosity at the question. She knew Leo had always struggled with wanting to save everyone just to prove something to himself, but to him it was never enough. (Y/N) hoped that maybe a measly shirt would give him the support he desired. Even if it was **just a silly fabric with letters plastered on the front, she could tell Leo was deeply touched by it.

“Yeah,” (Y/N) smiled at him softly, “my number 1.”

It took Leo a second to process the words she had just said.

My, he thought to himself, she said my.

And in that same second, his eyes glossed over with tears and a painful knot formed in his throat.

It was normal for Leo to not receive praise from his own family after countless times of messing something up. No one would blame him for constantly impressing others so he could get the praise he always wanted. Whenever he did get praise from his brothers, it would be a rare occasion.

And hearing it from his best friend hit differently. It was... genuine. It made him emotional. He hated—loved really, but he would never admit it—how she had that kind of power over him. Leo suddenly remembered their late night 3 AM talks they had on top of her roof after every hang out. At first, he felt uncomfortable letting (Y/N) know about his feelings since his family usually kept such things to themselves. But after all their Lou Jitsu marathons and failed Foot missions (and the sudden butterflies he swallowed every time he saw her pretty face), he figured, hell, what harm could talking do?

Turns out talking actually does some damage. The good kind of where Leo couldn’t help but fall in love with her a little bit more each time. He found that (Y/N) was a great listener. He found that she maintained eye contact with him whenever it was his turn to speak. And thanks to his knack of smelling things, he also discovered that she smelled like sweet honey mixed with vanilla when their bodies drew closer to each other.

Wow, talking really did a number on him.

(Y/N) noticed the tears in his eyes and grew concerned. “Wait- hey,” she quickly got up from the bed and walked toward him. “Lee, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” She placed a hand on his arm in an attempt to console him, not really sure how to approach her emotional best friend.

“No, no, crying?” Leo rejected, blinking away the tears and giving her his usual Leo grin. “I got, er, lint…? In my eye?”

(Y/N)’s concern disappeared as she tried not to laugh at his failed composure. “Great save,” she teased.

Leo chuckled at her tone and sighed, “Who knew our friendsary was gonna be this sappy, huh?”

“Hey, I’m not the one with tears in my eyes.”

“You know that was your fault.”

“Yeah. Well, I meant it,” (Y/N) smiled at him, pulling her hand away from his arm. “But we seriously need to talk about your savior complex.”

He laughed at her suggestion, “Yeah, sure. Like a pep talk ever worked. You’re so cute when you’re serious, (Y/N).”

(Y/N) felt her heart jump for a moment at his comment. Weird. She’d been called cute several times by the others before, so why did it feel different coming from Leo?

“Oh!” Leo blurted, “how could I forget?” The turtle turned to the corner of his room and foraged through a random pile on the floor, already dismissing the comment he just made of her.

He had said it with such ease that (Y/N) wondered if he meant it or if it was just his flirting again. Was she actually cute when she’s serious? Maybe she should be serious more often. Her daze was disrupted by Leo shoving his friendsary gift right in her face. It was a huge lion plushie with a stitched smile, buttoned nose, and black beaded eyes.

“Tada!” Leo exclaimed, “get it? Because you’re a Leo?”

“Leo, as in, my zodiac sign?” (Y/N) held the toy in her hands and giggled at the fact that he remembered such a small detail. For a ninja who tends to be such a klutz, Leo sure has good memory.

“Duh. I’ve been checking my daily horoscope,” Leo mentioned, pulling out his phone to show her, “It told me I would feel victory then I won playing bumper cars against Donnie at a carnival fair. You’re welcome.”

(Y/N) stood silently for a moment staring at the lion toy. The nicknames, the anniversaries, the gifts—everything they’ve done seemed so… intimate and sweet. Everyone knew they were the closest of the bunch. They were so close that April and the others thought they were dating at some point. Deep down, in the back of her mind, she wanted that to be true. But they thought they would stay on platonic terms; mostly because they believed a mutant turtle and a normal human could never make it work.

That moment of silence of hers made Leo nervous. “You… don’t like it?” he asked worriedly.

“No, no, I love it!” (Y/N) reassured him and smiled, “I’ve been needing someone to cuddle with when I sleep.” She squeezed on the lion and sneered, giving him a teasing stare as if to make him jealous that she chose the toy rather than Leo himself.

Me, choose me. I’m a great cuddler! -is what Leo wanted to say. Sure, his shell was a bit bulky and hard to actually cuddle with, but he was the best contender out of everyone!

He was rethinking his decision in giving her that plushie now.

“Aww,” Leo countered, not letting her win this face-off, “was your little crush from school not good enough for you?”

(Y/N) gasped at his comment and started smacking him with the plushie, “Low blow, Leon! We agreed to never bring him up again.”

“Ow! Okay, I’m kidding, I’m kidding!”

“You wish someone could cuddle you!”

“Yeah, I mean, kinda.” Leo blurted out without thinking. He pursed his lips upon realizing what he just said and looked at (Y/N) with wide eyes.

(Y/N) stopped whacking him for a second. “Yeah?” she said in that inviting tone of hers Leo hated with a shit-eating grin on her face.

Ah crap.

He swallowed his shock in her sudden voice change. “I-I mean, yeah, who wouldn’t, right? I’m pretty irresistible. Haha…” Leo chuckled nervously. He made his way over to his bed, taking the comic in his hands again and picking up on where he left off to ignore his embarrassing attempt at saving himself. The comic hiding his face saved him the trouble of having to explain why his face was suddenly red.

Crap, Leo sighed in his head, that was probably weird.

I made it weird, (Y/N) sighed in hers, mentally beating herself up for making such an uncomfortable situation, It’s too quiet. Do something, literally anything to make this better!

Before she realized it, (Y/N) was already making a move by placing herself next to Leo on his comfortable bed. She hesitated on sticking so close to her best friend, but her head was already leaning on his shoulder as she tightly held the lion plush against her body. They’ve sat in this position several times before during their Jupiter Jim reading dates hang outs. Maybe (Y/N) wanted to see what kind of reaction Leo would make if she gave him what he wanted, but he didn’t make a move or a sound so she assumed she was okay for the time-being.

Not a single word was exchanged between the two, so Leo hoped she wouldn’t hear how loud his heart was beating in his plastron.

Both of them skimmed over the words and characters illustrated on the comic pages, not really engrossed in the story but rather to pass the awkward predicament they were desperate to get out of.

“Is this volume 264?” (Y/N) finally made conversation to break the silence between them.

“Yeah, just started it. Jupiter Jim is about to take down the evil galactic squid with his sidekick!”

She hummed in interest then looked up at him, “Is this… how we’re gonna spend the rest of our friendsary?”

Suddenly, goosebumps covered Leo’s skin as he felt her breathe into his neck. He glanced at her to respond and stopped upon realizing how close her face was to his. God, she was so pretty, he thought, even prettier when he realized that she had light freckles sprinkled all over her small face. Her faint scent of honey and vanilla was back and he took a long, deep breath just to take it all in.

His hand suddenly twitched in excitement to make the first move. A part of him wanted to pull her face in closer so he could finally land a kiss on her lips to get rid of the tension. Perhaps a cheesy pick-up line or confession would do the trick. The girl of his dreams was right there. So close to him. But he couldn’t bring himself to follow through that excitement.

“Only if you’re okay with it,” is all he could say. Smooth one, Leon.

He felt her puff air through her nose before she whispered, “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Leo’s heart slowed as he felt relief wash over him. He gives her his iconic face man smile and leaned his head on hers. Another couple minutes pass and a few pages turn before an idea popped into Leo’s head.

“You know what would make this better?” he started.

“What?” she asked in response while flipping to the next page.

“Your narrating voice with the puppet show thing you do!”

“Oh, that?” (Y/N) cleared her throat before sitting up on the bed, “Paging Foxtrot, I am headed towards the mothership!” She adjusted her voice a couple octaves lower to try and sound like Jupiter Jim himself.

Leo bit his lip as he tried holding back a snicker. (Y/N) was known for her voice acting and hilarious character impersonations. The turtles would occasionally pause in the middle of a movie to ask her to finish the scene herself.

“This may be my final mission, lads.” she continued, “I am grateful to have served among you, my comrades, and new friends.” And with that, she finished her act with a slow, dramatic salute. Leo follows, closing the comic in his lap, and sat up straight to salute with her.

The sound of bursting joy echoed through the whole sewer as the two of them realized the goofy stance they were both in. Raph, Donnie, and Mikey glance at each other before rolling their eyes at the noise from Leo’s room.

As the laughter died down, (Y/N) felt the phone in her back pocket vibrate. She pulled it out, tapping on the screen to turn it on, and saw a message notification from her mom.

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maman ❤️: cherie, ou es-tu (where are you)?

------

(Y/N) had to fib some excuse about hanging out with a life-sized turtle or her mom would never believe her. She swung her legs over the edge of Leo’s bed and concentrated on typing.

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me: at april’s!

------

Leo placed his chin over her shoulder to take a peek at her phone. “Who is it?” he asked, clearly reading the name at the top but denying the fact that their fun was coming to an end.

“My mom. She’s looking for me.” (Y/N) answered bitterly.

Leo’s heart sank a little at her words. He wanted to spend the rest of his night with her to experience their friendsary to the fullest. He had so many ideas. The arcade, a Jupiter Jim movie, some pizza… she can’t be leaving already!

“Does that mean you have to go?” Leo whispered in her ear.

(Y/N) turned to face him and was met with a pouting turtle with puppy dog eyes. A small smile formed on her lips, finding the expression of his cute. She was about to respond with a “no” before remembering the 10 pm curfew her mom had set on her before she left the house. A heavy sigh escaped from her as she stood to gather her things. “Yeah, she’ll start freaking out if I’m even a minute late.”

Leo let out a loud groan, flopping forward on his bed as he watched her pack her stuff. He laid still for a moment, conjuring some kind of plan to make her stay longer. He was never one to bring her home past curfew; but there were a few times where he would use his sword so (Y/N) could get home quick without her mom knowing she snuck out. Maybe he didn’t need to use the portal this time…

“I’ll walk you home.” Leo got up from the bed and followed (Y/N) as she moved around his room.

Confused, she stopped and looked up at him then glanced at the swords standing by the doorway. “Walk me home? Can’t you just teleport?” She pointed at the sword with her thumb.

“It’s a nice night for a walk!” Leo suggested, hinting at how he wanted to spend more time with his best friend. He picked up the sword just in case they would need it in their night stroll. The two made their way out of his room to the stairs reaching the surface above.

“Besides, I need to gloat about how I won all the air hockey games against Raph the other day.” Leo cracked as they passed by his other brothers.

“I heard that.” Raph blurted out from afar, not even batting an eye.

(Y/N) stepped on to the first step of the ladder before turning to give Leo a glare, “I’d rather have you portal us than listen to you and Raph squabble.”

“Hey, don’t act like you weren’t the one who gave me this awesome champion shirt.” Leo remarked, gesturing to the shirt he was wearing.

“Touché.” (Y/N) rolled her eyes before calling out, “Bye Donnie, bye Mikey, bye Raph.” Slowly, she moved up the ladder with Leo following right behind her. One last collective “bye (Y/N)” was heard before Leo closed the manhole under them.

“I bet $20 (Y/N) makes the first move.” Raph exclaimed, proposing a challenge to his other brothers. The two sat up excitedly with grins on their faces, ready to prove Raph wrong.

“No. Leon’s got it! He cooked up a whole plan to ask her out.” Mikey crossed his arms.

“I’m afraid both of you are wrong, my brethren.” Donnie stood, hands on his hips in a confident pose. “I bet that both of them will either ask simultaneously OR chicken out and not do it at all.”

“Hey, no fair! It’s gotta be one or the other!” Raph pointed. “And I know for sure (Y/N)’s gonna do it.”

“Prepare to eateth thy words, Big Raphie. It’ll be bitter for you but sweet for me and my empty wallet.” Donnie pulled out his wallet to taunt, “I could use another processor for my gadgets.”

The two began their course to (Y/N)’s home. Leo thought the best way to get there was on the top-side of New York, so he opened a quick portal to the roof of the building for them to go through and were on their way. New York streets were alive and well with the bright gleaming post lights, people walking on the sidewalks, and loud beeping taxis beneath them.

(Y/N) felt her phone vibrate again and checked the message for a second time.

------

maman ❤️: don’t be out too late. i’m cooking (favorite/food).

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“Jeez,” Leo couldn’t help but peek at her message, sticking close to her as they walk, “your mom really wants you home, huh?”

(Y/N) giggled at his surprise, “She’s always been like that.” She slowed her pace for a moment to respond. Leo noticed she was a bit too close to the edge of the roof, so he switched spots unbeknownst to her to let her focus on texting.

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me: don’t worry. i’ll be home soon, d’accord?

maman ❤️: d’accord :)

------

“What is d’accord?” Leo asked, butchering the pronunciation. (Y/N) couldn’t help but laugh at his cute attempt. That laugh earned her a small glare from the turtle, cheeks a bit red from embarrassment. “It’s pronounced like dack-ord with a little fruitiness to it. It’s all about clearing the throat.” She pointed to her neck. “And it means okay in French.”

“Ohhh, d’accord.” Leo attempted again, this time with more success. (Y/N) nudged him with her elbow, impressed with how quickly he got the accent down. “Not bad, blue.”

“Not bad?” the turtle gasped, finding her statement offensive. “That’s an A++ in my book!”

“If you work on your pronunciation, I’ll reconsider your grade.”

“Come on, hit me with another one of your fancy Frenchness!”

Challenge accepted. She thought of the most complicated word the non-lingual turtle wouldn’t be able to pronounce. There was one that she could never pronounce when she was a bit younger. Her teachers would drill her into pronouncing it correctly but she had a speech impediment that stopped her from doing so. She grew out of it, obviously, but it didn’t change the fact that she got made fun of for it. Maybe hearing someone else struggle would give her a peace of mind. Leo would take it less personally, probably.

“Okay, say l'écureuil (squirrel).” (Y/N) grinned, knowing Leo would already struggle with the first syllable. She watched excitedly, a skip in her step as they walked. Leo cleared his throat loudly, taking a huge puff of air in and one out as if to prep himself for the challenge.

“Le- leg-wee- leycui-” he started, eyebrows furrowed in pure concentration. (Y/N) smirked and crossed her arms waiting for him to finish. This was utterly sad to watch, she admitted, but boy was it satisfying to see the perfect turtle fail. Suddenly, she heard him yell in pain and flinch. A hint of concern appeared for a moment before she saw the funny look of his tongue sticking out of his mouth.

“Agh, tongue cramp!” is what Leo said, but she almost couldn’t guess from the way he was saying it. She let out another loud snort for the third time that day, hunched over while doing so. He felt his heart jump in his chest. As much as it hurt his pride (and his tongue), he loved hearing her laugh, so he didn’t complain. He’ll let it slide this time.

“What does that even mean?” Leo mumbled, readjusting his jaw with his hand.

“Squirrel.” (Y/N) let in one last chuckle. Defeating Leo sure is sweet.

They were both so caught up with the word they didn’t even realize they had reached (Y/N)’s apartment. Leo carefully hopped on the staircase at the side of the building, scanning her room through the window to make sure they didn’t get caught. He turned back to (Y/N) with open arms, signaling her to jump and that he’d catch her. She nodded and took a leap, landing straight into Leo’s arms for support with a loud metal clang hitting his shell. A sigh of relief was heard from the turtle as she looked up to make sure he was okay. They stood there silently, their hold on each other slightly tightening while they took in this sweet moment. A kiss would be real nice right now, both of them thought.

“You know that word I just butchered? Yeah, there’s no way it means squirrel. That was like, a Harry Potter spell.” Leo joked.

“Okay, okay, fine. How about ma joie?” (Y/N) gave him one last shot, pulling away from the comfortable position they were in. “M-Ma... joie?” Leo recited nervously, afraid he butchered that word too. But the look on her face, with a beaming smile and wide twinkling eyes, told him otherwise.

“Hey, that was a lot better!” (Y/N) exclaimed proudly, feeding to Leo’s ego.

“Really?” Leo asked with a hopeful tone before catching his own excitement. Clearing his throat and running a hand through his nonexistent hair on his head, he said, “I mean- what can I say? Neon Leon’s a natural!” (Y/N) gave him a look in response, clearly unamused yet keeping a smile on her face to show interest. She shoved him out the way playfully, to which he chuckled at, and opened her window to go through.

Her door was slightly ajar and a faint smell of (favorite/food) crept through the crack, meaning her mom was home and cooking in the kitchen. (Y/N) tiptoed her way to the door and closed it discreetly before turning to the turtle perched on her window. “Thanks for dropping me off, Leo.”

“Anything for you.” He responded with a gentle tone, hand on his chin as he admired her with a dazed smile.

“Are you free for the next friendsary?” She joked.

“Let me check my schedule.” Leo caught on quickly, gesturing to his wrist and tapping away at an imaginary screen imitating Donnie. “According to my calculations, my schedule should be unoccupied at exactly 365 days from now.” he said with a nasally, nerd voice while pushing up his imaginary goggles to his head.

“Are you trying to sound like your brother?” (Y/N) raised a brow and crossed her arms at his entertainment.

“Not trying, am.”

“That’s a disgrace to Donnie.” She defended the poor purple tech genius and Leo rolled his eyes at that, irked that she thought so highly of his little brother. “You wish you were as good as me.” Leo boasted. She scoffed at him, noticing the hint of hurt in his voice.

Suddenly, a voice calling for (Y/N) echoed from downstairs. Mom. She must’ve heard their bantering.

(Y/N) sent Leo a sheepish side smile and an apologetic shrug before walking over. A pause, her eyes flicker at a quick glance to his lips that she’s been aching to feel on hers, before she whispered gently, “Thanks for today, I had a lot of fun.”

“I did, too.” Leo said softly before bringing his hand close to ruffle her hair. Soft, silky. Being this pretty shouldn’t even be possible. Yet here she was, proving to him that angels do exist and that there was one right there in his grasp.

Leo seemed like he had something else to say from the way he remained still and lingered at her features. He was quiet, too quiet for (Y/N)’s comfort. His plan of asking her out was going perfectly, this was the now-or-never, life-or-death ending and he needed to make it count. Mikey knew about this whole plan too, telling him to full send it and ask the heavy question: “(Y/N), will you go out with me?”

The room suddenly felt small as his anxiety increased. His heart was going 120 beats a minute and his hands started to get clammy. He opened his mouth to utter her name-

“Goodnight, blue.” (Y/N) suddenly spoke before he got the chance to say anything. A tinge of disappointment laced her words. She turned away from him and headed to the door so she could greet her mom.

Then, Leo quickly grabbed her shoulders before she could move any further. “Wait.”

With wide eyes, (Y/N) looked up at him surprised. He had a sudden, solemn look of his face; a few beads of sweat were starting to form on his forehead. “Leo?” she asked with concern.

“(Y-Y/N).” he started, swallowing his nerves and the pizza they had a couple hours ago. This is it. He was really doing it. The big question he had been dying to ask her since they first met. Why was it so hot in her room? Is it supposed to be this hard? Mikey really made it seem like asking her out was gonna be no sweat!

Okay, come on Neon Leon. Here goes nothing.

“I-I.. I have something to ask you.”

“Okay. What is it?”

Leo closed his eyes to prepare himself. A deep breath, and then-

“Will you go out with me?” - “Will you go out with me?”

Leo paused. Did she… did she just-

He opened his eyes and met her gaze. She had a grin on her face and a slight blush on her cheeks. Damn joker.

“Did- did we just ask each other out?!” Leo’s grip on her shoulders tightened in excitement. His heart was racing so much and the adrenaline was making his body shake. “You knew this whole time?”

(Y/N) couldn’t help but laugh upon seeing his state. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for you to ask!”

A huge wave of relief washed over him, he could honestly faint. (Y/N) laughing at him almost made Leo feel silly for being nervous. Mikey must’ve known she would say yes, of course! That’s why he was so nonchalant about it.

“So my question is… is that a yes, blue?” she inquired, moving his hands off her shoulders and intertwining her fingers with his. His huge grin on his face made his eyes crinkle and his cheeks puffed right as he pulled her in for a big hug. (Y/N) quickly wrapped her arms around his body and his shell, face planted comfortably in his plastron. Leo had his snout buried in her hair that smelled like home.

“That’s an affirmative.” Leo responded to her question with a chuckle.

“Good. Now I gotta go, I’m starting to get hungry.”

“Make sure to save me some,” Leo gently gave her a peck on her forehead. “Night, shortstack.” He slowly let go of her and sent a small wave as he turned to leave. She leaned on the window sill and propped herself up with her arms while she watched him leave. Leo was about to hop off the ladder before he remembered something. “Wait.”

“Yeah, blue?” That nickname was gonna be the death of him.

“You never told me what ma joie was.”

“Oh, it means my joy.”

“Huh.” Leo stayed in his spot, lost in thought, before uttering: “Then, au revoir, ma joie.”

(Y/N)’s face flushed quickly at how impressed she was at his accent. He said it almost effortlessly and smoothly that she felt her stomach turn. The turtle winks at her, which made her face even more red, and grabbed her hand to plant a loving kiss on her knuckles. He decided to save the kiss on her lips for another, more romantic time. Maybe tomorrow when he got to see her again.

There was a quiet knock at the door before (Y/N)’s mom could be heard from the other side. “(Y/N)? Are you home?” Her mom opened the door leisurely. Peeking her head through, she saw the silhouette of her daughter standing in front of an open window; it was weird, but she’s known for going through the window more than the front door.

“Food is ready. Who were you talking to?”

(Y/N) kept her back turned to her so she wouldn’t see how red her face was. Her hands were clasped together and fidgeting, still feeling Leo’s kiss on it.

“Just myself, mom.”

Little did she know, Leo stayed hidden under the window view to listen to her reaction. He grinned at the effect he had on her, the champion shirt really coming into play. It was a mission success, and he couldn’t wait to tell Mikey when he got home.

“DONNIE WON?!” Mikey and Raph cried out defeatedly, both on their knees in despair. Donnie had his arms crossed and the most smug look on his face as he relished in his victory.

“Unshocked, I am. Othello von Ryan is once again victorious! I did say eateth they words, Raphael. Now, ehem, the payment.” Donnie held both his hands out, one on each brother.

“Wait, you guys made a bet?!” Leo exclaimed, slightly mad that he didn’t join in the bet they would do such a thing.

A sound came from (Y/N)’s phone placed on the sink while she was washing her face. She dried her hands with a towel and picked up her phone to check the message.

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leo 😄 : so, pizza at hueso’s tomorrow, ma joie? 😎🍕

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(Y/N) huffed through her nose, smiling at his text before replying:

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me: on you, blue <3

------

As she got ready for bed, (Y/N) sent her last message for the night, excited to see her turtle again tomorrow. She was editing the contact name and photo she had on her phone before another message from him popped up above the screen:

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my blue 💙🐢: don’t worry, donnie’s got it >:)

------

Weird, Donnie never pays for Leo’s stuff… She guessed she would find out why tomorrow.

1K notes · View notes

littleskeletonprincessss · 8 months

Text

Anniversary

Congratulations you all get a lil schlatt smut that my brain won't let go so i'm writing it so I can get enough sleep to go to church tomorrow. MDNI below the break!

Lol I thought about titling this 'blurb' but uh nvm i guess.

"Shut the fuck up, broad."

"Oh real original, Schlatt. That's all you can come up with? Dumbass. I know it's so terrible that I wanted you home at a decent hour on our goddamn anniversary!"

"You know what, you're on your own tonight. I'm going out where I won't be annoyed to shit."

Schlatt had slammed the door shut after grabbing his keys and jacket.

Schlatt had had a slight temper as long as you'd known him, and you were usually able to put up with it. You were usually the one to talk him down from his tantrums.

But tonight you were in a bad mood when he finally opened the front door after being at work all day. It was your anniversary, and not only had he done nothing to acknowledge it all day, not even a quick text, he was late for the dinner you'd spent all week learning and all afternoon cooking. You'd even told him that morning that you were making something special for dinner and to please not be late.

You knew how hard he worked to provide for your little family, and it's not that you weren't grateful, it was just less of a family without him and instead a pathetic lonely woman with her cats.

When he'd finally opened the front door, he'd walked in, stumbling over one of Jambo's toys that the tabby had dragged around all day wanting to play with you.

"Y/N what the fuck is this? I spend all day at work and you can't even bother to clean up?"

That's what had started the back and forth yelling match bringing you to your current place, sitting at the kitchen counter, picking at the meal you'd prepared, the spat chasing your appetite away, but not your thirst, which was evident by the emptying bottle of wine you'd opened.

You missed the Schlatt you dated before Youtube, Twitch, Chuckle Sandwich, Sleep Deprived, and the growing list of his companies. Before he was always so high strung and stretched this way and that. He'd come home, excited to sit down for dinner to tell you about his day. You two would move to the couch for a movie before eventually making your way to bed. You missed the simple, happy moments when you'd adopted Jambo, and then later when you'd adopted his brother.

You loved Schlatt, you really did. But did you deserve the attitude that he always seemed to have?

Deciding you'd had enough, you pushed your plate away and climbed the stairs to your bedroom. Opening the closet you reaching to the top shelf to pull down your suitcase, laying it on the bed and unzipping it to start filling it with anything you'd need for a temporary hotel stay.

While putting the last few items in, you heard the front door for the 3rd time that night. Schlatt didn't say anything, but you heard him hanging his jacket and walking to the kitchen before starting towards the stairs.

"Honey?"

You stayed silent, as you heard him move his way down the hall, his heavy footfalls signaling his every move.

Zipping your suitcase you lifted it off the bed and onto the floor as Schlatt stepped into the doorway.

"Baby, what are you doing?" he asked, eyeing the suitcase in your hand.

"I think we need some space, Schlatt. Obviously we're having some issues and I think it's best we spend some time away from each other."

"What? No. Sweetheart, please." Schlatt grabbed your wrist trying to pull you to him.

"Let me go, Schlatt."

"No, y/n. Please lets talk about this." Being as strong as he was, despite your resistance Schlatt was able to sit on the bed, pulling you into his lap.

Pushing off his lap, you opted for sitting next to him, crossing your arms and bringing your knees up.

"Baby i'm so sorry for earlier...It'd been a long day, and I know that's no excuse for yelling but I--"

Sighing, you uncrossed your arms slightly, leaning your head back against the headboard.

"It wasn't just that, Schlatt." you said, cutting him off. "I'm used to being your punching bag after work. Someone to vent you frustrations to. But what made it worse tonight was that tonight, of all nights, I asked you to be home on time for dinner. I thought I'd do something nice for our anniversary." You whispered sadly, your head falling to look at your lap.

"Shit, I forgot. Baby, I'm so so sorry." Schlatt brought an arm around your shoulders, leaning and pulling you to rest on him. He placed a gentle kiss to the top of your head. "Let me make it up to you? We can go downstairs, heat up dinner, pretend earlier never even happened. We can even watch one of those cheesy movies you like. Cuddle on the couch, just you, me and the boys. Huh? How's that sound?" You could hear the hope in his voice.

"Schlatt, I'm sorry. But I don't think i'm in the mood for any of that anymore."

Schlatt let out a defeated sigh. "Okay, baby. How about a bath? I'll make you up a nice one with candles, a bath bomb, nice warm water, a nice relaxing bath."

"I don't know, Schlatt-"

"Sugar, please. Let me try and fix this." Schlatt looked at you with the desperate puppy dog eyes, big and brown, he'd learned you couldn't resist over the course of your relationship.

Seeing those eyes made you almost forget why you were upset with him. Hearing his desperate pleas, and how much he wanted to set things right, this was the Schlatt you'd fallen in love with.

Giving in, you pull him into a kiss. Feeling his shoulders relax some, knowing he'd broken through the icy exterior you were giving him, he whimpered into your kiss, he wrapped one arm around your back, holding you close as he leaned more into the kiss, moving to lying you down, hovering over you.

As the wine you'd had earlier started to kick in, the kisses got less gentle, and the touches got a little less innocent, while the feelings of love, passion, sorrow, forgiveness, were all heightened. This was nowhere near your first time having sex with Schlatt, but few times before had it felt this way.

As you drew closer to your climax, you looked up at the man hovering over you, arms on either side of your head supporting the majority of his weight as the rest pressed deliciously against you, his hips snapping at a steady rhythm into you, soft grunts escaping his lips.

Threading your fingers through his dark curls, you pulled him into another kiss, one that your tried pouring your entire heart into. Every feeling, every thought you tried conveying through it. Schlatt did the same, as his thrusts sped up, pressing deeper into you, and you moaned into each others mouths as you came together.

Pressing his forehead against yours, grounding each other as you came down from your high, Schlatt pressed a chaste kiss to your lips.

"Please don't fucking scare me like that ever again, y/n. Please don't give up on me. Don't give up on us."

"Oh baby, I won't. I promise."

"I'm serious, Princess." Schlatt stated, looking into your eyes. "My love, you are the most important thing in my life and the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, bar none. If I ever lost you-" Schlatt choked out the last sentence, as he looked away.

"Schlatt, baby are you crying?" You whispered, bringing his face back to yours. He wasn't making eye contact with you anymore, but now that he was facing you, you were able to see the tears forming in his eyes. "Oh, handsome, come here." You cooed, pulling his head down towards you. Schlatt buried his face in your neck, and you could feel the hot tears he had been trying to hide, your fingertips trailing across his bare back as you comforted him, trying to calm the deep breaths he took as he cried into your neck.

"I love you, Schlatt." You whispered in his ear, once his sobs had quieted.

"I love you, y/n. So much."

A few minutes passed as you laid in each others warmth, soaking in the raw feelings hanging in the air.

"So about that bath.." You started, smiling feeling Schlatt grin into your shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah. In a minute. I was at work all day you know and just went through some very extraneous activity."

#schlatt #schlatt x reader #jschlatt #jschlatt x reader #schlatt smut #jschlatt smut

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edsloveydove · 2 years

Text

I Have Always Seen You

pairing: eddie munson x chubby female reader

summary: of course the boy i've known since 3rd grade, the one i've loved since 7th grade, would be the one to break my heart. i never thought he would be the one to fix it too...

warnings: bullying, fatphobia, use of the word pig towards reader once, falling off a bike, blood and cut knee from falling off said bike, self-doubt and sort of self-hate i guess, cursing, mentality that reader wouldn't be 'missed' (idk if thats a warning but just in case), no use of y/n, underage drinking, reader has an older brother for sake of the story (i gave him a really basic/common name), thoughts and flashbacks are in italics!! nickanames/pet names (shortcake, princess, honey, sweetheart), reader is at least a bit shorter than eddie, very poorly edited, talks of the demobats and upside down, again like very badly edited, lemme know if i missed anything, i'm sure i have!

word count: 9k+

notes: my first fic guys and it turned into this 9,000 word monster! wild! anyway, this might be trash i honestly don't know, i have no perception of it, pls let me know what you think!! also, this story is told in first person point of view so it uses 'i, me, myself' and all that, idk how i feel about it though tbh. uuuuh, enjoy!!

DON'T REPOST MY WRITING OR SHARE IT TO OTHER PLATFORMS (including mentioning it in tiktok comment sections and stuff like that pls) THIS IS MY WRITING, DON'T STEAL IT PLEASE!

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The sweltering midwestern heat was hitting Hawkins, Indiana early this year. School had only been out for a few weeks and it was already hot enough to have the city pool passing the max capacity damn near every day.

Luckily for me, I had been able to successfully avoid going every time my friends have asked me to join them. Until now.

“C’mon, it’s gonna be so much fun! Steve’s parents are gone again, like usual, so it’ll just be us and a few other friends!” Robin tries to convince me through the phone.

“Robin, I never believe ‘just us and a few friends’, because it is ne-”

“It’s never just a few friends, I know. But this time it really will be just a few people. Like, actually just a few people. After everything that happened during spring break and all that, Steve really just wants the main guys there. There’s not gonna be any crazy partying, we’re gonna swim and relax, that’s it.”

“I don’t know, I might be busy tomorrow,” I attempt an excuse.

“Then we’ll move it to when you’re free. We really want you there, you haven’t gone to any of our movie nights or other hangouts yet,” Robin points out while saying my name softly. “Is it something else? Is there someone you don’t want there?”

Robin isn’t entirely wrong, there is something else that’s keeping me from joining my friends. And technically it does have to do with someone, but not in the way she thinks. And that someone happens to be none other than the Eddie Munson.

I’ve known Eddie for many years. My older brother was one of his best friends while growing up having met in elementary school. James was in the grade above Eddie, and the one to introduce him to D&D, eventually passing on the title of Hellfire Club President to him as well. I was always in the background, hoping my brother would let me learn how to play just so I could impress him and his friends.

While they were occupying the basement, getting pizza and bottles of Coke every other Saturday for their stupid role-playing game, I was in my room reading trashy romance novels and out riding my bike to the library in hopes to seem cool when I came back late at night.

By the time I got to high school, it was James’ second to last year before he went off to college in Chicago on his big-shot football scholarship he managed to snag before he was even a senior. And yes, James was a Hellfire nerd and a star-athlete, so no one messed with their little club while he was there. Eddie was in his sophomore year, already antsy to graduate and move on to greater things.

I was just the outcast that didn’t even have a group. It didn’t matter that I was the captain of the football team’s little sister, I never made any friends because I never tried to.

Needless to say, yeah, Eddie and I had some history and maybe things got brought up when Vecna was trying to take over the world that might have been better left untouched. And maybe the idea of seeing him again brings butterflies to my stomach while also making my gut sink.

“No, it's not that. I just…I guess I just haven’t been feeling it since…since yanno,” I say, half heartedly.

Robin voices her understanding and tells me to just call back when I make a decision on if I would go or not. I promise her I will and hang up the phone. It’s not like I didn’t want to see them, because truly I did but it also wasn’t a complete lie when I told her I hadn’t been feeling quite right since the Venca situation.

It was a really traumatic and horrible experience for everyone involved, and really astonishing that everyone made it out alive.

‘Maybe I should just go…but what if it’s horrible? I know none of my lovely friends would ever say anything to me about it, but I just can’t stand the thought of them seeing me in a swimsuit, especially Eddie.’ I shake my head at the thought. ‘What a stupid thing to think, god, we all nearly died and I’m worried about my stomach in a swimsuit, how shallow is that? I guess some things just never change, no matter the life threatening situation…’

I go about my nighttime routine, washing my face and making sure no lights have been left on around the house. I say goodnight to my mother and fall right asleep. Or, I try to at least.

But my mind keeps me up for much longer than I would have hoped.

‘It would be a good time, though. Have a couple of beers, spend the night in one of Steve’s nice guest bedrooms. I wouldn’t even have to swim, I could just say I’m on my period or something. Ugh, but Robin knows that I always swam even on my period when we were younger. I’ll just wear a suit under my clothes and pretend the water is too cold even though it’s the peak of summer? Yeah, that should work. I can’t imagine anyone will care that much anyway if I’m not in the pool with them. I really do miss my friends.’

The next morning I call Robin and tell her I’ll be there tonight. She squeals in delight and tells me how happy she’ll be to see me.

Now it was just time to pick out an outfit, should be simple enough, right?

Well, after leaving it to the last second and now only having about 15 minutes to get to Steve’s when it’s already a five minute drive, having half of my closet strewn about my room doesn’t seem like a very good place to be at.

I finally sigh and opt for a swim suit from the summer before that I never wore, a green one piece with a wrapped sort of style for the top portion, and black cut off shorts and an old t-shirt that fits comfortably loose over it.

I grab my keys and kiss my mother on the forehead, reminding her I wouldn’t be back till the next morning.

Several shouts of my name reach my ears once I reach Steve’s backyard, it does bring a small smile to my face knowing I’ve been missed just as much as I’ve missed them.

“You’re actually here, I’m so happy to see you!” Nancy says pulling me in for a hug, Robin joining on top, squishing us all together.

“Yeah, yeah, I know it’s been a while. I’m sorry.”

“No, you don’t have to be sorry, it’s been a really hard year,” Nancy says sincerely.

Steve comes up for a hug next, squishing me for dear life, I could feel him about to try to lift me up and spin me around so I pull away rather abruptly.

“Alright, alright, it’s nice to see you, too, Steve.”

He answers with a kiss to the cheek and makes me promise that I’ll come to the next hangout and every one after that. I see Jonathan and he waves with a small awkward smile.

Finally my eyes meet Eddie’s.

“James! James! C’mon, come outside and play with me!” It was nearing the end of summer before James would go back to school for his 8th grade year and I would be going into 6th grade.

“Not right now, can’t you see that I’m busy? I’m too old to play outside anyway,” my brother rolls his eyes.

I hop down the stairs so I can see the basement fully now. Spotting all of my brother's friends huddled around our dinky old card table while he has books and notepads sprawled on his end.

“Well, can I at least play your game with you guys? I’m sure I can learn it fast!” I beam, faking confidence in hopes to sway them.

“No offense, shortcake, but it’s probably too confusing for you. Besides, we’re right in the middle of a campaign, it would be too hard to add in another character out of the blue right now,” Eddie says with a chuckle, like the idea that I could play is too amusing to even consider.

Naturally, I take full offense.

“Fine! You’re all so annoying, I didn’t even want to play with you anyway. Especially not with someone who has a buzzcut!” I stick my tongue out at them and run away, but not before I can hear them laughing.

Sitting alone in my room I know it was childish of me, especially for my age. James was probably right, he was too old to be outside playing tag with his sister. I was too old to be throwing a tantrum like this over some friends wanting to spend time with each other without one’s little sister hanging around.

“Hey, Munson.”

Eddie nods his head in greeting and goes back to talking with Jonathan. Well, that’s honestly about as much interaction as I expected to get from him tonight.

“Alright, let’s get this party started!” Robin exclaims, dragging you toward the cooler filled with ice and drinks, I grab a Sprite to start with.

2 hours later and my Sprite is still mostly untouched and it’s now gone lukewarm. The others are in the pool splashing and playing chicken, I sit on the side with my feet dangling into the shallow end, watching as they fool around and laugh. Giggles and quiet laughs leave my lips on occasion with them.

“You should get in, the water’s really nice!” Nancy says.

“Yeah! Strip for us and get in here,” Robin adds, making everyone laugh.

“You guys just want to get me out of my clothes, don’t you?” I play it off, shaking my head slightly. Giggles erupt again. I excuse myself to the bathroom after pulling my legs out of the pool.

Closing and locking the door behind me I look at myself in the mirror.

‘I should just get in the pool, shouldn’t I? I do feel like I’m missing out on what could be a lot of fun. And it wouldn’t hurt to wash all this sweat off of me. I could just keep my shirt on, I have an extra change of clothes as backup anyway.’

I finish my business and leave the bathroom.

After turning the corner to go back to the pool I run straight into something firm, nearly being toppled over before hands are at my forearms to keep me from doing so. Seeing dark curls fanning across this “something’s” shoulders and several patches of dark ink on its bare skin, I immediately know I have just run head first into Eddie. Great.

“Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” I murmur, keeping my eyes pointed down.

“It’s alright, shortcake. No harm done right?” he says, adjusting his head to try to catch my eyes.

I nod my head and pull away from his hands that still rest gently on my arms.

“Hey, hey, what’s up? You’re so quiet tonight, is everything okay?”

I nod again and pull away harder, rushing out the door to get back to the pool, ignoring his call of my name and a request to “just hold on a second.”

Pulling my shorts off quickly, I step up to the pool and begin to wade into the water before Robin stops me.

“Your shirt! You don’t want the chlorine to ruin it!”

My heart thumps, thinking of how I can handle this. My mouth opens to say something but before I can, Robin cuts me off.

“Just take it off, no one’s gonna make fun of you for being in your swimsuit and if they do I’ll beat them up for you and then we’ll all collectively agree to throw them out of the group. And don’t try to tell me that’s not what it is, I can see it all over your face. You’re allowed to have fun and go swimming, I don’t like to see you excluding yourself, no matter the reason,” she says.

Of course she would see right through any lie I could throw her way. That’s just how Robin is. No matter how clumsy she can be, she really is observant. Not only that, but she’s right. Nobody cares and if they do, that’s their problem.

I rip off my shirt and dive into the pool trying to minimize the time in which people could see me without it. Immediately finding Steve’s legs I yank his ankles so he falls backwards into the water with an unnecessarily loud screech.

It makes the rest of us laugh loudly until Steve comes back up for air with a thirst for vengeance. He chases me around the pool, not for long considering he’s such a strong swimmer and I’m really not trying very hard to get away from him, and catches me easily. His arms wrap around my waist and I cringe as his hands nudge my stomach, scolding myself for the action right after. Steve doesn’t care about my stomach, if he did, he wouldn’t be my friend.

“That really wasn’t very nice,” Steve says and starts lifting me out of the water.

“Steve, hey. Steve! Steve, no, I’m too heavy! Stevie, no! Bad Stevie! Bad!”

I’m thrown in the air as far as he can get me and I splash back down.

I come up spluttering for breath, “Oh, you are so dead, Harrington!”

All at once the rest of us are splashing and dunking him over and over, until he pleads mercy. Shrieks and squeals of glee and what might be considered laughter fill the air as everyone gets their turn being thrown into the water.

Eddie comes back out from the house and cannonballs in the middle of our ‘hate on Steve’ fest.

Eventually I end up back on the side of the pool in my shirt with just my feet in, this time so I can enjoy a fresh soda and mellow out a little, not to make myself smaller. Nancy and Jonathan have called it a night already, leaving Steve, Eddie, and Robin in or by the pool with me.

“I never noticed this scar? Where did you get it?” Robin points to my knee.

The nice old librarian put a hand on my shoulder gently to get my attention, telling me the library would be closing soon and it was best I head home, I hadn’t realized how late it already was. I pack everything together as fast as I can, quickly saying goodnight and unlocking my bike, trying my hardest to race home before the sun sets.

The wheels of my rickety bicycle pump faster and faster and in my haste I bump over a high curb without realizing, flying off and onto the pavement.

Tears spring to my eyes as air is sucked in through my teeth. I take a look at my knee and see a small dribble of blood seeping down it, my hands have little scrapes all over, spotted with little beads of red.

Not the worst I could have gotten from a bike incident, but bad enough to keep me from being able to ride the rest of the way home. It’s not far, but so much for getting back before the street lights turn on.

About 15 minutes later I make it into our backyard, dropping the two wheeled contraption from hell into the grass and stumbling through the door, all while sniffling back sobs.

“Oh hey, shortcake! James was starting to get worried about you, you really shouldn’t walk alone at night yanno? Next time ju-” Eddie cuts himself off after seeing the state I’m in. Of course he had to be the one to see me like this. Anyone else could have been sent on snack duty tonight, but it just had to be him.

“Oh my god, what happened?” He walks up to me.

I shrug my shoulders and look away. I catch a glimpse of how bad my knees and hands have gotten on the walk home. Blood drips down both knees, my left knee looking significantly worse than the right. Dirt and pebbles cover my palms along with streaks of crimson.

“Don’t do that, sweetheart. Tell me what happened? Please?”

I still don’t say anything, fresh, hot tears welling up and already spilling out. I refuse to let stupid Eddie Munson see me like this, all it would be is more leverage to make fun of me with.

He pulls my hand gently until I’m sitting down. Eddie appears in front of me with a first aid kit a few seconds later, carefully cleaning the gashes on my knees and scrapes on my hands with alcohol wipes.

“Did,” he lets out a shuddering breath, “Did someone hurt you?”

“No, god no Eddie, I just-, god this is so embarrassing, I just fell off of my bike is all,” I mutter, not really wanting him to hear the words as they come out.

“S’ not embarrassing, stuff like that happens. I just wish you would have told me, here I was thinking the boys and I were going to have to band together to cause hell for our favorite little goblin,” he says.

“You’re just trying to make me feel better, you guys wouldn’t really do that, I guess James might. Most of you guys don’t even really like me that much anyway, you don’t have to lie,” I whisper.

“That’s not true! Of course we would stick up for you!” he says like he’s shocked that I would think the opposite.

I just shrug my shoulders again and wipe my eyes, still avoiding looking him in the face.

“Here, let me help you up to your room. That can’t feel good to walk on,” he pulls me up from the chair and goes to lift me into his arms. I jump out of his reach before he can.

“It’s okay, I got it. Just- you better get back downstairs before they start worrying. I’ll take care of myself.”

“What? No, you’re basically limping just standing here, shortcake, let me carry you, it’ll only take a minute?” He phrases it like a question. Asking but also sort of demanding.

The idea is actually really nice, and I want to say yes to it. It would be like when the prince finally gets the princess in all those books I’ve read. Eddie could sweep me off of my feet and whisk me away.

But I know better, I know that he wouldn’t be able to lift me. Even if he could he wouldn’t so much as glance at me, again, I’m just his friend's little sister. Here only because this is where she lives.

“No thank you, I’m okay. Go ahead and go back to your game, I’m sure they miss you already. Nobody would even notice if I were gone, but they’ll practically riot without you,” I try to cover how deeply I believe those words with a laugh as I wobble away and halfway up the stairs before he can stop me.

“Um, I guess I don’t really remember. It’s probably just one of those super old scars you forget are even there,” I say, even though I recall the night I got it vividly.

Eddie’s eyes meet mine from the other side of the pool and they look almost…hurt at the possibility that I might not remember that day. Well, he didn’t get to feel hurt about it. He made it clear that he doesn’t care how I feel when we were in the upside down.

“Hmmm, yeah, I have, like, tons of those actually,” Robin says, “This one is from my cat, Steven, and this one-”

“You have a cat named Steven?” I cut her off. She gives me a look that says ‘duh’.

“But what about Steve? Like human Steve? Was this before or after you became friends? And how has this never come up before?” I practically shriek.

“Believe me, it has come up before. And yes, before she tells you otherwise, it was after we became friends,” Steve says, settling down beside me while throwing his arm around my shoulders.

“That is not true! I found him outside the mall before we became friends! We may have been working together at that point, but we were not friends yet!” Robin shouts.

“We were friends, she’s just embarrassed that she named her cat after me,” Steve whispers in my ear, making me giggle like a schoolgirl.

Even though I’ve never seen Steve romantically, he still had the ability to reduce me to feet kicking and hair twirling.

“What’s wrong with you, Munson?” Steve asks, noticing the scowl covering his face that usually carries a bright smile.

Eddie shakes his head, “Nothing man, just thinking about how I don’t have a beer in my hand right now.”

A call of my name breaks my gaze away from the mirror.

“You almost ready? It’s time to go!” James yells, entering my room. “Hey! You look great! It almost feels like I’m sending you off to prom already,” he says wiping fake tears from his cheeks.

I shove him in the chest and readjust my hair and the straps to my dress for what feels like the millionth time. It was a rather simple looking thing considering I had to sew it myself since the only dresses even near my size were too far out of theme for the 8th grade Winter Snowball or they were simply just ugly.

Light blue and white fabric lays delicately across my shoulders and down to my knees, matched with white slip on shoes and silver snowflake jewelry.

“You look really nice, seriously. I know how nervous you are, but it’s gonna be okay, I promise,” my brother assures me, slapping my shoulder much harder than necessary to push me towards the door, “Now it’s time to get your butt moving, let’s go!”

When we arrive at the dance I immediately catch eyes with Robin and speed walk to her. James goes wherever he's needed for volunteering.

After about 45 minutes the first slow song of the night comes on as I sit contently by myself at the far end of the bleachers. I wasn’t sad to not be dancing with anyone, I was honestly sort of relieved that I hadn’t had to dance all night. But watching all the couples on the dance floor does make my heart ache just a little.

“I haven’t seen you dance all night, what’s that about?”

“Why are you here?”

“Ouch, shortcake, I don’t even get a hello? And what, I can’t come volunteer with your brother?” Eddie says, fake hurt painting his face.

“It just doesn’t seem like you, I guess.”

He sits down next to me leaving at least enough room for another person to sit between us. He hands me an unopened juice box.

“Seriously though, why aren’t you out there? You don’t have someone you wanna get cozied up with on the dancefloor?” He wiggles his eyebrows at me in his typical annoying Eddie way.

I roll my eyes, as my stomach twists with shame. He’s mocking me, isn’t he?

“Nope. I’m okay with it though. Honestly I was perfectly happy just sitting here. Until you showed up that is,” I say with a shrug.

“Oh really? Well, gosh, who made you such a sour fart?” he laughs as I push him in the arm.

“Alright, c’mon then. Pity party is over, let's go do this,” Eddie holds out his hand and raises a brow when all I do is look at it confused. “Let’s go dance, shortcake, you should at least once before it’s over.”

“Um- I-” I’m at a loss for words. There’s no way he’s being anything but friendly but my stupid heart skips too many beats to count.

“Here, I need to go check on James and see how the other volunteers are doing. While I take care of that, I want you to sit here and decide if you want to dance with me or not. Of course, I won’t make you do anything you don’t wanna, but if you’re up for it, I’m here,” he says, bouncing back to the drinks and snacks table. I smile giddily at his back and stay sitting.

By the time the last song of the night played I was still in the exact same spot I had been for nearly 2 hours, waiting for Eddie to come back.

Immediately after he left, I knew I wanted to dance with him. Of course I would. I’ve known him since I was in 4th grade and have had a crush on him for a year now. All I had to do was wait a few minutes and I would get to live out a fairytale dream. Dancing across the room in a flowey dress with the guy I liked. Of course it would be strictly platonic on his end but it could mean something more to me silently.

So there I sat, with my empty juice box, tapping my foot in excitement. The first slow song ended and there was no sign of Eddie, but I was sure he just caught up with volunteer work. After the next 3 songs played I began to doubt myself slightly.

‘Maybe he hadn’t actually wanted to dance like it had seemed. But he looked really sincere when asking me. Yeah. And even if Eddie is just a regular teenage boy, and he can definitely be a jerk sometimes, he’s much sweeter and kinder than most. He wouldn’t leave me hanging like that. He’ll be back any minute now, I’m sure.’

By the time 11 more songs had played, I knew he wasn’t coming back. Tears were smearing my mascara while I sat as still as possible on the bleachers, not wanting to draw any attention to myself.

Of course he wasn’t being serious. He just wanted to tease me like usual, the only difference was this time it went too far. This time he was cruel about it. He could have just told me he didn’t mean it. Instead he strung me along and had me sitting here like a lovesick puppy for an hour straight.

Who was I kidding? Eddie couldn’t be interested in me. He was my brother's best friend and had seen me grow up. I was just his friend’s chubby little sister. Wearing a dress that doesn’t sparkle and shine like all the others’, sitting alone and pouting like a baby.

He probably thought I would crush his feet if I accidentally stepped on them.

After persevering through another hour of horror, James finds me in my corner ready to head home.

“All ready to go?” he asks jovially like he always seems to be.

“Yes.”

James picks up on my mood right away, but I’m already halfway to the car before he can say anything.

“Okay, uh, I gotta clean up some stuff still but here,” he throws me his car keys when I turn back around, “Go get the car started yeah?”

I nod and head out to the car when I see Eddie jogging up to the doors after me. My steps speed up hoping for all hell to avoid him. He calls my name but I don’t look back or slow down, in fact, the only thing it succeeds in doing is making me walk faster.

My hands shake as I try to slip the key into the driver’s side door handle. Warm hands settle on my wrists.

“Holy shit, I am so sorry, shortcake. I was so excited to dance with you, I really was, I just got caught up in helping another volunteer with something and lost track of time. I didn’t mean to forget you there all alone, I swear on everything. I know how excited you were for tonight and I am so sorry. I didn’t realize how long I had been gone until everyone started leaving and then I saw you get up and realized what I’d done, please forgive me,” he rambles off almost too quickly to understand.

I expect tears but all I get is a deep rooted feeling of shame and anger. Ashamed by the fact that I thought he would come back and angry at myself for sitting there hopelessly when I could’ve danced with Robin at least.

“Please, look at me. Please tell me you at least got to dance with someone else, right? You had a good time? Please tell me you at least had fun,” he pleads.

A scoff escapes me as I whirl on him.

“No, I didn’t dance with someone else, I sat there and I waited for you. I waited for you the whole time, and I guess that was my first mistake wasn’t it, huh? I believed you. I really thought you meant what you said to me.”

I rip my arms out of hold.

“You know what’s funny, too? I was actually having a really good time before you showed up. I told you as much earlier, even. I was perfectly happy to sit by myself, considering that’s how I spend most of my time anyway. I was really enjoying just watching the lights and the twirl of dresses, alone. I was overjoyed to just sit and watch Robin dance with her friends. And you had to come and- and lie to me! You made me feel special for fuck’s sake.”

His eyes flash with guilt and he must have finally realized how much he hurt me.

“I get that I’m not the prettiest and skinniest girl and I know that most of those kids don’t even know my name, but you do! You know me. You know me and you still forgot about me,” I pause and take a deep breath, “Do you remember what I said that night when I fell off my bike?”

Eddie shakes his head.

“Nobody would even notice if I were gone. Nobody, not even you, I guess. You forgot about me not even 5 minutes after making me feel like the most special girl in that whole damn room. And that was really mean, Eddie. I hope you, at least, have a good rest of your night,” I step into the car and start the engine.

Steve plops down next to me holding 4 cans of beer, one for each of us.

“I’m really happy I came tonight, thank you, for inviting me and not forgetting about me after I kinda disappeared,” I say quietly.

Steve pats my back while Robin says something along the lines of ‘duh, of course we would never forget about you.’

Eddie stays silent, watching me closely.

I put my drink on the ground beside me and lay on my back, pulling my shirt down to make sure it covers me still. I start to count the stars, just to keep my brain occupied. My eyes drift shut, my mind choosing to visit yet another memory tonight.

It was James’ graduation party. All we had were a couple tables set up with snacks in the backyard and a bonfire, nothing too fancy. I made a simple ‘Happy Graduation!’ banner to hang across the gate for everyone to see, too.

I’m wearing a plain white sundress and converse, I knew I would be running back and forth from the backyard and the kitchen too much for heels to be sensible. Making sure there’s enough drinks and food and ice for everyone was my job tonight. The sun is still up, melting the ice and warming every drink out here.

James calls my name softly, “You can quit running around and tending to every little need. Come hang out with everyone for a little bit. Please?”

I set down the metal tub where drinks are kept and walk over to sit around the fire with him and his usual friends. New faces have popped up over the years, but many stayed the same. Danny Williams, a junior who may or may not have been my first kiss when we happened to both show up at the same party and ended up playing spin the bottle together, Jason Carver, a freshman who appeared promising on the football team before switching to basketball instead, Michael Brown, a senior who’s been in the little Hellfire Group since the beginning. There are several others I don’t recognize and even more that I do.

Of course, Eddie is there too. I just haven’t really…acknowledged him in…in a really long time.

I haven’t necessarily been giving him the silent treatment, but I stopped entertaining the conversations he always seemed to start with me.

Danny greets me with a smile as he sits down next to me. He even pulls his lawn chair a little closer towards mine, grinning slightly while doing so.

“What can I do for you Danny?” I say.

“Oh nothing. I just wanted to come sit by you, is all.” Huh. That…that sort of stumps me.

I didn’t think Danny would even recognize me at the party, and I’m honestly even more surprised that he wanted to talk to me after kissing me. We make small conversation, butting into the rest of the group's discussion once in a while to add an opinion.

Night had fallen and marshmallows and graham crackers were brought out for s'mores, as well as a couple of 12 packs of beer that someone had brought with them.

I knew James had gone to several parties to celebrate winning a football game where there had been alcohol, or even just little get-togethers where it was provided. I guess now that it was only soon-to-be seniors and high school graduates, minus myself, left at the party it was time for that portion of the night to begin.

I stand up to go in and let the others have their fun.

“Where’re you going?” Danny asks, grabbing my hand lightly, looking up with wide puppy dog eyes. His eyes are a pretty green color. Brown eyes have always been my favorite, though.

“Oh, I was just going to head in and call it a night. That way you all could have your fun without worrying about me dragging you down.”

My comment makes his brows furrow, his mouth opens to say something, but he’s cut off.

“You can stay out here, you know. No one minds having you here and I’m sure dear old James doesn’t care if you partake in a little drink, do you?” Eddie states. When did he get so close to us?

“Even if I did care she gets to do what she wants, man. As long as you're safe about it, go for it,” James says, patting my back and taking one for himself.

I’ve never drank before, but what the hell? James was leaving in just a few weeks now and this might be my only chance to try it. It’s certainly one of my last chances to hang out with everyone like this, at least for a while.

After just 2 cans my tongue had already loosened significantly. Danny and I had been talking and giggling the whole time until he had gotten up to go home since his designated driver was ready to leave.

“So, you and Danny seem pretty close suddenly?” Eddie phrases it like a question, wanting more information on the subject.

Usually I would just hum in what could be taken as agreement or disinterest but my mind was running a little slower than normal.

“Yeah, he and I kinda ran into each other at a party that I kinda crashed with Robin and we ended up, like, kissing and stuff,” I giggled. “But shhhh, don’t tell anyone else.”

Eddie’s eyes widened, but that could have been a trick of the light.

“What, uh, what do you mean by ‘and stuff’?”

“Oh nothing. We just had one teensy tiny kiss because we were playing spin the bottle,” I say, not really thinking about it.

Now I really know my brain is playing tricks on me because for a second I think Eddie looks pleased with this new knowledge that it didn’t really mean anything.

“I feel like we haven’t really talked in a long time. What’s, uh, what’s been up, lately?”

The question itself is awkward, but the way he struggled through it made it even more awkward.

“I’ve been regular old me, Eddie. Nothing new or exciting. Although I did finish a book last night that really threw me through a loop. Oh! Actually there is something exciting! Do you wanna hear it?”

He smiles, “Of course I do, shortcake.”

“Well,” I take another sip of what is now my third beer, “William Gillar and Stacy Johnson have finally graduated!” I let out a squeal.

Eddie just looks at me confused.

“Do you have any idea what this means, Eds? I am finally free of those two asshats for the rest of my high school experience! Isn’t that amazing! I mean, it was easier to ignore this year than last year, but god I am so thrilled! No more mean notes from them calling me a pig in my locker and book bag, I can even finally find a table to sit at for lunch instead of hiding in Mr. Steerwell’s class,” I sigh happily.

“Do you wanna know what else they did? This is so silly! They used to catch me on my walk home from school and steal my library books. How stupid is that? Why would you steal someone’s library books, right? They would run around with it so I would chase after them and then laugh at how my body would jiggle. How funny, right? I am so happy they’re gone, Eds, you have no idea.”

Eddie has his mouth halfway open, anger flaring in his eyes. But that couldn’t be right, why would he care about a couple of high school bullies.

“No, that’s not funny or silly. That’s been going on this whole time? And you didn’t tell anyone? God, why wouldn’t you tell someone, sweetheart? That’s horrible,” he says.

“Meh, it’s just normal high school bully stuff.” I wave my hand in dismissal.

“No, it’s not. Bullying shouldn’t even be considered normal anyway, but what they did to you? That goes far beyond normal, shortcake. I wish you would have said something. You know James and I would’ve taken care of them for you, right?”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter now, does it. It’s too late,” I dismiss him and his misplaced worry. Honestly, it was nothing I couldn’t handle. He must have sensed how much I didn’t want to talk about it anymore because he dropped it.

The night moves quickly after that, people say their goodbyes as James takes over clean up duty, considering I can barely stand up without nearly falling asleep.

“Eddie, will you take her in and make sure she gets into bed okay?” James asks.

That’s how I find myself being semi-dragged up the stairs to my bedroom and thrown on the mattress like a sack of potatoes. I don’t think Eddie was half as rough as my brain made it seem, to be honest.

“Eds?” I whisper looking down at Eddie who’s kneeling by feet, gently taking my shoes off.

“Yeah?”

A couple beats of silence pass where I try to figure out how to word what I’m thinking.

“I forgive you.” His movements stop. “I hope you know that. It’s probably such a silly little thing to even remember but I forgive you for forgetting to dance with me. I probably would have forgotten me, too. And…and I am sorry. I really am, for pushing you away so hard after. It was really stupid of me and I wish I hadn’t. Robin is a good friend, but you’re kind of the closest thing I’ve ever had to a best friend, I think. And I threw that all away over hurt feelings. Puberty, am I right?” I giggle.

“S’ not silly to remember that. And you weren’t being stupid, sweetheart. You were hurt, you were protecting yourself and I don’t blame you for that. I should never have even walked away from you that night, but I did. And I don’t deserve your forgiveness for it,” Eddie says.

More words mumble out of his mouth but none of it registers. Soon the noise stops and I feel Eddie’s warm hands pull my shoes all the way off, pushing my legs onto the bed and turning me to lay comfortably on my stomach.

He must remember that’s my favorite way to sleep.

My mind must really hate me because I swear, right before I fall asleep, I feel lips pressing gently to my forehead while a guitar calloused hand pushes hair away from my eyes.

Of course, that didn’t actually happen because that’s not something Eddie would do. Right? Yeah, he wouldn’t…

A timid shake to my shoulder pulls me from my dozing.

“Hey, shortcake, it’s time for you to go in.”

There’s only one person who’s ever called me by that nickname.

“Hm, it’s been a while since you’ve called me that…Eds.”

I don’t know what made me decide to use his nickname. It never seemed right to use it after we drifted so far apart when James left.

Eddie helps pull me to my feet.

‘Hmmm, he’s always been a lot stronger than he looks. I barely even lifted myself up for him.’

“Oh, now you wanna be all friendly again? Using a nickname and everything? What’s this all about, huh?” Eddie says, steadying me with his calloused hands when my legs wobble.

My brows furrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Earlier, when we were in the house. You practically ran away from me. I mean, it’s just that we…we haven’t seen each other since we went into the upside down. I thought maybe,” he lets out a long breath. “Maybe things had changed or something, I guess. I was hoping we could talk about it after we all got out but you’ve been avoiding everyone.”

“And why is that? Why do you think things would have changed Eddie?”

“No! No, no, no! Edward Munson, if you cut that rope, so help me god!”

“You know I always love when you use my full name.”

And the bastard cuts the rope.

The next thing I know, he’s out of the trailer doing something entirely too heroic and the exact amount of stupid he always is.

Before I can think I shove Dustin out of the trailer, the one not in the upside down, and send him to go help Lucas.

“No! We need to help him! Can’t you see that he needs help!”

“I know Dustin, I know. That’s why I’m staying here. But I need you to go find Lucas and Erica and check on Max. There are others who still need our help, Henderson. Please, listen to me and go help them.”

I turn back into the trailer before he can disagree again, locking the door to make sure he doesn’t follow. Without second guessing, I jump through the portal, landing somewhat safely on my side.

I manage to find a bike and just a few minutes later I’m riding as fast as I can towards the bat tornado that Eddie stands in the middle of.

“Eddie you dumb jerk, you better not be getting yourself killed!” I scream at the top of my lungs. His eyes catch mine as a look of horror crosses his face.

“Why the hell did you follow me? I specifically told you not to!”

“Yeah, well I specifically told you not to cut the rope!”

We fight off the bats as best we can until they all suddenly drop to the ground.

Eddie and I stand breathing hard, our brains trying to catch up with all of what just happened. Eddie turns to me, a grin beginning to form.

I punch him as hard as I can in the chest. And then I do it again, and then again and again, until I’m pounding my fists against his chest over and over again.

“What the hell?! Honey, stop, you’re gonna hurt yourself!”

I choke on hiccupping sobs as hot tears overflow past my lashes.

“Don’t you ever do something like that again! Ever!”

Eddie grabs my wrists to keep me from hitting him anymore. I keep trying until I realize his hold on me is too strong.

“Princess, you gotta stop. I don’t want to see you hurt anymore, please stop.”

He wraps his arms around me, stroking the back of my hair, pressing soft kisses to my forehead.

“It’s okay, sweetheart, it’s okay. We’re okay, I promise.”

“That was not okay, Eddie. Not okay!” I tell him looking up into his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I really am. But look, we did it!”

He looks down at me thoughtfully. His eyes flit down to my lips. My breath catches.

He couldn’t possibly be…

His lips are on mine. And Eddie Munson is kissing me.

Both of his hands are on the side of my face, rubbing his thumbs softly across the apples of my chubby cheeks.

I pull away, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Kissing my shortcake,” he says with a smirk while I grimace at the phrase. He laughs at the face I make and kisses me again.

I kiss back harder this time, getting lost in all things Eddie. The way his hair feels soft even despite being so dirty. His lips are somehow minty. He smells like smoke and old books.

My heart soars. This has to be proof, then. Eddie must think of me the way I think of him. I can’t imagine ever kissing someone with this much passion if it didn’t mean something more. I smile into the kiss.

Footsteps sound behind where we stand and Eddie pushes me off of him, placing several feet between us. I look at him confused and hurt by his sudden change in behavior. He refuses to meet my eyes. He even wipes the back of his hand across his mouth, looking straight ahead at Steve, Robin and Nancy appearing in front of us.

Oh.

He’s too embarrassed to let his new friends see him with the big girl? Is that what it is? Does he suddenly regret kissing me? Was it just a heat of the moment type of deal, then? I was the closest human thing, so he settled on me for a little ‘yay the world didn’t end’ kiss?

In my whole life, I don’t think anything has hurt as much as that did.

An uncomfortable amount of silence fills the air..

“Things got weird after James left, but you know that. We both felt it, even though we tried to ignore it. Jason started to act like he ran the damn school even though we were friends at one point. I never saw you because we were never at your house anymore. Then I got held back and we basically had every class together. Then I got held back again and you graduated. I missed you. I really, really missed you,” he says the last part quietly. Almost like he was afraid for me to hear it. I hold back a scoff.

“I missed you so much, it’s ridiculous. I just wanted my shortcake back. My sweetheart, my princess, my honey,” he laughs to himself, I stay quiet. “God, I was such a jerk to you growing up. And not because ‘I had a crush on you’ because that’s bullshit, guys shouldn’t be allowed to be mean to girls with the excuse of it being ‘romantic’. I wish I had treated you better, been a little friendlier. I never realized how much you meant to me until your brother’s graduation.”

He takes his eyes away from his feet to glance at me.

“Do you remember that night? It was your first time drinking and you got so sleepy I had to tuck you into bed. You had told me about you and Danny at that party and it made me jealous. I’d never really felt jealous before, certainly not like that at least. It made me realize how deep my feelings for you went.”

I remain silent, partly because I didn’t want to interrupt him when this is the most honest and vulnerable he’s ever been, out of respect, and partly because I was utterly confused and angered by what he was saying and claiming.

“You forgave me for leaving you alone at the dance, even though I never deserved to be forgiven for that. I didn’t even know how badly you were being bullied at school until you told me, that’s not a person who deserves to be forgiven.”

A soft laugh and a pause. “I guess what I’m saying is…is I wish things had, in fact, changed after Vecna. And I know, that’s probably not something you want to hear because I know it’s not the same for you but I figure if you’re not gonna talk to me anyway, I may as well tell you, right?”

He takes a step towards the house but I don’t let him get far.

“What do you mean it’s ‘not the same for me’?”

“Well obviously you’ve been ignoring me since I kissed you so, clearly it wasn’t something you wanted.” He shrugs his shoulders. “And that’s okay. I’m not saying you have to be with me or anything, I’m just saying…I don’t know what I’m saying.”

“I’ve been ignoring you?” I ask, dumbfounded by his idiocy.

“Well, yeah. You haven’t even been answering the walkie.”

“And you think that was because I didn’t want to kiss you? Not because, oh, I don’t know, maybe the fact that the second Nance and the others showed up you shoved me away from you? It couldn’t have been because it was obvious you couldn’t stand the thought of being seen with me?”

Eddie’s face drains of color.

“I can’t help but see now that this is all you think I deserve. A quick kiss when no one can see, right? A little making out before someone can figure who you’re with, huh?”

“No! That is not at all what that was! I can’t believe you would think that. I pushed you away so you wouldn’t be seen with me!” he shouts, cutting me off.

“What?”

“The whole town wanted me for murder! Murder! They thought I was running a cult that killed my friend as a sacrifice! My friend! I didn’t want you to be tied to that anymore than you already were, so I pushed you off before the others could see. If someone, somehow went yapping about a girlfriend of mine and things went sideways when we got out of the upside down, you might have gone down with me and I couldn’t let that happen. I just couldn’t. I was going to tell you all of this as soon as I could but you never let me get the chance, and I see why now. I am so sorry it looked like I was embarrassed to be with you, but that will never be the case with me.”

He takes my face in his hands and looks me directly in the eyes.

“You are single-handedly the most beautiful person I have ever met. Inside and out. You have always cared for me and the old Hellfire Club. Don’t think I didn’t know it was you sending cookies on our campaign nights, even after graduating. I remember when I showed up at your house looking for James because some older kids had taken my lunch money in middle school, little you went after them yourself and did one helluva job doing it. You sat me down and cleaned me up. Gave me peas to put on my forehead.”

It was like a forgotten memory was just pulled up by his words, I did remember that.

“I could never be embarrassed by you, ever. I don’t care what people think. I…I love you. And I love your hair, and I love your eyes, and I love your laugh, and I love your stomach and your thighs, and I love your mind. I love you and I hope you can see it. I hope…I hope you can see me,” he finishes off in a very quiet whisper, tilting his head down and away from my eyes.

I place my hands over his that still hold my face.

“I have always seen you, Eddie Munson. Always.”

His head jolts up to look me in the eyes once more.

“God, Eddie, I’m so sorry. I know you’re not a horrible person, I should have known, I’m so sorry. God, you were literally being hunted for murder and I was crying about you being embarrassed by me? I’m so fucking sorry.”

I shake my head and take a deep breath.

“I love you, I have for so long. I love the way you smile, I love the way you’re not afraid to take up space, I love the way you’re there for Dustin, the way you were there for me countless times. I love you and your horrible music.”

“Hey, now. Watch it.”

I laugh, “I love you and I see you and I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re forgiven, I promise. You didn’t even really need to apologize in the first place.”

“Yes, I did. Because none of that was fair to you.”

“And none of that was fair to you, shortcake. It’s okay.”

I look at his lips, and that’s all the cue Eddie needs to kiss me. Finally. We put our hearts into it, getting lost in each other. Getting lost in our sudden understandings of the other.

“We’re both really kinda stupid aren’t we? Stupid and oblivious,” I say, chuckling quietly.

“Oh, definitely. I mean, we’ve known each other for, what, at least ten years and we couldn’t figure this out without a bunch of drama?”

“It seems very on brand for you actually, you’ve always been one for the dramatics.”

“I love you.”

“And I love you.”

#eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x chubby reader #eddie munson x plus size reader #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #stranger things #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson angst #my boyfriend eddie #my writing

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theminecraftbee · 7 months

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Hi. 3rd life looks super interesting, but I don't know where to start. Do you have any recommendations on how to watch it?

certainly! the good news is, compared to a lot of mcyt, third life is fairly short! the original 3rd life is only eight episodes by most povs, with last life being eight or nine, double life normally only being six-ish, and limited life being about eight, meaning that if you wanted to watch one player's playthrough of every season, that's still only thirty episodes. that's like... getting into one network tv show before the netflix model took over!

so, i guess my advice is just to pick someone's pov and watch it!

the players who have been in every season are grian, inthelittlewood, smajor1995, goodtimeswithscar, smallishbeans, zombiecleo, bdoubleo100, bigbst4tz2, impulsesv, tangotek, ethoslab, and solidarity. skizzleman was in every season but double life, pearlescentmoon was in every season but third life, rendog was in every season but limited life, and mumbo jumbo and ldshadowlady were only in last life.

if instead of watching one guy as a single continuity, you want to watch the "best" pov for each season, that's going to be subjective. i'd say grian or inthelittlewood for 3rd life, zombiecleo or smajor for last life, zombiecleo or pearlescentmoon for double life, and inthelittlewood or zombiecleo for limited life... but as you can tell, i have a bias towards a very specific player, haha. in reality, you can probably choose whatever pov you want and have a good time, and other fans will have a different opinion about the best povs! and then, if after you watch that pov, you have questions about what other players are doing elsewhere on the map, you can go watch that guy's pov! that's how i normally approach it, at least.

each series mostly stands alone; while the fans like making connections between series, and there are running bits of continuity, you could easily, say, decide the gimmick of double life appeals to you, but you aren't interested in watching any of the series that came before it, and you'd probably end up fine. many new fans join on when the new series starts! if you are interested, in fact, the players have been hinting at the next one starting sometime soon, although we don't have any kind of date yet. when that starts, starting with episode one of whatever that one ends up being called is as good a starting point as any!

finally, you may have noticed some of the players have videos titled stuff like "3rd life: the movie" on their channel. these are, as far as i'm aware, exactly the same as the contents for their series, just edited together as one big long video instead of a series of videos. the one exception to this is bdoubleo100, who was in limited life but didn't put out episodes as it aired, instead releasing all of his footage only recently as one long video. it's up to you whether you prefer to watch the series as a series of episodes or as a long episode, if you choose one of the povs who put out videos like that!

so yeah! there is my list of advice for getting into the life series. hopefully this is helpful and not just a block of text!

#answered

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bree-cheesy · 1 year

Text

Just You... (Modern! AU)

A/N: So this fic was kind of rushed, but I still sort of like it. It’s a friends to lovers trope because that’s my favorite and I will probably write it a lot sooooooo....

Eddie Munson! x fem!bestfriend reader

Credit to @nicostiel for the gif!!! (I love it too much)

Warnings: SMUT 18+ MINORS DNI!!! (kissing, light humping, nipple play, oral f receiving, unprotected p in v sex (reader is implied to be on birth control.) dirty talk, fingering, 2 reader orgasms) Angst, but fluffy at the end. Eddie is kind of a dick and the reader overreacts a little. Eddie gets in a physical fight so assault I guess. Let me know if I missed anything.

Word Count: 2,862

Side note: I am still very new to this so please go easy on me 😭😭

______________________________________________________________

Eddie Munson. Boy do you know too much about this man. He’s been your best friend since you were in 8th grade. You were neighbors and heard him playing his guitar often from your window at night. Your cat had run out of the house and you were out looking for him when you saw Eddie playing with him on his porch. That’s how you met. For you, it was love at first sight. You were absolutely head over heels for this man. Sure, other boys had been in your life, but none of them made you feel the way Eddie made you feel. It was almost suffocating. It felt like too much being around him so much. You were now in your senior year of High School and Eddie was in his 3rd senior year. Ever since Dustin Henderson, Mike Wheeler, and Lucas Sinclair all joined Hellfire, you’ve felt Eddie hasn’t been paying any attention to you. He doesn’t talk to you much anymore and you guys don’t do your Friday movie nights anymore.

When getting ready for school you decided to wear something you usually didn’t wear. A short black leather skirt, a tight Iron Maiden shirt, fishnets, and some black boots. You wanted to get Eddie’s attention and this was your last resort. Your phone was buzzing off the hook with texts from Jack Denver. He was on the football team and you two had been talking recently. He was picking you up. You quickly left the house and got in his car before he drove off. He parked and you saw Eddie next to his van, snuffing a cigarette out on the ground with his boot. You got out of the car after Jake came around and opened your door. He kept a hand on your back and you glanced over at Eddie who was staring at you two, slack jawed.

“You still hang out with Munson? He’s looking at you like you’re a piece of meat.” Jake mumbled.

You shrugged and leaned into Jake a little more. “Yeah, we’re still friends. Don’t really hang out much anymore. More just sit with each other at lunch. I let him copy off my math homework.” You smiled a little to yourself at the memory of Eddie coming to you desperate so he could actually pass math class this semester. Eddie was walking a ways behind you and Jake and you noticed him.

You kept your head down and walked into the school. At lunch you made your way to Eddie’s table and sat down in your spot next to him. He didn’t even so much as look at you

You sighed and laid your cheek on your palm as you ate, feeling hopeless.

“Hey Y/N, what was up with you walking in with Jake Denver? Thought we hated him?” Mike looked straight at you from across the table. You shrugged and played around with your food. “He offered me a ride to school. Someone didn’t answer my texts….” You threw a dirty look at Eddie and he just rolled his eyes.

“I would’ve given you a ride.” Jeff looked at you. “Don’t count on Eddie. He’s an asshole.”

Eddie slammed his lunch box shut and wiped the crumbs off his hand with his jacket. “The campaign tonight. You’re all going to be there, right?” He looked around the table, everyone nodding except for you. He stared at you. “You better be nodding, princess.”

You glanced up at him and flicked a peanut at his face. “I’m busy. Made plans.” You mumbled, shoving a chip in your mouth.

“You made plans? We’ve been planning the end of this campaign for months!” Eddie stood up, slamming his palms on the table. “Suddenly you’re busy!? You’ve had tonight marked on your calendar since the start!”

You looked up at him and just blinked, shrugging your shoulders and wiping a crumb from the corner of your lip. “You guys will be fine without me. Plus, doesn’t Lucas’ sister play? Have her fill in for me.” Your phone buzzed with a text from Jake and you smiled at it while responding.

Eddie scoffed and sat down. “This is unbelievable. Can’t believe you’re ditching us for a fucking football player.” He shook his head and you stood up suddenly, not wanting to deal with his shit anymore.

“Ya know what, fuck you, Eddie Munson. For once in my godforsaken life I am happy and you just want to turn it around and make it all about you. Fuck you!” You grabbed your lunch and stormed off, not wanting to be around any of them anymore. You went into the bathroom and looked at yourself in the mirror, willing your tears to stay in. A few deep breaths later and the bell to go to class rang.

Later that night you were laying in bed. Jake had canceled on you and now you were stuck home alone. Your Hellfire group chat was going crazy with texts, but you hadn’t read any of them. You were too pissed off at Eddie. He never said one thing about how you looked today, just constant berating. He kept trying to apologize in English, but you weren’t having any of it. The texts stopped and you sighed, finally willing yourself to look at them. Eddie canceled the campaign. You were surprised, he never canceled. You were doing homework and listening to music when something started tapping against your window. You tried to ignore it, but it just got louder and louder. You groaned and stood up to look out the window and saw a figure. You squinted and realized it was Eddie. You opened your window.

“Eddie, what the hell are you doing here? My dad will kill you!” He jogged up to the window and climbed inside like he used to do almost every night and hit the ground with a loud thud. You just sighed and shut the window. He quickly stood up. “You better be quiet. My dad is still mad about the time he caught you in here before.” You sat down on your bed and continued to work on your laptop.

“Are we going to talk about what happened at lunch?” He tucked his hands into his pockets and looked at you. “Look, I know I’ve been a jackass recently and probably don’t deserve any ounce of attention from you, but I just want to explain myself.”

You looked up at him and nervously chewed on your bottom lip. “Okay….?” He sighed and sat down next to you on the bed, kicking his shoes off because he knew you’d yell at him for putting them on your clean sheets.

“Look, I’ve been seeing you around with that Denver kid and I’ve been jealous. I’ve been worried that he’s taking you from me. I was trying to push you away so maybe you’d see that….. I miss you. You’re my best friend, princess and I don’t want someone like Jake Denver to take you away from me.” He looked at you and sighed. “I realize now that that was the opposite thing I should’ve done. I should’ve just talked to you, but I was afraid. Afraid some of the feelings I’ve been pushing down were gonna come bubbling up.”

You were quiet for a moment. You didn’t know what to say. Eddie was usually so carefree and worry free. Hearing him say something like this broke your heart. You were worried he thought you hated him.

“Eddie, I’m not mad at you.” He let out a breath and flopped on the bed. “I was just worried you didn’t like me anymore. I thought after Lucas, Mike, and Dustin joined you were sick of little ol’ me.”

He chuckled and tilted his head back to look at you. “Princess, I could never be sick of you.” You blushed and looked away.

He grinned when he saw the pink tint on your cheeks. “Princess, did I make you blush?” He sat up, suddenly excited. “Better tell me now, or I’ll force it out of you. I’m not afraid to.” He sat up on his knees and put his hands on his hips.

You covered your face in shame. “N-No, it’s just…. kinda hot in here….” Your voice came out soft. He laughed and tackled you, making you squeal and your eyes opened wide. “Eddie! Quiet!” You whispered.

“Sorry, princess, forgot.” He let go of you and settled back in next to you. You sighed and leaned your head on his shoulder. “Promise you’re not mad at me.”

You nodded and he soon left after hearing your parents walking around.

The next day at lunch, Eddie was his usual self with you. Throwing random crackers at you and making fun of the bleach stain on your sweatshirt. You looked up and saw Jake approach the table. Eddie glanced at him and clenched his jaw. “Why haven’t you been answering my texts? You said you’d sit with us today.”

“Uhm, change of plans, I guess. You canceled on me. Didn’t I say I’d ignore you if you kept doing that?” You snapped at him and saw his face go red with anger.

He scoffed and folded his arms over his chest. “Whatever. I was just using you to make Hannah jealous.”

You just blinked at him and shrugged. “Okay? Is that supposed to make me feel bad?” You popped a grape in your mouth.

He gritted his teeth together and shook his head. “Glad to have your slut back, Munson? Happy I got to try her at least-”

Suddenly Jake was on the ground with a loud thud. He groaned in pain and held his nose. Eddie had socked him in the nose. Probably broke it. You gasped and stood up, backing away from the two after Jake stood up and launched himself at Eddie. Eddie wasn’t the biggest guy muscle wise, but after years of torment he’s able to hold himself in a fight against the school jocks. Jake punched Eddie’s jaw hard before Eddie did the same to him. Eddie punched Jake over and over again until you pulled him off.

“Eddie, stop!” You pulled him away as people gathered around the fight. Jake’s friends helped him up and tried to go after Eddie, but a few staff members stopped them. Eddie stormed off and you chased after him. He was walking to his van. You caught up to him and stopped him from walking. You inspected his face for any serious injuries with a frown. He pushed your hands away.

“I’m fine.” You forced him in the van and dug the old fast food napkins out of his glove box. You got them wet with your water bottle and started to wipe his bleeding nose and cut lip.

“You really need to stop getting into these fights. Not good for you.” He didn’t say anything and just let you clean him up. He winced in pain when you got to his knuckles. “Wayne’s gonna kill you.”

He looked at you and his face softened. You looked so worried for him. It broke his heart. His free hand went up under your chin and tilted your face up. Without a moment to think, his lips came crashing down on yours. You gasped softly against his lips, but pressed against him. His hands tangled in your hair and you kissed him deeper, willing your mouth open to welcome his tongue. You got into his lap and the kiss turned hot and wet. Tongues melding together in a battle for dominance. His hands went under your sweatshirt and gripped the skin at your waist, almost melting at how soft you were.

“Fuck…” He cursed into your mouth and moved down your neck, suckling little lovebites into the senstive skin. You whined softly and tangled your fingers in his thick curls, rocking against him slightly.

The van felt humid. All the air now gone in the moment of pure pleasure. “Eddie, please….” He kissed her neck once more before pulling back.

“We can’t do this here. Not now.” You frowned and he cupped your face with both hands. “After school. Meet me here and we’ll go to my place. Wayne is out of town. We’ll be alone all night.”

You nodded and he kissed you once more before you both got out to go to class.

That night, you were in his van, driving to his house. Saying you were nervous was an understatement. You knew Eddie wouldn’t push you to do something you didn’t want to do, but you were just worried about disappointing him. When you got inside, Eddie had barely shut the door before he was on you. Kissing you deeply and stealing your breath. Your knees almost gave out and he picked you up. Your legs wrapped around his waist and you kissed him back desperately. He walked you to his room and dropped you on the bed before stripping his vest and shirt off. God he was absolutely beautiful. He got on top of you and pulled your sweatshirt off before kissing down your chest. He got your bra off and licked your nipple before taking it in his mouth and sucking. The room was filled with sounds of shuffling on the bed and your moans. Eddie wanted to record it and keep it for himself.

“Fuck, you taste so good, baby…” He sat up on his knees and pulled your pants and panties off. “Damn, and you look so damn good, too.” He ran his hands down your body and bit his lip. “All for me, right? No one else gets this, right?”

You shook your head frantically. “It’s all yours, Eddie. All yours.”

He grinned and settled his head between your legs. He kissed teasingly up your inner thigh. “Can I taste you, baby? Wanna know what I’ve been missing out on…” You nodded and he leaned forward to lick a long stripe up your folds. You moaned and fisted your hands in his sheets. He groaned and pulled away. “God, just like honey, baby. Fuck, I’m gonna need this for the rest of my life….” He went right back in, swirling his tongue over your clit, sucking and licking. You all but screamed when you felt a finger press into your pussy with no resistance. He made you so fucking wet. His fingers hooked right against the spot inside you that made you go crazy. You cried out and he suckled on your clit while fingering you.

You trapped his head with your thighs, trying to keep him right where he was and moaned loudly while tangling your fingers in his hair. “Yeah? You like that, princess? Gonna cum so hard for me, right? Make a big mess all over my fingers like a good girl?” You blabbered some nonsense and nodded, tightening your fingers in his hair. “Do it. Cum for me, baby. Cum all over my fingers…” You cried out and came hard. No guy had ever made you cum as hard as Eddie. He groaned and licked it all up before going to kiss you again. You kissed him back and managed to get his pants and boxers off. He pressed his tip against your entrance and you licked your lips, aching for him to be inside you. “Ready, princess?” He looked at you and you nodded before he pushed ever so slowly inside you.

Both of you groaned and moaned as he pushed inside you. He felt like heaven. He buried his face in your neck before thrusting in and out of you. Both of you moaning in unison like a song. Two people so utterly consumed in each other. No one else mattered. The only thing that mattered was how unbelievably amazing this was. He thrusted harder and faster, holding your hands and kissing you deeply, panting into your mouth while your moans were smothered by his kisses. He let go of one hand to go harder and you dug your fingers into his back, no doubt leaving marks or even scratches.

“Eddie…. I’m s-so close…” You moaned and pressed your forehead against his.

“Me too, baby. Let it go. Cum all over my cock….” He encouraged you and you cried out, cumming hard around his cock. He groaned and felt himself unload inside you. Your pussy was milking him dry and he never wanted the feeling of you wrapped around him to go away. It’s all he needed. He could die a happy man right here and now. He gently pulled out of you and ran a hand through his hair before standing up to get a towel for you. You breathed heavily, already missing his warmth. He came back and cleaned the both of you up before helping you into one of his t-shirts. He laid down next to you and you cuddled up to him, nuzzling your face into his chest. He held you close and kissed your head.

“No more Jake, right?”

You giggled and looked up at him, kissing him gently. “No more Jake. Just you….”

He smiled and kissed you again.

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